Orange and Blue and Green All Over

I made some seitan from Vegan Diner last night and decided to make Diner Granola (with walnuts and cranberries) while I was at it. So the kids had a bit of granola before I walked Parker to school and then headed out with the younger ones to walk/bus to the co-op.

We brought my BAB (big ass bag) and filled it with kale (okay, there is also chard, two bags of clementines, a bag of apples, a four pound package of tofu, a couple bulbs of garlic, several big red onions, a rutabaga, ginger, bread, Veggie Booty (on sale), several bags of Daiya (sale!), yam and black bean tamales, a bag of local salad mix, and big local carrots, but most of the room was taken up by lots of bunches of two different varieties of kale).

The kids had a little lunch before we headed out again. Josie is crazy about the vegan quiche at the co-op. Today it was greens and onion quiche. Dema had half a vegan breakfast burrito and they both had a snickerdoodle, but they saved most of their cookie to eat with hot cocoa at home. The lovely Illinois weather went from the 50's while I was walking Parker to school to flurries while we waited for the bus after shopping. Thus, I felt a warm beverage was in order. I used a tablespoon of chocolate hemp shake, soy milk, and a bit of cocoa powder for the hot chocolate. The kids used their Sweet and Sara mini marshmallows I bought them for the holidays. It warmed them right up. Then I cooled them off again when Parker came home from school.

I couldn't fit a couple bunches of kale in the refrigerator (they need to make those silly produce bins twice as big) so I cleaned them off and put some in what I will call the Orange and Blue and Green All Over Smoothie. The colors for the university in our town are orange and blue. This means everything is orange and blue so Strawberry Fields has a smoothie made with blueberries and peaches (I don't know what else, but pretty sure just soy milk and maybe banana) called the Orange and Blue. This is our version of it with kale, soy milk, frozen blueberries from a local farmer, frozen peaches, a banana, three tablespoons of ground flax seeds, and a sprinkle of shredded coconut. All organic, of course. The kale originally took up the entire Vitamix container so Dema helped me pack down to get the rest of the stuff in, but the banana stubbornly stuck up over the top anyway. The Vitamix handled it fine and the kids were slurping their smoothies from the glass straws and asking for seconds. Glad I made a bunch! Our friend Jair was over and he took a sip (usually he enjoys the food I offer him), but I think the color was too much for him so Josie drank his.

I chopped up the rest of the kale that wouldn't fit in the refrigerator for soup. I'm on a big Appetite for Reduction kick lately (if you haven't noticed) so it won't come as any surprise that tonight's soup is from this cookbook. Quinoa, White Bean, and Kale Stew was started with one of my favorite kitchen activities

crushing herbs! Josie helped me crush the fennel. There is just something completely gratifying about working with the mortar and pestle.

I was able to use one of my huge local organic carrots I just purchased (these four carrots weighed more than 1.5 pounds).

During the vegan meet-up, Mel and Sue (from the Decatur Vegetarian Society and former and hopefully future guests on FFT) suggested Rachel and I talk about new-to-us produce on the show. I vowed Sunday on air to try out rutabagas. I don't think I've cooked with rutabaga before. It isn't really attractive from the outside.

But it looks kind of cool on the inside. I used the rutabaga in place of the parsnip the recipe called for. I also substituted sweet potatoes for the white potatoes in the recipe (I have yet to find a recipe that isn't improved by this switcheroo). I added a couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast at the end as well.

It was just what the doctor ordered on this cold blustery evening. The taste reminded me of another favorite, Chickpea Noodles Soup from Veganomicon.

I served it with a little local mixed greens salad with walnuts, golden raisins, and some pomegranate seeds from the freezer (I buy them when they are on sale and freeze the arils) and topped it with a little Annie's Naturals Pomegranate Vinaigrette. I don't usually buy salad dressing since it is super easy and much cheaper to make our own, but this was on sale a while back.

With the addition of an organic clementine we scored at the co-op, it was another winning winter dinner.