Creamy Butternut Squash Soup 2 - Marcella

Super easy!

It's amazing how little effort goes into this simple soup...it has such a rich flavor. Almost like dessert in soup form.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

• 6 cups cubed butternut squash (peeled first)
• 5 cups water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 Tbsp mirin ("Asian" section, sweet rice cooking wine)

Add squash, water, and salt to a large pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium-low for 20 minutes

Lift out squash pieces with a slotted spoon and add to a blender along with the soymilk and a couple of cups of the squash cooking liquid. Blend til smooth. Add more cooking liquid if you'd like a thinner consistency.

Add the mirin (rice wine). Return soup to pot to reheat if necessary. If you want to get all fancy, garnish with a bright green sprig of something like parsley.

Minestrone - Marcella

Very quick and easy; eliminates any need to buy the canned variety. I usually make it without any pasta, but in this case I had a mini-box of kamut ditalini, so I used that.

Minestrone Soup

• cooking spray or 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I used 1 Rapunzel cube dissolved in 4 cups water)
• 1 can low-sodium diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 can cannellini beans,WITH liquid
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained
• 1/2 lb fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• pepper

 In a medium pot, heat oil or cooking spray. Add onions and garlic and saute about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

I use the canning liquid from the cannellini beans in this case because it imparts some nice viscosity to the soup broth. This is also why there's no salt added.

Recipes - Marcella

Broccoli Cream Soup

• 4 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs broccoli
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Separate broccoli tops from stems and peel stems. Cut into chunks. Boil the water and salt, add stems and simmer 10 minutes. Add tops and cook an extra 10 minutes. Save the water.

With a slotted spoon, scoop broccoli into a blender and add all remaining ingredients but the lemon juice, plus a half a cup or so of the broccoli water. Blend, adding more water if necessary.

Return to pot (after dumping out the remaining broccoli water, of course) and simmer on low for about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Done!

Tartar Sauce for Okara Crab Cakes

• 3 oz soft silken tofu, such as Mori-Nu brand
•  1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 Tbsp brown rice syrup or agave nectar
• 1 tsp umeboshi vinegar (in "Asian" section of grocery stores)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp minced dill pickles
• 1 Tbsp minced onions

 Add the first 5 ingredients to a blender and blend til smooth. Then, with the blender running, slowly add the olive oil and blend again til thick and creamy. Move to a bowl, add pickles and onions, and enjoy with your crab cakes or faux fish. Not something to eat in abundance, it's still a lot better than buying a jar of vegan mayonnaise, in my opinion.

A note on the crab cakes, I realized after posting that I neglected to mention why I have okara - something many have probably never heard of - lying around: I've been making my own soymilk. Okara is the byproduct. That's really the only reason anyone would happen to have it. I plan on posting on the process but I realize that it's not for everyone, being kind of labor intensive if you don't have an actual soymilk machine (I don't, I have a VitaMix). Investing in either of the two is definitely worth looking into, as the cost of whole soybeans is much less than soymilk, the additives are up to you, there's no packaging to throw away, and you get to use the leftover okara (which has a fair amount of protein and lots of minerals) for other things. So, overall it's less wasteful and expensive and I like maximum efficiency.

Vegan Italian Sausage - Marcella

Yet another (modified) recipe from my favorite vegan brunch cookbook: Italian sausage. Yes, there's all kinds of commercial vegan sausage out there and it's delicious, but they do tend to have a lot of fat and sodium. Here, you can choose low-sodium soy sauce and reduce the olive oil even further if you like.

Sometimes I slice them up, sometimes I halve them lengthwise, pan-sear them and serve with sauerkraut and spicy mustard. They make a great side or topping for spaghetti squash with tomato sauce or a bit of whole wheat or gluten free pasta (it's pictured above on einkhorn pasta, the most ancient form of wheat).

And FYI, the wheat gluten you buy to make these can also be used to make seitan. You will need a steamer or steamer basket for a pot of some kind to cook these.

