Cheap Eats and a Birthday!

Last Sunday we went out for dinner, last night we went out for dinner to celebrate Chase’s birthday and he’s working tonight, and then next Sunday is Easter, so my posts are a little cattywampus these days. Plus living in the Allergy Capital of the World is taking its toll on me lately. Everyone I know is sneezy, red-nosed, puffy-eyed, tired, and miserable. I’m still cooking frugally and healthfully and have a couple of dinner pictures to share.

Oh, I do love cabbage, especially when it’s shredded and paired with mushrooms. So quick and delicious.



I had some lovely leeks and chard from the farmers market and couldn’t wait to make this beautiful sauté with the chard stems.




But then I looked at the fresh, crisp greens, all washed and waiting to be eaten, so I chopped them up and added them in, along with mushrooms and broccoli. It was the right thing to do.




I made myself a snack one evening using my leftover Quick White Bean Sauce as a dip with raw zucchini.

I knew I was feeling really bad with allergies when I just couldn’t get inspired to bake Chase’s birthday cake. He requested a lemon cake, and while I wanted to make a beautiful lemony layer cake with blueberry filling, I also knew I had to transport it to my mom’s house. If you’ve ever driven with a layer cake in a warm car, you know how heart-wrenching it is to watch the icing wither and the layers slide. So anyway, I finally pulled myself together and decided to make the Lemon Bundtlettes from Millennium. I’ve made them before so I knew they would be delicious. I also made a lemony glaze to pour over the tops and a blueberry sauce to accompany them. Chase doesn’t like frosting so much anyway, as this cake turned out to be just what he wanted. So here’s the cake – I snapped a shot before I packed them.

And here’s the so-stuffed-with-Indian-food-he-can’t-sit-up birthday boy, further stuffing himself with birthday cake, and his lovely gf (who ate reasonably!).

For you local vegan readers, we ate dinner at Clay Pit. It was outstanding AND they have specially marked their vegan items on the menu! There’s lots to choose from, from appetizers, soup, salads, and entrees – yay!

Also for you local readers, we ate dinner last week at Tino’s (Arbor Walk). I was really enjoying my moussaka, until I bit down on a 2-inch stick, which I thought at first was a bone, but thankfully (I guess) was an herb stem. Then I found a 6-inch piece of twine, which was bright orange I assume to make it more visible and which I also assume was once tied to a hunk of lamb. I was a little grossed out. Go to El Greco for great Greek food and outstanding service.

It’s super windy today, i.e., pollen is blowing like crazy, so I am homebound and looking forward to catching up with all of you today, in between many loads of laundry….

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

(Singing) When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when you’re feeling down….

I apologize for my previous downer post, but your comments sure cheered me up. Thank you all so much. I especially enjoyed Carrie’s comment on how to pretend my pulled muscle could be treated with a boytoy, the ever cheerful Katie’s comment “as long as we’re pretending, let’s pretend we’re in Hawaii,” and Erica’s comment, “couldn’t you just eat some of the food?” Well, I couldn’t eat any of the soy or wheaty foods, but I did top a green salad with the Red Lentil Hummus.




And I baked the sweet potato fries so I could have the yummy Homemade Ketchup. I’m going to be making this ketchup a lot for grilled burgers this summer.

If you have Get It Ripe!, you need to make these recipes!

Oh, yeah, I also sampled one of the Nicer Rice Krispie Treats. I used ALL the optional ingredients in them, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and pistachios. These are deeeelish and I can’t wait to make them again with gluten free brown rice krispies.

I have recovered from all of last week’s disappointments and body aches. I didn’t mention then that I also had my car in the shop. I need to come up with some big bucks in two months, so now I’m taking inspiration from Melody to be a frugal shopper yet still prepare delicious vegan foods. I’m also inspired by Amanda to revisit some old vegan cookbooks. I’ve found some quick and easy recipes and I’ve come up with a new recipe I’m still tweaking. Like Melody, I tend to cook in bulk on the weekends since I’m so busy during the week. I’ve got tons of food to share, but for now I’ll post a couple of my favorites.

