AnEmily's Vegan Adventures

Cucumber Peanut Salad

2011-06-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

It's been so hot here for thepast few days (no, I am NOT complaining! - I like the heat). But, I have not felt like eating much in this heat. I saw this recipe for Cucumber Peanut Salad some weeks ago and it looked really interesting. Did not seem like any Indian food that I had ever tasted, but so refreshing and simple. That's what I love about 101cookbooks.com is the simplicity of the cooking. In spite of how simple everything was to make, there was a complexity to the taste with the sugar, salt and lemon juice mixing with the spice.

It was such a good salad and so simple - took me 20 minutes after I got home from work. The changes I made were -

-No toasted coconut. Just did not have it and did not want to wait till I got a chance to buy it.

-Added a handful of cooked garbanzo beans to the mix.

-Used oil instead of ghee for tempering (or roasting the mustard seeds and cumin).

I'm making this dish (again!) for a potluck this weekend and may add some red pepper for more color :)

Peanut butter and chocolate balls

2011-05-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

How can anything bad come out of peanut butter and chocolate with very little else. We were having a party a few weeks ago and this was a great idea for a vegan treat. I was searching on vegweb and found this recipe. It was a very simple recipe. But I did not add the sugar because most cereals tend to have a lot of sugar in them already. I chose frosted flakes, now you know why I did not need more sugar in my recipe :)
I made this again, recently. When V was training for a half marathon, this seemed like a perfect little snack. But, it's yummy even when not training for a half-marathon :)

Roasted chickpeas

2011-05-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

One of my 'strengths' while cooking is to ensure balance in our meals. I don't obsess about it (anymore?), but all our meals contain a vegetable, some starch and adequate protein. That is one of the biggest 'criticisms' of a vegetarian meal - is the lack of protein. So, I make sure that we get enough in each meal. But, snacks are not so easy. V has an absolute dislike for yogurt (can't believe he is a Tamilian!!) and even the soy yogurts I have won't work. I have been trying to find a variety of quick snacks that have a high protein content. That search brought to 'roasted chick peas'. I did not follow any recipe....I just decided to roast chickpeas.

I took 1 can of chickpeas, dried them out on paper towels and left them out for a few more minutes.
Spread them on a cookie sheet (either line with parchment paper or use a Silpat). I sprayed Olive Oil (Trader Joe's version of Pam), added paprika and salt.
Placed it in a preheated oven (at 400 degrees) for 40 minutes.

It was yummy. Definitely NOT as crunchy as I would have liked it. So for extra crunch (and protein), I added some dry roasted peanuts. It was a great snack and very filling.
I could see adding raisins for a different flavor, but I was looking for a pure protein punch.
Any other ideas for protein snacks??

Banana peanut butter and jelly muffins

2011-04-24T20:10:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting in a hospital room while a very close friend of mine is recovering from surgery. She had an accident while riding her bike earlier today and needed surgery for a broken ankle. Her first surgery ever. While waiting, I started looking through my files of photos and noticed this photo. I made this a few weeks ago - on a whim. Another friend was over at our home helping us decorate little V's room with vinyl clings. The room looks even more adorable and the wait is even harder (wow, how many topics can I cover in one paragraph!). After we were done decorating the room, I decided to try these muffins. We ate them hot from the oven and they were yummy!!

I started off with this recipe and decided to add a little jelly to the middle. It tasted like our breakfast - peanut butter on whole wheat bread, with jelly and bananas!! Of course, I reduced the sugar in the recipe - I reduce the sugar in most of my recipes. And I changed the recipe to muffins. So, I filled half the muffin tin with dough, added a spoonful of jelly and then topped it with more dough.

I loved being able to use the peanut flour for another recipe. And it tasted like there was peanut butter in there, not just peanut flour! Sad that Trader Joe's has discontinued it. I wonder why....

Enjoy!!

Brussel Sprouts, Roasted!

2011-04-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Raise your hands if you hated brussel sprouts at some point in your life! I have heard that most people did not like them. I can't remember ever eating this vegetable growing up in India, but I am sure if I did, I did not enjoy it either. My mother never roasted anything.
Last year, over Thanksgiving, our cousin made a very tasty roasted Brussel Sprout dish. One batch with bacon and the other without. I don't think much of the dish actually reached the dinner table. It was mostly eaten with oohs and aahs as part of the 'tasting' by everyone! I tried to recreate that dish (without bacon, of course). I served it with the pasta featured here.

This is really really simple version of roasted brussel sprouts. There are so many things that can be done to make it fancier.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut sprouts in half and place in a baking pan. Add chopped garlic cloves (4)
Separately, mix 2 T olive oil with salt and pepper to taste.
Coat vegetables and garlic with olive oil mix.
Bake for 20 minutes. Flip the sprouts and bake for 10-15 more minutes.

V likes them browned, so I baked them for 35-40 minutes.
These were such a hit that I tried a modification that I found here with 'honey' dijon mustard. It was too mustard-y and tangy for me. But, V adds mustard to most everything and he really liked it. I made a quick mixed rice with broccoli, day-old rice, cajun spice and some morning star grillers and served both with Trader Joe's Three Pepper Salsa - a favorite around here!!

Mujadarah

2011-04-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

My potter-audiologist friend is trying to be gluten-free (they are already a vegetarian family). I was thinking about my food habits and realized that other than breakfast (peanut butter and jelly most mornings), our other meals often don't have any wheat or gluten.
I ate Mujadarah at a local Middle Eastern restaurant (Blue Nile). It was a good meal. But, it felt really oily. I saw this recipe a few months ago and wanted to try it.
When I decided to try it, I was not sure what we would think. It seemed too simple. Not spicy enough. Not enough spices. I did not know what I would think of it. V loves caramelized onions. I'm not sure that I enjoy them quite so much as he does. But, I liked them a LOT in this recipe. And I LOVED the recipe. It was simple but really tasty.
I used medium-grained white rice, not Basmati. I also used green lentils rather than sprouted brown lentils.
Definitely something I will make again!!

Chickpea Tagine with carrots

2011-03-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

Now that Em is back, so am I :)
I have been cooking regularly, but just been lazy to write about it.

I made this dish a few weeks ago when it was colder. Although the Tagine looks solid in the photo, it can be made into a stew or served over a grain.
I subscribe to Vegetarian Times regularly. I read each magazine I get, pull out recipes that I want to try and file them away. I never really get back to them. Now, I subscribe to the weekly recipe from Vegetarian Times. When I see a recipe online, I save it and make it. I am sure if I went back to my file of ripped out Vegetarian Times recipes, I would find the one I decided to try. I wonder what it is about the online version of recipes that makes it easier for me to try. It is the same thing with blogs. I am more likely to try a recipe from a blog than a cookbook. I bought a couple of vegan cookbooks because I read a recipe I really enjoyed on a blog. Since that first week, though, I have not really gone back to the cookbooks. Any suggestions to reduce this over-reliance on the internet? I love reading the cookbooks and the magazine - it just does not translate to action.
With that story, this Chickpea Tagine with Carrots also came to me through an email. Changes I made -
1. Dried cranberries instead of currants
2. Agave nectar instead of honey
3. No yogurt
4. Added vegan sausage pieces towards the end of the boiling
5. Added dry roasted peanuts at the end
6. And you probably already know this - Cilantro instead of parsley. I am such a huge fan of cilantro and don't really like the taste of parsley..

And I served it over brown rice. It was a really good, hearty meal!!

"Meat"balls, Zucchini Bread, Charred Tomato Soup

2011-03-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

Finally have some time to catch up on my blogging. I have not been cooking quite as much as I would like but here are some things I have tried recently:

Spaghetti and Meatballs I have made these a few times. I use Gimme Lean sausage, raw cashews instead of walnuts and skip the part about adding garlic powder and black pepper while they are cooking. I seem to burn them each time but they still taste fine. They are family friendly and my husband has requested them several times so I guess they have become part of our rotation.

Benz Zucchini Bread This is very yummy and cooks very nicely. I always halve the recipe since I do not need two loaves. The changes I make are: only using 1/2 cup sugar and less oil than requested, left out raisins and nuts because then my kids would never eat it. On one attempt, I tried to use half whole wheat pastry flour and used applesauce/sweet potato baby food (since I still have a bunch collecting dust in the cabinet) instead of the oil but it was terrible and I threw most of it away :(

Charred Tomato Soup I was watching Alex's Day Off on the Food Network one morning (not sure why since I really dislike Alex on Chopped) and she made this soup which looked easy enough. I did not have any vermouth so I just used white vinegar and it added a nice kick. Balsamic would have worked too. My husband made this on his own a few weeks later so I guess he enjoyed it. I just used the immersion blender and left a few chunks the first time but honestly I preferred it almost completely smooth so that is how the second batch was made.

Egyptian Kosheri

2011-01-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

Every few weeks, a couple of friends (J and H) and I cook together. We each make large quantities of a dish or two, divide them up into 3 servings and we each come home with 3-4 ready to eat meals. Freeze some, eat some and enjoy them for a couple of weeks. Whenever I talk with J or H, though, they still have left-overs and we finish our food within the week. The food is great, but the laughter and fun cooking together is what I enjoy. Such wonderful energy in the room. I have heard of other 'supper swaps'. Do you have any that you recommend?

Today's recipe of Egyptian Kosheri is from the last time we cooked together. H made the dish (it's on the left in the picture) and it was really great! Neither H nor J are vegan or even vegetarian, but we make vegetarian dishes so I can eat too :) The recipe for this dish was from some magazine/newspaper - I can't tell. I asked H for the recipe and she gave it to me along with 3 other recipes copied one on top of another! So I can't give credit where it's due! H followed the recipe completely. I think I may make some changes when I make it next - mostly, add more chilli powder/flakes or hot sauce..mm... I made a side of sauteed spinach (a bag of frozen spinach with some minced garlic, some nutmeg, salt and 1 T olive oil).
The Kosheri tasted great and was really nutritious. The article in the magazine says that this is street food in Egypt. Yum!!

Egyptian Kosheri

Ingredients

1 cup raw brown or green lentils, rinsed well
Salt, to taste
Water
1 cup raw elbow macaroni
1 cup raw basmati rice
1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 T olive oil
1 Large onion, halved and thinly sliced
3 gloves garlic, minced
1 chilli pepper, seeded and minced (serrano or jalapeno or anaheim)
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 cup tomato puree

Cover lentils generously with salted water and boil. Once the water boils, reduce heat and continue to cook till lentils are completely cooked. drain and set aside.

Similarly, cook pasta till al dente and rice in separate pots and set aside.

In a large pot, heat oil. Add onions, garlic, chillies and turmeric. Saute 10-12 minutes or till onions are browned.

Add tomato puree and simmer for 5 more minutes.

Add lentils, macaroni, rice and chickpeas. Mix well.

Enjoy!!

Changes I would make to this dish -

Nothing!! Or

- Add hot sauce or chilli powder
- Add peas or sliced pepper
- Season with cilantro or parsley and some lemon juice.

Peanut Sauce from peanut flour

2011-01-22T07:00:00.001-08:00

When I was entering my calories into Sparkpeople, and as I was waiting for something to come to a boil on the stove, I clicked on a link to Healthy Peanut Sauce and Tofu Marinade. I really enjoy peanut sauces and am always on the search for the perfect bottle. I have tried the one from Trader Joe's, Target and from Taste of Thai. I add to the peanut sauce with peanut butter and even a sweet chili sauce. And I have made my own peanut sauce - mostly using peanut butter.

The recipe seemed really easy and healthy too!! Luckily for me, friends and I were doing a trip to Trader Joe's the next day. I was not sure if I would find the peanut flour, but I did. I tried the recipe that night.

As you can tell from the (really bad) photo, I added veggies to the Tofu to make it a full meal of a stiry fry with some brown rice on the side. I had to increase the recipe by 50% to account for the veggies. I also added some sweet chili sauce and some Sriracha sauce. While the peanut sauce was tasty, it was lacking in sweet and spice. So, that was my fix.

As the stir fry stayed on the stove longer, it changed the texture of the peanut sauce and made it slightly thick. The taste was great and it was very filling, without too many extra calories that come from coconut milk and other additives in the pre-made sauces.

Now, I am on a kick to try to find other ways to use this flour. All the recipes that I have found so far tend to use vegan butter (1/2 cup to a cup) in the baking recipe. I don't want to cut out flour from my baking completely either. So, I am going to have to play with other recipes that I have liked in the past (banana peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, burgers, pancakes etc). If you have any other ideas, I am open to them!!

Chocolate Holiday Cupcakes

2011-01-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, 2011 to all, especially you, Em!
Although my last post was in the new year, I forgot to wish everyone. Better late than never :)
The reason the new year was on my mind is that I made these chocolate cupcakes for our friends' new year party. When I was thinking about the concept for the cupcakes, I imagined that I would buy frosting and write 2011 on each cupcake or I would find a fun new year topper for each etc etc. You can see from the photo, though, that they all remained dreams. I was lucky I got the cupcakes ready in time for the party!!

Modifications to the original recipe -
Less sugar. I seem to make that modification often. I doubled the recipe, but halved the sugar and it was sweet enough for me. I used almond milk (plain) and mint extract. V did not enjoy the batter when I was trying to get the pan clean! (too minty), but really liked the final product.
No complaints at the party either - everyone who tried it said they enjoyed it.
What a way for me to start the new year - with chocolate :)

Happy New Year again :)

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart

2011-01-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

So we finally made the Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart but we made it as a pie since we do not have a tart pan. Actually, I am sorry to say my husband made it for himself even though I had planned to make it as a gift (what a terrible wife I am). He suggested that you add more than the recommended 1/4 cup of peanut butter since there is so much chocolate. It was soooo heavy but very delicious too. The crust was ridiculously complicated involving lots of refrigeration which I think could be skipped and still lead to the same end result. I think the pie/tart needs a little tweaking to lighten it up a little since it is so dense. I also wonder if you can make a peanut butter creme with some of the cream or soy creamer also so there is more of a PB layer. The MimicCreme is a nice product that is sort of like an evaporated milk or condensed milk which is handy for baking. It is made from almonds and cashews. There are two sweet versions-one sweetened with cane sugar and one sweetened with erythritol which is a natural sweetener with a zero glycemic index. We used the sugar free version and it was very good. Overall, this was a good combination of flavors and we will likely try it again to see if we can perfect it. Luckily my daughter had a sleepover so it is mostly gone now!

