Saturday, February 27, 2010

This Time, Last Week

Okay, when I started writing this post the title made sense. I promise. But you know how things are - my attention likes to wander, and eventually 20 things get started and nothing finished, so I'll have to share it now. It's not like there are any pretty pictures to splash onto the screen this time anyway - I forgot to bring my camera to class the day in question, and I somehow doubt my classmates would be all that forgiving of the food getting cold while I tried to get a good shot. It was only mac and cheese, after all.

It was good mac and cheese, though - not an overly spectacular, fireworks-light-up-the-sky good, but while it was cooking it did make me wish I could have eaten a spoonful. Or the whole pot. Whatever. It was a pretty dubious recipe that I convinced my group to make, too - we all know I can't leave a recipe well enough alone (yeah, sorry about that!) so I snagged a stupid-simple recipe for stovetop macaroni and cheese and began playing with the ingredients and method in our lab-planning period.

As much as it might have been indulgently gluttonous of me to leave the heavy cream in the formula, I couldn't do it. I was in a NUTRITION program, for Chrissake! I had fellow classmates hoping to graduate before dying of heart disease who would be eating this stuff! At the same time, the foodie in me forbade me to make a switch to standard old 2% milk. The goal of the assignment was to determine if,as a retirement facility, it was better to make a chosen item "in house" or bring in pre-fabricated meal items (they only get $7.31 from the government per person, per day for food - 3 square meals, 3 snacks and any special supplements!). I wanted our stuff to taste comparable, if not better, than anything a company could schlep out. Not that it was a fair fight or anything... we had to pit our mac against this. So I settled for half-and-half cream, and made up a blend of cheeses for something a bit more interesting than plain Cheddar. I was also obliged to leave in the Velveeta, as much as it horrifies me... it apparently takes on the role of "creamifier" in the absence of a roux... something that didn't fit with our goal of a "simple" recipe.

In a perfect world, I'd have nixed the "cheese food" (God I love that term) in favour of something more akin to this but with tomato sauce in the place of the heavy and sour creams (that's my mom's contribution to my mac n' cheese childhood!) - and then broiled the heck out of the top until it was ever so slightly charred. I love my crunchy bits on baked pasta! But since this world is about as close to perfect as I am to a Walgreens, I'll share what I've got. It's a simple meal-in-a-pot that kids in particular will adore because of the stringy mozzarella, and (so I'm told) is absolutely wonderful the next day topped with pizza sauce and either microwaved or baked. I'll leave it up to you and the rest of the participants of Ruth's Presto Pasta Nights!(Can you believe it's three years old? Or that I actually made something for it's 3rd birthday?)

Stoveworthy Mac N' Cheese
Serves 8
3 cups dry macaroni pasta
4 oz Velveeta cheese
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (about 8 oz)
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese (about 4 oz)
1/4 cup half-and-half cream
Salt and pepper
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously.
  2. Add pasta, stir and allow to boil for 6 minutes. Drain and return to the hot pot.
  3. Add Velveeta, Cheddar, Mozzarella and half-and-half to the pasta and stir over low heat until completely melted. Serve with salt and pepper to taste.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 280.5
Total Fat: 16.8 g
Cholesterol: 53.7 mg
Sodium: 473.4 mg
Total Carbs: 17.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
Protein: 15.4 g

Monday, February 22, 2010

Some Kick-A$$ Quinoa (Times Two!)

There are only two weeks left of in-class school left before we make our way off to the big wide world of co-op placement (gulp!). It's another bitter-sweet occurrence for most of us, who have formed fast friendships with each other and are still trying to comprehend what it actually means to not come to campus every day and sit in the caf together. With luck the network of emails we have between us will keep us more or less abreast of each other until grad!

As for these salads - I have to profess that I am quite proud of these concoctions. When you're stuck sitting in three solid hours of HR following equally mind-numbing classes on Professionalism and Budgeting, it's quite remarkable that your brain is still firing on any cylinders at all! Luckily the need for some sort of stimulation during those class periods has made itself available to good use homework-wise. If it wasn't for the papers I wrote in school, this blog wouldn't be getting updated until May for sure! I wrote the recipes up on a whim as the ideas for ingredient combinations popped into my head, and in a few moments of spare time on the weekend (spare time? What the heck is that?) I popped some pots on the stove, some veggies in a bowl and cooked myself slightly saner.

For now. So here they are - super good for you, one filled with the hearty, "whole protein" complex present in the seeds amaranth and quinoa, fresh, crisp veggies and a great nutty layer from the chickpeas, the other a warm pilaf of quinoa cooked with bright lemon, saffron and two kinds of veggies. Both of them are perfectly good cold too, and make an excellent (and yummy!) brain-fueling lunch.

Three-Seed Super Salad
Serves 2
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp water
pinch ground ginger
1/4 cup dry quinoa, rinsed well
1 tbsp amaranth
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp light olive oil
1 tsp honey
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1/4 tsp dried basil
2 tbsp diced cucumber
2 tbsp diced red bell pepper
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (black, white or a mixture)
  1. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil and stir in ground ginger.
  2. Whisk in quinoa and amaranth.
  3. Simmer, uncovered, for 3 minutes on medium heat.
  4. Stir in lemon zest.
  5. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 12 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 10 minutes.
  6. In a small dish, mix together lemon juice, sesame oil, olive oil and honey.
  7. In a mixing bowl, combine cooked grains, chickpeas, basil, cucumber, bell pepper and sesame seeds.
  8. Pour the dressing overtop and toss gently to coat.
  9. Serve immediately or chill.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 330.7
Total Fat: 10.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 361.6 mg
Total Carbs: 51.1 g
Dietary Fiber: 8.5 g
Protein: 10.9 g

Lemony Grain Pilaf With Saffron
Serves 2
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 large carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
16 green beans, chopped into thirds
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp hot water
1/4 tsp crushed saffron threads
1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed well
1/2 cup millet
1 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
  1. Heat 3-4 tbsp of water in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Add garlic, carrot, celery, green beans, salt, and pepper, and cook 5 minutes, stirring.
  3. Combine hot water and saffron in a small dish.
  4. Add saffron mixture, quinoa and millet to the pan.
  5. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.
  6. Add the remaining water, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
  7. Bring to a brisk simmer, then cover and reduce heat to low.
  8. Continue cooking 20 minutes, covered.
  9. Turn off heat, and let stand, covered for 5-10 minutes longer.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 317.6
Total Fat: 3.7 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 45.4 mg
Total Carbs: 62.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 13.2 g
Protein: 11.0 g

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Lost in Translation

"What's polenta?"

When you sit with a table of Food and Nutrition students (including a food blogger, no less) over a lunch period, you will inevitably hear a great amount of gastronomic banter being thrown about. This is even more the case if you happen to be sitting with my table of friends, as each one of us is from a different country and style of upbringing, and we're all different ages. Now, the question of what polenta was was raised by my good friend Johana as we were discussing gluten-free menu options one afternoon. Given the fact she's Columbian, it wasn't exactly an unusual one for her to ask, but her response to our explanation of it as a cooked cornmeal porridge-type of dish threw us all a little bit of a curveball.

"Okay, but what's cornmeal? I don't understand."

Obviously more than just a description needed to be given... and between us three other foodies we came up with a variety of preparation methods that we enjoyed the versatile grain (including my favourite - chilled slabs of leftover cooked polenta broiled crunchy and topped with spicy tomato-mushroom sauce). For a more practical tool (not to mention an excuse to try out our recipes for herself) I announced that the next day we had classes together I would bring her some of her very own cornmeal to play around with and taste on her own. One of my other friends - Princess - is bringing leftover polenta for her next time she makes it for dinner, and I'm fairly sure Sabrina will be cooking some up next time the two are noshing at her place.

Being the white-bread, sweet-tooth possessing creature I am, I'm most familiar with cornmeal in it's bready incarnation. Unlike a lot of other Northerners (and many U.S. reader will be able to back me up on this stereotype I'm sure... right?) I like the savoury, cast-iron fired "traditional Southern" style of cornbread just as much as the sweet, cakey kind you usually get up here. Heck, my mom has stories of me as a toddler in South Carolina eating a whole basket of the stuff in one go when we vacationed way back when. But like I said, I do have Northern roots - which is why this kind of corny cake appealed to me.

Like most recipes I make, this one did stem from another, previously written formula... in this case one written by Nicole (sautegrillfryfunnygirl) called "Sweet Vanilla Cornbread" that I came across on FoodBuzz. Cutting down the fat, eliminating the eggs and tossing in an over-ripe banana later brought this creation into being - golden, super-moist, perfectly sweet and definitely full of corn and vanilla flavour!

