Vegan Buddha Bowl

Colorful and flavorful vegan bowl

Almost all bowls have some combo of grains, greens and sauce. Maybe there's a protein, possibly a fat.

The key is different textures. flavors - and colors.

I was recently sent a sample of V8 vegetable juice and it reminded me of when I would cook with it, to 'sneak' some veggies into my kids' meals. I would make rice with a mixture of water and V8, so those eight vegetables would be incorporated into the grain.

V8 has tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach. While it is rich in vitamins A and C, it also has a fair amount of sodium, so if you usually add salt to your rice cooking water, leave it out.

This bowl has a good mix of cooked and raw veggies, so there's crunch and texture.

Vegan Buddha Bowl

1 bunch kale leaves, washed and torn

1 package tempeh, cubed

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice, made with V8

1 small red pepper, chopped

3/4 cup chopped or shredded purple cabbage

1 medium sweet potato, roasted and chopped

Marinade -mix all below

6 T tamari

3 T rice vinegar

2 t sesame oil

Curry Sauce - mix all below

3 T cashew or almond butter

3 T almond milk 

1/1/2 T  tamari

3 t rice vinegar

1 1/2 t red curry paste

Serves 3 (though when my husband is really hungry, just 2)

Marinate tempeh for at least 15 minutes. Cook tempeh, with marinade, in medium pan on medium heat for about 10 minutes, until crispy.

Microwave or steam kale until softened, about 4 minutes.

Divide rice, veggies and tempeh into 3 bowls. Top with sauce.

Carbo Shedding: Preparing for Thanksgiving

Skinny Pasta salad with 'crack' dressing

Instead of carbo loading for a marathon, I've been carbo shedding, prepping my body for the Thanksgiving fest and the holiday season.

The holidays are a nonstop bacchanal of eating and drinking, so Skinny Pasta offers an alternative.

Skinny Pasta - easy to prepare

These Konjac noodles are just 10 calories a serving and are gluten free. They are also fiber rich and low in sodium.

But most important, they taste like, well, pasta. I love to have a big salad for lunch or dinner, but sometimes that isn't filling enough. With some pasta heaped on, the meal is complete. There is a rice or couscous shape if you prefer that with your salad, and if you want a more traditional pasta dish, there are spaghetti, lasagna and fettuccine shapes.

Skinny Pasta

Nutritional yeast

Skinny Pasta is also incredibly convenient and quick to prepare. It comes in a bag, and you have to drain and rinse it, then microwave it for two minutes. You can also heat it on the stove, perfect if you have are having spaghetti and meatballs (vegetarian, of course!).

For a hearty salad, I make a bed of greens - often baby spinach or baby arugula. Then I add some roasted vegetables, a few nuts, and either cheese, avocado or a poached egg. Then I dump the noodles on top. If you use cheese, the warm pasta melts the cheese a bit. With the egg, put the noodles on first, then add the egg, and when you pierce it, the egg drips into the noodles.

But no salad is complete without a good dressing, and this dressing, which my family calls crack dressing because it is so addictive, fits the bill. Nutritional yeast is used to make cheese substitutes. Find it at a health food store.

"Crack" dressing

3/4 C olive oil
3 T apple cider vinegar
3 T tamari
3 T water
1/4 C nutritional yeast
2 T tahini

Whisk this all together.

I tend to make a double recipe of this. It keeps well and I could it eat it every day.

Not a Black Sheep: the Standout Black Sheep Deli

Just some of the choices at Black Sheep Deli

The black sheep of the family is the odd member, but the Black Sheep Deli in Amherst, MA, stands out for its excellent vegetarian and vegan menu.

Vintage menu: prices current aren't much higher

Actually, it fits right into the Pioneer Valley, which is larded with meat free choices. Usually we stick to Northampton, one town over, but Amherst has a larger farmers market, on Saturdays, a great local bookstore, and easy access to nearby hiking trails.

It also has this casual deli, where you order at a counter. Sandwiches are huge, and there are gluten free options like big salads or gluten free bagels and breads.

The breakfast sandwich

For three of us, three sandwiches, including a smaller breakfast sandwich, was a feast. We could have ordered just half of one of the sandwiches, but we pigged (or tofu-ed) out.

Make your Own

The large menu has typical deli fare like tuna salad, and make your own options, but we stuck to the specialty sandwiches. Everything here is made from scratch, using local purveyors and farmers.

The Great Garlic

Vegetarian Specialties

There were so many to choose from, it was hard to decide. We went with the messy and delicious  Great Garlic, which was overstuffed with grilled portobellos, roasted eggplant and roasted red peppers, caramelized garlic and goat cheese, on a baguette

East Meets West

Vegan Specialities

We had the East Meets West, a yummy sandwich with roasted tofu, grated carrots and a peanut hoisin sauce.

Breakfast all day

Breakfast sandwiches are slightly smaller. We had the Florentine, a baked omelet with goat cheese, spinach, roasted red pepper and sun dried tomato pesto on excellent focaccia.

"Downtown" Amherst

We weren't crazy about the coffee; it was little weak for our industrial strength standards.

What else is there to do?

A weekend in New England has to include a hike, so we drove the snazzy Kia Optima hybrid I was testing to Mount Holyoke Range State Park in Hadley.

Buddha Bowl: Rebranding Leftovers

Not for today's kids: old fashioned tuna casserole

Growing up, my mother made a lot of casseroles. She took leftover meat, usually chicken, and combined it with vegetables nearing the end of their shelf life, a can of cream of mushroom soup (undiluted) and dumped it into a dish. She topped this with fried onions from a can, or cornflake crumbs, stuck it in the oven, and voila, dinner.

No wonder my generation hated leftovers.

Foodie millennials simply renamed leftovers and created grain bowls, or Buddha bowls. The Buddha bowl means you have a happy rounded tummy after dinner.

Not that these bowls have to be made with leftovers. Or meat, for that matter. They are quite filling with a combo of grains, veggies and some delicious space you've whipped up.

I made fresh quinoa to pair with a few veggie odds and ends I had on hand: roasted peppers, beet greens, posted cauliflower and sun dried tomatoes. I added chickpeas for protein and black olives for umami.

Then I made a quick lemon tahini sauce: juice form half a lemon, a few chopped up bits of preserved lemon, a hit of cumin and smoked paprika and some olive oil and tahini. Since I prefer cooked beet greens and warm roasted veggies, I sautéed all the veggies for a few minutes, poured it all in a bowl and topped with the sauce.

Unlike my mother, I also Instagrammed it.

But unlike my mother's, mine was vegetarian. Vegan, in fact.

And also unlike my mother's casseroles, this looked good, So good, that my daughter asked me to make it for her for dinner.

To Cheese or Not to Cheese: Vegan or Vegetarian?

The grocery area at Riverdel

Many vegetarians, myself included, might become vegan except for the cheese issue. Cheese is so yummy, improves almost any dish (peanut butter and cheddar. Seriously) and is a great source of protein.

Jarlsberg cheese sticks

I even got to try a new Jarlsberg cheese snack, which is a perfect on the go snack for kids, adults, even dogs. Cheese sticks are a popular 'high quality' snack at the Prospect Park off leash hours, with the added benefit that if you are suddenly peckish, you can share the cheese with your pup (note: my dog does not share).

The  individual wrapped Jarlsberg cheese sticks are also lactose free; one of my kids is lactose intolerant, which is why she seeks out good quality vegan alternatives.

Vegan cheese

Riverdel, in Brooklyn

Riverdel, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, is a small vegan shop with a huge selection of vegan cheese, plus a well curated grocery with local vegan products, from coconut milk ice cream to nut milk yogurt and a vegan alternative to fish sauce and Worcestershire sauce. 

The vegan Italian

The shop also makes sandwiches to order, and we tried three: the Italian, with "muzzarella," tomatoes, pesto and arugula, on ciabatta, M. Night Shalami, a "salami" and cheese, also on ciabatta, and a special of Pepper Jack and seating bacon on rye.

Sandwiches are $9 - $10, with an extra $1.50 for gluten-free bread. Everything we had was fresh and delicious, and I'll return for the pastries, and the Just Jack, which has jackfruit, carrot slaw and cilantro mayo.

Note: Jarlsberg sent me a sample of the cheese sticks. I was not otherwise compensated.