National Cucumber Day

Today is National Cucumber Day. I like cucumbers. I find them refreshing and summery. They are a common feature of tea sandwiches. You can find a couple of nice cucumber tea sandwiches here and here. Heck, you can even use them on your face, like this very lovely rinse for the face. My son likes to add cucumber slices to water during the hot summer months.

Some people just can't abide them, though. Makes them gassy. Those poor, unfortunate souls!

If you aren't a fan, but don't hate cucumbers, here's a nice little finger food to enjoy them.

Tortilla Bites with Sesame Soy Sauce

One container vegan cream cheese
One package whole wheat flour tortillas
1-3 c. cold, cooked long grain brown rice
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into strips
1 avocado, thinly sliced
One bunch organic spinach leaves
1 carrot, cut into strips
One can vegan tuna
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/2 t. crushed red pepper
1/4 t. ground ginger
1 T. sesame oil

Spread the cream cheese over one tortilla. I lightly sprinkled granulated garlic on top of this, but you can leave out if you want. Close to one edge of the tortilla, layer some rice, cucumber, avocado, carrot, spinach, and tuna. Roll up and tightly as possible, then slice the tortilla into one inch or so rounds.

Mix the soy sauce, red pepper, ginger, and sesame oil in a bowl. Serve this alongside the tortilla bites to dip in. Enjoy!

Gazpacho Salad

My husband loves tangy cucumber and onion kinds of salads. I was pretty sure he would like this version, and I was right. He had three helpings.

Gazpacho Salad

2 cucumbers, diced
Handful of sliced mushrooms
Green onions, sliced
1 T. dried parsley or 1/2 c. fresh parsley, chopped
5 Roma tomatoes, diced
One green pepper, sliced thin
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
2 t. soy sauce
1/8 t. dry mustard
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. basil
1/4 t. oregano
1/2 t. celery salt
5 T. olive oil

Add the vegetables and the parsley to a large bowl. Mix the vinegar, olive oil and herbs and spices together and pour over the vegetables. Mix well to coat. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours. Add a sprinkle of vegan cheese, if you'd like, and serve.

Herbed Lemon Chick'n

Finally I have been able to get back to cooking! I wear the wrist/hand brace only at night now, and my injured foot allows me to move about more. Ugh, how I hate injuries! My husband is threatening to buy me steel toed tennis shoes. He's joking, of course, but I am seriously considering making that purchase.

Herbed Lemon Chick'n

2 packages Gardein Chick'n Scallopini (yes, I'm addicted - I love this stuff!)
Olive oil
One onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 c. broth (I used one Edward and Sons Not-Chick'n bouillon cube in one cup of water)
1 T. dried parsley
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. dried basil
2 T. flour
2 T. water
One can sliced black olives

In a pressure cooker, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil. Add the scallopini and brown slightly. Add broth, parsley, lemon juice, oregano and basil. Cover and cook at pressure for 8 minutes. Allow pressure to drop on its own. Once pressure has dropped, remove scallopini and put pressure cooker back on a burner on high. Add flour, water and olives, stirring and boiling until sauce is thickened. Serve the sauce over the scallopini. It also is good over rice.

I also made a couple of sides to go along with it.

Wine Sauteed Mushrooms

One package sliced mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, chopped
Vegan butter
1/4 c. dry red wine

Saute the mushrooms and garlic in the butter. Add the wine and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Lime Cucumbers

1/2 t. grated lime rind
1 T. freshly squeezed lime juice
2 T. olive oil
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
One large cucumber, peeled and sliced

Whisk together everything except the cucumbers. Pour this dressing over the sliced cucumbers and stir gently to coat well.

It was some darned good eating!

Crunchy Wraps

My kids and I went to the Vegfest earlier this month. It was the first time for us, and only the second year for the festival. We loved it! Seeing so many veg-friendly people gathered in one place was very exciting! There were numerous booths and displays to check out, and several places offered samples. We watched a demonstration on making kale chips. Note to self - make those chips tonight! Afterward we tried a new-for-us vegan restaurant and then hit a grocery store to pick up healthy goodies!

Getting home late I wanted to make something quick and easy. This definitely fit the bill!

Crunchy Wraps

Vegan cream cheese
Flour tortillas (we used spinach)
Shredded spinach
Shredded red cabbage
Sliced avocados
Chopped tomatoes
Diced cucumbers
Diced red onion

Spread the cream cheese on the tortilla and top with a sprinkle of the each vegetable. Roll up the tortilla and enjoy!

Even my non-vegan hubby loved these! Win!

Lettuce Wrap

I just had the tastiest lunch, so wanted to type this up before I forget the ingredients!

Lettuce Wrap

Shredded red and green cabbage
Julienned carrots
Cucumber sticks
Few sprigs of cilantro
Chopped peanuts
Thai peanut sauce
Romaine lettuce

Layer cabbage, carrots, cilantro and cucumber sticks on top of the romaine. Pour peanut sauce over the vegetables and sprinkle the chopped peanuts on top. Roll the entire thing up in the lettuce, burrito style. Enjoy!

I'll need to find a recipe for a peanut sauce now. This was slightly sweet. It was messy to eat, but truly finger lickin' good!

Quick and Easy Gyros

Ah! So happy to be back blogging! I've been so busy lately, and have grown weary of throwing together anything and calling it supper! Ugh! Now that I've got more time to do more things, I'm getting back into the groove of cooking! Yay!

My family loves gyros. I've mentioned this before and included a seitan recipe here. That one was made with seitan and while delicious, is more time consuming. Imagine my surprise when flipping through a magazine I find this little gem.

Quick and Easy Gyros

One (or in my case, two) packages of vegan style Boca Burgers
One container vegan sour cream
2-3 cloves garlic
Whole grain tortillas
Roma tomatoes
Lettuce, shredded
Half a cucumber, peeled
Red onion

Chop and mix together the tomatoes, cucumber and red onion. Cook Boca burgers according to package directions (we made ours in a skillet). In a food processor, blend the garlic and sour cream together.
To assemble, cut a burger into two halves and place on top of tortilla. Stack on the veggie mix, lay on some lettuce, and smooth on some of the sour cream mixture. Fold in half, eat, enjoy!

This was so very simple to make and remarkably tasty, considering we were using a prepackaged burger instead of making one from scratch. I wanted something simple and quick, but tasty, and this worked out well. I served it with no-salt potato chips and my youngest went back for three of them!

You can certainly used the more typical pita bread to serve your gyros in, but I've always found they fall apart too easily, whereas flour tortillas seem much more manageable.

Green Food for Green Thursday

Today Catholics all over the globe celebrate Holy Thursday. In the Czech and German traditions, it has another name: Green Thursday. They celebrate it by eating large green salads, so I thought, well, let's expand on this a bit. So, I made an all green supper.

Green Goddess Salad with Green Goddess Dressing

Green, leafy lettuce
Cucumber, peeled and chopped
Tomato - cut into bite sized pieces
Half of a red onion, chopped
One can of black olives
1/4 c. pine nuts, roasted
Fresh parsley, chopped
Green Goddess Dressing
Faux Feta

Mix salad ingredients together and toss well to coat.

Green Goddess Dressing

2 garlic cloves, minced
2 green onions, chopped
Fresh parsley, chopped
Fresh basil, chopped
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. tahini
2 T. apple cider vinegar
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper

Combine all ingredients and blend well in a food processor. Add to salad.

Faux Feta

One package firm tofu, drained and pressed and frozen, boiled, pressed again
2 T. olive oil
2 T. water
1/4 c. red wine vinegar (actually a little less, we thought it turned out a little tangy)
Fresh basil, chopped
1 t. salt
1/4 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. dried dill
1/4 t. black pepper

Crumble the tofu and mix with remaining ingredients. Let marinate at least an hour.

Green Beans with Brazil Nuts

Frozen or fresh green beans, steamed
2 T. olive oil
One onion, chopped
1/4 t. salt
Brazil nuts, chopped
Fresh basil, chopped
Lemon juice

In the olive oil, saute the onion, nuts and basil. Add the green beans and salt, sprinkle in a dash of lemon juice, mix well and heat through. Serve.

Okra Strips in Lemon-Tarragon Viniagrette

Frozen whole okra, thawed, ends trimmed and pods cut in half lengthwise
Flour mixed with Cajun spices of choice
3 T. lemon juice
1 t. red wine vinegar
1 t. Dijon mustard
One clove garlic, minced
1 t. dried tarragon
8 T. olive oil

Coat the okra in the flour mixture and set aside. Mix remaining ingredients in a frying pan and mix well. Heat to medium high and add coated okra. Cook until brown. Serve.

The plated food looked really lovely, even if it was heavily green!

These Vegetables are Very Gay

That's happy for those of us that remember the word differently!

I'm not sure how I found it. Probably looking for something else, and it popped up in a search. However I found it, though, it was fun to watch.

I'm talking about the Hardcore Vegan Chef and his cooking dvd. Language warning! The recipes were simple and delicious sounding, the cooking tips handy and all done in an entertaining style - if you are in your early twenties. I'm not, but that didn't detract from the recipes for me.

It was a day or two later when I realized I needed to take a dish to the potluck we always have when my women's group gets together. A delicious vegan soup and salad were already being planned, so I wanted something that would work with it. I remembered one of the recipes I saw whipped up by the Hardcore Chef, and voila! Instant success! He titles it Vegetable Medley of Hardcore Gaiety. I just call it yummy!

2 cucumbers, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
2 cans chickpeas, drained
2 cans whole black olives, drained
A handful of fresh parsley, minced
2 T. olive oil
2 T. balsamic vinegar
Pinch of oregano, celery salt and thyme

It's all very simple; mix the veggies together. Mix the olive oil, vinegar and seasonings until well blended and pour over the veggies. Stir until all are well coated. Serve.

It was quite a hit at my meeting, and even a bigger hit back home. We served it atop mixed greens with some extra dressing and literally devoured it. It was so simple to throw together and yet very tasty.

Try the recipe. Check out the dvd. You won't be disappointed!