Quick yummo of the week- Vegetarian style.

I came across an interesting recipe that is really not much of a recipe, as you can throw together whatever you want and do this.....

This Asparagus and Mushroom melts recipe was from here- Oh My Veggies is a great vegetarian recipe blog.  I don't do a lot of bothering with new things so much anymore.  I tend to throw stuff together, figure out a sauce or flavoring and put it over something.  I have a lot of templates that I use and frequently it is just steam some veggies and shake on any number of hot sauces that I own. 

ANYWAY, this looked really good to me earlier in the week and I ACTUALLY had the mushrooms, asparagus and some sour dough bread in the freezer.  Must have been fate.  So whilst whipping up a batch of sugar candy for the bees, I also made up these melts.

None of this is very hard- toast your bread in the broiler.  Sauté some onion (they say shallots, but you use what you have) in olive oil, add in some chopped mushrooms and then a minute or two later some chopped asparagus.  Let this cook a wee bit, until it is the doneness you like and mix in a teaspoon of red wine vinegar (really do this, can't explain why, but it is a good part of the flavor profile) and some thyme leaves.  Pile this all up on your sourdough, top with cheese - the first round I put on some shredded swiss and some parmesan flakes.....  and broil it until its melty/toasty.

Well this was so good that I made it again the next night, this time I had stopped and picked some provolone which I used instead of the swiss.  And then I did try out some hot sauce on the top and that is a complete winner.  I used the original Louisiana Hot Sauce for this- didn't want any lime or chipotle or other flavors on this. 

I can see using something like broccoli for this melt too- in fact the OMV recipe was a riff on Smitten Kitchens Broccoli melts.... and you just can never go wrong with a SK recipe.

So, yeah, if you are wanting something fast easy and yummy- try this.  I suppose you could put something like bacon on it too, but I for one see no need.....  But you knew that, didn't you.  coming up on 4 years vegetarian and have never looked back.  

Today's yummos

I usually do a bit of cooking on the weekends...  it is hard to find good vegetarian things that are fast and easy to make or convenient to have on hand!  There is no open a can of tuna, ya know?  Anyway, I get tired of frozen stuff, of which our grocery store has a sort of ok selection, so I cook.  And if only I could get someone to wash dishes and clean up after me.

So let me digress for a moment to Coco's of Washburn.  The Mad-English teacher and I frequently will split up orders of dal and falafel and enjoy 2 amazing dishes. While I love the falafel, I adore the masoor dal that they make.  It has warm Indian spices, a little pepper hotness and yet has a punch of ginger from a red cabbage component and a yogurt sauce that has cucumber and possibly dill. Anyway - I continue to try and replicate this dish, only because I can't get up to Washburn more than every 4-6 weeks or so.  

Dal with gingered cabbage and yogurt

I've made dal a couple times now- and I have that pretty well situated.  I used this "recipe", so to speak, and followed some of the recommendations, at least the things I had in my very well stocked spice rack.  But the red cabbage I wasn't sure at all about.

Gingered red cabbage

The dal I made last week I paired up with some fermented ginger carrots that I had in my frig.  THAT was really good!  Perfect complimentary foods, so I wanted to go the next step and work on that Coco's dish.

I found that most of the recipes are either  coleslaw or a sweet-sour recipe, but there were some that had a simple ginger based flavoring.  And this is what I went with- with a little adjustment.  I only put in one tablespoon of brown sugar and just a little balsamic vinegar.

I got the formula for dal from Food 52, a guideline for this simple dish.  I used yellow split peas, and threw a bit of turmeric and a piece of ginger in it, you cook it down for a while- up to an hour.

You saute the onion/garlic in oil and then heat up your spices  (I used cumin, coriander, pepper flakes and some good curry powder) to let them release their flavors, and pour that into the dal, then add in your veggies and in this case parsley.  Last week I used spinach for the greens.  

Then you cook that all down into this not quite soup, not really stew that is dal!  I combined a scoop of the cabbage and a scoop of yogurt that had a little za'atar on it, and then the dal.  I do not have access to naan or a lavash here, so flat bread it is! It was outstanding.  Not exactly what Coco's serves, but it is super good.  

