Cooking - Dinner - Hearts of Palm Moqueca

This Brazilian dish is one of my new favorites - the Chefs (Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby) who created it  used to run a Vegan restaurant called "New Horizons" in Philadelphia PA and now a wonderful place called "Vedge". Actually the new place is my favorite as I was not a vegetarian before and never went to New Horizons.  But I do have both their cook books!

So ...move over French cooking.. I am adding some new skills to my kitchen!

1. Pan fry/brown 8 oz of Hearts of Palm (chop to look like scallops) with 1 medium red onion in 1 tbl spoon of canola oil for 4 mins - watch out they don't burn

2.  Add 1/2 cups of veggie stock and bring to a boil

3. Add 4 chopped Plumb tomatoes, 12 ounces of Coconut milk,  1 tbl sugar/truvia, **Spices, and 1 chopped green pepper of your choice (You MUST wash you hand if using jalapeno peppers after chopping -- otherwise if you touch your face/eyes you will be very sorry!)

4. Simmer for 10 mins

5. Remove from heat add 1/2 freshly chopped cilantro

6. Sneeze fresh lime wedges on it just before eating

** Latin spice Mixture -- You make this and add to dish!

2 tbl paprika
1 tbl Paprika
1 tbl granulated onion
1 tbl granulated garlic
1 tbl salt
1 tbl black pepper
2 tbl thyme
2 tbl oregano
1 tbl ground dry Chile (chipotle, ancho or cayenne)

Cooking - Dinner - Whole Wheat Pizza

Who Doesn't Love Pizza?

Chop two Tomatoes, Basil, Garlic, Red Onion and Mushrooms

saute the Onions, Mushroom and Garlic 5-7 minutes

 Toast the whole wheat pitas on 400 degrees for 5 mins depending on how you like your crust

Assemble pizza with Sauce, above mixture, red pepper flakes and top with non-dairy cheese 

Bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes

Ingredients: Serves two or four (we like two each)

4 large whole wheat pitas

2 cups no-salt/low sodium pasta sauce

2 de-seeded and chopped tomatoes (Tomato seeds have a TON of water in them - It will make your pizza very soggy if you don't remove them before chopping them into smaller pieces)

2 cloves Garlic- crushed and chopped

1/2 cups of any mushrooms you like

1/2 cups chopped red onion

2 tablespoons of fresh or dried Basil

1 cup (or more) of nondairy shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup white wine (optional)

** I like to saute the onions and mushroom for 5 minutes, add the garlic for one minute, deglaze with a splash of white wine (basically once everything is cooked - it helps get all the favor off the bottom of the pan) and let cook off.  Then just add this mixture with the other ingredients to the pizza during assembly.

** Recipe courtesy of Joel Furhman MD; Eat to Live with some french elements added by me