Instant Pot

I finally bought an Instant Pot, well, my husband bought me one. I have not used it for a lot, but I have made beans, rice, soup, spaghetti sauce, and curry in it. Yum! I have a regular pressure cooker. You know, the kind you put on top of your stove and avoid the kitchen while it is cooking in case it blows up. But this one cooks better and I don't have to worry about it exploding. I have not read a single article, to date, about that happening. 

Today I got a second liner in the mail. I love that the liners are made of stainless steel instead of Teflon, which always seems to end up somewhere in my food. Blech! I have never seen Teflon flakes in my food, but I see the pan getting scratched and the coating vanishing--I must be serving it. Anyway, here we go! 

One of my children got a new apartment several weeks ago. They want a rice cooker, but we have decided to get an Instant Pot instead. Very excited to hand it over!

Cucumber-Tomato Salad

Just cucumbers and tomatoes mixed with fresh lemon or lime juice, a bit of salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Mmmmm! This is one of my families favorites!

Moroccan Lentil Soup

I made this Moroccan Lentil Soup for dinner last night since it was really cold, for Texas, here. I got the recipe from Forks Over Knives. They have several really good looking soup recipes for the colder months. This one called for red lentils, but the (only) grocery store in town here does not sell them. So I substituted brown lentils. It was so good! We will be reheating it for dinner tonight along with a warmed loaf of ciabatta bread. Give it a try! You will be glad you did!

What is that lunch?

Last week was a busy one and I found myself taking this for lunch twice last week. You are looking at brown rice, dill pickles, red beets, white sweet potato slices, a crushed walnut, and nutritional yeast. It looks iffy, but tasted really good!

Baked Potatoes With Chili

I made baked potatoes with leftover chili for dinner this evening. I have also learned a quick way to make potatoes without baking them in the oven for 90 minutes. Put them into a pressure cooker for 20 minutes once the cooker has reached pressure; then put them into a 500-degree F oven for another 20 minutes. They have that fluffy texture you get when you bake them in the oven, but are much faster!

Quinoa Pot

This amazing quinoa dish was prepared by my oldest daughter for the families dinner tonight. It was wonderful! You cannot see the fresh lime juice or the cilantro, but it was amazing. Just quinoa, vegetable broth, black beans, frozen corn kernels, salt, and at the very end stir in lime juice and cilantro to taste. She added diced avocado to hers and said it was amazing!

Hash Browns

Nothing fancy here, just my lunch. I fixed hash browns, frozen from the store, with a sprinkle of ancho chili pepper and a side of salsa. Mmmm…

It was a bit annoying to have to read so many labels to find a hash brown without added oil, but I did it!

Tomato Onion Pasta

Last night I decided to remake an old family favorite as a new family favorite without any meat. This is the result: whole wheat pasta with a sauce that burst with flavor!

2 cans diced tomatoes, do not drain
1 yellow onion, diced
1 rounded teaspoon diced garlic
1 vegetable bullion cube
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon smokey paprika
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
2 large bay leaves

Heat a cast iron pan as hot as possible. Saute the onions without any liquid in the pan until you see a few black spots on the onions, then turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 3 more minutes. Transfer to a small pot and add the tomatoes and liquid from them. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir, then simmer for half an hour. Check every few minutes, give it a stir, and add small amounts of water if needed. You want to have some sauce to go with the tomatoes and onions. After 30 minutes, taste and add salt if needed. Serve over hot pasta.

My children used to love this dish because it had bacon in it. I was very pleased to hear them tell me that they could not believe there was no bacon in it and it tasted just as good! I tried fixing this without meat a couple of years ago, but did not think it was as good as the original then. I am improving in my use of spices and getting better results than I did in the past. Give this one a try, your carnivore guests should like it.

Smoky Oat Bean Burger

I bought the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook by Ann Crile Esselstyn and Jane Esselstyn and made the Smoky, Oat, Bean Burgers on pg. 223.  They are wonderful! With a side of dill pickle spears it made for a great dinner. I have never made a bean burger before, though I know several people who swear by them, so this was my first time.  Yummy!

They have navy beans, old-fashioned oats, brown rice, and a bunch of spices. Even my pickiest teenager likes these! I have mine with dijon mustard, lots of it. This cookbook is definitely a winner! I met Mrs. Esselstyn a few years ago at a potluck hosted by her son, Rip, at Whole Foods in Austin, Texas. She brought an appetizer that I just loved--half of a boiled baby potato with a swirl of homemade hummus on top. I liked it enough that I wanted to get this cookbook; I am glad that I did.

Tomato Orzo Soup

Tomatoes, garlic, veggie broth, pasta, and fresh rosemary.  So very good!  We ate this for dinner tonight along with fresh ciabatta bread.

Tonight I made a recipe that I found on avirtualvegan.com that came from Lani Muelrath's new book, The Plant-Based Journey. It is Portobello Pot Roast. It is soooo very yummy! My stomach and mouth are so happy now!

Carapulcra

I was in the mall a couple of years ago and found a Peruvian restaurant that was serving oil and meat-free carapulcra. I suspect that the meat was simply pulled out for my serving....but, I tried making it today. I am fortunate to be able to do my shopping in a fairly large city, Austin, and was able to find the ingredients at a grocery store called Fiesta. Here it is:

1 15oz package of papa seca (freeze-dried potato chunks)
5 cups vegetable broth
2 T. minced garlic
1 chopped onion
1 T. cocoa powder
1/2 t. cumin powder
2 T. Aji Panca
3 T. Aji Amarillo
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 T. fat-free peanut butter powder

I soaked the papa seca in cold water for 2 hours. Then drained the potatoes, added everything else except for the peanut butter powder. I stirred it, heated until warm and bubbly, sprinkled the peanut butter powder on, and served with a side of steamed rice. The restaurant used white rice, I used brown. Many of the recipes I found online called for 1 cup of dry white wine, I left that out and increased the broth by 1 cup. The Aji Panca is a mild but very flavorful red chili paste. The Aji Amarillo is a medium and extremely flavorful yellow chili paste. The recipes I found were saying to blend the chilies with oil to make the paste, but the paste I ended up finding at Fiesta only has the chilies in it. I was prepared to buy the chili and make the paste myself. The yellow chili has a very unique flavor and I think it would be worth finding it when you make this. I looked online and it is very easy to find it at Amazon, among other places. The original recipes called for toasted finely chopped peanuts, but I didn't want the added fat, thus the peanut butter powder.

Paella

A few months ago, I bought the cookbook Happy Herbivore Abroad.  I bought the Kindle version at the link I put here; I do not get kickbacks, just wanted you to have the chance to look at this book.  This week I made the Paella recipe--fabulous!  I have been eating the cold leftovers for lunches at work this week.  This recipe uses fire-roasted tomatoes, which really adds a nice depth to the entire flavor.  The top picture shows the vegetables sauteing in water instead of oil. 

Healthy, Inexpensive Dinner

Nothing fancy here for dinner tonight, just HUGE russet potatoes, baked, and a pan full of asparagus and Brussels sprouts.  The veggies have not been roasted yet in the picture and they looked so good when they came out that we ate everything before I remembered to grab the camera.  It was so good!  I put them into a 400-degree F oven for about 30 minutes.  The asparagus was fresh and the sprouts were frozen, but everything was ready when I took it out.

The potatoes were served with brown gravy or green chile sauce, whichever a person wanted.

Cheeze Dip

Before blending.  You can see the pepper, water with lemon juice, and cashews.

Right after I turned the blender on.

After a minute or so.

After it has been blended and poured into a red dish.

I made cheeze dip for my family a little while ago and wanted to share the recipe with you.  I made a batch this size the night before last, but by last night it was all gone.  

I make this in my Vita Mix Blender. 

1 cup raw cashews

2 cups water

juice from 1/2 lemon

1 t pink Himalayan salt

1 T prepared mustard

1 T chopped garlic

1 t onion powder

2 vegetable bouillon cubes

1/2 roasted red pepper (a little charred is even better)

1 shake cayenne pepper (maybe 1/8 t)

3 rounded T corn starch

1/4-1/3 cup nutritional yeast

Put everything into blender and turn to high.  Leave on high until it is hot and thick.  You can stop blending when it still runs and use it as a dip for veggies and baked chips, or you can let it blend until it is so thick it will not move in the blender.  That is how thick I made this batch.  Once it has cooled down, it can be spread on bread for a grilled cheeze sandwich, we like it spread thinly on pizza crust with the sauce and other toppings on top of it, or use it on baked potatoes and in macaroni.

Enjoy!

Acorn Season

It is the time of the year that Oak trees are dropping acorns and I have been busy gathering them.  My husband found some larger acorns last week and brought them home to show me; I like them enough that we went back and got 4 gallons more!  I cleaned and sorted them last night and will shell as many as possible today.  I am going to try a new way to leach the tannins that looks like it is much faster than what I used last year.

Vegan MOFO hash browns and sausages for dinner

Tonight is breakfast for dinner night.  Yum!  I shredded russett potatoes in the food processor, cooked them in a hot pan, added two vegan sausage patties, and waited.  So good! 

Vegan MOFO--Hash Browns For A Snack

It is Vegan Month of Food and I totally forgot until a few minutes ago!  I am so sorry everyone who visited here.

I am a big potato fan, especially hash browns.  This batch was for an afternoon snack.  I make them with freshly shredded russet potatoes and a piping hot pan--no oil.  They cook for about 7 minutes on the first side, get flipped and cooked for another 7 minutes.  Then serve and eat.  Yum!

Swedish Meatballs

This has got to be the best vegan Swedish meatball recipe I have ever tasted!  I found it here: The Seitanic Chef's Swedish Meatballs

I do not tend to cook with added oils, but I made an exception when I browned the meatballs.  I used a tablespoon of Earth Balance.  Next time I will try baking them in the oven.

I also left out the mushrooms since I wanted my children to eat this.  I also used only about 6 ounces of Tofutti Sour Cream.
I had a jar of Ikea's Lingonberry Jam in the refrigerator, so I served that with this dish.  Very tasty!

So when cooking with low-fat in mind, I will try making it this way:

--Bake the meatballs
--no sour cream substitute, but add some lemon juice for that sour taste
--in place of the soy creamer, use soy milk

I am really looking forward to the next time I have the excuse to make these!

Making Blue Corn Tortillas

Above, the ball of masa is in between two pieces of plastic wrap on the tortilla press.

Here I have taken the top piece of plastic wrap off after I pressed the ball on the press.

You can buy a tortilla press for $10-$15 online or at a South American market.

A stack of blue corn tortillas!  

These are so easy to make.  Mix masa and water 1:1, roll a small ball, put it between two sheets of plastic wrap on a tortilla press, press it, remove the plastic wrap, cook in a dry pan 1 minuter per side, stack and eat.  If you do not have a tortilla press, use a rolling pin or even just flatten it with your hands.

I like mine with beans and salsa…

You can use parchment paper if you do not want to use plastic wrap.  If plastic does not bother you, try using a cut plastic baggie since the plastic is much thicker and easier to work with.