Simple Lunch
- Lunch, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
16 Jun 2010
I get really excited when I make a wrap and it actually wraps up nicely. Sometimes I stuff it too full. Sometimes I’m a clutz and just can’t get the thing to roll up without all of the guts falling out. Sometimes I do great, right up to the cut-it-in-half part, and then destroy the whole thing while trying to cut it.
Today, the stars aligned, and I made a pretty wrap!
I really could make a category here called “Adventures in Wrapping,” but it would be nearly empty because most of my wraps are nowhere near photo-worthy.My first foray into the world of making wraps was based on the discovery that cucumbers make a pretty decent sandwich base. You see, I occasionally have a hankerin’ for a Jimmy John’s sandwich. When I went vegetarian, I had to change my normal sandwich order over to the #6 – the creatively named “Vegetarian” (sans mayo and tomato, please – I still can’t stand the texture of tomatoes). It basically amounts to a cucumber sandwich with a wonderful avocado spread.
I started using cucumbers in my wraps, and was really digging them. Then, I worked out my own version of a vegan avocado ranch spread, inspired by a dressing recipe in the You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan!
cookbook.
Ever since, I’ve been using those two as the basis of many delicious veggie wraps.
Today’s concoction features, of course, cucumbers and avocado spread, along with a chopped up veggie burger, about 3/4 of a carrot (shredded), a handful of baby spinach, a handful of arugula, and a drizzle of garlic-infused extra virgin olive oil. (That’s my giraffe friend Milly pictured in the background).I have tried a lot of wraps in my day, and finding ones without offensive ingredient lists can be difficult. Lately, I’ve been using Smart & Delicious Tomato Basil Soft Wraps from La Tortilla Factory. The ingredient list isn’t perfect, but it’s not terribly bad, and they’ve got 12g of fiber per wrap at only 100 calories. They’re nice, big 9″ wraps and are (as the name says) very soft and easy to stuff with goodies (even for a wrap-challenged soul like me).
I swear, wraps taste better when they look pretty.
Posted: June 16, 2010 at 5:20 pm
{Tags: arugula, avocado, carrot, cucumber, spinach, veggie burger, wrap}
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Garden Lentil Burgers
- Gnowfglins, Recipes
-
09 Apr 2010
Who needs meat when the lentil burgers taste this good?!
I’m sitting out of the GNOWFGLINS e-course this week, as they’re covering chicken and I’m now 3 weeks into eating vegetarian, but I still did some cooking in the traditional vein. I made a recipe from the GNOWFGLINS web site – garden lentil patties – which I made into garden lentil burgers! They turned out incredibly flavorful and filling. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
First, I soaked dried lentils overnight with some raw apple cider vinegar. (This helps to neutralize the phytic acid in them and improves the absorption of the lentils’ nutrients). I’m new to lentils – to my knowledge, I’ve never had them before, so I had no idea what to expect.
Then I drained and rinsed the lentils and put them on the stove with some fresh water to simmer. While they simmered, I prepped the veggies: carrots, celery, red pepper, and… dang it, I forgot the onion. Oh well. It made for a very colorful bowl of yum, though!
Once the lentils were done, I added the rest of the ingredients – some oats, some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper, tomato paste, extra virgin olive oil – and mixed it all up. My hands were way too messy to get any pictures!I tried my best to mash the mix into patties, but I wasn’t having very good luck. Most of my patties fell apart on the baking sheet. I guess I’m not a very strong patty-maker. Maybe a little more oats would have helped hold them together? I’m not sure. Here’s what they looked like after their first half of time in the oven:
I then flipped them over, and only a few survived the flip. I had mostly lentil crumbles instead of lentil patties! A couple did stick together pretty well. Not sure what my magic trick was on those ones!The recipe made 13 patties – I probably should have cut it in half, since I’m only feeding moi. I put one of the better-looking patties on an organic whole wheat bun (Rudi’s ftw!) and added a little veganaise and onion seasoning on top (since I forgot the onions). Served it with some organic spring greens with a little organic caesar dressing, and voila: dinner!
