Not a Crazy Vegan

Seeing Red...Hungarian Red

2012-01-13T11:20:00.000-06:00

I've never really eaten Hungarian food before. Not because I don't want to, but because I rarely come across anything that is Hungarian...or at least I'm not aware of it if I do.   So, when I came across the recipe in Appetite for Reduction for "Mushroom and Cannellini Paprikas," I decided that it was time to expand my horizons.

That and I kept hearing Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal saying "Paprikash" in that strange accent while they were shopping in a Sharper Image-esque store during "When Harry Met Sally."

Anyone remember that scene?

It really doesn't take much to encourage me to try a new food, obviously.

Anyways, I set out on my Hungarian kitchen pilgrimage and decided to go all out and follow Isa's directions, because, let's all be real here, she knows what she's doing when it comes to Vegan food. And she recommended pairing the Paprikas with "Scarlet Barley."

If you've been keeping track with my blog, I rarely endeavor to make more than one dish/meal.   Mostly because this stresses me out and ups the likelihood that I spill or overseason or burn or *insert anything that could go wrong in a kitchen*.

There were a few issues with the barley, mostly including the grating of beets. For those of you who have never done this feat, be forewarned that if you are near the scene of a crime when you are grating said beets, you will need quite a significant and reliable alibi, because I honestly looked like I had slaughtered a cow afterwards.

And I stained my white shirt.

Why I chose to wear a white shirt whilst grating beets is a whole other issue, but don't do it.

Anyways, the Mushroom and Cannellini Paprikas was pretty simple. We used normal Paprika since I could not find smoked paprika and therefore threw in a little Liquid Smoke. I also think we had a bad batch of mushrooms because the end result had a strange flavor.

All in all, this was...interesting. I'm not a huge dill person, so the superfluous usage of this herb may have been to blame, but I also felt like this dish needed something creamy. Like sour cream? Never EVER felt that way about anything before, so that was strange. I think this may be an acquired taste, but it sure was colorful!

If any of you have a stellar Hungarian recipe that I need to try, please let me know, I'd love to dabble a bit more.

Here's the recipe for the "Mushroom and Cannellini Paprikas" from Appetite for Reduction:

1 small onion, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
Several pinches of freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup vegetable broth
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp fresh chopped thyme
1 (16 oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1. Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium-high heat. Saute the onions in liquid until lightly browned, about 7 minutes (since we're on E2 still, we used broth or water). Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms, pepper and salt, cook until lots of moisture has been released, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the wine, broth, smoked paprika, and thyme. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a low boil. Boil for about 3 minutes. Lower the heat and add the beans. Cook to heat through, about 5 more minutes. Use a strong fork to lightly mash some of the beans, to thicken the sauce. Taste for salt and serve.

And here's the recipe for "Scarlet Barley" also from AFR:

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, minced
Freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 cup pearl barley, rinsed
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 beet, grated
Juice of half of lemon
Fresh dill for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat a pot over medium heat. Saute the garlic in a liquid for about 1 minute (since we're on E2 still, we use broth or water). Add several pinches of pepper and the bay leaf. Add the barley and broth, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir and lower the heat to low. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. When most of the broth has absorbed, mix in the grated beet. Cook for another 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you need to add a little more liquid, feel free to so the barley doesn’t stick to the pan. It will soak in while continuing to cook, don’t worry.
3. After about 45 minutes of cooking, turn off the heat and mix in the lemon juice. Taste for salt and season as desired. Cover and let sit for another 10 minutes.
4. Remove bay leave and serve. Garnish with fresh dill.

A Love Letter to Veganism and this Blog

2012-01-05T12:40:00.000-06:00

In sticking with my once a month blog posts...I figured I'd better get after my January post before it's too late.

I'm kidding. Sort of.

These past few months have been crazy.   Crazy at work, crazy at home, crazy in general. And if my sanity has any say in it...the craziness HAS TO STOP.

So, I'm going to blog more.   Because I love doing it.

What I don't love is feeling guilty when I've lapsed in posting...because then it starts to feel like an obligation. And in a world filled with unending obligations, I just can't take one more.

But we're nearing the 1 year anniversary of this blog and my decision to eat a primarily vegan diet.   I'd like to give you a run down on some of the highlights of this year:

-I've cooked at least 90% of all the meals I've consumed over the past year. From scratch.
-As a general rule, I do not purchase any processed food, but cook and bake what I can, do without what I can't.
-I've cooked with things I've never heard of prior to this endeavor: quinoa, yuca, nutritional yeast, tomatillos, liquid smoke, whole wheat pastry flour, red lentils...the list goes on and on.
-I've tried different cuisines that I'd never been exposed to prior to this endeavor: ethiopian, hungarian, lebanese...etc. etc.
-My clothes are a little looser
-My skin is a little clearer
-I have had ZERO instances of acid reflux or indigestion. This is HUGE because I used to take prescription medicine for this ailment.
-I sleep better AND have more energy
-I feel so connected and aware of the food I'm putting in my body because I am the one that purchases and prepares almost everything.
-My relationship with Matt has been strengthened because he was willing to put up with so many failures and to cook with me. We look forward to cooking together and trying new things. And we're also both confident that we are treating our bodies in a way that is healthy while also making our environmental impact on the earth a little smaller.

I just can't say enough good things about this experience.

It's true that I take a "break" from being a vegan around once a week, but even this has been impacted by the lifestyle change. If I eat meat or dairy, I am aware of the impact this decision has on my body, on the earth, and on the animal.   I'm much less likely to overeat or mindlessly eat nowadays.

Life is good. And it might be a little sappy to write this blog post, but I credit much of my good mood and happiness to choosing to live a primarily plant-strong life.

In order to fully re-enter into blogging regularly, I've got to let the dishes I made in the past go and start fresh. So with that being said, here is a farewell photo montage to some of the dishes I made and did not blog about in 2011.

Pad Thai Salad from "Appetite for Reduction"

Sweet Potato Lasanga from "Engine 2"

Fruit Pie with Date Nut Crust "Engine 2"

Tempeh Shepherdess Pie "Veganomicon"

Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa-Stir-Fry "Veganomicon"

As you can see, even with terrible photography skills, the food is delicious and so much more than salads.

Maybe 2012 is the year YOU want to try eating vegan.

Maybe... ;)

Not a Crazy Vegan Visits BOMBAY WRAPS!

2011-12-16T12:43:00.001-06:00

Well hello there. Hehe, this is awkward. I...uh...don't know what to say...

I'M SORRY, OK! Life has been hectic. WORK has been hectic. My dog eats his own poop...

I know, he looks so innocent. But you better believe his schnoz has not come even near my feet for the past few weeks. I know where that's been...

Anyways, I've been cooking and actually have seen my skillz kick it up a few notches. Just in time for my one year blog-o-versary and my New Year's Resolution which will be to cook at least one thing a week without a recipe.   This is scary to me.   Like, I'm sweating just thinking about it...

So let's call a spade a spade and move on.

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending an event to mark the 1-year anniversary of Bombay Wraps existence in Chicago.   I had never visited this place and was a little hesitant because the idea of "fast food Indian" sounded a little scary.   But, I decided to go anyways because they were giving out free beer.

I'm in.

And so was Matt.

We showed up and lo and behold SUZY SINGH was there.

Don't know who she is?   Let me refresh your memory:

*Image Credit: Google Image Search*

She was like, the third runner up for the most recent Master Chef season.

This was a big deal to me. I never really get into those cooking shows, but for some reason, this most recent season got me HOOKED. I was obsessed with this show. Now, I won't claim that Suzy was my favorite...she actually took on the role of the villain in my opinion, BUT, I still appreciated her spunk and entertainment quality.

So, imagine my surprise when she was literally standing RIGHT THERE when I walked in...

Anyways, she was there because she is collaborating with Bombay Wraps on their breakfasts and desserts.   She also says that she's been trying to come up with an Indian food truck and thinks that Bombay Wraps has the most potential and authentic flavor for Indian street food.

So, Suzy (we're on a first name basis here) walked us through the menu.   Unfortunately, I could only eat a few items (I got to drink all the Goose Island beer pairings I wanted to...teehee), but those that I could were FANTASTIC.   The appetizer Samosas were delicious and the different sauces you could put on them were especially great (I think one of them was the cilantro chutney. Me+cilantro=truluv4eva).   I also parked in front of the sweet potato fries and was a-ok until I was able to taste a wrap.

And the wraps were great.

I had the Potato Tava wrap which was filled with sauteed potatoes, pickled onions, and cilantro chutney.   The filling was great, but the Roti was SO delicious.   I feel that the Roti bread is what really set this place apart from other Indian restaurants and other fast food restaurants. You sense that this is high quality and when we asked if they had Roti we could purchase to take with us they said that they only make it to order. That's a sure sign of quality right there.

Even though I couldn't taste as much as the other people at the tasting, the owners and their family and the staff were soooo accomodating.   No weird "why are you vegan" questions. The owner's brother-in-law actually went in the back and brought out a soup he had been working on and let me taste it. The soup was SO good. I encouraged them to put that on the menu as well, especially in winter.

All in all, I highly recommend this place.   It's great for a fast lunch that is still high quality.   As a vegan, there is really only Subway and Taco Bell when you're on the run. This option is great because it's different, it's apparently authentic, and you don't feel like your vegan item is an after-thought.   I really hope to see Bombay Wraps develop into a chain because I mean, we have Mexican fast food, Chinese fast food, American fast food. This is just so logical it's silly.

Anyways, I encourage vegans and non-vegans alike to give this place a try. Great food, great service. great location right in the loop of Chicago.

Oh, and maybe you'll run into Ms. Singh

(That's Matt asking her if Gordon Ramsey is as much of a jerk as he seems to be...I'm glad he doesn't hold back in awkward situations...)

Happy ventures into holiday town, ya'll (that is the most inauthentic sentence I've ever typed).

A Piece o' Pie Peace Offering

2011-11-16T14:31:00.001-06:00

So, I wasn't technically participating in Vegan MoFo (a month of blogging about vegan food everyday)....this is partially because I don't really get it, and am not entirely sure I'm invited. Oh, that and I've been way uninspired and busy.

So, with the new month of November and the fact that we are nearing my one year anniversary of blog-existence, I thought I'd recommit myself to this blog.

Because I love it. And you. Any of you that are reading this.

And as a peace offering, I've decided to post about a brilliant recipe I came across. It is a fat-free crustless vegan pumpkin pie.

Alright alright, get off the floor. I know there are some doubters out there that may be saying "fat-free+crust-free+dairy-free+egg-free=joy-free," but you are so so wrong.

This pie was awesome. And it came in the nic (is it nic, or nick? Like is Nick a person?) of time because I was starting to feel left out as we neared Thanksgiving.

Is it just me, or is Thanksgiving the least exciting holiday when you're a kid, but then quite possibly the MOST exciting as an adult? I mean, it's a holiday that doesn't have all the stress of present shopping and decorations and high expectations like others (I'm looing at YOU, Christmas). Instead, it's a day where you can relax, eat, cook, spend time with family, drink wine (or margaritas, which is what I plan on doing since I'll be in Florida...). It's just such a pleasant and enjoyable holiday.

Anyways, make this pie if you are hoping to be able to watch your caloric intake on the big day. Or if you want to balance out how much stuffing you end up inhaling. Stuffing is my Thanksgiving drug of choice by far...

This recipe for Crustless Pumpkin Pie is from "Happy Herbivore."

Ingredients:

½ cup mori-nu tofu, extra firm
1½ cups non-dairy milk
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups canned pure pumpkin
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup brown sugar
¼ tsp salt
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9” shallow glass pie dish, set aside. In a blender or food processor, blend tofu, non-dairy milk, cornstarch and vanilla until smooth, stopping to scrape sides periodically. Add remaining ingredients and blend for about a minute more, until the mixture is uniform and well combined. Pour the mixture into the pie dish and bake for 1 hour. Allow the pie to cool on the counter, away from the hot oven, until room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours.

Dog Soup?

2011-10-24T15:17:00.001-05:00

So, it's been awhile. I know, ok? We've had some stressful times in our lives these past few weeks.

1) Bought new bedroom furniture which = stressful argument while putting said furniture together.
2) The weather has changed. I hate being cold. It's been cold a few times. Therefore I hated "it."
3) I discovered an obsession with the hit series "Friday Night Lights." It got so bad that I re-started my Netflix membership...for the 4th time.
4) Oh yea, and we added this mongrel to our family:

That's Otis.

He's been living with us for just over 3 weeks.

He's a bassador (basset hound/labrador) and he's 7.

He's perfect.

But he's also a HUGE responsibility.

Before we get into all that, let me set the stage:

Me: Hey, I want to get a dog (this convo happened at least 50 times over the course of this past year).
Matt: You travel too much. And dogs are expensive.

Fast forward to a Friday 3 weeks ago.

Matt: How do you feel about going to get a dog (very non-chalantly)?
Me: Umm...(insert panic as I haven't had the chance to prepare for this life-altering decision)
Matt: We can just go and look at the dogs, just to see.
Me: Umm...ok.

3 hours later, we walk out with....

And I proceed to have a prolonged panic attack as to what this all means. Then Matt panics. Then I panic again.

But he's here to stay!

And we love him.

I'm so SO glad we adopted him because he's brought so much joy to our lives already. Beyond how much fun he is, he's forced us to be more responsible and also to spend more conscious time together. Now, instead of watching 6 episodes of Friday Night Lights on an evening, I only watch 4 because we take Otis for a long walk each night. Now, instead of blogging regularly, I brush Otis' skankified teeth.

It's a good life.

Anyways, I've still been cooking. And I've actually been taking pictures too. Matt and I are still going strong on our plant-based oil free diet. Matt's lost about 25 pounds...I went to the doctor and had lost 3 since my last visit. That's...great. But it's not about poundage! It's about feeling good and eating healthy, so I'm actually ok with that.

Just so you know I'm not blowing smoke, here's a recipe that I've cooked probably 4 times in the past month because it's easy, SO healthy, HUGE, and delicious.

Savory Lentils and Greens Soup from Engine 2 Diet:

2 medium onions, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 1/2 cups lentils
5 cups vegetable broth
5 cups water
Ground pepper to taste
2 large heads of leafy greens, chopped into bite-sized pieces. Use kale, spinach, kale, collards, Swiss chard or Chinese cabbage.

In a large soup pot, add onion, celery, garlic, and carrots and stir –fry over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the tomatoes and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Add the lentils, broth, water, and pepper and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, turn heat down and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the greens and simmer for another 10minutesor. For especially the green and fresh-looking greens, boil or steam the greens first, then add them to the soup pot just before serving. We added hot sauce to the finished product to give it a little extra flavor.

Vegan McGriddle...Yes it can be done.

2011-09-30T14:50:00.003-05:00

I've mentioned before that Matt hates sweet breakfast food, so this past week I decided to throw the poor kid a bone. I set out on a quest to find a savory breakfast food, hopefully in sandwich form, because I know that's what he likes.

In earlier days, Matt would eat a McMuffin sandwich from a chain that will not be mentioned (despite the Mc in everything) almost everyday. He lived for those dry nasty things. I on the other hand, would get a McGriddle because it would give me a little sweetness to go with my savory.

But we needed to compomise.

I saw a recipe in Happy Herbivore for Breakfast sandwiches and although I was HIGHLY suspect of the vegan egg part, I thought I'd give it a try.

And you know what, by golly these were delicious!

(Man do I suck at taking pictures)

The egg "omelet" part, although I'm pretty sure I do not want to eat it on it's own, held up and had a similar consistency to that egg jello that they put in the McMuffins.

But the real star of the show was the "sausage." This stuff was FAB. We put it on everything last week...pizza...chili...granola bars (ok not serious on the last one, but I did eat a piece of sausage while simultaneously eating a granola bar...it's been a rough week, ok?). The Liquid Smoke definitely hinted at the sausage flavor I remember, but the use of *gasp* MAPLE made all the difference!!!

I know, right? I'm the queen of hating maple.

Except in this instance (and when making desserts/sweet breakfasts).

It just really worked out well.

Slap a sausage patty and some of that omelet together inside an english muffing (we left out the vegan cheese...didn't want to ruin a good thing), and that's quite a breakfast. Matt has requested that these become a regular feature in his breakfast life from here on out.

We'll see...

Here's the recipe for the "Nomelet" from Happy Herbivore:

Ingredients:

1 12.3-oz. package Mori Nu extra firm silken tofu (although other silken tofu works too, I would imagine)
1/2 tsp. granulated onion powder
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic powder
3/4 tsp. turmeric
2 tbsp. chickpea flour (I used brown rice flour)
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 c. non-dairy milk
2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a shallow 9-inch pie dish and set aside (I used a large casserole dish since I was baking the whole thing at once).
-Blend all ingredients except salt and pepper together until smooth and creamy.
-Add salt and pepper to taste and then reblend.
-Divide batter in half, pouring one half into the pie dish and setting the rest aside for a later use (I put all of it into the casserole dish).
-Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.
-Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
-Slice up the omelet into equal squares (I got about 8 total) and set aside for the sandwiches.

I can't find an online recipe for the sausage but from memory it was a tube of Gimme Lean breakfast sausage that I mashed up with 1 cup of cooked quinoa and then added 2 tablspoons of maple syrup and I think 1 teaspoon of liquid smoke. I formed them into patties and then sauteed them sans oil on a skillet until the browned. These were DELICIOUS!

It's Not All Fun and Games, Folks...

2011-09-27T14:11:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a grant proposal (news flash, I actually do have a day job), and throughout this whole lengthy ordeal, I have CONSTANTLY been working to stay on message and reflect back upon the mission and goals of the institution I work for. I have spent probably 30 hours working on this grant and hearing myself and others say words like "outcome," "message," "theme," or "I'm going to pee my pants if we don't take a break."

Not funny? I'm not even sure I know what funny is anymore...

Anyways, all of this talk of message and theme has creeped into other areas of my life as well. For example:
-I get frustrated when Snooki does not stay on message with her character on Jersey Shore
-I wonder what Matt's "goals" are when he leaves his dirty peanut butter spoons in the sink
-And I realize I've strayed from my message on this here blog.

Well, not really.

I'm still blogging about vegan cooking and what not, but as of late, I may or may not be editing out some of the disasters because I have been having more successes as of late (I'm giving myself a big ol' pat on the back over here). But I have a sneaking suspicion that you fine readers only stop by to see me suffer (we all do it...I only read parenting blogs to remind myself why I'm not ready to have children), so I needn't neglect you of the pleasure anymore.

So here's a round up of a few failures:

This was supposed to be a wrap with veggies and rice. It turned into a depressing salad with no flavor that made a mess of my office.

Here's Matt making the most bland/soggiest stir fry of our lives. He wanted me to point out that he was a childhood model (including a childhood HAND model). Unfortunately, if you look closely on his middle finger, you can see that his modeling career has been cut short (get it?) due to an accident when he was a Carnie is Australia (not even joking..I know...).

Not really sure what happened here. Pretty sure we each almost chipped a tooth on this Mexican inspired casserole...

These were supposed to be "burgers." Need I say more? Yes, well, here is the finished product:

By the time I ate these for lunch, it was definitely just rice on bread. What a disaster.

And finally, the ultimate disaster:

An attempt at Shells and Cheese that went HORRIBLY wrong. It tasted like maple syrup and there wasn't even a DROP in there. I actually got a little ill after eating this and think I may be swearing off nutritional yeast for awhile (BLASPHEMY, I KNOW!).

All of the above has encouraged this:

...only in larger glasses.

I kid, I kid. Engine 2 says NO alcohol. I cheat on the weekends though. Teehee.

Anyways, I'm not going to post the recipes of these disasters because a) no one wants to recreate them; b) I don't want to make anyone look bad; and c) it's very likely I royally screwed something up and the recipe author should not be held accountable for that!

So, there you have it kids. Things aren't all casseroles and pies in my kitchen. In fact, what really happens is I make something disgusting, Matt and I force ourselves to eat it, then decide to store it like we do ALL leftovers and then it sits in the refrigerator. Fermenting. Waiting to attack when an unsuspecting victim thinks to check inside the tupperware. And then BAM. I'm dry heaving as I scrape it into the trash.

Thus is life.

The Quest for the Perfect On-the-Go Breakfast

2011-09-22T15:24:00.001-05:00

As of late, I've been hitting the gym in the morning.

Crazy. I know.

But hear me out.

I've realized that if I get into a routine where I just get up and zombie myself through my morning routine and don't actually wake up until I'm already exercising, I can coast through the first half of my spin class without even knowing where I am. It seriously works! And then my work out is DONE for the day and I was only aware of HALF of it!

I encourage you all to try zombie gym time.

Anyways, this complicates my life in many ways.

For example:

-I have to lay out clothes to workout in the evening before. This cuts into my reality television time.
-I have to lay out clothes for work the evening before. This ALSO cuts into my reality television time.
-I have to make my lunch the evening before (see above...)
-I have to make my breakfast the evening before (I think you get the picture by now)

There have also been a few instances where I get to the gym and realize I forgot hairspray...or have to deal with creepy lady who is putting her wart cream on her foot on the counter where I just had my lipstick sitting...

But ALL IN ALL, this has been going quite well for me.

It's forced me to be more organized and also forced me into a new routine which has me getting to work earlier and therefore leaving work earlier. Which I like.

But I did need to figure out what to do for breakfasts.

You can't really take cereal with you (I'm sure you can, I just don't really want to), and you can't really keep a smoothie cold for 3 hours in a car, so I knew it needed to be a potable b-fast.

Enter: baked goods.

I love all things baked for breakfast. Scones, muffins, breads, all of it. The more sweetness, the better. Matt unfortunately, does not like sweet things for breakfast.

I still make muffins and scones and breads.

He'll just have to suffer.

I came across these Chocolate Zucchini Muffins in Happy Herbivore and am happy to report that even though these are basically fat free and contain a vegetable, they are still delicious and filling. I cut back on the sugar in the hopes that Matt would appreciate the effort.

He still complained.

Here's the recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from Happy Herbivore:

Ingredients:

1¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
1¼ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 whole banana, mashed
½ cup raw sugar
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup non-dairy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
½ cup raw sugar (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin pan and set aside. If using paper liners, lightly spray inside of liners with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. In another bowl, cream mashed banana with applesauce and sugar (use extra 1/2 cup for a very sweet, dessert-like muffin). Add in soymilk, vanilla, zucchini and any other optional add-ins you might like such as vegan chocolate chips or chopped raw walnuts. Stir until evenly combined. Add flour mix to wet mix in 3-4 batches and stir until just combined. Spoon batter into greased muffin pan and bake 18-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Super Easy Chalupas

2011-09-20T15:36:00.002-05:00

Isn't it funny that prior to becoming a vegan and beyond that, prior to this whole low-fat vegan stuff, I never seemed to eat anything exciting? Like, a meal with rice seemed "out there" or "ethnic" even if I was eating chicken and broccoli.

Since this whole thing began however, a night where I am not using a grain or spice that I cannot pronounce is rare.   My kitchen has seen cuisines from Thailand, Ethiopia, Greece, Lebanon, the list goes on and on.

And people claim vegans are deprived...

Well, this is not that exciting of a post. In fact, Mexican may be our default cuisine these days.   When in doubt, put it on a tortilla and add salsa. We'll both be content.

So we were in a bit of a rush and needed a simple meal that didn't feel like diet food.   Unfortunately, Mexican food, when void of things like sour cream and cheese, seems like diet food.   We were nervous, but these bad boys were DELICIOUS!   I think making my own salsa adds a whole new level of amazing to Mexican food because I control the heat and the spices.   By dulling down the salsa with cheese and sour cream, I'd been missing out on this delicate process.

Anyways, try these bad boys out. Simple.   Delicious. And Healthy.

Here's the recipe for Chalupas from Engine 2 Diet:

Ingredients for Chalupas:

6 corn tortillas

1 can fat-free vegetarian refried beans

12 cherry tomatoes cut in half (I used a lot more than 12 because they were almost past their prime)

1 jalapeno, diced

1 avocado, peeled, seeded, and sliced

2 cups shredded romaine lettuce

1/2 bunch cilantro

Salsa

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil. Place the tortillas on sprayed baking sheet (I used parchment paper) and broil for 2 minutes. Turn the tortillas and cook for 1 minute, or until crispy. Spread the tortillas thickly with beans. Place 4 tomato halves on each chalupa. Sprinkle jalapenos onto the chalupas. Broil for 5-7 minutes, or until the tomatoes begin to droop. Divide the avocado slices among the chalupas, and top with the lettuce, cilantro, and salsa.

For my salsa, I basically mixed up a bunch of fresh tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, onion, cilantro, and hot sauce. Blended to perfection.

Garlicky Cashew Cream Sauce and a Eureka Moment

2011-09-19T13:20:00.001-05:00

Although I've lagged on regular blogging these past few weeks, I assure you, my kitchen is getting one HECK of a workout. I probably spend all of my spare time in that one room and couldn't be more happy about this. Cooking has becoming something really special to me all of a sudden...

Cooking is a stress reliever, a celebration, a spiritual endeavor, a workout, an homage to good health, and a way to tell people I love them.

Many people already know this about cooking and baking, and to some level, I knew that as well. But it's only as of late that this has really sunk in.

