Black Bean Shepherd's Pie and a New Addition to the J&B Household

Yes, um, I actually made this quite some time ago, but seeing as I've been afflicted with that horrible Lazy Syndrome, I'm only getting around to it now. Many, many moons ago, Jessy from the oh so awesome blog, Happy Vegan Face, posted about a Shepherd's Pie recipe she had made.

I'd never had Shepherd's Pie before vegetarian or otherwise, but who doesn't like mashed potatoes, veggies, and beans? Why not put them together? I know! Great idea! So I decided to make up my own recipe based on what I had around and it was pretty darn good. I think I'm going to try using green lentils in place of beans next time I make this.


















Black Bean Shepherd's Pie

The Taters:
4 russet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed (leave the skins on for some excellent fiber!)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup milk
2-3 tbsp butter or Earth Balance
1/2 cup gouda or non-dairy cheese shreds
salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the potatoes and garlic. Boil until potatoes are tender and drain.

Combine all the ingredients with a mixer or potato masher, seasoning with salt to taste.

Rest of the Stuff:
2 tbsp safflower oil
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup sweet corn
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cups black beans

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the veggies and cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Add the tomato sauce and black beans and cook until heated through.

In an 8x8 pan, spread the bean/veggie mixture and top with the potatoes.

Place, uncovered, in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until top is nice and golden.

Enjoy!

Yum, just posting about it makes me want this again, it was hearty, filling, and super tasty. I just wish I had had some green beans or peas to add to the mix. Or broccoli like Jessy used. Mmmmmm, green veggies...

So, in some exciting but completely off topic news - Brett and I are getting ready to welcome a new addition to our home.

A couple of weeks ago, Brett and I went to St. Louis for the weekend to celebrate (belatedly) the holidays with my parents and brothers. I met my first little nephew - Gabriel - and he seemed as scared of me as I was of him. Perhaps when he is older we will both be more comfortable...

Anyway, while we were up there, my parents took our Cocker Spaniel, Sadie, to the vet to have something checked out. While there, they discovered that a kitty had been found very sick in a trash can and was brought to the vet by a daughter of one of the nurses who found him. He was this tiny little orange puff ball who was scared, thin, malnourished, and in need of love and food. Stacey fell in love but was torn - she might have an infant in the house soon and a little kitty and babies don't usually mix. But the kitty was so sweet and unless someone took him, he would be taken to an animal shelter and likely put down because he was a runt and they couldn't guarantee his long-term health. So she asked Brett and I if we might want to take him.

Now, as a little aside, I would love to take ALL animals in need of a home. But we cannot. We live in an apartment and are limited in both funds and space, so we can only have so many critters and still be able to provide a good home with plenty of love. There is a shelter here in Columbia called Second Chance. They don't have a facility, rather, all the animals are put in "foster homes" where they live until they are either adopted or, well, they've lived out their days. They are no-kill. I think this is one of the most amazing organizations I've heard of and I would love to be able to help foster one days.

Anyway, back on topic. While we can't have all the animals that need a home, the more I got to thinking about it, the more it seemed like we had more than enough room for another kitty. I spoke to Brett about it and he agreed that we could go see the kitty at the vet. He knew (as I did) that as soon as he agreed to go see it, we were going to be adopting the cat, whether it had three legs and one eye, it didn't matter, we were going to give this unwanted kitty a home.

So we went to the vet and the nurse brought out this tiny orange fluff ball. He is so cute! He was very shy but took to me instantly. He let me love on him and didn't cower as he usually did. He was just the sweetest little thing. We decided we would call him Peanut Butter (we will call him Butters for short, like South Park :-)) and that he would definitely be welcome in our home.

Since he was so thin and was having some problems with his kidneys, they kept him at the vet to fatten him up and get his insides working a little better. Oh, and they are also going to fix him. EEEEEEK! Word from the vet is that he is really coming out of his shell and is starting to play a lot. They think he is 10-11 months old. He will be ready to come home on Saturday and my parents will be bringing him down. We can't wait!

Except...we have to introduce a new cat into our home and though I've only had to do it once before, it was not fun and was quite a stressful time. So while we are looking forward to him coming home, we are not looking forward to the introduction process. Yuk.

Anyway, that's about all the news I have for now. I'll get some pictures of Butters this weekend and post them for all to see.

'Til next time.

Southwestern Lentil and Veggie Bisque

I've been on a soup kick for quite some time now, so nobody should be surprised that this is...yet another soup post.

I have been into trying out smooth soups lately, perfecting the arduous process of pressing everything through a wire mesh strainer feels like quite an accomplishment when you get a beautiful tasty soup in the end. And it is a good arm workout.

So without further fanfare...


















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Southwestern Lentil and Veggie Bisque

1 cup green lentils, rinsed
water

2-3 tbsp safflower oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped *
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped *
4 New Mexico chiles, seeded and chopped (red if you can get 'em) *
1 red onion, sliced
1 yellow onion, sliced **
3 red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed *
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup sweet corn
1 tomato, cored and chopped **
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup veggie broth
1/4 cup cilantro *
cumin to taste
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Put lentils in a small sauce pan and fill with water.

Bring to a boil and simmer until done, about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil over medium-high heat and saute peppers, onions, potatoes, carrot, and corn until they begin to soften, about 15-20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for an additional ten minutes.

Tranfer veggies to a blender or food processor and puree. Add the veggie broth and cilantro. Slowly add the lentils (with cooking liquid) in small batches and puree until smooth.

Over a large soup pot, smash the mixture through a wire mesh strainer.

The resulting soup should be very smooth.

Season to taste with cumin, salt, and pepper.

This was a really tasty soup and quite filling too!

I will be working on updating the recipe index this evening, as well as responding to the comments I have been neglecting (I suck sometimes).

I hope everyone is have a great weekend!

'Til next time.

Simple Roasted Veggie Quesadillas

I believe I promised to post about these a week or two ago, but alas, I suck and am have been a bad blogger, but hey - better late than never right?

I am a self-taught cook, and have also "developed" my own palette, and one thing I continually discover is that the simplest things are not only often the best, but in a strange way they are also the hardest. It is because with fewer ingredients there is less room for error, you can't cover up an overcooked tomato if tomato is one of three ingredients in the dish. Anyway, there were no mishaps in this little simplistic kitchen adventure, but I have had my fair share. This isn't really anything special, but it is a great combination of flavors and textures that really showcase all the abundance that is available at this time of year.


The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Simple Roasted Veggie Quesadillas:
1 yellow summer squash, ends removed **
1 red bell pepper, washed **
2 tomatillos, husked and washed ***
2 serranos, seeded and minced ***
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, sliced thin *
4-6 tbsp. canola oil, divided evenly
salt
pepper
flour tortillas
queso fresco or non-dairy "cheese"
salsa *

Preheat oven to 400.

Drizzle half the canola oil over squash, bell pepper, and tomatillos. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast in oven for about 30 minutes, turning the veggies about half way through to get even cooking.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a skillet. Add the serranos, garlic, and onions, and cook until soft, about 10 minutes.

When veggies come out of the oven, allow the veggies to cool. Once cool enough to handle, chop the stem off the bell pepper, peel it (the skin should slide off easily), remove the seeds, and slice. Slice the squash and tomatillos.

