Chickpea soup with rice is nice

A cheap, easy, yummy, balanced meal in a soup pot.

1 large onion, chopped
1 c celery, sliced thin
1 c carrots, sliced into thin half moons
1 c mushrooms, you guessed it, sliced thin
1/2 head garlic, peeled and diced
3 c water
3 c broth (or water with bullion)
3 c cooked brown rice
4 c cooked chickpeas
2 T braggs
2 T nutritional yeast
1/4 t poultry seasoning
1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee onion until soft. Add carrots, celery, mushrooms, and garlic. Sautee for five minutes. Add water and broth. Simmer until veggies are soft. Add braggs, nutritional yeast, and seasonings. Add chickpeas, bring back to a boil. Add rice, cook until heated through.

Waffles Update

We have continued to play around with the Definitive Waffle Recipe, which may mean that it wasn't so definitive after all.

Here are our discoveries so far:
1) The whole tablespoon of baking powder may be too much, I reduced it to 2 t. Too much baking powder can leave a metallic taste.

2) 100% whole wheat flour can be used. It works fine, but is of course slightly less fluffy than half white flour. Still good though.

3) Oat waffles, whoa! Half whole wheat flour, half oat flour makes a great, vary fluffy waffle with an interesting texture. It's easy to make oat flour just by blending oats in your blender.

Fancy-Pants Almond-Mocha Tofu Cheesecake

In one word: impressive. If this still isn't fancy-pants enough for you, try making an almond-graham crust by substituting almond meal for 1/2 c of the graham cracker crumbs in the original graham cracker crust recipe, then decorate the cheesecake with sliced almonds.

1 block firm tofu (not silken)
2/3 c sugar
1/2 c oil (canola or safflower is good)
1/3 c strongly brewed coffee
1 t vanilla
1/3 t almond extract
pinch salt
1 c dark chocolate chips

Press as much water out of the tofu as you can by squeezing it relentlessly between your hands or pressing under something heavy. Blend everything but the chocolate until creamy and smooth (this may be easier in two smaller batches). Melt chocolate on the stove, being careful not to let it burn. Stir chocolate into tofu mixture, combining thoroughly. Pour into a graham cracker crust. Bake at 300F for 55 minutes.

Lemon Tofu Cheesecake

Super-duper lemony good!

Make Tofu Cheesecake, but add an extra 1/4 c sugar, and increase lemon juice to 1/3 c. This is good with kiwi slices on top.

Tofu Cheesecake!

What can I say? It's cheesecake! It's tofu! Fantastico!

1 block (3 cups) firm tofu (not the silken kind)
1/4 c lemon juice
1/2 c oil (canola or safflower is good)
1 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1/8 t almond extract
pinch salt

Press as much water out of the tofu as you can by squeezing it mercilessly between your hands or pressing under something heavy. Blend everything until creamy, with no lumps left at all. I find that blending it in two batches is much easier in my blender.

Pour into a graham cracker crust (see below) and bake at 325F for 50 minutes. Refrigerate for at least six hours before eating (I know, it's torture, but the cheesecake really needs a chance to set).

Graham Cracker Crust:
1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs (about 22 graham crackers, chopped in blender or crushed in a plastic bag)
1/4 c margarine, melted

Combine ingredients and press into a 9" glass pie dish. Could it be any more simple? Or delicious? No!

Tomato soup with ginger zest

It is February/March soup time in Hawaii. We are having cool, overcast and rainy weather, something like California in late April, which is great for soups to warm the tummy. This made a fantastic hot delight in a single sauce pan: saute red onion and sliced, peeled, chopped fresh ginger in a little olive oil. Add in the sliced and chopped end stump - not head - of a nice organic head of brocolli. While that simmers, slice up a long narrow japanese egglant, salt it and let it release its tanic acid in a plastic colander. Then wash off salt and add to pot. While that begins cooking, cut the broccoli head into individual small flowerettes and then add that. Let it cook until onions get a little carmely and so do the flowerettes. Then add in tomato soup (I watch for the boxed kind to go on sale to get organic at a better price than chem-laden campbells types) and cook on low heat together until soup forms a little bit of a skin. While that is all simmering, heat up some left over brown rice and slice up and toast some multi grain whole wheat bread. Add the rice to the soup as it is served and mix well. Put a non-trans fat spread on the toast. Serve in bowl on plate with toast tucked beside it. Great! It is the ginger that takes it over the top - especially when it sinks to the bottom of the bowl and is a surprise at the end.

PS - adding in tofu cubes that soak up all the yummy flavors adds a nice dimension to this - tried it in the left overs and should have done it from the start ..

Check out the updated Costa Rica recipe cards below- I got the backside instructions posted.