Gluten- Free Oats

Things are looking up!

I have the oats set to cook for 3 hours on high in my trusty slow cooker so that they will be ready in the morning. Here's hoping they turn out well!

Zoey's Kitchen - Special Gluten Free Edition!

Greetings everyone!

Things have been pretty boring in Zoey's Kitchen lately and even when we have tried new recipes I haven't had the energy to photograph them.

We had some family visit and that was wonderful. Everyone loves seeing baby Zoey (and Zoey herself) and I think that baby Zoey loves all the activity.

Unfortunately baby Zoey has started getting a rash. We took her to the doctor today and the doctor thinks that she may have some skin eczema (ugh). He said that often eczema is the result of a dietary allergy and asked about baby's Zoey diet. Well, since baby Zoey is breastfed we ended up talking about me.

Turns out our pediatrician recommends the China Study diet to all his patients (pretty cool, huh?) so once he knew that I try to follow that diet already milk and eggs were out as possible causes.

** This is an aside, but I have found it pretty interesting that whenever there is an issue with a baby, doctors and lactation consultants tell you to cut out dairy. Even my neighbor who LOVES dairy and eats all sorts of animals came over to talk to me and suggested that I cut dairy out of my diet even though that is super hard to do <-- her words, not mine. **

Anyway, it went something like this:

milk? No
eggs? No
nuts? Very rarely
wheat gluten? *cringe* Yes, lots of wheat. Sprouted bread toasted is my go-to snack these days. I am a big fan of all things grain so there is definitely plenty of it in my diet. Or should I say- there WAS plenty of it in my diet.

Just for fun (and for baby Zoey's health) I am going to stop the gluten for now. My doctor asked if I was willing to give it a try and I was all over it. He said that it would be very restrictive but that I was probably used to that already. (Am I the only vegan who doesn't think that my diet is restrictive? If anything I think I eat much healthier and have more variety now than at any other time in my life).

I can still eat all the beans, rice, vegetables and fruits I want. And maybe quinoa- I need to look that one up. I can live without bread so don't expect any crazy gluten-free baking going on around here. If you have any tips for gluten-free eating I would love to hear them.

And while I do hope that baby Zoey's rash heals up quickly, I hope that wheat isn't the culprit because the truth is... I really will miss oatmeal.

Sweet Potato Rounds

Good News Everyone!

The last of my pregnancy aversions has gone away and I can now enjoy the delicious and nutritious sweet potato! I was a little nervous when Mr. Zoey brought home a 10 pound box of sweet potatoes from Costco last weekend because it was about a year ago that we bought an identical box, only to find out that I was pregnant and totally unable to tolerate all things sweet potato.

Anyway, our 10 pound box sat on the table for about 2 days with Mr. Zoey asking me to "research" sweet potato recipes and me stalling because I was afraid of what cruel fate the sweet potatoes might still have in store for me. So, as with most of the cooking these days, he finally took matters into his own hands and created these delicious sweet potato rounds.

These are super easy and super yummy and worth trying since sweet potatoes are in season right now. I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that our box is already almost half empty.

Sweet Potato Rounds

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato/ yam

Directions:

1. Slice sweet potato into rounds and place on a baking sheet (no oil needed)
2. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes
3. Flip the rounds over and bake an additional 7 minutes
4. Enjoy with ketchup or your favorite dipping sauce.

More Kale Green Smoothies Please!

My mom asked me for my kale green smoothie recipe the other day and I told her that I thought it was on Zoey's Kitchen. We figured out pretty quickly that I am not using that recipe any more, so I thought it was time for an update- especially since I am in love with kale again.

Yes, kale and I had a brief period of separation during my pregnancy but things are looking up (which is perfect timing since kale is getting GREAT this time of year)

So here is what I do:

Kale Green Smoothie

Ingredients

Kale (as much as you can fit in your blender- see picture above)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 1/2 cups of water
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
Splash of oatmilk or soymilk (optional)

Directions

1. Add everything to the blender and blend!

You will get 2 glasses this size:



Tonight Mr. Zoey and I each got a glass but when I make these during the day I drink both glasses (yum!) I usually drink one glass in the morning and another in the afternoon.

