B36 Kitchen

Daring Bakers

2009-02-28T22:38:00.002-05:00

Flourless Chocolate Cake w. Chocolate-Coconut Ice Cream

So I forgot to tell the lovely people at the Daring Bakers that I moved my site. So I have to post this here to get credit. I'll also be posting it at my new site good good things as well just to have it there.

Anyway. I've been thinking about Flourless Chocolate Cake for a bit now so I was really excited that it was this month's challenge. Then I got nervous. There are only 3 ingredients in this sorta cake recipe: chocolate, butter, eggs. The eggs are in there for a reason. Chocolate and butter are easy to "veganize". Eggs...not so much.

Out of the mini loaf pans

I decided to start small my first go at it. So I halved the recipe, which was strange since I didn't really have a recipe yet, and made them in mini loaf pans. As I'm making the batter I just kept thinking to myself that there is no way this is going to work. I continued anyway. I thought the same way after I put them in the oven. Then again as I checked on them. After 35 minutes I took them out of the oven and actually had hope for the first time during the process that maybe it was going to and did work. After they cooled down and I tasted a piece I was pleased as punch. Delicious. Did they taste like a traditional Flourless Chocolate Cake? Beats me. It's been ages since I had one. All I cared about was that it tasted good and it didn't have flour in it and it was cake-ish. Total success.

The round version

The real test was when I brought them to the Wednesday Night Potluck at my sisters. Everyone was really pleased with the dessert. So I knew that I was going to stick with my original "1/2" recipe and make it a full recipe to bake in a springform pan. My mixture of melted chocolate, butter, silken tofu, ener-g egg replacer and vanilla fluffed up a lot this time so the cake was much thicker and took almost an hour to bake and probably could have baked longer but I was in a rush. It still tasted great but wasn't as cake-like as my original go at it.

This will definitely be a recipe I will be tinkering with over the next few month until I get it right. Most recipes I found online for Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake actually contained flour in it. Cheaters.

In regards to my ice cream. This is a recipe I created a few years ago and for some reason it just wouldn't freeze in my ice cream machine. So I had to end up 1/2 freezing it in the machine and finishing it in the freezer. The taste was still amazing but the texture wasn't what I was use to from the recipe. I either did something wrong or followed an older version of the recipe without really realizing it. It definitely wasn't the machine. Another recipe to tinker with. Oi.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

NEW SITE NEW SITE!!!

2009-02-26T22:39:00.004-05:00

good-good-things

Its finally here! Needs a little tinkering, links need to be added, but its up and running!

good-good-things.com

I will love you forever if you continue following me over on the new site so update all your google readers, bloglines, links, whatever ya got!

good-good-things.com

Oh and Ed! Please don't follow me.

Ed

2009-02-24T22:51:00.002-05:00

Is anyone else's blog being bombarded with comments by Ed? He has hit me over 60 times already. He took a break this afternoon and is now back and in 10 minutes got me over 30 times. This is so obnoxious and annoying.

Is there anyway to block him? It doesn't seem so from my searching around. I know I'm switching and moving my site elsewhere but I'm still keeping this one up and around.

By the way...the new site is almost done!!!!!!! I'm so excited. I'm going to launch it in 1 or 2 days before it's even completely finished that's how excited I am about it. Its got birds and bunnies and pink stripes!

Daring Bakers: Tuiles

2009-01-29T10:56:00.002-05:00

Raspberry Blackout Cake w. Chocolate Dipped Lemon Tuiles

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

I was very excited to see that Tuiles were this months challenge. I've had many chances in the past to play around with them for work and school. In school I was in charge of making a cookie bowl to fill with delicious ice creams for our final Friday Night Dinner. For another dinner I was "lucky" to be chosen to make pumpkin puree tuiles shaped like cylinders that if I remember correctly were going to be holding a candle. The pumpkin tuiles were obnoxious to make but a great learning lesson.

For this challenge I made the Lemon Tuiles from the Millennium Cookbook. Originally I wanted to shape them into cannoli's and fill them with a light coconut and chocolate chip cream. Then I got asked to make a cake to celebrate our friends birthday. I though it would be great to make the filled "cannoli" tuiles smaller to put them as decoration on the cake. As you can see above that didn't happen. The batter for the Lemon Tuiles was too thick to shape how I wanted. After many tries and variations I gave up and made flat ones and semi rounded ones which I dipped in chocolate and stuck on the cake as decoration.

I was very very pleased with the overall effect that the chocolate dipped cookies gave to the cake. It is probably my favorite looking cake that I've ever made.

Dumplins'

2009-01-25T12:40:00.003-05:00

Veggie and Tofu Dumplings

I LOVE to make my own dumplings. Problem is they are time consuming and when I'm home alone with Reno during dinner time I don't have time for time consuming meals. Peter went out the other night. Reno went to bed. I was watching House thinking about just eating some Rocky Road ice cream for dinner. I really wanted Chinese food. I remembered that I always keep bags of frozen dumplings in my freezer for such an occasion. The dumplings turned into a delicious appetizer for my ice cream main course.

Really though. Frozen dumplings are a perfect item to keep stocked in your freezer. They are great for: a quick lunch
an appetizer to an asian inspired meal or an ice cream main
course
a pot luck you are late for and haven't prepared anything for yet

Go buy yourselves a few bags. Or make your own and freeze em.

In other news.

The new site is still coming. My husband will be helping with a custom design for it. In the mean time I'll still be posting here as usual.

Happy New Year

2009-01-06T10:06:00.003-05:00

Cookie Box Gifts

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone is happy and healthy. I've been MIA for a few weeks and have been missing my blog. The last few months were a bit rough for us. In a happy way thankfully. We had 3 weddings to go to. 2 of them were out of state and
required a few nights in a hotel plus travel and food expenses. Then 1 was the Saturday before Christmas, that was local thank goodness. Needless to say our bank account took a BIG HIT because of all of these wonderful and happy occasions. I informed our families earlier this fall that christmas will be presentless for everyone.

Instead of buying gifts I baked gifts. Luckily I pretty much have everything I would possible need at all times for baking up a few batches of different cookies. With a little excursion to The Christmas Tree Store (or is it Shoppe) to get pretty $2 foil boxes and VEGAN BUTTERSCOTCH CHIPS!!!!!!! I never cared for that store but now I love it. You have to love anyplace that you can find those chips.

Peanut Butter Bombs

My favorite cookie and I think everyone else's favorite as well. These were a lot of fun to make. I love rolling dough and flattening it with my hands. I also love getting chocolate all over them too. I'd be perfect for a job that makes handmade truffles.

Chocolate and Butterscotch Chip Cookies

Just your basic Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vegan Butterscotch Chips added. They came out nice and flat just how I like them. They would have been perfect if there were a little crispier as well. I'm not a fan of the "soft batched" variety. I want some crunch but my oven is whack so I feared leaving them in any longer.

Shortbread

If I had to make these again I would roll the dough in a mixture of sugar and colored sugar sprinkles just to make them extra pretty. I've always been a huge fan of Shortbread cookies so I don't know why it took so long for me to make them vegan. It's so simple. I also wanted to dip some of these in melted chocolate but ran out of time

Gifts

The gift boxes lined up and filled ready for a square of parchment on top and some tissue paper filling. The one delicious looking bar that I didn't write about yet is called a Caramelita. It isn't vegan. It's the only cookie that I'll make for others that isn't. Everything in it is except for the caramel sauce that it used. It is something that I've been trying to veganize for years now and just haven't found the right caramel yet. It's something I'm working on and can't wait to make fully vegan. It's a wonderful cookie that my family has been making since I was a really little girl. You should see the original magazine that we still have somewhere with the recipe. It's hysterically old.

Now for some resolutions: the first 2 won't matter really much to you but I plan on getting organized this year. You can imagine how hard that is having a toddler but I'm determined. When your 16 month old is having a bad night because of teething and you never put the tylenol back in the same spot and it's easier to just run to the 24 hour store at 2 a.m. you've got problems. The second one is nimbleness. It was said as kinda a joke but I think I'll follow through with it. I've become quite the klutz and I'd like to be more agile.

The 3rd one does matter to you...I want to close this blog and start another. I want to blog about more then just food. Things like the knitted items I make, everyday things that I like, etc..etc.. I realize that I can still do all of that on this blog but I feel it's time to move on I don't live in B36 anymore and don't have a connection to the name anymore. Unfortunately it is very hard for me to come up with a new name. It took me literally weeks to name both my cats. Thank goodness for Reno we had a few months to name her before she got here with other options if needed. All the names I've come up with so far are already taken. I will still be blogging here until the naming mess is sorted out and it's designed then it will all be moved over and I will probably still mostly blog about food cuz I'm obsessed with the stuff.

Thanks for listening to all of this.

Crispy Cat Candy Bars

2008-12-20T11:17:00.004-05:00

Crispy Cat Candy Bars

I received a wonderful package in the mail a few weeks ago from Sofia at Christie Communications. It was a trio of Crispy Cat Chocolate Bars!! I couldn't wait to dive right in and eat them all but I took my time eating them and made sure that Peter was around to share them with me.

First up...Mint Coconut: this one is probably our favorite of the 3. It's had a nice light texture compared to the other 2. The mint is very overpowering against the coconut flavor which is my only complaint.

Second up...Toasted Almond: much denser then the Mint Coconut but almondy good. Really delicious. I liked the thicker consistency of this bar more then Peter did. The flavor was great considering I'm usually not a fan of almonds in baked goods/chocolates.

Third and final...Roasted Peanut: Unlike my usual dislike of almonds in sweets I LOVE peanuts in my sweets. Especially with chocolate. I can't get enough of the combo. I like it so much that I sometimes might break off a piece of a chocolate bar and dip it into the peanut butter jar. So I was super excited to try this bar as well. It is just like the Toasted Almond bar in denseness which is perfectly fine by me. I like a chocolate candy bar with some heft it turns out. The peanut flavor wasn't overpowering which was a nice change compared to most peanut chocolates. Just a nice treat.

Lucky for me I just started to notice that one of the Whole Foods by me has started carrying them so it looks like I will be buying these again for a special treat every once in awhile.

Well I'm off to get ready for a wedding so a big CONGRATS TO MY FRIENDS STEVE AND BECKY ON THEIR WEDDING DAY!!!!!

Pizza Pizza

2008-12-16T10:01:00.002-05:00

Buffalo Pizza

I was surprised to learn just now that I never posted about these pizza's. The dough and the Buffalo Pizza are both tester recipes for Joanna's upcoming cookbook. The crust was fun to make. It has simple instructions and it was something that I could do during the day while Reno was ransacking our home without any troubles at all. Its a very nice and smooth dough to work with as well. Cooked, the crust is thin, crispy and tasty.

If you couldn't tell by the amount of buffalo sauced posts I've made I'm obsessed with the stuff. So when Joanna posted a recipe on her testing site for Buffalo Pizza I was super excited. I was also super excited after I made the pizza and ate it. It was good. Very good. I would have though my favorite part would have been the Buffalo Sauce but it was actually the red onions. I <3 red onions. I <3 them with anything buffalo..especially my Buffalo Tofu Salad.

Potato-Pepper Pizza

The dough recipe makes 4 pizzas. Besides the Buffalo Pizza I also made my own creation. Tomato sauce, peppers, thinly sliced fingerling potatoes, onions <3, garlic, herbs. Delicious.

Sweet Avenue Bakeshop

2008-12-14T20:15:00.003-05:00

Sweet Avenue Bakeshop Cupcakes

I am very lucky. I have a vegan cupcakery not too far from where I live. I don't frequent them often simply because I like to make my own cupcakes. That said, a few weeks ago I decided to stop by the Sweet Avenue Bakeshop in Rutherford, New Jersey since I was in the area visiting my Italian in law relatives and I was also in the mood for cupcakes and didn't want to make them.

Raspberry Swirl

My sister was coming over that night so I asked her what flavor she would like and this is what she picked. It was the prettiest of the bunch but then again I'm a sucker for anything pink. I didn't get a chance to taste this flavor but I will buy it again the next time I pay a visit. It just looks too good not to try it.

Sexy Sadie

I bought two of these because they are my favorite and Peter wanted one too! It is a delicious red velvet cake with a super yummy cream cheese frosting. I could eat only this cupcake for the rest of my life and be a very happy and heavy girl.

Jet Black

Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate sprinkles. It's a chocolate lovers dream.

Snowball

These come with either chocolate or vanilla cake with coconut icing and shredded coconut on top. I chose chocolate. I wish I chose vanilla. Simply because Peter and I split the Jet Black and Snowball the next night for dessert and it would have been nice to have a vanilla cake just for variety.

If you ever find yourself in North New Jersey you must stop by this adorable shop.

2 for u.

2008-12-07T11:36:00.003-05:00

Red Bean, Butternut and Millet Veggie Burger

You are getting 2 for 1 today in B36 Kitchen-land.

The other night I was actually in the mood to cook something from scratch and decided that the burger above would be our dinner. I'm chopping up and cooking some butternut on the stove top. Chopping onions and garlic. Boiling the millet. Adding spices. Then I go to the closet to get the can of Red Kidney Beans. First I must say that I had just gone food shopping earlier in the day and while walking down the bean aisle I asked myself if I should pick up some cans of beans. I said to myself "no, you have plenty of beans at home" then continued to walk on past the beans. Now back to looking in the closet. I look toward my bean shelf and .........no beans......zero......none......no beans. I search and search the rest of the closet. Maybe I didn't put the beans on the bean shelf the last time I bought them. No beans...zero....none....no beans. Sigh. Peter comes home and I tell him about the no bean situation and he offers to go to the store and buy some. I tell him not to bother I'll just get some beans the next day and we will eat them for lunch, which is what we did, except it was he who picked up the beans.

So instead of veggie burgers for dinner we had..

Parsley-Pinenut Pesto

Pesto! Ah delicious pesto. Thank goodness during my shopping trip I picked up 2 bunches of parsley. I have no idea why I bought those 2 bunches. Maybe it was the universe telling me that I wasn't going to be able to make what I wanted to make for dinner that night.

Thanksgiving Day and Day After

2008-11-30T11:35:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving Day After Meal

Our Thanksgiving's alternate each year between mine and Peter's family. Regardless of where they are I like to make us a Thanksgiving meal "my way" afterwards which excludes all meat, dairy and eggs. This year was know different. We dined on Balsamic-Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables (a Thanksgiving staple for me), Green Beans Almondine, Corn of the Cob, and Seitan Cutlets smothered in Golden Gravy. The Golden Gravy is a tester recipe for Joanna's next Yellow Rose Cookbook. It was my second time this week making it already it's that good.

Balsamic-Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables

I <3 this recipe so very much. It's based on a recipe from an issue of Bon Appetit that my mom received a few years ago and we have been making every year since. I don't follow the recipe anymore but it's the same basic idea. Roast whatever root vegetables you want with whole cloves of garlic and rosemary (fresh is best) then add the vinaigrette to it when it's done. I now just dump some balsamic vinegar, lemon zest and lemon juice into a cup without measuring and dump it over the veggies. I leave out the oil because the veggies were roasted in enough oil already that they don't need anymore added to it.

This year I roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Parsnips and Rutabaga along with some garlic cloves. Usually there are Brussels Sprouts and Beets in there but I didn't feel like going through the trouble since I had lots of other food to make for the real holiday.

This was the second time I bought this dish to my in-laws and it always gets rave reviews and everyone asking for the recipe.

Caramel Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

My Daring Bakers Challenge turned into what I was bringing to the dessert table on Thanksgiving. Read about this particular dessert in the post below.

The Dessert Table

The only thing vegan there were my cupcakes.

Daring Bakers

2008-11-29T10:56:00.004-05:00

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

Phew! I took like a 1/2 month break without even realizing it! What's really been happening is that instead of blogging at night I've been knitting a purple and green blanket for myself. It's taking along time.

But I make my grand return with my Daring Bakers challenge! I was really upset that I had to miss last months pizza one due to my little Reno getting real sick at the end of the month so I was super happy to make this one.

It is a Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting by Shuna Fish Lydon. I had to make my own caramel syrup for this one! It was so fun, scary and dangerous. I luckily came out of that process unscathed with the help of oven mitts and a pink plastic cutting board to protect me from the bubbling hotness that is homemade caramel syrup.

