Butternut Squash - Canelllini Bean - Spinach Saute (No Added Fat)

For today's dinner, I prepared a main course of butternut squash, beans, and spinach. Here is what I did:

1. In the Saladmaster stainless steel saute pan that I use frequently, I added three locally grown purple spring onions cut into quarters then 1 1/4" long slices. I turned the pan on medium high with no added fat or broth or other liquid, and stirred occasionally.
2. As the onion cooked, after about 3 minutes I addd a half dozen shiitake mushrooms, halved, and continued stirring periodially.
3. I added all of a 16 ounce package of frozen cubed butternut squash about two minutes later, as the mushroom cooked down a bit. I continued to periodically stir.
4. As the squash defrosted and warmed up, after maybe 5-6 minutes, I added a cup and a half or so of baby spinach leaves, maybe 6 ounces of canellini beans, and a roasted red bell pepper, cut into 1" lengths and maybe 1/4" widths.
5. I like adding onion at different points of a saute to get different mouth feels. I took two scallions, cut into 1" lengths, and added them as well at this point.
6. I continued periodically stirring; after about 2 or 3 minutes, the spinach nicely cooked down, and I added a pinch or two of salt, and maybe a quarter teaspoon of dill.

That's it! I served it with the leftover Madagascar Pink - French Lentil combination from yesterday (I added some water and heated it gently in a covered pan for 6 of 7 minutes), and some tomato and turnip slices. Dinner was healthful and tasty!

Speedy Black Bean and Quinoa Dinner with Citrus Asparagus and Tomato

My wife enjoys my cooking but wants me to prepare meals faster; it usually takes me 45m to 1 1/2 hours, and she doesn't like to wait. She asked me to make dinner in 10 minutes today, and I tried, but actually took 11 minutes.

I "cheated" a bit by picking up a prepared spicy black bean salad from Whole Foods. I cooked some quinoa with a vegan bouillon cube and put that down on the plate as a base. I served the black bean salad on top.

While the quinoa was cooking, I grilled asparagus and thick half moons of sweet onion. After drizzling some fresh squeezed tangerine juice and sprinkling on a little salt, I served the asparagus and onion on top, along with wedges of tomato. Dinner was reasonable, though one minute late, alas!

Strawberry Marinara with Asparagus and Seitan, Whole Wheat Orzo with Fennel and Ginger-Miso Sauce (No Added Fat)

The experiment with using strawberries in a tomato sauce that I tried on May 4th was a success, so I want to try other ways of using such a sauce, which I'll call "strawberry marinara". Tonight, we came back with over twenty-three pounds of organic, biodynamic strawberries from Whitted-Bowers Farm. A friend had gone picking with us, and her boyfriend was coming to meet her once we got back home, so I put together a late dinner for all of us.

In a small stainless steel sauce pan, I made the strawberry marinara very simply. All I did was:

1. Sliced six medium dehulled strawberries into halves, and put them in the pan. Over medium heat, I cooked, stirring, a few minutes till the strawberries were cooked down and jam-like.
2. I added about a half cup of a prepared marinara sauce and another six medium dehulled halved strawberries, as well as about 3 tablespoons of large 1/2" cubed onion and a quarter red bell pepper, cut into 3/8" cubes.
3. I cooked another 3 or 4 minutes till the new batch of strawberry was cooked down to jam consistency.

In the meantime, in a stainless steel saute pan:

1. I put in about a third of a medium Vidalia onion cut into 3/8" thick half moons and turned the heat on to medium-high.
2. I sauteed (with no oil, water, or broth) by stirring for a minute or two, then added an 8 ounce box of seitan strips. I continued stirring for about 5-7 minutes till the onion was slightly carmelized and the seitan lightly browned.
3. I then added the strawberry marinara, as well as a light sprinkle of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano. If I weren't rushing to make this meal, I'd have added some fresh herbs as well just before serving the meal.
4. I also added about a half dozen stalks of asparagus cut into 1" lengths.
5. I mixed all the ingredients and let them simmer on low heat for a few minutes, then served.

I also made a whole wheat orzo dish. The orzo needed nine minutes to cook; this is what I did:

1. In a medium stock pot 3/4 filled with water, I added a vegan bouillon cube and brought the broth to a boil.
2. I put in a cup or so of orzo into the pot and let it cook about nine minutes, as the package indicated, till the orzo was al dente.
3. While it was cooking, I made a quick miso sauce. I put into my VitaMix blender a chunk of peeled ginger (maybe a 1/2" cube), a tablespoon of miso, and a quarter cup of water. I blended just a few seconds till liquified.
4. Once the orzo was done, I mixed in the sauce, as well as just a little bit of 1/4" cubed onion (maybe 3 tablespoons).
5. I also added some fennel root (about a tablespoon of the root, cut into small 1/8" cubes) and a little bit (maybe a tablespoon) of fennel greens cut into 1/2" lengths.
6. I added two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, mixed, and served.

