Mofo#13/ Roasted Butternut on Mixed Green Salad

I hope everyone is enjoying their day.  We've been enjoying our warmer day although we have to bundle up at night.

Yesterday evening I was alone for dinner so I roasted up the rest of a butternut squash I had with a bit of fresh sage, olive and sea salt.  I already had a salad made so I just made some good balsamic dressing to go with it. The dressing I found is here.  The only changes I made to it was that I added a few tablespoons of water and used organic cane sugar instead of brown.  This is a really great balsamic dressing. In a pasta bowl I put some lettuce, butternut squash, dried cranberries and pecans.  Then I drizzled the balsamic dressing and fresh ground pepper.  I Sat down with a nice glass of red wine and scrolled through the old movie section of Netflix and found, to my pleasant surprise, Summertime starring Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi.  What a great way to eat dinner and enjoy a classic movie before the hubby got home.

Tomorrow I'll be back with 2 different biscotti recipes.

Vegan MoFo #12/ GF- Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Friday!  Another beautiful California day but boy was it chilly this morning.  Last night was the coldest so far...brrrrrr. 

These cookies do contain oatmeal so if you are one who has Celiacs, you will need to buy GF certified oats. For you readers who don't know much about Celiacs disease, if you are truly gluten intolerent you can not have any food that touches gluten or processed from a facility that may also process wheat products.  My son doesn't have celiacs but he is sensitive to too much wheat so he does okay with organic oats.  Keaton says that these are his favorite GF cookies so far.  So coming from a kid that's pretty good.  Also for you out there I won't always list my ingredients as organic but most of them are.  The chocolate chips I use are Guittard, they are also Gluten Free and the dark or semi-sweet chocolate doesn't contain milk.  Personally, I feel these chocolate chips totally out do Ghiradelli in taste, they have this wonderful underlying caramel taste to them. Yum!

GF-Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oats
Recipe

Preheat oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl cream together:
1/2 C. brown sugar
3 T. apple sauce
1/3 C. oil
1 tsp. vanilla

In another bowl combine:
1/2 C. sorghum flour
1/2 C. rice flour
1/2 C. tapioca flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder(Rumford brand  aluminum-free)
1/4 tsp. salt

When sugar mixture is completely creamed together add in the dry ingredients.  Next stir in 3/4 C. oats and 1/2 C. chocolate chips.

Use a tablespoon to drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet.  Bake in oven for about 12min.

Enjoy your friday night.  Keep warm.

Vegan MoFo Day 11/ Cheesy Sauce quick post

 Whew this week has just been flying by!  I don't have any recipes for you today this is just a quick post. 

Keaton went back to school today.  He still can't hear out of both ears but he made it through.

Carrots, celery, golden beet, apples, cucumber juice

For dinner I made something really quick.  Didn't feel like cooking.

I made a cheezy sauce (the nacho recipe subbed roasted bell pepper for the pimentos).

I poured the sauce over an organic russet potato and organic broccoli.

The cool thing about this sauce is that the only fat comes from the cashews(high in magnesium), nutritional yeast( is a complete protein and full of b-vitamins).  So you can have what may look like a non-nutritional, fat laden, artery clogging sauce... but it isn't!  Yum!

Back tomorrow with a GF-chocolate chip cookie

MoFo #10/ A different Tahini recipe w/chickpeas, veggies and brown rice

Did you think I had forgotton about todays post?  It's almost 5 and I just got back from a day of errands and after this it's off to the Farmers Market.

One of the first vegan meals that I had in my rotation was this.  I usually use shitake mushrooms in it but I didn't have any on hand.

I'm not going to give out exact measurements but I will tell you what I used in the recipe.  You can also use what veggie you have on hand.  Shitake just goes so well with this dish and I usually don't use carrot either.  First I cooked up a pot of brown rice.  As the rice is cooking you saute up some yellow onion and 2 minced garlic cloves,until soft.  Then add in veggies of choice. I had broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and italian red pepper. Saute just until slightly tender and then add about 2 C. chickpeas.  The sauce mixture I just add right into the pan-1/3 C. Tahini, 3 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari, 1 1/2 C. no-chicken broth or veggie broth and mix in well and let reduce slightly.  Add firm tofu chunks if you with.  I did.  Add more tamari if you wish as well.  Serve over brown rice.

Okay I got to go.  Have a great night.

Vegan MoFo#9/ Light Gumbo with Seitan Sausages

Happy Tuesday!  Today is going to be a quick post.  I have to clean up around here and I'm going to watch a movie with Keaton.  Yes he's home from school again. I went to go get his ears checked out and come to find out not only does he have fluid in the ears but he has strep!  He came home from school yesterday with a sunburn type rash and his hands/feet were sore.  The doctor said his throat looked red but that was it.  According to his other symptoms...strep. 
Food?

Yesterday's lunch.

Ezekiel English Muffin w/mashed white beans, avocado and tomato





 



Light Gumbo with Seitan Sausage

To get my recipe for my gumbo click here.  In making this gumbo lower in fat it also was a bit more runny than thick. I just used 2T. Olive oil and 3T. flour for the roux.  I only used 4 Cups of water and 1/2 a cup of pale ale(not dark) and 2 fresh tomatoes chopped.  I sauteed seitan sausage, chopped them and browned them in the skillet using olive oil spray.  The seitan sausage recipe was based on the steamed white seitan from Viva Vegan.  I just adjusted the spices accordingly and made 6 small loaves.

 

Enjoy your evening!





Vegan MoFo #8/ Lemon Tahini Sauce over GF noodles

Happy Monday to you!

It's on to the second week of Vegan MoFo!  There are so many delicious recipes to try.  I'm trying to check out new blogs everyday and support my usual blogs at the same time.

FYI.  If you haven't seen the film FOODMATTERS you really need to.  It's also a really good one to share with your non-vegan family members.   

Lemon Tahini Noodles



Tahini sauce makes for a nice change instead of using a peanut sauce over noodles.  The noodles I used were rice noodles from TJ's.

Lemon Tahini Noodles

1pd. rice or udon noodles

Prepare noodles according to package.  While water is boiling prepare sauce.

In a blender add the following ingredients and blend until smooth.

1/2 C. Raw Tahini

1 garlic clove
2 T. fresh ginger, chopped

3 T. maple syrup or agave

3 T. Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari

2 T. Brown Rice Vinegar

2 T. sesame oil

3 T. fresh lemon juice or more to your liking

2 T. cilantro

2 scallions, chopped

Splash of sriracha or more if you like to add some heat

1/2 -3/4 cup of water to thin out.

Vegetables:

olive oil

1 garlic clove

1tsp. ginger

vegetables of your choice.

 Gently saute vegetables in a large pan with garlic and ginger.  Once vegetables are slightly cooked add the noodles and the sauce.  Stir together well.  You can then serve into dish and top with sesame seeds.

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.