It is so nice to come home and be able to have a quick and delicious supper after a LONG day at school.

Aaaaand, I had some bananas that I just didn't get a chance to eat this week.  So I made that amazing double chocolate banana bread recipe from last winter!  

Double chocolate banana bread

It is no wonder I am sleepy tonight!  I got a great walk in this morning, and I was only mildly bothered by ice chunks. ;)

Anyway, I am going to continue my evening and get ready to start a new week.... one that I hope is full of joy.

Baking and cooking and yummies for/from the bees

The weather has decided to become decidedly winter-in-Wisconsin-like this weekend, and I did manage to get outside for a while- that will be forthcoming.  Anyway, after spending an outrageous amount at the grocery store- I fired up the stove and the oven for the afternoon.  Really people, all I wanted to do was binge-watch Breaking Bad, but I opted to wait until evening to do that so I could manage to get something else done.  Because if I had less will-power than I do, I'd have finished that show sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

Anyway, my dear friend Jane had given me a little bowl of a yummy roasted carrot soup and the recipe to go with it, so that was what precipitated the whole cooking frenzy of the afternoon.  I was going to be roasting veggies anyway, so I decided to make a veggie soup as well.  

roasted carrots 

sauteed celery and onion

Finished, blended soup

Roasted  Butter Carrot Soup

Basically roast 2 lb of carrots that are peeled, cut up into chunks and tossed in 4 tablespoons of melted butter in a flat pan.  375-400 for about 25 min.

In a large pan saute 1/2 cup celery and 1/4 cup onion in oil until translucent.  Add in 2 cloves of minced garlic.  Toss in the carrots, add 4 cups veggie broth and cook until everything is soft.  Blend with an immersion blender and then add 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 2 tsp. dill.  Simmer for another 10 min, serve with a little swirl of honey.  It is so much better the next day!!

I discovered that roasting the vegetables is really the key to a good tasting soup.  And I totally made up the recipe as I went, so I will recount it the best that I can. And seriously- put some sweet potato in this if you have it- it really adds so much goodness.

Root vegetables roasting along side the baking pie

Finished soup without the added vegetarian meatballs that I added later

Roasted Vegetable Soup, with greens and other good stuff in it

In large pan roast assorted veggies that are cut up to the same size- I used carrots, onion, parsnips, sweet potatoes and regular potatoes.  I roasted them in oil with salt and pepper until they are partially caramelized.  I also wrapped up a few garlic cloves in foil and threw them in with the veg.

In large stock pot, saute some celery and mushrooms- of course all of this depends on what you have, or how much you bought at the grocery store..... then put in the roasted veggies, 4 cups of broth, a can of diced tomatoes,  a small can of tomato sauce,  a can of northern white beans- rinsed and drained, a tsp of basil, seasoned salt....  squeeze the garlic out of their skins, too.  Then when it has cooked a bit, I put in a half bag of a baby kale mix..... This was so tasty!!  I realized that I had a bag of vegetarian meatballs that I threw in after the photos were taken.  Good idea!!  I finish this off with a sprinkle of  parmesan.....  

As long as the oven was on, I made the MA a peach and blueberry pie.  So that was yummy!  It is a great idea to get those peaches and blueberries in July.  :)  

Meanwhile, because I apparently have no other life, I cooked up some sugar water into sugar candy for bees.  It is incredible how much sugar can dissolve into a mere 2 cups of water.  5 lbs is 10 cups! It is really easy to do this for the little dudes, so when the weather warms up again, they will be getting what is basically a giant sucker.

Boil this stuff until it gets up to 250* on the candy thermometer

Finished candy in their molds

Bee's candy (recipe from this site)

2 cups of water

5 lb of sugar (10 cups)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Stir sugar and lemon juice  into simmering water in large pan, stirring constantly until all the sugar crystals are gone.  If they do not disappear, add a little water at a time in until they dissolve.  Turn up heat so it will boil and attach candy thermometer.  Boil until it reaches 250.  Pour sugar water into greased paper plates. let firm up before you unmold and feed to bees. :)  Actually if you do this, be sure it cools a bit so it doesn't hurt the bees. 

