tomato basil pasta

Such a lovely light, summery vegetarian pasta that I enjoy occasionally for lunch or dinner.  This makes enough for 1-2 people.

Tomato Basil pasta

Ingredients:

1 T evoo
1 clove of garlic
1 shallot
1 lg tomato
1-2 T basil
2 -3 T spinach
2-3 handfuls of bowties
couple artichoke hearts, quartered
a squeeze of lemon

Add whatever you like, this is pasta you can’t mess this up.  To keep it simple, you really only need tomato, basil, garlic, olive oil, s + p and some type of pasta.

First, get the ingredients chopped up.  Start the pasta boiling and warm the evoo in a sauce pot.  Add the garlic & shallot to the evoo and saute on medium low heat for a few minutes.  Then, add the tomatoes and cook several minutes on medium heat.  Season with s + p, add the basil and spinach and cook a few more minutes.  Add the artichokes (I love artichokes and try to sneak them in anywhere I can) and squeeze of lemon, along with the bowtie pasta.  Stir together, if you like add parmesan or nutritional yeast.

tomato basil rigatoni

The sauce was my favorite part of this simple dish.

Tomato Basil sauce

• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 cube of basil (i didn’t have fresh so I used frozen basil)
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1-2 T olive oil
• salt & pepper, red pepper flakes

Sauté the shallots & garlic in olive oil a couple mins on medium heat.  Add tomato sauce, basil and salt & pepper to taste.  Simmer for 5-10 mins.  So.  Simple.

breaded tofu dish

I have been wanting to try a breaded tofu dish and this one turned out great!  I took quite a few pics during the process of breading the tofu.  So, hopefully the pics will help and look easy as it really was to make.

I first started by slicing the tofu & pressing the water out.  Place the slices of tofu into a dish with a favorite marinade for at least an hour (it really is necessary to marinate for a while so the tofu will soak up as much flavor as possible!).  I used a simple orange-soy marinade.

orange-soy marinade:

1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c orange juice
1 tbs canola oil
1 clove of garlic, minced

Next, set up a bowl with 1/2 c whole wheat flour, 1 tbs cornstarch, salt & pepper.  Dip each tofu slice into the flour mixture and place into a pan with a few tbs of canola oil.  Simmer on each side until beautifully golden brown.

While the tofu cooked, I roasted asparagus in the oven:

I placed the breaded tofu on a bed of asian noodles, the dipping sauce is soy sauce + bragg’s amino liquid + lemon juice.

This is such a beautiful dish.  I wish I had sesame oil, I keep forgetting to pick some up @ the grocery store.  I would drizzle the sesame oil over the tofu & noodles just as it is plated and ready to eat!

cabbage soup

The other day, I made cabbage soup in my crockpot.  It turned out delicious.  I had quite a few fresh veggies like green beans, carrots and potatoes that I also added, along with a can of cannellini beans.

Cabbage is a great way to detox your body and add some roughage to your diet.  This soup is fresh, full of vitamins, and is very good for you.

First I washed and cut the veggies.  I used 2 carrots, 1 tomato, about a cup of green beans, 1 or 2 potatoes and 1 small head of cabbage.  I filled the crockpot with water and added a bay leaf and 2-3 small veggie seasoning cubes.  Cook on high for 6 hours, stir every so often.  Near the end I added a can of white beans and adjusted the seasonings.  I also added pepper, salt, cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes & banana pepper slices (I wanted it spicy).

Plain & simple, it’s good for you!

freezing squash & zucchini

Freezing is a great way to preserve produce from the summer.  It’s easy to let the extra zucchini & squash go to waste.  And with all the funny stories of people leaving bags of squash on neighbors doorsteps, why not just take a little time and freeze them for soups, stews and veggie chilis for the winter?
Here is a great link for more information on freezing produce.

…a few rules and tips to follow:

• you must blanch before freezing (this slows/stops the enzymes actions, if you do not do this, it will cause off-coloring, off-flavoring, and toughening)
• don’t over blanch!  each veggie has a specific amount of time to cook, view this link for specific times
• drain well
• using a blancher makes the blanching process easier, a multi-cooker that has the strainer inside the pot would also work, I’ve been wanting one of these!!

freezing squash & zucchini

1. cut squash/zucchini into bite-sized pieces
2. blanch squash/zucchini into boiling water for 3 minutes (blanching the veggies is essential for freezing, see above)
3. immediately put veggies into an ice bath, let veggies cool through for several minutes
4. drain well, very well
5. place onto flat baking sheet pans and freeze
6. take pans out of freezer, then place frozen veggies into ziploc freezer bags, mark date then put back into freezer

ravioli

Absolutely delicious!  Vegetarian ravioli with veg cheese & morningstar crumbles seasoned with basil, thyme and rosemary, homemade marinara sauce.  I pre-made the marinara sauce and had all the ingredients ready to assemble so making the ravioli would go smoothly.

I filled all the raviolis and set aside while the water was boiling, simply drop each in a few at a time and boil gently until soft…it only takes a couple of minutes.  This dish was really easy and fun to make and there are so many ingredients you can put into ravioli (wonton wrappers).  I will post the other recipe soon, I also made butternut squash ravioli that was delicious!

veggie stew

tomato & okra stew

It’s a little early for stew, but it has been cooling down a bit and I wanted to use the fresh veggies in something a little more hearty.  This was seriously delicious.  I had fresh okra, green beans & tomatoes.  I first thought about using them in an indian recipe, so this is a variation of Bhindi Subji.

I sautéed onion and garlic and added the sliced okra & green beans (seasoned with salt & pepper), cook for several minutes.  Next, I added diced tomatoes (from about 4 tomatoes) and vegetable stock, sauté for several minutes.  I added diced potatoes, cooked macaroni noodles, and seasoned with tumeric, coriander, cayenne, and basil.  Cook for several minutes to let all the flavors blend together.  Perfect for a rainy summer day like this one!

zucchini bread

This was so delicious.  I used a recipe from Enlightened Cooking, a new cooking site I found when searching for a bread recipe.  We have an abundance of zucchini and squash from both our parents so, why not make bread out of it!  It was sweet and hearty and full of wonderful whole grains.  I used half whole wheat and half unbleached all purpose flour, and yellow squash.

hummus plate

This was my lunch for yesterday.  Raw pieces of zucchini and cucumber, stoneground wheat crackers, hummus and a middle-eastern style potato salad.  I used a couple of baked potatoes that I baked the day before, so it was easy to put together for lunch.

mid-east style potato salad:

• 2 baked potatoes, diced
• tbs of olive oil
• juice from half a lemon
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• chopped fresh parsley
• spices: salt, pepper, I also added coriander & cumin

chickpea salad

also a vegan’s faux “tuna” salad

Ingredients:

1 can garbanzo beans
2 Tbs celery
2 Tbs onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 Tbs of nutritional yeast
1 Tbs dill relish, 1 Tbs of juice
juice from half a lemon
3 Tbs of Vegenaise
1/4 tsp salt

Begin by mincing celery, onion, and garlic.  Into a bowl, combine first 4 ingredients and mash together.

Next, add rest of ingredients and mix together.  Top with green onions if desired.  Serves 2.