Higher-Fat Recipes

These are recipes that include higher-fat ingredients such as nuts and avocados and therefore contain more than 15% calories from fat. See individual recipes for exact number of fat grams.

Simple Scrambled Tofu and Kale with Sweet Potato Fries

February 6, 2012
Simple Scrambled Tofu and Kale with Sweet Potato Fries

I’ve long relied on soups as a way to cram as many vegetables as I can into my family’s diet, but the truth is, my daughter prefers to eat her leafy greens mixed into one of her two favorite foods: lasagna and tofu. Lasagna will always be her first choice, but for a super-quick meal [...]

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Chocolate Chia Pudding and Other Sugar-Free, Flour-Free Desserts

January 23, 2012
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I come from a long line of dessert lovers. When I was growing up, my family ate dessert every night after dinner, and my parents still end each day with a bowl of ice cream (though my mother opts for an artificially sweetened one now). It’s a hard habit to break and one I’m afraid [...]

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Hidden Cashew Ranch Dressing Plus Tips for Eating Salads When You Really Don’t Want To

January 8, 2012
Hidden Cashew Ranch Dressing

We’ve all been there. You’re trying to eat more greens but you just can’t face another lunchtime salad. Maybe it’s because of the prep involved, maybe it’s because it feels like the North Pole outside, or maybe it’s because you’re just sick and tired of chomping your way through a big bowl of raw veggies. [...]

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Chocolate-Almond Nuggets of Joy

November 1, 2011
Halloween Joy

I didn’t intend to post a recipe today, but my daughter and I had so much fun making these natural “Fauxmond Joy” candies that I couldn’t resist sharing them with you. The photos are Halloweenish because yesterday was Halloween (I’m always behind the times), but the treats are good any time of the year. Before [...]

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Colleen’s Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Sauce

October 11, 2011
Colleen's Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Sauce

I was a vegetarian for six years before I became a vegan, and before I made the change, I thought that being vegan was just more than I was able to do. I had been inspired by Diet for a New America when I first became vegetarian, and though I agreed with the ethics of [...]

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Bryanna’s Low-Fat Veggie “Guacamole”

September 26, 2011
Bryanna's Low-Fat Veggie Guacamole

In my den, two bookcases sag under the weight of the dozens of cookbooks I’ve managed to cram into them. Cookbooks spill out onto the neighboring coffee table, line the counter between kitchen and den, and form heaps around my bed. Sometimes I read them like novels, the sidebars and stories especially, and sometimes I [...]

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Thai Salad with Slow-Cooked Tofu in Pineapple Barbecue Sauce

September 12, 2011
Thai Barbecue Salad

One of the highlights of my trip to Portland happened after Vida Vegan Con was over. That Sunday night, I got to meet my friend and long-time reader Maria, whom many of you know from the comments as Moonwatcher. Maria traveled ten hours to visit her son in Portland and timed her trip so that [...]

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Kale Mallung (Sri Lankan Kale with Coconut)

August 17, 2011
Kale Mallung

On vacation this summer, my family and I had the pleasure of eating at Source, a vegetarian restaurant that opened in San Francisco earlier this year. The entire meal was delicious: E had the lasagna, of course, and I had a chickpea-stuffed rice pastry called Borek. But the the stand-out was the special of the [...]

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Low-Fat Tahini-Chickpea Dressing

August 8, 2011
Low-Fat Tahini-Chickpea Salad Dressing

Today’s recipe is brought to you by the letter D… not D for “dressing” but D as in my husband D, who can’t get enough of this dressing. He’s been pouring it on salads and drizzling it on sandwiches ever since I made it for the first time (we’re now on our second batch). I [...]

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Cashew Carrot Salad

July 31, 2011
Cashew Carrot Salad

I’ve discovered a salad that my daughter will gobble up like candy. In fact, she eats so much of it that she’s almost in danger of turning orange! I’m talking, of course, about good, old-fashioned carrot salad–but with a few updates and improvements.

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Vegan Zucchini Frittata

June 7, 2011
Zucchini Frittata

When I was living on my own for the first time, a friend’s mom gave me a battered, 1960′s edition of The Joy of Cooking, and for the next year I taught myself to cook by following its often dated but always instructive recipes. I was particularly fascinated by the chapter called “Eggs, Souffles and [...]

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Cosmic Cashew Kale and Chickpeas with Confetti Quinoa

May 27, 2011
Cosmic Cashew Kale and Chickpeas with Confetti Quinoa

My daughter E graduated from middle school on Monday, so she’s officially a high schooler now. Yes, a high schooler. Those of you who picture her as she appeared in her first photo on this blog can perhaps appreciate how strange it feels to look at her and see both that nine-year-old girl and the [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Curry-Scrambled Tofu

May 19, 2011
Ridiculously Easy Curry-Scrambled Tofu

For years, the only scrambled tofu I ever made required a seasoning packet called Tofu Scrambler. I loved that product. It had just the right blend of seasonings and thickeners to conjure some magical response out of the blandness that is bean curd and turn it into what I considered the perfect breakfast. The idea [...]