Cabbage and Lentils with Mustard Sauce

Cook ½ cup lentils in 1 cup broth for about 30 minutes. Steam ½ large head of cabbage, shredded, in broth for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix together 2 T. Dijon mustard, 2 T. rice wine vinegar (or whatever kind you have handy), a couple of crushed cloves of garlic, and a little black pepper. Toss altogether and serve.

Steamed Broccoli with Quick White Bean Sauce

While your broccoli steams, make the sauce. Put the following into a blender or food processor: 1-15 oz. can white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. broth, water, or olive oil
1 T. lemon juice
2 t. AP seasoning or Italian seasoning
S&P to taste

Process until smooth. Serve immediately over hot broccoli.


And finally, a sweet treat! A super delicious, super easy, gluten free, no sugar added muffin. I don’t normally post published recipes, but I love this recipe from Simply Vegan. You know my love for oats, peanut butter, and chocolate, and that’s what this recipe includes. Okay so it calls for raisins and not chocolate chips, but I couldn’t help myself. The recipe is called Banana Muffins, but it tastes more like a bowl of oatmeal, so I’m going to call them Oatmeal Muffins.

The recipe makes 18 muffins, which frankly annoys me since I only have one 12-muffin tray. I made a half recipe, and again, subbed chocolate chips for the raisins.

Oatmeal Muffins

2 cups very ripe bananas, mashed well or pureed
1 cup raisins
3 cups gluten free rolled oats
1 T. cinnamon
1 T. baking powder
½ cup almond or peanut butter

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Pour batter into lightly oiled muffin tins. Bake 25 minutes. Cool muffins completely before removing from tins.

How easy is that!

They really are delicious – give ‘em a try!

Two Pretend Dinners

Pretend now that I’m sitting at one of the best sushi restaurants in the country with $40 in gift cards!!! having a fantastic dinner with just my son, catching up with each other lives and enjoying vegan sushi rolls stuffed with avocado and cucumber, age dofu, roasted seaweed and sesame soup, Uchi house salad with carrot ginger vinaigrette, and tempura battered Japanese pumpkin. I ask you to pretend because on the way to dinner, Chase got called into work.

Pretend again that Chase didn’t have to work late this past Sunday and miss our Sunday dinner, for which he requested lots of sauces. Pretend we had an appetizer of Red Lentil Hummus (recipe from Get It Ripe!) and pita chips on a lovely platter.



Pretend we had baked tofu, fresh from the oven and not the fridge, with two sauce choices, Thick and Rich Gravy (from ED&BV) and Cilantro Pesto (from GIR).

Pretend we had a mixed green salad in a lovely glass bowl and House Dressing (from GIR) in a proper pitcher.

Pretend we had a side of sweet potato fries with Homemade Ketchup (from GIR), actually baked and properly plated.

And finally, pretend we enjoyed Nicer Rice Krispie Treats (from ED&BV) for dessert.

The sauces are all wonderful from what I could tell by licking the spoons. The Treats I made from the new Jumbo Multigrain Krispies. FYI, the jumbo krispies are not gluten free ((EDIT: I Am Gluten Free has alerted me that regular rice krispies are NOT gluten free either. My original post stated they were. I am so sorry to have posted wrong information.)) and they have honey in them. My regular readers will know I LOVE to bake with krispies (and cornflakes), so when these jumbos came out I had to try them.

As long as we’re pretending, pretend also that I didn’t have a dentist appointment today or a pulled chest muscle from my workout last night.

I’m done complaining. I hope your day was better!

Spring Break Treats

Okay, I put this post off long enough. I had a fabulous Spring Break week. I’m sad that it’s over. My sister went back home, and she took my nephews and our mother with her. I feel bored and lonely. I guess it’s back to the real world tomorrow, getting up at 5:45, going to work, a workout with my trainer, bills to pay, a dentist appointment, and having my car worked on. I got the spring fever bad!

We had lots of food fun during the week, mostly lunch outings and then snacking on leftovers for dinner.

We had a lunch at Houston’s where I knew my only option would be salad, but I love salad for lunch so I didn’t mind. The last time I went there they put eggs in my salad and I had to send it back. This time I got cheese and I had to send it back. I brought my own dressing. Do you carry salad dressing in your purse like me and my sister do?

