Smoothies

I love smoothies. I really started getting into them when I was pregnant with my daughter, because I’m not in love with swallowing pills and it was a great way to down all the vitamins and supplements I was taking.

The nice thing about smoothies is they don’t have to be expensive or fattening. I don’t use ice cream or yogurt and I don’t use a great lot of expensive berries. I never really follow a recipe, but here’s my basic formula.

You start with whatever kind of fresh fruit is cheap: apples, oranges, pears, bananas (I’m not a fan of bananas, but they’re usually pretty cheap if you like them). You’ll do about 2 of that fruit. Chop it up and toss it in the blender with a little non-dairy milk or just plain water – or some juice concentrate if you want it to be a little sweeter.

For pizzazz then you can add in some frozen berries or fruit. You don’t have to use that much, maybe a cup or two at most, depending how frosty you want the smoothie.

Then you drink it. Sometimes I stir it up in a bowl with raw oats or unsweetened cocoanut for a light supper. It’s fantastic. It’s easy. Kids love it.

Knöpfle

My husband’s family is of German extraction on his mother’s side. (Well, technically, so is mine.) But his family did a lot more with the traditional German foods than mine did.

One of the family favourites that they still make occasionally is knöpfle, which is a type of spätzle. The word means “little buttons” due to the shape of the noodle. It is very tasty and very un-vegan (calling for both egg and sweetened condensed milk), so I’ve not really made it much myself.

Today I decided to try making a vegan version, since yesterday I was craving it tremendously and was too sick to even go get a bowl out of the cupboard, let alone go through the process of making the stuff.

Start by putting 3 cups of flour in a bowl with 1/2 tsp of salt.

I used 2.5 cups whole wheat flour and .5 cup white in this batch.

Once you’ve got that stirred up, prepare your flax egg.

Flax "egg": 1 tbsp ground flaxseed plus 3 tbsp hot water. Let it sit a few minutes and it gels.

While that is sitting, start a big pot of water boiling, mince up a medium onion and blend up your white sauce.

On my stove: big pot of water coming to a boil; saucepan of white sauce; skillet of onions ready to sauté.

Once you’ve sautéed your onions in a little oil, turn off the heat. By this time your pot of water should be nearing a boil, so it’s time to prep your noodle dough.

In goes the flax egg!

And the water! Stir it up well and knead a little if necessary, but not too much.

Roll your dough into a bunch of ropey things.

When you’ve rolled your dough ropes, snip small bits off into your pot of boiling water. Expect to be splashed at least a couple times if you’re not super careful. Once all the knöpfle are in the boiling water, let it go for a few minutes and then drain. (They float to the top when they’re done, and you’ll have some floating to the top long before you’re finished snipping. This is okay.) I tried to take a picture of them boiling in the pot, but all that you could see was foam and steam, so here’s a picture of the drained knöpfle:

Now toss your onions into the white sauce pan and turn up the heat. Stir the sauce constantly until it bubbles and gets thick.

Then you’ll pour it over the knöpfle and stir it all up. Keep the burner on low until it’s very thick, 5 minutes or so.

AND THEN YOU EAT IT.

Here’s the recipe, all written in one place:

1 flax egg
1 c. water
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups flour
1 med onion
1 recipe of white sauce (since the original recipe called for a can of sweetened condensed milk; I’m contemplating trying this with cocoanut milk sometime and seeing what happens.)

Beat egg, water and salt. Add flour to make stiff batter. Cut small pieces into boiling water with sharp kitchen scissors. Boil about 3-5 minutes. Drain.

Blend your white sauce recipe. Sauté onion. Add to white sauce mixture. When hot, add to the knöpfle. Simmer until very thick.

Cow-Free Pepper Steak

Cow-Free Pepper Steak!!

So, this was so tasty that the only photo I got of it was a quick iPod picture rather than an actually good-quality shot, because I could not wait to dig into it long enough to let my flash boot up.

1 lb. gluten steaks
¼ cup soy sauce
1 garlic clove
1 ½ tsp. grated fresh ginger OR ½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ cup veggie or other oil
1 cup green onion, thinly sliced OR regular onion, minced
1 cup bell peppers cut into 1″ squares
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 cup water
2 tomatoes (cut into wedges)

First, use a nice sharp knife to cut the gluten steaks into thin strips, 1/4 – 1/8″ thick.

Combine soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add gluten and toss; let it sit in the pan while preparing veggies.

After you get done slicing and dicing the vegetables, add them to the gluten in the pan and toss over medium heat until vegetables are tender crisp.

Mix cornstarch with water. Add to pan; stir and cook until thickened.

Finally, add tomatoes and heat through. Serve over noodles or brown rice.