Ban-Illa Cornmeal Cake
Serves 12
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 large over-ripe banana, mashed
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp vanilla
1/4 cup canola oil
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a loaf pan.
  2. Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.
  3. Add banana, buttermilk and vanilla to the dry ingredients.
  4. Stir briefly, then pour the oil over the batter.
  5. Stir just until all the ingredients are moistened, yet thoroughly blended; take care not to overmix.
  6. Bake until tests done, about 45 - 50 minutes.
  7. Let cool in the pan 15 minutes, then unmould onto a rack and cool completely.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 180.5
Total Fat: 5.4 g
Cholesterol: 1.1 mg
Sodium: 32.7 mg
Total Carbs: 31.5 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.2 g
Protein: 3.2 g

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Waste Naught

I know it shouldn't anymore, but it never fails to amaze me that Western society, in general, has this insane tendency to waste things. Food. Money. Gas. Electricity. Water. Brain cells... the list goes on and on. Not only do we lack the ability to use the gifts and benefits that we have as gifted nations, but instead we continue demanding more of everything we already have. Why else would warehouse supply companies such as Costco, who used to only supply retail outlets, now be doing a roaring trade in the consumer world? Do the majority of 4-5 person households really need to buy 20 tins of sardines at a time? Or huge 3-packs of Tabasco sauce? And what about the ubiquitous Super Wal-Marts that have taken over every town from gigantic Toronto to tiny, hick Ajax? Oshawa has two of them - in fact, a brand new (and already large) "regular" Wal-Mart down the street from me was demolished and re-built into a supercentre, even though the demographics of my area are as stagnant as ever. I don't understand it, and I don't really know if anyone will really be able to. We're in a land and age of excess, and somehow I doubt there's really an end in sight. Thank goodness for our family's three freezers, 2 fridges, huge pantry and well-shelved basement... that's all I can say.

It's obvious that our family, like many out there, is often left with a bevy of random items that have just begun to pass their prime, or are so close to being stale that the "picky" *cough* lazy *cough* ones won't touch them anymore. Usually our overages tend to be in the produce department, leaving me with bananas and apples to play with at will, but occasionally I'll poke my head into the pantry and come up with a host of other things to cobble together, recipe or no.

Such was the birth of these chewy, brown sugary morsels. I can't assign a real "definition" to them, as they are far more than a simple blondie, nor are they a brownie, cookie bar or quickbread. Rather, they are essentially a mixture of all the end "bits" of our pantry - chocolate chip cookie crumbs, broken pretzel rods, butterscotch morsels and a handful of roasted soy nuts - mixed with a leftover knob of butter and some silken tofu from the fridge and just enough flour to stick everything together before being baked into a more or less cohesive mass. Intensely sweet, but with a hint of salty "bite" from the coarse rock salt on the pretzels and a touch of bitterness from the molasses in the dark brown sugar, they're best given out in small portions - but that doesn't mean you have to stop at one.

Really. I promise I won't tell.

Miser Bars
Serves 16
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp canola oil
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
150 g silken tofu, pureed
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups crushed chocolate chip cookies
2/3 cup broken, salted pretzel pieces
1/4 cup roasted soynuts (or peanuts)
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
  1. Heat oven to 350F° and grease a 9" square pan.
  2. Beat together melted butter, oil, brown sugar, tofu, milk and vanilla until well blended.
  3. Slowly stir in the flour and salt, then add the cookie crumbs, pretzels, soynuts and butterscotch chips.
  4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until set in the center but still soft.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 220.6
Total Fat: 8.0 g
Cholesterol: 8.2 mg
Sodium: 120.9 mg
Total Carbs: 33.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g
Protein: 3.8 g

Friday, February 12, 2010

A Conflicted Love

Ever found something that you loved so much you kind of wish you never discovered in the first place? That's my dilemma with the sunchokes I finally found. Roasted, they are so amazingly delicious that I ate my way through almost the whole bag, but now I have none left - and nowhere to get them but downtown Toronto.

Roasting the 'chokes to my favourite point - with a crispy, crunchy exterior and a tender, starchy middle - was dead simple, once I found the basic instructions on The Kitchn. I served them with roasted green beans and pan-seared tilapia tonight, dusted with sea salt and cracked pepper and finished with a hint of maple syrup. Perfection!

