Breakfast Pizza

Happy Friday!
It's going to be a great weekend, minus the bit of rain we are supposed to get by tomorrow morning.
We have a concert to go to tomorrow night..... Folsom Live, 5 stages and one of my all time favorite bands
The English Beat is playing!  I can't wait!!!

Yesterday morning while my stomach was growling I noticed in my refrigerator that I had a little bit of pizza dough left.  Light went off.  Breakfast Pizza!  I had some cashew cream chipotle sauce leftover as well.  So this is how I put it all together! It got a huge thumbs up from my husband.

Preheat oven to 450. While letting the pizza dough warm to room temperature I sauteed up some fresh spinach.  Next I cooked up some scrambled tofu (tofu, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, onion powder) in a bit of oil.  Then I heated up some Soyrizo.  When the dough is ready I rolled it out and put on my pizza stone,  sprayed some olive on it and put in oven for 5 min. to partially cook.  Took it out and spread the cashew cream on it, spinach, tofu scramble and Soyrizo.  Put back into the oven for about another 5 min or until the pizza crust started to turn golden.  A couple of nice additions would be to top it off with cilantro and avocado, which I had neither on hand.
The end result did not disappoint!  It tasted as good as it smelled.

My go to pizza crust:
from Organic Style
1 C. warm water (110-115 degrees)
Pinch of sugar
1 Pkg.(1/4oz)active-dry yeastt
3 C. all purpose flour, plus more as needed
(you can substitute 1C. whole-wheat flour for 1C. all purpose flour)
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bowl

1. Pour water into small bowl.  Add sugar and sprinkle yeast over the top.  I like to do a quick stir to mix it all in. Let it sit in a warm spot until the mixture proofs, is bubbly and active, about 8min.
2. Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl.  Add the yeast mixture and olive oil, mix to combine scraping down he sides with a rubber spatula.  The dough should form into a ball.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead 10-12 times with your hands, until dough is no longer sticky and appears smooth and elastic.  Shape the dough into a ball.
3. Transfer dough to a large bowl coated lightly with oil.  Turn dough to coat.  Cover with a clean dish towel .  Leave in a warm place until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
4. Punch dough down and knead 3 or 4 times.  Divide the dough in half or if you really want a thinner crust you can divide it into 3 balls.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface and use as you wish or you can pat each disk and wrap  in plastic wrap, place in freezer bags. You can freeze it up to 3 weeks.  (I usually use it all so freezing isn't an option for me). Before using the dough from the freezer, let it sit at room temperature until it becomes springy and pliable 1-2hrs.

Chipotle Cashew Cream
from Veg News
adjusted by dreaminitvegan

1 C. raw cashews
1 C. filtered water( you can add a little more water at a time to make thinner)
*1 canned chipotle pepper with seeds taken out
1/4 C. nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp. sea salt

In a blender, puree all ingredients until smooth.

*note: canned chipotles can be very hot so add according to desired heat. You may only need half a pepper or maybe more due to the heat.
You can also make this sauce without chipotles.

Have an amazing weekend!

Potato Leek Spinach Soup and a new GF Snack!

We've had so many issues with this laptop.  We need to send it in again for repair.  While it is somewhat working here we go!

            Happy Friday the 13th!

We woke up early this morning with very loud thunder and lots of lightening.  Our Ace dog came running in and jumped on our bed.  He's a big baby.  It's not even going to reach 60degrees out and it's April!  Oh well we need all the rain we can get.

There was a new GF snack on sale at our health food store so I thought we would give it a try.

Have any of you seen or tried Bhuja snack mixes before?  They are gluten free. These are quite good and have a multi grain noodles, crunchy chickpeas, green peas and peanuts in them.  I just wish the sodium was a bit lower but I can see these sprinkled on a salad or even mixed in with other gf crackers and pretzels.  These would be great to have out at a party.  Looking forward to trying some of the other mixes.

During a break in the rain on Wednesday I hit up the Farmers Market with a friend and bought some beautiful leeks and spinach to make this yummy Potato Leek Spinach Soup.  I don't usually make pureed soups but I've had pototo leek soup on my mind and I thought it would be nice to make it a bit healthier with some spinach.  Talk about an easy soup to make!  It can also be left chunky and just add the spinach at the end.

Potato Leek Spinach Soup
serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
1 T. extra virgin olive oil or water/vegetable broth
3 leeks, white and light green parts washed and sliced
1 large yellow onion(1 1/2 C.), chopped
4 cloves garlic,finely chopped or minced
3 large Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cubed
5 cups vegetable stock
2 C. fresh spinach
1-2 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
sea salt to taste

1. Heat a large pot over medium heat and add the oil or water/vegetable broth.

2. Add the leeks and onion.  I like to cover the pot with a lid for about 5-10min. which helps the onions soften quicker and also helps so the onions don't stick if only using water/broth.  Just check every couple of minutes and stir.

3. Add the garlic and stir well. Cook for 1 minute more.

4. Add the potatoes and vegetable stock, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

5.  Add in the rosemary and spinach for about a minute.

5. Remove the soup from the heat and use an immersion blender or if using a blender add a cup or so at a time. Blend until smooth.  Pour smooth soup back into the pot until just heated through.

The rosemary adds such a nice flavor to this soup.

Serve with grilled vegan cheese sandwich or baguette.

Enjoy!

MoFo #3: Hemp milk & GF pasta w/spinach, tomatoes

Okay so it's day Mofo day 3!   Another sunny day and elections are over, finally.  I'm done with all of those ads and phone calls towards the end. 

Trader Joe's finally has Hemp Milk! Woohoo!  I've been not-so-patiently waiting for this.  It's only $2.99 compared with the much  higher prices at other stores.


Yum!

Add some Hemp milk and almond butter to your smoothie...delish!

This GF past dish is so easy to  make and tasty too!

I don't have exact measurements so your on your own, sorry.  I can give the step by step and ingredients used.  I hope that helps.



GF pasta or whatever kind you want to use, cooked

olive oil

4 large cloves of garlic, chopped

Cherry tomatoes-halved

fresh spinach-cleaned and chopped

white wine

salt

ground walnuts(optional)topping

 For the sauce:  Heat up a saute pan then add some olive oil.  Next add garlic and saute for a minute or so.  Next add in the halved cherry tomatoes and chopped spinach until soft.  Add about 1/3 c. or more of white wine until the wine has reduced a bit.  Season with salt to taste.  Serve into pasta dish and top, drizzle with more olive oil if you wish and top with ground walnuts!

See you tomorrow!



Supercharge Me Smoothie & GF Swiss Chard Pasta

I know some people like coffee to get them going in the morning.  Don't get me wrong, I have a cup or two in the morning myself but just  because I like the taste.  But you know what really gets me going is a Super charged up green smoothie.

Okay so it doesn't look so green but purple.  This smoothie contains, fresh spinach, mixed berries, mango, banana, flax, powdered greens, rice milk and organic cranberry.  You really can't taste the spinach or greens due to the fruit.  Every morning before Dave goes to work I make him a smoothie as well and I've been adding some greens or powdered greens and he hasn't said anything.  So unless he reads this he doesn't know!  So we'll just be quiet about this.

  You know that cute crate from a previous post that said Muir Glen on it, that my girlfriend gave me.  Well I opened it up and look at what I found!  There are 4 cans, one was a diced tomato, one is a newer item with adobe sauce(would be great in a chilli) and two cans were of two different types of RESERVE tomatoes.  Look how pretty the can is is and the photo.  It's like a bottle of expensive wine!  It came with a booklet describing the two varieties, Brigade and Yolo tomatoes.  Muir Glen reserved some land to grow a small crop of these two different varieties of tomatoes and it went so well they are going to use more land for 2010. 

