A Simple Veggie Stir Fry

When you are short of time, here is a quick veggie stir fry to make. First mince two cloves of garlic with two quarter size pieces of fresh ginger. Also cut up green beans (I used Chinese long beans from the garden), two green peppers and two small zucchini’s. Mushrooms would be good with this too, but I didn’t have any.

Begin by pouring some olive oil in your stir fry pan. Then add the green beans. This veggie takes a little longer than the others. It pays to not stir your veggies once in a while, so they burn a little bit for flavor.

Then add your garlic and ginger. You always have to stir quickly when they are added. 

Next add the green pepper.

Here again, instead of always stirring, once in a while let it sit on the fire, for a bit of charred pieces. 

Then in goes the zucchini!  When it is almost done sprinkle on some soy sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce. 

Toss and quickly serve the dish in a bowl. You could garnish The dish with sesame seeds and scallions. Keep the sriracha handy, if desired. 

Delicious Vegan Mushroom Stew

A while back, I created this tasty recipe. At the time I used dried Shitake mushrooms. Today I did a lot of substitutions, but it was still very good. Instead of dried, I used fresh mushrooms, and instead of kale I used Swiss chard.  Shallots were also not available, so I substituted scallions from the garden. Lots of changes!  If you try it either way, I think you will like it!

Having a head of cabbage in the refrigerator at all times is very handy. It is so full of healthy nutrition, it keeps well for a long time, and can compliment any vegan soup or stew. 

I decided to go into the garden and pull out a carrot for the stew. Look at this darling, stubby carrot!  It’s Japanese. 

While I was in the garden, I picked a few Chinese long beans that were cut up and added to the dish. Most Chinese stir fry this long bean, and I have done that too, but sometimes they can be a little tough. By adding them to the stew, they become soft, like our traditional green beans. I love how these grow. See the pretty flowers?

Here is the finished dish, and here is the recipe:

Dehydrating Herbs

This year I decided to grow a garden, a kitchen garden, or potager. A potager has vegetables, herbs and flowers, all growing together in an easily accessible spot off the kitchen. I have some lovely herbs that needed harvesting.  These included Italian parsley, oregano, lemon thyme, savory, marjoram, and a smaller amount of rosemary. I know that the more you pick them the more they grow, so I decided to  harvest each herb plant today.

I combined them together in the dehydrator, that resulted in a fragrant mix.  Thee mixture will be used in soups and stews come winter. See the results of my efforts here:

This is part of my potager. 

The finished product. 

After dehydrating the herbs, I rubbed them over the little colander to remove the stems before bagging. 

This is a fun hobby and the herbs will be a tasty addition to my vegan or vegetarian dishes. 

An Easy and Nutritious Meal

One of the easiest and most nutritious meals to make is a veggie soup. Use whatever you have handy from your garden or in the refrigerator.  Add a grain, like barley, and always add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast and a bean.  This could be made in the instant pot or on the stove. Here is my favorite recipe.

Dehydrating Kale

In my flourishing garden, I have been harvesting a good amount of kale. I could harvest it daily!  It’s a good thing because I could use kale all winter long in soups and stews. So lately, I have begun to dehydrate my excess kale. After dehydrating, it reduces in size considerably. Would you believe an armful of kale can now fit into a small quart jar?  Here’s the proof:

Ten Years Since My Last Post!

It has been many years since I last posted, and a lot has happened during that time. At age 71, I am now a retiree. I haven’t eaten meat now for about 30 (?) years. In 2018, I completed the certificate program “Plant Based Nutrition,” the T. Colin Campbell program offered by the Center for Nutrition Studies offered by e Cornell University.

A new hobby this year has been gardening, and cooking delicious food from the garden. Here are some photos of the garden.  In these photos you will see the Kabucha squash, started from seed, trailing across the top of the arbor. Also, check out the size of the squash and the Sugar Baby watermelon!  Actually today these are even larger, and I have now attached little mesh bags to hold them up and make them more stable. I will show the pictures another day.

Well dear friends, I will write again tomorrow. Stay healthy!  It’s the vegan way!

Green Smoothies

Lately my husband, Bill, and I attended Vegetarian Summerfest, always an inspiring and motivating event that vegetarians and vegans look forward to attending every year. One of the sessions we enjoyed was a demonstration by a delightful couple, Rae Sikora and Jim Corcoran, educators who make presentations to schools and other groups on health, compassionate living, non-violence and ethical consumerism, among other things. At Summerfest they demonstrated how to make a green smoothie in the blender.

Did you know that kale is the very best thing you can eat? Second to that is collard greens. How many times do we cook these veggies? Usually I just see kale as a garnish to be thrown away, and collard greens have never been a part of my diet. So because of that presentation, I now am beginning to make smoothies highlighting those two highly nutritious veggies. Drinking one of these smoothies each day will ensure that your body will benefit from these healthful foods. Here is how Rae and Jim did it:

Instead of water, use watermelon and/or other melons as the liquid. Then remove the stems from the kale and collard greens and put only the leaves into the blender. Add about a half a lemon and/or other citrus fruits (rinds removed but leave the white part on), and as many other fruits and veggies you can fit into the blender. The lemon adds a nice flavor. Make the kale the "star of the show," but if the blended smoothie is too bitter for you, add some pineapple juice or some other sweeter fruits.

Jim told us that each veggie has its own unique set of phytonutrients, but when you combine the veggies, the combination makes even more phytonutrients. For example, for demonstration purposes, let's say that each veggie has one phytonutrient. When you put two veggies together, you don't just get two phytonutrients, but you actually get three because of combining the two together. Isn't that interesting?

Anyway, back to the green smoothie -- pour the blended fruit/veggie combination into canning jars and screw the lids on. You can freeze these (leave a little space in the jars) or take them with you to work.

There you go! This is a really great way to get some good nutrition for the day and it's easy and fun too!

Rae and Jim were so delightful together as they had fun creating their concoction at Vegetarian Summerfest. By the way, this was their one year anniversary, because they met four years earlier (at Summerfest) and they got married last year (again, at Summerfest!) What a romance!

Here is Rae and Jim's website: www.PlantPeaceDaily.org, and here is a link to the fantastic Vegetarian Summerfest, sponsored by the North American Vegetarian Society: http://www.vegetariansummerfest.org

Let me know if you give green smoothies a try, dear readers.

Until next time, best wishes, Bonnie