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Vegetable Curry (a Vegan recipe)

Last night for supper I made Vegetable Curry.  I love spicy food but this time around I made it with a new curry blend I purchased from Penzy's Spice Company and it was HOT.  Too hot for my palate and I had to consume more rice than I had planned on to keep my mouth from burning up.  The rest of the family must have loved it as we didn't have any leftovers.  Next time I'll make a double batch and go easier on the curry spice.

Vegetable Curry (a Vegan recipe)

3 stalks celery, sliced
1 medium green pepper, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, skinned and diced
1 T lemon juice
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
2 tsp turmeric
1 T curry powder
2 T cornstarch
1 can lite coconut milk

Add the pepper, carrots, and celery into a large pot or pan and saute on medium heat until the vegetables start to soften.  You can use oil to saute with if you'd like.  I just use splashes of water.

Add the onion, apple and tomatoes.  Stir.  Add lemon juice, curry powder, and turmeric.  Mix and heat on low for about 10 minutes.  Add in cornstarch and coconut milk.

Add in cornstarch and coconut milk.  Mix well.  Heat on medium until it begins to boil, reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve with Basmati Rice.

Pad Thai Vegan

Pad Thai

Ingredients:

1 pound tofu cubes
12oz flat rice noodles
3 Tablespoons vegetable stock, carrot juice (what I used) or water
1 garlic clove, minced
4 green onions, chopped
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup bean sprouts (next time I'm going to add 2 cups)
1/2 tsp chili powder
4 tablespoons low-sodium tamari
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons home-toasted peanuts or other nuts (I used raw cashews), chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1. Preheat oven to high broil. Drain tofu and cut into 1 inch cubes. Place on a baking sheet covered with non-stick spray (I always put aluminum foil down for easy clean up). Spray with Bragg Liquid Aminos. Broil cubes for 10 minutes. Turn over tofu cubes and spritz with Bragg Liquid Aminos again. Broil for another 10 minutes, until browned on both sides.
2. Place rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with hot water. Let sit for 20 minutes.
3. Heat the vegetable stock (or other liquid you chose) in a wok or large nonstick skillet. Add in the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add in the onions, noodles, broccoli, tofu and sprouts, one at a time - stirring in between each one. Add in the chili powder, tamari and lemon juice. Stir to combine and remove from heat. Garnish with cilantro and peanuts.
Serves 4.

Pasta Primavera Vegan

I am trying to eat more and more vegetables and surprisingly even my 17 year old son has accepted the non-meat meals.  When I asked him if he liked this dish, he replied with a grin and said I'm going in for seconds.  I take that as a yes.

 

Pasta Primavera

Ingredients: 2 zucchinis, sliced
1 summer squash, sliced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 T oregano, dried
1 jar of low-salt pasta sauce
1 cup carrot juice, optional
16 ounces whole-grain spaghetti, cooked (I used linguine)
 1 cup raw cashews, ground

 I have this amazing food processor made by The Food Network and it sliced all of my vegetables (except the tomatoes) for me, including the carrots. Then I threw them all in a pan and water sauteed them until tender (first 6 ingredients). Add in the diced tomatoes, oregano, juice, pasta sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve over the spaghetti.  Garnish the top with the ground cashews.

BBQ Pizza Vegan

This recipe comes from the Engine 2 Diet book and was a HUGE hit with my husband.  After not eating anything sweet for three weeks the BBQ sauce was a bit sweet for me.  I think next time I'll add a little more tomato paste or try and find a BBQ sauce that isn't so sweet.  It's really hard to find a sauce that doesn't have sugar as one of the first three ingredients.  If anyone knows of any, can you please leave a comment with the brand name and where you found it?

 

Burt's BBQ Pizza Ingredients:

4 ounces tomato paste
1 cup BBQ sauce
2 tsp dried oregano
2 Kabuli crusts (I couldn't find those so I used whole grain naan flatbreads)
1 small red onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced (I used a green one)
2 handfuls of fresh spinach (next time I'll go with 3 handfuls)
1 jar pineapple chunks, drained
1/2 cup finely ground raw cashews

 Preheat oven to 425°.  Mix the tomato paste, barbecue sauce and oregano together in a bowl.  Generously spread the sauce on the crusts and layer with the vegetables and pineapple.  Top with the cashews.  Bake on a sprayed cooking sheet or pizza stone for 15 minutes. My son added some pre-cooked chicken to  his pizza but my husband and I kept ours animal protein free (the Eat to Live way).

