Have you noticed yourself craving different foods at certain times of the year? Well beyond the sudden desire for apple pie in the Fall is the change in just the types of foods we seem to desire. For instance, now that the weather is warming, I eschew my usual oatmeal breakfast for a fruit smoothie - a habit I will maintain for the duration of the summer months.

It seems the longer I am on a vegan diet, the more I note these swings in my diet. All I wanted for lunch today was broccoli. I ate a whole head of it - steamed to perfection and dotted with “butter”. Dinner last night was nothing more than baked vegetables - onions, carrots, potatoes. It appears I don’t wish for rice, or pasta (wierd for me!) or beans of any kind, I just want fruit and veggies! I’m also making a pot of iced tea every day, and drinking massive quantities of water. My energy is high and pulling me to work outdoors. A rainy day like today crushes those plans a little, but I’m keeping myself entertained with garden books and making plans for Sunday, when the rain that started yesterday afternoon is expected to cease.

As the summer gets warmer and there are plenty of tomatoes and squash to sautee together, we’ll have that combination (or a variation of) several times a week. Summer’s heat doesn’t entice us to heavy foods much, so we dine primarily on light pastas and sauteed veggies straight from the garden.

When the leaves begin to turn and the mornings grow cooler, I continue to rise early to tend my plants but begin the day by baking a fruit bread or muffins. The smoothies go by the wayside in favor of a hot cup of chai tea. Soup becomes the supper staple as there is so much canning to do and still plenty of veggies to throw into a pot. Since soup leaves a few corners available, the evening dessert begins to make an appearance… and so do the winter pounds that help keep us a little warmer.

By the end of January, though, we are tired of soup and have been eating heartier fare - vegetable lasagnas and veggie shepherd’s pies, mushroom burger mixes (with chopped veggies and breadcrumbs). We begin looking forward to summer’s bounty, to warm days and hours spent in the garden. I’m even looking forward to weeding. And with all the veggies and fruit I am consuming instead of legumes and breads, the winter pounds are disappearing with ease. Whew!

Dear Friends,

Many of you have probably heard about two bills currently on the floor waiting for The Congress - S425 and HR 875.  One of the bills sitting on the floor was introduced by someone with a direct relationship to Monsanto.  The bills are long and difficult to read which means that our politicians will vote based on summaries presented. The problem is, that these bills, more by omission than by inclusion, could essentially prohibit organic farming as well as individual food growing for private consumption. It puts the business of farming into Federal hands and removes the power of the state, and it supports factory farming. It mandates the use of certain chemicals in the name of Food Safety. Some people describe HR 875 as “criminalizing organic farming”.

I had this forwarded to me through a friend with an organic bakery. They order the produce they cannot grow themselves on their local farm from Global Organic of Sarasota, Florida.

A few days ago I came across an alarming bit of information regarding this bill. I didn’t read the whole bill, it is indeed quite long and I decided it was more of an issue for small farmers like Genesis Farms, which raises organic, grass-fed cows, as I saw a line about the bill *not* applying to confined animals. It would also affect people like Ella, an older woman in town who supplements her pitiful income by selling free-range eggs. The creators of this bill are pushing it in the name of “food safety” - when in reality, only the big companies are the ones that have caused all these outbreaks: peanuts, spinach, salads and tomatoes - none of that was from organic farms!

This really shows how much Monsanto and its pundits want to control everything - they want all food to be produced using their products and chemicals. Now, I don’t care what anyone says - you won’t stop me from growing *my* food in *my* backyard, and you also won’t stop me from exchanging my extra tomatoes for someone else’s extra garlic.

The whole idea, really, is extremely unnerving.

Link to the full bill:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875

Link to a good summary:

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7362

A list of sponsors for the bill:

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/pacs.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00000615

And a petition:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714&t=

And another petition, through the Organic Consumer’s Association:

http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=12878056

Italian Rice and Beans

If I recall correctly, this came from The Daily Green, which posts a new vegetarian meal nearly every day. This is good, simple food - I’ve come to discover the simplest recipes really are best.

