In season now

Although the local farmers' markets do not open for three more months, fresh Florida produce is available now according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. At their website they have a chart, Four Seasons of Freshness: Florida Produce Availability at a glance. (To print your own copy, go to this link, scroll down and choose download the Florida Seasonal Availability Chart.) Fresh from Florida in July are avocados, cantalope, green beans, green bell peppers, mangoes and watermelon. In August, the produce available fresh includes avocados, carambola, green beans, mangoes, sweet corn.

Although there is Florida produce available now, it has not been easy for me to find it. There is a small stand on Military Trail south of Lake Ida Road that is part nursery and part produce. There is limited produce available there but some of it is locally grown. The Boys' Market continues to be by best nearby source of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Green beans are available fresh from Florida growers every month of the year. I guess that explains why they are always on display in a huge mound at The Boys' Market. July is the only month when fresh corn is not available here. I can't imagine that the list can be rigid since growing plants do not know calendars. Since they know sun, rain, length of day, there will be crops available both later and earlier than the chart indicates.

With weeks more of great avocados, I plan to eat a lot of them. My daughter makes the best guacamole I have ever tasted and I am sharing her recipe below. I will also use them in my new favorite sandwich combined with watercress. When I was growing up and schools were closed for summer vacation, I used to walk with my younger brother and sister to a place we called The Glen. I am several years older, so my mother sent us off with me in charge of the twins who must have been going into second grade. We set off for a couple of hours with a snack in our school lunch boxes and Kool-Aid in our thermoses. (How my mother must have looked forward to those hours!) We walked through a cow pasture, then along the railroad tracks and across a small wooded area to a stream. In the stream grew watercress, which we picked, took home and ate in sandwiches with lots of butter. I guess we must have been trespassing the whole time, but who thought about that half a century ago. In time, the land was sold to a developer and a housing subdivision called Glenside was built. That was the end of the foraging for watercress and I have never had any that tasted as good.

My new favorite sandwich consists of whole grain bread spread with mashed avocado as if it were butter, thick slices of tomatoes, lots of watercress, and a thick slice of sweet onion. It would taste even better with Larissa's guacamole.

Larissa's Guacamole

2 ripe avocados
1 teaspoon grated red onion
2 garlic cloves, pressed
juice of half a lime
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Remove the skin and peel from the avocados and in a medium bowl mash them, leaving some chunks the size of cranberries. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed. Serve at once to prevent the unpleasant darkening of avocado that happens when it sits for a while.

Mom is right

Mom told you to eat your vegetables and she was right. Of course, that didn't keep the US government and Wal-Mart heir John Walton from spending $35 million on a study to show us that she was wrong. The National Cancer Institute study, The Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Randomized Trial, is reported to have found no benefit from recommending that women with breast cancer eat more fruits, vegetables, and less fat.

Once again the media is eagerly reporting the "failure" of "high" consumption of vegetables and fruits to provide health benefits. I saw a movie trailer with one line that has haunted me: There are two sides to every story, but there is only one side to the truth. Think about who has the motivation to prove that the Standard American Diet is good for us and how much money that group has. Now think about who has the motivation to tell us to eat whole unprocessed foods. Now follow the money and decide which side of the story is more likely to be the truth.

Before the media causes you throw up your hands in despair over eating a diet proven repeatedly to be healthier, read this detailed analysis of the study in question. If you are not inclined to do that much reading, let this excerpt from Dr. John McDougall give you some food for thought today instead of a recipe to cook:

Breast cancer is a fatal disease and women will do almost anything to live. They will endure poisoning by toxic chemotherapy, burning with radiation, and mutilation from breast-amputating mastectomy; in the hopes of living a few more days. Obviously, if asked to do so, and given proper support from their doctors and dietitians, they would do something as simple, safe, cost-effective, and enjoyable as eating oatmeal and bean burritos while avoiding beefsteaks and cheese omelets. In The Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Randomized Trial they continued the same meat-, dairy-, oil-, and environmental chemical-laden diet that got them in trouble in the first place, with minor modifications. The investigators, not the women, should be held responsible for the fact that even the instructions to eat, “5 vegetable servings plus 16 oz of vegetable juice; 3 fruit servings; 30 g of fiber; and 15% to 20% of energy intake from fat,” were followed poorly. The full cancer-inhibiting benefits of low-fat, plant-foods were never offered to these women.

A true test of diet for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer would follow the model of the diet of women worldwide who have the least chance of contracting breast cancer and the best chance of surviving it. These are women who follow a diet based on starches, like from rural Asia (rice), Africa (millet), Mexico (corn), New Guinea (sweet potatoes) and Peru (potatoes). The few women, who do get breast cancer in these societies, also live longer than their Western counterparts.

Yes, sometimes we do eat salads

When we talk to people at the pool about going out to eat, they often tell us we could eat with them at the restaurant they have in mind because the restaurant serves salad. As much as I would enjoy sharing a meal with them, I do not enjoy having a plate of iceberg lettuce with a tomato slice and watching everyone else eat a complete meal. And that is what happens at many restaurants which seem to have no vegetables except French fries and iceberg lettuce.

The reality is that we do often have salads because we eat many, many vegetables and we like many of them raw. The salad above is a typical salad at our house. It contains field mix, sliced radishes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar-snap peas and whatever dressing I feel like making that day.

This time of the year the weather is perfect for spending late afternoons at the pool. Of course, that severely impacts the time available for cooking and salad is a quick option for dinner. Today was a pool day and we came home hungry.

A couple of days ago I cooked cannellini beans and had them in the refrigerator. At Whole Foods the other day, I bought a large head of escarole. Together, they would become beans and greens, but I didn't want to serve another salad with greens, so tonight we had a different salad. Checking the refrigerator, I found one left-over cooked ear of corn, 3 fresh mushrooms, some sugar-snap peas, a spectacular organic red pepper, half a red onion, and a third of a beefsteak tomato.

A recipe isn't necessary, but this is what I did. I cut the corn off the cob, sliced the mushrooms, cut the peas into pieces about the size of my thumbnail, diced half of the red pepper and the remaining tomato. I tossed that with a couple of teaspoons of Paul Newman's Italian Dressing and topped the salad with thinly sliced onion. You could use any fat-free Italian dressing or make a quick vinaigrette if you are avoiding all added fat. A handful of fresh, sweet organic cherries completed the dinner and I still had time to blog.

Cauliflower Lovers' Salad

The cauliflower lover in this household is Jerry. That is not to say that I do not like cauliflower, which I do. I like it both raw and cooked. But Jerry likes it only raw. He will eat it when I cook it, but he always says he likes it better raw. He eats it as a snack just going to the refrigerator and breaking off a florette or two. He loves it in salads. So I made this salad just for him and any other cauliflower lovers out there.

