tater tot casserole

Alas the first chosen winner for Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day never responded and therefore some other lucky person is the new winner! 

Laurie is the new winner!

Laurie, please contact me to own your very free new cookbook 

by Tami Noyes and Celine Steen!

veganaide (at) yahoo (dot) com

In other interesting development, below is Tater Tot Casserole, Duggar style, just a lot healthier. 

Tater Tot Casserole is amazing because you can utilize whatever protein you'd like for the bottom layer: soy curls (thanks, Dorian!), TVP, ground seitan, tofu, marinated, grilled and diced, or tempeh. I used Soy Curls, rehydrated and sauteed with onion and garlic. The sauce is a creamy "chicken" style gravy. The whole thing is slathered with tater tots and baked to golden crispiness. 

It is as easy as you want it to be and it is sure to be the favorite of any kid. Throw some veggies on the side to make it a complete meal. 

I've blogged about Tater Tot Casserole before, but this time, I am taking the time to write up the recipe.

Cost Breakdown

Soy Curls: $3
onion, flour, spices: $.75
almond milk: $1.50
tater tots: $3
Total to make 5 servings:
$8.25

RECIPE UPDATE: this dish has been tested and revised and will be featured in the upcoming cookbook "Everyday Vegan Eats," by Zsu Dever.

"vegan sandwiches save the day" + cordon bleu wheels

Traditionally Chicken Cordon Bleu has involved three different animals: chicken, pig and cow. This dish is a chicken breast, either butterflied or pounded thin, rolled around bacon, prosciutto or ham with a slice of cheese. It is all rolled up, breaded and fried.

Daiya has introduced a few new products (at least in my neck of the woods) and since the wedge of Jack, a soft, easily melt-able, cheese-sub, sounded perfect for the veganization of Cordon Bleu, here is a new rendition of Cordon Bleu. 

My previous Cordon Bleu post involved replicating the dish using gluten as the main ingredient. I wanted to change things up a bit, especially for all those who are not yet loving gluten as much as my family does.

For this version I utilized puff pastry dough as the medium of rolling choice and relegated the gluten (or tofu) to the inside along with the cheese.

Let's break it down: the puff pastry bakes up crispy, especially with the addition of the panko crumbs it is rolled in, layered with thinly sliced seasoned seitan (or tofu) and slivers (or shreds) of vegan cheese. 

Comparatively, the prep for this version is ridiculously easy: Prepare the seitan, roll the dough, slice the Daiya, layer, slice the roll into wheels and bake.

Naturally, I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided on another component. I add kale and parsley sauteed with garlic. Parsley should not be just the condiment as it is originally in the traditional recipe where it is added to the breading. In addition, kale added to anything can only be wonderful, as far as I am concerned.

The result was fantastic!

About as good as dishing out the contest winner for Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day by Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen.

Out of the 61 comments who entered the contest, number 32 is the winner, awesomeveganrad. Please contact me by next Sunday to claim the book!

Congratulations!

(my email is veganaide@yahoo.com)   

The second place winners are encouraged to purchase their very own copy!

bryanna's palm-oil free vegan buttah

Palm oil production has skyrocketed in the recent times. Unfortunately, most of that production is taking place in third world countries where there is a dismal lack of oversight for the welfare of the natives, workers, animals and environment. Most of the palm oil plantations are centered in Peninsular Malaysia, where orangutans reside. They and three other native mammals are expected to be extinct by the end of the century, due to habitat loss and the outright killing of these animals, as production invades their habitat and palm oil plantations are encroaching into their environment.

As vegans, vegetarians and just plain caring folks, we are indirectly contributing to this problem. If you grab your Earth Balance spread, the best vegan butter substitute until now, you will note that palm oil is an ingredient. As of yet Earth Balance has not responded to the information of habitat loss of orangutans since they are still using palm oil after National Geographic reported on this in November of 2008. What is a vegan to do with a ready to spread toast or a warm fluffy pancake? 