The cake itself was really straight forward and easy. I just subbed soy milk for the milk, Earth Balance for the butter and some egg replacer for the eggs. I would have like to have used some soy yogurt instead of the egg replacer but I have a box of the stuff that needed using up. The cake came out sweet, slightly dense and had a very old fashioned taste to it.

I was really looking forward to making this into an actual 9 inch round cake but when I realized that I would be bringing this for dessert on Thanksgiving I figured cupcakes were the way to go just so know one would have to mess around with cutting up a cake.

All in all this was a great success and a recipe I will be keeping for a very long time.

Host for this months challenges were:

Dorlores of Culinary Curiosity
Alex of Blondie and Brownie
Jenny of Foray into Food
Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go

4 ingredients.

2008-11-13T12:02:00.002-05:00

Refried Black Bean Taco

I wasn't sure whether to call this a taco or a quesadilla. I went with taco. Since we ate it like a taco and not a quesadilla. I've been trying to think of new things to feed Reno so I bought a can of Amy's Refried Black Beans and some soft whole wheat tortilla with the hopes that if I heated up the beans and spread it on a tortilla and rolled it up she would eat it. Well she did. She liked it a lot. Thing is though she can't consume a whole can of refried black beans so I made a version of her dinner for us with some brown rice and diced fresh tomato. It was really good. I mean really good. So good that I might keep a few cans of that stuff around for days when I don't feel like thinking about food and what to make.

We aren't big canned food eaters at all but I'll make an exception here. The only canned items we ever buy are beans (we buy dried also), tomatoes, chipotles and the occasional artichoke hearts. I really believe in making foods from scratch but with a child you have to make exceptions here and there because sometimes you have no time at all for a scratch meal. Especially when she is yelling "mammamamammamammamamammama" or "ninininininininininininininniiiii" which usually means "I"M HUNGRY" or she just hangs from the tray that is attached to her highchair and screams like the monkey that she is.

Shells and Chreese

2008-11-12T13:11:00.003-05:00

Shells and Chreese

You either love or hate this boxed mac and cheese from Roads End Organics. I happen to LOVE it. Its my favorite thing to eat on a rainy afternoon when I want to sit around and do nothing. A lot of people like to doctor theirs up by adding garlic powder and such. I just like a bit extra milk, recently oat milk, and earth balance. Plus lots of black pepper. In my opinion it doesn't need anything else.

I've only ever had the Cheddar Style Shells and Chreese so I can't say much on their other products but I'll get around to trying them one of these days.

Reno also loves this stuff. When I ate it the other day after I gave her her lunch she was climbing all over me for it. I gave her a taste and that was the end. I had to give her many many tastes after that. So now I have to share my Shells and Chreese with her.

Beer Brats.

2008-11-11T11:39:00.002-05:00

Beer Brats w. Peppers and Onions and a side of steamed Green Beans

Another tester recipe from Joanna at Yellow Rose Recipes. This one actually has the recipe on her website for all to see. So if you like what you see here then go HERE for the recipe.

I've never made any of the steamed sausage style recipes that are floating around on the Internet. Now I wish I had made them sooner. It is super easy. Its quicker then my baking method that I love to death. My favorite part is that you don't need to re-wrap them after they are done because they are all ready wrapped in foil and can just be thrown into the fridge to use later.

I decided to use it as one would when making Sausage w. Peppers and Onions. Slowly cooked onions, yellow and red peppers caramelizing with some garlic and thyme in a healthy amount of extra virgin olive oil. Stuffed inside a whole wheat ciabbata and served with simply steamed string beans. It was perfect. The sweetness of the caramelized onions and peppers was driving me crazy. I could have just eating a whole bowl of that stuff. The brats were a perfect consistency and delicious. I will be making this again very very soon as well as all the other steamed seitan recipes floating around.

IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!! If you decide to make this recipe PLEASE allow your beer to become stale. You can't skip that part of the recipe or it will make for some weird brats or so I've heard from other testers.

Stale beer = perfect brats!

Dip Dip Dip Dip.....

2008-11-09T20:28:00.003-05:00

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I am soooooooooooooooooo happy that Joanna is back and letting us test more recipe for her. I've been in a bit of a cooking rut lately and was just saying to Peter that I need new things to make. I knew Joanna was going to be posting new stuff soon and low and behold I checked the very next day and there were all the new recipes. Horray!

This one caught my eye IMMEDIATELY! I knew I had to make it right away. I've always loved Spinach and Artichoke dip but have never made it myself, vegan or non-vegan. It was always easier to just order it at a restaurant for an appetizer or maaaaaybe for my main meal.

I have nothing bad at all to say about this recipe. It took no time at all to make. Maybe 10 minutes to put together and then another 10 in the oven. It also took no time to eat. I ate a very unhealthy portion of it for my lunch with some homemade tortilla chips from Whole Foods that I'm obsessed with. This dip will definitely be making a few appearance at the holidays this year.

When Joanna's book comes out sometime next year make sure you make this recipe ASAP!

Food Fight!

2008-11-02T20:39:00.002-05:00

A mess of goodies from Food Fight Grocery

It's about time I get back to blogging. Reno is finally all better from her ear infection one week and then a stomach virus this past week. I missed the end of VeganMoFo and I wasn't able to partake in this months Daring Bakers because of Reno's sickness. I can't wait to go food shopping and cook real meals again.

For now I will share with you my haul from Food Fight Grocery. I received a gift certificate from my Aunts, Constance and Anne, last christmas and had yet to use it. I finally got to business and ordered some items that I just haven't been able to locate locally yet here in NJ.

I got:

Soy Curls, I can't wait to try these
MimicCreme, It's soy free!
Soyatoo Soy Whip, Its in the fridge waiting for a pie or sundae or..
Primal Strips Mesquite Lime, these I can find locally but not all the time.
White Chocolate Chips, I was never a fan of white chocolate but I liked them in
Macadamia White Chocolate Chip cookies and I've been craving those.
Crispy Cat Chocolate
Boom Choco Boom Chocolate
Hemp Seeds, I love them in salads

As I try each of these products I'll let you all know my feelings on them...

Chocolates

So far I've only tried these two different chocolate bars.

Boom Choco Boom dairy free rice milk bar: meh. Peter seemed to like it a lot but I was just so so on it. I was never a milk choclate fan to begin with and though it would be fun to try a vegan milk chocolate. I would not order this again or buy it in a store if I saw it.

Crispy Cat Mint Coconut: Now this is a different story from the chocolate above. YUM YUM YUM!!!! I hated that I had to share with Peter the only bar I ordered. The chocolate was great as was the mint coconut flavor. I'm now interested in trying out the other flavors this company offers.

VeganMoFo: Tacos

2008-10-28T12:32:00.002-04:00

Seitan Tacos w. Sweet Plantains and Seasoned Black Beans

Before Reno got an ear infection last week (and now a stomach virus this week!) I made us a taco dinner. My very first post ever on this blog was about tacos. These were different then those and equally as good and easy. As I get lazier and lazier with every passing week I used a packet of organic taco seasoning that I get at whole foods for the seitan. It's good so I see no reason to do something else otherwise. The seitan was the easy part. Dice and saute then follow the directions on the package. Top them off with some mesclun greens and a mashed up avocado and you've got yourselves a fine main entree.

For the sides I fried up 1 sweet plantain. I had purchased 2 but only 1 was ripe enough to be sweet. I'm actually still waiting for the other one to sweeten up. I also made seasoned black beans. It was nice having it alone as a side dish instead of a main meal with some rice. I'm going to try to do that more often because it made the meal extra satisfying and comforty.

I should be back to posting more regularly now that I'm back from my friends wedding in Ohio and even though Ms. Reno is still sick. They just might be short and make no sense at all but it's still a post. :)

VeganMoFo: a break.

2008-10-21T00:00:00.002-04:00

Reno (almost 14 months!)

My sweet sweet Reno isn't feeling very sweet. She's feverish and has an ear infection and is on some sorta meds. This is her first real sickness and it's horrible. At least she wants to cuddle which she never wants to do.

I'll be back in a few days when she is feeling better.

VeganMoFo: Peters Dinner

2008-10-17T15:40:00.002-04:00

Linguine w. Zucchini, Yellow Peppers, Red Onions, Cherry Tomatoes, Garlic, Pine Nuts

Sometimes Peter will think up a meal. This was one of them. He was bothering me for a few days about how he wanted pasta with zucchini and maybe yellow peppers in oil w. garlic. He kept asking and asking so I finally made it. I would have made it sooner but the specific ingredients that he wanted in this pasta dinner were not on hand.

My favorite thing about this dish is how the zucchini, peppers and onions are cut in long thin slivers which mimic the shape of the pasta. I also love the pop of flavor the cherry tomatoes give when they explode in your mouth!

The taste was pretty good too. After I took a bite Peter asked what I thought about it and the only word that came to mind was "Healthy". Which to me means that it is good but it also kinda lacks, just a bit, in the flavor and comfort department. Don't get me wrong. There was great flavor in it from the veggies but we have been eating so many richly spiced foods recently that this was kinda a shock to my taste buds. I hate to say it but some freshly shaved Parmesan would have been amazing on this.

I'm off to South Jersey for the weekend. We have a trip to Atlantic City planned, not to gamble, but to go to the clothing outlets to buy Reno the rest of her winter clothes. I'm hoping to get some for me as well.

See ya!

VeganMoFo: Favorite Dessert part 1

2008-10-16T23:08:00.003-04:00

Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies

I like cookies.
I like em a lot.
I like to eat them for breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner, afternoon snack, midnight snack and dessert.
I like them crispy.
I like to put ice cream in the middle of two cookies and eat them as a sandwich.
I like to eat raw cookie dough.
I like to eat raw frozen cookie dough.
I like to put raw frozen cookie dough into ice cream.
I like to hide a cookie in a cupcake.
I like taking pictures of cookies.
I like looking at other peoples pictures of cookies.
I like to share cookies with people that I like.
I like to bring cookies to parties, potlucks, or just to the park.

I do not like to eat cookies in bed.

VeganMoFo: Comfort

2008-10-15T12:35:00.004-04:00

Leek and Bean Cassoulet

This is one of those recipes from V'con that I've been meaning to make ever since I got this book. Finally I had everything I needed to make it. Really all I needed was some leeks since most of the ingredients I have on hand all the time. This was super easy to make. It did use a lot of pots, pans, bowls and dishes but it was well worth it.

I followed the recipe to the "T" except for the frozen peas. As you may know I HATE PEAS! I'll eat them, sometimes, if they are hidden in foods that I have not cooked myself but if I am cooking, peas will never be added. I used frozen string beans instead. The cassoulet part of the dish was very tasty. The biscuits were so so. This dish reminded me a lot of a dish my grandfather would make which we all called "chicken pa pa". His biscuits were amazing. So all other biscuit recipes have a lot to live up to for me. I'll always remember hanging around his kitchen when he was making his "chicken pa pa". I always wanted to whisk whatever needed to be whisked. It was always the thrill of my day!

All 3 of us devoured this meal. Then we devoured the rest of it for lunch the next day.

VeganMoFo: Crispy

2008-10-13T22:24:00.004-04:00

Beer Battered Seitan, Mixed Veg w. Garlic + Tots

This dinner has been approved by all 3 of us. When I ate chicken I loved Chili's Chicken Crispers. Oh how bad they are for you but how delicious they were. After you would eat them you'd declare to the entire table that you would never eat them again because of how horrible you felt afterwards. How quickly our stomach forgets..because you would be back a few months later ordering them again and again declaring that THIS was the last time. I'm glad to say that I obviously have had a "last time" with them even though my stomach says MORE, MORE, MORE!!!

When I'm getting those cravings I turn to this RECIPE from Jess of Get Sconed! Hers is a slightly adapted version of another recipe and mine is slightly adapted from her slightly adapted one. Mostly just extra amounts of some spices and such..it's nothing measured. Anyway..these are quick to whip together and are a cinch to fry. Served with a medley of mixed vegetables and some organic tater tots and you've got yorself a complete meal that won't kill you as quickly as those pesky chicken crispers would.

My one recommendation with the recipe is to 1/2 it. I used about 4 decent sized seitan cutlets cut into strips and I had a ton of batter left over. If I was making this for a party the full recipe would be perfect but for the 3 of us it's just too much.

Speaking of us..Reno ate the entire meal except for the carrots. She was shoving zucchini and string beans into her mouth like it was nothing along with the seitan and tots. The next day I chopped up the tots and leftover veg, again minus the carrots, for her lunch and heated them up. Gobble gobble gobble..she ate it all. My wonderful little eater!

Oh yeah..that's BBQ sauce from a jar that you see creeping under all the food.

VeganMoFo: Favorite Dinner part 2

2008-10-10T22:47:00.002-04:00

Rice and Beans w. Zucchini and Tomatoes
V'Con Skillet Cornbread

Another favorite dinner so soon? You bet! I'm glad I did it so soon too because this was the best Rice and Beans dinner I've ever made and I've made many. I use to make kick ass Rice and Beans all the time. Then I noticed that they started lacking in flavor and I didn't know why. I though I was making them the same way I always make them but apparently I wasn't. Then one day not too long ago I taught my Mother-in-law how to make them and she now makes them all the time and they are good! Really good! I'm wondering how I can teach her to make them and she can make them better than mine have been even though we are making them the same way. So last week I decided to take my time making them. The flavor I was missing was all of a sudden back. I figured out my problem very easily. I was quick cooking them. I wasn't allowing for the flavors to develop enough. Understandably with a baby who is now 13 months, quick was what I was looking for but quick doesn't work for delicious Rice and Beans.

Now to last night. I made them again but even better with the addition of small diced zucchini and tomatoes. I cooked the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft and delicious then added a nice helping of cumin and let that cook as well. (It's very important to cook your dry spices. It helps get the rawness out of them and it also then flavors the oil you are cooking everything in then creating a flavored oil. Does that make sense? It does to me and that is what I was taught by some talented chefs that I've worked for.) Then goes in the cans of black beans, not drained, and some salt and is slowly simmered on medium-low heat. Towards the end I added small diced zucchini and tomatoes. I like my zucchini al dente that's why I add it to the end. Cook for a few more minutes, taste for salt and voila awesome Rice and Beans with yummy veggies that will trick any Rice and Bean loving 13 month old who is refusing to eat green veggies all of a sudden. I think you know who I'm talking about.

The beans were topped off with fresh sliced scallions and 1/2 and avocado for each of us on top. On the side was the Skillet Cornbread from V'con. Pretty good cornbread but I've had and made better.

So the moral of this story is to take your time cooking. Rushing things is not alway's good for you.

(That 13 months old was now eating unhidden sauteed zucchini tonight with her seitan! Such a good kid. Next Monday she will surely hate it again.)

VeganMoFo: Simple

2008-10-09T23:01:00.002-04:00

PB&J

I just right now remembered that I got into a mini argument with a co-worker once about PB&J's. He said that calling them PB&J was incorrect since peanut butter was two words and shouldn't be combined as one when initialed as PB. I can't remember the outcome of that argument. I probably just started yelling cuz nobody talks bad about my beloved PB&J. Nobody!

My PB&J needs to be made with grape jelly, always. Always! Anything other is just plain wrong and I won't put up with it.

VeganMoFo: Favorite Dinner part 1

2008-10-08T18:20:00.003-04:00

Vegetable and Cashew Stir Fry

This one was a no brainer when it came to choosing 1 of my 3 favorite dinners. I would make and could eat this at least 5 times a week. You got your fresh colorful veggies and your protein packed cashews all melded together with a thick tamari sauce. How can you go wrong? My sister thought it was wrong because I add garlic chili sauce to it but she's a nut when it comes to spicy foods.

Veggies involved in that fry...

asparagus
broccoli
red onions
garlic
ginger
string beans
red pepper
zucchini

Other ingredients..

cashews
garlic chili sauce
tamari
cornstarch
olive oil

There would have been carrots added to the mix but I forgot about them. I also forgot to slice up some scallions for the top.

The tamari glaze is a simple 1/3 cup of tamari with about 2 spoonfuls of cornstarch or arrowroot mixed in and added at the end. It makes for a nice and thick sauce that clings to all the veggies.

Tofu, seitan and tempeh would also lend itself well to this dish.

VeganMoFo: Produce

2008-10-07T23:05:00.002-04:00

"Farmers Market Produce"

I haven't posted a food shopping trip in months and months. I find it fun to see what other people have purchased so I don't know why I stopped.

