Spicy Chile-Garlic Green Beans and Tomatoes

When we got home from market last week, we were looking for something simple for lunch, and I was in the mood for something savory and spicy (when am I NOT in the mood for spicy, right?). I remembered awhile back seeing a recipe for Green Beans and Tomatoes on Leng's blog A Fat Cat Created A Vegetarian and wanted to make something similar with our tastes in mind and what we had on had.

What we came up with is a spicy, tasty, and wonderfully savory snack or light meal that would be wonderful with some sauce or soba noodles to soak up the extra sauce. Mmmmmmm.

















The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Spicy Chile-Garlic Green Beans and Tomatoes
2 tbsp. safflower oil
3 cups fresh green beans, snapped into 1/2-1 inch long pieces **
1 large yellow onion, chopped *
3 large tomatoes, cored and chopped **
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp. chile-garlic sauce (I used Huy Fong)
a few splashes of shoyu
salt
black pepper

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the green beans and stir-fry over medium-high heat. Cook until beans begin to soften and get some blistering on them.

Add the onions and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, chile-garlic sauce, and shoyu. Cook until tomatoes exude their juices and begin to form a nice sauce.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*If you wanted a milder version, halve the chile-garlic sauce or use a milder chile sauce.

'Til next time!

Manchurian-ish Mushrooms

We've been in "Mexi-mode" lately almost exclusively with my testing and restesting recipes for the cookbook. On Friday, I was looking at the website TasteSpotting and decided to do a search of the word "spicy", 'cause that's how I roll. One of the recipes that came up was for Manchurian Mushrooms. The picture was so drool-worthy that I had to go look at the recipe. I sounded absolutely amazing. I sent the recipe and picture to both Brett and Selina (she and I have very similar tastes). Brett, who claims to be "Asian-ed out" took one look at the recipe and agreed that we should try it and soon. Selina was on the same page as me and wanted to make it as soon as possible.

I started from this recipe here. I didn't have some of the stuff on hand and I wanted to make sure that the mushrooms were spicy to my liking and the sauce was sweet to Brett's liking so I tweaked the recipe and provided it below.




You may note some new serving ware here and there. My Nanny Beth (among others) wanted our food to look nicer since we put pictures of it online, so she got us these "rooster bowls" which look really cool with Asian food and some plates for us to use for our "Mexican presentations". Now all I have to do is learn how to use a camera and get some sort of eye for "food fashion". Hell, I am just the cook, Selina, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE PRESENTATION UP TO ME FOR THE COOKBOOK. It would just be bad. You've seen my titles for things and my lack of skill with the camera, you do not want that. :-)

Well, here she be.

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

J&B's Manchurian-ish Mushrooms
1 pack button mushrooms, rinsed and quartered
3-4 cups peanut oil for frying

Spicy Batter:
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp corn masa
2 tsp (or more!) of chile-garlic sauce (I used Huy Fong)
4 Chiles Japones, crushed with a mortar and pestle (you could also use a food processor or coffee grinder, or just crush them up with your fingers)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
1 cup water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Slowly add the water and mix well, making sure to work out all the clumps.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 small red boiler onions, chopped *
3 banana peppers, seeded and sliced *
2 small green bell peppers, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces *
1 head broccoli, cut into florettes *
1/2 yellow summer squash, cut into large chunks **
1 head Georgian Fire garlic, sliced *
2 tbsp alfalfa honey *
3/4 cup organic ketchup
4 tbsp sweet chile sauce
3 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)
4 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (for garnish, optional)

Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

Add the onion, peppers, broccoli, and squash and saute stirring often for about 6-8 minutes.

Add the garlic and stir fry for another 3-4 minutes.

Turn the heat down to slightly below medium.

Add the honey, ketchup, chile sauce, and shoyu. Combine well.

Let simmer on low while you batter and fry the mushrooms.

To batter and fry the mushrooms and finish up the dish:

Put your peanut oil in a heavy bottomed small skillet and turn heat on the low end of high (does that make sense?).

Dip the mushrooms pieces in the batter and once oil is heated carefully drop them in the hot oil.

Fry for 6-8 minutes or until mushroom pieces are deep golden brown. Transfer to paper towels to drain the excess oil. Repeat this process until all the mushrooms are fried.

Put the fried mushrooms into the sweet and sour sauce and stir to coat evenly. Top with cilantro. Serve immediately.

This was really freakin' good. It tasted like something you would get from a restaurant. It isn't the least time consuming of the recipes here on Veg*n Cooking, but it is well worth the effort.

'Til next time!

Random Eats of Late

I have been cooking lately - mostly variations on favorite tried and true recipes, but I have been lazy and too overwhelmed to blog - well not anymore! Not only will I share these variations of tried and true recipe, I hope to post the new chili recipe Brett and I made sometime this week. A new recipe! Wahoo!















First off, our Everything Granola Bars. We have worked with the ratios and nut/seed combinations and I think we have them how we want them. I highly recommend trying these and playing around with the recipe until you find the way you like 'em best. We found a combination so tasty that we have eaten these for breakfast (and even snacks) for a couple of months now. Oh, and check out our "newsed" new plates. A little brightly colored for my taste, but I love the swirly and Southwestern feel to the plates (cups, bowls, etc). My Dad and step-mom Stacey got some new dishes and split the set between Brett and I and my step-brother Zac. We certainly didn't need a whole set when half of the set included four place settings of each. Wahoo for hand-me-downs!

Next up: J. Finally. Baked. Bread. !!!!!















Check out these two gorgeous ciabattas! I followed the recipe provided by the super cool Jessy from Happy Vegan Face, I used all purpose flour for the "sponge" and local, Missouri-grown whole wheat pastry flour for the rest of the recipe.















Check out the air pockets! We had this delicious bread with some pasta and St. Louis-made Zia's pasta sauce.

The verdict on the breadmaking? Why the hell did I wait this long?! This wasn't hard at all and I don't even have a stand mixer, so I just used my hands. Brett and I have agreed that flour tortillas should be the next mission.

I do have to thank Selina (from Vegans Rock!!!) for helpfully dealing with my frantic text message inquiring as to whether my dough should have been as sticky as it was. Selina, you should change the name of your blog to Selina Rocks!!!

And now on to one of our favorite Asian meals in our "rotation", Veggie and Egg Fried Rice.















We originally got this recipe from Leng over at A Fat Cat Who Created A Vegetarian, and have since made it our own.

I love fried rice since you can throw in whatever veggies you have on hand.

