My Foodie Call | Dial in to your health. | Page 18

- A Super Easy Winter Salad…with Pears and Candied Walnuts
  
  Posted at 8:00 pm by myfoodiecall
  
  Dec 12th
  We all love fruit in salad.
  
  Pears are one of those things that usually show up in salads around this time of year.
  
  A winter or holiday thing, right?
  
  Thought it was fitting that I add a post with a pear salad. Great for your holiday gathering. Or for whenever.
  
  A Super Easy Winter Salad
  
  …with Pears and Candied Walnuts.
  
  Sweet.
  
  Horrible lighting. Apologies. Salad still rocked though. Mr. Foodie Call did a few approving grunts while he ate this.
  
  My usual “pictorial” play-by-play of the recipe.
  
  Toast and “candy up” those walnuts.
  
  Stir up your dressing.
  
  Pick your pears.
  
  Chop ’em.
  
  Grab 2 bags of spring mix. Organic of course.
  
  Pour your dressing on your goods.
  
  Sprinkle with walnuts.
  
  Winter Salad with Pears and Candied Walnuts
  
  The Walnuts:
  - 1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
  - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
  - 2 teaspoons sugar
  The Dressing:
  - 1/2 cup pomegranate juice
  - 2 Tbs. white wine vinegar
  - 2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
  - 2 tsp honey mustard
  - salt and pepper to taste
  The Salad:
  - 2- 5 oz bags of mixed greens
  - 2 pears, cored and chopped
  Directions:
  
  1. For the Walnuts: Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add nuts and sugar. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
  
  2. For the Dressing: Whisk together all ingredients
  
  3. For the Salad: Combine greens and pears in a bowl. Drizzle dressing over salad and toss. Sprinkle with nuts.
  
  If anything, make this salad so that you can try this dressing. Pomegranate juice dressing? Super tasty and super healthy.
  Posted in Salads, Soups, and Sides | Tagged fruit, salad, walnuts
- Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles with Veggies
  
  Posted at 8:00 pm by myfoodiecall
  
  Dec 11th
  Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles with Veggies
  
  Here is a recent family meal that was a hit. And trust me. Many are not.
  
  And boy do those kids let me know.
  
  I always hear, “Are you going to blog about this??”
  
  …followed by how either I should or shouldn’t.
  
  Thanks, guys.
  
  Example you ask? Well, I tried to make “Oatmeal hot chocolate pancakes” a few weeks ago.
  
  Epic fail.
  
  The pancakes tasted good, but the texture was just wrong and weird and just WRONG.
  
  However, this meal was not.
  
  What I personally liked the best about this dish was the toasted sesame seeds. LOVE THEM. Also having a nice tahini sauce for a change was good. I have done the peanut butter sauce/noodle thing several times and it’s good and all, but been there done that. Tahini for today.
  
  Do you have tahini? Or even know what it is? It’s just sesame seeds ground up into a paste. Give it a shot. Buy it. Try it. Look for it near the peanut butter/almond butter section of the “healthy” section of your grocery store.
  
  As always, here is a closer look at how this meal goes down.
  
  When I am pressed for time, I use my “cheater bags”.
  
  Pre-cut bags. Yes, easy. Yes, lazy.
  
  Fine chop your broccoli either by hand or get even lazier and use the pulse button on your food processor.
  
  Add green onion…
  
  Cook your spaghetti, carrot…
  
  and broccoli concoction…
  
  Toast your sesame seeds…
  
  Mix your sauce, seeds, noodles and veggies. Done.
  
  Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles with Veggies
  
  Ingredients:
  
  The Sauce
  - 2 tablespoons tahini (You could use peanut butter here and I am sure it would still be good, but will not be the same. Try for the tahini!)
  - 2 tablespoons water
  - 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  - 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  - 2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
  - 3 teaspoons honey
  - 1/2 teaspoon salt
  - 1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
  - 2 garlic cloves, minced
  The Noodles
  - 8 ounces whole wheat spaghetti
  - 1- 12oz package broccoli florets, fine chopped
  - 1- 10 oz package shredded carrots
  - 3/4 cup green onion, chopped
  - 4 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted at 350 degrees for 10 minutes total, (stirring after 5 minutes).
  - 1/4 teaspoon salt
  Directions:
  
  Sauce
  1. Combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl and stir well with a whisk. (Note: if your tahini is a tiny bit hard, heat in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to make it easier to whisk into the sauce.)
  Spaghetti and Veggie
  
  ***Spaghetti and veggies will all be cooked together, but vary on time.***
  1. To prepare spaghetti, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water for 8 minutes. DO NOT DRAIN.
  2. Add bag of carrots. Cook for 1 minute.
  3. Add fine-chopped broccoli. Cook for 1 minute.
  4. Drain pot of pasta and veggies. Place in a large bowl.
  5. Sprinkle with chopped green onion, sesame seeds and salt.
  6. Pour sauce evenly over the noodles and toss well.
  Whole Wheat Sesame Noodles and Veggies.
  Posted in Meatless mealtime | Tagged broccoli, tahini, whole wheat spaghetti
- Healthy Stuffed Portobellos
  
  Posted at 8:00 pm by myfoodiecall
  
  Dec 10th
  Mr. Foodie Call is away. What does this call for???
  
  A mushroom recipe.
  
  Mr. Foodie Call does not like mushrooms.
  
  This is a tough one for this house for a couple of reasons:
  
  1) I LOVE mushrooms (and so do two of my kids.)
  
  2) MANY vegan and plant-based recipes use mushrooms. It is a lot easier when you can cook with mushrooms. Never mind the insane flavor that they add to foods, but the fancier fungi like shiitake and large portobellos can be cooked just right so that they take on a meat-like texture that people sometimes crave.
  
  So, Mr. Foodie Call is away? Let’s make mushrooms.
  
  Awesome texture and so super cute.
  
  Here is how the magic happens.
  
  Buy your mushrooms.
  
  Chop some onion and celery. Mince some garlic.
  
  Cook it.
  
  Add your bread crumbs.
  
  And the rest of your stuff….
  
  De-stem your mushrooms. Arrange them all flat and fantastic.
  
  Fill ’em up.
  
  Still folllowing me?
  
  Bake it and plate it. Easy.
  
  Stuffed Mini Portobello Mushrooms
  
  Modified from The China Study Cookbook
  
  Stuffed Mini Portobellos
  - 12 mini portobello mushrooms (I bought 2 packages of 6 at Trader Joe’s)
  - Vegetable broth
  - 2 garlic cloves, minced
  - 1/2 onion, fine-chopped
  - 1 stalk celery, diced
  - 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  - 1 teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos (don’t freak. You can use soy sauce instead of liquid aminos.)
  - 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  - 1 teaspoon honey
  - 1 cup whole grain bread crumbs (either store-bought if you are pressed for time or make your own by pulsing day-old bread in the food processor a few times)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable broth in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and celery and cook for 2-3 minutes or until onions are soft.
  3. Stir in 2 more tablespoons vegetable broth.
  4. Stir in remaining ingredients: thyme, aminos (or soy sauce), vinegar, honey, bread crumbs, and 2 more tablespoons vegetable broth.
  5. It should start to stick together at this point. If not, add more vegetable broth.
  6. Stuff each mini portobello and place on a prepared baking sheet.
  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
  These could be placed on a bed of greens and served up as a meal or plated as an appetizer.
  
  Or eaten straight from the pan. 🙂
  Posted in Meatless mealtime, Salads, Soups, and Sides | Tagged mushrooms
- A “Nutrition Sandwich” with a side of pickle.
  
  Posted at 8:00 pm by myfoodiecall
  
  Dec 9th
  Nutrition squashed between two slices of bread.
  
  I am definitely a peanut butter banana sandwich kind of girl.
  
  Yet, I do love a good veggie, crunchy, with a little bit of creamy sandwich (does that description make any sense?)
  
  Well it will in a second.
  
  Here is what I used to make that super healthy sandwich above.
  - Whole wheat bread
  - Broccoli slaw
  - Cashew Mayonnaise that I made in this post (alternately, you could use hummus)
  - Cucumber
  - Tomato
  - Cheddar
  - Baby spinach
  - Avocado slices
  A closer look at the assembly.
  
  Start with your broccoli slaw and cashew mayo (or hummus).
  
  Add to the slaw. No measuring. I just kind of eyed this step.
  
  Stir it up.
  
  Toast your bread. Duh.
  
  Spread some more cashew mayo or hummus on your toast.
  
  Add your broccoli slaw mixture.
  
  Thinly sliced cucumber.
  
  Next tomato.
  
  Cheddar. Trap those veggies in.
  
  Baby spinach.
  
  Avocado wedges. Here is the creamy part of this awesome sandwich. Don’t skip this.
  
  Stack. Slice.
  
  Devour. A nutrition sandwich with a side of pickle.
  Posted in Salads, Soups, and Sides | Tagged avocado, cashew, whole wheat
- Vegan “Egg” Nog French Toast
  
  Posted at 8:00 pm by myfoodiecall
  
  Dec 8th
  I had a holiday brunch that I went to this past week and I had to bring a plant-based dish to share. This put me on the hunt for a good brunch recipe. I needed to find something that I could make ahead, but would still keep for the short drive to Daniel Island… and something that was a little more adventurous than fruit salad.
  
  French toast, maybe??
  
  Vegan “Egg” Nog French Toast.
  
  Remember this post about using Vegan Egg Nog in my pumpkin pie recipe?
  
  Well, I am still on my egg nog kick. After all, ’tis the egg nog season.
  
  However, I can’t take credit for this recipe idea. This I got straight from the back of the So Delicious Nog carton.
  
  So Delicious Nog. Although I think they are all pretty great.
  
  I followed the recipe exactly except I used a long whole wheat french baguette (slightly different from their recommendation).
  
  …And I still needed to figure out how to transport the french toast to the brunch so that it would stay warm (a slow cooker maybe?), but also making sure that the french toast didn’t stick together…(assembled upright??)
  
  Upright it is. Perfect.
  
  Question is: Will they stay warm and keep while being transported??
  
  Yes.
  
  Vegan Nog French Toast
  
  Ingredients:
  - 2 ripe bananas
  - 2 cups Vegan Dairy-Free “Egg” Nog
  - 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  - 1 tsp vanilla
  - 1 wheat french bread loaf (left on the counter, unwrapped, for a day or so…use vegan bread if you want to keep the recipe vegan)
  - coconut oil
  Directions:
  1. Blend bananas, “egg” nog, cinnamon, and vanilla in a blender and pour into a shallow pan or wide bowl.
  2. Heat a griddle coated with a thin layer of coconut oil.
  3. Gently dip the bread slices, one at a time into the pan or bowl, letting slices soak up mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn to coat the other side.
  4. Transfer bread slices to griddle heating slowly until bottom is golden brown.
  5. Turn and brown the other side.
  6. Serve with maple syrup, fresh berries, or both.
  7. Eat immeditately.
  OR…….
  
  If you need a make-ahead/eat-later method read below:
  
  If you are attending a brunch or need to bring a breakfast for a holiday event, try using this method. I was able to transport this dish to my brunch right in the slow-cooker and it worked great!
  
  A closer look at how easy this dish is.
  
  Slice your bread.
  
  Blend your banana/nog concoction.
  
  My little assembly line.
  
  Slow cook on one side.
  
  House starts to smell awesome right about here….
  
  Flip once golden brown.
  
  Important step. Let cool for a few minutes on a cooling rack.
  
  Place upright in a pre-sprayed slow cooker.
  
  Keep on warm setting until ready to transport.
  
  I highly recommend this recipe if you are a big french toast and egg nog fan. I will make this again for sure.
  Posted in Breakfast | Tagged french toast, nog, vegan
- You missed a call?
- Categories
- Want an email whenever I post?
  
  Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
  
  Email Address: