Forks Over Knives post 11

We did a whole bunch of recipes this last round. I made some more cookies, but the same day I made them, I made two recipes of muffins. If you care to watch us make them, I took a video of us making them. I was thinking about editing it but I'm not quite sure what to use to do that, or how. If anyone has any suggestions, you can leave suggestions in the comments below this post or in the comments section of the Youtube video. https://youtu.be/89GpYOYJAok

Anyway, we made the Ginger Peach muffins on page 287 and the Whole Wheat Berry Muffins from page 289.
Both of them were made without baking powder or baking soda, so were not as light as if that were added, but were really not too bad as far as that goes. I never use vinegar in my breads so I don't even know what that would be added for. Maybe someone can enlighten me on why that is added to baked goods?
The Ginger Peach muffins called for apple cider vinegar, and maybe I should have added it, but I didn't. Plus it called for ground ginger, but I used fresh and maybe that would have changed the flavor some. Anyway, in our opinion, it was a flop as far as taste goes. No-one liked it at all.

The Whole Wheat Berry Muffins were much better, and were only sweetened with maple syrup and the berries. Pretty good, although I could have left them in a few more minutes. The texture was a bit doughy because of that.


I made a pasta dish using macaroni. The recipe on page 154 called for rigatoni, but I didn't want to buy a different pasta when I already had a bunch. This dish was really good. The kids liked it a lot. I think it could have been creamier, but a handful of cashews in the blender with the cauliflower sauce would remedy that really quickly.

Potato Samosa-stuffed Chard (page 200) is a little bit time consuming. It was pretty good, although I could have baked it little longer because I was using cabbage leaves instead of chard. The chard at the store wasn't that great. I bought some chard this week and will try it again. It's sure to be better. The filling was yummy and the kids liked it so thats a plus. In my house, if the kids don't like it, and mom doesn't like it, it doesn't get made again, because it's hard to deal with leftovers when no-one liked it the first time around.

I wasn't planning on making anything for Sabbath, except we had Pathfinder investiture, so I made a double batch of Hummus from page 139. One of my kids hates Tahini which is usually used in many hummus recipes that I've made in the past. However, he loved this one, because it didn't have it in the ingredients. I think it could have used a little more lemon, because I didn't have enough, but it was good anyway.

I almost forgot, earlier in the week we had macaroni with Lentil Ragu taken from page 158, which actually has spaghetti. We still have leftovers of that because I didn't have enough tomatoes and have too many other leftovers from Sabbath to eat.


Anyway, that's all for now. Let me know in the comments about the vinegar in baked goods, and if anyone has any ideas about how to edit my videos before I put them on Youtube, I would much appreciate hearing them!

Forks Over Knives post 10, Lunch foods!

I had huge plans for all kinds of soups and ended up just making 2 partly because I had so much produce I couldn't keep  up and another because half the time I couldn't remember what it was I was going to make. 

We did make creamy asparagus soup. (Page 88) I don't know what was wrong with this soup, except that maybe  I just like the flavor of not overdone asparagus and this soup made it too overcooked. Anyway, no one liked it at all, and I made too much so we froze it all to mix in carefully with other soups.  

I was going to make spinach soup from the same page but had to use up the spinach too quickly before it went bad and forgot to get more. Same thing with the zucchini bisque and the cream of broccoli soup on the next page. I will try again another day. 

Lentil soup with Cauliflower, potatoes, and spinach on page 103 was a definite hit. Pretty sure my kids like lentil soup. This recipe really upped the vegetables though more than my usual lentil soup.  We had almost no leftovers. 

For potluck, I made Chili with Jalapeños and Lime. Page 130. I think I didn't put enough salt but it 

wasn't too spicy, I only put one jalapeño in, instead of the 3 it called for. I think it could have used a bit more cumin and tomato too. But I will try again because it did have a good flavor. 

Also for potluck, I made Macaroni salad from page 142. I thought it was good, but it needed more mayo, mostly because I put in more pasta but didn't add enough mayo to compensate. The mayo recipe used from page 28 was very good and I didn't even  add the vinegar. 

I made Green Chili Rice and beans for lunch this week. Amazingly, Christina loved it and had two bowls, until she hit a piece of jalapeño that didn't get cooked enough in the beans, but otherwise everyone pretty well liked it. It disappeared quickly, so thats a good sign! 

Today we had Vegetable Stir Fry and rice. Page 169. I thing we have made this one before, but thats ok. I really like the chinese brown sauce from page35. Its a healthy yummy addition to homemade chinese food.

Next post, desserts!

Forks over Knives post 9 Breakfast foods!

The last couple weeks have been awesomely busy. With the end of the school year coming up, our Pathfinder club has been playing catchup on honors and classwork. My kids have been double-timing it, so to speak as we come closer to graduation for many of the kids. One son headed off for two weeks with dad in the truck, and the rest of us took the time to make yummy recipes for potluck at church in honor of the mothers.

Last time, I tried the Brown Rice pudding which was very good. This time, I tried the Fruited Barley on p. 53. Only I didn't have any barley, so I used some of the leftover rice and that turned out pretty good. Next time, I will try it with the Barley. I really like the citrus flavor though Jeffrey didn't so much.

Similar to the rice pudding was the Spelt Berry Hot Breakfast Cereal on p. 53. I didn't have spelt, but wheat is similar enough, so I used that. It was also very good. I ended up eating that two days because no one else seems to like eating cooked wheat berries. Oh well. I like it.

The third breakfast item was the stove top granola. Thats on page 42. It was very easy to make, and didn't require any baking but is rather sticky until it cools. I think I forgot to put in the raisins at the end but oh well. It was good. It makes a smaller batch then I usually make when I do regular granola but really isn't time consuming at all, any more than the larger baked versions. I think though, I will probably stick to the baked kind, just because I would rather make more for our larger family.

Finally, the last breakfast items we made were smoothies. Pumpkin Pie smoothie from p. 40 was good on its own, as long as you didn't just eat something slightly sweeter before hand. It is milder in flavor, but would actually make a good pie filling if you thickened it up and left out the ice cubes. The boys poured theirs over their granola. They didn't like it as well as the others, and neither did I. I think it would be better in pie.
Gingerbread smoothie, from page 41, is super yummy! It was more like gingerbread milk than smoothie, but I loved it! John wasn't sure he liked the aftertaste, probably from nutmeg and Sarah thought it was spicy, because of the ginger. I will definitely make that one again, just for me.
Spicy Tropical Green Smoothie would have been spicy and green, except I forgot to get more spinach and didn't put enough cayenne in. But it was good, and everyone liked that one. I couldn't really taste the  coconut water, so I might add coconut flakes to up the flavor, or something.

Next post! Lunch!

Forks Over Knives post 8

Last week, we made White Bean and Mushroom stew, page 117. It was very good! We didn’t have any white beans so I used pintos instead. So far, we like most of the recipes containing beans, but then we love our beans!
We also made Thai Vegetable Soup page 107. I couldn’t find any lemongrass or kaffir lime leaves so i left them out this time. Definitely recommend  less jalapeño if you don’t want it spicy. But this is one of my favorite recipes, as far as flavor.
This week was Creamy Asparagus Soup on page 88. I do not recommend this recipe if you like the flavor of fresh cooked asparagus that isn’t over cooked. The kids and I definitely prefer our Asparagus tender and still green not mush and almost brown.

It wasn’t planned but we did make Minestrone on page 87 using leftovers and that turned out really good too.

The other soup we tried this week was the Singles soup from page 81. That was a very simple soup but had a nice flavor.

For breakfast a couple mornings ago, I made the Brown Rice Pudding from page 51 and Jeffrey, my pickiest eater, has requested that one again. So I will probably make that tomorrow for breakfast.

Anyway, I think that was all for this time! Until next time, eat hearty!