Roasted Potatoes

1 lb of waxy skinned potatoes (red, yukon, white, etc.), cut into small pieces

4 cups of large mushrooms (your choice of variety), sliced

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2-1 bunch fresh parsley (curly or flat), chopped

Olive oil

Salt, pepper, paprika optional

Put the chopped potatoes, mushroom, parsley, and garlic into a mixing bowl.  Add olive oil to coat the mixture, then sprinkle in the seasoning.  Mix well with your hands or your favorite utensils.  

Bake at 450º on a sheet pan or casserole dish covered in parchment until the potatoes are both fork tender and covered in roasty golden goodness.  Stir while baking a few times to keep the veggies from sticking.  This particular batch took about an hour to bake, but the time will vary with your oven and the size of your potatoes.

Make sure to transfer to a serving bowl or container shortly after you take them out of the oven so that you can soak your dish.  Roasting juices are hard to clean off after they've dried.  Also, these are unlikely to burn as long as you keep an eye on them after they start to roast.  

SouthWest Style Pasta Salad

1/2 lb spiral type pasta

Red veggies:  bell pepper

Yellow veggies:  corn, squash, bell pepper

Orange veggies:  carrots, bell pepper, pumpkin, kabocha

Green veggies:  bell pepper, zucchini, parsley, asparagus, cucumber

Sliced black olives

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

What you see in the picture is green bell peppers, boiled carrots, corn, and olives.  Since the SouthWestern flavor profile has bothersome ingredients, you may want to use ingredients that complement the spices and chiles you would find in a more traditional version of this dish. This will add a familiar taste to the salad without irritating your system.  I listed a few ingredients above that work well with the flavor and the pasta (so that it doesn't get sticky or mushy).

Boil your pasta to a firm al dente, strain, and rinse in cold water.  While the pasta is cooling off, prepare your veggies.

Add your cooled pasta to your mixing bowl, season, coat with oil, and mix well.  Add your chopped veggies and mix well.  Chill and nom.  

In order to keep from going into a carb coma, make sure that at least half of the total volume is veggies.  1/2 lbs of pasta serves 8 at 30g carbs per serving, but this doesn't include the veggies.  If you need to keep an eye on your blood glucose levels, just use a 1/4 lb of pasta and keep the serving to 8 portions.  Adjust the proportions of ingredients to favor low GI veggies (lots of cucumber, peppers, and parsley; less corn, carrots, etc.)

This will keep in your fridge for at about 5 days.

IC Friendly Red Pizza

1-2 pizza's worth of your favorite dough

2 roasted peeled seeded red bell peppers, puréed

1/4 C water

4-6 large cloves of garlic, chopped

Fresh basil, shredded with your hands (use dried if you prefer)

If you have access to other fresh herbs, you can also add thyme, oregano, tarragon, parsley, etc. 

1 tb olive oil

Salt to taste

(Optional, red and black pepper to taste)

1 bag of Daiya mozzarella shreds

1 can of sliced olives

(Optional, artichoke hearts packed in water, mushroom slices, seasoned wheat gluten, or any of your favorite pizza toppings)

Purée the red bell peppers in a blender, food processor, or use a stick blender. You may need to add a little olive oil to get things moving. Set aside.

Warm your olive oil in a sauce pot over a medium low flame.  When you can feel heat from the oil, add your chopped garlic and turn the heat all the way down. Let the garlic infuse the oil for ten minutes or so.  When your kitchen smells like grandma's house, turn the heat to medium and pour in the bell pepper purée. 

Add your herbs and water, and simmer (stirring occasionally) until it thickens to a pizza sauce consistency. Take off heat and salt to taste. If your sauce is bitter, you can sprinkle in some sugar. Making sure all the seeds and skin are removed cuts down on bitterness.

My favorite dough recipe, made in a bread machine:

3/4 C semolina flour

3/4 C spelt flour

1 3/4 C bread flour or AP flour

3 tb sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1-2 tb olive oil

1 1/4 C plain unsweetened almond milk, warm

1 envelope of yeast

Using the dough setting, add the ingredients according to the manual for your machine. I add salt and sugar first, then liquid followed by the semolina and spelt. Next comes the yeast and finally the wheat flour. I let the dough mix for a bit, then use a scraper to push down the flour and dough pieces that stick to the side. Wait until the first mixing cycle is done to decide to add more flour or almond milk. A good dough ball will be round and firm, but not sticky (too wet) or flaky (too dry). To fix a dough ball, add a tb of flour or almond milk to get it right. 

