Grilling plant foods and Farmers Market

It's the second day of Summer.  Happy Summer everyone!

Yesterday was so beautiful and the Farmers Market was over flowing with beautiful colors and smells.  Happily sampling fruits and pistachios as my friend and I walked amongst the tents of organic goods.  Before we left we hung out and watched my friend's band play.  Good times.

These are local beans from a couple of towns over.  The middle bag are yellow beans which are recommended for Chili.  Since these are local they are fresher which means the cooking time is less.  They turned out to have a nice mellow flavor.  I used them below...

Grilled Vegetable Nachos

Father's Day grilling.  The above is grilled seitan marinated in a chimichurri sauce. The seitan recipe I use for grilling is taken from Veganomicon.  This is one of my husband's favorite meals.  I haven't made it since last year so he was happily surprised with dinner.

 Local artichokes that were steamed then drizzled with olive oil, garlic, lemon and sea salt then put on the grill.  Local corn too.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms that I grill as well.  Our local health food store had these HUGE  organic Portobello Mushrooms. One of them fed the 3 of us.  We noticed that these Portobello's were really light and airy compared to all of the other ones we have eaten. 

After visiting the Farmers Market I always realize just how lucky we are too have all of this fresh food available to us.  I definitely am so thankful for this!

Getting back to grilling.  This is a great meal to serve to someone who is trying to switch to a plant based diet.  The texture of the seitan and the flavor of the Portobello satisfies everyone's tastes. 

On another note it is my husband's first day of juicing.  Yep he had his first green juice this morning.   He is going to try to follow the Crazy Sexy Diet plan with my help, well with my preparation. ha! 

I'll share my new juicer I bought a couple of months ago next time.

Be thankful for what you have and smile!

GF-Strawberry Muffins and GF-Spinach Pasta w/grilled Artichokes

It's a beautiful day today and also one to thank all those vets who have served our country  and those men and women that are still doing so today.  Most of us know someone who has put their lives on the line.  My husband's second cousin who is 23yrs old who just finished up Army boot camp is on his way to Afghanistan.  We are thinking of him today and hoping he stays out of harms way.   While I have my own feelings on war I will not get into that.

Now I'll move on to the food!  How does GF-Strawberry Muffins sound?

This is pre-baked, obviously. I like to use the Vanilla Gluten Freedom Cupcakes from VCTOW...

but with some changes.

I originally was going to frost these but they turned out more like a muffin...or so I thought.  These would make a great breakfast muffin.  These came out really light and airy.

The changes I made were...

eliminating the almond extract/decreased the sugar to 1/2 c.

1/3 C. millet flour instead of corn flour

1/2 C. sorghum flour instead of quinoa flour

1 C. chopped fresh strawberries added at the end....fold in gently until well combined.

Next up...dinner.

Spinach Pasta with Cilantro Pesto and Grilled Artichokes

This recipe was taken from Veganomicon but I used GF-spinach pasta and I used fresh artichokes. Since artichokes are now in season I used them and then grilling them really made the dish more fresh tasting.  The cilantro pesto that has basil in it is really nice too.  This also tastes good cold the next day.

Are there any other ways you all use fresh artichokes?  Anyone have a vegan stuffed artichoke recipe?  I'm trying to come up with one.

Enjoy your day!

Raspberry Poppy Seed Dressing, Grilled Artichokes and stuff!

Another sunny and cool morning which will lead to a nice warm afternoon.  Summer is sure on it's way.

Yesterday the 3 of us went on a nice hike and we noticed how the spring flowers are fading and the hills are turning brown.  Here are some of my flowers in my backyard.  My sweetpeas have gone crazy and are everywhere. I love sweetpeas and the smell is absolutely wonderful!

In early spring wild poppies start popping up every where as well.  You can see them on the hillsides and in everyones yards.

 If you aren't using your own bags for groceries well you should be.  The stores out here are actually going to start charging people if they don't have there own bags.  It's about time, San Francisco has been doing this for years! Going along with using our own eco-friendly bags that we use for groceries I thought I would share with you some great produce bags I bought about a month ago.  Made in the U.S.A.