Bryanna Grogan Clark, food scientist extraordinaire, has once again come to the rescue by creating the Buttah. I cannot give you the recipe, but she has it for free here via vegan.com.

Once you mosey over there and read the recipe, or if even just the thought of making your own butter is giving you heart palpitations, hold on. While I cannot give you the recipe, I can make you a How To Breakdown for making the Buttah. 

The process is more intimidating than difficult; in fact, the whole thing, including prepping, took about thirty minutes, minus the cooling of the prepared Buttah. 

Procure the weird and wacky ingredients: xantham gum (or guar gum), liquid lecithin, cocoa butter (fair trade and deodorized - not as bad as it sounds!), a digital scale, and get blending! 

Here is the How To Breakdown for Buttah.

Here is the recipe.

Here is more information about Buttah.

And don't forget to enter the cookbook giveaway  for Tami Noyes' and Celine Steen's Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day. Drawing will be at the end of the week.

UPDATE: Earth Balance's response to the palm oil crisis:
Click Here

"vegan sandwiches save the day!" + giveaway

Happy August, everyone! 

Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day is in my hands and I am ready to pass it on to one lucky winner! Tami Noyes and Celine Steen are the authors of this can't-do-without cookbook of over 100 to-die-for sandwiches. I know. I tested for them last summer - "the super summer of sandwiches." 

To start the Fall off with a bang (I know, it isn't fall, yet, but ever since we had a cool day here in Chicago my youngest has been on the Halloween kick and I am feeling a little autumn-y even if the weather is not.) By Fall I mean, it is time to blog again. What better way to begin the blogging new year than with a free, brand spanking new cookbook, hot off the presses? Tami and Celine are sending me a cookbook for being a tester and I am getting my own from Amazon (via vegan.com) so I have a copy up for grabs. The only restriction is that I can only ship in the US. 

Since I received the book, the family has been wanting me to actually use it - so, very carefully, I looked at the recipe, from far away in the living room so as not to get it dirty, and made Kate's favorite: Pittsburgh Steak Sandwich. This one is made with a garlicky spread, avocado and Tami's and Celine's Moo-Free Seitan. Cute name, huh? The seitan is robust, the bread is crunchy, being served on a ciabatta bread, and the avocado gives it a deliciously creamy element. We all love this sandwich!

The second sandwich I made last night was an homage to Ray Bradbury. The author of Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes (as well as many, many other works) died last month on June 5, just shy of his 92nd birthday. He was raised here in Chicagoland, in Waukegan, and I still drive by his childhood home, my kids play in the ravine that he made so famous in Dandelion Wine and we are constantly reminded of his legacy. Tami and Celine must have seen it coming since one of their sandwiches is Something Blackened This Way Comes. Great sandwich in honor of a fantastic writer. If you haven't read Dandelion Wine or Something Wicked, you should. His writing is lyrical, poetic and just such a pleasure to read. I sometimes read him just to hear the rhythmic flow of his writing. It is just simply pure. 

This sandwich would have made him happy, I think. The delightful spiciness of the No Cluck Cutlets and the cooling relish with the creamy spread is perfectly wicked. 

I made a little side dish for these wonderful sandwiches, Crispy Kale and Patty Pan Squash.  I used the leftover blackened seasoning mix from the sandwich above as a tie-in, but that is a bonus which I cannot give away. It is in the book, though! Or, you can head over to Tami's and Celine's websites (links above) to get some free recipes, from this very book. Or better yet, get yourself a copy! 

If you want to try to win my copy, please leave a comment and I will let Random.com pick the winner. 

CRISPY KALE AND PATTY PAN SQUASH PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

creamy summer chowder + camping

I am not one to indulge in fancy camping food, but I will say that camping food should not be boring. Camping food is doubly challenging in that while it should be delicious, it should also be easy and quick. The two are not necessarily always the same thing. Not sure if others have the same problem, but my teenagers are not thrilled to go camping, so the only card I have up my sleeve is the food one. At times, their stomach is the only reason they feel it is even bearable to go camping. I know family outings will give them some great memories, even if those feelings won't manifest until they are grown up and moved out.

