Adventures of a Food Slut

Roasted pork tacos with two salsas

2010-06-01T17:57:00.003-05:00

Leftover Roasted Pork: Day One

Tonight we used the leftover pork to make tacos. I couldn't decide which kind of salsa I wanted, so I made two. First I made a cooked tomato salsa. Usually fresh pico de gallo is my tomato salsa of choice, but I wanted to try a cooked salsa. Last year I tried roasting tomatoes, onions and jalapenos in the oven, then making them into salsa, but the results were just awful. This time I tried cooking it in a skillet, and it turned out somewhat better, but not fantastic. I used 4 tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 jalapeno and a handful of cilantro, plus salt and lime juice. I put it in a skillet, started cooking it down, then used an immersion blender to puree it. I continued cooking it until it turned from light pink to a bold red. This recipe needs more tweaking before I post it, but I'm looking forward to trying it again at some point.

The second salsa I made was a fresh mango salsa. It was absolutely delicious and refreshing, and the recipe is below.

To make the tacos, I sprayed corn tortillas with a quick blast of cooking spray, then heated them in the microwave for 30 seconds. The leftover pork was warmed in a skillet, then heaped on the tortillas. I topped them with some fresh, local romaine lettuce (thanks, CSA!) and generous helpings of salsa.

Fresh Mango Salsa

1 ripe mango
1 small red onion, diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced (take the seeds out if you don't like it hot. I leave them in)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp agave nectar (can substitute sugar or molasses)

Combine all ingredients and set aside for 15-20 minutes so flavors can meld.

Slow-roasted pork

2010-05-31T21:38:00.004-05:00

We spent all day Saturday at the lake park just outside of town, with quite possibly two of the coolest people I've ever met, and their four kids. The mom is my girls' piano teacher, and I swear, I have not often met such a truly kind and friendly person in my life. She's one of those rare people you encounter, whom you connect with instantly and hit it off famously, and I adore her. She invited us to join them to the lake on Saturday, and we happily agreed. Making friends here in Syracuse has been a slow process. I'm an extreme extrovert, but have still had trouble connecting with kindred spirits. I think I've found them, at last. She and her husband and I talked nonstop for the five hours we were at the lake, about Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Theology, and so much more. We discovered that we're strikingly similar in so many ways that it's almost unbelievable. It's been a long time since I've met a couple who enjoy deep thinking and deep discussion as much as Brad and I do, and it absolutely delighted me. I'm so happy to have met them!

We spent the day talking while the kids played in the lake and the sand, then we strolled over to a BBQ pit and built up a fire for grilling. I had slowly simmered some country style ribs all morning before we left, then drowned them in Dinosaur BBQ sauce -- from Dinosaur BBQ, an enchanting biker bar BBQ joint here in town, which incidentally was voted best BBQ in America last year -- and brought them along for lunch. I know that grilling purists scorn the parboiling of ribs, but I haven't found a better way to prepare ribs, so I use it. They were tender, succulent and absolutely falling apart after a quick jaunt on the grill.

All this is to say that Meg devoured an astonishing amount of ribs at the lake, then, in the spirit of BBQ, begged me to make a pork roast for pulled pork sandwiches on Monday. We swung by the grocery store on our way home from a AAA minor league baseball game Sunday evening, and to my surprise and delight, I found a 9.5 lb pork roast for just $11! Score! It was bone-in, and I was sure it would be mostly bone, but I still couldn't beat that price, so I paid for it and back home we went.

I put it in the oven at noon today. Now, I think pork is the perfect meat. I cringe when I see people doctoring pork up with all kinds of spices, rubs, marinades, fruits, and so forth. Pork is beautiful just the way it is, and needs little to no embellishment, in my humble opinion. So I heated my oven to 250, dumped the pork on a rack in a roasting pan, and stuck it in the oven. No salt, no spices, no rubs, no marinades...no nuthin'. And I walked away and left it there for six and a half hours. We even left and went shopping for two hours in the middle of the afternoon.

I pulled it out of the oven at 6:30 this evening, and I swooned all over the damn place. It was gorgeous. I wish I had taken a picture. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture, but I couldn't wait to tear into it. Meg pulled up a foot stool and hovered next to me as I used a couple forks to tear it apart, and she snatched pieces whenever she could get away with it. I shredded that sucker to bits, and ended up with 12 cups of shredded pork. 12 cups! There was only one tiny bone in the entire thing, and virtually no fat. It was amazing!

I took about a cup and a half and tossed it in BBQ sauce, then served it on hamburger buns with fresh corn on the cob. Meg didn't want BBQ sauce, though, being a pork purist after my own heart, and just ate hers plain on a bun. Words can't describe how delicious this pork was. As I said, I didn't season it at all before roasting, and it needed nothing after roasting, either. No salt...nothing. It was pure, unadulterated heaven on a bun.

The remaining 12+ cups are in the fridge now. I've been mulling over what to do with all the leftovers, and so far have decided on pork tacos, cuban sandwiches, and pulled pork nachos.

What would you do with it?

Make-Your-Own-Pizza Night

2010-05-26T17:51:00.006-05:00

I love make-your-own-pizza night! I love getting the kids involved in the preparation of their food, and what's more fun than shaping your own pizza crust and topping it to your specifications? We did this often when I was growing up, especially during slumber parties, and always had a blast with it.

Tonight was kind of a "clean out the fridge" theme, so it served dual purpose. Lydia chose the classic Hawaiian pizza, canadian bacon and pineapple, which oddly enough, few people here in Syracuse have ever heard of. Meg opted for a meat lover's pizza of sorts, with pepperoni, sausage, canadian bacon and bell pepper. I went with a more grown up palate. A few days ago my neighbor gave me a huge tray of greek olives, hummus, roasted red peppers, spicy marinated peppers and pita bread left over from her husband's law school grad party. I used a bunch of the olives and peppers on my pizza, as well as pepperoni, bell pepper, fresh spinach and goat cheese.

I used my go-to pizza dough recipe tonight. It's quick and easy and always turns out great. I'm getting better at stretching the dough in my hands instead of rolling it or patting it out, but still have to break out the rolling pin at times. I haven't quite graduated to tossing it up in the air yet. ;)

What are your favorite pizza toppings?

(gratuitous picture of my cute kid)

Farfalle Pasta with Carrots, Broccoli and Ham in Parmesan Cream Sauce

2010-05-23T18:00:00.003-05:00

Lydia came to me this morning and said that she wanted to cook dinner tonight. This was unexpected because she doesn't usually like to help out in the kitchen. I always give the kids the option of cooking with me, and while Meg always takes me up on it, Lydia rarely does, or loses interest quickly if she does. So imagine my surprise when she suggested it this morning!

She gave me an idea of what she wanted to make, and I came up with a recipe, wrote it out for her, and set her to work. I drained the pasta since she's a pretty tiny 11 year old and my Le Creuset pot is hella heavy, but she did everything else by herself. She peeled and sliced the carrots, chopped the broccoli and ham, and made her first ever white sauce. Once I drained the pasta, though, I skedaddled off to hang out on the front porch and enjoy the sunshine while she finished dinner.

It. Was. FABULOUS! She did a wonderful job, and all three of us gobbled it up with gusto. Way to go, Lydia!

Farfalle Pasta with Carrots, Broccoli and Ham in Parmesan Cream Sauce

12 oz mini farfalle pasta, or pasta of your choice
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4" rounds
1 medium head broccoli, cut into small florets
olive oil
1 ham steak, cut into 1/2" dice
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups fresh grated parmesan cheese

Fill a large pot with well-salted water and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook as directed. When 4 minutes of the cooking time remain, add carrots and broccoli. When pasta is done, drain. Add ham to the pasta mixture, toss with olive oil to prevent sticking, and set aside.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add flour and salt and stir until it forms a paste and just begins to bubble. Add milk, cook and stir constantly until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, add parmesan cheese, and stir until cheese is melted.

Combine pasta mixture with sauce, and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Bibimbap

2010-05-19T17:57:00.004-05:00

I've posted about bibimbap before, a couple years ago. Back then I was still trying to make it in a fiery hot stone bowl (which I didn't have, so I used my Le Creuset saucier), and just couldn't ever get it quite right. Since then, I've taken to making the non-stone bowl version, which has much better results.

Once again, I apologize for the lack of pictures, but the kids snatched these up and started gobbling them down the second I slid the lightly fried egg on top, and -- in typical mom fashion -- they got all the good stuff and I got the dregs, so my bowl wasn't pretty enough to warrant photographing. And just maybe I was as eager to eat as they were, and didn't want to waste timing getting the camera. Just saying.

Tonight's bibimbap used jasmine rice as the base, topped with a rainbow array of lightly sauteed carrots, spinach, zucchini, bean sprouts, mushrooms, bean sprouts and ground chicken. The crowning glory was a lightly fried egg with runny yolk.

This dinner rocked! Meg begs me to make bibimbap all the time. Whenever I ask for their input in planning a weekly menu, it's the first thing she shouts out, every time without fail. I usually refuse, simply because there's a lot of prep work with this, sauteeing the meat and each vegetable individually, not to mention the time cutting everything into matchsticks. But whenever I do make it for her, I always wonder why I don't do it more often. It's worth the prep work a zillion times over. As Meg said this evening, who'd have thought that meat and veggies with a fried egg would taste so good? But there's something so intensely satisfying about bibimbap, and it never lets me down. If you've never had it before, give it a try!

Bibimbap

freshly cooked jasmine rice
1 lb ground chicken or pork
1/2 tsp sesame oil (a little goes a long way)
4 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
2 medium carrots, cut into 2" matchsticks
1 medium zucchini, cut into 2" matchsticks
1 1/2 cups mushrooms, cut into matchsticks (do the best you can...totally chopped is fine)
1 1/2 cups fresh bean sprouts
1 bunch spinach, stems removed
eggs, 1 per serving

Start rice cooking. Meanwhile, brown ground meat over medium-high heat. When fully cooked, drain grease and discard, then add sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar. Stir and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove chicken to a serving plate, leaving room for the rest of the toppings as you cook them.

Sautee carrots over medium-high heat until crisp tender; remove to serving plate.

Sautee zucchini over medium-high heat until it begins to brown and soften; remove to serving plate.

Sautee mushrooms over medium-high heat for a few minutes. You don't want them totally soft, but still with a bite to them. Remove to serving plate.

Sautee bean sprouts until crisp tender; remove to serving plate.

Sautee spinach until wilted but still bright green; remove to serving plate.

Scoop rice into individual wide, shallow bowls. Arrange toppings attractively on top of rice. You can arrange them in wedge shapes around the bowl, or in stripes. Alternatively, let each person put the toppings of their choice on their own serving.

Meanwhile, wipe out skillet with a paper towl, return to heat, grease pan with a little oil, and crack eggs into it. Fry just until whites are set, flipping once. You want the yolks runny. As soon as eggs are done, put one egg in the center of each bowl. Add Korean red chili paste, if desired. Serve immediately.

Roasted Chicken and Mixed Vegetables

2010-05-17T16:11:00.006-05:00

Tonight's recipe is inspired by photos a friend took of her dinner last night, and posted on facebook. I was all but drooling as I looked at them, and went out today to buy chicken so I could make it tonight!

I joined a CSA for the first time this year, and have loved getting weekly deliveries of fresh, organic and mostly local produce. Many of the items I've been getting are new to me, so it's been fun to be coaxed out of the rut it's so easy to settle into, and rise to the challenge of experimenting with new foods. Tonight's dish uses most of my usual staples, but it's exciting to know that every vegetable in the dish is supporting my local farming community. How cool is that?

This dinner is so easy, it's almost embarrassing. I used a huge, deep roasting pan and filled it with chunks of zucchini, summer squash, carrots, celery, onion, asparagus spears, whole garlic cloves and button mushrooms, all tossed together with olive oil, rosemary, oregano, salt and pepper. Then I laid pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, legs and thighs on top, drizzled with a little more olive oil and herbs. It roasted, covered with foil, at 425 for 1 hour, another 20-30 minutes with the foil off, then a few minutes under the broiler to crisp up the chicken skin. You might be able to get by with less roasting time, but I'm kind of paranoid when it comes to undercooked chicken, so I cooked it longer just to be on the safe side. This really couldn't be easier, and my house smells incredible!

If I were to do this again, I'd roast the chicken for the first 45 minutes, then add the veggies at that point. The veggies were way overcooked and mushy. They still tasted incredible, but I'd prefer they have a little bite to them next time -- and believe me, there will be a next time. This dish is fantastic!

I also whipped up some lightly sauteed red chard and garlic scapes, also from this week's CSA delivery, cooked in sesame oil and seasoned with ginger, kimchee, salt and sugar. Weird combination of flavors, I know, and a totally different palate from the roasted chicken and veggies, but it's seriously yum! I'm sorry I don't have a picture of it, but I scarfed it down while I was waiting for the chicken to finish roasting. ;)

Blueberry Muffins

2010-05-06T06:56:00.002-05:00

I've been plagued with insomnia lately, much to my chagrin. I'm not a good sleeper to begin with, and have always woken up frequently throughout the night, then fallen right back to sleep. But these past few days I just lie there, desperately tired and desperately trying to fall asleep, to no avail. It's unspeakably frustrating.

Today, though, I decided to make the most of it, and get up and make blueberry muffins for breakfast before the kids leave for school. I love muffins because they only take a couple minutes to throw together, and only 20-25 minutes to bake. School here doesn't start until 9:00AM, so I don't even have to get up too early in order to have them ready for a hot, tasty breakfast before the kids dart off to school. Muffins rock!

I found this basic recipe on allrecipes.com, and modified it a bit to my liking. They hit the spot!

Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup canned blueberries, drained and rinsed well

Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine flour, cup sugar, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, egg and milk. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Don't overmix. Fold in blueberries. Distribute batter evenly among 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until done.

Breakfast Pizza

2010-05-03T19:08:00.006-05:00

I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen awhile back, and have been dying to try it ever since. Pizza is one of those things I'm reluctant to make unless there's someone else to help me eat it, and with Brad gone...well, that just doesn't happen too often. On pizza night, I typically make a double batch of dough...enough to make one full-sized pizza and two or three mini pizzas for the kiddos, but when Brad's deployed, that's just too much pizza for the three of us. Perhaps I could solve that problem by not making a double batch, but I'm one of those people who tends to get stuck in the "this is the way we do it because it's the way we've always done it" kind of ruts, and this is what it gets me.

But lucky me! My friend Cheryl (yes, we have the same name) is visiting this week, and this gives me the perfect opportunity to have pizza tonight while still sticking to my double-the-recipe pizza night formula. The kiddos had one mini pizza with canadian bacon and pineapple and one with pepperoni, which left half the batch of dough for The Cheryls to try out Smitten Kitchen's breakfast pizza! Hooray!

I used my favorite go-to pizza dough recipe, then glazed it with olive oil, then topped it with mozzarella cheese, canadian bacon, mushroom, red bell pepper and 4 eggs. It baked at 420 for 30 minutes.

Were I to do this again, I would only bake it for the standard 20 minutes that I usually bake pizza, because the eggs didn't have runny yolks like I had hoped, they were more like hard boiled eggs. I checked it after 20 minutes, however, and was afraid that the eggs were still raw, but next time I think 20 minutes would have done it. 25 minutes, tops. I'll definitely try this recipe again, and give the whole single batch recipe thing a try. What can I say? I'm still learning to cook for 3, not 4. I'll get it right next time.

Breakfast Pizza

1 batch pizza dough
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
4 slices canadian bacon, coarsely diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
4 large eggs
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 420. Prepare pizza dough and pat onto pizza pan. Drizzle with olive oil and spread to coat evenly. Cover with cheese, and evenly distribute bacon, mushrooms and bell pepper, leaving room for 4 eggs. Crack eggs directly onto pizza, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 420 for 20-25 minutes, or until egg whites are just set and yolks are still slightly runny. Serve warm.

Yield: 1 large pizza

Weekly Menu - week of April 26

2010-04-26T20:36:00.003-05:00

Here's the plan for this week. I'm so happy to be back in the kitchen!

