Pleasantly Plump Vegan

<3 <3 <3

2008-12-25T19:33:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a lovely day!

Alive but stressed to the max!

2008-11-17T14:02:00.003-05:00

Man, school is kicking my ass. Finances are also as source of worry . . . so, after I take the NET exam (to get into a nursing program)in January, I am going to try to get a part time job somewhere that can be flexible with my school schedule. So, even more of my precious study time can be occupied.

I have had ZERO motivation to cook these days, especially with Jared also in school.

Jared and I are going to Orlando for Thanksgiving to see Jared's family and then shortly there after, I am going to Tampa to visit with my family. Hope to get some good pictures in and maybe even some cooking.

I do have hopes of revitalizing this blog someday . . . but until then, hope everyone is doing well!

I want one!!!!

2008-09-17T12:32:00.003-04:00

My dad is too cool for school. He finally got another motorcycle after years without one. Take that oil companies!

Being a badass runs in my family.

Hope everyone is doing well . . . I am super busy as you might have guessed!

back to the grind

2008-08-29T01:14:00.007-04:00

Oh yeah . . . this semester is gonna be INTENSE. I'm only taking 3 class but 2 of them are Anatomy & Physiology classes (lecture and lab) so, I have my work cut out for me.
Also, our unlucky with money streak is not quite over either as we found out a bunch of stuff is wearing out on newer car (2006 Toyota Matrix) that is gonna cost us. I am not, however, giving up hope that things are gonna turn around for us because I know for a fact I have quite a few karma points banked.

I had my 29th birthday last week and I really cannot believe I am almost out of my twenties! Seriously, I don't feel that old and I don't think I look 29. It’s a strange feeling like my life is on warp speed now. What the hell happened?
Anyways, here are a few pics I took the past week.

Jared bought me (us) this AMAZING cookbook for my b-day (even though I said no presents!!!) and we love love love it. My Panda Drummer is peaking over and was mad impressed.

Well, I did say no presents but I also told Jared I wanted an aloe plant and of course he remembered. Surrounding the aloe plant is 3 figurines I picked up (pretty cheap too!) at different antique stores, as my own presents to myself. They looked sad and needed to come home with me. (in this pic, to the left is my Jesus Fish sculpture, which I'll show in next pick. To the right, is one of our wedding pics.)

I can't think of anything much cooler than a Jesus statue riding a Fish in the ocean (I actually made this for a ceramics class years back), that is being charged upon by a shiny white bad ass unicorn and having "Blinky" motor by. Nope, not much else cooler that that

. . . well, expect maybe these 2 Birthday pictures I was sent from my sister Erin of my nephew Gabriel. Gabriel is wearing a pirate outfit I picked out a long time ago that he can finally fit into.

Oh and the back view showing off his first "tattoo" printed on his bottom that says "Shiver Me Timbers" with a pirate ship. ARRRRH!
Is it possible to be both tough and adorable at the same time. Yep.

breaks should be about easy going, right?

2008-08-17T01:17:00.007-04:00

Let's see, I made all A's in my 3 summer courses and presently have a 4.0 GPA. This felt like a promising start to August. However, besides my lovely grades and overall healthy and happy family, this month has been kinda crappy so far . . . It all started with taking Sweetpea to the vet for all her shots and updates for the year that came out to about $250, then my 93 Ford Thunderbird (we call her the Dirty Bird) likes to give me the shit eye every now and again (the car version of giving the shit eye is by turning on the most dreaded CHECK ENGINE light). Oh, and because my birthday is this month, I had to get emissions testing done on the ole' Dirty Bird and pass for my license/registration to be renewed. We Passed!
Oh, and if all that wasn't enough, I found out I have to get a very expensive dental procedure done ASAP that won't be done anytime real soon because we just spent WAYYYYY too much on my tuition and books for fall semester.

Oh, and I turn 29 on Tuesday, August 19th AND that is the first day of my fall classes as well as the start of my last year of being in my 20's. Time to start thinking about, putting together and actually accomplishing my 30 before 30 list. I think the first on my 30/30 list will be organizing all of my random old pictures that should be respectively in proper photo albums instead of ratty ole' shoe boxes. There is quite a few and clearly, at my age, I would have a lot of OLD pictures.
I mean, I need to protect gems like this . . .

This was taken of me in Tampa, Fl when I was around 4 years old, blowing bubbles, lookin' sassy in my 1983 outfit, complete with some bad ass skates. Ah, to relive those carefree moments would rock.

Indian food could be the best thing ever.

2008-08-03T07:53:00.010-04:00

Making a full on Indian meal as my first attempt after about a 2-month cooking break was a gutsy move on my part. There isn't really a super fast way to make really great homemade Indian food, especially when you're a novice in the cuisine. I went to a local Indian grocery store this past week to get a couple things to help me through including some aged basmati rice and these two lovely products:

One of my favorite parts of eating out at an Indian restaurant is the gigantic spiced lentil cracker with chutney condiments they bring to the table when you arrive. I was on a mission to make these at home to enjoy. I found these lentil crackers at the store but wasn't 100% how I was going to handle and cook the large discs so I opted for the mini versions called Papad Jeera, which are the size of a small tortilla chip. These little babies are amazing to watch cook. As suggested from the various online sites I came across, these papads should be VERY slightly dampened with a touch of water and then let ALMOST completely dry again before cooking. I put a little oil in a small frying pan over medium heat and gently threw in the papads and watched in a matter of 5 seconds on one side and 5 seconds on the other side as they turned into the miniaturized versions of the one I always devour at restaurants. Besides purchasing tamarind-date sauce to dip these papads in, I also made another one of my favorite toppers at Indian restaurants: onion chutney. All I did was cook ground paprika, cumin and salt in a little oil for a few seconds, added a finely chopped Vidalia onion, tomato paste, sugar and a touch of tamarind date sauce. The onion in the chutney shouldn't really be too cooked but only heated to take the edge off and marry the flavors together . . . maybe 5 minutes? This chutney was pretty right on after being chilled for a few hours in the fridge.

So, just making these papads and the onion chutney took a while to make but I pushed through to make some of the best curry I have ever made at home. The main dish contained potatoes that I boiled whole before hand, cauliflower, peas, coconut milk, salt, and various spices such as coriander, cumin, chili powder, turmeric, fenugreek, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, bay, black pepper and mustard (there were a few more I can't recall now) as well as a half a can of coconut milk. Boy or boy was this tasty. It didn't have a spice/heat that hit you right away but rather came up from the back after a bite was swallowed. It wasn't a lingering spicy heat, which was pleasant.
Of course I made rice that complimented the curry perfectly. I prepped my aged basmati rice pilaf style in a bit of Earth Balance and these 5 lovely additives:

1 cinnamon stick, 5 whole cloves, 5 whole cardamom pods (green), 1 bay leaf and a pinch of saffron threads. I added a combo of water and coconut milk to the oil "cooked" rice and let it cook for about 20 minutes and fluffed it with a fork. Typically, I remove the spices so that people do not chomp down on one of those spicy bad boys accidentally.
I think the key to good Indian rice is to rinse the rice in a colander several times to get the excess white starchiness off. Just run it under water (or soak several times) until the water runs almost clear. Then let the rice totally dry out once again (you'll be surprised how fast this happens, actually) before adding to the oil. I swear this ensures that you won't get sticky, gummy rice but rather fluffy separated grains. I usually use a liquid to rice ratio of 2:1 (actually slightly less than 2 cups of liquid to 1 cup rice).

All and all, I was very happy with my first meal back, especially since it was so time consuming and labor intensive. And even after 2 days passing since this awesome meal, our house still has a lovely perfume of cooked Indian spices lingering.

Kitsch-tastic!

2008-08-01T11:34:00.013-04:00

Yeah!!! Summer term is over. Grades aren't out yet, but I think I did awesomely in all three classes. Oh, and get this . . . I really like chemistry now. It was pretty cool to start at something so abstract and have it built up into something amazingly complex and meaningful. Yeah, I know I'm a nerd.
To celebrate my summer courses ending, I made a trip over to Last Chance Thrift Store (Decatur location) to hunt for some treasures.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE 1970's kitschy designs and color schemes of yellow, avocado greens, browns and oranges. These magical color combos were a definite in the house I grew up in (*although I'm quite sure my folks would call them "tacky" or "hideous" instead of magical). I recall our kitchen being modest and a bit darker than other parts of the house due to the brown cabinets that overpowered the muted/pale yellow counter tops and linoleum floors (I think they were yellow . . . I'm getting old and my memory is fading). We had this amazing shaggy green carpet throughout the house and of course wood paneling on the walls in several rooms. I loved it!
One thing is for sure, I didn't grow up around fancy matching Pyrex glassware and I don't recall my mom hosting a Tupperware party at our house, but for some reason I am especially drawn to Pyrex casserole dishes and nifty Tupperware from that era. There is something about these things that are so comforting and really, really hard to pass up when I see them at a thrift store. Needless to say, I was super happy when I came upon 3 awesome items that only cost a total of $5.
The first thing I found were these matching Tupperware containers that didn't look quite deep enough to store salad dressing but clearly looked like some sort of container for a liquid condiment. After some research, I found out that these gems are oil and vinegar cruets. They are in very good shape and only cost $2 for the pair!!!

Next I found this crazy spaceship looking item that turned out to be a kitchen timer, made by Presto (Eames Era Space Age UFO design). I had a hard time finding out a lot about this particular gadget so, I'm not a 100% on the Eames Era tip, however, it was only a dollar, I needed a kitchen timer, it looks freakin cool and it works!

The last beauty I found was a Pyrex Woodland Brown Flower 1 quart casserole dish. It doesn't have a lid, but honestly, even when I have casserole dishes with glass lids, I hardly ever use them. This was $2, which is a little more than what I would spend on an incomplete piece, but it HAD to come home with me! It was practically begging me.

Now, I gotta start prepping for the Indian meal I am making for Jared tonight. It seems like I haven't made a decent meal in forever. I hope I didn't lose my touch in the kitchen and it turns out well enough to brag about.
I'll be visiting everyone's blog super soon!

as you can tell . . .

2008-07-10T17:12:00.003-04:00

I haven't blogged in a while. Jared has been doing most of the cooking these days and on the rare occasion I do cook, it's not really anything new or exciting. I really miss the inventive and experimentation side of cooking but I also really miss staying in touch with all my blog friends out there.

Anyways, I am still alive and still very much engrossed in my chemistry studies. My last final of this summer session is on July 30th and fall doesn't start until August 18th, so hopefully I'll be able to do some much needed cooking, blogging and catching up everyone during my little break.

Here's hoping that fall doesn't kick my ass like summer has.

still pleasantly plump (vegan),

lo

Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe Ice Cream Social

2008-06-21T01:21:00.005-04:00

How awesome is it that Atlanta's one and only vegan store, Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe, is having an ice cream social saturday night to celebrate their first year on Highland Ave anniversary.
They are the coolest.
We'll be there, will you? Hope so. You should be.

<3
Lori

Flying Saucer Snack Attack

2008-06-16T15:24:00.019-04:00

Like a broken record, I am still swamped. Besides conquering chemistry, a huge struggle for me has been bringing brain sustaining food with me to school on the days I am there for over 8 hours, that doesn't bore me. I like sandwiches and all but I certainly couldn't eat one everyday like Jared does, so I have been racking my brain as to what I could make that will ward off hunger and keep my taste buds happy. Part of the problem is that I forget to pack my lunch/snacks the night before and food in the morning just isn't very appetizing to me. Another issue is that what I do manage to pack isn't anything I am in the mood for later on. By the time I'm on campus and hungry, it's too late. So, besides boring sandwiches, I have been bringing apples, carrot sticks and sometimes chips or pretzels. For someone who enjoys food, this is not cutting it. I seriously don't know how parents pack a lunch for their kids everyday (or just about everyday)!!!

Anyways, my friend Ashley (Vegan Invasion), made an awesome cheese ball for the ICE pre-party a couple of Friday's ago that I have been thinking about ever since. It is seriously as good, if not better, than the original cheese ball it is based on . . . You know, the incredibly dense cream cheese and cheddar ball covered in nuts? I didn't have one set recipe but made this version from several recipes I found online. My version was simply Tofutti cream cheese, shredded vegan cheddar block (Galaxy Nutritional Foods), Earth Balance, nutritional yeast, vegan Worcestershire sauce, Bragg's Liquid Aminos, granulated garlic, cayenne pepper, liquid smoke (the key ingredient!), dried chives and a finely chopped green onion mixed until fluffy and smooth with an electric hand mixer. I had trouble forming it into a ball, so it became a spread with a top layer of roasted chopped almonds. I'm not sure how long it will last once Jared gets home, but my plan is to pack this up for lunch this week with some crackers, in addition to my carrot sticks and apple. Thanks for the idea Ashley!

p.s.- I LOVE this picture of my nephew, Gabriel, because he looks how my brain feels every night before I go to sleep.

Pasta Primavera

2008-06-11T13:45:00.008-04:00

This week has been one of my hardest weeks in recent memory . . . and it's not even over yet! So far this week, I've had 2 tests, a quiz, 2 chemistry lab experiments with write ups and several homework assignments all in a matter of 3 days, not counting all the studying time this past weekend. I had my 1st college exam in about 6 years AND it was a chemistry test. Ugh! I walked out feeling good about it, like I may have gotten an A, but alas, I ended up with a mid/high B. With my homework assignments, I'm not too far off from an A, but I can't say I'm not a little disappointed and discouraged, especially considering how much I KNOW I studied. Maybe I just needed to warm my brain up with this test???
Anyway, today was probably the 1st time I've cooked in a few weeks (well, thoughtful/not as fast cooking, anyway). This dish kinda reminds me of Pasta Primavera, minus the peas since I'm not a huge fan. All I did was blanch small-diced zucchini, yellow squash and broccoli florets in salted water. I cooked some thin spaghetti and just added my homemade nutritional yeast/garlic dressing over it and tossed in the crisp veggies. The heat from the spaghetti and veggies warmed up the dressing perfectly. It turned out really great compared to the veggie burger, tater tot or cereal meals I have been having. If I make this again, hopefully I'll have some fresh herbs to perk it up a bit.

Now I'm gonna do some much needed laundry and more chemistry crap (sorry to be a baby about this class but you have no idea what I'm dealing with in my classes as far as professor "teaching" styles and obnoxious/disruptive classmates.)

Tootsie Pop

2008-06-09T22:22:00.008-04:00

This past Saturday, Jared went to the Indie Craft Experience at Centennial Park while I stayed home and studied for chemistry. He said it was a good thing I didn't go because it was super-duper hot and there were way too many cute things that I would have wanted to buy. Being the sweetheart Jared is, he brought me back a very cute owl made by Love Yu (sorry I couldn't find a working website). I have named him Tootsie Pop because he reminded me of a modern version of Mr. Owl from the kitschy 70's Tootsie Pop commercial. He has off centered eyes, which makes him even more adorable to me, plus the colors are one of my favorite color combos: brown, blue and orange. He was a nice surprise to get after a stressful day of isotopes, unit-factor conversions and atomic structure. Now I just have to play defense with Sweetpea because she is fascinated with Tootsie Pop and wants him to be one of her babies to play with.

i am spent

2008-06-05T19:55:00.005-04:00

I'm sure you can tell from the lack of posting/commenting, school has taken over my life. I am pretty much at school or doing something for school from 8 in the morning until I go to sleep around 11 every night. It's madness how much work I have, especially for my chemistry class and lab. I seriously don't remember college being this rough . . . but I have been out for about 6 years. Plus, summer session is only about 8 weeks, so it is like whirlwind and flash taking 3 classes in that short amount of time. Not the best way to start college, but I only have 6 more weeks!
Jared and I are seriously on opposite schedules, so I barely get to hang out with him these days. Sucks a lot! Nearly as horrible is that my eating habits have gone down the drain. My head has been so into books that I have been not eating all that much. I have a hard time breaking away from studying and feel a bit guilty when I know I could be doing extra work . . . so, forget cooking and baking for fun. It's basically survival eating, which is not fun at all.
I was feeling bad for not making anything special for Jared, so last night during a brief break, I made an open-faced style apple turnover bake with all the apples we've had a round for a while and a frozen puff pastry I have been wanting to get out the house. It was just okay. Not my best creation, but it didn't stop us from eating it. If we had a little soy ice cream on top, it would have been so much better (as so many things are!)

despite the craziness, we have still been eating

2008-05-28T07:20:00.007-04:00

I have had my face buried in textbooks and been so in my head lately, that I just haven't had much free fun time to catch up on everyone's blog or even update my own too often. Mad props to all my blog friends who have busier schedules than myself and still manage to keep up with our interactions. I need to pencil in my blog time, for sure!
This past weekend, although a very sad one, did include some good food. Since Jared and I couldn't officially celebrate our third wedding anniversary last Wednesday (since Jared was working), we ended up going to one of our favorite places, Doc Chey's, for lunch on Friday. I got my very favorite dish there called Spicy Garlic Eggplant with Tofu.

On Saturday we made taco salads for lunch. I cooked up some tofu crumbles with chili powder, cumin, cayenne, salt and black pepper along with a can of drained kidney beans and a splash of salsa to put atop a bowl of chopped romaine lettuce, diced tomatoes, chopped avocado and diced red onion. Since it was a salad, we used my dad's tostada vinaigrette that we call Rex Sauce (mixture of white vinegar, water, canola oil, salt and sugar) and a splash of sweet Thai chili sauce. I also placed a few corn chips on the side to crunch over top. Yum!

On Saturday night, I was feeling like having a good ol' plate of food that is good for the soul. I made fried tofu triangles that were coated in cornmeal, chipotle powder, chili powder, cumin, lemon zest and salt (inspired by the Chili-Cornmeal Crusted Tofu out of Veganomicon) along with some Cajun style red beans and rice and corn on the cob. I'm sad to say that the red beans and rice was a tad bit disappointing but what else might you expect from a packaged product? The tofu was addictive and the corn was sweeter than pie!