 I've had another thing buzzing around in my head (hehehe) and that is making some creamed honey.  I love creamed honey, it is really yummy and well..... creamy.  It turns out it is just crystallized honey with really small crystals.  Most recipes tell you to use creamed honey that you buy as "seed", but apparently you can also grind your own in the food processor or blender.  This I did today, not Saturday, but it goes well with this post!  :)

Putting the crystallized honey into the food processor

crystallized honey

whirl the honey in the food processor until pieces are small

Add a few tablespoons of the creamed honey to a jar of liquid

So this is a fairly simple process.  Use the food processor to break the crystals down to a very fine particle.  Stir a couple tablespoons into a jar of regular honey and let it sit for a week or so while the honey crystallized to the size of the "seed" crystals that you mixed into the liquid honey....   I will be interested to see how this goes!

Anyway, I have discovered it is difficult to quickly pound out a blog post when one is watching Breaking Bad, and I snickered more than once when I wrote the word cooked.  Lol.
Tomorrow is Monday and I am thrilled that I will have a nice lunch for the next several days.  And in a week I should have some honey that won't leak out of my peanut butter and honey bagel that I eat for breakfast every day at school.  Ahhh it is the little things, right?  They bring us so much joy.

Roasted tomato sauce

We have a school garden right outside of the art room, and it is a cool thing as far as I am concerned.  I have been watching it this September and spied some pretty nice tomatoes out there.  When no one had picked many of them right before that first heavy frost of the season, I decided to do something about it.  We were all over that- I wish I had a pic of little Greggy picking tomatoes with us.  But I don't, so you just have to use your imagination.

The Mad-Science teacher did some research and told me about this roasted tomato sauce.  It basically involves tomatoes, a few aromatics and some herbs/salt/pepper.

The process is simple: choose the size of pan according to the amount of tomatoes you have.  I really didn't have that many, so I used a cake pan....  Some of us were able to use a turkey roasting pan because we have so many tomatoes.....  That will be me next year.  Plans are being made.  Anywho,  after you core and maybe if you are feeling ambitious, cut up the tomatoes, add in a chopped onion, a handful of partially smushed and completely peeled garlics, a pour of olive oil and a bunch of fresh basil.

Spray Pam on the pan!!  

I used a combo of full size and cherry tomatoes- these tomatoes were so sweet that the sauce is pretty sweet too!  Bake the veggies for about 3 hours at 375.  Or until the water has pretty much cooked out and reduced to a thick sauce.  

Still needs some reducing- I put salt and pepper on  it at about this point

After it has cooked down, you can remove some of the skins.  I probably took out half of them, but you really don't notice.  You can also use a food processor or immersion blender and make the sauce smooth if you want, but that isn't what I care to do.  I like it less processed.  When you stir it up the garlic and onion sort of melts.  

This is the chilled and finished sauce

As I said above, the sauce was sweet, so I put a little chopped kalamata olive in it when I reheated it, which added a salty and tangy note to it.  This would probably be less sweet with more traditional tomatoes, but I used the heritage tomatoes that were in the garden.  A super dark paste type and a few very dark (maybe Cherokee purple??) larger tomatoes and a whole bunch of yellow sungold cherry tomatoes.  Goodness!  You could throw in some fresh thyme or oregano too- and maybe a little bit of cayenne???

Pasta, the sauce with olives and some parmesan

It has been discussed that we could saute a bunch of veggies (peppers, zucchini, carrots, broccoli) and throw those in there as well.....  could add lots of things.  ALSO, Laurie freezes hers in bags, so they stack flat.  This was truly one of the best things I have eaten all summer.  Well, all fall too I guess.  Oh summer, come back to me....  that will be for the next post, though.

This is some serious good!  And it gave me a whole lot of joy!

