Plant Strong Dinner Party

fun with a smart phone

It's been a very busy and dramatic week, the highlight of which was a telephone call with Rip Esselstyn himself! Author of the New York Times bestseller The Engine 2 Diet, and certified hottie, Rip is paving the way for more and more Americans to realize the health benefits of a vegan diet. It seems that Rip is looking to build a bank of photographs of plant strong food taken by "real" people, so if you've got any cool shots submit them here. My photographic entries peaked Rip's interest in what I was doing over here at Healthy Girl's Kitchen and I look forward to talking with him more in the future about spreading the message.

My hectic weeks are bookended by Friday nights, when it is common for us to have friends or family over for dinner. It's a spiritual thing, marking the end of the week and celebrating the beginning of a period of rest. Friday night dinner is really special--we set the table up real pretty, light candles, get to know the people in our community on a different level and, well, eat. Lots and lots of delicious food.

I start preparing for a Friday Night Dinner on Monday, at the latest--all week long, a little at a time, so there is no stressing about it. There's something very exciting about sharing a plant strong meal with guests. I know that most people that I invite to our home don't make a habit of eating this way and I enjoy the possibilities in that.

Here's what was on our menu this week:

The Attias Family Baking Company Challah
Trader Joe's unfiltered grape juice
Chaya's Carrot Soup get the recipe here
Big green salad with hearts of palm, sliced almonds, craisins, carrots and cucumbers
Clean Start Sauteed Greens with Leeks and Garlic
Clean Start Acorn Squash with Quinoa, Apricot and Sage Stuffing
Big bowl of fresh strawberries, rice pilaf and grilled chicken breast for the kids, but interestingly, only one of 5 kids ate the chicken
Dessert--graciously provided by our guests--and not plant strong!

My friend Cindy makes and sells the most beautiful and scrumptious challah. It's a real treat. You can check it out on Facebook.

Clean Start Sauteed Greens with Leeks and Garlic-pure fantasticness

Clean Start Acorn Squash with Quinoa, Apricot and Sage Stuffing--another winner from the cookbooks of Terry Walters. I fall deeper in love with her every time I cook from one of her books. All I do is eliminate the oil from the recipes in the books (not a big deal at all anymore, I just use the broth saute method instead) and every recipe is 100% plant strong/nutritarian.

On a final note, gotta love the Wall Street Journal for givin' some major love to the greens. Today's article on the cover of their weekend section, along with 8 recipes for greens, explains why chefs around the country are beginning to have a love affair with these oft overlooked veggies.

Do you entertain in a plant strong way?

Do you feel like you need to serve animal protein to non-veg'n guests when they are in your home?

Do you have a go-to plant strong entertaining menu or do you like to experiment when you have guests over?

What's your go-to veg'n cookbook for entertaining?

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Is It Just Me or is Everyone Becoming a No Added Fat Vegan?

It's probably just me, but does this vegan thing seem to be catching on? Joel Stein over at Business Week Magazine seems to think so, at least among rich, powerful men. Read all about it here. Folks like Alec Baldwin, Russell Simmons, Mike Tyson (really?) and many, many more are proclaiming themselves to be vegan.

Pretty cool, huh?

And if you are a vegan, or moving in that direction, I want to highly recommend the following cookbook, Clean Food by Terry Walters. The more I cook from it, the more I think that it will be my new bible. The recipes are not simple, but also are not overly time consuming or complicated either. The result is restaurant quality, interesting vegan food at home. I'm impressed.

This week I prepared a stuffed squash recipe that I would feel comfortable serving guests for a dinner party or even Thanksgiving. So it was a real treat for us just to have it on a Monday night! Both husband and 10 year old gave it the thumbs up.

Winter Squash Stuffed with Brown Rice and Chickpea Pilaf

serves 8

based on a recipe from Clean Food

4 softball sized winter squash (acorn, kabocha, etc), washed, sliced in half, seeds removed

2 cups brown rice

4 cups water

2 thumb sized pieces Kombu (what's Kombu?)

2/3 cup currants

2 tsp ground allspice

vegetable broth for sauteing

1 large onion, chopped

2 15 oz. cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

3/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

juice of 2 lemons

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place rice, water, kombu, currants and allspice in a rice cooker and cook. Alternatively, place same ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat.

Line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil. Lightly spray the squash halves with cooking spray. Place squash, cut side down, onto cookie sheets. Roast 25 minutes or until soft (time will vary according to size of squash).

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, pour in enough vegetable broth to barely cover the bottom of the skillet. When broth is bubbling, add onion and saute until translucent.

When rice is done cooking, remove kombu and discard. Add rice mixture and chickpeas to onion and saute for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in with parsley, pine nuts and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spoon rice mixture into cooked squash halves and serve.

Clean Food is also packed with healthy, seasonal, vegan dessert recipes. Pictured above is a Vegan Pumpkin Pie that was incredibly easy to make and even better tasting. I used a prepared graham cracker pie crust that I got at Whole Foods, but you could make your own pie crust with Ms. Walter's recipe or use any pie crust recipe that you love.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

serves 8

based on a recipe from Clean Food

1 prepared pie crust
12 ounces silken tofu, firm or extra firm
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wrap tofu in paper towels and press to remove excess water.

Place all ingredients (except pie crust) in a high powered blender or food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down sides of container as necessary. Pour into pie crust and bake for 50 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven, cool and serve.

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Healthy Convenience Food

Every once in a while an idea comes across my path that really makes a difference in my life. Well folks, the idea that I am about to share with you fits that qualification. The concept was presented to me last week at Whole Foods Market, where, as most of you know, my ten-year-old daughter and I have been participating in 28-day Engine 2 vegan food challenges. We're now well into our second challenge and still loving it and learning a lot.

At last week's meeting bowls of various foods were laid out on tables and we were given a container to concoct our own unique dinner on the spot. What was in those bowls was so simple that it could be categorized as follows:

(1) cooked whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat pasta, quinoa, barley, whole wheat cous cous, etc., etc.)

(2) canned beans (kidney, black, canelli, garbanzo, fava, etc., etc.), drained and rinsed

(3) cooked or raw vegetables (cooked broccoli, corn, string beans, spinach, chopped tomatoes, etc., etc.)

(4) seasonings (any dry spice/herb, any salt free seasoning, low-sodium soy sauce, and vinegar)

What resulted was surprisingly delicious. I started my bowl with whole wheat shell noodles, added a variety of beans, cooked broccoli, corn and string beans, and topped it all off with a dusting of sesame seeds. That's all. And it was good. Real good.

And I thought, this would be the perfect equation to prepare a never ending variety of hot lunches for my kids! Yipee! Eureka! (Those of you trying to prepare healthy lunches for kids every day know how challenging this is.)

So my first attempt at home involved the following:

one bag of frozen brown rice from Trader Joes, cooked

one bag of frozen broccoli from Trader Joes, cooked

one can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

1 Tbsp mirin (a Japanese wine vinegar)

I just mixed everything in a large bowl. It was tasty and delicious. It went in my daughter's lunch box. But then, the leftovers became . . . DINNER! 

I had made a batch of Choosing Raw's Cheesy Red Pepper Hemp Dip in the morning. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but the recipe intrigued me and I had faith that something good would come of it. Well, it was delicious served over the leftover mix of brown rice, veggie and bean. So delicious that I find that I am craving the whole business right now as I type this! Served with a side of roasted acorn squash, it was a perfect healthy vegan meal!

Roasted Acorn Squash

1 squash generally serves 2 people as a side dish

acorn squash, washed, cut in half, seeds removed

cooking oil spray, I used coconut oil

salt

maple syrup or agave syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Place acorn squash halves, cut side up, on cookie sheet. Spray lightly with cooking oil spray, sprinkle lightly with salt, and drizzle syrup lightly on top. Bake in oven for one hour. Serve immediately, but keeps nicely in the refrigerator and tastes great cold too!

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