Oats(w/ Apricots), Spiced Brown Rice Pilaf and Salad, and Black Bean & Cornmeal Loaf

Breakfast
Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it...
Oats with Apricots
Rating: 3.5 out of 5, the apricots were a little too tangy

Lunch

Lunch was leftovers from last week: Spiced Brown Rice Pilaf and Salad. For some reason, I liked it better this week. It seemed more mellow. Rating 3.5 out of 5.

Dinner



Black Bean & Cornmeal Loaf with Salsa and Tortilla chips

This was supposed to be a loaf, but it did not set up because it was too wet. The cookbook we used calls for weights, not cups, etc. and we do not have a food scale yet. I really liked it, even though it wasn't the prettiest dinner. I give it a 4.5 out of 5. Again, Paul made this so I am not sure how long it took. Less than an hour, I am pretty sure.

Recipe
1 quart veggie stock
1 tsp salt
2 oz vegetable oil
8 oz cornmeal
5 oz red peppers, diced
5 oz green peppers, diced
6 oz red onions, diced
3 oz sun-dried tomatoes, softened and diced
1/4 oz cilantro, chopped
12 oz black beans, cooked
1/4 tsp Tabasco, to taste
1/2 tsp salt, to taste
1/2 tsp pepper, to taste
2 oz flour, as needed
salsa

Heat a skillet with half of the oil. Add peppers, onions, and garlic; sweat until softened. Remove from heat and add tomatoes, cilantro, beans, and Tabasco. Season to taste with salt and pepper and Tabasco. Reserve.

Heat stock; add salt and 1 Tbsp of oil. Slowly whisk in the cornmeal, reduce heat, and cook 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Mixture should pull away from the sides of the pot. Set aside. Fold in the bean mixture.

Turn mixture into a greased loaf pan. Refrigerate overnight.

(theoretical part)

Unmold loaf and slice into 15 equal slices. Cut each slice on the diagonal to make 30 triangles.

Lightly dust triangles with flour. Saute triangles in oil until brown.

Serve 3 triangles per portion; top with freshly made salsa.

From The New Professional Chef

Oats(w/ Currants), Spaghetti and Spiced Brown Rice Pilaf

Breakfast



Oatmeal with dried Currants. This fruit is one we don't have very often, so I would rate it a little higher. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Lunch



Spaghetti with a red sauce that Paul made. I didn't help him, and he didn't use a recipe, so I can't give it to you this time. Not a secret...just don't know.
I like it a lot, it is super-garlic-y. We also had it with garlic bread. I give it a 5 out of 5, yumm!

Dinner



Spiced Brown Rice Pilaf and salad

I can't figure out what it is about this pilaf that I don't like very much. I think it is the combination of cinnamon and rice. I am not interested in having it again. (sorry Paul!) I give it a 2 out of 5 for flavor. (It is palatable, just not enjoyable to me.)

Melt in a stockpot over medium heat: 3 Tbsp butter
Add and cook, stirring, until golden, about 8 minutes: 1 onion, chopped
Add and cook, stirring, for 1 minute: 1 bulb garlic, finely chopped
Add: 1 1/2 cups brown basmati rice, 3 Tbsp dried currants, 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Stir to combine. Add: 4 1/2 cups vegetable stock

Bring to a boil. Stir once, cover, and cook over medium-low heat until the stock is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 50 minutes.

Adapted from Joy of Cooking

Oats(w/Papaya), Curry and Hummus Sandwiches

Breakfast

Oatmeal with Dried Papaya. You know, breakfast is pretty much the same every week. I like it, I eat it. I don't complain about it. I suggest you try it. BUT... I feel silly rating it and linking to it and giving you a picture every week. Maybe it is enough just to tell you that we had oatmeal with papaya in it? Let me know if you want more info about it, okay?

Lunch



Curried red kidney beans and cauliflower (rajma masala). This was the first time I made curry on my own. I have a tendency to not taste the food I make as I cook it. I just follow the recipe until I am done and then I put it away. Silly. If I had tasted it, I definitely would have added more spices! All of them. This was a bland recipe as is... I give it a simple 3 out of 5 for not enough flavor. It took about 1 hour to prepare.

From Sunset magazine, February 2007

Dinner

Hummus Sandwiches, again, I mean still. We didn't have dinner at our house very much last week, so we did not finish off the Hummus. Even though we had them last week and 2 weeks in a row 3 or 4 weeks ago, I liked them. I give them a 4 out of 5. I guess this is one of those meals I would call a classic. Timeless, even.

