Not much cooking for the next couple days!

I am off to Victoria for a few days to spend some time with my family. I will not be doing much cooking as I will be at my dad's place who loves to cook. If I do end up cooking something I will make sure to post it. Actually my brother who has been a cook/chef for many years has a few amazing recipe, so I think I will go for a visit and chat with him about getting a few of them. Well I better get going!

vegetarian tangy peanut sauce

This recipe was first made by my daughter and I just added to it. I just love peanut sauces especially on pasta and I have tried many and like most I usually just ended up buying store bought ones. I wanted to create my own sauce so that I could get better and healthier ingredients. This is what I came up with:

1tbsp oil
1tbsp ginger
1tbsp garlic
2tsp chili paste or more if you like it spicier (I use sambal oelek)
2tbsp rice vinegar
1tbsp sugar (I use maple sugar for healthier sugar but you can use brown, I try to stay away from white sugar)
2tbsp soya sauce (I use tamari but you can use whatever you got in your fridge)
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (or smooth if you like)
1tsp mirin (a sweet cooking seasoning found in Asian section at the grocery store but you can also do without in this recipe)

Heat oil in saucepan at medium heat, add garlic and ginger, saute for 1 minute (you do not want the ginger or garlic to brown). Stir in the chili paste and cook for an additional 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add rice vinegar, soya sauce, sugar, mirin and cook for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Stir in the coconut milk, add peanut butter and stir until peanut butter melted and well blended. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce heat to low, stir frequently for 5 minutes. Cover and set aside.

You're wondering what I used this sauce with? Well I used up all my left over vegetables in my fridge. I had onions, yellow pepper, celery and some green beans. I steamed the green beans until they were al dente. While the beans were steaming I heated some oil on medium heat and stir-fried the vegetables (onions, pepper & celery) until tender. I added the green beans just a few moments before the vegetables were tender, then I transferred the sauce unto the vegetables, stirring until well blended. Cook some rice pasta (you can use any pasta or even rice), put pasta in a serving bowl and poured the sauce over the pasta...delicious!

You can use any vegetables in this recipe. Mike my parter is a "meat" eater so he cooked some prawns on the BBQ and added them to the meal. You can do anything with this sauce, just use your imagination and what ever is in your fridge! A friend of ours stopped by (good timing as I was serving dinner) and as luck would have it, he's a cook and he said it was very good. I asked him if he would add anything or change anything and he said "no"!

the jambalaya was to die for.the tofurky really worked well in this dish. chantal thought it was to spicy with the 1/2tsp of cayenne, but I found it just right.

Vegetarian Jambalaya

I did make the vegetarian jambalaya and guess what, it came out great! No food was thrown out...so happy! This is how I made it,

What you will need:
2 tbsp oil (i used canola oil)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 vegetarian sausage (I used tofurky italian style), diced
1 can of kidney beans
4 cups of cooked rice (I used a 2 cups medley rice and 2 cups white rice but all up to you)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 green pepper, diced
1 yellow or red pepper, diced
1 med onion (I used a red onion), diced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 to 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

In saucepan add oil in med/high heat, add diced sausage and cook until nicely browned (about 3 minutes). Remove sausage and add garlic and cook for 1 minute on medium heat. Mix in the remaining vegetables (peppers and onions) and continue cooking until tender (about 5 minutes). Return the sausage to sauce pan and stir.

Add rice, tomatoes and beans stir until ingredients are well mixed together. Stir in paprika, cayenne (the amount of cayenne is up to you, I am not big on spicy food so 1/4 tsp is good for me), salt and pepper (to taste). Turn to low heat, cover and cook for additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

As I mentioned in my "smoked pea soup" recipe, the smoked paprika brings an amazing taste to some recipes. The smoked paprika in the jambalaya adds great flavor to it! (my dad introduced me the the smoked paprika so thanks again dad)

I hope you try this jambalaya and if you do please let me know how you like it.

vegetarian Jambalaya

I have looked and searched for a good jambalaya recipe and didn't find anything that jumped out at me so...tonight I will make my own. Mike has gone to the store to pick up a few items, the rice is cooking and hopefully it will turn out GREAT! I will make sure to add it to my blog after dinner!

Carrot muffins...ummmm not so good...

I've been looking for a good eggless carrot muffin recipe for a while now and today I thought I had found one...until Mike had a bite of it and had this funny look on his face. In the recipe it said to use vanilla stevia, I didn't know stevia was a sweetener so I just added vanilla to my recipe. Now I know to always make sure to know all of the ingredients that go into a recipe before trying it...lol Anyways still on the look out for an AWESOME Carrot muffin recipe!

Vegetarian Corn chowder (simple and yummy)

3 tbsp oil (safflower or olive or canola)
1 med sweet onion, chopped
4 lg potatoe, cubed
1 red pepper, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 garlic gloves, minced
1 cup of frozen corn
1 can of cream corn
1 liter of vegetable broth
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp salt (taste)
1 tbsp dried herb seasoning

In saucepan over medium heat, add oil, potatoes, onions, pepper, celery, garlic and salt. Cook vegetables until tender, stirring often. Add paprika and cook an additional 1 minute.

Stir in vegetable broth, both frozen and cream corn. Bring to boil and reduce heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Add some dried herb seasoning for added flavor.

At this point you can either eat as is or what I like to do is spoon out with a sloted spoon three big serving of vegetables out of the saucepan. Use a hand blender and blend the soup in the saucepan to a nice creamy mixture, when done pour the vegetables back in the creamy soup, and voila!