To make this version of Veggie Fried Rice, we sautéed about a third of a head of red cabbage (not local, but purchased from the Root Cellar), 2 carrots peeled and chopped, one yellow onion, sliced thick (not local, but purchased from the Root Cellar), 1 head of broccoli florets, chopped, edamame, and green peas in canola oil in a very large skillet over high heat until the veggies begin to char. Then whisk together 2-4 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce), 2 tbsp of hot or sweet chili sauce (we use sweet chili sauce), and a pinch of black pepper. Add half to the veggies and stir constantly for about one minute. Add about 3 cups of day old, cooked long grain brown rice and the remainder of the sauce. Mix well.

We also added 2 local eggs to our veggie fried rice for some extra protein and brain food. To add the egg, scooch the rice and veggies to one side of the pan. Crack the eggs and scramble. Cook thoroughly and then combine the eggs, rice, and veggies.

It is a quick, yummy, one pan dish!















This is my bowl with the requisite big 'ol squirt of sriracha.

And for our lunches, we have been digging on lots of homemade hummus and falafel.















My favorite plain old garlicky hummus. The only thing that makes this better is a good couple of dashes of cayenne on top. I would rather have sumac, but I haven't found any in CoMo yet.















A yummy plate of baked falafel. I experimented a little this time and used dried cilantro flakes in place of the ground coriander and added a tablespoon of raw sesame seeds to the mixture. They turned out really, really well this time.

Well, Brett and I are taking a much needed night off together to do something we rarely do - sit in front of the "boob tube" all night. Seriously, I don't think there is anything that Brett and I need more right now than some serious snuggle time. We picked up some "reinforcements" for our evening: a locally made Uprise Bakery baguette, some garlic and herb Boursin cheese for Brett, some local Goatsbeard Farm herbed goat cheese for Brett, some super spicy cracked chili hummus for yours truly, and some olive tapenade for us to share. We've also got massive quantities of fruit waiting to be washed and cut. No dinner for us, just a night of munching - though our choice in snacks wasn't too bad.

We'll probably also work on making newspaper pots while we watch. Nothing likely double-duty, eh?

Tomorrow? Wednesday night is for the worms! We will be starting another working tray for them. We'll also (hopefully) be planting our second round of seeds! We've gathered all the needed materials, what has been missing of late is the time to actually do it. When we start more seeds, we'll also take pictures so I can do a garden update.

I apologize for the sporadic nature of my blog posts and comments on others' blogs, I've been really lazy with the computer lately, it has been the last thing on my mind.

Song of the Day:
Golden Pond - Chris Thile

'Til next time.

Jessy's Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce

I have been wanting to make Jessy's (from Happy Vegan Face) Broccoli with Spicy Peanut Sauce since I saw her post about it awhile back. I've just been waiting for the local broccoli to come back around. I found some when I went to the Root Cellar, and I knew her recipe was exactly what I wanted to do with it. Since we had such an abundance of local veggies around, we decided to load the stir-fry up with other veggies rather than use rice. The only thing we did differently than Jessy for the sauce was to use sesame chile oil instead of regular sesame oil. This peanut sauce is one of the best I've ever had!















This picture does not do the meal justice. I should have stirred the sauce in before photographing it, but it smelled so good and I was hungry.

In the stir-fry we used a head of local broccoli, 1 cup of local shiitake mushrooms, 1/2 a local golden zucchini, about a 1/2 cup of local yellow and purple wax beans, about a cup of local okra sliced into 1/2 inch coins, local onions, and petite bell peppers from our container garden. The peanut butter used in the sauce was made at an intentional community about an hour and a half south of us. Wahoo for local food and Jessy's killer sauce.

I also want to mention that Brett and I are going to start rating our recipes somehow and will create a favorite recipes index as well. We don't post recipes on this blog unless we liked them, but there are so many that we can't remember them all. Now, there are a lot of recipes for a reason. It is because we like to try to eat as locally as possible, which often means working with a lot of the same ingredients. If you don't change it up, eating this way can get stale fast. Not to mention, we already had a lot of recipes before I started the blog.

Oh, and if any of you try the recipes from this blog, let us know what you thought, you guys can contribute to the rating system too.

I will try to get on tomorrow to post the weekly local booty update. Brett's mom and grandma are coming to visit this afternoon and tomorrow, Sundays we watch football, and Monday is Brett and I's 6 year anniversary. So expect the garden update to be a little late, but we will get it done.

'Til next time!

Veggies with Spicy Chile-Garlic Sauce

We don't often venture outside of Mexican food, when we do, it is generally some sort of Asian food. This is one of those "some sort of Asian food" posts. It's nothing against other cuisines, but beyond Mexican and Asian, we do Middle Eastern occasionally, and even more rarely, Italian food. I am one of those freaks of nature that has never really been too big of an Italian food fan. What can I say? Mexican has always been my favorite kind of food. I'm lucky I met Brett because he concurs on this as well.

This was really easy to make - it was our way of taking advantage of the remaining abundance from summer. September is one of the best times of year because it is harvest time! It's also the time when the staples of summer (tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.) are still hanging on, but on their way out, and the staples of fall (potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, etc.) are coming in full-force. It is the time of year to experience the best of both worlds.

Anywho, on to what you all really want - the food!

Just a reminder of the produce legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden



























The second picture is my dish with extra sriracha, 'cause I'm a freak like that.

I do have to say that I have a strong affinity for the bottle with the rooster on it. I love me some sriracha, it is one of the best things there is!

Veggies with Spicy Chile-Garlic Sauce

2 cups brown Basmati rice, cooked

Chile-Garlic Sauce:
1/4 cup water
4 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp mirin
2 tbsp organic sugar
1-2 tbsp sriracha sauce (or 2 Thai chiles, seeded and minced)
a couple of pinches of salt
a couple of pinches of black pepper

Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Veggie Schtuff (all local!):
1 Japanese eggplant, cut into chunks *
1 zucchini, cut into chunks **
1 yellow summer squash, cut into chunks **
2 cups shiitake mushrooms, minced *
1/2 yellow onion, minced *
2 cups mung bean sprouts *
3 cloves of garlic, minced *

Heat a few tablespoons of safflower oil in a large skillet. Add the eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, shiitakes, and onion and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring often.

Add the bean sprouts, garlic, and sauce to the pan.

Simmer for about 5-8 minutes.

Serve over brown Basmati rice.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.

Tonight, we are doing a "breakfast for dinner" kind of thing. I made a vegan take on Huevos Rancheros awhile back, so tonight I am going to try making the "real thing", sans cheese of course. I rarely eat eggs, and will only eat them from one local purveyor who has a very small operation going, seems to treat the chickens quite well, and isn't doing anything on an environmentally degrading scale. We had some lying around and Brett had the Huevos Rancheros at a local restaurant called Cafe Berlin last weekend so he wanted me to try it out at home. We'll see how it goes.

'Til next time.

Peanut-Veggie Soba Noodles

As I'm sure you've all gathered, Mexican is by far our favorite cuisine. Behind that would be various forms of Asian food, particular Thai and Japanese. I'm not very sure as to the "authenticity" of our Asian food - but it's tasty and we like it, so that is really all that matters. As of late, Leng's Fried Rice has made its way nicely into our regular recipe routine - it's so tasty (and versatile, we just use what veggies we have on hand)!

This is, obviously, not Leng's Fried Rice, but it was a quick and easy creation that was filling and takes advantage of all the local yummies we have at our disposal right now. And, because I'm a bit of a spice freak, I douse my serving in sriracha before I eat it, Brett's not a huge fan of the sriracha, it's a bit spicy for his taste, so the hot chile sauce I use in this recipe is a milder variety that I supplement with sriracha to please my "fire tooth". Some have a sweet tooth, I have a spice tooth. And the great thing about Asian food is the sweet and spicy combinations often found, so it's the best of both worlds, and both Brett and I can be satisfied!

Just a reminder of the produce legend:
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden

Without further fanfare, here she be!















Peanut-Veggie Soba Noodles

Sauce:
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water
juice of one lime
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp shoyu
2-4 chiles Japones, roughly chopped (or crushed red pepper to taste)
2-3 tbsp hot chile sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1" fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced *
a pinch of salt

Veggies and Such:
1/2 package of soba noodles

shredded cabbage **
chopped rainbow chard *
carrots, sliced into thin matchsticks
yellow squash, sliced into thin matchsticks ***
zucchini, sliced into thin matchsticks ***
1/2 an onion, sliced thin *
1/2 a red bell pepper, sliced thin *

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain once cooked.

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a small sauce pan. Add the chiles, ginger, and garlic and cook for about 5-8 minutes. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and combine well.

Meanwhile, heat a tablespoon or two or sesame oil over medium or medium-low heat. Add all the veggies and stir-fry until they begin to char.

Toss pasta with veggies and sauce and enjoy warm.

This was really good, we both really like soba noodles, and when we discovered that buckwheat attracts predatory insects, we were pretty excited as soba noodles are made from buckwheat.

'Til next time.

Basmati Rice with Adzuki Beans, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Veggies

This was a very humble, yet tasty meal. You might notice that there are fewer local veggies in this dish than normal, and this is because we were trying to use up some of the veggies in our freezer to make room for all the sauce I plan on making in the coming weeks (this only ended up using the edamame in our freezer, but we did make a little more room). I don't know if I've mentioned before, but we really like basmati rice, we use it more over the winter for stir-fries 'cause frozen veggies are easier to come by than fresh ones (unless you don't mind food that travels thousands of miles, which we try to avoid). Has anyone ever noticed that basmati smells a little like popcorn when it cooks?

I'm a little behind in my food posting as, well, I've been blabbering about other things, but I am going to hunker down and get caught up this week.

We made enough of this yummy meal that I could make a lunch out of it at work. I added some sriracha hot sauce to my dish 'cause that's how I roll.

Just a reminder of the produce legend:
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden















Basmati Rice with Adzuki Beans, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Veggies
1 cup adzuki beans, cooked
2 cups brown Basmati rice, cooked
2 large carrots, peeled, and sliced
1/2 cup edamame, cooked
1/2 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and minced **
2 cups shiitake mushrooms, finely minced *
1/4 yellow onion, minced **
2 tbsp sesame oil
1" ginger, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced *
2-3 tbsp shoyu
1 tbsp seasoned brown rice vinegar
2 tbsp organic sugar

Heat the sesame oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the carrots, edamame, bell pepper, mushrooms and onion. Cook until the veggies begin to brown.

Meanwhile, heat a few tablespoons of water in a small sauce pan. Add the garlic and onion and cook for about 5-8 minutes. Add the shoyu, brown rice vinegar, and sugar. Stir well.

Add the rice and adzuki beans to the skillet with the veggies to heat. Pour the sauce over the mixture and enjoy!

'Til next time.

Sushi 'Burgers' with Asian-ish Slaw

This meal was one of the more experimental things I have tried and I'm pleased to say it turned out really well. I modified the recipe for the sushi 'burgers' from here. I loved the spiciness of the burger and it even had a slightly "fishy" quality to it, but not overpoweringly so.

I added shredded beets to the coleslaw for some sweetness, which complimented the savory and slightly spicy burger quite well. The dried cranberries offered more sweetness and a nice addition of texture. The peanuts add an additional burst of protein and good fat, while adding a nice crunch to the dish.

The meal was also quite easy as I had my microplane grater and food processor do most of the work for me.















Sushi 'Burgers'
Makes 4 large patties

1/2 cup sushi rice, cooked
1 cup adzuki beans, cooked
1 sheet of nori, shredded
1/2 cup Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 carrot, peeled and shredded (I used a microplane grater)
1/2 cucumber, peeled and shredded (Again, I used a microplane grater)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated with the microplane (or finely minced)
1/2 yellow onion, shredded with the microplane (or finely minced)
2 hot banana peppers (or jalapeno, Anaheim, Hungarian Wax, Serrano, etc), stems removed, shredded with microplane (or finely minced)
1 1/2 tbsp seasoned brown rice vinegar
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)
1 tsp wasabi powder
1/4 tsp ground ginger

In a large bowl, lightly mash the adzuki beans with a fork.

Combine with the rest of the ingredients.

Form into 4 large patties and refrigerate for about an hour to let the patties "set".

Lightly coat the bottom of a small skillet with oil (I used coconut, probably about 1/4-1/2 tsp). Fry patties for about 5-8 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Top with Asian-ish slaw (recipe follows).

Asian-isn Slaw

Salad:
1 cup red cabbage, shredded
1 cup green cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1/4 yellow onion, shredded
2 beets, peeled and shredded
1/4 cup dried cranberries (or raisins)
1/4 cup crushed peanuts

Dressing:
2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
1/3 cup peanut oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup seasoned brown rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2-4 tbsp raw sugar
2 green serrano chilies, seeded and minced (Thai chilies would be even better)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
salt and white pepper to taste

Shred all the salad ingredients except the peanuts and cranberries in a food processor or with a box grater. Set aside.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad.

Refrigerate for about an hour to allow flavors to meld.

Right before serving, stir in the cranberries and peanuts.

