Pasta Primavera with Pesto Alfredo

I am tired and just jotting down what it occurred to me to make for dinner tonight so I don't forget later when I am more tired and have to do this.  I made the garlic scapes and carrot greens into a (hefty amount of) rough pesto with some pine nuts, olive oil, and salt.  There was a lot more finished product than I intended.  I'm going to throw some of it into the Vitamix with some water, raw cashews, and seasonings to taste and make it into a pesto alfredo sauce.  Apparently you can make anything into a vegan cream sauce by running it through a blender with raw cashews and water and seasoning it to taste.  I've done this a couple times now (for pesto alfredo and a vodka-less vodka sauce) and it is easier than I would have expected and very forgiving since you fix the thickness and flavor while it's still in the blender.  Just err on the side of too thick since you can always add water but it's harder to cook it out.

I think I have Tofurky brand vegan chik'n strips in the fridge, and if I don't, I definitely have Tofurky brand Italian sausage.  They add a lot in terms of flavor and how filling the dish is.  I also have whole wheat penne for this.

I'm going to blanch the fresh fava beans and throw at least some of them into this pasta dish along with some of the fresh English peas, one or two of the little summer squash sliced, and some broccoli florets and sliced bell pepper from the freezer.  And maybe one of the fresh shallots from the farm box.  And some of the red basil.  I tried putting the red basil in a sandwich yesterday and it was not good for that.  It has a nice, fairly typical basil flavor, but it's too strong to use as sandwich greens and the stems are too fibrous to chew, so I'll have to rip off some of the leaves and just throw them into this whole thing at the end.  Or add them to the blender while I'm making the sauce.  I'm not sure which will make it a weirder, less appetizing color (red basil is the brownish color of pretty much any other red lettuce).  It should taste nice though. 

[Edited after dinner:  The sauce contained a generous scoop of my homemade garlic scape pesto, water, raw cashews, salt, some dry oregano, fresh red basil, and fresh ground black pepper.  I don't know amounts because I kept messing with it, but it was probably around half a cup each of the pesto and the cashews and maybe a cup of water (definitely don't take my word for it on the water).  The vegan parmesan on top from the produce department -- I can't remember the brand -- was a really good addition, probably because the sauce needed lemon or something equivalently tangy and I didn't think to include any.  The garlic scape pesto had a serious bite to it from CONTAINING MOSTLY GARLIC so my primary goal was evening out the final sauce so it wasn't too spicy.  The rest of the ingredients were a couple of fresh shallots thinly sliced, a few baby summer squash sliced, fresh English peas, fresh fava beans that I'd blanched and double shelled (today I learned fresh fava beans have a really nice texture), some leftover diced yellow bell pepper, and Tofurky chick'n strips lightly sauteed in olive oil.  I ended up using whole wheat spaghetti because I felt like the thicker, chewier texture of the penne would've been overpowering with all these small, tender vegetables.  Farfalle would've also worked.]

Herbed Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

This is a best-of-both-worlds pizza dough recipe.  It's basically Neal Barnard's whole wheat pizza dough recipe with herbs in it for flavor, kneaded and cooked thin like NY style pizza.

Ingredients
2 tsp agave nectar
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp salt
vegetable oil cooking spray
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

Directions

1.  In a measuring cup, dissolve the agave nectar and yeast in 3/4 cup warm water (100 - 110 degrees F).  Let stand for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flours, dried herbs, and salt.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until a soft dough forms.  Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead until smooth and elastic.  Dough should be slightly sticky.  If it's too dry, add tiny amounts of water; if it's too sticky, add tiny amounts of flour.  Pinch off a small piece of dough and work it into a thin sheet through which you can see light.  You'll know it's ready when you can do this without tearing a hole in it.

2.  Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top.  Cover plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 40 minutes (or do it for a couple hours like me).  If making in advance, put the dough in a ziploc bag and refrigerate until a couple hours before you plan to use it.  If making farther in advance, freeze until the day before you plan to use it.

3. Place pizza stone in middle of the oven.  Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit an hour in advance so pizza stone can heat through.

