AUTUMN'S BOUTY IN A GREAT DINNER PRESENTATION.

The Fall veggies are here and it's time to celebrate the Autumn season!!!
Roasting them brings out their flavor and they are yummy this way. I mixed together 2 of the Sunshine Breakfast patties and 2 cups of some cooked Lundberg Family Farms Country Rice Blend to stuff the squash. I started with a red kuri squash and cut the top off, and scooped the pulp and seeds out of the center. I cut a little slice off the bottom of the squash so it would sit flat when I placed it in a casserole dish.
Next fill the squash with the rice and veggie burger mixture and place the top back on the squash. Place some red potatoes around the squash and season with salt and pepper and BRAGG'S Herb Seasoning blend. Drizzle the veggies with some melted veggie butter or olive oil and cover with a lid or some foil. Next trim some brussel sprouts and place in a separate casserole dish and also drizzle lightly with your favorite oil and salt and pepper. Put the two casserole dishes in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Take out the brussel sprouts and turn the oven up to 425 degrees and uncover the squash and potatoes and continue roasting till golden, about 15-20 more minutes. Place veggies on a nice platter and Ahhhhh!!!!!! Celebrate Autumn's beautiful harvest!!!!!!

Need a break from bread? Try some Sunshine Falafel Lettuce wraps :)

I wanted something very crisp and light and freshing that was tasty and nutritious so I made these Sunshine Falafel lettuce wraps and everybody just loved them!!!!! I usually don't buy iceburg lettuce but I found this organic dark green head at Publix Market and I was craving the crispiness that iceberg lettuce has! I never really was a bread buff so I usually made sandwiches using tortilla wraps. When I saw this big organic crispy head of lettuce, my brain started thinking about using the dark green outer leaves to make wraps. Yea...great idea..!!!! I got started by heating one Falafel Sunshine Patty in a small fry pan. Then I got 3 outer lettuce leaves off the head of lettuce and laid them out and put some tahini sauce inside near the base (my recipe for this is on the side of the Sunshine Falafel box).
Next, go get the Sunshine Falafel Patty out of the pan and cut it into 3 finger like slices. Place each piece near the base of the lettuce leaf and place a slice of garden fresh tomato on top. Drizzle on some more tahini sauce and top with a bunch of alfalfa sprouts(homegrown are the best) and shredded carrots. Roll up each lettuce leaf and place a tooth pick in it to help hold it together. Each wrap is the size of your fist and is such a great hand held food. You don't need potato chips to satisfy your crispy cravings!!!!! Munch on ....Sunshine Lettuce Falafel wraps!!!!

Make

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Look at Ziva getting help !!!!!!!

I volunteer at the Marine Science center taking care of injured rescued sea turtles. Ziva was injured so bad by a motor boat that it cut her head badly and ruined one of her ears. From this she had lost her sense of equilibrium and she was laying in the water sideways. She then got panic attacks and began splashing around going crazy. Michelle, one of the biologists the center put a life vest on her to help her feel a sense of balance again. She is now very happy and swimming around in her pool getting stronger everyday. That a girl....Ziva.....looking good !!!!!!

Panini sandwiches makes any meal special !!!!

A panini grill can turn a sandwich into a special meal because because sandwiches are so yummy with the grilled crust on the outside. Since tomatoes and zucchini are still coming from the gardens I used them in my panini along with a Garden Herb Sunshine Burger and some fresh organic spinach and some Follow Your Heart Mozzarella vegan cheese. Start by grilling the Sunshine Burger by itself. Take it off and cut some fresh zucchini into diagonal slices and salt and pepper them. Oil the grill and grill these next. Put the sandwich together with the bread and the burger, the grilled zucchini, a slice of fresh tomato (I used an orange one) some spinach leaves and some slices of the veggie cheese. I used some pumpernickel bread but your favorite bread would work as well. I then spread some veggie butter on the outside of the bread and into the panini grill it goes to brown. I actually don't have a panini grill so I used my George Foreman instead. It is a little tricky but it will do the trick! Panini grills work better because the back is hinged so it fits a thicker type of food inside.
Paninis are so much fun to make and eat !!!!

Have a weekend or holiday fancy vegan Breaakfast Brunch!