They may not look pretty, but this burger was delicious! It will definitely make it into regular rotation in my kitchen.Each patty has about 200 calories (assuming you get 13 out of your recipe, like I did), 6g fat, 29g carbs (8g fiber), 9g protein, and a boatload of vitamins – 45% of your daily Vitamin A, 32% Vitamin C, and 15% of your Iron, amongst others. Yum!
Posted: April 9, 2010 at 8:58 pm
{Tags: carrot, celery, Gnowfglins, lentils, oats, onion, red pepper, soaking}
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Kale and Roasted Root Vegetable Soup
- Gnowfglins, Recipes, Vegan & Vegetarian
-
24 Mar 2010
If you would have asked me to eat a “root vegetable” last year, I’d have gagged and said no way, even though I had no idea what root vegetables were. Roots? Just sounds bad. It turns out, though, that I really like the root veggies that I’ve tried since going organic! (For the record, the root veggies in question for this recipe are onions, carrots, garlic, and sweet potatoes). Yum!
The “firsts” for me in this vegan-friendly recipe include:
- First time I’ve cooked with or eaten kale
- First time I’ve made beans from dried and not from a can
- First time I’ve made soup from scratch
- First time I’ve worn my new Asics GT 2150 running shoes
OK, so the shoes are probably irrelevant to the recipe, but they sure are comfy! And hopefully, they’ll not cause blisters the way my old gym shoes did.
The recipe below comes from Emily’s blog – The Front Burner. Check out her recap – she takes much better food photos than I do, and explains every step in detail. This soup covers a slew of nutritional bases – it’s a good source of Vitamin B6, Folate and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Manganese. It’s low fat, with no saturated fat and no cholesterol.
On with the cooking!
First, I should explain that I did not use canned beans for this recipe. As part of this week’s homework in the GNOWFGLINS e-course on traditional food preparation, we were to make beans from scratch. I bought some dried navy beans at Whole Foods yesterday, so to prepare for this recipe, I soaked 2/3 cup of dry beans in water with a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar. I soaked the beans overnight, then this morning, rinsed them and put them in the crock pot to cook on high for an hour then on low for 6 more hours. I added a thumb-sized chunk of kombu (a sea vegetable) to the crock pot during cooking to tenderize the beans and break down some of the sugars in them that tend to make them… gassy. Kombu also imparts some mineral goodness. By the time I was ready to cook dinner, the beans were ready to go.
The next step was to chop up carrots and a sweet potato and stick ‘em in the oven to roast. They didn’t look very exciting so I didn’t take a picture.
Up next: the stranger in my fridge, Kale. (No, not Kato). Here’s what it looked like, fresh from the bunch:
The recipe instructed me to pull the leaves from the stems. I wondered all the while if I was doing it right….
I sure had a lot of kale…. the leaves reminded me of a cross between broccoli and seaweed. (Maybe I just had seaweed on the brain from my recent trip to Whole Foods).Next I chopped up an onion and minced some garlic and sauteed them for a few minutes before throwing in the roasted carrots and sweet potato.
Then, in went the vegetable broth, and then the kale. The kale was huge and fluffy in the pot! I feared I was messing the whole thing up, but I took Emily’s word for it that the kale would wilt. I covered the pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, I was still pretty nervous – the kale was huge! I think I might have had a little too much kale to begin with, so I added 1 cup of water. That helped, because by the end of 10 minutes, I could stir the kale into the mix and it was starting to look like soup.I added the seasonings and simmered for 5 more minutes (ready to jump out of my new shoes because it smelled SO GOOD!)
When the soup was done, I ladled it into a bowl and topped it with a dollop of homemade guacamole that I had in the fridge. (Emily recommends topping with chunks of avocado). I slathered some Earth Balance spread onto a slice of my homemade sourdough bread, and…
Dinner!
All I can say is… this soup was AWESOME!! So tasty! My first impression of kale: thumbs up! Kale is a form of cabbage, a relative of cauliflower and broccoli. It’s a highly nutritious, dark leafy green, and has good anti-inflammatory properties and is believed to have potent anti-cancer properties as well. In this soup, it tasted mild – almost sweet. It’s a hearty green – good for chewing!For all of its nutrition, a big ol’ bowl of this soup clocks in around 235 calories. I can’t wait for the leftovers! 100% delish.
