How To Lose Weight Without Hunger - article

The following article is by my good cyber pal Erin, who knows all kinds of wonderful things to do with vegan food. It is published with his kind permission and encouragement.

How To Lose Weight Without Being Hungry All The Time

Many people find it hard to stick to a diet. There are a lot reasons for this, including social pressure from friends and family urging you to indulge in a false sense of moderation. (You know, the “Just this one treat won’t hurt” line?) But, perhaps the biggest reason for giving up on a diet is feeling hungry. However, hunger is not a requirement to losing weight!

Now, you’re probably thinking I’m going to recommend sweating it all off in an exercising frenzy, but that’s not it at all. Instead, there’s a simple, healthy, trick to what you eat that ensures you won’t be hungry and yet still consume fewer calories than you currently do (which means weight loss will follow naturally).

The secret is to consume only whole foods in their original, unprocessed state. For example, instead of a slice of apple pie, grab an apple — or even two if you want! Instead of carrot cake, some carrots.

The thing is, in both cases, the sugars in the whole foods are carried along in a complete package of fiber and nutrients, thus slowing their absorption and leaving you satiated (i.e., feeling satisfied) versus loading you up with empty calories that do nothing to physically fill you up.

Better yet, eat LOTS of green, leafy vegetables, like kale and collard greens, and cruciferous veggies, like broccoli and cauliflower. These wonders of nature pack an even greater concentration of nutrients into still fewer calories, and their extra volume makes it almost impossible to overeat!

And, don’t just add them to your meals, start out your meals and snacks with these foods. Serve up a huge salad or a big bowl of bean soup with kale, and before you know it, you’ll be so stuffed you won’t even want to think about a greasy burger or sugary and fat-laden dessert. It really works. Give it a try!

By the way, you can even have “pasta” on a diet too. That’s because there exists such a thing as calorie free noodles made exclusively of fiber. They have zero net carbs and are very filling. Just add a hearty vegetable pasta sauce or stir-fried veggies and maybe some tofu for protein, and you’ve got yourself a delicious, healthy, and satisfying meal.

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Erin Dame is the author of Vegan Done Light, a low-calorie, low-sodium cookbook and long-running monthly nutrition newsletter, as well as several guides on health and diet.
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Wheat Berry Squash Salad, Cauliflower Corn Curry, Tofu and Pea Tops in Black Bean Vinaigrette

Wheatberry Squash Salad

This was a meal fairly recently (so, I'm a little behind), the recipe gleaned from a non-vegetarian cookbook by Canadian Chef Bill Jones, Chef's Salad. This one required cooked wheat berries (delicious and tender and chewy all at once) plus Squash, garlic, and a wonderful maple-sunflower dressing. We cut down on the amounts (just for two persons rather than the four to six the recipe aimed for) and did a little tickling for flavour but it was a hit even before we started messing with the recipe. Served at room temperature, the apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and sunflower seed dressing, carefully blended with a little water and garlic, just enhanced the already delicious roasted squash something to shout about. We want this one again!




Cauliflower Corn Curry

This recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian cookbook - a must for anyone who loves good food from around the world. We had made it before then forgotten about it (how could that happen!) until I looked at half a cauliflower in the vegetable crisper and wanted something special. I keep a can of corn niblets up the cupboard most of the time, for 'just in case', and that was what we added here, along with the usual (Indian) things plus some chopped cilantro at the end. We made enough for four, by accident, and had the delight of enjoying it again at another meal. What I like about this one is that by cutting the cauliflower into small florets and using the already-cooked corn, it is all ready in a hurry and can be served with salad and crusty bread if the traditional rice, raitas, etc., isn't on the cards.





Tofu and Pea Tops in Black Bean Vinaigrette

This is another of Bill Jones's warm or room-temperature salads, and I must admit I had my doubts about this one - until I tasted it! - and was luckily talked out of my hesitation by my husband.

Black bean paste, balsamic vinegar, sesame oil (I used just a smidge, and only at the end, for the aroma) are put into a pan with ginger, chopped cilantro, hot sauce and a spoonful of water until looking cooked, then tofu and pea tops (pea tenders) are added just enough to wilt along with bean sprouts. Toss the lot together and garnish with cilantro and green onion. The result is a warm salad which is also good at room temperature. A very nice way to take your sprouts!!!


There's more to find in this excellent book.

For my next trick . . . . :)

Chili Almond Asparagus

This is what we had yesterday for lunch - along with some rice and marinated tempeh - and it was so good I am going out for more asparagus so that I can repeat it tomorrow!

The recipe is not mine but was posted in May of last year on the blog of Vegan YumYum here:

http://veganyumyum.com/2009/05/chili-almond-asparagus/

Do check it out, because she gives her recipe and very very good directions, including photos, for every step. It's remarkably quick and could be on the table in 10 minutes. It makes an excellent side dish or imho a great light lunch or supper with a salad and/or some crusty bread.

Sadly, I had to deviate at the last minute from her recipe, since I was shockingly out of almonds (used cashews instead) and vegan soup stock powder. Nevertheless, the dish was superb, and I am keen to try it exactly as she intended it, although as ususal scaled down to feed only two persons.

We loved the toasty-roasty crispiness of the vegetables along with the flavour of the nuts and lemon. Truly delightful.

