Rainbow Chard and Beet Greens with Sweet Potato, Beet, and Potato, served with Brown Rice with Baby Lima Beans (almost no added fat)

My daughter and I were invited again today to be on a PCRM nutrition class streaming for free to hundreds of people. She is one of the Kids in the Kitchen who do bimonthly cooking and nutrition shows live on facebook. It was fun and, we hope, helpful.

For dinner, I prepared some greens with sweet potato, beet, and potato. I made a simple side dish with brown rice and baby lima beans. 

Late this spring it will be 22 years that I will have known my wife and I am proud that I have never repeated a dinner for her. It doesn't so much reflect on me as it does on how easy it is to be plant-based. There seem to be just so many ways to create tasty, healthy, and nice looking meals from plants!

Today I wanted to cook some root vegetables with greens. I normally like to add some legume or perhaps soy product in my main course but decided instead to simply use frozen baby lima beans and mix them in with brown rice. Incidentally, regarding rice, for years I have been simmering brown rice in a 1 part rice to 2 parts water ratio for about 50m but lately I've been soaking rice, cooking in ample water uncovered, then pouring off excess water and letting it steam, off heat but covered, for a few minutes as I've seen suggested due to possible arsenic in rice.

Here is how I made the main course:

Ingredients

• 2 medium beet roots, scrubbed, skins intact, with very bottoms removed and composted and leaves rinsed and reserved
• 1 medium Russet potato, scrubbed
• 1 sweet potato (I used Japanese sweet potato, my favorite, but any kind is fine), scrubbed
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/8 cup onion cut into approximately 1/4" cubes
• 1 clove garlic, finely (1/8" or smaller) minced
• Bunch of collard greens, rinsed and bottom 1/4" removed and composted, then sliced crosswise with the stem in the middle into 1" strips
• Bunch of beet greens (I used golden beet greens but any beet or even other greens would be fine), rinsed and then carefully atop parchment paper that covered the cutting board (to avoid stains) chopped into approximately 1" squares
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1/2 t lemon pepper (or freshly ground black pepper)
• 1/4 t salt (more or less according to preference)
• 1/2 t finely chopped herbs like basil and/or oregano and/or sage (I use a grinder with a mix of dried herbs)
• (optional) 1/8 t smoked paprika
• 1t lemon or lime juice (I used fresh squeezed meyer lemon juice)
• 1 1/4 cups carrot cut into 3/8" slices (3 small-medium carrots)
• (Optional cheese sauce)  1/4 cup water, 3-4 T unprocessed cashews, 4 T nutritional yeast, 1/2 t garlic powder, pinch of salt

Process

1. I put the beet roots, sweet potato, and potato atop a trivet in my Instant Pot pressure cooker and added water (about 1/2 cup or maybe a bit more, but to stay below the level of the trivet), then pressure cooked (the Instant Pot calls this "steam" mode when the food doesn't touch the sides) for 10 minutes.
2. While the pressure cooking was happening, I took the onion and garlic and put into a large Saladmaster stock pan; any good heavy pan would do, but I favor stainless steel. I cooked over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes.
3. I added the greens and cooked waterlessly - i.e., I covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 10 minutes. (Without such a pan, I could simply have cooked on low heat, covered, and stirred occasionally.)
4. When the pressure cooking was done, I carefully opened the Instant Pot, waiting a few minutes before gently releasing pressure and then opening the pot away from me.
5. After a few minutes when the root vegetables were easier to handle, I roughly chopped the potato and sweet potato into approximately 3/4" cubes and added to the greens.
6. I put the beet under cold running water and easily rubbed the skin off, then chopped (over parchment paper and with a wet paper towel handy) into 1/2" cubes after discarding the very top. I added the beet to the greens.
7. I made the optional "cheese" sauce simply by blending the sauce ingredients and mixed the sauce into the dish.
8. I mixed in the seasonings and lemon juice and served.

 

Results

Dinner was very good. I love what a bit of lemon does to cooked beets. The greens were a good visual and texture backdrop to the root vegetables. The rice and lima beans went well together. The sauce was just a nice subtle flavor to contrast and uplift the other flavors.

