Farfalle Salad

I love Farfalle. I know I am a child for saying that, but for farfalle, I will do anything. These great flavors came to me because of their colors and the idea that I can put anything into a pasta salad. Sorry for the poor photo, the light in my house is not that great after dark and I didn't have time to set up lighting. I guess to get the full affect, you will have to make it yourselves!


You will need:

~Farfalle, cooked, rinsed in cold water and set aside
~Asparagus, steamed, chopped, set aside
~Grape or Cherry Tomatoes, cut in halves
~Red Bell Peppers, chopped
~Small White Onion, finely chopped

~Balsamic vinegar, get a good one!
~Extra Virgin Olive Oil, again, a good one!
~Sea Salt
~Fresh Basil and Italian Parsley

There is no trick to how you do this, honestly. I like to keep the farfalle warm as well as the asparagus and then put the oil, herbs and onion in. This will allow for the flavors to marry each other while the dish cools. As they are getting hitched, prepare your other veggies and toss them in. Add the Balsamic and then salt and toss one last time. Cover and cool. It is extra tasty if you let it settle into the married life for a few hours in the fridge before eating!

This is somewhat of an uninspiring post with a very uninspiring picture, but I urge you to try this recipe! It is so yummy!

Stuffed Dates~ Oh yeah....

My mom made these when I was a kid and I am sad to say that I didn't partake in them too often because I thought dates were weird and looked like... ummm, gross. In these last several years, I have found myself craving all these dishes that we had prepared for us as kids, even those I did not like. It is weird how that happens.

My mother's birthday was near the beginning of the month and as a surprise, I made a Mediterranean style dinner for her and the dates were included. Making them with my grandmother, her mother, was a real treat. She told me that the recipe came from a roomie from her college days and that her mother would always send these in a shoe box for them to enjoy. It is so neat how all of these recipes travel through different people and changing times. I am now making that faster by putting this great recipe on the internet for all to see. I hope it will start a chain reaction that will bring people closer and generate feelings of family, tradition and home.

You will need:

~Dates, pit them yourself for the tastiest ones!
~Peanut butter
~Powdered sugar or superfine sugar of any kind


Simplest recipe ever. Put your dates, fill in the cavity with peanut butter and roll the whole thing around in a bow of the sugar. Eat.

I like mixing in cinnamon or cloves or other spices with the peanut butter. Pick and choose your favorite spice combo and stick with it. These are a great treat to gift because they do not spoil easily nor lose their shape or what not. They look rustic and homemade while keeping an elegant feeling coming from their origin. A plus is that they are pretty healthy too! Enjoy!

Oh Man, She has Soy Milk!

I found a new brand of soy milk in my local grocery yesterday. I picked some up and I can tell you it is the best I have ever tasted! It costs the same as the others, I think even cheaper, but it was DELICIOUS!

It is from 8th Continent. Please don't laugh at me if you have heard of it. I am stuck in Bumpkin Town and this is new here! So don't rain on my parade! Here is a link to their website, I highly recommend it!

My Vegan BB-Q

I cook a lot. Der. Most of the time I cook for my family and close friends and we all LOVE to BB-Q. This time my family and I were at our house at the Lake of the Ozarks and we had one such meal. Check out some pictures, recipes to follow!

Black Bean Salsa

I love the flavors in this salsa. It seems everyone has. I have made it on several occasions now, to test it out, and it has disappeared really fast every time! If you like cilantro, this is a great recipe for you!


You will need:
~16 oz , cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
~8 oz, corn
~2/3 large, white onion, finely chopped
~1 cup coarsely chopped, fresh cilantro
~2 limes
~olive oil
~dried, ground, Chipolte seasoning
~large grained, sea salt
~red pepper flakes


Mix beans and corn in a bowl as soon as you rinse them in COLD water. Mix in onions and cilantro. Drizzle some olive oil over until lightly coated and then add seasoning to taste.

Before cutting into the limes, roll them on the counter with your palm with some pressure. This helps break up the capilaries inside and allows for more juice to be squeezed. Cut each lime in half through the center and grab a fork. Stick the tines into the meaty part of the lime and squeeze the outsde around the fork. A lot of juice will come out especially if you twist the lime around the fork. It is preferable for bits of lime to go into the salsa, but watch for seeds and bits of rind. I love lime, so I use all four halves, but sometimes the dish tastes fine with three, so keep tasting as you go along! Don' follow a recipe, you're the one who is going to be eating it!!! Enjoy with corn chips, pita chips, tortillas, fingers, forks, spoons, etc. Serve chilled, or let marinate over night for GREAT flavor!

