recipe: basil lemonade

My parents have a Meyer lemon tree. I am a very lucky lady, I know. They always give me bags of lemons whenever I see them (which is frequently, due to me possessing their only grandchild), since I love to start the day with hot water and lemon juice. However, this recent hot weather has turned me off to hot drinks, so I decided to try something new with my recent batch of lemons. My basil lemonade experiment was a resounding success - the basil makes it extra refreshing. Here's the recipe. The basil lemon syrup recipe can be found after the jump.

Basil Lemonade

Makes 6 cups

2 cups basil-lemon syrup (recipe after the jump)

2 cups squeezed lemon juice (retain lemon rinds for syrup recipe)

2 cups cold water

Sugar to taste (if using lemons other than Meyer)

Combine ingredients except sugar in pitcher with ice. Adjust proportions to taste. If using regular lemons, stir in additional sugar to taste if desired. 

Basil Lemon Syrup

2 cups water*

1 cup white sugar

1.5 cups firmly packed basil sprigs

3+ lemons rinds, after juice squeezed out for lemonade

Combine all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat. Stir until water is simmering and sugar is fully dissolved. Turn off heat and let contents sit for at least one hour. Strain solids, squeezing liquid through mesh strainer. Chill throughly. 

*for thicker, traditional simple syrup, use 1 cup water.

vegan thanksgiving recipes part iii

I've been raving about my father-in-law's vegetarian stuffing recipe on this blog and in real life. Every year, I start talking about this stuffing on November 1. He resents the pressure to excel, but is always sweet enough to make extra stuffing for me. And you guys, it is the best.

After multiple emails and general annoying follow up from yours truly, this is the best I could pry out of him in terms of a recipe. I apologize for letting you down, but you really can't go wrong with this mix of ingredients. When we have vegan family members attending, he uses veggie broth and omits the egg. I've crossed out the non-vegan ingredients in this excuse for a recipe he gave me.

You know, Steph, I never do it the same.   And I just use amounts that seem right, depending upon the size of the end product…  I use that store-bought bread cubes…just plain bread cubes.   Lots of chopped yellow onion.   Much less (about ¼ as much) chopped celery.  A whole lot of sliced mushrooms.   I use crimini, but you can use any kind.   Usually chop up an apple or two.    Dried cranberries.  Sometimes I throw in pine nuts, or other nut meats that I may have around.  Very small pieces.   Lots of parsley.   Chopped.   An egg or two.   Then low sodium chicken broth, or if truly veggie, then use vegetable broth.    Salt and pepper to taste.  Fresh sage and thyme….lots of it, chopped well.   Then wash your hands, and stick them in it and mix it up real well.    I put it in low sided casserole dishes, maybe 2 to 4 inches deep, max.   Cover with aluminum foil and bake at about 350 to 375 for about one half hour.   If the pans are deep, maybe cook an extra ten minutes.   If you like it a bit crispy on top, then remove the foil for the last ten minutes.

Coming up next: the perfect apple sauce with no added sugar. I am making this, so I promise it will be an actual recipe next time.

vegan thanksgiving recipes part ii

This Thanksgiving recipe is pretty basic, but super yummy. Roasted root vegetables are healthy, flavorful, and very easy to cook. Adding sage and thyme really ties them into the rest of the Thanksgiving dish flavors. Use whatever winter root vegetables (or squash! and then let me know how that works out because I've never tried it!) make you happy. I just made this recipe up when I had a bunch of leftover root vegetables from another recipe, so it's by no means an exact science.

The important thing is chopping everything up to a size that enables everything to cook evenly. In general, carrots and parsnips will cook the fastest, followed by the sweet potatoes, and finally the regular potatoes. So I make sure to chop the carrots and parsnips a little bit larger than the potatoes. Also, make sure there's enough room in your casserole dish for every vegetable to be touching the bottom of the dish while roasting, and stir everything around mid-roast.

Roasted Root Vegetables

A healthy & easy side dish for the fall

Servings: 6

2 small or 1 large sweet potatoes

4 medium carrots

2 parsnips, peeled

2 small potatoes of your chosen variety

2 tablespoons olive oil

Dried sage, thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary (to taste - but go bigger with the sage than the other herbs)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut carrots and peeled parsnips into 1 - 1.5 inch pieces.

3. Cut sweet potatoes and regular potatoes into .5 - 1 inch pieces. (See photo above for relative veggie sizes)

4. In a large casserole dish, pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil and use a paper towel to coat the inside bottom and sides of the dish with oil.