Ideas for the future

I should cook with beets more often! I've enjoyed the past week or so with many beet recipes. By the way, I have several beet recipes, like bit.ly/Beets1, bit.ly/Beets2, and bit.ly/Beets3, referenced in our recipes document from the So Many Cooks in the Kitchen show from last weekend on heart-healthy recipes - there are many other recipes from other Cooks, as well as details on handling beets and a nutrition guide from my friend Brenda Davis, RD.

The dish was almost no fat but did have the cashew; each tablespoon of cashew has about 5g of fat, and this main course was more than enough to serve my family of three with some leftovers. The dish would have been fine without the "cheese" sauce but it was a nice addition.

I could have included carrots when cooking the greens as they would add nice color, nutrition, and taste. A bit more onion would also be fine.

Robin’s Koginut Squash with RazzMatazz Grape, Purple Sweet Potato, and 'Cheese' Sauce (Almost No Added Fat)

I'm excited that this weekend is our next So Many Cooks in the Kitchen show where about a dozen of us Cooks will be presenting So Much Squash! and sharing tasty and nutritious squash recipes. The monthly whole food plant-based shows are broadcast live and then later edited and available on the Plant-Based Network.

I'm also excited that a new local regenerative farm, Union Grove Farm, contacted me and invited me to visit their operations. They are getting into high antioxidant muscadine grape production and grow a new small, seedless, thin-skinned variety, the Razzmatazz. I brought home some of their grapes and want to experiment with cooking with them.

Today, I used another locally grown item, Robin's Koginut squash, originally hybridized in collaboration with a chef. This variety has parentage of kabocha, one of my favorites, and butternut squashes (Food and Wine has a nice article about the squash). I love cooking winter squash in my Instant Pot pressure cooker; I simply rinse the squash, put 1/2 cup of water in the pressure cooker, and set the squash on a trivet so it doesn't touch the pot's sides. 8 minutes of pressure steaming should be enough but I used 10 minutes, and also cooked a purple sweet potato (also local, I believe!) along with the squash.

While the squash was cooking, I prepared a simple vegan "cheese" sauce. I blended about 1/4 cup raw cashews with about 3/4 cup water, 2T nutritional yeast, 1 T thick leftover kabocha squash and lentil soup, and 1/4 t each of onion powder and garlic powder, as well as a pinch of salt.

I served the squash with a sweet potato wedge and dollop of "cheese", and was going to pan saute some sweet onions but forgot (!). I did top with a small bunch of the Razzmatazz grapes. I served with a mixed grain and raw vegetables.

 

Results

Dinner was very good! I love the sweet and dense taste of this squash; it was the first time I'd tried it but it will be a variety I seek out now. A real testament was that my daughter, who doesn't normally like squash, really enjoyed the meal.

My family loves the grapes from this farm! Today's meal really used the grapes as a hearty garnish, and I ate the grapes as a palate cleanser. I want to work on some recipes where these cute, small, but nutrition- packed grapes are integral, and hope this week to maybe make a squash dish with grapes as part of a stuffing.

By the way, I made some "ice cream" with the Razzmatazz grapes after dinner. I put grapes, a little bit of plant milk (I used unsweetened flax milk), and that's it into my blender and blended for maybe 10 seconds till the mixture "seized up" and looked like ice cream. It was tart for my wife but my daughter and I quite liked it!

Though I don't classify this as a no-added-fat meal, it "almost" is; 1/4 cup of cashews is about 12g of fat and the sauce was enough for the three of us. In the PCRM Food for Life program, we suggest that any one dish on the plate should be no more than about 3g of fat, and this is close.

Ideas for the future

I am excited about the squash show and will use that as an excuse this week to continue to probe new squash dishes. I am also excited about connecting with this farm and enjoying their grapes. I bet I'll have a nice grape-squash recipe to demonstrate this Saturday!

