Veg*n Foods and Other Stuff

I'm Moving. Follow Me Follow Me!!

2011-10-24T16:29:00.001-05:00

This started out as just a food blog, but as my life has evolved, I'd like my blog to evolve as well. Aside from lots of recipes, I have stuff to say. I like to talk. There's stuff to be worked out, like how I'm going to raise a vegetarian baby in a household where his father and half-brother both eat meat, or like how I'm going to lose the fertility drug induced weight when I already eat very healthfully and exercise. What else do I change? There's vegetarian baby stuff to post. Also, I'm funny. Just ask me!

So humor me and follow me on over to The Hippie Inside, where I'll continue to post my recipes and lots of other stuff too!

Horchata

2011-10-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

I make it a practice to NOT drink my calories, unless the drink is an actual meal, like a smoothie for breakfast. I generally require my liquid calories to provide me with a pretty big amount of nutrition in order to make drinking calories worth it in the first place. Note that I said generally. From time to time I'll have a cocktail or a glass of wine, and every now and then, I get hit by a stray, random, and really rather strange craving. I swear I have more cravings now than I ever did when I was pregnant! Anyway, yesterday was one of those times.

I woke up really wanting some horchata. My ex-mother-in-law used to make a mean horchata, and they sell a decent enough version at a local Mexican hole in the wall restaurant. Since I don't have access to the ex-MIL, and I'm pretty sure Allende isn't open at 6:30 in the morning, I decided to see if I could make it myself, so I turned to Doctor Google for help. I found a plethora of recipes, and the grand majority of them included milk as a main ingredient. In my experience authentic horchata is an aqua fresca, and milk totally defeats the purpose of drinking it in the first place, so I did what I always do. I pieced together several different recipes and made my own.

Horchata

Ingredients:

2 cups white rice
6 cups cold water, divided
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raw cane sugar (in the name of all that is good, please don't use that processed white crap!)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Soak the rice over night in the refrigerator in 3 cups of water.
Next morning add rice, soaking water, and cinnamon to the blender and blend the crap out of it. Blend until it's as smooth as your blender can possibly make it. Then blend it some more.
Strain into a pitcher through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. There should be no sediment in the liquid. I strained mine through a fine mesh strainer lined with two layers of cheesecloth and still got a tiny bit of sediment. I was so impatient, I drank it anyway, and boy was it ever good. However, if you've got more patience than I do, I would suggest straining it more than once.
Stir in the remaining 3 cups of water, sugar, and vanilla. Because raw cane sugar doesn't dissolve as well as the evil white kind, you need to stir like mad. In fact, I suggest putting it into a pitcher with a lid so you can shake the heck out of it. Not only does it give you yummy authentic horchata, it gives your biceps a good workout as well!
Serve over ice with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Enjoy!

Apple Nachos

2011-10-18T16:18:00.000-05:00

There are recipes for apple nachos all over the internet. I love apples, and I love them even more now that it's Honeycrisp season, so apple nachos seemed to be just the ticket, but so many of the recipes are soooo unhealthy. I mean come on! Marshmallows? An entire stick of butter? Caramel sauce? Commercial chocolate syrup? Do you have any idea what's even in that sticky, sweet, processed chocolate stuff? I'll give you a hint: high fructose corn syrup is the number one ingredient in the grand majority of them. This is a snack that has such potential to be healthy, so I decided to health it up. I had mine for dinner last night! This recipe is for a single serving, so feel free to up it and make more. Had I done that, I would have eaten the whole thing!

Healthy Apple Nachos

Ingredients:

1/2 of a Honeycrisp apple
1/4 cup Sunflower Seed Butter (or any other nut or seed butter you so desire; I used this, because I had just finished making it earlier in the day)
Cinnamon to taste
1 TBSP raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 TBSP raw pecans
1 TBSP raw slivered almonds
10-12 vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

Core and slice apple and arrange on plate (spritz with lemon juice if you are concerned about browning; my apples didn't brown while I got the rest of the stuff ready)
Put nuts/seeds into toaster oven at 350 degrees for about five minutes. You'll know when they're done, because they start to smell terrific.
Put nut/seed butter in a microwave safe dish and microwave until runny. It took mine about 20 seconds.
Drizzle nut/seed butter over apples.
Sprinkle with cinnamon to taste.
Top with nuts and chocolate chips.

There you have it. It's so easy. It's so good. It's so healthy, full of heart healthy fats, protein, fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidents, and also vitamin C. You can eat the whole danged plate full all by yourself, and it's guilt free! Yuummmm.

Enjoy!

Wheat Berries of Joy!

2011-10-11T10:07:00.003-05:00

I've got a deep and abiding love for wheat berries. It's strange actually since I have a just as deep and abiding loathing for wheat bread and wheat crackers. However, I love wheat pasta way more than regular white pasta. As usual I digress, but there's a glimpse into one of my interesting and adorable quirks. What was I talking about? Ah yes, wheat berries.

Wheat berries are whole, unprocessed wheat kernels that contain all three parts of the grain: the germ, bran, and endosperm. Only the hull has been removed. Because of this, wheat berries retain all of the grain's vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Wheat berries, like all whole grains, have tons of health benefits. Whole grains can help lower the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Eating whole grains instead of refined/processed grains can help with weight control, as well. The best part though, is that wheat berries are yummy.

I hadn't had wheat berries for years, because ... well, because this is Illinois, and they don't have a lot of food here. Kidding! Sort of. I did live here for over four years before I was able to find kale in an actual grocery store. Anyway, I stumbled upon wheat berries in Whole Foods the other day, and I had to have some. They are delightfully chewy in texture and have the most awesome nutty flavor. I like to cook up a batch and use it to top salads, throw into yogurt, put on my oatmeal, eat as a side dish instead of rice, put in soups, on and on.

The first thing I did with these wheat berries, however, was make a breakfast porridge. In the crock pot! I didn't take pictures at every step along the way because this isn't really a recipe; it's more of a guideline. Also, I didn't really think it would work. Wheat berries involve at least a hour, and usually more, depending on how you like your final texture to be. They involve a lot of stove time. I've got a seven month old teething, active baby. I do not have time to babysit something on a burner for an hour or more. So I decided to give the crock pot a shot, and I'm SO glad I did! I made two different versions.

So this is what you'll need for version one:

Wheat Berry Breakfast Porridge

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat berries, rinsed
handful steel cut oats (by this I literally mean a handful. I stuck my hand into the tin, grabbed what would fit in one fist, and threw it into the crock pot
2 3/4 cup unsweetened apple juice
3/4 cup dried fruit of choice (I used cranberries and cherries)
spices of choice (I used a shake each of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ground cloves)

Directions:

Spray inside of crock pot with non-stick cooking spray
Add all ingredients
Cook on low over night - ideally at least eight hours, possibly more depending on how broken down you like your wheat berries. I prefer mine somewhat chewy!

I topped mine with a scant sprinkle of raw cane sugar and a drizzle of coconut milk (from the carton, not the full fat from the can kind).

And for version two:

Tropical Wheat Berry Breakfast Bowl

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat berries, rinsed
1 can coconut milk
enough water to make 3 1/4 cups when combined with coconut milk
liberal shake cinnamon
liberal shake ground ginger
1 very ripe banana

Directions:

Spray inside of crock pot with non-stick cooking spray
Mash banana into a chunky puree
Shake can of coconut milk vigorously, pour into a large glass measure, and add enough water to make three and a quarter cups of liquid
Add everything to the crock pot
Cook on low over night - ideally at least eight hours blahblah same as the other

This was SO good. Next time I'm going to add some chunks of mango and/or pineapple to the crock pot. Dried tropical fruits would work, as well, but I love the way the banana melts and caramelizes a bit, making the wheat berries so creamy and sweet.

I topped this bowl with a sprinkle of raw cane sugar and way more than a drizzle of coconut milk (from the carton!). It was sooooo good!

Enjoy!

Honey Roasted Cinnamon Peanut Butter

2011-09-20T18:58:00.002-05:00

My nut butters are usually very simple, one ingredient kinda things. Generally I use just nuts, either dry roasted or raw, no added salt or sugar or oil of any kind. It's absolutely amazing this way. You get the taste of the actual nut without all of the added sodium and fat and calories that really do nothing to enhance the flavor anyway.

Every now and then, though, I like a treat just as much as the next person. While surfing the web one dreary morning, I came across an ad for Naturally Nutty Honey Roasted Cinnamon Peanut Butter. It set off an almost immediate craving. I've never seen Naturally Nutty brand around here in the stores, and ordering it from their website wouldn't have fulfilled my sudden need for instant gratification. Then there was the whole issue of the fact that I'm ummmm frugal, and I wasn't about to pay five bucks (plus shipping!) for a mere eight ounces of peanut butter. Hmmmm, a little light bulb went off in my head. "I'll bet I can make this." I checked my cabinets and was thrilled to discover that I had all the ingredients needed to make this new yummy concoction that I now absolutely had to have! It was easy as pie, too. Though I don't know who made up that expression, because I think pie is all kinds of hard. I've never made a pie crust in my life that was worth eating. But as usual, I digress, so back to the goodness that is this peanut butter.

Honey Roasted Cinnamon Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

1 pound dry roasted unsalted peanuts
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup raw cane sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
2.5 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place peanuts in a large mixing bowl.

3. Melt honey on the stove top or in the microwave until liquid.

4. Pour liquid honey over peanuts and mix very well.

5. Sprinkle nuts with sugar, salt, and cinnamon and stir well.

6. Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a silpat.

7. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring FREQUENTLY. After the first ten minutes, I stirred mine about once every five minutes. Nuts will be golden and bubbly when done.

8. Stir nuts on baking sheet until they no longer stick together. I got tired of this step, so I quit. If I hadn't been going to grind them up, I would have continued stirring so they'd look all pretty in the candy dish, but I figured it didn't much matter since I was going to butter-fy them anyway.

9. After the nuts have cooled, break them up into manageable sized clumps (unless you did actually stand there and stir them until they didn't stick together anymore), and put them in the food processor.

Yes, those are indeed breast pump parts in the background!

10. Turn food processor on high until nuts break down into a flour like consistency.

11. Turn food processor off and scrape down the sides. Depending on the motor strength of your processor, you might want to rest it for a bit. You don't ever need to add any oil to your nut butters. You just need to process and rest process and rest over and over again until you've got nut butter. Nuts have tons of natural oils that will release if you're just patient enough.

12. Process until really pretty thin. I process mine until it's much thinner than anything I'd put on a sandwich, because once it's been in the refrigerator for awhile it firms up and becomes the perfect spreadable consistency.

13. Pour in glass or plastic containers with seal tight lids and store in the refrigerator.

That's it! Fast, relatively easy, better for you than the processed oil filled stuff from the stores, and a TON cheaper than commercial brand specialty peanut butters. This didn't last very long in my house, because for the first time ever, the kiddo liked one of my home made nut butters.

Enjoy!

Low Fat Summer Squash Bread

2011-09-07T12:13:00.002-05:00

Continuing with my "What the heck do I do with all these summer squash?" theme, I decided to try and bake it into some quick bread. Zucchini bread is amazing, so why not use summer squash instead, right? It turned out pretty darned good too, especially for a low fat version. This are not vegan, as I used Egg Beaters, but with a few tweaks it could easily be veganized.

Really Low Fat Summer Squash Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup summer squash, seeded and shredded
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup egg beaters
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 cup raw cane sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Grease loaf pan.

3. Mix together dry ingredients. If you have to, use your hands to break up any lumps. It needs to be completely incorporated.

It should look like sand.

4. Add wet ingredients. It will seem like there's not enough, but just keep mixing and mixing, and it will eventually make a dough.

5. Pour into loaf pan.

6. Bake for 55 minutes.

This made a hearty dense loaf, and it was really good. In retrospect, however, I could have pureed the squash and used squash puree and a flax egg to make it vegan. It would have also made it a bit lighter. Next time...

Enjoy!

Grain and Veggie Salad with Tangy Tofu Dressing

2011-09-07T11:27:00.002-05:00

I've actually got three posts lined up to make! I'm just having a hard time finding the time to actually make them. Baby happily takes up a lot of my time. However, now he's sleeping peacefully in his wrap on my chest, and I have a few minutes to blog.

Last week, Drew brought home something like six dozen yellow squash from work. Someone's garden had an explosion. Now, I love squash, but I usually buy them about two at a time, and I had no idea what to do with all that squash. I chopped it up and put it into omelets. I diced it and ate it in wraps with hummus. I steamed it and ate it salted for a snack. Then, in my sleep deprived, brain-dead state, I completely ran out of ideas. So...

I turned to the lovely world of the internet and Googled "What the hell do I do with all this summer squash?" (yes seriously), and I found about eight gazillion recipes. However, I'm so damned picky that I only liked about three of them. I found a recipe for Millet and Veggie salad over at Melomeals that I thought I would like a lot after I tweaked it to my satisfaction. You guys know me, after all of my "tweaking", it wasn't really even remotely the same. However, the inspiration definitely was not my own; that came from Melody's amazing blog.

Like many of my posts, this is more of a guideline than it is a recipe. There are so many possible variations to make it suit your own tastes (for example: I used enough garlic to bring down all of Salem's Lot!). The possibilities are endless. The thing that brings it all together and really makes the whole dish is the dressing. The really amazing thing about this is that even the kiddo liked it. He ate more of it than I did, I think. This surprises the heck out of me considering it had lots of vegetables in it. And grain. And health. Go figure!

Yeah, it's not terribly aesthetically pleasing, I know, but it sure does taste good, and it's SO healthy!

Grain and Veggie Salad with Tangy Tofu Dressing

Ingredients:

Salad:

1/2 cup dry grain of choice. Like Melody, I used Millet, because I had it and I LOVE it. Next time I think I'll use quinoa. You could use pretty much any grain that tickles your fancy. You could also probably use whole wheat cous cous or even small legumes, like lentils.
1 small to medium summer squash, seeded and diced
1/3 cup shelled edamame
4 spears asparagus, chopped
2 to 3 cloves garlic, pressed
Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:

1/4 cup pureed tofu
2 TBS nutritional yeast
3 TBS sesame tahini
1TBS lemon juice
3/4 cup cold water
2 cloves pressed garlic
1 TBS good brown mustard
liberal shake nutmeg
liberal shake (or three, if you're like me!) dried dill

Directions:

Salad:

1. Cook grain of choice according to package directions.

I toasted mine first.

Try not to notice that my burner needs cleaning!

2. Saute desired veggies, or you can use the dry fry method. That's what I did, saving the calories from the oil to use in the dressing instead!

3. Let grain and veggies cool to room temperature.

4. While you're waiting for everything to cool off a bit, you can go ahead and multi-task

Yeah. In fact I do love to show him off!

Dressing:

1. Puree tofu to very smooth, almost liquid state.

2. Add all other ingredients and whisk whisk whisk until very well mixed and frothy.

The Whole Shebang

1. Mix cooled grain and veggies.

2. Pour half of dressing over grain and vegetable mixture and mix well.

4. Let chill for several hours, ideally over night. The longer it melds the better it tastes.

5. When ready to serve, drizzle more dressing over the top and salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Now, what the heck do I do with the rest of these?!

Single Ingredient Soft Serve

2011-08-04T11:46:00.001-05:00

This recipe is ALL OVER the internet and has been for quite some time. I've been wanting to try it, but things like a complicated pregnancy and then a newborn kept me from having the opportunity. The newborn isn't quite so new anymore, and he's getting pretty good at amusing himself for a few minutes, especially if I put him in the kitchen with me, so I decided that I should try this out for breakfast this morning.

All you have to have is a frozen banana or two and a food processor. I was amazed that a couple of frozen bananas whipped up into such a smooth, sweet, and creamy treat. I was pretty excited. Don't get TOO excited though, because while this does have the creamy consistency of soft serve, it doesn't exactly taste like soft serve. This is good for me actually, because I don't particularly like soft serve, but my love for bananas has been pretty well established by now.

Single Ingredient Soft Serve

Ingredients:

3 frozen bananas. You want them to be pretty ripe, but not so ripe that they're all brown.

Directions:

1. Place frozen bananas in bowl of food processor fitted with an S blade.

2. Process until correct consistency, stopping to scrape sides of bowl.

How long this takes will depend on your food processor and on your personal definition of proper consistency.