Okay, so after class today, dropping off the recycle items, laundry and studying, I really hope to catch up on everyone's blog today!!!

a very sad weekend

2008-05-25T08:29:00.006-04:00

It feels weird to be posting about food this weekend, so I'm not going to. A friend of Jared's, who was also Jared's best friend Hank's roommate/friend, Thomas, passed away this Friday. He had been battling cancer since he was a kid and unfortunately, he didn't make it through. I knew Thomas just as acquaintances, who I really only saw out at clubs, bars or parties, but he was very well known and loved by a ton of people back in Tampa, a few of whom are mutual friends of mine. I know this must be tough for anyone who knew him, his family and girlfriend, because it has been a tough couple of days for me. It is so sad to see Jared and Hank heart broken by the loss of a friend/brother, especially Hank who lived with Thomas for several years. Thomas was a great guy who was very funny/witty and had a smile I always looked forward to seeing.

This pic was taken quite a while back, before Thomas got super sick again, but it includes Jared's best friend Hank (on the left), Jared in the middle and Thomas (on the right).

disaster cupcakes made with love

2008-05-21T17:27:00.015-04:00

*Update* Jared actually liked the "frosting." I believe him since he ate 3, one right after the other!

Jared and I are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary today! Well, we are at least acknowledging it because Jared is working tonight and won't be home until late. I still wanted to make today extra special, so I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter “frosting.”
I got both the cupcake recipe (pg. 37) and frosting recipe (pg. 151) out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The cupcake part turned out perfectly moist, rich and chocolaty, much like a Devil's Food cake. The peanut butter frosting on the other hand was just plain awful.
I'm not sure how people make a perfectly "fluffy" frosting, but I have never had any luck, vegan or not. I know it can be done, as I have eaten my fair share of homemade cupcakes, including way too many at my first vegan potluck I attended. I know it can be light and airy with the perfect balance of fat, sugar and flavor, but whatever disaster I whipped up today wasn't it. Mine turned out greasy, way too sweet and a thick and somewhat separated goo. Even though I was expecting a pillow of whipped peanut butter atop the perfect chocolate cupcake, I wouldn't have minded the texture of the frosting so much if the taste wasn't so bland. Really, it just tasted like oily powdered sugar with little evidence of peanut butter flavor. For some reason though I was hopeful that the peanut butter goo would match up all right with the chocolate cupcake but that was just wishful thinking. Oh well.
Since the cupcake part did turn out so well, I think I may just scrape the frosting off and save the bottoms to eat with a cold glass of soymilk when Jared gets home tonight.

While it would have been nice to make the perfect cupcake to surprise Jared with, today isn't about that. Today is about making something with all my love for someone I am so lucky to be married to. Disaster or not, I know Jared will appreciate the effort!

Tester Meatless Balls

2008-05-18T19:32:00.003-04:00

While I haven't been too active in the kitchen with my own recipes, I did get around to testing Grammy's Meatless Balls for Happy Herbivore. Jared and I ate these up really fast and we both think Lindsay is a genius. I see myself making these meatless balls again and again.
Can't you just see the possibilities with these babies!

Although I could have (and did) just eat these straight up, I made a quick and simple spaghetti and meatless ball dish. Awesome!

Dangerous Brownies

2008-05-12T15:21:00.009-04:00

When I became vegan, like the rest of you, I thought that some of my favorite childhood recipes would be completely out of the question. This was especially true regarding the “Killer Brownie” recipe my step mom, Delia, is famous for. If I recall, her brownie recipe was simply sugar, flour, eggs, butter and some sort of extract such as vanilla, almond or orange. Somehow, these few ingredients (and tons of them) baked into magical bite-sized squares that could be devoured in a day or two. They were dangerous but amazing. I never thought any vegan brownie recipe could match up to Delia’s Killer Brownies until I made Hannah Kaminsky’s Crumb-Topped Brownies out of My Sweet Vegan.
Due to some personal preferences, I did make a couple changes to Hannah's recipe. I am not a huge fan of cherries, so instead of using black cherry soy yogurt, I used raspberry soy yogurt. Raspberries and chocolate are one of my favorite combos, so this was a good move for my taste buds. I also left out the instant coffee powder because coffee isn't too kind on my body. I do love coffee and I know what it does in chocolate dessert recipes, so I can only imagine how awesome the hint of coffee would have been. Along with the vanilla extract, I added a touch of almond extract. The crumb topping and the chocolate chips were a nice touch and made me feel like I was eating a gourmet brownie you’d get at a fancy pants bakery, but honestly, I could’ve skipped the topping and left out the chocolate chips and they still would have been ranked one of the best brownies out there. While Hannah’s recipe does have quite a few more ingredients than my step mom’s recipe and created a sink full of mixing bowls, spoons and measuring cups, they are just as rich, fudgy, decadent and deadly as the Killer Brownies I grew up on.

laptop issue

2008-05-10T06:47:00.018-04:00

**Update** My laptop might still be under warranty!

I'm sorry I haven't been reading everyone's blogs in the past week. The connector jack on my laptop (the jack that connects the adapter to the computer) decided to short circuit and is no longer able to charge my computer, which is apparently a rather common thing on Gateways. Thankfully, we have a second computer, a Mac, that Jared uses for music stuff so I can make this quick update and check my emails. The Mac has also started to be a troublemaker and so I try not to use it for long periods of time. Hopefully, within the week we will be able to have my laptop up and running again and I can catch up with everyone!!!
Thank you to all who wished me congrats on my one-year vegan anniversary and one-year Atlanta anniversary. You rock! Also, to make a very long day short, my orientation went well and I am officially a student again. My In State tuition status was accepted which means cheap tuition! I start my first three summer session classes on May 27th. Two of the three classes this summer are chemistry and a chemistry lab. I haven't had any chemistry studies since I was a freshman at FSU in 1997 and its been 6 years since I graduated from USF, so it's also been a while since I was in a college setting. Yikes!
Just for kicks, I found a picture of one of my very first days at FSU taken June of 1997! My baby brothers Drew (in the red, who is now 19) and Stephen (next to me, who is about to turn 22 in a few weeks) and my beautiful mom are also in the picture. I remember this day as if it just happened yesterday and cannot believe that this picture was taken about 11 years ago when I was a fresh-faced and very smiley 17-year-old freshman.

Orientation Smoothie Shake, Bikes!

2008-05-08T07:10:00.005-04:00

**Update** Jared has informed me he put his break back on his bike.

I am not one to eat breakfast when I wake up but I have my orientation this morning at the college and know I'll need something in my belly to help me pay attention. I made a very filling smoothie shake out of vanilla soymilk, a frozen banana and a handful of frozen strawberries. I seriously doubt the campus will have any thing to munch on today and the orientation lasts about 4 hours, so I may have to pack a snack.

Oh, and I also wanted to show off our bikes. We went biking in downtown Decatur on the Trail this past weekend and had a lot of fun. It's starting to get hot though!
My bike is the pink Schwinn cruiser bike and Jared's is the orange IRO fixed gear/no break. I'm thinking about selling my cruiser bike and getting a fixed gear myself, although I personally would like to have a break on mine. Jared is super into bikes, so it would be a nice hobby for us to share together. You can check out Jared's blog here.

I love this picture of Jared!

a weekend of two anniversaries

2008-05-04T09:27:00.009-04:00

It was this weekend last year that I moved from Tampa, Fl to the Atlanta, Ga area. It has truly been one of the best years of my life. Mind you, I do miss living near our families, but it was always a dream of mine to move to Atlanta, and Jared and I made it happen. We are close to the mountains (my favorite scenery) and we actually had four distinct seasons instead of just two seasons in Florida (too hot and not as hot). I got to enjoy snow for the first time in my life (at least that I can recall . . . I was, after all, born in Indiana). In this year, I decided to make a career change by going back to school, something I probably wouldn't have done in Tampa because I had a comfortable job there. I got to experience life as a homemaker on accident since finding a job here has proved to be almost impossible. Lastly, one of the biggest things this year has brought was a complete lifestyle change by becoming vegan.
This weekend marks my one-year anniversary of being a vegan! Deciding to live a cruelty free life has been one of the most satisfying changes in my life. I don't miss anything about being an omnivore because I have exponentially improved my cooking and baking skills by recreating my old favorites. I had a 40 drop in my cholesterol levels, love that I am no longer tempted to eat at 99% of the restaurants I would have in the past and maybe most importantly, my soul just feels so much better knowing that I am not contributing to any suffering for our gastronomical cravings or fashion needs.
Jared helped me celebrate my one year vegan anniversary by taking us out to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in Atlanta: Soul Vegetarian. We rarely eat out now that we are savings for school costs, so when I get to eat at Soul Veg, I do it up right.
Most meals here start with a nice little salad with their famous Prince Dressing (which is what I loosely base our homemade house dressing on).

Jared also got a small bowl of Orange Lentil soup with his salad.

For my main meal (not the greatest picture), I got what I affectionately call, the "brown plate" which includes BBQ cauliflower (deep fried battered cauliflower drenched in BBQ sauce . . . trust me it is sooo good) and 2 sides. I almost always get their famous mac and cheese with onion rings. I could be less naughty and get collard greens or broccoli for a side but it's hard to pass up the mac and cheese and the BEST onion rings on the planet.

Jared got his usual tofu sandwich with onion rings. This sandwich kinda has a fried fish thing to it since it's dredged in a cornmeal batter and then placed on a bum with their homemade tarter sauce. You can't go wrong with this!

If lunch at one of my favorites places wasn't enough, Jared also took me to Abbadabbas and bought me pair of new flip-flops. I love shoes, generally, but I almost always wear flip-flops. I had my last pair for so long and wore them so often that the bottoms were completely slick. It feels weird breaking in these new flip-flops but I love them so much!

What's the best way to celebrate two anniversaries? Ice cream, of course! I have an ice cream maker but didn't have time to make a base to chill and then freeze, so we went to Whole Foods and picked up some Purely Decadent, my favorite brand of soy ice cream. They were on sale too! I was in a chocolate mood but they were all out so I tried a new flavor called Turtle Trails, which has caramel sauce, chocolate covered pecan pralines in vanilla ice cream. YUM!!!

peanut butter-oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies

2008-05-01T20:43:00.004-04:00

Jared has been working really long, weird hours this week, so I made him these cookies. I used the Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal cookie recipe from VWaV but added a handful of chocolate chips because Jared loves chocolate and peanut butter together (I don't know many people who don't though). I halved the recipe so we wouldn't have too many cookies around the house and instead of making 12 big cookies I decided to make "normal" sized cookies (which yielded about 20 cookies) so we wouldn't feel as guilty eating more than one! They aren't big or gigantoid but they are pretty damn amazing.

the awesome, the awful, the so-so

2008-04-29T16:10:00.012-04:00

I haven't felt very hungry lately and so, I haven't been super inspired to cook or bake. I think this may be a good time to thumb through my many cookbooks for ideas and inspiration. This week especially, it seems more often than not, I just haven't been very satisfied by anything I eat . . . even stuff I normally love.
I'll start with something I wasn't even in the mood for (but Jared was) that ended up being really awesome. Keeping in line with my plan to get rid of aging pantry/fridge/freezer items, I made a tofu potato skillet type breakfast with red potatoes, firm tofu, red and orange bell peppers (sliced and frozen), a part of a red onion from the fridge and a ton of dried spices and spice blends. In one big frying pan I steamed then fried red potatoes in canola oil with salt, black pepper and a healthy dose of Sarah Kramer's "Needs a Little Extra" spice blend out of La Dolce Vegan! Once the potatoes were cooked through, I added the slightly thawed bell peppers that I ran my knife through along with the diced red onion. In a smaller separate pan, I fried up diced and then slightly smashed tofu in a little canola oil with yet another spice blend, the tofu scramble seasoning mix out of Yellow Rose Recipes. Once the veggies were cooked and the tofu was crisp, I combined the two in the big frying pan and added a touch of maple syrup. The two spice blends married perfectly and of course everything taste better with a little maple syrup.

Now, the awful. I never thought a salad could be bad, but I was wrong. I cut up a head of Romaine (that was a bit bitter), sliced grape tomatoes, shredded carrot, a couple green onions, half an avocado, a few crunched up crackers, a shake of Bacos and my favorite homemade house dressing. I was going for a Chopped Cobb Salad. Besides the lettuce being bitter, the grape tomatoes weren't sweet at all, the avocado was funky, the Bacos overpowered everything and I used way too much dressing.

And the so-so . . . Jared personally loved these nuts, but I thought they were just okay. I have been munching on nuts lately and was in the mood for a candied spice mixed nut blend. So, last night for a sweet snack, I melted Earth Balance with corn syrup (another pantry item I want out of my kitchen, for good), sugar, cinnamon, freshly ground nutmeg, vanilla, salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. I mixed in raw cashews, roasted almonds and raw pecan pieces (all from the freezer), placed the sticky mixture on a cookie sheet and baked for about 13 minutes. I let these cool on parchment paper. After about an hour of cooling, I was able to break apart the pieces. These kinda tasted like brittle that was assaulted by Christmas. I could barely taste the cinnamon because the fresh nutmeg overwhelmed all the other flavors, even the natural roasted nut flavor. Next time I'll leave out the nutmeg and add some chili powder instead. Thank goodness Jared digs it, because I'm not a huge fan.

Kitchen Clean Out = Beans & Rice

2008-04-28T17:19:00.016-04:00

Spring-cleaning has still got a hold of me! The past few days I have been throwing clutter away (which is really, really hard for me) and reorganizing the whole apartment. Part of my reorganization plan is cleaning out the kitchen cabinets/fridge and using up items that I know are getting a bit old.
On my last trip to Tampa, my Dad shared his pillow-sized sack of jasmine rice with us, so I needed to use my old supply. We also have way too many dried beans (if there is such a thing) and so I decided to make plain old black beans with rice, with a side of fried plantains and an avocado tomato salad. The beans were cooked in water, garlic, onion, olive oil, dried oregano and sofrito (that has been lurking in my fridge for way too long) for a few hours. The beans weren't nearly as good as my Dad's but they filled me up none the less. The rice wasn't all that. I don't think my (almost always) trusty steamer cooked the rice very well. It was a tad on the al dente side, which is not a good feature in rice. The avocado and tomato salad was simply an avocado, tomato, red onion, red wine vinegar, salt and olive oil. The plantains were perfectly sweet and fried in canola oil. Dessert and side dish all in one!
Since I have been so busy with stuff around the house, this meal not only got rid of a few items in my kitchen but also gave me a much needed energy boost.

Spring Cleaning Pizza Party

2008-04-26T16:01:00.007-04:00

Man, I'm beat. Jared and I have been cleaning like crazy today. It actually started last night with us taking everything out of our little computer room/nook, scrubbing it down and reorganizing the whole room in order to make it a haven for me to get some serious studying done once school starts. Then, before we knew it the rest of the house became shiny and new. To reward our immaculate surroundings (at least to our standards), I decided to throw Jared and I a mini pizza party. I made the pizza dough from VWaV in my bread machine (on the dough setting), and it turned out awesome! I made 2 pizzas, which were a little bigger than personal-pan size, both with tomato sauce, Teese, veggie pepperoni, garlic salt, dried oregano, nutritional yeast and red pepper flakes. I would've added extra stuff like bell peppers and onions, but I was so wore out from cleaning. Seriously, if you can get your hands on some Teese, make a pizza ASAP! So freakin good!!!

I even made a sweet pizza with the left over pizza dough that had cinnamon and sugar! Jared said it was really good but I think if I made this again, I'll roll the dough out thicker to form bread sticks. Perhaps I'll make a Tofutti cream cheese icing to drizzle over it too.

Good News Muffins

2008-04-24T21:12:00.004-04:00

Not only is it my Dad's birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!) but I also found out I was accepted into school to start this summer! Whoa Whooo! Granted, I still have a lot of work to do before I can apply to the actual nursing program, but at least I am finally able to take the prerequisites to get the ball rolling. I am still working on the residency issue, but hopefully I will get that cleared up before orientation in a few weeks. So, I am relieved I finally got in. Now the real work starts!
As usual, when I'm a little on edge, I like to be in the kitchen. Today, I made these beautiful 4 Berry Banana Muffins to clear my mind. I typically use soy yogurt in my muffins but I didn't have any so I used a mashed up banana and added lemon juice to the soymilk. Also, since fresh berries are pricey, I used frozen mixed berries that included blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries.

Can you tell I <3 muffins?

stir fried rice, grilled Teese sandwich

2008-04-23T13:12:00.016-04:00

Jared gets off of work kinda late so I try to make stuff that tastes amazing reheated. This week I cut to the chase and made 2 of my favorite dishes into 1: Stir Fried Rice. Early in the day I steamed jasmine rice and let it hang out at room temperature. When I was ready to eat I fried up a block of tofu in canola oil and set it aside. I diced a broccoli crown as well as a small zucchini along with a shredded 1/4 of a green cabbage and placed the washed veggies in a colander. I slowing poured boiling water over the veggies in the colander to slightly steam/wilt the veggies so they wouldn't be raw in my fried rice. I then fried up my cooked jasmine rice with a bit of canola oil, sesame oil and sesame seeds until the edges were browned and crispy. I added the steamed veggies in with the rice with a little Hoi sin sauce, soy sauce and red pepper flakes. At the last minute I combined the fried tofu. I topped it all off with chopped green onions and more black and white sesame seeds. This was nothing ground breaking but Jared really, really enjoyed it after a long day at work.

Is it true that one of my favorite foods of all times is back: Grilled Cheese!? Thanks to Teese and Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe for carrying it, we can again enjoy a grilled cheese sandwich when nothing else will do.
I'm not gonna lie, the very first grilled cheese I made with Teese didn't blow me away. The problem? I cut the Teese (insert joke here) too thick and it overwhelmed the whole sandwich. It tasted too soy milky and got really juicy/drippy when it melted (kinda like Buffalo mozzarella when it's melted). Plus I didn't think it was salty enough and kinda tasted like dill (not my most favorite thing). So, for my second grilled Teese sandwich, I cut the Teese thinner and added a bit of garlic salt, which gave it a salty bite and toned down the dill taste. Both times I made this I did add thin sliced tomatoes because I don't know about your tomatoes right now, but ours (from Florida which we got at our local farmers market) are so wonderful. Sweet, full tomato flavor and bright red! Plus I think grilled cheese sandwiches are a little boring without sliced tomato.
Perfection on a plate!

