Spaghetti and Bean Balls!

As I'm cooking through the Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook I am super impressed with Cathe Olson's knack for creating healthy meals at low cost and I've been surprised by how satisfying and flavorful they are.  Great job Cathe!

In her cookbook, she has a recipe for Bean Balls that can be made as straight bean balls, or she has adaptions for Italian or Swedish style bean balls.  I chose to make them Italian style and serve them up with spaghetti.  They were quick to whip together in the food processor and bake in about 20 minutes while the noodles boil. 

I adapted the recipe slightly because it wasn't turning out the way I thought it should, it could be because I was in a hurry and used a can of beans rather than measuring out precooked beans or it could be that my carrot was too big (it was massive), either way, the mixture seemed too dry and wasn't coming together as I thought it should, so I added an egg as a binder and that worked great. 

Mine flattened out a little on the bottom, but I wasn't going for pretty so it didn't matter to me.  That could have been because I added an egg?

As I simmered and stirred the baked bean balls in the spaghetti sauce some of them fell apart but most stayed whole.  I actually preferred them broken up when eating the spaghetti and will purposely break them up next time to make it more like the ground beef spaghetti I'm used to.

Super delicious and satisfying!

Pasta with Vegetables and Pine Nuts

Cooking through the Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, Recipe # 3, Pasta with Vegetables and Pine Nuts.

I was so glad we tried this dish, I bought the broccoli and cauliflower two times before actually making it.  It has great flavor and was easy to put together.  I added half an onion to the recipe because I LOVE most any dish that starts with sauteing onion and garlic. I used rice penne noodles as well to avoid gluten.  I have heard that rice noodles get mushy, so I was careful to pull them off the stove top as soon as they were al dente - actually a little more firm than I usually cook pasta - and they turned out perfect.  We had no problems with the noodles breaking or getting mushy and they weren't too hard either. 

What I like about this dish is that it is full of vegetables but it doesn't feel like you're eating a plate full of vegetables. 

I'm not a fan of mushrooms, but I think if you are, this recipe would be a good one to add mushrooms to.  To see some of Cathe Olson's recipes, visit her blog or check out her cookbooks.

Bean and Nut Loaf

Cooking through the Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook continued. 

Today's meal was Bean and Nut Loaf.  The sound of it is quite atrocious to me, however in my determination to cook through this cookbook, I'm trying everything. Guess what? Discipline pays off!

This mock meat loaf is made from walnuts, pinto beans, carrots, and flax seeds among other things.  It "dries" in the oven to form a nice crusty exterior and a soft, gooey interior.

I served it with ketchup, per Cathe Olson's recommendation and I think the ketchup was necessary to make this loaf really taste like meat loaf. 

Spaetzle, (a German egg noodle) sauteed in butter and salted, was our side dish .  The combination was very satisfying  - a good comfort food meal :)

And, let me just say, I love having fake meat that I prepared in a few minutes in the food processor rather than something from the frozen food section of the grocery store that is full of wheat gluten and soy protein as well as preservatives.  And, yes, Spaetzle does contain gluten, but it's nice that it's only in our side dish and not in the main dish as well. 

Cooking the musical fruit!

Molly

Cooking Through Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook: Tamale Pie

A while back I was doing a 60-day-no-refined-sugars fast.  I can't even remember why I did it.  But, I do remember the rule was that I could only eat products with no sugar or unrefined sugars such as honey, molasses, pure maple syrup, and agave nectar.  During the fast, I went to the library and checked out a cookbook called The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, by Cathe Olson.  I tried her desserts because they were made without refined sugars and I was craving sweets, and to my surprise, they were delicious! 

I wanted to renew the book, but it was reserved by someone else so I had to return it.  I finally bought the book a few weeks ago and decided to cook my way through the cookbook and post pictures online.  This cookbook is fantastic, but there are no pictures and I'm a fan of picture cookbooks.  So, this will serve two purposes: 1. Pictures to go along with the recipes (for me for the future) and anyone else that may be interested in the cookbook and 2. To encourage me to actually try things that might not sound so great just reading over them. 

*Edit* I just found Cathe Olson's blog where she shares pictures and some of the recipes from this cookbook along with other recipes.  If you are looking for good vegetarian or healthy recipes, check out her blog. 
Don't expect fancy pictures. I'm a mother of 2, homeschooling one and babysitting another until 6 in the evening, so by the time I get dinner on the table everyone is ready to dig in and there is little time (or patience) for me to take pictures.  These are just snap shots. 

So, I've made two meals from the cookbook so far.  Both were main dish recipes and then I made dessert to go along with it.  Guess how many pictures I have of the four dishes I've made so far?  One. Yup, that's right.  I only remembered to take pictures of the main dish of one of the meals I made.  So, these posts may be few and far between, but I will cook through the book, it just might take 5 years to get pictures of everything :) 

I know, the suspense is just building :)  ha! Here is the first dinner I made out of this book. 

Introducing the Tamale Pie (on page 202).

I will not be sharing the recipes on this blog as I want to promote the cookbook, not steal her recipes.  All I will say is her recipes are simple, delicious, and healthy.  I like a lot of flavor and so far her recipes have been pretty full flavor which I wasn't expecting because most vegetarian cookbooks I've tried are so focused on being healthy that they compromise flavor.  This is not the case with The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook and the precise reason I am so thrilled to be cooking through it.

Eat yourself healthy!

Molly