Kale Chips

I got a dehydrator! I'm already having fun with it, and I can't wait to make more raw concoctions. My friend Donna made goddess kale chips in the raw class we taught together a few weeks ago, and I couldn't wait to make them myself. Goddess dressing is made with tahini, apple cider vinegar, garlic and lemon juice. It's then drizzled over the kale and mixed in, and the kale is dehydrated for about 6 hours. These chips are really addictive, but their so healthy that it's okay.

If you don't have a dehydrator, don't worry - you can still make kale chips. There's a basic recipe below. Feel free to experiment with it. Add a little apple cider vinegar and some nama shoyu for a different taste. Sprinkle on nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor.

Ingredients:
1-2 bunches of kale
Olive oil
Sea salt
Optional spices: garlic, onion powder, cayenne, curry powder, nutritional yeast

Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Wash kale, cut stems off and cut or tear leaves into small pieces.
• Place kale in a bowl, drizzle olive oil over kale and mix until leaves are well covered.
• Lay kale out on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and spices, if using.
• Bake for 10 minutes or until kale turns a bit brown, keeping an eye on it as it can burn quickly.
• Turn the kale over and bake the other side for about 5 minutes or until crispy. After a few batches the kale will be done quicker and there will be no need to flip.


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No-Idea-What-To-Make Stir Fry

Usually I have a dinner plan in advance, but this time I didn't. Most of the time, I figure out what I want to cook for a few days and then go grocery shopping for the ingredients. I was really busy for a few days and didn't have time to plan any meals, so when I went shopping, I just bought a bunch of things that looked good. I mixed together white and black quinoa for a little color. Then I stir-fried together a bunch of veggies in peanut oil - broccoli, red peppers, mushrooms, red onions, chickpeas and bok choy. I also sprinkled in a little rice vinegar. Simple and delicious!



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Take Out Sushi

Sometimes you just don't feel like cooking, and this was one of those nights. Everyone needs a break from the kitchen now and then, right? So we ordered sushi from Sushi Hana in Montclair. We got vegetable tempura rolls that come with really delicious peanut sauce and avocado rolls, both made with brown rice. Sushi's always a great dinner choice for warm spring evenings!


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Tabasco and Asparagus Quinoa

I've decided to try to add some of the foods I had mild allergic reactions to back into my diet to see how I do with them. This time I tried asparagus, and just as I suspected, nothing happened after I ate it.

This recipe is from 101 Cookbooks, but I took a lot of liberties with it. I only cooked up half the amount of suggested quinoa, and half the amount of Tabasco butter. (I used soy-free Earth Balance.) I used all of the butter that I did mix up in the quinoa. Instead of pine nuts, I used cashews. I added some shallots and red peppers to the asparagus for extra color, and I served the dish on a bed of kale. I realized after I started eating it that it was very much like the asparagus and kale stir-fry that I like to make, only spicier, and it was quite tasty.



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Cashew Curry Casserole

I really love Thai curry, but I haven't had any since I started the elimination diet because coconut is on my list of foods to avoid. Imagine my excitement when I see a curry recipe in The Urban Vegan that uses rice milk! Why didn't I think of that?

The recipe calls for broccoli, onions, canned tomatoes and chickpeas, and suggests adding yellow squash, mushrooms or red bell pepper. I added all three and then doubled the sauce recipe to cover it all. I also threw in some cashews. The sauce is made with rice milk, red curry paste and cashew butter. My sauce came out a little thick so I added a little more rice milk. All of the ingredients are put in a casserole dish and baked in the oven. This was really, really delicious, and it was so nice to be able to have curry again!




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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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More Veggies and Pasta

I had some leftover rice pasta from the pasta and veggies I made a few days ago, so I made another dish with it, using some more of my favorite foods: kale, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, shallots and white beans. I used a little bit of olive oil and topped it all with black olives and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

Did you know that kale is the most nutrient dense food on the planet? It contains powerful antioxidant properties and is considered to be a an anti-inflammatory. It is full of beta carotene, vitamins C, K, B6, lutein, calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and folate. Like broccoli, kale is cruciferous vegetable that contains anti-cancer properties. Chopping and mincing kale releases the properites and makes them even more powerful.


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Pasta and Veggies

This dish contains some of my favorite foods: broccoli, chickpeas, and mushrooms! I cooked them together with some olive oil and a shallot, and I served them over rice pasta and tomato sauce.

Broccoli has always been one of my favorite foods because when I was little my mom used to make it with a cheesy sauce that I really liked. I definitely liked the sauce more than the veggies, but that's okay, because eating it trained me to like broccoli. (By the way it was frozen broccoli with a powdered sauce mix.) Broccoli is full of vitamins C, K, A, E and B6, folate, iron, potassium, manganese, selenium and dietary fiber. Because it is a cruciferous vegetable, it contains anti-cancer properties, as well as anti-viral and anti-bacterial compounds.

