Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

One of the things I had in mind when we bought all of those wonderful raspberries at the Morro Bay Farmers Market last Thursday was to try this recipe adapted from the PCRM website  It's a wonderful way to get a chocolate fix. Yum!

Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

1 14 oz. package of soft silken tofu
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup fresh raspberries

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.  Chill in the refrigerator before serving.  Males 4 servings.

Romanesco Broccoli with Ginger Dressing

Romanesco Broccoli with Ginger Dressing

The wonderful Romanesco Broccoli we found at the farmers market day before yesterday is too beautiful to cut into florets, so last night we just steamed the broccoli and served with a wonderful Ginger Dressing.

Almost Fat Free Ginger Dressing

4 garlic cloves
1 piece of fresh ginger (about the size of 2 garlic cloves) grated
6 oz. soy sauce or tamari sauce
3 oz. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. sesame oil
1 oz. water

Put ingredients together in a blender and blend well.

Morro Bay Farmers Market

Morro Bay Farmers Market Goodies

People ask us what we eat since we decided to quit eating all animal products.  Here's a nice example: today's treasures from the local farmers market here in Morro Bay.  This includes heirloom varieties of carrots, tomatoes and summer squash, plus beets, Russian kale, cilantro, asparagus, purslane, celery, green onions, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and a really cool looking cruciferous vegetable called Romanesco broccoli.  There's a Fibonacci sequence in every bite!

We'll post later on what we do with these great treasures!

Vegan Parmesan "Cheese"

Vegan Parmesan "Cheese"

This is an easy way to enjoy a "cheesy" sprinkle on your pasta dishes.  This contains sesame seeds so it does have fat in it (2 teaspoons has about 21 calories and 1.4 grams of fat).  This recipe and others like it are easy to find on the internet, so I'm not the creator of this idea.  Here goes:

1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Whir in a food processor until ingredients are incorporated into a powder.  That's it! Enjoy!

Home Fries with Vegan Ketchup

This is an easy low fat way to enjoy home fries.  Scrub 3-4 medium sized red potatoes (or other type if you don't have red potatoes) into 1" pieces, put into a microwave safe bowl, add 1/2 cup water, cover the bowl with a microwave safe lid and microwave for 3-4 minutes on high.  You want the potatoes to start to cook.

Set oven on broil and line a baking sheet with parchment paper making sure the edges of the paper are not sticking up at the edges.  Add the partially cooked potatoes to a bowl, spray lightly with cooking spray, lightly sprinkle with salt and stir to coat the potatoes.  Spread the potatoes in a single layer on the baking pan and put under the broiler until the edges are brown, turn the potatoes and put under the broiler until the other side is brown.  Serve with ketchup.  Yum!

Roasted Yellow Tomato Sauce over Whole Wheat Rotini

Roasted Yellow Tomato Sauce over Whole Wheat Rotini

We are fortunate to live in an area where there are deliveries of out of date and blemished produce and bread products donated by local grocery stores which are distributed to homeless shelters, then to mobile home parks a few times a week.

Our mobile home park is the last stop on the route and anything not taken by the residents of our park will be put into the dumpster.  Everyone else takes the doughnuts and cheese bread before the delivery gets to our park and all that's left for us is blemished veggies and whole grain breads and sometimes even silken tofu.  Perfect!  We always give the guy making the delivery a few dollars to help put gas in his truck.

We never know what will be in the truck when the delivery gets to us, and it's always fun to figure out what to do with the sometimes exotic blemished fruits and vegetables we get.

The last delivery included about 5 pounds of yellow tomatoes, most of which were pretty soft and needed to be eaten or cooked soon.  I washed them, wrapped them in parchment paper and put them into a large baking pan, roasting at 350°F for 45 minutes, then let them cool enough to handle so we could remove the skins.

We blended them and refrigerated them until I could take time to make a sauce.  At this point the tomatoes could be frozen but I wanted to make a pasta sauce soon.

We already had some out of date basil that had been saved from demise by picking through the packages of fresh leaves to save what we could, washing well, steaming, then freezing in portions until we had a chance to use it.  We had some whole wheat rotini pasta from another of the food deliveries to our park, so I cooked that to put the sauce over.  It's topped with vegan Parmesan "cheese" which I make at home.

I put the various food gifts together for our dinner tonight.

Roasted Yellow Tomato Sauce over Whole Wheat Rotini

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. salt, divided

5 lbs. yellow tomatoes, roasted, skins removed

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

1 cup salsa

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

2 tsp. dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)

1 lb. dry whole wheat rotini pasta

Heat the balsamic vinegar in a large pot over medium heat, then saute the chopped onion and minced garlic, until onion is translucent, sprinkling a teaspoon of salt over the onions and garlic while sauteing.

Add the crushed yellow tomatoes, tomato paste, salsa, nutritional yeast, basil, oregano, thyme, crushed red pepper, remaining teaspoon of salt, and black pepper.  Cook over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, then use a stick blender to make a smooth sauce.  Leave to simmer over low heat while the pasta is cooking.

Cook the pasta according to package directions and top with sauce and top with vegan Parmesan "cheese".

Tofu Scramble with Home Fries

Today's breakfast includes a tofu scramble including vegetables that we had leftover from other dishes and home fries made from lovely organically grown red potatoes:

Tofu Scramble

14 oz. firm tofu crumbled into a colander and allowed to drain for about 5 minutes
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 small tomato, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. or more Bragg liquid aminos (or tamari sauce or soy sauce)
1-2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast (optional)
vegetable broth or water for sauteing

Add about 1/4 cup vegetable broth or water to a large skillet and heat over medium heat.  Add the vegetables, saute until soft.  Add the tofu, nutritional yeast, Bragg aminos and turmeric.  Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes to blend flavors.  Taste, adjust seasonings to suit your palette and serve.

Note:  Add whatever veggies you might have leftover from other dishes.  Corn or black beans would be good, as well and carrots diced small (about 1/4 inch dice), mushrooms, yellow squash, you name it.

Home Fries

6 red potatoes (about 2-2-1/2" diameter each) diced into 3/4" pieces
1/2 cup vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Toss the potato pieces with broth and pour into a pan lined with parchment paper or lightly sprayed with cooking spray.  Cover with foil.  Bake for 15 minutes, remove foil and turn the potato pieces over with a spatula.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft and browned on the edges.