HPAS Recipes for Earth Month

HPAS Parents Council–Uncategorized–

A small collection of recipes focusing on vegan and vegetarian, no cook, no or low use of powered appliances and other options to lower food waste and carbon footprints!

  • Daniel’s Salsa Brava
  • Daniel’s Salsa Verde
  • Overnight Oatmeals
    • Blueberry Earl Grey
    • Chocolate Peanut Butter
    • Blackberry Mojito
    • Cinnamon Roll
  • Daniel’s Medicine Balls
  • Carrot Cake Cupcakes
  • “Dirt” Smoothies
  • Martha’s Anastasia’s Crispy Fried Tofu
  • Rainbow Mashed Veggies

Daniel’s Salsa Brava

NO COOK – VEGAN – NO ELECTRIC APPLIANCES

Step 1:

  • Chile de Arbol (3 oz)
  • Cloves (1 tsp)
  • Black Pepper (1 tsp)
  • Salt (1 tsp)
  • Cloves of Garlic (8-10 cloves)
  • Bay Leaves (2 leafs)
  • Oregano (2 tbsp)
  • Vinegar (1/2 cup)
  • Abuelita Chocolate (1/4 of a pie)

Take all ingredients above and blend them.  Sieve it with strain and hand press.

Step 2:

  • Water (1/2 cup)

Add ¼ cup of water and blend all ingredients again and sieve it with strain and hand press. Then add the last ¼ cup of water and blend all ingredients again and sieve it with strain and hand press.

Daniel’s Salsa Verde

NO COOK – VEGAN – NO ELECTRIC APPLIANCES

  • Tomaillos (3 medium sized ones)
  • Cloves of Garlic (4-6 cloves)
  • Fresh Jalepeno Pepper (2 medium peppers)
  • Cilantro (1 handful)
  • Salt (1/2 tsp)

Blend all ingredients with 1/8 cup of water.

Overnight Oatmeal

NO COOK – VEGETARIAN/VEGAN – NO ELECTRIC APPLIANCES (for most)

You can make oatmeal using time instead of heat to allow the grain to absorb enough water!  You just mix ingredients in a container with a lid, and put it into the fridge overnight.

These are especially nice in the summer, when a hot breakfast might not be appealing.  (And it’s great for folks who aren’t morning people, since all the prep happens the night before, and in the morning it’s just ready.)  You can of course heat it up, if warm oatmeal is preferable – It will still use less energy, because you aren’t cooking to absorb liquid, just heating to a preferred temperature.

Blueberry Earl Grey

This one involves a bit of heat energy, but it’s a favourite at our house.

Heat 2/3 cup vanilla oat milk and steep with a bag of Earl Grey tea.

Add the oat milk to 1/2 cup rolled oats, add 2/3 cup blueberries.  Let sit overnight in the fridge.  Stir and add sweetener of your choice to taste.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

Mix 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1T chocolate flavoured protein powder, 1T peanut butter (or sunflower butter), 1/4 tsp vanilla and 1/2 cup oat milk.  Sweeten if needed.

This one can require a lot of stirring to get the peanut butter to mix evenly.  Adding the oat milk in two stages can help.  (For big chocolate lovers you can also chop up 1T of chocolate chips and add that.)  Let sit overnight in the fridge.  Stir and enjoy!

Blackberry Mojito

Mix 1 cup blackberries, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup oat milk, 2T minced mint leaves, zest from 1/2 a lime, 1T agave syrup or other sweetener.  Let sit overnight in the fridge, stir and enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll

Mix 2/3 cup oat milk, 1/3 cup rolled oats, 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt or vegan yogurt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp allspice, and let sit overnight in the fridge.  In the morning stir in 1T chopped walnuts or pecans.

As you can see the flavour combinations go on.  Once you get a feel for the rolled oats to liquids ratio you can try a lot of different flavour combos.

These recipes are from (or are modified versions of recipes from) Oatrageous Oatmeals, which you can borrow from the Toronto Public Library.

Daniel’s Medicine Balls

NO COOK – VEGAN/VEGETARIAN

Not to be confused with the Starbucks tea drink, these are a no cook energy ball: just mix everything together and roll into a shape like a ping pong ball, or a bit smaller.

