Cathe's Kitchen

Book Review: Vegan Holiday Kitchen

2012-01-24T08:01:00.001-08:00

Sometimes it's hard to come up with vegan specialities for holidays that kids and non-vegan family and friends will like, but Nava Atlas's new cookbook Vegan Holiday Kitchen is the answer to that dilemma. With recipes for Christian, Jewish, and nonreligious holidays and special occasions, the whole year is covered. And best of all, you don't have to spend your whole holiday cooking. These recipes are easy to make--but impressive enough to serve for company.

I received this book just in time for Thanksgiving and it's now after New Year's and I still haven't put it up on the shelf. I made the Walnut-Apple Stuffing, Agave and Mustard-Glazed Green Beans, and Cranberry Applesauce on Thanksgiving (my kids LOVED them!). On Christmas, I served the Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd's Pie (amazing!), Challah bread, and Red Wine-Roasted Brussels Sprouts. And though this is a holiday cookbook, I've made several other recipes on just regular old days. The recipes are easy to follow and so delicious--and very family friendly. I made dinner (from this book) for my friend and her kids, and she went right home that night and ordered it. That's how good the food is!

The recipes are organized by holiday which is a nice way to find a good recipe for that special occasion, but makes it just a bit tricky when you want to make a certain dish and forget what holiday it was categorized under (and the index is not terribly user-friendly).

All in all, this is a beautiful hardcover book with lots of beautiful pictures, and, most importantly, great recipes that your family and friends will enjoy. It is fast becoming one of my favorite cookbooks.

Super Quick and Yummy Dinner

2012-01-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

I'm often surprised that the amount of time and effort it takes to prepare a meal does not always equal how much my family enjoys it. For example, tonight's dinner took me about 15 minutes to make, but the girls loved it so much, they ate every last bit--and I expected to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

So if you need a quick and easy hit, try this Sausage, Onion, Apple Fry-Up.

Heat a large skillet (I love cast iron for this) over medium heat. Add enough oil to coat the pan. Cut 4 Italian-style veggie sausages (made nonGMO soy) into diagonal 1/2-inch slices and add to pan. Peel an onion and slice in half-moons. Add to pan. Core and dice 2 apples. Add to pan. Toss everything together. Cover and cook about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes to brown sausage and onions. I served this over steamed potatoes and squash, but I think it would also be great over mashed potatoes or with rice.

BOOK REVIEW: Vegan World Feast

2012-01-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

Review: World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Groggan

World Vegan Feast is exactly that . . . virtually a vegan foodie trip around the world with recipes like Sizzling Saigon Crepes (vietnamese moong dal pancakes stuffed with tofu and vegetables), Indonesian Green Curry on Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and Rose-Scented Baklava. This is my first Bryanna Clark Grogan cookbook, but I can see why she has such a following. Using her cookbook is like taking a cooking class. I've never read a cookbook with such detailed instructions--she really, really wants the reader to be successful making her recipes. I was skeptical about the no-knead bread but it came out wonderfully--I'll never knead again! My family also loved the Lentil and Rapini Stew with Spicy Vegan Sausauge (though it needed quite a bit more water than the recipe specified). The "index to countries" makes it easy when you want a recipe from a particular region, and Grogan also includes recipes for basics like "chicken" broth powder and worcestershire sauce.

Restaurant Review: Real Food Daily

2012-01-08T19:23:00.000-08:00

Years ago, I reviewed the Real Food Daily Cookbook. I liked the organic, vegan gourmet/comfort food so much, I told myself that if I ever went to LA, I was going to eat there. Well, this week my daughters and I took a trip to LA to go to the Museum of Tolerance. I looked up Real Food Daily online and found out that it was between the museum and the hotel, so great!

After spending an emotional day at the museum (don't get me wrong, the museum was great, but the exhibits were about the Holocaust, etc.). Anyway, we left the museum at the 5 pm closing time--exhausted and hungry and ready for a relaxing dinner. Of course, we were now in the middle of LA rush hour traffic. I found what I thought was the right street, but we couldn't find the correct number ... in fact the numbers weren't even close and then the street ended. So we drove around. It was now dark and there was so much traffic and then I got lost. I eventually found a road I recognized and we headed back to toward the hotel ... but further on, we saw the road that the restaurant was on (the one I thought I'd found before) and this time, the numbers matched up and hooray we saw the restaurant. But then we had to find a place to park, because it seems all LA neighborhoods are permit-only parking. As we circled around, we passed Bloomingdales realized that we were back at the corner we had been at over an hour ago! Man!!!!! Anyway, we finally found a metered space and walked to the restaurant. I was stressed, the girls were starving, and then the girls were a bit intimidated by the menu. Although they are used to vegan food, I don't use much fake meat or mock cheese sauces, so it took us another half hour to decid what to get. But I'm happy to say, we all LOVED the food and had a wonderful dinner.

I ordered the special which was the Hippie Love Loaf made with lentils, butternut squash, and millet and covered in a mushroom gravy and came with root vegetables and brussels sprouts. Very delicious but the portion of loaf was HUGE. I would have loved a portion half the size and a scoop of mashed potatoes, but still--yummy.

Aimie went for the pizza made with a herb cornmeal crust (gluten free), topped with sun-dried tomato pesto, tomatoes, spinach, basil, melted cashew and mozzarella cheeses, sautéed daily greens & cannelini beans. The waitress suggested adding avocado which sounded weird but according to Aimie was fantastic. Emily decided to play it safe with side orders of brown rice, black beans, and the house salad topped with a delicious vegan ranch dressing--and was very happy with her choice.

All of the desserts sounded incredible. Emily decided on the Gluten Free Double Layer Chocolate Cake, which I have to say was the best chocolate cake I've ever had. (I'm not a big cake fan, but this was moist and the raspberry was so good!) Aimie chose the Coconut Cream Pie but didn't care for it (though I thought it was fine), and the waitress was nice enough to let her switch to the Blackout Cake, which she liked.

Anyway, we made it back to our hotel without incident and next time we go to LA, we will most likely go again . . . this time I'll borrow a GPS though.

Cranberry Bread

2012-01-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

Ever since the success of the cranberry apple sauce on Thanksgiving, I've been thinking what else I could make with fresh cranberries. Maybe it's my New England upbringing, but I just love the flavor of those tart berries. So, though I've been adding them to pies, sorbets, galettes, etc. . . . this weekend, decided to go back to basics and try a good old-fashioned cranberry bread . . . but a healthier, vegan version, of course. So here's what I came up with:

Cranberry Bread
I love the flavor of the tart berries in this slightly sweet bread. We love to dip it in yogurt for breakfast.

2 cups whole wheat pastry or unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch cardamom
Grated peel of 1 orange (optional)
3/4 cup nondairy milk
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used blood orange champagne vinegar but apple cider vinegar is fine)
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh (or thawed frozen) cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Oil a loaf pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardommon and orange peel in a medium bowl. In a separate larger bowl, beat milk, vinegar, oil, and sugars together. Gently mix flour mixture into wet mixture. Fold in cranberries and walnuts. Bakin 50 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf

A Very Vegan and Delicious Holiday Week!

2011-12-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

What a delicious week this has been . . . family, friends, cooking, and of course eating. Here's a sampling of our favorites:

For friends and neighbors, we baked: Harvest Cookies from Quick-fix Vegan -- plus my own chocolate chip cookies to which I added a little orange extract and Global Garden's Dream Dust.

For dinner:

Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd's Pie, Agave and Mustard-Glazed Green Beans and Red Wine-Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Challah Bread (made with squash instead of eggs!) from Vegan Holiday Kitchen

For dessert:

Chocolate Chai Ice Cream Pie with Gingersnap Crust and dusted with Dream Dust (ice cream and crust recipes from Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love)

Nava Atlas's Red Wine Roasted Brussels Sprouts

2011-12-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

As we count down the days until Christmas, I'm planning my holiday dinner--so I naturally turned to Nava Atlas's new cookbook: Vegan Holiday Kitchen--especially since her recipes were such a hit on Thanksgiving.

I had found some beautiful little brussels sprouts at one of my favorite local growers: Rutiz Farms last weekend so I thought I'd preview Nava's Red Wine-Roasted Brussels Sprouts. To make it more of a meal, I added some cauliflower and tofu and served it with baked butternut squash and applesauce. All I can say is WOW! The outsides of the sprouts were crispy and sweet, the insides just melted in our mouths. They were so good . . . and it wasn't just me, the kids loved them too. These will definitely be on our Christmas dinner menu!

Hot Cocoa with a twist

2011-12-20T08:48:00.000-08:00

Tis the season for hot cocoa . . . fa la la la la la la la la

Oh yeah, the weather around here has been downright chilly and while I love my green tea, sometimes we just want something a little special to warm us up--and hot cocoa is just the thing. Lately, we've been experimenting with flavored chocolates to make a special thing, even more special. Like . . .

Orange Hot Cocoa: Add 1 tablespoon Triple Sec or 1/8 teaspoon orange extract to 1 cup cocoa.

Peppermint Hot Cocoa: Add 1 tablespoon Peppermint Schnapps or 1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract to 1 cup cocoa.

Mocha: Add 1 tablespoon Kahula or 1 teaspoon instant coffee or coffee substitute (like Pero) to 1 cup cocoa--or you can have half brewed coffee and half a cup cocoa.

It's also fun just to add a little hint of spice to your cocoa -- cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, or a chai spice mixture--or a little chili powder too.

One more idea for something really special is the Hot Chocolate Float from Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love. Try replacing the vanilla with one of the variations above as well!

Vegan Hot Chocolate Float
Makes 4 servings
Who needs (vegan) marshmallows! Try a scoop of ice cream in your hot chocolate instead.

3 cups nondairy milk
1 cup nondairy dark or semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 scoops nondairy Vanilla Ice Cream

Place the milk and chocolate chips in a saucepan on medium-low heat. Heat, whisking occasionally, until the milk just starts to boil. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth and foamy. Pour evenly into 4 mugs. Carefully drop a scoop of the ice cream into each mug.

So, this is what we've tried so far . . . what are your favorites?

Autumn Veggie Stew

2011-12-13T18:18:00.000-08:00

The inspiration started when I cooked a big pot of white beans . . . and then took shape after a trip to the Farmers' Market . . . and then was finished off by homemade Thai Green Curry Sauce purchased at Rutiz Farms to create one of the best stews I've made. It's so darn good, we are eating it for snacks as well as meals . . . and I'll share the recipe with you. (Since the types and strengths of curry sauces and pastes are so different, add a little at a time until it's to the spiciness and flavor that you like--I used about a tablespoon of Ruth's Green Curry Sauce.)

Autumn Veggie Stew

olive oil
2 cups sliced leeks (white part of about 3-4 leeks)
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 stalks celery, sliced
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 red bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces
1-2 anaheim chilis, minced
2 cups diced tomatoes (or 1 15-ounce can with juice)
1 quart vegetable broth
1 3/4 cups cooked white beans (or 1 15-ounce can)
6 cups chopped kale
green curry sauce or paste to taste
salt and black pepper to taste

Place a large pot over low heat. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add leeks, garlic, and celery. Cook about 5 minutes to soften. Add squash, pepper, chilis, tomatoes, and broth. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Add beans and kale. Cover and simmer another 15 minutes, or until squash is tender. Season with curry sauce/paste and salt and pepper, to taste.

Serves 8

BOOK REVIEW: Quick-fix Vegan

2011-12-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

Quick-Fix Vegan
by Robin Robertson

Review by Cathe Olson

I’m sure you’ll be as excited as I was to find out that Robin Robertson has a new cookbook out. Roberson’s books have long been a staple at my house, but with her new book, Quick-Fix Vegan, I think she’s outdone herself.

According to the book cover, Quick-Fix Vegan contains 150 “healthy, homestyle meals” that can be prepared in “30 minutes or less.” Unlike other “quick” cookbooks that rely heavily on jarred sauces and prepared foods, the recipes in this book are made largely from whole, unprocessed foods . . . foods I have on hand and feel good about serving my family.

The chapter of Starters and Snacks includes Moroccan Pumpkin Hummus, Super Nachos, and Easy Artichoke Puffs. I made the vegetable fritters—a mixture of shredded onions, potatoes and vegetables, held together with flour and nondairy milk—for my family and they were a huge hit. In fact, I’ve made them several times since, varying the vegetables, herbs, and flours with excellent results. The leftovers, if there are any, go great in the kids’ lunchboxes. It was a bit challenging to get the fritters all cooked in under 30 minutes, but getting several skillets cooking at once does decrease the cooking time (though adds to the cleanup time). (See more on the fritters here!)

I’m a big soup fan—especially this time of year—and Robertson includes some great ones. We loved the Creamy Greens Soup made with kale and coconut milk; and the Cream of Mushroom Soup was sublime. I haven’t had a chance to try any of the Speedy Sandwiches or Snappy Salads, but am looking forward to making the Sloppy Portobellos, Seitan and Slaw Wraps, Freeburgers, and Burmese Ginger Salad.

The selection of Stovetop Suppers and Pasta Express dinners include a variety of veganized international favorites like Tofu “Scampi” with Spinach, Jerk Seitan and Vegetable Skillet, Korean Hot Pot, and Skillet Lasagne. I made the Tofu Skillet Scramble and it was super quick and easy, and very flavorful. The book also includes recipes for condiments, gravies and chutneys, and desserts like Pear Turnovers, which I am dying to try, and Molasses Ginger Cookies with blueberries.

Every recipe I tried worked well. The instructions were clear and simple. The ingredients are ones I had on hand or could find easily. Some of the recipes do take longer than 30 minutes to prepare. For example, the baking time for the Portobellos Stuffed with Chickpeas and Chard is 25 minutes. But you still need to prep the ingredients and cook the chard for 7 minutes. So read over the recipes carefully if you really are pressed for time just to be sure.

My recommendation? This is one of the best cookbooks I’ve found in a long time. The meals are great for families—nothing too outlandish, but nothing boring either. It is definitely the first one I’ll turn to in the busy months to come.

Vegan Holiday Heaven

2011-11-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

I don't care if Santa comes or not this year . . . I've already gotten my presents. Two of my favorite cookbook authors came out with new books and I just couldn't ask for anything more.

About a month ago, I got Robin Robertson's new cookbook Quick-fix Vegan. I've been having such a great time trying out her delicious recipes (full review coming soon) and then 2 days before Thanksgiving, I got Nava Atlas's new cookbook Vegan Holiday Kitchen. I already had my Thanksgiving dinner planned and all my ingredients stocked, but as soon as I started paging through Nava's book . . . I knew I had to try them. So after a hurried trip to the store on Thanksgiving eve (which I do not recommend!), I was ready for the alterations.

The main dish was to be Robin Robertson's Seitan En Croute which is basically seitan and stuffing wrapped in puff pastry. I used the Slow Cooker Seitan I made the week before and substituted Nava's Walnut-Apple Stuffing (there was a lot left over so I cooked the rest of the stuffing on the side). My husband and I loved the Seitan En Croute, but my daughters were bigger fans of the stuffing plain.

I stuck to my original plan of Roasted Root Vegetables from the Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, because I know it's always a sure hit--but instead of the roasted green beans I had planned, I made the Agave and Mustard Glazed Green Beans from Vegan Holiday Kitchen, which my daughters absolutely loved.

And finally, rather than the regular apple sauce requested by my apple sauce obsessed daughter, I made Nava's Cranberry-Apple Sauce (though I used double the apples and half the cranberries because I wasn't sure how it would go over)--and believe it or not, both of my daughters declared it their favorite dish of our Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, the next day as my younger daughter finished off the last bits, she told me she liked it better than regular applesauce. Lucky me--I still have half a bag of cranberries left so I'll get right on another batch!

The best thing is it's not even December yet so I'll have plenty of occasions to treat my family and friends to more of the wonderful dishes from both of this great cookbooks.

Bon appetit!

Slow Cooker Seitan

2011-11-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting with seitan lately . . . something I seem to do every couple of years. I really don't like the store-bought kind but never seem to get around to making my own. Until I read in Robin Robertson's Quick-fix Vegan that it can be made in a slow cooker. Well, it was like a light bulb went off in my head. Of course! A slow cooker is the perfect place to make seitan. Long, slow cooking so the seitan can absorb the flavors and no need for me to have to be home (or awake) while it cooks. So I went searching through my cookbooks and on the Internet and added a couple of innovations of my own, and came up with this recipe. The whole house smelled amazing and the seitan was perfect--moist, flavorful--my daughters keep snitching pieces from the refrigerator so that tells you how much they like it.

Slow Cooker Seitan

Seitan ingredients:

2 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups water
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil

Simmering broth ingredients:

1 onion, coarsely chopped
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
Sprig of fresh thyme, rosemary, and/or sage (or a teaspoon of each dried) (optional)
1 quart (4 cups) vegetable broth

Place gluten flour, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined. Stir in the water, soy sauce, and olive oil and stir until mixture is combined. Knead the dough for a minute or two. Let dough rest for five minutes while you set up the slow cooker and turn it to low, and get the simmering broth ingredients prepared. Cut the dough into 4 pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Arrange seitan dough balls in the bottom of the slow cooker. Sprinkle the onion, garlic, and herbs over the dough. Pour the broth over everything. Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours. Cool in slow cooker for an hour at room temperature, or until the seitan is cool enough to handle.

Store in broth or removed from broth and tightly wrapped—in refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 3 to 6 months.

Makes about 2 pounds

Next I want to try an Asian-flavored -- I'm thinking sliced ginger and maybe lemon grass instead of the herbs above . . .

Mushroom-Pistachio Phyllo Pinwheels

2011-11-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

I was in a cooking mood yesterday so decided to try some recipes from a new cookbook I got when I went olive oil tasting in Los Olivos a few weeks ago. The book is by Theo Stephan, the owner of Global Gardens, and it features Caliterranean Food and uses lots of olive oil and vinegars.

I wanted to make her phyllo rolls but the filling was mostly olives and, as much as I love olive oil, I just do not care for olives. So I made up a mushroom filling to compliment the pistachios and feta cheese and it came out great.

Here's what I did, if you want to try it . . . or if you want the original recipe, you click here to find out more about her cookbook.

Also . . . if you have any leftover of the pistacio-parsley mixture, it is a great substitute for parmesan cheese on pasta . . . we sprinkled some on our salad too.

Mushroom Pistachio Phyllo Pinwheels

Olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound mushrooms (baby bella, crimini, white, etc.), coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon medium sherry
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup shelled raw pistacios
1/4 cup parsley leaves
4 ounces vegan feta cheese (optional)
1 (1-pound) package phyllo sheets
1/4 cup blood orange balsamic vinegar

Place a skillet over medium-low heat. Coat bottom with olive oil. Add onion and sauté 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, mushrooms, sherry and salt.. Saute 10 more minutes, or until mushrooms are tender. Let cool slightly.

Place pistachios and parsley in food processor fitted with metal blade and mince until nuts are ground. Remove to a small bowl. Pour mushroom mixture into food processor and pulse to mince.

Set up work station. Line a board or tray with parchment paper. Place about 1/2 cup olive oil in a bowl with a pastry brush. (You may need to add more as you assemble the rolls.) Have pistachio mixture, mushroom mixture, and feta in easy reach. Also, divide the number of phyllo sheets that come in your package by 4. If it’s not an even number, some may have different number of sheets. For example, the phyllo I use contains 18 sheets, so I used 5 sheets for two rolls and 4 sheets for two rolls. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Assemble as follows: Place one sheet of phyllo on the parchment. Brush lightly with olive oil. Place the next sheet and repeat for remaining sheets for that roll. Then sprinkle 1/4 of the mushroom mixture over phyllo – leaving about an inch clear on one shorter end of the rectangle. Sprinkle 1/4 of the pistacio mixture over phyllo, again leaving the end clear. And then 1/4 of the feta. Roll the phyllo tightly ending with the clear inch space. Use extra olive oil to seal the roll. Repeat with remaining phyllo and filling until you have 4 rolls. Slice each roll into 1-inch slices and place on baking sheet.

Bake 25 minutes, or until top and sides are golden. Pour vinegar into a small pan. Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes to reduce. Brush the vinegar over the tops of the pinwheels. Serve immediately.

Makes 40

Victory for milk labeling

2011-11-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

Companies like Monsanto and Eli Lilly don't want consumers to know if their milk and other dairy products come from cows treated with bovine growth hormones. They've tried to keep growth hormone-free products from being labeled as such by lobbying the FDA, suing dairy farmers, and urging governments to curtail farmers' freedom of speech.

Now I guess I can understand why these companies have a vested interest in keeping the information about the growth hormones a secret, given the public's aversion to it . . . but why in the world has the state of Ohio been trying to "rBGH-free" and "produced without artificial growth hormones" labels from dairy products. Yup, it's true -- they tried to make it illegal to tell consumers how their milk was produced.

Well, in 2010, a Sixth Circuit court decided that milk produced with synthetic hormones is different than milk produced without it. The court found:
- A compositional difference does exist between milk from untreated cows and conventional milk.
- The use of rBGH (rbST) in milk production has been shown to elevate the levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a naturally occurring hormone that in high levels is linked to several types of cancers, among other things.
- rBGH (rbST) use induces an unnatural period of milk production during a cow's "negative energy phase." Milk produced during this stage is considered to be low quality due to its increased fat content and its decreased level of proteins.
- Milk from rBGH-injected cows contains higher somatic cell counts, which makes the milk turn sour more quickly and is another indicator of poor milk quality.

But Ohio was still trying to get around the ruling and figure a way to keep labeling illegal . . . however, according to an Oct. 31st Sacramento Bee article, "The State of Ohio today agreed that it will no longer pursue regulations limiting labeling on organic dairy products."

This is a real victory toward consumers gaining the right to know what is in their food and how it's produced. Hopefully, this is a step toward getting all foods produced by genetically engineering to be labeled.

Sometimes you just have to take care of yourself

2011-11-01T19:42:00.001-07:00

You know how you have those weeks when you just have too much going on and you're just trying to make it through? Well, I'm on my second one of those. It has been just nonstop at work, at home, with school, kids . . . you name it. I got home from a stressful day at work, completely exhausted, only to face two school assignments due, a mound of dirty dishes, a pile of books I need to review, a blog post I need to write, bills to pay, orders to fill . . . and something is wrong with my server so I'm not getting my emails. I was about ready to lose it . . . I'm sure you've been there too.

So I was just about resigned to another dinner of frozen veggie potstickers eaten at my desk while trying to get everything done when . . . I stopped myself.

I made a cup of green tea and sat in my chair for 45 minutes and read. I even dozed a little. Then I got up and made myself a nice, homemade dinner. I lit a candle, poured a glass of wine (just a half--I did still have to do my schoolwork), and had a wonderful meal.

Now, I feel so much better and more relaxed. I may have to stay up later to finish what I need to do but at least I feel like I took care of myself and everything is not so overwhelming.

Of course, the book I read is a novel I'm reviewing and the meal I cooked is from a cookbook I'm reviewing so I even got some work done on my 'to dos'--but in a good way.

12 Minute Applesauce

2011-10-24T17:18:00.001-07:00

My daughter LOVES homemade applesauce. Unfortunately, I don't always have the time to make it. So today, she really wanted applesauce for an afterschool snack, so we tried this experiment. And it worked! Now she can make her own homemade applesauce whenever she wants. Here's how we did it:

1) Core and cut 4 apples into small piece - she used our apple corer/slicer (the little handheld kind that cuts the apple into 8 wedge) and then cut each wedge into small pieces . . . we didn't bother to peel them.
2) Place the pieces in a microwave-safe bowl. Sprinkle cinnamon over them. Add enough water or apple juice to cover the bottom, about 1/8-inch high.
3) Cover bowl, leaving a little opening for steam to escape. I used the lid for the bowl, but angled it so there was a small opening. Microwave on high for 10 minutes.
4) Mash apples with a fork. Taste and add sweetener if needed (our apples were quite tart, so we used just a little brown sugar, but maple syrup, stevia, agave, honey would work great too).

It was really, really good!

Deception in the Natural Cereal Industry

2011-10-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

There is a huge difference between cereals labeled "organic" and those labeled "natural" according to a report done by the Cornucopia Institute. The word "natural" is basically a marketing ploy to get us to think the product is safer and healthier than regular cereals, but there is no regulation or really even a definition of what "natural" means. "Natural" cereals contain ingredients grown on conventional farms where the use of toxic pesticides and genetically engineered organisms is widespread. In fact the Cornucopia Institute tested cereals by leading natural brands including Kashi and Mothers (now owned by Kellogg and Pepsico) and found that they contained high levels of genetically engineered ingredients.

Many companies that offered organic cereals are switching to conventionally-grown ingredients and calling their products "natural." Barbara's and Annie's have drastically reduced their organic cereal offerings . . . so don't assume the cereal you've always eaten is still organic . . . be sure to check the label and buy only those with the USDA organic seal, not those trying to mislead consumers.

To make the deception even worse, the supposedly "natural" cereals are often priced higher than regular cereals. Watch this short video to find out more and check out this cereal scorecard to see how your cereal rates.

Really good vegan cookies

2011-10-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

When I want a cookie, it pretty much has to be homemade. Storebought cookies never seem to have the right texture. Either they're too chewy or too dry--and almost always too sweet, especially the supposedly healthy fruit-sweetened ones.

But even homemade ones have to be right . . . so I'm always experimenting. Well, I hit on these the other day and I I have say these are one of the best I've come up with. They are crisp but moist, taste great--and best of all they are made with whole grain flour and are lower in fat and sugar than most cookies. Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour
3/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinammon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil 2 cookie sheets. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the oil, peanut butter, applesauce, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk the spelt flour, white flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Pour the flour mixture into the wet mixture and stir until combined into a stiff dough. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are golden. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Makes 3 dozen

October is NON-GMO Month

2011-10-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

According to the Organic Consumers Association:

- In 2011, Monsanto added sweetcorn, sugar beets and alfalfa to the list of GMO crops that already included field corn, cotton, canola, soy, and papaya - without regulations to protect organic farmers from contamination and no labels to respect consumers' right to know.

- However, also in 2011, Monsanto couldn't hide its failure any longer. Its GMO crops toppled over and were strangled in the fields, attacked by the very insects and weeds they were genetically engineered to resist.

October, 2011 is Non-GMO Month. You can get involved. Check out these sites for more information:

California: LabelGMOs.org

NYC to DC - Oct 1-16 - The Right2Know March

Austin, TX - Oct 2 - Rally for Real Food

Nationwide - Oct 15 & 16 - Millions Against Monsanto World Food Day Events

Quick Veggie Stew

2011-09-26T18:11:00.001-07:00

Need a quick dinner that's super healthy. As long as you have veggies in the house, this is a snap and will be ready in less than 30 minutes!

