Meatballs ~ No Meat!

I took a notion to make meatballs, and maybe a veggie patty or two. But, of course, these had to be made with something other than meat. I remembered reading that sweet potato and black beans make a nice mixture, but I couldn't find any recipe. So I decided to wing it. My first effort was a little mushy. I needed a binder, but I don't eat eggs either, and I wasn't that big on GF crumbs. A friend suggested ground flaxseeds. Hey! Good idea! So I tried it.

Here's the recipe... very simple: Saute some chopped mushrooms and a small, chopped onion. Set aside. Into a bowl place 3/4 cup boiled and mashed sweet potato; 3/4 cup canned organic black beans, drained and rinsed; 3/4 cup ground flax seeds; salt, pepper and spices of choice. Now you could use a food processor if you want, but I'm getting tired of washing mine, so I got hold of a sturdy fork and applied elbow grease to mash up the black beans, and then mix everything together.

Get your clean hands in there and fashion meatballs about 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter, and/or fashion a patty or two. (I got about 16 meatballs and one patty out of this batch.) Place into a warmed skillet coated with oil. (I used garlic olive oil.) Cook them on low-medium heat, turning as necessary. Watch them... you want them browned and warmed through, but not blackened. ;o)

Once they're cooked, pack them into a container, cool and refrigerate. (This helps them "set" or firm up.) When it comes to serving, add them to what you want ~ rice, pasta and sauce, potatoes and veges... whatever you like. Just warm them in the microwave and you have a yummy, healthy, vegan addition to your meal that's loaded with fiber and Omega 3. Enjoy!

Now I'm adding more to this post because I made this a couple more times with adjustments, one of which was to make a meatloaf. The first one was good. The next one was soggy. ;p Never one to be hindered by failure, I tried again, making more adjustments and made some giant meatless meatballs. Here's what I did differently: I left out the sweet potato. It is a nice mix with the black beans, but I find that these vary in moisture and too much moisture is a bad thing for meatless meat. So this time I just drained and rinsed a can of black beans and crushed them with a fork, then added the sauteed chopped onions and portobello mushrooms. Into a food processor I put about 3/4 stalk of celery, 3 carrots and 2 cloves of garlic... whrrrrr. All chopped up, I added these to the mixture. Then I put in a tbsp. each of Tamari sauce, GF Worchestershire sauce, and GF hot sauce. (Read the label on your Tamari to make sure it's wheat free. Apparently there are some misguided brands out there.) Then, to absorb that moisture you need the ground flax seed. You can also add some almond "flour" if you like. I also added a couple tbsp. of raw sunflower seeds put through my grinder, and 3 tbsps. of GF flour, and for good measure, a tbsp. of instant onion soup mix, GF of course. (optional) Salt (in moderation, especially if you use the onion soup mix) and pepper, and just a little (optional) Tex Mex spice (being sure that it is also GF). Once all this was thoroughly mixed and a nice, firm consistency, I made giant meatballs and placed them in a lightly greased muffin tin, baked at 350 for about 45 mins.

My plan was to cool and refrigerate them before use, but as soon as they were cool my daughter and I had to try them. They were so good right out of the oven that we each ate one. :)

Don't be afraid to experiment in search of the texture and flavours that you like best. The worst you can do is fail, and failure is just learning.

Simple Gluten-free, Vegan Pumpkin Bread

So, I've been experimenting a little lately... trying new flours and checking out recipes from some new resources... at least, new to me. I tried a couple of things though that definitely belonged in the FAIL column. I had a container of pureed pumpkin in the fridge I wanted to use up and pondered for a moment, then I rejected the notion of another experiment and decided to keep it basic. A pumpkin bread was called for here. A simple, basic, gluten-free, vegan pumpkin bread.


Here's what I did.

Into a bowl I measured: 1 cup whole bean flour; 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF flour; 1/4 cup almond flour; 2 tsp GF baking powder; 1/2 tsp sea salt; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon; 1/2 tsp ginger; about 1/2 cup brown sugar, loose. (You can use another sweetener, but if it's liquid, remember to adjust the liquid ingredients accordingly.)