Today I went to the "farmers market" with my sister after lunch today. I put "quotes" around farmers market because it isn't really one. It calls itself one but the produce does not come from any proper farm that would sell at a real farmers market. It's basically a produce store with cheap fruits and veggies and a few canned sorta goods. Its great for when I need to bring down the amount of money I spend on food. I got the above haul for $50. If I went to my usual Whole Foods and bought all of that it would be close to $200.

What you see and can't see in the pics: lemons, garlic, peppers (red and jalapeno), plantains!!, broccoli, leeks, string beans, radishes, asparagus, brussels sprouts, parsley, onions, red onions, zucchini, cantaloupe, yukon gold potatoes, garlic chili sauce, walnuts, cashews, rigatoni. Possibly more. I just realized that I forgot to buy bananas for Reno. Oh well.

My bouquet of parsley. I actually find it very pretty and wouldn't mind displaying some parsley in my kitchen all the time. That lovely bunch will probably be made into a delicious pesto in a day or two.

I also plan to make the Bean and Leek Cassoulet (sp?) w. Biscuits from V'con. Maybe a pot pie. Pumpkin Baked Ziti for a pot luck, Rice and Beans w. Plaintain Chips and some kick ass stir fries among other things. It will be a delicious and fun comfort cooking week.

VeganMoFo: mustard curse.

2008-10-06T23:04:00.002-04:00

Mustard Crusted BBQ Seitan w. Broccoli and Sweet Potato Fries

Seriously. I'm having major problems coming up with a mustard crusted seitan recipe. The first time I tried to make it I had the right idea but just totally went about it wrong just to make it quick. Last night I totally had the wrong idea about how it should be made and continued to go about it the wrong way even though I knew it was wrong. I've never had trouble creating a "crusted" item before. Why so many problems with mustard of all things. The first time I at least actually tasted mustard in the final dish. This time I didn't and I used way more mustard than the first time. I ended up blobbing some BBQ sauce on the seitan cutlets at the end just to give it more flavor. One thing that did work with the weird "crust" was the BBQ sauce. Something about the mustard, rosemary and sauce all worked together. It wasn't what I wanted but it turned out turned happy at the end.

Also what has been up with my pictures recently? First the ugly burrito now this busted pic of some weird seitan. I need to start taking my time with things again and not be in a hurry which is hard with a 13 month old.

VeganMoFO: Field Roast

2008-10-04T23:01:00.002-04:00

Italian Field Roast w. Broccoli and a Multi Grain Roll

My parents have been around the last few days to visit and come to an environmental Octoberfest with us today. It was pretty cool. You can never be too sure what these things are going to be like. There were bird hikes, canoe rides, lots of information on wildlife, recycling and the like. Afterwards we stopped at Whole Foods to pick up stuff for dinner. While the others would be dining on some roasted herb chickens I picked up for myself some Field Roast Sausages. I absolutely love everything I've had from this company. It's sorta expensive so I don't buy them too often.

The Italian ones are great to add to pasta sauces or to join in on family dinners of sausage and peppers.

Mexican Chipotle are my favorite of all the products. I love making dirty rice with them or adding them to chili's.

And..who can forget the Celebration Loaves! I love bringing this loaf to my parents for the holidays. My mom is usually cooking away all day so I need something that I don't have to fuss with much at all and still have a special meal for myself without getting too much in the way.

VeganMoFo: Favorite Lunch part.1

2008-10-03T22:33:00.003-04:00

Black Bean, Brown Rice and Avocado Burrito

For part 1 of my favorite lunches I bring you a bad photo of a delicious burrito which I couldn't fully wrap properly because I was hungry and over stuffed it. Just live with it. I love burritos. I like to have everything wrapped up in a tortilla that you can eat with your hands. It's better than a sandwich because you have a better chance of it not falling all over your hands while you eat, depending on the type of wraps that you use. Some are so cheap and brittle that no amount of warming will keep them from breaking which in turn makes hot beans fall and burn your delicate hands. Recently I've been liking the 365 brand of tortillas. Especially the whole wheat ones. They have been wrapping my burritos beautifully recently. Sadly they were sold out the last time I was there and had to get the white flour ones.

Now when I say this is one of my favorite lunches I don't necessarily mean that particular one above. I mean all. Whether it's Chipotle's vegetarian burrito minus the sour cream and cheese or one from the local taco place which has stopped warming up their tortillas for some reason. They are the perfect food especially for lunch.

VeganMoFo: Gravy

2008-10-02T22:36:00.004-04:00

Red-Skinned Potatoes, Kale Mash w. Seitan Topped w. Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy

Why on earth have I never made the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from VwaV??? Seriously? It was delicious!! I'd make it for dinner guest even! I have written it on many "this week I will make" lists but still have never made it up until tonight. I have no idea what even made me make it tonight. I just went into the kitchen and started making it not even sure if I had all the ingredients that I needed. I didn't have the lemon but it was still damn tasty without it but I can see where it would work in brightening all the flavors in the recipe. The gravy of course worked great with the mashed potatoes and the lightly fried seitan. I can't wait to use it for the holidays with some nice cranberry sauce on the side.

Another good thing about the gravy and the complete meal..Reno liked it! I've been struggling with her food wise all week. Last week she ate everything green and good for her. This week..nope. Nothing green..nothing very good for her except rice and beans. My maa gave me the idea for putting kale in mashed potatoes, lucky for me I had some kale and potatoes (and garlic). I mashed them up with some Earth Balance and Rice Milk and kept the potatoes and gravy separate on her plate until I knew she would eat it. Then I mixed it all up. I left out the seitan for her because I tried to give it to her earlier and she wasn't too into it. I was using store bought seitan as opposed to the homemade cutlets I usually make. I have to say the brand I usually love wasn't so good tonight so I don't blame her for not eating it. From now on it's only homemade seitan for us. Homemade as in I'm making a triple batch tomorrow and freezing some of it.

VeganMoFo: Favorite breakfast part 1

2008-10-01T11:42:00.004-04:00

Toasted Poppyseed Bagel w. Earth Balance

It's time again. I'm very excited for Veganmofo to be here again. It's a great opportunity to find new blogs and revisit old ones you've forgotten about. I have a few ideas planned for this month. One of them being my favorite breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts. I'm going to try for a top 3 of each. Desserts maybe not since I'm still trying to cut out sugar but we shall see. (Only 4 more days left in my quest to be sugar free for 30 days!)

Favorite breakfast #1: Toasted bagel w. earth balance.

I prefer poppyseed. Never sesame. Sometimes everything. It's such an easy breakfast. It's nice and comforting and not so good for you to eat all the time. I like to have it about once a month. What's missing from this picture (breakfast) is an Iced Latte with a bit of chocolate added. I still have to wait 4 more days until I can have that again. I could have it without the chocolate but then it wouldn't be a favorite.

What's your favorite breakfast?

Almondine

2008-09-30T12:06:00.003-04:00

String Beans Almondine

Probably my all time favorite vegetable are string beans. I can't get enough of them. I like them steamed, sauteed, roasted and almondine. There is nothing better than buttery and almondy string beans.

I made these the other day for a pot luck that I go to almost every Wednesday. Since I had to rush home and make these super quick so that I wouldn't be late I didn't get a chance to make them "properly". Generally the string beans are sliced down the middle or on a diagonal, whichever you prefer and are the boiled in salt water for a few minutes and shocked in cold water to help retain their color before being bathed in a pan with butter and almonds. Regardless of how you make them they are easy to do and very delicious to eat. I'm thinking of making them for Thanksgiving this year at my in laws.

Get ready! VEGANMOFO is upon us again. For the month of October it will be daily blogging for me during this special event. Last year I only missed 2 or 3 days because of Thansgiving. This year I might miss 2 because of a wedding at the end of the month in Ohio. Click on the link to learn all about it and see who is taking part in it.

Daring Bakers...take 2!

2008-09-27T21:07:00.003-04:00

Today's the day to unveil my second Daring Bakers challenge...I'm happy to say this challenge was vegan for everyone involved!

Lavash Crackers w. Bruschetta

For the first time in Daring Bakers history it was a full on vegan challenge. The recipe for the crackers was vegan and to keep it vegan you had to create a vegan topping of your choice. At first I was bummed that we had to just make crackers. I then of course waited until the last day (today) to do the challenge and was then happy it was just crackers. In the end I was very pleased with the challenge and had tons of fun kneading the dough and watching it rise and so forth. It's something I haven't done in a LONG LONG LONG time. There is just something very comforting to me about kneading dough until it is satiny smooth.

I topped my crackers with rosemary, salt and pepper and them made a delicious Bruschetta using a tomato from my mother in laws garden. It was probably the best tomato I've had all summer. Peter and I made a lovely afternoon snack out of both items.

My only issue with the cracker was my own fault. I failed to roll the whole thing out paper thin so the edges were more bready then crackery. I noticed the problem when I transfered the dough to the sheet pan but didn't feel like rolling it out some more. To be honest I didn't have anymore room on the counter I was using to roll it out any more! Next time, and there will be a next time, I will divide the dough into 2 pieces to make it perfectly thin all the way around.

Seitan for everyone!

2008-09-26T16:42:00.002-04:00

Crispy Seitan Wraps w. Chipotle Mayo, Mesclun and Sprouts

Besides cutting sugar out of my diet for 30 days I'm also trying to eat 3 meals a day. My days usually just consist of snacking and that just isn't healthy for me. I now try to sit down with Reno during her lunch with a lunch of my own which is actually a lot of fun and I feel better for the rest of the day until dinner.

Above is my new favorite lunch. A whole wheat wrap smeared with chipotle mayo, mesclun, sprouts and some crisped up seitan strips. It's light, satisfying and damn tasty. I've been eating them so much that I made a version of the wrap on a ciabatta roll instead and snuck it in my bag for a free Mets game this past Tuesday. While Peter was muching away on his sausage and peppers I was eating delicious vegan food at a baseball game, you don't hear of that happening too often even though I had to bring it in myself.

Sauteed Seitan w. String beans

Ms. Re LOVES seitan!! Thank goodness. If she didn't I would seriously think that my real baby was switch in the hospital. She likes it lightly sauteed with some cut up string beans.

Reno

She likes to eat the seitan first. Then the string beans of which she hides some of them for later in the side of her chair.

Ohhh this was gooooooood!!

2008-09-22T21:14:00.002-04:00

Black Bean, Butternut and Quinoa Burger w. Chipotle Aioli

My sis and I are on special food restrictions. I'm done with refined sugar for a whole 30 days and she's off a whole plethora of ingredients. For me it's one at a time. Next month I cut back on carbs while still greatly reducing my sugar intake. You really learn a lot about yourself and what you eat when you cut out an ingredient. Do you realize how much everyday stuff has sugar added to it? It's a lot. Breads, sunflowerseed butter, Primal Strips (eek!!), ketchup..etc..etc.. By the third day I was feeling a bit strange but not a bad strange a good strange and it keeps getting better and better. Its been 1 1/2 weeks now and I feel great. I've lost some chub from my chest and middle (although woman problems invaded my body the other day and ya can't tell anymore). I highly recommend this experiment. I want to cheat everyday but I then remember how great I feel without it and have yet to ask the local barista to just add a smidge of chocolate to my Iced Latte.

The other night I was really craving sweet. I decided that the above comfort dinner would hold off my cravings. The butternut gave me all the natural sweetness I needed and the chipotle aioli was well just delicious. It did nothing for my sweet tooth except give me a burning hot mouth. Served with Organic Tater Tots, sauteed broccoli and some avocado slices it was a perfect meal.

I remember one of my teachers in culinary school telling us to eat fried brown rice balls to curb our cravings for sweet. I'll have to give that a try one of these 30 days and see if it actually works.

Have any of you had success in curbing your sugar eating ways??

Nachos

2008-09-21T11:20:00.003-04:00

Black Bean Chili Nachos

I've been dreaming of this day for a long time now. A day where Peter would be going out with some friends for dinner and I'd be able to eat a non-Peter friendly dinner. This finally happened this week and I was finally able to make myself some vegan nachos!! Peter will never eat this. If he was home and I made this he would probably vomit because the though of it would gross him out so much. It was bad enough when he did come home that my nearly empty bowl was still sitting next to me in the living room. It was worse that when I went into the kitchen to clean up that I left the nearly empty nacho bowl in the living room and then had the nerve to ask him to bring it too me. It's true love when your nacho hating partner will bring something like that into the kitchen for you.

Another view of the NACHOS!!!

Dare I say that these were "semi homemade"? They were. At least I didn't have a whole table scape planned or set up for the occasion. That's only some that Sandra Dee, Sandy Lee, Cindy Nee whatever her name is would do.

What is all was.

Oven was at say 400˚. On a sheet pan with parchment paper I put a very generous handfull, or 2, of tortilla chips plus 1/2 a can of Amy's Black Bean Chili on top (that's the semi-homemade part). While they were heating up in the oven I made Joanna's Nacho Sauce from Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook. When everything was done I transfered the chips w. chili into a bowl and dumped some nacho sauce on top followed by some salsa (not homemade) more nacho sauce and then some diced avocado.

Holy lord were theses good!! What made them even better was sitting in front of the TV with them and watching The Science of Sleep for the very first time. It's now one of my all time favorite movies.

Sorry Henry Basil

2008-09-16T14:41:00.002-04:00

I've used and abused you all summer long to make delicious and large amounts of pesto and pasta sauces. I thought this last time was going to be it for you.

Thankfully you just keep on giving.

Seriously though. I'm going to miss this basil plant I've named Henry this fall/winter. He's done great things for me and provided some life and greenery in my kitchen. He was only $11.00. If I made everything I've made out of him without him I can't even imagine how much money I would have spent. I've made cups upon cups of pesto.

Next year if all goes according to plan I should have an actual backyard were I can grow a new Henry Basil and give him tons of different herb babies like rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley, sage and cilantro.

I'm uber-excited about fall produce though!! I can't wait!!

Chickpea Cutlets

2008-09-14T21:49:00.003-04:00

Chickpea Cutlets (uncooked)

13 Chickpea Cutlets to be exact. I don't know what came over me the other day. Reno went for her a.m. nap and I'm sitting around and just decided that I was going to make a boatload of chickpea cutlets. I didn't realize that I would make that many. There's only 2 of us. We shouldn't eat that many. So I decided to cook one up for Reno when she woke from her nap. SHE LOVED THEM!! I was so excited. Not only does she get protein from the chickpeas but she also gets it from the vital wheat gluten. She ate them all week like we did.

No Parmesan Chickpea Cutlets over Pasta w. Red Sauce

Only after I made this did I realize that a nice cheezy substance would have been nice sprinkled on top. I usually fry the cutlets in a little bit of oil but these cutlets were baked in the oven. It's my new favorite way to eat them. They still get they "fried" taste from the oil I lightly spray on them instead of being fried in more oil then I really need to consume.

Rice and Beans w. Chickpea Cutlet and Avocado

We have also recently discovered that Reno loves Rice and Beans. So we are eating that a few times a week again for now. The cutlet paired really well with the whole dish and it was a super satisfying meal for the 3 of us.

Ciao!

2008-09-05T09:36:00.002-04:00

We are off to South Hamilton, Mass. for the weekend. Peter's cousin Jonathan is gettin' married. I'm not looking forward to the 5 hour drive w. Reno. She's good in the car but not for more than 2 hours. Our 5 hour drive will most likely turn into a 6 or 7 hour drive because of all the stops we will have to make for her.

Ugg.

See you all next week!

Reno's 1st Birthday.

2008-09-03T12:32:00.003-04:00

Vanilla Cupcakes w. Vanilla Buttercream

On Sunday, 8.31.08 we celebrated Reno's birthday! I was so happy to have her party on her actual birthday. We had about 20-25 people in our apartment, lots of food and lots of fun.

We had cupcakes w. special Reno decorations that I made with some help from my sister, Chi and friend Rachele.

I didn't get pictures of the food but amongst all the stuff I had some VwaV Seitan and Herb Stuffed Mushrooms and V'con's black bean burger, mini style! I highly recommend making the the burgers into mini's for a party. They were so fun looking and delicous.

Reno (1 year)

She got lots of gifts.

Reno (1 year)

Again lots of gifts. Mostly toys.

Shark cutout made by my friend Rachele

She also had a busty girl pushing a great white shark to the top of the ocean. You can't see it in this picture but the girl had on red socks. That's my friend Todd taking his turn in the cutout.

I didn't get to take lots of picture. There might be a total of 8 of them on my Flickr account which you can access from the side bar of this site. When my parents come back from Cyprus in 2 weeks I should be adding more to Flickr.

And if anyone out there is cares besides me and VeggieGirl America's Next Top Model starts tonight. It's sure to be horrible but we love it! It also means the start up of Wednesday Night Potlucks at my sisters so that my friend and I can watch it together and eat good food. Tonights theme is Chinese food. I'm bringing pot stickers. I hope someone brings scallion pancakes.

Daring Bakers..my 1st!

2008-08-31T01:02:00.005-04:00

I've decided to join the fun that is the Daring Bakers! I however wasn't excited to see that my first challenge would be....

Coconut Cream "Eclairs"

Eclairs! I've never liked them. I've never eaten a vegan one let alone ever seen a vegan one. But I decided this would be a fun challenge. Like most things in my life I waited until the very last few day of the challenge. But I lucked out. Sorta.

I've decided to join the fun that is the Daring Bakers! I however wasn't excited to see that my first challenge would be Eclairs. I've never liked them. I've never eaten one let alone ever see a vegan one. But I decided this would be a fun challenge.

I used this recipe for the pate a choux but upped the amount of baking powder to I think 1/2 or 1 full teaspoon (eek. i can't find my notes on it). The pastry cream is the vegan pastry cream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World with Coconut extract added because who doesn't like coconut.

The delicious chocolate ganache was just chocolate chips with a bit of soy milk melted to perfection.

One unfortunate thing about making them into eclairs was the misplacement of my pastry bag. I tried to do the old use a big ziplock bag trick but that ended up in total disaster. So I shaped my blobs of pate a choux into cream puff size instead.

I was nervous when I took them out of the oven because they didn't brown as much as I thought they would and I didn't think they would brown much at all at the same time. I also wasn't sure what the inside would look like when I cut them open. Would there be the hollow inside of this particular pastry? YES there would be, sorta! I was so happily surprised and thankful because I wouldn't have had another opportunity to make them again. One slight mishap was that the bottom of the pastry was a little undercooked and heavy. So the recipe needs some working on.

Thankfully when all put together..choux, coconut pastry cream, choux, ganache, dried coconut..it tasted and looked fantastic. I actually liked it! I've never liked an eclair. I even brought them over to a friends house and they seemed to go over well. I'm so happy that my first Daring Bakers challenge went well.

P.S. TODAY WAS RENO'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! SHE WAS BORN 1 YEAR AGO TODAY AT 11:32 A.M. AFTER BEING FORCED A.K.A. INDUCED TO COME OUT BECAUSE SHE WAS TWO WHOLE WEEKS LATE AND SHOWING NO SIGNS OF COMING OUT ON HER OWN. WE THREW A BIG PARTY FOR HER TODAY. SHE HAD A BLAST AND CHARMED EVERYONE. PICS TO COME. WAIT TIL YOU SEE THE DECORATIONS I MADE FOR HER VEGAN CUPCAKES!

VwaV week continued..

2008-08-28T22:15:00.002-04:00

This is what my copy of Vegan with a Vengeance looks like. The cover was falling off for quite sometime then Reno got a hold of it and helped remove the top cover completely. Such a sweet child. I actually found her EATING a book this morning. To continue with VwaV week...

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondies

Out of the oven. These were good! At first I thought the blondie part was just O.K. but after letting it sit for a bit and trying it again later in the day I fell in love. What a great recipe. It's also super easy to make. I had them in the oven before 9am on a day Reno decided to sleep in a bit. I love baking first thing in the morning it reminds me of my vegan pastry chef days where I would get up at 5 am to catch a train to NYC and bake cakes, brownies, cupcakes, bars, etc..etc..all day for the restaurants I worked at. I hope I get to do all that again one day for my own bakery or restaurant.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie

This one was waiting to dive down into my belly and dive it did.

Fresh Corn Fritters

I'm sure you are thinking that I must have gone crazy again like the whole Pesto Picture/Black Bean Post from a few ago. I haven't. My next recipe to try was the Fresh Corn Fritters from the book. I've always wanted to make them and now I had the chance. Except that the fritters didn't want to fritter. It was a glop of batter that didn't want to set or be flipped so it just turned into a sorta scramble. While making it I was curious as to why the recipe didn't have any flour in it. I thought of adding some myself but didn't. Later on in the evening I looked at the recipe again to figure out what I did wrong and saw that flour was indeed suppose to be in the mix. I just completely missed it. That doesn't happen often but it did.

Even with that mishap the taste of the "fritter" was amazing. I probably ate 1/2 of it while waiting for the other part of dinner to finish cooking which was veggies, rice and beans topped in salsa with the fresh corn fritter. Very delicious. I had sister Nicole and friend Rachele over and they both agreed that it was really good.

Make both of these VwaV recipes right away if you've never before.

bag o' taters

2008-08-26T11:22:00.002-04:00

Potato Pancakes (again)

We got back yesterday from a long weekend at my parents in South Jersey. Since they are going to be in Cyprus for 2 weeks my mom gave us a bunch of food that they won't be using some of which included a big bag of red skinned potatoes and some huge ass onions. I was mega tired yesterday so I figured we would just order out and worry about cooking the next day. That was when I realized that my mom gave me everything I needed, veg wise, to make these. So I did. Peter was decadent and ate his with organic apple-apricot sauce. I was gross and ate them with a huge blob of cold organic ketchup!

3 Protein Chili

One very hot day the other day I was sweating and sticky hot so I decided it was a good day to make chili. I must have been cookoo or somthing but it was one of the best chili's I've made in a long time. I used 3 different types of protein: seitan cutlet chopped up, black beans and cashews. My chili's always have cashews in them.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondies

It's Vegan with a Vengeance week over on the ppk forums. I had a VwaV week a year or so ago and made a few dishes I've never done so it's fun to revisit this book and make a few more recipes I've been hankering to make. The first thing I made was the Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondies. I made them at 8:30 in the morning today so the finished product will be saved for my next post. Here they are before making their way into the oven.

Stay tuned to see what else I make from VwaV!

The Vegan 100

2008-08-24T10:05:00.002-04:00

I like when things like this pop up when I'm away from home and in the bowels of Southern New Jersey for the weekend.

The talented Hannah of the blog Bittersweet and My Sweet Vegan fame posted the following list of 100 vegan things us vegans should eat at some point in our wonderful lives.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!

1. Natto
2. Green Smoothie (why haven't I made these yet!)
3. Tofu Scramble
4. ~~Haggis~~
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Nachos
12. Authentic soba noodles
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Taco from a street cart
16. Boba Tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (pomegranate!)
19. Gyoza
20. Vanilla ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (i don't like fresh berries too much...what?)
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. ~~Caviar~~
29. Baklava (i have a good recipe i need to find)
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. ~~Root beer float~~ (i hate root beer)
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies ( i use to make them for work)
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl
44. Homemade Soymilk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas
48. ~~Vegetable Sushi~~
49. Glazed doughnut
50. Seaweed (i've had it and will never again)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Tofurkey
54. Sheese
55. Cotton candy
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. ~~Birch beer~~
59. ~~Scrapple~~
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls (these will be in my next Food Fight order)
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian
66. Homemade Sausages
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. Mochi
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds
87. Macaroni and “cheese”
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips (SOMEONE NEEDS TO SEND ME SOME OF THESES!)
94. Yellow watermelon
95. Chili with chocolate
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough

So I have about 6 items that I will not try for whatever reasons and about 33 or 35 items I have yet to try. Not bad out of a list of 100.

I'm going to add some of my own items that I think everyone should try:
(vegan versions of course)

*chocolate coconut pudding
*scallion pancakes
*biscuits and gravy
*Scottish meat pies
*butternut-leek-rosemary dumplings

Very green post

2008-08-22T12:33:00.002-04:00

Basil-Miso Pesto Rigatoni

So here is the pesto porn that I posted a few post ago where I was talking about Rice + Beans by mistake. I purchased a basil plant that I named Henry at the farmers market 1 month or so ago and it had tripled in size! Since my sister was coming over and the herb was taking up the entire window I decided to prune it a bit and make a big thing of pesto which she and I equally love. I almost always serve pesto with long pasta but decided to use rigatoni this time and was very happy with how it came out. I wasn't sure if the pesto would cover the ins and outs of a tube pasta like rigatoni. I'm very happy to say that they both did their jobs very well. I'm also happy to report that Henry the Basil plant can probably produce at least 2 more rounds of pesto plus some extra uses in tomato sauces!

WW Pasta, Zucchini, Broccoli + Stringbeans (for Reno)

I made this for Reno the other day. Most of it was thrown on the floor. She also pretended to be tired which she does when she doesn't want to eat what's in front of her. Some actually made it into her mouth and then was spit out. A very small amount made it into her stomach. She wasn't too into it. I was, so I ate some it. It was all really boring and steamed no flavor at all so I don't blame her. The next day I sauteed some more of it in olive oil which helped her eat a teeny bit more than she did the day before. Figuring out what a baby wants to eat has become a full time job for me. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes not so fun. I'm contemplating starting another blog to document what she eats from day to day. Peter doesn't want her to be vegan. I don't want her to be omni so we've gone in between both and she will be raised vegetarian (for now.) When she can make her own decisions she will be allowed to eat whatever she wants within limits..no burger king or shit like that. It should all be interesting.

Walking (will be a year old next Sunday!!!)

Reno has been walking for about 2 weeks now. She's been taking a few steps here and there for about 1 month but now it's full on walking. Hardly anymore crawling. It's very exciting and also weird to have her all of a sudden just walk over to you.

Tofu Tuesday a Dinner Party a la Mode!

2008-08-19T09:21:00.005-04:00

oops!! Peter just asked why I had a picture of Pesto but was writing about Rice and Beans in yesterdays post. It is now fixed with a proper picture. I'll post about the pesto another time.

Tofu + Seitan Marsala w. Stringbeans + Pine nut's

I had my lovely friends Dave and Michelle over for dinner the other night. I had NO IDEA what to make for them especially after I had a few ideas and then asked if either of them liked mustard or capers. Turned out neither of them did so I had to scratch those ideas. Think, think, think, think.....Marsala. I knew Dave like mushrooms and I'm pretty sure I've seen him order Marsala at restaurants. Michele I'm not too sure about since I haven't eaten with her that much. It turned out I made the right decision.

The Marsala is based on the recipe from Joanna's book Yellow Rose Recipes. I suggest you all through a party and make it. It was very easy and very delicious. I used tofu and seitan because I figured if someone didn't like tofu they might like seitan and vice versa. I ended up serving it over pasta. I wanted to serve the Marsala over mashed potatoes but I was short on ingredients. Namely potatoes.

A BIG serving bowl of Marsala

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

I finally caved and purchased My Sweet Vegan. What a beautiful book. This was the first recipe I've tried from it. I figured it would be the perfect ending to my dinner party especially since it was so easy to make and I was able to make it the day before. I especially liked how easy the dough was to roll out for the crust. I can't wait to try more of these recipes.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie a la Mode

Warmed in the oven and topped off with Purely Decadents Coconut Milk Ice Cream Vanilla Bean!!! I was so happy to finally see these coconut milk based ice creams at my Whole Foods. Whenever I make ice cream at home it's always coconut milk based. It's nice to be able to buy some now without having to set up my machine, which is something I really should do before the summer is over.

Farmers Market Haul

2008-08-18T10:45:00.002-04:00

The Haul

I am in love with our local Farmers Market. Every Saturday (most of them) we are trying to get to the Walnut Street Farmers Market in Montclair. I'm always blown away by the selection of delicious and local fruits and veggies. They even have an organic stand that has some of the most delicious broccoli and kale I've ever tasted. Last week I grabbed a few big handfuls of string beans and 2 of the largest jalapenos I've ever seen and was shocked when the woman told me it was $1.25. It really can't get better than that! Especially since I LOVE string beans!!

Our latest haul:

carrots
kale
broccoli
jalapenos
red pepper
zucchini (they were the best I've ever eaten)
string beans
peaches
sugar plums

2 recents..

2008-08-17T10:37:00.003-04:00

BBQ Baked Seitan w. Sauteed Potatoes + Broccoli w. Garlic

The seitan = super easy. Slice, douse in your favorite BBQ Sauce and bake in the oven until nice and sticky. Its one of those dishes that would do well if you accidentally forgot about it for about 20 + minutes or so. I just love sticky BBQ.

The real star of that dinner though was the side dish. I originally was going to cook 2 separate sides: potatoes and then broccoli w. garlic. While the potatoes were sauteing I decided that I didn't want to use another pot so I tossed the broccoli and garlic in with them. It turned into taste heaven. So stupidly simple and so delicious. Ms. Reno even enjoyed the leftovers the next day for lunch. She is definitely wasn't swapped at the hospital if she is a lover of potatoes.

Rice + Beans

They are so happy together, rice and beans. To us they are the perfect food. I got super huge jalapenos at the local farmers market for super crazy cheap and all I could think about was rice and beans. Its become quite the dinner staple for us recently like it has at times in the past. 2-3 times a week. I use to add a weekly "special guest star" to each week's worth of rice and beans like raw diced zucchini, cherry tomatoes, carrots..etc. It was fun and it made it different each time. I might have to start thinking of new "guests" for me beans.

Stupid Olympics and business trips and mini vacations and....

2008-08-13T13:58:00.002-04:00

Sauteed Seitan and Portobello Wrap w. Chipotle Mayo

So I've been M.I.A. for a bit. Peters went away for business so I went to my parents with Reno for a few days so I wasn't spending my b-day alone (yikes! I'm 32!!) By the time we returned the Olympics started and that has been taking up most of my pm time especially since it's Swimming time and as a ex-competitive swimmer I can't get enough of watching other people swim. I just want to dive into the pool with them.

I've still been cooking though. Most of it just easy favorites but some of it new like the wrap above. I can't tell you how good the seitan was with sauteed portobello's and onions and lots of garlic. Holy Goodness! I wish I was eating it right this very second. I'm in fact eating a Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie!!! More on that in a later post after I serve it to people.

Biscuits and Gravy

I'm not southern at all. I have no southern roots, nothing. But I love me some biscuits and gravy. I love them so. Both recipes are from the book Yellow Rose Recipes the biscuits are on page 17 Buttermilk Biscuits and the gravy is on page 83 Almond Milk Gravy. I didn't have any almond milk so I just used soy instead. I usually don't use store bought meaty things but purchased some Gimme Lean Sausage for the gravy. It's not bad stuff. I don't think I could eat it plain without a sauce but it's nice to know it's available if I need it in a pinch.

so nice to be home...

2008-07-29T15:11:00.004-04:00

BBQ Seitan Medallion w. Roasted Beets

Everytime I serve beets I tell Peter or whomever I am feeding them too to remember that they ate beets the next day when they go to the bathroom. But guess what? I never remember and I alway's fear that I'm dying or that my crazy kidney infection has returned. So dumb.

So remember that you ate beets!!

I made seitan cutlets the other day. Normal size ones not just the one giant one. The giant one is good for slicing and dicing. The normal size ones make for a much nicer presentation. What is above couldn't be simplier. It is my new go to food for lunch when I have extra cutlets soaking in the fridge.

Dip the moist seitan into panko (not much will stick but that is ok).
Pan sear on both sides for a minute or two.
Pour some BBQ sauce on top of the seitan and place in the oven 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. (i just put the pan I've seared them in in the oven.)
Eat.

So satisfying.

Crab Reno (almost 11 months!!!!)

While sitting on the beach last week I noticed a crab crabbing along on the beach that looked a lot like my daughter. It turned out to be my daughter. She loved the beach and the ocean water. More of that to come in another post.

Ocean Grove

2008-07-19T15:03:00.003-04:00

Jenna + Peter (not really)

So that ain't us. But it could be! You never know! I'd give you all nightmares if I put a pic of myself in a bathing suit.

We are leaving, at some point, today for Ocean Grove, New Jersey. It's a little over an hour away but Traffic.com is telling us it's going to take 2 1/2 hours. So we are just hanging out until it says otherwise. Lucky for us we also live right next to the Parkway so we just have to look out our window to see what the traffic conditions are like.

We will be back next friday. Earlier if Weather.com has it's way. Thunder storms are scheduled for the ENTIRE WEEK!

Have a great week everyone!!