 

It took me quite a while to find a company that makes their bags here in the U.S.A. and it's called Beneterre.  I've found another type of produce bag but it was made of cotton, but I wanted something that would clean more easily and these are it! These are their Farm Fresh Sacs and they hold a head of lettuce, fruit, potatoes and much more.  They are sold in sets of  3 and are 11 by 12inches. I love, love, love these!  I've actually had people come up to me in the store and ask me about them.

Some companies say made in the U.S.A. but when you read the fine print or the complete description they aren't. 

 

I've spoken with one of the owners, Louise, she is very nice and responds very quickly.  I recently asked about them carrying bags for seeds and grains.   It seems they used to make a bag like that but ran out of the material.  Once they get their hands on more of the proper material they will offer them up again. 

This is a Raspberry Poppy Seed Dressing that I found at Gliving quite a while ago that is fabulous!  It contains agave, stone ground mustard, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, poppy seeds and raspberries.  You can find the recipe by clicking here.  I blended the raspberries in the dressing but you don't have to, it just makes it more fruity.  If you love poppy seed dressing you'll love this, just don't add the rasberries.

The dressing on our first grilled salad of the season a couple of weeks ago. Bring on the salads!!!!

If you think you don't like artichokes well you have never tried having a grilled artichoke.  You have to try these, we are so hooked on them.  When you make these you won't want to eat an artichoke any other way!  They have a wonderful smoky flavor and you don't need any of that mayo dip or whatever you use with your artichoke leaves.

Grilled Artichokes (our way)

In a large stock pot with a steamer basket add in your artichokes, ours will hold 3 good size artichokes at a time.  Steam with lid on for about 40-45 minutes or so.  It depends on the size of artichokes. You want them to be pretty much cooked all the way through, grilling them is just to bring out the flavor.  Our second go around we cut off the tops, drizzled lemon on them and then steamed them.  This seems to cook them quicker.

While these are steaming, in a small sauce pan I heated some olive oil, earth balance, 1 garlic clove, minced, and a bit of lemon juice(optional). Set aside.

 Once they are steamed take them out and cut in half.  Be careful they will be hot!  (Once cut in half if they don't seem to be cooked enough you can always put them back on and steam them longer.)  Scoop out the chokes and throw in trash.   Towards the end of steaming you will want to heat up your outside grill.

Next take each half and drizzle the olive oil mixture on them.  Lay them on the bbq grill and grill them for about 10 minutes, tops!  Take them to your table and enjoy!  If you have any olive mixture left you can use this for dipping if you'd like, but you really don't need anything.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pasta for two!

While snacking on some big organic cherry tomatoes I had sitting out, I thought about how I could incorporate them into dinner, besides a salad or eating them all up as they were. My son was eating at a friends house for dinner so that left just my husband and I. Pasta it was!!! Easy prep and clean up. This turned out very tasty and quite frankly you could very well make this for company just use more tomatoes, artichokes and basil.

This how I made this lovely pasta meal for two!

olive oil

6 oz. wheat spaghetti noodles (your choice of course)

5 garlic cloves, chopped ( I like the garlic)

1 pint/small green basket or so cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 jar artichokes

1 bunch of fresh basil, chopped

1/3 -1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup cashew butter (see note how to make)

red pepper flakes

salt

Heat up a medium saute pan then add about 3 tbsp. olive oil. Add garlic cloves and saute until soft. Next add the tomatoes and saute until they are soft. Next add artichokes, stir for about 1 minute and add the white wine. Let the white wine reduce a bit then add the basil and continue to cook. You want it to be a bit saucy, you don't want it to be dry. Next add the cashew butter. This makes it creamy and rich, you can not tell it is cashew butter at all for those of you who have never tried it. You just need to make sure you blend it well into the mixture, you don't want clumps, you may need to use a fork. You can always add more wine and olive oil for more liquid, just eye it. Add salt to taste and red pepper flakes if you choose.

Note: cashew butter

You can purchase cashew butter but I usually make it.

In a food processor add about 1/2 or however much you want of raw cashews.

Turn on the processor and let it run, you may have to scrap the sides a couple of times during this process, until it sticks together and becomes like a spread. Wallah! Cashew butter. Keep what you don't use in a container in the refridge.

Enjoy!