Dutch Oven Soy Chicken with Rice and Fresh Herbs

 I love cooking in my dutch oven.  It makes the food taste so good and it reminds me of camping. :)  

Tonight I made a soy chicken with rice and fresh herbs from my garden.  If you don't already know, soy chicken is seitan and has 20 grams of protein per serving.  It also has a really good meaty texture.  

 I used: 
1 container of soy chicken (West Soy brand)

1 cup long grain rice cooked in 2 cups water

fresh herbs (basil, thyme, and rosemary)

2 sticks of celery chopped

1 onion diced

3 cloves of garlic minced

salt and pepper to taste

basil flavored olive oil (from Raccanto)

1 cup bread crumbs

1 tablespoon vegan cream cheese (Toffuti)
For the garnish, I used butter lettuce and raspberry vinaigrette

You will want to start cooking your rice first, since it takes longer than anything else.  

Boil two cups water, add rice to the boiling water and let simmer for about 25 minutes.

I used fresh herbs from the garden.  This is my favorite part.  I love my garden! :)

 Chop the onion and mince the garlic.  Cook on medium heat until caramelized. 

 Chop the soy chicken, fresh herbs and celery.  

Mix those ingredients together.

 Add your soy chicken mixture with the onions and keep cooking on medium heat. 

 Once the rice is done, add to the soy chicken mixture.

Pour the mixture into your dutch oven.

Mix one cup milk with 1/4 cup flour.

Pour over the milk mixture over the soy chicken.

Mix the bread crumbs and vegan cream cheese together and spread over the dish.

Place in the oven at 375 degrees F for about 40 minutes with the lid on and 10 minutes with the lid off.

Take out of the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes.  Kind of looks like an apple pie, but taste nothing like one. :)

I garnished the plate with butter lettuce and raspberry vinaigrette.  The vinegar is a great compliment to this dish, and the butter lettuce makes for great lettuce wraps.  This was so amazing.  

Farmer's Market Beet Fries

I went to my local farmers market about two weekends ago and have been trying to figure out something unique to make with my beets and fresh garlic.  The idea to make beet fries popped in my head.  This is a super fun and tasty alternative to potato fries.

I used all local ingredients except the olive oil and pepper.  My salt even came from the Great Salt Lake. :)

I used:

6 beets

3 cloves garlic

salt (from the Great Salt Lake) and pepper to taste

basil (from my garden)

olive oil

slice the beets

chop three cloves garlic

 Put the beets, garlic, salt, pepper, basil, and olive oil in a bowl and mix with your clean hands.

Spread out the beet fries on a baking pan and place in the oven at 425 degrees F. for about 45 minutes, turning halfway through.

Taste a fry to make sure they are done, then take out of the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes.  

Enjoy!!

Lavender Orange Pound Cake with Strawberries (Vegan and Gluten-Free)

 This pound cake is so good!  I can't stop eating it!!  

I found the recipe in one of my e-mails from Susan Branch.  It's her Orange Lavender Polenta Cake.  I modified it a little to make it vegan and gluten free, and it turned out amazing!! 

 This is what you will need:

5 1/4 cups oat flour (I put oats in the food processor to make my oat flour) 

1 lb vegan butter ( I used Earth Balance)

2 1/4 cup super fine sugar (I used the lavender sugar from my last blog post)

2 teaspoons vanilla

6 eggs (I used egg replacer)

zest of four oranges

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1 1/2 cups fine polenta (put it in the food processor for about 1 minute to make fine)

3 tablespoons lavender

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional: Strawberries for topping.  It's really good by itself as well.

Cream room temp. butter and sugar until it turns almost white.

Mix in oat flour and vanilla.

Slowly add the eggs or egg replacer.

Fold in the orange zest, orange juice, polenta, lavender, baking powder, and salt.

Butter and flour your cast-iron pan and add the batter. 

Bake in the oven at 325 degrees F. for 45 minutes.  The muffin pans took about 35 minutes.

Let the pound cake cool for about 10 minutes.  I found this out the hard way.  The cooler the pound cake, the easier it will come out.  I took out the first batch super hot and some of the muffins broke, but the ones that I waited on came out perfect. :) 

You can devour as is, or top with fruit.  I put strawberries on top with store bought strawberry glaze.  Oh my goodness, I love this recipe.  It took quite a while to make, but is so worth it. 

Lavender Infused Sugar

This is super easy and fun to make.  I have always been in love with lavender and Victorian style.  Lavender sugar looks like it should be in a clean Victorian house. 

You will need:

3 cups sugar

3 tablespoons Lavender buds

In a re-closeable glass jar, pour in 3 cups sugar and 3 T. Lavender. 

 Close the lid and shake the bottle to mix.  Let this sit for about an hour with the lid sealed tight. 

After about an hour, add the ingredients into the food processor and blend until fine. 

Now you have lavender sugar.  Nummy.

My next post I will be making Lavender Orange Polenta Cake and will be using this sugar. :)