Now, although I did cook prior to becoming a vegan, I did not cook all that much. And when I did cook, I felt way out of my league. Cooking meat just creeped me out. I was always afraid of undercooking something and therefore making people ill. One such moment involved cooking a turkey and a very wise friend of mine who said "these little [insert obscenity]'s are toxic if you don't cook them right."   After allowing it to defrost in my refrigerator, I then felt the need to completely detoxify my refrigerator so as to ensure I didn't kill myself or others after that bird sat in there.

Now that I don't cook anything that could really get me sick, I feel liberated and safe. I cook almost every meal of the week with the exception of one meal out on the weekends and to many people, this may seem crazy difficult, but I love it. I love the idea that I pick up all the ingredients I need to sustain myself and Matt for an entire week. I also love the idea that I know EXACTLY what is going into my body.

I love rules. I love following them. I love that they stand for order. I think they are extremely necessary in life. Which is why I also am not one to move away from a rule that is set, i.e. a recipe.   In fact, in the world of cooking and baking, I believe one of my strengths is my ability to follow directions. Unfortunately, this also means that I squelch creativity and avoid taking risks (this bleeds into the rest of my life as well, but that's another issue...), which is a weakness when it comes to cooking and baking.

But lately...

I've been taking more risks.

I've been venturing into uncharted territories.

Ok, nothing all that exciting, BUT, I have been taking more liberties with recipes and have even come up with a few things on my own.   Nothing is worth posting about. Yet. But someday in the not so far off future, I believe I may have a few recipes of my own to share with you fine people.

So stay tuned.

Until then, try this delicious cashew garlic sauce that I smothered over some vegetables on a Friday night as I made my way out the door to go to a movie. Super easy and SUPER delicious. So what if I smelled like garlic all night...

*Sidenote: I'm pretty sure the plate is sitting on a Victoria's Secret magazine. This is troubling in many ways because a) I obviously was too lazy to move the magazine in order to take a picture, b) the magazine was in the kitchen and c) I have no idea why this magazine is in my house...never subscribed to it...

Roasted Bell Peppers, Baked Sweet Potatoes and Galloping Greens with Cashew Sauce from Engine 2 Diet

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes scrubbed and pricked with a fork (I only had one)
3 red, yellow or orange bell peppers halved and seeded
1 package or bunch fresh mustard greens, rinsed and coarsely chopped
4 Tbsp water or orange juice (I used water...don't generally have orange juice around the house)
1/2 C home toasted cashews (I didn't toast them myself, use regular canned cashews)
1 Tbsp tamari
2 cloves garlic (I used four...teehee)
water for thinning the cashew sauce to desired consistency

Directions:

For Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Place potatoes in a casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes, until they indent easily with finger pressure. Set aside to cool. Slice in half and serve with the skins on. (I had to run out the door before these were truly done, I think it takes longer than 45 minutes to roast these)

For Bell Peppers

If you don’t have a gas burner: De-seed the peppers and place cut side down on a baking sheet. Cook on the oven rack, above the potatoes for five minutes, until the skins begin to bubble and blacken. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Under running water, peel away the skins. Slice into 1 inch strips.

If you have a gas burner: Place the pepper directly on top of the burner, turn to high heat and turn pepper until it is completely blackened. This is best done with a long pair of tongs. immediately place under running cold water and peel the charred skin off.

For Galloping Greens with Cashew Sauce

Place coarsely chopped mustard greens and juice (or water) in a large covered pot over medium heat. Cook the greens for 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until wilted and tender. In a blender, mix the toasted cashews, tamari and garlic together adding small amounts of water as necessary until the mixture is the consistency of a smoothie. Spoon the cashew sauce over the cooked greens and enjoy.

A New Post, a New Cookbook, and Blueberry Scones

2011-09-14T13:11:00.000-05:00

So I'm FINALLY done travelling for awhile. A month to be exact. Don't quote me on that.   I'm ready to be at home for a change. Ready to not live out of a suitcase. Ready to not wear the same 3 outfits for the majority of the month. Ready to not go angrily running down to the front desk in search of a can opener while trying to maintain the composure that my hangriness is making OH SO DIFFICULT.

Yea, I'm ready to be at home.

And I'm ready to get back to blogging!

Just to bring you all up to speed about the Engine 2 Diet stuff, we're still going strong.   Matt has lost about 12 pounds and is feeling good and motivated about everything. I'm not weighing myself, but I do know that my clothing feels a bit looser. So that's always nice.   We eat a vegan, oil-free, whole grain diet the entire week and then go out to dinner once a weekend to celebrate. It's been pretty impressive to see how much has changed (at least in Matt) in terms of his appearance, his energy, his mood.

But it's also been hard as HELL to do this when I travel.   Basically I have to cook 8,000 meals and try to bring it with me. This works when I am driving to my destination, but when I'm flying, I have to research restaurants in the area I'm going to, research where the nearest Whole Foods is, and try to bring along foods that do not need to be refrigerated (hence the scene with the can opener).

All in all, it's a pain. But I've been trying!

Matt and I were becoming jaded with the recipes in the Engine 2 Diet book and really do not feel equipped to make our own dishes yet, so I took to the internets to see if there was any help. Thankfully, at just about this same time, I saw that the folks at Engine 2 were doing a giveaway of Happy Herbivore. This is a cookbook I've been coveting for awhile and so although I did not win the competition (in fact, I did not even enter...so that sort of complicates things), I did make a very wise purchase of this book. And THAT has made all the difference.

This book is great because it has recipes that basically all fall within the guidelines of the Engine 2 diet, so we feel like we can try out all sorts of things, but it's an ACTUAL cookbook. Not a diet/lifestyle book with a few recipes thrown in there.

It's been great and I've loved almost everything we've made from the book.

Especially these scones:

These were delicious and especially timely because I had just returned from a family vacation where we had "Tea and Scones" in the afternoon and I couldn't participate. No, we aren't British.

So, here's the recipe from Happy Herbivore. I also highly recommend purchasing this book if you're looking for a supplement to Engine 2 or are just looking to cook delicious low-fat vegan food.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. non-dairy milk
2 tsp lemon juice
3 c whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp baking powder
pinch of fine salt
1/3 c raw sugar (optional...I chose not to use this)
1 cold banana, peeled and cut in half
1 c fresh blueberries (you can also use frozen)
dash(es) of ground giner

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

Whisk non-dairy milk and lemon juice together, then set aside to curdle.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar if using, together in food processor and pulse a few times to ensure even distribution of the ingredients.

Add banana and let motor run until it has been incorporated and the flour has little pebbles of bananas (my pebbles looked like stones...but I also didn't use a cold banana).

Transfer to a mixing bowl and pour in non-dairy milk, blueberries, and ginger, stirring until just combined.

Using a wide 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop up batter and drop onto prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until firm to touch.

Cauliflower Soup

2011-09-07T15:42:00.001-05:00

Dearest readers, I apologize for my absence this past week. I was traveling for work and then had a quick trip up the North woods of MN to see my family and attend a wedding. Needless to say, my computer access has been limited. Beyond that, my ability to keep my eyes open during a spare 5 minutes has been even more limited.

What I'm saying is, I'm tired. And I have to travel AGAIN this weekend. Remind me why I agreed to travel this much in this job? Oh yea, it's because that's what I do...

Anyways, my cooking has actually not decreased all that much even with all of the traveling because I took a big step and PACKED FOOD for my trips! This was HUGE for me. But now, after all is said and done, I am always going to plan ahead and pack my own food if at all possible. It saves me from a) eating Subway for every meal and b) getting so hangry whilst trying to google vegan friendly restaurants which then causes me to start crying in a hotel room and ordering a bottle of wine that will be my dinner. Neither of those things have ever happened...no, not a chance...

Anyways, prior to my departure, I also had to stock up for Matt. Now, listen closely all you feminists out there. I AM ONE OF YOU. And I have no idea how we got to the point where I had to pack Matt's lunch for him. This makes zero sense to me. He loves to cook. And he's 30, so he's obviously survived up until this point. BUT, now that we're on a diet and he can't zip over to McDonald's for lunch. Instead, he stares at the refrigerator and has no idea what to do and ends up eating bread and then acting like the spawn of Satan when I come home after work. So, I've taken pity. On myself. And I pack his lunch.

I'm horrified by this.

But anyways, I had to make a few extra meals prior to my departure to make sure Matt didn't die, and this soup was one of them. (Note to the world: mass quantities of soup are the fixall for all marital problems...at least 2 months in). So, I made this cauliflower soup from Engine 2. And it was divine. Creamy and delicious even on a hot August day.

Here's the recipe for Kole's Creamy Cauliflower Soup from Engine 2 Diet:

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped onion
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 cups water, divided
3 cups diced potatoes
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 large carrots, diced
1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
2 cups vegetable broth (I used 1 low sodium vegetable bouillon cube)
2 Tbsp cashew or peanut butter (I used almond butter)
2 Tbsp low-sodium tamari
sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Heat onion, salt, and 1/2 cup water, then simmer on low for approximately 20 minutes, or until the onions cook down to a nice mush. Check to make sure the water is sufficient, and then add 1/4 cup water as needed, so the onions don't burn on the bottom of the pot.

Add the potatoes, celery, carrots, and cauliflower along with 2 cups of water and the vegetable broth. Simmer until all of the vegetables are soft--about 20 minutes. Add the cashew or peanut butter and tamari.

Mash with a potato masher (or an immersion blender) until the soup is mostly smooth, with some chunks. Season with cracked pepper and sea salt to taste.

Variations: Add one bunch of freshly chopped kale, mustard greens, or collard greens 5 to 8 minutes before serving for a nutritional power punch.

Green Pizza and I'm Feeling a Little CRUSTY!

2011-08-24T12:01:00.000-05:00

It's been about a week and a half on this Engine 2 madness, and it had to be done. We had to make a pizza. No ifs, ands, or buts.

May I be frank for a second? I have a serious frustration with this Engine 2 book in terms of the recipes. Now, I know the book is not just a cookbook but is also the whole method behind the madness (and a really intense workout that made my bum sore for seriously 3 days), but I strongly dislike the product marketing. I get that this book has fostered a lucrative deal for Rip-a-roo and Whole Foods, but I RARELY buy processed or packaged or pre-made foods. But this diet has forced me to do that on numerous ocassions.

Exhibit A: Pizza Crust.

In the recipe for this Green Pizza, it calls for Kabuli crusts. I have no idea what those are. I looked around WF and could not find them. Since I have no idea how to make pizza crust that is prepared within the parameters of this diet, I had a mild panic attack in WF that lead to me buying some other crust.

That looked like this when I got home:

That's right folks, that's MOLD.

I spent at least $4 on a pizza crust that had MOLD on it when I am sure I am quite capable of cooking a knock out pizza crust!!!

I'm hurt. I'm not sure who to blame. The pizza crust company? Maybe. Whole Foods? I'm sure they're partially to blame. No, I am mostly pissed off that I had to buy this crappy pizza crust dough because I felt uncapable of cooking something for this diet!!!!

GAH!!!!!

Ok, so, glad I got that off my chest.

In other news, I did eat a bite of the crust before realizing it had mold on it. Was vigilantly checking myself in the mirror to make sure I didn't have the flesh eating bacteria after that little incident.

So, anyways, I went BACK to WF and bought ANOTHER crust and this time it wasn't moldy. And since I was so pissed off, I decided not to buy the suggested "pizza sauce" but rather was going to make Matt come up with his own. Which he did. And it was delicious.

The pizza was delicious. I will give you that. But the amount of effort and frustration that went into creating this dish was not healthy. NOT HEALTHY I TELL YOU!

(Can't you tell how angry I am by the quality of this photo??)

Here is the recipe for "Green Pizza" from Engine 2 Diet:

Ingredients:

1 jar pasta sauce (we made our own, can of tomato sauce, garlic, and a few spices)
2 Kabuli crusts (we used ~~moldz-ville brand~~ I'm not repeating their name because I'm not sure it was their fault)
8 oz frozen spinach, thawed, rinsed and drained (we used fresh spinach)
1/2 C fresh whole basil leaves (forgot this part)
2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced
2 C broccoli florets
1/2 C sliced mushrooms
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 C finely ground raw cashews or 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (we used both)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Generously spread the sauce on the crusts, and layer with the remaining ingredients except for the cashews/nutritional yeast. After all the veggies are added, sprinkle cashews/nutritional yeast on top. Bake on a sprayed cooking sheet or pizza stone for 15 minutes (we cooked ours on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper).

Vegan Veggie Burgers That Don't Suck!

2011-08-22T13:01:00.000-05:00

Alright, we're still going strong on this Engine 2 Diet Review, but I have no noticed that since embarking on this journey, I have received ZERO comments. Not that I was swimming in the commentary over here, but like, I at least got a shout out here or there...

So that leads me to one of two conclusion:

1) You all were abducted by aliens
2) My crazy antics on this diet are not nearly as entertaining or noteworthy as they were before.

Any thoughts?

Is anyone out there?

Is this thing on?

Anyways, I'm still cooking and still screwing up in the kitchen so none of that has changed. I also just ordered a few new cookbooks which means this diet has a definite end date in sight :)

Anyways, I made veggie burgers this past week from Engine 2 and you know what, these were awesome! Like, I loved these bad boys and would gladly bring them to a cookout. They didn't fall apart and were really hearty. I slathered them in ketchup, mustard, and green hummus and also served them with some way undercooked red potatoes. Trying to eat those taters was like trying to chew on leather.

If that makes any sense...

On a vegan blog...

Anyways, I didn't really mess anything up with this recipe which must mean it is SUPER easy. So I therefore COMMAND you to try it. The cilantro really was icing on the cake for me and I could have easily eaten these two at a time. Matt loved them as well!

(Sorry for the weird picture, this was taken at work in a tupper ware container. That's usually a tell-tale sign that something is delicious - I was way too hungry to wait to take a pic at home.)

Here's the recipe for the "New York Times Veggie Burgers" from the Engine 2 Diet:

INGREDIENTS

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can tomatoes with zesty mild chilies, drained
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed, or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup parsley or cilantro
2 cups quick rolled oats
8 whole grain buns
Fresh veggie toppings and healthy condiments

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450º. Process the first seven ingredients using an immersion or a regular blender or food processor. Remove contents into a large bowl and stir in the oats. Form into patties, place on a sprayed baking sheet (I used parchment paper...trying to go completely oil-free), and bake for 8 minutes. Turn oven up to broil and cook for 2-3 more minutes, until the tops are nicely browned. Toast the buns and pile on your favorite toppings.

Breakfast Muffin Bread

2011-08-18T13:10:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big breakfast person. I like something quick and easy in the morning, usually sweet and in the form of cereal. The only exception to this rule is brunch, but let's all be honest and fess up that we all know brunch is NOT breakfast whatsoever, but an exception to eat pancakes because you were too lazy to get out of bed 2 hours earlier.

When I realized I would have to cook an actual meal for breakfast on the E2 meal plan, I was not a happy camper. I mean, yes there was the option of making oatmeal or something like that, but that still involved far too much time and energy in the morning. I need something that I can consume in under 5 minutes, preferably in the car.

So, I searched for some sort of baked goods and found the recipe for "Mighty Muffins." I generally really enjoy muffins, especially of the lemon poppy seed sort, so I thought this was a good idea.

As I began compiling the batter for these muffins, I slowly came to the realization that I had neglected to buy any Pam spray (I've just been using olive oil in a spray can) and since Rip has seriously struck the fear of God into me when it comes to oil, I panicked. I had two options: I could make cupcake muffins with some of my cupcake papers, or I could turn these muffins into a loaf of Muffin bread. Since I only had about 3 cupcake papers (how does one only have 3 of those?), I decided to loaf it. I poured the batter into a parchment paper lined loaf pan which actually worked out quite nicely.

When I went grocery shopping, I had neglected to write down exactly how much of certain grains and nuts and what not I needed, but I assumed that since I was buying in bulk, this would not be an issue. Unfortunately, I had underestimated the large amount of strange grains and nuts we would be consuming, so I low-balled everything. I did not have enough oat bran for this so had to include one cup of old fashioned oats since I only had about 2 cups of oat bran. This didn't seem to make much of a difference.

This bread tasted alright all things considered. It was breakfast-y. Could definitely taste the 6 bananas (holy cow, that's a lot of potassium), but it was not something I'd generally serve to guests or crave for a snack. But it was filling and we still haven't gone through the whole loaf yet.

Here's the recipe for the Mighty Muffins from "Engine 2 Diet:"

Ingredients:

3 cups oat bran
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sweetener
Juice of 1 lemon
1 large apple, grated
6 brown bananas, lightly mashed (leave some chunks)
¼ cup walnuts, chopped or halved
¼ cup raisins
¾ cup water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lemon onto the combined apple and bananas. Add walnuts, raisins, and water. Combine the wet and dry ingredients into one bowl. Pour into sprayed muffin tins and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top.

What the heck is Ener-g and how can it make cookies?

2011-08-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

I thought by doing this plant-focused Engine 2 Diet plan I would not be faced with any more surprises in recipes.

I thought wrong.

Majorly.

As I put together my shopping list for the week, I found myself going to 3 different locations, JUST TO GET MY WEEKLY GROCERIES.

Unacceptable.

I started out at the Farmer's Market, but instead of enjoying following my senses and picking out the produce that looked fresh and delicious, I had to follow a list. One of the vendors told me I needed to "live a little and lose the list." He has no idea how right he is...

Then I went to the local grocery store. Matt is convinced that we can find everything we could ever need at this grocery store. Sadly that is not true, but we did find MOST of what we needed.

Except things like wheat germ and Ener-G Egg Replacer.

WTF

I had no idea what either of those things looked like, but I knew the wheat germ would be in the bulk section of Whole Foods, so I figured I should start there.

I am pretty sure every employee at my local WF takes a bathroom break when I get there because I ask at least 9 of them to help me find things. This was no exception. I needed to find this freaking Ener-G stuff.

A kind employee led me to this box:

*Image Credit Google Search

Beyond the fact that this box looks like it is from the 1950s, I was a little concerned with the fact that this is in fact a processed food and that is exactly what Rip Esselstyn harps against. But, in the spirit of participating fully, I went ahead and bought this scary looking box that was filled with God knows what that is supposed to be an egg substitute. *shudder*

I needed the mystery box to make cookies. I needed cookies if I was going to survive this whole shebang. Therefore, the box was coming home.

I made these "Chocolate Chunk Cookies" and at first, I was way unimpressed. By first, I mean as I was scooping cookie dough into my mouth, I was not loving it. Also by first, when I burned the roof of my mouth trying one of these basically the second they came out of the oven, I was also unimpressed.

They were all cake-like and squishy and had a weird flavor.

But, by golly, by the next day when they had cooled, they tasted ok. I'd even venture to say that I liked them.

Eureka!

We're almost through this batch and I guess I need to venture out and find more dark chocolate chips (why is WF the only place that carries this?) because these may be my sole nutrition for the next few days. That's alright, isn't it, Rip?

Here's the recipe for Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Engine 2 Diet:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal mixed with 1/4 cup water
1 cup plus 4 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon finely ground sea salt (I used regular ground...not sure what level of groundness is appropriate here...does it say so on the box?)
2 cups 70 percent cocoa (or greater) chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the applesauce, flaxseed, and sugar together using an electric or hand mixer. Beat in the Ener-G and vanilla. Mix the remaining ingredients (except the chocolate chunks) in a separate bowl.
Gradually combine the dry and wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks. Place rounded, heaping tablespoons of dough onto a sprayed or parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.

The Bagel Panini that Wasn't

2011-08-16T13:48:00.000-05:00

Here we are on day 2 of the Engine 2 recipe review (wow, that entire sentence rhymed). So far, things are moving along just fine. I won't go into detail.

This ordeal has really forced me to be more organized as I've had to cook basically three meals a day and do that the evening beforehand. In theory, this is an excellent way to spend an evening and cut down on hangry cooking after work, but in reality, if I know what the food tastes like and I'm not impressed, it ruins my whole day.

Thankfully, we've only had one really bad recipe so far, and this is not one of them.

I love lunch. I hate when people throw this meal away as if it's an unecessary distraction throughout the day. Drinking a shake or smoothie for a meal? Give me a break. Salad with only a touch of dressing? Ridiculous. Part of what I've really come to enjoy about cooking so much from scratch is that I always have leftovers and therefore always have delicious lunches that oftentimes taste better the second time around.

So, I was dreading this diet's take on lunch.

***Let me be clear again: I do not like to diet nor do I agree with dieting. I do not think that a temporary change to your meal plan will give you any sort of results and I also celebrate every person's body shape the way it is at any time. So, when Matt told me he wanted to diet, instead of launching into my soapbox about my feelings on dieting, I thought I'd be proactive and look for a "diet" plan that I could sort of get on board with. Engine 2 is more of a cleanse that teaches you the impacts of certain foods on your body and invites you to respond after the "cleanse" is complete. If this means never touching a drop of oil? So be it. But I consider this a lesson in body listening rather than a lesson in denial of certain foods. It also tells me I can eat as much as I want as long as it's a safe food, which I appreciate. Mama don't like being hungry. EVER.***

Ok, off of soapbox, back to lunch.

I wanted to make something from the book that had sustenance and have never attempted a Panini before, so I thought: now's the time, now's your moment.

Did this turn out like a panini? Well, no not exactly. I used these whole grain bagels and also was scared I was burning them so I either frantically flipped them or turned down the heat every 2 seconds or so.

This was actually quite delicious, refreshing, and filling. Mine was a bit more green than I think it was supposed to be, but that's because I was using my green hummus. Even though they weren't exactly paninis, I would make these again, even if I wasn't on the E2D.

Here's the recipe for Ann's Panini with Hummus, Mushrooms, and Spinach from Engine 2 Diet:

Ingredients:

8 ounces mushrooms
Bragg Liquid Aminos to taste
4 slices whole grain bread (or bagels in my scenario)
Green Hummus
4 green onions, chopped into rounds
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3 handfuls baby spinach

Directions:

Saute the mushrooms on medium heat in a nonstick skillet for about 5 minutes or until soft. Season lightly with Bragg's. Spread all 4 bread slices thickly with hummus. Sprinkle two pieces of the bread with green onions and cilantro and reserve the other two pieces as sandwich tops. Using a slotted spoon to allow any liquid to drain away from the mushrooms, place them on top of the green onions. Put a handful of spinach on top of the mushrooms. Top the two sandwiches with the reserved pieces of bread, and press to seal.

Carefully place the sandwiches in a nonstick skillet. Place a heavy casserole dish on top of the sandwiches to flatten them. Cook the weighted sandwiches on one side over medium heat for about 5 minutes, taking care not to let them burn. Flip sandwiches and cook the other side in the same way. When done, paninis will be quite thin and browned on both sides (in theory).

A 30th Birthday and Green Hummus

2011-08-15T12:38:00.000-05:00

We celebrated a 30th Birthday this last weekend.

Not me, silly, of course not. I'm still enjoying my youth, comfortably cruising through my 20s.

Matt on the other hand, well, he is getting old.

As we neared his Birthday, I tried to suggest lots of activities he might be interested in participating in to celebrate this momentous occasion. A Haunted Pub Crawl, a boat party, a 90s themed murder mystery party, a Boy Meets World marathon...

He chose the Renaissance Faire. And a diet.

Now, both of these things need a little clarification.

The Renaissance Faire.

Matt is a nerd. Always has been. Always will be. I just wasn't entirely aware of how far his nerd-dom went. Throughout this past year where we have transitioned from being engaged to married, he's let a few more skeletons out of his closet:

-He has a pretty healthy obsession with Disney World. i.e. we've gone every year we've been together (that's 5 times...4 times more than I had been in my life up until our relationship).
-He watches two shows with obsessive fervor: Dr. Who and Boy Meets World.
-He loves comic books
-He's obsessed with Harry Potter (I know this is pop culture, not necessarily a nerd alert level, but combine it with everything else, it needs to be noted).
-And recently, I've learned that he has a strange affinity for the Renaissance and Medeival times. Faires and dinner and tournaments to be exact.

I was starting to get a little worried that I had been blind-sighted by all of these things, but Matt has informed me that because he is now in his 30s, he no longer needs to HIDE his nerdy tendencies, but rather, is going to let his freak flag fly. Loud and proud.

Now, the diet.

It's no secret that Matt and I have had quite an eventful summer. And most couples would diet furiously prior to their wedding to look svelte and slim for the big day and also to offset the imbibing that takes place on a honeymoon. Matt and I are not those people.

So, Matt thought that along with quitting smoking for this 30th (PRAISE THE LORD), we should go on a diet.

I immediately panicked. I hate diets. Disagree with them fundamentally. And had no idea what I would do on this blog. So I googled.

And found a diet I could be ok with. At least temporarily.

Enter Engine 2 Diet.

I had read about this book before and heard that the author of the China Study had endorsed this, so I had already wanted to do a little research into what the big deal was, so I looked at this diet as blog research. And the book came with a recipe section. So, with that being said....

WELCOME TO THE ENGINE 2 DIET RECIPE REVIEW...for the next few weeks at least.

Ok, this is getting to be a long entry, but I decided that I needed to start out with something simple to get my feet wet. The Engine 2 Diet does not use oil, so this was quite frightening to me. Hummus seemed like an easy option. And in reality, this hummus turned out pretty great (despite this awful picture).