We also had a lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Chase had a nice hummus plate, and I had a super salad that had grilled corn in it. That was a nice touch and I need to remember that this summer.

Of course our favorite lunch outing was to Marble Falls about 45 minutes from Austin where my cousin has opened her second restaurant, TexasNation. I said in my last post I hoped to get a special vegan dish, but would have been fine with a salad. Well, I got both! Here’s a picture of my amazingly delicious gluten free fettucini with mushrooms, avocado, black beans, red bell peppers, green onions, and capers.



Like I always say, I never expect to get a fab vegan dish when I go out. I really just go for the company. But it’s so nice when you do get great vegan food. I would say I ate waaaaay too much last week!


As far as cooking last week, I made the LDV Biryani again because it’s now a favorite. I also made another new favorite, Chickpea Tacos from VegTimes. The filling recipe is merely mashed avocado, chickpeas, and lime juice. I had to spice it up just a bit by adding cumin, garlic, and salt.

We put this on tostados and topped it with crispy salad and salsa. Oh, man, these were terribly good. A big hit for sure.


As far as baking last week, I made several treats.

Banana Bread – can’t remember what recipe I used.

Black Bottom Blondies – from My Sweet Vegan. I have to say these weren’t the hit I had hoped they would be. But you know what? It’s not Hannah’s fault because I saw that Kim had made them too (and enjoyed them) and mine look exactly like hers. It’s that dam* Earth Balance! It tastes horrible and I am never using it again.

Banana Oat Bundles – from one of Dreena’s books, Vive I think, and always delicious.

I have to say that since my sister was driving such precious cargo 1000 miles back to Alabama, I offered to make her any cookies she wanted, even ones with real butter and eggs. She asked for more Sticky Chewy Chocolate Cookies. I made them again, and they are still so chocolaty yummy. You really should bake yourself up a batch!

Right now I’m working on Chase’s Sunday dinner. I promise to try to catch up with all of your posts soon. I really haven’t even had time to peek but I know you’ve all been up to something delicious!

I leave you with a little mosaic of fun from the past week – scooter rides, Blogger Bash, and lunch with family at TexasNation. (You can see individual pictures on my Flickr page.)

See you again soon!

Blogger Bash

Sorry this will be a quick, rather rambling post, but I wanted to let you know that the Food & Wine Bloggers Bash was so much fun! I saw on Whole Foods Twitter that you should contact your local store if this is an event you would be interested in. Of course our Whole Foods is a huge landmark store with a culinary center that has three full kitchens, two of which are classrooms, and outdoor seating. Even though this was not a vegan food event, it was still great to be around folks that love food and wine. Our nationally renowned sushi chef, Tyson Cole of Uchi, did a demo and served up one of his famous rolls. It was filled with fish, but my sister gave me a piece with just rice and I must say it was the best rice I had ever tasted. And the sauce – OMG! Uchi is far too expensive for me to ever dine in, and I don’t even know if it serves vegan rolls, but I really think I should save my money and check it out. We talked with chef after the demo and got some pointers. And my sister learned that he has a restaurant in Alabama! Not in Montgomery where she lives, but in Birmingham. I got recipes and methods if you want them. Of course you’ll have to wash your sushi rice five times, but it would be so worth it. And grapes – yes, little green grapes – play a major role in his recipes and plating.

Whole Foods provided food as well, and I did get to eat some fabulous mushrooms. I also got to taste some of our wonderful Texas wines. And we got a huge gift bag to take home! I can’t eat any of the food goodies, but there is pomegranate soda, lotion, and bags and a t-shirt – woot!

Oh, I also spent some time talking to Rachel of Cupcakes Take the Cake. She was very interested in vegan and gluten free cupcakes, so I pointed her to some of our best local vegan and gluten free bakers.

I do hope this bash turns into an annual event. Our food writer, Addie Broyles, put this event together. She is not only adorable, but a true friend to local bloggers and a terrific blogger in her own right. Just in case you are interested, here is her write-up (please note she says Austin bloggers are the best!) and also the newpaper's video from the event. I’m not in the video, but my sister is. (She doesn’t even have a blog!) I do have pics on my sister’s camera, so when I get those I’ll post them.