Make this really fancy Breakfast Brunch with little mini vegan quiches made from Sunshine Breakfast Patties. I used Organic Mini shells by the Filo Factory for my quiches. If you are gluten free you can make them without using the filo shells. I also put some Cascadian Farms Organic Spud Puppies on the platter. I made some fresh fruit kabobs and then placed some gluten free bagels made from millet flour in a basket. I bought the bagels from www.Delandbakery.com. To make these mini quiches, finely chop one bell pepper and one shallot and saute with some olive oil. Mash a block of tofu in a bowl with a fork and add some salt and pepper, and 1/2 tea. turmeric. Break up 2 defrosted Sunshine Burger Breakfast Patties into the bowl and stir everything together. I filled the mini filo cups with this mixture. If you are gluten free, oil some mini muffin tins and fill them with the mixture instead. You can add some of your favorite veggie cheese to the top and then bake at 375 degrees till browned for about 25 minutes. This makes 24 little mini Quiches. Put the spud Puppies in the oven with the mini quiches and while they bake make the fresh fruit kabobs and put the bagels in the basket. Set up the table for a beautiful delicious Breakfast Brunch....Enjoy !!!!!!

The Baby Sea Turtles are Hatching !!!!!!

All summer long the mother sea turtles walk out of the sea struggling with their big heavy bodies on land crawling to the dunes to dig a hole and bury their eggs. In August and September the eggs hatch and the babies crawl out of the hole in the night . The moon is over the sea this time of the year and they follow the moonlight to the ocean. Because they are so tiny and everything wants to eat them, only one in a thousand survive to adulthood. Once in the ocean they try to make it to the floating sea weed grass by the gulf stream to hide. Sea turtles need to surface about every two hours to breathe air. There are about 5 basic species of sea turtles.
The ones in the photos are leatherbacks which are blackish in color and live far off shore and are the largest. Leatherbacks can grow to be up to eight feet long !!!!
Three days after the eggs have hatched and the babies walked to sea we check the nest with the turtle patrol.. We carefully hand dig out the nest and check for any more babies who couldn't find thier way out to the top. We found two left this time.
All the sea turtles are now endangered because people have eaten so many. The most abundant varieties left are the green turtles which are named green because they become vegetarians at adulthood. I presently volunteer at the Marine Science Center working to save rescued sea turtles that have been injured by motor boats, fishing gear, etc. Not all of them recover, but lots of them get well and it is so exciting to see them get released back home to the sea!!!!! I must say......they are such beautiful and amazing creatures!

Check Out this Easy Stuffed Pita.......:)

This is so easy to make. I love garnishing the plate with fresh raw veggies from my local farmer's market. I stuffed the pita with a garden herb Sunshine Burger(defrosted) with some left over mashed potatoes and some fresh bean sprouts and some frozen mixed organic veggies. Add some cheese or veggie cheese like follow your heart and wrap in foil and bake in a 400 degree toaster oven for 35 to 45 minutes. Wow...this is an easy hand held meal !

Delicious Knishes!

I love making these......delicious knishes, using left over mashed potatoes, and spinach, and Sunshine Burgers. You can use any of your favorite Sunshine Burgers and I used the Sunshine Breakfast Patties. The dough for the knishes is biscuit dough. For convenience you can use the all natural refrigerated biscuit dough in the tube by Immaculate. If you want to avoid wheat or dairy you can take your favorite biscuit recipe and sub millet flour for wheat flour and change the milk and butter to vegan choices. Arrowhead Mills makes great millet flour.
To get started, roll each biscuit into a seven inch circle on a floured surface.
Scoop some mashed potatoes that have been mixed with some veggies in the middle of the circle. You can add some Daiya cheese on top of the potatoes and some Organicville Ketchup and then top with a defrosted Sunshine Burger. Pull the outer edges of the biscuit dough over the burger to enclose the knish. Turn them over and place on a cookie sheet. Cut some air holes in the top and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven till browned, about 25 to 30 minutes. They look so awesome when they come out of the oven....Nice!

Everybody loves Enchiladas!!!!

Here's a real easy way to make really tasty enchiladas. Defrost some South West Sunshine Burgers. Each Sunshine Burger makes two good sized Enchiladas. To make the filling, break as many burgers you want into a bowl and add equal parts of some left over cooked brown rice. I used Lunberg's Country Wild rice blend. Next, I opened a can of organic tomatoes and the ones by Bionatuae' are my favorite. Pour these into a skillet and add some chili powder and cumin powder and salt and pepper to taste.
Simmer for 5 minutes. Then place one "Food For Life" corn tortilla at a time to soften in the sauce and quickly take it out to add the veggie filling. Roll this up and place closed side down in a casserole dish. Repeat till you are done with the filling. Top these rolled tortillas with the tomatoes mixture from the fry pan and top with your favorite cheese or veggie cheese like Diaya. Bake at 375 degrees till browned. About 25 minutes depending on your size of your enchilada casserole.
I served these enchiladas with some salad and corn on the cob from Adams Fairacre Farms. I bought the corn at Adam's farm market when I was coming back from NY because it was right next to the airport!
Easy tasty meal........full of flavor!!!! Olay o lay!!!!!

