Pasta with Artichokes and Arugula

This is a recipe from the September is Vegetarian Times. I think it appealed to me because it's very similar to one of my favorite go to dishes, which is pasta with greens, sun-dried tomatoes and chickpeas. 

The recipe called for papparedelle pasta, which doesn't seem to come gluten-free. Instead I bought fusilli pastas, which always reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld. The recipe also called for arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. I added chickpeas and olives, because everything tastes better with chickpeas, and I seem to have developed a slight olive addiction. 

This was a nice light summer dish, and it was quick and easy to make. It's the perfect meal for a busy weeknight! 

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Raw Kale Slaw

It's been really hot and humid here in New Jersey lately, but last weekend was pretty nice, so Dennis and I decided to go on a picnic. We're not really beach people, but we really like packing up food and going to sit in the park. Our favorite picnic destination is Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown.

I made a big batch of raw kale slaw to take with us. I was introduced to kale slaw a potluck last year. Sadly I don't remember who made it (Sue something?), and I don't think she came back to any other potlucks or meetups. She told me she chopped up the kale into really small pieces, added some shredded carrot to it and mixed in a little vinegar, Veganaise and garlic gomasio. It was so good that I immediately made a batch at home. I make it every once in a while for lunch now, and this time, I decided to make a raw version with cashew mayo instead of Veganaise. 

To start, chop one head of kale and shred two carrots. I did this in my food processor because it's faster than doing it by hand.

To make raw mayonnaise mix together 3/4 cup of water, 1 garlic clove, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1/4 cup stone-ground mustard and 1 cup of raw cashews that have been soaked for an hour in a high powered blender or food processor.

Add the mayo to the kale and carrots and mix. Sprinkle in some garlic gomasio if you have it. (If you don't, you should get some - it's really good.) Refrigerate for a few hours to let all of the flavors combine with each other. Then enjoy!

I also made potato salad and quinoa salad. This was such a delicious lunch!

We had really amazing white donut peaches for dessert. I threw my pit over by a tree and this really cute little squirrel came over and feasted on it. He seemed to enjoy it as much as I did!


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Raw Taco Salad

This taco salad was amazingly delicious and very filling. It's made with a lettuce mix, red cabbage, sliced jicama, sprouts, diced red peppers, homemade salsa, cashew cheddar cheese, sunflower taco meat and raw tortilla chips. I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I made this, but I was able to finish the whole thing.

The salsa recipe is from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, and it's made with fresh corn, diced tomatoes, chopped bell and jalapeno peppers, minced garlic and a splash of lemon juice. The sunflower taco meat was super simple to make: Soak one cup of sunflower seeds and 6 sundried tomato halves in water for two hours and drain. Process in a food processor with two tablespoons of taco seasoning until well ground. The chips were made in the dehydrator with corn and flax seeds. All of the components of this salad do take a little bit of time to make, but I didn't do it all at once. I made the tortillas and cheese a few days ago and have been nibbling on them here and there throughout the week. The sunflower seeds and sundried tomatoes were soaking while I was at work today so all I had to do when I got home was grind them with the spices in the food processor. I made the salsa while I was making the salad, but that was no big deal because I was already chopping veggies. And the beauty of all this is that I have enough of everything leftover to be able to have another taco salad for lunch tomorrow!

On another note, I'm starting to wonder if I may be allergic to sunflower seeds, because I've been eating quite a bit of them lately and my eyes have started to itch again. (If your eyes itch in the inner corners, it's highly likely that you have a food allergy.) I'll to try an elimination test and see what happens. After I finish off the rest of the taco meat, of course!


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Raw Burritos and Stuffed Peppers

This "burrito" is kind of a mixture of things from different recipes, but it's based on a recipe from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. I made taco filling from sunflower seeds, sun-dried tomatoes and some spices. I made Ani's salsa, which uses corn, tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and hot peppers. Also on the burrito was raw cashew cheddar. The wrap is supposed to be a cabbage leave, and it's filled with spinach before all of the other goodies are added to it. I wasn't able to get full leaves off of the head of cabbage though, and what I was able to get off was too thick to use as a wrap. (Perhaps I should have bought a different kind of cabbage!) The cabbage leaves did hold up nicely to the fillings and they ended being more like tacos.