Indian-spiced Bean Dip

2011-01-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

This is a hard blog to write. I am not sure how I made this dip. It was just a process that ended in this dip. And I really really liked the dip. An Indian friend also enjoyed the dip - she had things to say about the texture, crunch from the onions etc. I don't know if I can recreate this recipe - either on my own, or in this blog. But, I'll try to identify the steps of the recipe and hopefully, it will work for someone.
I needed to make something for a party and I ended up taking an afternoon nap. When I woke up, I had an hour to make something. My first thought was to make the chaat or something like it. But, I had made this last time we went to a party for this couple. But, that's where I started.
I put some onions and tomatoes in a pan - thought it would be the basis to start the dish. But, it's winter and the idea of a cold dish was not so appetizing. So, I added oil to a pan and added the onions and tomatoes. To that, I added chaat masala and date-tamarind chutney that I talked about in the chaat post. After a few minutes of the spices mixing together, I added a can of kidney beans that I first rinsed. To this, I added salt and chilli powder based on taste. There was a LOT of tasting!!
I used the immersion blender to puree the beans, but not entirely. There were some chunks remaining - especially of the onions and tomatoes. To end, I added some lemon juice and cilantro. This entire post was based on the taste of ingredients - I hope it makes some sense.

Crunch - onions
Acidity - tomato, lemon juice
Tang/Sweet - date tamarind chutney
Spice - chaat masala and chilli powder

It was a great mix of flavors and textures.
Yum!!

Curried Lentils with Butternut Squash

2011-01-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

I recently pinched a muscle in my neck and ended up at the doctor's office. While I waited I read the WebMD magazine in which I found this recipe for Curried Lentils with Butternut Squash. It looked very easy and you know how I love butternut squash so I decided to make it today since tomorrow is back to work and I want the refrigerator to be full. I only added 1/2 tsp of chili powder and it is plenty hot. I did not mash the squash since it seemed unnecessary. Also, I have no idea what kind of lentils I used since they only said "Lentils" on the package. I only know that they are not the red ones. I used sweetened coconut (since that was all I had) on top and baked it for 10 minutes at the end to brown it. I would have to say that it was a nice sweet touch! I believe the curry powder I used also had some cinnamon in it to so there were nice sweet and spicy flavors to this dish. I think I will likely make this again since it was an easy, everyday sort of recipe. Hopefully it will make a nice cold salad for my lunch tomorrow also!

Vegan Mac and "Cheese"

2011-01-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

I got a new cookbook this Christmas called "Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food" by Alicia C. Simpson. So far it does not look amazing but there were several great reviews for the mac and cheese written onto the amazon website so we tried it. It took a very long time but the result was really yummy. It was not particularly cheesy but the taste was good. There was a very similar recipe on the VegNews website. There are a few differences since the VegNews version uses margarine and torn up slices of bread. The Vegan Comfort Food cookbook did not have these ingredients. Next time I will omit cayenne pepper since I am not a hug fan.

Hopefully I will make the pretzel tart before the end of the weekend. Just finished making chili and cornbread (which I make all the time). Happy New Year to all!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart, Corn Chowder, Pumpkin chickpea and Red Lentil Stew

2010-12-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

I haven't made this yet but I think this is my husband's ultimate dream so I am going to try to make it for Christmas.....Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pretze l Tart. I borrowed their picture which I hope is legal! Too bad I don't have a tart pan. Wonder if a springform pan will work?

I have been making soups recently. One is an old favorite: Scrumptious Corn Chowder to which I added too much red bell pepper so no one would eat it (except me, of course). I think some fake bacon bits would be a nice touch to this soup. I always add Chipotle in some shape or form and some smoked paprika. I also use half Roasted frozen corn from trader Joe's since it adds a smoky flavor to the soup.

I also discovered this recipe on Amazon while searching for a slow cooker cookbook for my sister: Pumpkin, Chickpea and Red Lentil Stew from the Ultimate Slow Cooker Book. I used Butternut Squash instead of Pumpkin. It was a good stew but I always add some hot sauce to my soups/stews, so that is what I did. I did not add the peanuts or cilantro at the end since I did not have any. They may have given it a little bit more flavor. Ooh..some curry powder may have been good too!

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!!!

Cranberry Orange muffins/bread

2010-12-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

Another potluck, another opportunity to bake something sweet and healthy. It's one of the easiest ways to make sure that I don't completely fill myself on all the other yummy food. But, of course, that did not really work. I did get a plateful of desserts and this cranberry orange bread was not on my plate. It was yummy, but I had already tasted it :)

I remember making this muffin a couple of years ago. A friend had come by and I had asked her if she wanted a muffin and she was interested in trying. When I gave her the muffin, she said she liked it, but it was a little denser than she had expected for a muffin - more like a bread. So, this time, I decided I would make bread and muffins. We still have some of the muffins and the bread went to the potluck :)

I made the following changes to the original recipe - First, I increased it by 1 and a half times, so instead of doubling it, I increased it by half a serving for the bread. Second, I reduced the sugar to 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup. That was sweet enough for me :) Third, and most importantly, I had to add another 1/3 to 1/2 cup of orange juice (I could not measure it exactly - I kept adding a little at a time till it was completely mixed in). The amount of juice/liquid called for in the recipe was not adequate to mix in all the flour. Fourth, I added a 1/2 tsp of Orange flavoring in the mix. Fifth, I added a crumb topping to the top of the bread by mixing brown sugar, flour and oil. Sixth, the bread took a little over double the time to bake - we just kept checking on the bread till it was done.

It was moist and both the bread and muffins were yummy!!

Banana Peanut butter cookies

2010-12-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

When I opened the oven while making these cookies, it smelled like our breakfast. For breakfast, I usually make oatmeal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with slices of banana sandwiched in the middle. Occasionally, jelly is changed to nutella. So, when I found this recipe for banana peanut butter (chocolate chip) cookies, it was exactly what I was craving!

Also, it is holiday season and that means potlucks and parties. V needed to take a dish that was vegan for his party (one attendee is allergic to milk) and I decided these would be a great treat.

The only change I made was that I added 1/4 cup oil to bind the mixture together. I was not able to get everything to mix well together without the oil (I did not use natural peanut butter and that may have been the reason too). Of course, mine had vegan chocolate chips too.

This cookie has a distinct taste of banana, so if you don't like that, this may not be the cookie for you. But, it was ideal for us :)

Butternut squash soup with coconut milk

2010-11-24T17:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a pre-thanksgiving soup that I made for dinner tonight. We leave tomorrow morning at 4am on a drive to Altoona to have Thanksgiving with our family. There has been freezing rain here today and I skid a few times today and hope tomorrow's journey is without incident.
This recipe started out as the curried butternut squash and bean stew - I started off by sauteing onions, garlic in some oil. Added the butternut squash and cauliflower and added some of the spices - cumin powder, salt, red chilli flakes, basil. As it was cooking, I was reminded of a sweet potato soup with coconut milk and collard greens that a friend made - which was awesome. So, this recipe morphed into that! It came out yummy. We ate it with some leftover white rice. It would probably taste even better with brown rice. Or quinoa. Or Harvest Grains from Trader Joe's. I would also consider adding Tofu to this recipe next time - it was too late by the time I made the switch. I am going to freeze the soup - I hope it un-freezes well.

Chunky Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk

Ingredients:

Onions - 2 small
Oil - 2 T
Garlic - 2 cloves, mashed
Ginger - 1/2 Tsp
Butternut Squash - 3 cups, cubed (I used Trader Joe's pre-cut)
Cauliflower Florets - 2 cups
Garbanzo Beans - 1 15oz can
Coconut Milk, Light - 1 15 oz can
Salt, To taste
Turmeric - .5 tsp
Red Chilli Flakes - 1T
Cumin Powder - 1 T
Lemon juice - 1t
Cilantro, to garnish
Basil (dried) - .5 T
Agave Nectar - . 5 T

Heat pot; add oil. Saute garlic and onion till browned.
Add salt, chili flakes, turmeric, basil and cumin. Let the flavors mix.
Add Butternut squash, Cauliflower florets and the Beans and mix together with the spices and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add 2 cups water, coconut milk, and agave nectar (or sugar). Taste and adjust seasonings.
Close and bring to a boil.
After the soup starts to boil, reduce heat and leave on for 15 minutes.
Add cilantro and splash of lemon juice.
Turn off the heat and serve.

I added dry roasted peanuts on top for crunch too :)
Happy Thanksgiving. :)

Eggplant Stew over Pasta

2010-11-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, I made a hummus babaganoush Pasta and I had an eggplant sitting in my fridge. It needed to be used last week and I wanted to try to figure out a recipe with it. We also had some Trader Joe's gnocchi (not vegan) in the pantry and I knew V would enjoy it. So, I figured I could make a mediterranean-inspired dish using the Eggplant. And I LOVED the end result. It was very filling (I had it over some penne pasta - vegan!) and V enjoyed it with gnocchi. A friend ate it with some Greek Yogurt!

I wanted to take care not to make it too Indian - that would have been easy - and to maintain a mediterranean taste to the dish. Here's how I made it -

Ingredients

Eggplant - 1 big, cubed
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Tomato - 2 small-medium, chopped
Chickpeas - 2 cups, cooked
Roasted Red Peppers - 1 cup
Garlic - 3 cloves, chopped/minced
Olive oil - 1 T
Cumin powder - 1 T
Chilli powder/flakes - 1 t (or to taste)
Vegetable Broth/Water - 1 cup
Marinara sauce - .5 cup
Salt/Pepper - to taste
Oregano, dried - 1t
Raisins (optional) - 1 T

Heat Olive oil in a pan (it would be best if you used something that could be easily transferred to the oven). Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Add garlic. After a minute or two (when the raw smell is gone), add onions and saute till light brown. Add tomatoes and salt and cook for 3-4 more minutes.
Add Eggplant, roasted red peppers and chick peas. Add marinara sauce, cumin, chilli powder/flakes, oregano and cook till the eggplant cooks down a little. Around 10 minutes on medium flame.
Add water/vegetable broth to the thickness that you like. Bring to boil. Add raisins (optional), mix well.
Transfer dish to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

I loved this dish. It was filling without being too rich and the flavors were perfect.

Vegan chocolate cake

2010-11-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

Someone very special to us turned 2 yesterday. Unfortunately, we were not with him to celebrate. He does not know about us yet, but (hopefully) soon, our lives will be completely and intricately connected. It was a difficult day for me - celebrating the birthday of a son we don't yet know, but love and want. Yes, we are adopting a little boy - he lives with his foster family in India and we are waiting ..
To celebrate his birthday, I baked a chocolate cake and V and I ate the cake last evening. As I was searching for recipes for a cake, I came across this collection of Moosewood recipes. About 8-10 years ago, when I started getting into cooking more, V's aunt, cousin and I discovered this treasure trove of books from Moosewood and I used to use the recipe books regularly. I may have said this before - but, it's the one book that I don't substitute much. I follow the recipes pretty closely. Then, the blogs opened up new worlds and I have not used the recipe books as much.

The vegan chocolate cake recipe looked easy enough and not too much of a hassle. I made it in the pan as described in the recipe and cut down the sugar to half a cup (I just felt that one cup may be too much). I added a few chocolate chips in the batter - for a surprise chocolate taste!

For the glaze (which I liked more than the cake), I added a tsp of orange flavoring to add a little orange twist to the cake. To make it more fun (and because V likes it), I added cherries to the top of the glaze before cooling it!

Verdict - The cake was a little crumbly and not too sweet. It tasted great with the glaze and I loved the addition of the orange flavor. I was not a huge fan of the cake without the glaze, but I never complain about chocolate!!

Harvest Stew

2010-10-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween Everyone!!! I had a butternut squash hanging around for a week or so and I decided to cook something this morning. I looked back at a few of the squash soups we have made before and decided to try to merge a few into a new soup/stew. I have decided to call it Harvest Stew. I added red quinoa which made it a little grainy but you could choose another grain if you want. The spinach was a last minute addition because I had a package thawed in the fridge but this could be omitted.

Harvest Stew:
Ingredients-
-2 TB olive oil
-1-1 1/2 pound butternut squash, peeled and cubed
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 medium onion, chopped
-4 cups veggie broth
-3/4 cup red lentils
-1/2 cup red quinoa
-1/2 package thawed frozen spinach, squeezed
-spices: to taste-I used garam masala, curry powder, cumin, coriander, chili powder, turmeric, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, tiny bit of cardamom
- 1 can lite coconut milk
-Dash of Sriracha hot sauce

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large stock pot. Add onions and garlic. Cook until softened.
Add squash and cook on medium until softened (about 20 minutes).
Add broth and spices. Bring to a boil.
Add Quinoa and lentils. Lower heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer about 15-20 minutes until lentils and quinoa are cooked.
Add spinach and allow to warm.
Remove from heat. Pour in coconut milk and stir.
Adjust seasonings. Add Hot sauce to taste.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili

2010-10-31T05:14:00.000-07:00

So I searched for a recipe for a chili that I made a while back and had trouble locating it. In my search I discovered this Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili on EatingWell.com so I though I would try it. I added some frozen corn and prepared brown rice. I also did not have any cilantro but it was good anyway. Later that evening I found the recipe that started this search: Black Bean Sweet Potato Chili on Vegweb.com. Honestly, they are almost identical but the vegweb version has cocoa powder and green chiles which probably would have been good additions.

Zucchini Muffins, Halloween Cupcakes and Yoga Soup (Again!)

2010-10-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

I may be lacking creativity lately but my daughter is not. She decided to make Vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and she even planned to make her own vegan buttercream frosting. Sadly, the vegetable shortening had some sort of strange growth developing on it (I know...EW!!!) so we switch to store bought vanilla frosting and she added some colors to make it festive. Overall, I think she did a great job!

This morning I attended a book club and made the chocolate zucchini muffins from Happy Herbivore that Anu has mentioned a few times before. I thought it would be a nice tribute since she could not attend this meeting. I added some chocolate chips to the mix too. Seems to me that one type of the Ghirardelli chips does not contain any milk products so I have been buying them. Also halved the sugar and they were still sweet (13 year old ate without complaint....success to me!). I did not get a picture of these since I made them first thing in the morning and then had to rush to the brunch meeting. They did not have much of a banana flavor to me but I love bananas so I'm not sure I would mind.

Tonight for dinner we had Yoga Soup from Vegweb.com which I must have blogged about before. My daughter loves it and my husband tolerates it so I continue to make it. I added shredded carrots and cabbage (still have some from my cabbage fest last week!) and used a handful of stir fry rice noodles that were milling around in the cupboard. I like the steaming photo although when I see this pot here I realize I should have thrown it out years ago!

