Hello Sunshine! Hello GF Pasta Alfredo!

It's a beautful day out I hope everyone is enjoying it!

Here is a new photo of our California Poppys and Sweet Peas in our backyard. The poppys just recede and grow wild while the sweet peas I have planted years ago and keep coming up year after year.  I love sweetpeas, they smell so good!  What is your favorite spring flower?

Before I head back outside a quick post about a yummy GF pasta dish I made recently.

This recipe is taken from Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Chloe Coscarelli, Fettucine Alfredo w/Shitake Mushrooms, Kale and Sun-dried Tomatoes.  The sauce is a base of homemade almond milk that is so easy to make.  You suppose you could try to use use storebought almond milk.  If you do let me know how it worked.  The recipe is below and the only I subbed is using the gf pasta, and I had baby bella mushrooms because I had them in the fridge.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Shiitake Mushrooms, Kale, and Sun-dried Tomatoes

From Chloe's Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli
•1 pound fettuccine noodles
•2 tablespoons olive oil
•Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
•1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped
•6 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced
•6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

•Almond Alfredo Sauce, recipe follows

•1/4 bunch freshly parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped

ALMOND ALFREDO SAUCE:
•1 cup raw almonds
•4 cups water, plus 2 cups water
•1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
•2 tablespoons olive oil
•Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
•3 cloves garlic, minced
•1 teaspoon mellow white miso paste

Directions:
Cook the fettuccine according to the package directions.

In a large skillet, saute mushrooms in olive oil over medium-high heat. Season with salt and pepper and cook until they are soft and lightly browned.

Blanch and shock the kale so that it stays bright green. To do this, add the chopped kale into a pot of boiling salted water and stir for 15 seconds. Immediately drain and plunge the kale into ice water. Let it chill, then drain again.

Toss the fettuccine with the mushrooms, kale, sun-dried tomatoes, and Almond Alfredo Sauce. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and serve hot.

For Almond Alfredo Sauce:
Heat about 4 cups water in a medium saucepot until boiling. Add the almonds to the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the almonds, and with your fingers, peel the almonds and discard the skins.

In a large skillet, saute the onions with oil, salt, and pepper until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and let cook a few more minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Blend the skinless boiled almonds with 2 cups water until smooth, then strain through a colander lined with cheesecloth (a paper towel also works) set over a bowl or use a fine mesh sieve. Discard the solids. Return the almond milk to the blender and process with the onion mixture and miso. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Before use, heat the sauce over a very low flame until hot.

Until next time take time to stop and smell the flowers!

Creme Brulee #1

Howdy everyone! I've been slacking on my blogging...but no more of that!  As long as my computer doesn't act up like it has the last couple times I've tried to blog.  errrr!



My first organic chard grown in a big terra cotta pot!

 I'm on a quest to find the perfect vegan creme brulee recipe with the help/input of my husband Dave. He loves creme brulee where as I've never tried.it.  I was given the ramekins and torch as a Christmas gift from my son.  I guess he was trying to tell me something because I've been saying I was going to be  doing this for quite sometime.

So recipe #1 was found at Vegan Good Eats. 

Sugar is sprinkled on top of the custard.

Then the chef's torch comes out!  We all had turns using the torch.  It was fun.

The verdict according to Dave.  While this tasted good it didn't taste like creme brulee.  From what he is saying it sounds like Creme Brulee is more custard(egg)like, a bit thicker and with vanilla bean.  We kind of thought it tasted like flan but way better.   

Onto the next recipe!

Enjoy your night!

Carmelized Onion and Kale Quiche

Happy Wednesday!  Four more episodes of LOST!  For those of you who are fellow LOST fans,

are any of you going to have a party for the finaly?    I still can't believe it's going to end.  Oh well, I just hope the writers don't let us down!

So here is another juice.  Another pretty pic, it looks like sherbert doesn't it?

I juiced carrots, celery, pink lady apple and a beet.

The other night I made another quiche/tart but instead of using firm water packed tofu I used silken firm tofu.  The results are more of any eggy, custard texture which I must say was really, really, really good.  This is a carmelized onion and kale quiche.  I love onions anyways, especially carmelized, yum!  What's so great about these quiches are that everyone loves them and they can't tell it's missing the eggs.  I thought it would be fun to make a nutritional comparisan between a vegan quiche and a non-vegan one. I found a carmelized onion tart online that seems to be on alot of different sites so I went with that one.   The cool thing is on this particular site they already had the nutritional info, easier for me because I only had to calculate  my quiche. The one I found is a carmelized onion tarte  and it's here at http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/caramelized-onion-tart-recipe.  I added kale to mine. 

