Menu 11/1-11/5

 Monday: Beet and bean burgers with slaw and baked sweet potato slices

Tuesday: Quesadilla from Forks over Knives fall 21, p 79 
We added garlic, onions and peppers to the rice and beans. We used adzuki beans. I am not a pea fan, but peas are really good in this dish. 

Wednesday: Falafel, vegan tzatziki, (both from Trader Joe's) with Harissa veggies, serve on Bfree pita.

We also made a variation of Roasted Potato & Green Bean with Mustard Sauce from Blue Zone with sourdough bread for a friend who is sick. They are meat eaters so we added Beyond Meat Sausage instead of chickpeas.

Thursday: Pizza 

Friday: Meatless Loaf served with the mushroom gravy and baked sweet potatoes

Hemp Hot Chocolate

 Ingredients
2 TBS hemp seeds
1.5 cups water
1 inch vanilla bean
3 dates
1 TBS cacao powder

Directions:
Place all the ingredients in a high speed blender. Blend until hot and serve. Add marshmallows if wanted.

Hempe Italian Sausage Crumbles

 Hempe Italian Sausage Crumbles

Ingredients:

1 12 oz package of hempe
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp fennel
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup coconut aminos

Directions: Cut the hempe into cubes and place in a steamer basket. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to the instant pot. Set the manual setting for 10 minutes and seal lid.
add the remaining ingredients to a bowl and crumble to hempe into the marinade. Soak for at least 1 hour. 
Bake crumbles on a lined baking sheet at 400 for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven stir and bake another 8-10 minute. 

Whole food Plant based Cream of Mushroom Soup

 

We altered the recipe from Allrecipes for this mushroom soup to make it whole food plant based and allergen free. 

Ingredients:

1 pound mushrooms, sliced
2 cups vegetable broth
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups onions, diced
1 TBS paprika
1 TBS coconut aminos
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 recipe of cream sauce, see below

Cream Sauce for soup
Blend the following
1.5 cups white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup plant based milk
3 TBS tapioca starch
2 TBS nutritional yeast
2 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS fresh dill weed
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Directions: Sauté the vegetables in 2 TBS vegetable broth for 3-5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients. Heat and serve warm with your favorite bread or dinner roll and a nice salad.

Menu 10/25-10/29

 Monday: Lentil Soup 

We used Kohlrabi bulbs and leaves instead of cauliflower and spinach.

Tuesday: Caribbean Sweet potato Stew FoK Fall 21, 61
We used what was available from the garden: fresh tomatoes, lesya peppers, and banana peppers instead of canned tomatoes, poblano and bell peppers. We had Vietnamese cilantro, parsley, and scallions. 

Wednesday: Whole food plant based Cream of Mushroom Soup 

Thursday:  Lentil Chili

Friday: Pizza with Hempe Italian Crumbles 

We used spaghetti sauce, onions, peppers, mushrooms, Italian crumbles, and fresh tomato slices

The end of the summer and beginning of our fall garden

 

harvested tomatoes from dying plants

tomatoes on the vine

We have cleared all but 3 of our raised beds. Those 3 are still producing peppers and tomatoes. We are using Baker Rare Seeds from the contest we won over the summer. 

toad

snake

We moved our triangle planters to the front yard to keep the pups from lifting their leg on our herbs. With the move several herbs needed to be replanted and hitchhiking friends have also been moved to the front yard.

We have planted cilantro, parsley, dill, garlic, red crimson onions (we started from seeds and transplanted), kohlrabi, multi-varieties of lettuce and kale. We have already started harvesting our lemons and limes. We have our pea sprout rack outside with the nice weather.

lettuce and onion

lemons

limes

pea sprouts

kale and garlic

Summer 2021	weight harvested #
Potato	8
Spaghetti Squash	34
Tomato	186
Banana pepper	33
Jalapeno	2
green beans	18.5
Yellow squash	6
Zucchini	24
Leysa Pepper	40
Cucumber:	24
Sunchoke:	0
Candy roaster squash:	12.25
Butternut squash:	30
individual items
Watermelon	8
Cantaloupe;	9
French petit Melon	10
Herb bundles
sage	3
holy basil	15
parsley	12
oregano	2
thyme	4
green onion	4
mint/lemon balm	84
stinging nettle	8
basil	30

Tart Cherry Energy Bites

We love tart cherries for all their healing properties - pain management, inflammation management, digestive cleansing...

Ingredients: (yields ~24 balls)
1 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup sunflower butter
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 TBS chia seeds
2 TBS maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Use a melon spoon to make the balls. Store in an airtight container.

Menu for 10/18-10-22

 Monday: Tomato Stew with a white bean wrap 

We used tomatoes from our garden instead of tomatillos. We used 3 cups of Adzuki beans. We also added about 1/2 cup of fermented tomatoes. We pureed the cilantro, from our garden but left the rest chunky.
We added pea sprouts to the wraps.

Tuesday: Three Bean Chili with sweet potato bruschetta 
We used black beans, adzuki beans and chickpeas in this recipe. Our tomatoes and peppers, lesya  and banana, are fresh from the garden.

