Week 3 – New list

I am having trouble w/ 5 recipes a week and don’t want to overwhelm myself and give up so I’ve only selected 3 recipes for this week. (Besides, I still have to finish up the enchiladas and sauce from last week).

My selections for this week are:

Chickpea Noodle soup p. 139
Spaghetti Squash mexicana with Tropical Avocado Salsa Fresca p. 178
Peanut – Ginger – Sesame Cookies

Week 2 – Completed recipes

My cooking was a little behind this week.  what I did manage to cook all turned out wonderful and tasty.
The Red Lentil – Cauliflower Curry p.186 was sweet and spicey without being cloying.  I didn’t have red lentils so I used green ones, but they worked out just fine.  The recipe makes a huge batch so I’ve had some for lunches this week and still have plenty more.  I’m hoping it will freeze well, since I can’t eat it all before it spoils.

Yesterday turned out to be a cook-fest since I hadn’t had time during the week to cook anything else.  I started with BBQ Black eyed pea – collard rolls p. 175 with Backyard BBQ sauce p. 207.  These are great for appetizers or small meals.  the sauce is delicious.  I’ll be using this recipe again for sure.  I love the taste of the black eyed peas with the liquid smoke that just barely hides behind the full bodied BBQ sauce.

Here is the filling for the roll ups – Also delicious just on their own as a side dish using with the black eyed peas sitting in that delicious BBQ sauce.

I also made the filling for the Potatoe and Kale Enchiladas p. 162, but didn’t get around to making the Roasted Chile Sauce that goes with it or making the actual enchiladas.  The filling was sooooo good, we just ate it with our dinner before I even got around to filling up the corn tortillas w/ it.  I have leftover, so if time permits, I’ll go ahead and make the sauce and enchiladas this week.

Week # 2 – The List

Here are my selections for Week #2.
My uncompleted recipe from week #1 tops the list.

Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry p. 186
Potatoe and Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chile Sauce p. 162
Sour Cilantro Cream p. 209
Mexican Millet p. 118
BBQ Black Eyed Pea – Collard Rolls
Backyard BBQ Sauce

End of the 1st week – Rule #6

I still have one more recipe to complete from my 1st week list.
Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry p. 186

I hope to have time today to complete it, if not it will be Rule #3 – any unfinished recipes must be completed as the first recipes for the following week.

A lost day – a great recipe

I almost forgot about this one.  I made it on Sunday and forgot it was a recipe on my Veganonimcon list.

Shredded Parsnip and Beet Salad in Pineapple Vinaigrette p. 89
I’ve been eating this all week and forgot to load my review.   This is a great beet salad.  I like beets anyway but the pineapple gave it a great twist.

Acorn Squash, Pear and Adzuki Soup with Sauteed Shiitakes

P.136
This soup turned out great.  I made it Wednesday night, let it sit for a day and we had it with the bread for dinner on Thursday.  It was sweet with a touch of spice but not hot spicey, just tastey.  It made a large batch so I was able to freeze a few meals to take to work even after a big dinner. 

Thursday’s Child and Lesson #2

Fresh Rosemary Focaccia  p. 220
There is a big learning curve in all this cooking.  The second lesson I learned was when I was baking my bread recipe.  It looked great when it was finished.  I prefer a more rustic, chewier bread.  This one was soft when I cut into it.  I took a big bite and was disappointed.  It tasted flat, my first thought was it needs more salt.  My second thought was – wait – I didn’t put any salt into it.  The recipe didn’t add any salt in.  I went back and re-read the recipe.  Salt was an ingredient listed but the recipe never added it in.  Here’s the lesson I learned….  Make sure the recipe includes all the ingredients listed.  If not figure out where in the process that listed ingredient should go in.  The bread would have been excellent with the salt.   The oil and rosemary blended well together, the smell was wonderful.

The First Recipe and Lesson #1

Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies  p. 234
I decided to try chocolate for my first recipe since it’s my favorite ingredient.

Lesson #1 :  Don’t mess with the ingredients.

I ended up making 2 batches of the Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies.  In the first batch I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder and ‘less sugar’ Raspberry preserves.  Big mistake.  The dough was almost unmanagable it was so wet.  My cookies (on the left)  turned out toooooo dark chocolate tasting and too soft.  So I used regular Hershery’s cocoa powder for my second batch at regular Smucker’s organic preserves and the cookies tasted better.  My only problem on my second batch (on the right) was that I was distracted when the timer went off and left the cookies in the oven about 4 min. too long.  They came out toooo hard.

But at least I learned my lesson about ingredients.

Power of Quality – Rule #7

I’m reading “The Slow Down Diet” by Marc David.   Rule #2 in “The Slow Down Diet” (I will discuss Rule #1 later) stresses the importance of quality in the foods you choose – in the foods you use.  No matter what you eat – choose the highest quality you can afford (and find).  Choose organic when you can.  Choose local when you can.  Use a water filter for drinking AND cooking.

All that said, today I went to Trader Joe’s to find the ingredients for this weeks recipes.  I couldn’t find them all, but some I did and chose organic.  I did complete the rest of my ingredient shopping at my local grocery today so I am ready to start this weeks cooking tomorrow.  In the following weeks I hope to be better prepared and have my ingredients already purchased and ready to use on Sundays since that is a non-workday for me and I can spend more relaxed time in the kitchen.

Week 1

For my first week, I’ve selected favorite foods to make sure that at least my first week is a success.
Shredded Parsnip and Beet Salad in Pineapple Vinaigrette p. 89
Acorn Squash, Pear and Adzuki Soup with Sauteed Shiitakes   p. 136
Red Lentil-Cauliflower Curry p. 186
Fresh Rosemary Focaccia  p. 220
Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies  p. 234

My hand mixer came with a simple immersion blender attachment.  I hope it works ok or my soup won’t be as smooth as expected.