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Sunday, December 18, 2011

That's a Wrap, Boys.....

ב"ה

Since Thanksgiving, I've been doing a lot of experimenting. One of my new "dishes" is a Beta-gnocchi roulade with cauliflower and veggie filling. I used the gnocchi dough from my previous post, added more sprouted grain flour to make a thicker dough (one that I can roll out or press out flat). I then take the dough, press it out flat on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, spread with cauliflower sauce from a previous recipe, then top it with sauteed veggies (mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato, etc.). I then roll this up as well as possible (well, I haven't been able to really roll it up, so much as fold over the sides). I then bake it in the oven at 245 degrees until it is baked through, then I spray it with olive oil (I use a pump spray bottle) and bake until browned.

When I serve this (sliced and laid on its side) I top the pieces with the cauliflower sauce.

I also created two new desserts -- fruit crisp and dessert gnocchi. For the crisp, I used the ginger-bread-cookie recipe from a previous blog entry, laid it out on the bottom of a foil and parchment lined square pan (I use more parchment and another pan to press the dough into an even layer, spread as smoothly as possible). I bake the crust for about 2-2 1/2 hours at 245 degrees -- while this is baking, I mix together one sliced apple, one sliced pear, 1/4-1/2 cup frozen blueberries, a handful of dried, apple-juice-sweetened cranberries and about 1/2 bag frozen sliced peaches (you can cut the sliced fruit in half if you like) in a bowl with spices (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, etc. to taste) and a bit of stevia. When the crust is baked, I take the fruit, spread it on top of the crust, and bake until the fruit is soft and baked through. I keep it in the refrigerator so it doesn't spoil.

The dessert gnocchi, I make with one jar organic baby food sweet potatoes (or two small steamed sweet potatoes peeled, if desired, and mashed). I add stevia to taste and about 1/4 cup almond flour and enough sorghum flour to make a stiff dough. I add 1/4 cup cacao nibs and then cook them like the gnocchi. When they are finished boiling and have been removed with a slotted spoon, I lay them on a parchment-foil lined cookie sheet, spray with olive oil, and bake at about 350 degrees until browned (then I flip them over, spray again and bake again).

These taste pretty good just like this, but..... If you take 100% cocoa unsweetened chocolate, melt in a double-boiler, add stevia to taste (when melted). Then poke the gnocchi balls with a toothpick and dip in the chocolate, using a small spoon to get the chocolate all over the balls, and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. To whatever chocolate is left over, add ground or chopped nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, etc.), mix through and drop in small spoonfuls onto the parchment. When all the chocolate and chocolate covered gnocchi are on the parchment, take the pan and put it in the refrigerator to harden. When it's all hardened, take the pieces (breaking apart if they ran together) and put them in a container in the refrigerator for keeping.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Gnocchi, Gnocchi, a Thousand Times Gnocchi......

ב"ה

I do the grocery shopping in my household (my Mom occasionally goes to one of the local farmer's markets, but I do most of the shopping). So I am exposed to so many foods that I can't buy. Lately, I've been obsessed with gnocchi.

When I'm going to sleep, I have a tendency to think about new recipes I want to try, so the idea of making gnocchi was tossing over and over in my brain. I had wanted to use pumpkin puree, but the canned pumpkin puree I've used in the past hasn't been in the stores for a while [noto bene: I want to try making some pumpkin desserts for Thanksgiving so, after my best friend told me an easy way to deal with fresh pumpkins, I picked up a handful (that's 4) small pumpkins at the local organic food co-op. I hope to be able to report some successes with that sometime in the next few days.] so I decided to use baby food (I like to keep small jars of organic baby food in my pantry/closet for just this reason). I took one jar of sweet potatoes and one jar of winter squash and added some spices (I like the curry spices -- I added turmeric, coriander, cumin, paprika and ginger) and sprouted grain wheat flour (I started with 1/2 cup, then added more by tablespoon until it got to a firm consistency -- I ended up with about 3/4 of a cup). When the dough was smooth, I put up some filtered water to boil.

I then took the dough and took small amounts (that I then shaped into a ball, more or less) and dropped up to six at a time into water with a rolling boil. After making sure it didn't stick to the bottom of the pot (that usually only happens when the water isn't boiling vigorously enough), I wait until the little orange balls float to the top. Then I set the timer for one minute and let them boil another minute.

After the timer buzzes, take the dough-balls out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon. Do this until you have created dough-balls with all the dough.

You can put these in the refrigerator or the freezer or serve them. I put my cauliflower sauce on it and it was delicious. If you have a favorite sauce, try that.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Thanks to the Chew....

ב"ה

I like to watch "The Chew". For those of you who don't know about "The Chew", it's sort of a take off on "The View" with food, recipes and cooking -- and Dr. Oz's daughter.