There you go. That's it. Easy peasy, healthy, low calorie, low fat ice cream. It is fantastic just the way it is, but you can add stuff, as well. Of course that makes it no longer one ingredient, but still with a base this healthy you can splurge just a tiny bit too. I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a very liberal shake of cinnamon to mine. It would be good with a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter or with some fresh mint or even mint extract. If you are the chocolaty type, you could add a bit of cocoa powder or chocolate chips. Then of course are the combinations...chocolate peanut butter, chocolate mint, etc. etc. I think this would be good with some dried fruit as well. You could go tropical and add a bit of shredded coconut and some pineapple, or you could go tart and add cherries and apricots. I'd soak the fruit for a few hours first though. The possibilities are endless, and the base is only about 80 calories per serving and chock full of potassium! Also, you can totally eat ice cream for breakfast! Doesn't get much better than that!

Enjoy!

No Sugar Added Protein Energy ... Rounds

2011-07-11T21:06:00.002-05:00

I can't call these "bars", since I baked them in a muffin tin, in order to cut out a few steps, and I can't call them "bites" since they are much bigger than just a bite, and I can't call them "muffins", because even though I did bake them in a muffin tin, they are not. Muffins, that is. So rounds it is.

I was at the doctor today, and I asked her when postpartum hair loss is supposed to stop. Her vague-ish answer was, "Six weeks. Sometimes 12. Maybe later. Eventually. Don't worry; you have a lot; you won't be bald." Captain Subtext translates that into, "Normally, somewhere between six and 12 weeks, but this doesn't apply to you. Nothing applies to you since you are the hugest medical anomaly I've ever seen." Anyway, she also told me that adding more protein to my diet would help, so I set out to invent something that packs a huge protein punch in a small, quick to grab, easy to eat package. It wouldn't hurt if it gave me a boost of energy, as well, and an even bigger plus would be if it would help boost milk supply. I don't ask for much, do I?

Anyway, I came up with these ... rounds, which were initially supposed to be bars. The nuts, nut butter, seeds, and quinoa have a crapton of protein. Yes, crapton is indeed a scientific measurement. Look it up. The bananas and the wheat germ are both chock full of potassium, and aside from giving quick energy, potassium is amazingly good for you.

You can customize this recipe a bazillion different ways, according to your taste. You can use whatever nuts you would like, alone or in combination. I used almonds, walnuts, and pecans. You can vary your dried fruit (and if you haven't already, read about why you should dehydrate it yourself). I used cherries, blueberries, cranberries, and dates. I almost went tropical and used pineapple, banana, and mango, as I had all of those on hand as well. Next time... You can also choose whatever nut or seed butter you most prefer. I used unsweetened natural almond butter. Usually I make my own, but I just didn't have time this time. I did, however, use MaraNatha brand, and their only ingredient is raw almonds. Even many of the natural nut butters add some oil, so I'm pretty fond of MaraNatha. I considered using Sunbutter or Tahini. You can also use the seed of your choice. I used sunflower, because that's what I had, but pumpkin or sesame would work just as well.

So now I've got nuts and nut butter and quinoa for protein, tons of potassium for energy and other good things, fruit for a burst of natural sweetness, and oats for a lactation boost. Now, these are not low fat. Nuts are quite caloric and have a high fat content. However, those fats are the good fats. They help lower bad cholesterol. They have lots of protein, fiber, and healthy monounsaturated fats, vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants. Eating an ounce of nuts a day can help lower your risk of heart disease. So while these aren't necessarily low fat, they are quite good for you.

Because there is no added sugar, these aren't sweet and cakey like muffins. They also aren't sweet and salty and crunchy like granola bars. If you're looking for sweet, then you need to move on. They are dense and gooey and pack a hell of a nutritional punch.

Protein Energy Rounds

Ingredients:

1/2 cup nut or seed butter
2 very ripe mashed bananas
1/2 cup whole nuts
1 1/2 cup dried fruits
1 cup rolled oats (not the quick cooking kind!)
2 TBSP wheat germ
1/8 cup uncooked quinoa
1 tsp vanilla
Liberal pinch cinnamon
1/4 cups seeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Coarsely chop nuts and dried fruit in food processor. Be careful and pay attention, because you don't want to make it a gooey paste. You just want it chopped up into big pieces, like so:

3. Mix nut butter and bananas until thick and paste like.

4. Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

5. Spoon into a lightly sprayed muffin tin. And by lightly sprayed, I mean spray the hell out of it, or they'll stick!

6. Bake for 15 minutes.

7. These must be stored in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

2011-07-06T19:05:00.000-05:00

I'm slowly trying to get back into the swing of things. The baby is four months old now, and it would be nice to have dinner again every once in awhile. While he is able to amuse himself for longer stretches than before, he's still only four months old, and those stretches aren't all that long, so quick and easy is the name of the game here.

Drew recently requested some baked macaroni and cheese. I had no idea how to go about this, because the only macaroni I've ever made in my life came out of a box, and when I gave up Shit That Is Bad For Me (TM), I pretty much stopped eating that. So I just sort of made this up as I went along, using what we had in the house. It's certainly not vegan. It's also not my usual low fat, healthy fare, but it is better than the packaged processed stuff, and I'm nursing. I can get away with the extra calories right now, because I've seen first hand what not getting enough calories does to my milk supply!

Laura's Make It Up As You Go Along Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
3 eggs or equivalent amount of Egg Beaters
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
Generous pinch salt
Scant shake cayenne pepper
Shake ground nutmeg
2 1/2 cups grated cheese of choice - I used Swiss, Colby Jack, and Mozzarella. I suppose most normal people would use sharp cheddar and American, but I'm not normal. I also don't like cheddar, and we didn't have American.
Something crunchy for the top - I used crushed Corn Flakes. Crushed crackers of some sort or Panko would work really well too.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Bring large pot of salted water to boil.

3. Add macaroni and cook two minutes less than package directions. Drain and set aside.

4. If you didn't buy pre-shredded cheese, grate your cheese in whatever manner you use to grate cheese. Personally I'm lazy, so I use the food processor. I'd still be shredding cheese if I had to do it with a manual grater!

5. In a large bowl whisk eggs and evaporated milk together until foamy.

6. Add a generous pinch of salt, the cayenne, and the nutmeg and whisk well.

7. Stir in the grated cheeses, and mix well.

8. Add the macaroni and stir well to coat.

9. Pour into a sprayed casserole or baking dish, and gently smooth the top to make an even layer.

10. Crush up your crunchy stuff and completely cover the top.

11. Bake 15 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

12. Let rest for ten minutes before serving.

13. Lastly, if you have one of these, put him in the kitchen and let him help!

My hope is that he'll develop healthy habits early on and not have to struggle like I did.

Enjoy!

Announcing

2011-04-12T17:15:00.000-05:00

It was a long road, but we finally made it!

Pumpkin Oat Pancakes

2010-12-13T11:56:00.001-06:00

Oh my goodness it's a recipe! It's super simple, super yummy, and everything I needed was either out on the counter or on the top shelf of the cabinet or fridge. I didn't have to bend or lift a thing, so this recipe fulfills both my requirements and those of my doctor. It's win/win here!

Now, this recipe isn't vegan, but it would be super easy to veganize by making flax eggs. This is what I would have usually done, but my little personal blender with the grinding blade has bitten the dust (I'm very sad about this!), and since I've been pregnant, the desire for eggs has been astronomical. I NEVER just eat eggs under normal circumstances, but I've eaten my fair share over the last several months. I fully plan to go back to being egg free after the baby is born.

This recipe came about, because I had a wicked craving for pancakes, but I've also never really liked plain ol' pancakes. I'm not a huge fan of things made with refined white flour in the first place, and I'm very very picky about my pancakes anyway. I need them to TASTE like something! I went on an internet search to find some inspiration, and I discovered a lot of gluten free folks using oats as a flour substitute. What a fantastic idea. Oats are so healthy! I decided to give it a try and a twist or twelve of my own, because you know I've got to get rid of as much added fat and as many animal products as I possibly can, and I'm surely glad I did. These were fantastic!

Pumpkin Oat Pancakes

Ingredients:

2 cups traditional oatmeal (not the quick cook or instant variety)
2 cups almond/soy/rice/whatever milk of your choice
½ cup canned pumpkin (or fresh pumpkin puree-also see further notes below)
2 large organic eggs (I used ½ cup of Egg Beaters--much healthier. You could also use egg replacer or the aforementioned flax eggs.)
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder

Directions:

1. Grind oats into flour using food processor. As you can see, I used a blender, but that's only because the food processor weighs a bazillion pounds and was in a bottom cabinet. The blender was on the counter, so it required no bending and lifting. I totally recommend doing this in the food processor. It's faster, easier, far less messy, and a breeze to clean up.

2. Pour milk into oat flour and mix very well using a fork or wire whisk. You'll have to pay attention here, because you need to get all of the lumps out. It will be VERY thin. In fact, you'll think, "I'll never be able to make batter out of this!" but trust me, you will.

4. Soak oats in milk, storing in fridge overnight. You need to soak at least 12 hours, and you can soak for up to 24 hours.

5. Next morning, mix all other ingredients into the soaked oats. Mix well.

6. Heat griddle or large skillet over medium heat and lightly spray with olive oil.

7. Pour about a ¼ of a cup of batter onto the skillet and cook two to three minutes, until edges start to dry and brown and bubbles form and pop on top.

8. Flip with spatula and cook until bottom is golden brown, two to three minutes more.

Enjoy!

Notes: If for some reason you don't want to use pumpkin, there are lots of substitutes. You could use ½ cup of apple sauce, ½, cup of well mashed banana, ½ cup of plain soy yogurt (or dairy yogurt if you aren't trying to veganize), 4 T oil, or even 4 T of melted butter.

This recipe made a bakers dozen.

The Confession

2010-09-03T15:22:00.000-05:00

I can finally come about the reason I've not been around for so darned long -- I'm pregnant! I had some complications in the first trimester, which have now thankfully resolved. That lead to lots and lots of bed rest and then lots and lots of taking it easy.

I've been cleared to have a bit more freedom now that things are going well, but there still won't be much cooking. There's no lifting of anything heavier than my purse, so that leaves out the food processor, the blender, the dutch oven, and a myriad of other things used to create fantastic meals. There's also no bending, and that makes it hard to cook, as well.

Now, I'm not complaining here. I'm absolutely thrilled. I've never been so happy about anything. I love this blog though, and I promise that someday I'll be back. Someday not all that far away even. Let's say sometime in March! So stick around, and I'll be back with renewed fervor and lots of yummy vegetarian eats! (And just for the record, I fully plan on raising a vegetarian baby!)

No, I Haven't Forgotten You!

2010-08-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Hello lovelies! It's been such a long time, I know. I haven't, however, forgotten you or my blog, and I haven't abandoned you either. I've had some medical issues that have kept me out of the kitchen for a few weeks. They are resolving now though, and I hope to be back in the kitchen soon, creating yummy vegetarian dishes for all of us to try!

Stick around for a bit and bear with me here, because I'll be back soon enough.

Shepard's Pie

2010-06-20T19:54:00.002-05:00

This is more of a guideline type of thing than it is an official recipe. You can use lots of different stuff for your filling. I'm using ground seitan here, because Drew likes his to be "meaty" and also he's not terribly fond of vegetables. There are several different things you could use to emulate meat if you so wish--steamed and ground tempeh, tvp, and of course ground seitan. This is also REALLY good with just a vegetable base--lentils and onions, diced zucchini and yellow squash, the traditional mix of peas, carrots, and potatoes, etc. etc. If you like it, you can put it in your Shepard's Pie; my personal favorite is lentils, onions, and zucchini.

This version is actually my "cheater's version", meaning that instead of actually making gravy, I used a can of soup. You can use cream of anything soup (I used potato, because that's what I had). That makes this particular recipe not vegan, but if you make your own gravy, it's quite easy to veganize. I do that most of the time anyway, but I was in a real hurry when I made this. We needed something hot, healthy, filling, and we needed it relatively quickly.

Shepard's Pie

Ingredients:

2 cups ground seitan
4 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into uniform pieces (I only tell you this, because my husband and I once had a huge fight over whether or not to peel and chop the potatoes before boiling them. He insisted that since the recipe didn't specifically state that the potatoes needed to be peeled and chopped before they were boiled, then he was supposed to boil them whole, peels on. I tried to tell him that it was pretty much common sense that you peel and chop potatoes before boiling them unless you want to be boiling potatoes for three hours; he continued to insist that if he was supposed to peel and chop, then the recipe would have said peel and chop. The stupidity of that fight made me see that either it's not so much common sense to everyone, or common sense is not so common! Draw your own conclusions here.)
2 TBSP butter or margarine of choice
1/2 cup milk of choice (I used soy.)
1 can cream of something soup plus 1/3 can water
1/2 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Boil potatoes until fork tender, about 20 minutes.

2. Spray non-stick skillet with olive oil, and brown onion and garlic over medium heat.

3. Add seitan (or whatever you're using as the filling) and 2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce.

4. Cook until everything is well coated with the sauce, about five minutes.

5. Add cream of whatever soup and 1/3 can of water, stirring until everything is mixed well and heated through, about five minutes more, remove from heat.

6. Salt and pepper to taste.

7. Mash potatoes with the butter and milk.

8. Pour seitan/soup (or gravy) mixture into a sprayed 9 x 9 pan.

9. Spread mashed potatoes over top of the mixture, pushing to edges of pan.

10. Cover and bake 30 minutes in a 350° oven.

11. Remove foil and broil for two to four minutes, until potatoes are browned but not burned.

Enjoy!

Low and Slow Baked Yams

2010-06-15T13:46:00.002-05:00

I've mentioned before how much I love sweet potatoes, ¿no? They ever remain one of my favorite foods, but despite that fact, I'd never tried a yam until recently. What could possibly be the difference (aside from 12¢ a pound), right? However, our local Hispanic market had a bumper crop, so I finally gave in and tried them a couple of weeks ago, out of nothing more than sheer curiosity. Oh my yyuummm am I ever glad I did!

Only after tasting the yam did I do any research at all, and I was surprised to learn that they aren't even distantly related to the sweet potato. I feel like a real traitor saying this, but I like them so much better than sweet potatoes. They are sweeter and creamier and moister and just so much better. You have to be careful though to get an actual real yam. Many many places in the U.S. label their sweet potatoes as yams, and that's just not so. You're more likely to find an actual yam in a Hispanic or other ethnic type market, as they are generally imported from the Caribbean.

Earlier this year Kath posted about the Low and Slow method of baking sweet potatoes, and I've been making mine in that method whenever possible since then. They are just amazing. They are chewy and almost crispy on the outside and so soft and gooey inside, and it really brings out the natural sweetness. This recipe is my take on the low and slow method of baking.

Low and Slow Baked Yams

Ingredients:

Large yam
Olive Oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Ground turmeric

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. Scrub yam and cut into thick rounds.

3. Spray both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and turmeric.

4. Place on greased baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Turn oven temperature up to 400° and bake for 20 minutes longer.

I topped mine with a scant drizzle of maple syrup.

Enjoy!

And just for fun, a couple of shots of my brand new kitchen. It's so tiny that you can't actually stand in the kitchen and take a picture. Despite it's smallness, it's WORLDS better than the one I was in before. I loathed that kitchen with a passion! This one, while small, is set up so much better. Drew and I bought a great big island, and that helped a lot, giving me both counter space and much needed storage, and the fact that there's a dishwasher scores some huge points with me!

MIA

2010-06-12T23:04:00.001-05:00

Wow. I've been gone for a long time. I apologize for the absence if anyone out there is even still reading. I mentioned before that we were moving, but it happened so fast. Once things started to move, they REALLY started to move--faster than we thought it was going to happen.

So here we are, in a new house, with a new kitchen where I can create many tasty things, but not quite yet. We aren't completely settled and unpacked yet, so you're gonna have to give me a few more days. I promise something yummy when things finally stop spinning.

Banana Balls

2010-05-27T19:01:00.000-05:00

I love bananas so much. In fact, I probably eat enough bananas to better qualify as Gorilla Beringei than Homo Sapien. Draw your own conclusions! ;) Seriously though, I found THIS recipe last night, and I just knew I had to try it out.