This dough is ready to bake when the bread machine is done, or you can knead and store in a zippy bag coated with olive oil for the next day. This will develop the gluten and make your dough chewy and puffy. When you roll out your dough, you may need to let it rest if the gluten gets fussy.  You'll see this if the dough keeps shrinking back to its original size.  Letting it relax in the fridge for a few minutes will make rolling it out easier.  The higher the gluten content of your flour, the puffier our crust will be.  Bread flour has a high gluten content, AP flour has less, pastry flour has low gluten content.  You may need to play with different types of flour to get the crust you like.

Top your pizza with a few tb of sauce, olives (and other veggies), a handful of cheese shreds, and bake at 450° for at least 10 minutes. Check the crust for crisping, depending on the thickness, it may take 20 minutes or so to cook through. The thicker the crust, the lower in the oven it should go. You may need to broil the top to get the cheese to melt. If your crust is golden, take the pizza out of the oven while the broiler fires up so that the bottom doesn't burn. 

Serve hot, keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days.

Rocket Salad with Kite Hill Cassucio Cheese

I needed some superfoods after Christmas, so this is what I came up with.  

2 handfuls of wild rocket, or arugula

1 persian cucumber, diced

1/4 C red bell pepper, chopped

2 tb sliced black olives

1-2 oz Kite Hill Cassucio cheese, diced (check the ingredients, if they're bothersome, use garbanzos)

1 tb orange infused olive oil (aranciolio)

Salt and pepper to taste

Lay greens on the plate, then cucumbers and bell peppers.  Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Top with cheese and olives.  Nom, nom, crunch, crunch.

As it is, this salad is low carb, fiber rich, full of healthy fats, vitamin C, and other stuff that is good for winter stricken bodies.  Also, it is IC Friendly.  But if you like, you could add more veggies, croutons, wonton strips, nuts, seeds, or use limonoilo instead of aranciolio.

IC Friendly Pozole

Pozole is a lot like menudo as it has hominy cooked in a spicy broth.  From what I've been told, the difference types of soup is the meat you make it with,  Menudo has tripe while pozole has pork and chicken.  Pozole can be red, made with red chiles, or green, made with tomatillo and green/yellow chiles.  If you want to make this recipe green, use yellow bell peppers that you've roasted, seeded, and peeled.



1 jar of roasted bell peppers (about 3-4 peppers)
1 large can of hominy (the really big one that looks like it's about a gallon)
Thyme (I used about 4 heaping tb dried)
Oregano (if you use fresh, start slow, you can always add more)
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
2 boxes of sliced mushrooms
(optional ) 1 C of your favorite chik'n substitute, sliced (unflavored wheat gluten/seitan works well.  I used +gardein Crispy Mandarin Orange Chik'n without sauce, but it has soy)
1/2 - 1/4 C maseca (masa harina)
Canola or corn oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Water or IC Friendly broth for cooking




Traditional IC Friendly garnishes include shredded cabbage, avocado, radish slices, oregano, and thyme. *

You're gonna need a big soup/stock pot for this quantity of pozole, but I guarantee it's worth it.  Everybody will want some too and it will last until the end of the next day.  **

The first thing I do when I cook with hominy is drain and rinse it.  Just dump it in a colander, run the faucet, and leave it to drain while you cook.  Then, put your mushrooms in a dry pan to sweat.  Cook them until they're soft.  They don't need to dry out, the juices will add flavor to your broth.

Add the bell peppers to your pot with a 1/2 C of water and bring to a boil.  Put the peppers with the water into your blender (or you can use a boat motor), keep the pulp or strain if you like, then back into the pot with 2 quarts of water.  Add your garlic, herbs, salt, pepper if you can tolerate it, and bring back to a boil.  Taste your broth to see if it needs more herbs or salt.  Add the mushrooms, chik'n, and hominy and cover with more water, about two inches over the hominy.   Boil for about 15-30 minutes, stir so it doesn't stick.  It;s ready for the roux when the hominy is tender, but still toothy (al dente).