I stirred up the dry ingredients well, then added: 1 egg replacer; 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin; 3/4 cup organic lemonade. (Yes, you can just use a couple of tbsp fresh lemon juice, either in water, or you can sour the milk of your choice.)

Stir till all the dry ingredients are moistened. Scoop batter into greased loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for roughly 50 minutes. (Ovens may vary.)



No FAIL column in sight here. I wound up with a lovely, moist, spicey pumpkin bread that my daughter, at left buttering a slice, thoroughly enjoyed, as did I, with no butter of course. Makes a great breakfast, as well as a good snack. :)

Enjoy!

More Easy Meal Ideas

Two comfort foods, a mighty meal.... and a partridge in a pear tree?

A perennial fave for young folk: mac n' cheese. Thing is, my daughter is dairy- and gluten-free, so this mac n' cheese is made with brown rice macaroni and Daiya cheese. It doesn't take long to cook this macaroni... no more than 8 mins, then drain and rinse well. Return to the empty pot, add Daiya cheese (I use a mixture of cheddar and mozz flavours), place pot over still warm burner and stir. Once the "cheese" is mostly melted, add a little butter. Now, this is just basically a plate of starch, so to give it some redeeming nutritional value, I saute some onion, garlic, mushrooms and whatever other veges are handy and mix them in. She doesn't seem to mind. Obviously this is a sometimes, "comfort food" meal and not for all the time. I can count on my daughter to work this off.

Stuffed potato: clean and nuke a nice large potato of choice. When it's tender and has cooled a bit, cut it in half, scoop out most of the potato and put it in a mixing bowl. You can use what you like to cream the potato. I used a little soy cream cheese (soy sour cream works too) to add some protein to it, and a little butter for yum. I also added some Daiya cheddar for flavour and some of those sauteed veges to it as well. I smooshed it all up together and packed it back into the potato skins. Put it back in the microwave and gave it a warming blast before serving.

Last, but certainly not least, the very nutritious fish dinner. Though vegetarian now, my daughter will still eat fish and eggs. These wild salmon fillets went on special at a local store and I stocked up. First I put the asparagus and mushrooms into a pan lightly coated with garlic olive oil, then, after turning them, I added the salmon fillet, sprinkled on top with tarragon and parsley, and a generous squirt of fresh lemon juice. The potato is nuked, just to complete that ol' fashioned "meat n' potato" model.

These are just some of my daughter's faves. All can be made your way or adjusted to your tastes. Bon apetite!

G-free, Vegan Shepherd's Pie

No kidding. Doesn't it look good? It really was.

Now, I'll confesss, wasn't my first try. Just to start with I needed to make my own vege broth.. there's stuff in commercial broth that my daughter can't have. So I loaded carrots, celery, onion, garlic and more into my crock pot, added water, and made broth. Thing is, I didn't have any faith in it. I mean, it didn't have bones, skin and all those animal parts that make a broth strong and rich. So I went ahead and made my first vege shepherd's pie with the broth straight up. Oooo... a little too strong. I made a date to try again.

Segue to yesterday when I rehydrated some shitake mushrooms to put into my vegan lasagna. When I was done, there sat the water I'd rehydrated them in. Oooo, I thought... can't waste that. Hmmm... time to try that shepherd's pie again? Yep.

So into the crockpot it went, along with onion, garlic, carrots, celery, some pieces of sweet potato that I've been experimenting with lately, along with some thyme, oregano and basil, and a couple pieces of asparagus and broccoli as well. This time I didn't underestimate it. When it was done and drained through a sieve, that was strong vege broth. I put some away in the freezer for another time, and treated what was left like a concentrate, adding water, salt and pepper, and using just water to dissolve the tapioca starch that would thicken my "gravy."

Now, first of course, I sauteed just a whole bunch of mushrooms. I really find these are a great replacement for meat in a vegan recipe. I also added some pieces of asparagus to the fry pan, and onion and garlic. Then I added the broth, water, salt, pepper, carrots, broccoli and zucchini. I thickened the whole thing with the tapioca starch. Meanwhile, I had made mashed potatoes, using soy cream cheese and Daiya cheese to cream them, with a little salt and pepper.

I scooped the veges and gravy into the oven-safe ceramic dishes (they have a name, but it always escapes me). Then I covered this with the mashed spuds and garnished with a bit more Daiya cheese shreds. I baked it for a bit, just to melt the "cheese" shreds a little, then turned on the broiler to brown up the top of it.

Mmmmmm.... success! It was really good.

Now, I've been experimenting, as I say, with sweet potato, and I had some already mashed in the fridge I meant to add to the potato on top of mine, to make it a little healthier. But I forgot. When I told my daughter about this she said, "only on yours?!" Hmmm... I told her I didn't think she'd like it... necessarily. But hey, she's up for the experiment too, so next time, I mix sweet potato with regular potatoes on the top of this culinary glory too see how that goes. Sounds good to me. :)

Stuffed Peppers, Gluten-free and Vegan!

The first time my husband encountered stuffed peppers was at my Aunt’s house. She liked to make stuffed peppers for company. He loved ‘em. He asked me to make them.

Oy. I had never made them and by the time he asked, my aunt was no longer available to ask for the recipe. I asked a cousin, but I’m thinkin’ he didn’t have the recipe. ;o) So I did the unthinkable... I looked in my favourite cookbook, and there it was! I didn’t know, of course, if this recipe was anything like my aunt’s, but it seemed pretty basic, so I gave it a try. He loved ‘em!

Since then, stuffed peppers weren’t something I made a lot, but at regular intervals, like when the four packs of peppers were on sale at my local grocery store, I’d make them. Everyone in the family likes ‘em, even though my daughter doesn’t actually eat the pepper ... just the stuffing.

Well, recently, green peppers were on special in the four packs again, but our diets have undergone some changes since I first made stuffed peppers. I am gluten-free vegan, my daughter is g-free, dairy-free vegetarian, and my husband just wants the meals he’s always had. ;o)

Ack... it’s like running a restaurant some days. But here’s what I did with the stuffed peppers:

Bring water to boil in a big enough pan to blanche the peppers. Cut off the tops and seed them, then blanche them for about 4 minutes. Remove them from the boiling water and place them upside down on a towel to drain. Using the same pot (to save on dishes... empty out the water; save for vege broth or discard). To stuff the peppers you need:

olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 of the pepper tops, chopped
6 large mushrooms, washed, sliced in half, then each half sliced some more
1 - 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp. Tamari sauce
dried basil, to taste, salt and pepper
1 - 250 gram package Uncle Ben’s Bistro Express Wholegrain Brown rice, no preservatives
1 cup Daiya cheese shreds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the saucepan with olive oil. Saute the sliced mushrooms, onion and pepper for several mins. Add the diced tomatoes, tamari sauce, basil, salt and pepper. Simmer for a few mins. Add the rice and warm. Add the Daiya cheese and stir till melted a bit. (Save a few shreds to top the peppers with.)

Place the peppers into a casserole dish. Salt the peppers a bit, then fill with the rice mixture. Put any leftover filling into the casserole between the peppers. Put the few leftover shreds onto the tops of the stuffed peppers. Cover and bake for roughly 30 mins. Remove lid. Allow peppers to rest for a few mins., then serve with whatever else you like.

I served my little stuffed red pepper with a green salad. I served Hubby’s larger green pepper with a meat patty, because he doesn’t really want to be a vegetarian. (I notice he only ate half of his meat though.) My daughter’s larger green pepper was served alone... with some of the extra filling sort of spilling off to one side. Have it the way you like it!

Portion Control and Presentation

I've always thought serving size and appearance are both very important when preparing meals, and it's something that many food gurus don't bother to mention. Serving size and presentation make a difference, not just in how much we eat, but in how satisfying we find our food.

I recently read a post from a friend who thought she could no longer have a certain food, because after eating a generous serving of it, her blood sugar went too high. The thing is, what would have happened if her serving hadn't been quite so generous, or if it had been served with other food that was just as loaded with carbs?