Sweet Potato Vegetable Soup

It is very important to have a kitchen helper when available. So I went to my sister's house and got two! My sister Alleta and Beau, my very cute, special kitchen helper...



So this soup is great because everything came out of our garden! That is a very important thing for everyone. Vitamin B12 is not hard to get when you know where to look. In animal protein the B12 is already synthesized and is rendered almost useless to other animals. We need the un-synthesized B12 so our own body can work it. Only through that process do we benefit form it. Anyway, the B12 everyone needs comes from soil. (Cows eat grass/soil and get B12 hence the misconception we benefit from them with B12.)
Not only are the veggies blessed with delicious traces of dirt(!), they are really really pretty!


You will need:
~1 Large Sweet Potato~1 Large Red Onion~4 large stalks of celery with greens
~2cups uncooked quinoa
~Tomato base*
~2 Bay leaves
~s/p to taste
*My family, every year, grows an abundance of garden goods so can. We make a concoction my Gram dubbed 'goop-it' that consists of tomatoes and anything else we have left over. We blanch the tomatoes and peel them and then add the rest of the chopped veggies and herbs. We put them in Mason jars and pressure cook them until sealed. We use these jars of 'goop-it' throughout the year as soup bases. It comes out with the consistency of a soupy salsa. Alleta and I used one that was made with just tomato and basil leaves.
To start, if you have an iron skillet, USE it! Cooking in iron not only gives amazing flavor, even heat and flexibility to the dish, the mineral is actually leached into the food giving us 'veggies' much needed supplements! Start by cubing the potato and chopping the onion and celery into 'healthy' sized chunks. Use a hot skillet with a dash of olive oil and start sauteing the potato. Add a dash of water after the potatoes start to steam a little. This may initiate some splatter so watch out, but it is important to allow the potatoes to get soft. Add the onion as soon as the potato starts to brown.
In a sauce pan add 1 quart of your tomato base. If you don't have 'goop-it' ( yeah right ), you can sub a few seasoned cans of stewed/ herbed tomatoes. Put over low heat and add the bay leaves. Let that simmer and check the potatoes. If they are softer but still put up a little resistance to a knife, add the onions and saute them until soft. Add the celery and greens to the sauce pan. Stir it up. Once the potatoes and soft enough to have a knife go through it but not fall apart, add everything in the skillet into the sauce pan and simmer for a few minutes. Add the quinoa and let simmer for about ten more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and you are finished!

Chipotle Breakfast Scramble

TOFU! This stuff is wonderful! I love it because you can adapt any flavor to it. This is again a conglomeration of the stuff in my fridge. It was a really great late morning breakfast that stuck with me so well I forgot to eat lunch... I never forget lunch...


You will need:
~1 block of extra firm tofu
~1 cup'ish' random, delicious veggies
(I used onions and green peppers)
~2 cloves freshly chopped garlic
~Chipotle seasoning
~Turmeric, s/p
~Using it carefully I added a little tiny bit of Liquid Smoke as well

Finely cube the tofu as you are sauteing the veggies in a bit of olive oil. Then the veggies have been heated all the way through add the garlic and tofu. Add the seasonings to taste (again, be careful with the liquid smoke if you have it). Mix it all up and let sit for a minute or two, until the tofu is browned. Then mix again and wait again. Keep this up until the tofu has been browned on as many sides available. I served this dish with some spicy guacamole and some really cold orange juice. I love really spicy things so the cold juice added to the bite and made a partner for the heat!

Stuffed Tomatoes

A great recipe for a summer lunch or dinner or snack! I make these all summer and play with the filling but the favorite is this recipe. They are served cold usually, but my mom loves to heat hers a little in the microwave.



You will need:
~8 large Roma tomatoes, sliced in half length wise and cored
~1 can black olives, chopped finely
~1 can sweet corn, chopped coarsely
~9 pepperoncinis, chopped finely
~5 leaves fresh basil, chopped finely
~s/p to taste
~1 white onion, thinly sliced into long curves
~*opt* grated Parmesan cheese


Core the tomatoes and set aside. Chop all ingredients and mix in a bowel, add salt and pepper and taste to adjust. Spoon a healthy amount into each tomato half. Garnish with onion slice and the optional Parmesan. Serve immediately or chill and serve. Apparently they are good warm as well, but barely heated.

