June 3, 2012

I know pumpkin is more of a fall flavor, but after I made Memorial Day's U.S. Navy Bean Burgers based on Celine Steen's White Bean Cutlets, I wandered through her cookbook (The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions) some more and found her Pumpkin Bisque.

It sounded so simple to put together and I had almost all of the ingredients, so away I went. You literally combine the ingredients in a pot, bring them to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. Done.

The base for the soup is a can of pumpkin puree with some non-dairy milk (I use almond milk) and vegetable broth. Then you add flavors that are anything but wimpy: peanut butter, onion, garlic, garam masala, cayenne and vegan worcestershire sauce.

I followed the recipe exactly except for omitting the marmite (who has that on-hand in the U.S.?) and the maple syrup since the bisque was already plenty sweet for me.

I love how quick and inexpensive this soup was, but the flavor profile is a bit out of my comfort zone. I measured the spices precisely, but this soup was HOT! That's coming from a spicy Texas girl who isn't afraid of heat. Maybe my Penzeys Garam Masala was dramatically more powerful than most?

Besides the heat, which I cooled with a dollop of Sunflower Seed Sour Cream, it was a little weird to me that the soup was also pretty sweet. I can appreciate the balance of flavors, but I don't think it's really my thing.

But, you never know what you like until you try it, and it's always a good thing to branch out of the ordinary a little bit!

~BigSis

February 19, 2012

I'd never even tasted kale until a couple of years ago, and when I finally did try it, I was convinced that avoiding it all those years had been a wise plan.

My first experience was a raw kale salad from a local natural food store's prepared food bar. It was bitter with very little flavor otherwise, but the worst part was the texture…kind of like shredded up brillo pad. It was nearly impossible to chew, and I certainly didn't want to swallow it.

I decided I didn't like kale. No worries; there are plenty of other nutritious things for a vegan girl to eat, right?

Fast forward to the first time I ever tried kale chips. What? They're delicious? How can that be? I don't like kale. Aha, that's where I was wrong.

Turns out I love kale, in fact, I can't get enough of it, and I seldom eat it in baked chip form. Right now I'm going through two bunches a week…red kale, curly kale, lacinato kale. Got kale? I'll eat it.

Since I finished the Clean Program 21-Day Cleanse about a month ago, I've stuck with the program pretty closely. Ok, ok, I did have that one major fall off the wagon with the vegan queso and blue corn chips episode a couple of weeks ago. But other than that…I'm eating pretty clean. It's what my body demands now. And I'm happy to comply.

I have two or three go-to kale recipes in regular rotation, and after today I have a new one to add. This Sunday Supper recipe for Hearty Dal Soup is from Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health, and was contributed by Mary McDougall of the McDougall program fame.

Please do yourself a favor and go to their web site and check out the McDougall recipes. I just found the Hearty Dal Soup recipe there, and can't believe I've never known about this treasure trove of wonderful sounding and easy recipes before.

Besides being easy, this recipe is endlessly customizable to what you have on hand. Since I have this little love affair with kale going on right now, I used a whole bunch of curly kale in place of the 2 cups of chard (I needed a little extra water because of that). I was out of cumin, so I substituted a bit of Penzeys Southwest Seasoning which contains some cumin.

I – of course – used 4 or 5 cloves of garlic instead of 2, and added kidney beans since all of my garbanzos made their way into hummus last week. I left out the potatoes altogether since my body screams out “CANDY!” in glee when it sees a potato coming my way, and you know that's going to mean excess poundage on my derriere. I was out of onion, so I added chopped chives at the end.

See what I mean? Use what you have. One last note. The instructions say to cook for 50 minutes or until the lentils are soft. When I checked on mine about halfway through, they were already falling apart. That actually turned out to be a good thing though, since most of the lentils turned into a wonderful creamy sauce for the kale, tomatoes and kidney beans to swim around in.

I highly recommend this recipe, for Sunday Supper or any time. The flavor was out of this world! I sprinkled on some Frank's Red Hot and a bit of Daiya PepperJack, and it was perfection. Just what I needed to wrap up a nice weekend and prepare for another week. And I have lunch for a few days too!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

~BigSis

January 30, 2011

I can't believe that I've been vegetarian for almost 16-1/2 years to the day, and I've never even tasted Scrambled Tofu.  It always sounds and looks unappetizing to me: it's usually neon yellow from the turmeric, and it frequently involves green bell peppers.  Bleh.

I do love tofu though, and I'm making an effort to get more variety into my diet so it's time.  It's time to be brave and do this thing.  I think breakfast foods are awesome for supper, so this week's Sunday Supper is Scrambled Tofu!

I have several of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's cookbooks…Appetite for Reduction, Veganomicon, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, Vegan with a Vengeance, and Vegan Brunch.  Isa hasn't let me down yet, so she had to be the source of my foray into all things tofu and scrambly.

