Winter, Spring, Winter, Turkey!

For those of you Minnesota peeps battling the snow on your commute – I'm sorry. I knew it would have to snow at least one more time especially since Dan was bold enough to uncovered the deck furniture and we used the grill on Monday; it was inevitable.

Mother Nature has been teasing us the past few weeks enough so that two very large turkeys were spotted walking down the middle of Minnetonka Blvd last week. Actually they were chasing cars – it was hilarious. And today, I saw one of those fat turkeys walking in our backyard right outside my window – Camille was going crazy running up and down the hall; some days in the hood are more interesting than others – but I digress.

Speaking of Spring, I've been loving the light in the morning and after I get off of work and I've been taking advantage of it by walking. It's a great way to start my day; gets my heart pumping, the cool air wakes me up and it helps me collect my thoughts - I feel energized and ready to start writing when I sit down at my desk.

I've been in a no chips, no cookies and no bread mode (with the exception of multi-grain wraps). I definitely have a weakness for chips and if I could find a way to have a bag in the house that didn't call to me every 15 minutes I would, but I can't so I don't. While I was walking on Monday and pondering dinner I recalled we had portabella mushrooms in the fridge so I decided a nice marinade and then grilling sounded good (hence the snow). I wasn't looking for a complicated dinner so I made some wild rice and roasted some broccoli – simple. 

I marinated the mushrooms in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic, and chili powder for about a half an hour and then grilled them for 10 minutes on each side. The broccoli was a simple olive oil, pepper and Himalayan sea salt and roasted at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, turning once half way through. And the wild rice was cooked in vegetable broth. Dinner done in 45 minutes.

On Tuesday I was looking for something a bit more complicated so I roasted an acorn squash at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. While the squash was roasting I sautéed an onion in 1 Tbsp. of olive oil until it was translucent. To the onion I added  ¼ red pepper and ¼ yellow pepper and sautéed for about 5 – 7 minutes, then added 2 handfuls of spinach, a 10 ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes, ½ can of black beans and some leftover portabella mushrooms and wild rice and cooked until everything was heated through. 

When the squash was just about done I filled the cavity with the onion, pepper, etc. mixture, topped it with a small amount of feta and put it back in the oven and baked it until the feta was brown on the edges. I removed it from the oven topped it with fresh avocado and added some sliced kiwi on the plate for garnish. I got rave reviews from the husband, which I do appreciate.

We'll be spending Easter with Dan's family this year; looking forward to good food, lively conversation and fun.

My Oh My Peanut Butter Pie

It was movie night Friday night and every once in a while I feel the urge to splurge on making a dessert – Friday night was one of those nights. Peanut butter is a staple at our house. It has lots of protein and I'll eat it on celery, carrots, toast, in a smoothie for breakfast, lunch or dinner I'm not picky – well I am a bit I prefer creamy and Dan likes chunky so we alternate – seems fair.

I also got up this morning and realized it was National Pi day and of course we need to celebrate – even if it is with left over pie right?

I did a bit of browsing for peanut butter pie recipes and found 2 that I liked and essentially I flipped a coin – the were only slightly different. I got rave reviews, a request for the recipe (from the non cooking husband) and leftovers that my sweetie has been enjoying – its all good.

For those of you who are purists I encourage you to make your own crust with Oreos for those of you who know the realities in life, buy the Oreo cookie crust, it will save you some time and it doesn't taste any different (and yes I have used both – I cannot taste a difference). The link to the site is here

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie 

Ingredients

• 1 (14.3 oz) package whole Oreos (about 36 Oreos)
• 1 cup (16 tablespoons) butter, divided
• 1½ cups + 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter, divided
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. Finely crush the Oreos with a food processor, blender, or in a Ziploc bag. Stir crumbs together with 8 tablespoons melted butter until well combined. Press into the bottom and sides of a pie pan. Freeze crust for 10 minutes until set.
2. Add the remaining 8 tablespoons of softened butter, 1½ cups creamy peanut butter, and 1 cup powdered sugar to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on low speed until smooth and creamy. Spoon the peanut butter mixture over the crust into a smooth layer. Place back in freezer.
3. Place chocolate chips and remaining 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in a large glass or heat-proof bowl. In a saucepan, bring heavy whipping cream to a rolling simmer over medium-high heat. Pour the cream over the chocolate chips and peanut butter and let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk until completely smooth. Pour the chocolate layer over the peanut butter layer. Refrigerate, covered, at least 1 hour until ready to serve.

