White Bean Chili

White Bean Chili

(adapted from a friend's recipe)

Ingredients

4 cups dried white beans (navy, black eyed peas, great northern, etc.)

7 cups water

3 medium onions chopped

5 Tablespoons vegan broth powder

8 oz frozen corn kernels (optional)

Juice of 5-6 limes

A bunch of fresh chopped cilantro

Few dribbles of hot sauce (won’t taste, but adds flavor)

Soak the beans overnight, Drain, and add the fresh water, followed by all other ingredients. Some people prefer to add the cilantro and juice at the end. I've done it both ways and not noticed much of a difference.

Cook for 8-10 hours on low, 5-7 hours on high. Use a stick blender to blend about half of it. This will make it creamy, while leaving some whole beans for texture.

This makes about 3 quarts of soup.

Authentic Hummus: All About That Paste

This awesome parody has inspired me to share my hummus recipe here, which I'm surprised I haven't done before. I worked in an Arabic restaurant for several years, and though I never saw the recipe, this is how they made hummus.

Hummus 6 cups chickpeas (otherwise known as garbanzo beans, Nathan!) 1/4 to 1/3 cup lemon juice 2/3 to 1 cup tahini bean water (if you cooked the beans yourself, save the water. If not, use tap water) Lots of salt! I cook the beans in a crock pot with lots of salt till they are completely mushy. Save the water when you drain them. Add at least 1/4 cup of bean water, 1/4 cup lemon juice and 2/3 cup tahini to a food processor. Slowly add the beans. Puree. Authentic hummus is not supposed to be thick, so I keep adding water until it is the consistency of a dip. You can play with the amount of lemon juice and tahini. I like it less lemony and more creamy, so I use more tahini. I'd use a full cup if I could, but my husband prefers less tahini, so we compromise and I use more water. Serve room temperature with olive oil drizzled on top. Sprinkle some paprika, add an olive and you're all set! Use pita or veggies for dipping.

Vegan Broth Powder

This recipe is straight from Healthy Meals for Less, my 2nd favorite cookbook. Some of the recipes are not whole foods, but most are and can be adapted to a gluten free diet.

Vegan Broth Powder
 1 cup nutritional yeast
3 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
1 T salt
1 tsp celery seed
2 T Italian seasoning
2 T dried parsley
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. tarragon
1 tsp paprika

 The author recommends putting it in a blender or food processor for a few seconds.
 2 tsp of this plus 1/2 tsp salt equals the equivalent of 1 bouillon cube.

 She has a basic Italian seasoning as well:
1/4 cup basil
2 T. dried sage
1/4 cup dried thyme
1/4 cup dried rosemary
1/4 cup dried oregano

Senate Bean Soup

This recipe is adapted from the American Wholefoods Cuisine cookbook, by far my all-time favorite cookbook. Seriously. It's not fancy, there are no pictures, but for $16.22, you get 1300 awesome recipes, many of which are easy to adapt to be gluten free and dairy free. Here is one such adaptation.

Senate Bean Soup
1 pound dried white beans (I use navy beans, but great northern or any whit bean would work)
6 cups water or broth
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 pound potatoes
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt (or another teaspoon if not using broth)
3 tablespoons vegan broth powder (optional)
1/4 cup milk (I use coconut milk beverage)
1/4 cup chopped parsley (optional)

1. Soak the beans in water overnight. Drain in the morning. Put them back in the crockpot with the water, and turn it on high.
2. Chop all things that need to be chopped, and shred the potatoes. The recipe actually calls for mashed potatoes, so if you happen to have leftover mashed potatoes, that would work to.
3. Add all chopped things and spices to the crockpot pot. Save the parsley and milk for later.
4. Cook on low for 8-12 hours.
5. Try and fish out the bay leaf, and then use a stick blender to make this smooth and creamy.
6. Add milk and optional parsley, if your children are not afraid of floating green things. Mine are.

Crockpot Vegetarian Chili

I'm in the process of gathering up recipes to use for freezer meals. I'll create 8 vegan, gluten free, dairy free and soy free bean-based freezer meals, and share the process with you all. Many of them would be good with meat added, if that's your preference.

I'll post the recipes here that I haven't shared already.

