Scraps and Snippets ~ Quinoa Muffuletta...Fun with Quinoa Part Two

Quinoa and Easter.

I took this cold quinoa muffuletta salad to one location and the ring to the other.

Follow the directions below for the basic quinoa to make either dish. The amount of cooked quinoa will be slightly over 2 cups.
1 Cup quinoa
1/4 Cup dried mushrooms
1/4 Cup diced onion
2 Cloves garlic minced
2 Cups veggie broth

Toss all in a pan and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer and cover and let simmer about 15 minutes.

The ring recipe is here. 

Cold Quinoa Muffuletta Salad

Dressing: 

3 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP olive oil

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon of agave or maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon of yellow or brown spicy mustard

dash salt

Mix well. 

Add the following:

1/2 Cup chopped mushrooms

1/4 to 1/2 Cup chopped green olives

1/4 to 1/2 Cup chopped kalamata olives

1/2 Cup shredded kale

The dressing 
The cooked quinoa mixture

Mix well. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Goulash Tapenade

I hate not knowing what I'm going to make for dinner. 

It's even worse when I'm hungry while thinking about it.

I had half a jar of organic tomato basil spaghetti sauce, half a package of spiral pasta and various assorted bits and pieces of other items. 

Goulash Tapenade

Finely dice 1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic
Finely dice 1/2 Cup of black, green, gourmet olives you have on hand.
Finely dice 1/2 Cup mushrooms
1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 Jar (standard spaghetti sauce jar - 28 ozish)
1/4 Jar of water swished to get all the tomato sauce out

Saute garlic in olive oil until tender. Add mushrooms. Then olives. Finally add spaghetti sauce and water. Simmer until it thickens. About 20 minutes.

Prepare pasta according to directions.

Drain spaghetti and add sauce in bowl and mix well. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Cheez-a-Doodly Night

Brie and spicy jelly cream cheese

Last night was the great Vegan Artisan cheese unveiling at the Vegan Omaha meet up. 

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Lindsey and & have been busy little bees fermenting, curing, blending and shaping various cheeses as featured in Veg News magazine. 

They put together a brie, chevre, buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil kabobs three cream cheeses and a sharp cheddar. 

The sharp cheddar had some firming issues so it became a cheese ball rolled in chopped pecans...and many people's favorite cheese of the night. 

We met at House of Loom and had sandwiches delivered by Block 16 (YUM). But, I think the cheese may have been the hit of the night. 

cheddar cheese ball and chevre

chevre, brie and fruit platter

I don't want to exaggerate and say that the Vegans fell on the cheese and devoured it....but....Lindsey and & have customer one and two locked in for the next batch. A vegetarian (those who eat cheese thank-you-very-much) said these cheeses were some of the best he's eaten. The brie won raves from two former brie fans. And those who went up to the cheese bar went back twice, thrice or embarrassingly uncountable times. The bowls and plates were literally scraped clean. Not licked, that would have been tacky, but scrapped indeed. The only thing left on the plates were two tiny bits of chevre which was hidden under an apple slice, a tiny smear of mozzarella and fruit. In a group of vegans who know that sometimes fruit is the only safe thing on the plate, to leave it behind makes a statement. 

Success and kudos. Deliciously good time had by all.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Sinai Chop Salad

Sinai Chop Salad

Ingredients are cut into bite sized pieces so every bite has a little of everything.

One can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) (If you have dried around, make your own. A can = about 1 and 2/3 cup cooked beans.)

Three heads of Romaine lettuce washed and chopped

Two cucumbers. Remove most of the skin but leave just a bit for color and chop into bite sized pieces.

Four small dill pickles (chopped)

Purple onion ½ to a whole onion, depending on size and your preference (small chopped)

Four to six tomatoes (chopped)

Dressing: (Make this at least the day before so all the flavors marry)

2 TBSP tahini (Sesame seed paste with a very distinct flavor should be in internal section of the store.) (If this scares you, or you don't want a jar of tahini in your fridge you can use hummus)

4 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar (may need more or some water to get to consistency you'd like)

1 teaspoons oregano (dried) or equivalent in fresh

1 teaspoon dill (dried) or equivalent in fresh

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon sea salt.

Toss all the salad ingredients into a big bowl.

Drizzle dressing over salad. Serve with pitas. Feel free to toss chunked falafels into the mix, too.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Raspberry Sugared Pecan Spinach Salad Recipe

Raspberry Sugared Pecan Spinach Salad

Serves 4-8 depending on whether side or meal and how hungry folks are. 

