Music and Veganism

2009-05-01T03:29:00.001-07:00

Just a reminder about my new blog! I've been updating it regularly.

Moving on...

2009-04-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today I learned, all by myself, that I could create a much more personalized blog at the domain I've owned for four years using the WordPress software (available at wordpress.org). Um. So I did.

That's right, I have moved on from this place. I'll try to actually post on that blog. It's in my immediate plans to do so. Phil got mad at me today for spending hours making it look okay. I want it to look better, but it's okay for now.

So, at any rate, Music and Veganism will be continuing at www.charlottelittlehales.com/blog, and it will actually be about music as well as veganism. Just like the name implies (but I really only ever did food).

Hope to see you there. I'm updating my blog list, but the one of this site got deleted, so if I forget you or something just leave a comment.

http://www.charlottelittlehales.com/blog

W.I.P. Wednesday

2009-04-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

Oh. Hi there!

I haven't posted since President Obama won the election. That was five months ago. I just counted on my fingers, and it really was five months ago.

I didn't do very much in that time period, so I won't go into great detail. I think at first I got lost in sewing-land, because I was sewing all my Christmas presents. Then I just sort of slipped into my winter-hibernation-mode. I have been cooking, but I've been mostly making a lot of the same stuff: pizza, pasta, soups, salads.

But Spring is here, and so I thought I would start again. I decided in the last few days that I wouldn't make this a food-blog, but instead my life-blog, because the title is Music and Veganism and that is my life. I'll talk about food, but also everything else, when I feel like it.

What inspired me to post today is that I discovered it is W.I.P. Wednesday, and I have a work in progress: my garden. I started 72 plants last Tuesday, and most of them are sprouting.

The tall ones to the left are kale. Originally I had wanted to start kale, carrots, bush beans, tomatoes, chilis, rosemary, basil and cilantro. Then, when reading the instructions on the packets (I just recently started doing this), I realized that carrots and beans should be started outside. So I planted a crapton of kale and tomatoes. Actually, I started twenty-one kale plants and eighteen tomato plants, to be exact. Then I started nine Anaheim chili pepper plants, twelve rosemary plants (we like rosemary), six Greek basil plants and six cilantro plants.

At any rate, the kale were the first to sprout, oddly enough. They sprouted on day three, and weren't supposed to until day ten.

My Brandywine babies were next to follow. Today is day eight, so they're right on schedule.

There's a little cilantro, too:

The basil and chili peppers are beginning to crown the soil a bit, but not enough for a picture. The rosemary is still hiding away. According to their instructions, the chili and rosemary shouldn't germinate until Friday, so I'm not worried yet.

And that's my work in progress! Or one, at least.

Today is a happy day...

2008-11-04T20:35:00.001-08:00

Dear America,

I am so proud of you. You have made history.

Love,
Charlotte

In October, I...

2008-11-02T06:28:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I got totally sucked in by the election. That's right, I left behind VeganBlogLand for PoliticalBlogLand, and you know what? I liked it. Sort of. Actually I think I may be sort of losing my mind, and Phil's kind of weirded out by my new political obsession. But no matter. I did some fun things in the last month, like running my first 5K (see new profile picture: I'm the blonde, my sister is the brunette), visiting the fam in Maryland, and also going to a Halloween dance party, all of which I took pictures of (I mention these things because I don't usually take pictures of anything, but I happened to bring Phil's camera to these events). I also cooked, obviously.

Speaking of which, I've been making some really damn good bread.

In my latest batch, which was my best, I just used water instead of soymilk (finances are tight) and I kneaded in some red bulgar, millet and cleaned wheat for texture. I also discovered that bread flour does matter! Really.

Also, I harvested my tomatoes.

We thought we'd be making fried green tomatoes, but every single one ripened in that little green bowl on our sunlight-deprived counter top. I would call my first inexperienced experience growing tomatoes successful, despite my hangups. I learned several lessons and ate several tomatoes.

I also thought my mom's basil plant was cool, so here's a picture of that.

I probably won't post again until after the election and my celebrational/mourning period (it could go either way!) So, see you in a bit, folks.

The Return of Muffins

2008-10-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

Before summer, I made a batch of muffins at least once a week so that Phil and I always had something to munch on in the morning, but once the heat hit I avoided the oven like the plague (especially if preheating was involved). Well, upon purchasing a secret ingredient that I promised Phil I would make muffins with, I decided yesterday that I might as well start.

What is the secret ingredient, you ask?

Many of you no doubt recognize this, expecially if you read VeganYumYum, since she made "cupcake pies" with these in September (I discovered this after Googling them today to check some last minute facts). Phil and I, however, did not know what they were. We saw them at a small farmers market, and upon asking what they were, we were given a little sample. Hmm. Weird, fruity, tomato-ey, sweet, savory, acidic-- all these things in one little grape-sized berry enveloped in a papery husk.

I didn't think they were quite sweet enough to replace just any fruit, but after looking through my recipe books for a basic muffin recipe, I thought they might do well in a slightly modified version of VWaV's Ginger Raisin Muffins... and I think I was right.

Personally, I think I modified this enough for it to be a different recipe and to share it, so I will. And on the off-chance that someone (like Isa, though she'd ever read this blog) is offended, please alert me promptly and I will remove it. Additionally, if you don't own VWaV, you probably already know that everyone else does and loves it, so you should, too.

Ginger Almond Groundcherry Muffins (i.e. Physalis)
Makes 12 standard-sized muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. + 1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. ground ginger*
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. oat flour**
1 c. rice milk
1/4 c. water
1/3 c. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. rinsed groundcherries
1/4 c. raw almond slivers, plus more for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and oil your muffin tin or line with papers.

Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, salt and the oat flour. Make a well and add the liquid ingredients. Mix until combined, but be careful to not overmix. Fold in the groundcherries and almonds.

Distribute evenly throughout the muffin cups, garnish with almonds, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean!

* Dry, ground ginger. I noticed someone else made this recipe and used fresh ginger, probably microplaned. If you choose to do that, increase the amount accordingly... not sure what the equivilant would be, though.
** Throw some rolled oats in a food processor or coffee grinder and go crazy.

I think these would also be good in an orange or lemon muffin, too...

I'll leave you with what was an awesome lunch:

Hot veggie and tofu hoagie, kale chips and quinoa with corn and peas.

Food, food, everywhere...

2008-10-08T06:14:00.000-07:00

I guess I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with Vegan MoFo, and frankly, I probably won't get better. But, we have been cooking a little bit more lately. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of Phil's latest batch of chili, but believe here are some other things I've been making:

Mac 'n Cheese from Vegan Vittles, with peas and sauteed shrooms. I've been in a mac 'n' cheese mood lately-- this was the second time in a week that I made this! This time I baked it, as called for, and found it to be a little dry. Next time I will either use less pasta or make more sauce.

We got a surprise (but very welcome) visit from Phil's brother, Sean, late Friday night. That's Phil with the guitar and Sean with the coffee on Saturday morning.

In honor of his brothers appearance, Phil made his famous brunch for us: breakfast taters and a tempeh scramble with toast. Phil's the only person I know that make a tempeh scramble instead of tofu. He simmers the slab of tempeh in broth and spices beforehand, to keep it moist and flavorful. Anyone else ever try it?

Last but not least was our pre-debate dinner last night. The picture is horrible-- sorry-- but we made a simple stirfry over quinoa with more tempeh and fresh produce from the Tuesday Farmer's Market.

Vegan MoFo 1 & 2!

2008-10-02T16:52:00.001-07:00

No, I just couldn't watch everyone else do it and not join in (that's right, I'm one of those). Actually, I had every intention of doing my first entry last night, but it sort of sizzled out after I watched this really mediocre movie called Smart People. Heard of it? It was OK... but it fizzled, and I fizzled, and you know. I went to sleep.

So, as a result, this post is going to be filled with food and pictures. Part of the reason for that is because I think Phil and I spend too much on food, so I've decided to start making as many things from scratch as I can. Mind you, I go through this phase fairly often and it usually fizzles, too! But I'm hoping this will stick for at least a little while. Because I'm broke. At any rate, this decision means that I have a lot of cooking/ baking to do, so I started today after work, and I'm pretty proud of the results.

But first I wanted to share another Phil Meal, made and eaten last night:

Fancy pasta by Maestri Pastai, which is made in Italy and therefore is super expensive. Well, the bag (1.1 lbs.) was $5.50 or so, so I guess that's expensive but not super expensive. Phil made the marinara, and "meat"balls from GimmeLean, ground beef style. If you're interested in making meatballs from this stuff, I suggest heavily seasoning it and maybe adding some bread crumbs, or something that will give some variation to the texture!

And then I made a salad:

Using a dressing on the back of an Eden Soy carton of soy/rice milk. Not bad: walnuts, pepitas, cremini schrooms and dried Turkish apricots over a bed of fresh spinach.

So, what did I do today? Well...

I made granola:
Rolled oats, rolled rye flakes, cashews, almonds, pepitas and dried Turkish apricots, with very little sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and a wet mix of molassas, juice, applesauce and water. Most granola is so sweet, but this is not, and that's great by my book.

... dinner tonight:
Mashed potatoes, frozen chopped spinach sauteed with garlic and olive oil, and the Southern Fried Tofu from Vegan Vittles. This was awwwwesome.

And my biggest achievment today:

Vegan Dad's Farm-Style Whole Wheat Bread. Just as his recipe/blog entry boasts, this loaf is light, soft, and versatile. The dough was really easy to work with, it rose beautifully, and the end product is great (even if my loaves aren't perfect!) I'm looking forward to making this bread often and mastering it (and maybe adding some yummy seeds, too)! I'm freezing one loaf, and eating the other this week.

Happy MoFo, y'all!

Potato Leek and Swiss Chard Soup

2008-09-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend loves to cook, but I think the only things he made the entire summer were cold sandwiches and salads. Not that I'm complaining. He makes a mean hoagie, let me tell you. But, now that it's finally cooling off again, it's nice to see him really cooking again; his best meals usually center around an amazing pasta sauce, soup or his world famous chili.

I don't know what he did, but armed with the beautiful local potatoes, leeks and Swiss chard that we picked up from the Headhouse Market yesterday, he made the best soup ever.

Other local produce was used in this salad, which included baby salad greens, pears, onions, walnuts, sprouts, and a yellow heirloom tomato. Oh! And a delicious multigrain baguette from Versailles Baking Co. (who do not have a website that I can find...)

I love you, Phil. Especially when you cook. :)

"Bhajan's Banquet" and walnut pancakes.

2008-09-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I bought a few bags of different dried beans from the bulk section at Essene Market, attempting to motivate myself to brunch out to things other than canned black, pinto and white beans. Looking in the cabinet, I can't remember what exactly I got... some brown ones, maybe black eyed peas? Who knows. But I do remember getting mung beans, so after returning from San Diego to an essentially grocery-less home, I decided I should find a mung bean recipe to whip up for Phil and I.

It took me a while, because most recipes call for sprouts (the generic 'bean sprouts' found in Chinese and Vietnamese food are actually mung bean sprouts, I believe) or mung dahl, which are shelled and split mung beans. Finally, however, I found a recipe: Bhajan's Banquet.

I'm not really sure if this is supposed to be a rice dish or a stew, but I sort of combined two different versions and it ended up being a stew that we ate with pita. The recipes I used were this one and this one. I think the second one would have been the right one, but I had already started the first so I had to go along with some of it.

Bhajan's Banquet (my version)
Serves 4-6

10 c. water
1 c. dry mung beans
3/4 c. brown rice
1/3 c. red wheat berries

1 onion, diced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1-2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, sliced

1/2 c neutral tasting oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/4 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. mustard powder

2/3 c. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne

Rinse the rice, beans and wheat berries until the water runs clean. Bring to a boil in the water, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Add the chopped vegetables and cook for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet. Add the garlic first, then the other dry spices and cook for 2-5 minutes-- do not burn! Once fragrant, add to the pot of goodness and stir.

Add the soy sauce, black pepper and cayenne. Simmer 10 more minutes then serve. Thin with water if desired.

Note- When reheating, you will probably have to add a considerable amount of water (or broth, if you prefer).

Tuesday I made walnut pancakes-- but had no syrup! They were good, but would be better with syrup. Next time...

Where Am I? & Soltan Banoo

2008-09-11T08:53:00.001-07:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while for 2 reasons. The first is that our rechargable batteries are misbehaving: i.e. they've recharged as much as they ever will and now lose their charge almost immediately. So everytime I make something I want to blog about and I reach for the camera, it's dead. And I'm hungry, so I eat anyways.

The second is that I'm now on day 6 of my 15-day vacation, and I didn't bring a digital camera with me. I actually brought my manual Nikon, believe it or not! I plan on getting pictures from the trip online, but so far I don't have any food pictures. Anyway, the last few days have been filled mostly with fresh (like just from the garden) produce in Covelo, CA and grapes right off the vine. I decompressed in Covelo (small valley town up North) and now I'm down in San Diego to continue relaxing.

Yesterday was my 23rd brithday, and oddly enough, it's Phil's brother Sean's birthday, too. We're visiting Phil's immediate family in San Diego right now, so last night their mother, Nancy, treated Phil, Sean and me to a great dinner at this Persian restaurant called Soltan Banoo. It was such a great pick because they serve traditional meat and fish dishes as well as several vegan choices! Plus you can get any of their "specials" and rice dishes made vegan if you ask. The restaurant itself is beautifully decorated with a great front porch outside-eating area, which is where we ate. So, if you are ever in San Diego, I highly recommend you give Soltan Banoo a try-- it was a pleaser for vegans and omnis alike.