A great way to make sure you have great food and easy prep at camping (after all who wants to be chopping vegetables on a rickety table?) is to prep everything that is practical and possible at home. 

One of the meals we had this trip was a Creamy Summer Chowder. It has a little almond milk, but the bulk of the creaminess is derived from blended corn and the cooked potatoes releasing some starch into the dish. Prepping this meal involved cutting all the vegetables in your nice clean kitchen. Separating the onion, pepper, celery and tomatoes allows the cook to saute them before adding the content of the second prepped bag - blended corn, potatoes and seasonings. After cooking the chowder over the fire for about 20 minutes, the dish is ready. It is a sweet-tasting summer-flavored smoky soup that involves very little prep time at camp and an abundance of flavor. 

We served the chowder with  grilled sandwiches. Anyone remember Pie Irons? Loads of fun and easy to use. The kids loved it and they cooked great sandwiches.. as well as pies. 

CREAMY SUMMER CHOWDER PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

vine and dine + stroganoff-stuffed potatoes

So this is the last post in the Vine and Dine series - unless something happens and it gets resurrected, like Food Network Friday, which is being continued, albeit with a twist, over at Kelly's blog, Three and a Half Vegans. Be sure to check her out and see what she has up her sleeves.

As for V&D, at least for now, Tami's Tempeh Stroganoff-Stuffed Potatoes is the closing cookalong. I am thrilled that she chose to end the series cooking from American Vegan Kitchen. It is only appropriate and, lucky for us, happens to be scrumptious.   

This is another of those recipes from AVK that slipped under my radar. Having not made this recipe yet, I was pleasantly surprised.  I guess it didn't seem like a main dish (although that is the section of the book it is in!) because it is a stuffed potato and we all know potatoes are always a side dish. Tami doesn't conform to expectations, and turned the side-dish potato into a main course.

I added more mushrooms to her recipe (doubled it) and cooked it a bit longer than the recipe calls for, but that is because we love out 'shrooms golden brown and sauteed really well. After baking the potatoes, scooping them out (use an ice cream scooper), mashing them and introducing them to the sauteed tempeh and mushrooms, you re-stuff the potatoes and bake for a few more minutes. 

Combine creamy potatoes, crunchy potato skin, crispy tempeh and mushrooms and this dish is no longer a side thought. If you haven't made this yet, get to it. A refreshing green salad to cut through the richness completes this dish, along with a - no surprise - red wine. David and I chose to indulge in a Cabernet Sauvignon from Arcane cellars. We received this wine as a gift a while back and saved it for this perfect occasion and perfect meal.  

Thanks, Tami, for all the inspiration and cookalongs, not to mention all your fantastic food!

vine and dine + blue plate special wheat-meat loaf

Back for another round of Vine and Dine. We are finally cooking something from Tami Noyes' first cookbook, American Vegan Kitchen. This makes me happy. On top of getting to pair wine with AVK (did anyone really need any excuse, though?), the ladies somehow managed to choose a recipe that I had not yet made from the book. Although I had before made a wheat-meat loaf from AVK, Southwestern Wheat-Meat Loaf, this was new territory for me. Just goes to show you that you can love and use a cookbook and still have undiscovered treasures within it. 

This was a delicious and easy recipe to make (once you have the seitan). Homey and comforting. My only addition to Tami's written word was ketchup. I couldn't resist! Sorry, Tami. Even my kids gave me a funny look, but in the end the tomato did ketchup to their taste-buds. (Sorry, again :)

The whole family enjoyed it. This was most likely the first Vine and Dine that the kids loved as well as we did, so double thanks to Vegan Appetite for picking a kid-friendly dish. However, I am not sure that my kids can be called 'kids' much longer; both teens (16 and 15) are officially in college. Community college, tis true, but Mikel is now a full-timer heading to University of Southern California for their film school and Catt is looking to get her Associates by the time she is 17. With these credentials, they are no longer allowed to act like kids and whine about their dine. (I'm on a roll - stop me now!)