This meal had quite a bit more oil in it than I usually use, but we had a more active than usual day. We had this on Saturday, so, as usual, we walked to and from the farmer's market and we also went out walking for a couple of hours with a good friend at a local park, so this meal was very nice after a long day walking outside. We were lucky to be able to walk in a shaded park, it felt so much cooler beneath those trees than out exposed to the scorching sun.

Well, I'm off to prepare a simple dinner, enjoy a fresh batch of sun tea (our favorite recipe is a gallon jug filled with water and 4 fair trade, organic Darjeeling tea bags and 1 organic peppermint tea bag, so refreshing!), and probably take a sneak peek at the book I chose for the month of July's "Blogging Borkworm" review, though I still have to finish Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips (it's a really long book). I chose "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman, he explores how the planet would respond without the pressures of human civilization. Interesting topic to ponder.

Oooooh, and we stopped by the smaller, but still lovely, farmer's market that runs on Monday's and Wednesday's here in Columbia and picked up some gorgeous local peaches. They were so yummy looking we both just ate one right there at the market, along with everyone else who had gotten peaches. :-) Never done that before.... They were so juicy, and perfect, this was my first local peach, and I gotta say, no peach I've had before even comes close. And to think, we got 9 local peaches for $5, who says buying local has to be expensive?

'Til next time.

Leng, You Rock!

Since I had the day off work yesterday, I wanted to do something fun in the kitchen. I remembered Leng's recipes for eggrolls and vegan fried rice, and I knew instantly, that's what I wanted to make. Not very "traditional" 4th of July fare, but that's how we roll. ;-)

Her recipes did not disappoint. I have always been afraid to try making my own fried rice at home as I thought that certain "something" would be missing. Not so, if you know what you are doing. We will go a little easier on the black pepper in the fried rice next time, we ground it fresh, and it was a bit strong for our taste.















Now our eggrolls didn't come out as crispy and golden brown as her's did, but I rarely fry anything, and to be honest, I'm not very good at it, let's just say it was a scary situation where I was ducking out of the way of wildly splashing oil. But they were still very good. As Leng noted on the recipe, you can kind of mix and match to your tastes and what you have on hand. We filled the eggrolls with shredded green cabbage, shredded carrot, shredded zucchini, some sliced onion, adzuki beans, and her spice combination less the hoisin (we're not fans), we added a splash of seasoned brown rice vinegar as well.

The vegan fried rice consisted of some shredded cabbage, sliced carrot, sliced zucchini, onion, and adzuki beans, pretty much the same thing as the eggrolls. I had some edamame I meant to put in it, but forgot.

I served the eggrolls with some sweet and sour sauce. I zested an orange in it, and it made a wonderful dipping sauce.

Thanks Leng!

'Til next time!

Yummy Vegan Wedding Food, Another 5 Things About Me, and A Grocery Store/CSA Wrap Up

First off I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who wished me well during my 'tooth ordeal', it means a lot! I'm happy to report that I'm back in action! I am able to eat solid food and have really been enjoying it. My first 'celebratory' meal was vegan sushi. I love sushi! We made avocado rolls, cucumber rolls, and avocado/cucumber rolls. We, as always, added pickled ginger directly to the roll.

Last night, we had the wonderful honor of watching some good friends of ours get married. The ceremony, with some glitches, but with a sense of humor about it, was wonderful and both the bride and groom looked amazing. Both so happy! Brett was able to get a picture of the vegan dish prepared especially for yours truly.

Not only was I honored that they made a special dish for me - it was unbelievable! And the guy who prepared the food had never cooked vegan before, all I can say is he seems to have a knack and perhaps should. He marinated portobello mushrooms in balsamic vinegar and then stuffed it with ratatouille. It was topped with a bit of faux cheese and he made a balsamic reduction to go on top. It was out of this world! Seriously it looked and tasted like something you'd get at a really fancy restaurant. After we got ours, the meat eaters got in on the action and cleared them out! The omni's even enjoyed them. I was told that he would give the recipe, so I'm going to make sure I get it, I'll make that whenever I want to wow someone with vegan food!

Romina tagged me to tell you all another five things about myself. This is the third time I've done this! I'm running out of interesting 'Jen Tid-bits' but here you go.

1. I have never wanted a wedding, nor to have children. I guess I'm just not a 'traditional' person. Brett and I will get 'married' eventually, but neither want the fuss and hassle nor are we religious, so will likely do so at a courthouse. We are already committed to each other, we've lived together for 5 years, we just want to legal recognition at this point.

2. I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but I'm not into fashion, I like to look presentable, but don't really put a whole lot of fuss into it - never have. I've learned what colors and fits of clothing work for me and stick with that. Unfortunately, the colors that look the best on me are my least favorite colors: orange, red, pink, mustard, etc. Basically shades of red. So most of my clothes are colors I don't actually like. My favorite color, oddly, is brown, and I happen to look alright in that too, so it's not all bad.

3. I'm a very 'serious' person, I suppose you could say. But I'm equally as silly as I am serious. I love crass, politically incorrect humor. I love to make fun of myself, others and uncomfortable situations, it helps me cope with the reality we currently live in. I think humor is essential to a full, healthy life, and can help make times of strife more bearable.

4. I value honesty above being 'right'. What I mean by that is, say you are a racist, sexist bigot, I would rather you be honest about it, even though most people wouldn't consider those feelings 'right', than put on some facade and poorly hide your obvious 'ism's'. We can't solve really hard problems unless we can face our own 'ism's', it's tough, uncomfortable, but we all have them.

5. If I met the person I used to be now, I would want to kick their ass :-) or at the very least I would have considered myself a 'douche'. I used to be a very close-minded, selfish individual who cared only for myself. I also made horrible decisions, which I think most young-ins have the propensity to do. However, as I've gotten older I've consciously tried to explore my own short comings and do what I can to actually be the person I'd like to be.

Now I have to 'tag' five people to tell us five things about themselves.

Let's see:

Jessy from Happy Vegan Face; Lisa - the Show Me Vegan; Kumquat Peekapoo from The Path of the Vegan; Callina from Epic Eclectic; and M from My Face Is On Fire.

And finally, I will end this post with a grocery store/CSA wrap up. Our CSA bag was much larger this week thanks to the weather starting to cooperate (aside from far more rain than usual and lots of wind!).

Here is our grocery store haul:

I never know where to start. I'm going to change it up this week. Starting from the back left: pickled ginger, organic Mexican style cheese (for Brett, he likes regular cheese on black bean quesadillas), organic veggie broth, organic plain rice milk, organic Fair Trade Sumatra coffee, sushi nori, whole wheat burger buns, Newman O's, organic strawberries (from California!), a Sweet and Sara Peanut Butter S'more, sea salt, an Alternative Baking Company vegan Espresso Chocolate Chip cookie, wasabi powder, 3 organic California avocados, 2 organic cucumber, 2 organic yams, vegan jack, quick oats, organic frozen sweet corn, and black peppercorns.

Here are the peppers and such: 2 organic red bell peppers, poblano pepper, organic garlic, habanero, jalapenos, and serrano peppers.

Here's our CSA bag for the week:

It's all organic. We've got leaf lettuce, spinach, green onions, spearmint, radishes, and asparagus. I can't wait to eat that asparagus, it's so good!

Well, I'll try to get back on later to post the weekly garden update and catch up on all your blogs!

'Til next time.

Sesame Ginger Soba Noodles and Thanksgiving in May?

For dinner a few nights ago, I made a Sesame Ginger sauce, since I haven't been able to eat completely solid foods, we served it over soba noodles, instead of rice and veggies which we usually prefer. I also added some adzuki beans to it. I wouldn't normally pair beans and noodles, as the beans sink to the bottom, but I've been needing protein.

The sauce turned out really well, Brett raved about it, probably because it was sweet. :-)

Sesame Ginger Soba Noodles (with optional adzuki beans)

Sesame Ginger Sauce:

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 tbsp ginger, minced

4 Chiles Japones, minced

1/3 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons mirin

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tbsp agave

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 tablespoon tahini

2 tbsp seasoned brown rice vinegar

2-4 tbsp hot water

cayenne (optional)

1/2 package of soba noodles (buckwheat noodles)

1 cup adzuki beans, cooked (optional)

sesame seeds (optional)

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a small sauce pan. Add the garlic, ginger and Chiles Japones and cook for about 10 minutes. Add all the other ingredients (except the cayenne), and simmer on low while the noodles are cooking.

Cook noodles according to package directions.

When noodles are finished, drain and rinse. Top with aduzki beans, sauce, sesame seeds and cayenne.

(If you want a thicker sauce, you can dissolve 1 tsp of arrowroot in a couple of tbsp of water, mix it in the sauce, bring it to a boil and remove it from the heat as soon as it is at the desired thickness.)

So, I have been running out of ideas for soft-ish things to eat, and to be completely honest, I am sick of soba noodles with sauce, mashed beans, and especially applesauce. Which is a shame, because I used to love applesauce, I've just been living off of it for a week.

Brett came up with the idea of cooking up a bunch of 'Thanksgiving-ish' sides, since they are all soft and savory, something I haven't had much of this week. So he went to the store and even cooked half of the dinner.

Brett steamed some carrots, cooked up a few cranberry beans, and made his world famous (ok, well I think they should be considered world famous) Garlicky Mashed Potatoes, when he makes them, they always turn out better than when I do it. Part of his bag of tricks includes using Silk Soy Creamer instead of regular soy, rice or hemp milk and using red potatoes instead of russet. It gives the potatoes a richer flavor.

Anyways, I made Veganomicon's Mushroom Gravy (so good!), steamed some spinach and prepared some vegan stuffing (from an organic mix bought from the store made with veggie broth). It was really good and hit the spot.

I think my stomach has shrunk, well, and my eyes were far bigger than my belly, I couldn't eat nearly all of this. I was stoked that there were leftovers so I can enjoy this again at lunch today.

I'm making Lentil and Potato soft tacos tonight! I think I can do the tortillas, just maybe not fried yet, the healing process is moving along quite quickly and I am starting to feel brave enough to 'test the waters'.

'Til next time!

Pineapple Quinoa Stir-Fry with Cashews and Adzuki Beans

I had looked at the Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stir-Fry in Veganomicon a few times, but always passed over it as the flavoring just didn’t seem to do it for me. But I really liked the idea of a stir-fry with pineapples, quinoa, and cashews in it. So I thought about improvements awhile to see what I could come up with.

I ended up, big surprise, going with a sweet and spicy sauce (it is a great compromise, the spiciness pleases me, the sweetness pleases Brett and the combination works great), and I added more veggies and some adzuki beans.

I must say, this was a huge hit! And it was loaded with protein; you got quinoa, cashews, and adzuki beans. Brett and I both loved this and he even came up with an idea for a variation for a fruity breakfast stir-fry. I was impressed, it sounds fantastic, I think we’ll have to make it for a weekend brunch sometime soon to see how it turns out.















Pineapple Quinoa Stir-Fry with Cashews and Adzuki Beans
Serves 4-6 (leftovers = yummy, easy work lunches)

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water

Sauce:
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
hot chili oil (to taste)
4 tbsp agave
1" ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
juice of 1/2 a lime
red pepper flakes
cornstarch mixed with water

Stir-Fry Stuff:
4 carrots, peeled, cut into rounds, and boiled
1 cup snap peas, cooked
1 cup broccoli, cooked
1 can organic pineapple pieces
1/2 cup raw organic cashews
1 1/2 cups cooked adzuki beans

Rinse quinoa very well before cooking.

Bring 2 cups water to boil, add quinoa, reduce heat and cook, uncovered until water is absorbed.

While quinoa is cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil, add carrots and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add snap peas and broccoli, cook for a few minutes until all the veggies are soft. Drain.

In a small sauce pan heat water, add garlic and ginger and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients aside from the cornstarch/water mixture.

Once quinoa is cooked, transfer it to a large skillet. Add veggies and beans.

Drain pineapple juice into pan with sauce and add the pineapple chunks to the quinoa, veggies, and beans.

Bring sauce to a boil, add cornstarch/water mixture and stir frequently until desired thickness.

Remove from heat.

Stir in to quinoa mixture and top with cashews.

'Til next time!

Orange-Agave-Teriyaki Stir-Fry with Adzuki Beans

First off, thank you all for your kind comments on my last entry, they really mean a lot to me; it’s nice to know that people enjoy this blog.

So anyway. When deciding to focus more on whole foods and less on tofu, seitan, faux cheeses, etc., the one food I was having trouble with was Asian. Both of us really like Asian food, and beyond nuts, I was coming up short with ideas for protein sources in stir-fries that weren’t seitan or tofu. Then Lindsay (aka The Happy Herbivore) sent me a link a friend gave her to this small family farm in Idaho that sells all sorts of dry beans and lentils. They sell lots of organic and heirloom varieties of beans. So I had a look around on their site and it was food nerd heaven. Anyways, I ordered 1 lb. each of organic cranberry beans, organic anasazi beans, and organic adzuki beans.

Well, my problem with protein in Asian is no more, there are nuts, there are soy beans, and now there are adzuki beans. These are lovely little beans. I got a picture of them before cooking since they are far prettier before the color is leached out of them in the soaking and cooking process.