Cauliflower Lovers' Salad

1 medium head cauliflower
2 medium tomatoes
1 small red onion
12-15 pitted Kalamata olives
4 Boston lettuce leaves per serving
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1-3 tablespoons water
salt and black pepper to taste

Cut the cauliflower into florettes and the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces. Thinly slice the onion. Cut the olives into quarters. Place the cut vegetables in a medium sized bowl and set aside.

In a small jar with a cover, shake together the olive oil and lemon juice. Because there is so little fat, you will need to add water one tablespoon at a time until you like the taste. Add the salt and pepper and shake the jar vigorously to combine the liquids.

Pour the dressing over the cut vegetables.

Arrange four washed lettuce leaves on each serving plate.

Serves 2-4 depending on what else is being served.

Pasta with Baked Tomatoes and Peppers

I have been cooking and reading, but not blogging. The Palm Beach County Public Library West Atlantic Branch has seen me just about daily the past few weeks. At this time of the year with so many snowbirds up north, the library shelves are overflowing with both new and old books. I can't resist! So with each visit, I return 2 books and borrow 6 more.

After seeing a fabulous photo of Deborah Madison's version of this dish in her book Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmer's Markets, I couldn't get to The Boys Market fast enough to purchase the ingredients. Visit your local public library or a bookstore and take a look at this excellent cookbook. I changed Deborah's recipe very slightly by removing most of the fat and serving it hot over pasta and rewriting the directions for that. You will see no photo here because the one in the book is just too perfect.

Pasta with Baked Peppers and Tomatoes

4 large bell peppers, red, orange and yellow
1 large tomato
2 medium yellow tomatoes
6 sprigs parsley
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
12 pitted Kalamata olives, halved
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3/4 pound whole wheat rigatoni or sedoni pasta

Cut the tops off of the peppers, slice into quarters, and removed the seeds and veins. Brush or spray a baking pan lightly with olive oil and place the peppers skin side up on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes until the skins are very wrinkled. Place the peppers into a brown paper bag for about 15 minutes to steam for easy removal of the skin which should then slip off easily. Cut the slices of peppers in half horizontally and set aside.

Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.

Brush or spray a small baking dish with olive oil to keep the vegetables from sticking and set aside.

Using only the leaves of the parsley, gently buzz them in a chopper with the garlic and remaining olive oil. In a small bowl, combine the marjoram, capers and olives. Add the parsley mixture to the olives and stir.

Combine the tomatoes, peppers, and the parsley mixture in the oiled dish using your hands or a spoon. Cover and bake for 30 minutes*.

Season with crushed red pepper and serve over the cooked pasta.

Serves 4 as a pasta course.

*The vegetables can be kept covered in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours before baking.

Local Fruit

Green Chick's comment on my Farmers' Market post got me started researching what foods are available right now in Florida. I found the Tropical Fruit Growers of South Florida's website and their fruits for the month for July and August: longan and mamey sapote. The longan is called the little brother of the lychee and I have actually enjoyed both the longan and the lychee with dear friends in Hilo, Hawaii. And I served canned lychees with kiwi in a crystallized ginger syrup as dessert (photo above) for the Indian Feast. I am not familiar with the mamey sapote, but that will be part of my research next. The Tropical Fruit Growers also feature dragon fruit which I recently saw at Whole Foods along with fresh lychees. Our friends in Hilo also took us to a farmers' market to sample the dragon fruit, which I have to admit I didn't especially care for.
The nearest CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is Green Cay Produce, Farming Systems Research in Boynton Beach. On their website, they have charts for the monthly availability of their produce. Of course, they operate only the months of October through May, so we are not able to take advantage of that source of local produce during the summer months.

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has a chart of produce availability which can be downloaded as a PDF. In July, the crops listed are avocados, cantalope, green beans, green peppers, mangoes, and watermelon. I am sure that those items will soon be appearing at Publix and The Boys Market if they are not already there.

Today's Sun-Sentinel Food Section Vegetarian Today column by Steve Petusevsky is "Some Delectable Mango Recipes," written because people are bringing him so many fresh mangoes from trees growing in yards. He says he welcomes them all and gives advice about using the bounty both now and frozen for later use. That appears to be the secret to eating local: buy it when you see it and preserve it. Be sure to see the mango chutney recipe in the Indian Feast post which includes a link for those who do not know the easy way to cut a mango into pieces.

My favorite salad is perfect for eating local this time of year in Florida. The salad consists of romaine, field greens, spinach, red onion rings, sliced avocados, sliced mangoes and passion fruit vinaigrette dressing.

The pantry - storm and otherwise

After our trip, I went to Whole Foods, The Boys and Publix to restock the food supplies. I am not a tidy housekeeper, but I have decided to show you the food I have in the kitchen when the cabinets and refrigerator are full. People often say to me that our diet must be so limiting. You can see from the overflow of food products that is not the case at all. In fact, we eat a wide variety of foods, probably more than most people on a Standard American Diet.

In the refrigerator, I keep mainly fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as several kinds of flour, soy milk and the usual door full of mustard, ketchup, etc. The freezer contains more flour, breads, bagels, and a few frozen vegetables and fruits, in addition to Boca soy products. This time of the year I try to empty the freezer as much as possible because it is hurricane season. Last year we were fortunate and had no hurricanes, but in previous years, I was really sorry to have a freezer full of food thawing and spoiling in the drawn-out electricity free aftermath of the storms.

The pantry is stocked with canned beans, broths, cereals and vinegars. This is also where Jerry keeps his salsa and home-baked tortilla chips, his main snack foods. Although he cooks almost nothing, he does make the tortilla chips on his own from corn tortillas we buy at Publix.

The pantry also contains the hurricane supplies that can feed us without electricity for storage or cooking. I buy small cans of vegetables and fruits so we will empty them at one meal since there is no keeping leftovers in Florida after a big storm. There are some wonderful recipes for that kind of meal preparation in The Storm Gourmet: A Guide to Creating Extraordinary Meals Without Electricity by Daphne Nikolopoulos. My favorite recipe from that book is the one for Salad Nicoise with canned cannelini beans replacing the tuna. I never use canned potatoes or green beans, preferring to use fresh vegetables. However, after a hurricane, this has tasted fabulous.

Salad Nicoise Hurricane Style

1 8-ounce can sliced white potatoes
1 15-ounce can cannelini beans, drained (not rinsed if water supply has been interrupted)
1 8-ounce can green beans
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained (or used as dressing)
1 2.75-ounce can sliced black olives

Toss together with a simple dressing of red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and salt and pepper. Serves 4.

