More good eats, beets, & a new veggie dinner

So my SD card reader decided it didn't want to work today. I used to have this problem quite often.....but it hasn't happened in forever! Maybe later I'll go search for a cable, OR....use my laptop instead. So the TastyBite giveaway will have to wait a day or two. Sorry!

I hope you've all been having a nice holiday or winter break.  Mine's been pretty boring, but I've been able to keep up with my workout schedule and walking. The weather has been insane. One or two days in the 70's, then down to the 40's...then back up to the 70's...etc. I can't keep up!

We went to our CSA before Christmas and picked up a HUGE box:

Too much stuff to mention, but lots of greens, rice, coffee, tomatoes, and citrus!

I also recently tried a new frozen entree. Now I don't often eat these things....but once in a while when you're just not in the mood to cook and you want something with a specific amount of calories, etc.....found this:

Moo Moo's Poblano Chick(Pea) Patties. They're vegan and gluten free! And low in calories. Very tasty indeed! And they don't skimp....there was plenty of food in the box.  I'll let you know when I try another one.

And look at this cool cauliflower I found at the store. It was too colorful not to buy it. However, the color seemed to fade in cooking...sniff....as you can see in one of my Indian meals:

Oh, and there were beets in the CSA box.....and they came with all the greens. I had to cut them off in order to fit them in the fridge and needed to figure out what to do with them. Lindsay over on Twitter suggested I saute them with garlic and olive oil.  Thanks! I sauteed them in a little water, with some minced garlic. Then when it was done, I added just a tiny bit of Earth Balance on top. Delicious! I love beet greens...this was the first time I'd ever eaten them:

Ok, that's all folks. I will try to post that giveaway before the New Year....!!!! It's a whole box of goodies :)

One last thing...any thoughts on how difficult it will be to change the name of my blog? If people follow in a reader, how will I be able to tell them my new name & url??

Eat smart,
T.

Catching up on food:chard and cupcakes!

I know I hadn't posted in a while before I left for my trip, so today I'm going to post some of the things I made that I didn't have a chance to blog about, and I've pictures of my Brattleboro Food Co-Op stash and latest Pangea order!!

First, let's start with chard.  A couple of weeks ago I saw some Rainbow Chard at my local farmer's market, so I said what the heck and bought some. It was so pretty, I couldn't pass it up.  Of course, I had no idea how to cook it.  After a little research, I just folded over the chard leaves and cut off the stem.  I chopped up the stem and put it in a saute pan with some water and let it cook a bit.  Then I tore up the chard leaves and added them.  I served it over brown rice with a soy-based Asian sauce I make (McDougall recipe).  It was really good.  The chard was just a tiny bit bitter, but that's ok.

Next, I made a nice raw salad with my own cherry tomatoes and sprouts, and lettuce, turnips, kale, and carrots from the local farmer's market:

On to the cupcakes!!

I bought Isa Moskowitz's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and finally got a chance to try one of the recipes: Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake.  They came out rather nicely...I only made a couple of small changes.  I used only a drop of oil and the rest water and I replaced the all-purpose flour with whole wheat bread flour.  They didn't rise a ton, but maybe if I only make 10 instead of 12 next time and can fill them up a little more, they'll be bigger.   I used her Rich Chocolate Ganache Topping to frost them....wow, delicious! I used agave nectar instead of the maple syrup, because that's all I had.  A big success...we loved 'em!

I think we're caught up now with stuff I made before my trip.

Here are a couple of pictures of the awesome stuff I scored at the Brattleboro Food Co-Op:

Plus....I got some hulled barley and oat groats, yay!
Here's what I just got in the mail from Pangea:

Coming up: really easy veggie stew and calzones!
Coming in May: book reviews

Eat smart,
T.

Greens and Sweet Rice

Sorry about the lack of posting lately.  We've been busy and out of town.  I'm back now with a few days off still until I go back to work (Mardi Gras vacation), so I've got some time to catch up.  I'll probably create more than one post today.

So back to Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet".  I had some sweet brown rice that I'd gotten at the Asian market nearby, so the Barley with Sweet Rice and Corn sounded perfect.  The combination of barley with the rice was delicious.  (I still need to buy/make Gomashio) I served this with my Collards and Cabbage.

Tanya's Collards and Cabbage:


1 huge bunch collard greens, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
2 cups shredded green cabbage
2 tbsp rice cooking wine/mirin
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
soy sauce
sesame seeds
ginger
salt


Saute the onion in a little water until soft.  Add the garlic and stir/cook for another minute. Add the collards. Cover and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the cabbage. Cover and cook another minute.  Add soy sauce to taste and the rice wine.  Add spices to taste. Serve over cooked grains.


