Lentil Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti

If you are not totally feeling the make your own sauce you can substitute your favorite. Just be sure you read the ingredients first so you know how much sugar they put in. :)  Be Aware! Be Very Aware!

Ingredients:
24 oz. Canned Crushed Tomatoes
1 Table­spoon of Tomato Paste
3 Cloves of minced (or finely chopped) Garlic
1 Small diced (or finely chopped) Onion
7 Leaves of Fresh Basil finely chopped
1/2 Tea­spoon Pepper
1/2 Tea­spoon Salt
Pinch of Sugar or 1/2 Cup of Finely Shred­ded Carrots
3/4 Cups of Lentils
1 Tea­spoon Ital­ian Seasoning
2 Cups of Water
 Optional:
1 cup frozen veggies

Directions:
Put 3/4 cup of lentils into water with the 1 tea­spoon of Ital­ian sea­son­ing. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a sim­mer over a medium heat for 20 min­utes.  Stir occasionally.
After this drain the lentils. You will add them to the sauce below.
To make the sauce:
Heat the water in a pan on a low heat, then add in the minced gar­lic & the diced onion.  (Prep all the veg­gies while your lentils are cook­ing).  Cook gar­lic & onions for no more than 5 min­utes.
 After this add in the Table­spoon of pasta sauce.  Next step is to add in your toma­toes, salt, pep­per, sugar or car­rots & basil.  Why car­rots or sugar?  Well, car­rots will pro­vide the nat­ural sweet­ness that sugar would pro­vide to coun­ter­bal­ance the acid­ity of the toma­toes.  Car­rots will also add an addi­tional punch of nutri­tion to your dish.  Now add in your lentils (the ones you drained before start­ing your sauce).
Let it every­thing come together & sim­mer in the pan for about 30–40 min­utes.  Stir occasionally.
Top this sauce over spaghetti pasta.  Make sure when you make your spaghetti you sea­son the sauce with salt & you cook the noo­dles al dente (firm but cooked through).  You don’t want to over cook the noo­dles & have mushy noodles.
Serve a hearty dish really per­fect with a nice crusty thick gar­lic bread on the side.

Chili Mac

We loved this recipe for Plant Strong Chili Mac and had request for adding it into our meal rotation.

Ingredients:
1 lb whole wheat pasta
1 onion diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 cup frozen corn
1 can TexMex fire roasted tomatoes
1 lg can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp vegetable base in 1 cup hot water
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Coriander powder
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Cook pasta. Drain and add last.
Sauté onions 3-4 minutes add red pepper, sauté 2- minutes, add zucchini.. Then add remaining ingredients stir well add spices and mix again. Simmer until spices are well blended. Toss in pasta.  Enjoy.

Beans And Greens

Servings: 2
Prep time: 0:05
Total time: 0:20

Source: adapted from CalciYum by David and Rachelle Bronfman


 Ingredients:
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 can of cooked white beans (e.g. great northern, haricot, cannelini etc.)
1/8 cup (25ml) chopped dill (I usually use 2 tsp. of dried Dill
1 bundle of chopped kale or other greens
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp soy sauce

Directions:
Sauté the onion in water over a medium heat for 3 minutes. Add  dill and cook for a further 1 minutes. Add the greens cover and cook 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Cook until greens are wilted and soft.  Add the rinsed and drained beans and simmer stirring occasionally until heated through.
Recipe Serves 2 main dish, 4 side dishes.

Note: in the winter I like to use a bag of frozen greens like spinach.  This is a very nice way of serving calcium-rich beans and greens together.  Serve hot or cold. If serving cold you can drizzle with a savory Vinaigrette.

Corn Chowder

Servings: 4-6
Prep time: 0:20
Total time: 0:40

Ingredients:
1 lg onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, diced fine
4 cups water
1 Tbsp Vegetable Base
4-6 med potatoes, pealed and cubed
1 can cream corn
1 can would corn, drained
¼  cup green chilies
2-3 cups unsweetened coconut milk
Salt and pepper, to taste


Directions:
Sauté onion in a little water. Add celery and sauté until onion becomes translucent.  Stir in garlic, cook a out 1 minute more. Add water vegetable base, potatoes,  corn, and green chilies. Simmer until potatoes are tender. Add coconut milk and seasonings. May add ½  tsp garlic and onion powder if more flavor is needed. Serve over toast croutons. You can make your own out of whole wheat bread. 

All you meat lovers out there can add ham or cooked bacon.