Air Fried Sunchoke with Vegan Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage (Almost No Added Fat)

I had some sunchokes and decided to air fry them. We had some Field Roast vegan sausages; I cut them into long pieces and cut the sausages into halves, then air fried, along with some rings of onion, at 350°F for 9m then 425°F for 2m. I also made mixed vegetables with spinach, cooked waterlessly, and a salad with tomato, cucumber, radish, salt, freshly ground black pepper, lime juice, and ume plum vinegar. The sausages have 7g of fat per link and one link sufficed for the three of us, so I'll call this an "almost no added fat" meal.

Results

Dinner was good. The sunchokes were crispy; my wife enjoyed that texture and I did, too (though my daughter didn't), but I think I'd like to try them roasted or maybe boiled.

Ideas for the future

I should get sunchokes again and try roasting them or maybe trying them raw and diced in a salad.

Waterless Seitan, Potato, and Green Beans with Garlic Simmer Sauce; Israeli Couscous with Peas (Almost No Added Fat)

I decided to make a waterless dish in a large Saladmaster stock pan. I cooked waterlessly some potato and seitan - i.e., I put in garlic, onion, seitan, diced Yukon Gold potato, and frozen green bean pieces, covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 20 minutes. I like Frontera Foods' conveniently packages sauces; nevermind that they describe them as appropriate for carnivorous dishes, these are good for plant-based dishes and are reasonable in fat content. I used one of their garlic sauces and mixed it in to the dish, then cooked, stirring a few times, for another minute or so.

I also made an Israeli couscous dish by sauteing a bit of onion, then adding a cup of the Israeli couscous, 1 1/4 cups water, 3 leaves of kale (roughly hand torn -skipping the stems, which I put in our compost bound container - into about 3/4" pieces), a few shakes of salt, 1/8 t or less of turmeric, and about 1/3 cup of frozen green peas. I brought to a boil and cooked on low heat, covered, for about 8-10 more minutes.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Waterless Caulifower and Plantain, Bean and Lentil with Millet and Flax Crackers (Almost No Added Fat)

I had a head of cauliflower and decided to make a waterless main course. I simply cooked it in my large Saladmaster stock pan, putting in half moon red and sweet Vidalia onions, a chopped clove of garlic, then florets from almost the whole head of the cauliflower, and finally a little bit of spinach. I covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped.

I let it cook for about 20 minutes, then I mixed in about 1 or 1 1/2 ounces that I had leftover of  an 8 ounce bag of Key Lime skillet sauce (I think it was 1g or 2g of fat per serving), a handful of chopped flat parsley, salt, and lemon pepper.

While that was cooking, I sauteed with no oil on a cast iron pan a plantain cut into 3/4" rounds. Once lightly blackened, I quartered the rounds and then, once the cauliflower was done, mixed them in to the main course.

When I was cooking a recent Food for Life class and needed baked tortilla chips, I instead used a cracker that I used to occasionally get, Sami's millet and flax
garlic and plain chips. They're great - I can't understand how they are so luscious (the garlic is quite strong!) and seemingly decadent, but they are only 2g (3g for the garlic) of fat per serving (sixth of the bag). I had (and still do!) plenty of leftovers from a few days ago when I made the bean and lentil soup; I didn't add more water but heated it up and spread the thick paste atop some of the crackers.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Tempeh Burger with Peanut, Waterless Broccoli/Spinach/Squash (Almost No Added Fat)

My wife and I like tempeh, but my daughter doesn't and tonight she wasn't eating with us, so I took advantage and made a tempeh dish. In addition, she's not crazy about squash, so I integrated squash into a side dish.

We were getting ready to go to the season finale for Flash Chorus, so I thought I'd make a quick and easy dish. I sauteed thin sheets of tempeh, along with onion and roasted red bell pepper, on a cast iron pan with no oil except for a little bit I rubbed on and then off. I served it on sourdough bread with less than 1/2 t of peanut butter smeared atop (peanut butter is 8g of fat per tablespoon, so this was about 8/6 = 1 1/3 g of fat, which is quite low) and a nice quality Dijon mustard with chablis, plus greens.

