Meal Planning

Time for meal planning.  Here is what I have to use up this week:  one bunch of red kale; portions of green, yellow, and red bell peppers; a couple of flour tortillas; half a can of diced tomatoes; half a sweet potato, diced; three roma tomatoes; a few carrots; and one bunch of basil I apparently forgot to put in last week's pasta primavera.  Here is what I'm making:

Thai Green Curry
I'm making this yet again.  I have way too many of the ingredients not to (bell peppers, sweet potato, basil), and it's easy to get Simran to eat it.

Vegan Chili and Polenta
This is another easy one to get Simran to eat, and it will use up some of the leftover bell peppers and the diced tomatoes.

On The Border-Style Grilled Avocado Enchiladas with Red Chile Pesto and a side of Red Cabbage Slaw
Sameer requested these grilled enchiladas to use up the flour tortillas.

Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wraps and Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup
These wraps will use up (most of) the rest of the shredded red cabbage and carrots.  The soup is just an easy accompaniment that everyone in the family likes.

Tofu Scramble and Kale with Walnut Sauce
This will use up the roma tomatoes and the kale.  We also discovered today that Simran likes the dark leafy greens in walnut sauce.  I put it through her baby food mill with a little unsweetened almond milk to thin it out since she only has two teeth so far.

Spaghetti with Marinara and Kale with Walnut Sauce
This is a quick, easy meal everyone likes.

Meal Planning

I'm late on the meal planning this week.  I'm sick and not feeling like doing this, let alone cooking.  I'll try to make simple stuff this week.  Here is what I have to use up:  a head of broccoli, a whole mess of cut green bell peppers, a bunch of red kale, and a few carrots.  Here is what I'm making:

Thai Green Curry with Brown Rice
This will use up at least some of the green peppers and broccoli.

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup and Veg Turkey Club Sandwiches
Sameer is having dental work done Wednesday, so he has requested this particular soup.  I can throw any leftover broccoli into it alongside the frozen broccoli.  The sandwich is something I've been making for as long as I've been vegetarian.  It's essentially a turkey club but with vegetarian fake turkey from Smart Deli and veg bacon from Morningstar.

Black Bean Oatmeal Burgers on Homemade Whole Wheat Buns with Red Kale and Walnut Sauce
These burgers will use up the carrots and don't require me to buy much.

Black Bean Nacho Pizza
This recipe is my compromise between making exclusively healthy food for Simran's sake and making something we really want to eat.  Aside from the cheese, it's pretty healthy.  Plus it will use up the extra tomatoes and green onions I have to buy for some of this week's other dinners.

Pasta Primavera
The Giada De Laurentiis recipe is relatively healthy (aside from the cheese and oil), and I know it's good because I've made it before.  I plan to use whole wheat pasta.  If I run it through Simran's food mill, she can probably eat it and would like it.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Roasted Vidalia Onions and Diced Tomatoes

Another one from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  It sounds similar to a vegan no-oil capellini pomodoro.  I plan to buy capellini or angel hair pasta for this.  I plan to serve it with a side of kale or chard and walnut sauce.

Ingredients
4 large Vidalia or sweet onions, thinly sliced
1 16-oz package whole-wheat angel hair pasta or whole-grain pasta of your choice
4 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes (recipe recommends Contadina brand for low-sodium)
1/4 cup (or more) chopped basil, cilantro, or parsley

Directions

1. Turn oven on broil.

2. Spread onions on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Broil, checking every few minutes, until the onions are brown and very limp. Turn and brown more. If they get a little burned, they will still taste delicious.

3. While the onions are broiling, cook pasta according to package directions.

4. Put diced tomatoes in a casserole dish and heat on stove top until just beginning to bubble.

5. Add cooked pasta, stir, and heat.

6. Cover the pasta with fresh basil and top with the roasted onions. Do not mix the onions into the pasta. Serve with whole-grain bread and a salad full of vegetables.

