Sautéed Summer Veggies & Portobello Sandwich

I had the BEST portobello mushroom hoagie at  Mellow Mushroom in Hickory. I immediately dragged my husband to the grocery store and purchased a ton of gloriously huge portobellos.   As an elementary school kid, I was the oddball geeklet who ordered mushrooms and olives on my pizza. All the cool 8-year-olds thought I was gross. Yeah, laugh it up after all that cholesterol, fat, and slimy rotten meat you guys used to slather on your nasty pizzas. I'm veggie and I know it. :) 

So for this incredibly delicious adult meal, I found vegan potato buns. Add a couple thick slices of avocado, some iceberg lettuce, and raw onion. Toss the portobello cap (or slices) into a lightly oiled skillet and pan fry for a few minutes until well-browned. Sprinkle a bit of sea or pink Himalayan salt on the portobello if desired, and layer into the sandwich.

For the beautiful side dish, slice up three or four (preferably local) squashes, three zucchinis, a vidalia onion, and more portobello mushrooms. Season with the salt and a bit of oil after dumping into a skillet or wok. Pour a little water in while lightly sautéing if the veggies appear to be drying out. Sauté (or stir-fry) lightly, until everything is minimally browned, but still rather crunchy. The color and crunch denote the presence of vitamins and minerals! 

Diet A&W root beer optional. Mandatory for those of us addicted to it. ;)

Cauliflower Popcorn

I'm just a tad iPad-obsessed, and as a holistic nutrition consultant, I'm always monitoring the app store for new wellness apps. My favorite is Superfood HD, which focuses on simple snack ideas for whole foods, and incorporates an incredible amount of nutrition info for each fruit and veggie. 

My favorite little snack of the moment is cauliflower "popcorn". Grab an entire head of cauliflower. Wash it and cut it up into little florets. Toss it all into a good quality ziplock bag. Trust me... not a cheapo generic brand. I tried that once and POOF!!!!! Cauliflower on my hardwood floor and four happy dogs getting a great dose of vitamins and fiber. Anyhow, with the cauliflower, dump in about three tablespoons of nutritional yeast and grind in some fresh sea salt, along with an optional dash or two of cayenne pepper. Shake shake shake your bootie (and your ziplock bag). Taste test to make sure it doesn't need more salt. Also experiment with some fresh grated pepper. Pour into a popcorn bowl, pop in a movie, and enjoy know ing you're loading up on fiber instead of fat. As a huge popcorn lover, I had to admit that I prefer this to popcorn! Leftovers keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Fancy-Shmancy Grilled Cheese

This creation is credited to my hubbie. He taught me how to make the unbelievably scrumptious grilled cheese sandwich his dad made for him as a kid. When I'm particularly stressed by graduate school work, he makes this to warm my heart and tummy. 

We buy fresh sourdough bread, or sometimes make a loaf of sweet country bread in our breadmaker machine. But for grilled cheese, I find tangy sourdough to be the yummiest. Drop some Light Smart Balance or other non-dairy butter substitute onto an iron skillet (preferably) or frying pan. Take two pieces of bread. On one, spread a bit of vegan mayo. On the other, place some vegan cheese of your choice. You don't need tons of cheese, because the mayo adds a lot of depth to the sandwich. Place the two slices of bread in the skillet and allow them to pan fry, mayo and cheese sides up, of course. Check the bread every minute or so until you reach the brown color you're looking for (I prefer mine just lightly browned so as to retain the bread's full flavor). If desired, add a fresh slice of tomato before smushing the sandwich together! A true country version of the grilled cheese sandwich. 

Good Ole' Root Beer Float

Those who have known me for more than 24 hours may notice a can of Diet A&W root beer is one of my permanent accessories. When I wake up in the morning. When I eat lunch. When I'm in class. When I'm in the car. When I make dinner. When I eat dinner. When I'm working. When I shop. When I visit my family's house. When I go to bed. While I'm a certified holistic nutrition consultant, I have allowed myself one real edible vice. I drink about 4-5 cans of Diet A&W daily. Please don't lecture me about artificial sweeteners... not only do I know about them, I professionally studied them. I may not be blissfully ignorant, but I'm blissful with my daily liter of frothiness. 

Perhaps the simplest "recipe" on my blog: the root beer float! Plunk about three scoops of vegan vanilla ice cream into a chilled beer mug. Pour in a can of root beer, and enjoy, knowing no dairy cows had to suffer for your guilty little pleasure. 

