Mustard Tamari Stir Fry (serves 2)

2 tsp canola oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup snow peas, destemmed

1 cup broccoli florets, blanched

2 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks

1/2 cup baby corn

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 package tofu noodles (or about 4 oz noodles, cooked, drained and set aside)

3 Tbsp tamari

3 Tbsp dijon mustard

1 Tbsp arrowroot or corn starch

(1) In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and cook until onions begin to soften. (2) Add carrots and cook for about a minute. (3) Add broccoli and peas and cook until crisp-tender. Add corn and cook until heated through. (4) Stir together tamari, mustard and corn starch. (5) Add noodles to the pot, toss to mix, then add sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens (it won’t be like a paste, but it will be less like salad dressing when it’s done).

Date Coconut Cookies (2 dozen small cookies)

1 packed cup pitted medjool dates

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, broken into pieces

1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine (or if you have it, 1/2 cup coconut oil)

1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp agave syrup

1/2 cup coconut flour*

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup flaked coconut

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. (2) Place dates and chocolate in a food processor and process until finely chopped and well mixed. (3) Add agave and margarine and process until well combined. (4) Add flours, baking soda and salt and pulse until well mixed and holding together. Add coconut and pulse until fully mixed. (5) Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfulls onto the baking sheets. (6) Bake for ~12 minutes, until edges begin to brown. Remove from oven and let sit on the baking sheets for a couple minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

*I had some of this coconut flour left over too, but you could use regular flour instead (probably more like 3/4 cup wheat flour). Coconut flour is nice just because it adds some extra nutrition to whatever you’re baking, but it also soaks up more moisture so you have to be careful when switching proportions.

Asparagus Salad with lemon dressing (serves 8-12)

3 bunches asparagus, tough ends removed and cut in half

2 Tbsp avocado oil

3 Tbsp lemon juice

zest from one lemon

1/4 tsp salt

(1) Drop asparagus in boiling water and cook for about a minute, until crisp-tender. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking. (2) Stir together oil, juice, zest and salt. Toss with asparagus. Chill until ready to serve.

See what I mean about keeping it simple?

Garlic, Mushroom and Wild Rice Pilaf (serves 6)

1 cup wild rice

2 tsp olive oil

2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms

1/2 medium onion, diced

1/2 cup roasted garlic cloves

1/2 tsp salt

(1) Boil or steam rice until fully cooked (about 40 minutes), drain and set aside. (2) Heat oil in a skillet. Add onions and cook until translucent. (3) Add mushrooms to pan and saute, covered (stirring occasionally), until fully cooked. (4) Stir in roasted garlic and salt. (5) Pour mushroom picture over rice and toss to combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve, or serve warm.

This is a very large recipe (served probably about 12), so adjust accordingly (you can save extra dressing in a jar in the fridge, so if you make this amount it isn’t the end of the world).

Kale and Cashew Butter Salad (serves a crowd)

for the dressing:

1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp creamy, unsalted cashew butter

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp tamari

2 Tbsp whole grain dijon mustard

3-4 Tbsp water, to reach desired consistency

for the salad:

3 bunches curly kale, chopped

2 cups lettuce, chopped

5 cups sugar snap peas, halved (or chopped carrots, or whatever else you want)

(1) In a jar or bowl, stir together dressing ingredients until well combined and smooth. (2) Place all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with dressing. Ta-da!

Raw Key Lime Pie (from the Cafe Gratitude Cookbook – asking what the secret ingredient is and seeing if people can guess is a great party trick…)

Raw Strawberry Shortcake (also from Cafe Gratitude):

Also included (recipes to follow) was some citrus asparagus salad, a mushroom-garlic-wild rice pilaf and my favorite cashew butter salad (which I keep forgetting to post despite multiple requests for the recipe). It was basically a me/Northwest spin on smorgasbord (yes, there was salmon, never fear), so it it was pretty stress-free to serve (although for a while I was worried I wouldn’t finish making everything with time to set the table!)

Anyway, look for more recipes in coming days. That would be a very long post to include them all here…

But seriously: garlic. food of the gods. fights vampires. good for your digestion. delicious in just about everything. especially with a huge heaping plate of vegetables. I think I’ve been consuming about 2 cups of garlic a week (which is a lot, considering how small garlic cloves are). No mosquito bites, as of yet, so I guess there is that added benefit…

But really, garlic should be more of a main ingredient – roasted garlic is a wonderful way to do that. You can make it yourself (just wrap a whole head of garlic in foil and bake for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees) or buy it (I get it from the marinated olive bar when I’m too lazy to make it myself).

Vegetable Sautee with Roasted Garlic (serves 4 as a side, 2 as a main)

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, cut into half moons

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms

1 bunch broccoli raab

3 cups chopped curly kale

1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/3 cup roasted garlic cloves

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup packed basil, shredded

(1) Heat oil in a nonstick skillet. Add onions, cover, and cook stirring occasionally until they begin to become translucent. (2) Add minced garlic and mushrooms and cook, covered, until mushroom s begin to soften. (3) Add broccoli raab and continue to cook (cover again) until mushrooms are almost done. (4) Add kale, cook until wilted. (5) Stir in garlic cloves and tomato halves. Cook until tomatoes are nice and hot and starting to break down – it might be helpful to recover the skillet again. (6) Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with shredded basil on top of each serving – you can serve this as a side, over pasta or a grain, or just on its own.

Nutty, Crispy Peanut-Chocolate Cookies (~3 dozen cookies)

1/2 cup + 3 Tbsp peanut butter

1 2/3 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup soy or other nondairy milk (+ more if needed to moisten dough)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup amaranth flour

1 Tbsp tapioca or corn starch

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

(1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment. (2) In a large bowl, cream together peanut butter, sugar, vanilla, soymilk and oil. (3) In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to wet ingredients and mix until well combined, adding extra soy milk if needed to make dough stick together (it should not be as crumbly as typical peanut butter cookie dough, but not super wet either). (4) Stir in chocolate chips. (5) Drop rounded spoonfuls onto the baking sheets. Bake 15-20 minutes, depending on how large you make the cookies – they should be golden around the edges. (6) Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheets for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Honey-Peanut and Chocolate Protein Bars (18 bars)

2 1/2 cups rice protein powder

1 2/3 cups smooth peanutbutter

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

(1) Grease a 9″x13″ baking dish and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (2) In a large bowl, stir together peanutbutter, honey, brown sugar and vanilla. (3) Stir in protein powder until well mixed. (4) Pour mixture into the baking dish and smooth/press down with your hands evenly. (5) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until edges just start to appear golden.

(6) When completely cool, cut the bars into 18 even pieces (I did 6 across by 3 wide). (7) Melt chocolate in the microwave, and use a knife to coat each side. (best done when chocolate is not so melted that it is liquid) (8) refrigerate bars until chocolate is solid.

Store in an airtight container, preferably in the refrigerator (unless you have a fancy way of sealing them individually)