The price of Teese wasn't too bad either, about $8 for a pound of it (I have definitely spent more on an imported cheese before). I'm not sure it will be something we will always have around, because I could dangerously eat too much of it, but it is certainly the best non-animal milk cheese I have had since becoming vegan and I am thrilled I CAN have a decent grilled cheese sandwich once again.

Grapefruit Marmalade: A Total Failure

2008-04-22T14:21:00.006-04:00

I'm sad to report that grapefruit marmalade is probably the worst thing I've ever made. I've had homemade grapefruit marmalade before, so I know it can be a great success but the batch I made tasted like we were eating aspirin like you'd eat candy. In short, it was the most bitter thing ever to touch my taste buds. Jared couldn't even pretend to like it and he is usually very excited about anything I make. It was so bad, I won't bother to tell you how I made it . . . just know it's not around the house anymore. The worst part is, the recipe used a TON of sugar. It was also a 2 day process and required a lot of stirring over a hot stove. I feel so wasteful tossing it, but there was no way we could choke it down. Anyway, I can cross that off my list of things to do to use up grapefruit. You've been warned!

What a shame, huh?

the Sunshine State

2008-04-21T11:48:00.027-04:00

Jared and I got back from another one of our quick and fully packed Florida weekend trips. Jared did great in the bike race in St. Pete but did manage to get a bit sunburned in the strangest places like on the very tops of his knees, the back of one of his calves, and the top of his left hand. I guess it makes sense if you think about what is exposed when you ride a bike. Sunburns aren't funny, but it is a little comical to see him with random red patches and not in the usual spots like his face or arms.
We stayed with my dad and step mom the whole trip, which always means loads of good food. Unfortunately, I only took pictures of the last meal we had together and only because my dad reminded me. My baby nephew, Gabriel, was an adorable distraction. I got to hang out with sister, Erin, all day Saturday but my poor brother-in-law, Mike, had to work, so I only got to see him for a short time at dinner. While I didn't get to meet up with my busy little brother, I did get to see my Aunt Jennie, who brought the most lovely homegrown nasturtiums. If you have never had nasturtiums, they are a peppery edible flower. They look gorgeous on any plate, but I think they are the most beautiful in salads.
Our last meal on Saturday night was a mostly vegan Southern veggie plate. The vegan items we had included: squash, pole beans, vinaigrette coleslaw, baked sweet potatoes, tomato slices and marinated cucumbers. I also added an orange nasturtium to my plate. The only non-vegan thing made was cornbread, of which I of course didn't eat a piece of. For dessert, my dad and I made a vegan apple crisp and of course, I forgot to take a picture of it. I was very proud that my family ate a mostly vegetarian, if not a vegan, diet while we were in town. (This isn't the best picture because the lighting wasn't ideal for these shades.)

On our way back to Atlanta, we stopped to see my Grammie and Poppie, who live near Ocala, Florida. As usual, they unloaded a TON of fresh grapefruit from their trees (aren't we so lucky???). Somehow we managed to bring home 2 huge shopping bags packed to the brim with grapefruit. In fact, if you live in or around Atlanta, let me know if you'd like a few (leave me a message and we will try to meet up with you, if I know you). We have more than we could ever eat. I'm not sure what I am going to do with them other than juice or eat them, but I see sorbet in my future. If anyone has any grapefruit ideas, let me know! We have more than double than this picture shows.

For breakfast, I just cut off all the skin and cubed one up. It was super juicy, a bit sour and a little sweet. It was essentially, the best grapefruit!

mini vacation, Apple Crisp tester muffins

2008-04-16T20:23:00.005-04:00

Tomorrow we are off to Florida for a mini vacation! Jared is riding in a bike race in St. Pete on Saturday and I'm tagging along to visit my family who live in Tampa (St. Pete is only a bridge away from Tampa). It'll be cool to hang out with my dad and step mom, doing what we do best: cooking, talking about cooking, watching cooking shows. With all the crazy stuff going on with me trying to get into school and Jared surviving tax week, it will be a well deserved break from real life. Plus I get to see my sister, brother-in-law and new baby nephew Gabriel! I might even get to see my little brother, who is attending U.S.F, which are both mine and Jared's Alma mater and where we met.
As I mentioned before, I am a recipe tester for Happy Herbivore. Since we will be gone this weekend, I had to test the Apple Crisp Muffins before I left . . . plus, we do need a snack for the long car ride tomorrow (which is about 7-8 hours). I seem to be stuck on her muffins, which is a good thing because I love muffins!

making bagels and building a better compound

2008-04-14T17:04:00.028-04:00

Man, I am so stressed out with school stuff. Like many of you out there, when stress overwhelms me there is nothing like kitchen therapy. After I got done going to the college to turn in more proof of my residency, I came home and decided to make bagels. Although a bit labor intensive, these were relatively easy to make. I got the recipe from here. For anyone who hasn't made bagels before there are essentially 3 steps: making the dough (mixing, kneading, rising, shaping and rising again), boiling the shaped bagels and then baking the boiled (and like mine, seasoned) bagels. The best part about this process was actually rolling the dough into bagels shapes. There are a few ways to shape bagels but I used the "rope method" which is when you roll a strip of dough out into a rope (go figure), wrap it around your four fingers, press the ends together and roll the seam side on the counter top or cutting board to essentially twist the ends together so they won't unravel during the boiling time. It takes a couple times to get it right but it's fun figuring it out. I like the recipe over all because the bagel turned out chewy but I did think there was a bit too much sugar and not enough salt in the bagel itself. Next time I'd bake the bagels a little longer as well. I did take pictures at every step, but I'll just show the before and after shots.
Shaped, risen and about to be boiled:

Boiled and dunked in an "everything" blend that included poppy seeds, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, garlic flakes, onion flakes and salt, just before baking:

Out of the oven:

What might taste lovely with a homemade bagel? How about a little homemade compound butter made with Whipped Earth Balance, fresh basil and a little fresh garlic? Sounded good to me, and it was. There were a lot of flavors going on but my palate can handle it.

If you want to make your own compound butter all you need to do is take whipped Earth Balance (you could use non-whipped, but it won't be as fluffy) and mix in just about any finely chopped fresh herb (chives, basil, sage, thyme, parsley, garlic), dried spice (chipotle or regular chili powder, paprika, black pepper) and/or even a bit of lemon or lime zest. You can also make sweet compounds with maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, orange zest, alcohol (rum, tequila, amaretto), nuts and/or fresh fruit to put on pancakes, waffles or French toast. It is easiest to work with room temperature (or semi-room temperature) Earth Balance. If you are putting a liquid in, such as maple syrup or alcohol, only put a tablespoon or two in or else it may never set back up. The flavor combos are endless and only limited by your imagination. You don't even need any special gadgets, just a bowl and a spoon or spatula. Once it is all mixed together put it in a bowl with a lid to keep it in the fridge to use as a spread. If you want to be more fancy pants though, you can place the compound on a piece of plastic wrap, form it into a log and freeze it until it sets, like I did. Whether you use it as a spread or slice it into discs, savory compounds taste awesome on bread, baked potatoes, corn on the cob (or whatever steamed veggie you’d like), pasta or on a piece of grilled tofu. It will keep about 5 days in the fridge (if it lasts that long) or in the freezer for about a month. Fresh herb compounds or ones that include fresh fruit should be used fairly quickly though, as they will spoil on you and start to turn brown and not taste that great.

Cold Udon Noodle Salad for Jared

2008-04-13T12:01:00.016-04:00

AW, poor Jared. It's Sunday yet again and that means he is off to do a 12-hour shift at his job that is 30-45 minutes away (on Sundays . . . it's much longer on weekdays with more traffic). It rained the past 2 days here, which means Jared didn't get to ride his bike around town too much. Plus it seems to only rain on his days off. And the final kicker? Today is one of the most gorgeous days so far this year. Its chilly, breezy but crazy sunny and everything is green. Its a "go on a picnic" kinda day really. He's super grumpy about it and I really do feel bad for him. Plus I miss him like crazy.
So, I thought the very least I could do was to make him a big lunch that he can snack on throughout his long day. I made a HUGE batch of cold udon noodle salad with Chinese eggplant (a less bitter variety of the Japanese eggplant), orange bell pepper, fried tofu, green onions and black sesame seeds. The "dressing" for the salad included peanut butter, soy sauce, maple syrup, a healthy dose of Sriracha, sesame oil, chili oil, water, garlic, ginger (which I didn't have enough of) and rice wine vinegar. I wish I had used lime juice instead of the rice wine vinegar, which made the background too acidic without enough flavor to justify the acidity. I fried the tofu in canola oil with a little salt and drained them on a paper towel. In a screaming hot pan, I sautéed the eggplant chunks and orange bell pepper strips until they were just wilted. I think if not for the black sesame seeds and green onions, this wouldn't have been as good.
Jared said he enjoyed it, so I'm a happy lady.

farmers market loot, bruschetta, tester muffins

2008-04-12T20:16:00.012-04:00

Since Jared was working on his bike today, I went to the farmers market. I always forget how much I dislike that place on the weekend until I am already there. It gets so packed and people have no rhyme or reason in the parking lot or navigating in the aisles. A normal 30-minute trip took me about an hour and a half!!! I am already someone who doesn't like crowds, so I didn't enjoy myself as I usually do when I go on a weekday. We desperately needed some fresh produce, so it was worth it, I suppose. I got a lot more stuff than in this picture but I just liked the way this picture turned out, so I'm sharing it. I LOVE the Chinese eggplant. It's seriously one of my favorite things right now. It doesn't have too many seeds and is a gorgeous purple when raw and kinda has a blue hue to it when it is cooked. I also scored some basil, which is always great. Also pictured is some parsley, tomatoes, a sweet onion, orange and green bell peppers, avocado and bananas.

For some reason I haven't had the biggest appetite lately so I ended up just making bruschetta tonight for dinner. My version has Roma tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt, sugar, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I got the French bread from the farmers market and toasted it up with a little olive oil. One of my all time favorite simple spring/summer meals.

I am happy to report that I am a recipe tester for a cookbook Happy Herbivore is writing. The first recipe I tested (for her or anyone other than myself) was the Raspberry Cream Cheese Muffins.

It is super exciting to help contribute to someone's culinary ventures. I can't wait to see what I get to make next!!! Stay tuned.

break from a very trying day

2008-04-09T18:19:00.007-04:00

UGH! Getting into school is so frustrating. I don't even know how I handled this the first time I went to college at 17/18 years old. I was informed today I gotta do a million more things despite thinking I had everything in order to get in this summer. I'll spare you the details but I ran into a roadblock with my transcripts, in state tuition petition and can't get the same answer from different "advisers" letting me know exactly what I need or don't need to take to get into the nursing program. Anyway, I've been stressed and haven't felt like cooking, or even eating for that matter. I know I need to keep my head clear to deal with this Dilbert-esque college, so, to clean out my fridge and get a power punch of nutrients, I made a veggie plate for dinner tonight. I roasted a head of cauliflower with olive oil, salt and Herbes de Province as well as a broccoli spears and a bunch of asparagus in olive oil, salt and black pepper. Needing some comfort, I also made some smashed potatoes with an Earth Balance, garlic, maple syrup and nutritional yeast sauce.

For dessert, my favorite fruit in the world, WATERMELON!!!!
.
I can always count on my sister Erin to send me pics of my adorable nephew, Gabriel. He always makes me smile, even on the worst of days.

YRR Goddess Pasta Salad

2008-04-08T13:17:00.008-04:00

My buddy Ashley (the awesome potluck organizer) made my favorite savory dish at the potluck, the Goddess Pasta Salad out of Yellow Rose Recipes. I managed to make Jared a plate of food from the potluck so he got to try a bite or two of this salad and was in love. I decided to give the recipe a try to see if I could make it as tasty as Ashley. Alas, I failed. She must have put extra super duper love in her batch because mine just didn't taste as good. Maybe it was because it took me an hour to make or maybe it was all the measuring, but everything just didn't seem to come together. There was something about the dressing that was off. I'm thinking I put too much dill in mine and not enough salt. It's possible too that this is the kind of thing that tastes better day after day of being in the fridge. I guess I'll find out because it made a ton!
For the most part I followed the recipe but I did end up slicing an avocado on top since it needed be to be used (that and I love the stuff). I think if I make this again, I'll leave out the cucumber, used grape tomatoes instead of plum tomatoes, and maybe use fresh basil instead of dill. The corn didn't add a whole bunch to the salad for me, so I'm thinking I may add red bell pepper instead. The edamame rocked though!
All and all, I like the idea behind this recipe but it won't be on my regular rotation, unless Ashley volunteers to make it for me!

**UPDATE** It didn't get better the next day : (

the BEST strawberry pie, ever

2008-04-07T17:29:00.017-04:00

I have already informed Leigh from Raspberry Swirl that it is her fault that I made this particular pie today. After all, she brought this No-Bake Strawberry Pie to the potluck yesterday. The recipe is from this adorable zine called Papa Tofu by Kittee (Cake Maker to the Stars) and it is probably one of the best pies I have ever had. It kinda tastes like a cheesecake with serious strawberry action. The pie is basic but does have a few steps that make it interesting to make.
First, I made her piecrust (which does requiring baking). I couldn't find my pie pan, so I used a 9-inch cake pan and it worked just fine.

While the crust baked, I made the strawberry jam (that's right HOMEMADE jam) topping so that it could be cooling at the same time as the crust. I also whipped up the Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese and let it set out to so it wouldn't be so hard to spread on the cooled crust.

These beautiful strawberries were sliced while the crust and jam cooled and the cream cheese was brought to room temperature.

With the piecrust cooled, the crust bottom was slathered with cream cheese.

Next the sliced strawberries were arranged on the cream cheese layer. I didn't get a great pattern, but hey, if about the taste in the end!

Last, the strawberry jam was poured over the whole pie. I kinda wish the strawberries were peaking through more than they did but I wasn't about to waste any of this amazing jam.

Don't you want a slice?

Then you need to buy this zine. Look how cute it is!

However, if you need to make this pie like right now, Kittee was kind enough to post the recipe here.

My First Vegan Potluck

2008-04-06T17:28:00.011-04:00

Besides feeling a little guilty about Jared being at work while I got to play, today's potluck, my first vegan potluck, was a total blast. I can't even begin to tell you how much food I ate. Actually, I ate a nice amount of "food" but WAY too many desserts. In fact, I think I might be in a slight sugar coma at the moment. I got to meet a lot of cool people including the genius behind Dulce Vegan (who brought one of the best pineapple upside down cakes I have ever had) and a fellow Atlanta blogger, Laura of Eden In The Kitchen.
We had two tables worth of food! There were a couple pasta type dishes, tofu quiche, tempeh, chickpea salad, potato salad and watermelon (just to name a few)! Plus four kinds of cupcakes including pink lemonade (my favorite), root beer, chocolate and chick-o-stick. Leigh from Raspberry Swirl made a Strawberry "cream cheese" pie that rocked my socks off. Everything I ate was spectacular but I have to say the Goddess Pasta Salad Ashley made (out of Yellow Rose Recipes) was my favorite.

This was my first plate of food. Isn't that pink lemonade cupcake the cutest?

I made Mac and Cheeze, which was my version of this recipe that I added a little agave nectar and cayenne pepper to and topped with cracker crumbs with melted Earth Balance. It was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself (can't you tell I'm very modest).

Many thanks to Ashley (Vegan Invasion) and Armando for making today happen! You are the coolest!!! (and the cutest!)

Alright, time for a little nap to shake off this sugar! Wish y'all could have been here today.

Vegan Potluck Picnic TOMORROW!

2008-04-05T10:26:00.005-04:00

If you are going to be in the Atlanta area tomorrow, my buddy Ashley Nicole put together a vegan potluck in the park that you should come to. The weather is suppose to be PERFECT and I heard there will be a lot of cupcakes from Dulce Vegan. I'll for sure be there but unfortunately, Jared has to work : (
Hope to see lots of people there with their favorite vegan food to share! I'm making mac and cheeze!!!

Enchilada Casserole

2008-04-03T16:17:00.003-04:00

At the beginning of the year, I vowed to eat beans everyday. I was doing well but unfortunately, beans became a weekly thing instead of a daily thing. We all know that beans are an important part of the diet, especially for vegans and vegetarians, so I am trying my best to makes beans an everyday thing again. I had a hankering for a Mexican themed dish so I came up with this enchilada inspired casserole. I fried up small pieces of tofu in a little canola oil until they were very crisp and brown. In a separate pan I sautéed red onion, red bell pepper, corn and black beans with salt, cayenne pepper, chipotle powder, chili powder and a little store bought enchilada sauce. I add the tofu to the bean mixture and combined. In a casserole pan, I coated the bottom with a touch of canola oil (to prevent sticking) and put a layer of corn tortillas, then the tofu bean filling, then another layer of corn tortillas and finally I drenched the whole thing with enchilada sauce. I baked the casserole at 375 for about 15 minutes. It didn't "hold up" like I would have liked but it was so good! Once plated, I added chopped Roma tomatoes, green onions and a little tofu sour kream.

Farewell Village Pizza (just kidding)

2008-04-02T13:35:00.012-04:00

UPDATE! From several sources, I have heard Village Pizza is back in business. Yeah!