What the....?

2008-07-17T11:11:00.002-04:00

Mustard-Tamari Glazed Seitan w. Asparagus and Simple Potato Pancakes

Really..what the fuck?? I had made such a commitment to myself that I was going to post everyday up until our beach vacation this Saturday and I've failed. Summer has gotten to me and Reno has gotten to me. She is needing my undivided attention lately and is only happy if I'm laying on all of our couch cushions on the floor watching her stand and raising our arms over head going "TA DAAAA...TA DAAA...TA DAAAAAAA!" She is "napping" in her play yard rignt now. By "napping" I mean laying down, singing to one of her toys. She will fall off soon and then it's off to the land of many dirty dishes for me. While I have these few precious seconds....

...I've still been obsessed with mustard and seitan. I took the rest of the GIANT cutlet from a post or two below and sliced it in odd shapes, to make it look more appetizing, plus I like odd more then even and can even get a little OCD about it. Enough into this glimpse of my crazyness..I sauteed the seitan w. garlic and then added the asparagus towards the end. I like my aparagus crisp once it starts getting too soft I'm turned off. At the end of cooking I made a mixture of whole grain dijon mustard w. tamari and a little bit of olive oil and poured it over the seitan/asparagus mixture and stirred until everything was completely coated. The result was delicious!! The texture of the seitan was perfect and meaty and complemented the sauce perfectly. Asparagus and mustard are a perfect combination as well.

Simple Potato Pancakes

Before I decided to make the seitan for this dinner all I was really planning on making were Potato Pancakes. I love them. Peter loves them even more that I do. I usually add all different types of stuff to my pancakes but decided to kept them very simple (and thick.) I also HAND GRATED these suckers! Now that's love and you can taste it!

Simple and Thick Potato Pancakes

makes: I have no idea

2 large red skinned potatoes
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tea salt
fresh black pepper to taste

*grate the potatoes with a box grater into a bowl and drain most of the liquid when finished. (if I grate these is a processor I don't drain because they become nice and moist...with a box grater they seem to become way more liquidy)

*add to potatoes the thinly sliced onions and minced garlic and combine. Then add the flour. If the potatoes are still really moist after adding the flour keep adding a few tablespoons more of the flour at a time until the mixture holds together nicely.

*add salt and pepper.

*pour enough canola oil into the biggest pan ya got until it covers the bottom of the pan. When oil is heated I take a big spoon and scoop up a pile of potatoes and gently drop them into the oil. Don't press them flat at this point. When the bottom is golden brown after 3-4 minutes flip the pancakes with a spatula and then press them flat and cook another 3-4 minutes or until golden brown.

*remove the pancakes from the pan and place on a plate or baking sheet tray lined with paper towels or a brown paper bag to soak up some of the oil and sprinkle with salt. Keep them in a warm oven while you cook the rest of the potato pancakes.

*Serve with cold applesauce (room temperature just won't do) or tofu sour cream.

That's one BIG cutlet ya got there!

2008-07-07T22:49:00.003-04:00

Mustard-Tamari "Crusted" Seitan w. Sweet Potato Chips and String Beans

Before I get to the BIG cutlet let me show you what I made with 1/2 of it. I was thinking about how much I like mustand and how much I like seitan so I decided to combine the two. Earlier in the day I made a GIANT cutlet instead of making separate ones. The only reason for that is that I didn't feel like wrestling with 4-6 pieces of gluten that didn't want to stretch. I only wanted to wrestle with 1 piece of gluten that didn't want to stretch. When it was time for dinner I was trying to think of a way to combine the mustard I so love with it and came up with a crust. The thing is though I went about "crusting" the seitan completely wrong and I knew it before I even started and just continued to do it anyway.

Friends of our came over just to shoot the shit with us while I was making dinner. It was around 8:30 at night and I didn't want to set up my 3 bowl make even a bigger mess method. I just decided to add all of the crust ingredients together into one bowl with the seitan and mix. Now while I'm doing this I know that the crust WILL NOT STICK! but I do it anyway it's fun to be rebellious and it was a moment of madness. Needless to say I was correct in my crazy thinking and it didn't stick at all. When it came time to cook it I just threw it all in the pan together and sauteed it. Some stuck (because I forced it to). Most of it didn't. It was still damn delicious and I was eating the rest of the "crust" out of the pan after our friends left around 11.

Crust ingredients: panko, whole grain mustard, tamari, olive oil. I will be adding additional ingredients to the crust the next time I make it and I will crust it properly. Bad me. Bad bad me.

Sweet Potato Chips are thinly sliced and tossed in olive oil and salt and baked in the oven on parchment paper.

Stringbeans are blanched in water.

BIG Seitan Cutlet

Ahhhhhhhh the cutlet! I think this is now my new favorite way of making seitan. One GIANT cutlet simmered in the over (i always write over instead of oven.) with broth made from one of those broth cubes. I never use those unless if I'm making this seitan. I've made it before with both homemade broth and store bought broth and it's just not the same. It must be made with broth cubes. Not any ol' broth cube at that...Rapunzel Vegan Vegetable Bouillon w. Sea Salt is the only way to go. I don't know what it is about it but it just makes the seitan taste perfect.

The cutlet recipe by the way is from the mighty Veganomicon.

It was bound to happen..

2008-07-05T23:20:00.002-04:00

Doesn't Deserve A Title Curry

I pride myself on knowing how to cook. I also know that I cook well, most of the time. Even when I don't cook well the food is still passable. That dish up there was not passable. The son of a bitch didn't even want to photograph well. Jerk! At least give me something you no good for nothing curry!

I really wanted curry. So I made a curry. I use to make curries all the time. For some reason this one didn't want to taste good. I did all my usual tricks to make it passable but nothing worked. Was it the almonds that I used instead of the cashews that I usually use but wanted to save for another dish? Was it that I didn't put tomatoes in the curry this time? Curry powder old? Did I forget a secret ingredient? What was it? Maybe the red pepper was bad? I'll never know and I guess that's OK. Cooking a bad meal has made my brain wake up again and I've been thinking about food nonstop ever since and have come up with some new ideas for some new recipes. That makes me excited. The fact that this curry is still in my fridge doesn't make me excited. Peter says he will eat it...NEWS FOR HIM..if he doesn't take it to work on Monday it is in the TRASH!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

How does that song go? "The shit is bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S!"

Reno thinks bananas are the shit! She put this one to a slow death the other night. Some got in her mouth. Some was plastered all over her body, clothes and face. The rest was on her chair. Oh yeah. Some was also in her hair. At least she didn't throw it on the floor.

She also thinks Avocado Sandwiches are the shit.

PRO BAR

2008-07-04T16:04:00.004-04:00

PROBAR

The lovely people at PROBAR contacted me awhile ago asking if I wanted to try out some of there new products. Never to turn down free food I said "YES!" Peter was pretty excited as well when the package came.

We received 5 bars. Not included in the picture is the Maple Pecan bar. We ate that one right away before I even thought of taking a picture. It turned out that the Maple Pecan was my favorite of the bunch. My least favorite, and I new it would be before even trying it, was the Kettle Corn. There is just something about the name Kettle Corn that turned me off. It just wasn't for me. For the other flavors they were all equally good. They were very filling and very high in fat. Even though they are meant to be a whole food meal replacement bar I'm thankful Peter was all too happy to split each one with me.

I would buy these if I came across them in the store. I'm sorta wishing I had a Cocoa Pistachio one right now.

Lunch..

2008-07-03T16:05:00.002-04:00

Chipotle Split Pea Soup (Tester) w. Sunday Salad

This was our lunch on Sunday and it was perfect. Joanna has giving us testers another great recipe to try out for her. The soup was slightly spicy and split pea tasty. Best of all is that there is basically no fat used at all and you wouldn't know it unless someone told you. That type of cooking makes me happy.

Sunday Salad w. Garlic-Lemon Vinaigrette

This is called Sunday Salad pretty much because I made it on Sunday. It was nice using non bagged salad for once with baby spinach, which was bagged. Some blanched string beans and chopping red bell pepper thrown on top and then drizzled in a garlic and lemon vinaigrette which I created while the soup above was cooking. For me this was a very satisfying meal.

Lost and Found: Tempeh

2008-07-02T09:50:00.003-04:00

BBQ Tempeh w. Sauteed Mixed Vegetables

A lot like Tofu, up until recently, you never really see Tempeh on my blog. It is one of those proteins that I purchase quite a bit that gets lost, has his picture put on a box of soymilk and is then eventually found in the back of my fridge..but it's too late by then. He's gone and there is nothing that can be done. To me this is very funny because when I first became a vegetarian waaaaay back when, tempeh is what I tried, liked and ate quite a bit. How I lost this love a fare with the fermented product is beyond me. A few weeks ago I purchased another 2 packs of tempeh! What? I decided I will not let him see yet another fridge death and cook him up.

I first need to admit that I've never made my own BBQ sauce. This time is no different. That tempeh up there is marinated and baked in a store bought jar sauce who's name escapes me. It isn't anything special but it's still good. I'd like to make my own sauce but when the mood strikes I don't have any ingredients on hand and don't want to go to the store to buy them.

The tempeh was first steamed for about 10 minutes. Then placed in a square glass baking dish and covered with the BBQ sauce and marinated for about 30 minutes before being put in a 400 degree oven until it became all sticky and gooey flipping once or twice. The tempeh was succulent and sweet and I couldn't stop eating it. I have a few pieces leftover and am wishing that I had a ciabatta roll and some coleslaw to make a yummy sandwich.

The veggies were just sauteed with oil and WHOLE CLOVES of garlic! That was nice.

Pizza aint a swirl no more..it's a roll.

2008-07-01T08:46:00.002-04:00

So Improved Pizza Roll

So this is my exciting post. I realize it might just be exciting to me. After a Street Fighter II Pizza Party in May I found myself with a leftover piece of dough and made a Swirl out of it. It was fun and delicious. The problem was that the dough inside the swirl didn't bake as much as I wanted/needed it too. I didn't have a problem with it since I'm a rawish dough lover but to share it with people I needed to do something else. Thats when I got to thinking about Cinnamon Rolls. The process of making and rolling these up are pretty much the same.

This time I used a multigrain dough that I purchase from Whole Foods. I love making my own dough but with Reno it's hard to do during the week (and even weekends). I rolled the dough into a large rectangle. Spread on a really thick cashew ricotta and then topped it all of a mix of sauteed veg: broccoli, peppers, onions, garlic, zucchini, thyme. Rolled it up and sliced it about 2 inches thick. These are then carefully moved onto a parchement lined baking sheet (dusted with cornmeal) cut side up not touching one another. You have to shape them a bit if they get all wonky while transferring but wonky can also add some charm to these rolls.

The last time I made these I was able to get all of my cashew ricotta into the roll. this time I wasn't. I wasn't sure what to do with the extra since I knew if I saved it for another use it wouldn't get used. After standing in the kitchen with the ricotta in one hand and a spatula in the other for a minute or two I decided to mix it into the tomato sauce I was making. After I mixed it in I though I made a big mistake. After I tasted it I knew it was the right thing to do. It made for a nice thick and creamy pink sauce and added an extra depth of flavor to the whole dish.

For a fancy presentation I poured the sauce into the bottom of the bowls and placed one Pizza Roll on top. One roll was enough for all of us especially with the extra ricotta in the sauce. I was very happy to have leftover rolls for lunch the next day.

So there is my exciting post. It's not rocket science but I was excited I made it better. This will be a great dinner to serve to guest.

Burgers, BBQ + Measurements (not mine! dirty!)

2008-06-30T12:03:00.006-04:00

Butternut, Red Bean + Quinoa Burger w. Chipotle Aioli

This is a version of my most favorite veggie burger recipe of mine. I was out of a few things so I had to do with what I had. This is usually made with millet and has leeks and peppers in it as well. The original inspiration for this burger was from one of the weekly specials at my last job. I was craving it one day when I wasn't working and set out to make my own version since I wouldn't ask for the recipe. It's more fun experimenting I think. It's changed here and there over the past 2 years but I'm really happy with it and am going to set out getting proper ingredient measurements, since you can't write recipes without measurements! I'm really trying to get better at writing things down especially since I'm aiming for self publishing a book or zine at the end of the year.

Reno (basically 10 months)

With the craziness that is Reno I'm finding it hard to do, but it will happen. She is standing now, attacking the cats (one of them decided to attack her back yesterday.) I thought it was a good experience for her but she went right back to it this morning. She's eating big girl foods now (including the above veggie burger without the aioli, and avocado sandwiches.) It's all so crazy. Oh yeah and some of her babbles are curse words. At least they aren't ones that we say so we can be assured she is just babbling and not calling us horrible names or vodka.

More food...

Maple-Hoisen Grilled Seitan and Brooklyn Deli Macaroni Salad

I'm pretty sure I haven't posted about this before. I think it was one of my forgotten meals. If you've seen it already well then you get the pleasure of seeing it again.

We went to a friends house to see a friend who was visiting and had a BBQ. I brought along the V'Con macaroni salad above. Which I need to say now if you haven't made this yet you must make it now. I love it. I've always loved macaroni salads but never "deli" ones. I love this "deli" one -the peas! You will never see the peas.

Since I was the only non meat eater there I also marinated some Seitan in my Maple-Hoisin Marinade. This is a recipe that I'm actually writing the measurements down for and I am almost satisfied with it. One more go at it and I will post it.

p.s. I have a very exciting post planned for tomorrow. It's a newer version of something people got really excited about a month or so ago. I'm really excited about sharing it.

Breakfast and Cupcakes

2008-06-24T10:11:00.002-04:00

Tofu Scramble + Sausage Breakfast Burrito

It's Tuesday so I have to bring you some Tofu goodness. I've become quite the tofu connoisseur over the past 2 months and it's not going to stop just yet. We were at my parents house this weekend with my sister and our friend Rachele. On Sunday we decided to have a nice breakfast. While the others dined on eggs and bacon Rachele and I dined on VwaV "inspired" Tofu Scramble with some sorta veggie style sausage. It was very good and hit the spot. My father even tried some after asking what is was and being told it was "fake eggs" or "feegs". I yelled out it was scrambled tofu. Don't call my shit fake. It's real people...real!!

Buckwheat Pancakes w. Bananas

Fathers Day breakfast for Peter. Yellow Rose Recipe's Buckwheat Pancakes. Peter's been asking for them for ages so he got em. My favorite thing about this recipe is that there is a mashed up banana in the batter. They were so good. Since I now have a big bag of the flour in my posession we will be eating these more often.

Chocolate Cupcakes w. Vanilla Buttercream

I'm on the phone with my sister. Another call is coming thru..it's Peter's Grandma. She asks if I can make dessert for the dinner she was hosting that night. I said "Yes." I call my sister back 25 minutes later and tell her that "I had to make cupcakes." She says "You made cupcakes?" "Yes." I said, "They will be out of the oven in 5 minutes." I then had to explain that I can't help it if I can whip out a batch of cupcakes in 15 minutes from scratch. It's just something I can do. It's something you can do to if you baked a lot.

So good. They were from VCTOTW.

Salads...Tofu Tuesday! (on tuesday!!)

2008-06-17T23:04:00.003-04:00

Buffalo Tofu Salad w. Candied Pecans and Ranch Dressing

Back in the day when I would frequent a theme restaurant beginning with the letter H and ending in hans I would devour a Buffalo Chicken Salad. Oh it was so tasty and good. I finally decided to make a vegan version after all these years. Panko crusted Tofu drenched in a tangy hot and sweet sauce. Cinnamon, cayenne and maple candied pecans. Homemade Ranch Dressing. Crispy tortilla strips. If only I had some vegan blue cheese to crumble on top. I added some red bell pepper and cucumbers (the latter of which I had to remove because of a funky taste). All that was missing was some tomatoes. With the recent tomato problem and local restaurants not serving them I've just decided to stay away for a bit until I can get to the farmers market and get some local ones.

In the end this was just as good, if not better, than the theme restaurant version. I think the secret is the pecans and tortilla strips. This will be a favorite salad for dinner meal for the rest of the summer I think.

Balsamic-Basil Marinated and Grilled Portobellos

I generally don't eat mushrooms but will still buy them occasionally. However, made this way I'd eat them at least once a week. It's such a great marinade that I've been throwing together for a year or so. (I swear I will measure all the ingredients the next time) Balsamic vinegar, shallots, garlic, basil, tamari, olive oil, salt = incredible flavors. Especially thrown on top of a mesclun salad with walnuts, raddishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and red bell peppers. The salad is just dressed with some olive oil, lemon and salt so that it isn't dry. The marinade that coats the mushrooms flavors the whole dish when eaten.