Quick Vegetable Stew
This is a great way to use up veggies from your CSA box or garden. You don’t need to chop fine—just cut everything into bite-sized pieces. If you know I'll be home late and want a dinner to be ready, make it in the morning and stick it in the refrigerator so the flavors can meld.

Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 potatoes, diced to bite-sized pieces
2 carrots, sliced
1 quart vegetable broth
3 cups chopped broccoli
2 cups bite-sized green beans
1 zucchini, sliced into half-moons
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
salt and black pepper to taste
Chopped fresh parsley for serving (optional)

Place a large pot (I love my cast iron for this) over low heat. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and carrots. Cook and stir another 5 minutes. Add the broth. Turn heat to high. Add the remaining vegetables and herbs. When mixture boils, cover the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Season with salt and black pepper. Sprinkle with fresh parsley if desired when serving.

Serves 6

My competition!

2011-09-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

My 10-year-old daughter invented a recipe for peanut butter-banana cookies.

At her dad’s house.

Without me advising, coaching, or otherwise sticking my two cents in.

They were great!

And when I asked her if she wrote down the recipe because I’d like to put it in my next cookbook, she told me, "Sorry, Mom. It's going in MY cookbook."

2011-09-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

My friend Lynda made me some green pea pesto a couple of months ago and I not only loved it, but thought it would be perfect as a lasagna filling. I came up with a vegan version of the pesto and decided rather than traditional lasagna, rollups would be fun. My family and I really enjoyed these and it makes a nice big batch so its great for company (actually, I like it just for us so there are lots of leftovers I can freeze). Let me know what you think.

Green Pea Pesto Lasagna Roll-Ups
When you want a change from regular lasagna, this is a great one to try. The pea pesto is very creamy and we love the mixture of basil and mint. I used whole wheat noodles, but any kind work fine. If there are leftovers, I like to freeze them in small containers with just 1 or 2 rolls, which are perfect for to take for lunch or for the kids to microwave for a snack.

14 Lasagna noodles
2 cups Roasted Tomato Sauce or Marinara Sauce
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (dairy or nondairy)

Green Pea and Walnut Pesto Filling:
2 cups frozen green peas, thawed (or fresh peas steamed until bright green)
1 cup walnuts, toasted
1 head roasted garlic
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon salt
16 ounces extra firm tofu
1/4 cup olive oil

Place all pesto ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Place in refrigerator while cooking noodles. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook noodles in 3 batches until al dente—usually about 10 minutes. Remove from water and lay them out on a work surface.

Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Oil a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Spread each noodle with a layer of pesto filling—about 1/4-inch thick. Roll noodles up and place seam side down in pan. Spread the sauce over the rolls and then sprinkle with cheese. Cover with aluminim foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Serves 6 to 8

Creamy Multigrain Farina

2011-09-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

We love hot cereals on these cold, foggy mornings, like brown rice or barley farina. They're hearty and delicious . . . but unfortunately, the organic packaged mixes are expensive. The good news is that they are easy to make yourself . . . and if you make a big batch of the mix, it makes weekday breakfasts easy. The cost difference . . . well, 4 cups of Brown Rice Farina cost me almost $7.00 at a local health food store. The grains (from the bulk bin) to make the same amount of farina using the following recipe cost me less than $3.00.

Creamy Multi-Grain Cereal Mix
This recipe is wheat-free but if you prefer it to be gluten-free, substitute of the other grains for the barley. It's also great with just a single grain . . . like all brown rice or all barley, etc.

1 cup millet
1 cup quinoa
1 cup brown rice
1 cup barley

Toast the grains, one at a time, in a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Be sure to watch the grains and stir occasionally so they don’t burn. When the grains are slightly golden and giving off nutty aroma. Pour them into a large bowl to cool, while you cook the next grain. When all the grains are cool, grind them to a powder using a coffee or grain grinder, or a high-powered blender. Store the cereal mixture in a covered jar.

Makes 4 cups

To prepare the cereal: In a medium pan, whisk together 1 cup Creamy Multi-Grain Cereal Mix with 4 cups water. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until mixture is thickened.

Serves 3-4

Vegan Lemon Gingersnap Ice Cream

2011-09-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

So, I've been eyeing this new ice cream flavor at Trader Joe's called Lemon Triple Gingersnap Ice Cream and decided why not make a nondairy version. I used the Lemon Ice Cream recipe from Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love (I used Meyer lemons), and at the end mixed in grated lemon peel and crushed gingersnap cookies. OMG -- heaven. Just heaven.

Here's the recipe if you want to try.

Lemon Gingersnap Ice Cream

1 (14-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
1 cup nondairy milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar or agave syrup
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
Grated peel from 2 lemons
2/3 cup crushed gingersnap cookies (about 10)

Place the coconut milk, nondairy milk, and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until well combined. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Whisk in the lemon juice and freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. When the ice cream is firm, add the grated lemon peel and crushed cookies. Process another minute, or until they are distributed through the ice cream.

Makes about 1 quart

Veggie Enchiladas

2011-08-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Back to School eve with dinner at Rudy and Angie's, our favorite Mexican restaurant. Although it's not on the menu, they made me some vegetable enchiladas and they were so good I couldn't stop thinking about them . . . so I attempted to create my own version--which came out pretty yummy as well.

Veggie Enchiladas
Lots of veggies and refried beans wrapped in tortillas and smothered in sauce. One of the ultimates in Mexican comfort food. This makes a nice big batch, which is great because they taste great the second day too. You don’t need to be too fussy in dicing the vegetables. They just need to be in bite-sized pieces, small enough that they will roll up in the tortilla. If your in a hurry, use prepared enchilada sauce rather than making it yourself.

Enchilada Sauce:

Olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
Salt, to taste
Hot Pepper Sauce, to taste

Filling:

Olive oil
1 red onion, coarsely chopped
10 white mushrooms, quartered
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 carrots, cut into half moons
2 cups chopped broccoli or cauliflower
Kernels cut from 1 ear of corn or 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels
Salt
Black pepper
Hot Pepper Sauce

The rest:

12 corn tortillas
1 (16-ounce) can refried beans
2 cups Enchilada Sauce (page xx)
1/2 – 1 cup shredded Jack-style dairy or vegan cheese (optional)

Prepare Sauce as follows: Place a small pan over low heat with just enough oil to coat the bottom. Add onion and sauté 5 minutes, or until soft. Stir in chili powder, cumin, oregano, and garlic. Sauté 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and sauté a couple of minutes. Add the remaining vegetables and stir together. Cover and cook about 5 minutes—just until vegetables are bright in color and slightly tender--uou want them to be crisp. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with salt, black pepper, and Hot Pepper Sauce to taste.
Set up your assembly area with the tortillas, beans, and vegetable mixture and a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Pour a little of the Enchilada Sauce into the pan—just enough to spread a thin layer across the bottom. Working with one tortilla at a time, spread a couple of tablespoons of the refried beans down the middle of the tortilla. Then spoon the vegetable mixture over the filling—enough so it will fill the rolled tortilla but not so much that you can’t roll it. Roll the tortilla tightly around the filling and place it seam side down in the pan. Corn tortillas can be delicate so don’t worry if they crack. Just kind of push them together in the pan. Continue until the pan is full. I usually do 8 tortillas placed horizontally down the length and then place the last four 2 and 2 vertically along side them. If you have any beans or filling left, just spread them over the enchiladas. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas, spreading to make sure they are completely covered. Sprinkle cheese evenly over all, if using. Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serves 6-8

Rhubarb-Peach-Raspberry Crisp

2011-08-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

We just can't get enough of all these delicious local summer fruits--nor can we get enough of the yummy desserts made with them. Here's our latest experiment. I did the filling and my daughter Emily came up with the topping!

Rhubarb-Peach-Raspberry Crisp
Serve with whipped topping, ice cream, or try our favorite—a generous dollop of vanilla yogurt.

Filling:
3 peaches, diced (about 2 cups)
3 cups sliced rhubarb
1 cup raspberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup natural granulated sugar
pinch salt

Topping:
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup barley, spelt, or whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 9-inch square baking pan. Gently toss filling ingredients together until fruit is coated. Pour into baking pan. Stir topping ingredients together. Pour evenly over filling. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden.
Makes 9 servings

Reuseable Sandwich Bags

2011-08-16T07:49:00.000-07:00

I just heard about this product and thought I'd share. I haven't tried them so I'm not endorsing but for those of you wanting to avoid the pollution and cost of plastic baggies, this sounds like a good option.

Lunchskins are reuseable cloth bags that are dishwasher safe and free from BPA and lead. They come in snack size, sandwich size, and sub size.

I also understand there is a free shipping special right now:

Just in time for back-school shopping, you can purchase LunchSkins, the reusable, dishwasher-safe baggies with FREE SHIPPING. Just enter code BTS2011 and you’re all set to make those healthy lunches on the go.

If anyone has tried these, please let me know how you liked them. If I get some, I will post a review.

Loving that summer produce!

2011-08-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

Had a delicious vegan, almost 100% local dinner tonight thanks to the wonderful produce from Rutiz Farms in Arroyo Grande. Corn on the cob, roasted zucchini and green beans, braised spinach, and salad. Seasoned with olive oil, blood orange balsamic vinegar, and seasoning mix from Global Gardens in Los Olivos.

Gluten-Free Ginger Peach Corn Muffins

2011-08-08T07:58:00.001-07:00

Once again, putting off grocery shopping has forced me to be creative with surprising results. I was in the mood for muffins but since I didn't have any wheat flour, I tried brown rice and corn flour. And it was yummy--and not only are these muffins vegan, but they're gluten-free as well. I already made a second batch to freeze for school lunches.

Ginger Peach Corn Muffins (Gluten-free)
Sweet, spicy, and moist.

3/4 cup corn meal
1 1/4 cups brown rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup nondairy milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 peaches, diced
3 tablespoons diced candied ginger (found this at Trader Joes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil 12 muffin tins. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and corn meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate smaller bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, vanilla, milk, and vinegar. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Fold in the peaches and ginger. Pour into muffin tin, filling each cup about 3/4 of the way full. Bake 30 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing muffins from tin. Serve warm or room temperate. Cool completely on a wire rack before store in a covered container. These freeze great too!

Makes 12

Braised Kale and Tomatoes

2011-08-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the simplest ingredients make the yummiest meals. I'm just home from vacation and haven't had a chance to shop yet but I have tomatoes and kale growing in pots--so I made this side dish and it was so darn good I ate almost the whole thing by myself.

Braised Kale and Tomatoes

Olive oil
1 bunch Dinosaur Kale, washed and chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoons fresh oregano
Sea salt, to taste

Coat the bottom of a skillet with olive oil and place over medium-low heat. Add the kale and garlic. It’s good if there is some water clinging to the kale—it’ll help steam it. Cover and cook about 5 minutes stirring occasionally until the kale is bright green. Add the tomatoes and oregano. Sprinkle with sea salt. Cover and cook another 5 minutes, or until the kale is tender.

Garlicky Beans and Spinach

2011-07-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

I'm visiting my family in Massachusetts so haven't been doing much cooking (my mom and sisters have been spoiling me), but last night decided to give Mom the night off. I roasted potatoes, carrots, zucchini, and onions but needed wanted a protein dish to go with it. So I raided the cupboards and came up with this dish that was a surprise hit with both my family and my nonveg parents. I don't have exact measurements but here's what I did.

Drained and rinsed 1 can of black beans and 1 can of pinto beans and placed in a pan.

My mom has these cubes of crushed garlic that she keeps in the freezer -- said she got them at Trader Joe's. I dropped in 1 cube but if you like even more garlicky flavor use 2. I think roasted garlic would be really great as well.

I added about 10 halved cherry tomatoes. And a cup or two of frozen chopped spinach. Then salted to tasted and added some Italian seasoning herb mix. Heat until warm. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

It was also good on toasted Italian bread -- sort of like bruschetta.

Dairy-free Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream

2011-07-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

Wondering what to do with all of those luscious raspberries in season right now? How about making ice cream. This is one of my favorite recipes from Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love. It tastes like a truffle.

Chocolate-Raspberry Ice Cream
Makes about 3 cups
Rich dark chocolate tinged with fresh red raspberries—a wonderful flavor combination. To make this even more decadent, add a couple of tablespoons of Chambord liqueur.

1 (14-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups raspberries

Place the coconut milk, sugar, and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan and whisk until well combined. Warm on medium-low heat until the mixture just begins to simmer and get foamy. Remove from the heat and stir in the raspberries. Let rest for 20 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl (or, to save on dishwashing, over the saucepan you used to heat the coconut milk). Pour the blended mixture into the strainer and press it through to remove the seeds. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. Then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Vegan Rhubarb-Raspberry Cake

2011-07-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

Rhubarb always brings me back to my childhood. We had a monster plant in our yard and it seems like we ate it all summer long. So when I saw some at Rutiz Farms, I just had to get some. My mom usually stewed it, but many people are turned off by rhubarb cooked that way because it gets kind of mushy and stringy (though I never minded). I thought I'd try something different and thought it would be good in a cake--that would retain a better texture.

Well, I was halfway through putting together the batter when I opened the freezer to get my whole wheat pastry flour (the staple of almost all of my baked goods) and found I was just about out. Not willing to stop for a trip to the store, I made due with some brown rice and buckwheat flour I had. According to my family, not only did they not mind the mixture of flours--they thought it made it better. In fact, I don't know when I've had an experiment have such a resounding success on the first try.