So for dinner on Friday nights we generally do something like a frozen pizza, order in or eat leftovers as it has been a long week at work and we go to the store on Friday nights so after lugging home a load of groceries we’re pretty physically tired as well. None of that stuff sounded good last night, so I decided to whip together a quick stir-fry, and I mean quick, I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time in the kitchen, nor did I want to eat crap food. I like to have frozen veggies on hand, as they are convenient, I much prefer fresh veggies, but sometimes it’s nice not to have to chop all sorts of stuff up. So I went the frozen veggie route. You could use whatever veggies you had on hand in this of course, but I used: peas, asparagus, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, yellow squash, celery, onions, and mushrooms. Aside from the peas (I added them in), it was one of those frozen ‘stir-fry’ veggie mixes. Both Brett and I hate celery so I picked that out.

Note: This did make a decent amount of sauce. We had some leftover afterwards, you could always cut the sauce recipe in half if desired.

Orange-Agave-Teriyaki Stir-Fry with Adzuki Beans

Sauce
1 teaspoon coconut oil (it will melt while cooking)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1/2 cup shoyu
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
juice of half an orange
pinch cayenne (optional)
cornstarch dissolved in water

Stir-Fry
Mixed veggies
1-2 cups cooked adzuki beans
Hot, cooked short grain brown rice
Sesame seeds (optional)

Have all your other ingredients warming while you make the sauce, this saves a lot of time.

Heat water in small sauce pan. Add garlic and ginger and cook until soft. Add all the other ingredients except the cornstarch and water and bring to a soft boil. Add in the cornstarch mixture and stir frequently as sauce thickens. Remove from heat.

Serve over hot rice, veggies and adzuki beans. Top with sesame seeds (and more cayenne if desired) before serving.

This was very tasty, both Brett and I enjoyed it, and it only took me about 20 minutes to throw this together since the beans were already cooked and I had cooked rice on hand.

‘Til next time!

Sushi Bonanza

Ok, so as soon as I wrote that, I realized that the words 'sushi' and 'bonanza' don't really go together, do they? As promised, here is the sushi post! I don't make sushi very often as there is a lot of prep work that goes into it, but man Brett and I are both happy campers when I do make it.

Well, I got a little more creative with my sushi yesterday. Notice I said a little more creative. I made three different types of rolls that Brett and I shared and boy were we full! One time I made sushi, I made four rolls, which was way too much, then I made two, which was not enough, and go figure that this time when I made three, it was still too much!

First, I made 'our usual', except I forgot to get a cucumber at the store (they aren't that great here this time of year anyway), so it ended up being just shredded carrot, avocado, pickled ginger and toasted sesame seeds. (For official 'J Style' sushi, load these bad boys down with wasabi!)















The second roll consisted of roasted strips of red bell pepper, roasted asparagus, toasted sesame seeds, and wasabi spiked Veganaise. This one rocked! It was so good, and a bit spicy. Who knew how well Nori and roasted veggies go together.















And finally, I made an Asian tofu roll. I used Asian baked tofu in this roll, using the recipe for Asian Marinated Tofu in Veganomicon, subbing in 1 tsp coconut oil for the called for amount of sesame oil (thanks Lindsay! I love using coconut oil now!), and of course, adding a bit more hot chili sauce than it called for. The roll consisted of the above stated baked tofu julienned, with strips of roasted red bell pepper, avocado, toasted sesame seeds and wasabi spiked Veganaise. I really liked these, as they were spicy, filling, and just plain yum. Brett didn't seem to like this one as much as the previous two (must be the tofu), but he ate this as well, just not with the enthusiasm as the others.















Have I mentioned that I love sesame seeds? Not only are they tasty, but they are one bad ass food, loaded with calcium and lots of other healthy goodies. I think the world should eat more sesame seeds, it would be a better place. :-)

I noticed that many of my blog readers are very into health, nutrition, and wellness, Brett (my favorite Wet Blanket) wrote a piece discussing dieting over at his Parade of Rain blog, I highly encourage anyone who is interested in/brave enough to check it out, give him your thoughts or a piece of your mind. :-)

'Til next time!

Oh, Veganomicon!

I don't generally spend my entire Saturday in the kitchen, but this weekend is a three day weekend, and I have been really looking forward to trying out Veganomicon, so I made an exception. I made lots and lots of cookies, and will be keeping some of them for us, giving some to friends, and taking the rest in to my coworkers. I love giving meat eaters yummy vegan treats, it helps to illustrate that vegans do eat good food.

As I mentioned in my last post, I also tried out SusanV's Monterey Frittata. It was a bit involved, but not overly so, and it was really good. Mine wasn't as thick and didn't hold together as well as hers, but still tasted wonderful. I think next time I could use a smaller pan for the tofu and that would solve that issue.

Anyways, on to the real goods, the cookies. I think I picked perfect recipes for my first run with V-Con. Brett loved being the taste tester and I love baking cookies. It was a fun day, I listened to some very interesting podcasts, one involving James Howard Kunstler, and baked, and baked, and baked.....

The first batch of cookies I made were a variation of the Chocolate-Chocolate-Chip Walnut Cookies. I did the cherry variation, but stuck with regular vegan chocolate chips rather than using white chocolate chips as neither Brett nor I are fans. I also used whole wheat pastry flour, and didn't have any ground flax seeds, so I left those out, and the recipe still turned out great.

Next, I made the Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies. I simply followed the recipe as it read and according to Brett, these were really good. I had eaten a couple of the Chocolate-Chocolate-Chip Cherry and didn't really have room to try.

Then I made the Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies. These were a little bit more for me, as Brett tends to eschew anything that isn't chocolate, but he even liked these as well. The seasoning was just right, they were perfectly chewy and loaded with yummy raisins.

And finally, I departed from Veganomicon a bit to make some plain 'ol vegan chocolate chip cookies. This is yet another recipe I adapted from VegWeb. For some unknown reason the original recipe did not call for brown sugar. I have never heard of a chocolate chip cookie recipe that didn't call for brown sugar, so I altered it before I ever made it the first time. These are simple and a hit with anyone who likes chocolate chip cookies (which is everyone isn't it?).

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Vegan chocolate chips

1 cup organic sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add chips.

In a medium size bowl mix sugar and oil and mix. Add the vanilla and then add the water. Add to the dry. Mix well, you may need to add a bit more flour or water to get the consistency correct.

Roll dough into small balls and place an inch and a half apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them for about 7-10 minutes and check roughly every minute after that until cookies are slightly golden brown.