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Green Curry Tofu Cakes

May 9, 2011
Green Curry Tofu Cakes

If you made my last recipe, I know you have a jar of Thai green curry paste somewhere in your fridge, although you could have done the wise thing and stored it in your freezer. But, if you’re like me, you always believe you’re going to be using it right away, so you keep it [...]

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Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and Tofu

April 28, 2011
Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and Tofu

I’m not one of those food snobs who think that absolutely everything I cook has to be made from scratch. Though I believe that the results are usually better (and more nutritious) when all the ingredients are homemade, I’m not above using packaged ingredients, such as vegetable broth or canned beans, when the ingredients aren’t [...]

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Gluten-Free King Cake Cookies (Cinnamon-Pecan Cookies)

January 20, 2011
Gluten-Free King Cake Cookies (Cinnamon-Pecan Cookies)

Mardi Gras season officially began on January 6, and though the parades don’t start to roll in New Orleans until mid-February, I already have Mardi Gras–or more specifically King Cake–on my mind.  I haven’t had a piece of King Cake in years, but that doesn’t stop me from craving the sugar-laden, gaudy confection.  Even more [...]

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Thanksgiving Meatless Loaf

November 17, 2010
Thanksgiving Meatless Loaf

This is not your mama’s meatloaf.  This is not even your mama’s seitan loaf, tofu turkey, or nut roast.  It doesn’t taste like meat.  It doesn’t even pretend to have the texture of meat. But if you like savory, Thanksgiving flavors so concentrated that you can just skip the gravy and dressing, you will want [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Vegan Buttermilk Salad Dressing

October 5, 2010
Ridiculously Easy Vegan Buttermilk Salad Dressing

The question I get asked most by people who are just beginning to follow an oil-free diet is “If you don’t use oil, what do you put on your salad?”  Frankly, getting used to salads without olive oil can be difficult, though I do believe you can train your taste buds to enjoy salads without [...]

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Bok Choy and Baked Tofu Stir-Fry in Ginger-Citrus Sauce

September 29, 2010
Bok Choy and Tofu Stir-Fry with Ginger-Citrus Sauce

I love baby bok choy.  With its crisp, light green stalk and its leafy dark green top, it’s almost like two vegetables.  The leafy parts cook in seconds, so I always separate them from the bottom halves as I slice them and toss them in at the end of cooking to retain their bright green [...]

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Basic Low-Fat Coleslaw

August 16, 2010
Basic Low-Fat Coleslaw

There’s been a surprising development in the V family kitchen.  My daughter E has actually been asking for coleslaw, a food she used to have to be bribed to eat.  This phenomenon began after I stopped buying bagged coleslaw and starting using fresh heads of cabbage.  I could say that E likes the fresher taste [...]

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Cucumber Hummus

August 12, 2010
Cucumber Hummus Recipe

Monday afternoon I got back from vacation with a suitcase full of dirty laundry, four camera cards full of photos, and an injured hand and rib.  The short story on the injuries is that after tiptoeing around for a week on Maine’s rocky shorelines and mountainsides, terrified I’d either break an ankle or wind up [...]

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Israeli Couscous Summer Pilaf

July 7, 2010
Israeli Couscous Summer Pilaf

I’m thrilled to introduce my guest blogger today: the talented writer and artist–and just one of the nicest people I know–Nava Atlas.  Nava’s cookbooks, from the classic Vegetariana to the more recent Vegan Express and Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, are known for fresh, inventive recipes that are as easy as they [...]

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Roasted Eggplant Pesto

June 30, 2010
Roasted Eggplant Pesto

This week on the FatFreeVegan Facebook page, I’ve been offering my suggestions for Fourth of July dishes–salads that transport well, veggie burgers you can make ahead and heat on the grill, etc.  You can add a pasta salad tossed with this aromatic pesto to the list of foods you can bring and that everyone–vegan and [...]

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Banana-Cashew Balls

June 4, 2010
Banana-Cashew Balls

Summer’s here, and my daughter is spending large parts of her days swimming instead of sitting in a classroom.  E’s on two swim teams, one that practices first thing in the morning and another that practices late in the afternoon.  During the middle of the day, she’s constantly in the kitchen trying to replace the [...]

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Roasted Asparagus Soup

May 11, 2010
Roasted Asparagus Soup

My Vita-Mix* is making me a lazy cook.  When I have extra produce that I need to use up, do I scour the internet (aka “my favorite cookbook”) for a novel way to cook it?  No, I just toss it into my turbo-charged blender and process it until it’s as creamy as, well, cream, as [...]

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Thai-Inspired Chickpea Salad

April 18, 2010
Thai-Inspired Chickpea Salad

A couple of days ago, I set up a little game.  I gave you 5 ingredients (tamarind concentrate, green onions, red bell pepper, and jalapeno pepper) and asked you to identify which one of my old recipes I was using as the basis for a new recipe. The trick: The old recipe used only 4 [...]

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Tortilla Soup with Pinto Beans

February 25, 2010
Tortilla Soup with Pinto Beans

I’m coming up for air. I’ve spent the past couple of days working on the redesign of Fatfree Vegan Recipes, the website that spawned this blog. Although the really tricky stuff like coding and css and, for all I know, nuclear particle acceleration was done by a very talented web designer at E. Webscapes, I’ve [...]

