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.

Eat up Frozen Food in Preparation for Hurricane Florence: Vegan Harvest Pizza, Waterless Broccoli and Kale, Cinammon Vanilla "Toastable" Quinoa Tart

Hurricane Florence is bearing down on the Carolinas and I am concerned about those who live or have property along the shore. I remember living through Hurricane Fran, which was scary, and that was a category 3 storm; this could hit category 5 and be much more destructive. However, I'm hopeful that by the time it hits our area, we'll get perhaps 30-40 mph winds, which wouldn't be bad.

With that as a long preamble, we are not going to be surprised if our power goes out, so I thought I should start eating up frozen foods. If we do lose power and have frozen foods, they will quickly spoil and need to be discarded. I had a favorite frozen pizza, Vegan Harvest by American Flatbread on hand; I love its crispy crust and find it better than some pizzeria pizza.

I also made a waterless broccoli dish with broccoli, kale, garlic, onion, lemon juice, turmeric, garlic granules, and salt. I recently found a nice breakfast dish with organic grains and quinoa called a Cinnamon Vanilla "Toastable", which I served with organic raspberries akin to dessert.

Results

Dinner was good. I love the pizza and am glad that I had a big serving of the vegetables (and seconds) so that I only enjoyed one slice; it's good but not low in fat. The vegetables were quite good. My daughter didn't like the "toastable", but my wife and I did. It would indeed be good with breakfast, but was nice with our dinner.

Ideas for the future

I should get these toastables once in a while and use them with breakfast or again try them with dinner. A fruit sauce or maybe a little melted chocolate and chopped fruit would be good atop the toastable.

Pizza and Baby Navy Beans for Kiddo and Daddy

I made pizza for my daughter and me (my wife went out for dinner with a friend), using Vicolo brand deep cornmeal crust as a base. I put some vegan Daiya cheese on her portion. I also made some baby navy beans with bell pepper by cooking in my Instant Pot pressure cooker unsoaked beans in just enough water to cover for 30m. Dinner was good!

Two Dinners: Green Split Pea Dhal, Pizza/Madagascar Pink Rice with Tomato, Kale/Massaged Kale Salad (No Added Fat)

Today I served two dinners! My wife has three cousins who were arriving in the late evening for a Thanksgiving weekend visit. My daughter was hungry and I made a simple pizza (vegan cheese on her half) early dinner, along with a nice dhal. I put one part of green split peas and three parts of water, as usual, into my Instant Pot pressure cooker, as well as some garlic, thickly (1/2" or so) sliced carrot, and maybe 1" roughly hand-torn kale leaves, cooked for 8 minutes, then added a little lemon juice, ground cumin, and salt. I served this with a raw kale salad; everything was good!

Later, I made a similar dhal, but included jalapeno, ginger, and green beans, as well as, when the dish was done, some chili powder and black salt (kala namak). I also made Madagascar pink rice, cooked with diced tomato. I demonstrated then served a massaged kale salad with a slice of watermelon radish. Everybody seemed to enjoy the meal.

Pizza and Sweet Potato for kiddo and me

My wife will be back later tonight, but just for kiddo and me, I thought I'd make pizza. I love Vicola brand frozen cornmeal deep dish pizza crust; I sauteed with no oil some onion, garlic, bell pepper, and Field Roast brand smoked apple sage vegan sausage, mixed in a bowl with marinara sauce, artichoke and olive (plus some Daiya vegan cheese on half for my daughter), and cooked on a preheated (425°F oven) pizza stone for 9 minutes.

I also made sweet potatoes by elevating from the bottom of the Instant Pot in a steamer insert, and cooked on the steam function (it heats faster and hotter - so the food shouldn't touch the pot) for 15m. Salad completed the meal.

Whole Wheat Pesto Pizza with Artichoke and Roasted Red Bell Pepper; Quinoa with Corn, Carrot, Broccoli, and Soybean (No Added Fat)

I still had pesto leftover from last week and have been thinking of making pesto pizza. I was thinking of putting a little marinara as the base and only putting pesto on for the last few minutes of baking to keep the pesto from drying but, since it was water based, decided just to use pesto as a base.

