Picnicing Food

This is what we have been up to during our hot weather season ... besides garden work and mowing, swimming, and sitting in the air conditioned living room reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins. I have been moved by the book, I am halfway through it.

MY FOURTH OF JULY PICNIC
APPETIZER:
Cuke rounds. I made these for a snack one day and the thought came to my mind that this reminds me of a of food fat free vegan might do... cute, good for fingers, and tastey. I simply topped an ordinary slice of cucumber with Persian Hummous, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and topped with an organic raisin.

I also made my favorite broccoli salad, but used chunked pineapple in place of apple. The pineapple in it brought lits of compliments.

Matthew chopped a canteloupe to share.

Melissa made Dreena's Chocolate Hemp Squares, which didn't make it to the supper meal... everyone LOVED them and devoured them quite quickly I must add. Melissa was very pleased with the recipe. The only problem we had was our chocolate didn't set up right, so I think she added a bit to much liquid. But then HEY! Chocolate is chocolate, right!

CURRIED QUINOA PASTA SALAD
I got this recipe off the side of a quinoa pasta box. I have made it twice now and I have to say... a real indian curry powder is important. Mix all ingrdients well. Serves 4.
1 pkg cooked quinoa pasta 8 oz
2 Tbsp virgin olive oil
1/2 C each sour cream and mayo *sub info below
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
2 cloves minces garlic
1 green pepper chopped or add some red pepper, chopped for color
1/2 C chopped celery NOTE: 1 1/2 small diced ZUCCHINI works well also!
3 scallions chopped (or 1/4 C finely minced purple onion)
1/4 C parsley or other shredded fresh green
1/2 C currants
1/4 C sunflower seeds
*I used 1 cup of Bryanna's veggienaise made with lemon juice.... to me this to an excellent sub for sourcream and mayo. There is a free recipe on her website for this great homemade soy based mayo, go there vea my side bar and so a search. Making your own mayo allows it to be flavored and used the way you want and it is also an exceptional bargain!

GINGER GARLIC BURGERS
The recipe came from one of Bryanna's newsletters last summer. She is coming out with a seitan/ veggie meats e-book so I can't post it, but I have used this recipe successfully several times. It makes a great george grill burger in a hurry, freezes well, and the taste is strong so even on a big bun you don't need to add a bunch of sauce for flavor. A long time ago she came out with a garlic sausage buger style recipe... my favorite. In this picture you can see that I begin by placing a veg burger patty in a baking dish and pouring a broth over it. In the second picture you see the burgers after baking, they have soaked up the liquid. I always make 12 burgers at once and keep them when I need a fast something to eat. These calculate to a cost of $.23 cents a burgerfor me and a little effort to make/ bake them.

The burger below is on a great organic bun and is served with island BBQ sauce, red peppers, and lettuce. This is what I ate at the fourth picnic we had at my aunts. I typically grill my burgers in the george grill at home with a slice of onion, but these burgers do well on the ouside grill as you can see here and they stay together very well. The burgers are made from TVP, wheat gluten, besan chickpea flour, and various great tasting flavors.