More than just a decoration

The center of this dish is the gourd. Most people know gourds as no more then a fall decoration, but this dish proves that gourds are not only edible, but tasty! I was at the Fall 2011 Sustanability Coalition in Chico this past weekend and as a goodbye gift, the Co-op let us take home some of the vegetables they grew, one of which was the gourd. I didn't really know what to do with it at first, but decided to treat it as if it were any other normal squash. So what I came up with was a mediteranean gourd dish with a side of rissotto. If you ever cross paths with a gourd, don't just run away in terror, come to this recipe and relish in the goodness of the gourd!


Ingredients

• 1-2 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 red onion, cut to your preference
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 3/4 cup canned tomatoes (drained)
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp dill weed
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 gourds, peeled, seeded, and chopped (prepping the gourd is probably the hardest part of the recipe so do it before you start cooking)
• 2 cups water

Directions
1. After you have everything prepped, heat oil in a frying pan that has at least 4 inch raised sides.
2. Add oninions and garlic to warm pan and cook till tender
3. Stir in the canned tomatoes and add all the seasonings
4. Let ingredients warm for 5 minutes, stirring occasionaly
5. Add the chopped gourds and the water
6. Cover pan until water is boiling
7. Once boiling, lower heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until water has evaporated



 Rissotto
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup medium grain white rice
• 1/2 cup water
• 2/3 cup vegetable stock
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• salt to taste
• extra water

Directions


1. Boil 1/2 cup of water and vegetable stock in a small saucepan
2. Add rice and stir continuously
3. When rice has absorbed majority of the liquid, add garlic and salt
4. When all the liquid is absorbed, taste check to see if the rice is firm but not hard
5. If the rice needs more cooking, add liquid and keep stirring till desired consistency is met
6. Spoon remaining gourd liquid over top

Vanilla Tapioca Pudding with Banana

I love pudding so when I found a way to make my favorite type of pudding dairy free I knew it would be blog worthy! The pudding alone is delicious but the addition of the bananas just puts the dessert over the top, so enjoy!



Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Tapioca pearls
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups vanilla soy milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp egg replacer (cornstarch can be used as an alternative)
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (add another tsp if you are not using vanilla soy milk)
• 2 bananas
• 1  tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Soak tapioca pearls in 3/4 cup water for 15 minutes
2. Add milk and salt to pearls and heat over medium heat until pot begins to boil. Stir continuously
3. Once boiling, lower heat to let it simmer uncovered for 15 minutes
4. Warm up the 3 tbsp of water in microwave then add egg replacer, stir till dissolved.
5. Add sugar and egg replacer to tapioca and keep over heat for another 3 minutes
6. Stir in vanilla extract
7. Transfer to a oven-friendly container and store in refridgerator for two hours.
8. Remove from refridgerator and turn on the broiler
9. Slice up the bananas add a single layer of bananas on top of the tapioca pudding
10. Mix cinnamon and sugar then sprinkle over banana
11. Place in preheated oven  3 inches below the broiler and let heat for 3 minutes.
12. Serve immediately!

Surprise! Okra is delicious

Every time I go to the farmer's market I like to grab an assortment of vegetables just to make it more intresting throughout the week. I picked up okra a few times and played around with it, but came across a recipe online and tweaked it to make this wonderful okra dish! It has so much flavor and okra is one of my favorite vegetables to cook because of all the slime! If you have never had okra before, this dish would be a great first experience with it.

Ingredients:
1 lb okra, both ends cut and body's cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 small/medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 c. drained canned diced tomatoes
1/2 c. vegetable broth
3/4 tsp. cumin
1 can humany or 1 can of any other bean(15 oz.)
salt


Directions
Cook okra for 2 minutes in a large saucepan of boiling water.
Transfer okra with a slotted spoon to ice water, then drain.
Heat oil in a large skillet on medium high. (Use a skillet that has a lid and raised sides)
Add bell pepper to skillet and cook until soft.
Transfer peppers to a bowl.
Add onion, garlic, ginger, and pepper to the skillet and cook until the onion is soft and slightly browned
Mix in the tomatoes, broth, cumin, okra, and bell pepper.
Reduce heat to medium and cover.
Stir occasionally and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Add either the beans or humany and salt.
Cook for another 4 minutes without lid.
It will be ready to serve when there is little to no liquid in the pan.




Note: This dish can be served alone, but I accompanied mine with whole wheat cous cous and tried it another time with brown rice and found it very tasty. Before all the liquid evaporated, I spooned some of it into my cous cous and found that it made it taste very good!

Mexican Vegetable Soup

We are entering the season of delicious soups! I've loved making soups lately simply because you can add so many different vegetables and flavors and it all comes together into one cohesive meal. I prepared this soup with some local farmers market veggies as well as some canned goods. This soup is definiely one of the top tasting soups I've ever tasted before. It has just the right amount of spice and a good balance between vegetables and protein. The recipe makes manyyy servings, but you wont regret having leftovers:)

Ingredients

1 small potato

1/2 large red bell pepper

1 small squash

1 small zuchinni

1/3 onion

2 cloves of garlic, miced

1 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced

1/2 tsp papirika

1tbsp oil

1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies (if you can't find tomatoes that have green chile, chop some up yourself and add to your liking!)