While the soup boils, make your masa roux.  For masa roux, I like to use 1 part oil to 2 parts maseca. Heat oil in a saucepan, then sprinkle or sift in the maseca.  When it's cooked through, ladle some broth from your pot (about a cup) and add water to thin.  Work out any lumps and stir while you bring to a boil.  If your hominy isn't soft when the roux comes together, set the roux to warm and stir about every minute so that it doesn't burn or stick.

When, the hominy is soft add the masa roux and stir so that it mixes evenly.  Bring back to a boil, stir well, and serve with hot corn tortillas.  What you see in the picture is pozole topped with shredded cabbage and avocado slices.

*If any of the ingredients in this recipe are bothersome for you, substitute them for something else.  For example, parsley instead of oregano or diced zucchini instead of mushrooms.  

**to make a more manageable quantity, use these proportions:

1roasted, peelers bell pepper

1small can of hominy

1 tb thyme and 1 tb oregano

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 C to 1 C sliced mushrooms

(Optional)1/2 C chik'n, sliced

1 to 2 tb maseca

1 to 2 tb canola or corn oil

Salt and pepper to taste

The hominy and herbs will be cheaper at the Mexican market, and they may have better corn tortillas.  My favorite are dark yellow, grainy, thick, and smell like fragrant masa.  They steam very well.  I've seen hominy that has been frozen in supermarkets before, but I've never used it before.  If you have massive leftovers, freeze them in a zipper bag for no longer than a month. The Middle Eastern store may have large jars of roasted peppers at a good price.

Vegan Tips for Living With the IC Diet

Some of these are ideas that I've found on forums and others are from my own experimentation. Everything on this list has gone in my body and come out safely. BUT!! Every body is different and you know your body best. Don't try anything you think may cause a flare. 

Soy sauce:

Simmer molasses and water and add to stir frys to give them their familiar taste. Cook the sauce with red bell pepper chunks to lend a teriyaki flavor to the sauce. Add sesame oil and fresh ginger if you can tolerate it. Kafir lime leaf and lemongrass make the sauce a bit more savory. 

Soft drinks:

Torani makes fruit flavored syrups (Regular and Sugar Free) for Italian sodas. If you can tolerate them, add a tablespoon to a pint of cold water, sparkling if you can tolerate it, to make a tasty drink. Or you could make kafir lime infused water, add coconut, watermelon/blueberries (chunks, purée, frozen chunks), or chilled chamomile/peppermint tea with agave or honey for sweet tea. 

Pickles:

Bubbies dill pickles and sauerkraut are full sour. They have no vinegar or preservatives, but be wary of the sodium. Also, you can cook cucumber slices in salty sweet syrup with some mustard seeds to fake bread and butter pickles. The same goes for red and yellow peppers. 

Broth/Bouillon:

Zucchini/red pepper/potato purée thickens soups nicely as does a good roux made with plain unsweetened almond milk. Earth Balance makes a good soy free vegan margarine. Using herbs to flavor your cooking liquid helps too. Also, wine becomes less irritating when the alcohol is cooked off. And if you really miss grilled onions, carmaluze sliced fennel. It's anisey and sweet without being pungent like onions, but has a similar color and texture. See my cooking instructions here. 

Boyajian:  

Boyajian makes citrus oils--lemon, lime, and orange that you can use to flavor baked goods and sauces. I've used them in salad dressings and Daiya cream cheese to make cheesecake. Olive oil is often infused with other flavore, citrus being most popular. I use limonolio to flavor foods that call for lemon juice. 

Dips:

Salsas can be made with savory ingredients without using chiles. Roasted red pepper and sweet corn makes a great base for salsa. I've read that chile oil is not irritating, but it doesn't taste like jalapeño so I skip it. You can add dried parsley and avocado chunks to make a great party dip. 

Make your own hummus. Garbanzo beans, tahini, and limonolio make a good dip. You could add blended roasted red bell pepper or roasted eggplant to cut the calories too. The same goes for baba ghanouj; just add limonolio instead of lemon juice to brighten the flavor. 

Protein:  

Wheat gluten is a great source of protein. Unfortunately, seitan is the easiest product to find and it almost always has soy sauce in it. You can make your own; several brands of gluten flour are available at natural food stores. If packaged veggie meats are bothersome, you can still get concentrated protein from beans, nuts, and seeds. Ask your doctor/nutritionist for I nformation about food combining to help you make complete proteins. 

