Summer in April: Bittman’s Black Bean Burgers and Oven Fries

Summer in April: Bittman’s Black Bean Burgers and Oven Fries.

Put it all in a food processor and make your patties easy!  Try some Mung Beans?  I know Mung beans really?  Somebody in the marketing department needs to talk to the farmer who named these beans.  Mung beans are very tasty despite the horrible nomenclature.

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delicious smoothie

We tried this delicious smoothie recipe that I created on my own.

What? It’s Vegan you say

A delicious way to get all the fiber and nutrients from fruits and veggies.

– 1 cup chopped carrots.

– 1 apple, peeled and chopped.

– 1/2 banana

– 2 oranges.

Directions: Place the 1 cup of carrots and 1/2 cup water to a microwave safe container then cook for 1.5 minutes.  throw in the apple and cook for another 30 seconds.  Add the cooked apple and carrots and the water to the blender. Add peeled oranges and banana to the mix.  Add about 1 teas. vanilla extract then blend it all together.  I would also suggest adding 1/2 cup ice in order to make it a cool smoothie.

Then belly on up to the bar and enjoy.   Try this recipe out and offer feedback or offer your own favorite smoothie recipe.

Enjoy a Vegan smoothie

 

Vegan Pizza

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 16 ounces extra firm tofu–frozen then defrosted.**
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 10 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted
• 6 oz of sliced black olives
• 6-9 oz of coarsely chopped artichoke hearts
• ½ cup pizza or marinara sauce (nothing with cheese)
• Prepared pizza dough – found in the refrigerated section.
• I like Trader Joes version check to label to find the “V”

Directions:

1. Prepare the spinach “ricotta” mixture.  Crumble tofu into the bowl of a food processor along with olive oil, salt, oregano, garlic and nutritional yeast. Process on high until smooth and “ricotta-like”
2. Allow pizza dough to expand at room temperature. 
3. Place pizza stone in the oven and turn it to 350 degrees.
4. Once the oven has reached the temperature pull the pizza stone out of the oven and spread cornmeal over the surface (make sure the stone is cool enough to touch)
5. Then spread out the pizza dough on the surface and pre bake for a couple of minutes.  You don’t want to cook the dough but you want it to firm up a little so the sauce doesn’t soak the dough.
6. Add the marinara, spinach mixture, black olives and artichoke hearts as desired.
7. Bake according to directions on the dough which is usually about another 10 minutes.

 

**this is a helpful way to use Tofu by freezing it then defrosting it.  Once it defrosts in the refrigerator for 8 hours it will crumble apart in your recipe.

 

The problem with healthy fats

Check out the editorial about nutrition and in particular a discussion about ‘healthy’ vs ‘non-healthy’ food.

The problem with healthy fats.

Aloo Gobi Recipe | Easy Asian Recipes at RasaMalaysia.com

Aloo Gobi Recipe | Easy Asian Recipes at RasaMalaysia.com.

The Verdict is In!

The results of recent lab work show that maintaining a plant based diet free from animal or animal based protein has lowered by LDL cholesterol by 55 points from it’s non-medicated high! I plan on keeping the blog going as a forum for those that are interested in exploring healthy diet alternatives that revolve around plant based alternatives.

Appetizer

First of all I want to commend any Vegans out there that live in a community that is not accepting of ‘other’ dietary habits.  I just came back from a corporate sponsored training at a nice hotel in Atlanta which is certainly not a place that I would want to live if I was living the Vegan lifestyle.  The chefs were not accommodating at all because I was sent a ‘Vegan’ lunch  which was in fact ‘vegan’ but not at all well balanced.  I was sent out a plate of vegetables which were very good but I was left wondering “Where is the rest of it?”  I wanted to send back my comments that even though I don’t eat any animal based foods doesn’t mean that I don’t completely disregard the food pyramid!  I still need to have grains and some protein because I wouldn’t last long on JUST vegetables?!?

OK I will get off my soapbox for the day and move on to a fun recipe for a delicious appetizer.

Ingredients:

1. 6 large leaves of Swiss Chard.  with stems mostly cut off. Health benefits of Swiss Chard
2. 2 tbl of olive oil
3. 1 clove garlic
4. 1 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
5. 1 1/2 tablespoon of shredded coconut
6. 1 whole wheat tortilla

Directions.

• saute garlic and crushed red pepper with olive oil
• after a few minutes add the Swiss Chard then
• add coconut and more olive oil as desired.  Continue to saute until the Chard is softened about a few minutes.
• cut tortilla in half and add half the Chard mixture to each and wrap tightly

Special thanks to Sue and Frank for providing the home grown Swiss Chard.