When I heard that the only place to get a vegan pizza in Atlanta (at least that I know of), Village Pizza, went out of business, I was kinda bummed. It was so nice to have a place actually have vegan cheeze and 3 vegan "meat" toppings including veggie pepperoni, veggie sausage and veggie ground round available. They had a great crust and pretty decent atmosphere. Unfortunately it was across town for us and in my opinion, a bit on the pricey side. A medium pizza, which could feed 2 comfortably, was around $20, after drinks and a tip, about $30. I guess that might be standard, but it always seemed a bit too expensive for pizza. Since they did offer vegan toppings, we tried our best to support them, knowing full well I could make a pretty awesome pizza at home, for a lower price that didn't require driving across town.
Like most towns, restaurants that offer vegan options are slim. Atlanta does have a good handful of places to eat but now we were minus a pizza place which meant I had to master pizza at home. I have always used my dad's pizza crust "recipe" (he doesn't measure) but decided to give Isa's pizza dough a try from Vegan with a Vengeance. MAN, is this a great crust. After mixing the wet and dry ingredients together, kneading by hand for 10 minutes, letting the dough rise twice for about an hour each time, I was able to stretch this dough thinner than usual. Isa's dough wasn't sticky and kept its shape fairly well with little effort.
I think the way to an amazing homemade pizza is a really hot oven (500 degrees or more) and an equally and pre-heated pizza stone. After the dough was stretched out, topped with tomato sauce, veggie pepperoni, FYH cheeze, fresh Roma tomatoes and dried oregano, it was baked for only about 8 minutes and broiled for another 2 minutes. It sucks that Village Pizza is out of business but I am happy to say I have made a pizza that hit the spot!
Before being baked:

Right out of the oven:

(I would have taken better pictures but I was too hungry!)

Cheezy "Everything" Spelt Crackers

2008-04-01T14:38:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite things for breakfast, lunch or just a snack is an everything bagel. I love the combo of the caraway seeds, course salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion flakes and garlic bits all toasted up with Earth Balance, or as strange as it might sound, peanut butter and jelly (trust me, its good). Since we are saving money and trying to hit the grocery stores less, I decided I'd make an everything bagel version of the Cheezy Quackers from Have Cake, Will Travel to stop my bagel craving. I have probably made these crackers a half dozen times (and already posted about it once or twice), so I thought it was time to branch out and change it up a little. They turned out so well, I had to once again brag about this recipe and share my version.
I followed the recipe technique but changed up the ingredients a little. Instead of all purpose flour, I used spelt flour, used 2 tablespoons of margarine and 2 tablespoons of shortening and a little homemade spice blend that has paprika, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, oregano and sugar. I used my mini-animal cookie cutters to make bite sized shapes and topped them with a blend that included caraway seeds, salt, onion powder, garlic powder and sesame seeds. Unfortunately, I didn't have any poppy seeds or dried onion flakes and garlic bits, but the general taste was there. If I make this version again, I will add cooking spray to the cracker dough before coating with the everything topping so it sticks better and of course get my hands on some poppy seeds.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you haven't made these Cheezy Crackers (or your own version of them) yet, DO IT!

busy days = easy food

2008-03-31T18:33:00.005-04:00

I had mentioned before that I was thinking about going to nursing school, and this past month I decided to make it happen. It seems like the past two weeks or so I have been doing so much stuff to get back into school. Between going to advising sessions, soliciting for transcripts from my high school, associate’s and bachelor’s degree from 3 different Florida schools, filling out forms, getting shots (YIKES!) and trying to convince this college I should be coded as in-state (for tuition purposes), I have been beat. Plus my stomach has been bothering me, which is probably stress related since the thought of going back to school in a program that is completely different from what I have already done (I have a BA in Business Management) is a little scary. I have been out of school since 2002 and it seems weird to be essentially starting over. I'm excited but I have to take all these prerequisite classes like chemistry, anatomy & physiology and microbiology (all classes I haven't taken in about 8 years!) and take/pass a nursing entrance exam before I am even considered into the nursing program. So, it'll be a lot more work and a couple years before I am done, but it will be so rewarding.
Anyway, since I have been so busy, I have been eating a lot of faster food. Tonight, I had a veggie burger on a toasted bun with Vegenaise, onion, ketchup and mustard along with a side of tomatoes, avocado and carrot sticks. I will get back into cooking once I know everything is set to start school this summer, which should be any day!

Very Berry Vodka Sorbet

2008-03-28T00:32:00.010-04:00

It got kinda hot here in Atlanta today, upper 70's (just the day before it was in the 30's, so that's a big change) and I was wanting a fruity/icy but not at all creamy treat. I wanted something to appease my sweet tooth and cool me down in the rising temperatures both trapped inside the kitchen and outside with spring fully upon us. First thing to come to mind: SORBET!
I learned that the trick to keeping a sorbet less icy and keeping it from forming into a solid rock, alcohol can be added since alcohol doesn't freeze and allows the mixture to remain a bit soft.

Very Berry Vodka Sorbet
1 cup of water
1 cup of natural sugar
12-14 ounce bag of Frozen mixed berries. My mix almost always has strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. If you wanna use other frozen fruit like peaches or cherries you could, you'd just need to adjust the sweetness depending on those fruits.
Juice from 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon high quality Vodka

First, make simple syrup in a small sauce pan by combining the sugar and the water together. Heat over medium heat until sugar is totally dissolved. Do not boil the simple syrup since it will take longer to cool. The point here is to just dissolve the sugar into the water.
In a large mixing bowl, add the frozen berries (not thawed) and pour lemon juice over the berries, stirring to ensure an equal coating of lemon juice hits each fruit. Next, pour the simple syrup over the lemoned berries. This will slightly warm the frozen berries, but the berries will have a frozen center still. With an immersion blender, blend everything (EXPECT the Vodka) together until all the skins are pulverized. With a fine mesh strainer, strain out the seeds from the base into a bowl and refrigerate until it is nice and cold (a couple hours for best results).
Once mixture is cold, follow your Ice Kream machine's suggested instructions for sorbet. My machine ran for about 20 minutes and then I drizzled in 1 tablespoon of vodka into the base while it was spinning. I let it spin for about another 5 minutes to ensure the vodka was mixed in well.
Eat it right away or store it in the freezer in a bowl with a tightly fitted lid so it doesn't get freezer burn.

Quadruple Bean & Double Corn Pie with Avocado

2008-03-27T15:15:00.005-04:00

I'm not gonna lie. This meal was a lot of work. Although it was very tasty, between cooking chickpeas, black beans and dark red kidney beans, prepping the tomato/chili base and making a double corn cornbread, this is not something I will be making all the time. I started by boiling the three beans together in water, garlic and veggie bouillon cubes for about 2- 2 1/2 hours until just tender. I drained the beans and sautéed a sweet onion in a little olive oil along with chipotle and regular chili powders, cumin, paprika, garlic, salt, black pepper and cocoa powder. I added 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, which I further broke down with my immersion blender. I added the three beans into the tomato chili base and swirled in the forth bean component, a can of spicy refried pinto beans. In a separate bowl I made a cornbread topper that had pureed corn, applesauce, canola oil, sugar, all purpose flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and chopped green onions. Once the chili beans were in a casserole dish, I topped it with the cornbread mixture and baked it at 450 for about 25 minutes. I think I might have dipped into it too soon because the chili beans hadn't thickened up as much as I would have liked and the very center of the cornbread wasn't completely done. While I did have a small plate of this with some sliced avocado, I did end up putting the casserole back in the oven for the cornbread to get completely baked. Not bad, but not worth cooking in a hot kitchen all day!

Penne Vodka

2008-03-25T06:03:00.007-04:00

Our trip to and from Jacksonville was quite the whirlwind. Typically it takes about 4-5 hours from Atlanta to Jacksonville, but because it was a holiday weekend, the drive took closer to 6-7 hours (12-14 hours roundtrip). It was exhausting to say the least. The Tofurky turned out really tasty. I especially liked the wild rice stuffing in the inside of the roast. I will for sure make this roast again, but I think I will experiment with different basting liquids next time.
After all that cooking last week I haven't been really motivated to get back into the kitchen. Luckily, Jared was, and made us some lovely Penne Vodka from Veganomicon (pg.193). I wouldn't say it tasted like the vodka sauce I’m use to BUT it was really, really great as it was. We had the sauce over Whole Grain Penne and guess what???? We actually really loved the pasta over the all white-based kind. I don't think this pasta was 100% whole wheat, so, for now baby steps are being taken towards 100% whole-wheat varieties.
Jared also made garlic toasts and a raspberry vinaigrette spring mix salad with walnuts, grape tomatoes and sprouts. We were so hungry though we inhaled the salad before we could take a picture. It was very pretty and tasty.

Quick Trip to Jacksonville, Fla

2008-03-20T18:06:00.004-04:00

Jared's family is from and around the Jacksonville area in Florida and we decided to take a short trip to see them this weekend for Easter. Jared's family is always a lot of fun, especially his Grandmom, who we are staying with. Apparently, there will be tons of relatives in Jacksonville this weekend, some of which I haven't even met yet! I think typical Easter fare in his family (like a lot of families) is spiral ham with sides loaded with milk and butter products. No surprise, Jared and I are more than likely going to be the only vegans celebrating this weekend, so I have made a few things to take with us so we can enjoy a meal with family without having to stress.
I made my very first Roasted Tofurky, which I basted in olive oil, soy sauce and fresh sage. Jared has made this roast before and loves it. If it tastes as good as it smells, I know I'll love it too.

For sides, I made roasted potatoes with fresh rosemary & thyme, garlic and olive oil, as well as fresh steamed green beans.

For a sweet treat, and to warm over wary non-vegans, I also made some of my chocolate chip pecan cookies, which is always a huge hit.

I am also bringing cereal and soymilk for breakfast and a raw nut mixture of cashews, almonds, pecans and pistachios.
I hope everyone has a Happy Easter and a lovely weekend with friends and family!

Carrot Pineapple Cupcakes with Coconut Maple Icing

2008-03-18T09:12:00.016-04:00

When I first read Dr. Stonielove's Nonfat Carrot Cupcakes recipe, I thought I had everything I needed to make these beauties. Then half way into reading the recipe more thoroughly, I discovered I didn't have maple extract and didn't have enough maple syrup for the sweetener part of the cake recipe. I also don't care for raisins so I decided to go on with the "skeleton" recipe and improvise with what I had and liked. Instead of maple extract, I used vanilla extract. and instead of using 1/2 cup of maple syrup, I used about 2 tablespoons of unbleached granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. I also added the juice of one 8 oz can of crushed pineapple, which yielded about 1/2 cup of juice and I used orange juice for the remaining 1/2 cup of liquid. I also added the drained crushed pineapple to the recipe. These turned out remarkably well considering I made a lot of changes. My tongue could tell there wasn't any fat in the cupcake recipe but luckily, the icing made up for it. For the icing, which is NOT nonfat, I only had to substitute the maple extract with vanilla extract and added a tablespoon or so of pure maple syrup. I kinda wished the icing had a bit of Tofutti cream cheeze in it to cut the sweetness down a bit, but I didn't have any to add.
All and all, this was a success. Even though I changed a few things, Dr. Stonielove gets the credit for these half healthy, half decadent cupcake treats! You rock Dr. Stonielove!
Just iced and dusted with cinnamon!

About to be devoured!

Oh, yeah! As the big bite shows, these rocked!

St. Patrick's Day Twice Baked Potatoes

2008-03-17T15:06:00.006-04:00

The kitchen has been pretty inactive the past week or so with me not really wanting to cook and then have to clean up. I haven't even felt like grocery shopping! Today though, I was bit inspired and motivated by some of my left over Naughty Goddess Dressing I did make this past weekend to dip veggies in (we were serious snackers this weekend with sandwiches, chips and veggies with various dips, etc). My Naughty Goddess Dressing has Tofutti cream cheeze, Tofutti sour kream, Vegenaise, a bunch of green onions (whites and greens), a handful of fresh parsley, garlic powder, salt, celery salt, black pepper and agave nectar all blended together until it turns a very nice shade of green. I baked 4 medium Russet potatoes at 425 for 60 minutes. Once they were baked I carefully cut the very top off of each potato, scooped the insides out and added a little plain soymilk, a generous amount of Naughty Goddess Dressing, a little more salt and pepper and combined everything with a potato masher. I then stuffed the hollowed out potato boat skins until they were over flowing. For some of the potatoes, I also add a little Vegan Cheddar block and fake bacon bits to make "loaded" versions. I then baked the stuffed potatoes at 425 for about 20 minutes or until the tops were slightly browned.
As you can see, they turned out quite nice and had a lovely (and natural) green hue for St. Patrick's Day!

A Very Happy (Birthday) Meal, Just the Facts, Ma'm

2008-03-11T21:40:00.011-04:00

First and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!!! I made one of his favorite dishes: Red Curry Thai Tofu with steamed cabbage, carrots and broccoli with jasmine rice topped with green onions.

I have been tagged by Billy from Vegan Talk for five facts about myself. Fun!!!

1. I am seriously considering going back to school, possibly in the medical field, probably nursing school to become an R.N. I have been thinking about this for years and it crosses my mind at least once a week. Both my mom and dad are nurses and it would be an honor to follow in their footsteps in a most respected path. It would most likely end my job hunting. I can admit that fear has stopped me from pursuing this but I am tired of being lost.

2. I collect stickers. I especially love cute stickers like animal in space suits (which Jared got me from Borders), Hello Kitty, butterflies and flowers. I have a severe weakness for them, stopping me in my tracks every time I see some at the store. I love to put them on envelopes and letters. I am eternally 5 years old in this area.

3.I love grocery/food shopping. I could easily spend an hour in any supermarket, farmers market, specialty or international grocery store. I love planning meals, making lists, shopping and then putting away my loot.

4. I have recently picked up playing guitar again after a long hiatus. I forgot how lovely it is to create something as pure as music. Jared and I are planning on starting a husband/wife group and hope to start recording soon.

5. I am obsessed with watching shows about crime, real or fiction. I love shows like Law and Order, the First 48 and pretty much anything on TruTV (formerly Court TV) or A&E. If it's mob related, even better. My obbession started with Unsolved Mysteries when I was a kid. The music in that show still scares me a little. Ironically, I hate horror movies. Funny how I am afraid of stuff that will probably never happen to me but fascinated with stuff that could.

I'd like to hear from everybody, but since I have to pick five, I'll pick Theresa from The Tropical Vegan, VeggieGirl, Kamutflake Girl, Leigh from Raspberry Swirl and
Vegan Cowgirl (doesn't her name rock?!)

Labor of Love Cupcakes

2008-03-10T21:05:00.004-04:00

I love Jared, that's clear. I have to say though, the biggest proof of my love and devotion to Jared is the fact that I tackled these cupcakes. I'm talking about the Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie Cakes (from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) I made for Jared's birthday tomorrow. These were a multi-step venture not for the faint of heart. I started making these cupcakes at 5pm and just got done around 9 pm! These are the days I am glad I'm not employed because I couldn't see making these in an evening after a least an 8 hour shift and an hour or two commute. The cupcakes themselves weren't that difficult, just measure, mix, bake and cool, nor was the chocolate ganache topping. The hard part was the Vanilla Vegan Pastry Cream filling. This was the first time I used Agar Flakes and boy was it labor intensive. I had to whisk the Agar/Soymilk concoction for at least 15 minutes just to get the "cream" base smooth. After about 20 minutes of cooking, the Agar/Soymilk/Arrowroot base kinda looked like silly putty, not the most appetizing looking stuff. Once the sugar, vanilla extract and silken tofu was blended together with the base, I guess I can see how it tasted and looked like pastry cream. To fill the cupcakes with the filling, I had to make a whole with my impeccably clean finger in the middle of the cupcake, which sounds easy but I kept accidentally blowing out the sides. I did successfully fill each cupcake with the filling, allowing the cupcake liner to hold everything together, and top each with a generous amount of ganache frosting (even though it did ooze over the sides). After all the measuring, mixing, whisking, boiling, cooling, stuffing and topping, I sure do hope Jared likes these babies!

Silky Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

2008-03-07T18:05:00.009-05:00

Oh wow, sometimes I even amaze myself. This pie I made today is really, really awesome. It kinda tastes like chocolate mousse meets peanut butter pie meets heaven. I HAVE been eating way better but Jared has a birthday coming up (on 3/11) so, instead of celebrating just one day, we usually celebrate for at least a weekend, if not a whole week. So, to start off the celebration I made him this pie. Something this good shouldn't be kept secret, so I will share. You'll have to make your own though, unless you come over!

Pie Crust:
1 sleeve of Cinnamon (no Honey added) Graham Crackers
4 generous tablespoons of Earth Balance (or other vegan margarine)
1/4 cup of natural vegan sugar

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, pulverize the graham crackers until it is a fine crumb and transfer to a mixing bowl. Melt the margarine and add to the graham cracker crumbs along with the sugar and combine until everything is moist. Add mixture to a 9 (or 10) inch pie pan and form wet crumb to the top of pie tin. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Set aside to cool and make filling.

Filling:
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
2 tablespoons (maybe more) of Vanilla Soy Milk
1 12 oz box of Firm Silken Tofu (I used Mori Nu)
6 generous tablespoons of Natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon agave nectar (this is optional, I just like the flavor)

In a small glass mixing bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water (double boiler action!), melt the chocolate chips and soy milk together. Once melted, set aside to cool a minute. In the same food processor that was used for the pie crust, combine the tofu, peanut butter and agave nectar (if using) until completely smooth. You may need to scrap down the sides a few times. While the tofu/peanut butter/agave is mixing in the food processor, pour in the melted chocolate chip/soy milk mixture until everything is well incorporated. If the mixture isn't pourable (it shouldn't be totally watery though) add a touch more soy milk. Taste to make sure it is sweet enough (I don't know . . . you may have a crazy sweet tooth). Add the mixture to the baked graham cracker crust and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until firm (I let mine set for over 2 hours).

If you have some kind of soy whipped kream, add to the top for extra naughtiness.

