hearts of palm, a photo by Joelk75 on Flickr.

This yummy pasta dish is quick to throw together and can likely be made from stuff that is already on your pantry shelves. Put off that grocery trip for one more day and enjoy some lemony comfort food!

Ingredients

1 stick Earth Balance margarine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup dry white wine or vermouth
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1-2 minced green onions
7 hearts of palm, sliced into chunks
1/2 a small carton of cherry or grape tomatoes, rinsed and halved
16 oz spinach penne, prepared according to package directions
Nutritional yeast or Vegan Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Prepare the pasta according to package directions, rinse and return to pan.

Melt Earth Balance in skillet or sauté pan. Add garlic and onion, sauté until tender but not brown. Add lemon juice, parsley and vermouth. Simmer for 2 minutes, then add palm and tomatoes. Simmer gently until palm and tomatoes are hot.

Toss sauce with drained pasta. Top with freshly ground black pepper, nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan to taste.

Serves 4-6

i bought this bread before x-mas break., a photo by christopherallman on Flickr.

In my never-ending pursuit of becoming 100% vegan, I wanted to devise a breakfast sandwich that was close to what I enjoyed for years when I was still a meat eater.

This one, I think, comes pretty doggone close.

Ingredients

- Two slices of Ezekiel Bread, toasted
- Two thin slices of tofu
- 1 slice of Galaxy Nutritional Foods Veggy Slices (cheddar flavor)
- 1 slice of Yves Veggie Cuisine Deli Ham
- Cooking spray (1 second spray)
- Earth balance spread, if desired

Method

Toast the Ezekiel bread, spread lightly with Earth Balance if desired.

In a small skillet coated with cooking spray, pan fry the tofu slices until lightly browned.

Place the tofu slices on top of one of the toast slices, add the Cheddar Veggy Slice.

Pan fry the Yves Deli Ham slice, flipping once, until very hot.

Place the Yves Deli Ham slice atop the tofu and Cheddar Veggy Slice.

Top with the other slice of toasted Ezekiel bread.

Cut in half, if desired, and enjoy.

Nutrition (without Earth Balance spread)

270 calories :: 4 grams fat :: 6 fiber :: 30 carbs :: 19 grams protein :: 496 sodium :: 194 potassium :: 0 sugars :: 10% vitamin A :: 4% vitamin C :: 20% calcium :: 12% iron

**I’m not a dietician. All nutrition calculations are based on using myfitnesspal.com. Your mileage may vary.**

54/365 – details, a photo by foreverdigital on Flickr.

In January, my son and I took the PCRM 21 Day Vegan Kickstart challenge. We loved it. When 3 weeks was up, we decided we wanted to keep eating that way, but we’ve found total veganism to be really hard to live with.

Both of us recognize that eating a vegan diet is one of the best things for our health and planet. With that in mind, we’ve been pushing ourselves to eat more and more vegan, and less vegetarian.

Five to try

My food philosophy is that if it doesn’t taste good to me, I don’t buy it and I don’t eat it. Here are five vegan items that I recommend you try that I think you’ll find more than “just palatable.”

Soy Yogurt

It’s taken me a long time to fully embrace plant milk. Soy was one of the slowest for me to be cool with. Silk Soy Yogurt is definitely one you should try. Don’t go for the unflavored or the vanilla. Start with a flavor. The black cherry is one of my favorites. These are easy to find at Whole Foods and Kroger.

Annie Chun’s Vegan Noodle Bowls

I first learned of these from watching Vegan Break, a blog with mini videos about all things vegan.

Here Vegan Break talks about trying out the Miso Noodle Soup. I love these for days when I have more work than I have time for a lunch break. A quick zap and I can enjoy at my desk. Pick these up at Trader Joes, Whole Foods or Kroger.

Dr. McDougal’s Oatmeal

You can’t go wrong with oatmeal in a cup. It’s fast, delicious and it sticks to your ribs. The portion is about double the amount you’d get in one envelope of the instant stuff many feed to their kids each morning.

These breakfast (or hearty snack) treats have other grains, such as barley, in the mix. Order them online at rightfoods.com or I’ve picked them up locally at Jungle Jim’s.

