Toasted Garlic Buns

This is another Esselstyn recipe from Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  It calls for sprouted grain burger buns from a company called Food for Life, but I don't know where to buy those right now, so I'm just using the whole wheat buns I made yesterday  instead.

Ingredients
4 large elephant garlic cloves, or 2 whole heads garlic
4-6 tablespoons vegetable broth
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
(and presumably some buns for toasting)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Cut top off elephant garlic and peel off outside skin. Wrap garlic in parchment paper, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of broth, tightly seal with foil, and roast for 45 minutes. Cool slightly.

3. Mash garlic in a small bowl. Slowly mix in vegetable broth and chopped parsley until mixture has the consistency of softened butter.

4. Spread on toasted buns or whole-grain bread.  Even better, toast whole-grain bread lightly, spread with garlic mixture, and re-toast!

If you are in a hurry, here is another very garlicky option:
1. Using a garlic press, squeeze garlic cloves into a small dish.
2. Add enough vinegar (any variety), lemon, lime, or other fruit juice or vegetable broth to mix garlic into a paste.
3. Spread garlic on a bun and toast under a broiler until tops are nicely browned.

[Edited 3/2/13: You know what was missing on these?  Butter.  I get that this is a healthy, "safe" recipe and that butter is off-limits, but if I had to leave one ingredient out of the typical garlic toast recipe, it would be garlic rather than butter.  These garlic buns weren't bad, but they just weren't good enough to warrant eating.]

Potato "Fries"

Here is another recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  It's baked French fries.  I'm serving them with the Black Bean Oatmeal Burgers tonight.

Ingredients
Potatoes, red or white, sliced thin, 1 large or 2-3 medium per person
low-sodium tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Arrange potatoes on a baking sheet, spray with tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos, and bake for 30 minutes -- longer, if you like them crispy.

[Edited 2/27/13: These weren't fully cooked after 40 minutes and they didn't taste like much, but Sameer and I ate a bunch of them anyway.  I feel like they should be in a hotter oven, like 400 degrees F.  We sprinkled them with Lusianne Cajun Seasoning afterward in an effort to replicate the fries from Five Guys, and they were significantly spicier than we expected, but I think flavoring them is an effort worth trying again.]

Black Bean Oatmeal Burgers

Yet another recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  I'm making it because it is mostly made up of ingredients I keep on hand at home.  I'll be serving these burgers on homemade 100% whole wheat buns, which are doing their second rise right now.

Ingredients
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 14.5-ounce can tomatoes with zesty mild chilies
1 garlic clove, minced, or 1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup cilantro or parsley (I omitted this.  I don't like how fresh herbs tend to stick out and mess up the texture of this sort of dish.)
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Process first seven ingredients in a food processor until blended.

3. Add to oats and stir.

4. Form into patties, put on a baking sheet, and bake for 8 minutes.

5. Turn oven up and broil about 2 more minutes, until tops are nicely browned. (You can also "fry" the burgers in a nonstick pan until both sides are browned -- or grill on the barbecue.)

6. Serve on whole-grain burger buns (recipe recommends Ezekiel 4:9 brand) with lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, ketchup, or no-tahini hummus.

[Edited 2/27/13: These are quite good, with a sort of Mexican flavor.  The one thing I would change is how I served them.  They're a little mushy and fell apart when I ate one on a bun.  I'd like to try making them as croquettes and serve them over a sort of taco salad.  Simran ate almost half an entire patty.  It took some chewing and she has no teeth, but it didn't prove a problem for her.]

100% Whole Wheat Buns

This is my first attempt at baking anything with 100% whole wheat flour.  I found this recipe on Food.com that has positive reviews, so I'm using it.  I'm also being fancy and making an egg substitute to try to cut out as much of the unhealthy stuff in this bread as possible (by Caldwell Esselstyn standards, this essentially means no oil, salt, or animal products).  I'm not daring enough to take it further than that and leave out, say, the canola oil just yet, and I'm not sure the salt can go at all.

Ingredients

1 cup water
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 egg (I'll be substituting 1 tbs flax seed meal whisked with 3 tbs water -- just allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes before using it.)
3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt 

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in your bread machine in the order dictated by the user manual.

2. Set to "dough" cycle.

3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide into 8-10 pieces and shape into hamburger or hot dog buns.

4. Place on greased cookie sheets, cover, and let rise for 30-40 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

6. Bake buns in oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Allow to cool on wire racks.

[Edited 2/27/13: These turned out great.  I made 8 hamburger buns, cooked them for 12 minutes, and did not grease the baking sheet (in my experience, this just tends to make breads brown too quickly on the bottom, and they don't stick to the sheet anyway).  The flax seed meal egg substitute worked perfectly.  I will definitely be making these again, and I will definitely try using flax seed meal and water instead of beaten eggs in breads again -- particularly anything wheaty or like a muffin or quick bread.]

Tofu Scramble

I couldn't find a recipe for exactly what I want to make, but I'm using this one from food.com and La Dolce Vegan as a base.

