Eggplant, Bok choy and Tofu Stir Fry with Coconut Basmati Rice

I love asian food. Love. I can stuff my face like no other when it comes to vegetables, rice and noodles mixed with yummy sauces. I'm generally a fan of brown rice, but sometimes white rice is okay. In my opinion. So tonight we went with the white basmati rice and it was freaking delicious. Here we go:
~recipe adapted from 'Curries' by Susanna Tee.

3-4 tbl vegetable oil or olive (used in two parts)
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, sliced thinly, diagonally
2 stalks celery, sliced diagonally
4 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1/2 jalepeno, chopped
1 tbl ginger, chopped
1 medium eggplant chopped in 3/4 inch ish chunks
8 oz pressed tofu (put between two plates with something heavy on top), cubed
1 bunch baby bok choy, chopped

sauce-
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth
3 tbl soy sauce or tamari
3 tbl rice vinegar
2 tbl peanut butter
1 tbl sweetener
freshly ground black pepper

garnish-
chopped cilantro and basil
bean sprouts
lime


Heat half the oil over medium high heat and add the onions, stir fry for 1-2 minutes, then add the celery, carrots and garlic. Continue stir frying for another 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Heat the rest of the oil over medium high, add the tofu and eggplant and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the jalepeno and garlic and continue to stir occasionally for 4 minutes, letting the tofu get crispy.

Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and add to the eggplant with the onion, carrot, celery mix. Add the bok choy and let simmer, slightly covered, for 4 minutes.

Serve over rice and garnish


Coconut Basmati Rice
2 tsp oil
1 1/2 cup basmati rice
1 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt

Heat the oil over medium heat and add the rice. Stir for 2 minutes. Add the water and coconut milk and salt, cover and bring to a boil Simmer, with the lid slightly open for 12 minutes. Turn off, wait 3 minute and fluff with a fork.

Peanut Butter Potato Chip Cookies

This recipe is adapted from "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch" by Rory Freedman. She's rad, as are her books. Here's what you'll need:

2 1/2 cups flour (I do whole wheat pastry or split it with white and wheat)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup refined sugar alternative (I used turbinado, a natural brown sugar)
3/4 cup oil (I used a combo of olive, safflower and melted Earth Balance)
1/3 cup finely chopped and pitted dates
1 cup chunky or smooth natural peanut butter
1/4 cup ice water
2 tbl ground flax seed (you can omit this if you don't have it)
1 tbl molasses
1 tsp pure vanilla
2 cups crushed potato chips (something natural.... whatever that means)


Preheat oven 375.

In a medium bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Blend the 1/4 cup water with ground flax seed in a blender for 30 seconds to a minute. Set aside.

In a large bowl blend peanut butter, sugar, dates and oil for 2-3 minutes. Add flax seed mixture, vanilla and molasses and mix until combined. Add the flour and potato chips in 3 equal-ish parts and mix in by hand. Mix each part in until almost all combined. Don't over mix. I try to fold in the ingredients. Mixture will be dry. Form into 3 tablespoon balls and place on cookie sheet. Use a fork to slightly press down the cookies in a criss-cross pattern. .

Bake for 8-9 minutes. I'm a big fan of rotating the cookie tray mid oven time. Also, don't over cook, they'll settle up nicely.

Dig in!

Summer Vegetable Rice Noodle Bowl

This was what I ate for lunch today. I'm in the midst of cleaning the whole house and I needed a quick, light, yummy meal to keep me motivated. This is for a serving size of one; so double, triple, quadruple, whatever it.

1 cup Rice Noodles cooked
1 carrot, grated
1 small summer squash, grated
4 green onions, sliced thinly diagonally
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, chopped


sauce:
1 Tb rice vinegar
1 Tb soy sauce or tamari
1 Tb tahini paste
2 tsp sesame seed oil
2 tsp asian chili oil
black pepper
red pepper flakes (if you want some heat)

Start with making the rice noodles. I used vermicelli this time, but wide noodles are yummy too! Boil the water, add the noodles and boil for 1-2 minutes. Turn heat off and cover. Let sit for 7-12 minutes, or until the noodles are soft.

In a small sauce pan mix all the sauce ingredients over low heat. Stir and heat until mixed well, no need to boil, but it's fine if you do.

Drain the rice noodles, rinse with cold water and place back in the pot. Add the sauce and other ingredients, mix well and serve cold or warm.

Red Beet Chocolate Cup Cakes with Cashew Frosting

Here is my veganized version of a recipe that came in our box of veggies last week. The original recipe came from recipezaar.com
Enjoy ~
Red Beet Chocolate Cake
1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3-1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup beets (steamed or canned), pureed
8 dates, pitted and pureed with the beets

3/4 cup water + 1/4 cup ground flax seed, blended well in a mixer
1/2 cup sugar or equivalent of another sweetener
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup safflower oil
2/3 cup rice milk
1 tsp vanilla


Preheat Oven 350. Grease 12-16 cup cake tins. Mix together the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together the wet ingredients plus the beets and dates in a large bowl. Gradually, add the dry ingredients, and mix until smooth, but do not over mix. Pour (or scoop) the batter into the muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cup cake top bounces back when lightly pressed. Cool and frost. The original recipe said store overnight to enhance flavor. If you have that kind of will power, go for it. Otherwise, dig in!

