Time to start cooking

Summer is nearing the end and while everyone is buying school supplies and getting ready to head back to school I am perusing cookbooks and preparing lists of foods to buy and cook.

 Summer has been filled with crisp colorful veggies & fruit  eaten mostly raw.     Who can resist a bowl of carrots, radishes, cauliflower, celery, red pepper and yes even kale.    They're beautiful, light, cool and delicious

But with just the slight cooling in the weather my head instantly turns to warm soups & sauces.    What's a girl to do?  Why head to the library of course.  There is nothing to spark inspiration like new recipes.  I am a professed bookaholic, well it's actually worse  I'm a  cook bookaholic.   But I hate buying new cookbooks only to find that there are only a couple of recipes that I really like.   Enter the library I can completely review the book before deciding if I want to buy.   I have been saved from many mistakes by doing this. 

So what is on the reading list?

Vegan Indian Cooking by Anupy Singla.   I picked this up last night and within 5 min I found half a dozen recipes that I want to make now.    In fact I'm going back to the library to see if they have her first book.   The recipes are simple and make my mouth water to read them.   In addition she completely demystifies the spices, giving information on their health properties, uses and tastes giving you the confidence to try them in other foods.    Check out her blog for lots of great recipes and information  Indian As Apple Pie

Coming soon reviews on:

The Starch Solution
Bravo!: Health Promoting Meals from the True North Health Kitchen
Amazing Health Cookbook

Forks Over Knives

This life changing film will be show at Atholton Seventh Day Adventist church March 13th at 7pm. The Potomac Adventist Book Center will be on hand with books and videos and we'll have great tasting food samples for you to enjoy.

You can see the trailer here: http://forksoverknives.com

Everyone is welcome, please come and be inspired.

Simple Summer Food

Sorry for not posting for so long. I haven't done much cooking this summer. Instead I've made very simple meals like this one. Which consists of a tortilla with a hand full of spinach, red & yellow pepper slices and carrot sticks. It was delicious as well as colorful.

Another favorite is to cook whole wheat pasta and toss with sauteed veggies. Anything will do spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, chopped red pepper, as well as lots of garlic and a touch of basil puree. Again it's colorful, low fat and very tasty.


My other go to recipes have been, Happy Herbivores egg less salad and mock tuna salad. Here is the link
http://happyherbivore.com/recipes/ Everything on the site and in her book have been wonderful.

I've been taking advantage of the library and reading some wonderful cookbooks. I'll have reviews and more recipes soon.

Happy Herbivore Italian Sausage

Sorry I've been cooking more than posting lately. I've been cooking my way through the Happy Herbivore cookbook l.

I've tried several of the recipes and love them all. So far here are my 2 favorites, we sampled them in class recently. Both were easy and quick to mix up and then steam.

What I like most is the consistent results, no that's not true what I like most if the flavor. The food disappears before I have a chance to take a photo.

Italian Sausage

½ cup pinto beans
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
½ cup textured vegetable protein (TVP)
½ cup vital wheat gluten
1 tbsp fennel seeds
¼ tsp black pepper
a dash of red pepper flakes
1 tsp paprika
¾ cup water
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Crush fennel seeds into a powder using mortar and pestle, set aside. Pulse beans a few times in a food processor or mash manually with a fork until no whole beans are left. Combine beans with all dry ingredients (add red pepper flakes to taste, a little goes a long way) and soy sauce in a large bowl. Mix with your hands to ensure even distribution. Add water and then knead dough about 10 times and set aside. Grab 5 rectangular shapes of foil and prepare your steamer (turn it on and get it ready). Divide dough into 5 equal parts and, using your hands, shape it into a log on the tin foil. Wrap each piece tightly in tin foil, twisting the ends to close. Steam for 40 minutes


Spicy Sausage
½ cup pinto beans
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp cayenne powder
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cup textured vegetable protein (TVP)
3/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp hot sauce
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 cup water


Crush fennel seeds into a powder using mortar and pestle, combine with all other spices. Pulse beans a few times in a food processor or mash manually with a fork until no whole beans are left. Combine beans with all dry ingredients and soy sauce in a large bowl. Mix with your hands to ensure even distribution. Add water and then knead dough about 10 times and set aside. Grab 4 rectangular shapes of foil and prepare your steamer (turn it on and get it ready). Divide dough into 4 equal parts and, using your hands, shape it into a log on the tin foil. Wrap each piece tightly in tin foil, twisting the ends to close. Steam for 40 minutes.