5. Place all the veggies in the dish and drizzle with remaining oil. Sprinkle dried herbs as desired and use hands to mix everything together, coating the vegetables with oil and herbs.

6. Put casserole dish on middle rack of the oven for 40-50 minutes, or until fork tender. After the first 20 minutes, use a large spoon to stir the vegetables and expose different parts of them to the bottoms and sides of the dish.

7. Allow to cool briefly before serving. Keeps well and is tasty cold or reheated.

Coming up next: THE BEST STUFFING RECIPE EVER, and it just happens to be vegan. That is, if my father in law ever sends the damn recipe to me. But seriously guys, it's the best stuffing I have ever had in my entire life. Get ready.

vegan thanksgiving recipes part i

Can you all believe it's November already? Do you know what that means? That my favorite holiday is just around the corner. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year because of its emphasis on family without being preoccupied by gifts. Also, the food doesn't hurt.

The Husband's family is an interesting mix of vegans and carnivores, so Thanksgiving with his family is filled with both traditional and creative dishes. There are a couple vegetarians on my side of the family that have inspired some great dishes, too. Over the years, I have enjoyed amazing vegan dishes cooked by others, and whipped up a couple vegan recipes myself. Between now and Thanksgiving, I plan on sharing some of these recipes here.

(cooking! with a rather large belly! also, how terrible are those orange linoleum counters? i'm trying to own it with the cafe curtains)

This first is a twofer! After the jump, my mom's amazing vegan gravy recipe (with some minor tweaks by me) and my mashed cauliflower (mashed potato alternative) recipe.

easy + healthy cauliflower soup recipe

It suddenly feels like fall around here, though it probably be 80 degrees again in a couple days. I'm taking advantage of the cooler weather by cooking soup. Soup is my favorite thing to cook - it doesn't have to look pretty or require any sort of finesse in the kitchen to be tasty. I decided to throw together a couple ingredients in the dutch oven after work today and see what happened - and a very tasty soup came out of it. It's also the simplest, easiest soup ever....and quite healthy and vegan-friendly. Just cauliflower, shallots, garlic, turmeric, water/broth, thyme, and a bay leaf! Recipe after the jump.

(i am so, so good at getting hipster picture of the ingredients. and then i fail at taking subsequent cooking photos. sorry.)

the best salad dressing + a really easy salad recipe

My wonderful mother-in-law moved to Santa Barbara a few months ago, and we've all done pretty well at getting together on a weekly basis. Right before we went to NYC, Emma invited us over for an early dinner. She lives in a gorgeous Victorian building with lovely wooden floors and tons of sunlight streaming through the huge bay windows.

At this dinner, Emma introduced us to the best salad dressing ever: Annie's Shiitake Sesame Dressing. It's organic, which is always a plus, though unfortunately there's no low sodium / low fat version. That being said, it's still a lot healthier than most dressings out there. Emma served it with roasted turnips, sesame seeds, avocado, mushrooms, and tofu, which was an amazing combination.

Baby girl seems to like it, too, considering the ninja-like kicks I've been feeling after dinner lately.

After the jump, check out a really simple salad recipe (can I even call it a recipe when it's this easy? Salad idea?) that goes wonderfully with this dressing.

a great recipe + poached egg tip

This past weekend, The Husband and I made this delicious chard and white bean stew. We followed the recipe to the T, minus using large lima beans we already had around, adding extra veggies, and using rainbow chard for extra color. We served it upon toasted french baguette rubbed with garlic and with a poached egg on top.

It was really, really hearty and soooo good. It's definitely been added to our recipe rotation. Poaching eggs is not easy, though! I am definitely going to purchase an egg poacher tray thing. If The Husband can't pull it off (he is beyond talented in the kitchen), there's no way I will be able to.

I was a little leery of eating a poached egg, since I contracted mild food poisoning a couple weeks ago for the first time. Not. Fun. A poached egg is not cooked thoroughly enough to eradicate any possible salmonella that may be present in the egg, which is of major concern to anyone who is in ill health, pregnant, etc. We turned to Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking book to see if he had any tips on cooking a safe poached egg, and he did!

McGee recommends that, after poaching the egg in a pan, transfer it to a pot of water heated to 150 degrees. While keeping the temperature steady, allow the egg to sit in the hot water for 15 minutes. This will safely eradicate any bacteria that may still be lurking in the runny yolk. We tried this, and it did not affect the integrity and tastiness of the poached egg at all. So, if you've been told by a doctor to avoid poached eggs because of food-borne illness concerns, fear no more!*

*not that I think I'm better than your doctor or anything, so don't be stupid about this.

things we love: grill baskets!