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Black Bean Quinoa Burgers

I found this recipe in a blog post from The Voracious Vegan and immediately wanted to try it. These black bean burgers are super simple. They're made with black beans, quinoa, chickpea flour, flax seeds and sun-dried tomatoes, so they're packed with protein. (I omitted the liquid smoke the recipe calls for.) The recipe says it makes four patties, so I cut it in half. Instead of making two large patties, I made four small ones. I made the red onion aioli from the recipe, which really enhanced the burgers. I also made roasted tiny potatoes and sautéed chard and mushrooms to with it.

Black beans are a good source of protein, calcium, vitamins A, C, B1, folate, mangesium, manganese, tryptophan, iron and they are full of antioxidants. If you have digestive issues when eating beans, soak dry beans overnight before cooking, and place a piece of kombu seaweed in the cooking water. There are so many health benefits to eating beans that it's important to make them a regular part of your diet.


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Fajitas with Spicy Rice and Beans

I bought brown rice tortillas at Trader Joes, and decided to do something with them other than quesadillas, which have become a regular in my meal rotation. I decide on fajitas, which are only slightly different than quesadillas, but that's okay. I used onions, mushrooms and lots of peppers. Unfortunately, rice tortillas don't do well as wraps, and broke apart when I tried to wrap the veggies up in them. It didn't take away from the taste at all, but just made them difficult to eat!

I also made spicy brown rice and beans, and I completely overspiced them. Dennis liked it a lot, but it was a little too spicy for my taste. I cut up two small habanaro peppers and added them to the rice as it was cooking, and apparently two peppers is too much! I add habanaros to dishes often and don't usually have a problem with them being too spicy. It seems that sautéing them reduces the heat but adding them to boiling water must increase it somehow! The guacamole on the side definitely helped cool the heat so I was able to eat it.


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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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Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

This recipe is from January's Vegetarian Times and it shows up the home page whenever I got to their website. It looked like an interesting twist on shepherd's pie. The weather is warming up, so I figured I didn't have too much time left to try it before root veggies go out of season.

The filling is onions, leeks, carrots, turnips and cannellini beans, and the topping is mashed sweet potatoes. I followed the recipe with just two exceptions: I didn't peel the sweet potato before cooking it and I didn't use cinnamon or nutmeg. I thought was pretty tasty, and Dennis was pleased with the meal as well.


The sweet potato is a tuberous root that is only distantly related to the potato. The softer, orange variety is commonly marketed as a "yam" in parts of North America, but the sweet potato is very distinct from the actual yam, which is native to Africa and Asia and belong to the monocot family. To prevent confusion, the USDA requires that sweet potatoes labeled as "yams" also be labeled as "sweet potatoes". Sweet potatoes are high in dietary fiber, beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin B6, iron and calcium. Despite the name "sweet", it may be a beneficial food for diabetics as studies have revealed that it helps to stabilize blood sugar levels and to lower insulin resistance. In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet potatoes to other vegetables, and it ranked highest in nutritional value.



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Lunch at Chipotle

I'm a big advocate of the "cook once, eat twice" theory. It saves time and makes life easier. But since I didn't make dinner on Wednesday night, I didn't have any leftovers to eat for lunch on Thursday. I ran out to a nearby Chipotle and picked up a veggie bowl. I'm not a fan of fast food at all, but Chipotle uses fresh organic ingredients, and you can see them making your food right in front of you, which means it's not hours old and hasn't been hanging out under a food lamp.

This veggie bowl consisted of rice, black beans, roasted onions and peppers, salsa, guacamole and lettuce, and I added a little bit of hot sauce.

There are few Chipotles in across the country that are test marking Gardein mock meats for vegetarians. If you're close to one of the test locations, please give it a try and let them know what you think. It would be so amazing if a fast food chain carried a healthy meat alternative!

Gardein is being offered at the following Chipotles:

333 E. Alameda
 Avenue
Denver, CO 80209

303-733-1331

149 8th Ave. (cross street: 17th street)

New York, NY 10011

212-620-4015

1629 Connecticut Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20009

202-387-8261


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Thai Takeout

I didn't feel like cooking last night, so Dennis offered to get takeout. We opted for Thai food because we haven't had it in a while, and they have quite a few things on the menu that are okay for me to eat. I got sautéed mixed vegetables and a veggie spring roll. In case you're wondering, spring rolls are usually made with rice flour, which makes them safe for me. This meal was perfect for a lazy evening after work!

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Cauliflower Stew

This recipe was in the NY Times last week and it looked good, so I made it for dinner last night. I pretty much followed the recipe with a few exceptions: I only used one onion, I used a shallot instead of the garlic, and I added some beans for extra protein. I decided to deviate from my chickpea habit, and I used cannellini beans. I cooked up a brown rice medley and served it all on a bed of kale.

Cauliflower is low in fat, high in dietary fiber, folate, water and vitamin C, possessing a very high nutritional density. It is a cruciferous vegetable and contains several phytochemicals that are known to prevent cancer.

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Confessions of a Chickpea Addict

Yesterday I had leftovers of my Clean Out the Fridge Stir-Fry for lunch, and then I had hummus and carrots as for an afternoon snack. Then for dinner I had pasta and veggies. With chickpeas.