Relish Austin 2009 March 17
Food bloggers rock (and bash pretty well, too)
By Addie Broyles Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 01:44 PM

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that we have the best food blogging community in the country right here in Austin.

The 60-70 Central Texas food and drink blogs I follow (and counting; I find a few more every week) are written by some of the most fun and engaged foodies I know. They work in tech, education, publishing, film and every other industry you could think of. None of them, to my knowledge, make a living off their blogs, yet they keep at it, day after day, meal after meal, kitchen disaster after kitchen triumph, sharing with the world their love of eating (and drinking!).

Getting to know the local bloggers has been the most rewarding part of my job for the past year, and to thank, honor and motivate them to keep doing it, Austin360 threw a food and wine blogger bash last night at Whole Foods downtown.

We invited as many bloggers (mainly local, but a handful of visiting bloggers who are here for SXSW) as we could fit in the room, and asked Tyson Cole of Uchi and Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due supper club to cook. Devon Broglie and the GO TEXAN wine program provided the Texas wine and know-how.

So, thanks so everyone who came out, and to everyone who writes, reads or otherwise supports local food blogs, it’s been an honor to get to know you all. I look forward to growing this strong community in the months and years ahead.

I didn’t get a chance to take a single photo, so if you did, leave a link in the comments.

Keep up the good work!

(I hope this video link works - fingers crossed.)





Tomorrow is a mini family reunion and lunch at my cousin’s restaurant about an hour from Austin. I’m hopeful she will prepare something fabulously vegan especially for me. But if not, I’ll be happy with a big ol’ salad.

Sticky Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Hey, all! I’ve gotten a little busy with my sister and nephews in town for Spring Break week. I’ve been cooking and baking quite a bit, and I did make some fabulous cookies. We had them for dinner tonight and everyone – including kids and omnis – went crazy for them! So I want to share the recipe with you.

Sticky Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Makes 20 cookies

These little cookies have a sturdy outside and a wonderful chewy inside. Use your best vegan chocolate for the best flavor – I like Scharffen Berger. They are so good I wish I had made a double batch!

Ingredients:
1 T. ground chia seeds
3 T. water
¾ c. AP flour
1 heaping T. cocoa powder
¼ t. baking soda
¼ t. salt
¼ c. white sugar
¾ c. brown sugar
1 T. vanilla extract
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the chia seeds and water and set aside. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Put white and brown sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer and mix until combined. Add in vanilla, then chia seed mixture, and mix well for a couple of minutes. Add in flour mixture and mix just until incorporated, then add in melted chocolate and stir through.

Form batter into 1-inch balls (using wet fingertips, if necessary - they are sticky!) and place onto parchment paper about two inches apart.




Bake for 14 minutes, or until cookies are flattened slightly and the tops begin to crack. Let cool on pan a few minutes before placing on rack to cool completely.

Here are the cooled cookies.

And here’s a shot of the inside.

They are really really fantastic and I hope you’ll try my recipe.


On another note, I’m so thrilled to have gotten an invitation to a food blogger event tomorrow night. The invitation read:

Local and national food and wine bloggers will get a chance to eat, drink, mingle and celebrate the vibrant food scene in Central Texas at the first ever Austin360 Food and Wine Blogger Bash, sponsored by Whole Foods Market and the Go Texan program of the Texas Department of Agriculture. Due to space limitations, this is a private party by invitation only.

I’ll try to post later this week to let you know how the party went, plus I’ve got lots of food to share from the weekend, and more planned for this week. Whew!

See you soon!

Mushroom Mounds and Treats – 2 Recipes

In my previous post I said I would give you the recipe for Baked Mushroom Mounds if you wanted, and many of you said you did. They were so good I made them again, just a little differently, so I’ll give you some options in the recipe.

Baked Mushroom Mounds

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped fresh mushrooms (a 10 oz. bag)
1 cup chopped onion
margarine, oil, or broth to sauté
1 – 1-1/2 cups bread crumbs or oats
1/3 – ½ cup water
(for the first batch I used 1 c. oats and 1/3 c. water; for the second batch I used 1-1/2 c. oats and ½ c. water)
2 egg replacers (for the first batch I used chia seeds; for the second batch I used EnerG)
1 T. chopped fresh herbs of choice (I used oregano)
½ t. salt
½ t. pepper
any other seasoning you want

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 12 cup muffin tin.