Of course, this habit has me going through 1-2 bunches of kale from Whole Foods a day but if we get our kale at the farmers market the bunches are big enough to last for 3 days. I am considering growing our own kale out on the deck- but tonight Mr. Zoey told me "there is no way we will be able to grow enough kale for our smoothies". I know he is right, but I still might give it a try!

** If you are new to green smoothies here is a trick that we used to get started: Don't start out filling your blender with kale- just add 1-2 kale leaves to a fruit smoothie blend that you already enjoy. Each time you make a smoothie add and extra piece of kale. I read once that a great way to start is to have 20% greens and 80% fruit. You slowly adjust your ratio until you are blending 80% greens and 20% fruit. Your tastes do adjust over time and you will probably find yourself thinking that these smoothies are delicious! **

Delicata Squash

What's this Zoey? Did your dad bring home a new kind of squash?

Mr. Zoey has stepped it up and in addition to cooking, he is also doing the bulk of random grocery shopping for now. Tonight he brought home this squash to try out. Neither of us knew what to do with it, so we decided to microwave it as if it was an acorn squash.

As an aside I should mention that we are in an acorn squash frenzy at our house. We are splitting one every night. Mr. Zoey requires that we keep 10 acorn squashes on our kitchen counter at all times and has been constantly replacing our stash at farmers markets.

Why 10 squashes? Apparently that way when the squash season ends and we can't get good squashes at the farmers market, we can still enjoy squash for 10 more days. Well, there is no argument against that, I do love a good acorn squash.

But back to the task at hand. We cut the squash in half and microwaved it for 10 minutes to create this:


Well, 2 of these to be precise. It was pretty tasty because it tasted exactly like acorn squash! It is fun to try new things but for now I think we will stick with acorn squash since we can get them for 50 cents near our house.

I might get adventurous and pick up some new types of squash since this experiment went well. Are there any types of squashes we should specifically try while they are in season?

Twice Baked Potatoes

I haven't had many twice baked potatoes in my life but I have always been fond of them. Unfortunately for me now, I think they are traditionally full of cheese and not so healthy. I have been wanting to make a healthy version for awhile now and so I finally decided to just give it a try.

My recipe was based loosely on the recipe in Vegan Vittles. I picked up a copy of that cookbook from the library but I don't think I will make anything else from it. Many of the recipes were fake-meat heavy and that isn't how we roll here in Zoey's Kitchen.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 baking potato
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 sprinkle of garlic powder
1 sprinkle of black pepper
1/4 cup plain non-dairy milk
1 sprinkle of paprika (optional)

Directions:

1. Prick the potato with a fork and bake in the oven for about 1 hour at 350 degrees. (I made big slices with a knife and this backfired- learn from my mistakes and use a fork)

2. Remove the potato from the oven and slice in half.

3. Carefully scoop out the inside of the potato into a bowl.

4. Add all ingredients except the paprika to the potato insides and start mashing/ mixing.

5. Scoop the mixture back into the potato shells and sprinkle with paprika (if using)

6. Bake the potatoes at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

7. At the end, you can turn the broiler on for a few minutes for a crispier potato top.

8. Enjoy! It tasted a lot like garlic mashed potatoes inside a potato shell which was pretty great in my book.

I made these in part to share with Mr. Zoey when he got home from work yesterday. I asked him which half he wanted and he told me that he doesn't like twice baked potatoes. Has he ever had them? No.

Whatever, that means more for me. As I was eating, he asked for a taste and told me that he thought it was okay. But then, tonight at Whole Foods he added two baked potatoes to our basket and asked if it was possible to double the recipe I made so that he could have a whole potato next time. I think that means he liked it!

Pumpkin!

As promised, Zoey and I roasted a pumpkin! I didn't get many pictures because I decided to roast the pumpkin at 10pm and I was already a little tired.

