Vegetarian Frugal Housewife

I LOVE APPLE CRISP! And I have always been mystified by it. By the seeming complexity of it and by the way that no two ever seem to taste the same.

Some people like cranberries in it, some just apples. Some people even put cocoa powder on top.

As a kid, I always thought of apple crisp as Great Grandma territory and, thus, after she passed away, I just thought that no good apple crisp would ever enter my life again, much less be able to make one myself.

And so it remained a misty dream, a thing that came from the realms of fairies and elves.

Then I got a college job, doing costumed reenactment at a living-history museum, cooking in hearths and cauldrons. And that was when, as a work assignment, I first attempted my own apple crisp.

After years of putting this food on a shrine, on display in my mind but never touchable, I came to a realization: APPLES CRISP IS DARN EASY. It is just plain simple!

Revelation complete, I have since experimented with several historic and modern variations to arrive at what is my own favorite version.

Simple Apple-Raisin Crisp

Ingredients:

4-6 apples, I prefer Granny Smith or Mackintosh
.5-1 cup raisins
1.25 cups brown sugar
.75 cups raw sugar
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cinnamon
.5 cup flour
.75 cup oats
1.5 cup walnuts
1 cup margarine
pinch salt
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbspn oil

1. Core, peel and chop apples into large chunks.
2. Mix lemon juice, apples, raisins in a bowl.
3. Add half of the white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix and set aside.
4. Grind walnuts into fine pieces using a blender or mortar and pestle.
5. Mix oats, flour, walnuts, spices and remaining sugars in a bowl.
6. Cut in the butter or margarine.
* Cutting means use a fork or pastry cutter to slice the butter in with the rest of the crumble mix. You are covering it with flour and other ingredients until it is small bits that no longer look like solid butter. :)
7. Place apple mixture in a deep pan, greased with oil.
8. Cover evenly with crumble mixture until all apples are covered.
9. Bake at 375° F (190° C) for 25-35 minutes.
10. Cool for 15-20 minutes and serve with ice cream, whipped topping etc.
~
See, isn’t that easy? ;)

Mmmmmm, yum. I just adore sloppy joes. They were not a regular staple in my life before I became a vegetarian but they always remained a special treat, a once-in-a-while thing that occurred mostly during summer and autumn.

But I have to admit that I am so excited about all the cooking and exploration that I have been doing since I became a veggie-head.

I would never go back to the old hamburg-and-Manwich type of sloppy joes!

Now, I am a New Englander (a.k.a. Yankee) by birth and so I prefer a sweet sloppy joe as opposed to a spicy one. And I prefer to serve it over a nice SWEET corn bread.

So here is a simple, quick and oh so tasty veggie version of Sloppy Joes. (Corn bread recipe to follow soon.)

PS. Serge and I are finally engaged!!! How to plan a veggie wedding? Hmmmm….

Meat-Free Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:
1-2 lb Veggie Mincemeat (ie. Lightlife Smart Ground or Quorn mince)
2 whole cloves garlic1 lrg or 2 med green bell peppers
16oz tomato sauce
1 medium diced onion
4 tbs soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs mustard
2-3 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
6 tbs ketchup
1 tbs salt
3 tbs cider vinegar
1/2 cup tomato paste (or fresh tomato chunks)
pinch nutmeg
pinch oregano
3 tbs olive oil

1. Chop onions, garlic and peppers.
2. Fry mince in pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Add spices and soy/worcetershire sauce.
4. Add chopped items and fry a bit more until onions soften.
5. Add ketchup, vinegar, tomato paste and tomato sauce.
6. Stir. Cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes on low.
7. Test flavor and add more spices as needed.
8. Simmer 5 more minutes and serve over buns or bread.

I really like this either as a sandwich, on a bun, or just ladled over corn bread on a plate.

If you have it as a sandwich, you can experiment with toppings, going for bean sprouts, fresh avocado slices, vegan cheese or even hot chili peppers.

It all depends on your mood!!!

Everyone loves Sloppy Joes and if you’d prefer them spicy you can just throw in Tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper where I have added brown sugar and nutmeg. ;)

Enjoy.

Sometimes I think that there are more lentil burger recipes out there than there are soup recipes. But of course I am exaggerating a bit.

Still I know of quite a few variations on the theme, so I thought that, for now, I would just post the basic recipe that I tend to use and add some groovy variations later on.

This one came to me via my friend Lilac and I have tweaked it a bit to make it more yummy to my own palate.

These burgers are VERY, VERY filling. I always think that I want two but have problems even finishing one burger with all of the trimmings. :) Thus they are a frugal and inexpensive way to fill people up, and the full feeling lasts for hours.

They are generally liked, even by folks who claim not to like lentil burgers, but I can’t guarantee that it will please everyone sitting round your dinner table. It’s best to try it out first as a specialty lunch item before springing it on people who are drooling ravenously waiting for a hearty wintertime dinner. ;)

As I said, variations abound and you can add almonds, peas, cumin, cayenne…all manner of other flavors in order to spice up your home burger-making.

Basic Lentil Burgers

Ingredients:

½ lb (half bag) Lentils
2 whole cloves garlic
¼ cup rice or dairy milk
½ cup oats
1 medium diced onion
2 egg whites
¼ cup flour
5 leaves fresh Basil (or ½ tsp dried)
¼ tsp Paprika
¼ Curry
1 tsp Salt
½ Pepper
Pot of water

1. Let water cover lentils by one inch, cook until boiling and lower temperature to simmer.

2. Cover pan and allow to cook down until no water remains.

3. Mush cooked lentils together with chopped garlic. *Leave some lentils whole.

4. Add 2 handfuls of uncooked oats, eggs, milk and spices to taste.

5. Cook chopped onion with oil in a hot skillet.

6. Make a thick base of onions in the pan and form the lentils patties on top of them.

7. Cook over medium heat, flipping GENTLY half way through.

8. Cook until warm throughout, the patties will likely not firm up much during cooking.

9. Serve with tomato slices, lettuce, onions, mustard, cheese…whatever you like!

***These are the basic hippie lentil burger but I will add more interesting twists on these burgers at a later date!!!

Serge and I have been traveling in the UK for the past couple of weeks and, although we are looking for some place to settle for the next few months, have been hopping from place to place.

We have, thus, also been hopping from kitchen to kitchen…some equipped better than others.

On a recent visit to a small farming community in the English countryside we stayed with rather excessively frugal hosts who had very little of the things that I would normally use to start a soup and lots of things that were several years past date.

I wrestled what I thought might be usable out of their cabinets and set about trying to fashion an edible soup for lunch.

So with a little bit of veggies and a random selection of flavoring ingredients I managed to come up with this little ditty.

Serge actual said it was my second-best soup ever, so there you have it…good soup on the fly.

Travelers Tartan Soup

Ingredients:

1 large tomato, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1-2 celery stalks, cut into thin pieces
5-6 sml potatoes, diced
1/2 cup lentils
handful rice
1 lrg carrot, cut into thin coins
5 med-lrg mushrooms, diced
8-10 cups water
2 tblspn yeast extract
2-3 cubes vegetable bullion
1 tblspn salt
1 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp cumin
pinch caraway seed
1/8 tsp turmeric
pinch ginger
2 tsp Italian spices (ie. basil, oregano, thyme, etc.)
3 tbsp olive oil

1. Heat water to boiling, add yeast extract and bullion. Allow to dissolve.

2. Fry onions, mushrooms and tomatoes in the olive oil, add to soup pot.

3. Add all other ingredients to soup pot.

4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes.

5. Serve with bread, crackers or salad.

*This recipe is designed for alternatives. I made it a couple of days later with parsnips and frozen broad beans as well as some sage and thyme that I pinched fresh from their garden.

Trail mixes are a specialty of mine. The combinations are made up randomly on the spot of whatever I have handy. That is why I call them confetti, whatever colorful scraps of paper are laying around, so to speak.

I like to use some of the same ingredients in each mix, just personal preferences I guess.

Todays mix includes seed and dried fruits, as usual, as well as some groovy spices.

Confetti Trail Mix #1

Ingredients:

2 cups rolled oats
1 handful of raisins
1 handful dried cranberries
2 tbs dried coconut slivers
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup organic peanuts
1/8 cup dried apples (cut small)
1 tbs brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
drizzle of agave nectar
1/2 tsp shredded ginger

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a large ziploc bag or lidded container.

2. Shake profusely to mix.

3. Add wet ingredients (vanilla and agave,) close and shake again.

Have mix, will travel! :D