Food Feud

Food. Yurp.

2012-02-13T19:44:00.003-05:00

Breakfast smoothie:

Spinach, spirulina, frozen banana, frozen raspberries, ginger, agave.
Lunch:

more nori rolls. With quinoa, spinach, bell pepper, and enoki mushrooms rearing their heads. Side of sriracha.
Snacks in the meantime...ants on a log, carrot sticks, lots of dates with almond butter, and pickles, oddly....
Dinner:

Salad (greens, beets, carrots, bell pepper, tomato, cucumber) with tofu, avocado, sweet potato. Covered in lemon juice, nooch, and pepper.

For those of you who may not have seen: Vegan Pick-up Lines.

miso soup, some more

2012-02-12T21:18:00.000-05:00

Nothing spesh; just keeping with the Asian theme. I thought this miso bowl was pretty today.

I'm always in love with Zoa's variety of mushrooms so I thought I'd do it proper here and buy some cute little enoki mushabooms (shabooms).
Similarly, I also had seaweed and ginger in my snack earlier:

Gingerade (my fave) GT's with spirulina. Mad probiotics today, which is good cuz G made me bake cookies and they turned out crappy but I'm still eating tooooo many of them.
NO PHOTOS OF DINNER! Dinner was cookies; there, are you happy? Oof. Don't look at me like that.

Veggie Rolls, Two Ways

2012-02-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

Today's lunch salad may have surpassed the other evening's but I was too rushed this morning to get a photo. Instead, here's dinner from a couple nights ago that I never blogged about.

The lighting is a little weird and they aren't as vibrantly green as I usually like to eat but whatever. These were pretty simple. On the left are all-raw veg rolls (using untoasted nori) with alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, avocado, and Gena's gingery-sunflower pate. On the right are rolls with brown rice, avocado, and cucumber. After I took the photo, I added soy sauce and sriracha to the plate - it would have been nice to have some wasabi, but they were really delicious and filling anyway.

I haven't really made rolls like this before, so I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. The sunflower-pate ones were easier to cut because they were more moist, and I may have over-stuffed both rolls but that's not really a problem, especially since I was dining alone and I didn't care about my chipmunk cheeks.

Today's Bowls

2012-02-09T20:01:00.000-05:00

Breakfast:

Applesauce with Jess' delicious date granola. I halved the amount of sweetener in the recipe, using agave syrup instead. I love that this is baked with coconut oil; it imparts a really delicious light flavor. I actually added coconut flakes on top of this bowl to maximize the flavor. The cacao nibs are also super tasty in this.
Lunch:

Kale salad, one of my best versions so far, if I do say so myself. Kale, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, sundried tomatoes, red onion, cherry tomatoes, nooch.
Dinner:

Huge, delicious, fresh chunky salad: spinach, onion, celery, carrot, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, sundried tomato, mushroom, tempeh, olives in a hummus dressing. For some reason I always doubted the idea of a hummus dressing - why would I want to water down my thick, delicious hummus? But it's great and easy. I added water, lemon juice, and black pepper.
Alcohol in lieu of dessert.

VEGAN CHEESECAKE BROWNIE ALERT

2012-02-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

Breakfast from yesterday:

3 kale leaves (successfully blended!), a banana, 1 date (not so successfully incorporated), frozen raspberries, ground flax seed, water
Unfortunately, I had run out to a doctor's appointment and left the raspberries out. When I got home there was a big, bloody, juicy mess on the floor. Fun.
Also from yesterday, Choosing Raw nori cigars with ginger-sunflower pate as a snack.

I stuffed some alfalfa sprouts in there as well. Not pretty w/e.
This morning was pretty crappy. Less said, whatever. Anyway, G and I both ended up taking a personal day for mental health. We went out to lunch and I forgot my camera. We went to Champs again and took advantage of their "Breakfast All Day!" menu. G got Patty Cakes - 2 pancakes, soysage, tofu scramble, home fries, and a side salad. I ordered the "Awesome Bowl" (and it was) - seasoned quinoa, tofu scramble, sauteed greens, peppers, and potatoes.
We also picked up a dessert to share and take home.

Cheesecake brownie! Very dense. Very good but, you know, sugary. We couldn't even finish it between the two of us but more for later.
I'm not feeling so well so miso soup was my dinner. Heavy on the mushrooms, with rice thrown in, plus the usual (minus spinach cuz we out).

G's dinner was an off the cuff sandwich but morphed into something that looked (and smelled) really good. He found an old freezer burned veggie burger (Dr. Praeger's) in the freezer, got a roll from the bodega, and used odds and ends we had around - some tomatoes, an avocado, cucumber, mushrooms, hummus, and kale from a kale salad I made yesterday.

Alongside Lolita, which he every so often looks up from and exclaims, "This is a really good book!"

Crackers and Salad and a Tiny Bit of Football

2012-02-05T22:39:00.000-05:00

Well, I was bored enough to watch the last quarter of the game and I'm glad the hometown team won. Other than that, couldn't really care less about football. Thus, my food today was not themed, nor cute, nor particularly different from most days. I did make crackers last night to snack on, but they weren't dipped into anything, smothered in any hot mess, or topped at all.
They were Angela's Endurance Crackers from Oh She Glows.

Seeing as how I puttered around the apartment all day, avoiding football, reading, and writing - not climbing any mountains or anything, I halved her recipe and cut the crackers smaller because they're pretty hardxcore. They aren't dense or anything, really, but they're filling despite being oil-free, wheat-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, etc (all seeds all the time). I don't have Herbamare (or know what it is, really) so I added a little extra salt to the recipe and seasoned the crackers with caraway seeds and crushed rosemary. They're tasty. Kind of delicate, so maybe it's best I didn't load em up with melty cheeze or hummus or anything. I usually eat my nuts and seeds raw but the cooked sunflower seeds in here were especially tasty and different.
I ate these along side a pretty typical kale salad, gussied up a bit.

Dinosaur kale, orange bell pepper, tomato, red onion marinated in olive oil and apple cider vinegar. I topped it with a generous bit of avocado and some marinated and cooked tempeh crumbled on top. They were marinated in chopped garlic, Frank's Red Hot, maple syrup, soy sauce, and about a tsp of olive oil, then baked at 350* for about half an hour. Super salty, but the tomato, avo, and bell pepper tempered that well enough.
Good stuff.

Raw Overnight Museli

2012-02-03T21:16:00.000-05:00

Like I said, I've been working on the Rising Sun Smoothie on and off for a while. Other than that, breakfast has been a banana. But the bananas for today weren't ripe so I made overnight oats and chia for breakfast. Ah, the old standby. It's been at least three weeks since I've had something like this.

I bulked it up a bit extra (not that it really needs it - ) with some seeds and dates, so it's more like a raw museli than a chia pudding or a bowl of oatmeal. It was delicious, and a welcome change.

1/4 c oats
1.5 T chia seeds
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 T raw sunflower seeds
1 T raw pumpkin seeds
2 dates, chopped
cinnamon to taste
pinch of salt

-mix the oats, chia, and vanilla extract in a bowl and just cover with water. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.
-add seeds, chopped dates, cinnamon and salt. Add about 2 T more water and stir again.
-cover and let sit in fridge overnight.

Rising Sun Smoothie

2012-02-02T20:47:00.000-05:00

Ever since seeing Shenandoah Vegan's Rising Sun smoothie from Everlasting Life Cafe, I knew I needed to recreate it. I've been looking to find tasty ways to ingest spirulina, and who doesn't love a good green smoothie in the morning?

I've been making one of these fairly regularly (once a week or so) and experimenting with amounts and ratios. Here's how I've found I like it best:

1.5 T molasses
1.5 T tahini
juice from 1/2 a lemon (about 2 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 T coffee
1 tsp spirulina
dash of nooch
1 large handful spinach
1 frozen banana, sliced
1/2 inch knob of ginger or 1/2 tsp. powdered ginger
1/2 to 1 cup water

In a glass, mix molasses through nooch by stirring with a spoon. I only do this separately because I don't have a fancy blender and both the tahini and molasses sink to the bottom and it's hard to clean. Otherwise you can skip this. Put spinach in blender and cover with frozen banana pieces. Push down a bit and pour molasses mixture over the spinach and banana. Top with water, starting with 1/4 cup. Blend away to desired thickness. Drink!
Sometimes I don't add the coffee, in which case I'll add extra lemon and ginger. I know coffee with lemon sounds odd but I like it.

Just a Day

2012-01-31T20:03:00.000-05:00

Breakfast was a banana with almond butter.
I intended this veggie juice to be a snack:

But I only had a few sips. It wasn't that great - I bought it on Saturday and forgot about it so it's kind of ruined. You're supposed to drink raw juice as soon as possible. Instead I left it in the fridge at work and am probably ruining it more but it was expensive and I don't want to throw it out! What to do?
Lunch was leftover odds and ends that didn't make it into meals this weekend:

Bulgur wheat, roasted cauliflower, pinto beans, sundried tomatoes over spinach.
Pre-dinner snack:

And dinner:

Our usual salad (mixed greens, broccoli, tomato, grated beets and carrots) to which I added extra spinach, parsley, red onion, chopped capers, sunflower seeds and mushrooms. Hard to finish, but I did it.
And a handful of rasins/almonds/chocolate chips for dessert. Trust me.

"Act Normal"*

2012-01-30T15:32:00.000-05:00

In a criticism class in college, my professor pointed out the absurdity of the phrase "act normal." It's usually uttered when one is caught doing something wrong and one accomplice will quickly tell the other, "Act normal!" when in fact, the situation is anything but. Acting is a performance - being is the true state. But when things are not quite "normal," like my brain lately, "acting normal" will have to suffice and a kind of "fake it til you make it" mentality can actually trigger feelings of "the usual," if not "normal."
So G and I have been "acting normal" with a movie night:

Popcorn with nooch and black pepper, Flying Dog Pale Ale to go with Paper Moon (pretty great, by the way).
Totally normal lunch photo-bomb:

G's apple, my spinach, tomato, turmeric-roasted cauliflower, and sundried tomato salad.
I even played (watery) domestic, cooking up a traditional-style dinner. It took about 4 hours all together, but keeping busy is a big part of my mental health.

This is G's plate from last night. It's a bit hard to tell what it is under all that mushroom gravy. Also someone was in a rush to eat, so I snapped this quickly.
Steamed spinach, mashed potatoes with parsley, black pepper and roasted garlic, Hippie Loaf from the Happy Herbivore cookbook (and online here). The mushroom gravy is from Vegan Holiday Kitchen. G said it was the best mashed potatoes and gravy he's ever had. Indeed, I came home last night at 11:30 to him reheating some more. The Hippie Loaf was pretty good, but I made a couple changes. I used soaked pinto beans instead of canned black beans, bulgur wheat instead of quinoa (I didn't have any quinoa, though it might have been better. Bulgur also makes the loaf not gluten-free anymore), my own seasoning blend, panko instead of brown rice flour, added fennel seed, and about 1/4 c. chopped walnuts. I would add fresh parsley next time too. Okay, so maybe I changed a lot but I like using Lindsay's recipes as guides because they are low fat and oil free, and pretty simple. I mostly picked her recipe because I don't care much for lentil-based loaves. They seem to fall apart pretty easily and beans sounded like a better binder.
Here's my leftover lunch today:

Steamed cauliflower standing in for mashed potatoes. Dinner having been so "traditional" and unlike what I usually eat, was a bit heavy for my stomach.
With salad:

Anyway, thanks again for the well-wishes, guys. I'm feeling better. G is helping. I hope you all are doing well.

*All mentions of the word "normal" used for the unfortunate lack of a better word. I'm a big fan of crazy, honestly. Normal perhaps should be "not off-kilter." But whatever.

Local Dining a la mom

2012-01-26T20:00:00.001-05:00

Still nothing going on over here. Breakfast is consistently a banana. Lunch is kale salad. It's not even very good kale salad (I know, weird, right?) Dinner if I can force it is leftover chili. You've seen it before.
So instead, since Shen and Stacy were sharing "mom stories," I was reminded to share a picture I took last week when I was sitting around depressed, probably crying and feeling sorry for myself, counting the hours until I could acceptably go to back to bed.
Mothers always know, though. It's really something amazing and unexplainable. She called up out of the blue and insisted on picking me up and taking me out to lunch. I, being me, grumbled ungratefully and tried to get out of it but my mother is a very persuasive woman. By the time I washed my face and tried to look acceptable, she was downstairs in the car with my father, prepped with her new iphone, googling to find a local vegan restaurant.
We settled on Champs, which was formerly only a vegan bakery but has now added a full menu. I think they only opened up about a year ago. It's pretty near where I live, but a little off the usual beaten track (Bedford ave) and it's cute inside. The building may have originally been a diner of sorts. There are booths and a counter in a fairly open space. They even have a working retro rotary telephone with a separate earpiece.
Anyway. My parents are not vegans by any means, having both spent a fair amount of time in France and being raised in the 50s but they are wonderfully open-minded. I'm actually kind of surprised he did, but my father went all out and ordered the hot Vegan Cubano sandwich - with "grilled veggie ham, pickled jalapenos, pickles, cheese, mustard and mayo on a pressed hero." My mother ordered another adventurous sandwich, the Banh Mi. It's a new addition to the menu, so I don't have a full description, but they're pretty typical. And me, well, I got a salad. Surprise. But a fun salad! This was a new addition to the menu too, and the (friendly) server mentioned it was probably her favorite of the new stuff.

This is a roasted beet salad with cashew "goat" cheese and walnuts. In a balsamic vinaigrette, and taken with my mom's handy iphone. It was very tasty. The cheese was tangy and the beets were well cooked. It was also a huge serving! I couldn't finish it, but my mom tried some too and liked it a lot. Actually, I think my parents both cleaned their plates so that must mean something.
They also took a vegan rainbow cookie and an almond-blueberry bar home from the bakery. The rainbow cookie was reported as "very tasty and fresh" but they felt that the bar was too sweet.
So. If yr in the Williamsburg area, Champs is definitely recommended by both me and two non-vegan parental units. And thank you, mom, for getting me out of the house. That was a good thing. I am lucky to have a caring and vegan-friendly family. (For the record, they do eat much less meat than they used to. So, yay.)

My Miso

2012-01-24T21:09:00.000-05:00

This is about the extent of my effort towards meals lately.

Miso soup is one of the easiest things to put together but I have figured out a way to spice the broth that I really like, so if yr looking for a bit of a twist on a traditional broth, try this on:

(serves 1 generously)
1 heaping T miso paste blended in 3 T water (I use unpasteurized, organic MisoMaster)
1/4 tsp anise seeds
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
thick slice of ginger
1 thin slice of onion, diced (or 1 scallion)
1/2 grated carrot
1 shiitake mushroom, sliced thinly
large handful of greens (I used spinach here), roughly chopped
large pinch wakame seaweed
tofu (optional)

Boil water. Pour it over raw veg. Cover and let sit 3 minutes to wilt veg a bit. Pour in blended miso, stir. Eat. Yep, hot soup and raw (if you leave out the tofu.) It's really filling but still very light. The anise seeds and ginger lend a slight sweetness and the red pepper flakes make the broth very invigorating.

