Vegetarian Chili

This is such a family favorite that we do not ever have meat chili. And when we were at some friends house for dinner one night and they served meat chili, we were surprised at how much we also like meat chili!

Vegetarian Chilis
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 bottle of beer (we use Gluten Free beer- Bard's Tale or Redbridge)
3 to 4 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. pepper
several dashes hot pepper sauce
1 15 oz can of pinto beans
1 15 oz can white kidney beans
1 15 oz can red kidney beans
(all beans drained and rinsed)
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen whole kernal corn
1 1/2 cups chopped zucchini or yellow squash

I put everything except the zucchini/squash in a crock pot on low all day. I did not use canned beans but I soaked black beans, red kidney beans, and pinto beans last week (according to bean soaking instructions in last week's post). I measured out 1 cup of each of the beans, added whey or lemon juice, and covered with warm water. I cooked the beans for 4 hours the next day. Then measured out 6 cups of the bean mixture for today's chili. The rest I put in the freezer for another time:)

About an hour before dinner slice the zucchini/squash and add to crock pot. Serve with tortilla chips or cornbread (I haven't made the cornbread, yet, but it's only 5pm so I still have time to decide if I want to make it or not).

Change of Plan... Fish Plaki

Instead of doing Vegetarian Chili tonight, we had Fish Plaki and leftover rice from last night and peas. Vegetarian chili is all set to go, in the refrigerator. Tomorrow morning I will put it in the crockpot when we leave for school.

Fish Plaki
3 lb. fish (we used haddock)
salt and pepper
5 TBS. oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup white wine (optional)

season fish with salt and pepper. Let stand. Saute onions in oil until soft; add garlic, tomatoes, parsley, and salt and pepper. Cook 10 minutes. Pour half tomato sauce in baking dish; place fish on top and cover with remaining sauce. pour wine over fish. Bake in ovenat 350 degrees for 45 minutes, basting often. Serve warm or cold. The tomato "sauce" is delish on the rice:)

This is our standard Greek style fish recipe. We all like it:)

Fish Plaki

Not cooking tonight...

Happy Feast Day of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple! It is actually my uncle (Panayotis) and my aunt (Maria) nameday! Story about my uncle... my yiayia was pregnant with her fourth child. She had three boys (the eldest being my dad). There was a church dedicated to the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple that she could see from her kitchen window. She prayed to the Theotokos that if she had a girl, she would forego the Greek tradition of naming the daughter after her mother and instead, name the baby girl "Panayota" for the Theotokos. She had a boy. And, as my yiayia (and many Greeks) are fond of saying, "Ti na kanoume" which means "what can you do" and named her son Panayotis. So his nameday is today.

Anyway- we are going to the monthly Hope and Joy (our 5 year old through 5th grade youth group) dinner/activity tonight before Vesper's. So they will be cooking up some spaghetti with marinara sauce and salad. I will bring my own gluten free noodles for my family and use their sauce.

Tomorrow's dinner (something to look forward to:)- Vegetarian Chili. Those from my parish have tasted this yummy lenten/gluten free (it has beer in it) chili before. I *might* make some GF cornbread but we shall see. Be on the lookout for the recipe(s) posted tomorrow!

Baja Fresh dinner at Home and vegetable broth recipe!

One of our favorite meals is to do "Baja Fresh" beans and rice at home. So this isn't a new recipe for us, but it is one that we all like. I soaked pinto beans over the weekend and cooked them for four hours on Monday then froze them. Pulled out the frozen beans this morning and fried them up for dinner tonight.

Basic Beans
2 cups beans (black, pinto, kidney, white, etc.)
warm water
2 Tbs. whey or lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, mashed
salt and pepper

cover beans with warm water. Stir in whey or lemon juice and leave for 12-24 hours. Drain, rinse, and place in a large pot (or in the crock pot:) and add water to cover beans. Bring to a boil and skim off foam. Reduce heat and add garlic. Simmer for 4-8 hours (when using the crock pot I will put the beans in in the morning and let them cook for 10 hours). Add more water as necessary. Season to taste.

Refried Beans (Note: we do use oil during the fast for cooking)
4 cups basic beans (see above)- i've done this with black beans or pinto beans
3/4 cup oil (the Nourishing Traditions book says lard or duck fat but, hey, this is lenten:)

mash beans. melt lard (or pour oil into pan). add beans and cook, stirring constantly. I always add salt and pepper at the end. after eating these I will never buy refried beans in a can. These are so much more flavorful (and we never eat refried beans with lard or duck fat because this is one of our lenten dishes).

We eat this with Rice...
Soaked Brown Rice
2 cups brown rice
4 cups warm water
4 Tbs. whey or lemon juice
1 tsp. sea salt
2-4 Tbs. butter (we do use Earth Balance margarine)

Place rice, warm water, and 4 Tbs. whey or lemon juice in a pot. Let sit for 7 hours (I just let it sit from sometime in the morning until an hour before dinner time). Bring to boil (after sitting- not you, the rice), skim, reduce heat, stir in salt and butter, cover tightly and let cook approx. 45 minutes. I bet you could use some vegetable broth in place of part of the water (although it's really good rice without using veggie broth).

We serve the beans and rice with sliced tomatoes, salsa, guacamole, jalapeno peppers (DH likes the peppers- I don't), and corn tortillas.

Veggie Broth
12 cups water
a couple of onions coarsely chopped
a couple of carrots coarsely chopped
a couple stalks of celery coarsely chopped
some cloves of garlic peeled
any other veggies you might have on hand
salt and pepper

I put all of this in my crock pot and cook on the lowest setting for a long time (anywhere from 10-20 hours). strain it through flour sackcloth and store in the freezer.

Garlic Soup with Potatoes...

1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small carrot chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
about 2 large russet potatoes peeped and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large head garlic, minced (1 head of garlic, not 1 clove of garlic)
4 cups vegetable broth (I do make my own veggie broth and will post the recipe soon)
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

heat oil over medium heat. add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for 3 minutes. reduce heat to medium low and add potatoes and garlic. cook stirring often, for 15 minutes. add broth, water, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. bring to a boil over high heat. reduce heat, cover, and simmer until all ingredients are soft (about 30 minutes). remove from heat and remove bay leaf. transfer the soup to a food processor or to a blender. blend until smooth. return to pot and cook over low heat until heated through. serve hot.

OK. DH liked the taste of the soup, but would prefer that it was "chunkier" (like, instead of blending all the potatoes, leave some potatoes whole in the soup... same with the carrots). Next time I will use more potatoes and carrots and then leave some whole. I like the taste of the soup. All that garlic is amazing!

Polenta with Roasted Veggies

1 small zucchini, diced
1 medium onion diced
1 baby eggplant trimmed and diced
4 cloves garlic minced
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 or 3 sprigs rosemary (I used oregano because we don't really like rosemary)
salt and pepper to taste
1 roll polenta (16 oz)- I made my own on the stove.
olive oil or cooking spray to coat polenta
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

I didn't use eggplant but I did add in one summer squash, diced and some of the Trader Joe's frozen pepper mix (love that frozen pepper mix!).

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Combine zucchini, onion, eggplant, and garlic in bowl. Drizzle with olive oil to coat vegetables. Season with rosemary (or oregano:), salt, pepper and toss to combine. spread as an even layer on a 1/2 of a cookie sheet.

slice polenta (or in my case, cook polenta according to instructions) let "set" in pan and cut into small squares. Place on the other half of cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil or spray with cooking spray and salt.

warm diced tomatoes in medium pan over medium heat. add roaste veggies and toss to coat. on a serving dish, layer polenta slices with roasted vegetables.

Ok. DH really liked this dish. I also added a splash of red wine to the diced tomatoes and some cinnamon (I always put cinnamon in tomato sauces). I liked it, too. I should have sliced the polenta smaller but I could also see doing this recipe and using GF spaghetti noodles instead of polenta (the roasted vegetables would be awesome in a spaghetti sauce).

Salmon with potatoes and salad...

Tonight we had salmon. This is Big P's nouna's recipe. I guess we do use one "fake" food... we use Earth Balance margarine during the fasting times.

1 lb. Salmon
2 Tbs. butter (or margarine) melted
2 Tbs. white vinegar
2 Tbs. ketchup
1 Tbs. Worcestshire Sauce (we use wheat free soy sauce instead)

combine above ingredients, brush salmon with sauce, broil 6 in. from heat for 15 minutes or until finished.

Oven Potatoes
decide how many potatoes you will need to cook (this is something I throw together because it is basic so there is no measuring:)
Peel potatoes and cut into quarters (or smaller if you want them to cook faster).
dry peeled potatoes with a clean towel.
put in pan.
mix in 4 Tbs. olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Put in 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until they are done to your liking:)

salad is just whatever you want salad to be... lettuce/spinach, tomatoes, cukes, carrots, peppers, but, no feta:(

Kidney Bean/Rice stew... And rules for soaking beans!

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
1 green pepper chopped (I used 1/4 bag of frozen Trader Joe's pepper mix)
3 cloves garlic minced
1 bay leaf
1 Tbs. cumin
salt and pepper
Jalapeno Pepper sauce (just shake some in)
2 cups red kidney beans drained
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups veggie broth (I make my own- which is another post:)
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups brown rice (soaked)

heat oil in a deep pot. add onion, celery, peppers, garlic, bay leaf, cumin, salt and pepper. saute' veggies 5 minutes. Add hot pepper sauce, beans, tomatoes, broth, and water. bring to boil. add rice, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until rice is cooked.

OK- I follow lots of Nourishing Traditions cooking. So I do use dry beans. I start soaking my beans two days before making a dish. On Saturday I put two cups kidney beans in a glass bowl added 2 Tbs. whey or lemon juice (your choice) and boiling hot water to cover the beans. Let that sit until the morning you are going to make your soup. Drain, rinse and put in pot with 3 cloves crushed garlic. Boil and reduce to simmer (cover) for about 4 hours. Then strain and use two cups of these cooked beans for above recipe. Freeze the rest for a later date:) I am constantly soaking and/or cooking beans and freezing them during fasting periods that way I have lots of beans on hand (like right now I am soaking beans for our chili dinner on Sat. night and yesterday I soaked pinto beans for dinner on Friday night- the pinto beans are on the stove cooking with garlic and on Friday I will mash them for refried beans:) Once you get started soaking beans and cooking beans and freezing beans you will end up with a nice supply of beans to use during the fast!

Rice- soak rice in hot water and whey or lemon juice for 6 hours. Then add to recipe (no need to cook before adding).

Review- I liked this a lot. DH added more jalapeno sauce and red pepper flakes- he wanted it to be spicier.

Day One Nativity Fast: Broccoli and Pasta

I made this on Sunday night for dinner...
1 cup water
1 pound broccoli florets (I bought a bag of frozen chopped broccoli)
1/4 cup olive oil
5 cloves garlic minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 pound GF pasta (we like the Ancient Harvest brand of pasta) cooked
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

bring 1 cup water to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add broccoli and steam 3-5 minutes. drain and set aside.

Heat olive oil and saute garlic and red pepper flakes for a few minutes. add broccoli and pasta, nutmeg, salt and pepper. toss together for a few minutes. serve.

OK- dh thought it needed more garlic. I thought I could add green peppers, zucchini, onions and maybe pine nuts. plus more garlic:) This would be a good side to fish.

Entering into the Nativity Fast...

We have now entered into the Nativity Fast. On Sunday, I mistakenly asked my husband what are his favorite lenten recipes that I cook. He took a risk and told me that lately my fasting recipes have been really the same thing (lentil soup because it is so easy and everyone likes it- I guess everyone likes it when they are not eating it EVERY Wednesday and Friday).