Saute mushrooms and onions in liquid of choice (I used broth. I also did not sauté the mushrooms in my first batch). When soft, let cool slightly, then place into the bowl of a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, chop the mushrooms and onions finely before sautéing, then put into a mixing bowl and proceed by hand.

Soak the bread crumbs or oats in water for about 5 minutes (I used oats to be gluten free.) Add to mushrooms and onions and mix well. Add in the egg replacer and seasonings and pulse or stir until incorporated.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins. (I got 11 in the first batch and 12 in the second.) Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until set. Let cool a few minutes before removing from tins.

Which batch was better? The first batch tasted better, but was a little mushy on the bottom. The second batch baked better, but had less flavor. Ah, the vegan dilemma of mushy patties…. When I make a third batch, I think I will sprinkle a little oat flour in the bottom of the tins OR I will shape them into patties and pan fry them. Please let me know if you play around with this recipe and how you like it. I promise they taste wonderful! I've been snacking on them cold from the fridge.

If you remember, this recipe was adapted from the old cookbook I found, and I showed this picture and asked you to guess what it was.



You veg’ns are so smart! The title under the picture is Yams and Sweet Potatoes. I suppose there is a stick of butter on top and cabbage on the bottom. Now I know I’ve already made fun of the pictures in this book, but I have to poke fun of this recipe too. I mean, for a Culinary Institute cookbook I expected a little more direction.

Yams and Sweet Potatoes

Yams or sweet potatoes
Salt
Butter (optional) – yeh right! We saw all that butter!

Boil yams and serve plain sprinkled with salt and, if desired, topped with butter. Or barbecue yams on a grill 4 inches from ash-covered coals, turning frequently, until soft. Or bake yams until tender.

I really have a problem with recipes that instruct you to *cook until done.* I like to have at least a vague idea of how long something will take to cook.

Okay, now for a really really yummy recipe! By the way, Chase is out of town so our next dinner together will be – well, I don’t really know with Spring Break next week. But I made these treats for him and I am trying very hard not to eat them all! I adapted a recipe from This Crazy Vegan Life for Almond Bar Cookies. I made Peanut Bar Cookies and got to use my peanut meal.

Peanut, Banana, and Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies

These bar cookies are a peanut lovers dreams, but if you dream of almond or other nuts, feel free to substitute in your favorite nuts and nut butter.

Ingredients:
½ cup peanut meal (finely ground peanuts)
¼ t. salt
1 cup granulated sweetener (I used tubinado)
1 T. brown rice syrup
½ cup margarine
½ cup peanut butter
2 t. vanilla extract
1-1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 t. baking powder
¼ c. banana chips, crushed
¼ c. chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-inch square baking pan.

Combine peanut meal, salt, sweetener, brown rice syrup, margarine, and peanut butter in a small sauce pan. Set over low heat and stir until margarine is melted and sweetener is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in extract.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and add in flour and baking powder. Stir in chips. (I mixed by hand and my batter was too thick to stir in the chips, so I just mashed mine into the top.)

Spread into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes. Cool completely before slicing into bars.


I hope you enjoy these recipes. Please let me know if you try them!

Sunday Dinner for Me!

Are you as happy as I am to be on Daylight Saving Time again? Today was warm and sunny until almost 8 o’clock! I just hope our cold weather is over.

Chase’s band has a show tonight so I got to make whatever I wanted for dinner just for me. There is one food I love and Chase hates so that’s what was for dinner – mushrooms!

I made myself a super delicious dinner of Baked Mushroom Mounds, served atop Mashed Cauliflower, with a side of Romanesco Broccoli. I was very very happy!



It was completely delicious and so filling. I got the broccoli from the farmers market yesterday. (Romanesco has a very short growing season, so if you see some you better grab it while you can.) The Mashed Cauliflower recipe is from Chocolate Covered Katie and it is so awesome with Dijon mustard (and the fresh dill I added). The mushroom idea came from this ancient cookbook I rediscovered this week.