Naturally the Blue Plate Special Wheat-Meat Loaf was served up with traditional Mashed Potatoes and Homestyle Gravy. Felt like we were sitting in a diner! Do diners serve Frey wine? 

Speaking about the wine, one Frey was not enough for us, we went all the way from the white to the red. I love red wines (in fact, David and I have decided that we will be staying with reds from here on) and I love Frey vineyards, if for no other reason than that it was the first wine that came to our attention as being vegan, more than a decade ago. Loyalty, you could call it. I am sorry to say that we were not too impressed with their Merlot. And since we weren't that impressed with their Natural White either back a few weeks ago, it might explain why my hubby was reluctant to post a review about that one.

However, he did manage to put something together for this Merlot and here it is below.

We paired the 2009 Frey Vineyards Mendocino Merlot with the American Vegan Kitchen’s Blue Plate Special Meatloaf and this merlot is a velvety complex wine with the nose of cherry, pear and blackberry combined with earthy undertones and a touch of spice.  I thought the wine would go better with spicier fare and partaken with the meatloaf it seemed wanting.  I guess had I added some “Heat” to the loaf, the wine would have been more satisfying but I was happy with our selection, none the less, just not ecstatically so.

     

tester - catch up

I am taking the opportunity to catch you all up on what I have been doing recently since it is so glaringly obvious that it isn't blogging!

As you know, last year I was testing for Tami's Grills Gone Vegan cookbook, which is yet to be released, but I keep hoping it will be out for summer grilling. From those delicious-days-gone-by, I tested dreamy recipes such as:

Tami's Grown Up Grilled Cheese

Seitan Salad with Nuts and Fruits

Grilled Leek Spread

And then Tami asked me to test for her sandwich cookbook, co-authored with Celine Steen, Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day, which has a September 1 release date. I am so excited! This will be the definitive vegan lunch/sandwich book. So amazing:

Two Tomato Tango

Tofu Pomegranate Pockets

Sushi Wrap

Surprise! (Is anyone, really?) These two mad-cappers are at it again! This time creating a  whole grain baking book. Yes, again, I couldn't resist. My time is valuable and I wouldn't want to test anything that I didn't find worthy, or frankly, for any cookbook I wouldn't purchase myself, so when Tami asked if I was interested, well, for sure! 

Whole. Grain. Baking.

 I believe I have at least 4 cookbooks on my shelf on the subject, and not any one I go to as a resource. Either the book is not actually "whole grains" or it isn't vegan (and baking, as we know, is a science, not an art: difficult to ad-lib) or just plain sucks.

Needless to say I was intrigued. Turns out, these women are truly using whole grains: oat, barley, amaranth, rye, corn, wheat, ...you name it, they use it. And, get this, it tastes great! Even my kids like the goodies I've made. 

Here are some teasers:

Wheat Wonder Crackers

Pizza Your Way

Olive Round

Delectable, right? And I haven't even gone down the sweet route, yet!

All this has been horrific on my hips, but I am not done, yet.

While testing for Tami and Celine last year, I was also doing a bit of cooking for Robin Robertson's up-coming slow-cooker cookbook. As an ubber-busy mom, this was another one of those cookbooks that I found a wealth of value in. I applied for testing when Robin posted the need on her blog and she accepted. This book, Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker, is slated for an October release. Just in time for the holiday onslaught, when we could all use a bit of a break after all the holiday preparation during the day; nice to have dinner ready. Well, that describes my entire year, excluding the holiday factor. Can you relate?  

Here are a few pics of Robin's recipes:

Root Vegetable Bisque

Seitan Posole

Lentil Chickpea Curry

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

That's right. All from a slow cooker.

Last month I got the opportunity to test for Robin again. This time a One-Dish cookbook. I have her first One-Dish Vegetarian Meals cookbook and love it. I figured this would be another cookbook I test for that wold benefit me more than the chef. 

Right again. 