And that's why I'm giving this a post all of its own :)

CHILIED ASPARAGUS WITH QUINOA AND TOFU, SPICED LIMAS WITH GARLIC BROCCOLI

Chilied Asparagus With Quinoa And Tofu


This way of doing asparagus is a hit in our household, since we love Asian-inspired dishes, especially the hot and spicy ones. Here I chose for lunch today to do the asparagus in the quickest possible way, stir-'fried' (without oil and just a little liquid) in a skillet with a little finely chopped ginger and garlic, a dash of low-sodium tamari, a pinch of sugar, dried chili flakes, and to finish about 1/8 tsp of oriental sesame oil put drop by drop over the top of it all. (The dish is originally from Hong Kong via Madhur Jaffrey's excellent Vegetarian World Cuisine.) Traditionally it would be served with rice, but I chose quinoa for its wonderful nutty flavour (not to mention the nutritional value). Additionally I had marinated some firm tofu slices in a little Braggs amino into which I had stirred some cayenne, powdered ginger, garlic granules and onion flakes (I like to use these dried rather than fresh versions for marinades sometimes, but it's a toss-up which I use.) I baked the tofu in the oven until slightly brown and firm. When the tofu was almost ready, we had our salad and then, while the salad plates were being cleared I tossed the asparagus around in the skillet until barely cooked - still crisp is sensational with asparagus. A good meal.

Yesterday, I did a variation on a previous idea (see my last blog entry).




Spiced Limas With Garlic Broccoli

Remember the fava beans? Well, yesterday I cooked white limas, added some dried herbs and spices (including chilies), pureed the lot and served it surrounded by stir-'fried' (as before) broccoli with garlic and just a few chili flakes thrown in for a little bit of interest. Since I had allowed the bean puree to be much thicker than I had used before, I had the fun of piling them up like pureed potatoes in the centre of the plate. The tiny spoonful of liquid remaining the the skillet from cooking the broccoli was drizzled over the beans at the last minute. This was a big hit - and of course almost any vegetable would have worked well here - just trying to get our greens, though, especially at this time of year. And our beans. Hmmmm, what bean to try next I wonder!

Cajun-Spiced Portabellas

CAJUN-SPICED PORTABELLAS

Yesterday’s mushroom dish was based on Kristen Suzanne’s “Cajun Portabellas With Wild Rice” recipe from her Easy Raw Entrees. Although I usually like to make a recipe according to the original the first time around, except perhaps for making a smaller quantity for just the two of us, but in this case I nervously cut way way down on the amount of oil required for the recipe – and ran into a bit of a problem. I corrected it another way, but neglected to write down the exact amounts of ingredients, changes in procedure, etc. (I’m naming the dish slightly differently since I took liberties with the recipe.)

A small problem with raw recipes is that most raw chefs use a lot of oil and/or nuts and seeds, and as you know I don't usually do that. I have tried the recipes at first with a little of the oil, to get the 'right' taste, but generally find away around that afterwards for successive 'repeats' of the dish. I just don't see the need for all that fat as well as all those calories - but that's just me.

Anyway, here goes:

CAJUN-SPICED PORTABELLAS (Raw - but don't run away!)

Okay, here’s a rough idea of what this dish was about:

Portabella mushrooms cut into strips, salted and left to marinate in olive oil for a while. Chopped tomatoes. A mix of spices, onion powder, garlic powder, and various herbs. After tossing the drained mushrooms with the spice mixture, they were placed on dehydrator sheets for about an hour and a half, at which time I deviated yet again from the recipe and added the tomatoes, mixing them in with the mushroom slices, and dehydrated for about another half hour. A squeeze of lime finished it off. I doubt that they are like what Ms Suzanne intended, but they were very very good and I will make these again and write down exactly how I did it for this blog.

With the Cajun-Spiced Portabellas we had some old faves: Avocado and Strawberry Salad plus a side dish of thinly sliced (raw) green beans with red bell peppers and a little green onion - all very tender and delish. We finished up with berries - strawberry and blueberry. I can never get enough berries.

Thanks for listening! ;-)

About My Raw Adventure

Above: OLIVE-STUFFED PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS (RAW)

I have been neglecting this blog while sending all kinds of results of my raw adventures to my Rawly Vegan blog on Wordpress - and I'm sorry. Perhaps I should publish some of the results here, but I'd now have to go back quite a way to catch up on that :( But you can click into the title of the photo above for its recipe if you like and of course I can offer you more and more raw recipes, if anyone's interested, in future. (Previous recipes are, as I say, on my Rawly Vegan blog.

The thing is, I hadn't expected to be keeping on with this rawfood lark. I thought that I'd like it for a while - as an excuse, perhaps, to eat lots and lots of lovely fresh fruit while it was in season, but that I'd quickly tire of eating raw instead of the delicious cooked meals I used to concoct each day. I do so like to cook! Well, I still 'cook' or, I should day, prepare food, and I am absolutely loving it. There are some great recipes out there, including some wonderful recipe books (I have only a handful), and I'm just not prepared to stop eating raw for a while yet!

Now I don't mean that I'm 100 per cent raw. We still choose to eat non-raw food for around 10 to 15 per cent of our daily calories on the occasional day, and my condiments, herbs and spices are not yet all raw. But the experiment, as I used to call it, has worked out find and for the time being, at least, I have no intention of going back to the way I used to eat - nor, I should add, has my husband, who delights in preparing some of our dishes himself (and this after his thinking, like myself, that it would be boring old salads all the time).

