The Pioneer Woman's Wild Rice Pancakes

Ya'll, (in my most southern voice) I love the Pioneer Woman!  All of her recipes are delicious.  But, almost all of her recipes contain meat, eggs and dairy...all of which we have been trying to stay away from lately.  

 I have been wanting to try these pancakes for awhile now and when I didn't have a good plan for dinner one night, we had these.  They were delicious.  I doctored them up to make them "plant based".  

 I used a package of wild rice (where you only have to steam the bag in the microwave for 90 seconds - best thing ever!), substituted whole wheat flour for AP flour, used flaxseed meal...(I did use 1/4 C sugar, but I suppose you could use maple syrup or something instead if you didn't want to us that)...Almond milk instead of whole milk.......then I used this (see below) instead of the eggs. 

I know this seems weird.  It totally is!  But I've seen in a lot of other recipes that they call for an egg replacer.  So, when I saw this at the store, I bought it.

So, I used that for the eggs and I just used spray oil instead of the butter. Oh and I added chopped walnuts to our batter.  A lot of them.  I didn't measure, but it added that little something I think would have been missing.

I figured you could just blow this picture up if you want to try them out...saves me all that typing :o). 

I should have counted how many pancakes this made, because it was a lot.  Which was perfect!  I just stuck the rest of them in the freezer and we've eaten on them for breakfast another morning and when it was "pick what you want for dinner" night;o).  

Yummy Quesadillas

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Quesadillas

www.engine2diet.com

I made these for dinner yesterday.  And by I made them for dinner, I mean, I made the "stuffing" after church and stuck it in the frig until dinnertime.  I think this will be a definite go to meal for busy nights!  Amelia thought it was a little too spicy, so next time I'll buy a milder salsa.  (It's a good thing I left out the jalapeño it calls for)!  What I like about this recipe is that it is super easy!  I know the instructions say to bake the sweet potato, which will take forever, but I steamed mine in the microwave. OR you can buy already chopped up sweet potato in the produce section and you can boil it to make this meal quicker.  Also, this website is always trying to get you to buy their products.  Unless you really just want to stick to their recipe, I say buy whatever tortillas you'd like.  I did find a sprouted ancient grains brand of tortillas, but not the Engine 2 brand.  

So, like I said, I made the "stuffing" up right after church and stuck it in the frig in a covered dish.  When it was time to eat, we pulled them out and heated them back up in the microwave, then made up our quesadillas in a skillet and browned them.  We also added a little guacamole to the tops of ours.  There were plenty of leftovers (for us) to have lunch today.  

I'm going to keep saying it.....I am amazed that my kids are eating all of these meals!  It has been huge for our meal times and for trying new things.  I thought this change would be met with lots of grumbling, but they are loving this food just as much as we are!  And I feel good about putting healthy food in their bodies instead of what we were eating before.  

Ingredients 

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 cup brown rice, cooked
• 8 ounces vegetarian, no added oil, re-fried beans
• 1 cup of salsa
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 8 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• 1 jalapeño pepper, diced (optional and HOT)
• 6-8 Engine 2 Ancient Grain Tortillas

Instructions:

*1. Preheat oven to 375ºF
*2. Prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper
*3. An hour before you plan to eat, peel and quarter the sweet potatoes
*4. Bake sweet potatoes in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, until soft
5. In the meantime, prepare rice in a rice cooker or on stove top as directed
6. Remove sweet potatoes from oven and toss into a mixing bowl
7. Mash sweet potatoes with the salsa, rice and fresh spinach
8. Place sweet potato mash in a sauce pan and mix in black beans and refried beans, heating mixture thoroughly over medium heat
9. Add onion powder, chili powder and cumin to taste and stir
10. Place a tortilla in a frying pan on medium heat, and slather the side facing up with sweet potato and bean mixture
11. Add jalapeños if desired
12. Place another whole wheat tortilla on top
13. Press down on top tortilla with spatula with pan on medium heat for about 3 minutes
14. Flip with spatula and cook for another three minutes
15. Voila! Cut into desired number of sections
16. Serve topped with salsa

*If baking your sweet potato.  Skip if not.

What's for Dinner?

