The week's menu and other tidbits

I got a subscription to Cuisine at Home recently.  I must tell you...GET THIS.  It is chock full of great recipes, and no fru-fru ads or articles.  Just pure cooking.  I love it.  Anyway, when you subscribe there are some cookbooks you can buy too.    I of course, having major cookbook buying problems, got 4 (they are not that big).   2 were for quick meals and 2 were for light meals.  All are fabulous.  Of course right now as we are doing the plant based diet, there was only 1 or 2 recipes in each that would work for us at this time.  The rest of the recipes were very appealing though and will make an appearance once our experiment is over. 

So I found 3 of my recipes this week from these cookbooks and I am very excited.  The beans and rice recipe I found on vegweb.com.  The hubby wanted some beans and rice and oddly, non of the vegan cookbooks I got had a recipe.   

So this week we will have:
Tuscan-style Quinoa with orange spinach salad
Veggie Noodle bowl (with a peanut sauce)
Mulligatawny Risotto with coconut crusted tofu
and Beans and Rice

If the pictures from the cookbooks do these recipes any justice, we are in for a treat!

I also made Blueberry Bran Muffins (and will make more this weekend) this past week.  They were so good.  I used All-Bran Cereal and Wheat germ for the "bran".  It is funny, because I don't actually like fresh blueberries.  I have issues with the texture, but if you put blueberries in a muffin, they are just wonderful.  

As for the plant based diet, we are doing pretty good.  We tried Mimicreme, which is a almond/cashew creamer for the morning coffee and while the flavor was not bad, it just wasn't right.  It made the coffee look funny too and if I have to close my eyes to drink my "liquid cup of personality", I may as well go back to bed.   So we decided to be mostly plant based and continue with the very small amount of half and half we use.   And though I have not scarfed any meat or eggs this week, I have had some cheese.   My excuse is that I had some left in the house and didn't want to waste it, but really, I just love cheese.  I don't need cow milk, eggs or meat, but cheese makes me happy.  Oh, and I have tried several substitues.  SOY DOES NOT MAKE GOOD CHEESE!!!!!!!!  .  I almost hurled when I tried the parmesan sprinkle substitute.  Almond cheese is no great shakes either.    So I am going to have to cut out cheese all together, or just go light with it.    I think the latter will do.  

Mulligatawny! Soup for you!

AHHHHHH, Mulligatawny, made famous by the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld...."No Soup for you!"   This soup is just wonderful.  It has lentils and garbanzo beans, cumin,cayenne and curry powder, coconut milk, tomatoes and honey and more!   It smacks of comfort with a little bit of heat.  This is a dish that proves you don't need meat to be happy.    The recipe is posted in my facebook notes.     

And yesterday I had a Vegelleta from Jason's Deli.  It is a vegetarian Muffaletta which is my all time favorite sandwich.  I have to say that even without meat, this sandwich is just the tastiest thing on the PLANET.    It made me happy, and that is what food should do.

Afghan Spinach and Tofu

Okay, the name of the recipe may sound kind of odd, but it was really quite delicious!   There was lots of spinach and tofu of course, but there was also cumin, corriander, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, veggie broth and onions  in it too.  All served over brown basmati rice.  Oh and there were TOASTED pine nuts (Mere---aren't you proud?).   I really enjoyed this and I think that this recipe shows that eating disgustingly healthy can actually be a great experience.  I am not sure how legal it is to post recipes with a copyright in a blog, so facebook me or leave a comment if you want the recipe.  

Macaroni and "Cheese" and this week's menu.

So we had Macaroni and "Cheese" for dinner tonight.  The "cheese" sauce was made up of nutritional yeast, curry powder, mustard powder, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic flour and soy  milk.  No cheese.  I cooked the pasta and whipped up the sauce.  You can either just dump the sauce on the pasta and eat it, or you can do that then cook it in the oven with some breadcrumbs on top.  I chose the latter, because I think baked mac and cheese is just better.  I have to say, it really didn't taste all that cheesy, but I did like the flavor.    It was also very easy to make.   

As for this week's menu, it is our first fully vegan dinner plan.  Here goes

Afgan Spinach and Tofu
Red Lentil Bolognese
Muligatawny soup (so super yummy!)
Seitan curry bowl (seitan is wheat gluten dough that functions as a meat sub)
Monk Bowl (this one has tofu too)

These recipes all looked pretty yummy, and I am hoping for the best as we embark on a dairy/meat free spree.    Oh, and we tried Almond based cheese tonight and I think I will be exploring other cheese options.    I love Almond milk, but the cheese didn't do a thing for me.

Kale!

