Quinoa and Mango Guacamole Pita

I'm back with another recipe!  I couldn't believe how well this combination of flavors came out so I made it a second time and it came out even better!  I had a few of the staff at the office try it and it seems to be a hit.  Hard to tell.  You try it and if you like it let me know.  None of this stuff sounds like go-togethers to me and yet the many layers of flavors, both sweet and savory, seem to compliment each other in a delightful way.  To me it tastes like falafel, but its not fried.  This is actually 2 separate recipes that I combined in a 3 to 1 ratio.

Quinoa and Mango Guacamole Pita

First the Quinoa:

1 Cup Quinoa                                                       2 Cloves Chopped Garlic   

2 Cups Water                                                       1 Inch of Grated Fresh Ginger

1/2 Chopped Sweet Onion                                   1/4 tsp Kosher Salt

1 TBS Italian Seasoning                                        2 TBS Olive Oil

                                           

                                              

In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil and saute the onions, garlic, ginger, salt and Italian seasoning until the onions become clear.  Add 2 cups of water and the quinoa.  Bring it to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes.  Keep it covered and set aside.  

Mango Guacamole

2 Ripe Avocados                                 1/2 Ripe Mango chopped

Juice of 1/2 Lemon                               1 tsp dried onion flakes

6 Crushed Triscuit crackers                  2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar

1 tsp French Dressing                          3 shakes of Tabasco Sauce

Mash it up.  You have Mango Guacamole.  TA DAH!

Mix the quinoa and mango guacamole together in a 3 to 1 ration.  

Cut a pita in half.  Stuff it with your mixture.  

Wrap it up in a moist paper towel and microwave it for a minute.

Garnish with fruit or veggies of your choice!

Enjoy!!

Vegan Sloppy Joe

Hungry yet?  I thought you might be so I came up with another recipe!  You're welcome.
Since I used Manwich sauce for my now famous chili recipe, I thought I would work on a Vegan Sloppy Joe.
So where do you start?  Joe's Produce!  How poetic is that?  I got lentils, red peppers, pita pockets, onions and a bunch of other stuff that has nothing to do with this and Joe is NOT sloppy.  I hope that's clear.  The store is immaculate.
I also baked a sweet potato and had a fattoush salad to round out my plate and make my tummy happy and it looked like this:

                               

Vegan Sloppy Joe

STEP ONE

1 Cup lentils

1 TBSP Soy Sauce

1 TBSP McCormick chopped onions

1/2 TBSP ground ginger

3 Cups water

Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes.  Keep it covered to absorb all the water.

STEP TWO

1 Onion chopped                                           1 Portabello Mushroom Cap chopped

2 Celery stalks chopped                                 1 Handful of Baby Spinach chopped

1 Stalk Kale chopped                                    1 Red Bell Pepper chopped

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds                                  1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar

1 Can Manwich                                           1 Can Tomato Sauce

( I actually used our food processor and the coarse grate.  Chop if you want but WHY? )

Combine everything and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and allow to simmer for an hour partially covered to reduce excess water.  Stir it occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom.

Serve it like Sloppy Joe on a bun or do like me and stuff it into a Pita.  I had two helpings of everything.  On the WW Points Plus scale, 1/2 cup of cooked lentils is 2 points.  This stuff is 1/2 the calories of lean ground beef with only trace amounts of fat and tons of fiber which helps lower your cholesterol.  Its considered one of the most nutritious foods in the world.  Something you can enjoy without guilt!  My Jewish Mother would be so confused!

So enjoy!  Finish your plate.  Children are starving somewhere!

Breakfast! Pearled Farro With Banana and Strawberries

Announcement!  Alert The Media!  Release the Pigeons!
I weighed myself and I'm now down 30 lbs since January 1st!
This Vegan diet suits me!  I'm learning new stuff every day.

For example, I've been eating Pearled Farro every day for breakfast and it keeps me satisfied until lunch.  I bought a big 3 lbs bag of Nature's Earthly Choice Italian Pearled Farro at Costco for less than $7.  I cook it up, 2 dry cups at a time and keep it in the fridge in a Tupperware bowl.  It keeps well and is usually enough to last me half the week.  Farro is one of the ancient grains and is GMO free.  The great thing is that it's high in protein with 14 grams per 1/2 cup.  You can use it instead of rice or potatoes.  Cook it any way you like; either sweet for breakfast or spiced up as a side dish with dinner.
A Warning To My Gluten Free Friends:   This is wheat!  If you want to be gluten free, look away.