Nachos (the good way)

Sameer and I have been talking about nachos for a couple of weeks now.  There is a place in New Hampshire near the Mount Washington Hotel called Fabyan's Station where they serve nachos loaded with sour cream, pickled jalapenos, guacamole, and about a brick-worth of melted cheddar.  We ate them every day that we stayed at the Mount Washington about a year and a half ago and have talked about them weirdly often ever since. 

Since neither of us really thought the tabouli sounded too filling and we don't want to try to feed Simran nachos (or watch her watch us eat them with her enormous, hungry eyes), we decided this week to resurrect Junk Food Dinner.  Before Simran was born, we had Junk Food Dinner about once a week, usually on Friday or Saturday, and it generally consisted of cheese-laden foods and/or numerous appetizers (typically alongside some kind of green salad or vegetable so as not to feel ill afterward -- it was still healthier than most restaurant meals).  Tonight we'll have tabouli salad and no-tahini hummus with Simran and then, after she is in bed, we'll eat Fabyan's Station-style nachos followed by Cadbury Cream Eggs, drink soda (another thing we haven't had in months), and watch TV.  This is what Friday nights are for.

Ingredients
8 oz. yellow corn tortilla chips
2 small tomatoes, seeded and chopped
16 oz. cheddar or cheddar-based cheese blend, shredded (I'll be using full-fat sharp cheddar and colby jack.)
2 tbs sliced pickled jalapenos (or more or less, based on personal preference -- Sameer and I will probably keep the jar out and keep adding more as we eat)
sour cream
fresh guacamole

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Spread chips out over baking sheet.  Sprinkle cheese over the top.  Top with another layer of tortilla chips and then cheese.

3. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and top with tomatoes and pickled jalapenos (and any other toppings you like).  Serve with sides of sour cream and guacamole.  Also maybe a fork.

Truly Vegetable Tabouli

This recipe comes from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  I plan to make most of it in a food processor rather than do all the suggested chopping.

Ingredients
1 cup bulgur
1 cup boiling water
2 large tomatoes, diced (2 1/2 - 3 cups)
1 cup finely chopped parsley, firmly packed
1 large garlic clove, chopped
4 green onions, white and green parts, chopped
1 small sweet onion, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
zest of 1-2 lemons
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
arugula, spinach, or romaine lettuce (I plan to use romaine since I have it on hand.)

Directions

1. Rinse bulgur in a strainer, place in a large bowl, and cover with boiling water. Cover and let sit while dicing tomatoes.

2. Drain bulgur well and return to bowl. Add diced tomatoes, mix well with bulgur, and allow bulgur to absorb tomato juice.

3. Add parsley, garlic, green onions, sweet onion, and cucumber to the bulgur mixture.

4. Add lemon zest, juice, and balsamic vinegar and mix well.

5. Refrigerate -- overnight if possible, or at least a few hours -- and serve on a bed of arugula, spinach, or romaine lettuce.

Note from recipe:  You can top this, if you wish, with grated carrots, sliced radishes, finely chopped peppers of any color, diced bok choy, or other vegetables. For a heartier salad, add 1 can of rinsed chickpeas and/or thawed frozen corn or cooked kernels cut off the cob.

Beet Greens Surrounded with Beets

This will be my first time eating or cooking fresh beets.  The recipe comes from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and the book mentions trying walnut sauce -- which Sameer and I love -- on the greens.  So I figure it can't turn out too bad.

Ingredients
2 bunches beets with greens (I only bought one.  Oops.  Oh well.)
lemon juice and zest

Directions

1. Cut beets off stems (save greens) and put in a large pot of water. Bring water to a boil, then turn to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until beets are soft.

2. Wash greens and discard any that are yellow or look old. Tearing by hand or using a knife, cut greens into 2- to 3-inch pieces. Keep some of the stems, if you wish. Steam greens for about 5 minutes, or until done to your taste.

3. Remove beets from the pan. Run cold water over them and squeeze off the skins.

4. Slice beets and arrange around the outside of a plate. Sprinkle beet greens with lemon juice and zest in a small bowl in the center.