An indoor BBQ veggie plate.

Here's a delish BBQ dinner that can easily be made inside. Put plenty of raw fresh veggies on the plate, like greens, sprouts, tomatoes, cukes, and carrot and celery sticks. Top the greens with some mac salad made with your favorite pasta and vegenaise. Brown a BBQ Sunshine
Burger in a fry pan and set aside.
Cut two slices of bread into circles and fill with your favorite veg cheese and grill in the fry pan like a grilled cheese sandwich. When the bread is browned on both sides, open it up and place the BBQ Sunshine Burger in the middle with some BBQ sauce. Quick and easy!

Summer Harvest Stew...veggies so sweet and light and tasty!!!

Thanks to my Mom who made this summer stew when the garden was so full of summer squashes and tomatoes which make it taste out of this world!

To make the veggie balls defrost some Sunshine Burgers and cut them into four pie shaped pieces. Roil each piece into a ball. Brown the veggie balls in a fry pan with a little bit of oil. Set aside.

To make the stew chop a fresh green bell pepper with an onion and some garlic. Saute' in a sauce pan with some oil till golden. Peel some fresh red ripe tomatoes and add them to the sauce pan with some bite size pieces of summer squash and potatoes. Nice summer squashes are yellow squash, zucchini, and patty pan. Add salt and pepper to the pot and cover and simmer till tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Ladle the Summer Harvest Stew into bowls and top with the browned veggie balls.

If your using the South West variey of Sunshine Burgers to make the veggie balls, add some fresh jalopenos to the stew when sauteing the peppers in the beginning.

Enjoy the summer's bounty! So sweet and light and tasty! Thanks Mom!

Zesty vegan gluten free super supper!!!

This meal is so easy to make. Get out some fancy plates and put some clean fresh raw spinach leaves on the plates. Grill some South West Sunshine Burgers and sliced patty pan squash.
Cook some brown rice pasta and drain. To make the sauce for the pasta: get out a small sauce pan and simmer 1 cup of salsa with some veggie butter and a half a cup of water for 10 minutes.
Dissolve a tablespoon of corn starch or arrowroot flour in a cup of water and add this plus 1/3 cup of tahini to the salsa in the pot and simmer for a few minutes. Nicely plate everything on top of the fresh spinach. Garnish with some fresh chopped tomatoes and peppers and serve. Super supper is served!!!

Oriental Sunny Salad...try something different!

This salad reminds me of my early veggie years when Macrobiotics and raw foods first became popular. I used to love to go to macrobiotic restaurants in the East village of NYC and they served salads like this. The restaurant was called the Caldron and the Beatles used to eat there too. Very cool place !!!!! Great Chow! It is closed now but the Souen is still open. Getting back to the salad........
To make this different salad chop up some Chinese cabbage and thinly slice some carrots. Place in a bowl with some snow peas and sprouts. To make it Sunny, top it with a cooked sliced Garden Herb Sunshine Burger. For the finale...make some homemade sesame salad dressing. Simply put some chopped raw carrots in a blender with a few spoons of sesame butter (tahini) and some water and salt. Blend on high and taste to see if it needs any adjusting. You can use cold cooked carrots instead of raw in the dressing, for a more creamier consistency.
A nice touch to a very tasty macro salad indeed!!!!

Wow...check out this cooking Class !!!!

