Cashew Tomato Sauce

So I made some sauce the other day in my food processor, and it was good mixed into mashed potatoes, and really good mixed into pasta! Here it is:

Cashew Tomato Sauce:

1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup cashews
2 roma tomatoes
1 TB tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp Creole Seasoning (or comb. of salt/cayenne peppers)
salt to taste
2 TB red wine (optional)
1/4 cup water (for thinning, if necessary)


Process the cashews first, until powdery. Then add the rest of the ingredients, except water, and process. If it's too thick for you, add the water, as needed, and process. Serve it over warm pasta, or mixed into mashed potatoes.

I also made a wild rice salad a while ago (I forgot about it).  I soaked some wild rice for 2 days or so, rinsing a few times a day. Then mixed it with some other veggies, and added balsamic vinegar, garlic, onion, and salt to taste. So good! The wild rice is very chewy. It was my first time enjoying soaked wild rice.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer. I may or may not start the p90x workout soon. Have any of you tried it??

PS- if any of you love craft beer, or know of others that do, please check out my other blog: A Taste of Beer.

Eat smart,
T.

Millet with Roasted Vegetable Sauce & A Cranberry Smoothie

Guess what? It's the start of satsuma season!! I've missed those things. I'm not a huge orange eater, but I do like clementines when those are in season. Satsumas are good too and grown right here.

We finally got to the farmer's market again after 2 weeks without (due to travel, etc.): mustard greens, lacinato kale (it's no curly kale, but it'll do), apples, zucchini, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, okra, mizuna/arugula mix, yellow squash, and brown rice.

We had a friend over the other evening and I made some millet with a roasted vegetable sauce. Originally, I was just going to top the millet with roasted vegetables, but then I decided to put it in a pan after roasting and after I added things...it turned into a sauce!

Millet with Roasted Vegetable Sauce:

For the millet:
2 cups water
1 cup millet


For the sauce:
1 head broccoli, in small pieces
1 onion, chopped into medium-large pieces
1 green pepper, cut into chunks
2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks
(you're welcome to add more veggies, as they shrink when roasted)
2 cups strained/pureed tomatoes
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond milk-I think it works better than soy)
1/2 cup water
Creole seasoning, garlic, onion powder, cumin powder (or seeds), nutritional yeast, oregano, chili powder
2 tsp tomato paste
salt/pepper


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put all the cut vegetables in a bowl and add Creole Seasoning. Mix well to coat. (watch the salt...this stuff can be really salty). Put the vegetables on a baking sheet sprayed with oil. When the oven is ready, put the veggies in. Set timer for 25 minutes.


Make the millet: Put the millet in a pan and put it on medium-high heat. Shake the pan every once in a while. When it starts to smell nutty (don't let it burn!), add the water and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes until the water is absorbed.


After 25 minutes, stir the vegetables in the pan and put back in oven for 10 more minutes. When done, add them to a large saute pan on the stove with the 1/2 cup water.  Cook on medium heat.  Add the non-dairy milk, spices, and tomato paste. Stir well.  If it's too thick for you, add a little water. If it's too thin, add a little more "milk". Salt as needed. Serve over the millet.


Now onto the newest smoothie in my collection!

Sour Cranberry Smoothie:

1/2 cup 100% cranberry juice (no sweetener added)
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup frozen peaches
1/2 cup water
(sweetener-optional)


Blend! It's pretty darn sour, but I love it! Feel free to add a little sweetener if you need it...or use sweetened cranberry juice. But I'm telling ya.....you should try it the sour way first!


It's gotten so cool here.  It's been in the low 60's in the morning! What? Yup.....brrrrrr. I've had to actually put long pants on and a real shirt for walking in the mornings. It's only in the mid-70's in the afternoons. I think Fall has finally arrived. Yay!  I will definitely be doing a Fall beer tasting in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that. Next post will be my Atlanta trip post.

Eat smart,
T.

Exercise, Vegetable Coulis, Creamers, and other stuff

So I logged 7 3/4 miles walking today.  I've been trying to get in at least 5 miles a day.  It's spread apart of course, in 2,3, or even 4 parts. Although this morning I got a good 4 mile walk in just going to and from Borders Books, after I dropped off my husband at his recording session.  Felt good.

