What Is Left To Eat? -- a Food Journal by Laura Bracken

Potato Eggplant Curry Soup This didn’t start out as a soup.   I think I was going for a regular curry consistency, the kind that would be served over rice.   But I didn’t have any cooked rice and didn’t want to wait while I made some… and I had some veggie stock in my fridge that needed to be used so…. Soup. Ingredients 4 yellow potatoes, chopped (medium… smaller than russet, larger than new potato) 1 medium eggplant, chopped 1 onion, chopped 2T curry (see below for Whole Foods Curry blend ingredients) 1 can coconut milk (Trader Joe’s has NO added ingredients or preservatives) 2 cups veggie broth Lemon juice and salt to taste Whole Foods Basic Curry Spice Blend 2 tablespoons ground cumin 2 tablespoons ground coriander seeds 1 tablespoon ground cardamom 1 teaspoon ground turmeric ¼ tsp cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon ground dry mustard ½ teaspoon ground ginger Direction I didn’t even bother to sauté anything (I was *that* hung...

Instant Pot  Bean and Sweet Potato Vegan Chili Today’s test recipe is “Black Bean Chili” from The Fab Four Cookbook with a number of alterations.   Below is my version of it which turned out great (according to my friends and family). Ingredients ½ onion chopped 1 tsp cumin powder 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp chili powder 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp oregano 1 tsp salt 4 garlic cloves mashed 1½ cups veggie broth 1½-2 cups salsa (I used a 16oz jar of Pace Organic Salsa Medium) 1 can of black beans + ½ can of kidney beans (or 2 cups of cooked beans of your choice) 3 cups of sweet potato cut into small cubes ½ can of tomato sauce Optional Toppings Avocado Cassava chips Onion chopped Jalapeno chopped Vegan sour cream Vegan shredded cheese Cilantro Set Instant Pot to sauté.   When hot add onions and a little broth.   Stir to keep from sticking.   Add spices and garlic.   Continue to add a bit more broth if sticking. ...

Remember those bean/quinoa burgers I made the other day? I had a lovely chat with my USPS mail carrier and she was telling me how she toasts slices of sweet potato and uses it as a bun for carrier like bread.   Her favorite, she said, is avocado toast. She said she just puts slices of sweet potato into the toaster and runs it for a few cycles.   I don’t have a regular toaster and I can’t imagine being able to get the slices out of the kind of toaster I’m picturing, but I do have a toaster oven so here’s what I made for lunch today. Gluten Free Whole Foods Plant Based Sliders Bean/quinoa burgers   Sweet potato Ripe avocado Ripe tomato Salt/pepper  Onion powder (optional) Red pepper flakes (optional) I had half a leftover sweet potato so I sliced it up and put the slices, completely naked, onto a rack in my 400-degree pre-heated toaster oven.   I can’t tell you how long to cook them because size and depth of the slices will mos...

Vegan No-Oil Burger Base Recipe Today I wanted to make some veggie burgers (or bean burgers… ‘cause I didn’t really use veggies in the prototype other than onion and garlic). ETA: Let me clarify why I’m making my own veggie burgers.  There are a lot of healthy choices for foods in grocery stores, but a lot of it is still processed foods.  My goal is to (without going crazy or turning this into a full time job) eat whole foods as often as possible and if a meal requires a mix of ingredients, I’d rather make it myself from scratch.  Oh… I’ll be posting a follow up to this as I got a new kitchen toy recently… so stay tuned. I found a recipe online but I have to admit I am a bit lost in trying to provide a link to the original source recipe.   Apparently there’s a site called “ Deliciously Ella ” and the recipes there look great but I could find no search function nor could I find this recipe there.   Oddly enough, if you google the name of the re...