An Update, Simple Food

2008-03-06T22:58:00.009-05:00

I've had a few people inquire regarding my arm and job situation. Well, I am still hurting but healing slowly. I have more range of motion with my elbow but my wrist, which is what I actually fell on, is taking a bit longer to heal. I am able to do basic knife skills, cooking/baking and dishes but I am unable to left heavy items like big pots of water for cooking pasta. I have taken back most of the kitchen responsibilities but Jared does still help a lot with household things I struggle with like taking the garbage out, lifting laundry and washing the heavy pots and pans. He is my hero and I am a VERY lucky lady.
The other update is that I am still unemployed, which is getting more and more depressing. Thankfully, Jared is plugging away at work to support us. So, as usual, I keep myself busy with cooking, baking, recipe writing, resume tweaking and job scouring. I am one of those weird people that actually like to work, so it's tough to be without a job, unless you count being a home maker, which I do. Atlanta's job market is just too small for a college graduate (with a Business Management degree) with about 5 years experience in the field I came from (mutual funds/investing). I'm up for changing paths but it seems the only jobs are either super entry level, which employers feel I am too qualified for OR executive level, which of course I know I am not yet qualified for. NOTHING IN BETWEEN, WHICH IS MADDENING! If anyone in Atlanta knows of a job opening, let me know! If all else fails, I could always go back to school!
Anyways . . . that's my sad story for the moment. If ya'll could send me out some good vibes, it would be much appreciated!
Since being a little congested, my appetite hasn't been up for much. I have made a few simple sides and something I have been meaning to make for a while now, Tempeh Hot Wingz.
I am a huge fan of veggie plates, so I made some roasted red potatoes with olive oil, garlic, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary and kale that I sautéed in a little olive oil and sea salt. The potatoes were of course awesome, but I decided I'm not the biggest fan of kale. Maybe I just didn't cook them the way they shine, but I'm not sure I'll buy them again.

Ever since I saw the recipe for Tempeh Hot Wingz from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk floating around I knew I wanted to try them. I'm not sure why I wanted to try them because I wasn't the biggest chicken wing fan pre-vegan days, but I liked the idea of baking on the crispy coating and dunking them a deliciously spicy and sweet sauce. What I took from this is I don't really like Tempeh all that much. For me, I just don't care for the texture. Jared liked the Tempeh Wingz and I liked the coating and sauce, so we'll make this again but with tofu instead. I made a "ranch" style dressing to dip the wingz in.

Pesto Bread, Blueberry Muffins, Mac & Cheeze Plate

2008-03-05T19:55:00.012-05:00

I have been fascinated with bread making ever since I was a kid. Between my Grammie's yeast rolls and biscuits and my Dad's pizza crusts and breads, I have been around good homemade breads my whole life. I mentioned before that my Dad found me a bread machine at a garage sale and I have been a bread machine girl every since. I still love the idea (and practice) of mixing, kneading and forming dough with my own hands, but the bread machine does provide a consistent product. This week I merged the use of my bread machine and my own hands by making a pesto spelt and whole wheat bread. I got the general idea from one of my fellow bloggers, Have Cake, Will Travel! I added both spelt and whole wheat pastry flours with some water, vital wheat gluten, brown sugar, sea salt, pesto and yeast to the bread machine and used the Dough setting. About 2 hours later, after a thorough kneading and long rise, I formed the dough into 4 loaves and baked them in the oven for about 30 minutes until they were golden brown. The bread turned out chewy and full of flavor between the 2 nutty flours and the bright (and mind you, leftover) pesto.
Baking in the oven:

Right out of the oven and cooling:

With steel cut oats becoming a bit boring in the mornings, I decided to make some muffins. With trying to stay in line with my healthier eating, a low fat muffin was in order. So, I turned to the Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide and made the Blueberry Streusel Muffins but cut the oil in the recipe with apple sauce. They did indeed taste healthier, but very delicious nonetheless.

Tonight I made one of my favorite things: Mac and Cheeze! I used quinoa shells instead of a traditional white flour pasta. The quinoa pasta wasn't as good as what my palate is use to but I think over time I will eventually get use to non-white pastas. I used the Soul Veg Mac and Cheeze recipe (the one they use at the ATL restaurants) I found online here, which is very naughty but between portion control and using a healthier pasta, I didn't feel as bad eating it. To go with the Mac and Cheeze I roasted some very sweet (and cheap!) asparagus and made a salad with mixed baby spring mix and cherry tomatoes.

Black Bean Soup, Fruit Salad

2008-03-04T10:29:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I haven't been feeling all that great. I'm congested, have a nasty cough and a bit of a sore throat. Since Saturday, I haven't been too excited about being in the kitchen but wanted to use up some of the produce I got last week. To soothe me, I decided to make a simple and quick Black Bean soup and Fruit Salad for dessert.
The Black Bean Soup had black beans (dried that were soaked over night and cooked), red onion, garlic, oregano, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder and veggie stock. I mashed up the beans with a potato masher and added the veggie stock until it got to a soupy consistency. I topped the soup with quartered cherry tomatoes and avocado that was left over from the sandwiches I made for our picnic this past weekend. Very comforting!

The Fruit Salad was super easy. I just diced up a golden delicious apple and mango and coated them with juice from half a lemon and then threw in the blackberries, blueberries and cut up strawberries. I think fruit based treats are my favorite way to end to any meal.

Signs of Spring

2008-03-02T21:50:00.011-05:00

True signs of spring for us are tax season, picnics and allergies.
As I've mentioned before, Jared works as a stockbroker. Under normal circumstances, it can be a stressful job. Throw in tax season and Jared's job can be down right bad. This week ended especially awful for Jared, so I made him one of the first things he eyed in My Sweet Vegan: Peanut Butter Bombs!!! Okay, okay, I had one or two myself and they were good, but Jared really needed them, I swear! Little did he know, I had a great Saturday planned too. (Sorry for the blurry pic, we were hypnotised by these delicious and naughty treats.)

I decided to surprise Jared with a picnic. For Saturday's picnic, I made some lower fat potato salad on Friday night. That's right, lower fat potato salad. Yes, I did use Yukon gold potatoes and a little Vegenaise BUT to make a very creamy dressing for the potato salad I used soy milk and lemon juice. The lemon juice thickened the soymilk and gave it a tangy bite. I also added celery, grated onion, mustard, salt, black pepper and Herbes de Provence. Of course, Jared saw the potato salad and got into it when he got home from work Friday so I told him of our picnic plans.

Saturday morning came and I surprised Jared with breakfast in bed. I made him banana waffles with mixed fresh berries and maple syrup. I first let the blackberries, blueberries and strawberries macerate in maple syrup while I made the waffle batter.

I made the Banana Nut waffles from Veganomicon, minus the nuts. On top I added the mixed berries with maple syrup and little whipped Earth Balance. These were so good.

After breakfast and lounging around a bit, I made sandwiches for our picnic lunch. I got some ciabatta rolls from the farmers market and slathered homemade pesto that I made with that lovely basil in my last post. I used the pesto recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I also added cucumber, avocado (just a little), red onion and tomato.

So, we packed up our food, blanket and dog Sweetpea and headed over to Grant Park. We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was in the upper 60's and very sunny.

There was also these beautiful flowers surrounding us, (which I think were actually weeds . . . but, hey, sometimes weeds have the prettiest flowers) that reminded me that allergy season is around the corner.

Sure signs of spring, maybe, but I am feeling like a cold is in the making so winter may very well still have it's grip on me. Hopefully, it is just allergies come early.

Happy and Amazed

2008-02-29T16:47:00.007-05:00

I went to the farmers market today to stock up on produce and bulk items. I got a TON of food for only about $50. There is no way I could go to any grocery store and get all the beautiful herbs, fruits, veggies and grocery items for $50. In fact it'd probably be double that! I have been to the farmers market probably a hundred times by now and I am still amazed by this place! I get such quality and quantity for so cheap.
Starting with these beautiful herbs, I got a huge bunch of basil, a big bunch of parsley and a small bunch of cilantro for $3. I have already washed and bagged the herbs and I got about 4 packed cups of basil. WOW! I am making pesto with it for veggie sandwiches tomorrow and I am going to freeze the rest for future use.

I have been eating a lot of fruit lately because some of my favorites have been the cheapest they've been in a while. Today I restocked our apple supply (not all pictured) with Empire, Gala and Golden Delicious varieties. I also got blueberries (2 packages), strawberries, blackberries, bananas and a mango. The fruit cost $17 but I did buy a lot of apples since they were 20% off.

Jared and I cook a lot on the weekends, so most of these veggies will be used by Monday. We tend to do a lot of veggie plates, sandwiches and pasta or bean dishes on the weekends. Today I got zucchini, broccoli, ginger, asparagus, carrots, avocados, cherry tomatoes, shallots, garlic, green onions, kale and a green bell pepper. All of these veggies came out to be $13.

Lastly, I picked up a few pantry/fridge items including locally made tofu, tempeh, tofu crumbles, soy milk, sesame oil, organic whole wheat pastry flour, organic spelt flour, organic whole rye flour and organic dried black beans. This all came out to be $18. I see tofu crumble tacos with black beans and brown rice in our future.

a lower fat hummus: southwest meets mid-east

2008-02-28T12:50:00.019-05:00

I love hummus. Unfortunately, hummus can be very fattening from the chickpeas themselves, tahini and olive oil. In the past, to the cut fat I would use the bean cooking liquid but still used tahini and olive oil. This time around I decided to not use olive oil at all and only use a little tahini and a lot more of the bean cooking liquid. To make up for the missing fat, I had to pump up the flavors from the add ins.
What resulted was a Smoky Chili Lime Hummus.
I cooked 1 cup of dried chickpeas that I soaked over night, with garlic salt and 3 bay leaves for about 2 hours (this gives around 2 cups of cooked chickpeas). I drained the chickpeas and reserved the cooking liquid. I added to the chickpeas, the juice of one big lime, about 1 tablespoon of tahini, a dash of cumin, a couple heavy dashes of chipotle powder, a dash of regular chili powder, 1 garlic clove and sea salt. I used my immersion blender to get a very smooth consistency, adding the reserved cooking liquid as needed until it got to the consistency and texture that I like in a hummus. I topped the hummus with lime zest and sweet paprika. This hummus inspired snack turned out bright, smoky and spicy. If I make this again, I might add a little chopped cilantro on top (just a little though, a little goes a long way).
I divided this batch of hummus into 8 servings, each serving has about 110 calories and 2 grams of fat, and 4 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein. I ate this for lunch with cauliflower florets and carrots sticks and I didn't missed all the fat.

Ikea finds, 100 calorie snack, Udon Noodle Splurge

2008-02-27T17:23:00.009-05:00

This first picture isn't anything spectacular, just my breakfast of coffee with light soymilk and a piece of whole wheat toast with a little natural peanut butter. What I am excited about is the dishes and coffee press in the picture. We went to Ikea to find a lamp for our living room and I found this cute cup and saucer set, where the saucer is large enough on one side to have a piece of toast or other breakfast goodie on it. The cup and saucer were $6. I also have been wanting a coffee press and found this one for $12.
I <3 Ikea!

I'm sure everyone has seen those pre-packaged 100 calorie snacks on the market now. I have seen a few of my fellow bloggers making their own, and thought that was a good idea. Since I am trying to cut my fats and sugary carbs, I decided to make a 100calorie snack plate with veggies and sea salt. This plate had carrot sticks, cucumber spears, daikon radish sticks and cauliflower florets. It's amazing how tasty and filling 100 calories really can be.

Since I had extra calories left from the day I splurged on dinner tonight. I made a noodle bowl with whole wheat Udon noodles, lite tofu, cabbage and onions with a soy/teriyaki/sriracha sauce with sesame seeds and cucumbers. This meal was hefty, coming in at 500 calories, 14 grams of fat (it also had 11 grams of fiber and 21 grams of protein) but it sure was good . . . and I still have enough calories for an apple for dessert/snack later!

Pleasantly Plump is cutting the fat, changing the carbs

2008-02-26T17:19:00.014-05:00

I had blood work done for the first time since becoming vegan. I got mostly positive results back including a 40-POINT DROP in my overall cholesterol levels!!! The only real negative was an elevated triglyceride level . . . so, I was asked by my doctor to go on a lower fat diet, exercise more and from the advice of my father, who is a RN, to cut sugars down in my diet.
I am a plump girl and have been for a while. Like a lot of women, I would like to be thinner, but for the most part I had settled into my curvy physique. I love fatty foods like avocados and French fries, have an enormous sweet tooth and love too many comfort foods. Even before I knew my triglycerides were high, I decided this would be the year I got healthier by eating better and exercising more. I started a health journal and was doing a great job at going to yoga, the gym and taking long walks with Sweetpea. Then, I broke my arm about a week and a half ago and the exercise stopped. Shortly after I found out my blood work results and decided to get back on track . . . at least with my diet (the gym will have to wait until my arm is a little better). So, I have been changing what and how I eat by cutting out a lot of white foods such as white breads (so long biscuits), white rice and white pasta and despite my dislike for brown rice, I started eating it. I have been trying different pastas made from quinoa and corn, haven't been adding extra sugars to my recipes, eating more fruits and veggies, switched to light soymilk and started eating breakfast everyday, which was actually kind of hard. I also started tracking my food consumption on Nutrition Data to make sure my carbs and fat levels are in check (I am totally hooked on this website, by the way).
I will always be pleasantly plump, but the fatty, sweet and comforting foods will be scaled down a lot. I'm sure I will occasionally make a naughty treat or two for special occasions (I do have to use my new cookbook, My Sweet Vegan), but hopefully, from here on out, I hope to stay on track with healthier choices.
Healthy meal #1- Fresh sage brown rice with seared lite tofu and roasted asparagus. The tofu and rice are topped with a fresh thyme and shallot sauce made from veggie stock and a splash of soy creamer. This big plate of food was only 295 calories, 4 grams of fat, and had 13 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber. Not bad!

Healthy meal #2- Quinoa pasta with tomato sauce and nutritional yeast, roasted cauliflower with dried Herbes de Provence and a salad with kidney beans and fat-free Italian dressing. This plate of food was only 312 calories, 3 grams of fat and had 15 grams of protein and 12 grams of fiber. Awesome!

Lori's Party Bars (inspired by My Sweet Vegan)

2008-02-25T14:03:00.005-05:00

I am probably the last vegan out here that finally got a copy of My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky. I am totally blown away by this cookbook. Not only is the author a great recipe writer, she is also a great photographer. I love how there is a picture for every recipe (or just about). I also like how there is such variety with decadent recipes, lower fat snacks, and both fruity and chocolaty treats. The first recipe that caught my eye was the Party Mix Bars. I mean, who doesn't like a party?
I didn't have the exact ingredients My Sweet Vegan's called for so, I made up my own version. My version made 16 bars each that came out to 175 calories, 3 grams of fat, 115 grams of sodium, 36 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber and 2 grams of protein. They are very delicious and not a totally naughty snack.

Lori's "Don't Be A Fruit, Come To My Party" Bars
4 cups of Berry Blast Oats (like Cheerios . . . I used a generic/store brand that has dried blueberries, raspberries and strawberries)
2 cups of mini fat free pretzels (with salt)
1/2 cups cocktail peanuts (with salt)
1 tablespoon whipped Earth Balance margarine
1 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup vegan sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the cereal, pretzels and peanuts together in a big mixing bowl. In a saucepan, melt the margarine. Once melted, add the corn syrup and sugar and continue to cook on medium heat until sugars are dissolved, being careful not to burn by stirring. Take margarine/sugar mixture off of the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour sugar mixture over the dry ingredients and carefully combine until everything is evenly covered in the sugar syrup (careful not to break up the cereal). Spray a 9 x13 pan with cooking spray and pour the mixture in evenly. With your fingers (or a spatula if you aren't very personal with your food), mash the mixture into the pan. Let the mixture cool completely before trying to cut and eat!

a big thumbs down for VeganRella

2008-02-24T20:12:00.003-05:00

Pre-Vegan days (PV days), I loved cheese. I ate cheese at every meal and had the cholesterol levels to prove it. When I couldn't think of anything to eat, I went to cheese and crackers. When I decided to go vegan, I went cold tofu after reading Vegan Freak by Bob and Jenna Torres. I knew if I weaned myself off of cheese slowly, I would, as Vegan Freak suggested, look forward to that little bit of cheese and I would never quit. Every since I gave up dairy, I haven't really craved it BUT have been on the look out for a good vegan cheeze. I have heard from several people that VeganRella was the best vegan cheeze they have found. We were craving pizza and decided to give VeganRella a try.
First, I tried a little VeganRella on crackers and it had a nice firm texture, although tasted nothing like mozzarella . . . but I was expecting that. Not bad, just not great. Another thing was the smell. It smelled funky, but not in the stinky cheese kind of way. In fact, it kinda stunk up the apartment when I shredded it up for pizza topping. But I was determined to have a cheezy pizza! I made a perfect crust, chopped up some red onion and green peppers, had some good tomato sauce ready and veggie pepperoni for an extra kick. The oven was set high and ready to melt the cheeze. Well, the good news is that it did melt. The bad news is that it melted into a glue-like, pasty goo all over the rest of the toppings. Every time I took a bite, it stuck to the roof of my mouth and front of my teeth. In other words, it was bad. Really, really bad. There was no way to pick it off so Jared and I ate the whole thing since the crust was really great and hey, that was what was for dinner.
I'm not sure if anyone else has had this experience with VeganRella but we will never buy it again. I think I'll just stick to silken tofu or go cheeseless.
Here is a shot of the goo at it's worst:

Survey Says!

2008-02-23T18:14:00.007-05:00

Jared went out to ride bikes so I am home snuggled up in bed with lots of cookbooks surrounding me and I'm taking a break to fill out this survey I found on Kamutflake Girl's blog. I think these are a fun way to learn about one another . . . so, if you haven't filled this out and are bored or taking a break from something, fill it out too!