Here's the recipe for "Rip's Oil-free Low Fat Hummus Recipe" with a few alterations from your's truly:

Ingredients:

2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos (this is a soy sauce alternative that the author swears by)
6 tablespoons water
2 handfuls of spinach
1 jalapeno, chopped

Put it all in the food processor and blend until it reaches the consistency you like. Add more water to make it creamier if desired.

The moral of this story? I'd say wait until AFTER a mid-life crisis to make any huge life-altering decisions. Otherwise, you find yourself looking at this scene on a Sunday afternoon (that's Matt throwing the axe - while a group of Live Action Role Player "LARPers" watch).

Quoted!

2011-08-12T15:35:00.000-05:00

Go check out an article on Diets in Review that quotes YOUR'S TRULY! The article is about Ellen Degeneres' new vegan blog. Wahoo!

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/08/ellen-degeneres-launches-website-to-celebrate-vegan-lifestyle/

I'm Not a Simple Girl...

2011-08-08T12:20:00.000-05:00

I think we may have hit a road block. Things have been going great in the kitchen. No REAL mishaps and those that did occur were never all that detrimental to the flavor of a dish.

But I've lost my zest.

It's not that I don't like summer foods, it's just that I like almost every other season's food that much more!

Salads? Meh
Popsicles? Sometimes...
Chilled soups? Vomit-ville

I like hearty warm meals. Meals that make you feel as if you achieved something after you finish eating them. Maybe you're sweating, maybe you need to lie down, but you definitely should not need to put on another layer because your body temperature has decreased.

Sad face.

I went to Terry Walter's "Clean Food" cookbook again and found the recipe for a White Bean Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Arugula and although the dreaded word "salad" was right in the title, I thought the "roasted" would overcompensate.

I revelled in the fact that I would be using my oven and my new cooking dishes.

Unfortunately, this salad failed to deliver.

Maybe that's because I took some liberties that I shouldn't have:
-First of all, my weird grocery store did not have arugula. I used Romaine.
-Matt hates fennel. Scratch that, Matt "claims" to be allergic to fennel and says that his throat gets itchy when he comes into contact with it. So, even though I LOVE fennel and think it's a great addition to many dishes, I have to suffer through finding a subsitute. I found out that celery is sometimes used as a substitute, so I did that.

The verdict: Not so good.

Maybe it's because I need more flavors in a dish or maybe it's because I hate large slices of onions, but this just really did not appeal to me at all. We ended up serving this on lettuce and dousing it in Italian dressing.

At least it wasn't ketchup.

It was a pretty dish, however.

Here it is with our own adaptions:

For those of you with a more "mature" palate than mine, here's the recipe for the White Bean Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Arugula.

2 sweet onions, cut into wedges (Walla Walla or Vidalia)
1 fennel bulb, halved, cored and chopped
5 carrots, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on size
3 cups cooked great northern or navy beans
6 cups arugula leaves

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In glass baking dish, combine garlic, onions, fennel and carrots. Drizzle with just enough olive oil to coat vegetables evenly. Toss with sea salt and plenty of pepper. Roast uncovered 20 minutes or until just tender. Remove from oven, fold in tomatoes and beans and return to oven to roast an additional 10 minutes or until tomatoes are soft.

Remove from oven, cover individual plates or large platter with fresh arugula, top with bean and vegetable mixture and serve.

Serves 4

My Burrito Brings all the Boys to the Yard

2011-08-03T12:07:00.000-05:00

I love burritos. Correction: I love CHIPOTLE burritos. It's actually pretty embarassing because when I come back from a work trip and am collecting all my meal receipts to file I have a hugely disproportionate number of Chipotle receipts. I would say I spend more money at Chipotle when I travel than I do on rental cars or hotel rooms.

That's a lie.

But still, I love me some Chipotle. The best/worst part about Chipotle is that moment when you hold the burrito in your hands and it almost feels like you're holding a small child. Then you suddenly realize that this small child will soon be inside of you. Then the guilt sets in...

It's never stopped me before though.

Anyways, I don't have a Chipotle in the near vicinity of my house, which is probably a good thing, because I've had to ~~stress drive to the nearest one~~ get creative.

This past week, a craving hit. Hard. I needed a burrito and STAT. So, I was still on my "Clean Food" kick (thanks again, Maris) and found this recipe for Black Bean Salad. It sounded delicious although a tad healthier than my usual Chipotle fare. But I had to make do.

This was SUPERB! Seriously. Beyond the fact that it was by far one of the more colorful meals I've ever eaten, the flavor was amazing. I have a new love for tomatillos...mostly because they come with coats, but also because the flavor is stronger than regular tomatoes.

*Really unclear as to why I had three utensils in this bowl.

Anyways, once the salad was made, I knew I had to take it one step further: burrito-fy it. I sliced up some avocado and put some pineapple chunks all up in there. Amazing.

Now, the next step was a little stressful since I don't know how to fold tortillas and I was desperate to house this feast, so here's my burrito/pillow.

All in all, I urge every single one of you to make this simple and delicious salad. It is the PERFECT summer dish mostly because it involves no heat and keeps for days in the frigde.

Here's the recipe for the Black Bean Salad from "Clean Food" by Terry Walters (with a few adaptations from your's truly).

Ingredients:

4 cups cooked black beans (I used canned, drained, and rinsed)
4 tomatillos, husked and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 1/2 cups corn, frozen or fresh
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced (I did not seed cuz I like spice)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Juice of one lime
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside or refrigerate to allow flavors to blend, then serve cold or at room temperature. Store refrigerated in airtight container for up to five days.

Beet and Snap Pea Salad

2011-08-01T12:41:00.000-05:00

I've never been a HUGE salad person. Even though I generally like to eat colder food (like, chili to me tastes best the morning after, still cold, like pizza), a completely COLD salad does not tempt me. Lately, however, I've been trying to expand my horizons. My work has an awesome salad bar that always stocks some of my favorite salad fixin's: chickpeas, black olives, spinach, and of course, PICKLED BEETS! I love pickled almost anything, but pickled beets might be one of my favorite foods ever. I seriously put almost an entire jar of those bad boys on my salad and savor every last one. So delicious.

Well, I didn't make pickled beets, if you're wondering. Not yet at least.

But I DID make a beet salad with the hopes that continuing my obsession with beets into the roasted area might be a good idea. After my weekly trip to the farmer's market (Saturday mornings=my idea of heaven. Trip to the farmer's market, trip to the bakery...bliss), I had managed to pick up BOTH of the star ingredients to this salad.

I found this recipe for "Golden Beet and Snap Pea Salad" from the "Clean Food" cookbook that Maris gave me for my bridal shower. It looked simple enough, except that I had to ROAST BEETS...which seemed terrifying.

I had a few snafus doing this one, which I'm pretty sure made the final outcome less tasty than what it should have been.
-I used regular beets, not golden ones (you know, the red ones that stain your life for 2 weeks after you work with them)
-I was feeling rushed, so I didn't boil the beets long enough, so they ended up being way hard.
-Matt was supposed to do the blanching of the snap peas...no comment.
-Didn't have fresh dill, so used dried dill. Didn't exactly know how much to use and am pretty sure we didn't put enough in.
-Frisee was called for. No idea what that is. Leafy greens I think? Didn't do that.

*Sorry for the poor quality picture. I'm not a photographer, but I'm still pretty sure that beets are about as unphotogenic as I am.

All in all, we ate this as a main course and it is definitely a side dish. Matt loved it, I felt like I was beet up (get it?) afterwards. I never thought a person could eat too many beets, but you can, and I did.

Here's the recipe from "Clean Food" by Terry Walters

Golden Beet and Snap Pea Salad

Ingredients:

4-5 golden beets
2 cups snap peas
2 cups frisee

DRESSING:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon maple syrup (we substituted brown sugar, for obvious reasons)
Juice of 1 lemon
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Place whole beets in large pot of boiling water and cook until tender throughout when pierced with knife (about 20 minutes). Drain water and set aside until cool enough to handle. Holding beets under cold water, gently push away outer skins. Cut away root ends and any blemishes, slice into wedges and set aside.

To prepare snap peas, pinch stems and pull down to remove ends and strings. Place in mixing bowl and blanch with boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and rinse with cold water. Return to mixing bowl, combine with beets and set aside.

In small bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients, pour over beets and peas and toss to combine.

Arrange beets and peas on bed of frisee and serve.

Summatime Peanutty Noodles

2011-07-21T14:06:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to eat colder meals lately. You know, cuz it's 5,000 degrees outside.

I also have had a real hankering for peanuts. And Thai food. For once in my cravings have aligned in a beautiful way that yields a delicious result.

I knew I wanted a Thai peanut noodle dish, and I knew I wanted to make this recipe from one of my favorite vegan bloggers. Peasandthankyou is a hilarious blog that combines funny real life anecdotes about being a mom and a healthy one at that with delicious recipes that are TOTALLY doable. Mama Pea, if you are reading this, I love you. Your blog makes me smile on a regular basis.

Just putting it out there...

Ok, things just got awkward...

Moving on.

So, I screwed up a few parts of this recipe, as could have been expected, so here's the round-up:
-Couldn't find any fire roasted tomatoes, so I just used stewed. Same thing? Not sure about that...
-My peanut butter was decidedly UN-natural. Jiffy just has to do sometimes.
-If you know me, you know I LOATHE maple syrup. Read this if you need your memory jogged. Against my better judgment, I put maple syrup in this sauce. I only used 1 teaspoon and the second I added it, I regretted it. I tasted the sauce and almost gagged. I'm sure if you are a normal human being, this would not have been an issue, but I just really can't handle even a hint of maple in savory dishes. So then I spent the next 5 minutes trying to throw anything I could into the sauce to hide the maple (mainly, rooster sauce and a whole jalapeno). The result was a VERY spicy sauce with a hint of maple. Thankfully, after it had sat out for a little bit, the maple disappeared. Lesson learned.
-I basically live in China town, so my local grocery store is awesome and has tons of Chinese staples. Unfortunately, much of the grocery store is actually IN chinese. Which has resulted in numerous fatalities, including a purchase of some authentic Chinese instant Ramen noodles that may have included Shrimp seasoning packets. Those packets are now awkwardly sitting in my cabinet...NO idea what on earth I will do with those.

All in all, this was a delicious summer meal once it had been chilled and kept very well. I'd highly recommend it, just sans maple for those maple haters out there like me.

Here's the recipe for Noodle Salad with Peanut Mmmm Sauce from www.peasandthankyou.com

Noodle Salad with Peanut Mmmm Sauce

Serves 4

Peanut Mmmm Sauce:

•1/2 c. light coconut milk
•1/2 c. fire-roasted tomatoes in juice (i.e. Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Tomatoes)
•1/4 c. natural peanut butter
•3 T. reduced sodium soy sauce
•juice of 1 lime
•2 t.. minced ginger
•1 t. minced garlic
•1 T. agave or maple syrup or 1 packet of stevia
•sriracha to taste (optional)

Noodle Salad:

•8 oz. rice noodles
•1 red bell pepper, chopped
•2 c. bok choy, chopped
•2 c. edamame, frozen or fresh
•1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)
•1/4 c. peanuts, chopped

For the sauce, combine coconut milk, tomatoes, peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, ginger, garlic, sweetener and sriracha, if using, in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Meanwhile, prepare rice noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray or a spritz of oil and place over medium high heat. Add bell pepper, bok choy and edamame and stir fry until crisp tender, about 4-5 minutes.

Add drained noodles directly to the pan.

And then add the sauce.

Toss to coat.

Serve hot immediately or refrigerate until serving and enjoy cold.

Garnish with cilantro, if desired, and peanuts

Mojito Popsicles!

2011-07-14T15:03:00.000-05:00

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It's been HOT. I love love LOVE hot weather, but it does discourage me from participating in another activity that I love: baking.

This means I have no desserts.

This means I'm cranky.

So, I had a revelation the other day. And that was that I should make POPSICLES! This was as I was contemplating a way to rob the CVS of all of their flavor-ice because I didn't have cash and think that charging people $7 for a package of flavored water that you then have to FREEZE YOURSELF is LUDICROUS.

I mean, I didn't care all that much...

Anyways, I did some sleuthing online and found this awesome website with recipes for alcoholic popsicles (don't ask me what I was googling), but honestly nothing sounds better than a frozen cocktail in popsicle form.

The only complicated thing about these was finding a store that carried popsicle molds. I seriously could not find them. I did however, find these weird ice cube molds that could double as popsicles, so I used that.

These were a little tricky to photograph, but here is an attempt:

They were most definitely delicious, even with my doubling of the booze involved ;)

The only thing I would warn against is that, unless you love to chew on mint leaves, be prepared for some awkward moments where you have huge mint leaves in your mouth. I would probably omit the mint leaves next time just for convenience sake, but I really do love mint and I know a mojito just isn't a mojito without mint.

Here's the recipe from "Kitchen Geek"

Mojito Pops

It makes 24 two-ounce ice cube-tray pops, six 8-ounce pops, or eight 6-ounce pops.

Ingredients
•1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice
•2 1/2 cups Club Soda
•1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
•1 lemon, peeled and cut into wedges
•3 limes, peeled and cut into wedges
•1 1/2 cups sugar
•4 tablespoons light rum
Directions
Pour the lime juice, club soda, and 1 cup water into a pitcher and let sit for 5 minutes.

Add the mint, lemon and lime wedges, sugar, and rum to the pitcher. Mash all of the ingredients together with a muddler or a wooden spoon.

Pour into pop molds, being sure to distribute the fruits and mint evenly among the molds. Insert the sticks. Freeze for at least 12 hours. Remove from the freezer; let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before removing the pops from the molds.

Check Out My Guest Post!

2011-07-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

Check out my guest post over at "Stop Chasing Skinny" where I talk about throwing out the scale!

http://stopchasingskinny.com/2011/07/13/happiness-found-by-rachel-w-i-threw-out-my-scale/

Let me know what you think!

Rhubarb Raspberry Crisp

2011-07-11T13:06:00.000-05:00

It was hot outside.

Really hot.

And the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the oven.

But my need for dessert some how overcame my desire to stay temperate.

I had not planned on this sudden urge for something sweet, but I knew it needed to be addressed, and quickly. Otherwise I'd start eating plain peanut butter on bread with cinnamon sugar. On repeat.

So, after taking a gander in my pantry, I stumbled upon a jar of Raspberry Rhubarb jam that I picked up on a family vacation to Door County last year. There is this awesome little local market called "Koepsels" that we have gone to every time we've been to Door County. Tons of canned fruit, jellies, jams, and all locally farmed and produced. Love.

I had not found the time or inspiration to make a Raspberry Rhubarb pie, so this jar had been sitting patiently for about a year. It was definitely nearing its "expiration date" at least in my opinion, so I'm glad I found this before it was too late.

I adapted a recipe from Better Homes and Garden to make it vegan and to make it include the Raspberry Rhubarb filling.

And this was delicious. It was delicious warm, but I think it got even better after refrigerating it. Then I could eat it while sweating on my porch without feeling like I was biting into the sun at the same time as sitting on it. I know, that's complicated to picture, but that's how I felt.

Here's the recipe, adapted from Better Homes and Garden:

Raspberry Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients:

1 pint Raspberry Rhubarb filling
2 tbsp. sugar (I used evaporated cane sugar)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (you can use any flour here)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (or cinnamon)
1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/4 cup coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place fruit in a a 2 qt baking dish. Stir in sugar.

In a medium bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping over filling.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until topping is golden brown. 5 minutes before removing from oven, sprinkle coconut on the top but watch closely to make sure the coconut does not burn. Cool slightly and serve with ice cream if desired.

Kicked Out of the Kitchen

2011-07-07T12:15:00.000-05:00

I'm going to go against my normal format today. I'm going to post pictures of food I've been eating...but without the recipes.

There is a reason for all of this (and I promise this is only temporary): Matt is unemployed.

Now, you might find yourself asking what Matt's unemployment has to do with the posting of recipes or lack thereof, but there's logic. See, with Matt's unemployment status, he spends a good deal of the day in the apartment. He looks for jobs, watches reruns of "Boy Meets World," and has kicked up his level of responsibility when it comes to household chores. One of those chores being: cooking.

And grocery shopping.

Now, most people would rejoice in the idea of getting a break from trekking to the grocery store and coming home on a hot July afternoon to cook dinner, but most people aren't me.

And most people definitely aren't Matt.

See, Matt goes to the grocery store. And he spends no more than $40 on groceries that are to last us 2 weeks. I applaud his ability to do this since that's a fraction of what I end up spending during weekly trips to the grocery store, but the problem is that he shops without recipes. And without consultation with me.

Here's an example of the booty collected when Matt goes to the store:
-Huge jar of Peanut Butter
-8 Apples
-Loaf of bread
-6 cucumbers
-Economy size bag of rice
-4 habaneros

...

So, unless you are a magician, there's not much that one can throw together from these ingredients.

But on some days, I find myself wondering if his obsession with Harry Potter is actually because he's a wizard, because God bless it, he puts something together for dinner!

Like this:

Or this:

Or even this:

He's pretty magical.

And dreamy.

But that's besides the point.

You may be wondering what I do with myself while he's cooking me dinner, and that's a very good question. Lately, I've taken to concerning myself with the state of the earth while staring out the window at skies like these:

Seriously, what the heck is going on.

Then I start to panic thinking the end of the world is coming.

Then I look in the kitchen to find something to stress eat with and can only find a cucumber.

And then I collapse into a pile of emotion on the floor.

I think I need to start cooking again. And soon. It's for the best in terms of my health and the state of the world.

Look Who's Back in Action!

2011-07-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

Hello world! I'm baaaaack!

In case you are just tuning in, over the past 3 weeks I have gotten married, gone on a honeymoon, and been informed I have a very interesting complication to an eye infection that took place prior to the wedding. I'll leave the gory details out of all the events listed above, but here are a few snapshots to give you a visual of the whole experience.

As you can see, I've had my hands full, but I'm back and ready to blog! We've been cooking up a storm and I have lots of things to share with you all, so stay tuned this week as programming returns to its normal scheduling!!

Much Love!

Bad Luck Chuck

2011-06-13T11:22:00.000-05:00

I have had the worst.luck.ever. this past weekend. Like, I know I'm unlucky and the worst case scenario almost ALWAYS occurs when I'm involved, but this was ridiculous.

REE-DICK.

Let's set the stage, shall we?

I'm getting married this Saturday. I'm not really stressed about it. Things are done, whatever. The details aren't that big of a deal. Things are going just as planned. Until...

1) An eye infection. If you know me well, you know that I seem to have a skin infection at any point. One time I had an eye infection that caused my entire eye to swell shut and had to go to the emergent care place in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. The dermatologist said I have a staph infection that means whenever I get a cut, I get an infection. I.e. HOLY CANOLI I'M GETTING MARRIED ON SATURDAY AND PAYING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR A PHOTOGRAPHER! WHAT IF IT GETS CRAZY SWOLLEN!?!?!?!

Beyond discussing wearing matching eye patches to the wedding (Matt was ALL for this, btw), I decided to go to the doctor on Friday and get some antibiotics to hopefully move this process along. I can safely say it does not hurt now, but it's still all red and gross looking. Fingers crossed the lid is back to normal by Friday. Please, God...

2) My eye was killing me. And I had to work on the placecards. A terrible combination. I've also never used a hot glue gun.

This is just a recipe for disaster...

I'll spare you the details of my idiocy and give you the dialogue:

Me: Wailing, OW!
Matt (from the bathroom): What's wrong?
Me: I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! IT HURTS!
Matt: Hold on, I'm peeing.
Me: *weeping*

Matt described the scene he saw as if he came upon a forgotten/lost child. There I was SOBBING and holding my hands up in the air. It really hurt, but I think there was a little bit of a catharsis that took place. It felt good to cry, but the burn blisters on my hands were not worth it.

3) I had to travel to a conference at a small college in Iowa. Against my better judgment, I decided to book my room in the dorm rather than at a hotel.

This was a mistake.

I finally arrived at the dorm at 10:45 PM after an exhausting 5 hour drive (where I almost got in 2 car accidents because of crazy Iowan drivers...no offense if you are one), and of COURSE there was no one there to let me in or get my key. Thankfully, this woman happened to walk by the door while I stood there and just happened to have an extra room. Good luck? Well...

Once I got into my room, I remembered how much dorm beds/rooms SUCK, so I decided to just get ready and crawl into bed for what promised to be a fitful and uncomfortable night's sleep (which it was). So I went to the bathroom down the hall and when I came back, I realized the door had locked behind me. With all my stuff in it.

So, here's THIS scene:

Me: Can I use your cellphone?? (frantic)
Stranger in dorm: Why...?
Me: I locked myself out of my room (starting to cry)
Stranger: Yea, you have to be careful about that...
Me:...
Stranger: Who are you planning on calling?
Me: I don't even know...

Eventually, I ended up calling the security and they came and let me in.

4) I spilled all over my khaki pants the next day and had nothing to change into.

This is by far the longest post I've ever written, and interestingly enough, it's all about my bad luck.

So, with that, I'm bidding you all adieu for the next few weeks as I hopefully begin my lucky streak as I get married and travel to Hawaii.

And do lots of this:

Much love to you all, and I PROMISE to return and get back to the regular routine!

Food Disasters of Late

2011-06-06T12:27:00.000-05:00

These last few weeks have had less cooking than I would like. Well, scratch that. There has been cooking HAPPENING, but there has not been recipe FOLLOWING, which means we've had some pretty epic crises in the kitchen trying to come up with our own recipes.

Rather than bore you with useless recipes that I have to try and recreate to post on here, I thought I'd just post pictures and describe the scenarios that brought us to these failures.

Matt and I wanted Mac and Cheese. Still had not brought ourselves to using fake cheese, we thought we could trick ourselves into thinking that Chili Mac was just as good. Unfortunately, it was not. This dish includes macaroni noodles, baked beans, fried onions, and scallops. I think there is absolutely ZERO nutritional value in this one.

These little roll-ups were actually modeled after a recipe from a cookbook which will remain nameless. These were just nasty. And once again, the nutritional value was very low. It was like some tomato and chickpea past with a couple strips of swiss chard. Blech.

Since we haven't been following recipes lately, we have also not been shopping for any particular dish at the grocery store. What this results in is a bunch of ingredients that probably shouldn't be put together ending up in one bowl. I'm not sure if this was a chili. a stew, a soup, or a casserole.

And yes, those are the infamous alphabet soup noodles that have inhabited the pantry for almost 6 months now. They just won't go away...

And I saved the best for last.

Maris brought over some phyllo dough to be used for a tart that she was SUPPOSED to make for our royal wedding viewing party. I'm actually pretty thankful she didn't make the tart because we had TONS of food leftover, but maybe if she had used it, we wouldn't have decided to try these phyllo dough pies.

Matt has a thing for anything in pie form. I take that back. Matt has a thing for anything in savory pie form.

See?

But here's what our's looked like...

We filled them up with brussel sprouts and some beans.

They were impossible to eat.

And to be honest, they tasted like paper.

So yea. That's why I've been a little quiet lately. I'm hoping we have a little more time and a higher success rate in the near future.

But I can't make any promises...

Garbage Can Pizza!

2011-05-31T15:45:00.000-05:00

I buckled. I bought some Daiya cheese. I really REALLY wanted a pizza that was not loaded up with everything BUT cheese because honestly, even though I can tell myself I'm ok with the absence of cheese on a pizza, I really can't believe it. Pizza without cheese is just bread with tomato sauce and vegetables on it.

Isn't that called bruschetta?

Anyways, I bought the Daiya Mozzarella.

And it was good.

Matt and I decided on a whim to make a pizza using whatever we had in the kitchen (we've now done this twice since because of the success of this first Garbage Can Pizza), and we started by making our own dough. Also, we named it "Garbage Can Pizza" because most of the ingredients would end up in the garbage if not used for this pizza.

It was the end of the week...

I found this recipe for Vegan Pizza Dough on vegweb.com and then we loaded the dough up with a nice spreading of olive oil, followed by some old leftover pasta sauce and then broccoli, pineapple, jalapenos, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and some leftover gardein chicken cutlets. Then we sprinkled the Daiya mozz over the top and doused the pizza with some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and some Rooster sauce for heat.

This was delish. The dough was a little bland, but who cares when you have so much flavor up top.

Some people think my taste for pizza toppings is weird.

I tell them that they are weird.

So there...

In case you were wondering, my verdict on Daiya cheese so far is two thumbs up! It definitely is still NOT cheese, but they came darn close to tasting like Mozz. Also, the gardein chicken cutlets were delish as well and when you nestle it into a pizza, no one could tell the difference I'm sure...not even an avid meateater.

I still cannot afford to eat these meat/dairy impersonators on a regular basis, but when I do get the chance, I will lean towards the Daiya and Gardein brands FO SHO.

Here's the recipe for the dough from vegweb.com

Ingredients:

2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
12 ounces beer

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet (12 x 18" or slightly smaller works well).

2. Combine all ingredients. Dough does not have to rise at all, but will be fairly wet and sticky.

3. Press into prepared cookie sheet If it seems too sticky to work with, sprinkle a little flour on it as you pat/press it into the pan.

