Dinner

Sometimes cooking is enough.

Gingerbread Cookies

Used Post Punk Kitchen recipe as the base. For the two cups of whole
wheat pastry flour subbed in 1/2 cup buckwheat, 1/2 cup stone ground
whole wheat, and 1 cup whole wheat bread flour (because that is what I
had). Used cut dried apricots, cranberries, and raisins to give them a
little personality. Skipped the icing. I made a few plain ones that
are great with a little peanut butter spread on top. Pretty crumbly
and sticky dough but I worked in small batches on a floured counter
and did fine. I used the stone ground flour on my working surface
which resulted in the flecks you see. Next time I will work with a
finer flour on the work surface.

Easy Dinner 04

Made a slaw for dinner. Served with a caramelized tofu and nicely
paired with a brown ale.
1 small red cabbage, sliced
1 celery rib, chopped
2 carrot, peeled and grated
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 small Granny Smith apple, finely chopped
1/2 cup veganaise
1/2 lime juiced
1 very small clove of garlic, mashed with salt
1/3 cup pried sweetened cranberries
1 lb of tofu, sautéed and glazed*
Salt, pepper, oregano, and thyme
Mix veganaise with shallot and garlic. Add cabbage, carrot, celery,
and apple and mix. Add herbs and mix. Set aside. Make tofu and let
cool to room temperature. Serve slaw with tofu on top.

*Glazed tofu is based on Healthy Hedonist recipe. Agave for maple
syrup and added a sriracha.

Easy Dinner 03

Looks like I forgot to snap a picture of our chili and cornbread.
Chili was my own recipe based one 1 jar of tomatoes, 2 cans of beans,
and a package do seitan ground up in food processor. Of course there
were onions, jalapeños, carrots, celery, cumin, coriander, oregano,
salt, pepper, soy sauce, fresh cilantro, and lime juice. The corn
bread was based on Berley's vegan skillet corn bread. Made 6 servings.
Excellent as left overs.

..-..ll..-..

Weekend Dinner 01

This is an easy dinner but the dough for the crust takes a bit of time
so I am calling it a weekend meal. This is typically a Sunday meal for
us but with the snow I was home early on Friday so I decided to give
it a try. We were very close to giving into frozen pizza. So glad we
didn't.

Crust is a 60% whole wheat crust. As I recall I used: 1 cup water, 1
tbsp yeast, 1 cup white bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat bread flour,
1/2 cup stone ground whole wheat flour, 2 tbsp wheat gluten, 2 tbsp
olive oil, and 20 or so grindings of sea salt. All in bread machine on
dough setting. Divided into three balls and then rolled out for thin
crusts. Used hearth stone in oven and fancy peel for delivery.

Pizza 1: Garlic and olive oil on crust, potatoes boiled 10 minutes in
skin then sliced, sliced shallot, drizzle of olive oil, and sprinkling
of oregano, salt, and pepper. Baked 7 minutes.

Pizza 2: Caramelized red onion, Brussels sprouts boiled for 5 minutes
and sliced, drizzle of olive oil, and sprinkling of thyme, salt, and
pepper. Baked 7 minutes.

Pizza 3: Spaghetti sauce, sliced green pepper, sliced shallot, pan
fried tofu, and sprinkling of fake mozzarella.

Overall quite good. Next time going to try putting the onions on top
of the sprouts to keep them from rolling.

Easy Dinner 02

Butternut Squash with Quinoa Pilaf:

Not a beauty and won't be making this exact version for company anytime soon but a pretty enjoyable weeknight dinner.

In this meal the cooking time is set by the squash so put it in the oven then figure out the rest.

1 butternut squash
1 cup quinoa
2 cup water
4 garlic clove
2 onions
1 stem celery
Thyme
Sage
Bay leaf
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp mirin
1/2 cup Dried sweetened cranberries
1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup Hulled sunflower seeds


Cut squash in half, remove seeds, baked cut side down for 45 minutes in 400 degree oven. Turn over and drizzle on olive oil and mirin. Broil for 5 minutes.

Rinse quinoa and add to sauce pan with water, 2 cloves garlic, spig if thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover, cook for 15 minutes, let rest covered till needed. Remove bay leaf and thyme stem and smash garlic before using.

Toast sunflower seeds and set aside.
Sauté chopped onion in olive oil, add 2 garlic cloves, celery stem chopped, and chopped herbs. Mix in cranberries and wine. Mix in quinoa and cover over low heat till squash is ready. Stir in sunflower seeds and salt and pepper. Serve with squash.

Makes 4 servings at about 450 calories.

Easy Dinner 01

Pasta with Beans and Red Sauce
1 lb whole wheat pasta
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 lb green beans, 1 inch pieces
1 can chickpeas, rinsed
Put water on to boil in pasta pot. Heat sauce and chickpeas in large sauce pan. Cook green beans in pasta water for 5 minutes then drain and add to sauce. Cook pasta and drain. Toss all together in the empty pasta pot. Makes 5 servings at about 500 calories each. Great as leftovers for lunch warm or cold.