Here are some of the pictures from this new book:

Potato Salad with Avocado Dressing

Jamaican Spinach and Red Bean Soup

Bulgur and White Bean Bake with Cabbage and Tomato

One-Dish meals mean there are no sides needed - it is a complete meal in one dish. Great idea and certainly a headache saver. 

There you have it. Hopefully some of these books will be available for you to get your hands on. In the meantime, rest assured that whatever cookbooks I receive as compensation for testing these recipes, will all be up for grabs in upcoming blog contests. 

Until next time, keep eating well. 

spaghetti and vegan meatballs

Catt chose Spaghetti and Meatballs to cook this week. Typically I can print the recipe from this blog (the founding intent of it) and let the kids loose on the kitchen, but this time I realized the only encounter I have had with meatballs has been making the Swedish Meatball recipe. Since this menu choice was not Swedish and I wanted something different and perhaps easier, I decided to make the meatballs myself and let the kid continue to hole-up in her room while I prepared the meatballs. This caused a slight delay in dinner, oh, about 2 days' worth; I'm sort of what you call a procrastinator. 

Since I have been recently messing around with seitan and gluten, I decided to continue experimenting and created a meatball with maybe a little less complication, a little more flavor and a better texture. Maybe.

Animal derived meatballs have a flurry of names. Vegan meatballs should not be left out of the nomenclature game. Before, I had made Swedish Meatballs using TVP for the filling, this time I made Italian Meatballs using Tofurkey Italian sausage for the filling. Next time it might be Soy-free Hungarian Meatballs or Gluten-Free Mexican Meatballs. Again, I used vital wheat gluten to bind, but instead of cooking the balls at a high temperature, I baked these in a low temperature oven. These tasted great right out of the oven, but after simmering in the Tomato Sauce for 10 minutes, they were light and fluffy... and 

did not fall apart... at ... all.

Dinner: Possible. 

Should I call Food TV?

Cost Breakdown

meatballs: $5

pasta: $3

sauce: $4

Total to make 6 servings:

$12.00

Italian "Meat"ball Recipe

vine and dine + gnocchi with basil and roasted shallot cream sauce

Vine and Dine, hosted by Tami Noyes at Vegan Appetite, is Potato Gnocchi with Basil in a Roasted Shallot Cream Sauce, from Spork-Fed. 

The family loves Gnocchi so we decided to go for it and participate in Tami's cookalong, even though this cookbook is not on my shelf. 

The gnocchi recipe itself is basic, using potatoes and flour. The sauce uses roasted shallots and tons of cashews, which makes the sauce quite thick. You can very successfully reduce the amount of nuts to at least half the amount called for. 

After tasting it, the kids would have liked some tomato sauce added, 'to lighten things up,' as it is stated in the anecdote of the recipe. I agree - next time we make a gnocchi cream sauce, we will add some red sauce as well.

We drank a(nother) white wine with this dish, but I wholeheartedly believe a red would have complemented it much better. I'll let David catch you up on the wine selection. I have been the one choosing the wine for the past few V&D's (only because I have been shopping alone), but I think it is time to get him back out there making the selections. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm quite as choosy about buying the wine as about drinking it.

(David will be posting the wine review this evening).

FNF + lamb shanks with sweet potato risotto

After first reading the recipe, it was confusing to me why the chef was pairing serrano peppers with lamb and risotto. Then I took note of the author and it all made sense - the recipe, Lamb Shanks with Sweet Potato Risotto and Serrano Vinegar Sauce, is a Bobby Flay, the king of hot peppers, recipe. 

Whoever picked this Food Network Friday choice at Vegan Appetite, did very well. I am all into mushrooms and I have not yet had the pleasure of making risotto because I have always been scared off by all the hype on Hell's Kitchen and other sundry shows where the risotto has to be just perfect, otherwise shame is brought on the chef and her descendants. Hence, to me, risotto is equated with a bunch of stress.  Again, Tami manages to push me out of my comfort zone.

