Happy Herbivore Meal Plan: Curried Red Lentil Soup

Happy Herbivore Meal Plan Curried Red Lentil Soup

I used some orange lentils I had in the pantry (which turned very yellow). This is a good soup and easy to make. Just a lot of chopping of onion and carrot. Can be a little spicy, so you might want to reduce some of the spices depending on your tastes. Generous portion size is still low-cal.

Review

Me: Very good.

Happy Herbivore Meal Plan: Kale Waldorf Salad

 Kale Waldorf Salad, Happy Herbivore Meal Plan

This Kale Waldorf Salad is very easy to make, and very filling. I chopped baby kale (from Costco) with my ulu knife (which I learned about from Chef AJ*). Lucky me got to pick apples off my backyard tree and make this sweet and tangy and nearly fat-free salad. There are some walnuts in the salad and dressing, but no added oil. Lots of nice crunch and tang.

Reviews:
Me: Loved it!

* See Hale to the Kale post.

Happy Herbivore Meal Plan: Oatmeal

This was supposed to be Cinnamon Banana Oatmeal, but I was out of banana. Luckily it's fig season at my house and the fig tree is having a really good year. I loved toasting the oatmeal first. It made the oatmeal stay kind of light and flaky versus mushy. I don't like mushy oatmeal!  I made a double or triple amount so I didn't have to make oatmeal two mornings in a row. I added a little non-dairy creamer and a very tiny drizzle of agave. Maybe I can wean myself off the agave. But I was a good girl and left off the vegan margarine I normally would have added.

Reviews:
Me: Loved it.

UnDiet: Spiced Apple-Carrot Cake/Muffins

I made this for the first time yesterday, and I have to say, it's a recipe I'll make again! I might reduce the oil a little next time, but I do like the fall flavor (nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice) of these muffins. My favorite size muffin is the mini since they bake faster and I can easily pop one in my mouth. Less messy than a big muffin.

I love that I got to use an apple right off my own tree.

Changes I made: I didn't have any plain rice flour or buckwheat flour which the recipe calls for, so I used my "GF Mix" instead. Also subbed agave for the honey. (Meghan is mostly plant-based, but does have recipes that use honey or egg or a chia egg-substitute.) Also used "Egg Replacer" for the egg/chia.

And even though this might wreck the "Undiet-ness" of this recipe, I think it would be great with added walnuts or mini-chocolate chips!

Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki

Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki, The Happy Herbivore, p. 127

Even though it's a little reminiscent of all those restaurant teriyaki dishes we've had to endure as vegetarians (you younger folk may have missed that era), this dish goes beyond "Let's throw some teriyaki sauce on vegetables and call this a vegetarian dish."

I like some sweetness in my food, and this satisfies me. The dish I created for the photo had just a little spinach on it for effect, but in reality, I would heap a whole bunch of spinach (or any other kind of green) on some rice and top it with the nice hot chickpeas to wilt it a little. Throw it in the micro or steam the greens if you want them cooked a little more.

One change I would make to the recipe is to double the amount of sauce. Lindsay says this recipe serves 2, but with this amount of garbanzo beans, it could easily be stretched to 4, especially with enough rice and a handful of greens. I might also add a little more water or other liquid to the sauce since mine seemed to evaporate quickly and didn't leave me with as much sauce as I would have liked to spoon over the whole dish. So maybe even triple the sauce amounts.

I don't keep szechuan sauce at my house, but I whisked together a quick bit (no real recipe) with some agave, dried pepper flakes, tiny bit of sesame seed oil, apple cider vinegar, some powdered garlic, powdered ginger and a bit of sriracha sauce. I used a teriyaki sauce similar to "Soy Vay" (the Trader Joe's brand).

I used a sweet salsa I had in the cupboard–peach and mango–which further enhanced the sweet side of this dish.

This would be a great meal to throw together at the last minute and really impress someone. Most or all of the ingredients can be kept in your cupboard–bottled teriyaki, bottled szechuan, canned garbanzos and a jar of salsa. You could even keep some of the pre-cooked rice on hand (I've seen it at Trader Joe's) and then just heat the beans with the sauces and throw it all together with some fresh greens! Voila! (Or "Viola!" as Phoebe would say.)

Did the DD eat it? She won't eat garbanzo beans anymore...so she did not try this.

Would I make this again? Yes

Rating: 5 out of 5 Forks (with some changes–more sauce!)

Tamale Casserole, Cornbread

 

 

Tamale Casserole, The Happy Herbivore, p. 167

 Cornbread, The Happy Herbivore, p. 49

This was a fun recipe to make since I got to use my really darn cute new individual casserole dishes! I loved the flavor of this dish and it truly is pretty low-cal. If you make the whole recipe of cornbread (you are supposed to use just half on the casserole), and make some muffins too, just watch out how much cornbread you end up eating, and of course how much "butter" and agave you slather on!

I made mine gluten-free with a new GF mix recipe my sister told me about (see below), and I think it held up. My daughter tried a bite of the casserole (she likes cornbread), but said it was "too sweet." I thought that was interesting. The recipe calls for some salsa, and I did use a sweet fruit salsa, so maybe a regular tomato salsa would have reduced the sweetness for her.

Did the DD eat it? She said it wasn't bad, but "too sweet." Husband ate all of his!

Would I make this again? Yes

Rating: 4 out of 5 Forks

JP's GF Flour Mix

2 cups Rice Flour
2/3 cup Potato Starch
1/3 cup Tapioca Flour
2 tsp Xanthum Gum