Last Licks . . . Mama Pea's Mmmm Sauce and Roasted Sweet Potato Rings

The day is dangerously close when life as I know it will come to an end. Tomorrow my contractor is setting up a makeshift kitchen in my living room where I will be attempting to "cook" for the next 12 weeks (I'm NOT complaining!). If I make it through I will be blessed with the kitchen of my dreams (big smile and nervous laughter). It's either the best decision I have ever made or the stupidest financial risk. Time will tell. And I don't want to live a life that ends in regret.

You'd think that I would be spending my last few days with a full kitchen preparing elaborate vegan soups and casseroles that I could freeze and that would help get us through the duration. But if you guessed I was doing that, you'd be way wrong. It's more like I'm paralyzed with fear. I'm avoiding life like the plague--hardly blogging, e-mails piling up, watching far too much reality TV. Hey, even I get (mildly!) depressed.

I first saw today's recipe this morning when I was going through a few days worth of old e-mails. That's generally how I decide what's for dinner--some interesting recipe magically lands in my in box and today this was it. I noticed that Mama Peas' Mmmm Sauce called for 1/4 cup of canola oil so I asked Mama Pea what I should do if I didn't want to use any oil. Nice girl that she is, she almost immediately suggested avocado. I happened to have one that I needed to use up, so I substituted 1/2 of an avocado for the oil.

I whipped up the batch of Mmmm Sauce when I got home from work and tossed it into a big salad . . . it was just okay. Then I dipped a roasted sweet potato ring (my new go to side dish for weeknights) and it was magic! The sauce actually reminded me of one of my all time favorite recipes. It was Gena at Choosing Raw's Raw Curried Cashew Spread that made me sure I could go vegan and never look back.

If you haven't made Roasted Sweet Potato rings, here's how to do it: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Carefully cut sweet potatoes into 1/4" slices and lay on baking sheet in a single layer. Place tray in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and flip rings. Place trays back in oven, but rotate oven placement of trays top to bottom. Bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving as is or with your favorite dipping sauce.

For another extraordinary use of Roasted Sweet Potato Rings, don't forget to give Chef A.j.'s Sweet Potato Nachos a try. Yum!

What risks have you taken lately? Is there anything that you want to do but are on the fence about?

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Unprocessed: Chef Aj's Disappearing Lasagna Recipe



In the past few weeks, Chef Aj and I have struck up a nice little friendship on Facebook. I have been reading her new cookbook Unprocessed and been really blown away by her personal story, which is the first 52 pages of the book. I couldn't put it down.

When she asked me if I would like to blog about and publish some of the recipes from the new cookbook, I was like, absolutely! To be honest, I was going to make a bunch of her recipes and then write a review of the book anyway, so getting her permission to publish the recipes along with the review is amazing.

Me: "I would love to start with your favs. I did hear that your lasagna is out of this world!"

Chef Aj: "I think the lasagna (especially the bean/kale variation) is the best recipe in the book. I also recommend the Sweet Potato Nachos and the Spicy Peanut Noodles!"

So yesterday morning I set out to make this famous Disappearing Lasagna. I do want to warn you, this is not a recipe to start when you are in a time crunch. I recommend a lazy Sunday morning for this one! The smells that will permeate your kitchen are delightful.

So without further adieu, here is the first recipe from Unprocessed.

Chef A.j.'s Disappearing Lasagna

Printable Recipe

2 boxes of no boil rice lasagna noodles (I used 1 box of whole wheat from Whole Foods and followed the directions on the box, boiling them for 4 minutes and then rinsing each noodle well in cold water)
6 cups oil-free marinara sauce

Filling No. 1:
1 box extra firm tofu, drained and wrapped in paper towel to remove excess moisture OR 2 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 oz. fresh basil leaves (I used 2 Tbsp dried)
1 cup pine nuts, raw cashews or hemp seeds
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup low-sodium miso (I used regular miso)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 pounds frozen chopped spinach or 1 pound frozen chopped kale

Filling No. 2:
2 pounds sliced mushrooms
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup tamari
1 large red onion

4 oz can sliced olives, rinsed and drained (optional)

Faux Parmesan:
In a food processor, grind 1 cup raw cashews or almonds, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast and 1 Tbsp of salt-free seasoning, until a powdery mixture is achieved. If you like it more chunky, process less.

Make the filling in a food processor fitted with the "S" blade, by adding tofu, basil, garlic, lemon juice, miso, nutritional yeast, nuts and red pepper flakes. Puree until smooth. Add drained spinach or kale and process again.

In a large non-stick saute pan, saute chopped onion in 2 Tbsp water or broth until translucent, about 8 minutes, adding more water if necessary. Add garlic, mushrooms and tamari and saute until browned. Taste mixture, adding more garlic/tamari according to your taste. Cook until mushrooms appear to be glazed and there is no more liquid left in pan.

Pour 3 cups of the sauce in a 9"x13" lasagna pan. Place one layer of noodles on top. Cover noodles with half of tofu/spinach mix, then with half of mushroom mix. Place another layer of noodles on top and add remaining halves of tofu and mush. Place one more layer of noodles on top and smother evenly with remaining sauce. Sprinkle olives on top of sauce and sprinkle with faux parmesan. (I put black olives on top of half of the casserole for my husband and put thinly sliced red peppers on my half).