Raw Cleanse Follow-Up

2012-01-22T21:28:00.000-05:00

To be honest, I was in a weird mood this morning and rather unceremoniously refused to acknowledge the previous week, post-cleanse. It's been a rough time. The cleanse ended with these meals:

Spirulina, banana, spinach, nooch, ginger, cacao nib smoothie

Chopped collard salad with broccoli, hemp seeds, nooch, red pepper, sundried tomato

When I got home, before eating dinner, something happened, I got upset, and pretty much shut down. So the cleanse really ended with no dinner but far too much gin. Since then I have had no appetite so it's not like you were missing anything this last week. (However, thanks to those of you who still commented and checked in ((Ingrid!)): that really brightened an otherwise shitty time.) What I did manage to eat was light and still all raw. I only write this so as not to sound like my previous post intended, "Thank God that raw cleanse is over - I need some chili and cornbread!"
Just the opposite: the cleanse reset my eating habits and further focused me past "eating clean" to "eating better and more mindfully." If you are following Kristen's Raw blog at all, she is on an all-raw 90-day "reboot" and one of her reasons is for portion control. I may eat well but I often eat too much, without even thinking about it. Although I was upset this week, I think the raw cleanse helped clear my cravings and reset my priorities (foodwise), also contributing to my eating less. I still had plenty of energy and even felt giddy at times. My only regret is that I couldn't help G more. He wants me to report, "Although Greg had a few lapses over the week and didn't keep entirely raw, he ate, in fact, very much like a lion: RAWER."
So. I firmly standby a high raw food diet. It is exhilarating, nourishing, and fun. I will continue to eat high-rawer but not stress out about the occasional chili and cornbread. I will work through my problems with a clear head and, ah, not rely so much on alcohol. I will exercise to destress and I will try to be a happier person. I'm never going to be an "Ethereal Goddess" like Kristen desires to achieve but I will try to breathe more deeply. In the meantime, I will eat tasty high-raw meals like this:

Raw cashew cheese, roasted beet slices with dill, Two Moms in the Raw Tomato-Basil Sea Crackers with Hannah Kaminsky's Crave-Worthy Kale Salad (well, without the edamame.)
I guess we'll have to find out if the chili got better overnight another time. Oooh, cliffhanger!!

Chili, Obvi

2012-01-22T10:27:00.000-05:00

It snowed.

So I put bird food out for the little birdlets who have been tricked into believing it's still fall and warm. Haxan enjoyed that too.

It snowed, so I made chili and cornbread.

It was mostly based on Angela's recipe but you know how chili is, what with flinging any old thing in overexcitedly. I added coffee, balsamic vingear, canned tomato paste instead of tomatoes (I KNOW! I'm gonna die.) used dry beans, fresh mushrooms etc. It wasn't that great - kind of oddly bitter - but you know how chili is. The next two days will be the real taste test. The cornbread, however, was good. It's the recipe in Veganomicon, which is pretty much my go-to cornbread, however rarely I make it.
So, obviously, the cleanse is over.

Raw Cleanse, day 5: Eating Out

2012-01-13T21:15:00.001-05:00

Hey guys. I've already explained how going out to eat stresses me out but G has fallen off the raw wagon and what better way to reinvigorate him than with well made and beautifully executed raw food? For that, we turned to a restaurant. There are only so many sheets of untoasted nori I can hand the guy.
We're lucky to have more than one all-raw restaurant in New York and last month, one of the best (okay - the only one I've tried before - last time G and I were raw cleansing) offered a Groupon! I bought a deal for $20 for $40 dollars worth of food at Quintessence, which is nice because as you may know or figure, the bill at a raw restaurant can rack up quickly. I almost ruined this outing for us both, for reasons I don't want to get into, but lo and behold we ended up at Quintessence on a blustery 29-degree Friday night on a date like normalish people!
Of course I had perused the menu beforehand so we were seated in the small, warmly colored, calmly scented space and we were ready to order:

I got the Buddha Bowl, a top-yr-own salad of "mixed green, kale, tomato, cucumber, sunflower sprouts, and onion." I added marinated portabella mushrooms, olives, and avocado. With house dressing, which is a green herby-lemon-and oil dressing. Most people will say that when they eat out, they want to get something they can't make themselves. I understand that but I err on the side of "better safe than sorry." I know I love salads, so why not get something I'll like? Especially if a restaurant who specializes in raw, organic, fresh, high-quality food can most likely do it best.
G also got something he often enjoys - though not raw - the Mexican platter (he also opted for the less-obvious option of no flash photo):

An enchilada made of a "golden flax and corn tortilla filled with "refried beans", "cheese", tomato and lettuce drenched with mole sauce and finished with a dollop of "sour crème" paired with a tostada. Served with Guajillo chili sauce and garlic scallion wild rice." Also came with a side salad. He liked the tostada best, not being enthralled with only the sprouted wild rice. This is the first dish I have seen G take his time with and actually be filled by.
And, date night it would not be without:

Dessert. Raw tiramisu, which I may or may not have bullied G into selecting. Dude wanted ice cream, WTF? It was pretty good. The creamy topping was silky and delicious and the chocolate layer in the middle was deep and rich. The bottom "ladyfinger" layer was made of nuts, I assume. The texture was pretty good but lacking in the coffee flavor I love in traditional tiramisu.
A good time. I really recommend this place if you're in the city and want fresh, well-made delicious dishes and don't want to feel weighed down by it. It is kind of expensive, but they do have lunch specials and the food is very high-quality. They also have brunch! Brunch!

Raw Cleanse, day 4

2012-01-12T20:50:00.000-05:00

Yellow fellows.
Today's breakfast was NOT chia, holla. Instead, I give you a gross smeary photo of a delicious smoothie:

It was rainy today and pretty impossible to get any decent photos. This smoothie was spinach, an orange, frozen cranberries, ginger, and orange juice. Tasty.
Lunch was another Gena dish (big surprise!):

marinated collards with broccoli, spinach, red pepper, onion, sundried tomatoes, avocado, hemp seeds. I made a couple additions and substitutions as I was planning a collard salad in my head anyway, but once I saw Gena's recipe, I trusted her salad knowledge. And, oh, she's got lots.
Unpictured snacks were a banana, dates with raw almond butter, and a Mountain Mint Wildbar. I know I wanted to stay away from premade raw snacks and bars but...I couldn't. The bar was really good and its nutrition stats are pretty awesome. Far fewer calories than most raw bars I see, and nowhere near as sweet, with tons of vitamin power. I'm a fan. I was also getting tired and a bit of a headache late in the afternoon from either lack of caffeine or something else but it went away after the bar, so, yay for raw cacao.
Dinner was more collard wraps:

with carrots, zucchini, chopped broccoli, both fresh AND sundried tomatoes, red pepper, and a schmear of raw cashew alfredo (the stuff's pretty thick - about the consistency of ricotta cheese.) Two bites or so in I noticed a bitsy inchworm crawling on the outside of the collard leaf! Eek and ack. I hope he was the only one! Cute but not in my belly, no thank you.
Dessert was three dates - two with raw almond butter and cocoa powder and one with ginger powder. Super tasty and a distraction from G's Ginger Newman-Os on the kitchen table.
Go get yr green on.

Raw Cleanse, day 3

2012-01-11T20:51:00.000-05:00

Lots of food again today. I'm really confused as to why I'm constantly hungry since I eat this way about 70% of the time anyway and I'm pretty sure I'm getting plenty of fats and nutrients. Perhaps it's psychological.
Breakfast was chia-hemp pudding with dates and vanilla extract. The stuff is growing (has grown?) on me. However, it is too damn gloppy to take a picture of every day.
Snacks:

I actually didn't eat the veg bowl; G kindly bought me an apple that I had instead. He also bought the bag of GoRaw Pumpkin Super Chips. I didn't like them at first, but I was hungry and had a couple more. They were pretty good after a while.
Lunch was spinach, sprouts, cherry tomatoes, and Gena's raw vegan tuna.

Eaten outside again, but this time it was kind of too cold.

An Aside:
Dear Greg, I'm sorry I'm no fun.

This cleanse is not easy on G and while I'm trying to help him by making the meals it's frustrating to anticipate someone else's needs, tastes and wants. That's to say nothing of grocery shopping, menu planning, constantly thinking ahead (something raw eating requires a fair amount of), and preparing the meals and snacks. It's especially discouraging when he's not completely into the cleanse. Point being, G had band practice tonight and brought up the idea of going out to eat at a raw restaurant after work near the practice space. I, of course, found 15 reasons not to go. We went back and forth considering it for a while but I honestly can't bear the idea of going out to eat when there is so much perfectly good, fresh food at home already paid for and prepared to my taste. So, I'm sorry, Greg. I hope you enjoyed your dinner. One of these days.
I went home and made these collard wraps for my lonely, miserly, no-fun self:

And they were good. Sprouts, avocado, red pepper, carrot, mushroom, pickle!, zucchini in there.
Dessert was 4 dates with almond butter, probably unnecessary, and some black tea because I have a headache.
Do you guys enjoy eating out?

Raw Cleanse, day 2: food list, snacks, groceries, dinner

2012-01-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

Today was a bit of a broken up day in that I had a couple errands to run, and had an appointment at 6 not knowing when I'd be back. So today'sfood is more small plates than meals like yesterday. Breakfast, for me at least, was more chia pudding. G described the chia as "not not slimy" and asked for soaked oats for today. He went to work, I took the day off and followed the pudding with green tea and a banana. Just like yesterday.
After a couple hours I made up a snack plate:

Raw almond butter, celery, raisins, and carrots. Assemble yr own ant-on-a-whatever.
Later, blackberries!!

I love blackberries so, so much. I know they aren't in season but they actually weren't too expensive and they were really tasty. I feel like I liked them better than some I had this summer.
Besides the berries and bananas, there isn't any fruit in the house for me to snack on (which is a good thing, since I'm trying to cut back on sugar and they're relatively low-glycemic. It's weird, though, I can totally tell I'm craving juice and apples and such) so the next snack was raw broccoli with a bit of cashew cream.

After this, I ran out to get groceries. I love seeing people's grocery hauls. Here's mine:

nori, collards, scallions, zucchini, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, red bell peppers, lemons, raw cashews, pickles.
Close up on the nori. It doesn't say "raw" specifically but it does say "untoasted," so good enough for me. I'm not trying to win any awards over here.

And finally, dinner:

This is raw tuna salad from Gena's Choosing Raw. Really delicious! Expect a lot of Gena's recipes in the upcoming days. Served on spinach, with cucumber slices and a couple sliced tomatoes.
Then I ran out the door to the appointment...now I'm back and hungry and it's too late to eat!
G is getting a bit tired on the cleanse, he claims he needs "grease" in his diet. He ate some vegan, gluten-free taco toasts today but also tried these GoRaw Spirulina Super Chips. He also wants me to not that he got a raw green soup (romaine, cucumber, tomato, celery, kale, olive oil, and lemon) from Jivamuktea Cafe yesterday that he enjoyed too. The guy's trying; you gotta give him that.
I'm tired. Goodnight.

Raw Cleanse, day 1

2012-01-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

Like many of the rest of you, G and I wanted to get the year off to a healthy start but gave ourselves a little leeway in when exactly the start would start. January 1 is a bit too much of an abrupt change, when there are holiday leftovers (in my case, leftover booze rather than food), friends visiting for holidays, birthdays, etc.
So, things settled down yesterday and beginning today G and I are doing a one-week raw cleanse. We aren't following any one particular plan, but are taking aspects from various cleanse: high raw (I'll say 97% just to be safe because we're allowing miso and small amounts of spices or condiments that aren't raw), a green juice a day, no coffee (but green and herbal teas), no refined sugars, and no alcohol - admittedly the hardest part of this for me. Because even a raw diets has its "snacky" foods, I'm staying away from those - kale chips, bars and the like, nuts in large quantities - but I don't want to make this too hard for G.
This is what things looked like today:

Chia pudding with hemp seeds, cinnamon, chopped dates.
Later, a banana and some green tea.

Cute cup, right?? G and I found it in the garbage, along with a matching mug for him and three pristine white plates! The things people throw out these days. Yes, I washed them all well.
I snacked on some raw kraut.

Lunch was a big kale salad with avocado, sprouts, tomato, nooch, and sunflower seeds dressed with olive oil, salt, and red pepper flakes.

Then later I (unpictured) had two dates with raw almond butter.
Prepping dinner:

And the finished bowl:

Carrot, beet, and broccoli stem, spiralized into noodles. On top of spinach and dolloped with a raw cashew alfredo sauce based on Gena's recipe here.
I anticipate two more dates, spiced with ginger and cinnamon or cocoa and tea. Check back tomorrow to see if G has given up the ghost. Good wishes to anyone else who is cleansing right now!

Lunches Lately

2012-01-07T19:38:00.000-05:00

It has been unbelievably unseasonably warm lately. I know I usually eat a lot of salads anyway but I've been enjoying some especially colorful ones. Avocados were on sale recently and they make any dish seem more summery. So here are a couple pretty salads I've been lunching and munching on:

Salad greens with bell pepper, tomato, broccoli, carrot, onion, sunflower seeds, and inspired by Lauren's awesome salads, I added raw kraut and hummus too.

Spinach, bell pepper, tomato, avocado, onion, chili. Taco salad?

Today's lunch, which I ate OUTSIDE! Trying to keep things a tiny bit in tune with the actual season, roasted butternut squash, avocado, chili, spinach, and hot sauce.
All good. That's all.

A copy of a copy of a copy: Blood Orange-Olive Oil Loaf

2012-01-06T21:29:00.002-05:00

Back around Thanksgiving, I think, I somehow stumbled onto this recipe for blood orange-olive oil loaf cake, based on this recipe, which is inspired by a Melissa Clark recipe! Got that? And since neither of those recipes were vegan but I was dying to bake this cake, I take it a step farther from the original recipe, making vegan substitutions.

The stars all really aligned for this cake. The day or so after I first came across the recipe, G came home from his parents' house with blood orange olive oil as a gift from his mom! Apparently an olive oil specialty store had just opened up in their town. Too perfect! (Thanks, Gerri!) All I had to do was wait...and wait...for blood oranges to finally appear in stores. I even considered using navel oranges, but I held off and a couple days ago I finally found some blood oranges!
So, this is not a healthy recipe by any means but G is quite pleased with it, as am I. The crust is just a little crunchy, the inside is perfectly moist, and the cake is delicately flavored. Here is my adaptation:

VEGAN Blood Orange Olive Oil Loaf

-zest from 2 blood oranges
-juice from 1 blood orange (1/4 c.)
-chopped segments from 1 blood orange
-3/4 c. vegan cane sugar
-1/4 c. rice milk
-1/2 c. plain, unsweetened vegan yogurt
-1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
-scant 1/2 c. olive oil (blood orange olive oil if you can get it!)
-1 3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
-1 TBS soy flour
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350*. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
Combine zest and sugar in a large bowl, evenly distributing zest.
Add orange juice, rice milk, yogurt, applesauce, and olive oil into the sugar blend. mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, soy flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. mix well.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just moistened. A few dry spots are fine. Fold in chopped orange segments.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and let bake for about 50-55 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Take it out of the pan and let the loaf cool completely on a rack.
Slice and serve. This keeps very well, wrapped, in the fridge - though the crust doesn't stay as crunchy.

