What an Omni Requests for Birthday Food

So yesterday was Brett’s 29th birthday, and I took the day off of work so that we could spend it together. I had gotten him a birthday present, but had already given it to him. You see, I was trying to be sneaky (which I have never been very good at), so I listened carefully over the year, trying to infer something I could get him for his birthday, without having to come right out and ask. Well he loves video games (is this something all men love regardless of age?), and his wireless controller for his Playstation broke. Now I knew what to get him.

I ordered a nice controller off of Amazon, and had it shipped to my office, sneaky right? Well the thing came and it was in a giant box. I mean this little controller was in this huge box. I was trying to figure out a way to get it home and hidden without Brett knowing, since he’s usually home when I get home. So I decided to just take it out of the box and put the controller in my book bag and get it home that way. Well wouldn’t you know that Amazon decided to glue a giant piece of cardboard to the back of the controller box, not really alleviating the size issue, and creating another, the fact that when I put it in my book bag, well, it was noticeable. It gave my book bag a rather triangular shape. In order to get the packaging for the controller separated from the cardboard would have required me to pretty much rip the whole thing apart, which I didn’t want to do in case he didn’t like it. Long story short, when I got home, I just gave it to Brett, ‘cause, well he could tell there was something up with my book bag. But he really liked it, so all was well in the end.

For breakfast I made Brett the Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Pancakes from Vegan with a Vengeance and my modified version of the strawberry sauce recipe in the book. We prefer our fruit sauces, at least for use in this type of situation, to be pretty pulverized and thick, so, as usual, I had to go a different way with this. I just noticed that I was still in keeping with my pink pancake motif, so I guess I really do have a thing for pink breakfast foods. :-)

And you know, he was sweet enough to play guitar for me while I cooked, on his birthday. I know he enjoys it, but I think I enjoy it more. I even snapped a couple of pics of him jamming.

Back to the food.

You know, I like these plates more now that I have this blog. I think I am finally starting to appreciate the full breadth of their ugliness and novelty. :-)

J’s VwaV Inspired Strawberry Sauce
½ bag frozen strawberries
1 tsp. pure maple syrup
¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/8-1/4 cup organic sugar
¼ cup water
1-2 tsp. arrowroot starch/flour mixed with a tbsp or so water

In a sauce pan mix all ingredients and warm at medium heat. Once fruit mixture has gotten warm, use the side of a kitchen utensil or potato smasher to pulverize the fruit. Bring to a boil and add the arrowroot mixture, stirring frequently until desired consistency.

These pancakes are good. I mean they are chocolate and more chocolate and if you like that – well, I think you’d be in love. These are also VERY sweet, so I would recommend this as more of a dessert unless you can handle really sweet food in the morning. Both of us tend to prefer nothing really much sweeter than a granola bar, so we’ll save these for dessert next time.

When I had asked Brett what he wanted me to make him for his birthday food wise, he said he wanted the Vegan Chocolate Chip Fudgy Brownies I make as well as a Black Bean Quesadilla, he didn’t really care about breakfast. So thats what he got.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Fudgy Brownies
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I use Green & Black's Organic Cocoa Powder)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups organic sugar
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds (optional)
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (or 1 cup canola oil for higher fat baking, or 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup applesauce for somewhere in the middle)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup water
1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (we like Tropical Source)(optional)
confectioner's sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir in the wet ingredients. If desired, add chocolate chips.

Pour mixture into a greased 9"- x 13"-inch baking pan, and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar when it comes out of the oven.

Let the brownies cool slightly before serving.

