Festive Noodles

This is to remind me as best I can - what I made for the Holiday Party yesterday in the Math/Stat department.  Jun Lu liked it so I wanted to write this down.

I roasted the walnuts in the oven and roasted some Hemp Hearts on the stovetop. (Hemp Hearts is a legal safe food product and has nutritional value and has no THC in it! They taste and look a lot like sesame seeds.) I used all the Golden Curry pack and most of a large "Thin Spaghetti" pack.  I used way more oil than probably I should have.  At that point, it was acceptable but it seemed to be missing something.  I added the cranberries for a little extra color and flavor, but the base flavor needed something. So, I added this soy sauce, some of this "Grandma Spice" (chili oil) and also some "Bakon" yeast, which I got at Amazon. The curry and "Grandma Spice" are from H Mart.  I think the Hemp Hearts are from the co-op. That's about as much as I can recall. I don't think I added salt or pepper.  (Accidentally, there is pepper in the photo as well as a lemon which was on my counter, but they were not in the noodles.)

Mint Lemon-Limeade

1/8 cup of chopped fresh mint

6 cups of water (less if you want ice)
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1/2 cup of lime juice
1 to 1 1/2 cups of sugar


1.   Put all ingredients into big jug
2.   Stir
3.   Refrigerate

ZIR

Vegan French Toast

The new neighbors brought over some "country bread" that just looked like it ought to be made into French Toast.  So here is my try:

1c oats
1c flour
1T baking powder
3T sugar
blended.

Then I added several cups of cashew milk and water.
There was slightly more milk than water. By the time I added
the liquid, the blender was 3/4 full or fuller.

I added cinnamon and some oil and a little salt to the mix.

This seems to be working.  It covers more bread than I expected. Probably 1 1/2 to 2 loaves easily. The bread soaks up the liquid faster, so you may need to add a little liquid to the batter as you go, maybe halfway through.

"Beans"

This is just "beans", until I find a better name.

2 t black mustard seeds.
1T oil initially, start heating up those seeds while you cut the..
2 Onions, cut up into half-rings. 
Add to the oil.
1/8 c of Badia Curry
1/8 c of white vinegar
1/8 c honey.

a 15 oz can of beans (white northern, small white etc...)

I kept adding oil as needed to keep the thing from burning or looking dry.
This is served atop rice. Add salt to taste.

Pancakes - Day Three

I'm getting less exact here.. but it worked so I wanted to record it!
I dropped the Oatmeal entirely.  There is still a banana but you can't taste it.

1 2/3 c WW Pastry flour
1 2/3 c All purpose flour
just about 1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
These dry things in the blender, mixed up and fluffy.

Then, add about 2/3 c Maple Syrup
1 banana
some Disaronno or vanilla or anything to flavor it
And.. lots of water. But I don't know how much.
At least 3 cups, but probably more. I lost track.

Michael thought it was the oatmeal making the texture work out, but
apparently that doesn't matter.  Possibly the trick is the banana?
Or maybe it's the fact that I let the blender run a bit to make sure
everything is all mixed up (thereby working up the gluten?)

But this mixture was very nice.  I used 1/4 c per pancake and this texture
allowed for making things like cars, a cat, a "house".  Stuff like that worked
better with this texture, as it felt "eggy" even though there were no eggs.
I was able to even flip the "cat" with whiskers w/o breaking any of the 6 whiskers.

Oatmeal Banana Pancakes - Day Two

Today we tried it again after the fun yesterday, but with a more standard effect.
I used 1.5 c oatmeal flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 banana
1/3 cup dairy-free milk of some sort (whatever I had around)
1/3 cup maple syrup (we are now running low...)
2 cups of water
2.5 t baking powder
some vanilla

I dropped them with 1/8 c measuring spoons this time.

What I am guessing is that I can use the blender to "make" the oatmeal flour, blending as long as I like, but if I blend "too long" after it's liquid, maybe that's not smart.  I don't know.  But I did blend a long time today, and that was ok.  One other thing to note is that you should wash the blender pretty quickly, as the oatmeal can get horrible.

The kids prefer flatter thinner pancakes, so maybe next time I will increase the liquid again and try for larger pancakes!

Oatmeal Banana Pancakes

I used 1.5 c Quick Oats and ground it in blender.
Added 1/4 c Maple Syrup
One banana
About 1/4 c water, maybe 1/2 or more....
About one teaspoon of baking powder.
Dropped rounded tablespoons onto pan.
About one minute then flipped.

Makes about 15.

Simple minestrone

Dice and fry

2 onions
4+ cloves of garlic
olive oil

Once browned, add

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can other beans (probably cannellini)
4 cups water
1 tsp salt
parsley
marjoram

While this comes to a boil, mix

2 cups flour
1-2 cups water

until a stiff dough is formed.  Knead, then roll into "snakes".  Once the soup boils, pinch off bits of the snakes into the water.  Cook until the pasta is done.