Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous.  We enjoyed the vegan, gluten-free dinner with my parents, and two other families, all of which brought food to contribute.  I had enough plates by alternating two sets of china.  There were just enough pieces of stem ware for everyone to enjoy some sweet apple cider brought by one of the guests.  She also brought a yummy apple crisp, topped with pecans, and a bowl of peas.  I'll have to see if she can share the recipe for the crisp.

Another family brought mashed potatoes, gluten-free vegan gravy with mushrooms, and homemade cranberry sauce.  To make the cranberry sauce she simply boiled one cup of fresh cranberries with 1 cup of pineapple juice with 1/4 cup of brown sugar for 15 minutes until the cranberries popped and became soft and thick.

 

I made some home made gluten-free, vegan stuffing with a loaf of frozen millet bread.  I sautéed some onions, garlic and celery and mushrooms.  I added sliced olives and some chopped walnuts.  I made up some chicken like broth with LaChicky seasoning and dried Italian herbs, (but I think I might like Bill's Best brand better).  Pour the broth over the cubbed millet bread, and stir, taste to make sure you like the flavors.  Place mixture in a casserole dish and let it set for a while to soak it all in, and then bake at 350 degrees until there is a nice crust on top.

I made some bake tofu slices as my kids requested.  I got some very, very firm tofu and sliced it into triangles the night before.  House Foods, organic 2 pound bricks is a brand I really like for this.  Softer tofu can work, but it is more likely to crumble.  I made a marinade sauce out of Bragg's liquid aminos, and lemon juice.  I spread the tofu triangles out in a pan, and poured the marinade over it and let it set overnight in the refrigerator.  First thing in the morning I turned all the pieces over so they could sit a while on the other side.  Later I made a breading meal out mostly nutritional yeast, with some rice flour and tapioca flour, onion powder, garlic powder and salt.  Then I dipped each triangle into the breading meal and put them on a sprayed cookie sheet.  The oven was pre-heating to 425 degrees.  I baked them about 25 minutes on each side.  They turned out great, a nice little cutlet for a turkey free table, and not fried either.

The entree was the Chickpea, Veggie Walnut Loaf, I posted earlier in the week.  I think I would make it again, but I think I might tweak the seasonings a little bit.  I definitely think it needed more dried cranberries, or a good dollop of cranberry sauce on top, but then I love cranberries.

The pies were the greatest success in my mind.  I loved how the pumpkin pies turned out, especially the crust.  But I am feeling a little guilty, because the crust was not low fat, but rather full fat.  But at least they weren't bricks or crumbles this year.  Gluten free crusts are so hard to manage, unless you add a good measure of fat.  So I can decide if I should tell you what the crust recipe was or not.  I don't want to lead anyone astray, but is going to be the recipe I made next time.  I love pies.  They have been one of my favorite desserts since I was a little girl, but I haven't made them very often for the last 5 years or so, because of the crust and fat problem.  If any of you wise gluten-free, vegan eaters can help me out, I would be very grateful. 

We are now taking a break before the next festive meals are upon us.

Chickpea Veggie Walnut Loaf - Gluten-free, Vegan

Chickpea Veggie Walnut Loaf
awildflowermorning.blogspot.com

Gluten-free, Soy-free, Corn-free, Vegan

Saute, (then move to a large mixing bowl):
1 cup diced celery (about 2 stalks)
1 large onion diced
5 medium-large garlic cloves, pressed

Process in a food processor, (then move to a large mixing bowl):
3 cups of chickpeas, drained  (reserve an additional 3/4 cup chickpeas for later)
2 T lemon juice
1 T La Chicky seasoning, or other gluten-free, vegan chicken style seasoning, or tamari or Bragg's Liquid amionos
1 1/2 tsp italian herbs
2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp dried basil
When finished with this group, rinse and dry the food processor bowl for the next step

Toast, (then move to a large mixing bowl)
1 cup of walnuts in a dry frying pan on medium-low heat, then place into the cleaned out food processor bowl and pulse to make crumbs with
3/4 cup of gluten free rolled oats (reserve an additional 1/2 cup of gluten-free rolled oats for later)

Add and Mix the remaining ingredients into the large mixing bowl with all the above.
3 cups shredded potatoes
1 cup shredded carrots
1 - 10oz. package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cooked garbonzo beans (the ones you reserved up above)
1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats (not processed)
1/4 cup tapioca starch

You may adjust the salt as needed according to if you used canned garbonzo beans or if you used the saltier canned beans.  I used home cooked garbonzos, and thus needed more salt.  Also, the potatoes will absorb salt during the cooking time.

Place in a 9 by 13 casserole dish, or divide between two loaf pans.   Lightly spray or oil the dishes.  Spoon in the mixture and smooth. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.

Serve with cranberry sauce.