I can't recommend this book enough. The recipes are easy , delicious and healthy. I've also tried the Hippie Loaf, Easy Marinara ( delicious with the spicy sausage) , Mock Tuna , Maple Cornbread Biscuits.

I've been thinking that I can even make hot dogs by tweaking the sausage recipes. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Muscle it does a body good

Do you want to increase you endurance?

Do you want to increase you balance?

Increase running speed?

Increase bone mass?

Burn more calories?


The answer to all above is add muscle. You don't need a gym either. Functional training using you own body weight will help you build muscle.

What is functional training? Well it's every day movement but adding resistance and repetition. Imagine picking up a ball and throwing it and similar actions.

You don't' need a gym or equipment either as we proved in class lately. Simple squats, lunges, push ups and plank will give you a full body workout. Do you want an interval workout alternate plank with squats or lunges.

It's been proven that the excess muscle movement ( I don't want to say flop but ....) the more the fibers are torn down unnecessarily, this is why compression shorts keep you from getting sore. Now imagine tighten and built those same muscles. Now the muscles hold themselves in place. Less movement =fewer muscle fiber torn and less residual soreness. Make sense?

Ginger Applesauce

I love simple recipes and this is about as simple as it gets.

Ginger Applesauce

6 apples cored and chopped in to large chunks

1 inch PC of ginger peeled

3 TBS lemon juice

water as needed.

Blend and enjoy.

I've been putting this on my oatmeal lately and it's been quite yummy. I like chewy oatmeal so I just add juice or fruit and let the oatmeal sit for a few min to soften.

Micro Chip Jump start eating plan

Jump start Day one: 3 meals of whole grains and fruit. YUM. I usually do oatmeal because it's easy but there are many options. Here is a very simple baked brown rice recipe, it turns our perfect every time. Double it if you want enough for several days. Baked Brown Rice 1 cup brown rice 2 1/2 cups boiling water Place rice in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour in the boiling water cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. You can use a little soy, rice or almond milk on your grains also you can use cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices. You'll be surprised how sweet these spices are all on their own. Enjoy

More smoothies

Remember Orange Julius? Not what they serve now but the ones that actually tasted like oranges? Well here is my recipe.

Orange Julius

3 peeled oranges

1 cup soy milk

1 cup ice.

Blend and enjoy.

Post Exercise Juice

2 apples

1" pc of ginger

3 stalks celery

1/2 cup unsweetened juice.

Blend and enjoy

This one was actually a little thick. We used to make this combo in regular juice but I really like the whole juice concept because you retain the fiber.

Sunrise Citrus Smoothie

One of my favorite places to eat is One World Cafe. There are so many vegitarian and vegan options. I haven't had a bad meal yet. I love their Sunrise Citrus Smoothie and I came pretty close to it the other day .

Sunrise Citrus Smoothie

2 peeled oranges

4-6 frozen strawberries

1" pc of peeled ginger

a splash of unsweetened cranberry juice.

Toss everything into the Blendtec and push #4. In 40 seconds you have a wonderful drink.

Tonigth I'm going to try a cashew cream sauce in the blender. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Karen's Amazing Smoothie

I fell in love with this smoothie when Karen first made it for he sabbath school class. I have waited to make it until we could get our new blender.

Finally after a year+ we have the perfect blender and smoothies are just that smoooooth. No more odd bits and pcs surprising you as you drink.

Here's the recipe:

Karen's Amazing Smoothie

1 banana
1 cup soy or almond milk
2 dates ( I left these out and it was still very sweet)
2 Brazil nuts
1 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
6 almonds
Blend and enjoy.


The first time I made this I put in the soy milk and then decided to double the recipe. I forgot to double the milk and we had a very nice pudding. :-) The 2nd time I made it correctly and then tossed in a couple of frozen strawberries. It was delicious.

I can't wait to use the blender for my cashew cream.

CHIP Day 1

Coronary Health Improvement Project.

We've been feeling a low on energy and well fat. So we decided to pull out our CHIP books and revamp our eating. We're starting with the first week which is a cleansing eating program. I remember when we went through the program and how good we felt within 2 days.

Our bad eating days are so much better than our good days used to be but I know we'll still feel an lift from this.

Day one and 2 are oat meal or other whole grain cereal and fruit. You can use a small amount of water or soy/nut milk to moisten. I'm trying it this time with unsweetened fruit juice. It doesn't sound like much but it will fill you up.

The great thing about this is that after the first week with no salt, no fat, no sugar, no caffeine, you don't want those things.

