Black Bean Burgers

Got this from Vibrant Life Magazine, who got it from The New York Times. 

The original recipe calls for 1 can of black beans.  My wife and I have discovered that making them yourself from SCRATCH is easy, and saves you loads of money.  Just get them in the bulk section at your local grocery store.  Put a couple cups of dry beans in a crock pot, add water, salt, and whatever other seasonings you want, turn it on, and walk away.  Check back every hour or so to stir or add water, if needed.  In a few hours you have beans.  How cool, healthy, and cheap, is that???

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2 cups black beans.  cooked, drained.
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, seasoned any way you want, or not.
If you want, add a small can of green chilis, or a jalepeno or two.
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed OR 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
2 green onions, chopped, greens and all
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup parsley OR cilantro
2 cups quick rolled oats (Quaker oats will do just fine)
8 whole grain buns
toppings of your choice

process the first 8 ingredients in a food processor.  Remove contents into a large bowl.  Stir in the oats.  Form into patties.

You can either bake at 450 degrees (f) for 8 minutes, then flip the patties and broil for another 2 minutes.

OR you can just saute' them on a skillet or in a pan, 5 minutes a side, until browned.

Place the patties on your toasted buns, add your favorite toppings and enjoy!

WARNING:  If your family is anything like mine, you might want to make a double batch!

Easy VEGAN French Toast Recipes

Vegan French Toast

This easy vegan French toast recipe uses bananas instead of eggs, giving it a sweet flavor. Use a thickly sliced whole grain bread.  Using soft, store bought, white bread will result in the French toast being too soggy inside.

Ingredients:

    * 2-3 ripe bananas
    * 3/4 cup soy milk
    * 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    * 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla
    * bread
    * vegan margarine

Preparation:
Blend bananas, soy milk, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla in blender or food processor and pour mixture into pie plate or wide dish. Gently dip bread slices into the mix, coating both sides. Fry in vegan margarine in medium-hot skillet until golden brown. Serve with toppings of your choice.


Coconut Banana Vegan French Toast

A simple homemade french toast recipe, completely egg-free and suitable for vegans. This tropical-flavored French toast is made with coconut milk and bananas instead of eggs, so it's lower in fat and also cholesterol-free.

Ingredients:

    * 2 bananas
    * 1 cup coconut milk
    * 3/4 cups soy milk
    * 1/2 tsp sugar
    * 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
    * bread
    * oil or margarine for frying

Preparation:
Mash the bananas well and whisk together with the coconut milk, soy milk, sugar and cinnamon. Pour into a shallow pan or pie tin.

Dip both sides of the bread into the mixture, and cook in a lightly greased skillet over medium heat, cook until one side is golden brown.  Flip and cook that side til golden brown.  Serve immediately (In my house they get gobbled up as fast as I can make them!)  with toppings of your choice. 

Shrimp Tacos

OK, so I slip once in a while with the whole vegan and vegetarian thing.  Sue me.  The kids substituted beans instead of shrimp, so I guess you could do that.  But why, when you have the yummy shrimp?  (I know, I know...)

I found a recipe for shrimp tacos that was just heavenly.  I'll not bore you with the details on how to heat up corn tortillas, so let's just skip to the spice and sauce step, shall we?

First, thaw out 20-40 medium shrimp, shelled, de-veined and de-tailed.  Put them in a gallon sized ziplock bag along with:

1 clove minced garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 TBS olive oil

Mix all that up, seal the bag and let it marinate while you heat up the grill/barbecue.

Cook the shrimp on the grill, I won't bore you with how to do that.

Meantime, whip up this sour cream, lime, cilantro sauce

1/4 cup of sour cream (I used soy based, vegan)

2 TBS chopped cilantro

1/4 tsp cumin

juice and some zest from 1 lime

salt to taste

Put the shrimp in the corn tortillas, add shredded cabbage (it works better than lettuce, it doesn't wilt) chopped tomatoes and drizzle on (pour it on, baby!) the sauce.

Yum!

Lentil Salad

An amazingly easy, delicious way to get all your protein in a low calorie, yummy salad.  Just cook up 1/2 cup each lentils and rice (cooked to instructions and fully cooled) to your favorite salad recipe.  Add some crispies like croutons, roasted pita bread chips, tortilla chips... Whatever the would go with the salad.  SIMPLE!

