What a delicious day!!!

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What a delicious day!!!

Postby Grammy Ginger » Thu Nov 28, 2019 9:23 pm

I made veggie balls, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing stuffed pumpkin, cranberry salsa, and pumpkin squares. I absolutely Love my plant-based food especially all the cauliflower and other veggies I used to lower the calorie density. Three of the dishes were at least half cauliflower: riced in the veggie balls, pureed in the gravy, and mashed with the potatoes. The gluten-free dressing was onion, mushrooms, kale, celery, cranberries, apples, pears, oats, and water chestnuts. Everything was delicious and light and joyful.
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Re: What a delicious day!!!

Postby Mom+Me » Thu Nov 28, 2019 11:48 pm

Serene--Congratulations on having a compliant Thanksgiving and also for getting back to this WOE (you mentioned the other day in a different thread)!!

Grammy Ginger--Wow, what a spread! Could you ship some left-overs?! :wink: Seriously though, it sounds like you did have a delicious, health-promoting day!! Any chance you could share your recipe for veggie balls?

Had a very good, compliant Thanksgiving here, too. I'll post more about it in the Recipe Section of the Board since it was there that I talked about new recipes I was going to try and follow-up.
"Eat your heart out (of trouble)!"--Dr. John A. McDougall
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Re: What a delicious day!!!

Postby Grammy Ginger » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:42 am

Mom+Me wrote:Grammy Ginger--Wow, what a spread! Could you ship some left-overs?! :wink: Seriously though, it sounds like you did have a delicious, health-promoting day!! Any chance you could share your recipe for veggie balls?


Here you go. Enjoy!

Grammy Ginger's Savory Holiday or Italian Veggie Balls

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
½ large purple onion, sliced
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
2 c. riced cauliflower (fresh or 10 oz frozen)
2 c baby spinach, kale, or bok choi
¼ t rubbed sage (or thyme or oregano)
½ t poultry spice (or Italian Seasoning + ¼ t garlic powder)
½ t Mrs. Dash onion and spice
½ t onion powder
1 T dried parsley
1 ½ T kitchen bouquet (optional; improves color)
¼ c nutritional yeast
½ c oat flour
¼ c garbanzo flour

Place mushrooms, onion, and celery in a non-stick frying pan in that order over high heat. Turn heat down to medium-high after the pan sizzles. Stir only occasionally and thus allow veggies to release their water and brown a bit (10 or 15 minutes.) Meanwhile, finely chop spinach in a food processor. Put the spinach in a large mixing bowl and mix with kitchen bouquet, spices, nutritional yeast, and flours. When veggies are soft and browned, add cauliflower and use to deglaze the pan. Cool slightly. Process the mixture in a food processor until about the size of rice. Add to the bowl and mix everything thoroughly. If it seems too wet, add a bit more oat flour.

Make golf ball-sized portions and place them on a lined baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 35 minutes. Let cool to allow the balls to firm up. Reheat as needed. It can be made as a loaf. Since it doesn’t firm up as nicely, we stick with the other.

For Italian, the veggie balls top coarsely grated zucchini covered with spicy marinara sauce.
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Re: What a delicious day!!!

Postby Grammy Ginger » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:49 am

serene wrote:Sounds fabulous! I did most of the cooking, but it was for my mom, so I just made noncompliant stuff for everyone else and sweet potatoes for me and the kid. I ate a lot today but stayed compliant.


Good for you! Keep going. You won't regret it.
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Re: What a delicious day!!!

Postby Mom+Me » Sat Nov 30, 2019 6:56 pm

Grammy Ginger wrote:
Mom+Me wrote:Grammy Ginger--Wow, what a spread! Could you ship some left-overs?! :wink: Seriously though, it sounds like you did have a delicious, health-promoting day!! Any chance you could share your recipe for veggie balls?


Here you go. Enjoy!

Grammy Ginger's Savory Holiday or Italian Veggie Balls

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
½ large purple onion, sliced
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
2 c. riced cauliflower (fresh or 10 oz frozen)
2 c baby spinach, kale, or bok choi
¼ t rubbed sage (or thyme or oregano)
½ t poultry spice (or Italian Seasoning + ¼ t garlic powder)
½ t Mrs. Dash onion and spice
½ t onion powder
1 T dried parsley
1 ½ T kitchen bouquet (optional; improves color)
¼ c nutritional yeast
½ c oat flour
¼ c garbanzo flour

Place mushrooms, onion, and celery in a non-stick frying pan in that order over high heat. Turn heat down to medium-high after the pan sizzles. Stir only occasionally and thus allow veggies to release their water and brown a bit (10 or 15 minutes.) Meanwhile, finely chop spinach in a food processor. Put the spinach in a large mixing bowl and mix with kitchen bouquet, spices, nutritional yeast, and flours. When veggies are soft and browned, add cauliflower and use to deglaze the pan. Cool slightly. Process the mixture in a food processor until about the size of rice. Add to the bowl and mix everything thoroughly. If it seems too wet, add a bit more oat flour.

Make golf ball-sized portions and place them on a lined baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 35 minutes. Let cool to allow the balls to firm up. Reheat as needed. It can be made as a loaf. Since it doesn’t firm up as nicely, we stick with the other.

For Italian, the veggie balls top coarsely grated zucchini covered with spicy marinara sauce.

Hi Grammy Ginger, thank you so much for sharing your recipe; I really appreciate it! (Please forgive my delay in replying; haven't had much on-line time since I asked.)

Just have a couple questions. In the ingredient list you use garbanzo flour. Do you think this is important or could whole wheat flour be used (Or just all oat? Or could cooked garbanzo beans be used?), or are you purposely making them gluten free? Also, I was wondering what non-stick pan you have? Any non-stick we've ever had/have always say to heat no higher than medium.

Thank you, again, and I'm salivating just thinking about them--love all the veggies you use! And yes, when I serve them, I'll say that they are Grammy Ginger's recipe! :)
"Eat your heart out (of trouble)!"--Dr. John A. McDougall
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Re: What a delicious day!!!

Postby Grammy Ginger » Sat Nov 30, 2019 7:33 pm

Mom+Me wrote:)

Just have a couple questions. In the ingredient list you use garbanzo flour. Do you think this is important or could whole wheat flour be used (Or just all oat? Or could cooked garbanzo beans be used?), or are you purposely making them gluten-free? Also, I was wondering what non-stick pan you have? Any non-stick we've ever had/have always said to heat no higher than medium.



You're welcome. Yes, they are intentionally gluten-free as I cannot eat wheat (I even use gluten-free oats). I don't think wheat flour would do. The garbanzo flour gives a certain texture, but I would use all oat if you don't have it. Cooked garbanzo beans won't work, because the moisture content of the veggies is already very high. Possibly, 1-2 T flax seed could be used to replace the garbanzo flour; that's my next experiment. I made them again yesterday and substituted purple cabbage for the spinach. That resulted in superior taste, texture, and color.

I use ozeri non-stick skillets. I haven't had any trouble with the pan and have been cooking like this in it for a couple of years. Maybe I'm slowly poisoning myself. Who knows. I've seen Jane Esselstyn cook her onions and mushrooms the way I do in a stainless steel pan. In fact I used to do it that way but got the non-stick after my husband went to several cooking demos at truenorth when he was there for several weeks.
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Re: What a delicious day!!!

Postby Mom+Me » Sun Dec 01, 2019 7:51 pm

Grammy Ginger wrote:
Mom+Me wrote:)

Just have a couple questions. In the ingredient list you use garbanzo flour. Do you think this is important or could whole wheat flour be used (Or just all oat? Or could cooked garbanzo beans be used?), or are you purposely making them gluten-free? Also, I was wondering what non-stick pan you have? Any non-stick we've ever had/have always said to heat no higher than medium.



You're welcome. Yes, they are intentionally gluten-free as I cannot eat wheat (I even use gluten-free oats). I don't think wheat flour would do. The garbanzo flour gives a certain texture, but I would use all oat if you don't have it. Cooked garbanzo beans won't work, because the moisture content of the veggies is already very high. Possibly, 1-2 T flax seed could be used to replace the garbanzo flour; that's my next experiment. I made them again yesterday and substituted purple cabbage for the spinach. That resulted in superior taste, texture, and color.

I use ozeri non-stick skillets. I haven't had any trouble with the pan and have been cooking like this in it for a couple of years. Maybe I'm slowly poisoning myself. Who knows. I've seen Jane Esselstyn cook her onions and mushrooms the way I do in a stainless steel pan. In fact I used to do it that way but got the non-stick after my husband went to several cooking demos at truenorth when he was there for several weeks.

Thank you for replying again, Grammy Ginger! Mmmm...the purple cabbage sounds delicious and I would imagine give an interesting color. :-) Please let us know how it works out with all oat flour (Thank you!). Yep, I don't have garbanzo flour, but could buy some. If we had a dry container for our Vita-Mix I would think I could make garbanzo flour out of dry beans?

No, I don't think you're poisoning yourself with the high heat using your non-stick pan. I think it has to do with the coating peeling at too high of temperatures. But there are more and more non-sticks coming out that can be put in an oven at pretty high temperatures, so the Ozeri are probably just fine at high temperatures, too. I will check into them--thank you! Interesting to know what brand of non-stick pans they use at True North!
"Eat your heart out (of trouble)!"--Dr. John A. McDougall
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