Please Add Oil...

Chad and I deliberated over the menu for a dinner we were having at our house with two other couples.  Do we order food, do we grill out, or do we trust my cooking?  I decided that I wanted to cook, so Chad's one request: "please, if the recipe calls for oil, USE it."  Well, unfortunately, this was a request I could not fulfill but I did come up with a compromise.

Appetizers

• bean dip and salsa with veggies and GF/ VG chips and crackers
• Trader Joe's puff pastry margarita pizza

Dinner

• steak
• grilled portobello mushrooms and asparagus
• quinoa and corn salad
• roasted red potatoes and purple potatoes with cashew cream sauce

Dessert

• GF/ VG chocolate ganache tart from Southern Sweets 

Compromise - I had Chad friendly steak, puff pastry pizza and  we each made our own roasted potatoes.  He did one tray of red potatoes with oil and the seasoning he liked.  I had my own tray of purple potatoes, no oil and sea salt (I did use a light coat of spray oil, so they would not stick to the tray).  Result - Chad was happy, I was happy with a GF/ VG, no oil dinner AND - everyone had seconds!

Recipes

Bean Dip

• 1 can of drained black beans
• 1 can of drained pinto beans
• 3/4 of a jar of Trader Joe's Salsa Verde
• handful of chopped cilantro
• 1 roasted, seeded jalepeno pepper

Put all ingredients in Vitamix, blend and serve

Veggies
Grilled portobello mushrooms and asparagus were grilled with  GF Tamari

Quinoa and Corn Salad with Pumpkin Seeds
For this recipe, I left out the oil and garlic that it called for.  I did not serve with sliced avocado, lime or lettuce.
And, I created a new dressing, as you will see the recipe does not tell you how much lemon juice to use in the dressing. I was stumped, so I made up my own.  And, of course, omitted the oil.  My dressing was:
1 avocado
2 TB lemon juice
4 TB water
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper to taste.
The avocado was ripe enough so I was able to whisk all this together in a bowl.  I did sprinkle more chili powder, salt and pepper on the salad once it was done. 

Roasted Potatoes
Chopped up two trays of potatoes, for mine, I sprayed lightly with olive oil (very light) and sprinkled sea salt on top.  We baked these trays at 350 for about an hour.  Every 15 minutes we would check on them, stir the potatoes and rotate the pans.

Dessert - You must check out Southern Sweets - the gluten free, vegan chocolate tart was out of this world.   Although most of the dinner guest said it was too rich, I was in heaven, not having had a dessert I could eat in a long time!

Treats for Back to School

Today I wanted to bake snacks for the girls that they would feel like were a "treat" and could take to school.   The bars and cookies have NO added sugar of any kind.  The yummy brownie balls do have a little brown rice syrup (but those are for a mom's dinner not for the girls :))

From Dr. Fuhrman's Eat for Health pictured above, I made the 

Yummy Banana - Oat Bars on page 274

2 cups oats (I used GF)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients in large bowl.  Press dough in 9x9 baking pan (I sprinkled unsweetened cocao powder on top) and bake for 30 minutes.  When cooled, slice into squares or bars.

 Then from one of my new favorite cookbooks, Everyday Happy Herbivore I made Oatmeal Chews found on page 253.

2 ripe bananas

1/4 c soaked raisins

1/4 c applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

dash of cinnamon - I used more

1 1/4 c oats (I used GF)

Put all ingredients except for the oats in a blender and puree until smooth.  Combine with oats in mixing bowl.  Let batter rest while oven pre-heats to 350.  Drop tablespoon fulls on a parchment lined baking sheet (I didnt need to do this with my new baking sheet)! Flatten cookies slightly.  Bake for 10 - 14 minutes. Should make about 15 cookies.

I made both of these recipes at the same time, as they used so many of the same ingredients.  For the Oat Bars, I pureed the banana in my Vitamix because my bananas were not ripe enough.

Both of these were super simple and can be taken to school in the girls lunch boxes.

The momma's treat was a recipe I have posted before, No Bake Brownie Balls.

 http://www.mnn.com/food/recipes/stories/gluten-free-no-bake-brownie-balls 

They are seriously that good and that easy I have made them twice in the past two weeks.

All of these recipes were SUPER EASY!!!

And, notice my cookbooks - all of Dr. Fuhrman's books I highly recommend.  And, Everyday Happy Herbivore is a must have.