Vegetarian Summer Series Post #2 : Quick Cucumber-Melon Salad Dashed with Cumin

Happy to report that I had my first swap party this weekend! An idea which was probably found in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine that I clipped out over 3 years ago. Because we have to move next month, I was more inspired to get the event planned. Each person was to bring up to 10 items to swap. Whatever no one wanted is going to Goodwill this Friday (or in the case of Redneck Life board game..."whoever has the most teeth left at the end wins!" in a White Elephant stash).  Some of my items found new loving homes for a framed photograph I mistakenly purchased when we first moved to this house and books I finished reading (Memory Keeper's Daughter, Zookeeper's Wife, Little Altars Everywhere, While I'm Falling). Amy's puppers had a good time playing with the plush dinosaur tail that everyone tried on. I wish I had taken a photo. People tried out yoga poses from my 608 Asanas book but some were more fixated on the man's tiny shorts.

This weekend also brought me satisfaction that I got the chance to cook a meal for people who came out to swap. We had inari (fried tofu) sushi, cucumber-melon salad, and arugula and radish sprout salad with heirloom tomatoes. Also made some fancy-foo-foo water by sticking lemon verbena leaves and strawberry slices.  

Not photogenic!

CUCUMBER & MELON Salad Dashed with Cumin
Adapted from Rawmazing Jicama and Melon Salad

 
Dressing

• 1/2 cup walnuts (soft nuts don't need to be soaked overnight)
• 1 medium cucumber,  cubed
• 1 clove garlic
• Juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1 tbsp juice)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
• Himalayan salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

 Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. 

Salad

• 3 cups melon cubed (I used one not as sweet)
• 1/2 cup onions cut thin and roasted (450 F for about 25 minutes, with 1 tsp olive oil)
• 1-2 tablespoons red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2 cups steamed green beans (1" pieces, cooked about 5 minutes)
• dressing from above

1. Place all ingredients in bowl and toss to combine. 

What kind of parties do you have coming up?

Start of Vegetarian Summer Series: Mongo Soup and Pesto Pasta & Recap of H-mart Goodies!

The 200-hour yoga teacher training to expand my practice started last weekend. Now I'm not sure if I'll enjoy teaching or even if I'll be any good but I'm excited to learn other aspects of yoga! Part of the experience includes designating at least one day a week to eat vegetarian. This week I made a Filipino soup and pesto with pasta. 

I've been vegetarian before so it won't be a huge stretch but just hoping to inspire/show some of you that vegetarian can be easy and tasty whether you want to try it for yourself to feel light and make a lighter eco-footprint or even if you have a vegetarian guest to impress. So, you can look forward to the blog testing out some (hopefully) quick to make vegetarian dishes over the next 8 weeks. :)

Being gone in AZ/UT during my CSA box pick up last weekend forced me to venture out to the grocery store to get my produce last Friday. And so I finally made it out to the Korean market, H-Mart that opened up in Mira Mesa in Fall 2012. First, if you like Costco "buffet" (aka samples) on the weekends, you will LUUUUURVE H-mart. I went on Friday and almost every row had an apron clad, plastic mouth shield wearing employee offering a sample of something tasty. Vietca told me they had a bee-ute-a-full seafood section and it was indeed clean and fresh smelling. Many of the frozen packages also list the country of origin for the fish and if it's farmed/wild-caught so that was also helpful if you're pulling out your moral compass.

Second scored a bounty for $27 : 

• 2 canary melons (Tweety yellow outside, very sweet, white flesh)
• 1 other yellow melon
• 1 pkg bunapi mushroom
  
  
  
  

• 1 pkg king trumpet mushrooms
• 3.5 lbs of fish (a white fish, listed as a good alternative on Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch)
•  a Red Pepper Paste that does not appear to have wheat 

Uhhhhh what is seed koji? Read below, I'm still not sure.

• Internet research says koji is a mold grown for the fermentation process and can be grown on grains (homegrown.org, soy info center  usually rice or soybeans)---sooooo, you may want to make your own substitute paste (I've googled recipes before but not tested) if you need to be strictly gluten free or soy free. I emailed H mart to see if they can tell me what this brand's koji is grown on, I will update if they respond.
•  a package of soft tofu
• a bag of bok choy and
•  another greens that I didn't write the name of-anyone know what this is?
  

