Dinner

I have been thinking for a while of buying a soymilk maker and just bought the SoyaPower G4 . (I also bought but didn't open their tofu making kit; I'll try it in the near future.) I opened the box last night and today made my first batch of soymilk; it was good though a bit thin, so I'll try again with more beans. As part of the process, okara  (soy pulp) is generated. It was a very light brown/off-white color with the consistency of thick oatmeal. I thought I'd make okara burgers for my daughter and me (and serve a non-soy burger to my soy-intolerant wife). I took the okara from a cup of soybeans, mixed in about 1/4 as much whole wheat pastry flour and the same amount of nutritional yeast, plus about the same amount of onion, chopped into 3/8" cubes, plus a pinch of salt, and made into two balls. I flattened them and put them in my air fryer. I baked at 350°F for six minutes to let the inside get cooked somewhat, then air fried for 5 more minutes also at  350°F. ...

I was out and about and asked my wife to get some beans going as a simple and nutritious side dish in the Instant Pot . She picked black beans (I had her do a 0 minute cycle to be almost equivalent to soaking overnight, then I cooked for 25 minutes). I thought I'd continue my experiments with my air fryer and have seen several recipes for air fried broccoli. I think that Kathy Hester had a recipe, but I also quickly looked and found one recipe that included boiling the broccoli first, and another that was simpler that I modified a bit and tried. For the broccoli, I used not just the florets, but also the chopped stalk. I made a mixture of rice milk, Panko bread crumbs, garlic granules, freshly ground black pepper, and salt, and coated the broccoli, then air fried. The recipe I modified suggested 350°F for four minutes, shaking the broccoli up, then continuing for another four minutes, but I wasn't using olive oil and thought I'd try just one go at four minutes. I tried ...

I'm excited about our new air fryer, the Cuisinart   Air Fryer Toaster Oven TOA-60 . I got it about a week ago and am impressed by its toasting (even and fast) and baking, with or without convection (it's fast!). I finally wanted to try the air frying function. I believe that all "air frying" is with this oven is convection baking, maybe with faster air circulation, and with food put in a rectangular basket with holes allowing air circulation. That basket sits atop a baking tray that I put aluminum foil on to make cleanup easier. For my first try, I was going to make a battered seitan, but my wife forgot to pick up bread crumbs and it turned out that we were out of seitan. How about tofu steaks for kiddo and me, and tempeh ones for my wife? I have read that quinoa can be a good coating, so made some quinoa. I also bought some frozen French Fries. I put a little canola oil on a paper towel and wiped the basket to help with keeping food from sticking. The fries were eas...

I made a waterless meal by putting, in this order, onion, shallot, matchsticks of potato, broccoli, fennel, and fresh sage leaves into a large Saladmaster stock pan. I covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 15 minutes. I then mixed in  Victoria Vegan brand arugula pesto alfredo sauce ; I will classify this as an almost no added fat meal; the sauce has 5g fat per quarter cup, but I only used about 1/4 cup to make our three servings. I simmered, covered, on low for a few more minutes. I then added a bit of cubed (1/4") shallot, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and dried oregano. I served it with brown rice maifun noodles and leftover dhal. Results Pending Ideas for the future Pending

I purchased a number of tasty organic items from our local farmers' market, including  Piracicaba  broccoli , also known as Brazilian broccoli. I had it raw right after I bought it; it was quite tender and sweet! I also bought nice carrots, a green tomato for pressure cooking, strawberries, and peas. Earlier, I had prepared red kidney beans in my Instant Pot   (beans soaked overnight and then cooked for I think 12 minutes) as a salad ingredient for a Food for Life class for fourth graders, and used a little more water than I needed. I took most of the beans, but left maybe 1/2 cup plus about the same amount of water, now a bean gravy. I put the full tender Piracicaba broccoli, looking like broccolini with thin stalks, into the gravy, as well as carrot, frozen shelled edamame beans, garlic, onion, a bit of turmeric, kala namak (other salt would be fine, too), freshly ground black pepper, and garlic powder, and cooked on medium heat for about 10 minutes. I served, along wi...

I was happy to have a cousin in town today who came over for dinner after his business day. I thought I'd make a bean dish and was originally thinking of cooking cannellini beans then mixing vegetables and soba noodles into them. I ended up instead serving soba noodles as their own side dish. Here is what I did. Ingredients 2 cups cannellini beans soaked overnight (I got away with soaking for maybe 3 hours and it worked out okay, but I think I'd get softer beans if I soaked for longer) then rinsed and drained again Enough water to just cover the beans Vegan bouillon cube 3/4 cup compressed cup kale leaves, roughly hand separated from stems into approximately 3/4" squares 3 medium carrots cut into large sections approximately 1/2" in size Garlic to taste; 2 cloves finely (1/8" or so) chopped garlic would be good, but we had fresh green garlic, and I used at last a tablespoonful cut into larger 1/4" or so pieces 1t grated or finely (1/8" or so) chopped gi...

I made lasagne; my daughter really liked the manicotti that I recently made and I had some of Miyoko's vegan smoked "mozarella" cheese that I had used. I put four layers of lasagne down, then added leftover canellini beans with Brussels sprouts , plus some of the vegan cheese and sauce. I put down four more layers, then sauteed onion and garlic, plus mushroom and Swiss chard and more sauce. I put down a final four layers then sauce, and baked in a preheated 375°F for 40m. Results Dinner was good and I was pleased at "reinventing" the leftovers this way. Though it wasn't no added fat, I didn't use a lot of the vegan cheese, so it was reasonably low in fat. Ideas for the future It's not so difficult to make lasagne, though it does take a bit of time. One puts sauce down in a baking dish (I used a 9"x13" glass one) then boils four lasagne noodles at a time (these wheat ones cooked in about 5 minutes) and places them on the sauce. Fillings go ...