Cran-Apple Muffins

The "Cran-Apple Muffins" (page 410) are a wonderfully delicious treat, and a perfect muffin to make during the winter holidays.  The inclusion of the cranberries, grated apple, and applesauce provide enough moistness that leaving out the two tablespoons of oil called for in the recipe doesn't make any difference.  (I increased the applesauce called for from ¼ cup to a generous 1/3 cup).  I also substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose flour (white), and instead of oiling the muffin tin, I used muffin tin liners.  These were very easy changes to make, and by doing so, I succeeded in making a tasty and McDougall Plan-friendly muffin I can indulge in guilt free!

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette

I confess, twice in the last year, I have purchased a $17 bottle of balsamic vinegar from Fustini's Oils & Vinegars located in Michigan.  I didn't set out to do this, but after stumbling into their shop on a tour of Traverse City, and being able to taste test any number of vinegars, from the basic unflavored, to ones as esoteric as chocolate, I became an instant balsamic vinegar snob.  The basic unflavored balsamic, which is aged for 18 years, is so sweet, so mellow, and so full of crisp flavor, that it is literally the only vinegar I've ever been able to put directly onto my salad undiluted and enjoy it like a salad dressing. 

So I have to say, in my opinion, adding additional ingredients to this superior vinegar as I did when I made the "Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette" (page 99) was actually a detriment to enjoying this vinegar on it's own.  Not that the vinaigrette wasn't good, it was!  But I found myself wondering why I would want to do anything to mask the outstanding taste of the Fustini's.  That being said, if you do have a vinegar that you have no problem adding other ingredients to, this makes a fine salad dressing.  The recipe calls for ¼ cup olive oil; I used 6 tablespoons of water instead, and added ¼ teaspoon guar gum at the end to thicken it up. The guar gum does a great job of adding thickness and body to fat free salad dressings such as this, so you never miss the oil.

Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil



Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil



I'm always trying to find ways to get more veggies into my days.  With all the winter squash showing up in the markets, the timing was just right to make the "Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes and Basil" (page 383) and a great way to add to my veggie repertoire. The combination of fresh tomato, garlic, and basil gave this dish quite an Italian flair, and just bursting with vibrant flavors.  The recipe calls for cooking the spaghetti squash first (instructions say to cook whole in boiling water on the stove top - I chose to cut in half and bake in the oven), use a fork to pull out the spaghetti-like strands from the squash, then combine in a skillet with the rest of the ingredients.  The preparation time, once the squash has been cooked, is very quick, which helps preserve the flavor of each ingredient.  I did not use the oil called for in the recipe for sautéing the garlic, instead I used a couple tablespoons of vegetable broth.  I can't imagine how oil would have added any additional flavor to this dish. The squash all by itself tasted sweet and almost buttery.  I thought there would be a lot left over, but between me and my husband we almost polished off the entire skillet.

Corn and Potato Chowder

Corn and Potato Chowder

With another cold day comes another opportunity for warming soup.  Today's selection was "Corn and Potato Chowder" (page 165), and I imagine this will be showing up on my table quite often.  After simmering corn, potatoes, onion, and celery in broth or water until just done, half of the soup is blended up and returned to the pot, along with a little soy milk, and salt and pepper to taste.  The pureed portion of the soup is a pretty, pale yellow and provides a rich, smooth base for the remaining veggies.  Top individual bowlfuls with diced green onions or chives and dig in.  It's hard to eat just one bowl of this delicious soup.  If you make this the centerpiece of your meal, several bowls might be just the ticket!

The only change I had to make to keep in McDougall Plan friendly was to omit the oil for sautéing the onions.  I sautéed the onions without any added liquid in my cast iron soup pot.  When they started to brown, I splashed in a little broth to bring it all together, and proceeded with the rest of the recipe instructions from that point forward.

Fettuccine with Chard and Red Lentil Tomato Sauce

Red lentils have become a regular part of my pantry in recent years, and I'm always looking for new ways to use them.  The "Fettuccine with Chard and Red Lentil Tomato Sauce" (page 199) sounded like a winning combination just from reading the title!  This recipe went together amazingly fast, using just a handful of ingredients.  Red lentils, crushed tomatoes, and chard, plus some seasoning, cooked up and served over prepared fettuccini, and you have dinner on the table in about 45 minutes.

I did not sauté the garlic in oil.  Instead, I added it to the sauce at the very end of the cooking time in order to retain more garlic flavor.  I also could not find chard in the grocery store, so I used fresh spinach instead, with good results.  I'm a little confused, as the recipe title specifies Fettuccine, but in the list of ingredients and instructions, this changes to Linguine.  Are these one and the same?  Since I had fettuccine in the house, that is what I used.  Any long thin pasta would have worked, from angel hair to spaghetti.

What a hearty and flavorful sauce, like a marinara, but more substantial.  The cooked red lentils sort of disappear into the crushed tomatoes, yet you know with every bite there is more here than just crushed tomatoes.  The chard (or spinach) mixed into the sauce is very pretty, and the red and green colors make it a perfect meal to serve during the Christmas season.  This is an easy and tasty sauce I will definitely make again.

