The other night, I wanted a salad, but didn’t want it with any of the dressings I had in the fridge and I was too lazy to make a vinaigrette. Since Amanda loves avocados so much, I almost always have those around so I thought I could mash it into a yummy, creamy dressing. This was the best salad I have ever eaten in my life and since I’ve been trying to shed a few pounds and have been eating my weight in salads lately, I needed a new spin to keep it interesting.

Creamy Avocado Salad Dressing
1 small avocado (these are sometimes sold as “pee wee avocados“)
Juice of 1 lime
A few dashes of Tabasco sauce (optional, I use more like 1/4 tsp)
Salt to taste

In the bottom of a large bowl, mash the avocado with the other ingredients. Toss in salad fixin’s and enjoy!

In my salad pictured above, I had some romaine in there, some baby lettuce mix, carrots, snap peas, green onions, grape tomatoes and about 1/2 cup of black beans. Alongside, I had some leftover oven roasted broccoli. Together with the avocado dressing, the entire meal was about 400 calories. How do I know how many calories this was? Well, from my calorie tracking app, of course! And just because I’m trying to lose weight doesn’t mean I avoid fat and fatty things like avocados. In fact, I eat at least half an avocado every day.

Have you guys used this? I’ve been using it for about the last 6 weeks and have lost about 6 pounds so far. I sort of fell off the wagon last week and am just now getting back to logging everything. For a free app, it’s really quite impressive. If you’re trying to keep track of what you’re eating for whatever reason (weight loss, weight gain, whatever), I highly recommend it.

If I owned a cafe, this salad is definitely something I would have on my menu. My dream is to one day open up a bakery and cafe that caters to people with allergies and those who choose to eat non-mainstream diets. People can go to pretty much any restaurant and find an entree suitable for Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Take-Your-Pick-Of-The-Next-Fad-Diet, but finding something vegan, gluten-free, etc. is really difficult sometimes. My cafe would be vegan and would feature a good selection of gluten and soy free options. I would also specialize in custom vegan cakes. One day…

This is a vegan nicoise-esque type salad. I served it on a large platter with the salad greens piled up in the center, with tomatoes, cannellini beans, blanched green beans, olives and dilly potato salad on the side. The greens and tomatoes were dressed with this dressing, except I only used about 1/4 the amount of oil and used a little water and agave to cut the harshness of the lemon juice. The dressing recipe made way more dressing than I needed for this salad (it was only enough to serve 2), but I enjoyed the leftovers on salads throughout the week.

I’ve made the dilly potato salad several different ways and I always wing-it with whatever I’ve got in the fridge. For the dressing, I sometimes use Vegenaise, other times I use Tofutti cream cheese, Tofutti sour cream, plain So Delicious coconut milk yogurt, or a combination of all of the above. Add a squeeze of lemon, a few tablespoons of chopped fresh dill, chopped red onion and celery, S&P and you’re good to go. The “recipe” (I suppose it’s more of a method than a proper recipe) is very versatile and foolproof; serve it warm or cold, both ways taste great.

This has been my new favorite recently. I make a big batch of them and enjoy the leftovers as a quick lunch the next day. And you can make lots of these for much cheaper than you can buy frozen veggie burgers. Besides that, these taste so much better. I used garbanzo bean flour in them to keep them gluten-free, but I suspect you could use regular all-purpose or whole wheat flour too. I’m not gluten-free, but I have considered it and so I’ve been making things G-F whenever possible to lessen my dependence on gluten flours to make the transition smoother should I decide to give it up. Crazy run-on sentence there. You get the point.

These are great as burgers, by themselves dipped in ketchup or BBQ sauce, as wraps with extra veggies, or as a topping for salad. Super versatile and super healthy for sure.  The recipe here is just a guide, really.  Feel free to add your favorite veggies, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, etc.

Lentil Burgers
1 cup dry green/brown lentils (about 2 cups cooked)
1 small onion, peeled
1 medium carrot, peeled
2 leaves chard, stems removed
1/4 cup raisins
2 TB hemp seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour

Begin by cooking the lentils: bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add lentils, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until water is absorbed and lentils are tender.  Meanwhile, chop the onion and carrot in the food processor.  Throw them in, pulse a few times until finely chopped and transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Do the same with the  chard leaves.  Add raisins, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl.  When lentil are cooked, drain off any excess water and puree them in the food processor (just pulse a few times until most of the lentils have been pureed).  Transfer to the bowl of ingredients and stir to combine,  adding enough flour to hold everything together.  You’ll probably need about 1/4 cup, but may need more depending on how wet your veggies are.  Form into patties and either pan fry or bake in the oven.  I pan fried mine in a teeny bit of oil.   If you opt to bake them instead, you may want to brush both sides with a little oil so that they get crispy.

Because there is no egg holding these babies together, they will probably fall apart when you are cooking them or when you try to flip them.  If that happens, just use a spatula to smoosh them back together.

Here is a leftover one that I chopped up on top of a salad. I threw in some leftover steamed sweet potato and dressed it with my balsamic dijon vinaigrette. Delicious!!

Dinner time rolled around last night and I had no idea what to make.  We were also pretty low on stuff in the house, so I had to raid my pantry and freezer for something.  Here’s what I came up with, feel free to make substitutions.  Literally, I just kept adding stuff as I found it and made this up as I went along.  It turned out pretty good too.

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.)

This is an interesting take on a pasta salad.  The pasta here is Israeli cous cous (or you could use regular) and I made a citrus dressing to toss it all in.  It was pretty darn tasty too.  It’s great for picnics and summer parties because it doesn’t contain anything (mayo) that will go bad if left out.

Citrus Cous Cous Salad

1 1/2 cups Israeli cous cous*

1/2 large cucumber, seeded and diced

1/4 cup dried cherries

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

1/4 cup chopped green onions

For the dressing:

Juice and zest from 1 medium orange

Juice of half a lemon

2 TB white wine vinegar

2 TB olive oil

1 tsp agave

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.   Add your cous cous and cook until tender.  While cous cous is cooking, mix together the dressing ingredients in the bottom of a large mixing bowl.  When pasta is cooked, drain well and toss in the dressing.  The hot pasta will soak up all of the yummy dressing, so it’s important to add it before it has cooled.  Add remaining salad ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.  (Since the cous cous is still hot, you may want to wait until it has cooled before adding the mint to keep the mint from wilting.)  Serve either cold or at room temperature.

*If you are unable to find Israeli cous cous (the large type of cous cous), you can use regular.  Cook according to package directions, then follow the steps above.

My Dad’s birthday was on Friday and we all headed to Sacramento to celebrate.  We left Friday evening when Matt got home from work.  He had to DJ on Saturday night, so he left Saturday afternoon, but Emma and I stayed through Sunday and took the train home.

My Dad’s favorite dessert is peach pie.  I think I only make pie about once a year (for his birthday) and every year right before I’m ready to make it, I realize that I don’t own a pie plate.  First of all, how is it possible that I want to start a baking business and I don’t even own a pie plate?!  Anyway, I now have one on my wish list and I will definitely get one before next July 17.

A cake pan did the trick this time.  Just for fun, I cut out stars in the top crust.  The peach pie recipe was from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  The only change I made was to mix the peaches with the butter/flour/sugar mixture instead of layering it as the recipe suggests.  I also threw in some very ripe apricots.  Save yourself a buck and use frozen peaches for a pie.  You can’t really tell the difference between fresh and frozen.

Since I can’t resist and opportunity to make a cake, I also made my dad a birthday cake– vanilla with raspberry buttercream.  Yummmmy!!  Sadly, the fondant that I had made to cover the cake failed me.  It was too dry and crumbled when I rolled it out.  Anyway, I had to resort to store bought fondant– eww!  The swirls on the top are made from gum paste, which I made in my stand mixer this time and it’s the best batch of gum paste ever.  The trick is to knead in some shortening, even if the recipe doesn’t necessarily call for it.

And this horrible photo is an asian noodle salad that I made to have with dinner.  It turned out really good, so I’ll blog about it despite the horrible photo.  I didn’t measure, but it’s pretty much fool proof:  Boil noodles per package directions (we used spaghetti, but you could use whatever you want).  While noodles are boiling, make dressing in bottom of large bowl (juice from 3 limes, about 2 TB rice vinegar, about 4 TB soy sauce, pinch of red pepper flakes, a drizzle of toasted sesame oil, 2-4 TB agave).  Throw in your veggies and toss to coat with dressing.  I used some cucumbers (from my Grandma’s garden!), red cabbage, red onion (would have preferred green, but didn’t have any), cilantro, edamame, and cherry tomatoes (from my Dad’s garden).  When noodles are cooked, drain and add them to the salad.  Toss and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Top with peanuts.