For roughly 8 oz of the tubers (in no way related to "real" or globe artichokes, FYI), this is what I did:
  1. Preheat the oven to 425F, line a cookie sheet with parchment or spray with cooking spray.
  2. Wash the sunchokes well, unless the skin is really thick and rough don't bother peeling them - the peel gets super-delicious like on steak fries!
  3. Slice the sunchokes into roughly 1/4" thick pieces (I gave up on really "slicing" and tried for a roughly equal chop). Toss onto the cookie sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and coarse black pepper.
  4. Pop the sheet into the oven and roast for 25 minutes, stirring / shaking the pan to redistribute the slices halfway through.
  5. Switch the heat to "broil" and continue cooking the sunchokes 3-4 minutes, until beginning to get dark brown and crusty.
  6. If you want to add green beans like I did, top, tail and halve two good handfuls of them and add them to the cookie sheet(s) for the last 10-15 minutes of roasting. If you want them extra-crisp and roasty keep them under the broiler when the sunchokes are finishing.
  7. Drizzle with the barest touch of maple syrup and eat up!
If anyone has any tips on growing these in the GTA, I'm all ears! I have 2 saved and would love to grow my own! Apparently they're pretty self-reliant once you get them started, but I don't know if my storebought ones will cut it as the "foster" plants (even though they are organic). Seriously - they're my new obsession, and since my neighbourhood sucks for finding these babies, my backyard is the next logical choice!

FYI - per 8 oz of delicious, nutty-sweet-starchy goodness, this is what you get (thanks, CalorieKing!)

Calories 172 (720 kJ)
Total Fat 0g 0%
Sat. Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 9mg < 0.1%
Total Carbs. 39.5g 13%
Dietary Fiber 3.6g 15%
Sugars 21.8g
Protein 4.5g
Calcium 31.8mg
Potassium 973mg

And on a totally random, non-food related topic, I got my co-op placement letters today! I can't wait to start documenting my travails at the Boys and Girls Club a few towns over, and sharing any and all stories from the retirement home near me too! I'm so excited to be getting anything off the standard "retirement home and that's it" theory of my program!

Monday, February 8, 2010

A Blue [Banana] Monday

"What's the story, Morning Glory?"

Well, if I could tell you that, I think we'd all be a bit better off! I've been in a rather depressed funk the past week or so, probably a combination of the ever-present overwhelmed-by-schoolwork feeling and the fact that, at the end of April, I will truly be cast out into the wind as far as a structured life goes (unless I decide to go to the holistic college I'm looking at for another year). It's kind of lonely around here, too... between me being at school all hours of the day and night and my mom jetting off to Fairfax twice last month for work, too often it's just been me and the stepfamily at home - and we all know how that can be. Since my schoolfriends are located so far away from me, I don't really get much other social interaction either - not to mention that although we're all in a Food and Nutrition program, the only "foodie" is me!

Oddly enough, instead of just being exhausted by it all, I've also got some kind of weird electric hyperactivity pulsing through my veins. I guess you could say I'm suffering from a major case of "strenergy" - energy fostered by stress! Until today, I was forced to try and downplay it in order to slog through a section of Labour Cost homework (word to the wise: if you ever find this on your time table, run!), but I finally couldn't take it anymore. Darn it, it was Monday after all, I was stressed and moody, and I needed to break for a bake!

Throwing any sort of nutritional-minded caution to the wind, I stopped into the grocery on the way home and stocked up on some of the "big guns" of baking that I almost never use - including good, unsalted butter and some more dark chocolate. I'm expecting the chocolate/butter/egg/sugar combination to become a rather popular one with me if I'm left to my own devices... God knows I have enough ideas flitting around this skull of mine (too bad I don't get any credit hours for them!). Coming home with my bounty, and unearthing my frozen cache of baking supplies with it's gigantic Ziploc of bananas, I started the comforting task of embracing simplicity - you can't go wrong with a super-fluffy, sweet banana cake! In homage to the song that's been running through my head nonstop for the past two days, New Order's "Blue Monday", as well as my all-time favourite store in Kensington Market downtown named the Blue Banana Market, I added a hefty dose of food colouring too. It's not every day you get a Blue Monday that's this good!

Blue [Monday] Banana Muffins
Makes 21
3 large, ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp banana extract
2 tsp blue food colouring (optional)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 oz silken tofu, pureed
  1. Preheat oven to 350F, grease or line muffin cups with paper liners.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine bananas, yogurt, lemon juice, extracts and food colouring. Set aside.
  3. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
  5. Add tofu, beating well to combine.
  6. Beginning and ending with the dry mixture, alternate additions of flour and banana mixtures, beating ell after each addition.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until they test done.
  8. Turn out immediately and cool completely on a wire rack.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 160.0
Total Fat: 4.7 g
Cholesterol: 11.7 mg
Sodium: 40.7 mg
Total Carbs: 28.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g
Protein: 2.1 g

Friday, February 5, 2010

And I Thought I was Original...