Sunday - dinner out

Monday - Clam Chowder, oyster crackers

Tuesday - leftover chowder

Wednesday - Tacos, fruit salad

Thursday - Spaghetti Pie, broccoli

Friday - Beef Stroganoff, green beans

Saturday - leftovers

Baking - sandwich bread, oatmeal raisin cookies, pumpkin bread, chewy granola bars

Clam Chowder

2010-04-26T16:48:00.002-05:00

Well, folks, I'm finally back after a crazy long hiatus. This past year has been a roller coaster like none other. We moved to central New York for my husband's nuclear engineering job, bought our first home (an adorable 80-year old Arts & Crafts right in the heart of the city...a lifelong dream come true for me!), and it's been a whirlwind since then. My husband was working long hours, days, nights and weekends, and we didn't see much of him as a result. Then not three months ago we got the shock of our lives when he was called up in the Navy Reserves for a 14-month deployment to Djibouti, Africa. Due to a ridiculous lack of communication from his command, he received only 10 days' notice that he was leaving, so you can imagine the frantic rush of packing, paperwork, planning and running around like chickens with our heads cut off that ensued.

But all is well! The kids and I are happily settled in our cozy house with fabulous neighbors and friends, and we were surprised and delighted to find out a few weeks after Brad arrived in Djibouti that he will be spending his entire deployment working as a Naval Liaison Officer at the US Embassy in Mauritius, a tropical island near Madagascar. We can't believe his good luck! He arrived there this past weekend, has his own apartment and car for the duration, and let's just say that this is a far cry from the deployment he did in Afghanistan four years ago. It sucks that we have to live apart for over a year, but we couldn't be more pleased with how it's all playing out, and we've been tearing up the Skype lines for the past two months. I have great kids, and let me tell you that deployments are a hell of a lot easier when the kids are out of diapers and car seats. I was able to fly down and meet Brad one weekend during his training in South Carolina, and the kids and I drove down to spend a few days with him in Virginia before he departed for Djibouti.

All that being said, with as crazy as the past year has been, I haven't been doing much cooking, let alone blogging. We let our stress pull us down into a spiral of unhealthy, convenience food eating, and we have the waistlines to show for it. Ugh! I'm determined to turn that around starting now. We're cutting way back on all the restaurant food, prepackaged food and take-out. I'm going to start packing lunches for the kids instead of having them buy school lunches, and we're working on removing high-fructose corn syrup from our home. I'm excited to get back into the kitchen again, and the blogging that goes with it!

Another thing that has changed over the past year -- and I hope this won't lose me a ton of readers -- is that we're no longer vegetarian. We were hardcore while we were in Louisiana, but the combination of stress and relocating just threw us off track, and I'll be frank...I don't know if I have the dedication to go back to it again. So you'll see more recipes here featuring meat and dairy.

Hopefully a few of my readers will notice that I'm back, and if so, I thank you for being here! Now, let's kick things off with tonight's dinner: Clam Chowder!

Until this year, I had never made clam chowder at home. It's long been a favorite of mine at restaurants, but for some reason I was a little intimidated to try it at home. But no longer! It uses canned clams and bottled clam juice, and couldn't be easier. One of these days I'll try making my own stock with fresh clams, but for the time being, this works. And works well! The kids scarfed it down and asked for seconds, and we plan on eating the leftovers for the next few days. It's rich, creamy, decadent, comforting and filling. What's not to like about that?

In my recipe research, I learned that traditional New England Clam Chowder does not contain flour or any thickeners, so I followed that rule in my recipe.

Clam Chowder

1/2 lb uncured bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 quart chicken stock
1 8-oz bottle clam juice
2 cans minced clams with juice
2-3 cups water
2 cups fat-free half & half

Cook bacon in a large stock pot over medium heat until crispy. Drain all but one tablespoon of the bacon grease and discard or save for another use. Add onion, celery and carrots and cook until softened. Add potatoes, chicken stock, clam juice, clams and water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat and gently stir in half & half. Serve hot with oyster crackers.

African Peanut Potato Stew

2009-05-01T07:21:00.004-05:00

I really need to catch up on several recipes I've made over the past couple weeks. Yikes! For starters, here's an amazing African stew we had a few days ago, that we gobbled up in no time. The original recipe uses sweet potatoes, but neither Brad nor I care for them, so I decided to replace them with regular potatoes instead. The stew is thick, rich and spicy, the chickpeas are soft and tender, and the potato chunks soak up all kinds of flavor.

To go with this, I made my favorite go-to recipe of Flat Bread. I've lost count of how many times I've made this bread over the past year, but it goes so well with soups and stews that we eat it all the time.

African Peanut Potato Stew

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
2 14.5 ounce cans chopped tomatoes
2 14.5 ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 ½ cups vegetable broth
¼ cup natural peanut butter
1 pound green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces (fresh or frozen)

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and jalapeno; cook and stir several minutes or until onion is softened and translucent. Add ginger, garlic, cumin, salt, cinnamon, red pepper and coriander. Cook and stir 1 minute. Add potatoes, tomatoes, chickpeas, vegetable broth and peanut butter. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Add green beans, cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until green beans are crisp tender. Serve hot.

Vegan Banana Bread

2009-04-21T06:21:00.002-05:00

I happily stumbled upon this vegan banana bread recipe last Fall, and it's been a staple ever since. The funny thing is, I've never been really successful with banana bread. I've made it dozens of times, non-vegan with eggs and milk and such, but it's never turned out quite right. Then I tried this vegan recipe, and to my surprise and delight, it's the best banana bread I've ever made! It always turns out beautifully, with a nice, slightly crispy crust that is a great contrast to the soft bread. I also love the addition of allspice. It lends a fantastic flavor to the bread that I love. Try it! I'm sure you'll love it, too.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup margarine, at room temp
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 8x4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add bananas, soy milk and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well. Pour batter into pan. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes.

Easy Garlic Knots

2009-04-15T18:37:00.003-05:00

When Brad and I visited some friends in Clemson, SC earlier this year, we had dinner at a great little Italian restaurant. Nothing fancy, just cheap, good Italian food. The best part of the meal were the baskets of garlic knots they brought out to the table...lovely little bite-sized knots of french bread, dripping with garlic sauce. I won't lie...we ate an embarrassing amount of them. Tonight I set out to recreate them.

I intended to use this recipe, but it didn't occur to me until too late that I didn't have yeast on hand since we just moved into our house. So instead I ran to the store and bought a tube of Pillsbury french bread dough. I know, I know, that's not cool, but it worked. But if you find yourself in a similar bind, or you aren't a good bread dough maker, or you just want a really easy side dish, try this recipe. They were to die for, and once again, we ate an embarrassing amount.

Easy Garlic Knots

1 tube Pillsbury refrigerated french bread dough
1 large garlic clove
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter

Heat oven to 375.

Open dough, and cut into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 6 inches long, and tie in a simple knot. Place on a baking sheet while the oven preheats.

Peel and chop the garlic clove. Using a mortar and pestle, or the flat side of a chef's knife, mash the garlic and salt together until it forms a paste. Stir it into the olive oil or melted butter. Using a pastry brush, liberally brush the garlic mixture onto the knots. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, then remove from oven and baste again with garlic mixture. Return to oven for a few more minutes, until golden brown.

If desired, serve with remaining garlic sauce for dipping.

Taco Night and Nasty Nachos

2009-04-14T18:46:00.003-05:00

Last night was Taco Night. I adore Taco Night. It's such a cinch to put together, yet so satisfying. And I love all the pretty colors in a taco bar. It just makes me happy!

Our taco bar consisted of flour tortillas, Morningstar veggie crumbles with taco seasoning, refried beans, homemade pico de gallo, and roasted corn (just a drained can of corn sauteed in a hot skillet until brown and toasty, and spiked with a little chili powder). It doesn't get better than that.

I used the leftovers to make a modified batch of Nasty Nachos, by layering crushed tortilla chips, the veggie crumbles, drained and rinsed black beans, the roasted corn, and pico de gallo. And repeat. I covered it with foil and stuck it in the fridge until this evening, then popped it in the oven when Brad called to say he was on his way home. Yum! I'm not a fan of leftovers in general, even the "on purpose" kind of leftovers, where you cook something with plans to use it in another recipe later in the week, but this really hit the spot.

The original Nasty Nachos recipe is far better, using canned cream style corn instead of regular kernel corn, and saucy salsa instead of pico de gallo, but this was an excellent way to use up the leftovers. Sadly, Meg dropped her full plate TWO TIMES on the way to the table, so there aren't any leftovers, but accidents will happen, and at least we have two always hungry dogs to clean up the mess. ;)

Minestrone Soup

2009-04-10T18:01:00.003-05:00

Here's a very simple and delicious soup for a cold day. The weather here in Syracuse has been cold and snowy for much of the past week, but seems to be warming up now. I wish I had made this a week ago when we were shivering!

It's a variation on the minestrone soup my mom always made when I was growing up. The only big difference is that I leave out ground beef, but outside of that it's the same. Everyone should have an easy, hearty soup in their repertoire. May I recommend this one?

Minestrone Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
3 stalks celery, sliced
1 can green beans, drained
1 can wax beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon vegetable base
8-10 cups water
1 Tbsp oregano
1 Tbsp basil
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium high heat. Add onion, carrot and celery. Stir and cook until vegetables begin to soften. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour.

Weekly Menu - week of April 12 (and before)

2009-04-09T13:48:00.002-05:00

Thursday - the eve of Brad's first day off in 4 weeks, so we're getting take-out and relaxing

Friday - minestrone soup, french bread

Saturday - going to a hockey game

Sunday - taco night!

Monday - taco pie, using taco night leftovers

Tuesday - spaghetti with rustic tomato, basil and kalamata olive sauce, garlic knots, salad

Wednesday - African Peanut Potato Stew, flat bread

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - lobia curry, naan, cucumber peanut salad

Saturday - dinner out

Spicy Black Bean Tamale Pie

2009-04-06T16:51:00.001-05:00

This dish kicks ass! I first made it last December when I was too busy to blog, so it's been sitting amongst my drafts for the past 3 months, patiently waiting to be posted until I made it again today.

I based it on this recipe from the eggs on sunday blog. I left out the garlic, upped the chili powder, omitted the cinnamon, subbed a can of Ro-tel for the jalapeno, added a can of black eyed peas (because I love them so), omitted the cheese, and used a vegan cornbread recipe for the topping instead of the more polenta-like topping in the original recipe. I also like to brown the corn with the onion and bell pepper, to get it toasty and delicious. And I use what may sound like an insane amount of cilantro, but I'm kind of crazy about cilantro, and it does lose some of its flavor when it cooks.

The filling is to die for. Each time I've made it, Brad and I have hovered over the stove, scooping up big mouthfuls with tortilla chips. If you wanted, you could add another can or two or Ro-tel, and you'd have yourself a kick ass salsa. The filling would also be equally as delicious served over rice as it is in tamale pie form. It just depends on what you're craving.

I love this meal. So very, very much.

Tamale Pie

Filling:
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 15-oz can corn, drained
1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 can Rotel (I like to use the extra spicy variety)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
2 cups coarsely chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt

Topping:
1 cup almond milk mixed with 1 tsp vinegar
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add onion, bell pepper and corn. Saute several minutes, until onion and bell pepper begin to soften, and all vegetables are somewhat browned. Add remaining ingredients, cooking and stirring until heated through. Pour into a 9x9 baking pan.

In a small bowl, combine almond milk and vinegar. Stir together and set aside while you measure and combine the dry ingredients. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, salt and baking powder. Add milk and vegetable oil. Stir thoroughly. Spread over bean filling. Bake 20-30 minutes, until cornbread topping is cooked through (you can test it with a toothpick).

If desired, sprinkle 1 cup grated cheddar cheese on the filling before adding the topping.

Vegan Split Pea Soup

2009-03-31T17:52:00.002-05:00

This isn't the first time I've made vegan split pea soup, but I didn't get around to blogging it in the past. Let me start by saying that never, not in a million years, would I have guessed that split pea soup would taste good without ham. But I found some meat-free recipes and gave them a try. What a hit! Even the kids love it! There's lots of flavor to be added by browning the vegetables before adding the split peas and stock, and adding fresh thyme, as well as some really flavorful vegetable bouillon (I used a few spoonfuls of jarred Better Than Bouillon, which I absolutely adore), and the meat isn't even missed. I've seen other recipes that call for adding a touch of curry powder, which I think would be delicious, but this soup is so good as-is, that I hate to mess with it.

The last time I made this, we ate so much that I extended the batch by adding in some more water, the few split peas I had left, and some red lentils I happened to have on hand. This can truly be one of those never-ending soups, where you just keep adding ingredients as needed to extend the servings. Both split peas and red lentils cook up very quickly, too. Perfect!

When my brother was in preschool, his class wrote a cookbook...you know, one of those fun cookbooks where the kids dictate recipes for their favorite foods to the teachers, which are then typed up and put into a cookbook for parents. They're full of all kinds of hilarious instructions, like heating the oven to anywhere from 20 degrees to 2000 degrees, and roasting turkeys for 15 minutes. I love them! The recipe my brother gave was one he came up with on his own (ever the innovator): split pea soup bread. He called for putting a thick slice of fresh french bread (my mom made the best!) in the bottom of a bowl, then smothering it with split pea soup. It's delicious, and I highly recommend it if you're so inclined. I think it would also be great if you first toasted the bread and rubbed it with some garlic, sort of like a giant crouton, french onion soup style. Delicious!

No pictures tonight, because we devoured this before I thought to pick up my camera. Split pea soup isn't the most attractive dish to begin with, though, so I think it'll be ok.

Vegan Split Pea Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 very large carrot (or several small), peeled and diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 Tbsp fresh thyme
1 lb dried split peas
10 cups water
2 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon vegetable base (or 2 vegetable bouillon cubes)

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add onion, carrot and celery. Cook and stir for several minutes, until vegetables are softened and a deep golden brown. Add thyme and split peas. Cook and stir two minutes. Add water and bouillon base. Stir to combine.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. When peas are tender to your liking, remove from heat, dish up and serve.

Happy holidays from The Food Slut!

2008-12-25T09:18:00.004-06:00

Seasons greetings!

Things have been hectic and bizarre around here lately. It looks like we will be moving to upstate New York very soon (Brad will go ahead in a couple week, and the kids and I will follow likely in March). This has all come on very suddenly, and was completely unexpected, but we are excited about it!

I promise to resume blogging very soon. Between finals, the holidays and a dozen other things, I just haven't had time. If/when we move, though, I will be able to stay home with my kids and my kitchen, which means more cooking and more blogging. Hooray!

I wish you all a very happy holiday season!

The Food Slut & Family

Weekly Menu - week of November 30

2008-11-30T14:29:00.002-06:00

So, we ended up not cooking a post-Thanksgiving feast after all. Our friends invited us and our girls over on Friday because their daughter was having a dinner party. It was ridiculously cute, let me tell you. The table was set with a shimmery pink tablecloth, and there were all kinds of cute, shiny things hanging from the chandelier and the windows. The girls all dressed up in fancy clothes, and the table was set with fancy dishes and silverware. They had sparkling grape juice in wine glasses, and the cutest appetizer of mini pb&j rounds set atop shot glasses filled with cold milk. How cute is that? Dinner was penne pasta with cheese sauce, and there were miniature pink-frosted chocolate cakes for dessert. The girls had an absolute ball, and we adults ate Thanksgiving leftovers, drank wine and played Spades on the patio. Talk about a wonderful evening with friends!

Then on Saturday they came over to our house, with all of the remaining Thanksgiving leftovers in tow, and we ate leftovers, watched the Iron Bowl (can I tell you how much I fucking hate Nick Saban????) and then played Scene It before calling it a night.

All that is to say that I haven't cooked anything since Wednesday, when I made Thai tofu and veggie pizza with peanut sauce. The nice thing about that is that our grocery bill has been basically nonexistent. But I'm ready to cook. It's time plan a weekly menu.