As it cooled and I pleaded with G to leave it alone a few more minutes, G says, "You know, you're lucky I'm not Homer Simpson right now, or that loaf would be gone by now." Lucky indeed.

Third Tart's a Chard

2012-01-04T20:59:00.000-05:00

(Actually the other two tarts were chards too.) The other day, I found myself with an open box of silken tofu and one lonely pie crust in the freezer. I decided to make a savory tart rather than a sweet pie and bulked it up with veggies because I wasn't sure I'd actually have enough tofu to fill the crust.

The technique and ingredients I used are very similar to the recipe I wrote out here, minus the fennel, soy milk (since I used silken firm tofu, not regular block firm tofu), nutmeg and oil. I sauteed the chard, onion, and garlic in water instead. I also added a generous teaspoon or so of red pepper flakes and chopped capers to the pan. The silken tofu was blended in a food processor with mustard, pepper, garlic powder, vital wheat gluten (could sub any flour, I'd think), nooch, salt, and lemon juice. I think that's all. Then I poured it into a defrosted but not blind baked crust and topped it with cherry tomatoes. Baked in a 350* preheated oven for not long enough. I did 40 minutes, but if I did it again, I'd go to almost 50, or until the crust browns. Let cool at least 1/2 and hour to set.

I had a slice for dinner and was pretty pleased, considering I winged the recipe. I do think the red pepper flakes are vital. I can see this being nice warmed for a brunch or breakfast. Even with all the greens in the tart, I needed more. With two chard leaves reserved for exactly this purpose, I rolled up two chard wraps as well:

With hummus, yellow bell pepper, carrot, tomato, and mushroom.

Greg took a small piece as well and enjoyed it, along with an almond butter-and-jelly sandwich, salad, water, pita chips, water, pita chips, his cookies for dessert, and a Walt Disney biography (by Gabler, he insists on me noting - "not another crappy version.") I don't think he ate it all at once, and I don't think he ate the book at all.
That is all.

Snack Attack

2012-01-03T20:57:00.003-05:00

I hear some of you aren't snackers. I totally respect that. I am guilty of snacking probably way more than I ought to. I am actually trying to cut back but I also have a weird schedule at work (I eat breakfast around 7:45, a small snack at 12, lunch anywhere from 2-3, another snack at 5, and dinner after I get home at 7), so I do need to supplement my meals so that I'm not ravenous when I get home. I find small snacks actually keep both my eating habits and my blood sugar at an even keel. And you don't want to see me when my blood sugar drops! I'm also in a bad habit of not photographing my snacks as often as my meals and I don't want to give you the wrong impression of what I eat.
So, for Sarah, who was looking for snack ideas, or for anyone curious, here's a collection of a couple of my snacks at work for the past few days, or just some stuff I graze on at home.

3 dried figs, satsuma

Bosc pear, ginger snap Larabar

Navel orange, dried cranberries and raw almonds

slice of banana-walnut-chip mini loaf with almond butter

Spirulina bite that I got Shen into after eating once and forgetting about, but then she got me back into by posting about eating them for breakfast. They are tasty lil nuggets.

Some people put nooch on their popcorn. I put nooch and nooch-coated kale chip crumbs on mine. TO THE MAX!

Old standby. Raisins and almond butter on a spoon. In my mouth. Repeat as needed.

Similarly, navel orange and 3 dates with almond butter.
For the record, I think all the almond butter in these photos is MaraNatha creamy roasted. I had a coupon and remembered it fondly, perhaps more due to the awesome roommate I used to have who shared all her vegan food with me, so I bought it. It's creamy and tasty, sure, but has added oils and salt and sugar! Yuck. It also messes with my stomach more than the raw almond butter I usually eat so instead of being normal and sensible and putting it aside, I'm eating as much as I can to get rid of it more quickly.
Also, you may notice my snacks lean mostly to the sweet side. I'm trying to change that, so if you guys have any ideas besides raw veg sticks, I'd love to hear them (not that there's anything wrong with raw veg sticks). Thanks!
And, unrelated but SO DAMN CUTE, my cat fell asleep in a grocery bag! I assaulted her by taking photos and then lifting her up and carrying her around in the bag. She was too sleep-doped to protest.

New Year's Eve

2012-01-02T19:48:00.002-05:00

G and I spent New Year's at home. It was a pretty quiet night, until midnight at least, when we went up to the roof and did some alcohol-fueled primal screaming.

G and the growler. Kelso IPA

The blurry skyline fro

And this is the, ah, Brooklyn Bridge. Just trust

Today's food. Breakfast s

Spinach, banana,

And I mon, garlic powder, cu

Wrong Holiday

2011-12-31T21:14:00.000-05:00

Ever since Malin's gorgeous post about pomegranates, I've been trying to use them whenever I remember to. I considered making a spinach-walnut-pom salad with them for Christmas like my sister (who we missed this year because she's still in Spain) did last year but couldn't get everything together. I made a kale salad instead. However, still in a somewhat festive mood and with all necessary ingredients on hand (plus a couple extras) I made it for New Year's Eve:

Spinach, pomegranate arils, red onion, avocado, mushroom, tempeh in a mustard-balsamic dressing.
Then, ah, a bit too many sweets. Figs, chocolate, and banana bread! But this is the last gasp. I'm not making any food resolutions per se but G and I are doing a cleanse in a week or so, which I hope will get things off on a good start. Happy New Year's to yehs.

Who Needs a Vacation?

2011-12-30T20:47:00.000-05:00

When I was visiting relatives the day after Christmas, my uncle peered at me, asking, "Are you tan? Did you just come back from a trip?" I laughed because anyone who knows me knows I rarely leave the house except to go to work and come back. "No," I replied. "I think I just eat too many carrots." (My mother knows me - she asked if there was something wrong with my liver.) It's only a bit noticeable to me, maybe because I see my face every day but I definitely notice the orangey tint in my feet.
While it's perfectly normal and healthy, it is a little disconcerting and I've been trying to cut back on carrots but they're just so easy to eat. I was going to write up another recipe for last night's delicious dinner, thinking how nice it was to have two recipes in a row for you (if you were inclined to make them). Then I noticed that the last recipe was heavy on the carrots and this dish is orange too from the squash! There's no getting around it in the wintertime. Actually, it's hard to get around in general because apparently plenty of green vegetables will keep you orange too. I'll be orange until spring when I fade back to my creepy pallor.
Anyway, you guys don't need a recipe and I don't need a reminder about how much orange stuff I eat but this was a tasty (high in beta carotene and vitamin A) dish:

Raw chard shredded into a bowl, brown rice on top. In a skillet I heated onion and the last of some roasted kabocha squash. Since the squash was a bit dry, I poured in about 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and let it cook out a bit. Tossed in the rest of the roughly chopped chard leaves, a handful of cherry tomatoes, covered the pan, and let it cook for about 3 more minutes, just until the chard wilted a bit. Et voila.
I ate leftovers for lunch today. Tryouts for Oompa Loompas tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, you know what I'll be doing. What about you? Do you have any plans for New Years? Resolutions? Fun drinks?? Gimme somethin!

Recipe: Carrot-Fennel-Rutabaga Mash

2011-12-28T21:28:00.001-05:00

So, the gingered chocolate and pear loaves that I made for Christmas call for 1 cup of chopped pears. I had no idea how many pears to buy to yield enough (apparently only 1 1/2) and ended up with a lot of leftover pears that I've been adding to breakfasts lately:

Chia pudding with vanilla extract and ginger, chopped pear, raw pepitas.
And this morning's:

Soy yogurt with chopped pear, blueberry preserves (a Christmas present), flaxmeal.
Last night I was in a horrible mood so I set to hacking at every vegetable in the crisper, ending up with a rather delicious dish of carrot-fennel-rutabaga mash and sauteed kale and mushrooms on the side. I added tempeh for today's lunch:

Carrot-Fennel-Rutabaga Mash
serves 4 as a side

2 large carrots, chopped
1 large rutabaga, chopped
1 bulb fennel, chopped
1 head garlic
2 TBS non-dairy milk
salt + pepper to taste

-Preheat oven to 400*. Wrap garlic in tin foil, place fennel on a baking sheet and cook both until soft.
-Meanwhile, boil rutabaga and carrot until fork-tender. Drain.
-Add 2 cloves of roasted garlic (or more) to boiled veg and use a fork or a potato masher to blend everything. This is another fun kitchen thing to do when angry.
-Add milk as needed, chopped fennel, salt and pepper to taste, and mash to desired consistency. Rutabaga is fairly fibrous and won't get super smooth; no need to get too crazy.
-Serve warm.

And dinner, a summertime throwback: raw chard wraps!

These have a Chili Garlic Pumpkin Hummus as a base, carrot, red pepper, tomato, mushroom, and a sprinkling of wakame seaweed. I was inspired because I found a copy of Ani's Raw Food Kitchen at work for a dollar (a couple photo pages were falling out but I can fix them)! Can't beat that.
Any treats you bought yourself lately? Any favorite gifts you got for someone else?
Another fun gift I got was a bird feeder from my folks. However, the squirrels have already knocked it over and ransacked it! But I can't be too mad. Lookit this cute bugger:

Christmas Crafts

2011-12-28T00:45:00.000-05:00

For you, Shen. This post is your present.
Since apparently biscotti and loaves aren't enough for all my planning and worrying and stress of the past month (oh little do ye know how much I plan and stress and worry the rest of the year), here's the rest of what I was working on and gave as presents for Christmas:

Braided rag rug/cat hang out spot for my mother (and her cat)

The book of poetry for my father, primarily, but also way too many relatives. I wonder if I'll be disowned post-reading of, or if they'll read it at all.

Booze (as previously seen) for my brother and an uncle.
And for you, an awkward recording of one of the poems:

If it sounds like something you might be interested in, let me know and I'll mail two out to the first two people.
Amen, that's all she wrote.

Christmas Goodies

2011-12-25T22:57:00.000-05:00

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely Sunday, whether or not you were celebrating Christmas. Our celebration was small: just my brother (who had flown in from LA), my parents and myself. Tomorrow we will drive down to Pennsylvania to see our very large extended family, which promises to be a bit overwhelming but nice so I'm glad today was quiet.
This is yesterday's breakfast but it looked so festive I thought I'd post it here:

my ridiculous flannel nightshirt that I love so much and a delicious, healthy, filling smoothie: Spinach, spirulina, 1 1/2 bananas, flax seed, ginger, molasses. On ice.
After work yesterday, I got home to some serious business prepping for today's meal. I made Nikki's tahini-maple roasted sprouts again, which my mom loved, and a raw kale salad:

Kale, grated carrot (added after the photo), red onion, tomatoes, raw sunflower seeds, olive oil, nooch, red pepper flakes, and salt. my mom said to bring my favorite vegan dish, and so.
We also ate a wild rice and mushroom dish, blanched asparagus, and roasted chestnuts (I didn't think I liked them but these were perfect). I also brought along a chunk of raw tempeh for myself...ha. I wasn't trying to win anyone over there. All very well prepared and thankfully not as heavy on the oil as Thanksgiving.
Then we opened some gifts and returned for dessert. I made Oh She Glows' vegan eggnog biscotti as well as gingered chocolate pear loaves from Vegan Holiday Kitchen.

The biscotti were easy to make and came out pretty well. The nog flavor wasn't too pronounced, but they were good. I found the loaves a bit light, honestly. maybe pears are too bland for me, but I didn't think they were great. The chocolate and ginger flavors could both have been a bit sharper. Ah well. I'm bringing the rest to PA tomorrow so we'll see what they all think.
Also with the desserts, my cousin in Seattle sends amazing homemade truffles every year. This year she made two batches for us; one vegan, made with coconut milk! I only ate half of one, as they're very rich (obvs) but totally smooth and deep. The funny thing is, to pack them in the mail, she sent them in an egg carton with "VEGAN" scrawled on top.
So, that's all for now. Cheers, everyone. Health, happiness, and peace to you this season.

Stuffs

2011-12-23T20:24:00.000-05:00

Breakfasted back to old oats and chia. However, I've been making treats for Christmas and used some of the ingredients to top the oats:

Soaked oat groats, chia seeds, chopped dates, apricots, and cacao nibs.
Lunch salad, same as last night:

Spinach, tomato, sweet potato, avocado, roasted beet, mushroom. With balsamic, nooch, and hemp seeds.
Look! I got G to take a photo of his dinner! And he made it too!

Pasta in sauce with TJ meatless meatballs, artichokes, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, nooch, and pepper.
And my dinner, more salad:

Spinach, roasted kabocha squash, mushroom, and tempeh. With sriracha, balsamic, and nooch.
Lots of salad, perhaps to make up for the treats (which I have been surprisingly strong-willed in mostly resisting):
Peppermint-Pretzel-Almond bark

Cranberry-Pistachio bark with Coconut

Almond-Apricot bark

Fixing Food

2011-12-22T20:03:00.000-05:00

Breakfast was leftover cranberry chia pudding.

I didn't want to say so but I was less than wowed with this yesterday. The cranberries were more than tart; they were bitter, though that was probably my problem for keeping them around so long. I also thought the dates were too chunky and therefore weren't well enough dispersed in the pudding to give a general flavor (also probably my fault for using a crap blender instead of a food processor.) Then there's my slight aversion to slimy foods. Still, I am not one to waste food and luckily this bowl was a lot tastier. The pudding had set and gelled even more, I added coconut flakes for both flavor and dryness, and an extra date chopped on top for a bit more sweetness. Also some powdered ginger. So, don't be afraid to play around with a recipe - we all have our personal tastes. I'm glad I gave the pudding another try because it's very healthy and filling.
Lunch was leftover beet greens with white bean mash (not so well mashed.)

An orange as a snack later. I can't tell if it was a huge orange or a small serving of greens.
Dinner was a massive salad. Extra tasty.

Spinach, roasted beets, boiled sweet potato, onion, avocado, tomatoes in a tahini sauce.
Have a good night, guys.

Raw and Roasted, Toasted

2011-12-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

Raw cranberry chia pudding from Kristen's Raw.

Finally finished the last of my (fresh) cranberries. I still have two bags of frozen.
Half raw/half roasted salad for lunch.

Spinach, tomatoes, roasted parsnips and broccoli, white beans with tahini sauce. Huge, filling, and delightful.
Dinner was Nikki's absolutely delicious tahini-maple roasted Brussels sprouts. I also took her sweet potato side idea, but made spicy sweet potato fries instead of stuffed sweet potatoes.

The tahini does melt all kinda cheezly onto the sprouts. It was very tasty. If you've ever had the store-made dehydrated kale chips, the crunchy loveliness comes from a cashew sauce and the tahini here works in much the same way. So good. Thanks, Nikki.
The "toasted" part of this post(ed) is the growler G and I bought yesterday! We are bona fide! Here he is showing off the smooth pour.