Some raw dishes are worth knowing about whether you're raw or not: Some raw soups are much better than their cooked counterparts if they even have cooked counterparts and can be served to anyone at any time that, say, a chilled soup would be appropriate. They're so very quick to make that it makes me wonder why I ever fussed with soup pots etc. And raw crackers? Fantastic. I have a (new) dehydrator, and if anyone has access to one raw Flax Crackers, Hummus Crackers, and Dulse Crackers are all easy to make and soooooo delicious. I keep a couple of containers full of them all the time now.

So prowl through my other blog, if you will, and see if there is anything there to tempt you. Not all the photos have recipes attached, but that's fairly easily remedied, since I'm developing my own variations on other people's recipes all the time now. Such fun!

And did I say how bright and alert and energized I feel since eating high raw? Fantastic pay off! Now that absolutely stunned me!

Okay, back again later with more - and some recipes. Cheers, everyone.

Aparagus & Tomato Pasta, Three Thai Dishes

ASPARAGUS & TOMATO SHELL PASTA

There has been some lovely asparagus in the market lately, both the green kind and the purple. Being a little conservative for colour for this dish, I chose the green and teamed it with some lovely little grape tomatoes, basil, and green onions to mix with baby shell pasta. It was so good.

The recipe is just about what I've said above:

Shell pasta for two persons (I use about 100-120 grams or 3-4 ounces)
1 slice of onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. fresh asparagus, cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
1/2 lb. grape tomatoes, halved
pinch of crushed chiles - or to taste
salt and pepper to taste
half a bunch of fresh basil, lightly chopped
2 green/spring onions, chopped
basil sprigs for garnish

While the pasta water is coming to the boil and the pasta is cooking (according to package instructions), put the onion and garlic in a little water in a skillet (large enough to contain all the ingredients in the recipe) and cook until soft.

Add the asparagus, tomatoes and chopped basil with the seasonings and stir over medium-high heat until the tomato skins start to look as if they are loosening up a little. Stop there. Don't overcook. If the pasta is not ready, remove the vegetables from the heat until the pasta is done.

Drain the pasta and add to the vegetables in the skillet, toss them together and return to the heat if necessary for a moment or two to make sure everything is heated through. Remove from heat, stir in the green onions and transfer the pasta to a warmed serving dish. Garnish.

It doesn't get much simpler than that :)


THREE THAI DISHES



I've also been playing around at making more Thai food - we both love it! This one in the photo above is EGGPLANT WITH BASIL. I usually like to add a little cubed tofu to this dish as well as the red bell pepper.

And this one . . .



. . . is a SWEET POTATO AND POTATO COCONUT CURRY. Tofu goes nicely in this one too.

And then there was the day I made (dah-dah dah-dah!) . . .



TOM YUM SOUP! This was my first time of making it, and I think I got a little carried away, putting in enough vegetables and tofu to make it into something approaching a stew rather than a soup. That is, however, easily corrected.

These dishes are keepers here. Actually, we love Thai spices and like to flavour all kinds of things with them. My problem, however, is being able to get fresh kaffir lime leaves (although I keep a good supply of dried ones up the cupboard) and fresh lemon grass, not to mention fresh Thai basil, which is so important to the taste. It's a bore to have to substitute other things :(

Now that spring is here I'm looking to more and more lovely vegetables to put into my stir 'fries' and curries. I remind myself that they have snow out west!

Bonus with 'Wake Up To Spice'

[EDITED TO CORRECT AN AMBIGUITY IN THE TIMING FOR THE BONUS OFFER]



Just to inform you all that my e-cookbook Wake Up To Spice now has a bonus attached: When you buy the cookbook this month (February) you get, free, Erin Dame's special report 7 Strategies to Successful Weight Loss! (This is normally a $5.00 cost, given for the rest of February to those who wish to dowload WAKE UP TO SPICE.)

In any event, you can sign up for Erin's free newsletter and download a sample recipe from my collection for only a click of the mouse. Not a bad deal!

Take a look and see what you think! You can find the whole deal HERE.

CABBAGE SALAD ROLLS

Cabbage Salad Rolls

Today I was going to make a cabbage salad for part of our lunch, but once I got out the ingredients the thought was boring for once (we love cabbage salad, so this was distinctly odd!). As a result I ended up fiddling around with the makings for the salad but somewhat reconstructing it and changing the flavourings a little (it was chilly out, so I wanted something warmish).

Ingredients:

Six leaves of savoy cabbage, with the little V-shaped stem bit cut out of the base of each

The Stuffing:

2 carrots
1 oz sunflower seeds
1-1/2 tsp white miso
2 slices onion
3 cloves garlic
1 red apple
1 stick celery
1/3 of a thai chili (but make this to your own taste - thai chilies are hot!) - or use cayenne to taste
zest of half a lime
juice of half a lime
Tbsp raw cider vinegar
ground cummin to taste
salt and peppeer if needed

Garnish: I used a handful of alfalfa sprouts, but you could use anything you like :)

Put all ingredients except for the cabbage leaves and whatever garnish you're using into the food processor and chop to a fine texture. Mix well and taste for seasoning. You may need to add salt, pepper, lime juice or vinegar, whatever.

