SWEET POTATOES

Ingredients:

• 3 enormous Sweet Potatoes (or 4 medium ones). The garnet ones, kind of a dark red-brown color. They have a bright orange flesh and taste better that the other kinds.
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• Optional 4 oranges, cut in half (if you want to bake them in orange halves... you can put the juice from the oranges in with the sweet potato mixture if you are using the oranges)
• 2 whole Eggs (just leave these out if you want them vegan)
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Walnuts or Pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup Flour
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 3/4 stick Butter (or vegan butter)

Instructions:

Wash the sweet potatoes, poke them with a knife so they don't explode, and bake them in a 375-degree oven until fork tender, about 40 minutes. 

Make sure you line your baking dish or sheet pan with foil... because they will really mess it up with sticky burned stuff.

You can just eat them this way with butter and maple syrup, or go ahead and make a casserole out of them...let them cool for a while, and then slice them open and scrape out the flesh into a large bowl.

Add 1 cup of (regular granulated) sugar, cayenne, 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir it all together. Add the orange juice if you are making orange ones.

Now, in a separate bowl, add 1 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, nuts, chopped, ½ cup flour, and ¾ stick of butter. With a fork, mash together until thoroughly combined.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a regular baking dish and sprinkle the crumb mixture all over the top. Or, if you want individual servings, you can scoop the flesh out of the orange halves, scoop the mixture into the little orange bowls, sprinkle with the toppings and place them in a baking dish.

Bake in a 400°F oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

PERFECT GREEN BEANS WITH SHALLOTS

 

Ingredients:

Half a produce bag of green beans

2 shallots

2 T Butter or vegan butter

2 T Olive or canola oil

Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

Wash and trim the end of your beans. You can leave them whole, or break them into smaller pieces. Fill your pasta pot with salted water and bring to a boil.

Peel and dice your shallots fairly small. Melt the butter in a pan and add the oil. Sauté the shallots until translucent. Turn off the heat until your beans are done.

When the salted water comes to a boil, add the beans.

Only cook the beans for about 2 minutes. They will turn bright green.

Then pull them out, drained (which is why the pasta pot comes in handy). and immediately take them over to the sink and pour very cold water over them. If you want to be very professional, fill the sink with ice water and dunk your beans in it. This will stop them from over cooking.

 

See how bright green they are? Drain them again and dump them into the pan of shallots, add salt and pepper to taste, and toss to coat. You can turn the heat back on and warm them up. Or they will hold well at this point and you can heat them up later. They are also just really good a room temp also.

CRANBERRY SAUCE

I guess I decided that if I have been making so many things from scratch, I should make my own cranberry sauce. It looks really easy on TV when they do it. Plus, everything is better than what comes in a can... so this must be too! It was really easy, and it tasted amazing. The difference is like the difference between grocery store strawberry jam and home made.

Ingredients

12 oz bag fresh cranberries

Juice from 2 oranges

Zest from one orange

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

2 oz rum

Instructions

Zest one of the oranges before you cut them in half to get the juice. Then juice the two oranges, making sure to pick out any seeds.

Put all of the ingredients into a sauce pan on medium heat. 

Don't forget the rum... I've heard that amaretto, brandy, or whiskey is good also. I would use amaretto sparingly, too much almond flavor might not be great.

As it comes to a boil, the berries will start to pop, and it will look foamy. Just keep stiring.

Eventually it will thicken and turn a deep red color... in about 15 to 20 minutes.

ROASTED VEGETABLES WITH CANNELLINI BEANS

(Recipe adapted from one I found in Whole Living Magazine. This is one of my favorite cooking magazines.)

Ingredients
1 large onion,chopped
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small rutabaga, peeled and chopped
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 yukon gold or red potatoes, chopped
2 stalks of celery, trimmed and sliced
4 oz. sliced mushrooms
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Coarse salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked and drained cannellini beans

Directions

• Heat oven to 425 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss onion, garlic, rutabaga, parsnips, carrots, sweet potato, mushrooms and celery with olive oil and 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
• Roast, tossing once, until golden brown and tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and stir in beans.
• Roast until beans are crisped, about 5 minutes more. Toss vegetables with 1 teaspoon vinegar and drizzle with oil.

The trick to this recipe is to have your oven hot enough. 425°F will probably burn the last thing that spilled over in your oven... smoke will ensue... that's because you usually cook things at 350°. It will stop once you cook more at a high heat... or you clean your oven.

Above is a version with no beans, but red beets and green onion.

Here is a version with sweet potatoes, pink beans and Brussels sprouts. Notice the caramelization on the Brussels sprouts and sweet potato... that is major yumminess right there. Don't go in and stir it too often... let it get brown. That is why the high heat is so important.

LASAGNA

OK... this has no meat, and no cheese, so it is really healthy, pretty much fat free, full of protein from the tofu, yes tofu, and pretty darn yummy for having no guilt involved. Don't get all excited like it might taste like real lasagna... but it makes a great meal, and is really cheap... like $6 compared to $36 to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of lasagna noodles (no-boil, or regular if you have more time and less money)
• 1 or 2 big jar(s) (or a can is cheaper) of spaghetti sauce
• 1 package of extra firm tofu
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 large onion
• 3 cups of cooked vegetables, more or less (greens, eggplant, squash, mushrooms, etc.)
• 1 T oregano
• 1 T salt
• 1 t pepper
• garlic... one clove crushed, or teaspoon of jarred, or some granulated

 

Saute your onion with a little vegetable oil, add in your mushrooms, squash or eggplant type veggies (not the greens) and cook until softened. Season with salt and pepper.

Saute the greens and keep them for a separate layer.

Start with a layer of sauce on the bottom of a large baking dish. Place a layer of noodles. I used the no-boil ones here because they save time, but you can also use the regular kind. I haven't tried it, but Ina Garten says that you can bring a big pot of water to a boil and throw in the regular lasagna noodles. Turn off the heat and let them sit for 20 minutes and they will work great. Regular noodles are a lot cheaper, and taste better, so I am going to try that next time.

Next is your "ricotta" layer. This is where the tofu comes in. Crush it up with a fork and add the garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. It has the same texture as ricotta, but is full of good protein and no dairy. Make sure you taste it and make sure it has enough seasoning before you spread on your layer. Unseasoned tofu is BLAH!

Put another layer of noodles, and another layer of veggies, and some sauce, and another layer of noodles, and the rest of the sauce. Bake in the oven for like 30-40 minutes... 350°F, check it... you can tell when it is done. Let it cool a bit before trying to cut it up.

MUSHROOM RISOTTO

Ingredients:

6 cups vegetable stock

3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil

1 pound sliced Crimini (Brown) Mushrooms, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice

1/2 cup dry white wine (or not, if you don't have any open)

4 tablespoons butter (Vegan butter is always fine)

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese (or not, if you are making it vegan)

Salt and pepper to taste

The way I make risotto takes 3 pots... one for the veggies, one for the stock, and one for the rice.

Directions:

• Warm the vegetable stock in a saucepan over low heat.
• Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms and onions and cook until soft (about 3 minutes). 
• Add rice and 1 tablespoon oil to the 3rd pot and coat the rice with oil. When the rice starts to turn a pale, golden yellow, add the wine, stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed.
• Add 1/2 cup of the warm stock to the rice and stir until the stock is absorbed. Add another 1/2 cup of stock and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Continue adding 1/2 cup broth to the rice and stir constantly until the stock is absorbed. Repeat this action until the rice is al dente (about 15 to 20 minutes).
• Remove the rice from the heat and stir in the mushrooms and onions, butter, and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper (to taste).

You can add any cooked vegetables at the same time that I said to add the mushrooms... asparagus, peas, peppers, sundried tomatoes, squash...

Making risotto takes a little patience, you have to stand there for 20 minutes stirring constantly adding more stock... my friend, Julie, had no patience for this... even with a glass of wine. She kept walking away when I was teaching her how to cook it... I had to keep making her come back and keep stirring.

She did finish it and was very proud. This is risotto with English peas and yellow bell peppers, topped with grilled chicken-apple sausages.