Sunday - Veggieburgers with grilled onions and mushrooms, tater tots

Monday - last week for our Monday night class! Hooray! We will probably eat out before class.

Tuesday - Pioneer Woman's Farfalle with Zucchini, french bread

Wednesday - Black bean tamale pie, salad

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Spicy white bean, sweet potato and kale stew, french bread

Saturday - Leftovers

Weekly Menu - week of November 23

2008-11-24T07:57:00.002-06:00

Sunday - burritos

Monday - bean and veggie soup/stew/chili, rice

Tuesday - leftovers

Wednesday - Thai tofu & veggie pizza with peanut sauce, and make-your-own-pizza for the kids

Thursday - Thanksgiving! I don't get to cook this year, which I'm both happy and sad about at the same time.

Friday - Zuppa Toscana, french bread

Saturday - South Indian Spicy Mushroom Curry, rice, spicy onion & carrot pickle

Thai Green Curry Tofu with Jasmine Rice

2008-11-18T18:30:00.005-06:00

I haven't had green curry since we were in Japan, which was...good grief, it's been more than 11 months since we left Japan!! Thai Erawan, just off Blue Street in Yokosuka, had the best green curry that I absolutely adored. I bought a tub of green curry paste at Whole Foods earlier this year, as well as a tub of red. I was less than pleased with the red curry paste, so I haven't been really motivated to try the green yet. I found a little packet of green curry paste at World Market last week, and tried it tonight.

It was good! Spicy as hell, but delicious! And look how pretty!

Thai Green Curry Tofu

1 oz green curry paste
1 can light coconut milk
1/2 to 1 cup vegetable stock
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut in 1-inch chunks
1 small summer squash, cut in 1-inch chunks
1/2 medium eggplant, cut in 1-inch chunks
1/2 block tofu, drained and pressed, cut in 1-inch chunks
1 large yellow onion, cut in 1-inch chunks
1 green bell pepper, cut in 1-inch chunks
1 to 2 cups fresh broccoli florets
Hot, cooked jasmine rice

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add curry paste and saute for 2 minutes. Add coconut milk and vegetable stock, whisking to combine thoroughly. Add sweet potato, summer squash, eggplant, tofu and onion. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes, or until sweet potato is just tender. Add bell pepper and broccoli. Cover and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes longer, until broccoli is crisp-tender but not soft.

Serve over hot jasmine rice.

Weekly Menu - week of November 15

2008-11-15T18:40:00.003-06:00

Sunday - dinner with friends

Monday - class night

Tuesday - Green curry tofu and veggies with jasmine rice

Wednesday - Navy bean soup with cornbread

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Zuppa Toscana with french bread

Saturday - leftovers

Cooking day

2008-11-13T19:35:00.004-06:00

I cooked so much today! It's been awhile since I've spent this much time in the kitchen, and it was really fun!

First I made a batch of French bread, although I took the shortcut route and prepared the dough in my seldom used bread maker. I think it's the first time I've used it in about three years, but it really came in handy today on the dough cycle, to be able to just put everything in and let it go to work. I took the dough out mid-afternoon, shaped it into 4 small balls instead of one long loaf, and then baked them on some stoneware. We shared one for a snack, spread with Earth Balance and Marmite (yum!), then had another with some leftover minestrone soup that I made last night (sorry, no pictures of either bread or soup).

While the dough was mixing up in the bread maker, I made some vegan vanilla ice cream using a recipe from A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise. This was my first time making vegan ice cream, and it turned out really well! I made the Fancy Pants Vanilla, and modified it very slightly, using almond milk instead of soy milk (I still used soy creamer), and corn starch instead of arrowroot. I ran it through our cheapo ice cream maker for about 30 minutes, then put it in a container in the freezer to firm up more. I'm really excited to try some other recipes from that blog! I think I see a lot of ice cream in our future...

The last thing I made today was apple crisp. I used the recipe that I grew up with, my Grandma's recipe, that has a crumbly strudel-type topping instead of the oat topping most people seem to use. The only thing I changed was subbing Earth Balance margarine for the butter, and I don't know how well that worked. While the apple crisp tasted delicious tonight, for some reason that apples cooked down into mush, and the topping never fully crisped up. I think that real butter may be the key to the perfect crispy, crumbly topping, so if you're not vegan, then by all means stick to the original recipe. I did pop this directly under the broiler for several minutes at the end of the cooking time, which helped somewhat. Regardless, though, this was delicious, even if it was more applesaucy than chunky. I served it topped with several miniature scoops of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon. So satisfying!

Middle Eastern Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions

2008-11-11T19:30:00.004-06:00

Ok, this is my first time cooking this dish, but it is automatically jumping up to the top of my list of favorite recipes. It's amazing! As I mentioned in my last blog, we had this dish at Roman's, a great restaurant here in town, and we flipped out over how delicious it was, so I was excited when I saw a recipe for it in the Vegan Planet cookbook I bought last weekend. This is the first recipe I've made from Vegan Planet, and if it's an indicator of things to come, I'm delighted! What a great recipe! It was so easy to make. It takes awhile, between letting the lentils simmer, and then letting the rice cook with the lentils afterwards, but there's hardly any active prep time, and it's well worth the wait. I don't want to step on Robin's toes by posting the recipe, but I'll give you the basic idea, and then recommend that you run out to your nearest bookstore forthwith and get yourself a copy of this great cookbook!

To make this dish, your first pre-cook some lentils, and while they're cooking, saute up some diced onion (it calls for shallots, but I used an onion since I was too lazy to go to the store). Remove half the onions and set them aside, then to the rest of the onions, add in lentils, spices, rice and water, then let it simmer away until the rice is cooked. While that's cooking, you cook the reserved onions in some olive oil until they're dark brown, caramelized and crispy. The dish is served topped with the crispy onions.

Seriously, there are not enough good things I can say about this dish! It's immensely satisfying, and was even better than what we had at the restaurant. Delicious! My picture doesn't do it justice, but I hope you can get the idea. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to have much, much more crispy onions on top. We couldn't get enough of them!

My girls weren't too interested in this dish, so I boiled up extra lentils and some plain jasmine rice, and they had that for dinner. Meg ate two big plates of plain lentils and rice, and would have eaten more if we'd let her. I bought a pound of jasmine rice last week, and they've already eaten almost all of it! They can't get enough of hot, unadorned jasmine rice in a bowl. That's my girls!

Gnocchi with Thyme Vinaigrette and Lemon Cashew Cream

2008-11-09T18:52:00.002-06:00

I came across this recipe from VeganYumYum earlier this year, and was immediately attracted to the idea of a vinaigrette and cream on pasta. I used prepackaged gnocchi, so it was a very quick meal to throw together.

I made my mom's spinach salad to go with it, omitting the eggs, subbing vegetarian bacon, and toasted pecans instead of slivered almonds. Delicious!

Overall, the gnocchi was good, but the combination of the lemon in the cashew cream, and the vinegar in the vinaigrette was just a little too much for me. Next time I think I'll just go with something like a mushroom wine sauce. But the thyme vinaigrette is absolutely delicious, and I think it would be fantastic on salad, or for dipping crusty french bread. Definitely a keeper! I want to give a big THANK YOU to VeganYumYum for a great recipe! I can't remember for sure, but I think this might be the first recipe I've made from that blog, but I've been reading it for a long time. Go check it out if you're not familiar with it. It's a well-written blog with stunning pictures. Keep up the good work!

Weekly Menu - week of November 9th

2008-11-09T12:56:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I splurged on two new vegan cookbooks: Vegan With a Vengeance, and Vegan Planet. I already have Veganomicon, so I guess I'm a little out of order just getting VWAV now, but I couldn't resist any longer. I initially walked into the bookstore looking for Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but alas, it was nowhere to be found. I've had a raging sweet tooth lately, so I'd love to get my hands on that book at some point. These two books are awesome, though! So many great recipes that I can't wait to try! Hooray!

One recipe in particular that I'm dying to try is from Vegan Planet: a lentils and rice dish with crispy shallots on top. We had this at a local mediterranean restaurant several weeks ago, and absolutely loved it, so I was excited to see it in Vegan Planet.

Here is my menu plan for the week:

Sunday - Gnocchi with herb sauce, spinach salad, french bread

Monday - night class, so we will forage (as much as I love this class, I will be so glad when it's over. I hate having class in the evening!)

Tuesday - Middle Eastern lentils and rice with caramelized shallots

Wednesday - Minestrone soup, french bread

Thursday - Leftovers, apple crisp

Friday - Dinner out with Brad's family before he goes to his drill weekend

Saturday - Mac & "cheese", broccoli

Vegan Reuben Burger

2008-11-09T12:35:00.003-06:00

I've been craving a Reuben sandwich lately, and today we decided to try our hand at a vegetarian version. Surprisingly, rye bread was nowhere to be found at the grocery store. I guess it's an exotic ethnic food around here (picture me rolling my eyes)? So we used individual ciabatta rolls instead. I made some vegan Thousand Island dressing with Vegenaise, ketchup, sweet pickle relish, white wine vinegar, and threw in some caraway seed to try to make up for the absence of rye bread. It worked!

We used vegan Boca Burgers, topped them with sauerkraut and the dressing, and Brad had swiss cheese on his while I kept mine vegan.

It was good! The sauerkraut, caraway and Thousand Island dressing are, for me, what makes up the essence of a Reuben, so I was happy. I actually took my Boca Burger off midway through and gave it to the dogs, and just ate what amounts to a Sauerkraut and Thousand Island sandwich, and enjoyed it even more that way. Next time I might roast up some veggies like eggplant and zucchini, and put them on in place of the Boca Burger. I bet it would be good!

Stir-Fried Vegetables and Tofu with Jasmine Rice

2008-11-06T19:22:00.005-06:00

Brad and I are taking a History class together for fun this semester -- The World Since 1960. It's an absolutely fascinating class, and our professor is a phenomenal lecturer. I swear, each class session is as entertaining and interesting as going to movies, and we look forward to Tuesday and Thursday mornings with happy anticipation. So far we've covered the history of intelligence gathering, the arms race, Vietnam, Israel and the Middle East, China, and today we started on Western Europe. I love this class! In discussing China, we've been reading Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Chen, the story of her arrest and imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution. I highly recommend it if you have a chance to read it. The subject matter is sobering, but in reading it last weekend, she mentioned a bowl of rice with steaming vegetables piled on top, and something about that stuck with me, and inspired tonight's dinner: Stir-fried Vegetables and Tofu with Jasmine Rice.

This is one of those recipes that's hardly worth typing out. Cook a pot of jasmine rice. Toast some sesame seeds in a hot, dry skillet, and set aside. Stir-fry green beans, onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms and tofu with ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar. Fill a bowl with rice. Pile veggies and tofu on top. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds. Devour.

Yum!

Election Food

2008-11-04T19:30:00.002-06:00

It's election day! Did you vote? I voted this afternoon, and only had to stand in line for about 20 minutes. I cast my vote for Obama, and I'd like to say that I did so happily, but knowing that Louisiana is almost certainly going to McCain didn't do a lot to make me feel that my vote actually mattered. I think it's high time we did away with the electoral college. Who's with me? I've never lived in a swing state, so I've yet to feel that my vote really mattered in the grand scheme of things, but at least I voted!

We're prepared to camp out in front of the TV tonight, half working on homework, and half watching the election results come in. And of course we need sustenance for that! We had yummy, peanutty noodles based on this recipe from use real butter. This is an easy, fresh and filling meal that's deeply satisfying. It doesn't even really require a recipe. I just soaked some rice noodles in hot water, filled a plate with shredded carrots, cucumber matchsticks, bean sprouts, baby spinach, tofu and cilantro, and whisked together a batch of peanut sauce. All that remains when it's time to eat is to put some noodles in a bowl, pile on all the veggies and tofu we wanted, and top it all with peanut sauce and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper. Toss it all together, and there's your dinner! We ate ours cold, but I'm sure it would be equally as good heated through. I plan on taking some to work tomorrow for lunch. Yum!

Weekly Menu - week of November 2nd

2008-11-02T20:41:00.004-06:00

Ok. So I didn't actually cook last week. Granted, there were only two nights that I was even going to be able to cook due to our schedule, but I think we just ended up eating veggie burgers or cereal those days (I honestly don't remember), but I seriously AM determined to do some cooking this week!

I did make some cute cookies on Thursday for a Halloween baking swap at work. Check them out! Unfortunately, though, I didn't get to eat any because they weren't vegetarian. They're just made from a chocolate cake mix, eggs, peanut butter and water. I bought the cheapo, local, generic cake mix, which I was really excited to see did not contain dairy, only soy. Hooray, right? WRONG. Upon closer look, after the cookies were in the oven, I discovered that the cake mix contained vegetable shortening, "including one or more of the following: beef fat, lard, tallow". Ugh!

But they sure were cute, weren't they?

And as long as we're on the topic of cookies, I just have to share some really neat cookies that Lydia, my 10 year old, decorated at our friends' house. Aren't the adorable? I love how she did the eyes! She made them with frosting and black confetti sprinkles. Clever!

These pumpkins look like Veggietales!

And now for my menu for this week!

Sunday - veggie burgers

Monday - we have class, so we'll eat on campus (either vegetarian sushi or a veggie burger)

Tuesday - Cold noodle salad with peanut sauce

Wednesday - Margarita night with girls from work (fun!)

Thursday - Stir-fried sesame veggies with jasmine rice

Friday - Gnocchi with herb sauce, french bread, spinach salad

Saturday - not sure yet if we're going to the game, watching it at home, or going out to watch it somewhere

Weekly Menu - week of October 26

2008-10-26T17:39:00.002-05:00

Dude, I have been so out of it lately, it's not even funny. Busy and sick and stressed and exhausted. UGH! But I've dropped one class, I've cut back my hours at work, and I've removed myself from a very big source of stress, frustration and "hate headaches", so I feel much better now. Whew!

I have been a very, very bad vegan lately, I'm sad to say, and I'm slow and sluggish as a result. I haven't eaten meat, but I have eaten a lot of cheese and eggs, and I'm not proud of it. I have long maintained that the hardest thing about being vegan is the time and effort that it takes. There are so few convenience foods that are vegan, and as sick and as busy as I've been, I just haven't had the time to do the necessary planning. Now that things have settled down somewhat, though, I'm more committed than ever.

Sunday - leftovers

Monday - something simple before class, like a pb&j

Tuesday - chickpea salad, spinach, french bread

Wednesday - Thai tofu & veggie pizza (no cheese)

Thursday - going over to friends' house

Friday - Halloween! Going over to friends' house again

Saturday - football game

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-10-11T17:22:00.001-05:00

These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies have been in my mom's cookie line-up for years, and deservedly so. They have an unexpected cake- or bread-like consistency, leading my brother and his college roommates to debate whether they were cookies, cake or bread. The recipe surprisingly doesn't call for eggs, and everything on the ingredient list is nonperishable, so it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand for whenever you feel like making them. Mom used to send them to me in care packages at college, and my floormates went nuts over them.

I made these tonight because we have some friends coming over to watch the LSU-Florida game. Brad made a big batch of his killer chili, which we're going to serve over Fritos. That's a great dish for Fall, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies just seemed to make sense with the cooler weather theme.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter flavor Crisco
2 c sugar
1 15-oz can pumpkin
4 c flour
2 c chopped walnuts (optional)
2 tsp vanilla
2 c chocolate chips
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients together. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Weekly Menu - week of Oct 5

2008-10-04T08:52:00.003-05:00

Sunday - grilled chimichangas with refried beans, onion, salsa and Cholula Sauce

Monday - veggie burgers with avocado and sprouts, french fries

Tuesday - crispy Chinese noodles with eggplant and peanuts, bok choy

Wednesday - goulash, french bread, salad

Thursday - Thai tofu & veggie pizza with peanut sauce

Friday - red beans and rice, french bread, salad

Saturday - undecided, but probably leftovers

Responses

2008-10-03T17:36:00.003-05:00

No food to blog about tonight, since we ate a very late lunch. At work we had Izzo's fabulous burritos catered in, but they were all pre-wrapped, and they all had beef or chicken in them. Doh! So I called Brad, and on his way home from class, he swung by Izzo's, got us a couple vegan burritos, and we ate lunch together at my office at 2:00. What a sweetie!