Wednesday: garlic soy glazed wild mushroom spinach thai rice noodles 

We substituted coconut aminos for the soy and bok choy for the spinach. We used chickpeas instead of edamame and peanuts (allergies of peanuts and soy). We reduced the pepper flakes to 1/2 tsp and the ginger to 1 tsp, my son doesn't like spicy. 

Thursday:  Curry Lentil Stew 

Friday: Veggie Stew 

We used what we had, so carrots instead of red potatoes and butternut squash instead of corn, zucchini and eggplant. We also had an abundance of basil, so a branch of basil was thrown in for a summer taste.

Milkweed, caterpillars, and monarch butterflies

 

We were blessed to attract butterflies throughout the yard with the numerous types of flowers we planted many being edible.

We planted milkweed in our side yard close to some of our raised beds. We discovered 8 monarch

caterpillars eating the 3 milkweed plants to the stems. 

This week we found a monarch emerging. What a gift to see the full cycle!

Menu for 10/11-10/15

Monday: leftover Mac and Chili from Forks Over Knives Fall 2021 magazine p. 83
We used fresh tomatoes, added onions, garlic, peppers and omitted the peas and carrots. Instead of potatoes for the easy cheese sauce we used roasted candy roaster squash. 

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday but we made GF sourdough bread with the following substitutions: 

The starter is fed with brown rice flour and buckwheat flour. The bread is made with 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup millet flour and 1 cup tapioca starch instead of the ingredients in the recipe. These flours are more alkalizing and fit our needs better. 

Wednesday: Vegan Gumbo with rice 

We added mushrooms, no eggplant, used garden fresh tomatoes instead of canned. To make it gluten free we used tapioca starch for the roux. We made this in the instant pot. We omitted the oil and substituted with vegetable broth.

Thursday: Veggie stew with GF dumplings from Forks Over Knives fall 2021 magazine, p 60
we replaced the potatoes with sweet potatoes and made the dumplings Gluten Free by using millet flour.

Friday: Sweet Potato and Black Bean Soup  

We used guacamole to top the soup, nuts aren't always my friend, so we added the rosemary directly to the soup. We cooked this in the instant pot, manual setting for 15 minutes. We added a couple of cups of sliced kale after the pressure cooking until the kale wilted.

Fermented Okra

 A friend brought us several pounds of okra and I had 2 glass weights.

Ingredients: 

Okra
Peppercorns
Coriander seeds
Garlic cloves
Fresh dill
Kosher salt
Water
Fermenting air lock lids
glass weights
quart wide mouth mason jars

Directions:
Wash the okra and place in the quart jars. When full add 2 cloves of garlic, 3 peppercorns, a handful of fresh dill, and 3 coriander seeds. Dissolve 2 TBS of salt in 4 cups of water. Fill the jars with the brine, top with the glass weights and place air lock lids on. We place the jars in a glass dish to capture the brine that may seep out of the jars while fermenting. We leaving them on the counter for 3-7 days and refrigerate them for at least 10 days prior to eating.

ending of the summer garden

With the economy and rate of inflation we are so thankful for our garden and the bounty of it. We are still harvesting cherry/grape tomatoes and peppers (sweet banana and Leysa) The Leysa peppers were are using in our daily salads and for cooking. The bulk of the banana peppers, we are fermenting as well as the bulk of the cherry/grape tomatoes. We harvested our last Petit Gris melon this weekend with two more watermelon and two more cantaloupe in the garden. We have in storage butternut squash, spaghetti squash and candy roaster squash, as well as several squash cut and frozen.

During the summer we canned, figs (preserves and relish), salsa and spaghetti sauce and pickled peppers. We fermented green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. We froze tomatoes and green beans. My hand was broken at the peak of the summer harvest so many of our vegetables (canned and fresh) were given away due to the abundance and a multitude of  thanks to those who drove us to appointments and shopping.

October Fall Potluck 2021

 This month's theme is fall recipes. As always the food was amazing!!!!
November's theme is Thanksgiving.

Flu Soup 

Just kale was used instead of the Costco super greens. Zucchini was added from the garden as well as cannellini beans. 

GF Sourdough bread

The starter is fed with brown rice flour and buckwheat flour. The bread is made with 1 cup brown rice flour, 1 cup millet flour and 1 cup tapioca starch instead of the ingredients in the recipe. These flours are more alkalizing. 

Pumpkin muffins 

Collards

Collards - place some vegetable broth in skillet and heat, Add 1 chopped onion and cook for 10 minutes, add garlic and continue cooking.  Remove stem from collards, chop finely and put in skillet.  Roll collard leaves and cut into ribbons.  Add collards to skillet and occasionally stir.  Add raisins and allow to cook for 10 minutes.

Roasted Butternut Squash with garlic

Butternut Squash - peel and cube squash.  Place squash in bowl, add minced garlic and some olive oil.  Stir in ingredients in bowl.  Place squash on parchment paper and cook at 400 degree F for 20 minutes.

Sweet Potato Soup

GF Everything Bagel Bread 

Sauerkraut 

1 -2 TBS salt, water, 1-2 carrots, 1 head of cabbage and 1-2 tsp sugar for a 48-72 hour fermentation