Lo Mein Noodles

I haven't posted anything in a while. I didn't realize it had been so long.

Here we have some nice lo mein noodles. It's just brown rice spaghetti with veggies, cashews and black beans. Cook the veggies in sesame oil and mix some sugar, ginger, corn starch and soy sauce together to make the sauce. Easy peasy.

This is how it is

I went to Arizona to see family. I ate roast and hamburgers. I came back and ate beef stew for Zoe's birthday, because that is what she wanted. So we've decide we are mostly vegetarian. I am not ready to be vegan. That is too much right now. I think I could do all vegetarian but I'm not going to do that yet either. This is what we've agreed upon: We eat vegetarian and vegan at home. When we are with family for dinner we are going to eat what is offered. I still want turkey for Thanksgiving, I still want my chicken salad sandwiches for Christmas. Maybe I will have the pork enchilada at Cost Vida once in a while. We eat a little cheese, eggs and milk. Not as much as before though. Having meat once in a while is certainly better than every day. Call me weak and mean to animals and all that, I don't care. I still enjoy cooking vegetarian and vegan. But I'm not ready for 100%.

"Meat"

A while back I ran into this pin on pinterest for black bean burgers. Here is the recipe:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup quick oats
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix it all up in a food processor. Make into burgers and fry or grill (I use an indoor grill) or however you want to cook a burger.

So I made the burgers and they were good! I think I took a picture but I can't find it. But I was thinking, what else can I do with this recipe?  So I decided to make spaghetti and "meatballs". To do that I followed the recipe and threw in a little onion and Italian seasoning. Instead of "balls" I made bite size pieces and baked them @ 350 for ten minutes, turning them over after 5 minutes. Tasty!

Then I decided to make tacos with them. The same baking process and base recipe except I left out the garlic cloves and pepper, threw in a little minced onion, a dash of garlic powder and some taco seasoning. Also good! I love tacos so this was a pleasant surprise. I used to make chicken tacos a lot. I didn't mind ground beef that much but I never liked to eat it because e coli, of course and it's kind of full of saturated fat. So it was nice to have a taco with something actually, sort of meaty instead of just throwing beans in and calling it good. And all of these recipes are pretty healthy if you don't count the little bit of cholesterol from the one egg. Oh, and spray the pan before you bake them too.

Taco "meat". It looks kind of like no bake cookies, haha.

Potatoes and Eggs

What we have here is a simple meal. I mixed regular potatoes with sweet potatoes (5:1 ratio, about) to make mashed potatoes. I mixed in some garlic powder, milk, spread, and salt. The rest is black beans, spinach and watermelon. Healthy!

I used to make eggs with stuff mixed in for an easy dinner. I'd use about ten eggs and add ham, cheddar and some veggies. This is the healthier version I've come up with: I only used 4 eggs and about five potatoes, half a sweet potato, peppers, olives and mushrooms. To make the potatoes I cut them and boiled them for about 15 minutes. Let them cool and cut into bite size pieces. Mix with a little oil, salt pepper and basil. Bake @ 350 for 30-40 minutes. Flip them halfway through. Much easier than trying to fry in a pan. Scramble the eggs and saute all the veggies and mix it all together.

Creamy Vegetable Chowder

I love making soup! I don't know why. There was a time a few years ago when I had never made homemade soup. I remember being on the committee for Super Saturday, this craft-a-palooza thing for the women at church. I wasn't really even supposed to be there because I was the compassionate service person but somehow that was sort of part of the enrichment committee so the relief society counselor asked me to come, saying I could just help out a little, I didn't really need to do much. Okay, so I came. The woman in charge was young and super high strung. They discussed everyone's responsibilities and then got to the plans for the lunch that would be served. She looked at me and said, Do you want to be in charge of the lunch? It's a really big job! Nothing was more convincing to me, a person who did not relish being in charge of anything for a large group of people, than being asked by this perpetually manic woman if I wanted the job, immediately being followed by it's a big job. There's also this thing at church where every woman is sort of expected to know how to be an event planner. As I wasn't raised in the church I never quite caught on to this concept. Another woman saw the look of terror in my eyes and took mercy on me by volunteering to do the job. I was going to be her helper. I would have had the good sense to be humiliated by the whole situation but as I was just so relieved, it didn't occur to me. I don't know where this is going exactly but the lunch was all about soup. I helped out with any responsibilities the woman in charge would pass my way but I didn't bring a crock pot full of soup because, a) I don't have a crock pot and b) I didn't make homemade soup. But now I do! I love making homemade soup now, especially on a cold autumn day like today.
I'm in the middle of making this and I'm not sure it's going to turn out good or not. I've made this recipe before, actually I did a cooking class with my daughter and her friends a few years back and we made this soup. It was really good but I want to make it healthier so I replaced the chicken broth with veggie broth (I don't know if that is really healthier but it keeps it vegetarian). Then I added white beans for protein and a sweet potato for more nutrition. Okay, I just sampled it. It's pretty good.

Creamy Vegetable Soup
1 1/2 cups dry white beans, sorted, rinsed, cooked
1 small clove garlic, chopped (or use garlic powder of a commensurate amount)
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped carrots
2 tbs smart balance spread ( or oil of your choice, or leave it all out if you want)
5 small- medium potatoes, cut into small pieces
1 small sweet potato, shredded (I used the kind that looks more white not orange, the orange kind may be a yam, I'll never get that straight)
1 cup frozen corn
3 cups skim milk
4 cups vegetable broth (again, I used the Rapunzel granules, 1 heaping tbs mixed with 4 cups water)
2 tbs cornstarch, mixed in part of the cold milk
3 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Saute the garlic, onion, carrots and celery in Smart Balance spread. Add everything else, bring to a boil and turn down to simmer for about 1 hour or until you think it's done.

Soup and Sandwiches!

Saturday we had soup and sandwiches.We have so many tomatoes in our garden so I've been trying to come up with ways to use them. I decided to make some tomato soup. I found a recipe and then adapted it to what I had on hand, adding some lentils for protein. It was a success. I will make this again soon.

Tomato Lentil Soup

3 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes

2 cups hot water

1 tbs vegetable broth granules (I use Rapunzel brand)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Litehouse Freeze-Dried Italian Herb Blend

2/3 c lentils, sorted and rinsed

1 tsp cornstarch mixed in 1/4 c cold water

Put it all in a pot, bring to a boil and reduce to low heat. Cover and cook for about 1/2 hour, stir occasionally. Lentils should be soft.

We also had broiled veggie sandwiches. I love these. We used to have them with provolone cheese but I didn't even miss it. You just broil the mushrooms and green bell peppers and stick the rolls in there until they get toasty. Add some lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and Italian dressing. Messy and delicious!

Lasagna II

I made lasagna again. This stuff is insane! Different ingredients this time around. It turned out great! Now it's not as yummy as traditional lasagna. Cheese guys! Cheese is an amazing thing. But it will kill you if you eat too much. So it doesn't have that stringy, gooey thing going on that cheese brings to lasagna and other things, but it's still good. I'm not going to use any of that fake soy cheese stuff. First, it sounds gross. Maybe it's not, but it sounds nasty. And hello? Processed like crazy. That's not good folks. Now, I'm no stranger to processed food, but that's not what we were going for here. Although, I do use jarred pasta sauce and pre-made polenta (don't tell anyone.)

So here are some nice pics and then the recipe for my Vegan Polenta Lasagna.

Vegan Polenta Lasagna

1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed

Litehouse freeze-dried Italian Herb Blend

garlic powder

2 small or 1 med. zucchini (cubed)

2 large handfuls of fresh spinach

1 large kale leaf

1 large tomato, peeled and chopped

1 24 ounce jar pasta sauce

1 18 ounce package organic polenta, sliced

1 medium sweet potato, boiled and mashed

1 large tomato, thinly sliced

1 small eggplant, peeled and sliced (I didn't peel it but I would next time, it's kind of tough)

2-3 tbs almond meal

1 tbs nutritional yeast

salt

First layer: rinse the garbanzo beans and mash them in a food processor, mix in about 1/2-1 tsp of freeze-dried Italian herbs, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 2-3 tbs water. Spread until smooth in a lightly sprayed (Pam) 9x13 glass casserole dish.

Second layer: mix the zucchini, spinach, kale and tomatoes together with a pinch or two of the freeze dried herbs, spread on top of the garbanzo beans. spread 1/3 to 1/2 of the jar of pasta sauce on top of the veggies.

Third layer: slice the polenta so it is about 1/4 inch thick or a little less. Place polenta slices on top of the sauce in a single, even layer (like in the picture). 

Fourth layer: cube the sweet potato into 1/2-1 inch cubes, boil for about thirty minutes in lightly salted water. Mash with a splash of soy milk (or whatever plain milk you want) and a sprinkle or two of garlic powder. Spread sweet potatoes on top of polenta.

Fifth layer: spread the rest of the pasta sauce (pour in a few tbs of water in the bottom and shake with lid on to get the bit at the bottom) on top of the sweet potatoes. Thinly slice a tomato and place slices on top of the sauce, sprinkle with a little more herbs.

Sixth layer: peel and slice an eggplant and place in rows on top of the tomatoes and sauce.

Mix together the almond meal, nutritional yeast, a couple of sprinkles of salt and 2-3 pinches of garlic powder. Sprinkle on top of the eggplant.

Baked, covered with foil @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes then uncover and bake about 15 more minutes, until hot and bubbly.

*Prep time was about 40 minutes with my 13 year old daughter helping.