Golden Sesame-esque Tofu and Squash, Chickpea and Lentil Stew

I also finally made the Squash, Chickpea and Red Lentil Stew that I had mentioned previously. Looks like Anu beat me to it. Obviously yours looks a whole lot better which I will attribute to your far superior photography skills and prettier stoneware! They don't even look like the same recipe. I did use butternut squash since I cannot get enough of it!!! I also used brown lentils since I was out of red. Mine turned out more soup-like than stew-like but the flavors were good. I added the lime and some peanut butter after but I actually seemed to preferred it without these additions. It was a little heavy on the beans and light on the veggies. I am still searching for the perfect butternut squash recipe!!!!!!


We also took a trip to Wholefoods for some of the Tofutti products that we cannot seem to find any where else. While there, I saw the Golden Sesame Tofu in the Salad Bar area and remembered that I used to have the recipe for this delicious tofu. Sadly, I was unable to find it but I came across this version online on Diana Cooks. I did not have any mirin and so I used rice wine vinegar instead which may have altered the flavor and texture quite a bit. I liked it but it was definitely different than the Wholefoods version. If anyone has this recipe please share!!!!

Black Bean and Collard Green Soup with Sweet Potato Fries

I spend a LOT of time looking through recipes and food blogs - can you tell? I found this recipe for Ribollita. It looked SO good and our next grocery list had Kale on it. But when I went to the store, we only found collard greens. So, we bought them. I thought I would try the Ribollita with Collard Greens. And then, I came across the recipe for Black Bean and Collard Green Soup. It's almost like it was written by the blogger after she looked at my pantry and fridge :)
So, I made it!!



The verdict - I should have cut the collard greens even smaller. I am not a huge fan of the collard greens in the soup, but it's a good healthy soup (and it's frozen for later in the week).

I also made quick sweet potato fries - I have difficult time using Butternut squash because it's so hard to cut!! The fries were easy to make - cut up sweet potatoes with a spray of olive oil and drizzled with salt and pepper. Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees. It was a wonderful treat - a slight sweet from the sweet potatoes with salt and spice, with a crunchy texture. Yum!

Enjoy!!

Squash, Chickpea and Red Lentil Stew

Em posted a new recipe to try. I happened to have most of the ingredients in the house and was looking for a stew/soup recipe to make for someone I know who is bedridden and is looking for some food help. So I tried the Squash, Chickpea and Lentil Stew .
The only changes I made was to use sweet potatoes/yams instead of squash. This gave the stew a little sweet taste along with the spice. I also used a little Paprika in addition to the black pepper.
We really enjoyed the stew. And we were able to save this for dinner on another night too in keeping with my plans to try to eat home more during the week.

I hope that people are continuing to keep the people of Haiti in their thoughts and are giving whatever they can to help the people there.

Apple Cake/Crisp/Crumble - esque dish

Before I write about the recipe, I want to say that the death and devastation in Haiti makes all my troubles seem unimportant. Puts everything in perspective. If you read this and have not done this yet, please consider donating to the International Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders or Clinton Bush Haiti Fund or any other charity. If you are planning a party, set out a jar to collect some coins/money and send it to an agency. Do your little thing.

Back to the luxury of writing about food - in attempting to eat healthy food, I have been trying to not eat too many desserts (don't remind me about the ice cream on Saturday and the snacks at a party yesterday). So I decided to bake a dessert (It is logical - I bake healthier food than I buy and I know what I am eating!). There is a reason that I should not make up any baking recipes. The 'apple cake' that I made is not really much of a cake. It could have been because I used a wider pan. A friend made this really wonderful pan for us for Christmas - she is a potter. And I wanted to bake in it. So, the cake was a very thin layer. But, I really liked the taste. V has been eating it with ice cream (not-so-vegan) for the past two days.

V got a new 50mm camera lens last week (a birthday present that came late). So, he used that to take multiple photos. I had to upload all of them - the first is an homage to the pan - just the pan. Susan, we love the pan and love you all! The second is the 'cake' before baking and the third is the 'after' picture. Recipe follows.

























Apple Cake -Esque Dish

Ingredients

2 C Apples, Chopped
1/3 C Applesauce
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Oil
1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/3 - 1/2 C chopped Nuts (I used Walnuts)
1/3 - 1/2 C Raisins/pineapple chunks
1/2 tsp Nutmeg/Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 pan
Mix applesauce, oil, sugar and vanilla essence. Separately, mix whole wheat flour, baking powder, nutmeg/cinnamon and salt.
Add the two and add chopped apples, nuts and raisins.
Mix till well coated.
Pour into the pan and bake for about 45 minutes.

Enjoy.