As a side, I also made stuffed peppers. The pepper recipe is also from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, but I used my raw cashew cheddar instead of Ani's cheese. The pepper is topped with chocolate molé sauce. This was a really delicious meal!!

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Red Pepper and Squash Samosas

This is another recipe from The Art of Raw Living Food. The wraps were the same wraps that were used in the Garden Tahini Rolls I made earlier in the week. The are stuffed with tahini sauce and raw marinated vegetables. They fell apart pretty easily, so I used what was left of the crispy dehydrated mushrooms to garnish them and cover the messy parts. I served them with red pepper purée sauce. They were delicious!

I had enough wraps, veggies and tahini left over to make another batch of samosas, so I had them for lunch. I also made some collard wraps to go with them.

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Spicy Pepper Pizza

Yes, I just had raw pizza, but sometimes a girl just needs some cooked pizza with gooey cheese and fluffy crust. This was another "clean out the fridge" pie. It just so happened that I had the ingredients for a nice Mexican style pizza. I used onions, shallots, bell peppers and spicy peppers. I also used some spinach to get my leafy greens in. Once again, I used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free crust and Daiya cheese. It was super yummy!

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Raw Vegetable Chips

My friend Irina and were browsing through the cookbook section and Barnes and Noble, and I came across the book Raw Energy by Stephanie Tourles. I had never heard of it, but I'm always intrigued by new books. The recipes are mainly snacks, and many of them looked really tasty, so I decided to buy it.

There are three chip recipes that looked really good: Sweet Potato Chili, Zesty Zucchini and Sea Salty Squash. I thought I'd make all three so that Dennis and I would have plenty to snack on. Luckily, they fit into my new dehydrator nicely.

The sweet potato chips needed to be sliced really thin so they would turn out chip-like. I used the mandolin slicer that I bought last year at a friend's Pampered Chef party. I'm not a big fan of those Come-To-My-House-and-Buy-Stuff-So-I-Can-Get-Free-Merchandise parties, but I am a fan of kitchen gadgets, so I bought this really nifty mandolin slicer. It came with four different blades and it has a safety feature so you don't slice bits of your fingers off. I've only used it a few times, but I consider it a worthy investment, because when I do need it, it does the job well. It sliced the sweet potatoes thinner that I would ever be able to by hand.


The sweet potato chips are seasoned with olive oil, chili powder, Braggs Liquid Aminos, and sea salt.


Yellow squash and zucchini are easy to slice by hand, so I just used a knife with them. The yellow squash is seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil.


The zucchini chips are seasoned with olive oil, sea salt and Italian seasonings. I don't have a jar of "Italian seasonings", so I mixed together oregano, garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage and basil. There was a slight accident with the oregano shaker, so the chips were a little heavy on the oregano. I would probably omit it next time I make these.

Zucchini, yellow squash and sweet potatoes are all high in water content, so the chips all shrunk down considerably while dehydrating. The zucchini chips ended up being teeny tiny! I think they were all a little too oily, so I will cut down on the recommended olive oil amount when I make them again. They were more chewy than crunchy, so I think they may need to be dehydrated longer next time. I'm going to try making these again at some point but I want to experiment with them a little to make them crispier and less oily.

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Pad Thai

It's been a while since I've made Pad Thai. It was a little chili outside, so I wanted something warm. I have been eating a lot of raw foods lately, but since it's not warm, it's not very comforting, and we all need comfort food from time to time. There is something about spicy peanut butter than I really enjoy too. I mixed together broccoli, sugar snap peas, red peppers, onions, mushrooms and peanuts. After the veggies were almost cooked, I added spicy Thai pepper sauce, peanut butter, a touch of rice wine vinegar, lime juice and a little peanut oil. After a few minutes, I mixed in mung bean sprouts and served the whole thing over rice noodles. This dish has become one of my favorite meals!