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Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole

December 28, 2009
Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole

There are certain recipes that fall into a category I call “Louisiana Church Potluck Dishes.” These are dishes that I grew up eating regularly because they were staples at the monthly “Family Night Suppers” at the church of my youth. I remember sampling delicacies like baked cushaw, mirliton supreme, and eggplant casserole without knowing what [...]

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Stir-fried Tofu and Vegetables with Miso Sauce

November 2, 2009
Stir-fried Tofu and Vegetables with Miso Sauce

I don’t post a lot of stir-fry recipes because, as I’ve mentioned before, I tend to make them by feel, adding whatever amounts of vegetables and sauce feel right. Since I usually use the same basic ingredients, most of my stir-fries taste about the same. But not this one. Adding a miso-based sauce to my [...]

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Roasted Beet-Tofu Burgers

September 21, 2009
Roasted Beet-Tofu Burgers

High Noon Café, the only vegetarian restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi, where I live, serves the most unusual veggie burgers, bright red with beets and soft in texture from the tofu. The first time my husband recommended I try one, I was afraid to order it, but once his burger came, I couldn’t resist sampling it. [...]

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Chipotle Barbecued Tofu

September 14, 2009
Chipotle Barbecued Tofu

I love barbecue, but I have to admit that I don’t always take the time to make my own sauce. The bottled stuff is so quick and easy, though I have yet to find a brand that I really like. I may stop using bottled barbecue sauce completely, however, after concocting this zesty new recipe. [...]

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Creamy Zucchini and Basil Soup

September 10, 2009
Creamy Zucchini and Basil Soup

While I personally didn’t manage to coax a single squash out of my insect-infested garden this summer, some of you are lucky enough to be reaping in piles of the stuff. So the zucchini part of this recipe is for you. The basil part of it is for me: next to okra, it’s the most [...]

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Korean-Style Cucumber and Edamame Salad

July 30, 2009
Korean-Style Cucumber and Edamame Salad

This summer’s weird, split-personality weather—first hot and dry and now hot and rainy—has wreaked havoc on most of the plants in my garden. The high heat in early summer kept my tomato plants from setting many fruits, and then when the few tomatoes that had formed were beginning to ripen, the sudden rain caused them [...]

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Raw Corn and Black Bean Salad with Avocado

July 17, 2009
Raw Corn and Black Bean Salad with Avocado

Ever had corn so fresh that you were tempted to take a bite out of it, raw, and see what it tasted like? Recently I brought home some fresh, organically-grown corn and decided to do just that. I took a little nibble and it tasted good, a little starchier than I expected, but sweet and [...]

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E’s Samosa Wraps

June 23, 2009
Samosa Wraps

Like a lot of 12-year olds, my daughter E is hesitant to try new foods—and when I say hesitant, I mean she has to be bribed, threatened, or otherwise coerced into trying them. So when I recently picked up a couple of Amy’s Samosa Wraps because they were on sale, I hoped to get her [...]

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Artichoke Tapenade

April 22, 2009
Artichoke Tapendae

When D and I got married, 13 years ago next month, we did the catering for our wedding ourselves. Now before you go and get all impressed, I have to point out that it was a small wedding, around 45 close friends and family, and the menu consisted of finger foods and pasta salad. Neither [...]

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No-Queso Quesadillas

March 5, 2009
Thumbnail image for No-Queso Quesadillas

I got a craving for quesadillas after seeing a recipe for them in the current Vegetarian Times—which is odd because I don’t think I’ve ever had a quesadilla. Like a lot of popular foods (buffalo wings is another that comes to mind), quesadillas didn’t come on the scene until after I’d become a vegan. So [...]

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Tofu, Tempeh, and Butternut Squash in Slow-Cooked Peanut Mole

February 17, 2009
Peanut Mole

“It’s spicy and sweet and peanutty all at the same time.” From some people, including me, that would be a hearty endorsement, but those were the words my daughter used to express her dislike for this dish. “It’s just weird,” she continued, handing her plate to her father to finish. “It’s complex,” I countered, but [...]

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Seitan Scaloppine with Lemon-Olive Sauce

January 17, 2009
Seitan Scaloppine

People sometimes ask me if I miss meat. I don’t. After being a vegetarian for almost 21 years, I don’t find the look or smell of meat appealing in the least. What I do miss, a little, are some of the creative ways of cooking a big ol’ slice of something in sauce. Often I’ll [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Grilled Romaine Salad

January 13, 2009
Ridiculously Easy Grilled Romaine Salad

Call me picky but I just don’t like romaine lettuce. Something about its crunchiness (I like iceberg even less) and bitter taste just turns me off. I’ll use it in a salad if I can hide it among a lot of loose salad greens and spinach, but I just can’t eat it on its own. [...]

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Sweet Potato Falafel with Yogurt-Tahini Sauce

January 4, 2009
Sweet Potato Falafel

I don’t exactly know how I came to have about a dozen sweet potatoes in my pantry. I seem to remember buying a few for a casserole that I never got around to making, but I’m not quite sure how the others got there. My secret suspicion is that while behind closed doors, they’re multiplying [...]

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Lower-Fat Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

December 23, 2008
Lower-Fat Peanut Butter Cookies

Every year around the holidays, I like to post a recipe (or two) that’s a little higher in fat than my normal fare. Last year it was Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake and the year before it was Eggnog Cheesecake. This year I’m departing from the cheesecake theme to bring you a treat that’s higher in [...]

