Coconut and Cashew Bars

I'm on spring break after the most challenging quarter I've ever experienced (which is why I wasn't posting much). For a good portion of the quarter, I wasn't cooking much. I just had too much to do. Today I spent some time in the kitchen, and it was wonderful.

My roommate recently introduced me to Lara bars. They're quite tasty, made from only a few ingredients, and they're inexpensive, but none of their ingredients are organic. Because their ingredient list was so simple, I decided to make my own using organic food, and they turned out pretty well. All of the ingredients were raw, in addition to being organic, so this recipe works for anyone on a raw food diet.

Coconut and Cashew Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup cashews
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
At least 10 dried and pitted dates
2 Tbs almonds coarsely ground (large chunks are fine)
1 1/2 Tbs virgin coconut oil

Put all ingredients except the almonds in a food processor and grind until you have the desired consistency. You don't want to make cashew butter, but you do want things to be ground pretty finely.
Put the mixture on a piece of parchment or wax paper. It should hold together and be reminiscent of dough. If it's not holding together, add more dates and put through the food processor again.
Mix the almonds in by hand (these give the bars a nice crunch)
Shape into a rectangle or square approximately 1/2" high.
Cut into pieces the size and shape you want.
Eat and enjoy.

Optional:
Add a dash of cinnamon, hunks of dark chocolate, or any other dried fruit or nut your heart desires.

Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash

I went to a small dinner yesterday. I knew that the main dish was going to be food that I couldn't eat because it was loaded with dairy. I knew I had to bring something that I could happily eat as my main dish but that other people could eat as a side dish. I didn't prepare the night before, so I couldn't make anything that required soaking beans. I was in clinic until 1PM, so it had do be something that I could prepare pretty quickly (no slow cooking for this dish).

I decided on stuffed acorn squash. It's available locally and is in season right now. My original plan was to make a filling with lentils and rice plus other things that would make it delicious. I went to the store to pick up the ingredients I didn't have. When I got home, I discovered that I didn't have as many lentils as I needed. Being short on time, I couldn't go back to the store, so I made up the difference with mung beans. Like lentils, mung beans don't require a pre-soak. Having never cooked with mung beans, I had no idea how it would turn out, so I crossed my fingers and went about my business.

My second hiccup was the rice. I threw the rice and water in the rice cooker and didn't think about it until the rice was done. When I opened the cooker, I realized that I made a huge mistake. I used the amount of water needed for white rice, but I was using brown rice. The rice was dry and stiff - not exactly what I was going for. I just composted the rice and made the dish without rice. It meant that I didn't have a complete protein, but I decided one meal without a complete protein wouldn't kill me.

Ultimately, despite my problems in the cooking process, I was very happy with the results. One of my friends said, "This is really healthy isn't it?" during dinner. Yes, it was really healthy. And delicious.

My apologies for the lack of hard figures for the recipe - I just threw things in and called it good.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Lentils

Ingredients:

*2 acorn squash (there is enough filling for 3, and if you add rice, I'm sure you could make 4) cut in half. There were giant acorn squash and smaller acorn squash at Whole Foods - I went with the smaller ones.
*Olive oil
*Salt and pepper

*1 cup lentils (or a combination of lentils and mung beans. I used about 2/3 c lentils and 1/3 c mung beans)
*1 smallish yellow onion (or half a large yellow onion) chopped into very little pieces - not much larger than a lentil
*5 medium carrots peeled and chopped into pieces about the same size as the onion
*2 cloves minced garlic (you can adjust this to your taste)
*1-2 leaves of kale de-ribbed and chopped into small pieces (mine were probably 1.5cm square)
*1 handful (maybe 3/4 cup?) blanched slivered almonds
*2 handful dried sweetened cranberries
*Juice from 1/4 of a medium sized lemon
*fresh rosemary to taste
*salt and pepper to taste

Optional: cooked rice - this would probably be extra amazing with wild rice
I didn't do this, but in the future, I'd probably add about 1-2 tsp olive oil to the lentil mixture

Preheat oven to 375
Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits in the middle. You can save the seeds if you like for roasting
Put face up in a baking dish with ~1 inch water. Coat the top of the squash with olive oil (you could use butter if you prefer), and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake until the flesh is tender when you poke it with a fork. The time will vary depending on how big your squash is. I cooked mine for an hour and 5 minutes. The flesh may be a little brown on the edges.