I'm a big fan of Dr. Oz's and, though I don't agree with everything he says or has on his show,I respect him. I've read several of his "YOU" books (with his best friend Michael Roizen) and I try to watch his Fox program whenever I can.

While Dr. Oz isn't a vegetarian, he has mentioned that his wife is. A few days ago, Lisa Oz was on "The Chew" with her daughter, Daphne, and together they made a nice autumn chestnut soup. Now, of course, I never follow anyone's recipe (except my own :-) without making some changes.

I decided to keep some of the main ingredients, but I made it my own.

Here are the ingredients I used:

2 cups Vegetable broth (I used packaged Imagine)
1/2 cup frozen shiitake mushrooms
1 small sweet potato, diced
2-3 cups frozen broccoli florets
2 cups almond "milk"
1/2 teaspoon each turmeric, paprika, ground ginger and coriander
1/4 teaspoon each ground cloves, garam masala and cumin
5.3 ounce package of chestnuts
2 tablespoons dried cranberries (optional -- I use the apple juice sweetened variety)


(All the veggies and spices I use are organic, as are the chestnuts)
I basically started by putting the first 3 ingredients in a pot and started cooking until it boiled. I turned the flame down, simmering the ingredients. I added the "milk" and spices, continuing to simmer, then added the chestnuts. When everything was cooked through, I added the broccoli and simmered for about 2 minutes, then turned off the flame and allowed the mixture to cool a bit. I put all the solid ingredients with as much liquid as I needed into my food processor and pureed. I added the cranberries after most of the pureeing was finished and pureed some more, leaving some chunks of cranberries. The cranberries add a bit of sweetness.

I'm sure you can try this with other veggies, perhaps some onions, scallions, garlic, perhaps carrots (or other orange veggie) or even zucchini (or other "summer" squash).

If you'd like to see the segment where Daphne and Lisa Oz collaborate to make Daphne's version of this soup (the segment is about 6 minutes long with commercial), see it here.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

"Lasagne"

ב"ה

After developing a nice creamy sauce from cauliflower, I decided to try to use it to make Lasagne.

Reminder: Make the sauce by steaming a medium head of cauliflower until soft, take the steamed cauliflower and 2 Tablespoons of tahini and puree in a food processor (adding non-dairy milk as needed, little by little -- I used unsweetened almond milk). Add whatever veggies you like (sauteed -- I like mushrooms, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, etc.) and puree until smooth. Add more veggies and don't puree.

So, to make the lasagne (which I made for the first time last week for Sukkot -- and I made more for this holiday week (Shmini Atzeret and Simhat Tora -- and I thought it was delicious) -- I took a large can Muir Glenn fire roasted chopped tomatoes (you can choose whatever tomato product you like) and spooned out a layer on the bottom of a foil lined 8" square aluminum baking pan (this time, since I had "stuff" left over the first time, I used a second pan -- a loaf pan, and made a second slightly smaller lasagne). I then put a layer of mung bean noodles (I didn't fully cook them -- I just dropped them in boiling water, turned off the flame, and strained out the boiling water) by spoonfuls. Then I spooned on a layer of the cauliflower sauce, another layer of tomatoes and I topped the whole thing with a sprinkling of chopped almonds (any nut will do here).

As you can probably tell, there is a lot of room for your own additions or subtractions or just adjustments. I used garlic in the sauteed veggies but didn't add any spices this time (sometimes, when I'm making the cauliflower sauce I add turmeric, coriander, cumin, ginger, garam masala, etc.). Spicing is definitely a way to personalize this dish (I think if you've been reading my blog regularly, or at least as regularly as I've been writing it, you know I don't add salt to anything, so if you like salt, feel free to add that too).

All you need to do is experiment, eat an enjoy!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ginger "bread" cookies

ב"ה

These are similar to previous cookies (and it's about an hour before Rosh Hashana right now, so I'll make this quick)....

These are no WROBS (Wheat, Rye, Oats, Barley, Spelt) and no sugar cookies. Take 1/2 cup each sorghum flour, almond flour, almond "milk" (unsweetened) and almond (or other nut) butter. Add stevia to taste (I use a heaping 1/4 teaspoon), 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 3/4 of a teaspoon ground ginger. Blend together. For pan cookies, take an 8X8 pan, line with aluminum foil and parchment paper, and spread the batter on bottom. Bake at 245 degrees for 3 hours. Let cool and cut into 16 (half, half, until you have 4X4 cookies across). Or make into cookies and place on a parchment paper cookie sheet and bake at 245 for about an hour, flip and bake another 1/2 hour. The Sorghum flour has a bit of sweetness that it adds to the mix.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Noodles Cauliflower

ב"ה

I was getting into a bit of a rut and my medical practitioner told me to avoid grains (yet again), so I decided to come up with a new recipe. I've been eating some mung bean pasta (I was also advised to eat more protein and this pasta has 20 grams of protein per serving) and I wanted to come up with a good sauce for it.

In the meantime, I've been rediscovering my lifelong love of cauliflower. Cruciforous vegetables keep popping up in articles I've been reading about healthy foods. So I decided to take a head of cauliflower and steam it, Then I took out the food processor, added the steamed cauliflower (except for the floret or two I snuck into my mouth), a bit of almond "milk" and 2 tablespoons tahini. I pureed the whole "business" and added filtered water (about 1/2 cup twice, so 1 cup total). I had sauteed some veggies (a few mushrooms, a quartered-sliced zucchini, and a handful of shredded carrots) and added 1/2 the veggies to the sauce and pureed again. I then took the rest of the veggies and stirred them into the sauce. I later put the sauce on a package of cooked mung bean noodles and mixed it all together. It came out really delicious.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Eggplant Salad

ב"ה

I write also for Squidoo and I also evaluate other people's "lenses" (I'm what they call an Angel). So this means I often float around the site looking for other "lenses" (Squidoo's word for article). I was looking through vegan "lenses" and I found one I liked: The Tastiest Vegetarian Sandwich Fillings.

I liked the sound of the "Roasted Eggplant Cream", (I also loved the graphic that was with it) and, so, when I was out shopping yesterday at the local health food co-op and they had two gorgeous, nice firm eggplants, I decided to "do it".

I took the eggplants, washed them, cut off the stems and cut them in half lengthwise, put the halves down on parchment paper and tin foil on a cookie sheet. I roasted them in the oven at about 400 or so degrees until soft -- then I broiled it on low for a few minutes. I scooped out the eggplant, put it and 2/3 cup of cashews and some chopped sauteed garlic (I chopped up some garlic -- about 6 or 7 cloves -- let it sit for 30 minutes -- sauteed the garlic and used half for my sauteed kale, which I put into my salads, and the other half for the eggplant) and then I added turmeric, coriander, paprika and cumin (about 1 teaspoon of the first three and 1/2 teaspoon of the cumin). I also sprayed a few spritzes of olive oil (I have a spray bottle that my friend "Michelle Nevada" gave me for a birthday a number of years ago) and pureed in a food processor until smooth (there were still small pieces of the cashew in there -- if you want it totally smooth, you might want to use cashew butter).

This came out really good by itself but when I put it on bread it was spectacular! Next time I try this, I may try broiling the eggplants until the skin burns. That always adds a certain smoky taste that I love in eggplant salad.




Sunday, June 26, 2011

"C" is still for Cookie, but this time Vanilla Rules!

ב"ה

I've been making the cookies from C is for Cookie, That's Good Enough for Me. I still love these cookies, but when I was Israel recently, my niece came to my sister's for each Shabbat and brought, for my father, some vanilla cookies she made. Though she didn't give me a recipe, I designed my own, based on hers.

The ingredients that I use for these are: 1/2 cup each Spelt flour, almond flour (or meal), organic crunchy peanut butter (no added sugar or fat), and almond "milk". In addition to this, I put in stevia to taste. I use a powdered stevia which I put in with the flours, then I add the almond "milk" (and, into the pools of "milk" I add 1/8 of a teaspoon of maple extract and 1 1/2 Tablespoons non-alcohol vanilla extract) and then add the peanut butter (and blend them all together as well as I can) and if it's still a bit stiff, I put in a bit more "milk" until the consistency is as I like it.

After I get all the ingredients together, I line an 8" X 8" pan with no-stick aluminum foil. Then I press the dough (with a spoon) into the pan, getting it as flat and as even as possible. I bake it at 245 degrees for an hour and a half (90 minutes). I then let the pan cool a bit, and cut it into 16 pieces (4 X 4) and put them into a container. I try to make these whenever I can since they are so easy. They make a good nosh.

Check out my other blogs:

Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women

Check out some of my squidoo lenses (articles):

Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Why be Vegetarian?
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

My Salad Days

ב"ה

I'm not a huge salad person. I know that's probably a bit surprising, since I've been a vegetarian for 33 years, but for me to like a salad it has to be easy to make and delicious (as in well worth the trouble).

But I've gotten myself into a salad routine these days -- I take 1/2 container of grape tomatoes, 1 medium or 1/2 large cucumber (or 2 small Kirby cukes), 1 avocado, 1 can of sliced black olives (small can) and 1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and a few sprays of olive oil (I use a pump spray).

Cut up all the veggies, add the olives (drain them first), add the vinegar and oil, mix everything together.... It's good with a sandwich (or without) and I also like it with my smoothie.

Check out my other blogs:

Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Jewish Sandwich

Check out my squidoo lenses (articles):

Don't miss my latest Veg*n Themed "lens" -- If you love animals Don't eat them!

Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Strong Biblical Women Part 3
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Presidential Trivia Quiz
Christmas and the Jewish Single
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington
Passover: Holiday of Freedom
Ruth and Naomi
Why I'm a Red Sox Fan