Apple Berry Something

Sometime ago I came across a recipe called Country Apples. It was a sort of apple crumble type recipe. I have changed this to reflect the ETL lifestyle, but still remain comfort food.

Apple Berry Something (Gluten Free)

4 apples peeled and sliced
2 Aussie tablespoons of brown sugar, 3 US
1/4 cup of sultanas (golden raisins)
1/3 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of blueberries
1 tablespoons of custard powder.
1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice or cinnamon

Combine the first 6 ingredients and cook until tender. I cook this in my rice cooker. When its almost ready I mix the custard powder with a small amount of water and mix gently through the apple mixture along with the mixed spice.

I serve this with cashew cream. Just blend cashew nuts with a small amount of water. This makes a great substitute for dairy.

Drink Your Greens

Following a healthy lifestyle can cause a few problems getting in enough green leafy vegetables. So the trick is to drink them in a smoothie. Now the rawfood community calls them Green smoothies, but Dr Fuhrman refers to them as Blended Salads. That sounds a bit off to me so I will stick with the title smoothies. Whatever you call them, they are basically the same thing.

My Winter Smoothie

3 frozen bananas
1 ripe pear
1 peeled orange, roughly cut in pieces
1 handfull of greens
1 cup of filtered water

Toss all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.

Some people put cooked beans in them and I have been told it makes a nice and smooth tasting drink and surprisingly not beany at all.

Sweet and Sour Zucchini + Pumpkin and Mushrooms

3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 cup of water
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1 large zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into 1 inch slices
2 cups of pumpkin, cubed
1 very large portabello mushroom, sliced
1/4 of sultanas, or raisins.

I placed all the ingredients in the pressure cooker, locked the lid and bought up to high pressure. Turned the heat down and cooked it for 4 minutes*. When the time elapsed, I used the quick release method. When placed on a plate I garnished it with parsley.

I really like the look of this dish as the zuke retained its shape, while still being soft.

I decided that it needed another 1/2 cup of water and that I could replace the raisins with apple chunks. I shall persevere with this recipe as it has a lot of possibilities.

* I actually bought it up to pressure and then ran around looking for my cell phone to time it with. I use the alarm function as a timer because you can set it for just a minute or so and the tune rings for a long time. It works for me!

Sweet And Sour Zucchini

Last night I decided that I did not have a great deal of time and that I would try one of Lorna Sass' recipes. There was one called sweet and sour zucchini and as I had a zuke in my fridge I decided to try the dish. After reading the recipe, I decided to change it up a bit by adding portobello mushrooms and pumpkin. I also used sultanas instead of raisins. To be honest it wasnt a great hit with me and I kept thinking how I could 'fix'it.
Anyway for better or worse here is the recipe

My New Tools

Now that I have to prepare a lot of bean dishes that are completely new to me, I needed a supply of salt free beans. Now you can buy ready-to-eat beans in cans, but salt free beans are harder to find. So to just survive and to be able to prepare great dishes almost instantly, I bought two great new tools. The first is my new pressure cooker, a nice little 6L Stockpot by Kuhn Rikon. I have never heard of KR before, but several people on the ETL forum were besotted with them. So I hunted around online and lo and behold, I manage to purchase one locally.
The other is a book by Lorna Sass titled Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure. Besides the recipes, the cooking tables listing the times for all grains, vegetables and beans are fantastic. As a totally new pressured cook, these are being referred to constantly.

Wow A New Beginning

Who said that you can never teach an old dog new tricks? It seems as thought the longer I live, the more tastes and flavours I discover on this vegan journey.
Now that I am following a no added fat, salt, gluten free and limited refined foods diet,otherwise known as Eat to Live (ETL) I have to learn to cook all over again. So this blog shows my journey from a leafy green newbie, to leafy green perfection, lol.