Mock Cheesy Kale Chips

A few months ago, my Sister-in-law found this amazing recipe and brought it to a family function.  I couldn't stop eating them, they were incredibly delish!!  These are seriously addictive!  So make up a batch, just for you and don't feel guilty about it, cause I didn't!

Mock Cheesy Kale Chips

Adapted from Pride and Vegudice

1 bunch kale

1/2 cup almonds (soaked overnight)

1/2 cup cashews (soaked overnight)

1 red bell pepper, deseeded

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup nutritional yeast powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Make sure your kale is washed AND dried.  Remove the stems from the kale and cut into large pieces.  Place the kale in a large bowl.  Strain almonds and cashews and place in a high speed blender.  Add the red bell pepper, lemon juice, nutritional yeast powder and salt.  Blend until smooth.  Pour the "cheese" sauce over the kale leaves and using your hands make sure each piece of kale is covered.  Place in a dehydrator and dehydrate at 115 until crispy.  You can also bake these at 300 for about 30 minutes or until crispy.

Spring Rolls - Guest Post

 This is another fabulous recipe that my friend Cindy has shared.  This is one of my favorites, because it is again so simple but the combination is so delicious!  Get this...it's just veggies!  I love it!  Cindy shared these with us months ago and the presentation was beautiful.  She had used Daikon Radish on the bottom with a little Bragg's Liquid Aminos on the bottom and sesame seeds sprinkled on top.  It was beautiful. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Spring Rolls

Zucchini

Carrot

Green Onion

Cilantro

Avocado

Slice zucchini in very thin, long strips; set aside.  Slice cucumber, carrots and green onion into 3 inch matchsticks.  Remove stems from cilantro.  Slice avocado into 1/4 inch slices.  Place a zucchini strip on a flat surface.  Layer the end closest to you with a few matchsticks of each vegetable, slice of avocado and cilantro; roll up on a slight diagonal to secure fillings inside strip.  Garnish with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.  Serve with Dipping Sauce.  Refrigerated, sauce will keep for 4 days; rolls will keep for 2 days.

Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup raw almond butter

1/4 cup water

1 Tablespoon lime juice

1/2 tsp. Chinese 5 spice blend

pinch of cayenne pepper

Piece of green pepper

piece of green onion

grated lime rind

Blend all together in a food processor; thin with water to desired consistency.

Quick Skillet Bread

I just posted a great recipe on Nutrition Principles.  This recipe is like a small crepe and is very tasty and quick!  I hope you like it!

Veggie Nori Rolls

 Any fans of Sushi out there?  We are big fans!  However, as we try to stick to a more plant based diet, we have found a way to make our own simple veggie rolls.  They are wrapped in seaweed that has been dried.  It feels like crisp paper and can be brittle.  We usually buy ours at an Asian market because we need to buy it in bulk.  However, you can usually find dried seaweed at your local grocery store in the Asian food section. 

Veggie Nori Rolls

12-14 Nori Sheets

1-2 carrots

4-5 green onions

1 cucumber

cilantro

1-2 avocado's, sliced

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

In a small pot, combine quinoa and water.  Turn on medium heat and bring to a gentle boil, turn to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes.  With a Titan slicer thinly julienne your carrots, and cucumber.  Thinly slice your green onions (scallions) lengthwise.  Remove stems from your cilantro and wash the leaves.  Set aside on a plate as seen below. (Other veggies to add if desired: red peppers, zucchini, thinly sliced cooked beets, asparagus, lettuce, cabbage)

Prepare a small bowl with water for sealing the Nori.  

To Assemble:  If you have a mat to roll your Nori roll, you may use that, but it can be done without.  

 Place about 1/4 cup quinoa in the center of the Nori (make sure the quinoa is warm, not cool).  It doesn't have to be super neat.

 Place your veggies over the quinoa. I love more  veggies than quinoa in mine. 

 begin rolling the wrap with your hands.  It's okay if some of the veggies are sticking out, you will tuck them in.

 Using both hands tuck in the vegetables, still leaving a small part of the Nori unwrapped, as seen below.

 Dip your fingers into the small bowl of water and rub the water along the edge of the Nori.

 With your mat (or without, using your fingers to continue to tuck the veggies in), finish rolling the wrap tightly against that moistened edge.  It will stick together.

Your roll should look like this.  I like to eat mine just like this!  The seaweeds is very chewy, so it's not exactly pretty or easy to rip apart with your teeth, but I do it anyway :)  My kids like to cut theirs and dip it in Bragg's Liquid Amino's with a little wasabi.

