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!

Tofu, Veggie, and Rice Noodle Stir-Fry

So those of you out there, uncomfortable with the last entry, wondering if you still want to visit my blog, can breathe a sigh of relief that this one is about food. Though don’t say you weren’t warned, I added the ‘Other Random Musings’ part for a reason. :-)

We went to the store last night after work and got another load of grub. A little embarrassing but, I have a recipe I have wanted to try from over at Authentic Deliciousness’ blog, which called for parsnips. I have to be honest, I had never seen a parsnip before, I knew nothing more about them than that they are root vegetables. So at the store, the labels are not exactly in the spots they should be, as I ended up with a rutabaga, Googled ‘parsnips’ when I got home, and well, it wasn’t one, so I Googled other root veggies to identify this one. Since it is a root vegetable I think it will work for this meal. And hey, we get to try rutabaga right?

Anyways, I was planning on making VeganYumYum’s Pan Fried Tofu, Kale, and Stir-Fried Noodles, but ended up going a different way with it. What I hadn’t realized when I picked out this recipe was that it was simply tofu, kale, and noodles with a sauce. That would not fly in my house, as I mentioned earlier, we are pretty picky when it comes to tofu. And the sauce, while pretty good, was missing a bit of something, and only called for ¼ teaspoon of hot chili sauce, I mean, come on! I also like to buy my greens organic and there was no organic kale available, so we got red chard. So I changed up the sauce a bit, added more veggies, and cut the tofu in half.

Tofu & Veggie Noodle Stir-Fry
1 tsp coconut oil
½ package firm tofu, pressed, and cut into small chunks
1 bunch of chard, cut into bite sized pieces
½ red bell pepper, diced
¼ onion, diced
1/2 cup broccoli, cooked
½ cup snap peas cooked
½ package of rice stick noodles

Sauce
¼ cup water
¼ cup shoyu (or other soy sauce)
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1-2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp rice vinegar (seasoned or unseasoned would work, I used seasoned)
1-2 tbsp agave nectar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp stone ground brown mustard
1 tsp or more hot chili sauce (I would start with this depending on how spicy you like things, I used 2 tbsp, but I’m a spice freak)
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Press tofu and cut into small chunks.

Whip together the sauce. Reserve half the sauce for the stir-fry, and marinate the tofu in the other half of the sauce for about a half hour. You can use this time to chop and cook the other veggies.

Cook rice noodles according to package directions, set aside.

In a large skillet, heat a couple of tablespoons of water. Add bell pepper and onion and cook until translucent.

Heat coconut oil and add tofu, stir-frying over medium high heat until tofu crisp. Add cooked broccoli, snow peas, and remaining sauce.

Add chard in small batches, covering with a lid to help with the chard.

Serve over hot rice noodles.

Well, my Mom is coming for a visit today, haven’t seen her for probably six months or more, so I’m pretty excited. I’m also taking her out to lunch. Now this might not mean much to you all out there, but this is the first time I have ever been able to afford to take her out, when I was in college it was always the other way around, so I’m proud to take her to the tea room here in town she likes. They aren’t the most vegan friendly place, but if all else fails I can munch on their amazing sweet potato chips and have a nice pot of Earl Grey tea. As I’m sure you could tell by the picture of the groceries with the two boxes on it, we are fans of the Earl Grey.

‘Til next time!

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!

Weekends = Lots of Cooking, Pictures, and A Long Post

Well, it's the weekend, which means that I have more time to cook.

Let's start off with Friday. I ended up making some nachos to use up the ingredients I still had on hand. This was a nice, tasty, quick meal, which was much appreciated after a long week at work and lugging home a mighty heavy load from the grocery store. I simply sautéed diced leftover marinated seitan (see the fajita post) in olive oil with some chopped up onion. I heated up the leftover black bean puree (see the flatbread post). I seasoned up some leftover brown rice I had. Then I got out some blue corn chips, spread 'em out on a plate, and topped them with the above stated ingredients. I popped it in the oven (set at 300 degrees) for a few minutes for everything to get nice and warm. Then I topped the nachos with some tofu sour cream, chopped up green onions, sliced black olives, and some salsa (not shown in the picture). It was good.

Yesterday, for breakfast I made some cinnamon raisin oatmeal. It was hearty, sweet and delicious. Oatmeal is very filling, which is something I forgot, since it has been awhile since I've had it. Neither one of us could eat more than about half the amount pictured. I over estimated our oatmeal appetites a bit, but hey, you live and learn, right?

Sweet Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal

2/3 cup regular rolled oats (not instant)

1 1/3 cups plain or vanilla soymilk (or rice, oat, etc)

raisins (as much as you like)

dash nutmeg

pinch salt

cinnamon (to taste)

brown sugar (to taste, but I used lots)

sliced almonds (optional)

Bring oats and soy milk to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Stir in the rest of the ingredients except the almonds. Let boil for five minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat, let stand five more minutes. Top with almonds before serving.