1 can pinto beans

1/2 can black bean

1/2 cup quinoa

3 cans of water

1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1.Chop all the vegetables up and add to large saucepan.(this includes the cilantro and the garlic) I cut the veggies into pretty large chunks, so if you cut them down smaller just make sure you cut cooking time down a little so the potatoes dont dissolve

 2. Add olive oil and papirika to veggies and turn heat on medium high. When the vegetables start to sizzle lower heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes

3. Add tomatoes, quinoa and beans. With one of the cans you just emptied, refill it three times with water and add to sauce pan

4. Add salt, cover, and bring to a boil

5. When boiling point is reached, reduce heat to low-simmer and heat for 30 minutes

6. When time is reached, remove from hot surface and set aside to cool

7. Serve with crisp tortilla chips crumbled up inside



Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Happy first day of October!! Well as you may suspect I'm kind of obsessed with this season, I'm just too excited to start wearing sweaters and mittens, eating oatmeal and hot tea every morning and soup all the time! yee! Well in celebration of the first day of October here is a super simple vegan muffin recipe I found and tweaked a bit featuring thee fall ingredient - pumpkin! 

Serves Twelve

Ingredients: 

1 3/4 cup All-purpose Flour

1 1/4 cup Evaporated Cane Sugar (Organic Sugar)*

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup Pumpkin Puree (be sure not to get pumpkin pie mix!)

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons molasses 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts - optional

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In separate bowl combine pumpkin puree, almond milk, vegetable oil, and molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix (add walnuts if desired).

Bake in muffin tin on 400˚ for 18-20 minutes, once toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

I enjoyed with a touch of Earth Balance soy free Butter and hot Pumpkin Spice tea!

*I got the Evaporated Cane Sugar (Organic Sugar) I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts!! yay! So excited to using this as a healthier, more natural alternative. An other great option would be to use Stevia! Enjoy! 

Quinoa Veggie-Bean Stew

First post as a college student! Very exciting. As you might expect, it's pretty hard going from unlimited food ingredients to being on a budget with a limited supply of goodies in the pantry. I threw this recipe together with some of my favorite ingredients and it ended up very good! I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did!

Ingredients

• 1 c. quinoa
• 1 can black beans with some of the liquid
• 1 can garbonzo beans
• 1 can tomato sauce (I used trader joes tomato sauce, picture below)
• 1/2 c chopped carrots
• 1/2 chopped onino
• 2 cloves miced garlic
• 1/4 tsp papirka
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• pepper

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Cover and keep on low for 40 minutes.

The longer the ingredients stay on heat, the less soupy it will become so if you prefer a soup over a stew, try cutting the time down or use lesss quinoa.

That's it! Simple and delicious, just how a college student likes:)

The Chai

Ashley can attest to this, I love chai. I would have a chai latte every single day if I could, and now I am happy to say I can- and so can you! I, like many blue blooded americans had their first experience with chai at Starbucks. And although for this past year I've been scouring the trusty world wide web for impressive homemade chai recipes I have yet to be impressed. Some much too weak, and tasting like just watery warm milk, ewww, and others so bitter I had to dump it out. So today, being the first Sunday (day off) of fall I decided to get crafty and experiment- never did I imagine it would turn out perfectly, the first time! Whoa, beginners luck? I will take it. So here it is my friends, my deliciously amazing chai latte recipe!!

Serves two of your favorite medium/large mugs

            or three small one's

Ingredients:

3 cups water

3 cinnamon sticks (broken up a bit)

8 cardamon pods (lightly crushed with mortar & pestle)

3 star anise  (lightly crushed with mortar & pestle)

1 teaspoon whole cloves  (lightly crushed with mortar & pestle)

1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorn  (lightly crushed with mortar & pestle)

1/8 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

5 bags Darjeeling Tea

1/4 cup Almond Breeze Almond Milk -Vanilla

      or Silk Soy Milk -Vanilla, per serving 

1 packet of Stevia, per serving

In medium saucepan over medium heat start to bring water to a boil. Place cinnamon, cardamon, star anise, cloves, peppercorn, nutmeg, & ginger in water and bring to a full boil. Once boiling reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Now reduce heat again to low (the lowest your stove top will go) and let it simmer once more for 10 minutes, make sure you stir a bit and get anything off the sides of the saucepan. Once that ten minutes is up bring the heat back up and just before boil turn off. Now is when you can put in your Darjeeling Tea and let seep for 5 minutes. Do not leave in any longer than five minutes, it will release tannins and make an insanely bitter chai, no no good! Take tea bags out and prepare a container to strain the the drink into. I use a strainer and also half of a paper towel (because I don't have cheese cloth which would probably make my life easier, soo next time). You want to make sure you don't get any floating chunks of spice into your actual chai concentrate. 

To serve, warm up milk and put about 3/4 cups of concentrate into your mug. Once milk is all warmed up add to your mug, add stevia and stir! Garnish with whatever your heart desires, I added a dash (or maybe two) of ground cinnamon and put a little star anise for the photo because it was cute. 

I really don't mean to toot my own horn, and I am one of thooose who rarely loves the things I make and always need second, third and fourth opinions but for this baby, one sip and I knew I did good. Now go- go and make your chai latte and never buy the $4 a cup again! 

Tips & Tricks:

Store the concentrate in air tight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. 

I like my chai spicy. Not hot spicy, just the ability to taste all the spices and get a good flavor! If one or two particular spices fancy's your particular taste just add more! Simple as that! This recipe will easily double or triple ;) 

As much as I love "the chai" I dislike all that black tea in my system, I am not a major caffeine gal. Thus I, and those of you who may be in agreeance, can sometimes substitute it with an herbal tea, a red roobios  would be perfect or a red roobios chai, and even though the latter is probably kind of cheating, it would be a great idea to use.

Serve on ice or blended for a cool treat!