Hawaiian-style Chickpeas with Harvest Grain

2010-10-24T11:20:00.001-07:00

Doesn't that name sound interesting. The original recipe from Happyherbivore was Hawaiian BBQ - I did not see the BBQ in the recipe, so I dropped it from mine. But, I loved the flavor of the dish. I made a variety of modifications to mine to match what I had in my kitchen and pantry.

Here is how I made this dish.

Chickpeas - 2 cups
Soyaki (from Trader Joe's) - 1/2 cup
Plum sauce - 1/2 cup
Salsa (Three pepper from Trader Joe's again!) - 1 cup
Pineapples, diced - 1 cup
Cilantro - to taste
Lemon juice - from 1/2 lemon (can use lime juice too).

I mixed all the above ingredients in a bowl on Sunday night and put it in the fridge. Yes, overnight. When I came home from work on Monday, I put everything in a wok and made the grains on the side for dinner. It was SO amazingly easy and tasty. We ate it for 2 meals and could not get enough.

Oh and the grains - that deserves another post in itself. Our nearest Trader Joe's is about an hour away. Last weekend, V ran a half marathon in Indy and I made the trip to spend the day there with a friend after the half marathon. Because we are so far away from the nearest Trader Joe's, when one of us goes to the store, we ask each other if we bring back anything. My friend Susan asked for 2-3 bags of 'harvest grains'. I did not know where to find it or what it was. It looked interesting and I bought a bag too. I wish I had 3 more bags!! I love it - it's Couscous, Quinoa, Orzo (multi-colored) and has some broken chickpeas too (they look like Indian Channa dal). What a wonderful combination of grains and protein too!!
I have SO many ideas of things to do with this mix and look forward to the next friend driving down to Indy!!

I have never tried this before - but, I am going to see if I am not too late for Blog Bites at Onehotstove.

Last 2 months

2010-10-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

It's been over 2 months since my last blog post - mostly because of inertia and also because I was not sure anyone has been reading. More importantly, Em was away being a mommy to a little one and this was something that the two of us were doing (sort of for each other, mostly) - so, it did not seem imperative to write.
But, Em's back and so am I :)
The last couple of months have not really been inspiring - but, here are a few things that I made in this time...
- Vegetarian Times' fresh tomato pasta with meatballs for a complete dish (including protien)
- Other pasta recipes from the same magazine (I mixed the ones with lemon pepper and roasted peppers and made it vegan). Maybe one day I'll get to make it again and post the recipe.
- Chocolate zucchini muffins - made many times over. I added chocolate chips too!!

And my usual suspects; twists on our regular foods -
-Mexican
-Stir fry or Stir fry
-Quick Pastas
-Thai Curry
and Indian food. Of course, no two attempts of any of these taste the same!!

I also made a batch of the pumpkin cookies (from last year, this time) and enjoyed it!! Looking back at the recipes from last year - I want to make them all again!! But for tonight, it's good ol' eggplant with Dal (Indian food) and maybe the tortilla soup to eat later in the week!

Cabbage Recipes

2010-10-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

I realize I have been off the radar for quite a bit but wanted to try to get back into the swing of things. Busy toddler is keeping me, well......busy. I am trying to make some South Beach Diet or low glycemic recipes since this seems to help me lose weight and have more energy. Found a great blog called Kalyn's Kitchen that has tons of great recipes and is extremely well organized.

Here are some cold salads I am going to try using cabbage. Cabbage seems like an under-utilized vegetable and it is so good for you so I am going to try to give it some attention this month. These two recipes share many of the same ingredients:
Spicy Cilantro Peanut Slaw
Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro

I also really love stir fried cabbage with just soy sauce and some toasted sesame seeds. Still searching for some hot soups or other warm cabbage recipes if you have any.
Yum...looking forward to cooking tomorrow.

Update:
SO...the Spicy Cilantro Peanut Slaw was good and interesting. The peanuts were an odd addition and I think toasted Sesame seeds would have been better maybe. Raw cabbage involves so much chewing that it was easy to feel really full quickly! I actually ate the entire bowl of this myself throughout the week and the peanuts stayed crunchy enough.

The Spicy Mexican Slaw was sort of dull but I did not measure so the flavors may not have been strong enough. Didn't really have a "Mexican" feel at all to me. Maybe I will try a bowl along with a margarita?

Home-made Hummus

2010-08-10T04:53:00.000-07:00

At an impromptu deck party earlier this summer, my friend had made some home-made hummus (she called it chumoos). Since then, I have been wondering about making my own hummus. And last month, I did. It's not so difficult to make and it was amazing to have home-made hummus in the fridge in the hot summer months. It was gone in 3-4 days. I added many things I found to my hummus and think it would be good even without all of the additions. I also boiled dried chickpeas and used them instead of canned beans - I think that really helped with the taste, but that also affected how long often I can make this.

The basic recipe calls for
2 cups of chickpeas,
2 T tahini
2 T olive oil
Salt, to taste.

I also added 1 cup of roasted red peppers (store bought),
handful of basil and cilantro
3 cloves of garlic
Paprika, to taste.

Purree all the ingredients to the consistency you like (a little chunky for some of us, very smooth for others) and enjoy it!!

Hummus-Babaganoush Pasta

2010-07-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

I rarely watch 'Rachel Ray' on TV. I used to like her more when she was a relative nobody on 30-minute meals. Now, with her being a complete market in herself, I am not a fan anymore (not that I liked her too much to begin). But, channel surfing one day, I saw an episode of 30-minute meals that was meditteranean and one of the meals was this Hummus-Babaganoush Pasta. It sounded really tasty - and had vegetable and protein.
So I made it the next night. The reason this post lacks a photo accompanying it is that the pasta looked dreadful - goopy and brown. Nothing appealing about it. (I did not add the pine nuts). The taste, on the other hand, was really good. I loved the taste of the rich hummus and eggplant mixed in. I was NOT a fan of the texture (again, I did not add the pine nuts). V liked the texture - for me, it was too much like a dip. I think increasing the amount of water added to make it more 'sauce-like' or adding the pine nuts (as stated in the recipe) may make it better. I will definitely make this recipe again and add tomato pieces and not puree the mix completely - I may leave a few pieces of chick peas and eggplant bigger - to keep the texture more mixed (the way I like it).
In India now... good Indian food are my meals (HUGE meals, though...).

Broccoli with sun-dried tomatoes

2010-07-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. I guess there are a few people reading this blog, even if I don't understand everything they are saying.

Getting a lot of great vegetables from the CSA pilot. Last month, we had a lot of broccoli and broccolini and I found this recipe from the recent Vegetarian Times. I made it without the goat cheese and served it over brown rice. Of course, I added a little crushed red pepper to spice it up. I made this dish for one of my colleagues who's husband was unable to eat for a while and she was not cooking for herself.
It was a very different taste than I am used to cooking/eating, but in a good way..
Short post....
Enjoy!

Garden Update and Question

2010-07-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

Just to keep you all interested - our doggies - Rafa and Gigi :)

A mid-week post - how fun!! This is related to our plants/garden and not a specific meal and a question!! I hope you'll all still enjoy it. First the question, does ANYONE read this blog? (Again, to the people commenting from Asia - can't understand what you are saying - please try English!). If you read this blog, could you leave a comment or email me or talk to me on facebook if you read this blog. If I don't hear from anyone, I'll take it that no one reads this blog and stop writing - I do'nt want to write just for myself. Em, even if you read this - that's enough. Are you reading?? On to more fun stuff - (pictures - tomatoes and chilli peppers!!)

Just like last year, we planted a small vegetable bed this year too. We were away in South America during the start of the planting season and we returned to warm temperatures and tall weeds everywhere. I was constantly obsessing about cleaning the weeds and not hanging out with a friend. So, she suggested that I hire someone to clean up the weeds and use a roto-tiller. 3.5 hours and $50 later, I had one vegetable bed ready for plants and 3 trees that had an area around them ready to have flowers planted in them!! It was exciting and SO worth it!

We bought saplings for tomatoes, peppers (cayenne and bell), cilantro and basil - less than what we had last year. I still have some dried thyme from last year. In the front yard, there's a spot where nothing grows (actually two spots) - lavender that we planted 2 summers ago is thriving (almost weed-like) in one of them and I bought ground cover for the other area. We also planted a blackberry and a raspberry bush last year - they are doing well. Very few fruits, but at least they are still alive!! (pics - raspberries in the bush and in in V's hands)

Exciting things that we have been happening -
-- Little baby green tomatoes in our plants
-- Enjoying cilantro and basil in a lot of the cooking - tastes so good
-- Took some of the compost out of our compost bin (called bio-orb) and added it into a flower bed, making room for more of the dried leaves and green waste to compost
-- Used a mix of cayenne pepper and flour to keep away bugs from the blackberry and raspberry bush. So far so good.
-- Things that have bloomed so far - Peonies, roses, Day-lilies, Clematis (all planted by previous owners), Daisies, Salvia (planted by us). Impatiens and Beagonias (annuals) growing well. Waiting for the Zinnias and Sunflowers to bloom.
-- Ground cover looks like it is taking some root (had to use some bone meal and blood meal to make the soil better - not sure how that goes with my vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, but....)
-- Used lemons to clean the grease on the stove instead of harsh cleaners
-- Using lime/lemon juice and vinegar to clean the mold from the rain flap for our tent

And here are some photos -

Mesir Wat (Ethiopian Lentils)

2010-07-04T09:11:00.001-07:00

When we lived in Massachusetts, we used to visit Addis Red Sea regularly for their Ethiopian food. Locally, we don't have any Ethiopian restaurants - we occasionally have gone to Chicago or Indy get our fix of Ethiopian food. I cook a variety of 'cuisines' of food, but have never found a recipe for Ethiopian food - till I saw this one. I had all the ingredients listed and I made the lentils one night. Okay, I did not have 'one' ingredient. I used black lentils instead of 'red lentils'. But, I really liked the taste of the resulting lentil dish. I made it with Dosai (a bread-type dish from South India - with fermented rice, dal etc) and with a side of stir fried spiach.

These lentils were pretty versatile - we ate them with rice, yogurt, naan etc too.

Happy 4th to those who celebrate.. and happy Sunday to those who don't!!

Cauliflower and Coconut Curry

2010-06-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

We are part of a new CSA, but are the only 'pilot' family for this CSA - to figure out if this wil be an option for this agricultural family. I am enjoying the vegetables very much, but one of the difficulties with eating within season is cooking the same vegetable every week.

This week, I wanted to try something different with Cauliflower and found this recipe. I had all the ingredients and it appeared to be a good mix of vegetables and protien. I added some green peppers to the dish to add more color and increased the spice by adding paprika. I also added a couple of Tablespoons of ground flax seeds to the end of cooking. I found that the flax seeds changed the flavor of the dish and would probably not add that next time.

It is quick, easy and tasty... enjoy!!

Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie

2010-06-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

What a LONG time in between. There are some comments on the previous post, but they are all in a language that I cannot read. So if any of you wants Emily and/or me to understand, post it in English (or even Hindi, Tamil or Kannada).

We were away in Peru and Ecuador for a couple of weeks. We had some good Vegan and Vegetarian meals there. On our boat at Galapagos, the vegetarian/vegan options were great and provided to me specifically during each meal. When we came back, we wanted to eat home-made comfort food. So there was a lot of Indian food being cooked here; also stir fry's with tofu (variations on this, or this especially with Soyaki Marinade from Trader Joe's as the stir fry sauce!), mexican-type beans (like this) and quick week night pastas (variations on this).

Today, I baked some chocolate chip cookies for a picnic. I did this at the last minute, but they came out great. I used this recipe almost completely. I did not add cinnamon because I was making this for kids and did not know if they would enjoy that flavor in their cookies.
After baking half the dough, I realized that I really like the cookie dough better than the cookie. That's how we ate half of it - as dough. The rest was cookies. If you try this recipe, I would recommend reading all the comments and getting ideas from others before you make this your own.

And I plan to be back more regularly :)

English Muffin 'pizza'

2010-05-01T15:06:00.001-07:00

Long time since the last post!! I have just been uninspired in spite of the Vegan Kickstart. I have not found too many recipes that make me too happy.
Recently, we visited a local Aldi's and bought ourselves a really cheap toaster oven. I have always dreamed of owning a toaster oven and making English muffin pizzas - this was when I ate cheese. This time, I had to make a fun 'pizza' without fresh mozzarella!!
I made these with hummus as the base for some, regular tomato sauce for others. Topped with vegan cheese pieces and pieces of vegan sausage, but mostly roasted eggplants and roasted peppers. The eggplants were thinly sliced and red peppers cut into strips and roasted in the 'real' oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I added some olive oil, salt and pepper before roasting them. For more flavor, the 'pizzas' were topped with herbs (a mix of oregano and basil) and red chili flakes.

Yummy dinner... mmmm....
I'll try to post once more this week and then we'll be gone for 2.5 weeks to Peru and Galapagos. My back has been gone for the past 10 days... lots of PT, exercises and changing of travel plans. Fingers crossed for a fun trip.....

Roasted Butter Nut Squash salad with thai spices

2010-04-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Mmm.... I can't believe that I have not blogged about this dish before. I read it on 101cookbooks.com more than a year ago and since then it has been one of my more favorite salads to make or things to do with Butternut Squash. So very good. And so very easy!!

I don't make too many modifications to the original recipe (it's not called the same thing - she calls it the Maranui Surf Club Salad, but I don't have the same story to go with it, so my name is different!). I add a little sugar to the Butternut squash before roasting.

Happy Spring :)

Black bean burger

2010-04-04T17:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. To the rest of us, happy Sunday!! I had a relaxing weekend and ended it with a bunch of cooking. The food is still waiting to be eaten and in the meantime, I decided it was time to add a new recipe. I mentioned in my last post that I am trying to find ways to add flax seeds to our meals and that V does not like nuts in our food. And with time, I am starting to dislike the taste of flax seeds in my food too. So, I ground some of the roasted and salted flax seeds from Trader Joe's and am trying to find foods to add it too. Of course, it's a great egg substitute.

I was inspired by other burger recipes that we blogged about last year. The photo does not look good - and this was the best that I could find :)
I mixed the following ingredients for this version

Black beans, cooked or canned - 3 cups
Salsa, prepared - 1 cup
Corn meal - 2 T
Ground flax seeds - 2 T
Chipotle chiles in Adobo sauce - 1 t
Adobo seasoning (or Fajita seasoning) - 2 t
Olive oil - 1 T
Salt - to taste (depends on how much salt is in the seasoning you are using and the salsa)

Puree these ingredients together. I made it very smooth and would have preferred that a few of the beans were not completely pureed.
Then, I added

Frozen corn - 1 cup
Cilantro - 1/2 cup

t would have been great to add grated carrot, peas or finely diced red peppers too (for color and taste), but I had neither.

