Tag Archives: vegan

Grill those beets!

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Consider this the world’s shortest list of ingredients next to the recipe for making toast: grilled beets. While dh and ds were at the grocery store yesterday, apparently ds pointed THE ALMIGHTY FINGER OF THE PRESCHOOLER at beets, and dh happily obliged. After all, when your small child is pointing to a vegetable that he’s actually likely to eat, you often want to pounce on that with all of the joy and verve of a tween offered a chance to see Justin Bieber reading the part of Edward in a table read of “Breaking Dawn: part 2”. (Maybe minus all the angsty swoon…but you get the point.)

The pair of ’em picked out a lovely set of golden and red beets. Then dh prepped ’em and put ’em on the grill. Y NO CAN HAS PIC? Sorry, didn’t think to take one, but suffice to say that they were lovely. The golden beets have this terrific yellowish-orangy hue, and the red beets have a fantastic reddish purple color that just lights up a plate. This recipe yields  the same outcome as oven roasting, only you don’t have to bother turning on your oven (yeay!). DH also noted that he finds this method of peeling beets far easier than what I do – using a peeler on them when they’re raw so I can chop peeled beets before roasting them in the oven.

Pointing back to my question about how to have things that help relieve some of the monotony of one-night dinners and the related follow-up post by my friend Local Kitchen, we did have extra beets at the end of the meal, even with ds clamoring for a third serving. What do you do with said leftover beets? WHATEVER YOU WANT. The suggestions I had for dh were either to cut them up and toss them in with some leftover couscous for a simple lunch option or cut them up and add them to the salads he takes to work every day. Either way, they’re yummy and totally worth having. And, if you have a grill, they’re easy to prepare. Also, waste not, want not: this recipe also yields a bunchload of beet greens. USE THOSE BABIES. Make a salad out of ’em, wilt ’em in a pan before serving immediately…find a use for ’em!

I will also point out that when your 2-1/2 year old son decides to wipe purple beety hands on his white t-shirt, baby wipes appear to take out most of the stain. *cough*

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves: 3-5 (depends on your beet-lovin’ level)

Ingredients

1 bunch golden beets

1 bunch red beets

Make it Happen

1. Start your grill and aim for about medium-level (indirect) heat. When ready, this should be up in the 450F range.

2. Trim off the beet greens and scrub each beet bulb clean.

3. Wrap each beet bulb in aluminum foil; place the foil-wrapped beets on the grill and close the grill cover.

4. Turn the beets every 15 minutes until at desired tenderness, approximately 1 hour for medium/large beets (3″ or so in diameter), slightly less for small beets (2″ diameter or thereabouts).

5. Remove the foil and then carefully remove the beet skin; this is most easily done by rubbing the beet in a paper towel, which should fairly well slough off the skin.

6. Either serve whole or chop into bite-sized pieces and serve.

(Nearly Vegan) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Full disclosure: I’m an omnivore, but I have an appreciation for vegetarian and vegan cooking, thanks to having friends who have these more restrictive diets (by choice or necessity). As I have done more entertaining for friends with a variety of dietary restrictions, I’ve had to adjust some of what I put out on the dinner/buffet table so that I’m taking out everything from animal products to things with latex (bananas & kiwis), and that’s kept me on my cooking toes.

More recently, I had my annual physical and my doctor cautioned me that she was starting to get worried about my cholesterol. Ah, crap. Her advice to me included cutting back to the minimum on dairy. HOLY CRAP. I HAVE TO GIVE UP MY REGULAR CELEBRATION OF ICE CREAM O’CLOCK?! There has to be a better, way, right? It’s not like I eat a ton of red meat; easily three-quarters of the time, the meat in my meal is fish or poultry.