We bought a Goose Island brew. Good stuff.
Speaking of alcohol, I finished my drink project (posted and hinted about here and here)! It is all infused, strained, and ready to be bottled up. Here's one bottle I gave to my friend the other night.

Ya! Orange bitters! I used the recipe in Make the Bread, Buy the Butter and am pretty pleased with the outcome. I sipped some straight, and my friend did a shot of it. He's a bartender so I trust his opinion on such things. It's a bit strong and...bitter but I think it'll be good dashed into other drinks. I'm excited and I hope my other giftees will like it. If any of you have ever tasted Fernet (Rose?), the taste is similiar but less thick.
Anyway, that concludes the post. Don't drink and drive.

Dinner: White Bean Mash over Beet Greens

2011-12-20T22:19:00.000-05:00

I want G to start posting his dinners (or any of his meals, really) because personally I find the behind the scenes stuff interesting in general, especially on other people's blogs. His lunches in particular are always something I enjoy hearing about, whereas I eat the same old salad after salad every day.
Tonight, however, I made a fairly quick dinner that I'm pretty proud of:

Last night I roasted a pan of parsnips, broccoli, and beets. I also threw a head of garlic in to roast, as well, because why not? I saved the beet greens for later. To think I ever used to throw those out! For shame. They may actually be one of my favorite greens lately. Unfortunately, they do tend to wilt fairly quickly so I cooked them up tonight with onions, garlic, and salt. I really love the beet flavor and add very little seasoning.
I boiled some white beans, and when they were done, I threw in two cloves of the roasted garlic, some salt, nooch, and chopped mushrooms and mashed them all together. Served on top of the greens with a liberal dousing of black pepper. This was very filling, super healthy, oil-free, really delicious, and fun to make. So happy to have leftovers of this simple, tasty dish.
Does anyone know if you can eat beet greens raw, though? How would you recommend them?

Eats About the House

2011-12-18T20:21:00.002-05:00

Breakfast was two jars of almond butter. I licked one clean and just finished the other:

Or maybe I compulsively jar hoard and use them to drink from. Water on the left, Oats in a Jar on the right.

With cooked steel cut oats, almond butter remnants, cranberry-apple butter, chopped banana, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Lunch salad with added roasted butternut squash and tahini dressing. I was at home all day crafting etc. so I also snacked on a bunch of raw pepitas and dried figs throughout the day. Oh and a pear. I have no idea how some of you keep yr caloric intake at 1500 for an entire day.

Dinner was quickly thrown together: spinach, more butternut squash, avocado, chickpeas, and garam masala, curry powder, and salt tossed on top. One of these days I'll get it together and make Ani Phyo's amazing sounding Kreamy Curry Dressing.

And dessert. Three of these Prune-Walnut slices, also via Trader Joe's. I've been really into dried fruit lately. I'm sure these little dudes are great "cheese companions" but I don't really care to find out. Nota Bene: they contain honey. I didn't notice that when I bought them but I have been eating them anyway. Waste not, want not. They are good though and I'm sure they'd be easy to make DIY, honey-less, if one were so inclined. They also contain lime juice, which is kind of interesting. If you're into lime juice, I guess.

Salad, Oats, and So On

2011-12-17T20:19:00.001-05:00

Thanks for the well wishes and good vibes, guys. I'm getting better, I think. You know, "This too shall pass."
Breakfast:

Soaked oat groats and chia, a banana, and a bloody smattering of cranberry-apple butter (from Trader Joe's). The cran-apple butter is really addictive. It's tart enough to stay interesting. I still have a crap ton of cranberries I hoarded around Thanksgiving and I'm thinking of making a syrup or something from them.

Big salad for lunch. G bought a huge (Florida) avocado, which is a bit different than the usual, small, Hass avos but still good. In this salad are said avocado, carrot, mushrooms, spinach, chickpeas, and tomatoes. Topped with balsamic, sriracha, and nooch. Snacked on an apple and a mint Jocalat bar at work as well.

Dinner was more lentil-corn chowder. Still not too curry-y but I added cayenne for heat. Big salad as well with spring mix, onion, olives, bell pepper, tomato, carrot, beets, chickpea, and avocado. With mustard-balsamic dressing. Also a rare slice of (unpictured) bread on the side. Not something I usually do but it was nice in the soup.
3 dried Turkish figs for dessert (Family sized tubs of figs and deglet dates on sale at Whole Foods!). Enjoy your weekend, guys.

Soups

2011-12-16T20:12:00.002-05:00

Miso soup with a lot of wakame, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, and red pepper flakes. I took a lot of photos of this one being all, "I can't make it not blurry!" but I think blurry is the nature of miso broth.

Steamed beet greens and carrot. Pumpkin soup (Veg broth, onion, garlic, and pumpkin puree) with nooch and rice.

Curry Red Lentil and Corn Chowder from Christy Morgan's Blissful Bites. I've had this cookbook for a while and this is the first recipe I've yet to make from it. I hope to cook a lot more from the book because there are some very inventive recipes in it and it's a beautiful book. This soup was both sweet and tangy and very comforting. It wasn't super spicy but my curry powder is mad old and as with most soups, the flavors will probably settle in a day or two.
Sorry for the silence of late, again. Things have been depressing and hectic but I hope to have some good stuff for you in the next few days. I've been in a bit of a cooking slump among other things and I think following a recipe from a book to the letter will reset my circuits. Hope you're all well.

The Calm

2011-12-11T16:19:00.000-05:00

I figured out the layout problems and printed up a test copy of the poetry book yesterday and am pleased to say it went smoothly. With that weight off my shoulders I was able to focus on food a bit more.

Soaked oats and chia topped with banana and raw almond butter.

Raw kale salad, chickpeas, and tahini-miso sauce.

Post-breakdown (and pre- another) the other night I met G and we went out and got burritos. Mine had steamed spinach, potatoes, guac, lettuce, radishes, tomato, and black beans. I ate half and saved half for last night's dinner with some steamed noochy broccoli.
I would also like to state for the record that although I usually cook for both G and I, he is completely capable of feeding himself and cooking a delicious meal. He raved about a pasta-artichoke-broccoli-vegan meatball-and sauce dish he made himself, whereas I ate plain old leftovers. I am much pickier than he is about what foods I don't eat (like pasta or fake meats) and I enjoy cooking more but that is not to say he's helpless in the kitchen. Not that you all suspected as much but we were talking about it earlier today. So there you have it.

Today's festive morning oatmeal. I was going for a gingerbread-y bowl. Cooked oats, slivered almonds, dried cranberries, powdered ginger, and a drizzle of molasses.

I picked this boxed pumpkin up the other day because it was on sale cheaper than canned pumpkin. I often feel a bit weird about BPA lining in cans (I only soak my own beans anymore - it's way cheaper too) and also the fact that it's suggested not to keep leftover pumpkin in the can, which I always end up forgetting about, causing the stuff to taste like metal. Boxes seem safer. Anyway, this Pacific brand tasted a bit different than the canned stuff I usually buy; it was a bit less sweet and more smoky, almost. It is also more liquidy and less dense than the canned pumpkin. It seemed best suited for a savory dish and so:

I sauteed some onion and garlic in a large skillet, added the (already cooked) chickpeas and let them cook through. I poured about half the box of pumpkin puree on top (6 oz./250g) and stirred. I tossed in some sliced cherry tomatoes and a bunch of torn kale, topped it off with salt and red pepper flakes, covered the dish and let it wilt. It was really delicious and almost creamy. I topped mine with a bit of nutritional yeast as well, and extra red pepper flakes.
Any good festive or seasonal meals for you all yet?

Food and Frustrations

2011-12-09T16:21:00.000-05:00

Soaked oats and chia with applesauce, cinnamon, and pumpkin seeds

Rice, carrot, cranberry, and parsley salad spiced with cumin, salt, and black pepper. This took me an hour to eat.

Marinated kale salad for dinner with tomato and grated carrot, topped with tahini-mustard sauce!

The reason I'm posting now is because I stayed home from work to finish my poetry book. This thing is causing me so much trouble at this point I just wanted to be done with it but I went into the city to copy it up and it won't come out right so I have to lay the whole thing out again and then figure out how to bind it. Sorry to complain. If anyone has any experience and tips on binding books, that'd be cool.

More kale salad when I got back, bookless. Mixed with the last of the rice and some chickpeas I cooked up last night and garlicky tahini-miso sauce.

Also these Justin's cups because, like I said, I was frustrated. Abby at A Soy Bean recently did a side-by-side comparison of these vs. Cleo's peanut butter cups. Either I'm really upset or I don't care about candy much anymore. The cups were good but I'll probably never buy them again. Give me more kale and bucket o' tahini and I'm happy.
P.S. G sent this link to me the other day of 50 of the year's best animal photos. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Leftovers are Easy, Poetry is Hard

2011-12-07T19:49:00.000-05:00

Breakfast, green smoothie: 3 leaves of kale, 1 frozen banana, a handful of cranberries, a satsuma, coconut flakes, flax meal, ginger, and lemon juice. Kept me full for a pretty long time!

Snacks at work were an apple and a satsuma.
Lunch was a lazy version of seitan piccata:

Cooked white rice and shiitake mushrooms topped with leftover homemade seitan chunks, lemon juice, lotsa chopped parsley, capers, and even a splash of vermouth (woo drinkin' at work wooo.) This meal might sound weird to some people but I obviously make my lunch at home beforehand and bring it to work. I refuse to microwave anything, so I'm just used to eating usually-warmed meals cold. Sometimes I let things sit out to warm to room temperature, but this was like a cold rice salad, kind of. Coulda used some pepper, otherwise it was fine.

Dinner was leftover kale salad from yesterday with tempeh and hot sauce added:

Half a mini-loaf for dessert, and some crackers. Yeeup.
Oh! And I wanted to mention - Jae Steele is doing a super cool give a gift, get a gift thing on her blog. Check it out! I have Get it Ripe and love it; I may buy Ripe from Around here for myself or a friend. She also has some awesome meals on her website, you may remember the Dragon Bowl from MoFo!
Okay! To the editing board.

Not Being Present/Presents

2011-12-06T20:17:00.001-05:00

Hey guys, I want to apologize for being a bit less present than usual. I'm sure this season is busy for everyone. I'm pushing to finish a book of poetry and a sewing project as well as, you know, live like a normal person. I'm still reading yr blogs, though commenting less and still eating, though am sometimes too busy for photographs. Also, G has been on vacation and for some reason, I don't cook so much when he's not around. My stomach has been giving me a bit of trouble these last few days too so I don't even have a huge appetite. That paired with no groceries means some pretty boring meals. Apologies over, here's some food:

This is the result of buying all those spices. Kind of close with the mulled cider, at least in that this is a beverage. Although the liquid is, em, a bit more fermented. And not a juice. Heh. I hope my friends and fam have been good this year.

My attempt at G's breakfast oats (cooked oats, pumpkin, dried cranberries, banana). I'm sticking with the austere raw stuff. I wish I had a shot of my breakfast this morning but I was running late. It was hilarious/awesome. I tried to get into the raw chia pudding again but with less liquid. 2 TBS chia seeds, 1/2 cup of water, fresh cranberries, ginger, mulberries, and banana. I felt like a powerhouse of superfood.

Yesterday's lunch. Leftover salad bulked up with chopped olives, white beans, avocado, and...parsley because we had no extra greens! Hey, if the govmint can call pizza a vegetable, I can get my nutrients from olives and parsley. It might sound a bit weird but parsley is very good for you and not just a garnish. High in iron, Vitamin K and A. I also happen to like the bright but slightly bitter flavor it has. Today's lunch was rice, raw tempeh, rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, olives and tomatoes over parsley. Again, no photo but it was tasty. I love to eat raw but when there are no groceries, it's nice to have pantry stuff like dried mushrooms and rice.

And tonight's dinner. I finally went grocery shopping. Marinated raw kale salad with red onion, grated carrot, tomato, and raw sunflower seeds doused in apple cider vinegar and a bit of olive oil, salt, and red pepper flakes.
I also bought some mini loaf pans because I plan to bake a lot to give as gifts. I gave Isa's Pumpkin Chocolate loaf another run to see how many loaf pans it'd take and how long to cook all the batter. How freaking cute is this baby loaf??

And, of course, the answer is, yes, they taste better for being tiny. Although, does anyone know if there is a standard size for mini loaves? These were pretty small and I had extra batter.
Okay guys, I'll be in and out. Stay cool (in the hip sense, not the temperature. In that case, stay warm.)

Your Goose (Chicken) is Totally Loose

2011-12-04T19:18:00.001-05:00

Another round-up. Nothing too interesting. I haven't had much desire to cook lately. I bought some stuff to make seitan piccata but just ended up eating the seitan cold with mustard and the last of the cranberry sauce. The parsley is languishing in the fridge, and that all sort of sums up things around here of late.

Cranberry smoothie - spinach, cranberries, banana, coconut, ginger, agave

A holy, glowing salad. With tempeh.

Oats with chia, banana, mulberries, pumpkin seeds. I've been eating a lot of pumpkin seeds lately.

Raw granola clusters. These were nice. Not very sweet, super seedy, and generously spiced with ginger.

I made oats for G and I both this morning. He usually has a bowl of Kashi and some fruit. I think the different toppings and add-ins really say a lot about us. His homey bowl of cooked oatmeal has pumpkin and almond butter stirred in, topped with 1/2 banana, dried cranberries, and cinnamon. My more austere, grey-colored bowl of raw oats (and, yes, chia) has the other 1/2 banana and golden mulberries. Like yin and yang, the two of us.

Lunch today was more salad, with added white beans, and avocado! It's been a while since I've have avocado. They were on sale at Whole Foods, ya just have to be patient and willing to let the avo ripen. Topped with salt+pepper and lemon juice.

Dinner: cooked rice, roasted beets and carrots, chopped green olive.

And not food:

The people next door have a hen house and their chickens escaped this morning into our yard! You can't see one of them, but there were five of them in the yard and one still in the coop. The downstairs neighbors have dogs that I didn't want to come out and terrorize the birds nor did I want them to eat something gross or poisonous (there's rat poison out there). Greg told me to yell out the window into the yard to see if anyone would come out! I felt like a crazy person screaming to no one, "Your chickens are loose!" I ended up going into the building next door and I finally ran into a guy who knew how to contact the girls who take care of the chickens. I didn't see anyone come to get them but I guess eventually they made their way back to the cage. Maybe I didn't need to worry so much about them and the birds are smarter than I gave them credit for but you never know.

High Raw on a Cold Day

2011-12-01T20:47:00.000-05:00

I've been missing raw food lately. I miss the crunch and the energy and the vibrance. I miss getting to the core of a vegetable! So today I made it a point to eat high raw, and maybe this can act as a guide on how eating raw can be easy even in the colder months - it was 38* this morning! December sure is here. Nota bene, I do have a very warm apartment.

Soaked overnight oats with chia, (cooked) cranberry sauce, golden mulberries, raw pecans. This was really great, but the last of the pecans (leftover from Thanksgiving.) Bummer. Some people mind cold oats but I don't. Dried fruits and nuts are always easy additions to bulk up a bowl.

