Ginger "Beef" Stir Fry

I've adapted quite a few of our old favorite recipes to our new plant-based eating lifestyle and this is one I didn't really expect to be able to duplicate - but it's probably turned out to be the best adaptation so far.

We've all liked my ginger beef stir fry. It would be good even without meat because the sauce is so tasty but when I found Lightlife's smart strips - steak style seasoned veggie strips, well... it was even better. They look like steak strips and have the same texture, too... except they're 100% veggie and have 14 grams of protein per serving. Pretty awesome!



I make the sauce first and let it sit so all the flavors will combine. 1/2 cup of veggie broth, 3 tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce (I use the Bragg's liquid aminos), 2 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of minced ginger. Combine it all in a small bowl and let it sit while you put everything else together.



I always cut up all the veggies to begin with. About 3 cups of small broccoli pieces cut in half. 2 red bell peppers, sliced. 1 cup of sliced mushrooms and 1 grated carrot. It's really colorful.




The boys LOVE this stuff so next time I have to remember to make a double batch. I'm sure both of them would have eaten more if we'd had more. :)

Saute the carrots and mushrooms in a couple tablespoons of veggie broth for about 3 minutes.



Then add the broccoli, bell peppers and veggie strips and cook for about 3-5 minutes longer.



Add more veggie broth to keep it from sticking. When the veggies are done, pour in the sauce and cook on low until sauce thickens.



Top with chopped green onions and serve over brown rice. Crazy good!

- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home

New Soup!

Wow, this has been an interesting week. I've only cooked a couple of times this week because sweet hubby was out of town on business. Heathen son and I enjoyed Cool Greens and Panera Bread on our alone nights and then when sweet hubby got home, he was hungry for pizza. Since I didn't have the makings for a vegan pizza, we ordered a couple of cheese-free thin crust veggie pizzas from Domino's. They're really good but the funny thing is, you pay about twice as much for them without cheese as you would with cheese. Makes no sense to me! Sheesh.

Our sweet neighbor, Kay, brought over a stack of food containers the other night while heathen son and I were home alone. She had a container of Kung Pao tofu that heathen son scarfed right up. There was some other container of something she declared way too spicy for her and Bill - also scarfed up immediately. And then, there was the most delectable, wonderful soup which I got to scarf up!

It was light-colored, creamy soup with all kinds of veggies and spices floating around. It was amazing. I hounded her for the recipe, which she gladly shared. Then I asked her if she'd actually FOLLOWED the recipe (because Lord knows I never do!) and found that she had made a few tweaks, which I then incorporated into my version of the recipe. Then, of course, I made a few more alterations. LOL.

You start by toasting a cup of millet in a large soup pan sprayed with non-stick spray. I had personally never cooked with or even eaten millet but it was easy to find at Whole Foods. Millet is a kind of seed grass that's popular in Asia and Africa - probably because it grows well in hot, dry climates. It's kind of similar to quinoa.

Toast the millet, stirring occasionally, until it turns golden and starts to pop. Then add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. The millet will absorb most of the water.




While the millet is simmering, put a couple tablespoons veggie broth in a large skillet and add one medium diced onion, one medium diced bell pepper (the recipe called for green but I had red and yellow so I used half of each to give more color), 3 sliced stalks of celery, 1 medium grated carrot and two minced cloves of garlic. Saute these until the onions are translucent. Add more veggie broth if they start to stick. It was so pretty - before I stirred them together and afterward! Turn off the heat when done and add 1/2 teaspoon each of basil, thyme and celery seed.







While the veggies are sauteing, steam one medium head of cauliflower. I did this in the microwave but do it however you prefer. You want the cauliflower to be pretty soft for the soup.

Next, you'll need your blender to make the creamy base. Add 2 tablespoons white miso (if you use brown your soup will be tan instead of cream colored), 3/4 cup of raw cashews (don't use roasted), 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast and one cup of water. Blend all of this together until smooth. Hooray for the Vitamix but I think it would work in any blender.



Once the 20 minutes is up for the millet, you should have everything else ready to go. Pour the sauteed veggies into the soup pot with the millet, add 6 cups of veggie broth and the cashew sauce. Stir together well and simmer for 10-20 minutes to blend all the flavors.