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Thai Seitan on Lemongrass Skewers

December 6, 2008
Thai Seitan

For a dish with two strikes against it, this came out tasting surprisingly good. Strike one: Lemongrass was never meant to hold the weight of cooked wheat gluten. Strike two: They look like wieners on sticks. I had high hopes for this recipe, though I will admit that my main hope was very superficial: I [...]

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Scrambled Tofu with Porcini Mushrooms

November 4, 2008
Scrambled Tofu with Porcini Mushrooms

Scrambled tofu is one of my family’s favorite breakfasts, but I think we enjoy it even more for dinner. There’s something comforting about coming home at the end of a long Autumn day to a plate piled high with scrambled tofu, toast, and possibly some creamy grits and vegan sausage. It’s the kind of soothing [...]

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Pumpkin Cookies

October 30, 2008
Pumpkin Cookies

What I love most about sharing recipes online is the conversation that follows, when readers share their tips and variations. I’m constantly getting ideas from you: ingredients I haven’t tried, short-cuts that make a recipe faster, substitutions I’ve never thought of. Case in point, this email I received earlier this week from Emily Findley in [...]

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Spooky Black Bean Hummus

October 25, 2008
Spooky Black Bean Hummus

I have two standard Halloween recipes in my, ahhem, repertoire. One of them involves baking the equivalent of a 4-layer chocolate cake in the shape of a pumpkin; it contains a gazillion calories and takes most of an afternoon to make. As you can probably guess, I don’t make that one very often. When I [...]

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Tofu with Lobster Mushrooms in Ginger Broth

October 6, 2008

Some tourists visit places of scenic beauty, others seek out man-made wonders like cathedrals and museums, but when I travel, I look for… grocery stores! Okay, that’s not strictly true. I tend to start with the scenic spots, take in a man-made wonder if it’s nearby, and then, if time allows, head for a grocery [...]

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Roasted Eggplant-Almond Dip

August 15, 2008
Roasted Eggplant-Almond Dip

I’d like to take all the credit for this interesting version of eggplant dip, but I can’t; it’s minimally adapted from Paul Gayler’s A Passion for Vegetables where its called Bhurtho (Smoked Eggplant Dip). From the name he gives it, I suspect Gayler was going for an Indian-style dish, yet the almonds and the lack [...]

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Blackberry-Lime Tartlets

July 26, 2008
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Can we talk about the weather? I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here in central Mississippi it’s officially sweltering. I was just out watering the garden and between the heat and the clouds of hungry mosquitoes, I couldn’t get inside fast enough. In this heat, I don’t really feel like doing [...]

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Polenta and Tofu Skillet

July 20, 2008

When Nava Atlas wrote to me a couple of years ago and asked if I’d consider taking the photos for her new book, Vegan Express, I recognized it as a unique opportunity to expand my photography skills and have my photos published in an actual book–a chance that wasn’t likely to ever come along again. [...]

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Golden Potato and Tempeh Casserole

July 12, 2008
Golden Potato and Tempeh Casserole

Does anybody make casseroles anymore? I’ll be the first to admit that just the sound of the word is enough to give me flashbacks to the potato chip-sprinkled, tuna and cream of mushroom soup concoctions that were so popular when I was growing up. They were enough to drive a kid to vegetarianism, which, now [...]

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Spicy Roasted Eggplant Spread

June 18, 2008
Spicy Roasted Eggplant Spread

Middle East meets Southwest in this wrap I concocted on the spur of the moment last night. I’d thrown an eggplant into the toaster oven to roast, intending to make my standard baba ganoush, but just before it was done I realized that I was all out of pita bread. Since our hearts were set [...]

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Tofu and Vegetables with Lower-Fat Thai Peanut Sauce

June 5, 2008
Tofu and Vegetables with Lower-Fat Thai Peanut Sauce

We were in Phoenix our last night in Arizona and really should have eaten at Green. We’d planned to, actually, but after D and I made the executive decision to eat lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant, E complained that we never let her decide where to eat. So, reluctantly–and playing up Green’s great qualities–I presented [...]

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Pistachio Crusted Tofu

May 19, 2008
Pistachio-Crusted Tofu

After looking for them for months, I finally managed to find a 1-pound bag of shelled, unroasted pistachios at the Indian grocery. Of course, after all that time I’d forgotten what it was I planned to do with them, so they’ve been languishing in my fridge for a couple of weeks, tempting me to open [...]

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Spinach-Matzo Pie

April 24, 2008
Spinach-Matzo Pie

When I saw the Spinach and Matzo Pie recipe in this month’s Gourmet, I thought, “Wow, an easier way to make a spinach pie! No fooling with thin sheets of phyllo, just lay down some matzos instead.” I figured it’d be a snap to take my Spinach and Artichoke Pie and just substitute matzos for [...]

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Cherry-Chocolate Mousse Pie

April 16, 2008
Cherry-Chocolate Mousse Pie

E had a wonderful birthday yesterday and appreciated all of your comments. She spent the afternoon playing with her new basketball goal, the present that she asked for and got early because it took D and me two weekends to put it together. After eating the dinner she requested (Mac and Cheese), she opened her [...]

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Korean Noodle Stirfry

March 7, 2008

I’m always saying that I love Korean food, but when I stop to think about it, what I really love is certain flavors of Korean food: kim chee, Korean barbecue sauce, and gochujang, the hot pepper paste that Koreans consider one of their three essential condiments. I’m sure there’s more to love about Korean food, [...]

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Red Lentil Sambar from Vegan Fire and Spice

February 18, 2008
Red Lentil Sambar from Vegan Fire and Spice

Robin Robertson, the prolific author of Vegan Planet and over a dozen other cookbooks, has just come out with a new one, and boy is it hot–literally. She recently contacted me to ask if she could send me a review copy of Vegan Fire & Spice, and being the heat-seeking eater that I am, I [...]

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Roasted Pecans

December 21, 2007
Thumbnail image for Roasted Pecans

Pecans for Click* Welcome new readers! If you’re visiting this blog for the first time, either because of the mention in Vegetarian Times or because of the Food Blog Awards, you may be wondering, “What’s a blog about ‘fat-free’ cooking doing with a post about pecans, which are almost all fat?” The truth is that [...]

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Sichuan Tofu with Garlic Sauce

November 28, 2007
Sichuan Tofu and Garlic Sauce

My family had only one complaint about this meal: there wasn’t enough of it. I’d been looking for fresh water chestnuts ever since I saw the recipe for Chicken with Garlic Sauce on the food blog that has taught me the most about Chinese cooking, Barbara Fisher’s Tigers and Strawberries. According to Barbara, the recipe [...]

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Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

November 21, 2007
Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

[Insert standard "this is not a fat-free recipe" disclaimer here. Geez, what was I thinking when I named this blog!] I know most of you who celebrate Thanksgiving have already figured out your menus. I’m probably the only slacker who still doesn’t know what she’s cooking! I’m lucky, though. I’m going to my in-laws’ celebration [...]

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Persimmon Bread

November 16, 2007
Persimmon Bread

It’s persimmon time again, or at least it was, very briefly, in my parents’ yard in Louisiana. I got an email a couple of weeks ago from my dad saying that if I wanted persimmons, I’d better come get them because they were rapidly going from ripe to overripe to compost. He’d pick what was [...]

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Vegan Magic Cookie Bars

October 17, 2007
Magic Cookie Bars

Warning: This is not a fat-free recipe. In fact, there is absolutely nothing healthy about this recipe except, perhaps, the nuts. This is definitely the most fat-filled, junk foodish recipe that you’ll see on this blog, ever. I just want to make that clear right from the start or else I’ll get letters. I’ll probably [...]

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Gluten-Free Chickpea Crackers

October 5, 2007
Thumbnail image for Gluten-Free Chickpea Crackers

Sometimes recipe ideas go horribly wrong. And sometimes really bad recipes can lead to good ones. This was one of those times: I had another “brilliant” high-protein breakfast idea–to create a crepe made of chickpea flour and fill it with a creamed spinach recipe that I used to like. So I adapted a chickpea pancake [...]

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Easy Macaroni and “Cheeze”

October 1, 2007
Easy Macaroni and Cheeze

It’s a funny thing, but the recipe I’m asked for most often is the one I’m most reluctant to give out. Every time I mention that macaroni and “cheese” is one of E’s favorite dishes, parents wanting to wean their kids off the dairy stuff and onto something more healthy ask me for the recipe. [...]

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Vegan Omelette for One

September 19, 2007
Thumbnail image for Vegan Omelette for One

I’m not a big breakfast eater. In fact, ordinarily I skip breakfast and don’t even miss it. But I’ve been trying to change my ways since finding out that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight than people who skip it. In addition to speeding up your metabolism, eating breakfast has also [...]

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Whole Wheat Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Olives from Nava Atlas

September 8, 2007
Whole Wheat Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Olives from Nava Atlas

Wow! I’m overwhelmed by the number of people who left a comment in hopes of winning a copy of Vegan Express! In all, there were 231 guesses, 67 of which were correct. Congratulations to those of you who recognized my style (or possibly the serving dish, which has appeared here before holding Spicy Grapefruit Coleslaw). [...]

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Home-Style Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms

August 18, 2007

I don’t often cook other people’s recipes, at least not exactly as written. I like to get inspiration from cookbooks and other people’s blogs and then go off and do my own thing, incorporating the techniques that have worked well for me in the past. But when I saw the recipe for Peng’s Home-Style Bean [...]

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Berries and Spice Muffins

July 4, 2007

There’s something about the idea of a recipe “getting away” from me that makes it irresistibly attractive. Twice in the past couple of weeks I’ve found myself sitting in a doctor’s waiting room frantically scribbling down recipes from magazines I don’t subscribe to. (Not that I subscribe to any food magazines; I’d never finish reading [...]

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Mini Doughnut Muffins

June 20, 2007

Dieters, avert your gaze. I shouldn’t have done it. I need these muffins like I need another 10 pounds on my thighs. But in a moment of motherly guilt, I made a rash promise to E. to make “donut holes,” and she was with me when I bought the mini muffin pan, so I couldn’t [...]

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Eight-Ball Zucchini Stuffed with Rice, Basil, and Sun-dried Tomatoes

June 17, 2007

[Whenever you see the logo to the right, courtesy of A Veggie Venture, it means I'm using local Farmers' Market ingredients.]When I saw 8-ball zucchini at the nearby farm stand, I snatched some up immediately, even though I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them. After all, who can resist squash the size [...]

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Roasted Vegetable Napoleons

June 3, 2007
Roasted Vegetable Napoleans

The logo that you see to the left comes courtesy of Alanna of A Veggie Venture, who invites all of us bloggers to use it whenever writing about fresh produce. Hopefully it’ll encourage everyone to seek out local sources of produce, wherever you live. Click on the blushing tomato to find your local farmers’ market. [...]

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Seitan Baked in Sweet and Sour Orange Sauce

May 25, 2007
Seitan Baked in Sweet and Sour Orange Sauce

Yippee! Today is finally the last day of school! You’d think I was still in school (or teaching freshman comp) the way I get so excited. (Though to be honest, when I was teaching I was much, much happier to be finished; there are some of us who were born not to teach!) Anyway, E. [...]

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Spicy Grapefruit Coleslaw

May 21, 2007
Spicy Grapefruit Coleslaw

I had a problem coming up with a name for this salad. Though technically accurate, “Spicy Grapefruit Coleslaw” sounds a little bizarre. Plus, since the grapefruit and the spicy wasabi paste are both optional ingredients, you could make this and come up with a coleslaw that is neither spicy nor grapefruity, but personally I think [...]

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Palak Tofu (Tofu in Curried Spinach Sauce)

May 15, 2007
Palak Tofu

Let me take a moment to wish a belated happy Mothers’ Day to all you moms and kids. I was very lucky this year to be able to spend the day with my own mother, which happens very rarely even though we live only a few hours apart. The older I get, the more grateful [...]

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Southern-Style Banana Pudding

May 8, 2007
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A few weeks ago, E. and I had lunch together at a local restaurant that serves “Southern Style” food. At the end of the meal, E. spied the dessert cart, which contained, among other tempting dishes, banana pudding. E. had never seen banana pudding layered between vanilla wafers before, but I told her that my [...]

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Barbecued Seitan Ribz

May 1, 2007
BBQ Ribz

Sunday was such a beautiful day that I had to get outside, away from the kitchen and the computer, and just enjoy the sunshine and flowers. I spent all of last week closeted in my office trying to copy files and programs to a new computer and set up a new home network. By Sunday [...]

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Caribbean Beans and Quinoa

April 26, 2007

File this under “Tastes Better Than It Looks”: It’s Caribbean-style beans and rice, only I was running short on time, as usual, so I opted to use quick-cooking quinoa instead of brown rice. As a result, dinner was on the table in about a half hour. The allspice gives this dish its distinctive Caribbean taste [...]

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German Chocolate Birthday Cake

April 16, 2007

What a non-stop weekend we had! It began on Thursday, with E’s friend J. coming to stay with us for the weekend while her parents were out of town, continued Friday night with an emergency trip to the optical shop to replace E’s glasses (which the dog chewed up), followed on Saturday with an overnight [...]

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Veggeroni (Seitan Pepperoni)

April 4, 2007
Veggeroni

Okay, you wormed it out of me. I was going to make this again just to tweak the seasonings a little, but with so many of you writing to tell me that you just have to have the recipe now, I’ve decided to post it here and let you do the experimenting with it. (I’ve [...]

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Sicilian Market Pasta

April 2, 2007

My daughter E. lives for pasta, which is kind of a shame because I rarely cook it. When I do, all too often it’s one of her favorite (but boring) dishes: veggie lo mein, spaghetti with “meat” sauce, or macaroni and “cheese.” Every now and then she gets lucky and I go all out with [...]

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Strawberry Whip

March 29, 2007

Recently, after I posted about the lovely strawberries that I brought back from my weekend trip to Louisiana, several people left comments saying that they couldn’t wait to see what I was going to make with them. I was a little embarrassed to admit that my plans were pretty boring: freeze most of them for [...]

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Baba Ganoush Vegetable Plate

March 22, 2007

I absolutely love baba ganoush. I often say that I could live on it, and believe me, if it were eggplant season right now, I would have it almost every day. It wasn’t always so. In the past I had to ration my beloved baba, saving it up for an occasional treat. My self-denial wasn’t [...]

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Thai Eggplants and Chickpeas in Peanut Masala

February 22, 2007
Thai Eggplants and Chickpeas in Peanut Masala

Whenever I’m in New Orleans, there’s one thing I have to do. Is it visit the French Quarter? Eat a vegan Muffaletta? Catch a jazz performance? No, though those are all high on my “love to do” list, the one thing I have to do is visit the Hong Kong Market. It’s a huge Asian [...]

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Polenta Lasagna with Portabellas and Kale

February 6, 2007
Polenta Lasagna

You know I really like a recipe when I make it two days in a row. I first made this dish for dinner last night, and though I liked it and my husband thought it was “outstanding,” I still wanted to tinker with the recipe. It was good, but I thought it could be incredible. [...]

