Thinking of Resuscitation...

I haven't blogged in years. Years! However, I continue to find myself sharing recipes with friends and family, and this is by far the most simplest way. Most of what we eat continues to be adaptions of recipes that I have been making for years, as well as random things I create in order to use what we have. Tonight's dinner was just that. We had Rice and Bean Casserole (scroll about halfway down) from Cathe Olson's Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook with a randomly whipped up Kale and Swiss Chard Salad (kale and swiss chard from our garden!).  The picture is my plate; the children put their rice and beans in hardshell tacos and enjoyed!

Kale and Swiss Chard Salad

12 small to medium leaves of kale, rinsed, dried, then chopped
6 leaves of swiss chard, rinsed, dried, then chopped
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste
a few handfuls of alfalfa sprouts

In a large bowl, add olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. Gradually add kale and swiss chard while tossing in oil. Toss in a few handfuls of alfalfa sprouts.

Vegan Paht Si-Yu

I make Vegan Paht Si-Yu (listed as the last recipe) at least every other week.  Suuuuuuuuuper easy.  I make a larger batch by using a whole pound of spaghetti. I just toss in more veggies and make a slightly larger batch of the sauce. Cathe Olson has this in her The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook which seems to be out of print. This is a total bummer, because it is one of my all-time-favorite cookbooks and I'm constantly recommending it to moms.  Many pages are falling out of my copy from lots and lots of love and use over the past six years. Hope you give it a try and enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Summer Spaghetti

Tomatoes, tomatoes, and MORE tomatoes!!!! They are everywhere. Pouring out of our CSA box. Growing beautifully on our unruly sweet 100 tomato plant. I'm trying my darnedest to keep up! I was nervous to bring out a new recipe, because my five-year-old is being outrageously picky. He ate this!

INGREDIENTS:
2-3 cups sungold tomatoes or sweet 100's, rinsed and stems removed
4-6 kale leaves, remove stem and roughly chop
one small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
8 fresh basil leaves, minced
2 cups great northern beans (or other white bean), drained (rinse if canned)
1 lb whole wheat spaghetti
1 cup reserved of pasta cooking water
s&p to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Bring pot of water to boil. Cook spaghetti for 7 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Meanwhile, place tomatoes in baking dish. Drizzle with olive and salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Add chopped kale and roast an additional 7 minutes. While tomatoes are roasting and pasta is cooking, heat 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a medium/large sauce pan. Add onions until they soften. Add beans to warm. Add garlic and basil, stir. After 30 seconds turn off heat. Add tomatoes and kale when finished roasting. Add s&p to taste. Drain pasta when finished cooking. Add back the 1 cup of water to keep the pasta from being sticky. Top with sauce and serve!

Roasted Beet Salad

INGREDIENTS:
8-10 beets, rinsed and trimmed
1 fennel bulb, rinsed, trimmed and diced
3 scallions, rinsed, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
2-3 Tablespoons of sunflower oil
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
pumpkin seeds, garnish

Preheat oven to 400. Place beets in a baking dish along with about 1/4 inch water. Cover with foil (optional - experiment and see what you like best) and roast until tender but still firm (30-40 minutes). Larger beets will take longer than others. Let beets cool. Once cool, the skins will easily slide off. Slice and add to salad.

While waiting for beets to cook and cool, Add fennel, scallions, garlic and cilantro in your salad bowl. Drizzle with oil, vinegar and s&p. Let this marinate in fridge while beets cook and cool. Add beets when ready. Serve immediately or chill in fridge until ready to serve. To serve, sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and on a bed of lettuce.

Mango Berry Banana Smoothie

1 1/2 cups frozen mango (or peach)
1 cup frozen blueberries (or other berry)
2 bananas, unpeeled
2 1/2 - 3 cups unsweetened, plain soy milk (or other milk of your choice)
2 Tablespoons ground flaxseeds

Place all in the blender and puree until smooth. Add more soy milk to get your desired consistency or to stretch it out for one more person to enjoy!

Makes 5 1/2 - 6 cups of smoothie (enough for two adults and two children)

Cheers!

Thoughts on a CSA box

It's CSA season again, and I could not be happier. Every Thursday, we are gifted with an amazing box jam-packed with fresh, beautiful vegetables from Driftless Organics. I was inspired to write about how I used this past week's box, because many people ask how we can go through a full-share every week without food going to waste. Why so inspired this week? I was able to plow through this box in just two days. We were headed out of town for two and a half days just 36 hours after picking up our box, so I immediately attacked that box. Here is a list of the vegetables, and how I used them.