Oats(w/ Mango), White Bean & Kale Soup, and Hummus Sandwiches

Breakfast



Oatmeal with Mango. This week it is a 3 out of 5... How can you really be enthusiastic about oatmeal after the fantastic breakfast I had on Mother's day. Don't get me wrong, I still like my oatmeal though!

Recipe

for the Week:
2 Cups Rolled Oats
2 Cups Triticale
2 Cups Barley flakes
Brown Sugar
Dried Fruit
Vanilla flavored Oat Milk

Recipe for the day: (serves 2)
1 1/2 Cups water (bring to a boil)
2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar (mix into boiling water)
1/3 cup dried fruit (this varies depending on what fruit it is)(mix into boiling water)
1 1/2 Cups of mixture of oats, triticale and barley (or check for a 7 grain mixture in your bulk food aisle)

Stir in grains and keep stirring for about 30 seconds. Take off heat and cool a little.

When you are ready to serve it, add some milk to it. We add Vanilla Flavored Oat Milk to ours. Paul also adds freshly ground flax seed and wheat germ to his.


Lunch



White Bean and Kale Soup
Paul and I were both taken back to our youth when we had Campbells' Bean with Bacon soup when we tasted our creation. It is yummy and nostalgic... I give it a 4 out of 5. It is a simple soup, but good.

Recipe:
Bean and Kale Minestra
3/4 lb kale
1 bulb garlic, minced
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
9 cups cooked white kidney beans
5 cups bean water
2-3 cups water
3 heaping Tablespoons tomato paste
~ 1 Tbsp dried sage leaves
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)

Remove the stems from the kale and coarsely chop the leaves. Soak the leaves in a bowl of cold water while you prepare the soup.

In a soup pot, saute the garlic in the olive oil fro half a minute. Add about half of the cooked beans and part of the water to the pot. Puree the rest of the beans and bean water in a blender or food processor along with the tomato paste and sage. Stir in the pureed beans into the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Drain the kale. Mix it into the soup and simmer for at least half an hour, until tender.

Add the lemon juice. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust the seasonings.

Adapted from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant

Dinner



On the sandwiches this time:
Ezekiel bread
Spicy mustard (brown mustard, honey and chipotle Tabasco)
spicy Hummus
Spinach and Feta Hummus (we had a little accident in our selection at the store...)
Sunflower Seeds, flavored with Bragg's
zucchini
Green bell pepper, very thinly sliced
Red leaf lettuce

Approximate time to prepare: 5 minutes

Unique: PB & J &..., and Mother's day Breakfast

I just had to show you Paul's special concoction he made after a bike ride



This is a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich on Dave's Killer Bread. The other items on it are my daughter's breakfast cereal, Trader Joe's chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels and Trader Joe's Temptation Trail Mix. Yumm?!

Mother's Day Breakfast

As you can imagine, unique breakfast is a cherished pleasure for me (since we have oatmeal about 355 days a year...). When Paul asked me what I wanted for Mother's day, I jumped at the chance to have a special breakfast. This is the Feast he came up with (sorry, I forgot to take a picture when it was pretty)



This is Potatoes with red bell peppers, onions, garlic and CHEESE! Next to that is French toast made on Challah bread served with a triple berry compote and vanilla yogurt. Since Paul knows I love carbs, he bought whole grain English Muffins for me too. A lovely Peach Mango juice delightfully complimented the meal.

Oats(w/Mango), Lasagna and Veggie Sandwiches

Breakfast



Oatmeal with Dried Mango. Rating 4 out of 5. Good old oatmeal, it satisfies!

Lunch



Lasagna! 5 out of 5! Yeah, Cheese! Okay, so cheese is just something we don't have very often, but I love it. I really do only want to eat it as infrequently as we do though, for health reasons. But, I sure do love it when we indulge... Oh, and we had crusty sourdough bread. Yumm! Sorry, I don't remember how long it took. Probably about an hour, not including baking time.