1. If you have to choose between locally grown or organic, which do you usually choose?
Honestly, I go with what looks best and has the best price. We are a one income household, so whatever fits our budget works best for us. If I had copious amounts of money, I'd prefer organically grown local stuff ; )

2. Favourite way to prepare potatoes:
Geez, I've never met a potato I didn't like but I am a huge fan of home fries with soy sausage, maple syrup, caramelized onions, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. I also like a good oven roasted potato with fresh rosemary, garlic and salt.

3. Do you press your tofu before preparing/cooking it (if you eat soy)?
Not usually, but if I think about it a head of time I will. If I know I will be marinating tofu, I try to press it before hand.

4. Name your favorite recipe that is a tradition in your family:
Which family? I am the product of divorced parents. My dad, step mom and sister always use to make tostadas or feta cheese pasta. I have been able to veganize the tostadas but not the feta cheese pasta. My mom made lots of comfort foods like chicken pot pie, which I have easily veganized.

5. Any food allergies?
More like intolerances. I have a hard time with spinach and tofu. I'll eat the tofu but spinach and me are not friends.

6. When you want to go to a fancy dinner, where do you go?
If we were celebrating something that calls for a fancy pants night, like an anniversary, we'd probably go to Cafe Sunflower. They have a lot of vegan options and very good desserts.

7. When you have a cold, what do you crave?
Sweet iced tea with crackers. Maybe some veggie broth.

8. What kind of water do you drink? (Filtered, spring, tap, etc.)
Tap water that's been run through our water filter pitcher.

9. Name a flavor of soda you'd love to see:
When I was a kid I found bubble gum flavored soda and I LOVED the stuff (bubble gum ice cream was also my favorite). Kinda gross, but I'm sure I'd still like it.

10. If the recipes you ate as a child were compiled into a cookbook, what would the title be?
How I Became Pleasantly Plump

11. If you were allowed to grow one food that can't grow in your climate, what would it be?
I think it would be cool to grow my own coffee beans

12. Favorite type of mushroom?
I really wish I liked mushrooms enough to answer this question properly.

13. Most frustrating part of your kitchen?
We live in an apartment with a small kitchen. It's big enough for one but it's hard to get Jared and I both in the kitchen. Plus all the appliances are kinda old and the wallpaper/cabinets/counter tops are outdated (but not in a cool way). I'd LOVE to have a gas stove so I can make roasted peppers right on the stove top.

14. Last food you burned?
I made Jared a tofurky grilled sandwich and one side of the sandwich was a bit too dark. He still ate it cos he's a sweetie.

15. Usual response to a veg*n's favorite question, "But where do you get your protein?":
Inside, I am kinda annoyed by this question but I usually answer, kindly, that I eat a lot of beans, peanuts/nuts, whole grains, soy milk and broccoli. Sometimes I remind them that protein is over eaten in our culture, and that a healthy diet should only contain about 10% of calories from protein, 30% from fat and 60% from carbs.

16. If you were baking your own birthday cake today, what flavor would it be?
I love a good carrot cake with "cream cheese" icing. I also love strawberry cake with "cream cheese" icing.

17. Favourite brand of chocolate chips?
Whole Foods makes a good and fairly cheap vegan chocolate chip.

18. You have $200 of your tax return reserved for Williams Sonoma - What do you buy?
what a tease!!! I wish I had a gift certificate from Williams Sonoma. If I did I might buy 1 (maybe 2) Le Creuset pans/pots. Or maybe a new food processor and a really good all purpose knife.

19. Do you plan your menus in advance? Any tips to share?
I try to. I usually sit down with my cookbooks for inspiration and ask Jared if this or that sounds good. Sometimes Jared sits with me and looks through cookbooks himself for ideas. Honestly, I also watch a ton of cooking shows to get ideas from. Most shows don't have vegan or even vegetarian meals but I get a lot of ideas from watching them still. I like the challenge of veganizing something.

20. You have 3 minutes before you have to leave the house and you're starving- What do you eat?
piece of bread with soy sausage heated up in the microwave (only takes 2 minutes) with a bit of maple syrup. I'd probably grab a banana too.

21. If Martha Stewart, Paula Deen, and Rachel Ray got into a fight, who would win and how?
Paula Deen is a fellow plump girl, so I think she could take em both! She'd just have to sit on them and stuff sticks of butter in their mouths. EWWW!

22. If you eat oatmeal, what do you add to it before serving?
I am so hooked on steel cut oats. I add vanilla soy milk, ground golden flax seed, a pinch of salt, maple syrup, brown sugar and cinnamon. SOOOO GOOD!

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.)
Geez, that's tough. I love Indian food and Thai food . . . so maybe India or Thailand IF I only had to make vegan versions of things. No ghee or fish sauce!

24. Favourite late night snack?
popcorn is always good. We put melted Earth Balance, agave nectar, garlic salt and nutritional yeast on ours. Weird combo BUT sooo yummy. Trust me.

25. Favourite springtime food?
I like a nice light pasta with peas, asparagus, basil, some kind of nut like walnuts or pine nuts, olive oil and sea salt. Strawberries with balsamic vinegar for dessert.

26. Favorite food-related magazine?
Magazines aren't in our budget but I do like to pick up a cute homemade zine from Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe.

27. Which do you prefer: shoyu, tamari, conventional soy sauce, or Bragg's Aminos?
I like tamari but I always buy soy sauce for some reason.

28. What vegetable or fruit do you dislike the most?
I don't like mushrooms or olives the most.

29. Name a holiday food you look forward to all year long:
Cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

30. If you could convert anyone to veganism with your magic wand, who would you convert?
You know, I really think it should be someone's own decision. I'm happily married to a vegan, and that's pretty awesome. It WOULD be nice if everyone was vegan, especially my family. I think it would help with a lot of their health problems, if not for any other reason. I am not a preachy vegan but I do tell people I care about that I feel wonderful mentally, spiritually and physically.

Sesame Crusted Seitan, Lemon Gem Truffles

2008-02-22T19:58:00.007-05:00

I know anyone reading this blog knows how wonderful it feels to be in the kitchen after not being in it for a while. I spent a good couple of hours in the kitchen today making homemade seitan and what was suppose to be Lemon Gem Cupcakes. Both the seitan recipe and the cupcake recipe came from Vegan With A Vengeance. The seitan turned out pretty great and the cupcakes turned into a complete disaster.
First up, the homemade seitan. This recipe is simple, used only a few ingredients and was easy to follow. It was the first batch of seitan I made that didn't turn out too mushy. For the wet ingredients, I had to use ketchup instead of tomato paste because I only had frozen tomato paste (that's how I store left over tomato paste from the can). I also added a couple of bouillon cubes to the cooking broth for extra flavor. This recipe made so much seitan! For dinner tonight I wasn't super hungry so I made some sesame crusted seitan nuggets. I coated the nuggets in flour, then into a flax meal/water slurry and then into toasted sesame seeds. I fried the nuggets in a little canola oil and made a dipping sauce of Dijon mustard and maple syrup. This was sooo good!

Now on to the cupcakes. They turned out horrible. Jared made these cupcakes before and had disastrous results as well, but I thought I'd give them another shot. The batter was so runny that it spread over the top of the muffin tin and made a crunchy flat top. I made the lemon icing which was also too runny and had a weird texture. So, following one of my fellow blogger buddies, Amanda from Walking the Vegan Line, I made these cupcakes into truffles!!! I added the cupcakes to the food processor to make them into crumbs and added enough of the lemon icing to hold the crumbs together. I used a small ice cream scoop to get equal mounds and rolled them into balls. I then dunked each ball into the remaining icing and put them in the fridge to set up. While they tasted like lemon truffles, they kind of looked liked glazed doughnut holes. Amanda is a genius!

I'm BAaacckk and I've been Baking!

2008-02-21T13:11:00.014-05:00

It's Lori and I'm back! I went to the doctor today and was told no surgery was needed for my elbow/arm fracture and that I do not have to wear a cast or a splint . . . just a sling when I venture out. Turns out I broke my arm in a good spot (if there is such a thing) where I heal faster and better with movement. In fact, they said that if I DON'T move my arm, I could actually do permanent damage. It feels weird to move it and I am still in a lot of pain but I was told to get home and start using my arm (no heavy lifting though).
I have so wanted to get back in the kitchen. It was nice to have my own gourmet chef making whatever my heart desired but cooking is my hobby so it was killing me being on the sidelines. I made two treats already today, although my arm is telling me to take it easy, so it might be the only things I make today.
I made the Banana Blueberry Muffins from La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer. So Yummy! Notice the crack in the muffin . . . in honor of my poor broken wing.

I also made a loaf of really great bread that had flax meal, sunflower seeds, walnuts and dried cranberries. I had a tofurky sandwich and it tasted like Thanksgiving in sandwich form. After all, I am thankful I don't need surgery.

Tofu Scramble, Po' Boy, Beanballs and Lemon Squares

2008-02-19T20:15:00.007-05:00

We had lots of yummy food today. We started off with a scramble with soy sauce-marinated tofu, fingerling potatoes, red pepper, onions, and fresh herbs.

Then, one of the best things I have had in a while. The Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu Po' Boy from V-con. Holy crap was this good. It was a bit labor intensive but well worth it. We made a tartar sauce to go with the fried tofu, cole slaw and pickles.

Bonus pic of the endless sandwich.

For din din, we made some Spaghetti & Beanballs, also from V-con. Lori helped out with these quite a bit. We just made the beanballs and used a jarred sauce. Ours turned out a bit mushy, but they were still delicious. I think we will bake them next time instead of frying.

I made desert, too. Once again, from V-con (I love that book, btw), we had the Lemon Bars. Lori just walked by and said how good they were as I writing this. And she is right; they were super good.

Finally, some cooking

2008-02-18T12:52:00.005-05:00

So I finally got some cooking done. For breakfast, we had "Fronch" Toast from "Vegan with a Vengeance". This was the first time we had made this, and it was ridiculously good. We used Golden Pecan Bread from our local farmer's market.

For lunch, we had a lentil soup. This is just my basic soup that I throw in whatever we have lying around. This one contained: red lentils, fingerling potatoes, carrots, celery, garlic, shallots, zucchini, thyme, rosemary, and sage.

And for dinner, I used the Marinated Asian Tofu recipe from "Veganomicon" and grilled it. We had firm tofu that is made locally, but it was still a little too soft and didn't hold up to the grill as well as I would have hoped, hence, the little uneven pieces of tofu. Despite the random shapes, it still tasted great. I added that on top of stir-fried snow peas, carrots, broccoli, and green onions and rice.

Bike Race & Brunch

2008-02-17T12:44:00.010-05:00

Hello. This is Jared posting on Lori's behalf, which I will be doing until she heals up from her fall and regains use of all her limbs. I haven't had a chance to cook much, so we have mostly been getting take out. However, we did get out this morning for vegan brunch at 11:11 Teahouse which was part of the SOPO's Broken Hearts and Bicycle Parts Race I took part in yesterday. The race was so much fun, and brunch was awesome. We were so busy devouring yummy food from the ATL's finest vegan cooks, we forgot to take many pictures. The only one we got was of this chocolate mint cupcake, which I'm pretty sure was from Dulce Vegan. It was very tasty.

well folks, I broke my arm today

2008-02-15T20:20:00.008-05:00

Jared and I were playing tennis and I went back for that perfect shot, tripped and landed right on my arm. I broke the base of my left radius (thank god I'm right handed), right near my elbow, so needless to say, I won't be able to cook for a while. Luckily, I can still eat AND I happened to marry a guy who knows how to cook! Jared said he would keep my blog going. So, stay tuned for Jared! I'll leave you with a picture of some nachos I made the other day. I used the Cheezy Sauce recipe from Yellow Rose Recipes.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T14:50:00.005-05:00

On this Valentine's Day, I'll share a photo of Jared and I when we went to Seattle for our honeymoon 3 years ago. We also rented a car and drove down to Portland, which was also very nice. We weren't vegan then, so we would love to go back to Seattle and Portland as vegans. I love this picture because we got the perfect skyline with the Space Needle, downtown and Mount Rainier. The sun was setting, so it was just a perfect moment. Plus we were smiley newlyweds!

Sweetpea (the dog) and Peeny (the cat) also wish you a Happy Valentine's Day. They are forever life partner cuddle bugs (they really do spoon like this when it's cold out).

I <3 the Farmers Market

2008-02-13T15:16:00.019-05:00

I think I am seriously in love with the The DeKalb Farmers Market. It is a warehouse sized building packed to the brim with loads of wonderful things. They do carry meats, fish and dairy BUT they also carry a huge selection of soy milks/yogurts/margarines, faux meats, organic produce, loads of international foods and the name brand grocery items you'd find at Whole Foods for way cheaper. Basically, it’s my version of heaven (you know, when you take away the non-vegan stuff). They also have several kinds of nut butter machines (such as cashew, almond and peanut), a very lovely cut flower section, fresh coffee, a deli with olives and various pickled items, a bakery with lots of vegan breads/muffins/bagels and a wine/beer section with quite a few organic choices. One thing I really, really love about this Farmers Market is the bulk items they have. Think of just about any dried fruit, nut, seed, spice, grain, bean or snack you'd like and they have it already bagged and reasonably priced (and most of the time organic). Another cool thing is that they have a HUGE recycle center in the parking lot so I always bring my recyclables and drop them off before shopping! So, if you are ever in Atlanta, this is a must go to place. The best time to go is in the mornings or the afternoons during the week (the weekends are PACKED). Oh yeah, and they have a fantastic cold salad bar and hot bar with lots of vegan items for lunch and dinner (open 11 a.m til 8 p.m.) but a lot of people go there during lunch. I had lunch there at about 1 p.m. today and it was still full of people on their lunch breaks. I got a plate full of salad and some tofu from the hot bar and it was under $3! Now on to the groceries!
The veggie items I got included white creamer potatoes (20% off), fresh herb packet with rosemary, thyme and sage, cauliflower, zucchini, green onions, an English cucumber, garlic, shallots, a red onion, daikon radishes, Roma tomatoes, asparagus (really cheap!) and carrots. All of the veggies were about $15 and mostly organic!

The fruits included organic bananas, Granny Smith apples, Empire apples, Gala apples, Fortune apples, a lime and a few lemons. All of these fruits added up to about $7 (all the apples were discounted by 20%).

Finally, the bulk/grocery items included organic pearled barley, organic dried kidney beans, organic almonds, nutritional yeast, Herbes de Provence (for 68 cents!), garlic salt, red Thai curry paste, organic canned whole peeled tomatoes, organic canned tomato sauce, organic canned diced tomatoes, dried cranberries and organic dried garbanzo beans. This stuff was the priciest coming in at around $25 but most of these items will last a very long time.

As you can tell, today's trip to the Farmers Market was basically to restock my pantry, counter tops and fridge. I think I did pretty good coming in at around $50 and I got to have a delicious meal before I shopped.

100th Post: Pizza, Banana Bread!

2008-02-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

Proudly, I am writing my 100th post. I have enjoyed writing in this blog since I started back last July. I became vegan in May 2007 and this blog was a way for me to keep myself on track with a vegan diet. What I learned was my conscience, soul and morals kept me on track and really this blog became just a document of my journey.
Now on to food. I went to Whole Foods this morning to pick up some maple syrup and olive oil and came home with pizza making groceries. I made my basic pizza crust I posted about before. I cooked the pizza on the stove top with olive oil spray until the crust was golden. I finished cooking the crust in the oven with the toppings. Whole Foods was out of Vegan Mozzarella, so I bought some silken tofu to put on the pizza instead and I am so glad I did. I also topped the pizza with pasta sauce left over in the fridge, vegan pepperoni, green bell pepper, red onion, thinly sliced heirloom tomatoes (a yellow one with green stripes and a red one with blackish-green stripes), Vegan Parmesan, dried oregano and red pepper flakes. I don't like my toppings cooked to death, so I baked the pizza in the oven until they were a bit wilted but still had a nice crisp bite to them and the tofu had a brown touch to it. Good God was this amazing! Probably the best pizza I ever made.

We also had three bananas on the verge of being tossed out but I salvaged them and made the banana bread from The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide. The recipe only called for two bananas but I went ahead and threw in the third banana and it turned out great. I also added a little vanilla extract because it seemed a bit flat. This is Jared's Valentine’s Day treat, since we are trying to eat healthier, I figured this is a good "healthier" treat. I got my Valentine's present early, so I made him this early . . . that and the bananas wouldn't have lasted until Thursday ; )
Out of the oven and cooling:

Sliced and seconds away from being devoured:

Tofu Marsala, Soup and Biscuits

2008-02-11T18:29:00.000-05:00

Could it be??? Yes, I made a meal that had lots of mushrooms and actually liked it. I'm not ready to cross mushrooms off my dislike list but this dish was very good. This recipe came from Yellow Rose Recipes, a book I am totally addicted to. At first I thought the Marsala marinated tofu was going to be too "boozy" but once I added the tofu to the sauce, it all made sense. It was a bit labor intensive but Jared loves mushrooms so it was worth the effort. We had our Marsala over angel hair pasta that I added olive oil and sea salt to. If you like Marsala and have this cookbook, this is a pretty good recipe to try out.

Tonight I was in the mood for soup so I quickly diced up onion, celery, carrots, red potatoes and sautéed them in a little olive oil with sea salt, black pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme and a bay leaf. I added some veggie stock, a can of diced tomatoes and a can of light red kidney beans. Man, do I ever love kidney beans in soups. They bring such a richness to a soup that cannot be beat. At the last minute, I added in a handful of fresh parsley to brighten things up.

Also from Yellow Rose Recipes, I tried out the Buttermilk Biscuit recipe. SO GOOD! I like that she uses canola oil instead of vegan shortening, which is what I always used. I love (and had already discovered) using lemon juice (or vinegar) in the soymilk to make it thicken like buttermilk for the wet ingredients in the dough. It makes for a fluffy, tangy and downright Southern biscuit!

