Spinach Waffles and Eggs

We love these waffles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Although the recipe is written for spinach, feel free to use kale, collards, chard, or beet greens and if you have less than the recipe calls for that’s fine — we love it with 2 cups and it’s equally delicious with 1 cup.

Serves: 4

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

1/2 lb cremini mushrooms

black pepper

olive oil

For the waffles:

1 cup all purpose flour (optional Gluten Free: We recommend Minimalist Baker’s Flour Mix with Xanthan Gum)

1/2 cup oats blended to a rough flour (gf option, option to use oat flour)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp coconut sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cup almond milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice)

2 cups chopped spinach

For the scrambled eggs (substitute tofu if you like):

4 large eggs

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Serve with:

Sriracha (optional)

Almond ricotta (We like Kite Hill)

Vegan butter (We like Miyoko’s) (optional)

Maple syrup (optional)

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Preheat waffle iron.

Mix the dry ingredients for the waffles in a large bowl. Mix the eggs, olive oil, and non-dairy milk in a smaller bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir to just combine. Add the spinach to the batter and fold in. Leave to rest while the waffle iron preheats. When it is hot start making waffles. Anne’s waffle maker makes two large waffles with four quarters with this amount of batter. Their waffle iron does not need be greased, but feel free to add oil if yours needs it. These waffles may take longer to cook than a standard waffle because the spinach releases a lot of liquid. We like to check on our waffles once the steam dissipates, but we often cook them longer because we like a crisp waffle.

While the waffles are cooking, cut the mushrooms into thin strips and sauté with some olive oil for about 15 minutes until soft and slightly browned. In the last five minutes of cooking, pepper the mushrooms generously.

Scramble as much egg as you need for the current meal, we like an egg per serving. Whisk all the “for the scrambled eggs” ingredients in a small bowl. Preheat a large frying pan with some olive oil to medium or medium high heat. Pour in the egg and scramble to your liking.

Anne and Camille assemble this in different ways. Feel free to try one of ours, or make your own!

Anne skips the butter and layers the waffles with first mushrooms, then the scrambled eggs, and then sprinkles the ricotta cheese and tops with hot sauce. This gives a spicy/creamy effect as the hot sauce and the cheese interact.

Camille butters the waffles, then spreads the ricotta cheese thickly on top of that and tops with mushrooms and eggs. She often skips the hot sauce and sometimes tops with maple syrup. This is a buttery, creamy, sweet, and savory experience.

We would love to hear some of your creations in the comments. Enjoy!

Frozen Foods

Our intention with this blog is to share the food that we eat regularly. Posting our recipes online serve as a recipe box where we can easily find things we want to make again and we can share our creative selves with our family, friends, and friends we have not met yet. While this post isn’t a recipe of food from scratch, we do want to share some of our favorite frozen foods. In doing so, we want to normalize eating frozen food as well as give recommendations for allergy friendly frozen foods.

One of the stories that we soaked in from society is that there is ‘good’ food and ‘junk’ food. The terms ‘plant based’, ‘fresh’, and ‘natural’ are often used to mean ‘good’. At the same time, anything that has been ‘processed’, has sugar in it, or has been demonized in the diet de-jour is called ‘junk’ food. There is also a strong connection between foods that are labeled ‘junk’ and foods that are readily available and more accessible. Knowing this, what does it mean when we conflate a person’s value with the foods they eat?

It has been incredibly healing for us to learn that food is actually morally neutral. Although we tried for many years, it turned out we were never able to eat our way into being ‘good’. Reducing food to its nutritional ‘value’ and demonizing food that doesn’t meet the diet-culture rules of the moment strips it of all of the other ways that food can nourish us.

One of our dear friends and amazing community organizer Dan Lynn (DoBetterConsulting) talks about paying attention to what your body is wanting in this very concrete way: What textures would bring you pleasure? Do you want cold foods or hot foods? Do you want something sweet, salty, sour, savory? Having access to different foods that bring us pleasure and keeping them on hand has been so useful to us in learning how to trust and befriend our bodies. Today we will talk about 3 frozen foods that Anne likes to keep in their freezer.

First up are ‘potato puffs’ (a food definitely not commonly referred to as tater tots as this is a trademark of Ore-Ida). I especially enjoy Alexia brand potato products. These Alexia brand ‘Yukon Select Puffs’ contain “organic potatoes, organic vegetable oil (canola, sunflower, safflower), sea salt, organic cornflower, organic dehydrated potato, organic apple juice concentrate” (as of 10/2/2020). These are currently gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, and vegan, however Alexia brand recommends checking the ingredients each time you purchase their product as the ingredient list indicates the current contents and they may change. Many brands make a ‘potato puff’ product similar to these, however if you think you will be serving these to folks with allergies we recommend checking the ingredients closely as many seasonings include wheat and dairy. Alexia brand’s particular preparation of potatoes reminds me of the frozen hash-browns my father would keep around when they were on sale. They were soft on the inside and crisp on the outside, and honestly, I love potatoes anyway they are prepared.