Roasted Veggies

You can roast anything, but a favorite combination of mine includes red and yellow bell peppers and red onion! I serve this next to pasta, mashed potatoes, etc. It is a fun and potentially festive addition to any meal!

You will need:
(for this version...)

1 large yellow pepper
1 large red pepper
1 large red onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
kosher salt and pepper
olive oil


After washing all veggies, cut into large chunks and place in a roasting tray (a cookie sheet with high edges). Add garlic, s/p and drizzle whit a healthy amount of olive oil and bake at 350d until soft ( about 35 minutes). Serve warm and covered in the oil form the tray, it holds amazing flavor. If you don't like oily foods, I like to save the oil in a little jar and add it to plain pasta or salads...

Garlic and Lime Bok Choy

Bok Choy is a Chinese cabbage that proves to be one of the best sources for protein and iron. I use it constantly and in many ways but my favorite is to use it as a bed for a hearty stew, roasted veggie or tofu. This is a versatile way to prepare bok choy and it is simple and fast. This time I served it along side a squash soup.

You will need:

6 large leaves of freshly washed Bok Choy
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 boiler onions, sliced
Tbl. Grape seed Oil
s/p
Tbl. lemon juice


On low heat in a skillet, mix onions, garlic, oil, s/p and lemon juice; saute. Wash and chop bok choy into desired pieces and add to skillet once the onions and garlic are browned. Raise head to medium and mix. Wilt the bok choy just until the leaves are a vibrant dark green. This is a dish to prepare when all other food is 5 or so minutes away from being finished. IT DOES NOT TAKE LONG once the bok choy is in the skillet. A trick I have learned is to heat everything to the point of adding the bok choy and then turn it off. Finish the other food, place the bok choy in the skillet and with your hands turn the leaves in the oil until coated and then bring up to heat.

Black Bean and Spinach Stuffed Onions

This recipe is a wonderfully healthy dinner option, with flexibility, and is a wonderful opportunity to create something with friends and family. I made it in under 30 minutes and was making it up the whole time!

You will need:
(recipe for three people)

~3 medium to large Yellow Onions ( one per person)
~8 oz. cooked Black Beans
~ Tbl. minced Garlic
~s/p and a pinch of cumin
~2 Tbl. Olive Oil
~1/2 cup chopped Spinach
~1/2 cup shredded mozzarella ( I used a vegan version)
~1/2 tsp. liquid smoke


To start, heat oven to 350d then start coring out the onions by using a knife. Begin at the top and cut out a small cone about an inch deep, 1.5 inches around. Using a spoon start carving away the insides leaving the top of the hole smaller than the cavity to allow the stuffing to stay put while serving. The onion shavings can ether be added o a salad later or used in the stuffing.
Mix together the other ingredients in a bowl and let sit. Grab your oven safe, glass dish with a lid and put a little olive oil in the bottom; not much just enough to allow the onions to not stick. Begin to stuff your onions with the stuffing and really pack it in there. Put a few drops of water in each one to prevent dryness and top with more cheese.
Let them bake for an hour with the last 15 lidless allowing the cheese to brown on top. Serve with a light leafy salad or some fruit. Any extra filling you may have can be used in more onions or on top of a salad the next day or eaten chilled as a bean salad!

Sausage and Onion Potato Cakes

A great and fast breakfast! I used vegan sausage and organic red potatoes for the pictures. It is a good way to use up leftover mashed or roasted potatoes as well!

You will need:
Two medium red potatoes, mashed
I cup sausage, ground
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
s/p
garlic
oregano
cayenne
Tbs. grape seed oil
1/8 cup Bacos (opt)


Mash potatoes, and sausage and mix in onion and seasoning and oil Heat grittle on medium heat. Do not raise temperature any higher than medium. This is to allow the cakes to get warm in the middle and brown on the outside.
Make cakes using your hands and modeling 'discs' approximately 3/4'' high and 3.5'' across. This recipe makes about six. Place on warm grittle and flip when golden brown on bottom. Serve warm and with fruit!

Leek and Seitan Soup

I made this soup just the other day, trying to make room in my refrigerator for more produce. It was also a 'soup day'. The days when you want to wear pj's and eat soup.

