Zucchini Fitters

Zucchini Fritters

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized zucchinis, shredded
1/2 cup of the prepared sweet potato, caramelized onion filling
1 cup panko crumbs

Directions:
Shred zucchinis and place in a strainer. Shake on 1/2 tsp salt. Toss to evenly coat. Let zucchini shreds sit for thirty minutes. Then squeeze out excess liquid from zucchinis. Try and get out as liquid much as possible.

Toss zucchini shreds in a large bowl. Add prepared filling and panko crumbs. Stir until all is incorporated.

In a large fry pan, add 1 tsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread or oil. Turn burner to medium heat. Shape a walnut-sized amount of dough into a Fritter. Fry five Fritters at a time, two to three minutes per side. After they are fried on both sides, place on a paper towel-lined plate. Finish making all other Fritters.

Dipping sauce:
2 Tbsp Just. Brand garlic mayo
Juice of a wedge of lemon
A few leaves of fresh torn basil
Seasoning salt

Mix these ingredients together. Serve with fried Zucchini Fritters.

Freaking awesome.

Sweet Potato Caramelized Onion Filling

Sweet Potato Caramelized Onion Filling

Ingredients:
1 sweet potato, halved and steamed
2 Tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread, melted
1 sweet onion, minced
1/2 cup minced mushrooms
1/2 cup prepared white sauce
1 tsp fresh thyme

Directions:
Steam halved sweet potato until cooked through. Cool slightly, remove skin and mash. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, toss in onion, saute till golden. Toss in mushrooms, saute some more. After the veggies are cooked, dump them into the mashed sweet potato. Add white sauce and thyme. Stir up. Season to liking.
Use in ravioli and fritters and etc.

White Sauce

White Sauce

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread
2 cloves mixed garlic
1 1/2 cups unsweetened, plain nutmilk
1 package Daiya mozzarella cheese-like shreds
Season with your favorite seasoning salt (mine is Bangarang), black pepper and nutmeg (and if your feeling really adventurous add some herbs like thyme, chives, etc.)

Directions: in a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Toss in garlic and saute two minutes, till aromatic. Toss in nutmilk and Daiya shreds. Stir. Turn up the burner to medium high heat and bring the sauce to a healthy simmer. Keep stirring till shreds are completely incorporated. Toss in seasonings. Taste. Alter or add, if needed. Taste. Now, put this sauce on nearly ev-ery-thing.

Avocado, Basil, Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Avocado, Basil, Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Toss the following ingredients into a blender:

2 cans of Thai Kitchen brand coconut milk
1 and 1/2 ripe avocados
A squeeze of lemon juice
10 fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup sugar

Blend.

Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Or . . . pour cream into a metal bowl. Find another metal bowl. Fill it with ice and water. Float the the bowl of avocado cream ontop of the ice water. Stir frequently until chilled. Add more ice to the bottom pan as required. This takes 20 minutes. . .

Pour chilled cream into an ice cream machine. Process 20 - 30 minutes. Serve soft or transfer to another dish to be frozen. Freeze four hours or overnight and scoop and serve.

Vegan lemon zest, poppy seed scones

Vegan lemon zest, poppy seed scones

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. poppy seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
Zest of half a lemon
Mix these dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Then, toss in 3/4 cup coconut milk, full fat, I used Thai Kitchen Brand
And 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Plus 1 tsp. vanilla

Mix it all together with a spoon, then use your hands to knead until all of the flour is incorporated. Divide ball in half. Sprinkle a baking pan with a little flour. Flatten each ball into discs only about 3/4 of an inch thick.

Toss the pan in the freezer. It will cut better in a minute.

Turn oven on to 425 degrees.

Wait for it. . .

When oven is preheated, remove pan from freezer and cut each disc into 4 pieces. Move them away from each other, about an inch, so they can expand without touching.

Pop them into the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. And enjoy with loads of Earth Balance Brand butter or your favorite spread.

Club Sandwich

Me. Just after getting out of the garden.  :)

Hi Friends! This is the time of year that reminds me of my childhood spent at the Culpeper Country Club Pool.  Things are a wee bit different these days. It's 6 am here at GreenHearts Farm.  I've been watering the gardens since first light and that means dragging a really long hose from over here and walking it to over there.  I do this for a good three to four hours every morning until the boys get up and then we do the morning hustle.  I'm not the best at time management when it's growing season. But, don't they say that when you truly love something, that the measure of time gets lost while you are in the throws of it?  Yes? Well, I guess I should get a watch but the only watch I want is my Swatch Watch from the 1980's and that watch wasn't much of a time keeper either because it didn't have any numbers on the face.  Just a design and three different arms pointing in all sorts of directions of the compass.

I really loved my Swatch Watch in the summer time because it was water-proof, since I spent the summer in the pool beginning with swim team at 9am Monday through Friday. Day in and day out.  I would use my watch to gauge just how much sun I was getting. Honey-browned skin in contrast to the ivory skin underneath the watch.  It was fascinating to me. 

