A Citrus and Spice Easter

Nope - I do not do eggs for Easter.  You probably could have guessed that.  Chad was not up for trying any of the vegan quiches I showed him, so what to do?  We had another family coming over for lunch and I wanted to prepare a "fun" meal.  Nothing says fun more than a little citrus, spice and tequila, right?

I got my menu idea from two blog post I received last week as I was trying to decide what to prepare. 

The FOOD

Chipotle Citrus Superfood Tacos

I made the quinoa, salsa and tofu per the instructions.  We also made yellow rice and black beans and shrimp for those who weren't up for the SUPERFOODS.   (yes, meaning Chad)  We had corn and whole wheat tortillas, and slaw with a honey-lime dressing to go with the meal.  For appetizers I made my super easy bean dip with veggies and low fat tortilla chips.

The quinoa was so healthy, I felt like superwoman eating it.  It had kale, parsley, cilantro, hemp seeds, flax seeds and nutritional yeast.  I believe you could live off that meal forever!  I added a lot more lime juice than it called for, it was a little dry.  But when you put the avocado, mango, goji berry salsa on top, it was perfect.  The tofu turned out really well.  Despite the chipotle, it really was not all that spicy.  Truly this meal was superfood with quinoa, goji berries, kale, mango, avocado, hemp seeds, flax, simply outstanding.


The DRINKS

Pineapple Cilantro Serrano Cocktail
This was the PERFECT spring cocktail, light, refreshing with a little kick.  So good.  When muddling all the stuff together became too labor intensive, we made drinks with soda, pineapple juice, lime, cilantro and tequila - no muddling required.


Strawberry Mint Gazpacho - as a fun drink for the girls:

I made this strawberry gazpacho for the girls (the adults enjoyed it as well).  I put the soup in shot glasses to make it more festive and so hopefully it would not be as messy for the girls.

Stawberry Mint Gazpacho

• 1 pound organic strawberries (take half, cut into smaller pieces and set aside)
• 2 cups honeydew melon - cut into cubes
• 1 large cucumber - sliced
• 2 cups watermelon - cut into cubes
•  1 TB lime juice
• 1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped

Place all ingredients in the food processor except for half of the strawberries that were set aside.  Blend well, add the remaining strawberries, pulse a few times.  Chill for at least an hour before serving.

The DESSERT

Chocolate Rice Crispie Treats (of course, GF, VG)

• 2 TB Earths Best vegan buttery spread
• 2 TB almond butter
• 1/2 TB vanilla
• 1 10oz bag of vegan / GF marshmallows (I used Dandies brand found at Whole Foods)
• 4 cups Envirokidz Koala Crispies - founds at Whole Foods - VG/ GF

Heat Earth's Best  and almond butter in pan over medium heat until melted.  Then add marshmallows and vanilla.  Stir frequently until everything is well mixed and melted (get ready for a good arm workout) - add the rice crispies - keep stirring. I kept the heat on low as I was doing this, to keep the marshmallows soft.  Then spoon into a greased pan.  Let cool in the refrigerator for 1 - 2 hours before cutting.  You can cut them into squares or used cookie cutters to make shapes.  Remember to leave on the counter after you make your shapes.  They will get too hard if you return them to the refrigerator.
I put some in a pan and later cut into squares as seen above.  But with some of the mixture, while warm, I rolled into egg shapes for Easter, then let them "set" in the refrigerator.

Si and I thought these turned out great.  Ry informed us she no longer likes marshmallows.  Oh well!

 RESULT

Well, it looks like everyone had a good time to me:

One final thought - yes, I bucked tradition for an Easter meal, (as I always have), but why?  Two reasons - health reasons and for the benefit of animals.  I got this email this morning -  For some, it might be over the top, so be warned!

The Easter Hangover

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!

Third Veggin Around Dinner

The topic this month was boasting your immunity through incorporating a variety of healthy foods into your diet.  This is based off of Dr. Fuhrman's Super Immunity book.  He recommends eating more greens, onions, mushrooms, berries, beans, nuts and seeds.  The research on the health benefits and immunity boasting properties of these foods is overwhelming.  So much so, that I ate mushrooms for the first time in 15 years! I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the powers food has to heal and protect.

On to the menu:

Quinoa Garden Salad

Mary McDougall

Forks over Knives page110

Ingredients

2 cups water

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped – I used one box of Pomi diced tomatoes, drained

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 can drained garbanzo beans

½ cup chopped fresh parsley (I used with chopped spinach)

¼ cup chopped fresh mint

½ cup fresh lemon juice (I used ¼ cup of lemon juice)

1 TB soy sauce (I use GF Tamari) (I used about half a TB)

Tabasco sauce

Ground black pepper

Directions-

Put water and quinoa into a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, until water is absorbed.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine the bell peppers, tomatoes, green onions, beans, parsley and mint in a large bowl.  Add the cooked quinoa and mix well.  Add the lemon juice, soy sauce, and several dashes of Tabasco sauce and toss well to mix.  Add black pepper to taste.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Teriyaki Spinach

One bag of organic spinach

Water

GF Teriyaki Sauce

Hemp Seeds

Directions –

Heat pan with a little water, add 1 TB GF Teriyaki sauce, then add spinach.  With tongs, toss spinach in sauce until it is bright green and slightly wilted.  2 – 3 minutes.  Place in bowl, sprinkle seeds on top and serve.