Indonesian Tempeh in Coconut Gravy

Tonight was extra special as my husband decided he would like to prepare one of the dishes from this book.  Because he does all the stir "frying" in our house (he also only uses water for sautéing), plus almost always takes on any dish using tempeh, the "Indonesian Tempeh in Coconut Gravy", (page 301), was the perfect choice for him.  Although the recipe didn't specifically call for this dish to be stir fried, it was very easily adapted to my husband's favorite cooking utensil, the Wok. 

Why is it when someone else cooks, you seem to enjoy it so much more?  I certainly did enjoy this dish.  To be fair, it was hard not to like with all the rich foods - tempeh, coconut milk, peanuts.  Although all ingredients are technically allowed on the McDougall Plan, maybe not all at once, and certainly not very often.  Okay, done with my disclaimer.  The blend of flavors was outstanding, with just enough heat added from one jalapeño pepper, instead of the serrano pepper called for in the recipe.  There were also red and green bell peppers, plus onion and diced tomatoes, all cooked on top of the stove at a low simmer for several minutes in the coconut milk, just long enough to reduce down to a nice thick gravy.  The recipe suggested this be served over rice, but my husband preferred pasta, so we had it over noodles. 

I love it when my husband cooks! J

Tomato Orzo Soup

Even when nothing else will do, soup comes to the rescue.  Soup always seems to hit the spot, and the "Tomato Orzo Soup" (page 166) is no exception.  Growing up, I ate a lot of Campbell's Tomato Soup, and for the longest time it never occurred to me that one could make something at home that would be as good as what came out of that red and white can.  But in this recipe, Campbell's has met its match, and in my opinion, lost the contest.  The combination of fresh and canned tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, celery, broth, and garlic, simmered on the stove, and then pureed, is the basis of the soup.  Add soy milk to this to add a little creaminess, serve on top of cooked orzo, top with fresh basil, and you've got a bowl of delightful, warm, elemental Soup.

I did make a couple of changes to this recipe.  First of all, keeping with my goal to keep these recipes oil free, I sautéed the onion in a little broth.  I was unable to find whole wheat orzo, so I did end up using the white flour version.  I added the garlic to the blender as I was pureeing the soup so as to retain more of the garlic flavor (as opposed to cooking it in from the beginning).  And, because I could tell this was going to be somewhat thin, I added ¼ cup flour to the soup as I was blending in up, then stirred it over heat until it thickened up.  It was at this point that it started to remind me of the good old Campbell's Soup days. Good warming food for when it's cold outside.

Creamy Avocado Dressing

One of the things I really like about staying in Texas is I can always find tortillas, cilantro, and avocados, and reasonably priced!  Originally from California, it has been rather shocking to find ourselves in places where there is nary a tortilla to be found, and nobody has even heard of cilantro.  Today in the market there was a huge bin of avocados all perfectly ripe and ready to eat, so I bought a couple and turned one of them into "Creamy Avocado Dressing" (page 102).  I think I've just found my new favorite salad dressing!  The recipe gives you an option to use either lemon & parsley, or lime & cilantro, as part of the ingredients.  I opted to go with the lime and cilantro (Go Texas!) and that, along with just a smidge of cayenne and some fresh garlic, convinced me the name of this should be changed to Guacamole Dressing.

The recipe called for ¼ cup oil, but I knew the avocado would provide enough natural oil so that any additional would be unnecessary, and would not be missed.  Instead I used two tablespoons each water and soymilk to provide the liquid measure.  After everything was blended up, it was very thick and creamy, as is no doubt the intention, and would be perfect at this consistency as a dip or even a spread on a sandwich or a veggie burger.  But I wanted it a little thinner, so I added another two tablespoons of water to obtain the consistency I wanted for use as a salad dressing.

All I can say, it was a good thing there were no chips in the house, because if there had been, I don't think this dressing would have lasted until dinner!

Autumn Medley Stew

After all the rich food over the several days of feasting on Thanksgiving fare, I was ready for something elemental and full of vegetables, just like the "Autumn Medley Stew" (page 261).  There were plenty of root vegetables, including a potato, carrot, parsnip and potato, along with butternut squash, cabbage, tomatoes, and seasoning.  Chunks of seitan, garbanzo beans and angel hair pasta added bulk and thickness, making this a complete meal in a bowl.  White wine added to the broth added a nice dimension, and all the flavors blended into a wonderfully warming meal on a cold autumn night.  I omitted the oil (used to sauté the onion), but I was unable to find any whole grain angel hair pasta. Since it was not the predominant ingredient in the recipe, I wasn't too concerned about making this concession.  I did end up using almost three additional cups of liquid above what the recipe called for. Some of this came from not draining the can of diced tomatoes (the recipe indicated they should be drained, but I thought that would be a waste of flavorful liquid that would taste good in the stew) and I added two more cups of broth as well.  Part of this is because I wanted this to be a little broth-ier than a traditional stew, but also because it didn't look to me like the pasta would cook in the amount of liquid in the stew when it was time to add it.  Another option would be to cook the pasta first.