If you have any tips to add to this list, please share :)

Summer Rolls

1 package of rice paper (banh trang)

Lettuce leaves

Watercress leaves

Thai basil leaves

Mint leaves

Tomato slices

Avocado slices

Carrot shreds

Cabbage shreds

Cucumber slices

Bell pepper slices

Tofu (grilled, fried, baked, dried, etc.)

Other protein like wheat gluten, seitan, or tempeh

When I make these, I usually make a huge cake box Tupperware size amount because everybody wants to eat them, but nobody wants to make them. I really don't know why though, they're easy to make and are very refreshing on a hot day. 

This is my set up: a container to hold finished rolls lined with cling wrap and wet paper towels, a big pie plate or salad bowl filled with water to soften the rice paper, a selection of my favorite veggies and fillings, a cutting board to work on, and a towel to dry my hands and wipe up water.  Making these goes easier if you have your fillings precut and set aside to use as you roll. 

Soak a sheet of paper in water until it begins to soften. When you can move it it hour cracking it, but before it gets soggy, place it on a flat surface to roll. Fill with about a small palmfull of veggies.  If you use sauce inside, drizzle between veggies or between protein and veggies so it doesn't soak through the wrapper too much. Put your filling about a third of the way down, fold the bottom edge up over the filling, fold the sides over about one inch, and roll everything over until you have what looks like a tiny burrito. Soak the next sheet while you make the roll and it should be ready when you're done. It's time to change the water when the sheets take longer to soften than the previous sheet. Place in your lined container, sprinkle with water to keep moist, and cover with more wet towels and cling wrap. Refrigerate to chill, but can be served right away.  

These can be made with anything you like. Cutting your ingredients into sticks and tearing leaves from stems helps keep the filling from poking holes into the wrapper.  They'll keep for a few days as long as they're moist. Use anything you like as a dipping sauce:  soy, sweet chili, sriracha, sambal, teriyaki, peanut sauce, etc.  

Stuffed Mushrooms

Preheat your oven to 425°. Coat a glass or ceramic baking dish in olive oil. Add 1 portobello cap per person. Top with your favorite protein and veggie combo. Bake until everything is soft and the liquid in the dish begins to evaporate. 

In this photo, my mushrooms are topped with pre-cooked zucchini, peppers, cabbage, carrots, garbanzo beans, garlic, herbs, S&P, and Daiya shreds. 

If heirloom tomatoes are tolerable, add a slice seasoned with garlic and italian herbs and some Daiya to make a low carb entree.  Grilled eggplant slices work well with mushrooms too. Mushrooms are versatile work well with other veggies. Experiment with some flavor profiles, different sauces and seasonings and see how it goes. :D

Fennel Pizza

To make the caramelized fennel:  buy one large fennel bulb per pizza.  Slice into 1cm rounds, I suggest using a mandoline, and cook on high/med high heat in a dry pan until softened.  When the fennel starts to wilt, season with salt and continue to cook until soft and brown, covered when needed.  When the fennel starts to stick, add a few drops of olive oil and continue to cook while stirring until the fennel is completely caramelized.  It will look like grilled onions when it's done.

Top your favorite pizza dough with Daiya Provolone slices, caramelized fennel, and sliced Field Roast maple breakfast sausage, then bake according to the directions.  To add flavor to the dough, season with fennel and salt, or anything else that will complement fennel.

You could use nutritional yeast instead of cheese slices, or maybe cashew cheese.  The sausage could also be any other seasoned gluten, or even baked apple chunks that are seasoned and sweetened with maple.

Israeli Couscous with Pesto

First, make pesto. To veganize this recipe, I increase the amount of pine nuts one tb at a time and used a few pinches of Daiya Mozzarella Shreds instead of Parm.  

Second, make your vegetable mixture.  Here you see grilled red bell peppers, mushrooms, and asparagus.  I also added canned artichoke hearts packed in water.  You could also use zucchini, eggplant, broccolini, or whichever veggies you like.  They do not need much seasoning because the pesto dominates the plate, so just a little S&P.

Finally, make your couscous.  The package gave instructions to cook it like rice, but this pasta is gooey and starchy, so I chose to cook it like pasta for use in salads.  Boil salted water with few drops of olive oil.  Add couscous and stir.  Bring back to a boil and cook until tender.  Rinse the pasta under running water and drain well.  Serve with a tb ot two of pesto per portion.