Sweet Potato Fries with Cashew Cream Dipping Sauce

Baked sweet potatoes at 400 for 35 minutes

After they have cooled remove the skins, slice and put on a baking sheet, lightly sprayed with oil bake at 350 degrees for another 15 – 20 minutes.  Then broil for 2 -3 minutes.  Watch carefully.

Cashew Cream

From Happy Happy Hippie

¾ cup raw cashews soaked 30 min

½ cup water

¼ cup nutritional yeast

1 TB Stone ground mustard

1 TB Dijon mustard

1 TB apple cider vinegar

1 TB lemon juice

1 tsp braggs amino acids (or GF tamari)

Blend all ingredients in Vitamix

Black bean, Mango Salsa with Chips

1 can drained black beans

1 mango diced

1 red pepper diced

½ cup chopped cilantro

¾ of a jar of Trader Joes’ Salsa Verde

Sugar Coated Radical Vegan Chocolates – for dessert

Dinner this week...

 Last week I was a little lazy about dinner.  This week I am more motivated and am trying several new recipes.  All so far, have been easy, delicious, gluten free and vegan.  So what have we been eating?
Sunday
We went to the Grant Park Farmers Market on Sunday morning.  We got there right when it opened, so no crowds and it was easy to see all the great food offered.  Sierra requested Grace's Goodness pimento cheese for her school lunches and both the girls had to have a King of Pops!  I bought amazing corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and onions.  That night I had to fix all of our fresh veggies.  We had corn on the cob, green beans, and a tomato, cucumber, onion salad with red wine vinegar.  I baked tofu as well.  Delicious summer dinner.

Monday

 New recipe!  Chad found a quinoa recipe on Patagonia's blog.  The link is:
http://www.thecleanestline.com/2011/08/climbing-catering-community-quinoa.html

I changed it up a bit - here is what I used:

• 2 cups uncooked quinoa - cook according to directions (2 part water, 1 part quinoa)
• 1 can garbanzo beans , rinsed
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2  bunch scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup pepitas (I toasted mine with salt first) - you can use almost any seed or nut
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes,halved
• Dressing: whisk  1/2 C of water, 1TBS grape see oil, juice from 2 lemons and 2 tablespoons curry powder.

Mix it all together!

Tuesday
I tried another new recipe from my friend KP.  She seems to effortlessly throw things together and create amazing meals.  She can come up with ideas on the spot when I ask her.  Last night I made a few modifications but my inspirations was KP.  This was SUPER EASY.

• brown rice
• 1 can Wholefood Organic Spicy Black Beans - drained
• 1/2 cup diced mangos (I use the frozen ones at Trader Joes)
• 1/4 cilantro, chopped
• 2 minced jalapenos (I put these in after I took the girls portion out)
• salt and pepper to taste

I put all of these in a big pot and let simmer.  I stirred it constantly, it only took a few minutes and it was done.  I served it with new Hemp chips I found at Wholefoods.
 

Wednesday
Last Saturday night, we had friends over for dinner.  We ordered pizza.  So, I fixed my own.  I made the sauce from theppk.com again and used a crust from Sally's Bakery.  As I did in this post:
http://vegginaroundblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/gluten-free-pizza-night-adventure.html
I have some of the sauce left over and I dont want it to go to waste.  Tonight, I plan to use Quinoa, gluten free spiral pasta, this Romensco sauce and broccoli.  Yum!

Thursday
Another KP inspired recipe.  Again, one I have not tried.  I plan to saute all in one big pot:

• Lentils (I buy the box in the produce section at TJs)
• 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes from Trader Joes
• 1/2 cup of water 
• 1/4 cup of veggie broth
• 1/2 of a chopped onion (vidala)
• 1 cup of frozen artichoke hearts - Trader joes
• juice from half of a lemon
• 2 TB Corriander
• 2 TB Cumin

I will let you know how pizza night and lentil night go...

I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen, but WOW:

I was pretty impressed with myself!  I made 3 salads and tofu. 

I went to the Dekalb Farmers Market earlier this week so I had a lot of fresh produce I wanted to use.