Ingredients

1 small onion, diced (I plan to use Vidalia this time.)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb firm or extra firm tofu, crumbled
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon tamari (I will, as always, substitute Bragg Liquid Aminos.)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 medium tomato, chopped

(I plan to add fresh chopped parsley and chunks of smoked apple sage vegan sausage.)

Directions

1. In a large saucepan on medium-high heat, saute the onions in oil until translucent.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the crumbled tofu, garlic, nutritional yeast, tamari, mustard, turmeric, sage, basil, salt and pepper until well-mixed.

3. Add tofu mixture to onions and scramble until tofu is browned and all the liquid has evaporated.

4. Toss with tomatoes and serve immediately.

[Edited 2/25/13: This was really good.  Simran liked it too.  She likes most tofu.  I cooked the chunked vegan sausage with the onions and added chopped Italian parsley (the flat leaf stuff) along with the tomato at the end.  I did everything else according to recipe.]

Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  Here is what I have to use up from my fridge this week:  romaine lettuce, two newly purchased bunches of varied chards and two of kale, a handful of sliced green bell peppers, a cucumber, some carrots, and a couple cups of leftover cut broccoli.  I still have some vegetarian fake meats taking up space in my fridge and freezer too, so I'm working my way through those.  I probably shouldn't have bought them in the first place because they are still processed foods and they aren't half as good as I thought they'd be, but I'm going to finish them.  Here is what I'm making this week:

Tofu Scramble with Home Fries and Kale with Walnut Sauce
I have some apple and sage smoked vegetarian sausage in my fridge that I've yet to try, and the package suggested cooking chunks of it in a scramble.  I'm still trying to make everything a bit healthier for Simran's sake, so it occurred to me to make a scramble with tofu rather than eggs -- something I've never tried before.  I have a bag of home fries with bell peppers in the freezer that I just want to use already so it can stop taking up space in there, so I'll make those to go with it.  The scramble will probably contain the fake sausage, some chopped tomato, and possibly a little chopped spinach, as well as seasonings.  And maybe chopped Vidalia onion.  We'll have some of the fresh kale just blanched with walnut sauce on top -- it's become a staple in our house and a pleasant way to eat more greens.

Stir-fried Vegetables with Tofu and Brown Rice
This recipe will use up the leftover broccoli, bell pepper, and some of the carrots.

Black Bean Oatmeal Burgers on homemade 100% Whole Wheat Buns with Potato "Fries" and Swiss Chard with Walnut Sauce
This is my first attempt at baking 100% whole wheat anything.  It might be awful.  At first I looked for a recipe for sprouted grain rolls and saw how complicated and involved that was (you have to sprout your own grain -- seriously) and decided to scale things back a notch. The burgers are an Esselstyn recipe, as are the "fries," a baked potato concoction that will allow Sameer to use his new mandoline.

Spicy Vegetable Curry
This curry will use up some more carrots, as well as some peas currently in the freezer.  It will also use up some of the extra potatoes I'm getting for the potato "fries."

New York Style Cheese Pizza with Veggies and Green Salad
I'm tired of pan pizzas.  This is my first attempt at a foldable, floppy, New York-style pizza.  I ordered a pizza peel and stone from the internet this morning and they're supposed to get here Wednesday evening, just in time for Pizza Thursday.  The green salad will use the cucumber and romaine lettuce in my fridge.  I'm not sure what kind of dressing I'll make yet.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Vegetarian Meatballs and Toasted Garlic Buns and Kale with Walnut Sauce
The meatballs are from Trader Joe's freezer section and allow me to put off making a new batch of seitans a little while longer.  I always just use a jar of store-bought marinara sauce with spaghetti -- anything without meat or HFCS.  I've never been good at making sauces.  The garlic buns, another Esselstyn recipe, will use up the remainder of the 100% whole wheat buns I'm making this week.  Yes, we're having walnut sauce three times this week.  Possibly more.  It's really good and really easy and not bad for you.

For the seventh day of the week we'll have a spare frozen pizza on hand, as well as ingredients to make vegetarian fish and chips, but I didn't put those on the meal planning because the vegetarian shrimp by the same brand (Sophie's Kitchen) wasn't anything to write home about and I'm in no hurry to eat more of their fake seafood.

Outback Steakhouse-style Horseradish Sauce

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com along with a recipe for the Bloomin' Onion.  I plan to use it on vegan breaded shrimp from the freezer section.  We'll see how that goes.

Ingredients
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbs ketchup
2 tbs cream-style horseradish sauce
1/3 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp dried oregano
1 pinch ground black pepper
1/3 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, ketchup, horseradish, 1/3 teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon oregano, a dash ground black pepper and cayenne pepper; mix well. Keep sauce covered in refrigerator until needed.

Hummus Salad Dressing

It's hard to find no-oil, no-salt salad dressings that aren't abhorrent.  I'm not sure how many taste buds a man has to kill to be able to eat straight vinegar like it's vinaigrette, but I still have too many for that.  Here is the most promising attempt at a legitimately healthy dressing I've seen.  It comes from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and features the no-tahini hummus that our household already likes.

