Joyful Vegan Family

Vegan Goodness:

Today we ate:

• Breakfast: Green smoothies and New York bagels and cream cheese, courtesy of LP and IP’s Aunt!
• Through out the morning LP snacked on crackers and cheerios.  Mom, Dad, Auntie and Uncle all snacked on doughnuts from Babycakes NY!
• Lunch: The grown-ups enjoyed leftover chili with avocado, and LP had some leftover tempeh with cabbage and potato (plus a bit of chili from Uncle “Wow-wow”
• After nap time we all snacked on cherry tomatoes from teh garden and peaches from our farm share.
• Dinner: LP had a big bowl of chili and half a bagel with cream cheese.  My parents were kind enough to pay for take-out last night, so LP and IP’s Aunt and Uncle very nicely went and picked up Ethiopian food for the grown-ups.  What a special treat!
• Since we had take-out for dinner and the kitchen was pretty clean, Mom was able to bake chocolate mint cookies for dessert.

Money Matters:
Today we didn’t spend anything since my parents covered our take-out splurge.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Monday Munchies: Recipe of the Week

Last weekend we finally gave LP some peanut butter.  We have waited this long to give him peanuts because the G-man has nut allergies (although not peanut allergies) and we wanted to make sure LP didn’t try peanuts until he was able to tell us if he felt “funny” so that we could rush him to the hospital if needed.  Well, we finally tried it out, twice in two days, and no reaction.  Yay!  I’m so, so happy because I love cooking with peanuts.  Now we can go back to using some peanut oil in stir-fries, peanuts as a garnish and peanut butter in a lot of recipes, such as one of my favorites: Spice Eggplant Peanut Stew!  Since we also got some eggplants in our CSA box last week, we are going to make this delicious stew soon.  Warning: This is not a low-fat meal, but it is super delicious and worth the calories!

Spicy Eggplant Peanut Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 pound eggplant, peeled and cubed
• 5 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1-2 jalapenos, seeded and minced (change the number depending on your spice preference)
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with juice (fire-roasted also work really well here!)
• 1 1/2 cups veggie broth (plus a 1/4 more for sauteing without oil – if you want)
• 2 cups (basically 1 can) of coconut milk
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (I use chunky, but you could go chunky or smooth. But use natural peanut butter – no Jiffy crap allowed!!)
• 1/2 lb green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 TB lemon juice
• Rice or quinoa (the stew is best served over some grains!)

 

Directions:
1) In a large stock pot over medium high heat, saute the shallots in about 2 TB of olive oil (or veggie broth) for about 20 minutes until very soft, browned and slightly caramelized. Scoop the shallots off the pot into a large bowl.
2) At 1 TB of olive oil (or veggie broth) to the pot and add the peeled and cubed eggplant, stirring to coat with oil/broth. Stir and cook eggplant for 12-15 minutes, until slightly tender. Then, transfer to the same bowl as the shallots.
3) Add 1 TB olive oil (or veggie broth) to the pot and allow it to heat, then add the ginger and jalapeno(s) and fry for 30 seconds
4) Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, and fry for another 30 seconds, then add onion. Stir and fry until onion is slightly soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
5) Add the tomato paste and stir fry for 1 minute.
6) Add the diced tomatoes, veggie broth, eggplant, shallots and beans to the pot. Stir well and then add in coconut milk. Bring to a boil and then lower the head to a simmer.
7) Once the mixture is boiling, take out about 1/3 cup of liquid from the pot and pour it over the peanut butter in a separate bowl. Stir until the peanut butter is completely emulsified and mixed in. Pour this mixture back into the pot and cover and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring once or twice.
8) Remove from heat and add the lemon juice. Serve over quinoa (or other grain of your choice)