raw alfredo primavera

Raw Night

To the delight of my children, I made another raw meal. For us, Mondays are the ideal day to make raw because that is when I go to Whole Foods and the vegetables are extra fresh - very important when they are naked, so to speak. It is especially important that summer squash be fresh because the older they get the more bitter they become. Not a good thing.

I lost a part to my spiral slicer, so I just used my knife to cut the squash into thin, long strips. I tossed the slices in a little olive oil and dehydrated them for about an hour. Sort of the extent of my cooking tonight. I also tossed some spinach with diced red onion and dehydrated that, too.

The olive 'bread' I tossed in the dehydrator the night before; it didn't need to be crispy because I wasn't shooting for a cracker.

The Alfredo sauce was really excellent. I wouldn't say it is 'Alfredo' sauce, but calling it Macadamia Pasta Sauce fits better for how it tasted. The sauce had a little garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and coconut vinegar. Mixed with the squash strips, tomatoes, olives and the spinach, it tasted very flavorful and quite good. Another raw surprise for David. It was harder to sell to the kids, though, who passionately dislike squash of any season. This meal was inpired by recipes in the cookbook Eating Raw by Mark Reinfeld.

Cost Breakdown:

nuts: $4

vegetables: $6

olives, oil, lemon: $1

flax seeds, sunflower seeds, olives: $3

Total to annoy 3 kids and feed 2 adults:

$14.00

Macadamia Pasta Sauce Recipe

pizza night

We had Pizza Night here!

The kids have been asking and since there was en easy pizza crust recipe (besides the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza) in American Vegan Kitchen, my fate was sealed. I rolled the crust thin, baked the pizzas in a super hot oven in a cast iron pan (I don't have a pizza stone), and topped the kids' pizzas with Yves 'pepperoni' and David's and mine with grilled vegetables.  The adult version also has a reduced balsamic vinegar drizzle, adding sweetness and extra flavor. Making it is very easy, just reduce a half cup of balsamic vinegar to half its original volume on medium-high heat. This will eliminate the acidic quality of the vinegar and concentrate its sweetness. BTW, to get the 'pepperoni' to be crisp, pan-fry them in a little olive oil before adding to the pizza.

Cost Breakdown:

crust: $2

Yves: $3

Daiya and Follow Your Heart: $7

vegetables: $3

vinegar: $.50

Total to make 5, 9-inch pizzas:

$15.50

Stuffed-Crust with Yves Pepperoni

Grilled Vegetable with Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

piri piri summer vegetables with jollof rice

Tuesday nights are Asian/African nights

...or anything that is nice with rice. Tonight I made an African meal complete with red palm oil, a distinctive African flavor. Piri Piri means 'hot chilis' in Swahili and so the name of the marinade echoes the content of it. Unfortunately, I could not find any thai bird's eye chili, so I made my piri piri marinade with Fresno and serrano peppers - less spicy. It seems to be a chili week, here at my house! After the vegetables - eggplant, green beans, zucchini and yellow squash - were marinated for 20 minutes, I grilled them on the griddle I still had out (but cleaned, of course :) from lunch. I served it in butter lettuce to cut the heat and provide a vessel to the mouth. Yum!

The rice is cooked with tomatoes, onions, cinnamon sticks, fenugreek seeds, coriander and cumin, and the ubiquitous African red palm oil. I love African food. The family is still getting used to the unique flavor - especially of the palm oil (which you can skip and just spice your neutral oil by simmer it with onions, garlic and the spices for 15 minutes, straining it and using it as the cooking base). The flavor of the vegetables - spicy and sweet with a little tang from the lemon in the marinade - were well received, though.

Cost Breakdown:

vegetables: $5

peppers: $1

rice: $.50

tomatoes: $2.50

red palm oil : $1

lettuce: $2

spices: $.50

Total to feed a family of 5:

$12.50

summer scramble

Brunch was for lunch.

I made a seasonal tofu scramble, complete with summer yellow squash, Hungarian peppers, tomatoes, carrots and onions. I wanted some starch to accompany it -like home fries or hash browns - but, tonight's meal has potatoes. So I made a Home Fried Butternut Squash. The two squashes from opposite seasons complimented each other very well. The kids loved the scramble as well.

Two for two.

Cost Breakdown:

tofu, 2 :$4

vegetables: $3

spices, nutritional yeast: $1

butternut squash: $2

toast: $2

Total to feed a family of 5:

$12.00

zucchini and beans couscous with baby beet remoulade

My CSA box is brought on Fridays; among other things, I received amaranth greens, dill, baby beets and zucchini. As I was looking through Speed Vegan, trying to be inspired (I knew there would be no cookbook with a recipe using the exact ingredients I had), I came upon 'Zucchini and Red Beans.' That was enough for me.

I sauteed the zucchini with onions, started slow-sauteing garlic, put the baby beets in a pot of water and started Israel Couscous cooking. I made a remoulade sauce for the beets - simply veganaise, yogurt, capers, pickles, dill and parsley. I brought the whole thing together with some red beans and added the amaranth greens to the zucchini at the last moment. I topped the zucchini saute with the beets remoulade and that was it. 

While David and I enjoyed our meal very much, the kids decided it was too adult-y for them. David said the kids are being Veg-air-tarians. Get it? They are eating nothing but air.

Cost Breakdown:

zucchini: $3

amaranth: $3

beans: $2

beets: $2

couscous: $.50

garlic and onions: $1

remoulade: $2

Total to feed a family of 5 if they all ate:

$13.50

  

Zucchini and Beans Couscous Recipe

roasted vegetables with red pepper sauce

The red pepper paste I made earlier this week came in handy tonight. I roasted potatoes, garlic scape, summer squash and carrots with garlic and fresh herbs. I made a sauce with the red pepper paste using rice milk, which turned out delicious, that I covered the veggies with. Topped the whole kit and caboodle with panko crumbs, returned it to the oven and enjoyed it with a crisp bibb salad. Simple.

Cost Breakdown:

potatoes: $2

carrots and squash: $2

garlic scape and garlic (CSA): $2

herbs: $1

red pepper sauce: $2

salad: $3

Total to feed a family of 5:

$12.00

hungarian layered potatoes

Continuing with Dad's Day, I made Layered Potatoes. This, too, is a childhood favorite. Of course, when my dad made this, he used bacon, pork sausage, at least a pint of sour cream, eggs and tons of butter!

 A little adjutment was required here. I made some super easy seitan sausage, made some creamy 'sour cream' using almonds and I used olive oil instead of butter. Not diet food, but not hear-attack material either. Since my CSA brought swiss chard, and since chard stands up to long cooking times, I added that and some yellow squash to the layers as well. 

It turned out very yummy; creamy and savory.

Cost Breakdown:

seitan sausage: $1

potatoes: $3

chard and squash: $4

almonds and lemon: $3

Total to feed a family of 5 twice:

$11.00

HUNGARIAN LAYERED POTATOES PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE