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!

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.

And the arctic votex descends upon the Northwoods and the MadArt teacher cooks up a storm

OH my goodness, it is a tad chilly out there. I was fortunate enough to not have to venture out until late in the day, by virtue of the fact that I bribed the hubs with a hot breakfast, which resulted in him feeding the horse and me not having to go outside until the nighttime feeding!  I did tiptoe out a couple times, but those adventures did not last.

When I did go out, it was incredible how cold it was.  Even I, who ventures out with very little provocation, found an excuse to stay in.  The cold pierced right through my coat!  My hand that had held the feed bucket got so cold on the way to the mailbox I had to pull my fingers inside my glove.  Yikes. 

Oh well.  I didn't sleep very well last night, the house kept crackling and then I would wake up again, and I kept thinking that the furnace was going to quit or something.  Idk. I finally did get to sleep, but I slept in a bit today. My morning was unfocused- didn't know what to do with myself today. It took me a little while to get moving in a forward direction.  Shutterfly, the place where I get my calendars made, had a 101 free pix deal, so I took the time today to upload 101 pix mostly of family things.  I am thinking that I should get a few nice  big prints made of some of my pix, too.  Really Big ones.  The ones I had printed right after I got my camera are tragically over exposed.  Burn out.  I didn't know at the time what that was, but I do now and it bugs me.  So it's something I am thinking about.

We have another day off tomorrow, and I am looking forward to that as well. I will be getting to the gym though- no staying home all day.  

What I DID do today among other things is a lot of cooking!  It is relaxing and fun and now I have several things to have for lunch and/or dinner in the frig and freezer.  AND it also heats up the house very nicely to have the stove/oven/crockpot running all day.  

Here is round 1 of cooking:

Ruths's Refrigerator rolls

My aunt Ruth gave my mom the recipe for these things back in the day and they are fabulous and the cool thing- not that it directly affects me- is that they are milk free and so my sister Rose can make and enjoy these!  #ftw

2 cups of water

2 pkg yeast

Mix in large bowl  and add:

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp salt 

3 cups flour (will be more flour to come)

I mix this with my Kitchenaid

Add :

1/3 cup shortening

1 egg

Mix well.  Add a little at a time-

3 - 3/12 cups flour 

 until dough forms a ball and it has mixed for a minute or two.  Or else dump it onto a floured counter and knead it for a 5 minutes to get the rest of the flour incorporated.

Cover  and refrigerate.  2 hours before needed, form rolls into balls and place on greased baking sheet.  Let rise and then bake 15 - 20 minutes in 375 degree oven.  Until they are nice and brown and sound hollow when thumped.  Remove from oven and brush tops with butter or margarine.

You can keep the extra dough for a few days, covered, in the refrigerator.

These are amazing and the extra dough will last a couple days in the frig so you can have fresh ones again!

Next up- Mushroom and Chickpea Ragout

This was so good I could hardly believe it.  It actually has some of the flavor components of a stroganoff with the worcestershire sauce and tomato paste.  It began life on Pinterest as Rosemary flavored, but I a. didn't have any and 2. don't care that much for rosemary.  So therefore my favorite herb- thyme- was pressed into service.

I got the original recipe here and it looked really great, but things were changed.....

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, fine dice
1/2 tsp dry thyme leaves
10 ounces/heaped half pound mixed mushrooms, sliced (I used all baby portabellas)
splash of red wine vinegar
1 tsp tomato paste
1-2 tsp vegetarian worcestershire sauce
1 can of chickpeas
1 cup vegetable stock
big splash of unsweetened non-dairy milk, I used coconut milk that I had left over in the frig
1 tsp cornstarch
salt + pepper
2 thick slices of good bread

Heat olive oil and saute onion in pan- on low heat, watch for scorching.  Sprinkle on thyme leaves until you can smell them, and then dump in the mushrooms.  Let them cook a few minutes until they begin to soften.  Add in your tablespoon or so of vinegar, tomato paste and worcestershire sauce.  stir around for a few minutes and add your chick peas.  Again let it mix together for a few minutes (stir to keep from burning), then add in vegetable stock.  Cook down until about 1/3 of the liquid is gone.  Add the coconut milk or what ever you want to use.

When it is starting to look thicker, mix a couple tablespoons of water with the cornstarch.  Stir into the chickpeas and let cook until thickened. Taste it and add salt and pepper. Mean while, toast the bestest bread you have and put it on a plate.  This is not the prettiest but the flavors are sublime and rich.  I think a touch of sour cream would be good, too.  But not necessary!  AND there are left overs.

So this is vegetarian/vegan and yummy!!  I used Ezekial bread for toast.

 And so I was thinking that a nice dessert was in order, so I made a variation on homemade Lara bars- sort of a several recipe mashup!

