Kasha and Bowties

1 c raw kasha (whole buckwheat groats)
1 c uncooked bowtie pasta (farfalle)
1 tbs olive oil (for frying)
1 med onion, chopped
about 8 med brown mushrooms, chopped
1.5 c vegetable broth, boiling in lidded saucepan

Boil and drain bowties. Set aside.
Heat oil in skillet add chopped onion and mushrooms and saute until soft and translucent.
Ad kasha and stir constantly until it begins to turn brown and smell toasty.
Pour sauteed kasha mixture in to boiling broth.
Lid saucepan and lower heat to simmer.
Simmer until liquid is absorbed.
Add bowties.
Stir and serve.

Fresh Pasta Ravioli Dinner for Valentine's Day

Making pasta. Raviolis ready to dry in the dehydrator.
















We bought a pasta maker at Goodwill for $4.99! One of the nice manual ones that really works.

Vegan Noodle Recipe Pasta Dough
3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tbs olive oil
Put it in the food processor with the dough blade until it forms a ball and starts to clean the sides of the bowl.
Turn it out on a lightly floured board and knead it for about 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, silky ball.
Place dough ball in a lightly greased bowl to rest for 30 minutes.

Form the dough with your pasta machine or with your hands. I'm not gonna go all technical with a description on how to make noodles, ok? I will say that this machine makes fresh, home made pasta possible. I have made it with my hands before and that is a waste of time, IMO. This machine is fantastic.















Filling was vegetables, Gimme Lean and seed cheese.















Vegetable Filling for Vegan Ravioli
1 medium white onion, chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, pureed
1/2 cup broccoli, chopped
pinch of salt
Sautee onion and garlic in a little oil and broth until very soft
Add pureed tomato and broccoli and cook until tender and most of the liquid is gone.

Sunflower seed cheese
1 cup soaked sunflower seeds
1 tsp paprika
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil
all in food processor until a thick paste
Add water a tbs at a time as needed and scrape the sides often.

Gimme Lean sausage is broken up into 1/2 tsp sized chunks and heated in a skillet until it begins to brown.

I thawed the frozen tube in the dehydrator, 95F for about an hour.















This is about 2" of the tube broken in chunks and heated in skillet w a tsp of oil until browned.















Each ravioli contains about a 1/2 tsp each of vegetables, cheese and sausage. Don't overfill.





























I started making them in sheets then remembered that I had the press. Much easier.















Let the raviolis sit and dry out in a warm place. I put mine in the dehydrator at 95F for about 1 hour.

Just before serving place each ravioli in a large pot of boiling water, do not crowd. Boil for 5 minutes or less, it doesn't take too long for the fresh pasta to cook up.

Serve with marinara sauce.

1 chopped onion
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tomatoes pureed
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1 tbs Italian seasoning
Water or broth as needed.
Saute onion and garlic
Add tomatoes, mushrooms and seasoning
Add about 1/2 cup water
Simmer until thick and delicious
Salt if needed.


We also made some fettuccine and some linguine.
The linguine was just like fresh ramen. I used to live on ramen noodles and haven't had it a LONG time so homemade ramen was quite a treat.














The extra raviolis, enough for at least two more meals, were dried and put in a big ziplock in the freezer.

To be completely honest with you, in all the excitement last night we forgot to take photos of the plates. They were beautiful. I made roasted sweet potato and yam with black pepper and an organic red leaf lettuce salad with spicy pickles.
These photos were just taken today and with a different sauce.

Vegan Dinner Last Night Roasted Eggplant over Pasta with Morel Mushroom Cream Sauce

This is what we ended up eating for dinner last night:













Roasted eggplant with morel mushroom sauce over pasta with a lovely green salad sporting fresh tomato and basil.



Here is the technical stuff if you are so inclined.


Roasted Eggplant
Preheat oven to 400F

Peel and slice an eggplant, lay the slices on a board.
Sprinkle some salt all over the top and put a towel on top of all the slices.
Put a cutting board on top and a heavy bowl full of water on top.
Let it rest for an hour or so then put sliced onion on top of the eggplant, cover with a kitchen towel, weight and let rest for 1 more hour.
This process draws some of the liquid out of the eggplant and begins the cooking process. It is optional, you can just roast fresh eggplant.