Rainy day cooking- vegetarian style (veggie burger and quick chickpea salad)

It's been raining off and on today, and so I have been doing a little of this and that inside.  A  little cleaning, a little clothes washing and I decided to look for something different to make for lunch.  My friend and coworker, Jen, made a KICK ASS tabbouleh a couple days ago, and I have been thinking about it ever since.  I was sort of looking for a grain based salad, but found a chickpea version instead.  AND I think it was a winner!  Plus I wanted to make my own veggie burger, I like the frozen ones,  but want to find one that can be a fast go to recipe.  The one I did here was good, but a little dry when grilled, I have to figure out a fix for it.  The flavor was good though.

Well isn't this a busy little picture!?!  

So first up Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger- adapted from a recipe found on the Hummusapien blog.   I looked at several other black bean burger recipes and they want  you to precook things, or prechill, and all this other nonsense.  I want something that you can throw together and cook.  Period. As per usual, I never seem to have exactly what a recipe calls for.  So there are several substitutions from the original recipe.

First up, I subbed in some pulverized oats for the flaked whole grain cereal (I don't eat cereal and the MA eats Honey Nut Cheerios- not the best idea for a veggie burger, I'd guess), and since I didn't want to drag out the food processor, I wiped out the coffee grinder and used that!

Next, I had no jalapeno so I put in some cayenne pepper for some heat, and I used 2 eggs instead of an egg and an egg white.  I mean seriously, what the heck am I going to do with that left over yolk.

Pulverized rolled organic oats

Cook and mash this dude

Chili powder, cayenne, cumin plus not pictured: smoked paprika

Mix all that stuff together

I decided to stick on a  greased grill pan and grill.  

 The recipe also calls for baking- and I opted for the slow grill route.  I really don't want to heat the kitchen up baking a veggie burger or 3.

The taste of this was good, but I would add way more of all the spices- I would prefer it a bit spicier!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger

1 large sweet potato, cooked and mashed: about 1 cup
1 cup of rolled oats- roughly pulverized
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can black beans- rinsed and drained
2 eggs
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper
dash or two of cayenne
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Mix the whole thing up and shape into patties.  Bake in oven at 350 for 30 minutes or grill in a pan on low for 15 min or so.

I put avocado, onion and dijon on mine!  I'd put a squeeze of lime and hot sauce on the next time

This made 5 good sized burgers



The chickpea salad was something I had pinned on Pinterest at some point and is from Two Peas and Their Pod.

I was searching for something grain based, but this chickpea recipe sounded good and I had the avocado and the feta!!!  SCORE

I added my own spin to it when, I did not have any cilantro, by adding some fresh basil and then threw in some cherry tomatoes for color.  It is really so good.  I love lime, so that as the only major flavoring to pull it together was fine with me.

Tomato, onion and basil

Mix in the feta, drained chickpeas and diced avocado plus squeeze lime over the whole thing

The flavors in this salad are so good together.  I can see this stuffed inside a pita as well, or scooped on top of a lettuce salad.  Or mashed up a little and put in a sandwich- as was discussed in the original recipe.  I'll take the basil over the cilantro anytime.

Chickpea, Avocado and Feta Salad

1can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (I had my can of chickpeas in the frig so it was cold)

1 or 2 avocados, diced

1- 2 Tablespoons  onion, finely diced

2 or 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil

8 - 10 cherry tomatoes

1/3 - 1/2 cup feta

Juice of one lime

salt and pepper to taste

Combine and enjoy.  

This will be something that I come back to again.  I loved it and had to stop myself from eating the entire bowl.  It was that good.  

Quite an enjoyable way to spend a rainy Sunday!  Hope you are finding your joy too.

A vegetarian type of post~ food and assorted miscellany

I began my morning in the usual Saturday way.  I was choosing what sort of food I was going to make for the upcoming week, by searching through my Pinterest boards and my Feedly blogs.  This takes place at 5 or 6 (6 in this case) in the morning, whilst drinking my coffee...  Anyway, I was reading one of the blogs ~ the "Blonde Vegan" and she had the top 10 questions people ask Vegetarians and Vegans.  That is as close to the name as I am going to get for now.  She said basically that she thinks it is flattering that people ask these things and frankly I find it annoying after a while.  I don't mind if someone asks questions at all, except for the dreaded: So you eat fish don't you?  LORD have mercy that makes me crazy.  I, in my imagined wry humor commented such a thing, and then finished off with a confident- my family never asks me those things any more.....

