Tomatoes

 

Fresh from the garden, a whole mess of beautiful tomatoes.  I cut them up and sauteed with fresh basil, oregano, garlic, and a splash of balsamic.  It's the same salad I do cold but now I'm sauteing.  Nothing like fresh tomatoes! I made this earlier in the week and am making it again ('cause our tomatoes are prolific!) Good on bread or pasta. You can also take juice out as it's cooking for a very lazy version of tomato soup.  I didn't measure anything, but I am guessing a tablespoon or so of olive oil and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar?  Maybe?

Lots of fresh basil -- 10-ish leaves? I have a very happy basil plant that needs to be cut back regularly.  If you don't cut it back, it goes to seed.

Garlic -- I used dried, maybe 1 teaspoon?

Oregano -- also dried and I used probably 1 tablespoon?  (I'm a big fan of oregano!)

I cooked it for an hour or two?  It cooked down a lot! 

 

 

I also made roasted zucchini and popped about 4 tomatoes in the oven.  I was curious about that versus pan cooking.

(I'm thinking about trying to make some sort of roasted zucchini and tomato sauce in the food processor for pasta... I'll let you know what happens.)

I also made watermelon (we grew it), basil, (also home grown) and lime (also grown at home with love) granita.  I love it.  The husband, and the younger two daughters don't like it. I think daughter #1 will.  I will let you know.

Super fun cooking day!

We invented eggs...

Not really... but black salt with tofu is amazing.  (You blend the tofu with black salt and you think you have eggs!)  This quiche recipe is a new favorite of ours.

Crust:
•1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water, mixed together
•1 cup whole almonds, ground into flour
•1 cup rolled oats ground into flour
•1 teaspoon dried parsley
•1 teaspoon dried oregano
•1/2 tsp kosher salt
•1 tbsp olive oil
•1-2.5 tbsp water, as needed  (I needed a lot more the first time I made this.  The second time I didn't. I don't know why.)

(double for two crusts read  below)

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a round 10-inch  pan.

Mix flax and water mixture in a small bowl and set aside

In a large bowl, stir together the almond meal, oat flour, parsley, oregano, and salt.

Add in the flax mixture and oil.

Mix until mostly combined, adding the remaining water until the dough about the consistency of cookie dough. The dough should stick together when you press it between your fingers.

Crumble the dough evenly over the base of the tart pan (or pie dish). Starting from the center of the pan, press the mixture evenly, working your way out from the center and up the sides of the pan. Poke a few fork holes in the dough so air can escape.

Bake the crust at 350F for 13-16 minutes, or until lightly golden and firm to touch. Set aside to cool while you finish preparing the filling.
 
For the quiche
 
Saute:
An onion
Broccoli
Kale
in a little olive oil
(we do a lot of this and just have leftovers)

Blend: (this is doubled already)
•2-3 boxes of tofu
Use Mori-Nu Silken Tofu which has a little liquid, but not much — no need to drain or press needed for the recipe--it just works.

•1 tablespoon olive oil
•1-2 teaspoons onion powder
•1-2 large garlic cloves
•1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast
•1 teaspoon dried oregano
•3/4-1 teaspoon black salt
•Black pepper, to taste
•Red pepper flakes, to taste (about 1/4 teaspoon for us)

We double the crust part of the recipe, and make two crusts for 2 quiches; in 1, we put the veggies and in the other we just put in the tofu mix with daiya cheese.  Add about 1/2 of the tofu blend to the "cheese" quiche add in the "cheese" and stir.    Put sauteed veggies on the bottom of one of the quiche crusts and then pour the blended tofu over (stir slightly so that the veggies are covered with the tofu blend--add more veggies if necessary and more tofu blend until full).  There should be plenty of tofu mix for two quiches. 


The pie crust is from one of my favorite recipe blogs, Oh She Glows and the filling is based on that recipe.

Lame blog post

Wow... it's been a while.  I do have new recipes, but no time to blog.

We made an awesome quiche this summer and LOVELY lemon zucchini bread.  A basil plant is giving us lots of pesto. We're getting beautiful tomatoes (and zucchini, but no pictures yet). 

 

I know we made other stuff, but I can't think now.  I just mostly came over to drop this link to a store with vegan leather.  We haven't bought from it yet so I can't tell you if we like it or not.  More soon.

The ultimate chocolate chip baked oatmeal

For Brett.

(or at least it's ultimate until the next time I play around with the recipe)

1/2 - 3/4 cup almond butter or other nut butter  (I never actually measure.  I just put some in and it looks like about that amount.  It could be more, but it's not less.)

1/2 - 3/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour

1/2 cup whole oats
1/4 cup flax meal
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips (add as last ingredient)

optional: 1 mashed up banana (if you like baked banana -- even one banana will really add a banana flavor--one daughter said it tasted good while warm and then not as good.)
up to 1/4 cup of flax milk (or other non-dairy milk if it seems dry) to mix the batter -- you may need this if you leave out the banana use the lesser amount of nut butter. Note, you don't want the batter too runny 'cause it will take longer to bake. If the batter seems too wet, add in some whole oats.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients. I strongly recommend using a mixer for this recipe!
Add the optional ingredients.

Don't forget the chocolate chips!

Line a 8x8 pan with a silpat or parchment paper and pour / spoon the batter in.  Bake for 25-45 minutes -- depending on how much liquid was in the batter. 

Let cool for a few minutes and then enjoy! (Or cool for a while and cut into bars.  If you do this you may want to cook for a little longer like 35 minutes.)

A day in the kitchen

It's been really busy around here.  This year started with a big thing in February and some extra things at work each month. I've barely gotten to cook. Very sad.

Today, I made this ... I forgot to take a picture ... Next time!  And there will be a next time!  We all loved it. 

I did manage to get a picture of my lemon muffins this time.

 

They came out even better.  I've updated my recipe at the link above.

 

Sometime soon I'll need to tell you about our "chicken" noodle soup.  Yes, it's vegan. 

Oh!  I also made this yummy fudge delicious-ness.

Hopefully future apricots!

This little bee is going above and beyond — and upside down — to help make our apricots.

Someday, I'll get a post done.  

Dark chocolate molasses cookies

I've been wanting to make these cookies or a slightly lightened version of these bars for a while now. I totally planned to make them over the holiday break -- it went zooming by. Alas.  I finally got these made.  I made the first recipe because I forgot about the second.  Now the two recipes are documented in this post together and with pictures!  I hope to make them again soon.

Thanks Natalie for helping!

 

On another note, Nick and I went back to our bodypump class after 3 weeks off.  YOWCH is all I can say.  I love doing cardio and dance, but I don't enjoy weights.  I hope to get to that class 2x a week.  I need to do more weights.  Natalie is old enough (on Tuesday) to go with me to the gym and do the class.  Maybe she'll help me achieve my 2x a week goal.  I can see it happening over summer, but not sure it will happen before then.