Ingredients
2 heaping tablespoons no-tahini hummus
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, or vinegar of your choice (I'll be using white balsamic vinegar.)
1/2 tsp mustard of choice (I'll be using Dijon this time around -- it works really well in the green onion hummus.)

Directions

1. Mix and pour over greens. 

Horseradish Cream Sauce

I wanted to make an Outback Steakhouse-style horseradish sauce to go with the vegan breaded shrimp I found in the freezer section at Whole Foods, and horseradish cream sauce is the primary ingredient.  I went to buy some from the store, but all of the options were cheap, garbage-style condiments with high fructose corn syrup and other preservatives, so I decided to make my own.  I found this recipe by Alton Brown on the FoodNetwork website.  Alton tends to make the best recipes.  I plan to make maybe half of this into the Outback-style dip and keep half as is.

Ingredients
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup grated fresh horseradish (You can find whole horseradish root in the produce section, typically near the ginger root and herbs.)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Place all of the ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and whisk until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight to allow flavors to meld. Sauce can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 2 to 3 weeks. (One thing I read online about horseradish is that it goes bitter and gross shortly after being grated unless you add vinegar or something to it.  So make the whole mixture in one go rather than grating anything ahead of time.)

Swiss Chard

This is another almost-no-calorie Esselstyn recipe from Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  I don't think I've ever had Swiss chard before.  Tonight I'll be using organic "Rainbow Swiss Chard" because it's the variety that was available and fresh-looking at the grocery store.

Ingredients
About 2 lbs Swiss chard

Directions

1. Remove stems and tough centers from 2 lbs Swiss chard if desired ("they actually taste good," says the recipe).  Wash well and cut into thin strips.

2. Put chard in boiling water and blanch about 5 minutes, until just tender. Eat plain, with lemon juice, with Sweet Corn Sauce (another Esselstyn recipe), or a little Walnut Sauce (another Esselstyn recipe, which I plan to use tonight).

Miraculous Walnut Sauce

This is another recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  A lot of other recipes from the same book seem to reference it.  Having made this twice now, I can verify it is indeed miraculous.  Blanch any dark leafy greens in boiling water for a couple minutes, drain, and add this sauce.  It's garlicky and delicious.

Ingredients (adjust amounts according to your own tastes -- the numbers below reflect how I make it)
1/2 cup walnuts
1 garlic clove
2 tbs low-sodium tamari (I'll be using Bragg's Liquid Aminos, as always.)
1/2 cup (or more) water, depending on how thick or thin you want the sauce

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor.

2. Blend, adding as much water as necessary (about 1/2 cup) to make it the right consistence to pour.

[Edited 2/22/13:  This was amazing.  Not at all what I was expecting.  It's a nice salty, garlicky dressing.  I've already made it twice since posting this.  Sameer keeps being disappointed when he goes back for another helping and sees we've already eaten all the chard, kale, or whatever we put this on.  This was a shocking revelation for both of us -- neither of us were huge dark leafy green fans previously.]

New Potato Salad with Dill

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com while looking for something that resembled the potato salad served at my college's clam bakes.  All I can remember is that it was a dill-flavored salad featuring new potatoes still in their skins.  This recipe meets those criteria.

Ingredients
3 lbs red potatoes, cut into chunks (I'll be using new potatoes, sometimes called "baby" potatoes, and just quartering them.)
1 cup low-fat sour cream
1/2 cup light mayonnaise (I'll be using normal mayo because that's what I buy.)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp white vinegar
4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped (I forgot to buy eggs this week, so I'm going to omit this ingredient and see how it goes.  I don't recall BU's potato salad having eggs in it anyway.)
1 dill pickle, chopped (I am far too lazy for this, so I'll just use a spoonful of pickle relish from my fridge.)
1/3 celery stalk, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 dash hot sauce
1 tbs dried dill weed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 dash onion salt (I have none of this on hand. I could just use onion powder and increase the salt as needed, but since there are other onions in the dish, I think I'd rather skip this ingredient altogether.  I'm concerned it could make the dressing gritty.)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place the potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl to cool.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, eggs, pickle, celery, green onions, and hot sauce. Season with dill, garlic powder, onion salt, salt, and pepper. Pour over the potatoes, and gently toss to coat. Chill at least 3 hours in the refrigerator before serving. 

Cheese Herb Rolls

This is my favorite fresh bread.  The original recipe is from AllRecipes.com, but I've made adjustments on my version below to make it into rolls instead of a loaf of bread.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F / 45 degrees C)
3 cups bread flour
2 tbs dry milk powder
2 tbs white sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs butter, softened
3 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbs active dry yeast

Directions

1. Put ingredients in bread machine in order dictated by machine (for mine this means wet ingredients, with dry on top of that, with dry yeast in a little concave on top of that).  Set to "dough."  [If you aren't using a bread machine, put yeast, warm water, and sugar together to "bloom" for about 10 minutes.  Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl.  Then mix these wet ingredients with the remaining ingredients and knead for about 5 minutes.  Cover and leave dough in a warm place to rise for about 45 minutes.] 

