Saturday, April 30, 2011

Taco Salad!

I'm back to making weekend lunch salads from Appetite for Reduction. We've had a lot going on the last several weekends so I got out of the habit, but this weekend I have a couple of new ones to try.

Today: taco salad. Lettuce, black beans, crushed tortilla chips, and cilantro, topped with a tomato salsa and guacamame (which is avocado blended with edamame, tomato, garlic, and more cilantro). It was excellent.


Thursday, April 28, 2011

Tamarind Lentils, Mashed Potatoes, and Broccoli

These lentils (from Veganomicon) are super yum. All sweet and mildly spicy. I would normally serve lentils over rice but I went all crazy and decided on mashed potatoes this time. We eat a LOT of mashed potatoes.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Cajun Spaghetti and Beanballs

Mmmm, bean balls. These are made by combining crumbled tempeh, smashed black eyed peas, bread crumbs, and various seasonings (herbs, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, etc.) The marinara is super easy - just a can of crushed tomatoes with some sauteed garlic, cajun seasoning, and herbs. And then there is some zucchini mixed in with the pasta to add some vegetable goodness. It was a very hearty dinner.

Quinoa Stew with Chard and Black-Eyed Peas

This is another thing that sounds kind of hilariously vegan but is really good. In addition to quinoa, chard, and black eyed peas, there are also potatoes, carrot, and parsnip mixed in there. I think this is the first time I've eaten parsnip in my life.

It is really healthy and hearty, great for dinner and then leftovers throughout the week.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Chickpea Cutlets, Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus

This is my third attempt at the chickpea cutlet recipe in Veganomicon and they get better each time. I also made Isa's mustard and wine sauce from the same cookbook, which was a perfect addition.


Mango Slaw and Baked Tofu

I've had this Smitten Kitchen Mango Slaw recipe bookmarked forever and since it was nearly 90 degrees today, it seemed like a good time to finally try it out. I left out the cashews because I was lazy and the red onion because I always regret raw onion.

The slaw was terrific! Very light and fresh, a good lunch after this morning's homemade donuts that Benjamin whipped up in his new deep fryer.




Saturday, April 23, 2011

Ginger Soba Stirfry

We've had Ben's parents in town and I haven't been cooking! But here is what I made for dinner Wednesday night and forgot to upload.

This is a basic stirfry with soba noodles & bok choy, and I added Gardein Beefless Tips for the protein. Since I've gone vegan I've used very few processed, pre-prepared meat substitutes, and we'd never tried these before. The flavor was good, but frankly, they freaked me out. They were too meatlike. I think I'm going to stick to my tempeh/tofu/seitan trifecta most of the time.


I should also mention that we went to Mo's Diner last night, an upscale restaurant in downtown Raleigh. I called ahead and told her I was vegan and she made me an absolutely stellar vegan jambalaya. I'm so appreciative when I'm served something other than a plate of broccoli and plain pasta! It was super dark in the restaurant so I didn't get a good picture, but I'm sure you can use your imagination.


Monday, April 18, 2011

Tofurkey Sausages & Pesto Pasta Salad

I was supposed to make a big asian-themed dinner with thai tofu, basil green beans, and pineapple rice, but I didn't feel like it. I couldn't find the right kind of rice at the grocery store and it seemed like too much work for a Monday night. Plus we had some Tofurkey sausage in the fridge that needed to be used up. So, I improvised.

I threw together a pesto with the basil, some cilantro, a few walnuts, and garlic & lemon. Then I boiled up the remnants of a bag of whole wheat fusilli, defrosted some chickpeas, and roasted and chopped a red pepper. Viola! Fancy pasta salad.


I'm proud of my thrown-together dinner! Healthy yet delicious.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Arroz con Seitan

For tonight's dinner I made a salad with mixed lettuces, faux (cashew-based) goat cheese, dried cranberries, and a spicy mustard-maple dressing. The dressing was STELLAR.


And the entree:


My go-to dish at our local Mexican restaurant in Pasadena was the Arroz con Pollo (rice with chicken). In this version, the pollo (chicken) is replaced with seitan.


Um, why can Ben take pictures that look like that and I cannot? He says he's going to give me lessons.

We also baked a lot this weekend - chocolate oatmeal cookies (Ben made these and they are enormous) and carrot-raisin muffins for breakfast.


The carrot raisins have more grated carrot than flour, and only 1/4 cup each of sugar and oil. I feel this makes it okay to eat two at a time.