Chocolate Protein Balls

1package of dates
about 1/2 cup of raw almonds
1/2 cup hulled hemp seed (if no hemp seed, add more almonds)
3 heaping Tablespoons raw cacao (can use cocoa too)
water if necessary
mini chocolate chips

In food processor- process dates until a paste. Add water if you need to. Remove to a different bowl.  Add almonds to bowl and pulverize to a good powder and then add in hemp and cacao and process until well blended.  Add to dates and mix, sprinkle in water if you need to make it stick better.  Mix in mini chips.  Roll into balls and then I rolled it into more cacao powder.  YUMMY!!

The hemp seeds add an extra boost of protein, and they are just tasty!

HA but I'm not done yet!!  On to the next post!!  

Isn't that a joy?  Two food posts in one night??

A massage and a Saturday Vegetarian Cooking Marathon

It was a rainy day and the Mad Art teacher was lying on the massage table having some painful manipulations done to some of those really fussy back muscles.  In specific, it is the lower portion of my trapezius as far as I can tell.  This and some other places have been causing me some major  discomfort at night and LET ME TELL YOU, I slept like a BABY last night. YES!!!! All blessings and good karma get sent off to Ms Brianna at Triple B for restoring some normalcy to my sleep patterns.  Indirectly of course.  This problem seems to be the ONLY drawback to weight lifting.....  I'll put up with it!

Now how does the massage relate to cooking?  Well, I go into a state of mind during a massage (unless she is working on those specific trap areas that make me want to cry, and I concentrate then on absolute relaxation and WILL those spots to release- this doesn't always work.  Lol) of true relaxation and when that happens my brain is free to move about in whatever direction it sees fit.  It is not hindered by worries, or concerns, or friends, relatives or countrymen.  It just goes.  And since I had some veggies that were procured from a farmer's market that needed using, I needed to imagine what I was going to make with them.  I have several vegetarian blogs that I read and I have a metric ton of cookbooks- well maybe not, but you know- so I had ideas.  First I had a vision of a recipe for black bean veggie burgers, I could see the pix in my mind.  Did I find that recipe, um no.  But, anyway- that was my first thought.  Then I had squash including a Delicata squash that needed using, and I knew of just the recipe for that.  I had pinned it to Pinterest, which I do a lot now, since I have no ability to remember perfectly where I saw things: see above comment about the Black Bean burgers.  The eggplant I had was harder to solve, so I remembered the HUGE book I have by Mark Bittman and knew the answer would lie within.  And it did!

Along the way, (well after the massage) I found about 3 more things I want to make, but I have plenty of food for the week, plus more in the freezer.  If you want an awesome food site to visit, go to Food52.  It is not vegetarian, but it has lots of those, plus LOTS of other stuff.  HIGHLY recommend!!

Anyway- I made these recipes in sections.  The first two had extended cooking times, so I began one and started on the next.... and then did another step to the first.... and then went on with the second and fit the bean burgers in when the other two were finishing.  Of course, I will write these up separately.  I won't be super extensive with any of them- they are pretty straight-forward.

7 Veggie "Cheese" soup
Posted as Luxurious 7-vegetable and "Cheese" soup at Ohsheglows.com. I of course did my own thing with this.

Add the veggies to the heated oil one at a time as you chop them

chopped sweet potatoes

I use an icecream scoop to empty out the seeds- you can eat the skin of Delicata!

Saute-ing veggies

Get the good tasting broth!

THESE are my garlic cloves- I used one for 3 regular

Nutritional yeast comes in powder or flakes- either is fine

I used my immersion blender- you can use a regular blender by doing it in batches

Partially blended

Fully blended

This is a vegan soup- the cheesey sort of feel comes from Nutritional yeast, which is not as scary as it sounds and it tastes super great on popcorn!  So, that is the only thing about this recipe, that is not easy to obtain in Park Falls, WI- where we are SADLY lacking vegetarian specialty items.  Like NONE.  sigh.  Anyway, preplanning will get you over to either Rhinelander to the Golden Harvest or to Ashland for the Chequamegon Food Coop.  Or you could go to bigger still areas, where that sort of thing is not scarce.

Approximately 100 calories for an eighth of a recipe

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large chopped onion
3 garlic cloves minced or pressed
1 big heap of chopped carrots- a cup??  more??  you decide
1 large bunch of broccoli, cut up
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut up
1 delicata squash, cut up or a small butternut squash peeled and cut up (half a big one?)
6 cups Vegetable broth
5 Tablespoons Nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp or more of cayenne
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Spike seasoning
salt and pepper

sunflower or pumpkin seeds for fun!  Also, yogurt/sour cream/vegan sour cream for kicks and thrills
extra cayenne/paprika/cinnamon for lovely color

Heat the oil in large pan.  Add the onion and let them soften a bit while you chop the carrots.  Right before you add the carrots, put in the garlic for 30 sec.  You don't want it to burn.  Then add the carrots and continue to add the veggies one at a time until you finish the Delicata squash.  Stir occasionally during this process.
Cover pot and cook for 4 - 5 minutes, turn down heat if you need to.
Add vegetable broth and cover, cook for 15 minutes or so, until veggies are soft.  Set aside until it cools a bit.
Blend** until smooth and add seasoning to  soup and adjust to taste.
Garnish with seeds, creamy things and/or extra spices!