4.  Punch down the dough and roll into a 10- or 11-inch circle (or divide the dough by however many people you're feeding and do small personal pizzas) on a lightly floured surface.  Sprinkle pizza peel thoroughly with corn meal to prevent sticking, place pizza dough on top of corn meal, and arrange sauce and toppings.  Sprinkle pizza stone thoroughly with corn meal, slide pizza from pizza peel onto pizza stone in the oven, and cook pizza for about 13 minutes.  

5. Allow pizza to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

This half-whole wheat pizza dough recipe has no oil and comes from Neal Barnard's The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook.  I made personal pizzas with it last week for my family, and they didn't seem to notice it was whole wheat OR no oil.  The pizza was all gone very quickly.  I made mine vegan, and it was still pretty good.  I ate the whole thing.

Ingredients
2 tsp agave nectar
2 1/4 tsp yeast (recipe calls for active dry, I use instant because it's what I keep on hand for my bread machine)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached AP flour
1 tsp salt
vegetable oil cooking spray
2 tbs yellow cornmeal

Directions

1.  In a measuring cup, dissolve the agave nectar and yeast in 3/4 cup warm water (100 - 110 degrees F).  Let stand for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flours and salt.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until a soft dough forms.  Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary to prevent sticking.  Dough will feel slightly sticky.

2.  Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top.  Cover with a towel (I use plastic wrap) and let rise in a draft-free place until doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

3.  Punch down the dough and roll into a 10- or 11-inch circle (or divide the dough by however many people you're feeding and do small personal pizzas like I did) on a lightly floured surface.  Place dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and sprinkled with cornmeal (I put the dough on a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal and move it to the pizza stone in the over, also covered in cornmeal -- no baking sheet or parchment paper).  Crimp the edges to form a rim.  Lightly spray the surface of the dough with cooking spray.  (I don't do either of these things.  I stretch the dough as thin as possible without breaking it, leaving it just slightly thicker around crust.  No extra spray or "crimping.")  Add sauce and toppings as you see fit.  Bake at 500 degrees F for 8 to 12 minutes.

Minestrone

I developed my minestrone recipe from Ellie Krieger's on the FoodNetwork website.  Mine is vegan and no oil and less effort, but it still tastes really good.  It doesn't freeze particularly well on account of the pasta and beans breaking down, but it's still one of my best soup recipes.  I think some baby spinach cut chiffonade and thrown in at the very end just before serving would also be a good addition.

Ingredients
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 1/2 cups green beans, frozen cut
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 2 -ounce can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
6 cups water
1 15-ounce can low-sodium kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup whole-grain elbow pasta (I use Ancient Grains' corn and quinoa pasta, also available at Whole Foods and my local grocery store's gluten free section)

Directions

1.  Throw all ingredients except pasta, beans, and green beans in a pot and bring to a boil.  Boil for five minutes, then add remaining ingredients.  Cook according to pasta directions.  Serve hot.

Vegetarian Italian Sausage

I made this vegetarian Italian sausage yesterday because I had some free time and the grocery store I went to didn't have any ready made ones in stock (Tofurky makes good ones).  I used this recipe from everydaydish.tv.
   I was surprised when I tried them today in advance of using them in penne alla vodka and discovered they are the best fake meat I've ever had.  Not only is the flavor great (and not very spicy at all the way I made it), but even the texture is good.  I don't normally like to eat seitan plain, but I kept eating this stuff plain and cold.  I want to try it in a crusty hot dog bun with mustard and sauerkraut.  My recipe below will look slightly different from the original in the link because I used what I had.

Ingredients

• 2¼ cups vital wheat gluten
• ½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
• ¼ cup chickpea flour (I apparently used up the gram flour -- Indian split chickpea flour -- in my pantry, so I ended up grinding some dried chickpeas into flour in my Vitamix dry container)
• 2 tbsp vegan Chik'n flavoring
• 2 tbs onion powder
• 1 tbs fennel seed (I have whole fennel seed, so I crushed it roughly with a mortar & pestle first)
• 2 tsp coarsely ground pepper, preferably freshly ground
• 2 tsp ground paprika
• 1 tsp ground smoked paprika
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• ⅛ tsp ground allspice
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2¼ cups cool water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (full sodium)

 Directions

1.  Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Whisk wet ingredients (water, oil, soy sauce) and add to dry ingredient mixture.  Incorporate everything with your hands -- I broke a rubber spatula trying to stir this stuff.  If your dough is too dry, add water in small amounts.

