Summer’s First Kiss

Summer is here! The temps are heating up, the sun is shining and the garden is beginning to explode. The first round of spinach is done, we’re well into the lettuce and kale and the collard greens are getting bigger and bigger; soon they will be the perfect size to make sandwich wraps - I can’t wait. 

On Tuesday we harvested our first tomatoes - can you say toasted tomato and mayo sandwiches - yum. Last weekend we had my high school classmate Ellen Stice Holtwick and her husband Joe over for dinner - it was great to connect with Ellen and meet Joe - we had dinner on the deck and had a lovely evening. 

For that dinner, Dan made a whole wheat, rye and rosemary bread - it was delicious so tonight when we brought in the tomato harvest we knew it was a tomato and mayo sandwich night. Dan toasted the bread and I put together a green salad with spinach, lettuce, kale, collard greens and broccoli from the garden and then added cukes, peppers and a lively citrus dressing. 

I also harvested some green beans, which I immediately washed, stemmed and steamed. I added a little margarine, salt and pepper to the mix and poof - it was magic. The beans were fresh and had a nice sweet taste - nothing better than young, fresh green beans. And when people tell you that you can freeze them for later - nah they don’t taste the same. Eat them when they are fresh. 

We made another trip to J Selby’s this week. This time I tried the beet wrap - shredded beets, walnuts, greens, homemade pickles and spices - wrapped in a tortilla and served with a side of their spicy slaw it was delicious. This time Dan liked his meal, he had a Philly sandwich; cubed seitan with onions and peppers on a toasted bun - his plate was empty when we left. 

We’re off to a wedding today and then a birthday party tomorrow - we’re busy but life is good. Thanks for stopping by. 

Rainy Days and Sundays

It’s been a weird weekend weather wise - cool (in the high 60’s to low 70’s) with periods of rain, then sun, then rain, then sun … well you get the picture. We had a great BBQ at my nephew’s house on Friday (thanks Corey and Orlean Miller for hosting us) and we got to see my other nephew Patrick, his wife and my great nieces and nephew - it was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. 

On Saturday Dan did his volunteer gig and I stayed home, picked up the house and made banana bread; it’s his favorite. Then we went to a new vegan restaurant in St Paul called J Selby’s - the food was fabulous. 

We started with buffalo cauliflower wings, which were served with vegan ranch and celery sticks. For dinner I had the Mediterranean bowl with falafel, quinoa, cucumbers, onions, kalamata olives, kale and topped with a tahini dressing - it was awesome. Dan had vegan tacos, which he was not enamored with because they had too many potatoes - but he said it would not stop him from going to the restaurant again.

Fast forward to Sunday - it was cloudy and rainy in the morning so we headed to the movies to see Wonder Woman. If you ever watched the Lynda Carter version you should definitely go see this movie - I love it when a strong woman can take charge and save the world. There are great performances by Gal Gadot (Diana), Chris Pine (Steve Trevor), Connie Nielson (Hippolyta) and even Robin Wright (Antiope). 

After the movie we worked in the garden and then I finally got around to thinking about dinner. I was again one of those no measuring evenings but it was tasty. A while back we were at Costco and then we giving out samples of edamame noodles - the texture and taste were wonderful and I thought it would be a great alternative to regular pasta. I had forgotten about them until I was baking on Saturday when I opened up the pantry and found them right next to the sugar.

Ingredients:

1/2 head of cauliflower - broken into florets

1 crown broccoli - broken into florets 

1 onion - peeled and cubed

1/2 yellow pepper in chunks

1/2 orange pepper in chunks 

3 handfuls of spinach (from the garden)

4 cloves garlic

1 handful of edamame pasta

Directions:

Place cauliflower, broccoli, onion and peppers on a sheet pan (I used my Pampered Chef large bar pan), drizzle olive oil over the veggies, mix and then season with salt and pepper. Roast for approx 25 minutes, turning half way through.

In a sauce pan bring water to a boil and add the pasta, cook for 4 -5 minutes, drain and then place in a bowl. 