This pie is very sweet, cut into small pieces - believe me it will be a satisfying experience. Besides small pieces mean pie for so many more days!

St. Patty's Day is upon us - if you're Irish, want to be Irish or think you're Irish - celebrate in style. 

Erin go bragh!

Tempeh Life Lessons

It's interesting; I've been eating tempeh for over a year and have never noticed that it has a bitter taste (as told to me by my husband). When he finally fessed up I was surprised and then being the dutiful cooking tech nerd that I am I did a Google search to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out he's right and if you spend 10 – 15 minutes steaming it the nutty flavor is enhanced and the bitter flavor disappears – who knew? 

Armed with my new found knowledge, I was eager to tame the tempeh dragon and decided we needed to give this a try - if only because I was hoping if I could get rid of the bitterness Dan would be more enthusiastic about cooking with it. I have to say I think he's a convert and we'll be finding it on our table more often - which makes me very happy. 

To celebrate this we raided the fridge and made a tempeh, pepper, onion and mushroom stir fry with a soy sauce, garlic and ginger sauce and served it over brown rice - I could have licked the bowl clean. I mean who doesn't love garlic and ginger in a stir fry. If you want to keep this gluten free, use tamari instead of the soy sauce.

I started with  an 8 ounce package of tempeh , placed it in a steamer, covered it and steamed it for about 10 minutes. Removed it from the heat and set it aside to cool. 

While the tempeh was cooling I chopped a large onion into approximately 1/2 inch dice and sauteed it in 1 1/2 T of olive oil until translucent.   

Then  I sliced 3 small peppers (1 red, 1 yellow and 1 orange) into thin strips. See how pretty they are!  And they're low in calories and sodium have no cholesterol, and are high in vitamin A and vitamin C. 

 

Then I sliced 6 ounces of mushrooms

Chopped the cooled tempeh into cubes - and yes we tested a few to make sure they were not bitter, I actually heard myself make the yum sound.  And then peeled and crushed many cloves of garlic. 

When all of the chopping was complete it was time to start stir frying. 

To the onions add the garlic (looks like we have about 7 cloves there), some grated ginger and soy sauce (or tamari) and saute until the garlic is slightly browned and fragrant. Add the peppers, mushrooms and chopped tempeh and stif fry until the peppers are crisp tender. Server over brown rice with a side of fresh fruit and a slice of whole grain bread (or not if your gluten free). 

This recipe is so flexible you can add whatever veggies you have on hand. If you have any favorite tempeh recipes send them my way - I love trying new things.

Comfort food

I've been thinking a lot lately about macaroni and cheese, which is odd because I can't eat cheese. Over the years I've tried using processed vegan "cheese" but it doesn't melt like the real thing and it has a flat taste. A while ago I made vegan lasagna using a cashew cheese and it was really good so I thought – why not but I knew it needed a something to kick up the taste and make it cheesy. 

I started by soaking a cup of raw cashews for about 8 hours. Then I sautéed ¾ of a diced onion in a little bit of olive oil and added 4 cloves of garlic and cooked until browned on the edges and removed from the heat to cool a bit.

Meanwhile, I set a pot of water to boil and cooked approx. 10 ounces of pasta until al dente. To my trusty Ninja blender I added the onion/garlic mixture, 1 ½ cups vegetable broth, 1T cornstarch, 2T nutritional yeast, ¾ tsp. chili powder, ½ tsp. cumin, 3 ounces mild green chilies, and cashews (drained of course) and blend until smooth.

Drain the pasta and put the sauce into the same pan and cook until thickened. Add the pasta, some chopped cilantro, approximately 3 – 4 ounces of green chilies and a few sprinkles of paprika and serve.