Pictures from the Storm

We drove around today to check out some of the damage from yesterday's tornadoes. The neighborhoods just to the south and east of downtown were hit really hard.



This is across the street from my friend's house - my friend, fortunately, only suffered minor damage to the house and the loss of one tree.


This industrial area is about a mile from where I work.





Bonus weirdness. Love the South!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Storms

We don't get serious storms often in North Carolina - this has been a source of some frustration for me, a Midwesterner at heart who really misses some good frequent thunder and lightning. Today there were severe storms forecast, but we didn't pay too much attention, figuring it would maybe rain for a bit and that would be that.

Well. Around 3:00 it finally started raining, and then started hailing a little bit, and then it got totally crazy.


I've never seen anything like this that I remember, even in Missouri. We had hail as big as quarters and it piled up all over the place.


Looks like snow! After it had started to calm down, it occurred to me to turn on the local news to see what was going on, and it turns out that there were serious tornadoes all over the entire area, including one that cut from downtown Raleigh northeast through town - looking at the path of the storm, it must have been pretty close to us at some point.

We are very, very lucky. There are no tornado sirens here and, with severe weather being so rare, it didn't occur to me to even be concerned that something serious might be happening. A lot of people have lost their homes and businesses in Raleigh and the surrounding towns, and so far they are saying 10 people have died. Most homes here don't even have basements.

Fortunately, though, this is our only consequence - a messy back porch. Benjamin had just swept it an hour earlier!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Xtreme Vegan + Cupcakes

Steamed red kale + brown rice + marinated tempeh + chickpea gravy. This is why being vegan is easy for me, because I could eat a variation of this every single night. Grain + veg + protein + sauce. I freaking love it.


Ben insisted on making cupcakes, the first time we've attempted a cakelike baked good. We just did a basic chocolate with chocolate buttercream frosting. And WOW. Nobody would ever know these things are vegan. There are no weird ingredients - just stuff anyone would have in the house. Miracle. I could have gone vegan years ago if I knew dessert would be this good.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Ethiopian Seitan and Peppers

This was pretty easy - seitan and bell peppers are baked in a spicy sauce and served over rice. It was good, but I don't know why I continue to follow recipe recommendations when it comes to hot peppers - it is always too spicy for me. Ben loved it, though. I thought it needed a little more sauciness, and of course less spice. Notes for next time!


The seitan was great. I will never use store-bought seitan again. Much cheaper, much tastier, and easy to make.

Springtime Walk

Last night for dinner we had split pea soup and garlic bread. It was good, but ugly! So here are some pictures of springtime in North Carolina instead.

Ben and I went for a walk on Saturday that turned out to be about five and a half miles.



The pine pollen is the only downside to springtime in Raleigh. It's so heavy that for at least a couple of weeks we can't even have the windows open, or the entire house will be coated in thick yellow powder. Here's a bunch of it that collected in a gutter after a recent rainstorm.


New Whole Foods within walking distance!!


And here's a bonus picture of my lazy cats. I was trying to plan my grocery shopping list but Papaya had other ideas!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Asian Tofu, Baby Bok Choy, and Mashed Potatoes

I'm proud of being able to make good tofu. It's simple, really, but there's a pretty steep learning curve and a lot of people - even a lot of restaurants - never really figure it out. I feel really confident about this, confident enough to serve tofu to omnivores who have their doubts. (I know you can't wait to visit me, Hillary.) Would you like some tips? WELL, HERE YOU GO.
  • Use the firmest tofu you can find. Trader Joe's extra-firm (in the white container with the red letters) is the best I've found. If you can't get that kind, be sure to press it for a good half hour. If you use Trader Joe's, there's no need for pressing.
  • Slice the tofu into 8 equal pieces and marinate, marinate, marinate. It doesn't really matter what the marinade is - just something tasty. I like to marinate it for most of the day but probably even an hour would be okay, as long as you're also planning to use the marinade in the cooking process.
  • Put the marinated slices in a hot, nonstick pan coated with oil. Pour over some of the marinade. And then LET IT SIT THERE AND DO NOT TOUCH IT. This is so key. For at least 5 minutes and probably longer, but it depends on how hot your pan is and how confident you are that you aren't going to burn it. But seriously, I have never burned tofu and I've let it sit there a long long time before. Sometimes I like to let it fry for a while before adding any marinade at all. If you do that, you can let it cook longer because the marinade makes it more likely to burn. At least, that's my instinctive feeling.
  • After a while flip it over. (Don't flip if the bottom side isn't starting to get nice and browned.) Pour in some more marinade. Then let it sit there again so the other side starts to cook.
  • After each side is to the partially cooked stage, you can start flipping more often and pouring more marinade over if you want, to ensure even cooking and nice flavor. I usually cook it down so that the marinade is a sticky glaze, almost.
  • Then you take it out of the pan and serve it with (or over) some kind of carb that will absorb some of the flavors.
So tonight I made some sweetish Asian tofu with a side of sauteed baby bok choy (topped with shallots and black sesame seed) and mashed potatoes. Totally delicious.

