Here's a sampling of some of my staple recipes that I cook most often. If you don't have most or all of this stuff in your kitchen then you probably should.
Something I just thought of that I really want to try now: get some Smart Balance peanut butter (it has only whole peanuts, and flaxseed oil, palm oil, salt, and molasses... no hydrogenated oils, high in omega-3 fatty acids) and a bar of extra dark chocolate and crack it up into chunks and mix it in the peanut butter. Close the peanut butter jar and hold it under your hot water tap while slowly rotating. Once it starts to seriously heat the peanut butter up, continuously toss the jar in the air while spinning it like a spiral on a football pass. After a couple minutes the chocolate will be blended into the peanut butter. We used to do this in jail with regular peanut butter and mashed up Kit Kats or Nestle Crunch or Reese's or any kind of candy. The Smart Balance PB and low sugar high cocoa dark chocolate sounds dizzank and fairly healthy for a junkfood snack. Especially on high fiber bread.
BOWL OF OATMEAL
2 cups oatmeal
1 hefty glob of fresh, high-quality honey
2 dashes of ground cinnamon
cow milk or unsweetened soymilk to taste
Mix oatmeal and milk in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes. Check consistency of the oatmeal, if it needs more milk add more and microwave for another minute. Check consistency once more and add enough milk to attain perfection (which in my opinion is thin and creamy). Add honey and cinnamon and mix thoroughly. Eat it quickly before it gets thick and sticky.
-- Preparation time: 5 minutes
STIR-FRY TEMPEH AND VEGETABLES
1 slab of tempeh
4 tbsp peanut oil, soybean oil, olive oil, and/or hemp oil (sometimes a blend is nice)
2-3 tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce
2 cups of assorted diced vegetables/fungus (recommendations: shiitake mushrooms, portabello mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, carrots, eggplant, broccoli, cucumbers, zuccini, brussels sprouts, baby corn)
1 tbsp freshly crushed garlic
fresh grated ginger or ginger paste to taste (1 tbsp?)
healthy sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper and/or dried cayenne pepper powder
(optional) hemp oil, flaxseed oil, Udo's Choice Oil Blend, Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Dice the tempeh up into 1/4" cubes, along with all of the vegetables. Heat oil in a wok or skillet at medium-high temperature. Add garlic, ginger, pepper. If you are adding onions, eggplant, or brussels sprouts then add them at the same time as the spices. Sautee until garlic begins to lightly brown. Toss the diced tempeh and the rest of any vegetables into the pan. Stir-fry (that means stir the food around as it fries). When approximately half of the tempeh cubes are caramel brown on ONE side, turn the heat off. Add soy sauce and splash the optional oil/aminos in, mix, and serve.
-- Preparation time: 10-20 minutes depending on how slow you are at cutting veggies and if you're talking on the phone while doing it.
SINO-INCA HIPPIE FUSION GRAIN SALAD
1/2 cup quinoa (ask at the store if you're supposed to wash it - some still has the natural saponins coating it, which taste soapy and make foamy bubbles until the coating's washed off)
1/2 cup long grain brown rice
1 can beets, drained and diced
1 handful of shredded dark leafy greens (spinach, mustard greens, swiss chard, and/or kale)
1/2 package of extra firm tofu, drained and diced ( definition of drained tofu can be found here:
http://chinesefood.about.com/cs/tof1/ht/draintofuhowto.htm )
1 tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp flaxseed oil
healthy sprinkling of fresh grated ginger
Search far and wide for a hippie grocery store that sells quinoa, and buy some. I like to buy packaged instant quinoa/brown rice, because I'm always too lazy to wash it and then cook it for half an hour.
Marinate the diced tofu in a bowl with the soy sauce, sesame oil, flaxseed oil, and ginger. Toast sesame seeds in a frying pan on medium heat for 3-5 minutes, while you cook the rice and quinoa as per directions on the box.
Mix the rice and quinoa together with all of the other ingredients in a vessel that you can put a tight cover on and let the heat/steam cook the veggies and tofu.
-- Preparation time: 20 minutes
HASTY CHICKPEA CURRY
2 x 16oz cans Goya chickpeas, drained
16oz can coconut milk
1 small yellow onion, diced
16oz can green peas, drained
3 large carrots, diced
3 hot chili peppers, finely diced
2 tbsp fresh grated ginger or ginger paste
1/4 cup unsalted butter or ghee
3 tbsp olive oil and/or hemp oil
1 tsp ground cumin seed
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground mustard seed
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Heat oil and butter/ghee in a huge skillet until butter's melted. Add all the spices, ginger, onions, and carrots. Fry for 2-3 minutes, then pour the coconut milk, chickpeas, and green peas in. Bring to the verge of boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Cook some rice to pour the curry over if you feel like it.
-- Preparation time: 30 minutes
NORI TUNA BURRITOS
2 nori sheets
1 can chunk light tuna, broken up a bit
splash Kikkoman soy sauce to taste
real wasabi powder/paste to taste (most "wasabi" is horseradish and green food coloring - but it tends to be the only kind you can get without ordering real wasabi online)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sesame seeds
Toast sesame seeds in a skillet on medium heat for 2 minutes. Heat oil in the same skillet and add tuna. Fry tuna until it begins to brown and then turn off the heat. Add soy sauce and wasabi and mix tuna thoroughly. Put half the tuna in each nori sheet and roll them up like burritos. Mmm.
-- Preparation time: 5 minutes
DANK EGG BAGEL SANDWICHES
1 whole wheat bagel (the more fiber or sesame/poppy seeds the better)
3 slices of organic tomato
2 chicken eggs
2 slices fat free american cheese
2 or 3 tbsp fat free cream cheese
black pepper to taste
If you don't have a toaster oven, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Scramble eggs in a bowl. Heat a skillet and pour eggs in. Cook them similar to an omelette, so they form a small square patty you can fit on the bagel. Toast the bagel. Flop the egg patty on the bagel, then layer the american cheese, then tomatos, then spread the cream cheese on the top half of the bagel. Sprinkle black pepper on the tomatos, put the top of the sandwich on, and put it in the oven until the cheese and tomatos are gooey and warm. Smoke a joint and enjoy.
-- Preparation time: 10 minutes
) and now I know better & check the labels .