I was skeptical about how it would taste, but I have to say it was delicious, not like traditional mac n cheese, because it isn't traditional mac n cheese, but great vegan mac and cheese. I'd definitely make it again and the husband asked for seconds. I served it with a side of oven roasted root vegetables – the perfect dinner for a Minnesota Spring/Winter night.

Cauliflower it's what's for dinner

Cauliflower recipes are everywhere. It seems you can do more with it than you can with chicken; which is great because I'm not a huge fan of chicken. For most of my life I had the notion that cauliflower should be eaten raw and broccoli cooked. For the past couple years however, I've used it as a replacement for dairy in sauces, grilled like a steak, as a "burger" and this past week; spicy cauliflower soup.

This soup is definitely a keeper. Let's start with the fact that an entire medium head of cauliflower has about 150 calories, it's low in fat, has no cholesterol and it's relatively inexpensive, – can you say healthy!  Of course you can.

Spices

1 Tbsp. olive or coconut oil

2 medium yellow onions, diced

1 bay leaf

1 1/4 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. ground turmeric

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/8 tsp. ground cardamom

Dash of ground black pepper

Sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes

4 garlic cloves, minced

Sustenance

4 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 large head of cauliflower, roughly chopped to the same size

Finish

1 cup canned coconut milk

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium temperature. Add all the spice ingredients, except for the garlic. Sauté, stirring occasionally until the onions become translucent, about 10 minutes. Then, add the garlic and sauté another few minutes. 

Add the sustenance ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, until the cauliflower is fork tender. 

Remove from heat and transfer carefully to a blender. Blend on high (allowing steam to vent) for a few minutes, until silky and smooth. 

Return to the soup pot and stir in the coconut milk and vinegar. Bring back to heat over low, ensuring it doesn't boil. Serve with crusty French bread and a green salad.

Enjoy!

Relaxing with Chili

After spending the better part of last week in Dallas at a work event, I was happy to come home, sleep in my own bed, pet Camille and hang out with Dan. I really enjoyed the company meeting it was the first time I had the opportunity to meet all of my coworkers and I have to say - I work with a lot of very nice and very talented people.

The trip down had a bit of excitement tho, just after we took off the flight attendant asked if there were any medical personnel on board. After the 3rd call and no response we noticed that the plane seemed to be charting a new course. As it turned out, the sutures of a passenger who had recently had surgery had opened up and he needed medical attention so, off to Omaha we went.

I've never been on a flight with a medical emergency but I thought we would land, he would be taken off the aircraft and we would be on our merry way - not exactly the way things turned out. An ambulance pulled up next to the aircraft, the passenger was removed, put in the ambulance, sewed up, returned to the aircraft and after filing new flight plans and refueling we were back in the air!

We had some great sessions and fun events at our company meeting. We visited a nice brewery, had an awesome dinner at a farm to table restaurant and I attended my first ever rodeo - bucking broncos here we come. For those of you who know me and my love of "fair junk food" - yes I did break down and have a corn dog - I'm good for about 5 years now - but it was good and it had lots of mustard so delicious!

So after a week of indulgences I was hungry for chili - spicy chili. A couple weeks ago I stocked up on beans and I still had some frozen tomato sauce from the garden which I used up in this dish; it was worth it. The chili was spicy and filled with peppers, onions, tomatoes, 3 kinds of beans and  southwestern corn - it really hit the spot. I served it with with homemade sweet cornbread.

Vegetarian Chili
Olive oil
1 large red onion - finely diced
2 peppers (I used a combination of red/yellow and green) - chopped
4 cloves garlic - minced
cayenne pepper to taste
crushed red pepper to taste
cumin to taste
1 can southwest corn
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chills
4 cups tomato sauce
1 can black beans - rinsed and drained
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can white beans
1/3 package Quorn crumbles

Directions
In a pot, heat olive oil, add onion and cook until translucent. Add peppers, garlic, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper and cumin, cook until peppers are soft.

To the pot add diced tomatoes, beans, corn and tomato sauce, cover pot, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Taste, adjust seasoning, add quorn crumbles and simmer for 15- 20 minutes. Garnish with avocado slices, cilantro, and chopped green onions, serve with cornbread.