Carrot Cashew Loaf - GF, Vegan

We shared a meal tonight with some friends.  Everyone enjoyed this recipe.  It turned out wonderful.  I adapted it from several recipes, and made it gluten free. 

Carrot Cashew Loaf - GF, Vegan, 

3 cups of carrots, washed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups raw cashews
1 cup  raw sunflower seeds
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 Tablespoons tahini
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp basil flakes
1/3  - 1/2 cup stock from the cooked carrots or water

1.  Place chopped carrots into a pan with water, or in a steamer basket.  Bring to a boil, and cook until very tender.  Drain the carrots and reserve the cooking water. 

2.  While carrots are cooking, sauté onions and garlic in a little water until  softened.

3.  While carrots and onions are cooking, place cashews and sunflower seeds in a food processor and grind them until they are in small pieces.  Move them to a mixing bowl.

4.  Place the brown rice in the food processor and grind until it is in smaller pieces.  Move the rice to the mixing bowl.  Add the rice flour, tahini, lemon juice, salt, basil flakes. 

5.  When the carrots are soft, put them into the food processor until they are smooth.  Move to the mixing bowl, along with the onions and garlic.

6.  Mix in some of the cooking water from the carrots, or some warm water and mix well to make a thick paste.

7. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a loaf pan.  Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour.  Let the loaf stand in the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing.  Slice and serve.

Recipe from www.wildflowermorningrecipes.blogspot.com

Zucchini Patties - Gluten-free, Vegan, for the Freezer

We have been having a great summer of camping, and cooking, and eating, and canning, and more.  We've made some great food, but I haven't taken the time to post about it.  Our garden is producing large quantities of food right now, and we are eating it as fast as we can, and preserving the rest.

Zucchini is a plant that some people have an easy time with, but up until this year the squash bugs have been killing my plants before we got more then a handful of baby squash.  So this year I decided to plant more squash then the squash bugs could kill. (I can't handle patrolling for the deadly killers and squashing them.)  And my strategy worked.  We have a giant row now of giant zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants.  We also had some in another part of the garden, so many that we ourselves took out a few plants to make room for other vegetables.

We have made yummy stir fries with it.  I've cooked it with garden tomatoes and basil and onions.  I've made a zucchini casserole.  And I figured out how to make zucchini patties.  But I still had to start giving away the "dreaded" zucchini.  My friend took a large box of them off my hands, and then sent me a recipe of what she did with them.  She not only made zucchini patties, she made six batches of them, for her freezer.  Now this starts getting exciting to me.  I'd love to have a freezer shelf full of delicious gluten-free vegan patties.  The recipe she sent me wasn't gluten-free, but I've worked it over, and the results passed approval with every family member today, in sandwiches, with thick slices of garden tomato, sweet onion sliced thinly, vegenaise, ketchup, etc.  

Zucchini Patties - Gluten-free, Vegan

For the Freezer 

www.awildflowermorning.blogspot.com

1.  Get out your biggest bowl and start grating your zucchini and/or yellow crookneck squash to see how many batches you can make.  There is 9 cups of zucchini per batch.  Measure out how much you have.  I had enough for 5 batches.  I divided it between my two giant bowls that I use when canning fruit, so I would have room to add ingredients and mix.  Use an electric grater or food processor of some sort to get the job done quickly.  (You can also just make one batch at a time for immediate eating or for freezing, depending on your family size.)  The patties can be used in sandwiches, like a vegeburger.  Or they can be arranged in a baking dish, covered with gravy, and baked like a casserole.

One batch made averaged around 63 patties.  5 batches made 316 patties.

 Ingredients:

9 cups of zucchini and/or yellow crookneck quash, shredded in a food procesor
4 medium onions, or so, chopped in a food proceesor
4 cups of gluten free rolled oats
2 more cups of gluten free rolled oats, ground up in your blender, food processor or grinder until it is a flour consistency
2-3 cups of gluten free bread crumbs.  (I make bread crumbs with gluten-free Millet Bread, by Food for Life, from the freezer section at the store.  Thaw the bread in the oven or toaster, then use the S-blade in the food processor to break it up into tiny pieces. The Millet bread goes a long ways.  Two loaves was enough for 5 batches. Another kind of bread might work fine also.  You could also use more oats instead of the bread crumbs.)
4 Tbsp La Chikky Seasoning by the Vegetarian Express (or other chicken-style seasoning)
1 Tbsp salt (adjust this amount if you use a chicken-style seasoning with more or less salt, such as McKays, which has a large amount of salt.  Bills Best brand might need more salt.)
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion power
1/4 cup of Nutritional yeast flakes
1 cup raw cashew pieces, chopped or ground small (use different nuts or seeds if you desire)
1 cup raw sunflower kernels, chopped or ground small (use different nuts or seeds if you desire)

Directions:
Shred the zucchini and/or yellow crook/neck squash on medium shred.  Place in a very large bowl.  Chop or grind up the onions finely, and add to the zucchini.  Add all the other ingredients.  Mix thoroughly.  Use a wooden spoons or clean hands and keep working it until the whole mixture is quite wet and holds together well.  (It is ok to let the mixture sit overnight in the refrigerator to set up even more, and then bake the patties in the morning.)