New Year's Black-Eyes Peas

Happy New Year - a tad late :) I'm so glad to see that Em blogged a little last week. Yay Em!! Welcome back.
I made this Black-Eyed Peas dish for New Year's day. And based on the plan, I even froze half of the dish and we ate it for dinner during the week last week. It was yummy.


No greens. But to complete the Southern meal, I made grits to eat with the Creole Black Eyed peas. I followed the recipe almost completely. I did not add any liquid smoke and added carrots to the mix.

I also made some home-made ravioli and was going to blog about it, but realized that the wonton wrappers I bought had egg in them. If any one knows of vegan wonton wrappers, I would love to hear about them. I am very excited about options of things to make with wonton wrappers, if I can get vegan ones.

Here's to yummy, healthy foods this year...

Vegan Girl Scout Cookies!!!

Just a quick blog to let you all know that the following Girl Scout cookies are (or at least appear to be) vegan:
Peanut Butter Patties
Thanks-A-Lot
Lemonades
Daisy Go Rounds


The cookies are baked by different companies regionally so check before you buy. Happy crunching!

www.abcsmartcookies.com

Yes, I am alive....just not cooking much lately!!!

Happy New Year!!
I have lots of reasons to celebrate, especially the arrival of my new baby boy who made it into 2009 (nice little tax deduction).

I share your sentiments, Anu. I have been cooking a bit but not always taking pictures. I finally made the Curried Butternut Squash and Bean Stew from the Hannaford's Fresh Magazine and it was fabulous. I just used garlic and some olive oil instead of their infused oil. It was really delicious. Of course, I added half a can of coconut milk at the end since I think Butternut Squash just needs that. It tastes MUCH better than it looks!!!!
I also just came across the pumpkin cheesecake that I made for Thanksgiving and never blogged about. It was called Pumpkin Cheesecake Torte from the Vegetarian Times website. I will give it a B+. The raw mix was fabulous and I wish I had just eaten it as is rather than cooking into the pie. Maybe it would make a nice pudding of some sort?

Last night, I made a version of Panera's black bean soup from Recipezaar.com which was quick and easy. Used vegan bouillion cubes obviously.

Bean dip redone and One-Pot bean dish

Happy New Year 2010. I did make a Black-Eyed Peas dish on January 1st for New Year's day - a Southern tradition! But, first, here's two dishes that I made before the holidays. Then, we went away to Yellowstone National Park before Christmas and there was no cooking for a while. Since I have been back, I am trying to cook healthy food again, and limiting the number of desserts. No, it's not a new year resolution - I have stopped making those. They don't seem to really go too far. I know that I can cook healthy meals and that's what I am going to try to do. V also realized that we ate out a LOT this last year - it was not worth it in terms of health or our pocket. So, I'm going to try to cook more food and even freeze some food so we're not reaching for take out when I'm too tired/bored to cook. Again, not a new year resolution, but just something to think about when I cook!!

My boss had a holiday party a few weeks ago and I was making the dip. With all the rich food that's everywhere during the holidays, I decided to make a bean dip - that's slightly healthier. It is based on the recipe that was posted on happyherbivore.com earlier. I think that website is getting a makeover and I can't find the recipe on the website anymore.



It is also similar to this dip for the halloween party. This time, I used 2 cups of white beans with 1 cup of roasted red peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, cilantro and Adobo seasoning - purreed all of this together. Last time, I found the taste of raw garlic overpowering. So, I baked this dip with a layer of salsa and soy cheese for a hot dip that was yummy!!

Years ago, I found a recipe on the back of a Morning Star burger box. It was a quick one-pot meal that appeared to have a lot of nutrition and a quick meal on a week night. The day before we left for our trip, I wanted to get to the gym, but also wanted to cook dinner, so we did not eat out right before our trip. I set this on the stove and went to the gym and V was able to turn it off in time. It was a yummy meal - I used to make this regularly before and have not in a while. It's a great winter meal!!




Ingredients

1 cup Arborio Rice (or any other short grain rice)
1 can (15oz) Black beans
1 cup prepared salsa
2 cups water
1 cup frozen peas (or corn)
Hot sauce (optional), to taste
Cilantro (to garnish)
2 -3 Vegan burgers cooked and cut
Olive oil, 1 T

Heat Oil in a saucepan, add all the ingredients except cilantro and burgers. Cover and cook till the arborio rice is cooked (about 20 minutes). Add cooked burger and cilantro. Enjoy!!

You can play with this basic recipe and add a variety of protiens (tofu, vegan sausage pieces, seitan, different beans), sauces (pesto, vegan cream cheese and silken tofu based cream sauce, marinara), garnishes (lemon juice, sliced almonds, vegan cheese) - use your innovation!!

I am not sure when Em will blog again, but I hope you are taking care of yourself and eating some good food!!

Happy new Year 2010 again!!