Vegan Italian Sausage
makes 4

• 1/2 cup white beans (cannellini, navy, or Great Northern), drained
  
• 1 cup low sodium vegetable broth
• 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
• 1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (bulk and/or natural foods section)
• 2 tsp fennel seeds (ground or crushed)
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• black pepper
  

Mash up the white beans until there are no whole beans remaining. Add the rest of the ingredients in the listed order and mix well with a fork.


Tear off four sheets of aluminum foil, about 6 inches wide and lay them out. Divide your mix evenly among them. Shape each into about a 5-7 inch log and roll up in the foil, twisting the ends closed.

Place them in your steamer and steam for 30-40 minutes. Then slice, grill, eat as is, or save for later!

Real Quick White Bean Chili - Marcella

We eat black beans a few days a week with lunch and I'm tired of them. I wanted something lighter, SO I threw this together late one work night. We didn't have any cans of diced green chilies on hand so I reluctantly substituted some green salsa; however, it exceeded my expectations so I'm sharing it here.

White Bean Chili

• 2 cans cannellini or great northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 jar of green salsa
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup tvp
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, minced

Saute the onion and pepper for a few minutes in a saucepan sprayed with cooking spray. Add everything else, then cover an simmer for about 15-20 minutes. I top ours with half-ass but still delicious "guacamole" comprised of a mashed avocado, a few squirts of lime juice, a cube of frozen cilantro (from trader Joe's), and some salt and pepper.


As an added bonus, here's an adorable picture of Derek holding one of our (sleepy) ferrets, Quinn:

Protein Bars - Marcella

In most cases, you may as well eat a Mars Bar as eat a commercial protein bar. They have - as we used to say in high school - a metric butt-ton of fat and sugar. Derek and I used to order PureFit bars from Amazon.com as they seemed to have the best stats we could find: 230 calories, 6g fat, 15g sugar, and 18g protein. But for the two of us that's around $85 a month of processed protein bar...it all seemed excessive. So I decided to experiment and see how close I could get to the PureFit bars in stats - knowing of course that these were not going to be on the tastier side. Homemade "protein" bar recipes usually have things like chocolate chips and coconut oil and lots of sugar; my opinion is that if I'm going to make and eat something of that sort it will be in cookie or brownie form and that a protein bar's primary function is to get a large amount of protein into you with a minimum of fuss.




These bars contain around 15g protein, 3.7g fat, 12g sugar, and 189 calories per bar, assuming that you cut one batch into 12 bars and that you use similar ingredients. They are best kept frozen or refrigerated until eaten - due to the large amount of protein powder and the lack of preservatives they can get mushy if left out for a while.




Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp DEFATTED peanut butter (I used Bettern Peanut Butter)
• 1 ripe banana
• 6 Tbsp agave nectar
• 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/8 cup flax seeds
• 1 1/2 cups oats
• 4 scoops of protein powder (mine has 25g per scoop)

Mash the banana. Add peanut butter, agave, and all the seeds and mix. Next, incorporate protein powder one scoop at a time, mixing thoroughly between scoops as it's rather a lot to get in there. Finally, mix in the oats.

Line a rectangular container or baking dish with plastic wrap...try to eyeball a size that will give you 12 bars that are about 1/2 inch thick or so and of the shape you want. Dump your bar mix in and press it onto the container like so:
Put it in the freezer for a few hours to harden, then upend onto a cutting board - tap the container until the sheet of bar slides out - and peel off the wrap. Cut into pieces, wrapping individually for convenience if you like, and store in the freezer or fridge.

They're not covered in chocolate, but I think they're alright...sort of like healthy peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies. SORT of.

Omelets! - Marcella

Authentically "eggy" and rich, accomplished with tofu, chickpea flour, and black salt. The last two ingredients are really what give it the egg-like taste and texture. It's genius - this recipe, very slightly modified, is one of many awesome recipes in the cookbook Vegan Brunch: Homestyle Recipes Worth Waking Up For-From Asparagus Omelets to Pumpkin Pancakes. This is pretty labor-intensive - best for a Sunday brunch. Makes 4 medium sized omelets.