And then we ate this monstrosity for dessert. I made basic brownies yesterday but added 1 tsp of mint extract. They are insanely good. So we've been making sundaes with them - adding vanilla coconut milk ice cream, banana, and chocolate sauce.

Yeah. So now I'm going for a run.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Dill Basmati Rice with Chickpeas & Kale

This sounds boring but it was REALLY good.


Nice and lemony with a hint of cumin & coriander. We had a light dinner because the dessert plan was peppermint brownies topped with vanilla coconut milk ice cream and chopped banana. Afterward Ben said, "well, now I can die happy."

I Grilled!

After writing last week about how I never grill anymore, I started to want a really good veggie burger. Then we decided to have one of Ben's omnivore friends over for dinner, so I had to some up with something non-weird to feed him. This is what we had:

Grilled veggie burgers with avocado and fake bacon, spicy potato-corn salad, and cole slaw. Easy and yum!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I've been thinking a lot lately about the changes in the way I cook and eat since I became vegan - other than the obvious no meat/dairy/eggs thing.

The main one: I am constantly trying new things. People have this idea that a vegan diet is boring and repetitive, but I have found the exact opposite to be true (and, I'm willing to bet, most vegans would agree). Before veganism, I'd been cooking mostly vegetarian (sometimes meatier than others) for about twelve years. I had a whole list of standby dinners, and the majority of the time we ate something quick and easy that we'd had dozens of times before. I would usually make an effort to try a new recipe once or twice a week, but not always. I was in a rut without even realizing it. Now it feels like there are not enough days in the week to get to all of the things I want to try. I am constantly torn between wanting to re-make something we enjoyed and the impulse to try something new. It's fun!

Other changes:

- I go through insane quantities of garlic, ginger, lemons, and limes. Garlic especially. We use at least two heads per week, sometimes more.

- I bake more. I'm so curious about how vegan baking works that I find myself wanting to try out new recipes all the time. It's like I don't quite believe yet that vegan baked goods are going to work out - apparently five different batches of cookies in the past month has not yet convinced me. And two kinds of brownies.

- I don't grill things. It seems like a big pain in the ass just for tofu or vegetables.

- I eat less candy. This is partially because a lot of candy contains gelatin (hooves/tendons) or confectioner's glaze (beetles), but also because I have to read labels in order to find out - and when I read labels, I see all the other weird chemicals and dyes that are in candy and it makes me feel a little sick to my stomach. So I guess that's a good thing, right?

- I don't buy very many premade sauces or salad dressings anymore. This is because I've discovered homemade tastes better. It's a lot cheaper, too. Why it took me until going vegan to figure this out, I have no idea.

- I don't go out for lunch very much. The only fast and cheap lunch food I can come up with is Chipotle-type places, and I sure don't need to be eating a 1000 calorie burrito for lunch very often. There's are some other options near my work - a sushi restaurant and another Asian place with really good vegan food - but if Ben and I stop in for lunch at a real restaurant we come out $40 poorer. So we try not to do that too often either.

- I have different pantry staples. Notably, I've learned about and keep on hand nutritional yeast, vital wheat gluten, and silken tofu in my cabinets at all times. Chickpea and tapioca flours. Egg replacer! Lots of different kinds of raw nuts for uses in sauces and dressings. And sometimes I buy almond milk instead of soy. Soy milk isn't new for us, though; I've been a milk hater my whole life and have been using soy since 1999.

Going vegan has been a 100% positive experience. I eat a delicious, well-rounded, cruelty-free diet that keeps me engaged and satisfied, and that was the goal of the whole experiment in the first place. When I was considering trying this, a vegan friend said, "don't look at it as giving things up, but as an opportunity to try new things." At the time I thought that sounded like a good idea, but also a bit of a mind trick. But it wasn't! It's just true! I don't feel deprived, mainly because there isn't anything non-vegan that doesn't have a satisfying vegan replacement. (Except goat cheese. But let's not think about that right now.) I do think the palate changes after being vegan for a while - the idea of sitting down and eating a bunch of cheese is not appealing, and this is coming from someone who considered herself cheese-obsessed.

The only annoyance is limited options when I'm not at home. I have to review menus before we go anywhere, choose an ethnic restaurant (which, no matter the cuisine, almost always has good vegan food), or go to a place upscale enough that they will gracefully accommodate me. When we went to the FPS State Bowl last weekend I prepared and packed a bunch of food because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat whatever they served. Sometimes I have to bring my own food to work meetings, too, depending on where we order lunch from. And that's all fine, but it's an adjustment - a bigger adjustment, really, than actually giving up animal products. I don't like drawing attention to myself, and being vegan does sort of make you stand out. Still, I would rather stand out than eat a chicken sandwich.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Peanut-Sauced Soba Noodles with Seitan

Ben did something to the camera and I can't get the settings back. You would think that as an intelligent 34 year old I could figure out simple electronics, but I cannot. Thus, this picture didn't turn out very well.


It tasted GREAT, though. This is a recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance that I altered by switching up the noodles (Isa called for udon but Kroger didn't have any) and I added shiitake mushrooms because we love them.

I'm going to have to have a cooking hiatus for the next couple of days because we have a ton of various leftovers to eat up.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Lasagna and Cookies

Anyone who thinks being vegan is an easy way to get skinny needs to come and live with me.

This is the first cheeseless lasagna I've ever eaten, and I admit I was suspicious about how good it could be. I mixed tofu ricotta with a box of thawed frozen spinach and alternated that with edamame pesto to make the layers. It turned out great! Very flavorful and garlicky.


And then I decided to make cookies. I cannot be trusted with cocoa powder and chocolate chips in the house. These are Fudgy Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate chips and chopped dried cherries (from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar). They are DELICIOUS.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Shredded Seitan, Black Beans, and Yellow Garlic Rice

These recipes are all from Viva Vegan, and I've had my eye on this combination for quite a while. It requires a bit of prep work, though. You have to infuse oil with annatto (obtained at Mexican market) to use in the rice - that's what gives it the yellow color. You have to make seitan (or you could buy it, I guess, but pre-made seitan is expensive), and the beans are cooked from dry, which takes a few hours. So, I've been putting this off.


It was so good. These are all things I absolutely love. I could eat beans and rice every day, I think.

Weekend Cooking

I have been cooking like a crazy person this weekend. This is especially nuts when you consider I was up until 3:00 a.m. Friday night and that we didn't get home until around 2:30 Saturday afternoon.

Yesterday I made vegan chocolate pudding for the first time, but I think I cooked it too long - it was really thick! Next time I will either use less tapioca flour (the thickening agent) or take it off the heat a little quicker. These were the ingredients:


(That's sugar in the measuring cup.) All obtained at the regular grocery store!

Yesterday I also made steamed seitan and tofu ricotta in preparation for recipes to be eaten throughout the week.

Today I continued with the following:
- carrot raisin muffins (better than they sound)
- mock tzatziki (main ingredients: cashews and cucumber)
- annatto infused oil (for latin food)
- sofrito (just a mixture of garlic, onion, and green pepper, also for latin food)
- tomato sauce (for tomorrow's lasagna)
- edamame pesto (ditto)

And I also boiled up some chickpeas and black beans.

And finally, I made purple potato soup for our lunch. It was pretty weird - tasted like regular potato soup but it looked like black beans! Not very photogenic so you will have to use your imaginations.

Angel Cats


Nerdery!

For those who don't know, Ben and I are on the board of the North Carolina Future Problem Solving program, and we also evaluate booklets throughout the year and at the State Bowl. Because our coordinator lives in the mountains, we have been having the State Bowl at a church camp near Blowing Rock for the last couple of years. It was cold this year! We thought snow was behind us for the year but we were mistaken.

The lodge where we get to stay is nice, but the walls might as well not even exist. Paper thin. It was okay this year, but last year we were next door to a snorer and I hardly slept at all.



Sleepy evaluators! We were up until 3:00 a.m. working on booklets.





Here are some shots of the junior high skit competition. We've had to moderate in previous years, but this year we were just spectators. They're pretty hilarious.




Another fun FPS State Bowl! We do always have a good time. It's nice to be back in our 70 degree weather, though.