Surprisingly, this kept well in reusable containers in the refrigerator for almost a week. I think the bacteria is scared of all that garlic.  I prepared 1 cup of uncooked couscous to make 5 large portions.  

Ranch Dressing

1-2 C plain unsweetened almond milk

1 tb agave or honey (or cane sugar)

1-2 tb dried parsley

1-2 tb dried dill

1 tb mustard powder 

4 cloves of garlic, whole

Salt and pepper

1/2 to 1 C Mayo to thicken the dressing

Combine all ingredients except mayo in a soup pot and bring to a boil stirring constantly. If you see swirling foam rise to the surface quickly, turn your flame down to warm. It's about to boil over. After bringing to a boil, reduce heat to less than a summer to let the flavors infuse the milk. 

When the taste of the dressing is to your liking, adjust as needed to get there, remove from heat, and let cool. Add small amounts of mayo until the dressing reaches the consistency you want. Keep in a jar or bottle in the refrigerator. 

A note on the mayo:  you could also use Wayfarer Foods Sour Cream or Daiya Cream Cheese, softened and whipped. You could use a roux to thicken the sauce, but it may turn out starchy. You could also reduce the almond milk before adding the herbs and spices. 

Most ranch recipes use chives, but I don't eat onions, so I omitted them. If you'd like to add them to this recipe, use 1-2 tb dried chives or garlic chives. A good recipe for reference is this one from Califia Farms:  http://www.califiafarms.com/cooking-with-califia-almondmilk-ranch-dressing/

Tahini Salad Dressing

2 tb to 1/4 C agave or honey

2 tb to 1/4 C olive oil

Up to 3 tb dried herbs 

A few drops to 1/4 tsp lemon oil

1 tb garlic (paste, roasted, chopped)

1/4 to 1/2 C tahini

1/4 to 1/2 C plain unsweetened almond milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Warm the herbs, olive oil, lemon oil, garlic, and agave in the microwave until thin and easy to work with.  Whisk well and add tahini paste. Season with salt and pepper, then add almond milk. Whisk well and store in a bottle or jar in the refrigerator. If you find that your dressing is too thick or too thin, you can add more tahini or almond milk to adjust the consistency.

Notes on tahini:  when you get your jar of tahini, use a spoon to mix the oil and paste back together again. Tahini is much like natural peanut butter and separates like the dickens. To keep it blended, store in the refrigerator after mixing. 

Notes on herbs:  you can use whichever herbs you like. I used tarragon, dill, and parsley in this recipe to keep the flavor light and neutral. You could also use italian herbs, herbes de Provence, or dried garlic chives. You could also add ginger and sesame oil to make a more asian inspired dressing.  

Chik'n Soup

1-2 C frozen peas

1-2 C frozen corn

1-2 C frozen cut green beans

1 bunch celery chopped

1-2 C shredded or diced carrots

1-2 boxes sliced mushrooms

1 bunch parsley chopped

1/2 C pasta stars or alphabets

1 package chicken style seitan (White Wave or Upton Naturals work well)

2 tb turmeric

Dried parsley

Dried tarragon

Dried thyme

Chopped garlic

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Sweat the mushrooms until soft, add a few tb of olive oil and add the celery and carrots. When the veggies begin to caramelize, add the seitan and herbs/garlic/spices. Stir and cook until the herbs start to release their aroma, then add the pasta and frozen veggies. When the veggies start to defrost, fill your soup pot with water (no more than two inches over the veggie mixture) and simmer covered until the pasta is tender. Season and serve with saltines or toasted bread. 

If you like your soup thick and hearty, you can add a roux to the broth. It does not keep for more than two days in the refrigerator (the pasta breaks down) but it freezes well enough to make a whole pot. The turmeric may stain your pit and dish mop, but soaking in sudsy water helps. 

Ciabatta Pizza

Take one ciabatta loaf sliced down the center. Add water packed or frozen/thawed artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper strips, and Daiya cheese to one side.  Spread basil,pesto on the other side.  Bake at 350° until crispy. Nosh. 

The basil pesto was relatively easy, if not messy. I got the recipe here and substituted a few pinches of Daiya for Parmesan. Be careful not to add too much, Daiya melts well and can make your pesto rubbery. If pine nuts are bothersome, substitute with dry roasted cashews or slivered almonds. You could also try italian parsley and pumpkin seeds. 

Serves 8-12

Happy eating.  

