MEATLESS MONDAY PASTA



I read more and more about the advantages of eating meatless. Yes, there are environmental benefits, which are important to me, but the health benefits are very impressive!  It's the main reason I am drawn more to a vegetarian diet. Our daughter is a strict vegetarian and her husband and daughter are not. They've worked out a system that works well for them so that they're all happy with what they eat. Fortunate for me, Richard is happy eating vegetarian for the most part so I don't have to cook two meals! He likes his occasional hot dog or burger, but rarely requests a 'meat' meal.

I'm convinced that the reason is the delicious meat-free meals we cook and eat.  We just don't miss meat!  The dish we had last night is a great example.  Pasta is Richard's favorite food and making a meatless pasta dish is quite easy.  Pasta is pretty much a blank slate and takes well to almost any ingredients  you have on hand to add to it. 

Last week I cooked up a large batch of garbanzo beans and froze some. I thawed out the frozen chick peas to use in the pasta dish. Last summer I made and froze a lot of fresh pesto and I also thawed a jar of this out to use in the dish.  Sweet red peppers were on sale this week so I chopped one up along with an onion and about 8 baby bella mushrooms.  I sauteed the mushrooms and veggies, and then added the beans and about 1/4 c. pesto along with 1/2 c. of the pasta water.  Rigatoni was my pasta of choice and it was perfect for this dish. The 'sauce' clung to the pasta tubes.  The beans and mushrooms gave the pasta a hearty flavor.  We didn't miss the meat and it was healthier for us!

We have a good friend who is at a clinic for cancer treatment.  This clinic is out of the country and this is what the doctor at the clinic has to say:

God gave us an immune system to fight invaders and disease - if it is strong it will ward off all diseases.  Second, the American diet tends to cause people to be acidic and an acid environment supports and promotes disease.  It is better to be alkali.  An Alkaline environment kills disease.  So vegetables and fresh fruits promote and alkaline environment.  He wants his patients to be on a vegetarian diet.

I thought this was interesting information and it could (?) be why one of the benefits mentioned of a diet high is fruits and vegetables reduces cancer risk.

So, that is my story for today. We're happy to see more signs of spring every day. I love the sound of frogs in the springtime. The grass is beginning to green up and many trees and bushes have begun to bud. My lilac is looking like it will be full of blossoms this year along with the forsythia. I can't wait!

MEATLESS MONDAY : DAHL, CHAPATIS, AND RAITA

CHAPATIS, DAHL, AND RAITA

In 1976, when I was pregnant with our first child, a friend of mine and her husband came to our house to cook dinner for us. My friend has met her husband in the Peace Corps.  He was born in Pakistan and moved here from Bahrain if I remember correctly. He wanted to cook a dish from his country and it just happened that I was overdue to deliver our daughter and was happy to have someone do the cooking for us.  Just hours after eating this dish I went into labor and delivered Leah the next day! 

Dahl is a curried lentil dish. It has curry powder, turmeric, and lots of garlic in it. The lentils are cooked into a sort of mushy consistency, making them easy to scoop up with the chapatis. Chapatis are like whole wheat tortillas. They're very easy to make and not only delicious, but good for you! I also made a side dish of raita to compliment the spicy curry dish.  Raita is just grated cucumber, yogurt, lemon, salt, green onions, and toasted and ground cumin.

To eat this dish, just tear a small piece of the chapati off and use it to scoop up some of the dahl and a bit of the raita. It's a very easy dish to make and a healthy choice to add to your menu!  The picture above does not do the dish justice. It does have a deep green, golden color from the curry and turmeric powders. We've made this dish many times since that first time over 35 years ago!! It's a perfect meatless dish!



MEATLESS MONDAY = FALAFEL!

I like Middle Eastern foods, especially falafel served in a pita. We don't have it often, but I've always wanted to be able to make it but the recipes always sound so difficult. Recently, I saw a cooking show that featured falafel and it looked easy enough that I decided to try it for this week's Meatless Monday dish.  I'm so glad I did!

