Quinoa and 3 Bean Chili

This is not exact science, but I will attempt to give a good idea of what is in my chili.

In a smaller pot:
Sautee 1/2 small onion, chopped and 2 cloves of minced garlic in coconut oil (or olive oil) with a sprinkle of sea salt
When that cooks a few minutes, add in about 3/4 cup quinoa and 1/2 cup split red lentils
Sautee this together 2 minutes. Add roughly 3 cups of water, and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender (about 20 minutes) adding in water if needed.

In a big soup pot while the quinoa and lentils are cooking:
Sautee together with salt and coconut oil:
1 large onion chopped
3-5 cloves of garlic minced (depending on how much you like)
2 carrots, chopped small
2 stalks of celery, chopped small
Put lid on and cook down, sweating off the veggies about 8 minutes.
Add in 1 vegan boullion cube, 1 jar of tomato sauce, and about 8 cups (this is a guess) of water. Bring to a boil with a mixture of these spices:
1 tbsp. mild chili powder
1 tsp. of cumin
dash of cayenne pepper
1 tsp. of dried oregeno
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika (smoked is best if you can find it)
tiny pinch of cinnamon
pinch of a curry mix you like

Once mixture comes to a boil, add in a mixture of:
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper chopped
2-3 tomatoes (half, and then with hands, squirt juice and seeds into pot and roughly tear with your hands into the pot into bite-sized chunks)

Cook until the peppers and tomatoes have cooked down and softened with lid on pot over mild heat.
When they have cooked down, add in 1 jar each of:
black beans
white beans
red kidney beans
and also add the lentils and quinoa to pot
add more water if necessary to make a stew like consistency, and taste to adjust seasonings. Cook together for 5-10 minutes over low heat (so as not to make the beans over-mushy). Serve with Vegan cornbread recipe.

Creamy and Divine Cauliflower Casserole

Coat pan with olive oil or coconut oil

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces

1 red pepper, chopped

1 large potato shredded and sauteed for a few minutes in coconut oil

10 mushrooms, sliced

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/4 cup rice flour

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

1/2 Tbsp. dijon mustard

1 teaspoon granulated onion

1 teaspoon garlic powder

3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

1 tsp. dried Herbes de Provence spice blend

1/4-1/2 cup vegetable broth (or vegan bouillion cube with = water)

1/4 cup bread crumbs (homemade bread crumbs work, or walnuts to do gluten free)

Directions:

1. Sautee the cauliflower with a little salt, about 5 minutes or until it just starts to soften up a bit. Put aside in a bowl.
2. Meanwhile, melt coconut oil over medium heat in heavy saucepan. Add flour and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in milk, whisking constantly over medium low heat until thickened.

3. Add mustard, garlic, onion and nutritional yeast, rest of herbs, and salt to taste. Add vegetable broth, just until sauce is thinned enough that it is makes a nice creamy sauce. Coat a casserole dish with oil.

4. Sautee the shredded potatoes in a pan with coconut oil until they start to soften

5. Add vegetables to casserole pan. Pour sauce over vegetables and stir until coated. Add breadcrumbs on top and bake for about 30 minutes, until top is browned, and creamy bubbles are going up the side of the dish. (glass baking dish is great for this)

Source of recipe: I modified a recipe on vegweb.com, here is the original if you would like to see, (those are my pictures on the recipe page btw): http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=35259.0

Makes: 4 servings, Preparation time: 20 minutes, Cooking time: 25 minutes?
‘

Socas w/ fresh Herbs (gluten free crepes)

Socas are Garbanzo flour crepes. Typically they are made with half wheat flour and half Garbanzo (chickpea or grao) flour. However, I wanted some gluten-free kind. Like all my cooking I don’t really measure, so this is my best guess:

* 2 cups of Garbanzo flour
* 1 cup of rice flour
* 2 large well beaten eggs
* 1/2 tsp. of salt
* coconut milk (about 1/2 cup??) thinned out with warm water (3 cups maybe???)
* 1 Tbsp. Fresh chives, 1 Tbsp. fresh chopped Parsley, 1 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro
* 1 large clove of garlic, mashed and chopped as finely as possible

Mix together the dry ingredients into a bowl, and then add the eggs and start adding the coconut milk-warm water mix, and mix with a fork or whisk keep adding the liquid until you have a non-lumpy, very thin pancake-like batter (***It must be a very runny batter or it won’t work right). Then mix in your herbs and garlic.

On a very hot pan (preferably a cast iron skillet) add a very light coating of coconut oil (olive oil or butter) and ladle on with a small ladle, about 2 Tbsp. of batter and quickly pick up the pan (with a hot pad please) to swirl around the batter in the pan into the thinnest possible pancake you can make. Cook on one side until the bubbles start to show through and the edges start to go from glossy to opaque. Then flip over for a few seconds more and transfer to a platter with a cover or towel to keep warm while you finish the rest. There is a very fine art to crepe making, and I hope this is a decent explanation. (lucky me, I learned in person from a French girl who grew up with them).

For filling, there are numerous possibilities, today I made both a simple sauteed onion, garlic and tomato filling for dinner, but for lunch I did: roasted pumpkin cubes with sage, sauteed mushrooms, garlic and rosemary, and sauteed spinach and garlic. The sauce I made was a combo of my homemade mayonnaise and my homemade spaghetti sauce mixed together to divine-ness.

Kenpo X Green Smoothie!

Handful of fresh spinach
1/2 cucumber
1/2 green fleshed small melon (or quarter of a honeydew)
small handful fresh cilantro
1 apple, deseeded
azuki beans, either sprouted or flakes
2 large fresh strawberries
rice or almond milk 3/4 of the way up the other ingredients in blender

Blend to perfection!