Mini Break

D. and I are thankfully both healthy now, so we can enjoy our mini-break weekend! It's been a busy and tiring week, but good. I've eaten healthily and made it to the gym twice. I have been partly motivated by wanting to be able to relax and enjoy this weekend!

I worked all day yesterday with one team, then after word hit the gym and then went to pick up D. at the skytrain. I was super hungry and (oddly enough) craving these simple garbanzo bean burgers we've made once before. They totally hit the spot (I had them alongside a salad, but had them for lunch today in a sandwich). Here are the directions ( I can't remember where I found this now...it's loosely based on something...sorry I can't remember what!!):

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Garbanzo Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

1 can (2cups) garbanzo beans mashed (I mashed them in batches in a morter and pestle).
1 carrot (very finely chopped).
1 stalk celery (very finely chopped).
1 small onion (very finely chopped).
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 whole wheat flower
2T oil (for frying)
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Mix everything together. Form the mixture into 6 patties.
2. Fry the patties on one side with 1 T oil. When you flip them add the second T oil.

These are SO simlple, but SO stinking good!!!

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We slept in ridiculously late today (11am!!!) and layed in bed and read books for a while with our coffee (the perfect Saturday morning). I've finished off a bit of work I had to do, and now can start getting ready to leave for our overnight mini-break!

D.'s work party is at a fancy hotel downtown, and we're staying the night at the hotel and have arranged for late check-out so we can laze around!! We so need this little break. It's so exciting!! I bought a fantastic new dress, and can't wait to start getting ready. We'll check into the hotel a couple of hours before the party starts, so I'll have time to do most of the getting ready there.

Off I go!!

Dragon Bowls

First, if you have never been to the NAAM, you must go. It is wonderful. Magnificent M introduced me to it, and it's so good. Awsume, fresh, filling food for a reasonable price, open 24 hours, live music - the've got it all. But they are nearly always busy - so be prepared to wait in line and to cozy up to the guy reading the paper at the table next to you.

One of their signatures is their miso gravy (served with sesame fries, but also on many of their dragon bowls).

Soooo good. They sell it bottled, but until recently I thought the only place I could get it was at the NAAM. A couple of days ago I found it at the price smart foods in Langley (of all places) and decided to fullfill my dragon bowl craving. So here's what I did:

First, brown rice. A pile of it. In the middle of the plate.

Then, I put lightly blanched (VERY LIGHTLY, barely cooked) broccoli on top of the rice.

Then, marinated and sauteed tofu and sauteed mushrooms. I just marinated (well, my wonderful husband did) the tofu in tamari sauce and garlic. Then, dumped it into a frying pan with some olive oil and added the sliced mushrooms. Put a pile of this garlicy goodness on top of the rice. Like this:Then, I put a pile of the carrots D. had grated on top of this, and topped it with bean sprouts. At this point it's really starting to look like NAAM quality dragon-bowl yumminess.

Top it off with some of the NAAM miso gravy heated up, and it was SOOOOO good. And pretty darn healthy. And stinking fililing too!! Yum.

Wonder food.

I think I'm addicted to nutritional yeast. It is so good, has a yummy nutty-cheesy taste, and it's nutritional benefits are amazing! I always have a hard time getting enough B-Vitamins, and it's packed full of them. Here are two recpes for yummy food involving nutritional yeast:

1) Vegan Mac and Cheeze. I REALLY love this. But, tell people it's "cassorole" so they won't be expecting typical mac and cheese taste. It's sooooo good, but if you go into it expectin mac and cheese, it can be dissapointing.

2) My friend Alia's AMAZING salad dressing. I'm not kidding. This salad dressing will have you inhaling greens :). Soooo good. Here it is:

The basic construct for the salad dressing is as follows:
1/2 to 1 cup of nutritional yeast (depending on your taste preference)
1/2 cup of water
1/3 cup of tamari sauce
1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar
3/4 to 1 cup of olive oil or oil of choice
1 to 2 tsp of garlic powder

Whirl it all up in a blender and its ready.A lot of the amounts vary depending on your taste, good luck.

I actually contemplated drinking this dressing. Just a little of it.

Anyone else have great nutritional yeast recipes? I've been told it's good on pizza and popcorn. Haven't tried either though.

Just Roast It.

Last night I made roast beef, roasted winter vegetables and green beens. As I mentioned yesterday, I rarely make roasts. Everytime I do I have to call my mom to find out how to cook it (There are so many cuts of meat, it's so confusing!!). When I was talking with her yesterday, after telling me to rub a mixture of olive oil, kosher salt, herbs and garlic over the roast she paused and said ".....but, I know you don't like to touch the meat. You can just spoon it onto the roast and spread it around." So funny!