Okra - Again

Having said I wasn't especially fond of okra, I had to make it again. Just back from a road trip, I was faced with a nearly empty refrigerator at dinner time. In addition, weight begins to creep back on when there is little exercise and too much food and too much fat. I won't say on whose body. So I returned to Dr. Dean Ornish's Eat More, Weigh Less to search for fat-free vegan meals I could make with the foods in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry. I made Dirty Rice without celery. It was good, but the celery enhances both the taste and the crunch so if I had it I would always include it. Eat More suggests serving Dirty Rice with okra. And there in the freezer were frozen okra slices. There usually are because I am slow to include them in meals.

I researched recipes to use for the okra. Most of the non-Indian recipes have onions, garlic, tomatoes, green peppers, celery and bacon along with spices. That's what I used without the bacon for obvious reasons and no celery or green peppers because I didn't have any. What resulted was a dish that was perfect with the rice.

Braised Okra With Tomatoes

1 small onion, minced
1 garlic clove, pressed
2 tablespoons water
1/2 pound frozen sliced okra
1 14-ounce can petite diced tomatoes, mostly drained
cayenne pepper to taste

In a non-stick saucepan, saute the onion and garlic in the water until soft. Add the okra, tomatoes and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes until the okra is hot. It is not necessary to cook the dish for any longer to have fresh tasting vegetables.

On the road

While on our recent trip to the mountains in Western North Carolina, we took food in a cooler because it is so hard to find food on the road. It is not just that it is hard, but it is very stressful for us. It isn't just that we want to have vegan foods, which we do, but we also would prefer to eat food lower in fat than most prepared foods. So we search and grow increasingly frustrated. This trip we did it right though. We had a cooler and enough food to graze on fat-free vegan foods the entire 11 plus hours drive.

Our wonderful host and hostess actually ate several vegan meals with us. Hostess P had a delicious lentil vegetable soup simmering on the stove when we arrived and kept us supplied with corn chips and salsa, nuts, fruits and excellent veggie-based meals throughout our stay. Host B had enough of the vegan food by the end of our visit however so they enjoyed meat the last night while we continued to enjoy our usual diet.

One day we went into Brevard at lunch time. We checked out Jason's, which had a couple of choices on the menu for us, and then decided on Falls Landing , which actually had the word vegetarian on the menu. I had a fabulous spicy black bean taco salad. Although his black bean burger and fries also looked good, Jerry eyed my salad with envy as he ate. Our host and hostess happily ate salads with lots of fresh greens. We next grocery shopped at Ingles, which emphasizes organic produce and has a large selection of Veggie cheeses.

We drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway and had a surprising meal at the Pisgah Inn. The elevation there is over 5000 feet so the view was spectacular. Sitting at a table at the window soaking in the view, Jerry and I both had penne pasta with an excellent marinara sauce, sliced mushrooms and spinach and a mixed greens salad. Host B had a portobello mushroom sandwich which also looked very tasty.

While in the actual city of Brevard for lunch, we visited the new Transylvania County Public Library. Our host and hostess were justifiably proud of this new facility and the contributions of so many local people that made it possible. Among the many user friendly services was a very large community handouts display. It was there that I found the bumper sticker above, part of a promotional campaign of The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. The food may not have traveled, but we did. We did our best to consume local produce and hope some day to return to do it again. If you want to know more about eating local, check out this page from the Appalachian project and read Barbara Kinsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of Food Life."

Okra Gumbo

Before my first taste of any kind of gumbo, I was definitely an adult. In fact, the first time might have been when I was in my late twenties on my first trip to New Orleans. Of course I liked the gumbo as well as the oysters Rockefeller, the bananas Foster, the fish en papillotte, the Sazerac cocktails. What an experience it was for me to have breakfast at Brennans and dinners at both Antoine's and Galatoire's.

It was then that I learned to like gumbo, but okra and I have a limited relationship. I like okra prepared at our favorite Indian restaurant, Woodlands, in Lauderhill. Once my son used a recipe from one of Emeril's cookbooks and created a fabulous gumbo with shrimp when he and I were both omnivores. And I love this okra gumbo recipe.

If you want to know absolutely everything on the subject of gumbo, read the chapter "Gumbo Zeb: history in a bowl and more" in Crescent Dragonwagon's Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread. It is interesting, but it is important to note that what she says contradicts what Emeril has to say about gumbo. Finally, if you are up to preparing an authentic gumbo, follow Dragonwagon's instructions for preparation of the soup over three days beginning with a base containing over 30 ingredients.

If you are looking for fewer hours in the kitchen and a spicy, delicious and healthy meal, prepare the following recipe and serve it with steamed brown rice and a big chopped salad. The flavor of the gumbo improves on the second day.

Okra Gumbo

1 large onion, diced
3 stalks celery with leaves, chopped
1/4 cup scallions, sliced
32 ounce can whole tomatoes, broken up
1 pound frozen sliced okra
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon Emeril's rustic rub
16 ounces vegetable broth
2 cups steamed brown rice

In a 5 quart pot, saute the onion and celery in 1/4 cup broth until the onion is transparent. Add the scallions, tomatoes and bay leaves and cook for 10 minutes. Add the okra, seasoning and remaining broth. Simmer for 30-45 minutes.

Serve in soup bowls with a scoop of rice in the center of each bowl.

Substitute for 1 tablespoon of Emeril's rustic rub:
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Optional addition: If you like soy substitutes for meat, add coarsely chopped pieces of a soy based sausage such as Tofurky Italian sausage.

Alanna Kellogg, author of the blog Veggie Venture, encourages all of us to seek out fresh produce from our hometown farmers markets. She commissioned an icon to help showcase fresh vegetables and fruits and invites fellow bloggers to adopt the icon, too. So you will see the icon here in my posts and in other places that feature fresh produce and other farmers market finds.

That is as soon as I can go to a farmers market.

Ever since reading Barbara Kinsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life, I have been wanting to get closer to the source of the food that we eat. But here in Flala land, that happens on a different schedule from the rest of you. Old habits die slowly and after five decades living in Central New York, the arrival of June meant the arrival of fresh produce. Some years we had vegetable gardens, but always we could go to the regional farmers market and to farmers' stands right on their own land. And, of course, Wegmans filled their spectacular produce department with locally grown fruits and vegetables for all of the growing months. I was spoiled and never knew it.

We do have excellent fresh produce here at Whole Foods and at The Boys' Market. We even have a CSA nearby. ( A CSA is community supported agriculture. Basically that is a farm supported by individual contracts with members of the local community to purchase produce on a pre-established basis for the duration of the growing season.) We do have farmers markets in Delray Beach and in Boca Raton that are close enough for me to shop there.

