PALAK SOYABINA PANIRA

Spinach in the blender again leads to culinary heaven.  I am floored at how good my Indian-type dish turned out.  I have had the traditional item with cubes of cheese, but I genuinely prefer this tofu version.  The cheese tends to be a bit much and overtakes the spice flavors (coriander, cinnamon, cloves, ginger) in the spinach sauce.  Using a full pound of spinach, this recipe is a great way to use up a wholesale bin of the leaves before they go bad.  The final product is not much to look at, but the girls loved it!

SMOKY AVOCADO SAUCE

This is a great dip to pair with crudites and chips for after you have had some soup and salad and are just feeling 'snacky.'  The trusty old blender is used to whir up avocado, tamari, liquid smoke (I am so excited I finally found this stuff), fresh squeezed lime juice, orange juice....yes, it confuses the taste buds initially, but they quickly learn to LOVE the quirky Smoky Avocado Sauce.

DRINK YOUR GREENS SMOOTHIE

Frozen banana + avocado + cantaloupe + heaping spinach pile + OJ = lazy Sunday mid-morning refreshment.

SMOKY GREEN SPLIT PEA SOUP

"I don't want to eat anything with the word smoky in it," said Alessandra when I suggested we make this soup.  Hence, from that point on we discussed preparing (Smoky) Green Split Pea Soup - the smoky is silent.  It is a perfect Saturday late afternoon meal to make while girls watch Santa Buddies movie.  The prep was a bit more extensive than I like it to be - chopping of onion, celery, carrots, sweet potato (along with peeling).  To me that's a lot of prep.  On top of that the cook time was an hour +.  I would have liked to use the smoked tofu at the end, but stupid market nearby, haver of all things healthy and cool, did not have any.  Fortunately author suggested as an alternate Fakin Bacon Tempeh Strips.  During the simmer I fried those guys up and let them cool before finally crumbling into the finished soup.  Oh man, this was a good one.  I don't know if it was the inclusion of sweet potato or the paprika directly from the Istanbul Spice Bazaar, but this was hands down the Best. Split. Pea. Soup. Ever.

BANANA CREAM PANCAKES

I was really excited about these flapjacks because they are made with coconut milk, and I had 4/5 of a can sitting in my fridge leftover from recipe I had made a week earlier.

In the past when I have made banana pancakes I have either smashed banana with a fork or a potato masher.  This recipe dictates that the banana, coconut milk, and vanilla need to hit the blender.  The wet is then added to the dry (flour, nutmeg, shocking 1+ tablespoon baking powder), the batter ladled onto the electric frying pan, and Banana Cream Pancakes served to the princesses with some of that good and pure maple syrup.

ROSEMARY POLENTA FRIES

If you like grits, you will like these Rosemary Polenta Fries....unless you are age 4 or 6 (read: texture sensitive) and like grits but don't like them in a semi-solid crispy shape.  I am diggin' this polenta stuff, though I was not so skilled at gently tossing the polenta slices in the cornmeal mixture, so they more resembled polenta homefries.  Before baking they got a nice little sprinkle of fresh rosemary (on my portion anyway) and sea salt.  I liked, but if I make them again, I may rename them rosemary polenta chunks.

Tortillas From Scratch

 

We made these ~ 1 month ago.  This is not a recipe from EDBV, but one that Alessandra's reading teacher photocopied and sent home with her students.  Alessandra was abundantly eager to make the tortillas, and the process most definitely falls under the category of 'approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.'  I have since misplaced the recipe sheet, but it consisted of maybe 4 ingredients: flour and such to make dough, more flour to roll it out, and lots of Smart Balance to fry each tortilla in the pan.  The finished product wound up being well worth the effort and the mess, especially because it allowed me to utilize canned and jarred fixings I had on hand but still taste unbelievably good due to the fresh out of the pan home-made tortillas.

CUMIN-CINNAMON VINAIGRETTE

This seemingly odd-flavored salad dressing required no more than 5 minutes to prepare and was nothing less than magnificent.  A few spices, cider vinegar, agave nectar, lemon juice, olive oil (walnut oil could be used too but my mom's kitchen did not have any) and dijon mustard in a blender.  Done.  I even went so far as to use the dressing to prepare the suggested Spinach & Fennel Salad recipe the author provided in the sidebar; spinach, avocado slices, walnuts, dried cranberries (omitted on my salad), Cumin-Cinnamon Vinaigrette, and thin fennel slices.  I had never worked with a fennel bulb before - it is kind of neat with its fluffy stalk attached to the bulb, and my sister enjoyed it and kept it on her salad even though she does not typically care for anise flavoring.

