My crazy I eat that?

Jeff's veggie burgers

2011-07-04T12:27:00.001-07:00

1 can rinsed and drained kidney beans; or 1.5 cups cooked
1 cup cooked brown rice, I used brown jasmine
1 cup UN-cooked rolled oats
1 cup thawed mixed veggies; my addition (corn, carrots, peas, green beans.
2-3 T either tomato sauce or salsa, I use salsa
Spices of your choice; I now use Weber's gourmet burger, about a tablespoon.
Hand mash the beans, add the rest of the ingredients mix well, shape into patties. These work great on the foreman grill, dry frying in a pan or grilling on a bbq. They are also awesome cold on a salad the next day. They make about 4-6 depending on how big you make them. Oh and they are extremely kid friendly:O)
Don't try any other kind of bean. Jeff painstakingly tried all others and he said they just don't work like the kidney beans.

Roasted Veggie Salad

2011-05-15T22:08:00.001-07:00

This is a salad I took for our Mother's Day BBQ. Everyone raved about it. When people don't know tofu is in something, they'll eat it all up. Don't tell. The dressing for this is better if you make it ahead, more than an hour, to let the flavors fully combine. If you taste it early, it tastes powdery.

This colorful salad features roasted and raw vegetables, beans, and a creamy dressing made with fresh dill, green onions and tofu. This salad is great for parties and potlucks.

Dressing:

½ cup soft-medium tofu
3 tablespoons lemon juice
½ cup non-dairy milk
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ avocado, diced
2 green onions, chopped
2-3 tablespoons fresh dill

Vegetables:

6 small golden beets, washed, with skins on
1 small-medium red onion, diced
1 green and 1 yellow zucchini, diced
1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 ½ avocado, diced
1 can salt-free Cannellini beans

Dressing: Combine the tofu, lemon juice, non-dairy milk, garlic powder, and avocado in a blender until smooth. Add in the chopped green onion and dill and blend for just a couple of seconds more (so little green pieces of dill and onion are still visible). Set aside. You can also make this ahead of time (or the night before) so that the flavors blend more thoroughly.

Roasting the vegetables: Preheat your oven to 375. Place the whole beets on a non-stick baking pan (with sides) and roast uncovered for 30 minutes. While the beets are roasting, dice the onion, zucchini, and bell pepper. Remove the pan, turn the beets over, and add the diced vegetables to the pan and roast everything for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the diced vegetables start to brown slightly at their tips, and a knife slides into the beets easily. While the vegetables are finishing roasting, place the tomatoes, avocado and beans into a large mixing bowl. Cool the beets a little before peeling and dicing them.

Assembling the salad: Add the roasted vegetables to the bowl of tomatoes, avocado and beans, and toss with about half the dressing (add more dressing to your taste). Serve warm or cold.

Preparation: 20 minutes; cooking time: 50 minutes; serves: 6

Notes: You can use red beets, but they will color your salad red. / If you use larger beets, they will need longer cooking time. / This salad may also be made with all the same salad ingredients, but raw (grate the peeled beets and zucchini, and dice the onion and bell pepper). / Use any leftover dressing on green salads or baked potatoes, or as a vegetable dip.

Thought I'd throw in a close up of it.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2010nl/oct/recipes.htm

Raw Apple Crumble

2011-05-15T21:58:00.001-07:00

This is one of the dishes I took for our Mother's day BBQ. Everyone loved it.

This is a great dessert because it’s easier and faster to make than an apple pie or crisp, and requires no baking. Instead of refined sugars, this recipe uses dates for sweetness, and lemon juice and nutmeg for that extra zing.

Topping:

1 cup walnuts
4 pitted dates

Apple filling:

3 apples, peeled, sliced and large diced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 apples, peeled, sliced and large diced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 pitted Medjool dates
¼ cup raisins
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Topping: Blend the walnuts and 4 dates in a food processor until the texture is a little smaller than Grape Nuts. Spoon into a small bowl and set aside.

Filling: Toss the 3 peeled, sliced and diced apples with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and set aside in a bowl. Next, in the food processor, blend the remaining 2 apples, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 6 pitted dates, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Toss this mixture with the sliced apples.

Serve: Place one-fourth of the apple filling into a small dessert dish and sprinkle with date-nut topping.

I doubled the recipe for everything, except for where the 3 apples were called for, I used 8 apples instead of 6. I also didnt use nutmeg as I don't care for it. I used allspice in it's place. I also didn't use medjool dates. There were two kinds at Costco and I didn't know the difference except for cost, so I just got the regular kind.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2010nl/oct/recipes.htm

Potato soup

2011-05-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

This is my favourite soup. We make it often. The amount I am listing makes alot of soup. You can half the recipe to make a smaller amount. This is also a very kid friendly soup. I found that my kids do better when soups are blended than with big chunks.

6 large russet potatoes, cooked cubed small
3 small red potatoes, cooked, diced small
1 large yellow onion
1 cup unsweetened soy milk or other milk substitute.
2.5 cups water
4 T nutritional yeast
2 t rosemary
1/8 t white pepper
1/4-1/2 t salt, if desired.

Water saute onion in large pot. While onion is cooking, peel and cube the russets and dice the reds. I peel my reds as the skins to me are bitter, set the reds aside for later.

Once the onion is cooked, add the potatoes, nutritional yeast, rosemary, white pepper, and the water and milk. Let simmer for about 5 minutes or so.

Using an immersion blender (can put in a regular one if you don't have an immersion blender) blend until the potato isn't chunky. Add more water or milk if needed. Once the desired consistency is reached, add the diced red potatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes. If the soup is too watery, allowing it to simmer will make it thicker. Frozen corn can also be added if desired.

I am not sure where the original recipe came from as we have been making it for so long now, but it isn't the same anymore. I know it called for veggie broth, but we just stopped using it.

Oh, and go easy on the white pepper. It will make it very spicy and strong. I also add extra nutritional yeast depending on strong I want it.

Yam and black bean chili

2011-05-15T19:59:00.001-07:00

With it being winter again, chili seemed in order, but I didn't want my normal kidney bean chili. I've heard for years about people using yams or sweet potatoes in their chili, so looked around at several recipes and decided to just go freehand with what I had on hand.

1 large yellow onion, diced
1 each yellow, red, and orange sweet pepper, chopped
1 large yam or sweet potato, diced
4 large cloves of garlic, grated
1 can of chopped tomatoes
2 cans of black beans or 3 cups cooked, rinsed and drained
2 cups of water
2-3 T chili powder
2 t cumin
1 t cayenne pepper (or desired amount)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup frozen corn

Take the first 4 ingredients and water saute for 10 minutes in a large pot. Add the tomatoes, water, and spices except for the cilantro and simmer for about 20 or until the yams are cooked. Once the yams are cooked, add the beans, corn and cilantro and simmer for about 5-10 mins for all the flavors to blend.

Very good all by itself, but you can put over a baked potato or a bowl of rice. The combination of sweet from the yams and the spicy from the cayenne pepper is one of my favourite flavors.

PS, I need to upload the picture to my folder. I took it then posted it on facebook and I can't make it larger, but I can from the photo folder. I was trying to avoid uploading more pics. Itunes freezes on me and it bugs me. But I will fix the photo.

Revised Tacoless Taco Salad

2011-05-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

I have no picture of this, because my bowl isn't see through glass, but I revised my taco salad a bit.

One of the things about a restaurant taco salad that I really like, besides the shell of course, is the refried beans.

So today I took my crockpot beans, put them in a large bowl and heated through. Then mashed with a fork to make them "refried" like. Then layered the ingredients on top.

I had the beans on the bottom, then layered shredded lettuce, then hot rice, then sprinkled salsa on that, then took a large Roma tomato and a 1/4 of an avocado on that. Squeezed a lime and called it lunch!!

There is something so calming about warm mashed beans all over lettuce, I cant explain it. And while I like the original, I really love this more:O)

And I can now say, after having eaten only half of this salad, my eyes were WAY bigger then my stomach!!!

Work in progress

2011-02-23T09:57:00.001-08:00

I am currently working on this blog and will be adding recipes soon. I have a super good Mexican rice that is so close to what you get in a restaurant it isn't funny. I also have a couple of others. My problem is finding the time to upload the pictures and write out the recipes. But I will, very soon:O)

Zucchini steel cut oats

2010-11-11T09:58:00.001-08:00

Before adding the "goodies". You can see the zucchini in there. Sorry it is blury.

After adding the "goodies". Notice you can no longer really see the zucchini. This particular photo has 1/4 c bluberries and about 6 cherries.

Servings 4: about 1 cup each

Zuchini steel oats

1 large zucchini, grated
3 cups water
3/4 c steel cut oats
1 apple chopped
1 t cinnamon

Start water, zucchini, and apple to boil. Once water is boiling add cinnamon and oats. Return to boil. Cover and turn on low for about 25 mins.

From here I can add frozen berries or cherries or pumpkin puree. Depending on what I make, I add either almond extract (for cherries like cherry pie) or vanilla extract.

The zucchini adds volume for not alot of calories. And mostly you cant taste the zucchini, but for me it does lend a flavor in the background, so I will add 1 t of brown sugar that fully hides it. Enjoy.

Three sisters LCD stew

2010-09-09T16:11:00.001-07:00

I call this three sisters because it is off of the concept of the three main AG crops grown by some Native Americans, corn (maize), beans, and squash. I also call this three sisters, because I have three girls and they are sisters, korny I know. I call it LCD because that stands for Low Calorie Density, which seems like a bright idea. Thank you who ever came up with "it is a bright idea". Sorry I don't remember where I read it now. This is also my first "warm dish" of the season. Normally I make chili, but this sounded better. The winter squash makes this sweet. It wont last long in my house.

1 winter squash, I used butternut, peeled and cubed
3 large carrots, halved and sliced
1 large red potato (optional, used because it would of gone bad)
3 cups chopped green cabbage
2 zucchini, I used one green and one grey, but any will be fine
1 can or 1.5 cups garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1.5 cups frozen corn, you can use fresh if you have it.
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1/2 t basil
1/2 T dried sage
1/5 t thyme
Couple of sprinkles Mrs. Dash extra spicy herb blend (optional)
2-3 cups water

Please adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Cook first three ingredients in about 1 cup of water, about 20 minutes. While those are cooking, prep everything else. Add other ingredients and simmer on low covered, about an hour. This can also be done in a crock pot if you wish. Just place all ingredients and cook on low, maybe 6-8 hours. Good for having ready when one gets home from work.

Curry caramelized potatoes w/ veggies

2010-08-28T12:00:00.001-07:00

This really has no recipe, so there are no exact measurements of everything I used. I "fried" everything in veggie broth until they caramelized then deglazed the pan with a splash of veggie broth a few times. Feel free to use whatever veggie combo you like. I also did both of these in separate pans, the veggies used no spices to cook, just the flavoring from the cooking. I have found in the past, if I try to cook all these together the potatoes get really mushy from the water content in the veggies.

1 red potato
1 russet potato
3/4 medium onion, chopped
1/4 each red and yellow bell peppers
a few shakes of curry powder
a shake of cayenne pepper
Put enough veggie broth in the pan to cover bottom, put in all the ingredients, cover and cook about 15 mins on med low. After 15 mins check, if they are stuck to the bottom of the pan, deglaze with a splash of veggie broth and cook 10 mins more. Then deglaze again leaving the lid off for about 5 mins.

1 each green, yellow zucchini, chopped
1 gray zucchini, chopped
3-4 cups broccoli florets
veggie broth
Again put just enough broth to cover pan bottom, put in veggies, cover and leave about 7 mins, on medium. Stir, if sticking deglaze a bit with veggie broth and cover, cooking for 3-6 mins or until done to you likeness. deglaze if needed again and leave cover off about 1 min. Salt and pepper if desired.

Both components of the dish were very sweet due to the caramelization. This made enough for 2 people depending on how hungry one is. It was only me and I had 3/4 of what I made. But I have a snack for later. This is of course a good example of calorie density, being I have much more low calorie green and yellow veggies compared to the higher calorie potatoes. The veggies add bulk and fullness thus leaving less room for higher calorie food.

Low-fat vegan Mexican-style rice

2010-08-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

This accompanies the slowcooked refried beans I posted yesterday. This particular batch is a result of an oops. It calls for a dash of liquid smoke and instead it got a dump. So we just added more rice.

1 medium onion, chopped
1 large each yellow and red pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
2 cups cooked rice , cook the rice in the liquid from the beans
1 t each chili powder and cumin (adjust for taste)
1/2 t each basil, oregano, marjoram, sage
1/4 t allspice
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 small can sliced black olives (optional)
1 small can diced green chilies
few shakes of Tabasco type hot sauce, or to your liking
1 T lime juice
DASH of mesquite liquid smoke
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the rice in the reserved bean liquid for the amount of time listed for the rice. Just use as you would water, you could of course use water or veggie broth if you wish. Meanwhile prep the rest of the veggies, spices and such. When the rice is almost done, start cooking the first 3 ingredients in a small amount of water. Mix in the cooked rice and all the dry spices, the next three ingredient lines, mix very well. Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Cook for about 5 mins.

Because of our oops, we added about 2 cups more rice to even out the dump of liquid smoke. By using the reserved liquid from the beans this added a very rich flavor to the rice. Because this was my husband's recipe, we used white rice. He is not fond of brown rice at all, while I am not fond of white. I think it smells and tastes like Elmer's glue. This liquid hid the glue like taste. I think it would add to the lovely flavor of brown rice quite nicely.

Edited to add: I wanted to make a notation that if you use brown rice with the cooking liquid from the beans, it will caramelize on the bottom of the pan. We just made a new batch of rice, 1/2 white and 1/2 brown.