So, in an effort to mix it up Orthodox style in our home- I pulled out three cookbooks; Complete Vegetarian, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, and Rachel Ray's Veggie Meals. Now, mind you, we are not only keeping away from all meat and dairy but we also are gluten free (DH has celiac's, Big P has just started a GF diet and I have been GF for almost two months- little p is GF by default). And we completely avoid soy products so you aren't going to find any fake meats or tofu hotdogs here.

I have written out our meals for the next 40 days (well, now it's more like 38 days because we started the fast on Sunday). I told a few friends that I was doing this and they suggested that I write about what we like, what we don't like, suggestions for newbies to fasting in the Orthodox Church (DH and I are both cradle Orthodox so we have been fasting off and on for most of our lives), etc.

So here it is... I will note when something was substituted to make it Gluten Free so you will have the option of either following the GF substitute or using, for example, regular pasta. Also, I will post whether or not we liked it, what I think I can do to improve it, etc. Also, note that our parish follows the "fish is ok on all days except Wed. and Fri. until Dec. 12 when we do not eat fish until Nativity" rule. So there will be some fish recipes in these first few weeks. And for those who do not know about the Orthodox fasting- we are allowed shellfish so it is not completely vegan.

Let us begin the journey to our Lord's birth! May it be blessed!

Innisbrook Wrapping Paper Fundraiser for Agia Sophia Academy!

My school's annual fundraiser with Innisbrook has begun. Innisbrook Wraps has beautifully designed gift wrap printed on quality recycled paper, coordinating gift wrap accessories,gourmet foods and fine Helen Grace Chocolates that make great gifts, Time Inc. magazine subscriptions, and more. For every item that is purchased, Innisbrook donates up to 50% of the purchase price to my school. I also earn a prize credit for every item purchased except school supplies. The more prize credits I earn, the more prizes I win! Please consider visiting the Innisbrook website and making a purchase on my behalf. A link is included below. Our sale will be over soon, so don't wait. Place your order today. Thanks for your help!
Seller: PAVLOS
Seller ID# R473422E
School: AGIA SOPHIA ACADEMY
School Number: 112949
Click the link below to visit Innisbrook.com and they will recognize me and my school automatically.
http://www.innisbrook.com/index_students.cfm?id1=R473422E&id2=&id3=
If the above link does not work:
1. Click below
2. Enter the Seller ID# R473422E
www.innisbrook.com/id.cfm

Honoring a Saint: St. Nektarios in Our Lives

(this is the article I wrote on St. Nektarios for our parish November monthly newsletter)

Apolytikion of St. Nektarios
The offspring of Selyvria and the guardian of Aegina, the true friend of virtue who didst appear in the last years, O Nektarios, we faithful honour thee as a godly servant of Christ, for thou pourest forth healings of every kind for those who piously cry out: Glory to Christ Who hath glorified thee. Glory to Him Who hath made thee wonderous. Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee.

St. Nektarios was born in 1846 and reposed in 1920. St. Nektarios was a pious bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Other clergy, jealous of Nektarios’ favor with the Patriarch, spread slanderous rumors about him, which caused him to be exiled from Egypt. He went to Greece but because of the rumors he had a difficult time finding work within the church. He settled in Athens, where, due to his popularity among the people, he eventually became the Dean of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School. Later he founded a women’s monastery on the island of Aegina where he retired when his health failed. He reposed in 1920. St. Nektarios is commemorated on November 9th.

Rather than write an article about St. Nektarios’ life I am going to write about our own experience with this wonderful Saint. First, I would like to share St. Nektarios’ first miracle right after his repose. On November 9, 1920, St. Nektarios fell asleep in the Lord. “However, even in death St. Nektarios continues to perform miracles, the first of which occurred in the very hospital room in which he died. With the passing of St. Nektarios, a hospital nurse, assisted by a nun from the monastery, immediately began to change his clothes and threw his undershirt on the next bed. In this bed lay a paralytic, who once the undershirt landed upon him, was instantly healed and jumped out of bed praising God for his miraculous healing. This was the first of many miracles that St. Nektarios began to perform in death.” (http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/saint_nektarios_egina_e.htm)

There is a special place in our hearts for St. Nektarios. To pinpoint exactly when, where, and how St. Nektarios entered into our lives is difficult. I do know that it wasn’t just my family or Paul’s family that loves St. Nektarios; but both of our families have a devotion to this modern day Saint of the Last Days.

