Vegan Mofo is coming!

Hey all you Zoey fans!

Baby Zoey has been keeping me on my toes but I wanted to post and say that Vegan Mofo is going to be in November this year in case you are interested in participating. I will post more information as the event gets closer and I will be posting quite a bit in the month of November.

Baby Zoey is getting big. Her favorite foods so far are green smoothies with kale or spinach, collard greens with butternut squash, black beans, bananas and avocados. We have gotten into a bit of a cooking rut so I am hoping that Vegan Mofo will help inspire me to be more creative. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still here!

Going Green!

In an effort to further improve my health and explore new foods I have decided to go green for the month of March!

Ok, the truth is that I was watching Dr. Oz and there was a woman on the show who had cured her cancer in part by eating blended leafy greens every day (and eliminating all animal protein from her diet). The part that impressed me was not that she had cured her cancer but that she looked AMAZING. She was glowing and looked about 10 years younger than her picture before she had cancer. I don't think this was makeup folks, this was the real deal.

So I decided in that moment that I would create a little challenge for myself. I do love kale green smoothies but I don't eat them as often as I would like. And, since Mr. Zoey loves them too, I rarely get to eat the entire bunch of kale.

So.. for the month of March I am committing to eating at least 1 bunch of leafy greens every day. If baby Zoey takes some naps I will share pictures here!

I picked up the little bunch of chard in the top picture at the local farmers market last weekend. I ended up steaming it for a couple minutes because that is all I know to do with shard but I kind of wish I had eaten the whole bunch raw. I snacked on a few pieces while I was waiting for the water to boil and it was really good. Unfortunately I can't find bunches of little leaves like that anywhere in stores. Hopefully I will be able to find them again next weekend!

Zoey Zoey Do, Where are you?

That's how Zoey's Kitchen feels to me these days. (That was my sad attempt at the Scooby Doo theme song- in case that only plays in my head). I'm still eating, and Zoey still exists but somehow the whole cooking thing has fallen through the cracks recently. My diet has become essentially the elimination diet and while that seems to be helping baby Zoey's skin, it isn't much to photograph.

I have even taken some pictures of my gluten-free creations, but for some reason the work to upload them and blog about them seems overwhelming and sad because most of them use tomatoes, or corn or chickpeas and all of those are off limits to me right now. So I haven't. And I am trying to decide what to do with this blog.

One of the blogs I really enjoy reading just closed up shop a few weeks ago. I am not ready to throw in the towel on Zoey's Kitchen yet but I am thinking about either allowing myself to post less or allowing myself to post about things other than food. I am sort of on the fence.

I started this blog because I was exploring a new way of eating (The McDougall Plan) and I thought that blogging about food would keep me on my toes and trying new things. It worked and now the plan seems easy to follow. My health has improved and even Mr. Zoey has jumped on board. I would embrace the same theory with my elimination diet, but you really can only take so many pictures of beans and rice.

So anyway, that's the scoop. I'm still here and baby Zoey is getting big. Regular Zoey is getting big too (we refer to it as her sympathy pregnancy weight). Her best trick these days is to bite my toes any time that baby Zoey cries. She's a good helper :)

Gluten- Free Oats

Things are looking up!

I have the oats set to cook for 3 hours on high in my trusty slow cooker so that they will be ready in the morning. Here's hoping they turn out well!

Zoey's Kitchen - Special Gluten Free Edition!

Greetings everyone!

Things have been pretty boring in Zoey's Kitchen lately and even when we have tried new recipes I haven't had the energy to photograph them.

We had some family visit and that was wonderful. Everyone loves seeing baby Zoey (and Zoey herself) and I think that baby Zoey loves all the activity.

Unfortunately baby Zoey has started getting a rash. We took her to the doctor today and the doctor thinks that she may have some skin eczema (ugh). He said that often eczema is the result of a dietary allergy and asked about baby's Zoey diet. Well, since baby Zoey is breastfed we ended up talking about me.

Turns out our pediatrician recommends the China Study diet to all his patients (pretty cool, huh?) so once he knew that I try to follow that diet already milk and eggs were out as possible causes.