Spinach leaves dusted with finely chopped red onions, sugared pecans and whole raspberries.

To sugar pecans toss about a cup of pecan pieces in a skillet. Heat them until they begin to warm and become fragrant. Toss in 2-3 TBSP of sugar and stir, shake or toss until the sugar coats the pecans. Take off heat and let cool. 

Salad:

4-5 handfuls spinach leaves

1/2 a purple onion fine dice

1 Cup sugared pecans

1 Cup raspberries

Dressing (This is bright, brilliant pink) Makes about 1 1/2 cups. Store leftovers in the fridge.

1 and ½ cups raspberries (frozen or smooshed ones work great!)

1/8 to ¼ cup of lemon juice (to taste)

1 tsp spicy mustard (or to taste)

2 tsp agave syrup (or to taste if you want sweeter, add more)

Whir the dressing ingredients in high speed blender (or food processor) until all incorporated and smooth. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ What? Vegan BBQ Weenies???

This is a crazy easy recipe. 

A few weeks ago I found a recipe for using a carrot as a Vegan hot dog. As crazy as that sounds I realized that the texture of a cooked carrot is somewhat similar to a hot dog, and well, the shape is kind of a new brainer. The "dog" in this recipe would be hidden in the bun and covered with toppings. Dang, not that I really loved hot dogs, and frankly, I have only had one Vegan hot dog, and don't feel the need to do that again. It just wasn't the best. Check out the carrot dog link.

While pondering this wonder,

my mind made a connection. One of our favorite pre-vegan treats, served almost every New Year's Eve with much guilt and heartburn was Beanie Weenies...or Little Smokies. I'd buy those little packages at the grocery store, slather them in various concoctions until we found the perfect brew...grape jelly and mustard and onion soup mix ended up being the wiener...I mean winner. I'd dump it all in a crockpot and simmer it for hours. The little dogs would puff up and brown. And we'd eat em up. 

So if a carrot could fool the mind into believing I was eating a hot dog, could small carrot lengths, drenched in sauce fool me into thinking I was eating Beanie Weenies? Worth a shot. 

I had recently made a big batch of BBQ sauce from the Blissful Bites cookbook  and had purchased ten pounds of organic carrots at Costco two weeks ago. Voila. Good time to experiment. 

I chopped the carrots into mini-carrot size. (Seriously, mini organic carrots would be a breeze.) I dumped them into my small crockpot, drenched them and stirred til all were covered in the homemade BBQ sauce and turned it on low for four hours. I added a bit more BBQ sauce right before serving so they were nice and saucy.

That's it. They are delicious. And unless someone loves the snap of gristle and would miss it, I'm pretty sure no one would really care that these are substitutes for Beanie Weenies. Ya know?

Any BBQ sauce or favorite sauce would work. The Blissful Bites BBQ sauce is tasty. I think I will try to get something going with the mustard/sweet/oniony blend for the next batch. And there will be a next one. Crazy easy. And crazy good.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Asian Quinoa Lettuce Cup Filling or Quinoa Fried "Rice"

Asian Quinoa Lettuce Cup Filling or Quinoa "Fried Rice"

3/4 Cup Organic Quinoa
2 TBSP sesame oil
3 organic celery stalks chopped/diced

3 TBSP slivered almonds
2 TBSP rice vinegar
1 1/2 TBSPs soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Cup veggie broth

In sauce pan toss non-cooked quinoa and almonds and 1 TBSP of sesame oil. Heat until almonds begin to brown and the mixture grows fragrant, stirring frequently. Add celery, broth, garlic powder, vinegar, soy sauce and rest of the oil. Bring to boil. Decrease heat and cover and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.

Serves 2-4 depending on whether it's used as main or side.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Eggplant-Olive Italiano

Brilliant dinner from leftovers. 

Here's what I had.

1/2 bag of rice pasta
14 small medallions of breaded/baked eggplant (breading was flax egg (4 TBSP water, 1 TBSP ground flax)...eggplant slices dipped into flax mixture then dunked into a mixture of 1 tsp garlic powder and 1 Cup bread crumbs and baked.)
4 Chickpea cutlets from Friday night's dinner.

Here's what I did. 

Eggplant-Olive Italiano.

