Winter Sunrise

Brr















About 5" fell yesterday and last night.

Well, if you will excuse me, I have a houseful of people coming to stay a week. I'm in a tizzy.

Vegan Sheperd's Pie

Chop up bitesized:
1 lrg carrot
1 med onion
4 ribs celery
1 sm zucchini
1/4 tsp ground sage
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute all in olive oil until soft.

Remove from heat and add 1/3 cup or so of flour.
Stir well until all the flour is mixed in.
Add 1.5 cups water or vegetable broth place back on med-low heat and stir well until a thick gravy forms.

Pour this in a bread pan and top with thick mashed potatoes.

Bake one hour at 350F. It's done when the potatoes on top are browned and crunchy on the top but still moist inside.

Frozen Banana Pie Vegan Dessert

This dish is great for using up ripe bananas. It comes together quickly, freezes in 2-4 hours and serves 4-8 people.















Crust:

In food processor with s-blade, chop
1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates
pinch of salt

chop until crumbly, do not over process

Press the walnut/date mixture into a 9" pie pan evenly, being sure to press hard where the sides of the pan meet the bottom.
Set aside

Filling:

5 very ripe bananas
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt

In food processor with S-blade process bananas, lemon and salt until very creamy, about 5 minutes.
Pour into prepared crust and freeze.

Slice and serve. Store covered in freezer.

Today's...

Sunrise and smoothie...


Before the sunrise. The sky was amazing this morning because of all the pollution. I think there is an air quality warning today in Klamath Falls.














We are above it all but we can sure see it!


After the sun rose.














Smoothie is peeking at you, there
Pre blending.














Celery, beet, fresh basil, apple, banana, flaxseed and RenewMe!


Fermentation














Yogurt made from cashews and brazil nuts. yum.

Sunrise and smoothies

It was 9F when we woke up this morning which was a couple of hours before this photo was taken:
















Today's smoothie looked a lot like yesterday's smoothie:

Banana, apple, grapefruit juice, some pineapple, flaxseed, RenewMe and water. We need to go shopping I am all out of greens.

Today's Green Smoothie

It's snowing!
















So I'm having a smoothie!















Banana
Apple
Celery
Carrot
Cucumber
Flaxseed
RenewMe!
2 cups water
All in the vitamix one minute.

mmm, smoooth...

Yesterday's Lunch was: The world's ugliest sushi.




It was delicious

Raw Vegan Chocolate Pecan Pie

I made the chocolate pecan pie from Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw for dessert. Last week I made the ganache, the crust and the date paste. This week I put them all together and came up with this little cute pie (pun intended)
:)




I'm not gonna put up the recipe. But I'll tell you what I did.

Basically, it's crust, chocolate ganache, date filling and pecans on top.

I pushed the crust into the pan then put some decorative pecans on the bottom and sides of the panned crust. Then I poured the softened ganache into the crust and tipped the pan around to get it even.















I put chopped pecans on top of the ganache and pressed them in lightly.















Then you make a mixture of date paste, agar, syrup (the recipe called for agave or maple but i was out so I used more date paste. I could have done it with neither, IMO *shrugs*


I put pecans all over the top and drizzled some thinned ganache over it all.

Vegan Dinner Idea! Vegetables Curried in Coconut Milk!

Coconut Curry Vegetables

Chop up some veges. I used turnip, carrot, zucchini and cauliflower. Mix one can of coconut milk with 1 tbs of Mae Ploy yellow curry paste pour that over the veges in a covered casserole.
Baked for one hour at 400F.
Stir and bake uncovered for another hour and serve hot.

Rice pilaf

1 cup rice
1 cup frozen veggies (I used the mixed veges, carrot, peas, green beans, corn)
pinch of salt
2 cups water

Cook like you would perfect rice

Today's Lunch

Baby greens salad with jalapeno pickles, Brussel's Snacks, and fermented cashew sour cream on a flaxseed pizza crust.

Raw Vegan Fermented Cashew Sour Cream or Yogurt Recipe

This recipe changed my life!
Blend a cup of soaked cashews (or any other nut you like) with enough water to make a thick paste about the consistency of sour cream. More water if you want a thinner kefir, yogurt or buttermilk consistency
Put the nut paste in a jar. Leave about 2 inches of room at the top of the jar because it will GROW.

Put the jar in your dehydrator (remove the trays) with a loose lid. Set it at about 95F. (This can be done in any warm place but it may take longer. See note below)

Leave it over night and it should look like this in the morning:

















See the bubbles? It's alive!