I will probably be a pretty spastic blogger for the rest of my vacation, but I'll try to catch up reading blogs when I get back.

2008-08-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are fun!

2008-08-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is the raspberry chocolate blackout cake (or something along those lines) from Vegan With A Vengeance made with blueberry preserves instead of raspberry. The icing is this recipe, dyed with turmeric, cocoa powder, beets and mushed blueberries. I wish I could take the credit, but I did not decorate it! I baked it, made the icing, iced it, mixed the colors, then handed the decorating bag over to my friend Natalie. The picture is of the birthday boy (her man) and pretty much sums him up.

I also bought a non-vegan vanilla cake layer from the Whole Foods bakery (which is where I work) and we iced and decorated that with vegan icing, too.

The vegan one was probably way better. Obviously.

A bit overdue...

2008-08-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while because I have nothing to post! Food has been sort of blah, and I'm working mostly nights so I don't get a lot of time to cook-- I just throw something together for lunch with leftovers to take to dinner. Boring!

The picture above is of something I created while in this state (the lunch/dinner state) and although it didn't turn out how I wanted it, I like the idea. Clearly, it's stuffed jumbo shells. Not so clearly, it's inspired by Dreena Burton's pesto stuffed shells-- however, although this looks amazingly and wonderfully delicious, I don't think I could possibly eat that for a normal lunch and not die afterwards. That's the type of food you eat at a party (because food at parties is fat-free and calorie-free by default), but I wanted something quiet. Simple. Easy.

This version has my pesto, tofu and mashed black beans to compensate for my lack of tofu. I will tweak this and use either no beans or white beans if they must be used. It also turned out bland. At any rate, expect a good version of this sometime soon, if I ever get around to using the other half of the box of shells!

The other note-worthy meal I made recently was something I actually managed to cook for Phil and I. I must confess, we've been eating out a lot lately. I've been running a lot in my free time, and he works so much he doesn't have much free time, so we've been lazy as of late. I'm hoping to change that and get back to cooking, especially since money is so tight (we're all feeling it, right?) This was just some marinated tofu (I used one of the marinades from Vegan Vittles) that I baked, and served with a sauce I made by thickening the leftover marinade with cornstarch. The couscous was cooked in vegetable broth and mixed in with sauteed oyster mushrooms, red onions and crispy broccoli. Nothing notable in the salad-- just a salad! We eat a lot of them in this house!

In some final news, check out this ridiculous article in Philadelphia's Citypaper, entitled, Veganomics: Guess whose diet is affected most by high gas prices.

What? Are you living in a cave, Boyce Upholt? Everyone's food comes on trucks, dude, including meat, diary, eggs, etc. The deciding factor is less vegan or omnivore, it's local or imported-from-Mexico.

I'm curious to see anyone elses thoguhts on this article. I didn't think it was necessarily 'talkin trash' about veganism-- it just seems sort of, well, pointless and stupid.

Wow! I love fresh food!

2008-08-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

I had a great run this morning. Now it's raining, but pre-rain it was cool and breezy, so I took the opportunity to do my "long" run outside. For my ramblings about my running, see my fitness blog! Otherwise, I will get onto the food.

After my run, I donned my rainboots and raincoat (just in case) and walked over to Philly's best farmers market, which is fortunately only 3 blocks from me in Headhouse Square. I got a pretty awesome haul, though a little expensive at $19-- but the quality is worth it.

My favorite stand is Heirloom Farm, and is where I got the tomatoes, leeks, and that green thing which is a green apple eggplant. The tomatoes were the best deal-- all of those beautiful heirlooms for $5! Also in my findins are chemical-free oyster mushrooms, yellow nectarines, young Swiss chard, and an amazingly tasty baguette. I guess that's actually a lot of really fresh local goodies for $19. Check out how long these leeks are: (!)

I trimmed them and stuck the ends in a bag I keep in my freezer for veg scraps to make broth from.

While we're on the subject of fresh produce, here's a canteloupe Phil and I picked up from a smaller market by us on Tuesday. It was amazing, but part was rotten and it intimidated us out of eating the rest. You never know what you'll get buying local and organic, but it's just part of the fun (cause when it's good, it's so good!)

And dinner that night included local heirloom tomatoes, wax beans and a mixture of oyster and shiitake mushrooms. The green bean recipe is a dish I love from VWAV.

Last but not least, here's the lunch I made today with my market findings:

The nectarine was amazing (my favorite fruit!). I sauteed leeks, Swiss chard and oyster 'shrooms and made a sandwich with them and teriyaki marinated tofu (Fresh Tofu, Inc., a local tofu company. This tofu is amazing and so easy to work with!) The salad is local romaine from yesterdays market (also at Headhouse) and one of those small heirloom toms I got today, with a light olive oil and red wine vinaigrette.

Whew! If you're still here, kudos to you. The moral of the story is that I effin' love local produce. I've been toying with getting a CSA share next year, but I sort of like having more of a selection at Headhouse, so we'll just have to see!

Pecan Sandies

2008-08-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I saw a recipe for Pecan Sandies, and ever since then I've wanted to make a vegan version. I don't know if I've ever even had traditional sandies, but I imagine them being buttery and dusty and full of flavor. Mmm. I even started thinking about them while trying to fall asleep last night.

Which left one option: make them today.

I wanted to try using semolina flour, since it's a little more coarse then all-purpose wheat flour, and I thought it might lend some sandiness to the sandies. I used whole wheat bread flour because it's what I had, but I'm putting whole wheat pastry flour in the directions. All-purpose would work, too. Finally, I wanted to cut the oil in half, so I supplemented the butter [Soy Garden margarine, actually] with an equal amount of soy yogurt. I'm curious to try subbing out it all, but I'll have to wait until I get some better soy yogurt (see my feelings on this here).

Pecan Sandies
Makes 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 c. unrefined sugar or sweetener of choice
1/4 c. Soy Garden or other non-hydrogenated margarine
1/4 c. plain soy yogurt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. soy milk
1 egg substitute (I used Ener-G)

1 c. semolina flour
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 - 1/2 c. coarsely chopped raw pecans, plus some whole for garnish
Optional: Flax seeds, raspberry jam.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Begin by creaming together the sugar, margarine and yogurt in a small bowl until smooth. Once lump free, add the vanilla, soymilk and egg substitute. Mix well and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the sugar mixture to the large bowl and stir until evenly moistened. If it's too dry, add another tsp. or two of soymilk. Lastly, stir in the chopped pecans.

Roll the cookie dough into tablespoon sized balls, which should yield about 24 cookies give or take, and set them on a cookie sheet. You have a few options for decorating. Pictured above are sandies with a pecan pushed onto its top. Or, you can make a thumbprint:

For this, literally make a deep print with your thumb in the middle of the cookie, then fill with a drop of your favorite jam (raspberry pictured). Or, try flax:

To make these, just press the top into a dish of flax seeds.

Bake for 10-12 minutes and enjoy with a glass of cold soymilk!

No Egg Salad Sandwich and Grilled Cheese

2008-08-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last night, when I saw Tofu Mom's post and recipe for her egg-less tofu salad, I knew I wanted to make it within the next couple of days. Well, I made it today, and I highly recommend it. I didn't have celery or pickle or relish, and next time (oh, there will be many next times) I will try it with. But it had so much flavor even without! Perfect cool lunch. I ate it with kale chips and an orange for lunch, and I threw some on some romaine with julienned carrots and Moroccan olives to take with me to work for dinner.

Yesterday for lunch I tried the recipe for Grilled Cheese from Vegan Vittles. The "cheese" is a "melty American cheese", but honestly, it's better than any American cheese I ever had in my pregan days. It uses oat flour, tahini and lemon juice and is delicious. There was some left over so I had cheese toast for breakfast, too. Phil doesn't like most real cheese or fake cheese, so more for me!

Undercover in the morning!

2008-08-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

Around 7 this morning, I woke up sort of startled because Phil wasn't next to me (he stayed out late last night with friends). So I got out of bed, walked to the stairs and saw a light on downstairs. I peered down the stairs, and there he was fast asleep on the couch with an empty container of hummus in front of him on the coffee table. I woke him up and got him to bed, the got myself back to bed for a few more hours (I meant to wake up at 8, but it became 9:30).

When I woke up, I saw that there was a half-eaten piece of bread, still bearing hummus, lying on the floor by the couch. I suddenly had an image of an intoxicated Phil struggling to eat before passing out, and the passing-out winning. Well, the bread was covered by ants, which I threw away, but the carpet was still all hummus-y and the ants were having a ball. I followed them across our couch (on the ground, of course), then all the way across the living room to the... front door? No, they weren't going under the door. They ducked beneath our bookcase next to the door and dissapeared.

I pondered this, while taking pictures because I'm weird:

That's fake leather, if you were curious.

Anyways, I lost interest and went out to water the plants, but some movement by the door caught my eye. I found their entrance! They were crawling through a crack in our stoop, which must somehow lead to a place nehind the bookcase? I don't know, weird.

The moral of the story is: ants are good at cleaning up. Once I was done being a camera creep they and the spilled hummus were gone (I was GOING to clean it up, but I wanted to give them some time to scram. I felt bad vacuuming those unsuspecting suckers up!)

Lunch, breakfast, yogurt, mock tuna and a complaint.

2008-07-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is just a catch-up post, I guess, nothing too interesting. Just some pictures. My lunch today, which was kale, boca burger, mushrooms and onions over noodles. It was meh.

A quick soy-yogurt review: I love yogurt. It's my favorite snack. I thought I'd try a new brand today,a nd I was very much not impressed. It was too thick and a little grainy, and the flavor wasn't as good as my favorite, WholeSoy & Co. I will continue to eat it, however, because I have a whole container, so I'll let you know if I change my mind.

I thought it was funny that this is our grater right now. But more importantly, I was grating carrots to make Isa's mock tuna, from Vegan With A Vengeance. SO GOOD! It uses mashed chickpeas and seaweed. Who cares if it tastes like tuna, it tastes damn good. I didn't get a picture because th camera batteries died after this one, and all the chickpea mash was eaten. :( But it's good.

Tofu scramble. I've been having fun with them lately, and I discovered that cabbage is an awesome, inexpensive way to 'beef' them up a bit. I use turmeric for color and because I love the smell of warmed turmeric (it reminds me of my aunts house for some reason), and usually thyme and basil. Hot sauce always helps, but I'm out.

And lastly, my complaint.

Ediets is so sneaky! NO WHERE on my account page does it say how long my membership will last, and since they charge me for a month, I assumed a month. Well, it turns out that the only place they do tell you is in the fine print in their contract that you "sign" by clicking a button, ad I'm stuck on it for 3 months.

Assholes. Sneaky assholes. I accept that I should have actually read the terms and conditions, but I do think they were a little shady about the whole thing. Oh well, lesson learned. Because I can really afford to pay for 2 months when I can't even afford my student loan repayments. Whoo-hoo.

Salad all the time!

2008-07-29T10:52:00.001-07:00

I love a good salad on a hot day.

This salad is: tender, delicious romaine, diced mushrooms, julienned carrots, tofu marinated and sauteed in teriyaki sauce, corn and sliced almonds.

I toss with a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. You can't go wrong! From now on, I'm only making a dressing for special dinners. A little light mix of oil and vinegar is perfect for a hot summer day.

E-diets Review

2008-07-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Alright, well, since I've been feeling pretty uninspired in the kitchen and don't have any food or recipes to post, I thought I'm sum up my E-diets experience.

For those of you that don't know, I signed up for E-diets to lose a few pounds because although I didn't feel like I was "fat", I was watching the numbers on the scale steadily increase and I wanted that to stop before I did become overweight. Living and eating with a man who moves furniture for a living means that "having seconds" is more commonplace in our household than it should be to me. Last night Phil remarked to me that he thinks he's been eating too much-- and I was eating what he was eating!

Anyways, I signed up for a month of E-diets on the vegan plan. I had pretty low expectations in regards to their food options, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised! There were a lot of choices, and I cooked everything (no frozen meals for me!). In the three weeks that I followed the meal plan, I only repeated a recipe once or twice.

I also didn't stick to it too strictly. I snacked a little more than I should have and I went to the bar a few times. For the most part, though, I felt really good and I think that if I had stuck to it completely, I wouldn't have had enough calories. They had me at 1300 calories and I wanted to be running, as well.

The main thing that E-diets helped me with, though, is portion control. I know when to cut myself off now, and I haven't been snacking after work (big problem in the past, getting home at almost 11pm). I've also increased my fruit intake. I always viewed fruit as a "luxury" buy, when in fact I buy items that are way more of a splurge than fruit. I'm silly sometimes.

SO, all in all, in the first two weeks I lost 4.5 lbs. In the third week I didn't exercise and I overate, and I ended up losing about .5 lb. For the fourth week I stopped following the meal plan and I stepped up my exercise routine and I ended up losing another lb.

That brings me to 6 lbs! My goal was initially 7 lbs, but I'm fine with my weight right now. I'm just going to keep running and eating healthy things when I'm hungry, and maybe I'll lose that last lb, maybe not.

E-diets get my approval, but beware-- this should be an aid to changing your eating habits, not a quick fix. I'm not expecting to go back to over-snacking and eating over-sized portions. I (hope) have learned a thing or two about the way I used to eat and the way I want to be eating.