1 TBSP Earth Balance
Diced eggplant (1 or better yet breaded cutlets chopped into 1 inch squares)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cans (or 1 large) diced tomatoes (or if you've got fresh ones, use three.)
8-16 green olives (stuffed is fine) thinly sliced (I used 8 jumbo ones)

Heat Earth Balance until it melts and sizzles. I used pretty high heat, I wanted this stuff to caramelize. Toss in eggplant chunks and garlic. Cook until golden and cooked through, stirring regularly. Toss in olives and mix. Finally, dump in tomatoes and simmer, scraping the pan bottom to get all the good bits incorporated.

Set aside to let the flavors marry. Prepare pasta. Put hot pasta on plates, top with cutlets or skip the cutlets and just drench the pasta with the eggplant mixture.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Kickin Cauliflower and The Art of Hostage Negotiations...

Kickin Cauliflower

I head of cauliflower

1/3 cup peanut or almond butter

1/3 cup hot sauce (I used TJ's)

1/3 cup Tamari (soy sauce)

Mix all three liquids together in a small to medium crock pot. Break the cauliflower up into small pieces and toss them into the sauce and stir until all are coated. Cook on low for 3 hours or so. This is SPICY. 

I was inspired by Peas and Thank You's cauliflower recipe. But lazy...and wanted to use my crockpot. This is so spicy. If you like hot, give it a shot. 

Thursday Citizen's Police Academy...

Hostage negotiation and becoming a police officer.

Our fourth night learning all about law enforcement in our fair city was as fascinating as the rest of them have been. The Lt of the hostage negotiating team explained how to talk people down from some pretty horrifying thought processes. 

There are apparently two major schools of thought on negotiating. The NY style (as in New York) is the talk until the situation is resolved style. Talk. Talk. Talk. The LA style (bet you can figure that one out) is shock and awe. He mentioned a large SWAT truck with a smiley face on the front driving through walls and taking care of the problem. Our city prefers the NY gentle version of handling conflict. I’m thinking talking to a crazed person might be as scary as a monster truck making a drive thru window out of a wall. The LA style might be cheaper, though,  some talk-a-thons take HOURS. Sometimes there are fails, no matter how they try. They lost a negotiating phone to gunshot wound when the would-be suicide decided to go ahead and follow through. The truck route wouldn’t have likely stopped that outcome, either.

Becoming a police officer. Starts out pretty benign. A physical test that borders on ridiculously simple. Our instructor assured every one in the room, including the sixty-year-olds, would be able to pass it. 

The written test with it’s thirteen pages certainly separates the men from the boys and the girls from the women. Pass that and the wannabe gets to run the city’s pet and ramped up version of the physical test. 

Pass that and it’s on to the oral interview. Survive? Moving into the psych evaluation and the lie detector test. When that’s all said and done and the wannabe is still one of the few standing, they get a conditional “offer” then a physical. 

After 14 weeks at the Iowa law enforcement academy they return to do two more weeks of intensive training to be one of our city’s finest. Finally a cop? Sure, after 17 more weeks of Field Training…and a year of probation. No wonder a hundred applications nets two to three keepers.

I’m thinking if most law enforcement agencies require half of what ours does, our police officers really want to make a difference and are well equipped to make our streets safe.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Food Fun

Toad-boy was born on St. Patrick's day. We threw a birthday party Friday night to celebrate the event.

& and I put together the following menu. Of the fourteen in attendance all but the three of us are Vegans. I used my "hamburger crumbles" and vegan garlic mashed potato/cauliflower topping to throw together a shepherd's pie, mixing the "hamburger crumbles" with a bit of flour, a sauteed onion and some vegetable broth. I sprinkled nutritional yeast and paprika on top and it was...okay. A few went back for seconds, but it was just okay.

I made my Asian Cranberry Cabbage Slaw. That one has been tried and true. And added a little St Patrick's Cabbage with a twist.

The biggest, hands down hit of the night wasn't my recipe at all. It will become a favorite in my repertoire. If you love buffalo wings....you gotta make this. SO GOOD. (cauliflower version) My omnivore, buffalo chicken wing fan daughter-in-law loved it. Not just politely liked it, but asked for the recipe. A first since we went Vegan. She's a little trooper and puts up with all our weirdness, but this is a banner moment. She even looked at Mother. (that was the evening's entertainment.) It was a good night. Ha. Ha.