Brett and I ended up with slightly different things for dinner as quesadillas and burritos can be very ‘mix-and-match’ and I had some pinto beans in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so I made a burrito for myself and a Black Bean Quesadilla for Brett. We usually use plain old Spanish rice in this recipe, but both of us thought it would be good to try subbing in Veganomicon’s Mexican Millet to see how that worked. Well of course, when I looked at the recipe, there were things I didn’t have or we don’t like and things I had that I usually add to my Spanish Rice that I thought would make good additions, so I ended up doing it a bit differently. I left the fresh tomato and cilantro out, and I didn’t have any tomato paste. So instead of using 2 cups of veggie broth, I used a cup and a half of veggie broth and a half cup of tomato juice. I also cut down on the onion called for and added sautéed red bell pepper. It was so good! Brett said he thought our Mexican food might be better with millet than rice. This stuff is really good so we highly recommend it to anyone who loves Mexican food like we do.

If you were curious here is a rough run-down of what went in Brett’s Quesadilla: Lots of black beans tossed with a bit of Simply Organics Southwest Taco Seasoning, some sweet corn, our variation of Mexican Millet, and cheese, real cheese, but it was his birthday, and this is what he wanted. It was topped with guacamole, tofu sour cream and salsa (not pictured here).

For my burrito I layered some Mexican Millet, and took a mixture of black and pinto beans, tossed them with a bit of the Southwest Taco Seasoning, then added a bit of sweet corn and some Follow Your Heart vegan Monterey Jack. I also topped mine with guacamole, tofu sour cream and salsa (again, not pictured). I had a bit of Mexican Millet on the side as my burrito ‘seemed’ small, but I didn’t end up eating it. The burrito was too filling.

You know, I don’t think I’ve had enough spicy food and guacamole yet :-), so I think I will concoct a breakfast around that. (Maybe I should turn off the Spanish guitar music.) Tonight I am also planning on making a more ‘Jen-Style’ meal, meaning more veggies, far more veggies than the types of things Brett picks out, but I think I have ways of dressing them up that will be pleasing even to the omni.

‘Til next time.

Fiesta Burrito (aka Seasoned Roasted Yam and Bean Enchilada Burrito)

Anyone who reads this blog is likely to notice at least a couple of things about me. First, I like to rant about my unpopular opinions on things and be an all around Wet Blanket at times (I learn from the best!), and secondly I love Mexican and Latin American food. A lot. I mean seriously. I like it authentic, I like food merely inspired by the flavors, I love the beans, grains, spices, textures, flavors, pretty much everything about it. I especially like traditional Mexican food, you know not Taco Bell. Real Mexican food can be a bit bland, and is definitely not as salty as Americanized ‘Mexican.’ My food is unauthentic in at least one way though, it is ALWAYS spicier than it probably typically would be, and at times, I crave a little more flavor so I go heavier on the spices. So expect to see a lot of Mexican. And no, it won’t always be wrapped in a flour tortilla, sometimes I go corn, sometimes no tortilla is needed. And yes, I will try to find some whole wheat tortillas I can tolerate as the flour ones are pretty bad for you.

So last night, I made, well, a Mexican inspired dish. I got the idea for this from our local vegetarian restaurant, Main Squeeze. I have a love-hate relationship with Main Squeeze. The love part is simply attributed to the fact that they have more than one option for me to choose from (and they aren’t salads), which means I can always find something when I go there. What I don’t like is that the specials, which tend to sound really yummy and creative, seem to always be loaded down with milk, cheese, butter, sour cream, etc. Which means, in order to veganize it, it is nothing like what it was originally intended to be. I get Main Squeeze’s daily specials in my email as I work really close to it and will try to go there if they are featuring a good dairy-free special. But what ends up happening is that their specials are pretty much never dairy-free, so I just use them for ideas on making my own food at home. Which is how last night’s dinner was concocted.

The yams were roasted in coconut oil, as the always informative Lindsay, aka the Happy Herbivore, informed me that coconut oil is the only type of oil that DOESN’T release free radicals when heated to high temperatures (baking included). It didn’t negatively affect the flavor of the yams at all, in fact, if anything, it added to their yumminess, and she was right, cooking with it made my apartment smell nice. I am going to try to use coconut oil wherever I can and be sparing with my use of other oils. But certain meals just need other oils, so like I said, I’ll use it where it seems reasonable.