Someone very close to us was taken in an ambulance to the emergency room with symptoms of a stroke. While waiting for the doctor, this person was anointed with oil from St. Nektarios and immediately, all the signs of the stroke disappeared. This person walked out of the hospital! This miracle touched our family very deeply.

A few months later, we found out that we were expecting our first child. During the first trimester of my pregnancy with Pavlos my parents went to Greece. While there, they made their first trip to Aegina to venerate the relics of St. Nektarios (knowing about the above miracle). My parents, knowing that I have chronic health problems and that pregnancy could potentially be very difficult for me, brought back some Holy Oil from the monastery. Paul anointed me every night during that pregnancy. And we prayed that, through the intercessions of St. Nektarios, God would protect me and our unborn child. The pregnancy progressed with none of the scary complications that the doctors said would happen. We did not know whether we were having a girl or a boy but we had decided to name our child some form of the name “Nektarios” to honor this saint and his having protected me and the baby. And then Pavlos was born and we named him Pavlos Nektarios (Pavlos after Paul’s father and Nektarios after our beloved St. Nektarios.

Most of you remember our second pregnancy with Petros Nektarios. Again, Paul anointed me daily and we decided, again, that if we were to become pregnant our child would have some form of the name “Nektarios”. I did eventually become pregnant with Petros but this time I developed some very scary complications. I ended up in the hospital for almost two months. Paul would come to the hospital to visit me and often anointed me with oil from St. Nektarios. Now we were praying that through the intercessions of St. Nektarios, the Lord would continue to protect me and our unborn child. Petros was born at 33 weeks during an emergency c-section. He spent the first month of his life in the NICU with an icon of the Theotokos and an icon of St. Nektarios. It was a difficult time and we are very thankful that through St. Nektarios, God strengthened us to be able to endure that trial.

And now we have two very beautiful, healthy boys. Through the intercessions of St. Nektarios, may the Lord have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Win Flour...

Enter to win King Arthur Flour over here. While we do not use a lot of flour in our home, this is an excellent brand and I can always use flour to make prosforo or artoklassia for church:)

An email from our church secretary...

We are planning to go on Wednesday evening. The Icon came to Portland 5 or 6 years ago. A member of our parish called us a few hours before the service but there was really no way for us to get out to Mulino in time. God-willing, we will make it this year!!!

The miracle-working Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God will visit two parishes in Oregon this week. Both Fr. James and Fr. Sergei have sent invitations to the Orthodox faithful to come and venerate the icon and participate in the prayer services.

St. Martin the Merciful Russian Orthodox Church
Fr. James Baglien
925 NW Camellia Drive, Corvallis
Friday 10/9 at 7p.m., Moleiben & Akathist

Holy New Martyrs Russian Orthodox Church
Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov
13820 S. Union Hall Road, Mulino – approx. 15 minutes east of Oregon City
Wednesday 10/14 6:30p.m., Akathist

You can learn more about the Kursk Icon here.


And for news and pictures of the icon’s visit to Kursk on Sept. 27th go here.

what to do with the blog?

My last post was July 27. uhm. well. OK. So I'm not sure what I am doing with this blog. And I am not sure why I can't seem to find time to post anything. Maybe it's because the old brain isn't able to think of anything to post that would be of interest to the entire world:)

Just letting you all know that I am here, I am alive, and I am still reading your blogs via bloglines. Take care and maybe I will think of something to post (I am supposed to write an article about St. Nektarios for our church bulletin so maybe I will post that here when it is finished).