Cashew Frosting:

scant 1 cup raw cashews (soaked for 30 minutes to an hour)
juice of one lemon
3 dates, pitted
1/4 tsp vanilla
water

Blend the cashews, lemon juice, dates and vanilla in a food processor while gradually adding the water until a thick, frosting like paste forms.

Kale, Carrot and Pea Stir Fry with Peanut-y Sauce

Today starts a new season of my life. Life with fresh produce from a local farm, Mountain Bounty Farm. I'm sure I will never go with out it from now on. I love the variety, the fact that I paid up front, the little shed where you pick it up, and it brings the decision making for dinner close to zero. So, here's my first night with 'the veggies.' Serve this with rice of your choice.

1-2 tablespoons safflower oil
1/2 red onion, chopped into 1 inch chunks
6 carrots (these were small...so 2-3 large), sliced diagonally into 1/4 inch or thinner slices
2 cups thinly sliced kale (I lplaced the leaves on top of each other, rolled tightly and sliced diagonally into 1/8-1/4 inch slices)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup snow peas
1/2 cup frozen peas

Sauce:
2 1/2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1-2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tsp agave nectar or a little more of another sweetener
1/4 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce


Heat the oil over medium high and add the onions. Saute until they begin to soften, 2-3 minutes. Add the carrots and stir fry until the they begin to soften, 2-3 minutes. Add the kale and garlic, stir and cook until blending in, 3-4 minutes. Add the peas and cook for one minute, stir in sauce and serve over rice.

As I was eating this tonight, I was thinking how small chunks of pineapple and chopped toasted cashews would have been totally delish, so add those at the last minute if you have/want them!

Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Pie with Raspberry Sauce

I was craving a banana cream pie, which is odd, because I usually detest creamy pies... but I was imagining if I made it a little different how good it could be. So, I looked up a bunch of recipes and came up with this. I like this recipe because the filling is raw-ish/ totally quick and easy. I've been having issues with all the conflicting information about sweeteners. Recently I've been hearing that agave nectar is not as amazing as we all had hoped. Apparently, it has to be heated to very high heat (processed) in order to extract it from the plant....so it is not "raw" even if the label says so (there are no laws regarding using the term "raw" for advertising). Anyway, whatever! You can't win. So, back to the age old advice, everything in moderation. This recipe I cut the sugar down to about 1/4 and added dates to compensate. When using sugar, definitely use "evaporated cane juice", it's less processed and better for the environment. Also, I just try to remind myself as often as possible that sugar=satan. It seems to help as I'm pouring it into one of my recipes :) Okay, enjoy this relatively low sugar dessert~

Crust:
1/4 cup earth balance (or other non-dairy butter substitute)
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8-1/4 cup sugar

Filling:
3 ripe bananas
12 oz of tofu, drained
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup sugar (or less)
7-8 dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup dried coconut flakes (not the sweetened kind, find this in bulk sections of natural food stores)

Heat oven to 375. Mix the crust together in a bowl and press into the bottom of a pie pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Mix all the filling ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

Garnish with chocolate chips, if you wish and chill for at least 3 hours.

Top with raspberries or raspberry sauce when you serve.

Raspberry sauce;
1 cup frozen raspberries
1-2 tbl. sugar

Heat the raspberries and sugar in a small sauce pan until the raspberries break down.

Sesame Grilled Eggplant Sandwhich

I love sandwhiches. Here's one I made the other day.

2 slices whole grain bread, toasted
veganaise (confession- I used to detest mayonaise, but now I am a full on lover, thanks to veganaise. Mmmm, creamy, tangy, goodness!)
mustard
1/4 avocado, peeled and sliced very thinly
grilled eggplant slices
red onion, sliced thinly
basil, rolled in a tight roll and sliced thinly diagonally
carrot, shredded
2 slices peppered Tofurky
pepper

I was trying to use up some eggplant so here's what I did:
-peeled and sliced the eggplant into 1/4" slices
-mixed with olive oil, pepper, salt, oregeno in a shallow bowl
-baked in in my toaster oven at 400 for 8-10 minutes, flipping once
-sliced it thinly and mixed it with a splash of seseame oil, agave, soy sauce and rice vinegar

Assemble the sandwhich:
-spread the veganaise and mustard generously
-spread the sliced avocado evenly on the bottom
-add a generous amount of grilled eggplant
-two pieces of tofurky, each folded in half
-then add the grated carrots, onions, basil

YUM