Sunday night burgers

I made so much soup last week that I just can't face my soup pot today. (Plus, I froze a lot of soup last week and don't have a lot of room left in the freezer.) Instead, I decided to make these burgers from Dreena Burton's site.

Of course, I had to change a couple of things... Here's what I did:

1 1/2 cups raw almonds

1 cup raw walnuts

1 small clove garlic

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp nutritional yeast (She said to add it and that it wouldn't be strong; I did even though I was worried about it. It was good.)

1 tbsp tamari

1/8 tsp each of dried thyme and ground sage (I didn't have thyme, so I just put in sage)

1 medium carrot

1 cup fresh kale (packed)

~1 cup rolled oats

Process the almonds, walnuts, garlic, and salt; make it a pretty fine consistency. Take most of the mixture out of the food processor to process the kale and carrots. (My food processor isn't big enough to handle nuts and the veggies at the same time.) Get kale and carrots into very small pieces. Add the nuts back and the tomato paste, nutritional yeast, tamari, and oats.  Pulse until mixed well. Now add the oats. My poor food processor couldn't really do it all so I helped by stirring in the oats up by hand.  (I need a new food processor.)

I made 10 patties and baked them at 400 on a silpat for 10 minutes on each side.

These are savory and nice. The whole family ate them. Yay! (I love meals that the whole family will eat.)  I'll try to get a picture of them soon, but take a look at Dreena's site if you want to see a picture sooner than I get to it. 

Soy is safe!

People always ask this question... It's another good article.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/ask-well-is-it-safe-to-eat-soy/?src=me&_r=0

pumpkin soup

1.5 cups  vegetable broth
1/4 cup cashews
1 cup water
2 cans canned organic pumpkin
1 large-ish onion, sautéed
1-3 garlic cloves, sautéed (with onion)
1/2 - 1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Sautee onions and garlic in a little veggie broth (in a soup pot) until nice and soft (about 15 minutes). (I let onions and garlic cool and then I did the next steps.)

Place all ingredients into your blender (including onions and garlic) and blend. (I started by blending the water and cashews, to make milk and then added the onions and garlic and broth. I then added everything else and blended.)

When it's blended pour it all back into the soup pot (note only one pot and one blender for clean up this way) and heat up--let simmer for 15-20 minutes so the flavors can really marry.

YUM!

Note, you could add more cashews for a creamier soup. I happen to really like cashew cream so I think I'll do this.  You could also blend everything and then heat up right before your meal so that it's easier timing on the soup.

Nutrition facts based on 1 cup serving size.

8 cups of glorious pumpkin soup!

Edited to add: I really liked this soup, but then I added a healthy teaspoon of peanut butter to one of my bowls of soup and WOWZA. It hit it out of the ballpark for me. Obviously, if you add PB, you're adding some fat and calories and the nutrition facts (above) are all wrong. It was worth it to me to add it.  

8 quarts

Last weekend, I made 8 quarts of this lovely creamy cauliflower soup. You can see a picture at that link and get a link to a variation. I've already frozen some and tomorrow I'll freeze some more. Yay!

And! I have a recipe for pumpkin soup that looks lovely, easy and yummy... I'll share it with you after I try making it. Stay tuned!

Plant-based

I don't call myself a vegan even though it's been years since I ate an animal product. I also try really hard not to buy leather, wool, or silk clothes, furniture, carpet, etc. I still have the leather things I bought before going plant-based, but when they are worn, I won't buy more animal-based products.* Now, since we've just moved, I've been trying to buy new furniture and rugs that are plant-based, but it's hard. I have a feeling it's going to take a long while to find a couch I like for our (completely empty except for the boxes we haven't unpacked) living room.

But! I've just found a jute rug I love!  It's here. We got the sangria-colored one. It's now making a corner of the upper hall more cozy! It's very soft. I was worried that it would be sort of rough. I got this jute one, too, but it's not nearly as soft. It'll work fine in the hallway, but it can't go in our bedroom as I'd hoped. Though I can't say how these rugs will wear, since I've only had them for a couple of days, I will say that the initial quality of them seems good.

I'm going to document the furniture / rug finds I come across on this blog 'cause it's hard to find good stuff that's plant-based and I think it falls under a "green" category.




*I have an exception. I will buy leather dance shoes 'cause there isn't a synthetic alternative for tap that is as good as the leather ones. (I'm not a great dancer, but I'm "okay" and the shoes do matter. As soon as there's an alternative that works, I'll be switch.)