What's better than a fresh, ripe banana right? Well maybe some creamy home made peanut butter. Or maybe oats! Oh how I love oats. The beauty of this recipe is that you don't have to pick between these three wonderful things. You get to combine them all into a healthy, super yummy snack full of fiber and potassium and folic acid. It's perfect, bite sized, raw snack.

Sadly I don't have any pictures. I don't tend to step by step document unless the recipe is actually mine, or at least adapted. These didn't need any adapting whatsoever though, and the real truth of the matter is that I didn't get much of a chance to take pictures, because by the time I thought that I should maybe snap a picture or two, they were gone!

I see this snack often in my future. I also see a lot of different variations. I already have some ideas rolling around in my head. Expect to see some recipes soon! In the meantime, head on over and check out this amazing little snack!

Super Chunky Vegetable Sauce

2010-05-21T12:54:00.000-05:00

I was looking around for something to have for lunch, and I was coming up blank. One of the disadvantages to the "use it all up before we move" school of thought is that you end up with a lot of strange odds and ends that don't necessarily go together. We've actually got quite a lot of food in the house; it's just that it's so diverse it's hard to combine it into a meal that makes sense.

I had a few fresh veggies, a few canned veggies and lots of bulk grains and pastas. From that, this colorful, chunky oh so flavorful sauce was born. It turned out pretty darned good for pure improvisation.

Super Chunky Vegetable Sauce

Ingredients:

3 large cloves garlic, minced
1/8 cup onion, diced
1/2 large zucchini, quartered and sliced very thin
5 artichoke hearts from jar of marinated artichoke hearts, diced
1 can diced peeled tomatoes with juice
Splash of liquid from jar of artichoke hearts
Liberal shake of dried Italian seasoning
Kosher salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Spray large non-stick skillet with olive oil and heat over medium heat.

2. Add diced onions and sauté until translucent.

3. Add minced garlic and sauté one minute.

4. Add sliced zucchini and continue to sauté for a minute or two more.

5. Add diced artichoke hearts and can of diced tomatoes with the juice.

6. Add a splash of liquid from the jar of artichoke hearts.

7. Add a liberal shake of dried Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. Stir well.

8. Reduce heat to low and simmer sauce for eight to ten minutes, until zucchini is tender/crisp.

9. Serve over hot cooked pasta or grains of choice. I ate mine over Israeli couscous, but I imagine it would be great over quinoa or bulgur as well.

Enjoy!

Vegan Italian Garlic Focaccia Bread

2010-05-21T12:36:00.000-05:00

Tonight we're having a simple dinner of lasagna and a vegetable. I made the lasagna a couple of months ago when I was stocking the freezer, and now it's time to eat it (once again with trying to use up the food we have before we move, so we don't have to attempt to move food!). I always like to serve a nice home made bread with such a simple dinner, because it really dresses things up a bit and makes dinner a tad more interesting.

This is a pretty easy recipe, as far as bread recipes go. It takes a bit of time, but most of that time is spent doing other stuff (packing, anyone?) while the bread rises. This isn't quite as easy as the Super Fast Dinner Roll recipe, but it's pretty darned close.

Italian Garlic Focaccia

Ingredients:

For the bread:

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 TBSP raw cane sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3 TBSP vital wheat gluten
1 TBSP olive oil

For the top:

2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP vegan Parmesan
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
2 tsp dried Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Combine yeast, warm water, and sugar in a large bowl. Cover with clean dish towel and let sit for ten minutes.

2. Add salt, flour, vital wheat gluten, and olive oil (1 TBSP). Mix until everything is well incorporated. Dough will be sticky.

3. Turn out onto well floured surface and knead until smooth and shiny, about five minutes.

4. Shape dough into ball and place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until double in size, about one hour.

5. Punch down dough and divide in half. Form each half into a ball, and place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed and lightly dusted with cornmeal.

6. Roll each ball into an eight inch circle.

7. Press fingertips into the dough to make indentions.

8. Cover dough and let rise until double in size, about 20 minutes.

9. Drizzle each loaf with 1 TBSP olive oil (I used my handy Misto oil sprayer; it makes things so much easier!). Sprinkle 1 TBSP vegan Parmesan, 1 TBSP minced garlic, and 1 tsp Italian seasoning on top of each loaf.

10. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes, until puffed and golden brown.

Enjoy!

Savory Oats

2010-05-20T09:49:00.001-05:00

This started out as a bit of experiment, inspired by a craving for grits I had last night. I love grits, but I haven't had them in years, so needless to say, there were none in the house. I started wondering if I could make oatmeal into a savory dish, like grits. I broke out my Google-fu to see what Dr. Internet had to say about the subject, and I found a lot of people who like savory oats, but I didn't find any real recipes--just lots of statements like "Oh I love my oats with soy sauce" and "I make mine with green onions and cheese."

This morning I decided to try my hand at savory oats, catered to my own tastes. I'm a HUGE fan of everything savory. You've probably noticed that I don't really add any extra sweeteners to my recipes; the fruit or milk tends to have enough sweetness for me. I've never had much of a sweet tooth, but I can put away the salty and/or savory dishes!

I made mine with water, but I would have used milk had I had any milk that doesn't have very distinctive flavors. All I had on hand was coconut and vanilla soy. We're moving at the end of the month, and I'm actually trying to stretch the food until then, so we don't have to try and move very much food. But I digress... Use whatever type of oats you would like, but follow the cooking directions on the package as to oat/liquid ratio and cook time. Please excuse the wonky pictures. It's cloudy outside today, so the natural light wasn't so good.

Savory Oatmeal

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Steel Cut Oats
3/4 cup water or milk of choice
2 eggs, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt (I used Egg Beaters)
2 TBSP shredded cheese
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/8 cup onion, diced

Directions:

1. Lightly spray medium sauce pan with olive oil and sauté onions and garlic, over medium heat, until just translucent. You need to stir constantly so the garlic won't burn.

2. Add the water or milk and the oats, turn heat to high, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

3. Once boil is achieved, turn down the heat to low and simmer for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Temper the egg by adding a spoonful of the hot oatmeal to the beaten eggs and stirring thoroughly. Now do this again with a second spoonful of oatmeal into the eggs. This brings the eggs to the temperature of the oats, ensuring that there won't be any big pieces of egg in your finished product.

5. Slowly add the eggs back into the sauce pan with the oatmeal, stirring well to incorporate.

6. Return heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until eggs are cooked through, about four minutes.

7. Stir in half of shredded cheese.

8. Top with a few grinds of fresh black pepper and the remaining tablespoon of shredded cheese.

Enjoy!

How to Make Your Own Nut Butters

2010-05-18T16:46:00.001-05:00

Making your own nut butter is far more healthy than than buying the typical jar of Jif at the grocery store, and it's far more economical than buying natural nut butters at health stores, or even at the grocery store if you're lucky enough to have a grocery store that sells natural nut butters.

The Jif website tells me that their peanut butter contains roasted peanuts, sugar, molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils (rapeseed and soybean), mono and diglycerides, and a metric crap-ton of salt. Nut butters don't need any of that added stuff. I don't even know what rapeseed oil is, and I have no idea why I'd want to consume anything that provides 150mg of sodium per serving. The beauty of making it yourself is that you don't have to have any of that extra stuff, and if you want to sweeten it you can pick something way healthier than refined white sugar with which to do it--agave nectar, honey, maple syrup, etc.

Nut butter is fabulously healthy. It contains fiber and essential fatty acids. It contains good quality, usable protein, without any cholesterol. Nuts lower the risk of type II diabetes. There are all kinds of benefits. If you want to read further on the subject, here is a good place to start.

You can fancy up your nut butters, as well and make gourmet flavors. Add a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder to hazelnut butter for home made Nutella. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla to your almond butter. Add a drizzle of honey to your sunflower seed butter. Add a very ripe banana to your peanut butter. Go where your imagination takes you. I'm getting ahead of myself here though. First the how to.

All you need is a food processor and your nut of choice. Many sites on the web will tell you that you've got to add oil to make your nut butter creamy, but this simply isn't so. All it takes is a little bit of patience. I made peanut butter for this how to. I generally buy my nuts in bulk and raw. This saves tons of money. However, these particular peanuts came dry roasted, unsalted, and in a jar. They were on sale for far to cheap for me to resist. You can roast your nuts first, buy them roasted, or make raw nut butters, which are also amazing. In fact, I prefer my almond butter to be raw.

1. Put about two cups of your nut of choice in the food processor. I've used peanuts, sunflower seeds, pecans, almonds, and cashews, and they've all resulted in fabulous nut butters. My absolute favorite is the sunflower seed.

2. Turn the food processor on high, and cover your ears, because the beginning of this process is really loud. The nuts will break down into a flour like consistency.

2. Turn off the food processor and scrape down the sides. Depending on the motor strength of your processor, you may want to rest it. This is where the patience thing comes in. You don't need to add any oil at all. You just need to processes and rest, process and rest until the nuts begin to release their own natural oils. This could take anywhere from a few minutes to 20 of them, depending on the strength of your food processor.

3. The level of creaminess is personal preference. The picture below is still a bit too grainy for my tastes. I like my nut butters to be very smooth. I also like to process them until they are pretty thin. In this case, that's because I'm going to use this in Sesame Peanut Noodles. I also like to process it somewhat thin, because you've got to store it in the refrigerator. I don't know about you guys, but I don't have the patience to bring something to room temperature before I spread it, so I want it to come out of the fridge already spreadable.

This is still too thick and grainy for me, so I'm going to give it a few more minutes in the food processor.

4. Once you've reached your desired smoothness and consistency, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It lasts for a couple of weeks, at least.

Now it's getting there.

Perfect!

Enjoy!

Easy Cheddar Biscuits

2010-05-12T10:02:00.001-05:00

I've never much liked traditional biscuits. They are too heavy and too dense and too salty for my tastes. I think it's all that shortening. I've rather got a thing against shortening anyway, even when it's vegetable shortening. Let's just call it an irrational prejudice and move on.

The only biscuits that I ever even remotely liked were the garlic cheese biscuits at Red Lobster. They were lighter, and they did have the whole garlic thing going for them! Needless to say, I don't eat there anymore, so it's been a long time since I've consumed a biscuit.

These are different. They don't have any shortening or butter. They are way less salty than your traditional biscuit, and they aren't nearly as dense, because they don't have to be rolled out and cut into shapes. This is a simple drop biscuit with a surprise ingredient.

Easy Cheddar Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk of choice
2 TBSP mayo (I used light Miracle Whip, because that's what we had. I don't eat mayo, but this is what Drew keeps on hand.)

Directions:

1. In a small mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cheese.

2. Stir in milk and mayo until just moistened. Don't overwork!

3. Fill five greased/sprayed muffin cups 2/3 full.

4. Fill empty muffin cup(s) 1/2 full with water.

5. Bake in a 425° oven for 18-20 minutes, until golden.

Enjoy!

Banana Nut Bread Oatmeal Cookies

2010-05-04T12:09:00.002-05:00

I thought about calling these "Super Healthy, Low Fat, Banana Nut Oatmeal, Stuffed Full of Omega 3s Cookies", but that's kinda long. People would get tired of reading the title before they got to the super easy cookie recipe. However, it's also all true. The only added fat is from the nuts and the flax seeds, and that's the super healthy, full of essential Omega 3s kind of fat. It's very important that you eat these cookies, actually, because you need those Omega 3s, and your body doesn't make them. Cookies to the rescue!

Omega-3 fatty acids are considered essential fatty acids: They are necessary for human health but the body can' t make them; you have to get them through food. Also known as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), Omega 3 fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development. They have also become popular because they may reduce the risk of heart disease.

Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and may help lower risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. Omega-3 fatty acids are highly concentrated in the brain and appear to be important for cognitive (brain memory and performance) and behavioral function. In fact, infants who do not get enough omega-3 fatty acids from their mothers during pregnancy are at risk for developing vision and nerve problems. Symptoms of omega-3 fatty acid deficiency include fatigue, poor memory, dry skin, heart problems, mood swings or depression, and poor circulation.

Alright. That's enough lecturing on why you should eat these cookies. I also made mine sugar free. The kiddo doesn't react well when sugar is involved (in fact, his father once termed his behavior on sugar as that of "a spastic robot on speed"), and it's not good for you anyway, so I do my best to limit sugar consumption in this house. I used a sugar free maple syrup. Let's not have the artificial sweetener debate right now, okay? I use the only one deemed pregnancy safe by the FDA and my doctor (who has 12 letters behind his name), so I feel safe enough. If you don't want to use a sugar free version, then feel free to use pure maple syrup.

Banana Nut Bread Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

2 tsp flax seeds, ground
2 TBSP cold water
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats, ground into flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped or crushed
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 large banana, mashed
1 heaping TBSP plain fat free soy yogurt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Grind 3/4 cups oats into flour using a food processor or blender.

It should look like this when you're finished.

3. Mix ground flax (I grind mine in the Tribest Personal Blender with the grinder blade; you can use a coffee grinder, as well) with 2 TBSP cold water and set aside to thicken.

4. Mix oats, oat flour, wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and walnuts in a large mixing bowl.

5. To the flax mixture add syrup, vanilla, mashed banana (I just squish it around in the peel until it's mushy, and then drop it into the bowl), and soy yogurt, using a whisk to combine well.

6. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture.

7. Stir very well, until you've got a really thick batter.

8. Drop by heaping TBSP onto a baking sheet that has been lined with lightly sprayed parchment paper.

9. Flatten and smooth the tops with the back of the measuring spoon.

10. Bake 10 minutes, or until the cookies are just slightly brown.

Enjoy!

Better Than Oatmeal?

2010-05-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

Impossible you say? That's what I said too, until I tried this oat, rye, barley, and wheat mixture. I bought it on a whim at Trader Joe's. I went in for THREE items, and I came out with two bags stuffed full, and $54.00 poorer. Somehow that always happens to me in Trader Joe's. But I digress... This bowl of hot grain goodness was creamy and chewy all at once. It was just slightly sweet, and so amazing.

1/2 cup organic multi-grain cereal
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 cup water
1 large banana
Extra dollop Greek yogurt for topping
Few chocolate peanut butter chips

Directions:

Place multi-grain cereal, coconut milk, and Greek yogurt into container with lid.
Stir well, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning, slice banana into medium sauce pan and cook over medium heat until it begins to melt and caramelize.
Add soaked grains and 1 cup water to sauce pan, and cook until boiling.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for three to five minutes more, until desired creaminess is achieved.
Let cereal sit in bowl for a minute before serving.
Top with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a few chocolate peanut butter chips.

Enjoy!

What IF?

2010-04-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's been an exceptionally busy week, so that's why you haven't seen very many blog posts from me. Next week will be better, and I'll be back in the kitchen. I apologize. Sometimes life just happens.

I'm going to do something now that I promise I won't do very often; I'm going to post an entry that's not a food or healthy living entry, but this is important to me, and I'll advocate for this particular issue with my dying breath. I briefly mentioned in my long "my story" post that I'm an IVF patient. This week is National Infertility Awareness Week. In order to spread awareness, and to give voice, Keiko Zoll made this amazing, wonderful, touching, and very very brave video. I'm reposting it here. It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, and I am deeply grateful that she put her heart out there for the world to see.

What IF? A Portrait of Infertility from Keiko Zoll on Vimeo.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled food blog posts.
Thanks for taking the time to watch this video.

Healthy, Gluten Free Crackers

2010-04-27T14:26:00.001-05:00

These crackers aren't so much a cracker in the thin, crispy sense. They are thicker, chewier, heartier, with a slight crisp around the edges, and they are oh so good. They're kind of a crackery/bready/cakey texture. They're wonderful for the spreading of hummus or baba ghanouj. They're fantastic as a side for soup. Rolled thicker and cut larger, they make a good flat bread for sandwiches. They're also pretty darned good just by themselves. Not that I know this from experience, because I ate half a dozen of them all by myself or anything.

This recipe is a mash up of the (never home)maker's version and the Oh She Glows version, spiced to match my preferences. Both of those blogs are amazing, and if you don't follow them, you probably should! I've learned so much from them both. Anyway, these crackers are also gluten free and vegan. Win all the way around here!

