Sunday, February 5, 2012

PLANT POWER!!!

It appears that the unthinkable has happened... After watching a documentary (forks over knives), my wife and I decided to give Veganism a one month test run. We started eating partially vegan a few days ago, and after a big rib dinner, finally went full plant power today.

So far, I've got to say, I feel better than I have in weeks. We started the day with some uncle Sam cereal with blueberries and rice milk, had some veggie wraps with homemade hummus for lunch, and topped the day off with our own cornbread concoction, which was really good, even by our vegan beginner standards. Here's how we made it:

Step 1:
Corn Bread

1 cup Corn Meal
1 cup White Whole Wheat flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
1 cup Rice Milk
1/4 cup Apple Sauce
1 tbs Flax Meal
1/2 cup Frozen Corn
1 Anaheim Chile, chopped

Mix the first 4 ingredients in one bowl, then the wet ingredients in another. Add the flax meal to the wet ingredients and let sit for a couple minutes. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture along with the chiles and corn. Pour into a 9X9 pan and bake at 400F for 30 minutes.

Step 2:
Roasted Chiles
Wash and seed Anaheim Chiles, leaving them whole (only remove the tops) dry the chiles, place them on a foiled sheet pan, and roast under a high broiler for 10 minutes, until black. Turn the peppers over, roast another 5-10 minutes, then remove from the oven, wrap tightly in foil, and let rest until cool. Remove the skins.

Step 3:
Salsa

3 Tomatoes
1/3 an Onion, chopped
1 Fresno Chile, chopped
1/4 cup chopped Cilantro
Lime Juice
Salt

Mix the veggies, (go easy on the chile, if you're a fraidy cat) add some lime juice and salt, stir a little, then hit the mixture with a few pulses of an immersion blender (don't overdo it! You want a mix of chunks and purée) season with salt and lime juice to taste.

Step 4:
Re"fried" beans

1 25 oz can Black Beans, well rinsed
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp California Chile Powder
1/2 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
1/2 cup Low Sodium Vegetable Broth
1/2 cup Water
Salt to taste

Mix the beans, spices, and nutritional yeast (this stuff gives a nice cheesy essence!) in a pan over medium high heat for about 5 minutes, until the beans start to beak down a little. Add the vegetable broth, simmer for 10 minutes or so, then mash some of the beans and add the water (depending on how thin you want them, you can add more or less) Salt to taste, then cook a bit longer to incorporate the water and get the texture you want.

Step 5:
Mix some salad with a few spoons of salsa and some rice or quinoa. Top the salad with a piece of cornbread. Drape a chile or two over the cornbread, top with beans, salsa, and avocado.

Step 6:
Go back for seconds.

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