Crookneck Squash and Onions...vegan

So far, I haven't been able to fill the Cymbalta prescription, because it, and the Lyric, are both higher priced than most of my other meds. Hopefully I'll get it Saturday, after work. I have the Lyrica and the Flexoril, and while the Lyrica has helped my arms, hands, and shoulders a lot, the Flexoril doesn't seem to do much for me. I admit that I don't seem to hurt as much when I wake up in the mornings now, but I don't seem to be sleeping any better, like the doc told me I would. Oh.well, I'm not sleeping any worse now, and my bed all of a sudden feels softer and more comfortable, lol. So maybe the stuff is working and I just don't realize it?

Susan Albert twittered about the Onion and Apple Sauce that I posted last week, and when I saw it, I was delighted. She told her readers to come over and get the recipe and try it, and she thanked me. Right back to ya, Ms. Albert, I appreciate that you mentioned me.

The Crookneck Squash and Onions is one of those non-recipe recipes, and it's just so simple, and it's just soooooooo good, too. That was my supper last night, along with some mashed potatoes, and no other side dishes at all. I mixed the leftovers together and will try to fry it up as patties for supper tonight, with some green peas with a mint and butter sauce. Sound good? It does to me, lol. Anyway, let me post this non-recipe for you, and I hope you like it.

Crookneck Squash and Onions

4 small crookneck squash, well scrubbed, but with the skin left on

2 small or one medium onion, peeled and cut into half-moon slices. You won't need to seperate the slices, as they'll fall apart while cooking anyway.

1-2Tbs. of olive oil, and 1-2 Tbs. of butter

black pepper, to taste

Heat the oil and butter in a medium sized skillet over medium heat. When the butter is all melted, put the onion slices in. You want them to cook for about five minutes, to soften, and to start turning a little brown, but not too brown.

While the onions are cooking, slice the squash into rounds, about 1/8 inch or so thick, maybe a little thicker if you like...it's not precise, you don't have to aim for perfection here, honest.

Put the squash in with the onions, and add two cups of cold water, cover it, and let it come to a boil. When it boils nicely, turn it down to a good simmer, and let it simmer until the water is gone...unless you want it to be juicy. I don't, so I simmer until it's almost dry, and starting to brown, usually about 45 minutes to an hour. Add black pepper to taste, and that's all there is to it.

You can also do this with zucchini, or you can use 2 crookneck and 2 zucchini together. If you want to, you can add tomatoes to the mix, as well. That's pretty good with spaghetti, along with some parmesan cheese. Experiment. Make it yours.

That's it for now, so until next time, Happy Eating!!!

Warm Rotini Ssalad w/Balsamic Vinaigrette(Vegan); BacoBits; Coconut Veggie Curry(vegan)

Today is the fourth day in a row that I've been out of work. This could become a habit, lol. I so enjoy being home, but, the rent must be paid, one needs to buy groceries, pay the utilities, etc., so one goes back to work tomorrow morning. Sigh. The reason that I took Thursday off, is that I'm in a bit of an arthritic/fibro flare-uup:swollen hands and fingers, back aches, ankles hurt, etc., so being home hasn't been as much fun as I would've liked. Sigh again, lol. But, I found out yesterday that my boss has allegedly changed my schedule...yet again...so that I will be off on M-W-F, which is fine by me, because it means that after a horrendous two days over the weekend, I no longer will have to drag in again on Monday mornings. That's good. That's very good! Anyway, I'll find out for sure when I go to work in the AM.

When I bought groceries this past Tuesday, I found a really inexpensive brand of coconut milk, so I splurged and bought four cans. Last night I came up with a way to use one of them, a vegetable coconut curry. Not the most original thing, I realize, as I've seen recipes for something very similar all over the net, but I did this one without a written recipe, and it turned out wonderfully.

JB's Coconut Vegetable Curry
A couple good handsful of frozen cauliflower
A good handful of frozen green peas
About two medium carrots, sliced into very thin "coins"
1 can coconut milk
2 tsp. curry powder, more or less to YOUR taste(two worked fine for me)
To taste: ginger(about 1/4 tsp.), garlic, nutmeg(about 1/4 tsp.), black pepper, cinnmon and sugar(about a tsp. of a mix for making toast)

Put the carrots in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat. When boiling, turn heat down, and allow to simmer for at least 45 minutes, or until carrots are as tender as YOU want them. Oh...the pan should be covered. When the carrots are just about done, add the frozen cauliflower and green peas, bring back to a boil, and simmer a few minutes, or until the cauliflower and peas are tender. When they're as tender as YOU want them, drain most of the water from the pan, and pour in the whole can of coconut milk, along with all the spices. Keep the pan over medium-low heat until everything is heated thru. Serve over rice(I used a baked potato). Enjoy.

