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Meal Plan Monday: Soup Week

February 25, 2013 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you but there is something about eating soup that really helps me feel nourished. I think it is because I eat a much better variety of veggies in soup that I wouldn’t eat if they were all cooked separately.

In January of 2012 I proclaimed a Soup Week. I’m really looking forward to this one because I have a few more recipes in my tool belt. I plan to make large pots of soup each night so I can have a nice selection in my freezer.

I won’t post a whole meal plan but you can get Breakfast Ideas here. You can also click on the Meal Plan Monday in the Categories section on the right. It will bring up past meal plans you can browse.

I know I always brag about living in Arizona where the weather is wonderful and it is; however lately I’ve been cold. Not the same kind of cold everyone else is experiencing but I’m a little spoiled so I’m having a hard time handling it. My answer: sweaters, coffee, and soup.

If you use canned broth or bullion these soups will be more expensive for you and possibly less healthy. I’d like to encourage you to give the Dry Broth Mix a try. It is so good and inexpensive. It takes minutes to mix up a batch in your food processor and it lasts for a long time.

Minestrone Soup! I made this last week for Healthy Cravings and we enjoyed the leftovers all weekend. We had a tense moment yesterday when we realized it was almost gone. We shared the last few cups of it then I made the next soup.

Green Chili Cilantro & Lime Soup! This soup is amazing! Truly. I’ll be sharing the recipe this week. I made a large pot last night. My boys didn’t love it but my husband and I did. We both had two large bowls and he took it to work for lunch. I also put some in the freezer. I have yet to get a good picture but I don’t want to wait to share this recipe.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup! This is one of the easiest recipe ever! I may switch it to a busier day but I’ve really been craving potato soup. I’ll be adding more veggies to it though and perhaps more nutritional yeast. I get a look of feedback about this soup everyone seems to love it although you may want to add more seasonings especially if you attempt to make this without nutritional yeast. An immersion blender would make it smooth and creamy.

Taco Soup! Very similar to the Enchilada Soup so you could take your pick. This soup is my favorite, I love it. If someone made this for me I’d become their best friend. It is also full of veggies and beans so you feel immensely satisfied.

Chickpea Noodle Soup! This is a new favorite in our house. I’ll be adding extra veggies this time depending on what is leftover. I use gluten-free noodles, I like these little shells or macaroni instead of long noodles because my boys can handle these easier but you can use any noodles you like.

Do you have a favorite soup? I love using fresh ingredients in my soup but some days I’m happy when I can throw a bunch of canned or frozen goods together and create a warm, delicious, and filling soup. Share your favorite soup in the comments!

Plant-Based Lasagna (Gluten-Free)

February 23, 2013 by Holly Yzquierdo 24 Comments

If you’ve recently switched to a plant-based diet you may be under the impression that there are some foods you’ll never be able to eat again. I’m going to let you off the hook, you can enjoy many of the comfort foods you have always loved with a few modifications.

This recipe does take some work, like any lasagna recipe there are many steps involved, most of the work is done by a food processor. The good news is many can be prepared ahead of time. I even build the lasagna a few hours before company arrives then put it in the oven 30 minutes before dinner time.

Lasagna (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

Ingredients (by step)

Step 1

2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c lemon juice (1 lemon)
1/4 c nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Step 2

4 c tightly packed spinach or other greens
1/2 large onion
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 c or handful of mushrooms

Remaining Ingredients

Large jar pasta sauce
1 package gluten-free no-boil lasagna noodles
eggplant, peeled and diced (optional, I used 1/2 an eggplant)
mushrooms, diced (optional)

Add all the ingredients for step one to a food processor, puree then set aside until ready to build lasagna.
Add all the ingredients for step two to a food processor, puree, then set aside until ready to build lasagna.
Building the Lasagna. Layer ingredients in a large casserole dish, I used a 9×15 dish. I used the following order:1 1/2 cup red sauce, noodles, white sauce, greens, mushrooms, eggplant then finish with red sauce. Repeat layers until you run out of ingredients. Mine had 2 layers of white sauce and 2 layers of greens with 1 layer of veggies (mushrooms and eggplant). I had three layers of red sauce.
Bake in preheated oven at 350° for 20-30 minutes.

Serve

This lasagna is company worthy. I’ve served it to large groups on two occasions and everyone seemed to like it. I don’t think you miss the meat or cheese from traditional lasagna. It also reheats well and keeps for several days in the fridge. It’s easily customizable. It pairs well with a large Italian salad, my salad included olives, artichoke hearts, peppers, red onions, and greens.

For a faux parmesan try whizzing 1 cup of cashews and 1/2 cup nutritional yeast in a high-powered blender and sprinkling it on top of the lasagna.

Do you miss Lasagna since going plant-based? Give this recipe a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. What comfort food do you miss the most?

The Birthday Weekend

February 20, 2013 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

This last weekend one of my son’s turned 4 years old. There have been a lot of birthday’s lately. We have celebrated all 4 of us in the last two months. Additionally, one of our sons that lives in Michigan with his mom just had a birthday and turned 14.

For the actual celebration we went out for pizza then came home for birthday cake. We have a local pizza place that makes gluten-free pizza so even my 2 year old can have pizza too. My 4 year old ate 3 big pieces of pizza and wanted more but we told him to save it for the next day.

With Store Bought FrostingIt was a Birthday afterall — With Store Bought Frosting
It was a Birthday after all

There was a lot of discussion on Facebook about the Gluten-Free and Vegan Chocolate Cake. I’ll be sharing the recipe next week. I think it is a keeper. I sent the recipe out to several testers but I’m still waiting for their feedback.

