Sesame Ginger Sauce and Produce Bargins

I got all of this produce for SEVEN DOLLARS at a farm near my house. I've been touting the benefits of overripe produce, or seconds, as they are called, for some time now. I go to my county farms looking for seconds. You rarely find these at the grocery store, with the exception of overripe bananas, which I have seen marked down at regular stores in Maryland.

The price of everything is going up. Getting produce can be difficult. If you have any farmers markets or farms within a 10 to 20 mile radius of your home, find them. Most of them have websites. Call them regularly in the late morning after they've had time to go through their daily produce. They will mark down the seconds and display them prominently.

Yesterday, I got all of that produce because they know my face. I called around 10:00am and asked if they had any seconds. The apples were five dollars. The tomatoes were two dollars. They gave me everything else FOR FREE. Karen (that's the woman who helped me) said they couldn't sell the lemons, pears, tangerines, and bananas at regular price and she was happy to know the food was going to good use. They won't do that at your typical grocery store chain. And you'll be supporting local farmers while you're at it!

Collard Wrap

On May 25th, I had:
Matt Juice
2 apples
kale salad
lettuce, cilantro, tomato, avocado in nori roll
water w/ lemon

Broccoli and Snow Peas with Sesame-Ginger Sauce

On May 26th, I had:
water w/ lemon
tahini shake
collard wrap: lettuce, cilantro, tomato, and avocado
tomatoes
coconut, tangerine, pear, banana smoothie
Broccoli and snow peas with sesame ginger sauce

This Sesame-Ginger Sauce is adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

6 tablespoons sesame oil

6 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 to 1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes (this is hot!)

2 1/2 tablespoons minced ginger

4 garlic cloves

Mix everything well. Pour over your vegetables. They can be whatever veggies you want. The longer they marinate, the better it will taste. People at work could smell the sauce. They all said it smelled great (even though I could not smell anything.)

That's it for tonight! See you all next time :-).

Love,

Althea

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Sesame Ginger Sauce and Produce Bargins

Create a New Year!

Cashew Burger Wrap

Happy New Year! Everyday we get a chance to create anew. I look at everyday as a chance to create something positive. I’ve taken a “no-regrets” attitude. I did a lot of looking back in December and realized how much I regretted not doing in life. I don’t want to continue feeling that way. No more “I should have…” Everyday is “I do….” whatever it is I want to do.

I haven’t updated since Christmas because Jona’s stomach issues are still going strong. Tomorrow is the kids’ doctor appointment and we'll see if they do have food allergies. Jona’s been throwing up or not going to bed until 2:00am, and that has thrown his mommy’s sleep off a bit. He’s resilient, but mommy…not so much. I will let you all know the results.

If you ever don’t know what to eat, just put veggies in a wrap, add a sauce or salad dressing and you have dinner. The above photo is kale salad, spinach, and cashew burger wrapped in collards. I’ve made this before. It’s so easy. You can do it with anything. And it’s pretty to look at! :-)

Portabello Mushroom Wrap

This wrap is from Jody Allen’s Recipes Made with Love (www.lovinglifecafe.com). This wrap is divine. You can marinate mushrooms in a soy sauce/nama shoyu, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice mixture for an hour. Add shredded veggies like carrots, tomatoes, whatever you like and wrap it up.

Tacos

I made these tacos at my most recent Gratitude Party. I took pictures of the food and forgot to take pictures of my guests Tahisha and Michelle! I swear, I think our memory cells leave through our breast milk. I haven’t had a good memory since I was pregnant with Raymond! And that was seven years ago! Or perhaps the cells left through the birth canal along with baby and placenta. Wherever my memory went, can you all help me find it? Lordymercy.....

Back to the tacos: the “meat” is walnuts ground in a food processor with cumin and chili powder. That’s it. Some recipes call for coriander, but there’s lots of freedom with raw tacos. Add whatever you’d add in a cooked taco. They are fabu.

Onion Rings

And here are the legendary onion rings…my inaugural dehydrator dish. Me and Raymond ate them all up. Even Rom, who doesn’t care for onion rings said they were good. Next up is flat bread. Thank you again Ingrid for this precious gift.

Also, if anyone has a wheatgrass juicer that is collecting dust, please let me know. I’m in the market to purchase one.

Love,

Althea

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Create a New Year!

What I Made for Thanksgiving Dinner

This year, I am sharing everything I made for Thanksgiving, both cooked and raw. This is such a stressful time for the person cooking. I bought all the ingredients the day before on Wednesday. I literally didn't know what I was making until that day.

Everyone who reads this blog is on different continuum scale on his/her raw journey. This is for those who want cooked vegan holiday recipes as well as raw, and for those who do Internet searches for vegan Thanksgiving recipes.

I didn't feel like I had the chops to do an all-raw Thanksgiving. I am working my way toward it, however. Here is everything I made:

Apple Crisp

Vegan Apple Crisp
--adapted and veganized from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
Kick butt cobbler. The best in the world.
5 cups peeled and sliced apples
1/3 cup of water
¾ cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 stick margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut up apples and put them in a 1 ½ quart baking dish ( I use a square 8 inch baking pan), and sprinkle the water on top. Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl, and rub the margarine in with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Spread evenly over the apples. Bake about 30-35 minutes or until crust is browned.

Macaroni and Cheese

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese
Adapted from Soul Vegetarian. I changed the amount of noodles to use.

