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:

Smoothies, Beyond Spinach

In the hopes of expanding my smoothies beyond spinach, I added chopped romaine lettuce to it this morning.   Despite my fears of soggy lettuce in my drink, it turned out fine.   As usual, you couldn't taste the green stuff.




Ingredients - 

1/2 cup almond milk (or juice)
1 or 2 cups of chopped lettuce (romaine or leafy or other greens)
3/4 cup strawberries
1/2 banana
sprinkling of chia seeds or ground flax