I'm serving this tonight with some good, crusty wheat bread. Can't wait! :)



Here's it is in recipe form:

Millet Cauliflower Soup
1 cup millet
1 ½ cups water
3 stalks celery
1 green pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 large carrot, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups vegetable broth
1 medium head cauliflower, very coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon each basil, thyme, celery seed
2 tablespoons white miso
¾ cup raw cashews
1 cup water
½ cup nutritional yeast
Salt to taste (I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead of salt)

Toast millet in soup pot that’s been lightly sprayed with non-stick spray until golden brown and beginning to pop. Remove from heat. Add ½ cups water, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

In a medium skillet, sauté celery, green pepper, onion, garlic and carrot until onion is translucent.

To millet pot add 6 cups of water (for thick soup), cauliflower, bay leaf, sautéed mixture, soup base, herbs and celery seed, stirring occasionally so millet doesn’t stick. Simmer for 20 minutes.

In a blender, process miso, cashews, 1 cup water and yeast. Add to soup and simmer for 10-20 minutes. Taste for salt and add water to adjust consistency to your liking.

- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home

Birthday Dinner

Heathen son's birthday is tomorrow. His EIGHTEENTH birthday. Wow. I'm reminded of an old saying - the days are long but the years are short. That's so true with kids. I can remember days when he and his heathen sister were younger and I was certain the day lasted 48 hours at least. Now I look back and they're both grown. My baby turns 18 in less than 24 hours (6:32 p.m. to be exact!). He and his sister both get to vote for the first time in this election. And they're both looking forward to it, too, which thrills me. :)

When we were figuring out what to do to celebrate his birthday as a family, we found out that, lo and behold, he made plans with his friends on his actually birthday evening. Hmmm, go figure. Then he has plans the next night to see a friend from out of town. So our only option was to do something the night before. Tonight.

We used to go out for birthday dinner celebrations but there have been several birthdays in the past when he and heathen sister have both asked that I make them a favorite meal instead. This year was one of those years and, considering how we've changed the way we're eating, it definitely made it easier than finding a restaurant with a plant-based menu. However, he couldn't decide on one thing he wanted for dinner... so he asked that I make TWO things instead. Being a good mom (I hope!), I agreed.

So dinner tonight consisted of his two favorite casseroles (and probably sweet hubby's favorites as well) - both things I've made in recent weeks and featured on this blog even - "chicken" spinach pasta bake and spaghetti casserole. So I'm not going to take up much time on those two items since I've featured them before but I will share a picture just because they look so good and yummy...




The nice thing is that there are plenty of leftovers for lunch and probably dinner tomorrow night, too! I like that! :)



Of course you can't really have a birthday dinner without a birthday cake, right? Heathen son asked for a spice cake like I made recently when we had Bill and Kay over for dinner. I discovered there are plenty of cake mixes that are vegan -- and I knew that you can make a cake with cake mix and pumpkin because I found a great recipe on Pinterest some months ago. It's wonderful! And completely fat free, too. So is the frosting glaze.

For the frosting glaze, I mixed 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of applesauce, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tablespoons of almond milk. I heated this together in a small saucepan until it was well blended. After the cake was out of the oven (bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees), I poured the glaze over the hot cake and let it soak in. It's only been out of the oven for about 10 minutes so we're waiting for it to cool a bit longer before cutting into it. :)



The singing and birthday present has to wait until morning. )

- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home

Mushroom Stroganoff

Heathen son and I like mushrooms in general and we both LOVE portobello mushrooms. Sweet hubby, not so much. In fact, he doesn't like onions, mushrooms or tomatoes -- probably the three main ingredients most recipes start with (including mine!). However, I have discovered that if I just chop up the mushrooms and onions small enough he'll usually be fine with it. It's not so much the taste he doesn't like as it is biting into an onion or a mushroom.

Tonight's dinner though... I don't know. Mushroom stroganoff. He had a late meeting at work this afternoon and isn't home yet so we'll see what he thinks. Heathen son and I both think it's a winner! :)

Just in case sweet hubby doesn't like it, I made something else that he will like... sloppy Joe's (made with TVP, of course) and vegetarian baked beans. If he decides he likes the stroganoff, he'll definitely have a full plate! :)



To start the stroganoff, I sauteed some green onions, some red onion (I like their flavor better), some garlic, thyme and rosemary in a couple tablespoons of water. I didn't really measure anything... maybe a teaspoon each of the spices.

Last weekend I'd chopped up a whole pound of portobello mushrooms with my handy Vidalia onion chopper from Bed, Bath & Beyond (I just love that store!) so I had those ready to go. I also put 1 oz. of dried porcini mushrooms in a cup of boiling water to sit for about 30 minutes.

I tossed in the portobello mushrooms and cooked it all for about 10 minutes on medium heat. Then I chopped the porcini mushrooms and added them, along with the soaking water and a half cup of dry white wine. Oh. My. Gosh. It smelled so good!


I let that cook for about 20 minutes, until most of the liquid had evaporated. While that was cooking, I cooked a pound of angel hair pasta and drained it. I think fettucini or any thicker noodle would have probably been even better but angel hair was what I had so I made do.

Next up, I made some tofu sour cream. I am not a big tofu fan but this stuff is blended so it is nothing at all like tofu. Tofu doesn't have a taste really anyway... it's a consistency thing with me not liking it. Sweet hubby doesn't want to bite into an onion, I don't like biting into tofu. :)

To make the tofu sour cream, I used an entire package of silken light tofu, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Blend it all together and it makes about 1 1/2 cups. You can use this on baked potatoes, enchiladas... anything you need a good sour cream substitute for.



I poured about a cup of the sour cream mixture over the noodles (the rest will keep in the fridge for awhile to use somewhere else), then poured the mushroom mixture in and stirred it all up. Oh, wow. It was amazingly good. Definitely a keeper, whether sweet hubby is on board or not.



Here's the recipe in a form that may be easier to follow:

Mushroom Stroganoff 

• 2 large green onions, sliced thinly

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 teaspoons thyme

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1 teaspoon rosemary

• 1 pound portobello mushrooms, chopped

• 1 ounce porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1 cup boiling water for 30 minutes

• ½ cup dry white wine

• 1 pound whole-grain pasta of choice, cooked

• 1 cup Tofu Sour Cream (recipe follows)




Place the green onions in a large skillet with a couple tablespoons of water and sauté over a medium heat for several minutes.

Add the garlic, rosemary and thyme, and cook for another minute.

Stir in the portobello mushrooms and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the porcini mushrooms, and their soaking liquid, and the wine.

Stir, and cook over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.


When the stroganoff is finished cooking, stir in the sour cream.

Add the cooked noodles and toss well.

Tofu Sour Cream


• 1 package extra firm lite silken tofu, drained

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy. Chill until ready to serve.

- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home

Stuffed Bell Peppers

I always liked veggies growing up. Most veggies anyway. I think I could have eaten my own weight in spinach. Oddly enough, back then I preferred canned spinach - but that's usually what my mom served so that's what I knew. Now I know the joys of fresh spinach and can't imagine eating it canned. There were a few veggies I never cared for though -- okra was one - but that's in the past. Green bell peppers were another one. And that one has stuck with me! I can eat them in small amounts but I don't like them. And the funny thing when you don't like the taste of something, you can taste it in anything it's in... spaghetti sauce, lasagna... anything with green bell peppers in it, I can taste them. Sweet hubby, however, adores them.

He asked me to make stuffed bell peppers awhile back and I gladly obliged. I made stuff RED bell peppers because I love the red ones. Isn't that funny what a difference the color makes? He didn't say anything at first but I noticed he was eating the stuffing but just picking around the pepper. I finally asked him what was wrong and he shrugged and told me he was expecting stuffed green peppers because that's what his mom always made so that's what he thought of when he thought of stuffed bell peppers. I had no idea! So now I make stuffed green peppers for hubby and heathen son and, if I'm in the mood for them, I'll stuff a red one for me.

Tonight I was not in the mood for them so green was all I stuffed. Heathen son is at work tonight and hubby is working on our upstairs room getting it ready to be textured so I had the kitchen to myself.

Last weekend I bought four peppers that would be great for stuffing. They just had the perfect shape. I sliced the tops off carefully so I could use them as caps once the peppers were stuffed and cleaned out the seeds and membranes, then set the peppers aside.

