I always thought it was just hocus pocus that spicy foods can help you lose weight, but according to this site, there may be some truth to it.  If it is true, I should wake up tomorrow 10 pounds lighter after the salad I had for dinner last night (and lunch today).  It was on fire!  But I really liked it.

I got this book from the library over the weekend, Raising the Salad Bar. Some of the recipes aren’t even vegetarian, but omitting and subbing would solve that problem. One recipe that caught my eye was for a sweet potato, corn and black bean salad mixed with cilantro and a chipotle-lime vinaigrette. It sounded good, so I decided to make it.

The sweet potatoes get covered in some canola oil (I only used a small drizzle, not as much as the recipe called for), cumin, coriander and chili powder. Then they get roasted in the oven until they are cooked and a little crispy. The sweet potatoes get mixed with black beans, corn and cilantro and then topped with a dressing made from a chiptole, some Thai sweet chili sauce, lots of lime juice and some canola oil. I opted to use about a teaspoon of flax oil in place of the 1/2 cup of canola oil that the recipe suggested. Yikes! That’s like a million billion calories and thousands of grams of fat!

I opted to serve this salad over a bed of romaine and butter lettuces and some radishes, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. The dressing was super hot– almost too hot for me and I like spicy stuff– but it was still really good. Along the side of the salad, I put some vegetable and flax tortilla chips to help extinguish the flames. All that fiber was very filling too.

For a very similar dish, roast some sweet potatoes and add it to my corn and black bean salsa and pile all that on top of some salad greens.

Dinner last night was thrown together with whatever I could find.  I didn’t feel like making anything complicated and came up with this very tasty, one pot creation.  It’s all of the food groups wrapped up in one easy dish– can’t beat that!

Lentil, Quinoa and Rice Pilaf

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1 medium onion, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 TB olive oil

1/4 cup (dry) lentils, either brown or green (don’t use red here)

1/2 cup (dry) wild and white rice blend (or one or the other)

1/2 cup (dry) quinoa

1/4 cup dried cranberries

2 1/2 cups water or veg stock

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

S&P to taste

In a large skillet with high sides, saute the onion, carrots and garlic in the olive oil until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add in everything except the basil and pine nuts and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed.  Taste to check that the grains and lentils are fully cooked.  If they are still firm, add in a few more tablespoons of water and cover again.  Just before serving, stir in the pine nuts and basil.

We had ours with some very simple lemon roasted asparagus.  Heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Put the zest and juice of one lemon in a bowl and stir in some salt and pepper.  Arrange asparagus in one layer on a baking sheet and drizzle with the lemon juice/zest.  Drizzle with a little olive oil and toss to coat.  Roast for 5-10 minutes, depending on how big your asparagus spears are.

I’ve really resisted going grocery shopping this week.  Instead, I want to use up what we got and make more stuff homemade.  The other night, I had some kale that was about to turn to seaweed and some lentils, so I threw it all together in a soup.  It was FANTASTIC!

Lentil Kale Soup

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1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 TB olive oil

2 small carrots, pealed and chopped

4-5 kale leaves, stems removed and chopped

1 cup dry brown lentils

3 cups veg stock

3 cups water (or more veg stock)

S&P to taste

Saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the carrots and cook a few minutes more.  Add the lentils, stock, water and kale and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour until the lentils are tender.  Taste for seasoning.

I boiled up some noodles separately to stir in just for fun.  I thought it might be more appealing to Emma that way.  She ate a couple of bites but wasn’t too wild about it.  I like to keep the noodles separate in soup because they get mushy and gross in any that is leftover.

To go with it, I used more freezer and pantry items in my Mediterranean Panini Sammies.  I didn’t have any tomatoes on hand, so these just had artichoke hearts, Vegenaise, olives, roasted red peppers and basil.  These are SOOOO good that I could probably eat 5 of them in one sitting.

I’ll admit that the photo probably won’t make you drool… in fact, it looks downright disgusting!  Like a big bowl ‘o puke or something.  Anyway, I made an enormous pot of veggie chili the other day to make nachos with.  After searching a bit, I found a recipe a vegan nacho cheese recipe on the PPK that everyone seemed to like.  The salt in this recipe is way over the top, so consider cutting it down to 1/4 tsp at first and increasing a little at a time until you find a level that suits you.  I didn’t have any RoTel, so I subbed 1/4 cup of salsa and it turned out just fine.

Very Veggie Chili

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1 cup dry black beans, soaked overnight

1 cup dry cannellini beans, soaked overnight

1 cup dry chickpeas, soaked overnight

1 cup dry pinto beans, soaked overnight

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, minced (or more to taste)

1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets

3 zucchini, chopped

1 quart veg stock

4 TB chili powder, or more to taste

3 tsp cumin, or more to taste

3 TB dried oregano

1 TB coriander

1 15-oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups frozen corn kernels, canned, frozen or fresh

Soak your beans for several hours or overnight.  Substitute one can of each kind, if you don’t want to use dry.  After soaking, drain and rinse, then put in a large pot (or slow cooker) and add enough water to cover.  Cook on a low heat for several hours until the beans have softened, but not cooked completely.  Add more boiling water as necessary to keep the beans covered.  When the beans have softened, drain and set aside.

In an extremely large soup pot, saute the onion, garlic and jalapeno for a few minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients except the corn and stir to combine.  Cover and simmer for several hours, until the beans and veggies are cooked through.  Add the corn.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

One can of garbanzo beans mashed up with some Annie’s Goddess Dressing and S&P.  Very basic, but very good.

Emma and I went to the store earlier this week, but all we really bought was snack foods.  I don’t know how I managed to get through the store without picking up more “real” food, but I did, and I was in a pinch last night when I was trying think of something to make for dinner.  While running down the list of things in our pantry, I realized that we have tons of beans, rice and the like.  Well, the problem with dried beans is that they require soaking and I didn’t have time for that.  The next best thing was lentils, which cook up super fast, are very tasty and nutritious and don’t require soaking time.

Then I thought of this post about a dish that combined lentils with apples, served over rice and bulgur.  Check, check and check.  I had all of the above, so that’s what I went with.

Lentils don’t photograph well, but looks aside, let me say that this was DELICIOUS!  I had to make a few changes to the recipe, though, since I didn’t have much on hand.  The original recipe calls for carrots and celery.  I didn’t have any, so I left those out and just used the onion.  The original recipe also used apple cider, but I didn’t have any of that either so I used (don’t laugh) beer.  Not just any kind of beer, but this Pumpkin Ale.  I also left out the thyme because I really hate the taste of thyme. For the apples, I used one very small Gala, one medium Gala and one medium Granny Smith.  I left the skins on and chopped them pretty big so that there would be big chunks throughout.

As for the rice/bulgur combo, I used 1 cup of basmati rice and 1/2 cup of bulgur, which I cooked together in 2 3/4 cups water.  Cook it just like rice– bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes.  At the end, I put in about a teaspoon of Earth Balance and a dash of salt then fluffed with a fork.  Emma loved this rice, but wasn’t too fond of the lentils (although I don’t know why).  I actually liked this rice and bulgur combo a lot too and will probably make it that way from now on.  A very satisfying meal– and one that’s perfect for a rainy fall evening.

I was sooooo uninspired last night.  It was a warm day.  The house was hot and I was lazy.  I didn’t feel like cooking, but knew I had to or we’d end up eating a bunch of junk.  This is what I came up with (pardon the terrible photos).

Veggie fajitas on a bed of refried black beans topped with Tofutti BTSC and salsa.  For the fajitas, I used onions, red and green bells, carrots, kale and a yukon gold potato.  They turned out so good that we only have a little left over.  I suppose you could wrap them up in a tortilla and eat them the way they are supposed to be eaten, but I like digging in with a fork.

On the side we had some Mexican Quinoa.  I made it the exact same way I make Mexican Rice, except I subbed quinoa for the rice.  You will also need to reduce the amount of liquid– I used 1 cup of stock and 1/2 cup tomato puree and it turned out perfect.  This may be my new favorite way to eat quinoa.

The second most exciting thing to happen in my kitchen this week were these mini meatloaves that I made for dinner last night.  I made one batch of my Awesome Nutburgers and divided it into quarters.  Now that I think about it, actually, I may have forgotten to add the cumin.  Oh well, these still turned out yummy.  Anyway, after dividing into quarters, I packed the quarter into a very tight ball.  They should be about the size of a baseball.  Put onto a baking sheet and shape into a football.  When all four are done, mix together about 1/4 cup of ketchup and 1/4 cup of BBQ sauce.  Spread onto the tops of the loaves.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

From the freezer: a pack of corn tortillas and a bag of pinto beans.  Tacos it is!  I based this recipe on the Bean & Zucchini Tacos that I’ve made before, but instead of zucchini, I used some kale.  They turned out very yummy!

To go with our tacos, I made some coleslaw.  What do these two things have in common?  Well, nothing except they were things that I had on hand and needed to use up.  Both were good, even if somewhat disjointed.

This coleslaw recipe is based on one that I found in Eat More, Weigh Less.  I changed it a bit, so I think it’s safe to post the recipe here.

Vegan Coleslaw

2 cups shredded cabbage

1 cup shredded carrots

1/2 green apple, grated

Dressing:

2 TB vegan mayo

1 TB dijon mustard

1 TB sugar

1 TB apple cider vinegar

S&P to taste

In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients.  Add the cabbage and carrots and toss to combine.  If not using right away, cover and refrigerate until ready.  If using within an hour of making it, leave out at room temperature to give the cabbage time to wilt down.

We had collard rolls last night for dinner. We’ve had them before, but I did something to the Backyard BBQ sauce this time that made the heat WAY intense. I thought I followed the recipe exactly, so I don’t know what happened. I was sort of rushing to get it done so that it could simmer, so it’s entirely possible that I added too many peppers without realizing what I was doing.

It wasn’t inedible, but it did require a side of white rice to cool down the mouth in between bites. I actually really, really liked this dish, despite the heat. We should have it more often than we do.

While we’re on the subject of the rice, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I used Safeway brand instant white rice. I mean, can you get any more processed than that?! I’m even more embarrassed to admit that I had it in my pantry because I am not the instant rice kind of gal. I just don’t ever have a use for it. I will tell you that I bought it a while back when Emma had a little stomach bug and I wanted to have some plain white rice on hand to make (quickly) when/if she was in the mood to eat it. That’s the only reason why I had it and once it’s gone, I probably won’t buy it again. At least it’s enriched… I guess that’s the only redeeming quality to it. That, and the fact that it’s easy like making couscous– boil the water, add the rice, cover and wait 5 minutes. Pretty foolproof.

I also managed to make another batch of Banana Oatmeal Cookies.  I put the first batch in the freezer for Emma to have while we go on vacation, but they were such a big hit that I thought another batch was in order right away.  Since I have ten thousand frozen bananas (now only nine thousand since I’ve used some making these cookies), it’s the perfect use up.  This time, I added about 1/2 cup of toasted pumpkin seeds, 1/4 cup pecans, some dates (didn’t measure), some figs (didn’t measure those either), and the last of my vegan chocolate chips.  I was VERY surprised to find out that chocolate chips just don’t taste right in this cookie.  I thought chocolate was good in everything, but this is one thing that is better without the chocolate.  It’s just a weird flavor combo for me, but the cookies are still really good.