Oil a cookie sheet with olive oil and lay your eggplant and onion slices on the pan.
Spread a light layer of oil on the vegetables.
Bake in 400F oven for about 12 minutes until eggplant and onions start to get brown at the tips.
Remove from oven and turn vegetables over.
Drizzle with olive oil or add a tbs of water to the pan if you think they look a little dry.
Bake an additional 20 min or until the veges are tender.


Morel Mushroom in a Cashew Cream Sauce

1 med yellow onion chopped fine
4 cloves garlic chopped fine
1 tbs olive oil

.5 oz dried morel mushrooms soaked in 1 cup water for 20 min.
1/2 cup fresh basil
Salt to taste.

4 tbs dry cashews soaked in clear water.

Coarsely chop mushrooms and save soak water for making cashew cream :)
Saute onion and garlic in oil until they are a caramelized.
Add chopped, soaked morels and chopped basil to onions and let them cook a bit. Add a tbs of water if it seems to dry.

















Once mushrooms and basil are cooked, add cashew cream made from mushroom water and cashews in blender and blend until very smooth. The smoother, the better.
Add cashew cream to veges and stir until thickened. Add more water if you find the sauce gets too thick.

Raw Vegan Lunch Idea! Seaweed Noodles with Pumpkin Seed Curry Sauce

Talk about quick and easy lunch! I decided I wanted this at 11:30 and was sitting down eating it by noon.


Soak your seaweed strips in cold water for 10-20 minutes. These are the raw noodles.












They have a mild, fresh taste and they aren't too chewy. I bought them in an Asian food market in SF.

Drain them and place in a serving bowl.

Make a raw sauce in your blender

I used

Pumpkin Seed Curry Sauce
1 tbs pumpkin seeds
2 dates
2 tbs water
1 clove of garlic (or less. I looo-oove garlic)
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cumin

Blend all this up until its a creamy sauce and pour it over your raw seaweed pasta
I garnished with sliced carrots for some color















Enjoy!

Vegan Eggplant Noodle Casserole

Yet again, I have made dinner.













The casserole is elbow macaroni, dried eggplant slices, a lovely tomato sauce I made, ground vegan seitan sausage and bread crumbs on top. Bake two hours at 350F, covered, take the lid off and let it brown up then serve immediately.
The salad is red lettuce and spinach with some sesame dressing I threw together. sesame, olive oil, water, ACV and oregano.
The things that look like Dolmas are actually collard leaves* I put about a tablespoon of seitan sausage in each one, rolled them up and baked with a table spoon of water in a small covered casserole at 350 for about half an hour. Very simple and very impressive, IMO. I would serve these at a party as an appetizer. I would. You can't prove that I wouldn't :)

I bought this book at Goodwill and have been brushing up my non-existent yoga skills.





























I had the boy take a photo but it came out blurry. That is the fish pose, Matsyasana.
From the book:

Benefits of Matsyasana: The fish stretches the spine and at the same time expands and opens the chest. It helps to regulate the four parathyroid glands in the neck. These endocrine glands control the levels of calcium in the blood. Calcium strengthens bones and teeth. It is also important for the contraction of muscles and the clotting of blood. Matsyasana corrects rounded shoulders, increases lung capacity and helps with breathing problems, relieves stress and regulates moods, increases prana** in the neck, shoulders, lungs stomach and spleen and energizes the parathyroid glands and tones the pituitary.


I find that yoga really does regulate my mood. Since I released all that weight, I have noticed that my periods affect me more than they used to. Or at least I notice it more. I gain 5 lbs every month for a week. WTF is that about. Anyway. If I am in a pissy mood, doing some poses can really change my attitude.

You might also notice I cleaned up my sidebar. I had some affiliate links but since they have been there I haven't made a dime so, bye bye useless clutter!



Footnotes:

