Category Archives for Dinner
Burger and Fries
Who doesn’t love burgers and fries? Isn’t it great to be able to eat these guilt free? Just made these and they were yummy!
Ingredients:
– 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed). Optionally use red kidney beans.
– 1/3 cup rolled oats
– 1 tsp onion powder
– 1 tsp garlic powder
– 1/2 shredded carrot
– 2 tbsp ketchup
– 1 tbsp mustard
– 1/4 tsp sriracha sauce (optional: caution hot and spicy!)
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 400F. Put beans in a bowl and mash with a fork, add the oats and other ingredients and mix. Press mixture into 4 patties and put on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or Silpat baking sheet. These burgers tend to break apart so be careful. Bake for 10 minutes then carefully flip and bake for another 10. I use a spatula. Make sure they’re cooked to your liking and getting crispy as oven times can vary. I put them on Ezekiel whole grain sprouted bread with lots of toppings (pickles, tomatoes, onion, mustard, ketchup)
The fries are my crispy herb fries
If you’d like to learn more and try different burgers check out Jeff Novick’s Burger and Fries DVD.
Grilled Tofu
OMG this was so good.
Ingredients:
-1 package extra-firm tofu
–Sweet thai chili sauce
Instructions:
I pressed out the water, sliced the tofu, marinated it with some thai sweet chili sauce bought from the store in a jar (enough to coat the tofu) and a bit extra for basting, and sugar (sorry I didn’t measure), then grilled with my Cuisinart 5-in-1 indoor griddler, which is also great for pancakes and grilled vegetables. Love the grill marks!
Still need to work on a good sauce for the cellophane noodles but I enjoyed this.
Avocado Bean Dip – Plant-Based Diet
I don’t eat this too often but it is so tasty with a layer of no oil guacamole and baked no fat nacho chips.
Plant-Based Diet – Organic Blue Corn Tortillas
I order from http://www.latortilleria.ca They ship to many countries.
Huge No Fat Salads For Weight Loss
Here’s a balsamic vinegar from Amazon. Leafy greens can help prevent and reverse heart disease which is a book by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.
Low Fat Mashed Potatoes – No Milk/Butter Needed
Ingredients:
-8-10 medium potatoes, yellow-fleshed is my preference (more or less depending on how much you want – enough to fill a cutting board)
-1 tsp Onion Powder
-1 tsp Garlic Powder
Instructions:
Wash the potatoes. I don’t usually peel them. Cut the potatoes into chunks. Boil them until they break apart quite easily, with a fork then mash them with no added milk or butter (even vegan versions). Put into a bowl and add the spices. I use an electric hand mixer. Start on the slow setting then speed up as the potatoes get blended and creamy.
My favourite is yellow fleshed potatoes – so creamy without any added non-dairy milk or fake butter. But you can add some of the water from the potatoes or non-dairy milk as well. I use onion and garlic powder so I don’t have to fry anything as I make it so often. I add my no fat vegan brown gravy to these.
Suggested items mentioned in the video, other than the potatoes (from Amazon):
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Large Pot for boiling potatoes
Metal Strainer
Hand Mixer
Large Plastic Containers for leftovers
Crispy Herb Fries
This is Bonnie’s idea. She made this today so I had to make myself a batch as well!
Ingredients:
4-5 medium potatoes
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp Italian herb seasoning (oregano/basil) – use more to coat the fries as desired
1 tsp (or more) of dill weed
1 tsp Lawry’s seasoning salt (optional)
Wash 4-5 medium potatoes and cut into strips, enough to cover a long baking tray. Put fries into a bowl and mix with the spices above so everything is coated. The spices will stick to the potatoes since they are a bit wet inside and starchy. Bake at 450 degrees F on a non-stick baking mat no oil or spray for half an hour or more until browning and crispy. If you use parchment paper instead watch the max temperature allowed on the package. I do up to 40 minutes many times to get them really crispy. Cut the potatoes thinner for more crisp fries. It’s possible to get crispier fries by boiling the potatoes a bit first, but who has the time? 🙂
Eat with ketchup and/or no fat brown gravy. If you want veggie burger ideas check out Jeff Novick’s Burger and Fries DVD.
Pizza Dough
Update: I started making quick pizza dough using bread dough and no breadmaker. It’s much lighter and tastier even though it’s not as nutrient-dense as the whole wheat flour.
This is a fairly dense pizza crust because I use mostly whole wheat flour. This recipe comes from my breadmaker with some modifications. I’m not a bread expert but I’m fairly happy with the crunch of the pizza crust. You could try leaving out the salt and sugar but sugar helps activate the yeast.
Ingredients (put all these in order in the breadmaker):
1 1/2 cups of water (80-90 deg. F) – You can heat up some water in the microwave. I just use warm-hot water from my tap (I have a drilled well.)
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour. Last few times I substituted in 2 cups of bread flour to lighten it up.
2 tsp active dry yeast
Instructions:
Start the breadmaker. Mine runs for 1 hr and 20 minutes.
I take the bread of out of the breadmaker, divide in 2 and put on two circular pizza pans, sprinkled with flour. I cover with plastic wrap for about an hour. If you can leave longer that is better but I usually make at the last minute before dinner and am hungry!
Then I spread the dough out to cover each pizza pan, each one is 12″ in diameter and I make a little edge for the crust. Then I bake at 500 deg. F until it gets fairly firm, about 10 minutes. You want the crust to be firm enough so you can put toppings on it and put it back on the rack without breaking, but not fully browned. Remove from oven and put your favourite toppings on (sauce, etc) and bake for 30 minutes. These times are rough guidelines so the first time you do this, take note of what worked or if you needed more time for your oven. I use the upper rack so I don’t usually turn on the broil at the end, but you can do that if you want to make it extra crispy but be sure to watch and don’t let anything burn!
Artichoke pizza photo used with permission by www.plantplate.com
Rice and Beans with Salsa and Tortillas – Plant-Based Tasty Filling Meal
2 cups of dry brown rice (cooked as per instructions but I now cook like pasta, drain and cover for 5 minutes to steam)
2 cans of black beans (drained and rinsed). Also see my black beans sauce recipe.
1 tsp cumin
Salsa (from jar, I use President’s Choice Extra Chunky Hot Salsa)
2 corn tortillas (I order mine from http://www.latortilleria.ca they ship to many countries)
Cook up the brown rice (bring to boil and let simmer for at least an hour) and add 2 cans of black beans, then store most of it in the fridge for leftovers. You can add a cup of frozen corn as well which is quick. On a plate add the rice/beans, a side of salsa and put the cumin on the rice/bean mixture.
For the tortillas there are many options. I bake mine in the oven or in the toaster. Great for nacho chips as well!
Healthy Cooking Can Be Quick and Easy
I hear a lot from people I talk to that eating healthy is expensive and time consuming. They would like to go plant-based but they don’t have the time. Well I’m here to smash those myths!
This meal was so easy. On weekends or some evening cook up a big batch of brown rice. Then when you get home, open a can of kidney beans, rinse them in the strainer and add to a plate of rice. Throw in the microwave for a few minutes. I added cumin after heating and put a side of hot chunky salsa on the plate. I also toasted 2 yellow corn tortillas (non-gmo, no fat) in the toaster – set fairly high as these are thin and you want them to be crunchy.