Fast forward to breakfast:

The MA is having his breakfast as he is hunkered over his daily dose of Bejeweled Blitz. I, being in a good mood today, asked him if there was anything he'd like me to make for lunch, or whatever, as I was going to be grocery shopping and had a bit of time this afternoon.  (This was after he asked me what these scary sharp things were in the bread (his toast). HAHAHAHA- Well, toots, that would be called cracked wheat pieces.) CRACKED me up.

Back to business here- So he says that he hasn't had tuna and noodles for such a long time and he wouldn't mind that. (This was a shock, as he is not a noodle person generally).  You'll eat that won't you?  Um, no.  Tuna- OH, you don't eat fish?  FFS!!  And then I assured him I would make it and make my part with something good and whatever.  And actually I put tempeh in it and it was yummo!  Had it with the balsamic roasted veggies that I did right before noon-  yup, heaven.

Note to self- Don't ever let your vegetarian guard down.  And never assume they are ever listening, I guess.  Good grief. Then I reminded him I hadn't eaten any meat for two years, including fish, with the exception of the anniversary dinner fiasco, and we just don't need to go into that!  Water under the bridge so to speak...  We did spend some lovely time outside in this sparkly snow back by the cabin...  That will be in another post I guess.

Some of the things I made today!!  I have linked blogs here, as I pretty much made them as they are written

Quinoa breakfast bars

These breakfast bars are pretty darn good and healthy!  The came from the Lean Green Bean blog HERE

Lasagna Roll Ups

Lasagna Roll-ups were super easy to make and it was GOOD. Even the ever suspicious MA liked these.  Lol, actually, as long as there isn't soy involved or peanut butter, the MA does try quite a few things that I make.  I just don't expect him to eat vegetarian- I always have some type of meat  or a burger for the little darlin'- gotta make sacrifices for the sake of togetherness.  :)  The Lasagna Rollups can be found HERE on Oh My Veggies.

These don't photo pretty, but they taste REALLY good

AND then there were these chocolate and nut pieces of amazing.....  They also came from the Lean Green Bean Blog.....  No bake and done in about 10 minutes, plus freeze time.    You can find it HERE
See that bowl next to the little chocolate cups??  I **may** have attacked that thing with a spatula when it was "empty".   And it was good!!

I did some roasted veggies and quinoa and a batch of cooked beans, too- I'm exhausted!  :) But ready for the week to come....  and that is a joy!

Greek Stewed Cauliflower

Greek flavors involve savory and more traditionally sweet cinnamon and orange zest.  And a dose of salty in the olives!

So I did almost no cooking this weekend-  yesterday I was busy doing a little 4 hour class at the tech school in Phillips and then I got outside and snowshoed twice.  This morning I went for a long walk, then hit the gym and then went snow shoeing.....  yikes.  So, I discovered a decided lack of food that I can use for lunch this week and had to rectify that.

I had seen a recipe on my Pinterest board, or rather I saw that someone had repinned this recipe and it gave me an aha moment.  And I had some quinoa left in the frig, so I had everything allllll ready for dinner.  Woo hoo!!

Oh yeah, I lied, btw.  I made blueberry muffins before lunch.   Sort of forgot about that.  That recipe is right here--  I made a slight adjustment, didn't have enough oatmeal, so I used oat bran to make up the rest of it.  AND for some insane reason there was no cinnamon in the recipe.  CRAZY TALK.  There was cinnamon in mine.  I had one today, and have another planned for tomorrow and have half in the freezer.   The MA on the other hand, has had more than one, which is why half of them are hidden in the freezer.  

Blueberry muffins!

Ok, so this went together super fast, just chop up what needs to be first then it is as simple as 1, 2, 3!

 Chop the cauliflower, onion, prepare the garlic for pressing and plan to slice the olives later.

Literally dump everything into a pan (after you quickly saute the onion and garlic)  except the olives and cook down for about 15 minutes.  Then simply add the olives, add salt and pepper to taste and serve over rice or quinoa or whatever you want!

Greek Stewed Cauliflower

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 onion (chopped)

1 head cauliflower (chopped)

Zest ½ Orange

1 cinnamon stick

1  can crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes

1 – 15 oz can tomato sauce

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon celery seed

⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup kalamata olives (chopped)

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Heat oil in large pan and saute the onion until soft.  Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds.  Add  cauliflower, zest of orange, cinnamon stick, tomatoes and tomato sauce, oregano, celery seed and red pepper flakes.  Cook down until cauliflower is tender.  Remove cinnamon stick and add olives and salt/pepper.  Serve hot over rice or other grain.  YUMMY!! 

Now that was a great way to end a busy day!  And pretty joyful, too!

But wait!!! There's more! Curried lentils and kale and how much I LOVE curries

PEOPLE!! I am having a moment with Indian food. 

I had a practical affair with the fabulous Tandoori vegetables and dal that I had in Minneapolis at the Bombay Bistro....  le sigh. Really, can I live there? 
And now I have found a recipe for a curry that I could eat monthly if not weekly.  The smells are perfectly like those that were wafting around the Bistro and also the Middle Eastern restaurant that we went to for lunch whilst floating about Minneapolis searching for fabulous ethnic foods...  

The curry with the cinnamon and the coriander and the cumin and the turmeric.....  heaven.  Just heaven.  The taste, the fragrance is divine.

Ok, I have been waxing poetic for long enough.  

Indian Spiced Slow Cooker Lentils with Spinach

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp. minced garlic 
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander seed
1 tsp. ground turmeric 
1/2 tsp. Garam Masala
1 tsp. ground cinnamon 
1 1/2 cup red lentils 
4 cups vegetable stock 
1 can (14 oz.) light coconut milk 
4 cups chopped fresh spinach (or baby kale mix) 
salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste -

Lime and/or greek yogurt for garnish/finish

Heat olive oil and add onion, gently saute until partly cooked- about 3 minutes.  Add garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, Garam Masala and cinnamon until fragrant.  Put into slow cooker.  Add lentils and veggie broth and cook on high for about 2 hours or on low for 4.

Allowing the vegetables and spices to meld

In the crockpot with all of it

Turn down to low and add the spinach or kale and coconut milk, cook covered another 30 minutes or so.  

Add in coconut milk (I used light coconut milk) and kale/spinach

Trust me- add the lime squeeze to the bowl!

This is just beautiful and divine!!  So simple and so good - I can't recommend this enough- if you like the flavors of India.

I believe this is also vegan (I am now tired and cannot remember) SO that is your cooking marathon for me today- hope your day was warm and toasty!!  AND perhaps just a bit joyful.

Vegetarian recipe WIN-WIN!

After 2 nights of not a lot of sleep, I decided that today had to be a good workout day.  While I like getting all of this cleaning done upstairs, it is not conducive to calorie burns or even relaxing.  Too much going on in the mind, dust that infested every nook and cranny of my body, and tired but not apparently tired enough.

Beans and kale with the peanut sauced tofu

Today, I went back to the cabin with the MA and I merrily built a fire in the fireplace.  Once you are forced to have to start those things to keep your house warm (which I did for many years) you become an expert.  I am SO GLAD I don't have to do that any more. Once I began my full time job, it was necessary for us to ditch that damn wood stove and put in a gas furnce.  Lp or whatever it is.  Lol. But that is neither here nor there!  It was fun to play around with the fire and it brought me back to the Boundary Waters and making a 1 match campfire.  Ah the good memories....

So after lunch, I went to the gym and kicked my own tail feathers doing a fabulous chest workout.  I am refocusing on my weightlifting - not that I haven't been doing it, but I lost some of my drive.  No wonder I have to rest my arms every so often here.  Then, because I do want to be exhausted tonight, I went for a snowshoe when I got back from the gym.... that ought to do it!