I pulled out Vegan Brunch and followed her recipe for Scrambled Tofu.  It's essentially tofu with, garlic, cumin, thyme, turmeric and nutritional yeast.  The only add-in I used was a big blob of mushrooms that I'd already sauteed with lots of garlic.

I have to say I was VERY pleasantly surprised to discover that I love Scrambled Tofu!  I do!  It was savory and a bit spicy, and not mushy and bland as I had imagined it to be.  The only change I would make next time is to back off the salt a tad.  I love salt, but I think half the amount in the seasoning mix would be plenty.

I used Wildwood Sproutofu extra firm (sprouted tofu) that had been frozen, thawed and squeezed, which I think really contributed to the great texture.  I did add about half a cup of water at the end after the nutritional yeast went in, since it seemed a touch dry at that point.

Overall…delicious!  I will absolutely be making Scrambled Tofu again and again; for breakfast, brunch and supper!  I'm imagining it now with olives, spinach, Daiya cheese, asparagus, Upton's Naturals Seitan…

~BigSis

February 8, 2009

So is it portobello, or is it portabella?  I've always wondered that.  Anyway.  You say potaytoe, I say potahto.  It occurs to me that this Sunday Supper is a lot like my Spinach Quiche with Tomato Sauce, so the spinach with cheese and tomato must be a flavor combination that I subconsciously gravitate toward. Or maybe my body is just needing more iron, calcium and lycopene right now.  Whatever it is, these portobello mushrooms worked really well with the other flavors.

I got a big package of 4 mushroom caps from Sam's Club the other day, and they were by far the biggest ones I've ever seen.  They definitely deserved a special treatment of some kind, and since I had frozen spinach, tomato sauce ingredients, and more of the Cabot 50% Light All Natural Cheddar Cheese on hand, this is the filling I came up with on the fly. I didn't measure, and you don't have to either. Just eyeball the amounts of each component until it looks good to you. You're the one eating it, so please yourself!  By the way, if you have a grill, these would be incredible started on it instead of in the oven!

Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Portobello

Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Portobello with Tomato Sauce

4 large portobello mushroom caps
Olive oil
Salt and Shallot Pepper to taste
Frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
Cabot 50% Light Cheddar Cheese, grated
Tomato/marinara sauce – any kind, homemade or bottled

Clean the mushroom caps with a damp paper towel. Leaving the gills is fine in this recipe so don't worry about removing them. Rub or brush each cap with olive oil on all sides. Salt and pepper to taste. Place in a baking dish (13 x 9 worked for my 4 giant caps) and bake at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes or until tender, turning a couple of times.

When mushrooms are done, drain excess liquid if desired. Smear a little tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish, and place the mushrooms on the bed of sauce. Add a nice handful of spinach to each cap, then top with cheese. Spoon tomato sauce over each mushroom. Bake until hot and bubbly, around 20 minutes.

Add a nice green salad, and you have a great simple, healthful dinner for 4, or a Sunday Supper and 3 lunches for BigSis!

~BigSis

October 19, 2008

I'm so excited every time I open my mailbox to find my new issue of  whole living body+soul, I'm always pleasantly surprised to find so many articles that actually interest me. I am never disappointed! This Martha Stewart Publication is my favorite magazine right now.

I found this recipe for Shiitake Fried Rice in the October, 2008 issue of whole living body+soul and I knew right away that I wanted to try it.  This is also a vegetarian dish so I know that BigSis will enjoy it. I've always loved shiitakes, but never knew of their amazing health benefits. I never knew that they were packed full of antioxidants, potassium, zinc, and lentinan, that stimulates the immune system.  An excellent addition to your meal if you're starting to feel run down or trying to stave off a cold.

So, here we go with the recipe. I have to admit that I made this recipe while my family was lurking over me so I did not get as many photos as I would have liked.  HayHay was more interested in getting the rice in his belly than in watching me take photographs. To start with, here are the ingredients.

Pretty basic ingredients

I cooked the rice first, sliced the mushrooms, and cooked the edamame. I started with the edamame in the pods just because I think they turn out better if you cook them in the pods and then shell them. The bag of edamame in pods makes exactly one cup of shelled edamame!

Perfectly cooked brown rice.

Cleaned and sliced shitakes.

Cooked and shelled edamame

It was so easy from this stage.  I missed getting a photo of the shiitakes sauteing in the oil, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes.  I never measure exactly; (which is why I can't bake) so I ended up adding two teaspoons of butter to the mushrooms because they seemed a little dry. I probably did not start with enough oil when starting out with the garlic and ginger. Oh, and I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil.

From this point, I added the rice, the edamame, the cooked and sliced egg, the lime juice and soy sauce.  I did leave out the scallions, (because I don't like them and I'm the cook); and I was going to use chives, but I forgot to go cut some from my herb pot. I just tossed everything gently and it was done!

