Lots of good food and some great Fall recipes!

I know! I know! I'm lazy. Posting barely once a week....what is that?? Now that I'm back at work, it's a bit more difficult to post every other day. So sorry. I'll do my best.

Anyway, be sure to go all the way to the bottom of this post for an amazing Fall recipe!! One of my better ones, if I don't say so myself :)

Remember I bought Nacho Mom's Vegan Queso??? It's so amazing....one of my new addictions. Unfortunately, I only bought 2 jars. One jar is gone....I'm waiting to open the other because I know when I open it, it will be gone...sniff....and then there will be none.

And I've been eating my awesome Dr. Cow Cashew Cheese (Kale flavor).....so good, you gotta try it:

Other stuff I've been eating-

(Teese and Arugula Quesadilla on a Sprouted Grain Tortilla)

(Cold rice salad with leftover zucchini spirals)

(filling for a burrito:rice,black beans,peppers, onions,squash)

(millet with a creamy cashew tomato sauce based on VeganYumYum's sauce)

And this week's Blogger Recipe is an awesome Alfredo Sauce from Healthy.Happy.Life. 

(served with sprouted grain pasta)

This was really delicious! The Vegenaise gives it a nice tangy flavor. I don't use Vegenaise all that often, but it's a real treat when I do. Thank you, Kathy :)

Here's a great recipe for couscous salad, using the Toasted Pine Nut Couscous from Near East!! Really tasty stuff.

Cold Couscous Salad

1 pkg couscous (toasted pine nut is great in this)
2 small tomatoes, chopped
2-3 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds
3 Tbsp Orange Juice (or juice from tangerine,satsuma,etc.)
pinch of cloves
1/2 tsp orange zest (I used dried)


Cook the couscous according to the directions, adding the raisins in with the water. Add the rest of the ingredients to the cooked couscous. Mix well. Cool before serving.


I also made an amazing sauce for my grains & veggies bowl from Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes: Miso-Tahini Sauce. SOOOO good. I doubled the recipe and added lots of extra lemon juice.  Wow was that delicious over my veggies and brown rice!

And now for that awesome Fall recipe:

Autumn Rice and Beans

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp each: paprika, cinnamon, chili powder

1 tbsp Creole Seasoning (or some cayenne and salt)
garlic & onion powder to taste
juice of 1 lime
1 bunch of kale, chopped


Peel the sweet potatoes and cube them.  Put them in a pot and cover with water. Bring to boil. Boil lightly until soft (~30 min).  Drain.  Put the rice and beans into the pot you cooked the sweet potatoes in.  Add 1/2 cup water. Cook on medium heat until heated through, adding water as needed.  Add in all spices. Stir well. Add in the kale and let it wilt for a few minutes. Then, add in the cooked sweet potatoes. Stir very well. At this point, the sweet potatoes will mash up very easily in the pot. That's ok. I like it mashed up well. Add in the lime juice last. Again, stir. Serve with more lime juice on top!


Phew.....that took forever. Hahaha....but at least it's done.  I'll be out and about this weekend eating some great food....can't wait to post about it!!

PS-Have any of you been to Ireland?  (thinking about a possible future trip) We've never done any actual escorted tours on buses....but I'm tempted to do one or two there, since a lot of the great scenery/coastline is not accessible by train.  Thoughts?? Have any of you done coach tours before?


Eat smart,
T.

Chili, cornbread, Ani's slaw, my weight loss, and a smoothie

Well I've been at a weight plateau for quite a while now.  Although only in numbers.  I can see the progress of my new weight lifting regimen, especially in my arms.  I work out with weights 3 days a week now and do lots of walking on the other days.  They say you don't often see the numbers go down on a scale when you're weight lifting, but you may go down in sizes.  Anyway, my numbers did finally start to go down the other day....even if only a tiny bit.  Every bit counts!  And I think I'm in my last 5-10 pounds of losing anyway, which apparently are the hardest to lose.

Ok, on to the food :)

Saturday's market: eggplant, tarragon, okra, tomatoes, peaches, white button mushrooms, baby bellas, basil, fairytale eggplant, mustard greens, butternut squash, limes, asian pears, cucumbers, rice,  and more black bean salsa!

Today I made a great juice!

Apple Carrot Ginger juice:

2 medium carrots
1-2 stalks celery
1 fuji apple
small slice ginger (depends how gingery you like it)
1 cup water (or 1 1/4 if you want it a bit more watery)


Blend in your Vita-Mix!

I needed a good raw meal the other day and found Ani Phyo's Black Sesame Asian Slaw with Ginger Cashew Mayo in Ani's Raw Food Kitchen book. I didn't use Chinese cabbage, but used plain old shredded cabbage and coleslaw in a bag.  (I ended up having to add quite a bit more water to the mayo, because it was pretty thick) I also used a mixed seaweed bag a friend brought me from Japan, instead of just Hijiki.  It made enough "mayo" that we had the slaw again a second day for lunch.  It was delicious!

I made some of my bean chili the other day, with whatever veggies I had on hand.  I added pink-eyed peas, since I had some in the freezer that I'd previously cooked.  I served it with this cornbread, which was absolutely awesome!  Just the right amount of sweetness.  Only thing is, I forgot to add the vegan butter when I processed the kernels of corn, but it still tasted great.  And the batter was so tasty, I didn't even bother adding the topping of vegan butter and sugar!  You definitely need to make this :) (I left out the bell pepper too)

Other stuff I've eaten:

A variation of my Indian Curry  (served over millet):

Another variation of my Indian food with added eggplant and okra, served over plain couscous:

Giveaways:

Check out Averie's blog. She's giving away a bunch of awesome Tempt stuff!!