1 box macaroni elbows
1 1/8 cup nutritional yeast (or more to taste)
1 heaping tablespoon Spike seasoning
3 cups soymilk
1 large clove garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
paprika (optional)

-preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Cook the macaroni elbows according to package directions
-Rinse in cold water in a colander when they are finished cooking
-Place all other ingredients (except canola oil and paprika) in a blender
-Slowly pour oil in blender while it's running
-The "cheese sauce" should be creamy
-Put the macaroni noodles in a 9x12 baking pan, making sure they are level
-Pour "cheese sauce" evenly over macaroni
-(Optional) Sprinkle paprika over the macaroni and cheese
-Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown on edges or top
-Take out, serve, and amaze your family!

I've had more than one person think I used real cheese! It's a wonderful dish. I always make this for guests, and get requests for it all the time. This is the one you make for omnivores.

Kale Salad

Kale Salad
Adapted from The Joy of Living Live by Zakhah
The winner of winners. Your salad will disappear at every potluck.

1 bunch of kale greens
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons liquid aminos or 4 tablespoons soy sauce (not raw)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Wash the greens. Put them in a tupperware bowl that has a top. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast on top the kale first. Add the garlic cloves, aminos or soy sauce, lemon juice squeezed straight from the lemon (watch those seeds), and olive oil. Put the top on your tupperware bowl. Shake like crazy. The success of this dish comes in all of the kale being coated evenly. Sometimes the yeast gets gloopy. So shake, do not stir or mix. Shake. Adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Cashew Garden Burgers and Instead of Mashed Potatoes

Cashew Garden Burgers
--from Fresh by Sergei and Vayla Boutenko
2 cups cashews
1 cup dried tomatoes – soaked for 10 minutes
¼ bunch cilantro
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon sea salt

Blend in a food processor. Add soaked tomato water if needed. In the book, they call for dehydration for 10-12 hours at 110 degrees. Flip and dry another 5-8 hours. I do not dehydrate this any longer. It's a great pate. I put it in a collard green leaf. I brushed the leaf with olive oil, then put it a warm oven (already turned off) and left the door open for 2 minutes to soften the leaf. Then I added the pate, tomatoes, and lettuce. It was delicious.


Instead of Mashed Potatoes
--from Fresh by Sergei and Vayla Boutenko
2 large avocados
½ head cauliflower
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup sweet onion powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
Blend everything in a food processor until smooth.

This was just okay. I started to make the pecan gravy from the book to go along with it, but I was on a budget. I already had the Divine Cashew Gravy, but I should have made the pecan gravy. I will do that next time.

Apple Cobbler

Vegan Apple Cobbler
--adapted and veganized from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
The crust is WONDERFUL. This is ridiculously good. This is more involved than the apple crisp. But it is worth it.

First, I use gelled flax seed instead of the 1 egg the original recipe calls for. To make this, you can purchase loose flax seeds and grind them in your blender, dry. No water, no nothing. Just grind them. Or you can purchase milled flax seed or flax seed meal. Add equal parts ground flax seed and water into a blender. Blend until the mixture looks like Jello or thick pudding. Make more than you need. One and one half tablespoons of the gelled flax equals one egg in any baked recipe. Flax seed doesn't change the taste, and has worked wonderfully in all my baked recipes. You may have to bake something longer than the original recipe calls for.

12 tablespoons margarine, melted (Melt 4 tablespoons and 8 tablespoons separately)
3 cups peeled and diced apples
½ teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup soy, rice, or almond milk
1 ½ tablespoons gelled flax seed
1 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pour 4 tablespoons margarine into an 8x8 square pan. Arrange the apples evenly over it. Mix ¼ teaspoon of salt with ¼ cup of sugar and sprinkle evenly over apples. Set aside. Pour remaining 8 tablespoons of the margarine into a bowl, add the milk and flax seed and beat with a whisk. Mix the flour, baking powder, the remaining 6 tablespoons of brown sugar, and the remaining ¼ teaspoon of sea salt into another bowl. Stir in the milk mixture and beat until smooth. Plop the mixture by the tablespoon full on top of the apples. Bake about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Turk'y Roast and Divine Mushroom Cashew Gravy

Quorn Turk'y Roast
This was a compromise between me and my husband. He asked me if I wanted to roast a turkey. I said "no." I know how, but I have no interest in ever cooking an animal product again in life. I have never made a raw/faux “meat” centerpiece for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I didn't think today was the day to experiment. I will practice on a recipe I do have between now and Christmas.

We were going to get a Tofurky but the Internet comments about it were horrible. The Quorn comments were better, so we got this one. It worked out fine. Both he and my oldest son liked it. If you do get this, roast it in a roasting bag and baste it with olive oil and spices, according to the directions on the box. It did taste like turkey. If we didn't tell someone, they'd probably think it was a turkey breast.


Divine Mushroom Cashew Gravy
--from Incredibly Delicious, the singlehandedly, absolute best vegan cookbook on the planet. Mostly cooked stuff, but has a lovely raw section too. I tell anyone who listens to purchase this. Everything in the book is, well....incredibly delicious. :-)

3 cloves garlic, minced
2 small onions, diced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 cups water
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
3 ½ tablespoons cashew butter
(this is expensive. To make your own, blend cashews and olive oil in a food processor until the mixture is smooth.)
2 tablespoons tamari
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder

Saute the garlic and onions in a little bit of oil, about 2 tablespoons. Add mushrooms and simmer until veggies are soft. Blend the other remaining ingredients in a blender. Pour this mixture into the pot with the veggies. Stir often until the arrowroot thickens the gravy. Do not boil.

This gravy was spectacular. This was only the second time I've made gravy from scratch. It delivered, big time.

So except for the raw mashed potatoes, everything turned out great. I am still working my way toward an all-raw holiday, so if anyone has tried and true alive and raw holiday recipes, please pass them my way.

Love,
Althea ◦

What I Made for Thanksgiving Dinner