So, if you're game--you try this and let me know what you think. If you don't what to use the different flours, just use 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour--or even unbleached white flour.

Rhubarb-Raspberry Cake

1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup nondairy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups diced rhubarb (3-4 stalks)*
1 cup raspberries

Topping:
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinammon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, whisk sugar and oil together. Add the vanilla, milk, and vinegar. Whisk until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and whisk just until combined. Gently fold rhubarb and raspberries into the batter. Pour into prepared baking pan. Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle evenly over the batter. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 30 minutes before cutting into squares and serving. Serve with some whipped cream-type topping if desired.

Makes 15 squares.

*For thick stalks of rhubarb, cut then in half lengthwise and then slice --sort of like you'd dice up celery for soup. Remove any tough strings.

Boysenberry-Blueberry Buckle

2011-07-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

My daughters and I just could not resist the amazingly flavorful berries at Windmill Farms in Arroyo Grande. The blueberries in particular are so delicious. I talked to the owner and he told me that his blueberries are the Sharp Blue variety. Most farmers grow Jewel because the berries are bigger and the plants yield more--but unfortunately they don't have much flavor. The Sharp Blues on the other hand taste absolutely amazing.

So my daughters and I wanted to make a special dessert with our boysenberries and blueberries, but we couldn't agree on what to make . . . a cake? a crisp? a pie? a tart? So we decided to make a buckle . . . sort of a cake, pie, and crisp all in one. Oh--and it's vegan too!

Boysenberry-Blueberry Buckle

Topping:
1/2 cup whole wheat or spelt flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats (regular or quick)
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch cardomom
1/4 cup salt
4 tablespoons oil

Fruit filling:
2 cups boysenberries
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

Cake:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinammon
1/8 teaspoon cardomom
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nondairy milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 9-inch square baking pan.
Place all topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Mix with a fork until combined.
Place fruit in another bowl. Pour sugar and juice over the fruit. Toss gently until fruit is coated.
To prepare cake. Place flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Stir gently with a fork or whisk to combine. In a larger bowl, whisk sugar and oil together until smooth. Add the vanilla and milk and whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture and whisk until combined.
To assemble buckle, pour cake batter into the prepared pan. Carefully, spoon the fruit filling evenly over the batter. Use your hands to crumble the topping evenly over the batter and fruit. Bake for 50 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and tester comes out clean (other than berry juice). Cool 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Fun with strawberries

2011-06-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

We just can't get enough of those Rutiz Farms strawberries. Our latest creations are vegan buckwheat strawberry pancakes, strawberry-lemon balm muffins, and I tried to recreate my favorite cocktail that the SLO restaurant Novo used to serve. Check it out!

Strawberry-Basil Cooler
1/3 cup crushed strawberries
6 basil leaves, chopped
3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) vodka
1 teaspoon agave syrup or simple syrup (or taste)
ice
sparkling water
Crush the strawberries and basil leaves together with a pestle, fork, or spoon. The strawberries should still be chunky. Pour into a tall glass. Stir in the the vodka and sweetener. Fill the glass almost full with ice cubes. Pour sparkling water over to fill the glass. Stir well. Taste and adjust sweetener if necessary.
Serves 1

Sprouted Tofu

2011-06-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

There has been some controversy on the benefits of eating soy because soybeans contain phytic acid, which keeps your body from absorbing the minerals like calcium and iron. Sprouting the beans, however, decreases the phytic acid. So when I saw sprouted tofu at Trader Joe's, I was excited to try it. It actually tastes and works just like regular tofu so it will work for any tofu recipe you have. I made this tofu vegetable scramble and it was delicious.

Tofu-Veggie Scramble
This easy scramble is delicious not only for breakfast but also for a quick lunch or dinner. It’s great filling for a breakfast burrito too.

Olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 yukon gold potato, diced
2 cups chopped broccoli
8 ounces sprouted (or regular) tofu
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 tablespoon water
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a skillet, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and place over medium-low heat. Add onion and cook a couple of minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic, potato, and broccoli. Cover pan and cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Crumble the tofu and spread over the vegetables. Add the thyme, tumeric, and water and cook and stir until everything is combined and the tofu is heated through. Season to taste with the sea salt and black pepper.

Serves 2 to 4

Vegan desserts with no added sweeteners

2011-06-15T09:33:00.001-07:00

After my appearance on KCBX yesterday, I received many requests for these cookies from my cookbook Simply Natural Baby Food. They are sweetened only with bananas and raisins, and have been very popular at my book signings.

Banana-Oatmeal Cookies
These moist cookies contain no sweeteners, butter, eggs, or wheat.

2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup safflower or other flavorless oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil baking sheet. Grind oats and almonds to a coarse powder in food processor or blender. Pour them into a large mixing bowl. Stir in baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.In separate bowl or in food processor, beat together bananas, oil, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Add banana mixture and raisins to oat mixture. Mix well. Drop cookie dough by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 13 to 16 minutes, or until bottoms are golden brown.

Makes 3 dozen

Variation: You can also replace the raisins with chocolate chips if desired (you can get grain-sweetened chips from Sunspire).

And here is a sorbet from Lick It! Creamy Dream Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love made without sweeteners.

Blueberry-Banana Sorbet
Makes 1 quart
No sweeteners are used in this delicious sorbet—it’s all fruit!

3 bananas
1 cup blueberries
1 cup unsweetened apple juice

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. If the mixture is cold, it may be frozen immediately; otherwise, chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Roasted Carrot and Cauliflower Soup

2011-06-13T11:07:00.001-07:00

And the roastathon continues. Here's today's creation:

Roasted Carrot and Cauliflower Soup
This is fancy enough to serve for company, but easy enough to cook for a weekday meal. Cut regular carrots into 1-inch slices, but if they are fat farmers’ market carrots like I got in my CSA box this week, cut them into 1/2-inch slices.

4 cups sliced (1-inch) carrots
1 head cauliflower, broken into bite-sized florets
1 white onion, peeled and cut into wedges
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/2 cups walnuts
5 cups water (divided)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme or lemon thyme
2 teaspoons light miso (optional)
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, toss carrots, cauliflower, onion, and garlic in enough olive oil to coat. Place on a large baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, or until carrots and caultiflower are tender. Stir and turn vegetables once or twice so they don’t burn. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Remove peel from garlic.
You will need to blend the soup in two batches. Place walnuts and 3 cups water in blender and blend until smooth. Add about half the thyme, miso, and vegetables and blend until smooth. Pour into a medium pan. Put the remaining 2 cups water, thyme, miso, and vegetables to the blender. Blend until smooth. Add to pan and stir together. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. Heat to desired temperature.

Serves 6

Vegan Pizza

2011-06-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

So I promised you last week, I'd show you the vegan pizzas I made with all of those roasted veggies.

First I made two different sauces -- a red sauce from the roasted tomatoes and garlic and a white sauce from white beans, herbs, and roasted garlic. I had a couple of packages of flat breads and my family and I made a bunch of different combinations. Our favorites:

- Margarita Pizza with the white sauce, fresh basil, fresh sliced tomatoes and topped it with toasted walnuts.

- Grilled Corn and Onion Pizza made with the roasted tomato sauce, fresh thyme leaves and the grilled veggies

- Roasted Eggplant and Pinenut pizza - I don’t know whether I like this better with the white sauce or red sauce--they were both amazing.

Rutiz Farms CSA Box

2011-06-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my wonderful CSA -- Rutiz Farms . . . look at all the wonderful meals we had this weekend made from food in Friday's CSA box.

Roasted potatoes, beets, cauliflower and broccoli; strawberry-blueberry pancakes (using the multi-grain pancake mix from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook); Minestrone Soup; and to relax a lovely cup of lemon-balm tea made from leaves of my new lemon balm plant!

Local Olive Oil and more

2011-06-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

After tasting the olive oil at Global Gardens in Los Olivos, CA, I joined their "club" so I can get a basket 4 times a year with their own olive oil, vinegar, and other products. Here's a video featuring what I got in my first one . . . and what I did with it.

10 Scary Reasons to Avoid GMOs (or at least require labeling)

2011-06-02T18:34:00.001-07:00

This is from the Organic Consumers Organization newsletter--10 Scary Reasons to Avoid GMOs (based on this article):

#1 Monsanto's Bt-toxin, in its Bt-producing GMO corn and cotton (used in food in the form of cottonseed oil), was found by Canadian doctors in the blood of 93% of pregnant women and 80% of the umbilical blood of their babies.

#2 The authors of the Canadian study conclude that the women and their babies were exposed to Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin through a "normal" non-organic Canadian diet, including non-organic (so-called "natural" and "conventional") meat, egg, and dairy products from animals fed Bt corn.

#3 Monsanto's GMO "Bt" corn and cotton plants are engineered to produce a insecticide in every cell of the plant that kills insects by breaking open their stomachs.

#4 Mice fed Monsanto's Bt corn had elevated levels of immune system substances that are also higher in humans who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, allergies, Lou Gehrig's disease, autoimmune disease, and colitis.

#5 Young mice in the same study had elevated T-cells, which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.

#6 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has properties of known allergens - it actually fails the World Health Organization's allergen screening tests.

#7 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has been found to bind with the small intestines in mice and with intestinal tissue in rhesus monkeys.

#8 In addition to its GMO "Bt" crops which are engineered to produce insecticide, Monsanto also produces GMO "RoundUp Ready" crops, engineered with a bacterial DNA that allows it to survive otherwise deadly doses of its herbicide RoundUp.

#9 In the only human feeding study ever published on GMOs, Monsanto's GMO "RoundUp Ready" soybeans were found to transfer Monsanto's "RoundUp Ready" DNA to the bacteria living inside human intestines.

#10 According to Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology, the transfer of Monsanto's GMO Bt DNA to human digestive bacteria could create a "living pesticide factory" that could be responsible for the "increase in gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and childhood learning disorders - since 1996 when Bt crops came on the market."

If you are concerned, there are ways to take action here.

More roasted veggies . . .

2011-05-31T17:29:00.000-07:00

My latest adventures with roasting vegetables are just getting more and more delicious--I wanted to work on vegan pizzas and thought that roasted veggies would give the pizzas lots of flavor so the cheese wouldn't be missed. I roasted more garlic but this time added thyme. I also roasted tomatoes, which I had not done before (who knows why--it was even easier than roasting garlic and, oh my gosh, so good). And one of my favorite roasted veggies--eggplant. Next post will be about what I did with all those roasted goodies--but in the meantime, here are roasting directions.

Thyme Roasted Garlic

4 bulbs garlic
olive oil
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Preheat oven to 400 degress F. Peel most of the white papery skin of a the garlic bulb, leaving enough so that the cloves still hold together. Slice off about 1/2 inch off the top—just enough so that most of the cloves are exposed. Place garlic bulbs cut side up in a small baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil. Place a sprig of thyme over each bulb. Cover the dish—if it doesn’t have a cover use foil. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, or until cloves are soft and outsides have started to brown. Let cool slightly before pressing the paste out of each clove. Keep any unused paste in a covered container in the refrigerator up to one week.

Roasted Eggplant
I love to roast a bunch of eggplant and keep it in my refrigator to put on sandwiches, pizza, pasta, salads—I have even been known to just snack on it plain--really!

Preheat oven to 400 degreees F. Oil large baking sheet. Slice eggplant into 1/2-inch slices. You can slice horizontially or vertically depending on whether you want big or smaller pieces. Lay the slices onto the oiled baking sheet. Brush more olive oil over the tops of slices. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until bottoms are browned. Flip slices and baking until brown—another 5 or 10 minutes.

Roasted Plum Tomatoes
A wonderful, easy way to concentrate the tomato flavor. I recommend the parchment paper because otherwise, the baking sheet is really a pain to clean.

16 plum tomatoes, sliced in half (horizontally or vertically, doesn’t matter)
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper if desired (otherwise oil the baking sheet). Place the tomatoes on the baking sheet cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle tomatoes with sea salt and olive oil. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until skin is blackened. Let tomatoes cool slightly before squeezing the tomatoes out the skin.

Blue Corn Crackers

2011-05-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

I don't buy crackers very often as they always seem to have ingredients I prefer not to eat like hydrogenated oils or non-organic corn or soy ingredients that are most likely genetically engineered. Crackers are easy to make though -- pretty similar to making pie crust. I have many recipes in both Simply Natural Baby Food and The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, but here's a new one I came up with recently. My daughter's friend liked it spread with freshly made peanut butter and sprinkled with sea salt.

Blue Corn Crackers
Crispy, flavorful, perfect with soup or as a snack. If you don't have blue corn meal, the regular yellow variety works just fine.

3/4 cup blue corn meal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon agave
3 – 4 tablespoons water, as needed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Large a medium cookie sheet with parchment paper. Mix cornmeal, whole wheat flour, and sea salt in large mixing bowl with fork. Add oil and agave and mix with fork until it begins to hold together. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time and mix with hands until mixture holds together.

Press dough into parchment lined cookie sheet. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Score into squares with knife or pizza cutter. Bake 15 minutes, or until edges are golden. Cool 10 minutes before serving or remove to rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen crackers

Easy roasted vegan dinner

2011-05-16T16:28:00.001-07:00

I am just all about roasting lately. It's easy, makes the house smell great, but mostly everything just seems to taste spectacular when it's roasted.