My recent favorite is tossing these ‘puffs’ in creole seasoning when they are fresh and hot out of the oven. Creole seasoning is available from many spice brands or there are a bunch of recipes to make it yourself on the internet. I like to make it myself because I can control the spice level and allergen exposure. I haven’t tried them tossed in our ranch powder yet, but I look forward to that adventure!

The next frozen food I love is these frozen samosas. You might notice a potato trend here, but what can I say? Potatoes are amazing. Samosas are a food that I have tried to make from scratch but mine didn’t turn out well and I didn’t enjoy the experience of frying them. When it comes to foods that are traditionally deep fried, I often feel this way. These samosas have a crisp pastry outside and a generous filling of spiced potatoes and peas. The chutney that comes with them tastes bright and herbaceous. I am a big fan of eating at Indian restaurants, and, for me, this is the next best thing. This brand of frozen samosas has the following ingredients (as of 10/2/2020): Potatoes, Wheat Flour, Water, Sunflower Oil, Green Peas, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: sesame oil, soya bean oil, palm oil), Spices, Salt, Green Chillies, Coriander Leaves CHUTNEY: Water, Mint Leaves, Sugar, Dates, Tamarind, Coriander Leaves, Green Chilies, Salt, Spices.

Feel Good Foods makes several varieties of potstickers which are all gluten free! I love the vegetable ones which are also vegan, the ingredients as of 10/2/2020 are: cabbage, water, rice flour, onions, tapioca starch, carrots, vermicelli (potato starch, mung bean starch, and water), canola oil, corn starch, scallion, sesame oil, mushrooms, salt, cane sugar, konjac flour, xantham gum, ginger, yeast extract, black pepper. The dipping sauce contains: tamari soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt, sugar), sugar, distilled vinegar, garlic puree, ginger puree, citric acid, and spice. When I cook these, I mostly follow the instructions on the box however tweak them a little bit: I like to steam the dumplings for just 10 minutes and then take the lid off for the last 2 minutes so they start to get a crust on them instead of being soft all the way through.

I like these potstickers because they have a variety of flavors and textures going on. The filling is umami and the dipping sauce has a salty sweet flavor. The wrappers, where steamed, have a delightful chewiness to them and on the bottoms they are crispy and delicious.

We want to acknowledge that the branding on this box contains food moralizing that makes us uncomfortable. Food is not good or bad, and you cannot become a good or bad person by eating certain types of food. If this doesn’t make sense to you, we’d love you to sit with the question “who profits from you believing that you need to eat certain foods in order to be good”?

Mushroom Gravy

Fall cozy food season has arrived here and we are loving this crowd favorite mushroom gravy. It is creamy, umami, and pairs well with mashed potato, roasted cauliflower, and cranberries.⁠

Makes: 20 oz

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Most of a head of roasted garlic (you can save a couple of cloves to eat on bread or use the whole head)

1 1/4 cups hot vegetable broth (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup mashed potato or 1/2 of a medium waxy potato, roasted or boiled (if you can’t eat nightshades, parsnips work well as a replacement for the potato)

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Saute the mushrooms until browned, over medium heat, about 20 minutes, adding pepper after 15 minutes.

In a blender, combine all the ingredients including the cooked mushrooms. Blend until smooth. For a thicker gravy, add more potato. Season to taste.

Mushroom Stew

Growing up, one of my favorite meals was the beef stew that my father made. His stew took several hours of simmering to soften the beef, but this vegetarian version only takes 1 hr. This stew reminds me of all the great parts of the stew from my childhood. It is filling, has lots of veggies for different flavors and textures, and really warms me up on a cold and rainy day. The addition of halved garlic cloves not only reduces prep time, it also provides a sweet and garlicky surprise every couple of bites. If you don’t love garlic the way we do, feel free to mince it to reduce its prominence, or omit it entirely.

Like many of our recipes, this recipe is quite flexible. You could omit the onions and garlic if that is your preference. Potatoes could be replaced with parsnips if you are sensitive to nightshades. And white beans or chickpeas could easily be added (either blended into the liquid or chunky) for more protein. Let us know in the comments how you alter it, and how it turns out!

Serves: 6

Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

olive oil

4 cups cremini mushrooms (11 oz)

1 onion (11 oz)

6 cloves garlic, halved

3 carrots (1/2 lb)

4 potatoes (2 lb)

1 tsp dried thyme

pinch of red pepper flakes

1 1/2 tsp salt

5 cups veg stock (gluten-free option, soy-free option)

1/2 tsp pepper

1 bay leaf

1 cup peas (frozen)

1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed and thinly sliced

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

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Slice and saute the mushrooms until browned, over medium heat, about 20 minutes, adding pepper after 15 minutes. In a large soup pot, saute the chopped onions and carrots in olive oil until starting to soften about 14 minutes. Add cubed potatoes, halved garlic cloves, veg stock, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, thyme, pepper flakes, and bay leaf. Bring it to a boil, turn down to a simmer and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Put the cooked mushrooms in a blender with 3 chunks of potato from the soup. Add hot veg stock from your soup until you cover the mushrooms and chunks of potato. Blend until smooth. Pour this back into the pot of stew and add apple cider vinegar, peas, and kale. Stir to combine new ingredients and simmer for 5 more minutes or until peas are hot and greens are wilted. Enjoy!