Vegetarian Chili - from Scratch!

It's been rather cold in Phoenix lately. Well, cold for us. I think it may have gotten below freezing. At night...
Anyway, cold weather is the perfect time to make something warm to eat. We are supposed to be eating lots of beans, so what's better than chili?

Here's the recipe we started with. I didn't have all the ingredients, so I improvised. This made a BIG pot of chili. I used it for a pot-luck and still had leftovers. I thought it turned out pretty good, and the husband and a couple of the kids agreed. The others just wouldn't eat it because,,,beans....

Vegetarian Chili From Scratch

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dry beans - I used a mix of black beans, kidney beans, and chick peas
• 2 15oz cans diced tomatoes
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• 3 medium carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 bell pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• salt

1. Put beans in a large bowl. Cover with water and let soak overnight.
2. The next day, rinse the beans. Process vegetables in food processor until finely chopped. Place all ingredients in large crockpot and cover with water. Cook on high for 6-8 hours. 

Black Bean and Butternut Squash Burritos

Squash is the theme of the week. It's been on sale, and I think it's yummy.
So, here's the first squash recipe we tried. I think it was yummy. I even got some good responses from the kiddos after I got them to try it.

Black Bean and Butternut Squash Burritos

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, cubed, & roasted
• 1/2 cup uncooked short grain brown rice (yields: 1.5 cups cooked)
• 1-2 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped sweet onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 2 tsp ground cumin, or to taste
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
• One 15-oz can black beans (about 1.5-2 cups cooked), drained and rinsed
•  tortilla wraps (large or x-large)
• Toppings of choice: (avocado, salsa, vegan sour cream, spinach/lettuce, cilantro, etc)

1. Preheat oven to 425F and line a large glass dish with tinfoil. Drizzle olive oil on squash and give a shake of salt and pepper. Coat with hands. Roast chopped butternut squash for 45 mins. or until tender.
2. Cook brown rice
3. In a large skillet over medium-low heat, add oil, onion, and minced garlic. Sautee for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Now add in salt and seasonings and stir well.
4.  Add chopped red pepper, black beans, and cooked rice and sauté for another 10 mins. on low.
5. When b’nut squash is tender remove from oven and cool slightly. Add 1.5 cups of the cooked butternut squash to the skillet and stir well. You can mash the squash with a fork if some pieces are too large.
6. Add bean filling to tortilla along with desired toppings. Wrap and serve. Leftover filling can be reheated the next day for lunch in a wrap or as a salad topper.

Black Bean Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries

This is actually take two of attempting to make black bean burgers and I'm still not sure that I have perfected it.

Here is the recipe that I used.

Against my better instincts, I included the egg (I think they would be fine without), and I didn't have enough bread crumbs so I put in some cracker crumbs. Both of those are no-nos on Miss May's diet, and I think I could have found suitable substitutes. I think next time I will use oats instead of bread crumbs. I also included a few carrots and used less chili powder and hot sauce (because, kids).

Here's what I would modify it too:

Black Bean Burgers
Ingredients:

• 1 16oz can black beans, drained
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1/2 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 small carrots
• 1/2 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/2 cup quick oats

In a bowl, use a potato masher to smash the black beans until a thick paste is formed. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, garlic and carrots. Mix into beans. Add seasonings and oats and blend until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Form into patties. Cook in pan on medium high heat. Flip to cook both sides. Serve on a whole wheat bun.

This is what the mixture looked like before it was cooked. I used my Pampered Chef scooper to get all the patties the same size.

The trickiest part was trying to get the patties flat. I cooked them on the stove in a frying pan and used the back of a spatula to smoosh them but it kept getting stuck. Eventually, I got the hang of it. I thought they were really good, and the kids ate them pretty well.

I served them with some homemade sweet potato fries. This is something I have yet to perfect, but I'm going to keep trying because I love them!

