Recently, Julia Wharton shared this list of edible flowers for salads. She says most of these are easy to grow, and some are self-seeding:

Borage
Calendula
Nasties (nasturtiums)
Daylily (not other lilies)
Rose and Dahlia petals
Pansy
Rucola

I know cornflowers are edible, too. And there were little white flowers in Stuart’s salad that I can’t identify, but they were my favorites. Do you know of any others? Please leave them as a comment.

Cut the pear and banana into bite-sized chunks and toss with the avocado. It will bind them together perfectly, no need for other dressing. Sprinkle almonds over the top.

Serves 2.

Mix the dry ingredients first, then add oil and honey. Bake in 300 degree oven until lightly browned. Add raisins after baking.

Mash all these ingredients together. Stir in 1-2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped, and a little bit of finely diced onion. Add salt to taste.

Heat oil in a skillet and saute the onion until soft. Add the garlic and cabbage, cover, and cook until the cabbage is slightly wilted (about 10 minutes).

Add remaining ingredients, cover, and cook until almost all the liquid has evaporated and the cabbage is tender. If there is too much liquid after 15 minutes, remove the lid and cook on high until the liquid evaporates. Serves 4.

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a small bowl, combine the cornmeal and 2/3 C of the water. In a saucepan, bring the other 2/3 C of water to a boil. Gradually add the wet cornmeal to the boiling water, whisking it until it becomes thick (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in 2 T of parmesan. With wet hands, pat it onto a lightly greased pizza pan.

Bake the crust for about 15 minutes, until it’s just turning golden. Remove it and lower the temperature to 350 F.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook the onion and green pepper in the olive oil for a few minutes. Then stir in the garlic, mushrooms, spices, and beans. Simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle half the mozzarella and half the remaining parmesan over the cornmeal crust. Spoon the bean mixture over this, top with the tomato sauce, and then spread the rest of the cheese over it. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Serves 4.

1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1 T butter, olive oil, or a combination of the two
4 large carrots, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
6 stalks of rhubarb, sliced into 1-inch chunks
4 cloves garlic, minced fine
2 C vegetable or chicken broth
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t powdered cloves
1 T arrowroot powder dissolved in 1/2 C cold water
Salt to taste
Optional: A little cream and some fresh-grated nutmeg

Saute the onions in the oil or butter for a minute or two, then add the carrots, rhubarb, garlic, broth, cinnamon, and cloves. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until the rhubarb breaks down and the carrots become soft. Stir in the dissolved arrowroot powder and cook for a minute or two until it thickens. Season to taste with salt, and garnish with some fresh-grated nutmeg and a little spoonful of cream.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine the brown rice syrup, peanut butter, oil, and butter. Stir in the oat bran and then the remaining ingredients.

Grease a 9×12 baking dish and press the mixture into it. Bake for 20 minutes or until it browns slightly around the edges. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars.

Cook the carrots, rhubarb, lemon zest, and water together until the carrots are tender and the rhubarb breaks down and forms a sauce. Stir in the garlic and salt and heat gently for a moment before serving.

Marilyn, creator of the wonderful cookie recipe

Our friend Marilyn, of s/v Oryoki, makes the most wonderful cookies. Every time she makes them, they’re slightly different, but the chewy, satisfying basis is the same — and it’s much more healthy than your average cookie! She has to be careful when she offers these to me and Barry, because we have trouble restraining ourselves around such food of the gods.

Blend:
2/3 C vegetable oil (canola)
1 C sugar – white, brown, or blended (if white, add 2 T molasses)
2 eggs (large preferred)

Sift together and add to above:
3/4 C unbleached white flour
3/4 C whole wheat flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon

Then blend in:
1-1/2 C quick oatmeal
1-1/4 C crushed shredded wheat
2 T water if it’s too dry

Possible additions: (about a half cup)
Chocolate or peanut butter chips
Raisins or craisins or both
Orange zest and/or finely chopped orange or tangerine peel
Chopped apricots
Chopped maraschino cherries
Chopped dates or nuts or both
1 t vanilla or 1 t Angostura bitters or 1-2 t instant coffee

Modifications:
1/4 C carob flour or 1/4 C unsweetened coconut – reduce flour by 1/4 C
1/2 C peanut butter – reduce oil by 1/3 C

Form into 2-inch cookies and bake on a greased cookie sheet in a medium oven until lightly browned.