Broccoli
Garlic Chives
Green Garlic
Pea Vine
Radishes
Red Butterhead Lettuce
Red Potatoes
Salad Mix
Spinach
Yukina Savoy

Thursday
We picked up our box when we are usually already eating supper. So, just as we arrived home, I quickly threw in an Amy's veggie burger for the boys to share and started a pot of water to blanch the broccoli. Then I made a salad using half the spinach and half the salad mix along with pear, walnuts, balsamic vinegar, sunflower oil (also by Driftless and AMAZING) and freshly ground salt and pepper. The boys ate toast, veggie burger, salad and mounds of broccoli. Then off Ethan went to put them to bed as I continued on my mission.

Just after I pulled the broccoli out of the boiling water I tossed in the rest of the spinach which quickly wilted. I then pureed it and voila! Baby food. (Yes, there were bits of broccoli...but Odin loves broccoli, too). Put it in ice cube trays, and we've got spinach for several days for our Odin.

Dumped that water and started the pot all over again for a pound of whole wheat spaghetti. As the water came to a boil, I created pesto out of two handfuls of walnuts, all the garlic chives, salt and pepper, drizzle of olive oil, the rest of the salad mix (yes, you can make pesto from salad mix...you can make it from any green you want), and a cup of the pasta's cooking water. The cooking water is an excellent way to stretch the pesto with using very little oil and smoothing it out for the little ones. After the boys were asleep, Ethan and I finished the salad and had pesto spaghetti.

Friday
I was inspired to have breakfast for dinner, because this week's newsletter mentioned that the amount of potatoes was perfect for one batch of hashbrowns. I sliced the potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds, place in a pot and covered with cold water. Bring to a boil and parboil. I did this a few hours before dinner while the kids were either napping or occupied. Placed them in the fridge until I was ready to brown them. Heat one to two tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick skillet. Add parboiled potatoes. Cover. Just before they were finished (about 8 minutes) I threw in the green garlic (chopped) and yukina savoy (roughly chopped). Along with the potatoes, we had another salad exactly the same as the night before except butterhead lettuce was the green along with roughly chopped pea vine. If you don't have pear, just skip the fruit or add berries instead! And the main dish...waffles!!! Topped with greek yogurt and pure maple syrup. My vegan-altered Betty Crocker recipe follows. I simply loved this meal.

Yes, I didn't use the radish...but they are sturdy and last long in the crisper drawer with the carrots and apples. I'm thrilled to use them tonight.

Vegan Waffles
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas
2 1/2 cups of soy milk
3/4 cup sunflower oil

Combine dry ingredients. Mash bananas in mixer. Gradually add soy milk, oil and dry ingredients until all are combined. Cook/bake as directed for your waffle maker. Extra waffles can be frozen. I used the extras for breakfast-in-the-car the next morning. (I needed to get to Grandma and Grandpa's house in record time...I needed a break!).

What to do with way too much cream...

During my weekly mad-dash trip Mississippi Market, I accidentally grabbed a quart of cream thinking it was milk. Oops. I never use cream other than for my daily cup of coffee. This bottle would surely spoil, or I would have to increase my coffee intake expotentially. I couldn't let the mama cow down that worked so hard to make this cream! I cringe every time I see my own breastmilk go down the drain.

I had no idea what to do with so much cream, but I knew exactly who would. I called up my super duper mama friend Lauren. She suggested that I use it to make scones. Fantastic idea! So, I opted for this dreamy cream scone recipe from Smitten Kitchen. My only alterations were using Earth Balance rather than butter and chopped dried apple as the dried fruit.

I still had cream...so! I was inspired by a pancake post (also from Smitten Kitchen). I used the same amounts for the dry ingredients, but my wet ingredients were:

2 cups half and half
1 large banana (mash until creamy - I simply let the KitchenAid mixer pulverize it)
1 Tablespoon sunflower oil



My heart doesn't know what to do with all this high-fat intake...oh, well. Enjoy!

Baked Brown Rice

I have been meaning to try baked brown rice for a while. This winter I gave it a shot, and I am so glad! I don't know if I will ever cook rice on the stovetop again. It comes out perfect every time (make sure it's always placed on the middle rack), and you don't have to keep an eye on it. I can walk away (which is mandatory...many meltdowns occur with my little ones between 4 and 6pm) and not worry about it boiling over.

