Muffins and Bean Patties

Today was a full day for us.  Lots of playing, library trips, playing, house hunting, and more playing.  We added in some baking and a lovely end-of-day story from Jacqui's former teachers and Aji's new teachers.  Great day, but I'm officially exhausted.  Vacation is hard work.

Pumpkin muffins

I know that I have my own recipe for pumpkin muffins, but I recently treated myself to Let Them Eat Vegan by Dreena Burton, and could not resist trying her pumpkin muffin recipe.  

I hadn't made them yet, despite the girls' requests for muffins, because the recipe calls for oat flour and I didn't have any.  A few nights ago, I realized that I could just make my own!  I put 1.5 cups of rolled oats into my food processor (I wanted to make sure I had 1 cup of flour) and processed on high until it looked sufficiently flour-like.  This made more than the 1 cup I needed, but I will use the rest at some point. ;-)  

I also couldn't find my nutmeg, so I subbed that for another of the lovely fall/winter spices and used the 1/4 tsp ground ginger suggested for adults.

The muffins turned out well.  The recipe made 17 muffins for us (my tins are really on the small side and I tend to underfill rather than overfill).

The girls worked very hard on these and we only ended up with a little bit of sugar on the floor.  We ate these as part of our dinner tonight.

Bean cakes/patties

For the main part of dinner, I had in my head to use up leftovers and make a bean burger or bean ball.  Into my food processor went ~1 cup of leftover steamed veggies and kidney beans, ~1 cup of leftover rice, ~1/2 tsp sea salt, ~1/2 T nutritional yeast, ~1/2 tsp organic seasoning, and ~2-4 T oat flour (see, I'm already using the extra!).  Process on high until everything is mixed together well.  Unfortunately, this was much wetter and stickier than I has expected, so I added panko to thicken it up and make it possible to form some sort of ball.  When I transferred the balls to the frying pan, the transfer process did not work out.  I ended up flattening the balls and breaking them into smaller pieces to fry.  That worked out well and they ended up with a nice brown patina.  We ate them with organic ketchup for dinner.

Aji ate her portion right up.  Jacqui exclaimed how wonderful it was, but then stopped eating halfway through and decided she didn't like it anymore.  I think she got to a thicker area of the patty that was not as crispy.  Next time: thinner, smaller patties so that everything gets nice and crispy.

Baked Rice and Lentils

from many months ago...written but never remember to hit publish...
 
Taking inspiration from the Mothering November/December issue's potluck article, I made baked rice. I mostly used the recipe provided there, but made a few changes, mostly to veganize it. :)

Ingredients
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup brown long-grain rice
3/4 cup dry French lentils
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups vegetable broth
15 oz diced tomatoes with juices
1-2 cups frozen greens, defrosted and chopped
1/2 cup Daiya (mozzarella style)

What to do
Preheat the oven to 350.
Warm your Dutch oven over medium heat. While it is warming, chop the onion. When the pot is warm, add the olive oil. When the oil is warm, add the onion and saute for five minutes. Mince the garlic and chop the carrot and celery. Add them to the onion and saute for another five minutes. (Add a little water if everything starts to stick.)
Add the rice, lentils, and cumin and stir and cook for approximately one minute.
Add the broth and tomatoes with juice. Stir well.
Remove from heat and place in oven, uncovered. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Defrost and chop the greens (or use fresh).
Add the greens and Daiya to the casserole, stirring well to combine.
Place back in the oven and bake for another 20-30 minutes, uncovered.

Lentil and Sweet Potato Burritto Roll-ups

Dinner last night was lentil and sweet potatoes. In burrito/roll-up form.

I started a baked rice dish (which I will post about later), but by the time it was in the oven for its 1/5-2 hour baking time, it was less than 30 minutes from when I wanted the girls to eat dinner. So, I looked at what I had in the kitchen and decided to make something with the few orange sweet potatoes and one large yellow/white yam that I had remaining. I used French lentils in the baked rice, so they went into the dinner too.