I found this recipe on Emily's blog, The Front Burner. I adapted it based on what I had on hand, and all I have to say is - WOW. This soup is amazing! And pretty easy to throw together, to boot. Vegan and vegetarian friendly :)
Details- Prep Time:
45 min - Cook Time:
15 min - Ready In:
60 min
Posted: March 24, 2010 at 8:59 pmIngredients
- 6 large carrots
- 1 large sweet potato
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 cups kale
- 15 ounces navy beans cooked or canned
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic seasoning
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 cup filtered water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Chop carrots and sweet potato into chunks of all about the same size.
- Place carrot and sweet potato chunks onto a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes.
- While the veggies are roasting, tear the leaves off of the stems of the kale. Wash thoroughly.
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic.
- A few minutes before the veggies are done, add the onion and garlic to a large stock pot and saute over medium heat until onions have browned.
- Add the roasted veggies to the stock pot.
- Add the vegetable broth, water, and then the kale.
- Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (The kale will wilt down).
- Once the kale has wilted a bit, add the beans, cumin, and seasoning.
- Let simmer uncovered for 5-10 more minutes.
- Garnish with slices of avocado (or in my case, a dollop of homemade guacamole).
{Tags: avocado, beans, carrot, kale, onion, roasting, soup, sweet potato}
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Gnowfglins: Soaking Grains
- Gnowfglins, Recipes
-
06 Mar 2010
I’m wrapping up Lesson 2 in the GNOWFGLINS e-course on healthy and traditional cooking, and tonight’s dinner featured a technique I learned this week: soaking grains. Well, I actually learned this last month in the Nourished Kitchen Real Food Challenge, but for that challenge, I soaked flour for baking. Today, I soaked rice and made it from scratch.
I’ve never made “real” rice before; all of my rice experience is of the boil-in-bag, instant variety. This was the other extreme!
It’s important to soak grains to prepare their nutrition to be fully utilized by the body. Whole grains contain enzyme inhibitors and other natural substances that can actually interfere with digestion and block absorption of minerals and vitamins. Soaking the grains in an acidic solution neutralizes these substances to make the grains’ nutrients more available in digestion.
I started with a cup of dry brown basmati rice. I soaked the rice in 2 cups of filtered water with 2 tablespoons of raw apple cider vinegar. (Lemon juice or other acidic liquids could also be used). I let my rice soak for 9 hours, though overnight is even better. One benefit (besides the nutritional benefits) – this process cuts down the actual cooking time of the rice.
When my rice was ready to go, I drained the soaking liquid and replaced it with filtered water (though you could cook the rice in the soaking liquid – I wasn’t sure if I’d like the tang of the vinegar in my rice, so I played it safe).
Then, I cooked the rice and turned it into Nutty Carrot Rice!
To go with my rice, I made an Italian breaded chicken breast. I actually get 2 meals out of 1 chicken breast, so I made 2, which should feed me well next week.
Add some baby spinach with vinaigrette on the side, and you’ve got… dinner!
The rice was very good – a nice departure from plain ol’ boring rice. It had a bit of a kick to it – I guessed at the cayenne pepper and used 1/4 teaspoon, and I think I probably should have cut back to 1/8th. (I like spicy food, but “spicy” to me is “mild” to the rest of the world). It complemented the chicken very well, and had a nice, nutty flavor. Nutty rice with a kick! Mozzarella cheese would have been good on the chicken, too. I didn’t have any!The rice recipe makes 6-8 servings (I ended up with 7), so I’ll be eating rice for a while….
Try it out! This was an easy combo, and the whole meal clocked in around a half hour prep, a half hour cook time, and around 375 calories (assuming you eat the entire chicken breast). Lots of vitamin A, too.
Spice up plain rice with a little bit of a kick! To enable the full nutritional value of the rice, soak it first (as described below). Check out Gnowfglins for more information on how to soak grains.