I use Cathe Olson's recipe in The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, but here is a very similar recipe from The Motherload. I simplify by heating the water up in a teapot and adding oil rather than butter to the rice at the same time as the water.

Sometimes I fancy it up with adding a cube of Rapunzel bouillon at the same time as the water - just stir with a fork to break it up. Then adding some minced parsley just as it comes out of the oven. This is a great side dish to Snobby Joes.

Post Punk Cornbread

My family loves, loves, loves, loves, LOVES this cornbread! Guests really enjoy it, too. I make this at least once a week during the winters to accompany our chili. It is so hard to not eat the entire pan. It's perfectly moist and not too sweet. The authors of theppk.com (The Post Punk Kitchen) are also the authors of Veganomicon. This recipe also shows up in that fantastic cookbook, but it replaces the 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup with 1/4 cup of sugar. So choose the sweetener of your choice. And...as you can see...it is very much kid-approved!

Vegan French Toast

I've never had true success with vegan french toast. Every recipe I tried I had issues keeping whatever I used as the egg replacer on the bread or cooking well enough. It just came out sloppy and wet. As I was figuring out what I wanted to do for Father's Day, I came across an Overnight Maple French Toast recipe. I had never heard of overnight french toast, and I thought this would be my perfect solution! No frying in the pan and getting annoyed that the flaxseeds won't stick or cook. I "veganized" this recipe, and it actually turned out pretty great. Even made it for extended family this weekend, and it was eaten quite quickly.

INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 Tablespoon Earth Balance
1 loaf of french bread, cut into 1-inch slices
3 Tablespoons of ground flaxseed
9 Tablespoons of water
1 1/2 cups plain, unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
fresh fruit, for garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
-Combine brown sugar, syrup and Earth Balance into a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil for one minute. Pour into a greased (I just use more Earth Balance) 9x13 baking dish. Place bread slices into dish (I can fit most if not all).
-Combine ground flaxseeds and water and blend until thick and creamy. This can take up to one to two minutes. I use a hand blender in a plastic 16 oz cup (I got it with the blender), and it works SO much better than anything else I've tried.
-Stir the soy milk, applesauce, vanilla and salt into flaxseed mixture. Pour evenly over bread.
-Cover and refrigerate overnight.
-Preheat oven to 400 F. Bake uncovered at 400 F for thirty minutes.
-Garnish with fruit, if you wish and eat! We served with rosemary hashbrowns and Gimme Lean patties (two breakfast faves for the veggie papa).

White Bean and Tomato Soup

We've got a cool, rainy day, and it looks like the weekend will be much the same. This White Bean and Tomato Soup comes from cucina nicolina, and it has become a standard in our kitchen. It comes together incredibly fast and with so few ingredients - most you may have stashed in your cupboard right now and the rest you can grab from your garden or the farmer's market.

If I'm going to be gone during the afternoon and will not have time to make dinner, I will throw this in the crock pot right after lunch. When going this route, I use kale instead of spinach, because it sits much better in the heat. When I am whipping this together and wanting to have it on the table in thirty minutes or less, I use beautiful fresh spinach.

Make a quick loaf of beer bread or Irish soda bread, if you're in the mood to turn on the oven. This summer, you may just want to have a wonderful fresh salad on the side. Enjoy!

Raspberry Leaf Iced Tea with Lemon

This iced tea is great and is loved by all people - not just pregnant mamas (although there are great benefits to expectant and postpartum moms). I enjoy it most with lots of ice and a thick slice of lemon. This can treat a craving for any sweet drink but provide you only with benefits. The amount of loose leaf tea you use is up to you. I find myself going back and forth between 2-4 tablespoons per quart.

DIRECTIONS:
-Bring one quart (4 cups) of water to a boil.
-Place in heatproof container (I like using my one quart Pyrex measuring cup) with 2-4 tablespoons of dried loose raspberry leaves. Seep for 10 to 15 minutes.
-Strain tea into a storage container (I use a simple one quart Kerr canning jar).
-Let cool and place in the refrigerator.

To serve:
Pour tea over ice and serve with a thick slice of lemon.

Cabbage Pasta

My new favorite quick fix for lunch when there seems to be nothing around is Cabbage Pasta. This was inspired by Urban Vegan's Quickie Halushki. Since fall, we've had an abundance of cabbage in our house from our CSA, and it is still incredibly cheap at the co-op. Plus, cabbage and pasta are two of my fave foods. This is perfect.