I remember reading somewhere that your risotto is perfect when the rice is al dente and when you stir the rice, moving your wooden (only wooden, folks!) spoon across the bottom of the pan, if the rice stays out of the cleared path and only moves back to its homogeneous consistency after a few seconds. Voila! Perfect risotto. Unless someone has a more perfect suggestion? Of course, if you leave your risotto on the stove, anticipating the other fifty components of your dish to be complete, it might harden up on you. Loosen it with a bit more hot water until you get the cleared-path-on-the-bottom-of-the-pan effect again.

Speaking of the components of this meal, let me run it down for you:

1) make protein, I made Lamb-tan. Witty, right?

2) sear seitan

3) chop onion, carrot, mushroom

4) cook onions, carrots

5) reduce wine completely

6) braise seitan

7) heat water

8) cook risotto

9) bake, peel and mash sweet potato

10) roast mushrooms

11) toast pine nuts

12) reduce balsamic vinegar

13) strain sauce and reduce

14) assemble the plate

15) serve (finally!)

And a lot of us complain about the ingredients list in recipes (and this one wasn't shy in that department either, with 25 ingredients!) This was more like making a Thanksgiving meal in miniature. Keeping it all warm and ready when the component was needed was a challenge. A worthy practice for holiday cooking.

Chanterelles are called for by Flay, but I just used regular mushrooms. However, I did drizzle a bit of truffle oil on the dish. My fungus budget went to the truffles this time. 

I also added some flour at the beginning of the braise because unlike baby sheep, seitan does not have any animal protein/gelatin to thicken the sauce. 

(I'll take flour over baby sheep any day.)

As for the results - they were worth the effort. After perusing the recipe, I realized it would be more of a company-meal or at least one that would suit an important occasion because of its elegance. For us, that occasion was appropriately Tami's Food Network Friday. 

pasta primavera

The first day of Spring was yesterday. We really enjoy celebrating the equinoxes and solstices at our house. What better way to ring in the spring (besides that annoying daylight savings time deal) than with Pasta Primavera, for which the dish is named after. 

Way back when I fell in love with this dish, my brother was the executive chef of a waterside restaurant. By that time I was already vegetarian. After a long day's work, he would make for me this dish - pasta with creamy sauce and lots of spring and summer vegetables. There are two ways to make Pasta Primavera: one is made using olive oil and garlic and the other is made using butter, cream and Parmesan cheese, essentially a la Alfredo.

Although there is no way to exactly mimic the flavor of butter and cream (at least none that I have come across), the creaminess of the original dish remains and the stars of the meal -the vegetables- still take center stage. 

My brother limited the pasta to summer squashes and cauliflower, but I kind of went overboard and added anything at all that looked good. When I presented my offering to the kids and went into the details of the name, my kids immediately piped up... "tomatoes aren't a spring plant"..."neither are summer squashes"... yeah, yeah. I loaded tons of spring (and summer) veggies and fruits onto this pasta plate, but you are welcome to be as finicky as my kids tend to be, omitting any at will. 

Cost Breakdown

pasta: $3

onion, garlic, carrot, peppers: $3

flour, milk: $1

cauliflower, asparagus, squash, mushrooms, kale: $9

Total to make 6 servings:

 $16.00

braised vegan sausage and cabbage with horseradish sauce

We had such an amazing time last weekend, but are so happy to finally be home. 

Our Homeschool Conference in the Chicagoland area was tons of fun for the kids, tons of work for David and me. Fortunately along with the work and fun, some of us even learned a  thing or two. We are now back at home and I am again free to blog according to my ability and allotted time.

Since we were away this weekend and since a Patty's Day feast a microwave does not make, I am posting a belated Irish meal - cook at will and worry not about it being St Pat's Day. Enjoy the dish whenever the urge strikes.

This is an easy and quick open-faced sandwich of sorts, Braised Sausage and Cabbage with Horseradish Sauce, a take-off of the Corned Cabbage that the family loves but for which I did not have a whole lot of time to prepare. In its stead, I used a lot of the flavors and ingredients that are in the Corned Cabbage and made them into a quick dish.