• a clove or 2 of garlic
• 1 pound soft or silken tofu (recommend Nasoya brand)
• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp fine black salt (note on that later)
• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch

**Chickpea flour (great protein source) and black salt can be found at your local Indian market. You can substitute regular salt, but the black salt has a really, really authentic flavor.

In a food processor, combine first 6 ingredients and puree til smooth. Add the rest and puree again til smooth.

Use as big a skillet as you can find - it makes turning the omelets easier. I also highly recommend getting a really wide spatula if you want to get serious about these things. Spray the skillet with a light layer of cooking spray and heat to medium high.

This is the tricky part: add 1/2 cup of "batter" to the center of the skillet and spread out to about 6 inches. It should spread out a little on its own - if it just sits there in a big mound you probably need to add water. I ended up having to add 1/2 cup of water to my batch, but it's really dependent on the brand of tofu. Testing out a spoonful of batter first may be wise.

Let it cook 3 to 5 minutes - or until the top starts to look kind of dry and matte - then flip and cook another couple of minutes. If when you attempt to flip it feels too flimsy just let it cook longer.

Once on the plate, fill with your favorite ingredients and fold.

Again, this recipe is a lot of work but it,s worth it. Try it at least once.

Easy muscle-building meals - Marcella

Here's some of our versions of the bodybuilding-style meal that, in the meat-eating world of Flex and Muscle & Fitness and so on, is the ubiquitous chicken, brown rice, and token green vegetable.

Every day for lunch we eat one of the following combinations of boringly wholesome food, microwaved so it couldn't be easier on a work day:

• quinoa, tofu, and TVP (textured vegetable protein, available dried in the bulk natural foods section usually - the water in the tofu rehydrates it when microwaved)
• quinoa and black beans
• brown rice, lentils, and sauteed onions
• brown rice and kidney beans
• whole wheat couscous, tomato sauce, and tofu...

The ratio of legume to grain is usually 2:1 ish, and I usually just spice it with a bit of salt and pepper. Course we also have a protein shake and salad and grapefruit.

Some dinners:
That's just Yves Lemon Herb "Chicken" skewers over brown rice with onions and peppers with asparagus on the side - a natural diuretic. Just saute onion and pepper in the rice pot before adding the water and continuing as usual. To cook the asparagus use non-stick cooking spray, minimal salt, and pepper, saute on med-high for a while, then add a bit of water, cover and cook a few minutes. Don't let it get mushy.


Gardein "Beef-less tips" (you will not believe how authentic Gardein stuff is - it's kind of frightening - available in the frozen section), thinly sliced and sauteed with onion and shredded cabbage and served with brown rice.


Spaghetti squash and tomato sauce with Gardein "Chicken tenders" (forzen section) and salad, always salad even if it's not pictured in the above meals. Derek says all the fresh greens we eat combat metabolic acidosis that can be a probem on a high-protein diet. Anyway, spaghetti squash is easy - slice in half crosswise, place face down on a baking dish and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Then shred with a fork onto your plate and top with sauce.

Black Bean Cakes - Marcella

Easy Black Bean Cakes (pictured with roasted corn salsa)

• can of black beans, drained really well
• 1/2 green bell pepper, minced
  
• 1/2 onion, minced
  
• 2 tsp cumin
• salt to taste
  
• whole wheat bread crumbs, or alternative flour (soy, almond, garbanzo bean)
• 1 -2 tsp olive oil or cooking spray
  

1. Mash the first five ingredients together with a fork or potato masher. Add as much bread crumbs or flour as necessary to keep it from being too sticky and form it into patties (if you have cooking spray it helps to spray your hands with it a bit first - that also works for measuring sticky things in measuring cups or spoons).
2. Heat oil or cooking spray in frying pan, add patties and cook on each side til browned - probably 5 minutes per side or so. Easy.
3. For topping you could do sliced avocados, plain salsa from a jar, pico de gallo, and/or roasted corn (available frozen at Trader Joe's).
   

