Roasted veggies

I've discussed roasting veggies in another post, but I thought I'd let you know something I recently found out (while roasting every root veggie I could think of to celebrate cooler weather in the desert!)

You can roast radishes! Yep! Try it - I cleaned them, cut the tips off, and threw them in with potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, onions, turnips, parsnips. Even hubby (aka "if my mother didn't make it,then it's not a food) liked them.

Split Pea Sans Ham Soup
Save the pigs!

Contrary to my ex-husband's way of thinking, split pea soup is wonderful without ham. You won't even miss it. The reason: it's chock full of veggies - thick and comforting.

1 2 cup bag of split peas
7-8 cups of water
1 medium onion, diced
1-2 cups of carrots
1 cup of celery
Lots of pepper, salt to taste, 2 bay leaves, 2 tablespoons marjoram
1/4 cup soy sauce or vegetarian worstershire
1 cup of diced potatos

Wash the split peas, add water, bring to a simmer. Add the onions, carrots, celery, herbs and spices. Let simmer until the peas have 'dissolved' into the broth and veggies are nicely cooked. Add potatoes and either the soy or the veg worstershire. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked.

This can also be frozen. Spice it up any way you want. Who says comfort food can't be spicy?

I like a bowl of split pea soup with a slice of crusty french or sourdough bread.

Tofu salad panini

I was thinking, there would be no reason you couldn't take a medium firm tofu scramble and do the same thing - I'd probably add a little more capers (for the briney taste), and a little more roasted red peppers (in oil) - and have a darn nice sandwich.

Great Lower Calorie Breakfast Shake

I have one of these almost every morning - I put it into an insulated mug (no lid), and take it to work.
1/2 frozen banana (good use for those very ripe bananas)
6-8 ounces of light soy milk (vegetarians, use fat free milk for low cal)
1/3 cup crushed ice (approximate)
A few dashes of cinnamon to taste
A capful of vanilla extract (don't use the cheap stuff - ever! Get the real thing).

I use my immersion blender, but you could use any blender to blend this all up - till ice and banana is all blended in.

If you're looking to gain weight, use regular soy or cow's milk, (and throw in some protein powder).

Quick Vegan Dinner

One of my mainstays.

Brown some tofu (amount is up to you) in a small pan. This can be pre-marinated, bake tofu, heck you can use tempeh if you wish. Mash it as it browns.
Meanwhile, boil up some 'boil in a bag' brown rice (or have some premade and heat it). Add a few veggies, fresh or frozen (cook till crunchy). Combine all of this with a little soy sauce and sweet/hot chili sauce (my favorite is Mae Ploy). If that's not hot enough for you, a little sriracha will help it along. Sometimes I leave out the Mae Ploy and just use the sriracha (Thai hot sauce).

Good comfort food.

Happy Mother's Day!

Dinner tonite was a london broil for hubby, but what I want to talk about was his side dish - my main dish. Oven roasted potatoes and baby carrots.
It's easy to do - I like to use all sorts of root veggies when I do this. Heat the oven to aboaut 425. Liberally douse a baking pan (13/9 or cake pan size) with olive oil. Peel and cut your potatoes, add baby carrots (or carrot pieces) and any other root veggie you like - and maybe even some mushrooms. Crush some dried thyme in your hands, apply liberally, as well as some fresh black pepper. Douse with a bit more olive oil (if there's not enough) to coat all the veggies with olive oil and herbs. Bake till brown and done - about 30-45 minutes. Yummy!

If you want to add a little protein to this (and make it vegetarian rather than vegan), you can add a little grated cheddar cheese to the top during the last 5-10 minutes.

You Can Grill Tofu!

About a week ago my husband said he wanted shish-kabobs. Beef. Joy.
Okay, I can do that. Plus, here's my chance to see if it works - can I grill tofu?
Since I'm always baking tofu after marinating it in some thing or another, I thought we'll see.

I decided on a teriyaki marinade. I cubed his beef, marinated that. I took chilis, red and yellow peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, scallions and marinated those. I drained half a block of nigari tofu (always use non-gmo tofu!) and cut it in 1.5 inch cubes. Marinated that. All over night.

I put everything on the grill (of course the tofu kabobs were on a separate cleaned grate from the beef) - after it was cooking I realized the veggies were grilling ahead of the meat. Tofu was holding its own. I realized the grilling recipes I'd referred to all said high direct heat but they were for meat only.

Tofu was a little dry, but the grilled outside was actually pretty interesting. And it was tasty. I will play with the recipe some more to figure out if grilled tofu is inherently dry or ?

Nex time though I'll 'kabob' the beef and tofu cubes and do the veggies separately in my grilling wok.

Vegan Burrito


I made my husband pot roast with potatoes and carrots, and since that's one of my favorite meals, was wondering if I'd miss it. Nope. Instead I came up with a vegan monster taco (I had too much filling in the thing to wrap it like a burrito)!

I cooked the potatoes and carrots separately from the meat so I could have some.

Recipe:

1 whole wheat tortilla (I used the 10 inch carb conscious by Mission - 130 calories)
2 slices of soy cheese (I used pepper jack, but you could substitute any cheese, soy or milk you want. This is your only source of protein in this meal).

The rest is up to you. I used a few chunky potatoes and baby carrots. To that I added some red leaf lettuce and cilantro. Then I added a little salsa for moisture.

As I was enjoying this I realized (duh!) you could use any vegetable combination in this. And I certainly will!

Corn and Pepper Chowder

You'll fin this recipe all over the internet. It's mine. I invented it and shared it on a vegetarian site years ago. I hope you enjoy.

3 cups whole kernel corn (fresh or frozen)
3 cups diced yellow peppers
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cups vegetable broth
Cook all ingredients together until peppers and onions are done (about 20-30 minutes).
Take soup in batches and 'rough chop' in a blender (you don't want a puree here).
Reheat a little (if necessary) and pepper to taste (I find that the vegetable broth adds more than enough salt).
Serve