Summer Zucchini Bake

 Have a few extra zucchini and yellow squash laying around, like I do?  Not quite sure what to do with it except maybe pour a cup of sugar on it and make Zucchini bread?!  I'm kidding.  I love Zucchini Bread!  I was on Pinterest the other day and saw some good recipes using summer squash but it was loading with cheese and butter.  I started brain storming about how I could make something like it without the butter and cheese and came up with this. It was a HIT!  Its very easy to throw together!

Summer Zucchini Bake

2-3 medium sized zucchini, sliced

1 yellow crookneck squash (any yellow squash will work), sliced

1/2 red onion, slices separated

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

2 teaspoons basil

2 teaspoons oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 tomatoes, sliced

1-2 cups bread crumbs

1 tablespoon coconut oil or grapeseed oil

Spray the bottom of a large cake pan.  I use an old roaster pan.  Layer the sliced zucchini, yellow squash, zucchini.  Drizzle the 2 Tablespoon grapeseed oil over the zucchini and yellow squash.  Sprinkle with herbs and salt.  Next, layer the separated sliced red onion, minced garlic with tomato slices on top.  In a food processor, process the bread crumbs and coconut oil.  Sprinkle that over the top of the tomatoes and Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Uncover and cook an additional 10 minutes.  You could also broil it on low for about 3-5 minutes or until the bread crumbs are nice and toasty after baking it for 30 minutes.

Cherry Apricot Salad

 I'm so grateful to hear of your compliments about this new blog of ours!  I love any feedback you have to give.  I appreciate all the questions I'm receiving about what we are doing.  I know that eating more plant based seems like such an overwhelming thing, but it is so simple and I endeavor to show that here.  I was in the store today and picked up some cherries, because they are so amazingly delicious and I'm going to enjoy the fact that they are in season right now.  I walked around the fruit (instead of the candy isle) and saw apricots.  They weren't particularly cheap, but I picked up half a dozen to have for a treat.  As I pulled them out at home, I thought, how cool would it be to combine these two fruits and come up with a yummy dressing for them.  So I did!  This was such a yummy treat after lunch today.  I hope you like this recipe!

Cherry Apricot Salad

7 cherries, halved and pitted

5-6 apricots, halved and halved again

1 Tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon walnut oil 

(I buy mine at Smiths)

2 teaspoons honey

In a small bowl combine the fruit.  Drizzle the honey over the fruit.  In a small cup combine the walnut oil and lime juice and mix well with a fork.  Pour over the fruit and honey.  Serves one.

Hot Curry Hummus

There are many recipes for Curry Hummus, so I'm not about to claim this marvelous idea, however, I tweaked many recipes to create this, so I guess I can claim this one as my own :)

Hummus is such a great invention to replace so many condiments that are filled with fats, sugar, dairy and other icky things that just make us feel yucky. The trick to great hummus is getting the texture right. I love using my food processor and adding all the ingredients except the water. Adding the water last and only about a tablespoon at a time and then checking the texture before adding more. Here's the great thing, if you happen to get your hummus too thin, it makes for a great salad dressing or for a yummy sauce on a veggie pizza instead of your traditional tomato sauce. So, not all hope is lost if it doesn't turn out just right.

My favorite way to use hummus is as a spread on toast. I will post my yeast free bread soon...it makes amazing toast and with this hummus recipe on it, it's so good!


Hot Curry Hummus
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups freshly cooked garbanzo beans
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons curry powder
hot sauce to taste (any hot sauce you prefer will work, I used Tapatio, I also used about 1 teaspoon)
Water to consistency

Using water, steam your onion and garlic until they are soft. Add onion, garlic garbanzo beans, lemon, grapeseed oil, salt and hot sauce to your food processor or blender. Blend well for 15-20 seconds. Slowly add water until your hummus has reached the desired consistency.

Spelt Thins

Spelt Thins

modified from Wheat Thins recipe on Oh She Glows website.

1 1/4 cups spelt flour

1 1/2 tablespoons unrefined sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

4 tablespoons chilled extra virgin coconut oil

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water (maybe more)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400. Line two large baking sheets with parchment. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. With a pastry cutter, cut in coconut oil until the mixture is in fine crumbles.Mix vanilla and water and then pour into the flour mixture. Stir this mixture until it comes together. Flour your hands and get in and work the dough with your hands until the mixture is soft and pliable. Split dough in half and flour your counter. Roll the dough very thin and cut into squares or with a small cookie cutter, cut shapes into your dough. With a spatula, move the cut pieces to your large baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes. Watch closely. Rotate your pan halfway through baking. (I did overbake my first batch and they were still very yummy)

*my variations were using coconut oil instead of Earth Balance. I also decreased the amount of salt, but did sprinkle some on top of the crackers. I used spelt instead of wheat.