Tag Archives: recipe

Dotan’s Tehina Kale Salad

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I find myself constantly texting my brother Dotan for this recipe, so I think it’s about time I actually write it down…and maybe share the deliciousness too! Whole Foods makes this incredible Tehina Kale Salad so my chef of a brother decided to recreate it and take it up a notch! I double dare you to not fall in love with this recipe.

Kale is low in calories, high in fiber and has zero, that’s right, zero fat. It is high in iron, Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Calcium. If you are lactose intolerant it is therefore a great food for you to eat to get the calcium you need. It is full of powerful antioxidants, a great anti-inflammatory food, and good for cardiovascular support. Why we only garnished platters with this delicious veggie until recently, who knows.

Dotan's Tehina Kale SaladIngredients:

  • 1 11oz can Tehina
  • 2 lemons
  • 3 caps olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, diced
  • 5 caps apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp garlic salt
  • 1 bag fresh precut kale or 1 1/2 bundles kale (always good to get some extra)

Dice the garlic. In a large mixing bowl place the garlic, tehina, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar. Whisk together.

Step 1

Roll the lemons on the counter so that they soften. Then using a lemon squeezer, squeeze as much juice out of them as possible into the mixing bowl. Whisk together to form a thick dressing.

Step 2

Step 2

Wash the kale and then remove the leafs from the stems. Break up the kale with your hands and fill the bowl.

Step 3

Then using tongs, mix the kale until fully coated with the dressing. If the kale is coated and there is more of the dressing at the bottom of the bowl, add more kale. This is why I recommend buying extra kale if you use a bundle, because once removed from stems, the exact amount will vary. Usually a bundle and a half of kale works for me.

Step 4

Then cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge overnight. The longer it sits, the more of the mixture it will soak up. So usually I make it the night before I plan to serve it for lunch or dinner. The kale stays good for a week.

Dotan's Tehina Kale Salad

Tip:

  • If you want to add a crunch you could add some crushed nuts or toasted ramen before serving
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Double Chocolate Mint Holiday Martini

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Nothing says “happy holidays” like peppermint and chocolate. This yummy drink is easy to make and sure to be a guest favorite.

double chocolate mint martiniIngredients*:

  • 1/2 cup half and half
  • 1tsp peppermint syrup
  • 2oz double chocolate vodka
  • 2oz Baileys Irish Cream (Original)
  • 1 piece chocolate

*This recipe is based off the ”Noshing with the Nolands” Chocolate Mint Martini recipe.

Makes: 1 serving

Directions:

Pour the half and half into a glass. Stir in the peppermint syrup. Measure out the 2oz double chocolate vodka and the 2oz Baileys Irish Cream in the shaker.

Martini Ingredients

Step 1 - measure ingredients

Then add the half and half peppermint mixture to the shaker. Fill shaker with ice and shake, shake, shake.

Step 2 - add to shaker with ice

Pour into martini glass. Using a potato peeler, shave chocolate onto the drink for garnish and added flavor.

Time to toast!

double chocolate mint martini

Tip:

  • Use an orange on the rim of the glass and then dip it in the chocolate shavings to cover the rim in chocolate

Vegan Four Cheese Macaroni

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One of the hardest parts of going vegan is cheese. O how much I love cheese! From the flavors to textures, it can really make a dish. I’ve recently been playing around with recipes to see how I can substitute other things for dairy, while still getting a similar flavor. One of my favorite cookbooks, “Skinny Bitch in the Kitch” by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin has tons of alternatives to cheese. I have yet to try them all, but this mac and cheese recipe was definitely a success! It uses colorful squash to trick your eyes into ooey-gooey yumminess and builds flavor too.

This recipe is both vegan and gluten free.

(This recipe is based off “Skinny Bitch in the Kitch’s” Macaroni and Four Cheese Recipe)

Vegan Four Cheese MacaroniIngredients:

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tbsp sea salt
  • 1 lb quinoa elbow macaroni
  • 2 10oz packages frozen pureed winter squash
  • 2 cups almond milk
  • 4oz vegan daiya shredded cheddar cheese
  • 2oz vegan daiya shredded pepperjack cheese
  • 1/2 cup vegan cream cheese
  • 2 tsp powdered mustard
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 cup (20 chips) corn tortilla chips
  • 2 tbsp vegan Parmesan cheese

Serves: 8
Prep Time: 15mins | Cook Time: 20mins | Total Time: 35mins

Preheat the over to 375. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish with the oil.

Bring a pot of water to boil and add the maccaroni. When cooking quinoa pasta closely follow the directions on the box, making sure to not overcook. Once complete, drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Then set aside.

While the pasta is cooking in a saucepan, defrost the squash on medium heat. Add the 2 cups almond milk to help break it down. Stir with a spoon until fully defrosted. Once complete increase the heat to high and bring to a simmer.

defrost squash

Then remove the saucepan from the fire and whisk in the cheddar, pepperjack, cream cheese, mustard, cayenne and 1/2 tbsp of salt. If needed return to medium heat until all items fully melted.

add cheese

Pour the ooey-gooey cheese mixture over the pasta and stir lightly. Then transfer it to the casserole dish. Place in the oven for 10mins.

mix sauce and pasta

transfer to casserole dish

While it is cooking taking your corn tortilla chips and crush them up. You can do this by hand or with your blender/food processor. This is our gluten-free breadcrumbs!

Remove the pasta from the oven and cover with the tortilla-crumbs. (I used blue corn tortilla chips for this recipe.) Return to the over for another 10mins. Then broil for 2-3mins or until the top is browned.

macaroni with blue corn tortilla breadcrumbs

Enjoy!

Tips:

  • This keeps great. I split it up into several Tupperware’s and took it to lunch for the week.
  • If you like things spicy, add some hot sauce to the cheese mixture.
  • Include some additional veggie goodness by adding broccoli.

Midori Spider’s Kiss Cocktail

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I just love when you can tie food and drinks around a theme! I came across this o-so-haunting of a drink this week and it is a must for any Halloween party!

Midori Spider's Kiss CocktailIngredients:
1 part Midori Melon Liqueur
1 part Vodka (I prefer Belvedere or Ketle One)
Juice from 1/2 Lemon
Chocolate syrup
Grenadine (I prefer Rose’s Grenadine)
Orange slice for garnish
Martini Glass
Cocktail Shaker
Smucker’s Magic Shell (Optional)

Serving: 1

Directions:
Draw a chocolate web into a martini glass. To avoid the chocolate dripping you can use a toothpick or knife to help it stay in place. Place the glass in the freezer and chill.

Remove from freezer right before serving.

Pour the vodka, Midori Melon Liqueur, and lemon juice into the cocktail shaker. Shake well and strain into the frozen glass. To add a spooktacular blood effect, drizzle grenadine down the side of the glass.

Then garnish the glass with a chocolate dipped orange slice. My “cheat” way to do this is to use the Smucker’s Magic Shell. It hardens instantly and is mess free!

Enjoy! Happy Halloween!

Vegan Green Curry Cholent

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I’m a big fan of crock-pots! What’s better than having the crock-pot do all the work for you?! During the colder months chili is one of my fave lunches. It is easy to put in a Tupperware and heat up at work, and warms you from the inside out.

Cholent is a basically a “twist” on chili. It is a traditional Jewish stew with the same ingredients as chili but adds barley and potatoes. Usually cholent has meat in it, but I’ve found that by adding my secret ingredient of green curry powder the cholent is bursting with flavor. So now my secret is out! I dare you not to scrape every last bit off your plate when eating this.

Vegan Green Curry CholentIngredients:
1/2 cup red beans
1/2 cup white beans
1/2 cup garbanzo beans
2 tablespoons oil
2 large onions, diced
1/2 cup barley
6 potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 packet onion soup powder
2 tablespoons green curry powder
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

Servings: 8 servings

Prep Time: 15mins | Cook Time: 24hours (must soak beans prior) | Total Time: 24 hours 15mins

Directions:
Soak the beans (1 1/2 cup total) in water for a minimum of 8 hours (or overnight). Drain.

Heat oil in a skillet. Saute onions for 5-7 minutes, until translucent.

Saute Onions

Put crockpot on high. Add onions, beans and barley to the crockpot. Add water to cover the beans and cover crockpot. Cook for 1 hour.

Water to Cover Beans

Peel 6 potatoes and cut them into large chunks. Add potatoes. Cook, covered, on high heat for 1 more hour. Then stir in onion soup mix, green curry powder and diced tomatoes.

Add all ingredients

Cook, tightly covered, on high heat for 10 hours. Then reduce to low heat and cook for another 12 hours. I like to stir it every now and then during this process, making sure it does not burn. The longer this cooks the better. You want to cook until the cholent is thickened. If there is too much water remove the crockpot cover and let the water boil out for a bit.

Vegan Green Curry Cholent

You are done! This keeps really well and reheats even better. Enjoy!

Addictive Vegan Gravy

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Nom nom nom! This vegan gravy is so good you will want to put it on everything. Every person who has tried this is hooked including non-vegetarians.

Do you remember that friends episode where Ross’s turkey and gravy sandwich was eaten by a coworker and he lost his cool, resulting in him loosing his job…well this gravy would make you react the same way if someone took your Tofurkey gravy sandwich. So beware!

vegan gravyIngredients:
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cubes garlic or 2 garlic cloves diced
- 1 small white onion, diced (if medium use 1/2 of it)
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Red Star Nutritional Yeast
- 1/4 cup flour (or less)
- 3/4 cup vegetable broth
- 3/4 cup water

Servings: 8

Prep Time:
2 Mins		 Cook Time:
15 Mins		 Total Time:
17 Mins

Directions:

Dice the onion. Pour the oil into 2qt saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Heat the pan on medium and stir constantly until the onion turns translucent. This should take about 8 minutes. Be careful not to burn the onion. If needed lower the heat.

step 1

While this is going on in a separate pot dilute the 3/4 vegetable stock with the 3/4 water. Bring it to a cook boil. Remove from heat.

Returning to the saucepan, once the onion is translucent, reduce the heat to low and add the flour. Using a wooden spoon stir until it turns into a thick paste. Add the soy sauce. Stir.

Next add 1 cup of the water/stock mixture. Stir well. If you think the gravy is too thick, add the addition 1/2 cup of the water/stock mixture. I prefer it this way, as I do not like my gravy uber thick.

The last step is add the nutritional yeast. If you haven’t used nutritional yeast before it can be found at any Whole Foods. Add the nutritional yeast and stir well.

add nutritional yeast

Then let it heat for about 4-5 minutes while stirring, and then you are done!

gravy final

Note that the gravy thickens when not hot. This is more than fine. Simply reheat in the saucepan on the stove and stir. It will return to the same smooth consistency.

vegan gravy

Tips:
- Elevate a potato with local fresh veggies topped with this gravy
- In the mood for comfort food? Make “Disco Fries!” Fries smothered in cheese and gravy
- Instead of condiments, add this to your favorite sandwich
- Throwing a party? Add this as a dipping sauce option to your spread

Food Budget Challenge: Month Two Day 20

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The second portion of my food budget challenge has been much easier than expected and perhaps less accurate than I would have hoped for. I’ve been traveling a lot this summer which has lead me primarily dining on the delicious food of friends and family. I’ve also eaten out more than I normally would, as I did not have access to a kitchen. Friends and family have also brought me fresh produce from their local farmers markets when coming to visit. For example: My mother bought me a basket of delicious peaches that I have eaten as breakfast for the last week.

With that said, I definitely plan to do this portion of the challenge again in the Fall when I will be surrounded by less BBQ’s, picnics, and pool parties.

I can tell you that there is nothing better than going to a farmers market, looking at all the fresh veggies, and then coming up with your meal later. This is definitely my new go-to for “what to cook tonight.” See what catches my eye and then search for a recipe later. It’s kind-of a fun game to play!

For the past week I’ve continued to snack on carrots and the yogurt fruit bites. I’ve also primarily had pesto, pasta and broccoli for dinner. Since I’ve been traveling this dinner works great as the pesto freezes wonderfully! As you can see below I’m doing great on my supermarket/farmers market purchase total but my eating out total is nearing the $75 limit. However, with that said, I think a $200 food budget in NYC is way more doable that I would have thought. The real issue is planning, planning, planning. I’m thinking of trying to write down a schedule so I stick to it and remember to pack my lunch every night. Does anyone have an app they recommend I use to do so?

$2.00 basil
$1.39 whole wheat penne
$5.00 2 things of arugula
$2.00 carrots
$45.54 Current Total

$20 Mexican
$8.50 Breakfast Sammie & Chai Latte
$5.00 Breakfast Sammie
$59 Eating Out Total

July 4th Yogurt Fruit Drops

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I recently came across a delicious and incredibly easy recipe on a fellow bloggers site. The recipe was so easy that I couldn’t believe I had gone all these years without making these tasty treats! They are the solution to my late night sweet tooth, and also to what to do when I purchase too much fruit and July 4th Yogurt Fruit Dropsfear it going bad. This recipe is based off the Fro Yo Berry Bites recipe from the delicious Becca’s Green Kitchen. If you are looking for yummy vegetarian recipes (especially smoothies) I suggest you visit Becca’s blog.

Ingredients:
- 1 container raspberries
- 1 container blackberries or blueberries
- 1 container So Delicious Dairy Free Vanilla or Chocolate Coconut Milk Yogurt
- Parchment paper

Prep Time:
15 Mins		 Cook Time:
30 Mins		 Total Time:
45 Mins

Directions:

Wash your fruit of choice and open the yogurt. Place your parchment paper onto a cookie sheet.

