Two-Bean Vegetable Soup(Vegan); "Beefless" Stew w/Dumplings(probably vegan)

Good morning, beautiful, sunny day here in the metro Atlanta area, and I'm hoping it's a good day where you are, as well. About 30 minutes ago, I called my doctor, and kinda wish I hadn't, sigh. I think I mentioned a while back that I had to have a renal ultrasound, because my creatinine levels are too high, which means my kidneys aren't working right. So, I had the ultrasound, and this morning, Doctor told me that it shows a mass in my right kidney. I am NOT pleased. This is NOT what i wanted to hear, not today, not yesterday, not any day at all, ok? Doctor is going to call my insurance company for me today, and get the referral for either a CT scan or an MRI, and I'll see him tomorrow, as I need my pain med 'script rewritten. Needless to say, I'm scared. Maybe it's just a cyst. Whatever. Please keep me in your prayers. Thanks.

Yesterday was a really good day, one of the best in a long time, as far as feeling good physically goes. It's probably a combination of the thyroid med starting to kick in, and still being quit from smoking. Whatever it is, I'm not hurting as much as I was, and I had quite a bit of energy and accomplished, for me, quite a lot. Swished and swiped the toilet and sink, stripped the bed and washed the linens, washed and dried and put away two loads of laundry, remade the bed, washed the dishes, took out the trash, and vacuumed the living room and bedroom. Had time to read quite a bit, play on the computer, and cooked supper, too. Today all I plan on doing...all that's really needed, in fact...is washing dishes again, and watering my plants.

I love beans and lentils, and I love soups, so I make quite a few bean and lentil soups/stews, even in warm weather. In one of my last few posts I said that I was going to make a bean/barley/vegetable soup, but I didn't, not exactly. It was basically the same as the recipe I've posted for the bean/barley/vegetable soup, but just a couple variations. No real recipe needed here, just as you like it/to taste.

...................................Two-Bean Soup................................................................
One can each pinto beans and cannelini beans
Onions, garlic, bay leaf, thyme...all to taste
Potatoes, celery, carrots...as many or as few as YOU like.

Drain and rinse the beans, set aside. In a large pot, saute the diced onions, celery, carrots, and garlic for about five minutes, or until the onion starts to get tender and is translucent. Add the peeled and diced potatoes, the two types of beans, and about 6-8 cups of water w/veggie buillion cubes or veggie broth or plain water. Season with dried thyme and the bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil, and allow to simmer until the veggies are tender enough to suit you, probably about 30 minutes or so. I like mine really smooshy, so I let it simmer for closer to an hour. Your choice...I won't know, and it's fine with me. The soup can be left the way it is, or, if you like, and I do, use a potato masher or fork to mash up some of the veggies, which will thicken the soup somewhat. Serve this with a pan of hot, buttered, biscuits. Or cornbread. Or grilled cheese sammiches. Or just saltines or bread and butter. Your choice.

...........................JB's World Famous "Beefless" Stew, this time with dumplings....

Ok, ok, so it's not really world famous, and altho I never once looked at a recipe to come up with this lentil stew, I have no doubt that there are several thousand recipes just like this, or very close to it. There are probably enough variations of lentil soup to make a different one every day for at least three years out there, seriously. The important thing, tho, is that it's good, and even confirmed meat-lovers will ask for seconds, no kidding. Again, no real recipe needed, it's to taste/as you like it, ok?

Enough dried lentils for your family. Lentils don't need to be soaked, btw. You can just use them right out of the bag. And I don't recommend using canned ones, if there even is such a thing. I don't think I've ever seen canned lentils, just canned lentil soup, and that was just plain nasty. Anyway, I digress........

Put the lentils in a colander, pick them over and take out any little rocks or bad lentils, and rinse them really well. Set aside.

In a large pot, saute onions, carrots, celery if you like(I don't), and garlic. Meanwhile, wash, peel, and dice some potatoes, and then add them to the rest of the veggies. Add the lentils, a bay leaf, and enough water to cover all of it by about three inches or so. If you want to, you can use veggie broth or add veggie buillion cubes to the water. Cover, bring to a boil, and simmer until the carrots are tender, about 30-45 minutes. Lentils will cook that quickly, in case you've never used them before, which is just one of the reasons I like them so well.

Now for the dumplings, and I'll give you a REAL recipe for them, right off the box of biscuit mix. So, this is where it stops being vegan, because the biscuit mix has small amounts of casein and buttermilk listed in its ingredients. Dumplings can be veganized, but you'll have to use your own biscuit recipe for them, as I don't have one. I suppose self-rising flour, shortening, and soy milk would do it, tho, right? Anyway...