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Punch down dough and knead a few more times, roll dough into 8-12 balls, put them on a baking sheet, cover them, and let them rise another 30-45 minutes, until doubled (or close to it).

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake rolls in oven for 15-20 minutes, until just starting to turn golden brown.  Make sure to eat at least one while they're still hot (they're amazingly good hot with butter melting on them).  Serve with butter.

Ana's Amazing Vegetable Combination

This is another recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
vegetable broth, water, or wine (I'll be using low-sodium broth)
4 ribs celery, chopped (1 cup)
4 carrots, chopped
1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 16 oz. package frozen peas, thawed under running water

Directions

1. In a nonstick saucepan, stir-fry onion in broth, water, or wine, until softened, then add celery and carrots.

2. Blend peas in a food processor until smooth.

3. Add chickpeas and blended pea mixture to onions. Stir, heat, and serve over brown rice or eat just plain.

Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  Here is what I have in my fridge (and pantry) that needs to be used up this week:  celery, romaine lettuce, and a couple pounds of baby red potatoes that didn't get used up in last week's deviled baby potato recipe.  I also went crazy at Whole Foods over the weekend when I discovered some new vegetarian fake meats in the freezer section, so I have quite a bit of stuff to go through from my freezer now.  It's pretty packed in there.  Here's what I'm making this week:

Ana's Amazing Vegetable Combo over Brown Rice, served with fresh bread
This is a super-healthy Esselstyn recipe that's pretty much just vegetables and chickpeas.  I'm not sure how good or filling it will be, so I'm going to make some fresh bread or rolls too so Sameer and I have something else to eat that doesn't involve heating up an entire frozen pizza.  I was mostly inspired to make this dish because I think Simran will like it.  It will also use up the celery and some of the carrots in my fridge.

Vegetarian Tofu Ribs, Dill Potato Salad, Baked Beans, and Basic Sauteed Kale
The tofu ribs are one of the prepared frozen foods I found at Whole Foods recently.  I used to love barbecued ribs as a child when I still ate meat, and Sameer and I have been watching Francis Underwood enjoy them almost everyday on House of Cards, so when I saw these vegetarian ribs, I felt compelled to buy them.  The potato salad will use up my leftover baby potatoes.  I haven't tried this recipe before, but I think it will resemble the potato salad with red new potatoes and dill that was always served at our college's barbecues and clam bakes, which is the only kind I really like.  The baked beans are the canned variety I've had in my pantry for a few months now and been meaning to use up.  I've been wanting the kale again ever since it turned out so well last week.

Vegan Chili over Polenta and Swiss Chard with Walnut Sauce
Last week's sloppy lentil joes turned out so well (Simran even liked them, when I gave her some that hadn't been pureed into baby food) that I've decided to make some as chili this week and serve it over homemade polenta.  This differs from chili I've made in the past because it will be lentil- instead of seitan-based.  Aside from that, the flavor is about the same.  I think I might throw in whatever leftover cooked beans are in my fridge that day too, as well as some frozen corn.  I plan to broil the polenta because it gives it a lovely crisp shell while leaving the center creamy.  The Swiss chard and walnut sauce are Esselstyn recipes to add some much needed green to the meal.

Black Bean Nacho Pizza with Fresh Guacamole
This is the exact same pizza I made last Thursday.  I have leftover whole wheat pizza dough in my freezer, and the pizza was so good (we didn't have a single slice of leftovers) that I've decided to make it again immediately.  This time I'll be making a side of guacamole to serve with it, to make it even more nacho-like.

Thai Green Curry
I've been making this recipe a lot lately -- at least every other week, it seems -- but now that I know how much Simran likes the tofu and sauce, I have even more incentive to make it.  I also have some leftover chopped sweet potato in the freezer that this will use up.

Vegan Breaded Shrimp with Horseradish Dipping Sauce and Green Salad with Hummus Salad Dressing
The vegan breaded shrimp is another prepared freezer food from Whole Foods.  I've decided to try to replicate the horseradish sauce Outback Steakhouse serves with their shrimp and fish and onions and whatnot to serve with it.  The green salad will feature whatever organic lettuce greens the store has this week and whatever leftover romaine from my fridge is still good, as well as a hummus salad dressing from an Esselstyn recipe that features the no-tahini hummus Simran loves so well.  Everything for this meal should be able to be made in advance except chopping the greens, so it's a nice and easy weekend meal.

Whole Fruit Sorbet

I don't remember where I first read the idea to blend frozen bananas and eat them like ice cream, but it works really well.  You get the sweetness of the bananas but you also get all the fiber and nutrition, with none of the added sugar or fat of ice cream.  It's nice if you want to binge on something sweet without worrying about weight gain.  Sameer and I like to use frozen strawberries, ripe bananas, and just enough "Very Vanilla" Silk brand soy milk to make the blender function.  Even my BFF Jackie, who hates fruit, loves that.