I thought this was wonderful, and it could easily become one of my favorite comfort foods. It's rich, mildly spicy, creamy, and just plain good, lol. It made enough for two people for one meal, but for me, it made enough for two meals, so it's going to be my supper again tonight. Will I make it again? Undoubtedly!!!

This pasta salad comes from the "Vegetarian Times: Low-Fat and Fast" cookbook, published in 1997. It's one of the ones I've checked out of the library. The way I happened to make this salad was that I simply closed my eyes, flipped thru the pages a few times, and then just stopped and opened my eyes: there was the salad, so that was supper one night this past week, lol. I was lucky that time, but then I tried to "blind pick" again, from a couple other cookbooks, and didn't fare so well, as I came up with some that had ingredients that I just plain dislike, or that I didn't have. Anyway, I did the best I could with the salad, even tho there were a few things I didn't have, lol.

Warm Rotini Salad w/Balsamic Vinaigrette
8 pz. uncooked rotini

Vinaigrette: 1/3C chopped basil
3 Tbs. Balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Salad: Nonstick cooking spray
2C sliced fresh mushrooms
1 med. yellow bell pepper, seeded, and cut into strips
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2C halved cherry tomatoes
1/4C(1 oz.)cubed mozzeralla(optional)Vegans can omit entirely, or use a vegan "cheese," such as the Tofutti brand(which I think isn't very good, btw.)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Prepare rotini according to package directions.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine vinaigrette ingredients. Whisk until well blended. Set aside.
For the salad, spray a medium nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Cook the mushrooms, bell pepper, and garlic, stirring, over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, cook, stirring constantly, until heated through.
Drain the rotini. In a large bowl, combine rotini and vegetable mixture. Add vinaigrette and chesse, if using; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Makes six servings.

Well, ok, there's the real recipe, which to me, looks really tasty. But, I had to make some changes: I don't like basil, and I didn't have any mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, or cherry tomatoes. So, uh, what did I have, right? LOL! Ok. Instead of the mushrooms, I diced up half a medium onion and sauteed that with a green bell pepper I just happened to have, as well as...ready for this?...8 frozen Brussels sprouts, and one small carrot, sliced into really thin matchsticks. I had some frozen yellow tomatoes from the bounty that my co-worker had given me earlier this year, so I let two of those thaw. When a frozen tomato thaws, btw, the peels slips off as easily as if you had done the boiling water procedure with it. Anyway. I let the tomatoes sit in a colander while everything else was sauteeing, and then chopped 'em up and put 'em in the pan with the sprouts, onions, carrots, etc. And, when everything was tender enough to suit me, I finished the salad according to the recipe...except that the vinaigrette didn't have basil, it had about 1/6C of dried oregano, and the vinaigrette was wonderful, seriously.

Ok, so I royally changed the recipe, but believe it or not, it was really good. Oh, yeah, I did have some vegan mozzeralla, so I used a couple slices of that, plus I threw in some vegetarian smoked provolone. Goat cheese would've been absolutely fantastic in this, but I didn't have any. The salad fed me for a couple days, but after the second day, I didn't want any more, I got tired of it. I don't know if I'll make it again or not, but I think I will, hopefully with goat cheese and fresh tomatoes. I'm also wondering if a different type of dressing would be as good as the Balsamic vinaigrette was?

Now, about those BacoBits! I just happened to see them at Kroger the other day, didn't have them on my list, and wasn't looking for them. A container of the BettyCrocker brand just jumped off the shelf into my grocery cart, lol, so I had no choice but to buy it and take it home. As near as I can tell, they are vegan, which means that everyone can use them. The only meal I've made with them so far was a "breakfast for dinner" type of thing: Fried 'taters with onions and BacoBits, and then some eggs cracked over the top of the 'taters, a cover put on the skillet, and the eggs allowed to cook and set, sort of a cross between over light, poached, and sunny side up, lol. Good? OHHELLYEAH! Very good, and I ate every single bite of it, too. I think that the Bits would be good in an omelette...in scrambled eggs...in turnip/collard/mustard greens, or even in green beans. I am really pleased that I brought them home and tried them.

One more thing and I'll go quietly away and let you get on with your day. I've added another website to "JB'S Favorites," on the top lefthand of the page. The site is another one that has the recipe ingredient search function, i.e., put in the ingredients, hit search, and it brings up recipes using those ingredients. That's how I happened to make the veggie curry last night: I entered chickpeas and coconut milk, and it brought up a chickpea coconut milk curry. I didn't especially like the looks of that, but thought that coconut and curry would be good, so figured out the rest of it from stuff I had here already. Anyway, the site is www.foodieview.com
Give it a try.

Until next time, Happy Eating!!!

Tomato Pie(non-vegan)

Good morning, and welcome back. How has your week been going? Mine has been ok, nothing out of the ordinary, which, altho boring, is also nice, because it means I'm not in any kind of a crisis, and THAT is wonderful, lol.