Ingredients
Lentils
1/2 cup dried French lentils
1 cup water
sprinkle of ground cumin

Sweet potatoes
2 small orange sweet potatoes
1 large yellow/white yam (sweet)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder

Daiya cheese (mozzarella style)
salsa (optional)
4 long flax/whole wheat flat rectangular wraps

What to do
First, cook the lentils with the sprinkle of ground cumin. Adrianna helped by measuring and adding the lentils and water. This was the step that took the longest for us last night in dinner-making land.
At the same time, cook the sweet potatoes. (I used the microwave because I was using the oven to bake rice, but you could use the oven.) When they are cool to touch, peel and mash with the ground cumin and chili powder. (You could use more of both the cumin and chili powder if you want - I was keeping it on the less spiced side for the girls.)
To prepare the burrito-roll-ups:
Spread some of the sweet potato mixture onto a wrap. Add some warm lentils. Top with Daiya cheese (and salsa if you want -- I didn't include it for the girls). Roll up. For kid-sized burritos, cut the wrap in half before making the burrito. If the lentils aren't warm enough to melt the cheese, you can put everything in the oven for a few minutes to warm and melt. If the lentils are still warm (as ours were), they will melt the cheese.
Eat and enjoy!

Jacqui topped hers with the applesauce I made on Sunday, despite my warnings that it would make it hard to eat. It was. She ended up using a spoon to eat her roll-up, but the applesauce was a sweet addition to the sweet potatoes, spices, and lentils. Adrianna ate 1/3 of her roll-up with big bites, then needed the rest by spoon. The girls each ate 1/2 of a large burrito. I ate one large, and Dave had one large when he got home later. And we had one leftover (for someone's lunch or a snack). They were warm, easy to make, lightly spiced, and filling.

Polenta Dinner

Friday night before we began our long long car trip to Maryland (i.e. Grammy and Gung-gung's house), I made up a polenta and beans dinner for us all (me, the girls, and Dave). We ate all the polenta. Adrianna couldn't get enough; Jacqui ate pretty quickly; and Dave and I ate up our full portions (plus an extra one for Dave). I gave each of the girls 1 1/2 pieces of polenta, giving Jacqui beans only and Adrianna beans and sauce. Two pieces each for me and Dave, with an extra piece waiting for Dave when his plate was clean.


The polenta is from my earlier-in-the-week cauliflower and polenta effort. For the bean sauce, I used some mushroom and olive marinara sauce mixed with coco rose beans, heated slightly and spooned on. On the side, farm fresh cukes. I fork-cut up Jacqui's and Adrianna's portions to make it easier for them to eat by themselves. It was a quick and easy dinner, perfect for getting the girls to eat quickly so that we could be on the road before 8pm.

Marinated Tempeh and Cauliflower Polenta

When I got home last night, I made up a quick marinade for some SoyBoy soy tempeh (cut into four triangles). After the girls were finally asleep, I cooked the tempeh, and started chopping cauliflower for my polenta.

Jacqui is in the final stages of potty-training. She wears underwear during the day and hasn't had an awake accident in more than a week. Yay! The last stage is sleep. Some days she wakes up dry from her nap, some days she wakes up wet. Of course, the days she wakes up wet are the days I foolishly allow her to nap without a diaper over her underwear. Sigh. She has yet to wake up dry from overnight sleep. And, over the last week, her body has determined that she needs to poop between 8:30 and 9:00 pm. When she should be in bed, going to sleep. Instead, she is sitting on the potty, pooping. "Mommy, I want to be a big girl, I don't want to pee and poop in my diaper." What can you say to that entreaty? "Ok, ok, go sit on the potty." Even if it's the third time since going to bed that she's asking to go. Even if I'm the only one home with the girls and Adrianna is on the verge of falling asleep. Even if I'm starving because I haven't gotten to eat yet. I just can't say no to the "I don't want to pee or poop in my diaper because I want to be a big girl" plea. Bedtime is just becoming later and later and dinner time for me is becoming much more of a Spanish-time dinner... but I don't get an afternoon siesta. Sigh.

