Tomato and Cheese Pie

September 2, 2019Foodbasil, clean food, garden produce, home cooking, keto, real food, summertime, Tomatoarthurized Leave a comment

HoldingOntoSummerAsLongAsPossible is an annual event in our home. I’m not dying to bundle up in sweaters and boots just yet. While the summer produce is still rolling in, let’s give this savory pie a little love, shall we? This dish should really be named Tomato Basil Pie because the ricotta and parmesan take a back seat to the fresh flavors of the basil and tomato. It’s easy to whip together, and makes a nice breakfast or brunch side dish.

Tomato and Cheese Pie
adapted from The Supermarket Diet Cookbook
Prep: 20 Minutes
Bake: 30 Minutes
Makes: 4 Servings
1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
4 large eggs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. salt, plus additional for sprinkling
1/8 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper, plus additional for sprinkling
1/4 cup milk
1 T. cornstarch – I use arrowroot powder
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 pound ripe tomatoes (three medium), thinly sliced

The top three eggs are pastured, the egg on the bottom is “cage free”. Notice the difference in the yolk color! Totally subjective, but we think pastured egg yolks have a richer flavor.

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, with whisk or fork, beat ricotta, eggs, Parmesan, salt and pepper until blended.

I used purple basil because it has the most traditional basil flavor of the three types that I planted this year. I don’t think lime basil or Thai basil would be tasty in this recipe!

2) In cup, with fork, stir milk and cornstarch (arrowroot) until blended; whisk into cheese mixture. Stir in basil. Pour mixture into 9 inch glass or ceramic pie plate. Arrange tomatoes on top, overlapping if necessary. Sprinkle tomatoes with salt and pepper.

3) Bake pie until lightly browned around edge and center is puffed, 30 to 35 minutes.

Enjoy! Happy Labor Day!

Disclosure: In addition to occasional sponsored posts, Arthurized Home uses clickable affiliate links. That means that I may receive a small commission from sales at no extra charge to you. As always, my opinion is 100% my own, and I only recommend things that I truly love or use myself. Thank you for patronizing the brands that support Arthurized Home!

Copyright 2019-2021 © Arthurized Home – All Rights Reserved. This post is the original content of Arthurized Home. If you’re reading this on another site, it’s unArthurized.

Deviled Eggs, Three Ways

June 24, 2019Foodanchor hocking, bacon, clean food, cook with kids, fiestaware, gluten free, guacamole, halloween, keto, low carb, milk glass, real food, vintagearthurized 1 Comment

Much like Peeps marshmallow candy, deviled eggs are polarizing. You either love them or you hate them. We’re in camp Love Them. Deviled eggs that is, not Peeps.

Because they’re are a pain in the butt to make, I usually make a large batch of deviled eggs, 8-10 whole eggs at a time. We eat them until we don’t want to see another one for six months or so.

This deviled egg plate belonged to my husband’s great aunt, Ruth.

To make hard boiled eggs:
Bring a large pot of water (mine holds 7 quarts) to a rolling boil. Gently, gently lower 8-10 eggs into the water. Don’t crowd them. Leaving the pot uncovered, lower the heat to a medium simmer. Simmer for 14 minutes and transfer the eggs to an ice bath for five minutes. Peel the eggs.

Once the eggs have cooled enough to handle, slice them in half lengthwise and release the cooked yolk into a mixing bowl.

Classic Deviled Eggs
For 8-10 eggs, mix 1/2 cup (or so) of mayonnaise, a little finely ground salt and white pepper into the cooked egg yolks. Add a teaspoon of honey, or other sweetener to taste. Mix until the filling has a smooth texture. Pipe or spoon into egg halves and lightly sprinkle with paprika and chopped flat leaf Italian parsley (optional).

Classic Deviled Eggs with Bacon
Because bacon makes everything better! Mix bacon crumbles into the classic filling, spoon into whites and sprinkle more crumbled bacon on top.

Guacamole Bacon Deviled Eggs:
Not the prettiest deviled egg, but dang, they’re tasty! Serve these babies immediately so that the avocado doesn’t oxidize. My version is loosely based on this one. Instead of making my own guacamole, I take some help from the store and use pre-made. I like the classic guacamole from Aldi.

For 8-10 eggs, I use 6 – 8 oz. of guac. I substitute Cholula hot sauce for the jalapenos, because I never remember to take my contacts out before chopping jalapenos and things get ugly from there. Mix bacon into the filling, sprinkle more on top.

Bring literal deviled eggs to your next Halloween party with little slivers of red bell pepper for horns. So cute! The horns would work well with any of these variations, with or without other garnishes.

Now, go throw that bacon around like confetti!

Favorite 10% Food Products

June 17, 2019Foodaldi, favorite foods, gluten free, home cooking, keto, lilys, lowcarb, real food, sir kensingtons, tolerant, zeviaarthurized 6 Comments

One of my goals is to eat real foods as much as possible. I define real food as “made in nature, not in a factory”. If you define it differently, that’s great! Do what works best for your health, lifestyle and budget. We shoot for 90% natural foods and less than 10% factory foods. The products in this post are some of our favorites, and run the gamut from barely processed to very processed.

Almond Flour (Aldi) – Almond flour is our go-to for gluten-free and now keto baking. We use it for muffins, pancakes, biscuits and breads. It’s pricey compared to wheat flour, but very nutrient dense.

Elmhurst Milked Almonds – Simple ingredients; almond and water. This is a good all-purpose milk substitute. We found the flavor to be very mild.

Grass Fed Cheddar (Aldi) – I think that grass-fed cheddar is a hilarious word picture. I imagine little chunks of free-range cheddar just roaming the hills, filling their little bellies with all the grass they can stand! This cheddar is tasty and a great value.