My son got to pick out his present from us but was very happy to open a present from his Grandpa. My son LOVES his presents!

We had a lot of fun on Saturday too. We went out to the river, the weather was warm, and we all had a great time. My husband regularly takes the boys out there for a picnic but this was the first time they brought me.

At one point we heard a thundering noise, I noticed the other families were looking behind us. All of the sudden two horses came running down the embankment and crossed the river. The horses were very close, I ran over the boys but they weren’t fazed, apparently wild horses showing up isn’t a big deal to them.

The boys went back out to the river on Sunday too. It is their new favorite place. Pretty soon the crowds will take over so I’m glad they have been able to enjoy it.

Meal Plan Monday @ Day of Knight

February 18, 2013 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

Today I’m a guest blogger at Day of Knight. Click on over to check out my Meal Plan including my menu for Thursday night’s Healthy Cravings group.

While you are there check out Jenna’s blog. The first time I found it I spent an hour reading old posts while laughing and crying. Day of Knight is all about Jenna and her family, their faith, their life, homeschooling, adoption, missions, and a little about food.

Have a great week!

Mac & Cheese, Gluten-Free and Vegan

February 13, 2013 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to make a gluten-free, dairy-free Mac & Cheese that is actually healthy. Now that I have I’m already thinking of other ideas to spice it up. I plan to serve this at my next Healthy Craving group. If you aren’t concerned with gluten you can use regular whole wheat pasta.

Mac & Cheese (Gluten-free and Vegan)

Ingredients

2 cups gluten-free noodles (uncooked)
2 cups raw cauliflower (diced into small pieces)
1 recipe Faux Cheese Sauce
Cooked potatoes, peeled (I used two small red potatoes peeled) plus water

Preheat the oven to 350°
Cook noodles according to package directions. Cauliflower can be steamed separately or cooked with the noodles.
Prepare Faux Cheese Sauce
Mash potatoes, adding water until a smooth texture is reached.
Pour noodles and cauliflower into an 8×8 casserole dish.
Add potatoes to the prepared cheese sauce and whisk well.
Pour cheese sauce into noodles and gently stir until noodles are well coated.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve

This looks like very involved dish but it really isn’t that hard. The most difficult part for me is paying attention to the cheese sauce that needs to be whisked continuously. I served this alone but it could easily be a side dish.

While we enjoyed this if you are still hooked on regular ol’ dairy filled mac and cheese you may not be ready for this. It definitely tastes like nutritional yeast. My two-year old loved it. He had 3 servings! I’ve never been a big mac and cheese fan but I liked it too. I wouldn’t try to pull a switcheroo on my teenagers but if you are raising plant-based kids give this a try, they may just find a new favorite.

And now for a few pictures…

This kid was really trying to take over my photo shoot. He is pretty hard to resist!

Do you miss Mac & Cheese or have you found an acceptable version since changing your diet?

Meal Plan Monday: The Week of Experimentation

February 4, 2013 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

This week I’ll be experimenting with a lot of new recipe ideas. I hope I didn’t get your hopes up and make you think I was talking about scuba diving, rappelling, or wind surfing. I have done all of those things, but not recently. My idea of a good time is far less adventuresome these days.

Meal Plan

Breakfast is still oatmeal. No, I’m not tired of it yet; I change it up daily. It is the best way for me to get my omega 3s in early. If I don’t I usually don’t get them. Plus my boys love oatmeal and cheer when I made it. Some mornings I may have toast with almond butter and apple slices.

Lunch is usually leftovers but we are a little bare in that department right now. I’ll make extra for dinner this week so we acquire some. I also plan to have veggie stuffed pitas for me and almond butter sandwiches for my boys. Bean and grain bowls are easy to throw together too.

Snack will be fruit, parfaits, or smoothies. I haven’t been eating near enough fruit lately so I want to focus on intentionally eating more.

Dinner will be new recipes. This weekend I created a delicious plant-based lasagna that I’ll post soon. Monday I made an incredible soup with brown rice, black beans, green chilis, and cilantro. My husband didn’t get any because he had a dinner to attend, I was supposed to go but I was sick and so was my babysitter. Double Whammy! I’ll be making a much larger pot of it again tomorrow and hopefully I’ll get some better pictures. I took a few on my phone and posted them to Facebook but it was too dark and I was too hungry to spend any more time on it. I plan to take a swing at a Baked Mac and No Cheese. I have a specific vision in mind for this so I’m really hoping it turns out well. I will probably cook one other big meal but I don’t know what it is yet. I have some black-eyed peas soaking so it may involve them but I’ll also make more beans this week.

I did some experimenting last week too. I made spaghetti squash for the first time. It was ok but I had forgotten why I stopped making spaghetti. It is too messy for a two-year old! I’ll stick to small noodles for a while. I also made a chocolate swirl banana bread that was pretty good but I was going for more of a coffee cake. I plan to tweak it more before I share it with the world. Lastly, I made my first tofu scramble. I know, I don’t use tofu. You’re right I don’t but I do like to try new things and I had some left from making Somer’s Ranch Dressing. My boys loved the scramble. I didn’t eat it because I had just had dental work and opted for Potato Soup. I don’t think the scramble will make it into our regular rotation but it may make an appearance every once in a while.

lasagna — Lasagna Side View Before Baking

So you like to try new things, either in the kitchen or in everyday life?

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