1) Kale Waldorf Salad
I found this recipe on WholeFood's website.  They have a fabulous recipe collection.  I typed in vegan and gluten free - 377 recipes appeared.  I read through those and saved the ones that sounded good in my recipe box on WF's website.
Here is the recipe:

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=2853  
The walnuts I bought just did not smell right to me.  So, I substituted cashews for the walnuts in the dressing.  In the salad I put in pistachios instead of the walnuts. I think I will continue to make it that way.  I loved the sweet, crunchy, yet slightly spicy from the dijon mustard taste.  And, taste testers response - Chad said he was most scared of this recipe - yes he said "scared" but to our surprise, he loved it and had 2 servings.  S enjoyed it and Ry would not try it.  I ate 2 servings and finished the rest of it today.  Loved this recipe!

2) Zucchini Pasta
This is from Whole Living.  It appealed to me because it looked easy and I like to try "raw" recipes (which the waldorf salad above was raw as well!)
Here is the recipe link:
http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/zucchini-pasta

I made a few changes.  Again,  I had to replace the walnuts, so I did almonds instead.  I chopped the nuts in half.  I also used 2 zucchinis.  I am trying to add more Omega 3 in my diet, so I used flax seed oil instead of the olive oil it called for.  I only used 1.5 TBS of oil instead of 2.  I also tried elephant garlic which has a milder taste.   Chad and I both liked it - the garlic was too much for me.  It will be awhile until I make this one again, Waldorf was much better.  The girls did not try this one!

3)Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango
This one is from my new found favorite website theppk.com
Here is the recipe: http://www.theppk.com/2010/04/quinoa-salad-with-black-beans-mango/

Another great quinoa recipe!  It was missing a little kick that Chad and I like.  I added double the red wine vinegar.  But we felt it needed just a hint more spice - salt and pepper helped.  Maybe chop up a little jalapeno?  Overall though it was a good salad and I will make this one again.  S tried and liked.  Ry did not try.  (Are you spotting another trend?) 

Lastly - I marinaded firm tofu, after pressing out all the water.  I smeared a little tahini on each piece of tofu, then drizzled gluten free soy sauce over each piece.  Then put cilantro leaves on top.  The tofu marinaded for a couple of hours.  Then I baked them in the toaster oven  - no precision here, I just checked on them every ten minutes.  Then I broiled them for a couple of minutes. They turned out great. AND, Ry's plate now just consisted of some of Chad's chicken, and to make me feel better a piece of tofu.  Well, she did not like the chicken and ate all the tofu!  Unfortunately she wanted more, but I had polished off the last of the tofu.  We made a special trip to the store today to get more tofu so I can finally make her a tofu she enjoys!

NOTE - All of these recipes are VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE!  And, the first 2 are RAW!

Sometimes the details escape me...

I am not a detail person.  I rarely remember to read a recipe all the way through before I start.  Sometimes this works out, but most of the time it does not.  But details, arrrghh....  I would much prefer to get the general sense of a recipe and throw it all together.  I usually glaze over words like: emulsify, fold, whisk, etc.  And, any ingredients I am not familiar with, I tend to think as optional.   

Which once again got me into trouble this weekend.  I made a quinoa dish that Chad had tasted at a dinner and loved.  I swore I followed the directions (well, at least most of them).  Chad called me out on it.  So, we made it again for a cookout we were going to on Sunday and he watched over my shoulders (and helped too).  Apparently, scallions are an important ingredient, one should measure out lime juice, not just squeeze a couple into a recipe and cumin seeds are not the same thing as ground cumin. Oh yeah, and I had to actually toast the cumin seeds.  Seriously???  Yes, indeed, the quinoa was 100% better!!  I posted the recipe in an earlier post:

Quinoa recipe in this post:
http://vegginaroundblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/spring-time-cookout.html

The other night, not following the directions "exactly" did work out:
I had cabbage and broccoli from my Natures Garden Delivered box that I needed to use.  My children were "starving" and I was trying to think of something fast, vegan, gluten free and tasty that I could make.  I got onto my Wholefood app on my iphone and entered cabbage, broccoli, vegan and found this recipe.  Chinese-Style Longevity Noodles-

I altered the recipe a bit and did:

For the sauce:

1/4 c veggie broth

1TB gluten free, low sodium, organic tamari

1/2 tsp sesame oil

pinch of red pepper flakes

1/2 TB grapeseed oil

tsp of garlic and tsp of grated ginger

I used a box of quinoa spiral pasta (gluten free)

about 2 cups of chopped cabbage

2 cups of broccoli

1/2 cup toasted cashews

I mixed all the sauce ingredients together, and then heated the sauce in the skillet (I later read the recipe and this is not how I was suppose to do it) but it still worked!  Then I added the cabbage, broccoli and sauteed it all together.  When the pasta was cooked, I drained and added it in, then topped it off with the cashews.  I thought it was very tasty, it was easy to fix - vegan, and gluten free.  If it were just for me and Chad I would have added more red pepper, ginger and garlic to spice it up.  One girl liked it, the other absolutely did not.  Chad said he did want chicken in his (we unfortunately had no chicken in the house).

Just to share, two more culinary mistakes I made recently - "meyers" lemons are not the same thing as a regular old lemon, nor are "preserved" lemons.