Most of the "healthy" sweet potato fry recipes I've found basically say: cut up a sweet potato, put it on a pan with some oil and a little salt (Line the pan with aluminum foil. Trust me.), and cook for a long time. I cooked this batch at 400° for 50 minutes.

The result - delicious but mushy sweet potatoes. I'm not sure they would count as fries because fries should be crispy.

So I'll keep working on that.

Being goofy

My kids love their condiments. I need to find some without sugar/dairy. Working on that.

We had some spinach with the burgers. These kids were being silly with it. But at least they will eat it!

And I can't forget - I love recipes that can easily be turned into leftovers. I had a few bean patties left over the next day. They didn't hold together very well, so I mashed them up, added a little tomato sauce, and called it sloppy joes. Made a great lunch!

Butternut Squash Mac n Cheeze

I happened to catch a little of the Today show last weekend - something that NEVER happens - and they were interviewing a chef. Her "thing" was healthy foods, so my interest was piqued. One of the dishes she had brought was Vegan Mac & Cheese made with butternut squash. "Very interesting..." I thought. So, I looked up recipes and decided to try it. The only problem was, one of the ingredients I had never heard of: nutritional yeast.

After a brief consultation with Google and Wikipedia, I learned that "nutritional yeast has a strong flavor that is described as nutty, cheesy, or creamy, which makes it popular as an ingredient in cheese substitutes. It is often used by vegans in place of cheese. It can be used in many recipes in place of cheese, such as in mashed and fried potatoes, and atop scrambled tofu. Another popular use is as a topping for popcorn."

Very interesting. However, it was not to be found at my local Wal-mart. So I thought I'd find a substitute. Some websites suggested cashews. So, that's what I tried. However, it did not make the dish taste very cheesy. The butternut squash taste was still a bit too strong. It wasn't unpleasant, just not much like the mac&cheese taste I was looking for.

I think we will revisit this recipe after I have nutritional yeast in my hands.

Here's the copied recipe with a few of my adjustments. I had some roasted squash on hand from a previous meal, so I skipped that part.

Butternut Squash Mac ‘n Cheeze

Ingredients:

• 1 fresh butternut squash* (peeled and chopped) OR 1 cup canned butternut squash OR canned pumpkin
• Extra virgin olive oil, S & P
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 3/4 cup unsweetened & unflavoured almond milk (revised from 1 cup)
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 6 tbsp nutritional yeast, or more to taste (this is where I tried cashews)
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4-3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2-1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2-1 tsp kosher salt (to taste) & ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 servings brown rice macaroni (8oz or half a 16oz package) makes 3 1/4 cup cooked
• Mix-ins of choice (e.g., kale, spinach, broccoli, peas, pumpkin seeds, etc)

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Line a casserole dish with tin foil. Mix chopped squash with EVOO, S & P. Roast for about 40 minutes, uncovered, or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the cheeze sauce in a pot on the stove top. Add coconut oil over low-medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together milk and cornstarch until clumps are gone. Add into pot and whisk. Stir in remaining ingredients (nutritional yeast, Dijon, garlic, lemon, S & P) and whisk over low heat until thickened (about 5-7 minutes or so).
3. Cook your pasta according to package directions. The sauce makes enough to cover 4 servings of pasta.
4. In a blender, blend the sauce with 1 cup of roasted squash (or if using canned, simply stir 1 cup into the pot).
5. Add cooked, drained, and rinsed macaroni into pot, along with cheeze sauce & mix-ins. Heat and serve.

Read more: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/10/03/butternut-squash-mac-n-cheeze/#ixzz3y02I2yKQ

Fiesta Rice

One of the recipes that we tried this week I have dubbed "Fiesta Rice". I thought it turned out really good, and made for some yummy leftovers.
I used this recipe as a starting point, and made my own changes.

Fiesta Rice:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can corn, drained
• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 can black beans, drained

Instructions:

In sauce pan, saute onions, peppers, and garlic in a little water until peppers are soft and onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, corn, rice, seasoning, and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and boil 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is done. Stir in black beans and serve.