2.  Scoop about 1/2 cup of dough into a square of aluminum foil, roll it into a log shape, and twist it up tight like a Tootsie Roll.  Do the same with the rest of the dough (makes about 8 sausages). 

3.  If you have a steamer, bring water to a boil and put the foiled sausages in the food portion of the steamer and cook for 30 minutes.  If you are like me and don't have a steamer and your vegetable steaming basket is garbage and collapses under the weight of any food, you can do what I did.  I have a wire strainer that looks like it's made of window screen.  I put half the sausages into the strainer over a pot of boiling water and covered the pot with its own lid.  The sausages had to curve a bit, but it was fine.  Cook for 30 minutes, then do the same with the other half of the sausages (because that's how much fits in my strainer at one time).  I kept the sausages wrapped in foil and just put them in a ziploc bag in the fridge until I planned to use them.  (The strainer method is also how I steam vegetables.  I should really just throw away my vegetable steaming basket, but I keep thinking maybe I'm just somehow using it wrong because it had such good reviews on Amazon.)

Rigatoni alla Anthony

This is my adaptation of the dish I like best from La Dolce Vita, an Italian restaurant in my town.  It's very quick and easy, and I use whole grain pasta for mine, as well as a higher concentration of vegetables than the restaurant uses.  I personally think mine tastes better than the restaurant's, but only because the higher concentration of vegetables makes it have more flavor.  To make it vegan, just leave out the cheese.  I've also made it oil-free, though it doesn't taste as good as it does with a tablespoon or two of olive oil.

Ingredients
1-2 tbs olive oil
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed (you want them bite-sized, so you can either get small artichoke hearts or larger ones that have been quartered -- I just get whichever is cheaper)
1 14 oz. can Italian-style diced tomatoes, including juices
1/2 lb fresh spinach, rinsed and roughly chopped
1 16 oz. box of whole wheat pasta (I have never been able to find whole grain rigatoni, so I usually buy penne because it's close to the same shape.  I usually use about 12 oz. or 3/4 of the box when cooking for our 2-adult household, and there's always some of the dish leftover.)
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
2 tbs freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to package directions.

2. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Cook onions until translucent.  Add garlic and cook another minute more, making sure not to let it burn.

3. Add artichoke hearts, diced tomatoes, and chopped spinach to the onions.  Cook until the spinach is wilted and the other vegetables are heated through.

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Drain cooked pasta and stir into the vegetable mixture.  Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan and serve hot.

Vegan Meatballs

I like having something in my spaghetti sauce, like ground seitan or vegan meatballs.  I've already tried one vegan meatball recipe from myvegancookbook.com, but despite how impressed I was, Simran didn't care for it, so now I'm trying the other.  I like to make such things in advance and throw them in a ziploc bag in the freezer for later.

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Cooked Lentils
• 1 Cup Cooked Brown Rice
• 1/4 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Wheat Germ
• 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Teaspoons Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1 Teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/8 Teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/2 Teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Chipotle Chili Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
• 2 Teaspoons Molasses
• 2 Teaspoons Dry Mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Mix ingredients together in a bowl. Measure out 2 tablespoons of mixture for each meatball and roll into a ball with your hands. Spray cooking sheet and place meatballs on it.

3. Place into oven and cook 15 minutes on one side and roll over and cook 15 minutes on the other side. After they are out of the oven, let stand for about 10 minutes to allow them to firm up.

[Edited 3/12/2014:  These had far too mustardy a taste.  The ones in the link above are much better.]