In a saute pan add 1 Tbsp of olive oil and garlic saute until light brown, add spinach, 3 Tbsp water and sprinkle with nutmeg, stir until the spinach is wilted. 

Add spinach/garlic mixture to the bowl with pasta and toss. Add the roasted veggies and toss again. Top with feta and serve.

Camille and I say thanks for stopping by!

Movie Night

Once a month we get together with our friends Gerd and Maria to catch up, have dinner and watch a movie. It’s a nice way to keep in touch and they are happy to try some of my food experiments some of which turn out and some well not so much. 

I’ve been trying to perfect my vegan cashew cheese; each time I make it I tweak the flavors just a bit; sometimes I add more garlic, sometimes I change the herbs and sometimes I add more/less nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy flavor. I think the batch I made this week was quite tasty and may be my go to recipe going forward. 

I recently acquired the Pampered Chef RockCrok Stand, which turns the amazing RockCrok into a slow cooker. What’s cool about that is that you can use the RockCrok on pretty much any surface. So I was able to brown the onion and veggie crumbles in the Crok on the stove then add all the other ingredients directly into the pan, put it in the stand and slow cook it for 4 hours. Can you say fewer dishes to wash - I can.

I’ve been hungry for Calico Beans lately - for those of you who are not familiar with the dish it involves meat, bacon and beans; pork n beans, kidney beans and traditionally lima beans. As a vegetarian (who occasionally eats fish) this just wouldn’t work so I took a standard recipe and replaced the meat with veggie crumbles, the pork n beans with southern beans (vegetarian) and even though I like lima beans not everyone likes them so I substituted butter beans - the result was delicious - but we forgot to take a picture - ugh. 

What we did get a picture of was my spiralized cantaloupe salad with mozzarella, a  little prosciutto and mint. I picked around the prosciutto - it was quite tasty! If you don’t own a Spriralizer you could simply cut the melon in chunks it would taste the same but I really like the look of the threads of melon with the cheese and meat. You can get the full recipe with beautiful photos and a video on how to spiralize a cantaloupe from the Inspiralizer blog. 

I followed the recipe exactly (surprising right) and the result was delicious.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon freshly chopped mint

1 medium cantaloupe, peeled

Mozzarella approximately 1/3 of a ball of fresh mozzarella cubed

~2oz prosciutto 

Instructions

In the bottom of a large mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, mint and season with salt and pepper.

Set your Inspiralizer to Blade C. Load the cantaloupe onto the Inspiralizer and spiralizer until you start hitting the seeded interior. Scoop out the seeds and continue spiralizing until you yield about 4-5 cups of noodles. You can keep going and save the excess for future use or you can stop spiralizing, cube the cantaloupe (or keep whole) and save for future use.

Add the cantaloupe noodles to the bowl along with the mozzarella and toss well to combine.

Plate the cantaloupe salad on a serving platter and add in the prosciutto. Serve.

Thanks for stopping by!

Family - may we love them, enjoy them and belong to one

It’s been a rough month; my father passed away, we’ve paid our last respects at his funeral and I’ve been processing what is next - it’s been hard. Like most of you, I’ve thought of my parents as immortal - but of course we know they are not - they are human just like we are. They will live and die in the same way we will; sometimes quickly and sometimes painfully. But the most difficult thing to reconcile - I’m the older generation - moving down that path and I’m not sure how I feel about that. 

A couple things about my Dad - he had a great sense of humor, his laugh was infections and he told the best stories; the most memorable were about his karate belt - they were legendary. I recall as a child asking him over and over to tell me the karate belt story; they came in multiple variations but the story generally had a hero who was totally surround by some enemy, had the misfortune of losing most of his gear (except the karate belt, which he wore) and in the end it was the karate belt that frightened the enemy and saved the day.

We are now back on track and cooking up a storm - I’ve been incorporating fish into our meals every so often - because I enjoy a well cooked piece of salmon/tilapia and because it is a healthy alternative. I’ve also been searching for recipes that don’t take an hour to make because after i work and workout it’s close to 6 and if it takes me an hour to make dinner we are eating at 7ish - not my fav but it’s better than 9 right?