I cooked it on a pan. But, the burgers came out better when I made the burgers very thin, rather than a thick juicy burger. The thicker ones tended to not stay whole.

As the burger was getting cooked, I added Vegan sour cream and salsa on top.
I froze some and it made for a good meal on a busy evening!!

Quick week-night pasta

2010-03-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

After spring break last week, I am back to cooking again this week. We went to see V's aunt and cousin in PA for the end of spring break and I was so relaxed. I did not cook for 4 days (although I planned to bake, did not do that either) and was not too inspired at the start of the week. But, dinner needed to be made! I always learn something new when we visit V's family and am inspired by something his aunt/cousin uses. His aunt had roasted some walnuts with maple syrup and some flax seeds and ground them together (coarsely). She adds this mix to her oatmeal every morning. I loved it and brought some back. Flax seeds are supposed to be really good for health. V, though, does not like nuts or seeds in any of his foods. I have tried adding roasted flax seeds (from Trader Joe's) in many meals and he complains about the pieces of seeds in his food. Her innovative idea got me thinking - I could gring flax seeds and add it into many dishes that he would not notice. Flax seeds are also a good substitute for eggs in recipes (mixed with water) and is a good binding agent. This chocolate chip recipe could use some powdered flax seeds in it too for increased heart health. And there will be more - keep your eyes open!!

Based on earlier recipes, like this spinach alfredo and tomato florentine soup, I made a quick week-night pasta dinner. Looking back at these recipes, I think what I made was *very* inspired by the Spinach Alfredo - I did not realize it till now!!

Also please notice the roasted asparagus - my personal sign that spring is here!! We stopped at Trader Joe's on our way home and stocked up on supplies, including the bunch of asparagus. Let's take a little detour and stay with asparagus for a few minutes - I love them!! Yes, they make our pee smelly, but they taste amazing. My favorite ways of eating them are roasting them in the oven for 20 minutes at 375 with some olive oil, salt and pepper or blanching them in a little water (with salt and pepper or red pepper flakes).

The recipe for the pasta is -

Boil about 6 oz of pasta (your choice - I used whole wheat penne and rotini mixed).

While the pasta is boiling, blanch the asparagus.

Separately, saute 3 cloves of minced garlic and 1 packet of frozen spinach in some oil.

Blend together 1/2 a package of silken tofu with 2 T of Toffutti cream cheese, 4 T of prepared Pesto, red pepper flakes (based on taste) and a pinch of nutmeg

Once the pasta is close to Al Dente (not complete soft), add the blended tofu and the cooked spinach and let it all cook together for 5-10 more minutes. I also added frozen meatballs at this time and cooked the mix till it thawed.

It was a GREAT weeknight supper. I served the pasta with almonds and the asparagus!

Vegan tamale pie

2010-03-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

After eating out for many days, I tend to return to eating healthy by reverting to Indian food - simple dal (lentils) with bread and a simply cooked vegetable. Then I make a very South Indian meal that has lots of spices, lentils, and vegetables, but no fat at all. It brings the digestion back under control :) and makes me feel better about my food choices!!
After two-three days of eating healthy Indian food, today I veganized this recipe for Tamale Pie that I saw in the 'Vegetarian Times'.

It was an easy recipe to change from vegetarian to vegan - all I had to do was to removed the cheese from the recipe. Everything else was already vegan. To make it my own recipe, I added black beans instead of pinto beans (from a chilli that I had made recently). I did not have tomato puree, so instead I used half a can of roasted tomatoes (again, half was used for a previous recipe!) and some tomato paste.

The pie tasted much better than it looks in this photo and is something I'll make again!!

Hope the sun is shining and it's getting warmer where you are. Happy Spring!!

Vegan kickstart

2010-03-12T17:49:00.000-08:00

How is the 21 day vegan kickstart going? Anyone doing it?
I get the emails, but I'm not really following it. I would like more recipes than it has. I want to try to quinoa pilaf sometime.
Anything else worth trying?
This is a short post - it was my birthday earlier this week and I have been eating out a LOT. Not much cooking going on and when I do it's old favorites like dal (lentils) with an eggplant dish, stir fries - something quick, not too rich and very healthy.
Next week is spring break and we'll be traveling a bit, so not sure about new recipes. Will try to be regular again soon.....

21 Day Vegan Kickstart

2010-03-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

I was just playing around on Facebook and noticed an ad for PCRM's 21 Day Vegan Kickstart which begins March 1st. Check it out. Looks like they will send you recipes and advice via your email. Although my husband is a vegan, I am not. I was eating more vegan meals before I got pregnant and then I just couldn't stick to it. I have decided to try avoiding dairy and eggs for the next 3 weeks. I think the things I will have trouble with are: pizza, milk in my coffee, and ice cream. Other than that, no problem since I have lots of vegan products at my house. So far today I have had:
-coffee with Silk vanilla soymilk
-Luna bar
-grapes
-sandwich with hummus, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes
-peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe's
-corn chips

Tonight, we are having tacos or taco salad with Yves veggie meat, guacamole, Tofutti sour cream, salsa, etc. I have some Follow Your Heart Cheese but that has a lot of fat and I don't need any more post baby.

Wish me luck!

Mexican Rice-Beans mix

2010-02-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

This week has been so busy for me at work and I have been trying to meet friends socially over meals. So, cooking has been at an all-time low. I can't imagine why work is busy, but I was also trying to train for the half-marathon in town in October. I wanted to start early, because I was not sure how my body will react. And 6 weeks in (I am only running 3 times a week and a maximum of 4 miles), my body is not too happy. My knees, legs and back are often sore. I see the end of this attempt at running for long distances and returning to running for exercising and fun (mixed in with walking). Whatever the reason, we've been having a lot of take out :(

But, I made this Mexican 'take-out' inspired dish the other day. I think it would have been even better if I had some of the tortilla soup as the base, but that was the inspiration. I made some tortilla soup the previous week and had some left over beans and crisped tortillas.

To make this dish, I made rice in the rice cooker using the boullion that I made and froze mixed in with water. It made the rice SO flavorful. To this I added sauteed vegan sausage pieces that I sauteed. Then, I sauteed some Spinach with Beans and fajita seasoning with garlic and 1 tsp oil.

For dinner, we layered rice with sausage, spinach and beans, Salsa (roasted red pepper salsa from Trader Joe's) and topped it off with the crisped tortillas. It was one of the best quick dinners I have made and we both could not stop eating it.

I have been making a lot of soups/stews and I'll probably blog about more of them and while they are very convenient to freeze and re-heat during the week, I wish the weather would get warmer and I don't have to eat quite as much soup/stew.

Thoughts of spring.......

Heart Healthiest Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

It's cold and dark. We're watching the Olympics and I'm working on making progress on all the adoption paperwork that we need to finish. We were craving something unhealthy to eat. Instead, V took out these 'heart healthiest chocolate chip cookies'. He nuked his for 15 seconds (the chocolate chip melted and hurt his hand) and I ate mine cold.

While we don't celebrate Valentine' day, this cookie would have been ideal for the special day. How better to show love than to bake a cookie that tastes great and is supposed to be good for you. I have baked other vegan cookies that are healthy, but because of the ground walnuts in this cookie (and V does not like nuts in his sweets. Heh heh!) this cookie is denser and also feels more filling.

I got this recipe in my email because I signed up for all kinds of newsletters from Vegetarian Times. On a side topic - I heard this story on NPR about what an email address says about you. Apparently, gmail is best. aol and hotmail are not looked upon favorably. I have a yahoo email where all the forum membership information and newsletters (including teh vegetarian times ones) land. I have a work email and of course, gmail too. 3 emails to check every day (V says every 5 minutes and he's really not exaggerating - I *may* have received an email in the last 5 minutes in all my accounts!!). I happened to have all the ingredients for this cookie on hand and made it quickly.

I used only half the oats in the recipe and even so, I had a LOT of oats and chocolate chip cookies left crumbly at the bottom of my mixing bowl. I dont think the water was enough. I reduced the amount of sugar to between 1/2 and 3/4 cup. I really enjoyed the cookies, but was left with a LOT of crumbs that did not mix together. I'm not really complaining - nothing wrong with a chocolate chip cookie with a side of chocolate chips (and some oats too!).

Mushroom dish

2010-02-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

Did anyone make anything yummy from the newest Vegetarian Times magazine. I made a mushroom dish that I veganized (is that a term?) from the vegetarian recipe in the magazine. I was considering typing it out for the blog - I could not find it on the vegetarian time website (is there a secret for that I am missing?). Luckily for me, the women at 'Two Blue Lemons' posted their version of butternut squash and duxelles casserole. Our photo was not as pretty as theirs, but it was just as yummy!!

To make the recipe vegan, instead of making a cheese paste with milk, cheese and flour, I combined 1 cup vegan (toffutti) cream cheese with 1 silken tofu, nutmeg and garlic. This mix went as a layer and also on top instead of the cheese. It also added red pepper flakes for a spicy kick. No butter, used olive oil instead.

Happy Valentine's day - a day where we did nothing especially romantic, but had a great day together just the same. V and I are not big fans of the 'commercial' holiday prefering to celebrate other days.
What did you cook for this special day?

Jamaican Red (well, pink and white) Bean Stew; Gardein

2010-02-11T04:02:00.001-08:00

The picture of this is missing somewhere on my camera's memory so I will add it when my technical advisor gets home from work today.

I realize that I keep making soups and stews that are very similar to one another but that must be what I am craving these days. I tried another slowcooker recipe from savvyvegetarian.com called Jamaican Red Bean Stew. I guess the recipe was taken from Robin Robertson's cookbook called "Quick Pick Vegetarian." All of Robin's cookbooks can be seen on her website GlobalVeganKitchen.com. I think I may have a few on my shelf actually! I used Pinto Beans and Cannellini Beans in this recipe since I am not the biggest fan of red kidney beans. It was spicier than I expected even though it only contained 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes. Once again, mine was more of a soup than a stew which I figure is my inferior cooking skills rather than the recipe.

This was good but not my favorite. It is heavy on the beans and has just a few veggies (sweet potato and carrot). I usually prefer my soups/ stews to have lots of vegetables. Also, the coconut milk really needs to be added at the end so it does not separate in my opinion. I ate this over some brown rice. I think I will make some quinoa to serve with it today.

On another note, I keep seeing Gardein products at the supermarket and then saw chef Tal Ronnen use them on the Ellen Show so I thought I would try them. I purchased the Seasoned bites which are like little seasoned chicken pieces but they have been sitting in my fridge for a week. The package shows them being added to a spaghetti sauce. Well, I don't usually eat chicken that way. So far, I have not found a use for them. I will write a review when I think of something! Maybe just stir fry or pot pie or something like that???? I have heard they are great!

One year anniversary

2010-02-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? We started this blog last year in February. I am not sure if anyone even reads this blog, but I know that I get ideas from what Em writes and it inspires me to think of food to eat.
Thanks Em!!

On a week night this week, I used three different recipes to make a dinner! It was a great tasting dinner!

First, I modified this recipe to make a boullion. I was not able to find fennel or leeks in our grocery store for the past two weeks, so I used scallions instead. Also, no parsley, only cilantrol. I pureed carrots, celery, scallions, cilantro and salt over the weekend and froze it. Based on Heidi's recipe, I heated one cup of water with 1 T of this boullion to make stock!

I modified this pasta recipe into a vegan recipe. No butter, olive oil instead. No pancetta, morning star grillers. No chicken stock, home-made stock using the boullion I made instead :), no cheese, period. No parsley.

I had some collard greens left over from the black bean and collard greens soup and saw this recipe earlier. I also saw a similar one on a Vegetarian times magazine. I roasted the collard greens without the sesame seeds.

It was a great dinner :) Here's to one year of blogging and eating Vegan food and looking forward to more :)

Crockpot Quinoa Red Lentil Soup; Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

2010-02-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

I just discovered a new website this weekend called Savvy Vegetarian while searching for vegan crockpot recipes. There were so many interesting recipes. They even sell downloadable recipe books. I decided on Crockpot Quinoa Red Lentil Soup since I am trying to incorporate more quinoa into my diet. This soup used practically every spice I had on the shelf! Sadly, I did not have fennel seed which may have impacted the flavor a bit. It needed a little salt infusion in my opinion so I added a TB of veggie bouillon. The flavor was better the second day I am discovering. The recipe did not indicate when to add the veggies so I just threw everything into the crockpot and it worked just fine. I used my favorite butternut squash, of course!

I got "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar" for my husband for the holidays and had to try these Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows. They look a lot more difficult than they were. They are delicious. Sort of wishing I had not made them since I am still home with the baby and seriously lack self-control around cookies.

Good Night!

P.S. 1/14/11 Just Found an online link for the Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows. Hooray!

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

2010-01-31T13:44:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-23T10:42:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-15T18:29:00.001-08:00

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!!!

2010-01-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2010-01-11T12:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-03T10:39:00.000-08:00

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!!

Pesto Tofu Stir Fry with Quinoa

2009-12-15T18:29:00.000-08:00

I have been feeling a little stale with my cooking these days. I have no new ideas, no inspiration and we have been doing more than our regular share of take out and quickly rustled up meals. In keeping with the low cooking interest, my refrigerator is bare and has very few vegetables. After a spring/summer/fall with fresh vegetables from my CSA and farmer' market, I don't want to get vegetables that were grown many thousands of miles away and off-season. But, I also can't think of many recipes using butternut squash (or cut it up regularly). Maybe that's just an excuse.
Along the lines of being stale, I stared at an empty refrigerator a few days ago, except for some spinach. I also wanted to make something with quinoa. I have 3 boxes of quinoa and need more recipes using this grain. Luckily, I remembered that 100 cookbooks had a fun stir-fry recipe and some corn in the freezer (from the summer). I also had a jar of sun-dried tomatoes and it was time to try the recipe. Her photo was also much better than mine.

But, the taste was not-so-ordinary. We both really enjoyed the stir-fry. I added some red chilli flakes too - because I need more spice to the recipe. As I was cooking it, I was not sure about the meal, but it was very yummy!!!

Em, I hope you are doing well :)

Welcome JTD!!

2009-12-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome to JT!! Em had her baby boy on Dec 3rd. He is healthy and appears to be happy and Em is occasionally on Facebook, so I take that as a good sign. I assume that she will not be as regular posting her recipes. I am not sure what she is 'cooking' these days, so I'm going to keep trying to fill the void (and it will be a void).

In spite of the quiet for the past week (or more), I have been cooking. Just recycling old recipes and forgetting to take photographs.

Here are somethings that I made in the last week and verdicts (without photos or detailed recipes because of the lack of photos!).

--Peanut Butter pancakes - I created and re-created this recipe from a bunch that I saw. I will try it again and post it. This did not have as much peanut flavor as I would have liked. But, I'll tweak it and try to post it another time.

-- Date nut slices - based on this recipe. I think I may not have waited long enough for it to thicken. So my slices were nowhere as pretty as the ones in the original post and were too mushy. I still have some left in the fridge - V does not like nuts in any of his foods and won't have too much of it anyway.

-- Stir Fry - based loosely on this recipe, but with broccoli, tofu, seitan, cashews and peanut sauce and soy sauce stir fried in oil with some garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes. Quick and easy to make and very enjoyable. I found a Peanut Sauce at Target (Archer Farms brand) that I really like. So, we're having a variety of stir fries that feature this Peanut sauce with variations.

-- Thai Curry - modified from this recipe, thai curry is a staple at our home. I make it when I need a quick dinner - it's a great one-dish meal. I added some squash and root vegetables this time for a change and some of the peanut sauce mentioned before!

-- Vegan chilli (made in a slow cooker) - I will try make it again in the next couple of days and post a recipe!!

Good night and have fun with JT, Em!

Thanksgiving Desserts

2009-11-25T12:49:00.001-08:00

Before going to work this morning, I was busy baking. We are going to friends' for Thanksgiving tomorrow and I wanted to bring a cake with us. Our friends just brought home their little girl from Haiti last week and will probably not be able to make a big dessert. Tomorrow, I'll work on the vegetarian/vegan side dishes for dinner. I am also trying to make some food that they can heat and eat for the next few days. Em, if you lived closer, I would do this for you too :)
Also, my brother and his family are getting ready to make a big move in their lives with their 2 month old son and 2 cats... first to New Jersey and then to India. Lucky for us, on their way to NJ (from MN), they are stopping at our home and spending a little time with us. To help them with the move, I want to do what I can do best - cook food and freeze it for them.
Two good reasons to bake!

First, cake. Our hosts said that pumpkin is not their favorite taste and I am not to comfortable with pies - I am not sure why. So, I decided to look for a cake recipe. I really had to search a LOT to find something that I liked. And then I found - Cherry Chocolate Cake.

I used this recipe almost completely. We have not eaten any of the cake yet, but I tasted some while it was baking - I used a rectangular pan, but a round cake pan would have probably been better, so it took a much longer time to bake, requiring many tastes :) I liked the taste, but would have liked more chocolate in the cake. Melting chocolate chips meant that some of the chocolate remained stuck in the skillet, so I should have used more chocolate chips or cocoa powder. I think pouring some chocolate syrup on top will be good!!

The next baking activity was an old recipe that I had forgotten. A few years ago, I made this Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips regularly! And just like many other meals, it went to the back of my mind and never got made again. As I was browsing for recipe ideas for muffins/bread to bake, I re-discovered this recipe from an old faithful blog - One Hot Stove.
I modified by using Soy Yogurt, Soy Milk and Egg Replacer to make the recipe Vegan. One bite and it reminded me why we loved the recipe and I made it so often. I doubled the recipe to make a loaf and 12 muffins too. I think I may have to bake another loaf soon. Only half a day has gone by and we already have eaten half the bread!!

I hope you all have a very very happy Thanksgiving and have LOTS to be thankful for. Of all the holidays in India and here, I find this one to be most meaningful and special. It will be a quiet Thanksgiving for us (a friend just called and said they would be coming to visit), but I am thankful for everything that life has given me and will take some time tomorrow to treasure it all.
Em, I hope you have a great thanksgiving too - and you get to enjoy the first day of your time off and the little one lets you rest a bit!

Curried Butternut Squash and Bean Stew

2009-11-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

Em sent me this recipe during the week and it looked so appetizing, I made it. The photo does not do the dish any justice. I got a another tutorial about how to take photos so they are in-focus. Maybe next time, it'll be better!! In short, the stew was delicious. V had it for 2-3 meals and enjoyed them.

We made our monthly trip to Trader Joe's and found peeled and cubed butternut squash - the hardest part of B.Nut Squash for me is peeling and cutting it. Score!!
Surprisingly, this recipe came from the Hannaford's website. This is a grocery store in the North East, like Krogers, Meijer in the mid-west.
The flavors of the recipe were really good and it is here.

Modifications that I made
1. No Cannelini beans, so I used garbanzo beans instead - it's what I had at home!
2. Added vegan sausages, cubed.
3. Added a touch of agave nectar for a sweet taste.
4. Added roasted peanuts just before eating.

Yummy!! Enjoy!! I'm thinking of making it again for the Thanksgiving meal!!

Waffle Duel; Squash soup with coconut milk

2009-11-08T07:02:00.001-08:00

My husband woke up wanting waffles this morning so he made his favorite waffles from this Easy, Basic Waffles in the Morning recipe. He just uses 1/4 cup of oil instead of any applesauce so they are crunchy on the outside. I assume with the applesauce they would be softer. They really are quick and yummy. The recipe makes just enough for the three of us in our 4 waffle iron.
I, on the other hand, wanted to make some Pumpkin Waffles so I looked up a recipe that I have used before on the thePPK.com. It seems to have a lot of ingredients but it isn't too difficult. I am not sure if the 2TB soy yogurt are really necessary but I added them anyway and then ate the rest of the yogurt.
In the end, my family had completed their breakfast while I was still mixing my pumpkin waffles but I had a nice, quiet breakfast on my own and it was delicious. This recipe made 10-12 waffles so I should have halved it but I read that they freeze well so I guess I have several breakfasts waiting for me in the freezer now!

Ok, I was not so impressed with my last try at butternut squash soup so I thought I would try again since I still have several large squashes hanging out in my kitchen. I used this Squash Soup as the basis for my version and I have already made it twice since I loved it so much. Here is my version:

Squash Soup with coconut milk
-Saute 2 cloves of garlic along with one chopped onion until soft.
-Add shakes of curry powder, garam masala, black pepper, turmeric, salt and ginger.
-Add cubed butternut squash and delicata squash and cooked until soft (20 minutes plus)
-Add2 cups veggie broth until heated
-Whizz it up with immersion blender
-Add 1/2 can of lite coconut milk and warmed

I love this flavor combination and if you have other recipes that have squash, curry and coconut milk let me know!

Halloween Party

2009-11-07T17:48:00.001-08:00

A little late in the post. Last weekend, we had a little party at home for Halloween, fall, late Deepavali - vegetarian and Vegan dishes were on display. One of our friends made very pretty halloween-based cakes and I feel bad about not getting a photo. There were costumes - creative and fun ones! Ours were easy and funny!

Some dishes I made were the Chaat that most people enjoyed. It had a little 'kick' to it too.

Also, pumpkin cookies adapted from this recipe on vegweb.com. I substituted 1/2 cup of applesauce for 1/2 cupe of oil. I did not add nuts and I used craisins and chocolate chips instead. Like all the comments in the recipe, it is slightly more like a 'muffin' or 'cake' than a cookie.

The muffin is from this recipe. I did not change much this time. The last time I made it, it was dense - like a bread. But, this time around - soft, tarty and sweet.

Bean dip adapted from this recipe. I used black beans rather than white because that's what I had. I used 2 cans of beans instead of the one can that the recipe indicates. I also added some chipotle in adobo sauce and vegan sour cream to the recipe. Served it with chips, of course. The leftovers turned into the base for the tortilla pizza for the past 2 days!!

I hope you are doing well and the shoulder get unstuck from your hip, Em.

tunisian eggplant appetizer

2009-10-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

This stuff is amazing. It is designed as an appetizer to be served with pita bread and is best served at room temperature. Our friend, Marcela, has made it for several work functions and finally brought me in the recipe. There was some debate about what cookbook it came from so I have no idea. I did not add the artichoke hearts and actually mixed it up with some pasta for dinner. I was also imagining it as a soup if I had added some broth. Hmmm......the ideas are endless.

1 medium sized onion finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 TB tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup small pitted green olives
1 small jar (6 oz.) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
pinches of dried tarragon, basil, and/or oregano (optional)

-Saute onion and garlic in a small amount of olive oil over medium heat until soft
-Add eggplant cubes, stir and cover. Cook until the eggplant is very well done (15-20 minutes), stirring occasionally, adding small amounts of oil to prevent sticking.
-Stir in tomato paste and vinegar and heat to boil. Add olives and remove from heat.
-Stir in artichoke hearts, then cool to room temperature. Add herbs to taste.

So, so, so, so good!!!

Autumn Vegetable Tagine

2009-10-18T10:16:00.001-07:00

This recipe is inspired by the same-named recipe in the most recent Vegetarian Times magazine. I say 'inspired' because I did not have a number of the ingredients and used a lot of substitutions. I had ingredients similar to the ones recommended from my CSA and I needed to use them up! The only thing that remained consistent was the use of beans, pressure cooker and butternut squash. As I was making this dish, I was very skeptical. I like foods with a lot of flavor - this recipe looked like it did not have any redeeming flavors. Adding Harrisa (which I did not have - so I used 'Sriracha sauce and cumin powder' that VT suggested. In reality, VT also suggested Coriander powder, but I did not search for it) and salt at the end was the only flavor. I was very pleasantly surprised when I ate the dish. Cooking the beans and vegetables in the pressure cooker really brought out the flavors in the dish. Loved it.

Here are the changes I made -
1. Black-Eyed Peas instead of Garbanzo Beans
2. Used 3 small sweet potatoes, a very small butternut squash and a turnip instead of a medium butternut squash
3. Used Spinach instead of the suggested greens
4. Quinoa instead of Couscous
5. Added peanuts on top for crunch.
6. Harrissa substitute explained earlier.

My next plan is to have people over for a party in a couple of weeks and I need to find some harvest/halloween foods. Any ideas/suggestions welcome!

Squash Fries; Cheater Cinnamon Rolls; Crockpot Applesauce; Apple Crumble

2009-10-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

None of these are going to do wonders for your diet (with the exception of the applesauce) but they were all really good. First, I made some Wise Fries from the Hungry Girl website using Delicata squash from my CSA share. This particular squash is so easy to cut into strips that I always seem to make them into fries. They are incredibly good. I ate almost 2 squashes worth on my own (well, I am eating for 2 right?...right? Someone help me out here!).
My husband has been getting way too thin so I have been trying to make lots of sweets although he often takes his one small portion and then I end up finishing the dessert so it isn't really helping him put on any weight. I had a cinnamon roll craving so I rolled out some Pillsbury Reduced Fat Croissant Dough, spread on 1-2 TB melted Earth Balance, and then sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon. I rolled the entire thing up and sliced it into about 1 inch thick rolls and placed them side by side in a small baking pan. I baked them at a slightly higher temperature than the package called for since they were thicker and just took them out when they were browning. For the glaze, I mixed about 1/2 cup powdered sugar with some vanilla soymilk (start with a few tsp and then increase as needed.) The middle rolls were a little gooey but my family likes them that way!
We recently went apple picking so I should have lots of apple related posts over the next few days. Last night I made CrockPot Applesauce from A Year of Slowcooking and it came out great. Today, I made Dutch Apple Crumble which is sort of like a pie without the crust on the bottom although it is definitely different than Apple Crisp. Not sure where this recipe comes from since I have it written on several small Post-It notes in my recipes book. If this recipe belongs to you, thank you very much!!!!

Dutch Apple Crumble

Filling:

6 apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I only needed 4 because they were enormous)
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Crumble:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup or one stick cold Earth Balance or other vegan margarine

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees
Grease pie plate with cooking spray
Mix all filling ingredients together and transfer to pie plate
In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Cut in margarine with a fork. Use hands to thoroughly mix
Gather small handfuls of crumble mix and spread over top of apple filling randomly
Bake 35-40 minutes or until it begins to brown.

Tortilla Pizza

2009-10-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

First, we got an award from Daily Dose. Thank you!! Thank you!!
I am not sure how to post the 'award' on our blog, so you can read about it here.
Em, good to see your posts. Here is my contribution. I made this the other day and I really liked it. I need to make it more often!

So many variations are possible with this dish. The base for the 'pizza' is a black bean paste. I added carrots for more nutrition value. I also sauteed the paste, which may be optional. The toppings can also vary based on your taste and interest - I used red and yellow peppers and some chard too. Vegan cheese is a wonderful option on top.

Ingredients

Tortillas, 4-5 (wheat, corn, flour - your choice)
Black beans, 1 can
Garlic, 2 cloves
Carrots, 2 peeled
Chipotle, 1 T
Cilantro, 2-3T
Vegan Cream Cheese, 2 T
Peppers, 2-3 chopped
Salsa, 1 cup
Chard, 3 leaves chopped
Oil, 1 T divided
Salt, to taste
Paprika, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a pan, heat part of the oil. Add the peppers and saute till they are lightly browned. When they are almost done, add Chard (or Kale or Spinach) and saute till very slightly wilted. Add salt and paprika to taste (Remember, the salsa that you add to the 'pizza' will also have salt and spices). Set aside.

While the peppers are cooking, puree a can of black beans, vegan cream cheese, carrots, garlic, cilantro, and chipotle. Heat remaining oil in a pan (I use the same pan - one less dish to wash!). Add the pureed mixture and cook for 4-5 minutes till cooked.

Assemble your pizza with the black bean puree spread over a warm tortilla (heated in the microwave for 5- 10 seconds). Add the vegetable topping and 1 - 2 T of salsa per tortilla.
Heat in the oven for 11-13 minutes.
I had to fold mine and eat it as a wrap, but I think it will taste great on pizza dough too!!

Kashi Frozen Meals

2009-10-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, I did not cook tonight but I thought I would blog about the frozen meal that I did eat. I have tried a few of the Kashi meals and they have been pretty good. I bought the Mayan Harvest Bake since I saw some positive reviews of it in a few different magazines. It did not look very good but was very interesting. It is made of amaranth, polenta, black beans, sweet potatoes, kale, plantains, pumpkin seeds, and a spicy sauce-nothing I would ever think to throw together on my own!

Kashi has several other vegan meals: Black Bean Mango, Garden Vegetable Pasta, Ranchero Beans, Tuscan Veggie Bake. I have tried the black bean mango meal and I liked that one too.

