Bread, Pie, Beet salad, Kidney Bean Soup, and VP Update

Join me to catch up on this week's kitchen chaos...

Citrusy Beet Salad

The stars of the show: 

raw beets

carrots

cauliflower (munching as I chopped, of course)

lightly toasted walnuts

The supporting cast: 

a dressing made of shallot, hazelnut oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, reduced OJ, and parsley all blended until smooth

That awesome kidney bean soup I made a while back
The soup:
1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 chopped potato
2 cloves of garlic
4 bay leaves
a scoop of tomato paste
1 teaspoon thyme

Can I just say that it was gone before Tristan got home from work?

Hindsight: too many potatoes.  Other than that--amazing!  I had been thinking about this soup all morning wanting to make it but didn't feel like looking in my archives for the recipe.  Mid-day, I changed out of one sweatshirt and into another for no apparent reason.  Well, in the pocket of the new sweatshirt, there was the jotted down recipe!  Is that insane or what?!?

The bread recipe came from here (if you follow the link it is recipe #12), I made mega rolls because the dough was so sticky.  They were good, but of course they were when made with white flour.

The Bread Remix

But that made me want to try this recipe for a healthier alternative to homemade bread.  I actually changed the recipe and used equal measures of all of the flours.  I also added a flax mixture in the beginning hoping it would bind it but I should have omitted that.  The bread was too "bound".  It tasted like quinoa and not in a good way, but it will be a great addition to dinner for a healthy, protein-rich compliment for soup dippping.  My friend tasted it and said that it's good with Earth Balance but not plain.

The said friend also rated this Butternut Squash Pie as "It's good if you're not expecting Pumpkin Pie", but she said it with hesitation so I'm not sure if I believe she liked it.
So it's not a crowd pleaser, but it's a Stephanie-when-she-wants-to-eat-healthier pleaser.
I like knowing it's from the CSA box, so it was probably picked this week and has retained a lot of nutrients.
How I made it: Pressure cooked half a peeled butternut squash, drained the water, cooked it on medium with cinnamon, ginger powder, clove, nutmeg, and allspice, added some maple syrup and a generous pinch of salt, added a flax egg (1 tbsp flax + 2 tbsp water that has rested together for a few minutes), added cornstarch and brown rice flour, and stirred out the squash chunks.  Poured it into a pie shell and baked at 400 for, oh, 35-40 minutes, and voila!  A pie that you can eat with your hands (yes! it holds together!).  But it ain't pumpkin pie, so if that's what you're looking for, you've come to the wrong place.

What happened to the other side of that butternut squash, you ask?

Baked with the pumpkin pie on 400 for 40ish minutes.  Ooo-la-la.  Ate it with the quinoa bread and some delicious kale that didn't get a photo op.  The kale: lightly sauteed with pine nuts for a couple of minutes, until shiny but not soft, then added a dressing of olive oil, balsamic, 1 garlic clove, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds, and sauteed for another couple of minutes with chopped chard.  It was so good!  My friend complimented it so it must be good : )

I love vegan baking because...
I can make these cookies and save the dough to eat raw with my morning coffee.  (It's the holidays, I'm on vacation from my sugar-free diet--but these are refined sugar free except for the vegan choc chips which can be omitted).

Vegan Project Update
He went to Whole Paycheck, ahem, I mean Whole Foods, yesterday after his bikram yoga class and bought a burrito.  Lo and behold, it was a vegetarian burrito!  Cheese, yes.  But meat, no!  He's excited to have gotten good results on his cholesterol and I think he's gonna try to cut down on meat, though not cut it out completely.  I even hear him bragging to people about his two months of being vegan and how he's vegan at home.  I think he likes the shock value in it because people really don't expect him to be vegan!

If I have any money left over after holiday shopping and paying my 2010 taxes...
I want to get a new camera so I can take my blogging to the next level.  Hey, just putting that out there.  Most of these pictures were taken with my iPhone.

Enjoy your week and if I have any exciting moments in the kitchen this week, I'll be sure to share!