Tag Archives: seasonal

Winning the Zucchini War

Posted on August 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

The zucchini from two CSA’s and and Doorganics has nearly won.  I struck back today making a double batch of vegan zucchini bread.  Nice try zucchini.

  • 3 Tbs ground flax seed
  • 1/2 C water
  • 1/2 C canola oil
  • 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 Tbs white distilled vinegar
  • 1 1/2 C granulated sugar
  • 2 C grated zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 C flour
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 C chocolate chips (Ghirardelli’s semi-sweet chips are accidentally vegan)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease two 8x4x2″ loaf man, 4 mini loaf pans or 2 muffin tins. In a mixer, combine the flax meal and water and blend until thickened.  This is your “egg” portion of most recipes.  Add the oil, vinegar, and sugar, and combine. Stir in the zucchini and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add chocolate chips. Stir the entire bowl to make sure no dry areas are left.  This is quite a bit of batter.  Divide the batter evenly into the two loaf pans (or pans of choice) and bake for 60-70 minutes. (40-45 mins for mini loaves; 30-35 for muffins).

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I snuck in a picture of the cutest Bagel in the world, Walter too.  He was sleepy after a vegan treat.

Recipe adapted from Epicurean Vegan

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Posted in Baking, Bread, Breakfast, Brunch, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Fried Rice

Posted on July 16, 2012 | 2 comments
I typically make grains on the weekend to avoid the time it takes to prep them during the week.  There is nothing worse than a 30 minute meal, that takes an hour and a half because you need to account for the brown rice to cook.  I have gotten in the habit of planning out a week of meals at a time because as you have probably noticed about me by now, I hate the friggin’ grocery store.  So I shop once a week, get my CSA’s two times a week and that generally allows me to be pretty prepared for all lunches and dinners for the week.
Now sometimes, those made-ahead grains get lost in the back of the fridge.  When that happens there is no better time to use up the rest of your CSA, freezer stuff, and pre-made brown rice, than in fried rice.
Ingredients
  • 3 C cooked brown rice (day old or leftover rice works best!)
  • 3 T sesame oil
  • 1/2 C shelled fresh or frozen peas
  • 1/3 C frozen shelled edemame
  • 1 C shredded carrot
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten (omit if vegan)
  • 1/4 C Tamari (to keep it gluten free; okay to use soy or Bragg’s Aminos if you are not concerned about gluten)
  • 1 bag Quorn strips (if vegan omit)
  • 1 handful roasted, salted peanuts
On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok.  Add the peas, carrots, edemame, onion, Quorn*, and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled*. Add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated.
*To keep this recipe vegan, omit the egg and the Quorn of course.
Recipe adapted from Life as a Lofthouse

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Posted in CSA, Dinner, Fridge Finds, Gluten Free, Leftovers, Less is more, Make Ahead, Meat Substitutes, Quick Cooking, Recipes, Stir Fry, Vegan, Vegetarian

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Quick Grilled Bok Choy

Posted on June 21, 2012 | 4 comments

I haven’t posted in two weeks!!!!!  Eek!  I have so many backlogged I must remedy this situation immediately.  I’ll start with one of my fave items from our first CSA jackpot from Blandford Nature Center.  Bok choy.

There are about a thousand ways to spell this little veggie wonder.  I’m going with ‘bok choy’ for purposes of this post.  High in vitamin C, antioxidants, folic acid, and potassium yet low in cals and carbs makes bok choy an eat-until-you-are-stuffed candidate for low guilt and high yum.

Ingredients:

  • 3 baby bok choy, cut in half length wise
  • 1 T roasted sesame oil (garlic oil, chili oil, walnut oil, anything would be great here)
  • 1 tsp hot pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste

This is a no-brainer.  Heat grill to let’s say, hot…I just turned it all the way to high and waited like 5 minutes.  I know, scientific eh?

Drizzle bok choy halves with oil, sprinkle hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper on top.  Toss on HOT grill until charred.  Mr. Wonderful said, “if more people could experience charred greens, they would LOVE them.”  I would have to agree.

I served this next to brown rice, mandarin orange chick’n and a few crushed up cashew bits I had lying around.  Quick meal, as the rice was in the freezer just waiting for a chance to shine.

Baby Bok Choi Recipe

Recipe adapted from: Simply Recipes.

Here is another recipe that I’ve wanted to try for a while now too:  Sesame Coconut Bok Choy.  If you make it let me know how it turns out.

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Posted in BBQ, CSA, Quick Cooking, Seasonal Ingredients, Vegan, Vegetarian

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So…are you going to do it?

Posted on November 22, 2011 | 1 comment

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Posted in Dinner, Seasonal Ingredients

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BerryCakes

Posted on August 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

Tired of reading about raspberries?  Well, we’ve been eating them for a solid week, how do you think we feel?  The last of ’em went into pancakes a final breakfast.  Using the pancake base from the Milk Chocolate Banacakes post last year, just add raspberries in place of the chocolate and/or bananas and you have breakfast.  Goodbye raspberries!

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Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Michigan, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients, Vegetarian

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What’s in the freezer?

Posted on October 27, 2010 | 2 comments

So my plans for tonight were cancelled, believe me, I’m not complaining.  I don’t even know what happened to the month of October.  As you can see from my last post at the beginning of October, I was obviously abducted by aliens and didn’t have Wi-Fi in order to blog.

This evening, I arrived home to a growling stomach, courtesy of too much PM snacking with only caloric and fat benefits and two dogs that needed my immediate attention (i.e. let’s go for a walk) which calls off all audibles to the store to wander and create.  Took care of the dogs, fielded a few calls from frantic students with assignments due, then opened up the freezer…squash puree, black beans, soups of all kinds, blueberries (gosh, those are STILL in there?) and the usual culprits, cheese, veg burgers, etc…boooorrriiingg.  Then, the lightbulb flickers…squash burritos?  Yes…squash burritos.

Squash Burritos with Black Beans

  • 2 C black beans, cooked
  • 2 C butternut squash, pureed
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 T chipotle en adobo (if you aren’t a fan of spicy, use 3/4 to 1 T for the smokey kick minus the tongue burn)
  • 2 tsp kosher salt
  • 2 T pineapple juice (plus more for the avocado)
  • 2 T crushed pineapple
  • grape tomatoes (a couple of handfuls)
  • 1 avocado
  • 6 reduced-fat, flour tortillas
  • 1 C finely shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend (or goat cheese, yum)
  • 2 large handfuls of baby spinach
  • Chopped red onion
  • Light sour cream or my newest sour cream replacement, plain Greek fat free yogurt

Directions:  Combine beans through pineapple in list above in a medium pot, cook until warmed through.  Assemble burritos on flour tortillas with all ingredients except for sour cream.  Roll into burrito shape.  Place into 9×9 pan, put in oven covered until warmed through and moist.  Serve with sour cream and leftover avocado.  I also use plenty of Frank’s Red Hot on top with a sprinkle of extra cheese.

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Posted in Fall Food, Make Ahead, Recipes, Seasonal Ingredients

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