Some nights

I cook most of our food with fresh ingredients, but some nights we're just too tired and busy to make it happen. Here's an easy, tasty dinner that I would wager is better (nutritionally) than going out to eat.

 

 

 

 

One could replace the broccoli with rice, or keep the broccoli and add some rice.

Roasted veggies

I've always loved roasted veggies, and I used to make roasted cauliflower and broccoli sometimes, but then I got out of the habit.  We visited a friend and she made some for us for dinner.  She reminded me how easy and delicious roasted veggies are.

 

Cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and asparagus in a little olive oil and salt waiting for their turn in the oven.  I tried to go fairly sparingly on the oil, but this is not a low-fat dish!  It's very tasty, and great for the holidays.  I need to keep this on my list for special occasions.
 

 
 Here I am checking on the veggies.  I broiled them for about 10 minutes without checking and then checked every few minutes until 20-25 minutes.  Super easy, just make sure they don't burn.

(Note, I did pull the rack out sometimes--not sure why I was sticking my arm in the oven this time.) 

I didn't get an "after" the oven picture of the veggies; I was too busy eating the yummy roasted veggies.  

I really can't follow recipes...

I was going to make the soup linked in the blog post below.  I ended up making a different soup.  I started off with lentils and most of the spices Oh she glows recommended, but then I changed it up a bit.

The ingredients:

1 teaspoon of olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/8th tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes
12 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1.5 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup of cashew cream (1 cup raw cashews blended with a 1/2 cup water)
salt to taste (1 teaspoon)
10 oz. of raw baby spinach

What I did:

 Sauteed the garlic and onion in the olive oil for a few minutes.  I actually added a little broth while sauteing.

Added spices, tomatoes, broth, water and lentils and let it cook for 25 minutes and then tasted the soup.  I loved it, but Nick thought it needed to be thickened up a little.  We didn't want to do PB 'cause we ALWAYS do PB.  I decided to try cashew cream.

You're supposed to soak the cashews in water for at least 4 hours for cashew cream but I just threw caution to the wind and threw the raw cashews into the Vitamix with some water and made a thick cream. 

I added the cream to the soup and that didn't work out so well...  It got all clumpy.  I couldn't stir it out so I added some of the soup and the lumpy cream back to the blender.  Can I just say I love my Vitamix?  The soup came out beautifully.

I added a little salt to the soup 'cause the cashews made it taste less salty; then, I added the spinach.  Then, I ate too much.

I'll try to make this recipe again.  Oh yum!

Soup! Wintery! Vegetable!

From one of my favorite veggie cooking blogs...

The modifications I'll make include olive oil instead of coconut oil, no celery, more cumin--probably more of all the spices...   I just bought some red lentils so I'm excited to try them out!  Hopefully, I will make this tomorrow!

Pumpkin pie report... (Edited--the version I use now after some experimenting)

Remember, I was making pumpkin pies the other night? They came out "okay," but not quite the texture I wanted.  I used corn starch and though they were custard-y, they weren't the texture I envisioned.

I went to the store and got tofu and this is what I made:

2 packages of 3/4 pound silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/8 - 1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 - 1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
1 cup maple syrup

This mixture made enough for two pies.  I had one crust so I made one pie and then I poured some dark chocolate chips into a second pie pan with the pie mix and baked it.

I baked at 400 degrees for about half an hour and then covered the pie and baked it for another 3/4s of an hour.  I felt like it was taking forever, but it seemed to need the extra time.  Maybe yours won't need the extra time...I'm not sure what was up!

This pie turned out to be just the texture I wanted.  Yay!  The second pie I made, with no crust and the chocolate chips, is so yummy!  I scooped some of it into my oatmeal this morning.  It was a perfect post-Thanksgiving breakfast.  The girls just had pumpkin pie straight for their breakfast.

Though it was really good, I also want to play around with pumpkin pie recipes from here.  Since it is the holiday season, expect more Pumpkin Pie Posts (nice alliteration) coming soon!

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Edited to add that I made a soy free version of my pie with Cashew cream instead of Tofu this year.  I put 2/3s cup of cashews and 1 cup of water in the blender and made cashew cream.  I think added the rest of the ingredients and blended (here are the remaining ingredients).

2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/8 - 1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 - 1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
1 cup maple syrup

Turkey fun

 

 This was our turkey!  We dipped him in chocolate (dark, no dairy chocolate chips and soy milk melted in our fondue pot).  We all loved him!  Super fun! 

Thanksgiving eve

It's been a long time. Sorry about that. We took a trip to the East Coast (Boston and New Hampshire) and Nat came down with chicken pox. We had to stay a little longer than we planned and all of a sudden it's Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving, the holiday of eating. We don't do traditional Thanksgiving and haven't the whole time the girls have been around. We used to make veggie fajitas for our meal, and they were really good, but somewhere along the way, we've been experimenting with other dishes. When my brother Rob comes for Thanksgiving we make eggplant and spaghetti in honor of our Dad.

This year, Natalie wanted to make eggplant even though Uncle Rob couldn't make it, so we will.

Dad used to fry the eggplant in olive oil (not breaded) and then layer sauce and cheese and bake it. We do the frying, but no cheese. It's amazing. I'll post pictures and tell you more tomorrow.

Tonight, Natalie, Kira, and I made a pumpkin pie. We used this recipe . In the past, I've just used eggs and soy milk in the recipe, but this year we decided to be fully plant-based with our pumpkin pie. I know you can do pumpkin pie with tofu, but I didn't have any to use so we tried it without. Recipe with attribution pasted below. 

Vegan Pumpkin Pie with Rustic Spelt Crust
by Angela Liddon
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour

for the filling
2 & 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup natural cane sugar or brown sugar
1/4 cup full-fat coconut cream (or almond milk), softened
1 tbsp Earth Balance, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
Instructions

Filling: In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the maple syrup and arrowroot powder (or cornstarch). In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients, adjusting spices to taste.
To bake: Scoop the filling into crust and smooth. Add cut-outs on top. Bake for 45 mins at 350F. Remove and cover crust edges with tinfoil or crust shield. Bake for another 15 mins. Place on cooling rack for 1 hour. Transfer to fridge to set for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight. (this is very important!)

I totally want to try this crust ... I didn't have pecans though.  I'm really wanting to make one with walnuts and chocolate... Maybe I'll try to create one at some point.  I won't do it this Thanksgiving as we already have a big pumpkin pie in the oven and another dessert planned.  More tomorrow....or soon if not tomorrow.


For the crust
1 cup GF certified rolled oats, processed into a fine flour OR 1 cup GF oat flour
2 cups raw pecans
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp ground flax
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup brown rice syrup (acts as the binder, honey may work if you prefer that)
1 tbsp Earth Balance, melted