I sauteed about a cup of chopped onion, a couple cloves of garlic, some diced jalapeno and a cup (or more) of chopped portobello mushrooms in just a tiny bit of veggie broth.



I added just a little chopped red pepper (for color more than anything) and an 8 oz. package of grated tempeh. After that cooked for a few minutes I added 2 cups of tomato sauce and a 10 oz. bag of fresh spinach. The final addition was 1.5 cups of cooked brown rice.


I stuffed the peppers until the were completely full. The nice thing is that I had some stuffing left over for lunch tomorrow. I'm thinking it will be really good stuffed into a pita pocket.



I capped them with the tops I'd cut off and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. They were so fragrant when I pulled them out of the oven.



I served them up with some roasted Brussels sprouts and corn tossed with a little cilantro. I should really start setting the bar a little lower on Monday nights. :)


- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home

Vegan "Meatloaf?" Yes, please!

One of sweet hubby's all time favorite dinners has always been meatloaf. I was never a big meatloaf fan before meeting him - even Mom's meatloaf, as great a cook as she always was, just wasn't for me. However, I did manage to find a way to cook it so that even I enjoyed it (mainly be leaving out the green bell pepper which I've just never liked). Then we go and change to a plant based diet and sweet hubby thinks meatloaf is a thing of the past. Well, he was wrong. Sort of. :)

Wonderful Kay, our next door neighbor, shared a recipe with me that I adjusted to our own tastes and it turned out fantastic! The look on sweet hubby's face tonight when he sat down to a beautiful plate of cheesy mashed potatoes, peas and "meatloaf" was priceless. :) He was beside himself.



The mashed potatoes were almost an after thought. I'd bought the boxed mix a few weeks ago and almost forgot about it. I'd read a lot of good reviews of this brand and they were right. Easy to make and so tasty! Sometimes a shortcut is a good thing. This was definitely one of those times. Completely dairy free, too. :)




I double the ingredients in Kay's recipe and spiced it up considerably. Her sweet Bill doesn't care for spicy food but we all love it - the spicier, the better for us.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I started with 2 cups of oats, about a cup of red onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Put them in the food processor and blend together.

Before:


After:




Dump this into a good size bowl and add 4 Tablespoons soy sauce (or Bragg's liquid aminos), 4 Tablespoons nutritional yeast, 2 Tablespoons veggie broth, 8 Tablespoons of your favorite BBQ sauce (we used Head Country Hot), 2 Tablespoons oregano and 2 teaspoons thyme.



Mix this together well using a large fork or wooden spoon. Make sure you mix it well.



Pour into an 8x8 glass baking dish and mash down so that it's even. Pour a small amount of BBQ sauce all over the top.



Place in oven for 30-35 minutes and then let sit for 10 minutes to set before serving. Then, sit back and be amazed at how this completely plant-based, fat free dinner really hits the spot. :) Yummo!


- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home

Soup weather - finally!

Oh, how I love soup! I could practically live on soup - BUT, only when the weather is cool or cold. I just can't eat soup when it's warm or hot -- and after the summer we've had it feels like it's been hot FOREVER.

I was thrilled to hear the forecast this morning - highs in the 60s. Wow... definitely soup worthy weather!

One of our favorites for the last fews years has been a sweet potato Italian sausage soup with spinach. So yummy. And, other than the Italian sausage, (and chicken stock I used to use), it's very plant based. With just a few adjustments, I was sure I could make it plant strong - and I was right. Had some for lunch and it was DE-LISH!

Heathen son actually found a vegetable protein sausage to try. "Gimme Lean" sausage was the name. While it had spicing like sausage, it didn't have the Italian sausage spicing we were used to but I added some fennel seeds and that did the trick.

First I sauteed some onion & garlic, along with the fennel seeds - then I crumbled the veggie sausage and cooked it all together for about 5 minutes.




I peeled and microwaved 4 good sized sweet potatoes and then cubed them up. Added this to the sausage onion mixture along with 6 cups of veggies broth.




Let that all simmer together for about 15 minutes and then used a potato masher to mash down some of the sweet potato cubes. This thickens the soup. Finally, I added about 2 cups of kale and let it wilt down.





It ended up really pretty and so appetizing! Can't wait to serve it to sweet hubby for dinner tonight with some good, crusty whole wheat bread. Yummo!

- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home