At a recent gathering for a cousin's bar mitzvah, we introduced our extended family to our new eating habits.  In addition to providing yummy salad and a vegan meal for me at the event itself, my cousin made sure there were salads and veggie burgers at the gathering at her house, and my aunt stocked her own kitchen for the meals we'd share there. 

Dinner was a yummy vegetable curry from Fine Cooking Magazine (3x carrots, 1/2 the cauliflower). At the last minute, my aunt allowed us to cover her kitchen in flour as my daughter rolled whole wheat roti and I cooked them and  puffed them on her gas stove.  And then she cleaned up while we went out for dessert!  What a gift!

My daughter insisted I take a picture for the blog.  What you can't see in the frame is the lovely salad with multiple kinds of lettuce and chopped vegetables.  The comment from my daughter was "we're eating a rainbow!"  Yum!

The assignment was to bring a vegetarian savory appetizer - so I made 2. This potato salad is equally as good with a fork as a skewer. Cut red peppers and peeled (or unpeeled) potatoes into large bite sized pieces. Toss with olive oil and salt, then smooth into a single layer on a parchment paper lined sheet pan with a half head of garlic. Roast at 425 for 40 minutes.

The other dish is Persian cucumber slices with smoked paprika and celery salt. Yum!

Round salad(kumquats, radishes, cucumber on red romaine lettuce with balsamic) - whole wheat spaghetti with blender marinara, pea & mushroom sauté.

This is a fun and colorful meal. I had a blender out because my daughter and I did the smoothie challenge on You tube (only a sip or two of each smoothie, only one red item in each, and hours of belly laughs from the video)

For the sauce: In a blender, blend a 28 oz can if tomatoes with 2 cloves peeled. 1 t dried oregano and 1 t dried thyme. Place in 3 qt saucepan on low, add a splash of red wine or red wine vinegar if you feel like it. Cook for an hour or so until it makes a thick red sauce.

For the pea sauté - slice an onion (I used some big spring onions). Heat a sauté pan on medium with some olive oil spray. Sauté onion with mushrooms (I sliced fresh shiitake and king oyster) then add 1 lb English peas, shelled (I shelled them into the pan) I added 2 T of water, then sprinkled with salt, pepper, shallot greens and cilantro flowers.

Trader Joes provided the spaghetti, canned tomatoes, cucumbers, kumquats, Balsalmic vinegar and shiitake mushrooms. My local farm stand provided the peas, onions, green shallots, cilantro flowers and radishes. I had the oyster mushrooms left from a trip to the farmers market.

I find myself making this more and more as we have a drought in California.  Saute garlic in a bit of spray in a deep frypan, add a couple of handfuls of pasta and a cup of water with a teaspoon of soy sauce, and stir until the pasta is cooked (about 2 minutes longer than the time on the box)  See it here with kid friendly peas & carrots - but it works for broccoli and mushrooms too!  In fact, it's often the choice when there's nothing in the house for lunch (or even a packed lunch in a thermos)

You're looking at bean croquettes (red bean chili mixed with breadcrumbs & a little soysauce, baked for half an hour at 375), the porcini artichoke & potato bake from The Savory Way cookbook, a roasted pepper (jarred) and some skillet sweated onions. A surprise family hit and yellow all the way with a succotash of sorts on the side.

Asian Box has a myriad of yellower options out of the box. I chose brown rice, double vegetables (steamed) and all of the vegetable toppings- lime, jalepeno, pickles, bean sprouts, and on top- a sprinkling of asian street dust- from which I tasted salt & mint. No reds this time, but next time I might spend a red or two and wok toss the vegetables.

I was thrilled to see puntarelle and endive at my neighborhood farmstand. A preserved lemon vinaigrette and some cukes, radish & hothouse peppers rounded out the salad.

The rest of the meal? Butternut squash corn bean stew (Greens Cookbook) and some gently warmed whole wheat bread. (Trader Joe's) Oh and some lovely Mexican asparagus roasted with Dpray & salt and garnished with a little lemon zest.

I never make wheat berries because you boil 'em like pasta.  Forever. But I was headed to a class and wanted to be able to demonstrate how yummy they are, so when I was making breakfast, I put some on, and by the time I'd cleaned up the breakfast dishes, sliced the celery and cilantro, and dug some soy sauce/garlic/ginger sauce out of the fridge, they were ready to drain.

Usually I'm not up early enough for steel cut oats, but today I was. To 4 cups if boiling water I added a cup of steel cut oats, an organic tangerine, peel and all, cut in quarters, and my last vanilla bean from The Vanilla COMpany. Time to reorder.



I served it to myself with my other secret weapon, frozen wild blueberries. My hubby went for half a banana & honey, and my kids, home sick, opted out. Big sigh. Off to make pancakes.

My kids love crepes and I love that they'll cook them themselves! I took the recipe for the crepes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch, and the blueberry topping I based loosely on a recipe in Eating Well from a few months ago. Turns out Isa has a similar recipe further back in the book,

Crepes

1 c non dairy milk (I used soy)

1 c water

1 1/2 c w/w pastry flour

2 T tapioca flour

1 T salt

2 T veg oil

2 T maple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process for 15 seconds, scrape down sides, then process for another 15 seconds. Refridgerate for an hour in the blender container.

Heat nonstick pans, and practice! Tomes have been written on how to deal with the frustrations of crepes- just practice,

For the blueberries, put some frozen blueberries in a microwave safe bowl with a splash of maple syrup and a teaspoon or so of arrowroot powder. Microwave for a minute or two, stir, microwave more until steaming & thick.