BROCCOLI CASHEW TERIYAKI TOFU STIR-FRY

This one went over very well.  Though I was not instructed, I froze and defrosted the tofu before cubing and marinating in tamari and red wine vinegar.  Combined with the stir-fry process, the texture imparted by the freeze-thaw tends to be more palatable, especially for tofu naysayers.  The teriyaki sauce included a hefty dose of a tamari (1/3 cup), sesame oil, agave nectar, ginger, garlic, and molasses - recipe called for the good old blackstrap variety, but my mom only had regular molasses.  Everyone - vegetarian, non-veg, adults, kids - loved Broccoli Cashew Teriyaki Tofu Stir-Fry [shown in top photo, lower photo pictures the landscape for this recipe along with Cashew-Ginger Tofu, Cumin-Cinnamon Vinaigrette, and Roasted Winter Squash Rings].

ROASTED WINTER SQUASH RINGS

This, along with greens topped with Cumin-Cinnamon Vinaigrette, were the author's suggested accompaniments to the Cashew-Ginger Tofu.  My niece was eager to try the vinaigrette but she wrinkled her nose when I suggested we prepare the Roasted Winter Squash Rings too.  My minor and intermittent OCD kicked in and I decided to just make them anyway.  After all, it is winter, I actually found a never-heard-of-before delicata squash in Wegman's, rosemary is involved, and they are rings.  Rings are fun.  The first step in preparation is to use a vegetable peeler to remove the thick rind from the the squash.  Really? Really, Dreena? I tried a peeler for a second, then a butcher knife, then my mom repeated the process.  I began singing one of my favorite new songs by Jens Lekman, which involves an accidental slicing off of a finger, when I stopped the nonsense and threw the gourd in a casserole dish with an inch of water and into the oven.  After a while (15, 30 minutes?) I took it out, sliced in half, removed the string and seeds, and then, as the peel was still way too tough, I attempted to peel from the inside with my fingernails.  This scene was ugly.  There was not a single ring.  And after roasting on parchment paper (my mom had some, that stuff rocks!) with oil, rosemary, lemon juice, and sea salt, the finished product was as ugly as the preparation.  But darn, it was good.  I think I alone ate the whole squash.

CASHEW-GINGER TOFU

My almost 20-year old niece, Sarah, made dean's list this past fall semester and was so excited that she called me to tell me about it while I was driving up with the princesses to visit Sarah and the rest of the family.  In response to her announcement, I told her what every college-age girl who loves food wants to hear: "Congrats!  I will make you a vegan dinner!"  She actually did feign some excitement, especially when I told her she could select the recipe from EDBV.  Imagine my surprise when this Chicken Divan-loving young lady chose Cashew-Ginger Tofu.  Ginger is one of the more sophisticated if not acquired tastes I am aware of - it took me dozens of outings for sushi before I not only stopped disliking it but loved it.  Anyway, it was yet another recipe requiring homogenization of several ingredients in a blender, including cashew butter, tamari, agave nectar, and ginger.  This divine tasting concoction was then poured over tofu squares, marinated for an hour in the fridge, and baked for 20 minutes or so.  It was not what she was expecting (see photo) but I and my dad enjoyed it thoroughly.  Fortunately I was already in the midst of preparing Broccoli Cashew Teriyaki Tofu Stir-Fry, which she gratefully inhaled.  Happy Dean's List my Sarah-Bearah!!! 

PIZZA FOCACCIA

Whole wheat pizza shell + olive oil smear + fresh rosemary = awesome.  Pizza Focaccia was a crowd-pleaser (pictured below with Popeye Pasta).

POPEYE PASTA

This was our Christmas Eve entree, along with spinach salad with Back-to-Basics Balsamic Vinaigrette and Pizza Foccacia.  The name derives from the fact that after the crushed tomatoes-based sauce was prepared and simmered, a whole big pile of torn-up spinach leaves (6-8 cups) was added and stirred until just wilted and then the sauce was poured over cooked short pasta (I used some kind of organic grainy but doesn't seem it tubular variety).  Popeye Pasta was alright, I might have liked to add some Bragg's Liquid Aminos in an attempt to lessen the little bit of tangy-ness, but there was white wine involved in the garlic and onion saute, and that is always nice, because then there is an open bottle of wine.  I also topped with one of the suggested add-ons, pine nuts.

BACK-TO-BASICS BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

This dressing was so super easy and so super awesome, I do not think I could purchase a bottle of prepared stuff ever again.  Again, the good quality maple syrup lends itself nicely to the flavor.  It called for syrup OR agave nectar, so I added half the amount of each.  I bought walnut oil for this recipe, and added the suggested touch of sesame oil along with dijon, a little garlic, and blended it up for a few seconds.  The kids ate the heck out of a bowl of leaves (spinach) when Back-to-Basics Balsamic Vinaigrette was poured over it (pictured above with Popeye Pasta).