No Title Needed!

My problem is that there is no consistent theme on which to name this post. It's mainly gluten-free, but the couscous ruins that all!

So the first dish that I made this weekend was to use up leftovers. Most of my creativity comes from the leftovers from a planned meal of the week. I had some aubergines (eggplants) left over from that one dish so I needed to use them up. I did a curried eggplant with a roasted pine nut couscous using all of the leftover vegetables from the previous week. This meal was super quick and easy. I cut up the eggplant and oven roasted them with some cumin, curry powder, and Moroccan spices. As the eggplant was roasting, I cooked the couscous. The trick to couscous is a one to one ratio. For this dish, it was one cup of water to one cup of couscous. As the couscous was steeping, I sauteed the veggies. I added the couscous and then the handfuls of spinach to barely wilt. Served that up with the eggplant on top. It was like a semi-African, semi-Mediterranean, semi-Indian dish. Forget the real origin of the dish, the still flavors married well. Let's call this dish: International Peace Treaty (lol).

For dessert that night I needed to use up the blueberries that I still had left over. They were on the brink of going bad, so the first thing that came to mind to use up a couple pints of blueberries was a blueberry crumb cake. The twist to this was that I had just bought a ton of gluten-free flours. So, my goal was to make a coffee cake (which I make all of the time) gluten-free and with blueberries. For the flour, I used a combination of brown rice flour, tapioca, and potato starches. That was really the only substitution. I followed my go-to recipe just like normal. Here's the recipe:


Streusel Topping:

1/3 cup gluten-free flour mix
1/3 cup organic cane sugar (vegan)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup coconut butter

Cake Batter:

1 cup gluten-free flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup coconut butter
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1 egg replacer (Enger-G or flaxseed 'egg')
1/2 tsp gluten-free pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup almond milk
One pin fresh blueberries


Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 8 x 8 inch pan

1. For streusel topping:  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and ground cinnamon.  Cut in the coconut butter with fork until it resembles coarse crumbs.
2. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a small bowl make the "egg" according to your replacement package.
4. Whip the coconut butter until smooth in another bowl.  Add the sugar and whisk until airy.  Add the "egg" and vanilla.  Add one half of gluten-free flour mixture. Pour in the almond milk. Add the remaining half of the flour mixture until combined.  Pour into the bottom of the pan. 
5. Place the blueberries on top of the cake batter, followed by the topping.
6. Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool.

Since I had just cleaned out all of the leftovers, tonight for dinner I had to take random things in my pantry and make a healthful, filling meal. I came up with vegan nachos. It doesn't seem like a healthful meal, but it was full of protein, low in fat, and was definitely filling. I also had a small life changing moment during dinner tonight. It isn't really that big of a deal, many raw foodists do this, but I was blown away when I tasted it. So, as you all know I like to stay away from soy as much as possible. So, I wanted a ground beef substitute that wasn't those mediocre, bad-for-you soy crumbles that Morningstar makes. Instead I made ground beef out of almonds. It was LIFE CHANGING! Here is my recipe for the nachos:

Ground “beef”

1 cup almonds

salt and pepper

1 tbsp ancho chili powder

1 tsp grilling spice

1-2 tbsp olive oil

Fat-free refried black beans

1 can of black beans

salt and pepper

Cheese Sauce

1 cup oat milk

¼ cup nutritional yeast flake

2 tbsp gram (chickpea/garbanzo bean) flour

salt and pepper

Blackened Corn

1 cup of corn

Chipotle Seasoning

Cumin

Cayenne pepper

oil to sautee

Homemade salsa or store bought

Vegan sour cream (optional)

Cilantro (to garnish)

1. In a food processor, pulse almonds until a chucky texture. Add oil and spices until it resembles cooked, damp ground meat.
2. Boil the black beans until soft, then transfer to a bowl. Smash with a fork until a paste is formed. Season to taste.
3. In a small pot, heat up oat milk. Once it starts to barely boil, add the rest of the ingredient. Cook until barely thickened. Take off heat. It will keep thickening, so don’t cook for too long.
4. In a small skillet, preheat with oil. Add the corn. On top, add all spices. Allow to cook on med-high heat until the bottom is caramelized (blackened). Mix the corn to combine the spices and cook for one more minute.
5. Place corn chips on plate. Top with refried beans, corn, meat, cheese sauce, and salsa (in that order).
6. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and vegan sour cream if desired.

This meal literally took me ten minutes to prepare. I made everything from scratch (except for the chips and salsa). So, this is really quick. You could even put all of the in a tortilla, cover with salsa and you have a burrito! Or could even turn this into a taco or enchilada. It is really versatile. I will forever use this almond meat from now on!! It was crazy! 

This meal did have nut and bean proteins as well as a complete protein from the nutritional yeast flake. It was gluten-free and soy-free. It incorporated some veggies too. Well, corn shouldn't count, but it does! And it adds great roughage. The salsa is what I'm really talking about. 

Hope you enjoyed the recipes. I actually put some up. I'm so lazy sometimes that I just like to blog and never put up recipes, so I hope you enjoy these! They sure did satisfy la lengua de un vegan.