Indian Food, Part 1 - Marcella

I've been cooking a lot of Indian food lately, having been inspired by some Indian feasts at the home of our friends' Deepak and Matt.

We don't go out for Indian anymore, since it's generally very oily and hard for us to stomach these days. Fortunately I have a great cookbook: Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India that has a lot of pretty healthy recipes, aside from the deep-fried things, desserts, and so on.

Some recipes to come after this one are: Gobi (cauliflower), Channa Masala (chickpeas) and Bhurta (eggplant) - all stuff you can get when going out for Indian, but easy to make at home. I made all of the above for a Christmas feast, with brown Basmati rice (Trader Joe's), and lots of lentil-stuffed samosas (delicious fried savory pastries) and other appetizers you can get in abundance in the frozen section of an Indian market. All very light and healthy EXCEPT the samosas - great finger food for parties but a dangerous habit to get into at home alone.

Anyway, an Indian grocery - like Laxmi Palace on Parham Rd - is a great source of spices, beans, vegetables, and fruit. You can pick up all kinds of chutneys and pappadum (lentil crackers) there cheaply too for a true Indian feast. Mangoes are way cheaper there than elsewhere, too.

Moong Dal (split mung bean soup)
I didn't measure things exactly - adjust to suit your tastes. Tastes like "exotic" split pea soup.

• 1 cup moong dal (mung beans) - get at Ellwood Thompson's bulk section if you can't make it to an Indian grocer, or use split peas
  
• about 4 cups water
• 1 tsp oil
  
• 1/2 an onion chopped
• garlic and ginger, minced, or garlic and ginger paste - about 1 tsp each
  
• cumin seeds, about 1/2 tsp
• mustard seeds, about 1/2 tsp - optional
• ~6 curry leaves (in the fridge at the Indian grocer, optional)
• asfoetida spice (Indian grocer)
  

1. In a medium pot, on medium-low to medium, heat up the oil. Add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes, then add remaining ingredients. Cook until mustard seeds start spluttering, taking care not to burn.
2. Turn heat up to high and add water and moong dal (mung beans) or split peas. Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium-low, cover, and simmer until beans are soft - about 45 minutes to an hour.

Apple Butternut Squash Soup - Marcella

Recently we got dinner at the salad bar at Ellwood Thompson's (1/2 off after 8:30 p.m.) and decided to try some of the vegan mashed sweet potato. It was disappointingly gross, having been drenched in margarine and sugar - so unnecessary. You can cube a butternut squash up and roast it on a baking tray in the oven (at around 350 degrees) with absolutely nothing on it and it's plenty sweet and buttery.

I resorted to that quick side dish, instead of the soup I was planning on making, on a Saturday evening because our weekly guild (Maul Rats) raid on The Trial of the Crusader was about to start and I just didn't have time to be messing around with soup. Thank goodness I made that difficult choice - an über caster dps belt dropped. Enough with the gibberish; the point I'm trying to make here is that butternut squash is both delicious on it's own and in the soup posted below.

Apple Butternut Squash Soup
Ridiculously fast and easy

• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, cubed
• 1 apple, diced
• 1 tsp olive oil
  
• 1 tsp ginger paste or 1 Tbsp minced ginger
• approx. 3 cups water - add or reduce as necessary
• 1 tsp veg broth powder or 1 cube bouillon
• teeny bit of salt if none is in the broth powder
• pepper to taste
  
• fresh rosemary (optional)

1. In a stockpot, heat olive oil. Add everything but the rosemary and simmer until squash is pierced easily with a knife, about 20-30 minutes.
   
2. Blend with an immersion blender, or in batches in a regular blender. Add rosemary and simmer another 5 minutes.
3. That's it!
   

Simple White Bean and Chard Soup - Marcella

Soup always sounds good when it's cold out. I've decided to do a lot of soup and salad nights, since it's a lot easier to make that particular combo nutritious and filling and bread-less. I have no patience for bread these days.