Tofu Tuesday? Thursday

2008-06-12T09:10:00.002-04:00

Tofu + Vegetables w. Orange-Peanut Sauce

This post was meant for Tuesday. Unfortunately on Tuesday night around 9 pm the craziest storm I've ever been apart of hit our area. The badness lasted only a few minutes but we were feeling the after affects for almost 24 hours. Since that's about how long we went without power. Luckily it came back early evening on Wednesday, real lucky since they were saying we wouldn't have it until Sunday!! Sadly I have to throw away A LOT of food that was in the fridge and freezer. We ate out last night and will eat out again tonight. By tomorrow (friday) we should be all stocked back up with food and condiments so I can start cooking and baking again.

Enough of my storm story.

Above you will see another of my new "lets eat more non hidden tofu" meals. Lightly fried Tofu, just pressed and fried, with a big mix of vegetables including string beans, red bell peppers, broccoli, scallions and garlic. The sauce is one I've been working on for awhile now which is a peanut sauce with orange juice. I love the combo of those two ingredients. They work so well together that I now want a toasted bagel with peanut butter and a big glass of OJ for breakfast. I have no edible food or OJ in the house right now...the storm!!!! Curse you!!!

I'm off to clean out my sad fridge. See you in a day or two.

Wild Blueberries

2008-06-04T23:11:00.002-04:00

Blueberry + Chocolate Chip Scone

Jeez! I wanted to take the holiday weekend off from blogging about food and almost 2 weeks has past. Time flies I suppose. Good news for you is that I've been cooking + baking during my brief hiatus. Today I bring you some baking.

Trying to save some bucks I've been making us breakfast on the weekends and extra baked goods for Peter to eat during the week before work. I'm not a big fruit eater and if I'm going to eat fruit, especially berries, they almost always are frozen. I've been really enjoying some frozen Wild Blueberries I bought at Whole Foods a few weeks ago. Good news for me I spotted them at Costco's so I'm sure the bag there is twice the size for the same price.

Above is the basic scone recipe from VwaV which I added blueberries and chocolate chips too, yes we eat chocolate for breakfast! I cannot recommend that combination enough. Peter loved them. I just liked them but enough to make them again. They were very biscuity and not too sconey for me. I'm now on a hunt in my apartment for a scone recipe I used in a restaurant I baked for.

Blueberry Corn Muffins

Another VwaV recipe. I believe they are called "Sunny" or something like that because of the lemon used in it. The book isn't readily available for me to confirm the name. I'm sure you all have the book. If not, buy it. We LOVE these muffins. A blueberry and corn muffin all in one with a lovely lemon zest flavor added. I prefer these warm, split in the middle with some Earth Balance spread on them. Peter eats them as is.

past few

2008-05-22T11:41:00.003-04:00

Indian Croquettes w. Lemon-Garlic Stringbeans and Broccoli

First I was going to make my favorite veggie burger then realized that I didn't have kidney beans after I already started cooking the food. All I had were chickpeas and I didn't want them in my veggie burger. The meal quickly took a turn to being Indian inspired. I sauteed butternut squash w. garlic and onions until soft then added the chickpeas and mashed it all together in a wooden spoon. Added some ready to be tossed cilantro, slivered almonds and just cooked quinoa and mashed some more. Too help hold it all together I added some vital wheat gluten. All this together made a perfect moist croquette after lightly frying them in some olive oil. Since this wasn't a planned meal I didn't have anything to make a nice little curryish sauce for it so I just topped it off with fresh cherry tomatoes. Turned out that was all that was needed. These were even good the next day out of the fridge cold and then later for lunch warmed over some mesclun with a lemon and olive oil dressing.

Last Minute Enchilada's

Last night was our last Wednesday Night Potluck for a few months. The weather is getting nice. The sun is staying out to at least 8:30 so we need to do other things besides eat and watch reality tv every Wednesday.

I had know idea what to bring this week. Friends were already bringing a potato dish and all I could think of making was Potato Pancakes which would make no sense because we would all be in a carb coma. 30 minutes before I was to leave I had an idea. I don't think I've ever made enchiladas before but that is what popped into my head. I had leftover Kabocha Squash that I roasted a few days before and have been feeding to Reno since then. She was getting sick of it as was I serving it to her so I used it in the Enchiladas.

I chopped up some garlic, onions and jalapeno which were then sauteed in olive oil. Then I added a can of drained and rinsed black beans and the leftover squash. I felt it needed something tomato-y so I added maybe 2 tablespoons of this hot salsa that we had leftover from the pizza party. (That salsa was HOT! Just the 2 tablespoons heated up the dish to incredible levels!) I stuffed it all inside some corn tortillas and topped it off with 1/2 a jar of Salsa Verde and baked, covered with foil, in the oven for about 20 minutes. Took it out and dumped the rest of the jar onto the tortillas and took it to my sisters and just kept it warm in her oven until dinner time.

I'm happy to say it all went over well except that it was just a little bit too spicy for some. I'm happy that one was left so that I can eat it for lunch today.

Pesto

Some homemade Parsley-Pinenut Pesto tossed into cute little pasta topped with string beans and zucchini sauteed with garlic. I for some reason love zucchini with pesto pasta dishes. I highly recommend that you give it a try.

oops!

2008-05-20T09:04:00.003-04:00

Pizza Swirl

So I made a big oops! this weekend. I had a pizza party and didn't take any pictures. It also wasn't just any ol' pizza party. It was a Street Fighter II Pizza Party a la my husband's wish. We had a lot of friends over, ate a lot of homemade pizza and had a Street Fighter II competition which I lost miserably and my husband won. It was surprisingly a good party. It was actually the first party we have ever thrown in either of our apartments!

Anyway I had a leftover pizza dough and some topping left in the fridge and used it up with the help of cashew ricotta to make a completely new dish for dinner last night.

I rolled out the leftover dough into a rectangle and spread a layer of a really thick and creamy cashew ricotta on it. Then topped it with a leftover mix of sauteed onions, orange, yellow and red bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli and herbs de provence. Carefully rolled it up into a log (like if you were making cinnamon rolls). Then rolled the log into a ball. Which kinda reminded me of a sleeping kitty.

Inside shot close up

At first I wasn't sure how to cut the thing after it was done. We then decided that cutting it into wedges was the best and obvious way to go. Let me just say that this was great! You have the crusty outer layer of pizza dough and then creamy layers of ricotta, veggies and dough inside. I served it with a Red Wine Tomato Sauce.

Swap.

2008-05-16T10:25:00.003-04:00

I took part in the May Care Package Swap on the PPK forums this month. It was my first time participating and I'm so happy I did. Below is what I received from my partner Catalina!

Asian Grocery Goodness

Baked Coconut Rolls

Soursop Candy

JACKFRUIT!!!

Spices

I'm really looking forward to using the sausage seasoning.

Rice Cake

Asian Grocery take II

Chocolate and Cashews

Cabernet Conserves

The whole lot all together.

Tofu?

2008-05-14T08:50:00.002-04:00

Southern Fried Tofu w. Sauteed Spinach, Carrots + Zucchini

I do eat tofu. Usually it's blended into a sauce, or made into ricotta, or desserts. It's rare that I actually squeeze and press a block of tofu, cut it up, cook it and eat it. Since my sister really likes Tofu I've been experimenting with it the past few Tuesdays (she's comes over every Tuesday). Last Tuesday I just cooked it Buffalo Style like I do with Seitan all the time. Which turns out to be a great way to serve Tofu to a Tofuphobe.

This Tuesday I fried it up Southern Style with a thick coat of crispy batter. It was really good. It was a last minute decision to make it this way so we just had ketchup to dip it in. Next time I'll make a Chipotle Aioli or even an Agave Mustard to go along with it. I'm slowly becoming a drain it, press it, slice it, cook it, eat it tofu girl.

To get the batter nice and thick I first dipped it into some soy milk mixed with Dijon Mustard (whole grain mustard).

Then into a flour mixture of:

unbleached white flour
paprika
cayenne
nutritional yeast
salt
pepper
i wanted to add onion and garlic powder but couldn't find it for the life of me so add those as well. I eyeballed everything so I can't give you even approximate amounts at this time. Next time It will be all measured out.

Dip it back into the milk/mustard and then again into the flour mixture. This will give it a nice and thick coating that will fry up really well in oil.

I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers pieces in a wrap or on a roll with some greens and mayo.

Chickpea Salad w. Avocado on WW Pita

I love making Chickpea Salads. I've been making them for years and each time they are completely different from the last time. Sometimes I put cornichon pickles into it. Sometimes I go heavy on the mustard and mayo. Sometimes there is curry powder added. Sometimes non of the above and I go a completely different route. This one was heavy on the mustard and mayo and made for a nice spicy mix w. red onions, celery and garlic.

Happy Mothers Day (after)!

2008-05-12T14:07:00.002-04:00

Blueberry Pancakes w. Tempeh Bacon

Happy momma's day to all you mom's out there!

I made Mothers Day breakfast for us yesterday which included Blueberry Pancakes from VwaV and some store bought Tempeh Bacon. I love making breakfast but it's something I don't do very often. By the time Reno is fed and ready for the day Peter or myself just drive to Whole Foods to get some breakfast pastries and some Starbucks coffee's. It's a waste of money and gas especially since I have all the ingredients I need to make us breakfast and morning caffeine drinks, an espresso machine (for me) and a French Press (for him) at home. So I'm hoping to bring you more breakfast goodness to look at each weekend.

oh yeah..I need to tell you what blueberries I used for these pancakes. I picked up some Wymans Frozen Wild Blueberries. They are the best and I will never use another type!!

Chocolate Chip-Walnut Brownies

Mothers Day dessert! We went to my in-laws for mothers day along with my parents yesterday for a nice sit outside BBQ. I brought along the 3 bean salad w. warm cumin lime dressing (yellow rose tester that I posted about a few post below) AND some of brownies! I love these brownies. These are a version of another version of another version that I make all the time. The recipe still needs some work before it's the perfect version of the original brownie recipe.

Reno (8 1/2 months)

Ms. Reno enjoying her first Mother's Day celebration w. her Dad. What was she saying all day mothers day?

DADADADADADADADADADADADADADA!

What a little punk!

sigh.

2008-05-10T22:37:00.002-04:00

View outside my kitchen

Yesterday I woke up to another rainy-go no where day.

Gorilla Espresso A Go Go

The type of day where you need a double shot of espresso with a bit of Green + Blacks Hot Chocolate mixed in. (an ever so slight amount)

Lunch

You also need some Shells and Chreese for lunch.

Dinner

Then some Chili w. Kidney Beans, Cashews + Chocolate.

Vampires need not apply...

2008-05-08T22:43:00.003-04:00

Seitan Wrap w. Raw Spinach, Avocado and Aioli served w. Garlic-Rosemary Fries

Seriously, garlic is oozing out of my pores. I had some seitan in the fridge that
reminded me of the kind my last job had. Which in turn reminded me of my favorite after work snack I would make for myself while I was finishing up my shift. This is my at home version of that wrap. Crispy seitan sauteed in a bit of olive oil with a ton of garlic which I put in a wrap w. raw spinach and avocado. The aioli was some mayo w. garlic and onion powder, paprika, cayenne and basil. I didn't have much mayo left, only about 3 tablespoons in total, so it was a very thin layer on the 2 wraps but the perfect amount because the spices were so heavily used and strong in flavor. I was very pleased as was Peter. It filled the craving.

Garlic-Rosemary Fries

To add on to the garlic overload of tonights dinner I decided to throw a ton of garlic onto the fries I had in the oven along with some fresh rosemary I got from my mom. There is no reason to eat plain o' fries when you can dress them up. Then again a plain fry dipped into an amazing mayo is heavenly.

GARLIC!!

Whoa! That's a huge clove! No camera trickery there my friends! That one clove was used for the seitan and the fries. I ran into the supermarket the other day for garlic and they had nothing. I searched and searched. Nothing. Then I found some elephant garlic hidden under some packs of basil. I couldn't believe how huge these cloves were. Half of this beast would have been more than enough for the whole meal and I love lots of garlic. It was funny having to slice it and dice it like an onion. I'm a fan.

take out or stay in

2008-05-02T10:18:00.002-04:00

Veggie Heaven Appetizer Dinner

Believe it or not from time to time I don't feel like cooking. Especially if Reno is being a beast for 5 days straight and Peter is going out. We don't eat out much or even take out much. Our food at home taste better, is better for you and also cheaper. My sister was coming over and mentioned she got $20 for helping a friend and I told her she should buy us dinner with that $20 since she didn't want the money anyway. She did! We settled on Veggie Heaven our only local vegan restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey.

We decided that we would order a bunch of appetizers instead of a separate entree each to have an assortment of good stuff.

Starting with the red strips at the top of the plate:

BBQ Ribs (my new current obsession)
Sesame Noodles
Chicken Nuggets w some sorta sweet fruity sauce
Dim Sum
Scallion Pancakes

This was all perfect and filled a craving I was having for Chinese Food. We also ordered cheesecake (for me) and green tea cake (for nicole) but I forgot to take a photo. I love their cheesecake but I don't love the green tea cake. It's just not a flavor my tastebuds agree with, Nicole however loves it.

Hoisin-Maple Seitan

My new favorite marinade. My mom made a marinade for grilled corn on the cob that I used on some seitan while I was down there this weekend. It was great! I've changed things around a bit and added maple syrup to the mix just to give it an extra something that I think it needed. This is one of those marinades that taste better after it is cooked and the bit of maple caramelizes a bit. I need to play around with the amounts of each ingredient a bit and then I will post the recipe next week sometime.

3 Bean Salad w. Warm Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette tester

Another Yellow Rose tester recipe from Joanna. Really really good! So colorful. Great for the hot days of summer that will soon be approaching. I can see making this on a Sunday and eating it the rest of the week for lunch or as a side to dinner.

Late July mini pb sandwiches

I try not to buy these too often simple because I could eat the whole box without even thinking. I love them and I love the design on the package so much that I hate to recycle it when I'm finished.

Falafel and disappointed vegetarians.

2008-04-28T11:36:00.003-04:00

Falafel, Tahini Sauce, Pita, Mesclun, Couscous Tabbouleh

Did you ever go to a party and meet other vegans/vegetarians and be a little disappointed in them? These people were very nice. They came to a BBQ with a cooler of food to cook for everyone, which made me so happy. They mention that they bought seitan, I was THRILLED, I ask did you make it yourself? I got looked at like I was purple and had 5 heads and no hair. "No" they said "we did make falafel once."

Sigh.

Who would have though that I would finally meet other non meat eaters who bring a cooler of food to a bbq and they don't cook. I'm not saying you have to cook but it would be nice to meet some that do like to cook once in awhile.

I invited friends over the other night and since I had "we did make falafel once" on my mind I decided to make myself some falafel for the 20th time or so. This was a cross between 3 recipes I usually switch using. The sauce was simply tahini, lemon, salt and water just mixed with a fork until it became a happy saucy consistency.

Couscous Tabbouleh

This is one dish that came to mind the day I went shopping for ingredients for the dinner party and i'm glad it did. Couscous, tomato, cucumber, parsley, garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. It is the perfect picnic salad in my book and gets better the longer it sits in the fridge.

Falafel Pita w. Tahini Sauce

yuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Shake

Having guests over for dinner? You MUST serve dessert. Even if that dessert is blended up goodness.

Anniversary and Special Cupcakes

2008-04-23T12:00:00.002-04:00

Seitan Taco's topped w. Mesclun and Apple-Radish whatever served w. Creamy Black Beans

Yesterday (april 22) was our 2nd wedding anniversary. 2 days before that (april 20) marked we believe 13 years together! Holy moly! We celebrated the day in between and went to NYC to eat at Blossom. I didn't take any pictures because the lighting in there isn't for picture taking. I can say it was a delicious dinner and Peter wants to go back again. Now onto the meal I made for our real anniversary.

Seitan Tacos! These were one of the best taco's I've made in awhile. It was all because of the Apple-Radish (relish, salsa, slaw? i don't know what to call it). The taco seasoning was kinda spicy so the cool, crisp taste of the apples and radishes really complemented the whole dish.

I cooked my black beans differently too. Instead of chopping up the jalapeno I just left it to cook in the beans whole and then took it out before serving. It made the beans so much more spicy this way and so much more delicious.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes w. Mint Buttercream and Hot Pink Sprinkles

Instead of a cake we had cupcakes at our wedding. Chocolate cupcakes with hot pink buttercream. While making chocolate cupcakes yesterday I decided to add some mint extract to everything after I found it in my pantry. The buttercream was a little toothpastey but in a good way. The cake was moist and perfect. I didn't want to spend extra money on food coloring so hot pink sprinkles were the way to go to recreate the "look" of our wedding cupcakes.

Chocolate Mint Cupcake w. a COOKIE baked inside!

I had some chocolate mint cookies on hand and decided to see what would happen if i buried one inside an uncooked cupcake. If you look hard enough you can see it in the middle of the cupcake pictured above. It came out great and I'm going to experiment more with cookies in the cake.

Grilled Cheese

2008-04-21T09:37:00.003-04:00

Vegan Grilled Cheese w. Sundried Tomatoes (marinated)

What? Really? Never in a million years would I have though I would want to try a processed vegan cheese. I've seen people write about these Rice slices on other blogs and then saw them in the food store and though I'd give em a try. I was surprised that there was nothing weird about them, taste wise, or any other way really. They really reminded me of the processed cheese's of my youth that I would only eat melted on burgers or in grilled cheese. I could never just unwrap a slice of cheese and eat it. The same goes for the vegan cheese. It's just wasn't my cheese eating style.

I made the above Grilled Cheese yesterday for lunch while I was cleaning and preparing dinner for friends who were coming over later (more on that meal in my next post). I was hungry and wanted something quick and for once in my life didn't want a PB&J. I melted some Earth Balance in a pan. Unwrapped 3 slices of cheese. Threw on some marinated sun dried tomatoes and cooked it up. I couldn't believe my eyes when the cheese actually melted. I couldn't believe my taste buds actually liked this.

Final verdict.

Will I make this again? [x] yes [ ] no

Will I make homemade tempeh bacon? [x] yes [ ] no

Will I put said bacon and sliced tomato on my next grilled cheese? [x] yes [ ]no

Do I now want a PB&J because I just mentioned it in this post? [x] yes [ ] no

what my bay wants my bay gets...

2008-04-17T22:37:00.003-04:00

Broccoli Rabe + Sundried Tomatoes over Angel Hair Pasta

My "bay" being my husband requested this pasta for dinner and he got it. My sister likes to believe that this is all we eat. Maybe we use to eat it 2 times a week for months and months but to be honest it's been a really long time since I've made it. It has everything a delicious pasta dinner needs. Broccoli rabe, sun dried tomatoes, lots of garlic and good quality olive oil. There is usually a splash of balsamic vinegar added but I forgot and nobody noticed.

Mesclun, Avocado + Bacon Bits w. Agave Mustard Dressing (tester)

I was eating this dressing out of the blender with a spoon! The dressing is another Yellow Rose tester. There is a Mexican place in the next town over that makes a killer Honey Mustard dressing. It's not vegan so I've been making my own version with agave and mustard..blah blah blah...with very good results. Joanna's recipe though is knocking them all out of the park. DELICIOUS!!

Spicy Peanut Sauce Marinated Setian w. Sauteed Broccoli and Garlic Fries

I made the Peanut Sauce from the post below again and this time marinated some sliced seitan in it and grilled it on my not so great grill pan. I would marinate everything in peanut butter if I could. What would have made this dinner even better is if I doubled the sauce and saved some to serve over the grilled seitan.

Broccoli is just sauteed. Simple.

Garlic Fries..Potatoes tossed in oil and baked at 400 degrees in the oven. When they were very close to being done I tossed in some chopped garlic and cooked for about 5 minutes more or until garlic is cooked but not brown. It's one of the best ways to cook and eat fries.

Now I'm going to show off my child...

Reno 7 1/2 months

I took her to see the Cherry Blossom's with my in laws last Saturday. She was so excited to grab the branches and shake them all over the place. She was covered in blossoms.

Reno 7 1/2 months

She is using everything and anything to pull herself up with. I left the room for a minute and returned to see this. Reno is also starting to let go of what she is using to hold herself up with because she thinks that she can stand on her own. This has caused a few heart attack moments for me recently.

Spicy Peanut Sauce a tester.

2008-04-15T16:51:00.002-04:00

Spicy Peanut Sauce

Another tester recipe from Joanna at Yellow Rose Recipes. Peanut sauce is something I make a lot so it was fun making someone else's for a change. My how different our sauces are. Mine are usually cooked and contain a lot of peanut butter and orange juice. Joanna's is not cooked and contains a lot less peanut butter than mine and no orange juice. They are both equally delicious and I plan on adding the tester into my arsenal of easy sauce recipes.

Sauteed Broccoli, Zucchini and Green Beans over Brown Rice w. Spicy Peanut Sauce

Too bad there wasn't any leftovers. The above sauce tossed with gently sauteed green veggies = a delicious week night dinner. I couldn't understand why the broccoli tasted so damn good in this dish and then I figured out that the sauce found it's way into the nooks of the broccoli! It was such a nice treat to bite into a broccoli floret "filled" with peanut sauce. Sigh...no leftovers.

oh sweet buffalo!!

2008-04-12T13:46:00.002-04:00

Buffalo Seitan Wrap w. Ranch Dressing

I just ate this for lunch and had to talk about it and you might not want to get too close to me because I stink after eating this. Since Peter has been gone I've been eating most of my daytime meals cold out of the fridge. The day before it was pierogies. Today it was Buffalo Seitan leftover from last nights dinner. My eye's were bigger than my stomach last night when I was making dinner for me and my sis. I have a lot of leftover seitan. While I was making Reno her breakfast today I saw it and remembered how I would eat cold Buffalo Chicken out of the fridge in my omni days...well i'm happy to say the cold Buffalo Seitan didn't disappoint. I've been picking at it all day. I decided to stop picking and make a wrap. What you see is a fat-free wrap spread with homemade ranch sauce, some baby greens and a few pieces of the seitan. If I wasn't trying to cut back on the amount of food I eat in a day I would have had another.

This also got me thinking about all the awesome Buffalo salad's i've eaten in the past. I'm going to have to create one next week I think..complete with candied pecans and tempeh bacon. Maybe and avocado or two!

9 pm Pierogies

2008-04-11T11:46:00.002-04:00

9 pm. Pierogies

Peter has been in Indianapolis since last Saturday and doesn't come home until this Sunday! That is 8 days! Too long. I haven't been cooking much. 3 days I was away at my parents. The rest of the time i've been eating out or eating more Chick Salad. It's not easy to cook when you are home alone with a 7 month old who is crawling and climbing up onto everything, as well as pulling electrical cords out of the walls.

Last night however I did cook. Not from scratch but from a bag. My sister bought over pierogies which I sauteed in earth balance buttery goodness with some onions. We didn't get to eat them until 9 becaues Reno was over tired and didn't want to sleep even though she was exhausted.

They were delicious with just some salt and pepper. They were even good cold for breakfast today.

food soulmates??

2008-04-04T16:49:00.004-04:00

Chick Salad a tester recipe for joanna at Yellow Rose Recipes

Is there such a thing as a food soulmate? I'm lucky to be a tester for Joanna's new cookbook Yellow Rose Family and so far am loving all the recipes. They are right up my cooking alley and style. Some are versions of recipes that I've made for myself over the years and others are dishes I've always wanted to make. I believe her meals and my belly are a match made in heaven.

The Chick Salad above is my new current favorite dish. It has grapes in it! I've never heard of such a thing. It was the first recipe I've tested since my move this past weekend and I've already made it twice and will make it a third time this weekend when Peter goes away.

I even turned it into an appetizer below:

Chick Salad as an appetizer

Spaghetti with Portobello Cream Sauce another Yellow Rose tester

This was good...really good. Nice and creamy and a little sweet. I think it might become our new standby pasta dinner.

We've moved!

2008-04-02T16:39:00.004-04:00

We are in our new apartment! After 3 day's of moving (friday, saturday and sunday!) Thank goodness for great friends and family who helped with the whole thing. I'll post a few pics when we are unpacked and semi set up, which might take a week or so since Peter is leaving for an 8 day business trip this saturday. boohoo.

Bruschetta

One of our past Wednesday Potlucks was appetizer themed. My favorite thing when going to certain Italian restaurants is when they give each person a piece of bruschetta when you sit down. It's such a great way to start a meal except when places put cheese on it. Cheese has no business being on such a thing!

I can't wait until tomato season is in full swing here in Jersey so I can make a batch of this, keep it in the fridge and eat it for days on end as it sits, marinates and gets tastier with each passing day.

Balsamic Portobello Sandwiches with Basil Mayo + Tomatoes

If I could eat one sandwich for the rest of my life this might be it! It is a very easy to veganize recipe from bon appetite magazine that my mom made while we were visiting for Easter. The ciabatta rolls are buttered w. Earth Balance and toasted. The mayo is Veganaise, roasted garlic, fresh basil and a splash of balsamic. The mushrooms are cooked in Earth Balance and balsamic vinegar and topped with fresh tomato. I could taste it now as I think about it..mmmmmm...the warm toasted buttery bread melting the mayo into the crevices of tomato and mushrooms..mmmmmmmmmmmm.............

Monkeys holding heaven together.

Raspberry Blackout Cake from VwaV

We celebrated my sisters birthday the saturday before Easter. You cannot buy vegan desserts in south jersey where my parents live. My sister isn't vegan but was finishing up her 3 month vegan challenge so I made this cake for her which is now a family favorite.

Sliced to eat. Topped with blackberries..no raspberries to be found.

Reno

Re in her Easter dress..she actually managed to keep it on all day without messing it up..it was a miracle!

Pizza another Uptown.

2008-03-12T10:53:00.002-04:00

Pizza w. Pesto, Almonds, Onions, Red Peppers, Zucchini, Garlic and Herbs de' Provence

I was never a big pizza eater. There was something about the ratio of sauce to cheese that just didn't do anything for me. Although my mom's English Muffin Pizza's from my childhood are a dream...english muffin, sauce, processed american cheese. Kids and their processed cheese.

Ever since I started making my own pizza without cheese I've become a huge fan. I love spreading homemade pesto on the dough and covering it with veggies and nuts. Tomato sauce, veg and dollops of tofu ricotta, yum! Splatter olive tapenade on top, even better! One of my all time favorite pizza's is from VwaV..the Potato and Tempeh Sausage pizza (i just packed my cookbooks so i'm guessing that's what it is called)..i served it to a bunch of omni's a few months ago with very good results. I suggest you make it now if you haven't already.

Agave Sweetened Lemonade

I really want spring and early summer to arrive. I'm already starting to make and drink cooling summery drinks. I love making lemonade in mason jars. The jars are perfect for the vigorous shaking I believe is necessary to make this drink.

The Uptown take 2

I have finally mastered the art of pouring the above Agave Lemonade with Unsweetened Iced Tea in 2 separate layers!

1st. Pour in Lemonade
2nd. Add ice.
3rd. Very slowly pour Iced Tea over the ice.

Some will mix but you still get the 2 layers.

You have know idea how happy this has made me. It's the simple things in life you know.

yum..and happy news!

2008-03-07T08:55:00.003-05:00

Veg-Seitan Noodles w. Spicy Orange-Peanut Sauce

You know when you are at the end of the peanut butter jar and you though you mixed it really well put you didn't and it's a bit hard? Make peanut sauce out of it. All it needs is some other liquid and heat. One of my favorite liquids to use is orange juice. Luckily I had some on hand.

ingredients: peanut butter (chunky), orange juice, chili sauce, tamari

Usually I add garlic and ginger to my peanut sauces but I opted to add a ton of both ingredients to the noodle mixture along with red bell peppers, string beans and a sliced up seitan cutlet topped off with chopped salted peanuts.

Potato Pancakes w. Applesauce

The joy that potato pancakes brings to this apartment and it's inhabitants is crazy. We love em. We eat them a lot. Sometimes I even eat them with ketchup. I make so many that we eat them for breakfast or lunch the next day. These were just a simple potato, carrot, onion mixture. I love them w. parsnips as well.

HAPPY NEWS: We are moving!!!! We were just approved for a very spacious, large, including DINING ROOM!!! 2 bedroom apartment yesterday! I am so happy. I am sad as well because I love the apartment we are in but it's just a 1 bedroom and it's starting to get tight in here especially with Reno on the move now. She will have plenty of space to roam and roll. The only downside to the new place is no elevator (we will be on the third floor again) and no dishwasher like our current place has. But that's okay..we are doubling our living space.

We move April 1st.

Lots O' Good Stuff...

2008-02-28T21:02:00.002-05:00

Buffalo Seitan w. Asparagus and Tots

One of my most favorite things to eat during my chicken days were Boneless Buffalo Wings. I'm so happy that I can eat this veg version made with Seitan Cutlets from Veganomicon. It was my first time making the cutlets. They were really good and really easy to make in my opinion. I usually use the seitan recipe from the Real Food Daily cookbook. I liked this dish better with the V'con seitan. It was chewier and dare I say very chicken like texture wise. I randomly sliced the seitan and one or two of the pieces came out looking like drumsticks. Gross.

Black Bean Burgers w. Guac and Sauteed Broccoli

Another V'con creation. I doubled this recipe to freeze some without even trying them first. I new they would be great and I was right. Now I have 6 in the freezer for some wonderful day in the future where I don't want to cook.

The Uptown

Some like to call it the Arnold Palmer, or so I recently learned, I like to call it the Uptown. That's 1/2 agave sweetened homemade lemonade w. 1/2 homemade unsweetend Iced Tea. I also like to call it heaven in my mouth.

Recent obsessions.

2008-02-20T11:57:00.002-05:00

note...i'm in the process of changing the look of my blog around. it will probably change a few time until it's how i imagine it to be.

Toasted Bagel w. Earth Balance Bagel and Homemade Iced Latte

I'm all out of Earth Balance Buttery Spread and it's a good thing. I've been eating this breakfast non-stop! It is not healthy. My pants are tight. I will not by more Earth Balance until I drop the first 10 of 30 pounds or more that I'd like to lose this year. It going to be hard passing up the buttery spread!

Rice and Beans w. Avocado and Lime

I was thinking about the days way back when I would make rice and beans about 3 times a week. I'm rediscovering my old love. I've also learned again that less is more. Instead of the wide array of spices that I add to the dish I only add cumin now...and maybe a bit of paprika because I can't not put it in everything.

Linguini w. Almond, Leek and Lemon Sauce

This is a work in progress. My taste buds have been craving lemon lately so I set out to make a lemon pasta sauce. I liked it. Peter wished it was a thicker sauce. We both agree that it is missing something. We just can't figure out what. It's a bit sharp tasting.

What's inside? School Lunch.

2008-02-15T13:26:00.003-05:00

Raw...What's inside??

Baked...What's inside?

Served...Broccoli and Cashew Ricotta Calzone!!!!!

I have never had or made a vegan calzone. One of our latest potlucks was a school lunch theme..which made me thing of calzones. I loved cafeteria calzones. Now I would probably vomit if I ate one. They also didn't have broccoli or real ricotta cheese in them. There were just some tomato sauce and weird cheese.

My calzone has super garlic sauteed broccoli and V'con cashew ricotta in it. That's it. Nothing else needed except for some tomato sauce to dip in, which isn't pictured. I truly believe you can make this and feed it to a non vegan and they would have no idea it was made with tofu.

And now onto our School Lunch Potluck:

Sloppy Joes, PB+J, Baloney + Mustard, Chips.

Seriously?? We were disgusting as children. This was a fun meal to eat but you just felt gross after it. My sister's dish was the Sloppy Joe made with lentils. I brought the PB+J's cuz that's all I ate as a kid, Steve and Becky contributed the Meatless Baloney and Mustard Sandwich. Now I've never eaten real or fake Boloney before this. I am happy to say I will never eat real or fake baloney again. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good either.

Rice Krispie Treats + Chocolate Chip Cookie

Who didn't eat these treats as a kid. They were a perfect ending to the school lunch meal.

CAKE!!!!! and pie.

2008-02-06T16:41:00.000-05:00

Raspberry Blackout Cake

I think that's what it's called, from VwaV.