** This is an aside, but I have found it pretty interesting that whenever there is an issue with a baby, doctors and lactation consultants tell you to cut out dairy. Even my neighbor who LOVES dairy and eats all sorts of animals came over to talk to me and suggested that I cut dairy out of my diet even though that is super hard to do <-- her words, not mine. **

Anyway, it went something like this:

milk? No
eggs? No
nuts? Very rarely
wheat gluten? *cringe* Yes, lots of wheat. Sprouted bread toasted is my go-to snack these days. I am a big fan of all things grain so there is definitely plenty of it in my diet. Or should I say- there WAS plenty of it in my diet.

Just for fun (and for baby Zoey's health) I am going to stop the gluten for now. My doctor asked if I was willing to give it a try and I was all over it. He said that it would be very restrictive but that I was probably used to that already. (Am I the only vegan who doesn't think that my diet is restrictive? If anything I think I eat much healthier and have more variety now than at any other time in my life).

I can still eat all the beans, rice, vegetables and fruits I want. And maybe quinoa- I need to look that one up. I can live without bread so don't expect any crazy gluten-free baking going on around here. If you have any tips for gluten-free eating I would love to hear them.

And while I do hope that baby Zoey's rash heals up quickly, I hope that wheat isn't the culprit because the truth is... I really will miss oatmeal.

Sweet Potato Rounds

Good News Everyone!

The last of my pregnancy aversions has gone away and I can now enjoy the delicious and nutritious sweet potato! I was a little nervous when Mr. Zoey brought home a 10 pound box of sweet potatoes from Costco last weekend because it was about a year ago that we bought an identical box, only to find out that I was pregnant and totally unable to tolerate all things sweet potato.

Anyway, our 10 pound box sat on the table for about 2 days with Mr. Zoey asking me to "research" sweet potato recipes and me stalling because I was afraid of what cruel fate the sweet potatoes might still have in store for me. So, as with most of the cooking these days, he finally took matters into his own hands and created these delicious sweet potato rounds.

These are super easy and super yummy and worth trying since sweet potatoes are in season right now. I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that our box is already almost half empty.

Sweet Potato Rounds

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato/ yam

Directions:

1. Slice sweet potato into rounds and place on a baking sheet (no oil needed)
2. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes
3. Flip the rounds over and bake an additional 7 minutes
4. Enjoy with ketchup or your favorite dipping sauce.

More Kale Green Smoothies Please!

My mom asked me for my kale green smoothie recipe the other day and I told her that I thought it was on Zoey's Kitchen. We figured out pretty quickly that I am not using that recipe any more, so I thought it was time for an update- especially since I am in love with kale again.

Yes, kale and I had a brief period of separation during my pregnancy but things are looking up (which is perfect timing since kale is getting GREAT this time of year)

So here is what I do:

Kale Green Smoothie

Ingredients

Kale (as much as you can fit in your blender- see picture above)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 1/2 cups of water
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
Splash of oatmilk or soymilk (optional)

Directions

1. Add everything to the blender and blend!

You will get 2 glasses this size:



Tonight Mr. Zoey and I each got a glass but when I make these during the day I drink both glasses (yum!) I usually drink one glass in the morning and another in the afternoon.

Of course, this habit has me going through 1-2 bunches of kale from Whole Foods a day but if we get our kale at the farmers market the bunches are big enough to last for 3 days. I am considering growing our own kale out on the deck- but tonight Mr. Zoey told me "there is no way we will be able to grow enough kale for our smoothies". I know he is right, but I still might give it a try!

** If you are new to green smoothies here is a trick that we used to get started: Don't start out filling your blender with kale- just add 1-2 kale leaves to a fruit smoothie blend that you already enjoy. Each time you make a smoothie add and extra piece of kale. I read once that a great way to start is to have 20% greens and 80% fruit. You slowly adjust your ratio until you are blending 80% greens and 20% fruit. Your tastes do adjust over time and you will probably find yourself thinking that these smoothies are delicious! **

Delicata Squash

What's this Zoey? Did your dad bring home a new kind of squash?