Tonight we are taking the kids to see LSU Theater's production of High School Musical. Should be fun! Brad is dreading it, but the kids and I are looking forward to it. I'll admit, I hated the movie the first time I watched it with the kids, but it has totally grown on me, and I love the songs now.

To keep the Vegan MOFO theme going, though, I wanted to share some of the stranger comments I've received since going vegan.

"What are you...a PETA freak?"
- bank teller

"Shame on you!"
- my boss (I KNOW!)

"You can still eat chicken/fish/pork/seafood, right?"
- many, many, many people

"Wow, you're the first actual vegetarian I've met in real life!"
- a colleague

"I've heard of vegetarian before. What does it mean?"
- grocery store cashier

"SOY milk?? What's a soy?"
- woman at the grocery store

"What kind of foods does a veejun eat?"
- various people

"You don't eat meat or dairy? What DO you eat?"
- even more people

Hey, at least people are becoming somewhat informed from my answers, right? I'll admit to having some of the same attitudes about it in the past, so I can't really judge. Turnabout is fair play, right?

More veejun food to come later this weekend! ; )

Musurir Dal

2008-10-02T18:47:00.005-05:00

Ok. So this has been a long, difficult, stressful day. I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate being gone all day long, and then fighting horrible traffic home for over an hour. YUCK. But this dinner was perfect for a night like tonight, when I'm worn out, sleepy and frazzled. It came together in a snap, with minimal effort, and was great comfort food when it was time to sit down and eat. So hooray for Musurir Dal!

I found the recipe here, and modified it slightly to work with the ingredients I had on hand.

We ate this with leftover naan and onion pickle from last night. The Musurir Dal, while delicious, tasted nothing like I expected it would from reading the recipe. For lack of a better description, it kind of tastes like a spiced up split pea soup. Wild.

And now, I'm signing off so I can veg on the couch and wait for the Vice Presidential debates to come on. I fucking hate Sarah Palin, to the point that I can hardly stand to listen to her talk, but I don't want to miss these debates, either.

Oh, and please excuse the awful photo today. Like I said...it's been a long day.

Bye!

Musurir Dal
Onion Fragrant Red Lentils

3 cups water water
1 cup red lentils
1/4 t turmeric
1/2 t salt
1/2 tsp agave nectar
2 T vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
1 t garam masala
2 T fresh lime or lemon juice
1 T finely chopped fresh cilantro/coriander

Bring water to boil in a pan over medium heat. Add lentils. Add turmeric and simmer, covered until lentils are tender, about 15 minutes. They should break easily when pressed between thumb and index finger. Add salt and agave nectar. Set aside, and keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium low heat. Fry bay leaves and red pepper until the pepper darkens. Add cumin seeds and fry for a few seconds. Add the onion and fry until richly browned but not burnt, 15 to 18 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in jalapeno. Add to the lentils. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in garam masala, lime juice and cilantro.

Vegan MOFO: Aloo Palak with Naan

2008-10-01T19:56:00.008-05:00

Ok, so I haven't officially signed up to participate in Vegan MOFO because I'm afraid they may reject me since I'm not 100% vegan 100% of the time. But I'm going to participate on my own, if not part of the official group. So here is my first post for this Vegan Month of Food. Even if this blog event doesn't sway everyone to go vegan or vegetarian, my hope is that it will at least encourage people to cut back on the amount of meat they eat on a regular basis. That's how Brad and I got started on this adventure. A few years ago, we decided to try the so-called Flexatarian mode of eating, which just means we made it a point to prepare meat-free meals several times each week (in fact, I think we may have started out with just one or two days, to tell you the truth). That went so well that we decided to eat vegetarian at home when we moved here, and only eat meat when we were out. Admittedly, we fudged a few times and had some pork chops, hot wings, and a few other meatful meals, but overall I'm proud of us for sticking to it as much as we did.

Through that process, and all the information I came across while looking for vegetarian and vegan recipes online and in books, I was blown away by all the evidence that pointed to a vegan diet as the healthiest way one can eat. Wow! I really never knew nor expected that! I also was shocked to learn so much about the global ramifications of a meat-eating diet, the way animals-for-food are raised and treated. Given that, and given that I have led a fairly unhealthy lifestyle up until now, and given that I need to lose a LOT of weight (and by "a lot", I mean more than 100 pounds), it just made sense, and I decided to go primarily vegan back in mid-June. Since then, I have lost 30 pounds, and feel better than I ever have before! I do still eat dairy on occasion, I'll freely admit, but I stay vegan a good 95% of the time, if not more. Looking back and seeing how I have progressed to this point, though, I imagine it won't be long before I'm completely dairy-free. But I'm content to take it one step at a time. Even one year ago, I never in a million years would have seen myself where I am now. I was one of those who said vehemently that "I could never give up meat", or "I would die without cheese", and yet here I am. And I'm so glad I've made the choice to do so!

Now, let's talk about tonight's dinner! It was so delicious! I did heavily modify the Aloo Palak recipe that I found here, and I combined several naan recipes I found around the internet in order to come up with what you see here. I'm immensely pleased with the naan -- it's the best I've had homemade to date -- and the Aloo Palak was incredibly satisfying and delicious...although with all the changes I made to it, I don't know if you can even call it Aloo Palak anymore. I'll just call it "good". I also made another batch of the Spicy Onion and Carrot Pickle we had last night, albeit minus the cilantro, since we were out. Great dinner!

Here are the recipes:

Aloo Palak

2 large potatoes
2 Tsbp olive oil
1 tsp olive oil
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 bags baby spinach, coarsely chopped
1 cup soy milk (or more or less, as desired)

Scrub potatoes, poke several times with a fork, and microwave 10 minutes on high (or you can bake them, but nuking is faster). When cool enough to handle, slip off the skins, and cut into large chunks, about 1" square.

Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add potato chunks. Cook and gently stir until lightly browned. Remove from skillet and set aside.

In the same skillet over medium-high heat, heat remaining 1 tsp olive oil. Add jalapeno, ginger, chili powder, cumin and turmeric. Cook and stir several minutes, until jalapeno begins to soften. Add spinach. Cook and stir until spinach begins to break down. Puree using an immersion blender, if desired. Gradually stir in soy milk, until desired consistency is reached. It should be fairly thick, not runny, but not solid, either. Just go with what looks good to you.

Add potatoes and gently stir into the spinach mixture until heated through. Serve with naan.

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Naan

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 pkgs yeast
1 Tbsp agave nectar
5 Tbsp soy milk
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 to 5 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
additional olive oil

Sprinkle yeast over warm water, stir to dissolve, and set aside for 10 minutes, until yeast is foamy. Stir in the agave nectar, soy milk and olive oil. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 4 cups of the flour, the salt and baking soda; stir together. With the mixer on low, and using the paddle attachment, add yeast mixture to the flour mixture. When flour is thoroughly incorporated, switch from the paddle attachment to the dough hook. The dough will be very soft and sticky. Add additional flour as needed to form a very soft dough. It should still be soft and fairly sticky, but should form a smooth ball. Continue to knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes. Shape dough into a ball, and place smooth side down in a greased bowl, turning to coat (the smooth side will be up at that point). Cover with a clean dishcloth and let rise 1 hour, until doubled in bulk.

Place a pizza stone in the oven, and heat oven to 500 degrees for at least 30 minutes, to heat the stone thoroughly. After 30 minutes, turn the broiler on high.

Punch down the dough, and knead 20-30 times. Pull off a baseball sized chunk of the dough, roll to a little thinner than 1/2-inch. Lightly wet your hands with water, and pat the dough between your hands to moisten slightly. Drape the dough onto the pizza stone, and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Brush lightly with olive oil, flip over, and bake 1 to 2 minutes longer, until golden brown. The naan should still be somewhat soft. Remove from the oven, and brush lightly with a little more olive oil if desired. Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: 6 to 8 naan.

Punjabi Chana, and Spicy Onion and Carrot Pickle

2008-09-30T19:20:00.002-05:00

I don't remember how I came across this recipe for Punjabi Chana on the VeganMania! website, but I'm sure glad that I did! I have a bit of a love affair going on with chickpeas these days, so this recipe immediately jumped out at me. The ingredients, aside from spices, are minimal, so it was a very inexpensive meal. I already had all of the spices, onion and garlic on hand, so all I had to buy were chickpeas. Seriously, does it get any better than that? Actually, it does! Not only is it inexpensive, it's also really simple to make!

I know I say this a lot, because we love spicy food, but I should probably warn you that this dish IS very spicy. If you're not into food so hot it makes your tongue burn and your eyes water, you'll probably want to cut back on the cayenne pepper, or even omit it. We, however, loved it!

I also mixed up a quick batch of Spicy Onion and Carrot Pickle to go along with the Punjabi Chana (scroll down for the recipe). The pickled veggies are spicy, sweet and tangy all at the same time, and are a great, fresh contrast to the strong flavor of the Chana. I found the recipe here, and modified it a little by adding Sriracha hot sauce to make it spicy, some carrots to add some crunch, and a little fresh cilantro for some extra zip. Yum!

And it's all vegan! Woohoo!

Punjabi Chana
(simple and spicy Indian chickpea dish)

2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cups cooked chickpeas (two cans, drained and rinsed)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 cups water (or more)
salt to taste

Heat the oil over medium heat, and add the mustard seeds. When they have finished popping, add the garlic, ginger and onion and sauté until tender.

Add the remaining ingredients except for the salt and allow to simmer over medium low heat until most of the water has been absorbed and the chickpeas are uncommonly soft and rich in texture. Salt this dish liberally.

Serve over rice.

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Spicy Onion and Carrot Pickle

1 red onion, sliced
1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
6 Tbsp white vinegar
6 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Sriracha hot sauce
1 tsp salt

Rinse the onion slices in cold water, then pat dry.

In a microwave safe small mixing bowl, combine vinegar, sugar, hot sauce and salt. Whisk together, and microwave 1 minute to help sugar dissolve. Combine onions, carrots, cilantro and vinegar mixture in a mixing bowl (I put mine in a gallon size Ziploc bag). Toss to combine. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

Weekly Menu - week of Sept 28

2008-09-28T12:46:00.002-05:00

Here's my plan for this week! There are a bunch of Indian recipes I've been dying to try. Can't wait!

Sunday - dinner out with Brad's mom

Monday - we have class until 9:30pm, so we will just grab something on the way

Tuesday - Punjabi Chana, rice, salad

Wednesday - Aloo Palak, naan

Thursday - Musurir Dal, rice, salad

Friday - potatoes in spicy peanut and sesame paste, peanut rice, salad

Saturday - date night!

Weekly Menu - week of Sept 21

2008-09-26T18:42:00.002-05:00

This is a little late, but here it is, nonetheless.

Sunday - leftovers

Monday - dinner out (we have class until 9:30pm)

Tuesday - baked ziti

Wednesday - leftover baked ziti

Thursday - ziti with marinara sauce

Friday - veggie burgers and fries

Saturday - at the football game!

Lentil Orzo Salad

2008-09-24T18:24:00.002-05:00

Another new recipe!

You know, sometimes I wonder if maybe there's something wrong with me, that I have such a strong aversion to repeating recipes. Yeah, there are a few go-to recipes that I come back to, but they're few and far between, and outside of those, I really prefer to try something new than go with something tried and true. What's up with that? My friend Susan (hey, lady!) told me several years ago about a friend of hers who had been in a competition with her sister and mother, to see who could go the longest without repeating a recipe (dinner only, I think, but I'm not sure). I believe that she said the sister won, by going something like two years without any repeats. A woman after my own heart! I have a ridiculously long list of new recipes I want to try, and more are added every day. I find them on blogs, Tastespotting, in cookbooks and from friends. Given that, it almost seems silly to repeat recipes very often, because how else will I work my way through that list?

So here's one from the list! It's a salad made of lentils and orzo, with some fresh veggies and a delightfully perky curry-spiked vinaigrette. This was good enough that we ate it two nights in a row, even! It was delicious with a little french bread on the side.

Lentil Orzo Salad

4 cups cooked lentils, drained (do not overcook; you want them to hold their shape)
4 cups cooked orzo, drained and rinsed with cold water
1 medium red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced
1 handful cilantro, chopped
2 lemons, juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp agave nectar (can substitute 2 Tbsp sugar)
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

In a large bowl, combine lentils, orzo, onion, bell pepper, jalapeno and cilantro. Mix gently. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over lentil mixture and toss gently to combine. Chill before serving, if desired, or serve at room temperature.

Baked Ziti with Basil Bread Crumbs

2008-09-19T11:01:00.007-05:00

This recipe is a spin-off of the Pumpkin Baked Ziti I made when my mom was here in August. Brad's not a pumpkin fan, as I've mentioned before, so I wanted to tweak that recipe into something he would enjoy. It was creamy, delicious, and thoroughly satisfying. Yum!

For the ricotta cheese, I used the almond-tofu ricotta recipe from Veganomicon (I've said it before, and I'll say it again: go get yourself a copy of that cookbook! It's the best!), and I made fresh bread crumbs from a loaf of Italian bread. Brad stirred some crumbled feta cheese into his serving, but I ate it as-is.

I don't think I've blogged about this yet, but I'm extremely happy to announce that, since switching to a primarily vegan diet in mid-June, I've lost 26 pounds! And Brad has lost 10 pounds since he got back from Japan last month, and became a full-time vegetarian! That's without altering our lifestyle at all, aside from no longer eating meat. I'm thrilled about that! I still have a long way to go to meet my long-term weight, health and lifestyle goals, but I'll get there. I'm off to a good start! I feel fantastic, and so much lighter (no wonder!). I've been hauling a heavy tote bag to class with all my books and notebooks in it, and on a whim the other evening, I weighed it to see how much it weighed compared to how much I've lost. It came in at 15 pounds -- a little over half of what I've lost -- and was an excellent tangible way to see how much I'm no longer hauling around every day. No wonder I feel better!

Baked Ziti with Basil Bread Crumbs

1 pound ziti
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 bunch fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
2 cups vegan ricotta cheese
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp dry basil
1 tsp dry oregano
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Cook ziti per package instructions.

While pasta is cooking, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and basil; cook and stir until onions are deeply browned and caramelized. Set aside.

Drain pasta. In a large mixing bowl, combine pasta, onion mixture, ricotta, tomato sauce and tomatoes, mixing thoroughly. Pour into prepared baking dish; set aside.

With a paper towel, wipe out the skillet used for the onions. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium-high heat, then add basil and oregano. When the herbs begin to sizzle, add the bread crumbs and walnuts, tossing to coat with oil. Cook and stir several minutes, until the mixture begins to brown. Spread evenly over the pasta mixture.

Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes.

Tomato-Feta Chicken Tofu with Couscous

2008-09-16T20:24:00.002-05:00

This has been one of my go-to recipes for over ten years. I found this recipe in a magazine when I was pregnant with Lydia, and it's been a menu staple ever since! There are only 5 ingredients, and it cooks up in minutes. You can't beat that!

It's one of Brad's favorite things that I cook, so I wanted to try to vegetarianize it for him. Instead of browning chicken breasts in a skillet, I grilled tofu on the Foreman Grill. I also used plain couscous instead of the parmesan variety, and I left the feta cheese off of my serving, but Brad happily smothered his with it. I can't blame him. I love (and miss) feta cheese!

The verdict? It was good. I do prefer chicken to tofu when it's cooked this way, but the tofu was still a fine substitution, and one I was glad to make. And I missed the feta, but there was still plenty of flavor in the tomatoes, so it was still good without it. I'll count this one a success!

Tomato-Feta Chicken with Couscous

4 chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 box parmesan couscous
1 bag fresh spinach
1 pack tomato-basil feta cheese

Pan-fry the chicken breasts in a little olive oil till nicely browned on both sides, then add the can of diced tomatoes (juice and all). Cover and simmer till the chicken is done.