I made a waterless side of broccoli, spinach, squash, and jerk seasoning. Tomato slices completed the meal.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Roasted Cauliflower with Green Lentil Penne, Bagel Half with Miyoko's Roadhouse Cheddar and Marinara (Almost No Added Fat)

I was very pleased with the roasted cauliflower soup that I made about a month ago, and have been thinking of roasting cauliflower and doing something with it. Yesterday, I found cauliflower heads at a great price in sale (under $2) at Weaver Street Market, so took advantage and bought a head.

As I did when I made the soup, I was going to roast the florets at 400°F via convection baking for 15m, after first mixing in coconut aminos garlic sauce. I'm not sure why, but the cauliflower was nicely roasted after 12m, so I stopped at that point.

As with much of my cooking, I often improvise as I'm cooking. My original thought was to make a roasted cauliflower side dish or maybe puree roasted cauliflower and make a sauce (I'll do that sometime!). But when thinking of a protein to serve it with, I didn't have time to make beans but remembered that I had some lentil pasta (Tolerant Foods brand green lentil penne). It's a great product that has one ingredient - organic green lentil flour.

Each 3.5 ounce serving of the pasta has 25g of protein, 11g of fiber, and 2g of fat. 11g of fiber! In Food for Life classes, we recommend that adults eat 40g of fiber a day - one serving of this pasta, even with no vegetables or anything else, gets you a quarter of the way there!

I served the pasta, then put the cauliflower on top. I roasted some sesame seeds in a cast iron pan and sprinkled those on. I also served a bagel half with a smear of Miyoko's vegan "cheese" (9g of fat per ounce, but I used at most 1/4 or 1/5 ounce per serving) plus marinara. It was delicious!

Results

Dinner was good. My daughter didn't like the penne as much as my wife and I did, and the pasta was rather sticky.

Ideas for the future

I love the nutrition of the pasta. I should make this pasta in dishes where it could shine, with an appropriate sauce or maybe as part of a caponata dish. I'd like to experiment with more roasted cauliflower dishes. Kalamata olives would go well with roasted cauliflower.

Creamy "Cheese" Cauliflower Soup (Almost No Added Fat)

Recently we stopped by Living Kitchen, a very nice vegan and (subject to ingredient availability) organic restaurant, and had a tasty thick cauliflower soup. I picked up a head of cauliflower today and decided to try making a similar soup. I had made a cauliflower soup back in February 2011 that was good but I wanted to better it.

I found a roasted cauliflower soup recipe from a very nice site by a woman named Jessica and it looked great. The key ideas were to roast cauliflower, coated in a little olive oil and along with garlic cloves, at  450°F for 15m, then blend with sauteed onion.

I made a few changes; I used the convection ("air bake") function on my air fryer toaster oven which cooks faster and went with 400°F for 15m, instead of using oil, I mixed in Coconut Secret brand coconut aminos garlic sauce (soy sauce or their normal coconut aminos would have been fine), and I used oregano instead of thyme.  I didn't have any bouillon cubes on hand or broth, so I used filtered water and just a few (maybe 5) raw cashews for creaminess and thickness. I had sauteed the onion in a cast iron pan and then mixed all the ingredients in my Vitamix blender - including some nutritional yeast. As Jessica suggested, I saved a few pieces of roasted cauliflower and added atop the soup.

Here is a copy of the original recipe from Jessica's site.

INGREDIENTS

Roasted Cauliflower Soup - Vegan, Incredibly Easy

• 1 large head cauliflower, de-stemmed and florets broken up
• 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• 5 cloves garlic, smashed with skins still on
• 1/2 large vidalia onion
• 2-3 sprigs thyme, stems removed
• 4 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 
  

Roasted Cauliflower Soup - Vegan, Incredibly Easy

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat.
• Add the cauliflower to the baking sheet and 1 tablespoon olive oil, about ½ teaspoon salt and grind some pepper over it all. Using your hands, mixing it all in, massaging the ingredients into the cauliflower. Add the smashed garlic (skins still on) on the baking sheet. The skins help to prevent it burning; you'll remove thee afterwards. Roast for 15 minutes. I like to reserve a few pieces after roasting to top the soup with.
• Meanwhile, in a large high sided pot over medium high heat, sauté the onions in the ½ tablespoon olive oil until fragrant and browning, about 8 minutes, stirring infrequently.
• Add the roasted cauliflower, the garlic (skins remove), 2 sprigs of thyme and vegetable broth. Mix together with spatula.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir once more. If using an immersion blender, blend the soup together. If using a high powered blender, let cool slightly and add slowly to blender. Press the "soup" setting or blend on high until soup is thoroughly mixed and incorporated, at least 1 minute. Be careful that your soup is not too hot to crack your blender. Taste and salt and pepper to taste.
• Pour into bowls and top optionally with extra cauliflower, crushed red peppers, extra thyme and a drizzle of coconut milk. Enjoy!
• 
  