I've seen various reports saying that if you do the same exercise everyday, it won't do much, or it'll "stop" working.  I'm not sure what that means.  They tell you to vary your exercise routine.  I decided to take two days off per week of walking.  And on those two days I do weights (arms, shoulders, etc).  I think that's a pretty good routine so far.  But really, if I just keep walking everyday for 5-7 miles a day, will I not lose weight anymore?  Do I need to do a different form of cardio?? What are your thoughts?

By the way, I didn't gain any weight on our 3+ week trip.  Although I didn't lose any either.  Tried to keep walking a lot.  We did try a bunch of great vegan restaurants, including vegan cupcakes and other baked goods. Guess that's why I assumed I would've gained weight.

I made spaghetti squash the other day, and topped it with a vegetable coulis I made in my Vita-Mix.  Is it possible to eat too much fiber? I think I should call this sauce, FIBER COULIS :)

Veggie Coulis (very concentrated):

1 tomato
1 red pepper
1 cup broccoli pieces
1 pint shiitake mushrooms
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup nooch
2 cups strained/pureed tomatoes (I use Pomi or Bionaturae)
1/2 onion
1 cup kale
1/2 cup red wine
oregano, garlic, black pepper, salt


Blend in VitaMix: everything but wine
Pour into a pot and turn heat on medium.  Add wine to thin.  You may at this point add more water/wine to thin it out even more.  It's VERY thick!  For leftovers, I've been adding even more strained tomatoes to it, because it's just too thick and fiber dense.  So perhaps this is more of a concentrated coulis :) Sever over pasta, potatoes, grains, or spaghetti squash.

I think when we got back home, we went back to our fiber rich foods too fast.  Whole grains, lots of vegetables, etc....but we feel better now that we're back on our routine.

Nori rolls I made with the Sunflower Seed Falafel:

Tonight's version of my Eggplant Parmesanless:

Creamers. Why do I always have a problem with creamers?  For a long time I used Silk's Original Soy creamer.  I loved it in my coffee.  But recently, more often than not, they go bad really quickly, or they're bad right out of the container. Why is that? Has anyone else had this problem? I had tried my almond milk in my coffee, but didn't like it.  I did however try the Almond Breeze unsweetened in my coffee and it's not bad. I can deal with that.  Soy milk is another story.  Sometimes it curdles, sometimes it doesn't. I don't get it.  I think if you pour your coffee fast into the soymilk, while stirring, you're ok.  If it's done very slowly, or if you add the soymilk to your coffee after the coffee's already in your mug, you're out of luck.  But of course it's not always the same effect.  Grrrrrr. Does this aggravate anyone else? Or is it just me?  I found MimicCreme.  I've tested it out and it's pretty good!  I realize now (after this morning's coffee) that you really should stir it into your coffee. Just because it's at the bottom of your cup when your coffee goes in, doesn't mean it will mix itself in. But I like it.  Can't find it anywhere locally unfortunately. (you can order it online) I also like it because it's NOT soy, it's made with almonds and cashews.

Here's what I don't like....errr....I mean what else I don't like. SoyGo.  I ordered a bag of it online.  It's powder.  I was hoping....just hoping....it would be better than that awful old non-dairy crappy powder that all the hotels and truck stops have. It's not.  It doesn't mix in.  It's all grainy and powdery in your coffee. Bleh.  And since I'm not going to use anymore, I should give it away, don't you think?  I'll have to come up with a giveaway to include it in soon.

Update: I've been in contact with the people from SoyGo recently and they sent me a new bag of creamers.  I've been testing it out and will continue to test it in different places and ways.  I will let you know the outcome! The folks there have been very nice and very patient with me :)

If you have any other suggestions for creamers, at home, and on the road, please PLEASE let me know!!

For a list of other great vegan blogs, click here.

Eat smart,
T.

Raw "noodles" and almost raw tomato sauce

Ok, so I've seen so many amazing raw recipes online on various blogs and I've been really excited to try some.  Recently, I was introduced to the SPIRALIZER on some blogs.  I had no idea what that was!  What an awesome little kitchen gadget. (ok, maybe it's more medium sized) Well, mine arrived a few days ago and I had to try it out.  So I went right out to the store and bought some zucchini.  I found a great recipe for Raw Vegan "Pasta" Noodles and Raw Marinara. on Averie's blog.  And she has links to info about the spiralizer too (thank you, Amazon).  I believe I have the same spiralizer.