Vegetarian Crockpot Chili

1 cup each 4 types dry beans (I use black, kidney, garbanzo, and pinto usually)

1 can tomato sauce, about 14 ounces

2 cans diced tomatoes, totaling 32 ounces

2 teaspoons chili powder

3 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon salt

1 large onion, pealed and chopped

½ head of garlic, pealed and chopped

2-3 cups of water

Whatever veggies you want (I shred zucchini and carrots into this recently. Veggies will basically disintegrate if you have picky children. A great way to use shriveled veggies).

1. Soak the 4 cups total of dry beans overnight. Drain in the morning.

2. Dump all other ingredients into the crockpot. I cook this on high because I have an older crockpot (doesn’t get as hot or cook as fast) and because I use kidney beans.

3. Cook until beans are soft (about 8 hours).

Cranberry Bean Hummus

I picked up a bag of dried cranberry roman beans at an Amish store in Pennsylvania for 40 cents. I remember buying them before at a post-Thanksgiving sale and liking them.

I couldn't remember what I made with them last time, but googling found me this. I used its vague memory to create this recipe.

Cranberry Bean Hummus
1 pound dried cranberry beans
1/2 small onion, peeled
2-3 dried bay leaf
1 large zucchini {about a 9 inch veggie}
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons tahini
2-3 small clove garlic, chopped
Juice of 1 freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sea salt

Soak the beans overnight. Drain, rinse, and put back in the crockpot. Add sufficient water, the onion and the bay leaves with a pinch of sea salt. Cook until cooked :) Mine cooked on low about 8 hours because I was at work, but I think they're done a lot faster than that.

While the beans are cooking, wash and chop the zucchini into stick-shaped pieces. Saute in olive oil until soft. I actually cooked these the night before for ease. Set aside.

Once the beans are cooked, drain again, saving some beans water. Take out the bay leaves, but leave the onion. Put beans and onion in food processor with zucchini, tahini, garlic and lemon juice. Puree. Add sea salt to taste. Add beans water if you want a thinner consistency. Mine was quite soupy, but very yummy.

This is great served warm or cold. You cannot taste the tahini (a plus for us because my husband isn't a huge fan). Even my 4 year old loved it. We dipped veggies in it.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon: Gluten, Grain & Dairy Free

I resurrected an old favorite today.

I hesitate to show you a picture. It is so much tastier than it looks.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
2 medium onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Pinch of ground cayenne, more to taste
2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 cup red lentils

1 1/2 cups cooked butternut squash, or the raw equivalent
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
Juice of 2 lemon, more to taste
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Throw everything except cilantro & lemon juice in the crockpot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to the crockpot. Soup should be somewhat chunky.

Reheat soup if necessary, then stir in lemon juice and cilantro. You can cook the soup with lemon juice & cilantro, but my kids don't like the lemon juice much.

This soup is 3 points+ per cup if you're a Weight Watcher.

Great Foods For After Long Runs

I ran 11.25 miles this morning at a 9:18 pace. That's a spritely pace for me :)

When I got home, I started eating and haven't stopped.

I thought I'd post about some great post-run foods. Being that I'm a Lifetime member of Weight Watchers, I count all the points, of course!

I started with Poor Man's Pancakes as we always have tons of overripe bananas in this house. I had scrambled eggs with veggies on the side.

Lunch was a variation on this falafel recipe with tahini dressing.

Falafel Muffins

4 cups cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas) (I soak them overnight and cook them in my slow cooker)

1 onion, chopped

2 T dried parsley

6-8 cloves minced garlic

2 egg

2 t kosher salt

1/4 t black pepper

4 t ground cumin

2 t ground coriander

1/8 t cayenne pepper

2 large slices gluten-free bread

Put it in a food processor and process! Rather than try to fry these as patties (I can't get them to hold together) or make them in the slow cooker (same issue), I scooped about 1/4 cup into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Makes 12 falafel muffins, 3 points plus each.

Tahini Dressing

6 T tahini

Juice of one lemon

2-5 cloves of garlic, to taste

A tiny sprinkle of cayenne pepper

1/2 t - 1 t salt (to taste)

Sprinkle of dried parsley

Water

Put this all in your high-powered blender. Add enough water so it's 15-16 ounces. Blend until it's, well, blended!

This makes 15-16 2 tablespoon servings, 1 points plus each.

Dessert was Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough because I had extra chickpeas!