Creamy Vegetable Lasagna

This is my second attempt at a vegan lasagna and my first attempt at making the recipe up myself.  It's based on what I remember of Stouffer's frozen vegetable lasagna, which I've eaten twice in the last decade, except made vegan.  The Stouffer's lasagna was rich but didn't seem particularly cheesy because the cheese was mostly blended into a white sauce that took the place of the standard marinara.  I didn't limit myself on oil or salt this time around since my primary goal today was to make a vegan lasagna that actually tastes good, which is difficult enough.  I finished assembling it about an hour ago, but it won't be cooked and eaten for another couple hours, so I'll have to come back to this post and update it based on how the meal turns out.  So far I've just tasted the individual components, and they were good.

Ingredients
12 lasagna noodles (I like the oven-ready whole-wheat ones from Whole Foods.)
1 16 oz. package firm tofu
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups mixed vegetables, finely chopped (I used a combination of peas, broccoli, carrots, and spinach, mostly from my freezer, but I'm sure green beans and zucchini would also work well, among other things.)
1/4 tsp dried basil
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
For Sauce:
2 14 oz. cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond milk.)
1 bulb roasted garlic
2 tbs olive oil, divided
3 tbs nutritional yeast
1 tbs Better-Than-Bouillon vegetable variety (This is totally a flavor cheat.  I rarely use Better-Than-Bouillon to make broth, but I have found it invaluable when I need to increase flavor and salt and have no idea what I'm doing.  I consider it a multipurpose American Flavor Paste.  I'm sure a patient person could recreate it with some spices, salt, and oil, but I'm not bothering finding out how today.)
1 tbs raw cashews, ground
1/4 tsp garlic salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and prepare garlic and 1 tbs olive oil for roasting as explained in the link.

2. While the garlic bulb roasts, mix 1 tbs raw ground cashews and 1/4 tsp garlic salt in a small container.  I grind the cashews in my food processor and keep about a cup of this blend on hand in my fridge for when something needs vegan Parmesan-style crumbles sprinkled on top.

3. Heat remaining tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Sweat onions for a few minutes, add garlic and carrots, and finally the remaining vegetables.  Season with basil, salt, and pepper, and cook everything until tender.

4. Drain tofu and blend it in a food processor.  Add about a quarter of the cooked vegetable mixture to the food processor and pulse until everything is incorporated.  Season with more salt to taste -- mine required an additional 1/8 tsp.  Set aside.

5. Put all sauce ingredients in a food processor or high-speed blender, including all the roasted garlic cloves, and blend until smooth.  (I'm not sure how this will cook up yet.  It's good as is at this point, but if it doesn't survive the lasagna-cooking process -- either from drying out or burning -- it might require more water or something.)

6. Increase oven to 375 degrees F.  Spray a large casserole dish lightly with Pam.  Add a thin layer of sauce, followed by lasagna noodles, followed by half the tofu mixture, followed by the remaining vegetable mixture, followed by half the remaining sauce, then another layer of lasagna noodles, then the remaining tofu mixture, then a final layer of lasagna noodles, then coat with the remaining sauce.  Sprinkle cashew/garlic salt mixture over the top, and cook in the oven for 30-40 minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Easy Healthy Veggie Pizza

This recipe is not going to be the most delicious pizza you've ever eaten or something you'll crave when you want lots of cheese.  But it is vegan, quick, pleasant-to-eat, and made up entirely of whole, plant-based, nutrient-dense ingredients.  Pizza is one of the few things Simran scarfs down under any circumstances, including as leftovers, and I'm happy to report this pizza was no exception.  Since it's cheese-free, tastes good, and is so healthy, I think it will be a weekly dish for at least awhile at our house.

Please note that I don't know exactly what I'm doing yet with the sauce.  This recipe is still a work in progress, but I wanted to jot down how I made it this past week so I don't forget by next week.

Ingredients
For sauce:
1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 1 hour, then drained and rinsed
1 tbs nutritional yeast
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup pizza sauce (My favorite is Trader Joe's fat free pizza sauce.  It tastes really good.)
Try including fresh basil, dried basil and oregano, roasted garlic, roasted red peppers, and/or sun-dried tomatoes.  The original recipe I based this on used tomatoes roasted in olive oil.  Last time I threw in some leftover sun-dried tomato pesto from my fridge.  Adjust to taste, and thin with more pizza sauce until spreadable.