Saturday, Executive Chef, Hari Pulapaka/co-owner of the Cress Restaurant www.cressrestaurant.com in Deland FL had a 4 hour global veggie cooking class in the Cress kitchen. We made many dishes and we started by doing our prep work of cutting many veggies. Lots of them got roasted in the oven which really bought out the flavors! We prepped the herbs and made some french bread dough. We made homemade ricotta cheese for the homemade basil gnocchi. We made a big pot of spicy lentil soup and some Vegetarian Bisteya filling for the puff pastry, some spicy butternut squash ravioli, heirloom grain salad, eggplant Bharta, etc., etc. There were lots of sauces to make and side dishes with really spicy garnishes to put on them. Hari had all eight of us..hands on in the kitchen and we made so many things that he had a big wipe off board with all the tasks and dishes to accomplish and we all had our print out sheets and our own knives. It was also interesting to see how the commercial kitchen was set up and organized for all this massive amount of cooking! Well after 4 hours of cooking it was time to set all the things we made on the counter in the kitchen and serve up our plates and bowls and go into the dinning room for an awesome meal!!!!!!! Here's some of my favorites:

TUNISIAN LENTIL SOUP

Saute some onion and garlic in olive oil

Chop and add some carrots, celery, and potatoes.

Add cumin, tumeric, a little cayenne pepper, salt and pepper to these veggies and stir and continue cooking for 10 minutes.

Add lentils and veggie broth and bring to boil and simmer till lentils are tender. garnish with some chopped cilantro, and a few drops of lemon juice. Nice!

Grill some sliced local PATTY PAN SQUASH AND make some ROMESCO SAUCE(really yum!!!)

In a fry pan with olive oil add a large piece of cubed bread and saute with some almonds and garlic. Do not over brown. Add some canned plum tomatoes, roasted red bell peppers, smoked paprika, red hot pepper flakes, a little red wine vinegar and simmer. Take out of the pan to blend till smooth........really yum!!!!! serve with the squash.

EGGPLANT BHARTA is a great side dish......

Roast some white Eggplants by cutting and sprinkling them with olive oil and also turn the whole tomatoes up side down and cut an X on the top. Bake these veggies at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

In a sauce pan saute till tender, some chopped onions in olive oil and add lots of minced garlic and some fresh ginger. Then add the roasted veggies along with some cumin, turmeric, cayenne, and salt and pepper. Simmer while breaking the veggies up with the utensil. Serve as a side dish or condiment.

Well these recipes are from my notes and I hope I did a good job paying attention in class!!!

We had so much fun cooking and learning....Thanks Executive Chef Hari!!!

Visit the Cress Restaurant.... http://www.cressrestaurant.com/

Easy Sunshine Veggie Pizzas!

This pizza is really yummy and easy to make. Put a Garden Herb Sunshine Burger in a toaster oven and heat for 8 minutes.
Also, add 2 pita breads or a gluten free burrito wrap to toast lightly.
Take them out and cut the Sunshine Burger into squares and spread some tomato sauce on top of the pita or wrap. Set aside. In a small fry pan saute some chopped zucchini and some minced garlic till slightly browned. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and oregano.
Build your pizza. Place the precooked zucchini and garlic on top of the sauce on the pita or wrap. Add some spinach leaves, fresh chopped tomatoes, chopped veggie cheese, the Sunshine Burger dices, and bake at 400 degrees until browned, about 15 to 20 minutes. Let it rest a few minutes before serving. Garnish with some olives and presto........an awesome pizza!!!!

Delish 4th of July BBQ veggie style

I am making this veggie BBQ for the 4th with grilled Sunshine Burgers and grilled onion rings, tropical coleslaw, and corn on the cob(not shown in photo), and red white and blue fruit parfaits. Yum!
Sunshine Burgers are easy to grill for the 4th of July. I used the BBQ Sunshine Burgers and put them on the grill with some onion rings. I flipped the burgers over and then put some BBQ sauce on them and then topped them with some veggie cheese. While the cheese was melting I toasted the buns. I put them together on plates adding some lettuce and sprouts and pickles.

Serve with some tropical coleslaw made ahead of time:
Shred up some organic carrots and cabbage or buy some already shredded. Chop up some organic celery. Drain a can of pineapple chunks and chop them up or chop up some fresh pineapple. If you buy pre-cut fresh pineapple make sure the color is a dark yellow instead of whitish light yellow. The darker yellow is riper. Stir everything in a bowl with some vegenaise. NOTE: If you make this a head of time...do not add the vegenaise or the salt and pepper till its time to serve it because it makes liquid come out the longer it sits. The fruit makes the coleslaw special. If you have a tropical fruit blend that you buy that you like better use that.
Make some corn on the cob as a side and put out some chips. For the finale...dessert!
I love fancy parfait glasses and I used them to make dessert. I made some vegan
strawberry jello and layered it with fresh strawberries and blueberries and topped
it with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream. Red, white, and blue....Happy 4th to all!!!!!

