Corn Chowder from the McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook :-) :-) :-) thank you Janet Wooton for telling me about this cookbook :-) :-) :-)

Coconut Almond Banana Coffee Ice Cream

Coconut Almond Banana Coffee Ice Cream

Vegan and Sugar Free

My Best Ice Cream Yet!!!

This came out as creamy as a really good  high cream-content ice cream plus it tastes amazing with all that almond butter & banana and coconut milk & coffee in there. :-) :-) :-)  Just be aware the mixture tastes kind of gross until it has had time to sit for awhile before going into the ice cream maker :-)  I guess the thing about making ice cream is that you really need cream or something very creamy as a base.  This came out SO GREAT YUUUUUUUUUUUM!!!!

Ingredients

1 13.5 oz can coconut milk

1 1/2 cups unsweetened organic almond milk

3 medium bananas

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon almond butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cups water

3 tablespoons decaffeinated coffee

Agave syrup to taste

3/4 cup grain-sweeted carob chips (optional)

Instructions

In a small saucepan, boil the water. Place a 1-cup paper filter into a 1-cup manual plastic coffee maker thingy and put the coffee into the filter. Pour the water through the coffee in the filter into a mug. Into a medium saucepan place the coconut milk, almond milk, bananas, almond butter, vanilla extract, and coffee and puree with an immersion blender until it looks like a smoothie. If it's not sweet enough for you add a little agave syrup & blend some more until it tastes good but be careful a little agave syrup seems to go a long way. :-) Put a lid on the pot and refrigerate the mixture preferably overnight until it is quite cold. This is important also because it gives the flavors time to blend! My refrigerator is on a very cold setting so after it sat all night it was almost frozen in a slushy sort of way which is perfect for starting it in the ice cream maker. Place the mixture in an ice cream maker and run for 20 minutes, then add the carob chips if desired and run for another 5 to 20 minutes until done. Place finished product into jars or a bowl and freeze in the freezer for another couple of hours or overnight. Yum!

Red Lentil Sweet Potato Soup

Red Lentil & Yam Soup

Ingredients
2 1/12 cups red lentils
1 giant + 1 medium small garnet yam, chopped coarsely into cubes
4 cubes vegetable bouillon (enough to make 8 cups of broth)
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chili powder
8 cups water
salt

Instructions
Put all ingredients into a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the lentils are done. Usually a good indicator is when the lentils start sticking to the bottom to the pot. Blend with an immersion blender until creamy. Add salt to taste – you might like it with up to 3 tablespoons salt or you might like it with a lot less.

Notes:
Extremely creamy & quite tasty! I would try it with less yam next time, also it seemed like it could use quite a bit more cumin and chili powder so i might do 1 1/2 times the amount next time. Also maybe adding other vegetables would probably make it very tasty. I ripped the ingredients to this this off of a pot of hot soup at Mother Earth :-)

Mushroom Barley Soup

Mushroom Barley Soup

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
6 large cloves garlic, minced
4 large portobello mushrooms, chopped into chunks
1 1/4 cup pearled barley, uncooked
2 quarts vegetable broth (I like Pacific)
1 cup chopped parsley
1 15 oz cans black beans
Fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces – not sure how many I used but I think a little less than a pound
1 tsp Italian seasoning
up to 2 tablespoons salt


Throw all the ingredients except the salt and the vegetable broth into a large soup pot. Pour in enough of the vegetable broth to a little more than cover. If there is not enough vegetable broth, add enough water to a little more than cover everything. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 1½ hours until it tastes like soup. Do not be disturbed if it seems bland it probably just needs salt! At the end of cooking, add the salt a bit at a time until it tastes good. If it just doesn't seem to taste flavorful enough add some miso paste however I made the soup just this way and it didn't need it. :-) It takes about an hour for the barley to get done but this soup is yummy!

Note: I will make this soup next time using enough vegetable bouillon cubes to make 8 cups and use that instead of the vegetable broth because I think the soup would taste better even though it actually tasted quite good this way.

Also, it tastes much much better with pearled barley but originally I made it with unpearled barley which still has the bran.

Green Split Pea Soup with Butternut Squash

 

Green Split Pea and Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups green split peas
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 large yellow onion
½ large bunch of dill or 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning which they sell in bulk at the
   local health food stores
8 medium carrots, sliced
Salt, about 2 tablespoons, to taste


Instructions

Combine all ingredients except the salt in a large soup pot with enough water to a little more than cover. Cover, bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 – 2 hours, until green split peas are tender and soupy. If the split peas taste even a hint of not completely tender, they probably need more time. When done, remove from heat. Add the salt – – it seems to need about 2 tablespoons but I start with a lot less and just add salt until it tastes good & serve. Yum!!!

An alternative way of doing the butternut squash so you don't have to put nearly as much work into getting the rind off it might be to cover an oblong metal baking pan with a piece of parchment paper, use a sharp paring knife to poke holes in the squash to let the steam out, and bake the whole squash at 400 degrees for about anywhere from one to two hours and then take the squash out of the oven, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and add the pulp to the soup, adding enough water to cover everything in the pot again.  I have baked butternut squash before this way and it is absolutely delicious all on its own you don't even need to add anything to it although i always do (coconut oil and salt).  Also you can totally eat the skin it is delicious just like a baked potato!  Best to buy an organic squash to make sure the skin doesn't have anything funny on it. (?) Have never tried adding it to this soup after baking however cooked squash is cooked squash and am going to try baking it just until the squash is done enough so the pulp can be scooped or cut out easily and then add it to the soup in the last 1/2 hour of cooking -- it's really the split peas that take so long to cook anyway squash is like potatoes when you boil it it gets done pretty quickly.  Do use a metal baking pan to bake it though, my experience is that glass does not hold up well at high degrees for long times especially with something that doesn't entirely fill the pan like a squash.

from Drake's Purple Cabbage Coleslaw

from Drake's Purple Cabbage Coleslaw 
Serves 1 as a side dish

Ingredients 
1/4 of a medium large purple cabbage,
   sliced very thin and cut into 1/2 inch strips
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard

4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup pretty finely chopped raw cashews

Salt -- 
   actually Drake originally made this with tamari but i just use coarse celtic sea salt 

Instructions
Mix all ingredients except the salt in a large bowl. Add salt to taste and maybe a little more mustard.  Let sit for 5 minutes & serve.  Yum!  Even better the next day :-)

Miso Soup with Cabbage, Seaweed and Pasta shells

Miso Soup with Cabbage, Seaweed, & Pasta Shells
Serves 2

Ingredients

about 3 tablespoons miso paste

1 1/2 – 2 cups water

about 1 cup steamed cabbage

about 1 cup cooked qinoa pasta shells

1/3 15 oz can cannelini beans

2 or 3 tablespoons dried wakame flakes

1/2 of a medium-thick slice of raw onion, chopped

Instructions

In a small pot, use a wisk to stir the miso and 1 cup of the water together. Keep tasting and adding water until the broth is a bit weak – the wakame will add flavor to it later. Add the rest of the ingredients to the broth – heat on low flame until just hot enough to eat & try not to boil the miso because that kills whatever's good about it. Since it's a small pot it will be pretty full but that's ok because i think it helps to not boil the miso.

There are a lot of variations to this soup – you can do it with other beans and qinoa or any other grain you like. Also you can do it with any vegetable. The only constants are i think the miso, the wakame flakes, and the onion :-) Just note, it doesn't store that well so better on the first day -- YUM!!! :-)