4. Top with your favorite sauce and toppings. Bake 20-25 minutes or until dough is browning and crisp around edges.

Raspberry Chocolate Cookies

2011-05-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

I generally do not like mixing anything remotely healthy with chocolate. The one exception being chocolate covered strawberries (and really, this is only because you can hardly taste the strawberry).

I like chocolate in it's pure perfection. Dark chocolate to be exact. I like it so pure that it's almost bitter.

So Chocolate and Raspberry Cookies did not excite me all that much. But I needed some sort of cookie dessert and I had the ingredients for this recipe.

I needed to get rid of a raspberry preserves jar that had been sitting in my refrigerator for ~~about a year~~ a few months, so this was my opportunity.

I got a little caught up in the excitement of watching my hands turn dark brown as I got all up in that dough, so I'm not exactly sure what happened, but the consistency of the dough was weird to me. As I flattened it out on the cooking sheet, they looked like sad pancakes.

And then they burned. See?

These were ok. Matt really liked them. I was not a huge fan, but as I mentioned earlier, I had my doubts about this flavor combo. If you love Raspberry and Chocolate, give it a go, just make sure the dough isn't too dry.

Here's the recipe for "Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies" from Veganomicon.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raspberry preserves
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the raspberry preserves, sugar, canola oil, vanilla, and almond extract.

In a separate mixing bowl, sift together the other ingredients. Add the dry to the wet in three batches, mixing well with a fork after each addition. When you get to the last batch, you may need to use your hands to work the batter into a soft and pliable dough.

Roll the dough into walnut-size balls and then flatten them with your hands into 2 1/2-inch diameter disks. Place on a cookie sheet (they need be only 1/2 inch apart because they don't spread out when baking). Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. You can also serve these cookies still warm over a scoop of icecream.

Ay-Oh-Lee and Portobello Sandwich

2011-05-24T12:22:00.000-05:00

I've been on a serious mushroom kick lately. I put them in EVERYTHING. Salads, soups, pastas, rice, you name it, I shroomed it. This obsession reached a fevered pitch a few weeks ago when I decided to buy bulk portobello mushroom caps.

2 containers to be exact.

If you haven't noticed this about me yet, I have eyes that are bigger than my stomach. I also get really nervous when food sits in my refrigerator for longer than 3 days. Put those two lovely character traits together and you get a wasteful person who throws out a lot of food.

But, I've been working on this.

Matt will eat things that have mold blatantly growing on them. He says it helps fight staph infections.

We'll leave that little tidbit alone for the time being...

Anyways, I had to move quickly with these mushroom caps, so I found a recipe in the "Clean Food" cookbook that utilized the mushroom caps as the star of a hearty sandwich. The only problem was that I had no idea what Aioli was.

Oh well, I decided to do it anyways.

One thing I love about this cookbook is that it allows for much variety depending on what you have in the kitchen and what you like. It even seems to allow for those moments where you realize that you've put in an entire jar of sundried tomatoes including their juices even though the recipe only called for 6 and sans juice.

Oh well.

These were delish.

And so hearty, but we served with some leftover frozen corn (dethawed of course...but barely).

And we had leftover aioli for days...which meant we could repeat this recipe again and again.

Oh yea, and I realized that aioli is just like...a mayo based sauce. Garlicky I presume. Not scary at all!

Here's the recipe for "Roasted Portobello Sandwich with Sun-dried Tomato Aioli" from Clean Food by Terry Walters.

Ingredients:
- Portobello mushrooms (1-2 per serving)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp minced fresh herbs of choice (thyme, oregano, parsley, basil)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 slices of bread
- Roasted red peppers, sliced into 1/2 inch strips
- Avocado, thinly sliced
- Romaine or fresh spring mix lettuce
- Mustard (honey dijon)- optional

Aioli:
- 6 sun dried tomatoes
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 1 1/2 cups grapeseed oil mayo (I used Nayonaise).
- 2 tbsp fresh italian herbs of choice
- pinch of sea salt

Preparing Aioli- soak dried tomatoes in hot water for 15 mins. or until soft. With food processor/blender running, drop in garlic. Process until minced. Squeeze excess water form tomatoes and add them along with mayo to the food processor. Scrape down side of the processor as needed and blend until smooth. Add herbs, salt and process lightly. Transfer to a container and refrigerate to allow flavors to blend. This aioli will last approx. 4-5 days in the fridge.

Roasting Portobellos- Preheat oven to 400F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Wipe mushrooms with a damp towl to clean. Discard stems and rub smooth side with olive oil. Place smooth side down on cookie sheet and sprinkle insides with italian herbs, pepper and pinch of salt. Roast for about 8-10mins. until soft. Remove and set aside.

Assembling- Slice bread and lightly toast. Spread aioli on toast and top with roasted portobello, roasted red peppers, avocado and lettuce. Spread mustard on second piece of toast and top sandwich. Serve warm.

Brussel Sprout and Cranberry Salad

2011-05-23T14:03:00.000-05:00

I'm back from Texas. If any of you follow me on twitter, you know that I was quasi-scandalized by the most recent trip down South (ok, not really, I was just out of my element and had cashew nightmares...shudder), but I'm back and will not be flying anywhere until my honeymoon in a month!

Yea, I know, I still have to drive to Iowa and Wisconsin between now and then, but let's focus on the positives here, ok folks?

Hawaii...sandy beaches...not a cashew in sight...

Anyways, I had the sudden realization that I would be wearing a bathing suit in less than a month. This realization caused me to binge shop for a bathing suit on jcrew.com and then swear to eat salads between now and then.

I sent the bathing suit back. So you can only guess how my salad diet is going.

In all honesty though, I don't really believe in the traditional understanding of dieting. I haven't weighed myself in almost 5 years (yup, I even ask the nurses NOT to tell me what the scale says when I get my yearly checkups), and am generally pretty happy with the way I look. Sometimes I struggle, but most of the time I realize that I'm not willing to give up eating pizza and ice cream, so therefore, this is how my body is going to look. And I'm ok with that. I try to do some form of exercise almost every day, but if I miss a run or yoga class, I am pretty forgiving.

Some might call this lazy.

I don't :)

ANYWAYS, back to the salad. I decided to give Skinny Bitch another chance and thought that a salad was a relatively easy option that was hard to screw up. And the salad option they had in the book sounded AMAZING.

"Pomegranate and Brussel Sprout Salad." I love brussel sprouts and I love pomegranates...WINNING.

Unfortunately, the salad I ended up concocting had little resemblance to the one described in the recipe.

Here's what I did wrong:
-First off, couldn't find any pomegranates. I should have maybe decided to do something else when I realized a title character was going to be missing from the recipe. I used some dried cranberries instead.
-I forgot the tofu. But I'm ok with that because I think the intention of including the tofu was to trick your eyes into thinking you were eating feta. I don't like tricks or surprises.
-Didn't have roasted hazelnuts, used raw.
-Didn't have mirin, so used sherry again.

The colors, I tell you, the colors!

Despite all of the substitutions, this was DELICIOUS! The dressing especially was great. I loved the cranberries and can only imagine what pomegranate seeds would have done to the recipe, so I highly recommend this one.

Here's the recipe for "Brussel Sprout and Pomegranate Seed Salad" adapted from "Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook."

Ingredients:

-3 cups brussel sprouts
-1 cup thinly sliced radicchio
-2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
-1/4 dried cranberries
-1/2 cup orange slices (I used clementines)
-1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
-1/4 balsamic vinegar
-1 tablespoon soy sauce
-2 teaspoons sherry
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1 garlic clove, minced
-1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Steam the Brussel Sprouts 3 to 5 minutes, or until soft (this took me like 10 minutes for some reason). Place in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Cut them into quarters. In a large bowl, toss together the Brussel sprouts, radicchio, romaine, cranberries, orange slices, and hazelnuts.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, sherry, oil, garlic, and rosemary, for the dressing. Heat a small frying pan over medium heat and pour in the dressing, cooking until the mixture begins to bubble. Add to the salad and toss. Season with pepper, to taste.

Satanic Seitan

2011-05-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

So these past few weeks have been chaotic. I haven't been home on a weekend since...God knows when. Won't be home on a weekend until...August at earliest. Matt is unemployed, so he's been stepping in to do the cooking and what not, so I haven't felt inspired to blog. Nor have I had the time.

Sigh.

I'm hoping that things start to slow down soon, but who knows. No one tells you about how much busier your life gets when you are gainfully employed. Actually, I think they do...

Anyways, a few weeks ago I decided I needed to figure out what in the hell Seitan is. I'd heard of it, pretty sure I'd even eaten it before, but really didn't know what it was. So, I decided it was time to venture into imitation meat-ville.

Temporarily. At least.

So I found this recipe for Seitan from Scratch from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker." As I began the process of basically removing all the nutritional value of wheat flour, I realized this was QUITE a labor intense process.

Making the stock was super easy (and I had TONS of homemade leftover vegetable stock which was awesome), and it smelled great. The annoying process was kneading the dough ball in water until the water was clear and not white. This took forever. I am still not convinced I got the water to run clear, but at least it was only sort of cloudy when I threw in the towel.

This recipe made a lot of seitan and it definitely LOOKED like meat.

Here's the recipe for the Seitan from Scratch from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker."

Ingredients
•1 large carrot, cut into 2-inch chunks
•1 large yellow onion, quartered
•3 garlic cloves, crushed
•½ cup tamari or other soy sauce
•2 bay leaves
•2½ quarts plus 3 cups water, or more as needed
•6 cups whole wheat flour (about 2 pounds)
Directions
1. Combine the carrot, onion, garlic, tamari, and bay leaves in a 6-quart slow cooker. Add 2½ quarts of the water, cover, and turn the heat setting to High.

2. Place the flour in a large bowl and add the remaining 3 cups water. Stir well to combine, adding a little more water if the dough is too dry. Turn the dough out onto a flat surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place the dough back in the bowl and add enough warm water to cover. Let it rest for 20 minutes.

3. Place the bowl holding the dough and water in the sink. Knead the dough in the bowl until the water turns white. Drain the liquid, then cover with fresh water and knead again until the water in the bowl turns white. Repeat the process, using fresh water each time, until the water is almost clear. The dough should now be a smooth ball of wheat gluten, or raw seitan.

4. Depending on how you plan to use it, leave the raw seitan whole or divide into 4 smaller pieces and add to the simmering stock. Change the heat setting to Low, cover, and cook for 4 to 6 hours.

5. Remove the cooked seitan from the cooker and transfer to a baking sheet to cool. If you are not using the seitan right away, it can be stored submerged in its stock in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container for up to 5 days or frozen for several weeks.

So once this was all said and done (sorry I don't have pictures, it was ~~10:45~~ 3AM and I was exhausted), I let the seitan "rest" until the AM where I decided to make a Seitan Pot Roast also from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker."

In the morning, I sliced up the Seitan "loaf" to make it look like cutlets.

Then I followed the recipe and put it all in the crockpot while I was at work.

...

...

I come home from work and the house smells AMAZING. Like, it smelled like legit pot roast.

Then I took a bite.

Yuck.

I mean, the initial flavor and texture was similar to pot roast but the chewy rubbery texture was just not ideal. AND to top it all off, I knew there was like ZERO nutrients in this dish. So, we decided to plop those cutlets on top of some macaroni noodles and call a spade a spade.

All in all, this was far too much work for a really not impressive outcome. If I were to ever make seitan again (or eat it for that matter), I would make sure there were some really REALLY bold flavors to compensate for the lack of a pleasing texture or flavor. Also, I would make sure there were tons of veggies involved to guarantee the health factor.

Sad face.

Here's the recipe for the Pot Roast from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker."

Ingredients:

1 sweet yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 pound baby carrots
1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, halved or quartered
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup vegetable stock
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
The cooked seitan (around 2 cups is what is called for)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cup water, or more as needed
3 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions:

1. Arrange the onion, carrots, and potatoes
in the bottom of a lightly oiled slow cooker.

Season the vegetables to taste with salt and pepper
and add the stock, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon of the
thyme.

2. In a large bowl, combine the wheat gluten flour,
onion powder, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of thyme,
1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. (Since I had already made the seitan, I just added the seasoning to the liquid)

Add the water and soy sauce.

Mix well, adding a little more water
if the mixture is too dry, then knead
for 2 minutes until smooth.

Shape the gluten to fit inside your cooker
and place on top of the vegetables.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on
LOW for 4 hours, or until the seitan and
vegetables are cooked.

3. To serve, remove the vegetables and seitan
from the slow cooker.

Cut the seitan into slices and arrange
them on a serving platter. Surround with the
vegetables and spoon the cooking liquid over
all.

CHICAGO BAKE SALE

2011-05-11T14:13:00.000-05:00

What do chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, tropical cupcakes, halfway cookies, cake pops, cheesecake, fresh sticky buns and homemade basil Parmesan bagels have in common?

If you guessed “they’re all delicious” then you’d be right, but they’re also all products from your favorite Chicago food bloggers kitchens and will be on sale THIS Saturday at the second annual food blogger bake sale, a national effort to help end childhood hunger.

Who: Maris Callahan of In Good Taste is co-hosting the event with Erica & John Witte from The Poison Cup Wine & Art Boutique. More than twenty of Chicago’s favorite food bloggers are baking and volunteering at the sale, including: What’s Cookin’ Chicago, West of the Loop, EZ Bake Oven, Not a Crazy Vegan (YOUR'S TRULY!!), Blondie’s Cakes, Joy’s Misadventures, Engineer and an Oven, Chefdruck Musings, NBC Feast and The Pink Apron….and so many more!

What: Remember your childhood bake sales? This one will be even better! Stop by to sample baked goods from more than twenty of your favorite local food bloggers and take home some of their famous treats – from sweet to savory and gluten-free to vegan. We’ll also have a wine tasting and Erica and John Witte will be on hand to recommend the perfect wines to pair with your favorite desserts. All proceeds from the bake sale will be donated to Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale.

When: Saturday, May 14 from 12pm – 3pm (CST)

Where: The Poison Cup Wine & Art Boutique at 1128 W. Armitage Ave (between Clifton and Seminary). To get there, take the CTA brown line to the Armitage stop or the #73 bus.

Why: Food bloggers from across the country will unite to support the Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America by holding bake sales in their states. Proceeds from the sale will support the 17 million children (almost one in four) who face hunger in America. More information on SOS can be found at www.strength.org.

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

Into the STRATA-sphere

2011-05-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

So, here's the setting.

It's the night before Easter. Holy Saturday, if you will, and I have no one who is willing to let me cook for them the following day. It was one of those rare weekends where I spent no time with anyone except Matt and then was going to Matt's Mom's house for brunch.

And I never cook brunch...

And I wanted the opportunity to try...

So I decided I would cook for the church luncheon following Easter service...even though no one asked me to and no one even knew I was doing this.

I was so excited when I finally decided to do this because, seriously, I love brunch, but never EVER cook anything of the brunch-like nature. I generally tend towards eating brunch out on the town, so this opportunity was huge.

Unfortunately, the brunch-esque dishes I found myself looking at were less than inspiring. Scrambles? Eh. Pancakes? Not a fan of sweet brunch food.

But then I saw a strata recipe in Veganomicon.

Now, I won't go so far as to say I decided on this recipe because I had a flashback to the scene in "The Family Stone" where Sarah Jessica Parker's character gets her strata spilled all over herself...

Ok, yes I will. That's the only reason I decided to make this.

I had no idea what strata was.

Answers.com told me the following: A strata is a casserole made of layers of bread (usually dipped in milk or eggs to soften,) cheese, and vegetables.

This should be interesting...you know, no eggs or cheese or milk.

So, return to the original scene. There I am, deciding at the last minute to make this dish that I frankly have no idea what it is, and then scurrying to the grocery store.

There just was far too much pressure. What from the last minute-ness and the illustrating my cooking skills to a whole group of people, it just was a recipe for disaster.

So I messed up, ALOT.

Here's what went terribly horribly wrong:
-I couldn't find cremini mushrooms so I think I just used button shrooms.
-Did not have enough spinach
-Did not have enough tofu, and the tofu I had was firm, and was not drained...so I'm not sure what the custard mixture was supposed to look like.
-Did not have lemon juice, so I think I substituted white vinegar
-I used spicy brown mustard that was quite pungent and definitely took over the flavors in the dish. I would half the amount if I used spicy brown mustard again, but mostly I would just advise using yellow mustard.

I almost started crying as this whole thing was baking. And it came out looking a little strange. So I had to try the corner to see if it tasted terrible or not. Hence the following picture:

Interestingly enough, this was a HIT at church! I almost didn't bring it, but people (specifically the vegetarians and the vegans around me) were RAVING!

Only goes to show you that even when you royally screw up a recipe, good things can come from it.

So, here it is, "Mushroom Spinach Strata" from Veganomicon.

Ingredients:

6 slices stale or lightly toasted French bread, cut into 2-inch pieces
1½ cups thinly sliced shallots (5 or 6 shallots)
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced thinly (about 3½ cups)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon salt
10 ounces well-washed chopped spinach (about 8 cups)

For the custard:

1 pound soft tofu
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons prepared yellow mustard
1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ cup vegetable broth or water
¼ teaspoon salt (if using water or sodium-free broth)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9 x 13 baking pan with oil or a non-stick spray.

Saute the shallots in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet for about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute for 7 more minutes, until the mushrooms are tender.

Meanwhile, make the custard: place all the custard ingredients in a blender or food processor, crumbling the tofu as you add it. Puree until completely smooth and set aside until ready to use.

To the pan with the mushrooms and shallots, add the garlic, herbs, pepper, and salt. Saute for another minute, then add a handful of spinach. Let the spinach wilt, then continue adding by handfuls until all the spinach is in the pan and wilted.

Turn off the heat, move the vegetables to the side, and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Toss in the bread pieces and mix to distribute.

To assemble the strata, transfer the bread and vegetable mixture into the baking dish. Pour the tofu custard over everything, and use a spatula to press the custard into the vegetables. You want to get as much custard as you can into the vegetable mixture without actually stirring things up.

Place in the oven for 55 to 60 minutes. Remove, allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then slice and serve.

Waity Kate-y's Favorite Cake....y

2011-05-05T12:19:00.000-05:00

Alright so this is sort of the second installment of the Royal Wedding Extravaganza that was held at mi casa last week. And to be honest, although this cake did not get the attention and acclamation it deserved the day of, I'm trying to make things right by dedicating an entire post to this cake.

The Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake.

Weeks before this event, I spent far too much time surfing the internet and trying to plan an "authentic" menu. Initially, I had decided that making a wedding cake was way too much effort and since there would be plenty of other sweets available, there just was no need.

But then Maris comes along.

And she has high aspirations. In life. And here I was googling "Kate Middleton's favorite cake." Page after page popped up saying that the Queen to Be was a huge fan of Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake.

Never heard of it.

And then I googled "Vegan Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake."

And I came upon "I Eat Trees" blog.

And the rest, my friends, is history.

To be fair, Maris made all of the cake...

And then I made the sauce...3 days later.

It was late, ok? And there was really no way we would have been able to eat anything this sweet at 4AM.

Especially with that sauce...

I had to give away 2/3 of this cake because it was SO sweet and SO delicious. If you ever need to win anyone over with a vegan dessert, this might be the go-to recipe.

I think that when I make this again, I will only make half of the sauce because this stuff was DRENCHED in sauce. I mean, I like ooey gooey cake as much as the next guy, but this was a little goopy. Once it had cooled and refrigerated for awhile, the sauce thickened up a little.

Here's the recipe from I Eat Trees:

Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients:
Date Mixture:

•2 cups chopped dates
•2 cups water
Cake:

•3 cups all-purpose flour
•1 teaspoon baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•2 cups powdered sugar
•1/2 cup vegan butter substitute, at room temperature
•1/4 cup soymilk
•1 teaspoon white vinegar
Sticky Sauce:

•2 1/2 cups brown sugar
•1 cup vegan butter substitute
•1 cup vanilla soy creamer, or 1 cup plain soy creamer plus 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the date mixture, combine the dates and water in a small saucepan and simmer until the dates soften, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool; do not drain. When cool, process in a blender or food processor until smooth.

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and oil and flour a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, combine the sugar and vegan butter substitute and beat with a wooden spoon until fluffy. Beat in the soymilk and vinegar. Stir in the flour mixture and date mixture and mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the cake is light brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

To make the sauce, combine the sugar, vegan butter substitute, and half of the soy creamer in a medium saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Whisk in the remaining soy creamer. If you are using plain creamer, stir in the vanilla extract.

To serve, poke many holes in the top of the cake using a fork and pour half of the sauce over the top, allowing it to soak into the cake. Cut the cake into 3-inch squares. Keep the remaining sauce hot and spoon over the warm cake. Store leftover suace and cake tightly covered in the refrigerator.

The REAL Royal Wedding (sans rant)

2011-05-04T13:10:00.001-05:00

Ok, I know you've all been waiting for this. I've been tweeting about the Royal Wedding Viewing Party I was super excited about and look, it's almost a week later and I haven't posted pics or even a hint at what was cooked.

Granted, I ranted (like that rhyme?). And then I was traveling in Wisconsin all day yesterday.

So, really, this is my first opportunity.

So, I'll just get to it.

Maris from "In Good Taste" came over at about 6 on Thursday evening (I neglected to check my cellphone and when I finally did, saw that I had approximately 18 missed texts including one that threatened to give the pizza she was bringing away to a homeless man if I didn't respond). I was, of course, stressed about this party (i.e. gathering of 3 people), so wanted to start cooking RIGHT AWAY. Maris, being the calm and collected person that she is, wanted to relax...and drink wine...and watch Boy Meets World with Matt.

I went RIGHT to cooking.

I started off with the SCONES. I leafed through "Veganomicon" and found the recipe for Banana and Date Scones...which sounded quite British. So, I gave those a go. I also found a recipe for "Clotted Cream" (this might be THE most disgusting name for a food in the history of food) and whipped those bad boys up right quick (was that British?).

Here's a pic (using my NEW chip and chip bowl that I got from my shower!):

These were SO DELICIOUS. I am STILL eating them for breakfast and the banana/date combo was not only a winning flavor mixture, but also left the scones very moist and delicious.

Here's a link to the recipe, but the blogger was vegetarian and not a hard core vegan, so she used honey whereas the recipe called for brown rice syrup.

For the Clotted Cream, I mixed up 4 tablespoons of Tofutti Cream Cheese (which tastes like "mayonaise" according to Matt), 4 tablespoons Earth Balance and 2 tablespoons Confectioner's Sugar. This was delicious and made PLENTY as long as you don't like, douse the scones in the stuff.

So, then I wanted to make something savory. Now, I've never really been all that interested in British food...and actually had to ask one of my friends who lives in Leeds for helpful suggestions (thanks, Sarah!). I disregarded all of her suggestions (which were great), and decided to make Pasties. I've had these before, and they're basically like homemade hot pockets...or pot pies that fit in your hands.

I found this recipe for "Vegan Cornish Pasties" online and decided to give them a go.

These were...complicated.

I don't know if it was my fault (it was like 11:00PM which is about an hour past my bedtime and I had had a few glasses of wine...and Maris was distracting) or the recipe, but these were...awkward.

Exhibit A:

The dough just really did not work out. And I didn't even eat one until a few days after the event had past. I added a red pepper to the insides which I guess was nice, but really, I would NOT recommend making those. Granted, it might just be that my tastes do not match up with British food...

I pity the Brits if these pasties were an accurate representation of their cuisine.

I put ketchup on mine.

So, here we were with 2 of the 4 dishes completed. Maris had decided at the last minute to bring fish n' chips which turned out to be a Whole Foods version of Goldfish (ducks, actually) and sweet potato fries.

So all we had left was a tart Maris was supposed to make and the cake.

Oh the cake...

I'll post more about that tomorrow.

BUT, we were too tired (i.e. Maris didn't want to make the tart), so our menu was complete.

We fell asleep to the Lifetime Movie about Will and Kate, almost missed the ACTUAL wedding, and then I fell asleep promptly 30 seconds after Kate and Will kissed on the balcony.

Some party...

BUT, as I've said before, it's better to celebrate GOOD things than BAD, so I plan on doing the same for Prince Harry's wedding. Whenever that happens.

A Royal Rant...I mean Wedding

2011-05-02T12:42:00.000-05:00

So, I'm pissed.

First of all, the internet was blowing up last week with people complaining about how much media coverage was being geared towards the Royal Wedding. I get it, I mean, not everyone cares about wedding details and romance and that stuff, and that's perfectly fine. I had a WONDERFUL time watching and revelling in the beauty of that day and the promise that these two young people had at using their power in a responsible way. I was touched that they wrote their own prayer that mentioned justice and honor. It was as if my generation which seems to get pooped on in every other conversation was finally being represented by some people who could quite possibly win us back some credibility. This may be much MUCH more than anyone else read into the wedding, but I loved it.

Then last night happened.

I get a text message telling me to turn on my tv and in those few moments that it took me to find the remote and find a reputable news channel, I had this terrible feeling that something really REALLY bad had happened and reality as I knew it would be altered.

Then I saw the headline that Osama Bin Laden had been killed...

And then I saw that people were singing "We are the Champions" outside of the White House...

And then I saw tweets saying things like "I hope he burns in hell."

And I was disgusted. I was disgusted in many MANY different ways, but what upset me the most was that, I'm pretty sure people would not be celebrating this way if there had been a Peace Treaty signed between Palestine or Israel, or what if Bin Laden had turned himself in? I'm pretty sure the celebrations in the U.S. would have been markedly less noticeable...if they even would have happened at all.

*Photo Image Credit Google Search*

So I turned off the tv.

Which is what I'm sure many people did on Friday, I'm sure. And many of the reasons behind doing this were honorable - yes it was super wasteful and extravagant, yes they are just two people, they aren't even royalty for this country...and on and on. But I wonder if those same people who turned it off on Friday tuned in on Sunday night as the news broke of Bin Laden's death. As news anchor after news anchor informed me that I would "always remember were you were when you heard the news of Bin Laden's death," I found myself wondering why death and destruction is so much more enticing than hope and joy?

Who knows. But until I figure it out, I'm going back to not watching the news again.

Ok, rant over.

Once I'm a little calmer, I'll post the pictures and menu from the ROYAL WEDDING BONANZA I celebrated. I took the day off of work to watch, so I mean...I kind of went all out.

Alright, that's hopefully my last soapbox rant for a LONG time.

A Simple Spring Pasta

2011-04-28T12:39:00.000-05:00

As many of you may or may not know, I am counting down the days until I get married. Counting down with joy or terror? Verdict is still out. I have found myself concerned over the strangest things...things that have never crossed my mind in the past. Let's just take the invitations for example, here I was trying to decide on a FONT and PAPER. I've never EVER looked at a letter or invitations to something and been like "Oh, what lovely font they chose to use" or "This cardstock is just beautiful." I actually don't even know what cardstock is!!!

Anyways, there's been a lot of strange drama, BUT, one excellent aspect of getting married (you know, besides committing to Matt...) is that I had a bridal shower! This bridal shower was lots of fun with lots of food and I walked away with a TON of great kitchen (and other) stuff.

One great thing about being good friends with a relatively accomplished food blogger is that she shows up, helps host an AWESOME bachelorette party, and gives AWESOME bridal shower gifts. My good friend Maris of the ever so classy In Good Taste blog gave me a hand mixer (which is SO awesome) and a cookbook that I had never heard of. This cookbook, called "Clean Food" by Terry Walters, although not on my registry, was pretty exciting to me. I immediately loved the book without even opening it (which just goes to show how much I trust Maris' opinion on cookbooks), but when I got home (and recovered) from the weekend and read the introduction, I realized that I loved what this book stood for. Sure this book is basically vegan, but Terry Walters never comes out and CLAIMS vegan because that's not the point. The titles and terms we categorize ourselves in can turn others off. Instead, Terry has created an awesome book that encourages seasonal and local produce.

LOVE!

So, I took a stab at one of the more simple recipes in the "Spring" section. This was a recipe for Mediterranean Pasta with Greens.

The only thing I really messed up was that I didn't use mirin (once again, used sherry), and I used canned chickpeas (the cooked ones I had in the frigde had gone bad). Oh, and I also didn't use any parsley. I find that herb to be useless...I'm sorry.

This was SUCH a simple yet pleasant dish. With TONS of leftovers. I feel like Matt and I tend towards the really LOUD flavors and this dish reminded us that sometimes, the more subtle flavors can be just as satisfying.

That's not to say that Matt didn't add hot sauce.

We're trying...

Here's the recipe for Mediterranean Pasta with Greens from "Clean Food."

Ingredients:

1 pound penne or fusilli
3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 TBSP dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 1/2 C. cooked chickpeas
2 C. canned diced tomatoes with their liquid
2 TBSP tomato paste
1/4 C. mirin
1 small bunch kale, chopped into bite-size pieces
salt and pepper
chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Directions:

Cook pasta according to directions, rinse, drain, and return to pot. Drizzle with 1 TBSP olive oil and set aside.

In large pot over medium heat, saute garlic and onion in 2 TBSP olive oil until soft. Add basil, oregano, chickpeas, tomatoes, tomato paste and mirin. Saute 5 minutes laonger. Add kale, then cover and cook 3 minutes or until soft. Uncover and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, toss the pasta in, heat through and serve.

Crazy about Cassoulet

2011-04-27T12:26:00.000-05:00

My adventures in the kitchen have reached a furious and tiring pace! This fanatical fever has caused me to cook some awesome dishes, but also, some MAJOR flops. As I continue to get more confident, I can tell things are going to go well within about 30 seconds of the experience. Usually if it is going to be a BAD experience, I will have a) spilled something really dramatically, or b) Matt will have injured himself with a knife...all within 30 seconds of beginning.

Thankfully, neither of these things happened for this recipe. In fact, I knew that this was going to be great. I had never cooked with leeks before and was thoroughly enjoying that experience, and just all in all, I was happy to be doing what I was doing, when I was doing it.

When I decided to cook this recipe for Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits, I was mostly drawn to the "with Biscuits" part. I thought it sounded AWESOME to be able to cook biscuits on TOP of the dish...whatever cassoulet is. Then, to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into, I googled "Cassoulet." In case you were wondering (and I obviously was), Cassoulet is a rich, slow-cooked bean stew or casserole originating in the South of France.

So, it's a stew...why couldn't we just call it that?

Anyways, this was delicious. I thought I would hate leeks because I am not a big onion person, but the leeks were sweet and almost had the consistency of noodles in the dish.

Here is a picture of all the veggies cooking away...

Then here's a pic of the biscuit dough...

And here it all goes into the oven...

And then here's the finishes product!

Don't let the bland colors fool you. This dish was TASTY and I had tons of leftovers so I had a nice warm meal to make it through the strangely cold and snowy mid-April days. Spring, are you there?

Anyways, here's the recipe for Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits from none other than, Veganomicon.

Ingredients:

Stew:
2 yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch dice
3 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 leeks, washed well and sliced thinly
1 small onion, cut into medium size dice
1 1/2 cup carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, plus extra for garnish
Several pinches of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 (15 oz) can navy beans, drained and rinsed (about 1/2 can)

Biscuits:
3/4 cup plain soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup nonhydrogenated vegan shortening

Directions:

PREHEAT THE oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the potatoes in a small pot and cover with water. Cover and bring to boil. Once boiling, let cook for about 10 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender enough to be pierced with a fork. Drain immediately so that they do not overcook. While they are boiling, you can prep the rest of the veggies and start preparing the biscuits -- the potatoes should definitely be done by the time you are.

Now prepare everything for the biscuits. You are not going to make them yet, but it's good to have everything ready when it comes time to top the stew. Add the vinegar to the soy milk in a measuring cup and set aside to curdle. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium size mixing bowl.

Now leave that alone and start the stew:

Mix the cornstarch into the vegetable stock until dissolved.
Preheat an oven-safe skillet (if you don't have that, just transfer contents to casserole dish), preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Saute in the oil the leeks, onions, and carrots until very soft and just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Keep the heat moderate so they won't burn.

Add the garlic, thyme, freshly ground black pepper and salt, and cook for 1 more minute. Add the cooked potatoes and frozen peas, then pour in the vegetable stock mixture. Raise the heat just a bit; it will take a few minutes but the liquid will start simmering. Once it does, lower the heat again. Let it simmer for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, but no longer than that. If you need more time for the biscuits, then turn off the heat under the stew.

Back to the biscuits:

Add the shortening to the flour in small slivers and work it into the dough with a fork or with your fingers until large crumbs form. You don't want to cream it in; there should be clumps. Drizzle in the soy milk and mix with a fork until everything is moistened (some dry parts are okay).

Wash and dry your hands, then lightly flour them and get them dirty again. Gently knead the dough about ten times right in the bowl, just so that it is holding together and not very sticky. If it seems sticky, as in sticking to your fingers, then gently work in a little more flour. Set that aside and check on your stew.

The stew should be simmering and slightly thickened. Mix in the beans. Now, let's add the biscuits. Pull of chunks of dough that are about slightly larger than golf balls. Gently roll them into balls and flatten a bit; they do not have to be perfectly round. Add them to the top of the stew, placed an inch or so apart.

Transfer the whole megillah to the preheated oven. If you are worried about spillover, place on a rimmed baking sheet, but we've never had that problem. Bake for about 15 minutes. The biscuits should be just slightly browned and firm to the touch.

Remove from the oven and use a large serving spoon to place some of hte stew and a biscuit in each shallow, individual bowl. Sprinkle with a little chopped, fresh thyme.

Serve at last! Especially yummy when you break up your biscuit and mix it in a bit with your stew.

An Udon Revelation!

2011-04-26T12:56:00.000-05:00

Call me crazy, but I've never EVER cooked udon noodles. I've always loved them (although honestly, I had no idea that they were called "udon noodles" when I would eat them in my favorite Asian dishes), but never got around to cooking them.

Since I've been on an experimental kick these last few weeks, I decided to try this recipe out for Udon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Kale in Miso Broth from Veganomicon.

This was a definite experiment because I had been scouring the grocery store to find miso paste for a few weeks and FINALLY found some in Whole Foods. It was also an experiment because of the udon, but mostly it was risky because Matt hates miso soup (he says it tastes like feet) and is also not a huge fan of kale.

Tough.

This was outSTANDING!

I loved this so so so so much that I intend to make it again the next time I have houseguests (which may not be for a long time to be honest, since the wedding nonsense is still here).

Anyways, there were a few booboos here, but all in all a GREAT soup!
-The ginger was not cut up all the way (cough cough MATT'S FAULT cough cough) so every bite or so you would get a HUGE dose of ginger.
-I am on a similar search for mirin now as I was initially for miso paste. I substituted sherry. Matt has taken to drinking a glass of sherry every now and then...it makes him smell like a 90 year old woman.
-I used light miso paste rather than dark miso paste (you honestly mean to tell me that after weeks of searching for miso paste that there are different varieties??? Give.Me.A.Break.). The recipe said to add a tablespoon or so if using light miso to make sure the flavor is strong enough. I used about 4 or 5 tablespoons.

Udon noodles cook so quickly and then have that delectable worm-like texture. I want to start cooking with them more.

We topped this off with a healthy dose of Rooster Sauce and honestly, this was DELISH!

Here's the recipe for Udon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Kale in Miso Broth from "Veganomicon"

Ingredients:

1/2 pound fresh udon noodles or dried udon noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium sized red onion, sliced into thin half-moons
4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ginger, minced
2 tablespoons mirin (optional)
2 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons dark miso
4 cups chopped kale
2 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce, or to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the udon according to the package directions, about 10 minutes. When done, drain and rinse with cool water until read to use.

Meanwhile, preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion and mushrooms in the oil for 5 to 7 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and the onions are softened but still have some crunch. Add the garlic and ginger, and saute for another minute.

Add the mirin, water, and miso, and bring to a gentle boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and add kale. Toss the mixture around with tongs until the kale had wilted. Add the noodles and use a pasta spoon to stir them into the broth for about 2 minutes.

Divide the udon and vegetables among bowls and spoon some broth over each serving.

Bread Salad

2011-04-25T13:19:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that the "salad" is maybe my least favorite type of dish around. Although I am able to put together a pretty mean dish from a salad bar, I am almost ALWAYS underwhelmed by salads you order at restaurants and salad recipes. Unless your ingredients are at the exact MOMENT of their most PERFECT stage/flavor/texture, I find myself bored. Then I end up dousing the stuff with dressing or add-ons, which sort of defeats the purpose. All of this is not to say that salads and those who eat them are inherently boring...it's just that I think my palette (is that the right spelling?) is too immature to fully appreciate what I'm eating.

So, when I saw this recipe in "Supermarket Vegan" for Grilled Tuscan Bread and Summer Vegetables, I was intrigued. Grilling vegetables is always great. And if the vegetables bored me, at least there would be bread.

I know it's not summer, but I learned something new a few days ago. I learned that eating vegan for one day is STILL better for the environment than eating local/seasonal for the entire week! This is not to say that people should stop TRYING to eat locally and seasonally, but I haven't purchased a banana in over 5 years, and it's my favorite fruit.

The deprivation is killing me.

In order to really get a variety in this vegetable heavy diet, I can't just eat brussel sprouts for an entire season.

Anyways, enough of that.

This was a delicious and colorful meal.

Here's where I screwed up:
-I completely forgot the onion. Just plum forgot. Still was good though.
-I mixed ALL of the oil in at once, rather than making the marinade with only 3 tablespoons of the oil. Therefore, I brushed the marinade/dressing on the vegetables rather than just olive oil. This was ok, but really, way too much olive oil. I'd half this next time.
-Couldn't wait 20 minutes to let it all blend together. Too hungry.

Despite the fact that this meal was a salad, and salads usually strike me as being easy and fast to prepare, this took awhile and was not necessarily something that was easy to whip up on a whim. All the flipping and roasting was quite intense...

Here's the recipe for Grilled Tuscan Bread Salad and Summer Vegetables Grifrom "Supermarket Vegan":

Ingredients:
-4 1/2 tablespoons olive oil (yowza that was alot...)
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
-2 large garlic cloves, 1 finely chopped, 1 peeled and cut in half
-1/2 teaspoon salt, plus additional to taste
-Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
-2 medium bell peppers (about 6 ounces each), preferably 1 green and 1
red, cored and seeded, and cut into 1 1/2 inch wide strips
-2 medium zucchini (about 6 ounces each), preferably 1 green and 1 yellow,
cut lengthwise into inch thick slices
-1 medium red onion (about 6 ounces), cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds (I
forgot the onion and it was still good)
-6 ounces Italian bread, cut crosswise into 1 inch thick slices
-2 medium vine-ripened tomatoes (about 6 ounces each), coarsely chopped
-1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
-Italian seasoning, dried oregano, and/or crushed red pepper flakes, to
serve (optional)

Directions:

Prepare a medium-hot charcoal or gas grill, or preheat a broiler (I broiled). Position the grill rack or oven rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source. If broiling, lightly oil a large baking sheet and set aside. Alternatively, place a stovetop grilling pan with grids over medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons of the oil, lemon juice, vinegar, chopped garlic, salt and black pepper until thoroughly blended. Set aside.

Brush both sides of the bell peppers, zucchini, onion, and bread slices evenly with the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil; sprinkle the vegetables lightly with salt and pepper. Set aside the bread.

Grill or broil the vegetables until browned and tender, working in batches as necessary. As a general rule, cook the bell peppers 3 to 4 minutes per side, and the zucchini and onion 2 to 3 minutes per side. Place the vegetables on a baking sheet (another baking sheet, if broiling) as they finish cooking.

When all the vegetables have been cooked, grill the bread until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Cool slightly, and then rub one or both sides with the cut sides of the halved garlic. Tear bread into bite-sized pieces and transfer to a large bowl. Cut the grilled vegetables into 1 inch pieces and add to the bread bowl, along with the tomatoes and basil. Add the reserved dressing, salt, and black pepper and toss well to thoroughly combine. Let stand 20 minutes. Toss well again and serve at once, with the optional seasonings (if using)passed separately.

Frozen veggies=fast dinner.

2011-04-20T13:03:00.000-05:00

I generally avoid the frozen food section. Except for instances like this. Frozen fruits and veggies especially make me nervous. Idunno. Something deep within me starts to bristle at the idea of freezing these nutritious things and I think to myself "They couldn't possibly still be healthy/taste good/have been good in the first place..."

I ~~assume~~ hope I'm wrong, but I've yet to see any real concrete evidence that frozen veggies are as good for you as fresh ones.

But I was rushed last week.

And the idea of buying a pack of pre-cut mixed Asian veggies was really too good to pass up.

So I bought a frozen Asian veggie mixed bag.

This meal took about 10 minutes (not including rice cooking time - I used long-grain brown rice...Matt loathes this rice). This was a life saver for me this past week from hell, but I'm not sure I'll try it again. I like peanut sauce, but this was too sweet. I had to load on the Rooster Sauce to try and combat it. I did however like how many different kinds of vegetables I was able to eat in this one meal.

Here's a pic of it all cooking up.

And here's a pic of the finished product:

Here's the recipe from Supermarket Vegan.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon low sodium soy or tamari sauce
1/2 tablespooon cornstarch
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch, or more, cayenne pepper (optional)...we used a lot more than a pinch
1/2 tablespoon peanut oil
1/2 tablespoon toasted (dark) sesame oil
1 16-ounce bag frozen Asian-style mixed vegetables, slightly undercooked
according to package directions, drained
3 cups hot cooked white or brown rice

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk together the water, peanut butter, soy sauce, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, and cayenne (if using) until thoroughly blended; set aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat both the oils over medium-high heat. Add the mixed vegetables and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the peanut butter mixture. Cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Serve at once, over the rice.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti!

2011-04-19T13:31:00.001-05:00

As I've gotten older and much wiser, I've come to appreciate the finer things in life: wine that costs more than $5.00 a bottle (but still costs less than $10.00), reading for pleasure (gossip magazines count, right?), fine music (Steve Winwood, anyone?), and drinking coffee. I adore coffee and drink a ginormous glass a day (my reusable Venti-sized Starbucks cup comes with me to work every morning). For a short period I wondered if maybe I was becoming too reliant on this stimulant in the morning, but after cutting it out of my diet and feeling no signs of withdrawal, I thought it was safe to bring it back.

I used to get fancy shmancy coffee from Starbucks on a regular basis, but now that I have a Keurig coffee machine, I feel guilty and instead opt to brew from home and then add some hazelnut non-dairy creamer. It's probably just as good as what Starbucks can come up with when I order my "Grande soy Hazelnut Latte."

At least that's what I tell myself.

Anyways, I love the EXPERIENCE of drinking coffee in the morning. I love cupping the warm...well, cup and then feeling awake and perky. Anything that can add to this experience...like a snowy sky or a lazy Saturday morning, well, it just makes me really really happy.

SO, when the option to make a sweet treat to enjoy while drinking coffee came around, I was ALL FOR IT.

Enter Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti. I like Chocolate and I like Hazelnut. Let's do this.

This biscotti was delicious and although intended for the mornings, I ended up eating it as a dessert. I only had about half the amount of hazelnuts that the recipe called for, but these were still great.

Here's the log before going into the oven...don't judge how much standing oil is on the pan. My spray can is busted.

Here they are coming out of the oven...yum.

A close up...just because I'm so proud.

I probably could have baked these for a little longer because they were still a little soft when they came out, but after a couple of days they were nice and crunchy.

Here's the recipe for Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti from Veganomicon:

Ingredients

1/3 cup almond or soy milk
2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (I forgot the additional 2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder or regular unsweetened
cocoa powder
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch (I used arrowroot because I
still had some laying around)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole, raw hazelnuts (I used probably 1/2 cup)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together almond milk and flaxseeds, mixing for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, oil, and extracts, and stir until smooth. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, arrowroot, baking powder, and salt. Stir to mix and, just as the dough starts to come together, knead in hazelnuts. Knead very briefly to form a stiff dough; if some of the nuts pop out, just push them back in.

On the baking sheet, form the dough into a rectangle about 12 inches long and 3 to 4 inches wide. Bake for 28 minutes, until lightly puffed; the top may also be slightly crackled.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 30 minutes, until very firm.

Turn up the oven heat to 375F. Carefully transfer the baked dough to a cutting board. With a heavy, very sharp knife (or use a serrated knife), slice 1/2-inch-thick slices. The best way to do this is in one pushing-down motion; don't saw the slices off or the slices could crumble. Be gentle when handling the biscotti at this time, they are delicate.

Set the slices on the cookie sheet cut side down and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until your desired level of brownness and crispness is achieved.

Remove from the oven and cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring the slices to a cooling rack. When completely cool, store in an air-tight container.

My Favorite Chicago Restaurant

2011-04-18T14:58:00.000-05:00

I didn't do much cooking over the weekend, mostly because it was the weekend of my bachelorette party and I had a bunch of out of town guests here for the festivities. It was a great weekend that in many ways reminded me that this whole wedding fiasco is really going to be alright as long as my friends and family are there.

Anyways, during the party we played a game where I was supposed to guess the answer my fiance Matt would have given to certain questions. Questions like "Where was our first date?" "What is Rachel's favorite color?" "What was Rachel wearing the first time we met" you know, that whole deal. I am not going to get too braggy, but I did REALLY well at this game. I missed probably 2 or 3 questions, one of which being "What movie does Matt cry in?" (I still have yet to see him cry in a movie, but maybe that's because we've never seen Rudy together), "Who's better at yoga?" (He said himself except for the "Birds of Paradise" position, which is absolutely false...I am better at yoga with the EXCEPTION being "Birds of Paradise"), and finally "What is Rachel's favorite restaurant?" Matt answered the question with HIS favorite restaurant, which I also love, but really, the answer to that question is absolutely Karyn's on Green.

*Photo Image Credit: http://www.karynsongreen.com/gallery.htm*

And since I JUST went to this place with Maris a few weeks ago, what better time to review the experience. No pictures, sorry. Too much eating going on...

First of all, this place is beautiful, and I've never had to wait to get in. It's also only about 10 minutes from my house which is an added perk.

And, it's completely vegan.

And delicious.

Look at this place...don't you just want to camp out and spend 4 hours enjoying vegan food here?

*Photo credit: http://www.karynsongreen.com/gallery.htm*

The first time I came here, Matt, Maris and I spent at least 5 hours (and FAR too much money) sitting outside on a beautiful late summer/early fall evening. This was before I had even started thinking about going vegan so I was a little nervous, but after my first bite of those delectable french fries, I was hooked.

This last time, Maris and I didn't stay as long, but quite possibly ate more between the two of us than when Matt was with us.

We started with the Roasted Foraged Mushrooms and Steak Fries. The mushrooms were delicious, but really, those fries are INCREDIBLE. We annihilated the two sauces (which is probably my main reason for eating these...the BBQ and chipotle sauces are OUT OF THIS WORLD).

We thought we needed to have a LITTLE green in our diet, so we ordered the endive salad which reminded me that I LOVE endives! Who knew? Seriously, so good.

We then moved on to the Entrees which we sort of split, but not exactly. I ordered the Fra Diavolo. This was OUSTANDING. I was realllllly nervous about the fact that it said "tempeh crab" and even went so far as to ask the server if the tempeh crab was SHAPED like a crab (he looked at me with the kind of look you would expect following such a weird question), but seriously, I wanted to kick myself for eating so much before this dish came out because I wanted to destroy it right then and there. I wish I could tell you what Maris ate, but I can't remember. I just know she had some of their brussel sprouts which were also to die for.

If I had to say there was anything LESS than perfection in this meal it would be the foraged mushrooms. They were still incredible, but the rest of the meal left me in a euphoric state for about 2 days that I'm pretty sure can only be reenacted with heavy drug use.

Please go here. Even if you aren't vegan. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

And Karyn, if for some reason you're reading this...I love you.

You Put the Lemon in the Coconut

2011-04-14T12:16:00.000-05:00

I made another bundt cake.

I'm sorry, ok?

I know this blog now has 2 bundt cake experiments and not a SINGLE regular cake, or pie, or brownie, or numerous other things, but bundts are so dang simple! And I like my red bundt cake pan. It makes me happy. And isn't that what this is all about?

I wanted to make a bundt cake so badly that I even used 2 ingredients that I don't tend to like: coconut and lemon.

My reason for disliking coconut? Not sure. I love Pina Coladas and Mounds Bars, but that's the extent. The texture of coconut in most other settings gives me the willies.

My reason for disliking lemons? Well, this all goes back to my first year post college. During this year, there were many new experiences for me in the kitchen. I started slowly and bought a Rachael Ray book and was having moderately good results. Then I tried a recipe for stuffed tomatoes. The recipe looked good, but it required a HUGE amount of lemon zest. I didn't have a zester at the time, so I ended up using a knife to get the zest. The end result was a disgustingly lemony filling that was almost impossible to chew because of the large chunks of zest. I vowed then and there never to order anything with lemon in the title and never even DREAM of cooking with it.

I broke my vow this past weekend. I did it all for the bundt.

This was a relatively simple recipe, but I did mess up a few key parts.
-I didn't have granulated sugar, but only raw sugar cane. Not sure if that matters, but I only used a cup since...
-I couldn't find unsweetened coconut at my grocery store, so I bought sweetened.
-There were no 14 oz. cans of coconut milk, only 13.5. I used that.
-I was WAY nervous about the lemon zest (see above), so I think I only used about 1 tablespoon rather than 3.
-I used the baking powder that had mysteriously ended up in the fridge. I hope that you can still cook with that stuff after it's been used to absorb a stench...that's even gross for me to read.

All in all, this turned out ok. Not my favorite of flavors, but that was to be expected. Nothing really can compare to my last bundt endeavor.

Here's the recipe for Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake from Veganomicon.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 C granulated sugar
2/3 C canola oil
1 (14-oz) can coconut milk
1/4 C soy milk
1/4 C lemon juice
3 Tbs lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 C shredded unsweetened coconut
A few tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease an 8 or 10″ Bundt pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine the granulated sugar, oil, coconut milk, soy milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Stir to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the wet ingredients in batches, mixing well after each addition. Stir to combine.

Pour batter into the Bundt pan. Bake 1 hour or until a knife inserted through the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then place a cutting board over the cake pan, gently flip over and release the cake from the pan. Let cool completely. Once cooled, sift a sprinkling of the confectioners’ sugar over the top.

Hummus Pizza

2011-04-13T13:36:00.000-05:00

I have a love hate relationship with hummus. I went through a phase where I ate hummus ALL the time and would slather that stuff on everything.

Then I went to the Holy Land.

And all I ever COULD eat was hummus. Hummus for breakfast, hummus for lunch, hummus for dinner.

I needed a sabbatical from hummus upon my return from traveling and basically swore off the stuff for 2 years. I slowly came around again and began to adore hummus almost as much as I did prior to my trip.

Then I went to Greece.

Hummus was served at every meal there as well. This was not even a year ago.

I am still recovering.

Anyways, despite the fact that I am not nearly recovered enough from my trip to Greece, I needed a quick meal and had a hankering for pizza.

So I tried this recipe for "Hummus Pizza with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives" from the Supermarket Vegan.

Unfortunately, Matt hates olives and sun-dried tomatoes.

I'm mean. But I really like BOTH of those things! The funny thing is, Matt really liked this pizza and I thought it was so so! Just goes to show you that you CAN teach old dogs new tricks...and that tastes can change depending on your mood.

(Yes, that's a heart shaped measuring cup...it was a gift)

So yea, if you need a quick and easy weeknight meal, here's a good option.

Hummus Pizza with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives from "Supermarket Vegan."

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups prepared plain (classic) hummus
1 to 2 cloves garlice, finely chopped (I used two HUGE cloves)
1 (10- or 13- ounce) can refrigerated pizza dough
1/3 cup julienned, drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, 1 tablespoon
marinade reserved
6 pitted kalamata or other good-quality black olives, halved (I would use
more than this)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Lightly oil a standard-size baking sheet and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the hummus and garlic until thoroughly blended; set aside.

Unroll the pizza dough onto the prepared baking sheet and press to fit. Brush the reserved sun-dried tomato marinade evenly over the dough, and then prick with a fork in several places. Bake in the center of the oven 12 to 15 minutes, until very lightly browned. Remove from the oven and spread evenly with the hummus-garlic mixture. Top evenly with the sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Place on the bottom rack and bake 5 minutes, until the edges are nicely browned. Cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Green With Envy

2011-04-12T12:11:00.000-05:00

I am a jealous person. I try not to be because I do find jealousy to be one of the most unattractive characteristics in a person, but nevertheless, I too fall prey to the grips of jealous tendencies.

But I don't get jealous about normal things. If a lady sparks an interest for Matt? No biggie. If someone has a nice house that is decorated just like I would? I don't really care.

What I covet is skill. I covet people who are creative. Artists, for example. I just cannot process how a person can create something beautiful out of normal everyday materials. Painters, sculptors, composers, and last but not least, chefs.

I have always been very good at following directions. I can perform music that others have written, I can follow recipes, heck, I can even do a decent job following a paint by number, but when the training wheels are removed, I flounder (just like I did when the real training wheels WERE removed...in 4th grade...don't judge me).

So, creative people make me envious. Green with envy. And this only became more evident as I cooked a "green" centered meal from Veganomicon that was so damn creative, I could hardly take it.

I made the "Manzana Chili Verde" because it seemed weird. Apples in chili? Gross-ville, population: ME (I love teenagers). But this recipe had enough redeeming ingredients that I love (like cilantro, lime, potatoes, white beans, etc. etc. etc.), that I decided to risk it.

And I'm glad I did.

I didn't mess much up on the recipe side, but the trip to the grocery store was definitely a learning experience. First of all, I had no idea what a Poblano pepper looked like. Should have google imaged that BEFORE going, rather than after, but here's a pic, in case you were wondering:

*Image Credit - Google Search

Frankly, I can't tell the difference between this picture and a regular old Jalapeno, so...I don't feel like I'm any smarter.

I ended up buying 2 of these bad boys:

*Image Credit - Google Search

Those are Hungarian Wax Peppers. I have no real idea why I bought these because I even saw the name. I think I liked the way they looked.

I also ran into a little snafu while trying to locate the tomatillos. I've never seen one of these before and when I asked the overly friendly produce guy if they had any, he said no.

I didn't believe him.

And lo and behold, I found those tricky tom toms! Who KNEW they had jackets?

*Image Credit - Google Search

But, I found everything I needed and the rest of the experience was rather painless!

This was awesome. I loved how tangy yet spicy this chili was (I assume that was due to the apple and pepper combo). Matt was not a real fan, but I was! And since it was so green, you couldn't help but think you were eating something SUPER healthy! The only annoying part was having to transfer the hot liquid to my food process to blend, BUT, something tells me I may be receiving a hand mixer in the near future (a.k.a. it says so on my registry).

Adding the avocado as a garnish really sealed the deal for me as well.

Here's the recipe for Manzana Chili Verde from Veganomicon.

Ingredients:

1 lb baby Yukon golds, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 T vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, diced small
3 jalapenos, seeded and sliced thinly
2 poblano peppers, seeded and chopped into 1" pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 t ground cumin
1 t dried oregano (preferably Mexican oregano)
1 t salt
1/3 c dry white wine
1 lb tomatillos, papery skin removed, washed, chopped into 1/2" to 3/4" pieces
2 Granny Smith apples, cored, quartered, and sliced thinly
2 c vegetable broth
1 c loosely packed fresh cilantro
1/4 c shopped scallions
1 (15 oz) can small white beans, drained and rinsed
Juice of 1 lime
Avocado slices for garnish

Directions:

Place the chopped potatoes in a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Let boil, covered, for a little less than 20 minutes, until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside. Of course, you should be preparing everything else while it is boiling.

Preheat a soup pot over medium-high heat. Saute the onion, jalapenos, and poblanos in oil for about 10 minutes, until everything is softened and the onions are slightly browned.

Add the garlic, cumin, oregano, and salt. Saute for 1 more minute, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the white wine and tomatillos, raise the heat a bit to let the wine reduce and the tomatillos release their juices, about 5 minutes.

Add the apples, vegetable broth, scallions, and 1/2 c of cilantro. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.

Use an immersion blender to partially puree everything. If you don't have one, let the mixture cool slightly and pulse in a blender or food processor.

Taste for sweetness/tartness. Tomatillos are sometimes bitter; if that is the case, add a teaspoon or two of sugar and that should level things out. Add the cooked potatoes and the beans, simmer for a few more minutes, until everything is heated through.

Add the remaining cilantro and the lime juice. Ladle into bowls, garnish with the avocado and scallions, and serve.

So, adobo means spicy? Since when???

2011-04-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

In my continual quest to expand my cooking experience, I once again decided to make 2 count 'em 2 dishes for 1 meal. I decided to do a little spin on "beans and rice" but since nothing about that sounds all that exciting, I went to Veganomicon. That cookbook makes my boring little life ever so much more delightful.

I decided to make the Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf as the base and then top it off with the Black Beans with Chipotle Adobo Sauce. Sounded simple enough. Had all the ingredients. I thought it all looked like a winning combination.

So, I started with the pilaf. What the heck is pilaf anyways? Glad you asked, because I dictionary.com-ed that very question and here is what I found. Pilaf: a Middle Eastern dish consisting of sautéed, seasoned rice steamed in bouillon, sometimes with poultry, meat or shellfish.

Well, if that's the definition, then this dish really WASN'T pilaf since quinoa is not rice, and there was no bouillion, poultry, meat or shellfish...

So...this is now awkward.

Anyways, I cooked it.

And I screwed up.

Here's what I did wrong:
-I bought coriander seed. I'm a dumby. As I began cooking, I realized I neglected to note that the coriander seed needed to be manually ground. So, there I was banging on those little buggers with the bottom of a knife trying to simultaneously crush them while also not killing myself. I only half succeeded. Thankfully, Matt reminded me that we have ground coriander. I used that, and then promptly updated my wedding registry to include a mortar and pestle for moments such as this.
-I tried to go all old school and cook the dried chickpeas myself. Bad idea. They did not cook all the way and therefore made the whole meal quite labor intensive on the chewing end. Oh well...I tried.

Other than those incidents, the "pilaf" turned out alright. It was a little bland though. Thank God the beans took care of that...and then some.

I then went on to the Black Beans with Chipotle Adobo Sauce also from Veganomicon.

This recipe seemed super easy. But this is where the real trauma sets in.

It's no secret that Matt and I love spicy food. We add "Rooster" Sauce to everything and even request "Extra Spicy" in Thai restaurants. So, we basically exist thinking that we must double if not triple the spicy factor whenever we cook from a recipe.

This recipe called for 2 chipotles in adobo sauce.

We used 6.

I almost threw up it was so spicy.

We were both sweating and I had to lie down after eating to allow for recovery.

Aycarumba. Never again.

Otherwise, this stuff was great!

Here are the beans cooking away...

And here is the sauce of Satan:

And here is the final product. Honestly, isn't this just beautiful (I hate it when people talk about food like this, but I get it...it really was pretty)?

I think I may need to try this recipe again, only with the called for number of adobos.

Here's the recipe for the Quinoa Chickpea Pilaf from Veganomicon:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped finely (about one cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon coriander seed, crushed (spice grinder or mortar and pestle)
fresh ground pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup quinoa (rinsed well)
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 2 cups cooked)
2 cups vegetable broth (or reconstituted bullion)

Directions:

In a small stockpot over medium heat, saute the onions in olive oil for about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 2 more minutes.

Add the tomato paste, coriander, cumin, black pepper, and salt; saute for another minute.

Add the quinoa and saute for 2 minutes.

Add the chickpeas and broth; cover and bring to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, lower the heat to very low, cover, and cook for about 18 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water; stir occasionally.

Fluff with a fork and serve.

And here's the recipe for the Black Beans with Chipotle Adobo Sauce, also from Veganomicon:

Ingredients:

Beans
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 bay leaf
3 cups cold water
1 large onion, peeled and halved
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Chipotle adobo sauce
1 large onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 chipotle chiles in adobo, minced
2 tablespoons adobo sauce

Directions:

Combine the beans, onion, bay leaf and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, then let boil for 1 minute. Lower the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes, until the beans are very tender and about half the water has evaporated. Remove the bay leaf and onion before serving.

While the beans are cooking, prepare the chipotle adobo sauce: In a heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion is very soft, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce, cook for 30 seconds, and remove from heat.

Allow to cool a few minutes, empty the sauce into a food processor bowl, and briefly pulse until a chunky sauce forms. You may also use an immersion blender to do this. Serve the sauce drizzled over individual servings of beans.

Accidental Crockpot Chocolate Souffle

2011-04-07T12:11:00.000-05:00

I have mentioned before how much I love my crockpot. And one thing I realized after perusing the internets and buying a few crockpot cookbooks is that you can make DESSERTS in the crockpot!!! What could be better than mixing up some sweet ingredients, letting them cook all day, and having a delicious dessert to come home to?? Nothing, I tell you, NOTHING.

So, I went to my trusty "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker" and looked through their dessert options. Unfortunately, there were few vegan options, and the vegan options that were there were not necessarily my cup o' tea. I like chocolate. I like brownies. I like cakes. I don't particularly like fruity desserts...they feel too healthy even if they are slathered in oil and butter and the like. BUT, I did find the recipe for "FUDGY CHOCOLATE PUDDING CAKE." Now, pudding? Not my fave, but sneak that word in amongst fudgy and chocolate and cake, and NOW you're speaking my language.

So I gave this a go.

My biggest problem with this recipe is that I did not have a dish that could easily fit in my crockpot on top of the rack. So I ended up using a regular old bowl that I had and this was not as attractive or useful as I would have liked. I couldn't really cut out servings when it was done which basically gave me an excuse to house half of it in one sitting because, hey, it was in a soup bowl and I couldn't store it that well.

I'm also pretty sure that cooking this in the crockpot was unecessary and actually complicated things more. I cooked it longer than 3 hours because I never use that thing unless I'm going to be gone for longer than 3 hours, so that too was a little weird.

This was...ok, not bad, but not great either. It had the consistency of a pudding/souffle, nothing cake-like about it. I'm still holding out for a more exciting and innovative way to cook desserts in my crockpot.

I obviously did not mix this together well enough either because there are white flakes in the stuff. Oh well.

Here's the recipe from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker."

Fudgy Chocolate Pudding Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups boiling water
1 cup sugar or natural sweetener
2 tablespoons corn oil or other mild-tasting oil
1 1/2 cups soymilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or liqueur of choice (I used vanilla)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place a rack or trivet in a 6-quart slow cooker. Pour in the boiling water, cover, and turn the heat setting to High. Lightly oil a baking dish that will fit inside the cooker.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and oil together until well blended. Stir in the milk and vanilla.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just blended. Pour the batter into the prepared dish and cover tightly with aluminum foil, making several holes in the foil for steam to escape. Set it on the rack, cover, and cook on High for 3 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with almonds and serve warm or at room temperature.

Sprouts and Shrooms

2011-04-05T12:22:00.000-05:00

I'm back from traveling. Again. This time, I hope to be able to actually unpack my suitcase and leave it stowed in my closet for at least 2 weeks, but we shall see. Boston was great and I had a few great vegan meals (and a few not so great, but that's ok...). I adore Chicago, but I would have to say that Boston is moving into a pretty solid second place to Chi-town. Loved it.

Anyways, before I left, I tried to make a crapload of food since I wouldn't be around (Matt needed sustenance beyond pork chop sandwiches from the 24-7 diner down the road) and I wouldn't have a chance to cook before heading off to the East Coast. In case you didn't know, cooking is a stress reliever for me (i.e. I started this blog 6 months before my wedding, and I'm pretty sure it's the only thing getting me through these final weeks), and in case you also didn't know, I'm TERRIFIED of flying. Like, when it was at its worst, I would have to cover my face with some form of cloth to keep myself from hyperventilating. Now I just pop a few "happy pills" that the lovely docs have given to me and things are almost manageable. That is, unless there's turbulence, or I see a bolt on the wing of the plane coming off...

True story. And it was Southwest.

But I digress.

I wanted to do some cooking to calm my nerves prior to flying, so I decided to do an actual meal, not just a one-pot dish like I'm apt to do. So I picked two veggies that I love and decided to make them BOTH. I picked Brussel Sprouts and Portabello Mushrooms and used the recipes from Veganomicon.

Let's start with the sprouts.

I love brussel sprouts and think I've gotten close to perfecting my own recipe, but I'm never against trying new methods of elaborating upon perfection (I think sprouts are perfection in and of themselves). So, I tried this recipe called "Cornmeal Masala Roasted Brussel Sprouts."

These were...not good. And I say that with a heavy heart. I have loved almost everything I've made from Veganomicon and also love sprouts, so it was a sad day in the kitchen. To be fair, I did mess up a little.

Here's what I did wrong:
-I didn't have chickpea flour, and I thought "hey, I have some dried chickpeas, why not just put those in my food processor and make my own flour like I did with the oats?" Well, friends, not a good idea. I think I stopped grinding before doing any serious damage to my food processor, but we'll have to see when I need to use the sharp blade again. I ended up using normal flour.
-I didn't use any lemon juice.

The flavor was just, not good. It smelled like Thanksgiving in my house as I was cooking, which was unexpected, and the chunks of seasoning were bland and grainy. I really expected much better from this recipe. Oh well. Also, WAY too much oil used on these most delicate buds of nature (I wax poetic when I think of sprouts...).

At least they looked pretty.

Here's the recipe:

Cornmeal Masala Roasted Brussels Sprouts from Veganomicon

8 tbsp. peanut oil
1 1/2 lbs. brussels sprouts
2/3 c. cornmeal
3 tbsp. chickpea flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. coriander
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Pinch cayenne
Fresh lemon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread 2 tbsp. of the oil on a baking dish.

Trim and wash sprouts, then lightly dry. Place in a medium bowl and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. of the chickpea flour and some salt. Mix with your hands, making sure that all of the sprouts are thoroughly covered.

In a large bowl, mix cornmeal, remaining 2 tbsp. chickpea flour, salt, garam masala, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and cayenne if desired. Add the remaining 6 tbsp. of peanut oil and mix. Add the sprouts and mix with your hands until all are coated.

Place sprouts the oiled dish. Scrape out any extra of the cornmeal mixture in the bowl onto the pan.

Place dish in oven and bake sprouts 25 minutes, or until golden brown and tender, removing briefly to turn approximately every 10 minutes. Remove from oven and place in bowl, topping with crunchy bits. Squeeze fresh lemon over the sprouts and serve.

Thankfully, the mushrooms were AWEsome. And pretty easy.

I did a few things wrong with these bad boys as well, however.

Here's what happened:
-I didn't have enough wine to cook with, so I substituted some red wine vinegar and mixed it in with the leftover wine driblets I had. This didn't seem to mess with the flavor, in fact, it made the flavor more pronounced in my opinion, which I loved.
-I had to go to yoga, so I let these shrooms marinate for about an hour and 20 minuted rather than just 20 minutes. This also did not seem to ruin anything, in fact, I believe it helped the flavors POP more.
-Didn't have any tin foil (I hate it when that happens), so I used parchment paper. Not sure what that did.

These were yum. And pretty.

Here they are, marinating their little hearts out.

Here's the recipe, also from Veganomicon.

Roasted Portabello Mushrooms

Ingredients:

2 big or 4 smaller Portobello/flat mushrooms.
1 tbsp olive oil.
2 tbsp soy sauce.
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar.
1/2 cup (125ml) wine
2 cloves crushed garlic

Directions:

Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Stab the topside of each mushroom a few times with a fork, then turn them gill side up in a baking dish or casserole, and pour some marinade into the top of each mushroom so it pools. Pour the rest all over them mushrooms and into the dish. Let it sit for about 20 minutes while you heat the oven at 400F.

Cover the dish in foil and bake for half an hour, then flip the mushrooms over and cook uncovered for another ten minutes.

On an unrelated note, were these shrooms marinaTing or marinaDing??

Here's the finished product/meal!

A trip to the Chicago Diner!

2011-03-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

I am new to the Chicago Vegan food world. Now, Chicago may not exactly be known for its vegan fare (have you SEEN our deep dish or hot dogs??), so I figured that dining out in this amazing city might be a bit of a test.

I love going out to dinner. More than anything probably.

And I looooove Chicago.

But were these two loves of mine destined for failure now that my food options were limited?

Enter http://www.happycow.net/

One click on this website and I saw countless options for vegan fare within this fair city (see that play on words? Did you like that? I did...)

The first stop on my list: Chicago Diner.

*Image Credit Google Search

I had heard about this place from various friends and fellow bloggers, but was hesitant. This place sounded like it served up greasy lookalike dishes and as I've said before, I am not a fan of imitation foods!!! But, I wanted to check this out nonetheless.

Matt and I made the mistake of going to this place on a Friday night around 8:00. This place does not take reservations. This sucked.

We walked into the cramped restaurant and were told that it would be an hour and a half wait at the least, but that we could "go out to the tent in the back for some tea."

...

Oh, because tea in tents makes EVERYTHING better...

We did go out there. and get this.

NO TEA!

Matt went next door to the 7-11 and grabbed some ~~Jack Daniels~~ soda. So we made do. I played Words with Friends, Matt was busy counting forearm tattoos on all the hipsters in that tent.

We got into the restaurant after about an hour wait, and the rest of the experience was pretty good! It was a little cramped in there, but the food made up for it.

I ordered a Dark Horse Raspberry Ale which, although it doesn't necessarily sound all that good, was the best beer I think I've ever had. Seriously, I am going to seek this beer out on a regular basis. I tried a fruity flavored beer a few nights later and it was nasty, so I understand that many fruity beers are gross, this however, was heavenly.

We had the Grilled Potstickers as an appetizer and these were fab. The sauce especially was delicious. We inhaled these in approximately 45 seconds, mostly because it was 9:00 (we eat at 5:00 usually) and we had been told there would be tea, and there was none.

Then, for my main course I ordered the Reuben and Matt got the Dagwood Sandwich. My Reuben was really good and since Reubens are probably my most favorite sandwich, ever, this was a welcome substitute for the absence of this in my diet. Matt liked the Dagwood and didn't seem too flustered by the seitan.

I wish I had taken pictures.

And I wish I had left room for dessert.

The real excitement came after the meal was over.

I'm not exactly sure what the deal was, but both Matt and I were extremely ill after this meal. Our stomachs were rebelling from the seitan I'm pretty sure. It was truly an unpleasant evening and morning.

I am 99.9% sure we just weren't used to this kind of food, and I fully intend on going back to this place.

Matt on the other hand...he has sworn off seitan.

Chutney sounds like a mean nickname...

2011-03-24T12:42:00.000-05:00

I decided to try a recipe that looked weird from the Supermarket Vegan cookbook. Not sure what prompted me to do this, but from the reviews on the interwebs, it seems like others have been intrigued by how crazy this recipe sounds/is.

The recipe is called "Chutney Peanut Pita Pizzas with Broccoli."

...

I'm not sure I know what chutney is. So there's that. BUT, I had some spicy mango chutney in my fridge from another recipe I had tried out and figured that it's not like I'm going to just add chutney to random things, I probably need to proactively cook with it from a recipe.

So that's probably why I decided on this recipe.

I ~~screwed up~~ changed a good deal of this recipe because as the sauce kept coming together, the flavors started to make me want to puke.

So, here's MY TAKE on Supermarket Vegan's recipe for Chutney Peanut Pizza with Broccoli!!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup peanut butter (I used Jiffy)
3 T mango chutney
1 T tamari (or soy sauce)
1/2 T water
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp sesame oil (the recipe called for 2, but I really can't stand the flavor of this stuff)
2 garlic cloves, large, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
8 tortillas (the recipe called for pita bread, but I didn't have any, so I doubled the tortillas and had 4 completed pizzas)
1 head of broccoli, broken into bite sized florets (hahahahaha, I sound SO much like I know what I'm talking about...)
1 cup of fried onions
Rooster sauce to taste (I realized I used obscene language the last time I referenced this sauce, so I apologize. I really had no idea...)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together the peanut butter, chutney, tamari, water, lime juice, 1 tsp sesame oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Spread the peanut-chutney mixture evenly over the tortillas (I used 8 tortillas, doubling them to make 4 pizzas).

Arrange the tortillas on a non-stick baking sheet, top each with broccoli.

Bake in the center of the oven 10-12 minutes, until broccoli starts to soften.

Top with fried onions and rooster sauce and serve immediately.

These were...interesting. At first, I HATED them. But after a little bit, I started to like them. I think I would go easier on the PB next time because the issue I think was that the peanut sauce was dancing a fine line of being too sweet. The rooster sauce helped balance it out, but still.

Give these a go if you like peanut butter though! Hey-o rhyme.

Jelly Doughnuts....I mean cupcakes.

2011-03-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been absent a few days, friends. I've been travelling. And although I'm fully capable of blogging from my hotel rooms (I even uploaded pictures to my computer before I left hoping that would encourage me to blog), I just can't seem to do it. It's like, a hotel room still makes me feel like I'm vacation even if I'm doing nothing but work travel. I feel like I've never watched tv from bed...so that's all I do when in the hotel rooms.

Anyways, I'm back now. And have tons of things to blog. Yet I'm sitting here with no food in my house because I've been gone and it screwed up my cooking schedule. No food at house=no leftovers=no lunch=I just ate a really strange veggie burger that I have a sneaking suspicion was not vegan. Must remedy this soon, but not sure when I can get to the grocery store.

One thing that was still in my house when I got home last night was a couple of these Jelly Doughnut cupcakes from Veganomicon that I made last week. Don't worry, I polished those off.

These were pretty good. I don't think they tasted ANYTHING like jelly doughnuts, but I was pleasantly pleased by how much I enjoyed continously being surprised by the jelly in the middle. These are more like breakfast cupcakes in my opinion. And yes, I did test that theory and they do in fact taste better in the morning. :)

Here's a picture of the finished product.

Rather unimpressive appearance I know. And I wanted to take a picture of the inside, I really did, but could never convince myself to take a picture in the middle of eating the cupcake. It just seemed sacrilegious to the cupcake. But no worries, I used apricot jelly and not a bright reddish jelly like was instructed, so it would have been hard to see anyways.

Here's the recipe from Veganomicon:

Ingredients:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup grape jelly (I used apricot)
confectioner’s sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with liners. Pour the cornstarch, vinegar and soy milk into a measuring cup. Mix well.

In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Create a well in the center of the flour to pour your wet ingredients into.

Restir the soy milk mixture, then pour into the flour well. Fold everything in until just combined. Add the oil, granulated sugar and vanilla. Stir until combined.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter. Place just a teaspoon of jelly in the center of each. The cheaper the jelly the better. Don’t worry about the filling, it will sink right into the cupcake and spread out pretty well.

Bake for 21-23 minutes, obviously, the toothpick test won’t work with a jelly filled cupcake.

Remove from the oven and take them out of the pans to cool on a wire rack.

The book said to leave these puppies out overnight, which I did. But I tried one when it was still warm and it was just as good as those that sat out longer.

Verdict: Very easy and a nice change to normal cupcakes.

Enchilaaaaaadas!

2011-03-17T12:08:00.001-05:00

I've started cooking more labor intensive meals on Sunday afternoons. This is strange for me because Sundays are generally one of my busier days, and adding the additional stress of cooking a meal I may not have a huge likelihood of success with is tricky.

