Crockpot Cooking

Here are simple instructions for making any soup recipe easily in the crockpot.


Take any soup recipe that sounds good to you and take it apart like this:

Get your seasoning vegetables out (onions, garlic, grated carrots, bell peppers, and the like) and saute them in water or 1 tsp olive oil. Let them saute on medium while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

Start with the bean/lentil/pea you like, either dried or canned. Add water as directed for the dried beans/lentils. If using canned, just add 2-3 cups water or veggie broth.

Then add vegetables. You can chop your own or grab bags of frozen mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, sno peas) or the like. We love fresh carrots grated into it.

Next, we usually add a starchy vegetable like frozen sweet corn (organic only, no sugar or salt added) or diced sweet potatoes since the kids need/like them. You can also use quinoa or wild rice, but these are usually better cooked separately and thrown in at the end.

Put your seasoning vegetables in (the onion, garlic, bell peppers, etc) after sauteing.

Then press start! You'll set it high or low depending on if you are using dried beans (takes the longest to cook) or dried lentils (less time than beans) or already cooked/canned beans (very short).

Last, I always season with pepper, garlic powder, cayenne and such AFTER the soup is finished cooking. For one, the saltier seasonings can interfere with the dried beans cooking and second, it's hard to know how much it needs until you can taste it.

For creamy type soups, I sometimes remove 2 cups of the soup, let it cool a bit, and blend it smooth (or you can use an immersion blender, but I don't have one yet). You can also add a bit of unsweetened almond milk or even 1/4 cup cashew butter to the blend, and pour it back into the soup.
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Step 2, Shopping list, This week

Produce:

Romaine lettuce
iceburg lettuce
mixed greens
spinach
kale/collards

tomatoes
avocados
onions
bell peppers
chile or jalapenos
garlic
cilantro

broccoli
cauliflower
sno peas / sugar snap peas
red cabbage
cucumbers
mushrooms

fruit (check fresh, sale)
bananas
apples


Health food section:

raw cashews
raw walnuts/seeds
chia seeds (have)
nutritional yeast (have)
dried fruit & raisins

Dairy:

skim mozz cheese for Ry
eggs for Ry
almond milk

Other:

oatmeal
whole wheat pasta
tomato sauce
corn tortillas
whole wheat bread
dried beans/lentils
brown rice
peanut butter
honey
whole wheat tortillas

Frozen:
berries
broccoli
corn
cauliflower
green beans
stir fry veggies
greens

Step 1, Meals, this week

Breakfasts:

oatmeal with apples, walnuts, cinnamon, raisins
fruit salad with walnuts
soaked oatmeal & chia seeds with raisins, dried pineapple


Lunches:

mixed greens salad, topped with confetti salad, with Casinera's Caesar dressing
   and a green smoothie
whole wheat spaghetti with a green smoothie
raw, chopped vegetables (cabbage, carrots, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, sno peas, etc)


Snacks:

a nut butter on whole wheat bread with honey (DS, 8 yrs old)
fruit / fruit salad / bananas
sunflower seeds
banana bread (or health nut cookies)


Dinners:

black bean chili with brown rice
soup - pintos, mushrooms, vegetables (leeks, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, etc)
taco salad
vegan Pho (or seafood pho)

Cooking ahead, part 2

We're packing for our cruise, so I wanted to finish up cooking tonight, clean the kitchen, and not have to mess it up again before we leave.   It took 2-3 hours but that included a lot of wait time that I spent doing other things, non-kitchen related. 


