When I was asked if I wanted to take a look at the cookbook Quinoa Cuisine, 150 Creative Recipes for Super-Nutritious, Amazingly Delicious dishes by Jessica Harlan and Kelley Sparwasser I jumped at the chance! I’m a big fan of Quinoa, but I don’t use it this often and thought it would be fun to find some other things to do with such a versatile, healthy ingredient. So today for Meatless Monday I’m going to share with you a recipe from the cookbook for Spinach and Black Olive Calzones made with Quinoa flour and let me tell you these are fabulous!
They also have some really great sounding recipes for things like Hummus, Thai Summer Rolls, Spicy Chicken and Waffles, Mushroom Soup, Grilled Quinoa Cakes, Chile Rellenos, Eggplant Parmesan and even desserts like Triple-Chocolate Bundt Cake and Funnel Cake Bites all incorporating quinoa! But for now sit back grab a fork, and let’s talk some Calzones!
What You’ll Need for the Quinoa Pizza Crust:
1 1/4 cups of warm water (about 110 to 120 F)
1 tablespoon of active dry yeast
1 tablespoon of honey
2 to 2 1/2 cups bread flour, as needed, divided
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups quinoa flour
1. Place the warm water in a large bowl. Stir in the yeast, honey, and 1 cup of bread flour. Let sit in a warm place until foamy, about 15 minutes.
2. Stir in the salt, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and quinoa flour. Gradually add the remaining bread flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough forms a slightly sticky ball. Turn out onto a well-floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Add more flour if needed. The dough will be slightly sticky. Form into a ball.
3. Drizzle the remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil into a clean bowl. Place the ball of dough in the bowl, turning to coat with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until nearly doubled in size, about 1 hour. Use in your favorite pizza or calzone recipe.
What You’ll Need for the Spinach and Black Olive Calzones:
2 recipes Quinoa Pizza Dough (see above)
Cornmeal or semolina flour, for baking sheet
4 cups of prepared pizza sauce
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess water
1 cup sliced black olives
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (about 4 ounces)
1. Prepare pizza dough according to the recipe instructions, making a double batch.
2. Preheat the oven to 450 F; if you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven before preheating. If you don’t have a pizza stone, sprinkle a rimmed nonstick baking sheet lightly with cornmeal or semolina flour. Heat the pizza suace in a medium saucepan and keep warm over low heat.
3. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Work with one piece at a time, keeping the other pieces covered with towel or plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. On a work surface lightly dusted with flour, use your hands to pat and stretch a piece of dough into a flat oval about 12 X 8 inches. Arrange a quarter each of the spinach and black olives on half the oval, leaving a edge of about 1 inch uncovered. Sprinkle with about 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese and drizzle with about 1/4 cup pizza sauce. Fold the dough over the filling and, beginning at one end, roll the edge to seal. Tuck the rolled edge under the calzone. Carefully transfer the finished calzone to the baking sheet or slide onto the hot pizza stone in the oven.
4. Repeat with the remaining dough and the filling. Bake the calzones until the dough is golden and they sound hollow when tapped, about 15 minutes. Serve hot with the remaining pizza sauce spooned over.
Notes: I used sea salt instead of kosher salt. I also sprinkled the tops of my calzones with oregano and Parmesan cheese.
Today’s Meatless Mondays recipe comes courtesy of Omega Juicers. Juicers are green products because they eliminate the packaging involved in buying pre-squeezed or processed juice. You can also get the most out of your fruit by juicing — it’s another use for fruit before it goes bad, leading to less waste. Read more…
Whether you’re a hardcore vegan or you’re just the type who likes to mix it up and skip the meat every now and then, tempeh is where it’s at. Tempeh is made from soy, but unlike its trickier-to-get-right and often maligned cousin, tofu, it uses the whole soybean. It’s basically just fermented beans formed into a cake. To use, it can be crumbled, sliced or grilled like a patty. Like tofu, it takes well to marinades. The reasons to go with tempeh, however, are its superior texture (in my opinion; it’s not squishy like tofu) and its vastly superior nutritional profile: Tempeh, because it employs the whole bean, is loaded with both protein and fiber. Oh, and it tastes good. Read more…
Today’s Meatless Mondays recipe is from The Naked Foods Cookbook: The Whole-Foods, Healthy Fats, Gluten-Free Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great, by Margaret Floyd and James Berry. The authors, a married couple, believe that preparing home-cooked meals can be easier and quicker than take-out, and much healthier to boot. The recipes in this book include no harmful additives, preservatives, or empty calorie-fillers. And they understand that no one has a ton of time to commit to cooking every day, so they’ve organized the book into three sections: “in a rush” recipes take ten minutes or less, “every day” recipes take twenty minutes or less, and an “impress the neighbors” section offers more time-intensive recipe selections.
From The Naked Foods Cookbook: Read more…
I know this makes me a terrible Greenist, but in my kitchen cupboard right now is a small mountain of plastic food storage containers, some of which I’ve owned since my freshman year of college (way back in the early ’90s), well before any of us had ever heard of BPA and had any idea to look for “BPA-free” (or anything-free) labels on plastic containers before we bought them.