I served this with a simple salad of cucumber slices topped with lemon juice and hemp seeds. It was tasty!

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Strawberry, Butter Peas, Mixed Greens (No Added Fat)

Yesterday was the first day for pick-your-own strawberries at Whitted-Bowers Farm about 50 minutes away from us. My wife is more careful with buying organic than I am, but we both insist on only organic berries, and this lovely farm is not only organic, but also biodynamic. When we first discovered the farm two years ago, we came back with something like 75 pounds of strawberries in three visits! Yesterday it was just my daughter and me, and we picked about 12 1/2 pounds. Several varieties were almost ready, but our favorite, 'Early Glow' was the only one really ready, and all that we picked.


We froze about half of what we picked and are dehydrating most of the rest (strawberry chips, just dehydrated strawberry slices, last and have a nice and concentrated flavor). I wanted to use some in a main course, and was thinking of making some dressing like I did after the first visit to this farm (and should have tonight, but ran out of time), but also did a little bit of research on the web and found an interesting sounding and easy recipe that used strawberries cooked down with tomato puree to make a pasta sauce - I don't think I'd ever have thought of that! Hats off to Chefs Ron Suhanosky and Colleen Marnell-Suhanosky (formerly) of New York City's Lexington Ave.'s Sfoglia restaurant who came up with this recipe for Spaghetti With Strawberries.

Their premise is that, just as some pastry chefs are adding savory ingredients, why not add sweet to main courses? I think they're on to something, and used their approach, with some changes. Their sauce turned out surprisingly good; we all loved it and the dinner in general, and I will continue to use this as an inspiration for additional creations!

Here is what I did. It is an easy recipe, in spite of how I have described it!

1. I took about six-ten ripe medium strawberries (the original recipe calls for 1/2 pound), washed and dehulled them, and cut them in half.
2. I put the berries in a stainless steel sauce pan and, with no added oil or anything else, gently heated on medium heat, stirring (my daughter actually helped and did the stirring!). After just a minute or so, the strawberry began releasing juice; I added a tablespoonful or so of ume plum vinegar. Over the course of about 4 or 5 minutes, the strawberry largely liquified and cooked down to almost half the original volume. (I didn't think that the vinegar was necessary and next time I make such a sauce, I'll skip it).
3. The original recipe calls for then adding a cup of tomato puree; instead, I used almost 2 cups of an organic marinara sauce. I also added another batch of six-ten ripe strawberries, but did not add 4 ounces of reserved pasta cooking water (I preferred more tomato and a thicker sauce, and am glad I did), as the recipe called for.
4. I thought it would be good to also add some vegetables at this point, and added about a quarter small bell pepper, cut into approximately 3/8" cubes, as well as about an eighth of a small yellow onion, cut into 1/4" cubes. Next time, I may also add some kale leaves, perhaps cut into chiffonades, as well as quartered basil leaves. Some cubed carrot would also be good!
5. My daughter continued to stir for another 5 minutes or so till the strawberry was again much softened and almost liquified; the recipe says that one should reduce the sauce in half again, and I think it did, if just the strawberry was considered.
6. The recipe concludes with seasoning the sauce to taste. What I did was add a little bit of salt to taste (1/2 teaspoonful I believe), a few shakes of dried oregano, and maybe ten fresh lemon sage leaves. I wanted to also add nutritional yeast, but decided to keep the sauce more pure strawberry-tomato to appreciate what Chefs Suhanosky and Marnell-Suhanosky intended, and next time build more of my own vision into the sauce.

In parallel, I had prepared whole wheat spaghetti, onto which I served the sauce. I had wanted to mix some hot chili powder into the cooking sauce, but instead tried some at the table atop the sauce (nowadays I rarely strongly season, as my daughter won't eat something that is too spicy). Here my intuition was off; surprisingly, at least to my taste, this tomato sauce does not do well with heat.

The sauce really was good and was not something that I would have predicted. I hope soon to make pizza with a strawberry sauce as a base! I will experiment with other ways of cooking strawberries into tomato sauces.

A basic mixed green salad and butter peas (purchased frozen and similar to lima beans and black-eyed peas) completed the dinner. I had hoped to make a version of a simple strawberry cobbler with reduced fat and sugar, as well, but a simple strawberry-Valencia orange juice to accompany the meal sufficed.

Except for a little bit of olive oil (1g of fat per serving of sauce, and I think that was 1/6 of the sauce; I used almost 1/3, so that totals 2g of fat for all three of us, or about 2/3 g fat per serving) that was in the tomato sauce that I used, it was another no-added-fat dinner. Because it's such a small amount and because any tomato sauce can be used, I am still labeling the dish as "no added fat".