Ingredients:
1 cup pasta (penne, as pictured, isn't great for this. Choose something thinner like macaroni or noodles)
1 quarter of a cabbage, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper
couple dashes of tamari
couple dashes of Srircha sauce (optional)

Cook pasta in boiling water for 8-10 minuets. Saute cabbage with salt and pepper to taste in olive oil until soft. Add garlic until fragrant (30 seconds). Add tamari and Srircha. Stuff your face.

Vanilla Crunch Granola

I have shared other favorite Cathe Olson recipes in the past, and alas I fell upon another on the internet I have come to love! Vanilla Crunch Granola is a great quick, crunchy (love the steel cut oats) breakfast that is slightly sweet but not filled with tons of sugar like many store-bought granolas. This is incredibly easy and fast to make. Everyone in our family loves it! I follow her directions exactly; however, I do use golden raisins and think about throwing in some chopped dried apple next time.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Feeding The Whole Family

One of my hobbies is to constantly check out cookbooks at the library. I feel the urge to buy a new cookbook at least everything six months (cookbook budget is unfortunately quite limited.) I am thankful for living in a city so large that it has an enormous cookbook selection and is willing to purchase most every book I ask them too. Yea for libraries!!!

Feeding The Whole Family by Cynthia Lair is so wonderful to me that it is a definite "buy" by my standards. It is a fantastic resource on wholesome family eating, and I believe the recipes are easy for the less-advanced or least-interested cooks. Yet, the tastes have proven to be great for those more-advanced and very-interested tastebuds.

I cook and bake our family meals strictly vegan, and this book has a wide variety of recipes to accommodate. There are recipes that call for meat, but there are very few. The recipes that include dairy seem easy to translate into vegan.

Recipes we've come to love: French Lentil and Potato Stew, Split Pea Soup with Fresh Peas and Potatoes (minus the ham bone), and Pumpkin Pecan Muffins (vegan style).

Here are some of her recipes published on mothering.com and also included in the book, as well as an article she wrote:

Winter Fruit Compote with Nut Cream
Becky's Braised Greens
In The Kitchen with Baby
Summer Fruit Ambrosia with Vanilla Nut Cream
Golden Mushroom Basil Soup
Luscious Beet Green Salad

Sweet Potato Maafe

This recipe was delivered to my door last fall in a co-op newsletter. I made it once last year and received a so-so reaction. It took me a year to try it again, and this year it was LOVED. Not sure what made the difference, but it is very well-liked by me, my husband, and our one-year old. The three-year old was still a bit luke-warm. This is a easy one-pot meal that can take under an hour. I enjoy serving it with basmati rice - a treat in our usual brown rice home.

My alterations - I used potatoes rather than turnips, because I just received a mother-load of potatoes and no turnips from our CSA Thanksgiving box. I also omitted the cayenne pepper. I get nervous the babe will get the hot-spot and be mortified. I just put red pepper flakes on the table for individuals to add heat. I also did not use tomato paste, because what I had on-hand had turned moldy!

Just click here, and enjoy!

Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip Squares a la Erin

While reading SouleMama one day I came upon this Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip Square recipe she referred to to celebrate autumn. I was thrilled, because it was yet a new "pumpkin" recipe for me (quotations, because a pumpkin recipe in my home usually means some random winter squash). I took some liberties to make the recipe vegan and to accomodate what ingredients I had on hand. They turned out magnificent - super yummy.

Follow the directions just as stated on Martha's website, but here are my alterations:

- No pumpkin pie spice. Used cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves, as listed in the heading.

- No butter. Used 1/2 cup Earth Balance (way AWESOME - better than butter) and 1/2 cup sunflower oil (or canola oil).

- No egg. Used 1/3 cup applesauce. GREAT egg replacer for cakes and breads - especially with pumpkin recipes.

- No canned pumpkin puree. Used 1 cup roasted squashed.

- Used 1 and a 1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips. Don't be scared. There are AMAZING non-dairy chocolate chips. I get mine at Mississippi Market in the bulk section. Can't remember exact name - but it's obvious. I'll try to update after my next trip.

Enjoy!

Jalapeno Hummus

Hummus is a much-loved food in our home...mostly adored by my husband. I do my best to have it on-hand as much as possible, because it is one of his snack standards. Our three-year-old Finn has also become quite the fan. This recipe was inspired by Minneapolis' outstanding bakery and deli Holy Land which has an incredibly, creamy jalapeno hummus. Although I LOVE Holy Land, it's hard for me to spend money on hummus every week when it's so cheap AND easy to make at home.

