Stir Fry Series - Eggplant over Quinoa

A friend asked me about preparing eggplant this past week and I gave her a few different ideas. I had already been wanting to make something with it because it is soooo delicious.

Eggplant, leek, tomato, snap peas, mushrooms

Tip: after cutting/slicing/cubing your eggplant, cover with salt and let sit. The salt with pull out the water from within the eggplant, and it will cook a lot nicer! Just remember to clean the salt prior to cooking or else you are going to have one disgustingly salty dish.

I sliced the mushroom caps and minced the stems.

Beautiful and organic leek. To clean properly, cut green section off (you can use this in soup recipes, fyi). Cut vertically towards the roots, but don't cut entirely! Then, it is very easy to clean and easier to cut.

Yum.

Diced tomatoes.

Wildwood sprouted tofu.

I forgot to take photos of the snap peas prep. It is oh-so-hard. ;) Just snap off ends.

Quinoa. Two parts liquid to one part quinoa.

Oil, garlic, leek, mushrooms.
Eggplant.
Tofu.
Tomatoes

YUM.
Add snap peas.

Quinoa, fluffed with fork and finished.
Stir fry, finished!
El fin. So good, horrible photo.

Oh and this just got serious. I went to the library today and checked this book out:

Apparently, this book is so golden that is sells between $60 and $130, depending on the seller. Woah, I think I will stick with the library copy.

Breakfast.

Not exactly cooking, but delicious and nutritious.

Nancy's soy yogurt, Bob's Red Mill's muesli, one banana, and one apple. Yum.

Stir Fry Series - Apple Cabbage & Leek with TVP on Coconut Basmati Rice

So, dinner tonight was part experimentation and part use-the-last-of-certain-things.

Have you ever heard of TVP? If you are a vegetarian and eat out, chances are you have had it in some sort of veggie dish (think mock chicken, mock sausage, mock whatever your heart desires). Anyway, I have been vegetarian and/or vegan for six or so years and have NEVER tried cooking with TVP.

Now, you are probably asking what is TVP?!

Let me clue you in. It is texturized vegetable protein. It is a soy flour that is a by-product when extracting soybean oil. You buy it dehydrated. It is high in protein and contains no fat! Make sure you buy organic though, because the majority of soy in the United States are genetically modified! Eek. I won't open up that can of worms right now. Anyway, if you want to check out more about TVP or just read the nutritional facts, I love Bob's Red Mill products, so go here.

Oh and one last thing about TVP. It is dirt cheap. Seriously, it is less than two dollars a pound and it's the lightest thing ever.

Anyway, on with the cooking.

Get the basmati rice started. I used two parts liquid to one part rice. And to complicate it even more, I used low fat coconut milk for half the liquid and water for the rest. I haven't ever done this before, but my dad and I were watching some cooking show on OPB and we saw the chef do this, so I thought "why not?!" =]

Oh and those foreign things in the bag = TVP (dehydrated)

Post coconut milk, pre water.

How TVP works is that you have to hydrate it before using it. This takes about 10-15 minutes depending on heat/water/size of TVP.

The golden ratio is 3:1 (three parts water to one part TVP)

While TVP is getting nice and plump, I started the stir fry.

I love leeks.

Cabbage, celery, carrots.

Leeks, apples.

chopped.

After about 12 minutes, the water was nearly gone and the TVP was squishy.

I drained the pot and let it sit for a few minutes while I...

Worked on the stir fry.

Then, I added the TVP.

And eventually added some seasonings and a little bit of teriyaki sauce. Not much! I didn't want to drown it.

Finished! It was lovely!

Smoothie - Nutty Carob and Peach

I decided to experiment a little and came up with a very tasty smoothie! The photos of the fruit were too horrible to upload, sorry.

My rough recipe would be as follows:

1/2 cup hazelnut milk

1/2 cup rice milk

1-2 tbsp almond butter

1 banana

1 cup frozen peaches

(maybe) 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp carob powder

few squirts of agave nectar

a little water (Adjust to blend)

(disclaimer: these measurements may be completely wrong. I experimented without measuring tools)

Quick Quinoa Salad

Sometimes dinner has to be crafted rather quickly. And sometimes canned is the way to go. I like my food as fresh as possible, but never fear the can when all else fails. Also, I don't eat fast food.

With that said, this is my idea of what fast food is:

Get the quinoa cooking. If you become a pro at making quinoa, the options are endless and it really is a go-to food.

Tomatoes, garbanzo beans, black beans

Mix and season.

Add quinoa.
Mix and garnish with some chives.

Fast food and still healthy. LOVE IT.

Fajitas!

I made some fajitas, with an Aaryn spin, tonight for the family.

First and foremost, get the rice cookin'!

Prep. Slice some portobello.

slice an onion, a beautiful one at that.

Slice a pepper, this one was deliciously sweet.

Prep the avocado and try to avoid contact with a curious toddler.

Quarter tomatoes.

A splash of olive oil, some minced garlic, portobello, onions, and pepper.
Season it.

I used fresh lime juice.
and some mesquite seasoning (consists of: sea salt, black pepper, chili pepper, red pepper, oregano, dehydrated onion, dehydrated garlic, dehydrated red bell pepper, demerara sugar, natural mesquite smoke flavor).

I used canned black beans and corn. Wash.
And add to rice. Yum.

Now, load up your tortilla and enjoy. I never liked Tofutti's sour cream because it contained partially hydrogenated oil, but I discovered recently that they have a new sour cream that has NO hydrogenated oils!