Saturday, March 30, 2013

Vegan Green Bean Casserole?

I am known in my family for always bringing the buttery-est, cheesey-est green bean casserole to Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.  We will be having dinner tomorrow at my sister Deanna's in Cascade, WI and this year I aim to make a healthier version...

This recipe amazes me as my old recipe used 2 sticks of butter, a whole container of sour cream, a can of cream of mushroom soup and an entire bag of shredded cheese...  YIKES!
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Clean Green Bean Casserole
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Serves: 9-12
 
Featuring fresh green beans and caramelized onions, this homemade green bean casserole is just about as clean as it gets. Rather than relying on a cream-based soup, it’s held together by a creamy puree of parsnips and mushrooms! The caramelized onion topping still delivers the buttery onion flavor that we all love, without the deep-fried grease and flour to go along with it. All of our favorite flavors covered, without the heavy food-coma to follow!
Ingredients
  • 1 yellow onion, sliced thinly
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil, or butter
  • 2 cups parsnips, chopped
  • 10 oz. mushrooms, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • 1½ cups water
  • 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt
  • 1 lb. fresh green beans
 
Instructions
  1. Melt a pat of coconut oil, or butter, in a large skillet and add the sliced onions. Saute gently over medium-low heat for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally until caramelized. Use a splash of water, as needed, to prevent sticking. Once the onions are tender and golden in color, remove from heat and set aside in a bowl for later.
  2. While the onions are cooking, you’ll have plenty of time to steam the parsnips. Fit a steamer basket into a saucepan, and fill with one inch of water. Add the 2 cups of chopped parsnips, and bring the water to boil over high heat. Cover and reduce the heat to low, steaming for about 8 minutes, or until the parsnips are easily pierced with a fork. Transfer the steamed parsnips to your blender container, and set it aside.
  3. Using the same steamer basket and saucepan, break the pound of fresh green beans into one-inch pieces, and toss them into the steamer basket. Bring to a boil, then cover and steam for 6-8 minutes, until the green beans are bright green with a bit of crunch. Transfer the cooked green beans to an 8″ x 8″ glass baking dish.
  4. *Note: At this point, cook the green beans to be as tender as you like– if you prefer them softer, steam them longer. The baking process later will not make them any more tender, so this is your chance to achieve the texture you like.
  5. Once the onions have finished caramelizing, you can use the same pan to saute the mushrooms and garlic. Melt another pat of coconut oil or butter, and saute the garlic for about 3 minutes, then add the mushrooms. Cook for about 6 minutes, until liquid is released from the mushrooms.
  6. Spread half of the mushroom mixture into the baking dish of green beans, and pour the other half of the mixture, along with any liquid, into the blender container with the steamed parsnips.
  7. Into that blender container, add 1½ cups water, 1½ teaspoons sea salt and ¼ cup of nutritional yeast to the cooked parsnips and mushrooms. Blend until smooth and creamy. (This mixture may be a bit salty to taste at this point, but keep in mind that it will be diluted when it’s poured over a pound of green beans!)
  8. Pour the creamy sauce over the green beans and mushrooms in the glass baking dish, and stir to coat well. (You may very well have more sauce than you need for this recipe– I only used about 1½ cups to coat the vegetables well. Save the rest for a future dish!)
  9. Smooth the creamy vegetable mixture with a spatula, and top with the caramelized onions to finish.
  10. *At this point, you could cover the dish and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to heat and serve.
  11. When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350F and bake uncovered for about 30 minutes, until bubbly. Serve warm and enjoy!
 

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Nutritional Yeast...Great on popcorn!

In many different vegan articles and websites I have seen the food nutritional yeast mentioned many times.  It is often used as a topping on something and has kind of a cheesy, nutty flavor to it.

Nutritional yeast is not your standard yeast that you use for making dough rise...it looks like flakes...almost like yellow-colored fish food (LOL) but without the nasty smell!  A co-worker told me she sprinkles it on her popcorn and it is like eating cheese popcorn.

Today I decided to try some on a batch of popcorn.  I always use my Stir Crazy popper by West Bend Company because it is the best popper out there BAR NONE.  I use a little bit of olive oil with it.  I sprinkled some of the nutritional yeast on and it was great!  It was almost just like cheese popcorn.

Give it a try!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Christianos Pizza....OMG!


So this week I have done pretty well considering all the temptations that were laid before me:

I did have to try some amazing Boeuf Burgionon (or however you spell it) that a coworker made for a meeting.

My girls and I made cupcakes last night for school....I didn't eat one!

