Tag Archives: agave nectar
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Veggie Bites of Wisdom #40

19 Nov

Veggie Bites of Wisdom - KarmaFree Cooking

Easy Veggie and Cashew Stir Fry

27 Jan

I wasn’t going to blog about this… but my friends over Facebook were so excited about the photo and the recipe, that I said “what the heck…”.  If those people who love food loved this recipe, possible you guys will also love it too.

This was something I just put together yesterday for lunch. Nothing planned in advance, unless you count that I started making the rice in my rice cooker since 10:30AM. I always get hungry and never consider making rice because whole grain rice takes about 1 hour to make, and by that time, I would be famished.

I have mentioned to you my love for adding cashews in stir-frys before… and the beauty for making it at home is that you can add as many cashews as you want!!!! Chinese restaurants are always skimping on the cashews even when they charge you extra for them every time.

The secret here… use whatever you have in your fridge… I would have added some bean sprouts, but I didn’t have any. Some spinach would have worked great too instead of the lettuce. I actually used lettuce because I was out of spinach. So work with what you have… the end product will still be delicious!!!

Easy Veggie and Cashew Stir Fry

½ onion – sliced
½ green bell pepper – sliced
6-7 white button mushrooms – quartered
1 small carrot – shredded or peeled into slices with a vegetable peeler
4 romaine lettuce leaves – sliced
½ cup roasted and salted cashews – but this measure is optional. You can add as much cashews as you want…
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup of water
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tbs agave nectar
Olive oil
Salt to taste
  1. In a large skillet, drizzle some olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers. Season with a bit of salt to allow the moisture to drain out of them a bit. Sauté for a few minutes until they start to soften a bit.
  2. Add the carrots and the mushrooms. Mix it all together and continue to cook over medium heat. Add the lettuce or spinach and toss to wilt into the mixture.
  3. Add the cashews to soften a bit and mix together with the flavors of the veggies.
  4. In a separate measuring cup measure the soy sauce, water and mix together with the cornstarch. Add the sauce to the pan and mix it all well.
  5. Drizzle a few turns of the pan of agave nectar and mix it all together. Turn the stove off. The heat in the stove and the pan will thicken the sauce and coat every veggie and cashew.

Serve over brown rice.

This is a very satisfying lunch or dinner without feeling heavy at all.

Strawberry Sorbeto

15 Jul

During my recent trip to Las Vegas I learned the Italian word for sorbet… SORBETO. Kind of funny because in Spanish, or at least here in Puerto Rico, “sorbeto” is what we call a drinking straw.

People at the Yoga Center go crazy for ice creams or frozen desserts of any kind. They’re a nice welcome change from the traditional cake they usually serve. And me, I’m not the cake-lover type. I rather eat a cookie or an ice cream any day before I crave a slice of cake.

So for our Italian Dinner at the Yoga Center I was asked to help out, specifically with desserts… who doesn’t like ice creams, no?? But to make it easy on me I decided to make a very traditional and natural SORBETO. I made a HUGE batch of this, but let’s just scale it down as if I was making it for a dinner party at home…

STRAWBERRY SORBETO

4 cups frozen strawberries
4 tbs of agave nectar

Yep… that’s it. 2 ingredients. That’s why its soooooo good.

  1. Cut the strawberries in quarters, it’ll be easier for the food processor to puree them. Place the cut strawberries in a food processor as you cut them.
  2. Drizzle the agave nectar over the cut berries.
  3. Pulse a few times to get the berries going. Process until the berries turn into a slushy puree. Transfer to a glass or plastic container and freeze until ready to serve.

 

This is soooo refreshing on a hot Summer afternoon…

Acid Fruits Salad 2

5 Jul

It’s summertime… and coming out of a retreat where I have not eaten cooked foods for the last 6 days, I am still not ready to cook anything complicated again. Although, I would eat anything and everything being from the latest Vegetarian Times Magazine issue… no kidding.

I never have the time or energy to make a fruit salad just for me…  I always mean to eat fruit salads for breakfast, yet I only get to really do this when I travel.  I usually make do with making myself fruit smoothies. But yesterday, we raided Costco and got a variety of fresh fruits – peaches, strawberries, blueberries and green seedless grapes.

A nice fruit salad for breakfast was exactly what my stomach was craving.  So I have to take a chance while the fruits are fresh and in season, no??

 

ACID FRUIT SALAD 2

1 peach
1 strawberry
A handful of blueberries
About 10 grapes
A squirt of agave nectar
  1. Clean well all the fruits and peel them if you prefer. I peeled the peach…
  2. Mix them all together in a nice pretty bowl and drizzle the agave nectar on top.

 

Ricotta and Berries

10 Jun

My favorite breakfasts include fruits… especially now that we’re starting summer and the berries are all in season.

Last week we spent a few days at my sister’s home and I love going to the farmer’s market to get a bunch of berries to serve at breakfast. But eating strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries on their own may seem to you a little boring. Why not mix them up with a little cheese??

Italians use ricotta cheese in both savory and sweet dishes… morning, noon and night. So taking a little inspiration from the land of the mammas, here’s my latest breakfast concoction.

RICOTTA AND BERRIES

Mix your favorite fresh berries – strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, sometimes you could even add grape tomatoes. Hey, they’re berries too!!
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 tbs agave nectar, plus more to drizzle on top
  1. Mix in a bowl the ricotta cheese and the agave nectar to give it some sweetness.
  2. Add your favorite mix of berries.
  3. Drizzle some additional agave nectar on top.

 

It’s creamy and tangy at the same time… you could also use honey if you prefer instead of the agave nectar.

Berries and Tomatoes... go well together!!!