Red Pepper Hummus

I love hummus.  I have been making it for years.  The basic hummus recipe is listed here first.  My husband has been trying fancy hummus recipes because he loves using our new Vitamix.  If you are just making the basic hummus recipe you do not need a fancy mixer, a regular blender will work just fine.

Mike’s Red Pepper hummus. We love hummus in all flavors. © Photo by Florence Ricchiazzi Lince

Ingredients – Basic Hummus

2 1/2 c. garbanzo beans

1/4 c. tahini

3 Tbls lemon juice

2 cloves garlic or 2 tsp. garlic powder

2 Tbls grapeseed oil

Additions

2 roasted and skin removed red peppers

dash of basil

dash of cumin

dash of salt

The basic hummus recipe for me has always been where I play with the amount of garlic I use (love garlic) and to the level of oil I use.  Make the hummus to your taste, that is the key to great hummus.  Some people like more garlic than others, some love more oil.  Hummus should be creamy and spreadable.

If using a Vitamix toss the two roasted red peppers and the spices into the container and mix on low then high for no longer than one minute.  You will have to use your tamper to get the ingredients to pulse but it still will not take long to make.

Place the hummus mixture in a bowl, cover it tightly and refrigerate it no less than one hour before serving.

We use hummus on all types of foods including tacos, as a spread on bagels when making vegetable sandwich’s, on crackers and as a dip for cut up vegetables.  My favorite way is served with warm and lightly toasted pita bread.  Can you say yum!?

None of the recipes I will be sharing have any preservatives in them, or any other agents to make them stay fresher longer.  This is part of why I am vegan, the healthy lifestyle.  This means the hummus should stay fresh for up to one week in your refrigerator.

As always if you try this recipe I hope you will share with me your thoughts and if you have any recipes you think I might enjoy I hope to hear from you.

Florence Lince

http://about.me/leanmeanandvegan

Pepper – Kale Skillet

Experimenting with food and the items one has in their kitchen has always been a fun thing for me.  In fact I find cooking not only relaxing but creative.  It however does not have to be labor intensive nor take hours to make a healthy meal or a good looking dish.

This one skillet dish came about one night while I was looking inside my refrigerator and I honestly just decided to see how it all tasted together.  My husband now asks for this dish at least once a week.

Bright fall colors make this warm skillet recipe pop. © Photo by Florence Ricchiazzi Lince

Ingredients

1 onion, slivered

bell peppers in a variety of colors, seeded and cut into strips

grapeseed oil

pre-cooked brown rice

kale – broken up into bite sized pieces

nut mixture (mine was almonds, cashews, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds)

salt to taste

Directions

Here is where I might begin to make some folks crazy.  Not only do I do most of my cooking without measuring ingredients but I make as much or as little as I want as I go.  My skillet makes enough for four people very nicely.

I began by sauteing the slivered onion and the bell peppers in the grapeseed oil.  I cooked them for about 20 minutes or so until they were all tender.

Then I added in my chopped kale, my pre-cooked brown rice and I let it all cook together until the kale was wilted and the rice had soaked up the oil.  The last thing I threw into the skillet was the nut mixture and then I let it all cook together until the nut mixture was warm, I’d say no longer than five minutes.  Remember to keep stirring or turning over the mixture as its cooking.

There you have it.  All told it took me no longer than 30 minutes to make this dish.  We added salt to our own dishes as warranted.  I don’t tend to cook with a lot of spices while I’m cooking unless the spices will add something to change the taste of the dish.  I also tend to eat less salt this way so that is another reason I don’t pre-salt my foods when cooking.

 A word about the pre-cooked brown rice I used.  I am making my own vegetable soup and I always make enough so that I can use the broth from the soup to make my rice.  I try to keep two cups of cooked brown rice in the refrigerator at all times.  I use this rice in all types of recipes (which I will share more of in the future).  Because the rice is cooked with vegetable broth it brings a really nice flavor to any recipe I make, especially recipes made with vegetables.

If you try this recipe let me know what you think and as always if you have a recipe you think I would enjoy I hope to hear from you.

Florence Lince

http://about.me/leanmeanandvegan

Raw Cashew Cream Cheese

One of the things my husband and I both love is cheese.  We thought that living a vegan lifestyle meant we had to give up cheese.  How wrong we were.