Meanwhile, prepare the couscous and steam the spinach.

To serve, make a bed of spinach on each plate, then top with a piece of chicken and spoon some tomatoes and sauce over top; serve the couscous on the side. Sprinkle a little tomato-basil feta cheese over all.

Pineapple Habanero Salsa

2008-09-14T23:28:00.002-05:00

This is the fabulous salsa I made for yesterday's football game. It's super spicy, so consider yourself warned! The only habanero peppers they had at the store yesterday were itsy, bitsy, tiny ones, each about the size of a dime, so I used three. Yowza! Those three tiny peppers packed a wallop! I really love the salty-sweet-tangy-spicy nature of this salsa.

I mentioned in yesterday's blog that I would like to try roasting the pineapple next time. I bet it would taste great!

Pineapple Habanero Salsa

1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
Reserved pineapple juice
1 small red or green bell pepper, diced
3 medium green onions, thinly sliced
1 habanero pepper, seeded and minced
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp agave nectar (can substitute honey, molasses or sugar), to taste

Mix all ingredients, including reserved pineapple juices, in medium bowl. Cover and let stand at least one hour at room temperature. Serve with tortilla chips for dipping.

Weekly Menu - week of September 14

2008-09-14T16:46:00.000-05:00

Sunday - leftover football food ; )

Monday - dinner out, since I added a night class to my schedule and will be gone from 7am to 10pm Mondays. I must be out of my mind!

Tuesday - Grilled tofu, spinach, tomato, and couscous

Wednesday - Baked ziti, salad, french bread

Thursday - leftovers

Friday - Lentil-orzo salad, flat bread

Saturday - Peanutty Noodles

Football Food!

2008-09-13T17:05:00.004-05:00

Because the weather is crummy, and we don't have a babysitter, and it's not supposed to be the most exciting game, we decided to stay home and watch today's LSU game vs. North Texas at home today. We're having some friends over to watch the game here, and are making yummy football food to munch on. Should be fun!

I made a few tried and true recipes: Pineapple Habanero Salsa, Monterey Nacho Snack Mix, and a BBQ Chicken Pizza (minus the chicken).

The salsa was inspired by a salsa of the same name that we had in Hawaii the last time we were there. It was almost painfully spicy (just the way I like it), and sweet and tangy. This recipe calls for fresh pineapple, but some time I'd like to try roasting the pineapple first, which I think would add a nice smoky depth to the salsa. We loaned our propane tank to the in-laws after our power came back on last Sunday, so maybe next time!

The Monterey Nacho Snack Mix is something I've made at least a half dozen times over the past several years. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com awhile back, and have tweaked it somewhat to make it much spicier. I use about 10 times as much Tabasco Sauce as the original recipe calls for, as well as several tablespoons of crushed red pepper.

I've blogged about BBQ Chicken Pizza before. It's one of my favorite ways to eat pizza, and is good with chicken, seitan, or grilled tofu, or just minus all of those, as I made it today. Red onion, cilantro and BBQ sauce are the key ingredients that make this recipe awesome, so adding a meat or meat alternative is just extra. I love this pizza!

I also made a plain cheese pizza for the kids, because come on...who doesn't love a cheese pizza?

Hooray for football food!

Black beans and rice

2008-09-09T19:47:00.002-05:00

Tonight's dinner is so easy, it's almost embarrassing. I'm glad for it, too, because I was gone 12 hours today for class, and was hungry when I got home! This dinner utilized leftover pico de gallo from last night, which was an awesome, easy way to flavor the beans. Brad roasted a couple sweet potatoes for me before I got home, so I diced one up and added it to my beans and rice. Awesome, instant nutritional boost, and it tasted great!

Give this recipe a try if you find yourself with leftover pico de gallo, and are pressed for time. It's delicious!

Black Beans & Rice

1 tsp olive oil
1 to 2 cups pico de gallo
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
cooked rice, hot
1 cooked sweet potato, diced (optional)
Tabasco sauce (optional)

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add pico de gallo, beans, chili powder and cumin. Cook and stir until heated through. Serve over rice. Top with sweet potato and season with Tabasco sauce, if desired. Dig in!

A first

2008-09-08T20:00:00.002-05:00

If you ask me which foods I don't like, my answer is always squash and sweet potatoes. I've always been a very open-minded eater, even since childhood, but a love of squash and sweet potatoes has eluded me. I've made some progress over the years, and in adulthood I learned to love zucchini, summer squash, pumpkin, and tempura slices of kabocha, but that's about it. Every year at Thanksgiving, I give sweet potatoes another try, but I have never enjoyed them. It's frustrating, because sweet potatoes are packed with good-for-you stuff, and are super cheap, and easy to prepare.

Now, though, I am really determined to learn to love sweet potatoes. My parents love them just roasted in the oven, eaten piping hot with either butter and salt, or butter and brown sugar. I figure either of those ways is too "in your face" for hater like me, so I figured I would try to factor them in supporting roles in dishes. Today I bought one and roasted it in the oven, planning to cube it and add it to my burrito. I got sidetracked with the other dinner prep, however, and forgot about it until we had already finished eating. Woops. I turned to some friends online, one of whom gave me a list of ideas for cooked sweet potatoes. I opted for a slight variation on one of her ideas, and pureed the sweet potato with my immersion blender, stirred in some maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice, then quickly toasted some chopped pecans, and stirred them in.

And you know what? It was actually really good! This is a huge first for me: enjoying a sweet potato! It wasn't exactly healthy, what with the maple syrup, but hey...it's a start!

Pinto bean burritos

2008-09-08T19:15:00.003-05:00

What a satisfying dinner tonight! I have really been missing fresh foods, so tonight's dinner was particularly enjoyable. I'm so glad to have power again! Earlier today I mixed up a quick batch of pico de gallo, and for lunch I had a flour tortilla wrapped around a big ol' scoop of pico de gallo.

The burritos this evening were simple...just some canned pinto beans, drained, rinsed, and heated with a little chili powder and cumin; corn browned with chili powder; as well as sauteed onions, pico de gallo, and avocado, all wrapped up in a big flour tortilla.

On the side, I had one of my favorite treats: an avocado half, lightly sprinkled with salt, and filled with a bunch of fresh pico de gallo. Just dig in with a spoon, and eat it up. Delicious!

Weekly Menu - week of September 7th

2008-09-08T07:37:00.005-05:00

This menu will use up a lot of the canned beans we stored up prior to the hurricane. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but it's surprisingly difficult to find shelf stable vegan food. I hadn't realized how much we factor fresh and refrigerated foods into our menu, but living without power for a week really made that clear. I am so sick of processed foods right now, and can't wait to start drinking my fresh fruit and veggie smoothies for breakfast again, and have fresh veggies with dinner!

We have a bad habit of not using foods we buy ahead of time in bulk, and then we end up tossing them because they've gone bad, which is essentially the same as just throwing our money in the trash can. When we moved here, we were determined to not stockpile food in our pantry, fridge or freezer. Over time, though, our fridge and freezer gradually began to accumulate more and more stuff, and while it wasn't that much food on an absolute level, it was still more than we wanted to amass. Thankfully we were able to eat 90% of it before our power went out, including some stuffed bell peppers that I made and froze several months ago, but it really sucked to have to throw food away when the power went out. We're that much more determined now to not let it happen again. Our plan now is to only buy groceries for a couple days at a time. Yes, we'll have to go to the store more often, but it's on our way home from work and class, so we won't have to make additional trips out of the house, and small shopping trips are so much faster than big ones, plus there will be less likelihood of things spoiling in the fridge before we get around to cooking them. We'll see how it goes!

Here's our planned menu for the week. As I said, it heavily features beans. ; )

Sunday - veggie kebabs, mashed potatoes, cole slaw, chips (bbq with the in-laws)

Monday - pinto bean burritos, pico de gallo

Tuesday - black beans and rice, pico de gallo

Wednesday - baked beans, bread, salad

Thursday - black-eyed peas, sweet potato, kale and rice casserole

Friday - leftovers, most likely

Saturday - tailgating before the football game!

I'm back!

2008-09-08T07:05:00.004-05:00

I'm back! This past week has been challenging, to put it mildly, as we were without power for 6 days. In the brutal heat and humidity of Louisiana, it's not easy to live without air conditioning, not to mention we couldn't run our garbage disposal, do laundry, vacuum the carpets (our dogs shed like crazy), get online, watch the news, or a million other things we take for granted. It was an awful, awful week, and I'm so thankful that we finally have power back! I know there are other hurricanes looming out there, and they may hit us, but I'm not going to worry about that until I have more solid information. It's not worth stressing over. Let it be said, though, that if this does happen again, we're seriously considering transferring to UW, putting about 70% of our stuff in storage, throwing the other 30% in a U-Haul, and moving to Seattle. So we'll see.

We obviously didn't do a lot of cooking this past week, and with many stores still being out of power, I'm not sure how much we'll do this week. About half the area is still without power, so while ours is back on, it's going to be awhile yet before things get back to normal. Please don't give up on me in the meantime! I know posting has been sparse this past month, but that won't always be the case!

We stocked up on beans, beans and more beans before the storm, so we're going to work our way through those for awhile. Tonight the plan is black bean burritos with fresh pico de gallo. Thank goodness our local produce stand is open! Once I get a better handle on the grocery store situation, I'm going to put together a weekly menu. Stay tuned!

FYI

2008-09-01T08:35:00.002-05:00

We are in the path of Gustav, so in the event power goes out and I can't blog, you'll understand why. Hopefully it will blow by and things will be back to normal before too long, but we are well prepared in case it's worse than that. We have plenty of water, nonperishables, flashlights and lanterns, so we aren't too concerned about how we'll fare. If things are too bad in the aftermath, at that point we'll pack up and head to some friends' house, but our hope is that we can just stay here at home.

And can I mention how difficult it is to find vegan nonperishable food??? Yikes! Our pantry is stocked with bread, canned beans, cereal, rice milk, peanut butter, apples and oranges. Not the most exciting stockpile of food, but it'll do what it needs to do, and it's stuff we will use in the long run anyway.

I'll be back when everything is back to normal!

Thai Tofu & Veggie Pizza with Peanut Sauce

2008-08-29T19:02:00.003-05:00

Spicy Thai pizza with peanut sauce was one of my favorite pizzas back in college. Zeek's Pizza in Seattle makes a fantastic one, though it was difficult to find enough people interested in splitting one to make it worthwhile to order, so I didn't get to indulge very often. Zeek's also makes an awesome BBQ chicken pizza, so I was happy to settle for that instead.

A friend online mentioned last week that she was going to make a Thai pizza like this, and I immediately added it to this week's menu. I made my very simple pizza dough, patted it out on my pizza stone, and glazed it with a little olive oil. I loaded it up with bean sprouts, shredded carrot, coarsely chopped red onion, soy sauce basted grilled tofu cut into chunks, little broccoli florets, and loads of fresh cilantro. I put mozzarella cheese on Brad's half, but left it off mine. Pizza is something I'm usually willing to splurge on, and veer out of my mostly vegan diet for, but I really don't need it for this pizza. I also whipped up a quick batch of peanut sauce, which we drizzled over the pizza after it came out of the oven, as well as a dish of it on the side for dipping. I also garnished the pizza with chopped peanuts and crushed red pepper.

The verdict? Delicious! I love homemade pizza, and I love unusual pizza, so this satisfies both. I honestly didn't even miss the cheese.

I'd also like to give a shout out to my sweet husband Brad, who decided while he was in Japan that he wanted to become a vegetarian, too! Hooray for Brad! He's not at all interested in going vegan, which I can understand, but I'm proud of him, and excited for both of us, that he's an "all the way" vegetarian now! He's been completely meat-free for a week and a half now, and said that he feels better than he has in ages. Way to go, Brad!

Weekly Menu - week of August 24th

2008-08-24T10:05:00.005-05:00

Sunday - dinner out

Monday - Lentil tacos

Tuesday - Grilled burritos made with leftover taco fixings

Wednesday - Thai tofu, vegetable and peanut sauce pizza

Thursday - Chickpea Salad

Friday - leftovers, most likely

Saturday - WE'LL BE AT THE LSU FOOTBALL GAME, BITCHES! OH YEAH!

Hooray for hummus!

2008-08-21T20:43:00.003-05:00

I was so disappointed after last night's hummus disaster, so imagine my delight when I went the the lunch room today, and saw that a huge spread of Greek food had been catered in for lunch!! There were lamb gyros, chicken shwarma, rice pilaf, tzatziki sauce, hummus, pita bread, and Greek salad. Oh, baby!

The food wasn't a big hit with my co-workers, but hey, all the better, because more food for me, bitches! Yeah! I had a huge plate of salad, a scoop of hummus, and a round of the most fabulously chewy pita bread. There were literally stacks of leftovers, so I was able to bring home an entire tray of hummus (leaving another tray and a half behind), about a dozen rounds of pita bread, and a big bowl of salad, which we happily dined on this evening.

Look at all that hummus!

Hooray for leftovers! And hooray for hummus!

Greek-ish Salad

2008-08-20T20:55:00.002-05:00

Well, dinner tonight was a bust. Brad came home today (woohoo!), and had requested hummus, pita bread, and Greek salad. I make a kick-ass hummus, so I was happy to oblige, but it was an utter failure. I first realized that I didn't have garlic, so I tried to just substitute garlic powder instead. Bad, bad idea, I know. I hate garlic powder and think it makes everything taste awful, but I did it anyway. Then I decided to healthy it up a little by using liquid from the canned garbanzo beans instead of olive oil. Again, bad, bad idea. It's just not the same. And then I used too much of the liquid, and the hummus was terribly runny, so I tried to thicken it up by adding some chickpea flour. It did thicken it up, but it gave it this dry, beany, floury flavor. ICK.

So it was decided that I would run to the store and pick up some garlic and more garbanzo beans. Before I left, though, I figured that instead of letting the icky hummus go completely to waste, we could feed it to the dogs. So we put some scoops of it into the dogs' food bowls, along with their Puppy Chow. Yeah. Even the dogs wouldn't eat it. Talk about a recipe bomb!

I came back from the store and began mixing up the hummus, and only then did it occur to me that I had used the last of our tahini in the first disastrous batch of hummus. UGH! I tried to make it work anyway, by using just a spoonful of peanut butter (someone swore years ago that it's the only way to make fantastic hummus), and a drizzle of sesame oil, but yeah...it sucked.

Needless to say, we did NOT have hummus with dinner tonight. Instead I made a big salad of lettuce, grape tomatoes, green bell pepper, olives and garbanzo beans, tossed with red wine vinegar, olive oil and dill. Brad had feta in his, too. It was good, and very filling with some pita bread on the side, but we did really miss the hummus.

Recipes I'd like to try

2008-08-17T14:03:00.002-05:00

I just browsed Tastespotting for the first time in ages, and came up with a big list of recipes I'd like to try. I'm posting them here so I don't forget about them! ; )

Black Bean Salad

Chocolate Tofu Pie

Grandma's Grain

Roasted Eggplant & Tomato Soup

Mango-Nectarine Salad

Gingered Sweet Pickled Cauliflower

Raw Tofu Salad

Chipotle Corn Salad

Young Corn & Celery Soup

Cherry Streusel Muffins

Shanghai Bok Choy

Weekly Menu - week of August 17th

2008-08-16T21:30:00.004-05:00

Sunday - leftovers

Monday - spaghetti, sauce, salad

Tuesday - spaghetti pie, salad

Wednesday - hummus, Greek salad, pita bread

Thursday - lentil tacos or taco salad

Friday - burritos with leftover taco fixings

Saturday - dinner out

My very most favoritest dinner

2008-08-15T21:49:00.002-05:00

I've lost count of how many times I've made this Black-Eyed Pea Salad since I first discovered the recipe 2 months ago. It's become my go-to recipe, something I can easily throw together when we need a quick meal. I love this salad! It has evolved somewhat since I first made it, and now I use 2 cans of garbanzo beans and about a cup of edamame instead of black-eyed peas. I like it a lot better this way, since the garbanzo beans and edamame have more of a bite to them.

