Fab Food

Today I want to share some really fabulous, easy food I've thrown together recently based upon my home-delivered organics, other plant foods and whatever I happened to be craving. These were quick, so no recipes -- I'll just try to explain what you see. Here, I sauteed organic sliced tomatoes and giant spring onions which almost looked like baby leeks in olive oil, then added chunks of organic straightneck squash and kale, and stirred in a can of chick peas and cooked brown and wild rice and quinoa. I seasoned all with a splash of tamari, a few shakes of turmeric and a tiny pinch of sea salt.

This dish sounds like more trouble than it actually was. In an effort to teach my adult child in college that late night fast food needn't be a gas station burrito, I have found some great healthier convenience foods in the freezer section for him. One of these is cooked rice and grain blends -- 4 minutes in the microwave. I know the microwave is not as healthy as steaming in a pan, but a microwave is what he will choose to use, so I pragmatically choose my battles. I bought some easy frozen cooked grains for myself too. I'm happy to do it the longer/more macrobiotically sound way, but I didn't this time.

Not being a big fan of sweets, I wasn't thrilled when organic sweet potatoes made up the lionshare of my organic boxful each time. I thought I had opted out of this selection, but it turns out there are so many different breeds of sweet potato that don't even sound sweet, so I got some help tweaking my list to my liking. Now that I'll be weeding out the sweets from my crisper, I think I could eat one of these every day. I topped this baked tuber with a lazy version of my creamed kale -- this time I didn't bother with the miso. I just mushed up the beans a little bit, added some water and lots of nutritional yeast. The sweet in this potato was almost eclipsed by the flavorful, savory greens and beans, and served only to round out the flavors. This is now my favorite way to eat a sweet potato!

Finally, you have absolutely seen this sandwich before, but here it is again in all its glory -- the kale sandwich, this time with a nice handful of organic alfalfa sprouts. Toasted Eziekiel bread a generous spread of hummus on each side, and you can see the rest. What could be more simple? What could be more delicious? I have since opted out of the organic sprouts for future deliveries as well, since I do grow my own sprouts!!

There -- for all those who say it's too expensive/difficult to eat healthfully: nonsense! Lighten up and dig in!

Juice!

Thank you, sweet husband! Look at my wonderful Christmas gift from my hubby. I've coveted this Breville juicer since reading Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet. It's hard to jump in with both feet to Kris' plan without the necessary equipment. This thing is so cool. The first juice we made was carrot, celery and apple. The result was shockingly delicious! The next day, with no more celery, I made apple, ginger, carrot and kale. I tried one less apple (3) than the day before (4) and it was still delicious. After two days of juicing, I am actually craving the next juice. Yes, that's right, with a refrigerator full of decadent vegan meal items from our holiday fare, what I really want more than anything else is my next juice! I'm eating the holiday leftovers too, by the way, but am surprised by the swiftness of this new craving. My 14-year-old daughter and her friends giggle over how thrilled I am with this juicer. I'm so glad I can provide entertainment for the next generation!

Today I think I will make cucumber, apple, romaine and kale. Yesterday and the day before I used the only apples I had, which were not organic but well-scrubbed (I know, that's not good enough). Yesterday I picked up some organic apples: gala and granny smith. Obviously these will be nutritionally superior. I'll let you know about any flavor difference I detect.

Here's our Christmas Dinner table -- just for the four of us this time. Our extended family lives around the Washington D.C. area, except for my brother and his family in China and my husband's brother and sisters in Florida, so it was only us this time. I prepared a turkey breast for the omnis, but the rest was vegan: Mashed potatoes with tofutti sour cream, earth balance and fresh Italian parsley, Wynne's favorite pasta salad with sundried tomatoes and chick peas in a balsamic veganaise sauce and freshly sauteed leeks, collard greens and cabbage with a splash of tamari and plenty of earth balance. I love pairing cabbage with collards. Somehow the cabbage holds the flavor of the "butter" better than the other veggies, so it is a perfect foil to the more bitter collards. This was all delicious and we have plenty of leftovers.

Now for some juice!!

This is Vegan Junk Food

If I were Catholic, I guess this would be my confessional. I've veered off track from my usual beans/greens/whole grains formula that normally keeps me in top form and at peace.

I guess it all started with our travels for the wedding, but then, back at home, we've struggled to create a new routine, in this "summer but not really" season. You see, my 17 year old son, who you may remember missed a lot of school last year due to chronic migraines, has luckily received three incompletes out of his 6 junior year classes (instead of failing the classes). This means he has until August 1 to finish the classes. He feels grateful for the extension, as do I, but being close to adulthood, he bristles at any attempt on our parts to create any sort of routine. He wants to do the work when he feels like it. Well, this won't work, so we have negotiated a settlement with him which involves various sleep schedules and accompanying consequences that he may choose from day to day according to how he feels. Recounting the details of the arrangement would be tedious. We figured out he needs at least 4 hours of work per day to meet his deadline. Hans has been very good at following the guidelines thus far, but the variable nature of the arrangement involves a watchful eye by me. I need to get up at night to make sure he is going to bed when he says he is. So I'm tired. And you thought it would get easier once they are older? Nope, just different problems.

Most of us vegans get clear signals from our bodies about what is needed to achieve balance. But if we ignore or misread the signals, they are of no benefit. I have been misreading my tired signals as cravings for carbs. Oh, you're right, I really knew better, I just wanted an excuse for some vegan junk food.

The photo above is a couple of lovely toasted cheese sandwiches (I'm still in my Anglophilia phase from the Royal wedding, so I will call them that instead of the American "grilled cheese"). The bread is a delicious sunflower seed bread and, yes, it is white flour, and I don't know if there are eggs in it or not (confession). The cheese is daiya -- non-dairy, made from tapioca. It is not animal fat but it is still fat. These were delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed the ten minutes it took to consume them, but then felt overstuffed and miserable for an hour.

Here is some more recent vegan junk food in which I've indulged:

Herbed smashed potatoes! Yum -- boiled potatoes, some peeled, some not, mashed with plenty of earth balance and tofutti sour cream, salt, pepper and a big handful of herbs from my garden -- in this case Italian parsley. White carbs again and plenty of vegan fat. The result? Pretty much the same as the toasted cheese -- ten minutes of joy and satiety, followed by an hour of discomfort, with no residual energy.

It occurs to me that my dietary rebellion mirrors my son's responsibility rebellion. But as our pendulums swing, equillibrium is what we ultimately crave. We know what to do to achieve it, and the rewards are much longer lasting.

Comfort Food

 Golly, looking at this photo again, I'm drooling. I am so sorry the leftovers are all gone! Branching out and getting into my "vegan freaky" foods I am drawn to lately, I picked up some brown rice pasta. I hadn't tried it previously because, pre-vegan, I used to love Eziekiel bread but did not care for the Eziekiel pasta. I assumed any non-wheat pasta would be a disappointment. How wrong I was! I don't know if it's because my tastes have changed so much or that I just happen to love brown rice pasta, but I like this so much that I am actually inspired to give the Eziekiel pasta another go to find out.

I love the texture of the rice fusilli. If you try it, don't skip the cold-water rinse. It makes this pasta springy and tender. Interestingly, the cold leftovers from the fridge were inedible to me as the springiness had turned into hard waxiness, but as soon as I warmed it up again I was relieved to find it resumed the desired tenderness.

Assembling cheezy rice fusilli before baking

After preparing this pasta I stirred in about 4 tablespoons of my cashew cheez sauce, a sprig of tarragon and a handful of grape tomatoes, sliced thinly. I then baked it all for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Mmmmm.

To me comfort food is necessarily warm, especially in winter, and needs a little something starchy or at least substantial. Here are a couple more comfort food meals I put together:

This is a potato gratin that started out being a way to use up my cashew sauce. Not that I will be eager to see it go, but I just don't want it to go to waste. Baked, the sauce turned out strange on top, but soft and cheezy between the layers. I actually liked the strange crispy-cheez topping, but would not likely serve it to omnivores. I am always careful not to give them fodder for any ridicule of vegans.

To make this gratin, I sliced a large russet potato very thinly along with a large shallot. I layered the dish thus: one-slice thickness of potato, shallot, a grind of pepper and a couple of spoonfuls of sauce. I repeated until all ingredients were used. The sauce was salty enough that I did not feel the need to add more salt. I baked the dish at 375 for half an hour.

The next dish I want to feature as a comfort food is nothing new, you have seen it on this blog in various guises many times before, but it does comfort me so here it is:

Greens-n-Beans:  A can of canellini beans, rinsed very well and added to a panful of collard leaves and shallot slices that were cooked in olive oil on medium-high heat. The key is to use the highest heat you can without burning and stir, stir stir. It only takes about 3-4 minutes. My favorite part is the little bits that form from the few beans that fall apart and get crispy in the oil. I scrape it all up with wooden spoons. Not a speck gets wasted as I (privately after dinner as I'm loading the dishwasher) sit down and scrape it all out with spoons, fingers, whatever necessary in a bit of a feeding frenzy. Ahhh!

It seems the body is in diversification mode lately, craving a wide variety of plant foods. It seems to me, as in any investment, diversification is good! Invest in your own good health -- keep feeding your body and soul what is luscious and pure -- you're worth it!

My Rosemary-Lavender Oven Fries!+The Best Recipe for Collards I've Found!

Friends, You've gotta try this one! A variation on roasted potatoes I've posted earlier, inspiration for this version came to me as I was walking around my yard, enjoying noticing the little changes that are apparent day by day this time of year.  I had planted a tiny rosemary seedling by our stone path several years ago and it is now somewhat of a fragrant hedge! Since my daughter's friend would be with us for dinner, I was inventing in "kid food mode" translation: potatoes and pasta!

This is the way my stream-of-consciousness-head works:  so then, "potatoes--rosemary?  mmm yeah, very rustic french countryside!" I grabbed a few twigs of rosemary. Then, "french countryside? -- lavender!" -- At this point I was thinking in visuals, gorgeous rolling hills of lavender fields off the terrace of the room my brother and I shared in the south of France when we accompanied our father on one of his business trips oh, so many years ago! (Youth is so wasted on the young, wouldn't I now love another trip like that!) So I walked around to the back patio, where I have a large pot with a lavender bush -- I grabbed a few sprigs of that as well and then went in to open a bottle of Bordeaux. Enough of my dream-sequence -- back to the business at hand! (hope you didn't just catch ADD from reading all that!)

Here's the Recipe:

Rosemary-Lavender Oven Fries
Ingredients:
6 small-medium russet potatoes, cut into wedges (6 wedges per potato)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves pulled off the woody stems
2-3 sprigs fresh lavender, leaves pulled off the woody stems
Freshly ground pepper, several generous grinds
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. It is important that all the herbs are coated in the olive oil, otherwise the flavor will be too "charred". Arrange the wedges on a metal pan -- I put them skin-side down, since a flat surface will  sometimes stick to the pan. Do not use a glass pan -- 450 degrees is too hot even for Pyrex! Put any loose herbs and oil over the top of the potatoes. Roast for 40 minutes or until the potatoes are golden and crispy. 
Serves 4, generously, as a side dish


When these potatoes are roasting the whole house will be enveloped in aromatherapy! The flavor is very subtle and lovely, and the fries are good with, or without organic ketchup! Don't skip eating the herbs -- they fall apart in your mouth!

Along with the potatoes, I also made a main dish for myself, which wound up being another side for all the others -- Hilary's "Sweet Curried Collards" from her amazing blog {Plate+Simple} (my link works from my dashboard, but not from this post so please google {P+S}). Hilary! We are so happy about your book project, but we miss you! Please come back to the blog soon! Seriously, Midlife Vegan readers, you have got to check {Plate+Simple}! Though Hilary is on a hiatus, her old posts are such a joy!

{Plate+Simple}'s collards -- holy, holy garbanzos was this good. This just may be my favorite vegan meal! Everything's in there -- vitamins, minerals, calcium, protein, cancer prevention (turmeric and other spices in the curry). I urge every one of you to go get Hilary's recipe right now and make it.

I've shown my hand today in this post. When I am inspired and creative, I must appear to be a mess. No theme, no plan, no organizational skills, just delicious art. I realize this will rankle the nerves of those of you who have got it all together, but there it is.

Hmmm, the south of France, India . . . no theme. On second thought, here's the theme:  GLOBAL! Truthfully, this was one of the most satisfying, delicious meals I have had. Ironically, the flavors and textures of each dish were perfect compliments. I also had a little green salad on the side in a Peter Rabbit bowl (I love eating out of this relic from my kids' early childhoods!) with goddess dressing and dried cranberries, which went so well with the sweet orange of the collards. I LOVED this meal!  Hope you enjoy it too!