Black Beans and Rice

Another recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Ingredients
2 cups brown rice, uncooked
3 15-oz cans black beans
2-3 tomatoes, chopped (2-3 cups)
1 Vidalia onion, 1 bunch green onions, or any other variety of onion, chopped
1 16-oz package frozen corn, thawed under hot water
1-2 red, yellow, or green bell peppers, seeded and chopped (1-2 cups)
1 cup grated or matchstick carrots
1 8-oz can water chestnuts
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 bunch arugula, chopped
low-sodium tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos
salsa

Directions

1. Cook brown rice following package directions

2. Heat beans either in their liquid or, drained and rinsed, in a little water (I'll be using my slow cooker on dried beans instead).

3. Put all chopped vegetables in individual dishes.

4. To serve, start with a base of rice, add beans, and pile your plate high with veggies. Top it all with salsa or a sprinkle of low-sodium tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos.

[Edited 6/23/13:  This was fantastic with the addition of one ingredient Esselstyn wouldn't approve of -- fresh avocado slices.  Since no one in my household is trying to reverse advanced heart disease, I think it's a reasonable addition to an otherwise non-fat, vegan, high-fiber, nutrient-dense dinner that actually tastes good and can fill you up.  Make sure to use a good salsa -- I like my grocery store's generic organic garlic salsa.]

Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  My meal choices are based more and more now on making foods that are either capable of being pureed into baby food or, ideally, can be eaten without teeth.  Almost everything I'm making this week is from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, some of which I've made before and some of which is new to me.  This week I have a bunch of random stuff to use up:  one lone pita pocket, more of those prepared vegetarian fake meats that I don't really want anymore, a handful of large flour tortillas, some organic green onions, a bunch of romaine lettuce, random chopped red and Vidalia onions, and about 2 lbs of baby red potatoes.  Here is what I'm making this week:

Black Beans & Rice and Kale with Walnut Sauce
This is an Esselstyn version of black beans and rice with brown rice and lots of vegetables and salsa.  I will probably go against Esselstyn's advice and serve avocado on the side.  Avocado makes everything taste better and feel more filling.

Truly Vegetable Tabouli and Hummus with pita chips
The vegetable tabouli is an Esselstyn recipe I haven't made before, but it calls for romaine as a base to the salad, and I have tons of romaine to use up.  Tabouli also seems like something fine enough Simran can eat it.  I'm making no-tahini hummus (a Simran favorite) to go with it and cutting up and toasting in the oven that lone whole wheat pita pocket to make some sort of chips for Sameer and me to eat it with.

Tofu Scramble and Broccoli Stir-fried with Orange and Garlic
I think this round of tofu scramble will finally use up the last of that apple-sage smoked vegetarian sausage I once bought when I was shopping while hungry.  The broccoli is another Esselstyn recipe.  I think I could run it through Simran's food mill and make it edible for her, but I'm not sure what she'll think of it.  She's only recently starting consenting to eat broccoli at all.

Dill Potato Salad and Beets with Beet Greens and prepared vegetarian breaded fish from the freezer
I've made this potato salad before and I love it.  It will use up my leftover potatoes.  The beets with greens are a simple Esselstyn recipe, and I've never eaten fresh beets or any sort of beet greens before, so I'm excited to try this.  I'm doubtful Simran will be able to eat anything other than the beets themselves on this night though.

Tortilla Pie and Chard with Walnut Sauce
I've made this before and it was really good served with avocado.  It will hopefully use up the last of the flour tortillas.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Roasted Vidalia Onions and Diced Tomatoes and Chard with Walnut Sauce
I've never tried an Esselstyn pasta recipe before, but this sounds enough like typical spaghetti, or at least capellini pomodoro, that I think Simran will like it.

Stir-fried Vegetables and Tofu?
I will probably have enough random vegetables leftover to make this dish easily.  It's sort of my stand-by in case we actually eat everything I've planned and need a seventh meal, rather than copping out and eating pizza or something one night.  I'm less tempted to eat pizza or takeout now that it means I still have to make something else for Simran.  We've mostly been sticking to planned meals for the last couple months.