IC Friendly Sunday Breakfast

Sunday breakfast can be daunting for vegan IC folks since soy is such a huge presence in veg comfort food. I have come up with a nice alternative to bran flakes and almond milk :D

Frozen hash brown patties are rad. The microwave thaw in about a minute and fry up well in a little canola oil. For low fat diets, toast them until golden brown. Also, they lack the seasonings and onion bits that are found in tater tots. And FYI, sweet potato tots always turn to mush. If you prefer sweet potatoes, slice and roast them in the oven. 

Greens are good for you. Pick greens you can tolerate, or use a pre-washed blend you know you can enjoy. Place a handful on a plate covered in a slice of Daiya cheddar and nuke for a minute or so. 

Those tasty sausages on my plate are Field Roast Apple Maple Breakfast Sausages.  They are made of gluten and have significantly less bothersome ingredients. If you need to double check the ingredients, they are listed here.  If you find that these are unsuitable for your diet, substitute with plain seitan or season gluten with apple, maple, and sage. 

Add fresh fruit, Teeccino, and a probiotic shot (I like Good Belly Straight Shot) to round out your morning. 

Happy eating :)

Pasta alla Funghi--IC Friendly

1 lb of your favorite pasta

2-3 boxes of sliced mushrooms

1 large bunch of parsley, chopped

2-4 large cloves of garlic

Daiya Mozzarella shreds

Beyond Meat Beefy Crumbles (about half a bag)

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

in one pot, boil the pasta until al dente.  In a large saute pan, sweat the mushrooms until they're dry-ish, then, add olive oil to fry them.  Add the garlic until you start to smell the aroma, then add the pasta.  When everything is cooked, add the parsley, Beyond Meat, and cheese.  Go easy on the cheese because it tends to make the pasta ball up in huge clumps.  

Serves 8-16, depending on your starch allowance.

A note for IC people, the garlic and parsley are very soothing when feeling irritated.  And even though they are soy free, check the Daiya/Beyond Meat labels for bothersome ingredients.  

Frozen Kale

At the beginning of my week, I have a nice selection of fresh fruits and vegetable to use in my meal planning and preparation.  I'm learning which ingredients last longer, which freeze well, and which ones to buy the morning before I make a specific dish.  One thing that has helped me to make healthier food in a convenient way is to use prepared food items.  These prepared foods are not necessarily processed, they may be pre-cooked or pre-washed and cut.  Buying ready to eat quinoa and shredded carrots/cabbage at +Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has brought so much joy to my life.  I love my mandolin, but I'm also scared to use it more than I have to.  Frozen food is another great way to save time.  I wanted some greens for the end of my week so I bought frozen kale, spinach and butternut squash cubes.  I mixed those with some other ingredients I had in my kitchen and came up with a pot of soup and a pan of stir fry.  I portioned them into reusable containers and now I have meals for the week and meals in the freezer saved for later.

A note for IC people, always check labels for problem ingredients like the soy sauce in Upton's Naturals or my use of ginger.  Substitute with other ingredients like chopped garlic or unseasoned seitan/wheat meat.

Kale Quinoa Stir Fry

2 boxes of pre-cooked quinoa (3-4 C)
3/4 bag of frozen kale (2-3 C)
1/2 bag of frozen spinach (2-3 C)
1-2 C shredded carrots (and/ or red cabbage, green cabbage, bell peppers. anything you enjoy)
1 box of +Upton's Naturals Traditional Seitan
Sesame oil to taste
1 Tb olive oil
2 Tb molasses
2-4 Tb crushed ginger
Salt and pepper
Tarragon

Cook the seitan in the olive oil until browned and crispy.  You may need to cut the pieces into smaller bites.  Add your carrots (and other fresh veggies) and cook until they begin to caramelize.  Add the ginger, molasses, and sesame oil and stir, immediately adding the kale and spinach to keep the sauce from burning.  The water from the frozen veggies will help to deglaze your pan.  When everything is cooked through, add the quinoa and mix well.  Season to taste.

Serves 6-8, keeps well in the fridge for the week.

