Recipe coming soon…..

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During these cold winter months, nothing tastes better than a piping hot bowl of vegetable soup.  On this particular Sunday night dinner at my parents house, my ma and I planned on making a vegetable soup but didn’t have any direction with it.  I’m going to give you the order in which we made our soup and if you have any helpful ideas you’d like to add, drop me a note at the bottom of the post!

The vegetables we used are as follows:

• 1/2 a napa cabbage cut into chunks
• 3 large carrots cut into discs
• 3 celery stalks chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• 1 butternut squash cut into little squares
• two 15 oz cans of organic diced tomatoes
• 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
• the corn cut off of 1 cob
• frozen peas (we just kind of poured them in)
• diced fresh green beans
• 1 large zucchini sliced and then cut into quarters

We emptied two boxes of organic low sodium vegetable broth and some water into a large pot (water amount depends on how much broth vs veggies you want–always use a least 1 pint’s worth to dilute the broth a little).  We added the carrots, onions, squash and cabbage and brought it to a boil.  We seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne pepper, covered the pot and let it cook for about 15-25 minutes until the squash was soft but still a little firm to the bite.  We then added the rest of the ingredients, seasoned again and turned the heat down to medium high and cooked for another 15 minutes (still having it covered).  Consider the squash to be your taste tester to make sure everything is cooked through.  We ladled our soup into the serving bowls and let them cool for about 5 minutes before setting them down at the table.  Cheese eaters should freshly grate some parmesan cheese on top of their soup after the 5 minute cool down.

Oh Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, you make my tummy smile. I tried out Isa’s recipe for Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter – Oatmeal Cookies the other day but made them small and added carob chips. Can I just say that these cookies are the bomb dot com? They’re the perfect cookie for me to pass out to all my friends and co-workers this Holiday season. Even non vegans cannot argue the deliciousness of this cookie.

To make these fantastical cookies you are going to need:

• 2 c flour (I always use whole wheat flour when baking…tastes incredible)
• 2 c oats
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt in a bowl

Toss these ingredients together making sure they’re mixed.

In a separate bowl mix together (using a hand mixer):

• 3/4 c canola oil
• 3/4 c chunky all-natural peanut butter
• 1 c sugar
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c soy milk (you can use plain or vanilla…recipe calls for vanilla, I used plain)
• 2 t vanilla extract

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and continue to mix. The dough will be sticky and delicious (just the way we like it when we eat cookie batter). Drop little cookie dough balls onto your greased cookie sheets and cook in a preheated 350 degree oven until delightfully brown on top and bottom. Every oven and cookie sheet is different and cooking time really depends on what you’re working with. I believe my cookies were in the oven for around 20 minutes but I can’t be too sure.

…are incredible.  I’m obsessed with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the moment. Of course, you have to be careful when you’re buying these two things at the grocery store.  Beware of chemicals, additives, HFCS and other non necessary ingredients.  ALWAYS READ YOUR LABELS! Raw foodies–use almond butter and make your own jelly.  Simply smash your fruit together using a potato masher (you can add some agave nectar if you like it really sweet).

Spinach hummus is a given ‘duh’. It’s too delicious for words–I’ll let you use your imagination as I explain the ingredients.

Lately I’ve been adding sun dried tomatoes to my hummus (1 can drained and rinsed chick-peas, juice of 1 lemon, 1 [sometimes 2] T tahini, 1 [sometimes 2] garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, dash of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper) which has turned out fantastic.  I buy the sun dried tomatoes from the Dekalb Farmer’s Market that are not packed in oil and do not have added sulfates. They’re naturally dried in the sun and then packaged for my enjoyment.  The other night, however, I decided that the sun dried tomatoes just weren’t enough for my taste buds.  I opened the fridge and grabbed my 3.5 pound bag of spinach (also from the Farmer’s Market) and wilted it on the stove top along with some onion powder and garlic in some extra virgin olive oil (you can also use sunflower oil for the wilting process). Once wilted completely, I let the spinach cool and then added it into the food processor along with my other hummus ingredients (including the sun dried tomatoes).  After it was pureed, I dashed some oregano on top and served it along side carrots, cucumber, broccoli and cherry tomatoes.