Portabella burgers

No, not a burger with portabellas on top – this is a “burger” that is simply a really large, de-stemmed portabella mushroom. We grill them and baste them with homemade barbecue sauce, then stick them on a multigrain bun with pickle slices and slivers of onion. ‘Bellas are chewy, firm, earthy and substantial. Your omnivore friends will love them, too.

Beans and greens

My cooking has always included a healthy dose of good old Midwest and southern deliciousness. You don’t have to hail from Cincy or points south to enjoy this one though, and it comes together in a snap.

Check out the recipe for Southern Beans and Greens here from NutritionMD.org

Use whatever your favorite green is here – collards, kale, chard – they’re all pretty interchangeable for this recipe. The recipe calls for 3 cups of beans – that is equal to two “soup-sized” cans. Drain and rinse well before use. I mix it up and use two different kinds of beans, such as black and great northern. You can also speed your prep by purchasing bagged collard greens (similar to bagged salad greens, but a bigger-sized bag).

Make your favorite cornbread recipe or steam some brown rice and it’s dinner time! Don’t forget to serve with your favorite vinegar and hot sauce, if you like. Vinegar improves the absorption of nutrients from dark leafy greens like collards, kale and the like.

Quick Ozouni a photo by Just Nora on Flickr.

32 oz vegetable broth (I use reduced sodium) or dashi stock

2 cups water

1 bunch baby spinach, washed, de-stemmed, chopped coarsely

2 tablespoons soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)

1-2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

A spoonful of white miso to taste

Generous sprinkling of Triple Blend Flakes Sea Seasoning

4 mochi

Rice seasoning for garnish

—–

Wash and coarsely chop the spinach. Toast the mochi in the oven or toaster oven until puffed and slightly browned on top. Heat the broth, water, soy sauce, rice vinegar, miso and Sea Seasoning while the mochi is toasting. Add the spinach to the broth and simmer until wilted. Drop the toasted mochi into the broth like dumplings, heat briefly. Serve garnished with Rice Seasoning, if desired.

Warning – mochi is highly glutenous. A few people die each year from choking on it. Take small bites and chew thoroughly. Ben likes to remove the mochi dumpling from the broth and sandwich it in a piece of sea weed to eat on the side.

Two Eggs N1010e

Originally uploaded by Harris Hui

Any of the following can be used to replace eggs:

- 1 banana for 1 egg (great for cakes, pancakes, etc)

- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot starch for 1 egg

- Ener-G Egg Replacer (or similar product available in health food stores or by mail order)

- 1/4 Cup tofu for 1 egg (blend tofu smooth with the liquid ingredients before they are added to the dry ingredients.)

(Source: The Vegetarian Resource Group)

I’m going to make Vegetarian Matzo Ball soup today, so I decided to make homemade vegetable stock.

First time

This is the first time I’ve made homemade vegetable stock, but I’m confident that I can create something tasty. My homemade chicken stock (which I don’t make anymore) had an abundance of vegetables in it to help it taste fab.

Waste not, want not

Making homemade stock is a great way to use up veggies in your fridge. Here’s what I put in my stock today:

Ingredients

Carrots
Parsley
Mushrooms
Bell peppers
Anaheims
Yellow tomatoes
Red tomatoes
Tomatillos
Sweet onion
Parsnips

For seasoning, I added:

Capful garlic powder
Capful Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper
Capful Onion powder
Capful celery root powder (since I didn’t have fresh celery to throw in the pot)

Method

The secrets to great stock are patience, slow simmering, and doing as little prep to your veggies as possible. Wash all veggies and remove any loose skin from onions and tomatillos. Do NOT peel, cut or anything — put the veggies into your pot whole. Exceptions for me are if the vegetables have a thick, waxy coating on them from the produce department (such as parsnips). If that’s the case, I definitely peel them.

Cover all your veggies with water, bring to a boil, then reduce your heat, cover and simmer all day.

Strain and discard the vegetables from the stock, taste the stock and add salt or other seasoning to your taste. Refrigerate or freeze and enjoy!

PS – looking for a vegan matzo ball recipe? Check this out.

Experimentation!

This morning I’m making a Frittata from the upcoming cookbook, The Happy Herbivore Cookbook: Over 175 Delicious Fat-Free and Low-Fat Vegan Recipes.