Easy Mushroom Marsala

Servings: 4
Prep time: 0:10
Total time: 0:35

 Ingredients:
 salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
 8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
½  onion, finely sliced
½  red pepper, sliced thin
3 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup Marsala wine
1 1/2 cups veggie stock
1 can  Cannellinii  beans

 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, garnish

Directions:
Marsala sauce. Pour 1 tbsp olive oil in large sauté pan. Heat to medium high. Add the mushrooms, and a pinch of salt to the hot pan, Reduce the heat to medium, Add  the onion, red pepper and garlic.  Stir until onions begin to soften, sprinkle in the flour. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
Carefully add the Marsala (it may flame up which is fine), turn up the heat to high, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes Add the veggie stock and cook until the sauce begins to reduce and thicken, about 3 minutes.  Add the cannellini  beans

Reduce the heat to very low.  Adjust seasoning with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, spoon the sauce and veggies over noodles or rice. Garnish with the parsley . Serve with roasted asparagus.

Our Version Veggie Pizza

When the summer vegetables come in from the backyard garden this is what happens.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups - Warm Water (120° -130° F)
2 Tbsp. - Sugar
1 Envelop - Active Dry Yeast
1 1/2 Tsp. - Salt
2 Tbsp. - Olive Oil
4 Cups - Whole Wheat Pastry flour

Directions:
 Pour the warm water in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and package of yeast. Stir the mixture until dissolved. Let sit to allow the yeast to mature for about ten minutes.
  Add the salt and olive oil and stir again to combine the ingredients. Add 1 cup of flour and whisk in until dissolved. Add the second cup of flour and whisk it in. Add the 3rd cup of flour and combine. By now the dough mixture should be fairly thick. Add the last cup and flour and, with your hands, begin to combine and knead the dough.

Curried Carrot Ribbon & Pear Salad

I found this recipe and photo from Honest Fare and love it. I even have my cooking class make it as an example of fresh and easy lunch eats.

Servings: 4

Ingredients
 8 large carrots
1/3 cup shaved almonds
2 ripe anjou pears
Handful fresh curly parsley
1/4 cup olive oil
1-2 Tablespoons of water
3/4 teaspoon salt
Juice from 2 lemons
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Cayenne pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon mayo

Directions
Combine olive oil, lemon juice, paprika, curry powder, maple syrup, pepper, mayo and half of your parsley (diced). Place in jar and shake until very well combined. Set in fridge to chill. thinn with water if necessary.
Wash and remove first layer of skin on carrots using veg peeler. Cut off ends. Work the veg peeler from top to bottom, rotating the carrot every few peels to keep the strips consistent and get the best yield from the carrots.
Wash and cut pears into wedges, removing seeds and rough heart from center. Add pears to carrots and toss. Roughly chop remaining parsley and toss in with carrots and pears. Add almonds and toss salad again with your hands. Now add in dressing and toss very well again.
Let chill and serve very cold!

Notes
Prep time: 20 minutes Serves 4. This is a great salad to make in advance. Let it chill in the fridge until you’re ready for it (up to 24 hours!) and the dressing will soak in nice without making the carrots too soft or anything. Feel free to leave out the mayo if vegan, it just helps the dressing stick.

Kale Chips Baked

We had a lot of kale in our garden this fall so this was one of our experiments.  Pretty good actually. A fun healthy change from the old potato chip.

Servings: 6
Prep time: 0:10
Total time: 0:20

 INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon seasoned salt

DIRECTIONS:
1.      Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2.      With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3.      Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Notes:
You can CUT CALORIES CONSIDERABLY by spraying them with a mister or PAM(TM). I use a "Misto"(TM) filled with olive oil. Also, you can decrease the salt and add additional seasonings. Enjoy!! UPDATE: The timing of the baking, as others noted, is critical. Baking too little results in limp kale pieces and baking too long causes a "burned" taste. Be sure to use the "curly" kale variety as it tend to be less bitter.DO NOT EXPECT them to taste like potato chips... that was just an expression I used in the description. Kale is a nutritional powerhouse and rich in calcium and other vitamins. GREAT way to feed yourself and your kids!! ENJOY!!

Our Own Aztec Black Beans

Source: Me :)

Ingredients:
1 med onion, diced
½  yellow bel pepper, diced
1 lg can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup mild green chilies, diced
1 can fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
½ tsp garlic powder
Salt to taste
Optional:
1 cup frozen corn
¼  tsp roasted coriander
Red pepper or Chipotle sauce

Directions:
Sauté onion and pepper in a little water until tender.
Add remaining ingredients. Heat to a simmer until flavors are blended. If mixture begins to dry out add a little water or vegetable broth. Beans should be moist and spoonable.
Serve over baked potatoes, rice, quinoa, or polenta.