I made this one up a couple of nights ago, in the midst of dealing with some virus that was making me terribly queasy. I wanted a nice simple and comforting soup, and here it is:

Simple White Bean and Chard Soup

• 1 can canellini (white kidney) or Great Northern beans - don't drain
  
• 1 can no salt added diced tomatoes - don't drain
  
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp olive oil
  
• 1 cube vegetable bouillon, or 1 tsp veg broth powder
• approx. 3 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• basil, dried or fresh and pepper to taste
• 1/2 lb swiss chard
  

1. In a medium soup pot, saute up the onion and garlic in the olive oil.
2. Add cans of tomatoes and beans. Ordinarily I'd say to drain them, but the salt isn't too bad for a whole pot of soup and makes additional table salt unnecessary
3. Add bouillion, water, bay leaf, basil, and pepper and cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes.
4. Add chard, cover and simmer on low for another 10-15 minutes. Done.
   

Quick Chili Lunch - Marcella

I have a huuuuge backlog of recipes to post; I'm trying to be good and prioritize work and studies while leaving some time for at least one hobby to reduce stress. Sadly, that one hobby is not doing yet more computer work like blogging...Actually that reminds me: for those of you who also do computer stuff all day, it feels really good (and according to Derek, prevents carpal tunnel), to hold a lightish barbell in your hands, resting your forearms along your thighs with your hands hanging over your knees, and curl your wrists back towards you. How many reps depends on how much weight you've chosen. Works with light barbells too.

Quick "Chili" Lunch
Chili is in quotes because it can just be beans - whatever's on hand

• 1 sweet potato
• can of red kidney beans
• minced garlic
• (optional) chopped onion
• (optional) chopped bell pepper
  
• avocado sliced
• salsa
• chili spices, like chili powder, cumin, turmeric, paprika - whatever you got
  

1. In a small pot, saute the garlic and, if using onions and peppers. Add drained kidney beans and spices. The canned beans usually have some salt so it's not necessary to add any.
2. Meanwhile, poke holes in the sweet potato and microwave for 6-8 minutes depending on size.
3. Serve by simply cutting the sweet potato lengthwise and crosswise and opening it up a bit, spooning the beans over top, and garnishing with sliced avocados and salsa.

You won't miss the tortillas!

Stir Fry recipe - Marcella

The nice thing about stir fries is you can use whatever you have on hand. An alternative to the tofu could be shelled edamame...alternatives to the greens could be bok choy or spinach, alternatives to mushrooms could be canned water chestnuts or just nothing. A drizzling of sesame oil (in this case with wasabi, from Trader Joe's) is key to making it delicious. We had this with edamame, salad, and no rice at all and it was still very filling.

We are cutting out the processed grains entirely for several meals a week, and so far it's been easy: stay tuned for a bunch of recipes that I accumulated while studying/not posting.

Stir Fry

• 1 package xtra firm tofu, cubed
• shiitake or other mushrooms sliced
• green cabbage, shredded
• baby broccoli or bok choy
• pepper to taste
  
• (optional) Chinese red chili powder to taste
• low sodium soy sauce, if you must
  
• sesame oil

1. Spray medium pan with cooking spray and add tofu, sprinkling with the red chili powder to coat if you like. I recommend Tan-A Asian grocery on W. Broad - or any Asian grocery wherever you may live - as a source for super cheap veggies, spices, and tofu. Tan-A has - as we used to say in high school - a metric butt-ton of faux meats in the frozen section as well, but they're pretty salty. Anyway, cook the tofu til golden-ish and set aside.
2. Add the cabbage and pepper to taste to the pan and saute for about 5 minutes. It tastes much better if you let it get a little charred, imo. Meanwhile steam the baby broccoli or bok choy.
   