No Soup last Sunday

Last Sunday, I wasn't in the mood for soup. I was a rebel and made mexican lasagna (to see a picture click here). It was yum. I found some new chipolte salsa at Whole Foods and it kicked up the spice in the lasagna. I've always "liked" Mexican Lasagna, but this last time, I loved it! I decided it would be a "company dish" and I'll make it when my brother comes to visit!

I digress...  So Mexican Lasagna yields 2.5 nights of dinners and then we're out. Last night, we didn't know what to make, so Nick (husband) checked the freezer! Soup! We had some soup from earlier when I was cooking it often! Yay! My system works. Now I'm inspired to make soup this weekend so I can freeze some more.

sweet! breakfast bar! (edited recipe on 9/28)

Scroll to the end for the final recipe for breakfast bars! Read the whole post if you want.

Note, this recipe isn't quite ready for prime time, but if you're not afraid of cooking "by feel" it's fun! Our wonderful nanny found this recipe. I thought it sounded delicious and knew it wouldn't be hard to make vegan style! The ingredients are great!

When I made the recipe, the batter for the cookies was REALLY soppy. (I don't know if that's a good word, but it's the one that comes to mind.) I made one tray of cookies and then decided I didn't want to make cookies because of how wet the batter was so I poured the soppy batter into a 9 x 11 pan, lined with a sil-pat, pan and baked it. After ~50 minutes at 350 (covered with foil for a good deal of time) I had a VERY moist cake-like creation.  My 9x11 pan wouldn't have been big enough if I hadn't have made a tray of cookies.  (Next time, I may use my 8x8 and 9x9 pan, each lined with a sil-pat for the double batch recipe.)

The cake-like creation was DELICIOUS and I knew it would make a great breakfast bar. (Store in the refrigerator and heat up--nibble on the cold pieces as you wait for the microwave to warm it; 20 - 30 seconds can be a really long time!)

Next time, I'm going to add more oat flour (maybe double) to see if I can't get decent cookies out of the deal. These were way too gooey as cookies. Very tasty, but way too gooey. I wonder if I'd started with a sweet potato and cooked it from scratch if it would have been better and less moist. Someday, I'll try that, but for now, this is easy and tasty!

4 cups sweet potato puree (2 cans)
1.5 cups oat flour
1/2 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)
1/2 cup flax (made into a really big flax egg with 1/3 warm water)
1/3 - 1/2  cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons Organic Raw Cacao Powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon clove
3 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

(The most important ingredient)
~2/3s a cup of chocolate chips

The girls liked the cookies and the "cake." They have a perfect fall flavor! Nick (husband) commented that there was a molasses taste--maybe a little--but there's no molasses, but that might be fun to try sometime. Kira commented that they tasted a little like gingerbread. Tia was convinced that these were my pumpkin muffins. I admit they were similar. (I like chocolate in desserts; if it doesn't have chocolate it's not worth eating in my opinion.)

Note: I used 1/2 cup of maple syrup and I don't think it was too sweet. (Remember, I don't like sweet stuff; 1/2 cup isn't a lot given how much batter you're making.) I forgot to add baking powder. Oops, the cookie and the cake stayed really flat, as you can tell in the pictures.

Here are the stats (estimated for 15 servings of the "full" not halved recipe):

Not bad on the Iron, Vitamin A, or Calcium (for a sweet treat).

Here's the recipe 1/2'd (in case you aren't feeding 2 adults plus 3 growing, active, and very hungry girls or the equivalent).

2 cups sweet potato puree (1 can)

3/4 cup oat flour

1/4 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)

1/4 cup flax (made into a really big flax egg with 1/3 warm water)

1/6 - 1/4  cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon Organic Raw Cacao Powder 

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/8-1/4 teaspoon clove 

1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

A gratuitous shot of the cans of sweet potatoes.

The "final" recipe for bars (9/28/2013) (I need to take a picture of bars from this recipe... the other pictures are of the first round.)

4 cups sweet potato puree (2 cans)

2 cups oat flour

1/2 cup almond butter (one could add less if they wanted less fat)

1/2 cup flax 

1/3 - 1/2  cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons Organic Raw Cacao Powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon clove

3 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

(The most important ingredient)

~2/3s a cup of chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients (oat flour, flax, cacao powder, ginger, clove, cinnamon, allspice, soda, powder, salt) then add sweet potatoes, almond butter an maple syrup. If the recipe seems too dry (mix well before you decide) add a splash of water or non-dairy milk.  

Bake at 350 for ~40-50 minutes. I used my 9 x 11 pan lined with a sil-pat and had to put another sil-pat in with a little on it.  I need to get something like this!

Halve the recipe if you want!