This was my breakfast today:

PEARLED FARRO WITH BANANA AND STRAWBERRIES

                             

Recipe:

1 Cup Italian Pearled Farro

3 Cups water

3 TBSP Maple Syrup

1 Banana

1/2 Cup of Strawberries (blueberries, raisins, dates or your choice of fruit all work)

1/2 Cup Silk Vanilla Almond Milk

In a large sauce pan bring the Pearled Farro, Maple syrup and water to a boil.  Turn the heat down and let it simmer covered for 30 minutes.  Let it cool for an hour to absorb the liquids.  Mash up the banana and half the strawberries and mix it in.  Put it in the fridge covered over night.

Put one cup of cooked Farro in a microwave safe bowl with 1/2 cup of Vanilla Almond Milk.  Cover it with a piece of paper towel and microwave it for 2 minutes. Stir in your whole strawberries and let it sit for a minute.  

1 Cup of cooked Farro has 28 grams of protein.  That's about 1/2 day's worth.

Stop asking where I get my protein and enjoy something healthy!

Salad Sandwich

I'm stuck on lunch.  Its unavoidable.  Lunch has become my main meal during the week because I've been working such ridiculous hours.  Fortunately, Brownberry Flat Breads come in multi-packs!  Yay!

Now, as I go gathering though the fridge (I'm a gatherer not a hunter) I happen upon all the fixings of a fabulous salad! 

DUH --> VEGAN!

Once again I have no name for this.  Lets call it Salad Sandwich and it looks like this:

Yes!  I notice that confused look on your face.  It DOES look like my previous sandwich with a sliced orange and a purple background.  But its not!  I'm a trickster!

Other than the Brownberry Flat Bread that came out of the same bag as my last sandwich, this is mostly different and cold, not hot.  I'm not just talking about the background, the plate, the missing paper towel, the orange wedges or the fact that I used my new Nikon DSLR (product placement) camera to take the photo instead of my cell phone either.  

SALAD SANDWICH

Make a salad.  Mine had baby spinach, lettuce, celery, bok choy, kale, broccoli and cucumber.

For more color, chop up something colorful like a sweet red pepper or a carrot.  Use your imagination.  I threw in a handful of mixed nuts.

               

Make this dressing (try it.  you'll like it.)

1 TBS Maple Syrup                                                                  10 Pitted Dates

1 Ripe Avocado                                                                         1 Ripe Mango         

1 tsp Kraft Catalina sweet honey dressing                                    2 TBS Red Wine Vinegar

pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, ground ginger, garlic powder and onion powder to taste.

Chop up the dates, mango and avocado and mix in the other ingredients.  Keep chopping it up until it looks like salad dressing.

1/2 Cup cooked Farro with blueberries and  banana mixed in. (Avoiding gluten?  Use Quinoa)

1 Brownberry Flat Bread Pocket Thin (Italian Herb)  (or gluten free pita pocket)

Mix the salad, the dressing and the Farro together and put it in a covered bowl over night to marinate.

Stuff as much as you like into the bread pocket.  Garnish with orange wedges or any other fruit of your choice.  I used oranges because Sharon at the office just got back from Florida and brought them for everyone.  Thank you Sharon!  They are sooo sweet!

Take a picture of your creation and let me see what you did!

Enjoy your lunch.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH and PORTABELLA MUSHROOM CASSEROLE

Hi again!  Guess what happens when you take all the stuff in your fridge (throw out the things that are no longer recognizable) and mix it all together in a casserole dish and bake it?  I was hoping you knew because I have no idea what to call it, other than lunch.  But this is what happened when I did it.  I stuffed it in a whole wheat pita and it looked like this:

Hopefully, someone out there can tell me how many calories this thing is because I consumed the whole sandwich in 2 minutes and wasn't hungry again until dinner.  I added most of it up. The Pita Pocket is 200 calories, Nutritional yeast is 110 calories, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk is 70 calories and everything else is FREE on the WW Points chart!  For those of you who are digitally challenged, that comes out to 380 calories for a very satisfying, filling, healthy lunch.  Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