Black Bean Cakes Supreme!

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

Ingredients
Bean Cakes:
6 15-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (1 cup)
3 green onions, chopped
2 carrots, grated
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup salsa
Topping:
1 16-oz pkg frozen corn or kernels cut from 6 cobs
3 Vidalia onions, thinly sliced and slices cut in half
1 16-oz jar salsa
1 bag spinach
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put beans in a large bowl. Add remaining bean cake ingredients, stirring to combine. Mash mixture well, using a potato masher or your hands.

2. Dump on a board or countertop and flatten into a circle about 1/2 inch thick. With a glass or biscuit cutter, form round cakes and put on a baking sheet.

3. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes, until tops are browned.

4. Roast corn on a baking sheet until browned. Put in a bowl.

5. Roast onions until browned. Put in a bowl.  (I'm combining steps 4 and 5 -- whichever browns first gets browned.)

6. Put bowls of corn, onions, bean cakes, salsa, spinach, and cilantro on the table. Start with spinach, then add a bean cake or two, roasted corn, roasted onions, and top with salsa and cilantro and, if you want, avocado.

Boiled Brown Rice

Tonight I'm making Thai Green Curry and brown rice, and I want to do my brown rice without baking in butter and salt.  Just boiling and then simmering it tends to make it clumpy and overly starchy, so I'm trying out another similar-but-different method I found on Saveur.com. 

Ingredients
1 cup short, medium, or long-grain brown rice
Kosher salt to taste

Directions

1. Rinse rice in a strainer under cold running water for 30 seconds. Bring 12 cups water to a boil in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid over high heat. Add the rice, stir it once, and boil, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Pour the rice into a strainer over the sink.

2. Let the rice drain for 10 seconds, then return it to the pot, off the heat. Cover the pot and set it aside to allow the rice to steam for 10 minutes. Uncover the rice, fluff with a fork, and season with salt.

Meal Planning

This week I have the following to get rid of:  about half a shredded red cabbage, three bunches of various chards and kales, a couple chipotles in adobo, and half a red onion.  Here is what I plan to make:

Black Bean Cakes Supreme! (the recipe really uses an exclamation point)
This is an Esselstyn recipe for a sort of Tex-Mex meal that it sounds like we'll all like, including Simran.  It sounds like the black bean cakes are meant to be served over a sort of vegetables-only taco salad that features fresh spinach. 

Deviled Baby Potatoes and Chard with Walnut Sauce and some sort of prepared vegetarian meat from the freezer 
This will use up another of my veg fake meats from Whole Foods, either the veg fish or the veg crab cakes.  I'll probably throw together a tartar or dipping sauce of some nature for that.  The deviled baby potatoes include that hummus Simran loves so much, and I already have chard and walnut sauce that needs to be eaten.

Artichoke-Bean Pitas and Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup
When I previously made artichoke-bean dip, I noticed that it had a texture that would probably make a good tuna salad substitute, so I'm trying that idea out this week.  I'll throw some chopped celery, green onions, lettuce, and tomato in the pita pockets too.  The broccoli soup is the same soup I made last week, but Simran really liked it this last time around and we ate all the leftovers rather than stashing some in the freezer for later. 

Pita Pizzas
This will use up the remaining pitas I need to buy to make the artichoke-bean pitas, as well as the spinach needed to go with the black bean cakes.

Tofu Scramble and Chard with Walnut Sauce
I really like this tofu scramble and how easy it is to make ahead of time and how easy it is to get Simran to eat it.  It will also use up another of my apple-sage smoked veg sausage. 

Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wraps and Kale with Walnut Sauce
These will use up the remaining shredded red cabbage, chipotles in adobo, and some of the chopped red onion that are in my fridge.  It's also easy to prep ahead of time, so it makes a good weekend meal.

Real Strawberry Frosting

I am making my French macarons pink and filling them with this recipe for strawberry frosting with real strawberries that I found on AllRecipes.  It sounds perfect.