While the squash is cooking, you can prepare everything else. (I did all of the chopping while the squash was cooking)
Pick through and rinse your lentils and beans. Put in a pot of boiling water and cook until tender. I overcooked mine (they were cooking for 30 minutes) - they were still delicious, but they were a little mushy. Periodically skim off the brown foam that will bubble to the top. Drain and put in a big bowl to mix with the other ingredients

Saute the onions in a large pan with olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots and garlic and saute until the onions are clear and the carrots are tender.
Add the almonds, saute for ~30 seconds.
Add the kale, cover and let everything steam until the kale is bright green and tender ~1.5 min
Add to the lentils
Add cranberries lemon juice, rosemary, salt and pepper and mix.
(If you have cooked rice, you would add it now. This is also where you would add any additional olive oil)

Scoop a heaping amount of the filling into the cavity of your squash, eat, and enjoy

Bean and Yam Slow Cooker Chili

This quarter at school is going to be challenging. Now when I say challenging, I mean that I'm already burned out, and it's only the 2nd week. When things get stressful, I have a tendency to get lots of takeout. Not only is that expensive and unhealthy, it's boring because now that I'm gluten free, my options are seriously limited. Plus, I'm less likely to be eating organic foods if I'm going out. I have decided that I need to become friends with my slow cooker, and I need to make food in large quantities for leftovers.

My first plan was to do chili. I perused the web for a recipe that was vegetarian, tasty looking, used dried beans instead of canned, and was prepared in a slow cooker instead of on the stove. Ultimately I found nothing. Undeterred, I decided to make up my own recipe and pray for the best. I don't like to toot my own horn, but damn, it was goooooood. Plus, I have lots of leftovers!

Here it is - I actually measured things out so that I could write up a real recipe this time!

Bean and Yam Slow Cooker Chili

1 cup dry black beans that have soaked over night
1/2 cup dry adzuki beans (it is not necessary to soak these before cooking)
vegetable oil
1 large red pepper, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium sized tomatoes, diced
1 yam, diced (if it's not organic, peel it first)
1 6oz can tomato paste
1.5 oz dark chocolate (I used Theo 70% because it's delicious, organic, and fair trade)
1.5 tsp salt (you may want to add more - I tend to make things not very salty)
2 tsp chili powder - I used Simply Organic. It contains cloves and coriander, which really contributed to the amazing flavor of this dish.
just under 1/4 tsp cayenne (add more if you like things spicy)
1/2 a cinnamon stick
1.5 cups water
1/2 cup beer - I used Bards gluten free beer. You could probably use any beer you want. Stout is supposed to be amazing in chili.
1 T rice vinegar
~2 inch square of kombu

Saute peppers, onions, garlic, and seasoning (except the cinnamon) in the vegetable oil until the onions are clear

Combine all ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook on high for 6-7 hours. If possible, check on the liquid level periodically so that it doesn't all evaporate. If needed, add a little more water.

Pull out the cinnamon stick. If there's still a big chunk of kombu, pull that out too. Mine seems to have melted into the chili, which is great because seaweed is really good for you!

Yields - several servings. I think I'll get 4-5 meals out of it if I don't share.


In order to make sure you're getting a complete protein, serve with your favorite cornbread.

Thanksgiving and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and you know what that means... FOOD! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry! Delicious. This is the first year I'm both gluten-free and dairy free, so a few changes have to be made to the traditional family feast. Fortunately, my mom is gung ho about making sure I can eat. Today, I'm making vegan garlic mashed potatoes because my mom is completely baffled that one can make mashed potatoes without copious amounts of dairy. I went to the farmers market on Sunday to get 3 lbs of my favorite potato variety (German Butterballs - the only butterballs I'll be eating tomorrow, I'm happy to say) and a spicy garlic variety. Have I mentioned that I love living in a city with year-round farmers markets? Because I do.

Of course, with all the feasting going on, it's important not to lose focus and make sure you're getting healthy, sustainable food. Take Part has an article on 10 Tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving. If you haven't found one already, it's probably too late for a heritage turkey, but it's something to think about for next year.

Although it's so simple, I feel a little silly posting it, here's my recipe for vegan garlic mashed potatoes. Sorry for the lack of hard numbers - I've never measured anything when making it.

Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
Potatoes, washed and chopped into smallish chunks - as much or as little as you want to make. I like the German butterball variety, but you can use any kind you want (I don't like yukon golds because they get really slimy)
Garlic - 1 - 2 bulbs. For a smaller amount of potatoes, use a smaller amount of garlic. Keep in mind that roasting it gives it a milder, sweeter flavor
Olive oil
rice milk, or your favorite milk substitute.
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
optional: herbs to taste - I love fresh minced rosemary, but use your imagination

Preheat oven to 350.

You can prep your garlic in 1 of 2 ways.

Method 1 - take all the cloves off the bulb and peel them
Method 2 (my preferred method because it's way easier) - chop the top of the bulb off, cutting off the top portions of the cloves

wrap the garlic in foil drizzled with olive oil (I like to use just enough to cover the garlic). Put in an oven safe dish (so the oil doesn't spill all over your oven) and bake for 30 minutes or until the cloves are tender and brown.

While the garlic is cooking, boil your potatoes until soft. I like to leave the skin on, but that's a matter of taste. If you are not using organic potatoes, you should always peel them because the skins soak up pesticides. The smaller you've cut the potatoes, the less time they will take to cook. I find that it usually takes 20 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and put in a mixing bowl. Add your roasted garlic (if you want some whole cloves of garlic, reserve some until the end). If you kept it in bulb form, you can squeeze the cloves out - but be careful - it can be really hot! I use a low tech potato masher because I like chunks. You can also use a ricer or egg beater, or even an immersion blender. Add some olive oil and mix. I probably use 1 1/2 Tbs per pound of potatoes, but it's really a matter of taste. Start adding your milk substitute and mix. The trick to getting a great texture is to not be afraid of adding more liquid. Add a bit at a time and mix until you get the desired consistency. I always end up using a lot more than I would have thought necessary. I like to add my seasoning while I'm adding the liquid, but you can probably add it at any point during the process.

I find that this recipe makes potatoes that are perfect and delicious on their own, but of course, you can add gravy, cranberry, and turkey.

Variety:
For an interesting variety that's also a complete protein, mix in cooked quinoa. It gives the potatoes a fun texture and a more complex flavor. I love using rosemary when I add quinoa.

Rosemary Garlic Roasted Veggies

I just signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and picked up my first box on Thursday. It's amazing. I have so much produce, I'm almost overwhelmed, but in a very very good way. I got a small bunch of baby chioggia beets (the kind that's beautifully striped red and white when you cut them open). One of my favorite foods ever is roasted beets, but there just weren't enough to satisfy me, so I decided to make a roasted root veggie medley.

I cut up a couple of carrots, a potato (I wish I knew what variety - I bought it from my school's garden sale and can't remember), a sweet onion, and the beets into bite size chunks. I tossed them in a bowl with garlic-infused olive oil, sea salt, a minced garlic clove, and minced rosemary from my garden. Then I put them on a foil-covered cookie sheet so that they were spread out as evenly as possible (I tried to make sure there was only one layer of veggies) and baked it for 35 minutes at 400 degrees.

Mmmm, it was so delicious. You can, of course, use different veggies, should you so desire. I've found that this recipe works best with other tubers because softer foods tend to overcook. They shrivel up, lose all their moisture, and become tough and unpleasant. Sweet potatoes, turnip, Jerusalem artichoke, and parsnips are all wonderful additions or substitutions. I also like to use purple potatoes to give it some extra color.

If using baby beets, I don't bother to peel them because the skin is tender and delicious (just make sure you wash them well), but I peel bigger beets before cooking.

Homemade Hummus

It's amazing how much time I've spent in the kitchen over the past week. I used to be the sort of person who only went to the kitchen to microwave things.

My acupuncturist told me just over a month ago that she thinks I have a gluten intolerance and needed to cut gluten out of my diet entirely. I gave myself a little time to binge on my favorite gluteny foods (and binge I did, oh my). Last Sunday, I officially started my gluten free diet. Due to my body's utter hatred of dairy, I have cut out all dairy as well - even in chocolate.

Fortunately, there are tons of gluten free (GF) resources out there, so I haven't really been hurting. The best thing about this change is that I have been forced to do more cooking than before. It's possible to get all sorts of pre-made GF foods, but they are usually absurdly expensive. Gluten has a nasty habit of sneaking into all sorts of things (like soy sauce), as does dairy, so it's important to make sure I know every single ingredient that goes into my food. The easiest way of doing that is for me to cook everything.

Hummus is a naturally GF food, and I'll be honest, I don't think they make it with gluten anywhere. Despite the fact that I could just go out to the store and pick up a tub of it, I decided to make my own. My favorite brand runs $5-6, so I figured it would be a fun experiment, and it would save me some money. It turned out amazingly well. In fact, I think it's the most delicious hummus I've ever tasted.

Hummus

1 c dried garbanzo beans (and 1 square Kombu)
1 Tbs tahini (see below for homemade tahini instructions)
1 clove garlic, chopped
lemon juice to taste
salt to taste
olive oil

Soak garbanzo beans overnight
drain beans and cover with fresh water, throw kombu into the pot
Bring to a boil
Reduce to a simmer, and simmer for 30 min - 2 hours until beans are soft
drain beans saving liquid
let cool
put in food processor with a small amount of olive oil, and all other ingredients, and blend
If the mixture is dry, add reserved liquid until it's as moist as you want
If you want a creamier mixture, add olive oil
Blend until desired texture

Seriously, it's super easy. You can add whatever add-ins you want.


Home Made Tahini

Sesame seeds
olive oil (1/4 cup per 1 cup of seeds)

Preheat oven to 350
Put seeds in oven safe container, and put in oven for 5-10 minutes. Mix frequently. Don't let them brown.
Let cool
Put in food processor with oil
Process until desired consistency. I like it to be pretty liquidy, so I processed the heck out of it.

Black Beans and Rice with Kale

I have a confession to make: I don't like leafy greens. When needed, I can choke down some spinach salad or other green, but I won't enjoy it. It's hard to admit this to people who are health conscious. My friends and classmates talk about greens like they're the second coming, and when I say I don't like them, they react like I've uttered the most heinous blasphemy. Unfortunately, greens are extremely good for you and are chock full of vitamins and minerals that your body needs. At times my body even craves them, even though my brain says, "ick." So what's a girl to do when she knows she needs to eat them, but she would really rather eat sawdust?

The answer is remarkably simple: disguise them. Mix them up with other food until you can't taste them any more.

The following recipe is one of my successful attempts to get greens into my diet without offending my poor overly-sensitive taste buds.

Black Beans and Rice with Kale:


2 cups rice uncooked (I like Jasmine for this recipe, but do whatever works for you)
water to cook rice
1 can black beans (or the equivalent in soaked black beans - normally I wouldn't use the canned stuff, but I had a can sitting in my pantry, and I decided to get rid of it)
1/2 large yellow onion chopped
1 clove garlic (or more if you're so inclined) minced
1/2 a bunch of kale (I used 5 or 6 large leaves)
salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
olive oil
approximately 1 tsp lime juice

Cook the rice according to the directions.
Steam the kale for a few minutes until bright green and wilted (my rice cooker has a steam tray, which I like using because all of the vitamins that would normally disappear into the water and get thrown out drip right into the rice)
Chop the cooked kale into small pieces
In a medium sized pot, saute garlic and onion until onion is clear
Add the kale to the pot and saute for a minute or so
Add the black beans (You can add the liquid in the can if so desired. It makes the dish a little mushier, which I like)
Add salt, pepper, cayenne, and lime juice and mix
Once the beans are hot and the mixture is seasoned to your liking, take off the heat and add to the rice.
Thoroughly mix
Enjoy.

Quinoa Salad

My blog seems to have become an impromptu recipe book. The simple fact is that I have been cooking more lately, and I get most of my recipes off the web. I have a lot of cookbooks, but it's so much faster to type "-insert name of dish I want to cook here- recipe" into google, and then go through the available options. I can go through 20 recipes in a few minutes, scanning to see which ones have ingredients that are in my kitchen, and which ones I can adapt to fit what I have. You see, I'm currently very very broke. I'm waiting for a financial aid check to come and rescue me from my lack of funds, but until then, I'm having to be creative with the food I already have.

Although I hate not having money, being forced to cook is kind of enjoyable. I have all sorts of dried goods in my pantry that have been waiting for me to take advantage of them. Yesterday, I made a delicious quinoa salad that took advantage of the meager fresh vegetables I still have. Because quinoa is a complete protien, I didn't have to worry about the fact that I can't afford animal products right now.

Looking online, I discovered that the trick to good quinoa is to soak it for 5 minutes and rinse it before cooking. This removes bitter tasting saponins (which can apparently be used as soap, which may come in handy if you're ever stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with no soap but lots of quinoa). My box of quinoa said that I should use 2 cups of water for 1 cup of dry quinoa, but recipes online indicated that after you soak, you should use 1 1/2 cups of water. They were right. I used 1 1/2 cups, and it was perfect.

So here's the recipe I used. Obviously, you can use all sorts of different veggies, nuts, and dried fruits. This isn't the sort of recipe that you go out and buy ingredients for - it's the sort of recipe you throw whatever you have into.

Susie's Odds and Ends Quinoa Salad

Cook up 1 cup of quinoa after soaking and rinsing.
Once it's cooked, let chill in the refrigerator, or if you don't feel like waiting, you can eat it warm.

Sautee onions - I used three small spring Walla Walla sweet onions
chop up some scallions (I used 2)
thinly slice carrots - I used 1 1/2 small carrots, and I shredded the remaining half

You can, of course, prepare any other veggies you have. You can use them raw or sauteed or steamed, depending on what you have and what you feel like. I think bell peppers, cucumber, zucchini, kale, and even broccoli would be delicious additions.

Mix the veggies into the quinoa

Add a handful of dried fruit. I used cranberries, but you could use raisins, dates, cherries, apricots, or whatever you want.
Add a handful of nuts (you could toast them for extra yumminess). I used cashews, but really, anything would be good.
Add some toasted sesame seeds if you happen to have a jar of toasted sesame seeds sitting in your pantry.

If you have any sitting around, throw in some leftover chicken, pork, fish or tofu or other fake meat product (I suppose you could also add beef if you were so inclined)

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
the juice from half a small lemon
salt and pepper to taste (I used a small amount of salt because I prepared the quinoa with salt, and the cashews were salted, and I used a TON of pepper)
Add any other herbs or spices you feel like using, or just keep it simple.

Mix the dressing into the quinoa, and voila! You have delicious, simple, healthy quinoa salad.

Almost Vegan Banana Bread

I've had bananas in my freezer for a while just waiting to be turned into banana bread. Today, I looked through dozens of banana bread recipes online for one that used honey and whole wheat, and that also didn't use eggs (I'm out and didn't feel like buying any). I found an excellent recipe that not only met my requirements, but it also didn't use dairy. It's a much healthier alternative to regular banana bread using only 3 tablespoons of oil instead of a stick of butter, and it tastes (in my opinion) just as good.

Because the recipe calls for honey, it's not technically vegan, although I know many vegans who still eat honey. To make it a truly vegan recipe, you could substitue agave nectar, or possibly even maple syrup.

Instead of walnuts, which I'm not a fan of, I used a 3oz bar of Theo 70% dark chocolate that I hammered until it broke up into small pieces. The chocolate was a delicious alternative, but next time I think I'll only use 3/4 of a bar. The banana was obscured somewhat by the chocolate. It might also be quite tasty with cacao nibs instead of chocolate.

Of course, everything I used was organic, and the chocolate, honey, and flour were all local. Overall, I'm quite happy with the results, and I'll definitely be making this recipe again.

Vegan Pesto

Tonight, my roommate and I made vegan pesto for dinner. I was a little skeptical. After all, parmesan cheese is one of the key ingredients in pesto. In fact, I hadn't been able to eat pesto in ages because I'm avoiding dairy.

I shouldn't have doubted. The recipe was simple, quick, and amazingly delicious. We roasted about 2 bulbs of garlic with olive oil and salt, and used that instead of the raw garlic. Due to an... incident (my roommate decided that toasted pine nuts would be delicious, and they would have been... if we hadn't left them in the toaster oven until they were charred. Oops), we only had about half the pine nuts called for, so we made up the difference with almonds. The combination was surprisingly delicious. The only thing I would do differently next time is to add a small amount of lemon juice. We ate the sauce on whole wheat spaghetti, and it was an awesome meal.