Vegan Mofo #7/Simple Lentil Soup w/GF Chickpea Flatbread

It's been a week of MoFo'ng already... wow it flew by!  I've been trying to view other blogs this month that I've never been on before and it makes me so happy!  Everyone is doing fabulous and there is so much yummy vegan food!

  Lentil soup is one of those that you can add and do so much to.  I chose last night just to do a simple lentil soup.

Lentil Soup

Recipe:

Olive oil

1  1/4 C. brown or french lentils, uncooked but rinsed

2 med. yellow onions, diced

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 1/2 C. celery, sliced

2 C. carrots, chopped

3 red tomatoes, chopped with juices

1/3 C. white wine

6 C. un-chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/4 tsp thyme

red pepper flakes, optional

*s & p to taste

balsamic or chili oil, drizzled to serve (optional) 

1) In a large stockpot heat up 1-2 Tbsp. Olive oil.

2)Add in onion, garlic, carrots and celery cook until soft.

3)Add in red tomatoes, stir and let cook until they are quite soft.

4)Mix in lentils, white wine and thyme and cook for about 2min.

5)Pour in broth, stir and bring to a boil.

6)Once the mixture is boiling, cover with lid and bring to a simmer for about 40-45min. Cook until

   lentils are soft.

7)Once lentils are soft, use an immersion blender to blend some of it or take a cup or so and put into blender.  Blend until pureed and add back into mixture.  Stir thouroughly and add red pepper flakes if you wish and continue to cook for 10min. more.  Depending on how salty your broth is you may not need any salt.

8)Ladle into bowls.  You can drizzle balsamic or a chili olive oil on top if you wish.



Berean (Chickpea) Flatbread

Yesterday on the Melomeals $3.33 a day blog I saw these delicious flatbreads Melody  made with chickpea flour.  These are totally gluten free which is great, especially for Keaton.  The chickpea crepe recipe I usually use also contains white flour so I was very happy to make these ones. So last night I whipped some up and served them with our lentil soup!  Keaton loved these, alot. You must check them out try them for yourselves.    I also added some fresh rosemary to half the batter, yummy too.

MoFo#6/Balsamic Tofu w/peppers & onions

I hope everyone's weekend has started off to a good one.  The sky is cloudy and grey.  One of the perks with raining is that my water bill is a lot less money.  Bring on the rain!

Thanks for all the get well wishes for Keaton.  He woke up yesterday feeling alot better.  He still has a cough that's lingering but it's random now.

He's bummed because we didn't let him go to Magic Mountain with his friends but that's just a long day and

when Dave was giving him a hug this morning he noticed he was warm.   He'll be fine, rest is all he needs.

There was this meal I used to make for Dave, not myself, in my pescetarian days. It was a balsamic chicken with pepper and onions. This was one of his favorite meals. I gave it a go from memory and it was delicious! If you want to impress dinner guests but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, this is it. I served it over mashed potatoes. You can adjust the recipe for a single serving to or just make more and just have it for left overs.



Balsamic Tofu w/peppers & onions

Recipe

4 servings

Olive Oil

14oz. Firm Tofu, sliced into strips

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 C. yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 1/2 C.  Red Italian or bell peppers, sliced

1 tsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1/4 C. White wine

1 T. balsamic vinegar

s & p to taste

Heat up skillet(I use cast iron) and add olive oil.  Once heated up add the onion, garlic and peppers to skillet and saute until soft.  Next add in the rosemary and a bit of salt and pepper, continue to saute for about 2 minutes.  Once done take out vegetables and put into a dish and set aside.  Next add a bit more oil to the skillet and add the tofu strips, sprinkling a bit of salt onto the tops.  You want to sear the tofu on both sides until they start to turn brown and get a bit of a crust on them.  Once the tofu is done add the vegetable mixture back in with it and add the wine.  Stir for about a minute or so until completely warmed through.  Then stir in the balsamic vinegar.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over mashed potatoes or pasta.



Using a good balsamic is real important.  My mother-in-law always makes sure I have balsamic vinegar handy and luckily she knows which ones are best.  This one is from Oliviers & Co. and tastes wonderful!  It's more syrupy but not too much and a bit sweet instead of real acidic.  This is the kind you can drizzle over pasta or veggies before serving your guests or yourself.