I had picked up two Engine 2 whole wheat pizza crusts, and made one with a little bit of vegan Daiya cheese for my daughter, and made the second cheeseless for my wife and me. I won't detail the making of the pizza as it was simple; my daughter helped and put a thin layer of pesto down, then artichoke hearts, onion, and roasted bell pepper, plus the optional cheese, and I baked on a pizza stone in my oven.

I can't believe that my daughter is graduating from Kindergarten tomorrow! We're having a potluck lunch, so I made a big batch of quinoa. I used about a pound of quinoa and added another pound of chopped corn, carrot, broccoli, and soybean. I added twice as much by volume water as I had quinoa, added a little salt and turmeric, brought to a boil and let it simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, then turned off the heat and let the pan sit, covered, for about 10 minutes, till the characteristic spiral of the quinoa became evident.

I made it simply to maximize the chances of the children enjoying this, which I'm planning on serving cold tomorrow. We enjoyed it warm with our dinner.

Dinner was good! I am so happy to have this easy and healthful way to make pesto. The pesto pizza was good, especially the second slice that I had with a little bit of vegan cheese. Other than that slice, it was a no added fat meal; even with that slice, the Daiya cheese has 6g per quarter cup, and I had at most a tablespoon or two, so at most a gram of fat.

Hearty Pizza with Potato

I was in a rush tonight to get to the fun weekly PopUp Chorus so decided to use a pizza shell and make pizza. I've occasionally found pizzerias which include potato as a pizza topping, and decided to try it myself.

In sum, I sauteed with no added oil a chopped vegan Field Roast brand sausage, green garlic, and bell pepper, then mixed it in with marinara sauce, tomato paste, chopped basil, and chopped olive. I topped with cooked, sliced Yukon Gold potato (more on that in the last paragraph) and, for part of the pizza (my daughter's part; I had one slice with and one without cheese, and my wife had no cheese), sprinkled on a bit of Daiya brand shredded vegan cheese. I baked for 6 minutes directly on a pizza stone in my preheated oven at 425°F, sliced, and served.

The combination was great! It made for a fast and, though not so whole food and no added fat, reasonably healthy meal.

This was the first time that I tried cooking potato slices in my Instant Pot pressure cooker. All I did was slice washed Yukon Gold potatoes into 3/8" thicknesses, put a bit (maybe 1/8 or 1/4 cup) of water to cover the bottom of the pot, then added the potato and cooked on high pressure for merely 2 minutes. That did it - the potatoes were still a bit firm but cooked, perfect for adding to the pizza and baking.

Baby Navy Beans, Whole Grain Pizzettes (No Added Fat)

I made a simple but tasty dinner. I cooked some baby navy beans (I soaked them overnight, rinsed, put them in my Instant Pot pressure cooker with just enough water to cover, and pressed the "Bean" button then the negative button twice to cook for 28m under high pressure; I added a little salt, oregano, and ginger, as well as a vegan bouillon cube, then, uncovered, ran the Instant Pot in the slow cook mode to keep it warm and cook off excess moisture for 15-25m or so till I was ready to serve) and served them with a little bit of salt in between two carrot halves. A simple pizzette of toasted whole grain English muffin topped with marinara, nutritional yeast, and vegetables, completed the meal. It was good!

Deep Dish Vegan Sausage - Grilled Artichoke Pizza, Sweet Potato Fries, Fennel - Blood Orange Salad with Fleur de Sel (for Kiddo and Daddy)

My wife is traveling for a few days. My daughter wanted pizza tonight, and I had her help me to make what turned out to be a terrific deep dish pizza (I used a frozen deep dish cornmeal shell). I sauteed with no oil some chopped vegan Field Roast brand apple sage sausage, onion, and bell pepper, then mixed in to an eggplant marinara. We spread the marinara and added olive and grilled artichoke hearts, plus some vegan Daiya brand cheese.

I love a fennel - citrus salad with good fleur de sel salt and prepared a version with blood orange for a client last night. My daughter requested it with tonight's dinner, so I got her to help make it. Some prepared frozen waffle-cut sweet potato fries completed our tasty dinner.

Pizza dinner for Kiddo and Daddy

My wife had a potluck dinner meeting, so I made a simple pizza dinner for my daughter and me (and an Indian bread - bean - salad dinner for my Dad). I used a nice prepared crust topped with marinara, tomato paste, basil, several vegetables, and Daiya vegan "cheese", plus served baby arugula and onion rings. It was a tasty Friday evening meal!