Zucchini Bread

Just back from a trip to California. Had a great time with my cousin, his wife and our little nephew. 18 months old and such a talker (he labels everything around him) - we miss him.
I was mighty impressed with Yosemite NP and the food there. All the grills had a morning star burger without cheese and whole wheat burger buns. These morning star burgers were grilled on a separate grill - away from the meats and they tasted YUMMY!! Other foods we saw at the NP - veggie chilli, vegan hummus basket - in addition to the regular pizza, grilled cheese, salads, yogurt, fruits etc.

With all the zucchini coming from the CSA, I have been trying to find multiple ways to cook it. Last year, I made multiple zucchini breads with eggs and butter. Last week, I tried to find recipes for the same without eggs and butter. I found one!! I actually found two!!



I combined this one and this recipe with ingredients I had at home and made my own zucchini bread and muffins. The muffins stayed in the oven for a shorter time, so we could serve it to friends who were visiting and the bread is still in our fridge! I used a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flours for a healthy result. I also added walnuts and craisins. The resulting bread hardly tastes like zucchini, it's just yummy!!

Quesadilla

I just wrote a whole post it and hit 'backspace' and voila! - it was gone!!
So here we go again!!

I started this recipe to make an enchilada similar to this recipe or a side dish like this one for my mom who is visiting. First, I made the bean-vegetable mixture. I used vegetables that came from our garden or the CSA - corn, zucchini, chili peppers, tomatoes. V, however, wanted a Quesadilla. So, that's what I made. I had a wrap without the cheese.




I boiled the sweet corn on the cob and chopped off the kernels for this recipe. I also used dry black beans - soaked and cooked in a pressure cooker. To use up all the zucchini we're getting from the farmer's market, I used it in the recipe. Feel free to change the vegetable. I used a pineapple salsa - I like a little sweet in my food. If not, a few pieces of pineapple may be an option.


Ingredients

1 cup black beans
1 cup corn kernels
1 zucchini, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 chili pepper
1 garlic, minced
1/2 cup salsa
1 T Adobo Seasoning, or to taste
1 t lime juice
1 T Olive oil
1 T vegan cream cheese


Heat Oil, add garlic, corn, black beans, zucchini and saute till the zucchini is slightly cooked. Add tomatoes and saute for a few more minutes. Add salsa, seasoning and let the flavors blend.

Just before turning off, add vegan cream cheese and lime juice. Mix well together.

Warm up tortillas, add the black bean dish and enjoy!

(I would have liked some cilantro too, but we were out and our herb garden lack cilantro)

Cashew French Toast

There are several recipes that I love in the "Becoming Vegetarian" book by Melina and Davis. I find myself returning to it frequently. This recipe for Cashew French Toast always comes out fabulous for us. I think it actually tastes better than egg-based french toast.

Cashew French Toast
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
• 1 cup soymilk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1TB maple syrup
• I usually add some ground cinnamon too!
  
• 6 slices of bread
• oil for the pan or cooking spray
  

Grind cashews in a blender or food processor until they are powdery. This will take some time. Don't rush it or the french toast will be gritty. Add other ingredients (except the oil and bread) and continue to blend/process until smooth. Pour into a shallow bowl. Oil or spray a skillet and preheat over medium heat. Dip bread in cashew mixture and place a few slices into the pan. Do not overlap. Flip once browned. You will likely need to re-oil/spray the pan before cooking additional slices.

Yummy!

Tempura Veggies

I think we may be a little bit too fond of frying vegetables but my husband is a big fan so here we go again! A while back we made a recipe called Better Than Sonics Onion Rings from Vegweb.com and we all loved it so I had the idea to use this batter on some other vegetables to make a tempura, of sorts. We had a bunch of zucchini, green beans and bell peppers from the CSA so those were battered and fried along with a few onions. The green beans were the surprising favorite in this selection. The batter worked really well but the veggies can't be reheated the next day since they get really soggy!

Basil and tomato pasta

A dish from the vegetable garden and CSA vegetables!! I made the 'creamy basil pasta'. It was quite easy to make. I used basil and tomatoes from our garden - there's more of the tomatoes in our garden! Looking forward to using them all. I also added vegan sausage and carrots (for protein and more vegetables - balance the meal!) and it was a yummy meal all around. The chilled glass of white wine (sorry Em) was a delight with the meal!! Definitely going to keep trying this with a variety of vegetables!

