Pesto

I didn't get very good pictures but that is the pesto peaking out under the peas.

We finally had our first CSA pickup last Friday. Actually, with how cold and rainy it has been, I'm shocked anything has grown. We received Swiss chard, shelling peas, fava beans, arugula, and basil. Kay and I cooked the fava beans which were such a pain but then we sat down and ate all of them within 5 minutes! I'm not sure what we'll do with the arugula since none of use care for it. The other ingredients were all incorporated into our dinner on Monday.

We grow our own basil so whenever I get a bunch from the CSA, I make pesto. Kay and I don't really like peas but I remembered a salad recipe from Ina Garten that used pasta, peas and pesto so I decided to turn that into a warm meal. Shockingly, Kay loved it. I think it had something to do with the huge amount of garlic I put in the pesto. I cut all the ingredients in half, based on the amount of basil I had but forgot to half the garlic!

Pesto

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

8 cloves garlic, chopped

5 cups basil leaves

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup olive oil

Place the nuts and garlic in a food processor and chopped for 30 seconds. Add the basil, salt and pepper and chop for 30 seconds more. Leave the processor running and drizzle in the oil until all ingredients are pureed and well blended.

This will freeze very well.

Kay: I don't really care for peas but they tasted good mixed with the pesto. The fava beans were awesome. We gobbled them up in one minute!

Mom (Dana): For our dinner, I blanched the peas for about 1 minute and then mixed the peas, some cooked pasta, and some of the pesto. Bill and Kay added Parmesan. As you can see, we also had pea pods with almonds and onions and Swiss chard and potatoes.

Vegan Egg McMuffins

July 1st is the worst day of my professional year every single year. There is tons of work and stress and time constraints but, lucky for you, I just lived it and have no intentions of rehashing the whole thing. After working about 10 hours, I collapsed on my couch to watch some TV and turned on "Delicious TV Totally Vegetarian". After a few minutes Kay wandered in and sat down as well. She was so amazed by how these sandwiches looked, she asked me to make them. So this is what we had for dinner.

First of all, the "egg" part really looks like the egg on an Egg McMuffin. I was shocked. We had ours on toasted sourdough bread with fake bacon (which we LOVE!). When eaten like a sandwich, I thought it tasted pretty authentic and I don't know that I would have realized it wasn't egg if I hadn't been the one who cooked it. Kay ate one of hers as a sandwich and the other by itself. She thought it tasted more like egg in the sandwich than alone.

These were really easy to make. I'm not sure how quick it went but it is 5:40 now and I didn't stop working until 5:00 so within 40 minutes we watched the show, fixed the food and ate it. Not too bad.

Vegan Egg McMuffin

Actually this recipe is just for the egg part. You'll have to figure the rest out yourself!

1 pound firm or extra firm tofu

1 cup cornstarch

Pinch of salt

Turmeric

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Heat the oil in a large skillet.

Mix the cornstarch and salt in a bowl.

Slice the tofu into 4 slabs. We cut ours into circles because that's how they did it on TV but it would work just as well as rectangles. Dip each slice into the cornstarch, coating well. Sprinkle turmeric on one side and place that side down in the pan. Sprinkle the top with more turmeric. Repeat with other pieces.

Cook about 4-5 minutes per side until nicely browned.

Serve with toast, bacon, sausage, ham, cheese, or whatever else sounds good to you.

Kay: If you eat it plain it doesn't really taste like egg but if you eat it with fake bacon and bread, it tastes like an egg mcmuffin but a lot less greasy.

Dana: Unfortunately our home computer is in my home office and my work computer keeps beeping at me about new e-mails. I was tempted to ignore them since if I was still on the couch, I wouldn't have even known about them, but in the end, I couldn't so I'm back to work again. At least I got a dinner break!

Vegetable Enchiladas

For the first time in maybe forever, I'm home alone for about 24 hours. Bill is at Horribly Hilly in Madison, Wisconsin and Kay has a slumber/pool party. I always liked my alone time but I've gotten so used to not having any that I'm not real sure what to do with myself! Luckily, it is gorgeous out today and I have 2 library books and 3 magazines I haven't read so I've been on the porch all afternoon.

I made these enchiladas on Thursday when my parents and one of Kay's friends were over. The grown-ups all really liked them and the kids thought they were ok. I'll take it!

There was one still left over which I ate with herbed rice and roasted carrots. I'm quite impressed with the meal I was able create from leftovers considering it is Saturday and Sunday is our shopping day. Usually at this point we are eating buttered noodles and crackers!

Vegetable Enchiladas

Corn tortillas

Enchilada sauce of choice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 zucchini, chopped

1 yellow squash, chopped

2 cups eggplant, chopped

1 pound firm tofu, crumbled

1 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp chilies (I used the kind that come in a squirt tube. Hot sauce or crushed red peppers would work too.)

Heat the oil in a large saute pan. Add the onions, peppers, and garlic and cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms, zucchini, squash and eggplant. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the tofu and seasonings and cook 5 minutes more. If you must add salt, add it now but not sooner or your vegetables will get watery.

Heat the tortillas in the microwave to soften them. Heat the enchilada sauce in a skillet. Dip each tortilla into the sauce and then fill with a spoonful of the filling (yes, this is very messy). Roll the enchilada and place in a baking dish. Continue until you run out of tortillas, filling, sauce, or pan space. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes.

Dana (all by herself!): I topped the kid's portion with cheddar cheese. Tonight I put sour cream (soy of course!) on mine. I had planned to offer it along with salsa on Thursday but forgot. I'm heading back to the porch!