Here's my latest creation that we all loved. And it really has all the food groups--maybe add a nice warm, crusty bread to round it out!

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 head cauliflower, broken into bite size florets
1 3/4 cups or 1 (15-ounce can) garbanzo beans
1 large onion, peeled and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (thyme would also work well)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a large bowl, toss everything together with enough olive oil to coat. Spread on a large baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper. Roast in the oven about 30 minutes, or until the squash and cauliflower are tender. Stir and flip veggies once or twice to keep once side from getting to brown.

Serves 4-6

Help get GMOs out of Trader Joes

2011-05-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

According to Trader Joes website, "Our customers can be assured that all products in Trader Joe's private label are sourced from non-genetically modified ingredients. Our efforts began in 2001, when we determined that, given a choice, our customers would prefer to eat foods and beverages made without the use of genetically engineered ingredients. Our process has been to identify any product containing ingredients that could potentially be derived from genetically engineered crops and work with our suppliers to replace offending ingredients with acceptable alternatives."

So that's good, you can feel pretty sure if you buy their private label you are not getting GMOs--but other products in their store contain genetically engineered ingredients, like Morningstar Farms, which admits that all but one of their products (the Breakfast Patties Made with Organic Soy) contain genetically modified organisms, and Tofutti, which uses non-GMO soy protein, but admits that other ingredients, like the partially hydrogenated (trans fat) soybean oil in their Better Than Cream Cheese, are genetically modified.

If you want to take action and ask Trader Joes to make their store GE free--or at least label products containing GMOs, send a message to them here.

White Bean Spread and Crostini

2011-05-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a good white bean spread that I can use on sandwiches and I'm hoping on pizza too--and came up with this yummy spread. It's easy to make and very versatile -- you can use it instead of mayo on sandwiches and you'll get lots of great nutrients like protein and minerals rather than empty calories. If you want a stronger garlic flavor, roast two heads rather than just one. And BTW, this was my first time roasting garlic and it couldn't have been easier. Don't know why I waited so long as I love it so much.

White Bean Dip/Spread
This is a nutritious and delicious dip for raw veggies or pita wedges or steamed artichoke leaves. I like it as a substitute for mayonnaise on sandwishes—it’s full of nutrients and low in fat.

1 3/4 cups or 1 (15-ounce) can cooked white beans
1 head roasted garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Keep refrigerated.

Makes 2 cups

Variations: Add chopped parsley, chives, or other fresh herbs

Roasted Garlic
This is super easy, but can transform an ordinary dish into something spectacular. Add them to mashed potatoes, dips and spreads, or just spread them on warm bread.

1 bulb garlic (or as many as you want)
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degress F. Peel most of the white papery skin of a the garlic bulb, leaving enough so that the cloves still hold together. Slice off about 1/2 inch off the top—just enough so that most of the cloves are exposed. Place garlic cut side up in a small baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil. Cover the dish—if it doesn’t have a cover use foil. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, or until cloves are soft and outsides have started to brown. Let cool slightly before using.

So for the crostini I toasted Italian bread, spread the slices thickly with the White Bean Spread. Arranged sliced heirloom tomatoes on top and sprinkled with chopped fresh herbs. So good! The perfect summer lunch or dinner.

Eden Foods Organic Beans--No BPA

2011-04-27T18:02:00.001-07:00

As I continue my quest to find out what canned foods do not contain BPA - - - this from Eden Foods: "Eden Organic Beans are packed in steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous (a natural mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir) c-enamel lining, that does not contain bisphenol-A. These cans cost 14% more than the industry standard cans, which do contain bisphenol-A.

It looks like they've switched to glass for their tomatoes products too.

General Mills and BPA-lined Cans

2011-04-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

I wrote General Mills the following email:

>Original Message From: cathe@simplynaturalbooks.com
>
I am writing because I am concerned about BPA in the canned food products that your company sells. I like the convenience of canned products but am concerned about the effects of BPA on my family. I am hesitant to continue buying these products as long as the can liners contain BPA. What is your company doing to phase out BPA in your can liners and what safer alternative are you using to replace BPA? I look forward to your response.

This is the response I received:

Dear Ms. Olson:
Thank you for contacting General Mills about bisphenol-A or BPA.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a critical component of protective coatings widely used in metal food packaging to help preserve food and maintain its nutritional value and quality. Most canned food and beverage products on the market today use BPA in the can lining or can lid.
Scientific and governmental bodies worldwide have examined the science and concluded that the weight of evidence continues to support the safety of BPA, including comprehensive risk assessments in Japan and in the European Union. While studies continue, food safety regulators are not recommending any specific changes or actions in can lining applications, including those using BPA.

General Mills uses can coatings that fully comply with all applicable global requirements for safe use in food contact materials. But we know that some consumer would like us to pursue alternatives – and we are working intensively with our can suppliers and manufacturers to develop and test linings that do not use BPA. While alternatives have not been identified for all types of foods, we did identify a safe, viable alternative for our tomato products under the Muir Glen brand. We began transitioning those to the alternative cans with the fall 2010 tomato harvest.

With other alternatives currently being tested, we are optimistic that new options will be identified in time. When viable alternative prove safe and effective for other products, we would expect can suppliers and the food industry – in response to consumer interest – to convert to alternative coatings.

Your views are important to us. Be assured that your comments will be forwarded to the appropriate persons here at General Mills. Again, thank you for contacting General Mills, and thank you for your support of our products.

Sincerely,

Paula A. Vaughn
Consumer Care Specialist

So for those of you who use canned tomatoes, looks like Muir Glen brand is a good choice.

Ultra Quick Dinner

2011-04-25T19:12:00.001-07:00

A healthy dinner in 15 minutes! Yes, it's possible. I made these Crispy White Beans (10 minutes), sliced a couple of farmers' market tomatoes and snipped fresh herbs over them, and served with leftover pesto pasta (even if I'd made the pasta, it still would've been a quick dinner). And the family gobbled it up!

BPA from canned foods

2011-04-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Scientists from the Breast Cancer Fund recently published a study that showed that eliminating processed foods significantly lowers BPA exposure. BPA is a toxic industrial chemical used to harden plastic. It is commonly used in plastic food and beverage containers, lids of glass jars, epoxy lining in metal cans and dental sealants. Research has shown that BPA leaches out of the plastic and into food and can be harmful even at low doses. Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have linked BPA to health and development problems, including birth defects, breast and prostate cancer, early puberty, infertility, obesity, chromosome and reproductive abnormalities, diabetes, heart disease and neurobehavioral problems. (Read more here.)

So, according to the Breast Cancer Fund, here are some tips for reducing BPA in your diet:

- Switch to stainless steel and glass food storage and beverage containers.
- Move foods to ceramic or glass food containers for microwaving.
- Consider a French press for coffee – home coffee makers may have polycarbonate-based water tanks and phthalate-based tubing.
- Eat out less, especially at restaurants that do not use fresh ingredients.
- Limit canned food consumption.
- Choose fresh fruits and vegetables when possible, and frozen if not.
- Soak dried beans for cooking (you can make extra and freeze them).

So -- as I read this, I'm thinking I've already done most of these . . . but then they have a list of the canned foods to especially avoid -- the ones high in sodium, fat, and acid - - - which pretty much covers all canned foods. Recently, I've been consciously working toward eliminating canned foods . . . for me, that means beans, tomatoes, and coconut milk. In fact, today I have a big batch of white beans in my slow cooker that I will use some of for dinner and freeze the rest (in glass containers, not plastic). Here's how--in case you're interested.

Soak 2 cups beans overnight in a lot of water. Drain the beans. Place in slow cooker with 8 cups water. Add a strip of kombu (sea vegetable) if desired--helps to soften beans and reduce gas effects. Cover and cook on low about 8-10 hours. Makes about 6 cups beans.

Baked Artichokes

2011-04-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article on artichokes that talked about different ways to cook them besides the usual steaming. It said you can stuff and bake them. So I tried it and WOW -- so yummy and what a great meal for company. Very impressive looking, delicious, and you do all the work ahead of time and then just stick them in the oven.

Here's my recipe:

Baked Stuffed Artichokes

4 small (4-inch) artichokes
2 slices bread, stale or toasted--ends okay
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
grated peel of 1 lemon
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the bottom leaves around the stem of the artichokes. Cut off about an inch off the top of the artichoke. Snip the pointy ends off any remaining leaves. Slice the artichoke in half length-wise and use a teaspoon to scrape out the choke. Wash the artichoke well. Arrange the artichoke halves, cut side up in a baking pan.

To make the stuffing. Tear up the bread and place in a food processor with a metal blade. Process to make bread crumbs. Add remaining ingredients and pulse to mix. Dived the stuffing between the artichoke halves, filling the choke cavity and kind of pressing into the leaves. Add about 1/4-inch of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan tightly and bake about 45 minutes, or until leaves feel loose and stuffing is golden brown.

Serves 4 to 8

Slow Cooker Moroccan Lentil Soup

2011-04-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a friend last weekend about my slow cooker experiments and said she loved Moroccan Lentil Soup--so that was the experiment of the day. And yum -- I really liked this version. I may continue to fine tune the spices -- I didn't have coriander but think that would be a good addition. But for a first try, very pleased!

Slow Cooker Moroccan Lentil Soup

1 onion, diced small
2 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 1/2 cups brown/green lentils
3/4 cup brown rice
12 cups water
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground tumeric
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
black pepper to taste

Turn slow cooker to high or low depending on when you want it ready. Add onion, celery, carrots, lentils, rice, water, cumin, ginger, tumeric, and paprika (in other words everything but the tomatoes, salt and pepper). Cover and cook 4-5 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low. Stir in remaining ingredients and serve or keep on warm until ready to serve. This actually gets better as it sits.

Serves 10

Salad Spinners

2011-03-28T16:54:00.001-07:00

I gave a talk Saturday about ways to incorporate more local foods and greens into your diet. One of the recipes I demo'd was a salad with my 30-second salad dressing. I told participants that a salad spinner is a great idea. When your lettuce is dry, the salad dressing adheres better so you need less of it. (Another tip for using less dressing is to toss your salad in a bowl with the dressing. When you put salad on your plate and add teh dressing there, you'll use much more.)

I also love that my spinner came with a cover. When I get my head of lettuce home from the farmers' market, I tear off the leaves, soak and wash the whole head and spin in the spinner. Then I replace the spinner part with a cover and I have clean, ready-to-use lettuce all week. It's much cheaper and much healthier than the bagged lettuce sold in stores which has been found to contain high levels of bacteria.

One of the attendees gave me a couple of other uses for salad spinners so I thought I'd share.

- If you put too much dressing on your salad, put it in the spinner and spin off the excess.

- When you hand wash items, spin them in your spinner before you lay them out to dry. She says she has an old one exclusively for this--I'm going to check the thrift store when I go. I think this would be great to dry bathing suits too. Would I look weird carrying a salad spinner to the high school pool?

So how about you--any salad spinner tips you want to share?

Governments are protecting farmers against GMO

2011-03-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, not the US government. But in South America, wide-spread health and environmental disasters have forced them to take action. In Europe, less than .06 percent are planted with GM crops. See the full article here.

Orange-Cardamom Scones

2011-03-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Here's an easy scone recipe that we love. The scones have a delicious flavor from the orange and spice. We especially love them topped with apricot jam (try the 20-minute apricot jam recipe in The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook made from dried apricots!)

Orange-Cardamom Scones

2 cups whole wheat pastry or spelt flour
2 tablespoons unbleached sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Juice and grated peel or 1 orange
1/4 cup cold vegan butter or coconut oil, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup nondairy milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, and grated peel of one orange. Mix the butter into the flour mixture with a fork, pastry cutter, or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal. A food processor works well for this too.

Mix the juice of one orange (about 1/4 cup) and the milk together in small cup. Stir into flour mixture, until it begins to hold together. Knead with your hands to form a ball. Add more milk if necessary together it to hold together. Place dough on floured board and roll out to a 7-inch disc of about 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into 8 wedges. Place wedges on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes, or until bottom and edges are golden brown. Cool slightly before serving.

Makes 8 scones

I'm in love!

2011-03-10T19:30:00.001-08:00

. . . with my new slow cooker. Dinner #3 was another big hit with the family. Here's what I did.

White Bean Soup

2 cups dried navy beans
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 quart vegetable stock
3 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups frozen corn
4 cups chopped fresh spinach
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Soak beans in lots of water overnight (I do this right in the slow cooker, why bother with another dish.) Drain soak water and place beans in slow cooker turned on to low. Add onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots, stock, water, oregano, and basil. Cover and cook on low about 8 hours (or longer). Stir in corn and spinach. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 15 minutes or so, until corn and spinach are cooked.

My family liked this topped with parmesan (dairy or nondairy version).

Serves 8

New Slow Cooker

2011-03-08T06:25:00.001-08:00

Hooray--I got a new slow cooker! After checking online reviews, I decided on a Hamilton Beach oval slow cooker and took it for its first test run yesterday. I got 17 Bean & Barley Mix from Trader Joes, which I soaked overnight. In the morning, I put onion, garlic, diced carrots, oregano, basil, and half veggie stock and half water in the pot with the bean mix on low. I came home to the most wonderful aroma--in fact, the girls asked for bowls of soup for their snack--they couldn't wait until dinner. I added some diced zucchini and chopped kale and let it cook for another hour and we ate it for dinner. Everyone had more than one serving and we have just enough leftover for lunch. Hooray for slow cookers!