After all that, I decided to do a little cooking.  I had scoped out a few recipes and bought a couple ingredients.  I really didn't know if this actually "goes" together, and it certainly didn't photograph pretty.  But the flavors are divine.

Alright, the 2 things I made were Smoky Maple Black Beans and Kale  and Spicy Vegan Peanut Butter Tofu with Sriracha 

They are both somewhat spicy, but completely adjustable as far as the heat factor.  The flavors are wonderful, especially if you like the combo of spicy/savory/sweet.  What is not to like, right?

The pix I have are not terrific, they are just taken with my phone, as I decided during the making of this that it might be enjoyable to blog about it if I like the way it tasted.  Well let me tell you, totally glad I at least took a pic with the phone.  This is not beautiful stuff, folks, but who cares when it's in your mouth?? 

In my usual way, I substituted like a fiend in these recipes.  I have no problem messing around with the ingredients if the integrity of the taste is intact.  One thing called for agave and I subbed in honey.... you get the idea.  I didn't even realize that this was vegan until I was putting it on Instagram and decided I could use that hashtag!

Smoky Maple Black Beans and Kale
Calorie count is approximately 200 for 1/2 - 2/3 cup of awesomeness
adapted from a recipe by This Dish is Vegetarian

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium-size onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups coarsely chopped kale
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cups cooked black beans or 2 (15-ounce) cans beans, rinsed and drained
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons tamari (which is a low salt soy sauce)
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar (apple cider vinegar)
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 chipotle chile in adobo (optional), minced (I used smoked jalapeno chili powder)

Instructions
1. Heat the oil or water in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, cover, and cook on low until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and heat until you can smell it, about 30 sec. Add the kale and season to taste with salt and pepper, add a bit of water if necessary. Cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the beans, then add the remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Simmer for 10 minutes longer to blend the flavors.

The maple, though there is only 2 Tablespoons of it is really forefront in this dish.  Divine!!  If I make this again, I will add additional veggies, maybe carrots and celery with the onion and garlic. 

Not the prettiest of pictures, but definitely tasty

Spicy Peanut Butter Tofu with Sriracha sauce

I am guessing the calories is about 175 for 3 pieces.  And a BUNCH of protein!!
adapted from a recipe by Kalyn's Kitchen 

Ingredients:
14-16 oz. firm or extra firm tofu
1 T olive oil
2 cloves peeled and lightly crushed garlic

Sauce Ingredients:
3 T soy sauce (reduced sodium is fine) I used Bragg's Aminos
3 T rice vinegar (I used seasoned rice vinegar)
2 T smooth natural peanut butter
1 T honey
2 T vegetable stock or water
1/2 T Sriracha Rooster Sauce (more or less to taste)

Instructions:

Drain the tofu well in a colander placed in the sink.  Then put tofu pieces between a double layer of paper towels and press down with your hand so the liquid in the tofu is absorbed by the towel. (I use a cotton flour sack clean dishtowel, so I don't waste all that paper towel.)  Cut tofu into lengthwise strips about 1 inch wide.  

Whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, peanut butter, honey, stock or water, and then add the Sriracha Sauce.  (I would start with a smaller amount of Sriracha, taste, and decide when it is hot enough.)  Cut the pieces of garlic.

Heat a heavy pan (I used a cast iron frying pan) over high heat for one minute.  Then add the olive oil and heat about 30 seconds more.  Add the sliced pieces of garlic and cook just until they are fragrant (about 30 seconds); then remove and discard.  Add tofu pieces, lower heat to medium high and cook, turning often, until the tofu is nicely browned on all sides, about 7-8 minutes. The website where I got this has a nice picture tutorial if you need that.

When all the tofu pieces are browned, add the sauce, turn heat to low, and cook just until the sauce thickens slightly and coats the tofu.  Remove from heat and eat!

So the cool thing is that BOTH of these were made in under 30 minutes and I managed to multitask them finished in about 45.  That is a definite YAY- plus left overs and I will freeze some of the beans in containers for school.  

This was a great way to end the day!  And definitely gave me some joy.