Healthy Baked Zucchini Fries

I made these back in the summer when I had ridiculous amounts of zucchini. While I had trouble figuring out what to do with it all, it was easier to use up than the ridiculous amounts of cucumber! Anyway, so one night I decided to try out battered and baked zucchini fries. A giant tray of them. The batter was quite thick, which adhered well to the zucchini but it was difficult to get an even application on all zucchini fries. I'm sure this will become easier with practice! These are a great healthier alternative to deep fried battered vegetables. I didn't add the recommended spices, but next time I'd definitely add some herbs like oregano or thyme.

Zucchini fry army.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Wheat Berry Salad with Zucchini and Mozzarella
Maple Mustard Glazed Potatoes and String Beans
Caribbean Roasted Vegetables
Warm Vegetable Salad with Sesame-Maple Dressing

Healthy Baked Zucchini Fries
Adapted from mcdeanna on VegWeb

Makes 3 to 4 servings

If you're making your own bread crumbs, toast the bread, let it cool, then run it through the food processor until you get crumbs. I do about 1 piece of bread per cup called for, but depending on the size of your bread you might need more or less.

4 cups whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 cup nondairy milk (I used unsweetened plain soy)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 zucchini, sliced into fries

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Prepare a baking tray with parchment paper or a Silpat mat.

2. Place bread crumbs in a shallow bowl. Set aside. Mix apple cider vinegar with nondairy milk. Stir and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes.

3. In another bowl, combine the flours, soy/vinegar mixture, salt and pepper.

4. Dip zucchini in wet ingredients. Then dip and cover zucchini individually into bread crumbs and place on baking sheet.

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

White Bean & Walnut Bruschetta

Okay I know I said several times how much I don't like beans, but now I keep posting bean recipes I like. Because I do like some beans or like them in some forms. I just can't imagine being a person who would enjoy some beans poured on top of a salad with nothing else done to them. But made into bruschetta like this? Yes yes yes. The vinegar, tomatoes, walnuts, garlic, thyme and fresh basil do something magical to the beans. I didn't want to share the leftovers with E. We ate it on top of some zucchini garlic bread I made, which I will post about soon.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Black Bean Confetti Salad
Back On Track Wheat Berry and Chickpea Salad
Triathalon Tostadas
Black Bean, Zucchini & Olive Tacos with Garlic-Lemon Yogurt

White Bean & Walnut Bruschetta
Adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan

Makes 4-6 servings

Crusty bread, sliced
1 cup cooked navy beans
2 tsp red wine vinegar
3/4 cup tomatoes, minced
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 425F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place bread slices on baking sheet and bake for 3-4 minutes to slightly toast. Remove from oven, but keep temperature at 425F, and let bread cool while preparing bean mixture. In a bowl, mash 1/2 cup beans with vinegar. Add remaining ingredients and mix to combine well. Once bread is cool, spoon mixture onto bread slices, portioning mixture as desired. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the topping is warmed through. Do not over bake, since the beans can dry out.

Thanksgiving! Featuring Sweet Potatoes with Pecans, Goat Cheese and Celery

I hope all the Canadians had a great Thanksgiving this past weekend! I was so ridiculously excited for Thanksgiving this year for some reason. My mom and I planned an epic feast with appetizers, punch, lots of of side dishes, and desserts. I'll be sharing the recipe for the sweet potato appetizer E made as it was my favourite new thing we tried. Looking at the photos on the camera now I see that some of them are actually quite blurry, but I wanted to eat and was taking them mostly for documentation purposes! :) Let's begin our journey through Thanksgiving 2011.

Appetizer - sweet potatoes with Thanksgiving on top. I ate way too many of these because they were so good, and then was worried I wouldn't be able to eat much at dinner. The topping was so flavourful and perfect for a holiday meal - shallots, celery, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and herbs. Next time I'd try to fit more topping on each sweet potato, though it's kind of difficult and messy. Will definitely make these again! I've included the recipe at the end of this post.