Kale rocks!  It is this thick almost frilly leafy green.  You can do lots with it.  I have a fablous Chickpea, Kale and Italian Sausage recipe, but my lasest discovery is Kale Chips!  You just toss the chopped up Kale with a little olive oil and whatever your favorite seasoning is (I am using buffalo seasoning for the batch I am about to cook) and cook at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until crispy.  I would recommend serving on a plate not in a bowl as it gets mushy all stacked up in the bowl.  This is a tasty and insanely healthy snack.   And it helps you get the veggies you may not otherwise get in a busy day!

Good Morning Muffins and the hunt for new recipes.

So our egg/meat/dairy supplies are begining to run out.  The hubby had to go on a business trip today, so I made him some muffins to take with him.   It was my first stab at a vegan baked good.  As an egg substitute, you can actually blend oh-so-good-for-you  ground flax seeds with water!  Who'd have thought!  The muffins have mollasses, raisins, 3 different types of flour (including soy flour) and the milk was soy milk.  I have to say, the batter really did smell kind of grassy as I was putting them in the oven.  But due to the amazing wonder of baking chemistry these nutritious muffins taste fabulous.  They kind of remind me of hermits.   

I have also been pouring over my many cookbooks on the hunt for good plant based recipes.  For Christmas I got the Bob's Red Mill Cookbook.  I LOVE this cookbook!  Firstly, it addresses how to cook all the amazing whole grain foods that are out there.    It also marks out each Vegan recipe with a big V, so I can peruse a bit easier.  And to be honest, I have yet to try a Bob's Red Mill recipe that didn't taste good.    We will soon beging to test the waters with grains like millet and if I can find it, teff.  I have already played with bulgar wheat, barley and quinoa.  All of them are pretty tasty.     The one grain we have tried and strongly disliked is kasha.  It is part of the buckwheat plant.  When I made this, Anthony said it tasted like sheep or goat.   We will not try that one again....ever. 

Food is kind of like the lottery.   You can't win if you don't play (or try new things).

It isn't always awesome....but then we make up for it the next day.

So last night I made Curried Tofu stuffed acorn squash.    I can't say it was bad, but it was certainly not amazing.  I used to love acorn squash, but I think that is when it is covered with brown sugar and maple syrup.  Stuffed with curried tofu, it was actually a bit bland.   The curried tofu part was pretty tasty though.  I may just use butternut squash if I make it again.  This will be fine, since the hubby doesn't care for acorn squash AT ALL! 

Tonight however is the amazing Spicy Chicken and Rice Flu Chaser Soup.  This is my all time favorite soup, and the last meaty dish I will be making for a while.     It comes from the New England Soup factory cookbook and the recipe is on my facebook page.      It has been it the works for a few hours now and the buzzer just went off for me to dig out the whole chicken and pick the meat off.  The rice is cooking and all will be ready to eat within an hour.  Oh delicious goodness, I can't wait to eat you!

A new leaf, literally

So we watched this documentary this week called Eating.   It was all about how having a plant based diet is better for your body and the earth and all that jazz.  The long and short is that we are going to give it a go.  I have been trying for years to foist vegetarian dishes down my meat loving husbands throat, and I am actually pretty interested in trying to make a go of this.  We work out pretty hard, so I have been trying to figure out how a vegan diet will give us enough protein.   I still have some research to do so I can properly plan a balanced menu.  We also need to finish eating our fridge full of milk and cheese. 

To celebrate our decision, we had dinner at Five Guys Burgers to ah, have one last hurrah.   And I am making my super awesome chicken soup this weekend, because I am not sure how long our culinary expirement will last and want it one more time before soup season ends.   

I did pick up some interesting vegan products today though.  I got soy and almond based cheese.   Almond and soy milk (The hubby says Soymilk tastes like Chlorophyll-this is going to be real interesting folks).  Lots of nuts.  This stuff called Mimicreme, which is a almond/cashew based coffee creamer.   I think Earthfare will be seeing a lot more of the Cassinos, where I hit up the bulk section for lentils, TVP (textured veggie protien) and nutritional yeast.

So we are going to finish what dairy/meat we have and then start a new way of eating.  I found a recipe for tomorrow for Acorn squash stuffed with veggies and tofu.  I love acorn squash, so I am looking forward to it.   

And so we embark on a brave new journey....

Cantonese Chicken and Mushrooms

Wow, we had a great recipe week!  Tonight was Contonese Chicken and Mushrooms.  It was fabulous, and very easy.  The prep took me a while as there was a bit of chopping of the veggies and chicken.  I also could not find baby bok choy (I looked at four stores) and the regular bok choy was kind of limp, so I subbed Napa Cabbage and it worked great.  In fact, I would probably used the napa again as good bok choy is hard to find.   Here is the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/cantonese-chicken-and-mushrooms-recipe/index.html

So, I was pretty excited to try five all new recipes this week and not have one dud.    All were pretty easy to make too.  I don't cook on Wednesdays and Thursdays because of my work schedule, so I am "off" from the kitchen for the next couple days.    Leftovers here we come!!