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
2 cups warm chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/8 cup agave with 10 drops vanilla liquid stevia mixed in
1/4 cup natural peanut butter (I prefer salted)
1/4 cup dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips*

Mix the first 3 ingredients in the food processor. Transfer it to a bowl and mix in the chocolate chips*. This comes out to be about 1 3/4 cups. Each 1/4 cup serving is 5 points plus.

Yum! A full day of fulling food and one full mama.

Next week, I'm running my 2nd half marathon, the Half of Quincy. Looking forward to totally rocking it!

*Given that Passover is approaching, it is fairly easy to get regular-sized dairy & soy free chocolate chips at stores that sell Passover-safe foods, as opposed to the mini chips I usually buy from Enjoy Life/Amazon. Amazon is selling the regular sized chips at a fair price, but I found them at Roche Bros (if you're in MA) for $3/10 oz bag.

Banana Oat Scones, Gluten & Dairy-free

Bananas.

It always seems to be feast or famine around here with bananas. Mostly feast. Especially since bananas have been on sale a lot this month.

Thus, I'm always looking for ways to use up overripe bananas. I de-glutenized this recipe recently, and yum! It's a winner.



Banana Oat Scones

Ingredients:
1 cup non-dairy milk (I use rice or coconut milk)
1 tsp vinegar

2 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 tbsp coconut or olive oil
1/4 cup honey (use maple syrup or coconut sugar to make vegan)

1 1/2 cup baking mix
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp flax meal (optional)
1 egg (optional - I use it)
2 cups rolled oats (make sure they are GF!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Measure out the milk & add the vinegar to it. Let that sit.

Mashed the bananas in a large bowl. Melt the coconut oil & honey, if solid, and add to the bananas. Beat in the egg.

Mix together baking mix, flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt (flax seed meal optional). Add the mixed dry ingredients and the milk to banana mixture. Stir, then roll in most of the oats. Save about 1/4 cup to sprinkle on scones.

Rather than make round, individual scones, I split the batter in 2 and made 2 pie plate mountains of scones. Make sure the pie plates are greased. Sprinkle the remaining oats on top of the 2 mountains.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until a knife stuck in the scones comes out clean.

Have a bunch of friends over so you don't eat them all at once.

Don't forget to check out Gluten-free Wednesdays over at my friends' blog!

Homemade Chocolate Popsicles: Sugar-free, Raw & Easy!

Bear loves these popsicles (scroll down to the end). They are very good. And very expensive.

We recently bought those plastic popsicle molds, in hopes of creating something a little less expensive. I came up with a perfect solution. I generally have a plethora of ripe bananas in my house, so this recipe (a variation on "Awesome Ice Cream") just made sense!

This is not the best picture, but Bear was losing his patience as I held his popsicle out of reach :)



Chocolate Popsicles
3-3 1/2 bananas
1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened coconut milk, raw nut milk will work as well - I was out)
1 1/2 tablespoons raw cacao powder

Blend this in your blender. It should be about 16 ounces at the end. I poured this into 8 popsicle molds, and put the sticks in. Freeze overnight.

This is 1 point in the Weight Watchers system, even with cow's milk, as long as you don't use heavy cream or canned coconut milk :)

Gluten-free Vegan Maple Nut Scones

I woke up this morning (after my husband let me sleep in until after 9! Yes, that's sleeping in for me), with quite a headache, but for some reason, I was craving maple walnut scones. A quick search on the internet came up with these (a great blog, by the way!), which I of course had to modify :)

Some of the changes I made:
Coconut oil instead of palm shortening (because I have some really old palm shortening, but haven't had good experiences using it)
Buckwheat instead of rice flour (I wanted them to be more dense & hearty)
Added nuts instead of fruit
Used food processor instead of pastry cutter (because I don't have a pastry cutter!)


Gluten-free Vegan Maple Nut Scones
½ cup sorghum flour
½ cup tapioca flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup raw unrefined coconut oil
⅓ cup maple syrup
½ cup + 2 tablespoons canned coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

I do this trick to measure the coconut oil (which is still solid at room temperature this time of year): Put the 1/2 cup coconut milk in a glass measuring cup, and add chunks of oil until it gets to the 1 cup point.

Place the flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, and sea salt into a food processor. Fish the oil out of the milk, add it to the food processor, and pulse to mix. Dump this into a large bowl.

Add the syrup, milk, and vanilla to the bowl & mix with a spoon. You can add an egg or egg replacer at this point if you want fluffier scones. I didn't :) Fold in the walnuts.