Ingredients
1 cup fresh strawberries (I'm using thawed frozen strawberries.)
1 cup butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted, divided

Directions

1. Place strawberries in a blender; puree until smooth. 
2. Transfer strawberry puree to a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, stirring often, until puree is reduced by at least half, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, pour through a sieve to remove seeds and any solid pieces, and let cool completely.
3. Beat butter with an electric mixer in a bowl until light and fluffy.
4. Beat 1 cup confectioners' sugar into butter until just blended.
5. Beat 2 tablespoons strawberry puree and vanilla extract into butter mixture until just blended.
6. Repeat with 1 cup confectioners' sugar, followed by 2 tablespoons strawberry puree two more times.
7. Beat last 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar into mixture until just blended.

French Macarons

I saw a picture of French macaron (macaroon?  I'm not sure which is the proper spelling) cookies a few weeks ago and decided I wanted to make some for Simran's first birthday party because they are the girliest looking food I have ever seen.  I don't like to serve untested recipes to guests, so I'm doing a dry run and making a batch this week to take to my monthly book club.  I found what looks like a reliable recipe and lots of troubleshooting notes on HowToCookThat, so that's the recipe I'll be using.  I'm keeping things simple and just dying the cookies and saving flavorants for the filling, as recommended by the recipe.

Ingredients
4 large egg whites (or 5 small) 140g (4.94 ounces)
70g (2.47 ounces) caster sugar (aka superfine sugar or baker's sugar) [*US cups 1/3 cup plus 1 tsp]
230g (8.11 ounces) pure icing sugar (aka confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar) [US cups 1 1/2 cups plus 4 tsp] OR 1 3/4 cups 230g (8.11 ounces) icing mixture [US cups 1 3/4 cups plus 4 tsp]
120g (4.23 ounces) almond meal [US cups 1 cup plus 3 teaspoons]
2g (0.07 ounces) salt (tiny pinch)
gel food colouring (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).

2. Place egg whites and caster sugar in a bowl and mix with electric mixer until stiff enough to turn the bowl upside down without it falling out, continue to whip for 1-2 more minutes.  How long this takes will depend on your mixer.  Add gel or powdered food coloring and continue to mix for a further 20 seconds.

3. Sift the almond meal and icing sugar and salt twice, discarding any almond lumps that are too big to pass through the sieve. Fold into the egg white mixture. It should take roughly 30-50 folds using a rubber spatula.  The mixture should be smooth and a very viscous, not runny. Over-mix and your macarons will be flat and have no foot, under mix and they will not be smooth on top – see the macaron troubleshooting post for examples.

4. Pipe onto trays lined with baking paper, rap trays on the bench firmly (this prevents cracking -- in fact, drop them about a foot onto the counter a couple times, it works better), let sit for 20 minutes to an hour (you'll know they're ready when you can touch a cookie without the dough coming off on your finger), and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  Let cool at least five minutes before trying to remove them from the baking sheet or they'll break apart.  Check if one comes off the tray fairly cleanly, if not bake for a little longer (make sure you are using NON-stick baking paper or they will stick).  Allow to cool.

5. Pipe ganache or buttercream frosting of your choice onto half of the cookies and use the other half to make them into sandwiches.  Refrigerate up to 24 hours or freeze up to 3 months.  Let frozen macarons thaw half an hour before eating.

