More besan crackers

We found a natural food store (Sunflower) up here in Vermont, so I was able to buy some nutritional yeast and make crackers!

Last night's crackers:
--all measurements are approximate because measuring things are missing here --
2 cups besan
3/4 cup nutritional yeast (from Sunflower)
2 tsp sea salt (also from Sunflower)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup crisco (I know, I know, but I didn't have anything else!)
2/3 cup vanilla soy milk

I ended up baking these for 20 minutes together (two sheets) and then another 14 minutes each sheet. The dough was a little wet, so I couldn't spread them out as thin as I would have liked. And I'm not sure that the oven really was 350F even though it said it was.

Tasty crackers resulted, so not much to complain about!

Crackers in January

Not that I had time tonight, but I really needed to cook or bake or something to improve my mood. I got home late, to a waking baby, put her back to sleep, did a little work (forwent working out), put the other child back to sleep, started doing more work, and realized that I really needed something else.

So I made crackers!

Here's what I used tonight:
1 cup besan
1 cup organic all-purpose flour
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup Earth Balance (stick)
1/2 cup + 1T original organic soy milk

Here's what I did:
Combine the besan, AP flour, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper.
Cut in the Earth Balance with pastry cutter.
Add the soy milk (1/2 cup first) and mix with hands (take off wedding ring first!). Add the 1T if needed (I needed it). The dough should make a nice ball, and not be too sticky. Tacky is ok, but not sticky.
Let the dough sit for a few minutes, while preparing the oven (365F), the pan (tonight I used a round pizza pan because it's all I could find) with parchment paper, and finding the cutter (really, it's for getting dough off surfaces, but it works really well as my cutter for crackers).
Press the dough out onto the parchment paper on the pan; try to spread it evenly. It will fill the pan.
Cut it into half, then quarters, then smaller pieces. I made rectangles tonight. And, because I couldn't find my larger cookie sheet, I didn't separate the rectangles.
Put in the oven and bake for 18 minutes.

We'll see how these turn out, unseparated. They are starting the smell pretty cheezy....mmmm...and yes, it is after 1am and I'm still working. But I got to make my crackers, so I feel much better. Or at least, that's what I'm telling myself. Back to work...

End of December Cooking and Baking

Our camera is lost or was stolen. And I had a lot of work to get done before Christmas. Those are my excuses for having nothing posted since December 15.

Here's what I was up to...

Curried Lentils and Cauliflower with Brown Rice
--I was afraid of overspicing these (for Jacqui) and didn't use enough curry powder. Next time -- more!

Tunisian Tomato and Lentil Soup
--Delicious! Not too spicy, and with some brown rice or other whole grain, very filling.

Grammie's Brownies
--this recipe is just too big to make for me! I ate too many and gave the rest away to friends. I also used apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar, which gave the brownies a bit of a tangy kick.

Steamed beets, turnips, Brussels sprouts, and carrots with brown rice and walnuts
--this dinner needed a sauce. The beets were delish (Jacqui ate them all!), but steamed veggies are, as Dave says, blah without something else.

Pea and Barley Soup
--used my mom's pea soup recipe, but added barley and changed the spices around a bit. A big hit with Jacqui and Dave. Jacqui will be eating this for meals this week (back to work!).

Cheezy Pasta and Mushrooms
--made a few changes to my cheezy sauce; Dave liked it a lot more. I used some more brown rice miso (I think that's what changed the flavor for him), and replaced the cornstarch with kuzu powder (2 tsp), used 3/4 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp garlic, and used roasted sunflower seeds. The sauce makes A LOT -- 6 cups. I used 3 1/2 cups of it with the pasta (1 and 1/2 packages of spirals) and topped it all with mushrooms (black Chinese ones and miataki) sauteed with Earth Balance, olive oil, and two minced cloves of garlic. Yummmm....

food

I made up a cheezy sauce and sauteed some mushrooms for J. Looks like I will be eating the same for dinner, as i haven't gotten to eat anything yet, it's already 11:30pm, still at work, all restos closed here in midtown, and no restos will be open in BK when I get home.

ingredients
1/2 cup raw cashews
2 T sunflower seeds
2 T pine nuts
2 cups soy milk
2 T olive oil
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 package medium firm tofu
some stone ground mustard (~ 1tsp)
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika
some garlic powder
2 T brown rice miso
1 tsp salt
1 T cornstarch

Blend it all together in blender. Leave for D to heat up with some pasta for J. Saute some mushrooms with olive oil to go with pasta and sauce.

Cheezy Crackers

To calm myself last night after spending two hours trying to get J & A to sleep, I made crackers. The recipe is from Have Cake Will Travel.


They were quick and easy to make, and baked right up in my oven (365 b/c the temp is off for some reason). The apartment smelled very cheezy as the time approached to take them out (18 minutes -- I checked at 15, but they weren't ready yet).

They are spicy -- or as I kept saying to D, peppa, peppa, peppa! Next time, I will not use nearly as much peppa. J tried one this morning, chewed it up, and promptly spat it out on the kitchen floor, getting some on her hot pink tutu (thanks to tata and gramma for the tutu). She has been wearing the tutu every day this week because she wants to be pretty and spin pretty. (Today she wanted to be pretty and spin pretty and small.) She said they were too spicy, but then asked for another when D, J, and A walked me to the subway this morning. That one promptly ended up on the sidewalk, so we left it for the pigeons, and I gave her another from my stash. She clutched it and wouldn't hold my or D's hand with that hand, instead using her key-holding hand to hold hands as we crossed streets. We'll see if she ever ate it or just clutched it (or dropped it). The rest are at work with me (and being quickly consumed), so if she dropepd it, she's not getting another from this batch!