Afghani Steak with Roasted Vegetables

Tonight's Supper

Grilled Afghani Steak with Roasted Vegetables

Gather your vegetables together.  I am using zucchini, yellow squash, green pepper, red pepper and an onion.

You'll also need olive oil cooking spray, 1 T fresh thyme chopped, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 450.  Spray your baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray (I layer mine with Reynolds Wrap first).  Slice vegetables and spread them in a single layer on your baking sheet.

Spray a coat of olive oil cooking spray over the vegetables.  Sprinkle with chopped thyme, salt and pepper.

Bake in pre-heated 450 degree oven for 20 minutes or until nicely roasted.

While the vegetables were roasting, I sprinkled my sirloin steak with Afghani Spice from Teeny Tiny Spice Co. of Vermont.

Cook steak on a grill pan if you're cooking on your stove.  I love the grill lines.

Roasted Vegetables

Let your steak "set" for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

Slice your steak on an angle, against the grain.

Enjoy!

I really love my vegetables roasted.  I make this a lot and sometimes add eggplant, tomatoes and green beans to the mix.  I overcooked my steak a bit.  I usually like it medium to medium well but my brother-in-law stopped by while I was cooking and I was distracted.

Cincinnati Chili with Teeny Tiny Spice Co of Vermont

(originally posted on Front Porch Reviews, my other blog)


I love cooking.  I love taking a variety of ingredients, mixing them together and seeing what I get.  Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose.  One of my biggest passions has been cooking with spices.  This year I started hitting up the local Farmer's Markets and it was there that I stumbled upon a company called Teeny Tiny Spice Co. of Vermont.  They make hard to find spice blends.  
Six O'Clock hit tonight and I didn't know what I was going to cook for supper.  Sundays in our household are Football Sundays, so I don't have much time to whip something up and run back to the TV before half-time is over.  I looked in my refrigerator and spotted a package of ground turkey.  I decided to whip up some chili, but what kind?  I remembered that Teeny Tiny Spice Co of Vermont had sent me a few containers of their spices for me to review.  What's not better than Chili and Football?  I didn't have any kidney beans on hand and I knew I needed to "beef" up the chili somehow.  I decided to pour it over some spaghetti.  This was my first time eating chili with spaghetti and it was delicious.  The whole recipe only took me 30 minutes from start to finish.
So....let me tell you about this spice blend called Chocolate Chili.  It's a combination of flavors from South America:  Organic Spices - Cocoa Nibs, Aji Amarillo Chili, New Mexican Chili, Aji Rancho Chili, Aji Rojo Chili, Juniper Berries, Oregano, Sweet Cinnamon, Aji Cereza Chili, Himalayan Pink Salt, Organic Vermont Maple Sugar, Organic Onion and Organic Garlic.  What an awesome blend of spices!  When I opened the container and sniffed, it was delightful.  I love mexican/southwest food.  I've never had chocolate mixed with my chili powder.  
From the side of the tin "Fruity and fiery chili peppers blend beautifully with rich cocoa nibs to create a unique chili mix.  Our rule of thumb is 2 Tbs of Chocolate Chili for a "normal recipe".
Now that I've made the chili and LOVED it.  I'll be making Chocolate Chili Brownies this week.

~~*~~
Cincinnati Chili with Spaghetti6 servings

Ingredients:

2 tsp canola oil  1 lb uncooked ground turkey 2 medium onions, chopped 1 T Garlic Relish (you could use 2 cloves of garlic, minced) 2 T Teeny Tiny Spice Co. of Vermont Chocolate Chili (use more if you like it spicy) 14-15oz can diced tomatoes with jalapenos 1/4 C water 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper

3 cups cooked spaghetti 4 T low-fat cheddar cheese, shredded Instructions:

Heat oil in large stockpot or dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add the turkey and cook, breaking it up as the meat browns, 3-4 minutes.

Add 1 1/2 of the Chopped Onions.  Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the onions start to soften.

Add Garlic Relish (or minced garlic) and Chocolate Chili Spice Blend

 Blend with meat and onion mixture

Add can of tomatoes and water

Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

While the Chili simmers, start cooking the Spaghetti.  

	Portion the spaghetti out in 6 bowls.  Top each with 2/3 cup of Chili.  Sprinkle with the remaining onions and a generous tablespoon of shredded cheese.

You can find the Chocolate Chili Spice Mix at Teeny Tiny Spice Co. of Vermont.Follow them on  Facebook also.Make sure you sign up to follow my blog via email as I'll be reviewing a few of their other spice mixes also.  Plus, you won't want to miss my recipe and review of my Chocolate Chili Brownies.