Details- Prep Time:
15 min - Cook Time:
20 min - Ready In:
35 min
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown basmati rice dry
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
- 1/4 cup roasted peanuts
- 1 medium onion
- 1 medium carrot
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or more, to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon salt or more, to taste
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Directions
Pre-prep: Place the rice and water into a cooking pot. Add the apple cider vinegar. Let soak in a warm place for 7-8 hours or overnight.- When the rice is done soaking, you can either cook it in its soaking water, or (if you prefer a less tangy rice), drain the rice and replace the soaking water with an equal amount of filtered water (approximately 1 1/2 cups).
- Bring the rice to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover to steam, 20-30 minutes or until rice has absorbed all water and fluffs with a fork.
- While the rice is cooking, crush peanuts in a blender or word processor. Set aside.
- In a medium skillet, heat coconut oil.
- Chop the onion. Add to the skillet.
- Grate the carrot. Add to the skillet. Saute until the onions are translucent.
- When rice is finished cooking, add the onion and carrot to the pot.
- Mix in the cayenne pepper and peanuts. Serve warm.
A quick, easy, and tasty chicken dish - double the bread crumbs and seasoning to serve 4.
Details- Prep Time:
5 min - Cook Time:
30 min - Ready In:
35 min
Posted: March 6, 2010 at 9:43 pmIngredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs whole wheat
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- In a small bowl, beat egg with milk.
- In a ziplock bag, mix bread crumbs, seasoning, and garlic powder.
- Dip each chicken breast into the egg mixture, then put it in the bag. Zip the bag and shake it up, coating the chicken with the breading.
- Place coated chicken into a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is done and juices run clear.
{Tags: carrot, chicken, Gnowfglins, peanut, rice}
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- Prep Time:
Pasta and Bolognese Sauce
- Recipes, Stealth Ninja Vegetables
-
05 Mar 2010
Tonight, after checking out the Hadley Valley Preserve trail for the first time (it’s nice! A 2.5 mile looping trail through prairie), I tried out another one of Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious
recipes: Pasta and Bolognese Sauce (with Stealth Ninja Sweet Potatoes). This one is healthy all around, with a bunch of carrots in there, too!
I suffered a false start on this one, as I got the onion and carrots all chopped up and in the skillet, then minced a couple garlic cloves right into the pot – only to find that my garlic had gone bad while I was away last week. Oh well. Tossed it all out and started over!
Instead of garlic cloves (I didn’t trust what I had left), I used 1 tsp of Garlic Earth Italian garlic salt – an organic seasoning that my friend Becky makes.
Score another winner for the Stealth Ninja Vegetable Experiment, and another winner for all organic ingredients! This one was so tasty I very nearly licked my plate clean. Highly recommended, and easy to throw together.
The recipe serves 8, so I immediately froze half of the sauce after dinner, then portioned the remaining 3 portions in the fridge for leftovers. I love a recipe that I can get some mileage out of!
Adapted from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook. This one was so tasty I almost licked my plate clean!
Details- Prep Time:
15 min - Cook Time:
30 min - Ready In:
45 min
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion organic
- 2 cloves garlic organic
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 3 medium carrot organic
- 1 pound lean ground beef organic
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 26 ounces crushed tomatoes organic (1 large can)
- 8 ounces vegetable broth organic (1 can)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 cup sweet potato puree or finely chopped raw sweet potato
- 8 cups whole grain pasta
Directions
Pre-prep: Puree 1/2 cup baked sweet potato (or, finely chopped raw sweet potato can be substituted).- Chop the onion and mince the garlic.
- Heat coconut oil in a large skillet. When hot, add the onion and garlic. Cook 3-4 minutes over medium-high heat.
- Meanwhile, chop the carrot. Add it to the skillet. Cook 3-4 more minutes.
- Turn heat to high. Add ground beef, salt, and pepper.
- Cook 3-4 minutes until the meat begins to brown.
- Add the tomatoes, broth, and sugar.
- Turn heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In a separate pot, boil water and add pasta. Cook according to package instructions, 8-10 minutes.
- Add the sweet potato puree to the meat sauce skillet.
- While the pasta is cooking, continue simmering the meat sauce, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Drain pasta. Serve with meat sauce.
Posted: March 5, 2010 at 7:22 pm
{Tags: beef, carrot, coconut oil, onion, pasta, puree, Recipes, sweet potato, tomato}
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- Prep Time:
An Un-Winning Smoothie Combo
- Smoothies
-
04 Feb 2010
I’ve got another new recipe post coming up soon, but thought I’d jump on and share an un-winning smoothie combo that I came up with today (so that you don’t try it with the same results!)
Two things worked to my disadvantage: first, I was out of vanilla soy milk, so I used regular skim milk. I did not realize just how much flavor I actually get from the soy milk – it’s much more dense, maybe a bit more sweet, and… well, it’s vanilla. Second, the fruit combo I chose was not sweet or powerful enough to mask the taste of the greens – so this tasted more like cucumbers than anything else.
The mix:
1 cup skim milk
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 carrots
1 handful baby spinach
1/3 of a cucumber
1 whole apple
1 whole pearSo… it seems like fruits with stronger or sweeter flavors are required to mask out the taste of the greens. Strawberries are a standard component of my smoothies, and even when I only use 3 or 4 strawberries, they make a huge difference. I was just trying to mix it up today, and even though I used a whole pear and a whole apple, they weren’t sweet enough to be noticeable. I couldn’t even taste them.
The end result was incredibly bland and tasted mildly of cucumber. I won’t be making this combo again!
Posted: February 4, 2010 at 11:51 pm
{Tags: apple, carrot, cucumber, pear, Smoothies, spinach}
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Purple Smoothie!
- Smoothies
-
27 Jan 2010
This morning’s smoothie concoction was PURPLE thanks to strawberries and blueberries!
Tip: stick to 1/2 cucumber. I tried a whole cucumber in the smoothie today (along with 2 carrots, 3 strawberries, and a handful of
blueberries, plus vanilla soy milk and vanilla protein powder), and I could taste the cucumber. Good thing I like cucumbers!Have a great day, everybody!
Posted: January 27, 2010 at 1:54 pm
{Tags: blueberry, carrot, cucumber, Smoothies, strawberry}
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Cool Pink Smoothie
- Recipes, Smoothies
-
25 Jan 2010
In my quest to discover, “Will it blend?” I made up a new smoothie concoction tonight. I call it: the Cool Pink Smoothie.
I suppose it could be called a “green” smoothie, if by “green” you mean, it contains vegetables (or, 2 culinary vegetables but 1 botanical vegetable and 1 botanical fruit). That whole fruit-or-vegetable thing will confound me for life. But anyway….
It’s a delicious, cool, crisp drink full of strawberry vanilla goodness!
As I tossed everything (including 2 carrots, half a cucumber, and 5 strawberries) in the blender, I thought to myself, “That looks wonderful!” I should have run to grab my camera but I was too excited to mix it all up.
Behold:
The verdict: delish! Absolutely wonderful!
In my quest to discover, "Will it blend?" I made up a new smoothie concoction tonight. I call it: the Cool Pink Smoothie.
DetailsPosted: January 25, 2010 at 8:40 pmIngredients
Directions
In my quest to discover, "Will it blend?" I made up a new smoothie concoction tonight. I call it: the Cool Pink Smoothie. I suppose it could be called a "green" smoothie, if by "green" you mean, it contains vegetables (or, 2 culinary vegetables but 1 botanical vegetable and 1 botanical fruit). That whole fruit-or-vegetable thing will confound me for life. But anyway.... It's a delicious, cool, crisp drink full of strawberry vanilla goodness! As I tossed everything (including 2 carrots, half a cucumber, and 5 strawberries) in the blender, I thought to myself, "That looks wonderful!" I should have run to grab my camera but I was too excited to mix it all up. Behold:
The verdict: delish! Absolutely wonderful!
[recipe-show recipe=cool-pink-smoothie]
{Tags: carrot, cucumber, Recipes, Smoothies, strawberry}
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