Also, tried Blueberry Oat bars. It did not end up as pretty or tasty as I had expected. I used 'Steel Cut Oats' because we ran out of the regular oats. It was a little too 'nutty' and I did not like the texture too much. But I want to try to make it again with the 'bettter' oats!!

Peach Upside Down Cake

It has been a while since I blogged. V's parents are visiting (they leave Tuesday and my mom arrives). His mom has mostly been cooking Indian food. When I cooked, I was making tried and tested recipes rather than experiment with new foods. I did create some vegan banana nut muffins when the mix that I was putting together for blueberry muffins was too dry and the store was out of blueberries (V was grocery shopping as I was putting the ingredients together - not recommended!). I used the bananas to moisten the mix and it did not turn out too bad.
After the successful Pineapple Upside Down Cake that V's parents also enjoyed, I wanted to bake more fruity desserts. V's mom likes peaches and when I saw this recipe for a Peach Upside Down Cake, I wanted to try it. The photos looked enticing too :)



I used the same recipe, but reduced the amount of sugar. Only 1/4 cup of sugar along with the peaches and 1/2 cup for the actual cake. It was still a little too sweet for me. Of course, the peaches were VERY sweet too. The cake was also slightly crumbly, but was a great taste. I made it 3 days ago and it's all gone. I need to think about another dessert for the weekend. Thinking about a peanut butter-jelly muffin :)

Next up - Creamy Pasta from "One Hot Stove"
And hopefully more regular posts from both of us :)

Thai Style Yellow Curry Noodle Soup; Garlic Spinach Pasta

I am glad to see I am not the only one who has had some trouble blogging lately! I hope you are having a fabulous time in the windy city. These are a few things I have made recently in an attempt to use up some of the greens that I have received through my CSA. Some weeks it is a daunting task to try to get through so much produce with a small family but I HATE to throw it out. Sadly, it does happen sometimes :-(


Thai Style Yellow Curry Soup
This was an attempt to use up a head of baby bok choy since I heard that it is extremely nutritious. My inspiration came from Thai-Inspired Veggie and Rice Soup which always looks so good to me! I absolutley love yellow curries so I adapted this recipe to make a yellow curry soup. I had some yellow curry powder which looked vegan but the flavor was not strong enough (even for me!). All the simmer sauces seemed to contain fish sauce. Maybe someone knows how to make it without the fish?

Ingredients:
These are rough estimates since I sort of threw this together

• 1/2 white onion chopped
• small zucchini sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper sliced into 1 ince pieces
• 1/2 head of baby bok choy chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• handful of shredded carrots
• 4 cups veggie broth (you will likely need to add more since it seemed to cook off quite a bit)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
  
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• 1 block of firm tofu cubed
• corn starch
• vegetable oil
• your favorite spices (basil, salt, red pepper, etc.)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• handful of soba noodles

Sautee garlic, onions and carrots in 1 TB vegetable oil. As it starts to become transluscent, add the other veggies and cook until they begin to soften slightly. Add tomatoes and broth along with any spices you want to add. I added about 4 TB yellow curry powder here but kept adding more as it cooked to intensify the curry flavor. Bring this to a boil. Once it boils, add soba noodles and boil unitl they are fully cooked (check package instructions) then lower soup to a simmer.

While the soup cooks, place tofu into a bag or container with enough corn starch to coat. Shake it up until tofu is completely coated. Heat a few TB oil in a pan and fry tofu cubes until they are browned.

Remove soup from the heat, add tofu and coconut milk. Enjoy!


Garlic Spinach Pasta
Again, had a whole lotta spinach and I am the only one who likes it. I thought the family might get into this but I was wrong. I thought it was great and I will likely make this again, just for myself. I got the basic recipe from a Whole Foods Cookbook sitting on my shelf but I adapted it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound pasta (I used penne)
• 4 TB olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Lots and lots of spinach chopped
• 2 TB fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan

Cook pasta as directed. Drain and set aside. Heat olive oil in a large sautee pan over low heat. Add garlic and cook until it begins to carmelize. Raise heat to medium, add soinach and cook until wilted. Add lemon juice and cooked pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan. Yum!