I’ve gotten to a point where tofu is grossing me out a bit. I know it’s just a temporary phase. I’ve eaten a certain way for 48 years – change comes slowly. Nonetheless, I know it’s a great protein source and I’m forcing myself to try different methods with the stuff.

The Happy Herbivore Cookbook is set to be released in a week or so. This frittata recipe is one of the ones you can try right now if you click “look inside” at the Amazon.com page for the book.

The frittata is indeed made with a block of crumbled tofu.  The whole thing bakes in 20-25 minutes. Stay tuned for the verdict!

Update

Just out of the oven, here’s my little Nada Frittata.  I put green onion, baby bellas, red bell pepper and dill in mine. It is pretty doggone delicious.  Make again?  You betcha.

This weekend, we tried out Unbeef Stew, from VegWeb.com. It was pretty good, but I made adjustments to the recipe. I’m posting the original recipe here, with some notes underneath on how I modified it.

Ingredients

(use vegan versions):

Serves: 8

1 pound extra firm regular tofu

1 large onion, chopped

1 quart vegetable broth

5 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon tamari

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 large carrots, coarsely chopped

4 large potatoes, coarsely chopped

1 tomato, seeded and diced

1 teaspoon each of pepper and basil

3 tablespoons non-hydrogenated vegan margarine

3 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with water until smooth

Directions

Freeze the tofu and then let it thaw completely.

Drain the water from the tofu, and cut into slices and squeeze more water out.

Then cut the slices into chunks and bake at 200 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet while chopping the rest of the ingredients (check the tofu about every 10-15 minutes so that it doesn’t get browned – it should just be dried out, not burned).

The tofu should be well dried out, like croutons.

Place all of the prepared ingredients into a crock pot, stir well, and cook on high for at least 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally.

or

Place all of the prepared ingredients into a pressure cooker, stir well, and cook on high until boiling, then reduce heat to ¾ flame until pressure is reached (45 minutes to an hour).

The stew is ready when it is thick and brown. It makes a lot!

Preparation time: 30-45 min. for preparing ingredients, then 8 hrs. to stew.

Nora’s notes

This tastes better on day 2. If you can make it a day ahead of time and then reheat and serve, that’s great.

I also added:

- 3 finely sliced stalks of celery
- 15 oz can of tomato puree
- a good sprinkling of majoram
- a good sprinkling of thyme
- 1 cup of frozen or canned corn (added in the last 20 minutes)
- 1 cup of frozen or canned peas (added in the last 20 minutes)

Next time I’ll change:

- Add more potatoes
- Cut the tofu pieces smaller

Serving Suggestions

Serve Unbeef Stew over mashed potatoes, steamed rice or polenta, pan-fried in a little olive oil.

Egg Carton Carrots

Originally uploaded by RecycleCindy

Chowhound.com has a neat suggestion for starting seedlings in your kitchen, either for planting in your garden or perhaps for kitchen herbs:

Save your egg cartons, cut the lids off, fill with soil and plant one seed per egg cup. Place in a sunny window and keep moist — your perfect little seedlings will sprout in no time!

After reading a recipe for chana masala on VegWeb, I decided to adapt it slightly and create my own.  Here’s my quickie recipe, which turned out pretty deliciously:

• Two 15-oz cans of chick peas, drained and rinsed, but with 6 tablespoons of the can liquid reserved
• 7 oz Light Coconut Milk (I used Trader Joe’s brand)
• 5 oz Tomato paste
• One medium onion, finely chopped
• Two cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 2/3 tablespoon curry powder
• 2/3 tablespoon Garam Masala

Optional: 1/4 cup chopped parsley for garnish, cubed tofu

Saute the onion and garlic in the margarine over medium high heat, until soft and transparent.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add the curry, coconut milk, garam masala, reserved liquid and tomato paste; stir to gently combine.  Add chick peas, gently stir to combine. Taste & adjust seasonings (Eric doesn’t like really spicy stuff, so you may want to add more curry or garam masala).  Very gently add the tofu, if you are including it. Heat through, then serve over steamed rice and garnish with chopped parsley.  I also served lightly steamed peas as a side dish.

Note — so many iterations of this recipe appear on VegWeb and all over the internet.  Some people talked about adding peas or cubed tofu to the sauce.  This seems like a fairly forgiving sauce that you can adjust to your liking.