Your Vegan Mom

Kale Quinoa Empanadas

That's me wallowing in the corner.  I'm even having chocolate for lunch.  (It's really good.  Have you had the little dark chocolate bars that come in packs of three at Trader Joe's?  Silky.  At 290 calories apiece we'll pretend that I had a nutrtionally dense, low calorie salad before the chocolate, and then really, it's not that bad a lunch.  Except I didn't have the salad, and now I'm wondering about the provenance of this chocolate and thinking that I need to learn more about how to not support child slave labor and really under no circumstances is chocolate lunch.  Again, that's me moping in the corner.)  

Sweet Potato Dinner Pie

 

We had such a nice break.  The boys had two weeks off school.  Paul managed to take the whole time off too.  I lined up activities and pals to play with for every minute of it, and then on approximately the first second of vacation Desmond came down with a cold.  And then the next day, of course, so did Felix.  So I called the pals.  Cancelled plans.  And it was just the four of us.

Black-Eyed Peas

 
Here in the Jaconi Biery household, we most definitely subscribe to the superstitious tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day.  While this has not, thus far, brought us overwhelming prosperity, it does provide a nice healthy kick-start to the year.  I consider our New Year's Day feast of smoky black-eyed peas and zesty greens and brown rice and corn bread to be a goodbye to the ridiculous excess (Frozen Christmas cookies for breakfast.  I definitely did not feed my children that.  Don't tell their father.) of the previous weeks and a hello to the abundance of good intentions that a new year brings. 

How about you?  What do you eat on New Year's Day?

Veggie Nuggets and Maternal Guilt

So, the vision in my right eye is blurred.  It's a total drag, and it's putting a serious damper on my ability to spend the entire month of October swimming in vegan food on the internet as is traditional.  I'm getting over iritis, but I prefer to think of it as maternal guilt beaming like a red light from my eyeball.  

Paul and I just got back from a 10 day vacation.  Ten days.  Paul and I.  Without the children.  

My pals, Christina and Lorenzo, got married in Saint Lucia and, of course, you know, it's just not good manners to miss a wedding, so we made it happen.  The kids divided their time between two sets of grandparents and I think they may have had even more fun than we did.

We lounged on the beach and lazily floated in crystal blue salt water; they visited two light houses, a museum, an aquarium, and the mall.  We sipped rum based cocktails; they drank straight juice (not even cut down with water).  We tasted dasheen and fresh turmeric and snake gourd and tiny sour plums and starfruit and pizza topped with curried lentils; the boys had candy and snow cones and frozen yogurt (Menchie's always has two non-dairy flavors).  They skipped naps; we slept till noon.  We climbed a mountain; they played soccer with Grandpa.  We danced in the street to party anthems pulsing from a loudspeaker on the back of a pickup truck; they snuggled on Grandma's lap and rocked to sleep.

We're all still recovering.

And so now, to overcompensate for abandoning my children for ten (10.) days, I'm feeding them.  I've made cookies and rice pudding and pumpkin waffles and oatmeal chocolate chip pancakes and the macaroni that they like that I haven't told you about yet and too many robot milk shakes to count.  After dinner I'm making tapiocy pudding (that's how Desmond pronounced it when he was three) and granola and crackers for tomorrow.  And I've got two batches of their favorite nuggets in the freezer.

I developed this recipe about a year ago after coveting similar, but egg-bound, not to mention expensive, products in the freezer section at Whole Foods.  I just love the idea of packing a nugget with vegetables.   And these nuggets have it all - beans, whole grains, both green and orange vegetables, and a little good fat from sunflower seeds.  They're really a complete meal nugget to assuage my maternal guilt.  For this one meal at least, they have everything they need.  

Veggie Nuggets

Like big tater tots with nutritional merit, these are totally meant to be dipped in ketchup.   

Makes: about 50 nuggets
Takes: about 45 minutes (15 active)

•  3 packed cups baby spinach
• 1/2 small onion, cut into chunks
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
• 1/2 cup shelled sunflower seeds
• 1 packed cup shredded carrot (from 2 medium carrots)
• 2 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 15-oz. can, drained
• 2 packed cups cooked short grain brown rice
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup panko for coating nuggets

In the bowl of your food processor, chop up the spinach, onion, garlic, and sunflower seeds to a chunky paste.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and process until you have a cohesive dough.  It should not be completely smooth - some textural variety is nice.

Pour panko out into a shallow bowl or pie plate.  Scoop rounded tablespoons of the vegetable mixture into the waiting panko.  Move it around to cover the ball with crumbs and then flatten it into a nugget shape between your palms.

Arrange on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 30 minutes at 350, flipping your nuggets halfway through baking.  

Serve straight from the oven, or better yet, let cool, then freeze for later.  Panfry frozen nuggets in a little oil over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes per side.  

Cooking Light: Way to Cook Vegetarian

  This photo is used with permission from the book.  That's cheese there on top.  I obviously skipped that garnish.  Diced avocado would be a nice vegan replacement.  

I was skeptical.  I assumed that most of the recipes in Cooking Light's new vegetarian cookbook would be filled with non-fat milk and light cheese products.  And there are a number of these sorts of recipes, but there is also a ton here to recommend this book to the vegans.  From Malaysian Noodles to Tempeh Fajitas, there are loads of crowd-pleasing healthy recipes for realistic meals.  I've made the Mexican Bean Soup with Corn Dumplings three times now, for five different families, to universal raves.  It's a simple, flavorful, hearty winter meal of a soup, with an ingenious twist in the form of masa harina dumplings.   You essentially make tiny balls of corn tortilla dough and plop them into the simmering soup near the end of cooking.  I just love this idea.  And it turns out as delicious as I had hoped.

The book is also filled with appealing photos and really informative step-by-step photo diagram how-tos that make this a great introductory cook book.  There's one on how to saute tofu and another on how to prepare spaghetti squash.  Yet another teaches you how to properly roll maki which I plan to study before my next sushi making adventure because, man, my rolls are sloppy.  

I have a list of a dozen recipes from this book that I still want to try and leafing through the pages right now I find myself getting excited about it all over again.  I had forgotten about the flaky dinner rolls that look just perfect for a holiday table and oh! the stuffed Moroccan flatbreads.  The baking recipes list ingredients by both weight and volume.  Thank you.  And it's this sort of attention to detail and recipe precision that really sets this book apart.  

Here have a taste -

Mexican Tomato-Bean Soup with Corn Dumplings 

Soup:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 cups organic vegetable broth (I used the cooking broth from the chickpeas.)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 (15 1/2-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained

Dumplings:

• 1/3 cup masa harina
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Remaining Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1. To prepare soup, heat 2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven (or big pot) over medium-high heat.  Add onion; saute 3 minutes or until tender.  Add chili powder and garlic; saute 30 seconds.  Add broth and next 6 ingredients; bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.

2. To prepare dumplings, combine masa harina and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl.  Add 3 tablespoons hot water and 1 teaspoon oil; stir until a soft dough forms (dough will be dry).  Divide dough into 24 pieces, shaping each into a ball.  Add dumplings to soup; cook, uncovered, 3 minutes or until dumplings float.  Stir in cilantro and juice.  Ladle 1 cup soup into each of 4 bowls.  

Yield: 4 servings