For pizza:
2 large whole-grain tortillas (I like Food 4 Life brand, sold at Whole Foods, because it is so ridiculously healthy.)
Sauce, as made from ingredients listed above
1 cup baby arugula
1 cup Roma tomatoes, chopped
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbs raw cashews, ground
1/4 tsp garlic salt
Alternately, top with pretty much any vegetables you like.

Directions

1. Make the sauce by grinding the cashews and then mixing with the other sauce ingredients in a food processor.  Make sure it tastes good and is thin enough to spread, sort of like a hummus consistency or thinner.  If you don't have pizza sauce on hand, try marinara, tomato sauce, or a little tomato paste.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  (I always prefer to err on the side of too much oregano and garlic.)

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (I think 375 might make for better, crispier crusts, but I'll try that next time).  Place tortillas on an ungreased baking sheet.  Spread a thin layer sauce over each tortilla (a little goes a long way with the cashews), and if you tend to like saucier pizza, add more of the 'normal' pizza sauce on top of that.

3. Pile tortillas with as much arugula and chopped tomato as will fit.  Grind black pepper over the top of the pizzas.  Mix the tablespoon of ground cashews and the garlic salt, and sprinkle on top of the pizzas, a la Parmesan cheese.  Put pizzas in the oven and cook for 13-15 minutes.

Vegetable Barley Risotto

I wanted to try another barley risotto recipe since 1) it seems like something Simran will be able to eat without pureeing it, and 2) I have tons of barley in the pantry.  I found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com courtesy of Robert Irvine.  I plan to serve it alongside kale in walnut sauce (our standard green vegetable of choice these days).

Ingredients
6 cups vegetable broth
1/8 cup canola oil
1 pound bag pearl barley
1 zucchini, medium dice
1 yellow squash, medium dice
1 carrot, medium dice
1 red onion, medium dice
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 cup whole unsalted butter

Directions

 

1. Bring broth to a simmer. In a separate large saucepan on an adjacent burner, heat the oil and add barley. Lightly saute: you actually are toasting the barley. Add vegetables to the barley and saute them until translucent. Add bay leaf and garlic. Begin slowly adding broth, 1 ladle-full at a time, to the barley/vegetable pan, stirring occasionally: this will bring out the starch in the barley. As the mixture absorbs the broth, ladle more into the pot. When all of the broth has been ladled into the barley pot, slowly simmer until barley is soft and creamy. Add butter as the last step for more flavor and creaminess to risotto.

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.

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.]

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.]

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.

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.]

Classic Veggie Pizza

In honor of Sameer's birthday today, I told him he could have whatever he wanted for dinner.  He chose homemade veggie pizza with herbed crust.  I'm not sure if it's true or he's just being nice, but I still feel honored that he claims his favorite pizza is the kind I make at home. 

Ingredients 
1 herbed pizza dough
1 cup mozzarella or Italian cheese blend, grated (the higher number of cheeses in a pizza, the more Sameer seems to like it -- I'm not sure if he's aware of that, but I've noticed when he comments)
2 tbs fresh grated Parmesan (you can omit this if it's already part of the Italian cheese blend)
1/4 cup cheddar, grated
2 cups pizza sauce (This is an approximation. I use about 2/3 of a jar of the store brand organic sauce, and I don't know how big the jar is. 10 oz? 12?)
1/4 cup green and red bell peppers, chopped
2 tbs yellow onion, chopped
4 oz sliced black olives
any other vegetables of your choosing (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.  Roll out the pizza dough as described in the herbed pizza dough recipe and place it on a round pizza pan sprinkled lightly with corn meal (to avoid sticking).

2. Add pizza sauce, vegetables, and cheeses, in that order.  Cook pizza in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.

