The husband and I love Asian food- Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, Japanese-you get the point; so for dinner I like to play around with Asian flavors to make yummy dishes. We love to go out for Asian food but we try not to get it out too much because of portion control, high calorie sauces and budget. Making your own “take-in” helps to reduce over eating and allows you to create healthier versions of your favorite dishes; here are three of my favorite “take-in” dishes for two.
1 14-ounce can white kidney beans, rinsed (reserving 1/4 cup)
3/4 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons shoyu
1-1/4 cups frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 9-inch prepared pie shell, thawed
1/2 tablespoon olive oil (for brushing)
1 teaspoon shoyu (for brushing)
What You Do:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, garlic, salt, and pepper, and cook for 7 to 9 minutes until onions soften and begin to caramelize. Set aside.
In a food processor, add white beans (except 1/4 reserved cup), walnuts, lemon juice, and shoyu, and pulse to lightly chop (do not purée). Remove half of chopped mixture from food processor and transfer to a large bowl.
Transfer sautéed onions to the remaining mixture in food processor. Purée until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Transfer purée to bowl with lightly chopped beans and walnut mixture. Add spinach, cranberries, thyme, and cup of reserved beans. Stir to combine and transfer to prepared pie shell, spreading evenly.
Combine oil and tamari, and brush on top of pie and crust. Bake for 35 minutes until lightly browned.
The inspiration behind this dish was chipped beef gravy on toast something my mother used to tell me that they ate growing up. Chipped beef is a salty dried beef that used to to be cooked up in a gravy and served on toast. Instead of beef (obviously) I used reconstituted wild mushrooms.
In a medium saucepan over low heat add the margarine and garlic and heat until margarine is melted. Whisk in flour all at once to form a roux. Whisk in milk, a little at a time and 3 tablespoons of the mushroom soaking liquid, increase heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring, until thickened. Stir in mushrooms, pepper, salt and cayenne, heat through and serve over toast.
After hearing that the Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spiced Lattes aren’t vegan I have been wanting to make an “at home” version which is honestly way better on my wallet anyways. I haven’t been out to the market to get non-dairy creamer so I was excited to come home and find a sample from Mimiccreme.
In a food processor blend the creamer through stevia. Pour into a mug and then pour the espresso on top and sprinkle with more pumpkin pie spice
It was decadent and delicious and the Hubz is crying at work because he doesn’t have one so I guess I’ll have to make him one later when he gets home. Thank You Mama Pea!
You can read why the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte ISN’T vegan here.
Tonight’s local menu challenge is based on Grace’s Tamales from the Waitsfield Farmers Market. Grace’s has delicious vegan tamales but from where we live now it would take over and hour to buy them as well as the fact we can only get them on Saturday’s. Now the Hubz has been bugging me to make a vegan tamale recipe and I have been putting it off trying to figure out a way to make the tamales without all of the fat.
Traditionally tamales are made with a lot of lard or oil or vegetable shortening and it just wasn’t going to happen for me.
Low-Fat Black Bean & Corn Tamales
Ingredients:
14 dried corn husks, plus extra husks to make ties
2.5 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
2 cups masa harina
1/2 cup warm vegetable broth
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small red onion, diced small
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1t chili powder
salt and pepper
Directions: Place the corn husks in a bowl of water to soften for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse well. Pat dry and set aside.
In a food processor, process the 2.5 cups of corn kernels until pureed.
In a large bowl, combine the pureed corn, masa harina, lukewarm water, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt and oil and use your hands to combine into a dough.
Spray a medium pan with cooking oil and place over medium-high heat. Add the onion, black beans, corn chili powder and salt and pepper and saute until the onions are soft and lightly browned; remove from the heat.
To assemble a tamale, place about 3 tablespoons of masa mixture in the center of corn husk. Flatten with your hand until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Place 1 tablespoon of the black beans on the masa mixture. Fold the long side of the corn husk over the filling to cover, then fold over the ends, overlapping them. Tie with a thin strip torn from an extra soaked husk. Repeat to make 14 tamales in all.
Layer the wrapped tamales in the steamer. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and steam until the filling becomes firm and the tamales are heated through, 50 to 60 minutes.
After dinner the Hubz and I went for a walk down the bridge behind our house to watch the sunset and we got to see this guy fly in:
Yesterday we picked up the last few items, bureau, bike and shop-vac, from our old apartment and handed in the keys. It was strange to see the apartment empty once again but I can’t say that we will miss it. I am excited to move into our new place and have been looking for new organizational ideas on The Container Store site as well as for new furniture on Ikea.
And now we say ‘GOODBYE’ to our old apartment:
Goodbye kitchen with no counter space and no hood over the stove….
Goodbye bedroom I will miss your wonderfully large his and her closets….
Goodbye double living room/dining room with your painted shut windows…..
Goodbye office; whoever claimed you could be a second bedroom was crazy….
Goodbye ridiculously small bathroom….
Goodbye porch with the gross carpet you served us well-for storage that is….
Goodbye big ugly blue house it was an okay 2 years but it is time to move on.
Now we are living with my parents until our new place is ready which is nice but it’s hard not having our own space since my parents downsized a few years ago when I moved out and their house is really meant for 2 people or a weekend visit but right now it seems it may be a few week visit. One of the benefits however of living with 2 other people and a father who loves nutbutter is having a wonderful supply of jars for Oats In A Jar. This morning my dad made the coffee and I made OIAJ for the two of us.
OIAJ: (serves 2)
Requires 2 mostly empty nutbutter jars
1 cup of oats
3/4 cup almond milk
1 cup water
1t cinnamon
2t chia seeds
1t raw sugar
2T maple syrup
1 banana, sliced
Bring the oats, almond milk, water and cinnamon to a bowl and then turn down to low until the oats are thick. Stir in the chia seeds, sugar and maple syrup.
In the bottom of each jar put 1/6th of the banana and then top with oats do this 2 more times and you are ready to eat!