As many of you know from my enthusiastic tweets, I got a dehydrator for my birthday.  As soon as the Paraflexx sheets arrived (a week later), I began uncooking! The first things I made were Matt Amsden’s “cheese sticks” from RAWvolution and some flax seed crackers based on Karen Knowler’s recipe.  I planned on dehydrating on Tuesday and knew we were leaving town Friday so I made two items I knew would travel well with us on our road trip.  I also brought along an avocado and the little package of soy sauce and dollop of wasabi you get in your grocery store veggie sushi containers. Using those ingredients, I made a quick car friendly version of guacamole to dip our flax crackers in.  This turned out to be the perfect ‘Atlanta-traffic-is-so-bad-you’ve-been-in-the-car-for-45-minutes-and-haven’t-even-made-it-to-the-interstate-yet” snack.

“Cheese sticks” are really, really good.  They are quite salty because of the soy sauce you use in the recipe but worth it.  I found that I had about 1 1/2 cups of leftover ground up sunflower seeds after I finished.  No biggie–I put them in an air tight container and will sprinkle them on top of some salads.  Oh…I also ground up all the sunflower seeds the recipe calls for instead of what the recipe actually says (maybe that’s why I had so much extra?).

Matt Amsden’s Cheese Sticks

• 4 3/4 c raw sunflower seeds
• 1/2 c fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 c Nama Shoyu
• 4 cloves of garlic peeled

Grind 2 3/4 c sunflower seeds in the food processor.

Spread out 2 cups of the ground sunflower seeds onto a plate.

In a high speed blender (or a food processor which is what I always use), combine the rest of the sunflower seeds and the other ingredients and blend until smooth.  Transfer this mixture into a pastry bag (or a large ziplock bag cutting the corner off of one side so you can push the mixture out in the same way).  Squeeze the mixture out in 3/4 inch long sticks onto the plate of ground up sunflower seeds.  Roll the sticks around in the ground up seeds so they are coated completely.  Spread them out on your Paraflexx sheets and dehydrate for 18-24 hours at 100 degrees.  Serve with a raw marinara sauce, raw salsa or just eat them plain.  Store them in an air tight container.

I wanted to make more than enough flax crackers so I doubled parts of Karen’s recipe and added some of my own tricks.

Flax Seed Crackers

• 4 c raw flax seeds
• 1 c raw sun dried tomatoes
• the juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 c cherry tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic (or 2 depending on the size)
• 2 T Italian seasoning
• water

In the bowl of a food processor I put all of these ingredients making the flax seeds last so everything else would have a chance to grind up.  I waited on putting water in until after everything had a chance to mix and then just poured a little, mixed, poured a little more, mixed and so forth until it was the consistency that I wanted.  You want the seeds and everything to be stuck together in almost a paste so you can spread it out over the Paraflexx sheets.  Careful not to add too much water though–keep your eye on your amounts.

When you spread the mixture out onto a Paraflexx sheet you want to make sure its evenly spread along the sheet (making sure parts aren’t too thick or too thin).  I split the mixture in half and did half on one tray and half on another. After it’s spread, score it so you can easily break your crackers apart.  If you are unsure about this process, check out Karen’s video.

Dehydrate your crackers at 115-120 degrees overnight. Flip the crackers over after about 5 hours so both sides dry. I started my crackers at 4 pm, flipped them at 9 pm and then took them out around 8 am.  Break them apart and let them cool for about 5 minutes before putting them in an air tight container.

Because I dehydrated my “cheese sticks” and crackers together, I kept the dehydrator at 115 degrees for the first 5 hours and then flipped it down to 110 degrees for the rest of the time.

**UPDATE : I have been creating new recipes for flax seed crackers these days.  The 2nd shot I had at them I used: 2 garlic cloves, juice of 2 lemons, 4 c flax seed, 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, 1 red bell pepper, a little water, 1 t Italian seasoning, 1 t onion powder, 1/8 c chopped onion. Those turned out stellar. I liked using less Italian seasoning than the first go round because I found it too overwhelming.

On my 3rd attempt at making them I used: 4 c flax seed, juice of 2 lemons, 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, 1 cup shredded carrot, 1 large garlic clove, a little water, 1 t onion powder and 1 t Italian seasoning. These are also excellent.

It’s fun being able to play around with recipes until you have them catering specifically to what you want them to be. I’m going to keep going with my flax crackers to see what other taste combinations I can come up with. These are delicious with peanut butter and jelly on, dipped in hummus and guac.

The other day I felt a little festive and wanted to try to recreate one of my favorite dishes from R Thomas (a local organic, veggie friendly restaurant). Its a lemon pasta which is really rich and creamy.  I know, this is not healthy in the least but every once in awhile you have to let yourself indulge. R Thomas’ dish is white noodles, lemon cream sauce and a LOT of parm cheese on top.  My dish was made using 1 box of whole wheat linguine noodles, vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, vegan butter, an eggplant out of my garden, Trader Joe’s veggie Italian Sausage, sweet basil out of my garden, cremini mushrooms, Vidalia onion, lemons and garlic.

To prepare your noodles, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. You’re going to cook these noodles al dente (soft but still firm to the bite).  While your water is heating up, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and lightly spray a casserole/lasagna dish and set aside.  To get ready for the adventure ahead of you, zest 3 small lemons and juice 2 of them.  Then dice up a Japanese eggplant, mushrooms and the veggie sausage (comes in a pack of 4, I used 2).  Go ahead and put the ’sausage’, mushrooms and eggplant in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil and saute them (if you lightly salt the veggies they will cook faster…the salt will extract the water from the vegetable).  You don’t have to cook them long because you’re going to transfer all of these ingredients into the lasagna dish and bake it in the oven.

In a medium size pan, melt 4 T of vegan butter in 4 T of extra virgin olive oil on low heat.  Once the butter has melted, add 1/3 c diced onion and 3 minced garlic cloves and turn off the heat.  Add 2 t of Italian seasoning, the juice of 1 lemon and 1/3 of your lemon zest.  Now add in 2 c of vegan sour cream and the basil (I cut 6 or 7 leaves up) and mix slowly.  You can add some sea salt and vegan parm cheese if you’d like.

Once both pans and the pot of noodles have finished, start preparing your casserole. Put the noodles in the lasagna pan first, then the ’sausage’/eggplant/mushroom saute and lastly, pour the sauce right on top making sure you cover as much of the noodles as you can. Season the top of the dish with 1/2 of your leftover lemon zest, red pepper flakes and oregano.  You’re going to cover the dish with foil and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes.  Uncover it and cook for another 10.

Once the noodles were plated I topped them off with some fresh parsley from the garden, a little more lemon zest and a couple drops of leftover lemon juice.  I poured the remaining lemon juice and zest over the top of the leftovers before storing them in the fridge.  Delicious!

Potato pizza is something that I have loved since first bite. There’s a pizza place in the town where I spent my teenage years and they were kind enough to give me my first potato pizza expierience. Recently my boyfriend and I were visiting my parents and wanted to take the golf cart to lunch (long story).  Never ones to pass up a good piece of a pie, we couldn’t resist stopping in while we were in town. We ordered the potato pizza sans bacon and were saddened when it came to our table full of pig. The server explained that they can’t make it without bacon.  Why he would still ring it in and serve it to us after we said ‘no bacon’ is beyond me. It was a waste of food, energy and resources and made me sad. Right then and there I decided I would see their “could-be-vegetarian-if-they-tried, potato-pizza” and raise them a ‘vegan potato pizza’ all my own.

To make my potato pizza you will need: 5 small red potatos (cut in thin discs), 4 slices of veggie bacon, 1/4 c diced red onion, 1 jalapeno (out of my garden!), 1 can cannellini beans, extra virgin olive oil, chives, vegan cheese, cloves-o-garlic, 1 lemon, vegan whole wheat pizza crust, various spices.

The sauce on this pizza is a spicy white bean aioli.

Spicy White Bean Aioli

1 can cannellini beans (drained and rinsed), 5 (or 6 if they’re small) garlic cloves, juice of 1 lemon, dash of sea salt and pepper, 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil all in the bowl of a food processor. Hit go and let this process for awhile–that many garlic cloves is going to be spicy and you want to make sure they get diced very well in the food processor.  You may see other white bean aioli recipes that are similar but call for olive oil instead of extra virgin olive oil.  I am not a fan of using olive oil with beans to create a dip/sauce.  I have found that when I use olive oil in white bean aioli or in hummus, all I can taste is the olive oil.  When I use extra virgin olive oil, the flavors of the other ingredients is what I taste.