Here's what we did:

1. Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds for later roasting (yum).
2. Place the pumpkin face down on a baking sheet with some water.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.
4. Open the oven and see this:


5. Scoop the pumpkin out and blend in a food processor.
6. Bake pumpkin oatmeal cookies!

I am pretty sure that I can freeze the leftover pumpkin but I am not quite sure how to do that yet so it is in my fridge. I am guessing that one pumpkin made about as much pumpkin mush as 2 cans of pumpkin. So at $4.00 a pumpkin I am about breaking even. Except, the money went to a local farm near my house and I don't have to dispose of 2 cans.

Overall, a success! I am not sure if the fresh pumpkin made the cookies any better because they are already the best treat ever in my mind. This new batch was equally as amazing.

So there you have it- we roasted our own pumpkin this year and I will probably pick up some more at the farm this weekend. I have heard that I can also use butternut squash to make "pumpkin puree" and I may try that since the butternut squashes are only $1.00 right now.

If you have any tips on how to freeze this puree, leave me a comment!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Back to Whole Foods for more organic pumpkin in a can! We forgot our fancy reusable bags so we ended up with a brown bag. Turns out a brown bag makes an awesome cat fort. Zoey had more fun with this paper bag than with any of her other toys. Funny how that works.

As I mentioned in my last post, we were preparing for our childbirth education class reunion on Saturday and I wanted to make a great treat. I normally try to make my treats as healthy as possible- but this time I wanted something really rich and good. I found a recipe for pumpkin oatmeal cookies here and decided to give them a try. Zoey and I added chocolate chips for extra goodness (instead of walnuts and raisins) and the results were delicious. They were great right out of the oven but they were even better the next day! (I never believe claims like that but it is really true this time)

The picture isn't the greatest but I seriously cannot say enough good things about these cookies. I even told Mr. Zoey that instead of baking a cake this year for my birthday I may just want to make these cookies again.



As for reviews? The consensus seemed to be that people were hoping I would make chocolate pumpkin muffins again but these cookies were a close second.

Zoey and I disagree, we think these cookies are the best! I think this ends my quest for the perfect pumpkin muffin because I have found the perfect pumpkin baked good. I want to make these again for everyone I know to share the vegan cookie love!

The Best Pumpkin Muffins?

As promised, Zoey and I made "the best pumpkin muffins" that I keep reading about during Vegan Mofo. All links lead back to here and that is the recipe that we used.

Zoey had to check out a new can of pumpkin for the blog. We used to be able to get pretty cheap cans of pumpkin at Whole Foods but now we are stuck with this fancier stuff for $2.00 a can. I did buy a small pumpkin last weekend to try roasting for my own pumpkin puree but that's a different blog post.

We didn't have any almond milk so I used oat milk instead for these fabulous results:



Check out the insides:



Yum. I am not sure if these are the best pumpkin muffins I have EVER had or dreamed about, but they were pretty tasty. They were light and fluffy and they were even better the next day for breakfast. For a muffin with whole wheat flour and low in fat, I would say that these were a success!

Now tonight I am trying to plan out another treat to take with me to a potluck tomorrow. Our childbirth preparation class is having a reunion and I want to bring something pumpkiny! This means I will be testing recipes tonight and luckily my family is visiting so we have lots of tasters!

I'm losing my mofo

It's 7:45 pm and do you know what you are having for dinner? I don't, but here's a funny picture of our cats!

Mr. Zoey and I were secretly hoping that one of our favorite restaurants, Laughing Planet would have the East Indian Burrito on special and we could have that for dinner. But they don't have that burrito tonight so we are out of luck there. We have some taco soup in the fridge but we used a new seasoning packet in it and I don't like it quite as much. Plus, I am grieving the fact that Morning Star crumbles are no longer going to be vegan. I am mourning my Morning Star crumbles! Luckily Mr. Zoey is happy taking it to work for lunches so it won't go to waste.

I did make a batch of blueberry bran muffins earlier, can those count as dinner?