P.S. To see what I was eating, click on the "diet" label.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Almond Jewels

2008-07-24T19:30:00.001-07:00

That picture is so morbid and doesn't illustrate the chocolate-y goodness of these cookies at all. I'm sorry. Also, the record is the new Beck album, Modern Guilt, which is really quite good.

Anyways, Phil basically forbade me from cooking until it gets cooler because of how hot our no-AC apartment gets. But Phil wasn't home, and I wanted cookies.

I like calling small cookies 'jewels' because they feel more precious and you eat less (to savor them). This recipe was adapted from this recipe, using random things that I had as subs, so you can feel free to make changes if you want. But they are so nice and small and chocolate-y! Additonally, this is the first step in my quest to create the perfect vegan chocolate chewey, which is a simple cookie made with just egg whites, confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and.. I think that's it. Water, maybe, too.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Almond Jewels
Makes 16 small cookies

1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp. earth balance margarine*
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons organic brown sugar
1/4 c. silken tofu, blended
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. sliced almonds

*You can probably omit the margarine if you want.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the applesauce, margarine, sugar, tofu and vanilla and cream until even and smooth.

In a seperate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients except the chips and almonds until well combined.

Add the dry to the wet, stirring until smooth. Add the chips and almonds, mix well, then drop onto a greased baking sheet in the form of 16 little drops of batter. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes and do a fork test, because they never really look done until they're burned.

Enjoy! Almost guilt-free!

Cold meals and a new cookbook

2008-07-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was disgustingly hot, so Phil and I refused to turn on any heated appliances for lunch. Instead, I made this chickpea and beet salad. I love bean salads because they can be eaten by themselves, over lettuce, or even in a wrap or pita. We had ours over lettuce accompanied by a sandwich made with Nature's Soy Tof-Deli Slices (their website is down, so I'm not linking to it).

Chickpea and Beet Salad
Serves 3-4

Dressing:

1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. vegetable broth
1 Tbsp. whole grain mustard
2 crushed garlic cloves

Salad:

1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 green onions, minced
1 small beet, peeled and diced
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk dressing ingredients together in a bowl until well combined. Add salad ingredients, mix well, and serve cold.

Phil picked up a book called The Ethical Gourmet by Jay Weinstein a few days ago, so we decided to make one of the dishes from it. We settled on the Cumin Laced Root Vegetable Couscous With Apricots. Delicious! I wish I could share the recipe! The key to this was the cumin and cinnamon... mmm. Plus it made a huge amount. It also took me 2 hours to make in a 95 degree room, but no matter. It was worth it.

We served it with kale sauteed with garlic and pan fried tofu.

Grab you a ragu...

2008-07-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

... or something clever (-er than that).

Quinoa elbows with a "ragu" sauce, i.e. crumbled tempeh in lieu of meat.
Veggies include carrots, broccoli and onion, throw in some tomato sauce, a little seasoning, the tempeh. Simmer for a bit, then throw in fresh basil at the end and toss with noodles.

This was especially nice because I was hungry from my (4 mile!) run this morning and impatient, so the broccoli ended up still being a little crisp. I normally cook my broccoli soft. It was nice for a change.

Phil and I have a spicy globe basil plant that we love (deliciously intense basil taste) and I pinched all the little white flowers off this morning as per instructions that might be wrong, so now my hands smell amazing. Who would have thought such tiny flowers could be so fragrant?

It is SO HOT. 94 degrees F to be exact. And super humid, of course.

Phil bought me a present!

2008-07-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

It's a melodica.

I think it's 'our' present, but I've wanted one for a while! I'm so excited to start recording with it.

Pre-run breakfast with a tofu scramble, with tofu, onions, broccoli, spinach and corn, accompanied by half a whole wheat pita and a white nectarine. This was not an e-diets meal, but I think it fit all the parameters.

Lunch was a vegetarian sloppy joe, which was an e-diets recipe. It was really good! A little big for my favorite sandwich roll, but I was fine eating the extra with a fork. The original recipe called for green bell pepper and Splenda, but I'm out of bell pepper and I don't believe in Splenda, so I used some carrot, instead. I think everyone but me knew that carrot is an awesome sweetener in sauces, but I just used it today.

Since I liked this recipe so much, here's the basic idea:

1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 medium carrot, diced
1 tsp. olive oil
1/4 c. TVP
1/4 c. tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1/4 - 1/2 c. water as needed

Saute the onion and carrot in olive oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the TVP, tomato sauce, and chili powder. Stir and cook for another 5 - 10 minutes, adding water if needed to keep it moist.

Serve on a whole wheat roll. Good without hot sauce, but better with!

Speaking of splenda, at Whole Foods customers complain all the time about us not having Splenda at the coffee station. Usually they accept the explanation that we don't carry anything artificial, including sweeteners. Once, though, this lady got really snappy and said, "Splenda's not artificial!" I didn't know much about it at the time, so I sort of shrugged and said, "I'm not so sure about that." And she walked away, pissed off (I'd love to know why it really matters, anyway, our coffee sucks and there's a Starbucks across the street.)

Anyway, I had to find out what Splenda was in case I ever saw this woman again, because my gut told me it spent considerable time in a lab. Which is true, as it's table sugar that has had things removed and replaced by chlorine atoms. That means it's artificial.

I hope she went home and looked it up, too, and felt as stupid as I felt triumphant.

Music

2008-07-16T07:56:00.001-07:00

Last night I played a show at a well-liked bar/music venue here in Philly called the North Star Bar. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Phil is an amazingly talented drummer (we met in music school) and so, I am lucky to have him as my drummer. Our very good friend Scott plays bass (aslo ridiculously talented). Whenever I played with them I feel so fortunate that I have such talented people in my life to play with.

Anyways, the show went pretty well, so I thought I'd post some pictures (courtesy of my friend Jeff).Hey! That's me!

Here's Scott bass-in' it up and my head.

I love this picture of my man/drummer/Phil hitting things. With sticks.

Here's the 3 of us. Can you guess my favorite color?

No food today! I mean, I'm eating, but I don't know how much I feel like photographing it.

Until next time, friends!

4 lbs and counting!

2008-07-14T10:50:00.001-07:00

Blah, blah, diets are dumb. I know. But I have lost 4 lbs and I actually really like E-diets. Here are some things I've been cooking up lately. (Please excuse any blurriness-- I've been focus-challenged lately).

Steamed broccoli and tempeh sauteed lightly in teriyaki sauce on a whole wheat pita. I add hot sauce to pretty much everything, including this.

A whole wheat roll with some Soy Garden margarine and strawberry jam, and brown rice crispies with soy yogurt. I added some sliced almonds because eating, too.

Some weird pasta thingy with a "cream sauce" made from soymilk, cornstarch and a bit of vegan rella. Not bad, with some hot sauce added.

I think I'll take a little nap before work!

Good bye.

Might as well face it, I'm addicted to...

2008-07-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

I don't know, they were there, they were cold, and so I just ate one. And then I couldn't stop! One became 5! 5 became 15! And so on, so forth. Part of me thought, 'Tsk, tsk! You already had your snack today!' Then my sense took hold and I realized that a diet that limits me from fruit (even thought grapes are basically candy, whatevs) is silly. So I won't feel guilty.

But I will say that I wish I wasn't on a diet so I could cook interesting things. I'm reluctant to post weird diet crap like:

Okay, this was actually pretty good. The other night, Phil came home late and made a midnight snack. It was an awesome pasta. It took me back to the good old days (2 weeks ago) when I ate delicious stuff like that every day! Every meal! I asked for a bite and he gave me a (small) bowl and I ate it even though I was suffering from massive stomach pain from that stupid movie popcorn on Saturday night. Which is finally gone, btw, but it was hell for three whole days. It was like I had a length of chain moving slowly throug my intestines.

Anyways, I tried to recreate Phil's pasta, but E-diets friendly, and naturally it didn't work at all. It was good, just not Phil-good. The basic idea behind the pasta dishes I've been cooking is to replace some of the pasta with something else-- in this case it was green beans, which I boiled with the noodles (half the time) and then treat as noodles. It's a good alternative since starch is something I gravitate towards.

On a different note, today after work I did some grocery shopping. Something you'd think I would do more often as I work at Whole Foods, but I actually live closer to another one and I don't like to drive to work, so I usually walk to the one near my house to shop. I drove today, shopped, and while I was in line the Odwalla guy gave me this Odwalla and a coupon to get it free!

First of all, lt me start by saying that I don't drink juice. I mean, I don't buy juice, because I don't like drinking sugar. It makes me thirsty, which defeats the point of drinking. I do, however, like drinking R.W. Knudsen Family Spritzers (see left) because they're 100% juice and that's awesome.

I mention this because cane juice is the second ingredient is this tasty Odwalla drink, and though it was an awesome free drink, I wouldn't buy it again. I just don't get the point. But some people really like juice, and if that's you, give this a try.

I have, however, had the Odwalla smoothies for a snack, and they're yummy.

Sorry this is a lame post. Hopefully I'll lose my 7 lbs and can go back to creating interesting food.

PS. I had too many labels so I'm shortening them, drastically.

Music ?

2008-07-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

Can popcorn stomach aches last 3 days?

That's the question of the day, and I wish I had a definitive answer. Something funny is going on in my tummy, and I wish it could leave me in peace! Maybe I should try pepto bismol. Is it even vegan? I've never had it. I'll have to look into that.

Anyways, lunch yesterday was the above pictured 'pita pizza', a meal that tasted better than it looked.

Dinner was this Boca burger with pretzels and hummus. Yum! I've eaten more processed veggie burgers in the last week than I did last year, without a doubt.

My mom pointed out a while ago that even though this blog is called "Music and Veganism" I rarely mention the music in my life. I'm going to try to from now on, since it i the focus of my life and what I want to be doing. For now, if you are interested, my myspace page is www.myspace.com/charlottelittlehales , and for anyone in the Philly area that is reading this, I'm playing next Tuesday (7/15) at the North Star Bar!

See you later-- lunch is cooking up and I've got a chick-flick a-waitin.

Day 8

2008-07-07T08:20:00.001-07:00

Can you tell I'm a little uninspired by this diet?

Well, I did lose 2 pounds last week, so that's pretty inspiring, I suppose. Here are some more pictures of 'diet food'.

I did pretty well on the 4th but destroyed my diet on Sunday when I devoured a huge dinner at Sabrina's, ate craploads of popcorn at the movies, then washed it down with beer. Don't worry, I paid a painful price. Apparently stomach's shrink pretty quickly.

I do have to say that all-in-all I'm impressed by E-diets. The recipes are decent and there's a large vegan selection. Even Phil has been enjoying some of it, like that like picture which was a "Moroccan Stew" served with couscous.

Alrighty. I hereby promise to post more often, diet or no diet!

day 3

2008-07-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

My day started off with sodium-free whole wheat bread, soy yogurt, and watermelon. Yesterday was a gym day and I like to eat breakfast and have a cup of coffee before working out, which is exactly what I did. Good workout, too.

Lunch was supposed to be a burrito, but I forgot to buy tortillas so I used some pasta instead. This was actually really good: chopped up veggie burger, green bell peppers, mushrooms, green onions and teriyaki sauce. Salad and apple on the side.

Here's my dinner packed up for me to take to work. This is an "Italian" tofu and spaghetti dish. I tweaked the seasonings and it was still bland bland bland, even after adding a splash of Bragg's at work. Oh well, I was hungry and it did the trick.

The vegan options aren't bad, and there are a lot of them. I am noticing that it helps to tweak the spices to your own liking. I'm a sodium hound, so my taste buds are a little biased-- I really need to just get used to eating less salt all around.

Also, I had just eyeballed the calories before, and it turns out the intake is more like 1250 or thereabouts, so that does make a difference (especially since I've decided to double my snack, so I'm getting almost 1400). Plus I had 2 pints of beer last night.

:)

Day 2

2008-06-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

So, today is day 2 of Ediets, and I found the battery charger but the batteries weren't charged until lunch, so no breakfast pictures today. Today's food was:

Cereal with blueberries soymilk. One slice of sodium-free whole wheat bread with jam and peanut butter. Watermelon.

"Latin American rice and beans" (recipe courtesy of Ediets). Mixed greens with tomatoes and some of that fancy spray-on dressing (I love Newman's Own). Orange. See above picture. I added red chili flakes, cumin seeds and coriander to liven it up-- good choice.

Vegan boca burger, on a whole wheat english muffin, with VeganRella (which is sort of gross, btw) and dijon mustard. Tomatoes and fresh basil marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Silk soy yogurt.

And a snack, which was supposed to be some homemade trail mix but instead was a serving of some lingering sodium ridden snack food that we had hiding around.

Alright, so the question is: Did I stick to this meal plan?
Answer: Mostly, yes. However, I can't properly function on 1100 calories, and I definitely had some fresh warm bread at work. But not much! I'm also drinking my second glass of red wine as I write this. But I think it's fine.

So far my only issue is that I can't figure out why they've allotted me only 1100 calories. I run 5k at least 3x week in addition to biking 6 miles 5x a week and lifting weights. I think I need to make an executive decision to add 100-200 more calories per day.

So, that's today....

Missing Batteries

2008-06-29T09:43:00.001-07:00

Phil cleaned recently and I can't find our spare batteries or battery charger. So, no pictures until he tells me where they are (our work schedules are pretty conflicting this time of year, so usually when we see each other its late at night and we're both tired and incoherent).

