A Greener Life

Ever since we paid $25 for a lackluster large no-cheese boring basil pizza at a pizzeria last year, I have taken great joy in making my own pizzas from scratch. For $25, I make my own dough, my own sauce, decide my own toppings (and cook them the way I like), and I get to use Daiya cheese. Oh, and I can probably entertain as many people as I want within that budget. Glorious, glorious pizza.

I’ve tried only a few different pizza doughs, but Martha Stewart’s cornmeal crust is my favorite. It has a great texture and isn’t too bready. As far as toppings, pizza is a great way to clear out your fridge or pantry. This time, I used sundried tomatoes (soaked in water for about 30 min first) and fresh basil. On another pizza, I used colorful peppers, shallots, and black olives. (I always sautee peppers, onions, and mushrooms before putting them on the pizza so as not to dry them out, so be sure not to skip that step.) On another, onions, mushrooms, and olives. Any way you serve it up, they’re delicious.

About once or twice a week I make vegetable soup. It’s never the same twice, but there are certain things that, I’ve found, the soup must have in order to be successful:

- 1 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes
- vegetable broth (can come from bouillon)

All the other things are your call. They can be fresh or frozen or from a can. You can have starches or not. You can add beans or not. That’s the beauty of this soup…and it’s seasonal!

My favorite iteration of Whatever Soup.

You’ll need:

• 2tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion sliced into thin half-moons
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small pkg sliced mushrooms (white or bella)
• 1 28-oz can tomatoes
• 4c vegetable broth
• 1c fresh or frozen sliced okra
• 1/2c fresh or frozen corn
• 2 zucchini, sliced lenthwise and chopped into 1/4″ pieces
• 1/2c fresh or frozen peas
• 1 14-oz can navy or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 carrot, scrubbed and chopped into 1/4″ rounds
• 1/2 c whole wheat pasta (optional starch)
• 1 small potato, cubed (optional starch)

Directions:

1. If you are using boullion, prepare your veggie broth. In a large pot (doesn’t need to be a deep stock pot, just a big pot will do), heat the oil on high. Add the onions and sautee for 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue sauteeing until the mushrooms exude their juices and the onions are translucent. Reduce the heat to med-high and add the garlic, continuing to sautee so as not to burn.
2. Open your can of tomatoes and pour the juice from the can into the pot. Then–this is the fun part–crush each tomato with your hand(s) over the pot. Do this slowly to savor the stress relief, but also so as not to squirt tomato juice/seeds all over yourself. Add the vegetable broth.
3. If you’re using the optional potato and or pasta, add these to the pot. Add everything else, reduce heat to medium.
4. When your zucchini are kind of translucent and your carrots are soft, this soup is done. Spice to your liking (usually the boullion takes care of it for me, but you may require more or less). Easy peasy!

Usually, after serving my family, I have about 20oz of this soup left. I put it in a glass spaghetti sauce jar because I can easily take it to work and pop it in the microwave without worrying about harmful plastic chemicals leaching into my food.

Enjoy your soup!

What brussels sprouts look like for reals, photo credit Beth Wodnick (this is not my toddler)

Tonight I returned from a work trip to San Diego to find that the lights in our kitchen had burned out. Or, dimmed out? Something like that, I’m not very handy. So, I prepared dinner in our very dimly-lit galley kitchen. I decided to make the Herb Scalloped Potatoes and Cornmeal Marsala Roasted Brussels Sprouts (from Veganomicon) with a side of lightly pan-fried tofu–we have a ton of potatoes I purchased from Costco and then I kinda went out on a limb and bought the brussels last weekend. The tofu I made for the protein since I didn’t think 3tbs of chickpea flour in the brussels was going to satisfy my toddler.

I actually hate brussels sprouts. I used to hate all cabbage as a kid actually, but lately I’ve been warming up to cabbage in both raw and cooked forms, so I thought I’d give these little guys another try. And, they’re undeniably cute, aren’t they?

Herb Scalloped Potatoes. Meh.

Without seeing the meal with the lights on, I didn’t notice until I put it all on the dining table how ….yellow everything was. Golden potatoes, browned tofu, and cornmeal-encrusted greens. Honestly–the potatoes were kinda boring, the tofu was nothing special, but the brussels…man, they were good!  The brussels were gone so fast I didn’t even get a chance to take a picture! The cornmeal texture was really fun, and the garam marsala took the edge off the cabbagey smell.

So in lieu of the brussels, I leave you with a picture of the potatoes. They were pretty, but mediocre? Next time I’ll just add more butter.

More brussels sprouts recipes to try:

Roasted Brussels Sprouts (Ina Garten)
Roasted Brussels Sprouts (in a cast-iron skillet with lemon juice and garlic, sub nooch for the parmesan)

Vegan YumYum mini-donuts

Whenever my toddler has a holiday party at school, I get a little note asking to bring a “special treat to share.” I translate this as “make something cool” and usually try to bake. So, when I got the little orange note for her Halloween party, I decided to make the Vegan YumYum mini-donuts.

They were very cake-like, not as much donut-like…but still, very cute and delicious. In lieu of the sprinkles or total dunking, I decided to melt some vegan chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave and dip the tops. Not totally gorgeous, but quite delicious!

Note: She came home with a bag full of little bags of Halloween candy, so I think the other parents brought that. My donuts container came back empty so…I guess they were shared!