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Recipe of The Week: Arugula Pesto Chickpea Spread

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This past weekend we celebrated Mother’s Day at Shelburne Museum. Since the food choices are limited at the cafe there I made us a picnic lunch which included delicious veggie sandwiches with arugula pesto chickpea spread. I love how it turned out so I am sharing it with you!

  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 cup raw walnuts
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 2 cups lightly packed baby arugula
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 15-oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 2 heaping tablespoons vegenaise (or you could use more olive oil if you would like)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Place the garlic, walnut and nutritional yeast in the base of a food processor and process until crumbly, about 20-30 seconds.  Add the arugula and process for 30 seconds and then slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube and process until smooth. Add the chickpeas, vegenaise, salt and pepper to the processor and process just until combined.  If you would like it smoother feel free to process longer, I preferred to make mine a little chunky. 

Serve: spread onto your favorite veggie sandwich (I made ours with roasted mushrooms, zucchini, fresh arugula and slices of tomato), stuff this spread into tomatoes <– amazing, enjoy with veggies, on top of a salad or in a wrap.

Eggplant Lasagna

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Preheat oven to 375F

For the Eggplant:

  • 1 large eggplant, thinly slice
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Heat a 1/2 T in large skillet over medium-high heat and saute the eggplant on each side for 2-3 minutes. Repeat until all the eggplant has been sauteed, adding olive oil as needed. 

For the Sauce:

  • 1 small onion, minced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1T olive oil
  • 1-15oz can no-salt added diced tomatoes
  • 1-8oz can tomato paste
  • salt and pepper

In a small sauce pan heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes until soft; stir in the garlic- cook one minute.  Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer on low until ready to use. 

For the Nutty-Bean Parsley Cheeze:

  • 1-15oz can white beans
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • 1 jalapeno, chopped
  • 2T each of macadamia nuts & cashews
  • 2T nutritional yeast (optional)
  • 1t salt
  • 1/2t pepper

Place everything in a food processor and process until smooth. 

1 large tomato, sliced into 4 rounds

Assembly: 
You will need an 8×8 baking dish.

  1. Spoon in 1/3 of the sauce and evenly distribute across the bottom of the baking dish.
  2. Place one single layer of eggplant over the sauce, some of the eggplant will over lap-that is fine.
  3. On top of the eggplant spread 1/3 of the cheeze mixture in one even layer.
  4. Top the cheeze layer with sauce.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4.
  6. Repeat steps 2 & 3.
  7. Top with the slices of tomato and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.

On the 7th Day…There were Nuts and more

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Nuts Online was kind enough to send us (and one lucky reader!) their Vegetarian Sampler. This sampler gives you a taste of what Nuts Online has to offer from snacks to tea to proteins and minerals.

The veggie chips were a great mix. They had a sweet sort of flavor and made a great snack, especially the green beans! The anti-oxidant mix gave us the little kick we needed making our way around DC in between meals and were full of great nutrients!

The Hubz ate all but one  of the Turkish Figs- he was in love at first bite! He also devoured the Organic Raw Cacao Goji Energy Squares which he said tasted like a fudgey brownie- guess I can be glad he was eating these filled with super foods instead of brownies filled with oil and sugar!

We used the chia seeds and flax seeds in smoothies and on our cereal. And the quinoa was cooked up and eaten with beans and greens- my favorite!

This is sampler is a great way to see what Nuts Online has to offer and it’s yours to win!

TO ENTER: This giveaway is open until December 8th at 6am. This giveaway is open to U.S.  and Canadian Residents.

The Winner is:

1. Visit the Nutsonline.com site and tell me what you would most like to try. (required)

Additional Chances to win (PLEASE LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY; also if you already do any of these ie. follow me on twitter/facebook, ect it counts so leave a comment).

  1. Subscribe to the NutsOnline.com Newsletter
  2. Follow NutsOnline.com on Twitter.
  3. Like NutsOnline.com on Facebook.
  4. Follow me on Twitter.
  5. Tweet about this giveaway “I want to win @cookveganlover @Nuts_Online Giveaway http://wp.me/pFVWo-1m5”
  6. Like Cook.Vegan.Lover. on Facebook.

On the 2nd Day…

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Sahale Snacks Giveaway

Two family-size bags (15 oz.) of their popular nut blends: Valdosta and Sing Buri (these are great for entertaining – on salads or simply served in bowls for snacking) plus a canvas Sahale Snacks apron.

Valdosta: Pecans with sweet cranberries, black pepper and orange zest.

These are really delicious and are perfect for the holiday season.  These are tasty by the handful or in a salad.  We are them in a salad with baby greens, apples and maple balsamic dressing; the perfect combination.

Sing Buri: Cashews with pineapple, peanuts, lemongrass and mild Chinese chili.

I liked these but I didn’t love the addition of pineapple.  We only had these on their own but they would really be great in an Asian stir fry or slaw/salad.


TO ENTER: This giveaway is open until December 3rd at 6am. This giveaway is open to U.S. Residents.

The Winner is: Megan Hall
veganwhore.wordpress.com

1. Visit the Sahale site and tell me your favorite product. (required)

Additional Chances to win (PLEASE LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY; also if you already do any of these ie. follow me on twitter/facebook, ect it counts so leave a comment).

  1. Like Sahale on Facebook
  2. Tweet about this giveaway “I want to win @cookveganlover #sahale Giveaway http://wp.me/pFVWo-1iQ”
  3. Like Cook.Vegan.Lover. on Facebook.

Don’t forget to enter the Oh Nuts Giveaway going on until December 7th! – Enter Here.

Oh Nuts!

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I recently was sent some items from Oh Nuts! an online distributor of bulk products such as nuts, candy, dried fruit and chocolate.  They were kind enough to send me the Raisin Nut Mix, Veggie Chips and Dried Apricots.

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The Raisin Nut Mix and the Dried Apricots were great.  We brought them on our cruise with us to snack on.  The Raisin Nut Mix was the perfect balance of dried fruit, seeds and nuts and we ate it right up.  The apricots were different than I usually buy (i usually buy unsulphered) but these were still good.  Nice and juicy.

The Veggie Chips were actually part of one of my giveaways and can be found on Andrea’s Easy Vegan Cooking.