macaroni and...creamy orange sauce (or cabbage and creamy orange sauce)

I gotta write this down before I forget!  

This was invented out of ingredients I'm trying to get rid of from my fridge before I go out of town.  There was a butternut squash, a head of cabbage, onion, and a lot of home made soy yogurt.   I also was inspired by the vegan macaroni and cheese posts on the blogosphere, many of which use butternut squash.  They add things like lemon and mustard for tartness and non-dairy milks for liquid, so I figured yogurt would make an excellent substitute (even better in fact).  They also add a lot of salt, so I wasn't expecting mine to taste good without it.  That's why I was so surprised when I tasted it and liked it!  If you add salt, I know it will taste even better but this still tastes good without it.  Also I tend to go light on the spices so you will probably want more.

Ingredients for the sauce:
1 butternut squash
1-1.5 cups soy yogurt (to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (note the word "smoked", this adds a nice flavor)
1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (I was closer to 1, others will want more)
~1 cup veggie broth or water, as needed to thin the sauce

The "noodles":
cook up noodles of your choice
or
cook up cabbage and onions in a pot or pressure cooker

Preparation:
I baked the butternut squash last night, cooled it in the fridge overnight, then cut it in half and scooped out the seeds.  The skin peeled off easily with only a little help from me.  Cut that up  and put it in the blender with the soy yogurt and broth.  I used the liquid from cooking up the cabbage and onions and that tasted good.  Then add the spices and blend some more.   I tasted it and exclaimed "wow" because as I said before, I was expecting to be underwhelmed without the salt.  It was good on noodles, but guess what, it was even better on the cabbage and onions!   The noodles have some nostalgic appeal (reminiscent of macaroni and cheese), but the cabbage and onions have more flavor.

food logs Oct 29--following MWL

I logged my food yesterday too.  Here's the summary (click on the image to see it better):

The red lentil chili is Chef AJ's recipe. I cooked up some brown rice (actually a mixture of short grain, long grain, and forbidden rice) and combined it with the chili.  I ate several bowls.  I made some cabbage salad out of:  cabbage, carrots, apples, orange juice, and chia seeds.  I ate several bowls of this too.  and lots of fruit.  and the total was only 1340 calories.  This is essentially McDougall's Maximum Weight Loss plan (whole foods, vegan, none of the calorie dense foods) and Novick's calorie density plan.  I see why they say just eat until you are full and you will lose weight.   

Here is the nutrient breakdown:

I had lots more omega-3 fat today than yesterday since the cabbage salad has chia seeds.  total fat intake is now up to 7.5%.  Vitamin E is still low.  Obviously more fats would help that.

Now I just have to work on not pigging out when I don't log my food.  I have the habit of eating while I'm doing food prep and dishes, which is a lot of the time!  But it's just a habit and habits can be changed.

food logs Oct 28

I logged my food in chronometer on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Here's Tuesday's summary (click on the image to see it better):

I'm amazed at how much you can eat and still have low calories at the end of the day if you don't include nuts and seeds.  The squash I ate was a big kabocha squash that I turned into 3 filling meals.  The cabbage I cooked up with 2 apples and cinnamon--I just filled in the raw weight before I cooked it (in grams).

Here is the nutrient breakdown:

Of course B12 and D are missing.  and it's common for selenium to be low.  Vitamin E is low since my fat intake is low--only 6% of calories.  Nuts and avocado would bring that up.  On the other hand, maybe it's not needed to be so high, as this number is based on what most people eat, not what they need, and most people eat high-fat diets.

another ketchup recipe

I thought I already posted this but I can't find it so here it is (again?).  This is the ketchup I've been making lately.

Ingredients:
1 onion, cut into large pieces
1 medium apple, peeled, sliced
a few cloves garlic, peeled
2-3 carrots, cut into large pieces
a few medjool dates, pitted
2 16-oz cans tomatoes
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Cut everything into large pieces and put in a baking dish.  Add the liquid from the tomatoes.  Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees with just enough water to keep it moist.  Here's the result of the baked dish (I didn't use dates this time):

Blend everything in a blender.  Add more vinegar if you think it needs it.

It's good, a little more orange than normal ketchup.  If you prefer, don't add the carrots and then it will be more red.  Add as many dates as you want for sweetness.  For me, 2 is enough.   Often I don't use any.

Minimalist salads

Lately I've been eating lettuce like you'd snack on chips.  I like the taste of romaine lettuce and don't think it needs to be cut up and mixed with a bunch of other stuff--oh yeah, and I'm lazy.  Here's how I've been prepping it--makes it perk up just like it was fresh picked after a soaking rain!  

I cut off the bottom and wash the leaves and put them in a bowl with water on the bottom.



Then just cover with a plastic bag and put it in the fridge.



The leaves soak up the water and become full and crisp!

Salad Dressing Ice cubes

I don't eat much salad dressing and to make a batch usually requires enough ingredients to make the blender work which is then usually too much for me at one time.  So the solution is to freeze them into ice cubes!  This worked well.  I used for inspiration StraightupFood's vinaigrette salad dressings.

I did this a couple of months ago and made 3 different dressings and then I froze them into ice cubes.  I logged the recipes in cronometer so I have the measurements for everything except the water.   Here's what went into each:

Strawberry vinaigrette:
3/4 lb strawberries
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 medjool date
1 tsp chia seeds
little bit of onion (1/2 oz)
water?  maybe none

blend in the blender.

Hemp mustard date lemon dressing
1-2 oz lemon juice
2 Tbsp mustard (no salt)
1 medjool date
1 oz hemp hearts
don't recall how much water.

Orange mustard dressing
1.2 cup orange juice
1 oz hemp hearts
1 Tbsp mustard

The amounts of liquid and hemp hearts don't matter that much--you can do anywhere from a 1:4 to 1:8 ratio.  Just be careful with the mustard and vinegar--start with less then add to taste.  And any fruit will work, and you can use mustard or vinegar as you wish.

I didn't take pictures at the time, but here is one from today where I just decided to clean out the fridge and combine them all together!

easiest and best potato salad

3 ingredients:

1. potatoes
2. curry powder
3. soy yogurt (homemade is best!  and easy)

Boil, steam, pressure cook or bake your potatoes.  I steamed in the pressure cooker for a few minutes.   I cooled them overnight in the fridge.   Then I cut them up into bite size pieces, added some curry powder and soy yogurt.  mmm, best potato salad ever.  Oh, I happened to use purple potatoes this time.  You can use any kind of potato, or sweet potato.  You can also use any kind of seasoning, like Mexican, or Indian, or Italian.  Lots to play with and EASY and GOOD.