Needless to say, I did something sort of silly and impulsive and I joined E-diets. Not really sure why. Or actually, I do, it's because I want to lose a couple of pounds. But I think it will help me control my portion size, as that seems to be my biggest food problem.

Anyways, I'm only doing it for a month since thats what I paid for, and I thought I'd keep track of the meal plan with pictures and talk about their vegan meal options. So far they aren't too bad, albeit a little bland. For the most part I realize how many carbs I've been eating, which is a LOT, way more than you should be eating, and I do tend to indulge in unbleached all-pupose flour quite a bit.

On the same subject I tracked a days worth of food that I ate on a day where I was being "health conscious" and I eat copious amounts of sodium, as well, and apparently not enough iron. I could do with more protein, too. I think I need to sub out some of my carbs for more veg's and protein sources.

One thing I've noticed so far (that I like) is that although caloric information is available, they don't tell you to count calories. Instead you keep track of servings and portion sizes.

I'll keep you posted!

Pepita Crusted Tofu

2008-06-28T06:21:00.001-07:00

I haven't been spending as much time cooking lately due the heat. Our air conditioner is broken for the second time, so we've been eating mostly cold or cool things-- using the oven guarantees that it will be over 90 degrees in our apartment for the rest of the night.

But since I knew Phil would be home from work in time for dinner, I decided to go all out. We had steamed green beans with almonds, garlic mashed potatoes, and these pepita crusted tofu slabs I whipped together.

Pepita Crusted Tofu
serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 lb. extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
1/2 c. teriyaki sauce, or favorite marinade
1/2 c. raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 c. panko bread crumps
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
1/2 tsp. dried French tarragon
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp. canola oil

Begin by slicing your tofu into six pieces: into 3 pieces the long and narrow way, then in half the short and wide way, so that you have six centimeter thick rectangles. Throw them in a large tuperware container with your marinade, seal, and set it aside. Every now and then give it a shake or turn it upside down You want it to marinade for at least 20 minutes-- the longer, the better, of course (overnight is awesome).

While that's marinating, throw the dry ingredients into a food processor or small blender. I use a mini food processor, and it's perfect. Blend until the seeds are beginning to break up, then add the oil and continue to blend until it looks like crumbs.

Preheat the oven to 375 and spray a baking pan with a small amount of oil if you want. Once the tofu has been marinating long enough, coat it in your crumbs and place in the pan. Stick it in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, then turn it over and do another 10-15 min.

Note: I really like Soy Vay's Veri Veri Teriyaki Sauce but it's a little pricey so it's usually a 'special treat' buy. However, Trader Joe's has their own version of it (or maybe it IS it, with a private label, which seems more likely) called Trader Ming's Soyaki Sauce and it's only $2.99 or something, so that's what I used. If you haven't tried it, I suggest it!

Today I'll leave you with a picture of my Brandywine tomato plant's first flowers. Let's hope they're followed by fruit!!

Back!

2008-06-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

I have the internet again!

New posts and food coming soon.

why you should pay for the internet

2008-05-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

I've been MIA lately because the neighbor we were "borrowing" wireless internet from moved out. So here I am in a coffee shop, because I'm one of those people who pays all my bills online, scrambling to get it done in one fell swoop.

Anyways, I've been missing everyone else's blogs, and missing my own blog, but it will probably still be a while before we actually get the internet. But we will!

So, see you in another week or so. Until then-- yum cooking!

Food Allergy?

2008-05-01T14:54:00.001-07:00

I wrote out a huge post yesterday and the internet died, causing me (among other things) to lose it. I'm not in the mood to rewrite my lentil-soup recipe, but I'll post some pictures.

Anyways, the gist of it was that I doubt I have a food allergy, so goodbye elimination diet! It was fun. I felt healthy, and skinny, but I want bread again. I was going to sort of do it for another two weeks, but.. eh. Actually, tonight we're having chili and I'm making corn chips from scratch, so technically I'm probably still sticking to it. But I want tempeh in it. And afterwards, I want to go to the turkish store across the street and buy some allergen-ridden Turkish sweet. So I will.

Here are some pictures of food from the last few days. Tomorrow or maybe later, I'll post a recipe for the asparagus pesto pasta (quinoa macaroni) we had last night. Inspired by Michael Chiarello, in case you were wondering.

Food:

Roasted Brussels sprouts and potatoes. Um.. yum? I do this whenever I get the chance. I love roasted Brussels sprouts!

My attempt as a brown lentil dal. Phil liked this but I was not a fan. Next time I'll use a recipe.

Phil makes amazing lentil soup, but this was mine. Mine = bland. But it wasn't bad, just... bland. The thing that made it special is that it had red lentils and brow lentils in it. Which anyone can do.

A kind of Mediterranean take on that quinoa-lentil thing, with sauteed zucchinis and red lentils instead of brown. I had a lot of fun with lentils, as you can see.

And some sneaky oatmeal cookies that didn't make a picture.. yum.

Lentils and Quinoa

2008-04-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

Officially out of beans (except for dried garbanzos, bt i keep forgetting to soak them) I thought I was SOL for lunch today, but... TA DA! Lentils were hiding in my cabinet. So I made this simple, subtly flavorful and very satisfying dish that I just have to share.

Lentils and Quinoa
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:

1 c. dried quinoa
1/2 c. dried brown lentils
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp. dried coriander*
1/2 tsp. Tandoori blend*
3 c. water*
1 c. spinach, chopped
2 white mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Optional: 1/2 c. chopped mango

*If you have a vegetable broth you like, omit the spices and water and add 3 c. broth instead.

Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a medium saucepan and add the quinoa and spices. Cook for 3-5 minutes, then add lentils. Give a good stirring. Add the water or broth, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the water is all absorbed.

In a skillet, heat the remaining oil over medium heat and add the spinach, mushrooms and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes (until tender and wilted) and add the quinoa and lentil mixture and the mango, if you're using that (which i recommend). Mix well, salt and pepper to taste, and serve!

I had seconds. Enjoy! Oh, and if you have carrots, make roasted carrots. I would link to the recipe but I have to go to work!

the real day 1

2008-04-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

At this point, I'm starting to doubt that I really have a food allergy, but I'm doing this elimination diet anyway. I just want the rash and stomach aches to go away w/out going to a doctor. Plus it makes for some creative eating and really fresh ingredients. Here is yesterday:

Breakfast:

Creamed millet!
1/2 c. dry millet cooked with 2 c. water for 20 minutes. Stir in 1/4 c. sugar after 15 minutes. Serve with ground cinnamon and nutmeg, and a little (vegan) maple syrup.

Lunch:

Black beans and kale served with a potato salad. The potato salad was my favorite thing of the day, marinated in red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, rubbed sage and dried dill.

Dinner:

Brown rice and bean patties, fresh spinach and radicchio. A good idea but poorly executed. Phil liked it but I couldn't finish mine.

Food Allergy!

2008-04-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

I've had a rash everywhere for the past week or two, and it's just getting worse. After eliminating other possibilities-- i.e. soap, detergent, etc.-- I have to take into consideration that it could be a food allergy! I haven't added anything new to my diet, but apparently I could be allergic to something that I eat all the time and it's just manifesting now.

So today starts a detox. I'm eliminating wheat and anything with gluten (so no oats or spelt yet), berries, yeast, soy, tomatoes, nuts, peas and citrus fruit. My guess would be that if it is a food sensitivity or allergy, it's to wheat, soy or yeast. Yeast or wheat seems the most likely.

To kick it off, Phil made some yummy stir-fried veggies over quinoa for dinner! He forgot about the soy in soy sauce and used some-- oh well. Can't get everything right on day 1.

The veggies are: broccoli, red pepper, radicchio, onion, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots. The sauce was a brown sauce made from tamari, liquid smoke, water, crushed red pepper, garlic, shiitake mushroom stems, sugar, and then thickened with cornstarch.

I'm also detoxing with psyllium seed husks and burdock root tea! I thought burdock was cool looking (in a gross, fascinating way) so I took a picture. Now half an inch of it is steeping in some boiling water!

If anyone has any insight, please don't hesitate to leave some advice. I have no idea what I'm doing. I know that there are many other food allergens but I've decided to eliminate only the ones I eat regularly, since it must be something I've bee consistently eating these past 2 weeks.
Wish me luck!

Chickpea Tacos

2008-04-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

My excuse for the lack of posts is as follows:

This past weekend my family held a memorial for my step-grandmother down in Virginia, and in order to take of the weekend for it, I had to work 8 days in a row. This didn't leave much time for blogging, although I did cook as much as I could. But now I'm back, so I have some food that hasn't been posted to post.

The great thing about Vegetarian Times is that they archive old issues on their website and post the recipes. March 2008 is already up there, so I thought I would share their Chickpea Tacos and mexican rice. Unfortunately the rice recipe isn't online yet, but I'll share the basics.

When I went grocery shopping for the week, I bought dried chickpeas for this dish, thinking I'd remember to soak and cook them before attempting this. Wrong. I totally forgot, and ended up having to use a can of small red beans, which are pretty bland in comparison with the garbanzos. But whatever. Phil made a pico de gallo to go with this instead of us using jarred salsa. Overall the avocado/bean mash was good but a little bland-- something I've found often with VT's recipes. I realize they're trying to appeal to all of their reader's palates, so it doesn't hurt to add a little more seasonings if you know you like salt or spicy flavors.

I do love VT, though. Even if I need to tweak some things to my taste, the recipes offer a lot of inspiration!

Oh, and for the mexican rice. I actually made quinoa, and it went something like this:

Mexican Quinoa
Serves 4 (or 2 pigs, i.e. Phil and me)
Ingredients:

1 c. dry quinoa
2 c. water
1 Tbsp. olive oil (optional)
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. chili powder (this amount can be tweaked to your taste!)
1 c. frozen peas
1 c. frozen corn

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the quinoa and stir until slightly browned, 2-3 minutes. Add cumin and chili powder and stir for another 2-3 minutes or until the spices are fragrant.

Add the water and tomato paste and stir well until the paste had dissolved (mashing it against the sides of the pot helps me!). Then, stir in the corn, peas, and salt. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes.

As usual, enjoy!

Finally! A run! And some more muffins.

2008-04-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Now that the weather is finally nice out, I had no more excuses. I had to start running today, and last night, as I shoveled chips and homemade guacamole into my mouth (at 11pm, no less), I swore to Phil that today would be the day.

Cut to this morning, and I really didn't want to. I started to make the same old excuses, but none of them cut it. It was now or never, and I'm sick of playing this game.

And you know what? It wasn't that bad. Sure, it wasn't as nice as my runs last summer, but it was a start. I mapped out a run, first, using MapRunner and I planned a 1.63 mile run, thinking I'd barely be able to do that. I mean, my only exercise is 3 miles to work and 3 miles back on bike, which really isn't much. When Phil's older brother, Sean, was here visiting, I had told him that everytime I started running again, no matter how long it's been between runs, I can do 2 miles. But as I started this run I suddenly felt so heavy, so out of shape, and so hopeless, that I immediately regretted announcing that out loud.

Gradually, however, I began to feel moe in my element, and I added 4 blocks to my run to push it to 2 miles. I definitely could have done more, but I do still have to bike to work, so I decided to go easy on myself on the first day. Whew! This winter I am getting a gym membership-- I can't let myself get so out of shape again!

Anyways, muffins. I made these last week and I wasn't going to share them because at first I thought they were a little bland. But as I've been eating them, I've still enjoyed them (heated up in the oven more five minutes or so) so I thought I'd share the idea of them, and not the recipe. And that idea is having a little surprise inside. So take your favorite, basic muffin recipe and try doing this with a little sweet treat, be it fresh fruit (some tart cherries would be great), chocolate chips, or carob chips, which is what I used.

Start by filling your muffin cups up 3/4 of the way. Then sprinkle your treat into the middle.

Cover with more batter to fill to the top!

I like to finish my muffins off with a little yummy, decorative touch:

Enjoy!

Crispy Sweet and Sour Tofu

2008-04-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

I know I've posted a picture of this before, but today for lunch I made Vegan YumYum's Crispy Sweet and Sour Tofu again. So good! It's a very easy dish to prepare-- most of the time spent preparing it is draining/pressing the tofu.

This time we served it over quinoa, and since I had a can of unsweetened pineapple rings, I threw those in with the last of our 3 lb. bag of almonds (thanks to Nancy, Phil's mom! we got a lot of use from those). If you make this (and you should), throw in whatever you are adding near of the end of a tofu's frying time. If that makes sense. You might also want to drain everything of the copious amounts of oil used by laying it on a paper grocery bag. This helps a lot.

In other news, Lauren Graham is filming in Philly again, and this time I saw her! Last time my friend and co-worker Jeni helped her when she came to Whole Foods, and I think I spent about 2 hours grilling her about the experience (sorry Jeni!). Today, Phil and I saw her by the movie set (2 blocks from our apartment!) and I spilled coffee all over myself, I was so excited. He made fun of me a lot. I don't know why, but I really like Lauren Graham. Or, I do know why, cause she's awesome.

Then we got a whole lot of produce (really, a lot) from the Italian Market for only $7. Ah, Philadelphia.