Step 1

Then with a toothpick take each piece of fruit and dip the bottom half of it into the yogurt.

Step 2

Then lie the fruit on it’s side onto the parchment paper. Repeat until done with all of the fruit.

Step 3

Place the plan in the freezer for at least 30mins.

Step 4

You’re done! Once they are frozen you can put them into a freezer safe tupperware and they keep for weeks.

Done

Tupperware

I plan to use vanilla coconut yogurt and serve this patriotic red, white, and blue treat at my July 4th BBQ!

Tip:

  • You can do these with any small fruit. Try cutting up a kiwi to add some pops of green or a banana for yellow.

Food Budget Challenge: Month Two Beginnings

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So this week was the first week of month two of my Food Budget Challenge. As lessons learned from month one, where I stayed under $100 for a month of food, I have decided to add to the budget a stipend for eating out in social settings. My new food budget is $125 for food purchased from supermarkets, farmers markets, and discount stores; and $75 for eating out socially. This whole budget thing is a learning process and I hope after this month I will have a greater grasp of what budget works best for me, while allowing me to occasionally splurge on more decadent fixings.

Farmers MarketI am already at greater ease by adding farmers markets into the mix. I went to the Union Square Farmers Market and really had to control myself from purchasing everything. The yellows, greens, purples, reds of the vegetables shouted out to me – “take me home!” I must have walked up and down the market at least 5x and spent well over an hour there. The #1 thing I have to remember is farmers market produce has a short shelf life and I must either purchase in small quantities, or create dishes to freeze for later.

i heart picklesMy new budget also allowed me to have my guilty pleasure – pickles! I’m not really sure if that can even be considered a guilty pleasure, however they are high in sodium. I love, love, love pickles! My favorite pickle vendor (that now delivers nationwide!), Pickle Me Pete, had a booth at a street fair and I just had to pick up a quart! Yum, yum, yum! I plan to try to grille some of them next week. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

So overall during the first week I had a few splurges – like some huge portobello mushrooms for a summer bbq – but it’s summer and when you have a grille, you just have to use it!

$2.00 kale
$4.50 2 portobello mushrooms
$2.00 6 fresh onions with stems
$7.00 1 container raspberries, 1 container blueberries
$4.00 3 large red peppers
$2.29 broccoli
$1.99 chocolate coconut milk yogurt
$3.99 nynaise
$1.31 1 cup walnuts
$2.39 thai curry sauce
$1.39 whole wheat penne
$2.29 chopped garlic
$35.15 Current Total

$9 1 Quart Pickles & 1 Fried Pickle
$8.50 Veggie Chik’n Vietnamese Sandwich
$8 Sesame Bean Curd
$25.50 Eating Out Total

Walnut Kale Pesto

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A few weeks a go a coworker of mine who has been following my food budget challenge came across a recipe for kale pesto & knew it was a “must create” for me. I’m a huge fan of kale (kale chips – nom nom!) and was curious as to how this would taste. Well to my delight, delicioso!

So you may ask why Kale is all the rage these days and no longer just the garnish we put on platters? Well it’s because it is a the superstar of the vegetables. A cup of kale has 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6, 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. Holy vitamin K! Vitamin K helps reduce the risk of cancer. Kale is also a good source of copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. Kale also lowers cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. So in short, I’m glad Kale is now all the rage and excited for this new way to incorporate this superstar veggie into my diet.

I made a few minor adjustments to the original recipe from The Full Plate Blog as I wanted a touch of acid and heat in mine. And for the best part…this recipe is fool proof and ready in a snap!Walnut Kale Pesto

Ingredients:
- 3 tsp chopped garlic (4-5 cloves garlic)
- 1 lime or lemon squeezed
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 lb kale (1 large bundle)
- 1/2 cup walnuts

Makes: 1 serving

Prep Time:
5 Mins		 Cook Time:
3 Mins		 Total Time:
8 Mins

Directions:

Remove the leafy part of the kale from the stem. The stem is too tough to eat.

Remove leaf from Stems

Squeeze out the juice from the lime or lemon into a food processor. Add the oil, garlic, salt, walnuts, red pepper flakes, and 1/2 of the kale. Blend. Then add the rest of the kale. You are done!

Walnut Kale Pesto

I served it over whole wheat pasta with broccoli.

Pesto Pasta

Tip:

  • If your a big fan of basil pesto, you can add about 5 leaves of basil to this
  • Mix is up for a BBQ. Make a Caprisi platter (mozzarella and tomato) and drizzle this pesto on top.