I made my own pizza again a few days ago.  I finally bought a pizza crisper(pan) and that did the trick for keeping a really crispy crust all over.  I also pricked the crust all over with a fork, before pre-baking it for 5 minutes or so in the oven.  It was soooo good, and crunchy, yay! You can find my original pizza recipe here.

Enjoy!  I'm out of vegetables (what???), because we were out of town and the next farmer's market isn't until Saturday......sigh.....I did break down and buy some broccoli at the store today.

Hope you all had a good Mardi Gras!
Eat smart,
T.

Miso Soup and Collard Greens

First of all, I want to thank those of you who came out to our NOLA Musicians Benefit Concert for Haiti yesterday in the cold and rainy weather.  We had a lot of fun playing! Thanks to all the musicians who played, and to Eva, Cherie, and Carlos R. for helping to put it together.

And since it's been so cold and rainy, I thought it would be a good day to try some miso soup!  I had some mellow white miso in the fridge so I found a recipe in Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes.  I left out the tofu, since that would add extra calories.  I found it to be a little on the watery side, so I added a little extra miso and soy sauce (which it said you can do....to taste).  It was delicious!  It made a lot of soup, so we've been heating it up for leftovers :)

I've also been reading Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.  I found a great recipe (Sicilian Collard Greens with Pine Nuts and Raisins) for collard greens, which I had in the fridge from the farmer's market.  I left out the pine nuts because I didn't have any....she says you can use pumpkin seeds instead, but I didn't any of those either.  It was still good.  And I left out the oil, because I'm trying to leave out as much oil as possible from my cooking.  My husband thought there were too many raisins for the small amount of greens that it actually cooked up (they really shrink!).  So next time I'll put in fewer raisins, but it was a very tasty dish.

For those of you wondering, the local (New Orleans) vegan bake sale for Haiti will NOT take place on Saturday.  It will be rescheduled due to Mardi Gras and Superbowl happenings.  I will keep you posted.

And here's a picture of the lunch we took to work the other day.  I used the Sunflower Seed Falafel recipe as a spread on the nori sheets and added vegetables. Soooo good :)

Eat smart,
T.

A different kind of falafel

I found a recipe for Sunflower Seed Falafel on Hannah Kaminsky's blog: BitterSweet.  It's incredible.  I made it today (remembering to soak my sunflower seeds last night) and served it with some collard greens.  The flavor reminds me of another spread I used to make for sushi rolls.  I ended up eating some it raw, right out of the food processor, because it was soooo good.  In fact, I may prefer it that way.  It sort of reminds me of tuna salad, even though I haven't eaten the stuff in years (so maybe my taste buds are way off).  You could just serve it raw, by the scoopful on top of a salad or something.  And I think it would be great spread on nori sheets, with vegetables on top, rolled up and cut into rolls. I think I might use it for the latter the next time around.

The way I made them only made about 14 balls, but perhaps they were bigger.  Still, we only each ate 3, and with the greens, it was the perfect lunch.

Collard Greens:

Put a little water in a saute pan and add half an onion (chopped), some minced garlic and a little salt.  Cook about 5 minutes until the onions are soft.  Add the greens (chopped) and cook another couple of minutes, adding water as necessary, if it's too dry.  Add about 2 tbsp Vegetarian Worcestershire sauce and cook another couple of minutes.  Pretty easy.


I was going to make HappyHerbivore's Black Bean Brownies today too, but I've made too many sweets this last week.  I better take a break if I want to keep losing weight :)  But, I will make them....eventually.

I realized that I now use my little food processor almost every day! I have a Cuisinart 3-cup processor, which really isn't enough.  It works great when I want to make hummus or another dip, or maybe a small amount of sauce.  But for the falafels today, I had to do it in two batches.  And I know for the black bean brownies, I'll have to do it in 2 or 3 batches.  Am I lazy?  I'd rather do it in one, if I could.  I don't have a blender either.  I'm saving up for a Vitamix.....hehehe....no, I'm kidding.  That won't happen.  And sometimes I use the food processor twice in a day and I get annoyed having to wash it out so often.  I wonder if I could just get another container and blade for it.  Or maybe I just need a bigger processor.  Ok, I've done my complaining for the day. Well, at least online :)

Eat smart,
T.

Greens Stew and Pasta w/Alfredo

Yay, two meals in one day for the blog!  That's cuz I finally had a day off. Another day off tomorrow, but we're going to a pizza place for our friend, Dave's birthday.