After being gone a week, it was a little daunting to come back home and plan dinner.  Eating healthy, whole-food plant based, takes planning.  You really can't just look in the pantry and whip something up out of can goods and boxed foods (unless you already have good things in the pantry).  Anyway, I ran to the store on Monday and bought the ingredients for Lynn's Meatloaf and Raise The Roof Sweet Potato Lasanga from the website, engine2diet.  You can read more about who this guy is and his journey down this path here.  I didn't take any pictures, well because I was still travel-tired and totally forgot.  BUT...it was good and our kids ate it!  And they don't like meatloaf, so that's saying something.  Here's the recipe and I think it's worth you trying.  Also, if you don't know anything about lentils (I didn't either), then here's a little take away: they lower cholesterol, are high in fiber, helps manage blood sugar levels, helps prevent digestive disorders, are a good source of b vitamins,  increase your energy by replenishing your iron stores, and in just one cup of lentils you will get 37% of your daily protein intake.   There's a lot more I could say about them, but just realize these are so good for your body!

Lynn's Meatloaf

2 stalks celery, chopped

½ onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

10 ounces firm tofu, drained

¼ cup walnuts, finely ground

1 1/2 cups cooked brown lentils

1 ¼ cups quick-cooking oats

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons ketchup (additional for topping)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons dried parsley

½ teaspoon each thyme, sage, and rosemary

Ketchup, to taste

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350

Spray loaf pan (or use non-stick silicone bake-ware)

Sauté celery, onion and garlic on high heat in skillet with a little water or low sodium vegetable broth for 5 minutes until tender.

Remove from heat and cool.

Mash tofu in large bowl.

Stir in cooked mixture and remaining ingredients, and combine well.

Spoon mixture into loaf pan. Top with a layer of ketchup.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

On to my next meal: 

Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna!

I L-O-V-E-D it!!  But again, that's not saying much.  I love pretty much all vegetables.  And although the kids did eat it (Amelia even had seconds!), I think it was veggie overload for them and they just wanted more noodles.  I had a feeling this one would be good because of the rave reviews online, so I took pictures.  

Here's my disclaimer...again...this meal took a lot of prep work.  Mostly chopping.  And it takes an hour to bake, so you need to make sure you have time to make this.  Or, just prep the veggies the night before and it'll make assembly go so much faster.

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 small head of garlic, all cloves chopped or pressed
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 1 head broccoli, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1 can corn, rinsed and drained
• 1 package Silken Lite tofu
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (I left this out)
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• 2 jars Engine 2 approved pasta sauce
• 2 boxes whole grain lasagna noodles
• 16 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 2 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
• 6 roma tomatoes, sliced thin
• 1 cup raw cashews, ground

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Their directions say to saute all of these veggies separately, but after sautéing the onions, garlic and mushrooms, I just mixed all of the others and sauted them together.  Also, this recipe called for corn, but after reading the reviews, felt that we didn't need them, so I left them out.  

While I was sautéing the veggies, I cooked my lasagna noodles.  

(I thought one box would be enough, so I only cooked one.  Yep, just like the directions said, you need 2.  I had to cook more :o( ).

 After all of the veggies were cooked, I mixed them all together in a big bowl, with the spices and the tofu.  

This is the 3rd meal where I've used tofu.  You can buy it anywhere, even Walmart.  I drained the tofu and then kind of wrapped it up in about 4 paper towels, then squeezed out all of the juices, while crumbling it.  I then dumped all of the crumbled tofu into the veggie bowl.  

 After that, I began to make up the lasagna.  

The directions say to make this in a 9x13 pan, but after reading the reviews and how much was left over, I opted to make two smaller pans and then put one in the freezer so that I could just pull it out another night.

First, you put a layer of sauce down in the pan.  I found this sauce at Trader Joe's and I think it's my new favorite spaghetti sauce!  

 Then you put down a layer of noodles and another layer of sauce.  The recipe calls for whole wheat noodles and after going to two stores and not being able to find them, I decided it wasn't really that important!  

 After the sauce, I put down a layer of veggies.  Doesn't the tofu look like cheese?  It's a good way to trick your mind :o).

 Then another layer of noodles and sauce.  

 Followed by the thawed, drained spinach.

 On top of the spinach, add your sweet potato.  It doesn't really layer on top, so I ended up just mixing the spinach and potato together.  

 Then add another layer of noodles, followed by the sauce, followed by a layer of Roma tomatoes.  

Cover it with foil and bake for 45 minutes.  

 After 45 minutes, take it out and sprinkle the ground cashews on top.  See, that kind of looks like parmesan cheese too, right?!  Bake for another 15 minutes, uncovered.  Let it sit for 15 minutes before serving.

