|veggie gumbo goodness|

Disclaimer: I am not a cajun food expert, by any means, so this may be a bit untraditional, but I found this recipe TASTY!

I had a craving for some cajun food, so I did some googling to see if I could find a good vegetarian recipe. I found a few for veggie gumbo and tweaked them to make this delicious concoction in my crock pot.

VEGGIE GUMBO
Combine all ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hours.
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 16 ounces okra (frozen, but cooked up in the microwave first)
- 1 cup corn (frozen, but you can cook in the microwave with the okra)
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 stalk of celery, sliced
- 1 can of spicy diced tomatoes, undrained (Rotel would work, too)
- 2 T Tabasco sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- veggie boullion cube
- 1/2 cup white grape juice
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
- 2 T fresh basil, minced
- 1 T brown sugar

Serve over rice. This is especially tasty with garlic bread....just be sure to put some Tabasco sauce in your melter butter before slathing it on your bread.

|tasty radishes|

We've been getting radishes for several weeks in our CSA. They are so good! We have little tiny red ones, and big giant red ones, and long carrot-like white ones. Today, I made a little salad of radishes....

• Sliced radishes
• Drizzle of olive oil and balsamic
• Salt & pepper
• Chopped parsley and basil
• Dollop of strained yogurt on the top

Yummy!

|finally|

Slowly, but surely, I find vegetarian recipes to replace my old meaty favorites. There are still I'm waiting to discover...like meatloaf, barbecue, chicken noodle soup, and all varieties of luncheon meats.

BUT...today is a big day because I finally found a vegetarian biscuits and gravy recipe. Actually, I found it about 6 months ago in Vegetarian Times, but just now got around to cooking it.

A few tips/alterations that I suggest....

• Yes, you do need SMOKED paprika. It's necessary.
• The recipe doesn't call for salt, but you need it. A lot.
• Up the amounts of paprika, garlic, pepper, and sage.
  
• Add some ground cayenne pepper, too.
• Any kind of ranch will do.

The recipe is huge. It yields about 6 cups when finished.

Enjoy...and if you have a vegetarian recipe for meatloaf, PLEASE let me know ASAP.

|end of the day CSA snack|

I came home from the gym ravenous and was going to have an apple with peanut butter...but then I saw all the goodies in our CSA basket and made this instead....

Wilted Spicy Greens & Strawberry Goodness

1. Heated up a little olive oil and balsamic in a skillet. Sauteed a little wild garlic in it.
   
2. Added a large handful of arugula and wilted it.
3. Added 4 strawberries, sliced.
4. Turned off the heat - seasoned with salt and pepper and a wee bit o' honey.
   
5. Served it over 1/2 brown rice (leftover in the fridge) with a tablespoon of sliced almonds.

Crazy delicious.

Also in our CSA this week we received...

• more tiny, delicious red kale
• a spring salad mix with flowers in it!
• spring onions
• more cilantro (currently hanging to dry in my laundry room b/c I have tons more growing outside)
• along with the luscious strawberries (!) and the arugula mix

CSA is the greatest thing ever.

|csa begins...and greek spaghetti|

This past week marked the beginning of our summer CSA. Yay! I was sooooo excited. We get ours from a farm near us. We pick up with a group of folks at our church, so we don't have to drive there every week, which is really excellent. It's like Christmas all summer long. This week we got the following in our basket:
- watercress
- red kale
- cilantro (tons!)
- rosemary
- wild garlic (it looks like scallions, but tastes like garlic - so good)

My lovely husband whipped up a delicious dish with it all....he sauteed the garlic, some onions, and some ginger in sesame oil. Then he added the watercress, kale, and cilantro and wilted it a bit. He added in some leftover soba noodles we had in the fridge and topped it with a little soy sauce. It was really yummy.

Also...in a completely unrelated note, I was in Chicago about a week ago and ate at a Greek restaurant in Hyde Park. A friend and I split the Greek spaghetti and I recreated it at home last week. It was amazing.
- saute scallions in some olive oil
- add cooked spaghetti
- add crumbled feta
- pepper it

That's it. It's so simple and so good.

|probably never buying nut butter again|

So...I was getting really bored with my reduced fat brand-name peanut butter. I keep reading everywhere that the reduced fat stuff is actually not as good for you as the real deal (preservatives, corn syrup, etc. etc. and there's not that much of a difference in fat content, either - plus, let's face it, it tastes like poo).

Then I remembered that I had often seen a friend make walnut-butter balls in her food processor. She puts her son's medications and supplements in them and then they're tasty. And, man, are they ever tasty. I could eat a ton of those things. They are just little rolled-up balls of walnutty goodness.

This made me think - hmmm...I bet I could make almond butter in my food processor. So, I bought a bag of roasted unsalted whole almonds and went to work. I just threw them all in my processor (about a cup at a time, till they were all in there) and just kept spinning and spinning. After a long time of wondering, "Will this ever work?" and a couple of teaspoons of olive oil, it magically turned into smooth, creamy, amazing almond butter. I added a little salt, too, and next time I think I'll add some honey.

Next time might happen really soon becuase this stuff is so so so good.

|delicious tofu creation|

I was craving some tofu but sick of the regular stir fry type thing I usually make, so I made this. It turned out amazing.

FLAVORFUL BROWN RICE AND TASTY TOFU

1. In my rice cooker, I put in enough brown rice and water to make 4 cups. With the rice and water, I added a large handful of chopped kale, 3 large mushrooms (sliced), a grated carrot, and a thumb-sized piece of ginger (peeled, but not cut up).
2. While the rice was cooking, I made the tofu in the oven....heat to about 375 and take a block of extra firm tofu and cube it up. Mix together a couple tablespoons soy, a couple teaspoons oil, and some minced garlic. Add a couple teaspoons of lemon juice, too. Put the tofu in a casserole dish and pour the sauce on top of it. Stir until all the tofu is covered. Bake about 30 minutes, stir. Bake another 15-30 minutes.
3. When the rice is done, fish out the ginger and discard. Put it into four bowls and top each one with 1/4 of the tofu and a splash of olive or sesame oil. Add some sliced water chesnuts and a splash of soy.
4. Enjoy! This is so surprisingly flavorful.