Posts filed under 'beans'
21 week belly
I’ve been cooking up a new baby for the past few months and not much else, hence the poor participation during VeganMoFo this year and other sporadic posts. By the time dinner time comes around I’m DONE for the day. We have been eating a lot of pasta dishes and rice and beans. I’ve been feeling better lately so hopefully i’ll be up to some more creative cooking soon.
One of my favorite types of meals lately is the bean, vegetable, rice or pasta and peanut sauce combo. It comes together in mere minutes and helps with my protein needs for the pregnancy.
one of said current favorite dinners
Peanut sauce is so easy to put together. My favorite ingredient to add to the sauce, if I have some on hand, is orange juice. It gives it such a bright and wonderful taste. I also make sure to add a lot of ginger powder as well. Just writing about peanut sauce is making me want to cook up a pot of rice and eat it plain with some peanut sauce on top.
Anyway…back to the cooking baby in my belly. He is due May 14th. We found out just before Christmas that we are having a BOY! Reno really wanted a sister but I was able to trick her into thinking a brother was the best thing ever. She seems to be on board now. We went shopping for some boy clothes the other day which she was excited about. She did pretty good helping pick out some onesies and such until she started picking out pink outfits and then she wanted to name him Olivia. She also wants to name him Fun Guy Fun Guy, which is the name of her horse toy that she can ride on. Just like with Reno we won’t be sharing the name with ANYBODY until the kid is on the outside. So don’t ask! 
January 5th, 2011
Roasted Chickpea Taco Salad
I’m always excited when it’s time to MoFo again. It seems to always start just when I’ve majorly slowed down with new post and it gets me back into the swing of things. I have no real themes or plans for this year’s event. My only goals are to post at least 5 days a week and post some recipes I’ve been working on for awhile now. Tonight you’ll be getting one of those recipe. Its for Crunchy Taco Chickpeas which I use for Taco Salads (or just snacking right out of the oven) and i’m obsessed with them.
I’ve been trying to eat healthier during the day. I’m still a stay at home Mom to Reno and although she is eating breakfast and lunch everyday I’m not always doing the same and she is starting to call me out on it. She’s 3 now so she takes notice if she’s eating and I’m not so I need to be a better example for her in the meals department. I decided a nice big salad for lunch would be perfect one day but I wanted to make it something special so that it wasn’t boring. I’ve been obsessed with all things taco lately, especially taco seasoning, so I decided to create my own taco salad. I’ve done it before with a raw nutmeat but I wasn’t feeling that this day so I went with chickpeas and I was instantly addicted to them as soon as they were done roasting in the oven. I threw some mesclun in a bowl with some avocado, sliced cucumbers, the taco roasted chickpeas and a quick agave lime dressing which had a touch of whole grain mustard. It was the perfect lunch and the perfect salad to get me to eat more salads during lunchtime.
Roasted Taco-flavored Chickpeas
1 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons taco seasoning (homemade or store bought)
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper and set aside. In a bowl add the chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, taco seasoning, salt and cayenne and stir well to combine all ingredients and coat the chickpeas. Spread out the chickpeas on the sheet tray and place in the heated oven. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring the chickpeas after the first 10 minutes and then again every 5 minutes or so until the chickpeas are nice and roasted and all of the liquid is gone. Enjoy as is or cool for a few minutes to add to salads, taco’s or whatever. Store any extra in sealed in a container in the fridge.
November 1st, 2010
Kidney Bean Tacos
I love tacos. I won’t make them for awhile but when I do make them I end up making them a lot. Like a lot a lot. Then all I think about is when will I get my next taco fix. I really really like them.
My favorite filling is the simplest thing in the world, which I also explained in my Taco Burrito post. Its 2 cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed, sauteed in a small bit of oil and then I dump in some taco seasoning mixed with water and cooked until it’s nice and creamy. It is obsessive. I’ll also cooked chopped seitan or a mixture of seitan and beans the same way for taco night.
Lately I’ve been enjoying my tacos in hard shells with some fresh made salsa and slices of avocado. Its perfect summer food.
I’ll be posting another taco post in a few days about Raw Tacos! Which I’m just as obsessed over.
July 27th, 2010
BBQ Pinto Bean Burgers
A few weeks ago I had one of those crazy “I must cook something new right this second!” moments. Within 30 minutes of that “moment” I was chowing down on the burger you see above. It was one of those wonderful and crazy cooking experiments that worked out really well. So not only did I eat the burger for lunch but I also ate it again for dinner and then if I remember correctly I ate it again for lunch the next day.
My favorite parts of this recipe are the raw onions and the BBQ sauce that are mixed into the burger. I always like raw onions on top of my veggie burgers but they always either fall off or you eat a huge chunk of the onion with one bite and it just doesn’t get evenly distributed between bites. I figured if I chopped them up and stuck them in the burger that would take care of those 2 problems and it did! Some of the onions got cooked while the burgers were frying in the pan but the majority of them were still raw-ish. You definitely got that raw onion flavor with every bite. For the BBQ sauce, I alway’s knew I was going to put some on top of the burger, when I had the idea to make them, but I then decided to also put some into the burger to get that extra BBQ flavor. It was nice and subtle.
A few weeks after creating this burger I also used this recipe during a vegan cooking class I was teaching with 2 of my friends for our local vegan meet up group. Everyone really liked it and I hope you all like it too!
BBQ Pinto Bean Burgers
makes 4-5 burgers depending on the size you want
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 of a red bell pepper, finely diced
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 15oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 small onion, finely diced
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
3 tablespoons of your favorite BBQ Sauce, I use Annies Smokey Maple
1 tablespoon tamari
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water (only if needed)
1 avocado, sliced
mesclun salad
burger rolls
In a medium or large saute pan, heat your olive oil over medium heat, add your chopped garlic and peppers and saute until soft. About 5 minutes.
In a medium size bowl mash the pinto beans with a potato masher or fork. Mix in the garlic-pepper mixture, onions, vital wheat gluten, BBQ sauce, tamari and salt. Ditch your mixing utensil and with clean hands kneed the burger mixture to help activate the vital wheat gluten (this is what makes the burgers hold their shape.) If the mixture seems too dry add the water 1 tablespoon at a time until your mixture is moist enough to hold it’s shape.
Form into whatever size burgers you want.
In the same pan you cooked the garlic and peppers add 1 tablespoon of oil and reheat the pan over medium heat. Cook the burgers until golden brown, approx. 3-5 minutes each side.
Place on bottom of a burger bun, spoon extra BBQ sauce, add some avocados and some mesclun salad, top the burger with the other bun and EAT!
July 13th, 2010
Tahini Lemon Rice and Beans
Its cold and rainy here today (and I think for the rest of the week) which has got me craving this recipe for Tahini Lemon Rice and Beans from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook and website. This recipe has quickly made its way into our regular rotation of quick and easy meals since we almost always have the ingredients on hand. If we don’t have all the ingredients then we still make it with simple substitutions or just leave out that ingredient. We’ve made it with and without seitan, subbed red beans for black beans, made it carrot-less and so on.
What initially drew me to this recipe was that it reminded me of something I’d put together for lunch at this one restaurant I worked for. I miss those weird combinations of ingredients that were on hand on the “line” that I would throw together at the horror of the waitstaff thinking I was going to make them eat it for family meal one day. The lunches always included brown rice, veggies, protein and a mixture of sauces. They were alway’s perfect just like this dish pictured here. So please…make this for dinner this week and enjoy it because it’s delicious.
February 23rd, 2010
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