Put a couple of Tbsp of the stuffing onto the centre of each cabbage leaf, fold up the bottom and each side and roll away from you, snugly, until the cabbage forms a package for the filling. If it oozes out you have either not rolled tightly enough or you have used two much filling, so try again :)

Secure each roll with a toothpick if needed (I needed) and place seam-side down on a platter.

Garnish and serve. Eat with knife and fork or with fingers (like a wrap).

Here it is cut on my plate - but I'm so sorry the pic is so blurry. I'd have tried another photo, but there were no more models to pose for it!



We pronounced it a success! And of course it's raw :)

And now here's the apple blossom I immortalized on Saturday!



And those dear little baby maple leaves are so welcome when so many trees are still bare.

RAW BEET SALAD

Here I am, gnawing and crunching away at raw fruits and vegetables - and loving it. I had recently bought a kilogramme of beets ('beetroot' to any of you in the UK and what I used to call them until recently), which we usually cook for salads, soups, other dishes. But I ran across a recipe that suggested one could grate them raw with apple for a salad, then use a raw vegan almond 'mayonnaise' to dress it and sprinkle it with sesame seeds. Simple :) Being me, absolutely determined to pervert the course of true cuisine, however, I went in a slightly different direction:

RAW BEET SALAD

3 Tbsp wakame seaweed, soaked and finely chopped
1/2 kg beets, peeled and grated (I used a food processor attachment to my wand blender to do mine)
1/2 kg apples, peeled and grated
1 Tbsp white miso
1 Tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos / All-Purpose Liquid Soy Seasoning (instead of Tamari, which I'm sure would taste fine)
handful of Italian parsley
good pinch of cayenne
ginger root (your choice how much), finely chopped
squeeze or two of lemon (optional)
salt and peppe (if needed) to taste
GARNISH: sesame seeds (optional - but they look pretty against the colours of the

Throw all into your blender, except for the garnish. Chill and serve with those sesame seeds if you like. Good food.

NOTE: the dressing (everything except the first three ingredients and the garnish) is entirely up to you. We love to use seaweeds in salads and soups and anything else we can stick them into - or much them on our own, but if you don't care for them (have you TRIED them all? Wunnerful!), then by all means skip.

SUNSET SOUP (Raw)

This soup I invented because I didn't want to serve even the very delicious Raw Tomato Soup twice in a row. I had seen in Brigitte Mars' book Rawsome! a recipe for Carrot-Ginger Soup which needed carrots, some left chopped, not pureed, white miso, grated ginger, garlic and water. I figured I could branch off from that and brought out a few more ingredients (and skipped the garlic for this one), fiddled with proportions, kept tasting and came up with:

SUNSET SOUP (Raw)

1 orange
1 cup chopped raw carrots
1 cup chopped raw butternut squash
3/4 cup raw cranberries (ok, I'd frozen mine from a while ago, but they were still raw)
1 Tbsp grated ginger root
1-1/2 to 2 cups water (This is approximate. Fiddle around until it's the right consistency for you.)
1 Tbsp white miso
1 Tbsp Braggs amino/all-purpose seasoning
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
salt (if needed) to taste

Zest the orange, remove the white pith with a sharp knife and discard, slice and chop the orange flesh, removing seeds as you go.
Put all ingredients (including the orange zest, unless you want to reserve a few strands for garnish) into your blender and puree, adding more water if needed to get to the right consistency for you.

Garnish if you like with some of the orange zest - and a few dried cranberries would be pretty, I think.

Enjoy!

Algerian Chili - Crockpot Style

Here is my crockpot version of Algerian Chili which can be found several places on the net - eg.
http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/15/Algerian_Chili18936.shtml and others, such as:
http://www.gourmet.gr/recipes/algerian/1/26/5377/Algerian-chili.htm

http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/1148/Algerian-Chili-Loubia-B-Dersa/

It was recently offered to a group I own on Yahoo! and was immediately popular. Perhaps it was the name 'Chili' attached to an Algerian dish rather than Mexidan, although it is good to remind that 'chili' in both names refers to the spice itself, not to the whole recipe. What it is, of course, is a white bean stew with lots of wonderful flavour and 'heat' - depending on how much of the latter you like.

What I did, apart from omitting oil and salt from the recipe, was to put the whole lot at once into a crockpot, with the exception of half of the herbs (and I used half cilantro and half parsley). The rest I added right near the very end of cooking. I also used canned tomatoes, but that would make little difference, I think - except that next time I'd hold back from putting them in until after the beans had had a chance to become soft LOL - I forgot myself in my hurry, so the beans took forever to cook! Other changes were minor.

Here it is all dished up ready to go on the table with a bowl of couscous. We had started with a salad, so apart from a little fruit to follow this was our main meal.



While the dish does resemble Mexican-style 'Chili', the differences here are sufficient to recommend it be tried by anyone who loves spicy food - although you can adjust that to suit yourself, obviously.

There was far too much for two little people, so I divided it up and froze some. It reheats nicely too! Just add more parsley, cilantro, whatever you have to give it a nice fresh taste ;)



Definitely a winner. We'll be making this again!

Haggis!

This is a veggie haggis - all baked and ready to be enjoyed by those who, for reasons known only to ourselves, feel that something particular to our heritage (or part of it) should be consumed at some time during the year. Sound familiar? :) The haggis (in its distinctly non-veg version) is traditional on Burns Night, 25 January, in honour of the Scottish poet. In our household, we like that too - but my husband also asks for it for New Year. Why not! so I make enough to do for both and freeze half!