So, this made me think that perhaps I should look at other ways to reduce cholesterol where possible. And, having a VERY CHILLY Sunday afternoon that wasn’t consumed with running errands, I thought it might be fun to stay inside and bake. I started with a tried-and-true recipe that came courtesy of my friend, Cyndy, of DailyCynema, and I made a couple of modifications. Feel free to check out the original recipe here. And check out her other recipes, too. She’s a damn fine cook, and she’s really sweet about sharing.

To make this recipe TRULY vegan, make sure that A) your margarine is 100% free of dairy [we use a Fleischmann’s version that is completely lactose-free], and B) you use dark chocolate that’s considered vegan. I used Hershey Special Dark chips, but those have a small amount of milk in them, so that’s why this recipe is only nearly vegan.

 

Nearly Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Eat 'em before they're gone...

 

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cooking Time: 12 mins (per tray/set of trays in the oven at once)

Serves: well, that depends… (Makes about 30-32 cookies)

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine (one stick), softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup Grade B maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1-1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1-1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1-1/2 cups dark chocolate chips (I used Hershey Special Dark chips)

 

Make it Happen

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. If you have vents atop your range that vent out heat from the oven, place the margarine stick upright by the vents to start the softening process. (Otherwise, soften it at room temperature a few minutes prior to starting the rest of the prep work.)

2. Put the first four dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) in a bowl and stir briefly. Set aside.

3. Mix the first three wet ingredients (margarine, white and brown sugars) on low speed in a stand mixer or by hand, until all items are well combined.

4. Add the vanilla, maple syrup and applesauce and mix/stir well to combine.

5. Add the bowl of dry ingredients and mix/stir well to combine.

6. Add the oatmeal and stir well to combine (best to do this by hand, to make sure the mixture is even).

7. Add the chips and stir well to combine.

8. Place rounded tablespoons of the cookie batter onto a non-stick baking sheet, about 2 inches or so apart.

9. Place the sheet in the oven and cook for 12 minutes, until the cookies are slightly brown on the edges and bottom.

Adventures in CSA (winter week 1): Baby it’s cold outside

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And so we begin again: a new cycle has started and now we’re in the Winter veggie box program. This one runs every other week, so these posts will be a little more spaced out. That’s okay – given the weather and all of the coordination/events around dd’s 5th birthday, I’m a little spaced out, too.

The fun of opening each box is in trying to figure out A) what’s in it and B) what you’re going to make with what’s in it. The difficulty of opening each box is much the same – a general exhale of “What on earth is THAT?!” and “Are those…{insert guessed fruit/veggie here}…?!” Between our cookbooks, the interwebs, and our grocery store, we typically can ID things before the week is out. Finding things to do with everything: now THAT’S a challenge. As it is, we currently have a glut of apples and winter squash in the fridge; this is mostly due to timing fiascos related to box arrival dates, apple picking, untimely nor’easters and other such shenanigans. At this point, I’m ready to start cutting things up and just throwing them into the crock pot wholesale, just to use up the boxes and see if any of the creations can work. I’m guessing they will, but I’d still like to be a tad bit more orderly about it if I can.

 

Winter CSA Week 1

Welcome to Winter...

 

So, here’s what came in this week’s veggie box, our first of the winter share:

  • Purple Kale
  • Carrots
  • Bok Choi
  • Comice Pears
  • Red Potatoes
  • Parsnips
  • Butternut Squash
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • Macintosh Apples
  • Yellow Onion

 

The bok choi already got partially used in Bok-os, and the pears, apples, carrots, and some of the potatoes are crock pot-bound this week. Some of the other items may end up going into crock pots or other dishes as part of next weekend’s continued birthday festivities. It’s always so hard for me to think of squash as “party food”, but I’m sure I can rally if rallying is what’s required.

I will continue price-checking with this CSA, as with the Fall box program. The price is still the same – $20 per box. So, that’s my baseline. I ended up getting 1 box pretty much for free out of the Fall CSA, so I wonder if I can get about half a box for free out of this four-box program? Given the more pedestrian contents, I’m guessing that won’t be the case, but I’d like to try to be optimistic.