[Edited 3/8/13: This was the first time I've ever eaten a macaron, so I'm not sure to what extent the texture was correct (mine were mostly air inside), but they were AMAZING.  A few tips I took from online reviewers of other macaron recipes were that you have to use weight measurements -- standard volume measurements aren't precise enough for these temperamental treats -- and there were major disagreements about what sort of non-stick surface works best.  I used my electronic food scale (which I've never used any other time but own because Alton Brown said everyone should) and the amounts seemed to come out just right.  I used non-stick parchment paper (Reynolds makes the only one I could find that actually said "non-stick" on the package) and it worked perfectly (it feels exactly like my other roll of standard parchment paper, so I'm not sure if it's any different from that).  The only problem with sticking arose when I tried to remove a still-hot cookie and its top broke off its base.  Let them stand 5 minutes and you have no problem with that.  I've read that a silicone baking mat works well too but requires longer cooking times.  I ran the almond meal, sugar, and salt through my food processor, but in the future I'll also buy a sifter.  I put some of it through my sieve, but Simran was getting angry and I gave up and just threw everything in there.  It didn't affect the deliciousness or create a texture you could taste, but they had tiny visible grains on the surface that another website told me means I didn't sift enough (or at all).  One thing this recipe didn't mention but others did is that, after dropping the baking sheet to flatten out the dough, you have to let it sit for 20 minutes to an hour until a slight skin has formed around each cookie.  You know it's okay to bake them when you touch one lightly and dough doesn't come off on your finger.  I also recommend watching a YouTube video on how to pipe macarons.  And how to fill a pastry bag.  Not knowing how to pipe properly created most of my problems -- you're supposed to pipe a cookie without really moving the pastry bag, like it's an oversized dot, not draw the batter in a swirl like I did.  Please note: a little gel food coloring goes a LONG way.]

Tortilla Pie

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

Ingredients
5-6 medium no-oil corn tortillas
2-3 15-oz. cans black beans, drained and rinsed (I plan to just make a big pot of slow-cooker black beans)
2 16-oz. jars salsa (mild or hotter, according to taste)
1 16-oz. package frozen corn
1 large onion, finely chopped (1 cup), and stir-fried until limp
1 large red or green bell pepper, seeded and chopped (1 cup)
1 large tomato, chopped (1 cup)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line bottom of a large baking dish with half of tortillas. You will need to cut or tear some in order to fit the pan.

3. Spread beans over tortillas, then add half the salsa, the corn, the stir-fried onions, peppers, tomato, and another layer of tortillas.  Top with the rest of the salsa. Use extra salsa if necessary.

4. Bake for 60 minutes, uncovered.

[Edited 3/6/13: I intentionally bought a fancy garlicky salsa I like for this since I knew it was the primary flavorant, and I only used one jar.  This was pretty good as is, but when I ate it with fresh avocado on top, it was fantastic.]

Vegan Chili

This recipe is very close to the Caldwell Esselstyn recipe for Sloppy Lentil Joes, which essentially have the flavor and consistency of chili already.  I made a couple amendments to turn it into lentil-based vegan chili, which I serve over broiled polenta.  This is what we're having for dinner tonight, alongside some black kale with walnut sauce.  It's a surprisingly good meal, especially on a snowy day like today.

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 cup black or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 tbs low-sodium tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 tbs mustard, Dijon or your choice
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.)
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. 

Basic Polenta

The best polenta recipe is Alton Brown's Savory Polenta.  It tastes amazing.  But the cheap, simple way is just to mix one part corn meal to three parts liquid, as I found on AllRecipes.  I'm making basic polenta today because the Alton variety contains Parmesan cheese and butter, which I don't want to feed to Simran, and I'm serving it under vegan chili anyway, so the flavor isn't as important as the healthiness today.  Warning: Corn meal and water and nothing else makes for very bland, borderline gross polenta.  Under chili it's okay, but alone it is just awful.  I'm dressing mine up a bit today with some broth and fresh ground black pepper.

Ingredients
1 cup corn meal
3 cups water or vegetable broth (I'm using half low-sodium organic veg broth and half water today)

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Pour in polenta steadily, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until polenta is thickened. It should come away from sides of the pan, and be able to support a spoon. This can take anywhere from 20 to 50 minutes. Pour polenta onto a wooden cutting board, let stand for a few minutes.  (I line a casserole dish with foil, pour in the polenta, and refrigerate it until I want to use it.  Then I cut it into cubes and broil it until singed on top and hot throughout.)

Layered Mashed White and Sweet Potatoes with Greens

Another recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.

Ingredients
6 medium white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (if you don't mind skins, don't peel)
3/4 - 1 cup oat or nonfat soy milk
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chunked
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
4 cups packed collard greens, finely chopped and steamed
3 cups chopped Napa cabbage, steamed (about 1/2 cabbage)
1/4 cup finely chopped fennel (not necessary to steam)
cilantro, chopped
1 tbs lemon juice, or to taste

Directions

1. Cook white potatoes in a large pot of boiling water until soft. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Mash, adding milk, until no longer stiff.

