Friday, January 7, 2011

All American Cole Slaw

I cannot believe I have not posted this recipe. I looked all over my own blog, for I was wanting to make it thee other day. And since we are revamping our recipe book here at our house, our papers were a bit scattered. Since I did not find it here, I had no choice but to ruffle through the papers. Luckily for you folks we found it.

This is as All American as you can get. I have always loved cole slaw. But they are either dripping in regular mayonnaise, or made by companies I no longer support. (Case in point, KFC)

When we found this, oh so long ago, we fell in love. The simplicity and thee ability to veganize it was simple stupid.

1&1/2 pounds green cabbage(purple if you feel adventurous)
3 T malt vinegar (I have substituted with rice wine)
1/4 t salt
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
2/3 cup vegan mayonnaise (We use Veganaise)
1-2 t celery seed (Optional, but I find it is must)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar, salt, mayo and celery seed. Set aside. This way it mixes more smoothly into your slaw.

Chop or process your cabbage to the consistency your family likes. Add to a medium/large bowl. Pour your mayo mixture over the slaw. I recommend at least 30 minutes of sitting time, but you can just as easily put it right on the table. Enjoy this, we love it here.

Sweet And Sour Sauce

One of the easiest and quickest ways to get veggies into your system and diet is via a stir fry. We could live on them here, in this house. They are easy to prepare, but do require quite a bit of chopping. Depending on how much you make, you can use the modern conveniences of man and whirl stuff down in a food processor. I still do some chopping thee old fashioned way...by hand. I can see putting a half a green pepper in a chopper.

My daughter usually does the stir fry. However, she was working a bit of a later shift and I was off. And, it being her first day of college, I asked her what she wanted in way of special dinner. Egg rolls she said, not batting an eye. Her and my husband are not vegans. So, when I went to purchase egg roll wrappers I read thee ingredients and I knew then it would just be stir fry for me. And that was not a complaint. I had some vegetables in the fridge already but did pick up a few more. We, in this house, find that any stir fry needs to have cabbage...color irrelevant.

What I was needing, was a stir fry sauce, for my daughter has her stir fry sauce in her head and she was working. So off to VegWeb I go. It takes very little to find recipes there, for they are easily divided into categories. And categories they have. If they don't have it, you don't need it.

I am just about to the point now that I can look at a recipe and see if it is going to work or not. I took the plunge. I will 'NEVER' make another sauce for my Asian food again. This was incredible. And I served it over brown jasmine rice. I can now die a happy woman. Make this and know you have experienced Nirvana.

1T cornstarch
1/3 cup vegan brown sugar
1/2 t freshly grated ginger (either use a microplaner or hand grater)
1 T soy sauce or tamari
1/4 c rice wine vinegar (well worth having in your pantry)
1/4 c veggie broth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mix together the tamari, vinegar and broth. Set aside. Mix separately the brown sugar and cornstarch. Add the corn starch mixture to the liquids. Once mixed thoroughly add the grated ginger.

If you mix this early enough, you can keep stirring it every time you pass the bowl, making sure the sugar is completely dissolved, but not a necessity. Plus the flavors marry. Pour this over the veggies you are cooking up for your stir fry. It will thicken pretty quickly. but that is to be expected.

I am still happy and am looking forward to left-overs today. Eat this, and often.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Bran Muffins

Most folks do not get enough fiber in their diets. And yes, you can buy that powdered crap, but who wants to drink that goo. I say bring on the bran muffins.

Here is where a few folks make a very big mistake. Yes, add fiber to your diet. Yes there is more than one way to add fiber to your diet. Yes, muffins are fun to make and eat, for they are so interchangeable. But, what you have to remember, is that fiber pulls moisture/water from your system. So, if you are not drinking enough water to flush the fiber through your system, you are going to get clogged up. Yeah, no one likes to talk about poo, but it's a fact of life, we all have to go poo. And we all know it is much nicer when we go more easily. So there I said it. Eat more fiber, while drinking enough water to flush fiber and your poo is better.

Now let's make some muffins.

1 & 1/2 cups oat bran
1 & 1/4 cup liquid, (non-dairy milk, water, juice)(I used milk)
1/3 cup liquid sweetener such as agave or maple syrup (adjust to taste)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup flour (preferably a whole grain flour)
1 T baking powder
1/2 cup fruit (optional)
1/2 cup nuts (optional)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Preheat oven to 400.

Mix together the bran, milk, sweetener, and oil. Let stand for a few minutes. Sift in flour and baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Add nuts and fruit.

Spoon into your muffin tins. Oil slightly if not using muffin paper. Bake for 22 minutes or until slightly browned on the top.

These came out tasting great, but just a wee bit dry. But not so much that I would alter the recipe. I might add some applesauce next time to add a bit of moisture to them, but not necessary. Enjoy them. We are.

Lemony Lentil Soup

I love soup. And for many different reasons. First off, I did not find my love for soups until I lived up north way back in the day. Yes, this native Floridian was transplanted to the great white north for about 3 & 1/2 years. And I loved it tremendously.

You have to keep in mind that I only knew of snow and the such through movies and post cards. So for me to see it first hand was just an incredible experience. I think everyone should experience snow. It is truly amazing.

Back to food. Soups. Ahhh, yes, these lovely little concoctions can be a meal in and of themselves. You got that right. If you have enough goodies in them, all you need is a beverage to wash it down and lest we for get thee ever popular bread on the side. Pick a bread...any bread and you are good to go. There may be more than a few who feel that this is just a precursor to an entire meal. Hogwash I say. If you look at some soup recipes, you will see for yourself that that are a meal in a bowl Alllriiight, serve it over some noodles or rice, which ever suits your fancy. But know this. It is not necessary. And as of late, I found this one on VegWeb.

1 cup green or brown lentils (dry)
4-6 cups veggie broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
1/2 t salt
1/2 t curry powder
1 medium onion, about 1/3 cup, finely chopped
olive oil as needed
1/2 - 1 cup brown rice (uncooked)
1 - 2 lemons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pick through lentils, clearing out all debris. Then rinse thoroughly. In a large soup pot, add your broth along with your lentils, bring to a boil.

Lower the heat to a low steady full boil, but not a full rolling boil. Add the bay leaf, oregano, curry powder, pepper, and salt. Cover and cook for 25 minutes.

While the soup is cooking saute the onion and rice in your olive oil. Coat your pan with enough oil that the rive and onion do not stick, but not so much they are swimming in thee oil. About 5-6 minutes. Once your timer has gone off, add your rice/onion mixture and cook for another 20 minutes. Remove bay leaf.

Serve hot and with a dash of lemon. If you think lemon sounds odd in this soup. Put your wrinkled nose aside and trust me on this one. Once you have had this soup, you will not be able to eat it without the lemon. Now go make this and name your first born after me as thanks.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Vegan Potatoe Pancakes

I hope everyone is having a safe and healthy New Year. I know I was in bed early on the eve for I had laryngitis to deal with. Plus, I had a 2 hour drive down to Miami on the 1st. With that said, I have been looking over my recipe box on the VegWeb website and I have been making about one new recipe per week, sometimes more. I feel very good about that. Be honest with yourself when you answer this question.

When was the last time you made a new dish? How long ago was that dish? And what are you doing to find and make new dishes? Well, once you find your answer may I suggest you get off your duffs and start scouring my blog. I have hundreds of recipe all falling into a multitude of categories. And I am adding new categories all the time. that means, to me at least, that I am expanding my cooking realm.

But let's move on to this oh so simple recipe. Many of my recipes are a last minute effort to put something on the table that I have most of the ingredients for. This is one of those that i usually am not without...potatoes. We live on potatoes. So many folks are fearful of carbs. I embrace them. People say we shouldn't eat so many carbs. Well yeah, if you are eating Wonder Bread and McDonald's french fries. But if you consume complex carbs, you are going to be fine. Trust me, I just proved it.

I am not one to step on a scale, and I don't think I have stepped on one in over 1 year. But in order to join the high school kids on the food journal I had to punch in some statistics. My weight being one of them. So, I broke out our homes old scale, stepped on, stepped off, stepped back on, stepped off, then called my son. I asked him to step on so I could see his weight. And sure as all get out his weight was correct. Well that made me tickled pink. that meant that since going vegan I had dropped 10 pounds without even trying. So there you have it, from a woman who LIVES on carbs, you can still take off the weight and have your carbs. If anyone tells you otherwise, they are bold face lying to you.

2 egg replacers (4 T water, 4 t baking powder, and 2 T olive oil)
2 T flour
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground pepper
4 potatoes, peeled and shredded
3 t onion powder or 1/2 onion minced
1/4 olive oil
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mix together the egg replacer in the order it is given, taking care to let the baking powder and water stop fizzing, then slowly add your oil. then set aside.

In a large bowl, add the 'eggs', flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Add the onion powder or your onion, mix until combined. Add your potatoes.

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Carefully drop about tablespoon size batter balls into the grease. some folks suggest to flatten your mixture, but I did not feel the need to do this. Turn once bottom side has browned, making sure not to let them burn.

these were great, simple and quick. what more could you ask for? Nothing!!