My Salad Kicks Your Salad's....Well, You Know

I was hesitant to post any salads on this blog, mostly because I was asked one too many times how I was supposed to survive 28 days on salad alone--I was apparently unaware that hot meals, casseroles, etc. do not exist without meat or cheese. But this salad was SO delicious!--I had to post it. I'll give it to you exactly as I made it:

Dressing:

Olive oil

Apple cider vinegar

Stone ground mustard

Honey

I like to make my dressing before preparing the rest of the salad so the flavors have time to meld. Start with about a tsp of each ingredient, then add what you like until the dressing suits your taste.

Salad:

2 portabella mushroom caps

1 package organic artisan lettuce (I got mine at aldis!)

1 red onion, sliced thin

1 avocado, sliced

Pepitas

Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the mushroom caps, seasoning with salt and pepper. While those cook, tear the lettuce into a large bowl along with the onions and avocado. Once the mushrooms are cooked to your liking (I kept mine in the pan for about 7 minutes), cut either into strips or chunks. Add the mushrooms to the salad, drizzle your dressing over all, and top with pepitas. So delicious!

Homemade Vegannaise

The vegan challenge is officially over--but I felt so good by the end, I am keeping it up!--for the most part. I am not as strict as I was during the 28 day challenge, so I will occasionally allow myself some yogurt or an egg, but it's been almost 2 months since I've eaten any meat. Now I'm focusing my efforts on DIY sauces, vegan appetizer make overs, and whole grain, vegan baking.

One thing I run into when trying to re-vamp my favorites, especially appetizers, is so many of them use mayo or sour cream. I looked into buying some veganaise at the health food store, but for $8 a pop I decided against it. So last night I tried out a fabulous recipe for homemade mayo; it took all of 2 minutes, and has a very authentic texture and wonderful flavor! Here's the recipe I ended up with:

1 cup oil--I used olive oil, which makes the mayo olive-y, but I liked it.

1/2 non-dairy milk--I used soy
1 squirt stone ground mustard
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
salt & srirachi to taste

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a food processsor or blender and mix until smooth. Blend in the vinegar until the mixture thickens, and voila! Mayo--when I tasted my creation at this point, it was kind of bland, so I added some salt and sriracha to give it some flavor. Curry powder or some horseradish might be good, too.

Sweet 'n' Spicy Potato Quinoa

I'm a huge fan of quinoa, but not as a bland side dish. The best way to prepare it, in my opinion, is right along side other tasty ingredients. 

For this recipe, you'll need:

1 onion, chopped

1 potato, in small pieces

1 jalepeno pepper, chopped 

1 clove garlic, minced

2 big handfuls of spinach
6-7 dried apricots, chopped

Paprika

Cumin
Salt and Pepper

Add about 2 tbsp of the oil of your choice into a sautee pan, along with the onion, potato and jalepeno. Sautee until the onions begin to brown, then add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute.

Throw in the spinach, apricots, and spices to your liking, along with about 1/2 cup of water; the water will reconstitute the apricots, steam the spinach, and allow the spices to penitrate the onions and potatoes.

 After most of the water has evaporated, add the quinoa and the appropriate water amount (according the package directions), and cover until the quinoa is done.  

I served mine with a big spoonful of guacamole and white bean hummus. If you're eating dairy, this would be great with some greek yogurt or sour cream!



Sundays are for muffins :-)

I was craving muffins Sunday morning, and found a basic vegan recipe on About.com. I’m inherently unable to follow recipes, so naturally I tweaked this one a bit and came up with the easiest, healthiest, and perhaps tastiest muffin I’ve made in a while, vegan or not!

