Soy-free Earth Balance Margarine!

I’m loving Earth Balance’s new soy-free margarine! It took me a while to actually find a store that carries it, but it was worth the effort. I still using coconut oil as a butter substitute, but it’s nice to be able to spread something on my bread. I even used the margarine to make the pizza dough for my Rancho pizza, as well as pigs in a blanket this week. Recipe to follow!

Lemon Mint Salad Dressing

Yesterday, we had a pick-up for our buying club. I got some amazing fresh produce, including some beautiful yellow bell peppers (which are #3 on the Dirty Dozen list) and fresh mint! I figured a big salad was in order and so I whipped up a batch of this raw salad dressing in my Blendtec.

Lemon Mint Dressing
1/4-1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 packed cup fresh mint (about 1 ounce)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
a few dashes of pepper

Blend in a blender till blending (that was fun to say), and put it on a fresh salad.

Wow, is this good! It brings me back to my days of working at Aladdin’s Natural Eatery; I really miss their food! They had a very similar salad dressing, except it used dried mint. Yum!

Easy Bean Dip

I made some super-easy, hummus-like bean dip yesterday that I wanted to share with you all.

Bean Dip
1 cup dry pinto beans
1 cup dry garbanzo beans
Juice of 2 1/2 lemons
3 cloves garlic
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
about 1/4 to 1/2 cup bean cooking water
A bunch of olive oil

Put the dry beans in the crockpot. Add lots of water, and soak overnight.

Drain, add fresh water, and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 7-8. Drain cooked beans, saving water, and put beans in food processor. Add lemon juice, garlic, and bean water, olive oil and salt in small amounts, blending. Taste, and add more bean water, olive oil and salt as needed. It’s great served warm or cold with rice cakes, bread or veggies.

Growing Your Own Sprouts

My latest project is growing my own sprouts. It’s actually quite easy, and I’m excited with how they’ve been coming out.

I started with just mung beans. Here’s how to do it:

Put 1/3 cup of dry mung beans in a ceramic bowl or a mason jar with at least 1 1/3 cups purified water, covered (I used a clean dishtowel, most people use cheesecloth), and leave it overnight in a dark place. Drain the water & rinse the sprouts and re-cover them. Rinse them every 8-12 hours (I usually just did 12, sometimes 24 – oops!) until they grow to a length you like. It generally takes about 5 days for me to declare my sprouts “done”.

Some people grow their sprouts in a colander to ensure that there isn’t excessive moisture.

I now grow a combination of mung & adzuki beans; that’s what you see here (I should stop taking pictures with my phone – it’s a little blurry!):

I know you can also use lentils and various seeds. I stick with beans because of their fiber & protein content, though I may try buckwheat next.

There are lots of complicated explanations on growing sprouts on-line. My head spins when I read them. This simple method has worked for me.

Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Chai Bread with Cranberries

I made this yesterday: really good! I adapted this recipe at Gluten-free Goddess’s blog.

Pumpkin Chai Bread with Cranberries

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil the bottom of a standard bread loaf pan or 8×10 baking pan and dust with gluten-free flour.

Combine in a large bowl:
1 rounded cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup light olive oil
1 cup organic light brown sugar or 1/2 cup raw agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 2 eggs made with warm water (I used eggs)
1/3 to 1/2 cup orange juice (start with less, add more as needed, you can also use apple juice or cider)

Whisk together in a separate bowl:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (I used a combo of buckwheat/sorghum/tapioca starch)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice or cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I left this out because I can’t find mine)

Add the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture and stir until smooth. If the batter looks too thin and wet, add more gluten-free flour, a tablespoon at a time, to thicken the batter.

Add-In Options:
3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries (added these)

She also says you can add one or more of the following: I didn’t use any of these in order to make it Bear-friendly, though I may try chocolate chips next time.
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/2 cup golden or dark raisins
1/2 cup vegan gluten-free soy-free chocolate chips

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf or baking pan (I used a 8X8 flatter baking pan) and bake in the center of a preheated oven for 40 minutes to an hour, until the loaf is firm, a bit crusty, and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.

Cool the loaf on a wire rack.

I had to add extra flour (1/4 cup brown rice flour), but it still could have used a little more flour.

Recent Food Adventures

While Eva was here, we also shared some Hemp Omega Caesar Salad. It took me awhile to gather all the ingredients, but I’m glad I did! Roy even warmed up to it. Next time I make it, I’m going to tweak the recipe a little, and then I’ll share my version with you.

I also made several crockpot creations from the Crockpot Lady’s blog. I was eyeing a butternut squash at the organic farmer’s market a week ago, but shared with the woman working the booth that I was hesitant to try it (I’m not a big fan of traditional squash). She said since I’d been a loyal customer all summer, she’d give me a small one for free to try! So I made this CrockPot Butternut Squash Soup early in the week. It was surprisingly good. I also made some more Crockpot Apple Butter on Friday, minus the sugar & vanilla. Then I made Autumn Sausage Casserole on Saturday. It was quite good, but I wanted there to be more of it. So next time, I will maybe double the recipe except for the sausage; the sausage to rice ratio was too high. I also added celery and celery leaves to make it more like a stuffing, which was a nice touch.

On a totally unrelated note, there is something being filmed this week about 2 blocks from my house, and I cannot figure out what it is. We’re guessing that they are using the baseball field, based on where parking is prohibited, but I’m so curious to know! I know sometimes they film the baseball games over there because I’ve seen them on local TV, but I can’t imagine they would need to block off all the streets just for that. Besides, isn’t it a little late for baseball games? It’s freezing outside! Filming starts tomorrow, so we’ll have to go over there and see what’s up.

Truly Raw Almonds

Are any Bostonians remotely interested in buying some truly raw almonds? I have an opportunity to buy 100 lbs of raw almonds for about $4-$5/lb including shipping and am trying to see if anyone I know is interested. You may not know that most almonds that are marketed as “raw” are fumigated and flash pasteurized. They aren’t really raw & they will not sprout (if you’re into that sort of thing!).

Please let me know if you’re remotely interested and how much you might want to buy. I’m thinking maybe they’d be sold in groups of 5 lbs.

Produce Extravaganza & Peach Vegan "Ice Cream"

I had a rehearsal downtown today which got out early, so I headed over to Haymarket, a fruit & veggie open-air market I’ve mentioned before, and stocked up.

This is what I got for $9.50:
4 lbs of green cabbage
2 lbs of bok choy
4 cucumbers
8 peaches
3 gala apples
2 pounds of prune plums
3 oranges
1 head of cauliflower
About 10 heads of garlic

Wow! I wish I lived closer so I could go at least every other week I would have purchased more, but the bag was heavy and Roy had just bought some produce at the farmer’s market and produce store.

The peaches got a little beat up, so we ate some, froze some and made ice cream out of some! I made a variation on this Strawberry Vegan Ice Cream from last weekend. This time, I used the entire teaspoon of xanthan gum, which was too much. Next time, I’ll stick with 1/2 a teaspoon. We made banana splits with vegan chocolate sauce (1 part rice milk, heated, with 2 parts chocolate chips) and pumpkin seeds. Yum!

Strawberry Vegan "Ice Cream"

Tonight, I played around with this recipe and came up with what Roy dubbed the best “ice cream” yet!

Strawberry Vegan “Ice Cream”
1 cup coconut milk, 1 cup rice milk (or some other combo of milk substitutes)
1 t. xanthan gum (I only used 1/4 because the internet went down & I was guessing!)
1/3 cup honey, 1/3 cup agave nectar (Or all honey works)
3 cups strawberries, either fresh or frozen

1. Combine ingredients in a blender.
2. Pour into your ice cream maker, and churn it as long as it needs (15 minutes for me using frozen strawberries).
3. Serve!

Wow. This was good, especially when served alongside last night’s cookies

I know xanthan gum isn’t a regular ingredient in most people’s kitchen, but it is rather vital to this recipe (also vital to gluten-free bread!). It can be found at many grocery stores and almost all natural food stores.

The 5 Blogs I Read the Most

I wanted to take a moment to share with you all the blogs I read the most.

These are in no particular order

Kristen’s Raw – raw, vegan, and healthy living talk
Green Smoothie Girl – green smoothie talk

Confessions of a CF Husband – the blog of a man whose wife has cystic fibrosis

The Simple Dollar – a financial blog by an everyday guy

Everyday Thoughts Collected – the blog of my friend and ministry colleague Randy Thomas

One of the reasons I generally check these blogs daily is because they all basically blog daily, if not at least on a regular basis. So to all the bloggers out there – if you want people to frequent your blog, make sure to write regularly.

In fact, here’s a good article on blogging: 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers