Happy Herbivore Cheater Pad Thai and others from HHA

I checked Happy Herbivore Abroad by Lindsey S. Nixon out of the library and had to renew it, I've been using it so much.  I'm definitely going to buy one of her books, just have to decide which one to start with.  Here's a quick run down of whAt we've tried recently from HHA.

Cheater Pad Thai - earned a 4 from kids and adults.  We even used the frozen stir fry vegetables (usually I hate frozen veggies) and it was delish.

Aloo Gobi - earned at least a 3.  My son said it was delicious and had seconds and ate the leftovers.

Vegetable Korma - 3 or 4.  I added in some coconut milk I had leftover.  Made this extra delicious.

Thai noodle soup - 3.  Not bad but I made it too salty and spicy for our tastes.  Cut back on the chili sauce next time.

Sushi Hand Rolls - 4.  We loved these.  Called it Lazy Man Sushi and let everyone roll their own.  Served with some leftover teriyaki sauce .  Cucumber, carrot, avocado, nori, oven baked teriyaki tofu.

Barley Mushroom patties - 3 - My son really enjoyed it, my daughter didn't care for it.  Husband thought it was a bit bland - he should have added salt?  All was gone by the end of dinner though, no leftovers.  We all liked the texture of the barley.  Served with improvised tomato balsamic salad, oven sweet potato fries and roasted zucchini.

Sunshine Muffins - 2 - I'm eating these and my daughter had a couple, but they have a bitter after taste.  I only added 1/2 c of sugar so maybe it's not covering the taste of the white whole wheat flour?  Also used 20 oz. of fresh (slightly blended) pineapple instead of canned. I like the moistness and the crisp top.

Scott Jurek's Lentil - Mushroom Burgers from Eat to Run

Made these burgers from Scott Jurek's Eat To Run book.  Excellent.  Maybe 5... although they're only the second veggie burger recipe I've tried.  My husband described them as 'inoffensive', my son tried to eat two and my daughter, who originally did not want to try one, declared it 'really good'.  I think they're really delicious - I love the texture and the taste.

It seems you could make almost anything passable if you stuff it into a bun with tomato, lettuce, pickles, corn salsa and enough ketchup, but my family does not agree. These, however, are good enough to eat alone as a patty.

I made them pretty much as directed, except I accidentally used pecans instead of walnuts, and I used smoked paprika instead of regular.

Served with roasted red potatoes.

Kid-friendly: yes
Kid-rating: 4 (average of 2 and 4)
Husband-rating: 4
My rating: 4 maybe 5
Ease of prep: medium - high. I used the food processor for most of the chopping, but I had to cook the lentils in one pan, saute the onions and mushrooms in another, fry the burgers in a third pan. Slick and Prepare the toppings.
Cleanup: medium - high. pot, saute pan, fry pan, food processor,measuring cups, knife and cutting board
Nutrition: A - this one is packed with good stuff- mushrooms, kale, onions, beans, nuts
Overall Rating: 4

Scott Jurek Minnesota Winter Chili

Yesterday, I had a banner day in my vegan kitchen.  I churned out no less than 3 recipes that were highly rated by my family:

Minnesota Winter Chili - Scott Jurek (in Eat To Run)
Tofu Vegetable Stir Fry - improvised
BBQ pizza with homemade crust - very similar to one the previous one I made at the link, but used a home made crust from this cookbook.

Scott Jurek is an ultramarathoner, vegan and pretty good cook from what I can tell from the recipes included in the book.  I just finished Eat To Run and found Scott's story inspiring and the recipes intriguing. If it weren't -15 degrees (plus windchill!) I would have gone out running, but instead I made do with cooking.  Besides the chili, we also made the Multi-grain Strawberry pancakes (also heavily altered), and although not really a hit with the family, they definitely have potential and will try again with different grains, and maybe with blueberries.  I had to improvise a bit on the chili since we just returned from 2 weeks of traveling so I had to make do with what was on hand.  Here's what I did:

Put the following into my blender and pulsed until chopped:

• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 large sweet onion
• 2 carrots

Put it all in large pot with:

• 16 oz. sliced white mushrooms

Water sauteed all of it until softened. Added these spices and stirred until fragrant:

• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 T chili powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Then added the following:

• 1 28 oz black beans
• 1 28 can diced tomatoes (with basil leaf)
• 1 28 can of water
• 1 c frozen TJ's roasted corn
• 1/2 c farro berries

Simmered it all until farro was cooked, about 40 minutes.

Served with salt, hot sauce and Penzey's Arizona Dreaming as condiments. Cilantro would have been delicious, as would have avocado if we'd had any.

We loved the meaty texture of the farro and mushrooms.  My son, who does not like beans and was reluctant to even try the chili, ate 3 bowls.  My husband also liked it. They said they missed the flavor of the meat, but the chili was pretty satisfying.  Only my daughter didn't like it very much.  She likes beans, but does not like mushrooms.  She likes her beans sweet, not savory, so I think she was disappointed.  She ate a few bites but preferred the BBQ pizza and stuck with that.

Kid-friendly: yes
Kid-rating: 3 (average of 2 and 4)
Husband-rating: 4
My rating: 4
Ease of prep: medium - not too much chopping or measuring
Cleanup: medium - pot, blender, knife and cutting board
Nutrition: B - could have added more veggies, but this was full of whole foods
Overall Rating: 4

A real winner!

After a series of 'just tolerable' meals, last night's dinner was a welcome success. I made two kinds of pizza, both vegan, despite the repeated requests for cheese.  I just said to the kids, "You are welcome to add cheese to your slices if you want... if you can find any in the fridge."

We all like different things on our pizza.  When we order out, my husband and daughter love BBQ chicken pizza, my son likes mushroom and I'll eat practically anything, but I've been gravitating towards vegetables recently.  In the past, we have all felt cheese to be an absolutely necessary ingredient.  The most recent time we ordered from our favorite pizza place, I ordered their roasted vegetable pizza without the cheese.  It was OK, but no one ate it but me.  Last night's pizza was way better than that.

I got the idea from the Engine 2 BBQ pizza from the original Engine 2 book.  The recipe is not on the E2 website, and I modifed it, so I'll give my ingredients & process here:

• 1 Trader Joe's bagged pizza crust (left out on the counter for an hour before shaping)
• store bought Bourbon BBQ sauce (leftover from a summer BBQ, but coincidentally vegan)
• large handful of fresh baby spinach, cut into ribbons
• 1 c. frozen pineapple, thawed
• 1/4 c. raw cashews, finely ground
• a few pinches of oregano

Shaped the dough into a rectangle and put into a jelly roll pan on top of a silpat mat (dough filled the pan).  Spread some BBQ sauce on top. Sprinkled some oregano with a heavy hand.  Arranged the spinach evenly, then topped with the pineapple.  Sprinkled the ground cashews on top. Baked in 425 oven (on convect) for 10 minutes.

Would have been great with carmelized onions, or fresh red onion too.  My daughter and I loved it.

My son doesn't like BBQ pizza so I made a mushroom pizza for him.

• 1 Trader Joe's bagged pizza crust (left out on the counter for an hour before shaping)
• store bought Marinara sauce
• large handful of fresh baby spinach, cut into ribbons
• package of sliced mushrooms
• red wine
• 1 tsp. Penzey's Bouquet Garni spice mix - salt free spice mix of savory, thyme, oregano & more
• shake of salt
• 1/4 c. raw cashews, finely ground

Water sauteed mushrooms until they released all their moisture and got a bit brown, deglazing the pan when needed with a splash of red wine.  Added some Bouquet Garni and shake of salt to the mushrooms.  Shaped the dough and put it on a cookie sheet with a silpat mat.  Spread some sauce over the top, added the spinach, mushrooms and cashews as evenly as possible.  Baked at 425 (on convect) for 10 minutes.  This one was also tasty. My son ate half the pizza and gave it a thumbs up although he said something about the cashews getting caught in his braces.

The kids did rustle up a chunk of Parmesan cheese from the bottom of the fridge drawer and grated a bit on top of their slices.

Both pizzas could have handled more spinach as neither had any kind of spinach taste and the kids did not even attempt to pick it off.  A bit of slivered fresh basil would also have been nice also.

I am excited to experiment further with this idea of cheese-less pizza.  I thought the cashews were a terrific alternative to cheese. Daughter liked them, son was so-so.  Next, I will try using a whole-wheat crust (although that might put the kids over the edge), adding more spinach, and maybe sweet potato slices or a small handful of black beans.  Roasted teriyaki eggplant and zuchinni are also worth a try. Regarding the crust, a multi-grain crust with some texture like from unground oats might give some added interest.  I'll be on the lookout for a dough recipe like that.

Kid-friendly: yes
Kid-rating: 4
Husband-rating: n/a
My rating: 4
Ease of prep: medium - mushroom prep, slivering spinach, grinding cashews
Cleanup: medium - pans, silpat, food processor, dough board, knives, spoons
Nutrition: C - BBQ sauce is mostly sugar, TJ's dough is white flour. Not enough veggies.
Overall Rating: 4

'Egyptian' Salad

Here's another recipe from Ambitious Kitchen that I really, really like.  To be honest, I'll have to make it again with Monique's combination of veggies and quinoa because that sounds even better than what I mixed up, but I had to make due with what I had at the time.

The kids really enjoyed the peanuty sauce, and I threw in vegetables they tend to like so it was really a success for us.  I served it with a side of roasted cauliflower. My daughter ate half the head of cauliflower while my son and I chowed on the salad.  The peanut ginger sauce is similar to a sauce I make when we eat tofu spring rolls.  Put that sauce on anything and my family will call it delicious.