Have you ever used a grill basket? Someone gave us this one as a gift a while back, and we finally used it this past weekend. It was amazing!

The Husband has a tasty and incredibly easy kebab recipe (recipe after the jump), but we don't make it as often as we should since skewering everything takes some time and I don't like touching raw meat. Yes, I am a princess. The Husband reminds me of this every day. So we decided to bust out the grill basket and see what happens.

We love the basket because all we have to do was dump all the veggies and meat into the basket, stick on the grill, and let it cook. The basket has a very long handle so The Husband didn't get burned. It was also much easier to turn the basket and get everything flipped at once instead of turning each skewer and hoping you don't lose a mushroom in the process. That being said, we still lost some stuff. Next time, we will use it for cooking larger items, like corn or fish.

Check out The Husband's super lazy kebab recipe after the jump.

recipe: quinoa stuffed bell peppers

(the husband really loves making decorative flourishes with Sriracha)

Stuffed bell peppers have been done time and time again, but when I stumbled upon a recipe that used quinoa and feta cheese, I was majorly intrigued. After making this a couple times and adapting it to my tastes, I think I have perfected the recipe. Though this is a meatless dish, it is packed full of complete protein from the quinoa and very filling. The cheese gives it a nice flavor but is honestly not necessary, if you're super lactose intolerant or vegan. I'm lactose intolerant but the small amount of cheese in this dish did not bother me in the least. Enjoy! Recipe after the jump.

recipes: chopped salad & easy healthy chicken

I don't know what to say or think about what happened in Boston yesterday. My feelings change by the minute; from despairing when I think of how Newtown was only in December and now it's April and yet another horrific act of inhumanity has ruined more lives.....to feeling hope and inspiration from all the reminders that the good, empathetic, compassionate people far outnumber the cruel and terrible ones. All I can do is try to be an example of hope, love, and empathy in honor of the innocent people who were hurt or killed yesterday. Sending my love and support to Boston.

The Husband and I are quite experienced with making compromises with each other, especially when it comes to food. I'm the ex-vegetarian health food freak who won't cook meat and is disgusted by anything greasy (except fish and chips. those are the best). He's the fancy cook who loves a good steak and thinks fat is a wonderful source of flavor in a dish. Both positions are valid, but since my POV has a more positive impact on our waistlines, we generally eat meatless, one-pot meals loaded with vegetables and healthy legumes. 

(mise en place for veggie stir fry)

Every so often, we decide to indulge with a meat entree for dinner, and one of our favorite easy, healthy, weeknight meal options is chicken with a honey-beer glaze and a wannabe tabbouli chopped salad. Click through for the recipes!

quick link: meat free in australia

Next week is officially Meat-Free Week in Australia, but you don't have to be living in the southern hemisphere to participate in such a positive activity. The point of not eating meat for a week is not to convert anyone to vegetarianism, but to highlight how much meat as a society we really are eating - the short answer is, too much. It's drastically affecting our health and our environment. 

(source)

Sustainable Table has a recipe book of 21 meat-free dishes that is available for free download here. I already don't eat much meat at all, but am really excited to try some of these recipes. Zucchini patties for breakfast? Quinoa risotto for lunch? Yes please!

easy whole wheat zucchini bread

(The Cat Who Thinks She is a Dog got busted nibbling on a piece of zucchini bread)

Ingredients:

1 regular-sized zucchini*

1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

2 tablespoons regular (granulated) sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cooking spray

(the ingredients. i failed at taking an after picture. amateur blogger indeed.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make sure to wait an extra 5-10 minutes after the oven indicates it is thoroughly heated. This ensures that opening the oven will not significantly lower the temperature inside. Spray a 9x3" baking pan with cooking oil. 

Thoroughly rinse the zucchini. Using the largest holes on a box grater, grate the zucchini, skin and all, and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugars, oil, eggs, and vanilla. 

In a small bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Ensure it is fully mixed, especially the baking soda and powder. Slowly add this to the egg mixture, stirring well. Adding it slowly will help minimize lumps, but make sure to smooth any that appear out. Add the grated zucchini and mix well.

Pour mixture into the baking pan, and spread it evenly. Bake for roughly 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack or tray for 10 minutes. Return to pan or place on a plate right-side up. Allow the bread to cool completely before slicing.

*note: I am from California and shop at farmers' markets. The produce I get my hands on is a bit larger than what is seen in colder / more extreme climates, especially winter stuff. Adjust vegetable ingredient sizes accordingly.