Falafels with Roasted Vegetables

I tried a Falafel recipe from a Cooking Light cookbook that I have. I chose it mostly because it was simpler than a lot of other falafel recipes that I have, it did not have a long list of ingredients, but it still tasted delicious! I served it with roasted cauliflower and carrots. This is one of my absolute favorite ways to eat cauliflower: Toss cauliflower florets and carrot pieces with some olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, coriander, and cumin. Roast in a 450 degree oven for 35-45 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Yum!

Curried Lentils in Tomato Sauce

I found this lentil recipe in one of my back issues of Everyday Food magazine. It is really easy and really good! The recipe was supposed to use canned lentils (it was a feature on fast meals), but I only had the dry so I had to add a step to cook those first. Also, I added in a diced sweet potato, which the recipe did not have. It was easy: saute a diced onion and 2 inch piece of ginger (grated) in some oil. Add 2 tsp of curry powder and 1 tsp garam masala, sautee 1 minute. Add two cans of lentils and a 26 oz jar of good quality marinara. Simmer 10 minutes (or until thickened), then stir in the juice of 1 lime and 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (or parsley). Serve over rice. I really really liked this dish! I think it will become a staple in our house.

A few other dishes I've made recently (I've been slacking on posting!), one is a bolognese sauce where I just simply subbed in Boca Cumbles. The kids really liked this one, it came out pretty good.

A tofu scramble I made for lunch one day with mushrooms, peppers, and onions. I had some black beans, salsa, and corn tortillas.

Pasta Dinner

Tonight I made one of our favorites, Penne Pasta and Green Beans with Spinach-Walnut Pesto. I love this dinner! It is fast and healthy, and everyone in my family likes it. No wonder I make it just about every other week!

For dessert, I made Lingonberry Oatmeal Bars. These are the Raspberry Oatmeal bars from the Joy of Vegan Baking, except I used lingonberry jam. I also used half earth balance and half coconut oil instead of all earth balance because I was worried I would run out of my earth balance. (I mean, what if I wanted toast real bad, and there was no earth balance?? :) ) I actually think the coconut oil gave it a nice hint of something something.

Oh, and yes, the lingonberry jam was from IKEA, in case you were wondering. So if you happen to have a jar of that too, it makes nice oatmeal bars!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Even though in Florida it's still pretty warm out, I was pretending it was fall this morning because there was a nice breeze. Pumpkin is my favorite fall flavor, so pumpkin pie oatmeal was a delicious treat this morning!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (serves 1)

• 1/2 cup vanilla rice milk


• 1/2 cup water


• 1/2 cup oatmeal


• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree


• dash of pumpkin pie spice


• dash of cinnamon


• 2 Tbs chopped pecans


• 1 - 2 Tbs maple syrup

In a small saucepan, bring the milk and water to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat and stir in the oatmeal. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed and the oatmeal is thick and creamy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the pumpkin puree and spices. Top with chopped pecans and maple syrup.

Pan-Fried Polenta

Tonight I was making a dish that I had made not too long ago, Butter Beans with Sweet Potatoes and Greens, but instead of serving it on rice, I thought I would try out Pan-Fried Polenta. I've made polenta before, but only the soft kind, that is the consistency of mashed potatoes. The firmer kind is really pretty simple, it only takes a little pre-planning (but not much):

Pan-Fried Polenta

• 4 1/2 cups water


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal


• 1 Tbs non-hydrogenated margarine (I used Earth Balance)


• Cooking Spray


• Olive Oil

In a saucepan, bring the water and salt to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and then using a whisk, slowly pour in the cornmeal, whisking constantly. Keep whisking for a minute or two, then switch to a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes, until the cornmeal as become very thick. Remove from heat and stir in margarine. Spray an 9 x 11 inch baking dish with cooking spray, and then pour in the cornmeal mixture, spreading out evenly. Allow to cool at least 30 minutes. Pre-heat a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add the olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Cut the cornmeal mixture into 16 triangles. Place 4 triangles at a time in the hot oil and cook 3 -4 minutes, then flip over and cook another 3 - 4 minutes. Remove from the pan, and repeat with remaining triangles.

Banana Harvest!

Well, obviously we haven't eaten any yet since they are still green, but here are the bananas that I just cut down from my banana plant! Mark bought a teeny tiny banana plant for $11 about six years ago, and it grew and split off, and kept growing (in fact a few plants grew under the fence, so now our neighbors have a couple of nice banana plants). Every year we've gotten bananas, except this past year we had two bunches that were ruined by freezing temperatures. :( I thought we would be out of luck until the following year, but a few months later one of the plants bloomed! You have to wait a while to pick them - until the bananas are "full" but still green. They are smaller than the grocery store bananas, maybe about 4 inches. So cute!

When I was back in the forest of banana plants, I noticed another plant had just started to bloom, so soon I will have another bunch! Okay, so maybe in Florida I can't grow a great apple tree or pear tree, but bananas are fun, too!

Fantastic Foods Are Fantastic!

With our schedules being busy with school back in session, I am all about the easy dinners. Tonight I made the Vegetarian Chili from Fantastic Foods, with spicy potato wedges and broccoli. I love that Chili! I like homemade Chili more (who wouldn't), but this is pretty good for about 10 minutes of cooking on the stove. It was super fast and healthy. We've tried a couple other products from Fantastic Foods, and we like the ones we've tried so far. (The Nature Burgers are one of my kids' favorite dinners.)