Vegan: Loving my Chana Masala

A few days ago, I made this delightful Indian dish.

Chana Masala

 

It wasn’t as colorful as I would have liked, but it still was delicious, and there were leftovers. The garbanzo (chick peas) had been made last week. I had made a large batch in my 8 qt. Presto pressure cooker and just froze what I didn’t use immediately.

Earlier this week, I took out some of the beans and added them to the above dish. Making the basic staples for a dish in large quantities means you still get a home cooked meal, once you add a few extras. Simple, nutritious, delicious and ready to be served in minutes..

Raw Vegan – Green Salad; keeping it simple

I’ve been craving tons of greens and so a few moments ago I prepared this salad.

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Green avocado salad with Apple kefir soda

 

It’s loaded with spinach, cucumbers, black beans and an avocado. I even tossed in a red bell pepper, sunflower seeds and a raw yellow onion.

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I ground up a few herbs and spices in my mortar and pestle and added that to the salad.

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For a bit of sweetness, I drizzled a touch of honey into the bowl and mixed well. It tastes wonderful. I made a large bowl, so it should last a little while. I’m sure my daughter will make a veggie sandwich with some of the ingredients. I’m hoping to at least sneak some of this delightful salad onto some dehydrated raw onion bread. We’ll see!

A quick bean dish; vegan

Yesterday, thanks to the snow we received, my daughter’s Lutheran school, had a two hour delay. Which was perfect since it meant I was able to complete some work around the home.

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Vegan: Black Bean Stir Fry

 

One thing I did with the two extra hours before I went into work, was to prepare this above vegan dish to put into my daughter’s lunch. Of course it’s colorful! We both enjoy seeing color in our food. It was also quite delicious.

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Vegan: Black beans and rice

 

I also set aside some of the dish and added rice, see? The same dish with a little something, something, added. 😉

 

A tale of two chowders: Fish and corn

A few weeks ago, when the colds had us down for about a day, I made two chowders.

Corn chowder

 

A fish chowder and a corn based chowder.

Chowder is almost gone!

 

My daughter grazed between the two although she kept coming back to the corn chowder. Most of the fish chowder, was given to my father. My mom is a nurse and worked most of the holiday. My dad was sick and I wanted to make sure he stayed nourished with healing foods.

The wonderful thing was, even though my daughter wasn’t feeling the greatest she helped me making these nourishing soups. What’s the recipe, sorry I can’t tell you that and it has nothing to do with it being a “family secret,” I only measure if asked. Otherwise, I make and add whatever I want. if you know me, you know that perfectly fits my personality. 😉

Cooking Adventures: Meal preparation doesn’t have to be complicated

Earlier this week, I made two versions of fried rice; Organic chicken and Vegetable.

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Chicken Fried Rice

 

The dish is simple to make and so much healthier than choosing processed foods. This dish actually started out as a scrambled egg with veggies dish for my daughter, but obviously it morphed into so much more. I had rice already cooked and so I decided to add that to my wok. Then, I thought about the homemade chicken tenders that had already been prepared for my daughter and I added that too.

The only thing left to do was add the vegetables, several handfuls of spinach were added and a bit more spices and herbs were ground to round out this dish. Simple, healthy and delicious and on the table, for my daughter, in minutes. Yes… she ate this for her breakfast and then some was packed into her insulated lunch jar and taken to school.

New Years Pizza

I believe a homemade pizza is the perfect way to start a new year, don’t you?

On New Years Day, you could find my daughter and me in our warm kitchen, that’s heated by our wood stove, making our own homemade pizza. The dough was made, to which I added plenty of freshly ground spices and herbs and then it was set aside to rise. Once the dough had risen, the crust was rolled and

 

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Homemade vegetarian pizza

 

plenty of vegetables were added to the pizza. It was a vegetarian pizza after all. After my daughter had added the vegetable toppings that she wanted it was slipped into the oven. The only thing left to do was wait and soon we could smell the pizza. My daughter was excited and kept asking me when would the pizza be ready.

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Vegetarian pizza – Fresh from the oven

 

When it is, was my reply. She didn’t have to wait too long before she was able to dig into the pizza. I wish I could say that there are left overs, but she consumed the remaining slices within two days after this had been made. She much prefers making the pizza over buying one. She says it tastes fresher and I would have to agree with her.

 

 

Fruit pudding on New Years Eve…

New Years Eve,

Prepping the strawberries
Prepping the strawberries

 

You could find me in the kitchen prepping for one of our homemade adventures. In the above photo, I was getting the strawberries ready for one of the yummy fruit puddings that I prepared for my daughter.

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Banana and strawberries added to food processor

 

What was in it? Just bananas and strawberries, combined it’s quite delightful!

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Pureed fruit pudding

 

Who knew two ingredients could taste so delicious? My daughter and I did!