Taco Salad

This is the taco salad I grew up with. My husband claims this isn't real taco salad but he still eats it! I always crave this when the weather first turns warm. This time I made one regular salad for Bill and Kay and tried to make a dairy-free version for me. It didn't work. It was fine but didn't taste anything like the original. Tough luck for me, I guess.

Taco Salad

There aren't really measurements for this because it depends on what size pan you put it in. Layer the ingredients in the following order starting on the bottom.

Lettuce (usually romaine or iceberg)

Green pepper

Green onion

Tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Creamy garlic salad dressing

Cheddar cheese, shredded

Doritos, taco flavor, crunched up

If you aren't serving it immediately, wait to add the chips or they'll get very soggy.

Kay: I liked this salad. It tasted like tacos and salad. I really liked the chips! This has nothing to do with the salad but I got a new hamster today.

Mom (Dana): If I ever come across a decent dairy free creamy dressing, I'm giving this another shot!

Chocolate Mousse

You know, ever since my job decided that they were going to monitor our internet access, my quality of life has decreased significantly!! Basically, I can't check my e-mails at work so they build up to a ridiculous amount and by the time I am done checking them, I don't have time to post on the blog. I'm just going to have to start scheduling the time to do it because post ideas keep piling up!

I was going to post what we did with all the bananas but then the weeks flew by. We ate several of them and made smoothies but we also made this really good mousse. It comes from Go Dairy Free which is a really good book for dairy-free snack ideas.

We actually had this over a week ago. All my time last week was taken up planning our weekend out of town. Bill had a bike race in Burlington, Iowa (he got 11th out of about 30). It was called Snake Alley because part of the course looks like this:

We stayed in Galesburg, Illinois for the weekend. Besides the race, we went to a train museum, ate at a creperie, looked at the Mississippi River, and saw Star Trek. It was a nice weekend but we were really tired from all the driving and the heat so it was nice to get home.

Chocolate Mousse

12.3 oz package of firm silken tofu

2 medium bananas, ripe

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the tofu and bananas in your blender and process until smooth. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. Pour the melted chocolate into the blender along with the vanilla and blend until it is smooth and creamy. Divide the mousse between 4 bowls, cover with wax paper and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Kay: I wish it had less banana flavor to it but it was really good besides that.

Mom (Dana): I've tried a lot of pudding-type recipes that use tofu but they always tasted a little funny. This mousse didn't have that weird tofu taste at all.

Banana Bread

Last Halloween, we weren't going to buy a pumpkin but on our way home from my parent's house, we noticed a sign that said "pumpkins $1". Who could pass that up? It was at this small tent set up in the parking lot of a small candle and craft shop. I had seen it there all summer but that was the first time we stopped.

A couple weeks ago, Kay and I noticed they were back so we stopped there after going to the library. I don't know where the produce comes from but there is a lot of it and the prices are really really REALLY low. We've started going there every week and I'm always amazed at how much we get for so little.

This week when we were checking out, the guy who I think is the owner said "You want some bananas for a dollar". Why not! He gave us two huge bunches of bananas and then said "I give you more if you can use them - no charge". 15 bananas is more than enough for us though!

So over the next week or so, we are going to post recipes using all of these bananas. The first thing I made was banana bread. Kay doesn't like banana bread and didn't even help make it this time (she is always at tennis) but Bill loves this recipe and he is very child-like at times so it counts as a child friendly food! I messed around with several recipes until Bill declared that it was perfect a few years ago.

I pulled this out of the oven just a couple minutes before Bill walked in the door. As you can see, one disappeared before I could even get my camera!

I usually make mini loaves but I only have 2 pans and this makes 4 and I didn't feel like doing two batches so I tried it in giant muffin pans and it worked great. Plus we don't feel as guilty eating a whole muffin (no matter how big) as we do when we eat a whole loaf!

Banana Bread

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup milk (I used rice this time)

2 eggs or 1/2 cup egg beaters

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup mashed bananas (usually around 2 bananas)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon ground flax

Mix all the wet ingredients together. In a separate bowl mix the dry. Add the wet to the dry and stir until just mixed.

For small loaves or large muffins, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

For a regular size loaf, bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

The small loaves work a lot better than the regular size one.

Roasted Red Pepper and Leek Soup

Did you know that unlike the soccer team, the tennis team either practices or has a match every single weekday? Every one. I was really happy when Kay took the spring season of soccer off to try tennis instead. Her soccer practices were at 5 or 5:30 which was a mess with our dinner time and we had to travel to other towns every weekend for the games. Tennis on the other hand, practices right after school at her school which is seconds from our house and they have a bus that takes them to and from the matches. This was all really good news until I got the schedule. Every night is a bit much!

So obviously our dinners have been a little crazy and weird because I'm not very motivated to make a full meal when none of us are eating together. I did manage to pull this soup together one night though and it went over pretty well. It is based off of something that I saw on Delicious TV but that I didn't write down. This might be her exact recipe or it might be nothing at all like it! But this is at least what I remember it to be!

Roasted Red Pepper and Leek Soup

4 cups chopped leeks (about 1 large leek)

1 jar roasted red peppers (or about 5 peppers)

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups vegetable broth

salt and pepper to taste

Saute the leeks in olive oil over medium heat until softened. Add the peppers and cook 1-2 minutes. Add the broth and bring it to a boil. Cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes.

Puree the soup either in a blender or with an immersion blender. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve with a sprinkling of coarse salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

Kay: This soup was OK. I like creamy soups like this.

Mom (Dana): Our weather is bouncing all over the place and this soup was light enough that it was enjoyable on the 80 degree days as well as the 40 degree ones.