I'm glad that I found this recipe and this site! I also made some quinoa cooked with chopped broccoli stalk and with tofu (the tofu wasn't for my wife).

Results

The soup was excellent! I loved the flavor and consistency. It's a winner!

Ideas for the future

I share Jessica's enthusiasm about roasted cauliflower. My toaster oven is fast and I think I could have baked for maybe 10m instead of 15m. I should also try other cauliflower soups maybe with kale or broccoli.

Braised Tofu (or Tempeh) with Bell Pepper, "Cheesy" Riced Broccoli (Almost No Added Fat)

The hurricane is slowly passing us by and finally we had some sunshine today - but also tornado warnings this morning, a lot of rain, and nearby areas experienced flooding. We are lucking out and haven't even lost power, but I'm still focused on bringing down my frozen food inventory.

I recently bought frozen riced broccoli (blanced organic broccoli and salt), and decided to cook it waterlessly (I just put it in my small Saladmaster stock pan, covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 7-10 minutes, really just to defrost and heat up. I made a "cheese" sauce to serve atop the broccoli by blending soaked cashews, water, nutritional yeast, garlic, salt, and, for color, a little bit of tomato and red bell pepper.

I mentioned in the recent past about, for me, a new tofu company called Hodo Foods . I bought their braised tofu and used it with dinner as the main course by sauteeing with bell pepper and onion (on cast iron with no oil); my wife doesn't eat tofu as it doesn't agree with her, so her serving was of tempeh instead of tofu.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Air Fried Broccoli, Organic Oven Fries, Black Beans

I was out and about and asked my wife to get some beans going as a simple and nutritious side dish in the Instant Pot. She picked black beans (I had her do a 0 minute cycle to be almost equivalent to soaking overnight, then I cooked for 25 minutes).

I thought I'd continue my experiments with my air fryer and have seen several recipes for air fried broccoli. I think that Kathy Hester had a recipe, but I also quickly looked and found one recipe that included boiling the broccoli first, and another that was simpler that I modified a bit and tried.

For the broccoli, I used not just the florets, but also the chopped stalk. I made a mixture of rice milk, Panko bread crumbs, garlic granules, freshly ground black pepper, and salt, and coated the broccoli, then air fried. The recipe I modified suggested 350°F for four minutes, shaking the broccoli up, then continuing for another four minutes, but I wasn't using olive oil and thought I'd try just one go at four minutes.

I tried preparing frozen French Fries again as a side dish; this time, I used Alexia organic oven fries that only has about 3g of fat per serving, which is the goal we tell our Food for Life students for each dish. The package suggests 450°F for 18 minutes; I thought I'd try 425°F for 12m but the fries were done after about 9 minutes!

Results

My family loves the results of air frying - and it's so easy with minimal cleanup! My wife liked the broccoli; I thought it was fine, but didn't taste different than a soft raw broccoli. The breading was crispy but not strongly flavorful, and didn't really stick. The fries were great! I mixed in raw tomato and shallot with the beans, and they were very good.

Ideas for the future

I should experiment with aquafaba or use Ener-G Egg Replacer to get vegetables sticky and receptive to Panko or other coatings. I bought some golden zucchini today and am thinking of air frying it tomorrow - perhaps with no breading. I'm so happy that I have an air fryer!