I spent the rest of the morning doing a bit of baking, but before I get to that, I just wanted to give a big thanks to Happy Herbivore for so kindly fielding my questions about vegan and healthful baking, it was a big help!

First, I made a vegan apple coffee cake, per Brett's request. Well, he didn't really request it, he won't do that, but he said he thought apple coffee cake would be good, I thought it could be easily veganized, and that someone out there had probably already done it. With a few short minutes of web searching, I happened upon Julie Hasson's recipe for Crumble Coffee Cake. I made only slight modifications to the recipe. For the cake, I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose white flour. And I also added up a peeled, diced up apple. This is a delicious recipe, it's not too sweet, and it truly does go well with a nice, warm cup of coffee.

Notice I have small versions of that really cool plate too.

I have been getting tired of having granola bars for breakfast at work, so I decided to try my hand at muffin making. You know, I'm not sure why anyone would make muffins from a box or package, they are really easy to make from scratch! I made plain 'ol blueberry muffins, and topped a few with some sliced almonds. These turned out so good, I'm not sure they will last long enough to make more than a couple of breakfasts for work. These could also double as a dessert, snack, meal, etc. - hehe. I modified this recipe from Recipe Zaar.

Vegan Blueberry Muffins

1/4 cup Earth Balance (melted)

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup soymilk (plain or vanilla)

fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed if frozen)

sliced almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl.

Combine wet ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Slowly stir the wet ingredients with the dry in the bigger bowl. Fold in the blueberries.

Fill paper muffin cups (or greased muffin pan) 2/3 of the way full with batter. Top with sliced almonds if desired. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.

And for dinner, something completely different. I made a tofu-veggie stir-fry with peanut sauce and served it over rice noodles. I had heard or read somewhere that the reason home made stir-fries never tasted like what you get at the restaurants is because people don't use peanut oil at home. Well I think they were right, I used peanut oil for my stir-fry last night and it turned out much better than anything I've made in the past.

Tofu Peanut Stir-Fry over Rice Noodles

Peanut Sauce:

1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter (no salt added if possible)

1/2 cup hot water

4-6 tbsp shoyu (or other soy sauce)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 tbsp lime juice (start with one and add more if desired)

4 tbsp brown rice vinegar

4 tbsp brown sugar

a bit of regular sugar if you like it sweeter

pinch of cayenne

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan on the stove. The peanut butter will melt and ingredients will then blend easily. Keep over low heat, stirring occasionally, adding a bit more water here and there if it starts to get too thick.

Tofu Peanut Stir-Fry:

Peanut Sauce

1/2 block firm tofu cut into small pieces

bell pepper, chopped

onion, chopped

broccoli, cooked

cauliflower, cooked

crushed peanuts

bean sprouts (optional)

green onions (optional)

peanut oil

Hot, cooked rice noodles

Cook rice noodles according to package directions.

Sautee tofu in peanut oil until browned. Add to peanut sauce and simmer while preparing the veggies.

Sautee onion and bell pepper in peanut oil until they begin to caramelize. Add broccoli and cauliflower. Cook a few more minutes.

Layer veggies and tofu with peanut sauce over the rice noodles. Top with bean sprouts, green onions, and crushed peanuts.

That's all for now.

Tofu Potato Burritos (and those awesome plates again too!)

The wild weather in Mid-Missouri seems to have decided to go back to normal – at least for now. In the same week, we here in Missouri experienced wind chills as low as -7 and stormy 70 degree days (including tornado warnings, sirens, co-workers taking cover in the basement of our building and everything). I, like many others, enjoyed the warm weather way too much (even with the wind and storms included) so going back to the normal 30-40 degree weather seems much colder than it should.

So anyway, I noticed when planning out meals for this week that I make burritos (I define this as any combination of ingredients stuffed into a tortilla) quite a bit. Well for this and the next entry, enjoy the tortillas, but this weekend I am going to try to expand my horizons a bit. I love Asian food so have decided to make all sorts of different sauces and make them into different kinds of stir-frys (I have been wanting to try new Asian recipes out for awhile, just got stuck in a flour tortilla rut). Not to dog on the burrito though, I adore them, I really do, but flour tortillas aren’t the best things for you, and I have found that whole wheat tortillas tend to taste like cardboard or something.

Last night, I went with an old Jennifer and Brett favorite, the Tofu Potato Burrito. Now this is my own creation but was based off of something they serve at Main Squeeze, the lone vegetarian restaurant we have in Columbia (and we are so very lucky to have it). Again, as I noted in an earlier post, I love taco seasoning (or really just the combination of chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, corn masa, salt, and cayenne), so it takes center stage in flavoring the roasted potatoes.