I did however over indulge with some Christiano's pizza which by the way was by far the most amazing pizza I ever had.  We ordered thin crust, pineapple and spinach.  Looking at it from a vegan perspective it was all good except for the cheese....   I could have done worse and had pepperoni and sausage.

So now I will continue with my weekend.  I think I am going to juice all day Saturday and Sunday just to see if I could make it through.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Moving Forward


Well, I have officially been on a vegan diet (at least 90% vegan) for 2 full weeks now.  I feel great and eating like this is not as hard as I thought it would be.

Here are some of the health benefits I have noticed over the 2 weeks I've done this:
  • more energy
  • achiness in joints gone!
  • lost weight
  • my complexion is clearing
  • less water retention
  • alertness
  • more mental clarity
  • much better mood!
  • blood pressure is lower
  • sleeping better at night
  • my step feels a bit lighter
  • Laughing with my kids more
So I would say that is a pretty darn good list for just 2 weeks!  My next goals are to incorporate more juicing and more exercise.  When I mentioned above that my diet has been 90% vegan, there were about 3 out of the total 42 meals I had where I ate a little fish or chicken.

My girls have been somewhat following along with me.  They have continued to pack much healthier lunches for school.  Margaret enjoys vegetables much more than Anna so it has been a little more fun for her.

I plan to move forward with this lifestyle change and see where it takes me!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Days 9 & 10... Great Grains

I made a stir fry tonight but didn't want just plain old rice so I dug through my freezer and found a box of Whole Grain Sweet Pea Blend from Market Day.  It is wonderful as a replacement for rice!

Ingredients contain brown rice, oats, rye, red wheat, barley, buckwheat, quinoa, flaxseed, sweet peas and onion.

Fat - 3 g
Cholesterol  0g
Sodium 80g
Fiber  5g

I will definately consider getting this one again! (BTW...my husband had cereal tonight.  Good grief!)

Monday, March 11, 2013

Days 7 & 8... Aldi's Produce - Hit or Miss


I did a little produce shopping during my lunch hour at Aldi's today.  I was mainly there to see what they had for produce. If any of you shop at Aldi's you know that their produce is either great... or not so much.

I lucked out today.  They said they just got their shipment of produce in this morning so I hit it good!

Aldi's generally has great prices so I stocked up and bought some beautiful broccoli, cauliflower, green onions, vine ripened tomatoes, asparagus, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries and blackberries (which were only 99 cents)!

We will be set for a little while.  I think I will juice some fruit for breakfast tomorrow.





Sunday, March 10, 2013

Best Veggie Lasagna Ever!

I found this interesting veggie lasagna recipe that has sweet potatoes in it.  I decided to cook up a batch and it is incredible! - not to mention really, really healthy with no cheese (yes no cheese).  This recipe contains 8 different vegetables.  This is the first time I cooked with tofu and was pleasantly surprised.  We addded a light sprinkling of salt when we served it

Engine 2 Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Vegetarian Lasagna. Photo by mersaydees

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 head broccoli, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 1 (15 ounce) can corn, rinsed and drained
  • 1 (12 ounce) package tofu
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • 1 teaspoon rosemary
  • 2 (25 ounce) jars vegan pasta sauce
  • 2 (14 ounce) boxes whole grain lasagna noodles
  • 16 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained
  • 2 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
  • 6 roma tomatoes, sliced thin
  • 1 cup raw cashews, ground
 
Directions:
  1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Sauté the onion and garlic on high heat for 3 minutes in a wok or nonstick pan. Add the mushrooms and cook until the onions are limp and the mushrooms give up their liquid. Remove them to a large bowl with a slotted spoon. Reserve the mushroom liquid in the pan.
  3.  Sauté the broccoli and carrots for 5 minutes and add to the mushroom bowl.
  4. Sauté the peppers and corn until just beginning to soften. Add them to the vegetable bowl.
  5. Drain the tofu by wrapping in paper towels. Break it up directly in the towel and mix into the vegetable bowl.
  6. Add spices to the vegetable bowl and combine.

To Assemble:.
  1. Cover the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch casserole with a layer of sauce.
  2. Add a layer of noodles. Cover the noodles with sauce. This way the noodles cook in the oven, saving time and energy.
  3. Spread the vegetable mixture over the sauced noodles.
  4. Cover with a layer of noodles and another dressing of sauce.
  5. Add the spinach to the second layer of sauced noodles.
  6. Cover the spinach with the mashed sweet potatoes.
  7. Add another layer of sauce, the final layer of noodles, and a last topping of sauce.
  8. Cover the lasagna with thinly sliced roma tomatoes.
  9. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
  10. Remove the foil, sprinkle with the cashews, and return to the oven for 15 minutes.
  11. Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.
  12.  
    ENJOY!