Eat smart,
T.

Spicy Pea Stew, Stuffed Tomatoes, and A Smoothie

I got a TON of pink-eyed peas from the farmer's market this week and last week, so I decided to go ahead and finally cook them!  Boiled them for about 1 hour.  Drain and done.

This week's market: pink-eyed peas, lima beans, baby shiitakes, peaches, nectarines, plums, fresh oregano, cucumbers, butternut squash, little eggplants, tomatoes, and bell peppers.

And that leads me to today's lunch!

Tanya's Spicy Pea Stew

1 1/2 cups cooked pink-eyed peas (or black-eyed)
1 cup strained tomatoes
1 cup corn kernels 
1 large bell pepper (any color), chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium/large tomato, chopped
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp Creole seasoning (or a mix of cayenne & other peppers)
1 tsp salt
garlic powder & crushed red pepper flakes


Saute the onion in 1/4 cup water.  Add water as needed, so it doesn't stick.  When soft, add the celery and peppers.  Cook on medium for 2-3 minutes.  Add the corn and a little more water and cover.  Let steam for 2-3 minutes.  Add the peas and all spices, except the salt.  Stir and add the strained tomatoes.  Add in the chopped tomato and cook for another few minutes.  Just before serving, add the salt and stir.  Serve over couscous or brown rice.

I served mine over Near East couscous, as they were kind enough to send me a few boxes. I haven't had couscous in a while and it was very tasty :)

Speaking of couscous, they also sent me their Toasted Pine Nut flavored couscous, which went really well in the Sicilian Stuffed Tomatoes I made from Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes.

Some with a little Daiya on top, and some without:

One of the blog's I read is Mama Pea's Peas and Thank You blog.  You should check it out, especially if you have kids (her girls are so cute!).  And I've probably bookmarked a billion of her recipes by now.....so I decided I should finally make one. I made her Simple Black Beans and Corn and Millet Pudding. The only problem I had was that the millet would NOT grind up.  I still put it in, but I added in a few spoons of cornmeal to help.  Not sure why the millet wouldn't grind up in my food processor.  Maybe it would have, in the Vita-Mix?? Anyway, it was all delicious!  Now I have a ton of beans....I froze most of them :)

On to another smoothie recipe:

The "what do I call it?":

1/2 banana
1 peach, pitted
2 carrots
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup water


Blend. I think ginger might go nicely in there, but I haven't tried it yet.

Stevia:
Have any of you tried Stevia? I tried it (and spent a lot of money for the little container) and can't stand it.  I do love licorice flavor, but that was just toooooo much. Bleh.  I bought the powdered stevia extract.  But I also tried my mom's regular stevia powder (not extract) and still didn't like it.....I tried both in my oatmeal.  Maybe it's better in a smoothie?? Any other suggestions?

Other stuff I've eaten:

Nori rolls with Ani Phyo's "Sushi" Rice made from jicama:

My friend's eggplant dip:

Ok, that's all for today.  Glad we didn't get a tropical storm this week after all :)

Giveaway:

LeslieLovesVeggies is giving away 2 copies of "The 30-Minute Vegan's Taste of the East" cookbook!

Look for a post Monday or Tuesday about my giveaway!!

Eat smart,
T.

Roasted broccoli & cauliflower a la lemon

Hey everyone!

For tonight's meal, I roasted broccoli and cauliflower and served it with Israeli couscous.  This is a recent discovery of mine, and I love it!  It's really easy too, once you've broken up the broccoli and cauliflower. I suppose you can always buy the packaged florets, but it's fresher to do it yourself. But some of us have more time than others....so do what you have to do. Here's my oh-so-lemony recipe!

Tanya's Roasted Broccoliflower a la Lemon w/Israeli Couscous:

Broccoli and cauliflower, broken into florets (enough to fill a roasting pan)
1-2 lemons
1 cup Israeli (pearl) couscous
olive oil
spices: salt,pepper, lemon-pepper (if you have it), garlic powder
2 cups water


For roasting:
Put all broccoli and cauliflower in a bowl.  Add about 1-2 tbsp olive oil,salt, black pepper, lemon-pepper (I use Mrs. Dash), and some garlic powder.  Add juice of 1/2 lemon.  Mix well and let sit a few minutes.  Put in a greased roasting pan, spread out evenly.  Put in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  After 15 minutes, mix them up so more sides can get that "ever so slightly burnt" look.  Once out of the oven, add the juice of 1/2 lemon and mix it up in the pan before serving.

For couscous:
Put 1 tbsp olive oil in a pot.  Add couscous and heat, toasting them nicely.  Once toasted, add juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper, and 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat way down and let simmer, covered (or mostly covered) for ~15 minutes or so....however long it takes for the water to be absorbed.  In some cases, you may need to add a bit more water, if couscous is not fully cooked.

I love lemon, so I always add extra once it's on my plate!


And that's it for today, folks.  I don't know what's on the agenda for this week....haven't thought that far ahead.  But I do know I have lots of vegetables from the market this weekend, so I'll have to think of something.  Still wondering about that golden zucchini.....

Enjoy the last of your weekend!
Eat smart,
T.