In the summer, we-three Brooks kids were dropped off at the pool at 9am and picked up around 3 to 5 pm or whenever my Mom could leave work.  If you were hungry you had to order something from the poolside menu. But, if you cleaned yourself off, dried your hair and wore something acceptable, you could go inside and order a Club Sandwich and a Shirley Temple off of the Clubhouse menu, get it to go (since children weren't allowed to eat inside; you had to be accompanied by an adult), and take your lunch outside to sit with the other water-logged children under the awning. 

This didn't happen very often. It took a lot of effort to get out of your wet Speedo, get dressed, then put back on your wet Speedo for the remainder of the day.  Back then, us girls wore one-piece Speedo bathing suits at the pool.  You didn't see any of us in a bikini until we turned sixteen and those were reserved for the beach.  How the heck can you play Sharks and Minnows or Polo in a bikini without showing the world your goodies?  I dunno.  Kids these days. Or I should say, Mom's these days. Mom's put there little girls in a bikini and arm-floaties because they think it's adorable, by the age of three.  It's not practical. I have a bit of advice for parents: keep your girls in a Speedo one piece bathing suit until they turn 18. Builds character.

I'm so sorry for the rant.  I wish I had a daughter.  She'd be made of some tough stuff just like me.

So on those days when you had a lot of Moxy when you went to bed that evening saying, tomorrow, I'm going to do it.  I'm going to walk into that clubhouse and ask those scary teenage waiters that are in black tie for a Club Sandwich to go, I'm gonna act like I own the joint.  I won't chat too much.  I won't look around.  Eyes on the prize.

This is my VEGAN CLUB SANDWICH. I love a double-decker.  I get hungry watering and weeding the garden, running after two boys and caring for my husband. And this beauty is spot-on. :) 

For more recipes like the one below you can get your copy of my new cookbook Hot Southern Mess: Vegan Vittles and Country Cookin' by Jen Lane

Club Sandwich

Ingredients

White or sliced bread

Vegenaise

Iceberg lettuce

 

Sliced avocado

Tomato, sliced

Bangarang

1 package of vegan bacon or vegan bologna

1 package of Turkey Style Tofurkey Deli slices

Large frilly toothpicks

Directions

Toast three slices of bread to make each sandwich.  Cook the veggie bacon according to the package directions.  Begin with your bottom layer of bread and slap on some Vegenaise. Layer on lettuce, two slices of avocado then tomato sprinkled with Bang, vegan bacon, and Tofurky.  Top with a piece of bread that is has been Vegenaised on both sides. Follow up with another round of L, A, T, B and T. Top it off with the last slice of spread and toast.  Place 4 toothpicks in the middle between each corner.  Cut in half with a diagonal slice and then again in the opposite directions to make an X.  Serve the four triangles with a pickle.

CM4>$=1 lb Lentils (1) Pot Pie and Apple Salad

HI Friends!  So, a few weeks back, while I was in the throws of writing my memoirs--for some odd reason I felt compelled to do so--I was also continuing my quest of Cooking More fore Less with the topic of 1 lb. of lentils.  It was seriously like the two loaves and five fish.  It just kept multiplying.  I used them in over six different recipes for the week, and the possibilities were endless it seemed.  I believe I made some of my very favorite things while thinking of ways to incorporate these little brown beauties in dishes.  And here are all of the recipes I came up with.  They are all tucked into my six composition books that I filled completely during my Blue Period--the month of February I spent in writing--so I had to sift through the books and take pictures of the recipes so I could find them easily.

Without further ado, I give you 1 lb. of Lentils!

The method of cooking lentils is so easy-peasy.  I think every person could keep a couple pounds of lentils around because they only take a half hour to cook and are perfect for a rushed dinner if you have unexpected company, and do not have time two hours t least to cook your big beans like chickpeas or kidneys.  Full of protein too.  Go super well with rice or sweet potatoes, or both as you will see.

Cooking Lentils:
Grab a big stock pot, fill it about three quarters full of water.  Or you can just do it in doubles.  Two cups of water for every one cup of lentils.  Doesn't matter much to me. Wash your lentils in a colander and pick out any rocks or stems you find in there. And, yes, sometimes you will find a small pebble that you will be glad you didn't break a tooth on, so this is kinda important.  When washed and picked through, toss them in the stock pot.  Bring the water to a gently boil over medium high heat and let boil for 5 minutes.  Turn the heat to a simmer and lid for 25 minutes.  Get a spoon and ladle out a couple beans, if they are al dente, slightly textured on the outside and soft through the middle they are perfect, if they are a little too crisp, cover and cook for five more minutes.

Drain the lentils in the colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.  You will have double almost triple the amount of lentils, by the look of it.

Place the cooled beans in a lidded container and store in the fridge.  Scoop out what you need for each recipes.

I also made 1 lb. of white rice at the same time because I love rice and lentils.  Just goes together so well like peanut butter and apples, tomatoes and fresh basil, the yin and yang of food.

The first thing I made was a super delicious lentil and veggie stuffed pot pie.  Almost all of these ingredients have my signature seasoning (Bangarang!) in them, so if you need your own shaker, just order some at my website and I will pop one in the mail for you.

Sliced Pot Pie and Apple Salad

Apple Salad