In honor of Simran's first Valentine's Day, I'm making a sorbet based on one of her baby foods:  Banana Peach Raspberry whole fruit sorbet.  It should be a pretty pink color and will be a dessert even Sophie (the dog) can enjoy since it's nothing but fruit.  I found organic peaches and raspberries in the frozen foods section at the grocery store, so I'll be using those.  I plan to thaw them in the fridge overnight, puree everything, and then run it through the ice cream maker.  It's more work than the just-blend-frozen-fruit method, but it should make for a smoother, more baby-friendly consistency.

Ingredients
2 cups peaches, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup raspberries (I originally said 2 cups, but after making this a few times, I find it's better with significantly less.)
4 medium ripe bananas (the riper the better, as long as they aren't rotten -- it makes them more sugary and less starchy -- if you ever have bananas that are riper than you care to eat, instead of just throwing them away, peel them and put them in a sealed container in the freezer to use in this recipe later.  FYI: Frozen bananas will look completely disgusting, as do bananas put in the refrigerator, but they are still good and have the perfect consistency to make into other things.)
Alternately, use any fruits you want.  The inclusion of bananas helps make it creamy, sweet, and mild.  Straight berries might be a little too intense.

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse until blended thoroughly.

2. Place fruit blend in an ice cream maker and run it according to the machine's instructions.  For a soft-serve consistency, serve immediately.  For a harder sorbet, put in a sealed container in the freezer for up to 24 hours before serving.

[Edited 5/29/13:  This stuff is fantastic.  However, Simran prefers her sorbet completely melted, possibly because the speed at which she likes to eat it can induce ice cream headache.]

Black Bean Nacho Pizza

This recipe is from EatingWell.com.  I've made some changes below, such as using a slightly different whole wheat pizza dough recipe and using an oven instead of a grill.

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned black beans, rinsed (I have dried black beans cooking in the slow-cooker today instead.)
• 1/2 cup chopped jarred roasted red peppers
• 1 medium clove garlic, quartered
• 1 tablespoon chili powder (This amount made me choke and cough.  I had to add a lot more beans to counteract it. Next time I'll use 1 tsp to start and add more to taste.)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Yellow cornmeal, for dusting
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I'll be using a mixture of pepper jack and cheddar.)
• 2 medium plum tomatoes, diced
• 4 medium scallions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup chopped pitted ripe black olives
• 2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeños
• Whole wheat pizza dough

Directions

1. Prepare Whole Wheat Pizza Dough up to a day in advance (it takes over an hour to prepare, including rising time).

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).  Roll out prepared dough on a lightly floured surface.  Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza pan (to create a non-stick surface) and lay dough on top of it.

3. Place beans, peppers, garlic, chili powder and salt in a food processor and process until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.

4. Apply the mixture from the food processor like a sauce. Add cheese, tomatoes, scallions, olives and pickled jalapeños. Bake in preheated oven 16-20 minutes, depending on thickness of crust (I prefer a thin crust, using half the dough and putting the other half in the freezer for a later date).

Lentil Loaf

This recipe is from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  I've made vegetarian meatloafs (meatloaves?) before, but always with seitans and/or soy.  I'm already planning on making a few taste-based changes to recipe before I try it for the first time.  See italics for my notes.  We'll be eating the lentil loaf with Deviled Baby Potatoes.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups lentils, rinsed
2 1/2 cups water
2 medium onions, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
6 mushrooms, chopped (I will be omitting the mushrooms since Sameer hates them.)
2 cups packed fresh spinach, chopped (I'll be throwing the spinach through the food processor to chop it more finely.)
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 cups brown rice, cooked
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp Mrs. Dash's garlic and herb seasoning blend
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 - 1/2 cup ketchup or barbecue sauce (Sameer hates the very idea of ketchup on meatloaf, regardless of how common it is, and barbecue sauce just sounds weird here.  I might just use tomato sauce like I normally do on veggie meatloaf.  Or maybe tomato sauce slightly thickened with barbecue sauce.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cook lentils in 2 1/2 cups water until tender, then partially mash lentils in the cooking water.

3. Stir-fry onions and mushrooms in broth or water in a non-stick pan.  Add spinach and cook, covered, until spinach wilts.

4. Add onions and mushrooms, tomatoes, rice, garlic sage, Mrs. Dash, and marjoram to lentils.

5. Press into a 9x5-inch loaf pan and spread ketchup or barbecue sauce on top.

6. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes, Mushroom Gravy (another Esselstyn recipe), and salad. 

Sloppy Lentil Joes

This is yet another recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  I look forward to the look of disgust on Simran's face when she tastes it.  Sameer and I will be eating scoops of it over Basic Kale (Esselstyn's recipe recommends serving it over greens, and I think the vinegary flavor of the kale will go well with it), but I'll also have homemade rolls on hand for making it into sandwiches.

Ingredients
3 1/3 cups water
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1 bell pepper (any color), seeded and chopped (1 cup)
1 tbs chili powder
1 1/2 cups dried lentils, red or brown
1 15 oz. can crushed or diced tomatoes
1 tbs low-sodium tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 tbs mustard, Dijon or your choice
1 tbs brown sugar (optional)
1 tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp vegetarian Worchestershire sauce (Annie's brand makes a good vegan one.  I always find it in the fancy section of the condiments and salad dressing aisle of my grocery store.)
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Place 1/3 cup water in a large pot. Add onions and bell pepper and cook about 5 minutes, until onions soften slightly, stirring occasionally.

2. Add chili powder and mix well.

3. Add remaining water, the lentils, tomatoes, and the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and cook over low heat for 55 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meal Planning

Simran's taking her morning nap, so it's time for weekly meal planning.  I took inventory of the fridge and I have lots to get rid of.  I didn't end up making the Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wraps or the Tostadas I planned for last week, and some of my other recipes didn't use all the produce I chopped up for them.  I still have shredded red cabbage, celery that needs to be used soon, some extra broccoli and zucchini that have already been chopped, leftover slow-cooker pinto beans, and a couple roma tomatoes.  Here is what I'm making this week:

Bean Bolognese
Bean Bolognese is a vegetarian, bean-based pasta dish.  It will use up the leftover slow-cooker pinto beans I made to accompany last week's Enchilada Verdes.  It will also use up some of the celery in my fridge and some of the white wine I got for last week's Barley & Fennel Risotto. 

Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wraps and leftover soup from my freezer
Sameer and Simran both love these (Simran eats the avocado and white bean blend with a spoon) and I have to use up the red cabbage soon, so I plan to make these tomorrow.  I considered making fresh soup, but I have lots of little single-serving containers of homemade soup in my freezer that I'd rather get out of there. 

Sloppy Lentil Joes over Basic Kale, served with green salad and whole wheat rolls
This sloppy joe recipe is new to me.  I'm not super excited about it, but it's really healthy, it's something Simran can try, and even if it isn't very good, it should be filling.  I'm making green salad with homemade ranch dressing and homemade rolls to salvage the meal in case the sloppy joes are really awful or just plain bland.  The recipe recommends serving them over greens rather than on buns, hence my addition of the kale recipe.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll have the rolls on hand in case they'd be better on bread.

Lentil Loaf and Deviled Baby Potatoes
Two lentil-based meals in two days.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but at least we'll be done with them before the tastier, easier meals of Thursday through weekend.  Lentil loaf is non-meat meatloaf that Simran should be able to try (it will also use up the small amount of fresh spinach leftover in our fridge, though I might have to throw it in the freezer to ensure it keeps that long).  Sameer and I both really like the deviled baby potatoes, and Simran loves the no-tahini hummus inside them.

Black Bean Nacho Pizza
I found this recipe on EatingWell.com awhile back and don't recall if I've ever made it.  I will make some black beans in the slow-cooker that morning so I don't have to buy any canned beans for this.  I'll have to make some whole wheat pizza crust the day prior.  Since pizza is usually a Thursday meal in our house, it will be our Valentine's Day meal, which I'm sure will be just fine with Sameer.  I'm also going to make a banana/raspberry/peach sorbet for a special Valentines dessert that the entire family -- Simran and Sophie (the dog) included -- can enjoy.

Penne alla Vodka
This dish will use up the leftover chopped broccoli, carrots, and zucchini already in my fridge, which is nice.  It shouldn't require more than 20 minutes of work, which makes it ideal for a lazy Friday.

Tostadas
I was going to make this last week and didn't.  It will use up some of the romaine lettuce and corn tortillas in the fridge, as well as the black beans leftover from the black bean nacho pizza.  I'll just shred some cheese, chop some tomatoes, and make guacamole to go with it.  A quick and easy weekend meal. 

I don't have anything planned for Sunday, but we have a frozen pizza in the freezer and ingredients for spaghetti too. 

Bean Bolognese

Tonight for dinner I'm making bean bolognese, a recipe I discovered awhile back on EatingWell.com.  I'm going to have to start planning for seven dinners per week since we've pretty much stopped getting takeout altogether and rarely resort to frozen pizzas anymore.  I picked bean bolognese for tonight because we have some leftover slow-cooker pinto beans to use up from a couple nights ago and I have enough of the ingredients to throw it together without making an impromptu trip to the grocery store. 

Ingredients

• 1 14-ounce can pinto beans, kidney beans, some other beans, or a mixture of several kinds, rinsed, divided (I'll be using leftover slow-cooker pinto beans I made a couple nights ago.)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes (I don't have any of these on hand, so I'm going to throw a 28 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes in my food processor and then use half of that.)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided (I have no fresh parsley, but I don't like raw parsley on pasta anyway, so I'll sprinkle some dried parsley into the sauce instead.)
• 8 ounces whole-wheat fettuccine (I'm substituting whole wheat spaghetti because it's what I have on hand.)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil. Mash 1/2 cup beans in a small bowl with a fork or potato masher.

2. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, celery and salt; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and bay leaf; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add wine; increase heat to high and boil until most of the liquid evaporates, 3 to 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and their juices, 2 tablespoons parsley and the mashed beans. Bring to a lively simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 6 minutes. Add the remaining whole beans; cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 1 to 2 minutes more.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in the boiling water until just tender, about 9 minutes or according to package directions. Drain.

4. Discard the bay leaf and top the pasta with the sauce; sprinkle with Parmesan and the remaining parsley.

Barley Risotto with Fennel

I found this recipe on EatingWell.com when I was looking for barley recipes.  It sounds good and uses a slow-cooker instead of a human being stirring non-stop.  I was unable to find oil-cured black olives and learned too late that they are just dry-cured olives soaked in oil, so I'm just going to use some leftover kalamata olives from my fridge and see how that goes. 

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs, cored and finely diced, plus 2 tablespoons chopped fronds
• 1 cup pearl barley, or short-grain brown rice
• 1 small carrot, finely chopped
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1-1 1/2 cups water, divided
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups frozen French-cut green beans
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup pitted oil-cured black olives, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Coat a 4-quart or larger slow cooker with cooking spray. Crush fennel seeds with the bottom of a saucepan. Combine the fennel seeds, diced fennel, barley (or rice), carrot, shallot and garlic in the slow cooker. Add broth, 1 cup water and wine, and stir to combine. Cover and cook until the barley (or rice) is tender, but pleasantly chewy, and the risotto is thick and creamy, 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours on high or low.

2. Shortly before serving, cook green beans according to package instructions and drain. Turn off the slow cooker. Stir the green beans, Parmesan, olives, lemon zest and pepper into the risotto. If it seems dry, heat the remaining 1/2 cup water and stir it into the risotto. Serve sprinkled with the chopped fennel fronds.

[Edited 2/6/13:  I found this a little bland.  In order to gather 1 tablespoon of lemon zest, I'd probably have to zest half a dozen lemons (my zester holds a lot hostage -- I should probably just get a new one), so I ended up zesting one lemon and juicing half of it into the risotto.  Don't do that.  The flavor of the juice is too strong and stands out.  Adding a lot of salt helped, and Sameer mentioned that he liked the olives best, so next time I'll at least double the olives, which should also help with the salt.  I'll omit the parmesan because we couldn't even tell it was in there.  I'll add another shallot too.  I feel like adding butter would make it a lot better, but it would make it significantly less healthy, to the point that I will not do that.  Maybe actually finding oil-cured olives would help with that.]

Indian Potato Sandwiches

Sameer grew up eating these sandwiches.  He introduced me to them in college.  They're tasty, easy, and not that bad for you.  Make sure to set aside plenty of time to bake the potato, and leave the butter out to soften while you do so.

Ingredients
Sliced bread (Sameer would probably say to use white, but I'm not buying white bread for just one meal, so we're using the whole wheat sandwich bread we always keep on hand.)
Cucumber, peeled and sliced
Tomato, sliced
Russet potato, baked, peeled (optional), and sliced
Butter, softened
Cilantro chutney

Directions

1. Butter a slice of bread.  Add a layer of warm baked potato slices, a layer of tomato slices, and a layer of cucumber slices.  Apply a thin layer of chutney to a second slice of bread, and close your sandwich.  Serve while still warm.

Broccoli Soup

This recipe comes from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  It sounds easy, healthy, and probably pretty good.  It will introduce Simran to broccoli, and I'm considering adding nutritional yeast flakes and a drained/rinsed can of white beans to see if I can replicate a sort of "broccoli cheese soup" flavor without using any actual dairy [Edited 9/23/2013:  it's quite good -- see updated recipe here]. 

Ingredients
2 large onions, chopped (2 cups)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
12 cups broccoli, cut in 2- to 3-inch pieces (I'm not sure if the recipe intends for me to peel and chopped up the stem, but I plan to.)
4 cups vegetable stock
miso, Bragg Liquid Aminos, or low-sodium tamari to taste (optional)
pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Bring onions, garlic, broccoli, and vegetable stock to a boil in a soup pot. Lower heat and cook for 10-15 minutes, until broccoli is tender.

2. Process in batches in a blender until mixture is smooth and brilliantly green, or use an immersion blender right in the soup pot.

3. Add the miso and, if desired, Bragg Liquid Aminos or low-sodium tamari to taste.

Variation: Before serving, add a few handfuls of spinach or chopped red peppers and frozen corn for color, and you have an even more nutrient-dense soup.

[Edited 2/5/13:  I ended up doubling the liquid (half low-sodium broth and half water) because the amount as written was nowhere near covering the broccoli.  It ended up rather predictably watery.  In the future, I'll try using frozen broccoli because I don't think it will require as much liquid.  I also added a drained/rinsed can of cannellini beans and 6 rounded tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes.  I had no miso, but I used about a tablespoon of Bragg Liquid Aminos.  It tasted like cream of broccoli soup.  Sameer and I both liked it (me, enough to eat the leftovers -- not sure about Sameer), while Simran literally turned up her nose at it.  Literally.  When I finally snuck a spoonful into her mouth, she grimaced like she was being force-fed garbage.]

Meal Planning

As Simran more and more outgrows liking her baby food, I'm aiming more and more to make things I can just blend up a portion of and feed to her.  That means more and more vegan dishes (I'm not giving her dairy yet) and no-salt and no- or almost-no-oil dishes.  So far she seems really into beans blended up with pretty much anything (e.g., avocado or artichokes with lemon juice and fresh ground pepper).  I took inventory of the fridge and have a green bell pepper and some leftover shredded red cabbage to use up.  Here is what I'm planning to make this week.

Broccoli Soup and Indian Potato Sandwiches
The broccoli soup is my super-healthy no-salt, no-oil, vegan recipe of the week from the Esselstyn book, and the Indian sandwiches are basically just bread with slices of baked potato, cucumber, and tomato, butter, and cilantro chutney.  Sameer ate them growing up and introduced me to them in college.

Thai Green Curry
This was such a hit when I made it before that I'm making it again (again with the store-bought curry paste).  It will use up most of my green bell pepper too.

Enchiladas Verdes with sides of Slow-cooker Pinto Beans and Red Cabbage Slaw
The green enchiladas are mostly spinach, which will use up most of the spinach I have to buy for the Thai green curry.  The slow-cooker pinto beans add protein, and the slaw adds some more vegetables and uses up the red cabbage in my fridge, or most of it at least.

Barley Risotto with Fennel
I just found this recipe on EatingWell.com.  Sameer loves risotto, we hardly ever have it, and I have lots of barley in my pantry since, the last time I wanted some, I couldn't find it in stores and had to buy it in bulk from Amazon.  The fennel and French-cut green beans add necessary green vegetables.  I also love that this uses the slow-cooker rather than requiring me to stand over it stirring -- an act that Simran renders nearly impossible.

Spinach and Garlic Pizza
I just made this up so I'm not sure what it entails yet.  I'm thinking tomato sauce (I know making it a white pizza would be logical, but Sameer loves tomato sauce and it's a lot healthier than added oil), garlic, oregano, fresh spinach (effectively using up any I buy this week), a little bit of chopped green pepper (effectively using up that), some chopped onion, and a blend of white cheeses including Asiago and Parmesan, all on top of homemade pizza crust.

Tostadas
This will use up some more of the corn tortillas I'm buying for the enchiladas verdes, as well some of the pinto beans that are accompanying them.  The rest will be basic taco fillings, like cheese, tomatoes, salsa, and lettuce.

Artichoke-Bean Dip

This recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease sounded appealing, and I have a can of artichokes that I'd like to clear from my pantry, so I'm making artichoke-bean dip this week to serve with crudites as a side to veggie burgers on homemade buns.  It will be one of those weekend meals that seems thrown together and simple because it's burgers, but actually takes hours of preparation.  I think this is one thing Simran will eat willingly though, based on her positive reaction to last week's no-tahini hummus.  And she's never had artichokes before.

Ingredients
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts in water, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can navy or pinto beans, drained (Navy or cannellini beans sound much better here for creaminess.)
2 tbs lemon juice
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 green onions, white and green parts, chopped (I didn't have any green onions, so I omitted this ingredient on my first try. Tasted fine.)
pepper, to taste
cayenne, to taste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. This is good with vegetables, cooked greens, crackers, bread, or just alone.

[Edited 2/3/13: I went back and added the "baby food" label because Simran loved this.  She even ate leftovers straight from the fridge the next day.  The texture of the artichokes after going through the food processor reminded me of tuna salad, so I could see adding chopped celery to this.  I bet it would be good in a pita pocket with some sliced tomatoes and a couple leaves of romaine lettuce too.]

Seven Layer Tortilla Pie

I started making this recipe years ago and haven't made it in awhile.  It's really good.  The original recipe is from AllRecipes.com, and it makes good use of leftover tortillas and salsa, of which I have plenty.

Ingredients
2 (15 oz) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup salsa, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs fresh cilantro, chopped
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
7 (8 inch) flour tortillas
2 cups shredded reduced-fat cheddar
salsa & sour cream (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, mash pinto beans. Stir in 3/4 cup salsa and garlic.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together 1/4 cup salsa, cilantro, black beans and tomatoes.

4. Place 1 tortilla in a pie plate or tart dish (or a cookie sheet will do). Spread 3/4 cup pinto bean mixture over tortilla to within 1/2 inch of edge. Top with 1/4 cup cheese, and cover with another tortilla. Spread with 2/3 cup black bean mixture, and top with 1/4 cup cheese. Repeat layering twice. Cover with remaining tortilla, and spread with remaining pinto bean mixture and cheese.

5. Cover with foil, and bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes. Cut into wedges, and serve with salsa and sour cream.