1 Portabella Mushroom Cap                              1.5 lbs of Butternut Squash cubed
1 big hand full of Baby Spinach chopped         2 stalks of Kale chopped
10 stalks of Asparagus chopped                          3 stalks of Celery chopped
1 Sweet Onion chopped                                     1 inch of fresh Ginger grated
4 TBS Nutritional yeast         
1.5 cups of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk
1/2 tsp Nutmeg                                                   1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TBS Lite Soy Sauce                                            2 TBS dry minced garlic                       
1 Whole Wheat Pita Pocket

In a sauce pan mix the Almond Milk, nutmeg, pepper and soy sauce.  Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.
Line a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex baking dish with parchment paper.
Mix the spinach, asparagus, kale, celery, ginger and garlic together and spread it in the dish.
Cut the Portabella mushroom into thin slices to layer over the vegetables.  Sprinkle the Nutritional Yeast to cover the mushrooms.  Sprinkle the minced garlic over the top and bake at 375 for 80 minutes.  Its done when the squash is soft enough to squish with a fork.
You can eat it now  OR.....

Mix everything up and refrigerate over night in a covered bowl.  The liquid will absorb.
Divide the mixture into thirds.  Microwave one serving for 1 minute or until you think its hot enough.
Open your Pita Pocket and stuff as much as you want in there.

OMG are you in for a treat!
Enjoy!

Judy's Smoothie

Hi again.  Great news!  Someone actually gave me a recipe for a smoothie to share on by shiny new Blog!
I tried some and wanted more.  She throws everything into her blender and grinds it up until its smooth enough to drink through a straw.  Thank you Judy Hohn for permission to share this with the world!


                                                         Judy's Smoothie

1/2 Beet raw                                                       1 inch of Ginger
1/2 Carrot                                                          1/2 Apple with peel
1/4 Orange with peel                                            2 TBS Sunflower seeds
1/4 Lemon with peel                                             1 TBS Flax seeds
Handful of Kale                                                    1 Packet of EmergenC
Handful of Spinach                                               2 Cups of water


Throw it all in the blender and keep it going until its smooth enough to drink through a straw.
Refrigerate and enjoy!

VEGAN CHILI!

Here's the Chili recipe that I came up with and is pretty much like everything else I cook;  highly dependent on the ingredients that I find in the fridge and cupboard on any given day.  I've also made it with Lima beans instead of Kidney beans, with chopped green beans and with a can of corn packed in water or some combination of the above.  Cooking is like a chemistry experiment to me.  Vary one ingredient and the outcome may surprise you for better or worse, but always fun and a little exciting!
However you choose to make it, this combination of veggies and spices mimics the texture of conventional chili without the greasy feeling.  The flavors are layered and the effect of the peppers will build as you dig in without you running for the fire extinguisher.  But just in case, have a glass of cold water within reach.

         Vegan Chili 

2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil                      1 Large Onion Chopped
1 TBS Kosher Salt                  4 Cloves of Garlic Chopped and Toasted
1 TBS Cayenne Pepper                             1 Habanero Pepper (Whole with stem removed.)
6 oz Can of Tomato Paste                          4 Stalks of Celery Chopped
1 TBS Sriracha Sauce                                1 TBS Cumin                                          
2 TBS Chili Powder                                   1 Stalk of Chopped Kale (including stems)
1.5 Cups of Red Quinoa                            1 Cup of Chopped Baby Spinach
1 Cup of Dried Red Kidney Beans            15 oz Can of “Chili Ready” Diced Tomatoes                              6 Cups of Water                                        3 TBS Maple Syrup
1 Can of Manwich (yes, its Vegan)
3  TBS Red Wine Vinegar

Either throw everything into a Crock Pot and just check it periodically to see if it needs more water.
OR
In a large pot heat the olive oil, add Kosher salt and saute the onions. Remove the stem from the Habanero Pepper and open it but do not chop it up.  It will be removed before serving.
Add everything else.  Bring to a simmering boil.  Cover and simmer for 3 hours, adding extra water if needed.  Put it in a glass bowl in the fridge overnight to soak up any excess water.
Remove the Habanero Pepper.  Heat and serve.

More heat?  Increase the Cayenne Pepper or Chop up the Habanero.
Too spicy?  Do the opposite.

Photo is courtesy of Josh Katz.