One of my favorites, on the left of the page, is "thesimpledollar.com," and I get a daily newsletter from there. Two times lately, the author has posted recipes from an NPR(National Public Radio?)contest called "How Low Can You Go?" Folks have sent in all kinds of recipes, all supposed to be under $10 to prepare, for a family of, I think, four. Anyway. I followed a couple links from one of the recipes in his newsletter, and one of them took me to the NPR contest site, which is where I found this Tomato Pie recipe, from Kathy Lloyd, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. If you're interested, the link to NPR is www.npr.org, but you'll have to do a search for the contest itself.

Kathy Lloyd's Tomato Pie

Make one biscuit recipe from a boxed biscuit mix. Use it as a pie crust and bake it. Place either ceramic baking beads or another pie plate on top of it to keep it from rising out of control.

Layer in the pie crust sweet onions[such as Vidalias]piled high and sliced thin, generally one big one. Then use fresh tomatoes, not too thinly sliced, about two pounds. Season each layer of tomatoes with salt, fresh cracked pepper, and fresh basil.

Make a top crust with two cups shredded cheddar cheese and one cup mayo. Mix the cheese and mayo with your hands and squish it all over the pie like a top crust. Bake at 350ºF for 45-60 minutes. On the crust, I used half goat cheese, half mayo, but you have to have the mayo to make the crust.

Now, I don't know about you, but to me, those directions are a little confusing in places. "Each layer" of tomatoes? How many layers? And what temperature should the biscuit crust bake at, for how long? Are the directions on the box? I'm sure the end product is good, but I'm NOT sure about how to get there.

So. Here's what I did, instead of Ms. Lloyd's pie: tarts...sort of, lol. A couple years ago, one of my customer's kids was selling stuff for his school, so I ordered a dozen of the silicone muffin cups from him, and have been so glad that I did, many time. These babies are wonderful: you can bake them up to 500ºF, they sit on a baking sheet all by themselves and don't need liners or to be greased, and they wash easily, too. So I used those instead of an actual tart pan, which I odn't have anyway, and instead of regular muffin tins...which I do have, but prefer not to use.

My crust recipe comes off the box of Kroger brand biscuit mix, and is actually for a pizza. I think I've posted it here before, but I'm not going to take the time to hunt for it. Just know that it's a very, very acceptable substitution for a real pizza crust, but no yeast, and very easy.

1 1/2 C biscuit mix
1/4 C HOT water
1 Tbs. oil

Mix all together to form a soft dough, and then mix well for about 20 strokes. Then let the dough rest for about 8 minutes. Then, after the 8 minutes, I put the dough on a floured cutting board, greased my hands well with olive oil and slid them up and down my rolling pin, so it wouldn't stick to the dough, and rolled it out until it was about 1/4 inch thick, close to a six by six inch square. I used a drinking glass to cut six rounds from the dough, and pushed the six rounds down into six of the silicone muffin cups(if you don't have the silicone cups, just grease six regular muffin tins, and after you've got the dough in the muffin tins, weigh it down with the ceramic thingies or even dried beans), and set the other six cups inside these, to keep the crust from rising too high. I had already preheated the oven to 450ºF...and btw, the cups were sitting on a small metal cookie sheet...and so I put the cookie sheet in the oven. Ok, even tho the cups are good to 500ºF, I didn't like the smell coming from the oven, so I turned it down to 450ºF, and that took care of the smell. After about eight minutes I checked on the little crusts, but the were too soft. Ultimately it took about 12 minutes to brown them a little bit, but they didn't get crisp, which was fine with me.

Ok, now. You'll need one large tomato, and about half of a large onion, some oregano, about 3/4 of a cup of mayo, and as much cheese as you like. We're working with a smaller amount than the pie would be, so you won't need the full two cups of cheese, or the full two pounds of tomatoes.

First, I lowered the oven temperature again, down to 350ºF. Then I diced the onion finely, and put about two teaspoonsful into each little pastry cup, and sprinkled them well with oregano. On top of the onion and oregano, I laid a good slice of tomato, sort of folding it if necessary to keep it inside the cup. I sprinkled the tomato slices with black pepper. Now for the fun part, lol. I can't use dairy cheddar, even tho I love it, and I do NOT like the vegetarian cheddar, so I totally used goat cheese, probably about a cup in all. Use whatever cheese you have and like, crumbled up to mix well with the 3/4 cup mayo. After you've mixed them together, spoon the resulting glop(good stuff, tho)on top of each cup, put the whole shebang in the oven, and wait about, oh, 30 minutes, I think. The whole thing should be hot, and the mayo and cheese should be oozing and lightly browned.