Butternut Squash with Spinach and Seitan served with Madagascar Pink Rice

I was tempted to use some seitan and spinach for tonight's dinner. I love winter squashes, and usually roast them. They're great cooked with other items, but I find it difficult due to the hardness to cube them, so like having frozen cubed squash on hand, as I did. Here are the ingredients that I used:

• 8 ounce package of seitan strips
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 10 ounces frozen cubed butternut squash
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 5 ounces baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons of onion, chopped to 1/4" cubes
• 2 teaspoons of finely grated ginger
• Pinch salt, larger pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of lemon sage leaves (from my garden)

1. I started sauteeing the packet of seitan strips and garlic in my stainless steel-titanium saute pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally
2. After about 3 minutes when the seitan was slightly browned, I added the squash and continued cooking for another 3 minutes or so
3. I added the lemon juice and stirred; a little of the food that had stuck a bit on the pan came "unstuck"
4. I then added the spinach and cooked for 4 or 5 minutes till the mound of spinach was well cooked down
5. I added the ginger and onion, as well as lemon sage, salt, and pepper, stirred, and let it all cook for another minute or so (a little jalapeno or red chili powder would have also been nice, but I omitted for the sake of our young daughter's palate)

I served the vegetable with Madagascar Pink rice (cooked in a 1 : 1 3/4 ratio of rice to water, along with a vegan bouillon cube, for 20 minutes) and tomato slices.

Carrot-Ginger Bok Choy Saute with Tempeh Sheets, Leftover Quinoa with Asian Slaw Salad (almost no added fat)

I took advantage of a few leftovers when I planned tonight's meal. I had maybe 1/4 cup of creamy carrot-ginger soup from a few days ago, as well as a purchased  quinoa with asian slaw salad from Whole Foods Market. The soup had cashews and the salad had a little tahini, so I am calling this an "almost no added fat"* meal.

I put my Saladmaster saute pan on medium and put in about a third of a sweet onion cut into thick half-moons (maybe 1/2" wide). I let the onion cook, with no added fat or liquid, for a few minutes till they were getting cooked but not carmelized, then I added 2/3 of a package of tempeh. I had first cut the tempeh to be half as thick, then cut into approximately 1" squares.
After the tempeh started getting a little bit of color, after about 3 or 4 minutes or so, I added the following:

• a head of bok choy, with each leaf sliced down the middle,

• a small shallot diced to about 1/4" cubes, 

• a large pinch of salt, a small pinch of freshly ground black pepper, and maybe 1/4 teaspoon of dried oregano, and

• the small amount of carrot-ginger soup

I served this with the prepared salad and some very tasty slices of heirloom tomato. It was a good and tasty dinner!

The carrot-ginger soup that I make is pretty thick, and by cooking it down here, it really was more a sauce by the time I was done with it. I cooked for about 3 more minutes, till the soup/sauce was largely absorbed. I would also have liked to have included a little Cajun or other spice, or perhaps a little jalapeno, but, in interests of serving my daughter as well as us, I just put some hot sauce on our individual plates.

*Let's see ... the whole batch of soup, maybe 8 cups, had about 1/2 cup of cashew, but I had only had about 1/4 cup of soup left. The salad was part of Whole Foods' Engine 2 low-fat diet. Cashews have 62g of fat in a cup, so they probably contributed (1/32 soup * 31g fat/whole batch of soup) only a gram or so of fat.

Quick Seitan-Kale-Carrot Stew with Israeli Couscous Salad (No Added Fat)

I had to put a meal together relatively quickly, and was able to prepare a reasonable dinner in about 20m tonight. I had the Israeli couscous dish leftover from yesterday; it's meant to be served cold, so that just had to be served. I cut up some Easter Egg radishes for a secondary salad. Now on to the main course!

I put in one of my heavy stock pans a little less than a quarter of a medium Vidalia onion, cut into maybe 3/8" cubes, turned the pan on medium, and cooked, stirring occasionally, till almost at the point of being clear (bit of translucence on edges, but otherwise still white), about 3 minutes (I use a premium pan that needs no oil or water to keep food from sticking!). I then added a finely diced clove of garlic and an 8 ounce box of cubed seitan, including the little bit of liquid that comes with the seitan, and cooked, again stirring occasionally, for about two minutes.

I then added a carrot, sliced to about 1/4" width, and about four leaves of kale, roughly hand cut into approximately 1" pieces of leaf (stem left behind). I stirred for a minute, then added about two tablespoons of 1/4" diced sweet onion (I like putting onions in at different times of cooking to get different mouth feels), about half a cup of marinara sauce, a pinch or two of salt, about a half teaspoon of dried oregano, and two tablespoons or so of nutritional yeast. I would also have added some crushed red pepper, but my preschooler wouldn't have eaten the dish (I did add some crushed red pepper to my serving). I stirred, reduced the heat to low, and simmered for a few minutes.

Dinner was fast, nutritious with no added fat (the whole box of seitan was maybe 3g of fat), and tasty! I'd love to make similar stews with seitan and marinara, but try adding cellophane noodles or orzo, and use other vegetables.