And here are the beautiful "noodles":

This is the leftover piece after it's done (don't worry, I used it in the sauce!)

And the final product:

I just think those curly "noodles" are so pretty.....don't laugh! Anyway, I used 1 zucchini per person and that worked out well.  For the sauce, mine was almost raw. I didn't have any fresh peppers, so I used a roasted red pepper from a jar.  Peppers are so expensive these days and not in season from the farmer's market, so....I have to deal with what I have.  I guess I could just leave it out next time and add extra tomato.  Here's what I put in my sauce (adapted from Averie's recipe): tomato, roasted red pepper, leftover zucchini pieces from spiralizer, 2 regular sized carrots, fresh basil from my herb garden, salt, pepper, a dash of agave nectar, and garlic.  Soooo good! These raw foodies sure know what they're doing.  And this is so easy.   The spiralizer was so easy to use, and so fast.  For the sauce, everything went into my 3-cup food processor and then it was done.  I did leave a few wedges of the tomato until the end, so it would be a little chunky. It was so good, I made it again for our lunch today at work :) So check out Averie's recipe...you won't regret it.

So there you have it, a deliciously almost raw meal :) I guess it should be completely raw next time....no cheating.

Tune in this weekend for my farmer's market goods!
Eat smart,
T.

Spaghetti Squash & Kale Chips

I found a great recipe for Spaghetti Squash on VeganDad's blog: Spaghetti Squash with Slow Roasted Tomato Sauce. I bought a squash last week at the farmer's market, so I was looking for a great way to cook it, since I'd never cooked one before.

I did cheat, however.  I didn't slow roast tomatoes, like the recipe calls for.  Instead, I bought a large can of fire roasted tomatoes and used that.  I also left out all oil and butter. (just used a little water to saute the leeks)  I used a white riesling I had in the fridge (Clean Slate) instead of Vermouth, and I only used about 1/2 cup. And you know, the sauce was delicious!  I didn't even add salt or pepper or anything.  Leeks and white wine do go together (I used to make a Swiss dish with that combination). And my last cheat of the recipe: I used pre-minced garlic I bought from the store!

The squash was quite easy to cook.  You just prick it with a fork several times and put it in a pan.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for 1 hour, or a little more, if you have a bigger squash....until soft.  And it was so easy scraping out the insides....and all it left was the shell!  There was a lot more squash than I was expecting, which is good, because it's low calorie :)

I highly recommend this recipe, cheat or no cheat.

I tested out another snack on the FatFreeVeganKitchen's blog: Kale Chips. Very easy and delicious.  Just watch out....they crumble very easily! (& of course I left out the oil)

Eat smart,
T.

Creamy Tomato Pasta for Fall

I think I'm starting to feel a bit better today, and it helped that it was quite Fall-like today.  I even have the kitchen window open!  Feels good.

I had work today, but what I made was so easy, I don't even think it counts as cooking :)

"Creamy" Tomato Pasta adapted from Super Quick Tomato Basil Cream Pasta from the VeganYumYum cookbook

6-10 ounces whole wheat pasta (I used a  mix of shells and rotini)


Sauce:
1 - 1 1/2 cups crushed canned tomatoes ( I needed my fresh tomatoes, so I used leftover crushed)
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp tomato paste
1-3 tbsp red wine

salt, pepper, garlic, fresh basil

Throw the 1st 5 sauce ingredients into a food processor (the original recipe uses a blender, but I don't have one) and process until creamy and thick.  Boil pasta.  While pasta is cooking, put sauce into a pan and heat.  Add salt, pepper and garlic to taste.  Add the wine. Simmer.  When past is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan with the sauce.  Toss and add fresh basil.  Yay, done!


It was really good.  I'm not sure if it would've been even creamier using a blender???  I've never used cashews in cooking before...gives it a nice texture and flavor.  I left out the oil from the original recipe (trying to follow McDougall's no oil rule when I can).  Of course he doesn't like nuts either....oh well.

Anyway, this was a great recipe for an easy quick dinner after work, so you should try it.

Time to go relax now.
Eat smart,
T.