2 cups biscuit mix
2/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 qt. broth
Mix first three ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls into boiling broth. Cover and simmer 5-8 minutes. Yield: 16 servings.

I used much smaller portions for myself, and didn't use the poultry seasoning, I just left them plain. And instead of broth, I dropped them, using an infants feeding spoon, on top of the lentil stew.

This was a really good meal. The dumplings were small and good, and just set the stew off to perfection. In fact, when I heat up the leftover two-bean soup, I'm going to make dumplings again, instead of biscuits.

Until next time, Happy Eating.

Slow Cooker Stew s/Beans, Sweet Potatoes, and Corn(Vegan)

Good morning, for the second day in a row, lol. Rather unusual, but I made a new soup last night, and wanted to post it for you. But first, I have to go "shift" my washing machine into its next cycle, sigh. The poor thing is dying, but I really can't complain too much, as it was second-hand when I bought it for $125, ten years ago. So, I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it!! BRB! Ok, I'm back, and you didn't even miss me, admit it!!!

I think I mentioned yesterday that I was supposed to work today, for four hours, which meant that I wouldn't have another day off until next Wednesday, but, miracles do happen, and lo and behold, I have today off, thank goodness. It's chilly(59ºF)and cloudy outside, but since I don't have to go anywhere today, I really don't care, and, quite frankly, I hope it rains again. I've been up since about 5:50AM, and so far have gotten dressed, swished and swiped the bathroom, done the meds/vitamins, prayer/Bible/devotions, made the bed, and started the load of towels, and I think that's probably all I'm going to do today, even tho my teeny tiny little house is a mess, and needs cleaning, sigh. Tsk.

So, about the new soup. I found it on www.veggiemealplans.com and thought the recipe sounded good. Last night I decided to try it.

Slow Cooker Stew w/Beans, Sweet Potatoes, and Corn

1-28oz. can of unsalted whole tomatoes, including the juice.
3C sweet potato chunks.
2C EACH cooked cannelini and lima beans, and frozen corn kernels.
1 lg. onion, diced, 2 lg. cloves garlic, minced.
3C vegetable broth.
1Tbs. EACH paprika and dried basil, 1 tsp. dried thyme.

Dump tomatoes into slow cooker and crush with your hands or back of a wooden spoon. Mix in everything else, cover, and slow-cook, until tender, either one hour on high or about seven on low. Your heat settings and cooking times may need to be adjusted to your slow-cooker or for your own preferences.

Makes enough for 8 servings or more.

And I have no idea why I lost the color, sigh. Doesn't really matter, tho, I reckon.

This made a huge potful of stew. I used canned everything, as that was all I had available to work with, except corn, which I don't eat, because it hates me. I didn't use a slow-cooker, either, altho I do have one. It's in a hard to get to storage spot, plus it's been sitting there so long that it's covered with dust and grease and I wasn't in the mood to dig it out and clean it up. Maybe I should, tho...just in case, right? I also didn't have any garlic, because I smelled my jar of minced garlic, and it didn't smell right at all, so I just put the lid back on and tossed it. Lesson learned: do NOT buy the big jar of minced garlic from now on, JB. Use the smaller jars, ok? 'K. Anyway, I grabbed a jar of garlic powder from the cupboard, shooke in what looked like enough, and as I put the jar back in the cupboard, I realized that it didn't say "powder," it said "garlic SALT!" Uh-oh! Thankfully, it didn't cause the stew to be over salty.

Ok, it wasn't the best stew in the world, but it wasn't the worst, it was edible, and it's worth saving and freezing for later. Will I make it again? I really don't think so, but if I do, I think I'll cook my own beans, and use fresh sweet potatoes. And since I've discovered that I can eat a lot of things that I didn't used to be able to when I ate meat, I just might buy some corn and try it in the soup, just to see what happens. I love corn. Now that I'm not cooking with meat, I've found out that I can eat chili, very spicy chili, with a LOT of beans, and it does...not...bother...my...system...at...all!!!!! Sooooo, maybe I can sneak some corn back into my diet. I plan to try, anyway.

One idea that this stew gave me was to make another one, but different: home-cooked and seasoned pinto beans, onions, garlic, thyme, and the sweet potatoes, either canned or fresh, but NO tomatoes. Sounds good to me...oh, yeah, simmer the pintos with a bay leaf, too.

Guess that's it for today, got to go shift the blasted washer again, sigh. So, until next time, Happy Eating.

St. Patrick's Day Vegetarian Recipes

The post before last, I told you I would find and post some St. Patrick's Day recipes, so, here they are. The first one comes from www.about.com from the vegetarian pages there. If you've never been there, I highly recommend you check them out. Hopefully my link works, but if not, copy and paste into your address bar, and then after going to about.com, type "vegetarian recipes" into their search bar. Should work just fine.