Whole Wheat Crackers

2008-04-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for healthy snacks to keep around the house, because, well, I'm a snacker. Phil is too, but I am big time. Now that I fought off my potato chip addiction (when I walk past them, I cringe! it's awesome!) I figure snacking is OK as long as I'm eating good things.

Which leads me to crackers. I like crackers. They taste good, they're fun to dip into things. But they're not usually very good for you, and the ones that are can be pretty expensive. Since I'm trying to make as much stuff from scratch as possible, I decided to get some extra use from my pasta maker and make my own damn crackers. That way I know exactly what's going into them, and plus you can use cookie cutters to make them even better. As whole wheat bread flour is only 69¢/lb where I buy it (sure to be raised soon), these end up being so inexpensive, and so much more fun to eat then anything else that comes in a box.

That being said, I also made these with the intention of eating them with a spread, i.e. hummus. If crackers are too flavorful, I just shovel them in my mouth. These aren't bland, per say, but I kept them plain so I'd couple them with something tasty and nutritious. You can do whatever you want-- microplane some garlic, sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper, etc. Go nuts if you want.

I used a recipe by Heidi Swanson from 101 Cookbooks and modified it very slightly. Instead of white whole wheat flour, I used whole wheat bread flour because my neighborhood health food store doesn't have white whole wheat. You can also use all whole wheat instead of half semolina if you want. I also used canola oil instead of olive because the only olive oil we have is super expensive high quality stuff that we try to use sparingly for flavor. I haven't tried making them without the oil-- I'd imagine it would be fine and would just bake a little more quickly. Finally, I sprinkled my baking sheets with cornmeal and did not oil them at all. I really liked the flavor the little bit of cornmeal provided.

I hope you try making these! Have fun with any cookie cutters you have on hand or simply cut into triangles or squares. Enjoy!

Homemade Ravioli And A Light Marinara

2008-04-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

I love making fresh pasta. I don't always have time, but when I do I will gladly spend an hour preparing the pasta. And believe me, I have tried and failed many times-- a lot of dough has ended up in the trash-- but a good end result always makes me want to keep trying. Obviously I had time today, and I decided to make ravioli to change things up.

I have a hand-crank pasta maker. Here's a crappy/blurry picture of it:

If you don't and you still want to make pasta, you can use a rolling pin. It's just more difficult.
Also, today was the first time I used an egg replacer. If you don't want to use it, just use water. I tried it today because I thought it might firm it up a little, but I honestly am not sure. It was the best batch I've made, but every batch has been better than the last, so it could have been that.

I cut the pasta by hand but you can buy all sorts of fun pasta cutters. I live by a great cookware/bakeware/coffee place called Fante's. They carry pasta cutters and pasta makers, and they have pretty decent prices. Plus it comes in handy for other things, too (like the whole wheat crackers I also made today).

Okay, enough babble! I have a pasta recipe and a filling recipe for you, and a very basic and light marinara.

Basic Pasta (adapted from Bob's Red Mill's pasta recipe)
Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. semolina flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Ener-G egg replacer powder beaten into 4 Tbsp. warm water
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. oil (you can use more water instead)

Combine the semolina flour and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add all the wet ingredients and stir with a fork until combined. Dump onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Semolina is a very firm flour, so this won't get stretchy and soft the way all-purpose flour does. It should not be sticky at all, butt you may need to add another tsp. or two of water if it seems really dry.

After kneading, roll the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and let it rest for 20 minutes. Use this time to make your ravioli filling and/or sauce.

Remove the plastic and cut into four pieces. As you roll out each piece, keep the unrolled ones covered loosely to prevent them from drying out. If you have a pasta maker, I usually roll them through the fifth setting. Start at 1, roll it through, fold in half and repeat; work your way up to five. It should be a rectangular strip. Place it on a floured surface and flour the top generously, then do the same to the other three pieces.

You can cut these into fettuccine, spaghetti, etc., or you can cut them into even square pieces to make ravioli. Or you can do circles to make tortellini, but it helps if you've watched someone make tortellini as it's sort of hard to explain.

Ravioli, on the other hand, is mostly self-explanatory. Take a square of the dough, put a bit of filling in the middle, and place another square on top. Press down the edges and use a fork's prongs to seal the edges. Drop into a pot of boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes, if that-- it overcooks really easily. Mine looked like this before cooking:

For the filling:
Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/2 c. sliced portabello mushrooms
1 package firm tofu, drained and cubed
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
1/4 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic and saute until soft. Add the tofu, spices and lemon juice. Mash using a potato masher or fork. Cook for 5-10 minutes more, stirring often.

Charlotte's Light Marinara
Ingredients:

1 28 oz. can tomato puree
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
black pepper to taste
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. olive oil
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. oregano

Combine ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium low heat, covered, for 10-15 minutes.

Now, after all that, enjoy.

Dublin Coddle

2008-04-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

I think this would have been better if I had spent more time planning it, but I didn't think of some obvious things until it was almost done: i.e. cooking sausage and bacon in ham stock makes a very flavorful and fatty broth. Since I cooked some storebought beer brats and tempeh in a mild veggie broth, this ended up being pretty bland. Next time I would probably add some more flavor to the broth, like garlic, maybe some lemon zest, etc.

This recipe isn't anything special, but I think it's a good base for others to go off from. I didn't use homemade sausages because I was in a hurry, and I forgot to make tempeh bacon so I just used tempeh and liquid smoke. This added to the blandness. If you make fakin' bacon yourself, I recommend cooking it before starting the dish because this locks in the smoke flavor. I also added cabbage because I'm so sick of 'meat and potatoes' it's ridiculous.

So, here's the recipe.

Dublin Coddle
Serves 4
Ingredients:

1 1b. faux sausages, homemade or storebought
8 oz. fakin' bacon
1 c. stock
6 med. potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in. thick slices
1 med. onions, chopped
2 c. cabbage, chopped
salt and pepper

Begin to heat the vegetable stock over medium heat. Cut the tempeh and sausages into bite size pieces and simmer in the stock for five minutes or so. Reserve the stock and remove the "meat."
In a larger pot, begin to layer everything. I recommend sprinkling a little salt and pepper over each layer of potatoes. It should go like this:

Potatoes
Cabbage
Onions
Meat
Potatoes
Cabbage
Onions
Meat
Potatoes

Pour the reserved stock over top, cover with a lid, and simmer for an hour.
And serve! This is a good cold midnight snack, too.

One more Irish meal, and then it's on to something else...

Irish Parsnip and Apple Soup

2008-04-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

I'm back! You didn't even know I was gone, but I've been in NYC for the last few days visiting my sister. So much for Irish week-- we didn't cook once. It was a nice treat, though, as she lives near my favorite bagel place ever. It's called Absolute Bagels and they have great bagels and flavored Tofutti. So Thursday afternoon I got to wolf down a bagel with olive Tofutti-- you can't beat it!

Before I left I made some soup. It was totally different and delicious. I am a little skeptical that it's a traditional Irish soup, but it may be a modern interpretation of a traditional soup (the curry makes me a little suspicious). It sure was tasty, though, and it didn't involve any potatoes! I also hardly had to change anything, so it wasn't very creative. But it was a nice way to eat some apples.

I didn't have cardamom, so I subbed 1/4 tsp. mace and 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon. They aren't the same (obviosuly) but do similar things.

Irish Parsnip and Apple Soup
Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 lb parnsips, thinly sliced
1 lb apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon of cardamom seeds
1-2 large garlic cloves, crushed
4 1/2 c. vegetable broth
2/3 c. soymilk
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped chives or parsley

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the parnsips, apples and onions and cook until soft, but do not brown. Add the spices and continue to cook for a few more minutes, stirring well.
Add the broth, stir well, and cover. Lower the heat and simmer for half an hour.
Blend with an immersion blender (you can also strain it but thats not fun), food processor, or blender. Add the soymilk and cook on low heat for a few more minutes. Thin with water if desired.
Garnish with parsley or chives and enjoy!

I also made that whole wheat bread again, and this time I used leftover potato water. It was definitely lighter this time. Yum! Phil and Sean loved it. I will keep making this bread, for sure.

Bangers and Mash

2008-04-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ugh. That's a good 'ugh', not a bad one. Day two of Irish week and I'm stuffed! Phil's brother Sean just arrived from San Diego this morning, so I got to include him in tonights feast. I'm not sure if I could take potatoes another day in a row, but I think we're going to have soup tomorrow, so hopefully I won't have to.

For the bangers I used tempeh, and it worked really well. Phil and Sean are both omni's and seemed to like it. The gravy I used wasn't anything special, so if you have a favorite gravy recipe, use that. However, I will include mine if you don't have one!

I already had the bangers steaming before I realized I hadn't planned a 'vegetable dish'. I like vegetables. But a salad wasn't very exciting, so I made use of the ginormous bag of carrots we have and made some roasted carrots in lemon-butter. The recipe is at the very bottom!

One more note. We recently received an awesome spice rack from Phil's dad and stepmom, and it's chock full of spices I never would have known existed. Because of this, for the first time I can actually accurately use the spices a recipe calls for. Before this, however, I got spices from the bulk section in my local health food store (Whole Foods sells some spices at bulk prices, but the selection is pretty lame). All I can say is that the spices used in most Irish cuisine are generally the same from dish to dish and are really important! So invest in a little mace in you can. You'll probably find other uses for it, too.

Bangers and Mash
Serves 3-4
Ingredients:

Bangers:

1 8-0z. packpage tempeh, grated
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 c. vital wheat gluten
1/4 c. bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. mace
1/8 tsp. dried thyme
1/8 tsp. dried marjoram
1 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
1 tsp. onion powder
1 c. soymilk
1/2 tsp. paprika

Mashed Potatoes:

5 medium potatoes, washed and cubed
3/4 c. soymilk
1 tsp. salt
black pepper to taste

To make bangers:
In a large bowl, combine grated tempeh, soy sauce and lemon zest until well mixed. In a medium bowl, combine vital wheat gluten, breadcrumbs, sugar, salt and remaining herbs and spices. Mix the dry mix into the tempeh mixture so that the tempeh is mixed in evenly amongst everything else. Stir in the soymilk with a fork, then knead once it's too stiff to stir. You may need to add another Tbsp. or two of vital wheat gluten if the mixture is too moist. Knead for about five minutes or until it begins to draw in to itself.
Around now you can begin to heat the water in your steamer. Divide the dough into six parts and roll them into sausage shapes. Then tightly roll each sausage in tin foil and twist the ends shut, like a tootsie roll. Once they are all wrapped, place them in the steamer and steam for 30-40 minutes.
Let cool a bit before handling-- they hold that hot water for a while. Unwrap and brown in a skillet for a few minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy!

For mashed potatoes:
Plop the taters in some cold water and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes. Drain. Mash with soymilk and salt. Pepper to taste. Add more soymilk or water to make it more creamy!

Want gravy? Okay.

Basic Gravy
Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. oil or margarine
3 Tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 c. soymilk
1/8 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning (i have something called 'seasoning for meat' that works for this stuff)
1/4 tsp. onion powder
2 Tbsp. soy sauce

IF you need it: 1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 tsp. water

Note: I've found that, when making a roux, it's best to add the flour to the oil before it gets too hot. So keep an eye on it.

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the flour and cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Add the soymilk slowly, still stirring, and stir some more, and a little more, until it thickens. (Now you can stop stirring, but you still have to every now and then to keep the bottom from burning). Lower the heat and stir in the spices and the soy sauce. Add water in you want to thin it. Once it reaches your desired consistency, remove from heat.

Finally, the carrots. This was a nice little contrast of flavors, being slightly sweet but still very savory. Here's a slightly better picture of them:

Roasted Carrots in Lemon Butter
Serves 2-3
Ingredients:

5 carrots, quartered long-ways
1 1/2 Tbsp. margarine, melted
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. rosemary
1/8 tsp. thyme
black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Combine margarine, lemon juice, and spices. Spread carrots on a baking dish so that they are all touching the bottom and pour margarine over top. Use your hands to coat the carrots evenly. Place in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. Yum!

Shepherd's Pie

2008-03-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

You are right-- Shepherd's Pie is not Irish. It's actually Scottish, then English, and can really be found by different names all over the world. It's also not on the menu I came up with... 3 hours ago. But guess what? I don't care. I was going to make bangers but I wanted to finish my leftover chickpea stuff before making another batch of seitan. So I made this, and you know what? They probably eat it in Ireland, too. Meat + potatoes. Can't go wrong.

So I used the four remaining pieces of 'chickpea-en' (worst name ever, see!) from the other day, but you can also use 8 oz. of tempeh, crumbled, or 8 oz. seitan, chopped into little itty pieces. My mom used to make vegetarian Shepherd's Pie when I was younger (and non-veg when I was real young, that's what hooked me!) but I learned to make it myself from a recipe in the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook by Carole Raymond. I modified it slightly and make it from memory now, so I'll post it here. I hope that's okay, Carole!

One more note. Apparently I eat too much salt, which is not surprising at all because I do eat huge amounts, so I am working on adjusting my palate to a less sodium-demanding one. If you are not, you can add more salt, but I think this tasted just fine (plus 1 tsp. is still a lot. I have a long way to go).