Broccoli and Potato with Arugula Pesto Alfredo Sauce (Almost No Added Fat)

I made a waterless meal by putting, in this order, onion, shallot, matchsticks of potato, broccoli, fennel, and fresh sage leaves into a large Saladmaster stock pan. I covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 15 minutes. I then mixed in Victoria Vegan brand arugula pesto alfredo sauce; I will classify this as an almost no added fat meal; the sauce has 5g fat per quarter cup, but I only used about 1/4 cup to make our three servings. I simmered, covered, on low for a few more minutes. I then added a bit of cubed (1/4") shallot, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and dried oregano. I served it with brown rice maifun noodles and leftover dhal.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Black Bean and Corn Pupusa (prepared), Brown Basmati Rice with Swiss Chard

I saw an interesting looking product in the store and picked it up, Tres Latin Foods' pupusas, and picked up their black bean and sweet corn variety, which I thought I'd use today, as well as their kale and pinto bean pupusa. Pupusas are a traditional dish from El Salvador; I love corn masa and bet these are good.The ingredients look great:

• (Black bean and corn pupusa) organic corn masa, water, black beans, corn, olive oil, and salt
• (Kale and pint bean pupusa) organic corn masa, water, pinto beans, olive oil, kale, salt, chili powder, chipotle powder, and onion powder

... and each pupusa only has 3.5g of fat.

I cooked the pupusas at 400°F for 10m then pan sauteed on a cast iron pan for a few minutes per side to get them a bit crispy. I served with some stewed tomatoes and raw red onion

I also made brown basmati rice (1:2 ratio of rice to water, plus a vegan bouillon cube, and I also mixed in frozen chopped Swiss chard, then pressure cooked it all for 25m) and steamed broccoli and mixed it with sauteed onion.

Results

These pupusas are good. They're not strongly flavorful but certainly satisfying and filling; one was enough for me.

Ideas for the future

I look forward to serving more of these prepared pupusas, and would like to top them with a spicy salsa and fresh avocado and onion. It would be fun to learn to make pupusas!

Grand Shell Brown Rice Pasta with Beans, Potato Salad over Kale (Almost No Added Fat)

I made a simple pasta with bean dish, along with some tasty potato salad that I had purchased from Deep Roots Market Cooperative Grocery when I visited a few days ago in Greensboro, NC. I used Tinkyada brand "grand shell" brown rice pasta.

Black Bean - Avocado - Tomato Salad, Multigrain Bread with Kalamata Spread and Tomato, Quinoa (Almost No Added Fat)

Baked Potato with Vegan "Cheese" Sauce, Seitan with Vegetables, Barbecued Jackfruit (Almost No Added Fat)

My wife and I were in Charlotte, NC for the day yesterday. We had lunch at Bean Vegan Cuisine and a very nice dinner at Fern Flavors from the Garden. My wife had a sandwich with barbecued jackfruit, and I used some leftovers with dinner.

I was in the mood for baked potato so cooked medium potatoes, intact, for 20m with the pressure steam function of my Instant Pot pressure cooker. I made the "cheese" sauce that I most recently described on March 19, and a simple seitan and vegetable saute, plus the jackfruit with lettuce.

Results

Dinner was good. I have had barbecued jackfruit and not liked it - and still don't. But the rest of dinner was good!

Ideas for the future

I should make the cheese sauce more often.

Tofu and Vegetables in Seeded Pita, Basil Peas (Almost No Added Fat)

We have a Lebanese restaurant in the area, Neomonde, whose seeded pita pockets I like. I picked some up yesterday and decided to make a simple sauteed tofu and vegetable dish served in the pita. I sauteed with no added oil on a cast iron pan and, since tofu bothers my wife, made an equivalent dish for her with tempeh instead of tofu.

I also made some peas with basil. All I did was put 2 cups or so of frozen peas in a small Saladmaster stock pan along with 2t frozen chopped basil, and waterlessly cooked for about 10-15m.

Results

Dinner was simple but good. My daughter had a girl her age visiting for the evening - she had never had tofu in her life, but enjoyed the meal. Peas and basil makes a good combination!

Ideas for the future

I don't generally serve or eat sandwiches for dinner, but a pocket sandwich somehow sounds appealing. I should serve these periodically and experiment with a variety of interesting fillings.

