Matt has been working late all week and I haven’t really prepared and elaborate meals. Last night, though, I wanted to cook up a kabocha squash that I bought yesterday and I really, really wanted to make a Thai yellow curry sauce to go over it. Why? I don’t know. It just sounded like a good combo.

First, the squash:

Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds. Place cut-side down onto a lightly greased baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the inside is very soft.

Next, the sauce:

I followed my yellow coconut curry soup recipe as the base, but I let it reduce down a lot. This intensified the flavors and made it so good. Like, seriously so good that I was eating spoonfuls of it out of the pot– you know, just to make sure it was perfect *wink, wink*.

In a small sauce pan, heat the olive oil over low heat and saute the onions, garlic and ginger. Once softened, after about 5 minutes of cooking, add the curry paste and turmeric. Saute for another minute or so, then add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine then simmer for 15 minutes until the liquid has reduced by about half. Using an immersion blender, blender or food processor, puree the sauce until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more salt or Sriracha if desired.

*I use Tamari here to keep it gluten-free. If you don’t care about that, go ahead and use soy sauce instead. (Did you know that soy sauce contains wheat?)

I was all out of brown sugar, so I used regular sugar and a small drop of blackstrap molasses. It worked fine. Also, I think this would have been even better with a little lime squeezed in at the end. I’ll be sure to do that next time.

I served our squash with some red quinoa and simple sauteed spinach. For the spinach, I heated a tiny bit of olive oil in a skillet, put the baby spinach in and lightly sauteed until just wilted. Then I put some salt and pepper on it.

Kitchen Sink Salad

1 cup quinoa, dry

1 cup green lentils, dry

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 cup frozen/canned artichoke hearts, chopped

1/4 medium onion, chopped (I used white, feel free to use any color you have)

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen green beans

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1/4 cup chopped basil

Dressing:

Juice from 2 limes

Juice from 2 tangerines

2 TB apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

S & P to taste

In two separate pots, bring 2 cups water to a boil (2 cups per pot).  Add quinoa to one, lentils to the other, cover, reduce heat and simmer until done.  The quinoa will be done in 10-15 minutes; the lentils will take about 20.

Meanwhile, combine all of the dressing ingredients together in the bottom of a large bowl.  Add the rest of the salad ingredients and the quinoa and lentils when they are done cooking.  Toss to combine and taste for seasoning.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

(I served ours over some romaine lettuce.  Once I made the dressing, I reserved some of it to toss the lettuce in.)

While everyone else is probably sick of Thanksgiving leftovers, I felt like we didn’t get our fair share.  All 3 of us were sick on Thanksgiving, which meant (for me, anyway) no appetite.  Any Thanksgiving dishes that were suitable for us just didn’t taste right, or I only ate a little bit.  Anyway, last Monday when I asked Emma what we should have for dinner, she said we should have “Friendsgiving.”  I had to go to the store anyway, so I picked up a pack of organic stuffing mix (basically some croutons and spices), a field roast, some cranberry sauce and some potatoes.  Normally, I would be more inclined to make everything from scratch, but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with taking a little help from the store (especially since I was still getting over my cold).

The only interesting topic of conversation from our Friendsgiving meal was the field roast.  I’ve never had one before, but the size of it seemed more suitable for 3 people than an entire Tofurky.  I’ve never had Tofurky (aside from the lunch “meat” which I like), but I didn’t want anything that big or that expensive– even on sale it was $20!  Anyway, I opted for the lentil sage flavor of the field roast.  It has a very chewy texture and I’m not sure I would buy it again.  It just didn’t appeal to me, but don’t let my opinion keep you from trying it.  It was only around $5.

Whenever I find Dandies marshmallows, I like to stock up.  At $6 a bag, they are pretty pricey, but they are probably the best vegetarian marshmallows I’ve tried.  They are pretty close to the real thing.  Anyway, if you live in or near San Francisco, you can find Dandies at Rainbow Grocery and if you live in or near Sacramento, you can find them at the Natural Foods Co-op.  The problem with Dandies is that once you open the package and there’s no air to pad the marshmallows, they tend to squish into each other forming a gigantic blob.  Once they are in this blob form, it is impossible to pull them apart, which makes them perfect for treat making.  I picked up a box of Brown Rice Krispies (they taste the same as the other ones, but are a little bit healthier).

Vegan Rice Krispies Treats

10 oz. vegetarian marshmallows (1 bag of Dandies)

3 TB Earth Balance margarine

6 cups rice cereal (a 10 oz. box is 6 cups)

In a large pot, melt the marshmallows with the Earth Balance.  When completely melted, stir in the cereal.  Pour into a greased baking sheet and press the treats evenly into the sheet.  When cool, cut into squares.

Lastly, I made some Mexican quinoa (like Mexican rice,but with quinoa instead).  I have to thank my friend Jen for this cooking method because I can’t cook rice to save my life and have tried to make Mexican rice several times but usually end up with a goopy mess.  Once she explained to me how to do it properly, I figured I could do it, but use quinoa instead of rice.  It turned out pretty good!

Mexican Quinoa

1 cup quinoa, dry

1 TB canola oil

1 small onion, diced

1- 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups vegetable stock, or water

Pinch of S&P

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, toast the quinoa in the oil until golden brown.  Add the onion and saute until the onion is tender.  Pour in the tomato sauce and stock and add the S&P and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer, put a lid on it and cook 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and remove lid and let stand for 5 minutes.  Fluff with fork and serve!