Note to self: they have a big 3lb bag for about $4 of brown rice "powder" which looks like flour to me that's cheaper than buying the 1 lb bags at normal grocery stores. 

 Filipino Mung Bean Soup (mongo)-Veggie Style (makes enough for 4-5 servings)

adapted from Lisa's Kitchen and a video I saw on YouTube (idea for some ingredient variations)

Seems like mongo recipes really vary by what veggies you throw in-get creative!

• 1 cup dried whole mung beans-soaked over night
• 1 tsp Coconut Oil for the onions and Chinese greens and 1 tsp for the bunapi mushroom and fresh garlic cloves
•  1 tbsp garlic powder, and also 2 cloves of fresh garlic (or 6 cloves fresh)
• I added 2 shallots for 1/2 cups chopped
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes or 2 fresh red chiles
• 1 can of tomato sauce (or 2 medium fresh tomatoes)
• juice of 2 limes (4 tablespoons)-used lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
• 4 cups water or veggie stock
• 3 bok choys, very bottom part cut off so leaves separate for washing out dirt (or another leafy green, Lisa called for1/2 lb (225 g) baby spinach leaves)
• stems of 6 Chinese greens (that I didn't get the name of)
• 1 pkg bunapi mushroom, cut apart and washed

1. To a larger soup pot, add the water or veggie stock. Add the soaked mung beans and cover with a lid. Heat on high until boiling, then reduce to medium with the cover on to cook at least 25-35 minutes or until mung beans are soft enough to eat.

2. While the mung beans cook, in a small sauce pan heat on medium 1 tsp of coconut oil for the mushrooms and garlic cloves. Cook them until tender. Remove these into a bowl to stop cooking.

3. Add 1 tsp coconut oil to cook over medium heat the chopped shallots and Chinese greens. Cook until browned. Then add to mung bean pot.

4. Add  the tomato sauce, garlic powder, lime juice, salt and stir into the mung bean pot. Add your bok choy and cover again for 3-5 minutes until the bok choy is crisp tender.Add the mushrooms and ladle into bowls for serving. Add red pepper flakes to taste.

 Dairy free Pesto-using mystery Chinese green leaves and walnuts- 2 servings

 

Sorry for the ugly plastic bowl, it's my lunch at work!

adapted from "The 15 Minute Single Gourmet by Paulette Mitchell"

 4 tbsp walnut pieces

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 cup of chopped greens

2 t bsp nutritional yeast

4 tsp fresh minced basil or 1 tsp dried

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/2 box of quinoa/corn pasta

1/2 cup dried (not oil packed) sundried tomato pieces

1. Prepare pasta as the package directs.

2.  While waiting for the pasta to cook, if you like, toast the walnut pieces (200 degrees in toaster oven for 2-3 minutes or can try doing in a frying pan).

3. Add first 7 ingredients to a blender or food processor. Add water by tbsp if mixture is too thick.

4. Serve pasta with pesto and top with sundried tomato.

What is the biggest thing you would like to ask for right now?

New set up for the blog? + Refreshing Southwestern Vegan Salad Recipe from the Road

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHAAAANGES! 

I just learned on May 31st that it's time to pack up and move to another rental in July! That means purging, start saving money to pay for overlapping rent/the new deposit/first and/or last month's rent (GOOD GRAVY Dave reminded me we could be paying up to 3 months worth of rent. Ouch, this hurts with the furloughs coming), and stop buying so much foodstuff (less to move). Here I was feeling a little bored with life the last few months, but excited/nervous to start the time-intensive yoga teacher training this month and an eager beaver to start planning my annual reunion with the Glasses Girls. But now those aren't the only things that will occupy my summer. So, I will apologize in advance if I don't end up meeting my goal to go to the Indian market this month. I will plan to go once I settle in-I do have my grocery list made up. Maybe Indian food theme dinner party with a few friends could be my motivation!