Bake uncovered 375 degrees for one hour. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

I decided to add a layer of extremely thinly sliced zucchini, 'cause I had one in the fridge that I needed to use up. It was a great addition! Next time, I'd make sure to have two zucchini around so that I could add it as two layers. The more veg, the better. 

When we ate it for lunch my husband exclaimed, "This is the best lasagna ever!" I told him to get on Facebook and send Chef Aj a message 'cause he owes it to her!' I will definitely be making this again, most likely for special occasions when I want to feed a crowd. It really is that delicious!

Check out Chef A.j.'s book and the reviews over on Amazon . . .



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What To Do When You've Gone on a Food Bender and a New Recipe

I received a question from a reader a few days ago and I thought that it was such a great topic to share with you. "hey there food guru. i am looking for some motivation/inspiration/support/someone to yell at me. the past 2 weeks or so have been less than ideal moving quickly towards, and now arriving at, very very bad. having a hard time staying on track at the moment. any words you can share? maybe a song and dance number??? thanks so much."

Here's what I have learned:

1. Let it go. Becoming a healthy eater/achieving a healthy weight is not a perfect race to the finish line. In fact, there is no finish line. You may get to a healthy weight, but maintaining it takes more work than getting there did. Beating yourself up about not eating perfectly is perfectionism coming out and that is not going to work over the long haul. Slip ups happen, how you handle them is what counts.

2. Do not use a slip up, no matter how big or small it was, to convince yourself that you should just give up on this whole eating healthy thing. That mentality is quite common amongst food addicts, myself included. But I don't think like that anymore and you don't have to either. Again, the past is the past and you can't change it. And oftentimes what we think was such a horrific food bender really wasn't that bad. We make it worse by beating ourselves up about it. What are you going to do right now? That is what matters.

3. Speaking of the past being the past, you should not skip the next meal in order to try to make up for a past slip up. That is setting yourself up for more disaster. Make a commitment that the next meal will be a healthy one. If you try to skip a meal, chances are extremely high that when you finally do eat, you will be like a crazed lunatic and all of the calories that you skipped will be more than made up for when you do eat again.

4. What about the future? Make a commitment to have one good day. That's it right now. Just one. I suggest having a solid plan for this one good day, i.e. write down exactly what you are going to eat for the whole day and make the commitment to not waiver from this plan. If other food magically shows up, just say to yourself, that is not on my plan so it's out. No mental debate about it. Not on your plan. One good day can change your whole attitude and set you on a better course.

5. Speaking of plans, all of the great intentions in the world are meaningless without a plan, so make sure you have one that is comfortable for you. For me, this started out with Weight Watchers, progressed to a combination of Weight Watchers and Eat to Live, and short dabble with Raw Food and now a comfortable, mostly vegan, mostly no-added-fat diet. What is your plan?

6. Clean house. Get rid of all of your trigger foods. I'm not joking. Get a big black garbage bag and fill it up with anything that might give you a problem and throw it in the trash. Let go of any guilt about this. It's either trash in your body or trash in a landfill, so where would you rather put the trash? It's amazing how much easier and simpler it is to stay on your plan if you are not surrounded by your trigger foods. When these foods make their way back into your home, as they inevitably do, get rid of them as soon as you can. Never have them hanging around. You know what happens when they are there!

7. Breathe. It's amazing what a few deep breaths can do for your well being. Breathe deeply, slowly, in and out through your nose for 30 seconds. If you can remember to do this under times of stress or aggravation, you will be far less likely to turn to food in these situations.

So there it us, my advice for slip-ups. I hope it helps! And if anyone out there has thoughts to add to this list, please leave a comment following this post.

Here's a new recipe that I tried last night. I thought it was incredible. My husband wanted more heat, so that part optional depending on your taste buds.

Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Corn Enchilada Casserole
Based on a recipe from Clean Food by Terry Walters
serves 8

Cashew Cheese
1/2 cup cashews
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp canola oil

Casserole
3 large sweet potatoes (more is better than less), washed and poked with a fork
juice of 2 limes
1 15 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch of scallions-sliced thin and separated white bottom part from green top part
1 large tomato, diced
1 cup corn kernels, defrosted if frozen
2 tsp sea salt
14 soft corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups prepared salsa
optional: 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place sweet potatoes on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet and bake for one hour or until soft. Remove from oven and carefully slice in half to let heat escape. Let stand until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, as sweet potatoes are in the oven, prepare cashew cheese. In a food processor (a mini one works fine for this), grind cashews to a fine meal. Add nutritional yeast and process briefly to combine. Add oil and process until you have a moist meal. Do not over process or meal will become dough like. Set aside.

In a large bowl, place the black beans, white part of scallions (sliced), diced tomato, and corn.

Peel sweet potatoes and mash with lime juice and salt. Combine sweet potato mixture and bean mixture. Optional: if you like heat, now is the time to add a dash of Cayenne pepper to this mix.

Turn your oven up to broil.

To assemble, spray a 9"x13" casserole dish with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the dish with 3 whole tortillas and 3 tortilla halves. Place 1/2 of the sweet potato mixture onto the tortillas and gently spread to cover. Repeat tortillas, sweet potato mixture, and tortillas. Spoon salsa over the top and spread with the back of a spoon. Place in oven a broil for 3 minutes.

Remove from oven and place cashew cheese in clumps evenly on top. Broil for 2 more minutes, watching closely to keep from burning.  Remove from oven and top with the green part of the scallions (as much as you want--you need not use the whole bunch) and, optionally, chopped fresh parsley. 

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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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