Valentine's Day Comes Early

2008-02-09T19:51:00.001-05:00

Jared and I were out shopping for clothes today when I remembered I wanted a new purse. We are fortunate enough to have an all vegan store called Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe that has shoes, bags, shirts as well as many yummy foods and all the great cookbooks. After circling the mall (UGH!) we finally made it over to their cute little shop on the other side of town. Cosmo's isn't exactly right near our house but we go there about every 2 weeks to scope out the new cookbooks/zines and pick up a snack. I have been eyeing this purse for months now and Jared bought it for me for Valentine's Day. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

He also bought me some of this yumminess, which to me is way better than chocolates.

I'm one lucky wife.

Pre-interview cookies

2008-02-05T12:54:00.000-05:00

I had an interview today and to shake off some of my anxiety about it, I made cookies yesterday. I tried out the Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies from Yellow Rose Recipes. I added dried cranberries infused with strawberries and a bit of apple sauce. These are wonderful and not terribly bad for you . . . you know, if you have only one or two.
Here's hoping to getting a job!

Juicing Fast Results

2008-02-03T10:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not gonna lie. It was tough. We started off really good but by about 3 o'clock I was tired, hungry, cranky and had a headache. We drank juice every 1 1/2 to 2 hours, with TONS of water in between. I used a combo of knowledge from my favorite juicing book Juicing For Life by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane, past experience from working in juice bars and help from the Internet.
We were hungry all day, but in a weird way. I didn't feel anxious about not eating and at some points throughout the day, I felt down right wonderful. My stomach did growl a lot though. To supplement the fasting, I put psyllium husks in a smoothie made with fresh apple juice, fresh blueberries and a couple frozen bananas. We also munched on a couple of raw carrots when we were feeling really bad. Believe it or not, drinking mashed up fruits (like I did in smoothie form) and eating a few raw veggies is perfectly acceptable to some schools of juicing fast thought . . . mine included. I think the most important part is listening to your own body. If you can't do a full day, oh well. It's not the end of the world. Going one day was a great accomplishment to Jared and I and will be something we will do again.
Since it is Super Bowl Sunday, we did make a traditional feast of vegan burgers on homemade rolls, oven fries, sliced tomatoes, sweet pickle chips and a dill spear.

Juice Fast/Detox

2008-02-02T10:33:00.001-05:00

Jared and I are getting into better shape and wanted to give our bodies a day off from having to break down food. So, for the past week we have been prepping our fridge/kitchen to do a one day juice fast today. It doesn't sound very ambitious but juice fasts are tough if you are use to eating whenever and whatever you like.
I've posted about juicing before, so today I'm just sharing what I call my Juice Feast Buffet. The easiest way to be a juicer is to be prepared by washing and cutting the fruits and veggies (that won't turn brown) a head of time. To make juicing a breeze, I prepared two over flowing plates of prepared or nearly prepared fruits and veggies to have ready all day. You should really drink homemade juices at room temperature since you get the full flavor and usage of nutrients at this stage, so I am keeping everything out on the counter top.
Plate #1 is my Greener On the Other Side plate. It has parsley, green onions, cabbage, cucumber, broccoli stems, romaine lettuce, celery, garlic, ginger and green bell pepper.

Plate #2 is my Sweeter Than Pie plate. It has beets, beet greens, carrots, granny smith apple, red apple (not sure the kind), tomatoes and lemon.

Since you should never eat OR drink something too sweet on an empty stomach (screws up your blood sugar/insulin levels), Jared and I made up our own versions of V8s for breakfast. Mine had tomato, celery, cabbage, carrots, beets and their greens, cucumber, green bell pepper and parsley. Jared's had broccoli stems, parsley, carrots, beets with their greens, celery, ginger, cabbage and cucumber.

un-sushi appetizer

2008-01-31T12:05:00.000-05:00

Jared and I are eating out less to save money. Vegan sushi isn't expensive, per se, but when you order a salad, drink and factor in a tip, eating sushi out can get expensive. I was craving some sushi yesterday but realized I didn't have any nori wrappers . . . So, I made a un-sushi dish that incorporated all of the things I love in sushi and had on hand. I made a sweet & spicy sesame sauce with soy sauce, agave nectar, sesame seed oil, sriracha, green onions and black & white sesame seeds to put on top of thinly sliced avocado. I also made some steamed rice that I covered in more black & white sesame seeds. This was so good and surprisingly filling.

treats from a friend, fruit shake

2008-01-29T19:14:00.000-05:00

Jared and I have really, really great friends. We are fortunate enough to have the same friends and some of our friendships have lasted as long as our own relationship (7 years). I met our friend Jon through Jared because they were both guitar players in a band called The Chain Link Disaster. Jon and I instantly bonded over our love of music and of cooking/baking. The cool thing about Jon is that once Jared and I became vegan he immediately started experimenting with vegan treats for us. So, much to my surprise, when I got back from Tampa, Jon had mailed us 4 kinds of HOMEMADE vegan treats all the way from Brooklyn! He made us oatmeal raisin cookies (although they are mini muffin shaped), brown sugar cookies, a giant cinnamon sugar cake thingy and a spiced fruit cake. The oatmeal raisin cookie/muffin treats are my favorite (can you tell? I have 2 on my plate). What a great guy! Sorry ladies, he's taken.

I haven't been too hungry at night, which is a good thing, so for dinner lately I've been drinking my dinners in the form of fruit shakes or smoothies. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but I have had several smoothie/juice bar jobs in my day. In fact, I am known as the Smoothie Queen in my family. So, I am fortunate to know how to make really great shakes and smoothies at home. Tonight's drink was less like a smoothie, since I didn't use fruit juice and more like a shake, since I used soy milk. This beauty is 1 cup of vanilla soy milk, 1/2 a pint of fresh blueberries and 1 medium frozen banana. That’s it!

back from sunny Florida

2008-01-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

Well, it was a whirlwind trip. I managed to see about 15 family members and most of my old co-workers (which is a LOT) in seven days time. It was fun but I'm glad I am back in Atlanta with Jared, Sweetpea, Peeny and the colder weather.
First things first: I got to meet my new nephew Gabriel. He is a cuddle bug! He's winking at you.

I got to hang with my dad watching cooking shows, talking about, making and eating food. Always fun!

I managed to still eat beans everyday while on vacation.
My dad made this white bean stew which was very tasty.

I also made this very colorful salad with my famous House Dressing.

I did make these naughty cookies for myself and the family:

But I justified a few cookies since I was eating some of my Grammie and Poppie's lovely pink grapefruit from their trees.

flight cancelled

2008-01-19T16:46:00.000-05:00

Even though my flight was postponed until tomorrow, I still think snow is beautiful. At least I'm not stranded at some airport.

I got to hang out with Jared one more day (he's about to throw a snow ball).

I also got to build my first snow person. I'm not sure if this is a snowman or snow woman but they have strawberry eyes and a carrot nose. Jared thinks this is a snowman and the twig is a moustache. I think it could be a snow woman who is frowning.

vegan travels

2008-01-18T16:09:00.000-05:00

I am flying to Tampa tomorrow to see my family and new baby nephew. This will be the first time I will be flying and having to wait at airports as a vegan. So, knowing that airports are full of fast food chains and not so great snack options at the gift shops, I am going prepared. Initially, I didn't expect to pack so much food BUT it might snow tomorrow (definitely gonna rain), so I wanted to be prepared for any flight delays. I have my laptop with loads of good music, this wonderful book I'm reading called Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong by James W. Loewen and this lovely spread of goodies including Japanese Rice Snacks, Animal Cookies, homemade cheezy crackers and a throw together mix I made out of dried cranberries, raw cashews, roasted almonds and dried coconut chunks. I am prepared in case the mood strikes me for something sweet, crunchy, salty or just in need for a little protein.

Here's hoping to no flight delays. Now I see why snow is frustrating for those who get it all the time!

SNOW! and crudités lunch for one

2008-01-17T14:08:00.000-05:00

Alright you northerners, excuse my utter joy for snow! It actualy snowed in Atlanta last night for a couple hours. This was the FIRST TIME I had seen snow. It was so beautiful and definitely in my top 10 things for coolest experiences I have had so far in my life. I don't know how to explain it other than, peaceful and amazing. There wasn't enough snow on the ground to make snow angels, but I did get to throw a few snow balls!
Sweetpea seemed unimpressed:

I, on the other hand, was elated:

It's no longer snowing but it is really cold. Which reminds me of another of my resolutions for this year (and forever): to eat more veggies and fruit! I know that sounds odd coming from a vegan, but I still find myself not eating as many veggies and fruits as I would like. So, today I made my naughty goddess dressing (because I am the pleasantly PLUMP vegan if you recall) I posted about before to have with some carrots, broccoli and bagel chips I made (leftover/stale bagels sliced thin, baked at 420 with olive oil cooking spray, garlic salt, onion powder and natural sugar until golden brown).

it was a good day!

2008-01-15T21:03:00.000-05:00

My sister had her baby today! His name is Gabriel and he is adorable. He is the first grandbaby for my dad and step mom, so he is one popular kid right now. I've only seen him in pictures but I love him already and get to meet him this weekend. On Saturday, I'm going to Tampa for a week to hang with my family, especially the newest member.
I know it's gonna drag until then!
In honor of such a great day, I made some awesome Triple Berry Ice Kream. I made this sweet (but healthy) treat while listening to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (on vinyl of course and really loud), dancing around, so happy!
Happy Birthday Gabriel!

Triple Berry Ice Kream
1 box of Mori-Nu tofu (I had extra firm, but I think firm or soft style would be better)
1 cup of Vanilla Soy Milk
1/3 cup of Maple Syrup
1 tablespoon of Strawberry Preserves or Jam
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Strawberry Extract
1-1 1/2 cups of Frozen Berry Mix chopped a bit (I used the rest of the strawberry/blackberry/blueberries I used in the muffins in the previous post. I probably used half of a 10 oz bag)
A couple drizzles of Agave Nectar

In a food processor, blender or with an immersion blender (what I used) blend the tofu, soy milk, maple syrup, strawberry preserves/jam and extracts together until very smooth. Place in your ice kream maker and follow the instructions for your machine. It took about 20-25 minutes in my machine. In the last few minutes of blending, add the chopped mixed berries until well incorporated. I also drizzled in some agave nectar in the last few seconds of blending since the berries cut the sweetness of the ice kream base.
Eat right away for soft serve style (my fave) or store in an airtight container in the freezer. It gets really hard; so let it sit out for a few minutes before serving if you plan on freezing and eating it later.

Soft Serve Style:

gotta love comfort food and the Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook

2008-01-14T18:42:00.002-05:00

Ever since I got my copy of Yellow Rose Recipes on Saturday I have been non-stop in the kitchen. Joanna's cooking style and ingredient lists are very similar to my own recipes, so I was very excited to get my hands on it. This cookbook is a great example of how I would want my own cookbook done: comfortable, healthy (or at least with health in mind) and beautiful!
The first thing I made was the Baked Mac and Cheese (pg. 136) because I am out to find the perfect vegan mac and cheese. This version started like the rest I've tried- cooking the pasta and making a roux with nutritional yeast but something I had never tried was using vegan cheese in a recipe. I have been pretty disappointed with most of the faux cheeses on the market, but so far my favorite cheddar style faux cheese has been the Vegan Cheddar block from Galaxy Nutritional Foods. It still doesn't taste like cow's milk cheese, but it is a nice alternative, especially in this recipe! I did make a couple changes to the recipe because, well, that's what I do. Instead of rice milk, I used soy milk, used crunched up whole wheat crackers on top and I also added ground mustard and onion powder because salt, pepper and nutmeg just didn't give it enough punch. With my adjustments for our taste buds, it is the best mac and cheese I have had being vegan. I had a little mac and cheese with a big salad that had spring mix, tomatoes, onions, red bell pepper, avocado and a homemade sherry vinaigrette.

I also made the Chicken Style Seitan (pg. 128) despite not clearly understanding the cooking directions. I wasn't exactly sure how long I should have boiled the seitan, so I only boiled them for a few minutes and then let it set for about an hour in the hot broth. Whatever I did, it worked. This whole process took a long time for some reason, all the measuring I think . . . but it was still very tasty. I coated a couple pieces in a little all-purpose flour and garlic salt and sprayed a fry pan with olive oil cooking spray and browned these babies up!

The last thing I made out of Yellow Rose Recipes was the Very Berry Muffins (pg. 24), again with a few adjustments. Instead of egg replacer powder (not a big fan) I used ground flax seed and water slurry. I couldn't find any cheap fresh berries at the farmer's market so I used a strawberry, blueberry and blackberry frozen mix and added a little strawberry extract along with the vanilla extract to up the berry punch. The last adjustment I made was that I added a container of strawberry soy yogurt because I like the taste and texture soy yogurt lends to muffins. They turned out very good and made the house smell like sweet berries.

This last picture was from dinner last night. I found a purple cauliflower at the farmer's market that was just screaming out my name. While I don't cook things that scream I ended up roasting this head of cauliflower with just a bit of olive oil cooking spray and salt. I also made garlic herb mashed potatoes that were made with roasted garlic, fresh chives and fresh parsley. The green beans were blanched and then cooked in large fry pan on very high heat with a bit of canola oil until they were a little charred. I added soy sauce, agave nectar, sesame oil and sesame seeds to the green beans at the last minute. This is just a standard veggie plate special at our house, but because the cauliflower was so beautiful, I had to post about it.

a hearty breakfast for a day in the mountains

2008-01-12T21:39:00.001-05:00

The mountains ARE my favorite place to be of all of this beautiful world's settings (this may change as I travel more, but for now, that's it). I've mentioned before that I spent most summers with my Grammie and Poppie in the house (which they built themselves!) in the mountains of Tennessee, so my love for the mountains started there. Jared and I live about 2 hours away from decent mountains in Georgia. Not having enough time to go back to my stomping grounds in Tennessee this weekend, we decided to take a quick afternoon trip up in Fort Mountain National Park for a little nostalgic nudge to my summers spent and a hike since it was gorgeous out.
No hike should begin without a very hearty breakfast, not something I am generally used to. Since I hadn't had tofu in a while, I decided to make my VERY FIRST TOFU SCRAMBLE!!! I guess I should mention also that my darling Jared bought me a copy of the Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook (which can be ordered at Cosmo's), which is where I got the spice blend idea for the scramble. Except for the spices, I didn't follow the recipe 100% but it turned out well. Our scramble had red peppers and onions cooked for a few minutes until soften and two veggie sausage patties chunked up. I set the peppers, onions and veggie sausage chucks off to the side. Next for the tofu, I sprayed my pan with Olive oil spray and let the tofu firm and crisp up. Once they were cooked I used a few shakes of the book's Tofu Scramble seasoning mix recipe, along with a couple splashes of soy sauce. I add the peppers, onions and veggie sausage chunks back in with the now seasoned tofu. I also used my new cookbook's technique for making homefries, which included parboiling the potatoes the night before and chopping, browning and seasoning the next morning. I added salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and dried rosemary in ours. Jared said they were his favorite! I also served sliced avocado and a small bowl of the last of the sliced strawberries.
Jared's plate filled up! He had his strawberries in a bowl off to the side.

My plate's more modest portions were able to fit my berries on the plate.

So, full bellies and all, we headed to the mountains.
This first picture was at a lookout going up the mountain towards the park. It just is so peaceful for me to be able to see and feel the mountains again.

Jared and I at a waterfall we came upon on the hiking trail. If it was warmer, I would have stuck my feet in!

Jared being my Mountain Man, although holding MY hiking stick (I found along the way the start of the hike. Isn't nature cool!) as his prop. He's goofy like that!

Lastly, this was me checking out this lovely lush green carpet-like moss on some cool rocks.
Notice, I got my hiking stick back!

strawberries and pancakes = YUM!

2008-01-09T21:51:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure if the rest of the country is so fortunate, but being so close to Florida, I've been able to find wonderful strawberries pretty much all year. Actually being from Florida, my dad and I use to pick our own strawberries . . . so, I am use to having great strawberries and was happy to find some Florida berries at the farmers market this week.
I decided to make pancakes with sliced strawberries. I sliced the strawberries and coated them with maple syrup to macerate them a bit.

The pancake batter is pretty simple. It's only 1 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, a pinch of sea salt, 1 tablespoon agave nectar, 2 tablespoons of canola oil and 1 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons of soy milk (for a CREPE like batter use 1 1/4 cups of soy milk). I also added about a teaspoon of strawberry extract to my batter this time to intensify to berry flavor. I cooked the silver dollar sized pancakes in Earth Balance and topped them with the macerated strawberries.

tomato bean soup and whole wheat maple bread

2008-01-07T13:55:00.000-05:00

Another unspoken New Year's resolution I have had swirling in my head has been to eat some sort of bean/pea/legume each and everyday. I have always been a big nerd about nutrition and since becoming vegan, it's gotten worse (I have a Vegan Food Pyramid as the background on my computer). It occurred to me that these small but hearty, unassuming but flavorful little gems are even more important to me now than they ever have been. The great news is that I love all sorts of beans/peas AND most importantly, my body tolerates them extremely well. Today I am consciously making this an everyday thing (poor Jared . . . I may have to pick up some Beano!) although since New Year’s Day, I have eaten at least one serving of beans everyday!
Today for lunch I made a tomato bean soup that started out with a carrot, a rib of celery, a few garlic cloves, half of a sweet onion and a good sized sweet potato all diced up and cooked in about 1 teaspoon of olive oil. I also added a bay leaf, a bit of curry powder, oregano, sea salt, black pepper and a little celery salt. I added 2 cups of veggie stock, 2 cups of water and a whole big can of crushed tomatoes with about a tablespoon of natural sugar. For the beans I threw in about 1/3 cup of dry brown lentils and about a cup of leftover cooked garbanzo beans I had in the fridge. Topped with parsley, I am one happy girl!