It also makes me think I should try to work through more recipes in my paper cookbooks (and that's not any books from bloggers)-I tend to rely on the internet since blogs and cooking/homemaking websites are so plentiful. With the anniversary of the blog coming up in August, it may just be my new theme for the 12 months of year 2 to do a certain # of recipes from each book each month. (another dinner theme party, make a dish from a paper cookbook!) 

I recently returned from a 6 day Southwest National Parks vacation with my high school chum, Lisa. We started in LA and drove to AZ and UT. We were wondering what defines a road trip, is it # of places you stop or # of days? Merriam Webster says an extended vacation using a vehicle...while Urban Dictionary expands with the most popular definition includes going cross country in a van using drugs and alcohol. Hm, so is extended just mean longer than a long (3 day weekend?)...not sure what we should call it (Scenic vacation?) but we had a blast soaking in the beauty and still learning new things about each other after 14 years of friendship.

Most days we ate out (happily the parks and surrounding businesses must get enough people requiring/preferring gluten free), but one night at Lake Powell Motel (formerly Bashful Bob's) in Page, AZ included a kitchenette.  They even have a BBQ grill (which we did not use.)

We were just warned not to cook curry or fish indoors. The owner worried I might have felt picked on with my last name and those food exclusions...but I know how much those smell. I told him he should add "stinky tofu" to that list as that would linger also, but then inquired "are there Asian markets around here?" His reply was no.

Decided that we were up for cooking something simple that could double for dinner and would be portable for lunch when we were out and about. We needed to use ingredients that we wouldn't have to necessarily keep ice cold since the cooler would just sit in the car all day while we were exploring Lake Powell and then Bryce Canyon until we could get to the next lodging (which might not have a fridge). I did bring some versatile supplies from home (indicated below) knowing we had a kitchenette.

Packing/Shopping list for Summer Southwest Vegan Salad (4 servings-2 servings of pasta version and 2 servings of quinoa version):

1 small can of chopped olives (one that looks like it is 1/4 cup big)
1/2 cup of quinoa (I brought from home) and half a box of quinoa/corn pasta (Ancient Harvest brand is good)
1/2 cup of sundried tomato (brought from home, if you buy they should keep without refrigeration though)
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast (brought from home, keeps without refrigeration)
2/3 package of fajita mix (used Fresh and Easy brand)
2 ears of fresh corn (one cereal bowl piled high, we didn't have measuring cups)
3 small squash (was one cereal bowl piled high)
1 can of cannelini beans

 

Making the salads-we had two small pots and two mixing bowls. We used the lid and slotted spoon to drain since we had no colanders. Used a can opener (important to make sure you have!)

1. Get at least two small pots of water boiling. One for the veggies and one for the quinoa or pasta (whichever you want to eat first)

2. Shuck the corn and cut off the kernels. A serrated steak knife worked for us.

3. Rinse and cut the squash into bite-sized circles or half-circles if the squash is larger.

4. When water is boiling add the corn-cook about 5-6 minutes for crisp tender. And add your pasta to the other pot-cook according to directions (pasta was 7-10 minutes).  Drain when cooked to desired doneness and put half the corn and all your pasta in a large mixing bowl. Reserve other half of corn for the quinoa salad in another mixing bowl.

5. Start boiling water in  your now empty pots. Add the squash and cook 4-5 minutes for crisp tender. To your other pot, add the quinoa. Again drain when they are cooked to desired level (quinoa is normally 10 minutes). Add the half squash to the first mixing bowl and half to the second. Reserve the rest for your quinoa salad.

6. Mix in 1/3 package of the fajita mix and half of the nutritional yeast, olives, beans and sundried tomatoes to the pasta mixture. Toss in the bowl. Then serve warm or cooled (gluten free pastas usually have the best texture warm)

7. After you're nice and full from that, mix the remaining half of the ingredients with the quinoa to make your meal for tomorrow.

Sorry, hope that's not too convoluted.

Being out in National Parks meant a hike each day!