So, the roast turned out well, though a bit overdone I think (I didn't have a meat thermometer so was being careful. I even made gravy, which also turned out pretty well, in the end enyways. That rub my mom told me to put on btw was super good :). Initially I added too much of a cornstarch-broth mixture, and it imediately transformed from broth to a gelatinous mass. I added more and more broth to thin it out, and in the end it was perfectly good gravy, though I had a lot of it.

These roasted vegetables were the best part though. I forget how lovely roasted winter vegetables are. I used potatoes, yams, parsnips, and carrots here, and mixed them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary and some italian herbs, and 2-3 cloves of garlic. They turned out so sweet and tastey- the sugars in the vegetables combined with the balsamic and caramalized. So good :).

Sarah's Sick Remedy

This is Sarah's sick remedy. She made it for me when I arrived at her house super sick on day, and it is bringing me great comfort this time I'm sick!!

Mix 1 Tablespoon grated ginger and 1/3-1/2 cup sugar with just enough water to cover it.
Bring to a boil and boil until it is syrupy.
Add 2-3 Tablespoons of lemon juice.

Now, dilute to taste with boiling water.

It's basically home made, much-better-for-you, doesn't make your teeth hurt neo citrany stuff.

Thanks Sarah, hope it's okay I posted it! I'm also all over the oil of oregano, echinaccia and juice this time around.

Just yummy.

This is Baked Brie someone (not me) made for new years eve. It was wonderful!

These roasted tomatoes were made by another friend for New Years eve as well. So tasty!

This was the turkey for Christmas dinner -smokin'!


Yummy salad we had for dinner one night in the middle of all the celebrating. Lightly blanched green beans and broccoli, lettuce, red and yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes, mozarella cheese, artichokes and olives. It was very yummy and refreshing.

Spinach and tofu dumplings. I found the recipe here. They were simple but a bit time consuming to put together. Very yummy though.

Detox never tasted SO good!

I just made these two recipes. They were in the most recent issue of Food and Wine. This was the first time I'd bought this magazine, and it's a great magazine.

Here is the Kale and Avacado Salad recipe. This is super filling. I think I could half the amount of avacado and still feel satisfied :). This was my brunch today. So yummy.

Here is the Lemony Quinoa Salad recipe. This is SO yummy and refreshing. Quinoa is the super grain. The serving size is a bit small on this one. So, it may be best either doubled, or plan to have it with a green salad or something. I doubled the recipe and will eat it as a snack later on.

What I love about both of these recipes is that they are fresh with no processed foods, and they are both vegan/fast friendly so are perfect for this time of year. I'm about to go enter them into sparkpeople to see what the nutritional information for vitamins and minerals is for them...I'm sure it will be great.

Can you tell I have two case studies to finish and a pile of work to do? Why else would I blog twice in one day :)

Butternut Squash Soup

I made this roughly based off of a recipe in Cooking Light. In their recipe you were supposed to roast the squash first with the Garam Masala and oil etc...I just did it all in a pot, and it turned out SOOOOO good. I forgot how good butternut squash soup is!!

Saute about 3/4 of a chopped onion, 2 TBSP olive oil about 3 medium squashes (chopped), about 1-2 TBSP of Garam Masala and a couple of pinches of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper for about 5 minutes.

Add 2 chopped apples and about 2 TBSP maple syrup (you can add the syrup earlier...I can't remember exactly what point I added it in at). Saute for another few minutes.

Add about 5 cups of vegetable broth (or till everything is covered with broth).

Simmer all that until the squash is soft, then blend with a hand blender or blender/food processor in batches (I just use my braun hand blender). Taste and season with more salt/pepper/maple syrup etc if needed.

That's about it. So good!! Sorry, didn't get a picture :(

Comfort in a Cup

This is a soy noel nog latte. I make the espresso in my mokapot and heat the noel nog in a pot on the stove, then foam it up (it makes the best creamiest yummiest foam) and add a little sweetener...and top it off with nutmeg. Mmmmmmm.......love it.

The Omlette

So, I stayed at M.s on Friday night. In the morning (after a great wine-tasting evening the night before), her husband, J. made me an Omlette. Now, truth be told, I'm not a big omlette person - the brown cooked eggs taste freaks me out. He offered though, and I thought considering the long day ahead of me I should take the sustinance.