Peanutty Rice Noodles and Veggies; Another Butternut Squash Soup

2009-10-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

I just read about Vegan MoFo on another blog and did a little reading up on it. I guess October is the Vegan Month of Food so to celebrate I am going to try to cook/blog a bit more if I can. Tonight, I had a little caffeine (please don't tell the pregnancy police...they seem to be everywhere) so I have been super-efficient since arriving home from work. I made "Kids Choice Yummy Peanut Noodles" without my actual kid in mind since she likes her noodles plain but I mixed anyhow and she ate it. My husband then told me he did not like rice noodles so, in the end, this meal was for me. I think it will make a good cold lunch for me too since I work out of my car. I used Trader Joe's Rice Sticks as my noodles and just microwaved a bag of 365 Thai Stir-Fry Mix. On the side are some Ling Ling Spring Rolls which were also good. I should have added some frozen Edammame for more protein but I forgot.

The other day I also made a butternut squash soup in my crockpot from the Year of Slowcooking website. Obviously I used Veg broth and I also used leeks instead of onions. I have never had butternut squash soup but it sort of reminds me of baby food. Overall, the flavor was good. Somehow the picture of my soup seems to be missing so I will post whe it turns up.

Lemon Caper Spaghetti Squash

2009-09-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

I have had this giant spaghetti squash in my fridge for almost three weeks because I was unsure what I wanted to do with it. I found this recipe for Lemon Caper Spaghetti Squash and thought it looked interesting. Now, generally I am not a fan of capers but I knew there were some in my fridge from another recipe I made a while back and thought maybe they would grow on me. As I was cooking this recipe I assumed I would not like it since it had an unusual smell (this may be my pregnancy nose which seems to pick up on scents that no one else can detect) but now I am eating it while I type this and I think it is pretty darned good. I made a few changes and I did not exactly measure so who knows if I can ever recreate this:
-I used a giant spaghetti squash so I increased the other ingredients to almost double, except the margarine....1/4 cup is enough, maybe even too much. I bet a little broth would have worked.
-I added 1/2 of a chopped onion along with the red pepper
-I thought adding zucchini squash to another squash was just odd so I threw in some frozen peas (about 1/4-1/2 cup) instead
-I used basil instead of parsley since that was what I had around
-I used the juice of just one lemon

This is definitely a uniquely flavored, unexpected dish and I think I will go get me some more considering that spaghetti squash has only 42 calories per cup (I will just ignore the olive oil and margarine I used, ok?) :-)

Slow Cooker Modified "Red Beans and Rice"

2009-09-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

I am trying to get to the gym regularly (side note - very frustrated with it. I have been making it to the gym 4-5 days a week. Yes. That often. And working out for 1 - 1 1/2 hours most times. That's a LOT. And I can't think of the last time I ate dessert. The weighing scale won't budge. I am frustrated). That said, to continue this policy of eating healthy, I try to cook in the slow cooker at least once a week so I will have something to come home to in the evening even on days I am at the gym till 7pm. This was one such recipe. It was easy, modified from the 'traditional' red beans and rice and tasted good enough. Not the best meal I have ever eaten, but works for a week-day meal.
Em, I think you can add beets to the beans in the slow cooker to use up some of them too!! I added onions, carrots and celery and some paprika for spice :)

Modified "Red Beans and Rice"

Ingredients:
Red Kidney beans, 1 can or 4 oz soaked overnight (doesn't have to be cooked all the way yet)
Onion, 1 - chopped
Celery - 4 Stalks, chopped
Carrot - 2, chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
Cumin - 2-3 T
Vegetable Broth - 3 cups (add more water, based on your preference for consistency)
Paprika - 3 T
Salt - To taste
Thyme - 2 t, dried
Cilantro - 2 T (fresh)
Lemon Juice - 1 T
Cooked Rice.

Heat Oil in a pan. Saute onions, celery and carrot with garlic. Once cooked, add cumin and paprika. Add beans and coat.
Transfer to a slow cooker. Add vegetable broth/water, salt, thyme. Cook on low for 8 hours.
Before serving with rice, add lemon juice and cilantro.
Enjoy!!

Cornbread Topped Pie and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-09-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been doing much cooking lately (or maybe I just haven't been doing much blogging lately....not sure). I have made a few things lately that I thought I would share with you.

Cornbread Topped Pie

I am not sure that I have an exact recipe since I tend to throw this together but basically I sauteed some onion, green pepper and garlic in pan until soft. Then I added a can of kidney beans, 1/2-3/4 cup of frozen corn, several TB of taco seasoning and a small can of tomato sauce. While this is warming, make a batch of cornbread. I make Grandma's Cornbread Made Vegan from vegweb.com and always love it. It does make far more than you need for this recipe so I made a few corn muffins on the side. If you are using a cast iron dutch oven as I did, spoon cornbread batter directly on top of warmed pie mix until you have a thin layer. Remember, it will rise quite a bit. Bake as directed in the cornbread recipe (although it may need a shorter cooking time since it is thinner). If you are using a pan that cannot go in the oven, transfer bean mixture into a pie plate and then top with corn bread mix. Serve with a bit of Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream.

Best Ever Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I did not name these cookies and, although they were good, I am not sure I would call them "Best Ever." According to my husband the problem is simply that I cook things too long when I bake so I guess they were a little over done. Anyhow, I found this recipe online on a whim while looking for ways to use up a bag of oats that was nearing the end of its shelf life. I think I will try them again but cook for less time and maybe add something that will make them chewier, like agave or applesauce. Any ideas? They were rock hard by the next day.

Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Broccoli-Quinoa Stir Fry

2009-09-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

A colorful platter. Having a variety of colors in your meal is supposed to be healthy and ensure that you get different minerals/vitamins and nutrients. So this should be a good meal :) I made it over a week ago, but did not get to posting it - let's see if I remember exactly how I made the meal.

Roasted Vegetables are easy. I cut the 'chosen' vegetable and brush with Olive Oil, mixed with salt, pepper and a smattering of dried herbs. And roast them in the oven at 400 degrees for 50 mintues. Yummy.

Broccoli-Quinoa Stir Fry was also very easy. I quick-cooked the Broccoli florets and stems in just enough water to cover the vegetables with salt and red pepper flakes. On the side, I cooked quinoa according to package directions. I sauteed the broccoli florets, minced ginger (1 t) and garlic (1 T) and morning star grillers (you can substitute Tofu here too) in a little olive oil. Added hoisin sauce (1 T), slivered almonds. Taste and add more salt and/or red pepper flakes as needed. Mix in the quinoa, squeeze lemon juice (1 t) and it's ready to eat!

Hopefully, I'll post more often regularly. My nephew is here (Neel, and very very cute!!) and my in-laws and parents are back in India, so I am going to have to get back into the kitchen and cook away - every night!

Butternut Squash Soup

2009-09-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Our CSA packet from last week had a butternut squash. The family (my parents are still here) agreed on a soup (with home-made pizza) for dinner. It has been a cold enough summer to warrant some soup. Especially on Monday night.

This recipe is modified from the Moosewood Recipes. That's where the idea of sage warmed with butter came from - that's not me! Here is the link to the recipe - Moosewood's Butternut Squash Soup

Chaat -Indian Fast Food

2009-09-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

When we started this blog, Em did not want too many Indian recipes for herself - her family is not big fans of 'ethnic' foods. But, recently, she asked for Indian recipes because her daughter liked samosas. I love them too, but have no interest in frying anything for any length of time.

We went for a BBQ this past weekend. Our host suggested a 'Spicy Indian Dish' for me to bring. I made this up with the help of some pre-packaged spices. These are available at most Indian stores.
Here is a wikipedia entry about 'Chaat'. To me, they are the best Indian fast food one can eat. Often, not very healthy - has some fried components to it. And there is a wide variety and range of flavors. I created mine as I went along.

Chick Pea Chaat

Ingredients

Chickpeas (or Garbanzo Beans) - 2 cans
Potatoes - 2 steamed and mashed
Onion - 1 chopped
Tomato - 1 or 2 chopped
Cilantro - 4 T chopped
Lemon Juice - 1 T
Chaat Masala - 2-3 T (or per your taste) - locally available at Food Mart
Date -Tamarind Chutney or Bhel Puri Chutney - 4-5 T (lots of recipes if you google it; or available at local Indian store - Food Mart)
Sev - 1/2 cup (or as much crunch as you would like; as above - available in Indian stores)
Salt, Chilli powder - to taste

Mash potatoes well, after steaming. Mix together all ingredients, leaving the Sev till the end. Because it is crunchy, adding it to the rest of the mixture can cause it to get soggy. Add it at the end - just before serving.

Add salt, chilli powder (or sugar) at the end - based on your taste and the spiciness of the masala and chutneys.

For variation, can add dry-roasted peanuts or cashews too. If it is too spicy, you can add yogurt too - a common addition to chaat. Also, here is a link to 'papri' or spicy wafers that you can add to the mix for more of a crunchy flavor.

Enjoy!!

Date Walnut Balls

2009-08-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Another positive effect of our trip to California was discovering these 'date walnut balls'. My cousin's wife (cousin-in-law, I guess?) was 'inspired' to make these very easy, healthy treats after eating the trail mix cookies that I made. Both Em and I blogged about these cookies earlier - here and here. The trail mix cookies have become a staple in our home!!

These date-walnut balls are amazingly easy to make too. She just blended dates, walnuts and flax seeds together and rolled the mix into balls. I did the same, but added the flax seeds at the end, rather than attempting to blend it. Thanks Sangita :)

We made a 'P' with the balls for 'Purdue'. Cheesy (vegan, style!).

Zucchini Bread

2009-08-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

Just back from a trip to California. Had a great time with my cousin, his wife and our little nephew. 18 months old and such a talker (he labels everything around him) - we miss him.
I was mighty impressed with Yosemite NP and the food there. All the grills had a morning star burger without cheese and whole wheat burger buns. These morning star burgers were grilled on a separate grill - away from the meats and they tasted YUMMY!! Other foods we saw at the NP - veggie chilli, vegan hummus basket - in addition to the regular pizza, grilled cheese, salads, yogurt, fruits etc.

With all the zucchini coming from the CSA, I have been trying to find multiple ways to cook it. Last year, I made multiple zucchini breads with eggs and butter. Last week, I tried to find recipes for the same without eggs and butter. I found one!! I actually found two!!

I combined this one and this recipe with ingredients I had at home and made my own zucchini bread and muffins. The muffins stayed in the oven for a shorter time, so we could serve it to friends who were visiting and the bread is still in our fridge! I used a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flours for a healthy result. I also added walnuts and craisins. The resulting bread hardly tastes like zucchini, it's just yummy!!

Quesadilla

2009-08-09T18:49:00.001-07:00

I just wrote a whole post it and hit 'backspace' and voila! - it was gone!!
So here we go again!!

I started this recipe to make an enchilada similar to this recipe or a side dish like this one for my mom who is visiting. First, I made the bean-vegetable mixture. I used vegetables that came from our garden or the CSA - corn, zucchini, chili peppers, tomatoes. V, however, wanted a Quesadilla. So, that's what I made. I had a wrap without the cheese.

I boiled the sweet corn on the cob and chopped off the kernels for this recipe. I also used dry black beans - soaked and cooked in a pressure cooker. To use up all the zucchini we're getting from the farmer's market, I used it in the recipe. Feel free to change the vegetable. I used a pineapple salsa - I like a little sweet in my food. If not, a few pieces of pineapple may be an option.

Ingredients

1 cup black beans
1 cup corn kernels
1 zucchini, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 chili pepper
1 garlic, minced
1/2 cup salsa
1 T Adobo Seasoning, or to taste
1 t lime juice
1 T Olive oil
1 T vegan cream cheese

Heat Oil, add garlic, corn, black beans, zucchini and saute till the zucchini is slightly cooked. Add tomatoes and saute for a few more minutes. Add salsa, seasoning and let the flavors blend.

Just before turning off, add vegan cream cheese and lime juice. Mix well together.

Warm up tortillas, add the black bean dish and enjoy!

(I would have liked some cilantro too, but we were out and our herb garden lack cilantro)

Cashew French Toast

2009-08-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

There are several recipes that I love in the "Becoming Vegetarian" book by Melina and Davis. I find myself returning to it frequently. This recipe for Cashew French Toast always comes out fabulous for us. I think it actually tastes better than egg-based french toast.

Cashew French Toast
Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1 cup soymilk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1TB maple syrup
I usually add some ground cinnamon too!
6 slices of bread
oil for the pan or cooking spray

Grind cashews in a blender or food processor until they are powdery. This will take some time. Don't rush it or the french toast will be gritty. Add other ingredients (except the oil and bread) and continue to blend/process until smooth. Pour into a shallow bowl. Oil or spray a skillet and preheat over medium heat. Dip bread in cashew mixture and place a few slices into the pan. Do not overlap. Flip once browned. You will likely need to re-oil/spray the pan before cooking additional slices.

Yummy!

Tempura Veggies

2009-08-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

I think we may be a little bit too fond of frying vegetables but my husband is a big fan so here we go again! A while back we made a recipe called Better Than Sonics Onion Rings from Vegweb.com and we all loved it so I had the idea to use this batter on some other vegetables to make a tempura, of sorts. We had a bunch of zucchini, green beans and bell peppers from the CSA so those were battered and fried along with a few onions. The green beans were the surprising favorite in this selection. The batter worked really well but the veggies can't be reheated the next day since they get really soggy!

Basil and tomato pasta

2009-08-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

A dish from the vegetable garden and CSA vegetables!! I made the 'creamy basil pasta'. It was quite easy to make. I used basil and tomatoes from our garden - there's more of the tomatoes in our garden! Looking forward to using them all. I also added vegan sausage and carrots (for protein and more vegetables - balance the meal!) and it was a yummy meal all around. The chilled glass of white wine (sorry Em) was a delight with the meal!! Definitely going to keep trying this with a variety of vegetables!

Also, tried Blueberry Oat bars. It did not end up as pretty or tasty as I had expected. I used 'Steel Cut Oats' because we ran out of the regular oats. It was a little too 'nutty' and I did not like the texture too much. But I want to try to make it again with the 'bettter' oats!!

Peach Upside Down Cake

2009-07-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged. V's parents are visiting (they leave Tuesday and my mom arrives). His mom has mostly been cooking Indian food. When I cooked, I was making tried and tested recipes rather than experiment with new foods. I did create some vegan banana nut muffins when the mix that I was putting together for blueberry muffins was too dry and the store was out of blueberries (V was grocery shopping as I was putting the ingredients together - not recommended!). I used the bananas to moisten the mix and it did not turn out too bad.
After the successful Pineapple Upside Down Cake that V's parents also enjoyed, I wanted to bake more fruity desserts. V's mom likes peaches and when I saw this recipe for a Peach Upside Down Cake, I wanted to try it. The photos looked enticing too :)

I used the same recipe, but reduced the amount of sugar. Only 1/4 cup of sugar along with the peaches and 1/2 cup for the actual cake. It was still a little too sweet for me. Of course, the peaches were VERY sweet too. The cake was also slightly crumbly, but was a great taste. I made it 3 days ago and it's all gone. I need to think about another dessert for the weekend. Thinking about a peanut butter-jelly muffin :)

Next up - Creamy Pasta from "One Hot Stove"
And hopefully more regular posts from both of us :)

Thai Style Yellow Curry Noodle Soup; Garlic Spinach Pasta

2009-07-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

I am glad to see I am not the only one who has had some trouble blogging lately! I hope you are having a fabulous time in the windy city. These are a few things I have made recently in an attempt to use up some of the greens that I have received through my CSA. Some weeks it is a daunting task to try to get through so much produce with a small family but I HATE to throw it out. Sadly, it does happen sometimes :-(

Thai Style Yellow Curry Soup
This was an attempt to use up a head of baby bok choy since I heard that it is extremely nutritious. My inspiration came from Thai-Inspired Veggie and Rice Soup which always looks so good to me! I absolutley love yellow curries so I adapted this recipe to make a yellow curry soup. I had some yellow curry powder which looked vegan but the flavor was not strong enough (even for me!). All the simmer sauces seemed to contain fish sauce. Maybe someone knows how to make it without the fish?

Ingredients:
These are rough estimates since I sort of threw this together

1/2 white onion chopped
small zucchini sliced
1/2 red bell pepper sliced into 1 ince pieces
1/2 head of baby bok choy chopped into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
handful of shredded carrots
4 cups veggie broth (you will likely need to add more since it seemed to cook off quite a bit)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can lite coconut milk
1 block of firm tofu cubed
corn starch
vegetable oil
your favorite spices (basil, salt, red pepper, etc.)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
handful of soba noodles

Sautee garlic, onions and carrots in 1 TB vegetable oil. As it starts to become transluscent, add the other veggies and cook until they begin to soften slightly. Add tomatoes and broth along with any spices you want to add. I added about 4 TB yellow curry powder here but kept adding more as it cooked to intensify the curry flavor. Bring this to a boil. Once it boils, add soba noodles and boil unitl they are fully cooked (check package instructions) then lower soup to a simmer.

While the soup cooks, place tofu into a bag or container with enough corn starch to coat. Shake it up until tofu is completely coated. Heat a few TB oil in a pan and fry tofu cubes until they are browned.

Remove soup from the heat, add tofu and coconut milk. Enjoy!

Garlic Spinach Pasta
Again, had a whole lotta spinach and I am the only one who likes it. I thought the family might get into this but I was wrong. I thought it was great and I will likely make this again, just for myself. I got the basic recipe from a Whole Foods Cookbook sitting on my shelf but I adapted it.

Ingredients:

1 pound pasta (I used penne)
4 TB olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
Lots and lots of spinach chopped
2 TB fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan

Cook pasta as directed. Drain and set aside. Heat olive oil in a large sautee pan over low heat. Add garlic and cook until it begins to carmelize. Raise heat to medium, add soinach and cook until wilted. Add lemon juice and cooked pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast or vegan parmesan. Yum!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2009-06-27T20:00:00.001-07:00

We were having some friends over for brunch today and I wanted to make some muffins along with the fruit and happy eggs that we were having. V likes pineapple upside down cakes very much and when I was reading out different options, that's what he chose. I mostly followed this recipe to make this cake.

The changes I made were - I used 1/2 cup of Sugar instead of a whole cup; substituted half the oil with applesauce; used pineapple rings instead of pineapple chunks; used half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour; used a regular cake pan instead of a spring form board; and it took me about 45 minutes in 350 degree temperature to get it completely cooked.

It definitely did not taste like pastry shops' cake. But, it was very good - healthily good :)
Half of it was eaten today and half for dinner guests tomorrow!!

Before I end, here is a picture of our small raspberry bush. We got 3 raspberries today. Can't wait for the blueberry busy to start bearing fruit (literally) too!!

Succotash

2009-06-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

The not-so-new Vegan Soul Food by Bryant Terry that I have really enjoyed had a recipe for Succotash Soup. It sounded like a good idea. But, it has been so hot, I decided that a soup was really not going to be fun. I looked through a bunch of recipes at recipezaar and created my own recipe for Succotash. I am very sure that this is not completely authentic. I have eaten Succotash at one local restaurant (if you can call it that). It is made of black beans and corn and definitely has butter and/or cream. I tried a healthier version of Succotash with Frozen Lima Beans instead. I used some fresh herbs from the vegetable garden - both oregano and basil - some of the recipes called for Parsley, but I did not grow any.

There are these noodles with Indian spices that V really likes - They are called 'Maggi Noodles'. Growing up, they were called the 2-minute noodles - it takes 2 minutes to cook. Now that I am more conscious of our eating habits, I realize that the spices in the noodles are probably not the best. But, occasionally (or however often I agree to it) V craves these noodles. The Succotash is probably best as a side dish, but I did not want to make a main dish. So Maggi to the rescue. I had a few indulgent bites of these noodles and then returned to brown rice as the base for my Succotash. The photo has Succotash topped with Maggi Noodles!

Succotash

Ingredients

1 C Frozen Lima Beans
1 Onion, chopped
1 C Frozen Sweet Corn
1 C Shelled Peas
1 15 oz can Fire-roasted tomatoes
1 Vegan Sausage, chopped
Salt, to taste
Red Pepper Flakes, to taste
1/2 t Sugar
1 T Lemon Juice
2 T Fresh Herbs
1 t Olive Oil

Heat Oil. Saute onions till soft. Add beans, corn, peas and vegan sausage. Cook till vegetables are soft. Add salt, red pepper flakes, tomatoes and cook till flavors meld. Add Sugar and let cook for 2-3 more minutes. Add lemon juice and herbs.
Enjoy!!

Another smoothie and my growing garden

2009-06-21T11:01:00.001-07:00

After our regular Saturday run, we crave a smoothie. Yesterday was humid - even early in the morning. When I got home, I realized that we had no berries for a smoothie! So I decided to experiment some.

The ingredients - 1 Frozen Banana, 2 T Cocoa Powder, 2 T Peanut Butter, 1 Packet Soy Yogurt, 1 cup Orange Juice, 1 T Protein Powder - were purreed together for 2 large servings of smoothie. When the bananas start to get too ripe, I peel them and put them in the freezer in a container. This makes the smoothie much better. I used baking cocoa powder - that's all I had. But, the new Nasoya Silken Creations (dark chocolate, especially) will probably be amazing in the smoothie (among other recipes!).

Here is an update on the growing garden and how it grows. The first photo is of the tomato plants.
They were small when first planted. If you look carefully, you can see green tomatoes on the plant in the far right. We are very excited. They tomato plants have taken over the area and that killed the Okra. We started with 6 of them.

These feature the spinach plants in the center - who knew that spinach grows this tall, surrounded by serrano peppers, yellow and red peppers and herbs (far left). The cilantro that we planted did not grow - unfortunately because that is my favorite herb. We started with seeds that I had at home. I am already making plans for next year's vegetable garden. Thanks SO much to V's aunt for her help in planting these vegetables. Some of the flowers are growing well too! Very exciting!!

Black Bean Dish

2009-06-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

This hiatus was long. With a trip to MN to visit the brother and sister-in-law, I was not cooking anything new or exciting. Today, I made an interesting dish. It started off as a potential soup in the slow cooker. When I came home, it was nowhere near the consistency of soup - too solid. So I decided to turn them into wraps for me and quesadillas for V. I still was not happy with the taste, so I added the salad dressing from this salad recipe. And then it was bliss!!

I have been meaning to try the dressing from the recipe. That is why I soaked the black beans. But, I was planning on coming home late tonight (got to workout after gaining weight on the trip to MN!), so I decided to get something quick started on the slow cooker. We had no fresh vegetables at home, other than peas from the CSA. We have been eating peas everyday and today, I decided not to shell more peas. The dressing is spicy, sweet, tangy and wonderful. I have some saved for salad tomorrow, when we get our fresh veggies from the CSA.

V does not approve of this photo - he says it does not look good. But it's all I have and I don't want to delay this post even longer!

Slow Cooker Beans

Mix together the following ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.

-- 2 C Black Beans
-- 1.5 C Salsa
-- 1 Pkt Peppers and Onions, frozen
-- 1/2 C water (increase the water or broth to make the consistency thinner)
-- 2 t Cumin powder
-- Salt, to taste
-- 1 t Chipotle chillis in Adobo sauce - chopped
-- 1 T Fajita Seasoning.

When done, add 2 T Vegan Cream Cheese, 1 t Lemon/Lime Juice and 2 T Cilantro, chopped. Mix and serve with Corn Tortillas and pre-made Salad Dressing.

a couple of odds and ends

2009-06-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't want you to think that we are not eating at all over here, I just have not been making anything really new or interesting. This weekend we had black bean burgers, corn, broccoli, and I made some potato salad. I haven't made potato salad in a long time and it seemed to be missing something (maybe vinegar?) but I ate it anyway. Here is my less than exciting recipe:

Potato Salad

4-5 red potatoes, cubed
1/2 an onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup vegenaise
1 tsp yellow mustard
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of celery seed

Boil potatoes. Chill for about an hour. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Let me know if you have another recipe. I need some interest!

Secondly, I made a quick Pasta Fagioli that I forgot to photograph until the next morning as it left the house as a lunch. It was much prettier the night before! The ingredients were basically:

Can of white beans, drained
2 TB olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
can of diced tomatoes (I have done this with diced fresh roma tomatoes and it is much better)
salt and pepper
pinch of onion powder
pinch of basil/oregano
1/2 box of small shell pasta

Boil pasta as directed. In a separate pan, heat oil and cook garlic until fragrant. Add tomatoes and spices and let it cook off for a bit. Add pasta when ready.

Ok, no genius tonight but at least I have added something!!!!!

Orange Cake and Mint Chutney

2009-06-07T17:16:00.001-07:00

... made on the same day, but not for the same meal!!
We are going to see my brother and sister-in-law next weekend and we are going to be in cabins - high end camping - for a day. To make a burger sandwich for lunch, I made a mint chutney. This is an Indian-style chutney that can be mixed with yogurt to be a condiment to grilled food. I also have fond memories of English-style sandwiches that were Indian-ized. White bread (crusts removed), butter, cucumber and mint chutney on a hot day with some pepper. Good memories!! So when we went to pick up our CSA vegetables this week and there was a *huge* bunch of mint in the 'extras' table, I decided to make some mint chutney to take with us camping. It will go in a ymmy sandwich for a picnic lunch!!

Mint Chutney

Mix together the following ingredients in a blender with as much water as you need to make it into the right consistency.

2 Cups Mint leaves
1 Cup Cilantro
1 T Tamarind paste
1 T Salt
2 Chilli peppers, chopped
1 t Ginger
1 clove Garlic

On a separate note, I also made this Orange Cake.
I wanted to try a different vegan cake after making multiple cup cakes. It was somewhat crumbly and sticky, but tasted very very yummy. I made a mistake while measuring and added 2 Cups of orange juice at the beginning. So I had to double the recipe (I know - very sad :). Now we have 2 cakes!! V ate 1/4 of one of the cakes himself!! Definitely recommend this. I may have enjoyed having some orange juice with pulp in it too. Or some raisins and less sugar may have been nice too. YUM!!

Vegan banana pancakes

2009-06-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Breakfast for dinner is the best!! I made these Vegan Banana Pancakes. I used a little more soy milk than in the recipe and it was YUMMY!! We topped it with peanut butter and maple syrup. I think a few slices of banana on top may also be good, but I did not get to it.

The picture does not do the pancake much justice - it tasted better than it looked :)

African Stew and Peanut Butter Cookies

2009-05-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

OK, well I know I gave you this recipe a while back but I recently decided to make the African Stew that I have so loved in the past from the Becoming Vegetarian book. I used a rice that required a LONG cooking time so it took well over an hour to complete this stew but I always think it is worth it. The red dots on top are juts me trying to be creative with the hot sauce. I use the Vietnamese hot chili sauce. If you decide to make this, make sure you add the lemon juice and some hot sauce. I really think it is boring without those flavors.
I must be on a peanut butter kick lately because I also decided to try these "Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies" from the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook. They were REALLY good. Mike took most of them to work and the guys enjoyed them. I made them again later in the week since we liked them so much. One of his friends said they did not taste vegan at all-whatever that means!

Two more salads

2009-05-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

Wow.. I really am on a salad binge here. For the one-two people who look at this blog regularly - Em is now making it official. She is pregnant. And has not been interested in eating - vegan or otherwise. So, she has been very quiet.
I am eating salads regularly and trying to incorporate CSA vegetables into my meals. So far, we have had lettuce, salad greens, herbs, green onions, radish, asparagus, strawberries, snap peas!! Can't wait for more. Our vegetables are also growing well so far. A couple of okras did not make it, but the others are still going strong!
Earlier this week, I made a salad inspired by Spinach salad, but with mixed greens instead. Today, I made a salad with only CSA ingredients - a green CSA salad! Both pictures are taken with the plate in the yard - you can see our deck and lawn in the photos too! We have been spending a lot of time on the deck and outside with the dogs!

Ingredients and Recipe:

2 Cups Salad Greens
1 Carrot, Diced
1 Orange (fresh, sliced without peels)
1 Vegan Sausage, warmed and cut
2 T Sliced Almonds
2 T Newman's Own Light Raspberry-Walnut Vinaigrette

Alterations: Strawberries instead of Orange; Roasted Walnuts instead Almonds.
Mix together and enjoy.

CSA Green Salad!

Everything on this salad today was from our CSA this week (except the almonds and dressing!). Hence the name!

Ingredients and Recipe:

2 Cups Salad Greens
9-10 Asparagus, sauteed with olive oil, salt, lemon juice and pepper
4 T Snap Peas
1 t Chives with flowers
2 T sliced almonds
1 T Olive Oil

For the dressing, I drizzled the Olive Oil on the salad. The sauteed asparagus with all the spice in it was enough for the salad along with the taste of chives.

Grilled Asparagus with Roasted Pepper and Garlic Aioli

2009-05-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

I modified this recipe from the current issue of 'Vegetarian Times'. I read this magazine like a treat- savoring the pictures, imagining the taste and enjoying the prospect of cooking it!! It is relaxing and enjoyable afternoon of luxury. This month's cover had a photo of grilled asparagus. These are some of my most favorite vegetables. This is one of the many vegetables that tastes best when eaten in season. And right now, our CSA produce is over-flowing with asparagus and I am always looking for different ways to cook it. I have eaten in multiple types of stir fries, pastas, grilled, roasted, blanched, sauteed and loved it in every form.

