Lentil Vegetable Pasta

For dinner tonight, I made a recipe of my own, making it up as I went along. I was trying to use up a lot of odds and ends in the frig, especially the HUGE zucchinis we bought at the farmer's market. It didn't really come out how I had wanted it to, but it still tasted great. Here is the recipe:

Lentil Vegetable Pasta

Ingredients:

For Lentils:

1 cup brown lentils, rinsed
3 cups water
1 tsp. each: cumin, bragg's, and garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne

For Vegetables:

1/2 a large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB fresh ginger, minced
3 stalks celery, sliced
2 TB tomato paste
1 tsp bragg's
1 tsp each: dried basil, oregano, thyme, ground cumin
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 cup diced sweet potato
1 very large zucchini, sliced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 handful cherry or pear tomatoes

8 oz. spaghetti or other pasta
water to cook pasta

Mix all ingredients for the lentils in a pot, bring to a boil, them simmer for 30-45 minutes, until lentils are tender. When lentils are done, drain them over a sauce pan so all the excess liquid goes into the pan, and set the lentils aside. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions, and drain when finished.

Add onion, garlic, ginger and celery to the sauce pan that you just filled with liquid and cook on medium-high for a few minutes. Then, add tomato paste, bragg's, and seasonings, mix in the pan for a minute or two, then add the sweet potato, zucchini and corn. Stir to mix together, then put the lid on and cook over medium for 10 minutes, until sweet potato is tender. Then, add tomatoes and cooked lentils, place the lid back on and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add pasta to lentil-vegetable mixture and mix well to combine.

Variation: to make it quicker and less "stew-like," use canned chickpeas instead of lentils, or leave out completely.

Spicy Thai Stew

Tonight I made Spicy Thai Stew from The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton. Now I know the picture doesn't look great. However, the picture does not do this stew justice. This stew is delicious! It tastes very rich and creamy, but is very nutritious and filled with a colorful variety of vegetables- red and yellow peppers, orange sweet potatoes, green celery, green and red swiss chard. It could have been a little more spicy, but that in no way took away from the overall appeal of this tasty stew. I used cashew butter instead of the almond butter called for, and it worked perfectly. I suppose the nut butter is intended to imitate coconut milk, but with much less saturated fat.

Red Beans and Sweet Potato Curry

Here we have Red Bean and Sweet Potato Curry from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. It's pretty good. Nothing spectacular, but good enough. That's all there is to say for now. The picture's not so great, but there are leftovers, so maybe I can take a better one tomorrow when I eat the leftovers and post it. Have a good day everyone!

Just Like Fish Without the Cruelty or Mercury

Well, the ice storm lasted longer than I expected. We didn't have to go to school Wednesday, and we went to school 2 hours later than usual Thursday! Wow, this was the shortest week of school ever.

Anyway, these past few days I have been eating leftovers, and on Friday we made another batch of lentil soup, this time using green lentils because we didn't have any french lentils left, and we made the whole recipe instead of half. Today, however we made what you see in the lovely picture above. This is Tofu Fish Sticks from Zenpawn. This was so good. The texture was perfect. The tofu was pressed under a heavy pan, then frozen overnight and defrosted, which improved the texture and made it soak up the marinade like a sponge! Now, I don't know if it really tastes like fish sticks because I (fortunately) have never tried real fish sticks. All I know is they're good! Behind the tofu sticks are sweet potato fries. Well, not fries, since they're not fried...hmm...bakes, maybe? To make them, just cut a sweet potato into strips, spread on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, (no spray needed if you use parchemnt paper), and bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes, then turn them over and bake for 15 more.

A few days ago I discovered the Vegan Freaks podcast. If you haven't already, you should check it out. The online radio show discusses various issues related to veganism, from complaining about people's ignorance about veganism to teaching new vegans how to give up certain foods like cheese. It's a great show.