This recipe offers one last advantage. It's a way to use up leftovers. There tends to be both left over quinoa and left over rice pretty often around here. Unfortunately, today I had neither, so I actually had to cook!

Healthy, Gluten Free Crackers

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice, uncooked
1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
1/4 cup ground flax
1 TBSP water
2 TBSP nutritional yeast
1 TBSP thyme
1 TBSP oregano
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tsp tahini
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp garlic, finely minced

Directions:

1. Cook rice and quinoa in separate pots.

2. Cool completely.

Because I was very anxious to make these, I just dumped them both into the bowl of the food processor and shoved it in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. Put all ingredients into bowl of food processor and process until well mixed.

Don't worry when it's not dough-like. It should look like this.

5. Dump mixture onto a greased cookie sheet.

6. Flatten and shape the dough with wet hands.

7. Cover with plastic wrap and roll with rolling pin to help even out the thickness and smooth the tops. Don't worry about trying to roll it thin. These AREN'T supposed to be thin little crackers. However, if you want to work on rolling them thin, they will bake up crispier.

8. Use a pizza cutter to slice into desired shapes.

9. Bake 15 minutes, and then carefully flip the crackers over.

10. Bake 15 to 25 minutes more, until golden. Watch very carefully after 30 minutes so they won't burn.

11. Cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheet. They will further firm up while cooling.

Enjoy!

Handheld Oatmeal to Go!

2010-04-26T20:06:00.002-05:00

Yes really. This is like the most brilliant thing ever! I got the original idea from here, and then I ~~changed a few little things~~ tweaked the hell out of the recipe. I've got no clue why I've never thought of this, but now that it's on my radar, there's just no looking back. I have already thought of about four dozen different variations of this recipe that I want to try.

There are days when, despite my best intentions, I just don't make it out of bed in time in order to accomplish everything I need to before I have to be somewhere. This recipe is perfect for those types of days. In just a few short minutes I can turn my beloved bowl of oatmeal into a big ol' oatmeal "cookie" and take it with me. Cookies. For breakfast. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Handheld Oatmeal to Go

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rolled oats
1/8 cup Egg Beaters
Liberal dash of cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
Splash vanilla
1 TBSP dried cranberries or blueberries
1 TBSP chopped walnuts
1 TBSP natural peanut butter
1/2 small banana, sliced thin
1 TBSP raw sugar
2 TBSP whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. Put everything in a bowl and mix it up really well with a fork, mashing the banana pieces into the batter as you go.

2. Pat firmly into bowl with the back of a spoon.

3. Microwave on high for two minutes.

4. Let cool for about a minute before removing from bowl.

Enjoy!

Potato Pancakes

2010-04-23T16:57:00.000-05:00

Sometimes having leftovers is a good thing. I am ever mindful of waste, so I try not to have very many, but sometimes it happens, and I have to find a way to use them, because we just don't waste food in this house. Sometimes it's rather challenging to figure out how to use them up, and sometimes it's really easy. This was one of those easy times.

Leftover Potato Pancakes:

Ingredients:

1 cup cold mashed potatoes
1 TBSP ground flax seeds + 3 TBSP cold water (or one egg if you aren't vegan)
1 TBSP soy milk
2 TBSP flour (I used whole wheat)
Seasonings to taste (Since my potatoes were already roasted garlic mashed potatoes, I used Italian seasoning and onion powder. Cajun is good. Garlic and onions powders are good. Just use what you like.)

Directions:

Grind flax seeds in coffee grinder or capable blender and mix with 3 TBSP cold water. Set aside for ten minutes to thicken.
Mix everything else together well, add flax mixture when thick, and mix again.
Form into three pancakes.
Spray non-stick skillet with olive oil or cooking spray.
Lay pancakes in skillet in a single layer and cook until each side achieves desired done-ness. I like mine to be really crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

Today's lunch: zucchini and tomato slices with a potato pancake and a roll left over from last night's dinner.

Enjoy!

The Best Bowl of Oatmeal Ever!

2010-04-23T12:17:00.003-05:00

Alright so this bowl of oatmeal was a complete accident. It's something of a mash-up of Kath's overnight oats and my own tropical oatmeal, though with fresh fruit instead of dried. I was making regular overnight oats, except I used coconut milk instead of soy milk. I figured I'd have a coconutty tropical bowl this morning and just eat a banana on the side.

Two things happened. First of all, I used steel cut oats. I love them! They are way better than rolled oats--firmer, chewier, heartier. That's the problem here. They don't really make good overnight oats. They don't completely absorb the liquid and get all soft like rolled oats do. The second thing that happened was that it's cold. Yes, I know it's almost May. Don't tell me; tell Mother Nature.

Since my oats had been soaking in coconut milk and yogurt all night, I thought about scrapping them and just starting over. I had no idea how cooking them would go with all that yogurt. I am loathe to waste food, however, so I decided to give cooking them a shot. What's the worst thing that could happen, right? What resulted was the best bowl of oatmeal I've ever had!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup plain soy yogurt
Liberal amount of cinnamon
Dash of allspice
1 cup water
1/2 banana
1/2 mango

Directions:

Place oats, coconut milk, yogurt, cinnamon, and allspice in a container with a lid.
Stir well and allow to soak overnight in the refrigerator.
The next morning, cut up half of a banana and half of a mango into chunks.
Place fruit in medium sized sauce pan, and cook it over medium heat. The fruit will start to get soft, melty, and caramelized.
Add soaked oats and one cup of water to the pan and stir well.
Let cook until it begins to softly bubble, about three minutes.
Once it begins to bubble, cook, stirring continuously for three to five minutes more.
Let sit for a minute before serving.

I garnished mine with a few fruit slices (that I didn't eat while waiting for the oatmeal to cook!) and a few spoons of the cream from the top of the coconut milk. If you don't shake the milk before using, the cream rises to the top, with the milk underneath. Just spoon off the top.

Enjoy!

Steak-Seasoned Seitan Cutlets and How to Roast Garlic

2010-04-22T19:21:00.000-05:00

I suppose it would be too cheesy to call these Steaktan, huh? Yeah. That's what I figured. Anyway, I make absolutely flavorless, seasonless seitan in the crock pot all of the time. I don't bother to season it, because I grind it up and use it in things with lots of flavor, like tacos and enchiladas and fried rice, or I cube it and use it in a spicy general tso's stir fry type dish. The crock pot makes a large firm roast that's good for grinding, as it's not very tender at all.

I don't often do the oven simmered cutlets. Now I remember why. Wow it's a lot of work! However, while it may indeed be labor intensive, it sure is worth the effort. These cutlets turned out tender and juicy and chewy and very flavorful. I adapted a basic recipe from The Best Cookbook in the World ™.

Seriously I love this cookbook! This is the book that actually convinced me that, while I may not like it, I can actually cook! There is SO MUCH goodness contained within these pages.

Steak-Seasoned Seitan Cutlets

Ingredients:

Broth:

6 cups vegetable broth
3 TBSP steak marinade of choice (I used bourbon peppercorn)

Cutlets:

1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup cold vegetable broth
1/4 cup steak marinade of choice (once again, I used bourbon peppercorn)
1 TBSP olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 1/2 tsp steak seasoning (or you can make your own)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.

2. Bring six cups broth and 3 TBSP marinade to boil in a large pot; then turn off heat and cover.

3. Place the vital wheat gluten in a mixing bowl.

4. Pour the cold vegetable broth into a measuring cup or bowl, and then add the steak marinade. Add the oil, garlic, and steak seasoning and mix well.

5. Pour the wet mixture into the vital wheat gluten and stir with a wooden spoon until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

See, it looks like ~~brains~~ this.

6. Knead with your hands for three minutes, until the dough is elastic and fights back.

7. Divide into six equal pieces. I sliced mine with a knife, because it's just easier that way.

8. Take each piece and stretch it and knead it into a cutlet shape, about 1/2 inch thick. This offers a lot of resistance, and it keeps snapping back into shape, so you've got to keep at it. Don't worry too much about little holes you may make in it, because the cutlets plump up and seal them.

9. Pour the heated vegetable broth/marinade into a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish.

10. Place the cutlets in the broth.

11. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

12. Turn cutlets using tongs and bake for 30 minutes more.

All the tiny little holes I made while kneading it have already filled in.

13. Remove from oven and place the cutlets in a colander to drain.

14. At this point you can use it in whatever recipe you wish, or you can store it in the refrigerator in the cooking liquid.

I can't stress enough how CAREFUL you need to be while moving about a large baking dish of very hot liquid! It's not exactly the most stable thing in the world; it's pretty unwieldy, and it's HOT!

While I was cooking the cutlets, I also roasted a bulb of garlic. It's a real pain to turn on the oven and heat up the house to roast one measly bulb of garlic, but when the oven is already on, it's the perfect opportunity. Roasting garlic is a piece of cake.

All you have to do is cut the top off of the bulb, so that the tops of the cloves are exposed.

Then you lay it out on tinfoil and drizzle with olive oil.

Wrap it up really tightly and pop it into the oven. It takes about 45 minutes. Fortunately, that's just about how long we needed to cook our cutlets!

And speaking of cutlets, this is what I did with mine...

1. After the cutlets have drained, place them into a Tupperware dish with a lid.

2. Cover with the same marinade you used for the cutlet mix.

3. Let marinate for at least a couple of hours, shaking about every now and then to evenly coat cutlets, then cook in desired manner: pan fry, grill, broil, bake, etc. I put a couple of shakes of steak seasoning on top and cooked mine on the George Foreman Grill for about eight minutes.

These freeze fantastically, as well.

Drew didn't like these. They were too chewy for him. So be warned, they are indeed chewy. If you don't like your seitan chewy, then the oven simmered cooking method is not for you. Now having said that, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, he's all about the texture of everything. There are things that he actually likes the taste of, but can't eat, because the "mouth feel" is all wrong. Secondly, he is an omnivore and does eat meat when not at home, and he's comparing to how meat feels. I haven't had meat in so long that I'm not even sure I remember how it feels.

The kiddo and I both enjoyed them very much--eating one and half cutlets each.

Shown here with Super Fast Dinner Rolls, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed corn on the cob.

Enjoy!

Super Fast Dinner Rolls

2010-04-22T14:40:00.002-05:00

Well, I suppose that fast is subjective here, but compared to the three hours it generally takes to produce a good yeast bread, this is fast. If you've got an hour, you can have some dinner rolls. I made these for dinner tonight. They go with my "Steak House" dinner theme. We're having grilled steak-seasoned seitan, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and dinner rolls.

Super Fast Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 TBSP vital wheat gluten (this isn't totally necessary, but it sure does help them rise up nice and fluffy and tender)
1 TBSP raw sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast
3/4 cup warm water
Substitute equal to one egg (or if you aren't vegan, use an egg or Egg Beaters) I used the ground flax method
2 TBSP olive oil

Directions:

1. Mix one cup flour with sugar, yeast, and salt.

2. Stir in water, egg substitute, and oil

3. With electric mixer, beat until bubbly and smooth--and I mean REALLY smooth! It'll be runny.

4. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

5. Stir in remaining flour and vital wheat gluten.

6. Turn out onto a VERY WELL floured surface and knead for three minutes, until smooth and elastic. The dough is exceptionally sticky, so you need to flour the surface, and your hands, well, and as you knead incorporate some of that flour into the dough. (If you need directions on how to properly knead bread, take a look at this.)

7. Divide dough into 12 pieces and shape into rolls.

8. Arrange on a greased baking sheet for soft sided rolls or in a greased muffin tin for crusty rolls.

Yup, I know they look pretty small, but I promise they'll get much bigger. Yes, in only 30 minutes!

9. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

You see? They got so big, they grew together!

10. If desired mist with olive oil or brush with soy milk. This step is totally optional. I misted mine with a bit of olive oil and added a few herbs to the tops of the rolls.

11. Bake in a 450° oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until just slightly browned.

Enjoy!

Vegan Fried Un-Chicken

2010-04-21T19:18:00.001-05:00

Continuing in my comfort food theme, I needed something to serve with the Creamy Crock Pot Red Potatoes, because let's face it, as yummy as they are, they aren't a meal all on their own. The Un-Chicken fit my desire for comfort very well. When I was a child, we'd travel to my grandmother's house every Sunday afternoon, and every Sunday evening for dinner we'd have fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and chicken gravy. Comforting sure, but not very good for you, and also there's that whole dead bird issue...

If, like me, you don't have vegetarian chicken bouillon powder on hand (because I can't find it around here anywhere!), then the first thing you're going to want to do is head on over to the Vegan Feast Kitchen and make up a batch of Bryanna's Chicken-Style Broth Powder. Even if you do live where you can find the packaged bullion powder, I'd suggest giving Bryanna's a try. It's far more economical, and it's GOOD!

Vegan Fried Un-Chicken

Ingredients:

1 cup TVP
1 cup boiling water
2 TBSP vegetarian chicken bouillon powder
1 cup instant mashed potatoes, dry
1 1/3 cups finely crushed corn flakes. You can crush your cereal in your favorite cereal crushing method. A food processor or blender both work well. However, I crushed mine in a plastic bag with a plain Jane rolling pin. Less dishes that way.

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the broth powder in the boiling water.

2. Add TVP and soak for ten minutes.

3. Add instant potato flakes, and mix well with hands. You have to get messy here. You can't mix this with a spoon. You've got to get in there with your hands, squish it through your fingers, make it into a big cohesive sticky/doughy mass.

4. Mix in salt and pepper to taste.

5. Dampen hands and form into four equal sized patties.

6. Lay crushed corn flakes on a plate.

7. Dip patties into corn flakes, pressing gently to make them stick. You may have to slightly dampen patties if the corn flakes aren't sticking well enough. I just spritzed mine with a spray bottle of water.

8. Heat a small amount of olive oil (just enough to cover the bottom of your pan) over medium heat in a large heavy frying pan.

9. Lay patties in oil in a single layer.

10. Fry patties until crispy, turning several times. Turn very carefully, as they are slightly fragile. I found it helpful to use two spatulas--one to put under the patty and one to help nudge it over.

These can be made into smaller nugget shapes for dipping. You can also bake them in a 350° oven for 15 minutes per side. Just be sure to mist both sides with olive oil before putting them into the oven! I use my handy dandy Misto for this.

These are really just a base, and there's a lot you could do with them. You could add Italian seasonings to the patty mix and use them for chicken Parmesan. You could add a splash of soy sauce to the patties and cook in sesame oil, then serve over Asian type noodles. You could fry smaller sized nuggets, coated with sesame seeds for sesame chicken. You can try different breading: crushed crackers, crushed croûtons, seasoned bread crumbs. Experiment and have fun!

I believe I've mentioned that I really don't enjoy cooking, so I'm always hesitant to try something new. It makes me angsty to put effort into doing something I don't especially enjoy and then have no one like the result. This wasn't one of those instances. Even Drew liked these and proclaimed that I can make them any time! Next time I'm definitely going to bake them, and I think I'll try tossing a bit of egg replacer into the mix to help them stick together a bit better.

Enjoy!

Creamy Crock Pot Red Potatoes

2010-04-21T12:57:00.003-05:00

Sometimes comfort food really is in order. I try to make my comfort food as healthy as possible, and sometimes I have to compromise. For instance, this recipe isn't necessarily healthy, but it's not really bad for you either, as it has some extremely healthy elements. I've cleaned it up a lot by using low fat and fat free versions of several ingredients. The good news is that these potatoes are so rich and so creamy that just a few of them make a satisfying side dish. And the potato part is GOOD for you!

Potatoes have about 620 mg of potassium-that's more than a banana. Potassium is essential to the body because of its role in attaining optimal muscle performance and improving the nerves' response to stimulation. Iron, essential in helping the body convert food to energy as well as resist infection, is also present.

One would expect potatoes to have minerals, as they spend their life underground. But potatoes are also a great source of vitamins, even supplying vitamin C, which is essential to help maintain healthy connective tissue and heal wounds. The many varieties of potatoes are also good sources of B vitamins, helping the body make healthy red blood cells and amino acids.

Potatoes contain no fat or cholesterol and minimal sodium. What they do have is natural fiber in the skins, all those vitamins and minerals and great flavor. And a six-ounce potato contains 2 grams of highly digestible protein, almost as much as half a glass of milk, making it a great foundation for a whole meal.