I actually opened up the Brigade can of tomatoes, it was a hard decision cuz like I said the can is too beautiful.  On the other hand I couldn't wait to taste these tomatoes and see if they were truly as good as was described.  You know these tomatoes tasted wonderful!  You know how some tomatoes from a can are kind of acidic?  Non of that, these were kind of sweet but light at the same time.  Delish!   So anyways last night I used them in a sauce poured over GF pasta. 

Swiss Chard Sauce

1 medium onion, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, minced(or more if you like)

4 sage leaves, chopped

1 14.5 oz can tomatoes, tomatoes only(save the juice)

1 bunch swiss chard leaves, chopped

1/2 -3/4 C. White wine

olive oil

salt to taste

chopped walnuts for topping(optional)

Boil pot of water for pasta and cook according to directions.

 Meanwhile heat up a saucepan and add about 3 Tbs. olive oil and add onion, garlic,sage and dash of salt (the salt sweats the onion and you can use less oil this way).  Saute until onions are soft.  Next add in 1/2 c. white wine and let it reduce down.  Next add in tomatoes and cook through then add the rest of the white wine.  Next add in swiss chard and let it cook through.  Take of heat and I added more olive oil but you don't have to.  I topped off ours with chopped walnuts.

Enjoy!

Lasagna and Brownies...

Let's start out with dessert shall we? These are a little thin just because the pan I used was a bit too big. That just meant bigger portions! yipeee! My favorite brownie recipe comes from Vivacious Vegan with whom I can't find on the internet anymore so below is the recipe. If you prefer your brownies more fudgey than cakey this it it! Then the show stopper on this one is that I swirled in some pumpkin butter! Ohhhhh yaaaaaaahhhh! (you can't tell too much because I was playing safe). I saw this done at Vegan Visitor last year and I finally tried it. I'm going to make a thicker brownie next time and swirl in more pumpkin butter. If you love chocolate(I do) and pumpkin butter give this a try. It's a nice twist for the holidays.

This was the first time in I don't know how long since I've made lasagna. I've been craving it for the last week. I thought I would try something a bit different with it. I made two sauces, a marinara with veggie crumbles and a bechamel sauce(white sauce). I also made half of a tofu ricotta with spinach mixed in. The layers were tofu ricotta, bechamel, marinara and noodles. My husband loved the marinara but could do without the bechamel. I have to agree with him on that. Personally I could do without the veggie crumbles too just cuz it's too "meaty" for me.

Brownie Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup soymilk

1.5 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup semi/sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8 inch square pan.

Put the oil, maple syrup , soy milk and vanilla in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture with a rubber spatula. Don’t overmix.
Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
Put the batter in the pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for 35 minutes.
Don't overbake.
Cool before cutting.

Squash season has arrived!

It's that time of the year when the wonderful sweet tasting squash's are a plenty. The other night I made a wonderful lentil loaf with acorn squash and served with a sweet potato gravy but forgot to take a picture of it. Oh well, next time.

For lunch the next day I used what I had left of acorn squash and heated it up a bit and threw it on a bed of mixed greens, pecans and cranberries. Drizzled with a balsamic vinegrette. Wallah!

I know this looks kind of a mess, I used a spatula that was too small and so it broke apart as I was getting out of the casserole pan. This is a spinach and white bean enchilada which I have made many times, the fam loves it and it's so easy to make. This was served with a side of butternut squash and yukon gold potato, roasted with olive oil, oregano and salt.

More useage of squash to come!

Thai Noodle Salad

When it's sizzlin' outside and you want something light and tasty for dinner, this is

it. It is one of my favorite summertime meals. No joke, I can't stop eating this stuff when I make it. No turning on the oven, no standing over a hot barbecue while the sun is beating down on your back, the only thing you need to do is boil some water to cook the rice noodles and saute up some thin slices of tofu(what you add to the tofu after you saute it on the stove makes it taste so yummy) . That's the only cooking you will do! Everything else is fresh and raw out of the fridge or garden. This recipe is called Paul's Thai Noodle Salad from the cookbook Extraveganza . You don't have to add the peanuts, that's optional. My son told me to make this dish for the Teacher's Appreciation Day luncheon a couple of years ago and everyone asked me for the recipe. That's how good this is! You must get the book and try this recipe.

