Baked Potato Soup

Today is Saturday, which of course means that I ran a lot. 12 miles to be exact. And it always seems that in those last few miles my mind and conversation drift to two things: 1. I am ready to be done running, and 2. Food. Today's food conversation turned to baked potatoes. I always said that if there was ever a food that I could eat every day for the rest of my life, it would definitely be a baked potato. Potatoes in the last decade definitely have been given a bad wrap. Deep fried they are horrible for you, but in their beautiful baked state they can offer up to 18% of your daily value of potassium. So the dish du jour is Baked Potato Soup, loosely based on a recipe from Cooking Light Magazine.






Baked Potato Soup
2 1/2 pounds of baking potatoes
2 Tbs Earth Balance

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 cups unsweetened almond milk
3 cups veggie broth
1/2 cup of cooked pureed cauliflower
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 c of Nutritional Yeast
1 1/2 cups of cooked broccoli
10 slices tempeh bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.
Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake at 400° for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes; coarsely mash. Discard skins.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Melt butter in a large pot. Add flour, whisking to combine with the butter. Gradually add milk and veggie broth, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add potatoes and pureed cauliflower. Transfer 1/3 of the mix to a blender and blend until creamy (this step is optional, but it will give you a creamier soup). Transfer back to your pot and add salt, pepper, and paprika. Remove from heat.
Stir in nutritional yeast and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Add additional salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle each serving with onions and veggie bacon.
For added nutritional boost, pour soup over steamed broccoli for a potato/broccoli soup that's out of this world. I know two broccoli recipes in a row? What can I say? Organic broccoli was on sale for 99 cents a pound :)

Tempeh Bacon, aka "Facon" as seen in Vegetarian Times

Makes 24 slices

• 1 8-oz. pkg. tempeh, sliced into 24 very thin slices
• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. ancho chile powder
• 2 tsp. liquid smoke, optional (but highly recommended)
• 1 Tbs. canola oil
• Smoked paprika, optional

Directions

1. Lay tempeh slices in 2 13- x 9-inch baking dishes. Bring soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, cumin, ancho chile powder, and ½ cup water to a boil in small saucepan. Boil 1 minute, then remove from heat, and stir in liquid smoke, if using. Pour over tempeh slices. Let cool, then cover and chill 2 hours, or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 450°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Carefully transfer tempeh slices to prepared baking sheet, and discard marinade.
3. Brush slices with canola oil, and sprinkle with paprika, if desired. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, or until beginning to brown. Flip tempeh slices, brush with oil, and bake 5 to 7 minutes more, or until crisp and dark brown.
 



Nutrient Round up:
Potato: a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Potassium and Manganese.
Tempeh: a good source of Protein, Riboflavin, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Manganese.

Cauliflower: a good source of Protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Phosphorus and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid and Manganese.

Broccoli: a good source of Protein, Thiamin, Pantothenic Acid, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Potassium and Manganese.

Now go enjoy your soup knowing that you are enjoying all of the taste of a baked potato with none of the guilt!

Mac and unCheese

Nothing says comfort food quite like Mac and Cheese. As a kid I seriously would have eaten mac and cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if my mom had let me. Mac and cheese was second only to my love of barbies. Of course, the barbies are long gone, but love of mac and cheese dies hard. After going lactose intolerant I tried MANY vegan cheeses, most of which were made from a disgusting rubber like substance that could have possibly been old tires. So as you can imagine, it was with great joy the day that I found Vegan Dad's Kraft Dinner recipe. (For those Americans reading this blog, our wacky neighbors to the north (aka America's hat) call their blue box mac and cheese Kraft dinner. Weird eh? Yeah Canadians are a strange bunch). So here is Vegan Dad's Kraft Dinner aka Mac and Cheese:


 INGREDIENTS
- 1 large red pepper roasted, peeled, and seeded
-1/4 cup of cooked carrots
- 3 cups macaroni
- 3/4 cup raw cashews
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp tumeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1/4 cup margarine
- almond milk

METHOD
1. While red pepper is roasting, cook pasta according to directions. Toss your cashews, carrots, and water in your Vitamix (or other high powered blender) until very smooth (3 to 5 mins).
2. Chop roasted pepper (after peeling and seeding, of course) and add to cashew mixture. Add yeast, mustard, spices, salt, and flour. Blend until smooth.
3. When pasta is cooked, drain. Add margarine to the now empty hot pot and return to the stove over medium heat. When melted, slowly whisk in cashew mixture, then add pasta and mix well. Add enough almond milk until desired consistency is reached.

For added nutritional value, use quinoa pasta and if your kids aren't completely horrified by greens, you can add lightly steamed broccoli to the macaroni after it's been cooked.

The health count in this dish stacks up as follows:
Carrots: rich in beta carotene, fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients
Red Bell Peppers: contain 3 times more vitamin C than an orange. Also, loaded with lycopene.
Broccoli: contains multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties.
Quinoa: contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it a complete protein source. Also high in protein at 18% of it's total calories come from protein.
Nutritional Yeast: high in B complex vitamins and is also a complete protein
Tumeric: has long been used as an anti inflammatory in eastern cultures.

Oh and did I mention it takes really great too? Just about as close to the blue box version that has none of the above going on. Take that Kraft dinner, you have just been schooled.