Gnocchi with Spinach and White Beans

This is one of the quickest, easiest healthy recipes I have.  It's also really good.  The original is called Skillet Gnocchi with Chard and White Beans and comes from EatingWell.com.  I usually make it with spinach because I'm more likely to have fresh spinach on hand for other recipes, but it would work equally well with chard, kale, or pretty much any other dark leafy greens.  I also find that it's tastier with the gnocchi boiled instead of fried in a skillet.  I don't like my gnocchi crunchy.

Ingredients

• 1 16-ounce package shelf-stable gnocchi
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 cups chopped chard leaves, (about 1 small bunch) or spinach (I usually use more to add bulk without adding calories, also just to use up whatever leftover greens I happen to have.)
• 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes with Italian seasonings (don't drain -- use all the juice)
• 1 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

 Directions

1. Bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil.  Add gnocchi.  It takes about 3 minutes to cook -- you'll know it's done when it floats.  Drain.

2. While water is coming to a boil and gnocchi is cooking, cook onion in a non-stick skillet over medium heat for 1-2 minutes.  Add garlic and water. Cover and cook until the onion is soft, 4 to 6 minutes. Add spinach (or greens of your choice) and cook, stirring, until starting to wilt, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, beans and pepper and bring to a simmer. Stir in the gnocchi and sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover and cook until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbling, about 3 minutes.
  

Chik'n Piccata

I recently discovered Gardein brand frozen vegetarian meats and bought a couple different varieties.  One of them was chicken scallopini, and I wasn't sure how one serves such a thing, so I looked around online and ended up making them into veg chicken piccata with this recipe.  I've never eaten real chicken piccata, so I'm not sure how this compares, but I enjoyed it and I'm making it again tonight to finish off the bag of veg chicken scallopini.  The real chicken piccata recipe comes from Giada de Laurentiis of FoodNetwork.

Ingredients
2 Gardein vegetarian chicken scallopini chicken breast things (or click the link above for Giada's info on using actual meat)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
All-purpose flour, for dredging
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup brined capers, rinsed
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.

2. In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add 2 pieces of chicken and cook for 3 minutes. When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes. Remove and transfer to plate. Melt 2 more tablespoons butter and add another 2 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add the other 2 pieces of chicken and brown both sides in same manner. Remove pan from heat and add chicken to the plate.

3. Into the pan add the lemon juice, stock and capers. Return to stove and bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Check for seasoning. Return all the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to sauce and whisk vigorously. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with parsley.

Penne alla Vodka

This is one of Sameer's and my favorite dinners, especially when we're short on time or just feeling lazy.  That's why I usually reserve it for a weekend meal, like tonight.  I first came up with it when Sameer made some veg pepperoni from scratch and it was a little too spicy to eat straight.  I sliced it up and threw it together with some whole wheat penne rigate and a bunch of vegetables.  It's really good, really easy, and any unhealthiness from the tomato cream sauce seems to be undone by the enormous number of vegetables.  It also makes for good leftovers.  All vegetable amounts listed below are approximations and can be changed or omitted according to your own preferences.

Ingredients
12 oz whole wheat penne rigate (I use about 3/4 of a box at a time to make enough for Sameer and me and a couple servings of leftovers.)
4 Tofurky Italian Sausages, sliced (or 4 servings of something similarly spiced)
1 12 oz jar vodka sauce
1 medium onion, halved and sliced (I like the yellow Spanish onions best)
1 crown of broccoli, cut into florets
3 carrots, sliced diagonally (not super important, but it makes them easier to capture with your fork and eat)
1 large bell pepper, sliced (I like to use green or red, or sometimes both)
1-2 small zucchini, quartered and chopped
1 small yellow squash, quartered and chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas

Directions

1. Brown Italian sausage slices in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Set aside.

2. Cook onions until starting to turn translucent.  Add other vegetables and saute lightly.

3. Add 1/2 cup water, toss vegetables, cover, and cook until water is mostly evaporated and vegetables are tender but crisp (a good cue is when the broccoli has turned bright green -- the water helps cook everything through steaming, which is just faster than sauteeing when you've overfilled the skillet with vegetables like I do).

4. Reduce heat to low, add vodka sauce and cooked Italian sausage, and heat through.  Serve hot.