Life on the vegan highway.

Hi everyone, I am alive, but in a rut! I am in such a rut that I let my beautiful eggplant go to waste, which is sad because is was suppose to be Susan's Eggplant parmesan. The only thing I can attribute my rut to is my back. It is giving me so much grief these days. I need to get out of it. You would think with all the wonderful recipes and food pictures you all post, one could never be in a rut. Ok, on to a couple things I actually did cook. I am always in search of a new "burger" recipe. I am lousy at getting enough protein. I found this recipe on http://www.veganchef.com. They can be fragile so be careful. The family did not care of them. Since I did I had to freeze some o them. Them recipe says it makes 6, but mine made 9. I was so excited since I am always trying to use quinoa in a new and different way. I cooked mine on parchment paper and used swiss chard. We served them up with corn, broccoli, and gravy.

Ancient Grain and Vegetable Patties:

by Chef Beverly Lynn Bennett

2 cups water or vegetable stock

2/3 cup millet, rinsed, and drained

1/3 cup quinoa, rinsed, and drained

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. dried basil

1/4 t. dried oregano

1/4 t. dried thyme

1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

3/4 cup red onion, finely diced

1 T. olive oil, plus additional for oiling cookie sheet

1/2 cup baby bella mushrooms (or other mushrooms of choice), roughly chopped

1/3 cup carrot, finely diced

1/3 cup celery, finely diced

1/3 cup red pepper, destemmed, deseeded, and diced

1 T. garlic, minced

1 cup spinach or Swiss chard, triple washed, patted dry, and roughly chopped

3 T. quinoa flour or brown rice flour

2 T. tamari, soy sauce, or Bragg Liquid Aminos

2 T. freshly chopped parsley

1 T. balsamic vinegar

1 t. hot pepper sauce

2 T. cornmeal

In a medium saucepan, place the water, and bring to a boil. Add the millet, quinoa, salt, basil, oregano, thyme, and pepper, stir to combine, and return the mixture to a boil. Cover the saucepan, reduce the heat to low, and simmer the grains for 18-20 minutes or until all of the water has been absorbed. Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, in a dry non-stick skillet, place the almonds and sunflower seeds and cook them over medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant. Transfer them to a small bowl to cool. In the same skillet, saute the red onion in the olive oil for 3 minutes to soften. Add the mushrooms, carrot, celery, and red pepper, and continue to saute an additional 5 minutes or until the vegetables are crisp tender. Add the garlic and saute an additional 1 minute. Remove the skillet from the heat.
Transfer the slightly-cooled grains to a medium bowl. Finely chop the toasted almonds and sunflower seeds and add them to the cooked grains. Add the sauteed vegetable mixture, along with the remaining ingredients except the cornmeal, and stir well to combine. Using a little olive oil, lightly oil (or mist with oil) a non-stick cookie sheet and set aside. Place the cornmeal on a small plate. Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, portion the grain-vegetable mixture into 6 patties. Dust the patties on all sides with the cornmeal and place them on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve the patties plain or with your choice of condiments.
Yield: 6 patties

weight watchers 4 points @ 9 patties

My taste buds wanted some type of Asian stir fry and this is what I came up with. I wasn't thrilled at first since it wasn't exactly what I was going for, but since sitting her eating and blogging, the flavors have actually come together. I might have put a tiny bit too much red pepper because my lips are burning off. lol I just stir fried some broccoli, carrot, green onion, and cabbage. My sauce was a mixture of tamari, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, and about 1T of brown sugar. Oh and those red pepper flakes. Once the veggies were near done I threw in some cooked spaghetti and let that heat through.


Thanks for visiting and I sure hope I am out of this rut by Saturday. I really want to cook something spectacular.