Klunker's Easy Mustard Dressing

Lately, potatoes have really been bothering me, so I've switched from the assortment of soups and plates of potatoes to rice dishes, specifically brown rice (made in my rice cooker), veggies (made in my microwave) and beans (made in my Instant Pot, although sometimes I get lazy and just open a can or 2).

Rice - I have an assortment of brown rices to choose from - par-boiled, instant, basmati, jasmine, short grain, Texmati, and plain old Carolina or other brand of long grain. Every time I go shopping to a new grocery store I check out the rice section and many times come home with another bag of something.

Frozen veggies - it all depends on what the store has that week. It's usually cauliflower, green beans, broccoli, peas, corn, carrots, either 3 pounds of each or mix and match. Peas and carrots is good, as well as peas and corn, even peas and baby onions. Brussels sprouts are reserved for the days it's just my husband and myself eating because our son hates them. I also toss a bit of greens into each batch, maybe a quarter pound, unless, of course, it's already a veg that passes as an Esselstyn "green".

Beans - I'm embarrassed to say I still have bags of beans from when I belonged to the Rancho Gordo Bean Club, and I dropped out of it (for the third time) over a year ago. Do you think that stopped me from buying an 8 pound bag of pintos when I saw them for the first time Walmart a few weeks ago? Or from ordering one 10 pound bag each of organic black, cannelini and dark red kidney beans from Food for Life from Amazon last week, as well as another 5 pound bag of Palouse garbanzos? (Well, I do go through those garbanzos pretty fast and buy a new bag about every 3 months.)  I made a vow to start eating more beans, especially after hearing Ann Esselstyn say you can't eat too many beans, that beans are great (As opposed to Dr. McDougall's guideline to eat no more than an average of 1 cup per day). I rearranged my kitchen appliances so now the toaster oven is back in storage and the big Crock Pot is now in its former home. Remember those attempts at making Mary's Bean Stew a few years back, when I vowed then to make a batch of that every week? I make and break a lot of vows when it comes to food, don't I? 

Anyway, a funny thing happened - the more beans we ate, the more weight we lost. While I'm ecstatic to lose a pound or even just a half pound a week, but my husband isn't. At 6' he was maintaining his weight at around 170 since he lost that big amount post-op CABG surgery in 2013, but since we started eating first potatoes and veg, then soups, and now rice, beans & veg, his weight had dipped down as low as 151 and he looked at least 10 years older and frail. He put a few pounds back on by eating 2 loaded hummus sandwiches on weekdays for lunch and 3 sandwiches plus a snack on weekends. Oh, how I wish I could lose weight as easy as he does!

Toppings - There's the usual lower sodium soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, Bone Sucking Sauce, sriracha sauce, but there's also the Jane Esselstyn 3-2-1 Dressing and Sweet Fire Dressing, and lately the peanut butter based Dragon Sauce that my son loves, as well as Chef AJ's assorted dressings and sauces and Jeff Novick's tahini sauce. My husband has said not to make things like Ann Esselstyn's beet based sauce In the Pink or Chef AJ's Barefoot Dressing because although he originally loved them, he says they're now too sweet for his tastes. He wants more savory, as well as more filling, toppers for our meals.

So, now I'm on a quest for savory, filling sauces and dressings. Later next week I plan on one meal using Michael Klunker's Crock Pot Mushrooms and Ann Esselstyn's Sweet Corn Sauce, and this morning I made a batch of Creamy Easy Mustard Dressing from Michael Klunker that I'll serve with tonight's rice with peas & carrots and garbanzo beans. I could post a photo of my batch in an old salad dressing bottle, but it doesn't look any different than the dressing in Michael's photo in the link. His recipe:

Klunker's easy mustard dressing

Ingredients notes - don't overreact to any of the ingredients, this is dressing, a condiment, so you are going to get a lot of of this. 
You can adjust the ingredients to make as much or as little as you want.  This is for a big batch.  It lasts a long time in the fridge.  You will use it all before it would ever go bad.  It can be used for dip too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup rice vinegar (you can use other vinegar's to change the flavor a bit, like white wine, red wine, apple cider, or white balsamic)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (you can add more if you want, I sometimes do, start with 1/4 cup (quarter of a cup) and go from there.
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper

Blend together well.  Put in a jar of your choice, and store in the fridge.  This travels very well.  Use on anything.  I dip potatoes into it, fries, on salads....the list goes on.  I hope you enjoy.

Creamy version:
Add the above ingredients, add 1c of cooked (canned), drained chickpeas.  Put in a good blender and blend until very smooth.
It will be thick, you can eat as is, or thin out with more vinegar.  I like it thick. :)
Enjoy!!

I did add the cup of canned no-salt added garbanzos and it is pretty thick and creamy. It's also very salty, and I didn't even add the 1/2 teaspoon salt that's in the recipe and used a no-salt/no-sugar rice vinegar! But is also is very tasty! I'll have a wee bit of it over my broccoli and the leftover half cup of canned garbanzos for lunch and tonight we'll have it with our rice. I think I found my new favorite dressing. 

Let's see what else I can put over rice. We're not a fan of all those flavored balsamic vinegars, and since I'm trying to keep my triglycerides down I use the minimum on my greens when I do use some. I'll be looking over the old Potato Toppings List to see what else might catch my eye to use in the coming weeks.