Back to the pie.  Whenever I use pizza crust that I have frozen, I always put a tiny little bit of olive oil on the crust and then sprinkle oregano, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes on top. If you’re using dough or unfrozen pizza crust, you don’t need the olive oil but its always a nice addition. On top of the seasoning sprinkles comes the aioli! Spread it evenly over the crust making sure it reaches all over.

Grab your vegan bacon and stack the pieces on top of each other. Cut the strips into small pieces–you will be sprinkling them all over the pizza. Right now, you’re going to sprinkle a few over the white bean aioli on your pie. Also sprinkle some of those diced red onions and a little ‘cheese’ is okay here too.  Now its time to layer the potatoes!

To prepare your potatoes, you’re going to boil (covered with a little slit allowing some steam to escape) the discs you cut in salted water for about….10 minutes. Keep checking them-you want to be able to stab them with a fork but not be quite able to mash them.  Taste one often–it’s really up to you to decide when your potatoes are good enough to eat!

You always want to cook potatoes all the way through.  To acheive this, make sure they’re heating up with your water.  Don’t boil the water first and then add the potatoes–it will cook the outsides too fast and not the insides.

Create your layer of potatoes on your pie.  I always spread out one layer (potato to potato) and then put smaller or half pieces on top to fill in some spaces.  Dust a few drops of aioli on top of this layer of potatoes along with some more bacon, red onion and ‘cheese’.  This is a good time to put a few jalapeno’s on your pie as well.  You’re going to repeat your potato/aioli/bacon/onion/’cheese’/jalapeno layer one more time.  You’re building a 2 layer potato pyramid!

Pop your pie in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees (or according to your crust’s directions).  Vegan ‘cheese’ melts as good as it can-any expierienced vegan ‘cheese’ user will know what it looks like when it’s cooked.

I dusted the top of this pie off with some chives fresh out of the garden.

Friends, listen up because this is serious business.  My dear friend @Rawliving (<– Twitter name or her website can be found here) let me in on a BIG secret.  Banana ice cream made from….just bananas!!

My mother always freezes her bananas when they get really ripe because she makes banana bread out of them.  Like her, I do that but I also use my frozen bananas for smoothies. Now I can add ice cream to that list of reasons as to why there are bananas in my freezer (everyone ALWAYS asks).

In the bowl of a food processor, put 1 frozen ripe banana (per serving) and the smallest tiniest dash of vanilla extract or almond extract (I like almond extract).  Process for 4-5 minutes until the banana ice cream is completely smooth.  That’s it…that’s all you do.

All of my raw foodies can make a chocolate syrup to put on top out of agave nectar and raw cacao powder (just whip the two ingredients together).

Tomorrow is my father’s birthday and I plan on making this for him for dessert. Being a diabetic, he doesn’t eat sweets so this is the perfect ice cream dessert for him. I can’t wait for him to tell me how good it is!

In all my years of making potato salad, never did I think to use pesto.  For this particular pesto I ground up sweet basil, Italian parsley, rosemary, 1 garlic clove, the juice of 1 lemon, vegan parmesan cheese, raw walnuts, splash of sea salt, splash of freshly ground black pepper and some extra virgin olive oil.  It turned out amazing! Anyone who has eaten potatoes that came from the Rustin kitchen, know that my potatoes are cooked with rosemary. The two just go together so well! I doubled up on the rosemary with this pesto so the flavor really stood out.  I mixed the pesto with about 1 T of vegenaise and then spread it all over my (red) potatoes (skins still on, cut in chunks and boiled for 10 minutes).  I also added diced red onion and some raw sun dried tomatoes.  After it was done, I sprinkled a little more sea salt on top along with some dried basil, Italian seasoning and oregano (just a dash!).

I created this dish along with another spicy vegan potato salad to bring to a cookout at my friend’s house over the weekend.  I also brought along some raw almonds, carrots and an apple (those were for me).