We made:

Lunches:
Salad greens, chopped
Salad dressing
Confetti salad

Thursday night:
Vegetable fajitas

Friday night:
Mushroom/bean/potato burgers
Mashed cauliflower
Steamed greens

Saturday night:
Rice bowl  (will buy additional mushrooms while we're out to top these with and will serve over steamed greens)


Mushroom Bean Potato burgers

Recipe here:  http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/10/potato-mushroom-burgers.html

Omitted the chia eggs this time,  added sauteed onion slices, subbed pinto beans for black




Mashed cauliflower:

cooked cauliflower, 1 pound
1 cup white beans (we used pintos so ours is darker)
1 large onion and 4 garlic cloves, water sauteed
Seasonings, to taste

Combine all in food processor and process smooth







Vegetable fajitas

Recipe here:   http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/08/fajitas-veggie-style.html

Added chopped greens




Rice Bowl

onion
garlic
mushrooms
broccoli slaw
cooked brown rice
broccoli, frozen bag
greens, frozen bag or fresh
more mushrooms


Water saute 1/2 large onion, 3 garlic cloves, 1/2 pound mushrooms, and 1/2 bag broccoli/carrot/red cabbage coleslaw.    When it starts to get soft, add 1-2 cups cooked brown rice.  

Top with steamed broccoli & greens and another 1/2 pound mushrooms. 

100 calorie individually packaged snacks

WW Recipe Harvest Stuffed Squash

This is so beautiful - just how healthy food should look. 




I have adapted the recipe from a WW magazine recipe.  Once I make it myself, I will post the pictures.   


Vegetable broth, homemade or your favorite healthy broth -  2-1/2 cups
Wild rice or black rice -  1/2 cup
Other grain - Whole Barley, Quinoa, etc. - 1/2 cup
Corn, organic - 1/2 cup

Onion, large, diced
Garlic, 2 cloves, diced
Fennel bulb, diced   (or celery or bok choy)
Carrots, 3 very large or equivalent, shredded
Mushrooms, your favorite variety, 1 cup diced

Cranberries, fresh or dried, unsweetened - 1/2 cup
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds or walnuts (chopped)

• Cut out a cap around the top of the squash.  Scoop out the seeds and strings.  
• Dice the vegetables and water saute.   
• Cook the grains you are using in the vegetable broth. 
• Transfer grains and vegetables to a large bowl, add mushrooms, cranberries, and seeds. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours.  
• Cut into wedges to serve

 

Cowboy Stew

This is our nute version of an old family favorite from the camp. 


Ingredients:

Beans - your choice, one or two or more kinds, cooked as directed (or canned, rinsed)

1 bag frozen organic corn

1 large potato (sweet or white), precooked or grated

Other Vegetables:
Carrots
Onions
Bell Pepper
Garlic
Tomatoes - 1 or 2 fresh or 1 can no salt tomatoes

Seasonings, to taste (pepper, red pepper, garlic powder, cayenne)


Cook the vegetables first in the soup pot, saute with 1 cup water until onions are translucent.   Then add the other ingredients (beans, corn, potatoes) and 4 cups water or vegetable broth.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes, adding more water if needed.

Optional - for the adults, we like to add chopped mushrooms to the onion mixture.  Not only does it make the soup healthier, it makes its own sort of gravy to thicken the broth.   You can add a little flour or other thickener (we used to use the brown gravy in a dry packet).  

Split Peas and Carrots Soup

This is another quick, easy and delicious soup for a cold day, like today.

Ingredients:

1 bag dried split peas
3 extra large carrots
1/2 extra large onion
4 large cloves garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil (optional) *
water
Seasonings (pepper, garlic powder, red pepper, salt (optional))
Optional - frozen organic sweet corn (no sugar added, of course)

* if not using olive oil, I recommend adding a bit of nut butter (we used cashew butter) to the cooked soup or topping your servings with a tablespoon or so of diced avocado.   A little healthy fat helps with nutrient absorption.


Follow instructions on the bag to cook the split peas on the stovetop or in the crockpot.




 Meanwhile, wash, peel and process the carrots, onions, and garlic in the food processor or chop by hand.   Add the olive oil, if using, along with the chopped onions, garlic, and carrots to a soup pot on the stove.   Add 2 cups water and cook on medium until the onion is translucent and the carrots start to soften.   Keep adding water to prevent it from drying out and sticking, and simmer until the split peas are ready. 



Pour the cooked split peas into the vegetable mixture and season to taste (pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, and salt, if using).  





For our non-soup-loving Little Guy, we added a tablespoon of frozen, organic, sweet corn to sweeten the soup.   He pronounced it "not good" and proceeded to eat it all anyway :) 

Things My Kids Eat

How do you get kids on board with healthy eating?  

1. Set the example
2. Give good, solid reasons as to why certain foods are good for us and what they do to the body
3. Give good, solid reasons as to why certain foods are not good for us and what they do to the body
4. Provide good tasting, eye pleasing, foods that they already like.  Build on pre-existing favorites such as cherry tomatoes, cut up raw carrots, and the like.
5. Slowly introduce new flavors and tastes and let them adapt at their pace

Breakfasts:

• Cereals ( here )  with plant milk (we use unsweetened almond milk) 
• Oatmeal with fruit and honey, cherry pie and ice cream oatmeal, apple pie oatmeal
• overnight oatmeal, eaten raw, tastes like cold cereal 
• Smoothies (green smoothies with raw oatmeal makes a thick, stick-with-you, smoothie)
• Banana Bread here  or the Health Nut Cookie here

Lunches:

• His banana peanut butter roll up creation  here
• Bean burrito (whole wheat tortilla, fat free refried beans)
• Peanut Butter & Honey on whole wheat bread
• Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce
• Whole grain pizza crust with tomato sauce
• Whole grain bread, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, with avocado & mustard

Dinner:

• Beans & Rice
• Beans & Corn
• Beans & Tortillas (Bean Burrito)
• Beans & Tortilla chips (Corn tortillas, baked in oven or microwave)
• Sometimes soup - but rarely
• and,
• anything on the Breakfast or Lunch list.  

Snacks:

We're not big on snacks usually, but he will occasionally want something before bed.  In those cases, we have the banana bread or healthy cookies or else just a piece of fruit.  

Desserts:

• See above about banana breads and healthy cookies! 
• Also, we do banana "ice cream" with frozen bananas, strawberries, vanilla, almond milk.  Or with cocoa powder for chocolate "ice cream"

How he gets his G-BOMBS:

Smoothies (greens, berries, seeds (chia))
Beans (onions & mushrooms get pureed into the beans)

Obviously, these two foods (smoothies & beans) are the most important things he eats, so we try to always squeeze them in somewhere during the day.  

Today's Menu, At a Glance

We often get asked, if you don't eat meat, eggs, dairy, sugar, white flour, processed foods, oils, etc., then what exactly DO you eat? 

Here's my answer....

Breakfast ~



which translates to this:




Lunch ~ 

Recipe here




Recipe here    (I only ate the burger part, not the bun, but couldn't resist posting the picture of the fully formed one! It looks like a real burger.)





Dinner/Dessert ~


Quick Soup, Healthy Soup  here


Chocolate "shake"   here


Cookie here

Peanut Butter Roll Up

Recipe by our Guest Blogger today, Ryder:

Ingredients:

1 tortilla (whole wheat)
2 banna
3 peanut butter
4 honey

Potato Mushroom Burgers

These taste like a healthy hashbrown - so good!    No need for a bun, for sure. 


Ingredients:

2 cups black beans
1 # mushrooms
4-5 potatoes (sweet or white)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup oats or oat flour
2 organic eggs or 2 chia/flax "eggs" 
seasonings to taste

Start the chia "eggs" first if you're using them (2 Tbsp chia+1 cup water in the blender, blend on high, let sit 15 minutes, hit "high" and blend once or twice more during the 15 minute wait. 

I put the mushrooms, potatoes, onions and garlic through the Grater blade on the shredder.    Add this mixture to a large bowl and put in the eggs (or "eggs"), beans, and oats/flour.    Mix well with a large spoon or your hand and season it well.   

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes (flipping once) or in a pan with a little oil or water misted into it (Note:  baking didn't turn out as well as the pan "frying" did with the potatoes for some reason).   This is a big batch of burgers because we like to freeze them, but you can definitely cut it down some. 