Still breakfast will be grains and fruits for most of the time so here are some variations.

oatmeal, raisins, cinnamon
brown rice, cinnamon,
cornmeal mush with fruit on the side
7 grain cereal with cinnamon and fruit on the side
oatmeal with frozen mixed berries you can even add cinnamon to this.
quinoa either alone for mixed with other grains
barley makes a good breakfast cereal.

It doesn't have to always be oatmeal and the cinnamon gives a hint of sweetness without sugar. If you usually like butter on your oatmeal you can add a sprinkle of Molly Mc Butter.

We started out this morning with oatmeal. Mine was cold with fresh strawberries. Tom had his cooked with raisins, cinnamon. We each had an orange so we're off to a good start.

Now what shall I make for lunch........

Simple Soup

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have lots I want to share with you but the first one is a simple soup. I tossed this together the other night and then have made a couple of variations since. I wanted a minestrone soup but did want to take the time to look for a recipe. So off to the pantry I went to look for ingredients.

Quicky Veggie Soup

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 can veggie broth

1 can water

1 leek finely chopped

2 carrots finely chopped

garlic to taste

italian seasoning to taste

Saute the leeks and carrots add all other ingredients and simmer until carrots are soft. If you want the rich taste of minestrone add 1 tbs of vegan margarine and sprinkle with vegan parmasan topping.

Variations
1 . add 2 cups beans
2. serve over macaroni
3. blend until smooth
4. add quinoa - this will be the next experiment

Cashew Rice Loaf

Happy Sabbath, well almost. I have a really yummy loaf in the oven right now, you'll all get to taste it tomorrow.

This comes from the Silver Hills Spa Cuisine book. This was delicious raw so I'm anxious to see how it is cooked.

Cashew Rice Loaf

1 medium cooking onion finely diced

1 cup finely ground raw cashews

1 cup fresh WW bread crumbs

1 cup cooked brown rice

3/4 cup milk ( I used unsweetened silk)

2 Tbsp sodium reduced soy sauce ( used Bragg's amino's)

1 Tbsp dried or minced fresh parsley

1/4 tsp celery salt

1/2 tsp salt or to taste ( I left this out because it seemed plenty salty to me)

Saute onion until translucent. Mix cashew, breadcrumbs, rice and onion together in a bowl. Add wet ingredients and spices. Mixture should hold together slightly when squeezed int eh palm of your hand. Lightly pack in an oiled 8 x 5 x 3 loaf pan and bake at 350 F for approximately 40 min. or until golden brown firm. Rest loaf for 5 min before removing from pant.

Quinoa, Pecan and Cranberry Salad

Here is the recipe that I made for class last week. Sorry it's taken so long to get it posted. With just a couple of changes this would work well as a breakfast. I don't remember the site that I got this recipe from but I'll look for it because there were several other recipes that looked really good.

Quinoa, Pecan and Cranberry Salad

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups water
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juicesalt and pepper to taste

Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low,cover,and simmer until the quinoa is tender, and the water has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes. Scrape into a mixing bowl, and cool to warm, about 20 minutes. Once the quinoa has cooled, stir in the pecans, cranberries, olive oil, and lemon juice; season to taste with salt and pepper to taste. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour

Gluten Free Pecan Burgers

I'm really liking this recipe. Not only did I eat a couple in class but we had them for lunch with cashew gravy. Just a tip warm up the burgers and then add the gravy. I put it over the burgers and warmed it in the oven. The gravy got a little too stiff. It tasted fine, just looked a little odd.

The recipe comes from Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches with the Micheff Sisters. I love all of their books and use them often.

Gluten Free Pecan Burgers

1 12.3 ounce box of Mori- Nu tofu

1 clove of fresh garlic, minced ( used 2)

1 small onion

1/4 cup Bragg Liquid Aminos

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup pecan meal

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

2 cups drained, mashed black beans

2 tablespoons canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Blend in a food processor the tofu, garlic, onion and Bragg's. Blend until smooth. In another bowl combine, rice flour, pecan meal, cornstarch and nutritional yeast.
Poor the blended tofu mixture into the dry ingredients and mix. Stir in the mashed black beans.
Spray a large baking pan with cooking spray. Add canola oil to pan and spread around.

Spoons 1/4 cup of the mixture and form into a round patty. The mixture will be soft but firms as it bakes.

Bake for 30 min, turning the burgers over after 15 min.


I have what looks to be a yummy loaf from Fat Free Vegan. I'll test it out on Thanksgiving.