Cream of Butternut Squash Soup

1 bag of frozen cubed butternut squash
1 C frozen kale
1 C frozen spinach
2-4 C water
2-3 C plain unsweetened almond milk
1/4-1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
2 Tb Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread
2 Tb olive oil
Herbs and spices (I used sage and marjoram)
Salt and pepper

Cook the butternut squash and olive oil in a soup pot.  When the squash becomes soft, add the butter.
When the butter melts, add the flour and stir to make a roux.  Add the herbs and spices, and almond milk.  When the milk begins to boil, reduce heat and hit it with a stick blender to make it creamy.  Bring back to a boil and add the water.  When the soup boils again, add the frozen greens.  Simmer until it reaches the consistency you want, season before serving. You can also thicken it with bread crumbs or Daiya Mozzarella Shreds.  This sounds like a lot of work, but it only took 15 minutes from start to finish.

Serves 6-8 (or 4 if you have giant chowder bowls :D), freezes well. 

IC Friendly Noodle Salad

Salad
1 large head of Napa, sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
2 C shredded carrots

Sauce
2 Tb molasses
2 Tb sesame oil
1/4-1/2 C water
Salt
Pepper

3 bundles of soba, cooked, rinsed, salted, and chilled

First, cook the noodles according to the package, season and set them aside.  Next, add the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and microwave for about 5-15 seconds to make the molasses easier to whisk into a dressing.  Put all the chopped veggies into a huge mixing bowl and toss in the sauce.  Add the noodles being careful to separate then as you toss, they will want to clump together.  Chill and serve.  

Some other ingredients that work well in this:  sesame seeds, sliced almonds, cashews, peanuts, celery, broccoli and water chestnuts.  You could also add tangerine zest to the sauce if you know you can tolerate it.  If you don't like the napa ribs, cut them out and save them for stir fry or veggie broth.  

Serves 8, keeps crisp for about 2 days. 

IC Friendly Enchiladas

1 package of corn tortillas
2-4 zucchini, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 box of sliced mushrooms
1 bag of shredded green cabbage (about 3 C)
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 cans sliced black olives
1 bag of Daiya Mozzarella Shreds
Dried parsley
1 pint plain unsweetened almond milk
whole wheat pastry flour
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

First the filling!!  Sweat the mushrooms, then add the zucchini.  When they're almost dry, add a Tb or 2 of olive oil.  Add the bell pepper and garlic.  Add cabbage, beans, olives, parsley, salt and pepper, and remove from heat.  

Preheat your oven to 350°.  Coat a large casserole dish with olive oil.  

Now the roux!!  In a sauce pot, warm 1-2 Tb olive oil  and add 1/4-1/2 C pastry flour to make a roux.  When it's ready, add the pint of almond milk.  Carefully bring to a boil, reduce to medium heat, and add half the cheese shreds to make cheese sauce, then remove from heat.

Tortilla time!!  Lay about 6 tortillas on the bottom of the casserole dish.  Top with about half of the cheese sauce, then add 3/4 of the filling.  Stack 6 more tortillas on top for the top, add the rest of the cheese sauce and filling.  Add the remaining cheese shreds over the casserole, and moisten the exposed tortilla edges with water.

Bake for 30 minutes, serves 6-10, slice when hot, serve when cooled for 5-15 minutes.  

You can make the filling and roll each tortilla up to bake, but making them casserole style increases the proportion of veggies to starch.  Also, add any filling you like:  corn, squash, more beans, no beans, puree red bell peppers to make sauce, used cheddar, whatever makes you hungry.

Broccoli Chowder

1 head or bag of broccoli, chopped into small pieces
1-2 C of shredded carrots
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 bunch of chopped parsley
Olive oil
1-2 Tb Margarine
1 pint plain unsweetened almond milk
1/4-1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1-2 pints water
Herbs of choice
Salt
Pepper

In a sauce pot, make a roux with the margarine and flour.  When the roux is ready, add 1 C of the almond milk to make a bechamel like sauce.  bring to a boil, then reduce to warm.  In your soup pot, cook the veggies olive oil to taste, maybe 1 to 2 Tb.  Add the garlic after the veggies are cooked then add the remaining almond milk and water.  When everything comes to a boil, add the bechamel.  Watch your pot, it may boil over.  Season before serving.

Your soup will be only as thick as the amount of flour you used to make the roux.  1/4 C will make it thin and 1 C will make it chunky.  If you make it too thick, you can always add more water.  If it's not thick enough, you could add leftover mashed potatoes or make more roux. 

Serve with saltine, oyster cracker, wheat toast, and top with non-dairy cheese.