1st Hike at Grand Canyon: 6 miles Bright Angel to the 3 Mi. Rest house

2nd Hike at Grand Canyon: 3.6 miles of South Kaibab to Cedar Breaks

3rd Hike at Bryce: 3.5 miles of Queen's Garden + Navajo Loop

4th Hike at Zion: 3 hours of The Narrows

 Sometimes we didn't have time to eat with all the hours logged driving or it was just too dang roasting (between 85-107F during our hikes). We kept it light and ate these snacks throughout the day and one big meal each day.

Favorite Trail Snacks:

• Tuna pouches to avoid carrying a can opener (bring a disposable/re-usable plastic spoon from Yogurtland to scoop...or get messy)
• For you vegetarians, Sunwarrior Protein powder (pre-measured in baggies) to mix with juice or gatorade.
• Crunch Master brand-multi-seed gluten free rice based crackers (does contain soy and will break if not on top of your pack or in a rigid container). They have a $1 coupon right now on their website. Very tasty.
• Apples
• Fruit "leathers" (found a 48 pack of strawberry, cherry, raspberry and apricot at Costco
• Popcorn made with coconut oil (and using Nordic Brand microwavable popper from Amazon, fit perfectly in tiny motel microwaves..another snack to keep on top of your pack to avoid excessive crumbs...but watch out for the squirrels-one reached in my bag when I turned to apply sunscreen and started to drag the snack away)
• Sprouts grocery: bulk bin trail mix with coconut, papaya, figs and other fruits
• Baby carrots
• Candied Ginger in case of stomach irritation
• powdered Gatorade to mix in with the water bottles
• Avocado halves and a spoon to scoop it out with (put in a plastic container so it won't get smushed)
• Gu or other gel energy to get you up out of the canyon-we had strawberry banana flavor

Anything you want to see regularly if I change how I do this blog? Has a vacation given you inspiration for a meal?   (we also watched an episode of Diners and Drive-ins and one place featured this stuffed pepper with chicken cooked in red wine with apples, pears, shallots, cranberries and served with a cream-nut sauce---looked fab and unique...and fit with the southwest theme of our trip).

Detox Days 7-8: Fruits, Vegetables and vegetarian protein (+ What to do with leftover Orange Peels and No Bake sweet)

The best part is feeling warm again with solid foods!

Below is my menu to help give ideas. Just waiting until after the detox to add back in grains, nuts and lean meats/fish. Just a scant amount of legumes...trying not to give the body too much fiber after 3 days of relaxing!

Day 7:
Breakfast: 4 oz of Naked Juice

Snack: 2 Hard-boiled egg whites and 1/4 avocado slices

Lunch: CSA Box Veggie Detox Soup

• 3 cups homemade broth, 0.5 cup shiitake mushroom water from Days 1-3.
•  two round green squash (were about lacrosse ball sized), 3 swiss chard leaves, 3 shiitake mushrooms sliced
• 1/4 cup dried lentils

Begin your lentils first in the boiling stock since they take at least 20 minutes (don't make my mistake adding it with only 10 minutes to cook with your added veggies), add tougher stalks, and last 4-6 minutes add leaves, squash and mushroom so they don't get too mushy. Looks like enough for 3-4 small soup bowl servings.

Palm full of strawberries for dessert.

Snack: 4 oz Naked juice blenderized with brown rice protein powder.

Dinner: Salad with roast beets/celery mix, avocado, clover sprouts. Vinegar, oil, salt and pepper.
Note: this was too much fiber for the first day, my stomach was knotty later in the night. So I recommend you have another serving of soup or make a juice/smoothie instead.

Delicious but I paid for it.

Day 8:
Breakfast-2 Hard Boiled Egg whites and 1 cup cantalope

Snack-4 oz naked juice

Post-work out-4 oz naked juice with brown rice protein powder

Snack-1 large carrot cut into sticks and 1/4 avocado mashed

Lunch-bowl of soup (leftover from yesterday)
5 pieces candied orange (not detox material, waaaaagh! but recipe below) and no-bake protein-powder "cookies" modified from this recipe at Purely Twins. I'm embarrassed to say how many I ate. My mind has been feeling really irritated this week, like I need to do something (or eat something..maybe both). So started doing some housekeeping on my inbox and around the house. But now back to what you care about, my modifications to both sweet recipes are included below the happy picture.