Cashew Crème

I was looking for a topping for the vegan pumpkin pie I made for Thanksgiving, and decided to give the "Cashew Crème" (page 501) a try. Because of the recipe description, I was thinking it would somehow remind me more of a whipped cream style topping, like the tofu based crème toppings I have made in the past.  But the Cashew Crème came out a beautiful rich golden color (due to the dark maple syrup) that made me think more of butterscotch or caramel sauce. Oh, is this topping ever rich, creamy, and sweet!  The consistency is thick and smooth, and the flavors blended wonderfully with the pumpkin pie, each bite melting in my mouth feeling like pure decadence. I think this Cashew Crème would be good on vegan ice cream, mixed into a bowl of fruit, spread on cakes, just about anywhere you want a thick, sweet dessert topping.  No changes were necessary to make this compatible with the McDougall Plan - although I'm sure Dr. McDougall would caution us about the high fat content of the cashews and advise only an occasional indulgence! ;-)

Vietnamese-Style Noodle Soup

The first thing I added the Basic Simmered Seitan to (see previous review) was the "Vietnamese-Style Noodle Soup" (page 151).  This soup is so satisfying, so flavorful, and so perfect on a cold day.  I had left over broth from preparing the seitan, and it made the perfect base for this noodle soup.  There are so many good flavors in this soup, and they all blend so harmoniously.  With each bite you notice something else - was it the miso, hoisin sauce, ginger, star anise, lime?  Who cares, it's all good!  These are the flavors that are simmered into the broth, to which you add rice noodles and slivered seitan.  Top this off with sprouts, cilantro, and green onion, and you have the perfect vegan version of Pho, Vietnamese noodle soup.  The only change necessary to make this McDougall friendly was to omit the oil for sauteing the onion.

Basic Simmered Seitan

Up until now, I haven't had the best of luck making seitan.  In fact, I haven't been all that happy with the seitan I buy from the store.  But all this has changed, now that I've tried the "Basic Simmered Seitan" (page 305).  In my effort to avoid soy isolates and other highly processed soy foods, I've been trying to use seitan more often as a meat substitute.  I know there are those who wonder, why bother?  But I really do enjoy the texture and versatility offered by faux meats, and if I can find a healthy alternative, so much the better. 

As this recipe promised, I ended up with nearly two pounds of seitan after simmering the "dough" for about an hour in the very flavorful broth.  The seitan pieces more than doubled in size during the simmering process, puffing up and absorbing all the wonderful flavors of the simmering broth.  When the cooking time was up, the seitan, much to my delight, turned out oh-so-tender, not at all tough and chewy like some of my past experiments. 

I'm so happy I've found the right formula for making my own seitan, as now I will have all kinds of options available for a number of preparations.  As you can see from the picture, I sliced some of the seitan (to be dice up later into strips to add to soup), and I chunked some of it to add to a stew.  I also sliced some for sandwiches, and froze some for later.  This recipe is a really great find!

Keeping it "McDougall Friendly" checklist:

• Omit the olive oil from the wet ingredients. Use 1 tablespoon of water or vegetable broth instead.

Oh-My-Goddess Dressing

It's been hard for me to find more than a handful of vegan and oil free salad dressings that I really like.  Honestly, if I could accomplish this, I would probably have salad with every meal.  I've tried so many, from homemade to store bought, from the complex to just using a splash of vinegar or salsa.  Nothing has come close to satisfying me like my old fat-filled favorites, although I have found that tofu or nut based dressings come the closest.  So, I decided to try "Oh-My-Goddess Dressing" (page 99) because of the tahini and figured this would be a safe bet.  The dressing calls for ¼ olive oil, 25% of the total dressing (yields 1 cup), not an insignificant part of the recipe.  Leaving it out altogether worried me a little bit, but I decided to just substitute water for the oil, hoping the tahini would add enough fat to make the final outcome creamy and plenty rich. This worked out fine, and I really like the flavor of this dressing.  The herbs and garlic, plus the tanginess from the vinegar and lemon provide a burst of flavor, and the pale green color is typical of green goddess dressings.  All in all, a good everyday salad dressing.

Broccoli with Black Beans and Walnuts

"Broccoli with Black Beans and Walnuts" (page 358) is in the Vegetable Side Dishes chapter, although it is suggested that it is hardy enough to serve as a main dish for two if served over rice or quinoa.  I chose to make this dish the center of our meal, but instead of serving it over a grain, I added a baked potato on the side, and this provided a substantial dinner for two.  The contrast of colors and textures alone make this an interesting and pretty dish.  The broccoli is steamed just long enough to be tender and to retain its bright green color, and then cooked briefly in a large skillet along with the beans, walnuts, garlic, and green onions.  I used broth instead of oil to sauté everything together, and in fact, added a little extra broth to the finished dish to make it a little saucier.  Both my husband and I thought this would benefit with the addition of a sauce, or more seasonings, but this was easily remedied at the table by adding our condiments of choice.  Tasty dish!