Lunch was a kale salad I made last night, so it had wilted a bit nicely. With grated carrot, chopped bell pepper, raw sunflower seeds, red pepper flakes, and apple cider vinegar. Kale is a hearty green that grows in through winter and again, raw seeds are available year round and a good source of protein.
I snacked on a blueberry raw Pure bar and two clementines at work as well. It's good to have portable snacks on a raw day.
Dinner was a big salad, as G and I often make. I wanted to show you a picture of the huge bowl before it was tossed. We used chiogga beets this time instead of usual red beets, just because that's what I found:

And my bowl:

There's a spring mix, red cabbage, tomatoes, bell pepper, beets, carrot, and cucumber in here. I added uncooked tempeh to my bowl and, after the photo was taken, a clump of this sauerkraut:

It's awesome and spicy! Again, a big salad is really easy to turn into a meal with a bit of protein and whatever toppings you feel like. I wish I could continue the raw trend into dessert (or better yet, skip it like some of you with way more willpower than I have) but I'm planning on one of the pumpkin-pecan scones. Balance, right?

Various and Satisfactory

2011-11-29T20:19:00.000-05:00

Playing a little catch-up. Nothing mind blowing.

Salad with squash, dried figs, tomato, broccoli, red cabbage and Brown rice with broccoli and ajvar. A big old lunch.

Breakfast - Cooked oats with leftover cranberry sauce and banana

Salad with onion, dried figs, tomato, and squash and polenta with cashew alfredo and marinara sauce. I couldn't decide which sauce to use and I'm reeeealllly glad I used them both. So maybe this one was mind-blowing.

Lunch and snacks packed: an apple, celery sticks with almond butter (in the container) and roasted broccoli, polenta, and squash with cashew alfredo sauce.

Urban Vegan's pumpkin-pecan scones. (No glaze) Delicious. I jumped up and baked them about 20 minutes after I saw her post. I've been eating them with vegan cream cheese and fig jam.

Tonight's dinner - cooked kale, squash, homemade seitan, and onion. Sriracha on the side. Pepper on top. I like it spicy, obviously. The seitan was the recipe from Veganomicon and one of maybe only one or two other times I've made seitan at home. It's a nice lazy afternoon thing.
In case you couldn't tell, I cooked up a butternut squash a couple days ago and had to use it in...apparently everything. Have a good night, guys!

Exploratory Food Excursion

2011-11-27T18:17:00.001-05:00

I entered a book at work the other day called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese about how to make at home foodstuffs that are usually store-bought. Some of the stuff isn't vegan (like, um, grinding and stuffing yr own sausages...) but from a DIY and self-sufficiency standpoint, the book looked great. Plus the author has already done all the dirty work for us, meaning we don't have to buy all the ingredients and do all the work to produce something that tastes essentially similar and may cost more to make yourself.
I was particularly compelled by the book because it's now officially the holiday season and I typically like to stay anti-consumerist or support smaller, independent companies in my gifting. Plus, there is nothing more heartfelt than a nice, homemade gift. So when I stumbled upon a very interesting recipe in Make the Bread, I knew I had to run out and get some spices, obscure though they may be.
Hence, Kalustyan's! This was my first time at this amazing place, despite having heard many recommendations. It is a specialty foods store established in Manhattan in 1944 and now carries an amazing assortment of ethnic ingredients, groceries, beverages, and condiments - as well as housing a small selection of prepared foods.

Towering wall of EVERYTHING EVER (A-C)

Everything ever, in jar form

Preserved lemons, cornichons, cabbage salads, I don't even know what

Bamboo Rice! Never even heard of such a thing. Next to Forbidden Rice and Basmati Rice and like 7 million other rices.

Prepared refrigerated stuff: turnip pickles, preserved lemons, kimchee

There were also rows of chips and such, frozen foods, filo dough, dried fruit in bulk (I stayed away), candies, tahini, tea... and even a small section of kitchenware and little cups for Arabian coffee! Needless to say, I could have been there for a long time. My OCD loves these shelves and collections, claustrophobic though it was in there. I stuck dutifully to my list, though, (mostly) and came home with these:

Ajvar (Spicy red pepper spread), vegetarian moussaka, and dried shiitake mushrooms are in the middle there - those were impulse purchases. For the present/project are: anise seeds, cardamom seeds, vanilla beans (in the bag and DAMN are they expensive), juniper berries, allspice berries, and whole cloves.
Any guesses as to what I'm making? I'll probably tell you when I start the project but I just want to be certain that the people I'm gifting this don't read the blog. And, ah, since the recipe only calls for a bit of each of these spices...does anyone have any ideas on how to use up some of these things? Or does anyone want a little bag mailed to them? Cloves, anise seed, anyone? Anyone?
That's all for now, though I also want to show you breakfast, inspired by Shen's smoothie yesterday. Hers looks a little nicer and thicker, but this was definitely different from what I usually smoothicize and very tasty.

Spinach, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, tahini, spirulina, coconut flakes, molasses. Cinnamon on top, next to my yoga mat which I actually used this morning - but as you may notice, the end is still curled a bit because it has been far too long since I've exercised at all.

Serve the Servings: My thanksgiving, a guest post By "G"

2011-11-26T20:00:00.001-05:00

By Gregory Farrell, esq.
Hey ya'll, happy thanksgiving. Here is a rundown of what my family did on that 'o' holiest of sacred of days, the days of giving of thanks (Thanksgiving). Here is some musical accompaniment, should you so desire:

So, Full disclosure, I hate to disappoint you guys but we didn't have a turkey or Tofurkey. We decided to take it easy, so we went to the bodega and bought six of these mini pizzas. Five slices each!

PSYCHE (mad gelatin). Weird though, right?

ANYWAY, my family is about half vegan. I myself am not entirely vegan but my brother and his wife both are. However, I was able to keep vegan this thanksgiving because the only non-vegan items served were the turkey itself (for my dad, he's old school) and the stuffing from inside that turkey. Also, the cranberry sauce from a can may not have been vegan, but whatevs, that is a tradition dating wayyy back. I'm not entirely sure anyone ate it. I didn't.

Anyway, on holidays, my Dad usually a makes a breakfast of french toast and sausage (Gimme Lean sausage for the VEG). Often there are clementines, as pictured. I'm not vegan but I don't eat eggs, and he was dismayed to find out that he had to make two separate batches of french toast, one vegan, one non. He does this every year and usually the vegan batch comes out being better (heheh). He didn't have the recipe on hand so he made it up.

Day old bakery white bread. Cut it thick at home.
Three heaping TBSP of flour
Enough almond milk to submerge the bread
Vanilla
Cinnamon
Sugar if you want
Whatevs. Add whatever you want, as long as it will soak into the bread.

Mix it all in a bowl, submerge the bread, let it soak then fry it up, well done (cast iron skillets work best, my inheritance). Butter while hot. Serve with REAL maple syrup, which also tastes good with the Gimme Lean. YUM.

Major disadvantage, obviously is in using flour as an egg substitute. All you get is the bulk, not the protein. It's weird to add flour to bread. So basically I was full after a few of these.

Then I watched some of the Woody Allen documentary on PBS and read some of this book by Robert Rodriguez. Both are very good.
This is a picture of my dog. Her name is skipper. She was there too.

At around Two P.M. my brother and his wife arrived and we started preparing dinner.

Earlier, I had told my dad that he would have to document the meal in photographs for this blog post. He agreed, and then complained while we were peeling potatoes that it was "boring" and we all told him that nobody cares about the potatoes, they want to see the finished dishes. However, if you do care, here are some shots of potatoes:

Things went fast from here. And we soon wound up with dinner.

Maritza brought a quinoa kale salad (kale, lemony dressing and cherry tomatoes). For some reason everyone in my family is quinoa-phobic so they made yuck faces while they ate it. Babies. It was very good though.

Pictured beside it is a green bean casserole made by my little brother Ben. It may be one the first things he's ever made. It was gross. Very 50's with french onions and soy yogurt. Not recommended, but here is the link with a photo.

Here is a photo of our whole spread:

Clockwise: Bottom left corner in the green bowl is the famous "Artichoke to Death" this time with way more sauce, heavy mustard, made by Maud. All the way on the left on the edge of the picture is mashed potatoes. My family does it very "no frills". Potatoes, mashed with some margarine and soy milk. BAM. That's it. Sixpoint Bengali Tiger Beer in the corner, stuffing with leftover gimme lean from breakfast, green bean casserole, real live (dead) turkey, more stuffing (non-vegan), yams ("no frills"), applesauce, and cranberry sauce. I just realized that there is a plate of Tofurkey out of the frame on the left. Basic Tofurkey, no big. What do you guys think of that stuff?

So we all barfed because we ate too much, then waited awhile and had dessert:

Clockwise: Pumpkin pie from the store, Pumpkin brownies from The French Fry Conundrum. I personally made them, and I personally apologize. They came out horrible, nobody even looked at them, let alone ate them. For some reason they just wouldn't bake properly. I just left them at my parent's house. They were probably thrown away.

Raspberry Chocolate ganache by Maritza from (book) it was awesome. Major home run. Cranberry pecan oatmeal cookies, made by me. Also home run. Here is a picture Maud took of me making them:

They were awesome, as they have been in the past, but nobody bothered to touch them either. Thanks family, last time I bother! Then you got some chocolates, an an apple pie from a store, finishing out the dessert photo.

And finally, here is some applesauce:

BA-BAM!

I'd like to thank my pops Ken for taking all the pictures. Food photography is not his forte. He is a very talented portrait photographer. I would link you to his blog but he doesn't have one. He feels like he is too old, perhaps, and says he is "too busy."

BLOGGERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE AND DISPEL THIS MYTH. URGE MY FATHER TO POST HIS PHOTOS TO A BLOGGER ACCOUNT FOR ALL TO ENJOY. ONE A DAY! ONE A DAY!

ANYWAY. I have to go now because I am tired. I didn't sleep much last night because Maud and I have rats running rampant and gnawing on our ceiling. Thanks for letting me post here, Maud, and to the blogosphere for reading.

-G

This-Is-The-R-R-R-Remix

2011-11-25T21:27:00.000-05:00

Leftovers all day everyday wooo! (Who else is dancing in her/his seat to Girl Talk right now?)
Breakfast:

Raw overnight oats and chia with pumpkin puree, fresh cranberries, chopped dates, cinnamon and vanilla extract. This was an interesting bowl of textures and tart/sweetness. Not bad.
Lunch:

Fresh spinach, extra squash pocket insides (beans, squash, kale), tomatoes, carrot, red pepper. I'm "over" salads at this point. I just throw any and all vegetables into a bowl and call it done.
Dinner:

Baked polenta rounds (from a tube) and roasted broccoli with the cashew alfredo sauce. Spiked cranberry sauce on the side. All good.
Do you eat your leftovers as is (as were?) usually, or do you try to do something different with them? My meals weren't particularly creative but I've heard of some really fun ideas for using up leftovers.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hope you all had a delicious day with friends, family, loved ones and/or your own happy self. G went out to his family's house on Long Island (and he has promised to return with his own very vegan Thanksgiving rundown!) while I cooked a couple dishes here and went to my parents' house. The table (for 10) was decorated thusly with the last hydrangeas and black eyed susans of the garden:

Utilizing one of my newest cookbooks, Nava Atlas' Vegan Holiday Kitchen, I baked Wild Rice-Cranberry Stuffing, which didn't get stuffed into anything:

My mom promptly stuck her finger right into the middle of it to see if it was warm.
It wasn't, so she excitedly cleared out the "warming oven" ("This is why we bought the damned thing!") along with these Butternut Squash Hot Pockets that I saw on Scissors & Spice.

I had a lot of trouble making the pockets, to be honest. The dough was hard to roll out, the pockets burst open during cooking, I was rushed to make the separate components, and the cashew alfredo sauce from VegWeb was hell to congeal. Sarah kindly directed me to Vegan Yum Yum's alfredo sauce, and I used a couple tips from there but I still had to blend and blend and cool and heat up and cool the sauce down again for it to work. That said, the pockets were very tasty and the sauce finally did set up.
Shpeaking of sawce, I brought along some spiked cranberry sauce! This uses 3 c. fresh cranberries and 3/4 c. dry vermouth :)

This was a recipe from The Tipsy Vegan, which I don't TECHNICALLY own but did take some detailed notes from it at work one day. Although a lot of recipes looked really good and I may...peruse it further. Stay tuned on that front. There was a piece in the New York Times on it the other day, with a couple printed recipes! (Check it.) My mummy also served a really tasty spicy tamarind-date chutney as an alternate sauce.
I also made a spinach salad with dried cranberries, red onions, and almond slivers.

Also a bonus blurry outake of me showing off the salad. My mom was only supposed to photograph the bowl!
Once I got to the house and my mom and I finished our glamor shots, I made some braised fennel with Earth Balance ("Maud used vegan butter and you can't even tell the difference!") and vegetable broth:

There were also some roasted root veggies (potatoes, parsnip, carrot):

Aaannnnd a green bean and sauteed mushroom dish that I missed a photo of. Phew! Got all that? I think that was it. There were a couple non-vegan dishes too that we don't need to discuss. Everything was very tasty except that the "warming oven" overcooked the wild rice dish and it got kind of crunchy in a weird way. There was also an absurd amount of olive oil on absolutely everything which I am trying not to think about too much. I guess it's okay because the dessert I brought was pretty guilt free: Susan Voisin's Skinny Figgy Bars.

These are in Vegan Holiday Kitchen as well but there is a typo! The online recipe calls for both oats and oat flour; the cookbook omits the oat flour. They aren't gorgeous but they're tasty. I was serving the desserts (there also were 5 pies, no joke) and very happy to not be eating lemon meringue pie. Fluffy nasty, sorry.
There was also plenty of wine and champagne and coffee, no worries ;) It was a good time but I'm glad to be home. Hope your day was stress-free. See you tomorrow with way, way less olive oil in my system.

Celebrate Vegan winner, Randomness

2011-11-23T21:33:00.000-05:00

First things first, Happy Thanksgiving eve. G has left for his folks' so I'm all alone flinging things around the kitchen. I assume most of you are as well.
Secondly, out of 22 entries in the cookbook giveaway, I used Random Number Generator to pull #4. Congratulations to Art You Dream About! Please send me your mailing address within the week, or I'll pull another entry.
Speaking of random:

Dinner last night: mashed potatoes, broccoli, sauteed mushrooms and tofu

Everything food-related I packed to bring to work with me today. Lunch (yes, in the yogurt container), coffee in the mini jar, brownie PureBar, and instant miso soup. I didn't end up having the miso soup. This was especially a ridiculous amount of stuff to bring because I have carrot juice and tea bags at work also.

Lunch: leftovers from last night, extra tofu, spinach, and red pepper in sriracha/soy sauce.

Even more ridiculous? Despite the food haul I brought to work, I bought these Rhythm kale chips just in case I got hungry! I did NOT get hungry. But I did eat them when I got home and they were good. They were also on sale.
Anyway, sorry for the scatterbrained post. I have 5 things going on in the kitchen right now, haha.
Happy Thanksgiving, ye American vegan bloggers.

