what's for dinner?

One large onion sauteed in veggie broth, and one bag (16 oz) of frozen broccoli (use frozen 'cause you're really tight for time): cook the onions until they are nice and soft, cook the broccoli until you like it, add the1-2 of the field roast (vegan) sausages and just heat for a minute or two.  Serve with bread, rice, pasta, tortilla or just eat!  (My husband, my 11-year old and I love this!)

I've only recently converted to sautéing in veggie broth all the time. (It's all about slow and steady changes to healthier eating.) Maybe someday, I'll give up field roast (vegan) sausages--they have quite a bit of fat. Not today. Someday, I will try to make a homemade lower fat version, but again, not today.

Salad

 

It's my lunch pretty much every day when I'm at work. This time, I forgot peas. Dressing-wise, I don't eat dressing, but instead, salsa and guacamole.  I tend to pour balsamic vinegar on it and mix it all up. Super yummy! What's your favorite salad?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies or bars.... your choice!

You may remember how much I enjoyed the pumpkin bars that I modified--or maybe you couldn't tell that I made that recipe about 6-8 times in one month and I was usually doubling it. 

Recently, I found this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and I couldn't stop thinking about that idea. It reminded me of my beloved pumpkin bars, but it seemed like I could take cookies with me more easily than my modified pumpkin bars that were so moist and required a refrigerator. I knew I had to change the cookie recipe because 1) it wasn't vegan, 2) it had a lot of sugar, and 3) it had a lot of butter. When I read it, I thought, "I can fix it!"  Here's what I did:


Dry Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp clove
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup flax

Wet Ingredients 
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup water


And finally
1/3 cup (or so) chocolate chips (optional, but it's sad not to add these!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl.
Mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add them together, and pour in chocolate chips at the end.  The cookie batter will be very thick and hard to stir.  

Shape into cookies or bars ... I made mine into approximately1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles, so kind of bar-like. The recipe made about 30 of them. They were pretty big and thick; I baked them for about 12-15 minutes. They are hearty and not very sweet--just the way we like desserts and treats.

for when I have some time...

Yummy-looking Vegan Indian Recipes

I haven't tried making them, but I'm looking forward to trying my hand at vegan Indian food. Some wonderful friends recently brought us Indian food and the Baingan Bharta was incredible. I'm inspired...just lacking time!

Yum. From the trees

They. are. so. good!  (Plums)

A blueberrilicious treat! (Edited)

Recently, I found a recipe for "blueberry energy bites" and it sounded like a perfect summer treat (maybe even a breakfast or dessert). Since I've never made anything from the healthy maven's web site (where I found the recipe), I wasn't sure how they would turn out. OH MY GOODNESS--healthy maven said they were wonderful, but they are absolutely divine. My husband doesn't like blueberries and he thought these were tasty*. Blueberrilicious treats!

Of course, I had to modify the recipe a little. (That's my MO, remember?) I added chia seeds for a little extra energy and nutrition goodness. I also made these with walnuts rather than almonds as she suggested. Walnuts have lots of omega-3s and I'm all about omega-3s. Omega-3s help reduce the inflammatory process. Walnuts are the "healthy" nut. (They are still loaded with fat, so that's why healthy is in quotes. Some people don't want to consume very much fat, but my girls are growing.)

Note, walnuts are very "oily," and the picture shows the little treats looking very shiny. As you roll the balls, you will get a lot of oil on your hands.  You may want to put the mixture on paper towels to let it "drain" a little.  I'm going to play around with adding some oats, and using a few less nuts to figure this little problem out, but for now, I wanted to warn you that this could happen. On the positive side of things, if you get a lot of oil out, you can feel good that you won't be eating all the oil.

I think some of the problem with so much oil coming out is that I processed the walnuts for a long time; we like the texture smooth. I will keep you posted on what I do and you can let me know what you do to fix this--thanks if you do! (I need a recipe tester, apparently!)

EDITED 6/24/2013:
I removed some of the nuts from the recipe and added a few oats.  This time, it wasn't "greasy!"  Yay!  It was still was super yummy

1 1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup oats (these made it more "stiff"
1/3 cup Chia Seed
1  cup dates
1 cup dried blueberries
1.5 tsp vanilla extract (or seeds of 1 vanilla bean)
~3-4 tablespoons lemon juice (or juice from 1/2 lemon)
1/4 tsp sea salt

Process the nuts and dates in a food process until your desired texture. (We like things very smooth around here.)

(Be sure to check your dates for pits before you add them. It's awful if one sneaks into your food processor--you'll have to toss the mixture as you could break a tooth on a piece of date pit!)

Add in the  blueberries. Add chia and up to 1/4 cup of oats -- I often only add oats if the walnuts look especially oily.

Add the salt, lemon juice, and vanilla.

When it's all processed take it out of the food processor and make the little bite-sized balls--aim for 20-25.

Below are the nutritional stats for one ball (if you make 22 balls from this recipe).

We plan to make a second batch tomorrow.  At the risk of sounding trite, OMG, they are good! Thanks, healthy maven! You are awesome!

*Both my husband and our wonderful nanny thought the blueberry energy bites tasted chocolatey... I just thought it was the rich walnut flavor.

Sunday

On Memorial Day weekend we went to a BBQ. When you're a vegan, there aren't hunks of meat, there are gobs of veggies! My friend marinated the veggies in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and lots of spices (I need to get her to tell me them again).

The portabello mushrooms were incredible, too. We had some http://www.fieldroast.com/ vegan sausages (Italian and the Apple Sage) that we grilled, too. Some folks had sandwiches on sourdough rolls and some had veggies on salad greens. Either way, it was a great feast! Looking forward to more summer parties when we do it again.

 

 

And just for fun, a picture of their artichoke. We took one home and steamed it.  

3rd time is charmed (Banana Bread)

I play with recipes a lot, but that's why there's a "modified" tag!

Remember when I made Banana Bread?  It's from Dreena Burton's site. I've changed it a little bit (more). I really like flax in my quick breads. Here's the recipe, with flax, now.

2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup flax
3/4 cup oat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup pureed overripe banana (see note)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup plain non-dairy milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp non-dairy mini or regular chocolate chips (optional)

Dreena's Instructions
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine pureed banana, maple syrup, milk and vanilla. Add wet mixture to dry, and add in chocolate chips (if using), and stir through until just well combined (don’t over mix). Wipe a loaf pan lightly with oil (or use a silicone loaf pan). Pour batter into pan and bake for 43-48 minutes, until golden and a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 1 quick bread.
Notes:
If you have an immersion blender, puree several medium-large overripe bananas in a deep, large cup, then measure to get your 1 cup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, mash banana very well.
To make muffins instead of a quick bread: Pour mixture into a 12-cup muffin pan fitted with cupcake liners. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove, let cool for a few minutes in pan, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely

My notes:
I mash my bananas. It doesn't seem worth it to dirty a blender for them.

I'll put up a picture of the loaf as soon as I remember to take it when it's not all the way eaten! In the meantime, here's a picture of the bread as muffins...