And you know how I was talking about 'authentic Mexican' above? I used kale in this, so go figure.

Presenting the Fiesta Burrito (Brett’s name for it) aka the Seasoned Roasted Yam and Bean Enchilada Burrito (my long and very creative name for it).

Seasoned Roasted Yams
1 large yam, peeled, washed, and cut into small cubes
cumin
chili powder
cayenne pepper (optional, I like spicy food)
salt (just a bit)
cinnamon (just a dash, but trust me, it makes a huge difference in the flavor of the yams)
coconut oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Put about 1-2 tsp coconut oil into baking pan. Toss the pan in the oven for a minute or two so that the oil will melt.

Toss together yams and spices. Toss in pan to coat yams with oil.

Cook, uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until yams are soft stirring occasionally so they don’t stick to the pan.

Fiesta Burrito (aka Seasoned Roasted Yam and Bean Enchilada Burrito)
Serves 2

seasoned roasted yams
1 cup black beans
1/2 bunch of kale, shredded into bite pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 small onion, diced
1/4-1/3 cup veggie broth
roasted peppers (as many as you wish, I used roasted bell, poblano, and jalapeño peppers)
vegan Monterey Jack (I use Follow Your Heart) – optional
1/2 cup enchilada sauce
simple guacamole (you can find my recipe here)
2 large burrito sized tortillas

In a medium skillet heat the veggie broth. Add kale and onion and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Add garlic and cook a few minutes more or until kale and veggies are tender.

Divide the ingredients among two burritos.

Layer kale mixture, seasoned yams, black beans, roasted peppers and optional vegan Monterey Jack on a warmed tortilla. Pour 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce over filling in each burrito. Roll up.

If browning it on a skillet, heat canola oil (I don’t think coconut would work very well here, so if you don’t want to heat canola oil, skip this step) in a medium skillet for a minute or two. Add the burrito and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, checking often to avoid burning the tortilla.

Once browned (or rolled up) top with guacamole and salsa if you like!

This got the omni seal of approval and mine as well!

A bit of an aside, but I have a positive feeling that Brett is slowly moving his way towards vegetarianism and possibly even veganism. We often eat frozen pizza on days when I don’t feel like cooking [these are Brett’s ‘cooking’ days :-)], and he used to get one with pepperoni on it (ick). He has now switched to Amy’s Mushroom and Olive pizza. We are thinking about ordering in tonight, and he expressed reservations about his wanting meat. He also told me that he doesn’t like cheese as much as he used to, and admitted that he likes the Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack and some of the vegan ‘cheese’ sauces I have made, and that its fine if I used vegan instead of regular cheese in his meals now. We found Vegan Rella the other day, and he seemed pretty excited about trying it soon! Not trying to get my hopes up, but it seems that, slowly but surely, he is coming around. I am very proud as this hasn't been a result of my harassing or prodding him to change, he is doing it on his own (which is how I believe lifestyle change has to be done if it is truly going to stick). Even if he never becomes a full-fledged veg*n, this development means a lot to me.

That’s all for now.

‘Til next time.

MORE Pancakes, Cookies, and Vegan Super Bowl Food

I have been on a bit of a pancake kick lately. There are so many possibilities and they make a quick, nutritious brunch. What’s not to love? And to believe I actually used to dislike pancakes – my experience with plain non-vegan pancakes, loaded down with butter and ‘Aunt Jemima’ syrup haunt me no longer. Pancakes do NOT have to be an icky, heavy mess.

So for yesterday’s brunch, I made Dreena’s Raspberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Celestial Cream. This recipe is from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan (which I have ordered from Amazon, and should be here at some point, I understand the book went into reprint or something and that is why it is taking it so long to ship out). However, since Dreena is super cool, she provides some of the recipes from her cookbooks or other things she just makes up for free on her blog. This recipe is one of them and can be found here.