Layer veggies and cheese in a warmed flour tortilla and fry if desired. Serve with salsa - the hotter the better.

'Til next time.

Manchurian-ish Mushrooms

We've been in "Mexi-mode" lately almost exclusively with my testing and restesting recipes for the cookbook. On Friday, I was looking at the website TasteSpotting and decided to do a search of the word "spicy", 'cause that's how I roll. One of the recipes that came up was for Manchurian Mushrooms. The picture was so drool-worthy that I had to go look at the recipe. I sounded absolutely amazing. I sent the recipe and picture to both Brett and Selina (she and I have very similar tastes). Brett, who claims to be "Asian-ed out" took one look at the recipe and agreed that we should try it and soon. Selina was on the same page as me and wanted to make it as soon as possible.

I started from this recipe here. I didn't have some of the stuff on hand and I wanted to make sure that the mushrooms were spicy to my liking and the sauce was sweet to Brett's liking so I tweaked the recipe and provided it below.




You may note some new serving ware here and there. My Nanny Beth (among others) wanted our food to look nicer since we put pictures of it online, so she got us these "rooster bowls" which look really cool with Asian food and some plates for us to use for our "Mexican presentations". Now all I have to do is learn how to use a camera and get some sort of eye for "food fashion". Hell, I am just the cook, Selina, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE PRESENTATION UP TO ME FOR THE COOKBOOK. It would just be bad. You've seen my titles for things and my lack of skill with the camera, you do not want that. :-)

Well, here she be.

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

J&B's Manchurian-ish Mushrooms
1 pack button mushrooms, rinsed and quartered
3-4 cups peanut oil for frying

Spicy Batter:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp corn masa
2 tsp (or more!) of chile-garlic sauce (I used Huy Fong)
4 Chiles Japones, crushed with a mortar and pestle (you could also use a food processor or coffee grinder, or just crush them up with your fingers)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
1 cup water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Slowly add the water and mix well, making sure to work out all the clumps.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 small red boiler onions, chopped *
3 banana peppers, seeded and sliced *
2 small green bell peppers, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces *
1 head broccoli, cut into florettes *
1/2 yellow summer squash, cut into large chunks **
1 head Georgian Fire garlic, sliced *
2 tbsp alfalfa honey *
3/4 cup organic ketchup
4 tbsp sweet chile sauce
3 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)
4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish, optional)

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

Add the onion, peppers, broccoli, and squash and saute stirring often for about 6-8 minutes.

Add the garlic and stir fry for another 3-4 minutes.

Turn the heat down to slightly below medium.

Add the honey, ketchup, chile sauce, and shoyu. Combine well.

Let simmer on low while you batter and fry the mushrooms.

To batter and fry the mushrooms and finish up the dish:

Put your peanut oil in a heavy bottomed small skillet and turn heat on the low end of high (does that make sense?).

Dip the mushrooms pieces in the batter and once oil is heated carefully drop them in the hot oil.

Fry for 6-8 minutes or until mushroom pieces are deep golden brown. Transfer to paper towels to drain the excess oil. Repeat this process until all the mushrooms are fried.

Put the fried mushrooms into the sweet and sour sauce and stir to coat evenly. Top with cilantro. Serve immediately.

This was really freakin' good. It tasted like something you would get from a restaurant. It isn't the least time consuming of the recipes here on Veg*n Cooking, but it is well worth the effort.

'Til next time!

Local Kidney Bean and Veggie Burgers

I was going to post about a meal of local Walnut Pesto and pasta, but I decided against it for a number of reasons. First off, I forgot to take a picture of the meal. Secondly, I have posted about our Walnut Pesto before and since I had plans for another local meal in mind, I decided to make this post our weekly One Local Summer entry.

One of the many things I really love about summer is bean and veggie burgers. I don't know why I associate these foods with summer, but I seem to. I have so many created recipes and ideas for bean, grain, and veggie burgers that it is often hard to know where to start. I've noticed now that I've been regularly going to market for a few years now, that we go there and let the produce plan the meals. Based on what is available, what looks best, a menu begins to form in my head and we just roll with it.

With the weather being warm and summer-like and the local veggies abounding, I decided to make a local bean and veggie burger. These burgers were amazing and they have so much potential to be even better. I will share the initial recipe, but let me tell you - this, like most of my other recipes will be tweaked to our liking over time until we get it just right. You all get what I like to call the "rough draft" of the recipe. Sometimes when we are done modifying these recipes, they are nothing like their originals, but that is part of the fun of evolving recipes.


We served our burgers with local garlicky roasted asparagus. I sliced up about 4 baby garlics, tossed the asparagus with olive oil, salt, and the garlic, and roasted it on 375 for about 15 minutes. So, so good.


The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Local Kidney Bean and Veggie Burgers
Makes about six patties.

4 cups kidney beans, mashed with a fork +
1 habanero, seeded and minced * (frozen from last year)
2 hot Hungarian wax peppers, seeded and minced *** (frozen from last year)
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and minced *** (frozen from last year)
1 cup oyster mushrooms, minced *
6 spring onions, minced *
4 baby garlics, minced *
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced *
1/2 cup garlic chives, minced *
4 tbsp regular rolled oats
6-8 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour +
1 egg *
squirt sriracha
chili powder
cumin
black pepper
salt

Combine all ingredients and seasonings except egg in a bowl using the seasonings to taste. Add the egg.

Form into patties and refrigerate for about an hour to allow patties to get a bit more firm.

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Bake burgers in oven for 15 minutes, flip patties and cook for an additional 15 minutes on the other side.

Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Serve on a bun with your favorite toppings, we used:
veganaise
organic ketchup
pickles +
sliced tomatoes *
leaf lettuce **

These were so good. I cannot wait to try out all the crazy combinations I have for burgers and patties in my head. I love summer!

There hasn't seemed to be too awful much interest in the It Seemed Like A Good Idea At the Time Writing Contest, but I'm not too upset by that. I am a fan of quality over quantity, so if just one person writes a good piece, I will think the contest has been a success.

A bit of house cleaning related to the Writing Contest - if you want to participate, but do not have a blog, just send your entry to jheartschilepeppers@live.com and I will post it on Veg*n Cooking as a guest post.

Also, while you can still vote for what you think the prize for the contest will be, the winner will ultimately get to decide between the choices given.

I hope you all consider writing a short (or not-so-short) piece for the contest, I know there are a lot of witty people out there with great minds, let's use 'em!

'Til next time.

Super Beany Chili

I have been a pretty bad blogger lately, I could make a bunch of excuses, but really, I don't have many good ones, and the good ones I do have aren't the reason for my lack of blogging, I've just been lazy. We have been cooking though, still mostly "tried and true" recipes, especially since I found some of the first season's local tomatoes! I went to the Root Cellar the other day to get some local salad greens and saw the table full of gorgeous red delights as soon as I walked in. I made a beeline to them and asked the woman there in disbelief, "Are these local?!?" Indeed they are, from somewhere south of Jefferson City, Missouri. I think they have to have been grown in a greenhouse, but it has been beyond wonderful having local tomatoes again. I was surprised at what a wonderful, rich, tomatoey flavor they have. I should have got a picture of them, but I didn't and we are down to just a couple now any way. And those we will be using very shortly. We also got the above mentioned local salad greens, local shiitake mushrooms, and St. Louis made Dijon-Garlic-Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette. It is a mouthful, but it is delicious.