Spray a baking sheet or two.  Use a 1/3 cup measuring cup as a scoop.  Place a wide canning ring on the the baking sheet.  Place 1/3 cup of the zucchini mixture in the ring, and flatted down into the ring with a spoon.  Move the ring and make another patty.  Repeat until the tray is full.

Bake at 400 degrees.  After the tray has been in the oven 20 minutes.  Remove and turn over each patty.  Then bake for another 20 minutes.  If you have enough baking sheets you can have them filled and ready when the first trays are finished.  This helps speed up the large batch baking process.

Place the baked patties on something to cool.  When cool place them in ziplock bags in appropriate numbers for your family.  Label the bags, and put them in the freezer to use through the winter months.

It took a little work last night and this morning, but it is going to be a real treat to have gluten-free convenience food in my freezer for months.  If I have enough time, I think I'll make some more before the garden stops making zucchini.

Traveling Gluten-free Vegan

The Grand Canyon on our Recent Trip

We just returned from a great road trip with the family to see the sights in Southern California, Arizona, and Utah. Gone are the days of throwing in some clothes and a sleeping bag and hitting the road, eating whatever is available. I have to think carefully about what I am going to eat. I don't trust many restaurants. There is no way I want some accidental gluten exposure when I am out trying to keep up with my growing kids in a hike. Three days of low energy and brain fog would ruin the trip. I have to plan and take food along.

So you are wondering, what did we eat? Good food, I tell you! What we ate might not work for you, but it might give you some ideas.

Three times on the road I typed "Wendy's" into the GPS, and we went and bought plain baked potatoes to go. These we took to the car where we drizzled on some tahini that I keep in the ice chest. We seasoned them with onion powder, garlic powder, and salt that I keep in small sprinkle containers in a quart ziplock bag, in the back window of the car. Then we added pinto beans, black beans or garbonzo beans from a freshly opened can, pulled out of the trunk. A child got to choose the variety. Salsa was available in the ice chest if someone want some of that. Second course was salad. Pull out some pre-chopped, washed lettuce, a cucumber, grape tomatoes, and what ever else you want on your salad. Put some lettuce in your now empty potato container, and slice on some cucumber, add tomatoes, etc. For dressing you cut a lime in half, and squeeze on the juice. For fat you drizzle on some more tahini, and some of that onion powder, garlic powder and salt. Basil or dill is nice too if you have them. Mix it around and enjoy. Finish off with an apple or orange or banana from the grocery store along the way. It is a great meal!

Before we left home I made a large batch of granola with gluten free oats, lots of nuts and seeds, and sulfite-free dried fruit cut into little pieces, along with raisins. (I adapted the recipe on my blog, didn't include the rice flakes, and just used more gluten free oats, and raw buckwheat instead. ) I take along boxes of rice milk or my favorite, hazelnut milk. This makes such an easy breakfast (or supper) when you don't have much time. Scoop out some granola into cereal bowls you keep in the trunk. Get a plastic box that kids keep school supplies in, and load it up with some miss-matched silverware, serving spoons, paring knives, peeler, garlic press, etc. Then keep it in your camping supplies all the time. Take along a small dish pan. In the dish pan you will keep a ziplock containing a sponge, a tiny bottle of dish soap, and a metal scrubber. (I also keep in the dishpan, any crushable fruit or tomatoes, and bottles that might leak, such as olive oil.) When you get dirty dishes, just slip them in the dish pan until you are at a spot you can wash dishes. In a larger plastic box I keep a thin plastic cutting board, a large chef's knife, long handled stirring spoon, tongs for grabbing spaghetti or salad, a hot pad, real plates, paper plates, the bowls, a fire lighter, a few more bags of various sizes, and anything else I think I'll need kitchen wise for the trip.

About paper versus real plates. We rarely use paper plates in our normal life, because we find them to be a waste of resources, and have learned that it really doesn't take long to wash real plates. That is, if you have water. We carry a two gallon water jug with us, and 8 - 1 litter bottles inside the car with us. That is a good amount of water for 1 - 2 days, if you aren't doing much cooking or dish washing. But if you are camping in the desert along the way, without a water spigot available, you can run out really fast. I've learned to cut corners with water when I have to. Such as cutting the salad directly onto each person's plate, rather then into a serving bowl, and mixing the sauce and a can of green beans directly into the boiled and drained spaghetti noodles, and thus using only one cooking pot. There are usually some dishes to wash at every meal. But when we don't have much water available, I use paper plates, to cut back on what we need to wash. If I am careful, we may only have to wash silverware, and one cooking pot, in addition to the silverware we put in the dishpan earlier in the day as we traveled. I have tried using plastic silverware, but decided that the little water need to clean real silverware was worth more then breaking plastic forks. I find paper bowls are pretty expensive, and sometimes they are too small. I take larger sized, real, plastic cereal bowls with high sides to use for granola, or other meals that work well in bowls.

I take a pressure cooker for my large cooking pot. I can cook up rice and lentils, or potato soup pretty fast in it. I take a large sauce pan for a secondary pot. And a take a non-stick fry pan for making stir fry, or pancakes. I take a 2 burner propane camp stove that serves all our cooking needs. I have used it on the ground on the side of the road, out the door of our hotel room, on picnic tables, on flat rocks and in a snowstorms. If I have my camp stove, we can eat well, no matter where we are.

A Pot of Potato Soup in a Snowstorm on this Trip
Soup in the big pressure cooker, and water heating in the smaller one to be ready for washing dishes.

About pancakes. We used the recipe on my blog for Corn Cakes, which are pancakes made with cornmeal. We put the dry ingredients in a bag, put the white powders that you add later, wrapped up in a piece of plastic wrap, inside the first bag. On the outside the bag, with a permanent marker, write a few simple reminder directions. They make great pancakes for camping. We ate pancakes 3 times in 10 days.

If I have time the day before the trip we make up some extra batches of gluten free waffles to take along for the first couple days of the trip. You can put nut butter on them, or spread on some hummus and sprouts or lettuce and you have a great sandwich. Or you can just eat them plain while you are driving down the road. The waffles soften really quickly, so after they are all cooked, it is nice to put them in the oven for a while on maybe 250 degrees and toast them a bit more. Let them cool before you put them in bags to take with you.

For general eating in the car, we have no candy or junk food. We have dried fruit, raw nuts, fresh fruit, and sometimes corn chips.

At our store we can buy a product called "Corn Thins". They are puffed corn, shaped like rice cakes, but thinner and crisper. In the car I can take one of those, spoon on a heaping teaspoon of refried beans, right out of a can, smooth it around, and top it with a couple ripe green olives, also right of a can of olives. I pass these little treats around the car and they are eaten with gusto, until we are out of beans. The remaining olives are divided evenly between the number of people in the car, right down to the quarter olive. If you can't find Corn Thins, you can use rice cakes instead.

At least once in every trip I make Tailgate bean salad. Pull a variety of canned beans out of the trunk, including some green beans and wax beans, garbonzos, kidney beans, and more. Adjust the number of cans to the number of people eating, and the number of kids in a growth spurt. Open cans, drain them, and put the beans in a large plastic bowl, or your medium sized cooking pot. Add some grape tomatoes, cut in half, dice up a cucumber if you have one (peel it and you don't have wash it). Squeeze in 1 - 2 limes, according to how sour you like it, and how big your salad is. Season with salt, onion powder and garlic powder. Add a little olive oil if necessary. Divide it evenly among the salad bowls or paper plates. It feeds hungry people quickly with out much mess, water, or even a picnic table.

In every trip I usually make at least one pot of soup with diced potatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, carrots, canned tomatos, beans, and whatever else I have. Pressure it for 10 minutes, and it is cooked. An easy, warm nutritious meal.

One of my secret gourmet meals for camping, that brings neighboring campers in sniffing, is homemade Butternut Squash Curry. I make this only when we are in camp, with water and time, but it is always a loved meal. I thrown in the trunk a butternut squash, and some potatoes, a jar of my favorite curry paste, and other seasonings, and some coconut milk. I pre-measure some brown rice into a bag and bring it along, so it is ready to go. The first thing I do is start the rice cooking in the large sauce pan I bring along, as it takes around 45 minutes once the water is boiling. When you have it boiling, make sure the lid is on, and turn down the flame to barely on, and note the time on your watch. Then get peeling and cutting of the onion and the squash and potatoes. (Straight potato curry also tastes good too. Use the veggies you have, even if they are completely different then what I listed.) When that is all ready. Get your pressure cooker out, and put some coconut milk in the bottom, maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of the thick stuff in the can. Start it heating, then spoon in an adequate amount of curry paste, and other seasonings. I often add some garam masala, whole cumin, and mustard seeds, and a little more cayenne to spice things up, and make the curry a cross between Thai and Indian curry. Make yours to fit your personal taste. Once the coconut milk and curry paste are bubbling good and smelling even better, add in the chopped veggies and stir them around. Add the rest of the can of the coconut milk, and more water and or coconut milk if needed, according to the amount of veggies you have. I usually make plenty so there is leftovers in the morning for breakfast before we leave. Even though I have this in the pressure cooker, I don't pressure it. I put the lid on it, but don't close the lid on in the way that you would if you wanted to build up the pressure. Cook until the veggies are almost soft. Add cubed tofu, if you have some. When everything is all soft and ready to eat. Add chopped cilantro, if you have some, or some frozen/thawed green peas from the ice chest, or frozen/thawed broccoli. About this time the rice should be finished. Get ready to sit back and have the best meal in the campground!

About the frozen/thawed peas or broccoli. We stop at a store every couple of days on a road trip. I then pick up new ice for the ice chest, fresh produce, and sometimes a bag of something out of the frozen section. It will thaw, but stay good in the ice chest for a couple of days at least. If you are planning ahead, it is an easy way to get more veggies into you meals, without having to spend time washing and chopping produce. At home I buy fresh most of the time, but it is one of my time and water saving tricks of a happy, gluten free, dairy free family on the road.

I didn't do it this trip, but have done it on many other trips. Brown rice and lentils make a nice meal, alone or topped with salad. Use your pressure cooker to cut the time way back. Brown the brown rice in the bottom of the dry pressure cooker for a few minutes. Add the lentils, and adaquate water. (You probably want twice as many lentils as rice. And 2 - 3 times as much water.) Cover with the lid and seal it down and wait for the pressure to come up. Put on the little pressure regulator gadget. Then set the time for 7 - 9 minutes. The last I did it I think closer to 7 minutes worked good, but I also used the tiny brown Pardina lentils. If you have the full sized green-brown colored lentils, you might need closer to 9 minutes. I used short brown rice.

An obvious easy meal is gluten free spaghetti and sauce. Bring your favorite gluten free noodles, and dairy free sauce. Cook the noodles, carefully hold the lid on and tip the pan slowly to drain them. It is a little risky, but I've practiced at home over a clean sink and have mastered the trick, most of the time. Put the sauce in your drained noodles, and then if you have some of those frozen veggies, or a can of green beans, mix them in, and them heat them back up. Add salad if you have some and you have a great meal. It is quick, unless you are at high elevation, in which case you will stand there a long time waiting for everything to come to a boil. But after that you can cook it for the amount of time listed on the package, or until it is soft.

I think that is among the best of my tricks for road trips as a Gluten-free person eating a plant based diet. Hope some of them work for you. If you have some more tips, be sure to include them in the comments, or post them on your blog, and come back here and put the URL in a comment for us to go look at.

Rice Cooker Dahl

The recipe below is for some great dahl, but have you ever made it in the rice cooker. I'm all for easy food, done healthy. Put it all in a big rice cooker and press on. It will be all ready and waiting for you at dinner time.

Rice Cooker Dahl

3 cups of basmati brown rice
2 cups red lentils
2 teaspoons garam masala seasoning
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp garlic powder
chopped onion
minced garlic
2 tsp salt
cilantro, chopped, if you have some
ginger, minced, if you'd like

Lots of water, like you were making soup (Sorry I don't have a measure, just put in 2 - 3 inches of water above the top of the ingredients)

Pour it all into the big rice cooker pot. If your cooker is small, divide the recipe. Mix it up. Put down the lid and press on. Come back in a hour or a little more and find lunch. Add a big salad on the side. Yum!

Red Lentil Dahl

Some of our most favorite gluten-free/vegan/plant-based foods are Indian or Thai style. I make a simple dahl using red lentils that is easy and gathers requests for more.

Red Lentil Dahl

1 Tablespoon Garam Masala
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 chopped onion
2 - 3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 inch ginger clove minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 - 4 Roma tomatoes or equivilant
3 cups dried red lentils
water
salt

In a large soup kettle, place the first 5 ingredients with a little vegetable oil, maybe a teaspoon or so, and cook on medium heat until the seeds begin to pop. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and cilantro and cook until the onions begin to soften. If it is sticking, add some water. Add tomatoes and cook a little, then add the red lentils and a good amount of water. Simmer until the lentils are soft and ready to eat, around 20 - 25 minutes. Add just enough salt for you taste.

Serve with brown rice and generous serving of salad.

Vegan Eggplant Parmasean

These eggplants from my garden have long been eaten, but I saw eggplant in the store on sale this week. So it is time to post my long promised Vegan Eggplant Parmasean Recipe. It doesn't have a bit of cheese in it, nor is it fried, but we all think it is delicious. Maybe you will too.

Here's how you make it. Start with some slices of fresh eggplant. Use a spatula, or butter knife to spread some sesame tahini on each side of each slice. If you are needing to be very restrictive of fat, spread it on just one side. Have a bowl of nutritional yeast sitting nearby. Lay the slice of eggplant with the tahini on it in the nutritional yeast and coat each side. Use a spoon to help you if needed. Arrange the slices in a baking dish, as shown below. Make as many as you think the people you are serving will eat, and then a little more for left overs the next day. The tahini and the nutritional yeast make a very nice fatty cheese like flavor. We think it is much less heavy then the traditional form, and tastes more fresh.


Now spread on some of your favorite red tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce. This time I made my own by blending garden tomatoes, and adding onion, garlic, basil and oregano and salt. Other times I have used the sauce in jars. There is no magic recipe. Just get a generous layer of sauce that you like on top. If you like, you can put a layer of it under the eggplant before you put them in the dish. You could also add a layer of spinach if you like. Or mix in peas to the red sauce.
Bake at 350 degrees F, for around 45 minutes or until the eggplant is tender and smelling irresistable.

Serve with salad and steamed broccoli, or peas. Sprinkle some slices black olives on top if you wish.

Nifty Nutty Cheese Bake AKA Gluten Free Macaroni and Cheese

I've recently discovered that I can't eat cashews or almonds anymore. Unfortunately I used them a lot in my cooking to make a cheese sauce substitute, Ranch style dressing, gravy and more. My son wanted Cashew Macaroni and Cheese for his birthday. I knew it would be very hard not to eat some, because I enjoy it too. Then he suggested that I make a second one out of walnuts. I was not sure if it would be good, but it was worth the try. The results? All the cashew eaters said that mine was better then theirs, that it tasted like I had added some Bragg's Liquid Aminos or soy sauce (another food that gives me a head ache.)

We think it is a great tasting recipe, but if you haven't gotten over your love for cheese, it might not work for you. Back in my cheese eating days, someone served some of this to me, and I thought it was terrible. But their mistake was to call it Macaroni and Cheese. It tasted nothing like the cheese I had ever eaten. I have since thought about that many times and now think that it has a lot to do with expectations. So if you don't expect it to taste like cheese, it is pretty good. Therefore, I give my recipe a new name. And if you are serving it to someone who is addicted to mac and cheese, use a different shape of noodle, such as a spiral, so they don't even begin to get their expectations up.

Nifty Nutty Noodle Bake AKA Gluten Free Macaroni and Cheese

Cook 2 cups of noodles (spirals, shells, or elbows - I use Tinkyada gluten free pasta) in water with a bit of salt

Blend:
1 cup walnuts or cashews (or other nuts?) in 1 cup of water until very smooth.

Add and blend:
2 oz jar of pimientoes or 1/2 cup of fresh red pepper
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Drain macaroni and place in a baking dish. Pour sauce over the top and stir in. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Uncover and cover with bread crumbs if desired and bake another 15 minutes (bread crumbs are very optional and it is quite good with out them). Serve with green peas! Yum!

Oven Hashbrowns and Veggies

When my husband concluded after his heart attack that based on the research we should not be using oil in our cooking. I went into big shock. I am sure that most would say that I did not use much oil in my cooking. I have since learned to cook lots of common items without oil and they turn out just fine.

Here is a recipe for Oven Hashbrowns that we love to make on Sunday mornings along with some scrambled tofu. I has some fat, in the nuts in the gravy, but doesn't use processed oil. Exact measurements aren't necessary in this recipe, but I'll give you some guidelines, to get you started. It can be made without vegetables, but my tastebuds have changed and their new vote says that it tastes much more interesting and alive with them. I try to get more vegetables in our diet as many ways as possible.

Oven Hashbrowns and Veggies

1. Grate up a big pile of scrubbed clean potatoes, skins and all. You need somewhere between 6 and 10 cups for a large cookie sheet full of hashbrowns. I often use red potatoes, or Yukon Golds for this. You can use a hand grater, or food processor. I use an electric Salad Shooter. Place the grated potatoes in a big mixing bowl.

2. Chop up 2 - 4 heads of broccoli into tiny bite sized pieces, including the stems. Peel the stems only if necessary. You need 4 - 6 cups of broccoli bits. Add to the grated potatoes.

3. Make a gravy. This is close to what I make, though I'm not always good at measuring. Adjust the seasonings to your liking. In your blender or vita-mix whiz up until very smooth: 1 1/2 cups of cashews, 1 1/2 cups water, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tablespoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 4 Tablespoons nutritional yeast. (Add more water if necessary in a regular blender.)

4. Mix the gravy into the potatoes and broccoli and mix until everything is coated well. Other optional veggies, if you have them. Diced red or green pepper, chives, minced parsley or cilantro or basil, diced onion, minced garlic, spinach. Be creative and see what you come up with. It is really yummy.

5. Spread everything onto a baking sheet or two. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Serves 4 , more or less, depending on how many veggies you prepare.

Baked Potatoes and Gravy

Baked potatoes are easy to prepare, easy and normal for most people. We usually eat them once a week. We love Yukon Gold potatoes because when baked they are naturally yellow and a little creamy in texture. We don't use margarine anymore, so a tasty homemade gravy is very important.

To bake potatoes I simply scrub some up, and put them on the middle rack of the oven, then bake them at 400 degrees for 1 hour. I don't wrap them in foil anymore, because aluminum seems to contribute to disease.

Here is Tami Benton's gravy recipe from Pure and Simple.

Onion Gravy
By Tami A. Benton

Saute onions until soft:
1 large onion

Blend until smooth:
3 cups of water
2 T rice flour
3/4 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 t salt
1/8 t garlic powder

Add blended mixture to the onions and simmer 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.

One trick to get people to eat more veggies at a potato meal is to put out the salad as the first course, with nothing else at the table. If you pre-serve the salad on pretty plates, people will eat even more then then normally do, because salad looks so lovely with all it's colors and textures. After the salad course, bring out the potatoes with another veggie such a cooked, frozen peas, asparagus or broccoli. No meat or entree' is needed. There is good nutrition in salad greens.

Tomato Herb Lentil Loaf

Last year we had a very special guest for lunch. Dr. T. Colin Campbell author of the important book, "The China Study" was going to be speaking in our town on Saturday and Sunday. I was asked if we could prepare lunch for him and his wife and another couple. I was a little scared, but what an honor. We have people over sometimes, but they are usually other families with kids, or people more like us. I've never cooked and cleaned for such a famous person before.

As it turned out, Dr. and Mrs. Campbell are wonderful people. The are small town people, just like us. They were easy to talk with, and easy to be around. I think everyone one present instantly felt at ease.

For the meal I served a lentil loaf out of my friend's just published cookbook, Pure and Simple by Tami Benton. It is a cook book featuring plant based foods that are gluten free, and MSG free. Just to get you interested, Tami gave me permission to share a couple recipes.

Tomato Herb Lentil Loaf
By Tami A. Benton

*Cook the lentils and rice ahead. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
1 cup cooked brown lentils
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 cup ground raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup tomato, chopped
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup celery, finely chopped
5 T tomato paste or 1/2 of a 6 oz. can of tomato paste
2 T salt
1/8 t sage
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
dash cayenne (careful, not too much)
dash rosemary
dash thyme
dash basil

Press into an oiled 4" by 8" loaf pan. Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until brown. Allow pan to cool. Decorate a platter with lettuce leaves and place loaf in the middle. Or place directly on the serving platter and drizzle cashew gravy over the top.

It does freeze nicely.

My Notes: Make sure your lentils have as much liquid drained off of them as possible before measuring or your loaf ends up a little too wet. The loaf does come out of the pan easier after it is cooled. If you loaf does not come out in one piece, like mine did, then all is not lost. Just take a spoon and mound and smooth the sides. It still turns out pretty. I added cooked carrots around the edge of mine for decoration.
If you would like to hear a couple lectures by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, I have good news. I found two of them at google video.

Lecture one - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-847196066367535747&q=T.+Colin+Campbell



Lecture two -

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1719204869171202407&q=T.+Colin+Campbell



Also his book, The China Study, is really worth reading.

Easy Butternut Squash Curry

Did you know that my favorite food is Thai food? Because the weather in Thailand is hot, I often think of curry when the weather gets hot. I lived there long enough to really get it into my system. I've got Thai basil growing in my garden and it is just begging to be made into something delicious. My favorite use of Thai basil is in Squash Curry. You have just got to try it. And if you don't have any Thai basil, don't worry. It tastes fantastic without it.

Easy Butternut Squash Curry

By Barbara Frohne

1 can coconut milk
1 can water
1 - 3 tsp of Thai Kitchen green or red curry paste (I used 3 tsp. green paste and don't think it's too spicy) *
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 - 2 onions, peeled in large chucks
1/2 large red pepper (optional but adds nice taste and color)
1 - 2 cups frozen green peas (optional, but I miss them if I don't have any)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (important)
1 - 2 handfuls of leaves of Thai basil (optional)
1 - 2 tsp. salt to taste

Cooked Rice.**

Pour about half of the can of coconut milk into a soup pan on medium high. If part of the coconut milk is solid, use the solid half. Add 1 - 3 tsp of curry paste and stir until it is bubbly and smells really good. Add the onions and the squash, the remaining coconut milk and about a can full of water. Use the coconut milk can to measure. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the squash is tender. It might take around 20 minutes, depending on how big your chunks are. As soon as it is soft add any of the remaining ingredients that you have

*A note about the curry paste. Any Thai curry paste will do, but not all curry pastes are equal. I have tried quite a few. Most will do if you don't care about what is in the curry paste. Read the label. Many have shrimp or some other sea creature which I have no desire to eat. Some add MSG, but call it "spices." I was about to give up buying curry paste and just make my own. It isn't hard to make. But then I found the Thai Kitchen brand. It is vegan and gluten free and delicious! You can find it in heath minded stores such as Wild Oats, Whole Foods, and Huckleberries. My favorite is the green curry paste which has a few spices found in Indian foods. The red is very good too. I use the red in potato curries quite often.

**I really like Jasmine rice, but because of it's low nutrition content, I have switched to brown rice. My favorite is organic short brown rice. I really think that the organic rice tastes better, and the short brown rice cooks up tender and soft, easy to eat. It cooks up easily in a rice cooker.

Simple Cabbage Stirfry

Some blogs are full of fancy food for parties and holidays. And while I admit it is nice to have some of those recipes around, it is most important to have nutritious food to eat every day. Here is a quick and easy everyday dish that is tasty, and oil free.

Simple Cabbage Stirfry.

Make sure you have a good amount of leftover brown rice in the refrigerator, or get a rice cooker of it started first.

I don't know how many people you are going to serve, so adjust your ingredients to fit how many will be eating.

Chop up one onion, and put it in you pan with some water, but no oil. No oil is needed. Start cooking it on medium heat. If it starts to go dry, add a little more water.

Grab a head of cabbage and chop up as much cabbage as you would like to eat. Remember it will cook down smaller. Cut the pieces the size you'd like to put in your mouth.

Add the cabbage to the onions. Add a little more water. Put on a lid, and cook until the cabbage is tender.

Add about 1 teaspoon of salt for a big pan of cabbage, or less.

Mix in your brown rice until it is about half cabbage and half rice. Cook a little to mix the flavors and warm the rice, if it is cold from the fridge.

Serve with a little dill weed or cayenne sprinkled on top, if you would wish.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

We don't eat a lot of pizza here, but it is nice to make for a special occasion. Here is how we made pizza for my daughter's birthday party.Gluten Free Pizza Crust
Makes 3 or 4 - 12" to 15" crusts

2 cups Sweet rice flour
2 cups sorghum flour
2/3 cup potato flour
2/3 cup garfava flour or garbonzo bean flour
2/3 cup tapioca starch
2 TBSP GF baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Italian seasoning (or a combination of oragano, basil, rosemary and thyme)
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 1/2 cup to 3 cups water

Oil your pizza pans. Preheat the overn to 400F.

In a mixing bowl mix together the dry ingredients. Add the oil, and then slowly start adding the water. If you use a Kitchen Aid or other mixture, just keep working the dough until it is workable and not too sticky, but not dry either, then turn the dough out onto a floured board. If you don't use a mixer, turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead until it is the right consistency. Divide your dough into 3 - 4 balls, depending on the size of your pans. Take one ball and roll it in brown rice flour. Cover your clean hands with brown rice flour. Place your ball in the middle of an oiled pan. Start pressing the dough flat. Push and press until it covers the pan. If you develop a sticky spot. Sprinkle just a tiny bit of brown rice flour there, and keep working it flat. Don't worry about how the dough looks, because it will soon be covered with sauce and toppings, and you won't be able to see that it isn't smooth.

Bake the crusts for around 10 - 15 minutes. Now you have a choice. You can either wrap the crusts in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer until you rare ready for pizza, or you can top them and bake pizza right away. Either way it is delicious! Once you add the toppings bake another 20 - 25 minutes.

Tofu Sprout Burgers

My friend made these for a special dinner we were invited to. I was a little concerned about what were were going to eat, but we were delightfully surprised to have such tasty patties on our plate. I have since adapted the recipe a some, and made them a little simpler to prepare.

Tofu Sprout Burgers
Yield: 6 large burgers or many small ones

1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups firm tofu
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup parsley chopped (optional)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1 tsp basil dried
1/4 cup grated carrots
2 cups alfalfa sprouts

1. Blend sunflower seeds in a food processor to meal.
2. Add all ingredients in the food processor, excepts carrots and sprouts, mix until everything is evenly distributed.
3. Add the carrots and sprouts and pulse just enough to mix them in evenly.
4. Sprinkle corn meal or other breading meal evenly over a cookie sheet, so it is coated. To shape large patties, place a large canning ring on the corn meal coated cookie sheet. Fill the ring with dough, and lift ring. For small patties use a 1/8 cup ice cream scoop that has a squeezable handle to help you remove the dough from the scoop. Place the scoops close together on the pan, as they won't spread. Flatten them slightly with the back of the scoop.
5. Sprinkle some more corn meal on top of the patties.
6. Bake at 350F degrees for 20 minutes. Carefully turn them, and bake for another 20 minutes. The large patties are especially fragile, so be careful while turning them.