Salt & Humor

Finally, I am back! I want to share with you a new favorite recipe of mine.  I took a favorite Holiday casserole that my Mom used to make and turned it into an appetizer.  She would make a layered casserole with creamed spinach, wild rice and mushrooms.  Oh, it is glorious.  For Thanksgiving I was in charge of an appetizer and decided to compromise that casserole dish and make it into an appetizer.

Spinach & Rice Stuffed Mushrooms

-12-18 large mushrooms

-1 package of fresh baby spinach

-1 package of herbed Tofutti cream cheese

-1/2 cup of rice ( I used 1/4 cup brown and 1/2 cup wild)

-1 cup vegetable broth

-1/8 t salt

–1/4 t black pepper

-1/2 t dried parsley

-1/2 cup bread crumbs

-1 T Earth Balance butter

Cook rice in vegetable broth with the salt for appropriate time, based on the rice you use.  While the rice is cooking, remove mushroom stems from caps.  Depending on the variety, you  may need to remove a little more cap to make room for the filling.  I used a teaspoon to scoop out more mushroom.  (save stems and pieces for any recipe use later in the week) Lightly steam the spinach, remove from heat  and immediately add to food processor to cool for a few minutes.  Preheat oven to 325.  Add the cream cheese and blend just until well incorporated, careful not to over blend.  Once, rice is done cooking, add the spinach mixture, parsley and pepper and stir. Arrange mushrooms on a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper.  Add the spinach and rice mixture to a plastic bag and snip of the corner to pipe the stuffing into the mushrooms.  In a small bowl, melt the butter and stir in bread crumbs.  Top the stuffed mushrooms with bread crumb mixture.  Bake for 20-30 minutes.  When mushrooms sweat a bit and tops are crispy brown, they are done.

In the last three weeks I have been making lentil sprouts about once or twice a week.

I toss these in pretty much everywhere.

Amazing Sunday breakfast.

Brown rice, green beans, adzuki bean sprouts, kale, nutritional yeast and soy sauce.

For breakfast a few days a week, I have been having steamed kale or collard greens with grains and nutritional yeast and sprouts. Some mornings it quinoa, brown rice or oats.  Today it was cracked wheat.  Honestly, I have not photographed any on this because it may seem odd and it’s not a pretty dish. Besides, I don’t give myself enough time in the mornings to be taking photos.  It’s all about staying on time. This morning I had the time and took a photos of such craziness.

Cracked wheat, steamed kale, nutritional yeast, tahini and soy sauce.

Have you made any sprouts lately? They are very easy to make and are packed with some great nutrition stats!

Giveaway Winner: (Using random.org) is Jenn.

I planted arugula, kale and lettuce for our Fall garden last month.  It seems that the arugula is ready and I feel like I have almost been forgetting to get out there and well, EAT from our own garden.

Lacinato Kale

Roquette Arugula

Flashy Troutback Lettuce

I have honestly never heard of such a fancy named lettuce.  That is the surprise of growing it yourself I guess.  I also didn’t even realize that I would be able to plant and grow these this late in the season here in the North West.  I’m still learning, that’s for sure. I am very excited about the fancy Mr. Flashy Troutback though. (just seems like a guy’s name, right)

I think the lettuce and kale have a few more days to go so I picked the arugula for a salad this afternoon.

I had a simple salad with leftover beans and rice.  I am finding that I really like nutritional yeast.  I tried it last summer and wasn’t so sure.  I have been using it in sauces and dressings.  The other night I stirred about 1/3 cup in with brown rice, kidney beans and salsa. Let me just say, I was not expecting it to be as tasty as it was!

I must say, warm toppings for salads are my FAVORITE!

(topped with hemp seeds)

So, roquette arugula is very SPICY! I was definitely not expecting that.  Let’s just say I will be mixing it in with other greens from now on.

I almost couldn’t grab my camera fast enough to catch this little bit of amazement…

Nature is simply amazing! That’s all I have to say.