Thanks Giving- Parsley Potatoes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound potatoes
bunch of flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves
2/3 to 1 cup vegetable bouillon
2 tbsp oil
small onion
parmesan
pepper
salt

Grab a bunch of fresh parsley and put it into a food processor or blender. Next take the garlic cloves, coarsely chop and drop in with the parsley. Pour in olive oil with this. Blend this all together. It doesn't have to be smooth, just well mixed.

Set a side and mince a small onion finely. Peel, cube and rinse your potatoes. If you want the parsley mix to sick really well to the potatoes I would pat them down with a clean towel.

In a skillet heat up you parsley oil and onions until translucent. This is really going to bring out the parsley flavor! Add the potato cubes, stir well and give them a few minutes. Mainly to let the parsley really stick to them.

Add about 2/3 cup of the bouillon, 1/2 a tsp salt (depending on how salty the broth is, mine wasn’t) and some pepper. Now simmer the potatoes over low to medium heat for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes the liquid will be all gone and the real baking starts. Just stir them now and then for another 10 minutes. They should be done by then.

And there we go! A perfect side dish that is a bit different then traditional mashed potatoes!

Thanks Giving- gravy!

Gravy on top of stuffing! These were my favorite things when I was younger so making a guilt free gravy was a dream come true for me!

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons nutritional yeast
4 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce to form a smooth paste. Gradually whisk in the broth. Season with sage, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thickened.

Makes about 2 and a half cups

Vegan Thanks Giving- Cranberry Sauce

Well after many many many Thanks Giving's filled with a big, stuffed carcase in the center of the table, having to pretend the food looked good to me to protect the feelings of my host and having to hide practically all of the food offered under my napkin (Or if I was unlucky enough having to eat it and then be sick for the next week) I decided to host my own Thanks Giving with some of my friends. So the next series of recipes are for a very vegan thanks giving!

The thing that is awesome about cranberry sauce is that it is so easy to make. Plus since there are so few ingredients it has a very clean, pure taste that can be lost during Thanks Giving.

4 cups of raw cranberries
1/2 cup agave, maple or rice syrup
Juice from One Orange

Rise the cranberry's and transfer them into a large sauce pan. Add in the Syrup, orange juice and 1/4 cup of water.



Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. When it comes to a boil reduce heat and cover. Boil gently until berries pop (About 10 minutes.). Chill for 1 hour before serving.

If you keep it warm it is also a great thing to put on top of pancakes or waffles!

Orange Glazed Tofu with Lime Coconut Rice

Orange Glazed Tofu:
2 tsp Arrowroot powder
1/2 orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
3 tbps Soy sauce
2 tbsp Maple syrup
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 gloves of garlic
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp of sea salt
1 pack of extra firm tofu
Green onions (garnish)
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds (garish)

Pre heat your oven at 400 degrees. Combine arrowroot with two tablespoons of orange juice. I say actually squeeze the orange yourself because you will next put that and the rest of the orange juice into the bowl along with all of your ingredients save the tofu, sesame seeds and the green onions.
Put your tofu and the mixture into a baking dish and coat both sides. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Take out when that is done and turn the pieces of tofu over. Recover and bake for another 6-9 minutes. The sauce should be thicker as it cools. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with green onions and seeds.

Coconut Lime Rice
1 cup of brown basmti rice
½ cup of water
A can of light coconut milk
2 tablespoons of lime juice
1 ½ tsp of lime zest
¼ tsp of sea salt
Lime wedge to serve

I would recommend pre soaking your rice. Combine all but the zest and wedges in sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer for 35-45 minutes adding more water if needed. Turn off heat and stir in the lime zest. Let sit for five minutes before serving.

LiveStrong 5k!

I am the one in the Blue.




Well Yesterday was my first 5K! It was tons of fun and not as hard as I thought it would be...I mean today I am soar but I could defintley do more. I completed it in 35 minutes; not bad for my first time and I will do even better next one!

So what does this mean for me? It means a lot. You see I am a dancer and what do you hear from dancers all of the time? "Dancers cant really run." It's our ankles really. Ankles have a lot of stress in them when you dance, primarily in Ballet due to the extreme stress. Well, I want to be a dancer that can run too...and apparently I can!

A healthy life style means alot to me...that is the reason why I am vegan. But eating isn't all there is to health. Working out, cardio and strength training is just as important. Still to do that you need the right food in your system, so it's nothing and everything but a cycle of health.

The moral: Half Marathon is next!

Mercimek- Turkish Red Lentil Soup

This is a take on one of my favorite Middle Eastern Recipes... it is rich and spicy and perfect for a cool winter or fall day. It also happens to be packed full of protein.

Ingrediants:
1 cup red lentils
1 medium size onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 carrot
1 tbsp tomato or pepper paste (or you can do half&half)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp crushed pepper or red peppercorns
pinch of red pepper flakes
6 cups of water or veggie broth

I always start be dicing up all of my Veggies. Since this is a soup you want to make sure to get them as finally minced as possible. I go so far as to use my food processor.

Take the olive oil and the minced onion and put it in a large pot, sauteing. After about 2-3 minutes, add the tomato paste and saute that in as well.

After this put everything but the lemon into the pot and cook on medium heat until the lentils are soft and mushy, for about 20-25 minutes.

Squirt with lemon before serving. This is great with fresh Pita Bread.

Mini Veggie Pizza's

There is nothing better then a good pizza...but its hard to find them without cheese for some reason. Plus when there isn't any cheese you have to have a really good crust. I've tried a lot of recipes for crust but none really turned out the way that I wanted. This one did.

For your crust you will need:
-1 cup warm water
-2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-2 tsp instant yeast
-1 tsp raw sugar
-3 tbsp olive oil
-1 1/2 tsp salt (2 tsp also works)

Combine your oil, salt and sugar together and whisk. Let sit for several minutes and then add one cup of warm water. Stick this into you bread machine on the dough setting. Gradually combine the flour into this letting one cup combine completely before adding the next. Let your bread machine do the rest of the work.

When you take it out it should be nice and elastic. If it isn't adjust and put back into the machine for a little while or kneed.


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Next I would preheat your oven. I set mine to 500 degrees. As this is pre-heating divide the dough into 6 pieces about a quarter of an inch thick.

I use a white sauce which is an olive oil infused with anything you want. For this we used one with sun dried tomatoes and one with basil.

Now its time to pile on those toppings. I love fresh veggies so mine had olives, roasted red peppers, portobello mushrooms, artichoke hearts, garlic, and tomato. My none vegan friend and boy friend did pepperoni and mozzarella cheese so really you can go anyway you want.


Place in the oven when they are ready. You should leave them in about 7 minutes, rotating about half way though from rack to rack.



And there you have it! Perfect, from scratch, home made pizza's! You can always make them bigger or smaller.