Aztec Black Beans

This recipe is an easy go to recipe. We like making our own salsa but this is good in a pinch.  Just choose your favorite salsa. This is also a money saver.  You can choose to eat it in a variety of ways. We top baked potatoes,  brown rice or quinoa. I will try to remember a photo the next time it comes out of the pot.

Servings: 6 to 8

Source: Bean Bible

Ingredients:

1 pound dried black or turtle beans (or 16-ounce cans black beans, drained)

1 16 ounce jar salsa (your favorite kind)

 water

Directions:

Pick over and rinse the beans, removing any foreign objects. Place in a large bowl and cover with water. Soak overnight. (Or use any of the quick-soak methods or used canned beans. Your choice.)

Drain the beans and discard the soaking water. Put them in a crock pot with the salsa and stir. Add just enough water to cover the beans. Cover and cook on low all day, 8 to 10 hours.

These freeze well.

A few recipes

Here are two meals that I have found that we really love around here. For the most part I try not to make stuff that is "like" something made with meat, but when you run across a recipe that is good enough to be the real thing, but plant based, it's like an extra bonus.  :)

The first if sloppy joes.  These are so much like the ones we used to love, just made with beans.
Two Bean Sloppy Joes

The next is tacos.  Who doesn't love tacos? right?
And if you cook these one day and then reheat them the next they are that much better. Yummo!
I even made their taco seasoning, adjusting for our non-spicy people in the house and it was awesome.
Lentil Tacos

That's it for now.  Just thought I would share.

Senegalese Vegetables

We traveled to Galveston, Tx late may with our oldest son and his family. Was a delightful trip watching our grandsons play in the waves of the gulf and finding new out of the way places to eat. One restaurant we found served a plant strong dish called "Senagalese" . We loved it!  So after a lot of research and testing this is the recipe we settled on.

Senegalese Vegetables

This recipe has a West African influence and is sometimes spicy hot, but we enjoyed this milder version on our visit to Galveston.

2 cups coconut milk

4  Tbsp  smooth peanut butter

1 tsp red curry powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt to taste

1/4 cup crushed peanuts

Steamed brown rice

Steam your favorite veggies.  We  used broccoli, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini , sweet red pepper and green onion.

While your veggies are steaming, mix coconut milk, peanut butter, curry powder and salt in a small saucepan. Whisk together over a medium heat just until  and peanut butter is blended and sauce begins to simmer.  It should be a thin soup. Adjust seasoning to your preference. Add more curry or red pepper if you like more spice.

Place a mound of rice in each individual shallow bowl. Surround with  steamed veggies. Ladle coconut soup over rice and veggies. Sprinkle with crushed peanuts. Enjoy! 

SLOW COOKED APPLE OATMEAL

I was looking for Plant Strong items we could eat for breakfast on our annual family campout and this one was a hit. I placed a liner in the crockpot then all the ingredients. (OK, so we don't totally rough it when we camp out.) I turned it on when we went to bed a little after midnight. Late bedtimes are not unusual for our family. Lots of stories to tell and songs to sing often venture into the wee hours of the morning.  But at 7am on the dot we have hungry little munchkins giggling outside our tent ready to be fed. This oatmeal was piping hot and ready to serve our little hungry campers.

Ingredients:

2 cups oatmeal (regular or steel cut)
1 3/4 cups water (2 cups if using steel cut oats)
1 3/4 cups apple juice ( 2 cups if using steel cut oats)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
 dash nutmeg
1 small apple, peeled and diced tiny

Directions:
I used a 4 quart slow cooker for this.  It has to cook such a long time, you want the oatmeal to fill as much of the crock as possible.  If it doesn’t, it will cook too hot.
Spray the crock with cooking spray so you can clean it easier the next morning.  Oatmeal is sticky.
Put all the ingredients in the crock and stir to combine.  Turn it on low as you’re going to bed.  I turned mine on at 10pm and cooked it till about 7am.  If you have a programmable slow cooker, cook it for about 5 hours on low for steel cut or 3 for regular oats.
This recipe makes 4 large servings.
I had never cooked or even seen, steel cut oats until I bought them for this recipe.  They do cost more money than regular.  And I thought they looked like horse food.  I’ve never seen horse food either, but that’s what it should look like.  Let me tell you, a horse would be very happy to be served a bowl of this apple oatmeal!

