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....

Creamy Potatoed Veggies

This was Dave's and my dinner tonight, and will be J's lunch tomorrow. One bowl full filled me all the way up. The seasoning had just enough garlic in it -- it smelled really great while I was eating it. Make sure it's hot when you eat. I based tonight's dinner on a recipe I found in Kathy Cooks. (Ugh, I paid a lot more than what's being offered on Amazon tonight for this book -- I wonder what happened that all of a sudden there are numerous copies for really cheap??)

Ingredients
6 medium organic Yukon gold potatoes
1 organic carnival squash
1 1/2 cups organic carrots
1 cup frozen organic peas
4 T Earth Balance
1/2 T no-salt organic seasoning
4 heaping tsp nutritional yeast
2 1/4 cups organic soy milk
coarse sea salt & black pepper

What to do
Scrub the vegetables well. With the exception of the carrots, the skins are all used in this dish, so you want to make sure your veggies are clean!
Cut out any eyes or bad spots and prick the potatoes with a fork. Bake or microwave the potatoes until soft.
Cut the squash in half, scoop out the insides (save the seeds!), and bake or microwave. Make sure you have water in the pan, whichever you do, to keep the squash moist. After it's cooked, cut the squash, with the skin, into small cubes.
Peel and cut the carrots into 1/2 to 1 inch chunks. Steam.
Cut 2 of the cooked potatoes into small cubes.
Cut 4 of the cooked (still warm!) potatoes in quarters and mash with the Earth Balance. Put this mixture, the soy milk, seasoning, and nutritional yeast into the blender and blend until smooth.
Add the carrots, squash, and remaining potatoes to a large pot and add the creamy potato sauce. Add a little more soy milk if it looks too thick. Add the frozen peas.
Heat through.
Serve on top of pasta with sea salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!

Nut Butter Sauce with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Squash

Last night I ate the remaining Mushroom Risotto, topped with nutritional yeast, and roasted some root veggies and mixed up a quick nut butter sauce for J to eat today.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Squash
1 medium organic jeweled yam
1 large organic sweet potato
1 small organic sweet pumpkin squash
Wash and peel sweet potatoes and squash. Cut into small pieces. Place in brownie pan (my "roasting" pan) with a little bit of water; cover with aluminum foil. Put oven on at 365F and place pan on top rack. (Don't wait for the oven to heat.) Roast for 25 minutes, then remove from oven. When cooled, remove from pan and place in a container for the fridge, where they will sit until lunchtime when D breaks them out for J. And I break them out for A at dinnertime.

Nut Butter Sauce
Based on a peanut sauce from fatfreevegan
1/3 cup freshly ground almond butter
1/2 cup water
2 T Braggs liquid aminos
1 flower cube of frozen lime juice (that I prepared last week)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Mix everything together in a container with a small whisk. Place in fridge for D to use on pasta and/or roasted veggies (above) for J's lunch.

Breakfast
This morning, J and I had hot cereal (Bob's Red Mill 8 grain) with pecans, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, soymilk, and organic banana. A had rice cereal with breastmilk and a little bit of organic banana mushed in.

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 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. :)