**I used an emersion blender- I can't imagine why I'd use anything else.  If necessary use a food processor or regular blender.  Make sure the veggies are coolish or the lid will blow off your blender.  When smooth return to pan for seasonings.

Roasted Vegetables- Thai Style
From How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

This is an amazing dish, really.  I tasted the veggies before the sauce and it was outstanding!!  Idk why, the combination of veggies?  The roasting?  My mad cooking skills?  HAHAHA  who knows. But it is so good and I am here to tell you that it is really good the next day, too.  I am going to freeze some to see how that goes.  Let me tell you, this does not photograph pretty, but who the heck cares.....

As far as veggies go, I am not sure how something like broccoli or brussel sprouts will taste, but the cauliflower was great in it.  I would throw WHATEVER I had in the house in here.  I had lots this first time so I picked and chose (choosed??)  I had choices at any rate.
Mark Bittman recommends: a couple root vegetables (potatoes, parsnips, carrots, etc.)  peas or beans, fresh or frozen, eggplant or zucchini, and the garlic/onion family.  I used cauliflower- use what you have.

Pre-cut everything and toss it into a huge pan with the heated oil 

Roast, covered, at 450 for 30 minutes, stirring twice

Add the tomatoes and then recover and roast another 30 min.

Heat 1 TBS of oil and add the curry paste, then the rest of the sauce- sorry - I forgot that pic

Sloppy and yummy!!  Don't you like my fresh mint garnish, right from my garden!!  :)

There, that is prettier.  This was so good I didn't even put it on rice.  But I did the next day!  

Thai Style Veggies
Approximately 250 calories for an eighth of a recipe

4 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large potato, peeled and cut up
1 large eggplant cut up (no need to peel, really)
1 cup of frozen peas
1/2 head cauliflower cut up
3 smallish parsnips, peeled and cutup
1 peeled and quartered onion
8 - 12 cloves of garlic (DO IT!!!)
salt and pepper
2 tomatoes, cut into eighths
1/4 cup of red, yellow or green curry paste
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup crunchy natural peanut butter
1 Tablespoon soy sauce (I used tamari- low sodium soy)

Heat oven to 450 and heat 3 tablespoons oil in BIG oven proof pan.  Add prepped vegetables, stir and put in hot oven.  Roast, covered, for 30 minutes.  Add tomatoes, salt and pepper it and cover.  Roast another 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile,  heat 1 tablespoon oil and whisk in curry paste. whisk in coconut milk, peanut butter and soy.  simmer and then keep warm until veg is done.  Stir into vegetables and then adjust seasonings if necessary.  Add more  soy,curry or salt/pepper if necessary.  Serve over rice or bulger or couscous or whatever you like!  Or eat it by itself.  It is SO good.

Black Bean/Sweet potato burgers
Adapted from recipe at Prevention.com

The sweet potato and the bread crumbs hold this together.  To make it vegan, use bread crumbs that have no milk in it.  This recipe called for things like garlic powder which I never have.  I have garlic, why would I use artificial garlic stuff.  I am sure there is a reason, but whatev.  I do have seasoned salts, I am sure there is garlic powder in it- so that will do!

Toss all of that stuff in the food processor, including a cooked sweet potato. (No I do not measure this stuff, usually)

The tasty stuff!  lime in this is divine!!  And you can't see the cider vinegar very well, but it is there

Pulse the stuff until it is chunky yet blended.

I put panko bread crumbs on them before baking- crunchy and yummy.  Totally optional!

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burger

Heat oven to 375, line a baking sheet with parchment or spray with cooking spray

1 1/2 cups black beans, drained

6 tablespoons fine bread crumbs
3/4 cup sweet potato, baked (use one potato for heavens sakes)
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped (didn't have any)
1/3 cup white onion, diced
1 clove garlic, pressed thru a garlic press
3/4 teaspoon salt (yeah, I don't measure that either)
1 teaspoon black pepper (or this)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 jalapeno (optional), diced and deseeded (use rubber gloves for this or you will regret it if you touch your eyes.)

 **I used cayenne instead  1/4 tsp  

optional Panko bread crumbs

Throw the whole mess into the food processor and pulse until mixed yet chunky.  Form into 5 patties.  I planned to make 6 yet, it made 5.  Ok, fine.

Press into bread crumbs if desired for extra crunchiness.  Bake 20 - 30 minutes.

 280 calories, 8 g protein, 33 g carb, 10 g fiber

AND as long as I was at it, I threw some chicken in the oven for the old MA and made some rice, too.  Now aren't I an over achiever??  Lol

Now today I have a BUNCH of cherry tomatoes that I should do something with--- and a really good fresh tomato and olive sauce for pasta.......  HMMMMMMMM

It has been a mind-relaxing weekend so far.  I am really feeling good!  I am going to try to get in a walk soon!  Hope it decides to stop raining, tho!

THAT would be a joy!