All in a Day's Work

2011-11-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

Yeppp. Real tough day around here, sewing, cuddling with the cat, listening to some new music (thanks for the recommendations, guys) and -oh yeah- eating. I got some heavy groceries but that was about the extent of my exertion.
Breakfast was kind of late and less involved than usual, but still good. We were all out of fruit!

Pumpernickel bread with Follow Your Heart vegan cream cheese and fig jam. I bought 2 of the vegan cream cheese containers because they were on sale (2/ $5!) and G needed one for a Thanksgiving dessert. Now I can't stop eating it.
Lunch, oh lunch, was delicious, vibrant, and healthy:

The last (boo!) of the roasted kabocha squash, cherry tomatoes, spinach, white beans, mushrooms, and red onion. Balsamic, and a little salt and pepper on top.
I also snacked on a couple of these Candy Cane Joe-Joes!

Tis the season, right? I'd never actually tried these before despite hearing raves coming from all directions. They're good.

Dinner is a mess of awesome. Sauteed onion and garlic, kale, broccoli, mushroom, and grated carrot mixed in with green tea soba noodles and tofu in a bit of miso broth. The requisite red pepper flakes and sesame seeds.
That's all, folks.

Miscellany

2011-11-20T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, sorry I've been a bit lazy about posting lately. Food has been a lot of leftovers and reheats and repeats (Pete and Repete were in a boat...), otherwise I've been kind of busy. I'm mostly obsessing about the horror that will be Thanksgiving, and then last night, G and I went to go see Robyn Hitchcock play at Bell House, which was a lot of fun. He played his 1989 album, Eye, in its entirety and now I have Cynthia Mask stuck in my head.

Now you will too, ha!
Anyway, just because I'm obsessive, I'm going to clean out my photo backlog from the past few days.

I don't even remember what was in this. Cranberry, spinach, coconut, agave, other stuff

OSG Pumpkin Gingerbread Smoothie. I'm loving oats in smoothies lately. It gets so creamy.

I read the ingredients on this a million times, even though it says VEGAN on it. Having never had dairy Greek yogurt, I liked this a lot.

Andrea's sunburst-celeriac soup with balsamic sauteed mushrooms.

Overnight soaked oats and chia, banana, fig jam, golden mulberries

Steamed broccoli, curry-cayenne roasted kabocha squash, white beans peeking out

I eat a lot of oatmeal: Soaked overnight oats and chia with banana, pomegranate arils, cacao nibs

Roasted root veggies, grated red cabbage and beets, spinach salad with nooch, mustard, and balsamic.
Phew, now I feel clean. Here's a picture G took of Haxan being a weird alien ghost cat:

Just out of curiosity, what kind of music do you guys listen to? I've shared a couple concerts G and I have been going to lately (we are on a month and a half concert binge - this is really out of the ordinary) but there is SO much more stuff I love from folks who don't/can't tour anymore. I'm always interested in learning people's music tastes. That sort of stuff doesn't often make it to people's food blogs.
Aaaand finally, don't forget to enter the giveaway for Dynise Balcavage's new Celebrate Vegan. Share the news for good karma.
Okay! I think we're done here. Have a good Sunday.

Beautiful Bounty

2011-11-17T20:17:00.001-05:00

Isn't it amazing how seasonal foods reflect the weather? Bright green (and purple, and white) asparagus, pale pink rhubarb and potatoes in spring; pretty much everything in the summer; orange pumpkins and squash galore and carrots in fall; and lots and lots of cabbage and turnips in the winter. I think it's a wonderful reflection of the relationship between what we eat and our Earth.
Today's food struck me as being as beautiful as it was delicious, and it all reflected the delicious seasonal harvest:

Raw overnight oats with chia, pumpkin puree, pomegranate arils, and golden mulberries.

This was amazing. The tart, slightly crunchy bursts of pomegranate were great in contrast to the creamy mellow oats and the chewy, sweet mulberries. Inspired by Vegan Parade's gorgeous chia pudding.
Lunch was steamed kale, raw (out of the package) tempeh, and curry-cayenne roasted kabocha squash from the farmer's market the other day:

And dinner, of course not as nice a photo due to the lack of light thank you very much, but very comforting and filling:

Rutabaga-fennel clapshot, steamed broccoli with pepper and nooch, more of Jes' beer baked beans (! - I had frozen a bunch when it became obvious I could NOT finish the entire batch before they went bad.)
Dessert will be a slice of Isa's Marbled Banana Loaf.

I'm loving this loaf. Another low-fat goodie but so, so tasty. It has a nice crust, it's not too sweet, and it has chocolate. Plus making the swirls was fun too. Can there be anything better?

UrbanVegan's Celebrate Vegan Cookbook: with Recipe and Giveaway!

2011-11-16T20:43:00.001-05:00

Oh my stomach is so full and happy as I write this. And my heart is happy and full of the fact that I can share with you!
Once upon a time, like, almost a full year ago, I volunteered to be a tester for Dynise Balcavage's (The Urban Vegan) second cookbook. After a whirlwind time, we find ourselves here and now and Dynise's cookbook, Celebrate Vegan: 200 Life-Affirming Recipes for Occasions Big and Small is out! My copy came in the mail a few days ago, and it should be in stores soon, if it isn't already.

I'm proud to have been a part of this lovely book! The theme is food for all sorts of celebrations, from the typical New Years and Easter holidays to Martin Luther King Day and Diwali! As international celebrations are also included, there is a nice assortment of world cuisine.
As with her first book, The Urban Vegan, Dynise's intelligent and feisty banter carries a conversation throughout the book. Alongside the recipes, she includes travel anecdotes, wine pairings, factoids ("What's in Your Food Coloring?") and recipe variations or ways to use up leftovers.
There are no photographs in the book, but the descriptions are so colorful and procedures so well articulated that the final product is easily imagined.
Here, though, are a couple photos from my testing process:

Jambalaya

Lemon-Olive Tempeh Tagine

Prismatic Wild Rice Salad

Sesame Seed Cookies

Zucchini Linguine with Lemony-Spinach Pesto
(yes, there is a raw celebration section in the book!)

And there is so much more! Here's my dinner tonight, steamed kale, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and Dynise's Rutabaga-Fennel Clapshot (from the Thanksgiving section, of course):

This is creamy like everyday mashed potatoes, but the inclusion of rutabaga lends a slight sweetness, and the fennel seeds are also sweet, licorice-y little bursts of flavor. This dish was easy and a lot of, well, fun, for lack of a better word. Dynise is allowing me to share the recipe with you!

Rutabaga-Fennel Clapshot (Serves 8)
1 large rutabaga, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
1 TBS fennel seeds, soaked in hot water for about 5 minutes, then drained
3 TBS Earth Balance
1 TBS olive oil
1/4 cup soy or nut milk
salt and pepper to taste

-Boil the rutabaga and potatoes in a large pot of salted water for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until soft.
-Drain well and mash in a large bowl with fennel seeds, Earth Balance, oil, and milk. Adjust seasonings and serve.

AND, as a lucky fluke, I actually received two copies of the cookbook in the mail! Sooo I'm passing a copy along to one of you! To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite food to celebrate with. (Popcorn for birthday sleepovers? Vegan wedding cupcakes? Noodles on Chinese New Year?) The contest will be open from today until next Wednesday, Nov. 23, 9pm EST. I realize this is too late to send the book out for Thanksgiving, but think of all the new holidays you'll get to celebrate with the book! And if you don't win, I still highly recommend Celebrate Vegan. I remember loving every recipe I made.

Recipe: Root Slaw

2011-11-14T20:25:00.001-05:00

Helllooooo! (like Mrs. Doubtfire) Another beautiful and unseasonably warm fall day here today, which is absolutely crazy. I was out running errands this morning and so happy to be enjoying the sunshine. When I got back, I was hungry but hot and didn't want to cook anything, but I did want to use up the root vegetables from the farmers market the other day.
Almost all root vegetables can be eaten raw as well as cooked, despite their hardiness. It is simply a matter of chopping, grating, or processing the vegetable to an edible and palatable size. Obviously, you don't want to try to just take a bite out of a raw celeriac (or maybe you do and you have really strong chompers, I don't know.) So, for Ingrid, who was looking for uses for celeriac and inspired by Stacy's WORLD'S BEST MUSTARD, I bring you:

Spicy Celeriac Slaw with Apples
Serves 6-8 as a side

2 apples, sliced thinly (I used Braeburn, a more tart apple would work just as well)
1 celeriac, peeled and grated (about 1.5 cups)
2 carrots, peeled and grated
1/4 c. chopped red onion
1 TBS tahini
2 TBS mustard (I only had Dijon but a coarser grained mustard would probably be better)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
juice from 1 lemon, about 2 TBS
dash of turmeric (optional, more for color)
dash of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

-Put all the vegetables in a large bowl and toss to combine.
-In a small separate bowl, mix tahini, mustard, vinegar, and lemon juice. Pour over vegetables (as well as you can - this is a thick "dressing"), add spices, and mix together.

I served this over some spinach and some chopped tempeh. I didn't prepare the tempeh in any way, but it would be nice cooked as a bit of textural crunch. Alternately, some chopped walnuts would be good in the slaw for both protein and crunch.

I hope you all are also able to enjoy the weather, or at least some delicious winter root vegetables!

Late Lunch

2011-11-13T19:20:00.000-05:00

G and I were talking about bagels before we went to sleep last night (again!) While what he really wanted was to get up this morning and go to brunch, I find the meal fairly stressful. I like to take my Sundays at a leisurely pace and not feel rushed into and out of restaurants by hungover crowds with the same idea. I promised G homemade bagels as an alternative.
Maybe I moved a little too slowly this morning, though, as "brunch" was ready around the time of a "late lunch." We can call it llunch if you want to give it a catchy title. I forgot that bagels need to rise. And that I can't start measuring flour and such until after coffee. And a chapter or so in a book.
When all was finally finished, however, we agreed they were worth the wait.

Sesame, poppy-seed, and everything, technically, but they all got mixed together in the water, kind of. I used the recipe in Vegan Brunch. It's funny, actually, because Isa's blurb above the recipe says these bagels are great and authentic for when you can't get a genuine New York bagel. I could have, if I wanted to, but where's the fun in that?
I ate half of an everything bagel with a big ole salad for lunch:

The salad was great, too: mixed greens, tomatoes, carrots, red cabbage, steamed broccoli, red pepper, grated beets, mushrooms, olives, and red onion. Yeap. Six-star Llunch, Billion-star bbagel.

Celeriac Sunbreak Soup

2011-11-11T22:57:00.000-05:00

As I said, yesterday was the last day of the food pantry Veggie Education stint so high on fresh, local, seasonal produce and basking in the absolutely beautiful autumn weather, I took a day off from work and went to one of our local farmers markets at Brooklyn Borough Hall. (I guess most of you aren't local, but I thought that was a nice, helpful map - and I'm surprised at how many markets are year round!)
It was smaller than the one I usually go to in Union Square, but I was able to find just what I was looking for - and not be swamped by crowds:

Woot, what beauties! I do love the gnarly veggies. I got celeriac, yukon gold potatoes, parsnips, rutabaga, and an onion. They're in a tin because that's what I brought the loaves to the pantry in and it was taking up space in my bag. As I sat in the sun, transferring the veggies from a bag to the tin, a woman sat next to me and asked how I use celeriac. We had a nice little discussion and I was so happy because that's exactly what the Veggie Education was all about! Sharing enthusiasm for and love of vegetables! Sharing recipes and knowledge! Making the world a better, healthier place!
So, how do you use celery root?
The recipe I had in mind was Andrea's Sunbreak Soup. Her description of the Seattle weather is quite lovely and, having never been there (but I'm dying to someday), I recreated her soup in hopes of a taste of the Pacific Northwest.

I threw in some extra carrots, along with cabbage, celery and onion mostly because we don't have vegetable broth and I wanted to boost the flavor. I also added a couple generous splashes of vermouth, though I'm not sure it really did much. The soup is wonderful: peppery and sweet, and creamy without being heavy. I like my pureed soups pretty thick so this is also very filling. Also, even without a pressure cooker, this was fairly quick to prepare.
Yesterday I had it plain with sriracha and today, I added the last of the baked seitan sausages from a couple weeks ago. Steamed broccoli on the side. It was the perfect meal to come home to now that one day later is much colder than yesterday's sun! I can see infinite add-ins with this soup but it is also wonderful simply highlighting the oft overlooked celeriac. Thanks, Andrea! (You may also recognize an upcoming recipe using the rutabaga.)
Anticipate seeing a lot more of this soup this week...
Any favorite vegetables that don't get enough love? I did see some kohlrabi at the market today. Can't say I've ever used that though.

Two Loafs for the Last Day

2011-11-10T19:16:00.000-05:00

Haha, that title sounds very biblical to me. Turning two loafs into many and the "Last Day." Haha, or maybe that's just me...
Point is, though nature's bounty does not end in November, many farmers markets do (which is sad because collards! celeriac! rutabagas!) and so does my farm-linked food pantry. The pantry continues to give out food but the produce comes from other channels than our organic farm. There was more than one person I got pretty close with at the pantry over this six month period, so to thank them, I baked two loafs: Happy Herbivore's gingerbread loaf and this chocolate pumpkin loaf from Isa Moskowitz.

I've made the HH loaf before. This time I used the recommended pumpkin rather than applesauce. It's actually funny because the two loaves (how many more times can I say that word in this post?) shared a lot of similar ingredients, which made making them both a lot easier.

The chocolate-pumpkin loaf is low-fat, using only 2 TBS of coconut oil. It is made a bit more decadent by including chocolate chips. I used large baking chunks for this.

And, as with all HH recipes, this loaf is completely added oils free. As mentioned, the moistness comes from pumpkin and molasses.
I cut the loaves in half and gave two volunteers one half of each. They both seemed very pleased, but though my personal preference would have been for the chocolate loaf, I'm glad I included the gingerbread. As I believe I've said before, the demographic of this pantry is largely Caribbean and they seem to enjoy the spiciness of ginger.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my time at the food pantry, although it was occasionally frustrating. I hope the clients continue to be pleased with the vegetable selections and visit the farmers market I told them about! First you eat your vegetables, then you may have your sweets.

In a Desperate Attempt to Get Some Greens

2011-11-09T21:34:00.002-05:00

I don't know how you guys plan your meals for the day, but I usually use lunch as my base meal. That is, lunch is almost always already anticipated (usually leftovers from dinner the night before). Once I know what my lunch is, I eat a breakfast that will complement it. If I'm eating leftover tabbouleh for lunch, I don't want oatmeal for breakfast because that's too much grain. I would prefer a juice or a smoothie or some fruit. Then dinner is made from either produce I buy during the day specifically for the meal, or I spend the entire day going through the contents of the fridge and pantry trying to come up with something to make. Then the next day, lunch is leftovers from that and so on ad infinitum.

