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Veggie Party Dip

19 Jan

If you’re not in the mood for sandwiches, or just don’t have time to wait for the Veggie Party Sandwiches to set to cut the crusts, you can serve the dip by itself with crackers, crostini or even crudites.

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VEGGIE PARTY DIP

12oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 large tomato, seeds removed, chopped as finely as possible
1 medium cubanelle pepper or 1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, chopped as finely as possible
1/2 medium onion, chopped as finely as possible
Olive oil to taste
Garlic salt and pepper to taste
  1. Mix together the cream cheese, tomato, onion and pepper.
  2. Add olive oil in small increments to soften the mixture until it’s in an easy-to-spread consistency.
  3. Season with garlic salt and pepper.

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Veggie Party Sandwiches

19 Jan

Here in Puerto Rico we have a custom of serving at most birthday parties what we call “sandwichitos de mezcla”.  Roughly translated means “mixture mini sandwiches”.  They’re traditionally made with a bunch of things I don’t eat anymore… so a friend taught me to make this alternative version.

I will confess, my friend Ana Yolanda has requested these sandwiches for several of her home parties.  And I am not lying when I tell you these sandwiches go faster than the traditional version.  I make them on 100% whole wheat bread, so that’s why they are not super symmetrical.  Traditionally they’re made with club sandwich bread, but none of the brands available here are 100% whole grain.

 They’re super easy and super tasty…

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VEGGIE PARTY SANDWICHES

12oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 large tomato, seeds removed, chopped as finely as possible
1 medium cubanelle pepper or 1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, chopped as finely as possible
1/2 medium onion, chopped as finely as possible
Olive oil to taste
Garlic salt and pepper to taste
1 packet of 100% whole wheat sliced sandwich bread
  1. Mix together the cream cheese, tomato, onion and pepper.
  2. Add olive oil in small increments to soften the mixture until it’s in an easy-to-spread consistency.
  3. Season with garlic salt and pepper.

If you stop here… you can use this mixture as a veggie party dip.  Continue to make the sandwiches…

4.  Spread the mixture onto the one side of the sliced bread and assemble sandwiches.

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5.  Take a clean/new handi-wipe or 2 paper towel and dip it in milk or water.  Squeeze the excess milk/water.  Place it at the bottom of a tray or Pyrex where you can fit all the sandwiches.  Place the sandwiches on top of one paper towel or the opened handi wipe.  Cover the sandwiches with the remaining damp paper towel.  Place the tray in the fridge for a few hours or even over night.  The paper towel will keep the sandwiches moist while in the fridge.  If not using, the top bread will dry out on you.

6.  Remove sandwiches from fridge and cut away the crusts and cut in quarters – either diagonally or vertical/horizontal.  It’s up to you.

Serve on a platter and see them fly away…

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Fried Cauliflower

11 Jan

We already established I like fried foods, right?

But believe me, for the amount of fried foods I have posted on this blog, I do not eat that many of them… maybe like once a week, maybe. I think it’s just that we’re around the holidays here and these are “more or less” permissible things around the holidays… eat fried foods now, diet and exercise in the new year… But I find that if you exercise and eat healthy all the time, as part of your daily routine, you can indulge every once in a while in a fried morsel of crispy goodness.

Enough…

Here are my interpretation of Fried Cauliflower. I learned to eat this, believe it or not, at the salad bar at Ponderosa Steakhouse. The salad bars here in PR offer, in addition to the standard salad fare, corn sorullitos, macaroni and cheese, cooked corn, steamed carrots, and sometimes, fried cauliflower. They’re sooooo tasty. But the secret of their tastiness is in the batter. Let me show you how…

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FRIED CAULIFLOWER

1 head of cauliflower, cut in medium sized florets
2 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
2 tbs cornstarch
3 tbs sofrito
1 tbs salt or garlic salt
1 tbs Herbamare herbed salt
a few grinds of cracked black pepper
water – about 2 cups
a few sprinkles of paprika – optional
Canola oil – for frying
  1. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch and the water. Mix the water slowly, maybe in two batches. The idea is for the batter to be the same consistency as pancake batter.
  2. Add to the batter, the sofrito, salt, herbed salt and pepper. Add paprika, if using.
  3. Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a skillet over medium heat.
  4. Dunk the pieces of cauliflower in the batter. Clean the piece of any running batter and place carefully in the hot oil.
  5. Fry the little morsels until golden brown on all sides. It should take a few minutes – this way the cauliflower will cook/soften a bit and the batter will be golden brown and crunchy.

Eat on their own or dunk in Mayo Ketchup.

Hope you like them!!!

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Egg-less Frittatas

25 Dec

 This recipe has many ingredients, but it’s easy to assemble and TASTY!!!!

I took them as an addition to a non-vegetarian party and they were all gone in about 10 minutes… my best friend and her mom almost did not get a chance to try them.  If non-vegetarians were devouring them at a Christmas party, image how good they taste.

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EGG-LESS FRITTATAS

1 package of firm silken tofu, drained of water
1/2 cup of soy milk
4 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 oz goat cheese – I used half of a small log
1/2 cup sour cream
squirt of Dijon mustard – about 1 teaspoon
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 cup of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained of as much water as possible
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, without sulphur dioxide
1/2 cup of chopped grape tomatoes
4 green onion stalks, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 teaspoon garlic and herb seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste
Canola oil spray
  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. 
  2. Place the first 7 ingredients in a blender.  Process until completely smooth and silky.
  3. Place tofu mixture in a large bowl and add the spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, grape tomatoes, garlic, parsley, seasoning, green onions, salt and pepper.
  4. Lightly spray 2 muffin tins with canola oil spray.  Spoon mixture into muffin pans using a 1/4 cup measure.
  5. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes until they’re set and a bit golden on top.  Check that a knife or wooden skewer comes out cleanly before removing from oven.
  6. When they’re done, remove from oven and let cool for about 20 minutes.  When they’re cooler, they’ll come out from the pan neater and nicer.

They’re light…  you can serve them as a party appetizer, you can also serve them as a nice brunch entree with a nice green salad.  I guess you could also bake it in a baking dish and cut it into pieces instead of doing individual servings… I just have not tried it like that yet… so I am not sure if we’ll need to make adjustments to to baking time.

This recipe yielded me 20 individual fritattas.

  

 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 This is my last post of the year.  I will take a few days off from cooking and blogging.  This has been a wonderful few months… I promise to come back in the new year with new added inspiration to cook and share with you all.

May the New Year 2008 bring only the best…  until then.

Madelyn.

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Carob Granola

23 Dec

This is a take on Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate and Peanut Granola.  I gave the recipe to my mom this year and she gave them away as presents to her friends at the yoga center.  She wanted to make something that was good, but easy to do as well.

It turned out really good. And because she does not eat chocolate anymore, she added carob powder instead of the cocoa powder.

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CAROB GRANOLA

1/4 cup carob powder
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup sunflower seeds, shelled
3/4 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 cups raw peanuts or raw almonds
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons canola oil
  1. Preheat oven to 310 degrees F.

  2. Mix everything together very well in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Spread the mixture evenly in 2 baking pans and bake for about 1 hour, turning over half-way through baking. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

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