Do you need a "power up" breakfast???

Are you ready for a great active day like I do when I go to surf camp at www.surfari.com It's time to Power up in the morning with a Sunshine Breakfast Patty on a whole grain toasted english muffin and some home grown sprouts and your favorite trimmings. The Breakfast patties have sunflower seeds and aduki beans and hemp nuts for lasting protein.

Alfalfa sprouts have every vitamin known to man and three times more vitamin C than orange juice. Best of all, besides all the energy, .......... it is scrumptious!!!! Power on!!!!!!

Sunshine Snazzy Sprout Subs!!!!

I miss having a sub so I made this one for my comfort food. When I was growing up in the farm belt and the pine forests of Southern New Jersey, there was no pizza places, no fast food places or no fancy restaurants. We lived in an old rebuilt pioneer school house that was miles from our little town that was so small it didn't have a Post Office yet! The only special meals I remembered there were the pot luck dinners at the church and the Church hoagi sale every May Day. I had the mumps one May Day and insisted that Mom bring me back a hoagie because I still would be able to eat it!!!!! Gesh.....I had to wait a whole year for this! So this is a flash back for me for comfort food veggie style. You'll need.....to start with your favorite roll.....I used a traditional sub roll.......................even though it's not whole wheat...there's something special about a chewy hoagie roll. I grilled a Garden Herb Sunshine Burger on a George Foreman Grill with a few drops of oil. While it grilled for 4 min, I spit open a hoagie roll and added some local lettuce and some slices of tomatoes with salt and pepper and lots of my homegrown sprouts! Then I cut the Sunshine burger in half and piled on some organic crispy onions that came in a cardboard can from the health food store ( I must say....the crispy onions ...made a nice touch!) I mixed some vegenaise with some chopped pickles and a little of it's juice for a sauce. Next a few dashes of Italian sub dressing and another layer of lettuce and Wow!!!!! Awesome... for when you crave excellence!!!!

Have you ever been to a Green Festival?....the best thing since Woodstock

Sunshine Burgers will be at the Green Festival coming up May 22nd and 23rd. Its the best "good vibe " place I felt since Wood stock !!! The Green Festival is an exciting "Good Vibe"
event to be at with its positive caring green ways and inventions for our future. There will be over 150 speakers, exhibits for green homes, organic foods with samples, gardening, fair trade, green careers, lots of music and fun, organic beer and wine plus a cafe'. Come see us there!!!! Check out http://www.greenfestivals.com/ for one that's closest to you!!! See you there!

Thanks to all the bloggers with photos made from Sunshine

Thanks to all the great photos of the great dishes and salads with the Sunshine Burgers!!!!!Awesome!!!!

This one I made using some baby broccoli which is not broccollini which is a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale. Baby broccoli is a small and sweeter broccoli. Have you ever heard of baby broccoli?Raw or lightly steamed it makes a great addition to a salad which I made with a Sunshine Burger on top. I made some salad dressing using a half a cup of fresh parsley and 1 or 2 avocados and either 1 tablespoon of tamari or lemon juice in a blender....... Nice touch!

Happy Mother's Day!

Chocolate covered strawberries are easy to make for Mom. Chill some nice big red organic strawberries. Get out a stack of little bowls and put different chopped nuts like peanuts, almonds,and pecans....and put one type in each bowl. Put some unsweetened shredded coconut in a 250 degree oven to toast for 10 minutes and then put it in a small bowl as well. Get two big bars of your favorite vegan chocolate and break up one bar and put in a small bowl. Melt in a microwave for 30 seconds or in a double boiler. The trick is to slowly melt the chocolate by warming it and not letting it get too hot. Dip the strawberries in the melted chocolate and then in a bowl of nuts or coconut. Melt the other chocolate bar as needed. Place the strawberries in small cup cake papers and VIOLA!!!! Happy Mother's Day Surprise!!!!

I love making sandwiches with my homemade sprouts and I sometimes make homemade pita bead which is a lot of fun......

How Many Sprouts can Fit into a Sandwich?

Some of my first veggie foods that became my favorites as an early veg head 40 years ago were sandwiches made with lots of sprouts in pita bread. Raw foods and homegrrown sprouts rule!
Alfalfa sprouts have every vitamin known to man and three times more vitamin C than orange juice. Growing your own alfalfa sprouts is easy..taking less than 5 minutes a day for 5 days.

Then harvest on!!!!!