These pancakes are delightful. I love the texture the cornmeal gives to them, the nuttiness of the flax meal, and the delicious flavor of oat flour. This was the first ‘wheat-free, gluten-free’ recipe I have tried and it rocked. The Celestial Cream made for a wonderful topping to the pancake, it was easy to make too. I’m not sure about anyone else who has tried these before or not, but the Celestial Cream reminded both Brett and I a bit of butterscotch.

As I mentioned I might do in my last post, I made a batch of cookies, so I would have more than just muffins to bring in to work. The last time I brought in baked goods, I noticed the Oatmeal Raisin and Double Chocolate cookies were the first to get gobbled up. I had found a recipe a couple of weeks ago, on Nava Atlas’ site that was for Double Chocolate Oatmeal cookies, which can be found here. This seemed perfect. I have to admit, they turned out really good, and Brett insisted that I leave some at home for him too.

Now, I am a football fan. But I have to admit, the fanfare of the Super Bowl can be a bit of a turn-off at times. They start coverage for it at 9:00 a.m. as if the fate of the world depended on the outcome of the game, and thus you need enough background information so as to be prepared for the main event. Not to mention all the bad music, blatant nationalism, and bad commercials. I still can’t believe that some people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials – to me that is pretty ridiculous; ads are meant to sell us things, not entertain us. Though as Brett and I have discussed in regards to the poor quality of television (and thus why we don’t watch) all the creativity is gone – it seems like the creativity is reserved for advertisements now. I like the strategy of football (definitely not the violence, but it is hard to avoid in this type of sport), leave all the fanfare at the door thank you very much. (Brett is thinking about starting up a social commentary blog and having his handle be ‘Wet Blanket’ as he feels he can always find something negative in any situation, I think I may be a bit like that as well, the old curmudgeon who always has something to complain about). :-)

So what does a veg*n eat for Super Bowl food you ask? Well, this one made what I coined ‘Vegan Super Bowl – Go Giants Nachos’. I used the Vegan Con Queso recipe from Nava Atlas (who also rocks by the way). I went my own way with the rest of the nachos, but you can find the recipe for the Queso here.

They might not be very pretty, but they were good.

Vegan Super Bowl 'Go Giants' Nachos

pureed black beans - I whizzed black beans, cayenne, cumin, chili powder,salt, onion, and garlic powder in a food processor with some veggie broth until smooth

smashed kidney beans – I smashed kidney beans, chili powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne with a fork, so that there were still some whole and partial beans

Nava Atlas’ Vegan Con Queso
tofu sour cream

simple guacamole – I mashed (with a fork) one avocado, juice of half a lime, one clove of garlic minced, cumin, salt, and cayenne

I preheated the oven to 350. On a plate, I layered the chips and all the ingredients except the tofu sour cream and guacamole. I popped it in the oven and let it all warm together for about 15 minutes. Once done, I topped it with guacamole and tofu sour cream.

The Super Bowl ended up being the best one I have seen since I started watching football. And my team won too!

That’s all for now.

‘Til next time.

Pancakes, Baked Goods, and Polenta Lasagna

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable weekend. I know I have been.

Yesterday, I ended up spending a bit of time in the kitchen. But probably not nearly as much as it looks from these pictures. I also listened to music, watched a film with Brett, and listened to a couple of the Compassionate Cooks podcasts.

For brunch yesterday, I made Lizzy's Raspberry Apple Pear Pancakes. I figured these would be a winner, as they are fruit stuffed pancakes and I'm a fruitaholic. These are delicious! So far the best pancakes I have had actually. I haven't made pancakes too awful much, but these are simple and delicious. It was also my first experience using agave. The flavor of the stuff is wonderful, and I can definitely see how it could be used in place of honey. So thank you so much for providing the recipe Lizzy, these are excellent!

I made a light Raspberry Sauce to go with these, as I mentioned before I'm a fruitaholic and neither Brett or I are huge fans of topping things with maple syrup.

Simple Raspberry Sauce
1-1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup organic sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1-2 tsp arrowroot starch/flour

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan on the stove. Once fruit has began to cook down, add arrowroot and let boil, stirring frequently, until to desired thickness.

I had all sorts of peppers around so I went ahead and roasted them for meals later this week. You will probably notice one thing on top of my being a fruitaholic and that is, I really like peppers, spicy, sweet, whatever, I like 'em. During the summer, I always grow peppers on my porch, and this year, I am going to try my hand at a Community Garden plot, and dedicate all sorts of containers on my porch to different types of peppers: anaheim, serrano, thai chili, habanera, jalapeno, banana, poblano, bell, wax, caribbean, etc. I can't wait!

Anyways, this time I roasted Anaheim's, jalapenos, poblanos, bell peppers and a shallot.

I decided to bake Brett a couple of chocolaty goodies, 'cause it gives him yummy treats, which he loves, and gives me a good excuse to bake. This week I tried out Nava Atlas' Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake and the Mocha Chip Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance.

You can find the recipe for the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake here.

Brett adores chocolate and thought these were very good, I expect they won't last too long around here. Both Brett and I agreed that you probably didn't need to put in as many chocolate chips as the recipe called for though, it was very chocolaty.

Next were the Mocha Chip Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. I understand that Lizzy was also planning on making these this week sometime. Ha! I beat you to it! Just kidding, but do tell me what you thought of them, and anybody who reads this blog should stop by hers for what is likely to be a much better picture of the muffins, as she has a really nice camera and is good at taking pictures.

The only modifications to this recipe I made was using whole wheat pastry flour in place of the all-purpose and using applesauce instead of oil. I think these were already pretty 'cakey' muffins to begin with, and replacing the applesauce with oil resulted in their being even 'cakier'. I prefer to do the whole 'lower fat baking thing' whenever I can.

While I was in the kitchen I was thinking about my co-workers a bit. I'm an Institutional Research Analyst, which essentially means when people want data about the University of Missouri, they often come to us. Our office also does reports for the government, etc. Well we have been having some issues with our data, and as a result many of the my co-workers have been working essentially around the clock to meet a deadline. I am lucky in that I am more of an 'underling' of the office as I haven't had to take part in any of this; I'm just waiting for the data they are working on. Needless to say, they have all been working so hard, they deserve some treats, so I made some Sunny Blueberry Corn Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance for them, and I might make up a batch of cookies today as well.

These muffins are pretty good and easy to make too. I used frozen blueberries, so my muffins ended up being a bit blue, but this doesn't really bother me too much. One thing I noticed about this recipe, and I'm not sure if this is a result of an error on my part, but the batter was much thicker than any other muffin batter I have worked with. The muffins turned out alright, but I worried due to the consistency of the batter.

And finally, for dinner I made SusanV's Polenta Lasagna with Portabellas and Kale. This was my first time working with polenta, and I purchased the premade stuff in a tube, so I had a hard time making nice uniform slices out of it. But I understand that making your own polenta isn't very hard, so I might do that next time. Brett also had an idea about how to get the premade polenta into more even slices, so we might try that as well. Suffice to say, my first experience with polenta was a good one. It was very delicious. I will definitely make it again. The 'cheese' sauce was very easy to make, and both Brett and I thought it was wonderful - though I'm not sure if it really tasted like cheese or not. Brett said it reminded him of potato soup - it was really good though, not too heavy or salty. This is a slightly more involved recipe than many of the others I blog about, so I would save it for a weekend or when you can dedicate some time to being in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of it. Once we got it plated up, both of us just dug in, and forgot to take a picture. Another testament to the tastiness of the dish.

Well, it is 'Superbowl Sunday' here in the US, and oddly enough, I am a bit of a football fan. So I'm off to prepare brunch, a football snack and get ready to watch the game. Go Giants!