I’ve seen a number of “sheet pan dinner” recipes and after looking in the fridge I decided to give one a go. I started with french cut green beans, an onion in quarter inch dice, peppers sliced, fresh mushrooms and a couple of pieces of tilapia. 

I’m going to start by apologizing because this was one of those dinners where you cook but don’t measure. What I can say is I used the following ingredients:

Veggies

1 handful of fresh french cut green beans

1 lb fresh mushrooms

1/2 large red pepper - sliced

1/2 large yellow or orange pepper - sliced

1 large onion - diced 

2 pieces of tilapia

Marinade:

Olive oil 

Garlic - most likely 4 cloves

Low sodium soy sauce

Grated ginger

And I prepared them accordingly:

Rinse and clean the green beans and put them on a stoneware pan (I used my Pampered Chef larger bar pan)Clean and quarter 1 pound of fresh mushrooms - add to pan. Wash, quarter and derib 1/2 red and 1/2 yellow (or orange or green) pepper. Clean and dice an onion into 1/4 to 1/2 inch

Place each veggie in a separate row on a sheet pan, pour marinade on top and toss all veggies with marinade. Cook veggies in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven add fish, toss in marinade and cook until is opaque and flaky @ 10 minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!

Love the people around you, there are no guarantees in life and every day is a gift. 

Fall into Spring

It’s been a hard week. My father passed away and we will soon be traveling to Fargo to celebrate his life. If I were to celebrate his life with his favorite food we would be having brats - he loved them. When I was a child we would go camping and he would cook them over the fire and serve them with beans. Later, he would do them on the grill - actually the last meal I shared with him included brats. 

I admit once in a while when I smell brats cooking on the grill I’m tempted to try one, but the urge only lasts a short time or it goes away after I try a bite. On the flip side I love baked beans (vegetarian that is). I’ll eat them warm or cold, alone or with a heavy grained bread, for breakfast, lunch or dinner - doesn’t really matter. 

All this talk about brats makes me think of Spring and grilling season. Spring has officially arrived in Minnesota; the garden is planted and the spinach, kale and collard greens are coming up! This year we’ve planted squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, peas, peppers, watermelon and eggplant. We’re skipping the carrots this year - too much real estate not enough return. 

I threw this salad together after looking in the fridge to see what we had. This salad is perfect for lunch or dinner and it’s vegan and gluten-free. I wanted to use lentils but realized half way through the chopping that we were out so I substituted navy beans. Next time I’ll use lentils I think they would pair better with the balsamic. With that being said it was delicious and hit the spot.

INGREDIENTS

1 large sweet potato, diced into ½ inch cubes

3 med carrots - 1/2 inch chop

2 tsp Herbs de Provence

2 Tbsp pure maple syrup

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

1 yellow onion, diced

16oz brussels sprouts, thinly sliced

1 can beans (lentils, white, black) your choice

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

⅓ cup pepitas

½ tsp salt + pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 425F.

Combine sweet potato, carrots, Herbs de Provence, maple syrup, 1 tbsp olive oil, and a pinch of salt in a medium boil. Spread onto prepared baking sheet and roast for about 11-13 minutes. Toss and roast until golden, another 11-13 minutes.

Heat ½ tbsp olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes set aside. 

Heat ½ tbsp olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add Brussels sprouts and cook until golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add balsamic vinegar and remaining 2 tbsp olive oil to brussels sprouts and combine with onions, sweet potatoes and carrots. Adjust seasoning, top with pepitas and serve!

Vegetarian in 30 Minutes

Some days life has too many demands and dinner cannot take an hour to make. Last Tuesday was one of those days. I finished up late at work, was working on a Pampered Chef fundraiser, needed to make some phone calls and the bathroom was in dire need of cleaning. 

Now that Spring has arrived I want to spend time outside - on the deck, in the garden and walking in the neighborhood. Last week started a wonderful spate of beautiful weather; warm, sunny and pleasant. So when Tuesday rolled around I was searching for something healthy and fast - and this Buddha bowl was the ticket. 