2. Steam or boil sweet potatoes until soft. Drain, and transfer to another large bowl.

3. Stir-fry onions in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat until brown, adding water or broth as necessary. Add onions to mashed white potatoes along with collard greens. Mix well.

4. Add cabbage and fennel to sweet potatoes. Mix well.

5. Put a single layer of white potatoes in a 9 x 11-inch baking dish.  Follow with a layer of sweet potatoes. Finish with a layer of white potatoes.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve.

[Edited 3/5/13: I didn't care for this.  It was bland and used an obscene number of pots and bowls.  I served chik'n fingers with it, but Sameer ended up heating up a frozen pizza afterward anyway.] 

Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I am feeling tired and lazy, so I don't feel like doing anything too lavish or new.  This week I have the following things that need to be used up:  green onions, a green bell pepper, a few russet potatoes, two Roma tomatoes, and about a cup of painfully expensive organic low fat sour cream.

Thai Green Curry with Brown Rice
This will use up the bell pepper, and it's something Simran can eat.

Spaghetti with Vegetarian Meatballs and Swiss Chard with Walnut Sauce
Simran loved her first experience with spaghetti last week, so I'm doing it
 again this week and finishing off the Trader Joe's veg meatballs.

Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wrap and Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup
I'm basically just making stuff I can feed Simran now.  The vegan cream of broccoli soup was titled "broccoli soup" in a previous post, but I made some adjustments to it.

Layered Mashed White and Sweet Potatoes with Greens
This is a recipe from Caldwell Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  It sounds like something Simran might like and it will use up my leftover russet potatoes.

Tortilla Pie
Another Esselstyn recipe.  It sounds pretty good and will use up the tomatoes.  Maybe Sameer and I will finish off the fancy sour cream with this too.  I'll probably add green onions to it too to get of those and add flavor to this.  This recipe should also use up the corn tortillas currently in my fridge.

Vegan Chili over Polenta
I made this a couple of weeks ago and Simran was able to eat every piece of it.  I liked that.

Baby's Easy Fruit Sauce

Simran is accustomed to eating a lot of fruit-based baby foods.  She loves anything sweet, so I mix some into her morning oatmeal and she eats jars of the stuff straight at lunch and dinner.  Now that she likes chunky foods and doesn't need everything she eats to be strained through a sieve, I've taken to making most of her fruits myself.  I'm not sure how much cheaper it is, but at least I don't have to move all those tiny jars from the shelf to my shopping cart to the checkout belt anymore.  I hated doing that.  Amounts below are approximations.  I always make a huge amount of fruit sauce at once -- like a 10 oz. bag of frozen fruit worth -- and freeze it again in tiny containers until I need it.  You can save freezer space by not adding the applesauce until you're serving everything.

Ingredients
1 ripe banana OR 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (I prefer organic)
1 cup frozen fruit of your choice (I just buy every organic frozen fruit I can find)

Directions

1. Thaw the frozen fruit.  You can run the bag under warm water, or just leave it in the refrigerator overnight.

2. Put thawed frozen fruit -- and banana, if you are using one -- in a blender and puree until smooth.

3. If you are using applesauce instead of a banana, add the applesauce now.

4. Taste for sweetness.  If it's too tart, add more applesauce or pureed banana until it tastes good.

Here are some blends I recommend (I stole most of these ideas from Earth's Best brand baby food):
raspberry + peach + banana
mango + applesauce
blueberry + applesauce
blackberry + applesauce
strawberry + banana

New York Style Pizza

 The addition of cheddar cheese makes it look oilier than it was.