There was no recipe for this dish. I had some things to do after dinner, so I needed to make something quick. I just threw together a few of my favorite things – broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and chickpeas. I cooked the veggies in olive oil with some veggie broth, a little rice wine vinegar, and lemon juice. I sprinkled everything with a little bit of red pepper flakes and some nutritional yeast. I served the mixture over rice pasta shells.

I have a few more cans of chickpeas in the cabinet, so there will be more chickpea recipes coming up. Chickpeas are high in protein, calcium, copper, manganese, folate and dietary fiber, so I guess I picked a good food to be addicted too!


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Asparagus and Kale Stir-Fry

Yes, asparagus is on the list of things I'm sensitive to. But I only had a vary mild reaction to it when I was tested, so I don't think this meal is going to do anything bad to my system. I had bought asparagus to give to a client, but she canceled her session due to Snowpocalypse 2. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I ate it!

This is another simple, yet delicious, stir-fry. To cook the quinoa, I used vegetable broth instead of water for some extra flavor. For the veggies, I sautéed a shallot, red bell pepper and the asparagus in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, wheat-free tamari sauce, rice vinegar and a little crushed red pepper. After a few minutes, I added some cashews, chopped purple kale and a sprinkling of seaweed gomaiso.

I did a 30 day raw food challenge last spring. It was easier than I thought it would be, I felt great, and I had tons of energy. But I found myself craving quinoa and sautéed kale a lot. This was the first meal I made when I went back to cooked food! I usually add tofu to it, but it's just as good without it.

Aspargus is a large perennial plant that can grow to about 40-60" tall. The young shoots of the plant are what we eat and know as asparagus. It has been used since early times as both food and medicine, and there's a recipe for cooked asparagus in the oldest known cookbook. It was cultivated by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans who ate it fresh when in season and dried in the winter.

Asparagus is a good source of protein (yes, protein!), iron, vitamins A, C, E & K, niacin, folic acid, potassium, copper, manganese, and selenium. So it's probably okay that I had a little with my dinner today!

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Risotto with Lentils

I had to take my cat Schroeder to the vet for a check up last night. Last year I found a lump on his paw that turned out to be an aggressive tumor of the cartilage, and Schroe had to have his arm removed. He has to go to the vet every 3 to 4 months to have his progress checked (there's a slight chance the tumor could have spread), and he also needs his blood sugar checked because he's diabetic. (I should have studied animal health care!) He ran a comprehensive wellness blood test, which came back normal. The vet said Schroeder looks great and there's nothing to worry about!

Before I left for the vet's office, I started up the slow cooker with another meal from The Vegetarian Slow Cooker. This is Risotto with Lentils, and it's extremely simple. I added half an onion and a little bit of olive oil to slow cooker and let it cook for a few minutes. Then I added half cup of lentils, a cup of ariboro rice and four cups of water. I set the time for two hours and ran out with Schroeder. When I came home, I chopped and sautéed some kale. I garnished the rice mixture with a little olive oil, parsley and chopped olives. It was an quick and easy meal, and it was quite tasty!

Schroeder doesn't have extra appendages in the back, that's his friend Archie behind him!

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Vegetarian Slow Cooker

The people at Ten Speed Press were kind enough to send me a copy of The Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Lynn Alley. I was quite excited to find it in my mailbox, but disappointment set in once I remembered that I didn't own a slow cooker. Dennis solved that problem by buying me one for Valentine's Day. Most girls like getting flowers and chocolates for Valentine's Day, but I really like kitchen gadgets! (Last year he gave me a Vitamix!)

I had a really busy day yesterday and I knew it would be difficult to find time to make a good meal for dinner, so I decided to take the slow cooker on it's maiden voyage. I made Potato Artichoke Stew, which was super easy. The recipe called for a tomato sauce recipe from the book, which I didn't have time to make, so I used canned tomatoes. I cut all of the veggies up the night before, turned the slow cooker on in the morning before work, and dinner was magically ready when I came home! The meal was very tasty and I can't wait to try more recipes from the cookbook!

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Deep Dish Rutabaga Fennel Gratin

I saw the recipe for this on the Vegetarian Times website and it looked interesting enough to try out. It consists of slices of rutabaga, onions, potatoes and fennel layered in a baking dish and covered in cheese, flour, milk and spices. It was easy enough to make allergy friendly - I used Daiya cheese, rice milk and Bob's Red Mill's Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour. I also doubled the recipe because I didn't know what I'd do with half a fennel bulb hanging out in the fridge.

This recipe was definitely an experiment. I guess it was because I doubled the recipe, but it took waaaay longer than an hour to cook. I should have turned the heat on the oven up higher. Because it was coated in flour, the cheese didn't melt. I put the dish under the broiler thinking it would help melt the cheese, but all that accomplished was burning the top. It was quite good though, and it was an interesting change of pace from the type of meals I usually cook. If I make it again, I will probably omit the flour because I don't think it was necessary.



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