My son suggested we call this an 'Egyptian' salad, which would be a double pun on the Farro (not Pharaoh). He asked that I make it again, and suggested we could even make it for company. Sounds good to me.

I've come to realize that the kids are more willing to eat vegan if pasta or potatoes, or in this case, wheat, are a main part of the dish. Of course, this should not be a surprise to me as those are classically kid-friendly foods.  Although I'd rather eat less starch, I can do that at breakfast and lunch when I'm on my own and save the starches for dinner.  Dr. McDougall's book, The Starch Solution, says that you should build all your meals around starches, so, maybe all those starches are not so bad, even though Dr. Fuhrman does not agree.  Anyways, we're making progress here, as a big part of the battle is getting the kids interested in the food.

The recipe is here on AmbitiousKitchen's blog.
Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing

Modifications or Notes:  I had to heavily modify the recipe because I didn't have many of the items.  I used farro instead of quinoa. In the dressing, I left out the olive oil to reduce the fat.  I added cashews, cucumbers, celery, carrots, baby corn and some white beans. I left out the red pepper, cabbage and cilantro because I didn't have any (and the kids don't like peppers and cilantro).  If you like cilantro, that would be awesome.  I ate mine over a huge handful of raw spinach. If I'd had cilantro, I would have sprinkled a bunch over the top.

Kid-friendly: yes
Kid-rating: 4
Ease of prep: Easy.
Cleanup: Moderate: blender, cutting board, knife, peeler, measuring spoons and cups, saucepan, collander.
Nutrition: B : unprocessed.  Quinoa and the veggies in the original recipe have a better nutritional profile than the farro and what I used. Rather heavy on the nuts, too.
Overall Rating: 4 - company-worthy, will definitely make again and will vary the add-ins.

Mookies? Cuffins?

There is a fine line between a 'good recipe' and 'binge inducing'.  I want to find recipes that I enjoy, but not too much.  For me, one of the keys to weight control is not to eat food that I like too much.  I think that's why vegan works for me.  Most of the foods that I really love, like cheese (glorious cheese) are way to easy for me to eat too much.  I'm not sure if the milk fat causes the binges and the cravings, or if its just a food that I find delicious and will eat even if I am not hungry because it just tastes so good.  Dr. Greger says that fatty foods have been proven to be addictive.  Dr. Fuhrman says it causes toxic hunger.  I've noticed the same thing with salt. I eat one salty food, then I want to balance it with a sweet one, then another salty one... vicious cycle.  It really is better if I just avoid it all together.

So, then I found these cookies.  I've already eaten 3 tonight, so I'm concerned they might be 'binge inducing'.  However, my 8 year old daughter has also eaten 2, asked if she could have some for breakfast and requested that I make more, so from the kid-friendly-vegan perspective, it's a winner.  It's also a super easy recipe that I could see making in many different variations.

I did not call these a 'cookie' when introducing them to my daughter, fearing that she'd expect something buttery, crunchy and super sweet. So instead I eloquently said, "Hey, do you want to try one of these ... uh... small muffiny-things?"  She bounced over and took one, then came back for another. Fantastic.

I've got to start a blog, I thought.  This is good information I should share. I can create a site that lists good vegan cookie recipes and rates them for taste, kid-friendliness and ease in the kitchen. ... and so this blog was born.

The recipe is here on AmbitiousKitchen's blog.
2-Ingredient Healthy Banana Bread Breakfast Cookies {with Add-ins!}

Modifications or Notes:  It's a pretty extensible recipe.  Basically I ground Old Fashioned Oats in my food processor, added bananas and pulsed until the bananas were all mixed with the oats.  Then, I transferred it all to a bowl and mixed in some white chocolate chips by hand. (Sadly, I realized later the chips were not vegan... but I'm sure you could find some vegan chips).  Then I used my cookie scoop to scoop out 16 cookies and plopped them on my silpat mat.  I convection baked them at 350 degrees for 9 minutes.

The cookies did not flatten out or change shape one bit, though they did get a nice a nice toasty color.  They looked a bit like coconut macaroons.  We've decided to call them 'muffin balls'.

Update Nov 24, 2013 - Made these again with 'green top' bananas.  They were much harder to mix in with the food processor, made a stiffer dough and I didn't think they were as good.  Definitely better to use riper bananas.

Kid-friendly: yes
Kid-rating: 4
Ease of prep: Super easy.
Cleanup: Easy: food processor, cookie scoop, silpat. silicone scraper. measuring cup.
Nutrition: C : very unprocessed, however, oats aren't that high on the nutrient-dense meter. The chips really lower the rating to 'cookie' status.
Overall Rating: 4 - company-worthy, will definitely make again and will vary the add-ins.