Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Brussels Sprouts is one of our favorite cruciferous veggies and our favorite way to eat them is roasted.  This is easy and tastes wonderful.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lb. fresh Brussels Sprouts

cooking oil spray

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Take a pound of Brussels Sprouts, rinse them well, cut off the stem ends, cut them in half and add them to a bowl.  Spritz the sprouts lightly with cooking spray, mix them well to coat them, add salt and pepper to taste, mix again.

Add them, cut sides down, to a baking pan lined with enough parchment paper to cover the bottom and be wrapped over the top.

Fold the edges of the parchment paper over the sprouts, and bake for 30 minutes.  Check to see if they are cooked and bake longer if necessary until they are cooked to your preference.  They're best when they're a bit crispy on the cut sides. They should look like this when they're done:

YUM!  Serve with Dijon-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ratatouille with Rice

Ratatouille with Rice

2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes halved
1 bay leaf
3 cups cooked brown rice
1/8 tsp. turmeric
3 Tbsp. Vegan Alfredo Sauce (see recipe below)
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1-1/2 cups chopped onions
3 cups diced green and/or red bell peppers (1-inch dice)
3 cups diced zucchini (1-inch dice)
2 large eggplants cut into 1-inch cubes (6-8 cups)
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt
Ground black pepper
Fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (optional)

Cook the brown rice for 45 minutes until tender and water is absorbed (or use leftover
cooked brown rice). Add the tomato halves and bay leaf, cover and cook over low heat
until the tomatoes wilt, taking care not to let the contents scorch at the bottom of the
pan. Add the turmeric and Vegan Alfredo Sauce to the rice mixture, stir well, cover and
remove from heat.

Warm the balsamic vinegar in a soup pot, add the onions and bell pepper, stir and cook
over medium heat for about 4 minutes, or until the onions start to become translucent.
Add the zucchini and cook for a few minutes more until the zucchini starts to soften.
Add the eggplant, thyme, oregano, pepper and salt and cook, stirring occasionally until
all the vegetables are tender, about 7 minutes.

Add the rice mixture to the vegetables and stir well. Serve in bowls topped with fresh
basil (optional).

Vegan Alfredo Sauce


Ingredients
Makes 4 servings
1 cup raw cashews
2 tablespoons raw pine nuts
1 1/2 cups water
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
4 cups cooked fettuccine (or other pasta of your choice)
3 tablespoons freshly minced parsley

Directions
In a blender, grind cashews and pine nuts into a fine powder. Add water, lemon juice,
garlic, nutmeg, and salt. Blend until completely smooth.
Transfer to a small saucepan over medium heat and whisk as you bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low and simmer for 7 minutes, whisking regularly. Stir in black pepper.
Serve over hot pasta and garnish with parsley and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Black-eyed Pea Hummus from Fat Free Vegan

Black-eyed Pea Hummus

One of our favorite sources of recipes is Susan Voisin's Fat Free Vegan website.  She's a brilliant cook and her recipes are so tasty and satisfying.  You will definitely want to bookmark her site!

One of our favorite recipes from her is this Black-eyed Pea Hummus.  It's an amazing, wonderful recipe idea!  It's especially good with whole wheat chips made from Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Lavash Bread cut into 1-1/2" squares and baked.  We can't stop eating this stuff, yum!

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/09/black-eyed-pea-hummus.html

Our Garden August 2012

Living in a mobile home park means small lots and tight quarters so we decided to make our little home and lot colorful and friendly.  Our garden has evolved to include plants grown from cuttings and found objects added for color and interest.  We've really enjoyed putting it together over the past 16 months.

Welcome to L Row!

We found used wine barrels for planters

Most of our plants are from cuttings of plants found in our area

We love the colors and variety of shapes

We found driftwood on a beach close by...

...and added river stone found locally... 

...added found objects...

...and a few store bought objects

The neighbors stop often to examine the latest additions

Sedums do really well in Morro Bay

The area to the right around the corner is the nursery for plant cuttings. 

It doesn't take much effort to turn cuttings into full grown plants here, so it's easy and inexpensive to create a garden.  It didn't cost much money to put this together, just time and lots of backpack loads of rocks and cuttings.

Green Leafy Vegetables

We've all heard it hundreds of times, eating green leafy vegetables is one of the most important things you can do to get healthy and stay healthy. They are loaded with fiber, calcium, vitamins, vital minerals and antioxidants!  For the first 22 years of our marriage we always had greens in the fridge knowing we needed to eat as much as possible but just how many damned salads can you eat?  At least half the time they went bad before we could eat them.

When we became low fat vegans 5 months ago we decided to get serious about eating greens which called up memories of my grandmother who lived to be 91. She generally had year round gardens all her life and her winter garden always had a row of collard greens. When we visited she usually had a large pot of collards with ham hocks simmering on the stove. Grandma's collards have been my favorite food all my life but Kim & I seldom prepared them before we became vegan. Now greens are the nutrition centerpiece of our diet, we try to each eat at least ONE POUND per day of collards, kale, chard or spinach (we almost never eat lettuce because it has little nutrition value compared to the other greens).

Here's how we do it:

We buy greens from local organic farmers in bulk so we can get them at discounted prices. In order to preserve them we cook and freeze them in quart freezer bags.

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Two large bowls of greens when cooked will fit in a one quart freezer bag which for us is one serving each:

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All greens (no matter if the package says "Ready to Eat") should be thoroughly washed before eating raw.  If pressure cooked, organic toxins like E. coli will be zapped; we pressure cook all our greens:

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We load the pressure cooker and compact the greens moderately to get a good amount into each batch, over packing will result in uneven cooking:

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Add 1/2 cup of water:

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We use and recommend the Fagor 6 qt. Rapid Express pressure cooker (can be purchased at Bed, Bath & Beyond):

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We allow the cooker to get up to pressure and keep it there 5 minutes for collards, 4 minutes for chard and kale, and 2 minutes for spinach.  We put the cooker under a faucet running cold water to cool it down and bring the pressure down fast (also called rapid pressure release).  Here's how the greens look after cooking under pressure:

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We cool our cooked greens to speed up the process because we're usually processing 10 to 20 pound quantities:

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We try to remove all excess water before freezing so when they're thawed for reheating it doesn't
dilute the sauce and spices we use to flavor them (it also requires less space in the freezer):

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We load them into quart freezer bags:

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As you can see our small freezer is loaded with greens! We're serious about our greens:

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We can quickly thaw a 2 pound bag by submerging it in hot tap water for 5 minutes, then bring them to serving temperature in the microwave.

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The traditional sauce to use on cooked greens in the Southeastern US is Pepper Sauce (peppered vinegar) which can be difficult to find in the western US. You can order it online or just do without the peppers and use white vinegar. Other vinegars work really well also: red wine, balsamic, rice, apple cider, etc.

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Our favorite flavoring is a great ginger dressing that Kim makes (recipe here). As with most vegan dishes each person will have to experiment with different sauces and spices. Mike combines equal parts Bragg Liquid Aminos, ginger dressing, and pepper sauce for his greens. Kim just uses ginger dressing.

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.