Making the Best of a Bad Situation

Remember last week when I said Mother Nature was in a bad mood and it was snowing - well this week she is PISSED.  Not sure why but we’ve got one hell of a storm heading our way with predictions of 12 inches of snow, ice, sleet - well you name it, it’s coming. 

So I guess the only thing to do is cook right? In anticipation of Snowmageddon I took a trip to the grocery store yesterday and got some groceries and this afternoon I cooked up a batch of vegetarian tortilla soup and vegan gluten free sweet potato flat bread - nom nom nom delicious. 

Before I get into recipes, what is it about bad weather that drives people to the grocery store - because honestly if you are like me you have enough food in your freezer/pantry to get you through weeks or the zombie apocalypse (which ever comes first). 

I was talking to my friend Irene (who lives in Texas) today and she said they were looking at tornados and bad storms, which she says always empties out the bread, milk and eggs out of the store - we both had a good laugh.  

So back to food and recipes :-) 

The tortilla soup was easy to prepare, chopping and dicing took about 15 minutes and the rest was crock pot magic. To be honest I broke my number one rule - saute onions in a pan before putting them into the crock pot - and at 5pm I was annoyed. I ended up pouring the soup into a stock pot, putting it on the stove and cooking it until it was done. Next time - do not skip the golden rule - saute onions first!

The sweet potato bread was an experiment - while we are not gluten free - the recipe looked interesting and it did not disappoint. While Dan likes his fluffy bread I love the dense texture and the flavor of the sweet potato and spices. I will definitely make this again.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

2 cans pinto beans (if you are a purist you can make them from scratch in your nifty  instant pot)

1 onion - diced

3 - 4 cloves of garlic - thinly sliced

3 cups tomatoes - diced

1 -2 jalepeno peppers - thinly sliced

4 - 5 cups veggie broth 

1 T chili powder

1 tsp cumin

tortilla chips (optional)

avocados (optional)

Instructions:

Saute onion in a pan with 1 T of olive oil until translucent. Add onion and all ingredients into a crock pot and cook on high for 3 - 4 hours. Serve with tortilla chips and avocado

Sweet Potato Flatbread

First, thanks to The Healthy Apple for the recipe, you can find the full version with totally awesome photos here

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato peeled and diced

1 Tbsp. ground flaxseeds

3 Tbsp. water

2 1/2 cups almond flour

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. fresh chopped rosemary

1/2 tsp. sea salt plus an extra pinch

2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.Steam the sweet potato in a steamer basket in a pot on the stove top until tender, about 10 minutes over medium high heat.

Combine the flaxseeds and water in a small bowl and set aside for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes gel-like then mix well.

In a large bowl, mash the cooked sweet potatoes. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well to form a 'dough'. Transfer the 'dough' to a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet and flatten with your hands into a ½ inch thickness.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the flatbread is golden brown and the edges turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 20 minutes.

Cut into rectangle pieces and serve.

Braving the Cold with A Vegetarian for One Year

Mother Nature is obviously in a very bad mood; it’s April 8th and snowing in Minnesota. A few minutes ago a snow plow went down the street - the plow was up but at the ready should it be needed. I need Spring SOON!

We had a great hike with Dan’s sister Sue and her husband Brian today. We walked for a little more than an hour and then headed over to the falls. They were beautiful (see below), the falls were free flowing but there were beautiful what I will call stalactites and stalagmites on either side. There was a beautiful blue hue to the ice; - the photos do not do it justice. 

Cold weather always makes me crave something warm with a bit of spice, soups and stews are the ticket. I’d been saving a head of cauliflower for either a curry or buffalo wings but opted for a Thai oriented dish - it was a good choice. 

Dan was at a meeting so I had lots of time to pour myself a glass of wine and spend some quality time in the kitchen alone. I put on some music and chopped, sautéed and simmered. 

Cauliflower, Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic sliced

1 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp turmeric

6 tomatoes chopped

1 can coconut milk

1 cup water

1 sweet potato peeled and cubed

1 small cauliflower chopped

1 tsp sea salt

3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

Juice 1/2 lime

1 tsp soy sauce

Chilli flakes

Fresh cilantro

Directions

Add the oil to a large pan with a lid and heat to a medium heat then add in the onion. Fry for approximately 8-10 minutes until soft and browning. Add in the garlic, cumin & turmeric and stir for 30 seconds.

Add in the chopped tomatoes and cook for 5-6 minutes then add in the water, coconut milk, sweet potatoes and cauliflower. Simmer for 20 minutes covered until the sweet potatoes and cauliflower are tender.

Stir in the peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, a healthy sprinkle of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Simmer for a 5 - 10 minutes. Serve in bowls and top with fresh cilantro. 

We served this with avocado toast and a glass of wine - it was relish. 

Baba Ganoush Sans Tahini

We did it - we hired a contractor to remodel our kitchen. It’s exciting, a bit freaky and unnerving and of course there is the construction. To be honest, I never realized how dated our kitchen was until I saw it on the big screen at the remodelers office - yikes. In May that will all change - new kitchen here we come. I’ll start with a little preview of color and materials that we picked out. 

If you know me, you know that navigating through any kind of remodel/construction is not something I do well - I hate a mess, especially one I have little to no control over. We’ll have to take it one day at a time and hope for the best - as Dan says “Let’s hope we’re still married at the end” ever the optimist I say!

We’re planning to move our microwave, toaster oven and hotplate to the basement, where we have a wet bar and we hope to do a fair amount of grilling - with luck we’ll be good. I’m envisioning 6 weeks of interesting and creative blog posts. If you have suggestions/recipes for cooking in limited circumstances please send them my way. 

I love eggplant and Dan is a huge fan of Baba Ghanoush - which is tasty but for me the tahini takes over the entire dish. In my opinion a little tahini goes a long way. I was a the grocery store the other day and noticed a brand of hummus I hadn’t seen before; Lantana - they had some delicious flavors such as Siracha Carrot and Spicy Black Bean all sans tahini. It got me thinking; what if I made Baba Ghanoush without tahini? So I gave it a shot and it’s delicious and I don’t miss the tahini. Actually the smoky eggplant flavor comes through in a delicious way - I encourage you to give it a try!

This recipe makes about 1 cup has 6 ingredients and after you roast the eggplant it takes minutes to put together. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds of eggplant

3 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 T. fresh lemon juice

2 - 3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 t. coarse sea salt

A few grinds of pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Wash and dry eggplant before pricking several times all over with a sharp knife. Place on a baking sheet and place in oven to roast for about 45 minutes or until eggplants are soft to the touch and look deflated.

Allow roasted eggplants to cool completely.  You can even roast them the day before and store them in plastic wrap at room temperature until ready to use. Cut off the stems, slice lengthwise and remove the flesh and place in a blender.

Add the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper.  Blend on high until smooth and creamy.  Serve at room temperature or chilled with wedges of pita bread. Also good as a spread for sandwiches.   

Enjoy!