Green Smoothie: "You Are My Sunshine"

I wanted something that would taste fresh, but also kind of "warm" (for a cold smoothie) and comforting on this somewhat chilly morning. This is hitting the spot.

You Are My Sunshine Green Smoothie
• About 2 cups washed spinach leaves
• generous handful of fresh parsley
• 4 or 5 baby carrots (I had a bunch of those pre-peeled and bagged ones for a party) or one regular carrot, peeled and diced
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup frozen or fresh mango
• 3 dates
• 1 slice lemon, including peel
• 1 slice peeled fresh ginger root
• 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups soy milk or other milk of your choice

Blend everything together in blender, going from low to high setting, until it is smooth and delightfully green!

Green Smoothie: Nutty Cocoa Berry Bomb

Nutty Cocoa Berry Bomb Green Smoothie

As usual, measurements are approximate.

2 handfuls of washed spinach
3/4 cup mixed frozen berries
4 dates (for sweetening - also contain calcium and iron!)
2 tbsp hemp hearts (optional)
1 tbsp flax seeds (optional)
1 heaping tbsp nut butter (I used almond... peanut would've been amazing, but unfortunately I am allergic).
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 to 2 cups water

Put all ingredients in your blender. Blend from low to high setting until smooth.

Linguini with Roasted Garlic Tarragon Cream Sauce

• 4 servings worth of linguine, prepared according to package

• 1/4 cup margarine (I love Becel's new vegan margarine. I was never keen on the flavour of Earth Balance)

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1/2 cooking onion, chopped finely

• 1 bulb plus 2 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp tarragon

• 1 tsp basil (I used dried herbs)

• freshly ground black pepper

• about 1/4 cup white flour

• 1/4 cup soy creamer or soy milk or almond milk

• about 1 1/2 cups soy milk

There is just no vegan substitute for rich, creamy, fatty fettucini alfredo. That being said, this satisfied the craving. It tasted quite decadent. (It does have the fat part). I just winged it, making a basic roux and adding stuff, so I'm glad it turned out. The soy creamer makes it a bit richer, but I think it would work with just soy milk, too.

Sauce Directions:

Put margarine in saucepan over medium-low heat. When it is melted, add the onions. Add the 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, to the onions, after the first 10 minutes of cooking. Keep the onions cooking until they start to turn brown, stirring occassionally. If the onions are getting dark brown or black quickly, you need to turn the temp down. It should take 15-20 minutes for them to turn light brown.

Meanwhile, roast the bulb of garlic. My roasting method is as follows: Cut the top off the bulb, exposing the tops of the garlic cloves. Peel most of the paper off the outside bulb, leaving a thin layer on the outside, and the cloves intact in their bulb formation. Put the garlic bulb in a small oven-safe dish or on a small tray lined with parchment paper. Pour a generous slurp of canola oil over the bulb of garlic. Put it in the toaster oven (or can use conventional oven) for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Cloves are properly roasted when their exposed part starts to turn brown, and is puffing up a bit out the paper casings.

Let the garlic cool a bit. Meanwhile, add the olive oil to the margarine/onions and then add the flour gradually, stirring with a whisk. Then, add the milk, creamer and seasonings. Turn the stove to low heat. Making sure to watch the sauce and stir it periodically, remove the garlic cloves from their paper casings with a table knife. Put them in a small dish. Once you have removed all of them, mash them with a fork and then add them to the sauce. Cook the sauce, whisking regularly, until it reaches desired thickness. If it is too thick, add more soy milk.

Mix sauce in with the cooked linguini.

Garnish with fresh parsley and kalamata olives (pictured) if so desired.

Habitant Style Pea Soup

I made up this soup, trying to imitate the flavour of the French Canadian pea soup my mum used to cook using a ham bone in a big cast iron kettle over a wood fire, back when my family used to do historic re-enactment when I was a kid. It is pretty close, for something I made in my crockpot out of leftovers and which in no way contains pig (which I haven't eaten in nigh on 20 years).

I basically threw things in the crockpot, so all of these measurements are approximate.

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup dry cooking sherry
• 1 cup split peas (I ended up using a 2:1 mixture of split peas and green lentils, because I was short on peas).
• 4 fingerling (small, new crop) carrots scrubbed and diced into rounds (or 2 bigger main crop carrots peeled and sliced)
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tsp. dried savory
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• lots of freshly ground black pepper
• dash of salt
• 8-10 drops natural liquid smoke
• 3/4 cup frozen baby peas
• 1/3 cup instant potato flakes (unflavoured) * you could also use a chopped fresh potato; just add it at the beginning instead of the end. I didn't have one, but I keep flakes on hand for just such an occasion.

Put everything except frozen peas and potato flakes into the crockpot. Cook on low for 6 hours. Fish out the bay leaves. Mix in the frozen peas and potato flakes. Let the soup warm through for a few minutes, then blend it carefully to desired consistency with an immersion blender. I like to leave some chunks of vegetables when I blend it. Very good with any kind of fresh bread.

Must say, pea soup is not photogenic. Or attractive at all, really. So no photo! But tastes and smells great. Even my SO, who generally doesn't like non-spicy things, really liked it.

My vegan milks bring all the boys (and girls) to the yard...

Lots of people ask me where I get all these wacky milks I use in my recipes. Well, folks, I make them. And it couldn't be easier, with one of these. This, my friends is a SoyQuick, and it can be your best friend if you let it. It makes soy milk, rice milk, other grain milks and nut milks. I bought mine second hand but you can also buy them online here.

I think it's worth it to have one, since I go through a lot of milk and with a machine, it costs pennies per litre to make soy milk, and is also much cheaper to make other kinds of milks than to buy them. My SoyQuick has paid for itself. There's even a milk calculator  on the SoyQuick site which will tell you how much money you'd save by making your own milk, based on what kind of milk you drink, and how much per week. Besides the thrift factor, it also creates far less packaging and you can support local soybean growers if you so choose. Plus, the biproduct of soymilk making, okara, can be used in many recipes (I will try to post a picture of this sometime - looks like mashed potatoes.)

I've read some food blogs that say they find it too time consuming to make soy milk. If you're making it by hand, I am totally with you. But all you have to  do with a machine is soak your beans or nuts ahead (4 hours or 8 hours respectively - it's become part of my bed-time routine to put beans on to soak, for both soy-milk making and cooking for meals)  pop them in the filter cup,  attach the filter cup to the main grinding/heating mechanism (that white part in the photo) fill the pitcher part with water,  put the main mechanism into the water filled pitcher and turn the machine on. About 15 minutes later you have fresh milk. Pour it in a jug - I recommend pouring it through a fine sieve for a smoother texture––add your sugar and salt if desired, and you're done. No preservatives. No added sugar or salt (you can add these if you like). No thickeners. No emulsifiers. The hardest part of the whole job is cleaning the thing after, but even that's not bad if you get it right away or soak it first. Counting cleaning time, it still takes less than 30 minutes to make soy-milk, and most of the time you're just waiting for the machine to be done.

Here's soaked almonds and barley getting ready to be made into milk. For almond barley milk (I haven't seen other recipes for it online - you can find lots of recipes for other milks, though) I use 1 cup raw hulled almonds, and 1 tbsp barley, soaked about 6 hours.

I try to alternate the types of milk I make to vary my protein sources.

Green Smoothies!

I made a new smoothie this morning - a variation on the Blimey Limey - and it was deeelish!

Strawberry Lemonade Green Smoothie

7 leaves purple kale
4 dates (for sweetening)
About 8 frozen strawberries (I only had frozen. Use fresh if you have 'em)
about 1 1/2 cups almond-barley milk (can use whatever milk you like)
1 1/4 inch slice lemon, with peel
1 tbsp flax seeds
about 1/2 cup water if you need it to help things blend (mine was turning into ice cream, because everything was frozen, including my kale - need to get to the market!)

Blend all ingredients, going gradually from low to high setting on your blender.
Next time I think I'll add parsley and see how it goes.

I invented this one the other day. If you like pina coladas, you may or may not like this :-). It was a terrible colour, but I thought it tasted pretty pina colada-y. NOT low fat!

If You like Pina Coladas Green Smoothie

4 or 5 leaves purple kale
Small handful of rapini (you can also omit this and just use 7 or so kale leaves)
About 1 cup diced fresh pineapple OR a combination of pineapple and mango
1/2 cup coconut milk (or 1 tbsp coconut oil + add an extra 1/2 cup of your other milk)
about 1 cup almond-macadamia milk, or other milk
1 tsp natural coconut extract (optional, for extra coconut flavour)

Blend all ingredients, going gradually from low to high setting on your blender.

Note: If you're having trouble getting used to the "green" taste of green smoothies, use fewer greens to start out - say, use 3 kale leaves instead of six - and work your way up.