The recipe serves 2 but you can easily double it and have leftovers for later in the week. This was so delicious, it will definitely go into the rotation and when the broccoli and spinach ripen in the garden - well let’s just say I can’t wait. 

Ingredients

Quinoa

1 Cup Quinoa rinsed

2 Cups Water

Roasted Chickpeas

1 can chickpeas

Drizzle Olive Oil or other neutral oil

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/2 Tsp Smoked Paprika

1 Tsp Adobo Chili Powder

1/8 Tsp Turmeric

1/2 Tsp Oregano

Red Pepper Sauce

1 Red Bell Pepper ribs and seeds removed

2 Tbs Olive Oil or other neutral oil

Juice from 1 Lemon

1/2 Tsp Pepper

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/2 Tsp Paprika

1/4 Cup Fresh Cilantro 

Add In’s

Steamed broccoli - I used one crown

Fresh spinach - Dan added spinach to his but I opted out 

Avocado - 1/2 avocado per person

Sesame seed (black or white)

Instructions

Prepare the quinoa by bring 2 cups water to a boil, then add quinoa. Simmer for about 15 minutes until all water is absorbed. When done, remove from heat and keep covered for about 10 minutes so quinoa can absorb any excess water.

Preheat oven to 425. In a bowl, toss chickpeas, oil, and spices until chickpeas are evenly coated. Roast on a stoneware baking sheet for 15 minutes. When done, remove from oven and let cool.

To make red pepper sauce, add all dressing ingredients to a high speed blender and blend until smooth. 

Assemble the buddha bowls. 

In two bowls, divide quinoa, steamed broccoli, spinach, avocados and chickpeas. Drizzle everything with red pepper sauce, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

To be honest we should have made a double batch of the red pepper sauce - It was so delicious and I wanted to lick the bowl (Ok the roasted chick peas were pretty awesome too!).

A Perfect Cheese!

I stay away from cheese not because it comes from an animal, I stay away because when I eat too much it makes me sick. I’ve often told Dan that if I was going to die from eating too much cheese I’d want it to be Havarti with dill. I love the creaminess of the cheese and anything with dill in it has to be good for you right?

Over the years I’ve tried making a number of nut based cheeses but until recently the end result has left me less than enthused. Like the Havarti, I want my cheese to have that creamy feel on my tongue and I want the flavors; the garlic and herbs to come through. 

For those of you who are Facebook friends you might recall that last week I was on a cooking spree, I made my own vegetable broth from veggie scraps, then I made rhubarb and apple crisp (yes together) and I topped off the weekend making a vegan cheese from cashews. The longest part of the cheese making process is in the soaking of the cashews and waiting that hour after it bakes before eating, everything else is pretty painless and quick. 

I started with a recipe from My Vibrant Kitchen’s blog post from last November and then I changed it up a bit to suit my taste. To be honest this is the best non dairy cheese I’ve made to date. It’s flavorful, creamy and has the right amount of spices and flavor. The only thing I would do differently next time is put it in a loaf pan (instead of a 8 x 8) and make more than one batch (ok that’s actually 2 things). 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cashews, soaked

½ cup water

5 garlic cloves

juice of 1 lemon

½ tsp salt

½ cup olive oil

3 - 4 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tsp fresh sage, chopped

1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

Instructions

Soak the cashews overnight - if not overnight at least 8 hours but overnight produces the best results

Pre-heat the oven to 190˚C.

Drain the cashews and add them to a high-speed blender or food processor.

Peel the garlic cloves and juice the lemon and add both to the blender.

Add water, salt, olive oil and nutritional yeast and blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Finely chop the herbs, add them to the blender and pulse until well combined.

Pour the mixture into an oven-save dish lined with baking paper and top with additional herbs.

Bake it for 40 minutes, then let it set in the fridge for 1 hour before slicing.

Enjoy on crackers, in a sandwich with avocado and tomato (this was my fav), or just slice it and eat the possibilities are endless. 

Thanks for stopping by!