Pumpkin Cookies

Delicious

We all know I'm not a great baker but last week we had a big snow storm and I needed a project and wanted to have cookies for my sister-in-law and husband for the holidays!

ingredients:
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg
1/4 tsp all spice or ginger
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flower (or 2 cups all purpose whatever)

icing:
3 tbs canned pumpkin
icing sugar

Beat sugar, pumpkin, oil and vanilla.

Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and add to liquid mixture in 3 or 4 parts. Mix until smooth like a thick mixture.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (I thought they were better cooked less)

While they cook mix together frosting and frost cookies when cool. I included iced and un-iced cookies although Tom says that iced is the only way to go.

Simple Veggie Chili

Delicious

Ingredients:
1 sweet onion
2 cloves garlic
2 or 3 bell peppers (I like to use different colors for fun)
small can green chillies
2 or 3 chipotles in adobo sauce (international foods isle in a small can)
1 small can diced tomatoes
1 small can crushed tomatoes
1 can black beans or dark red kidney beans
2tsp each cumin, chili powder, cayenne and whatever else you like
your favorite textured vegetable protein I like quorn or yves meatless taco stuffers (optional)
Chopped fresh cilantro and red onion or scallions for garnish

saute diced onion in evoo and add diced peppers when onions begin to soften. This would also be the time to add any other veggies you want (carrots, zucchini, squash). Once ingredients gain some color, crush garlic in and stir for 1 minute. Add diced chipotles with as much of their sauce as you want (HOTT). Add all cans and spices. Cook on medium until sauce is thick (about 30min). Mix in vegetable protein if you want at the end and serve with garnish and multigrain chips!

This takes a little longer to cook but is great to make on weekends and bring for lunch.

Prep time: 15min
Cook time: 30-40min

Spinach and Squash

Delicious

This is a great side dish for a pasta or a light dinner. Split acorn squash into four pieces or like me have someone stronger do it. Toss with evoo and roast at 375 for about 1 hour. Scoop out flesh and place in blender with a 2 or 3 roasted garlic cloves, 1TBS smart balance, salt, pepper and a dash of cinnamon. Meanwhile saute 2 shallots in evoo put baby spinach on top and steam until just wilted so it stays green. Serve on top of squash puree.

Tom's Easy Pesto

Delicious

I call this Tom's Pesto because he's become an expert at making it on nights I'm coming home late. This is really easy and economical but is also tasty enough to serve to guests. I served this to my dad with a salad, roasted squash, and a nice glass of wine and we were all happy!

In food processor combine 2 handfuls kalmata olives, an equal amount of basil, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 or 3 tablespoons pine nuts and salt and pepper to taste. Add extra virgin olive oil and pulse until smooth. Toss with warm whole wheat pasta and add sun dried tomatoes.
UPDATE: add half the sun dried tomatoes into the food processor and blend then mix in the rest with the pasta.

Time: 15 minutes make pesto while boiling water and pasta mix and serve! This is why Tom likes it so much

Wine party book club

Delicious

I have 3 friends who are some of the smartest, coolest women I know and in an effort to get to see them more, despite our busy schedules, I started book club. Now you should know that this is really more of a wine and food club and part of my plan to feed people delicious vegan food. I am not a very fast reader and would rather cook, go out or shop than read on a typical day so I, of course, finished the book the day of and spent the rest of the day prepping the italian themed party. This actually ended up serving as a light meal for four people.

Spinach salad
Dressing:
2 TBS EVOO
1.2 TBS dijon mustar
1/2 TBS agave syrup
splash of blasamic vinegar
lots of black pepper

This dressing is sweet with a slight tang and should be thick enough to coat the leaves nicely. Add candied walnuts or pecans and dried cranberries.

Stuffed mushrooms
These were made the same way as in this post: Italian Entertaining
although I used red wine instead of white.

Polenta and eggplant rounds with balsamic onions and tomatoes
I haven't worked with much polenta but I was interested in it when I saw organic polenta at Trader Joe's. It comes in a tube which makes slicing it in rounds easy. I sliced pieces about 1/4in thick and toasted them up in a non stick skillet. I then took slices of salted eggplant and pan fried them. For the sauce I caramelized one onion in EVOO for about 30min on low heat. I then added 1TBS of balsamic vinegar and 4TBS of diced canned tomatoes and let cook down about 15min. Place polenta rounds on baking sheet top with fried eggplant and about a TBS of sauce. Place in oven for 5 min before serving. For extra flavor and a contrast to the sweet onions add an oil cured black olive to the top or on just some in case people don't like olives (crazy).

Roasted garlic and white bean dip with crostini and veggies
While the mushrooms were baking I roasted a whole head of garlic. To do this, cut off the top of the garlic head, create a pouch of tin foil and place garlic inside with a drizzle of EVOO before closing up the pouch. After 45 min in a 350 oven, remove from pouch and squeeze out roasted garlic into the food processor. Add one can of cannellini beans, 2 TBS EVOO, and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with crostini (brush slices of bread with EVOO and toast for 10min in oven) and raw veggie sticks.

Olive crostini
Blend kalmata olives, basil, EVOO and fresh garlic in a food processor. Spread slices of bread with kalmata olive pesto and bake in 350 oven for 10min. So yummy with wine!