Another reason for wanting to make granola is that I picked up a carton of coconut milk (product review to come later), and I thought the milk would go great with some granola.  This recipe is great, has no added fats (as in oil or margarine) and is free of refined sugars.  What more could you ask for?!    The spice in this granola is subtle.  If you want more bang in the spice department, add a little more.

Spicy Apple Granola

3 cups oats

1 cup oat bran (sub more oats if you don’t have oat bran)

2 cups oat groats (or more oats)

1 cup shredded coconut (NOT the kind in the baking aisle, the one that is just shredded coconut without any sugar)

1/2 cup flax meal

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1 cup raw pecan pieces

1 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped

1 cup raisins

6 apples, peeled and grated

1/2 cup maple syrup (or agave or liquid sweetener of choice)

1 tsp salt

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  In a very large roasting pan, combine the oats, oat bran, oat groats, coconut, flax, seeds, nuts, and raisins.  Use your hands to combine them well.  Add the grated apples and mix to thoroughly combine.  Drizzle the maple syrup over everything and sprinkle on the salt and pumpkin pie spice.  Stir to combine, being sure that everything is evenly coated with the syrup.  Bake for 60-90 minutes, or until the granola is light brown and crispy stirring every 15-20 minutes.

I’m really enjoying my Raw days– coming up with new things is exciting!  Two days ago, I soaked a bunch of oat groats, buckwheat groats, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and sunflower seeds (all in separate soaking containers) and threw a little bit of each into what I’m calling a Raw cereal!  I also put in a small handful of raisins and a few raw pecans, then sliced some banana over top.  For milk, I just used some store bought rice milk.  I know, I know, it’s not Raw, but it’s what I had.  I can’t bring myself yet to spend a fortune on raw almonds to make my own almond milk.

If you’re interested in exploring a Raw diet, this website has been extrememly helpful to me and is a good place to get started.  It explains the reasons why to do it and provides some good as well as detailed step-by-step directions on soaking and sprouting nuts and seeds.  I’ve also been reading a lot of Raw blogs lately and I hope to make the time soon to update my links section so you can check those out too.

In the meantime, have a good weekend!  And make some yummy vegan food.

My fried “rice” consisted of a red onion, 2 carrots, 2 parsnips, some Napa cabbage, 2 zucchini, 3 cremini mushrooms, some red and green bell pepper remnants, frozen peas and corn, and, of course, garlic and ginger.  I used a gigantic nonstick skillet to cook it all in and only about a teaspoon of canola oil.  Put in the veggies that take the longest to cook first (onion, carrots, parsnips), then add the garlic and ginger and the veggies with the next longest cooking time.  When all of the veggies had been stir fried, I added in 2 cups of cooked wheat berries and drizzled some soy sauce and toasted sesame oil over top.  Yummy!  I served it with some pan fried tofu.

Be forewarned that fried rice is a long prep time.  If I were a working person, I probably wouldn’t make this on a weeknight, unless all of the veggies were already chopped.

With my leftover wheat berries, I made some hot cereal for breakfast tomorrow.  Stay tuned for that…

The recipe for this is from another “cook”book that I got for Christmas, Raw: The Uncook Book: New Vegetarian Food for Life.  As you can guess by the name, this is a book filled with raw recipes.  While some are pretty complicated, this berry porridge recipe couldn’t have been easier.  It’s a combination of oat groats (I found them in the bulk foods section at Whole Foods), berries and dates.  The oat groats are soaked for at least 30 minutes (I soaked mine overnight) and then everything gets pureed.  The recipe, which calls for 2 cups of oat groats, says that one recipe serves one.  Emma and I could barely eat half because it was so filling.  We had the other half for breakfast this morning, topped with some extra blueberries.  It’s sweet and filling– in fact, having this for breakfast this morning at 8 am kept me full until lunch at 1 pm.  Surprisingly, Emma really liked this stuff!

Lentil, Quinoa and Rice Pilaf

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

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.

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.

Veggie Marinade

1 TB dijon mustard

1 TB toasted sesame oil

2 TB rice wine vinegar

1 TB grill seasoning

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 inch piece of ginger, cut into chunks

Combine all ingredients in a large baking dish and throw in your favorite veggies.  Marinate for as long as you can.  I was only able to marinate for about an hour, but they were still really good.  If using an indoor grill, be sure to remove the battery from your smoke detector before firing it up! 

Amy was so thoughtful to bring us a bunch of fruit from her travels and I decided to grill up the pineapple she brought us for a little sweetness.  I did not marinate the pineapple, nor did I marinate the tofu (didn’t want it to stick to the grill), but I did brush some of the marinate onto the tofu once it was done grilling.  We didn’t have a huge selection of vegetables in the fridge, so I ended up using some red and green bell peppers, a yellow onion, green onions, and a summer squash that Amy brought us.

This will definitely be added to our list of regulars.  I’ll have to remember next time to open up all the windows and turn on the fan before beginning to grill everything.  It gave the tofu a really yummy smoky taste and almost meaty texture that even non-tofu eaters may enjoy.  I was less excited about the quinoa.  It was just OK– nothing special.

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