BOCA Burgers made with GE soy

2011-03-04T19:01:00.000-08:00

If you are avoid genetically-engineered foods, you may want to stay away from BOCA burgers. The BOCA website's FAQ page says:

"We're committed to providing you with great-tasting products made with the highest-quality soy. It's a fact that much of the high-quality soy grown in the U.S. has been genetically engineered, so the traditional BOCA line of soy-based products may contain ingredients derived from these crops."

They go on to say that BOCA has a non-GMO line as well, but according to the Organic Consumers Association, "these products are neither certified organic (organic prohibits GMOs) nor monitored by the Non-GMO Project, so it's impossible to verify BOCA's non-GMO claims."

I recommend avoiding any soy products that are not certified organic. If you really want a quick veggie burger, try my 15-minute veggie burger. It's so nice to know exactly what's in your burger.

Healthy soup in 30 minutes? Yup!

2011-02-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

My life seems to be all about quick dinners lately--At least until I get myself a new crock pot. Tonight, we arrived home from play practice starving so I put together this soup in 30 minutes. It was the perfect meal for a cold night and fed all four of us with just enough for the girls to take for lunch in thermoses tomorrow. I have this seasoning saute mix from Trader Joe's that I love . . . it's a blend of herbs and spices and is an easy way to spice up almost anything.

Quick Vegetable-Bean Soup

Olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, cut into half-moons
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 quart vegetable stock
1 small head cauliflower, chopped
2 cups chopped kale, cabbage, or spinach
1 (15-ounce) can cooked kidney beans (1 3/4 cups)
sea salt
black pepper
Seasoning mix (optional)

Coat bottom of large pot with olive oil and place over low heat. Add onion and sauté 5 minutes. Stir in celery, garlic, carrots and potatoes and sauté a few more minutes. Add vegetable stock. Cover and turn heat to high. When mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to low. Simmer 10 minutes. Add cauliflower, kale (or cabbage or spinach), and beans. Cover and simmer 5 to 10 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Season with salt, pepper, and seasoning mix to taste.

Serves six

15-Minute Veggie Burger

2011-02-18T12:38:00.000-08:00

We got home from dance practice and had 1/2 hour to cook and eat, before heading out to a play. Trying to see what I could make in a hurry, I came up with these veggie burgers--thanks to leftover rice and beans in the refrigerator. TIP: Whenever you cook rice or beans from scratch, ALWAYS MAKE EXTRA. There are so many ways to use the leftovers.

My kids absolutely loved these and they are so much healthier than storebought veggie burgers, plus they are free of soy, dairy, gluten, corn, and nuts! They get kind of lost in a big burger bun so you might want to put two burgers on the bun, but they are perfect in a pita pocket with sunflower sprouts. Since we had 2 burgers left over (no time for seconds!), I made the girls cold veggie burgers sandwiches (whole wheat bread, mayo, catsup, lettuce, and burger) for lunch and they said they were great. Next time, I will double the recipe and freeze some.

15-Minute Veggie Burgers

1 stalk celery
1 carrot
1 1/2 cups cooked lentils (or other bean)
1 1/4 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon tumeric powder
pinch paprika
oil for pan

Cut celery and carrot into chunks and place in a food processor with a metal blade. Process until the vegetables are minced. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until the mixture holds together but is still a little chunky.

Pour enough oil onto griddle or skillet to coat the bottom. Place over medium-low heat. Scoop 1/3 cupfuls of burger mixture onto hot skillet. Flatten to a burger shape. Let cook 5 minutes, or until bottom is brown and crisp. Do not turn to early or the burger will fall apart. Carefully turn the burger (it will be delicate), and cook another 5 minutes or so until crisp.

Makes 6 burgers

Note: These would also be great with other beans, spices, and vegetables

Slow cooker success at last!

2011-02-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

Well -- mystery solved. I made the identical split pea soup recipe from the other day when the peas never softened but made it in a borrowed slow cooker. It was such a treat to come home Friday evening to a perfectly cooked dinner! And even better, this slow cooker had a removable canister so I could bring it to the table, and it was much easier to wash.

So, if you want to come home to a nourishing, delicious meal, here's my recipe:

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

1 smallish onion, chopped fine
2 stalks celery, diced
2 large carrots, diced
1 potato, peeled and diced
2 cups dried split peas (green or yellow)
8 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Place all ingredients in slow cooker set to low. Cover and cook 8 to 12 hours. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Serves 8

Note: I also like to add 1 small head cauliflower, chopped (about 3 cups) when I have it on hand.

Oh . . . and this also works on the stovetop. Just simmer for about an hour before seasoning with salt and pepper.

The Hard to Cook Bean Mystery

2011-02-09T20:16:00.001-08:00

I feel like I'm Nancy Drew trying to solve this mystery of the hard beans. When I got home at 10 pm Monday night and the lentils were still hard, I just transferred the whole thing to a pot and stuck in in the refrigerator to deal with later. On Tuesday, when I got home from work, I tried cooking the soup on the stovetop . . . after 2 hours, the lentils were a little softer but definitely not soft enough so I pureed the soup with my immersion blender and added some diced tomatoes and frozen corn. The soup tasted good enough . . . but still not the lentil soup I had been envisioning.

To try to narrow down the problem I wanted to see if the problem might be old beans . . . or maybe even our hard water. I
had some uncooked lentils left so I cooked them from scratch on the stove top. Within 30 minutes, they were soft and perfect.

So to recap, I proved that it's not the beans and not our water . . . it must be the crock pot. But what's really weirding me out is why the lentils didn't soften eventually--not even when I transferred them to the stovetop. It's like there was something that permanently hardened them. I know adding acidic foods can do that but I didn't. I didn't add salt either which some say can keep the beans hard. So, must be the crock pot right?

We'll see. I have borrowed a crock pot from a friend so I will try that next.

Slow Cooker Blues

2011-02-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

For the third time my family ended up having sandwiches for dinner because after more than 12 hours of cooking, we still had hard beans in the crockpot. First it was the split peas . . . and I was like okay because I've had problems with split peas before . . . but then the onions in my barley soup that had been wonderful the week before were raw . . . and last night it was lentils that were hard. And according to my health food store, the lentils had come in in December . . . less than 2 months ago.

So is it the beans or are the cooking times I finding on the Internet wrong (maybe I should cook on high instead of low?) or could it possibly be my crockpot? Before I plunk down money for a new one, a friend will loan me hers so I can do a test.

But really . . . I'm getting tired of wasting time and ingredients on an appliance that is supposed to save me work!

Samosas and Pinto Bean Cakes

2011-02-07T06:44:00.000-08:00

Another fun day of recipe creation . . .

I'd been wanting to try making samosas for a while and finally had the time. I boiled potatoes and carrots and then mashed them with curry and added green peas. Then made a batch of pastry to make the turnovers. They came out good, but were quite a bit of work. I had some leftover filling and since I was frying up some pinto bean cakes, I figured I'd shape the leftover filling into patties and fry them up to an--WOW! So good! I think that might become my chosen recipe . . . I can totally see them with some homemade chutney and some nondairy plain yogurt. I guess chutney experiments will be next. I've never made one.

Versatile Bloggers Award!

2011-02-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

I just found out I've been given The Versatile Blogger Award by the wonderful author/blogger Anne R. Allen!

Apparently the rules are I tell you 7 things about myself, so here goes:

1) I love to read . . . and really I'd get a lot more writing done if that weren't the case. I read about 3 books a week. Check me out on goodreads if you want to see what I'm reading.

2) I'm a library tech in charge of an elementary school library and I love it! It's my dream job (see number 1).

3) I also review books for the Amazon Vine Program, VegFamily Magazine, and occasional other venues--another dream job (again see number 1).

4) I've written a middle-grade novel featuring homeschooled characters and am currently searching for an agent to represent it (in case you know anyone . . .)

5) I've recently started writing a new cookbook of vegan family recipes which I am very excited about. It will be similar to The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook -- simply, family-friendly, whole foods recipes.

6) I love to cook but sometimes I wish I didn't have to. Luckily, my daughters are become quite good cooks!

7) My special relaxation when someone else volunteers to cook: A cup of green tea with a splash of coconut creamer and a square of Green and Black dark chocolate. Oh, and a book of course!

And now . . . my pick for the Versatile Blogger: Alisa Fleming of Alisa Cooks!

Birthday Goodies

2011-01-31T16:20:00.000-08:00

My oldest daughter turned 12 yesterday. I can't believe it!!!! For breakfast she requested chocolate chip pancakes so I made her a vegan version that came out very well. The girls gobbled them off as soon as they came off the griddle . . . I was lucky to get one for myself! We decided that recipe is a keeper.

Then for her birthday dessert, she wanted homemade ice cream. Since a friend gave me a bunch of meyer lemons (and since she LOVES lemon anything), I made the Lemon Ice Cream and Vanilla Sandwich Cookie Crust from Lick It! Creamy Dream Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love and make her a pie.

Here's the recipe in case you have a lemon loving family members:

Grate and save the zest from the lemons to decorate the top of the pie.

NonDairy Lemon Ice Cream
Makes 1 quart
This is slightly milder and creamier than Lemon Sherbet.

1 (14-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
1 cup soymilk or other nondairy milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar or agave syrup
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Place the coconut milk, soymilk, and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until well combined. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Then whisk in the lemon juice and freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Vanilla Sandwich Cookie Crust
Makes 1 (9-inch) pie or torte crust
If you’re using a food processor to make the crust, you can crush the cookies in the processor before adding the oil.

18 vanilla crème-filled sandwich cookies, finely crushed (1 1/2 cups)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or nonhydrogenated margarine, melted

Combine the cookies and oil in a small bowl or food processor and mix until well blended. Press evenly into an unoiled 9-inch pie pan or springform pan. Freeze for 15 minutes before filling.

To assemble the pie, spread the freshly made ice cream into the frozen crust. Sprinkle grated lemon peel on the top. Freeze for 2 hours or until firm. If the pie is frozen solid, you will need to leave at room temperature about 15 minutes or in refrigerator 30-45 minutes, to soften for slicing.

Week Two--Slow Cooker Thursday

2011-01-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

Week two of the great crock pot experiment was Split Pea Soup. Now, Split Pea Soup is probably the easiest soup on the planet to make—just chop onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and throw them in a pot with water and split peas and some herbs—which is what I did. The house smelled great when I got home. But when I lifted the cover to check the soup --- the peas were still hard as a rock. What’s with that???? Everything else looked perfect. So, okay. I let it cook. Another hour, still hard. And another . . . we were starving.

So, we ended up having sandwiches for dinner, except my husband who snagged my last frozen Tempeh Stuffed Pepper!

I let the soup continue to cook. When I went to bed, the peas were still hard. I let the dang soup cook all night long. In the morning, the peas were softer but still not mushy. We’ll eat it for dinner tonight but it definitely isn’t my best soup. It has a slight overcooked taste and the peas are still slightly crunchy

So, what went wrong? This has actually happened to me a couple of times before when I’ve made split pea soup on the stovetop. Usually, I can cook a split pea soup in an hour—1 and 1/2 hours tops. But every once in a while they just don’t soften, in which case I usually puree the soup in the blender.

I did some goggling and it looks like I’m not the only one who has had this problem. The biggest consensus seems to be that the peas are old—but when you buy split peas, how do you know how old they are? I usually buy them in bulk and even if they have a date of when they were put in the bulk bin, who knows how long they sat in storage before the store go them.

I also found one interesting comment here. One commenter said, “Sounds like you've got peas that are known in the industry as ‘HTC.’ Yes, they really have an acronym for hard-to-cook. It's a defect that occurs in all kinds of legumes, and is typically caused by improper storage and/or excessive age.

Split peas are NOT normally soaked but people have tried it to help this problem and it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

Now I absolutely love split pea soup and so does my family, but how can you tell if the split peas are HTC or not? Anyone have a test?

GE Alfalfa

2011-01-27T20:07:00.000-08:00

Things are not looking good for the battle against the approval of genetically engineered alfalfa, which has been going on for the last 12 years. There is a good possibility it will be approved--thanks to our very pro-biotech USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

And the solution is not as easy as simply avoiding alfalfa sprouts. GE alfalfa could have major consequences for so many foods. Alfalfa is feed to dairy and meat animals . . . and when you buy dairy and meat, you can be sure it's not going to have a label saying that the animals had been fed genetically engineered products. In addition, even if you consume organic or grass-fed animal products, there is no way to guarantee that the alfalfa they ate wasn't contaminated with the GE variety. There is just no way to keep the genetic engineered alfalfa from contaminating the non-GE kinds.

GE alfalfa is engineered to be resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide--so the chemical herbicide can be applied liberally through all stages of the plant growth, causing much more of this herbicide to be used. (Just like the roundup-ready soy that has been grown for some years now). Not only do the plants and soil become saturated with the chemicals, the overuse of Roundup is creating "superweeds" which have become resistant to the chemical--similar to the problem with the overuse of antibiotics.

So what can you do???? Call President Obama at (202) 456-1111 and urge him to instruct Secretary Vilsack to reject the approval of Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa.

Here are some articles with more information:

www.rodale.com

Organic Consumers Assocation

Tempeh Stuffed Peppers -- Part 2

2011-01-24T16:49:00.001-08:00

You may remember that a few weeks ago I came up with a recipe for Tempeh Stuffed Peppers that my family and I really liked. (And if you missed the post, which included the recipe, here it is!)