Here’s the list of foods we have removed from our diet:

• Sugar (also honey, maple syrup, and artificial sweeteners)
• Wheat
• Soy
• Dairy
• Meat
• Corn
• Alcohol
• Caffeine
• Tomatoes & potatoes (nightshades)
• Eggs
• Peanuts

Barry was happy to go along with the plan, in part because he’s a fan of the 100-year diet concept. That’s a diet where you only eat foods that our ancestors were eating 100 years ago, avoiding all the additives and chemicals that have come into our diets in recent decades. This diet would be even more basic than that, so I jokingly called it “the 500 year vegan diet.”

The only problem was, when we mentioned our plan to friends and family, they were horrified. “What are you going to EAT?” they asked, when they heard the list of foods we were eliminating from our diet.

I’m happy to report that after a week and a half, we are not starving! According to the FAO, there are 50,000 edible plants in the world. We’ve only eliminated a handful of the possibilities. Rice, which is a staple for half the world’s population, is one of our favorite foods, and we can eat that.

To begin, I set aside our routine breakfasts, which are based on cereal (sugar, wheat, corn, and dairy), eggs, or corn grits with cheese. I crafted three new breakfast menus, based on oatmeal, buckwheat groats, and injera (sourdough teff pancakes).

The first day, I braced myself for something awful. Oatmeal without brown sugar and milk? While it simmered, I added a couple of chopped apples, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, cloves, and a small handful of raisins. It was delicious. Day two: Kasha with lemongrass and mint, another chopped apple, and some chopped dried plums. By the time we got to the injera, which we ate with apple compote, we were really enjoying our sugar-free, egg-free breakfasts.

Lunch was a little trickier. I didn’t want to stop work and spend an hour chopping in the galley every day. What would we eat without the option of tortillas or crackers? Day one, I whipped up a quick batch of hummus and spread it on jicama and radishes and cucumbers. The next day, I turned dinner leftovers into an exotic soup. Day three’s leftovers became a bean salad. I had the hang of lunch now.

Snacks have been challenging. We tried rice cakes topped with almond butter, but it’s hard to find brown rice cakes around here. I ended up putting the almond butter on apples instead, but it doesn’t stick as well as peanut butter. Barry often grabs a handful of nuts for his snacks.

Dinner is where my cooking really shines on this food plan. Every meal is a multi-dish presentation with two or three colorful dishes made from vegetables, grains (brown rice, wild rice, amaranth, or quinoa), and beans. I’ve used cumin, mustard, and coriander seeds for curries; and mint, rosemary, basil, and oregano for salads. I’ve used almost every spice in my bin, finding uses for galangal, white pepper, fresh-ground nutmeg, and smoked Spanish paprika.

One of the best things about the diet is that I’ve developed some entirely new recipes. We had a dinner party last week, and at midday, I decided to cook my red lentils ahead of time. I cooked them, opened the pressure cooker, and stirred in a spoonful of Madras curry powder and a little butter. I dipped a spoon into the pot to taste the results. Yum! It was so delicious, I spooned it into a couple of bowls and shared it with Barry for lunch. I had to make another batch of the Creamy Curried Red Lentils for our dinner guests.

Barry and I also have a new favorite rice dish,  and a cheesy green bean dish that uses nutritional yeast and arrowroot powder. And I haven’t documented the variety of dishes I’ve made with spinach, mustard greens, leeks, green beans, asparagus, rhubarb, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, fresh peas, and bok choy.

I’ve had to modify a few recipes, leaving out tomatoes (Vegetarian Feijoada), sugar (Pickled Onions), or cream (Indian Cauliflower and Peas). But some dishes fit within the guidelines just fine, like the Lemon Rice I served at our dinner party. There were no leftovers of that one.

At all three meals, I garnish our plates and try to present food that is colorful and pleasing to the eye. I’ve used nuts, olives, grated lemon peel, cilantro, and parsley, but the ingredient we both enjoy the most is not the most colorful. It’s the love.