Stir it down and add salt or other seasonings if you like. I like it plain.
Store covered in the fridge almost indefinitely. Use just like you would sour cream in just about any recipe, as far as I know.
The longer you let it set the more sour delicious it gets.

I like to take a jar of this on road trips with me. It tastes better every day!

Note for those of you who don't have a dehydrator: If you don't have a dehydrator keep it in a warm place and it will ferment, it just may take a bit longer. My MIL preheats her oven to the lowest temp, turns off the oven then puts the jar in a water bath in the oven overnight and that method works for her. I also know someone who uses a heating pad on low heat in a box. A home yogurt maker might work, too.

Brussel's Snacks

I love Brussel's Sprouts! I buy more than I will use and store them the same way I store leafy greens, but I don't take off the individual leaves, just store them whole, wrapped in a towel. Right? because taking off each leaf would be silly.
















Slice a pound or so of Brussels sprouts in half. I used about 3 cups here.

Put them in a large bowl with 1 tbs olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and a couple of grinds from the pepper grinder (or whatever seasonings you like). Stir well so all the sprouts are coated evenly.















Spread the sprouts on dehydrator try and dehydrate at 118F for approx 4 hours. The longer you dehydrate the crisper they will be. I like mine wilted, but not crispy.















These will keep in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer up to a month or more. They are a delicious snack or you can use them in cooked recipes.

The Fruity Trinity 3,2,1 Smoothie

Today's Smoothie!

















3 very ripe bananas
2 granny smith apples, chopped
1 orange (juice and pulp only)
1 head of celery
1 clove garlic
2 tbs flaxseed
2 tbs Renewme!
2 cups or more of water

Put it all in the blender and blend well.

This is a very creamy smoothie that utilizes the fruity trinity of banana, apple, orange. On the sweet side with just a hint of garlic.

I'm eating more raw garlic these days to try and help boost my immunity. The man had the flu or some kind of stomach bug but I will remain healthy.

So mote, it be.
:)

Vegan Side Dish Recipe: Black Beans with Garlic

A tasty, easy vegan side dish.

















Cook about a cup of black beans like you normally would or use canned beans, you canned bean eater :)
When they are soft, (or, open the can) drain them then put the cooked beans and about a tbs of the cooking liquid back in the cooking pan and get them real hot. Add a little more liquid if it starts to get too dry.
Add one chopped clove of garlic and 1 tbs vegan butter or oil (optional) and a pinch of salt (optional).

Put the pan on a hot burner that has been turned off (as if you were cooking rice) with a tight lid and let it set for about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice, tortilla, salsa, guacamole and vegan sour cream (made from cashews).

Blended Salad Raw Vegan Lunch

Blended Beet Salad for Lunch!








Purple Blended Salad Smoothie :)













1 whole beet, stem, root, leaves. All of it. Wash the dirt off, give it a few chops and toss it in the blender.
1/2 avocado
1 leaf curly kale
1 clove garlic
1 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tbs raw sauerkraut
2 tbs lime juice




The man is home sick today he has some stomach bug. He was terribly sick this morning, with a fever and chills, vomiting, etc. He says he feels better this afternoon and he ate a bagel and kept it down. Either a stomach virus or food poisoning, I'm guessing. I hope you feel better soon, baby.

How to Make Date Paste

Adapted from Raw for Dessert by Jennifer Cornbleet

16 dates
1.5 c water.

Soak dates for 20 minutes
Drain and reserve soak water
Process dates and 1/4 c soak water in food processor with s-blade until a paste
Store in air tight container up to 1 month.

Makes 1 cup paste.

The Solstice Tree is up!

The tree.














She is up and mostly decorated.















It's a vintage 6ft Evergleam that I found new in the box at the Goodwill As-Is store. I don't know what the criteria for putting merch at that location but I have found some amazing things (like my juicer) in that venue.

Delicious, simple vegan dinner last night was (drumroll)














Creamy Vegan Potato leek soup
Garlic Baked Potato
Green Salad; red lettuce, ruby chard, onion and tomato, with French Dressing.

Ta-DAAAA!

Tomato Flowers in 22F

When we moved I dug up my "Big Beef" tomato plant and put it in a pot to bring with me. It had huge tomatoes on it and I wasn't about to leave it behind.

I kept it in the yard until it started freezing outside and then I trimmed most of the branches off of it and brought it into my sunny dining room, still with tomatoes growing on it.















Once all those tomatoes were ripe I cut the rest of the branches off and just left it.

Well, it's grown all new branches and has flowers all over it again.

A Holiday Thought...

A Holiday Thought...

Aren’t humans amazing Animals? They kill wildlife - birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.

Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them. This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - - health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer.

So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions of more animals to look for cures for these diseases.

Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.

Meanwhile, a few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once a year send out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."


~Revised Preface to Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coates~

Amazing Cranberry Beet Smoothie!

Purple smoothie takes over the world! Aloe plant cowers in terror!


















1 beet, root, stems and leaves
4oz cranberries
2 bananas
2 tbs flaxseed
Water to blend

Making RAW Pickles: Spicy Garlic Mixed Vege Pickle Recipe!

I harvested the last of the jalapenos today. Even the little green one. What to do with all those jalapenos?


Why, make Raw Pickles, of course!














The longer it sits, the better the pickles taste, but if you start this recipe at 7am it can be ready for dinner at 6pm.

Spicy Garlic Mixed Vegetable Pickles

Ingredients:

2 med Cukes sliced into 3/4" coins,
1 med carrot sliced into thick matchsticks,
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in thick slices,
6 red and 1 green jalapeno, chopped,
1 yellow bell pepper, cut in strips,
2 tsp salt,
one fresh lemon, juiced.

Instructions:

Cut up enough veges to fill a wide mouth, lidded Mason jar.
Pour the veges from the jar into a large bowl.
Add salt.
Stir occasionally. Liquid will start to collect at the bottom of the bowl.
Keep stirring occasionally for about an hour or until all the salt is dissolved.
Pour the vegetables and juices back into the jar.
Put a lid on the jar and let it pickles "cook" in their juices for up to 6 hours at room temp.















Add the juice of 1 lemon (about a 1/4 cup) replace the lid and shake.
Let it "cook" for another 6 hours or longer.
Shake now and then to make sure all the veges get equal time in the juice.
Add enough water to cover the veges and store in the fridge.
These will keep indefinitely in a lidded jar in the fridge but they never last long around here!



















These photos were taken before the lemon juice was added. I love to watch the veges "cook" in the salt.

Note: You don't have to use the same exact veges I did. I make this different every time. Sometimes with only jalapenos.

Delicious Vegan Dinner Pic! Baked Eggplant Recipe!

Eggplant baked in fat free onion gravy, beans and rice and green salad with chopped tomato and white mushroom.











The baked eggplant was really easy to make.

Peel and slice 1 or 2 eggplants.
Place the eggplant slices between two towels and cover with a weighted tray to drain the eggplant. Many people salt the eggplant slices when they do this but I tried it once without the salt and it worked just as good.

Drain the eggplant for about 4 hours and then make a big pot of gravy. Layer slices and gravy in a lidded baking pan then bake at 350F for 1 hour. Remove lid and bake one more hour. Let cool for about a half hour and serve.

I said easy, not quick!

Dinner Last Night; Artichoke!

Steamed artichoke was the main event accompanied by green salad with tomato and bell pepper, pureed turban squash and rice pilaf.
















PS, I'm doing this:

http://www.mexicanmercados.com/yb/35gluten.htm

Making wheat meat from scratch.

How to make Gluten From Flour

It's something that I have been wanting to do for a while.
Or: Wheat Meat Madness!

I followed the directions here but I made a much smaller batch.















About 3 cups of whole wheat flour. Add cold water in and mix it up. Keep adding flour and water and kneading until it is a workable ball

Knead the ball for approx 1 hour. Let it rest for 15 minutes then go back to kneading for another hour or so. Keep doing that until you are tired and then put it in a large bowl of cold water to leach.















Let it soak over night or about 6-8 hours later, knead the ball of flour and water while it is still in the bowl with the water. Drain the water off and fill the bowl with clean water and knead it some more. You can feel the gluten now and the water will be clearer this time.














I dumped the whole thing in a colander, saving the starch water to make some soup for dinner! Many of the water soluble vitamins in the flour are washed away so save the water to water your plants, or for soups, gravies, sauces, bread making, etc.

I turned the water on to a cool trickle. Not ice cold, not warm. with the gluten ball in the colander I kneaded the ball under the trickle for about 20 minutes until the water ran clear.
















There it is, a nice piece of gluten.
















Press the gluten into a patty shape, about sandwich size, and about 3/4 inch thick. Squeeze as much water out of it as possible so it can absorb flavor from the "broth" and then slice it.















Broth
4 c water or vege broth
3/4 cup soy sauce
1 onion roughly chopped
1 tbs ground rosemary















Bring broth to a boil.
Slice the gluten patty into strips and drop the strips into the boiling broth.


The strips will puff up.















Turn the heat down so it doesn't boil over, put a tight lid on the pot and let it cook for 30 minutes.

There it is.














Drain it and prepare like you would any other prepared seitan product. It's very salty, though. Next time, half as much soy sauce.