I’ve been meaning to remedy this situation for years. I have bought a few glass containers in various sizes to replace the plastic, but my collection could definitely use some rounding out before I chuck all the plastic for good. So when Mickey asked if I’d like to give some Wean Green containers a try, I jumped at the opportunity. (Fine; there may not have been any actual jumping, but I did fire off a very prompt “Yes, please!” reply, and that’s close enough, I say.)
One January night almost eight years ago, Wolf put a plate of stir fried vegetables in front of me. The colors were glorious: red and yellow peppers, carrots, zucchini, and summer squash. As I was about to take a bite, a thought struck me like a bolt of lightening. I looked out the window and saw nothing but snow and ice. I looked back at my plate of summer vegetables, out the window again, then put my fork down. “Where did these vegetables come from” I asked my beloved. He shrugged and said “Hannaford.”
That began our journey to eating locally.
The gateway to local foods was eggs. One of the farmers in town put a sign up on the bulletin board in the village so I sent Wolf up to buy some. We’ve been loyal customers ever since (except when we have our own chickens) buying not only eggs from her but pork and chicken as well.
I’m a big fan of my slow cooker. It’s so versatile and it’s the perfect tool to use to whip up a hearty, yet meatless batch of Red Beans & Rice for Meatless Monday! This is a zesty, healthy twist on the classic Red Beans & Rice dish, leaving out the sausage all together. The beauty of this is you dump in the ingredients and walk away. What could be better than that? It’s easy, and easy is good, especially on a week night! So let’s dig in for Meatless Monday
What You’ll Need:
1 cup of long grain brown rice (Note: You could use white rice if you wanted to, but brown is much healthier.)
2 cups of dried red kidney beans that have been soaked overnight
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
6-8 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup of chives, chopped (Note: I used dried chives this go around, but you can use fresh as well.)
1-2 tablespoons Cajun or Creole Seasoning
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of sea salt (Note: Omit this if your seasoning contains salt.)
4 cups of water
In the bottom of your slow cooker spread the rice out in an even layer.
Next add the kidney beans on top of the rice.
After the kidney beans add the red onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic and chives.
Sprinkle the seasoning, smoked paprika and salt evenly over the vegetables and rice and then cover with the water. (Remember to omit the salt if your seasoning already has salt in it.)
Cook on high for 4-5 hours until rice is done and beans are tender, or 5-6 hours on low.
Serve with hot sauce if desired. A nice side dish for this is Spicy Baked Chard. A slice of sour dough bread might be nice as well.
Notes: This recipe is Vegan as written. The possibilities with this recipe are endless. You can substitute black or pinto beans in place of the red. Haven’t got time to soak the beans or simply forgot? If that’s the case you can add in two cans of red beans about 30 minutes before servings so that they heat through. Sometimes I like to add in other vegetables to up the nutritional punch. Zucchini, squash and/or carrots are really great in this mix. If you really want to spice things up add a teaspoon of cayenne pepper on top of the Cajun or Creole seasoning, which I do often. Also you could add a vegetarian sausage if you prefer, but I like to use the smoked paprika for that sausage taste as I’ve never been a fan of the sausages used in Red Beans and Rice.
Image credit: Colin Erricson/www.robertrose.ca
Today’s recipe comes courtesy of Camilla Saulsbury’s 5 Easy Steps to Healthy Cooking, a new cookbook containing 500 recipes that are healthy, natural, and don’t take too much time and fuss to create. The five steps are:
Here, the bright flavors of lemon, basil and asparagus play against the earthiness of barley and onions. Read more…
Look, no one is saying this dish is healthy. It’s deliciously cheesy, bready, and carb-laden. It’s pretty much the ultimate in comfort food! Read more…
Please welcome today’s guest poster, Chris Molnar.
It’s true: being vegan really can be fun. If you run a vegan household — particularly if you’re raising your children in the Way of the Veggie — you’ll love the fun factor to this St. Patrick’s Day ice “cream” treat.
The green comes from all-natural sources and because it’s homemade, it’s extra-delicious. A tip for the newly vegan: vegetarian does not necessarily mean vegan (this site is great for related info; look for Meatless Mondays), and some vegetable-based foods at your local grocery may include non-vegan items, particularly during processing. When in doubt, call the food manufacturer. Manufacturers’ phone numbers and websites are usually printed on the box. If not, do a Google search.
Have loads of fun with this holiday recipe that’s not only delicious, it’s “green” inside and out. Read on for the scoop on making this delicious, creamy treat. Read more…
I promise to do a real garden update next week. Well, I don’t promise, but I’ll try to. In the meantime, I will give you a quick idea of what’s going on. Bunnies. Eating. Everything.
“But, Allie,” you say, “don’t you have a big, hulking, wolf-like dog? Doesn’t he scare off the bunnies?”
<