Today, I knew my lunch would be tasty but lacking in greens and the variety of vegetables I get with my usual salad. So breakfast was an attempt at trying to cram as much nutrition in as possible. I ate a banana with some almond butter alongside this guy:

1/2 a red grapefruit, 1 leaf purple kale, 1 tsp spirulina, 1/2 c. carrot juice, dash of cinnamon. I may have succeeded nutrition-wise, but taste wise...fail. I only recently bought the spirulina and the taste takes some getting used to. It also didn't help that my blender has a hard time pureeing both grapefruit chunks and kale. Oh, for a Vitamix. Do any of you use spirulina? Any tips on how to ingest it more pleasantly (besides the pills)? Also - if you do take spirulina, do you take vitamins too? There are so many vitamins in such huge amounts in spirulina that I'm afraid of overdosing on Vitamin A! Is that possible?? Gah, I'm crazy, I know.
The lunch I was attempting to make up for: not wholly lacking in nutrition, just different. Like I said, I'm obsessive about greens and stuff.

Roasted cauliflower, white beans, sun dried tomatoes. Simple and tasty. It was also a beautiful day, so I ate in my favorite near-work park at St. Marks in the Bowery. I was pretty full after this, but Liquiteria is right across the street and I wanted, yes, more greens for later so I picked up some juice:

This is also nice to have after lunch because it's sweet enough to function as a dessert, but with natural sugars, and the greens and ginger function as a wake-me-up for the late afternoon slump.
I snacked on an apple around 5 and then G and I decided that we would stop for dinner at Wild Ginger again. (We'd gone before back in September.) This time we started sharing "Cold boiled spinach rolls in ponzu sauce" I, um, attempted a photo:

I didn't know what to expect. You probably can't tell AT ALL but these are like sushi rolls without any rice. I believe it was all densely packed spinach with maybe some seaweed in there as well. They were very good and the sauce was slightly sweet with flavorful sesame seeds in it.
We both ordered the same meal, udon noodle soup that G was so excited about last time.

This was my first time eating udon and it was really perfect. The night had cooled down and the soup came out piping hot and filled to the brim with awesome goodies. There are enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, firm tofu, grated carrot, spinach, wakame, mung bean sprouts and lots and lots of thick udon noodles in a miso broth. I couldn't actually even finish them all. The bowl was huge! There was also some weird vegetable in the soup really freaked me out because I didn't know what it was but SuperVegan says that the only non-vegan thing on the menu is dairy milk for drinks, so I'm gonna guess it was vegan-safe, just...texturally and sea-flavorly gross.
So, there ya have it. Now to figure out what to eat tomorrow since there are no leftovers from tonight! Ah, and round and round she goes...

This Just In

2011-11-07T19:00:00.003-05:00

Do you guys read the VegNews blogs? My favorite is This Just In, highlighting the newest vegan products on the market. While I rarely run out to pick the products up, it's nice to know what's out there. I'm in no way one of those lucky bloggers who get sent products to review, but I picked up two seasonal beverages and a snack lately AND got a package in the mail from one of my superawesome friends today, so I thought I'd do my own version of This Just In.
First up, two seasonal drinks which aren't new but only make it to stores around this time of the year and I hadn't tried either before. Tecnhically, it feels a little early for either but I couldn't help but grab one of each when I saw them at Whole Foods:

My favorite of the two is Westsoy's chocolate peppermint milk because the flavor is a little bit deeper. The Rice Dream nog is good too, though, and I'm glad it's not a soy milk flavor because soy nogs are a little too thick for my liking. I've been drinking the rice nog in tea and the chocolate peppermint milk, um, right out of the container. I had the best of intentions of baking with both flavors and I may still but I think I'll wait until the holidays are closer because neither of these drinks are exactly health food. I don't want them around unless they serve an actual purpose (last year my friend and I made vegan nog cupcakes with rum raisins in them!)
On a different trip to Whole Foods I found a bunch of flavors of these little Pulsin' bars:

Sarah had posted about these a while back and, like the obsessive collector I am, I had to try any new bar brand. There were four other flavors, three of which were vegan, and I picked those all up. They're good and I like that they are thick and dense. Sometimes LARAbars can seem too insubstantial. However, these are pricey (about 2.50 each - they're made in the UK) and I probably won't pick them up again. They are also high in sugar and saturated fat (if you care about that kind of thing.) Oh - also, if you are inclined to try one, you really only need to get one flavor. They all tasted pretty much the same to me.
Okay, and for the real delivery, some non-edibles from my friend Pat, who recently moved to Texas, and I miss that crazy kid like hell. I mailed him a copy of my latest zine, and lookit what I got back!

A tote bag...with a unicat he designed on it!! Vegans loooove unicats, right??
And a transparency of ...a CobraKitten! Almost as cool as a Unicat.

Since vegans love cats (fact) this is pertinent but don't judge the cat-on-cobrakitten violence too harshly:

My cat hates cobrakittens almost as much as I love gin martinis. Oh! And! Pat also sent me a recipe to put in my next zine:

Because when Pat isn't selling hybrid fantastical animals on Etsy, he's making amazing food. So, yay, thanks Pattypan. I'm working on a package for him too. I might post something about that before I mail it out.
Staff Pick: UNICAT BAG!!

Food, Including "Almost Tabbouleh"

2011-11-06T19:52:00.000-05:00

But not quite.
I woke up early today, but only by clock standards. It was nice to feel like I had extra time this morning but as soon as the sun went down I realized how depressing it is for it to be pitch black at 5:30. Since breakfast time felt leisurely, I actually took the time to cook my oatmeal, rather than eat cold, presoaked oats.

Although I actually prefer soaked oats because I like my oats drier than this, this sure was creamy. Quick steel cut oats cooked with pumpkin and almond butter, banana, and fig jam.
Lunch was a cabbage/cauli bowl mixed with Hannah's samosa filling and a couple cubes of tofu:

Rose, thanks for the soy yogurt idea. This bowl was a little less hot than last night due to the potatoes and tofu, but that's all gone now and I imagine soy yogurt would be great on top of the rest of the cauliflower.
And dinner, a salad that reminded me of tabbouleh, if the ingredients were super chunk sized:

This is spelt berry (rather than bulgur) based. I added white beans for protein, chopped tomato, garlic, onion, and zucchini (rather than cucumber.) I didn't have any parsley, though that would have been most welcome, as would some chopped black olives. After mixing all the ingredients together, I tossed it with lemon juice, a bit of balsamic vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.

I liked this a lot. It was really filling as well as chewy and nutty from the spelt berries. Those were leftover from a MoFo recipe, but I may buy them more often now.

So, what did you do with your extra hour today?

Today's Food

2011-11-05T21:19:00.000-04:00

Yep, back to the usual.
Breakfast: Overnight soaked oats and chia with pumpkin, fig jam, and cacao nibs.

Yep, right next to my scotch tape.
Lunch was delicious! Props to Sarah for inspiring me to pick up a spaghetti squash from the farmers market. I roasted it up last night and also steamed some kale and beet greens:

Topped with garlicky marinara sauce and, after this photo, lots of nooch and black pepper. So good!
Dinner was a big salad (greens, beets, cucumber, carrots, tomato, bell pepper, and artichokes - can you tell we're on an artichoke kick?) and a bowl of cabbage and cauliflower that I cooked up with the pav bhaji masala mix. Like I said, Hannah's samosa dish got me craving Indian food!

The cabbage/cauliflower was unbelievably spicy - more spicy than flavorful, actually. I didn't add any oil or salt but there was garlic and ginger in the pot too, so I don't know what I did wrong. Maybe a little salt would have been good. My mouth was burning so I threw some leftover orzo in the bowl too.
Unpictured food today was an apple, a banana, half of an energy bar (shared with G), and dessert - three dates with pumpkin and almond butter. Yup, pretty full.
What is your favorite Indian dish? Alright, guys, hope you're having a good night and weekend.

Samosa Potato Salad

2011-11-04T20:31:00.000-04:00

Even though MoFo tired me out, it still had me wishing I had more days to showcase all the recipes I wanted to get to. I wanted to highlight a different blogger each day but there was definitely more than one appealing recipe on each blog! Then I realized that while MoFo was an inspiration, there is certainly no reason for me not to continue making more of the bloggers' recipes.
So, Hannah Kaminsky's Samosa Potato Salad:

I don't often eat potatoes anymore but I had some extras around from Sayward's Split Pea-Fennel Soup earlier in MoFo. I love Indian food and spices, but rarely make it despite how easy it (can be.) This meal was especially nice because samosas are delicious but the oily pastry crust doesn't always sit well with me. This was all of the tasty insides without any crust to get in the way.
Well spiced, easy to make, and filling. It also didn't hurt that most people will always have all the ingredients on hand. Peas in the freezer, be gone! Way, way better than any mayo-based salad in my opinon.
Thanks, Hannah. I do believe you've inspired a trend.

Artichoke to Death

2011-11-02T20:58:00.001-04:00

Sorry about the ghastly title, that was G's name for last night's dinner. No one died, despite the alarming rate at which you'll want to shovel this meal in.
G really is great about thinking up dishes. He sketches out the blueprints and I do the rest. But even when it's me who does all the actual cooking, he's good about reading in the kitchen to keep me company, occasionally looking up to tell me what I'm doing wrong. It's hard to yield to him sometimes because I am very stubborn and have my own controlling ideas of how food should be but at this point I just go with it because dude knows what's up.

Artichoke to Death, serves 4 generously

1/2 c. brown rice cooked w/ 1 cup water
1/2 c. orzo cooked w/ 1 cup water
1 head broccoli, chopped
1.5 cans of artichoke hearts (in water) - about 8 or 9 hearts, halved
1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
salt
pepper
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsps nutritional yeast

sauce:
~1 TBS tahini
1 TBS lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)
1 TBS water, more as necessary
3 tsp dijon mustard
1 TBS capers, rinsed and chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

First prepare the sauce: In a jar (I used the last of my tahini) combine tahini, lemon juice, and water. Stir until it thickens. Add more water if you would like a thinner sauce (tahini thickens as it sits anyway). Add mustard, capers, and garlic. Stir well and add balsamic. Adjust whatever if necessary - I didn't measure exactly, so, do what thou wilt!
And the actual meal:

- Cook the rice in lightly salted water, set aside
- Cook the orzo in lightly salted water, drain, add to rice. Add in turmeric, nutritional yeast, and black pepper. Mix and let sit.
- In a large skillet, heat chopped broccoli. Add a TBS of water if needed to keep from sticking. When it begins to soften (after about 5 minutes) add chickpeas. Stir in pan to cook evenly. As the chickpeas begin to crisp and the broccoli darkens, add artichoke halves. Keep stirring to keep from burning. I like a little crispiness, so the broccoli browns a bit and that's fine.
- Lastly, add in the rice and heat everything through.

Plate, top with sauce and eat!
This made both G and I very happy. It was really filling and very tasty without any added oil. Plus it included veggies, a grain, and a protein. I ate leftovers for lunch over spinach and threw in a couple cherry tomatoes.

Vegan MoFo, Behind the Scenes

2011-11-01T19:00:00.000-04:00

Phew. Another exhilarating, exhausting, and exciting MoFo come and gone. The blogging has boggled my mind! I also have a completely full folder of newly bookmarked recipes to make. Oof.
But at least I only had to put effort into making one meal a day, not to say that I didn't eat other meals! A lot of it was leftovers but here are some of the non-featured meals (mostly breakfasts) that passed my lips this past month.

Carrot-grapefruit-ginger juice w/ turmeric and cayenne (G was sick and I didn't want to catch it!)

Chard, rice noodles, edamame in miso broth w/ sriracha and sesame seeds

Carrot juice blended w/ half a frozen banana and wheatgrass powder

Big salad with avocado and raw flax crackers crumbled on top

Quinoa, tempeh, veg bowl

Mango, banana, spinach, ginger smoothie

Raw, soaked oat groats with chia, banana, goji berries

More raw overnight oats w/ chia, banana, fig jam

Awesome cranberry smoothie: banana, coconut, rice milk, frozen cranberries, agave

Spicy tomatoey-coconut stew (from the potluck!) with rice noodles, spinach, and sriracha

MoFo, day 31: A Trick Treat

2011-10-31T15:12:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween and, a sigh of relief, Happy Last Day of MoFo! Two things to celebrate means two treats today.
First, from Jess Scone at Get Sconed, a mastermind and a native Noo Yawker (repping in Portland). This recipe is actually found in the Cocktail Lounge at the VVC site: an Extra-Dirty, Extra-Dry Rosemary Martini (!!) Because, you know, I had to use up the olives from Hannah's stuffed zucchini.

Yeah, I don't have fancy martini glasses or anything but this still did the job, and did it dirty. Haha, is there anything sadder than me pretending to be classy and drinking a martini out of a jam jar with my books and beer bottles still all over the coffee table? I'm not sure Jess Scone would approve.

But Dottie would (actually, she wouldn't either! She hated gin.)
HANYWAY I'm gonna save another one of those for tonight. For a more teetotaling treat, we have a "trick treat" from Chocolate Covered Katie, who is in the business of making tasty sweets that are actually fairly healthy. These are her Inside-Out Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies.

The trick here is that they are filled with a pumpkin-almond butter mix! Okay, so it's not so much of a trick since you can see the filling coming out of mine.

They look sort of like Hershey's hugs, no? But better because they're cruelty-free and pumpkin flavored. I had to do something chocolate and pumpkin for Halloween.

Mine are, um, not as pretty as Katie's, nor as well filled, but they're tasty. Halloween's all about the grotesque, anyway, right? Or the magic? I don't know. It's about me visiting Houdini's grave later.
So. That concludes our MoFo! Handshakes and cheers all around to participants, readers and cheerleaders. I hope you guys have something fun going on tonight. Even if that means a quiet meal and a good book. Dottie would approve of the good book, at least.

MoFo, day 30: Stuffed Zucchini

2011-10-30T19:32:00.000-04:00

Another chilly day spent inside, with the oven on. It's odd saying "chilly" because I could swear that two weeks ago, I was eating lunch outside happily, after which I walked through the Farmers Market and saw some cute little eight-ball zucchini that reminded me of how much I wanted to make Hannah Kaminsky's Stuffed Eight-Ball Zucchini.
Hannah is better known for her sweet desserts, having written (and done the photography for!) My Sweet Vegan and Vegan Desserts. However, on her blog, Bittersweet, she posts savory dishes every once in a while that usually catch my interest.
I love zucchini, and after realizing I had leftovers from previous MoFo dishes that I didn't otherwise know how to use up (white beans and artichokes both from Jennifer's pasta and olives from something for tomorrow!), this was the perfect dish to make. So, though zucchinis are out of season, I bought regular zucchini (sigh, how boring!) at the grocery store and made them anyway.

The zucchini I shaped into boats and, as you can see, I was so caught up with the idea of cute, round little balls that I stuffed some tomatoes as well. They kind of fell apart but tasted really good, especially since Hannah suggests serving these zucchini with a tomato sauce. The tomatoes didn't need sauce, and I served the zucchini dusted with the crumb-almond-spice topping also from Jennifer's dish.

I went back for another half of a tomato after this. So now, what's for dessert? Maybe I should browse one of Hannah's books...hmm...

MoFo, day 29: The Best Mashed Cauliflower

2011-10-29T20:34:00.000-04:00

It's cold and rainy and snowy (!) like much of the East Coast here, which calls for some warming comfort food. For this, I turned to Nora from Pride and Vegudice (awesome blog name by the way) and her somewhat healthier than conventional comfort food: Mashed Cauliflower.

This is a low-carb option to mashed potatoes. Now, I'm Irish and grew up loving mashed potatoes or, really, potatoes in any form. And this mashed cauliflower was delicious. I do love cauliflower anyway, but have never prepared it like this. It got super creamy in my food processor and was especially great with the addition of fresh chopped rosemary.
I tried Nora's puree-and-then-bake, method, hoping to get a slightly crispy golden-brown top on mine, but it didn't happen. Nevertheless, tasty.

I served it alongside a salad and some of those seitan-beer sausages from the other day, which actually improved having sat in the refrigerator for a while. Not as oddly expansive, and chewier. The only thing that could have made the meal homier is Isa's punk rock chickpea gravy. I did do Isa the homage of listening to the Ramones while making the mashed cauliflower, though. I think she would approve.

MoFo, day 28: Vegetable Pie

2011-10-28T23:44:00.000-04:00

I'm back from the potluck, which was really nice. It was low-key, there were some delicious vegan dishes - including a coconut-y, spicy, vegetable stew of which I took leftovers - and we talked about our Educator experiences. It was pretty cool to converse with similarly-minded folks, which I don't often do, opting rather to hide in my head.
Anyway, my contribution to the potluck was intended to be Alice's Onion and Zucchini pie with capers, pine nuts and mint to keep with the MoFo theme. Yet, somehow, as obsessive as I am, as many times as I checked the recipes page, I managed to not buy zucchini. Yeah. And only realized that last night, as I prepped for the pie. I frantically subbed in some roasted sweet dumpling squash that I had hanging around (thank goodness for squashes that are hearty enough that they can just "hang around" until inspiration - or desperation - strikes) and added some kale because I wanted something green.

I also threw in some roasted carrots because as long as I was bastardizing the recipe, why not go all the way? Plus we have a lot of carrots.
Um, also, I left out the mint and used a premade Wholly Wholesome piecrust because I do not deal with rolling out piecrusts. So anyway, this is pretty far from Alice's lovely original recipe but BESIDES all that, I followed her directions, only eyeballing and guessing from metric measurements to standard. What I'm trying to say is, I think this came out well despite everything. I may actually make it again and post the very adapted recipe, though I still want to make it the original way!
Please, please check out the beautiful Cotto e Crudo site. Her recipes blow me away.

MoFo Interlude 2: A New (Old) Vegan Survey

2011-10-28T10:26:00.001-04:00

Tonight is a potluck with the rest of the volunteer Veggie Educators. I'll post later about what I made - kind of another blogger's recipe but kind of not - but it might be late (you know us wild veggie educators!) so I wanted to get this up to tide you over, you know, in case you missed me.
Occasionally these surveys circulate, usually variations on the same questions but I found this one while looking at a defunct blog, My Vegan Spoons. I guess this survey is so old it's new to me, and maybe perhaps to a few of you, so:

1. Choose between locally grown or organic, which do you usually choose?
Hm, it'd probably depend on whether or not the produce is on the Dirty Dozen, but even that I sort of skimp on. The only thing I ALWAYS buy organic are bell peppers and apples. So I guess I'd say local.

2. Favorite way to prepare potatoes:
Sweet potatoes, baked. Other potatoes are rare these days. Maybe steamed.

3. Do you press your tofu before preparing/cooking it (if you eat soy)?
Not often. I usually just eat it plain from the container.

4. Name your favorite recipe that is a tradition in your family:
My mother never makes the same meal more than once. I guess she does a requested creamy leek dish most Christmases.

5. Any food allergies?
Not that I know of. Sensitivities, maybe, but I'm lucky otherwise.

6. When you want to go to a fancy dinner, where do you go?
I would love to get to Candle 79 one day but I go out so rarely that anywhere is a treat.

7. When you have a cold, what do you crave?
Brothy soup.

8. What kind of water do you drink? (Filtered, spring, tap, etc.)
NYC tap.

9. Name a flavor of soda you'd love to see:
I don't drink soda.

10. If the recipes you ate as a child were compiled into a cookbook, what would the title be?
Around the World in Kate’s Car. Haha, my mother's cooking was very influenced by her international travels so -

11. If you were allowed to grow one food that can't grow in your climate, what would it be?
Hm... bananas? Maybe figs?

12. Favorite type of mushroom?
You don't want to know.

13. Most frustrating part of your kitchen?
The light. Not just the lack of natural light (there's one tiny window and it looks out onto an airshaft) but also the 13 ft. ceiling with one light that constantly burns out.

14. Last food you burned?
I can't remember. Garlic, maybe.

15. Usual response to a veg*n's favorite question, "But where do you get your protein?":
Nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, greens.

16. If you were baking your own birthday cake today, what flavor would it be?
Apple cake.

17. Favorite brand of chocolate chips?
Eh, I usually just get WF's 365 Vegan or TJ's.

18. You have $200 of your tax return reserved for Williams Sonoma- What do you buy?
Probably some nice dishware or something, maybe an immersion blender.

19. Do you plan your menus in advance? Any tips to share?
I do for parties certainly and less so on a weekly basis, but I don't have any real tips. Shop around if you have time.

20. You have 3 minutes before you have to leave the house and you're starving- What do you eat?
A piece of fruit and almond butter.

21. If Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, and Rachel Ray got into a fight, who would win?
Martha! Of course! She is one tough lady and I'm sure she learned something in jail.

22. If you eat oatmeal, what do you add to it before serving?
Banana, almond butter, raisins.

23. If you got to travel to one country and learn all the traditional dishes there, where would you go (ignore commitments in your current place of residence)?
Morocco. The cuisine is a perfect combination of French, African, and Arabic. I love the spices. The music and culture of Morocco have always interested me as well, so that's definitely a bonus.

24. Favorite late night snack?
Crackers. Oof.

25. Favorite springtime food?
Asparagus or dilly potato salad.

26. Favorite food-related magazine?
Vegetarian Times is the only one I've ever looked through much.

27. Which do you prefer: shoyu, tamari, conventional soy sauce, or Bragg's Aminos?
Well, I use conventional soy sauce but I should probably get some Bragg's.

28. What vegetable or fruit do you dislike the most?
I hate lychees. They make me shudder just thinking about them.

29. Name a holiday food you look forward to all year long:
Brussels sprouts on Thanksgiving.

30. If you could convert anyone to veganism with your magic wand, who would you convert?
Stress John, from work. He once told me the only vegan food he'd ever eaten was French fries.

MoFo, day 27: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Smoothie

2011-10-27T09:00:00.001-04:00

Quickly, now, as I run out the door to the food pantry:
Breakfast was an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie smoothie from Kristin's site, another blog I've followed on and off for a fairly long while now.

This was really delicious! I am still embracing the smoothie for breakfast most mornings (despite the slight chill creeping in) and this one was pretty substantial, with chia seeds, cashews, and rolled oats blended with a few other ingredients. The spices are subtle but nice.

If the smoothie looks a little green, it's because I added some Vega vanilla protein powder for extra satiety. And then extra raisins, just cuz.
Hmm...this smoothie post reminds me that I still need to try the Blueberry Muffin smoothie that Sarah and Ingrid both raved about. I'm on it! In...a couple days.

MoFo, day 26: Fettucine with Artichokes, White Beans and Kale

2011-10-26T21:01:00.000-04:00

Poor G. He is already subjected to my hysterics, neuroses, and moods and then MoFo comes around and I force him to eat - and then eat leftovers! - according to my whims. I sent him a link to Jennifer's pasta with artichokes, white beans, and kale, simply saying, "You like all these things!" Poor guy probably just wanted a salad and an almond butter and jelly sandwich, and here I am reminding him what foods he likes. "I'm making this for YOU!"

Anyway, G made the much-desired salad while I cooked up some pasta. I don't normally eat pasta so I didn't want to buy more. Instead, we used a fun perciatelli that G had bought a while ago. It's like a thick spaghetti with a hole going through it. Or a Twizzlers pull n' peel section, if you will. The cooked pasta is poured on kale to wilt and the whole deal is tossed with artichokes, pre-cooked white beans, and a lotta garlic, then topped with an herbed almond-bread crumb mixture.
G liked it, but seems to think it could use some sauce. I thought there wasn't enough kale but, really, is there ever?

Do you have a favorite pasta shape?? I want to find some of those cute little stars and make a soup!

MoFo, day 25: Beer Baked Beans

2011-10-25T21:40:00.000-04:00

Yes, as much as it pained me to pour an entire bottle of beer into something that wasn't my mouth, Jes' Beer Baked Beans sounded too good to pass up.

PLUS

EQUALS:

Yay! I remember being attracted to Jes' old blog, Cupcake Punk, because of its name and then sticking around for the awesome (not actually cupcake heavy!) recipes. I guess I lost track of her somewhere along the way, but I recently re-discovered her new blog at Eating Appalachia, where she has blossomed into almost an anthropological vegan, exploring the traditional omnivorous foods of Virginia, but cooking vegan at home. One way or another, Jes makes some delicious food.
I'm not even sure what drew me to these beans, (okay, probably the beer) because I never liked baked beans as a kid, but they were delicious. They are sweet and slightly spicy, and surprisingly have a good amount of flavor of the beer still in them. They do take a fair amount of time to prepare, but I spent a lazy Monday with them, and here they be, totally worth it.

The black blur on the left there is my cat, who was also very attracted to the scent of the dinner.
Baked beans need a cool side to go with them, so I prepared a fennel-cabbage coleslaw. ALSO! The weird bread roll looking things in the bowl with the beans (on top of some spinach cuz I gotta have some greens) are baked seitan sausages, using some leftover beer-bean broth! They came out...weird, so I'm not going to share the recipe, haha. I mean, they were okay but super spongy. I guess I didn't realize how much the beer would make the sausages expand in the oven. It's okay, though; they were kind of an afterthought and an experiment because the bean broth was so flavorful.
Maybe I should have just followed another delicious-sounding Jes recipe (jesipe?) for Roasted Pepper Sausages. Next time.

MoFo, day 24: Sweet Potato Cranberry Spice Muffins

2011-10-24T20:06:00.001-04:00

Sweet potatoes are great for the same reason that pumpkin is - it works so well in both savory and sweet recipes. After the Sweet Potato-Stuffed Pepper of yesterday, and even after eating the leftover filling for lunch, there was still some un-flavored mash and I needed a sweet treat.
With this, I turned to VeganLisa from Vegan Culinary Crusade. She has a wonderful site filled with primarily raw recipes and others that are free of refined flours oils, and sugars. So, while today's treat of Sweet Potato Cranberry Spice Muffins isn't raw, it is pretty healthy and is one of the more delicious baked goods I remember eating recently.

Also, they obviously smelled so good I couldn't wait to take a bite before taking a photo...Oops.
I did make a few minor substitutions, always working to get rid of what I have on hand. I subbed about 1 cup of almond flour and the rest white spelt flour for her whole wheat pastry flour, and 2 TBS. of coconut oil rather than 1/4 c. of canola.

I think both the almond flour and coconut oil made the muffins especially moist without being gooey. Ah, and, I was afraid I didn't have a full half cup of dried cranberries, so I added a couple of raisins in as well.

This is really nicely spiced, and easy to throw together. It's surprisingly sweet (in a good way) for how little added sweetener there is (in this case, maple syrup.) And if you have leftover sweet potato on hand, this is a great way to use it up. If not, Lisa has plenty of other recipes for you to check out and make something delicious with!

MoFo, day 23: Sweet Potato Stuffed Peppers, Liebster mentions

2011-10-23T19:06:00.000-04:00

I was hoping to have something out of the ordinary and fun for you guys today, but it was kind of a bust. While Portland is probably the vegan capital of the world, Brooklyn has been called "Portland East" (true fact) and I've got to learn to appreciate that. We have Moo Shoes, Candle 79, Sweet and Sara, a vegan bodega in the works, Lula's Sweet Apothecary, and other all-vegan storefronts and restaurants that I'm probably too out of it to know about. There's even a vegan drinks meet up every month at Angels and Kings that I'm verrrry intrigued by and now, an all-vegan bar: Pine Box Rock Shop. And today, at PBRS, a vegan pop-up shop!

It's like an all-vegan flea market hosted in a bar! What could be better, right? Well, anyway, it was great in theory. I mean I KNOW I'm not the biggest social butterfly, I KNOW I'm not really a fan of crowds, or eye contact or things like that... but having tables flush against a wall in a crowded bar, where people are drinking (vegan bloody marys!) right behind the bar stools with weird little nooks, overpriced novelty food, and no room to move is not exactly my idea of a good time. Are you with me? It's a great little space with all vegan drinks, vegan empanadas always on the menu in a... quirky part of town. I don't want to hate. But, hey, even Isa left Brooklyn for Omaha. So anyway. I don't have pictures from the pop-up shop, which is what this is all about. I left the bar in 3 minutes or less, after maybe gazing at some Mombucha for a bit, and got some groceries. (Sigh,) Yes, I know. Another meal. But first! To stop sounding like such a grouch and to show some love - I'd like to thank Blessed Mama, Allysia, Abby, and Claire for their Liebster Award mentions. A few other favorite blogs I'd like to nominate are:

-Olives for Dinner, because she's making WHISKEY BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING! And other things.
-Nikki at Fresh Young Coconut because raw, fall food is a possibility that a lot of people don't think about. She makes it look easy and delicious.
-Jake from Play With My Food for being a he-vegan and a total comics nerd. A big plus in my (comic) book.
-The Spooky Vegan for an awesome MoFo theme - and post-MoFo theme of...still being spooky.
-Rachel from I Eat Grains, sort of spooky in her own zombied way. Also pretty funny.

So, yeah, show love.
Another blog I love but am kind of intimidated by is Kathy Patalsky's Healthy Happy Life. Her photos are amazing, her exuberance is inspiring, and her food sounds so delicious. She tends towards the more decadent, in my opinion, which is why I'm usually intimidated by the recipes. She is also big on presentation, which I...am not. However, even her more basic recipes are impressive and imaginative.
I made an early dinner of her Sweet Potato Stuffed Peppers, which are delicious while being amazingly simple.

More fun roasting the pepper over an open flame, a quick boil, and even more fun mashing things together.
The chopped carrots and red onion are kept raw, giving a nice crunch and change in texture to the mash. Parsley lends just enough freshness to the nightshade and tuber combination, while a bit of orange juice brightens it up. And garlic hummus, well, makes anything five times better.

This was creamy enough that I left out the oil completely and I don't think it suffered at all for it. The pepper is pre-roasted and softens up when baked. Honestly, I can't imagine this being any tastier. If you don't want to cook up a pepper, or if you don't like them, the filling is great on its own.
I know some of you have kids and grandkids - it's also worth noting that Kathy is a talented artist, with some work geared towards children. For this same reason a lot of her food is kid-friendly, especially for kids' parties, I'd imagine. Jenny, I feel like you'd especially appreciate some of her themes!