But I live on the wild side.

I've been looking to the Veganomicon book for the more challenging dishes and this is not to say that the recipes found in that book are all challenging, in fact, I think there are some really simple and delicious meals in there. But what I love about this cookbook is that it has a pretty good array of difficulty levels and time necessary. Have I mentioned that I love this book?

I digress.

Anyways, I chose these Enchiladas because I love enchiladas. And I felt like it. Plain and simple.

There were quite a few mistakes in this one...

Let's start with the sauce, shall we?

-I don't know what green chiles look like. There it is. In the grocery store I spent approxiimately 5 minutes getting more and more flustered as I stood in front of the pepper section. I ended up buying some long light green pepper and a jalapeno. No idea if those substituted well.
-I roasted the peppers with their seeds and did not remove their skins. This was the first time I have EVER roasted...well, anything. And can I tell you, that may be what heaven smells like...roasted peppers.

Now let's move on to the filling.
-I didn't weight the potatoes.
-No kale at the grocery store, so I subbed red swiss chard (why is that ALWAYS in season seemingly?)
-No pepitas, so I used the meat from sunflower seeds. This actually worked out ok, surprisingly.

These turned out pretty great! I would do a few things differently next time: i.e. try and follow the recipe, but also adding a lot more spice. I also would use flour tortillas. Now, I know corn tortillas are more authentic and better for you, but I just don't like them. They are just not my cup of tea...or my tortilla if you will...

So here's the finished product. I didn't take a picture of the insides which were pretty because they had the white potatoes and reddish green of the chard. Maybe next time.

I'm too sick to even copy and paste the recipe, so if you want it, click here.

I'm also pretty convinced someone from Veganomicon is going to yell at me for posting all of their recipes (i.e. like 5). So, click over to this gal's blog if you feel so inclined.

I have to admit that this would have tasted better with cheese.

Oh the horror, I know.

I finally cooked with tofu chunks.

2011-03-15T12:41:00.001-05:00

Just like the title said, I decided to try a recipe that highlighted tofu as the main character. In order to do this though, I needed to make sure the flavors in the dish were incredibly strong because the texture of tofu sort of gives me the willies.

During one of my 30 second wanderings in the grocery store (I follow a list for like 95% of the trip, then give myself a few short spurts to wander and see if anything calls out to me), I decided to buy some Thai Cock Sauce. I love spicy and this sauce is like, one of the best spicy sauces ever, and I wanted to make a Thai dish...so there. I had like 500 reason to buy it, right? Quick question though: is that Cock Sauce (is that the real name??) the same as Thai red curry paste? I assumed it was...

And then I decided to make "Spicy Thai Tofu Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Basil" from Supermarket Vegan.

We had a few meltdowns with this one.

Matt put the tofu in the freezer.

Now I know that there is a way to defrost tofu that is even better than squeezing out all the liquid, but I couldn't remember what that was. So day after day I kept forgetting to take it out of the freezer. When I did, it took 48 hours for it to thaw in the fridge. Then I put it out on the counter for like 5 hours and there were STILL ice chunks. Not going to freeze it next time.

Also, I was lazy and bought the pre chunkified tofu. This probably cost $.50 more, but in reality made my life more difficult because it's more complicated to squeeze liquid from a whole bunch of chunks than from just one chunk.

This probably makes no sense.

I'm still sick.

The tofu was one thing, but the other thing was that I was missing key ingredients for this recipe. I didn't have any cilantro. I also didn't have any bean sprouts. Therefore, the only thing produced from this recipe was flavored tofu chunks. And not many at that. So I had to scramble and ended up making whole wheat Jasmine Rice (not as good as regular Jasmine Rice, if you were wondering...) and serving the tofu on top of that.

All in all, the sauce was awesome. This didn't make enough food. Tofu is still not my favorite texture.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
Juice of 2 limes (about 1/4 cup)
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste, or to taste
4 to 6 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Bean sprouts (optional)

Directions

Place the tofu on a deep-sided plate or shallow bowl. Top with a second plate and weight with a heavy can. Let stand a minimum of 15 minutes (preferably 1 hour). Drain excess water. Cut the tofu into 3/4-inch cubes and season with salt and pepper.

In a wok or a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the tofu and cook, stirring often, until crispy and golden, 5 to 7 minutes, adding the garlic the last minute or so of cooking. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, stir together the lime juice, remaining 1 tablespoon oil, brown sugar, curry paste, salt, and pepper. Let stand a few minutes to allow the sugar to dissolve. Stir in the scallions and let stand another few minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Add the warm tofu mixture and toss well to combine. Let cool to room temperature. Add the remaining ingredients, except the bean sprouts, and toss well to combine. Serve at room temperature over the bean sprouts (if using), or cover and refrigerate a minumum of 2 hours or up to 1 day and serve chilled, or return to room temperature.

Curried Cauliflower Conundrum

2011-03-14T13:20:00.001-05:00

Sorry for my silence these past few days. I've been ill. I could hardly bring myself to post today, but then I realized I was starting to forget all that I have cooked since last week, so I figured I needed to get this out before it is lost in the abyss. I apologize if this post seems crazy, I am having to pause between sentences to blow my nose and sanitize my computer.

Sexy.

The show must go on.

Curry. Don't love it. Don't know how to use it. Don't really know what it is. Interestingly enough, it seems every vegetarian/vegan cooks a curried dish at LEAST once a week. So I realized I needed to make my mind up about this spice rather than sit on the fence. So this post and probably tomorrow's post will be curry-themed. Enjoy. Or don't. I couldn't care less about anything right now because I'm sleep deprived and feel like my brain is going to come out of my nose. It probably already has...

My first confusion is the amount of different KINDS of curry you can have. Red curry, brown curry, yellow curry, polka dot curry. I just bought "curry" and then realized it said mild. I'm not a huge fan of the curry I have right now, so if you have any suggestions about your personal faves, please send them my way.

I tried a recipe for "Curried Cauliflower and Potatoes with Black-Eyed Peas" from Supermarket Vegan because I like cauliflower and this looked easy.

Here's what I did wrong:
-I used a yellow onion, not red.
-I used a lot more than 2 cloves of garlic...teehee...ouch, it hurts to laugh even virtually...
-I still have never weighed my food, so I have no idea how many potatoes I should/shouldn't have put into this stuff.
-I had some leftover orzo, so that's what I put the stuff on top of.

This was...ok. I've always imagined curried dishes to be so fragrant and flavorful, but honestly, this was bland. I need spice! I also am starting to come to the conclusion that I don't like black-eyed peas. They just aren't for me.

Here's a pic (I added some paprika on the top for color):

Here's the recipe:

Curried Cauliflower and Potatoes with Black-Eyed Peas from Supermarket Vegan

Ingredients

2 tablespoons canola oil
1 small red onion (about 4 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon mild curry powder, or to taste
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth or water
1 large head cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cut into bite-size florets
3/4 pound boiling potatoes, preferably red-skinned, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 (15-ounce) can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
2 to 3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Directions

In a large deep-sided nonstick skillet with a lid, hea the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and curry powder and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add the broth, cauliflower, potatoes, salt, and pepper; bring to a brisk simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until potatoes are just tender, about 10 minnutes. Add the black-eyed peas and lemon juice and bring to a brisk simmer over medium-high heat. Cook, uncovered, adjusting the heat to maintain a brisk simmer and stirring occasionally, until potatoes and cauliflower are tender, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and let stand, covered, about 5 minutes, until much of the liquid has been absorbed. Serve at once.

I need some bomb.com recipes for curried dishes asap. Please send them my way so I have something to live for...

Chocolate Cookies, because really, chips aren't enough.

2011-03-09T11:25:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to bake my weekly desserts rather than purchase something processed (although, that ice cream from a few weeks ago has DEFINITELY been on my mind lately...)

Since I had SUCH HUGE success with Veganomicon's Chocolate Chip Cookies (even though they were haunted), I decided to go back for more, only this time, omit the non-chocolate parts and substitute in more chocolate. Enter "Chocolate Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies" from Veganomicon. Teehee.

Here's what I did wrong (and warning, this was a stressful endeavor for me for some strange reason):
-I didn't sift, again.
-I added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients rather than vice versa as the directions instructed. This caused me to panic and think I had ruined the entire batch of cookies. I may have then decided I needed to eat 1/3 of the dough to make sure it tasted ok. And to make myself feel better about the situation.
-I thought I lost my engagement ring mid hand mixing. Then remembered I had taken it off to avoid chocolatizing it.
-I only had one sheet of parchment paper, so this process took a little longer than necessary as I had to bake one baking sheet at a time.

I needed a nap after these ones.

BUT, these were freaking AWESOME! So chocolatey and delicious. Matt told me these were the best cookies I'd made yet. He's been saying an awful lot of nice things about my cooking lately which makes me think he has alterior motives...hmmm.

So try these out, and buy the Veganomicon book because they have suggestions for a bunch of other variations on this recipe.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip-Walnut Cookies:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup canola oil
1 ½ cups sugar
4 teaspoons ground flaxseeds
1/2 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoons almond extract
¾ cup vegan chocolate chips
¾ cup walnuts, chopped small

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate large bowl, mix together the oil and sugar. Add the flaxseeds, soy milk, and vanilla, and mix well.

Fold in the dry ingredients in batches. When the batter starts to get too stiff to mix with a fork, use hands until a ball of dough forms. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts, and mix with your hands again. A bit messy, but worth it.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and flatten into disks about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Place about an inch apart on cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

This Quiche is off the LEASH!

2011-03-07T13:20:00.001-06:00

Matt came up with the title.

Blame him.

I don't generally like quiches. Never have. Something about making something savory in a pie crust/form makes me uncomfortable. I also tend to not like omelettes or anything that strays too much from the traditional breakfast food...so, yea, this wasn't looking so good in terms of my tastes, but I wanted to challenge myself. And since I've been told by at least 3 people now that it can't REALLY BE a quiche if it doesn't have eggs or cheese, I thought maybe this one had a chance. And I do love asparagus...

So, I went to Veganomicon again (everyone should buy, blah blah blah, if either of the authors are reading this blog and think I should cut back on posting your recipes, please let me know, I just want people to realize that this book is AMAZING!!!), and again, had a huge success.

But here's what I did wrong:
-In terms of the crust, the shortening was really hard. I refrigerated it like the authors said to, but it was basically impossible to cut the shortening up, so different parts of the crust had chunks of shortening while other parts had none.
-I ended up using all the water (1/4 cup and the 2 tablespoons) mostly because the shortening wouldn't cut up. Haha. Cut up.
-In terms of the quiche filling, I couldn't find navy beans at the grocery store (weird, I know), so I used Canary Beans??? Not sure what those are.
-I burned the shallots a little bit...whoops.

Here is the crust (yes that's a rolling pin in the background, yes I know how to use it):

Here's the green asparagus goo (i.e. filling):

Here's the quiche on it's way into the oven (so pretty):

And here it is after being baked (I am SUPER proud of this, can't you tell?):

And finally, a slice:

I think I turned a corner in my cooking skills with this one. Not only was it beautiful, it was tastey. But tastey in that "this marries the flavors well" more than the "I liked it because it has my favorite things and it tastes like something else I like," you know? Like, it was trying something new and the taste was unique. I may be growing my palette...

This coming from Ms. Ketchup 2011.

Anyways, here are the recipes for the crust and the filling. My crust was pretty hard, so I'm not sure how I would remedy that. Maybe I'd try using unexpired shortening...that could help.

Basic Single Pastry Crust:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup cold non-hydrogenated vegan shortening
1/4 cup cold water, plus 2 tablespoons if needed
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add the shortening by the teaspoon, but you don't need to be precise about this. You just want to add it in small chunks in three batches and then cut it into flour with each addition. Cut the shortening in until the dough is crumbly and pebbly.

2. Combine the vinegar with 1/4 cup of the water. Add the mixture to the dough in three batches, gently mixing it into the dough with a fork, until the dough holds together when pinched. If need be, add up to 2 tablespoons more water.

3. Gather the dough into a ball and knead gently a few times, just until it holds together. Sprinkle a clean work surface with flour, then flatten the ball into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

4. When ready to roll out the crust, place a large piece of baking parchment on your work surface. Unwrap the dough and place it on the parchment. Sprinkle your rolling pin with flour and roll the dough into a 12-inch circle. It may slip around a bit from the parchment, but that's okay, just work steadily and gently. Your crust is now ready to use.

5. If using as a bottom crust, lift the parchment and flip the crust into the pie plate. Tuck in and trim the edges.

Asparagus Quiche Directions:

1 recipe Basic Single Pastry Crust (recipe follows)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound asparagus, rough ends discarded
2 shallots, skins removed, chopped coarsely
3 cloves garlic
1 cup walnuts
1-1/2 cups cooked navy beans, or 1 (15-ounce) can, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon, plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Several pinches of freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup plain whole wheat bread crumbs
4 slices beefsteak or Holland tomato, or any really big tomato
1. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cut the tips off four pieces of the asparagus and set aside for garnish. Slice the rest into 1/2-inch lengths.

2. Sauté the asparagus (except for the reserved tips) in a tablespoon of the olive oil for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. While the asparagus is cooking, place the walnuts, the 1/4 cup of tarragon, and the nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Pulse into crumbs, so that no whole walnuts are left.

4. Remove the asparagus from the pan and transfer to a shallow bowl to cool a bit. Sauté the shallots in another tablespoon of the olive oil for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 3 more minutes, being careful not to burn it. Transfer the shallots and garlic to the asparagus and let cool for a few more minutes.

5. When the vegetables have stopped steaming, add them to the food processor. Pulse a few times and scrape down the sides. Add the beans and puree until relatively smooth, although the walnuts will still be grainy. Add the cornstarch (sift first, if very clumpy) and pulse until thoroughly combined. Transfer the mixture to a bowl (use the bowl the veggies were cooling in, to cut down on dish duties), cover, and refrigerate for about 45 minutes.

6. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

7. Roll out the pastry dough to fit an 8-inch glass pie plate. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.

8. Remove the baked crust from the oven. Spoon the asparagus filling into the crust and smooth out evenly. Sprinkle the top with half the bread crumbs and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Then, place the tomato slices on top of the bread crumbs with an asparagus tip between each tomato. Sprinkle on the remaining bread crumbs, some freshly ground black pepper, a few pinches of salt, and the chopped tarragon. Drizzle again with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.

9. Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool for about 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Penne VODKA - I'll drink to that!

2011-03-04T12:37:00.000-06:00

I've sort of held back on entering into making creamy sauces for dishes. The idea of squishing up nuts to get the same consistency and flavor of cream makes me a little uncomfortable. As you can see, I don't really like imitating meat/dairy based foods because I think that disrespects the true essence of the food. Ok, I sound crazy and that would defeat the title of this blog, but hear me out.

There are SO many different foods out there that the idea of mimicking one food with another just seems silly. Yes I love the flavor and texture of cheese and no, I don't particularly like the flavor and texture of watermelon (I know, weird right?), but that doesn't mean I need to try and make the watermelon taste and look like cheese now does it? No, I think not.

So, that's why I've been avoiding using imitation cheese or meat or whatever, and this whole sauce ordeal seems to be dancing the fine line between imitation and reproduction.

So, I stuck my toe into the sauce the safest way I knew how: Vodka sauce - red pasta sauce that usually has a hint of cream to it.

I found this recipe in, suprise suprise "Veganomicon" and if you haven't been able to tell yet, I love this cookbook and think everyone should own it. I really haven't had a bad experience yet.

Here's what I did wrong:
-I got a little cocky and decided not to measure anything out, specifically seasoning, so I am pretty sure I used too much thyme and not enough oregano.
-My basil plant was looking a little bit rough, so I didn't use the suggested amount of fresh basil, instead used some dried basil which I think was ok.
-I don't have a hand mixer, so I put the almonds in my food processor along with a little bit of olive oil and tried to make those bad boys turn into a pastey cream. Then I added that creamy pastey thing to the sauce and tried to mix it together. Not sure if that worked all that well.

All in all, this was pretty delicious. I have to say, I could hardly taste the almonds but the texture was nice. It wasn't exactly what I remember Vodka sauce to be, but that's ok, especially in my opinion (I don't like to imitate, re: look up about 2-3 paragraphs).

I served this over a bunch of leftover noodley type things that were in my cabinet (there might even be a lasagna noodle or two in there). Then I cooked up (i.e. microwaved) some frozen green beans (which I hate - frozen veggies, not green beans), and Matt fried up some shallots to serve on top of those. He thought he might be able to trick himself into thinking he was eating green bean casserole. I don't think it worked. As a sidenote, I read the other day that shallots are generally a more mild flavor than other onions, EXCEPT DURING WINTER! Those puppies have been making my eyes water like no other recently...guess I know why now.

Here's the finished product:

I know you are wondering why I took a picture of a cracked bowl. Well, my answer: all my bowls are cracked, you jerk. Get over it.

Here's the recipe:

Penne Vodka
(from the cookbook “Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero)

2 tsp olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup vodka
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
a few dashes fresh black pepper
1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil, plus a little extra for garnish
1/2 pound penne

Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. Preheat a saucepan over medium/low heat. Add the oil, garlic and crushed red pepper to the saucepan and saute for about a minute, until fragrant, being careful not to burn. Add the crushed red tomatoes, vodka, thyme, oregano, salt and black pepper. Cover, and turn the heat up a bit to bring to a simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, add the pasta to the water and cook according to package directions.

Once the sauce has simmered for 20 minutes, add the almonds. Use an immersion blender to blend the almonds into the sauce until creamy and only slightly grainy. The pasta should be done by now, so drain and set aside. Add the basil to the sauce, and mix the sauce and pasta together in the pot. Serve, garnished with a little extra chopped basil.

Mango+Black Beans=True Love 4eva

2011-03-03T12:41:00.000-06:00

It's no secret that certain fruits are wonderful complements to Mexican-inspired dishes. My favorite salsas ALWAY include mangoes (is there an e in the plural of this word?), or peaches or something of the sort. So when I was perusing Veganomicon before going to the grocery store, the recipe for "Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango" really spoke to me. So I headed out.

I've been on a fast from Whole Foods for about 3 weeks now (3 weeks of abstaining will ALMOST cover how much money I spent there on that one trip), so I've been having to succumb to the realities at my local grocery store. Unfortunately, one such reality is that this store does not carry Quinoa. I keep looking for it every time I go, but it never appears. It's really surprising because each trip I find a more specific and random ingredient that I can't imagine more than one can is sold of each year, but whatever, it's my reality. I ALMOST went and visited the Customer Service desk to put in a request, but then I chickened out. I don't want to be that crazy girl who requests the crazy thing especially since I was dressed like a hobo and had already reached my maximum amount of time to be spent at a grocery store before freaking out.

So, long story short, I had to make this dish without Quinoa. I substituted with some whole wheat Jerusalem Cous Cous which I assume has less nutritious goodness than Quinoa, but whatever.

I also am still confused as to what the difference is between scallions and green onions, so I used green onions. I googled this conundrum and unfortunately, the websites I found said that they are basically the same thing...so, if you have any info on this subject, send it my way.

Oh yea, and I used olive oil, not grapeseed.

So pretty!!!

All in all, this was a nice dish but I would suggest cooking it in summer. Also, it was REALLY onion-y and I don't know if that was because I was using green onions and not scallions, but I would half the scallions if I were to make this again. I'd also add a jalapeno because I like spice. This is a great leftover lunch though.

Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango from Veganomicon by Moskowitz and Romero

1 mango, peeled and diced small
1 red pepper, seeded and diced as small as you can get it
1 cup chopped scallion
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups cooked quinoa, cooled
1 1/2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed (a 15-ounce can)

Directions:

Combine the mango, red pepper, scallions, and cilantro in a mixing bowl. Add the red wine vinegar, grapeseed oil, and salt and stir to combine. Add the quinoa and stir until everything is well incorporated. Fold in the black beans. Serve immediately or let it sit for a bit to let the flavors meld.

YOU MUST MAKE THIS CHOCOLATE CAKE!

2011-03-02T12:07:00.001-06:00

I made a rookie's error. I saw one tweet about February 27 being National Chocolate Cake Day, and I decided I needed to participate. The mistake was not that I made the chocolate cake, or even that I made the chocolate cake on the wrong day, the mistake was that I should have known better and realized that if February 27 had in fact REALLY BEEN National Chocolate Cake Day, the twitter-verse would have been all aflutter about that subject. And it wasn't. It was only that one person (who will remain nameless), and me.

But I made some damn good chocolate cake.

I found this recipe for Lower-Fat Deep Chocolate Bundt Cake in Veganomicon. Now I know, I know, this is the SECOND bundt cake I've made in the span of about two weeks, but what can I say, bundts are bangin' and I love how simple they are.

I didn't really do anything wrong with this recipe except that I didn't sift the flour (don't have a sifter), and I hand-whisked everything because I don't have a hand held mixer (never fear, it has been registered for!).

But this may be the best chocolate cake I've ever had.

I'm serious.

The applesauce added such a m**st consistency (I refuse to use the entirety of that word because it gives me the heebeejeebees) and the flavors were so perfect. The coffee flavor was hardly even present (which was a relief because I don't really like mocha-flavored desserts).

WELL DONE VEGANOMICON AUTHORS!!! WELL DONE!

I may just make this cake every week from here on out.

Bake this. Tonight. You'll thank me.

I think that maybe EVERY 27th of EVERY month should be National Chocolate Cake Day. And then, maybe every 2nd and 7th. And then multiples of the number...

Here's the recipe:

Lower-Fat Deep Chocolate Bundt Cake
From "Veganomicon" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Ingredients
1 ¾ cups freshly brewed coffee
2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup Canola oil
1/3 cup applesauce
¼ cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour or whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease an 8- or 10-inch Bundt pan.

Bring coffee to a gentle simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Once it is simmering, turn down heat and whisk in cocoa powder, until it has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, oil, applesauce and cornstarch until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved, about two minutes. Mix in extracts. Once chocolate has cooled, fold into applesauce mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Fold into wet ingredients, beating until relatively smooth, about one minute with a hand mixer or two minutes with a whisk.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If pan is on smaller side, cooking time could be as long as 55 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for about 20 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate to cool completely. Once cool, sift confectioners' sugar over top.

Makes about 12 servings.

Tomato Soup and Brussel Sprouts!

2011-03-01T12:34:00.000-06:00

As a child, my favorite meal was my Mom's tomato soup and grilled cheese. My grandmother made me one of those books that has your name in it and talks about things you love and are relevant to you, and at the end of the book when the heroine (your's truly) returned home, she ate a celebratory meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup. At least I think I'm not making this whole thing up...there was a hand on the cover of the book.

Anyways, what I'm trying to get across is that I loved tomato soup. The Campbell's version. And up until this whole vegan thing took off, I ate Campbell's tomato soup once a week. Now, I've cut back. Mostly because a) I'm not sure Campbell's tomato soup is vegan and b) if the condensed stuff IS vegan, I'm not sure substituting soy milk for cow's milk will get the job done.

So, I went to the internets in search of some tomato soup. I found this recipe on vegweb by "yabbitgirl."

I made it a little differently because I had other vegetables on hand (i.e. I added a lot more celery). I also plopped some of my leftover silken tofu into the mix to attempt to creamify the soup.

Unfortunately, this soup was not ideal. BUT, I do have to admit, things got a little crazy as the transfer of the hot liquid soup to the food processor got underway. That's my LEAST favorite thing to do in the world, I'm pretty sure. Someday I'll have a hand mixer...someday.

I added a bunch of spices and unfortunately, this just could not live up to the Campbell's soup in my mind. But maybe if I could get to the place to accept this tomato soup for what it was, I would like it, but I'm working on it.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I made some BOMB DOT COM brussel sprouts.

Matt told me that I have a gift with the sprouts.

He's a keeper.

And this is MY OWN RECIPE! This is huge, folks, HUGE. Now if only I knew how to measure things out.

I think I had a pound of brussel sprouts. I trimmed them up, and sliced them into quarters (this were big suckers).

Then I heated up some olive oil and balsamic vinegar over medium heat in a pan. Once the oil was hot, I tossed in the sprouts and started to cook them down. I added some beer mustard (had it in the fridge), some seasoning salt, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, and some additional balsamic vinegar to taste but this is really up to you. I just adore the flavors of mustard and balsamic vinegar together. It took about 20 minutes for the sprouts to soften, but I didn't want them too soft, so that's a matter of taste. As the final shazam, I tossed some Panko breadcrumbs onto the sprouts.

So delicious.

And here was the meal.

That's Earth Balance on vegan bread (I will someday attempt my own vegan bread. Today is not that day).

That's also Matt's finger on the plate. He hates taking pictures of food because it slows down the process of getting the food into his stomache.

Anyone have any good CREAMY tomato soup recipes out there?

The Secret Ingredient to awesome chili: QUINOA!

2011-02-24T12:04:00.000-06:00

It's been about 2 weeks since I've had chili. That's a really really long time. For me at least. And I just got back from Florida, so I'm cold. And I have a sinus infection. And I'm cranky. The only solution? Chili.