Anyways, we made this chili :blush: a couple of weeks ago. It was seriously tasty and we've enjoyed in by itself, with tortilla chips, on baked potatoes, and even on waffle fries (I've been contemplating tater tots too). Since making chili is a process, I made a huge batch and froze a good portion of it for later use. We've been taking a container of it out of the freezer in the evening, and it'll be ready for dinner the next night, wahoo!

















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Super Beany Chili
2 cups dark red kidney beans +, soaked overnight with a dried cayenne pepper *** and a dried New Mexican Chile
1/2 cup pinto beans ****, soaked overnight with a dried cayenne pepper *** and a dried New Mexican Chile
1/2 cup black beans ****, soaked overnight with a dried cayenne pepper *** and a dried New Mexican Chile
1/2 cup Anasazi beans ****, soaked overnight with a dried cayenne pepper *** and a dried New Mexican Chile
2 cans fire roasted crushed tomatoes
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 red onion, chopped + (not local)
1 yellow onion, chopped + (not local)
6 cloves of garlic, minced + (not local)
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped *** (frozen from last year)
3 Hot Hungarian Wax peppers, cut into rings *** (frozen from last year)
dried cilantro flakes +
ground cumin
chili powder
chipotle chili powder
salt
1 cup green lentils, rinsed

Soak beans and dried peppers overnight. Drain and rinse the beans and remove the peppers.

Combine beans in a large pot and fill with enough water to cover about two inches. Boil over medium heat for about 2 1/2 hours, covered. Make sure to check the water level occasionally, you may have to add more.

Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, peppers, and spices. Simmer covered on medium-low for another two hours. Check the doneness of the beans.

Once the beans are close to being fully cooked, check the spice level and add more if necessary. Add the lentils and simmer for about 40 minutes or until lentils are fully cooked.

This was really yummy chili. I've mentioned before that I had "chili'd Brett out", but it turns out that my chili is generally too volcanically hot for anyone but me. So I don't overdo the spice and I add sriracha, cayenne pepper, dried habaneros, or hot chili garlic sauce to my dishes to achieve my desired spice level.

Well, I've been trying to jump start my pilates routine again. I used to do pilates at least three times a week, and that is saying something for someone who hates exercise. It really made me feel good, I had more energy, more stamina, and I looked, well, a little nicer. I've wanted to get back into it for awhile, so I figured summer and a wedding were pretty good motivation to get started. I also decided I would like to do some "booty exercises" (I am a size 2 girl with a size 4 behind), and get some upper body strength. I have damn strong legs and can carry quite a bit on my back, but the damn 5 lb. weights are almost too much for me. I started my "exercise regimen" yesterday and today I feel like someone ran over me. And I only worked out for about 30 minutes. :-( Now I am off to do pilates, and then probably take a hot bath and hide in my recliner the rest of the evening.

I'll tell you what, the pilates can stay around, but all this strength training, I don't think I will do this very long, I don't want to look all ripped and scary, I just don't want to be one of those bizarre "fat skinny people" anymore.

Oh, woe is me, am I right?

Have a good weekend everyone.

'Til next time!

Kidney Bean, Sweet Potato, and Millet Stew

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know we sure did. Though we were unable to visit Brett's family in Illinois due to our losing our debit card (we have new ones now thankfully), we decided rather than be bummed, we were going to make the best of it. I am personally a huge fan on long weekends away from work anyway (who am I kidding, I am a huge fan of ANY time away from my job - it is lame!). So we spent that last four days reading, listening to music, running a few errands, watching awesome football, and playing video games together. We played Hot Shots Golf (I almost won! I have literally NEVER beat Brett at that game and we have played it so many times.), and Brett let me "run errands" for him on Grand Theft Auto since I have fun "driving" the car around. I say "driving" because it is very difficult and I often run into things or get the cops after me just trying to go get something to eat. Since I have been driving for him occasionally, I have broke about 4 cars (they just stopped running), completely scared the characters girlfriend away (because I accidently started shooting out the car window when I was trying to brake), got busted, and somehow got involved in a gang war. Such a savory game, I know, but it is pretty fun to drive around.

You may or may not have noticed that there wasn't a local booty update this week - I actually didn't go to the Root Cellar this weekend. We still have some stuff around and Brett has a cleaning/repairing project that is going to render the kitchen useless for a good portion of the week, so we will be frequenting our favorite local restaurants for a few days . It is nice to have the break from cooking, but I'm sure come next weekend, I will be ready to get back in the kitchen. Though not pictured, we did pick up some local Country Goodies peach apricot jam and a loaf of Uprise's Columbia sourdough (awesome flippin' bread by the way).

Anywho, I have been working on a little project to clean out my cabinets, inspired by Jessy and Dan who, awhile back, were working to use what they had around the house and reduce the amount of groceries they bought each week (they are so awesome that they passed the savings on to charity!). I was looking for something in my tiny kitchen the other day when I noticed how much food we have: tons of canned goods; bulk beans, rice, and other grains; winter squash, frozen goodies from summer; nuts, seeds, and so much more. I felt really bad at that moment - that we kept going out and buying new loads of groceries each week when there was so much food still around the house. I also realized that this project was not only a good way to reduce waste (and free up some cabinet space for all the goodies I want to can and preserve over the summer), but also a great opportunity for creativity. I've been creating a list of our "reserves" so that I can plan our meals accordingly and only buy things that will allow me to round out a meal using at least a few ingredients I already have.

Now, I'm in no way against stocking up, not at all, but I didn't know I still had most of this stuff! And there does come a point after stocking up that you have to start going through your stash. My goal is by the end of the winter to have the reserves depleted and our freezer empty and waiting to be filled by the abundance of summer (though we will always have a bulk amount of beans and rice around).

Brett has enjoyed this since it means that we are experimenting a lot less - and by "experimenting", I think he means trying something that isn't Mexican(ish) or Asian. :-) And honestly, I do better when I stay within the Mexican/Asian umbrella. I seem to have those flavors down and can just kind of wing it - sometimes when I venture outside that "comfort zone", things go horribly wrong. You might notice - if you don't perhaps you will now - that we use pretty much the same ingredients, we just pair them with different beans or seasonings to change things up. Most of the time I am reluctant to call what I post here "recipes" as they aren't anything special and they are often similar to other things we've made before. But if you want to know how to cook vegetarian, using mostly local ingredients, you have to be willing to eat, well, a lot of the same things, and get creative with how you throw them together.

Enough of the small talk and errant blabbering and on to the real purpose of this post - the food!

I have wanted to work with the local kidney beans we found at the Root Cellar and have been getting a little tired of creamy soup, so I decided to go a different route with this dinner. I also didn't want to make another chili either, but I wanted something warm that sticks with you as chili does. In going through my cabinet, I noticed a large container of bulk millet I bought awhile back (and forgot about) and the idea for this thick stew formed. I was pleased with how well it turned out and we got to use up some of our excess food as well as local produce, that is hard to beat.

This meal is not spicy - even Brett agreed - I, being a spice freak, added dried crushed habanero flakes to my bowl, so if you like spice, you might want to supplement with cayenne, crushed habanero, or even sriracha. We ate this with tortilla chips and it also made nice work lunches last week.