Iron Skillet Mediterranean Veggies

We invested in an iron skillet not too long ago, after making friends with a local rather famous chef who swears by iron skillets. David researched online how to properly "season" the skillet before using it (a 2+ hour process, but well worth it). Basically, it needs to be oiled and baked for a while so that it will be a naturally non-stick piece of cookware. I refuse to cook with any other pan now except our iron skillet, with the exception of the occasional wok dish. My tofu stays in tact, my food browns evenly, and I can cook on what used to be dangerously high heat! 

For these Mediterranean-style vegetables, I found local squash and zucchini. I sliced these up, along with an eggplant, onion, and a couple giant portobello mushroom caps. Put a bit of oil in the skillet and toss in the chunks of eggplant. Eggplant apparently needs to be cooked for some time to soften it... take my word for it. I tried to lightly sauté it initially, and ended up eating rubber, not figuratively. So, sauté the eggplant by itself for a while on rather high heat, until it begins to soften and brown and turn mushy. Then, toss in some onion and the zucchini, squash, and portobello. Continue browning, turning and mixing. It will be almost done when the zucchini and squash are softer on the inside, but their "skins" are still pretty firm (Don't overcook! Retain the vitamins!)  At this point, toss in some chunks of tomato and a couple big handfuls of olives (I am in love with canned black olives, but use your own favorite). Save the tomatoes and olives until the end so as not to overcook them and keep their nice texture. They'll last fine in the skillet for 2-5 minutes. 

Dump it all into a big mixing bowl when done. Pour a little olive oil over all of it, and sprinkle fresh pink Himalayan salt, Tuscan seasoning, and some vegan parmesan. As with all of my "recipes", everything is approximate, to taste, and to your personal liking. Feel free to tweak. This dish will keep for a good three or four days in the fridge and makes for a great leftover (don't microwave... pan fry it again when re-serving to keep it crisp). 

Baked Peanut Butter Tofu

I heart peanut butter. But as Mary Tyler Moore's Rhoda would say, I may as well apply it directly to my hips. 

So, I try to make it healthy when I do use it. For this easy entree, drain, press, and slice a block of extra firm organic tofu into about half-inch thick squares. Spread your favorite peanut butter (mine is any by Peanut Butter & Co.) on the bottom of a square casserole dish. Place the tofu slices on top of the peanut butter. Then spread more peanut butter on top of the tofu, and around the sides as much as possible. Sprinkle a few peanuts on top. Bake at about 375 degrees for around 15 minutes, or until it all starts browning a bit. 

Feel free to drizzle on a bit of agave or maple syrup to after serving, if you prefer a sweeter dish, or sprinkle on some pink Himalayan sea salt for saltier. 

Thai Tofu Spinach Soup

My husband and I started a weekly date night tradition when we started dating almost six years ago. We felt it important to keep our relationship fun and fresh by continuing to "date" each other, now almost six years into our marriage. Since moving to the country, we frequently spend our date nights in Hickory, about 25 minutes from our cabin. Last week, we tried out a new Thai restaurant. I had been feeling a bit dehydrated that evening, so David recommended I start out with a light soup. We both ordered a small spinach tofu soup in a clear garlic broth and were pleasantly surprised at the simple and healthy concoction. I decided a couple nights later to make my own version, as a small bowl at the restaurant runs almost $3.00. I was able to make a giant pot (holding at least a dozen of those small bowl servings) of it for less than $5.00. I've never made this before, and this is only my second time making soup, but this soup seemed easy enough to figure out without digging up someone else's, since I knew what the restaurant's recipe tasted like.

Start with a big chili pot. Fill it about 1/3 of the way with water. The amount of water really doesn't matter. You can add more later. I'm guessing there were 10-12 cups in my chili pot, but as I've said before, I refuse to measure things. Boil the water on high heat. While the water is boiling, cut up a block of tofu into small cubes, about 1/2" squares. Dump the tofu cubes into the boiling water, and reduce heat to medium. Dice 1 - 2 sweet onions and 6 cloves of garlic. Dump those in with the tofu. Sprinkle in either regular sea salt or garlic salt, and fresh ground pepper to taste. Pour in some oil. I used Sesame oil for a bit of added Asian flavor. Not too much oil... just enough to get the water a little oily. The water will start to look shinier and shinier as you pour in more oil. Open a full bag of fresh spinach. After washing all of it, drop it in at the very end of cooking. The longer you leave it in, the softer it will become. I left it in for a couple minutes and it was relatively soggy (easier to scoop into your soup spoon). Turn off the heat and serve. Leftovers should keep for 1-2 days. Don't feel the need to slurp down all of the broth... it contains a good bit of sodium and some fatty oil. I ate my soup with the broth, and then dumped out any excess broth remaining in my bowl. This soup is LOADED with protein, fiber, and Iron. A great low-calorie health booster.