Ok, are these good? OH HELL YEAH! LOL! I ate three of them, one right after the other, and I've eaten another one, cold out of the 'fridge, this morning. If you and your family like pizza, you will like these, I assure you. And you can experiment with them until the cows come home, too. Don't like oregano? The original recipe calls for basil...try thyme...try tarragon...add some minced garlic...use different cheeses...whatever you think you'll like. I don't think you can screw these up. And I also think that instead of the biscuit dough crusts, you could use...ohhhhhhh, no, senior moment, sigh...you know, it's the flaky crust on Napoleons, on Baklava, I can't think of it, sigh. And I love it. Anyway, if you figured out what I mean, I think it would be good, too, lol. HAH! Phyllo! Got it, lol. It's rough getting old...you'll find out for yourself one of these days, lol.

Now, will I make these again? I honestly don't know. They were fairly labor intensive, but not all that bad, so yes, I think someday I'll make them again, and I think that I will do it as a pie next time. These would make good appetizers for a party, I think, whereas the pie could be sliced and served at dinner as a side dish.

Until next time, Happy Eating!!!

Hot Spinach Salad w/Feta(non-vegan); More about the kidney jerkl

This past Tuesday, the 7th, I was scheduled for my second visit with the kidney guy/jerk. Well! I sat in the waiting room, and I sat,and I sat, and I sat, and finally, his assistant came out, and, long story short: The doctor wasn't even in the building, he was running late, and there were three patients ahead of me. Sooooooo, I called my friend to come and get me, wrote that I would re-schedule on the sign-in sheet, and I left. Period. I was there roughly 45 minutes, the couple ahead of me had been there over an hour, and nobody had bothered to come out and tell the jerk's patients that he was late. Forgive me, but I have serious issues with that situation, and think it was unbelieveably inconsiderate, as well as not even close to being professional. However, I do have to see him again, so I will make another appointment. Sometime. In the meantime, it's been at least a week since I talked to the rheumatoligist's scheduler, and still haven't heard anything from them. I'm just very, very grateful that none of this is life-threatening, because I think that I'd most likely have died by now, from waiting for these "specialists" to decide what to do with me and my life. I'm pissed. Period.

None of that has anything to do with the hot spinach salad, does it? Nope, it doesn't, so I'll right to the point now. The original recipe wasn't for a hot salad, so this is an adaptation of a recipe I found in "Eating Well." When I read the original recipe, I thought, "Oh, yum...and I just actually happen to have a bag of baby spinach in the 'fridge." I had bought it to make something else, but since I don't remember what, I used it for the salad. The reason I decided to go with a hot salad is that I'm still kinda leery about raw bagged "stuff" in general, after the E.Coli scare a few months back. So, here's my recipe.

Hot Spinach Salad with Feta Cheese
One 10-oz. bag baby spinach, thoroughly rinsed and left very wet
Feta cheese...I used Vigo, which is made with sheep's milk. Use any kind you prefer...or leave it out entirely and make the salad vegan.
About two tablespoonsful olive oil
One heaping teaspoonful minced garlic(mine is from a jar, always)
About one teaspoonful Balsamic vinegar

Heat the olive oil in a skillet big enough to hold the spinach, remembering that the spinach will wilt and cook wayyyyy down. Toss the minced garlic in the pan, and let it sit until the oil is hot. Put the very wet spinach in the pan when the oil is hot, cover it, and let it cook down...if you want to, you can salt and pepper it now, but Feta cheese is wicked salty, so be careful. All I used was the black pepper. Once the spinach has wilted, crumble as much of the Feta cheese over it as you like. I guess I used about 3/4 cupful, because I love the stuff. Sprinkle about a teaspoonful of Balsamic vinegar over it all, stir, and let it sort of stew for a few minutes, just enough to let the flavors marry. Oh, yeah, I didn't put this in the ingredient list...obviously I'll never be a cookbook author...but I also peeled and diced up a big, red tomato, and put this in right after the cheese. If you don't have a tomato, I don't see why you couldn't use canned, drained, diced 'maters, do you? Anyway, that's all there is to it. It's one of those recipes that you can add to, or subtract from, or multiply, whatever. Different seasonings if you like, different type of cheese...goat cheese would be nice, too...or no cheese at all, maybe shredded carrots or minced onions, whatever. Play with it, make it yours.

Did I like this? Oh, yeah, very much! I ate all of it, by myself, in two evenings. Will I make it again? Possibly, but basically it falls into that category of "I'd love to have more of this if someone else would cook it," tho. And I don't have the Vigo Feta very often, as Kroger doesn't sell it: All their Fetas are made with cow's milk, and I can't handle the dairy. Since I cooked the spinach anyway, I think if I make it again, I'll just use frozen spinach. All I know for sure is that I really liked it. With it I had boiled potatoes and cubed seitan in onion gravy. Wonderful meal!!!!

Until next time, Happy Eating.

