Garden Salad- A complete meal!

We got creative the other night! Part of eating vegan is using plants for all your nutrition- otherwise referred to as the "plant based diet." To achieve proper nutrition, you need to be cognizant of nutrient sources (I have a book I use: Idiot's Guide to Plant Based Nutrition), probably keep track of what you're bringing in to ensure that you're getting all the nutrients you need, and as a failsafe; eat every color veggie out there all the time, and ensure that your meals are more than 50% greens and/or fresh veggies. This is a simple concept, but can be somewhat difficult in this convenience food era of American society; you're gonna have to chop some veggies!!

My other favorite book taught me, in a very blunt fashion, that I should be spending about 15 minutes a day chopping veggies. There's no reason why I can't (I have time..), and by doing this I'm making sure that what I'm eating is the freshest and best option available to me from the store- fresher than pre-chopped veggies, for sure! This book also taught me that a chopped veggie doesn't lose nutrients any quicker than a non-chopped one- and you're more likely to use a vegetable if it's already chopped for you! So- when you're preparing something with a new veggie, chop the whole thing up, save what you're not using, and use it later! Veggies (chopped or not) do start to lose their nutrients after 4 or 5 days, so be sure to eat them up quickly!!

So, going off the advice of the book mentioned above, I had a bunch of chopped veggies at my disposal. When contemplating dinner, I pulled all my prepared vegetables out of the fridge and onto the counter to see what I could build... and this was the result:

Garden Salad with a baked sweet potato (and a glass of merlot, of course!) on the side

And here's how I made it!


Easy Garden Salad
Prep time: 10-20 minutes (chopped vs. not yet chopped)
Cook time: None!
Serves: 2


Ingredients:
3-4 cups of dark green, leafy stuff (I used spinach, spring mix, and fresh kale) {vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein}
1 cup of "crumbles" or other meat replacement (I used our Apple Sage Sausage crumbles) {protein, fiber, healthy fats}
1/2 cup of fresh chickpeas {protein, fiber, minerals}
1/4 cup pecan pieces {protein, fiber, healthy fats}
1/8 cup (=2 Tbsp) Panera Poppyseed Dressing
A generous sprinkle of Bragg's Nutritional Yeast {B vitamins, fiber, yumminess}
As many veggies as you can find! {vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein} I used:
-red, green, and yellow peppers
-tomatoes
-avocado
You could add:
-onion
-carrots
-celery
-ginger zest
-etc, etc- use your imagination (and what you have in your fridge!)

Directions:
Couldn't be easier- mix it all together and serve! Here are some step by step pics I took:

All chopped up and ready to go!

There you go.. Simple, beautiful, and nutritious! I added the sweet potato to our meal for added satiety and nutrients {vitamins, protein, fiber} with a teaspoon or so of Earth Balance Soy Garden butter- an excellent vegan butter! 

This was one of my favorite meals so far, and definitely the easiest!! 

Happy Eating!

<3

Courtney

Kale Chips! (Who needs potato chips?? These have VITAMINS and PROTEIN and MINERALS (oh my!))

These are quickly becoming a favorite in our household. We bought a huge bunch of Kale last weekend (or so we thought!!); we have never been able to get through an entire bunch of kale before we tried this recipe. Now that we know how to make the best superfood in the world into the most delicious, amazingly awesome (and healthy- better than potatoes!) snack, that kale bunch all but disappeared in about 3 days! I've also tried kale in green smoothies... more on that after we get a better blender...

So good! They don't look like potato chips, but they have the salty and "greasy" (olive oil) goin on- Delish!!

SO- if you're thinking these are worth a shot (and they are!!), here how to make these lil green noms:


"Potato"(Kale) Chips
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:
1 bunch of Kale (found in the produce section, look by the greens)
1 tsp Olive Oil
Salt, to taste
Nutritional Yeast, to taste/preference (optional!) (Bragg's brand is great! We use this for supplement and flavor purposes. It's kinda cheesy tasting!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Meanwhile....

Tear kale into bite size pieces (think chips) and place in colander as you go. Rinse kale REALLY well (don't skip this step- kale is very "curly" and can hide dirt, bugs, etc from you amazingly well!) with veggie wash if you have it, just water if you don't.

Place a pad of paper towels on the counter (2 wide, 2 thick should do the trick) and lay your rinsed kale out-- blot with another paper towel until kale is mostly dry. Transfer to a LARGE mixing bowl.

Add the oil, salt, and any other seasonings you like (feel free to experiment here- garlic would be fantastic, as would chili powder, cilantro, paprika, etc) to the bowl. Mix very well with a spoon or your hands- kale should be completely coated in oil when you're finished. Lay prepared kale out, single layer, on a cookie sheet (you may need two!). Throw in the oven!

I can almost smell the yummy!!

Bake for about 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on them and check if you think they're close to done. Chips should be crispy, but not burnt. You're essentially dehydrating the kale by baking it... keep that in mind and you'll get these perfectly crisply baked!

FYI- the oil will keep your chips from sticking to the pan... Let the chips cool a bit before removing- store in a bag, a bowl, or your tummy. Enjoy!!

p.s.- let me know how this went if you tried it!

Happy Eating!!