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Vegan Eggnog Cheesecake

December 23, 2006
Eggnog Cheesecake

You know a dessert is good when your photo shoot is cut short because you started eating it! But it’s no wonder I gave in to temptation; I decided to combine two things I can’t resist—eggnog and cheesecake. (Vegan versions, of course.) And the combination was just as delicious as I expected. But enough from [...]

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Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping

December 11, 2006
Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping

I’m going to be honest with you and admit that I’m not a big fan of holidays. Stressing over some arbitrary date on the calendar–to cook certain foods, travel long distances, buy token gifts, and so on–has never been my idea of fun. For a long time, I felt the same way about the traditional [...]

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Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches

December 4, 2006
Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches

I don’t have a lot to say about this recipe. I mean, there are only so many ways I can say something’s delicious—Mmmmm! Yum! Wow! Awesome! Kid-Friendly!—without sounding like a 4th grader. The story on these quiches is that I saw a non-vegan recipe for mini crustless quiches in a magazine and wanted to try [...]

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Grilled Skewered Vegetables with Quick Polenta

November 30, 2006
Grilled Skewered Vegetables with Quick Polenta

I seem to buy an average of one new cookbook a week, and the sad thing is, I rarely use them. I keep piles of them beside my bed, on my desk, and next to my chair in the den, and I often glance through them (especially if there are pretty pictures) looking for inspiration, [...]

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The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole

November 22, 2006
Vegan Green Bean Casserole

I just had to write a quick post about this recipe because D. and I just had some for lunch and oh my gosh, it is good! Truly, we were scraping the casserole dish clean. This is adapted and plagiarized from Alanna’s World’s Best Green Bean Casserole, and I have to say, the name fits. [...]

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My Family’s Cranberry Relish Recipe

November 21, 2006
Cranberry Relish

I emailed my mother to get her cranberry relish recipe, the one my husband and I descend on like a pair of hungry fruit bats each year. She emailed me the recipe, but what she sent didn’t quite match my memory of the dish because I thought it had apples in it. By the time [...]

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Vegan Eggplant “Parmesan”

September 17, 2006
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I haven’t had eggplant parmesan in so many years that I’ve literally forgotten what it tastes like, so I can’t promise that this tastes like the “real thing,” but I can promise that it is delicious–rich and creamy inside and a little crunchy outside. The method I used is taken from a recipe by Bryanna [...]

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Eggplant and Tofu in Spicy Garlic Sauce

August 17, 2006

I know some of you are probably tired of seeing eggplant here. Eggplant recipes appear on this blog so often that I could probably change the name to FatFree Eggplant Recipes. But there’s a reason for that: I love eggplant! I think it’s one of the most versatile vegetables around. If you’ve been avoiding it [...]

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Colorful Tofu Salad with Basil and Cashews

June 28, 2006
Colorful Tofu Salad

It’s swim-meet season, that dreaded time of year when once a week my family sits outside in the humid Mississippi heat while my daughter periodically gets to jump into a pool and swim as though Jaws himself were after her. She stays nice and cool while the rest of us wilt. Since we’re out there [...]

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Pasta and Vegetables with Peanut Sauce

June 14, 2006
Pasta and Vegetables with Peanut Sauce

When my family and I go on vacation, we either camp with our Coleman stove or stay in cabins or guest houses with kitchens so that we can prepare our meals and not have to worry about finding vegan food in remote places. But cooking can be tricky when we’re not in our own kitchen. [...]

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Cherry Date-Nut Balls

May 28, 2006
Cherry-Date Balls

This is one of my family’s favorite snacks, based on Dr. Fuhrman’s Pop-Em’s . I love serving treats that are full of healthy fats and contain no refined sugar, and my daughter eats them like candy. We make several variations, but the cherry ones are my personal favorite. I rolled half in coconut flakes, just [...]

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Green Olive Hummus

May 27, 2006

If you are beginning to think my family lives on hummus, you’re very close to being right. We use hummus for just about everything around here: a snack with veggies and crackers, a salad topping, a sandwich filling, and dinner with pitas, tabouli, and other Middle Eastern dishes. We love hummus. We also love olives: [...]

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Asparagus with Roasted Garlic Sauce

May 22, 2006

In my opinion, roasted garlic is one of those miraculous foods that make almost anything taste decadent. Not that asparagus needs much help; it’s a miracle food in its own right and doesn’t need gaudy embellishments, so a tangy hint of lemon combined with the mellow taste of roasted garlic is really the perfect complement [...]

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Artichoke and Roasted Red Pepper Dip

May 20, 2006

The photo above is of my dinner last night. You see, last night was the final day of a 5-day challenge I created for myself. For five days I gave up beans, grains, and most starchy vegetables and concentrated on eating more fruits and non-starchy vegetables. Why? Partly because I’d been relying on beans and [...]

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Chocolate a l’Orange Mousse Pie

May 12, 2006
Chocolate-Orange Mousse Pie

Special Mothers’ Day Fat-Full Edition! Even vegans watching their diets deserve some chocolate decadence every now and then–and this goes doubly for mothers. Most of us watch not only our own diets but also our children’s and significant others’. So I say, give your mom or your children’s mom or your partner’s mom or your [...]

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Almost-Instant Hummus Ghanoush

May 12, 2006
Almost-Instant Hummus Gannoush

I had a sudden craving for baba ghanoush, but it was much too late to roast an eggplant. So I decided on an unorthodox method of cooking it, in the pressure cooker. Within about 5 minutes, I had completely cooked eggplant and also a problem: The eggplant was hot, and whoever heard of eating hot [...]

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Hot and Sour Shirataki Noodles with Tofu

May 11, 2006

I gave in and tried a fad-food. While shopping in the local Asian grocery store yesterday, I noticed shirataki noodles in the refrigerated section. They may have been there all along, but I noticed them only because I’ve been seeing them mentioned on the internet as the next diet wonderfood. In case you’ve missed all [...]

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Apple-Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

May 10, 2006

I apologize for not having updated the blog recently. My parents were here for an all-too-brief visit, so I didn’t have much time for blogging. Though I’m sad to see my parents go, I am happy to get the chance to post the recipes I’ve made recently–before I completely forget them! For Sunday morning breakfast, [...]

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Guacamole Goddess Dressing

May 3, 2006
Guacamole Goddess Dressing

I eat a lot of salads–big lunch salads that fill an entire serving bowl–and because I hate a dry salad, I wind up eating a lot of salad dressing. So finding low-fat salad dressings that I like has practically become my life’s work. As far as I’m concerned, the less fat it has, the better [...]

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Hasty Tasty Pasta with Broccoli, Olives, and "Chicken"

April 30, 2006

Yesterday was a long day. My daughter E. had her birthday party (two weeks late because of her hectic soccer schedule) at a local amusement facility. There were arcade games and ice skating as well as the ritual cake and birthday presents. I found out something the hard way: it’s almost impossible to get kids [...]

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Spinach and Artichoke Pie

April 18, 2006

I rarely rave about a recipe, or at least I don’t think I do. But I have to rave about this one because it was quite simply the best thing I’ve eaten in a long time. (And that is including decadent deserts, too!) This was something that was both long in the planning and thrown [...]

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Raspberry Chocolate Cake

April 16, 2006

Sorry I didn’t get the recipe posted yesterday. It’s been a busy weekend, and I never found the time. Thanks for waiting! Now, to continue where I left off. . . . First a warning: This is not a fat-free or even low-fat recipe. It’s possible to make the cake lower in fat, but the [...]

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Somen with Tofu and Asparagus in a Chinese Dressing

March 27, 2006

Once again, I’d fooled around too long reading about food and it’d gotten too late to cook any food! Or maybe I wasn’t reading but enjoying some time with my husband or working in the yard. Whatever the reason, dinnertime on Saturday came, and I was totally unprepared for it. But at least there was [...]

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My Favorite Lasagna

March 24, 2006
Easy Vegan Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna

Last night I had the pleasure of having dinner with a group of people taking a Civil Rights Tour through the South. The menu for the night was barbecued pork sandwiches and pork-and-beans, the idea being to give them a little taste of local cuisine (which revolves around pork, apparently). The only problem: Several of [...]

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African Pineapple Peanut Stew

March 7, 2006
African Pineapple Peanut Stew

Several years ago, my husband and I were thumbing through Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home when my husband stopped at this recipe and said, “Let’s try this one.” I looked at it. . . and then I looked at him like he was insane. Pineapple, onions, and kale? And peanut butter? What kind of crazy [...]

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Thai Coconut Soup with Tofu and Mushrooms

February 7, 2006

Last night I realized that I had an open can of coconut milk that I needed to use soon–never a bad situation since coconut milk is one of my favorite foods. I decided to try to recreate the coconut milk and tofu soup I’ve had in Thai restaurants, while reducing the amount of coconut milk [...]

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Rotini All’Arrabbiata

February 4, 2006

First disclaimer: There’s oil in this recipe. Olive oil. Not a lot of it, but it’s there. So, if a little oil on a blog with the word “fatfree” in the title is going to send you into fits of apoplexy, please stop reading now. I don’t want to be responsible for any heart attacks [...]

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Date-Nut Slices

January 29, 2006
Date-Nut Slices

Here’s the other dish that I made for last night’s dinner. These were a big hit with the adults, but not so much with the kids. Well, my kid at least didn’t like the cardamom in them, but that just left more for us adults! This recipe doesn’t make a lot–probably about 12 slices. (By [...]

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Rigatoni with Zucchini and Eggplant

January 29, 2006
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If you’re a vegan and you’re invited to a dinner, banquet, or other large party involving food, you usually have two choices: either eat before you go and find a lettuce leaf to nibble on or offer to bring some of the food. Last night I attended a dinner at our local Unitarian Universalist church, [...]

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Smoky Chipotle Guacamole

January 25, 2006

Lunch for me is usually an enormous salad topped with some kind of beans, either in the form of hummus or, when I’m in the mood for a Taco Salad, refried or chili beans. Today was a taco salad day, and since I had two avocados that had reached their peak of ripeness, I decided [...]

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Thai-Style Vegetable Curry

January 15, 2006
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We had a wonderful meal last night, and I found the recipe purely by accident. We hadn’t gone to the store in days, so our selection of produce was running low. Basically, all we had in the fridge was broccoli. I also had a partial can of coconut milk I wanted to use up (from [...]

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