3. Add everything to the pan and cook a few minutes more. Just before serving, drizzle with a bit of sesame oil.
4. Eat with NO rice and a side of edamame (available in the frozen section as steam-in-bag in the microwave at most supermarkets) and I promise you'll get really full in that wholesome, carbless kind of way.
   

Chickpea and Tomato Soup

Impromptu soup for lunch:

Chickpea and Tomato Soup

• 2 carrots, cut lengthwise and chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
  
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 can low sodium diced tomatoes
• around 4 cups water
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• black pepper
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  

1. Saute carrots, celery, and onion in about 2 Tbsp water for 5 minutes.
2. Add remaining ingredients. Spices can be changed up for different effects, from (cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne, dash lemon juice) for a Moroccan stew to (oregano, parsley, bay leaf-remove before blending) for an Italian stew.
   
3. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour
4. Blend a portion of the soup, return to pot and coarsely mash the rest.

I also decided to steam a bag of frozen spinach to have with it...thinking that we really had nothing to eat...then added a mashed up block of tofu...then realized we had some of the whole wheat low-carb wraps and diced tomato around for an unusual but filling accompaniment to the soup.

Sometimes things that sound weird and unappetizing turn out to be unexpectedly good.

Split Pea Soup, Seitan Stir-Fry, and How to Use Warcraft to Jump-Start Your Career

Lunch

Thanks to Derek's client who so thoughtfully brought him fresh greens, tomatoes, and peaches from a local farmer's market as a birthday present! Because of that we got to enjoy salads despite our fridge being on the fritz and spoiling most of our fresh food really fast.



TVP & Tofu Soft Tacos

• 1/2 cup TVP
• 1 pckg firm tofu
• 1/2 lb frozen spinach
• 1 cup frozen roasted corn (optional)
  
• low carb whole wheat tortillas (Trader Joe's reduced carb has only 50 calories each)
  
• avocado sliced
• salsa of choice

Yet another variation on the taco theme. I used to make breakfast burritos a lot with tofu packaged soy sausage which is admittedly delicious but high in sodium - this is my healthier version.

1. Rehydrate the TVP in a little more than 1/2 cup hot water. Add sausage seasonings: breakfast sausage is usually seasoned with sage, thyme, red pepper flakes or cayenne. Or for a more taco meat-ish seasoning add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne.
2. Heat up a pan sprayed with cooking spray and add frozen spinach and corn. Cover and cook til not frozen - usually just a few minutes.
   
3. Mash up the tofu - I usually just do it in the pan. Add everything else to pan and cook for a while longer.
4. Serve in some warmed up wraps with avocado and salsa. Or omit the wraps for more of a huevos rancheros type thing.
   

Eat with 2 big bowls of salad; pictured below are the greens gifted to Derek - they even included some edible flowers!


I think one thing I would love to do is get a nutrition program that I could enter my recipes into and get a breakdown of their stats and also an overall daily nutrition analysis of our diet...


Dinner

Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup

• 1 peeled and diced sweet potato
• 1 1/2 cups split peas (green or yellow)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• 1 cube low sodium vegetable bouillon or
• 1 Tbsp yellow curry powder
• thyme and pepper to taste
• 4 cups water

1. In a medium pot, saute onions in 1 Tbsp water.
   
2. Add everything else. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low for about 1 hour.
3. Mash everything up with a potato masher or blend in batches in a blender/food processor.

I'm not sure what to call the main course...

How about:
Seitan and Bell Pepper Stir Fry

• 1 recipe for seitan
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 red and 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
• 1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added
• pepper, crushed RED pepper, salt-free seasoning

When I decided to be nice and make something with seitan so I could post the recipe for one of Derek's co-trainers I had no clue what I was going to do with it. This random assemblage turned out to be really good. It didn't need much seasoning since the seitan is pretty flavorful.

1. Saute onion and bell peppers in 2 Tbsp water til translucent.
2. Add seitan, tomatoes, and seasonings and simmer for a bit, stirring occasionally.
3. Add brown rice and mix.