To the right is a sample of the nutrition labeling on foods. They suggest a serving size, then give facts, such as calories, carbs, sugar, for that size serving. Almost every day I enjoy some brown rice pasta, in moderation. What is "moderation?" It's the serving size suggested on the package, or less. In this case, it's 200 calories worth of brown rice pasta. It's also 4 grams of protein, 1.5 grams of fat, and 43 grams of carbs ~ or 14% of my daily allowable carbs.

It wasn't easy to figure out just how much fettucine this 2 oz. serving size was. So I cleaned off my table and dumped out a whole 16 oz. package, then I divided it into 8 roughly equal servings. No, I didn't count strand by strand, but the bundles of noodles were pretty much all the same size... about the size of a quarter when squashed between thumb and fore-knuckle. (Let's face it... if I cheat one day, I get short-changed on another.) So this is how much fettucine I prepare per serving. Similarly, I measure other pastas in a measuring cup. Once you have it figured out how much is a moderate serving size, cook that much per person each time.

Of course, if I served just that much pasta lightly dressed, it wouldn't be enough. It would be a tiny puddle of food in the middle of my plate... like service in one of those fancy restaurants that serve such a wee tiddle of food in the middle of a huge plate, that you feel the need to go eat out, after you've eaten out. ;p

Hence, presentation. How about some veges and hummus in a lettuce leaf? Or a nice big green salad? (Watch the serving size of that dressing!) Now, you see this picture. Doesn't that look good? Well, it's a nice size plate of food! Of course it's mostly salad, with my own dressing, made with 2 tsps. of garlic olive oil, a tbsp. of my own basil vinegar, pepper, dried parsley, and a tiddle of sea salt. I let the salad sort of spill all over the plate before serving up the 200 calories worth of brown rice macaroni with veges and the merest smattering of Daiya cheese. You see, the serving of pasta looks like more sitting up on top of some of the kale from my salad. So when I put this mighty plateful of food in front of me, it looks good! It looks like a lot of food! And by the time I'm finished this meal, I'm full!

Tips for helping you stay on your diet:
(By diet, I'm referring to a permanent part of your lifestyle, not a temporary exercise in denial done for temporary weight loss.. as it often is.)

Use a smaller plate. I mean, obviously it's going to look like less food than you might think you want if you're using a great big plate. Choose a smaller plate for your food and it will look like more!

Let those salad fixin's fall all over the plate... even under the other food. It'll make the other food look more voluminous, and you'll get to it eventually.

Make your own dressings. Yes, there are nutrition labels on store-bought dressings and you can measure them carefully onto your salad or into your pasta, but making your own with superior ingredients can be just that much more yummy and satisfying, and you can make adjustments as needed, like adding dried tomatoes, or lots of finely chopped garlic when you have a cold, or a bit more basil 'cause you like it that way.

Sure, you're on a restrictive diet because of health issues. That doesn't mean you have to rub your own nose in your food, so to speak. Measure carefully, and make both serving size and presentation a regular part of your diet. Do it for you. :)

Gluten-free, Vegan Lasagna

Ok, so it isn't traditional. It's yummy and it's healthy and hey, that's what's important. :)

I use a shallow Corningware casserole for this because the Daiya cheese melts better if it's covered as it bakes. Of course, you can always cover any shallow baking dish with tin foil, just so it doesn't touch the food.

I use Rizopia oven-ready, brown rice lasagna noodles. For them to cook through, start with a layer of tomato sauce (of choice) on the bottom. Then place noodles on top and layer your vege toppings. I use sliced zucchini and mushrooms, with leaves of baby spinach and basil for the first layer. Then more tomato sauce on that and a layer of Daiya cheese. Then another layer of noodles and veges... I put mushrooms and broccoli, sometimes also some asparagus, for this layer. Then more tomato sauce and Daiya cheese.

Cover and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 mins. Serve in gentle servings with a salad. Yum. :)

(And you know, if you eat meat, the recipe police won't come after you if you add some of that too.) ;o)