TVP Taco Recipe; Summer Sammich Ideas

This has been a pretty good week. I found $50 that I thought I had lost, one of my cyber-sisters sent me a Terry Blackwell book in the mail: "True Light," the Imaging Center where I had the ultrasound and the CT scan sent me a cute little "thank you" card, AND a check for $10(evidently I overpaid my c0-pay for the ultrasound!), went to the library yesterday which is always a joy, and best of all, Wednesday afternoon at work, I had the time to sit and snuggle with my nine-week old great-grandson!!! He was trying so hard to tell me about the nasty doctor that had stuck the nasty and painful needles in his little legs, bless his heart. So, I told him I understoon how he felt, and that I don't like needles being stuck in me, either. I'm sure he understood me, too. LOL!!!

I've spent the last five hours browsing three new-to-me websites, which mostly don't have much to do with food or cooking. The three of them have been added to my list of favorite websites, on the left of the page, and as of this moment I haven't checked them to see if the links work, but I will, and if they don't, I'll fix them. One is EasyEarth, and that one does have a section about food, and a few vegetarian, not vegan, recipes. The main reason I went there, tho, was to find some recipes for homemade, and "green," cleaning supplies, which I did find. Another site is TheSimpleDollar, and is one man's blog about being frugal, which another subject near and dear to my heart. The third one is Yes!magazine, and it's, well, it's about all sorts of things. I linked to it from the SimpleDollar, I think, to check out an article called "Sustainable Happiness," lol. And have signed up for the newsletter...as well as the newsletter from TheSimpleDollar, too. EarthEasy has one, but for reasons of my own, I chose not to subscribe to theirs.

About three weeks ago, I went into this little town's only...as far as I know...health food store, and altho I was extremely disappointed in it, I did fine some TVP, and some, um, wakame, I think...maybe it was dulse, but I don't think so. Anyway. So, I've been looking around for recipes using TVP, and while I've found several, this one really seemed like a good one, so I made it last night. Yup, it's a good one, and it comes from about.com, thanks to Jolinda Hackett, the vegetarian pages blogger. She does a fantastic job, and if you've never checked the vegetarian pages out over there, do yourself a favor, and do so. Sometime today. Anyway....

Ten Minute TVP Taco Recipe
2 cups each TVP and water
2 Tbs. each soy sauce and olive oil or vegetable oil
1 package taco seasoning
1 red or yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
1/4 cup salsa
flour tortillas or hard taco shells

In large skillet, heat water, over medium heat and add the TVP, stirring well. Allow the TVP to reconstitute for 2-3 minutes.

Add oil, soy sauce, peppers, and seasoning, stirring well. Allow to cook another 3-5 minutes.

Serve wrapped in tortillas or hard taco shell. Eat as is, vegan, or add tomatoes, lettuce, refried beans, sour cream, cheese.

I made some refried beans with diced onions in them. Spread a tortilla with a goodly amount of plain chevre goat cheese, plopped on some of the beans, and covered it all with a good bit of the TVP taco mix. Rolled it all up, heated the tortilla until lightly browned on two sides, and ate. I will most definitely do this again. In fact, there's a fully made and rolled up tortilla in the freezer right now, as well as a fair amount of the taco mix still in the refrigerator. I think I'm going to top a couple small baked potatoes with it and some cheese for supper tonight, along with some kind of vegetable. I can also tell you that the taco mix and a couple slices of the vegetarian smoked provolone cheese make on helluva great grilled sammich, too!!!!

Yesterday at the library, I checked out another cookbook: "The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook," by Cathe Olson, and while I no longer have little kids at home, the book is definitely a winner, seriously. One of these days I'm going to try to find it, and add it to my home collection of cookbooks. One section of her book is called "Sandwiches and Quick Lunch Ideas," and some of these sammich ideas sound really, really good. Now, for the most part, you know I won't post a recipe here unless I've tried it and can vouch for it, but this is one of those times I'm going to break my own rule(hey, at my age, that's subject to happen a LOT!!), and give you three or four sammich recipes that I think look like they would be awfully good. It would take me quite a while to get around to trying all of them myself, so, I decided to post them. And, here goes:

Spinach-Hummus Wrap...vegan

1 large whole grain tortilla or slice flatbread(lavash)
1/4 to 1/3 cup Hummus
1/2 cup chopped spinach
2 to 3 Tbs. each diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and/or shredded carrots(all optional)

Liberally spread tortilla or flatbread with hummus. Layer vegetables over hummus and roll up. Wrap tightly with wax paper, foil, or plastic wrap until ready to eat. It will keep for couple of days wrapped and refrigerated. Makes 1 serving.