Shepherd's Pie
Serves 2-4
Ingredients:

3 medium russet potatoes, washed and cubed (I don't peel them)
1/2 c. soymilk
salt and pepper to taste

8 oz. tempeh or seitan
2 carrots, chopped small
1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped
1/2 c. frozen or fresh peas
1 c. reserved potato water
1 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
1/8 tsp. mace
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
Paprika

1. Place the potatoes in a 2 qt. saucepan and fill 3/4 of the way with water. Bring to a boil, lower to medium-low heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Drain, being sure to save the water for later. Add the soymilk and mash until creamy, flavoring with salt and pepper. Then, preheat your oven to 375 degrees!
2. Heat oil in your skillet over medium heat (I sauteed in water as per the Happy Herbivore's suggestion). Throw in your onions and cook until soft. Add the seitan, carrots and peas and saute for a few more minutes.
3. Add your spices, stir, then add the 1 c. potato water and cornstarch mixture. Stir over medium heat until it thickens. Lower the heat to a (low) simmer, cover, and let cook for aout 10 more minutes.
4. Spoon the seitan mixture into medium sized, oiled casserole dish. Cover with the mashed potatoes, and for extra color, sprinkle generously with paprika. Stick in the oven and bake until golden! (20 minutes or so).

A New Idea

2008-03-31T11:31:00.001-07:00

This idea might not last very long, but I though it might be fun to try to theme my cooking adventures. As much as I enjoy reading the other vegan blogs out there, I'd like to do something that sets me apart, and I'm really not. So I thought I would try to tackle cuisine not normally associated with vegetarians or vegans. Those that come to mind immediately are French, Irish/British, Cuban... just to name a few. I should be able to name more, which is more proof that I need to expand my global-culinary-knowledge.

In the future I'd like to check out books from the library and veganize recipes, but this week I'm using the internet, and I chose Irish cuisine.

Now, looking at the options sort of makes me feel nauseous. I haven't eaten a "meat and potatoes" diet ever in my life, and I don't really want to. But I'm going to anyways. And somehow I'm going to find a way to still incorporate whole grains and a lot of vegetables (I like potatoes, but we aren't lovers or anything).

Here's the menu for this week:

Bangers and Mash (I'm told this is the British name, but the dish still exists in Ireland)
Dublin Coddle
Pea and Ham Soup
Boiled Bacon and Cabbage
Parsnip and Apple Soup

Blech. That sounds disgusting. Wish me luck! Oh, and Phil gets to make two meals of his choice this week, so hopefully we'll get a break at some point. I'll post the recipes and pictures as I go.

Oh, I almost forgot. This is part of the promise I made myself that I mentioned in the last entry, which is: I'm not buying any more vegan cookbooks. Gifts are fine, but for the time being I'd like to use what I've got and learn from other people. Sort of like the mentality behind 101 Cookbooks, ya know? Okay, that's all!

Creamy Pasta With Crispy Chickpea-en

2008-03-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, this morning I woke to a fire in the first floor of my apartment building-- or more accurately, I woke to firefighters, smoke, confusion and panic. Everyone is safe, but I have to say that opening my apartment door to a hallway full of smoke was really scary. But you know what's scarier? The fact that no one's smoke alarms went off.

Anyways, luckily the fire was in an empty apartment so no one was hurt. Also, despite being scared, I knew I was safe because no one was breaking my door down to rescue me-- I mean, it clearly was contained. But the smoke burned my throat like crazy! I couldn't imagine 'fighting fire' as a career. I've always really respected and admired fire fighters, but being in a extremely mild fire-situation and seeing how scary it is really puts their responsibilities into perspective. So, yay for fire fighters! And police officers! Thank you for putting your life on the line to protect others every day. :)

So, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to share today's luch with you. I really need to go grocery shopping, but I had some things I thought I could use, namely frozen peas, pasta, a can of chickpeas, and various types of flour. I keep reading about these mysterious and wonderful "Chickpea Cutlets" from Veganomicon. But I don't have Veganomicon, and I don't think I'm going to buy it, because I made myself a promise recently (more on that later). So, armed with what I've learned recently about making your own faux meat, I decided to make my own. I'll call it Chickpea-en, because that's the worst name I can possibly thing of. Thanks to Vegan Dad for this, as his blog introduced me to the art of steamed gluten.

Chickpea-en
Makes 6 pieces
Ingredients:

1/3 c. vital wheat gluten
1/4 c. all-purpose flour (or ww pastry)
1/3 c. bread crumbs
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
pinch of turmeric for color
1 15-oz. can of chickpeas, drained
1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. water

1. Mash the chickpeas well in medium sized bowl.
2. In another bowl, add all of the dry ingredients together, i.e. flours and spices.
3. Add the dry to the chickpeas and cut them together with a fork. Once combined, add the water and knead for up to five minutes, or until the wet ingredients seem well absorbed.
4. Get the water simmering in whatever you use to steam stuff **. Divide into 6 pieces and press flat. Wrap each into a little packet of tin foil and place them into your steamer. Steam for about 30 minutes and you're done.

Here they are just out of the tin packet:

I made a cream sauce from a roux, and I wasn't very impressed by it, so I'm not going to post the recipe. But the peas were a nice touch. I also breaded and baked the chickpea-en just like my baked 'fried chicken' (I didn't fry it this time!) and it dried out so much. I don't think there was enough moisture in it to withstand the oven.

Apple Flax Muffins

2008-03-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

I think I'm finally getting the hang of baking muffins, because these turned out really well. I wanted to try something different, but I love my chocolate carob-chip muffins, so I decided to make two half batches. Also, Phil forced his camera on me, hence the close-up. My camera doesn't have that skill, so it's nice to get those pretty flax flax seeds in focus!

Also, inspired by Happy Herbivore, I replaced the oil with apple sauce in both of my muffins. It was a no-brainer in these since they had apple sauce anyways. So moist and tasty!

Here's my half-recipe. Feel free to double for a full one.

Apple Flax Muffins
Makes 6 muffins
Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. golden flax seeds, plus more for tops
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 c. apple sauce
1/2 an apple, thinly sliced, chopped and peeled
3/4 c. water
1/2 c. sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and prepare your muffin pan (i.e. grease it or flour it if you need to).
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, flax seeds and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl.
3. Make a little well in the center and add water, apple sauce, chopped apple and the sugar last. Stir well until moist evenly throughout.
4. Distribute evenly throughout 6 muffin thingies. Sprinkle generously with flax seeds and bake for 20 minutes.

AND EAT! Without guilt.

When Phil Cooks and Vegan Oytser Sauce

2008-03-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

That is what happens when Phil cooks. (plus a huge bowl full of his guacamole and baked tortilla chips he made for me b/c I said I don't want deep fried crap anymore).

Yes, I know what you are thinking, because I am thinking it too: "Why don't you let him cook every night?" He certainly wants to. Actually lately he's been feeling left out in the kitchen, which is why I suggested he make some Mexican food (his favorite). But I started this blog to encourage myself to cook and become more creative in the kitchen. And I was feeling left out before. So I guess we need to find a balance.

Anyways, I don't know what he did and he's at work right now. But we used the seitan recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance which is also on the PPK forums here. He wanted to make 'skirt steak', whatever that is, so we combined forces and sweated stretching it out. It seriously looked like intestines or pig stomach, or something amazing that I will never touch or eat unless someone's life depended on it. He also added some herbs and spices that he had hand-ground in our new mortar and pestle that he loves. It ended up being more like chicken when we cooked it, he says, but I don't really know what he's talking about. We were thinking maybe baked seitan will yield a more steak-like texture-- next time we'll try that.

We used quinoa instead of rice, and a combination of black and pinto beans, and he made some awesome sauce for the seitan. Phil's guacamole is magical, and I think even if he were here he wouldn't tell me the secrets. Delicious! We stuffed ourselves that night!

Moving on-- last night I made a classic 'cleaning the fridge' dinner. And for some random reason, I just so happened to have dried mushrooms (go fig).

So I found a recipe for vegan oyster sauce (recipe at very bottom) on Bryanna Clark Grogan's blog and decided to use it! I'm still on an orange kick, so that had to be included, as well.

As for the stir-fry, it was strange, but I'll give a recipe anyway.

'Chicken' with Oyster Sauce
Serves 2
Ingredients:

Enough seitan for two people, chopped into pieces
1 large leek, chopped
1/3 c. peanuts
1 large portobello mushroom, thinly sliced
1 c. broccoli or other green veg (i used green beans... eh)
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp. fresh ginger, sliced
3/4 c. Bryanna's oyster sauceor alternative
1 orange
1 tsp. oil

1. Heat oil over medium heat in skillet. Add the leeks and garlic and cook until they start to wilt, then add seitan. If you need to, add 1/4 c. water to keep everything from sticking.
2. Throw in the mushrooms and cook about five minutes, or until they are soft. Add peanuts, ginger, and oyster sauce and continue cooking.
3. Roll the orange on your counter, applying pressure-- this makes it yield more juice (i've also heard you can microwave it, but i don't have a microwave). Cut it in half and squeeze the juice of one half into the stir-fry.
4. Once everything is cooked to your preference, spoon it over quinoa or rice and garnish with clices from the other half of the orange.

The leeks make a really interesting texture in a stir-fry. It was delicious!

Until next time.

Orange Pesto and Homemade Bread

2008-03-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

I have two things to share this evening, and the first is what's in this picture. Forget the fake meat and concentrate on what's below: Orange Pesto.

I was off from work yesterday and I spent the whole day baking. When it was time to start cooking dinner, I wanted something easy but flavorful, and my first thought was, 'Pesto!' It had been a while. Pesto and I used to be good friends, but within the last couple of years Phil and I will more often make a big, tast batch of red sauce and fill our pasta quota that way. But Phil wasn't home, so I decided to change it up.

Once I started making it and I got to the part that requires lemon juice, I reached for my lone lemon and stopped, hand hovering above the fruit bowl. Beneath the lemon lay about 8 oranges, and I couldn't help but wonder what that would taste like. Super weird? I wondered. Probably. But I had to find out.

What resulted was a really subtle sweetness, and you've got to try it, I tell you! I love pesto, and pesto loves me. It's really simple and can be made by taste and sight, but I'll give a simple recipe anyway.

Orange Pesto
(enough for 2-3 servings of pasta)
Ingredients:

1/3 c. raw pine nuts
3-4 garlic cloves
1/2 c. basil leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp. sea salt
juice of one orange
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
optional: 2 Tbsp. nurtitional yeast

1. Begin by dry roasting your pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat. While you're doing this (just keep an eye on it and shake the pan every now and then. it only takes about 5 minutes) you can prepare, or begin to prepare, your other ingredients.
2. Throw everything, including 1 Tbsp. oil, in your blender or food processor and blend until smooth. If you want it more creamy, add more oil. Feel free to add more salt and some pepper to taste!

I served this with some homemade bread (see below) and a salad made of baby greens, toasted walnuts and orange sections. The dressing was a homemade red wine vinaigrette (had anyone else ever noticed that Sandra Lee says "vineger-ette" or am the only loser that watches that show? and i hate it, that makes it worse) with a bit of the pesto whisked in for bite. Yum!

As for the homemade bread:

My first loaf! I used Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe for 100% whole wheat bread. However, she recommends using potato flakes or potato water when proofing the yeast, and I could find no instant potato at silly Essene! Apparently that gives it a lighter texture, so maybe that's why mine didn't rise as much. Regardless, it has really good flavor, and I will do this recipe again with the potato water. I also sprinkled golden flax seeds on the bottom of the pan and on top of the loaf for added flavor, nutrition and crunch!

Bryanna has a lot of pretty awesome information on her website and her blog. Since I really want to stop buying processed stuff (even Tofutti cream cheese, which I worship) and start making as much from scratch as is practical/possible, I forsee her website as being an invaluable resource!

Phil's making dinner tonight-- he's experimenting with seitan for the first time, and I get his homemade guacamole.. yum.

Vegan Baked "Fried Chicken"

2008-03-23T07:55:00.001-07:00

I had planned on making completely fat free 'fried chicken', and I did, for a moment. Then temptation got the better of me and I fried them in the skillet. However, I really think they would have been better if I'd left them just baked-- they were crispy, perfectly seasoned, and the oil really just added a gross feeling afterwards. So now I know!

I made my 'chicken' from scratch and I'll list the recipe, but you can use premade seitan if you want. This seitan came out a little spongier than I'd meant-- I'm still new to the seitan thing. Could that be from overcooking? Next time I think I will marinate tempeh and use that instead.

Seitan Chicken
Ingredients:

2 c. vital wheat gluten
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. turmeric
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 c. water
1/4 soymilk
6 c. vegetable broth

1. Mix the dry ingredients well, then add the wet ingredients and use a fork to cut the wet and dry together.
2. When the fork no longer does it, knead with your hands for about 3 minutes. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then knead 5-10 more times.
3. Put your broth onto heat, and while it's warming, cut the dough into 8-12 pieces and shape each into a drumstick (is that the right word? I don't remember) shape, if you want.
4. Drop the pieces into the broth, cover, and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Now, onto the crispy part.

Vegan Baked "Fried Chicken"
serves 2-3 (2 in our house)
Ingredients:

6 drumsticks from above, or whatever you want to use
1/4 c. dijon mustard
1/3 c. instant oats OR regular oats, pulsed a few times in the food processor
1/3 c. panko breadcrumbs
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp. poultry seasoning
1 tsp. ground rosemary
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
fresh ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a shallow dish or on a plate.
3. Slather the mustard onto your mock-chicken, making sure each is well coated.
4. Dredge the mock chicken through the dry coating, and do your best to get it as covered as possible.
5. Spread the coated pieces of seitan on a baking sheet. I didn't oil mine, but you can if you want (lightly), as it will help to crisp the outside.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, remove, flip each piece over, and bake for 10-15 minutes more.