There's a bunch more nutrition information about the potato over here, if you'd like to read it.

Creamy Crock Pot Red Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into eighths--cut potato in half, then quarter the halves
2 (8 ounce) packages fat free cream cheese, softened for one minute in microwave
1 can low fat cream of potato soup, undiluted
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
1/4 cup milk of choice (soy, rice, cow, almond, etc.)

Directions:

Place potato pieces in crockpot.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on high, beat together cream cheese, soup, salad dressing mix, and milk.
Stir into potatoes.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until potatoes are tender.

These are for dinner tonight. I'm going to serve them with Vegan Fried Un-Chicken and fresh corn on the cob. Check back later for the Un-Chicken recipe and pictures of the finished meal.

Banana Nut Bread Oatmeal

2010-04-21T12:13:00.000-05:00

It's like having dessert. For breakfast! This bowl of oats was once again inspired by kath, who is the reigning queen of oatmeal. I used her whipped banana oatmeal recipe and added some toppings, and suddenly I had banana bread in a bowl. I felt guilty for eating it for breakfast, because it tasted like it should have been forbidden.

Banana Nut Bread Oatmeal

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/2 large banana (I LOVE banana!) cut into chunks
Scant pinch sea salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla

Toppings:

3 TBSP chopped walnuts
Healthy sprinkle cinnamon
Few banana slices

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° and toast walnuts while you're preparing your oats.
Put oats, salt, water, soy milk, and banana into medium sauce pan and bring to boil over medium heat.
Once oats are boiling nicely, begin to stir continuously to melt the banana into the oatmeal.
When most of the liquid is absorbed and the banana chunks are melted, stir in vanilla, and turn off heat.
Top with hot roasted walnuts and a liberal sprinkle of cinnamon.

Enjoy!

Laura's Healthy No-Bake Breakfast Energy Bars

2010-04-20T14:28:00.002-05:00

Whew. That's a long name. I didn't think it would be kosher to just call them Laura Bars, though, because that's kinda taken, even if they do spell it wrong! Anyway, my mother recently sent some Rice Krispy Treats, and I was immediately reminded that they were my favorite childhood treat. I never wanted a birthday cake; I wanted Rice Krispy Treats. I'm much wiser now, and I realize that they are nutritionally devoid of ... well, everything. There's not a single redeeming quality in a Rice Krispy Treat. Not one.

This got my mind whirring. Surely I could make some sort of comparable treat that was much much better for me. What I ended up with didn't resemble the original inspiration in the least. In fact, the only thing in common ended up being cereal, and it wasn't even the same cereal. However, my bar is full of healthy yummy things, and it makes a great breakfast on the go or pre-gym snack. Now all it needs is a shorter name!

Laura's Healthy No-Bake Breakfast Energy Bars

Ingredients:

7 cups puffed whole wheat cereal. This does not have to be an expensive endeavor. I used the super cheap store brand in a bag. It cost me 98¢, had no added salt or sugar, and it had no preservatives. Win!
1 cup dried fruit. I used bananas, apples, and blueberries simply because that's what was hot off the dehydrator this week. Use any combination you'd like.
1/2 cup nuts. I used a mix.
2 TBSP ground flax seeds
2 TBSP wheat germ
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup honey
1 cup almond butter. I made my own from raw almonds. I suppose you could roast them first if you wanted. I suppose you could even buy the kind in the jar; though you know I don't recommend that!
3 TBSP unsweetened apple sauce

Directions:

1. Mix the cereal, fruit, nuts, cinnamon, wheat germ, and ground flax in a large bowl.

2. Put the honey, almond butter, and apple sauce into a microwave safe bowl, and heat for a minute and a half.

3. Mix very well, until almond butter is melted and incorporated and pour over cereal/fruit mixture.

4. Stir very well, making sure all of the cereal mixture is coated.

5. Press cereal firmly into a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. I tried using a spatula, but it just didn't work. I ended up getting my hands wet and pressing it into the dish with my hands.

6. Stick in freezer for 30 minutes, and then cut into 15 bars. Store refrigerated.

Enjoy!

How to Roast Vegetables

2010-04-20T12:19:00.001-05:00

It's another how to tutorial. Aren't you guys excited? I know I am, but that's because I get to eat the fruits of my labor here. Roasting vegetables brings out a natural mild sweetness, and it's so easy. This is one of my favorite ways to prepare my veggies.

Someone asked me specifically about roasting eggplant, so keep reading, because I have eggplant specific tips interspersed throughout. I'll bold those, so they stand out!

First you want to pick out the vegetables you want to roast. You can roast pretty much any vegetable really, but root veggies work exceptionally well, as do Brussels sprouts, asparagus, squashes, and eggplants.

My vegetables of choice for today's tutorial are a red potato, a sweet potato, a red onion, a zucchini, a butternut squash, an eggplant, and an entire bulb of garlic. I've mentioned that there's no such thing as too much garlic, right?!

Next you should preheat your oven to 400°. Do NOT put the vegetables in a cold oven; it MUST be hot!

Now you'll need to prepare the vegetables. Wash them all; yes, even the ones you are going to peel! Peel the ones you wish. In this case, I peeled the sweet potato, but I left the skin on the red potato. I peeled the skin from the onion and the garlic, and I peeled the butternut squash.

There's no need to peel the eggplant. Just cut off the top. When choosing eggplant for roasting, I've found the smaller ones are better. They are less bitter and more firm. You also want to use them within a day or two of buying them, as they tend to break down rather quickly, becoming spongy.

Once the vegetables have been washed and peeled, cut them into uniform sized pieces. Uniformity is important here so that they'll cook more or less evenly.

If you are only roasting eggplant, after you have it cut up, place the pieces in a colander and lightly salt. Let them sit for about half of an hour. This further reduces any bitterness, and it also reduces the moisture content of the eggplant.

Put all of your vegetables in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. A couple of tablespoons should do. Less is more!

When you are roasting just eggplant, you need to be especially mindful of the oil. Eggplant absorbs liquids very rapidly. The more oil you add, the more it will soak up. If you use too much oil, you aren't going to end up with roasted eggplant, but with a big soggy oily mass of a sponge like vegetable. Just barely coat it.

Season to taste. In this case I just used sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Sometimes I use dried Italian seasoning, and from time to time I use fresh herbs. It all just depends on what you like.

Gently stir the vegetables until all of the pieces are evenly coasted with olive oil and seasonings.

Spray the bottom of a roasting pan with olive oil or non-stick cooking spray, and add the vegetables to the pan. Make sure they are in a single layer, with some space around each veggie piece. If you put too much in the pan, the vegetables will STEAM, not roast. There's nothing wrong with steamed vegetables, but that's not what we're doing here, so leave room!

Put the vegetables on the middle rack of your preheated oven and set the timer for ten minutes. Remove them from the oven and stir/flip them. Make sure you lay them out in a single layer again, and put them back for ten more minutes. Remove and stir one last time. Return to oven for final ten minutes.

It generally takes about 30 minutes, sometimes a bit more, depending on how you like them and on how large you've cut the pieces. Again, if you are doing just eggplant, it will probably take longer, due to the high moisture content of the vegetable. They should be done in about 40 minutes.

They're done when they're browned around the edges and nicely caramelized on the tops.

Enjoy!

Overnight Oats

2010-04-17T15:37:00.000-05:00

My love of oatmeal is no secret. I stick it into anything I can--smoothies, breads, muffins, breakfast bars. I like it in its traditional form--hot and steaming in a bowl for breakfast. Aside from being yummy, it's just so good for you.

Over at katheats is a post about overnight oats. Somehow I had never heard of this before, and I had such an Ahah! moment. I have no idea why I've never thought of this, because it's so easy, totally fits in with the desire to eat raw, and it's good! Basically it's just soaking rolled oats in liquid and yogurt (and whatever add ins or spices you desire) overnight and having a bowl of yummy filling health ready for breakfast the next morning. Head on over to Kath's blog for the complete instructions.

My overnight oats included:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup lite soy milk
1/2 cup fat free soy yogurt
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of allspice
Splash of vanilla

I topped it with:

1 TBSP organic honey
1 TBSP cashew butter (that I made myself!)

I figured they'd be good, because they're oats after all, but I didn't know how good. The yogurt made them so creamy and so tangy. I'm definitely doing this again. Oatmeal for breakfast just left the realm of winter months!

Eating Healthfully when Exhaustion Wins

2010-04-16T13:44:00.001-05:00

There are days when I'm so bone-weary that I don't have the energy to prepare and cook anything for lunch. I think I've mentioned before that I've got stage IV endometriosis, so I'm not talking your general run of the mill tired here. I'm talking about the kind of tired where it's an effort to move my eyes in their sockets! It would be so easy to grab some pre-packaged convenience foods on days like that, but it's those days when it's most important to eat well. Eating poorly only makes me more tired and sluggish, and it's obviously not at all good for my health.

Today is one of those days. I'm clawing my way through the fog today, after a mostly sleepless night. I walked into the kitchen and actually semi-seriously considered eating a bag of pretzels for lunch. It would have been so easy. And I'm so tired. Thankfully my good sense won out.

A meal doesn't have to be lavish, or require much preparation, or have multiple ingredients to be a healthy meal. It can be quick and simple and relatively preparation free. Lunch for me today was a banana with a smear of Nutella, a pear, a serving of whole grain crackers, and an ounce of Monterey Jack cheese. No cooking. No real prep. Healthy. And I can congratulate myself for nourishing my tired body instead of feeding it a bag of salt and carbs!

Quinoa Breakfast Porridge

2010-04-16T11:05:00.003-05:00

I love quinoa. It's one of those things I ate before I knew it was good for me. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I spent a year living in the third world. We didn't have a lot of food, and the food we did have was rice. I grew rapidly sick of rice, and I couldn't eat it for a VERY long time after returning to the states. Even now, 19 years later, while I can eat it again, I don't ever really want to eat it. I love stir fries and other Asian dishes though, so I was thrilled when I discovered quinoa. It makes a wonderful stand in for rice. It's super easy to cook and so versatile. It's good hot or cold, sweet or savory.

Quinoa also happens to be fantastic for you. It's an ancient grain (though it's not technically a grain either), and it was a staple of the South American indigenous diet. It was called the gold of the Incas. Quinoa is high in protein. Not only that, but it's a complete protein, which means it supplies all nine essential amino acids. It's got a whole slew of health benefits. I'll spare you the continued rhapsodizing about the wonders of quinoa, but if you'd like, you can read more about it HERE.

Anyway, this breakfast porridge was my first attempt at making quinoa as a main dish instead of a side dish and sweet instead of savory. Not surprisingly, I loved it, and I've been eating it ever since. You can, of course, change the liquids and the dried fruits to suit your own particular taste.

Quinoa Breakfast Porridge

Ingredients:

1 cup (uncooked) quinoa
1 cup lite apple juice
1 cup lite soy milk
Splash vanilla
Dash cinnamon
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup dried blueberries

Topping Ingredients:

1 tablespoon maple syrup (If additional sweetener is desired. I don't sweeten mine; I think the apple juice and dried fruit provide plenty of sweetness.)
¼ cup plain soy yogurt
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

Directions:

Rinse and drain quinoa well.
Add quinoa, apple juice, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla to medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.
Cover and reduce heat to simmer.
Simmer for ten minutes.
Stir in cranberries and blueberries, cover.
Continue simmering for ten more minutes, until all water is absorbed and quinoa is firm.
While quinoa is simmering, toast nuts in oven at 350°, shaking every two minutes until evenly golden brown. Time will depend on your oven and on how done you like the nuts. I leave them in for about ten minutes.
Spoon portion into bowl (recipe should make approximately four servings).
Stir in maple syrup, if desired.
Top with yogurt and then nuts.

Enjoy!

Spicy Dipping Sauce

2010-04-15T19:56:00.000-05:00

Today I set about inventing a spicy dipping sauce to go with yesterday's Black Bean Taquitos. This way Drew and I can have ours with a little more kick while the boy still has his bland enough to suit his palate. It came together quickly and easily, and the taquitos reheated beautifully (in the oven at 350° for about 15 minutes) for lunch.

Spicy Taquito Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Something Creamy. The "something creamy" is entirely up to you. Vegan choices are pureed tofu, thick cashew cream, plain soy yogurt, Vegenaise, etc. Non vegan choices are sour cream, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, blahblah you get the picture here
1 TBSP salsa of choice
1 canned chipotle pepper + 1 TBSP of the adobo sauce
Dash Cayenne
2 to 3 TBSP water
Splash lemon juice

Directions:

Place all ingredients in blender and blend on high until smooth, creamy, and completely mixed.

Baked Black Bean Taquitos

2010-04-14T19:04:00.002-05:00

Wow.

Several weeks ago, Drew took me on a date to the Chicago Diner. I had been wanting to try it for a long time, but the non-vegetarians don't so much want to go out to eat vegetarian when that's what they get at home. Anyway, off we went, and it was totally worth the wait.

Drew wanted to order black bean taquitos as an appetizer. I protested, of course, because I can't stand black beans. He ordered them anyway, and as it turns out, they were fantastic. This is actually similar to what happened when we went with some friends to a popular pub. The ONLY vegetarian item on the menu was a black bean burger, so I ordered it even though I knew I wouldn't like it, because I didn't have any choice. It ended up being good. Very very good. I think it's time to face that fact that I've been in denial about black beans all these years and that I actually do like them. I have no idea when or how this happened.

Today I set about attempting to create my own version of the black bean taquito. Mine turned out remarkably similar, but they were far more healthy. Chicago Diner's taquitos were deep fried; I'm not about to deep fry ANYTHING, no matter how good it may be. I'm all about the health AND the taste over here, and I don't believe you have to sacrifice one for the other! The filling is adapted from a recipe from Vegetarian Times.

I'm awfully proud of these; they turned out so yummy!

Baked Black Bean Taquitos

Ingredients:

1 cup dry black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cloves garlic, finely minced (or more if you're like me and subscribe to the "no such thing as too much garlic" school of thought!)
2 large leeks, finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 1/2 TBSP cumin

Directions:

1. Place beans and five cups cold water in bowl.

2. Soak at least five hours and as long as overnight.

3. Drain, reserving soaking liquid.

4. Spray large stock pot with olive oil or cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat.

5. Add leeks and bell pepper, and sprinkle with salt. Cover, and cook five minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Add garlic and cook one minute.

7. Stir in cumin, and cook one minute more.

8. Add enough water to soaking liquid to make four cups, and add liquid and beans to the leek/garlic/pepper mixture. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and simmer one hour, or until beans are soft, adding water if necessary.

9. Drain any excess water from beans; then put beans into a bowl and mash. I used a regular old potato masher, but I suppose you could use an immersion blender or the food processor. Mash them up until the texture suits you. I left mine with a few whole beans, but that had more to do with the fact that I was tired of mashing than it did anything else.

Next you have to put together your taquitos. I always have the best of intentions when it comes to tortillas, but I never seem to quite manage to make my own. I did, however, use authentic stone ground, preservative free corn tortillas from the Hispanic market. That counts. Right?

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels or a damp dish cloth and microwave for a minute and a half.

3. Place a spoonful of the black bean filling into the middle of the tortilla. If you're using cheese place it down before the beans or it will melt out all over everywhere.

4. Roll it up like a little burrito, except do NOT tuck the ends. Leave them open.

5. Place it seam side down on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with olive oil or cooking spray.

6. Finish rolling the rest of the taquitos and placing them on the baking sheet. Mine made 18. You could get more or less, depending on how much filling you used in each tortilla.

7. Spray each of them with olive oil or cooking spray and bake for eight to ten minutes.

8. Turn over and cook for an additional eight to ten minutes or until crispy and golden brown.

I had to cook mine for about 25 minutes total, but our oven isn't really the best, so just watch them. You'll know when they're done.

Drew commented that he would like his a bit more spicy. Yes! Me too! Yet, I don't spice things up very much, because the boy won't eat anything that he even suspects has a hint of spice. My next mission is to come up with some sort of spicy dipping sauce, in order to solve this problem. However, if you want to add some spice directly to your black bean filling, you can add a small, chopped jalapeño with your leeks and pepper at the beginning. You can also add a couple of dashes of Mexican chili powder with the cumin. A pinch or two of cayenne would work, as well. Just play around with it.

