A Dinner of My Own Making

That's always scary. At least in my house. But this time it turned out okay. DH had two helpings of the beany pasta dish, and DS chowed down on it, too!


My personal fav of the day were the seasoned brussel sprouts.


DH groaned when I bought them (yes, groaned out loud in a grocery store like a little boy!) but he freely admitted that he liked them once I cooked them up. He actually preferred them steamed without any seasonings like I made them the day before, but I preferred the seasoned ones.

So, here are the "recipes" I created:

Beany Pasta Sauce:
*can of organic black beans (undrained)
*2 chopped tomatoes
*roasted garlic (I used Just Roasted Garlic from Just Tomatoes)
*oregano
*basil
*Just Hot Vegetables (from Just Tomatoes, ordered through an online coop)
*Just Crunchy Onions (from Just Tomatoes, ordered through an online coop)
*taco seasoning

I heated the pasta sauce over low heat while I cooked a package of whole wheat penne pasta in a separate pot, stirring frequently. (Using beans that had been soaked and cooked would have been more economical, healthier, and more earth-friendly, but I am still working on being prepared ahead of time...)

Then I drained the pasta and ladled sauce onto the pasta on each person's plate. We topped it with freshly grated cheddar cheese purchased from the coop (a community owned grocery I just found out about).





Brussel Sprouts:
I had lightly steamed these the day before and used some of them in a recipe (that flopped, by the way), so for today's second chance, I cut them in half and put them into a skillet along with...
*a good drizzling of extra virgin olive oil
*curry powder
*rosemary
*paprika
*garlic powder

...and stirred them around until well-coated and heated through. Then I put them into our bowls and sprinkled with some freshly ground Himalayan pink salt. Tasty!



Sometimes my creations end up really yummy and sometimes they're just okay (read: awful!), but luckily both of these dishes turned out pretty well and were well-received. :)

Yummy Apple Salad

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this blog: Raw on $10 a Day (or Less!)

I love it for so many reasons: the great menus, the beautiful photos, the free recipes complete with nutritional information, and especially the thriftiness of a days worth of raw meals for $10 (or less!).

I've tried a couple of the recipes. One that DH agreed is a keeper, is this one: Dinner Apple Salad.

We used red onions because that's what we had on hand. I love the combination of apples, walnuts, and raisins, and the dressing is nice because it adds a hint of sweetness.

I am really looking forward to having this one again!

Raw Alfredo Sauce!

Last night, I had no beans pre-soaked for dinner (read: still getting used to the pre-planning needed for cooking from scratch on a continual basis) so we decided to have a pasta dish. Harris Teeter had recently had a buy 2 get 3 free on their whole wheat pasta, so I had bought quite a bit. I pulled out some whole wheat linguine noodles and asked DH what kind of sauce he wanted. I was sure he would say Ragu. A few years ago we fell in love with Mama's Secret Garden Sauce and never looked back. I think we have one lone jar left in the cabinet since we decided to eliminate as many processed foods from our diet as possible. I was fully prepared to pull it out and heat it up. But DH said, "Aren't you going to make a sauce?" That was all the motivation I needed!

My mind immediately went to alfredo sauce. Mmm...cheesy, yummy alfredo sauce. But, since we are trying to incorporate a more veggie, vegan, and raw lifestyle we've seriously reduced/eliminated dairy. So, my best friend Swagbucks and I searched for a raw alfredo sauce, and we found a yummy one!

The recipe called for soaked cashews and since I hadn't planned ahead, mine weren't soaked. The recipe turned out fine, just a little gritty, but it really didn't affect the taste at all. We ended up with leftover noodles though, so today I tried again with soaked cashews and the sauce turned out SO CREAMY!! Seriously, I don't think you'd be able to tell real alfredo sauce apart from this one!

First you make cashew cream. Here's the link for the recipe I followed. For my second attempt at this recipe (the one that turned out the best), I used a little more than a half cup of cashews rinsed, then soaked for an hour, then rinsed again. I put those into my Blendtec along with about a cup or so of water, a squirt of agave, and a little bit of pink Himalayan salt. I blended that twice until creamy.

Then I left the cashew cream in the blender and roughly followed this recipe. I added the juice of half an organic lemon, about a tablespoon of South River Miso (today, chickpea; last night, three year barley), a clove of fresh garlic, a chunk of raw onion, about a tablespoon of olive oil, and two heaping pinches of nutritional yeast flakes. The recipe called for 2 tablespoons of nutri yeast but I easily put double that. We like it CHEESY!

Then I just blended until smooth. It was ultra thick and creamy! Last night we ate it with linguine and lightly steamed broccoli. Today we had it with linguine and lightly steamed asparagus. Both meals were delicious!

All the yumminess of alfredo sauce without the guilt! And while very filling, this alfredo sauce doesn't leave you with that super heavy feeling after eating either! Eat up!