& made chocolate mint cupcakes. I thought they were really tasty, she's not a fan. And then she made a key lime parfait with homemade graham crackers. Again she wasn't a super fan. But the rest of us were impressed. The graham crackers are another keeper though. YUMMY.

Then, after a huge shopping trip to replenish food supplies on Saturday, #3 made her first Vegan cupcakes. So delicious. She did a great job...and has started a Vegan Food board on her Pinterest page.

Before grocery shopping I made a pizza. Spread Hummus (made from Peas and Thank You cookbook) with an addition of cilantro and chiles (YUM)) on the crust, covered that with tomato sauce, spinach, calamata olives and some Daiya. Nice flavor combo.

Overall, a food-fun filled weekend. And yours?

Scraps and Snippets ~ Super Bowl, Smooper Bowl, Bring on the Garlic Birthday Bread...

My mom's birthday landed on Super Bowl Sunday. Happy Birthday again, Mom. So we had a shindig over at my place. Vegan lasagne (which passed with flying colors with the omnivores) a big salad with lots of topping choices, garlic roasted cauliflower, a lemon cake made by my 94 year old grandma and a raspberry lime concoction of a cake made by &.

And bread. Brought by my brother and his girlfriend. Delicious, yummy, really good bread. It wasn't quite at the point where it was ready. Well, let's just say they brought the dough and their toppings and put it together and baked it in my oven. And since it was SO good, and since they left the photocopy of the recipe they used behind. Here is a summation of my thought process. "Recycle recipe in the paper bin? Or.... delicious bread recipe that is Vegan but needs a little tweak or two to make it work with what I have on hand. The recipe is in my hand, and they made it in my oven so I know it's going to work and be exactly the texture I've been looking for in garlic bread, rolls, pizza crust. Oh my."

No contest. I have claimed this sucker as my own. And last night, I made the final tweak, wrote down the exact measurements, and even made half the batch a pizza crust. (More on that later...) (as well as the recipe for the requested "cactus bread" -- an addictive cinnamon sugar bread that could possibly call this recipe "mother".)

Here is my version that is every bit as good as my bro's bread. (And Matt, if you want that recipe back, it has seen better days, just sayin.)

Bread:

3 teaspoons yeast

1 cup warm water (110-115 f)

1 teaspoon sugar

2 TBSP canola or olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour + additional (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup) to knead into dough as needed. (I used mix of unbleached white and whole wheat pastry flour)

Italian Garlic Deliciousness aka Topping:

1 TBSP Earth Balance at room temperature

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP Italian seasonings

3/4 TBSP red wine vinegar

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

pinch of salt

Vegan Mozzarella if you wish (Or Vegan Parmesan) or both.

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water in a medium mixing bowl. Add sugar (you need the sugar to feed the yeast, don't leave it out). Stir and let sit for 5 minutes. (it will bubble and foam like a freaky science experiment.) Add the oil, salt, water and 2 cups of flour. Stir into a soft dough. Dump onto a floured surface, sprinkle more flour on top and knead until smooth and elastic (6 minutes or so). You will need to sprinkle more flour as you knead. Don't over do...a TBSP here and there. Place the dough into a bowl (either greased or floured). Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm spot until doubled. 30-40 minutes.

Grease a pan a 9x9, a pizza stone, or a jelly roll pan. (I used a baking stone and totally recommend the texture, a little spray of cooking oil will help, too. Just a bit.) Preheat oven to 450. Put dough into the middle of the pan. Press dough evenly flat about 1/3-1/2 thick, you don't want it real thin. Will make a round circle that won't stretch all the way to the edge of the pizza stone, or a rectangle about 3/4 the size of a jelly roll pan. Let dough sit for 5 minutes. While it's sitting combine the topping ingredients. Spread on dough. Add cheeses if you are. Bake at 450 18-21 minutes til it's golden brown and gives off a heavenly smell. If you are using cheese and want it bubbly, you could broil it to finish it off. Slice with a pizza cutter into wedges or squares. Serves 4-8 people.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Gravy and Biscuits to Ya.

Biscuits and Gravy

I can't say I'm a big fan of biscuits and gravy. Actually I've always considered them a little peppery and heavy.

Imagine my surprise when I had a sudden urge for biscuits and gravy.

I also had the deep desire to avoid a trip to the grocery store. I hadn't even stepped out the door all day.

So with what I had on hand. I got to work.

I found a biscuit recipe, used Vegan ingredients and even cut it into squares to avoid the rerolling thing. Nice.

Then I got to work on the gravy.

3 TBSP flour

3 TBSP Earth Balance

1/2 Cup fine dice celery

1/2 Cup chopped mushrooms

1/2 Cup crushed cashew bits

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp sage

1/2 tsp salt

Fresh ground pepper, 6-8 cranks.

2 Cups Unflavored non-dairy milk.

Place cashew pieces in milk and let them soak a half hour or so. Melt Earth Balance, toss celery and mushrooms in and cook til tender. Add the flour and make a decent paste, add spices. Then slowly pour in milk and cashews. Stir and simmer until this reaches the consistency you want.

About 3-5 minutes. If it gets too thick, add a bit more milk.

Poor gravy over the biscuits and yum. Yum. Enjoy.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Oriental Lettuce Cups ~ Vegan

I hope you don't mind a recycled picture. : ) We ate these so fast I couldn't get one shot. More than one omnivore at the table said. "I'd be Vegan if I could eat this every day."

These taste a lot like P F Changs lettuce cups. Better, in my opinion, because I have control over my ingredients.

Oriental Lettuce Cups

2 Cups of "Hamburger Crumbles"
3 stalks of celery fine dice.
1/2 small dice onion
1 clove garlic minced
2 teaspoons of sesame seeds
1 tsp garlic powder
1 TBSP sesame oil
4 TBSP soy sauce


Saute onion, garlic and celery in sesame oil until tender. Add "hamburger" crumbles, sesame seeds, garlic powder and soy sauce. Mix well. Scoop a few tablespoons into lettuce "shells." (2 or more Romaine leaves laid in a X if they aren't cuppy enough on their own. Or you could put the "shells" in silicone cupcake holders and press down til they form more of a cuplike shape. The weight of the filling does help with this.)

Scraps and Snippets ~ Pizza Soup

This is my husband's most requested soup. It was chock full of hamburger and pepperoni and covered with melty mozzarella cheese.

However, I think this version was sufficient to satisfy. (I did broil some real deal pepperoni for the omnivores in the house, and there was mozzarella cheese, too. I ate it plain and it tasted....like pizza in a bowl.)

Pizza Soup - Vegan Version

14 oz can/jar of tomato sauce

1 cup chopped peppers (green or mixed)

1 cup diced onions

1 cup mushrooms (you can do whatever veggies you like on your pizza)

1-2 TBSP Earth Balance

2 cans diced tomatoes with juice (14 oz)

1 jar (the standard size, 25 ozs whatever flavor, I used a chunky Vegan version)spaghetti sauce. You could make the equivalent amount of your favorite sauce.

1 and 1/2 cups vegan "hamburger"

1 and 1/2 spaghetti jars of water (or about 38 ounces or 4 and 1/2 cups more or less)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

2 TBSP dried Italian spice mix.

In a pan melt earth balance (or mix of EB and olive oil) saute the onions and peppers til tender, add the mushrooms.

Dump the veggie mix and all the rest into a 4 quart (or bigger) crockpot. Stir well. Simmer for at least six hours (low) so all the flavors marry. If the soup is too thick add more water or another can of tomatoes. It will cook down and thicken. If you want to stay vegan and need cheese go for Daiya. Dipping garlic bread or bread sticks into it is delicious. Rob said this version is as good as the original.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Post Thanksgiving Recipe Round Up

A few more Thanksgiving recipes. As long as I still have a few leftovers, I can keep posting, right? & made a brown rice "stuffing" that cannot be shared with y'all. If I don't watch her and write down what she's doing the "recipe" remains in her brain alone...and not for long. Ha. Ha. But there is one more meal's worth of that bad boy... so one more recipe tomorrow. It will be worth it. Salted Caramel Pecan Fudge Pie....oh, BABY, it's amazing!


Mushroom Sage Gravy

3 TBSP Earth Balance
3 TBSP flour
1 oz package mushrooms (diced)
1/2 med or 1 small onion (small dice)
1 minced clove of garlic
4 Cups vegetable broth
2 tsp dried sage
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
3 TBSP red wine vinegar


Saute onion and garlic in Earth Balance until they are carmelized. Add mushrooms and saute until tender. Add flour. When it is all mixed in and forms a paste add the veggie broth. As sauce thickens and simmers add the sage and thyme. When it gets to the consistency you want taste it. Add the vinegar, taste again, add the salt if needed. Great over potatoes or on the Chick pea cutlets. I spied a few family members drenching turkey, too. Makes about 3 1/2 cups depending on how thick you like it.

Here is a bonus. Vegan Mashed Potatoes

4 Lbs organic potatoes, large dice (leave skin on unless you hate chunky potatoes)
1 head of cauliflower (deflowered, as in cut the good stuff off the stems and get rid of the stems)
4 cloves garlic
4 TBSP vegan cream cheese
3 TBSP Earth Balance
potato water or unflavored/unsweetened non-dairy milk if needed
salt and pepper to taste.


Boil the potato chunks and garlic in a pot large enough to add cauliflower to so all can be covered in water and lidded (a dutch oven worked, a large crockpot will work too, if you are doing this the night before. If you want to use a crockpot, add the cauliflower with the raw potatoes and cook on low overnight). Add cauliflower when potatoes are nearly done. (25 minutes or so into the simmer process.)When everything is tender (45 minutes or so) turn off heat. When cooled enough to handle without danger of scalding, carefully drain, saving a cup or two of potato water. (More if you are making gravy and need it for that.) Mash all -- garlic, potatoes, cauliflower. Mash some more. It won't be smooth with the skins. And that's good. Add the cream cheese and mix it in real well. Taste, add potato water or unsweetened non-dairy milk if needed for consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. When happy with texture and taste, mix one more time and leave three small wells on top of potatoes. Add the 3 TBSP of Earth Balance, one in each well. As people dig in the "butter" will end up on most servings. Feeds at least 15 people unless they are potato freaks. My 3 quart crockpot was nicely full.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Oh Yeah, This One Was Tasty...Asian Cranberry Slaw

On my quest to find delicious and Vegan or Veganable recipes for Thanksgiving I found a braised cabbage recipe that sounded pretty yummy. Except all the flavor came from pepperoni. Uhhh, so I put the idea of a warm cabbage slaw into my think-tank and this is what came out.

Braised Asian Cranberry Slaw.

1 Onion, small dice

2 TBSP sesame oil

1 tsp soy sauce

4 Cups Chopped Cabbage (or approx 1/2 large head cabbage, I used purple)

2 TBSP rice vinegar

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

1 TBSP sesame seeds

1/2 cup craisins

Heat 1 TBSP sesame oil in pan. Get it hot. Toss in onions and cook til browned and aromatic. Add cabbage and cook until it begins to shrink and tenderize, 3-5 minutes add soy sauce and hot pepper flakes. Stir and cook until cabbage is coated. Turn down flame and add sesame seeds, vinegar and last TBSP of sesame oil. Stir well, add craisins, stir again and serve.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Apple Soup and Pepper Yum....

Bizarrely good soup.


Xta emailed me a recipe that she thought sounded like me but pretty much said sounded overall nasty. Ha. Ha. Well, I now know how she feels about me!


Kidding. Of course Xta loves me.


I liked the recipe. But it needed major tweaking. So here is my version.

Harvest Candied/Curried Apple Stew

1 TBSP Coconut Oil

1 Large small dice onion

1 Clove (Large or two medium) minced garlic

4 Large or 5 medium stalks of celery, small dice

2 Apples small dice

4 Cups vegetable juice

2 Cups apple cider or juice

1 TBSP curry powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Sea Salt and pepper to taste.

Melt Coconut oil, saute celery, garlic, onion. When tender and caramelized add the vegetable broth, the apple juice, the apples, curry powder and cinnamon. Simmer for about an hour. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Not too sweet, not too spicy. Refreshing in an oddly delicious way. And easy. Win. Win. Win.


I also made stuffed peppers out of some leftover tidbits. I had about a 1/4 cup of Daiya cheese. Some peppers fresh from the farm, and a mish mash hash of leftover Seitan, garlic, onion and potatoes.

Stuffed Green Peppers

1/2 onion small dice

1 clove garlic minced

2 to 3 baked potatoes small dice

1 cup seitan diced into cubes

2 TBSP Earth Balance

1 cup of cooked lentils

1 cup of brown or black or red rice

6-8 Bell Peppers, cut in half and seeds removed

Melt Earth Balance, toss in the garlic and onions and saute until translucent. Toss in potatoes and brown until some of the potatoes get crispy, finally toss in seitan. Add lentils and rice. Scoop mixture evenly into the pepper halves. Sprinkle Daiya cheese. Bake until pepper is tender, (about 35-40 minutes in a 350 oven).

Scraps and Snippets ~ Garden Garlic Soup

Here's a quick recipe I need to slide in while I actually have Internet. My connection is unstable. Why? I suppose it's because it's MY connection. As my internet waxes and wanes like the moon but with way less predictability, I'm going to take a chance at posting rather than put that energy into throwing my computer, Frisbee style, across the room. 

This is tasty and hearty. And has already been made twice. To raves. Methinks it's a keeper. It really needs only garlic, onion, water, potatoes, corn and salt/pepper. Of course everything we used we got from the Farmer, including the basic recipe.

Garden Garlic Soup

Melt 1 TBSP or so of Earth Balance in large pan. (A Dutch Oven works the best)

Add an entire minced garlic bulb (the whole thing, with all the little cloves, but not the papery stuff around the cloves, those you should put in a bag in the freezer and use when you make your own veggie stock like I plan to do.)

1 Onion, minced

Heat/saute until the onions are translucent. If they get browned that's great. 

Add 1 LB Organic Potatoes, chopped. Peel only if they need peeling. (I'm guessing about 6 biggish potatoes, and a dozen or so small ones.)

Sweet Corn, scraped from about 6 ears. (I used it raw because the starch from the uncooked corn made the soup thicker.)

Any other veggie that tempts you. I chopped up some carrots. Thought about adding green stuff but decided not to, but probably will next time. 

Pour enough water into the pan to cover the veggies. Heat on low for an hour or so. (Or stick it in the oven on low, or in a crock pot for a few hours. Add salt and pepper to your family's liking (or your own). Makes about six decent sized bowls of soup.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Mexican Seven Layer Dip & Jalepeno Poppers

 Vegan Mexican Seven Layer Dip

Minus a layer or two. Wink. Wink.

One can of TJ's black bean refried beans.  (Or homemade version from dried. Rinse, soak and cook Black Beans, then reheat them smashing them and seasoning them with garlic powder, a little salt and olive oil.)

A few TBSPs of Tofutti's Sour Supreme

Salsa Verde (green salsa)

Romaine or other leaf lettuce chopped (several leaves)

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped black olives

Finely chopped onion

Finely chopped yellow, red and/or green pepper. 

Trader Joe's (or equivalent) low salt organic tortilla chips for dipping. (TJ's salt free organic ones are super tasty...no sodium)

I'm not going to give you amounts. You'll have to layer it on to taste. If you don't like onions, olives, etc. leave em off, or go crazy adding even more of one item. Put the black beans in the bottom of a flat bowl/casserole/dish. An 8 x 8 or so. Spread it out. Dollop several blobs of Sour Supreme on the beans and "frost" the beans. The next layer will be the Salsa Verde, do the same thing with dollops and spread over cream. Then top with the chopped lettuce. Next the chopped tomatoes. Ditto onions and black olives. Last will be the colorful peppers. There is enough flavor that you won't miss the cheese. You can warm the beans before adding the other ingredients. But it's really good cold. Serve it with tortilla chips.

The Poppers recipe is HERE.

Notes on the changes we made: 

Bread crumbs were Panko bread crumbs. Highly recommended.

The cheese was Daiya Pepper Jack.

We used Almond Milk

Our eggs were flax eggs. 1 TBSP ground flax seed plus 3 TBSP water for each egg, the recipe calls for 2.

So here is the ingredient list we used. Go to the link for the instructions. Gotta give credit for the recipe.

12 fresh jalapeno peppers
6 oz.   softened Tofutii Better Than Cream Cheese
1 ½ c.  shredded Daiya Pepper Jack cheese (or cheddar)
2-TBSP ground flax seed. PLUS 6 TBSP water (mix & set aside)
2 Tb   unsweetened almond milk
1 c.     panko breadcrumbs
½ c.    flour

Scraps and Snippets ~ Mixed Ethnicity for Dinner? Why Not?

So. We needed dinner. What to do? 

Armed with this recipe (which is two thumbs up with nary a substitution) and a bag of broccoli slaw, we began creating. 

Broccoli Slaw

1 bag broccoli slaw

1 T rice vinegar

1 T sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

2 T sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon sweetener of choice (I used agave)

1 teaspoon dried cilantro

3 T raisins

3 T sunflower seeds

Mix and chill. 

I love the homey touch in the picture, the pen and the back of the bank receipt that I scribbled measurements on. Ha. Ha.