Guacamole (Classic from Aldi) – Purists would turn their noses up at factory guac when it’s so easy to make. But this works in a pinch, and contains only ingredients you would use at home.

Hormel Natural Pepperoni – We love this stuff! No hormones, MSG, nitrates or nitrites added except those naturally occurring in the celery and cherry.

Lily’s Chocolate Chips – Mmmm, Lily’s. Not 100% clean, but pretty darn good. These are tiny, and pack a lot of chocolate flavor without the sugar buzz.

Portofino Yellowfin Tuna in Extra Virgin Olive Oil – We’re late converts to tuna packed in oil, but it’s great for the light, summer salads we’ve been fixing lately.

Sir Kensington’s Mayonnaise – We like the original, avocado oil and organic varieties. The original has a slight tang from the lemon juice, but it’s not overpowering. This is great in homemade dips and dressings. The avocado oil mayonnaise can be a little strong, so use it in dishes with bold flavors.

Tolerant Lentil Pasta – Two ingredient pasta is about as unprocessed as you can get for a factory noodle. When cooked to al dente, the pasta retain their shape and don’t get mushy.

Whole Earth Sweetener – We call this the “Green Stuff”. Low carb without the stevia aftertaste. Dissolves really well in cold drinks. One packet sweetens a 20-32 oz. beverage.

Zevia – We love Zevia because it scratches the soda itch without resorting to zero calorie drinks containing aspartame. Some flavors are caffeinated and some are decaf, but all of the flavors are free of food dyes.

I hope you’ll give some of these products a try. What are your favorite 10% products? Let me know in the comments or via email at:
arthurized dot home at gmail dot com

I’m not in partnership with any brands referenced in this post. I’m simply sharing products that I use and enjoy, and I hope you will like them too!

Cooking with Edible Blooms

June 14, 2019Food, gardendianthus, edible blooms, gluten free, hibiscus, homecooking, keto, lavender, lemonade, low carb, scones, teaarthurized 1 Comment

I’ve recently learned that so many of the blooms in my yard are edible: Dianthus, Impatiens, Scented Geraniums, Dandelions (of course!), Apple Blossoms, Lavender, Cherry Blossoms. The list goes on and on.

Edible blooms can be used to simply to brighten up a visually uninteresting meal, like these dianthus flowers in Paleo Egg Roll in a Bowl. It’s been said that we eat with our eyes first, which is a good thing. When taste tested, my husband and I decided the dianthus tastes vaguely like grass!

My lavender plant was battered by recent storms, so I purchased organic culinary lavender and dried hibiscus blooms from a natural foods store (Roanoke Co+op, if you’re local) and began experimenting with them.

The butterflies and bees have finally found the herb garden! I love watching them there.

“Experimenting” is probably a poor choice of words to describe what I’m doing. I feel very comfortable eating organically grown blooms from my own yard. I’m certain of what they are, and I know they have been grown in a manner that will not poison me.

Avoid eating:

Unidentified plants
Be very certain that the plant is correctly identified! If you have any question about the variety of plant you are harvesting, do not eat it! Ex: Edible Queen Anne’s Lace looks remarkably like Poison Hemlock.

Plants that have been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals
Commercial, non-organic and florist flowers
Plants grown near a roadway

No blooms of your own to harvest? You can purchase edible flowers from the produce section of your grocery store or online. Now, let’s get to the recipes!

Hibiscus Tea:
At our last home, we had a hibiscus with blooms the size of platters! I miss that thing. Note to self: Plant some hibiscus! I omitted the sugar in this recipe. The cinnamon and orange would make this a nice, hot tea in winter.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/hibiscus-tea-recipe-1945450

If you’re concerned that lavender foods will remind you of soap, start by following recipes exactly as written. Most recipes require 1 tablespoon of lavender, or less. Once you’ve determined your own flavor preferences, you can adjust the recipe if needed.

Lavender Lemonade:
I love that this recipe is infused with culinary lavender, not essential oil. I’m very certain that 1 cup(!) of honey would make this amazing, but I left it out because, keto. I colored my lemonade with one drop each of blue and red plant based food color.
https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/lavender-lemonade-with-honey-recipe

Keto Lavender Scones with Lemon Glaze:
These little goodies are so tasty, you’ll forget that they are low carb!

I modified this recipe as follows:
Keto Lavender Scones
1 1/4 C Almond Flour
1/3 C Coconut Flour
8 packets Whole Earth sweetener
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Dried Culinary Lavender
1/4 C Almond Milk
1/4 C Heavy Whipping Cream
2 Tbsp Butter, softened
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg
In a mixing bowl, blend the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat™, form the dough into an 8″ round. Slice into 8 wedges. Bake at 350º for 18 minutes.

You can stop right there and serve these with fresh butter, or for extra credit, make them even more gorgeous and delicious with this glaze!

Keto Lemon Glaze:
2 packets Whole Earth sweetener
4 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
4 Tbsp canned, unsweetened coconut milk cream (not the milk), at room temperature
2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Optional Garnish – lemon zest and culinary lavender
Whisk sweetener, oil, coconut cream and lemon juice together until smooth and glaze the scones. While the glaze is still wet, garnish with a light sprinkle of lemon zest and lavender, if desired. Refrigerate to harden the glaze. The scones will keep in the refrigerator for a few days, or in the freezer for a month, if they last that long!

Scones with butter. Gotta serve ’em on legit English ironstone!

Serve these glazed beauties on Grandma’s china, with a proper cup of tea.

What do you think? Do you cook with flowers? Is this something you would try?

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: