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.