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!

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.

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.

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!

Farley's Bowl

Boiled potato slices, pickled beets, bok choy, 

water spinach, soy curls, and blackberries.

Soy Curls In A Wrap

I finally got around to trying the soy curls that I bought last week. Wow! They are really good!

I soaked them in hot water seasoned with soy sauce, liquid smoke, garlic, onion powder, and black pepper. Then I squeezed out as much liquid as I could without scalding myself and sauteed them dry in a frying pan. I used them on a HUGE piece of lavash to make a gigantic wrap along with daikon and carrot strips, a small spread of peanut butter, and fresh cilantro.It made a wrap big enough for me and 3 of my closest friends. This picture is before I rolled it up.

Spinach Lasagna

Tonight was lasagna night—mmmmmmm!  Here is my version:

Filling:
1 box hard tofu, drained
 2 cups mashed potatoes (I used instant flakes with just water and salt)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons dried basil
Mix it all together as smoothly as possible.

Sauce:
4 cups of your favorite marinara sauce.

Other:
1 box of oven-ready lasagna noodles(the ones that you don't have to boil first)
2 cups of chopped frozen spinach or 3 cups of fresh baby spinach leaves.

Put 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of the lasagna dish.  Then put one layer of noodles, 4 of them.  Put half of the filling, another 4 noodles, and another cup of sauce.  Put 2 cups of spinach on, then the other half of the filling, a cup of sauce, the last noodles and the last cup of sauce.  Cover with foil and bake in a 375 oven for 40 minutes.

Anasazi Beans & Brown Jasmine Rice; Oatmeal Balls

The top picture is dinner tonight:  beans and rice.

2 cups Anasazi Beans
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 heaping Tablespoon chopped garlic
5 cups water
4 vegetable bouillon cubes
2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt

Put it all into a pressure cooker and cook for about 45 minutes.  Serve over brown jasmine rice.

The second picture is Oatmeal Balls that I made for my teenagers to eat with their friends tomorrow.

1.5 cups quick oats
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla
scant 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter, after pouring off the oil
3/4 cup of dark chocolate chips, finely chopped walnuts, and raw sunflower seeds

Mix all together in a bowl, then take a small handful, squeeze into a ball, and put on a plate.

This made 12.

As you can see from the two recipes above, it does not take a lot of money to eat a healthy, vegan, plant-based diet.  The dark cocoa powder could be any cocoa powder, agave nectar could be replaced with maple syrup or honey, Anasazi beans could be any of your favorite dry beans, Himalayan pink salt can be table salt.  It does not have to cost a lot of money or involve hard-to-get ingredients.

Try it!