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Kidney Bean, Sweet Potato, and Millet Stew
3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed +
1 red onion, chopped +
4 cloves of garlic, minced +
6-10 petite bell peppers, seeded and minced (other bell pepper would work) *** (frozen from summer)
3 cayenne peppers, seeded and minced +
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped *** (last of the bag ripened tomatoes)
4 cups fresh spinach, chopped +
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
4 cups water
1 veggie bouillon cube (you could just use 4 c. veggie broth)
1 cup raw millet, rinsed
4 cups cooked kidney beans +
chili powder
cumin
Mexican oregano
dried cilantro flakes + (not sure if it is local)
salt
pepper

In a large soup pot, combine potatoes, onion, garlic, peppers, tomatoes (canned and fresh), water, and veggie bouillon. Simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Add the spinach, raw millet, kidney beans, and season to taste.

Simmer for an additional 30-35 minutes or until millet is soft.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Well, I am a little backed up on food posts, so I might try to get the rest of them scheduled to be posted this week if time allows this afternoon. I have another short week at work this week (:-)!), so I'd expect that it will be pretty quiet here at Veg*n Cooking between Wednesday and next Monday. I will try to get on over the weekend to post a local booty update, but if I don't get to it, I will do it next Monday.

I hope everyone is having a great start to their week. Mondays can only be so bearable.

'Til next time.

Weekly Local Booty 11/23-11/29/08 & A Local Veg*n Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving. I enjoyed seeing my family - and the weather was beautiful and fairly warm, but we're happy to be back home. I will talk a little more in depth about our Thanksgiving (and will include recipes!) at the end of this post.

Brett is loaded down with homework this weekend - the professors didn't give any leniency for the holidays and so, due to our being out of town, he has close to a week's worth of homework to get done by Monday. Needless to say, I want to make sure he is well fed and as comfortable as possible - I've been there, and it is no fun, especially when there are important term papers in the mix. I will likely go to graduate school in a few years, but have really enjoyed not having to do homework all the time, Brett still being in school reminds me why I decided to take a few years off and work full-time before going back.

Anywho, The Root Cellar made it easy for me to plan some tasty meals. We were there earlier in the week to get produce for our Thanksgiving meal and noticed a lot of really good looking options for when we came back to get stuff for our weekly meals, so I already had some ideas in mind.

We didn't get anything from our garden this week. The outdoor container plants are really struggling, and the pepper plants started indoors just aren't big enough to produce yet. The greens are moving along, some better than others. I will discuss this more in the monthly garden update - I should be able to get that up by Tuesday.

Here is this week's haul from The Root Cellar. This ran us $48.















Starting from the bottom right: spinach, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, 2 Herbal Oats granola bars, 5 ripe serranos, small yellow potatoes, leeks (!!!!!), an orange bell pepper, a green bell pepper, 2 pears, a container of firm tofu* (not local), a jar of dairy-free pasta sauce made in St. Louis, 4 tomatoes, fair trade organic chocolate chips (dairy-free and not local), and a spaghetti squash.

* I have mentioned on this blog a few times that I dislike tofu. Both Brett and I do. And we have tried to like it more than we do, but there are things about it that neither of us can get past. But there are at least two things we like tofu in: one is tofu sour cream (only in moderation and not very often), and the other are our Tofu and Potato Burritos. It has been a really long time since we've had the burritos, so I decided to get a block since we had everything else on hand that we needed.

Here is this week's loot from Uprise Bakery:















Of course, a loaf of ciabatta, and this week we also picked up a granola bar.

I have the rest of the cookie posts scheduled to go up later in the week. This week's menu is compromised of many favorites including, of course, the Tofu and Potato Burritos, Smashed Yam, Black Bean, and Spinach Quesadillas, and Leek and Potato Soup (for soup and bread night).

We will be trying spaghetti squash served with the local pasta sauce pictured above, and I have something up my sleeve to use some of the peach jam in. So there won't not be as many non-sweets food posts this week because things fell into place for us to enjoy some of our old favorites!

My Nanny, an excellent canner and cook, sent us home with a nice treat that I plan on putting to use this week:















A jar of peach jam! The peaches came from my mom and aunt's yards, and they are even from within our 200 mile foodshed!

Onto our veg*n Thanksgiving. I am sorry to report that I didn't get many pictures - in fact, only one picture of the food I made for Thanksgiving (the other picture is from the trial run of the soup I made for the dinner). Things were really hectic in the kitchen and my initial prep schedule didn't pan out because my mom - I love her but she is such a clean freak I could scream sometimes - tried to renege on my being able to cook in her kitchen (because I could make a mess, what is a kitchen for anyway?!), I was finally able to convince her that I could make the soup and bread at her house without making too much of a mess, and that I would finish at my Nanny's house the next day.

The menu ended up being as follows:

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Uprise Bakery Ciabatta (of course)
Black Bean, Brown Rice, and Local Veggie Stuffed Portobellos
Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Shiitake Mushroom Gravy
Pumpkin-Walnut Bread

I spent a lot of time trying to come up with something at least quasi-traditional, that I thought my family would actually eat. Sadly, I was wrong on those counts, well except perhaps the traditional part. After many hours in the kitchen, a lot of thought and planning, the only things my family ate were the ciabatta from Uprise Bakery, the Pumpkin-Walnut Bread, and I think someone beyond Brett and I had a stuffed mushroom. It all turned out really well, I just don't think I will put in as much effort or make as much food next time.

I also hadn't prepared myself for the disappointment that I wouldn't be eating the other food prepared. Comments like, "It's just chicken broth" and "You can have just a taste can't you?" I don't blame them for not understanding and I don't expect them to accommodate, I mean, my great grandma is 86 years old, but I've been a vegetarian for awhile, they all knew this. They didn't prod or harass me about it too much, but I could tell it was more of an issue than I thought it was going to be.

Anyways, Brett told me he really enjoyed the stuffed mushrooms, and he and I ate a huge bowl of the mashed potatoes and gravy later on while watching a football game. I ended up leaving all the pumpkin bread with my grandparents and mom.

On to the recipes, don't let my family’s aversion to vegetarian food or anything non-traditional deter you from trying these recipes, they really were good.

The mashed potatoes we made were based on our Garlicky Mashed Potatoes recipe, we used red potatoes instead of russet (reds are so much better), hempmilk instead of soy, and I added a little dried basil and oregano to the mixture (the potatoes and garlic were local and the hempmilk was purchased from a local store). The shiitake mushroom gravy was essentially Veganomicon's Mushroom Gravy with shiitakes subbed in and maybe a few other modifications, but to be honest, I made it on the fly, so I can't really remember (I do know that I used local shiitakes, garlic, and onions).















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed (5-6 cups) ***
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I used local Gala apples) +
1 carrot, peeled and sliced into thick rounds +
1 yellow onion, chopped +
1 tbsp Earth Balance
5 cups water
1 veggie bouillon cube
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
nutmeg
cinnamon
salt
pepper

Melt Earth Balance in a large soup pot. Add the carrot and onion and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the squash, apples, water, and bouillon.

Simmer for 40-45 minutes or until veggies very soft. Let cool for a few minutes.

Blend in a food processor until very smooth, add a little more water if needed to get desired consistency. Add maple syrup and spices to taste.

Serve with warm crusty bread.