This was the. best. omlette. ever. Not just taste, but soooo fluffy - and NO crusty brownness! No icky burnt egg taste!! And amazing, amazing flavours. I tried to replicate it today and was successful in terms of the flavours, but not so much in terms of the fluffiness. So, here's how I did it:

Mix up 2 eggs, 4 egg whites (yes, it's a big omlette), salt, pepper, one clove of crushed garlic, about a 1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro and about a 1/2 cup of chopped fresh basil (Yes, they must be fresh).

Put that into an omlette pan, cover and let it cook for a while on LOW heat.

While that's cooking, saute up 2 mushrooms and a handful of spinach.

When the eggs are mostly cooked, but a bit loose on top still, sprinkle on about a 1/4 cup of part skim mozzarella cheese, cover and let it cook a bit longer. Then, put the mushrooms and spinach onto one half of the omlette, let it cook a minute or so longer (still on low heat).

Then, slide the omlette out and fold over one side.

Then eat. Lovely Thai inspired yummy, filling, healthy (besides the two egg yolks) meal that will hold you over for pretty much the whole day. Or you could split it with someone and have it be a normal size breakfast :-). I think the key is the combination of fresh basil, fresh cilantro and a clove of garlic :-).

Pad Thai

I just made the yummiest quick and easy pad thai ever. No, not gourmet, yes, catsup is an ingredient, but wait! So good! So fast to make! And easier than Pad Thai usually is in terms of having the ingredients on hand.

From the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home cookbook:

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 quarts water
3/4 lb mung bean sprouts
6 ounces rice noodles (1/4 inch wide)

SAUCE
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
3 Tbsp catsup
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 fish sauce or soy sauce

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3 Tbsp peanut oil or vegetable oil
3-4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 Tbsp minced fresh chili, or 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups grated carrots
4 large eggs, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt
2/3 cup chopped peanuts
6-8 scallions, chopped (about 1 cup)

Directions:
In a covered pot, bring the water to a rolling boil. Blanch the munch bean sprouts by placing them in a strainer or small colander and dipping it into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Set aside to drain well. When the water returns to a boil, stir in the rice noodles and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until tender but firm. Drain the cooked noodles, rinse them under cool water, and set them aside to drain well. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the sauce ingredients.

Prepare the remaining ingredients and have them near at hand before you begin to stir-fry. Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet. Add the garlic and chile, swirl them in the oil for a moment, and stir in the grated carrots. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Push the carrots to the sides to make a hollow in the center. Pour the beaten eggs into the center and quickly scramble them. When the eggs have just set, our in the sauce mixture and stir everything together. Add the drained rice noodles and mung sprouts, and toss to distribute evenly. Stir peanuts and scallions, and serve at once.

Per 8-0z serving: 296 Calories, 11.3 g protein, 15 g fat, 31 g Carbohydrate, 21.2 mg sodium, 142 mg cholesterol.

And one serving (1/4th of what it makes) is a BIG serving. Definitely feels like a big filling meal. This could easily serve 6, especially if you had something along with it. Lots of left overs for lunch!! Sooooo good. Or, you know, left-overs for 2 hours later. With a beer. lol!

Yummy pasta Salad

I had a number of veggies to clear out of my fridge and needed something for a late breakfast/early lunch. I also had a bit of cream cheese and mayonnaise left over from before lent which needed to be used up...So, here is the yummy pasta meal I made :-).

Orzo and Veggie Pasta Salad

Ingredients
4 oz (1 cup) dry orzo pasta
2 Cups Frozen Peas
2.5 Cups chopped red bell pepper
1 Cup chopped cucumber
1 Cup chopped celery
1/2 Cup chopped dry moraccan olives
1/3 Cup Minced red onion 1 1/2 Tbsp. Light mayonnaise
1/2 Tbsp Pesto
1/3 Cup light cream cheese
1 Tbsp (or to taste) balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp Water

Directions
Cook the orzo. About half way through cooking, add the frozen peas. Meanwhile, chop up all the other vegetables and the olives. Drain Orzo and peas and rinse with cold water in a colander until cooled. Let drain. Add Orzo and peas to vegetable mixture. Make dressing: Blend mayonnaise, cream cheese, and pesto together. Add enough balsamic vinegar and water to smooth dressing out slightly. Dressing should be the same consistency as a thick ranch or ceasar dressing. Fold dressing into pasta and veggies and enjoy!! Chick peas could or feta cheese could be added for protein.
Serving size = 1 Cup
Number of Servings: 7

Nutritional Info: Amount Per Serving ,Calories: 141.6, Total Fat: 3.6 g, Cholesterol: 2.6 mg, Sodium: 186.4 mg, Total Carbs: 23.2 g, Dietary Fiber: 4.0 g, Protein: 5.6 g

Carrot soup and another good recipe site.