Recipe
3-4 Tbsp Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic bulb, peeled and minced
32 oz tomatoes, crushed
16 oz tomatoes, diced
2 cans garbanzo beans
squash
2 carrots, shredded
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 bunch spinach, washed, steamed
1-2 Tbsp oregano
1-2 Tbsp basil
sharp cheese
4 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
6-8 oz lasagna noodles, cooked

Saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil. Add the tomatoes, beans and seasonings. In a separate pan, steam the squash and broccoli a little. Allow the sauce to simmer for as long as you have time for. When you are ready, pour a little sauce in the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Layer: noodles, carrots, broccoli, spinach and cheeses until the pan is full (end with a layer of cheese). Cover with a sheet of aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees until veggies have softened. (around 45 minutes?) Sorry, we did not use a recipe, and Paul did most of it so I wasn't paying very close attention. I was so wrapped up in the cheese...

Dinner



Vegetable Sandwiches
I give them a 3.5 out of 5. I like the flavor of them, but we have had so many sandwiches lately!

Bread (Dave's Killer Bread!)(Good Seed)
spicy mustard
Guacamole
Tamari Sunflower seeds
Red Onion (Soaked in Balsamic Vinaigrette)
red bell pepper
green zucchini
Red leaf lettuce

Oats(w/Papaya), Vegetable Goulash and Tofu Pate Sandwiches with cowboy pancakes

Breakfast


Oats with Dried Papaya. I give this one a 4 out of 5. This is a sweet but mellow fruit. We cut it up into small cubes, so we do get some additional texture. Prep time: approx. 4 minutes.

Lunch



Vegetable Goulash. We did not double the recipe, but it was kind of hard to make, even though we used our large wok. Paul eventually split the food into two batches, one in the wok and the other in our large pot.



This is quite similar to the Vegetable Casserole Supreme that we had last week. I think I would enjoy it a lot better if we didn't just have a very similar dish last week. I LOVE potatoes...and the flavors in this dish are nice. The flavor is kind of like I would expect in a yummy vegetable stew, but the texture is more of a very well cooked casserole. I am going to give it a 3 out of 5 (probably unfairly given the bad timing). Prep time: I forgot to look, but I think it was about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

4 medium potatoes cut into 1" chunks
4 carrots sliced into 1/3" chunks
1 can artichoke hearts
1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli
2 cups Texturized vegetable protein (T.V.P.)
1 3/4 cup boiling water
2 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
8 stalks celery cut into 1" chunks
3 medium onions, chopped
1-2 green pepper, cut into chunks
1-2 cups fresh or frozen corn
2-3 Tbsp. tamari soy sauce
2-4 Tbsp. vegetable bouillon powder
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp basil
2 tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp thyme
2 tsp. cumin

In a large pot (or wok) steam the hard vegetables (potatoes, carrots, artichokes, broccoli) for 10-15 minutes. While the vegetables are steaming, add the boiling water to the T.V.P. and let it soak for 10 minutes until it expands and becomes tender. Next drain the steamed vegetables and return them to the pot without the steamer. Then add the T.V.P. and all the remaining ingredients. Simmer everything together on low to medium heat for 20-25 minutes until the flavors mingle. Correct the seasonings as desired. Serve hot with crusty bread (we served it with garlic bread).

Adapted from Vegan Delights

Dinner

Tofu Pate Sandwiches and Cowboy pancakes

I give the sandwiches a 4 out of 5. We used the yummy Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper Toby's Tofu Pate as the base and added 1 can of sliced black olives and some leftover nuts. We mixed it all up and store it in the fridge until we are ready to make the sandwiches. On the sandwiches we added the pate mixture, tamari sunflower seeds, purple cabbage and red leaf lettuce on our Ezekiel Bread. We are having what my daughter, Mikaela, is calling Cowboy Pancakes with the sandwiches.



These are surprisingly good. I give them a 4 out of 5. I am not sure about the prep time. Approx. 20 minutes to make the batter, 10 or so minutes to make the cakes (1 per person per day).

1 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
whisk together.

in another bowl:
1 2/3 cup oat milk
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
egg substitute for 2 eggs (see below)

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently wisk them together, mixing just until combined. Stir in:

3/4 cup frozen corn
1 small can green chilies

In order to get these to keep their shape during frying, we poured enough batter for one pancake in a bowl and microwaved it for 1.5 minutes, just to solidify it a little. Then we transferred to the hot oil to finish cooking it.

From the Joy of Cooking

Egg substitute to use as a binder: (equals one egg)
combine 1/3 cup water and 3-4 tsp. brown flax seeds. Bring to a boil on high heat, then simmer on low heat for 5-7 minutes until a slightly thickened gel begins to form. The recipe says to strain the flax seeds out of the liquid, but ours was too thick so we left them in. From Vegan Delights