The picture above is my jalapeno hummus as a condiment to a mighty trio of Indian foods we love. Lentil Puree (Dahl) over brown rice (I add spinach before pureeing) from Cathe Olson's Feeding the Healthy Vegetarian Family; Indian Turnips from the wonderful Driftless Organics; and, jeera alu from Mothering magazine's January-February 2009 issue. We love eating it with this type of meal but also devour it with carrots, crackers, pretzels, and bagels as a snack.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
3 garlic cloves
2 Tablespoons tahini
3/4 teaspoon salt
juice of 1/2 a lemon
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup water (use more or less for your desire consistency)
2-3 jalapenos, sliced with seeds

Place garlic cloves in food processor. Run until minced. Add beans, tahini, salt, lemon, and olive oil. Run processor. Add water through tube while processing other ingredients. Run until smooth.

Remove 1/4 to 1/2 cup for a non-spicy batch for the kids. Then place jalapenos in processor. Run until well chopped and combined. The number of jalapenos you add depends on your taste and the spiciness of the peppers. I often add one pepper at a time and then taste.

Potato Leek Soup

The first batch of soup of the season! It has really cooled down outside, and soup sounded perfect. This soup is SUPER easy, and it is deeply loved by my three year-old. He asked for seconds last night which rarely happens these days. He's too eager to talk or play (or eat ice cream).

This recipe was inspired by Cucina Nicolina's Potato Leek Soup with Bay Leaves. I've altered it just a bit. Serve with a baguette and a simple fall salad. Makes 6-8 servings.

INGREDIENTS:
2 leeks, sliced and rinsed in a colander
5-6 yellow potatoes, scrubbed then thinly sliced
small head of garlic, minced (5-6 medium cloves)
5-6 cups of water, depending on how thin you like your soup
2 vegetarian bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
salt and pepper to taste (set on table for adults to load on the pepper - super good)

Drizzle a tablespoon or two of olive oil into a soup pot. Add leeks. Saute until soft. Add potato slices. Cook for two minutes or so, stirring occasionally to coat with oil. Add a bit of water to prevent scorching, if needed. Add garlic and stir. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Put on the lid and bring to a gentle boil. Lower heat to a simmer. Cook about 10-15 minutes until potatoes are tender. With a hand blender, blend the soup just a bit. You can serve right away. Yesterday I mad this mid-afternoon while the dudes were still napping. I then added it to the crock-pot and set to low, so the flavor deepened. Then you can also forget about dinner until just before you eat!

Super easy to make with local ingredients right now!

Squash Bread

Well, the delicata squash plant I grew in my garden this year was a MONSTER! I guess that's a good thing. It was healthy and HUGE! I've begun reaping the benefits by beginning my fall baking. It almost seems too early for pumpkin-esque treats; it's been so warm here in St. Paul. However, yesterday marked the beginning of fall, and today it is truly a beautiful autumn day.

Here's a recipe that my dear friend Sara shared with me last year. It's FatFree Vegan's Pumpkin Bread. I quite rarely use actual pumpkin when I make recipes like this. I like to use my butternut squash or delicata squash in its place, because I tend to always have one of those on hand in the fall. Currently, I have an entire basket of delicata squash! Below are my variations on FatFree Vegan's recipe and my directions to preparing and freezing squash.

Pumpkin Bread Variations:
Replace 1 cup of pureed pumpkin with 1 cup of pureed winter squash
*Use 1/2 cup of applesauce rather than 1/4 cup. This way you can eliminate the Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with water.

*I never use Ener-G Egg Replacer, because I simply don't see the need for one more product in my pantry. I either use applesauce or banana as an egg replacer when it makes sense, OR I blend 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 3 Tablespoons of water (per egg you are replacing) until it's incredibly thick and creamy; I recommend using a hand blender for best results. Here is a simple reference guide to egg replacements from one of my fave sites theppk.com.

PREPARING SQUASH:
Cut squash down the middle, length-wise
Scoop out all the seeds
Place cut-side down in a 9x13 baking pan
Pour small amount of water into to pan, just to prevent scorching

Bake at 350 until squash is tender when poked with a fork...about 30-40 minutes for delicata squash. Remove when done and leave to cool enough to handle. Remover skin - should fall write off. Place the soft squash into a food processor and run it to create a more creamy squash. I then like to freeze it in 2 cup portions. Then you can easily take it out when your in the mood for pancakes or bread!