I have eaten the store processed and fake cheese stuff before and I must say it leaves a lot to be desired.  I knew Mike and I would have a hard time in giving up cheese if we had to eat that packaged stuff for long.  Along came our good friend Celeste from Honk If You’re Vegan who gave us not only our first vegan cooking lessons but our first taste of what heaven tastes like for vegan cheese lovers.

You will need a VitaMix for this recipe since you need to cream the cashews.

The secret to this cream cheese – let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. To die for. © Photo by Florence Ricchiazzi Lince

Ingredients

1 tbls. miso (white)

1 c. raw cashews – soaked overnight

1/2 c. coconut – soaked at least one hour

1/2 tsp rice syrup

3 tbls lemon juice

pinch of salt

Directions

Soak the 1 cup of raw cashews overnight in a sealed container.  Soak the coconut at least one hour.  When ready to assemble everything place them in the vitamix in the order seen here.  Pulse on first low and then high until all ingredients are mixed together.  It shouldn’t take any longer than 1 minute.  Place the cheese mixture in a bowl, cover it and place in the refrigerator overnight.

This is the the key aspect of this recipe.  The first thing everyone will want to do is taste the mixture.  However if you let it sit overnight the combination of flavors will have a chance to settle and the sweetness will come right through.  It is hard to eat just a little bit of this.  When we made it we doubled the recipe and I’m glad we did.  We used it on everything from apple slices to a relish tray dip and even spread it on bagels.

This should last up to a week in your refrigerator but it won’t last that long once everyone gets a taste.  We can’t wait to be invited to a party somewhere so that we can make this cheese.  This is a great introduction food to those skeptical about eating vegan.  This recipe would make a convert out of almost anyone.

If you try it let me know what you think, and as always if you have any interesting recipes you think I might enjoy I hope to hear from you.

Florence Lince

http://about.me/leanmeanandvegan

Independent We Stand

As I have already disclosed I am now living life as a political vegan which means I only want to spend my money in local and independently run businesses or farms in my neighborhood, and across America when I travel to someplace new.

To that end and in my quest to find all these local and small businesses I began searching the internet for local businesses to shop in. During my search I found an organization called Independent We Stand. I contacted them and just this past week I interviewed Bill Brunelle, their Director. Contrary to its name this is not a political action group but an advocacy group for independent and small business owners across the United States.

Started by the public relations firm that works for STIHL (one of America’s oldest and most trusted names in outdoor power equipment) Independent We Stand was created to help give small and independent businesses a platform for advertising their existence.

Here is how it works. Using their search engine, or app, you enter your zip code and a search term, such as pizza or book. Using current technology their search engines scourer the internet for local businesses in your area all while weeding out the big box or large chain stores. What you are left with is a list of small, local and independent shops.

Finding those locally owned businesses however is the trick since as Bill informed me 60% of small businesses across the US still do not have a website. Of the 8000 small and indie hardware stores that STIHL works with only 4000 of them even have email. Do those numbers surprise you?

In my quest to find the local business owners in my tri-city area of Thurston County, Washington (Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater) I have come to find out that many business owners do not have a website, do not respond to requests for interviews, do nothing to engage their customers except to post on Facebook, in essence, local and small business owners are so busy trying to make a living and keeping their businesses running that they do not have the time to also work the social media channels. Where this leaves them is off the search engine charts since only the larger corporations tend to rise to the top of any Google search. Independent We Stand is trying to level the playing field.

Photo used by permission.

I am personally making it my mission to visit and chat with as many small business owners as possible and to put their contact information on my blog. I will also be forwarding their information on to Independent We Stand to have them at least added to the database so in case anyone is actually searching for a local business while traveling across the country they can be found.

I now issue everyone reading a challenge. Check out the sight for Independent We Stand; search their database for local businesses in your area, if you cannot find a listing for your favorite pizza parlor, book store, grocery store, hairdresser, and more, fill out the page for Recommend a Business.  IWS will take it from there. They will contact the business owner, verify the business is local and independent and get them added to the search engine.

The larger the database for Independent We Stand, the more we can make small businesses grow and the more we take a stand for being local, shopping local and growing local businesses.

If you take me up on my challenge let me know. We can make a difference in the local economy by shopping in indie stores, by advocating for local businesses and by spending our money to support our local economy.

Florence Lince

http://about.me/leanmeanandvegan