This is one of those moments when I realize that I need to get back in meal planning mode. I'll probably have rice and beans for dinner with a kale green smoothie.

So nothing new to report here tonight and it isn't looking good for the weekend either- my inlaws will be in town visiting which means a fair amount of eating out. Tomorrow I am planning to test out some pumpkin muffins that are rumored to be "the best" pumpkin muffins. So we'll see!

** Mr. Zoey took that picture! **

McDougall Right Foods Breakfast

I usually do a pretty good job of making a wholesome breakfast for myself, but some mornings with a 3 month old don't allow me that luxury. Some of you may know that Dr. McDougall is one of the reasons that I eat a vegan diet so I was actually pretty excited to see that there were easy meals like this out there that are "McDougall approved". Even so, I wouldn't have bought these under normal circumstances- they are leftover from food I brought to the hospital when I gave birth to baby Zoey. I was worried that the hospital wouldn't have good food so I came prepared. Mr. Zoey and I seriously showed up with 2 full bags of groceries and a cooler full of fruit. You can never be too prepared!

It turned out that the hospital actually had really good food and we had a lot of leftovers from our stockpile to bring home. This breakfast was one of those leftovers.

I heated up some water and added it to the cereal while I played with baby Zoey for about 5 minutes. I added 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed too for the Omega 3s.


Here it is all mixed up and it was actually really good! This isn't a flavor that I would have picked out on my own (Mr. Zoey picked some of the flavors) but it might be my favorite one. Or, it might be that any food that is easy to prepare tastes amazing while you are entertaining a baby.

There are also some lunch/ dinner meals like this that we have and never ate so I may give some of those a try.

Curry Roasted Chickpeas

I know that this may come as a surprise, but I actually have been eating more than muffins during Vegan Mofo. Aside from my daily sugar indulgence I eat a lot of beans, grains, vegetables and fresh fruit. This dish came to be because I had some leftover garbanzo beans that were getting a little old in my refrigerator. I thought that if I roasted them up Mr. Zoey and I could eat them as a pre dinner snack.

I wanted to do a variation of my first attempt with roasting chick peas and since curry spice was the first thing I saw in my spice cabinet, that is what I went with. I bring you curry roasted chickpeas!

Curry Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients:

Chickpeas (soaked and cooked or from a can)
Curry powder
Salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add a few shakes of curry spice to the chickpeas and mix well.
3. Bake for 40 minutes or so, being sure to stir every 15 minutes.
4. Open your windows so the neighbors think: "Wow, things coming from that kitchen always smell so good!"
5. Remove chickpeas from the oven and add salt to taste if desired.

These were a major success. Mr. Zoey and I ate them quickly and he asked me if we had more. When I said that we didn't, he walked into the kitchen poured some dry chickpeas into water so they could start soaking and asked me if we could have them again tomorrow.

Blueberry Bran Muffins

Well, apparently two days off from Vegan MoMuuuuu! is all I needed because this morning I made muffins. I have been noticing bran muffins showing up on other blogs recently and it occurred to me that I have never actually made bran muffins. I wasn't even sure where I might find bran in the grocery store.

So last night I checked out the bulk foods section of my grocery store and found a bag of wheat bran. Using this recipe (sort of) I made a half batch of muffins this morning for breakfast. These are definitely neighbor-worthy muffins. The only trouble is that there aren't enough left to take over to the neighbors. Yes, they are that good. If you are looking for a bran muffin recipe to try, try these. They are amazingly good. Here is my veganized version for a full batch:

Blueberry Bran Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened oat milk)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tablespoon ground flaxseeds
4 Tablespoons water
1/2 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)

Directions

1. Combine wheat bran and non-dairy milk in a small bowl.
2. While that is soaking, mix together the applesauce, flaxseeds, water, brown sugar, and vanilla.
3. Add in the bran mixture and mix together.
4. Add the dry ingredients until everything is combined.
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 19 minutes.

Yum yum yum, I think I will go have another muffin!

Ask Zoey- celebrating 100 posts

This is Zoey's 100th blog post! I've asked Zoey to sit with me at the computer and reflect on what we have learned and shared over the past year. One of the more interesting ways to do that is to see what people searched for on google that lead them here to Zoey's kitchen. Here are some of our favorites from the past month:

Frequent search terms:

1. The number one thing people come to Zoey's kitchen for seems to be kale green smoothies and that is fantastic! I am happy to report that my pregnancy induced kale aversion is fading away and I am back on the green smoothie bandwagon myself. Actually, the other night at Whole Foods I wanted to get a big bunch of kale AND rainbow chard and Mr. Zoey suggested that I pace myself. So this week kale and next week rainbow chard smoothies.

2. People are starting to find my blog by searching for "Zoey's Kitchen" which made me feel pretty cool until I realized there is a restaurant named "Zoes Kitchen" in the south. Perhaps that is what my Texas and Alabama readers were actually looking for.

3. Foofa Birthday cake: This one is still a puzzler. Even after google searching I am not sure what this is and I am even more confused by how people end up at Zoey's Kitchen when searching for it. So I just did a google search and sure enough my blog is the 3rd one down. Let's see if I can perform a pubic service and direct people in the right direction: Umm... is this really what you are looking for?

Questions:

"How do I unfreeze bread?"
Zoey's answer: Remove bread from freezer.

"Can you freeze garbanzo beans?"
Zoey's answer: I think so but I haven't tried it. That would make a good challenge for us because we are eating some beans out of cans again.

Confessions:

"I forgot to soak my chickpeas" and "I forgot to soak my garbanzo beans".
Zoey's thoughts: Same person unhappy with the first answer he/ she discovered? Or two different people who might just be perfect for each other.

Finally, "Zoey has had a baby".

Well, sort of. She is certainly helping out!

Apple Oatmeal

I'm muffined out. I didn't think it could happen, but it did. I now walk around the house referring to Vegan Mofo as "Vegan Momuuuuuu" for Vegan Month of Muffins!

So this morning I decided to try a recipe for apple oatmeal. My favorite oatmeal flavor packet as a kid was the apple cinnamon packet- probably only because that was my older sister's favorite flavor and I always wanted what she was having. As a bonus I found out that she is coming out to Oregon to visit me in November, I am so excited!

Apple Oatmeal

Ingredients:

1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 gala apple (I was going to use a whole apple, but I ate half of it while I was waiting for the water to boil)
1 Tablespoon ground flaxseeds (optional)
cinnamon and brown sugar to taste

Directions:

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil on the stove.
2. Add oats and diced apple pieces
3. Cook on mediuim heat for 5 minutes
4. Remove from heat and stir in flaxseeds, cinnamon and brown sugar.

This didn't taste quite the same as the packages I remember but I bet it could have if I had added a lot more sugar. I was too hungry to call Zoey into the kitchen for a sniff so I snapped a picture of her in her natural habitat on a sunny day.

Pumpkin-Apple Spice Muffins

Making muffins in the evening for vegan mofo is actually becoming relaxing for me. Last night Zoey's dad played with the baby while I had a chance to make these muffins in the kitchen. I love pumpkin flavored baked goods, so it wasn't a surprise that I was instantly drawn to this recipe for pumpkin-apple spice bread.

As always, I decided to "muffinize" the recipe and I left out the oil. I only made a half batch which made 6 muffins. I sampled one fresh out the oven and sent the rest with Zoey's dad to work this morning. I figure if I spread the muffin love between Zoey's dad's place of work and various neighbors, no one will know that I am making muffins every night. Well, no one EXCEPT THE ENTIRE INTERNET. That's you! Oh- I need more sleep.

Anyway, the recipe was easy to follow and I baked the muffins for 25 minutes on 350 degrees which seemed just right. They weren't quite as rich and pumpkiny as I was hoping for, but all that means is that the quest for my dream pumpkin muffin continues!