Here’s what I ended up with:

3 bananas- the blacker, the better!
¼ cup canola oil
¾ cup sugar (I cut this down from the 1 cup in the original recipe, and I think ½ would be plenty)
2 cups flour (I used half fine ground whole wheat flour and half ground flax seed)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Mix the first 3 ingredients in one bowl, the last 3 in another, the combine. Distribute evenly between 12 greased or lined muffin tins and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

You could easily add nuts, dried fruit, a bit of peanut butter, or a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to make delicious variations of this recipe! If I make these again, I’m going to sub coconut oil in for the canola, and add walnuts and cranberries. DELISH!

Snacking--Curtails My Creativity; HELP!

As everyone working with me knows, I’m a huge fan of snacking (my drawer is infamous!!). Snacking  gives me something to look forward to throughout my day (for those of you not lucky enough to have a snack drawer at your disposal--OK, I admit it, mine’s rented--this extensive form of snacking might not be a viable option, but please, continue reading), and it keeps me from wanting to crawl under my desk with a pillow and blanket after gorging myself with an ungodly-sized lunch, which I tend every now and then to purchase—usually when my snack drawer needs restocking.  

Luckily this week is not one such week, as I have a stockpile of wasabi-soy almonds (my one indulgence), walnuts, pistachios, dates, figs, smart-pop kettle corn and green tea. I usually pair the fruit and nuts with tea and a piece of fruit from home and eat the almonds and kettle corn when a salt-craving arises.

However, in my attempt to avoid processed, high sodium/sugar foods as much as possible (as well as stay within my budget), much creativity is needed, and, to be honest, mine’s waning;  and so, I plead with you to share your favorite snacks so I can revamp my drawer during my weekend grocery run.

Green Bean and Sesame Noodles

When sharing this recipe, I step up onto my pedestal and advocate making your own sauces--they taste better than just about anything from a store with a reasonable price tag and (more often than not) mean less sodium and fewer preservatives.

I wanted to make a peanut sauce, but alas, I was out of peanut butter; so I opted for a spicy mustard sauce instead:

Mustard (preferably stone ground)
Soy sauce (preferably reduced sodium)
Teriyaki sauce
Cider vinegar
Srirachi

If you happened to have peanut butter on hand, you could easily sub it in for the mustard. My general strategy tends to be mix and taste until you like it, the up side being it suits your taste, the down side being you will inevitably create the Mona Lisa of sauces and never be able to recreate it again.

I started by pan-frying green beans, carrots, Anaheim pepper, garlic and onion. Once they browned a bit, I added my sauce and a bit of water so nothing would burn (I taste test when cooking green beans--I'm texture-particular) and let everything simmer (for the extent of my dish washing--15 minutes, I suppose). You may now drool over the finished product: whole wheat spaghetti noodles (or noodle of your choice) and sesame seeds with the veggies. Guten appetit!

 P.S. Sorry about the cell-phone quality pics...real camera coming soon :/.

White Bean Hummus--Dare I say, better than the original?

I bought a massive bag of white beans over the weekend, only to quickly realize I could be moving in mere months and have a solid 10 pounds of beans, lentils, and peas to consume--time to get creative!

Although I don't claim to have invented this white bean spread, I believe it was a sign from whatever higher power appeals to you that I forgot to buy chick peas, and was thus obligated to sub white beans instead. While I won't bash the original, this white bean spread has its advantages:

1) When using dried beans, as I usually do, chick peas are a nightmare; white beans don't take near as long to reach a blendable softness.

2) It might be that white beans retain more water than chick peas, but I didn't add as much oil as I do to hummus before there's enough liquid for it to swirl and blend in my food processor.

3) For anyone without a food processor in her/his possession, these beans are very blender friendly (chick peas, in my opinion, are not)--I'd imagine you could even make this without an appliance using a potato masher and a fork.

4) The taste was amazing! Definitely smoother than hummus--and creamy--almost like butter.

So, chick peas vs. white beans? I can't decide, but my lunch looks delicious! Hummus, kalamata olives and cucumber with pita chips.

P.S. If you have some great ideas for beans or lentils, let me know! I'm going to need them...