I made this salad tonight, since Lydia is having a sleepover with her friend, and I wanted something yummy enough to tempt me away from their pizza. ; )

You can see my original post about it here.

Yum!

Pumpkin Peanut Soup

2008-08-12T21:04:00.000-05:00

This is one of those recipes I've wanted to try for ages, but haven't had a chance to. Brad doesn't care for pumpkin, and he despises peanut butter, so this soup is definitely not something he's interested in eating. But since he's still in Japan, and I happened to have the ingredients on hand, I jumped at the chance to finally try it. It totally hit the spot, and was easy to throw together. After tasting it, I know Brad would hate it, but this will go on the list of things to make in the future when he's out of town. Gotta love a husband who travels, right? ; )

I think this would look really pretty garnished with some cilantro and chopped peanuts, but hey, I made it work with what I had in the pantry!

Pumpkin Peanut Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon thyme
3 cups vegetable broth
1 15-oz can pumpkin
1 14-oz can light coconut milk
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
salt and pepper
cayenne pepper

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and shallots. Cook and stir for several minutes, or until onion is softened and translucent. Add garlic and thyme, and cook for 1 minute longer. Stir in vegetable broth and pumpkin. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat. Add coconut milk and peanut butter. If desired, process in a blender or food processor until smooth, then return to stove to heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle individual servings with cayenne pepper, if desired.

Weekly Menu - week of August 10th

2008-08-10T20:22:00.002-05:00

Sunday - dinner out at Cheeburger Cheeburger for Lydia's dinner

Monday - chickpea salad, garlic bread

Tuesday - leftovers

Wednesday - spaghetti, marinara sauce, salad

Thursday - lentil tacos

Friday - burritos

Saturday - leftovers

Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onion and Sage Bread Crumb Topping

2008-08-04T18:46:00.002-05:00

Yet another fabulous Veganomicon recipe! This is another that I've been wanting to try for a long time, but that Brad would never go for. He doesn't like pumpkin in any capacity, so I've put it off until now, knowing that my mom would be all for it. It was awesome to have my mom's help in the kitchen. She's the one who taught me to cook when I was younger, and is a foodie just like me. I loved cooking with her tonight!

And this pasta...it's to die for. As with my previous Veganomicon posts, I'm not going to share the recipe with you. I know others have, but I just don't think it's cool to do so. I strongly urge you to go pick up a copy of this cookbook. It's not let me down yet!

This recipe was my first time making a vegan ricotta substitute, which turned out beautifully. I honestly can't believe that tofu, cashews, olive oil, lemon juice and some seasoning can taste like ricotta. What a find! The ricotta is mixed with pumpkin, caramelized onions, and spices, then tossed together with the cooked pasta. On top are some gorgeous toasted bread crumbs and walnuts.

Good golly, this recipe is amazing!

Weekly Menu - week of August 3

2008-08-03T08:14:00.003-05:00

Here's our plan for the week. We're eating out a bunch because my mom is visiting, and we're trying to see all the family while she's here.

Sunday - dinner out

Monday - Pumpkin pasta, salad, french bread

Tuesday - Spinach and potato enchiladas, spanish rice

Wednesday - dinner out

Thursday - dinner out

Friday - Pineapple quinoa stir-fry

Saturday - probably dinner out again

Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing

2008-08-02T14:50:00.003-05:00

Brad left for Japan this morning, which is very sad for me, but my mom is visiting, which means I have the opportunity to try out a bunch of recipes that I've been interested in, but that didn't appeal to Brad. Gotta take lemons and make 'em into lemonade, right? I'm so excited that my mom is here, and am looking forward to spending the next 10 days with her. Hooray!

The first recipe on the list was Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing, from Veganomicon. I won't give out the whole recipe, since I don't want to step on their toes, and because I think everyone out there should go pick up a copy of this awesome book. But I will tell you that the salad contains tempeh, pear (no Asian pears to be found today, so we just used a Bosc) , green onions, and a spicy Vegenaise-based dressing. Oh, baby!

I served mine on some absolutely delicious sprouted soy wheat bread, toasted, with baby greens. That, with an apple and some blueberries, made a delicious lunch.

Chipotle Barbecue Bean and Corn Salad

2008-07-30T19:10:00.002-05:00

I was so inspired by this recipe on Food Blogga last night, that I had to switch up my menu and make it for tonight's dinner. I mean, look at Food Blogga's pictures! I was drooling from the first glance. So I stopped at the store on the way home, picked up all the ingredients, and made it almost as soon as I walked in the door from work. I wanted to make sure it had time to chill for a bit before dinner, as the recipe states that it tastes best after a few hours.

It's so delicious! Tangy, smokey and spicy. I love it! We've really been enjoying the Black-eyed Pea Salad lately (which I've now taken to making with garbanzo beans and edamame instead of black-eyed peas), so I'm thrilled to have another chilled bean salad to add to my repertoire.

I made a few minor adaptations to the recipe: I used 1 whole red onion instead of 2 green onions, because I'm a red onion fanatic; I omitted the red bell pepper, because bell peppers are crazy expensive these days; and I added some diced avocado. Oh, and I just realized that I omitted the oregano because I was in a hurry, and just didn't notice it. Woops.

This is great just eaten plain with a fork as a main dish, or scooped up with chips as a dip, or served as a side dish. You really can't go wrong with this. And it's vegan! Woohoo!

Thank you, thank you, Food Blogga, for an amazing recipe! It's guaranteed to become a favorite in our home.

Chipotle Barbecue Bean and Corn Salad
Makes 4-6 servings

Sauce:
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
3-4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, finely chopped, plus 1-2 tablespoons of adobo sauce

Salad:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 red onion, coarsely chopped
2 ears sweet corn, kernels removed from the cob
1 (14.5 oz) can of black beans, rinsed
1 (14.5 oz) can of red kidney beans, rinsed
1 (14.5 oz) can of chick peas, rinsed
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano

To make the sauce, whisk together all ingredients in a medium bowl, and set aside.

To make the salad, heat olive in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and corn kernels. Saute until lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat, and add to a large bowl. Add rinsed beans, and sauce; stir until well combined. Gently stir in the fresh herbs. Adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled, though it tastes better if allowed to rest for a couple of hours.

Lentil Haystacks

2008-07-28T18:51:00.002-05:00

We first had lentil haystacks several weeks ago, and we were instantly smitten. They're delicious, filling, fresh, and almost ridiculously inexpensive. I figured we would start to eat them all the time, but given my reluctance to repeat recipes very often, we haven't had them again until tonight. And, as with so many other things, I'm kicking myself for not having them sooner. These haystacks rock!

I love that they can be customized to each person's liking. Meg had just rice and lentils. Lydia had rice, lentils, cheese and olives. Brad had rice, lentils, cheese, salsa, onions and sour cream. I had rice, lentils, vegan monterey jack cheese, salsa, onions, olives and cilantro. Fabulous!

If you're trying to feed your family (or just yourself) on a budget, or if you're just trying to trim your grocery budget, definitely give this recipe a try!

Lentil Haystacks

1 cup dry lentils
4 cups water
4 cups hot, cooked rice (brown or white)
assorted toppings, such as cheese, red onions, sour cream, jalapenos, sliced or shredded vegetables, salsa, olives, capers, salad dressing, etc.

Combine the lentils and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, until lentils are tender.

Serve lentils over rice, and top with desired toppings.

Weekly Menu - week of July 27

2008-07-27T16:17:00.003-05:00

Sunday - dinner out

Monday - Coconut Milk Dal, flat bread

Tuesday - Lentil haystacks

Wednesday - Chickpea and spinach stew

Thursday -Greek salad, hummus, pita bread

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - undecided (my mom will be here and I want to get her input first)

Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

2008-07-26T11:42:00.004-05:00

The kids wanted to cook breakfast this morning, so Lydia browsed through her many cookbooks for kids, and settled on Cheesy Scrambled Eggs with fun-shaped toast.

The kids did this all by themselves, and I'm very proud of them. Lydia still needs to focus more and pay better attention to the recipe instructions, but she's definitely showing improvement!

They spread their toast with some mayhaw jelly that Brad's cousin Emily gave us for Christmas. I've only ever seen it around here, but if you can find it in your area, it's delicious! It has a nice, mild, mellow flavor, and the best I can compare it to is the pomegranate jelly my mom used to make when we lived in Spain. There were several pomegranate trees on base, growing wild, and we could pick a bunch of 10-gallon pickle buckets' full for free. Imagine how much that would cost at the store. Yikes! Anyway, the mayhaw jelly has a similar flavor to pomegranate jelly, and is so good on toast.

I had more leftover Thai Tofu Wraps from last night, since the eggs obviously weren't vegan, but the girls loved them!

Here's Miss Meg, proudly sporting her Monkeywoman t-shirt from Mary. Please forgive the bedhead, since this was Saturday breakfast, and we're being lazy this morning.

And Lydia gives the breakfast a thumbs up!

Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

3 eggs
3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp margarine
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
bacon bits, if desired (we used Bacos)

Whisk together the eggs and milk. Melt margarine in a skillet over medium heat. When the margarine is melted and bubbling, add the eggs. Leave them alone for 1 minute, then stir gently until the eggs are scrambled and set. Remove from heat, add the cheese, and stir until the cheese is melted. Add bacon bits, if desired, and serve immediately.

At last!

2008-07-25T17:38:00.002-05:00

Finally! A real blog post! With pictures AND a recipe! Hooray!

Tonight we had super yummy, crunchy, crispy, fresh, spicy, zest wraps stuffed with fresh veggies, grilled tofu, and a drizzle of peanut sauce. Oh, baby! I can't even begin to tell you how much these hit the spot. They were exactly what I've been craving! They're also fairly quick to throw together, which is a nice because Brad is taking off in a few minutes to go do his monthly Navy Reserve drill period in New Orleans, so we were able to maximize our time together before he goes.

These are great for a light meal, but if you're craving something heartier, you can also stuff the wraps with jasmine rice and chopped peanuts. Deeeelicious!

Thai Tofu Wraps with Peanut Sauce

1 block extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
4 leaves green cabbage
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup shredded carrot
1/2 medium cucumber, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Very hot water
Large flour tortillas

Cut the block of tofu in half horizontally, then slice into sticks, about 3/4" x 1/2" x 3". Set aside. Heat a grill pan or Foreman Grill. Brush lightly with vegetable oil, then place the tofu on the grill and drizzle with soy sauce. Grill 3 to 4 minutes per side (no need to flip if it's on the Foreman Grill), or until it firms up somewhat and has pretty grill marks. Set aside.

Toss together the cabbage, bean sprouts, carrot, cucumber, vinegar, sugar, cayenne pepper, and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, brown sugar and cayenne pepper. Gradually whisk in hot water until it reaches a good consistency for drizzling. Set aside.

Now it's time to assemble the wraps. Heat tortillas in the microwave until soft and pliable. Place a handful of vegetable mixture on the tortilla, top with 3 strips of tofu, and drizzle with peanut sauce. Carefully wrap up and place seam-side down on a plate until ready to serve.

These can be served warm, chilled, or room temperature.

Dinner recap

2008-07-24T20:02:00.002-05:00

Well folks, I am once again boring. Last night I made the super yummy Black-eyed Pea Salad, which is quick becoming a standard for us, except this time I used garbanzo beans and edamame instead of black-eyed peas. It was delicious, satisfying and sooo easy. I didn't get any pictures because I was sick yesterday, and it's something I've made bunches of times already.

Tonight we're having leftovers from work. This is decidedly not a vegan meal, but it just seemed the responsible thing to do, since it's free. It was really yummy, spicy, creamy pasta with chicken (which I picked out of my serving) and garlic bread. Look at it! So delicious!

And now, I have to say that I'm really torn. I love to cook, and I love cooking and eating vegan food. It's important to me for so many different reason, all of which I've detailed before. But I'm torn, because nearly every single day there are scads of leftovers at work. If I don't bring them home, they get dumped in the garbage. I'm not talked about just the meager pickings left after everyone has eaten; I'm talking about entire untouched pans of food. Last week I brought home a massive pan of lasagna. Today I brought home more pasta than would fit in a 9x13 pan, and at least 4 baguettes' worth of garlic bread. It seems downright wrong to let that food be thrown away. The problem is that almost none of it is vegan. So what do I do? One of the biggest reasons I'm vegan is because of the global ramifications of a non-vegan diet. It's such a gross misuse of resources. But what's worse? To let days' worth of food be throw in the garbage because it's not vegan, or to go ahead and eat it and not take up any more resources in buying other food? I am really, really torn. I love to cook, and I want to adhere to a vegan diet, but it seems stupid to spend money on groceries every week, when I could feed our family almost completely on leftovers from work.

So what to do? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I'm just not sure what do about this. :sigh:

In other news, I registered for my Fall semester classes last night, and I am SO excited to get started! Classes start in about 4 weeks, and I'm dying to dive into them. I'm taking all upper-level classes this semester, which should be a lot more fulfilling. Yippee!

I'll leave you with a picture of something I made last week, but forgot to blog about. These are spinach and mushroom enchiladas, which I was not terribly pleased with. They were good, but not great. I also made spanish rice with green sauce, and refried beans from scratch. Overall a very satisfying meal, although I'll tweak the enchiladas quite a bit next time.

So much for cooking

2008-07-21T19:41:00.002-05:00

Well, I was all set to dive back into the kitchen this evening, but the leftovers from today's lunch at work were just too tempting to resist. We had a huge burrito bar catered in, complete with steak, chicken, tortillas, black beans, refried beans, pico de gallo, lettuce, spanish rice, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, tortillas, salsa, chips and queso dip. At lunch, I made myself a huge taco salad, then I brought home a little of everything for tonight's dinner. I made a big bowl of rice and just piled the toppings on. Yum!

So hopefully tomorrow I'll be back in the kitchen for reals. I doubt there will be something so vegan-friendly at work tomorrow. ; )

Weekly Menu - week of July 19th

2008-07-20T20:40:00.004-05:00

We're back from our weekend away! It was seriously one of the best weekends I've ever had. Brad's friends are two of my favorite people, and it's the most wonderful thing to spend time with them. I wish we lived close enough to see them more often!

We got home after dinner, but I'll be back in the kitchen tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to cooking again after a week off. Here's my plan for the week. A lot of it is stuff I've made before, so it's not a terribly exciting menu, but it all sounds really good right now, so I'm going with it!

Sunday - dinner out, on the way home

Monday - Thai tofu wraps

Tuesday - black-eyed pea salad, spinach, french bread

Wednesday - spicy grilled tempeh, roasted potatoes, salad

Thursday - Greek salad, hummus, pita bread

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - kids' choice

Booooooooooring

2008-07-17T18:04:00.002-05:00

Ok, so evidently leftovers are incredibly boring. We've managed to go this whole week with only cooking one meal (enchiladas on Monday, which were very unremarkable and not so great, unfortunately), and have been otherwise subsisting on leftovers, and food I bring home from work. The other day I brought home an entire 24"x12" untouched pan of lasagna that was left after lunch, so that's now in 4 big gladware containers in the freezer. Score! I won't eat it because it has loads of meat and cheese in it, but it's great for lunches for Brad and the kids, and it was going to get thrown away otherwise, so I'll take it!

But that brings me back to my original point: leftovers are boring. I have no food items of interest to blog about, and that makes me sad. We're going out of town for the weekend tomorrow (to visit some of Brad's college friends in Auburn), but I promise to be back in full cooking mode next week. I miss working in my kitchen!

Also, I haven't decided for sure, but I think I may end up bowing out of Tuesdays with Dorie. Many of the recent recipes haven't been at all interesting or appealing to me, and many of them are difficult to veganize, so it's been hard for me to participate. The rules are pretty unflinching and stringent, so it doesn't leave me a lot of room to stay on. I'll think about that this weekend and decide for sure next week, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to give it up, with much sadness. :sigh:

Well, I hope you all have a great weekend, and you can rest assure that Brad and I will be having a marvelous time in Auburn. I love that town!

Peace out.

Weekly Menu - week of July 12th

2008-07-13T20:21:00.004-05:00

Brad and I just spent a good hour making a list of all the food in our pantry, fridge and freezer. I've tried really hard not to amass tons of staples in our kitchen, and instead just buy them as I go, but the inevitable has occurred over the past 6 months here, and stuff has piled up. It's time to use that stuff up. Our goal this week is to cook primarily from what we have on hand, only going to the store for perishables and other minor recipe components. If anyone is really interested, I can post the contents of our kitchen, but unless someone requests it, I'm going to leave it out.

As much as I despise leftovers, we're also committed to eating more of them. :big sigh: It's so hard to motivate myself to eat them, especially since I enjoy cooking so much, but it just makes sense financially, and it's the responsible thing to do. Man, I hate being responsible sometimes. But it will be interesting to see how much we save by doing so. Already we're only spending about $75/week on groceries for 3 meals a day, which I think is commendable, but maybe we can trim that budget even more. We'll see. We'd like to trade in Brad's '02 Mustang for a more fuel efficient car, so trimming our food budget could give us more to put towards that loan, if we decide to go for it. Hmmmm, so much to think about.

Anyway, here's what I came up with for this week menu. All we should need to buy is some french bread (and maybe I'll just make that myself), and fresh veggies for the green curry and the orzo salad. Nice! Talk about a cheap week!

Sunday - leftover spaghetti, salad, french bread

Monday - spinach and mushroom enchiladas, spanish rice, salad

Tuesday - leftover enchiladas, spanish rice, salad

Wednesday - green curry vegetables with rice noodles

Thursday - orzo, chickpea and roasted vegetable salad, french bread

Friday, Saturday & Sunday - out of town for the weekend! Woot!

Oh, how I love gingersnaps!

2008-07-12T21:19:00.003-05:00

Gingersnaps are one of my favorite cookies, and my mom has the best recipe EVER. My freshman year of college, my roommate would go nuts every time my mom sent them in a care package. I don't know what it is that makes this recipe so awesome, bu you know, it's just one of those things you don't question. They rock. That's enough for me.

I veganized them this evening, with equally fantastic results. The only non-vegan ingredient in the original recipe was an egg, so I just substituted a ground flax seed and water mixture. They were delicious, spicy, crispy on the outside with just a little chewiness in the middle. The perfect gingersnap, in my opinion. Nice! They're great with a cup of tea, or a glass of almond milk. Dig in! Vegan gingersnaps! Hooray!

Vegan Gingersnaps

1 Tbsp ground flax seed
3 Tbsp water
¾ cup all-vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp molasses
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
¼ tsp cloves

Preheat oven to 375.

Whisk together flax seed and water. Set aside.

Cream together shortening, sugar and molasses. Add flax seed mixture, beating well. Sift together dry ingredients and add to batter, mixing well.

Roll into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes for soft, chewy cookies, or 12 minutes for crispy cookies.

Veganized Burger for a Bunch

2008-07-12T21:04:00.005-05:00

I think I blogged my recipe for Burger for a Bunch back when I first started up this blog, and transfered all of my recipes over here. It's an incredibly old school recipe, something my mom (and her mom, I believe) have been making for ages. It's one of those awesome recipes that has a whole bunch of ingredients, but they're all things that you usually have in your kitchen, so it doesn't require a trip to the store. Gotta love that, right?

Veganizing it was really easy, although next time I think I would just leave out the vegan cheese. It just doesn't taste right, and I'd rather go without it than to have that fake cheesy flavor in it. Other things I changed were using lentils instead of ground beef, and vegannaise instead of mayo, vegan margarine instead of butter, and so forth. Easy peasy!

So yeah...not the most attractive meal, but I don't care! It's good!

Burger for a Bunch

lentil filling (below)
1/2 cup mashed potato flakes, divided
2 Tbsp. melted vegan margarine
2 cups flour
1Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded vegan cheddar cheese (optional)

Prepare filling as directed below; set aside.

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine 1/4 cup of the potato flakes with melted margarine; set aside.

In large mixing bowl combine remaining 1/4 cup potato flakes, flour, sugar, cream of tartar and baking soda. Cut in margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk and mayonnaise; blend until a soft dough forms. Divide in half; shape into balls. Roll out one ball on floured surface to 9" circle. Place on greased cookie sheet. Spread filling to within 1/2" of edge and sprinkle with cheese. Roll out remaining dough and place on filling; seal edges with a fork. Brush with soy milk and sprinkle with reserved potato flake and butter mixture.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 until golden brown.

This recipe may be made ahead of time. Cover and place in refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Bake 375 for 20 -25 minutes.

Lentil Filling

4 cups cooked lentils
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 cup mashed potato flakes
3/4 cup catsup
1/4 cup sweet relish
1 Tbsp. salad mustard

Saute ground beef, onion, salt and pepper until browned. Add all the remaining ingredients and blend well.

Bibimbap

2008-07-10T20:24:00.002-05:00

Bibimbap is still a work in progress for me. I'm always afraid that I'll burn the rice on the edges, but then I end up taking it off the heat before it develops a good crust. Grrrrr. You'd think I'd learn by now.

We discovered Bibimbap at our favorite Korean BBQ place in Japan, and we were instantly hooked. I don't have the proper stone bowl for making it at home, so I use a Le Creuset saucier instead. I think I may have Brad suck it up and pay the money for a real stone bowl when he's in Japan next month, but we'll see. The Le Creuset works for now.

This should have a raw egg on top, which is then stirred and tossed with the rice mixture, cooking it sort of like fried rice, but there's no real way to do that and keep it vegan, so we left out the egg. I also substituted diced tofu for the typical ground meat. It was still really good, and incredibly filling. This is not an authentic recipe, just my own attempt to make it as best I can, but I think it's a pretty good approximation. ; )

Bibimbap

2 Tbsp sesame oil
3-4 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup extra-firm tofu, finely diced
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp grated ginger
2-inch section zucchini, julienned
2-inch section carrot, julienned
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup spinach, cooked and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, finely diced
2 Tbsp hot chili sauce

Combine tofu, soy sauce, sugar and ginger. Toss gently to coat. Set aside.

Add the sesame oil to a stone bowl, and heat over high heat until smoking, tilting to coat the inside. Add rice, pressing it against the sides and bottom of the bowl. Arrange tofu mixture, zucchini, carrot, bean sprouts, spinach and mushrooms over the rice. Pour the hot sauce in the middle.

Continue heating bowl, if necessary, until rice is crispy and brown on the bottom and edges. Use a spoon to combine the mixture thoroughly, being sure to get the crispy bits off the bottom and edges. Serve immediately.

Vegan Nasty Nachos

2008-07-08T18:52:00.004-05:00

I did it! I successfully veganized my beloved Nasty Nachos! And it was really easy, too. Just substitute canned black beans for the ground beef, and cheddar Veganrella (or other vegan cheese) for the cheddar cheese, then do the rest as usual. It couldn't be easier! I used 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed, but next time I think I'd use 3.

I've said it before: this isn't a pretty dish, but the taste more than makes up for it. Yum!

General Tso's Tofu (and my favorite bento box)

2008-07-07T19:33:00.004-05:00

When we got Chinese take-out last week, Brad got General Tso's chicken, and I'll admit it: I was jealous. And I set out to make a vegan version. It was surprisingly easy. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com, and it was really tasty. The only thing I would change is the ridiculous amount of cornstarch it called for in the sauce. An entire HALF CUP of cornstarch for less than 2 cups of liquid? Are you kidding me? I should have gone with my gut and used less, but I figured I'd go ahead and try it per the recipe the first time. Big mistake. The "sauce" wasn't even saucy; it was thick gelatinous, jiggly mass. I think 2 Tbsp would be more than enough next time. But the flavor of the sauce was fantastic, and I wouldn't alter the rest of the ingredients a bit.

I'm taking leftovers to work tomorrow in my very favorite bento box. I bought this on the shopping street in Kamakura several years ago, but this is actually the first time I've used it. I used to pack bentos for the kids for lunch every day back in Japan, and had tons of fun doing it. I have literally over 100 fun bento boxes, most from the 100 Yen Stores, and accessories to go with all of them. Sooooo fun! Here, though, the kids qualify for free school lunches (poor college students that we are), so I'm not going to throw money away on food if they can get it at school for free, and all those bento supplies are in boxes in the garage. :sigh: I've been using a few of the less kid-oriented boxes to take lunch to work, and dug out this one so I can use it tomorrow.

Look how cool it is! Three stacking trays, with a cute little bunny on the lid, and the coolest carrying contraption. I love this bento box!

General Tso's Tofu

2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1 package extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup vegetable oil
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper

Whisk together the 2 Tbsp cornstarch, water, garlic, ginger, sugar, soy sauce and mirin. Set aside.

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. While oil is heating, cut tofu into 0.5" x 1" cubes; toss with the remaining 1 cup cornstarch. Add to hot oil and cook several minutes, shaking occasionally, until tofu is crispy and lightly golden brown. Drain on paper towels, and discard all but 1 tsp oil.

Return pan to heat, and add green onions and crushed red pepper. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk soy sauce mixture and add to the pan. Whisk and stir until the sauce boils and thickens. Add tofu and toss to coat.

Serve with rice and broccoli.

Weekly Menu - week of July 5th

2008-07-06T18:12:00.010-05:00

Sunday - Leftovers

Monday - General Tso's Tofu, rice, broccoli

Tuesday - Meat-free Nasty Nachos, salad

Wednesday - Bibimbap

Thursday - Burger for a Bunch, salad

Friday - ~~Mushroom enchiladas, refried beans, salad~~ dinner out

Saturday - ~~dinner out~~ Spaghetti and veggie sauce, french bread, salad

4th of July food

2008-07-05T10:11:00.004-05:00

We've had a whole weekend of 4th of July celebrating! Thursday we bought fireworks for the kids, and had an absolute blast firing them off our back porch. I haven't done fireworks since I was 15, and we all had SO much fun! Friday we went over to my mother-in-law's house for the afternoon, then late that evening we set off the rest of our fireworks. We found out that they're illegal in our city (although we're not sure if we are within city limits or not), but you couldn't tell it from the rockets' red glare all over our neighborhood. I couldn't believe how many people were doing fireworks -- and huge ones, like professional display quality. I had no idea you could even buy those! We got one really nice one for free because an employee was tossing it to someone else when we were shopping, and she aimed badly and it hit Brad instead. She felt bad, so she said we could have it for free. Ok! It shot off 36 incredible exploding, spinning fireworks. So cool! Our whole neighborhood was shrouded in smoke from the collective fireworks displays by the time we finally went to bed. Crazy, but oh, so much fun!

Today we're going to Brad's aunt and uncle's house for a 4th of July BBQ pool party, which I'm sure will be equally as much fun. I made several goodies to bring along.

Another batch of sorbet, this time adding some lime juice to the pineapple-orange-ginger mixture. Yum!

And this big bowl of vegan potato salad, using a horseradish vinagrette instead of mayonnaise. Oh, baby!

And a big fruit pizza, veganized so I can eat it, too. Can't wait!

And we're off! See you tomorrow!

Lazy dinner

2008-07-03T21:58:00.003-05:00

I had a monster busy day at work today, traffic was horrible all the way home, and we went right back out as soon as I got home, to buy fireworks for the kids. I whipped up a quick, easy, lazy dinner, and it was so good! I soaked some rice noodles in hot water, and mixed up a simple peanut sauce of peanut butter, mirin, soy sauce, ginger, sugar and cayenne pepper, then tossed it with the noodles and some cubed tofu. I wish I'd had some bean sprouts and carrots to add to it, but this worked in a pinch. It doesn't get much easier than that!

Brad, who doesn't care for anything peanut buttery, opted for some Coco curry and rice. Now that we know he's going back to Japan next month, and can stock up on more packs of it, we don't have to be so stingy with it anymore. Hooray!

Ice cream, sorbet, and TWD scones

2008-07-02T22:03:00.004-05:00

This is going to be really short, unfortunately, because it's late and I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and blog. Busy day! Let me just do a quick recap, then I'm off to bed.

I'll start with the TWD scones. They're awesome! Since I'm trying to not eat dairy, and Brad doesn't care for dried apples, I just made cranberry scones instead. Some of the changes I made:

I soaked some Craisins in hot water to plump them up, instead of dried apples
I omitted the cheddar cheese
I used soy milk with vinegar in place of the buttermilk, and a mixture of soy milk and water instead of apple juice,
Instead of an egg, I used 1 Tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tbsp water, and an additional 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder,
Instead of butter, I used all-vegetable shortening.

It worked really well! Brad, his mom, and the kids all loved them! I'm still amazed that the egg and buttermilk replacements worked that seamlessly in this recipe. And I absolutely love what the little bit of cornmeal added to the scones! I never would have thought to include that!

I give these scones a huge thumbs up! Woohoo!

Next let's move on to the frozen desserts I made yesterday and today. I ended up not bringing the vanilla custard to work to make ice cream, because it separated and was all weird this morning when I got it out of the fridge. I did bring the pineapple-orange-ginger sorbet, though, and it turned out beautifully! So yummy! Brad bought an ice cream maker on the way home today (after not being able to find one yesterday), and I put the custard in to freeze. I didn't eat it because of the whole dairy thing, but the kids loved it. Hooray!

The sorbet is by far my favorite, though. The orange and pineapple are so fruity and tropical, and the little bit of ginger I added really enhanced the flavors and gave it a nice kick. I love this stuff! But I did that one better. I put it in a glass like so:

...and the I topped it off with Malibu coconut rum. Oh, baby! What an incredible drink! I may have to just keep some sorbet on hand all the time so I can have one of these whenever I want. YUM!

Off to bed for this tired girl. Good night!

Busy night

2008-07-01T20:58:00.002-05:00

Guys, I'm embarrassed to say that I'm going to be late yet again with this week's Tuesdays with Dorie installment. Ugh! I despise tardiness (you have no idea), so this is particularly upsetting for me. But it's been a busy day today at work, and then I also have to make ice cream for an employee birthday party tomorrow, so I just didn't have it in me to make the scones tonight. I'm really excited to make (and eat!) them, so watch for them tomorrow!

I'm excited about the ice cream I'm making, too! We don't own an ice cream maker, but a co-worker brought hers to work for me. I made the custard for vanilla ice cream tonight, then I'll dump it in the machine when I get to work in the morning. I also made a batch of pineapple-orange sorbet, which doesn't require churning, so hopefully that will turn out as well. I can't eat the vanilla ice cream (and didn't want to try out a vegan version on my co-workers), but I'm still excited to see what everyone thinks of it! I'll update about that tomorrow, too.

For now: good night!

Broccoli Rice Casserole

2008-06-30T18:55:00.001-05:00

Who doesn't love a good broccoli rice casserole? It's one of those down-home comfort foods that just hit the spot and makes you feel good. This vegan version is equally satisfying, and soooo much lower in fat, plus it has healthy things in it, like low-fat, protein-rich, cholesterol-free tofu instead of sour cream or mayo, and nutritional yeast instead of cheese. Yum! If you wanted to go the extra mile, you could use brown rice instead of white, but I didn't have any on hand today. You can also shorten the cooking time significantly if you cook the broccoli before adding it to the rice mixture. Just make sure you undercook it, so it doesn't get mushy while baking.

This was a big hit with Brad and Lydia, but Meg only wanted plain steamed white rice because it's her favorite. Oh well.

Broccoli Rice Casserole

2 cups dry rice, plus water to cook
1 block silken tofu
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp dry mustard
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 large head broccoli, cut into florets
2 cups french fried onions, divided

Cook the 2 cups rice per package directions.

While the rice is cooking, add tofu, lemon juice, sugar, salt and dry mustard in a food processor. Process until very smooth.

Preheat oven to 350. When rice is done cooking, empty into a large mixing bowl. Add tofu mixture and stir gently to combine. Add nutritional yeast, broccoli and 1 1/2 cups of the french fried onions, combining thoroughly. Taste and adjust salt to your taste, if necessary.

Pour into a greased casserole dish. Bake 45 minutes, or until heated through and golden brown on top, and broccoli is crisp tender. Sprinkle remaining french fried onions on top, and return to oven for 2-3 minutes.

And just for fun, I thought you all might get a kick out of how Ringo was napping today. Silly dog!

Vegan Mock Tuna Salad

2008-06-29T18:52:00.002-05:00

Chickpeas taste like tuna fish? Really?

My friend Sarah told me how to make a mock tuna salad, using coarsely mashed garbanzo beans instead of tuna fish. I'll admit, I was skeptical. Even though Sarah is my vegan mentor of sorts, I just didn't see how garbanzo beans could taste like tuna fish.

Brad and I had an overnight getaway to New Orleans this weekend, while the kids stayed at his dad's, and the dogs were boarded at their animal hospital. We got back around noon, and Brad's dad and stepmom took us out to lunch at Brad's favorite Chinese place, so we're understandably not super motivated to cook this evening. I got to thinking about the mock tuna salad, and since I had a spare can of garbanzo beans in the pantry, I decided to give it a shot.

And holy shit! It does taste like tuna salad! Amazing! I don't know how or why, but it honestly does! I think this may become a lunchtime staple in our home. Woohoo!

You can make this any way you want, just follow your usual tuna salad proportions, but use a can of drained, mashed garbanzo beans in place of the tuna. Tonight I made a really simple batch, with just vegan mayonnaise and dill pickle relish, but if I'd had some onions of any kind (red or green are my favorites, but yellow or white would also have been nice), I would have thrown them in, too.

Weekly Menu - week of June 29

2008-06-29T14:25:00.002-05:00

Sunday - just got back from our weekend getaway, so we're foraging tonight

Monday - Black-eyed pea salad, french bread

Tuesday - Vegetarian Schezwuan noodles

Wednesday - Indian dahl with spinach, flat bread

Thursday - Curry cauliflower, potato and green bean stir-fry, jasmine rice

Friday - Broccoli-rice casserole

Saturday - dinner out

Shameless plug

2008-06-27T20:46:00.002-05:00

A sweet, treasured friend of mine, The Bargain Babe, is doing a contest giveaway on her blog. Go check it out if you like to save money! She regularly posts great tips for ways to save money -- something we can all use!

Click! Enter! Save!

Chinese Take-out

2008-06-27T18:54:00.002-05:00

Tonight we decided to splurge on some Chinese take-out. Good thing, too, because there was a big thunderstorm, and the power went out at our house right as we were leaving at dinner time. Lucky for us we weren't cooking at home, huh?

The girls got fried pork dumplings, and a combo plate of teriyaki chicken, pepper beef, pork fried rice and an egg roll. Brad got General Tso's chicken, pork fried rice and an egg roll. I got bean curd and broccoli, sauteed veggies and rice. I have to admit, today's the first day that I've been a little bummed that I've given up meat and dairy. At work today there was a big cake for someone who's leaving, and then tonight everyone else's food just looked soooooo good. Mine was delicious, don't get me wrong, but damn it, I love General Tso's chicken. Next time we go, I think I'll ask if they can make it for me with fried bean curd instead of chicken. I actually prefer tofu to chicken in most dishes, so I bet that would be really good!

Here's my yummy dinner! I love Chinese food!

Another successful veganization

2008-06-26T20:35:00.000-05:00

Yippee! It worked! I was craving something sweet, and since the only sweet goodies in the house aren't vegan, I decided to whip something up that I could eat. This Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Frosting is one of my all-time favorite desserts. My mom used to make it when I was little, and it just brings back so many memories of childhood, and all the yummy things my mom used to cook.

This recipe was super easy to veganize. I just substituted vegan margarine for the butter, 1 mashed banana and 2 teaspoons of baking powder for the egg (to cover my bases in both binding and leavening), and rice milk instead of evaporated milk in the topping. Easy peasy! I'm so thrilled that one of my favorite recipes was such a cinch to veganize, and without any compromise on taste!

If you've never made this cake before, it's a little unusual. You bake the cake, then take it out of the oven, immediately spread the frosting on top, then stick it under the broiler for a few minutes, until it's all bubbly and gorgeous. Yum! I love how the frosting gets crispy in places. It's such a great contrast to the moistness of the cake.

And it's vegan! All vegan! Hooray!

Red Beans & Rice

2008-06-26T19:49:00.002-05:00

Brad has been cooking a lot this week. I've been really tired by the time I get home from work (don't ask me why, it's not like my job is strenuous in any way), so he's stepped up and helped out in the kitchen. Earlier this week he made some really yummy chunky vegetable spaghetti sauce, full of such good things as zucchini, tomato, mushrooms and onions, and we ate on that for two days.

And tonight he made one his specialties: Red Beans & Rice. He even veganized them for me, using Tofurkey smoked sausage rather than the meat kind, and leaving out the ham. These beans are so freaking good! I'm not going to say that Brad's cooking is the reason I married him, but let's be honest...it was a factor. ; ) I'll have him type up the recipe later.

My awesome dad

2008-06-24T19:53:00.004-05:00

I'm not the only one who's been busy in the kitchen. Look at what my dad whipped up yesterday!

My dad has an amazing green thumb, and over the past several years he has really enjoyed growing garlic. He learned early on that garlic scapes are delicious, with a myriad of uses, and he began gifting them to his neighbors because there was no way he could keep up with all of them on his own. I didn't know about scapes, but evidently they're all the rage in the culinary world these days. I read about them here, and it sounds like you have to remove the scape in order for your garlic bulb to grow, so its' one of those win-win situations...you harvest the delicious scapes, AND your garlic grows. Nice!

My dad made this awesome spinach and garlic scape frittata, which makes me wish that I lived closer to my parents, and that I still ate dairy. ; ) This isn't something that I made myself, but I still felt it merited posting here, just so I could brag on my dear old dad.

TWD - Mixed Berry Cobbler

2008-06-24T19:41:00.003-05:00

Tuesdays with Dorie! And I'm on time, even if not early in the day. Woohoo!

This week's recipe was chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life. I was super stoked about this recipe, because I adore blackberry cobbler! Yum! I wish I still lived in Seattle, where blackberries literally grow wild like weeds, and you can pick them by the bucketful for free. Here, though, the best I could do was frozen berries from our local produce stand. Works for me!

I put this together as soon as I walked in the door from work, since I knew it had a long baking time. It was ridiculously simple to make, just a quick biscuit dough, and a few ingredients tossed with the berries. I used 4 cups of blackberries and 2 cups of raspberries. That's a little more berries than the recipe called for, and I honestly wish I had used even more. I made mine in a 9x9 square pan rather than a deep pie dish, so I could have easily fit several more cups. So if I were going to make this again, I'd use 8 cups of frozen berries, and increase the other filling ingredients accordingly. In my book, you can never have too much berry filling.

Oh! I almost forgot to add that I used vegan margarine instead of butter, and almond milk instead of cream, and the topping turned out great! And I served it with dairy-free vanilla ice cream. Another successful veganization! Woot!

All in all, this isn't my favorite cobbler recipe, but it was still delicious!

South Indian Spicy Mushroom Curry

2008-06-23T19:40:00.006-05:00

I tried spicy mushroom curry at our favorite Indian restaurant back in Japan a couple years ago. Oh, and on that note, Brad gets to go back to Japan this summer for his 2-week Navy Reserve drill period, and I am BEYOND jealous. Initially we figured I could go with him, but that was before I had a job, and now I don't think I'll be able to take time off, plus the price of tickets is prohibitive. This is a huge bummer for me, as we still have lots of friends there that I would love to see again. And all the siteseeing we didn't get to do while we were there with the kids. And the shopping. And the karaoke! And all of our favorite restaurants! But alas, Brad will be going without me. Which means he'll go to Pepper Lunch, Coco Curry, yaki-niku, the sushi-go-round on the 8th floor of More's City, Garlic Jo's, Thai Erawan, Matchpoint, and Appughar. I could cry. : (

But with this dinner tonight, I feel a little bit like I'm back in Japan, eating at Appughar. That's something, right? And my mom is going to try to come visit while Brad's gone, which would be absolutely awesome. I miss her so much, plus it would be so nice to have some company while Brad is gone. And I'll just have to have Brad do my shopping for me. ; )

So anyway, I had the spicy mushroom curry one time at Appughar, and I loved it. This recipe tastes SO much like it, I almost can't believe it. I found it here, at Taj Recipe. What a great recipe! It called for the mushrooms to be sliced, but I just halved them so they made for more of a mouthful. And I sliced the onions thinly instead of dicing them.

Believe the title when it says this is spicy. It packs a whallop! So make sure you have some ice water on hand, or a cold beer. You'll need it.

South Indian Spicy Mushroom Curry

2 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 cloves
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tomato, coarsely diced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tsp ginger, grated
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 lb button mushrooms
1/4 cup water
salt to taste
chopped cilantro, to garnish

Grind cinnamon, fennel seeds & clove to fine powder (I use a coffee grinder). Set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then add the cinnamon mixture. Stir and cook one minute. Add onion, and cook and stir until golden brown. Add tomato, garlic and ginger, and continue to fry until the tomato softens and releases its juices. Add pepper, cayenne pepper, and turmeric. Mix well. Add mushrooms, water and salt. Stir to combine well. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the mushrooms are cooked through.

Once mushrooms are cooked, remove the lid, increase heat to medium-high, and cook and stir until most of the water evaporates, and a thick gravy is formed.

Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with rice.

Grilled Mushroom and Onion Veggieburgers

2008-06-22T19:25:00.002-05:00

Today we took our afternoon to just rest and relax. That meant I got to take my first nap in more than a month (woohoo!), and it also meant that we wanted an easy dinner that didn't involve a lot of prep work. This certainly fit that bill!

I was surprised to discover that a lot of veggieburgers still contain dairy products, so it took a little searching to find a vegan one that still looked good. I ended up going with Organic Sunshine Burgers, made of brown rice, sunflower seeds, carrots, herbs and sea salt, and they were really good! I don't know how they'd be just plain on a bun, but I had mine with Vegannaise, sliced avocado (instead of cheese), cooked mushrooms and onions, and spicy sprouts. Yum! What a delicious dinner!

So, my vegan diet is going fairly well, one week in. Yesterday I did have some dairy because we joined Brad's family out for pizza, and I don't really know what else I could have done, so I just went with it. I have no intention of becoming a militant dietary vegan. I don't intend to eat meat or dairy at home at all, nor will I eat meat when I'm out, and I'll do my best to also choose the dairy-free option when I'm out, but sometimes that just isn't viable. I'm just going to do the best I can.

I have to take a moment, while I'm on this topic, to give a shout out to my husband. He is -- and always has been -- so supportive of me, and is always encouraging me in anything I want to do. I knew he was on board with going meat-free at home, and I knew that he was also supportive of me transitioning to a vegan diet now. But this morning I was in the car alone with the kids, and Lydia was asking me about my decision to not eat meat or dairy, and told me that Brad had told her and Meg that it was really important for the three of them to be supportive of me in this. Isn't that sweet? I mean, it's not surprise because as I said, he's always been that way, but it was still awesome to know that he is totally on board with me, and wants to see me succeed. Hooray for Brad! : )

Weekly Menu - week of June 22

2008-06-21T10:02:00.004-05:00

Sunday - Grilled mushroom and onion veggieburgers, tortilla chips

Monday - Spicy mushroom curry, rice, spinach

Tuesday - Red beans & rice, french bread, salad

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Spaghetti with marinara sauce, broccoli, french bread

Friday - BBQ seitan sandwiches, fries, salad

Saturday - dinner out

Black-eyed Pea Salad

2008-06-20T18:41:00.003-05:00

Oh, this salad rocks! Wow! I can't say enough good things about it! I found it here on Vegalicious, and have been chomping at the bit to make it. It was SO easy to throw together after work -- no cooking involved -- and came together in a snap. I filled my bowl halfway with fresh spinach, then piled the bean salad on top, so my salad was all coated with the yummy dressing after I ate the salad. Nice!

I forgot to put avocado on Brad's shopping list, so unfortunately that was missing from our salad, but I also threw in a can of garbanzo beans to bulk it up a bit. And thank goodness I did, because between the two of us, we still devoured the entire batch tonight, with some yummy rolls.

This is a great summertime dish, so I think I'm going to make it to take to the Fourth of July pool party we're going to next weekend. Yum!

Black-eyed Pea Salad

1 cup dried black-eyed peas, or 1 (14 oz.) can, rinsed and drained
1 medium bell pepper, chopped (I prefer red, orange or yellow bell peppers as they are sweeter)
1 red onion, chopped
2-3 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 avocado, cubed
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
dash Tabasco
2 teaspoons sugar

If using dried black eyed peas, soak them for at least 2-3 hours then boil in salted water for 45 minutes or until soft.

Toss together black-eyed peas, bell pepper, onion, jalapeno pepper, and garlic in large bowl.

Toss avocado with lemon juice in separate bowl.

Add avocado to black-eyed pea mixture.

Whisk together oil, vinegar, Tabasco, cayenne, and sugar in the bowl used for the avocado.

Toss black-eyed pea mixture with dressing.

Serve at room temperature in a lettuce cup.

Thai Red Curry Tofu

2008-06-19T20:06:00.002-05:00

This is my second attempt to make a really good Thai red curry dish, but it's still not quite there. This time I used kaffir lime leaves, which made a huge difference, but there's still something missing, and I don't know what it is.

Still, though, it was yummy! Next time I wouldn't use all coconut milk, because this was way too oily, but I think if I mixed half vegetable stock and half coconut milk it would be better.

I'm on day 4 of eating vegan, and it's going well! I haven't been able to eat anything at work, so I've been packing my own lunch. Today they catered in creamy chicken pasta, garlic bread, salad already tossed with ranch dressing, and chocolate cake. It all looked fabulous, but I stuck to my guns and ate my fruit and granola bars instead. Hooray for me!

Sonic for grown-ups

2008-06-18T19:28:00.002-05:00

Cherry Limeades from Sonic are one of my new favorite things. They're so refreshing and yummy, and it's great that they have a lo-cal diet cherry limeade, too. Nice!

When we were sipping on some a few weeks ago, Brad said he'd like to try making a cocktail version of one sometime, so here it is! It's so good! I'll admit that I'm totally a girly drinker. I don't like beer (after a bad experience at a Navy command party with two kegs 5 years ago. Oops.), and I like my alcohol sweet and fruity, so this drink is right up my alley.

Now all that remains is to come up with a name. What do you think we should call it? Cherry Bomb? It'll Fuck You Up Cherry Limeade? Supersonic Cherry Limeade? Come on, folks, give me your suggestions!

The Yet To Be Named Cocktail

2 oz light rum
Sprite
1/4 cup cherry juice (not concentrate)
1/4 lime, juiced
2 to 3 tsp maraschino cherry syrup

In a tall glass filled with ice, add rum, then fill to within 1 inch of the top with Sprite. Add cherry juice, lime juice, and cherry syrup. Stir to combine. Garnish with a lime wedge and a maraschino cherry. Serve immediately.

Yield: 1 large or 2 small cocktails

Vegan Blueberry Muffins

2008-06-17T20:35:00.003-05:00

I promised my co-workers that I'd bring in some goodies, so I whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins to bring in tomorrow. It was also a good excuse to try a vegan muffin recipe.

I made some regular muffins, and some mini muffins. Because, come on, miniature food is just cool.

These were good, but it was my first time cooking with blue agave nectar, and I think next time I'd increase it to 3/4 cup. These weren't very sweet, which on one hand was kind of refreshing, but on the other hand, was a little disappointing.

Vegan Blueberry Muffins

3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup blue agave nectar
1 cup soy, almond or rice milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a large measuring cup, combine agave nectar, milk and oil. Whisk together to mix thoroughly. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over-mix. Gently fold in blueberries.

Fill muffin cups to 3/4 full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes for standard muffins, or 10 to 12 minutes for mini muffins.