  • 1 cup of Tahini
  • 0.5 cups of Almond butter
  • 1 cup of honey or maple syrup (vegan)
  • 1 tbsp of Gotu Kola Herb
  • 1 tbsp of Ginkgo Leaf Powder
  • 1 tbsp of Ginseng Root Siberian Powder
  • 1 tbsp of Astragalus root powder (Astragalus membranaceus)
  • 0.5 cup of carob powder (please adjust for texture and flavour)
  • 1 cup of grated coconut
  • 0.5 cup of slivered pecans
  • 0.5 cup of carob chips
  • 2 tsp. of cardamom to taste

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

VEGAN

  • ⅔ cup flour
  • ¾ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
  • ⅓ cup soy yogurt (vanilla or plain)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup finely grated carrots
  • ¼ cup chopped walnuts
  • ¼ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl mix sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt and vanilla.  Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.  Mix until smooth.  Fold in carrots, walnuts and raisins.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3s.  Bake for 26-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.

“Dirt” Smoothies

VEGAN – NO COOK

Would it really be “Earth” Day if we didn’t feed the kids dirt?

  • 1 cup oat, almond or rice milk
  • ½ cup frozen raspberries or strawberries
  • 1 handful of baby greens (spinach, swiss chard, kale)
  • 1 scoop of chocolate or vanilla protein powder or 1 Tbsp cocoa powder with a little sweetener of choice
  • 1 cup ice

Mix above ingredient together in a blender or with a hand blender.  Pour into glasses.  Then make topping:

  • 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 Tbsp hulled unsalted seeds (hemp, flax or ground sunflower, almond meal)
  • 1 Tbsp chopped chocolate

Chop/grind if the seeds or chocolate pieces are large, until you have a rough, dirt-like mixture.  Use it to top your drink (and you can even stick a leaf or two of your leafy green on top as garnish that looks like a plant sprout).

Martha’s Crispy Tofu (Recipe Stolen and Modified by Anastasia)

VEGAN – GF

  • 1 block Extra Firm Tofu
  • Marinade:
  • 1-3 Tbsp Sriracha to taste
  • 2-3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
  • *Optional, granulated garlic, unsalted onion powder to taste
  • ½  cup or so of “Fish Crisp” packaged breading – available at grocery stores or even Canadian Tire!  (or in a pinch, use  a mixture of your favourite  bread crumb/cornmeal/ panko coating)
  • 2 Tbsp cooking oil or oil spray canister

Oven @ 350 deg F. or air fryer (air fryer temps vary so use your judgement)

  1. Remove tofu and rinse. Press excess water from tofu with a weight or full kettle for at least 1 hr.
  2. Cut tofu in at chunky cubes 1.25 cm or a bit larger.
  3. Add cubes to the dish you will use for marinade. Add Siriacha and Maple Syrup and make sure all cubes are in contact with the marinade.
    Put it in fridge overnight or longer.
  4. Oil cooling rack and place rack on cookie sheet lined with foil.
  5. Dredge cubes in “Fish Crisp” and place on the cooling rack.
  6. Use oil spray or a brush dipped in oil and add a tiny drip to each cube.
  7. Preheat oven to 350  and place tofu on the top rack.
  8. Bake for 15 min then remove and flip cubes over.
  9. Return to the oven for another 12 -15 min.

Add to salads, wraps etc…

Rainbow Mashed Veggies

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN – USES STUFF UP – FUN TO MAKE WITH KIDS

This recipe is more of a concept to use up bits of leftover things.

The base is mashed potatoes, which you then add another cooked vegetable to, to change the colour and flavour.

Beets make pink (very little) or magenta, and make the dish slightly sweeter.

Sweet potatoes or carrots make orange.

Parsnip and cauliflower don’t change the colour much, but can change the flavour.

Broccoli (especially the stalk) or fresh herb mixtures can give you green.

Roasted peppers will give you paler yellow, green, orange or red, with a strong flavour change.

And so on … you can really use up almost any veggie or herb this way (and, of course, add salt, garlic, etc …)

If you’re feeling fancy you can make three or more colours and present it by piping arcs to make a rainbow (pancake batter bottles or large funnels will tend to work better than icing bags unless you have very large tips).