Apple Oat Muffins

Well, apparently vegan muffins are what Zoey craves so the quest for "healthyish" muffins forges onward! This recipe comes directly from Food For Life, by Neil Bernard. You can find the complete recipe here. Note: I add 1/3 cup of water because otherwise the muffins come out a little dry.

Also, it's a good idea to let your apple juice concentrate defrost before adding it to the mix. I learned that lesson the hard way the first time Zoey and I made these.

Fresh gala apples. I love apple season!



Muffins fresh from the oven. These taste like healthy muffins but they are pretty good. The apple pieces in the muffins are actually awesome and I may substitute apples again in future muffins when the recipe calls for raisins. These are definitely worth making- the neighbors loved them and I noticed Zoey's dad tossing more apple juice concentrate into the grocery cart today so that we can make more!

Easy Cornbread Muffins

So apparently my desire for a more diverse diet for Vegan Mofo, actually means a more diverse selection of muffins. I even considered trying 20 new vegan muffin recipes for October. When I shared that idea with Zoey's dad he said: "that's a lot of muffins"... and then quickly followed that comment with "not that I'd complain!" Luckily we have neighbors who loved to share in our baked treats and with the weather still warm here, there are always plenty of people outside to feed muffins.

But enough about that an on to easy cornbread muffins. Now that I am getting a little more time to myself I find myself reading through cookbooks again and I stumbled across Saving Dinner: The Vegetarian Way. Not everything in the cookbook is vegan, but lots of things are and several of the dishes suggest cornbread muffins on the side. This morning I woke up wanting black beans and salsa for breakfast (leftover strange pregnancy breakfast craving I guess) and I thought that cornbread muffins would make a nice addition. The cornbread recipe in the book isn't vegan- but it is now with a few easy substitutions.

I made a half batch because 1) Zoey's dad informs me that he doesn't like cornbread muffins, and 2) We don't really need a dozen cornbread muffins between the two if us.

Easy Cornbread Muffins (Adapted from Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way)
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed

3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used oat milk because it is what we had)
1/2 cup of maple syrup
4 Tablespoons applesauce (I used this instead of oil)
6 Tablespoons water

Directions:

1. Allow Zoey to sniff the cornmeal:


2. Mix dry ingredients together.
3. Add wet ingredients.
4. Mix everything together until everything is combined (but don't over-mix)
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes (This is how long I cooked a 1/2 batch, you may a few more minutes if you are making a full batch)
6. Allow muffins to cook for 1-2 minutes before pulling them out of the tin.

These muffins were pretty good, especially considering how easy they were to throw together. Even Zoey's dad came out to the kitchen when he smelled them cooking and asked if he could have some. Every time I make something like this from scratch, I am surprised that I ever bought mixes. Making things from basic ingredients really isn't as hard as I always thought it would be.

So here was my breakfast this morning- the cornbread made it feel like a special treat!

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

Here in Zoey's kitchen we are always on the lookout for new muffin recipes. Since this recipe uses pumpkin as a binding agent, each muffin offers almost a full day's worth of vitamin A. We also use ground flaxseed as an egg substitute so you get a good dose of Omega 3's. As a bonus these muffins are extra chocolatey and delicious. It is pretty much a win all around.

We brought these muffins to our child birth preparation class and they were a big success. This recipe originally came from the carrotsncake blog and Zoey and I veganized it by replacing the eggs with 2 Tablespoons of ground flaxseed and 9 Tablespoons of water. We also made some other changes so I will show you what we do to make these:


Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves (I like cloves better than nutmeg)
2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 can of pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
9 Tablespoons of water

Directions:

1. Add all dry ingredients and mix together.
2. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. I even use a hand mixer sometimes so with this muffin recipe you don't have to worry about "over mixing".
3. Divide batter into 9 muffin containers and cook at 335 degrees (or somewhere between 325-350) for 29 minutes. We use the silicone non-stick muffin pan so the muffins just pop right out.
4. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy!

Vegan Mofo is coming!

