Welcome 2013: A New-Year Worthy Meal

New Year’s Day brings so much freshness and promise. I like to try a new recipe on New Year’s, and this year I made my own version of the Forks Over Knives (FOK) Millet Cakes. I know my photo of this dish doesn’t look that appealing. I often take my blog photos with my iPhone, which is an out-dated 3Gs. To be honest though, the FOK photo didn’t look much better. I think that vegan food can be hard to capture in stills.

After a wonderful, two-week Staycation with The Coastal Living Dad off from work, yesterday was The Coastal Living Baby’s and my first day home alone again. We had a great day, going to the library, walking downtown, playing at the park and with his new toys. One of his new toys is a Duplo set. At 15-months, he’s not yet able to click the pieces together by himself, but he tries. He is able to put the pieces on top of each other with the right side up. What he really enjoyed doing was watching me build a tower of same-sized pieces and then pulling each piece off, one-by-one. I would make the tower in different themed colors (like black and white or red and green) to try and add a small color-matching educational component to the game.

I am excited for what God will bring this year! 2012 was a great year, our first full year with a child. And it amazes me, but my love for The Coastal Living Baby continues to grow and grow. It always feels like I love him more than I ever could, but then several months later, I find that somehow I love him even more.

Curried Ancient-Grain Cakes with Tofu & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Adapted from, Forks Over Knives

Curried Ancient-Grain Cakes

Ingredients:

• 21/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup millet
• 1/4 cup barley
• 1/4 cup quinoa
• 1/4 cup amaranth
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and diced small
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoons mellow white miso, dissolved in ¼ cup hot water
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• Salt to taste
• 1 batch Red Pepper Coriander Sauce (recipe follows)

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Place the water and grains into a rice cooker, or follow the basic instructions on my Vegetarian Cooking Tips page.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, and place the diced onion in a large saucepan and sauté over medium heat for 7 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic, curry powder, and crushed red pepper and cook for another minute. Add the miso, tomato puree, and nutritional yeast, and mix well. Combine with the grains, season with salt, and mix well.

Spray non-stick onto a large baking sheet and using a ¹/4-cup measure, scoop the mixture into round cakes, and bake for 20 minutes.

To serve, spoon some of the Tofu & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce on top of the millet cakes and enjoy.

 Note: Adding all the different grains sounds complicated, but if you routinely eat various types of grains, you will often have several on hand and this will be easy! However, you will want to balance the tougher/chewier grains like amaranth or barley with softer grains like millet or quinoa.

Tofu & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

• 1 package extra firm silken tofu, drained
• 2 large red bell peppers, peeled, roasted and seeded
*
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1/4c fresh kale
• 1 heaped teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• 1x sun-dried tomato, packed in oil (OPTIONAL)

Instructions: 

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and puree until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate in an airtight container until ready to use.

*For instructions on how to roast red bell peppers in the oven, click here.

References:

http://www.forksoverknives.com/curried-millet-cakes-with-red-pepper-coriander-sauce/

http://liveblissful.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/curried-millet-cakes-with-red-pepper-coriander-sauce-mujadara/

http://www.yumsugar.com/How-Roast-Red-Peppers-241907

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