Although seitan is pretty easy to make using the recipe I posted, you may just want to buy it packaged. I believe the Morningstar brand "chicken" and "beef" strips varieties are widely available in the frozen natural foods section of local supermarkets, and the White Wave brand is available in the refrigerated natural foods section - looks like a tofu package. Those varieties have a ton of sodium, though.

Mmmm!

Because I usually include some rambling, and I am pretty tired now that I'm in my test prep phase, I'd like to share one of my corporate networking secrets with any other rung-grabbers out there: start playing a MMORPG like oh, say... World of Warcraft, and then tastefully decorate your cube/office with game paraphenalia.

I can almost guarantee that more people will stop by to chat with you about the game, or similar games they've played, than you'd have dreamed possible, and it's surprising that so many senior management and even C-level people play. Maybe it's because it's so difficult to have a real social life in the corporate world, or maybe it's just that the finance and actuarial fields attract an inordinate amount of dorks - whatever it is, it's been an unexpectedly great networking tool!

Who would have thought that a mere entry-level could impress a C-level with the fact that she is a Warlord in the realm of Kul Tiras...but, there it is.

Hail Seitan - ultra low carb and low fat, high protein meat alternative

First off let me just say that the nutrition stats for seitan, like TVP, are great for anyone trying to get lots of protein with no fat and low sodium. It's made primarily from Vital Wheat Gluten, which has 23 grams protein per 1/4 cup and 120 calories...and that's pretty much it - only 6 grams carbs. The recipe below uses 3/4 cups, so that's 69 grams protein!

If you plan on eating it more than once during the week, I recommend doubling the recipe and storing as needed.

Seitan (Wheat Meat)
Adapted from a recipe found at the Postpunk Kitchen recipe site
Dry ingredients

• 3/4 cup wheat gluten mix
• 1/8 cup nutritional yeast
  

Wet ingredients

• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Broth for simmering

• 4 cups cold water
• vegetable bouillon cube
  
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce

In separate bowls mix wet and dry ingredients before combining and stirring with a stiff spatula til it forms into a ball. Knead for 3 minutes and let rest a few minutes.

Roll seitan into a log shape and cut in 3 pieces. Drop into cold broth and heat to boiling. Turn down heat to med-low, cover partially with lid, and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Cut into whatever size pieces you need.

For "steaks" or roasts:

For stir-fries or pasta dishes:

Noodle-less Lasagna

Things are a little crazy: my next exam, on financial math and derivatives markets, is coming up in August. Preparation is of an intensity similar to an athlete (like a bodybuilder!) gearing up for a contest; memorization of formulas and graphs during every spare moment, 3 hour practice exams simulating the real thing at least three times a week, working 30 problems a day, maintaining a positive mindset, buying a spare calculator...it just wouldn't make for an interesting montage set to inspirational music.

Anyway, for dinner the other night I made a lasagna without noodles, kind of a combination of eggplant parmesan and, well, lasagna.

Eggplant Parmesagna

Ingredients list:

• eggplant
• 1/2 lb frozen or fresh broccoli
• 1 pckg firm tofu
• 1/2 pckg soft tofu
• jar of no salt, low fat tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
  
• oregano, pepper, salt replacer

1. Slice eggplant into thin disks and arrange on baking sheets. Bake at 350 for around 20 minutes. Meanwhile, steam broccoli til crisp but tender.
   
2. Mash up tofu with a potato masher. Add 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (found in bulk bins at Ellwoods or Ukrops). It's optional, but it imparts a cheesy flavor and is rich in B vitamins. Add oregano and other spices
   
3. Finely chop broccoli and add to tofu mixture.
   
4. Pour sauce on bottom of pan (I used a crockpot dish because I have no 9x13 baking dish). Arrange eggplant slices in a layer to cover. Spread some of the tofu mixture on top. Layer with more eggplant. Pour sauce over that
5. Repeat until all used up.
6. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 45 minutes, then remove foil and back for an additional 15 minutes.

Served with 1/2 lb steamed green beans and 2 big bowls of hearts of palm salad apiece.