I started by cooking my own chick peas from dry beans. They are so much better than canned, but you could also used canned if you don't want to take the time to cook them.  They do take quite a while to cook. The mixture is filled with spices and herbs, lemon juice, and sauteed red pepper and onion.  Once the dough has chilled to set up a bit, it's dropped into hot oil and you make it into little football shapes something like a fritter.  It's then place in a pita pocket or I used flat bread, along with a tahini yogurt sauce, cucumber slices and lettuce.  Eat it like a burrito, rolled up with the ingredients inside the bread.

My daughter is a vegetarian and she likes falafel, too, so after we had our dinner, I made a fresh batch for her, made up a falafel roll for her and took it to her.  Later she called and said I now have a standing order for one if I should make it again! I'm sure I'll make it again. It turned out really great, and was not hard to do.  Garbanzo beans are full of wonderful goodness and nutrients and by keeping the oil at the right temperature there is very little absorbed into the fritters so it's also a very healthy meal. Here are a few pictures of what they look like!

Making the little flalfels using two tablespoons to form little football shapes called quinelles

After deep frying...golden brown and crispy

Don't start fying until the oil is at 375 degrees, and don't let it drop below 350 to keep the oil from soaking into the falafel

Wheat flat bread with flax, two lettuce leaves, yogurt tahini sauce, cucumber slices, falafel all rolled up like a burrito. Healthy, vegetarian, and so delicious!!



GARBANZO BEANS

One of my favorite foods is falafel. I've always wanted to try making it so tomorrow, for Meatless Monday, I will be making it for the first time. Today, I cooked a bag of garbanzo beans to use. Cooking your own chick peas, also known as garbanzo beans, is easy to do. You can soak them overnight and cook them the next day, or if you have plenty of time around the house, you can eliminate the soaking.

Here is what I do. I chop a large onion and add a 1 pound bag of dry beans to a large stock pot and over them with water, plus about 3 more quarts of water. Bring them to a full boil, then turn down on low and simmer for about 4-5 hours. Add lots of water because it does boil off and you don't want them to get dry. Also, the broth you get from cooking these is soooo delicious. You will want to use this instead of chicken broth from now on! It's really flavorful and so good for you. It doesn't have the fat that homemade chicken broth does. Cook the beans, checking periodically for water level, keeping them covered in water in a covered pot, until they are nice a tender.

One bag will make a large amount. I'm having a mug of the beans with a little S & P and a drip of rice wine vinegar...so delicious and good for you! Tomorrow I will attempt falafel and I'll be sure to post the results along with a picture!

SAN FRANCISCO FISH STEW

One of my favorite cookbooks is More With Less cookbook. The recipes are healthy and use ingredients that are both economical and items most kitchens have on hand. After being vegetarians for many years, when we started eating fish products, I found this recipe and gave it a try.  We liked it a lot, but I hadn't made it for a long time.

Fish was on sale last week at the grocery to I put this on our week's menu. It is such a delicious dish. Soup is comfort food, no matter what recipe you use. This is not a 'fishy' tasting dish at all. The fish taste is very light and the other vegetables compliment it so well. It's perfect for a cool evening with a couple of biscuits on the side.

Here is the recipe if you would like to try it:

SAN FRANCISCO FISH STEW
Serves 5-6
In large saucepan or dutch oven saute:
1 T. oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped green pepper

Add:
1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced
2 c. cooked tomatoes
3/4 c. tomato paste (small can)
1 c. chicken broth
1 Tb. lemon juice
1 small bay leaf
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
Cook u ncovered 20 minutes.  Add:

1- 1 1/2 lbs. flounder or other white fish, cut into large pieces

Cook 10-15 minutes, or until fish flakes easily.  Serve over rice.
(I had 2 c. left over rice from last night's dinner, and just added it to the stew)



GREAT FOOD ALL DAY LONG by Maya Angelou

I just finished reading Maya Angelou's newest book/cookbook. I am a huge fan of her writing, poetry, and cookbooks. One of my favorites is her book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table.

