Tasty Thursday: Green Lentils with Bouquet Garni

We have had a terrible and tragic loss in our family.  I find it very hard to get out of bed in the morning, let alone cook so on the days when I have even a little energy to do something I try to get a meal in the crock pot.  It is a rainy day here so I was craving some warm tasty lentils.  This dish could not be easier to make and helped use up some of the last CSA-share vegetables of the season.

2 1/2 cups organic green lentils
32oz. container Pacific Mushroom Broth
2 cloves CSA garlic, chopped
2 large CSA carrots, sliced into coins
8 leaves CSA lacinato kale, roughly 1" slices
1 heaping teaspoon bouquet garni
1/2 heaping teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon smoked sea salt

Two and a half hours on high.  Enjoy.

Tasty Thursday: Savory Oatmeal and Veggies

You've probably noticed by now that I am a fan of nutritional yeast and tend to favor carrots, onions and kale when I cook veggies.  I woke up today with a mad desire for savory oatmeal that just wouldn't subside until I set this up in the crock pot, let it cook, then dug in.
  
I forgot to take my vitamins the past two days so I'm guessing the desire for nutritional yeast came from my body seeking B-12.  The yen for steel cut oats came from, I think, the hope of being able to dump something in the crock pot that was easy to assemble but would be tasty and delicious.  Also, I have some business travel coming up and needed some leftovers to freeze in snack-size bags to take along for meals away from home.  Most of the things I cook are quite liquidy and as we all know that doesn't cut it when you're going through airport security.  I shouldn't have any problem with little bags of oatmeal and veggies.  This turned out so yummy I had it for both lunch and dinner.  It fed one sleever, plus two 'normal' eaters with enough for leftovers.

To my crockpot I added:

1 cup Bob's Red Mill organic steel cut oats
1 cup 5X protein unsweetened almond milk
2 cups Pacific organic mushroom broth
1 cup Bob's Red Mill large flake nutritional yeast
1 bunch beautiful organic CSA lacinato kale, chopped
8 medium organic CSA carrots, sliced into coins
1 organic CSA sweet onion, sliced
salt and garlic powder, to taste

I stirred it all together, cooked it three hours on high, then stirred it again before serving.

Have a savory oatmeal recipe you like?  I'd love it if you shared it here.

Tasty Thursday: Vegan Mommy Chef's Sweet Potato Kale Frittata

I have to say that this recipe is a WINNER!  Not only did I find it delicious but my omnivore spouse finished up about half of the frittata, going back for seconds and thirds while delivering lots of compliments.  When an omni gorges on something that is made with a substitute for eggs when they are the major ingredient in a recipe it sure is a good feeling.

You can find Vegan Mommy Chef's recipe here and my version below.

Now I will mention that I do not own a food processor so this was a little more work to make than I like to put into a recipe but it was worth every bit of the effort.  I plan to make it again this week.

Ingredients:

'Egg' base:
1 1/2 cups Burmese tofu (I'll share this recipe tomorrow)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup Trader Joe's ground almond
1/4 cup tapoica starch
2 TB coconut oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pink sea salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 TB whole grain mustard
1 TB chia seeds
water as needed for blending (I ended up using 1/2 cup)




Vegetable filling:
1 tsp coconut oil
1 red torpedo onion from our CSA share, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, skin removed then cut into small cubes
6 leaves lacinato kale from our CSA shrare, stems removed and leaves cut into 1" bits
2 TB worcestershire sauce substitute (I'll share this one tomorrow too)
1 tsp local honey

First, I melted the coconut oil in a cast iron pan, then added the cubed sweet potato, stirred for a minute or two then added the onion.  I allowed it to cook for a few minutes, then turned it off because I had to answer a telephone call and was afraid I'd get distracted and let it burn.  It sat covered for about five minutes.  When I came back I added the kale, sauce sub and honey to the pan.  It cooked for about eight minutes, then I removed the lid, stirred it and let it sit covered with the burner off for a few minutes while I finished blending the egg sub items and greased my ceramic quiche dish with coconut oil.

While I was cooking the veggies I  ran the egg sub ingredients through the chopper attachment of my stick blender to break them down as far as I could, then transferred to the regular blender to liquefy.  This was a pain in the butt, however in the end it was all worth it.  I really should purchase a food processor.  Do you have a food processor you like?  If you do, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.  But I digress. 

Once the egg sub is blended, add it to the veggies in the pan.  Mix well, then scrape into quiche dish, distributing evenly.  Bake 35 minutes (or as long as needed) in a 350F oven then enjoy this delicious frittata!

Tasty Thursday: Kale Salad

This is a version of Kale Salad made by my coworker's daughter.  Hers is out of this world; I know it is one of those cases of the secret ingredient being love because I add the same things and although mine is yummy, hers is heavenly.  Thank you for sharing with me, Niya!

The particular batch pictured here was made with Lacinato kale.  Normally I use curly kale, but this week Lacinato was available at my CSA.  It was nice to have that variation on a salad I make every week to bring to work for lunch.

One bunch freshly washed kale, chopped
Just enough olive oil to cause the seasonings to cling to the leaves
Sea salt,  freshly ground pepper, dried minced onion to taste
A clove or two of minced garlic
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (I really like the taste of nutritional yeast so I tend to go a little heavy on it)

Toss in a large bowl, cover with a cloth and allow flavors to blend, mixing now and then as you walk by it when you go in the kitchen.  Store what isn't consumed at the first meal in a glass jar in the fridge and enjoy a tasty lunch tomorrow.