What we don't have is a growing season that puts produce in the CSA or the farmers markets now. The CSA begins supplying produce in October and the farmers' markets start up again in October. So if you live in Miami or Orlando or Syracuse and can go to the local farmers market, go there and buy the freshest, local produce in season that you can find. Even though most of the fruits and vegetables do not say organic, produce grown on smaller, local farms likely contain fewer pesticides than the ones that have been trucked a few thousand miles to get to you. And then take your treasures home and cook them with the least effort you can manage after you have washed it. Eat it raw, steam it, or quickly boil it. Leave out the butter, cream, and oil and you will be leaving out the cholesterol and fat calories. Serve a plate of them with a fresh loaf of bread and you will have a fat-free vegan meal. And then enjoy it because you are really lucky to have it.

ps If you have a vegetable that you don't know how to prepare, post a comment and I will find at least one recipe for you.

Breakfast muffins

I wanted to see what a photo of food in the oven would look like. The first shot I tried was taken through the oven window and it was nothing but white from the flash. The second shot was through the oven window without flash and it was a very foggy image of the cupcakes. The final shot, above, was taken with only the oven light. I really rushed the shot because I didn't want the oven temperature to go too low and ruin the muffins.



The proof is in the Jerry! My biggest fan and harshest critic, my husband, just had his second muffin for breakfast. Now I know the recipe is a winner. You don't have to eat them only for breakfast. They would be excellent with tea in the afternoon and for those without a sweet tooth, like me, they made a fine dessert.

I really recommend whole wheat pastry flour for baking. It is especially good in fat-free baking and is commonly available in larger grocery stores and online.

Zucchini Breakfast Muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup Florida crystals sugar or regular sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce or 3 4-ounce containers
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 cup rice milk
1 cup firmly packed grated zucchini
3/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Place foil liners in 12 standard size baking cups. (Fat-free baking is more likely to stick to the pan, so I encourage you to use these.)

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar.

Pour in the applesauce, oil and rice milk (I prefer rice milk because it imparts no noticeable flavor to the muffins). Stir until mixed, stir in zucchini, raisins and walnuts. You want to stir enough to distribute all of the ingredients fairly evenly throughout the batter, but not so much that you begin to take out the air.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a knife in the center of one comes out clean and the tops are lightly browned.

Serve warm, at room temperature, or microwaved for 10 seconds if refrigerated.


Next time I plan to try adding about 1/4 cup of Ghirardelli's Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa. But if no one asks in a comment, I won't tell you how it turned out!

Memorial Day

Since I am old enough to remember when Memorial Day was actually a day (May 31) and not a 3 day weekend, I like to be contrary and celebrate on the "real" day. So last night we had a picnic meal without the Standard American Diet and watched the movie "Glory" on television. Both were excellent.

I am back to a meal without a recipe, however. We had Boca Chickin patties on an onion bialy, mine toasted and Jerry's not. All of the rolls I have tried are just too much dough for the patties, so I was happy to find that the bialy has just the right amount of bread to make a good sandwich. Layer the sandwich with mustard, sliced sweet onion, sliced tomato, lettuce leaves and you won't miss a burger.

The green salad contains field mix, chopped broccoli stems (left-over from yesterday's pasta marinara with broccoli), halved cherry tomatoes and vinaigrette dressing.

The potato salad is composed of boiled red potatoes with the skins left on, chopped sweet onion, chopped celery, a sprinkle of red wine vinegar and fat-free mayonaise. Top it with ground black pepper and a few capers.

The cabbage salad is so simple. Shred red cabbage and toss it with a dressing made with a tablespoon of unseasoned rice vinegar and a tablespoon of seasoned rice vinegar. Something about the vinegars gives the salad an oily mouth-feel which is a good thing.

Processed foods, yes, but food that Jerry will eat and not miss eating a Standard American Diet which is my primary goal.

Broccoli Pasta Marinara

Lately I have been too busy playing to spend much time cooking. So even though I love to cook, I also love to swim, spend time at the beach, keep in touch with friends near and far. I may not have a job, but I have plenty to do. I guess that makes me a lot like you.

This is another one of those dishes that doesn't really need a recipe. I made it for the first time at my sister's house when we also didn't feel like cooking, but wanted food more healthy than take-out.

Start with a bunch of fresh broccoli, really fresh with nice tight buds. Cut it into florettes. Or, yes, you can just buy florettes. In a steamer basket over boiling water with a cover, steam the broccoli until it is just starting to be cooked. Just before you remove it, add a couple of cloves of garlic which you have sliced thinly and cook for a minute or two. Remove the basket and run cold water over the vegetables to stop the cooking. Set aside.

Cook spaghetti or rotini according to the package instructions and drain.

Heat a jar of fat-free marinara sauce; I use 365 brand from Whole Foods. Add the pasta and stir to cover with sauce. Gently stir in the broccoli. Just before serving, sprinkle each serving with crushed red pepper to taste.

Chili Mac

My research tells me that Chili Mac is a midwestern tradition, known by some people as Kansas City Macaroni. I made this dish for the first time, and only once, a year ago when I saw the recipe in Vegan Planet, by Robin Robertson. That recipe includes soy milk and vegan cheddar cheese, which I try to avoid because of the fat and chemicals in it. We both really liked it, so I tried it again replacing the milk and cheese with faux cheese using a recipe in La Dolce Vegan.

Chili Mac

While this recipe takes some planning ahead to have leftover chili on hand, it doesn’t take long to prepare. Most of the work is accomplished while the macaroni cooks, and then it is all assembled and baked.

Faux Cheese Sauce

1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons tamari

In a small saucepan, stir all ingredients together until smooth. Bring to a boil and then simmer over reduced heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and set aside. Makes more than you need for the chili.

Leftovers can be combined with jarred salsa for a quick dip to serve with homemade corn chips.

Baked Chili Mac

1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1 small onion, minced
1 cup faux cheese sauce
3 cups bean chili, canned or leftover

Cook macaroni according to package directions, except during the last 3 minutes of cooking add the minced onion. Drain and set aside when the macaroni is cooked.

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine the cooked macaroni with the cheese sauce, distributing the onion as you stir.

Spread the macaroni in a 9 X 13 baking dish. Gently spread the chili over the top of the macaroni.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until it is bubbly. Serve hot.