* collard leaves are a FANTASTIC substitute for grape leaves. I got four rolls out of one large leaf. Go Collard Greens! Speaking of collard greens and greens in general. I was in line at the supermarket last Thursday, with my usual cart full of nothing but veges. The cashiers LOVE me! (not) I actually had one goth looking chick cashier say, "Oh, no! You again!" hehe. I still get a thrill out of striking dread and terror in the hearts of people. I don't think that will ever fade. Anyway there was a weird lady in front of me in line. She was buying washcloths and sweatpants and wearing very red lipstick and very blue eyeshadow. Sort of your teapot type, ya know, short and stout. She turned back to me and asked me something about some fast food restaurant in the area. I smiled and said that I hadn't the slightest idea about any fast food restaurants. I didn't go on after that, just "Sorry, I really don't know." She then started gazing into my cart. Pointing at the huge bundle of collard greens she said (wrinkle nose) "What is THAT?" Again, I smiled and said, "That is collard." She said "COLLARD? I never heard of THAT!" I said, smiling, of course, "Well, it's a leafy green. You can eat it in salad like lettuce or steam it and eat it like you would spinach." Then it was her turn at the reg and she didn't like the price on any of the stuff she chose so she left with nothing. Strange lady. Then the cashier. They dread me because nothing I buy has a barcode and they have to either know the code or look it up or CALL SOMEONE in the produce department. Fun. The young cashier was a tall blond, corn-fed type looking boy about 18 years old. He did not know what a daikon, a rutabaga, a parsnip or a turnip was. His explanation "My parents just don't buy these kinds of vegetables!" I smiled and didn't say anything to that. And this is the extent of my contact with people outside of my family here is Klamath Falls, Oregon. It ain't easy being green in Klamtucky, I tell you.

**Prana is a Sanskrit word literally meaning 'life-force' the invisible bio-energy or vital energy that keeps the body alive and maintains a state of good health. It's all about creating balance to open psychic awareness, and the nature of reality and one's place in it.

Vegan Recipe! Dairy Free Mac N Cheese! Easy Dinner

What do you get when you cross a snowman and a vampire?
Frostbite! HAHAHAHAHA!

Last night's dinner was:
Vegan Mac n Cheese!














I didn't get a photo before it was cut but believe me, it was even prettier than it tasted!

Serves 4 as a main course or as a side dish for more.

Ingredients:

2 cups COOKED vegan elbow macaroni
3 cups oat cheese
2 roma tomatoes
About 1 cup chopped vegan sausage
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Lemon pepper

Instructions:

First cook about 2 cups of elbow macaroni until NOT QUITE done. That way the noodles will still have some firmness after baking in sauce for two hours or more.
Next make a batch of Oat cheese for the sauce. Follow the oat cheese recipe up to the part where you pour in a mold... but don't pour in a mold. Fear not, this will take you no more than five minutes, it's a blender recipe consisting of water, oats, nutritional yeast, sesame, lemon, onion powder and salt.

Assemble in a 2 qt casserole:

Half the cooked macaroni on the bottom
Pour some of the warm cheese on top, enough to cover, about a cup.
Two roma tomatoes, cut in thick slices are the next layer
The rest of the macaroni on top of that
A bit more cheese, but not all of it, you have one more layer to go.
Chop together: one cup of vegan sausage and one roma tomato, this is your third layer. Mix them well and spread evenly over the macaroni and cheese.
Pour the rest of the sauce over that and spread it around so no sausage is showing.
about a 1/4 cup of bread crumbs. I processed two small slices of my home made bread in the blender until they were fine crumbs.
Lemon pepper all over the top.

Bake covered for at least two hours at 350F. 15 minutes before you are ready to eat, remove the lid and let it brown. Ready to serve immediately but it's even better the next day!

I didn't update on Monday. But I did make VEGAN Ravioli with Spinach Basil Sausage Filling (Hail Seitan!) Vegan Pasta Recipe

And now it's tuesday.
Yesterday the school bus didn't come. A lady in a mini van with a bunch of grade school kids passed us, turned around and came back and said something about a substitute bus driver coming ten minutes early...

I said, "Kid, do you know these people?" He said he did, so I put him in the stranger's van and watched it drive away.

It all worked out ok, he came home in time for dinner.

We had ravioli
Here is one pre fold. Vegan sausage, spinach, basil, sunflower seed cheese and about a tsp of ketchup.














To make the pasta dough I put 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt and 2 tbs olive oil in my FP with the S-blade. I turned the FP on and added water until it got to a grainy consistency, then turned it out and kneaded it until a smooth ball. I split that into four pieces and let them rest for a while. Resting is very important.
Roll out the balls in to very thin sheets on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin.

Cut them with a large round cutter and fill with your favorite fillings. Once full fold the round in half and press the edges with a fork to seal.

Put these in boiling water. First they sink then they float. Cook for five minutes and serve with marinara or whatever sauce you like. The boy likes his plain. No sauce. I like mine with sauerkraut and vege parm.

I also put up two jars of carrot/cabbage sauerkraut (dang, I go through that stuff fast) and a bottle of ketchup.