A few weeks ago, we went out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant that we had never tried before.  The food was super good, especially the salad dressing.  It was a mayo based dressing and, even though I knew it wasn’t vegan, I ate it anyway because (1) it was THAT good and (2) I figured if I kept eating it, I could find a way to veganize it (and probably lighten it up a bit) at home.  So voila!  Here is my veganized and lightened up version of Kobe’s salad dressing:

Creamy Japanesey Salad Dressing

(click here for a printer friendly version)

1 green onion, chopped

3 TB rice vinegar

1 1/2 TB soy sauce

2 TB vegenaise

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp toasted sesame seeds (or up to 1 tsp toasted sesame oil)

1/4 tsp agave nectar

1 clove garlic, grated or minced

S&P to taste

Combine and pour over salad.

I’ve been trying hard lately to eat more Raw dishes; salads obviously being the easiest way to accomplish this goal.  I get tired of the same salads with the same dressing.  In fact, I find myself getting tired of salads altogether if I eat them every day.  So, I try to change it up a bit and give each it’s own uniqueness.

A few days ago, I tried this Fennel Orange Kale Salad from Kristen’s Raw.  In place of the hemp oil, I used cold-pressed organic flax oil.  I also didn’t have any kalamata olives, which was SOOOO depressing because I bet they’re awesome in this salad, so I used some cherry tomatoes.  My salad base was a mix of romaine lettuce and chopped kale.  Raw kale in a salad is a bit much for me, so I had to mix it up a bit with some crunchy lettuce.

Yesterday for lunch, I whipped up this salad using romaine lettuce, fennel, raw beets and cherry tomatoes.  I made this Sweet Dijon Dressing to go over it and it was AWESOME!  I found it to be a little thick, so I thinned it out just a tad with a TB or 2 of water.  This dressing is seriously good.  I think I’ll even try a ranch style version using the raw zucchini as a base and incorporating some of the herbs found in ranch dressing.

Today’s lunch was the same salad from yesterday, except I used a box grater to grate some carrot, beets and fennel.  Once I put the dressing on, I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over the top, which really made it super delicious.  I’ll have to remember to do that from now on.  Today, I had my salad with a banana and some coconut water.  Fresh coconut water is so delicious.  If you’ve never tried it, you’re seriously missing out.  I put mine in the fridge right when I bring them home from the store so that the water is nice and cold when I am in the mood for having some.  And, I’ve found that Asian markets have the best prices on coconuts, about 20 cents cheaper than my Whole Foods.  Be sure to buy the young coconuts (they have white all the way around).  The brown ones are older and don’t have the water inside.  Intimated about opening up a fresh coconut?  Here’s a video to help you:

Yep, lots of salads in my house these days.  This was was particularly tasty– perfect for those of us watching our intake because it tastes good, but is pretty healthy.  This is based on a lentil salad recipe from Raising the Salad Bar. Since I didn’t have all of the ingredients to make that recipe, I made up my own.

Lentil Salad

(click here for a printer-friendly version)

1 1/2 cups French green lentils

2 bay leaves

1 carrot, grated

1/2 medium red onion, diced (and soaked in several changes of water if the aftertaste of raw onion bothers you)

1 roasted red pepper, chopped

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup toasted pecans halves, crumbled lightly in your hand before adding to the salad

1/4 cup raisins

Dressing:

2 TB apple cider vinegar

1 TB white wine vinegar

1 TB fresh lemon juice

1 TB maple syrup

2 tsp flax oil

S&P to taste

Fill a medium pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add the lentils and bay leaves, reduce to a simmer and cook until the lentils are tender (but not mushy), about 20 minutes.  When cooked, drain them and let them cool a bit.  Meanwhile, put the remaining salad ingredients into a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, prepare the dressing ingredients.  (NOTE:  The original recipe called for balasamic vinegar, but I was out, so I used the apple cider and white wine vinegars.)  When the lentils have cooled a bit, add them to the salad along with the dressing and toss everything together.

We had ours over some romaine and butter lettuce with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and drizzled with a little of the lentil salad dressing.  I thought the dressing was a little too delicate for the salad, so I will try it next time with the balsamic vinegar instead.  The delicateness could also be due to the fact that I used 2 tsp of flax oil instead of 1/4 cup of olive oil.  It was still good and I’ll be having the leftovers for lunch today, probably wrapped up in a cabbage leaf.  Yum!

The “chips” along the side of the bowl are garlic-herb lavash chips that I made so that we could have a “bread” with our salad.  These turned out great– even my Emma liked them!  All I did was cut a whole wheat lavash into triangles, either spray or brush lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle on some salt, granulated garlic and dried oregano.  Bake at 350 degrees until brown and crispy.  A very simple meal with very little cleanup too– can’t beat that!

Don’t forget– there’s only a few days left to enter yourself into my 1st super awesome giveaway!

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.