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Raw Mock Tuna Salad

When Dennis took his first bite of this dish, he thought, "I can live on this." This recipe is from RAWvolution by Matt Amsden. The "tuna" is sunflower seeds that have been soaked for a while and then mixed with celery and scallions. Dulse flakes (I actually used kelp) are added to give it a little bit of a fishy flavor. The creamy mayo is made with coconut water, lemon juice, mustard and cashews. The recipe says to mix everything together in a bowl, but I like the sunflower seeds to be macerated, so I put it all in a food processor for a minute or two.

Raw foods are really delicious and healthy. They can bring you more energy, detox your body and help you lose weight. Now that the weather has turned warm, I'm going to be making a lot more raw foods. I just got a dehydrator, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with it. Stay tuned for more raw!


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What's in the Fridge? Stir-Fry

This is another fridge clean-out stir-fry. It consists of shiitake mushrooms, red onions, sugar snap peas, hot peppers and cabbage cooked in peanut oil with some rice vinegar and a little bit of Bragg's Amino Acids. I cooked brown rice to go with it. It was delicious!

Brown rice is rice the way nature intended. When the outer layers of a grain of rice are removed, white rice is produced. Brown rice is much more nutritious than white because several vitamins and minerals are also removed in the process, such as vitamins B1, B3 and iron. Brown rice is also a good source of magnesium, calcium, folate, zinc, manganese, phosphorus, selenium and dietary fiber.


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Mock Tuna Melt

Yep, vegans with food allergies can have tuna melts!


This is one of my favorite sandwiches and it's easy to make. Drain and mash up a can of chickpeas, mix in finely chopped veggies such as red onion, celery and carrots. Add some salt, pepper, and seaweed flakes (seaweed flakes are available in the Japanese section at Whole Foods and other health food stores). Then mix in a little mustard and vegan mayo. I use Vegenaise, which has a little soy in it, but not much.


I spread the chickpea mix on 100% rye bread, sprinkled Daiya cheese over it, and popped it in the broiler to melt the cheese. I bought delicious Spring White Bean and Arugula soup at Whole Foods to go with the sandwiches, and served it all with some carrot and celery sticks. It was the perfect lunch!



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Florida Bound!

I'm heading to Miami Beach today for a conference with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I'm a little nervous about what I'm going to eat, because Miami is know more for it's pulled pork than it is for his vegetarian cuisine. I'm sure I will have to break my elimination diet, but as I long as I continue to avoid wheat, I should be okay. I have heard that Escopasso has great raw vegan dishes, so I have plans to eat there for dinner tomorrow. I'm also going to try to eat at Om Garden in Miami tonight, if I can figure out how to get there. I'll be sure to take lots of photos of my meals and blog about them when I return. Please come back on Tuesday to see how I did!

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Roasted Brussels Sprouts Medley with Nori Strips

This is another recipe from Vegetarian Times. I think it looked a little more exciting in the magazine than it really was, but it was still good, so that's okay. The recipe called for one sweet potato, three rutabagas, an onion, baby carrots (I used three full sized carrots) and a bunch of Brussels sprouts to be roasted together. Once I got everything chopped, I realized that there was no way it would all even fit on a baking sheet together, so roasted them separately. After everything is roasted, nori strips are mixed in, making it a very simple meal. I need to remember to add nori more often with other meals, since sea vegetables are so healthy. I made some quinoa to go with the meal too.

I used to really dislike Brussels sprouts, but Dennis has always liked them, so I looked for ways that I could cook them that we would both enjoy. I've discovered that I really like them roasted, so I often cook them this way. Brussels sprouts are cruciferous vegetables, so they are super healthy and contain anti-cancer compounds. They area also high in vitamins A, C, K, B6 as well as folate, magnesium, iron, thiamin, copper, phosphorus and dietary fiber.

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Gluten-Free Goodies from Sweet Avenue Bakeshop!

Dennis was so sweet – he brought home gluten-free goodies from Sweet Avenue Bake Shop! Sweet Avenue is located in Rutherford NJ, and they are well known for their vegan cupcakes, but they also have vegan cookies and candy bars. Dennis got me a delicious chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting and a chocolate chip cookie. I don't eat much sugar, so in the past when I've had cupcakes, I've felt rather queasy afterward. But this cupcake was small, and I felt fine after eating it. The cookie was enormous, so I shared it with Dennis. Both were delicious! If you're in the mood for a cupcake, please note that Sweet Avenue only has gluten-free cupcakes on Fridays and Saturdays. And if you're in the area, check out the vegan options on the menu at Rutherford Pancake House.