Drop the blob of dough onto a cookie sheet, and press it down a bit until it's a flat circle. You can either score it into 8 scones, or cut it when it's done cooking. Bake for about 15 to 17 minutes.

We liked these. A lot. Especially my son. I tried to eat 2, but he ate a big chunk of my 2nd one. That's why there's only 3 left in the picture. Now there are only 1 1/2 left.

Gluten-free Dairy-free Taco Soup

Taco Soup
1/2 pound lean ground beef or turkey (optional)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups water
1 (16 ounce) can chopped stewed tomatoes, with juice
2/3 cup dry beans (I used pinto & small red beans)
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons taco seasoning (except when I make the recipe, I half the chili powder to make it easier on the toddler's tastebuds)
1 avocado - peeled, pitted and diced

1. Soak the beans in water overnight. Drain, rinse and put in crockpot on low with everything but the ground beef.
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook ground beef until meat is evenly brown; drain excess fat. Throw in the crockpot with everything else and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
3. Ladle hot soup into serving bowls and stir in the avocado. Top with cheese like Daiya if you're so inclined.

I doubled this recipe. It fit nicely in my crockpot, and it was very good.

Daiya Gluten-free Dairy-free Soy-free Cheese!

In December, my goal was to keep my grocery spending down so that I would have enough money at the end of the month to pick myself up some Daiya cheese. I was successful and splurged on some of this cheese for my son.

From their website:

Daiya is a revolutionary new dairy-free vegan cheese that tastes, shreds, melts and stretches like dairy based cheese. Daiya is not made with casein, the protein found in dairy products or soy, common to many other non-dairy cheese alternatives. In fact, Daiya does not contain any common allergens, animal products or cholesterol. Daiya is made with nutritious planted-based ingredients and is:

Dairy free
Free of all animal products (Vegan)
Free of common allergens including: Soy, Casein, Lactose, Gluten, Egg, Wheat, Barley, Corn, Whey, Rice, and Nuts

I couldn't find it in any stores, so I had to purchase it on-line. I chose The Vegan Store because it was the closet place to my house and I wouldn't have to pay for expedited shipping.



I made pizza on New Year's Eve for my son. I made herbed cheesy biscuits yesterday, and we've topped our pasta with it. It is good and it even melts! That's often a complaint about vegan cheeses - that they don't melt well. I'll be posting recipes in the near future.

I mentioned on my Twitter (do you follow me?) I recently discovered they sell this cheese at Peace O' Pie, a local vegan pizza place!! It's not super-close to me, but I plan on going over there at some point to sample their GF pizza on Thursdays. First, I need to find out if their crust is also soy-free so my son can partake.

Kale Doritos!

I followed this recipe this weekend (albeit loosely - what is it with me and recipes?), and made the healthy equivalent of Kale Doritos :) I didn't have green onions, I used less chili powder and cayenne (to make them a wee bit more kid-friendly) and I only used one bunch of kale, so they were a little salty, but oh so good.

A local grocery store has kale and collards on sale, so I plan on making a lot more!

Soy-free Earth Balance Margarine!

I'm loving Earth Balance's new soy-free margarine! It took me a while to actually find a store that carries it, but it was worth the effort. I still using coconut oil as a butter substitute, but it's nice to be able to spread something on my bread. I even used the margarine to make the pizza dough for my Rancho pizza, as well as pigs in a blanket this week. Recipe to follow!

Lemon Mint Salad Dressing

Yesterday, we had a pick-up for our buying club. I got some amazing fresh produce, including some beautiful yellow bell peppers (which are #3 on the Dirty Dozen list) and fresh mint! I figured a big salad was in order and so I whipped up a batch of this raw salad dressing in my Blendtec.

Lemon Mint Dressing
1/4-1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 packed cup fresh mint (about 1 ounce)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
a few dashes of pepper

Blend in a blender till blending (that was fun to say), and put it on a fresh salad.

Wow, is this good! It brings me back to my days of working at Aladdin's Natural Eatery; I really miss their food! They had a very similar salad dressing, except it used dried mint. Yum!

Easy Bean Dip

I made some super-easy, hummus-like bean dip yesterday that I wanted to share with you all.