'Til next time.

Seasoned Crispy Seitan and Veggie Burritos with Black Bean Salsa

So yesterday, Brett went to the grocery store for Newman O’s, as he is obsessed, and since he was making the trip, I thought I would have him pick up some other things (sugar, flours, spices, extracts, veggie broth, soy and rice milk, agave, etc.) since he didn’t have a big list, and we generally have a list such that we can’t pick up much in the way of extras (since we walk home with our grub), so this was a good excuse to stock up on some stuff. Anyways, while he was there yesterday he happened upon what claimed to be the only organic sugar grown in the United States (it’s grown in southern Florida). Now I have to be completely honest, I didn’t know it was possible to grow sugar in the United States (and I graduated from college!), except maybe in Hawaii, which I don’t really count as the US in terms of ‘food miles’ since it’s not contiguous.

This is pretty exciting since I try to buy stuff from as locally as possible and keep my imported products to things like coffee, tea, chocolate, etc. I’m happy he found it and it is even a reasonable price. Maybe it is sad that I was so excited about this, but the baker and the environmentalist in me were equally stoked.

But anyways, last night I started to make a slightly modified version of Vegetarian Times’ Tempeh-Chili Burritos by switching out the tempeh for seitan and leaving the cilantro out of the Black Bean Salsa. As I was making the salsa, I decided I didn’t think it had enough flavor, so I modified that. Then when it came to the burrito itself, I noticed that the directions advised one to blend the tempeh (in my case it would have been seitan) and mushrooms together in a food processor and turn it into some sort of paste. Now I am OK doing things like this to beans or something, but pureed seitan and mushrooms just didn’t sound very good to me. So by this time, I decided to go my own way with this recipe as I had some veggies and spices I wanted to add as well.

So what follows is my take on what these burritos should have been like. You might notice that for a lot of ingredients such as spices and veggies, I don’t put measurements on many recipes (I will on recipes where proportions are important to the dish turning out), this is because everyone has their own tastes, these are the things that I put in this recipe, you might want to add more or less than I did, or change something else about it, so expect most of my recipes to be like this.

This recipes serves 2.

Black Bean Salsa

1-2 cups of cooked black beans
1/2 a pared and diced cucumber
canned fire roasted tomatoes, drained
1 avocado, diced
fresh lime juice (to taste)
cumin (to taste)
salt (to taste)

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

Seasoned Crispy Seitan and Veggie Burritos
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
mushrooms, sliced (I used lots)
yellow bell pepper, diced (any color bell pepper would do)
onions, diced
jalapeno, diced
1/2 a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
fresh lime juice
chili powder
cumin
cayenne pepper (optional)
oregano
salt
olive oil
1/2 package of seitan, sliced into strips
1-2 tsp. egg replacer (I use Ener-G)
2-3 tbs. corn starch

tortillas
tofu sour cream

In a medium to large skillet, heat about a quarter of a cup of water. Once heated add the mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, and jalapeno to the skillet. Cook until the veggies begin to soften, add the garlic – you may need to add more water along the way. Cook a few more minutes, and then add the drained diced tomatoes with green chilies.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine seitan strips and egg replacer. Toss and let sit for a minute.

Add olive oil to a medium skillet and warm over medium heat.

In another small bowl, combine corn starch and spices (except the lime) and toss seitan in it.

Add the coated seitan to the skillet with olive oil in it, and fry until golden brown, about 10 minutes or so.

While the seitan is cooking, add a bit of the spices to the veggies and squeeze the juice of about half a lime over them. Set them aside.

When seitan is finished, layer it and the cooked veggies in a warmed tortilla. Top with Black Bean Salsa, and of course, tofu sour cream.

The only thing I might do differently next time is heat the Black Bean Salsa a little and put it directly into the burrito as I ended up with what was essentially a burrito on top of a burrito. Just stuffing it all into a tortilla would simplify it a bit.

‘Til next time!