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Shepherdess Pie

I decided to combine a few different recipes to make this shepherdess pie and I used cauliflower millet mash for the crust instead of mashed potatoes to add extra nutrition. I will admit that this isn't one of those quick and easy recipes that I'm so fond of. I think the prep time was about an hour, and I used quite a lot of pots and pans in the process. I had some rare free time and was up for a challenge. The lentils and millet both needed about half an hour to cook, so I was able to work on both the millet mash and the pie contents at the same time.

Millet is a very small, round grain with a history that traces back thousands of years. It was the chief grain in China before rice became popular, and continues to sustain people in Africa, China, Russia, and India, among other places. It is an extremely nutritious and hardy crop that grows well under harsh or dry conditions, both of which contribute to its widespread use and popularity around the world. Millet is gluten-free and contains silica, which helps keeps bones flexible in aging process. It is high in protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, B vitamins and fiber. It also contains serotonin and help calm your nerves. Millet is soothing and warming, and can help indigestion and morning sickness. Millet can be used in porridges, cereal, soups and dense breads. It is delicious wheat-free substitution for couscous, as it has a similar consistency. In parts of Africa, millet is fermented to make beer.


Shepherdess Pie with Cauliflower Millet Mash Crust

Millet Mash
1 cup millet
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 cup plain unsweetened rice milk

Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add millet and salt. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in another saucepan on medium heat. Add the chopped shallot and cook for about 3 minutes. Add cauliflower and broth and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat and cook until very tender, about 12 minutes. Add millet, remaining oil and rice milk to the cauliflower and mash together with a potato masher or process with an immersion blender until creamy, adding more rice milk if needed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Shepherdess Pie
1 cup lentils, rinse and picked over for stones
3 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup peas, frozen or canned
1/2 teaspoon savory
1/2 teaspoon thyme
a pinch marjoram

Preheat oven to 350.

Add lentils to water, bring to a boil and let cook until lentils are tender, about half an hour. Sauté onion in oil until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add carrots and mushrooms and cook for about 5 or 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, peas and spices. Add lentils to the mixture once they are cooked. Spread the mixture in a 13" x 19" casserole dish and top with cauliflower millet mash. Sprinkle with paprika. Cook for half an hour.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can substitute any ingredient you don't like for one you do. If you don't like lentils, you can use kidney beans. If you don't like peas, you can use corn.


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Chickpea Socca with Greens and White Bean Purée

Yes, I made more socca stacks! This time the socca pieces were sandwiched between layers of tomato sauce, sautéed kale, white bean purée and caramelized leeks. (I love caramelized leeks!) This recipe is from You Won't Believe it's Vegan! by Lacey Sher and Gail Doherty.

Lacy Sher and Gail Doherty used to own the restaurant Down to Earth in Red Bank, NJ. Red Bank is about an hour south of us on the NJ Parkway. Dennis and I used to drive down there every once in a while just to eat there because the food was so amazingly delicious. We were hearbroken when the restaurant closed and we could no longer get our favorite vegan dishes. I stumbled across this book in the bookstore by chance, and after flipping through it and recognizing the dish names, I quickly realized that it was a cookbook full of Down to Earth's recipes. I almost started crying right there in the bookstore when I realized that I could once again have my favorite Down to Earth dishes. But of course, I would have to cook them myself.

This socca dish isn't difficult, but each layer needs to be cooked in it's own dish or pan, so I did make quite a mess. It was so delicious that I was worth it though. Dennis loved it so much that he said "I feel sorry for people who are not me" !

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Collard Greens with Rice and Black Eyed Peas

This is a recipe from my friend Donna that I altered slightly. I chopped up half of an onion and sautéed it for a a few minutes and then added chopped collard greens. Then I added Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley, vegetable broth and a can of diced tomatoes and let it all simmer together. Once the rice was almost cooked, I added a can of black eyed peas. This meal is nice and warming and is the perfect comfort food for a cold winter's evening!


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