Anyway, we had a couple left over, which I froze in individual containers. Well, I grabbed one this morning and took it to work for lunch today and OMG it was amazing. Maybe even better than when we had them fresh. I just microwaved the frozen pepper for about 3 or 4 minutes and it was perfect. Now, I want to make another batch so I'll have more of them for lunches or even quick dinners. Next time I'll try heating the frozen peppers in the oven to see how they come out.

Crockpot Thursday

2011-01-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

I decided I'm going to put a crockpot section in my new cookbook as I've noticed most crockpot recipes seem to be meat-based, and it's so handy for a busy family. And since Thursday is my busiest day and I usually don't get home until we're all already starving, I'm instituting Crockpot Thursday . . . actually I think the politically correct term is slow cooker. Okay, Slow Cooker Thursday.

So, I had some dried baby lima beans I've been wanting to use, plus assorted winter veggies from the Farmers' Market. This was an experiment because I wasn't sure if the beans would cook all the way through or if the veggies would get too mushy. The one slow cooker cookbook I have says you have to saute the onions, garlic, celery in oil before putting in the crockpot but to me that seemed to defeat the purpose if using a slow cooker: convenience and one pot to wash. So I just threw diced onions, celery, garlic, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, and lima beans into the pot with veggie broth and herbs at 7:30 this morning before I left for work and hoped for the best.

Well, when I got home at 6:00 this evening, the whole house smelled wonderful--so welcoming! And I am happy to report the soup was PERFECT! My family gobbled it up, barely leaving enough for my one of my daughters to take for lunch tomorrow (believe it or not, they are arguing over who gets to take it). It was TOTALLY worth the 15 minutes of crazed chopping this morning for such a relaxing dinner.

Hooray for Slow Cooker Thursday!

Vegan Bake-arama!

2011-01-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

Another marathon recipe creating day for my new cookbook . . . and on a crazy warm 80-degree winter day in California too! But I have to take advantage of those days off from work.

I bought some coconut flour that I wanted to experiment with, so my first try was a coconut-ginger shortbread. I used half coconut flour and half brown rice flour, plus coconut oil, sugar, ground ginger, and shredded coconut. Sounds like a good combo right? Well, it came out looking and smelling great and actually it had a really nice taste, but the texture was like eating powder. Not pleasant at all. Well, back to the drawing board on that one but luckily my next two experiments did a lot better.

I took a break from the coconut flour and tried a muffin combination that my daughter suggested . . . orange and chocolate . . . and created Chocolate Chip Orange Muffins. And they came out great--moist, with gooey chunks of chocolate and a hint of orange throughout. Two thumbs up from the whole family.

I wanted to give the coconut flour another try so for my last experiment I thought I'd go for some banana-coconut muffins. I used half coconut flour and half whole wheat flour, plus mashed bananas, coconut milk and shredded coconut but the batter came out very stiff--so . . . I turned them into Banana Coconut Scones. And they were yummy--moist inside with a nice crisp crust. Another hit with the family.

Sometimes creating recipes reminds me of writing a novel. You kind of let your characters loose and wait to see what they decide to do.

BTW -- if anyone is using coconut flour, please feel free to let me know what has worked and what has not worked. Next I want to try coconut sugar.

Winter Vegetable Chowder

2011-01-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Chowders are so satisfying and comforting, expecially on a cold winter day. I took one of my favorite recipes from Simply Natural Baby Food called White Bean and Corn Chowder (in the section of recipes for older kids) and substituted garbanzo beans for the white beans, and added broccoli, celery, and cabbage.

Yummy!

Vegan Feast!

2011-01-09T19:10:00.001-08:00

Made a big vegan feast tonight with four new invented recipes in celebration of my decision to write a new vegan cookbook. There's no turning back now!

Super Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy and Lactation

2011-01-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

One of my articles is featured this month at www.VegKitchen.com: Super Foods for a Healthy Pregnancy and Lactation--plus get my cashew yogurt recipe!

Roasted vegetables

2011-01-01T12:09:00.001-08:00

I am a huge fan of roasting vegetables--it brings out so much incredible flavor and sweetness that it's pretty much the only way I cook veggies anymore. In the summer, I usually do them on the grill so as not to heat up the house--green beans, zucchini, bell peppers, and asparagus are my favorites. But in the winter, I love to have them in the oven, which warms up the house and fills the air with a wonderful aroma.

Almost any winter veggies work--root veggies are always great, but also broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts . . . whatever. Today, I did a combination of carrots, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. Cut everything up into bite-sized pieces. I cut the bigger brussels sprouts in half but left the smaller ones whole. Put the cut veggies into a bowl and toss with enough olive oil so that the veggies are well-coated. Then sprinkle with sea salt and any fresh or dried herbs that strike your fancy . . . thyme, rosemary, tarragon, etc. I often add a splash of good vinegar as well. Balsamic works well, but today I used blood orange vinegar. Place on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven (the temperature is flexible so if you are cooking something else that needs the oven at 350 or 450, you can just adjust the cooking time). Roast for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally. If the chunks are big, you can cover the baking sheet with foil for the first 10 minutes or so to let the veggies steam, then remove the foil and let them brown. That's how I did the batch in this picture. My daughters gobbled these up like candy.

(Oh, yeah, if you're wondering about the mushrooms in the picture. I added them after I removed the foil for the last ten minutes of cooking.)

Tempeh Stuffed Peppers

2011-01-01T11:46:00.000-08:00

Today is not only New Year's Day, but also my wedding anniversary. Thirteen wonderful years with my husband, Gary!

I wanted to make a special dinner and since Gary has been yearning for stuffed peppers lately, I created this vegetarian version using tempeh. Tempeh is a cultured soy product that is made from whole soy beans--even the anti-soy contingent deem tempeh as a healthful food. It's high in protein, calcium, and iron. It does have a strong taste, however, that my family is not crazy about -- this recipe, however, was a big hit as the flavors of the sauce really toned down the tempeh flavor and the texture came out perfect.

Tempeh Stuffed Peppers
This is a great way to introduce your family and friends to tempeh—also a good way to use up leftover brown rice. If you are only serving four, you can halve the recipe but I like to make the whole batch so I can take the leftovers for lunch or maybe even have enough for another dinner.

4 bell peppers, preferably of assorted colors (red, yellow, orange, green)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, minced (about 1 cup)
16 ounces tempeh
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
2 cups marinara sauce
red pepper flakes
1/2 to 1 cup shredded dairy or nondairy cheese (optional)
extra olive oil for drizzling

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut peppers in half lengthwise. Remove stem and seeds. When water is at a full boil, add the peppers. Cook five minutes. Place peppers in a colander to drain.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Place a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add olive oil and onions. Cook give minutes. Dice the tempeh into very small pieces. Add the tempeh to the onions. Cover and cook ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Stir in the rice, corn, and marinara sauce. Add a tablespoon or two of water if they mixture is too dry. Stir in red pepper flakes to taste. Remove from heat.

Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in the oiled baking pan. Scoop stuffing mixture into the halves. Cover the pan and bake 20 minutes. Remove cover and top with a tablespoon or two of optional cheese. Whether using cheese or not, drizzle peppers with a little olive oil. Bake uncovered 20 – 25 minutes, until tops are browned.

Makes 8 servings

NEW True Food Shoppers' Guide

2010-12-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a helpful guide I found that you might like: The True Food Shoppers' Guide to Avoiding GMOs--just updated for 2011. Go HERE to download a free PDF and there are also instructions to getting it as an APP for your iPhone or Android.

Here's a small excerpt:

GRAINS, BEANS & PASTA

Other than corn, no GM grains are sold on the market. Look for 100-percent wheat pasta, couscous, rice, quinoa, oats, barley, sorghum, and dried beans (except soybeans).

Non-GMO

Amy's
Annie's
Bob's Red Mill, organic line
Casbah (Hain-Celestial)
Dr. McDougall's Right Foods
Eden certified organic grains
Fantastic Foods
Field Day
Ian's Natural Foods
Kamut
Lotus Foods
Lundberg Family Farms
Organic Planet
Rising Moon
Seeds of Change (organic meals)
Sensations
Sunridge Farms
Trader Joe's store brand
Vita-Spelt pasta
Whole Foods 365

May Contain GMO Ingredients

Betty Crocker meals (General Mills)
Knorr (Unilever)
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese meals
Near East (Quaker Oats Company / Pepsico)
Pasta Roni and Rice-A-Roni meals (Quaker Oats Company/Pepsico)

Vegan Chocolate Chip Ginger Cookies

2010-12-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

These are a combination of my favorite cookies and boy are they good. They keep well too -- store in a covered tin and they'll keep for a week or more (if they last). They freeze well too.

Chocolate Chip Ginger Cookies
Makes 3 dozen

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine, softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoon nondairy milk (rice, almond, soy, etc.)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry or unbleached white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
1 cup nondairy chocolate chips
1/4 cup natural granulated sugar (for rolling)

In a large bowl, beat margarine and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses and water. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, and spices. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined. Fold in chocolate ships. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until you are ready to bake.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil 2 large baking sheets. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are firm and tops begin to crack. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Ginger Pear Cake

2010-12-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

Had some pears, some ginger, and came up with this treat that was a big hit with the family. I think it would be yummy with apples, peaches or plums too . . .

Ginger Pear Cake
This European style cake is spiced up with chunks of ginger and topped with pear slices. Serve with a dollop of freshly whipped cream (or dairy-free alternative below) if desired.

2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, melted
1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger
1 pear, cut into thin slices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8-inch cake pan. Sift the flour and ground ginger together. Stir in the sugar and crystallized ginger. Add the beaten egg and melted butter. Stir just until combined. Press batter into the prepared cake pan. Arrange the pear slices in a spiral on the cake and press them gently into the batter. Bake about 40 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges and middle is set. Cool before serving.

Makes 8 servings

The following dairy-free whipped topping is from Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love.

Whipped Cashew Cream
Makes 2 cups
Cashews are amazingly creamy and make a wonderful, thick topping similar to whipped cream.

1 1/2 cups raw cashews
1/2 cup rice milk
2 tablespoons maple syrup or agave syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the cashews in a blender and grind them into a powder. Add the rice milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract and process until smooth. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until cold and firm.

Homemade Holiday Gifts

2010-12-12T19:45:00.000-08:00

This year the girls made beauty baskets for their friends. Homemade lavender-orange hand cream made from almond and coconut oil; body mists in a variety of flavors like tangerine-clove, rosemary-lemon, geranium-orange (just water and essential oils which they call "perfume"; and wintergreen lip balm. Very fun gifts that are fairly easy to make. They decorated lunch bags to put their beauty products in.

We also made a bunch of Millet-Crunch Granola using the recipe from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. I made 4 batches (2 at a time) to make 10 gift bags.

Here's the recipe:

Millet Crunch Granola
This healthy granola makes a great topping for fruit or yogurt. You can even eat it alone for a crunchy snack.

2 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup uncooked millet
1/3 cup honey, brown rice syrup, agave nectar, or maple syrup
1/4 cup tahini
2 tablespoons water
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon flaxseeds
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 250ºF. Place rolled oats and millet on baking sheet. Roast for 1 hour. In small pan, melt sweetener, tahini, and water together over low heat. In large bowl, toss oats, millet, and seeds with tahini mixture until completely coated. Spread on unoiled baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes. Stir once or twice during baking. Cool completely. Store in airtight container.

Makes 8 servings

Variation: Add 1/2 to 1 cup dried fruit to cooked granola and store as directed. Do not bake fruit.

Caryn Hartglass It's All About Food

2010-12-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

I was on the radio show It's All About Food on November 24. We had a great discussion about eating whole foods, nutrition for kids and families and a whole bunch of other things related to eating more healthfully. If you're interested, you can listen or download the podcast here.

Check out this post for books that promote healthful eating.

Borders gives $15 gift cards for public schools with any purchase

2010-12-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

Stop by any Borders bookstore Saturday, Dec. 4th or Sunday, Dec. 5th and get a free $15 gift card for www.donorschoose.org to donate to the public school of your choice. Even if you prefer to buy your books from independent book stores, you can still stop by and get a cup of coffee or a bagel and get the gift card.

If you don't have a favorite school registered in the DonorsChoose program, please donate your $15 card to Nipomo Elementary School. We have so many low-income and English second language kids and for many, the school library is the only place they have access to books. Due to budget cuts, the library is getting no money at all to purchase materials . . . these 500 book-loving students would really appreciate your help.

Note: if you don't see the projects to donate, it's because I just set them up last night. They should be available by the end of next week . . . so hold on to your gift card :)

Happy December.

Leftovers???

2010-11-30T19:23:00.000-08:00

My daughter made the most delicious sandwiches with our Thanksgiving leftovers . . . tofurkey and gravy, cranberry sauce, lettuce and mayo sandwiches--with a side of roasted butternut squash!

Tofurky Vegetarian Feast

2010-11-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

The Tofurky people were nice enough to let me try their new Tofurky Vegetarian Feast, which is 100% vegan, cooks in about an hour and a half, and serves six. The feast contains:

- One Tofurky® Roast (made with organic non-genetically engineered soybeans) - now 20% larger
- Savory Giblet Gravy
- Wild Rice, Whole Wheat Bread Crumb Stuffing
- Tofurky® Jurky Wishstix
- New ! Organic Chocolate Cake from Amy's Kitchen
- Happy Tofurky Day card & coupons

Here's our review:

Everybody liked the Tofurky® Roast. I made the basting sauce as directed from olive oil, soy sauce, and fresh herbs and added chopped onions. My casserole dish wasn't big enough to close tightly over the roast so I lined it with parchment paper and foil and sealed it tightly. It came out moist and tasty. The middle of the roast contained stuffing, but it was not enough for my family--especially not for my husband. If you have a stuffing-loving family, you might want to make your own batch on the side. The gravy was delicious and there was enough to put over the roast and our mashed potatoes. We also had roasted butternut squash, veggies, and homemade applesauce, and cranberry sauce for a wonderful feast that everyone raved over.

