Sunday, March 16, 2014

Stuffed Mushrooms

I had some mushrooms threatening to become science experiments in the frig (one of the side-effects of shopping at Costco and buying in larger volumes; I've been running into 'extras' more and more and have been challenging myself to find different uses for the excess).

My husband loves, loves, loves mushrooms, whereas I can barely choke them down and do so only because (1) Dr. Joel Fuhrman says they are good for me (and helpful in the prevention of breast cancer) and (2) Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn has a great mushroom gravy recipe in his book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease".  {If you don't own Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live and Dr. Esselstyn's book, I highly recommend both}.

It's been a stressful winter season and I thought it would be nice to see if I could make something yummy for darling husband, who does so very much for me.


Stuffed Mushrooms:

12-15 mushrooms (I like Bellas)
1 large clove of garlic (minced)
1-2 cups of fresh spinach
1/2-1 t red pepper flakes
1/2 C ground raw cashews
dash of tamari (optional)
additional seasonings as desired

I pulled out the stems of the mushrooms and trimmed the dry bottoms off of those, setting the caps aside.  I rough-chopped the stems and put them in a frying pan with a little bit of water (I'll probably add a dash of tamari to this when I repeat).  I minced a large clove of garlic (I buy good garlic from our farm market and still had one good head left of a purple stripe long hard neck garlic....yummy), so tossed that in with the stems lightly sauteeing.  The aroma was wonderful.  After the garlic was just getting soft, I added chopped spinach, about 1 -2 cups and quickly wilted that, stirring continually.  I transferred this mixture to a bowl and added WAY too much red pepper flakes; husband likes hot food, so more is better, right?  Hmmm, maybe not, although he did say the left-overs 'calmed-down' after being in the frig overnight.  I'll do about 1/2 teaspoon next time.  Add ground up raw cashews and stir well.  Scoop into mushroom caps.
I placed in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  I think it would do better to have them in a hotter oven, and you could even finish off under the broiler if you wanted to crisp them up.

After my husband ate one, he said they were 'ok'.  (That's like 4 stars at a 5-star restaurant around here....the only higher rating here is 'good' or 'it's a keeper').  The REAL rating that I watch for though is to see if he goes back for seconds, which he did and then the next day made his own little meal out of the rest with some left-over pasta.  Score.

Maybe next time I make them, I'll be brave enough to try them....but, I'm only doing 'cause Joel says to ;).

I apologize for the horrible pictures and will change these out when I make this again, as I certainly will, and soon (just did a Costco run).


Sue, eating to live, in Ohio





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