Not the prettiest picture since I burnt half of it, but the taste makes up for it.    The reason I had to take a picture of the half burnt one is because the rest were gone so fast! 

Food Preparation, Shopping List

Garlic, 2-3 bulbs

3-5# raw carrots

Purple cabbage

3-5 large onions

4-5 bell peppers, various colors

2# mushrooms

Other vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, celery, etc)

Cooked or canned (rinse, drain) beans, various kinds

Dried Lentils

2 cans/jars diced or crushed tomatoes

2 bags frozen organic corn

Cooked vegetable stock (optional)

Potatoes (sweet or white)

 

Pantry ( olive oil, chia seeds, unsweetened almond milk, dijon mustard, cashews/cashew butter, lemons, nutritional yeast, balsamic vinegar)

 

 

Simplifying Food Preparation

Our goal is to cut down on as much of the food preparation as possible, especially for busier weeks.   Shopping list here.

This week's plan:

• Roast 2 bulbs of garlic in the oven, remove, let cool, peel

• Wash raw vegetables, remove cores, ends, and prepare food processor.   Process:
• raw carrots 1-2 lbs   (grater blade)
• purple cabbage  1/3 large head or 1/2 small head  (grater blade)
• 3 large onions  (S blade)
• 4 bell peppers (S blade)
• mushrooms (slicing blade)
• along with any other raw vegetable on hand (broccoli, cauliflower)

• In 2 stockpots (or 1 stock pot, 1 crockpot), add 1 tablespoon of olive oil or water, add 1/3 or so of onion, pepper, garlic, mushrooms and cook them on medium until soft (for crockpot, cook vegetables in a pan and then transfer to crockpot)

• For vegetable stew, put in 1/3 of vegetable/mushroom mixture, 4 cloves of roasted garlic, 4 cups beans (one or more types), 1 can or jar of tomatoes (diced or crushed), 3 cups water or vegetable broth, 1 bag frozen organic corn, diced potatoes (optional), seasonings to taste.  

• For lentil soup, rinse lintels and add 1/2-1 pound of lentils to crockpot or stockpot and enough water to cook them (see package for details) plus 3 cups water or vegetable stock.    Add vegetable/mushroom mixture, 1 bag frozen organic corn, 5-6 roasted garlic cloves.   Cook until lentils are ready.   Season after this, not before lentils are cooked. 

• For bean burgers, take 2 cups of the vegetable mixture, 1-2 cups of sliced or grated mushrooms, 1-2 cups of shredded sweet potato and add to black (or other) beans.   Season well and add 1 cup oats.  Optional:  1 organic egg or 1 chia/flax egg.   Press into burgers or loaf pan or muffin cups and bake at 350 until cooked through.  

• Save the rest of the vegetable mixture (without raw mushrooms) for confetti salad topping.   Season it to taste. 

• For salad dressing, add 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 cup cashew butter, 2 Tb nutritional yeast (optional), pepper, garlic powder, 6-8 large cloves roasted garlic, 2 Tb or more lemon juice, 1 Tb dijon mustard.    Optionally, leave out the nutrtional yeast and add in dill, lemon.     (And/or, make a second salad dressing like the Balsamic Garlic Dressing here)

Ideally, ahead of time we've shopped for the necessary ingredients and cooked some beans in the crockpot.  

Caesar Salad Dressing

This one is taken from Dr. Fuhrman's website, called Casinera's Famous Caesar Salad Dressing, created by a member.  We've made a few changes such as almond milk instead of soy, but otherwise it's pretty close.


Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
5-6 cloves garlic, roasted or raw (or less, about 2 large cloves) 
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 oz cashews or cashew butter, raw
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
Juice of 1/2-1 lemon, to taste
salt, if desired, to taste
pepper, to taste


Mix milk and garlic in blender and blend until smooth.  Add other ingredients and blend.  Note: if using raw cashews, process them into cashew butter first.   4oz of cashew butter is about 1/2 cup. 


Wayne thinks we're trying to kill him with garlic, so my next experiment will be to find a stinky-garlic-free dressing for him.  

Update - we have switched to always using roasted garlic in this recipe.   Also, we make a version without the nutritional yeast as some in the family don't like the flavor it adds (crazy people!). 

Three Sisters Harvest Soup (Stew)

For some reason, all my healthy soups turn out split pea dark greenish brown.  Not a very photogenic color, but apparently a sign of a soup with lots of healthy foods blended together. 

This one started out as soup but the family wanted it more like a stew, so we've included both recipes here. 


Ingredients List


The three "sisters" :

• 2 cups Butternut squash (or pumpkin or sweet potato**)
• 2 cups beans, any 
• 1 bag frozen corn

Other ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• 5 extra large cloves garlic
• 5 large carrots
• 2 large fresh tomatoes
• 1 pound mushrooms
• 1/2 pound spinach, chopped (or any greens, fresh or frozen) 
• Pepper, chipotle chili powder, garlic powder, cilantro or parsley
• 1/4 cup cashew cream (raw cashew butter), optional

For stew: 

• 2-3 cups of other beans or lentils, we used black beans since we had them made
• Additional vegetables such as green peas, diced carrots, more corn. 
• Reduce water slightly

Cut butternut squash in half lengthwise, put in pan with 1 cup water, and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.    Scoop out flesh, using 2 cups for soup and freeze or use the rest for other recipes. 



Put garlic cloves in a pan, rub with a scant amount of olive oil if desired but is not necessary, and bake the first 15 minutes of the squash's baking time to roast the garlic (if desired).   When cool, squeeze out the roasted garlic, dice, and add to medium low heated soup pot with 1 tsp olive oil or just a bit of water.   Let cook while you prep the veggies. 



While the squash and garlic are baking, chop remaining veggies (carrots, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach).  I sent the carrots and onion through the food processor (s-blade) to mince them very fine. 



Gather all the chopped veggies and add to soup pot with about 12 cups of water (or some veggie broth and water, but this kind of makes its own veggie broth with the onions, garlic and carrots diced so fine and simmered for so long).   Use slightly less water for stew, about 8-9 cups. 
 



When the squash is ready, add to soup, then add cooked beans and frozen corn.   Simmer about 15 minutes more and serve. 

A personal step that is unnecessary but that I like to do to make the soup creamier is to take out 1/3 of the soup, let it cool a bit, and send it through the blender.   You can also add in 1/4 cup or so of cashew cream (raw cashew butter) for a bit of fat to allow for better (more) nutrient absorption. 

Creamy garlic salad dressing

Picture to follow soon...


Ingredients:

1 cup water
2 tablespoons chia seeds

* blend for 10-15 seconds, let sit 5 minutes, blend again to break up seeds, let sit 15 minutes or so to thicken

1/2 tsp or more of balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp or so to taste of Dijon or spicy brown mustard
5-8 cloves of garlic, raw or roasted
1-2 sp of olive oil, optional
Pepper, Garlic powder

Add above ingredients to chia mixture in blender and process until smooth.  Store in fridge overnight to ripen flavor, but it can be used immediately.

Chocolate ” ice cream” Shake

A happy accident....



I'd frozen a banana to make chocolate banana "ice cream" but added too much almond milk.  It turned out like a somewhat thin ice cream shake.  Yum! said the boy.  

Ingredients:

Frozen banana
1 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup almond milk

Blend or process in food processor until smooth.   Less almond milk = ice cream thickness.

Quick Soup, Healthy Soup

Most of the time, I can let beans soak or cook in the crockpot, simmer the vegetables, and have a nice soup from scratch.    Other times, I forget to soak the beans or don't have time to saute veggies but still want healthy soup from scratch.    Last night was one of the latter times.   

A quick cooking but still healthy made from scratch soup ~ double the ingredients easily doubles the amount of soup you have.   For us, that's still just a few nights' of soup, for others, it would make enough to freeze half.  


Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large bell pepper, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic (to taste), smashed or chopped
• 1 cup water

Heat a soup pot on the stove and add the above ingredients on medium (optional: add 1 tsp olive oil for sauteeing, or just water saute).   Let cook while you finish assembling the ingredients.

• 1/2 pound carrots
• 1/2 pound purple cabbage
• 1/2 pound of mushrooms, sliced
• other vegetables (whatever you have - frozen or fresh - that you want to add in)
• fresh or frozen greens (kale, spinach, collards, etc.)

Add all ingredients to food processor or chopper and put in soup pot as you are finished.

• 1/2 pound dry lentils - rinsed well
• Add lentils plus 4 cups of water (or 2 cups water, 2 cups veg broth).
• frozen sweet corn (organic, unsweetened)

  
When the soup is finished cooking, season with your favorites to taste (pepper, garlic powder, and a touch of cayenne) and add a bag of frozen sweet corn and let it heat through.  

You can easily double or triple this.  It was gone in 1-1/2 meals here...even the bean-hating little guy ate it, and it freezes very well.

Super fast cooking instructions - use your food processor.  Get out your veggies, wash and clean them.  Then using the food processor, process the onions, garlic, peppers with the S blade and add to the soup pot to start the saute.   Change to the grater blade, and process the carrots, cabbage, and other veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, sno peas, etc!  Bags of frozen vegs work great in this.)   Then swap to the slicer blade and do the mushrooms.  Drop these vegetables plus frozen or fresh greens (spinach, kale) in the soup pot and add the lentils & water.   Wash/rinse out the food processor immediately, pop the unused veggies back in the fridge - and done.   Soup in 10 minutes prep time, 40 miinutes cook time.
 
Crockpot instructions:  (optional, saute seasoning vegetables in a pan first, then add to crockpot with other ingredients as above. )   Cook on high until lentils are finished, about 4 hours.

Shopping list:
1 large onion
1 large bell pepper
1/2 lb. mushrooms
1 garlic bulb
carrots
purple cabbage
dry lentils
frozen sweet corn (no sugar added)
frozen kale or collards or spinach
 

Black Bean Chili

Our favorite family recipe, made over to take out the meat.   The recipe easily doubles or triples and the leftovers freeze very well. 




Ingredients:

1 extra large onion
1 large bell pepper
5 cloves garlic
1 pound mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
optional add-ins:   diced leafy greens, well chopped red cabbage, chopped zucchini, butternut squash

2 pounds dried black beans*, cooked
1 pound tomatoes*, diced
1 medium chopped green chile pepper (or, for spicier chili, a jalapeno pepper)

Chili seasoning OR your seasonings, to taste.  We like pepper, cayenne, garlic, chili powder. 

Serve over your choice of brown rice, corn, sweet potato chunks, or just eat it plain like a soup - it's very good that way! 

* you can use any type of bean.  If using canned, I generally use about 5 cans of beans - a combination of black, pinto, and little red chili beans (no sauce).
* if using canned or jarred tomatoes, I use two medium cans or 1 large jar.   

Chop all the vegetables you are using and saute them in 1/2 cup water until onions are translucent.   Then, add in the beans and seasonings and let the chili heat all the way through on med/low.     It will taste even better the next day and freezes very well!

Serve over brown rice, if desired. 

Stir Fry and "Fried" Rice

We've come to prefer this far healthier version of our favorite chinese food order. It's easy enough to have it hot and ready to go at about the same time it takes the delivery guy to work his way to your house. The sauce takes the longest, so start it first if you use it.   It is not very low sodium though, so you will have to adjust the ingredients in the sauce a bit to make it so. 






Stir Fry

Sauce:

1/2 c red wine
1/2 c or less low sodium soy sauce
1 Tb oyster sauce or hoison sauce
2 tsp corn starch to thicken

Saute minced onion and garlic in a bit of water or oil until soft. Combine corn starch and red wine and stir until dissolved. Add remaining ingredients and stir, then add to onion and garlic mixture. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens. Pour cooked vegetables into the pan, stir to coat them, and cook until vegetables are heated through.