Asparagus Passion Salad

I have a passion for asparagus in season. This is asparagus I bought at The Boys Market here in Delray Beach. It was fresh tasting as it should be. However, the asparagus I had at my son's house last week was amazing. First of all, he lives in a rural area in New York State so spring is still cool there unlike here in Florida where it is already hot and humid. Second of all, we purchased it at The Carrot Barn, where they had just picked the asparagus in the field behind the store. It couldn't have been fresher unless we had grown it ourselves. I like fatter spears of asparagus and usually peel them, as I did for the dish above. Sometimes about halfway through peeling asparagus for a crowd, I wonder why I started it. Then when it is served, I remember why it is worth it. But the asparagus from The Carrot Barn was thick but so fresh we didn't have to peel it. I don't think we even broke the ends off of the bottom.

The other passion is in the salad dressing. A few years ago, I found a recipe in Bon Appetit and adapted it to my taste and to make it fat-free (almost). I placed the asparagus over a bed of torn fresh spinach leaves and garnished it all with slices of red onion.

Passion Fruit Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons frozen passion fruit juice concentrate
2 tablespoons minced shallot
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon whole coriander seeds, coarsely ground
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients together. Drizzle over salad.

Sunday Brunch

Every day is like a Sunday for us, but we still seem to have weekend brunches. Today we were up so early that we had our regular breakfasts and then mid-morning hunger struck us both. I wanted to take a picture of the pancakes with maple syrup dripping over the sides, but pancakes do not wait for photos. We enjoyed them hot out of the skillet. So, sorry, the best I can do is reuse the photo of the raspberries. I expect fresh berries would also work, but I always use frozen organic berries from Whole Foods.

Growing up in maple syrup country, I was very young when I developed a taste for this traditional sweet. My mother tells me that my grandfather used to have maple syrup for dessert so often that I thought the word was "dessyrup". I like the dark, grade B Canadian syrup, but I expect the best would be from a local producer in New York or New England if you are lucky enough to find one at a farmers' market.

La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer was the inspiration for this recipe. This morning the package of raspberries was nearly empty so I used an additional 1/4 cup of berries which worked beautifully.

Raspberry Walnut Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda. Add the milk and oil and stir gently into the flour until just barely mixed. Stir in the raspberries and walnuts until blended.

Using a non-stick electric fry-pan heated to 400, pour in 1/4 cup measures of batter. Cook until the center is bubbled. Flip the pancake over and cook the other side until brown.

Makes about six pancakes.

Couscous Salad

Lunch today was quick, easy and delicious. I love to use couscous because it is simplicity itself. Follow the directions on the box, but you will find that couscous is basically made by pouring boiling water over the couscous in a bowl, covering the bowl for about 10 minutes and then fluffing with a fork and serving.

While the couscous is absorbing the water, chop red onions, celery, and carrots. Stir in drained and rinsed chickpeas from a can. Cut grape tomatoes in half and add them along with a pinch of dried oregano. Add a finely sliced small clove of garlic if you love garlic. When tomatoes are in season, I also like a slice of tomato which I dice and add to the other vegetables. Stir in a little red wine vinegar and olive oil (optional). Add the completed couscous. Squeeze a little fresh lemon juice over the mixture. Garnish with a few spinach leaves and serve with pita toasts.

It takes so little time you can find the time to blog.

Choosing organic

In the 1970's I became interested in whole foods and avoiding chemicals in the foods that I ate and served. For a while I wanted to write a cookbook which I would have called The Oncologist's Wife's Chemical Free Cookbook. That didn't happen, but you can see that I have a long standing interest in the chemicals in the foods that we eat. Since becoming a vegan I have thought that it would make sense to go one step further and purchase organic foods. But... you know how much more those foods can cost and there are so many questions about whether the additional cost is actually purchasing foods with fewer chemicals.

Grub: Ideas For an Urban Organic Kitchen by Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry has been helping me make the decision. For one thing it lead to a shopper's guide to pesticides in produce. While I have seen the list before, I never paid attention to the explanation for it. The Environmental Working Group performed research that showed that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 90 percent by avoiding the twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables. Of course I am not going to stop eating peaches, apples, bell peppers, and the other nine items on the list. I am going to purchase organic versions of the so-called dirty dozen as a beginning to getting those dangerous chemicals out of my body.And it is even more important now than it was when I was first concerned about the issue.

Another book I recommend is Barbara Kingsolver's new book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: a Year of Food Life". In that book, according to co-author Seven L. Hopp, environmental studies teacher at Emory and Henry College, in 1965, US farmers used 335 million pounds of pesticides. As the pests became resistant (through natural selection, of course), the agriculture establishment increased the dosages of pesticides. In 1989, they used 806 million pounds; 1999, 985 million pounds. Twenty percent of those approved for use pesticides are listed by the EPA as carcinogenic in humans.

He also says that the bugs are holding out just fine. When pesticides were first introduced farmers used roughly 50 million pounds and lost about 7 percent of their crops and in 2000 they used nearly a billion pounds of pesticides and lost about 13 percent of their crops.

Not my idea of the way to grow foods that I want to consume.

The raspberries above are though. I purchased organic berries, brought them home, rinsed them with cool water and ate the entire package! Those berries tasted just as good as the berries that Susie Smith and I snatched from her neighbors bushes in the 1950's. We crawled on our bellies through the woods, lay on the ground out of sight under the bushes, and ate raspberries until we couldn't eat another one.

Cruise ship meals

What do vegans eat on a cruise ship? Most cruise lines have vegetarian options on the regular menus in the formal dining rooms as well as the buffets. While they sound delicious, the meals include lots of cheese, cream and eggs. Since becoming vegans, we have had some fabulous meals onboard ships. Princess was the first line that said yes, they could provide vegan meals for us. And they did for 24 days last year. I wish I had my camera at more dinners, but I like to travel light when dining. Unlike the rest of my life when traveling light is the last thing I can manage to do.

Our most recent cruise ended on May 3 in Barcelona. The Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas had sailed from Fort Lauderdale on April 21 bound for Bermuda, Gibraltar, Alicante and Barcelona, Spain. On the first night the Maitre D' seemed a bit surprised by our request for vegan as opposed to vegetarian food, but she was quick to respond in a very gracious manner. She spoke to the chef and said that he had agreed to cook for us a surprise vegan meal for dinner each night. And he got it right 100% of the time.

Breakfast was not a problem with hot oatmeal and fruit. Lunch was easy with a suitable vegetarian option like some delicious Indian curries or with pasta prepared a la minute with broccoli, chopped red pepper, garlic, tomato sauce. One day we had lunch with new friends at Johnny Rockets - a veggie burger, onion rings and French fries. Not fat free of course, but we were at sea and on vacation so we threw caution to wind and had a fun meal.

