I like it green!: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Butterflies like it green, too.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

oven roasted potatoes

The girls sliced the little potatoes.

We used a little oil (less than two tablespoons) and a little salt and broiled them for 30-ish minutes.

Yum! So easy, too.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

I've been looking for new recipes as we are all a little burned out of the typical dinners around here. I found this months ago, and lots of my online vegan friends have made and raved about it, so I thought we'd give it a try. Of course, I did a teeny change. I left the topping off (see other links for pictures and more info).

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/04/dreenas-no-fu-love-loaf.html
http://familygoesvegan.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/no-fu-loaf/

No-Fu Loaf

1/2 cup brown (green) lentils
1 cup vegetable stock
1/3 cup water
1 dried bay leaf
3/4 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water
1 cup water, boiled
1/4 cup ketchup
1 cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons chia seeds or flax meal
2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tahini
2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon ground fennel (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
Combine the lentils, vegetable stock, 1⁄3 cup of water, and bay leaf in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, until just about tender. Once done, remove from the pan and remove the bay leaf. You can use the same pan to cook the steal cut oats for 20-25 minutes. (You can do the oats and lentils concurrently if you are in a hurry.)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Once the steel cut oats are cooked, add the lentils and all the remaining ingredients. Stir very well. Transfer the mixture to a pan. I used a 8x8 glass pan with a silicone liner in it. (Next time, I'll use my 9x9 pan.)

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 25 to 28 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 to 15 minutes or so, before cutting to slice and serve. Serves 5-6.

I did not do the topping as suggested by the other recipe. I figured we'd mostly use this as "meat" for sandwiches and we each like different spreads. Some of us like vegan mayo, some like BBQ, some like mustard.

When the loaf came out of the oven, it was really wet still. It's firmed up a bit in the refrigerator. Next time, I'll probably try just 2/3s of a cup of boiling water to the mixture. It seemed a bit wet to me. It tastes pretty good; I feel it needs a little more spice or kick, or something. I'll make it again and let you know what I do next time. Natalie likes it, and the other two haven't tried it yet. Though I made it this afternoon, we had to go out to dinner to celebrate their report cards. We went to one of our favorite vegan restaurants.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Variations on a pancake theme

Nick and I love to play around with recipes to make the ultimate recipe. Here's what we did
with these superb gluten-free pancakes. Oops, we added wheat and gluten. If you need gluten-free, go back to that other recipe (linked above). If you don't, check out the new one.

Dry ingredients
3 cups oat flour (you can grind from rolled or steel cut oats)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup buckwheat flour (you can grind from whole groats)
1 cup Pepitas (grind these last of the dry ingredients)
1 cup flax
3 tablespoons Baking Powder
3 tablespoons Vital Wheat Gluten

Wet ingredients
1 banana (could replace with a 1/4 - 1/2 cup maple syrup)
4 cups soy milk (could be almond milk or chocolate soy milk)
1-2 cups of water as necessary to thin the batter (ours was really thick)

Mix all the dry ingredients. Blend the banana and 1 cup of the non-dairy milk of your choice. Add the banana and non-dairy milk mixture to the dry ingredients and then add the rest of the liquid and mix. Have a pre-heated pan ready to go for the pancake making fun!

The recipe calculator really liked the recipe. It never gives A's, but this one got an A-. About the recipe, it said:

No cholesterol
Very low in sodium
High in dietary fiber
High in phosphorus

And then, I added the FINAL ingredient (after I got that A-)--a few dark chocolate (vegan) chips. Not too many, just enough so there's a little hint of melted chocolate every few bites in your pancake. When you add chocolate, there's no need for syrup and that means less sugar. Chocolate chip pancakes make me happy! When I first met Nick, he would make chocolate chip pancakes for me on Sunday mornings. We continue the tradition with the girls.

If you want to keep them super healthy, I'd suggest adding cinnamon and/or fruit and skipping the chocolate chips.

I think we made about 28 pancakes. We ended up with 19 left over pancakes; I'm not sure how many we ate the first day. We ate them all in 3 days (but there are 4 pancake fiends over here). They were in the refrigerator and then microwaved. Two of the 4 fiends like the pancakes plain and two prefer a little peanut butter on top.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Black bean burger wrap

I love to make wraps for lunch! I either eat a wrap or a salad (pretty much) everyday for lunch. (Salads when I go to work and wraps when I work from home.) I made black bean burgers the other night and I had some left over. I broke one up, added steamed broccoli, and dijon mustard and voilà, a burger wrap!

I did manage to close it, see?

However, I can't let go of the wrap. Oh well, I'll just eat it!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Almond yogurt

We were delighted to learn of this Almond Yogurt!

I've had soy yogurt, and it's pretty good, but the one's I've seen have had more sugar than I wanted. I tried an unsweetened soy yogurt, and it was a little too not sweet. I was adding a lot of fruit to make it better. This almond one is lovely.