Valentines Day is this weekend - remember to give your sweetie a hug and let them know how much you care. If you have any favorite Valentine Day dishes, send them my way; especially if they are sweet I'm looking for ideas.

A Vegetarian for Every Year

I started this year with a revised vision - I'm continuing my vegetarian diet but in situations, generally associated with restaurants, in absence of a healthy vegetarian option I'll order fish - which makes sense inasmuch as my goal is continued healthy eating.

If you're a regular, you've most likely noticed the new look, my original plan was to create a whole new blog but after giving it a lot of thought, I didn't want the people who were currently following me to have to reset bookmarks, hunt around for the blog or wonder where I was  - I decided a redesign of the site with the same link made more sense - so welcome/welcome back!

For those of you who recall how I started this vegetarian journey it was one of my 15 for 15. For those of you who don't know what that means - each year I try to do 16 (15 in 2015, 14 in 2014 …) things that improve either my life or someone else's. Some things are bigger (going to half price books quarterly and stocking up on elementary age appropriate reading for the local Little Free Library stops in the neighborhood) to simple (helping the neighbor shovel the driveway, carry in groceries or drop off a loaf of banana bread). We can change lives for the better in many ways, my experience is giving of yourself is the most rewarding.

I've added a new twist this year. I've decided to add a word that will guide my actions and behavior, this year I've decided that JOY is something I want to focus on. Not simply to increase the joy in my own life but to look for opportunities to add joy to other lives; I think it will be a challenge, one I'm willing to accept.

I've been pondering vegan lasagna for a long time - I've always loved the beautiful layers but I don't make it because I'm not a fan of all that pasta. I was browsing Pinterest a while ago and came across a vegan, dairy and gluten free lasagna so I gave it a try. It's a bit putsy (what lasagna isn't) but it was well worth the effort.

The next time I make it I'll change a couple things; first salt and drain the zucchini if you don't you'll have more liquid than you like in the bottom of the pan. Second I would add nutritional yeast to the cashew/walnut cream - it gives it a cheesy flavor. We served it with some crusty bread and a spinach salad with blueberries and raspberries and a balsamic dressing.

Vegan butternut squash lasagna

Ingredients
1 small butternut squash
1 medium zucchini
8 ounces - baby portabella mushrooms
⅔ red pepper
⅔ yellow or orange pepper
1 batch of cashew/walnut cream
1 batch tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Using a mandolin slice zucchini and butternut squash in slices lengthwise approximately ⅛ inch thick. Trim peel from butternut squash set aside. Wash and slice mushrooms - set aside. Wash and very thinly slice peppers.

Cashew and Walnut Cream
1 ⅔  cups raw cashews soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
1 ⅓  cup walnuts soaked for at least 2 hours and drained
1 T fresh lemon juice
4 cloves garlic peeled - add more to taste
1 ⅔ to 2 cups of water (depends on your thickness preference)

Combine nuts, lemon juice and garlic and 1 cup of water in a high speed blender and blend until creamy. Add additional water ⅛ cup at a time until you have desired consistency.

Tomato sauce
Roma tomatoes
Onions
Garlic
Basil
Salt
Pepper
Black olives

Sauté onions and olive oil in a stock pot until onions are translucent. combine tomatoes, garlic, basil and salt and pepper to taste in a high speed blender and puree. Add tomato mixture to stock pot and boil until think - adding seasonings as desired.

Assembling the Lasagna
In an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan add ½ to ¾ cup tomato sauce and spread it on the bottom. Add a layer of butternut squash slices filling in open and small spaces. Add a layer of cashew cream to cover butternut squash.

Add a layer of zucchini and top with a layer of portabella mushrooms. Cover with tomato sauce. Add another layer of butternut squash and top with cashew cream then top with peppers.

Final layer
Add a layer of tomato sauce, top with zucchini, the rest of the portobella mushrooms and the final layer of cheese.

Bake in oven for 50 - 60 minutes - until the butternut squash is cooked but still firm. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 - 20 minutes.

Serve with spinach salad and seed or garlic bread