Ingredients

1 bag frozen asparagus stir fry vegetables
1 bag frozen broccoli florets
optional - another bag of frozen sugar snap peas or other of your favorite vegetable

Cook according to package directions - steam or microwave just until defrosted, while it's still brightly colored.




"Fried" Rice
Ingredients

Cooked brown rice
1 cup shredded broccoli slaw
1/2 pound mushrooms
1 large onion
6-8 Garlic cloves, minced

Chop onions & garlic and saute in a bit of oil or water.    Add broccoli slaw or individual ingredients (finely chopped broccoli crowns, red cabbage, shredded carrots, and so on).    Cook until vegetables start to soften, then add mushrooms.    

Season with pepper & garlic powder, then sprinkle with low sodium soy sauce (to taste).   Add 1-2 cups brown rice and stir all together. 

*This is also the filling for the cabbage rolls. 


 

Cabbage Rolls

Instead of egg rolls with our chinese food, we decided to try to use a healthy wrapper instead.   We'd already improved upon the filling, so the wrapper was all that was left.   The filling is the "fried" rice from the chinese food post here. 

Take a large collard green leaf and wash it/rinse it off.    Then immerse it in boiling water for 30 seconds or so.    Remove it with tongs and lay it out flat.    Fill it with the "fried" rice filling and roll it up.   

At this point, you could just eat it as is, or you could pop it in the oven and bake it.  Serve with a dipping sauce or soy sauce if you like - but it's pretty good as is.  

Health Nut Cookies

Veggie Cookies

• 2 med/large zucchini
• 2 large apples
• 3 large carrots

Shred all into large bowl

• 1-1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 organic eggs or chia “eggs” (2 Tblsp chia soaked in ½ cup water for 15 minutes)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar or molasses or honey
• 1/2 cup applesauce

Mix together then mix with shredded produce

ADD:

• 1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 cups oatmeal
• 1 tsp baking soda (2 tsp if using molasses as sweetener)
• ½ tsp salt (optional)
• 1 cup raisins or other dried fruit
• ½ cup raw sunflower seeds (optional)
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Mix all together until combined
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes

NOTE - I've always baked these as cookies because they started out that way, as regular Oatmeal Raisin cookies.  But, recently I started making them into bar cookies, a thin layer, and it so much easier.

Creamy Garlic Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

I could seriously drink this straight out of the cup. 

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon chia seeds
1/2 cup water

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (or more, to taste)
10 cloves roasted garlic (or less, to taste)
1 tsp spicy brown or dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste
splash of olive oil, OPTIONAL and unnecessary for a great taste

Put the chia seeds and water in a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds.  Let sit 5-10 minutes and blend again.   Let sit another 15 minutes or so until a gel starts forming. 

Meanwhile, roast the garlic in the oven - 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Combine everything in the blender and enjoy.    I like garlic in massive quantities, so if you don't, you might start with half this amount, taste the blender contents, and then add more if you like.   Ditto with the balsamic vinegar.  

Banana Bread

This is an old family favorite, made over; regardless of which recipe I use, it never lasts more than a day around here.   I'll post both recipes here.  





Banana Bread, original recipe
from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook

3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   Mix bananas & eggs together in a large bowl.  Stir in all the dry ingredients and the walnuts and blend together.   Pour the (thick) batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.  

Banana Bread, modified recipe

3-1/2 bananas, mashed
2 chia/eggs flax "eggs" (2 tablespoons fresh flax meal + 6 tablespoons water)
1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup quick cooking oats (not instant) *
     OR, 2 cups oats

1/2 cup sweetener or equivalent in ground raisins, dates (or, honey, maple syrup) *

1 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (or less, to taste)
optional - 1/2 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts)

Make the flax eggs first - mix the water into the flax meal in a bowl, stir together and let sit in the refrigerator for 15 minutes minimum (30-60 is best).   Stir the mixture again when it's ready, and add it to the bananas.   Blend in the remaining ingredients and pour into a loaf pan.   Bake at 325 for 50 minutes. 

* if you use old fashioned oats, you can give them a quick run in the food processor if you want more of a flour feel and less chunky oats.   Either way is fine. 

Notes: Using whole wheat flour and oats rather than white flour makes a different texture and calls for more sweetness in the recipe.  I can easily cut the sugar in half on the original recipe without noticing a taste difference, but it affects the modified recipe much more.  So, I have tried leaving out the sweeteners (sugars, honeys) and just using ground dates/raisins.   It is a different taste but I'd rather see them use a 1/2 tsp or so of honey directly on it than load the recipe with it.   The little guy usually just puts peanut butter on his. 
 

Granola

I've been meaning to try  out some granola recipes for a while, but reading online about what is done to grain cereals (extrusion processing) spurred me on to try it finally.   This is the finished result, with milk.     It tasted like....granola.    But made from scratch.  

It was an easy process and I'm comfortable with doing this once a week or so. The basic granola (oats) are cooked and then other ingredients are added as desired. For cereal, I'll add raisins, seeds, nuts. For Cosette's granola, just some seeds. For trail mix, I'll add everything including dried fruits, nuts, seeds, coconut shreds, etc. For fun, maybe more sweetness like a tablespoon of dark chocolate mini-chips.

Flavorings combinations are unlimited - we plan to have fun experimenting.

The basic recipe:

Oats (old fashioned or quick oats - not instant)  2 cups
1/2 cup applesauce (I use the little kid packs of unsweetened applesauce)
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup honey or pure maple syrup or 1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all the above together very well, mash with the back of a spoon or with your hands onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes, stir to break it up into small pieces, and bake another 10 minutes. 

Super Green Smoothie

This one came out really green - almost neon.  A sign that I used a lot of kale and my fruits were mangoes & bananas - nothing that would interfere with the green coloring.    Using strawberries or blueberries turns it more brown than green. 


Almond milk
Chia seeds
1/2 banana
1 mango
about 3/4 cup kale (fresh kale - chopped, washed, and frozen last week)
 

Confetti Salad Topping

I saw these confetti salads online and decided to give them a try one day when we were out of fresh salad greens.   I roughly chopped the vegetables we had, put them in the food processor, and then processed them until they were very small chips.   Note: I have a cheap, small food processor, so I have to chop my veggies first.  With a larger, more powerful one, you probably won't have to do as much pre-chopping. 

For ingredients, you can add whatever you have around and whatever you like.    This is what we used this time, but the ingredients are never the same. 

Ingredients:

Tomatoes*
Cucumber
Bell Peppers*
Onion *
Carrots*
Cabbage
Green onion
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Seasoning - pepper, garlic powder, etc.   to taste

* I always include these basic ingredients





After processing:





This time, I served it on a bed of romaine lettuce and broccoli slaw.  The first time, we only had the slaw so we put it over that.  It's not necessary to put it on top of anything.   You can put your entire salad including greens in here.   Usually, I don't do that because I make enough for 2-3 days and the greens do not last that long.   Also, I like serving it on top of greens because it greatly reduces the need for salad dressing, especially if you season it well and use ripe onions or even fresh garlic in the confetti.   The tomatoes & cucumbers keep it moist which further helps avoid the salad dressing. 





The broccoli slaw - 

Mushroom Burgers

Even though these "burgers" have a bit of beans in them, they are not true  bean burgers because they are comprised mostly of mushrooms.   Once again, they need plenty of spices and seasonings, but the taste was wonderful. 

Ingredients -

1 pound button mushrooms
1/2-1 cup ground oats or whole wheat flour
1/2-1 cup minced onion, depending on taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup beans or lentils 
Season to taste - Pepper, garlic powder, a dash of cayenne

Mash it all together with a fork or potato masher, shape into burgers, and bake at 350 or cook in a lightly oiled or watered pan on the stove.   The burgers will release water from the mushrooms as they cook, so you really don't need to use oil, just a little water wil do great. 




The finished product: