Sunday, September 23, 2007

A Fruit-full Dinner

Saturday night’s dinner was a healing meal. Chase has a horrible cold so mom prescribed lots of vitamin C and some easy recipes he felt like helping me prepare.

Avocado Soup



I had such high hopes for this, but it was far too decadent to come from my kitchen! I veganized a recipe with avocado, spinach, cilantro, cashew cream, and lime juice, and also buttermilk and goat cheese, and ended up with too much lime flavor and a huge amount of leftovers. We loved the thick, creamy texture, but just didn’t enjoy the sour taste. I guess vegan cream cheese is no substitute for goat cheese. I think for the leftovers I will try cutting it with almond milk and perhaps use it as a salad dressing or pasta topping.


Rice Salad with Apples


This is a cold brown rice salad with apples, red pepper, carrots, onions, dates, and sunflower seeds. The dressing is simply made with apple juice, lemon juice, olive oil, and all purpose seasoning. I wanted to add chopped fresh parsley, but I had run out. This was my favorite part of the meal.



It is a delicious salad and I’m glad there are leftovers!


Strawberry Jalapeno Corn Muffins


From ExtraVeganZa. The recipe called for a half cup of sugar. I only used 2 tablespoons and we were very happy with the results.


Homemade Adzuki Beans with Fried Bananas


Bananas was all I could think of to add to hot beans.


Broccoli with Orange Tahini Sauce


This was my plate. The sauce recipe is from The Saucy Vegetarian. Perfect for steamed broccoli.


Grilled Chik’n Seitan with Cherry Sauce


This was Chase’s plate. (So he was a little off his grilling game and singed the edges of his seitan and had to cut them away.) I made LDV chicken style seitan – his favorite. And my cherry sauce turned out great! I used half a bag of frozen sweet cherries, half of a chopped onion, some ginger and agave, and then thickened it with a cornstarch slurry. I never eat cherries, so this was a really nice change of pace.


Dessert was Lemon Bundt Cakes from The Millennium Cookbook.


I made a glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice for six little bundtlettes and served it with some fresh raspberries. These were fantastic, like lemony cake donuts. We split one, so I hope they freeze well.

By the way, baking class was a disappointment. We know WAY more than that instructor. I’ll post about it later this week.

Chase gets so upset when he gets sick. I try to explain that no matter how well we take care of ourselves, we are still subject to viruses. He rides the bus a lot and sits in classrooms with all kinds of germs. We are both obsessive hand-washers, eat well, and work out routinely. So short of wearing hazmat gear, I don’t know what else he can do. I did find it fascinating when he told me that next week he wants a really orange, hot soup. Maybe I didn’t get enough vitamin C in him last night.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope Chase feels 100% better soon.
and these lemon bundt cakes are absolutely gorgeous. well, so's everything really. ;)

Anonymous said...

I read in one of John Robbins' books (can't remember if it was Food Revolution or Healthy at 100) a true story of long-time vegans (husband and wife) who ate healthy, took care of themselves, exercised, etc. and the wife got cancer. John Robbins went on to explain that you could be the epitomy of health and still get cancer or some other awful disease/illness. He said that veganism is like wearing a seatbelt and driving the speed limit. Sure you can drive down the freeway at 150 mph, not wearing your seatbelt, crash head-on into a tree and survive. But, why take that risk? If you wear your seatbelt and drive the speed limit, of course there's still the chance that you could die when you crash into that tree, but there's an even better chance that you'll walk away with your life.

I hope Chase feels better soon!

aTxVegn said...

Thanks, Crystal, I'll pass that story along to Chase. He's young and still doesn't quite get that life's not fair. For many reasons, he and I will keep the vegan seatbelts fastened.

MeloMeals said...

I hope Chase feels better soon.... being sick is no fun at all.

I'm sorry the avocado recipe didn't work out. I hate when that happens.

Everything looks fabulous.. especially the lemon cakes.

Anonymous said...

I hope Chase feels better soon! I know you're meal definitely helped him on the road to recovery. Everything looks great, as always. Have a great week.

Anonymous said...

i hope he feel better soon!!

the food looks totally delicious and full of life like always!

Anonymous said...

PLEASE write a cookbook, even if you think you really do day to day assembling and cooking. Call it The Day to Day Vegan or Vegan D squared!!! Your mealls sound and look wonderful

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

oooh, that avocado soup looks divine - I'm sorry to hear that it was sour! and oh my goodness, that bundt cake is calling my name :0)

I hope that Chase gets well soon!! I'm sending happy thoughts/good health your way!!

Kris said...

You always make such incredibly elaborate meals, even when you think they are "simple". I sat here, eating my dinner while I read this, which consisted of tomato soup from a container and some crackers. Elegant. :P

Anonymous said...

everything looks incredible, but i'm intrigued by the avocado soup! i'm sorry that the class was dissapointing... also, i hope chase gets well soon!

Amey said...

Poor little Chase, and poor you to see your baby feeling blue. I hope he feels better soon. The immune system is such a complicated thing... it can be influenced by so many factors - including stress, emotions, viruses, the lymphatic system and so on. And, being sick is nice sometimes because you can have an opportunity to relax and be quiet with yourself.

Incidentally the bundt cakes look amazing! I only have the Artful Vegan, but maybe I could find hte Millenium Cookbook at the library or something.

lots of love!
amey

Jackie said...

Hope Chase gets better soon.

Never thought of strawberries with jalapeno...must be fusion cooking like chocolate and chili which is popular now.

Must try the orange tahini sauce on broccoli as I might like it that way. I battle with broccoli (but we must eat it being so good for women) so normally liquidize and drink quickly LOL

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Everything looks great, especially those jalapeno muffins :o).

Emilie said...

Bananas and beans! I love it. Warm bananas are so good and I imagine having them with beans is almost like having a fried plantain with beans, but sweeter? Yum.

That cake looks like it could cure anything, so perfect. Hopefully it did the trick.

There's a restaurant in Boston we go to called the Elephant Walk that makes a crazy good chilled avocado soup. It's called avocado-citrus soup and it's got lime and orange juices, garlic, and button mushrooms. I saw that the recipe for this soup was published in Gourmet Magazine in June 2007, so perhaps you can find it. It's totally worth making--I'm going to go in search of it too. Given that it's Gourmet they probably published the non-vegan recipe, but they offer a vegan version at the restaurant all the time.

Judy said...

It is so true about germs - you can keep yourself healthy, wash your hands, all that good stuff, but sometimes, it just doesn't matter. I think public transit is the worst for spreading germs.

Great looking food by the way, though I have to agree that your avocado soup sounds a little too rich for me too. But like you, I would get creative and find a way to use it rather than throw it away!

Oh, now that I am studying nutrition, look into getting some zinc for Chase, it will cut his cold time down immensely.

Jen Marie said...

hi, i just wanted to say i'm so grateful for finding your blog...
you should write a book!
i can't wait to try some of these! :)

if you read my blog (www.thought4thefood.blogspot.com) you'll hear my story. but unlike you, i don't have all of these amazing foods quite yet :)

Anonymous said...

Being sick really sucks. I rarely get sick and I'm far from an obsessive hand washer. I go on public transport every day and I meet lots of people at work every day. Sometimes it seems to me that this whole getting sick thing is just completely random. If someone should get sick often it really should be me. God knows how many times I've been around people with colds and been lazy with washing my hands.

All the food looks so lovely, as always. I love the little lemon bundt cake, the fresh lemons really makes it look great.

bazu said...

I'm totally like Chase- I believe that because I'm healthy and eat well and exercise, that I don't deserve to get sick! Of course as you say, viruses can be unavoidable, and just remind him of all the non-healthy people he knows who seem to have *constant* colds for months on end. He's still way better off!

Can't wait to hear about the baking class- sorry it was disappointing. you should teach cooking classes- I would take one!

And how cool does a strawberry jalapeno muffin sound right now... mmmmm.

erica said...

So, did the banana taste good with beans? You didn't really say...

erica said...

Also, have to add, that veganism is no guarantee of health. Neither, really, is raw food, but it WILL cure your cancer.

erica said...

Not to say that you have cancer (heaven forbid)! Just speaking in general here. For the masses :)

Carrie™ said...

Will you adopt me and look after me like that when I'm sick? And even when I'm well?