So for lunch I thought I'd try my colleague, Kate's suggestion to parboil mustard greens.  It worked!  No bitterness.  Thanks Kate!  Here's my recipe for it:

Tanya's Greens and Beans Stew:

1 large bunch of mustard greens (& any other greens you have, like kale, if you want)
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 stalk green onions, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup water
salt, pepper, creole seasoning
optional: cornstarch or arrowroot (if you want a thicker sauce)

Tear the greens into small pieces and wash.  Drain well.  Bring a pot of water to a boil, with some salt.  Once boiling, add the greens.  Boil for a few minutes until the color is brighter....my water turned green and purple!  Drain.  In a saute pan, pour in the 1/4 cup water and onions. Cook on medium heat until soft.  Add the garbanzo beans and garlic.  Cook for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes (w/liquid) and seasonings.  Add in the greens.  If there's too much liquid, go ahead and mix a little cornstarch with water, then add it to the stew. I didn't, but I probably will next time. (I feel like I"m forgetting ingredients...if I think of any, I'll add them)
Serve over brown rice, or another grain if you want. I mixed mine up in the bowl.

And now on to dinner! I thought I'd try VeganYumYum's Hurry Up Alfredo. Didn't look anything like the picture in the cookbook, but it was very good! I used almond milk instead of soy and I left out the margarine. I also thought I'd try the new Sprouted Grain Pasta I bought in Alabama the other day.  It was kind of strange, and very sticky. But oddly, it tasted pretty good.  Since I'm trying not to eat too much flour these days, it looked really interesting to me (I love pasta). It was very chewy, but again, not bad.  I've got one more box to test out :) The sauce itself was really tasty.  I added fresh basil and parsley to the past, after adding the sauce.  And I steamed broccoli to mix in.  Needed a bit of salt, but that's about it.  I prefer VYY's Creamy Tomato Pasta, but I would make this again.

We bought a great Franken wine at that health food store in Alabama.  This stuff is hard to find! It's easy to spot, because it comes in a round green wine bottle.  We've got one more bottle to go through...

Until tomorrow...
Eat smart,
T.

Tomato Barley Risotto

I'm really enjoying my new vegan yumyum cookbook!  And I love that it has color pictures of everything too :)

Tonight I made the Creamy Tomato Barley Risotto and it was excellent! This  was my first ever recipe with nutritional yeast!  (am I too excited about that??)  The only thing I added was kale and mustard greens.  Really was just like eating risotto, except that it's barley! And like she says, you don't have to stir forever. I used unsweetened almond milk instead of the soymilk.  I also had to cook it a little longer, as the barley wasn't quite cooked all the way.  But I highly recommend this recipe and the cookbook!

Off to work I go.  Get ready, I've got several days off starting tomorrow and I hope to post quite a bit! Already excited about Saturday's market(s)!!

Eat smart,
T.

Tempeh and potatoes

Sorry for such a late dinner post.  Just got back from having a Sam Adams Seasonal...mmmm....

So we had tempeh for dinner, with a side of vegetables, including potatoes, local corn, local lima beans, and onions.

I based this tempeh recipe on the one I found on the Swellvegan blog. If you scroll down, you'll find Balsamic Tempeh.  I couldn't find fresh kale or anything at my store, so I had to use canned greens.  I used spinach and mustard greens.  I'm sure it would have been so much better with fresh kale.  I love the stuff.  So sad that the store didn't have any.  I didn't serve it with rice.  Instead, I made a side dish of potatoes to go with it. Perhaps next time I'll make it exactly as the recipe says!

Tanya's Potato Corn dish:

1 small yellow onion, chopped
2-3 cooked small red potatoes, cubed
~1/2 cup cooked lima beans
2 ears of corn (1 white, 1 yellow)
4-5 stalks of asparagus,cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
cajun seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic


Cut the kernels off the corn cobs.  Put oil in pan.  Add corn kernels.  Cook until browned, stirring every minute or so.  Set aside.  Use same pan, add more oil if needed.  Add onions.  Cook until translucent.  Add potatoes and let brown a bit.  Add asparagus.  You may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water and cover to let the asparagus cook for a bit.  Add lima beans and corn.  Add seasonings to taste.  Cook a few minutes longer.

Enjoy!  I just kind of mixed all sorts of things......on the spot experiment.  I had to use the last 2 ears of corn from last week's farmer's market.  Also had to use the cooked lima beans I had from a day or 2 ago.  Again, I boiled a bunch of potatoes this morning, just to have on hand.  Still have some left.  Maybe I'll make my Potato Salad Oregano again!

Well, I think it's time to try one of those fancy chocolate truffles my friend  gave me for my birthday!

Until tomorrow....
Eat smart,
T.