My new favorite recipe website is FatFreeVegan.com . I've been using recipes from this site for a while, but am finding it especially useful now that lent has begun, and I'm still trying to eat healthfully. It's so easy during lent to end up eating nothing but carbohydrates (bread, bread, more bread), but I think with this websites help, along with my "Everyday Vegan" cookbook and the Moosewood cookbook, I should be able to manage to eat properly.

Last night I made this AMAZING carrot soup. It is mostly a recipe I got from AllRecipes.com, but I merged it a bit with one from FatFree Vegan.com. I had SO many carrots and potatoes and onions from my most recent Spud orders, and thought soup would be a good use for them :-). What I came out with was the following:

Carrot Soup

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 large carrots, sliced
8 new potatoes, quartered
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 Can Coconut milk
2/3 Cup water.

Directions:

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook stirring often until onion is translucent. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook for just a few minutes to allow the carrots to sweat out some of their juices.

Pour the vegetable broth into the pot, and season with ginger, curry powder, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until carrots are tender.

Puree soup in small batches using a food processor or blender, or if you have an immersion blender, it can be done in the soup pot.

Add one can of coconut milk and 2/3 cup water. You can reduce the coconut milk and replace with water, or eliminate it completely to reduce the fat/calories, but it's sooooo good with the coconut milk :-).

Reheat soup if necessary, and serve. Makes 12 cups, 1 cup per serving.

Nutritional Information per 1 cup: 245.6 Calories, 8.0 grams fat, 0 cholesterol, 944.2mg sodium, 40.6g carbs, 6.0 g dietary fibre, 5.0g protein, lots of required daily vitamins and minerals.

It is a super tasty soup. I also made this mock-pumpkin-maple cream cheese thing there was a recipe for on FFV, which is pretty tasty, as well as a beet-carrot cake. Unfortunately I think I put the cake in the wrong kind of pan and it didn't cook through. Also, I think my whole wheat flour may be too old or something.

Sugar free brownies..mmm

Magnificent M gave me this recipe eons ago, and I hadn't tried it till yesterday. These brownies are actually really quite good. They are, technically 0 pts if you are doing WW, and only 26 calories. Granted, if you divide them into 16 servings, they are very small, but hey, at 26 calories I won't complain, I'll just eat two :-).

Ingredients
2/3 Cup Splenda
1/3 Cup cocoa
1/3 Cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 Cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 Cup low fat plain yogurt (can substitute 1/4 light or fat free sour creme, or fat free yogurt).

Directions
Beat splenda and applesauce until smooth. Mix in egg, yogurt, and vanilla.
Mix cocoa, flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and add to wet ingredients.
Mix until just blended.
Bake in an 8x8 baking pan at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Makes 16 small brownies.
Number of Servings: 16

Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 26.5 Total Fat: 0.7 g Cholesterol: 13.5 mg Sodium: 37.5 mg
Total Carbs: 5.0 g Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g Protein: 1.3 g

My favorite quick yummy food.

I've made this a few times. Each time it's slightly different. The key ingredients are:

Red peppers, chopped bite-size (were on sale at the small store down the street today.
Chorizo sausage, or hot italian turkey sausage, or some type of hot sausage. If you use non-spicy variety as I did tonight, add red pepper flakes and ground chili to add the heat :-).
Tomato sauce...I like the tall thin jars of it you get at the Italian deli's...simply purred tomatoes.
Olive oil, usually 1-2 tbsp
Lots of garlic (2-4 or more cloves)
Gnocci, usually 1 package.
Salt, to taste.

Tonight;
Sauteed the 3 red bell peppers and 4 turkey-chicken mild italian sausages in the olive oil, with the garlic, red pepper flakes, ground chili and salt.
Added the tomato sauce.
Cooked the gnocci while everything else was cooking.
Mixed the cooked gnocci in with everything else, cooked for another 5 min to let the flavors all "meld."
Topped with chopped fresh basil (came in my SPUD order, have to use!).

Depending on what I have in terms of oil, herbs and spices, and what is on sale/reasonable in terms of meat, this varies slightly. It's good with regular pasta too, but for some reason I like it more with Gnocci.

We had this with the Sumac Ridge Cabernet-Merlot which was on sale at the wine shop up the street. We DID walk to the wine store and to pick up the couple of needed ingredients for dinner.

We came dangerously close to eating out tonight, but opted for this instead. Though not the healthiest meal, it's not too bad, and better than what we would have had eating out. We have managed to keep up our new eating-at-the-table tradition; D. took the time to tidy up the things that had accumulated on the table while I cooked...and is now being wonderful and doing the dishes :-).