So another Friday night recipe.  This is where I veer slightly from my strict whole-foods concepts.  I still try to make wise and healthy choices, but there are a few processed foods that make Friday meals easier (but it's still vegan and my choices for the processed foods are still thoughtful). The processed foods in tonight's meal included a jar of peanut butter (only ingredients were peanuts and salt) along with some coconut aminos.  Oh, and I guess tofu and rice vinegar are processed foods too.  Still, not dreadful on the scale of possibilities for processed foods. I prepped everything earlier in the day so at dinner time it's mostly a matter of warming up the foods and setting out the additions. I make the sauce on the stove, and before you ask, sadly this is one of the times where I didn't measure anything so I can only tell you what I put in but not how much. SAUCE I took a saucepan and warmed up: Peanut butter (no ingredients other than peanuts...

The other day as I was making a smoothie, I got to thinking... during the summer I make maybe five smoothies in a week.  And while I vary some of the ingredients (some days it's bananas, strawberries, and spinach, while other days it's blueberries, pineapple, and sunflower seeds, I always put in flax seed, hemp, turmeric, and pepper. I'm one of those people who is always trying to "improve the system".  And it dawned on me that I could streamline the addition of those last four ingredients. After some consideration, I settled on my method.  I purchased from Amazon an " extra large pill dispenser ".  I filled each of the seven compartments with 1 T of hemp, 1 T of flax seed, 1 t turmeric, 1/4 t pepper.  I pop this into the fridge and it's way easier to open one at a time and dump the contents into my smoothie compared with opening four different jars and measuring each time. Now, a word about the whole turmeric and pepper thing.  I do realize...

Two or three ingredients in this recipe would be considered processed foods so this recipe doesn't fall under the "whole foods" category.  On Friday nights I host a dinner party, so that's my one night to stray a bit from the regular routine. The most "processed ingredient" is a small jar of Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste and here are the ingredients: Red chili pepper, garlic, lemongrass, galangal (thai ginger), salt, shallot, spices, kaffir lime.  So I'm not going to feel too guilty.  The other two are canned coconut milk and store bought veggie broth. This dish hits a lot of the Daily Dozens, btw.  And it makes a lot so you may want to halve the recipe if it's just you.  I haven't tried freezing leftovers so can't vouch for that yet. Vegan Thai Red Curry Onion Vegetable broth (2 cups plus a bit or 4 cups if making rice) Tomatoes (can use canned if it's all you have) Garlic, 4 cloves, give or take, smashed or minced Ginger...

I had company coming over for dinner and I had no ideas, no time, and no motivation.   Then it hit me… nachos!   Whoohoo! So the following is not going to be completely whole-foods plant based but it *is* vegan, and on a scale from fast-food to super healthy it’s definitely leaning more toward the super healthy (but there are some processed foods in it and there is some oil).   If  that doesn’t offend you, read on. LAURA’S NACHOS Ingredients A base… I used Siete cassava chips and most grocery stores now carry them (you can also try corn chips, baked potatoes, potato wedges, or rice) Shredded Daiya Jalapeño Havarti Style Block Black beans Taco seasoning mix (see below) Avocado Chopped onion Chopped jalapeño, no seeds Salsa (I used Pace Picante medium) Vegan sour cream (I wanted to make my own since most if not all vegan sour creams on the market either have sugar or oil in them and/or are just highly process foods)… see recipe below ...

Laura Bracken's Asian Slaw Salad Dressing 1/3 Cup peanut butter (no added oils, peanuts should be the only ingredient) 1/3 Cup apple cider vinegar (I was toying with the idea of rice vinegar… maybe next time) 1 Tablespoon lime juice 1 heaping Tablespoon of grated ginger 4 med to large garlic cloves, crushed/grated/minced 1 Tablespoon coconut aminos 1 Tablespoon maple syrup Salt Red pepper flakes Salad Fixings (any combination of the following) Green cabbage, shredded Red cabbage, shredded Carrots, grated Scallions, chopped Red bell pepper, chopped Kale Topping Options Dry roasted peanuts (if peanuts is the only ingredient) Mandarin slices (if you can’t find fresh, there are decent “no sugar” options in most grocery stores) Tofu (I sauté in coconut aminos and a little broth in a non-stick pan until crispy then throw sesame seeds on… you can try baking too) I put all the dressing ingredients into a good quality container (one ...

I woke up craving.  Ugh! And since I have no will power I decided to make some cookies. Here's my take on gluten free vegan no oil oatmeal coconut cookies. Gluten free, vegan, no oil?!  That sounds like a lot of restrictions.  Can cookies really be made like that?  In the past I've done one or the other, but never all three. Gluten-Free Vegan No-Oil Oatmeal Cookies Recipe Ingredients · 1½ cups oats · 1 cup cassava flour · 1 cup coconut shreds · 1 tsp baking soda · 1 tsp cinnamon · ½ tsp Salt · ½ cup maple syrup · ½ cup unsweetened applesauce · 1 tsp vanilla · ¼ cup raisins or ½ cup frozen blueberries Instructions 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes on a piece of parchment on a cookie sheet. I just mix up all the dry stuff then add the wet stuff and start mixing.  I divided my mix and added raisins to half the batter and frozen blueberries to the other half....

Today's post contains two recipes... one is me doing "recipe testing" on something I found on the internet, the second is one of my own recipes. The recipe testing stems from a google search of "easy WFPB meals".  Where I ended up was a site that took cost into consideration.  So apparently this is not only a healthy meal and an easy meal to prepare, it's also very low cost per serving.  Yay! Oh yeah, and it tasted good.  :-) So the recipe is from a site called "budgetbytes" and the name of this recipe is: Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing. The dressing is divine! Here's the link to the recipe The only alteration I made was that instead of parsley, I used a couple handfuls of an arugula/spring greens mix. If I assembled the salad for a photograph, this would look much nicer.  But I was in a hurry so I just mixed everything together in a bowl. I feel like this might also be good as the insides to a lettuce w...

Remember those hash browns (or breakfast patties) from my previous post?  Yesterday (which was the next day), I added twice the amount of potato to the remaining mixture and they were much more to my liking.  So that was breakfast.  Although I'm running low on Primal Kitchen Ketchup (Organic Tomato Concentrate, Organic Balsamic Vinegar, Less than 2% of Salt, Organic Onion Powder, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Spices). I was taken out to lunch but I got to pick the restaurant and I remembered hearing the WFPB people have better options at Mexican, Thai, and Vietnamese  restaurants, so I picked a Vietnamese place with good reviews.  We both ordered Eggplant with Tofu (mine spicy, hers mild).  It was tasty but OH SO SWEET.  I'm guessing there was a crapton of sugar in the sauce.  Oh well.  We each ate half our meal and then had the leftovers for dinner. So that was my day yesterday.  No cooking.  And today, it appears to be runni...

Okay, back to keeping track of recipes I try so I know what to repeat and what to avoid. Yesterday I shared a PDF with a friend. It's a one-week meal plan along with shopping list(s). It's so easy for me to go off the rails if I’m not prepared. I suddenly realize I’m really hungry but don't have time to prepare anything and I’m totally sick of the "grab 'n go" foods like nuts and raisins. So I cave, just this once. (Except I cave a lot.) So I made myself a weekly meal plan. It's not set in stone. If I go out with friends, I know I will go off the rails slightly. No biggie. When I get home I return to the meal plan. Here's what it looks like. On the left, I have the days/meals, in the middle I list the recipe and where to find it, the column on the right is my shopping list (these are not all the ingredients for the recipes, merely the ingredients I don't already have on-hand). In a perfect world, I don’t eat processed foods, b...

Everything is a work in progress.  I don't believe any of us can follow one particular meal plan that is outlined by others without tweaking things to suite our particular needs. So yeah... I've got a new plan and I'm sharing it with you. The other day, a friend posted a link to this video.  I stopped what I was doing and watched the entire thing (which, if you know me, know that was MAJOR!). I've always been squeemish about eating animal products.  I don't even like the taste of meat or eggs or fish most times, but in my weirdly desperate attempt to make sure I get the protein I need, I was eating it.  I'd mask it with spices and sauces. The animal products I ate had to be from humanely raised sources, but something still didn't feel quite right. On the other hand, veganism?  That seems so .... severe. After watching the video, though, I'm willing to give it another go (been vegan before).  This time, however, I have more knowledge of ...