Vegan Mac and Cheese

3/4 lbs macaroni, cooked to package instructions

    "Cheese" Sauce:
    3/4 cups unsweetened nondairy milk (soy!)
    1/3 cups nutritional yeast
    1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
    1/2 cup water
     2 tsp soy sauce
    1/2 block (8 oz.)  tofu
    1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
    1/2 tablespoon paprika
    1/2 tablespoon salt
    1 dollop mustard, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Boil water in a big pot and cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Add all of the "cheese" sauce ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Once pasta is cooked, drain and put it in the baking pan (about the size of a brownie pan). Pour the "cheese" sauce over the pasta.

3. Bake until the top of the pasta looks slightly browned and crispy, about 15 minutes.

Sausage, Tortellini and White Bean Soup

This soup was a huge hit at the Christmas party last night.

4 Tablespoons olive oil
5 Links Sweet Italian Sausage, cooked according to package directions and thinly sliced
2 Cups chopped onions
1 Fennel bulb, chopped (use 1tsp fennel seeds as a substitute)
4-6 Garlic cloves, chopped
2 Teaspoons dried thyme
64 ounces chicken broth
1 16-ounce package frozen cheese tortellini
1 15-ounce can white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained
6-10 ounces frozen spinach (fresh would be ok too I guess, but I've never tried it) 
Salt and Pepper

***PLEASE use a cruelty-free sausage. I've discovered that Whole Foods Market has some of the best Animal Welfare standards in the grocery-chain business.***



-Heat oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium-low heat. Add sausage, onions, fennel, garlic and thyme. Cook for a couple minutes to soften the onions and to blend the flavors.

-Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.

-Add tortellini and beans. Return to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 6-8 minutes.

-Add spinach and cook for 3 minutes over medium heat, or until tender.

-Season to taste with salt and pepper.

***A WORD OF WARNING.  The tortellini tends to get soggy and soak up a LOT of the broth.  If you plan on having this soup over a few days, only add the tortellini as needed.

Tom Ka Goong? (Thai Coconut Milk & Shrimp Soup)

I originally posted this recipe as Tom Ka Gai back in January.  Since then we have made the choice to eat a vegetarian diet.  We started off going completely vegan, but over time have decided that eating fish and free range eggs is ok, but in moderation.  (Hey, to each his own, right?)  I have altered this recipe to better reflect our dietary choices.  I'm not exactly sure if this recipe is authentically Thai anymore, but it IS quite tasty.  In Thai, "gai" means "chicken", so we can't exactly use "gai" in the title of this recipe.  We are using shrimp, so I guess the name of the soup should be Tom Ka Goong?  I suppose you could try using some sort of imitation chicken meat substitute to make it completely vegan, but I'll leave that up to you. 

I've made this soup several times this year and have altered the original recipe to make it a LOT easier to prepare.  Again, I don't know if it's truly, authentically Thai, but it tastes very, very close to what our local Thai restaurant makes.  You'll probably have to experiment with the mixture a bit to get it just right for your tastes, but man, is this stuff good! 

This will make about 2 quarts/liters of soup:
1 pound (approximate) uncooked shrimp, shelled, de-veined and tails removed
1 teaspoon oil
1 stem lemongrass, sliced lengthwise
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cans (15 oz.) coconut milk (low fat is ok)
1/2 cup lime juice (reserve the peel from a slice or two to throw in the pot/wok)
 1 +1/2 inch piece of galangal or ginger, peeled and sliced  (Galangal is hard to find.  I can only find it in markets down in the Asian district.  Not exactly worth the drive all the way down there for a couple bucks worth, especially when you'll only use 1/4 of the package for this recipe, so regular ginger WILL work in this recipe)
1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce (or 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes)
1/4 - 1/2 cup bamboo shoots
1/4 - 1/2 cup oyster mushrooms or a handful of fresh sliced white mushrooms
1/2 cup diced green onion, green part too
1 small tomato, sliced
3 tablespoons fish sauce (essential for that authentic Thai flavor)
Small bunch fresh cilantro

-Saute shrimp in oil w/sliced lemongrass until pink and done.
-Add broth, coconut milk & lime juice, heat until steaming, & just barely bubbling.  You don't have to cook this soup very long.
- Add all the other ingredients except cilantro
-Heat through.   No need to boil as the shrimp are already cooked.
-Turn off the heat, add a small handfull of chopped cilantro, stir. 
-Serve immediately
-ENJOY!

Seriously, that's it.