It's that time of year again! October is the time when bloggers everywhere commit to writing about vegan food all month. Last year I used the month to get more creative in the kitchen and try out lots of new recipes. Sensing that I need that sort of jump start again I signed up to be a vegan mofo participant again this year. My diet is seriously in a rut and while I think it is pretty balanced with lots of nutrients it is also pretty boring.

If you want to participate in all the fun, or find a list of blogs that will be featuring vegan food all month long, you can check out the details here.

Plus at the end of the month I am getting myself a surprise birthday present. Well, it isn't a surprise for me, but it will be for you!

Simple burritos

It has been awhile blog-world, but I am still here! Apparently taking care of a newborn has the amazing ability to consume your entire day while leaving you feeling like you haven't accomplished anything. In the past month or so I have spent my free moments mostly deciding if I would rather eat a meal or sleep. They are both quite compelling desires and sometimes I decide to eat only to fall asleep half way through the meal without realizing it (Zoey's dad has collected some of these classic moments on film).

So, in an effort to make sure that I am still eating well, Zoey's dad has been doing the lions share of the food preparation. His latest creation? Combining beans, a grain and some vegetables in a glass dish at night so that I can just scoop out a serving for lunch or a snack. I am sharing 2 of my favorites.

The top one is mixed beans, yellow and red bell pepper, corn, garlic, and cilantro on a high fiber wrap. We forgot to add a grain to this batch but since we ate it on wraps, I figure that counts.

The next one is couscous, garbanzo beans and fresh spinach. It is not quite as pretty as the other burrito but I actually prefer it. If you add couscous and garbanzo beans to anything, that quickly becomes a meal that I love.



Since I haven't been in the kitchen much with the camera, I haven't gotten any good pictures of Zoey checking out our food, so here she is just being cute.

Baby Zoey is here!

The non feline baby has arrived! She was born at the end of July and we have been busy getting to know this newest addition to our family. She was a big healthy baby and I joke that it looks like I gave birth to a 1 month old. The first picture is a picture of her at only 4 days old.

Zoey keeps a watchful eye under the cradle:



Zoey's brother/ best friend gets a sniff of the baby's toes:


Zoey's dad is still doing all the cooking while I am recovering and getting the hang of nursing. Luckily he has become a great cook so we are still eating well in Zoey's kitchen.

Curried Indian Potato Stew

Zoey's dad has been busy in the kitchen lately now that Zoey and I are more focused on baby-preparing tasks. He has been checking out books at the library and searching the internet for new recipes to try. This is one of his first recipes that he found on his own and created without any help from me. He even took the picture and asked me to post it on the blog!

This recipe is from the McDougall Program website and the actual recipe can be found here. It is the first recipe in the list. We used fresh cauliflower instead of frozen and we left out the peas. Actaully I didn't even know that there were peas in the recipe until I just looked at it now. I think it would have been great with peas added, but it was great without them so you can make your own choice about that.

He used about 2 1/2 Tablesppons of curry powder spice that we got in the bulk foods section of the grocery store. He also added a little black pepper which gave it a little more zip. We served it over brown rice and hulled barley which makes everything taste even better.

Overall this dish was delicious and we ate it for leftover lunches for 2 days.

He also made the next dish down: Mexican Beans and Rice and that was really good too but we didn't take any pictures.

As for me and Zoey:

We have been busy putting together the baby's room:



Zoey tested out the changing table when I wasn't looking and she was so cute up there that I had to take her picture. It isn't the most flattering image of Zoey that I have, but it captures the moment pretty well. We are getting ready to have the baby any day now!

Taco Soup

One of our favorite go-to meals in the slow cooker is a vegan taco chili/ soup recipe that is super easy to make. We often make this when we have non-vegan friends over for dinner and it is always a success!

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 onion
1 package frozen morning star frozen "hamburger" crumbles
3 fresh bell peppers in a variety of colors
1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can black beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
1/2 cup frozen or canned corn
1 can black olives
1 package taco spice
cumin to taste (optional- it gives the soup a smokey flavor)


*** Note: If you prefer to soak and cook your own beans, you can add 1-2 cups of each type of cooked bean instead of the canned beans. ***

Directions:

1. Saute the onion in cooking spray or a little bit of water for about 5 minutes
2. Add the morning star crumbles and continue to saute for another 5 minutes
3. Add all ingredients to the slow cooker except the olives and mix well
4. Cook on low for 6 hours or cook on high for 3 hours
5. Slice and add the olives
6. Enjoy with baked chips (optional)

We love using the chips to scoop up bites of chili but it is just as good when the chips run out! I meant to get a picture of this in a dish with chips, but we were so excited to eat this that there was no time for final pictures! This dish is also really good the next day, so it is great for leftovers.

Boring Snoring

Well, it has been awhile since Zoey and I have posted and it is mostly because my diet has become extremely boring. I was talking to my sister on the phone the other night and she asked about my blog and when I told her what I have been eating she agreed that what I was eating really has been boring. I eat a lot of plain grains- hulled barley, bulgur, brown rice, oats, quinoa and couscous. I am soaking and eating large amounts of plain beans. And then I am having daily salads with lots of fresh fruit. It has been delicious but not much to blog about.

For some reason the past few weeks it hasn't occured to me to actually mix foods together into a "recipe". Zoey's dad has been more creative on the food front and actually checked out a cookbook all on his own this weekend and was pointing out things that he wants to make. So I am hoping to get a few more things up here on the blog before the baby arrives.

I am also in the process of collecting wholesome vegan non-refrigeratable food to take with me to the hospital when I go into labor. I met with someone at the hospital where I am having the baby and she said that they should be able to get me some wholesome vegan food while I am there but I am not going to leave much up to chance. Does anyone have any recoomendations for packaged foods that I could take with me that would be great for a 2 day hospital stay with no microwave or refrigerator? So far we have individual soymilks, canned beans, grapenuts and a few granola bars. I am at least banking on there being fresh fruit and greens/ salad bar at the hospital.

Triple Berry Pops

At some point in the past few years I signed up for the Vegetarian Times email Newsletter which gets emailed to me about once a week. I normally delete the emails because I have enough new recipes that I am trying, but something about this recipe caught my eye. I have always liked the idea of making my own popsicles and now that the weather is getting warmer, the containers are much easier to find.

The full recipe can be found here.

I bought a bag of mixed organic frozen berries and let them thaw for about 30 minutes on the counter.




I added the white grape juice (although if I make these again I will just use water because there was plenty of sweetness from the berries).


Zoey took a sniff before I blended it all together in my food processor:



Into the popsicle molds they go:



I got impatient and didn't let them chill the full amount of time before trying to break one free to test. That didn't work out very well because I pulled the stick out but could not get the good stuff to come with it. I learned my lesson though and let the other 3 freeze for 3 hours and they came out much more easily.

Now that I have the popsicle molds I am thinking that I will try other combinations!

Barley and Black Beans

One of the joys of pregnancy so far is my new found obsession with eating enough protein in a day. After awhile I realized I just couldn't eat another soy hot dog or boca burger so I decided to be a little more creative.

I discovered hulled barley at Whole Foods and I was shocked by the nutritional power this grain has. One half cup of hulled barley has 11 grams of protein, 16 grams of fiber and only 2 grams of fat. On top of that it has a full days worth of manganese and 60% of my daily dose of selenium.

So I started just eating it plain or mixing it with black beans and as the days have progressed I have gotten more creative. Now I make it like this:

1/2 cup cooked hulled barley
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen vegetables
1-2 Tablespoons of salsa

This dish packs in 24 grams of protein and 28 grams of fiber.

Of course, barley is one of those foods that fills me up super fast, so I usually eat half of the bowl early in the day and the other half in the afternoon.

I couldn't get Zoey to actually sniff this dish but she did make an appearance on the kitchen table while I was taking pictures so that will have to do.



Here it is all mixed together and ready to eat:


It's delicious!

Zoey's dad adds 1/2 a yellow zucchini and a handful of spinach to his bowl. I haven't tried that yet but he loves having it for lunch at work.