Black Bean, Brown Rice and Local Veggie Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
Makes 12 stuffed mushrooms

12 medium portobello mushrooms, stems removed and cleaned
1/2 cup black beans, cooked ****
1/2 cup brown rice, cooked ****
1 carrot, peeled and chopped +
1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced +
4 cloves of garlic, minced +
1/2 yellow onion, minced +
1-2 tbsp safflower oil
basil
oregano
thyme
black pepper
salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat oil in a small skillet. Add the carrot, bell pepper, garlic, and onion. Cook for about 10 minutes or until veggies are soft and starting to caramelize a little bit.

Combine veggies with black beans, brown rice, and seasonings to taste.

Spray a baking sheet with oil.

Stuff a tablespoon or so of the filling in to each prepared mushroom.

Roast for about 30 minutes.















Whole Grain Spelt Pumpkin-Walnut Bread
Recipe adapted from here.

1 1/2 cups whole grain spelt flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup organic raw sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup pumpkin puree +
1/2 cup safflower oil
2 eggs (or replacer) ++ (local)
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped +

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray a bread pan with oil.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, water, and spices in a small bowl.

Slowly combine the wet and dry ingredients in the large bowl.

Stir in the walnuts.

Spread batter into a prepared bread pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a knife or toothpick in the center comes out clean.

The Pumpkin-Walnut bread is really, really good. We didn't get to bring any home with us, so I am going to be making a loaf this weekend, sans walnuts (Brett doesn't like nuts), so Brett and I can enjoy some of it.

Well, I'm off to enjoy a relaxing night of reading, soup making, and perhaps some cookie baking. Those Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies were really good and didn't last long around here. I also thought that reading a textbook might not seem as bad if you had a yummy cookie to go along with it.

'Til next time.

Two Bean-Pumpkin Chili

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I am a bit beat from my weekend, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless. I am working on a baking project, whose purpose will be revealed at a later time, so my weekends have been filled with quite a bit of baking (and dishes too of course). This weekend my focus was cookies! I made a few different kinds and they all turned out wonderfully. I'm not sure if I will get to it due to Thanksgiving this week, but if I have time, I might schedule at least a couple of them to go up over the holiday. I have a very short week at work this week, and a lot of prep and planning to do for Brett and I's contribution to Thanksgiving, oh, and then there is the whole going out of town thing - so needless to say, I will probably be absent from commenting on everyone's blogs for the rest of the week. If I can, I will schedule some cookie posts, otherwise, you will get them next week in addition to pictures and recipes from our Thanksgiving meal.

In the meantime though, I hope you will not be disappointed with this week's Dark Day's 90% local meal, a two bean chili with pumpkin! I think I mentioned before, chili is one of the first things I learned how to cook, as a result, Brett and I ate far more chili than I care to mention, we were so burnt out on chili - poor Brett more than myself. Long story short, we are both, particularly Brett, very picky about chili now. Most of the time I make it, it gets an "eh" from both of us, and doesn't get blogged about. The last "hit" I had in the chili department was the Two Bean and Lentil Chili and then this.

This was my first attempt at using pumpkin in a savory dish and it is really good. This chili was really good. It was hearty, and had a deep, rich tomato flavor, was just spicy enough, it had hints of sweetness and creaminess from the pumpkin, and even a meaty quality from the oyster mushrooms. And with the two beans, you know it was filling.

The only thing I would do differently with this chili next time would be to chop the pumpkin up a little smaller. We like to eat our chili with tortilla chips and the chunks were hard to scoop up.















(Not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but so, so tasty.)

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Two Bean-Pumpkin Chili

4 cups black beans, cooked ****
2 cups pinto beans, cooked ****
4 medium to large tomatoes, chopped +
1 habanero, seeded and minced +
1 hot Hungarian wax pepper (ours was ripe and red!), seeded and minced ***
1 serrano (this one was ripe and red too!!), seeded and minced ***
1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced +
1 purple bell pepper, seeded and minced +
4 cloves of garlic, minced +
1 red onion, chopped +
3 cups fresh pumpkin, chopped +
8 oyster mushrooms, minced +
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, finely minced +
5 cups water
chili powder
cumin
Mexican oregano
salt

Combine all ingredients, except the beans, in a large soup pot and simmer for about 2 hours.

Add the beans, and more seasoning if desired, and simmer for an additional 30 minutes to an hour.

This makes a lot of chili. I froze the portion we didn't eat and we will thaw it for a quick meal when we get back from visiting my mom.

I hope everyone has a wonderful (and as local as possible) Thanksgiving!

'Til next time!

Honey Chipotle Garlic Glazed Delicata Squash and Kidney Bean Burritos (Vegetarian)

I do still cook Mexican, it might not seem like it with what I have been blogging about lately, but we have really been enjoying some of our favorite "oldies but goodies". With all the squash around though, I am really enjoying playing with ideas for how to "Mexicanify" winter squash. Surprisingly, it isn't as hard as one might think. What I love is that most of the Mexican meals I have made with winter squash end up having the delightful sweet and spicy combination that both Brett and love so much.

I also apologize to the vegans who read this blog about all the honey I use. We strive to eat as locally as possibly, and living lower on the food chain, for environmental, social justice, and other reasons means that for us, honey fits in with our principles more than agave from far away. I imagine most of the recipes I have that call for honey could have agave subbed in without too much problem. I do also still have some agave, so I plan on using that up too - so you will see some of that in the coming weeks/months as well.

This might seem like an intensive dinner, but I made this last night, after work. I think it took about an hour, but half of that time I did other things (I read more of The Shock Doctrine). When I told Brett what I was making, he gave me this look like "are you sure this is going to be good?" I wasn't of course, this meal was just an idea I had, but as we were eating it, all questions of whether it was good or not quickly faded away. It was good - really good - this is one of the best new things I have made in awhile. And I really think that I could just eat the glazed delicata squash plain like candy. It was just that good. Oh my!

Oh, and it made our apartment smell wonderful - just wonderful. This was a mostly local meal that even included some of the tomatoes we picked green from the community garden plot that have ripened. In fact, the only non local things in this meal are the chipotle chiles, the spices, the kidney beans, and the tortillas.















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Honey Chipotle Garlic Glazed Delicata Squash and Kidney Bean Burritos

Honey Chipotle Garlic Glazed Delicata Squash:
1 delicata squash, halved, seeds removed, peeled, and chopped *
1/4 cup honey +
1 clove of garlic, grated (I used a microplane grater) +
2 chipotle chiles in adobo, sliced in half

Preheat oven to 400.

Combine honey, garlic, and chiles in a bowl. Toss with the delicata making sure to coat completely.

Roast for 30-35 minutes, or until tender. Be sure to stir a few times, and "baste" with any leftover glaze.

Remove chiles before serving the squash.

Kidney Bean Mixture:
2 cups kidney beans, cooked
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and minced +
2 Anaheim peppers (or Hungarian Wax, pasilla, New Mexican chile, etc), seeded and minced +
1/2 yellow onion, chopped +
2 cloves of garlic, minced +
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped ***
ground coriander
ground cumin
salt

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the veggies and cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Add the beans and seasoning and heat through.

The Rest of the Schtuff:
tortillas
salsa (we used the local Hot and Smoky Tomatillo Salsa) +

Layer bean mixture and glazed squash in a warm tortilla. Roll up and serve with salsa.