<3
Courtney

Tofu "Egg" Spanish Scramble

A vegan twist on an old breakfast standby. Of course, this won't actually taste like eggs, and don't expect it to or you will be sorely disappointed! This dish features tofu, a curd (cheese) product of the soybean that likes to soak up any flavor that's nearby. On its own it's rather bland, so always spruce up your tofu with a marinade! Today's recipe featured a Spanish inspired tofu marinade of lime juice and cilantro (thus the non-eggy taste!). I combined it with kale and red pepper in a saute, and added Turmeric for the classic "egg yellow" color. We topped it with Daiya Pepper Jack vegan cheese and fresh avocado for a little kick :) I suppose salsa and vegan sour cream garnishes would be tasty as well!

Tofu "Egg" Spanish Scramble
Prep time: 30 minutes (plus overnight freezer time for your tofu!)
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients: 
1/2 pound Extra Firm tofu, frozen overnight and thawed
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic
1 Tablespoon fresh Cilantro (or 1 tsp dried)
2 cups Kale, chopped finely
1/2 cup Red Pepper, chopped
1 tsp Grapeseed Oil
1 tsp Turmeric
Pepper to taste

Directions:
Cube your tofu; combine with salt, garlic, lime juice, and cilantro in a bowl or quart-sized baggie. Marinate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, chop your veggies, do some laundry, paint your nails, etc. :)

Marinatin' baby!

Festive, no?

Once the tofu has absorbed most of the liquid, you can start sauteing your veggies. In a medium skillet, add the grapeseed oil and let it heat until watery looking (this means it's hot!). Add the red pepper first and push around for about 2 minutes, then add the kale and keep it moving for an additional 2 minutes. The kale will start to (seemingly) shrink and wilt a bit at this point. Add your tofu + all the marinade into the skillet!

Almost there!!!

Tofu eggy goodness in a pan :)

You'll want to break up the hunks of tofu with your spatula/fork/whatever you're using to cook with. Cubes are really not egg-like ;) Once your tofu's a bit smaller and it's heated up (about 4-5 minutes), add the turmeric to achieve the "egg-like" color. Stir.... and Serve!!

And that's it! Garnish with some vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, salsa, or avocado for maximum yumminess.

Serve with your favorite breakfast standards: toast, vegan sausage, muffins... whatever your heart desires. We had ours with Overly-Healthy Hash Browns and Apple Sage Sausage Links. See the picture below? Happy eating, everyone!

<3
Courtney

Our breakfast! Tofu "Egg" Spanish Scramble, Overly-Healthy Hash Browns, and Apple Sage Sausage. Read about our adventure HERE!

Overly-Healthy Hash Browns

I love fried potatoes. It's a fact about myself that I somewhat despise, since I'm sure it's somewhat genetic (there's some Irish in my lineage..), and it's not very healthy. Hash Browns can be vegan naturally, depending on how you prepare them. If you go the route of buying "Hash Browns" in the Potato section of any supermarket frozen aisle, throw them in a pan with oil and swish around until mushy, it's already vegan. 

I, on the other hand, being a homemade-food nut, love to make Browns from scratch. This requires a binding agent, like an egg. Since my recent food epiphany excludes eggs and all their creamy, cholesterol laden goodness, I decided to attempt a Vegan version today based on my old stand by recipe, using Bob's RedMill Egg Replacer in place of eggs. 

Awesome stuff!! Think of the possibilities :)

Pretty ingenious stuff, really! Mix 1 Tablespoon of this with 3 Tablespoons of water, and VOILA! .. you have a slightly eggy looking mixture that acts like an egg in recipes! All the binding, leavening fun, none of the fat or cholesterol. Me = happy. 

To keep in the mind-set of plant-based nutrition (where all your nutrients come from your food...), I made sure to include red onion (lots of good lycopene [amino acid], and vitamins and minerals) and a titch of Kale (LOTS of vitamins, minerals, protein, iron, etc. Kale is a nutritional powerhouse). While this did give our hash browns a slightly green tint, it wasn't enough to be unappetizing. It looked... festive! :)

So, enough narration already!! Here's the recipe. 

Overly-Healthy Hash Browns

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-15 minutes

Serves: 2-3 

Ingredients:

1 large russet potato

1/4 of a large red onion

1/2 cup to 1 cup kale

Garlic (about 1/2 tsp or to taste)

Salt (about 1/4 tsp or to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

1 egg's equivalent of Bob's RedMill Egg Replacer (or other egg replacer!)

1 Tablespoon Grapeseed oil 

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat the Grapeseed oil on medium heat. This will be heating while you're grating your tato, so no need to crank the heat. (p.s.- Grapeseed oil can withstand SUPER high heat without breaking down the heart healthy fats it contains, which is a great thing.. but don't test the theory today!)

In a food processor with a grate function (or the old fashioned way with a grater), grate the potato, onion, and kale. Transfer to a bowl. Combine with egg replacer and spices. Toss to coat. 

By now, your skillet should be hot and ready for the potato mixture. The oil should be watery in appearance (meaning it's HOT! The hotter the oil, the more it'll simply cook your food and not soak into it instead), and not smoking (... if it's smoking, the fats have gotten too hot and broken down. No worries, you can still cook with the oil, the health benefits will just be decreased.) Add your potato mixture to the pan, forming patties. Heat should be at a medium-high setting. 

Keep in mind that the egg replacer likes to stick (as I discovered!!), so every few minutes or so try to slide a spatula under each Brown to keep it from adhering to your pan! Flip over after about 7 minutes. Brown the other side for about 7 minutes, making sure both sides are browned (these are Hash Browns, after all). When the potato is thoroughly cooked (don't be afraid to lop off a piece and test its doneness), remove from heat and blot with a paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve with ketchup or BBQ sauce if you like. Enjoy!!!

The finished product! This is from our breakfast today... YUMMY!