Garlicky Heirloom Bean Spread

This is a delicious hummus like spread. Instead of using garbanzo beans, this spread has a mix of heirloom beans. These beans were originally dry beans that were soaked for 12 hours and then simmered until tender.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups heirloom beans
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (we only had chunky)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon lime juice

In a food processor, puree the heirloom beans until mostly smooth. Add peanut butter and olive oil and pulse to combine. Add water a tablespoon at a time until smooth, there may be a little extra water or you may need a little more). Once smooth add the mustard, garlic and lime juice and puree again until smooth consistency. Serve immediately or let set in the fridge for the garlic flavor to deepen.

Quick Dinner

Hello,

I just wanted to share our dinner from last night because it was super simple and tasty! I was pretty hungry so I didn't even take a picture of the finished meal, but this took less than ten minutes to make and only had a few ingredients involved.

2 Tofurkey kielbasas, in half-inch slices
1 cup of kale
2 Tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne
1 cup of cooked cous cous (we had some leftovers)
1 tablespoon of oil

Add the kielbasa slices and oil to a frying pan and sauté on medium-high heat for two minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the kale and sauté for another two minutes. Toss in the rest of the ingredients and lower the heat to medium. Cook for about two or three minutes and mix together well. Serve in two bowls and enjoy!

Kale Salad with Black Beans, Polenta & Avocado

1 package of polenta, cut into 1/4 inch slices
6 handfuls of kale leaves (about one bunch)
1 can of black beans
1 avocado, sliced
3 cloves of garlic
Olive oil for pan frying


Sauté the garlic in oil for 3-4 minutes. Add the polenta slices to the pan, frying on medium-high heat. Fry for 4-5 minutes on each side, until they are a golden yellow color. While the polenta is cooking, wash and rip up a few handfuls of kale for each bowl. Add the polenta slices on top of the kale. Drain and rinse the can of black beans and heat the beans in the pan for several minutes. Add the beans and avocado to the salad and serve! We had some Daiya shreds in the fridge so I added those also.

This was a quick and tasty meal and we both enjoyed it. I hope that everyone else is pleased with the results! : )

Butternut Squash Soup

Hi there! I love autumn for so many reasons, and soup is definitely one of them. I honestly wasn't much of a soup person until we started making them. As someone that had a lot of processed food while growing up, there is definitely no competition when it comes to a homemade soup versus something from a can. Anyways, here is a simple recipe for a vegan butternut squash soup that we made the other day. This could be made in about half an hour and tastes delicious! I hope that you all enjoy it!

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup

3 Cloves of garlic

1 shallot

2 tablespoons of Olive oil

1 butternut squash

6 cups of vegetable broth

Cut up the garlic and shallot. Sauté the garlic and shallot with olive oil in a large pot. Peel, deseed, and cube the butternut squash. Add the squash to the pot and cover with the vegetable broth. Boil until fork-tender. Remove the cubes to the blender and puree. Add the squash back to the broth on medium and stir. Combine well and serve!

Enjoy!

-Nicole 

Vegan Chili

Hi there!

So, it has been awhile since we have actually posted a recipe, and I thought I would share an easy autumn recipe with everyone. I honestly don't usually measure or even keep track of what I put in my recipes most of the time, so this is somewhat estimated. I do believe that cooking should be fun and you should adjust things according to your own taste, which is definitely what I always do. It usually turns out great unless it involves baking, which should have slightly more science than creativity.

Anyways, one of my favorite fall meals is chili! So here is a recipe for chili that I made recently. I was craving chili and decided to make some even though I didn't have all of the ingredients that I usually use. I was happy with the outcome and hope that you will be too! Please feel free to mix things up and let us know what you think of the recipe :)

1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 can of kidney beans, rinsed
1 can of pink beans, rinsed
1/3 cup of sliced sun-dried tomatoes
1/3 cup of TVP
1 cup or more of water
1 tablespoon of chopped scallions
1/2 teaspoon of dill
2 tablespoons of amino acids
2 tablespoons of red wine
1 cup of cooked quinoa

Heat a large pot on medium-high. Add about half an inch of water to the pot along with the carrots and scallions. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the TVP, aminos and dill. Add some more water if needed. There should still be some moisture, so as to avoid anything sticking to the bottom of the pot. Stir in the wine and let cook on medium heat for about five minutes. Be sure to stir and add small amounts of water if necessary. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, quinoa & beans. Cook on low to medium heat for another 10 minutes. Serve hot with your choice of toppings! We enjoyed ours with avocado, Daiya Havarti, and vegan sour cream.

Enjoy and let us know what you think if you get a chance to try out the recipe! We hope to add some more recipes soon including our classic chili recipe and some tasty quinoa burgers that we had last night!

Nicole

Engagement Spot

So, I had no idea where I was going to propose at but once we were at The Rock of Dunamase I knew that it was the spot. We didn't realize until after we got back to Connecticut that our engagement spot was in the movie Leap Year. Not a bad movie, but seeing the spot in person made us much more appreciative of the actual area. While you see the video, you will see some Celtic crosses (not there in real life), there is a second level to the strucutre (not really there in real life), a train station (not there at all), and a lake (that's really just countryside fields and not a lake).

Past Months...

It has been a long time since we have posted anything - far too long. We have been cooking and traveling and eating a lot of food... too much food. In the time that it has been since we last posted we celebrated my birthday and Nicole's birthday. Both of which we spent in Rhode Island finding vegan treats along the way. It is definitely not the last time that we will be going there and enjoying tasty food. Another exciting thing that transpired was our trip to Ireland (in April). While there we visited the Rock of Dunamse.

And we got engaged! Up until this point I was not sure where I was going to propose at. I was carrying the ring around with me while we traversed Dublin and took sunrise walk in a cemetery. Once we were here though I knew that it was the right spot. We walked all the way up to the top and saw magnificent views of the countryside. It was a very special and very exciting day. I was glad to have this trip with my future wife and am excited for many more.

Hopefully we will be a little more active in the coming months with posts and news wedding goings on.