Vegan Mofo #5/Almond Milk & Tulsi Tea

Happy Friday and MoFo day 5!

Yesterday I didn't make much in the way of food.  My son Keaton has been home from school since Wednesday.  He started with a cough Monday night,Tuesday evening the dry coughing progressed and he was very tired.  At least he's able to sleep through the night. He had a fever yesterdaywhich I think was a good sign that his body is finally fighting, whatever is going on, off.  He had such a busy weekend last week and stayed up until the wee hours in the moring at a sleepover.  I'm thinking his lack of sleep didn't do any good for his immune system as far as fighting off anything he was exposed to. 

 I usually use Umcka cold care or Sambucus Elderberry syrup but decided to try a homeopathic one.  I know it takes time to work but I just wasn't feeling that it was doing much for him.  I went back to our local health food store and purchased New Chapter Immunity Take Care Lozenges, and

Honey Gardens Apitherapy Honey Wild Cherry Bark Syrup(the gal highly recommended this one).  The honey is raw and not heated so it contains the medicinal properties in it to fight bacteria and virises.  As a vegan to use honey is a personal decision.  Personally I don't buy much honey but when I do it's from a respected smaller farm and usually local.  As far as this syrup containing honey, I'd rather give this to my son than antibiotics or medication. 

So this morning he looks better, no fever, no dizziness, still has a cough and a bit of a yucky stomache but I think the stomache issues are linked with the coughing.  We'll see.

 

Homemade Almond Milk

So a  couple of weeks back I saw a video on The Plant Based Dietician blog where they made almond milk using filtered water and raw almond butter.  Talk about saving some cash, this is so easy to make.  Isn't it pretty? 

This is Holy Basil Tea which they call Tulsi Tea.  Keaton and I tried some this summer when we hit up the Farmers Market in Arcata, CA this summer.  This is just such a nice tasting and smooth tea with a bunch of great health benefits to go along with it! 

Office before painting. (Shelving was taking down already)

Office finished

I guess since my computer is back up and running, we finished our office and fixed our computer, I can finally
post our summer vacation.  Hey better late than never.  What a great month to post about it too since I have to blog like every day.  I promise I will post about it!
See ya tomorrow!

Mofo #4/ Homemade chickenless nuggets and Bok choy salad

Good day to all it's day 4 of Vegan Mofo! 

Before I continue with today's food I must let you all know that Trader Joe's Hemp milk that I previously posted about is quite delicious!  Hempseeds have a strong flavor yet the milk doesn't have that taste at all and is quite mild in taste.  It seems that Hannah at bittersweet has also tried it and enjoys it as well.  They also make a vanilla hemp milk.  You can't beat the price for a great tasting non-dairy milk 

I found this great recipe online  for fat-free chickenless nuggets and I tell you these are so yummy and easy to make too.  It was less expensive to make and doesn't have a bunch of extra stuff in it as well.

The recipe comes from Happy Herbivore so click on over to get her recipe.  Her recipe does say "fat-free" but I melted a bit of Earth Balance and drizzled over each piece before I baked the nuggets.  I'm sure you could spray olive or canola if you wish to as well.

The reason for making the nuggets were to add to this crisp and crunchy bok choy salad.  One of my girlfriends signed up for the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart Challenge and I signed up as well to see about getting some new lower-fat recipes to help my husband out. This recipe by celebrity Ginnifer Goodwin stood out and it's just the perfect meal for a hot day or if you want a light meal.  I actually couldn't stop eating it. lol!  

GINNIFER'S RECIPE:

Gramma's Bok Choy (& Chick'n) Salad

Makes 6 servings

1 medium head organic bok choy, washed, cored, and dried

1 bunch organic green onions, chopped

2 1/2 ounces organic sesame seeds

1 2-ounce package organic sliced almonds

2 3-ounce packages Nissin Top Ramen Oriental noodle soup mix, uncooked

garlic powder, to taste

2 generous tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar

1/2 cup organic sugar

1 package Gardein Crispy Tenders vegetarian chick'n, prepared as directed



Chop bok choy into bite-size pieces; add onions and chill. Discard seasoning packet from the soup mix or save for another use. Break up noodles. Sauté sesame seeds, almonds, and noodles in oil. Add garlic powder and salt. Cool and store in a covered container for an indefinite time. An hour before serving, combine soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar and boil for no more than 1 minute. Toss the salad with Gardein chick'n and all of the above ingredients. For variety, this salad is also great with chopped pimiento or mandarin orange. Enjoy!

*note-I used a different Ramen noodle from our local health food store.
Until tomorrow......laugh a little.

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!



Vegam MoFo#2: Pumpkin Seeds and Leftover Chili

It's day 2 of Mofo.  Hope everyone is having a great day.  It's warming up again and is supposed to be in the 90's, crazy eh?  This won't last though and the nights have dropped in the 30's...burrrr!

Today I'm going to post about the pumpkin seeds I made last night.  I love pumpkin and pumpkin seeds. 

The first thing I did was to take all of the pumpkin flesh off of the seeds, and patted dry.  Then I  layed them out on a cookie sheet and put them in a 250degree oven for about 45min to almost dry out.

Once dried out I poured a couple of tablespoons of olive oil on them then sprinkled some dried thyme and sea salt.  Put back into oven and turned the heat up to 350.  These cooked about 20min. and I stired them around a couple of times to evenly toast. Wallah!  A hint of thyme and sea salt.  The cool thing is you can add any herbs you like or spices.  

 This is something I like to do with leftover enchiladas but for this I used left over chili.  First warm up the chili in a pot.  Then in a bowl add some salad, then the warm chili(or enchiladas), avocado and some chips.  I don't know why I like this but it's just a tasty way of eating leftover chili.

I'll be back tomorrow with more food!

First Day of Vegan MOFO and Halloween weekend review.

It's November and the first day of Vegan MOFO! I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! I did, it's my birthday on Halloween. Dave, Keaton and I went to a late breakfast Halloween morning and guess who was sitting a table away from us?????? Peter Facinelli, Jennie Garth and their kids. A vampire eating breakfast right by me. hee hee!   That was a pretty cool celebrity sighting and start to my morning.  Later that afternoon Dave carved the pumpkin.

Scary Leprechaun

Keaton made me a chocolate cake, while I made the filling and ganache topping.

The go to  chocolate cake recipe we go to all of the time that is super moist and comes out perfect everytime is taken from the Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts.  There are some changes I make they are: We double the recipe, use applesauce for half of the oil and I add a couple of tablespoons of instant coffee.
The caramel filling I used was actually the Dulce De Leche recipe from Viva Vegan and then the chocolate ganache was made with full fat soy milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted of course, than poured over the top.

Keaton went as a gorilla this year.  He had some cool sunglasses to wear but forgot all about them.

3 Bean Chili

For dinner I made a pot of chili and a side of cornbread.  For this recipe I used a ground veggie crumble because I thought that one of the parents were coming over to eat with us and they are a big time meat eater.  We actually prefer no veg meat in our chili. I forgot to add the chipotle chili in adobe sauce which adds an amazing flavor, oh well next time.  I make my own beans and this is actually the first tine I've cooked up my own kidney beans and man are nothing like the canned, they are so much better!  I also use Pomi tomatoes in a box because it is free of BPA but you can use any tomatoes you like, even fresh which I use all summer long.

3 Bean Chili

Olive oil for sauteeing

2 medium onions, diced

4 Italian red peppers, diced

2 Anaheim peppers, seeded and diced

5 garlic cloves, minced 

1- 12 oz. pkg veggie crumbles

1/4 C. soyrizo

1 1/2 T. oregano

1 1/2 T. cumin

4 T. Chili powder

2 T. Cocoa powder 

1/2 tsp salt

39oz. Pomi diced or whole tomatoes in juice, don't drain( if whole you can chop up or just pour into pot and mash them with spoon against side of pot to break them up)

2 C. water

2 C. black beans, drained

2 C. white beans(northern beans or cannelini), drained

3 C. kidney beans, drained

Chipotle in adobe sauce (optional) use according to how much heat you can stand

In a large heavy pot heat oil.  Once oil is heated saute onions, red peppers, garlic until they start to soften.  Then add the veggie crumbles and soyrizo.  Cook until it is browned and pepper-onion mixture is soft.  Next stir in the spices, salt and cocoa powder for about 1-2 minutes.(This is also the time to add the chipotle if you want).  Then add the water, tomatoes and beans.     Bring to a boil cover and turn down heat to a simmer for an hour or longer.  The longer it simmers the more the flavor develops.