I looked hard, but could not find this specific recipe posted on the Vegetarian Times website. I was hoping to make my blogging easier by just giving you the link to the website, but it looks like I may have to type the entire recipe!! The colors of this dish are striking - a red roasted red pepper puree, white aioli and green asparagus. The flavors really mix well together for a very surprising and delicious taste.

I halved the recipe and was happy with the results. It also called for white and green asparagus and I only had green, so that's what we had. The aioli calls for Vegan Mayonnaise, but I had none. Instead, I had made a paste with Silken Tofu and Tofu Cream Cheese for a pasta a couple of days ago and had some left-overs and used that instead. I also did not use as much Olive Oil as was recommended in the recipe. I added some TVP to the puree to add protien content. We don't have a grill or grill pan, so I sauteed them on the stove. I served them with quinoa (hidden in the picture), but did not add the lime wedge for garnishing :)

Grilled Asparagus with Roasted Red Pepper Puree and Aioli

Ingredients

2 lbs Asparagus, trimmed
1/2T Olive Oil
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1/2 t Lemon Juice

2 Cloves Garlic,
1/2 t salt
1 t Olive Oil
1/4 C Vegan Mayonnaise (or I used a pureed mixture of silken tofu and tofu cream cheese)

6 oz Roasted Red Peppers (if using jar, rinse and dry)
1/4 Cup TVP or Morning Star-type Grillers
1 T Agave Nectar
1 t Paprika

To make the Red Pepper Puree: Saute the TVP or morning star grillers in oil for a few minutes till cooked. TVP may have to be soaked in water first. Puree roasted red peppers, agave nectar, paprika and 2-3 T of water, to get to the preferred consistency. Add TVP to the mixture.

To make aioli: Peel garlic cloves, add a pinch of salt and mash them together. Whisk in vegan cream mixture and Olive Oil.

Saute asparagus over medium heat with 1/2 T of olive oil, salt and pepper for 8-9 minutes. Sprinkle lemon juice.

Serve puree and aioli over asparagus!

Asian-Inspired Salad

2009-05-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Continuing on my salad ideas, today's salad was Asian-inspired. I am still looking for ideas for salads! I made this salad as dinner yesterday and was very proud of myself for eating so healthily. Except that we went out with friends for drink and I ate more there and had a couple of calorie-busting/boosting cocktails. My new favorite - flavored vodka (citrus, raspberry etc) with tonic. It is a nice summer drink!
I just sauteed the tofu. For more flavor, marinating the Tofu in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes and some agave nectar before browning or grilling is a great option. Also, this mixture could substitute for salad dressing too. I also added 'honey sesame sticks' (from Trader Joe's) as a crunch. I really like it's taste, but may go easy on it the next time because of the calorie content. V prefers the regular sesame sticks without honey. I like a lot of variety in flavors and textures in all my foods! The vegetables I added were related to what I had at home. The salad was too 'green'. I would have used yellow or red peppers or carrots, but I am trying to cook with what we get from the CSA and reducing the number of vegetables that I buy. For this salad, I used a pre-made dressing from Trader Joe's - sesame soy ginger. I really like the dressing, but the list of ingredients in this paragraph would make a great substitution!

Asian-Inspired Salad

Ingredients

3 Cups Mixed Salad Greens (CSA)
2 Stalks Celery
1 Green Onion (CSA)
1/2 Green Pepper
1 Stalk Lemon Grass (CSA)
16 oz Extra Firm Tofu
Handful of Honey Sesame Sticks
3 T Sesame Soy Ginger Dressing
1 T Oil (preferably Sesame)

Prepare Tofu by pressing the block of tofu between two plates and placing a heavy can on it to sqeeze out the water.

Cut into cubes and sautee over Sesame Oil till light brown.
Mix together all other ingredients, add dressing. Place tofu pieces on top and you're dinner is ready!

Mexican Salad

2009-05-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

With my produce from CSA coming in every week for the past 2 weeks, I get a lot of salad greens and half a head of lettuce. I have to eat a salad everyday to get through all the produce. So for the next few posts, I will be writing about salad. I would LOVE ideas for salads. I try to use other vegetables with salad greens (just based on what we have at home), a protien, some crunch and a low-fat dressing of sorts.

Mexican Salad:

Ingredients:

2 C Mixed Salad Greens
1 Carrot, chopped
1/2 Green Pepper, chopped
1 - 2 C Black Beans, cooked
1 C Black Bean and Corn Salsa
3 T sunflower seeds
1 t Chipotle chillis in Adobo sauce
3 T Cilantro
1 t Lemon Zest

Mix all the ingredients and enjoy!!

Non-cooking Related

2009-05-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

This post is not related to cooking!! V had his first exhibition for his photos yesterday as part of the 'gallery walk' in town. And I just wanted to say 'Yay' for him and how proud of him I am!
V's aunt is visiting. She helped me plant a vegetable garden and I wanted to share some photos of that too.

The row closest to the fence is 'Okra' and the rest are tomatoes! Heirloom and some Beefmaster! Soon, we are going to have to put up some sort of 'cages' around the tomatoes. Although this area is fenced off and tied with a band to prevent the dogs from getting in, when we woke up on Thursday morning, both the dogs were in the vegetable garden area, with the gate still closed. We are still not sure how they got in - jumped up the fence is our best guess! I have read that the green parts of a tomato are not safe for dogs, so putting up a cage around it will hopefully prevent the dogs from eating the plant too!

Next to this block, is this L-shaped area. The far end has herbs - oregano, thyme, basil, and lemon grass. In the middle of the 'L', is spinach. We were able to find organic spinach in our local Menard's (similar to Lowe's or Home Depot)!! And surrounding the spinach are cayenne peppers.... hmmm... spicy! Closest to us are red and yellow peppers along with some cilantro seeds. I will update this blog with photos as the plants grow. I am not too hopeful... $80 later, we don't have green thumbs. So, we'll see what happens. We also have raspberry and blackberry bushes in another area!!
Yay for the nice weather!!

Broccoli-Mushroom Rice Bake

2009-05-15T04:03:00.000-07:00

I realize that this picture looks like vomit but it did not taste like that. Now that you are hungry, I will describe this meal. I have been making lots of casserole-y things lately. Not sure why exactly? This was based on Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole from Vegweb.com. Mine was not necessarily cheesy but I tried. It was more like that green bean casserole you have at Thanksgiving but with broccoli instead of green beans and added rice. I used Imagine Portabello Mushroom Soup mixed with about 1/4 cup of Tofutti Sour Cream (I think the cream cheese may have helpoed make it more "cheesy"). My result was too watery so I will use less mushroom soup next time. I also should have sauteed the onion before adding to the recipe. I added some Follow Your Heart Cheddar to the top and mixed in some nutritional yeast and Vegan Parmesan but still very little "cheese" flavor. I topped with fried onion strips since there are still some here after the Shepherd's Pie and M and D like them. This recipe needs a lot more salt and spice than it indicates. I will try another time and see if I can perfect it (and maybe make it a bit more presentable!).

Mixed Vegetable Soup

2009-05-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

V's aunt is visiting. I was going to make an easy salad, but the weather was rainy and yucky in the morning. So, she offered to make a hot soup for lunc. And we never say 'no' to her cooking and definitely not soup. Usually, she just adds vegetables and beans with a variety of spices to conjure up a delicious delight. Today, I watched her and was her assistant. So, I got to see some of the magic! Here is my memory of what I saw her do this afternoon!Everything that she cooks is by taste and adding a few things here and there. So, you would have to taste this at regular times and add spices according to your taste. My brother also asked for some more soup recipes, so I hope he'll be happy with this.
Some variations include - adding sweet potato, adding navy beans, kidney beans or other white beans, adding TVP, adding coarsely chopped kale or chard at the end. Another option is to remove a little bit of soup, purree it and return it to the big pot for a different consistency and flavor!

Mixed Vegetable Soup

Ingredients
2 T Olive Oil
1 T Red Pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 Onion, chopped
2 Stalks Celery, chopped
2 Carrots, chopped
1/2 C Frozen Peas
1/2 C Frozen Edemame
4 C Vegetable Broth (We used Pacific)
Salt, to taste
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped fine
2 T Soy Sauce
1.5 C Garbanzo Beans, cooked
1.5 C Black Beans, cooked
1 15 oz Can Tomatoes
1 T Sugar (we used Turbinado)
2 T Oregano, dried
1 T Thyme, dried
2 T Cilantro
2 T lemon/lime juice

In a soup pot, add olive oil and red pepper flakes. After a couple of minutes, add onions and cook till they are softened. Add celery and carrot and let the vegetables soften. Add peas, edemame, garlic and salt. Cook for 4-5 more minutes.
Add the broth, cover and bring to a boil. Add both kinds of beans and let it boil again.
Add the can of tomatoes, Soy sauce and sugar. Add water to make it the consistency you like. Cook for 5 minutes and taste to make sure that all the flavors have mixed together and for salt, spice and acidity.
Add Oregano, thyme and lemon juice and mix together. Add cilantro.
Serve hot!

Summer Berry Pudding

2009-05-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Emily!! I hope you had a wonderful day!
I made this yummy, vegan 'pudding' over the weekend and decided to post it today in honor of your birthday!!! Great with Vegan icecream!!!

Summer Berry Pudding

Ingredients

12 slices White Bread
3 T Vegan Butter/Earth Balance
2 C Strawberries
2 C Blueberries
2 C Blackberries
3/4 C Agave Nectar
Pinch of Cinnamon
Splash of Lemon Juice

In a saucepan, add 2/3 C water, strawberries and agave nectar. Cook for 5-10 minutes and let the strawberries soften. Add blueberries and blackberries. Add more water till the consistency is syrup-y. Cook for 5 more minutes till all the juices are mixed together and the berries are softened. Add lemon juice and cinnamon. Mix well.
Spread vegan butter on the slices of bread. Layer white bread (crusts removed) in a 13 x 9 in pan (or any pan you like!). Cut the bread to fit.
Spread 1/3 of the berry mixture on the bread. Layer the rest of the bread (crusts removed) and make 3 layers.
Refrigerate for 4-6 hours and enjoy! Serve with Vegan Vanilla Icecream!

Clean Out the Cabinet (and freezer) Shepherd's Pie

2009-05-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

This is not too exciting but I have had very little interest in cooking at all lately sorry to say so this was the best I could do.

Clean Out the Cabinet (and freezer) Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients:

1 TB olive oil
Clove of garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion chopped
1 cup Morningstar burger crumbles
3/4 cup frozen or canned corn kernels
1/2 cup mixed frozen vegetables (I used standard mixed veggies-peas, carrots, corn, green beans-and then added some frozen broccoli and edamame for protein)
1 can of mushroom gravy (Franco-American, I believe is the one)
2 servings of instant mashed potatoes (make sure you buy the plain ones or they have butter/dairy)
sprinkling of nutritional yeast and fried onion strips for Trader Joe's

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sautee Garlic and onion in oil until soft. Add Morningstar crumbles until they loosen up a bit. Add additional frozen veggies. Stir in gravy. Cover with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes. While this heats up, cook mashed potatoes as directed on box (or if you are really adventurous, make them fresh!!!!). Remove foil, top with mashed potatoes, sprinkle with nutritional yeast and fried onions and bake for another 10 or so minutes until it starts to brown.

Side note: This would have worked very well in the dutch oven but I forgot so I had to clean up extra pans!!Max and Jack
Just added this picture since I know you miss my boys! I cannot get a picture of all three together but at least these two get along.

Quick Pepper-Burger Fajita

2009-05-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

Our first share of veggies from the CSA came today. It was a week earlier than anticipated because our farmer had a lot of vegetables that he had already harvested! I came home and had a fresh vegetable salad - mixed greens, lettuce, organic carrots (not from CSA), radish and black beans and corn with some salsa as the dressing. YUM!!

Dinner was a quick Pepper Burger Fajita - where clean up is easy. The peppers and burgers are baked in aluminum foil. You can eat this with anything. I ate mine with a warm tortilla with some Tofu cream cheese spread spread on the tortilla. I did not really wrap it into a fajita, but just ate it on the side. I also added some green chile salsa on the cooked mix!

Pepper - Burger Fajita

Ingredients

1 Yellow onion, sliced
1 Green pepper, sliced
1 Red pepper, sliced
4 Vegan burgers, sliced
2 T lemon juice
2 T fajita seasoning
2 Jalapeno chillis, seeded and cut
1/4 C cilantro, chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, minced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl.

Cut pieces of aluminum foil and add the ingredients into the foil. Make sure there is enough room to bring the sides of the foil together and crimp it closed.

Bake for 20-30 minutes.
Vent to let some air out and enjoy!!

Biscuits and Gravy

2009-05-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

3 Posts from us in 2 days... wow!!
I made a vegan version of biscuits and gravy for dinner today and wanted to post it quickly before I forget!! I love breakfast foods for dinner!!
The biscuits were from Vegan Dad - I used Tofutti cream cheese instead of shortening (and did not brush the biscuits with margarine) and used 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour and 1 Cup All Purpose Flour. The biscuits were dense, but yummy!!

The gravy is a recipe from our friend Suren. He cooks really good food and made a vegetarian gravy for me every time we had brunch together in Urbana-Champaign. Now Ishara and Suren (with their kids, Mishka and Priya) are in Alabama and we don't get to see them as much. So I make it for myself! I veganized the vegetarian version today and really enjoyed the food. Not really low-cal, but not too bad! I used Morning Star Grillers instead of TVP - the latter may have been healthier, but cooking it would have required more oil - that was my justification :) You can play with the seasoning too. The original recipe called for Onion powder and Garlic powder. I did not have either, so I used Adobo seasoning instead! We like our food slightly spicy, so the amount of black pepper can be reduced for a milder taste.

Vegan Gravy (for Biscuits and Gravy)

Ingredients:
2 T Oil
1 1/2 C Morning Star Grillers
1 t Salt
1 T Adobo seasoning
2 T Black/White Pepper
1 T Italian Seasoning
1 t Chilli Powder
3 to 4 T All Purpose Flour
2-3 C Light Soy Milk - Plain only

Add Oil to a pan, saute Grillers stirring often. Once it darkens (or TVP browns), add salt, adobo, pepper, italian seasoning, and chilli powder. Cook for 2-3 more minutes till the flavors mix.

Add flour, 1 T at a time, stirring after each addition. The flour should cook - add extra oil if needed.

Once the flour starts to brown, add 1/2 cup of milk. This will deglaze the pan and thicken the mixture as you stir. Add more milk, 1 cup at a time till it reaches a consistency you like.

Simmer and serve over biscuits!