For dessert, the feast included Amy's Chocolate Cake which was rich, chocolatey and moist, and the right amount for six people (since we are 4, we had 2 servings left over). I served it with homemade coconut ice cream from Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love.

The box also contained Tofurky Jurky but I'm sorry to say, none of us liked it at all--at least none of the humans. Our dogs LOVED it and were begging for more.

Stay tuned for leftovers . . .

Books to promote healthy eating

2010-11-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

I was on Caryn Hartglass's It's All About Food radio show today talking about helping kids and families to eat more healthfully. She asked me about my job as a library technician at an elementary school library. She wanted to know what books would I recommend to promote healthful eating . Well, the first one that popped into my head was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess--I like the message of not being afraid to try to new foods. Later, as I thought over the show, it hit me that encouringing kids to eat green eggs and ham might have offended listeners who were most likely vegetarian or vegan. I was thinking though . . . since the ham is green, perhaps it's veggie ham???? Anyway, while I stand by the message of encouraging kids to try new foods in that book, here are some more veg-friendly titles you might want to try with your kids:

I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child
Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks
Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmot (not vegetarian but still a good one)
To Market, To Market by Anne MIranda (one of my favorites . . . funny, promotes whole foods and not eating animals)
Making Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert
Grow It, Cook It by Jill Bloomfield
Eat Healthy, Feel Great by William Sears

And for kids' cookbooks, we love Mollie Katzen's books like Honest Pretzels, etc.

I'm sure there are lots more out there, but here are a few off the top of my head. Feel free to comment with other suggestions.

Pumpkin Bread

2010-11-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

I wanted to bake something for my writers' group, but make enough that my family would have a treat too so I came up with this pumkin bread recipe that makes two loaves. Perfect! One for my group and one to leave home. It's not too sweet--we liked it with butter or cream cheese (dairy or nondairy versions). This would be great with soup for dinner . . . unfortunately, I don't think there'll be any left by then.

Pumpkin Bread
Makes 2 loaves

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup natural granulated sugar
2/3 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pumkin pie spice
1/2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans.

In large mixing bowl, beat pumpkin, sugars, oil, vanilla, and eggs until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together flours, baking soda, salt and spice. Pour flour mixture into pumpkin mixture. Still gently just until flour is mixed in. Fold in nuts.

Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Carefully remove loaves from pan. Cool on a rack for 1 hour before slicing.

GIVEAWAY: Happy Haulidays with Chronicle Books

2010-11-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

Chronicle Books is holding a contest where you can win $500 worth of their books. To enter, you can post a list of books you'd like to win on your blog . . . . or simply comment on this post to be entered in the drawing. Get the details here. Last day to submit entries is December 10th. Winners will be announced on December 13th. GOOD LUCK!

This is my wish list:

Cookbooks
Of course I have to start with cookbooks (and they have a great selection--I own several already and love them!)

D.I.Y. Delicious Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch by Vanessa Barrington
Fast, Fresh & Green: More Than 90 Delicious Recipes for Veggie Lovers By Susie Middleton
Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic: Cook Well-Eat Well-Live Well by Anna Getty
New Vegetarian by Robin Asbell
The New Whole Grains Cookbook by Robin Asbell
Farmers' Market Desserts by Jennie Schacht
Luscious Chocolate Desserts by Lori Longbotham

Art and Craft Books

Amy Butler's In Stitches More Than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects By Amy Butler
Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects by Lotta Jansdotter
Knitting Pretty Simple Instructions for 30 Fabulous Projects by Kris Percival
Mastering the Art of Beading by Genevieve A. Sterbenz
Squiggles A Really Giant Drawing and Painting Book by Taro Gomi

Fiction (Cause I just plain LOVE to read)

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal $16.99 (We keep checking this out of the library--clearly we need our own copy!)
Chicken Big By Keith Graves $16.99 (Love the premise!)
Day and Night by Teddy Newton $14.99 (Another library favorite)
The Space Between Trees by katie Williams
Sparky The Life and Art of Charles Schulz by Beverly Gherman
Noonie's Masterpiece By Lisa Railsback
The Kid Who Named Pluto And the Stories of Other Extraordinary Young People in Science by Marc McCutcheon
Cats Are Weird And More Observations by Jeffrey Brown
Ivy + Bean Gift Set
Ivy + Bean Boxed Set 2
Erika's Story Creative Editions by Ruth Vander Zee

And I just can't resist this game:
Haikubes by Forrest-Pruzan Creative

Added 11/27/10: To sweeten this great deal for my wonderful readers. If you win the Chronicle Books giveaway AND you are a follower of my blog, you can get an additional prize of your choice of any one of my cookbooks (US residents only). (New followers are eligible as well as long as you are a follower on Dec. 13th when the winners are announced--so become a follower now to qualify.)

Banana Molasses Muffins

2010-11-16T19:21:00.001-08:00

With the weather getting colder, we've been enjoying lots of soup for dinners and lunches. And what goes better with soup than fresh, warm muffins!

This weekend we made a batch of Banana Molasses Muffins from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. I especially like these because they are sweetened with just three tablespoons of blackstrap molasses (for the whole batch of 12 muffins!). Blackstrap molasses is a good source of calcium and iron so it's a healthy sweetener. If there are any leftover muffins, freeze them to pack in your child's school lunch (they thaw by lunchtime.)

Banana-Molasses Muffins
Blackstrap molasses, and almonds add vitamins and minerals to these moist, flavorful muffins. To make these vegan, use nondairy yogurt and omit the egg.

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup almonds
1 cup whole wheat, spelt, or barley flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 bananas)
1 egg (optional)
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
1/4 cup plain yogurt (dairy or nondairy)

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly oil muffin tins. In food processor or blender, grind oats and nuts to a coarse meal. Transfer to mixing bowl and whisk in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Beat remaining ingredients together until smooth. Add to oat mixture and stir just until mixed. Pour batter into prepared tins. Bake 20 minutes, or until tops are firm to the touch.

Makes 1 dozen

Note: For quick preparation, puree liquid ingredients in food processor or blender after removing oat/nut mixture.

Vegan Thanksgiving E-Cookbook

2010-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Get the e-cookbook A Bountiful Vegan Thanksgiving put together by Nava Atlas with recipes from your favorite vegetarian authors (including a few of mine!). It's a great deal at only $8.95, plus the profits will be donated to humanitarian charities concerned with hunger, microfinancing for women in developing countries, and the alleviation of human trafficking.

Click here for details.

GE Salmon could be approved!

2010-11-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption. This GE Atlantic salmon is genetically engineered to produce growth hormones year-round which is supposed to make it grow at twice the normal rate.

Each year millions of farmed salmon escape from open-water net pens, outcompeting wild populations for resources and straining ecosystems. In addition, the human health impacts of eating GE fish are entirely unknown, and the scientific research that has been done is alarming. According to the Center for Food Safety, these GE farmed salmon carry with them all of the health hazards of other farmed salmon, but also may be more susceptible to disease than fish currently grown in aquaculture facilities because transgenic fish are identified as “macro-mutants” with a reduced ability to survive. Consequently, the amount of antibiotics given to transgenic fish may be higher than the amount currently given to farmed fish; already farmed salmon are given more antibiotics than any other livestock by weight, threatening the health of those who eat them and the continued efficacy of these antibiotics to treat human disease.

There is a short window of time to let the FDA know you want them to reject these GE fish, or at the very, very least label them so consumers will know what they are buying. Click on this link to tell the Food and Drug Administration not to approve GE salmon.

Rainy Day Baking

2010-11-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

My daughter baked up a batch of Everything Cookies from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook for us (though she omitted the raisons and used extra chocolate chips). Tea, cookies, and Scrabble . . . a great way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here I am as Tacky the Penguin from the story by Helen Lester.

If you have young kids and are looking for tips to keep down the Halloween candy consumption, check out my post from last year about The Halloween Fairy!

Soup that's a meal

2010-10-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here's an easy soup that makes a great hearty meal for these cold fall nights (with leftovers for lunch!).

Get a 16-ounce bag of Trader Joe's 17 Bean & Barley Mix. (If you don't have a TJ's near you, I bet your grocery or natural food stores has something similar, maybe even in the bulk bin. This mixture has baby limas, black beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzos, pinto, kidney, navy beans, etc. I put them to soak in the morning before I left for work. When I got home, I drained the bean mixture. Then I chopped an onion and in a large pot sauteed it in olive oil over low heat. Then I added the beans plus 1 1/2 quarts of water (you could also use stock). Cover, bring to a boil, and cooked for about 20 minutes. Then I added 4 carrots and 2 potatoes, diced. Cooked for about half an hour more, or until beans were tender. Then I added a large can of diced tomatoes with the juice, a cup of corn, salt, pepper, dried basil and thyme to taste. We have enough soup for a couple of meals and best of all, my family LOVED it.

More butternut squash ideas

2010-10-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

I just love winter squash . . . tonight we had butternut squash baked and then mashed with butter (or nonhydrogenated margarine for those of us dairy-free) and cinnamon. We also had baked beans, steamed peas, and the last of the tomatoes from our garden sprinkled with fresh herbs. A great fall meal that left everyone smiling.

Baked Winter Squash
This is an easy way to cook squash – no peeling or dicing is involved. It works for acorn, butternut, hubbard--whatever.

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly oil a baking dish or jelly roll pan. Cut the squash(es) in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds and pulp. Place cut side down on prepared pan. Add 1/8 - 1/4 inch of water to pan. Bake 45 to 60 minutes, or until squash is tender. Let cool slightly and scoop squash out of peel into a bowl. Season with butter or olive oil, sea salt, and spice to taste.

1 pound squash yields about 1 cup mashed squash

Squash and White Bean Soup

2010-10-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite recipes from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. I made a triple batch for our staff lunch for October.

Squash and White Bean Soup

1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups water or vegetable stock
1 butternut, kabucha, or hubbard squash, peeled and cut into cubes (about 7 cups)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger or 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoons miso
1 tablespoon tahini
2 cups cooked white beans
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley or watercress
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

In large soup pot over medium-low heat, add onion and oil. Stir gently to spread and then cook about 15 minutes without stirring until onions are brown and caramelized. Stir in garlic. Add water or stock and squash. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Lower heat and simmer 30 minutes until squash is tender. Puree squash mixture in blender or food processor with spices, miso, and tahini. Add water if soup is too thick. Return to pot and stir in beans and parsley or watercress over low heat. Season with sea salt and black pepper. Garnish with roasted pumpkin or squash seeds if desired.

Makes 6-8 servings

When it's this hot . . .

2010-09-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

there's only one thing worth cooking . . . or should I see freezing--ICE CREAM. Or how about this refreshing Raspberry Sorbet from Lick It! Creamy Dream Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love.

Raspberry Sorbet
Makes 1 generous quart
Since I like red wine with a hint of raspberries, I thought I’d try raspberries with a hint of wine. Don’t worry if you don’t have any wine on hand; this sorbet is wonderful without it as well.

5 cups raspberries
3/4 cup agave syrup
1/2 cup water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup fruity red wine, such as Syrah (optional)

Combine the raspberries, agave syrup, water, and lemon juice in a blender and process until smooth. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl, pour the blended mixture into the strainer, and press it through to remove the seeds. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or until cold. Whisk in the wine, if using. Then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Note: If you use the wine, the sorbet will need to harden in the freezer for several hours, or until it reaches the desired consistency.

GE Corn at Templeton Farmers' Market

2010-09-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

According to the Atascadero News,the North County Farmers’ Market Association passed a new rule last November that would require any vendor selling genetically engineered produce to label the produce as such. Well, according to Jesse Arnold, a member of SLO GE-Free, he was at the Templeton Farmers' Market last Saturday (9/18/10) and genetically engineered corn was being sold--and the only label it carried was "yellow corn." (According to Arnold, the grower told him it was Monsanto BT corn.)

As a consumer, I would be very upset if I found out I'd served genetically engineered corn, which has pesticides engineered into every cell of every kernel, to my family--especially if I trusted the Farmers' Market Association to enforce their ruling.

Please contact Board Chairman Mike Broadhurst at 924-1260 or Market Manager Sandra Dimond at 748-1109 and ask them to enforce their ruling--even better, ask them to stand up against genetically-engineered produce, which is bad for our environment and bad for consumers, and keep GE products out of our farmers' markets.

pizza problems

2010-09-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Tried and tried but could not get this pizza dough to get round or even square . . . still tasted good though!

Crockpot

2010-09-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

I don't usually think of using my crockpot in the summer but it really is handy when I have a busy day and don't want to have to worry about dinner. Today, for example, I knew I'd be running around driving kids to parties, grocery shopping, doing laundry--all those things to get ready for another busy week of work/school. I threw the ingredients for split pea soup in the crock pot this morning and come dinner time, I'll just have to serve it. It'll be nice to have a bit of down time tonight before the week starts.