This was delicious!!  I am so glad we have another one in the freezer.  I served this with strawberries and grapes and if I wasn't lazy, would have also made a salad.  That was a lot of work!  But, it was worth it!  Try it!

Ultimate Unbaked Brownies

Two words:

MAKE THESE!!!

Now! Tomorrow! This weekend...just don't wait!

I have been craving sugar....probably because I haven't been eating any.  So, I found this recipe on Pinterest.  

I do not like dates.  I don't like raisins either.  I love craisins, so I don't think it's a texture thing.  I just don't like their flavor.  So, I was a little hesitant to make these, since they are made with 2.5 cups of dates.  Hopefully you can find fresh ones where you are.  I had never even looked for them before, but found them in the produce section (in case you didn't already know that).

Ultimate Unbaked Brownies

Brownies

2 1/2 C loosely packed pitted dates

1 1/2 C walnuts

6 TBSP cocoa powder (or cacoa)

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp water

1/4 + 1/8 tsp salt

Icing

1/4 C cocoa powder (or cacoa)

1/4 C pure maple syrup (or raw agave)

2 TBSP vegetable oil or melted coconut oil

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Like I said, I have never bought dates or pitted them.  I don't get grossed out by things easily, but don't the pits kind of look like cockroaches?  Maybe it's just me.  Kind of gross.  Anyway....

Pit the dates, if they are not already pitted. 

Combine the dates, walnuts, 6TBSP cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, water and salt in a food processor - or blender if your food processor is too small. Process until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.  It will seem dry at first, but don't add anymore water.  

(My blender did not get it completely smooth.  Stupid Ninja blender that everyone raves about.  But, I loved having big chunky walnut pieces in each bite, so I was not discouraged).

 Lightly grease (or use parchment/wax paper) an 8x8 square baking pan.  Transfer the dough to the pan and press down firmly until it's evenly distributed in the pan.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine remaining cocoa powder, vanilla, maple syrup and oil until smooth.  Stir mixture until it forms a paste.  Spread evenly over the dough in the baking pan. Refrigerate brownies for 2 hours to set.  

You read that right...refrigerate. You do not have to bake these.  The only downside is that your house doesn't smell like warm brownies hours after you make them.  

Leftovers (there won't be any!) can be stored, covered, at room temperature for a day, or up to 2 weeks in the fridge, or 1-2 months in the freezer.

(I forgot to take a picture with the icing on it:o) 

Of course mine did not look anything like the picture on Pinterest.

(It never does.  Why is that??)

But, the taste is AMAZING!!

I think it's more like a decadent fudge than a brownie.  It didn't take like dates one single bit.  After I tried one, I realized how rich they were and cut each (already cut) brownie, in half again.  I would say grab a big glass of milk, but this is a vegan recipe. Haha! It would go so well with a cup of coffee though!

I took them to our community group last night and told them they were my guinea pigs.  They ate them up.  Everyone raved about how great they were.  And they're good for you!  

Try them!  You will not be disappointed!  

Whole Foods Plant Based Food Pyramid

I've been wondering if we are getting in enough servings on our "diet".  It seems that there is conflicting ideas as to what is the best for a whole foods plant based diet.  I think this will at least help though.  I have some Ultimate Unbaked Brownies in the refrigerator.  

I will be sure to share them with you if they are edible :o)! 

Super Bowl Salad

We had a packed house yesterday for the Super Bowl.  

I was wondering how we could eat well, when almost all Super Bowl food is unhealthy.  We had pizzas and a ton of appetizers and desserts, but I also made a fruit salad and the salad below.  It's from the PurePlant website.  I left out the olives, because I'm not a big fan of olive.  and I forgot tomatoes, so I added in red pepper.  I'm not sure if you have to heat up the chick peas like the recipe said, but I did anyway.  You could probably just put them in a bowl and season them, but maybe you do have to cook them first to make them edible....I don't know.  

Either way, it was delicious and I will be making this on a regular basis.  I just ate the leftovers of this salad today and didn't use the hummus dressing, but a balsamic vinaigrette dressing and it was just as delicious.  

http://www.plantpurepods.com/recipes/recipe/rainbow-buddha-bowl/

Oatmeal and Tacos

Yesterday I made an oatmeal recipe from the PlantPure website.  I eat oatmeal almost every morning.  It is good for acid reflux and have found that if I start my day with it, I feel better throughout the day.  I just buy the old fashioned oats and make it according the the directions.  I usually add 1tsp of brown sugar, cinnamon and if I'm feeling crazy, chopped up apples or blueberries.

