Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing and Pizza Dough Bread Sticks

 I try to make all my sauces and dressings from scratch myself, in an attempt to eat less processed food. Often what I come up with taste better than anything you can buy on a store shelf. So to me it's worth the extra time and effort. Here is a pretty good dressing I like to use. It is really more of a summer dressing but I was craving it.


For the Dressing:

1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated garlic
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tea spoons cornstarch
1/2 cup soft tofu
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions: In a sauce pan, combine all ingredients except the tofu and sesame seeds. Bring mixture to a simmer or medium-high heat, stirring often until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature, stirring every so often to keep from getting gelatinous. In a small mixing bowl,beat the tofu with a whisk until creamy. Once the orange mixture is cool add to the tofu and whisk until blended well, then add the sesame seeds. I save all my jars and reuse them for dressing and sauces.


Pizza Dough Bread Sticks:

1 package of pizza dough. I usually use Trader Joe's or Pepe's
1 tablespoon olive oil
Garlic powder
nutritional yeast

Directions: Tear small pieces off  and roll them between your palms while pressing. Lay them out on a baking sheet. Lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with the garlic powder and nutritional yeast. Bake according to package temperature until they are puffed up and golden.

For the salad I used and organic herb mix and tossed in whatever veggies I had at the time. I topped it with some grilled vegan chickn' cutlets that I cut in to strips. I'm not sure of the brand they were given to us from our friends who took a trip to New York and came back stocked up on vegan goodies. They were pretty tasty though

Healthy Vegetable Miso Soup

My kitchen pantry was pretty bare when I made this soup, but sometimes when you throw together whatever you have you end up being pleasantly surprised. The ingredients in this soup are some of my basic kitchen staples, which you may not have on hand. I highly recommend that you add miso paste and the grain mix from Trader Joe's to your kitchen staples. Miso paste is is full of vitamins, minerals, and protein.  It has also been linked to preventing breast cancer in some studies. There are many different types of miso, so explore your options. I prefer Barley miso and that is what I used here. Another great thing to have in your kitchen is a mix of grains. I usually grab a bag of Harvest grains from Trader Joe's. I can't remember what it is called but I took a picture of what it looks like before it is cooked. It is really healthy and great for soups. I use it in a lot of soups. I also keep a variety of frozen vegetables in the winter.

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil

4 tbs minced garlic (Yes, I use a lot of garlic)
3 cups water
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
2 tbs barley miso paste
1 1/2 cups of harvest grain mix
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp mustard powder
1 cup frozen black eyed peas
2 cups frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen green beans
1 can mushrooms


Directions: In a  large stock pot on medium low heat add your oil and garlic. Saute' till golden stir often so it does not burn. Add your water and vegetable broth cubes. Raise the heat to get the water to boil in order to dissolve the cubes. Once dissolved add your miso pasted and mix well, then add the grains, spices, and frozen black eyed peas.

Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for approximately 30 minutes, stir occasionally. Once the grains and peas are cooked thoroughly add all vegetables. If the most of the water absorbed add more so that there is some broth to the soup. Let cook another 15 minutes. Serve hot.