Lastly, these were too full, and some of the tortillas kind of exploded in the oven. Lesson learned. Make them smaller, and make more. It didn't compromise the taste at all though. I'm calling these a success. Anything that the picky picky child eats is pretty much a success! Because of the high fiber count, these are quite filling, as well. I ate three, with a modest sized salad, and I was a bit too full. I should have had a smaller salad or only eaten two.

Enjoy!

How to Bake Tofu

2010-04-13T16:18:00.001-05:00

Yes, seriously; it's a baked tofu tutorial. It's really easy, but there are about a bazillion different opinions on how it should be done. Just Google "how to bake tofu", and you'll see what I mean. I'm fond of tofu, and I'm not terribly picky, but Drew likes his "chewy like they make it at the Thai restaurant". This is easier said than done when you're working with packaged white tofu, as opposed to the home made yellow stuff that they're using at the Thai restaurant.

Through much trial and error, I finally managed to produce baked tofu that suits everyone in the house. This is how we eat it all the time now.

First you need a block of extra firm tofu that has been frozen/thawed/pressed and drained. Then you cut the tofu into whatever shape suits you. Make cutlets for sandwiches, sticks for dipping or "wings", cubes for salad toppings or stir fries, etc. I made mine into cubes, because I'm going to serve them on top of Sesame Peanut Noodles. When choosing the size of your cut, keep in mind that they shrink up considerably during the baking process.

Next, mix up your marinade of choice. Go easy on the sodium though. I learned the hard way that too much of a salty ingredient makes the tofu inedible, because it really soaks up the marinade. This can be tailored to meet your personal taste. Use your imagination, or keep it really simple. The marinade for this batch is a bit of garlic, ginger, chili, a couple of shakes of seasoned rice vinegar, a couple of shakes of soy sauce, and about a cup of water.

Place the tofu in the marinade and leave it for at least two hours. Gently shake it about or flip the tofu every so often so that all of the pieces get equal marinade time. If you can, leave it over night. The longer it sits in the marinade, the richer the flavor will be.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or a silpat and spray liberally with olive oil or cooking spray. Lay the tofu pieces out flat and bake them for 20 minutes, then flip them over. Yes, one piece at a time. Yes, I know this is a pain in the butt. Yes, it is required!

After flipping, return to oven and bake for 20 minutes more. After the second 20 minutes, remove from oven and flip again. Continue cooking and flipping, every TEN minutes, until tofu pieces are as done as you like them. I cook ours for about an hour, sometimes just a bit more, to get the texture that Drew likes. If it were just me, I'd call it good at about 45 minutes or so. Just taste them, because it's a matter of personal preference as to when they're done.

Enjoy!

Pinch Your Pennies - Home Dehydration

2010-04-13T11:47:00.003-05:00

We use a lot of dried fruit around here (apples, bananas, pineapple, mango, guava, pears). I use it in my oatmeal, in my granola, in my granola bars, just as a snack, etc. I use a fair amount of dehydrated vegetables, as well (sweet potatoes, zucchini, eggplant, red pepper). They crisp up into nice "chips" for dipping into hummus or salsa. It's convenient; it's healthy; it's easy, and it's really quite good for you.

I'll spare you a repeat of my rant on why you shouldn't buy dehydrated fruits in the grocery stores, and just link to it instead. That way, if you've seen it once, you don't have to see it again. Along with all of the health reasons you shouldn't buy pre-packaged dehydrated fruits, there's the cost reason as well. One pound of banana chips costs $2.70 at my local grocery store. I can buy 22 pounds of baby bananas at the local Hispanic market for $5.00! At the same grocery store, a ten ounce bag of dehydrated apple slices costs almost $3.00. I just paid 59¢ a pound for red delicious apples. I don't suppose I need to point out that the savings here is HUGE!

You don't need special equipment to dehydrate; you can do it in your oven at a very low temperature. I even know one guy who dehydrates his fruit in a cardboard box on the dash of his car during the summer months. I, however, use a simple, no frills, food dehydrator. It was $40.00 at Target, and it's paid for itself many many times over since I bought it.

The prep can be a tiny bit time consuming, but the end result is more than worth it, and it's not like it's hard or anything. You just wash up the produce you want to dehydrate, and you cut it into uniform slices. The thinner they are, the quicker they dehydrate. If they're thicker, they take longer, but they're also crispier.

My mother-in-law gave me this handy dandy apple slicer and corer gizmo, and it's turned out to be invaluable! I slice my apples much thinner after the initial cut, but having it already cored is great!

Then you just load up the dehydrator trays and turn it on. Piece of cake!

In about two days, I'll have a nice big bowlful of dehydrated apple chips. Then I'll start on the bananas. I've discovered that there's just no such thing as too many dehydrated banana chips! Yum.

Store them in an airtight container, and they'll keep pretty much indefinitely.

Tofu Breakfast Sandwich

2010-04-10T13:16:00.001-05:00

It's like an Egg McMuffin except with no egg. And no meat. And no cholesterol! This is totally my kind of meal right here, though I prefer to have it for lunch instead of breakfast. I tend to stick to smoothies and oatmeal for breakfast.

I've been craving this for a few days, but it takes some planning, and I'm still feeling rather scattered after our whirlwind weekend in New York. While it's very easy to make, you've got to time it right, because the tofu needs to be frozen/thawed/drained, and then it needs to marinate for about eight hours or so. I suppose you could skip the freezing/thawing step, but I prefer not to. It gives the tofu a firmer, more toothsome texture.

Do I even need to say that if the tofu doesn't say "non-GMO" on the package, you shouldn't buy it?

This makes enough for two sandwiches.

Tofu (for) Breakfast Sandwich

Ingredients:

for marinade:

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons cold water
6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste

for sandwich

4 rectangle slices from block of extra firm tofu, frozen/thawed/drained
Breakfast bread of choice (bagel, English muffin, biscuit)
Extras of choice (breakfast "meats"--this would be a good place to try out the tempeh bacon, tomato slices, avocado slices, mushrooms, cheese, etc.)

Directions:

1. Mix marinade ingredients in a small plastic container with a lid. The consistency should be a pasty liquid.

2. Add tofu to container, close lid, and shake gently to cover. Make sure tofu is covered completely, top and bottom.

3. Refrigerate at least 8 hours.

next morning

1. Spray non-stick skillet with olive oil and heat over medium heat.

2. When oil is hot, place tofu in pan along with any non-absorbed marinade.

3. Fry the first side four to five minutes.

4. Prepare your breakfast bread in the toaster or toaster oven.

5. Flip tofu and fry four to five minutes more. It'd done when both sides are a light golden color.

6. Remove bread from toaster and add fried tofu and any extras you desire.

I had mine on a whole grain English muffin with provolone, "bacon", and spinach.

Enjoy!

Sprout Salad

2010-04-09T13:15:00.000-05:00

Lunch time the day before grocery day can be a depressing prospect. I looked around my kitchen and found 1/4 of a loaf of bread, half a tomato, a few spoonfuls of left over couscous, a bit of red cabbage, and some Grape Nuts cereal. I was at a loss as to how to make lunch happen from those scant ingredients. Luckily, thanks to my never ending sprout project, I actually managed to make a healthy and filling lunch from almost nothing. I had two jars of a mixture of quinoa, red lentils, brown lentils, and mung beans sprouting. Fortunately, they were done just in time. The best part is that I used up everything left over instead of letting it go to waste. You all know how I feel about wasting food!

Improvised Sprout Salad

Ingredients:

Handful coarsely chopped red cabbage
1/4 cup cold Israeli couscous
1/2 cup sprouts
1/2 tomato, chopped
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Place everything but oil and vinegar into salad bowl.
Lightly mist with olive oil.
Add a few shakes of balsamic vinegar.
Top with salt and pepper to taste.
Stir it all up and eat!

Enjoy!

Italian Marinara Seitan on Herbed Ciabatta Rolls

2010-04-07T12:33:00.001-05:00

Drew requested that I attempt to make my seitan "lunch meat" in an Italian flavor so that could have a sandwich like the Italian Meatball Sub from Subway. I'm pretty proud of this actually, because this is only the second recipe I've ever made up completely by myself. I didn't even wait for it to cool off when it came out of the oven before I tasted it, and I immediately had to text him "I made up something, and it's GOOD!" I was so excited. I have a few tweaks already in mind, but for now, this turned out fantastic, so here it is.

Italian Marinara Seitan Lunch "Meat"

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
Italian seasoning, to taste. I used 2 TBSP.
1/3 cup marinara sauce + enough cold water to make 3/4 cup
4 tsp tomato paste
2 tsp olive oil
1 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP cold water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°

2. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix them VERY WELL.

3. In a liquid measure, measure out 1/3 cup marinara sauce and then add enough cold water to make 3/4 cups. Mix well.

Apropos nothing, this measuring cup belonged to my grandmother, and I'm inordinately attached to it. She died when I was 15, and to this day, she remains just about my favorite person ever. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to cook without this particular cup!

4. Place marinara/water mixture into small bowl, and add the rest of the liquid ingredients. Whisk well.

5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and mix with hands.

6. Knead until fully incorporated. There will be a point where it looks like it's not going to mix. Keep kneading. It will mix.

When you're finished kneading, you will have a very unappetizing looking lump. Don't worry; it's supposed to look this way.

7. Roll into a log shape and wrap in two layers of foil, making sure the seam is in a different place both times.

Don't worry about trying to smooth it out and make it even. It will plump and snap into shape in the oven. All you need to do is make it vaguely log shaped, and you're good to go.

8. Twist ends tightly to seal. It should like like a giant Tootsie Roll.

9. Bake 90 minutes, rolling log over halfway through.

Though it looks like it, it's not burned on one end. That's my shadow, because I was ditsy enough to stand in the light while taking the picture. See how nicely it snapped into shape? Drew likes this, because it's got the texture of Summer Sausage. He's all about the texture; there are things that he actually thinks taste good but he can't eat because the texture isn't right. Woohoo WIN!

Herbed Ciabatta Rolls

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 TBSP vital wheat gluten
2 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
1 scant TBSP dried Italian seasoning (or use 1/2 cup fresh herbs)
1 cup hot water
2 TBSP olive oil

Directions:

1. In food processor, mix flours, vital wheat gluten, salt, sugar, herbs (either dried or fresh), and yeast.

2. Transfer dry ingredients to large mixing bowl.

3. Turn on faucet until water runs as hot as it will get. Measure 1 cup water and add to dry ingredients.

4. Knead until blended.

5. Add olive oil and knead for another three to five minutes until well incorporated. Yes, the dough is supposed to be very soft and very sticky at this point.

6. Place dough in a greased bowl, coating all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise somewhere warm for 20 minutes, until dough has doubled in size.

7. Punch dough down.

8. On a well floured surface, portion dough and form into round or oval shapes. How many you make depends on what you're making. You should get about 12 dinner sized rolls or 6 sandwich sized rolls.

9. Coat dough with flour and place on a greased cookie sheet.

I made sandwich rolls. Ciabatta is the perfect bread for something you want to eat with lots of sauce, because it's dry, and all of the nooks and crannies hold the sauce well. They plumped up to about twice this size after the final rise.

10. Cover all rolls with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 40 minutes or so.

11. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in 350° oven, until bottoms of rolls are golden and tops are soft.

I mixed up the seitan first and started it baking, and then I started on the rolls. The timing came out almost perfect, and the rolls were ready to go in when the seitan came out.

Slice the seitan into coins, slice open a roll, add as much lunch meat as you wish, top with soy cheese of choice (or actual cheese if you eat dairy), and add some more marinara sauce. Pop the whole thing in the microwave for 30 - 40 seconds, and you've got yourself a completely vegan Italian sub!

Enjoy!

Scrambled Tofu with Grilled Vegetables

2010-04-06T14:12:00.001-05:00

The kiddo has baseball practice tonight, so that means we'll be eating a late and light dinner. I decided that a filling and hearty lunch was in order. I've been cooking all day, so I also wanted something quick and easy. This meal came together in mere minutes.

Scrambled Tofu

Ingredients:

1/2 block firm tofu, frozen/thawed/drained
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Crumble tofu into small mixing bowl.

2. Add all other ingredients and mix well with fork, making sure tofu is evenly coated.

3. In an oiled skillet cook the tofu for eight to ten minutes over high heat. It's done when the tofu begins to brown around the edges.

Because I live in Chicago and went from three feet of snow to never ending thunderstorms in the course of a week, I had to grill my vegetables inside. I used the George Foreman Grill. This is a fantastic invention and not just for meat eaters!

Anyway, cut your vegetables into uniform thickness. I used zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and onions. Spray George with some olive oil, lay out your veggies, mist the tops of the veggies with more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and then cook 'til grilled through. Mine took about five minutes.

See, aren't they lovely?

Enjoy!

Pinch Your Pennies - Breakfast Convenience Foods

2010-04-05T12:42:00.000-05:00

Greetings! I'm back after a long and sunny weekend in New York. There are no recipes today, because I'm in the midst of unpacking, laundry, checkbook balancing, and getting myself organized again. You know, the normal post travel agenda.

I do have a penny pinching post, though! If there's one thing I go out of my way to do, it's save money wherever I can. Too much goes to waste in this world. Anyway, I'll be the first to admit that breakfast convenience foods are ... well, convenient. However, they are generally neither healthy nor are they inexpensive. For example, at my local grocery, a box of French Toast Sticks costs $6.99, making them $1.09 per serving. One serving of five pieces, has 330 calories. I make my own French Toast for a fraction of the cost and about a bazillion times the health. Mine ends up having 76.5 calories for the same serving size, and the total cost per serving averages out to be 15¢. That's a savings of 253.5 calories and 94¢ per serving! That's a big deal, you guys.

You can do this with pancakes and waffles, as well. Not only are you saving a lot of money, you get to decide what goes into your food. You can make it completely vegan, low fat, sugar free, organic, etc. etc. It's all up to you. You get to decide what kind of bread to use in your French toast, or even make your own bread. You get to decide what types of flours go into your waffles or pancakes. Find a hour or so of free time, make up a big batch, freeze it, and then pop the (French toast, waffles, pancakes) into the toaster (just like the expensive, caloric, chemical filled grocery store kind!) for a fast and convenient breakfast.

I recently made two loaves of French Toast. The total cost for both loaves was $5.68. That's 40 servings of French Toast sticks for $1.31 less than six and a half servings of the store bought variety. Mine was sugar free, salt free, and of course chemical and preservative free. It was not vegan, but the point is that it could have been. This is what you make it.

I mixed up a big bowl of Egg Beaters, soy milk, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, and I used whole wheat bread. I staged everything so I'd be ready to go. I made mine on a griddle, but you can just as easily use a nice skillet.

Next I dipped the bread into the egg mixture and cooked it in batches on the griddle.

No matter what it is that you're making, be sure to cool it COMPLETELY before freezing. I do this by laying the pieces out on a clean, dry dish cloth.

When it is completely cool, then you can freeze it. I just put my French toast pieces back into the original bag that the bread came in. You can store it in Ziploc bags. You can put it in freezer safe containers. You can wrap it in waxed paper and tinfoil.

When it's time for breakfast, just pop a couple of pieces into the toaster, and you're all set to enjoy a quick, convenient, low cost, and healthy breakfast!

Tropical Oats

2010-03-31T10:41:00.004-05:00

You've got to plan ahead a little for this, because the oats need to be soaked over night. The soaking aids in digestion, and it really ups the creaminess factor. And who doesn't want a decadent creamy breakfast that tastes sinful but is actually good for you?

I used to be afraid of coconut milk. It's high in fat, and it's caloric. I started doing a lot of research, and I discovered that the fat is the good kind of fat, and that not only is coconut milk not bad for you, it's actually really pretty healthy.

If you are concerned about the saturated fat content in coconut milk, know that this saturated fat has been shown in many independent studies to be a good saturated fat, easily metabolized to give your body quick energy. Contrary to popular myth, it does not transform into bad cholesterol to clog up arteries. In fact, cultures around the world that depend on coconut as their main source of fat have been found to be free of heart disease. The principle fatty acid in coconut milk is lauric acid, which is the same fat found in abundance in mother's milk and is known to promote normal brain development and contribute to healthy bones. It also has important anti-carcinogenic and anti-pathogenic properties and is less likely to cause weight gain than polyunsaturated oils.