Sadly, we only have two delicata squash left. I think I had mentioned it in an earlier post, but this is the first winter we are trying to eat as locally as possible. We wanted to stock up on as many things as we thought we could before winter, but didn't get a boiling water bath canner until quite late in the season, and also didn't know how much we would need to put away. After some discussion, we decided to just get what we thought might work, if we have to buy produce from the grocery store, so be it, we will try as hard as possible to source from at least within the US, and start getting a gauge on how much we need to put away. With all that said, it is looking like we will maybe make it to late January with the winter squash we have. I think we might be able to pick up a couple from The Root Cellar too though. We've been tearing through the delicata, the hubbard has been eaten, and we are working down all those many butternut squash we got from our community garden. We still have a few butternut, acorn, buttercup, and two delicatas. We haven't really had to break into our freezer "stash" yet as there have been peppers and such at The Root Cellar. Anyways, long story short, we are still learning, and when I looked at how low our winter squash stash was getting already, I realized that we are probably going to need more next year. But who knows, if we only eat one or two squash a week, we might make it longer than I think.

I don't know if anyone noticed the banner on the sidebar, but Brett and I are participating in the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. This challenge entails eating and blogging about one 90% local meal a week. If you are up to it, please consider participating! Now, I actually seek some advice, by what criteria do we decide if something is 90% local? Brett and I thought of looking at it in terms of the number of ingredients (this didn't seem very good though as some of the ingredients are small and inconsequential really), calories (this would be incredibly difficult to figure out, especially since we work with mostly whole foods), and weight (this seemed like the best way to go about it, but even still, there are meals that have TONS of local stuff in it, but the weight is mostly comprised of rice, would this be a 90% local meal?). If you have any suggestions as to how to figure this out, please let us know.

I am going to consider this meal our weekly Dark Days "entry" as the local ingredients outweighed the non locals significantly.

Well, that's all I have for now. I will post tomorrow on the local booty I score from The Root Cellar after work tonight, and early next week I will post October's Garden Update - which I'm pretty excited about, I really enjoy the garden updates.

Anywho, have a great Friday!

'Til next time!

Whole Grain Spelt Pizza with Peanut Sauce, Black Beans, and Local Veggies

I don't want to take anything away from this pizza since I haven't even told you about it yet, and it was actually really good - but I have a little bit of trouble with pizza toppings now that I no longer eat cheese. I haven't found any non-dairy "cheese" that I have really been sent by (and no, I've never had Teese, I've never seen it at the stores and don't really want to get in the habit of buying something online). I especially don't like non-dairy "cheeses" in the quantities used on most pizzas, so I always try to do some "weird" pizza, something that you wouldn't want to put cheese on any way. But I don't have too many ideas in that department either. Maybe I'm being dense here, or making something like pizza a lot more difficult than it should be, I just wish I could think of some more "normal" ways of having pizza that is dairy-free by not reliant on dairy-free "cheese". Maybe I should wish upon a star....

Now that I have probably made you think this pizza was bad - let's talk about it! ;-) I actually thought this was really good. I love peanut sauce, and made a spicy-sweet version for a whole grain spelt pizza. I had lots of good veggies around to choose from for toppings - including oyster mushrooms. This was the first time I had ever had oyster mushrooms and man do I hope they have some at The Root Cellar again when I go later this week, they were amazing! They have a great texture when cooked and have a meaty quality, in the way that portobellos do, but they don't taste the same at all - if that makes any sense. Needless to say, they are wonderful and you should try them if you get a chance.

The only thing I am going to change next time is the size of the pizza. This pizza is much too large for two people and it doesn't keep for more than a day - at least well that is. I think I am going to halve the recipe and make a half sized crust. Whole grain spelt is so filling even Brett can't eat more than a couple of pieces and he can usually easily eat an entire one on his own (and somehow he's still really skinny, either he has a tapeworm or it is all that walking).















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Whole Grain Spelt Pizza with Peanut Sauce, Black Beans, and Local Veggies

Creamy Peanut Sauce:
1/4 cup natural peanut butter +
1/2 cup plain hemp milk ++
2 tsbp shoyu
2 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp agave
2-3 tsp sriracha hot sauce
1 tbsp flour (to thicken)

Combine all ingredients in a sauce and mix well. If not thick enough, add 1 tbsp flour and stir while sauce thickens.

The Rest of the Stuff:
1 cup fresh butternut squash, sliced thin
ground ginger
salt
safflower (or other) oil in spray bottle

1/2 cup black beans, cooked ***
1/2 green bell pepper, thinly sliced +
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced ++
6 oyster mushrooms, chopped

1 recipe of whole grain spelt pizza dough

Preheat oven to 400.

Spray a small baking dish with oil. Toss butternut with just a few dashes of ginger and a pinch of salt.

Roast, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes, or until mostly soft.

Reduce oven heat to 375.

Top crust with peanut sauce and toppings.

Bake on a pizza stone for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

To make this even better - put a little more sriracha on top while before you eat it. Spicy!

'Til next time.

Black Bean and Cilantro Lime Rice Tacos

I don't think it had, but it seemed like it had been awhile since Brett and I had a taco night, and when looking through the cabinets to inventory anything that needed to be used up, I found some blue corn taco shells. With that discovery, a taco night was in order - this time, rather than creating something completely novel (at least to us), I decided to try (again) to recreate cilantro-lime rice.

I know Chipotle has cilantro-lime rice, but the first place I had it was at a Mexican restaurant when Brett and I visited Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago. Not long after our trip, I tried to recreate it, and it was horrible. Well since then, I've had cilantro-lime rice a couple more times, and decided to try again. This time the rice turned out great and our taco night was a huge hit.

I've been avoiding buying fresh limes unless they are grown within the US (and even then doing it sparingly). After some thinking, I decided that using bottled lime juice might be the best way to go in terms of food miles (not sure if this is faulty logic or not, but until it is pointed out that this is the case, I am going to roll with this logic). So we bought a bottle of organic lime juice awhile back and I finally decided to break into it. I decided to make this meal a really special treat, so we got an organic avocado (from California) and made guacamole to go with our tacos. Since we had so many tomatoes lying around, I decided to chop up one of the small ones and throw it in there as well.

Now that I know how to make cilantro-lime rice, my head is spinning with all sorts of complimentary burrito and taco salad fillings to pair with it. Don't you just love when you make something and then realize how versatile it is? I still feel that way about the Green Chile Taco Sauce - I think calling it a "taco sauce" was a bit of a misnomer, as the sauce can be used for much more than that.

Note: I had to buy the cilantro for this from the "regular" store. With the farmer's market season quickly coming to an end here in Mid-Missouri, the market last week was pretty short on vendors, including the one who normally has plenty of cilantro. So we bought some organic cilantro from the store that appears to have been grown in California. The COOL labels (country of origin labels) now required on most fresh produce in the US (and some other items) are not always the easiest things to comprehend.

A side note about the COOL labels: When Brett and I were at the "regular" grocery store the other day, we scoped out the first of the clementines we've seen for the year, to see if they were from California, and thus within our self-imposed winter eating local guidlines, and the package listed the USA and Canada as the country of origin. I doubt that clementines are grown in Canada, unless in a greenhouse, but because of the confusion, we decided to pass on the clementines until we could find some that were more clear about where they came from. Argh. Is it too much to ask to be able to know where our food comes from? It's hard to claim that this is a free country sometimes, especially when something so basic as where our food comes from is treated in such a secretive and "need to know" manner.

Anywho, rant over. On to the food!

















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Cilantro-Lime Rice:
1/2 cup raw long grain brown rice, rinsed ****
1 cup water
pinch of salt for water
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped finely
1 tbsp lime juice
more salt, to taste

Combine rice, water, and salt. Bring water to a boil.

Simmer on low for 40 minutes, or until all water is absorbed.

While rice is still warm stir in cilantro and lime. Taste. Add more salt if necessary.

Beans:
2 cups of black beans, cooked ****
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and minced *
1/2 red onion, minced +
2 cloves of garlic, minced +
adobo seasoning (we use Goya brand with cumin)

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a small skillet.

Add the pepper, onion, and garlic and cook for 10-15 minutes or until veggies are soft. Drain any excess water.

In a small bowl, combine veggies, beans, and adobo seasoning to taste.

"Fixin's":
blue corn taco shells
2 medium tomatoes, chopped ***
simple guacamole (with a small chopped tomato stirred in for an extra treat) (garlic in guacamole = +; tomato = ***)
local salsa (though not necessary) *

Layer rice and bean mixture in warmed taco shells. Serve with fresh tomatoes and guacamole.

Yum!

We ate these while we watched the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles game on Sunday Night Football. Wahoo and WAHOO. Sadly it looks like we got whipped in our fantasy football game this weekend.

'Til next time!

Black Bean, Brown Rice, and Red Chile-Sweet Potato Burritos

Happy Election Day! I hope all our readers from the US go out and cast their votes today!

I thought some of the readers of this blog might be starting to wonder where all the Mexican food was. Don't worry, we've been having plenty of it, we've just been having some of our "tried and true" meals lately while some of the yummies of the growing season are still around. I have all sorts of ideas on how to "Mexicanize" a lot of the local food we put up for winter - I'm pretty excited about that.

This meal was really good, albeit, with the sauce, it is a little involved, so this probably isn't a weeknight meal (unless the sauce is already made, then this would be a 45 minutes or less meal). The sauce that I used for the potatoes, Chile Colorado, is often also used as an enchilada sauce. I really like the way the semi-spiciness of the sauce complemented the sweet potatoes, and they managed to get a nice glaze too.

The sauce isn't really all that spicy, at least not to me. New Mexican Chiles are very mild, so if you don't like things spicy, omit the cayennes and just use the New Mexican Chiles. The pepper and onion studded beans, some plain brown rice, and Chile Colorado smothered roasted sweet potatoes came together to make one of those meals where there isn't a whole lot of talkin' just a lot of shoveling food into one's face. Not a pretty sight I'm sure, but it lets you know that we really liked this.

The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms















Chile Colorado
Makes about 3 cups.
Adapted from this recipe at Pepper Fool.

3 oz. dried New Mexican Chiles, washed, stems removed and seeds discarded (I saved them to plant next year, it is how I got the seeds for the plant we had this year)
3-5 dried long red cayenne peppers, washed, stems removed and seeds discarded ***
3 cups of boiling water
1 vidalia onion, cut in half *
2 cloves of garlic, peeled *
a few dashes of Mexican oregano
a few dashes of cumin
a pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and simmer on low for about an hour. Make sure to add water if needed throughout the process to keep the chiles covered.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Puree in a food processor until well blended.

Some people will then strain the sauce for a smooth sauce, but we don't mind a little chunkiness so we just ate it as is.

Black Bean, Rice, and Red Chile-Sweet Potato Burritos
2 cups of black beans, cooked ****
1/2 cup long grain brown rice, cooked ****
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced *
1 red bell pepper, seeded and minced *
2 cloves of garlic, minced *
1 small yellow onion, minced **
cumin
ground coriander
black pepper
salt

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a small skillet. Add the mushrooms, peppers, garlic and onion. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until veggies soft. Drain any excess water.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and season to taste.

Red Chile Potatoes:
safflower (or other) oil in a mister
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed *
1 cup Chile Colorado * and ***

Preheat oven to 425.

Spray a baking dish with oil.

Combine all ingredients, cover with foil, and roast for 30-35 minutes or until potatoes soft.

Layer potatoes, beans, and rice in warmed tortillas. Fry if desired.

Oh my Mexican yumminess - so, so good. Thankfully, I have 2 cups of Chile Colorado frozen now, so we'll be able to enjoy this over winter as well. Wahoo.

'Til next time!

Whole Grain Spelt Pizza with Jerk Sauce and Veggies

I have been wanting to do more experimenting with whole grain pizza doughs for awhile. We've tried whole wheat pizza doughs and either the taste has been off or the texture has been fairly unpleasant. Not wanting to consume a bunch of white flour laden pizzas, I felt like I was in a rut. Courtney suggested spelt flour awhile back, and I noticed some whole grain spelt flour in the bulk bins at the nearby Hy-Vee. We picked up a few pounds and successfully made our Cinnamon-Raisin Biscuits using it (they were actually better with the spelt flour), so we decided to try our hands at making spelt pizza dough.

The verdict? This is the best pizza dough we've had so far! We both agree that we really like spelt flour and plan on using it for the many baking adventures I have planned for the near future. The crust had a hearty, slightly nutty flavor and the crust was flaky and soft in the center. It was really, really good. The recipe (found below) is just the Using Up the White Flour Pizza Dough recipe with 2 parts spelt flour, 1 part organic all-purpose flour.

I've also been wanting to try out a "jerk" recipe for awhile now, but couldn't figure out what to do since a) "jerking" is a lot like BBQ, it is a seasoning mix yes - but more so a way of cooking things and b) meat is the most oft "jerked" item, and since I'm a vegetarian who doesn't like meat analogues or tofu, tempeh, or seitan, I didn't know what to do. Then somewhere along the way I decided it might make a good sauce for a pizza. So, that is what we did! The recipe is based off of the many jerk seasoning recipes online, combined with what was available, and our tastes. This jerk sauce is pretty spicy - it contains habaneros - so those who prefer mild food should beware.

You may also notice that there are sliced sweet potatoes in the picture, but that pineapple is called for in the recipe, and that there is no mention of the sweet potatoes. This is because I had originally conceptualized there being pineapples on this pizza - not sweet potatoes - but we are participating in the Eat Local Challenge this month, and I thought sweet potatoes and jerk sauce would complement each other well. I think that sweet potatoes and jerk sauce would be a good pairing - just not on this pizza. The texture of the sweet potatoes didn't turn out well, so we ended up taking them off.

The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

















J's Jerk Sauce
Makes 1 1/2 cups (I frozen the left over cup of sauce)

2 habanero peppers, seeded *
6 cloves of garlic, peeled *
2 small yellow onions, skins removed **
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp allspice
1 tbsp thyme
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp shoyu
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup safflower oil
pepper
salt

Combine in a food processor and let blend in fridge for a few hours.

Whole Grain Spelt Pizza Crust
2 cups whole grain spelt flour
1 cup of organic all-purpose flour
1 small package of active dry yeast
2 tbsp organic raw sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup of very hot water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Slowly add the oil and the water. It's easiest to use your hands to work the dough.