Tofu Potato Burritos

Ingredients:
small red potatoes (B-sized are perfect)
½ block firm tofu
taco seasoning
salt
cayenne pepper
chili powder
turmeric
cumin
diced green chilies or jalapeno (optional)
canola oil spray
flour tortillas
vegan cheese (optional)
tofu sour cream
salsa

Roasted Potatoes:
red potatoes
taco seasoning
salt
cayenne pepper
canola oil

Preheat oven to 450.

Scrub and dice potatoes into small chunks and place in a baking pan that has been sprayed with canola oil. Stir in taco seasoning, cayenne, and salt.

Cover pan with foil and roast in the oven for 45-55 minutes, stirring along the way to make sure potatoes don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Scrambled Tofu Filling:
½ block firm tofu, crumbled
turmeric
chili powder
cumin
salt
cayenne
diced green chilies or jalapenos (optional)

Spray small skillet with canola spray and turn on medium heat. Add tofu and seasonings to your liking.

Stir and cook for just a few minutes while the potatoes finish up.

Putting It All Together: Warm a flour tortilla in the microwave. Layer cheese (optional), potatoes, and tofu, add some tofu sour cream if desired. Roll up and top with salsa.

Well, that’s it for now.

Not Sure What To Call the First Entry

If anyone ends up reading my blog, I think they will come away with a few things. First, I love to cook, read, and rant. Secondly, I am not very creative with titles for things. When I was still in college, I would tend to name my papers something along the lines of "Whatever Class This Is Paper One", I usually got good grades, but the title had nothing to do with it. I better never write a book - nobody would spend $21.95 on a book called "Jennifer's Book One". Ha.

Anyways, I started this blog after browsing through many other food blogs, and decided that I would enjoy having a (mostly) food blog as well. I am a (dairy-free) vegetarian who eats mostly vegan so a tiny fraction of my recipes are not completely vegan. Hence why I called this blog Veg*n, as I understand this encompasses both vegetarians and vegans. I will try to make sure to denote whether it's vegetarian or vegan, though I'm sure most vegans out there are very careful to make sure they don't consume any animal products, so this shouldn't be too much of an issue. As I said, I love to cook, and I am always looking for advice, feedback, and other recipes, so this is my contribution - I hope you enjoy.

This blog will mostly consist of my various food adventures, but you may get a rant from time to time, as I am an environmentalist and peace mongerer, and with the current state of affairs, people like myself seem to have a never ending stream of things to rant about.

Now down to business, the food! Tonight I will be making Kung Pao Tofu, which is very good. I found a basic recipe and had to have my way with it so it ended up being essentially a template that I used to create my own recipe. This recipe is vegetarian, not vegan, as it has honey in it. I am sure that you could substitute something else for the honey. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this vegan and still have the same sweet and spicy flavor, let me know. I would like to work with other sweetners, but am not sure what has a similar flavor to honey.

I scaled this recipe so that there was more sauce, I'm not sure about anyone else, but most of the Asian recipes I have come across are very skimpy on the sauce, you generally have to make more than one batch anyway, so I went ahead and changed it for the entire recipe. The dish isn't the same if there isn't enough sauce to soak into the rice.

This is good as a leftover as well, I will be taking it to work for lunch this week.
















Kung Pao Tofu
1/2 block of tofu cut into small cubes
4 tsp. hot chili oil
honey (to taste)
4 tbsp. Mirin (Chinese Rice Wine)
3 tbsp. cornstarch
8 tbsp. shoyu
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. white vinegar
dash cayenne
1 tbsp. minced ginger (fresh or jarred)
1 clove garlic, minced
brocolli cooked (as much as you like)
snow peas (as much as you like)
onions diced (as much as you like)
2 tbsp. olive oil
Hot, cooked brown rice or other grain

Marinate tofu with half of the Mirin, cornstarch and hot chili oil, add 2 tbsp. tamari or soy sauce. Set in fridge to marinate for about a half hour.

Mix remaining rice wine, cornstarch, and soy sauce with a dash of cayenne, sugar, sesame oil, honey, vinegar and hot chili oil for the sauce.

Heat olive oil in medium skillet. Cook tofu until crisp. Remove from heat.

In a large skillet or wok heat olive oil, add garlic, onion, and ginger. Cook about one minute. Add brocolli and snow peas. Cook another minute. Add tofu and sauce and cook a few more minutes, heating through.

Serve over rice or other grain, I like to use brown rice, but you can be creative and use whatever you like.

Well, that's about all I have for today. Have a safe and happy New Years.