The potent anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial effects of coconut oil have implicated it in the treatment of both AIDS and Candida. Whatever bad things you may have heard or read about coconut milk have not stood up to scrutiny by unbiased food scientists; however, the goodness of coconut milk has not been given equal press because of intensive lobbying against it by the powerful vegetable oil industry. Southeast Asians, meanwhile, have been staying healthy for generations with coconut an integral part of their diet.

Now, a word about dried fruit: for heaven's sake dehydrate it yourself! If you're not going to do that, at least go on a hunt for fruit dried WITHOUT sulfur dioxide. It's more expensive, and it's also worth it. Sulfur dioxide is found in pretty much all commercially packed dried fruits, and it's TERRIBLE for you. It's been known to cause asthma and other breathing difficulties in children, and in rare cases, even death. It's produced by volcanoes, for goodness sake. Volcanoes don't tend to be very good for our health!

[Sulfur Dioxide] is produced industrially as a bleach alternative, a reducing agent, and for sulfites (preservation). As it has no role in humans or mammalian biology, when introduced it inhibits specific nerve signals, restricts lung performance, and is a direct allergen - over 65% of asthmatic children sensitive to SO2 (World Health Organization, 1999), and negatively affects over 70% of children with behavioral problems.

...

Sulphur dioxide is still being used as a food preservative in many common snack foods despite being one of the top two air pollutants in urban areas, a corrosive gas, a primary cause of haze and acid rain, and a cause of respiration problems, lung disease, early death (due to a thiamine deficiency), documented water and plant damage, cardiovascular disease, blood toxication, developmetal toxication, gastro-intestinal and liver disease, neurological disturbances, irritable bowel syndrom, behavior disturbances, skin rashes, asthma, folic acid deficiency, as well as a nose and ear irritant. During the 1970's and 1980's over one hundred deaths were attributed to the addition of sulphur dioxide in foods including meat with twelve deaths occurring as a result of restaurants spraying salad bars with this poisonous gas.

The entire article is HERE at the Raw Guru. It's worth the read. Educating yourself about what you put into your body is always a good thing!

Tropical Oats

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats OR 1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon maple syrup or agave nectar
1/4 cup mixed tropical dried fruit (I used banana, mango, and guava that I dehydrated myself.)

Directions:

The night before, soak the oats and the fruit in the coconut milk.
In the morning, place the oats in a saucepan, adding water to reach desired consistency. If you used steel cut oats, you will need to use enough water to thin it out substantially, as they must simmer longer than rolled oats.
Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently.
Add the vanilla and sweetener.
Cook for about 3 minutes for rolled oats or about ten minutes for steel cut oats, stirring often, until oats are gently bubbling. Add water as needed.
Pour into a bowl and top however you would like. Roasted almonds or walnuts are good. A dollop of yogurt works. You can drizzle with a bit more coconut milk, if you'd like. Most of the time I just eat mine with no topping. It's already a sweet, creamy, rich breakfast.

Enjoy!

Grain and Lentil Salisbury Steak with Gravy

2010-03-30T19:20:00.001-05:00

Vegan Salisbury Steak! What? Unpossible, you say?! Well, actually I say so too, but nonetheless, these are really quite good. They're flavorful, have a chewy, toothsome texture, and they're quite filling. I only had one with a spoonful of mashed potatoes, and that was plenty of dinner for me. Made with brown rice and lentils, they're full of fiber, low fat, and low calorie.

This is totally not my recipe, though it's been tweaked a bit in order to suit my own tastes. I don't have any idea where I originally found this recipe, so I'm unable to credit the author. If anyone recognizes it, feel free to point me in the right direction.

Grain and Lentil Salisbury Steak

Ingredients for patties:

1/4 cup cooked lentils, choose your color (I used a mixture of brown and red)
1/2 cup whole oats
1 1/4 cups cooked brown rice
2 TBSP wheat germ
2 TBSP vital wheat gluten
1 TBSP ground flax seed
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 TBSP soy sauce

Ingredients for gravy:

1/2 medium white onion, chopped
3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped (I am from the school of "there's no such thing as too much garlic". If you're not, you probably want to decrease the amount used.)
1 TBSP tomato paste
1/2 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 tsp onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare skillet by spraying with olive oil and sprinkling with 1/2 TBSP soy sauce.

2. In a food processor, coarsely chop oats, rice, and lentils, chopping them up, but NOT pureeing them.

3. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and add wheat germ, vital wheat gluten, ground flax seed, chili powder, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, and soy sauce.

4. Kneed ingredients with your hands until well combined. At first it will seem to be very crumbly and like it isn't going to stick together. Just keep at it. The kneading will activate the vital wheat gluten, and it will become cohesive.

5. Split mixture into five equal parts.

6. Heat the skillet on medium low.

7. While skillet is heating, shape portioned mixture into oval shaped patties and place into skillet. Add 1 TBSP of water and cover. Cook first side five minutes.

8. Flip patties, add 1 more TBSP of water, cover and cook patties for five minutes more.

9. Remove patties from skillet and set aside.

10. Turn heat up to medium, mist pan with olive oil, and add onions. Stir frequently until onions are translucent and begin to brown around the edges.

11. Add garlic and sauté for one minute more.

12. In a blender put tomato paste, soy sauce, flour, water, onion powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Blend until smooth and well combined.

13. Pour into skillet, stirring together with onions and garlic, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thickened.

14. Add patties back to the pan and cover with gravy.

15. Cook over low heat until patties are warmed through.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Muffins

2010-03-30T12:38:00.003-05:00

A good for you muffin? No way! It's a dream come true, if you dream about such things. A perfect handheld snack you can grab on the way out the door to the gym or even as a breakfast if you're running late for work.

I LOVE sweet potatoes. I could eat them every day of my life and not get tired of them. It's a real bonus that they're one of the highest ranked vegetables on the nutrition scale. They're a superfood, high in fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, potassium and manganese. They can also help stabilize blood sugar, which means they're a good choice for diabetics, and by stabilizing blood sugar levels, they curb the appetite longer. They can satisfy a sweet tooth, and they're rich in antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory properties. There's just nothing bad about a sweet potato, and best of all they're relatively low in calories for all of the nutritional power they pack.

Turning a sweet potato into a healthy muffin is a snap.

Sweet Potato Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup raw sugar (in the name of all that is holy, don't use that refined white crap!)
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 3/4 cups cooked chopped sweet potatoes (baking is the best way to bring out the sweet taste and creamy texture, but if you're in a hurry, boiling them will work)
1/2 cup water

Directions:

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Mash sweet potatoes and add to dry ingredients, along with water.
Stir until just mixed. This doesn't look like your typical thinnish muffin batter. This is thicker. It's not pourable and must be spooned into muffin tin.
Lightly spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and fill cups to the top. This will only make nine muffins, so don't even try to get 12 out of it unless you want small, flat muffins.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops of the muffins bounce back when pressed.
Let stand several minutes before removing from pan.
Cool completely and store in airtight container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Hearty Noodle Bake

2010-03-29T18:48:00.000-05:00

This is one of those things that's a comfort food for me. It reminds me of the goulash my grandmother used to make, though hers was made with ground beef and white pasta. This isn't vegan, but it is a vegetarianized version of that childhood comfort food. Kids love this, and it's also good for them. It's one of those dishes where you can throw in shredded veggies, and they won't even notice.

Hearty Noodle Bake

Ingredients:

8 ounces whole wheat elbow macaroni, cooked to the package directions
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup diced onions
1 cup shredded carrots
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 pound ground seitan or reconstituted TVP or a combination of the two
1 1/4 cups marinara sauce
1 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning blend
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 TBSP unbleached flour
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese of choice (I used sharp cheddar)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.

2. Add onion and carrot and sauté for about five minutes.

3. Add garlic and sauté a minute more.

4. Add seitan (TVP) and cook five minutes more, until seitan starts to crisp up a bit.

5. Add marinara sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and red pepper.

6. Cook for two minutes or until left with very little liquid.

7. Stir pasta into beef mixture and remove from heat.

8. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together milk, flour, nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook approximately two minutes, until sauce begins to thicken, whisking continuously.

9. Add 1 cup cheese, stirring until melted and smooth.

10. Pour cheese mixture over pasta/seitan mixture and stir to combine well.

11. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 glass baking dish, lightly coated with cooking spray.

12. Evenly cover with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.

13. In 350° oven, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

14. Let stand for five minutes before cutting

Enjoy!

The Sprout Project

2010-03-29T15:57:00.001-05:00

There are about a bazillion reasons to eat sprouts, other than the fact that they taste good. By sprouting your legumes, seeds, and grains, you make them much easier to digest, and because they are easier to digest, you absorb more nutrients. Sprouting also ups the nutrient count of your seed (legume, grain) exponentially; sprouts are the most reliable, year round source of vitamin C. Sprouts continue to gain vitamins AFTER you have "harvested" them. Sprouts are a living food, and even after you have refrigerated them, they continue to grow, thus their vitamin content continues to increase.

I love sprouts, so I sprout my own. This is a real money saver, actually. While sprouts are not exceptionally expensive in the stores, dried seeds/beans/etc., bought in bulk, are even more economical. They can be used exactly when you need them, and you can make exactly how much you want. You can also mix and match to end up with a mixture of all your favorites.

I've only been doing this for a couple of months, because I always thought I needed to have fancy sprouting equipment. I believe I've mentioned before that we operate on a budget, and I couldn't see my way clear to buying specialty equipment just to produce something only I was going to eat anyway. Then someone told me that I don't need anything special at all. If I could find a glass jar, some cheese cloth, and a rubber band, I'd be set. So I made the boys peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch for an entire week so that I could have the jelly jar, and then I started my very first sprouts. I've been doing it ever since.

How to Sprout at Home:

1. Fill clean glass jar about 1/3 full of your seeds/beans/legumes of choice. Don't fill the jar too full. They'll grow a lot.

2. Cover seeds with clean cool water.

3. Cover mouth of jar with cheese cloth and secure with rubber band.

4. Soak seeds over night.

5. The next morning, drain water from jar. The cheese cloth will catch the seeds.

6. Fill and drain again. Make sure to use cold water. Warm or hot water will stop the growing process and kill the sprouts. Give the jar a few good shakes to remove as much water as possible. You want your seeds to be damp but not swimming. Too much water will make the seeds spoil and rot.

7. Prop your jar at an angle so that the excess water will continue to drain. You can prop it against the wall on a saucer, in a bowl, whatever works for you.

8. Cover jar with a dish towel.

9. Rinse and drain three times a day.

10. On the last day, remove the towel and put the jar in a windowsill to green up a bit.

11. Dump out onto dish towel and gently pat dry before storing in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Here I have sprouted brown lentils, red lentils, chick peas, mung beans, and quinoa.

The time it takes depends on what you're sprouting, but four or five days is the general rule. You'll start to see small "tails" form. When those tails are about an inch or so long, then your sprouts are probably done. The best way to figure out when they're ready for harvest is to taste them.

You can use them in many different way: in wraps or on sandwiches instead of lettuce, in tacos, as a salad topping, or as the salad itself. My husband and I call the mixture above Sprout Salad, and I grow it specifically as a salad. Sometimes I put it on top of other left over things: red cabbage, zucchini and tomatoes, spinach, green beans, etc. If there's nothing left over, I just dump it in a bowl and put some dressing on it. For dressing I mist it with olive oil and either squeeze the juice of half a lemon over it or add a couple of shakes of balsamic vinegar. My husband eats his with Italian salad dressing.

Enjoy!

The Medicinal Smoothie

2010-03-29T10:54:00.000-05:00

I've got stage IV endometriosis. I do my best not to let this disease run my life, but some days it manages to land some really good punches. Aside from the pain, those days also generally involve lots of nausea and the need for some heavy duty prescription medications as well. This creates something of a catch 22 type of situation. When I'm that nauseated, the last thing in the world I want to do is eat. However, I've got to get something into my stomach so that I can take my medication. Medication of that caliber on an empty stomach only makes me sicker, and it generally doesn't stay there long enough to do any good anyway. On days like this, I make what I call the Soothie Smoothie. Yes, I do know that it's corny!

For this smoothie, you've got to get rid of the conventional ideas of what a smoothie is. Nothing goes into the blender that isn't totally bland or specifically engineered to help with nausea. No citrus, no dairy (if you use it), nothing that the stomach actually has to work at digesting. Also, make sure that the ingredients aren't cold. This is the one instance when I don't freeze my bananas first. Room temperature is far easier on your flip-flopping stomach.

Soothie Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 banana
Large handful fresh mint leaves
Medium to large knuckle fresh ginger, peeled
1 1/2 -2 cups water

Directions:

As always, blend the green stuff first. So blend the mint and water until well mixed.
Add ginger and blend well. In fact, after you think it's well blended, blend it for a minute or so more!
The banana goes in last. Blend until incorporated.

This usually helps my stomach quite a bit. Then I can get the meds in me and get on with living me life. This smoothie is a real life saver sometimes!

Sesame Peanut Noodles

2010-03-27T17:50:00.000-05:00

My sister-in-law and my niece and nephew came over for a visit today. My niece wanted to help cook something, so we embarked upon making the ever popular sesame peanut noodles. Everyone loves these--especially the kids; they're healthy, and they're relatively easy to make. Jenny did most of the work. I just sorta talked her through it.

Sesame Peanut Noodles

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked whole wheat spaghetti or rice noodles
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

We made our own peanut butter, because I don't like preservatives, and I don't like to spend three times the money on something I can make myself, and also because we rock!

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped
Red pepper flakes to taste (approximately 1/2 to 1 teaspoon)
3 tablespoons hot water
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple juice
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti or rice noodles as directed by the manufacturer.

2. Combine all other ingredients; mix until peanut butter is dissolved.

3. Add sauce to drained pasta; toss until pasta is fully coated.

4. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Top it however you would like. We ate ours with scallions, sprouts, and marinated baked tofu.

Most importantly...

Enjoy!

Garden Grain Burgers

2010-03-26T18:35:00.001-05:00

This is another one of those recipes that helps use up left overs. There's always left over rice and/or quinoa here, so creative and yummy ways to use it are always appreciated.

Garden Grain Burgers

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (or a combination of rice and quinoa, but no more quinoa than 50%, or they won't hold together properly)
1 cup grated carrots (zucchini works well too)
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 cloves pressed, or finely minced, garlic
1/2 onion, grated
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP olive oil
2 egg replacers (I used the flax seed method, but feel free to use your replacer of choice)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup spinach leaves, chopped
1/4 tsp ground thyme

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients in mixing bowl.

2. Measure out 1/3 cup for each patty.

3. Form into a four to five inch patty.

4. Heat non-stick skillet over medium heat and lightly spray with cooking spray.

5. Add three patties to skillet.

6. Add a tablespoon of water to skillet and cover.

7. Cook each side for four minutes, adding another tablespoon of water upon flipping.

8. Let patties rest for five minutes before eating.

Makes eight burgers. They can be made in advance and frozen. They reheat well straight from the freezer in the microwave, oven, or on the stove top. However, they don't grill well.

I don't have any pictures of them on the buns with condiments and stuff, because they boy made them disappear really quickly!

Enjoy!

Quinoa Salad

2010-03-26T12:53:00.000-05:00

I love quinoa. I can use it in everything from main dishes to side dishes to breakfast to desserts. This means that I generally have leftovers, and I'm all about using up all of the leftovers. We don't waste food in this house. We operate on a budget, and I've lived in the 3rd world. That changed pretty much everything about how I see ... well, everything.

Anyway, moving on. One of my favorite things to do with left over quinoa is to turn it into a bright and healthy salad. What you add is pretty much up to you. This is what I did.

Leftover Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 to 3/4 cup cooked quinoa
1/4 cup chopped zucchini
1/4 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in bowl
Mist with olive oil
Squeeze juice of lemon into bowl
Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Keeping Produce Fresh

2010-03-25T20:44:00.002-05:00

I buy produce like it's going out of style. I buy large amounts pretty much every time we go grocery shopping. I've found a local Hispanic market that makes doing this easy and economical. I can get literally almost six times the produce that I can from the grocery store for the same price. We generally manage to go through it all before it goes bad too. One of the things that has helped a lot is that I learned how to properly store it to best extend its life.