HAGGIS

I’ve made this a couple of times now - it is a work in progress, evolving, etc. There are soooo many recipes for this dish that you really can’t go too far wrong. Here’s my latest version:

ASSEMBLE THE FOLLOWING:

1-1/2 cups cooked kidney beans (homemade or from a can, drained)
3 oz (by weight) green lentils
2 oz (by weight) pot barley
2 bay leaves
2 oz (by weight) steel-cut oats
1/4 cup regular rolled oats
1/4 cup dried TVP granules
4 oz carrot (by weight), minced
6 oz onion (by weight), minced
4 oz mushrooms (by weight), minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp Marmite (optional)
1 Tbsp low-sodium soysauce
1/3 cup Scotch
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried parsley
grating of fresh nutmeg
1/4 tsp or so of cumin
1/4 tsp tumeric
sprinkle of cinnamon
salt and black pepper - to taste
dash of cayenne or two - to taste (optional - I’ve made it with the cayenne and without it)
You’ll also need water or stock to rehydrate the tvp and to soak the oats as well as to ‘saute’ the vegetables (if you don’t use oil) .

TO MAKE THE HAGGIS:

Pre heat oven 375F

Put the oats and the tvp together in a bowl and add enough stock or water to come up to about 3/4 of the contents. Leave until the mix has absorbed all the liquid and is dryish. This can take about 45 mins or so - but it all happens quietly while the lentils and barley are cooking.

Cook the lentils and barley with bay leaves. When done, remove leaves, drain pan very well, and set aside.

Puree most of the Kidney beans except for about 1/3 cup to add whole.

‘Saute’ the onions, garlic, mushrooms and carrots in a little water (or stock if you have it) until they go a bit soft - 5 to seven minutes should more than do it.

Add the lemon juice, Marmite, soy sauce, scotch, spices and stir well. Add the pureed kidney beans, the whole kidney beans, the oat and tvp mixture, and the lentil and barley mixture. Stir well and taste for seasoning.



Add more water or stock if it looks a bit dry, but you won’t want it soupy.

Put into an lightly oil-sprayed ovenproof casserole and cover. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. If you would like a crispy top (it’s nice :) ) you should remove the cover for the last 10 minutes.

While the haggis is in the oven, now's the time to cook the potatoes and turnips that go with it! I add all kinds of things to mashed potatoes - and that includes nutritional yeast, turmeric, and goodness knows what else. You please yourself. The turnips I like pretty well plain.



Glamorous it is not, but it certainly was good to eat! My husband was delighted - and that's what it was all about! ;)

NOTE:
You could use just one kind of oats - I chose two for added visual interest and texture. Barley is a nice touch, but many recipes don’t have it. Other beans? I think you need the darker colour of the red kidney beans for this kind of dish. Use brown lentils rather than green if you prefer, but I wouldn’t advise using red lentils - too soft. Save some scotch for a toast.

Variations On A Theme: Baked Pasta With Spinach, Gluten And Mushrooms

[Edited because I mistakenly added in part of another recipe - would ya believe!!!! Time for a rest!]

A little while ago I posted a pic and recipe (sort of) for something I whipped up on a slow day in the kitchen (or was it a frantic day? Point is, I made it from what I had on hand - AND I was feeling relatively lazy!). It was a Mushroom Pasta Bake and it was GOOD :)

Shortly thereafter I did a variation on that one. Feeling that I needed to use up some things in the freezer (in this case, some seitan/gluten I had made) and the refrigerator (in this case mushrooms - I always have mushrooms and use any excuse to use them up!), I decided to do another 'bake'. Tofu I usually have in because I buy some of those shelf-stable aseptic packs of silken tofu that I use whenever I run out of the regular tofu. Besides, silken is great for sauces and such - so there!

So here's my 'Variation On A Theme':

BAKED PASTA WITH SPINACH, GLUTEN AND MUSHROOMS



Following the previous recipe, more or less (see above) I assembled the following:

3 or 4 ounces quinoa macaroni, boiled just short of al dente and drained (or use whatever small pasta you prefer)
4 or 5 ounces mushrooms, chopped small
1 10-oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drained very very well
A few ounces (about 1 cup measure) of my own homemade gluten roast (seasoned as if for roast b**f), minced
Liquid from cooking the gluten roast (half a cup or so you could substitute a good strong veg stock)
1/2 pkg low-fat tofu (you might want to use more so that you have extra sauce to pass at the table)*
soymilk and/or stock - enough to thin out the tofu to a cream consistency*
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce (optional but we like it most of the time)
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 - 2 Tbsp lemon juice
black pepper
1 Tbsp white miso
herbs according to taste
salt and pepper throughout to taste
Nutmeg for the spinach
crumbs or vegan parmezan cheez for topping (I used my own mix that I keep on hand)

I cooked the pasta and while it was doing its thing I sauteed the mushrooms in a little stock and low-sodium soy. My spinach wasn't completely thawed, so I put it on a low heat at the back of the stove to finish defrosting. I had previously chopped the wedge of gluten roast (you could use some kind of commercial seitan - depending on flavour) very finely - to make it seem like soy crumbles.