Spread out the crust on a pizza stone dusted with flour, using your fingers to pinch the dough at the edges to create a crust.

Whole Grain Spelt Pizza with Jerk Sauce and Veggies
1/2 cup of jerk sauce
1/2-1 cup of black beans, cooked ****
1 cup pineapple chunks (if using canned, drain)
1 pimento pepper, seeded and thinly sliced *
1 green bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced ***
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced *
sliced black olives (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.

Spread jerk sauce on the crust and top evenly with the ingredients.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

A yummy spicy, sweet, tasty pizza!

'Til next time!

Two Bean and Lentil Chili with Local Veggies and Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

The cool evenings of fall make soup, stew, and chili some of the best types of food during this time of year. This post is about chili. I love chili, it is really versatile and can be made savory, spicy, and even sweet-spicy if you really want to mix things up a little bit. This time of year is also a wonderful time for those of us who like to eat local in the Midwest - we still have some of the goodies from the tail-end of summer (like tomatoes and fresh, hot peppers) as well as the staples of fall (sweet potatoes, winter squash) to work with. This meal was made for dinner last Sunday - the filling chili and tasty roasted sweet potato wedges were the perfect pairing with Sunday night football. Wahoo!

I also love how easy chili is. I had some beans on hand in the fridge, some fresh things, and I just shucked it all together in a large pot and let it cook for a couple of hours. Brett isn't the biggest fan of chili, I think I've mentioned before that I burnt him out on chili since it was one of the first homemade dishes I learned how to make. He really liked this batch and even happily ate the leftovers for lunch. That was how I really knew he liked it - he ate it again for lunch! He swore you couldn't tell that this was vegan chili.

The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms















Yummy, chili!















Baked sweet potato wedges.

Two Bean and Lentil Chili with Local Veggies
Makes about 5-6 cups of chili.

1 cup kidney beans, cooked
2 cups black beans, cooked ****
1 cup green lentils, rinsed
4 cups of water
4 chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and minced *
1 red bell pepper, seeded and minced ***
2 "yummy" orange peppers, seeded and minced *
2 serexican chiles, seeded and minced ***
2 serrano chiles, seeded and minced ***
1 Spanish red onion, minced *
6 tomatoes (we used 3 red, 3 yellow), chopped *
6 cloves of garlic, minced *
chili powder
cumin
ground coriander
black pepper
salt

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Season to taste - but be careful, you can always add more seasonings later. Simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours.

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges
1 large sweet potato, scrubbed and cut into wedges *
1 tbsp safflower oil
a couple of pinches of black pepper
sea salt

Preheat oven to 450.

Spray a baking dish with safflower oil.

Toss sweet potato wedges with safflower oil, pepper, and salt.

Place on baking dish in a single layer.

Bake, uncovered for 15 minutes. Flip wedges over. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Sprinkle with more salt if desired.

I will try my best to get the garden update posted tomorrow. It was really windy here yesterday - too windy to get decent pictures, so hopefully the weather will cooperate tonight. I am also feeling a little icky. I hope I'm not coming down with something. That would really suck.

'Til next time.

Jessy's Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce

I have been wanting to make Jessy's (from Happy Vegan Face) Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce since I saw her post about it awhile back. I've just been waiting for the local broccoli to come back around. I found some when I went to the Root Cellar, and I knew her recipe was exactly what I wanted to do with it. Since we had such an abundance of local veggies around, we decided to load the stir-fry up with other veggies rather than use rice. The only thing we did differently than Jessy for the sauce was to use sesame chile oil instead of regular sesame oil. This peanut sauce is one of the best I've ever had!















This picture does not do the meal justice. I should have stirred the sauce in before photographing it, but it smelled so good and I was hungry.

In the stir-fry we used a head of local broccoli, 1 cup of local shiitake mushrooms, 1/2 a local golden zucchini, about a 1/2 cup of local yellow and purple wax beans, about a cup of local okra sliced into 1/2 inch coins, local onions, and petite bell peppers from our container garden. The peanut butter used in the sauce was made at an intentional community about an hour and a half south of us. Wahoo for local food and Jessy's killer sauce.

I also want to mention that Brett and I are going to start rating our recipes somehow and will create a favorite recipes index as well. We don't post recipes on this blog unless we liked them, but there are so many that we can't remember them all. Now, there are a lot of recipes for a reason. It is because we like to try to eat as locally as possible, which often means working with a lot of the same ingredients. If you don't change it up, eating this way can get stale fast. Not to mention, we already had a lot of recipes before I started the blog.

Oh, and if any of you try the recipes from this blog, let us know what you thought, you guys can contribute to the rating system too.

I will try to get on tomorrow to post the weekly local booty update. Brett's mom and grandma are coming to visit this afternoon and tomorrow, Sundays we watch football, and Monday is Brett and I's 6 year anniversary. So expect the garden update to be a little late, but we will get it done.

'Til next time!

J&B's Huevos Rancheros (vegetarian)

I don't eat eggs very often, but will on occasion as I don't really consume all that many enriched products, nor do I take supplements, and this is a great way to have them. It could easily be made vegan by simply omitting the eggs and spicing up the beans, or using tofu and doing whatever it is that you do to make tofu taste good. I also made a vegan version awhile back.

I will not vouch for the authenticity of this meal, I actually don't think it was very authentic at all, but it was really, really good. Brett recently had Huevos Rancheros at a local restaurant called Cafe Berlin. He really liked the dish and we had what we needed on hand to make it at home. Now I didn't taste the dish as it was loaded down with cheese and I don't do cheese, so I only have what Brett told me about it and my own interpretations to go on. Oh, and I added roasted potatoes to the dish because roasted potatoes make everything better.

Just a reminder of the local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms















J&B's Huevos Rancheros
Makes enough for 3 large servings (I took some to work for lunch the next day).

The 'Taters:
2 red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed *
1 tbsp safflower oil
chili powder (ancho would seriously rock)
ground cumin
ground coriander
cayenne pepper
black pepper
salt

Preheat oven to 450.

Toss potatoes with oil and spices. Cover with foil* and roast for 35-45 minutes stirring a few times throughout cook time.

*If the foil doesn't get any food on it, it can be reused a few times.

The Eggs:
4 eggs *
1 red bell pepper, seeded and minced *
2 ripe serrano peppers, seeded and minced *
1 small yellow onion, minced *
4 cloves of garlic, minced *
black pepper
pinch of salt

Heat 1 tbsp of water in a medium skillet. Add the peppers, onion, and garlic. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Drain any excess liquid. Add the eggs and scramble. Make sure they fully cooked. Season with pepper and salt.


The Rest of the Stuff:
1 cup cranberry beans (or pinto), cooked ****
1 cup black beans, cooked ****
1/2 cup long grain brown rice, cooked ****
salt

Season the beans with a little bit of salt.

really spicy salsa
tortillas (flour or corn would work)

Eating Huevos Rancheros can really be approached in two ways. You can layer all these components in a large tortilla and make a mondo burrito, or you can serve it family style with smaller tortillas.

Yum!

I am quickly getting a cold, I hope it goes away soon. I'll make sure to get lots of orange produce at the farmer's market tomorrow, and may even get some citrus from the regular grocery store if there is USA grown organic available.

'Til next time.