Fun in the Fan and Food

Sunday was our day-about-town; we rode our bikes around and ate and went shopping in Carytown- it was a rare and fabulous treat.

For lunch and coffee we hit up Crossroads in the Fan...back when I worked in the physics department at VCU I would walk over there in the afternoon, get a delicious latte, and grade papers for quantum physics with my trusty, much-used red pencil...Ah, the memories of simpler times. I don't think I ever spent an afternoon there without randomly meeting up with friends.

As we did this time - that's my friend Danielle pictured on the left, singer for local band The Hotdamns - Richmond's best alt-country! Have a listen.



We each got salads topped with blackened tofu and the squash soup of the day, and sugar-free soy lattes of course. Both the tofu and soup were really flavorful and the soup was unabashedly spicy; I'd had doubts about going out and just ordering soup and a salad but we actually had to walk our bikes for a while because I was too full. To top the afternoon off, they had about 10 books by one of my favorite science fiction authors at Creatures 'n Crooks a local sf and fantasy book shop with a big fluffy gray cat that likes dogs. Dogs like our dog Gretchen.

Dinner: Mmmm, stuffed eggplant - one of my favorites.
This recipe was adapted from one in
Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. If you don't have a large slow cooker, just cook it in a pan in the oven at about 375 for like an hour. Poke it with something periodically to see when it's tender but not so tender it falls apart.

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant, halved lengthwise
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 cup lentils, cooked & drained
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat grain of some sort - I used quinoa, but bulgur or brown rice is good too
• 1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 c water
• salt-free seasoning or small amount of salt and pepper to taste

Scoop out the inside of the eggplants, leaving shells about 1/4 in thick and chop up the flesh. Saute it in a bit of water with the next 3 ingredients about 5 minutes.

Mix it all up with the lentils and the grain of choice.

Add salt and pepper or salt replacer.

Put the shells in crockpot or pan and stuff them with filling.

Mix up the remaining ingredients and pour over top.

Cook in crockpot on low for 4 to 5 hrs or in oven at 375 for 1 hr. That's it! It looks fancy, but it's not too hard to put together and it's quite filling I think partly due to the spiciness.

Fried food makes my stomach hurt

We decided yesterday to get Vietnamese for lunch, at Mekong because they at least offer brown rice instead of white, and lots of vegan menu options (forgot to bring the camera, doh!). I didn't want any rice or anything saucy and salty so I opted for a grilled tofu platter - a plate of fresh veggies and tofu that you assemble yourself into spring rolls with rice wrappers

...but the tofu turned out to be fried, much to my dismay. There's no way in hell I would ever raise a fuss in a restaurant over something like that, though, and since we'd waited til 4 pm to eat lunch, I gamely went ahead and ate some of it. Just eating 6 pieces of the fried tofu made my stomach all crampy. Next time I'll ask for them not to fry it because other than that it's a really light and tasty dish, and a good place for work lunches.

Easy 15 Minute Dinner: For dinner I wanted something as light as possible; this is probably a good principle to follow for imperfections - just plan on paying for it for the remainder of the day. So I simply chopped up some garlic and onion and sauteed them,

dumped a pound of frozen spinach in the pan and covered and cooked it til it was mostly defrosted, and then added a can of chickpeas. I sprinkled on a healthy dose of curry powder and some crushed red pepper flakes, and steamed a pack of
broccoli/cualiflower/baby carrot mix.

Edamame is also a great accompaniment, it's got a lot of protein and is really filling, you just have to go easy on the coarse salt. I microwaved it in bag, made a salad, and that was it. It was more than the 2 of us could eat.


I haven't been posting my workouts due to time costraints, but I have been doing them, of course. I had a pretty lackluster arms day that's not even worth mentioning really.

Legs today was about on par with the usual for me except that I usually do at least 2 more exercises: I used to be able to go a lot heavier on squat but I recently dropped the weight to work on my form. I wasn't keeping my feet ahead of my knees properly or going down far enough....