A Couple of Plant Based Recipes to Share

Hello, friends.  The temperatures have gotten more seasonal here, with highs mostly in the 80's.  I finally switched out the winter quilt for the summer bed cover.  After dropping a friend off at the VA one day, I shopped at Trader Joe's and a natural food co-op in Chapel Hill.  And dang if I didn't realize I'd been charged an extra $7.99 after getting home.  The store is an hour & 1/2 from me.  There must be a lesson in this, as it keeps happening.  I suppose the lesson is to not be in such a hurry that I skip reviewing the receipt before leaving the store, but I just want to get home, you know?  Not to mention, it usually feels like they're rushing to get to the next one behind me.  Ah well, I do trust it all works out in the end.  

After shopping for groceries, I stopped at a garden store, and purchased three roselle/rosella hibiscus, which is edible and medicinal.  I also bought one tickseed, which is a dye plant, and got all in the ground the next day, after creating a small flower bed.  Rocks were gathered to edge it.  I made hummingbird food, canned broth, and the stovetop was cleaned with homemade thieves vinegar and baking soda.  I planted calendula and nasturtium seeds & transplanted woad and dyer's coreopsis, and put all houseplants out on the porch to acclimate to brighter sunlight.  This week, they'll be moved to their summer quarters.  Onions, parsley, celery, asparagus, broccoli, oregano were harvested, and lambs quarter was foraged twice.  Enough lambs quarter was blanched and frozen for three meals.  I used a portion of my amazon credit to watch Far From the Tree, which I really enjoyed.  A friend gifted me a large limb, chock full of usnea.  A new jar of tincture was started with it.  

I tried a new recipe for lentil shepherd's pie, made a double batch of anzac cookies, and froze most of them.  We both liked the shepherd's pie, but I realized afterwards that the ketchup contains vinegar, which is not allowed on my protocol.  Goodness, it can be a challenge some days, but the eczema is healing, so I'm sticking with it.  There's a medical medium ketchup recipe I need to try.  I made bean burritos for the first time since we haven't been eating dairy, with plant versions of sour cream and cheddar.  We both agreed the sour cream didn't taste like much.  I thought the shredded cheddar was OK, but J did not.  Of course, I've been eating plant based cheese off and on for a couple of years.  Sadly, I didn't think to check the cheddar ingredients, and it had turmeric in it, which put J in a bad state for several hours.  So, it looks like there will be no homemade burritos in our near future.  I did find tortillas made with almond flour, which I thought were good.  I know I can make GF tortillas, but on many days, adding that to the rest of my dinner chores seems a little overwhelming.  I made Mexican quinoa to go with them, which used our onion and a jar of our canned tomatoes.  

When J checked on the status online for our a/c unit on order since October, he found they had cancelled it without even letting us know.  Thankfully, he has since been promised one from a company he's done business with for years, for somewhere between $200-$300 more, on Monday.  With the scarcity of items these days, we'll take it.  Though I lived here without a/c before for ten years, I learned central NC is a bit too hot and humid for me to want to do it again.  We got some much needed rain, and the asparagus in the new bed is starting to sprout.  There were over 20 sprouts up on Sunday.  While in town to get groceries on Friday, I picked up two books at the library, and dropped one off.  I purchased some more of the $2.99/# cherries, which is the cheapest I've seen.  The only other ones I've seen were $6.99/#.  The recipe for the plant based broccoli mac & cheese mentioned last week was requested, so here it is.  Have a wonderful week, friends.

Broccoli Mac & Cheese- Medical Medium

Ingredients:

12 oz elbow shaped GF pasta

2 c cashews

2 tbs lemon juice

2 cloves garlic

1 large date

1 1/2 c water

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp chili powder

3 c broccoli, lightly steamed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare pasta according to directions on package.  In a blender, combine cashews, lemon juice, garlic, date, sea salt, and chili powder.  Blend while streaming in water until smooth.  Stir together pasta and sauce until well mixed.  Add in broccoli and stir to combine.  Pour pasta into an 8x8 inch baking pan, and bake for 15 mins. until just beginning to turn golden brown on the edges.  Enjoy!