Day 13 - Portobello Curry with Green Rice

After the disappointing salad we had last night, I was ready to try something different today. The kids and David were on their day off from school and we had time to go shop together at the grocery store. David is not a big fan of curry, but I had seen a recipe for Portobello Curry with Green Rice in Better Homes and Gardens (All Vegetable - Grand Prize Winner) and decided to give it a try.

It has a lot of ginger and a lot of garlic and the recipe didn't say "divided" after it listed the ingredients to it's really my fault, but I ended up putting all the ginger and all the garlic into the green sauce for the rice but it turns out that you need 1/2 for the sauce and 1/2 for the curry. Bummer. I also forgot to add the peanuts at the end, but it was still really good.

Portobello Mushroom Curry with Green Rice
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1 cup brown rice
2 cups water

1 cup coconut milk, divided
1/2 cup cilantro
4 tablespoons minced ginger, divided
4 tablespoons minced garlic, divided

1 lb. portobello mushrooms, cut into slices
1/2 onion, chopped
1 serrano, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 roma tomatoes, chopped
4 tablespoons, chopped peanuts

Cook brown rice according to package directions.

Blend until smooth 1/2 cup coconut milk, cilantro, 2 T. ginger, and 2 T. garlic. Stir into rice when done and stir to blend.

Heat skillet on medium-high heat. Lightly spray with canola oil. Saute onions and pepper for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes. Add curry powder, red pepper flakes, and 1/2 cup coconut milk and stir until well blended. Add tomatoes and stir until heated through.

To serve, spoon rice onto a place. Top with curry. Sprinkle peanuts on top.

Delicious!

Day 12 - Nasty Salad

Not happy with the salad we made Thursday night. The recipes calls for hummus, orange juice, and balsamic vinegar to make a dressing, but it didn't taste that great on a salad that has cilantro. Yuck. Very disappointing meal today.

Day 11 - Appetizers

We had a good friend over for dinner last night and I panicked a little bit at first. What am I going to serve them????!!! But then I realized the kids would eat pasta with butter and parmesan and the adults would eat it with tomato sauce, too. I already had whole wheat in the fridge from the night before so I just needed to make some fresh for the guests and the kids. Plus, I rounded that out with a salad with champagne dressing. I added parmesan cheese to their plates and kept ours vegan. It was a good meal!!! (I felt comfortable serving this to my friend because we are really good friends and she doesn't care what I serve!)

For appetizers, I served cut up veggies with homemade healthy hummus. My guests loved it. I also made fresh salsa and served that with Baked Lay's tostitos. First I thought I would purchase the stuff, but it turns out I had all the ingredients already and it's easy to make those two things.

Healthy Home-made Hummus (from Engine 2 book):

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 large garlic clove, chopped
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon tamari

Place all in blender and pulse until smooth. You might need to add a little more water (by the tablespoon) to make sure you achieve a smooth consistency. Serve with whole wheat pita or fresh veggies.

Home-made Salsa:

4 roma tomatoes
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 serrano or jalapeno pepper, seeded
1/4 of a small onion
10 cilanto sprigs
juice of two lemons

Place in food processor and pulse two or three times until it looks chunky. This is salsa fresca.

You can also first boil tomato, garlic, and pepper in 1/2 cup water. Then put in blender (not food processor) with every thing else and blend until smooth. This is regular salsa.

If you want divine salsa (as I call it): Add 1 avocado to either one, but use blender not food processor. Wow!

Serve with baked chips.

Enjoy!

Day 10 - Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

I love making big batches of food for dinner because I get to eat that for lunch the next day! (And it gives me one less thing to plan.) :)

Tonight's meal was whole wheat spaghetti with store bought tomato sauce. I'm a big fan of Newman's Sockarooni. It does have sugar listed as an igredient, but I don't eat it that often so I don't think it's a problem.

We also had a garden salad sprinkled with lemon juice and black pepper. Delicious and fast!

Day 9 - Missing Scrambled Eggs!!!!

My diet until now has always been animal-based. It seems like almost every meal involved some type of meat, egg, or dairy product. That was especially true for breakfast meals: eggs, bacon, etc.

I am finding that eating vegan breakfast can still be tasty but I do miss my eggs for breakfast. I made a couple of tofu scrambles for David last week but I did not try them. I guess I am going to have to get over the tofu fear. The tofu steak was a good first step in doing that. It was actually really good that way.

Monday night we had leftover bean chili for dinner. The kids had a pizza party for Nati's soccer team and they ate cheese pizza. I thought I would be craving it, but I didn't. That's the cool thing about this diet. I always feel satiated!

Day 8 - Three Bean Chili

Sundays are always so much fun. We go to church and then come home to cook a big meal. This weekend, we made delicious sandwiches for lunch made with wheat bread, avocado, spinach, sprouts, cilantro, tomato, and cucumbers. Sprinkle a little Ms. Dash's Lemon pepper seasoning, some lemon, and cracked pepper and enjoy!!!!

For dinner, I always feel like we have to eat something "warm." I had been eyeing a recipe in cooking light magazine for vegeterian three-bean chili. I also found a recipe for this chili in the E2 book so I combined the two and came up with this delicious meal:

Three-Bean Chili

1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 bay leaf

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn, drained
1 apple, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 cups water

2 tablespoons chili
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses

Saute onion through jalapeno pepper on lightly sprayed non-stick skillet until tender. Add bay leaf and all other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy!!!!

Day 7 - Tofu Steak?

Saturday was a busy day so I had no time to really plan meals. That's a bad idea when you are not eating mainstream food. We got home late and I took a look at the fridge: tofu, kale, leftover brown rice, and sweet potatoes. Hmmmm. Then I remembered looking at some recipes in the Engine 2 book that used kale and sweet potatoes so I took a looksy and lo and behold, I found a recipe for Tofu Steak?! Tofu what?! Yup, steak. I had tofu already. Why not experiment?

I ended up making tofu steak served over steamed kale, with a side of brown rice topped with tamari and nutritional yeast, and sweet potato rounds. It was good! I love eating a full plate and not feeling totally bloated afterwards. I also love being able to actually taste the vegetables now that they are not covered up with salt, sugar, or butter. So here is the recipe (all from the Engine 2 diet):

For the Tofu steak:



Slice a lb. of extra firm tofu into six sections. Rinse and squeeze between paper towels to remove moisture. Place in ziploc with tamari and cracked black pepper. Let marinade for 15 minutes while you prep the other food. Then heat a non-stick skillet until you drops of water evaporate on contact. Add tofu steaks and cook five minutes per side until browned.

For Kale:

Rinse and chopped 1 bunch kale. Place in non-stick pot with 1/4 cup water, cover and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until kale is wilted and tender (3-5 minutes).

For Sweet Potato Rounds:

Rinse and cut sweet potato into round sections about 1/2 inch thick. Place on lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Uncover, flip to other side, and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes or until tops have browned.

For brown rice: Prepare according to package directions. When serving, top with a little Tamari (soy sauce), and a little nutritional yeast. This is not from the E2 book. My daughter's preschool serves this as a snack.

To serve: Place kale on plate. Place tofu steak on kale. Sprinkle steak with chopped green onions. Next to kale place brown rice sprinkled with tamari and nutritional yeast. Serve sweet potato rounds next to that.

Enjoy!