The last few potluck wednesday's we've had some birthday's to celebrate so I've made some cakes. The pie is from awhile back that I never put up on here.

I loved loved loved loved this cake. I want to eat it all the time. The birthday girl got to take the rest of the cake home with her, lucky, and I was wishing the next day that I had made 2 of them. That would have been quite ridiculous though.

Raspberry Blackout Cake with Sprinkles

Smlove Pie

The famous Smlove Pie from Veganomicon. I went crazy and made this 2 weeks in a row. My waistline proves that I'm not making it up.

Coconut Heaven Cupcakes as CAKE

Another potluck birthday cake. A friend was hoping I would make these cupcakes again but I decided that the birthday girl deserved a whole cake. Luckily she didn't take the cake home..I did...Peter and I had a great dessert the next night.

To make the cupcake recipe a cake recipe I just doubled the recipe and it worked out wonderfully.

Coconut Heaven Cake w. Veggie Heaven Cheesecake

The cheesecake was from our only vegan restaurant in the area and I must say it was delicous.

not broken

2008-01-29T10:19:00.000-05:00

Soooooooooooo....it turns out my computer wasn't broken. The internet phone people just didn't know how to fix our phone problem so decided to just tell us our computer was broken. We will still be getting a new computer though....I have a ton of food pics that i've taken during my hiatus which will be posted over the next few days..

Seitan Tacos w. Salsa, Avocado and Raw Zucchini with Sauteed Swiss Chard

Lets just say I'm obsessed with these. I purchased a package of taco seasoning not expecting much from it. I was wrong. I was devouring the seitan out of the pan before any other part of the meal was ready. Peter and my sister were lucky I didn't eat all of it. I'm now in the process of developing my own taco seasoning. I can't see buying it when I have a ton of my own spices that need to be used.

Real Food Daily Basic Seitan

Is this the best seitan I've ever made? Maybe. I have always wanted the Real Food Daily cookbook and would never buy it. I received it for x-mas this year and am now kicking myself for not having it sooner. I love the cooking process for this seitan recipe. You get sorta the best of both boiled and baked seitan all at once. It was perfect for the taco's above.

Wednesday Potluck

Every Wednesday I get a break from motherhood and hang out with some girls (and one guy) and we watch TV..play Wii..talk politics and why we shouldn't have survived our childhood. Some Wednesday have a theme. Most don't. I'm a fan of the non theme pot lucks because of the crazy mix of food you get to eat. The pot luck plate pictured above has the Seitan Hot Wingz that I contributed to the meal, some delicious fried tofu made by my sister by way of my friend Rachele, salsa and chips, hummus and pita, and a delicious mixed salad.

BROKEN...

2008-01-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

Sad news for now...my internet thing on my laptop has broken. We are in the process of buying ourselves a new computer so I won't be able to post until then. This is good and bad for me.

First the good. Its finally giving me time to actually think about and start writing my food zine which is something I've wanted to do for a very long time. As of right now it will be two issues a year the first being the Fall/Winter (this september or october) the second being Spring/Summer (next year april-ish). I hope. I will eventually put the call out for testers and whatnot.

The bad...I miss all the food and stories I read everyday on all the other blogs and sites. I'll still be able to check in on my sister computer, which I'm using right now, plus we should be up and running I hope within he next 2 weeks with our new Mac.

So see ya then!

Best Breakfast..

2008-01-07T10:47:00.001-05:00

Mexican Potato and Black Bean Hash

This is a picture heavy post...to start with is the breakfast I made for myself and Peter on Sunday. We usually go out and get us some baked goods from Whole Foods. I've decided for New Years to start making us more morning meals on the weekends.

I created this meal in my head the night before. It just sorta came out of no where and I amazingly remembered it the next morning. I think I originally wanted to make a tofu scramble but didn't want to use tofu (?). I'm pretty sure that's what happened and I'm pretty sure Peter wouldn't be open to tofu scramble. I used potatoes instead of tofu and the rest just seemed to naturally flow and happen.

ingredients: yukon gold potatoes, bell pepper, onions, garlic, jalapeno, tumeric, cumin, cayenne, chile powder, black beans, spinach, salsa, avocado, scallions, salt, pepper and olive oil.

another pic of the Best Breakfast!

Chickpea Noodle Soup from Veganomicon

There is sickness going around. We haven't caught it yet and we are trying to keep it that way so I made some Chickpea Noodle Soup from V-con with extra garlic and miso. I used Barley Miso because I bought it by mistake and tried to use it for pesto which didn't work out well. The miso did however work out well in this soup recipe.

A Pretty Salad

Peter demands salads for "the vegan challenge". Peter gets salads.

Chocolate, Banana and Peanut Butter Milkshake

Before the vegan challenge Peter enjoyed Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshakes from the like of Magic Fountain and Stone Cold Creamery. I made a vegan version for us and went one step further and added banana. It was soooooooooooooooo good I wish I had bought 2 large containers of soy chocolate ice cream so we could have it again today and then the next day...etc..etc..

Piccata two ways.

2008-01-03T10:55:00.000-05:00

Chickpea Piccata w. String Beans + Rice

I have been serving V-Con's chickpea patties to everyone. Simply because I believe they are very omni friendly. My dad was over for dinner the other night and I figured this would be the best thing to serve. I finally made a sauce for them. I used V-con's Piccata. I've made many many many piccata's in my days and I have to say this is one of the best. EVER! Peter and my dad agreed that it was delicious. (both chickpea patties and piccata)

I have 2 more people, my sister and friend Rachele, to serve chickpea patties too and then I'm done writing about them. My sister wants them during the "vegan challenge". Rachele just wants them.

Piccata Sandwich

What do you do with leftover Chickpea Piccata? Eat it as a sandwich on christmas day before you go to the in-laws.

A mess of food..baby.

2008-01-01T22:09:00.000-05:00

Poppyseed Bagel Toasted w. Peanut Butter and Homemade Iced Latte

I went M.I.A. for the holidays. There was no reason for it. But I'm back now.

Above was a breakfast I very recently had after realizing I haven't had a peanut butter bagel in...well...forever! I missed it so. It was delicious. I wish I had one right now. Perhaps tomorrow I'll trek out and get a bagel to make this wonderful concoction again.

Something I will make again tomorrow are my homemade latte's, always iced. Now I have my own espresso machine but I still would go out and buy myself an iced latte a few times a week. It gets to be very expensive. VERY EXPENSIVE!! Try adding up what you pay for coffee everyday for a week and then times that by 52 weeks and you can probably go on vacation or buy yourself some wonderful new clothes (which i need!). Since I need things and have my own espresso machine I make them myself now and they are better than what I get out so I win in the end either way.

Rice and Beans

I made an old favorite of Peter's the other night..Rice and Beans. We haven't had it in awhile. Nothing special about it. Just some beans, garlic, onions, jalapeno's and spices.

The Vegan Challenge Veggie Stir Fry!

What's the Vegan Challenge? My husband and sister are taking what they call The Vegan Challenge..where for 3 weeks (at least) they will eat only a vegan diet. Peter wants to see if he will really feel better like a forward to one of my cookbooks by a Dr. said he would. My sister likes challenges. She has even said she'd do it for 3 months..but she will see if she last the 3 weeks first. I wish them luck. Stay tuned for updates on their challenge for the next 3 weeks. Will they make it??? I hope so. Tonight we went to my sisters for the first dinner of the challenge and I made them a simple stir fry to start them off.

Reno

Not food but I like to chew on her ribs. It makes her laugh. The best thing in the world is when a baby laughs. Here she is all dressed up for X-mas. She got a ton of stuff. But nothing from us. I feel the fact that we gave her life this year was enough of a gift.

She is now 4 months old!

Happy 2008!!

Curry Cups

2007-12-20T18:58:00.000-05:00

Potato Coconut Curry Cups

This Wednesday was an appetizer potluck at my sisters place. I decided to create a new recipe for my appetizer and created Potato Coconut Curry Cups. I had an open package of filo in my fridge that needed to be used. Plus recently I've been buying bags of potatoes to eat and needed to use some of them up as well.

At first I thought about boiling and mashing the potatoes with the coconut milk and spices and make sort of a filo samosa. (good thing I didn't because someone else bought samosa's). I then decided to just cube them small and saute them with onion, a lot of garlic and mess of indian spices including hot curry powder. After the potatoes were almost cooked I added about 1/2 a can of coconut milk to make the filling nice and creamy then added some fresh chopped cilantro.

the filling..

The filling came out so good I plan on making it again just as a side dish. I couldn't stop eating it. I told my friend Natalie that she'd be lucky to try one because I'd eat it all up. Alas I didn't eat it all and filled up some filo squares that I had brushed melted earth balance in between each layer of filo.

ready for the oven..

After placing them into mini cupcake pans (which were brushed with more earth balance) I brushed the top with even more earth balance...they were very decadent and delicious and everyone enjoyed them.

Spaghetti and Beanballs-V'con

2007-12-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Spaghetti and Beanballs from Veganomicon

The beanball recipe from veganomicon is ridiculously delicious. The recipe reminded me of something that I use to make in my early vegetarian days from a not so great old ass cookbook. So I was a bit wary of how these would come out. I think Peter was too..he kinda made a face when I told him we were having spaghetti and beanballs for dinner. We were both very surprised at how good they were (and super easy to make). I used a very red wine heavy sauce that my maa made for us for after Reno's birth that has been in the freezer for quite some time now. Luckily the freezer has been kind to it and it was still good. I also chose to fry the beanballs instead of baking them. I highly recommend frying them. I can't imagine them tasting as good without the bits of fried outside on them.

the simmering beanballs

What's great about this recipe is that it makes quite a bit (for 2 people). So you have leftovers to make delicious beanball subs the next day...

Beanball Sub...

...with bits of leftover spaghetti left on it.

Breakfast for Dinner..

2007-12-10T20:43:00.000-05:00

Mushroom and Kale Strata w. Paprika Breakfast Potatoes and Tempeh Bacon

I love having breakfast for dinner. Mostly because I don't eat breakfast for breakfast. Meaning I usually just eat a bowl of cereal with some soy milk or run to the store for some iced espresso goodness and a vegan scone from Whole Foods. This evening I dragged everything out of my fridge and realized I had everything I needed to make V-con's Mushroom and Spinach Strata (except for the spinach, I subbed kale).

The strata might just be one of my favorite recipes. It was so delicious and so easy to make that I think everyone should make it for brunch this weekend. It is also very versatile as long as you have the ingredients to make the custard and some bread you can really use whatever veg you have on hand. I will be making this for our New Years Day breakfast this year along with some other recipes I've been meaning to try out.

The strata out of the oven.

Flickr

2007-12-07T21:17:00.001-05:00

IMG_2195, originally uploaded by jenofur.

Potato, Carrot + Parsnip Pancakes, "Cheater" Baked Beans and Garlicky Broccoli

I'm not ignoring my Flickr account anymore and am trying to post my photo's from that account so if things go weird for a bit that's why.

Now for the food...my sister was coming over for dinner on tuesday..she is very hard to cook for I think. She agreed that she would eat potato pancakes so I made them and threw in some parsnips and carrots for deliciousness. She also said she would eat broccoli...done. Then she asked if our friend Rachele could come, I said yes. That's when I needed to make more food. So I made "cheater" baked beans from V-Con. These were delicious. I wasn't so sure about them at first because I"m use to the baked beans my mom makes, which are also cheater, she just doctor's up canned baked beans and they are a bit sweet. V-con's aren't sweet...but they are damn tasty. My sister even managed to eat a few of them. They made Peter happy as well because of his love for all things molasses.

Pumpkin Baked Ziti take 2!

2007-12-03T23:07:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin Baked Ziti w. Caramelized Onions + Sage Crumb Topping from Veganomicon

Forget any negative things I said about the Pumpkin Baked Ziti from Veganomicon a few weeks ago. I remade it. I loved it. It came out of the oven so creamy and delicious, not dry and bland like the last time. I made the Cashew Ricotta the same as the last with the only change being herbs de provence instead of basil (it's what I have). In all seriousness I could eat and have eaten the cashew ricotta with a spoon. I'm in love with it.

I used rigatoni pasta instead of penne this time and I have a feeling this is what made a difference. I can't explain my reasoning for this though..it's like when you remember a dream but can't get it out in words when you are trying to tell someone your dream. It's very frustrating.

For the Sage Crumb Topping I used all the ingredients listed but didn't follow the amounts because I was in a hurry.

I might make this for x-mas at the in-laws so that I have something to eat. It will be dangerous bringing something delicious made of tofu into that house. If Peter's father finds out there is tofu in his house I'll never hear the end of it.

VeganMoFo: Ciao!

2007-11-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

Linguini w. Chickpeas, Kale and Almonds in a Red Wine-Tomato Sauce

Ciao VeganMoFo! I will miss you. The one thing VeganMoFo taught me was that I have the time to blog almost everyday. It is something I will try to continue to do. I was actually a bit upset that I missed last night, but due to a migraine it would have been impossible for me to do so.

Last night's dinner was suppose to be one of those "quick pasta sauces". It turned into one of those "simmered forever pasta sauces". Unfortunately for Reno she was unusually upset last night and it took awhile for her to calm down (which when she was ready to she did in an instant like nothing was wrong in her life ever! babies are a mystery, she's been as happy as hell since.) Anyway...unfortunate for Reno turned out to be fortunate for our tastebuds. Her freak out gave this sauce time to simmer on the stove and develop wonderful flavors. I popped open a bottle of wine and added quite a bit of it to the sauce which was the best thing I could have done to it. Not quite the best thing for my headache. Back to the sauce.....

ingredients where as followed...

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium shallots sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced, then I chopped a wee bit
1 1/2 bunches of kale (not curly)
1 28oz can diced Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
leftover chickpeas (probably about 1/2 a cup or so.
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 cup (at least) favorite red wine (or more!)
salt and pepper to taste

1/2 pound linguini

it as made this way....

~you should know how to cook pasta..so start it.

~heat olive oil in medium saute pan.
~add shallots and garlic, saute until soft
~add kale and cook until slightly wilted
~stir in canned tomatoes and red pepper flakes and cook until kale is limp.
~add chickpeas, almonds, wine, salt and pepper then cook until your baby stops crying or if you don't have a baby cook until sauce reduces and gets nice and thick. Thin out a bit with pasta cooking water if desired.

to serve...

place linguini in bowl topped with delicious sauce then drink the rest of the bottle of wine.

VeganMoFo: Brought to you live!

2007-11-28T13:06:00.001-05:00

Chickpea Cutlet + Garlicky Kale Sandwich

That's right, live, i'm eating that above sandwich as i'm posting about the above sandwich! When I made Chickpea Cutlets the other night I only cooked 2 of the 4. The other two I wrapped up, uncooked, to be used at a later date. Lunch today is that later date. I lightly fried up both pieces as usual. Then I sauteed lots of garlic with chopped kale to get some greens and goodness in my lunch. Spread some vegan mayo on both sides of the delicious ciabatta roll which i then proceeded to load with freshly ground black pepper (my one true love). I thought about making a flavored mayo for the spread but realized I needed to just eat this meal before Reno woke up. It turns out I don't need a flavored mayo...the chickpea cutlets are so flavorful and lemony and the kale so garlicky none was needed. This will be a common use of leftover cutlets in my house..exactly how I made it today.

VeganMoFo: Take Out

2007-11-27T23:15:00.000-05:00

Vegetable Mus Munn

There are some nights when you have lots of food in the fridge, pantry, freezer etc...with no desire to cook or eat any of it. That was my deal today. Tons of leftovers, chickpea patties, mac daddy..etc..Lots of frozen dishes, chili, soups, veggie burgers. Newly bought produce. I wanted non of it. I've been basically cooking all of our meals for quite awhile now which is wonderful for me and our bank account. I was just a little burnt out and was able to get my sister to pick up some Thai food on her way over! I always order the vegetarian Mus Munn. Whenever I order something different I'm always disappointed. Lately I've been disappointed in the Mus Munn because the restaurant changed the "chef's special hard tofu" that comes in all veg dishes. The original tofu was wonderful. You would beg them to add more to the dish and pay extra for it. Now you ask them to take it out which is what I finally did tonight and was pleased that I did so. Every time I eat this dish I wonder why I've never made it at home...I've seen a few recipes for it in various cookbooks but they never look like they will taste good. I'm going to start researching a little more and make it for myself next time, with extra cashews!