This recipe said it was for 2 servings, so I doubled it and had way too much left over.  I think I'll just keep it for two next time.

Saturday Morning Oatmeal

Prep time - 5 minutes

Cook time - 5 minutes

Serves - 2

1 C old fashioned oats

2 C water

1/2 C non dairy milk ( I used unsweetened almond milk)

1 apple (or pear) - cut up

1/4 C raisins (I used Golden Raisins, bc that's what I had)

1/2 tsp coconut extract (I did not have this)

1/2 tsp almond extract

Toppings:

ground flax

chia seeds

date sugar

pumpkin pie spice

In a large non stick pan, heat up the water, oats, apples and raisins.  Bring to a slow boil and then reduce heat to simmer.  

 Mix the extracts with the non dairy milk before pouring in the oatmeal. 

 Allow it to heat through, then dish into bowls.  Top with whatever, or all, toppings you'd like.  I found the date sugar at Whole Foods.

 These are the kids bowls.  

Since I didn't have coconut extract it did seem like it was missing a little something.  Caleb said, "Mom, do we have any coconut?"  And sure enough I had some unsweetened coconut in the pantry and it really made this dish so much better!  I would highly suggest you add that to your toppings list if you don't have the extract.  

Caleb loved it and said I need to make this again.  Amelia ate a few bites and said she didn't like it.  Shawn took his to work and said that it was really good, but after 30 minutes or more to get there, it was a little mushy :o).  

Last night, I made Spiced Sweet Potato Tacos.

D.E.L.I.S.H.I.O.U.S!!!  

Everyone ate and love them!  Caleb ate 3!

I told Shawn, "Maybe we aren't carnivores like we thought!"

Spiced Sweet Potato Tacos

(Forks Over Knives website)

Cook time - 35 minutes

Makes 12-16 tacos

1 lb. sweet potatoes

1/2 small red onion (1/4 in. dice - about 1/2 C)

2 small garlic cloves, minced

1-15 oz can pinto or black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 C frozen sweet corn, rinsed

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ancho chile, or to taste

sea salt

1-6 corn tortillas

1 avacado, mashed

2 Roma tomatoes, diced

3 scallions (I left these out)

1/4 C fresh cilantro

2 TBSP fresh lime juice (I used the little green bottle)

Cut your sweet potato into 1/2 in sticks.  Place into steamer basket inside of pan and add 1-2 inches of water.   Cook them for about 8 minutes or just until cooked through, but no too soft. 

I do not have a steamer basket, but I do have a Pampered Chef steamer bowl.  I only had to put them in the microwave for about 3 minutes.

 In a large skillet, add onion, garlic and 2 TBSP water.  Cover and cook over low heat until the onions are translucent.  

The vegan diet is all about not using and oil too, so they mostly saute with water or vegetable broth.  So far, it seems to work just as well.  Who knew?

 When they are ready, add the steamed sweet potatoes, beans (I used black), corn, cumin, Chile powder (I used Chile Lime seasoning from Trader Joe's) and salt.  Gently fold to coat the potatoes.  Cook over med-low heat for about 5-7 minutes.  Remove from heat.  

 Warm your tortillas on a skillet and then sit aside.  

I love corn tortillas so much more than flour!

When the tortillas and veggies are ready, spread the avocado on the tortilla. 

 Then top with all of the veggies, cilantro and tomatoes.

Shawn and the kids don't like raw tomatoes, so Shawn just added some salsa to the top of his.  

That's it!  

We had some fresh fruit on the side.

I seriously cannot tell you how delicious this was!  I was a little skeptical, but it was amazing!

 We've been getting fresh, organic produce delivered to our doorstep for a few months now.  I love it!  You should see if you have this in your city.  I like this one because I can customize our box with what we like.  They have our box filled with things, then send us an email to say it's ready to customize.  I get on there and add things we'd rather have and take out the things we don't.  

Today we got cauliflower, colored carrots, butternut squash, pears, apples, red potatoes and 2 hydroponic lettuce bunches.  If you have not tried hydroponic lettuce, do!  It's so butter and delicious and most stores have it.