I found a recipe online that looked tasty and I bought all the ingredients for it, but then when I went to go cook it, I couldn't find the recipe online. I searched high and low and slowly came to the realization that I was on my own. I found a recipe that had some good guidelines on Oh She Glows, but since I didn't have the same ingredients and in fact had a bunch of other things intended for the chili, I had to improvise.

We all know how well this turns out for me...

I started off with a bit of oil in my Dutch Oven (I always think of the middle school fart prank when I hear those pots called that...har har).

Then I added the following:

-half an onion
-4 garlic cloves
-1 Jalapeno pepper (with seeds)
-2 celery ribs chopped roughly
-4 carrots also chopped roughly (I might make them smaller next time)
-1 red pepper, chopped
-1 green pepper, chopped

At this point I cooked them on medium heat until they shrunk down a bit and most of the vegetables got soft. The carrots never really softened up even after like 10 minutes, so I moved on.

Then I added the following:
-1 can black beans (drained)
-1 can kidney beans (drained)
-1 can vegetarian refried beans
-1 28 ounce can diced tomates with juices

I put the heat down a little bit and started to season. I used most of the recommendations from Oh She Glows.

But I had to add my own flava, because I'm so SPICEY. So here's what I used:

-1 tbsp. cumin
-3 tbsp. chili powder
-pinch sea salt
-a chunky pinch of cayenne
-a couple shakes of Italian seasoning
-1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (this is the key to chili, in my humble opinion)
-a squirt of ketchup

At this point, the chili was starting to taste mighty fine, but it was soupy. So, I had some leftover quinoa in my pantry and I decided, to hell with it, I'll get CRAZY and dump it in there. I probably dumped about 1/2 cup of the dry stuff into the chili. Then, I covered that bad boy and let it cook for about 30 minutes.

The end result: heavenly chili goodness.

This stuff was delish. And so thick that I had to lay down after eating a bowl. Quinoa really thickens things up, and to me, that is the essence of chili.

Here's another picture. I received some sage advice from Kaycee over at Vegan Machine and she told me to try taking pictures in natural light. I tried this, but I think that only works when there is actual natural light to be used. I took this picture at 5:30PM on a snowy day in my laundry room.

So, my dear friends. I think I have found two ingredients that make chili amazing: quinoa and cocoa powder. Any other magic tricks that make it SPECTACULAR???

My quest continues...

Vegan CALZONES!

2011-02-23T12:09:00.000-06:00

There's this place in my old neighborhood on the South side of Chicago that makes the best calzones in the world. They hand make their dough and they fill these suckers to max capacity with anything you can imagine. In my younger days, I would order one with spinach and olives and cheese and mushrooms, etc.etc. and polish off one of those bad boys while dunking it in Ranch dressing...droooool.

Now, those days are a mere memory. Even though I'm pretty sure I am still within delivery territory, it seems that I should maybe cut down on my Calzone love...or at least learn to make my own.

I had leftover pizza dough from when I made this pizza and since I was heading out of town (can you see a theme in my recent posts about how travelling just SCREWS ME UP!), I needed to cook up the leftover things in my frigde.

Here's what I found:
-a half used jar of pizza sauce
-a tomato
-broccoli
-a crapload of basil
-garlic

So, I started heating up the pizza sauce. I added the garlic and seasoned modestly. A dash of pepper, a dash of cayenne, some seasoning salt, oregano, and then, as I was looking for something to sweeten up the sauce, I turned my head for ONE SECOND and Matt poured MAPLE SYRUP IN THE SAUCE! It was like a movie scene in slow motion. I see him start to pour, I screamed NOOOOO while dropping a bunch of jars of spices, reaching my arms out to stop him, but it was too late. The damage was done. And boy, was it done. The next 45 minutes were spent trying to combat that flavor while also arguing. The argument went something like this:

Me: I can't handle how syrupy this is.
Matt: I never say your food tastes bad.
Me: Maybe you should.
Matt: I'm not mean like that.

All in all, it was a hot mess. But we pushed on. We divided the dough in two and put some of the maple sauce on one side. Then we loaded up the sauce side with tomatoes, broccoli, and basil (a little too much basil). After that, we folded the other side over and put 3 slices on the little burritos to make sure they could breathe. We baked them at around 350 I believe for around 30 minutes. Basically, we were waiting for the edges to brown.

The final result was actually pretty good. You could still taste the maple, but it wasn't overwhelming. There's something about eating a pocket of stuff wrapped in dough. I tell ya...

Here's the final product:

The moral of this calzone story is: maple syrup is a catalyst for an argument. So proceed with caution.

The BEST vegan ice cream out there!

2011-02-22T14:28:00.000-06:00

My schedule got screwed up with all this travel nonsense.

So, at 8:00 last night, I found myself at the grocery store, starving because I had yet to eat dinner (I can hardly make it to 5 before getting hangry), sweaty (had come straight from hot yoga and after a week's hiatus, I was STRUGGLING), and annoyed (I was grocery shopping in yuppy-ville).

I had not done my normal weekend grocery shopping that commences after a leisurely morning of perusing my cookbooks over a cup of coffee and then meandering to the store. Oh no, I tried to make my grocery list while at work, in the middle of the dayfromhell, and had to rely solely on my urges and online recipes.

So, fast forward a few minutes in the fresh food section of the grocery store and you'll find me standing in front of the frozen dessert section. Almost in tears. I haven't had ice cream in a long time. And, I really wanted some. And it was staring me in the face.

But then, glory be, I saw out of the corner of my eye (past the nasty sorbet section), DAIRY FREE ICE CREAM! Could it be? Well, yes it could, but COULD IT TASTE GOOD? That was still yet to be determined. Although the selection of flavors was DRAMATICALLY less than dairy ice cream (why can't Ben and Jerry make a vegan phish food, wouldn't that be ironic???), I settled on a Neapolitan Organic SO Delicious made with Soy milk. No, I don't generally like Neapolitan. Yes, I bought it because it was the only one that came in a quart size. Judge me.

I got home and ate some rather unremarkable food that I did not prepare that will remain nameless, and as I made my way to the freezer, I found myself holding my breath. So many hopes and dreams were frozen inside that quart of ice cream. All could be dashed in one spoonful.

But, let.me.tell.you.

This stuff is GOOD. Maybe even, dare I say, GREAT! It had the same consistency as dairy ice cream and even the milkiness that I know and love.

-Photo Credit: Google Image Search

Go out and BUY this stuff. Yes it's a little more expensive than baking your own cookies, but sometimes, you have to live.

Strawberry Cupcakes...a belated Valentine.

2011-02-21T12:39:00.000-06:00

I've been a little absent from the blog-o-sphere this last week, and I apologize for that. I blame it on the fact that I was in Florida and the weather was sunny and 75 for the ENTIRETY of my trip, and that sort of does something to a girl...makes her not want to go on her computer. Makes her not want to ever go back to the cold and dreary and wet and nasty midwest. I love Chicago. So much. But the flight back was so depressing (we left and it was sunny, we arrived and it was a "wintry mix" which is code for UGLIEST WEATHER OF ALL TIME) and I'm not sure when I will be able to recover. Yuck.

I won't torture you all (or me) with the photos from Florida...oh wait, I didn't take any. Like I said...I blame the weather.

Anyways, before I left I was invited to a ladies' night Valentine's Day Eve dessert party. I love desserts, but since there is very little likelihood that a dessert party will have much that is vegan friendly, I decided I better bring my own. The hostess DID in fact make some AWESOME vegan chocolate fondue, so that was great, but I was so full off of "testing" the cupcakes as they were being prepared (you must make sure it all tastes right...seriously...), that I could hardly put any more food in my mouth. I had room for wine though...

So, as I was planning the dessert, I had originally wanted to try a red velvet cupcake recipe that I had found online, but at the last minute, decided to go back to the "Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook".

These cupcakes looked simple enough and pretty, so I thought I'd give them a go. I topped them off with the recipe for Buttercream frosting that is also found in the book.

Here's what I did wrong with the actual cupcakes:
-I used bleached flour, not unbleached. I know unbleached is better, but honestly, it was all I had in the kitchen.
-I used regular sugar rather than evaporated cane sugar. What does evaporated cane sugar look like? And what does it DO?

These puppies turned out pretty delicious-like.

The real chaos came about when I tried to make the Buttercream Frosting. I don't have a hand mixer which is what the recipe called for, so I used my food processor. No matter how long I processed the Earth Balance and the confectioner's sugar, it would not turn into a liquid...or even a paste. So then I added all the wet ingredients (almond milk, vanilla and almond extract) and it turned into a soup. I was in full panic mode at this point and just started dumping flour into the processor which didn't seem to help. I finally just called it and decided I would put it on the cupcakes and hope for the best. And at first, it looked like they could survive, but then, after about 10 minutes, I checked on the cupcakes, and the frosting was literally DRIPPING off of the cupcakes.

So here's what they looked like...ten minutes before the catastrophic shift occured.

I was so proud for those 10 minutes.

Now I am never going to make another cupcake AGAIN.

Or at least for awhile.

Here's the recipe for the cake part. I am not going to even include the frosting recipe because I assume I did something wrong and don't want to slander the Skinny Bitch brand with the horror of my experience. But, I wouldn't be surprised if they had never tested the frosting...they are WAY too skinny for that.

Strawberry Cupcakes

2 cups (255g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (120ml) canola oil
1/2 cup (120ml) almond milk
1 cup (200g) evaporated cane sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/3 (75g) silken tofu
1 1/4 cups (200g) chopped fresh or frozen strawberries

Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with crimped paper liners.

In a large bowl, sift in the flour. Add in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt; stir until combined. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, sugar, and extracts until well combined. In a food processor or blender, puree the tofu and strawberries until creamy. Add the strawberry mixture to the milk mixture and whisk until combined. Create a small well in the dry mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir to combine but do not overmix. Pour the batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each liner about half to two-thirds full. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Top with Buttercream Frosting.

Opa! Vegan Moussaka!

2011-02-09T12:11:00.000-06:00

I went to Greece last summer for two weeks. Those two weeks were arguably the best two weeks of my life. Matt and I traveled to Athens, then to some of the Greek islands (Naxos and Santorini), and then we went to Delphi. It was so beautiful, but honestly, beyond falling in love with the country for its beauty, I fell in love with the food. Well, not all the food. Just one dish: moussaka. I seriously ate it at EVERY MEAL. I'm pretty sure moussaka is the Greek equivalent to like tuna casserole, but seriously, I could not get enough of this stuff. No it wasn't vegan, it wasn't even vegetarian, but it was so.good.

Here's a picture of a smattering of Greek cuisine (including moussaka on the left):

Upon deciding to give this whole vegan thing a go, I realized that I would need to bid my dear sweet moussaka adieu. It was heart-wrenching to say goodbye to something that brought me so much joy, but alas, I did.

But then, that Veganomicon book came into my life. As I perused the pages, I saw, to my incredible disbelief and surprise a recipe for EGGPLANT-POTATO MOUSSAKA WITH PINE NUT CREAM SAUCE. As tears of joy streamed down my face, I tried to tell myself it wouldn't be the same, couldn't be the same, but hope springs eternal in my kitchen. That's why I keep coming back...

So I gave it a go. And...

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!

Matt said he even liked it more than "real" moussaka.

This was a little more time-consuming than I would like for a normal Tuesday night, but it was so worth it. And I realized that the key to moussaka is all in the tomato sauce and the cinnamon. As the sauce heated, I seriously was taken back to Greece...

Did I mention there was a windchill of -15 in Chicago this morning. Sigh...

So, here's what I did wrong:
-Once again I did not really weigh the vegetables (ok, the weigher thing in the grocery store intimidates me, sue me). I'm pretty sure I did not have enough zucchini.
-I may have used more olive oil than was necessary to coat the vegetables for roasting...which was probably good because I didn't spray the baking sheets prior to roasting.
-I only used 3 shallots...mostly because I thought my eyes were going to start shooting flames. Why are shallots SO much more potent than normal onions?
-I only used a 28 ounce can of tomatoes.
-Matt put in 2 bay leaves...and then didn't take them out. Looking forward to chomping down on that later...
-Didn't have any lemons, so I used some old lemon juice in the fridge and only had enough for 2 tablespoons. Added a little water to make the paste thicken up.
-DEFINITELY do not have white pepper...nor do I know where on earth I would find that.
-Slicing vegetables length-wise is not my forte. The slices were either too thin or way too fat. And I almost lost a finger. Proceed with caution.

Here's the recipe from Veganomicon:

Ingredients:

Vegetable Layer:
1 pound eggplant
1 pound zucchini
1 1/2 lbs. Russet or baking potatoes
1/4 c. olive oil

Sauce:
1/4 c. olive oil
4 large shallots, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. vegetable broth or red wine
2 (15-oz) cans crushed tomatoes, with juice
2 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
Salt

Pine Nut Cream
1 lb. soft silken tofu
1/2 c. pine nuts, plus additional for garnish
3 T. lemon juice
1 t. arrowroot powder
1 clove garlc
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/4 t. salt, or to taste
white pepper
1/2 c. dry, fine white bread crumbs

Directions:

PREHEAT THE oven to 400. Lightly oil three baking sheets or shallow pans.

Prepare the vegetables:
Wash the eggplant and zucchini, and trim the stems. Scrub and peel the potatoes. Slice the eggplant, zuchini, and potatoes lengthwise into approximately 1/4-inch-thick slices. Rub the eggpland slices with a little salt and set aside in a colander in the sink for about 15 minutes to drain. Briefly rinse with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.

Place each vegetable on a separate baking sheet. Distribute the 1/4 c. oil among the three sheets and sprinkle the vegetables with salt (except the eggplant, if salted already). Toss to coat the vegetables on each sheet, making sure each piece is completely coated with oil. Drizzle a little extra oil on the eggplant, as it has a slight tendency to stick. Spread out the vegetables on each sheet; some overlapping is okay. Roast the pans of zucchini and eggplant for 15 minutes, or until tender. Roast the potatoes for about 20 to 22 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Allow the vegetables to cool.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the tomato sauce:
Combine the remaining 1/4 c. olive oil and minced garlic in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat over medium heat and let the garlic sizzle for about 30 seconds, then add the shallots and cook until soft and translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until slightly reduced, another 3 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, oregano, ground cinnamon, and bay leaf. Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 12 to 14 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should reduce slightly. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaf, and adjust the salt (if necessary.)

Make the pine nut cream:
In a food processor, blend the pine nuts and lemon juice, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until a creamy paste forms. Add the tofu, garlic, arrowroot, nutmeg, salt, and white pepper. Blend until creamy and smooth.

Lightly oil a 9x13-inch pan and preheat the oven again to 400, if necessary. Spread 1/4 cup of tomato sauce on the pan, then add successive layers in order of eggplant, potato, sauce, and half the breadcrumbs. Spread all the zucchini on top of this. Top with a final layer each of eggplant, potatoes, sauce, and bread crumbs. Use a rubber spatula to evenly spread the pine nut cream over the entire top layer. Scatter a few pine nuts on top, if desired.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and a few cracks have formed in the topping. Allow to cool 10 minutes before slicing and serving

Give this a go and TELL me it doesn't taste like your Greek grandmother made it for you and forced you to eat the whole pan...

I should have taken a picture that showed all the layers, but I seriously don't know how you people have the patience to do a photo shoot with your food. After all that work, all I can think about is eating it.

Pizza? Oh pizza, where fore art thou?

2011-02-08T14:46:00.000-06:00

I'm having a hard time in the pizza area. A really hard time. I love pizza. So so much. And even though I think this recipe is delicious. It still does not satiate my unquenchable desire for ooey gooey tomatoey goodness.

So I went a searching on the interwebs.

And I couldn't find anything that looked good.

Everything was using substitute cheese product which although I get it, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), my taste buds have been exposed to the most immaculate cheeses in my life, so substitution just won't do it for me.

And then there is the absence of pizza sauce. I know it isn't trendy or all that healthy, but if you have to remove the cheese factor, at least keep the sauce factor...wimper...

So I went to a few of my favorite non-vegan blogs and decided to follow Pioneer Woman's guidance as this pizza is her favorite. I love eggplant, I love garlic, I love tomato. A winning combo!

I went to Whole Foods and spent FAR too much money, but I decided to give some vegan cheese a go. I bought some Teese Mozzarella and prayed that this wouldn't taste like, well, a tease.

As I prepared the pizza with vegan touches here and there, I tried a little bite of the Teese...and it had the texture of mozzarella, but unfortunately, not the flavor. I went with it though.

I still have yet to find any vegan parmesan (this is one kind of cheese I don't care if it tastes all that much like the original since parmesan isn't that great in my mind), so the Teese Mozzarella was the only cheese factor.

Please excuse this horrendous picture. I had a guest over and we didn't have time to do a photo shoot, we needed to eat and watch "How to train your dragon." Such a sweet movie...I digress.

In the end the pizza was...ok. It needed another flavor. The Teese Cheese did melt, but it had a little bit of a rubbery texture. Maybe next time I'll put pineapple and jalapenos on the pizza (my favorite combination of flavors on pizza).

Here's the recipe from Pioneer Woman with my vegan substitutions:

Ingredients:

FOR THE CRUST (MAKES TWO CRUSTS):
1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast
4 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
⅓ cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil
____
FOR THE PIZZA:
1 whole Large Eggplant (or Two Medium Eggplants)
Kosher Salt, For Sprinkling
1 pint Grape Tomatoes
2 cloves Garlic, Minced
8 ounces, vegan Mozzarella (I used Teese), Sliced Very Thin
Extra Virgin Olive Oil For Drizzling
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

TO MAKE THE CRUST:

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. ***It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

TO MAKE THE PIZZA:

Preheat oven broiler.

Slice the eggplant thinly. Sprinkle both sides with kosher salt and place into a strainer in the sink. Allow to sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Rinse eggplant lightly in cold water, then pat the slices dry between layers of paper towels.

Slice grape tomatoes in half lengthwise and toss into a bowl with minced garlic.

Slice mozzarella very thinly.

Cut eggplant slices into fourths, and toss with olive oil. Arrange on a baking sheet and place 8 inches under the broiler.
Broil for 3 minutes, then toss around and broil another 3 minutes. Remove pan from oven and add tomato/garlic mixture. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove and set aside. (May do this 1 hour in advance.)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Drizzle olive oil on a large baking sheet and use fingers to coat thoroughly. Remove HALF the pizza dough from the bowl. Stretch pizza dough into a large rectangle, pressing with fingers to finish forming. Dough will be very thin.

Lightly drizzle a little olive oil on the dough and use fingers to spread. Lay mozzarella slices over the surface of the dough. Spread vegetables all over the surface of the cheese. Top with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly. Remove from pan and slice with a pizza cutter. Serve immediately!

Does anyone out there have a GREAT pizza recipe that does not use imitation cheese??

Haunted Vegan Wheat-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-02-07T12:14:00.000-06:00

I've been jonesing. Jonesing for some chocolate. Hard. What form this chocolate came in was not the biggest concern for me, but I did know that I was terrified of the idea of buying "vegan" chocolate.

But that's what the recipe called for.

I received a gift card to Barnes and Noble for Christmas and decided to put it towards the purchase of a new vegan cookbook. Everyone I've spoken with says that Veganomicon is the Bible of vegan cooking, so I went ahead and bought it. It arrived to my office at work last week which was probably the worst thing to happen to my productivity level since the internet was invented (don't worry coworkers/bosses, if you're reading this, the book is now confined to my house). As I perused this book, I came upon a recipe for Wheat-free chocolate chip cookies and decided to go for it. Even though it included things that made me nervous...nervous in terms of taste, but more nervous in terms of costs.

I went to the local Whole Foods and spent probably around 45 minutes in the "bulk" section, trying to find vegan chocolate chips (found them), trying to find flaxseeds (found them), trying to find oat flour (did not find, but didn't look because I ground up some good ol' fashion oats meself), and lastly, trying to find arrowroot. I had no idea what arrowroot was nor why it is important (if you're interested, here' the link to it's wikipedia page).

Now, here's the spooky part. I made these cookies and they were DELICIOUS! Like, better than non-vegan chocolate chip cookies, but when I tried to find the recipe online to pass on to all of you, none of these recipes included arrowroot. Which leads me to a few different conclusions:
1) I dreamt the whole thing about arrowroot, which just goes to show how BORING my dream-life is.
2) I have a different edition of the Veganomicon book that includes arrowroot in this recipe (doubtful).
3) I was possessed by some ghost-like being who felt the need to make me and the ones I love eat arrowroot. Not sure what happens next. You probably don't want to let me around small children for awhile...

It's not like I LIKE arrowroot...heck, I wouldn't even know how to begin to tell you how to cook with it. So, I'm thoroughly confused as to what happened. But these cookies were seriously bomb.com.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups oat flour (or make your own, like I did - ground up around 2 cups oats, yielded about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 Tablespoon flax meal
1/4 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together flax meal and soymilk. Add sugar and stir, add oil and vanilla and whisk vigorously until all ingredients are emulsified (about a minute). (FYI, emulsified means mixing up liquids that are difficult to combine until they combine...had to google that one)

Mix wet ingredients into dry, fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by the tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheet, leaving and 1 1/2 inches of space inbetween cookies.

Bake for 10 -12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a bit (5 minutes). Using a spatula, put them on a cooling rack or plate to cool the rest of the way.

I couldn't tell you how much arrowroot I used...

Next time I'm going to try this recipe sans arrowroot. Can only imagine the cookies are like walking on a cloud with puppies jumping all around, because that's about how good they were with my own addition.

"It's pronounced KEY-NWA..."

2011-02-03T14:14:00.000-06:00

So a few weeks ago I went to a reunion of sorts with a bunch of my college girlfriends. As was to be expected, we were catching up with what was happening in each other's lives and since this was so close to the maiden voyage of my vegan ventures, I brought up the fact that I was giving this whole vegan thing a try.

A few of my friends had some questions and all weighed in regardless of whether the input was solicited or not (we are an opinionated bunch), but at one point, a couple of my friends were talking about something I had never heard of. They kept talking about something that sounded like a mixture of a Spanish and Chinese word.

Me: What the heck is Key-nwa?
Friend 1: Are you serious?
Friend 2: YOU CALL YOURSELF A VEGAN AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT KEY-NWA IS?
Me: Umm...spell it?
Friend 1: Quinoa
Me: Ohhhhh, KWIH NOH AH!! I know what that is...

The conversation went on for awhile longer to where I was shamed for my lack of knowledge and mispronunciation. How dare I?

Well, here's the thing. First of all, I've never really cooked with this stuff, second of all, as was mentioned before, this whole vegan thing is NEW. I guess maybe I shouldn't call myself a vegan...

So I decided to try cooking some Keynwa.

I decided to cook this Keynwa on my snow day marathon cooking session. I felt the need to have some sort of stew cooking in the crock pot for a large portion of the day. I don't know what it is, but my Betty Crocker/June Cleaver tendencies were in FULL FORCE during the SNOMG and I'm a little concerned with that, but my innate self was telling me to nest and make nice. So I did.

I found this recipe for Slow Cooker Lentil and Quinoa Stew from the Healthy Eating Site.

Here's what I did wrong:
-Instead of using strictly 7 cups of water, I used 3 cups of vegetable stock and 4 1/2 cups of water...I wanted to make sure there would be flavor.
-I had lentils...they looked green...they were the only ones in the grocery store.
-No miso, once again, so I used 2 tablespoons of terriyaki.
-For some reason I thought Rosemary would be a nice herb to add to this stew...bad idea.

The flavor was bland in the end, and for some reason I felt that ketchup would jazz it up. So I added probably about 3-4 tablespoons. Now, I love ketchup...like really love it. As a child I used to put ketchup on everything. Now, although I've cut back, I have been known to suck down ketchup packets on long car rides to keep me awake. Try it. It works. But, all this is to say that I love ketchup, but I RARELY think it adds to a recipe before the dish is completed. So, this was a weird thing for me to do. But, I think it drastically improved the flavor of this stew.

It was a nice hearty stew and it has given me some great ideas for thickening up my next bowl of chili!

Here's the recipe from the Healthy Eating Site.

Ingredients:

2 cups brown lentils
1/2 cup quinoa
7-1/2 cups water
1-2 medium potatoes, diced
1/2 small sweet potato, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teas wheat-free tamari (or soy sauce if you aren’t on a wheat-free diet)
2 tablespoons miso
2 tablespoons tomato paste
mixed herbs (any of: oregano, thyme, tarragon, marjoram, sage, cumin)

Directions:

Rinse and drain lentils, being sure to pick through them to make sure there are no stones. Rinse and drain quinoa. Add to slow cooker.

Dice potatoes and sweet potato, and chop garlic. Add to slow cooker along with herbs (dried or fresh and finely chopped), tomato paste and 6 cups of the water.

Cook on high for 3-1/2 to 4 hours. When the stew thickens and cooks down after about 2.5 hours add 1 additional cup water. Usually the lentils and quinoa will cook before the potatoes do, and potato cooking time will vary depending on how big the pieces are. Once everything is cooked, turn off the heat, add tamari and let set a further half hour.

Mix the miso and remaining 1/2 cup of water, then add to the stew and mix well.

***By the way, when I bought this Quinoa at the grocery store, I pronounced it my way first and then corrected myself, and the grocery store guy told me he pronounced it Kwih-noh-ah too. So there.