Bean Dip
1 cup dry pinto beans
1 cup dry garbanzo beans
Juice of 2 1/2 lemons
3 cloves garlic
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
about 1/4 to 1/2 cup bean cooking water
A bunch of olive oil

Put the dry beans in the crockpot. Add lots of water, and soak overnight.

Drain, add fresh water, and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 7-8. Drain cooked beans, saving water, and put beans in food processor. Add lemon juice, garlic, and bean water, olive oil and salt in small amounts, blending. Taste, and add more bean water, olive oil and salt as needed. It's great served warm or cold with rice cakes, bread or veggies.

New Recipes: Sweet & Spicy Lentil Chili & Mostly Raw Chocolate Pudding

I made 2 new recipes tooday that I'd like to share with you.

The 1st is Sweet & Spicy Lentil Chili from the cookbook, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. This is 95% the same as what's in the cookbook, but of course I can't make a recipe as it's written :) Part of that is I didn't have all the correct ingredients!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups brown lentils
1 can 28 oz crushed tomatoes
1/3 cup blackstrap molasses, unsulfured
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup apple juice

You can either just put it all in the crockpot as is, or saute the onion, pepper & garlic in olive oil first. This time, I did actually go the saute route, something I rarely do.

This was awesome!

Then, I tried my hand at Green Smoothie Girl's Raw Chocolate Pudding. It's in chapter 11 of her e-book, linked above. Again, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. Here's what I did:

1 cup water
1/2 cup kale
2 cups baby Thai coconut meat (she has YouTube demos about these coconuts)
1 cup raw cashews
6 tablespoons raw chocolate
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup raw honey (or 1/4 cup raw agave for vegans)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 xanthan gum (or guar guam, soy lecithin, or some other emulsifier)

She recommends pureeing the kale & water first, but I didn't find that to be necessary. Blend this until smooth. We ate it at room temperature, but I think it'd be better chilled.

Check back in the next few days for more on young Thai coconuts, as well as my other East Bay food adventures :)

Growing Your Own Sprouts

My latest project is growing my own sprouts. It's actually quite easy, and I'm excited with how they've been coming out.

I started with just mung beans. Here's how to do it:

Put 1/3 cup of dry mung beans in a ceramic bowl or a mason jar with at least 1 1/3 cups purified water, covered (I used a clean dishtowel, most people use cheesecloth), and leave it overnight in a dark place. Drain the water & rinse the sprouts and re-cover them. Rinse them every 8-12 hours (I usually just did 12, sometimes 24 - oops!) until they grow to a length you like. It generally takes about 5 days for me to declare my sprouts "done".

Some people grow their sprouts in a colander to ensure that there isn't excessive moisture.

I now grow a combination of mung & adzuki beans; that's what you see here (I should stop taking pictures with my phone - it's a little blurry!):


I know you can also use lentils and various seeds. I stick with beans because of their fiber & protein content, though I may try buckwheat next.

There are lots of complicated explanations on growing sprouts on-line. My head spins when I read them. This simple method has worked for me.

Gluten-Free Vegan Pumpkin Chai Bread with Cranberries

I made this yesterday: really good! I adapted this recipe at Gluten-free Goddess's blog.

Pumpkin Chai Bread with Cranberries

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil the bottom of a standard bread loaf pan or 8x10 baking pan and dust with gluten-free flour.

Combine in a large bowl:
1 rounded cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup light olive oil
1 cup organic light brown sugar or 1/2 cup raw agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 2 eggs made with warm water (I used eggs)
1/3 to 1/2 cup orange juice (start with less, add more as needed, you can also use apple juice or cider)

Whisk together in a separate bowl:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (I used a combo of buckwheat/sorghum/tapioca starch)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice or cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I left this out because I can't find mine)

Add the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture and stir until smooth. If the batter looks too thin and wet, add more gluten-free flour, a tablespoon at a time, to thicken the batter.

Add-In Options:
3/4 cup chopped fresh cranberries (added these)

She also says you can add one or more of the following: I didn't use any of these in order to make it Bear-friendly, though I may try chocolate chips next time.
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1/2 cup golden or dark raisins
1/2 cup vegan gluten-free soy-free chocolate chips

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf or baking pan (I used a 8X8 flatter baking pan) and bake in the center of a preheated oven for 40 minutes to an hour, until the loaf is firm, a bit crusty, and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.

Cool the loaf on a wire rack.


I had to add extra flour (1/4 cup brown rice flour), but it still could have used a little more flour.