Remove from oven, let cool for about five minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

After all this baking I wanted something quick and light for dinner, so I opted for sushi. I just got a rice cooker, which can also double as a veggie steamer, so this made the job a whole lot easier. I decided to try the Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls from V-Con. This was my first experience with tempeh, and I'm still not sure about it. The sushi was pretty good I guess, I'm just still not sure. I think I will have to try it again some other way to really make a judgment.

I also made a variation on something similar to the Post Punk Kitchen's Goin' Back to Cali Roll. This is not where I got the idea from, I actually have had veggie sushi like this on campus at the University of Missouri, but it is very similar to PPK's Cali Roll. The only thing I did differently was to add shredded carrot and pickled ginger to the roll.

I was pretty wiped out at the end of the day, but had a lot of fun. I won't be repeating that today. The only thing I plan on making is dinner. Today is going to be one of the nice fun days of relaxing and doing as few productive things as possible. Yay for the weekend.

Yay For Saturday Morning Bluegrass!

There many things I really love about Saturday mornings, aside from being able to sleep in and not having to go to work, and two are coffee and good instrumental bluegrass (or jazz, or classical guitar). Listening to Chris Thile and Bryan Sutton really make me want a fiddle. Or a mandolin. Or a banjo. Ha!

So, I really liked VeganYumYum's Crispy Seitan, so I thought over the week about what else I could do with it. I opted for a salad, not super creative I know, but it was very good nonetheless. I got a very good Sesame-Ginger Dressing recipe from SusanV's blog. She rocks you know, her food always looks so beautiful and tasty. I was inspired by her food so I am going to attempt her Monterey Frittata for brunch today, seems pretty involved, so we'll see how that turns out.

Anyways.















I just made a batch of Crispy Seitan and the Sesame-Ginger Dressing (which was a snap to make by the way), and had it over some mixed baby greens, shredded carrots, cooked brown rice, and cooked edamame. Yummy, simple and nutritious.

Well, there is lots cooking on my agenda today, so I'm off!

Happy Friday!

So I am really looking forward to this weekend, as I will be using Veganomicon for the first time! I am really excited about it. Stay tuned to see how my first dance with V-Con goes!

Last night’s dinner was a yummy General Tao’s Tofu stir-fry. Something kind of funny about this though. I guess Veggie and I are on the same wavelength, because she made it this week as well too. We even adapted our recipes from the same one on VegWeb. What an interesting world, I guess some of us veg*n’s think alike, eh? Anyways, you might pop over and check hers out as her photography is generally much better than my own, not to mention, I don't have a picture of the stir-fry because of user error.

You see, I often take multiple pictures when I photograph my recipes to make sure that I get a good picture. Well, I was going through them on my computer, found the one I wanted. At least thought I selected the one I had chosen, and then deleted the rest. Well, I went to upload the photo, and it was one of the grainy, bad pictures, and I lost the rest as I had already deleted them. Argh.

But anyways, I went a slightly different direction with this, opting for a spicier, savory sauce, so my recipe for the sauce is quite a bit different from the template I started out with on VegWeb.

Here she be (in the words of Wilbur)!

General Tao’s Sauce
onion chopped (I diced up about a quarter of an onion)
diced red chilies to taste (dry if possible, substitute crushed red pepper if can't find chilies)
cayenne pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp ginger, minced
1-2 tbsp garlic, minced
2/3 cup vegetable broth
2-3 tbsp shoyu (add a bit at a time, and then add more if needed)
3-6 tbsp sugar (more or less depending on your desired level of sweetness)
1-2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1-2 tbsp corn starch
splash of hot chili oil for good measure

Sautee onions, garlic, and ginger. Mix all ingredients together. Add cornstarch to thicken shortly before serving.

General Tao’s Tofu Stir-Fry
Tofu:
1/2 block tofu cut into small cubes that has been marinated in a bit of General Tao's sauce for at least 30 minutes
corn starch
pinch sugar
egg replacer for one egg
peanut or sesame oil

Stir-Fry:
General Tao's Sauce
onion, chopped
broccoli, cooked
cauliflower, cooked
edamame, cooked
Hot, cooked brown Basmati Rice

Mix together egg replacer (mixed with water according to package directions) and coat tofu in it.

In a small bowl, combine corn starch and sugar. Cover tofu in dry mixture. Heat some peanut or sesame oil in skillet and fry tofu until golden brown.

Top hot cooked rice with cooked veggies, tofu and desired amount of sauce.

You know, stir-fries are very good, but I’m a bit stir-fried out. I probably won’t devote an entire week to a particular type of food again, but I got a lot of good recipes to add to my collection.

I want to thank those who gave me suggestions on good vegan cookbooks, it was very helpful. I have placed an order for Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan on Amazon, and will probably look into getting Vegan with a Vengeance in a couple of weeks once I have tried a few things from V-Con and ED&BV.

Well, I am a bit tired after a long week of dealing with data (sounds so fun I know), and lugging a nice, big load of grub home from the store, so I’m off to make a quick dinner and to listen to Democracy Now!

Happy Friday!

Teriyaki Tofu

Last night I decided to move away from sweet Asian sauces a bit to make something more savory, as both Brett and I felt like we had eaten a lot of sweet foods this week. So I went for a Teriyaki Tofu Stir-Fry, and it turned out spot on. I was impressed with how much my homemade version actually tasted like teriyaki sauce, since, as I said in a previous post, sometimes I make things sweeter, spicier, and tangier, than they are made “authentically”. But this sauce seemed pretty authentic.

I also loaded this stir-fry up with veggies because I felt like we haven’t had as high of a veggie intake lately as we should. This is one thing I love about stir-fries; they are a perfect way to get a nice, healthy dose of veggies.

Teriyaki Sauce
1/3 cup mirin (Chinese Rice Wine)
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup shoyu
1-2 tbsp minced ginger
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp brown sugar
1-2 corn starch dissolved in water (depending on desired thickness)
red pepper flakes

Heat all ingredients except for corn start and water mixture on stove. Stir frequently while waiting for sauce to boil. Once boiling, add corn starch and water mixture, stirring frequently until desired thickness.

Teriyaki Stir-Fry
tofu, cut into small pieces
Teriyaki Sauce
onions
bell pepper
snow peas
broccoli, cooked
edamame
Hot cooked, brown Basmati Rice
peanut oil

Heat peanut oil in skillet and fry tofu until it begins to brown. Add onions and bell pepper. Cook until onion and peppers begin to get soft and tofu is done to your liking.

Throw all the veggies over some brown Basmati rice, top with the sauce and enjoy!

I probably won’t have a post tomorrow as I feel like being lazy tonight which means…..Amy’s Pizza. I really do like Amy’s products; there is a vegan bean burrito Amy’s makes that I love taking to work for lunch when there are no leftovers to take.

I wanted to end this post asking for a bit of wisdom from the seasoned vegan cooking community out there. As I have mentioned before, I am just starting my vegan cookbook collection. So far I have Veganomicon. I want to get one more regular cookbook and one dedicated to desserts to start. I am thinking about Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan or Vegan with a Vengeance for my regular cookbook choice (anybody have suggestions for which I should get?), but am stumped for ideas for where to start in the way of vegan dessert cookbooks.

Any advice will be most appreciated!

‘Til Friday!

Vegan Pad Thai

Well, I believe I mentioned sometime last week that you should expect a lot of stir-fry posts this week, and as promised I am delivering. I have had really good luck cooking Asian recently, in the past I was always been a bit wary of cooking Asian at home as I felt like I wasn’t familiar enough with the flavors to create a tasty recipe, or at the very least to be able to figure out what’s missing if the recipe didn’t seem quite right. Now that I am more comfortable with Asian flavors, I just go out and get a recipe to use as a template so I can make it to Brett’s and my liking. This generally means making it sweeter since Brett is a sweet freak. If I always made things as sweet as he liked, I’m not sure he or I would have teeth anymore and I’m only 23!

I still have a few recipes I am planning on trying out this week and many other Asian recipes I plan on trying out at some point, but think next week I will go in a slightly different direction. I have been missing beans, as my protein source has been a lot of tofu, seitan, and nuts lately, so expect see some beanage (and probably more tofu as well).

So last night the menu was Vegan Pad Thai noodles. This was a really good recipe, it ended up being a little sweet, a little sour, a little savory, and a little spicy. Think we covered most of the types of flavors in this recipe? I thought this was very easy to make, which makes it perfect for a weeknight dinner (and you could take the leftovers to work if there are any). I made mine without, but some people put sliced tofu in their Pad Thai to give it more protein. The sauce I used had peanut butter in it and I put crushed peanuts on top so I figured we’d be fine on protein. I also made this a bit skimp on the veggies as I thought it would be fine on its own, but I bet it was also be good loaded with sautéed veggies as well. I might have to try it like that next time.

I can’t really attest to the authenticity of this, but overall I thought it was really good. And again, this is great when you don’t feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

Vegan Pad Thai

2-3 cloves garlic, minced
diced onion
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1/4-1/2 cup shoyu (or other soy sauce)
juice of one lime
3-5 tbsp creamy peanut butter
couple dashes of red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper (or both!)
2-4 tbsp brown sugar (more or less depending on desired sweetness)
1 tbsp peanut oil
bean sprouts
crushed peanuts

Cook noodles according to packages directions.

Stir together soy sauce, lime, peanut butter, pepper flakes, and sugar.

In a skillet, heat peanut oil and sauté onions for a few minutes, then add garlic and ginger and sauté a few minutes more.

Serve sauce over hot, cooked rice noodles and lots of washed bean sprouts. Top with crushed peanuts.

That’s about all for now. I’m off to spend a nice, relaxing evening with Brett, the kitties, and some (hopefully) good food!

More Muffins and Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan. But First........

Breakfast wasn’t too exciting yesterday morning, I just cut up some fresh fruit (diced apples, diced pear, sliced bananas, sliced kiwi fruit, and orange segments), I splashed the cut fruit with some fresh squeezed lime juice. I use the lime juice for a bit of flavor, but more importantly, it keeps the fruit from oxidizing. I sprinkled on a little sugar and had this yummy fruit with a bowl of vegan granola and soy milk. You know one of the many things I love about fruit? It looks (and tastes) pretty all on its own, you don't have to do anything to it at all, its like one of those women who can roll out of bed, do nothing, and still look amazing - the words of a true fruitaholic.

Moving on. I was excited from my success with muffins on Saturday, I decided to make another batch of a different flavor yesterday. I think I am starting to get this whole muffin making thing down, because these turned out good as well. I ended up making one batch of batter and doing it two ways. Part of the batter was turned into Apple Cinnamon Muffins; the other portion was turned into Apple Cinnamon Raisin Muffins. Nothing really special or different about the two except raisins, but both were very good. The muffins turned out sweet, but not overly so, and were nice and moist. They go very well with coffee for a nice light breakfast (this also happened to be my breakfast this morning).

I usually like to use applesauce in place of oil wherever I can, but yesterday ran out of applesauce and ended up doing half applesauce half oil instead. You could always replace the additional oil in this recipe with applesauce.

Apple Cinnamon (Raisin) Muffins
1/4 cup Earth Balance (melted)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
cinnamon (to taste)
just a dash of nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup soymilk
2 peeled diced apples
Raisins (as many as you like)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add the moist ingredients and then slowly fold in the apples and raisins.

Fill muffin cups (or greased muffin tin) about 2/3 of the way full and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

For dinner last night, I made a modified version of VeganYumYum’s Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan and it was so, so, so good. The next time you get an urge for something sweet, sour, crispy, and a bit spicy, give this a try. It satisfied even the “super particular when it comes to vegan food” omni, also known as Brett.

I followed her recipe for preparing the seitan exactly, but deviated on everything else. I made some modifications to the sauce and added some veggies and served it all over brown Basmati rice.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
2/3 cup veggie broth
6 tbsp brown rice vinegar
6+ tbsp sugar (Brett likes things pretty sweet, so I put more than this in there, but for everyone else [who is not a hummingbird] start with this and add more if you need more sweetness)
2-4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp ketchup (next time I am going to try tomato paste)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
dash cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes
pinch salt
corn starch mixed with water to thicken

Combine all ingredients except for corn starch and water mixture and heat, stirring frequently.

Turn up heat to where sauce is boiling and add corn starch and water mixture to sauce. Stir frequently until at desired consistency. Remove from heat immediately.

Crispy Sweet and Sour Seitan with Veggies over Basmati Rice
VeganYumYum’s Crispy Seitan recipe
Sweet and Sour Sauce
Chopped onions (I cooked them with the seitan)
Broccoli, cooked
Cauliflower, cooked
Hot, cooked brown Basmati rice

Prepare rice according to package directions.

Prepare sweet and sour sauce.

Start cooking broccoli and cauliflower.

Make the crispy seitan and add the onions while cooking.

Serve crispy seitan, veggies, and sauce over brown Basmati rice.

I really liked the way the seitan was done for this recipe. It gave it the flavor of a fried mushroom. I am going to be thinking about other things I can do with this crispy seitan as the flavor and texture are wonderful. It took Brett a little while to grow to like tofu in anything except a scramble, preferably a scramble stuffed into a tortilla, but he has warmed up the seitan very quickly. I can probably thank this recipe for that.

Well, that’s all for now!