I might eat them all today. I've been snacking on them all morning, and they were basically dinner last night too...Fortunately, they are EASY and QUICK to make, so I can make them again in less than 30 minutes.

Too bad I didn't have any cute cookie cutters to use for them. I just used a pastry scrapper and cut them into diamonds, as you can see above. Also, I didn't roll out the dough, I just pressed it down with my fingers, which resulted in an uneven surface. Didn't hurt the taste at all, and meant less for me to clean up later, so I plan on not using a rolling pin unless ABSOLUTELY necessary (like if I find super cute tiny cookie cutters). I will, however, cut them smaller next time. The larger diamonds are a little soft in the middle (still taste good), but I find that I like the crunchiness of the smaller ones. They also got a little toasty on the edges, bringing out the cheezy flavor even more!

Cheezy Chili Casserole

Tonight I decided to try combining a few things into a casserole. I wanted a shells and cheeze dish, but I also wanted tomatoes and beans...so I combined them all into one.

I based the cheezy sauce on a recipe from Vegan Yum Yum.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Sauce
Warm 1/3 cup Earth Balance in saucepan. As soon as it melts, add 1/4 King Arthur's organic all-purpose flour, and stir to make roux.
Then, with J's help, add 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (sprinkles) 1 T lemon juice, 1 T tahini, 1 T brown rice miso, 2 1/2 T Braggs, 1 1/4 cup soy milk. Whisk together, making sure to keep lumps out and not to boil.
Warm together, mixing, for a few minutes, then set aside.

Pasta Cook one box De Boles organic shells, drain, and set aside.

Rest of casserole
Place 3/4 cup tvp in bowl with enough water to cover. Set aside.
Drain 15-oz cans of organic kidney beans and organic corn. Open 28-oz can of organic diced tomatoes with basil.
In saucepan or casserole dish, add 1/2 cup water, 1 chopped red onion, 3 minced garlic cloves, 3 medium chopped carrots. Cook for seven minutes.
In casserole dish, add the beans, corn, pasta, tomatoes, water/onion/garlic/carrot mixture and mix well. Then add sauce. Add 1/2 tsp Mexican chili powder (probably too little, but I'm totally paranoid after my last chili dish with too much spice for J) and 1/2 tsp cumin; stir well.
Break up two slices of Vermont Bread soft multigrain and top the casserole with the bread.
Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

I think this makes more than eight servings...and it is *really* filling -- D only had one bowl and didn't need to go back for seconds or thirds. (At 8 servings, in each there's approximately 550 calories, 29 g protein, and and 87 g carbs.) J ate this up really quickly and didn't complain at all, try to avoid eating, or spit anything out. She said it's "tasty" -- her new thing for when she likes something -- score! (The peaches we had earlier were tasty. The tofu omelets I made this morning (not pretty) were tasty (yes, they were).)

So the only weird thing about this dinner was the odd smell of the sauce. I think it must have been the miso. I can't place the smell. D said it has a weird aftertaste; he can't place it either. It's not a bad smell or a bad aftertaste, but we can't place it. Vegan Yum Yum's recipe called for sweet miso, which I didn't have, so I used what I did have. I think that is the odd smell/taste, but even knowing that I still can't place it.

Cheezy Corkscrews

Date: August 26, 2009 (morning, made for lunch)

Ingredients
Pasta
Eddie's Organic Vegetable Corkscrews Pasta

Sauce
3 cups water (maybe less--must try to remember)
1/4 cup organic quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 tsp dried organic oregano
1 tsp dried organic basil
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1 T garlic granules
4 T tahini
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
2 T lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat water to boil for pasta. Cook pasta for 9 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for sauce in blender and blend until smooth.
3. Heat over medium heat until sauce thickens.
4. Pour sauce over pasta as desired.
5. Serve with steamed broccoli or other vegetable.

Recipe Analysis
I'd say that the sauce is enough for 8 servings. I used caloriecounter for the analysis -- A.
Serving Size: 115.8 g
Calories per serving: 95, Calories from fat: 41
Details: 4.8 g protein, 10.6 g carbs (4%), 2.9 g fiber (12%), 0.2 g sugars, 16 mg sodium (1%), 0 mg cholesterol, 4.6 g total fat (7%), 0.6 g saturated fat (3%), 0% DV Vitamin A, 19% DV Vitamin C, 5% DV Calcium, 12% DV Iron.
Highlights: No cholesterol; Very low in sodium; Very low in sugar; High in dietary fiber; High in iron; High in manganese; High in magnesium; High in niacin; High in pantothenic acid; High in phosphorus; Very high in riboflavin; Very high in thiamin.

Corkscrews (organic semolina, spinach, beet, red bell pepper, paprika):
Serving Size: 3/4 cup (56g) dry
Calories per serving: 200, Calories from fat: 5
Details: 7 g protein, 41 g carbs (14%), 2 g fiber (8%), 1 g sugars, 15 mg sodium (1%), 0 mg cholesterol, 0.5 g total fat (1%), 0 g saturated fat (0%), 4% DV Vitamin A, 2% DV Vitamin C, 2% DV Calcium, 8% DV Iron.


Notes

1. Sauce is supposed to also have tumeric, but I ran out last week (making tofu scramble).
2. J "ate this up" according to D. Score one for my yummy sauce!
3. I ate it up too - brought a serving for my morning snack :) YUM
4. I added the nutritional info on the pasta above. :)