Chocolate-Zucchini Muffins

This recipe is from the Happy Herbivore blog.

We took them on our annual camping trip and even the grandkids love it.

Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour
 ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
1¼ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 whole banana, mashed
 ½ cup raw sugar
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup non-dairy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
½ cup raw sugar (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin pan and set aside. If using paper liners, lightly spray inside of liners with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. In another bowl, cream mashed banana with applesauce and sugar (use extra 1/2 cup for a very sweet, dessert-like muffin). Add in soymilk, vanilla, zucchini and any other optional add-ins you might like such as vegan chocolate chips or chopped raw walnuts. Stir until evenly combined. Add flour mix to wet mix in 3-4 batches and stir until just combined. Spoon batter into greased muffin pan and bake 18-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Chef's Note: These muffins store well both in the fridge and freezer & the raw sugar in this recipe may be reduced to 1/2 cup.

Teaching my boys about food.

Since participating in the tournament Ian and Isaac can relate very well to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. I really didn't like talking about food in a good and bad tense. It was too confusing on why at a birthday party they could have cake. For them it doesn't make sense that we could have something "bad" sometimes. So instead I started ranking foods. For example all fruits and veggies get a 1st place trophy and french fries get a 3rd place trophy. They completely understand that we want mostly first place foods and now they don't have to worry about doing anything bad when they eat. .

Butternut vegetable bean soup

I loved this! I used my penzey no salt spices instead of spike and I don't have his veggiezest. I found the imagine butternut squash soup at sprouts. It makes a huge pot that will be easy lunches.

Serves: 7

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
 
Ingredients:
4 cups Imagine Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
4 cups frozen chopped broccoli
2 cups carrot juice
2 cups water
2 cups frozen chopped kale or other type greens
1 cup frozen chopped onion
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, corn)
1 15-ounce can black bean soup, no or low salt
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, no salt, drained
1 15-ounce can red beans, no salt, drained
1/2 head cabbage, shredded
4 tablespoons Dr. Fuhrman's VegiZest
1 tablespoon Spike no salt seasoning
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup raw cashew nuts
4 cups organic baby spinach (6 - 8 oz bag)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions:
Place all ingredients, except the cashews, spinach, and walnuts, in a large soup pot. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes.

Blend 1/4 of cooked mixture with cashews until very smooth.

Add back to remaining soup and add the fresh spinach. Spinach will wilt in hot soup.

Serve sprinkled with chopped walnuts.

Veggie Enchiladas

This is something I made last month that really blew us away.  I wasn't prepared for how good veggies could be mexican style.  Now I know that the recipe calls for using oil.. you don't have to.   And it calls for cheese, which I left out and they were great.  Also, if you are so awesome at dealing with corn tortillas then this is your dish. I can't get mine to roll so I layer.  This is one of the only dishes that has moved on to month #2.  Enjoy!
http://annies-eats.com/2011/06/06/veggie-enchiladas/

salad dressing

I made this salad dressing and it turned out yummy. The nuts make it creamy like the dressings I miss. Btw raw cashews are on sale at sprouts this week for 5.99 lb. So much better than the 10.99lb at whole foods.

2 cups of blueberries
1/2 cup of pomegranate juice
1/2 cup of raw cashews
3Tbs of fruit vinegar (I used a pomegranate flavored)

Ice cream treat

This has been a hit at our house. Take frozen bananas and put them in the blender with a little vanilla and cinnamon and voila you've got ice cream. Sadly I think I may have burnt out the blender. May need to save up for a vita-mix.:)

Introducing Black Bean Burgers

Ok, we have a new favorite.  Black bean burgers. I will definitely be working on perfecting a recipe that holds together well for the grill. Tonight we seared them in a hot iron skillet and they were yummy. All agreed they were quite tasty. The only quandary was, "Do we really want to eat something that looks like a ground beef patty but it is not?" The consensus  here is we do not want any pretend meat. We want to enjoy plant based eating for what it is, plant based.  But I think the black bean burgers will be an exception.
I ate mine without bread, the same way I would have eaten a hamburger. Everyone else enjoyed them sandwich style with all the fixins'.  Being able to make these 24 hours ahead of time, store them in the fridge and cook them for supper the next days definitely a plus. Have also read that they freeze well. Little patties would make great snacks for lunch.......Next we will be trying black bean enchiladas.