I looked around online trying to figure out how to make thin, floppy New York-style pizza, and the most comprehensive advice I've seen so far comes from Serious Eats.  To start with, I needed to use a pizza stone instead of the pan I've been using, and in order to get my pizza on and off of the pizza stone, I needed a pizza peel.  Those items arrived from Amazon two days ago, and I'm making pizza today.  Since I already have a dough I like that sort of resembles the one in this recipe and a store-bought sauce I like enough that I don't care to make my own from scratch, I'm only making certain changes to my regular pizza recipe today to see what happens.  If it doesn't turn out like I want, I'll actually bother following the directions properly next time.  The real directions are below.  Notes of my changes are in italics.

Ingredients

• 22 1/2 ounces (about 4 1/2 cups) bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• .35 ounces kosher salt (about 3 teaspoons)
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 15 ounces lukewarm water (I'm using Herbed Pizza Dough instead of these first six ingredients this time around.  If the texture isn't right, I'll follow the directions properly next time.)
• 1 batch New York Style Pizza Sauce (I'm just using store-bought organic pizza sauce this time.)
• 1 pound grated full-fat dry mozzarella cheese (about 4 cups), placed in freezer for at least 15 minutes (I had to buy this from the deli section at the store in order to find a brick of mozzarella that wasn't either "fresh" or part-skim.  According to Serious Eats' Pizza Lab, full-fat cheese that wasn't bought already grated is necessary for the gooey quality of a pizzeria pizza.)
• Whatever other toppings you choose -- I like onions, black olives, and additional cheeses such as sprinklings of Parmesan and Cheddar.

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in bowl of food processor. Pulse 3 to 4 times until incorporated. Add olive oil and water. Run food processor until mixture forms ball that rides around the bowl above the blade, about 15 seconds. Continue processing 15 seconds longer.
   
   
2. Transfer dough ball to lightly floured surface and knead once or twice by hand until smooth ball is formed. It should pass the windowpane test. Divide dough into three even parts and place each in a covered quart-sized deli container or in a (gallon-sized) zipper-lock freezer bag. Place in refrigerator and allow to rise at least one day, and up to 5.  (Hands down the best dough I've ever made -- thin, floppy, and delicious -- came from the portions I threw into gallon ziplock bags and the freezer directly after passing the windowpane test.  I let them thaw in the fridge for 24 hours before using them, then 2 hours at room temperature before stretching out the dough and making it into pizza.  I didn't do step 3 at all in those cases, and the dough was glorious.)
   
   
   
3. At least two hours before baking, remove dough from refrigerator and shape into balls by gathering dough towards bottom and pinching shut. Flour well and place each one in a separate medium mixing bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise at warm room temperature until roughly doubled in volume.
   
   
4. 1 hour before baking, adjust oven rack with pizza stone to middle position and preheat oven to 500°F. (15-30 minutes before baking, move grated cheese to freezer to get extra cold.) Turn single dough ball out onto lightly flour surface. Gently press out dough into rough 8-inch circle, leaving outer 1-inch higher than the rest. Gently stretch dough by draping over knuckles into a 12 to 14-inch circle about 1/4-inch thick. Transfer to pizza peel.
   
   
5. Spread approximately 2/3 cup of sauce evenly over surface of crust, leaving 1/2 to 1-inch border along edge. Evenly spread 1/3 of cheese over sauce. Slide pizza onto baking stone and bake until cheese is melted with some browned spots and crust is golden brown and puffed, 12 to 15 minutes total. Transfer to cutting board, slice, and serve immediately. Repeat with remaining two dough balls, remaining sauce, and remaining cheese.

[Edited 3/2/13: Serious Eats was dead-on about the cheese.  I had forgotten how it can actually leave pools of oil on top of the pizza.  My dough was still too thick, albeit floppier than before thanks to the pizza stone, so I'll be following the entire recipe next time to try to get the full New York Style effect.]
[Edited 5/20/13: The last time I made this pizza I followed the directions for the dough exactly.  It was EXPONENTIALLY better than before.  The windowpane test is important and does take a few minutes of kneading.  I only used one of the three pizza doughs immediately and put the other two in the freezer, and the ones from the freezer turned out even better.  See my bold-face notes above about that.  I will make NY-Style pizza this way forevermore.]