Vegan Journey Continues Week 3 Day 4 - Thursday August 14, 2014

Last night I made another stir fry, and I think I'm getting better at it...

LISA'S STIR FRY

serves 3

2 cups kale, roughly chopped
2 cups bok choy, thinly sliced
1/2 bunch scallions, chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1" ginger, finely chopped
2T canola oil (or peanut, or olive)
1T mirin (sweet Asian wine)
1T low sodium soy sauce
1 cup baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 bell pepper, seeded, sliced and halved
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1 pound (block) firm tofu, drained and cubed

3 cups brown rice, cooked

Sesame seeds for topping (optional) toasted (optional)

Prepare tofu by draining, cubing, and marinating in low sodium soy sauce.
Heat oil, add garlic and ginger to season oil, then onion, then other vegetables and mirin, then toss in tofu cubes with soy sauce to warm.  Serve over steaming hot brown rice.  Top with toasted sesame seeds.

This has benefits of heart health and helping the body defend against cancer.

pesto day 12 vegan challenge 8/7/14

psst pesto on Day 12 Vegan challenge 8/7/14

I read a great article about the health benefits of nutritional yeast.
I bought some last week, but wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.
The article suggested using it like parmasean cheese in recipes.
So I made some pesto. Normally, my pesto does not contain spinach, but I took all the leaves off of my little basil plant, and only had about 1/2 cup, so I improvised. The result was a tasty sauce that was still vibrant green with a more subtle basil flavor.

Pesto Improv, Vegan Style

1/2 cup freshly picked basil
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves
1 garlic scape (like green onions, but green garlic top)
1 clove garlic (if you can find the German hard neck type its divine)
3T nutritional yeast
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pignoli pine nuts (or walnuts)
juice of 1/2 lemon, freshly squeezed

Blend all items in blender. Serve over steaming hot pasta, with an extra sprinking of nutritional yeast on top.

Ideas for future research include adding fresh parsley in place of the garlic scape. It would also be interesting to add a new category of pizza; instead or red or white (which refers to the color of the sauce on pizza), green pizza could be added to the house menu!