Potato topped with Vegetables and "Cheese" Sauce, Panzanella (Almost No Added Fat)

I was thinking of making use of the rest of the cashew "cheese" sauce that I had made two days ago to top on some baked potatoes and vegetables. I found small (maybe 3" x 2" oblong) baking potatoes in the store, so thought that I would pressure steam them for 10m and serve with broccoli and bell pepper. (My daughter much prefers sweet potatoes, so I served her sweet potatoes instead of baking potatoes.) I cooked waterlessly onion, bell pepper, and broccoli. I served the potatoes topped with the other vegetables and a bit of the "cheese" sauce (this time I used even less sauce and so feel justified in describing this meal as being cooked with almost no added fat; it was about a tablespoon and a tablespoon of cashews is about 6g of fat, but the sauce had water and other ingredients, so perhaps I added 3-4g of fat or so?).

I also wanted to use up the drying bread that I had. I've made Italian bread salad (panzanella) with oil on bread cubes roasted in an oven, but wanted to make this without oil. I cut up bread into maybe 3/4" squares and maybe 3/8" thick and put them on a plate as a single layer. I baked at 400°F for 10 minutes in a toaster oven. In the meantime, I mixed up some cucumber and tomato cubes (about 5/8" each), 1/2 t balsamic vinegar, 1t capers, maybe half a dozen Kalamata olives cut into thirds, 1/4 t dried oregano, and 1/8 t freshly ground black pepper. I mixed the croutons in and served.

Results

Dinner was good - everybody enjoyed it. I was surprised that the panzanella came out as well as it did; it does taste better with olive oil, but my version today was still tasty!

Ideas for the future

I should try more dishes with potatoes or sweet potatoes topped with vegetables and experiment with "cheese" and other sauces.

Vegetables and Tempeh with Moroccan Simmer Sauce (Almost No Added Fat)

I picked up on sale some nice simmer sauces today, including a Moroccan one. I made a simple vegetable dish of tempeh, broccoli, onion, potato, and carrot cooked with the simmer sauce. The sauce packet claims to serve 7, but I think it's more like 4. Each serving has 1/2 gram of fat, so, even with larger servings, I'll describe this meal as "almost no added fat".

Macaroni and "Cheese" with Baked Tofu (Almost No Added Fat, surprisingly)

My wife is traveling for business so I could make one of my daughter's favorite meals tonight, macaroni and "cheese". We picked up a package of Annie's brand shells and creamy sauce. our favorite brand of boxed macaroni and "cheese" is Daiya's, but I was happy to read that the Annie's one, even with the added soy milk needed to make the sauce, has only 2g of fat per box of 2 1/2 servings - so I can surprisingly claim "almost no added fat" for my serving!

I served some baked tofu and a large salad with the macaroni. Dinner was good.

Waterless Hemp Tofu with Kale and Carrot

Living Harvest "Tempt" brand non-soy hemp-based tofu was on sale today. I picked up an 8 ounce package of Chimichurri hemp tofu; my daughter and I enjoy tofu but my wife has difficulty digesting uncultured soy. We tried this in February 2014, when I made a simple saute. I decided to try cooking this tofu waterlessly with kale and carrots. (I was surprised that the tofu is 12g of fat per 4 ounce serving; for the three of us, we each got about 8g of fat from the tofu, so I'll list this as an almost no added fat dish, but it could easily be no added fat with conventional tofu.)


Ingredients

• 1 cup onion cut into approx. 1/4" x 1 1/4" half moons
• 2 medium carrots cut into 3/8" lengths (just over a cup)
• 8 ounces tofu cut into 3/4" cubes
• 2 compressed cups kale, stems excepted and cut into approximately 1" squares
• 1/2 t (or to taste) salt
• 1/4 t garlic powder

Process

1. I put, in order, the onion, carrot, tofu, and kale into a lightly warmed (on medium heat) large Saladmaster stock pan
2. I covered the pan and cooked on medium high till the vapor release lock started rattling, then I turned the heat down to low to minimize or stop the rattling
3. I cooked for 15m or so then mixed in the seasonings and served with bagel halves topped with warm marinara and nutritional yeast.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending