Non-Traditional Breakfast Out

I have mentioned before that there are not a ton of plant based restaurants in our town.  We
sometimes are able to find a meal in a nontraditional setting when we are out and about.  One such case was this Saturday.

We had many errands to run that morning, so we decided to treat ourselves to a rare breakfast out.  One of our local Whole Foods supermarkets has an actual café inside the store, plus a hot food bar. 

We checked out the hot food bar.  We could have put together a plant based breakfast from the hot food bar, but there weren't many choices there at all. 

We moved on to the café inside the grocery store.  We had more than enough options there.  I had a smothered burrito, which contained a tofu scramble, (a substitute for scrambled eggs), and sautéed veggies wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla and covered with vegan green chili.  It was delicious. 

The spouse had whole grain maple pecan banana  pancakes, (vegetarian, not vegan- contained eggs and possibly milk) and a vegan sausage patty, served with pure maple syrup.  I tasted it, and it was great. 

We had one extra bonus from this experience.  Neither of us had ever tried vegan sausage, and we both loved it.  We asked an employee in the grocery store if they sell that sausage in their store.  She was kind enough to go to the kitchen in the café and find out the name of the sausage.  Sure enough, the store sells it, so now we can have it at home.  It is made by a company named Gardein, available in the frozen food aisle.  We mostly eat whole foods, but we both agreed that we would like to have some of it in our freezer for an occasional meal of pancakes and sausage.

I haven't eaten sausage for years, after too many times of chewing it and getting some gristly texture in my mouth.   That would just totally freak me out.  With this plant based sausage that will never happen.  Double score!  (I hope I didn't gross anyone out.) 

Went From No Meatloaf Anymore to "No-Meat"Loaf

     I think my husband's favorite entrée as an omnivore was meatloaf.  If we went to a fancy-shmancy restaurant, he would get super excited if, surprisingly, the place had meatloaf on their menu.  It was disappointing if they included something like prosciutto or veal in the meatloaf.  He loved good old home cooking type of meatloaf. 

     I have been looking at recipes for a plant based meatloaf for some time.  I just couldn't imagine that it would be sliceable, and that was important to me.  Several of the websites mentioned that the recipe was very good, but fell apart upon slicing.  I took components from a few recipes and reworked them into a good tasting "meatloaf" that is sliceable. 

 Now a warning to non-plant based eaters.  I think you will like this, but don't expect it to taste similar to a traditional meatloaf.  If you are interested in working some plant based meals into your rotation, you should always keep it in mind that there is rarely a recipe that will taste very similar to a meat based meal.  Just because they taste different does not mean that either version is bad, just unique.

     One of the many things I like about cooking plant based, is that I can take a taste of the dish when it is raw to check for seasoning adjustments.  It's not that it tastes great raw, but it is palatable enough and safe so that a person can discern whether an adjustment needs to be made, especially if they are trying to come up with a new recipe. 

     We had sautéed fresh green beans, mashed potatoes, and herb rolls with the meatloaf, and it was a welcome addition to our meal rotations.

PLANT BASED “MEAT” LOAF

1/2 onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
10 ounces firm tofu, drained and pressed
½ cup walnuts
1 ½ cups cooked brown or green lentils
1 ¼ cup quick cooking oats
5 Tbs. soy sauce or tamari
3 Tbsp. ketchup, (more for topping)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp prepared yellow mustard
¼ cup fresh parsley
½ tsp. each thyme, sage, and rosemary

Topping:

3 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp prepared yellow mustard
2 tsp. brown sugar    

Preheat oven to 350.  Oil a loaf pan.

Sautee onion, celery, and red pepper until softened, about 8-10 minutes.  Add garlic and sautee another two minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Mash tofu in a large bowl.  Stir in cooked mixture and remaining ingredients and combine well. 

Spoon mixture into the loaf pan and press firmly. 

Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl.

 Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, then add topping to the meatloaf.  Place back into oven and cook for another 30 minutes.  Let the meatloaf sit in the pan for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

Husband's note:  And the next day, of course, means no-meatloaf sandwiches!  Served with some homemade soup (the blog on that later this week) makes for an amazing meal!

 

Veggie Broth

In my omnivore days, it was very important to me that I always have homemade chicken broth in my freezer.  I would spend a great deal of time making the chicken broth, and I jokingly called it my "liquid gold". 

When I started a plant based diet, I was really disappointed in the flavor of store bought vegetable broth.  For some recipes, it was okay, but if the recipe had a delicate flavor which highlighted the broth, I felt like the store bought broth was very lacking in flavor. 

My son made a visit to our home, and at that time he was cooking at a very fancy shmancy restaurant in Montana.  He told me that the restaurant saved their veggie scraps in the freezer and then made huge vats of veggie broth with the scraps.  He encouraged me to start saving my veggie scraps.

I thought it would take me a long time to save enough veggie scraps to make a pot of broth.  I was so wrong.  I generate about two gallons of veggie scraps per week.

This weekend I made my first batch of broth.  I used 2 1/2 gallons of veggie scraps from the freezer.  I was afraid there may be too many carrot scraps, which might make the broth sweeter than I wanted.  For that reason, I added two fresh onions and three fresh ribs of celery.   After tasting the broth, I think I could have added only one fresh onion and a couple of ribs of celery, and that would have balanced out the sweetness.  I am very pleased with the outcome. 


Here is a list of the veggies which were in my freezer scraps-  carrots, lettuce, celery, red bell pepper, yellow onion, green onion, garlic, asparagus, tomato (small amount), green beans, white potatoes, parsley. 

I had been warned not to use cabbage, as it can overtake the flavor of the broth.  I also would never use much tomato, as I don't want it to turn into a tomato sauce.  I just put five cherry tomatoes in my broth. 

I think I came out with about 5-6 quarts of broth.  I packaged it in containers ranging from 2 quarts to 1/2 cup, to accommodate the variety of uses for the broth.   After the broth has been made, the cooked veggie scraps can be added to the compost.  I think they will break down quickly.  I love the fact that "trash" can be used to take the place of expensive broth and then used for compost, which is also expensive to purchase.  The best part of this experiment for me was the fact that veggie broth takes about one fourth of the time that chicken broth did. 

I still have three gallons of scraps in the freezer, plus what I will have leftover from cooking this week.  I guess I will be making more broth next weekend. 

What's Cookin'

This is the first of a series of posts that will briefly describe what we came up with for dinner.  I will not do it every day, but hopefully often. 

This first post was not a terribly inspired dinner, but we enjoyed it.  I wanted to use up some fresh green beans which were particularly nice for store bought, middle of the winter beans.  They were nice enough that we were able to simply steam them, my favorite way to fix really fresh green beans.  Usually I only do this with green beans from my own garden, but these worked out just fine. 

We also had sautéed cabbage and mashed potatoes, kind of a deconstructed colcannon.  The last item on our plate was marinated tofu.  I used two blocks of tofu, as I wanted extra to keep in the fridge for a couple of days to munch on. 

Oven Smashed Potatoes

I had a request to give this recipe.  I have made it for several years, but I have edited the original recipe.  In the original recipe, the potatoes were fried in a skillet.  This required that the potatoes be turned over during the cooking time, which sometimes resulted in the potatoes falling apart.  Also, I find the new recipe uses much less oil. 

The original recipe also used parmigiano reggiano, the king of cheeses in my book.  I didn't think I would miss much in the cheese world, except for parmigiano reggiano.  I am a frugal person, and yet I would buy this cheese for $24-$26 a pound.  This was the real deal stuff, and it was so delicious.  I used it in a lot of my cooking.  It is true that the shredded cheese went a long way, since the taste was so aggressive that it did not take much.  But that was still a lot of money for cheese.  At first I missed it quite a lot, but for the most part, I have been able to move on quite well. 

For this recipe, I subbed nutritional yeast for the parmesan cheese. I am able to find it at Whole Foods.  It is also available on Amazon for a little over $9 for a 4.5 ounce jar of the Bragg brand, which has been touted as the best flavored nutritional yeast.   I had to warm up to it a bit, but now I really like it a lot.  I think it works great in this recipe.

When I think the potatoes have cooked long enough by impaling one with a small knife which easily goes through the entire potato, I put one on the cookie sheet and smash it to make sure it is easy to smash.  If it is not, probably need to let the other potatoes cook another couple of minutes and then try another one to make sure it is done enough to easily smash. 

OVEN BAKED SMASHED POTATOES

12 small red potatoes (approximately 1 ½ inch diameter)

1 Tbsp. salt for boiling water
1/4 cup olive oil, maybe much less
salt and pepper to taste
nutritional yeast, approximately ¼ cup
 

Preheat oven to 425.

 

Wash potatoes.  Generously cover potatoes with cold water in a 3-4 quart pot.  Add 1 Tbsp. salt.  Boil until tender, about 20 minutes.  Drain potatoes onto a kitchen or paper towel. 

Spray oil onto a baking sheet.  Transfer the potatoes to the baking sheet and lightly crush each individual potato to about 3/4 inch thick with a spatula, keeping each potato together as much as possible.

 Sprinkle a small amount of olive oil over each potato, (or spray with oil for fewer calories).  Salt and pepper each potato to taste.  Sprinkle a small amount of nutritional yeast onto each potato. 

 Place potatoes into oven.  Cook for approximately 25-35 minutes, or until browned on the bottom.  No need to turn the potatoes over during the cooking time. 

 

 

Tempted by Tempeh

Almost all of our meals start with a whole food product.  I don't use many manufactured foods at all.

One thing I have bought a few times now is tempeh.  It is a fermented soy product, originally from Indonesia.  It comes in one solid cake type form.  When it comes out of the package, it is definitely not a thing of beauty. 



It has a good refrigerator shelf life.  I think it had a "best buy" date about one month out when I bought it the last time, which makes it a good product to keep in the fridge for those crazy busy nights.



There are many recipes for using it, but every time I have made it the same way.  My husband used to be a barbecue meat lover, and he misses the taste of barbecue sauce.  I cut the tempeh into thin slices, brown it in a skillet on both sides, then pour barbecue sauce over it.  I serve it on a bun or a nice crusty bread, with some lettuce added to the sandwich.  I serve pickles on the side.  If I am being a real over-achiever, I make oven fries out of white or sweet potatoes or "smashed" red potatoes.  That makes the meal quite wonderful. 

My husband usually compliments me numerous times while we are eating this meal.  If I don't make the potatoes, the meal takes me 10 minutes to make.  We will be keeping this in our meal rotations for sure.

Husband note:  Sweet Lord this stuff is good!
Seriously, it looks nasty at first, but once cooked the taste is fantastic!

Another Meal With Help From Leftovers

This weekend I was feeling less than spectacular, so I decided to use up some of my freezer contents.
  Usually I cook on the weekends in order to fill my freezer, but the freezer is actually looking a bit crowded right now, for which I am very thankful. 

Some time ago I gave the recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.  A couple of weeks ago I made a triple batch of the recipe.  I had two really huge butternut squashes which had been sitting on my countertop for about a month, so they needed to be used.   I love a vegetable that can sit contentedly for a few weeks, waiting to be used. 

We had eaten the soup once for dinner and several times for to-go lunches.  I had seen recipes for pasta with sauces made from different types of squashes, and in particular made with butternut squash sauce.  That sounded really good to me.

Some of the recipes were very similar to the soup recipe I had made.  I simply heated up the soup, then added a little almond milk to thin it to the consistency I wanted.  I served this over pappardelle, an egg noodle which I had bought previous to becoming a plant based eater.  I think this is the last non-plant based food in my kitchen, and I made the decision to use it.  However, this sauce will be perfectly fine over a pasta that does not contain eggs, which is what I will do next time.  Since I was wanting an extremely quick meal, I just paired it with some garlic bread and frozen veggies, (cooked of course).    This made for a meal that was done in way less than 30 minutes. 

The next day, we had two plates of the pasta meal leftover in the fridge.  To make it a little different, I sautéed some fresh green beans.  With the addition of the fresh green beans, we didn't feel like we were eating exactly the same meal as the day before. 

The bottom line is that the next time I make the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, I will put aside some in the freezer to use as a pasta sauce.  We both thought it was quite lovely.