After we left the ship in Barcelona, we stayed at the Hotel Continental Barcelona on Las Ramblas. They had a 24 hour breakfast buffet with oatmeal, dry cereal, fruit, dried fruit, pastries, and beverages.

For lunch, we had an excellent vegetable paella in a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter. Dinner found us back on Las Ramblas, where we walked and walked and began to think we might have oatmeal for dinner. Then we saw Maoz Vegetarian Restaurant and had a fabulous falafel sandwich with an incredible toppings bar which included caraway cabbage, chopped tomatoes, chick peas, cooked onions, cooked sliced carrots and about a dozen other choices.

Jerry said too bad there is not one of these restaurants near us in Florida. Today as I was sorting through the mail there was a coupon for a discount at a restaurant about 5 miles from our house - Maoz! So we will enjoy a good meal and have happy memories of our Transatlantic cruise to Barcelona.

Indian/Asian Feast part two

The Indian Feast continues in my menus. Leftovers of both of these chutneys have tickled my palette with spicy flavor. I used the leftover pineapple chutney to make a quick dessert. It makes a fabulous rice pudding when you add about half this recipe to a cup of leftover Jasmine rice. I cooked the rice replacing 1/2 cup water with 1/2 a cup of lite coconut milk.

I followed the cookbook's suggestion of adding leftover mango chutney to a peanut butter sandwich. Since I also had leftover chopped peanuts, instead of using peanut butter I combined the peanuts with the chutney and spread it on toasted whole grain bread for my second breakfast today. Very tasty.

I think the remaining recipes will have to be in Indian/Asian Feast part three on another day.

Pineapple Chutney

A sweet chutney to serve with curries or as an appetizer spread on toasted flatbread.


1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks in juice
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger root
1/3 cup raisins
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Drain the pineapple and chop the pineapple chunks roughly in half.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until quite hot and add the mustard seeds. The mustard seeds will immediately begin to pop and fly all over the place so have a cover close at hand. Since there is no oil to hold the seeds in the pan, you will also need to remove the skillet from the heat. Remove the cover and stir in the pineapple. Add the raisins, sugar, vinegar. Return the skillet to the heat and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat and cook uncovered on low, stirring a couple of times, until most of the liquid has evaporated.

This can be served hot, chilled or in between. It will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers

Mango Chutney

I almost never use the microwave for actual cooking, but for this chutney it is perfect. And it takes less than 10 minutes.

1 mango
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell pepper
1/2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Peel, halve and seed the mango and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Not experienced with mangoes? Learn how to easily cut the mango into chunks.

Combine the mango with all other ingredients in a deep 1 1/2-quart microwavable casserole.

Cook, uncovered, at full power for 7-10 minutes, depending on your microwave.

Allow the chutney to cool slightly; then cover tightly and refrigerate. It will keep for about a week in the refrigerator.

Makes one cup.

From The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins

Sesame Broccoli

2 teaspoons seasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable broth or water
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 bunch broccoli (about one pound)
black sesame seeds


In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes and set aside.

Cut the broccoli into florets and using a vegetable steamer cook until crisp-tender. ( I am not recommending this particular product, although I see nothing wrong with it. If you do not steam vegetables, this widely available gadget will make it easy for you.) Toss the warm broccoli with the dressing and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Serve at room temperature.

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers

Greek Salad

I don't usually like substitutes for meat, cream, or cheese. My dislike is partly the taste (often disappointing) and partly because they often contain chemicals which I try to avoid consuming. Even so, I keep trying them out to see if I find any that are really good. I like many of the Boca products and some of the sauces I have made with nutritional yeast.

I also try to keep the recipes here as healthy as possible, full of whole foods (unprocessed) as much as possible, and full of ingredients you will easily find at the grocery store. That would make tofu a pretty good possibility.

I have to say this is an amazing substitute for Feta cheese. Is the taste and texture the same as that fabulous sheep’s milk Feta we used to buy at Wegmans? No, of course not, and don’t be silly. But after a couple of years of vegan eating, it is a very satisfying and healthy alternative.

Thank you to How It All Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer for the basic ingredients.

Faux Feta

1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 package extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients except the tofu. Place the tofu cubes in a single layer in a glass or ceramic dish and marinate the tofu in the mixture for several hours.

Use in a Greek salad in cubes or crumbled. The salad can also contain romaine and other greens, chunks of tomatoes, pitted Kalamata olives, red onions, pepperoncini, sliced cucumbers, and whatever else you like. The salad in the photo happens to contain spinach for the greens because that is what I had in the refrigerator.

For a dressing, you can use plain lemon juice or a simple vinaigrette. I often use this one.

White Balsamic Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 garlic clove, pressed
salt, pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar


Whisk together and pour over salads. Makes enough for 2 servings of salad.

Indian/Asian Feast part one

Last night a few friends joined us at home for dinner before we all went to a concert. The concert was outstanding, by the way. It was the Palm Beach Pops performing with The Mills Brothers and the Count Basie Orchestra. What an entertaining event that was!

But back to the food. Ever since we became vegans I have not been able to get enough Indian food. I love the taste that is left in my mouth after a meal of Indian food. We especially like Woodlands, a vegetarian restaurant in Lauderhill, where they serve a mid-day buffet 7 days a week. We travel the 45 minutes for a very late lunch and consider it lunch and dinner.

I have been trying to cook Indian food at home, but it seems hard to duplicate without the oil for cooking the spices. So I spent a couple of days cooking a feast without adding oil and the result tasted authentic enough for me. Everyone at the table ate at least two servings of everything, so I think my guests agreed that it was excellent food.

Initially, I was concerned that the Pineapple Rice would be too sweet for my taste, but it turned out to be only very slightly sweet with a nice bite from the red curry paste. It was a fabulous component of my Indian/Asian Feast: Thai coconut soup, sesame broccoli, roasted vegetable curry, spicy potatoes and spinach, pineapple chutney, mango chutney, flatbread (like Indian Naan), and lychees with ginger and kiwi for dessert.

I also found it complicated to be the cook, food photographer and hostess at the same time, but everyone was very tolerant as they waited to be served while I took pictures of the food. I don't usually photograph the food with flash because natural light seems to make a better photo, but this time I had no choice. I don't think the food or the guests would have done too well with my running back and forth between the patio where I shoot with natural light and the dining room.

Here are recipes for the Pineapple Rice and the Roasted Vegetable Curry. The cashews enhance the rice, but if you are being really careful about the fat you can just leave them out. I use lite version to reduce the calories of the coconut milk.

More recipes from the Feast another day.