Roasted red pepper artichoke heart dip

2010-08-25T20:09:00.001-07:00

I love dips. Who doesn't. Now that I realize that I like red peppers, I needed to find a couple of dips that had them in it. This one fits the bill perfectly. It is low calorie and of course oil free. The original recipe calls for tahini, which I still list, but I don't put it in. The recipe originates from Susan V. She has some excellent recipes on her site. Every one we have tried we have loved. Her site is
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

1 14 ounce can of water packed artichoke hearts
1/2 cup roasted red peppers (from a jar)
1-2 cloves garlic, I grate mine (these can get very strong and hot as they sit)
1 T tahini, optional (I didn't add)
1/8-1/4 white pepper, try 1/8 first it makes it hot too
salt to taste

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth or desired consistency. I left mine a little course as I like it a little more intact. Serve as a dip for fresh veggies like carrots, peppers, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, broccoli, cut cucumber, or stuff into a pita with crisp lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.

The picture above was a snack. I was quite full for some time after eating this.

Slow cooked refried beans

2010-08-25T13:16:00.001-07:00

Slow-cooked refried beans. These are the best refried beans I have eaten. I will never be able to eat refried beans from a can again. If you don't have a slow-cooker (crock-pot) you can simmer them on the stove-top and lessen the time.

1 onion, peeled and halved
3 cup dry pinto beans, I recommend soaking overnight
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 T minced garlic
2 t salt (optional)
1 t fresh ground pepper
1/2 t ground cumin
8-9 cups of water

Place everything in the pot, spices and onion first. Cook on high for 8 hours. Add more water if needed, I found it was perfect.
Once the beans are cooked, strain them over a large bowl to reserve the liquid. Discard the onions, although they are very tasty to snack on. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding liquid to attain the desired consistency.

Keep the liquid. You can use it to cook your rice. Save the rest, you can also use it to help soften you beans when reheating.

Tacoless taco salad

2010-08-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

As the name implies, this is a taco salad without the deep fried, fat filled taco shell. Equally as delicious as the restaurant version, infinitely healthier. And yes, that is a bite missing. I forgot I was taking a picture, I was a little excited to taste this. This is highly filling.

Tacoless taco salad

1/2 refried beans, the ones I used are homemade, will post recipe
3-5 cups lettuce, I used romaine and iceberg
1 cup rice, I used homemade mexican rice, will post recipe
1/4 cup Verde sauce
1/4 salsa, which ever you choose
guacamole (optional)
nutrtional yeast flakes (optional)

I spread refried beans on bottom of the plate. Layer the lettuce on top of beans. Cover with rice. Then add Verde sauce and salsa. Place a dollop of guacamole on the side of your plate.

You could also use whole beans and place them on top of the rice and lettuce. I have taken chickpeas and mashed lightly and mixed Tabasco type sauce, that is a good combo.

Oil free vegan verde sauce

2010-08-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Verde Sauce

4 poblano chili peppers
16 reserved cooked tomatillos (instructions below)
1.5 cups veggie broth, divided
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 romaine lettuce leaves, torn
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 t salt (optional)

Removed skins from tomatillos and wash off sticky slime. Drop into boiling water and boil for about 10-15 mins. Let cool and remove the stem area.

Meanwhile, broil peppers on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, 5 inches from heat about 5 mins per side or until peppers look blistered.
Place broiled peppers in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag; seal bag and let peppers stand about 10 mins to loosen skin. Peel peppers; remove and discard seeds.

Process all ingredients, except 1/2 cup of the broth, in a food processor or blender until mixture is smooth. Transfer mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat 5 mins. Slowly stir in remaining 1/2 cup veggie broth and cook about 10 minutes or until sauce is thickened.

yields about 3 cups. Freezes well.

Steel cut oats w/zucchini and fruit

2010-08-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

Steel cut oats w/zucchini and fruit

1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups water
1 each yellow/green zucchini, finely grated
1t ground cinnamon
brown sugar, optional

Finely grate zucchini and add to the water. Boil for 2 mins. Add the oats and simmer on low for about 25-30 mins. Add fruit, I used fresh cherries and blueberries but you can add whatever you wish. Sprinkle with brown sugar if you like. This made enough for about 3-4 days worth of breakfasts.

Adding the zukes adds volume for hardly any calories, thus lowering the calorie density of the meal and helps you feel fuller faster and longer. Plus it helps get in some green and yellow veggies for the day. You cannot taste them once they cook down, as you can tell you cant see them too well either.

Do I really eat that?

2010-08-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

This will be home to the pictures I take of food I eat. I am not a professional, so my pictures wont look shiny and perfect. But I will do my best to take good ones. Some will be super simple like a baked potatoes and veggies and some will be full recipes. I will list ingredients and instructions with my pictures.

These foods/meals will also be free of oil including olive oil, vegetable oil, and margarines and butters. They will also be free from animal products like dairy, meat and eggs and of course fish. I hope you try them and enjoy them as much as I do.

Enjoy.