Appetizer - cranberry cheese phyllo parcels, made by my mom. I just tried to find the recipe online but couldn't. She got it out of a Canadian Living holiday magazine I think. They were really yummy!

Punch! I don't actually like punch and almost always drink water, but I thought punch would be fun and I wanted to make neat ice cubes. I was going to make an ice ring with frozen fruit inside, but then decided to use my Halloween pumpkin silicon muffin mould instead. Don't think you can really see the pumpkin ice cubes in this photo though.

The table ready for dinner. Roasted garlic mashed potatoes (yummy but needed more roasted garlic - maybe 6 heads next time?), brussel sprouts, and homemade cranberry sauce.

Beets, salad, baked cheesy cauliflower, vegan gravy, and vegetarian stuffing. I really need to post about that baked cheesy cauliflower sometime as it's a family favourite. I made the vegan gravy from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan because Angela said it was really good. It was alright but I've had better vegan gravy, like this shiitake one that I need to make again and then post about. (There was also turkey, meat gravy, and sausage stuffing.)

Vegan green bean casserole. I've been dying to try making this for so long. Unfortunately I didn't think it was that good. Maybe because the mushroom sauce wasn't that flavourful or there wasn't enough sauce? I used this recipe from Fat Free Vegan. I used 3 tbsp flour instead of 2, unsweetened plain soy milk instead of soy creamer, and omitted the sherry.

My plate! Yum yum yum. Going clockwise from the bottom left corner - vegan green bean casserole, vegetarian stuffing (YUM stuffing is my favourite), roasted garlic mashed potatoes with vegan gravy, beets, baked cheesy cauliflower, carrots, brussel sprouts, salad, and homemade cranberry sauce.

Dessert! My brother and sister-in-law made sex in a pan, which I've never had before so was really excited to try. And I made pumpkin cheesecake.

I was really happy with how the pumpkin cheesecake turned out. I won't pretend that I can always make cheesecake this well though. A lot of times it cracks and the edges are a bit rubbery. Not this time. It was perfection. So creamy. What I did differently is used mini cheesecake pans (so I baked them for a shorter amount of time) and used a water bath. I posted a bit more of the details on my original pumpkin cheesecake post.

And thus concludes Thanksgiving 2011. We brought home tons of leftovers and I'm so looking forward to eating them all week.

Sweet Potatoes with Pecans, Goat Cheese and Celery [a.k.a. Roasted Marshmallow-y Sweet Potatoes with Thanksgiving on Top]
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 pounds sweet potato, scrubbed, unpeeled, in 3/4- to 1-inch coins
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup toasted and cooled pecan halves
2 tiny or 1 small shallot
2 stalks celery
2 tsp herbes de provence (original recipe used 2 tbsp fresh parsley)
1 tablespoon dried cranberries
2 ounces firmish goat cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 450F. Coat a large baking sheet generously with olive oil, about 1 to 2 tablespoons. Lay sweet potatoes in one layer on the oiled sheet. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast, without disturbing, for 15 to 20 minutes. Carefully flip each piece: the undersides should be blistery, dark and a bit puffy and should release from the pan with no effort. If they’re not, let it cook longer. Sprinkle them with additional salt and freshly ground black pepper and return the pan to the oven for another 10-30 minutes or so, until the undersides match the tops. (Ashley note: E was the one that made these, and he said that he had to bake the sweet potatoes a lot longer than the recipe suggested so that's why I changed it to 10-30 minutes.)

Meanwhile, prepare your salad. Chop your pecans well, mince your shallot, chop your celery, mince cranberries. Crumble your goat cheese and stir it into the mixture. In a small dish, whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon Dijon. Pour over salad.

When the sweet potatoes are done, lay them on a serving platter. Scoop a spoonful of the salsa over each round. Eat immediately. (Ashley note: We baked the sweet potato earlier in the day and kept the salad separate, then reheated the sweet potato just before serving and topped with salad.)