Oh, boy, this is a 1986 book that has been a real hoot to read. The only chapter I haven’t read yet is Bread, and it may have some possibilities. I did actually bookmark some recipes to try, especially ones that have beer as an ingredient. Cooking with beer seems to be trendy nowadays.

I have never claimed to take good food pics; I’m just too impatient (and hungry?). But I don’t think I’m quite as inept or cheesy as a few of these that caught my eye. We should all be thankful for digital photography!

Here’s a Ricotta Pie.

Here’s some cookies. At least I know better than to put brown cookies in a ugly brown floating container. And yes, it is actually a blurry picture in the book.

Now let’s play a game with this picture. It took me awhile to figure out what this is. Actually, I had to look at the recipe and then go, Ohhhhhh, okay, I see it now.

What do you think it is? I blurred out all the words so you wouldn’t have any clues. I’ll give you the correct answer in my next post. I really really dislike that serving tray.

Anyway…. the Mushroom Mounds were quite good. They were easy to make with just a few ingredients, and baked for 25 minutes in muffin tins. If you want my veganized recipe, let me know and I’ll put it in my next post as well. Chase should be over for dinner Tuesday or Wednesday so I’ll have another dinner post (with dessert!) soon.

Yay for leftovers!

Tomorrow is my workout with my trainer and he's been brutal lately - I love him! Even though it will hurt to lift my arms to the keyboard, I'll catch up with you all tomorrow evening.

The Caramelized Onion Dinner

This past Sunday was all crazy. I was planning on dinner at my house, then stuff happened and we switched it to Chase’s apartment, then to my mom’s, then more stuff happened and my house was okay again, but I decided to haul everything to my mom’s anyway. The food was so great and I’m sorry I didn’t get to photograph as I had planned. I took some pictures as I prepped, but then I forgot to take my camera to my mom’s house. I borrowed hers, but neither of us really knew how to use it.

So how did the Caramelized Onion Dinner come about? Chase told me last week that he and his gf LOVE caramelized onions. So I decided to give them plenty of love.

First I had to prep LOTS of onions. I sliced 4 pounds of Texas sweet yellow onions. They filled my dutch oven.

I cooked them down until they were almost ready. The key to super creamy caramelized onions is to cook them ever so S-L-O-W-L-Y. You don’t want any crispy burnt pieces. I like to add a little white wine or balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt the last few minutes. I finally ended up with this, the perfect amount for my pasta.

Main course:

Tri-color Farfalle with Caramelized Onions, Zucchini, and Peppers

Now I too love caramelized onions! I can hardly express my excitement over this discovery. I don’t eat a lot of pasta so perhaps you already know about this, but for me, this is a true revelation. Caramelized onions are the answer to low fat creamy pasta sauce! Aside from their amazingly creamy texture, they taste fabulous. If you are watching your calories, skip the cashew cream; if you stay away from starch, skip the potatoes; if you are unable to eat soy, skip the silken tofu. Try this instead. Trust me, it’s awesome!

Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients:

1 T. olive oil
3 cups zucchini, cut into half moons (original recipe called for mushrooms)
2 cups red bell pepper cut into strips (I used a mix of jarred roasted peppers and rehydrated sundried peppers)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-1/2 cups caramelized onions
1 cup vegetable broth
½ t. salt
½ t. pepper
¼ t. crushed red pepper flakes
½ cup tofutti sour supreme
1 T. chopped fresh oregano
8 cups cooked farfalle

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add zucchini and cook just until softened, about 2 minutes. Add peppers and cook another few minutes. Add garlic, onions, broth, and seasonings. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat. Stir in sour cream and oregano.

Serve over pasta.



I mixed the sauce and pasta before I packed it up, but it would look tons better with sauce spooned over the pasta. I apologize for the poor quality plating and picture because it doesn’t do it justice. It was truly extraordinary. None of the diners could believe the sauce was merely onions and sour cream.



On to the sides – more onion love:

Broccoli with Caramelized Onions and Toasted Pine Nuts

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped broccoli, steamed
¼ cup caramelized onions (from about 1 medium)
3 T. toasted pine nuts
2 t. EVOO
2 t. balsamic vinegar
S&P to taste

Directions:

Mix the broccoli, onions, and pine nuts in a large bowl. Mix the oil and vinegar and pour over broccoli. Season with salt and pepper.