Finished Shitake Fried Rice

I don't cook with a lot of ginger, but the combination of ginger, garlic, lime, and red pepper flakes in this rice turned out just amazing!

Now, for myself or for BigSis, this would be a complete meal. But, no! Not for the meat-eating men that live in our house!  Since I learned that a long time ago, I had already planned to make pork tenderloin to go along with the Shiitake Fried Rice.  They went really  well together!  All I do with my pork tenderloin is cover it in a paste of olive oil, garlic, and a lot of fresh ground pepper. I grill on high for five minutes on each side, then turn to medium and another five minutes on each side. Cover and let rest. Turns out perfect every time!

Grilled pork tenderloin

Here's the final plate, missing the side salad and some fresh Kalamata Olive Bread from Trader Joe's. Did you think we could have a meal without bread? Silly!

Shitake Fried Rice and Grilled Pork Tenderloin

I was really happy with the way this Sunday Supper turned out.  I hope you give it a try!

~LilSis

October 12, 2008

After 4 days in the hospital, I've been sprung!  Woo hoo!  I'm going to post later on what I learned from this out-of-the-blue experience, but for now I have to say I'm very very happy to be home.  This episode appears to have been the result of a random virus that hopped on me when I hopped on a plane from California to Texas a couple of weeks ago. All I can say is that it was N-A-S-T-Y and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, not even the people who annoy me most in this world.

So.  This Sunday's supper isn't about what's on the menu, because the menu for the next couple of weeks is supposed to be bland and easy-to-digest.  This supper is about being thankful for being home, and having my little bowl of potato soup at my little table instead of in a hospital room, and enjoying the beautiful flowers I received this last week.  Thank you to everyone who sent flowers and their well wishes and prayers.  I appreciate you!

BigSis Sunday Supper October 12

Still beautiful after almost a week

Orchid with curious Gaby in corner

~BigSis

October 5, 2008

When I was making tonight's Sunday Supper, it occurred to me that my plate was a lot like the presidential race this year.  There are some similarities on each side, but there is a wide gap in-between the two parties and the two philosophies.  And, yes, I do have an opinion about the race.  A pretty strong opinion I would say, but no, I'm not about to say what that opinion is.  We'd all fight and argue about it, somebody would get mad, and guess what – no one's opinion would be changed.  So I'll keep mine to myself.

Back to the supper.  I always enjoy the edamame corn salad that you can get at Whole Foods, because it's tasty and easy, and pretty healthy.  But it's a tad too raw-oniony for me, and it just seems silly to pay whatever it costs per pound when it's only corn and soybeans and a few dressing ingredients.  You can't put together a dish for less than this little baby costs if you do it yourself.

I was craving the salad today, and decided to try two different variations of it tonight since I had the corn and edamame in the freezer.  One version is Asian-inspired, and one Southwest-inspired.  But, man (or woman) can't lived on soy and corn alone, so I made a lettuce, tomato and avocado salad to go with it.  In the little political/salad scenario going on in my head, the two edamame corn salads are the democrats and republicans, and the LTA salad is in the gap between them.  Ok, so it's a little goofy to compare beans and corn to the dems and the reps, but life can get too serious, right?

BigSis Supper October 5

Both of the salads started with sauteed red onion and garlic. The asian variety added toasted sesame oil, olive oil, rice vinegar, lemon juice, garlic chili sauce, and salt, plus cilantro, wasabi powder, and shallot pepper all from Penzey's.  The southwest version had lemon juice, cider vinegar, olive oil, and salt, with more Penzey's specialties: shallot pepper, lemon pepper, and  Southwest seasoning.  I have to say both were really good, although I expect they will morph a little bit as they sit overnight.  The flavors will blend, and my lunch experience tomorrow may be a tad different story than my dinner tonight.  I'm slightly fearful that the wasabi powder will rear it's ugly little green head overnight and come back to bite me in the fanny tomorrow.

And just in case you're wondering, yes, that whole ding dang plate of food was just for one person! You may have heard that vegetarians eat like birds, so let me dispel that myth right here and now.  We eat!   I ate the whole thing!  My tummy was full to the top, but it was a guilt-free full.  This meal was vegan except for Newman's Own Caesar Dressing.  It was full of fiber and protein, and a plethora of antioxidants and other goodies for my bod. I eat this way a lot of the time.  I'm not a twig by any means, but I'm not overweight either.  I try to eat for health and energy and fuel most of the time, and don't worry about a big plate of vittles if it's good stuff.  Which isn't to say that I don't have my crazed Kettle potato chip episodes, because I do!  Life's about balance, right? Eat well most of the time, and then don't freak out about your little splurge!

On a serious note, can I just say thank you to Paul Newman for so many wonderful high-quality organic products? And for living a life with a purpose, and apparently without scandal? God bless you, Paul; rest in peace.

~BigSis