Pineapple Rice

First, prepare all of the ingredients. Note especially that the rice is cooked before it goes into this stir-fry. This recipe is adapted to remove the fat from a recipe in Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers: Fresh Ideas For the Weeknight Table by the Moosewood Collective.


4 ounces extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup Tamari
1/4 cup water
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon peeled and grated ginger
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 scallions, minced
2 cups fresh pineapple chunks
4 cups cooked jasmine rice
1/4 cup cashews, toasted


Put the tofu cubes into a small bowl and pour the soy sauce over the cubes. Set aside.

In a non-stick wok or large non-stick skillet, sauté the garlic, ginger, and curry paste in the water for a minute. Add the peppers and the scallions, and the tofu. Stir-fry until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the pineapple and the rice and stir-fry until everything is hot.

Serve topped with cashews.

Serves 8

Roasted Vegetable Curry

Although the result of your efforts will taste complex, this is a very easy recipe to prepare. As part of the Indian/Asian feast, it was the dish with the most heat. The recipe is also adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers.

1 large sweet potato
1 onion
1/2 small head of cauliflower
spray vegetable oil

Curry Sauce ingredients:
2 teaspoons grated peeled ginger root
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 cup light coconut milk
1 cup diced tomatoes


Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with oil.

Peel the sweet potatoes and onion, cut them into 3/4-inch chunks and place them in a large bowl. Cut the cauliflower into bite-sized florets (about 3 cups) and add to the bowl. Spray with oil and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables in a single layer on the baking sheet. Place the baking sheet on the center shelf of the oven. Roast, stirring once after 10 minutes. Continue to roast the vegetables for another 10 minutes, being careful to only lightly brown the vegetables.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the ginger, curry powder, and coconut milk until smooth. Stir in the tomatoes.

After the vegetables are roasted, place them in an oven-proof serving dish. Pour the curry sauce over them and stir to coat them evenly.

They can be returned to the oven until tender, about 5 minutes or covered and refrigerated for a few hours. If you have refrigerated the assembled dish, about 15 minutes before serving, cover with aluminum foil and cook the vegetables in a 350 degree oven until heated through.

Serves 4

Sweet potato enchiladas

This quick and flavorful dish is both vegan and fat-free. Everyone who has tried it has wanted to have it again - soon. You can make it spicy or not depending on the degree of heat in the prepared salsa you choose and on whether you include the pickled jalapeno slices.

There seems to be an endless corn season here in Florida, so we eat a lot of sweet corn on the cob. It was a perfect partner for this spicy dish along with Mexican rice.

I adapted the recipe from Robin Robertson's Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas in "Vegan Planet."

Sweet Potato Enchiladas

1/4 cup water
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 large jalapeno pepper, minced (optional)
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can petite diced tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups salsa (use in 2 portions)
6 8-inch fat-free flour tortillas
1/4 cup prepared enchilada sauce
8-12 pickled jalapeno slices, chopped (optional)



In a non-stick skillet, cook the garlic and jalapeno in the water over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Stir in the sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes, and chili powder. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are cooked. Set aside.

Spread 1/2 cup of salsa in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Set aside.

Working with the tortillas one at a time, place about 3 tablespoons of the bean mixture on each tortilla, roll it up, and place seam side down in the baking dish.

Top with salsa and pour the enchilada sauce around the enchiladas where they touch the edges of the dish. Distribute any leftover bean mixture in a line down the center of all of the tortillas.

Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Just before serving top with the pickled jalapeno pieces if you are using them.

Groundnut stew

I had my doubts about this meal, but it turned out to be fabulous. It was spicy, rich and delicious. Even Jerry, who sometimes is not pleased with stews, returned for a second helping. I began with a recipe in "Vegan Planet" by Robin Robertson and made some changes. One important change was reducing the fat content. Although this is not fat-free, the only significant fat is that naturally occurring in the peanuts. The Publix near us grinds their own peanut butter every day and they add nothing to it. If you can find a source near you, you will be amazed at the difference between the fresh ground peanuts-only and the commercial peanut butter.

Groundnut Stew

1/4 cup water

1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 large garlic clove, pressed
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 1/4 cups vegetable broth (use in 2 portions)
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons fresh ground peanut butter
2 cups cooked jasmine rice
1/4 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts, chopped

In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook the onion in the water until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the green pepper and garlic, cover and cook until softened, about another 5 minutes. Stir in the ginger, cumin, cinnamon and as much cayenne as you like heat. Add the sweet potatoes and stir to coat with the spices. Stir in the tomatoes and 1 cup of stock and simmer over low heat until the potatoes are soft, about 25-30 minutes. Stir in the kidney beans and simmer for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl combine the peanut butter with the remaining 1/4 cup of broth, stirring until smooth. Stir it into the stew being careful not to excessively mush the sweet potatoes.

Place a serving of rice in each plate and spoon a serving of stew over the rice. Top with a sprinkling of the chopped peanuts. Serves 3-4.

Spring Roll Sauces

Spring rolls are enhanced by a variety of different dipping sauces. I can never decide which I like the best, so I use them all and let them blend together on my plate for even greater variety of tastes. I prefer using peanut butter that contains nothing but freshly ground roasted peanuts. Many Publix stores make this type of peanut butter and keep it near the Deli Department.

These recipes are adapted from the same article by Robin Asbell in Veggie Life, Spring 2005, as the Spring Rolls below.

Peanut Sauce

1/4 cup fresh ground peanut butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Place all ingredients in a container you can use with a hand held blender and buzz all together until smooth.

Serve at once or cover and refrigerate until serving time. Let the sauce return to room temperature before using it if you have kept it refrigerated. The sauce will keep several days in a glass jar with a tight cover in the refrigerator.

Jerry's Favorite

This is Jerry's own sauce that he created at Chinese restaurants that serve those fried noodles while you wait for your meal to arrive.

1/4 cup Plum Sauce
3 tablespoons Chinese mustard

Combine the Plum Sauce and mustard in a small bowl and serve.

Spicy Sauce

1/4 cup Tamari
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon chili paste
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, pressed

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and let stand for an hour before serving. This sauce will also keep for a few days in the refrigerator in a covered container.

Baked Beans

One of the most difficult aspects of a fat-free vegan diet has been finding healthy convenience foods. Some people may see that phrase as an oxymoron, but I keep searching for prepared foods that I can eat. Let's face it, our lives are busy and full. We are either working many hours and cramming in a few hours of leisure or we are at leisure and cramming in the work of meal preparation. Either way, needing to prepare meals every day means that even those of us who enjoy cooking prefer spending fewer hours in the kitchen.

I know that on a regular basis after a full day of play, I don't want to stop playing early enough to prepare a meal from scratch in the healthiest manner. A couple of days a week I do cook using the healthiest, freshest whole foods. Those days I am happy to spend many hours in the kitchen. I try to make enough to have leftovers, so four days a week we are eating really good food.

The other days I try to cook meals that take advantage of convenience foods and still follow these basic guidelines:

no added fats or oils
no added salt
no unnecessary sugar
nearly vegan ( I use fat-free yogurt and honey)

And that brings me to the recipe for Baked Beans. This recipe uses canned baked beans, yet manages to reduce the overwhelming sweetness of those commercially available. The sugar is all still there, of course, but it is spread over more servings.

Baked Beans

1 16-ounce can Bush's vegetarian baked beans
2 15-ounce cans navy beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 can water
2 teaspoons grainy mustard (Batampte is good if you can find it)
1 tablespoon ketchup

Empty the baked beans and the drained navy beans into a medium size saucepan. Fill one of the empty cans halfway with water and stir in the mustard and the ketchup. Stir the water mixture into the beans in the saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes or until the beans are as thick as you like them.

Makes 6 or more servings.

Spring rolls

The other night we each had 3 of these delicious soba noodle Spring rolls for dinner. The Spring rolls and an orange completely satisfied us. The recipe is vegan and very, very low fat depending on which dipping sauce you select. The most fat is in the one with the peanut butter, of course, but if you just dip and not slather, the fat content of even that one is low enough. (Dipping sauce recipes will be on the blog tomorrow.)

This is really easy to prepare, so if you are not familiar with the Spring roll skins, don't let that deter you. The package below is the brand that I easily find at several Asian markets in our area. The Spring Roll Skins are a dry product on grocery shelves along with the dried noodles where I shop. They should contain only rice flour, water, and salt.




The photo below is of a single disk. The disk is hard until soaked in water. I have found that a shallow and wide pasta bowl holds just the right amount of water to easily cover the disk for soaking. You must soak each disk separately until it has softened. If you soak it too long, it will get holes in it and fall apart. About one minute usually does it. If you are quick enough at filling the roll and wrapping it, you can have one soaking while you are filling and wrapping one. After you have filled them, don't let them touch each other as they will stick together.


My recipe is based on a recipe from Veggie Life magazine. You may have to register for Veggie Life's free recipe search service to view the recipe there. This is my adapted version.

Spring Rolls

6 ounces soba noodles, broken in half
1 cup shelled frozen edamame
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon Tamari
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1/2 cup sugar snap peas, julienned
1/4 cup pickled ginger slices, coarsely chopped
12 8-inch Spring roll skins

In a pasta pot half full of water, cook the soba noodles about 4 minutes until just tender. Drain and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. Set aside.

At the same time the soba is cooking, add the edamame to boiling water in a small saucepan and cook about 4 minutes. Drain the edamame.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar, tamari and sesame oil. Add the soba to the sauce in the bowl and toss to coat the noodles with the liquid. Set aside.

Create an assembly line to put together the Spring rolls. Line up the noodles in the bowl, the edamame in a separate bowl, the bean sprouts, the sugar snap peas, the ginger pieces and the dried Spring roll skins. You also will need a lint-free towel and the bowl full of water for soaking the disks.

One at a time, soak a disk for about a minute and remove it very carefully, letting it drain over the bowl until the water stops running. Carefully lay the disk on the towel. About a third of the way up the disk, arrange some noodles, about 8 edamame in a line, a few strips of sugar snaps, bean sprouts, and ginger slices. Leave enough room at each side for folding over about an inch and a half of the disk. Form a tight roll by bringing up and over the filling the edge of the disk nearest to you. Fold in the sides of the disk and roll it up and away from you in a tight little log. Set the completed roll on a tray or serving platter, not letting them touch each other. Cover loosely with a damp towel until serving time. Serve with one or more dipping sauces.

Beans and Greens

So many fresh tomatoes in my recipes have been making me feel guilty about all of you struggling with ice, snow and below zero windchills. This pasta with beans and greens should warm you up and give you energy to head back out into the cold. The recipe is easy to make and good for lunch if you are lucky enough to have leftovers.

Pasta with Greens and Beans

1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, pressed
1 1/2 cups water
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 small head escarole, well-washed and chopped
1 cup cooked ditalini pasta
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
ground black pepper


Note that the ditalini can be cooked as usual in a large pot of boiling water and drained and set aside while you follow the rest of the steps.

In a medium bowl using a potato masher, mash about half of the beans with the lemon juice and vinegar and set aside.

In a medium non-stick saucepan, cook the onion and garlic in 1/2 cup of water over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the escarole and 1 cup of water, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add both the mashed and whole beans and more water if the sauce is too thick. Stir in the ditalini and crushed red pepper and briefly heat through over medium-low heat, watching to avoid having the beans stick.

California Style sandwich

In the 1980’s my colleague, A. talked me into trying a goat cheese sandwich at St. Basil’s Restaurant in Syracuse, New York, back when the Armory Square area was a very new destination for dining. A. was right about the sandwich - and so many other things. The sandwich, a spread and veggies on pumpernickel bread, was a delicious one in the California style of the restaurant. I discovered why the sandwich tasted so good when one of the restaurant’s owners, Rosemary Furfaro, published a cookbook, ”Saint Basil’s: Celebration of California’s Cuisines.” The spread for 8 servings contains 1 pound of cream cheese, 1 pound of French feta goat cheese, and a quarter cup plus 2 tablespoons of heavy cream! With that much fat, I think anything might taste good.

Remembering the taste, I decided to try a lower fat substitute. Of course, you could use fat-free or dairy-free substitutes, but I try to keep chemicals in my food to a minimum. That led me to tofu and a suitably tasty spread reminiscent of St. Basil’s Goat Cheese Sandwich (with roasted sweet peppers).

The book, by the way, is still in the catalog of The Onondaga County Public Library and is listed at Amazon.com where it is no longer available.

St. Basil’s Sandwich

4 ounces firm tofu, drained and crumbled
1/4 cup fat-free yogurt
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
3 scallions, chopped
1 roasted red pepper (jarred is just fine), cut into strips
Alfalfa sprouts, washed and drained
Other toppings such as jalapeno slices, spinach leaves, lettuce
4 pumpernickel bagels or 8 slices of excellent pumpernickel bread


Mix the tofu and the yogurt together until well-blended and as smooth as you like it. Stir in the basil and the scallions.

Slice the bagels and toast lightly. (I prefer untoasted bread.) Cover one half of each sandwich with the spread and the pepper, sprouts and other toppings.

Serves 4