Garden Loaf with Sweet Potato Salad

Garden Loaf

Sweet Potato Salad

I'm back again! It's the end of the school year and we've been busy, busy, busy!

We have a couple of favorite veggie loaves that we really like but it's always nice to try something new. As you have noticed I posted and will continue to post recipes from Karina's Kitchen and especially now that we are trying to eliminate more wheat from our diet. You can get the recipe for this very tasty Garden Loaf with Apricot Glaze at Karina's Kitchen. The only change I made was to this recipe was that I added more spinach and since it needed to stick together more, I added extra ketchup and agave. That was it! This is so delicious!!! I love the use of Quinoa and the apricot glaze is perfect on top. It's kind of sweet but the flavors are just so......lovely. It was a bit soft to plate but once it's cooler it slices really nice and it made some great sandwich's and lettuce wraps the follwing day. You really need to give this a try!

Now for the sweet potato salad... this was so good! My mother-in-law, son and I were ordering lunch at the local health food store and we saw this wonderful potato salad sitting behind the glass that the gal let us try and it ROCKED!!! We had to get some to go and I will be making this on my own because we wrote down the ingredients that were listed...hee hee. Since the salad is already sweet and the dressing has agave in it, I don't think they used very much. The dressing on here is very, very light, just enough to coat it and you can taste just a hint of dijon, but not too strong. Here are the ingredients if you would like to try this one out.

Sweet potatoes, olive oil, dijon, agave, red onions-very thinly sliced, parsley, salt to taste. I'm not sure if there was any vinegar, if so there not alot.

WHITE BEAN & SPINACH ENCHILADAS and CILANTRO LIME BROWN RICE

These are great enchiladas to make for spring or any time if you like. These were a hit at Easter one year, everyone said how much they loved them and there were none left to take home. So here's to Karina at Gluten Free Goddess http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2007/03/enchiladas-griegos-for-two.html for very tasty encho's. My version is down below eliminating the dairy and tweaking it a bit. Do to the cannelini beans these are more on the creamy side. I do add a few tablespoons of tofutti sometimes if I want it even more creamy. Also I have used the original recipes sauce and it is really good but the green sauce makes it a bit lighter.

Next CILANTRO LIME RICE! When I saw this recipe in VegNews months ago I knew I had to make it. The result? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Gooooooooooooood! We all loved it! This went so well with the enchiladas I made. I am already planning to make this for my in-laws and for many future guests.

Recipe for Enchiladas

Preheat oven to 375
Makes 10 Enchiladas

1 lg can green enchilada sauce
10 corn tortillas
1 med yellow or white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 16 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 15oz cans cannelini beans
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp sage

dash of nutmeg

1/4 c. cilantro(optional)

1/4 c. tofutti cream cheese (optional)

sea salt & ground pepper to taste

Heat a T. olive oil in large skillet over med. heat and add onion, garlic and red bell pepper. Cook until the onions are on the soft side. Next add the spinach, stir a bit until most liquid is gone. Thoroughly stir in the seasonings then add the beans. Take off heat and mix in the cilantro and tofutti if you choose to.

Coat the bottom of a large casserole dish with sauce. Next heat up half the sauce in a med saucepan, just until warm. Take a corn tortilla, dip into the warm sauce just to coat, then fill with mixture. Repeat until all the filling is used. Pour the rest of the sauce(you probably won't use all of the sauce but use however much you like) over the enchiladas and cover with foil. Bake until cooked through about 30-35 min. Take out and let it sit for about 10min. or so.