Forks Over Knives

If you missed the showing of Forks Over Knives in Beltsville this past weekend, you're in luck. There is another showing in Baltimore.

DECEMBER 8 – BALTIMORE, MD – 6:30pm
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Sheldon Hall615 N Wolfe St
Baltimore MD 21205

Q&A to follow with Dr. Bob Lawrence, Dr. Antonia Demas, Gene Baur, and the principal of the Stadium School in Baltimore Ronald Shelley.
To RSVP please go to http://tinyurl.com/3422fg3

What is Forks over Knives? It's a film showing the health benefits of a vegan diet. Featuring the research done by Dr. T Colin Campbell and Dr Caldwell Esselstyn on the effects of animal products on our health.

If you get a chance go see it. It will really make you think and realize that your health is under your control.

I came away with new resolve to continue to improve my eating.

Bok Choy

If you need a really simple and fast meal try this.

Sauteed Bok Choy

3-4 bunches of baby bok choy
3-4 cloves of garlic- minced
3 tbs fresh ginger

Chop bok choy into 1/2" pieces. Separate the white from the leafy greens.

Spray a fry pan with cooking spray and over medium heat saute the garlic and ginger. TIP: peel and freeze your ginger it's easier to have ready and grate into any recipe.

When the garlic is golden add the white portions of the bok choy. Add a couple of tbs of water and put the lid on the pan. When the white portions of are soft add the leafy green portion and toss until wilted.

Then add Bragg's , sesame oil sauce to taste. Serve over brown rice.

I would have taken a picture but it was gone to quickly.

Happy Sabbath, Happy Kitchen

My kitchen smells heavenly right now. It's a combination of bread, curry, allspice, onions, jalapenos, is your mouth watering yet? Mine is.



The bread is a whole wheat batter bread. One of my favorites from The Complete Vegan Kitchen, by Jannequin Bennett. This is the recipe I'm making for class today.

Whole Wheat Quick Bread

1 1/2 cups soy milk

1 tbs lemon juice

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour or soy flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 " loaf pan. Mix the soy milk and lemon juice and let stand for 5 min or until the soy milk as curdled. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add oil and molasses to the soy milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix thoroughly. Bake for about 50 min.

I love this as a breakfast bread as an alternative to our regular whole wheat bread because it's light and almost sweet.

The other recipe is a Jamaican Chicken Curry made with my favorite fake chicken and a lovely blend of spices. It's for a groups of food enthusiasts that will be meeting later today. This one has a kick to it and I'll post the recipe after the reviews are in.

Mushroom Stroganoff

This is one of my all time favorite recipes. As a meat eater I always loved stroganoff and it took some experimenting to get this one right and even longer to document it. I like to do most of the cooking a day ahead and then warm up and add the finishing touches the next day. Mainly because the flavors have some time to really intensify.

Mushroom Stroganoff

2 pounds baby Bella mushrooms sliced

1 medium onion

3 -4 cloves garlic

2 cups cashew sour cream recipe below

2 tbs Bragg's amino's

Process onions and garlic in food processor until chopped fine. Add onion and garlic to a sprayed dutch oven on Medium heat. You wan them to get golden and have lots of tasty bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the mushrooms , don't stir just yet. Let the heat start pulling the moisture from the mushrooms and use this to de-glaze the pan. Let the mushrooms cook down.

Now for the best flavor put this in the fridge over night. The next day all you have to do is warm up the mushrooms (if it looks a little dry just add 1/2 c of water) and add the cashew cream.

Cashew Sour Cream

1 cup cashew pieces

2 cups water

1 packet of George Washington's Golden broth

2 tbs nutritional yeast.

2 tbs lemon juice or to taste.

Add cashews and 1 cup boiling water to blender. Let this sit for a few minutes to soften the nuts. Blend until smooth add additional cup water as necessary while blending. Add seasoning and blend until completely incorporated. Add lemon and let stand for about 5 min.

Add the cashew sour cream shortly before serving. Serve over rice or noodles.

Tofu Sandwich spread

Sorry this has taken awhile to get back to posting. This is the recipe that made me realize tofu can be food. This is such a quick and easy recipe to mix up for sandwiches or dip.

Tofu Sandwich Spread
1 package extra firm tofu drained and pressed
4 TBS vegenaise
2 ribs finely chopped celery
1/4 onion finely chopped or 4 green onions
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp turmeric

Mix well and chill. Use on your favorite bread for a great sandwich.

You can also add chopped bell peppers or carrots.