Spinach Salad with Caramelized Onions and Bac’n Bits








Caramelized Onion Bread

This is such a cool recipe and a fabulous bread! And I didn’t even cheat and use my bread maker to make the dough. The flavor is not toooo onion-y. I mean, I would totally spread peanut butter and jelly on it and eat it. If you warm it before serving, you will get a little better onion flavor.

Adapted from Baking Bites

Ingredients:


2 cups thinly sliced sweet yellow onions
1 T. vegetable or canola oil
1 T. active dry yeast
1 T. granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups warm water (100 – 110F)
4-5 cups bread flour
1 T. salt
¼ t. ground black pepper

Directions:


Cook onions in oil over medium heat until light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

In your stand mixing bowl, combine yeast, sugar, and ¼ cup water. Stir to dissolve and let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Pour in remaining water and 3 cups flour and mix well. Switch to dough hook attachment. Add onions, salt, pepper, and another cup of flour. Add additional flour as necessary until dough comes together. Turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Shape into ball and place into lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Lightly oil a 10-inch tube pan. Place dough on floured surface and gently deflate. Make a hole in the center, then place it in the tube pan. Cover and let rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.




Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until internal temperature is 200F and loaf is dark golden. Turn loaf onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.

I was so pleased with how it turned out I put a slice on pretty plate for a picture.

No onions in dessert J (But you know, I wouldn’t totally rule those sweet onions out!) I didn’t have enough time to make cookies or anything fancy, so I took a shortcut and made up Cherry Pie Crisp.

This is a Wholesome Pie Crust filled with a can of cherry pie filling, which is surprisingly yummy, and topped with Dreena’s crisp topping from TEV Apple Cherry Crisp. Shortcut cherry pie is fabulous with homemade vanilla ice cream leftover from the Daring Bakers Challenge.

Besides taking Sunday dinner to my mom’s, I took groceries and the two dinners from the last post for Chase. I took a picture of my trunk before I headed out.

(Still can’t figure out how my camera didn’t make it in the car after taking that shot.)


I just had to test another version of creamy caramelized onions last night. Since I’m soy intolerant, I looked around my kitchen for something other than Tofutti sour cream. I found….. pumpkin puree! Hooray, it works too! I added sautéed mushrooms to it and it was so delicious. It’s not at all pretty, but I took a picture. It definitely would be pretty on some pasta or mixed with some greens.

I can’t wait to make creamed peas, creamed spinach, cream of caramelized onion soup, so many possibilities…

Loving onions is a good thing. Onions rank high on the healthy foods list, especially the sweet yellow and red varieties. In fact, you should eat them every day. But if you can’t, just it a whole lot of them in one day!

In loving memory of my sweet wonderful Dad. I miss you so so much.

July 24, 1938 – March 4, 2008

A million times we have needed you, A million times we have cried;

If love alone could have saved you, You never would have died;

In life we loved you dearly, In death we love you still;

In our hearts you hold a place, No one else could ever fill;

It broke our hearts to lose you,

But you did not go alone,

For part of us went with you,

The day God called you home.

Quick and Easy Budget Friendly Dinners

Sunday was so crazy. We had our Sunday dinner, but I still need a day or two to get my post ready. I have a recipe for you in the meantime.

It’s a super easy, super delish, big ol’ dinner I made for Chase to take home. It makes six hungry man servings.

Vegetable Yakisoba

Adapted from VeganMania.com

Ingredients:
1 lb. soba noodles, cooked
1 cup chopped fresh onion
2 – 16 oz. bags frozen stirfry veggies
garlic salt & pepper

Sauce:
1 cup ketchup
¼ cup soy sauce
1-2 t. wasabi powder

Directions:
1. Cook noodles.
2. Sauté onion; add in veggies, seasonings, and heat through.
3. Make sauce.
4. Mix altogether.
5. Eat!





I also made the Vegetable Biryani from LDV for Chase to take home. It is excellent.

I’m just making sure Chase gets his veggies!

Please come back for Sunday dinner. It was amaaaaazing and I’ll give you 2 recipes!