When the mushrooms are shrunk to half their size and looking good :) add the gluten/seitan and its cooking liquid or stock. At this point you might need to add a little wholewheat flour to thicken this mixture (stir quickly so it doesn't glom) and add more stock, a bit at a time, until you have a good consistency for a gravy. Let this cook a little to take away the raw taste of the flour. Everything tasting good? (Need salt and pepper? More stock?) A nice rich 'gravy' is ideal here. Okay, set it aside.

For the tofu topping:
Mix the tofu with the remaining ingredients (except for the nutmeg and crumbs) until it tastes the way you want it to. This is a subjective matter and I even change my mind from day to day what I like to have in this kind of dish. You decide. You will want this to be nice and creamy - sort of like a thickish yoghurt.

* Alternately, you could simply whisk a some silken tofu with whatever you like of the same ingredients for an easier topping.

TO ASSEMBLE AND BAKE:

Pre-heat oven to 375

Spoon the spinach into the bottom of a lightly oil-sprayed casserole, grate on a little nutmeg.



Add the macaroni-mushroom-gluten mix in a nice even layer over the top of the spinach.



Next comes the tofu sauce.



As you see, I kinda dump it in spoonfuls over the top then spread it with the back of a spoon to more or less cover. If there's more than you need, fine - it makes a good sauce to pass at the table. If not, then don't sweat it.

Finally top with crumbs, a mix of nuts and nutritional yeast or vegan parmezan cheez - whatever your heart desires :)

And here it is



- all ready to go in the oven for (how long did I say?) 20 minutes, lightly covered with foil, then remove the foil for a last few minutes to brown a little. The timing will depend a little on the heat of your oven (they all differ a bit) and the size and shape of your baking dish.

This had a rich 'meaty' taste - and the spinach was a pleasant complement to the rest of the dish. I'll do it this way in future.

NOTE: I tend to make things a little on the dry side by some people's standards, because we don't care for 'soupy' dishes - unless we're having soup! LOL You may want to add more liquid to everything, more sauce, depending on your taste. Just note as you go along whether or not it looks right to you, okay?

Mushroom-Coconut Curry

We almost always have mushrooms here, and lately I have been cooking up recipes for which mushrooms are the primary focus. I'm not quite sure where I originally found this one - it was at least 10 or 12 years ago 'and in another country' etc. - possibly it originated with Charmaine Solomon. Because I try, as much as possible, to cook without added fat/oil and without a lot of high-calorie ingredients, I've adapted this recipe so that it won't quite be as Mrs Solomon (or whoever it was) would wish. For example, the soymilk plus cornstarch plus coconut extract replaces the same quantity of coconut milk. In making it for only two persons, the proportions have also changed a bit - and of course seasoning adjusted to my taste. Method is my own. Nevertheless . . . .

MUSHROOM-COCONUT CURRY

* for TWO persons *

1/2 lb (250 g) mushrooms, quartered
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1 tsp grated ginger (I used some from a jar - not as nice, but it was quick)
6 curry leaves (I used dried. If you don't have these, don't worry. It's a subtle flavour.)
1 tsp (or to taste) of curry powder (your own mix, preferably, or a good commercial blend)
1/4 tsp salt, if you use it, or of course to taste
1/2 tsp garam masala (again, your own mix or a good commercial blend)
1/2 cup low-fat soymilk
1-1/2 tsp cornstarch
few drops coconut extract
2 tsp lemon juice

'Saute' the mushrooms, green onions, garlic, ginger and curry leaves in a little water until softened. Add the curry powder, salt (if used) and mushrooms and continue to cook over low heat, adding a little water as needed, until the mushrooms are softened and the flavours are nicely blended.

Meanwhile, mix together the soymilk, cornstarch and coconut extract.

Sprinkle with the softened mushroom mix with garam masala. Add the soymilk 'coconut' mix and stir until heated through. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Garnish, if you wish, with a few sprigs of something green or another green onion chopped and another dash of garam masala.

Serve with brown rice.

Mushroom & Tofu Pasta Bake

I'm always searching for new ways to take a lazy way out of cooking - which by the way I profess to love most of the time - without compromising my promise to myself to cook from scratch (well, I don't make my own pasta anymore and never make my own tofu or soymilk, so . . . .LOL ). Somehow - it must be because the oven makes the place so warm and cosy - I've taken to popping pasta dishes and other kinds of things in the oven and then sitting back and waiting for them to be ready!

Here's what I did the day before yesterday - and I'm including a lot of photos cuz someone asked me to do step-by-step and so here it is LOL

But first a word about the pasta itself. I found the most delectable kamut spirelli in one of my favourite shops and thought I'd try it out:



I'm sure it comes in many other brands, but this one is organic and is actually available in Ontario! Anyway, here we go:

MUSHROOM & TOFU PASTA BAKE

(for 2 hungry people or 3-4 lighter eaters)

125 g (4 or 5 ounces in weight?) spirelli (you could use penne or whatever) pasta, set aside until ready to cook.
250 g (1/2 lb.) Mushrooms, sliced (measurements can vary - use what you have)
1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
150 g (around 5 or 6 ounces in weight?) Zucchini, chopped (ditto)
1/2 pkg low-fat tofu (you might want to use more so that you have extra sauce to pass at the table)
soymilk and/or stock - enough to thin out the tofu to a cream consistency
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 - 2 Tbsp lemon juice
black pepper
1 Tbsp white miso
crumbs or vegan parmezan cheez for topping (I used my own mix that I keep on hand)
herbs according to taste

Method of sorts:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Saute your mushrooms - I do it in a little water with a Tbsp low-sodium soy, since I avoid using oil if at all possible.

While you are doing the mushrooms (only a short while - you'll want them to shrink to half size and look 'cooked'), boil some water and drop your zucchini into it for a couple of minutes only - or you could lightly steam them. You don't want them to go at all mushy. When these are done, drain and set aside.

Cook that pasta before you forget!



This kamut pasta is so pretty, isn't it, and it only takes a few minutes. Here it's still in its raw, dried state, but I thought the colours were nicer than I'd ever seen! Pop it into boiling water and keep an eye on the time - I only did mine for about half the time it called for, but you be the judge. You'll want your pasta, regardless of which kind you use, to be a little underdone because it will cook more in the oven.



When the mushrooms are ready, add the zucchini (I cut mine into small pieces so that they didn't take long to blanch and so that they'd mix in with the size of everything else. You might want to decide to do it differently)



and season to taste - but remember that you're going to have a seasoned tofu sauce over the lot, so go easy on salt etc.

Here we are again, all ready for the sauce.



For The Sauce:
Crumble the tofu, add enough soy milk or other liquid (do this a bit at a time) to make it possible to blend into a creamy sauce with a blender or a wand blender. Blend in the garlic and all other ingredients. Taste for seasoning and adjust. Sometimes it's the addition of a little vegan worcestershire sauce that helps a whole bunch, sometimes it isn't needed. Your choice.

Er, no pic of the sauce being made. We're going to just have to live with that. Imagine white. Got it? Okay, onwards!

Stir the sauce, pasta and vegetables together and turn into a baking dish which has been sprayed or lightly wiped with a faint film of olive oil. Here it is:



Top it, if you like, with crumbs, vegan parmezan cheez, or other appropriate crumby topping - or leave it plain. Your choice.



Yeah, well, you're right - it's the same image you got at the top of this post. Life's full of surprises, eh?

Bake for around 20 minutes. I cover mine with a layer of foil, very loosely, and take it off in the last few minutes.



And here it is baked. Now a warning for those like me who like to leave it in the oven until they've finished the first course:
If you leave it too long, it will dry out - but hey that's what that extra sauce I mentioned in the ingredients list is for. This recipe is so forgiving of absent-minded cooks!

Serve with whatever you like - we had ours plain the first day. But we did have a salad beforehand! :)

Spicy Hot Pot

SPICY HOT POT

Today I felt as if we needed some serious veggies for our midday meal! I had been looking at a recipe in Barnard & Kramer's The Garaden of Vegan a while back, and thought that might be a good idea. Unfortunataely, as luck would have it, I didn't have any home made veg stock in the freezer, I had no green beans, no chickpeas, no cashews, and precious little cilantro, etc. etc. What I did have was an appetite. This is my adaptation of their Spicy Vegetable Hot Pot, simplified in method (don't need to fuss around much if you're not sauteeing in oil, after all). The mushrooms were added for nutrition and for added flavour, considering the kind of stock I was reduced to using.

2 cups vegetable stock (I used a low-sodium cube *sigh*)
5 or 6 ounces onion (half a large one), chopped
2 carrots (about 7 or 8 ounces), chopped
2 potatoes (around the same as the carrots in weight), chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp curry powder (I actually still have some left over from summer!)
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1 small red thai chili, minced (seeds and all for me - you might want to remove them)
1 Tbsp grated ginger (I used the kind from a jar)
1 cup cauliflower, chopped (from my freezer)
2 cups cooked soybeans (from my freezer)
2-1/2 cups mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 apple, chopped
1 cup frozen green peas
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, finely chopped

I scrubbed but didn't peel the potatoes, carrots or apple.

Pan went on a medium-high heat with the vegetable stock. Onions went in next, quickly followed by the carrots, potatoes and garlic. Then the spices, chili and ginger and the heat was lowered to a simmer. After around 10 minutes the root vegetables were no longer hard. I added the cauliflower and soybeans (still feeling the chill) and the mushrooms and raised the heat. Another 5 to 8 minutes and they all seemed ready to have the apple, peas and cilantro join them. These took only a couple of minutes or so, because they really only needed to be heated through.



I served a salad to start, as usual (I'll spare you the photo this time!), and accompanied the hot pot with some wholewheat couscous. There's enough left for one enormous meal for two persons (and probably even three meals for two, depending on how much grain is consumed with it).

NOTE: It was very good. I'll do it again, probably tweaking the spices to make it a little 'hotter' and adding a little more of this and that. But bland it was not; it lives up to its name. Also I liked it with the peas - probably better than I would have liked the green beans, and the mushrooms must stay in, for me, regardless of what kind of stock I use. I love soybeans, but I also like chickpeas. I'm not sure what I'd use next time :)

Eggplant Spiced North Indian Style, Baked Macaroni Bolognese

Those who know me know that I am essentially a lazy cook. I cook from scratch, but I take short cuts and I prefer things that can be left to cook themselves while we relax a bit before the meal. It helps if they can be kept warm on stovetop or in the oven (crockpot too) while we have our salad course.

These two meals were easy for me - and for that reason I'm likely to have them on the menu again and again.