In this, her newest book, she shares recipes and philosophies related to her eating habits. Her dedication says it simply:

I dedicate the ambitious intent of this book to those who would love to eat and love to lose weight at the same time.

Who doesn't want to do that?

This past week my dear friend and niece posted this quote on her facebook page:

"Scientific truth may be put quite briefly; eat moderately, having an ordinary diet and don't worry." ~ Sir Robert Hutchison, Newcastle Medical Journal (1932)



This would agree with the intent of the cookbook Great Food All Day Long by Ms. Angelou. It has been the intent of this blog to promote eating in a conscious and moderate way, using ordinary ingredients, and to enjoy the act of eating with the people you love. I have not been able to accomplish the 'don't worry' part, but we do try very hard to eat moderately and in a conservative and healthy way. One of the things Maya wrote in her book was that if a diner ate only a small portion of food, and then waited 20 minutes, they would find that they were satisfied. This is true, she says, if the food is delicious, and full of flavor. She began to eat this way, eating a small amount throughout the day every 3 hours or so, and noticed that he clothes began to get loose. She was losing weight and it was a result of this kind of eating.

I'm not necessarily promoting this but I do agree that eating really 'good' food, that is not only delicious but good for you will satisfy you more than eating some diet guru's idea of a 'diet' meal. We are getting ready to redo our kitchen and when we do, one of my first purchases is going to be new dishware. I'm buying small dishes. It's hard to control portions when the dish is 8-10 inches across.

My intent in writing this blog post was to remind us all to eat an ordinary diet with moderation and not to worry. It is what it is...

Tonight we had a homemade chicken vegetable stew. I threw in a small handfull of noodles to soak up some of the broth and used carrots, celery, onion, and cabbage along with chicken breast and herbs. One mug of soup was highly satisfying along with a whole wheat muffin with a drizzle of honey.  This muffin recipe is easy and delicious if you want to give it a try. I added raisins this time and you can also add chopped nuts. They are delicious plain as well!

WHOLE WHEAT MUFFINS

 1 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. sour milk (i used buttermilk)

1/2 c. oil (i used applesauce)

This makes 12 muffins. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until edges brown and a tap on the top of a muffin pops back!

Add 1 c. dried fruit or some chopped nuts if you want

HOT N SOUR SOUP



I love Chinese food. P.F.Chang's is my favorite restaurant. I always get hot n sour soup when I eat in a Chinese restaurant and Chang's is some of the best I've had. The recipe for the soup is always daunting and there are so many ingredients that I have never given it a try at home. It's just easier to drive by the restaurant and take some home!

Sriracha chile paste, sesame oil, rice vinegar, firm tofu, scallions, dried shitakes, black fungus, soy sauce, bamboo shoots, and dried lilybuds

This week I saw a post on one of my facebook group pages with a recipe for the soup and an explanation about the ingredients so I decided to give it a try! The post explained that you need to have 'lilybuds' to make it authentic, so we went to the Asian grocery and bought some! I knew that the long black strands that were always in my hot n sour soup were something a bit unusual. Who knew they were flowers!



The soup is not hard to make, but it does take time. The result, though, is worth the effort. We all thought it was delicious and tasted every bit as good as what we've had at  PF Chang's.  I'll make it again, but I don't think it will be a soup I make often. It's more of a special treat than something I would cook on a normal basis.

In a couple of weeks, we are having a dinner with friends. It's called "Soup Night" and all the couples bring a homemade soup and we sample all the soups and then vote on our favorite with a prize going to the winning soup. Since we are hosting, my soup won't be in on the voting which is fine. I'm pretty sure I'll make this soup. I hope the others like the flavors of hot n sour.

If anyone wants this recipe, you'll have to let me know. I'll post it if there is interest, but, since it's involved, I'm not going to bother unless there is someone who will actually like to give it a try.