Mr. Zoey has stepped it up and in addition to cooking, he is also doing the bulk of random grocery shopping for now. Tonight he brought home this squash to try out. Neither of us knew what to do with it, so we decided to microwave it as if it was an acorn squash.

As an aside I should mention that we are in an acorn squash frenzy at our house. We are splitting one every night. Mr. Zoey requires that we keep 10 acorn squashes on our kitchen counter at all times and has been constantly replacing our stash at farmers markets.

Why 10 squashes? Apparently that way when the squash season ends and we can't get good squashes at the farmers market, we can still enjoy squash for 10 more days. Well, there is no argument against that, I do love a good acorn squash.

But back to the task at hand. We cut the squash in half and microwaved it for 10 minutes to create this:


Well, 2 of these to be precise. It was pretty tasty because it tasted exactly like acorn squash! It is fun to try new things but for now I think we will stick with acorn squash since we can get them for 50 cents near our house.

I might get adventurous and pick up some new types of squash since this experiment went well. Are there any types of squashes we should specifically try while they are in season?

Twice Baked Potatoes

I haven't had many twice baked potatoes in my life but I have always been fond of them. Unfortunately for me now, I think they are traditionally full of cheese and not so healthy. I have been wanting to make a healthy version for awhile now and so I finally decided to just give it a try.

My recipe was based loosely on the recipe in Vegan Vittles. I picked up a copy of that cookbook from the library but I don't think I will make anything else from it. Many of the recipes were fake-meat heavy and that isn't how we roll here in Zoey's Kitchen.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 baking potato
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 sprinkle of garlic powder
1 sprinkle of black pepper
1/4 cup plain non-dairy milk
1 sprinkle of paprika (optional)

Directions:

1. Prick the potato with a fork and bake in the oven for about 1 hour at 350 degrees. (I made big slices with a knife and this backfired- learn from my mistakes and use a fork)

2. Remove the potato from the oven and slice in half.

3. Carefully scoop out the inside of the potato into a bowl.

4. Add all ingredients except the paprika to the potato insides and start mashing/ mixing.

5. Scoop the mixture back into the potato shells and sprinkle with paprika (if using)

6. Bake the potatoes at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

7. At the end, you can turn the broiler on for a few minutes for a crispier potato top.

8. Enjoy! It tasted a lot like garlic mashed potatoes inside a potato shell which was pretty great in my book.

I made these in part to share with Mr. Zoey when he got home from work yesterday. I asked him which half he wanted and he told me that he doesn't like twice baked potatoes. Has he ever had them? No.

Whatever, that means more for me. As I was eating, he asked for a taste and told me that he thought it was okay. But then, tonight at Whole Foods he added two baked potatoes to our basket and asked if it was possible to double the recipe I made so that he could have a whole potato next time. I think that means he liked it!

Pumpkin!

As promised, Zoey and I roasted a pumpkin! I didn't get many pictures because I decided to roast the pumpkin at 10pm and I was already a little tired.

Here's what we did:

1. Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds for later roasting (yum).
2. Place the pumpkin face down on a baking sheet with some water.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.
4. Open the oven and see this:


5. Scoop the pumpkin out and blend in a food processor.
6. Bake pumpkin oatmeal cookies!

I am pretty sure that I can freeze the leftover pumpkin but I am not quite sure how to do that yet so it is in my fridge. I am guessing that one pumpkin made about as much pumpkin mush as 2 cans of pumpkin. So at $4.00 a pumpkin I am about breaking even. Except, the money went to a local farm near my house and I don't have to dispose of 2 cans.

Overall, a success! I am not sure if the fresh pumpkin made the cookies any better because they are already the best treat ever in my mind. This new batch was equally as amazing.

So there you have it- we roasted our own pumpkin this year and I will probably pick up some more at the farm this weekend. I have heard that I can also use butternut squash to make "pumpkin puree" and I may try that since the butternut squashes are only $1.00 right now.

If you have any tips on how to freeze this puree, leave me a comment!