EGGPLANT SPICED NORTH INDIAN STYLE



I thought a bit about what to call this dish - it originated as one of Madhur Jaffrey's in her Eastern Vegetarian Cooking. However, I adjusted the seasoning quite a bit so that it probably violates the whole idea of naming it after any region. In additiion, I made it for two persons, which always messes with a recipe (you can rarely just cut a recipe by two-thirds anyway, and I didn't), and of course I omitted any added fat/oil, as per usual, and omitted the salt. The proportions of spices were adjusted to suit our taste (and to compensate for the lack of salt). The method and the seasonings changed, that's what :) but the eggplant and onion stayed. The results were very pleasing to us. Here's my renamed version.

1 lb eggplant, cubed (I left mine unpeeled - looks so pretty that way)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste, if used

I put all ingredients except for the lemon juice into a large skillet (I can see what's happening better that way) and stirred over medium-high heat with enough water to keep it all from burning, allowing the spices to get thoroughly mixed through and to coat the vegetables. Then I added around half a cup of water, covered, and lowered the heat for around 20 minutes to half an hour - well, it might have been a little longer - until the eggplant was cooked through but not mushy. Stirring every now and then helps - and it lets you keep any eye out to add more liquid if it looks as if it's going to burn. During one of those stirrings I added the lemon juice.

When done - and you know how you like your eggplant to be - taste for seasonings (you might have wanted salt, so add a little more if necessary).



Serve with brown rice and whatever salad-like things please you. Indian accompaniments would be best, but it's a versatile dish. Lovely way to take your veggies!!!


The next one is a really lazy dish -


BAKED MACARONI BOLOGNESE



Yesterday I was stuck for ideas, so I thought why not just re-run Saturday's lunch - spaghetti bolognese (or is that 'bolognaise'? Never mind!). I had made this from mushrooms and tvp plus all the usual suspects required for a good tomato pasta sauce. It had been very good. You can find the recipe HERE - except this time I had lots of mushrooms and therefore used more.

I cooked some quinoa macaroni (love that stuff!) - or I should say I deliberately undercooked it - while I reheated the bolognese sauce and added a little more tomato paste and stock along with another half dozen or so quartered mushrooms, jazzing it up with more chilies and more nutritional yeast - this dish was not going to be boring! I then mixed together the sauce and macaroni, saving a little sauce for the top, and dumped it into a casserole.



As you see I also added a cheezy crumb topping and paved the surface with some sliced mushrooms. Lightly covering with some aluminum foil, it went into the oven (375 F) for around half an hour then spent a little time with its cover off while we had our salad. Easy. (Okay, so it was just 'leftovers' - but it was still good and still easy! LOL)

Catching Up. Cauliflower-Tofu Bake, Spinach- & Tofu-Stuffed Shells

I have been a very naughty blogger, and now it's the end of the month and I haven't posted anything here in over three weeks! Shame on me!!!! I have no excuse except for having such a good time that cooking something new took second place to life with a capital L. The middle of the month we were in New York to see friends, attend opera and ballet, visit museums, wander around, and visit restaurants. Restaurants? Yes, we especially liked Candle 79 (not to be confused with Candle Cafe) and Franchia (sister restaurant to HanGawi, which we visited last time, but less formal). And I mustn't forget Dawat (not vegan like the others, but vegan-friendly), which belongs to actress, chef, and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey (our kitchen saint).

Since then and even just before then, I have been either raiding the freezer for previously cooked yummies or re-running old menus and recipes. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it does mean rather lean pickings for blogging here.

But here are a couple of things you might like.

CAULIFLOWER-TOFU BAKE



Here's a simple thing we did with cauliflower the other day. It was easy to partly cook the cauliflower, cut into flowerets, then make a sauce from some silken tofu, flavouring it with sodium-reduced soy, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, white miso, and various kinds of pepper - probably including cayenne ;) I used, for the two of us, about a package and a half of the tofu and thinned it to the right creamy consistency, and half a head of cauliflower. Some chopped onion gives a nice zip. Mix the sauce and the cauliflower together and bake until the top browns. Around half an hour should do it, depending on how much you use and how hot your oven is. I topped mine with some flavoured crumbs - ya know, the old ground-up nuts, crumbs, nutritional yeast, paprika, blah blah blah mix I keep in an airtight jar in the refrigerator all the time. You probably have your own favourite.


SPINACH- & TOFU-STUFFED SHELLS



I have posted a Stuffed Shells recipe here before, but this one, also in the nature of an experiment, was even more successful. That may have been because I made a few changes to my previous recipe. I did however use the same very nice brand of brown rice shell pasta I used before.



Following the basic idea of my previous attempt, I substituted a couple of big handfuls of fresh baby spinach for the basil. This I chopped and then zapped with the wand blender along with some garlic, the tofu, mushrooms, etc., to which I also added a good squeeze of lemon juice, some herbs (what? Probably thyme or oregano), a little vegan worcestershire sauce, pepper (Cayenne too? Probably - just a dash) and two or three Tbsp nutritional yeast. These additions made for a similar looking but stronger tasting stuffing. If there was something else in there, I forget, but I tasted as I went along and kept going until it tasted right :) Proceding as before, this is what it looked like as plated.




You might want to keep some sauce to pass at the table.

And yes, thanks, we had a lovely time in New York! Here we are in Fort Tryon Park on our way to see The Cloisters for the first time in something like 35 years or so. Lovely day!!!