And voila! It smells good, don't it? Here's where I got bad. I coated them in cornstarch and pan fried them in oil. But since I coupled them with Happy Herbivore's Fat-Free Mashed Potatoes I figure I could have been more bad. I recommend not frying them, though, if you can stand it.

Sticky Buns and friends

2008-03-21T16:00:00.001-07:00

The other day, as I loaded gooey, soft and ..buttery.. sticky buns on a tray at work, I thought, 'Damn. I wish these were vegan.' I know they're bad for you, and I am trying to be healthy, but I don't even remember the last time I had a sticky bun. What do they even taste like? Why are people so obsessed with them, and why do they get angry at me when we sell out? So many mysteries for such a small(ish) gooey thing.

Well, I decided right then and there to make some vegan ones, and upon googling a bit I discovered no vegan sticky bun recipes. Now, I'm sure there are some somewhere, but they didn't get snagged by google, so they did me no good. I did, however, find a vegan cinnamon bun (which is almost a sticky bun, but without the sticky), and I used it for some guidance. That can be found here. Mostly, however, I just adjusted this recipe. My only qualm-- I might add vanilla extract to the dough next time. Also, I didn't have any corn syrup so I used a bit of molasses. In case you ever wondered, they're not the same. Oops. Now I know.

BTW, you want a rectangular baking pan (9x13) for this.

Vegan Sticky Buns-- Hoorah!
Ingredients:

Dough:

3/4 c. warm water (not hot! that kills the yeast)
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp. maple syrup
1/2 c. soymilk
2 Tbsp. soy margarine
3 Tbsp. applesauce
1 Tbsp orange zest
1 1/4 tsp. salt
3 c. all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour

Filling:

1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
2-4 Tbsp. canola oil or melted margarine

Topping:

3/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
2 Tbsp. soy margarine
3 Tbsp. brown rice syrup OR honey
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup (or 1 tsp. molasses, if you're me)
1 1/2 c. raw pecans

1. Proof the yeast by stirring the maple syrup into the warm water and adding the yeast. Set it in a warm place (my apartment is so cold that I had to sit it on the edge of the stove with the oven on and the door open a little). It should take 5-10 minutes to get all foamy. If it doesn't get foamy, ditch it and try again. In the past I have shrugged and used it anyways, and that wasn't smart of me. Don't be un-smart, like me. Be smart.
2. I don't have a stand mixer, but if you do, use it. Otherwise, combine the yeast mixture with the soymilk, margarine, applesauce, orange zest, salt, and 2 c. all purpose and 1 c. ww pastry flour. Once it starts to get doughy, dump it onto a pile of the last cup of flour and knead it, working all the flour in. This should take somewhere between 5-10 minutes. It will still be a little wet, but it shouldn't stick to your hands or the counter anymore. Roll it into a ball, flour it lightly, and place it in an oiled bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for an hour in a warm place.
3. While the dough is rising, you can prepare the filling and the topping. First the filling. It's super easy-- just mix the cinnamon with the brown sugar until it's all combined.
4. For the topping, simply combine all of the ingredients except the pecans in a small saucepan, heat, and stir until combined. Pour into your oiled baking pan and sprinkly pecans all over the top.
5. Cover your work pace with plastic wrap or wax paper, and flour it. Once the dough has doubled in size, dump it onto that surface and roll it out into a rectangle. I sort of eyeballed 12x18". Then, brush the oil or margarine all over it, and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over it all, too. Now for the kind of tough part! Use the wax paper or plastic wrap to roll it up (roll from one of the longer sides, so that there's less to roll and more to cut) coaxing it along but not rolling the actual paper or plastic.
6. Cut it into about 12 pieces and place them side by side on top of the pecans in the baking pan. Now, you have two choices. You can either let it rest an hour, and hope that it rises while it bakes, or you can let it rise overnight. I did the overnight thing, so I don't know what happens with less resing time. Either way, cover the pan with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge until ready to bake.
7. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degree and let the buns settle back to room temperature. Then bake for about 30 minutes-- until golden-- and flip immediately upside down onto a serving plate or baking sheet, or whatever is big enough. And enjoy!

I also want to share what we've been eating lately.

Fettucine Alfredo from this months VT:

VeganYumYum's Crispy Sweet and Sour Tofu:

Also from VeganYumYum, Gobi Matar Masala with Aloo Parathas:
I think that one was a little undercooked-- we were in a hurry. But the parathas were amazing...

Happy cooking!

Almost-Perfected Muffins: Chocolate Orange with Carob Chips and Walnut (whew!)

2008-03-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

As unappealing as "almost-perfected" may sound, these really are quite delicious. I do think I can make them better-- bigger, fluffier, etc. Perhaps a bit more liquid would do, as these used very little. I also finally figured out that the temperature being too low was the reason for my muffin cave ins... they had been rising and then caving every time. See? I'm learning! It's so exciting.

Another perfect morning pick me up (those carob chips really do it for me!)

Chocolate-Orange with Carob Chips and Walnut Muffins
Ingredients:

2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. Dutch cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. Ener-G Egg Replacer powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. canola/safflower/sunflower/coconut oil
1/2 c. orange juice
1/2 c. water
zest of one orange
1/2 c. carob chips
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped
oats for topping

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees and oil your muffin pan or muffin cups.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, Ener-G powder and salt. Make sure it's completely mixed (my baking powder is driving me nuts w/ clumps lately).
3. In medium bowl, combine oil, brown sugar, vanilla, orange juice and zest. Mix well, then fold into the dry ingredients gently. Stir the water in last.
4. Once everything is combined, fold in the walnuts and carob chips. If it's too thick, feel free to add another 1/4 - 1/2 c. water. I didn't, but I probably will next time, as they came out pretty crumbly.
5. Divide batter between 12 cups, then sprinkle tops with oats.
6. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes on middle rack, then let cool before eating!

Yum! I love chocolate muffins... especially when they are good for you!

Oh, and I also wanted to share this:

That is the Classic Quiche from Vegan Vittles. I made it last night, adding steamed broccoli for a green veggies boost. It was pretty good! A little sticky, but Phil had leftovers for lunch and he said it was better after he left it in the oven a little longer. I think that, since I used a glass casserole dish in lieu of a pie pan, I should have added 10 minutes or so to the baking time (which i didn't). But it was good enough to try again! I wish I could post the recipe...

Potstickers with Baby Bok and Red Cabbage

2008-03-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

This is not traditional in any sense of the word, but I got a craving for potstickers and that craving had to be satisfied. Since all of the wonton wrappers at Whole Foods had egg in them, I decided to make my own. However, this is pretty labor intensive, and I have a pasta roller-thingy that my mom passed on to me, so if you don't feel like spending an hour kneading, rolling and flouring, buy some at an Asian food market.

So, what you're seeing in that picture is leftover 'sausage' (Vegan Dad's recipe), red cabbage, baby bok choi, potstickers (true to their word, they stuck... and tore), and brown rice. Yum! Here's how you do it.

Potstickers!

Ingredients:

1 package eggless wonton wrappers
1 tbsp. canola oil for potstickin'
1/2 recipe for sausage, roughly chopped
1 c. cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
1 c. red cabbage, shredded small
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. salt

Dipping sauce:

3 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. chopped green onion
1 tsp. crushed red pepper

1. Heat the sesame oil in a skillet. Add the mushrooms, cabbage and onions. Saute until soft (4-7 min) then remove from heat.
2. Lay your wrapper flat. Place a spoonful of filling in the center, then a few chunks of sausage. Fold the wonton in half so the edges meet, and being sure to get the air out, press the edges together. Set on a floured plate until ready to fry them. Repeat as many times as you want!
3. When you're ready to cook them, heat the canola oil in your skillet over medium heat until hot. Place the potstickers in the pan so that they all touch the bottom and let cook for about 5 minutes. Keep an eye on them. You can see the progress by lifting them up, if you need to check.
4. Once they are crispy, add enough water (between 1/2 c. and 1 c.) to cover the bottom. Don't worry-- it's normal for the water to pop and fizzle a lot. Cover with lid and let them steam for 5 minutes or so. Remove the lid and continue cooking until all the water is evaporated.
5. Whisk together the dipping sauce and serve immediately with a side of brown rice, and sauteed veggies. I sauteed baby bok and red cabbage in sesame oil with minced garlic and soy sauce.

Bratwurst Sandwich and Potato Crisps with Garlic Mayo

2008-03-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm already posting again? You can tell that today's my day off from work and that Phil isn't home, can't you? Well, after this I swear I will record and possibly even redo my webpage, something that really needs to be done. But I had such a yummy lunch that I just to share.

While perusing my normal collections of vegan food blogs, I realized to had almost all the ingredients to make Vegan Dad's bratwurst recipe that he just posted. I've been wanting to try one of his steamed sausage recipes, so I thought, why not! At first I considered going and getting some sauerkraut. In fact, I put on my coat and scarf and walked all the way downstairs, and even started to open the front gate-- then I thought I'd rather saute onions and bell peppers.

I also realized that I really wanted chips or fries to complement the sandwich. See, I'm a fried-potato-addict. One of the hardest steps in my "get healthy project" is walking past a bag of chips. Once Phil and I bought fries at 1 am and ate them in bed (gross, but great), then passed out immediately afterwards. So it's been a challenge to leave my best friend Fried-Potato behind.

So instead I made use of the 5 lbs of russet potatoes I had and made baked fries with virtually no oil (just some Pam on the pan) and a yummy mayo dip.

Bratwurst Sandwich For One!

Ingredients:

one bratwurst from Vegan Dad's recipe (freeze or refrigerate the other five)
half a small onion, sliced thinly into rings
1 tsp. olive oil
half a red bed pepper, sliced into strips

Potato Crisps
Ingredients:

1-2 potatoes depending on size, sliced into fries-sized strips
cooking spray such as Pam
salt and pepper

Garlic Mayo (this makes a good amount, so feel free to cut it in half if you don't want to store it)
Ingredients:

4-5 garlic cloves
1 tsp. soy sauce
4 tbsp. vegan mayo
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. rice vinegar (not seasoned) or lemon juice
1 -2 tbsp. all natural ketchup

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare bratwurst and get them steaming (35 minutes).
3. Evenly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray, and lay the potato slices out so that they are all flat and touching the pan bottom. Wrap the garlic cloves in tin foil and place on the baking sheet with the potatoes. Bake for about 30 min, turning them halfway.
4. While the brats are steaming and the crisps are crisping, whisk all of the dip ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside and get your onions and bell peppers sliced.
5. When the brats are done, heat the oil in a skillet. Add the onion and bell peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Add a bratwurst, covering it in the onions, and cook until the brat is browned and the onions and peppers are soft.
6. Lower the oven temp to 200 degrees. Leave the potatoes in to keep warm, but take out the tin foil packet of garlic, unwrap, and squeeze the roasted garlic directly into your dip. Give it a quick stir, and set aside.
7. Assemble your sandwich either by slicing the brat long-ways and putting it between two slices of whole grain bread with the onions and peppers, or use a hoagie roll. The dip is good on the sandwich, too! Remove the potatoes from the oven when you're ready for them, and drizzle some of the mayo on them.

Now it's time to be productive!

Chickpeas a la King

2008-03-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

I don't remember much about the first few years of vegetarianism, which I guess means my mom, who was not a vegetarian, did a good job feeding me (she's the best mom, truly). I do, however, know what meat I never tried as a meat eater, and Chicken a la King is one of them. In fact, I had no idea what it was before I came across 'Chickpeas a la King' in Jo Stepaniak's Vegan Vittles the other day.

Oh, it was heaven.

I served it over quinoa and steamed some peas and carrots for the side.

The recipe is already online here, so I will just post it as well. However, I must say-- if you like this, buy her cookbook! It's vegan comfort food, but healthy. And it's tastes great. I didn't use it much in the past because I've always been afraid of nurtitional yeast. But now we're best friends!

Okay.

Chickpeas A'la King

Recipe By :Joanne Stepaniak

Submitted by: Sue in NJ

Nutritional info is for regular Rice Dreams rice milk. A fat-free soy or rice milk would give this recipe an even lower fat and calorie count.

1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup red bell pepper -- chopped
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme -- crumbled
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups rice milk -- or low-fat soymilk or other non-dairy milk
1 1/2 cups chickpeas -- 1-15oz can, rinsed & drained
1/2 cup scallions -- finely chopped

1. Sauté the mushrooms & bell peppers in water or veggie broth (original recipe called for oil) for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly so they don't stick or brown. Stir in the flour, then add nutritional yeast and spices and continue cooking & stirring for another minute.

2. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the milk, mixing constantly to avoid lumps.

3. Return to heat to continue cooking. Stir constantly until thickened, then add chickpeas & scallions and continue cooking another 3-5 minutes or until the chickpeas are thoroughly warmed.

4. Serve at once over biscuits, rice, noodles or toast points.

Serving Size : 4

Description:
"Use chickpeas, not chicken in this old fashioned entrée. You're bound to get compliments that will make you crow. Serve it over rice, toasted bread triangles, or split biscuits. - Jo Stepaniak"

Source:
"Vegan Vittles - Recipes Inspired by the Critters of the Farm Sanctuary"

Carob Chip Chocolate Cranberry Muffins

2008-03-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

***Update: Upon eating several of these, I have changed the recipe calling for brown rice syrup. It's too much moisture and weight, causing the muffins to cave, and it carmelized the outside. I would also recommend using fresh fruit or canned fruit (in juice, not syrup!) if you can.***

Alright, it's true-- I'm a breakfast girl. I need it. Without it, I get dizzy, irritated, snacky, and just unpleasant. However, I have one demand when it comes to my breakfast choice (aside from it being vegan) and that is that it makes me feel GOOD. This doesn't include brunch, which can be as filling and unhealthy as it likes.

At any rate, Phil doesn't like breakfast, and on top of that, I wake up really early for work and I don't usually want to make something. So I started making muffins! A batch a week or so, and you're good for breakfast. It's great. I munch in the car, chase it with coffee, and I'm stomach-ache free (i get stomach aches when I eat too much at work, who knows why).

I'm trying to perfect my muffin-making-skills. This muffin is nice because the carob chips offer a little morning-time lift. My batch was with cranberries but I had cherries in mind (none at the store). Also, if you don't want to use brown rice syrup, sub that half cup for 1/4 c. brown sugar and 1/4 c. reg.

Ingredients:

Dry:

3/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ener-g egg replacer powder (you can probably omit this, but it helps a bit)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. all-natural sugar
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp. Dutch cocoa powder (why Dutch?)
1 c. oats
1/2 c. carob chips
1/2 fresh or canned cranberries or cherries
12-36 raw pecans, depending on how many you want to top each muffin with

Wet:

1/2 c. soymilk
1/4 c. neutral-tasting oil
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil your muffin pan! Place dried berries in a bowl and fill with boiling water until just covered.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients except the oats, berries, carob chips, and pecans. In a medium bowl, mix the wet ingredients well. Fold the wet into the dry, being careful not to overmix.
3. Drain the fruit. Fold in the oats, carob chips and berries one by one until you have a consistent looking batter.
4. Use a spoon to evenly distribute the batter in your muffin pan (you can also buy foil muffins cups that work without a pan. Just don't forget to oil them!). Then, resisting the temptation to simply eat all the pecans, gently set 1-3 on each muffin.
5. Pop in oven. Bake for 20-24 minutes. These rise quite a bit and don't look or feel done until they cool, so test with a knife or toothpick after 20 min (otherwise you'll get crunchy ones like mine!) and be careful not to over bake. Cool on rack if you have one, or straight in the pan.

And enjoy! I'll leave you with Phil's chili-- his specialty, and my favorite thing to come home to at the end of the day...

Tempeh Burgers and Music

2008-03-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

I woke up for work this morning at 5:30, did my thing, got to work at 6:15, even dropped by Starbucks for a small one. All along, however, I had a sinking feeling I was scheduled for the PM shift.

And I was.

So I drove home, arriving just before 7am, and flitted about until Phil woke up. Drove him to work cause its rainy. Sat on my butt. Wondered if I should go back to sleep.

Well, I didn't. I recorded the whole day, and it felt great. When I went back to work I was in such a good mood as a result of being so musically productive (even though recording is frustrating for me while it's happening). I wish I could be like that every day! The down side is that recording is incredibly time consuming, and I never really get anywhere if I don't have at least 2 hours to dedicate to it. But it was to have that opportunity today and actually use it.

I took a lunch break and made Vegan Dad's Perfect Tempeh Burgers, which are so tasty. I've made variations on it before but this was the first time I had all of the ingredients (namely the steak sauce. I subbed BBQ sauce before and now I know the difference) and it was really great. I squished it down flat, then stuffed it into a pita and smeared my leftover tofu-olive spread on it, too. Mind you, I actually prepared to make this recipe when planning my meals for this week-- that's how bad I wanted to try this recipe for real. If you've never been to Vegan Dad's blog, I highly recommend you do. It's quite inspiring. Plus he's Canadian! (that's directed to my brother-in-law, should he ever read this). And, if I might add, the recipe is much simpler than it seems and keeps well when wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the fridge.

Carmelized Onion Pizza

2008-03-07T18:38:00.001-08:00

Before I say anything else, I want to say this is my first successful pizza dough experience. Something always goes wrong and I end up throwing the ruined dough into the trash, swearing, while Phil stands by with a concerned look on his face. My last attempts was with Isa's recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance, and that especially sucked because there were people over to eat the pizza I screwed up, so I had to go (well, Phil had to go, I won't lie) get store bought crusts from Whole Foods. After that I omitted the yeast and had a weird chewy crust that, needless to say, satisfied but wasn't the same. This time I tried the dough recipe in Student's Go Vegan, and even though something did go wrong, I fixed it (still swearing, but Phil wasn't home yet) and it turned out really well. I think the key was the tip given in the recipe, which is that you want warm rather than hot water, as if the water is too hot, the yeast gets pissed and refuses to cooperate. Kind of like me. For some reason I had to add about 1 c. more flour than it called for. But it was so easy to roll out, and rose like a dream! Go figure.

This pizza recipe was greatly inspired by a recipe from the Student's Go Vegan Cookbook, combined with a spread from Vegan Delights. But because pizza is pizza, and pretty basic, I'm going to give you a general recipe regardless that I hope won't infringe on any copyright laws. It was a tasty pizza, and I did change some stuff, so there.

I also really like making salad dressings, and I got creative with this one-- but it was kind of a failure. Phil *said* he liked it, but I think he and I have different dressing-standards (it's true, I'm a salad-dressing-snob). At any rate, the general idea behind it is:

1/4 c. coconut milk
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
healthy squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. ginger powder
pinch of salt

My issue is that it's not thick enough. To me, a good dressing should properly coat the lettuce without making it wet. So basically this needs more fat. But the sesame oil is too strong of a flavor. So I'm going to say, add another

1 tbsp. canola oil

and maybe more salt and pepper to taste, if you care to.

Not that anyone actually reads this. But you know.

Okay, so the pizza. I ramble, I know.

Ingredients:

enough pizza dough for one 12 in. pizza, or a pizza crust
some sort of spread-- olive tapenade, hummus, etc. (see below for what I did)
2 yellow onions, sliced into thin rings
1 tbsp. olive oil
handful of walnuts, pine nuts, or pistachios
1 tsp. rubbed dried sage
salt and pepper

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Once warm, add the onions and a dash or two of salt and pepper. Keep an eye on this, stirring often and making sure it doesn't stick to the pan. It takes about 30 minutes for the onions to caramelize on medium-low heat, so you can do stuff (like make the spread) in the meantime, but make sure you stir it! Otherwise they won't caramelize evenly, they'll burn, etc.
2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you want a thin crust, wait until the onions are done to continue, and omit the 10 extra minutes of rising time. Oil a baking sheet or tin foil, if you are like me and your baking sheet is too big for your stupid tiny oven, and pulled the rolled out pizza crust on it, or roll it out directly on it; whichever floats your boat.
3. If you want a fluffly crust, let the pizza rise for ten more minutes. If you want a thin crust, don't. Smear your spread all over, leaving the crust blank, then top with the onions and nuts of choice.
4. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes or until the crust is nice and dark.
5. Sprinkle with sage before serving.

I can't list the actualy recipe I used for the spread, as it's from Vegan Delights (a very useful cookbook that my mom bought when I first crossed into the dark side). However,

tofu
roasted cashews
black olives
lemon juice
salt
pepper

blended together makes a PERFECT spread for this pizza. Which makes me think that olive tapenade, or Bobbi's green olive and garlic clove hummus would do nicely, too.

And.. that's that. Yum.

Chard and Pearl Barley Stew

2008-03-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

Another from VT, but annoyingly, it's also not online (it's out of the most recent issue, so I guess it's too soon to be archived.) Not that anyone actually reads this, but it's probably kind of annoying to see pictures of food, read about how good it is, but not get a recipe. Well, I will make an effort to do that, but ... this week will be even more annoying, as almost everything I'm making is from cookbooks. The cookbooks I use are listed somewhere on this blog, I think, maybe to the right or something.

I sit down, go through my cookbooks/VT's, pick out enough recipes to feed Phil and me for the week, organize a shopping list, and do it all at once. This week I spent about $25 less on groceries than last week! Hopefully the price tag will continue to go down as I accumulate ingredients that last a while.

I also made up my first baked-good recipe! It wasn't perfect, but a little tweaking will make it great. Once we eat all these (yum) and I can make a new batch w/ changes, look forward to my very own Carob Chip Chocolate Oat Muffins.

Since this blog was beginning to be an ode to VT, I steered clear of it for this week (although everything I made last week from it was delicious!)

Irish Stew and Mashed Potatoes

2008-03-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

Sometimes (a lot) I want some Irish comfort food. So on Monday I made this. Picture by Phil out the goodness in his heart!

Sadly, the recipe (another from VT) is not available online, but it's not difficult to recreate. By using these basic ingredients:

-bottle of porter, lager or stoudt
-carrots
-tempeh or seitan
-fresh thyme
-leeks
-vegetable broth

...you can have an awesome Irish-inspired stew in no time at all. Serve with your favorite mashed potatoes recipe, and you have a feast!

Thai Tofu Satay with Peanut Sauce

2008-03-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

I kept forgetting to post, so I'll do the last few days today.

On Sunday, Emlit (my sister) came over for dinner! What a nice surprise. We talked so much we didn't get to watch the movie we rented (which is how it should be!) At any rate, we made Vegetarian Times' Thai Tofu Satay with Peanut Sauce and it was killer! Since we changed some stuff a bit, and it's already on the web, I'm going to post it here. Hopefully VT won't come after me. The recipe is actually for skewers, kabob style, but because I suck at reading directions I didn't realize this until we were supposed to skewer them. And I don't have any skewers. So we improvised. Also, I've never written down cooking directions, so yes, I know this is kind of convoluted. But I'm trying!

Thai Tofu Satay

3 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tbsp. olive oil (or toasted sesame oil for added flavor)
1 10-oz. pkg. firm tofu, drained and cut into 1-inch cubes
Small onion of your choice (i used yellow)
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed (about 1 1/2 cups)

Peanut Sauce (the delicious key to this recipe)

3/4 cup light coconut milk
1 tsp. red curry paste, or to taste
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
2 Tbs. brown sugar or raw sugar
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt

Quinoa Yum

2 c. quinoa (? I used a rice cooker, and just followed the lines. However, quinoa is a 1:2 grain, so 1 c. quinoa cooked with 2. water yields 3 c. cooked quinoa, or thereabouts)
4 c. water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sweet paprika

1. If using a rice cooker, fill to line 1 with quinoa, then to line 2 with water. Add salt and paprika, give a quick stir, and switch on. If cooking in a pot, do the same thing but with the measurements I gave above. Bring everything to a boil, then simmer covered for 15-20 minutes depending on the texture you want.
2. Whisk together soy sauce and tumeric, then combine with tofu and mushrooms in a large container. I used a tuperware, so I could shake it periodically to insure full-coverage. Yum.
3. To make Peanut Sauce: Whisk together coconut milk and red curry paste in saucepan. Whisk in peanut butter until smooth. Stir in sugar, lemon juice and salt, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, and cook 5 minutes, or until thickened, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Heat oil in skillet. Add onion and cook for five minutes, or until soft. Toss in the tofu, mushrooms, and garlic. Stirring often, let it cook on medium heat for about ten minutes-- until the tofu looks done and the mushrooms are soft and spongy. Once this is achieved, lower the heat and move to the next step.
5. Reheat the peanut sauce on low heat and add 1/4 c. water to thin it out. You have two options: either toss in with the stir-fry directly in the skillet, or drizzle it on top after plating everything. Either way, this sauce is so ridiculously good. Serve on top on the quinoa!

The end. It was awesome. We ate it with this.

The first!

2008-03-01T15:15:00.001-08:00

I think I've been reading too many vegan-blogs-- that's the only explanation I can give myself for why I have created this thing. I really don't know if it will last, but...

I have been a vegetarian since I was 8, and a vegan since I was 16, but it's not until the last year (few months?) or so that I have really started thinking about being healthy. So I suppose my reasoning is that by having a blog about my food, I will start keeping track of things I try, and such. The same reasoning everyone else has.

The second half is that I want to keep track of my music progress. It's about time that I really make an effort at going somewhere musically. It's frustrating (and inspiring) to see people I know gain success when I'm not, but I know that I haven't really been trying, whereas they have and they deserve it.

So, day one of post.
We're eating leftovers tonight because I made so much food last night-- good thing it's yummy!
As part of my healthy-fest, I rifled through old copies of Vegetarian Times and planned out a weeks worth of meals, then got groceries all at once. What a great way to do it! It's so much less time consuming to have dinner when you 1) already have the groceries, 2)know what you're going to make (and it's good, not a crappy stir-fry [no offense, stir-fry]).

So leftovers tonight are: Lentils with Chickpeas ad Couscous. Since I had it last night, I can safely tell you it could be a bit spicier!

That's all for now!

**Edit**
Though this recipe was already delicious, I thought it could use a little more umph, so I added 1/2 tsp garam masala and 1/2 tsp paprika as well as a 1/4 c. water while reheating. Re-season to taste with salt and pepper and it's great! Better than the night before.

I also forgot to mention that I don't love cooked/baked raisins (cooked are okay, but baked are... blech...) so I replaced the raisins with chopped pears. But you know what else would be great? Currents. I like currents. Or dried apples. Really any dried fruit that you like. Go nuts.