Nick grew this

 
Probably my favorite plant.  

New dinner: May 2016

Natalie came back from a trip to Disneyland and wanted "not junk food."  She is my vegan who loves veggies.  She found this recipe on Oh She Glows and we made it together.  It was Mother's Day, and I could have gotten out of making dinner, but I like cooking with my girls! 

 

We used whole wheat cappelini ('cause we had it--you can use whatever you like) and broccoli, carrots, edamame, red pepper and green onions all sliced up.

(It's hard to tell the red pepper from the carrots, but it there is red pepper in there!)

What we did:

Chopped the veggies (use any you like!).

Cooked our noodles and set aside.

Mixed up the Teriyaki Sauce.

1/8 cup rice vinegar
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup tamari (low sodium is good)

1 tablespoon (maybe slightly less) untoasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup (slightly more actually)

2 cloves garlic finally chopped

1/2 - 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (use less for less heat)

1 teaspoon cornstarch (or some thickening if you want, not essential)

Then we cooked the chopped veggies in a large skillet (I don't have a wok) with sesame oil.  We cooked the broccoli, carrots, and edamame for about 6 minutes, then the red pepper and cooked for another couple minutes, and then the green onions at the end.

We added some of teriyaki sauce stirred, added noodles, stirred, added sauce, stirred ... you get the picture, until we had as many noodles in the pan as we wanted.

I made a second batch of the teriyaki sauce and cooked some more noodles without veggies for Kira, my vegan who doesn't like vegetables.  (She drank her Kale smoothie with dinner.)

We'll definitely make this again!  All 5 liked it (in some form).

bee

This little bee is on a broccoli flower.  I may make her the mascot of I like it green! I love her.
 
 
 
 



    I call this one "artistic bee."



  This is "nothing can stop the natabee!"

Broccoli Harvest

Our broccoli is producing and it's yummy!  I typically just saute it with onions and vegan field roast sausage.  Although Friday night I made baked tofu and sauted the broccoli with the same marinade as the tofu.  It was good!  (Blog post with that recipe coming soon.)

Tonight I wanted something different so I made this dish from http://www.connoisseurusveg.com/2015/11/vegan-broccoli-cheese-casserole.html.

It's good and I'd make it again, but it doesn't seem as decadent as the author described it.  Four of five of us liked it.  (When our vegan who doesn't like vegetables doesn't like something she can eat beans (which we usually have made up) or hummus (again, we usually have it).) I changed the recipe a bit; here's what I did:

Step 1
3 medium yukon gold potatoes 
2  carrots
(boil them and drain them)

Step 2
In another large pan:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
(saute them)

Step 3
After you saute the onions add:
Either 

2 cups vegetable broth
½ cup short or medium grain brown rice
Cook up the rice

OR

1.5 cups frozen rice (to save time)
and some broth...I'm not sure how much I added about 1/2 cup at a time and when I felt the rice was done cooking, I added a little so I could add the broccoli to cook (see next step)


Step 4
Add 4 cups of chopped broccoli and cover the the pan and let them steam for a bit to soften

Step 5
In the food processor process the carrots and potatoes.  Add
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
¼ cup lemon juice
2-3 tsp. white miso paste (optional, but highly recommended)
and 1- 2 cups plain (unsweetened and unflavored) soy or almond milk

salt and pepper to taste

Step 6
Mix the food processor mixture into the rice/onions/broccoli and stir.  Cook until the broccoli is soft and all of the mixture is nice and hot.

Despite all the steps this wasn't that difficult or time consuming.  (I definitely like the time saving that comes from using frozen rice.)

Note the original author gets full credit for the recipe--go check out her site!  Lots of good things there.  (I re-wrote the directions with what I did 'cause I was a little fuzzy on what I was supposed to do so I made some stuff up.)

dinner

 

Our broccoli is producing!  Last year, we planted a little earlier, and we had our broccoli a little earlier. This year, it just started, but it was worth the wait!  It is awesome.  We had it for dinner Thursday and we'll have some more tonight!

The winter garden

Soon there will be broccoli!  

See the progress in 3 months!

Fall Garden

Over the weekend, our head gardener and two lovely assistants planted broccoli, peas, fava beans, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and kale.  I am so excited!

The lettuce and carrots were seeds, the rest were little sproutlings.   (Why doesn't my spell checker like sproutlings?  That's a great word!)  Leftover from summer are pepper plants (orange and red) and there are some happy poppies that survived the tilling of the summer last spring and sprouted.

 

 

 

 
(This post is cross posted to the family blog, too.)

Just like a meatball sandwich

I do this all the time and call it my "meatball sandwich." My husband laughs at me and says I've been plant-based for too long! First, we make this sauce every week so I always have it on hand for smothering broccoli.

Then, I steam some frozen broccoli.
 

Smother the broccoli and put on a lot of black pepper.
(I heart black pepper!)

 

Then I put it on a tortilla, roll it, and try to eat it without dripping too much sauce everywhere. I never succeed with not dripping too much.  It's yummy (to me) so I just try not to get it on my shirt. 

 

Honestly, I love it. 

First post of the New Year! BBQ sauce!

I saw this linked in FB and was so excited; I've been searching for a good BBQ sauce recipe! I used some of my homemade Adobo Sauce in it (instead of the Chili powder) and YUM!

BBQ Sauce
1/2 cup tomato paste, not sauce
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
(I used my adobo sauce here--I used about a tablespoon of it--maybe 2)
1 heaping tablespoon yellow wet mustard
(I might do slightly less next time.)
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2-3 tablespoons unsulphured regular molasses
1/2-1 tablespoon smoked paprika (I added this 'cause it's my favorite spice at the moment.)


It was excellent. Believe it or not, I love BBQ sauce on Broccoli. It's what I ate for breakfast. (Seriously.) Look for recipes playing around with BBQ sauce in the next year.

Thank you Vegan 8!

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.

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!

We visited a farm

The garden was gorgeous and I love this broccoli--just beautiful. The whole plant, including the little yellow flowers, is edible.  Yum.

It's a wrap!

Lunch is often a wrap.  Here's a picture of leftover tofu scramble with extra broccoli on a tortilla.  I like it green!

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.  

Here's a recipe I found a few years back that I love... (and need to make soon)

One thing I keep telling you, and it's true, I can't follow recipes. Part of the reason is that I don't always have the ingredients. In this case, I didn't have or the tools for the job.  I lacked the thing that spirals zucchini.  Lacking the right tools didn't stop me... I just chopped up the zucchini.  It turned out fine!  I also greatly reduced the oil.  This salad is raw vegan, based on this recipe, and it was yum.  (Yum is the term I use for recipes I really like.)

Ingredients:

chopped broccoli (4 small heads)
zucchini (2)
red pepper (1)
Carrots if you like them.  (I'm usually too lazy to chop up the carrots, so I just eat them dipped in the dressing.)

For the dressing:
3 tablespoons tamari (soy sauce)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Juice of 1 and 1/2 lemons
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
2 pinches black pepper
2 Tablespoons of olive oil (original recipe was a lot more, but it works and is good with as little as 2 tablespoons)

Let the veggies soak in the dressing at least 8 hours before eating.  As the veggies soak, the acidic lemon sort of "cooks" them and softens them. 

You can eat the veggies plain as a salad or over brown rice (or quinoa, or whatever your favorite grain is).  Enjoy!