The wonderous grain...

Tonight I tried a new recipe from my Moosewood cookbook. I made the Cormeal pancakes. I've realized I love everything cornmeal- cornbread, corn muffins, polenta, all of it! These pancakes are very yummy, filling and a bit more on the savory side than typical pancakes, with a cornbread type consistency. We had them with turkey sausages and a spinach salad. We had maple syrup and/or sour cream on them; both recommendations from the book. The book suggests adding corn and cumin to the basic recipe for a variation...may be yummy, will have to try another day. Here's the recipe:

Cormeal Pancakes (Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home).

Fill with grated cheese, or serve with salsa and avacado, or top with sour cream, yogurt, applesauce or maple syrup.

Ingredients
1.5 cups milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1.25 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
2 Tbsp butter or margarine1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions
Combine milk, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, cornmeal, flour, butter or margarine, and maple syrup in a blender or food processor and whirl for about 30 seconds, until well blendd. You may need to stop the blender or processor and scrape th sides of the container with a rubber spatula to be sure no dry ingredients are sticking. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet. our the batter onto the skillet to make several pancakes about 4 inches in diametr. When the pancakes puff up and begin to form bubbles, flip them over and brown the other side. Remove them on to a plate and keep tehm warm in a low oven while you cook the remaining batches. You may need to add a little oil to the skillet wit subsequent batches. Serve Hot. Makes 20 4 inch pancakes. One serving= 4-5 4 inch pancakes. Number of Servings: 5
Note: If you prefer to mix the batter with a whisk or electric mixer, melt the butter or margarine first.
From the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home book.


Hmm...this blog is becoming more of a food blog lately, isn't it? I think it's just because I've been trying new foods lately...and maybe have made a bit more time in my day to cook.

Crazy for roasted red pepper purree

I found another use for it. Now, this will sound weird, I know, but here's my lunch today:

Spinach with left over shredded red cabbage (from fish tacos last night), with lime juice squeezed on and a bit of Annies Goddess Dressing.

A (yes) cream cheese and roasted red pepper purree sandwich. I know. It sounds weird and a bit gross. But it was good. Cream cheese on each piece of bread, and a think layer of the purree between.

Anyways...

Red Pepper eggs

I just made scrambled eggs with purreed roasted red peppers mixed into them. They are SO tasty! This purreed red pepper is one of the best finds I've made in a long time. I purchased it at a little italian deli/market called Ambrosio. It is so nice to add to sphagetti sauce, pizzas, and apparently eggs! Mmmm...

Fennel and Orange Salad

I made this last night for dinner, along with pasta and pesto. It's one of the recipes from my new Moosewood cookbook. I've heard so much about fennel in the last while, and have wanted to try a recipe with it. I had a bunch of oranges, and realized fennel was relatively inexpensive at the store, so picked some up and tried out the recipe. This recipe is so incredibly simple and inexpensive but so wonderfully refreshing and tasty!! It goes very well with a heavier pasta dish or stew (so says the Moosewood) and I think would go well with a fish dish as well? Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 fennel bulbs
4 navel oranges
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Directions:
Slice the fronds end and the very bottom off the fennel bulbs and cut them in very thin slices. Section the oranges and cut the sections in half. Put all this into a bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste, and mix it all together. Let sit in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving.

That's it! Super simple. Very tasty.

Pizza

Here is the recipe for whole wheat pizza dough:

Ingredients:
3/4 C + 1tsp water
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 1/4 C whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2tsp active dry yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp fast rise yeast)
toppings

Directions (as remembered by me :-):
Put the water and oil into the bread pan. Put the flour sugar and salt into the bread pan, and tap the pan down so that the flour mixture covers the water. Push the flour to the edges in the corners and sprinkle the yeast over top. Put the bread pan in the bread machine and set on the dough cycle.

When the dough cycle is finished (1.5 hours on my machine) knead the dough for 1 minute, then let it rest for 15 minutes. Roll it out to 12-14 inches and put into a pizza pan that is oiled and sprinkled with cormeal. Let the dough rise for 20-25 minutes. Top with your favorite toppings and bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

The toppings I made last night were:
Pizza one:
- dough brushed with olive oil
- sprinkled with a tiny bit of mozzarella
- topped with apples, caramalized onions, blue capri blue goat cheese
- sprinkled with a tiny bit more mozza

Pizza two:
- pesto on the dough
- topped with cappocoli, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and mozzarella

MMMMmmmmmmm.....I love the home made pizza :-)