Veggie-Apple Melt...can be made vegan

2 slices whole grain bread.
2 tsp. EACH Dijon mustard and mayonnaise(regular OR vegan)
4 apple slices
2 Tbs. shredded carrots
2 to 4 cucumber rounds
2 Tbs. alfalfa sprouts
2 thin slices cheddar cheese(dairy OR non-dairy)

Preheat toaster or conventional oven to 375ºF. Spread one slice of bread with mustard, the other with mayonnaise. On mustard side, place apple slices and carrots. On mayo slice, place cucumber slices and sprouts. Cover each with a slice of cheese. Place on baking sheet and bake 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

My apologies, because that's only two sammiches instead of three or four. I had forgotten that it was necessary to go to other pages in her book for more recipes for a couple of those sammiches, such as Beanballs for the Beanball Sub I was going to post, sigh. I'm just too darned lazy to look it up, so, again, my apologies. If you do try either of these sammiches, tho, I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me a comment. 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.

LowerFat Banana Bread(Vegan); Bulgur/Tomato/Feta Salad

Yup, still the same day, lol, but I almost forgot I have two more good recipes I want to post. Probably I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating: Almost none of the recipes I post here are original, as I'm not all that creative when it comes to making up recipes; wherever possible I give full credit to the author/source where I found the recipe, and if I can't, I still tell you it's NOT my own recipe; I have tried every one of the recipes I've posted, and will never post one I haven't tried...I don't think, lol...and I will never take credit for a recipe that's not mine.

The banana bread recipe is from "Veganomicon," by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, and is very, very good. I made it because my next-door neighbor had bought too many bananas, and I very kindly offered to help her use them up before they rotted, lol. So, what do you do with overly ripe bananas, right? You make banana bread. And I did!

Lower-Fat Banana Bread

2 large or 3 small very ripe bananas 1/4C applesauce 1/4C canola oil
1/2C sugar 2Tbs. molasses 2C all-purpose flour 3/4tsp. baking powder
1tsp. ground cinnamon 1/4tsp ground nutmeg, or grated fresh 1/2tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease a 9X5-inch loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas really, really well. Add the sugar, applesauce, oil, and molasses, and whisk biskly to incorporate. *See note at bottom.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Us a wodden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes. The top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted through the center should come out clean.

Remove from the oven and invert onto a cooling rack. Flip the bread right side up and let cool.

*Note: "Never use a hand mixer for banana bread because it makes it gummy; treat it like a muffin batter and mix with a wooden spoon just until the wet and dry ingredients are combined. In fact, if you would like to turn these into muffins, pour the battter into a greased muffin tin and bake for eighteen minutes."

In the directions for the bread, they mention using chocolate chips if you want to. There's no mention of the chips in the ingredient list, so use your own discretion as to how many to use if you so choose. I didn't.

This bread is wonderful, I loved it, and actually followed the recipe to a tee!!! How often does that happen, eh?

This next recipe is a salad recipe, which I don't usually mess with. I'm not a really big salad eater for the most part. Years ago, when I was much, much younger, if you had opened my 'fridge, you would've thought that you'd come upon a salad bar. Many times, a big salad, with all sorts of stuff in it, was my dinner, with whichever salad dressing my hand had grabbed from the 'fridge. Nowadays, tho, you won't find anything pertaining to lettuce salads in my 'fridge, because for some reason, lettuce hurts my stomach. I've tried other greens, but didn't really care for them, so now, any salad I try has no greens in it. Usually. There may be an exception to that here and there.

Anyway. This salad comes from "How To Cook Everything Vegetarian," by Mark Bittman, which is a huge book, just jam-packed with information: techniques, variations on a recipe, how to store things, and lots and lots and lots of recipes, many of which are vegan or can be easily veganized. I don't think this one can be, tho, which is a shame, because it's an awfully good salad.

Bulgur/Tomato/Feta Salad

1C fine-grind(#1) or medium-grind(#2)bulgur
3C chopped tomato or quartered cherry tomatoes
1 small onion, diced 2-oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2Tbs red wine vinegar, or more to taste
1/4C extra virgin olive oil, or more to taste
2Tbs chopped fresh oregano leaves or 2tsp. dried
1tsp. hot red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly groung black pepper

Soak the bulgur in hot water to cover until tender, 15-30 minutes. Put the tomato, onion, feta, vinegar, olive oil, oregano, and redpepper if you like in a large salad bowl and stir with a fork to combine. Sprinkle with a little salt)remember the feta can be salty) and lots of pepper.

When the bulgur is tender but not mushy, drain it in a strainer, pressing down to squeeze out any excess liquid. Put it in the bowl while it's still warm and fluff with a large fork to stir in the other ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more oil or vinegar as needed. Serve the salad at room temperatue or cool it down and refrigerate it for a couple hours or so.

Variations: can use two cups cooked rice or cracked wheat instead of the bulgur. Can add two cups canned or cooked chickpeas to the salad bowl before adding the bulgur. You will probably want to add a little more vinegar and oil, too.