Chocolate Incognito Pancakes

Ahh Valentine's Day. A day for love, flowers, and eating really amorous, extravagant food. Well that's if your Valentine's dates aren't 4 and 6 years old and have a blood lust for chocolate. With the hubs out of town I decided to indulge Boy Wonder and Mini Me with Chocolate pancakes for dinner. Now, I have to disclose that pancakes are a real winner of a food hiding spot for me. It's a food that is extremely kid friendly and you can hide a ton of good stuff in these without the kids suspecting a thing. So, without further adieu, I give you my nutrient rich Chocolate Incognito Pancakes:

Chocolate Pancakes:
3 cups of Almond milk
3 tbsp Maple Syrup
1 cup of uncooked quick cook oats
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
2 tbsp of flax oil (or coconut oil)
2 tbsp of apple sauce
1/2 cup of Blueberries
2 handfuls of raw spinach or kale
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of baking powder
1 cup of whole wheat flour

Add the first 8 ingredients (almond milk- raw spinach) to your Vitamix (or other high powered emulsion blender) and blend on high for 2-3 minutes until the spinach, blueberries, and oats have been completely mixed and there are no visible chunks in the mixture. Then add the salt, baking powder, and flour to the Vitamix and mix until the all the dry components mix with the wet ingredients. Then pour into a pan or griddle. You can use this mix for waffles or pancakes. To get the heart shaped pancakes I used a heart shaped cookie cutter and poured the pancake mix directly into the cookie cutter. Once they are done, top with your favorite fruit and a little powdered sugar.

My sweet little Valentine's loved their chocolate dinner and were completely oblivious to the fact that the just ate kale in their beloved pancakes. I call that a win-win!!

Spinach Pasta Soup

Saturdays are my absolute favorite day of the week. Why? Because they are all about two of my favorite things: running a LOT of miles and eating a LOT of food. And quite frequently, running several miles while talking about food. Today's topic: bread. And what goes better with bread on a kind of yucky weather kind of day? Soup of course!!!

Spinach Pasta Soup:
1/2 diced onion
5 cloves of diced garlic
1 can of diced tomatoes
5 cups of water
2 cubes of vegetable bullion
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 cup of cooked and pureed carrot/cauliflower mix (1/4c chopped cooked carrots, 1/4 cup of chopped cooked cauliflower, 1 tbsp of water- pureed in the Vitamix)
2 tsp of oregano
8-10 fresh basil leaves, minced
3 cups of chopped fresh spinach
2 cups of cooked pasta- I used Wacky Mac spirals
Salt and pepper as needed

Cook onion and garlic in a pan with hot olive oil until onions soften (about 5 minutes on a medium heat). Then add basil, oregano, vegetable bullion, water, tomato paste, and the pureed carrot/cauliflower mix and cook for 15 minutes. Add the spinach in for the last 3 minutes. In a seperate pot, cook your pasta according to it's instructions.

Layer your pasta in the bottom of your bowl and top with the soup. (If you add the pasta directly to the soup it will continue to cook in the hot soup and can get overcooked). I topped our soup off with Bean Balls from my culinary Bible, Veganomicon:

Beanballs
From Veganomicon
1 can of cooked kidney beans
1/4 c. vital wheat gluten
1/2 c. bread crumbs- I used Panko and it was fab!
2 T. olive oil
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. steak sauce or tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated
1/4 t. lemon zest
1/2 t. oregano
1/4 t. thyme
Preheat oven to 375* and spray rimmed baking sheet with oil.
Mash kidney beans using potato masher or food processor. (Use a Vitamix for the ultimate creamy consistency). Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Knead with your hands for about a minute once combined.
Roll into balls – I got about 16 out of this – and place on baking sheet. Spray beanballs with a little more oil. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip and bake again for 10 minutes.
Then of course what meal isn't complete without its muse? By that of course I mean bread. Top your meal off with a tasty baguette and you are set! Who says vegan food isn't filling? This girl is stuffed!!!

It's Valentine's!!

Here at our the Trippet House I take holidays very seriously, and by seriously I mean I bake my weight in treats (consequently my jeans start fitting tighter around the same time. Coincidence?). Valentine's Day is of course no exception. If my boys had it their way they would eat their weight in those puffy pink grocery store Valentine's sugar cookies. You know the ones that I am talking about- they have about 80 ingredients on the label, most of which I can't pronounce. That's if I let them of course. So with Mini-Me's preschool Valentine's party coming up I figured I would offer the kids a healthier version of the puffy pink heart cookies, something without all the junk and artificial food dyes. So here goes:

Healthy Sugar Cookies! (taken from Chocolate Covered Katie's blog)

• 1.5 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I use Bob's Red Mill organic)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
  
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons almond milk
  
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance

Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. In a separate bowl, melt the vegan butter, then stir in vanilla and milk. Pour dry into wet and mix again. Form balls or roll out (not too thin), then use a cookie cutter to make shapes. If you want soft cookies, you’ll need to get the dough very cold. (So roll the balls first, then fridge until cold.) Cook in a 325F preheated oven for 9 minutes. They will look very underdone when you take them out, but that’s ok!! Just let them cool for 5 minutes before touching. http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/12/01/healthy-sugar-cookies/

Raspberry Royal Icing

• 15 frozen raspberries
• 1 lb vegan powdered sugar (be careful as most powdered sugar is not vegan)
• 1/3 cup of water

Heat the raspberries in the water until the raspberries start to fall apart. Throw them in the Vitamix (or any other high powered emulsion blender) on a low speed and gradually add the powdered sugar. If your frosting is too thin add a little more sugar. Frost the cookies once they have cooled (about 30 minutes). Let the cookies sit out until the frosting has hardened.

Enjoy!!