You will need:

1 stem Fresh leek, washed and sliced into rings
1 small Yellow squash, quartered and sliced
1 long Broccoli stem, peeled and sliced
1 cup Seitan, marinated in soy
1/2 Red Bell pepper, sliced
1/2 small Onion
2 cloves Fresh Garlic, crushed
2 tbl. Soy sauce
4 cups Vegetable Broth
oregano, black pepper, cayenne all to taste


Slice veggies and add into cooking pot. Measure broth based on how many veggies are in the pot and how thick you want your soup. I usually add enough to cover the veggies (refer to picture). Add broth and soy sauce and heat on med-high until simmering then add the spices to taste. Let simmer for only a few minutes. Don't boil! The squash will disintegrate and the veggies will lose their nutritional value. That's the trick to soups. Never boil them! In the end it will have diminished nutritional value, all taste the same and have the same texture. Serve the soup hot and with anything you want... Crackers, sandwiches, salad etc.

If the soup wasn't already so busy, I would have added some celery and carrot as well, either way it is delicious!

~Enjoy

Neat Sites to Visit

Everyone should visit these sites, omnivores, vegetarians and vegans alike! It will tell you how to get the 'stuff' our bodies need and what we illusion ourselves into thinking we are getting. Let me know what you think! There is also a link to Vegan Outreach and a blog by Jack Norris, both of which are amazing sites and provide free weekly enewsletters for those who want them.

http://www.veganhealth.org

http://www.veganoutreach.org

http://www.JackNorrisRD.com

http://www.veganorbit.com

Blueberry and Celery Salad

This is a summer favorite!

You will need:

~ Celery, chopped

~White Onions, sliced

~Purple cabbage, chopped

~Carrot, chopped

~Fresh Blueberries

~Balsamic vinegar/ olive oil

~s/p

Mix all and chill. Serve with toasted pita and hummous for a great lunch!

Zucchini with Beans

This is a neat one I came up with attempting to make a meal out of random things in another persons' kitchen, in a time crunch. It got a ten out of ten with the eaters! It is neat because you can use any type of bean and completely change the flavor. Lentils and Navy beans were my family's favorite. Wild rice can bee added or substituted for a complex protein combo or for a change!

You will need:
~one whole Zucchini, thinly sliced bite sized pieces
~half cup onion, chopped
~garlic ( fresh if possible), salt, black pepper, basil ( fresh if possible), all to taste
~1.5 cups cooked lentils or navy beans
~medium tomato, bite sized pieces
~olive oil
~~Parmigiana cheese (if vegan~ seasoned bread crumbs are wonderful!), liberally to taste

In pan, saute onions, zucchini, and tomato. Add seasonings. Add beans and cook until hot. Mix in parm. or bread crumbs and keep on heat until it is lightly browned. Serve with salad or on crackers!

Fun Salad with Black Olives

Fun salad to make when you don't have a lot of time but you do have some random ingredients!



You will need:
~Broccoli
~Black olives
~Baby spinach
~Arugula
~Onion
~Carrot
~Home made vinaigrette or favorite dressing

Slice veggies into bite sized pieces, add olives whole or cut. Toss with dressing and serve!



Sandwich featured in picture:


A silly little sandwich I made with fake chicken strips and stale hot dog buns.

~ Toasted hoagie
~ Red pepper
~ Sweet potato
~ Onion
~ Chicken strips, I use vegan 'chicken' strips
~ s/p, olive oil

Cut potato into thin strips almost like thick fries, place in microwaveable bowl with a little little water in the bottom and microwave until soft. Or steam until soft using any technique you chose. In a pan, saute onion, peppers and chicken strips in a little olive oil. Add potato asap. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and saute until browning on each side of chicken and veggies are soft. Toast hoagie open faced, fill with veggie mix and serve warm.

Baked Beans with Apple

After an evening of experimentation and heavy ingredients... This came forth!


You will need:

1 cup kidney beans

1 cup navy beans
*canned or boiled. If canned, drain before adding to heat.

1 medium white onion

1/4 apple, chopped


Tbl. Agave Nectar


4 cloves fresh garlic, chopped

salt to taste


extra virgin olive oil







Instructions:




In sauce pan or deep skillet, slice onion into long strips, add olive oil and heat on low. Add beans, salt and garlic. Let sit with onions on bottom and beans on top. Do not mix. Wait until beans are warm and add the Agave. Stir. Add apple and stir. Wait until heated all the way through.