Snack-1 cup cantalope & two protein-powder cookies

Dinner-Salad take 2. No problems this time!

Kind of look like mini-spicy fries.

WHAT TO DO WITH LEFTOVER ORANGE PEELS? TWO GREAT PRODUCTS!

After all that juicing, I had a good 3-4 cups (or more since I accidentally threw some away) of orange peels with the pith still on. I had been trying to cut the peel and leave some pith on my Valencias, but the skin was not very thick and it was difficult for me to leave pith, let alone cut even strips with our best paring knife. I followed a Foodnetwork.com recipe since it said you could have pith on the peel (didn't want to try scraping them off the hundred assorted size pieces).  I probably spent half an hour draining the oranges and making the sugar water (making the veggie soup while waiting for water to boil)

Ingredients: 3-4 cups of orange peel; 2.5 cups regular sugar;  about 0.5 cup coconut sugar for coating

You'll also need: small saucepan, small tongs to grab sticky oranges, drying racks/newspaper (to catch crumbs/small orange pieces), spatula

1. After cutting the orange peels into 1/4" strips, bring them to boil 3x (with cold water each time) 
2. Put oranges into a heat-tolerating (non-plastic) bowl and use your saucepan for heating the white sugar (I reduced to 2.5 cups) and water (1.5 cups).
3. Stir and dissolve sugar. Bring the white sugar and water to a simmer for 8-9 minutes.
4. Add orange peels. Allow mixture to come to simmer again. Leave it alone for 45 minutes. Don't stir or else the crystals invade!
5. Drain off the liquid sugar into a jar or other heat-tolerating vessel...save for mixing in tea, oatmeal, or whatever else you want to sweeten with a little orange splash. 
6. Put some sugar in a bowl, I probably ended up using 1/2 cup coconut sugar. Pull out 1/2 cup of orange slices at a time and turn to coat in the coconut sugar. Work quickly as the oranges start to harden and stick together. Put onto the drying rack.
7. Let the pieces dry for 4-5 hours

shape and lump-both taste the same.

CRAVING PROTEIN & NON-FRUIT SWEETNESS?  No bake Cocoa-Coconut Oil Protein Truffles (that's what the texture reminds me of, kind of airy and a soft velvety crumble in your mouth)

Notes: If using dates, you should have a blender/food processor to make date paste. I looked on Vegan Yack Attack to find substitutions for agave since I didn't have liquid stevia. I had not heard of caramelizing sucanat nor do I know what that is. I have heard of brown rice syrup. There's some controversy about agave, that the over-proccessing is harmful to our health, but I haven't looked into it. Another day.

 If your coconut oil is solid, I measured out 4 tbsp and it yielded about 6 tbsp after being melted. The authors suggested additional coconut oil if you want thinner cookies/rounds.

The dough will be somewhat crumbly, just press firmly into your tablespoon and remove from the side with a spoon or your finger and reshape/pack if needed. If you happen to have an ice cream scooper that can push or wipe the dough out it will help (my mom has one that comes in a TBSP size but I have yet to find one) The dough will hold up better once it's chilled.

Ingredients: (changes after strike out)

• 1/4 cup hemp protein powder Sunwarrior brand "Blend" protein (cranberry, hemp, pea)
• 1/2 cup Sunwarrior brand Brown Rice Protein Powder
• 1/4 cup lucuma  cocoa powder (the authors have even more substitutions listed)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla (omitted as I didn't want to add alcohol to my detox menu)
• 1/2 teaspoons stevia, liquid 5 dates (made about 5.5 tbsp of paste)
• 8 6 tablespoons coconut oil, liquid
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. In a mug or small bowl soak your dates in hot water for at least 1/2 an hour. Then use same water with dates in blender to make a paste.

2. Mix the other ingredients in a small mixing bowl.

3. Melt your coconut oil if necessary. Then add to mixing bowl.

4. Add date paste to mixture and stir to have an even dough.

5. Press into the tablespoon or scoop and make the truffles.

6. Put them into the fridge for 15 minutes. Authors say you can freeze them, I know mine won't last long enough to do that!

What's your favorite snack to bring on an outdoor trip?