I actually got 6 servings from my quiche but the one on delish.com says 4 servings so I adjusted my nutritional info accordingly to 4 servings.

                                       Nutritional Information

Egg and dairy version          My recipe                                                    
                                                                 
by delish.com                                                                          
(per serving)

Calories 495                                        Calories 306.25
Total Fat 32g                                       Total Fat  18g
Saturated Fat 13g                                Sat. Fat  2.75g
Cholesterol 204mg                               Cholesterol    0
Sodium 510mg                                     Sodium 444mg
Total Carbohydrate 36g                       Carbs  21g
Dietary Fiber 3g                                  Dietary Fiber 4.75g
Sugars --                                             Sugars --
Protein 15g                                          Protein 15.5 g
Calcium  268                                      Calcium  237

So you can see the difference here, the vegan quiche has 0 cholesterol and less fat. I tried to calculate the calcium content of the egg/dairy tart and came up with 268g of calcium.  The body actually absorbs more calcium from plant foods than from animal products so even though the egg/dairy version has a bit more you are absorbing more from the vegan quiche.  Down below is my recipe.

Carmelized Onion and Kale Quiche
 vegan version

2-3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 medium/lg sweet onions or 2 cups, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chopped kale, or to your liking (you can skip the kale if it's  not your thing)
1 12.3 oz. box mori-nu extra firm tofu
2 tsp. low sodium white miso
2 tsp. arrowroot powder or 1 T. cornstarch
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg

Crust
(This is a crust for one pie but  I only used half of the dough, just so the crust was thin)

1/2 C. +2 T. spelt flour
1/2 C. sorghum flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 T. Earth Balance original whipped(or your choice)
2 T. cold water

I used a 6-inch round stoneware pan so the tart would be thicker.  Oil the pan and I lined mine with parchment paper so when it's done I could take the whole quiche out and then cut into slices.

For the crust:
 In a food processor add the flour, salt and Earth Balance and pulse until crumbly.  Next pour in the cold water and pulse until smooth.  Take out, make a ball, then make a flat disk and wrap in plastic  and put in refrigerator for about an hour. 


Heat oven to 350.

1. When crust is firm, roll out half the dough, or for a thicker crust roll out all of it.  Press into pan, make a few pricks on the bottom and bake for about 10min.  Take out and set aside.

2.  Heat a saute pan and add the olive oil to it.  Next add in the onions and let cook until just beginning to brown, this can take up to half an hour so keep watch and stir every so often.

3.  While onions are carmelizing in a food processor blend until smooth the tofu, garlic, miso, arrowroot, nutritional yeast, soymilk, lemon juice, salt and nutmeg.  Set aside.

4. When the onions are brown and sweet add the kale and cook until tender.

5. Take the onion and kale mixture and spoon it into the processor mixture.  Pulse a few times to combine.
Season to tast with more salt and pepper if wanted.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes until firm and lightly brown on top.

Serve warm and along with a crisp salad or cold the next day is really good too.
Enjoy!

Gluten free noodle kale soup and new products

This soup is made with Tinyada brown rice elbow pasta, kale, tomato, carrots, onion, celery, veggie broth, white wine and herbs. Nice & warm.

I decided to give these treats down here to the left
from Mary's Gone Crackers Sticks & Twigs Sea Salt a whirl since they were on sale.My first bite or two I wasn't so sure about the taste so I put the bag away. Then later when my son got home and I
took out the bag for a treat I tried it again and I changed my mind it's pretty good. They are real crunchy and have a ton of good stuff in them like flax seeds, amaranth, quinoa, chia seeds, etc. I would love to try some of there other flavors.

Then check this out! I found this new product from Wild Wood, it's tofu made with Sprouted Soybeans! How cool is that!!! It doesn't really taste any different from other tofu and since this one is superfirm it would be great grilled or used sliced up as tofu steaks. Now you can feel alot better about eating tofu!

Mumbo Jumbo lunch & Merlin Kitty B-day!!!

So it's been sometime since my last post. It's just been so busy with family and friends visiting and us visiting family. I can't believe school will be starting at the end of August. Wow summer goes by so quickly. Anyways, here is my lunch that I threw together. Wild rice, garbanzo, kale, and tomato that I lightly sauteed with some Bragg's liquid amino's and garlic. Then I threw some avocado and sliced almonds. This was just so earthy and good tasting. I love that wholesome taste and it makes me feel so good!

My kitty Merlin turned 14 this month!!! He is such a good cat, we call him our cat-dog because he comes when you call him and he is so good with dogs. Not that he really plays with dogs but he won't run when they are around, he just could care less about those who are beneath him. hee hee. Anyways Happy Birthday Merlin!

A change in diet and Pan fried Tofu, Kale w/rice noodles

A change of diet in our house. Yes we are still vegan, get those thoughts right out of your head!According to my sons symptoms his doctor said he has IBS. He said he had to eliminate dairy(already done), cut down on animal protein(well he said meat and we don't do anyways), cut down on fruit(bummer!), up vegetable intake, add more fiber, fiber, fiber foods and cut out junk food. Okay, so I told him we were vegan( I know there are those junk food vegans out there but we are not those) and he gave the head nod of approval and said I wouldn't need to go to a dietician. Cool! The prescription was a diet change and to let him know how he was doing. I'm thinking the only diet change would be to lessen fruit intake(the sugar in fruit is fructose and many IBS sufferers react to fructose)and it wouldn't hurt for him to eat more veggies.

Anyways, I went home and started to do more research and my conclusion is it has to be a food allergy right? He gets so much fiber already it can't be that. So again more research and I found out that wheat is a big time trigger with those who have this syndrome.

So the first ingredient we are taking out of his diet is wheat. Yesterday did a little shopping for him, rice crackers, none of the breads looked good, they were very dense and didn't have very much fiber so I bought a gluten-free bread mix and I'll post about it when I make it. He loves raw veggies so that's a great snack. Now i'm a food label reader and I usually have tamari or's bragg's on hand but when my husband went to Trader Joe's last time he picked up soy sauce from there. So as I was getting ready to make dinner I took out the soy and you know what is listed WHEAT! I totally forgot that it has wheat in it. Why do they need wheat in soy sauce? I know tamari doesn't have wheat as an ingredient or Bragg's Liquid Aminos. So I had to jam back to the store to get a wheat free version. This is where a whole foods diet comes into play. The less processed, the less ingredients, the better for you. But come on soy sauce with wheat what's the deal! Okay, breathe....

Continuing with the diet change my husband and I figure in about a week or so I'll call the doctor and see if we can make an appointment to get a food allergy test done. Until then we will all be on a wheat free diet for the next, at least, couple of weeks and I welcome all comments or advice.

Now let's get onto what we had for dinner last night. So it had to be wheat free and tasty. I opted for the the Pan Fried Tofu, Kale and Rice Noodle recipe from vegan yum yum which was great the first time I made it and was just as tasty his time. The way the Kale is cooked is really good and I sprinkled a bit of sesame seeds on top. Try it out for yourself!

Cozy lentil soup and homemade bread

Lentil soup is so easy to make and you don't need a ton of ingredients. This is just a basic recipe consisting of:

Olive oil 2-3 Tbsp.

4 garlic cloves( i love garlic)

2 onions, yellow chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp. thyme

1 C. carrots

1 C. celery

2 tomatoes, diced

1 1/3 C. green lentils, rinsed

6 C. vegetable broth

1 C. or more chard,kale, or any greens(optional)

balsamic vinegar

salt & pepper to taste.

Saute the garlic with the veggies until almost soft. Add the thyme and tomatoes for another minute or so. Add lentils and veggie broth. Bring to boil then simmer covered for 35-40 min. or until lentils are soft. Next if you choose to, it's optional, you can add in your green of choice and stir until wilted. Turn off heat add salt and pepper to taste.

When serving in each bowl you can drizzle a little olive oil and a swirl of balsamic. I like to use a thicker balsamic when I'm drizzling. If you don't have a thicker balsamic you can add regular balsamic to the whole pot, just a couple of dashes and stir in.

Also if you want a kick to it drizzle in some chile pepper olive oil. It rocks!

The whole wheat oatmeal bread recipe comes from Celine at have cake, will travel. Always perfect every time I make it.

Bow tie pasta w/pesto, kale, etc.....

You know when you make a great meal and you keep going back for more. "Just one more bite" you say outloud so everyone hears you. Like that's going to make you feel any less guilty because you know it's not just going to be one more bite. This is one of those pasta dishes. My husband said that this pasta is one of his favorites. It's nice to hear that from your hubby.

Bowtie pasta with pesto, kale, orange bell pepper and roasted cherry tomatoes. A drizzle of olive oil and your ready to dig in. Isn't pretty!

Potato & Kale Soup

It's been rainy and cold so to warm us up I made Potato & Kale soup from Veganomican. The only change I made was that I added a can of Cannelinni beans. The Drop Biscuits are from the Joy of Vegan Baking.