1 cup brown rice; 15 oz navy beans, cooked; 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, sliced in strips; 1/2 cup pine nuts; 2 large handfuls spinach; 2 tsp balsalmic vinegar; 1/2 tsp salt; 4 tsp herbs of choice

When rice is cooked, heat6 thbs olive oil on a pan over medium heat. Add herbs, tomatoes, pine nuts. When nuts start to turn brown, add beans. Toss getly, keep beans whole. Add salt and vinegar and stir in gently. Turn heat to low. Place spinach in one layer on top of beans, and pile steaming rice on top of the spinach, leave until the spinach softens, mix gently and serve. Add vegan “cheese” of choice (optional).

Potato-Leek Soup

This comes from an Italian cookbook of mine. I tend to cut back on the water/broth and make it much thicker - but then, I’m not a soupy person, I like stew.

1tbsp olive oil; 2 leeks, white and green parts sliced into thin wheels; 2 cups chopped onion; 2 cloves garlic; 2 large potatoes, diced; 4 cups veggie broth; 2-3 tsp fresh rosemary leaves; 1 cup barley

Heat a large soup pot over medium heat and sautee leeks and onion for 5 minutes. Add garlic, sautee another minute. Add potatoes, barley, veggie stock - reduce heat, simmer 30 minutes. Serve.

Today I’m going to offer you a medley of side dishes. These work with various dishes, fill corners on leftovers and come in handy on potlucks.

Italian Style Zucchini

This is so easy and so quick - sometimes I just have it for lunch by itself. It came from an old neighbor friend of mine, published in a worn old book she let us borrow but that I never wrote down the name of. I’ve put it on top of brown rice and enjoyed every bite.

1 onion, chopped; 1 # zucchini, sliced; 1 cup tomatoes, sliced/chopped; olive oil; breadcrumbs (optional).

Sautee onions in a skillet over medium heat in olive oil until golden. Add zucchini and cook for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook 5 minutes. Serve.

Pilafian’s Pilaf

This is actually a recipe of my mother’s. She serves it with shrimp or salmon, I tend to bring it to potlucks - and it is absolutely an incredible dish!

4 tbsp “butter”; 1 handful fine eggless noodles; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1/2 cup chopped onion; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 cup sliced button mushrooms; 1/2 tsp dried dill weed; 1 cup white rice (uncooked); 2 cups veggie broth; 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Melt butter in 2 qt saucepan over medium heat. Stir in noodles and let them soften (don’t let them burn!). Add garlic, onion, mushrooms and dill, sautee. Stir in rice and sautee until it takes on a transluscent appearance.

Meanwhile, heat broth and salt to boiling in another pan. Pour over rice mixture, cover pan tightly and simmer 25-30 minutes. DO NOT PEEK!

Remove pan from heat, toss pilaf lightly, then cover pan, placing a dry cloth between the pan and lid to absorb moisture. Let stand 10 minutes, add pine nuts. Makes 6 servings.

Colcannon

An adaptation of an old Irish favorite. I’ve frequently had just this for lunch and been one happy camper.

4 cups chopped potatoes; 4 cloves minced garlic; 3 tbs “butter”; 4 cups chopped kale; 1tbs soy sauce; 2-4 tbs soy milk

Boil potatoes in a pot of salted water for 20 minutes (until mashable). Add butter to garlic in the bottom of pot. Add kale and toss well. Add soy sauce, cook over medium heat. Drain and mash the potatoes, adding soymilk (I add a little “butter” too) until smooth and creamy. Stir in kale, salt and pepper to taste.

Pizza!

Who doesn’t like pizza? Oh nevermind, I know a few people out there don’t care for it… but around here, we enjoy the Italian pie about once every 2 weeks.

I had to discover a good whole-wheat pizza crust recipe.  You just can’t buy a better pizza crust than one made at home from fresh ingredients!

A little tip I found from a friend: add dried herbs to the sugar before adding the warm water - it will help them rehydrate and add more flavor to your pizza crust.

As for the “cheese” we have found that the rice cheese doesn’t melt super well, but it does have great flavor. The soy based veggie cheese does very well at melting - so if you like do a mixture of the two. We have also been known to dab a little vegan cream cheese or sour cream in with our toppings - super yummy stuff!

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

1tsp sugar; 1.5 cup warm water (110 degrees); 1 tbsp yeast; 1 thsp olive oil; 2 cups Soft White flour; 1.5 cups Hard Red flour; 1tsp salt

In large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast on top, let stand 10 minutes until foamy.

Stir in olive oil and salt, and the 2 cups flour. Add the Hard Red wheat flour a little at a time until dough comes together. Knead on flourered surface 10 minutes. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Oil your pizza pan, and flatten the dough on the pan, let rise 30 min. Prebake crust 10 minutes, then add your sauce and favorite toppings.

Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes.

In the middle of winter, there really is something to be said for comfort food. This is soooo good with “buttered” bread on the side:

White Bean Soup

1 cup dried cannelli beans (soak overnight, drain, set aside); 2 cups water; 4 tbs olive oil; 1 large onion, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 1 stalk celery, chopped; 1 sprig parsley, rosemary and thyme; 1 bay leaf; 1/4 tsp pepper; 4 cups veggie stock; juice of 1/2 lemon; salt to taste.

Sautee onion in deep-bottom pot over medium heat for five minutes. Add the garlic and sautee for another minute. Ass beans, celery, parsley, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and pepper, stir in veggie stockand bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 1.5 hours.

Vegetarian Enchilada Bake

My hubby and I love Mexican food. It’s next to impossible to have the real thing and still be vegan, but I’ve worked at coming up with a recipe that meets the occasional “I want Mexican dinner” craving. If I get that bumper crop of tomatoes this year, I’ll be making lots of fresh salsa to make this even yummier.

I’m honestly not certain where this particular recipe came from. If I’ve “borrowed” it from somewhere, please speak up so I can offer the proper credit, ok?

120z burger crumbles; 1pkt taco seasoning; 2 15oz cans enchilada sauce; 18 corn tortillas (recipe to make your own below); 2 15-oz cans pinto beans, drained; 2 green onions, chopped; 2 cups vegan cheddar cheese, shredded; 1 14oz can diced green chilies; 2 cups corn chips, crushed

Preheat oven to 375. In small bowl mix burger crumbles and taco seasoning.

Coat 9×13 pan with oil

In layers, spread enchilada sauce, 6 tortillas, 2 cans pinto beans, handful of green onion, 1/3 of shredded “cheese”, half the can of green chilies, more enchilada sauce, 6 more tortillas, all the crumbles, 1/3 of the cheese, remaining chilies, more enchilada sauce, final 6 tortillas, more sauce and the remainder of the cheese. Cover in foil and bake 30 minutes.

Remove foil, top with crushed chips, bake another 15-30 minutes until bubbly and browned.

Tortillas

3 cups flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 1tsp salt; 4-6 tsp “butter”; ~1 1/4 cups water

Mix dry ingredients together. Add “butter” and a little warm water at a time until dough is soft, not sticky. Divide into 12 small rolls. Roll out on floured surface until roughly 8″ round.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Cook each side of each tortilla for a few seconds, then flip. They will have little brown speckles over them when they are done.

Spanish Rice

This rounds out the meal some if you have a bigger family or are expecting company.

2tbsp veggie oil; 1 cup rice (uncooked); 1 medium onion, chopped; 2 1/2 cups water; 1 1/2 tsp salt; 3/4 tsp chili powder; 8 oz tomato sauce.

Sautee rice and onion in oil for 5 minutes in pot or deep skillet. Stir in remaining ingredients. Boil, reduce heat, cover/simmer for 30 minutes. Serve.

How much variety do I usually get for breakfast, in reality? Well, honestly like everyone else, I get into a rut. I’ll have oatmeal every morning for a week and not even add blueberries to it. Many times I just slather some butter and jam on a few slices of bread, warm up water for tea and call that it. Every morning during the warm months of the year I make fruit smoothies, changing only the fruits that go in it.  How’s that for exciting? Weekends I’ll make something fancier like baking powder buscuits or pancakes, which I’ve posted all those recipes previously.

Truthfully speaking, I rush breakfast except on weekends. I just need to eat and move on with the day. I’m well aware that the first meal of the day should be big: “breakfast like a king, dinner like a prince, supper like a pauper” and all that. Still, I can’t seem to break into that. Breakfast never really excites me.

You can always add a fruit bowl to your oatmeal or cereal in the morning, variety being the spice of life and all that. However, from here on, I’m nearly out of breakfast recipes. There’s always another fruit bread or muffin, like pumpkin or cranberry bread in the Fall, or apple muffins even peach pie for breakfast.

I love pie for breakfast. Actually, nearly any dessert makes a great breakfast in my opinion. Chocolate cake is maybe not ideally health-foodie, but think about it this way: far better to ingest those calories and the caffeine in the morning when you have time to work it off during the day, right?

At any rate, I want to focus more on dinner recipes from here on - reason being, lunch is usually leftovers for me - I very rarely need to cook anything fresh, and how many people actually have access to a kitchen during the weekday?

Without further ado, today’s recipe:

Creamy Fettuccine

This wont fool anyone expecting a heavy cheese dinner. Oh no, no sir, it will not. But it will still satisfy cravings for a creamy pasta dish.

1 tsp “butter”; 1 small yellow onion, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 cup finely chopped mushrooms; 6 oz silk tofu, 1tbs white wine, 1 1/2 cups soymilk; 1/2 cup finely ground raw cashews; 1/2 tsp salt; dash nutmeg, 2 tsp minced parsley (fresh) for garnish, 1# fettuchine

Heat butter in skillet over medium heat - add onion and garlic and sautee for 5-7 minutes. Stir in wine and mushrooms.

Blend tofu, cashews. onion mixture, soy milk, salt, nutmeg in a food processor until smooth, transfer back to pan and heat on low. Serve over fettuccine.

Mushroom Stroganoff

Quinoa Pilaf

French Toast

Sometimes you can substitute an overripe banana for eggs - this works very well for cake recipes and in this case, French toast.

2-3 bananas, mashed; 3/4 cup soymilk; 1 tsp cinnamon; 1tsp vanilla; vegan “butter”

Stir bananas, soymilk cinnamon and vanilla until mixed very well (you can use a blender or food processor). Dip bread slices into the mixture, coating both sides. Fry in “butter” on a medium-hot skillet until golden brown.

I like to spread warm applesauce with cinnamon on top of mine, rather than use syrup.

Lunch: Quinoa Pilaf

If quinoa (pron. “keen-wa” is a new one for you, you are in for a treat. It’s sorta like rice, only not. This recipe atually comes off the box, is light and still filling, and pretty quick to cook up.

6 cups cooked quinoa (according to directions on box) 1/2 cup carrot, diced; 1/2 cup green onions, diced; 1/2 cup celery, diced; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 1/4 tsp oregano; 1/4 cup olive oil; salt to taste

Sautee veggies in oil until onion is clear, then stir in oregano. Add to cooked, hot quinoa.

Mushroom Stroganoff

I have worked, and worked, and worked to make this recipe great. It’s finally at a state where I am confident enough of it to serve it for company, that’s saying a lot.

1# egg-free pasta; 1/2 cup chopped onion; 1tbsp oil; 1# “burger crumbles” (optional, I use 2 portobella mushrooms instead); 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1/4 tsp pepper; 1/8 tsp salt; 1/2 carton tofuitti “sour cream” and 3/4 cup white wine; 1# button mushrooms, sliced

Cook pasta according to directions. In skillet over medium heat, cook onion until golden. Add all other ingredients save wine and sour cream. Once reduced, add wine, sautee without lid until absorbed. Mix in the sour cream, once warm, serve on top of pasta.