Happy New Year. Let us thank God for all His Blessings especially the gift of the Great Pause during this pandemic wherein our togetherness intensified.
Happy New Year to all. Above is a collage of photos of vegan snacks or finger foods from my blog over the years. Just click on the name of the appetizer below the collection and it will bring you to its recipe.
Enjoy and let us count our blessings. We have plenty to be grateful for despite trying times due to the pandemic. God bless.
We Franciscans believe that the first coming of “the Christ” is in creation itself. The Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (1266‒1308), whom I studied for four years, wrote that “God first wills Christ as his supreme work.” [1] Creation could not have been empty of Christ for billions of years. In other words, God’s “first idea” and priority was to make the Godself both visible and shareable. The word used in the Bible for this idea was Logos (from Greek philosophy), which I would translate as the “Blueprint” or Primordial Pattern for reality. The whole of creation is the beloved community, the partner in the divine dance. Everything is the “child of God”—not only Jesus. There are no exceptions. When you think of it, what else could anything be? All creation must in some way carry the divine DNA of the Creator.
At Christmastime, most people think about the birth of the baby Jesus as the “coming” of Christ. Yet Advent reveals more; it is about preparing ourselves for the Christ to come in personal, contracted, and visible form. Only a perfect, trusting individual could allow such greatness to focus and communicate through a human body. Modeling the entire divine pattern of incarnation, Mary had to trust littleness or, better said, bigness becoming littleness! Go imagine.
Mary could trustingly carry Jesus, because she knew how to receive spiritual gifts—in fact, the spiritual gift. She offers a profound image of how generativity and fruitfulness break into this world. We have much to learn from her.
First, we learn that we can’t manage, maneuver, or manipulate spiritual energy. It is a matter of letting go and receiving what is given freely. It is the gradual emptying of our attachment to our small “separate” self so that there is room for new conception and new birth. There must be some displacement before there can be any new “replacement”! Mary is the archetype of such self-displacement and surrender.
There is no mention of any moral worthiness, achievement, or preparedness in Mary, only humble trust and surrender. She gives us all, therefore, a bottomless hope in our own little state. If we ourselves try to “manage” God or manufacture our own worthiness by any performance principle whatsoever, we will never give birth to the Christ, but only more of ourselves.
Whenever the material and the spiritual coincide, there is the Christ. Jesus fully accepted that human-divine identity and walked it into history. Henceforth, the Christ “comes again” whenever we are able to see the spiritual and the material coexisting, in any moment, in any event, and in any person. All matter reveals Spirit, and Spirit needs matter to “show itself”! What I like to call the “Forever Coming of Christ” happens whenever and wherever we allow this to be utterly true for us. This is how God continually breaks into history.
Original recipe that inspired this one had nutritional yeast which I did not have. I made up for its absence with adding garlic powder and liquid smoke. I increased the nutritional value of the tapenade by adding spinach. I always feel good to add this super food in everything. Christmas is coming and if you are thinking of adding a tapenade to your board here is an easy one. Serve with on melba toast or crostini.
Mushroom Pate
Ingredients:
8 oz any type mushroom, sliced
1/4 tsp dry sage or 1 fresh sage leaf
pinch of pepper
1 tbsp rice cooking wine (salt added so do not need to add salt) or sherry wine
1/8 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup walnuts
1/2 loosely packed cup spinach (optional)
Instructions:
Air fry the mushroom for 15 minute at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place the air fried mushroom and the rest of the ingredients in a small blender and blend till well mixed and grainy in texture which I prefer to pasty. It is your choice.
Easy main dish or appetizer. The jackfruit easily absorbs the equally easy fabulous magic sauce. You can customize this recipe with your choice of toppings. The squeeze of lime when serving enhances the flavor of the dish and is highly recommended.
Jackfruit Lettuce Wraps
1 can green jackfruit in brine, drained and chopped
1 recipe Magic Sauce (recipe here and printed below)
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp cornstarch in 2 tbsp water (optional)
1 head of lettuce. leaves separated to form cups
Suggested Toppings: cucumber slices, julienned carrots, jalapeno peppers from a jar, sliced green onions, cilantro
lime wedges
Dissolve the magic sauce in 1.2 cup water. In a skillet cook the jackfruit in the magic sauce and water at medium heat till the jackfruit absorbs the flavor of the sauce and most of liquid evaporates. You can also add a cornstarch slurry made from 1 tbsp cornstarch in 2 tbsp water at the end of cooking to thicken the mixture.
Cool the mixture.
Place lettuce pieces on a large platter and top with the jackfruit and toppings
Squeeze lime juice when serving.
Magic Sauce
2 tbsp miso
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 to 1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp garlic powder
a few drops of sriracha sauce or pinch crushed red pepper.
This is a versatile sauce you can use with vegetables, tofu, jackfruit, sweet potatoes, mushrooms. Instead of maple syrup you can use date syrup or brown sugar. .
Magic Sauce
2 tbsp miso
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 to 1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp garlic powder
a few drops of sriracha sauce or pinch crushed red pepper
Stuffed eggplant is a favorite dish for breakfast or even dinner in the Philippines. I have posted a fusion version of this popular Filipino breakfast fare in a past blogpost This time I am using vegan tofu mixture to stuff baby eggplants.
Tofu scramble is a dish I love for breakfast. I have a past recipe wherein I stuffed it into a burrito tortilla. This time vegetables are the ones stuffed. How healthy is that.
I am a fan of baby eggplants. I was introduced to them when I was shopping at the Monroeville Farmers Market. I actually have a post in this blog of air fried baby eggplants which is to die for. These vegetables are so cute and versatile. They are easier to work with than the large American or even slim Asian eggplants.
You can also use the tofu mixture to stuff sweet red peppers. They are so sweet I eat them raw with gusto. Now I can make them more delicious stuffed with this vegan tofu mixture.
Cut the baby eggplant in half without cutting all the way through into a butterfly shape leaving the stem on as much as possible. Place in a microwave safe container and bake till soft. Set aside.
Combine the other ingredients in a bowl and mash them till they are well mixed.
Place enough of the tofu mixture into the fleshy side of the eggplant.
Air fry the eggplant stuffed side up at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
Note: You can use the tofu mixture to stuff sweet red peppers. Cut the peppers in half, remove seeds and stuff with tofu mixture. Air fry same way as the eggplant.