The whole process started as a simple Sausage and Cabbage dish and morphed into the Corned-idea after Kate mentioned that it was a too bad that it wasn't going to be Corned Cabbage. That is all it really takes for me - someone lamenting over something I am NOT making - and the original dish veers off in another direction.

I braised vegan sausage, onions, peppers and cabbage in a corned-broth and served it over toasted whole wheat slices, drizzled with horseradish sauce. I also baked up acorn squash, left over from the produce box before we took off for vacation. Spring is here, so enjoy those winter squash while you still can! And partake of this dish whenever you see a scrumptious head of cabbage and a few links of Field Roast sausage calling out to you.

Cost Breakdown

cabbage: $3

sausage: $5

onion, pepper: $3

spices, herbs: $2

bread, vegenaise, horseradish: $2

Total to make 5 servings:

$15.00

BRAISED VEGAN SAUSAGE AND CABBAGE SANDWICH RECIPE

FNF - scampi with linguine

 I was the one who picked this Food Network Friday recipe, originally by Tyler Florence, and I am the last to post about it. It almost seems as though I am cheating by looking at Tami's Vegan Appetite post before actually making the dish. Although I feel bad that I didn't made the recipe much sooner, life at our house for the past month has revolved around our annual homeschool conference. This year I volunteered to be the sign maker for the conference and all I have been seeing, doing, printing, designing and breathing are signs. I'm a little sign-burned-out, to the point that after washing the dishes tonight, I realized that I had only cooked one meal all week, not including this one. How do I know that, you must be asking? 

One, I haven't been doing any dishes this week. And two, I haven't needed to do any since I haven't actually done any cooking that resulted in dishes needing to be done. Vicious, pathetic and yet intriguing happenstance of events. Sort of like a backhanded complement. Is it good or just in the disguise of being good?

Tyler Florence's Shrimp Scampi with Linguine was ultimately picked by my youngest from a choice of three dishes. She hates the idea of shrimp anything (Arthropods are not an ideal meal choice for her, and frankly I myself wonder at the fact that people actually choose to put bugs on their plates instead of having them accidentally be dropped into a dish by some unsanitary restaurant personnel.) I even purchased veggie shrimp to try out once (later having found out that it contained milk - read your labels! - even if you think the company is vegan) and she was put off by the texture and flavor. I found the fake shrimp quite real tasting and so did David. 

We were one of those shrimp-loving nut jobs in our pre-veg days, as ignorant of the whole bug-thing as we were, no excuses! I was a HUGE scampi lover, one not for the love of shrimp, but because I really enjoyed the garlic, olive oil and lemon combination. This still hold true and I've made Scampi more than once and even made Olive Garden's Chicken Scampi. So, for me, this was a great dish to make. But what, oh! what to use instead of the shrimp? Tofu, seitan (sea seitan would have been great here), vegetables? 

To understand the end I need to justify the means. David has been to the doctor for a well-visit and whenever that happens and blood is drawn and analyzed, our family is hit by a reality check and we always wind up reevaluating our diet. The healthiest plate of food to create contains Power Greens, Smart Protein and Super Carbs. This means that anytime you make a plate of food you should have dark leafy greens (not just salad greens), a protein choice (tofu, legumes, seitan, tree nuts) and appropriate carbohydrates (whole grains, winter squash, sweet potatoes, corn, root veggies). With this in mind, I was formulating a plan for the Scampi dish, threatening the family at every turn that I was going to make Kale and Carrot Scampi. Yum, I thought, but hubby says that if I announce the meal's name over a period of days, but not actually make it, I am threatening not cooking. Hmmm... 

Result? Kale, Carrots, Garlic, Lemon and Olive Oil are a match not yet dreamed up in heaven, but certainly should be. I used Meyer lemon and cut the fat in half. It could have been cut by another tablespoon without any problem (down to 3 from 8). I also tripled the garlic and doubled the lemon juice, but that is all according to taste. We loved it and it wasn't a difficult meal to prepare at all. 

A special shout-out to Tami for being so super patient and waiting for me and my blog post! Thank you!!