I based the marinade on a tempeh marinade recipe from Veganomicon. I omitted the maple syrup (didn't have any) and only used 1/2 the liquid smoke. I used 1/3 of a bouillon square plus 3/4 cup hot water to make the vegetable broth. The tempeh marinated for a bit more than an hour, then I cooked it in my handy dandy (but a little too large) non-stick skillet. I used some of the marinade to cook with the tempeh, but saved half of it to use again for marinated tempeh sticks. (I cut up another block of tempeh, into small finger-sized strips, and put them into the marinade and the whole container into the fridge last night. I'll cook them up tonight, so the girls have something new for lunch on Friday.)


As I cooked and ate my tempeh (yum yum), I started the polenta. I've been dreaming of making polenta for some time now. (Is is odd that I dream of making certain food? I don't think it's too odd...much better than some of my other dreams!) My first attempt to cook polenta was thwarted when the polenta had grown a thick layer of green mold on the top. Eck! I took it back to the farmers market and got a new bag. No mold on this one. Phew!

I based the polenta on a recipe from Veganomicon (Broccoli Polenta). I subbed cauliflower for the broccoli -- although I didn't have any broccoli, I had a huge head of cauliflower waiting to be eaten in the fridge. :) Four cups chopped and I still had enough for 3-4 more. Instead, I ate maybe half raw while cooking the polenta. So I've got a little bit of raw cauliflower left in the fridge for another night. I chose to use my brownie pan for the cooked polenta -- after taking out some of the polenta-cauliflower slop to eat immediately! I topped it with some large sea salt and nutritional yeast. Yum!




Here's my pan of cauliflower polenta. It looks eggy, no? The bowl of freshly cooked polenta really looked eggy to me. After the pan cooled a bit, I put it into the fridge to firm up. This morning before I left for work, I cut into squares and gave Dave directions on how to make it for lunch. Fry 2-3 squares in the skillet, add a little olive oil if necessary. Top with tomato sauce and coco rose or white beans (both are sitting cooked in the fridge). The girls will have a yummy lunch!

Pesto!

On Saturday, we used the large (and I do mean LARGE) bunch of basil we bought at the farmers market to make PESTO!!!!

Pesto is so easy to make, and so tasty. Store-bought pesto always has cheese in it, so if you want vegan pesto, you've got to make it yourself. All you need is a food processor (or high powered blender) and some ice cube trays, and you're ready to put some pesto away for later.


(image from photobucket)

Ingredients
6 cups loosely packed basil leaves (rinsed and patted dry)
3/4 cup pine nuts
6-8 garlic cloves
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

What to do
Combine the basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt, nutritional yeast, and olive oil in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. (I tried to make this in the blender first, but the blender didn't cut it. Literally.) Process until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides to ensure everything is processed.
Using a spatula, fill ice cube trays with pesto and cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze. Keep enough unfrozen for whatever meal you want to make with it immediately.

This recipe can be halved or doubled, depending on how much basil you have on hand. You can also add more or less of the salt and nutritional yeast, as you prefer the taste. You will also notice that my recipe has lots of garlic. I love garlic. Jacqui's first comment was that the pesto was spicy. Not so spicy that she didn't like it, but spicy enough that she let Adrianna have the next three spoonfuls while she thought about the spiciness.

Saturday night, I mixed pesto with brown Basmati rice and garbanzos for dinner. Yum. The girls loved it, and it was such a quick and easy dinner for them.

Last night, we made pasta (brown rice pasta for the girls and tofu shiratake pasta for me and Dave) with white beans and pesto. The brown rice pasta was delicious with the pesto, as were the beans. I threw some grape tomatoes in with Dave's and my meal. The tofu shiratake pasta was not very good. It was rubbery and made me want to gag. I ended up eating around it -- just eating the tomatoes and beans with pesto -- and filling up on the fresh gigantic head of cauliflower that I steamed for dinner too. I think I ate half of the cauliflower myself. It was probably a foot across. I had to steam it in three batches last night. So delicious. Fresh vegetables from the farmers market just taste better. Ahh...

Two Bean Sweet Potato Chili

Last night I wanted to make a chili for me and Dave to eat. But for some reason, I didn't really want tomatoes. And I had some sweet potatoes that I scored from my mom's kitchen. I think this dish can be called chili with its spices -- if white chili exists, then tomatoes certainly can't be a requirement!

Ingredients
1 T extra virgin organic olive oil
1 medium organic sweet onion, chopped
2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1/4 cup water
1 can organic black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can organic pinto beans, rinsed and drained
ground cumin
ground cinnamon
paprika
Mexican chili powder

What to do
While trying to get Jacqui to finish her dinner, chop the onion.
Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped onion and saute for 5 minutes.
Add the sweet potatoes and the water. Add some cumin, cinnamon, paprika, and chili powder (to taste). Cover the pot and let the sweet potatoes steam.
When the sweet potatoes are steamed and bright orange, add the beans and some more spices. Stir to mix everything together well. Cover and let it all cook together for another 10 minutes or so. (Or, like me, until Jacqui finished her sesame green tea noodles.) Taste again, and see if you want to add any more of the spices. I added a little more chili powder and cumin because Dave and I were going to eat this dish, not Jacqui. :)
I let this sit (covered) until I had gotten the girls to sleep (45 minutes or so), but you could eat it right away too!
We ate it with chunks of a whole wheat baguette I picked up on the way home. I found it very comforting and filling -- just what I was looking for last night!

Wednesday's Soup

Update: Photo added and cooking time
No creative or descriptive title for today's concoction. Maybe I will come up with something after trying this at dinnertime. (Here's hoping I'm home for dinner!)

I found canary beans at the Key Food last night and *had* to buy them. They were this great yellow color and looked a little like butter beans. Then I googled recipes, but wasn't interested in making Peruvian stew today. Might try it another day, once I've mastered the whole seitan-making-process, as the recipes all called for various types of meat. (Last night was supposed to be my initiation into the seitan-process, but J wasn't sleeping well, waking up every few minutes, and then woke A up, so by the time they were completely asleep, it was well after 10:30 and I wasn't up for trying to make seitan any more.) Besides, I really wanted to make a potato soup.

So, in between the cleaning and the moving of our futon and the boxing up of things and the moving of other things (we are in the process of emptying our apt to prep and sell it), I got all my ingredients together in my head. I also really wanted to use my sweet potatoes because they were starting to sprout and my m-i-l always puts them in the fridge at that point, taking up valuable fridge space unnecessarily.

Unfortunately, by the time we were finished with the cleaning and moving and boxing, it was after 2am. I did remember around midnight to put one cup of the canary beans to soak.

So, this morning, I cooked the beans for approximately an hour and a half, with the kombu. After putting A down for her morning nap, I chopped the veggies and put the rest of the soup together before I left for work.

(photo taken with my blackberry, so it's a little grainy)

Ingredients
1 cup dried canary beans, picked through, soaked overnight
1 small piece kombu
1 large white onion, roughly chopped
olive oil
1 large yukon gold potato, roughly chopped
2 medium sweet potatoes or yams, roughly chopped
1 1/2 or 2 cups vitamin greens, chopped in food processor and frozen months ago
1 can coconut milk + 1/2 can water
2 handfuls of unroasted, unsalted, organic peanuts

What I did
I soaked the canary beans overnight. I was a bit disappointed this morning to see that the soaking took away their yellow color and made them really just look like butter beans.
I cooked the beans with the kombu while I made french toast for me and J.
I chopped the onion and sauteed it in olive oil in my big Le Creuset while I cut up the potato and sweet potatoes . I added the chopped potatoes to the Le Creuset.
Then I added the beans and cooking water, the can of coconut milk, and 1/2 can of water (to get all the coconut goodness into the pot).
I then added the vitamin greens (from my favoriate organic farm at the Farmer's Market; she says they are a Japanese green and the name translated into english is literally vitamin greens), which I had chopped in the food processor when I got them in June and froze for use in soups. :)
Finally, I added two handfuls of peanuts from my peanut stash.
I couldn't decide on a spice to add to the soup, so I left it alone. Told D to check the soup and add water if needed to keep the veggies cooking. I also told him to check at lunchtime to make sure the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beans were all cooked before serving it, and left the soup covered on 4 on my simmer burner.

At work, I decided that saffron would work well with everything, so I called and asked D to add a few threads. We'll see if he did later, and we'll see how this soup tastes, later.
My serving suggestion: two scoops of brown rice (which we have from Monday) and soup.

Update 9/24/09: I had the soup - well, really a stew, for lunch today with brown rice. (The photo is from my lunch.) It was VERY filling and tasted pretty good. The only thing about the taste: someone left the stew on until 8-something last night, and it burnt a little, so the stew had a slight burnt taste. Lesson learned -- next time, give D or his parents a specific time to turn the soup/stew off to avoid burning. I think that a little lime might go really well with this dish. Next time...

Eggplant Stewed

I'm really not sure what to call this dish. I put it together when I left for work yesterday and D let it cook all day long (when I ate some at 9:30 last night, the burner was still on). It smelled divine and tasted divine as well. It looked...less than divine.

Ingredients
2 small eggplants, sliced and quartered
1 large zucchini, sliced and quartered
1 sweet pepper, chopped (I used a red, orange, and green pepper from the farmer's market)
1 small red onion, chopped
~1 T olive oil
2 cubes Rapunzel vegan bouillon with sea salt
herbes de Provence
1 cup dried small white beans
1 small piece kombu

Method
Sunday night, I put the cup of small dried white beans in a pot and covered with three cups of cold water to soak overnight.
Monday morning, I added the kombu and cooked the beans for an hour. I had to add some extra water while they were cooking to keep them under water.
Meanwhile, I chopped the onion and cooked it in the olive oil in my big Le Creuset. I also cut up the eggplant, zuchinni, and pepper, adding them once the onion was nice and fragrant. I sprinkled a bunch of herbes de Provence, and stirred everything well.
Then, I added the bouillon and 4-5 cups of water. When the beans were done (I checked by blowing on a few and seeing the skin come off), I added them and their cooking water to the Le Creuset. I left it on 4 on my simmer burner.
I put the 2 cups of brown rice with 5 cups of water in my rice cooker.
That's where my involvement ended. I told D to check the pot to see if it needed more water, and that it should be ready for lunchtime. D left it cooking all day, so it was really cooked down by the time I got home. J (and D I think) had it for lunch and I had it for dinner. Few scoops of brown rice topped with the stewed eggplant/bean mixture. Super yum, but not very attractive. Fortunately, my child does not judge based on appearances.

Did I mention that when I got home last night, I could smell the yumminess as I got to my front door? Sign of a good meal. :)

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.

Sweet Potato Biscuits and Broccoli Soup

I was inspired to make dinner for me and D tonight, thinking he would be home not late. Ha. It's 10:30 and he's still not here...

Anyway, here's what I made tonight:

Sweet Potato Biscuits based on a recipe from The Vegetarian Mother

Vegan Dad's Hearty Broccoli Soup

I didn't follow the directions well on the soup, but it still turned out great. I used four heads of broccoli instead of two, and I think I used too much water. Next time I will use a little less to make the soup a little thicker. Soup: approx 4 servings, 225 cal/serving, 12.7 g protein, and 237% dv of Vitamin C!



The sweet potato biscuits are scrumptious with the soup. I used a large sweet potato instead of the medium one called for in the recipe because I *love* sweet potato! About 160 calories each, with a little more than 3 g protein each, and 92% of your daily value of vitamin A!