Category: Vegetarian/Vegan

I love a good bean dish. My favorites bean dishes come together very quickly since they don’t normally require a lot of ingredients.

 

About thirty minutes ago I made the above dish. If you’d walked into our house, you’d have been greeted with the aroma of freshly ground herbs and spices (cumin, fennel, ginger and garlic) that went into this dish. Yes I used my new granite mortar and pestle.

 

The beans had been soaking since yesterday, so I added them to my small Presto 8 qt. pressure cooker.

 

While the beans were cooking I toasted two tablespoon of cumin seeds in my stainless steel skillet. I don’t purchase pre-ground herbs/spices simply because their flavor doesn’t compare to freshly ground herbs/spices.

 

 

I removed the toasted cumin seeds from the skillet and ground them in my mortar and pestle.

 

 

I also ground up about four cloves of garlic with about 2″ of ginger root.

 

 

Fifteen minutes later, I released the pressure from the pressure cooker. I took the beans out and rinsed off the beans. The beans were black and pink beans. They normally take over an hour to make on the stovetop.

 

I let the onions cook for a few moments and then I added the beans and the garlic ginger paste. I let that cook for a few minutes and then added tomatoes (fresh from our garden.) I love seeing color within the foods I prepare. I let everything cook for a few minutes more, and set aside. The results? It tastes delicious. This dish can be eaten alone,  added to a wrap, used as a dip, or pureed and made into bean burgers.

 

My daughter loves pasta and so do I. While occasionally I prepare the traditional flour based pasta. Most times the ‘pasta’ I use is actually vegetables noodles. It’s a healthier option for those who are looking for candida free food, eliminating gluten, reducing carbs, etc.,

I’ve had my spiral vegetable slicer for over eight years. It’s made of sturdy plastic and easily turns vegetables into long spaghetti like strands.

 

There are three different dies to change the thickness of the pasta. I much prefer the thicker noodles, but it’s really a personal preference.

 

Since my daughter has been carving pasta ,earlier today I made zucchini pasta with garlic roasted tomato sauce. As you can see, she loves a lot of sauce and she liberally sprinkled her pasta with raw sunflower seeds and raisins. Simple, delicious and nutritious.

Earlier today…

 

I satisfied my craving for Ethiopian food and made Tikil Gomen (Ethiopian cabbage dish.)

I gathered the ingredients together…

 

Onions were chopped and set aside

 

Along with garlic, must not forget that!

 

Oh, we must not forget the potatoes. Guess what? They were dug up from our garden…

 

We most certainly can’t forget the main ingredient… cabbage! Yes, this came from our garden also!

 

 

Whoops, before I close the pot, I must add carrots and add some spices and herbs!

 

I guess it’s time to close my Presto 8qt. Pressure Cooker.

 

Ten minutes later, I opened the Pressure Cooker and was greeted with the wonderful aroma of this lovely Ethiopian dish… cooked to perfection!

There are a few firsts with this recipe. It’s the first time that I’ve made Tikil Gomen for my daughter. She really enjoyed it immensely. It’s also the first time I used my Presto 8 qt. Pressure Cooker, it arrived earlier today.

I must say, I really love the Pressure Cooker. Now I don’t have to look longingly at my 23 qt. Pressure Cooker that I use for canning. The Pressure Cooker makes everything tender. I imagine it would do an awesome job with meat.

Tomorrow I’m making Siga Wot (Ethiopian beef stew) for my daughter. Since my mother is working, I’ll be sure to make enough for my father.

 

A few moments ago…

 

I made this quick breakfast. It’s a very simple meal consisting of broccoli, carrots, okra and habanero peppers, they all came together to make a tasty meal. I made a vegetarian and vegan version. This version has the egg.

All the vegetables, with the exception of the onions, came from the garden. A few spices like turmeric were also added to increase the diversity of our morning breakfast. Simple to make, nutritious and delicious!

The okra, is different than the okra that I’ve planted before (or could find in most of the grocery stores here in the USA.)  It’s some type of Indian okra and it has much less slime. Last year, I received the seeds from some of my Asian Indian friends and naturally I planted them. But even with the traditional okra, there’s a way to reduce the slime when cooking…

In other news…

Logging into Amazon, it appears that my Presto 8 qt. Pressure Cooker should arrive some time today. As mentioned in other posts, I already have a 23  qt. Pressure Cooker, but I use that exclusively for canning. I’m not about to be lugging that out just to cook a family meal. If I do receive the smaller Pressure Cooker today, I might make some hummus. My daughter and I love hummus, but we don’t don’t eat it too often. Why?  There are so many other delicious foods that we enjoy eating, that it’s rare that I’ll repeat the same meal within a month time frame.

The same day I made Penne pasta with Chicken in White Garlic Sauce, I prepared some Red Bean Burgers.

I didn’t actually make the burgers that day, I made them the day before (Saturday.) I’d baked them in the oven.  I don’t do canned beans, I will only use dry beans. Why? I find them to be much more flavorful than canned beans.

I added all sorts of seasonings and fixings to make my bean burgers and made an amazing veggie burger. I don’t use “veggie burger mixes”.. blech! And you most certainly won’t see me reheating store bought  veggie burgers.  In my humble opinion they simply don’t taste good at all. Besides, if you know what you’re doing you can easily prepare a better burger than some premade stuff.

But back to the burgers…

There weren’t too many similarities to these burgers and the curried lentil burgers I made over a week ago, but I must say the baked red bean burgers still were very nice.They turned out firm, moist and bursting with flavor. When I make baked veggie burgers, I prepare about twenty of them at a time, what’s not eaten is frozen.

 

Since I do enjoy stove top veggie burgers. I decided to reheat these veggie burgers in my stainless steel skillet. The baked burgers shape/consistency reminds me of pork sausage. Interesting…

 

I added  a  splash  of extra virgin olive oil and chopped up some onions and heated the burgers for a few moments. I wanted to add some Sweet peppers but none were ready to be picked off the vine.

No worries, the simple addition of the olive oil and cooked onions added additional flavor to my red bean burgers and made an already tasty burger even better. 🙂

 

 

My daughter loves bean dishes and so yesterday I made her a simple dish with red kidney beans, brown rice, vegetables from our garden, spices and a a splash or two of balsamic vinegar.

 

And while I thought I’d have plenty left over to turn into a chilly. This is all that remains. No worries, since I cook a lot of dry beans at one time and store what I don’t use for later, I’ll just grab some recently frozen beans from the freezer and make my chili today.

 

In other news…

I’ve received an award

About a week ago, could be longer, I received an award from Curls & Q. My post response is still in draft mode. I thought I’d be able to release it last weekend, but that didn’t happen. I should (hopefully) be finished it this weekend.

Cleansing update; Lost some weight even though I wasn’t trying

I lost four pounds on my cleanse. I’m not overweight, so wasn’t trying to lose anything. I haven’t modified my diet, so that’s not the reason for the weight loss. Depending on the cleanse, sometimes you might shed a few pounds,  since you’re eliminating stored crap. 😉 Seriously, who wants that to stay inside of them, not me! Within the next few weeks, I’m hoping to write about what I do when I embark on a cleanse. To be perfectly honest, it’s not much different than what I normally do since I do eat healthy…

• Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits; I consume mainly whole foods
• Eat healthy snacks
• Only consume healthy fats
• No vegetarian/vegan “fake” meats
•  Very little processed food
• No deep fried foods
• Water is usually my drink of choice
• Drink vegetable/fruit juices and smoothies

But on occasion, I do add some extra components, such as herbs and increase in enemas, to flush out unnecessary crap. 😉

Next month, I’ll be doing a series of colonic. It’s been a while since I’ve done them, perhaps eight years? The good news is because of their increasing popularity I’m seeing more of them in Maryland. In fact, the closest one (now) is only 15 minutes away, that’s much better than 40 minutes. Before I do anything that affects my body, I do a lot of research. Some concepts, that I practice in my normal routine (herbs, enema, juicing, etc.,) is not new to me since they’ve been a part of my lifestyle since I was a child. With my insatiable desire to research anything that interests me, I stay occupied keeping on top of things.

 

Recently, I was asked what type of snacks we eat in our household. I know we’re different from some in that we don’t eat a lot of the empty calorie snack foods that flood the market.

For myself, it makes no sense putting something in my body that’s just going to be registered as “empty calories” with the lovely benefit of adding other negatives that my body most likely doesn’t need.

 

A few moments ago, I  combined all these ingredients to make a simple but delicious and healthy snack for my daughter. She loves it. I wonder if she’ll share with her mom? 😉