We haven’t noticed a lot of changes in our bodies (except for a few pounds lost) as a result of the diet, but we have learned this: As long as food is served with love, it’s satisfying and tastes fantastic. That discovery  will change the way we eat for the rest of our lives. Even if we add all the “forbidden” foods back to our diet, we won’t need much sugar. With the added love, our food will still taste sweet.

Put the lentils and water in a pressure cooker and bring it up to pressure. Cook for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and allow the pressure to drop naturally. Open the cooker and stir in the curry powder, butter, and salt.

You can serve this as a dip, a spread, or a side dish. Or you can just eat it with a spoon.

3/4 C brown rice
1/4 C amaranth
2 C water
3/4 t salt
3 cloves garlic, minced fine or grated
1/2 to 1 T butter
1/2 to 1 T olive oil

In a pressure cooker, bring the water to a boil. Add the rice, amaranth, and salt. Lock the lid and pressure cook for 20 minutes. Allow the pressure to come down naturally for 15 minutes. Open the pressure cooker and stir in the garlic, butter, and olive oil.

Serve garnished with parsley or nuts.

1 pound of green beans
1 medium onion
2 handfuls fresh mushrooms
1 C water
3 cloves garlic
1/3 C nutritional yeast
1/2 to 1 T olive oil
1/2 to 1 T butter
1/2 T arrowroot powder
Smoked or Hungarian paprika
Salt to taste

Dice the onion and remove the ends from the green beans. Snap the beans into about 2-inch pieces. Slice the mushrooms.

In a medium saucepan with a lid, bring the water to a boil. Add the onions and green beans, put the mushrooms on top, and put the lid on. Steam over medium heat until the green beans are tender. Mince the garlic fine and add it now.

Make sure there’s still about a cup of water in the bottom, if not add some more and bring it back to a simmer. Stir the oil, butter, and yeast together in a small bowl and then stir this mixture into the vegetables.

Mix the arrowroot powder with a tablespoon of cold water. Stir the dissolved arrowroot into the saucepan and stir, gently, until it thickens. Remove from heat and season with salt and paprika.

Combine ingredients in a large pot. Season to taste and Voila! Enough for a big party or several days of kitchen joy.

This recipe comes to us from Julie Eckes via Meps’ Dad. Barry suggests that it would make a good end-of-the-passage sailing recipe for a boat without refrigeration. Meps suggests that if your boat was big enough to hold the 6-8 people necessary to eat it all, it would probably be big enough to have a refrigerator (grin).

Line a 9-in. square baking pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Press two-thirds of the sugar cookie dough into the pan. Spread jelly over the dough. In a bowl, beat the granola, peanut butter chips and remaining dough together. Crumble this mixture over the jelly. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool. Lift the entire thing out of the pan using the foil. Cut into bars and peel off the foil.

3 eggs
16 oz small curd cottage cheese
1/4 pound white American cheese, grated or diced
1/4 pound butter, diced
2 packages chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
Salt and pepper

Combine ingredients, pour into casserole dish, and bake for 40 minutes at 350 F.

Soak 1 C of pinto beans and put into a pressure cooker. Add a large onion, cut into 8 chunks. Add water — enough so that the beans are almost covered, but not quite.

Pressure cook for 12-15 minutes and then let the pressure come down naturally.

Open the pressure cooker and mash the beans with a potato masher. Salt to taste, then stir in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil before serving.

1 C flour
1 C cornmeal
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/3 to 1/2 C sugar, according to your preference
1 egg
1/4 C oil
1 C milk

Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in the egg, then the oil, and finally the milk, blending well.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a greased cast iron skillet at 400 F. Cut into wedges to serve.

2-1/2 C sugar
1 C (2 sticks) butter or margarine
1 C shortening
4 eggs
1/2 C light corn syrup
2 T vanilla
6 C flour
1-1/2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
Icing to decorate

Cream the sugar, butter, and shortening together in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until well-blended. Add the eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Gradually add this mixture to the other bowl and mix until well-blended.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight.

You can bake these as small sugar cookies or as giant decorated cookies. The dough will be sticky and hard to handle unless you keep it very cold, keeping half of each batch in the freezer while you work with the other half. They will also spread, so leave at least 3 inches between the cookies.

Bake them at 375 F. Small cookies will take 7 to 9 minutes, and large ones may take as long as 10 to 15 minutes. Watch them carefully and remove when they are barely browned. Cool them on foil.