When storing produce in the refrigerator, keep fruits and vegetables in separate drawers. They both spoil faster if you keep them together. This is because of the ethylene that builds up. Keep your produce in perforated plastic bags in the crisper drawers. There's no need to buy fancy bags; you can perforate your own by poking them with something sharp. Store everything unwashed. Wash it as you go.

The following items should be stored in the refrigerator:

Apricots
Artichokes
Asparagus
Beets
Blackberries
Blueberries
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Cantaloupe
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cherries
Corn
Figs
Grapes
Green beans
Green onions
Herbs, with the exception of basil
Honeydew
Lima beans
Leafy vegetables
Leeks
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Okra
Peas
Plums
Radishes
Raspberries
Spinach
Sprouts
Strawberries
Summer squash
Yellow squash
Zucchini

Store these things on the counter top:

Apples
Bananas
Basil
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Garlic
Ginger
Grapefruit
Jicama
Lemons
Limes
Mangoes
Oranges
Papayas
Peppers
Persimmons
Pineapple
Plantains
Pomegranates
Tomatoes
Watermelon

There are several items that should be ripened on the counter top and then stored in the refrigerator:

Avocados
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Plums
Kiwis

And lastly, these foods should be stored in a cool, dry place:

Acorn squash
Butternut squash
Onions
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Spaghetti squash
Sweet potatoes
Winter squash

Potatoes and onions must be stored separately, also because of ethylene build up.

There you have it. If you store things in the proper manner, you'll get the longest life possible for your produce, and it will be money well spent instead of money tossed away.

Cheesy Cheddar Crackers

2010-03-25T14:17:00.005-05:00

I found this recipe all over the internet, but as near as I can tell, it originated at Country Living. These crackers are so good! They are light and airy and not greasy at all. They've got flaky pockets inside, kind of like goldfish crackers. I cannot say enough good things about these crackers, and that's saying a lot, because I don't really like cheddar cheese. I made them because my husband asked vehemently. Several times. I was pleasantly surprised.

The recipe says that you should roll these out directly onto the baking pan. Well obviously, I don't have enough talent to do that. I tried. It went much better when I gave up and rolled them out on a floured counter top. Also, I had never worked with chilled dough before, and I didn't expect it to be so hard to work with. I wasn't able to get them quite as thin as they are supposed to be. Some of them turned out very cracker-like, and others turned out more like tiny cheddar puff-pastries. Interestingly enough, I liked the puff-pastry like ones the best.

So things I learned for next time:

Remove dough from refrigerator and let sit on counter top for about 20 minutes before rolling out.
Do not try to roll out without flouring surface first.
Roll between parchment paper so that I can get them thinner.
I need a bench scraper
I could also use some little cookie cutters.

These are not a low calorie snack, but they are a good for you snack, and they're quite satisfying. I did the math on the calorie count, because I'm anal that way. They are not significantly less in calories than actual goldfish crackers; there are only four less calories in the home made version for the same serving size as in goldfish. However, it's not about saving calories. It's about not eating added crap that you don't need. The home made version has FOUR ingredients. The commercial version has those ingredients plus sunflower, canola, and soybean oil, annatto, autolyzed yeast, sugar, and monocalcium phosphate. I don't need all of that stuff. Heck, I don't even know what a lot of that stuff IS!

Cheesy Crackers

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper (optional)
4 TBSP cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8 ounces grated cheddar cheese
3-4 TBSP water

Directions:

1. Pulse the flour with the salt and pepper in food processor

2. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

3. Add grated cheese a little at a time until the mixture again resembles coarse meal.

4. Pulse in 3 to 4 tablespoons of water, one tablespoon at a time, and only enough so that the dough forms a ball and rides the blade.

5. Remove, wrap in plastic, and chill for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours. (Leave for as long as you can, as well chilled dough puffs more in the oven.)

6. Roll the dough out to 1/8th-inch thickness directly onto a baking sheet.

7. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut 1 inch squares.

8. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until crackers are golden brown. Watch them closely after ten minutes.

(Note that these aren't uniform in size. Or in shape. My sixth grade shop teacher once told me that everything I cut looked like someone cross-eyed cut it. Well, I'm not cross-eyed, but I am left handed! THIS is why I could use some little cookie cutters.)

9. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Store in an airtight container for up to one week or freeze.
These will NEVER last a week in this house!

Enjoy!

Non-Dairy (Cashew) Coffee Creamer

2010-03-25T10:35:00.002-05:00

I am doing pretty well in my endeavor to eliminate all dairy from my life. However, I don't want to simply replace all of it with soy either. I drink soy milk, and I eat soy yogurt, so I needed another solution for coffee creamer. With a bit of research, the cashew coffee creamer was born.

They will tell you that you must use whole cashews for this, that pieces won't work, blahblah. They are also wrong. I buy raw cashew piece in bulk, and they work just fine for this purpose. The soaking part is essential. You must soak them so that they plump up and blend nice and creamy.

You will note, from my pictures, that while my blender is quite good enough, it's also not a Vitamix. It's almost sacrilege to be a vegetarian and not own a Vitamix. So if anyone sees the Vitamix fairy, send her my way, because there's just no way we can pay $650.00 for a blender.

Speaking of my pictures, please excuse the crappiness of them today. I don't know what went wrong, but I obviously should have turned on the flash. It's pretty cloudy outside.

Cashew Coffee Creamer

Ingredients:

1/4 to 1/2 cup raw cashews (I use 1/4 cup. I'm the only one in the house who drinks coffee, and I don't drink it every day.)
Water
Vanilla
Dash Cinnamon
Dash Cloves

Directions:

Soak cashews AT LEAST eight hours, preferably over night
Rinse cashews and put into blender with fresh water to cover. How much water depends on personal taste. The more water the thinner it will be. I use enough to cover the nuts by about an inch.
Add cap full vanilla
Add dash of cinnamon
Add dash of cloves
Blend until liquefied and smooth
If you don't have a Vitamix, you may want to strain it through a fine mesh strainer

The flavoring is obviously up to personal interpretation. You can use vanilla extract, almond extract, allspice, nutmeg, chocolate shavings or cocoa powder--whatever you like.

I'm a real fan of my little bottle of perpetual vanilla. I got that for Yule two years ago at a grab bag gift exchange kind of thing. The people who brought it were amused at my delight and joked that they were trying to be cheap. It remains, however, one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Enjoy!

Five Grain Bread

2010-03-24T16:48:00.002-05:00

This isn't necessarily fast or easy (though if you've got a decent food processor, it can do a great deal of the work; if you don't have a decent food processor, then what's wrong with you? Go get one!), but it's certainly good. Even the husband likes it, and he's not so much with the grains. This is originally a Country Living recipe, but I've adapted it to make it vegan. It didn't take much adaptation at all, and the resulting loaf is amazing. It makes a HUGE loaf with a dark chewy crust and light airy inside. It is quite yummy, and everyone loves it. In fact, Drew requested this particular loaf, so here it is.

Five Grain Bread

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups bread flour (If, like me, you don't tend to have bread flour on hand, you can use regular all purpose UNBLEACHED flour plus one tablespoon of wheat gluten per cup of flour.)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup coarse cornmeal
1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tablespoon old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup cooked brown rice (can use cooked quinoa instead)
1/4 cup vegan brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 cup "buttermilk", warmed to 100 degrees (Once again, if like me you don't tend to have buttermilk on hand because you think it's a vile vile creation and you don't drink dairy anyway, you can make your own--It's one tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice to one cup milk. I used white vinegar and organic soy milk. Be sure to let it sit for about five minutes before you use it.)
3/4 cup (add more as needed) spring water, warmed to 100 degrees
Olive oil for coating bowl
Olive oil or soy milk for brushing loaf

Directions:

Make the dough:

1. In a large bowl or food processor fitted with metal blade, combine the flours, cornmeal, 1/4 cup oats, wheat germ, rice, sugar, yeast, and salt.

2. In a small bowl, combine the agave and buttermilk and stir into the dry mixture with a wooden spoon, or pulse into a course meal with the food processor. It should look like this when it's mixed correctly.

3. Using a wooden spoon to mix by hand, add the water 1/4 cup at a time until a stiff dough comes together, or process until dough comes together and rides around the bowl with the blade. Add the water SLOWLY.

4. On a work surface lightly dusted with whole-wheat flour, knead dough by hand until glossy and elastic, about 10 minutes, or process in food processor for 45 more seconds.

Proof the dough:

1. Coat a large bowl with the vegetable oil. It doesn't take much--just lightly mist the bowl.

2. Shape dough into a ball and place in the bowl, turning dough to coat all sides.

3. Cover bowl with a clean, damp kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, 1 to 11/2 hours. (Because my house is really freaking cold, bread does not rise properly just on a counter top. I turn on the oven light and let it rise in there. It works like a charm every time!)

Form the loaf:

1. Punch down the dough and shape into a tight ball.

2. Return dough to the floured surface, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.

3. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal.

4. Shape the dough into a 10-inch oval, tapering the ends, and place on the baking sheet.

5. Cover with damp kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size -- about 1 hour.

Bake the bread:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mist loaf with olive oil or brush with soy milk.

3. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon rolled oats.

4. Using a sharp knife, cut 3 diagonal slashes in the top of the dough.

5. Bake in the lower third of the oven until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when lightly tapped--50 to 60 minutes.

6. Cool on a rack.

Serve at room temperature or toasted.
Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Tempeh Bacon

2010-03-24T13:23:00.010-05:00

I've got an undying love for tempeh. I could eat it every single day of my life, and I'm always looking for new ways to prepare it. Thus the TLT was born!

Tempeh Bacon

Ingredients:

1/2 block tempeh
2 TBSP maple syrup
1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
dash cayenne
1 TBSP liquid smoke
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper
Olive oil for pan

Directions:

Very thinly slice tempeh
Combine all ingredients in a shallow dish
Soak tempeh in marinade for 30 minutes
Turn sauté pan on high and mist with olive oil
Lay tempeh flat on skillet in a single layer
Drizzle excess marinade onto skillet
Cook for one minute and then flip
Cook for another minute until both sides are crisped and brown
Cool on parchment paper

Put it on some nice whole grain bread with a fresh tomato and some Romain lettuce, and voilà, a quick, easy, tasty, very healthy lunch option!

Enjoy!

Green Smoothie

2010-03-24T09:03:00.009-05:00

Today's green smoothie is actually an official green smoothie, as I went to the store to get some leafy greens. The semi-green smoothie was pretty healthy, but not nearly as healthy as having a nice large dose of those dark leafy greens!

Green Smoothie:

Ingredients:

2 cups spinach, tightly packed
1/4 large zucchini, roughtly chopped
1 cup water
1/4 frozen banana
Mediumish sized chunk of frozen passion fruit pulp
Pineapple chunks
Orange segments
1 TBSP wheat germ
1/4 cup whole grain oats
Sweetener of choice, if desired

Directions:

Place zucchini, spinach, wheat germ, and water in blender and blend until liquefied, stopping to push down spinach with spatula if needed (or you can be a big dork like me and push it down with your fingers. Whatever).
Add banana, pineapple, oranges, passion fruit pulp, and oats to blender, and blend again until smooth, adding water to reach desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Throw It Together Mexican Casserole with Baked Tortilla Chips

2010-03-23T16:07:00.005-05:00

I like recipes that are easy, use up left overs, and that everyone in the house will eat, which isn't exactly easy since everyone (else) in the house is really very picky! This one dish recipe fits the bill.

Mexican Casserole

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice
1 package veggie crumbles OR 2-3 cups well-cooked beans of your choice OR 1 lb equivalent reconstituted TVP
1 cup egg beaters OR four eggs OR equivalent egg replacer
2 packets taco seasoning
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded cheese
oil or cooking spray to coat baking dish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine all ingredients (using half of the cheese) and mix thoroughly.
Pour mixture into greased casserole dish and cover with remaining cheese.
Bake covered for 45 minutes.
Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

For the tortilla chips:

       1. Preheat oven to 350°.
      2. Mist both side of the tortilla (I use corn) with olive oil.
       3. Cut into four pieces.
      4. Place on baking sheet and lightly salt.

       5. Bake for ten minutes.
       6. Turn chips over and bake for five more minutes.
       7. Remove from baking sheet and cool completely.

That's it, and you have tortilla chips that haven't been fried and have 3/4 less calories and fat the the pre-packaged kind.

Serve your casserole and chips with a veggie or green salad, and dinner is served!

Enjoy!

Semi-Green Smoothie

2010-03-23T09:59:00.005-05:00

I'm a huge fan of the green smoothie. It's my standard breakfast fare. I had never been much of a breakfast eater, really, but when I started on my journey toward health, I learned that I really do have to eat breakfast. Every day. A smoothie is the perfect thing for me. It almost seems like a cheat. I'm getting a TON of good stuff in my body, and it's like I'm not really eating anything at all. It also seems like a cheat in that I don't drink my calories, unless they come in meal form. So yay for the breakfast that doesn't really require "eating" and for liquid calories to boot!

Most people don't get enough vegetables, especially greens, in their diet. The green smoothie is the perfect way to sneak them in there. Blending them also breaks down the cellulose and makes the greens far easier to digest. You can take it wherever your imagination takes you, adding kale, spinach, Romain, any number of fresh herbs, etc. to your fruit(s) of choice. I also always add wheat germ and rolled oats to my smoothies, no matter what else goes into them. Wheat germ is fantastically healthy. It has more nutrients per ounce than any other vegetable or grain. Oats also have a huge amount of health benefits, and the fiber helps make you feel fuller longer.

The general rule of thumb is the 60/40 rule. As long as you keep you use 60% fruits and 40% vegetables, you can barely taste the vegetables, making it a perfect way to get the kids to eat their veggies, as well. I've been doing the green smoothie thing for so long that I've reversed the equation and use 60% veggies to my 40% fruit. My go-to greens of choice are spinach, sprouts, and fresh mint. Yesterday morning, I somehow didn't have any of these, so I improvised.

The Semi-Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

1/4 large zucchini, roughly chopped
2 large leaves Romain
1 cup water
1/4 frozen banana
Mediumish sized chunk of frozen passion fruit pulp
Pineapple chunks
Orange segments
1 TBSP wheat germ
1/4 cup whole grain oats
Sweetener of choice, if desired (I find that the fruit makes it plenty sweet enough)

Directions:

Place zucchini, Romain, wheat germ, and water in blender and blend until liquefied.
Add banana, pineapple, oranges, passion fruit pulp, and oats to blender, and blend again until smooth, adding water to reach desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Learning as I Go

2010-03-21T22:34:00.002-05:00

I've been toying with the idea of having a food blog for quite some time, but I wasn't really sure how to start. I guess that "just start" is the best answer. In 2005 I was 75 pounds heavier than I am now. I smoked. I drank. A lot. Don't let anyone tell you that there's no such thing as a fat vegetarian, because I certainly was.

I had something of an epiphany one day, and I decided that I needed to get healthy. Healthy. Not thin. The weight loss was not the primary goal, but it was a very nice side effect. I stopped smoking. I quit drinking like a weekend warrior alcoholic wannabe. I got up off my butt and started to exercise, and I learned to eat. I think the learning to eat was the hardest part.

I knew precious little about nutrition. I knew how to feed my body, but I didn't know how to nourish it. I had been a vegetarian for seven years by the time I decided that I needed to educate myself on how to eat and on how to be healthy. The reasons I became a vegetarian are many, and they also don't matter for the sake of this blog. I have no desire to start a debate. I'm a vegetarian; that's a fact, and my recipes will be meat free. Many of them will be free of any animal products. If you aren't veg*n, that doesn't make these recipes any less nutritious or tasty.

Surprisingly enough, I really don't like to cook. It's not something I find fun or relaxing or stimulating or any of the plethora of things I've heard people say about cooking. I'm not good at making up recipes on the fly. I tend to need step by step instructions in order to produce something edible. I cook because I need to eat, and I put effort into cooking, because I care about what goes into my mouth. Somewhere along the way in this journey toward health, I became something of a hippie. I strive to keep pre-packaged, processed foods full of additives and ingredients I can't pronounce out of my diet.

I'd love it if you all would share my journey with me. Welcome. Come on in and stay awhile.