First of all, since the first recipe calls for seitan, I'm going to post the definition of seitan from about.com, for anyone that doesn't know what seitan is.

Definition of Seitan: "Altho it is made from wheat, seitan has little in common with flour or bread. Also called 'wheat meat,' 'wheat gluten,' or simply 'gluten,' seitan becomes surprisingly similiar to the look and feel of meat when cooked, making it a popular meat substitute. Seitan is also high in protein, making it a popular protein source for vegetarians....Seitan also is the base for several commercially available products such as Tofurkey deli slices.

Seitan can be prepared by hand using either wheat flour or vital wheat gluten, and is made by rinsing away the starch in the wheat, leaving high-protein gluten behind. Prepared seitan can be found in the refrigerated section of most health food stores."

I don't think that's a really good definition, but it'll have to do.

Vegetarian "Beef" and Guiness Stew

Prep time: 10 minutes Cooktime: 60 minutes
Ingredients:
Approx. 14oz.seitan, cut in thin strips
2Tbs. each soy sauce and olive oil
1Tbs. steak sauce
3Tbs. butter or margarine(vegans can use Earth Balance)
1 onion, diced, 3 ribs celery, chopped; 2 carrots, chopped; 2 med. potatoes, diced;
3cloves garlic, minced.
2-12oz. bottles of Guiness stout, OR 1 bottle and 1 1/2C veggie broth
2Tbs. flour/ 1Tbs. chopped fresh thyme(1/2Tbs.dried); 1tsp. sugar, optional.

Preparation:
Saute seitan in olive oil and soy sauce until slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat, add steak sauce and stir until seitan is lightly coated. Remover from heat and set aside.

In large pot, saute veggies and garlic in butter or margerine 3-5 minutes, or until onions are slightly soft. Reduce heat and slowly add Guinness, gently stirring to combine. Add flour, thyme, salt and pepper and stir well[I guess this is where you would add the optional sugar.]. Add seitan and allow stew to simmer until stout reduces and stew thickens, about 40-5- minutes.

Reader Review:
"WARNING:...Guinness is not a vegetarian beverage. It contains isinglass...a byproduct of the fishing trade used to settle/clarify the stout....There are...stouts out there that don't use isinglass, so by all means, try this recipe."

And btw, I haven't tried any of these Irish recipes yet, so I can't give my opinion of any of them. But, they all looked good to me, and eventually, I do plan on cooking them. I was going to make this stew tonight, because I have some seitan in the 'fridge, but I'm not going to have time. And I don't have any steak sauce...I don't eat steak, so why would I have it, right? Anyway, maybe I can get by with a mix of ketchup, mustard, garlic, and Balsamic vinegar?

Ok, all of these next recipes come from a wonderful blogsite called "Vegetarians in Paradise." I found a whole bunch of Easter/Passover recipes there today, but, I'm not going to post them, because there are so many that I jsut do NOT want to copy them all down and then come here and post them, lol. Lazy. So here's the URL for the St. Patrick's Day recipes, and once you're there, click on "holidays" and look for Easter...or whatever holiday you choose. http://www.vegparidise.com/cookingwith83.html
Hope that works, sigh...if not, use the copy and paste, and the address bar. You knew that, tho, right?

Irish Soda Bread(Vegan)
1 1/2C plus 2Tbs. unsweetened soymilk and 1Tbs. plus 1 1/2tsp. vinegar
4Cwhole wheat pastry flour[according to "Vegan with a Vengeance," by Isa Muskowitz, you can use all-purpose flour if you prefer, or if you don't have any wheat flour.]
1tsp. each baking soda and salt.

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine woymilk and vinegar, and set aside.

3. Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Form a well in center, and add soured soymilk, stirring with a large spoon until mixture forms a dough firm enough to shape into a ball.

4. Place dough on parchment paper and form into a circle 8in. in diameter and about 1 1/2 in. thick. Using a sharp knife, make 3 vertical slits about 1/2in. deep, and 2in. apart. Then, crisscross with 3 horizontal cuts about 2in.apart(plus signs: +++). These will make it easier to slice the baked bread into portions.

5. Bake the bread 40-45 minutes or until bread forms a golden brown firm top and bottom crust[it should sound hollow when tapped on the top]. Serve immediately or warm gently to serve later.

This is not the same recipe I used for the soda bread I posted about in an earlier post, without the recipe. This one is less complicated, a few less ingredients, and I'm anxious to try it, but I don't have any flour, and forgot to buy any yesterday. Sheesh.