Ok, here's my take on it. First of all, will I make this again? Definitely. It's a keeper...and it doesn't even have any garlic in it, lol. Secondly, it took over two cups of very hot water, and almost 45 minutes to get the bulgur to the tenderness that I wanted, and it was still somewhat crunchy. Thirdly, I didn't have any red pepper flakes, so I used about 1/4 tsp. of cayenne, but couldn't feel any heat. And, I used drained, diced, canned tomatoes, which worked fine, and the dried oregano. Changes I couldn't help, not because I wanted to play around with the recipe...NO! I didn't use canned tomatoes...duh! I forgot: I actually bought a really big tomato, just for this recipe. I'm willing to bet that the canned and diced ones would work in a pinch, tho, and I'm thinking that the next time I make this, I might try balsamic vinegar instead of the red wine. Maybe goat cheese crumbles instead of the sheep's milk feta, too.

Until next time...and I'm really thru this time...Happy Eating.

Seriously Easy/Quick Dinner Ideas; My new cookbooks!!!

I am thrilled to pieces, because as of yesterday, I have three of the four cookbooks I wanted the most: "How To Cook Everything Vegetarian," by Mark Bittnam; "Veganomicon," by Isa Chandra Muskowitz and Terry Hope Romero; and "The NEW Vegetarian Epicure," by Anna Thomas. The only one I'm still missing is on backorder at Barnes & Noble's online site, "Vegan With A Vengeance," by Isa Chandra Muskowitz. So now, of course, I can't wait to go grocery shopping this week, as I've already found some recipes I want to try.

The ideas I'm posting here came from a Woman's Day magazine. I've only tried one of them, the garlic couscous one, but the others sound pretty darned good, easy, and quick. One of the hardest things about being a vegetarian is that it's not usually a quick process to fix something to eat...or at least, it's not for me. Some of the cookbooks I've read have had a section for what they call "fast food," but the time involved is usually about 45 minutes. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't call 45 minutes all that fast. As far as I'm concerned, fast means 30 minutes or less. That's just my opinion, yours may differ, it's fine by me!

None of these are actual recipes, they are literally ideas, and you'll have to figure out the seasoning amounts for yourself and your family. Basically everything will be "to taste." So, here we go:

Prepare garlic couscous as the box directs. Saute in olive oil onion, red bell pepper, shredded carrot, raisins, and cumin until onion is soft. Mix and fluff w/couscous. I used 1/2tsp. of cumin, and added 1/2tsp. of cinnamon and a whole TBS. of powdered ginger. It was fantastic...and yes, actually fast. Seems like it took less than 20 minutes to get it all together, including dicing the onion and shredding the carrot.

Next one: Mix tofu w/hoisin sauce, scallions, and ground ginger. Heat in a skillet. Can add minced garlic, red bell pepper, and shredded carrots. Haven't tried this one yet, but it does sound good.

Another one: Simmer diced zucchini, chopped onions and canned diced tomatoes w/herbs until zucchini is tender. Serve over hot rice, with goat cheese crumbled on top. Sounds good to me, haven't tried it yet.

One more: Saute sliced apples and onions in oil until tender. Stir in sauerkraut until hot. Pour over grilled tofu slices, seasoned w/sage, salt, and pepper. Spread brown mustard on bread, and make sammiches. Sorta kinda like a Rueben, and I think I'd like it if I ever actually tried it...which I will, some day.

Last one: Saute sliced bell peppers and onions in oil until tender, stir in unsweetened coconut milk, frozen peas, curry powder or paste, and salt. Boil, then simmer until slightly thickened. Serve over rice, noodles, or potatoes.

So, there ya have it, and until next time, Happy Eating.

Punjabi-Style Mustard Greens

Lousy day at work...all because of one lazy co-worker...but, that really doesn't have much to do with food and cooking, I guess, so I don't think I'll vent about it. Instead, I'll talk about food, and a new recipe I tried, Saturday evening? Mm, I think so.

Thursdays, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution has a section called "Food Guide," with a few ads, what's the best produce in the stores, nutritional advice, and recipes. This week I found a recipe called "Punjabi-Style Mustard Greens." I wanted it. I really, really, really wanted it. Well, as usual, I didn't have "exactly" what the recipe called for, lol, so I just did the best I could, and I was quite pleased with the results, altho it wasn't quite spicy enough to suit me. So, here it is:

Punjabi-Style Mustard Greens

2Tbs.clarified butter or vegetable oil 1/2 small onion, chopped
1tsp.garam masala 1/8tsp.crushed or ground fennel seed
1Tbs.chopped fresh ginger 4 garlic cloves, minced 1/2tsp. ground turmeric
1 1/2lbs.fresh mustard greens, chopped 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
Juice of 1 lime or lemon Salt to taste

In a large pan over medium-high heat, add the oil. Add the onion, garam masala and fennel. Cook until onions are translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic and turmeric and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the mustard greens. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most of the moisture eveaporates. Add the tomatoes and lemon or lime and cook until the tomatoes soften, 3-5 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

Ok, now you have the proper recipe, and now I'll tell you how I did it, with what I had to work with. I didn't have any mustard greens, so I used half a bag of frozen turnip greens. Since I didn't have any Roma tomatoes, I used one can, drained well, of diced tomatoes. I've never been able to find garam masala at Kroger, so I used curry powder instead, because according to a couple cookbooks I've read, this is ok. And, because every description of fennel says it tastes like licorice, which I hate with a passion, I do NOT have any fennel...nor will I ever. Never, I say, never!!! And, the only ginger I had was ground ginger, so I had to use that. Now, even with all these substitutions, the greens were really excellent...but needed more spice, as I said earlier. I ate them with a big baked potato,and some of the leftover lentils, and enjoyed every bite of it.

Sunday night I fixed the Alfredo Noodles again. This time I actually had some mushrooms, so I put them in, like the recipe calls for, and, I used a little more coconut milk than the recipe calls for. It was wonderful, and I ate the whole thing, lol. The recipe for this is somewhere on this blog, and I apologize, but I don't know how to link to it, sigh.

Last night, I pulled the last of the cauliflower/potato soup out of the freezer, and had that with biscuits. Also a very enjoyable meal.

Tonight? Well, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking about trying to make a gravy with tempeh, the rest of the mustard(ok, ok, turnip)greens, and mashed potatoes. I haven't had mashed potatoes in a long, long time. Even if I don't like the tempeh gravy, I can still eat enough of the 'taters and greens to fill up, so I'm certainly not going to go hungry tonight.

Tomorrow...Wednesday...is grocery day. My Christmas bonus check showed up yesterday, at work, so I can have a good time shopping, lol. Always nice to know I'm not going to run short before I'm thru, which seems to happen to me a lot lately.

Until next time, Happy Eating.

Marinated Tofu w/Cabbage, Tomatoes, and Sour Cream

Not a bad day at work at all, thank God. We weren't all that busy for a Sunday, but still stayed steady, and I made good money. And we had three dozen assorted doughnuts, as well as a huge plate of chocolate brownies that had nuts in them, and swirls of yummy caramel. I've brought home a lot, so I can have some with my coffee in the morning.

Friday I cooked the Woman's Day recipe of Marinated Shrimp...without the shrimp, of course. Instead, I used a block of tofu, cubed. So, here's the recipe, along with the Cabbage with Tomatoes and Sour Cream from Mark Bittman's cookbook, "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian."

Marinated Tofu in Cabbage with Tomatoes and Sour Cream
1pkg. firm tofu, drained with a 1lb.can on it for about 20 minutes, and then cubed
1/2C olive oil 1/2C lemon juice 1/2tsp. each minced garlic and hot sauce
1tsp. salt and pepper.

Mix the oil, juice, garlic, hot sauce, salt and pepper in a good-sized bowl, and add the tofu cubes. Stir the cubes in well, and marinate for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to be sure that all the cubes get covered with the marinade.

Now for the Cabbage, etc.

2Tbs. butter(oil for vegans) 1 med. onion, chopped 1Tbs. minced garlic
6C shredded cabbage, preferably Savoy(about 1 small head){I used plain old green cabbage, and it was fine.}
salt and pepper to taste 2C chopped tomatoes(drained, canned are fine){I didn't drain them, and it was fine.}
1Tbs. caraway or cumin seeds(optional) 1/2C sour cream{Tofutti Sour Supreme}

1. Melt butter in large deep skillet. Cook onion and garlic, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. {I added the tofu cubes here, with the onions and garlic} Add cabbage, raise heat a bit. Cook, stirring, adjusting heat so cabbage doesn't brown, until it softens, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. Add tomatoes, and the seeds of you're using them, and cook over lively heat, stirring, until mixture is saucy but thick, about 10-15 minutes. Lower heat to the minimum, then taste and adjust salt and pepper. Stir in sour cream and cook another couple minutes, stirring. Serve hot.

What I should have done, I realized too late, was to fry the tofu cubes first, to get them nice and brown and crispy, and then added the onions and garlic. I also cooked the cabbage separately, letting it simmer for about 30 minutes in a pot of salted water, because I like my cabbage very tender, not crisp-tender. While the cabbage was simmering is when I did all the rest of it, and the whole thing turned out very, very well. I really enjoyed this, and will probably make it again...I know I'm having the leftovers for my dinner tonight, lol. Friday night I had some leftover cornbread, so I sliced it in half, buttered it, and cooked it in a frying pan, nice and brown and crispy...my version of polenta, which I think would have been good with the cabbage and sauce. Tonight I'm just going to have a baked potato with it, and "maybe" a green veggie, depends on my energy level by dinner time.