Well, it's Nutella Day. And, while I had planned on making something awesome for this year (or at least something, since I was part of it the last 2 years!) the dreaded worlds of life and school got in my way. Coupled with the fact that for some odd reason I had pegged WND as being on the 18th instead of the 5th of February (Lord only knows why) and - well... I'm short.

But don't despair - I won't let the sun set on Nutella Day 2010 without at least a slight contribution from me! I have an oh-so-bad-for-you, totally not "Nutritionist Reccommended" but incredibly delicious breakfast I would sneak my young, "wild child" self once or twice a year when nobody was home to govern what was a "suitable" selection for me. I don't really recommend indulging in this sort of thing more than once or twice a year, though - unless you happen to be on Death Row, by which all means, eat as many as you like!

I had thought that the whole Nutella "Waffle-Wich" was an original of mine, but it turns out I'm way slower off the draw than I thought. I have yet to find a French toast style Nutella Waffle-Wich though, so I guess I'll lay claim to that!

Home-From School Special
Serves 1
2 Eggo waffles
2 eggs
splash of milk
dash of cinnamon
sprinkle of brown sugar
As much Nutella as you can stomach
butter or cooking spray
  1. Toast waffles until light brown (about 1 shade lighter than you usually would make them).
  2. Meanwhile, beat eggs, milk, cinnamon and brown sugar together until well blended.
  3. When Eggos are done toasting, slather one surface of one (or both) of the waffles and sandwich them together. You want a fairly hearty layer to ensure they stay together - plus its just darn tasty!
  4. Heat a skillet or frying pan with a touch of butter or cooking spray (you know, to be virtuous) over medium heat.
  5. Dip the waffle-wich into the egg, soaking the waffle well and coating all the sides thoroughly.
  6. Flip the waffle into the hot pan, pouring the remaining egg mixture overtop.
  7. Cook as you would any French toast, flipping halfway through. Serve immediately.
*Note: Come to think of it, really, I bet a good smoky bacon would kick serious butt in this waffle-wich too. But I'll leave that up to you. Or possibly Joel, if he gets there first.*

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Vegan Lemon Bars

"Hey, what'cha doin?"
"Oh, I'm making lemon curd bars for mom's office."
"Lemon curd? What the hell is that?"
"It's like a creamy custardy jam thing, usually with egg yolks and sugar. It's really good on toast."
"Okay, no... that just sounds nasty. Why the hell would they call it curd? That's like all, booger-y"

Yes - my sister and I have the most mature dialogues, don't we?? Generally we wind up descending into some form of kindergarten-esque language and behaviour by the end of it, but really... that's the fun of it! You're only young once, really, but if you listen in on one of our conversations (especially if one or more of the cats are around to taunt / distract us) you'd swear that we were going around the track again.

So yes, I made lemon bars. But I did stray away from the "boogery" nature that the egg yolky / buttery filling can sometimes take on (not that I've done anything like curdle eggs... nooo, not me *looks around*) and went with a rather interesting vegan approach I discovered in The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. She uses one of my all-time favourite baking ingredients - silken tofu - to get the creamy texture just right. I wound up jazzing the citrus flavour up a good deal more (can you ever have too much lemon??) and since I added some extra lemon juice I tossed in some tapioca starch flour to help compensate. The crust was a crapshoot creation of mine (sounds familiar, doesn't it?) involving the combination of shortening and Earth Balance "Buttery" margarine to make a sturdy base with just a tiny crunch from some fine cornmeal. The contrast of textures and flavours - sweet and crunchy from the cookie/corn base, tart and smooth from the lemon/tofu filling - was incredible. My mom even chucked her "semi-detox" diet out the window for a corner piece the next day!

Vegan Lemon Bars
Serves 12
1/4 cup margarine, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup minus 2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp fine yellow cornmeal
6 oz low fat firm silken tofu
3/4 cup sugar
Zest of 3 lemons
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tbsp lemon extract
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tsp sugar
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Lightly grease an 8" pan and line with parchment paper.
  3. Cream margarine, shortening and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
  4. Add flour and cornmeal, mix just until the dough comes together.
  5. Press into the bottom of prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes and set aside to cool while preparing filling.
  6. Blend tofu until creamy.
  7. Add sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract, pureeing completely.
  8. Pulse in flour and tapioca starch until well combined.
  9. Bake for 30 minutes in the prepared crust.
  10. Cool completely before serving.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 181.2
Total Fat: 8.1 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 57.3 mg
Total Carbs: 25.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
Protein: 2.2 g