As a side to my soup, I had a slice of this amazing loaf of Whole Wheat Maple bread I made yesterday. This loaf was made in my bread machine and only had whole-wheat pastry flour, vital wheat gluten, water, yeast, maple syrup, sea salt and Earth Balance margarine. This loaf came out dense and chewy, perfect for soup.

picadillo with white rice, avocado tomato black bean and corn salad

2008-01-05T21:39:00.001-05:00

Yes, more Spanish food. This time I made some Cuban inspired picadillo with white rice, which is an adaptation of picadillo my step mom makes. I started with sweating a sweet onion and green bell pepper in olive oil. I added tomato sauce, tomato paste, tofu crumbles and a touch of vegan Worcestershire sauce. Once that heated through, I added about a third of a cup of raisins and a couple tablespoons of pimento stuffed green olives . . . YES, I know, two things on my list of foods I dislike but part of my new year's resolutions is to eat more of the foods I think I don't care for. I'm not completely sold on raisins or green olives, but these are traditional ingredients in picadillo and I can't mess with tradition. I also splashed in a bit of red wine vinegar at the last minute.
I decided to make picadillo because my step mom emailed me about a avocado tomato salad she made that she added corn to. I decided, in honor of her picadillo, to also make a version of the salad she emailed me about. My salad started with lime juice, red wine vinegar, black pepper, sea salt and natural sugar, chopped avocado, diced tomatoes and diced sweet onion. I then drained and rinsed a can of black beans and a can of sweet corn and added them to the salad along with a glug or two of olive oil. Perfection!
I plated the dish with the picadillo on white rice and the salad separate, but I decided to mix the picadillo and white rice with the salad and it was even better! THANKS FOR THE IDEA DELIA!

my favorite rice dish: Arroz con Gandules

2008-01-03T17:34:00.000-05:00

Growing up, my mom's ex-husband's mother lived with us. She was the cutest, most sweet grandma you could have. She was from Puerto Rico and we of course called her Abuela (Spanish for grandma). There are a handful of people in my life who have helped define how I cook, eat and taste food and she was for sure one of these people. We had beans and rice with plantains just about every night with whatever else we were having. On special occasions (Christmas, Easter, etc.) we had Arroz con Gandules, which is rice with pigeon peas. This is a dish that is simple to make and was very easily veganized. Typically it has some sort of pork product, used mostly for flavor. Instead of pork, I just used extra oil since we all know fat is flavor. You can use canned pigeon peas (gandules) but today I cooked a half-pound of the dried peas for about an hour and a half, drained them and set them aside. In a large pan I heated up 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup canola oil with 2 packets of Sazon with Coriander and Annatto (this would be a seasoning blend you should be able to find in the Spanish/Ethnic section of your grocery store). Next, I added 2 1/2 cups of long grain white rice and lightly cooked the rice in the seasoned oil for a few minutes (like you would when you pilaf a rice). I then added 1/2 cup of Sofrito, which is a tomato, green bell pepper, onion and garlic sauce that is used as a base to many Spanish dishes (you can make this homemade, but I used a bottled store bought kind . . . again, you should be able to find in the Spanish/Ethnic section of your grocery store). I also added in about 3/4 of a can of diced tomatoes but ALL of the juice from the diced tomatoes (or you could just use 1 can of tomato sauce and not use any diced tomatoes). I squeezed the tomatoes in my hands before adding them to the pot so there wouldn't be huge chunks of tomatoes in the dish. Next, I added 4 cups of veggie stock, the reserved cooked gandules, 2 tablespoons of pimento stuffed Spanish green olives (left whole), sea salt and black pepper to taste. I stirred the pot once, covered it with a tightly fitted lid and cooked on medium low heat for about 20 minutes. DO NOT STIR THE RICE WHILE IT COOKS. Doing so will make the rice all sticky, starchy and just plan gummy (called "amogollao") Yuck!
There is something magical that only an Abuela can make happen to the bottom of this rice dish which is called "pegao" (a crispy layer of rice that everyone fights for when it is served). It takes a great deal of oil and a watchful eye. I attempted but failed at being able to have "pegao" and I think it was because my heat was to high (cos, it got a bit burnt) . . . Although, I think, I just don't have that special touch my Abuela had.
Not yet any way.

last post of the year- Faux Feta Cheese Pasta

2007-12-31T19:45:00.002-05:00

Growing up, a weekly meal my dad and I would make was feta cheese pasta. It was a very simple, yet delicious meal of thin spaghetti, feta cheese (sometimes we got the special French variety from our local Middle Eastern grocery store), green onions and garlic cooked in olive oil with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. That's it. It was a dish I thought I would never get to have again as a vegan since feta has such a distinct flavor and texture that is hard to match. When I saw Leigh from Raspberry Swirl (Leigh is also co-owner of Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe in Atlanta) had made a pizza with some faux feta cheeze (and had some at at Cosmo's for sale) I got very excited. We ended up going down there soon after and buying a package of the lemon oregano variety with very high expectations. While the faux feta smelled exactly like feta and had a nice crumble to it, the taste and mouth feel of it was not feta like . . . to me anyway. Jared thought it tasted pretty right on, but you have to understand how much feta cheese pasta I ate as a kid (and grown up), so I knew what I was missing. It didn't have that melty but still intact texture I was craving, in fact is was a bit on the grainy side to me. Oh well. It wasn't a complete flop. The green onions, garlic and olive oil with the salt, black pepper and cayenne was exactly as I remember with the pasta. I think a lot of people would really like this faux cheese product, unless they are ex-cheese snobs like I am and have a very delicate palate for that sort of thing. Any way, I hope everyone has a fun but safe New Year's Eve and wonderful start to the New Year!

TVP: CHUNKS VS. GRANULES (they both win)

2007-12-28T21:05:00.000-05:00

My soy sensitivity has gotten better now that I have not been eating soy, namely tofu, as much as I use to. I have been slowly adding soy products such as soymilk, tofu and TVP back in to my diet over the past few months. Tofu still gives me problems, but everything else, including TVP has been okay. I have been experimenting with TVP the past few days and fell back in love.
I have used TVP chunks in soups and stews but my favorite use of TVP chunks is to make TVP Teriyaki Jerky. This was one of the first things I made when I first became vegan because I loved the jerky at the store, but it is so expensive for what little amount you got. I discovered why it was so pricy . . . it takes TIME to make your own. I have done different versions and I have yet to come up with a set recipe but my favorite kind has about a cup of tropical juice blend, about a cup of pineapple juice, couple splashes of soy sauce, couple squirts of agave nectar, a couple tablespoons of natural sugar, a couple large peeled pieces of fresh ginger and about five large fresh garlic cloves (kept whole). In a saucepan, I combine these ingredients and heat until everything is dissolved and has had some time to thicken a bit. In the mean time, I rehydrate the TVP chunks (about a cup or so) with boiling water. I placed the drained, rehydrated TVP in the cooking liquid and cooked it down until it was syrupy. I drained the marinated TVP, placed it on a cookie sheet and into my oven at 175 degrees for about an hour (tossing it a few time through out). What results is a mighty fine homemade version of TVP jerky. If you've never made homemade TVP jerky, give it a shot one lazy afternoon. It tastes great on it's own as a snack or chopped into small pieces and used in place of baco-bits like in salads, on baked potatoes or in twice baked potatoes.

TVP granules are excellent as taco fillers but my favorite use of the granules are in chili. I make this batch of chili mostly when I'd like some leftovers around for chili dawgs. So, tonight's dinner (and chili dawgs tomorrow!) was my Cincinnati style chili. I sautéed a sweet onion in canola oil until they were translucent (probably my favorite culinary word) and added some TVP granules in with the cooked onion for a minute or two so that the TVP gets a nice coating of oil so it won't be too mushy. I then added in agave nectar, garlic salt, black pepper, chili powder, chipotle powder, cumin, cinnamon and cocoa powder along with a can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, a can of pinto beans and a can of dark red kidney beans. Once everything was heated through, I blended most of it with my immersion blender until it looked mostly ground up. I do like to keep some of the chili with whole beans so you can see what kind of beans are in it. I added a few crunched up corn chips on top to make it extra tasty.

Merry Holidays!

2007-12-25T14:10:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day filled with loads of good food and great company. Due to Jared's work schedule, we had to stay in Atlanta for Christmas. It is our first Christmas that we have spent just the two of us, unless you count our dog, Sweetpea and our cat, Peeny (which we do). I made lasagna for lunch today, along with some garlic bread. The lasagna was just made with a jarred tomato sauce (I know, it's kinda cheating, but I'm tired!), along with the Cashew Ricotta from Veganomicon (pg. 206), lasagna noodles and homemade toasted bread crumbs for good measure. I made French bread yesterday so I slathered a few slices up with whipped Earth Balance and garlic to go along with the lasagna. Not exactly traditional Christmas fare, but it was still pretty good. For dinner I think we are just going to have salads and maybe some left over lasagna!

cheeze "steak" plate, homemade ice kream

2007-12-23T19:25:00.002-05:00

Tonight's meal was really, really great. We picked up three new items this week: "Philly Style" Steak Tofurky Deli Slices, Vegan American Slices and 123'z and Chreese. We were mad impressed with all three products, especially the 123'z and Chreese. We found accidentally vegan "steak" rolls at our supermarket, which was also pretty great. I sautéed a sweet onion in olive oil, sea salt and natural sugar until the onions were caramelized. I added the "steak" slices in with the onions to heat it through. Next I toasted up the rolls and added Vegenaise and Vegan American slices on the rolls. What resulted was a pretty darn close version of a Philly Cheese Steak, minus the green bell peppers since we aren't a huge fan. We had a side of the 123'z and Chreese and steamed broccoli. Well rounded and awesome!

Jared and I got one another this ice kream maker for Christmas and couldn't wait to use it.

So, I made a Maple Brown Sugar Buttery Pecan Ice Kream that had soymilk, soy creamer, arrowroot powder, Earth Balance margarine, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla extract and chopped pecans. So good!
Before the pecans were added and still spinning:

After the pecans were added and still spinning:

Final product:

chik'n potpie: inspired by my mom and step mom!

2007-12-20T18:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, more comfort food. It's still cold out and I have wanted to make this for a long time now. Growing up, my mom made potpie about once a week with store bought piecrust, chicken breast, frozen mixed veggies and chicken gravy. During college, I lived with my dad and step mom and use to make them this chicken pot pie every once in a while. After I moved out, my step mom, Delia, made what she called a Mock Lori Chicken Pot Pie with puff pastry instead of piecrust. So, I made her version tonight since I have yet to use puff pastry as a vegan. Pepperidge Farm's frozen puff pastry IS vegan, by the way. I used some frozen chik'n strips that I browned up in a pan. Once the chik'n was browned I removed it and instead of frozen veggies I sautéed carrots, celery, onions together with olive oil, poultry seasoning, sea salt and black pepper. In a separate pan I parboiled potatoes and frozen petite peas. I combined the chik'n, sautéed veggies, potatoes and peas together. I then made gravy with Earth Balance buttery stick margarine, all-purpose flour, a box of veggie stock, sea salt and black pepper. I mixed the chik'n & veggies in with the gravy, added it to a casserole pan and topped the mixture with one thawed puff pastry. I baked the potpie at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until the top was golden brown. The gravy wasn't as thick as I would have liked, but it was still AMAZING!
Right out of the oven:

Served and about to be eaten:

veggies n' dumplings

2007-12-16T20:05:00.000-05:00

Pre-vegan days, I was a huge chicken n' dumplings fan. Now that I think of it though, I was, and still am, more of a dumplings and broth fan. Tonight it is going to be 24 degrees and has been a steady low 40's/high 30's all day so I wanted something both nostalgic and warm. I was originally just going to make a veggie and bean soup, but wasn’t in a bean kinda mood. So, I sautéed onions, celery and carrots together with olive oil and sea salt until translucent. Then I added a few diced small red skinned potatoes, a box of veggie stock, water, a bay leaf, black pepper and dry thyme. Realizing this wasn't a very substantial soup, I decided to thicken the broth and make dumplings. In a small pan I combined two tablespoons of flour and two tablespoons of margarine to make a roux. I added probably two cups of the broth (with a few bits of veggies) from the soup until it looked like a very thick gravy. I added the gravy back into the bigger pot of veggie soup and watched as it became stew-like.
I like a fluffy, biscuit like dumpling, not the dense, chewy kind that sink to the bottom. If you like a chewy dumpling, this is NOT for you.
The dumpling recipe I came up with was:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon natural sugar
1/4 cup of vegan shortening (I use Spectrum brand)
3/4 cup plain soy milk WITH 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together and cut the shortening in with your fingers until it resembles wet sand. In a measuring cup, mix soy milk and lemon juice together and be amazed (it gets soooo thick!). Add soymilk/lemon juice mixture to the flour mixture and stir until it just comes together. Drop by the tablespoon into the simmering pot of stew-like soup, and cover with a tight fitting lid for 15 minutes. These dumplings will get a bit soaked through after a while, but I actually like that feature.
This definitely hit the spot on such a cold night!

very busy weekend in the kitchen

2007-12-09T18:45:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure what got over me, but starting Friday and ending a few minutes ago, I spent more time in my kitchen than I have in a very long time. It was an awesome weekend of good eats!
First things first . . . As soon as I saw these Spicy' N Sweet Maple-y Nuts from Bazu's blog, I knew I HAD to make them. These are some of the best spiced nuts I have ever had.
Make these now. Right now.

Here is a beautiful loaf of French bread I made, which has been the BEST batch of bread I have made in my new bread machine. It had the least amount of ingredients and took the most amount of time (5 HOURS!) but it was so worth it.

I cut all the crust sides off and made garlic toast with them and used the non-crust white inside of the bread to make these croutons.

I used the crouton recipe in Veganomicon (pg. 81-82) and also made the Caesar dressing recipe. I was trilled with the croutons and thought the dressing was pretty good but not like Caesar salad dressing. I'd make it again though.
Friday night I made an Asian Noodle Soup. A few weeks back I had made an Asian inspired veggie broth out of onions, carrots, celery, garlic, ginger, black pepper and soy sauce and froze it. I thawed/reheated the broth and in my steamer, steamed cabbage, zucchini and baby bok choy. For the noodles, I used an eggless wonton wrapper, cut into strips, which I found in the frozen section of our local Asian market. I boiled the strips of wontons separately (which only took like a minute), added the cooked noodles to a bowl with the steamed veggies and broth ladled over everything. Topped with green onions, this was very filling and an awesome way to use up extra wonton wrappers.

Saturday, I made the Blueberry Streusel Muffins from the Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide. My new favorite thing is using soy yogurt in my baked goods because they lend such a nice sour note that really brings everything together. This time I used a blueberry flavored soy yogurt, which turned the batter purple. These are probably my favorite muffins and they taste great with any fresh or frozen berry.

Today I made one of our old stand by meals . . . the beloved tostadas (although, they look more like nachos). These had blue corn chips, some chipotle pinto beans I blended up, tomatoes, red and green onions, some of my Dad's famous Rex Sauce (sweet & vinegary), sweet Thai chili sauce and some of my homemade guacamole. Jared added some left over cut up romaine lettuce on his. I never get tired of these.

And last but not least . . . my new favorite dinner. Veganomicon's Chickpea Cutlets (pg. 133), garlic mashed potatoes, green beans and soy sausage saw mill gravy (same stuff I pure over my biscuits when we have biscuits and gravy).

culinary loves and dislikes

2007-12-06T23:59:00.000-05:00

I have seen some of my favorite vegan bloggers in the past post about things they love love love and things they rarely cook with or eat. I haven't been making anything too interesting lately (except bread with my new bread machine) so I decided to list things that I couldn't live without and things I could always do with out.

Starting with the loves:
1. Avocado- when I was a kid, I thought I hated avocado or more specifically, guacamole . . . this hatred ran deep even though I never tried it. Finally when I was about 23 my friend Katie (also a vegan!) made her famous guacamole and I decided to try it. She single-handedly changed my mind about avocados and I fell in love with them instantly. Its full of fat, flavor and believe it or not, fiber!
2. Potatoes- I have never ate a potato I didn't like. I like them roasted, baked, fried or in a soup or stew. Before I was vegan, I was trying not to eat dairy for an elimination diet and decided that I actually love a plain ol' baked potato with sea salt. Its kinda cool to taste something like that so simply. My favorite way to eat a potato though is hash brown style fried in canola oil with garlic salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, sweet onions, soy sausage and maple syrup. That's right, maple syrup.
3. Tomatoes- Growing up, I spent a LOT of time with my Grammie and Poppie. They always had a garden and in the summer time always had tons of tomatoes. Being from the south (they spent half the time in Tennessee/Appalachian Mountain area, and the other half in Florida which is technically in the south) we had tomatoes at every meal. My favorite was having biscuits, gravy and slices of tomato with just salt and pepper on them for breakfast. I still to this day eat sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper . . . they just don't taste as nice as my Grammie and Poppies.
4. Watermelon- If I wasn't allowed to eat any other fruit for the rest of my life except watermelon I would be okay with that. I love the sweetness, juiciness (so juicy it quenches a thirst!) and I like that it is it's own bowl. In fact one of my fondest memories as a kid was my dad getting a watermelon from a guy's pickup truck on the side of the road, coming home and having him cut it in half. He'd stick a spoon in each half and we'd eat it as if it was in a bowl. He'd always have to finish mine off though, so he'd get 3/4ths of a huge watermelon . . . luckily he loves watermelon as much as me. I bet I could finish a whole watermelon off now all by myself.
5. Coconut Milk- As a vegan, I appreciate coconut milk now more than ever. Thai has always been one of my favorite cuisines and we all know that coconut milk is a predominant base for all of their lovely sauces. My favorite coconut based Thai dish is red curry peanut sauce. Oh man. I also love coconut milk in smoothies and rice puddings. Yum!
6. Onions/Garlic/Shallots/Chives- Sweet onions, such as the Vidalia, are my favorites, but I also love red onion and green onions. I am not sure what food would be like if I never knew of onions. Imagine a world without ONION RINGS!!! Leeks are pretty rad too, especially in soups. There are few dishes I make without garlic and few vinaigrettes I don't have shallot in. I also couldn't see a dip or baked/roasted potatoes with out some chives snipped in. Ironically, I use to hate onions as a kid.

Dislikes. I wouldn't say I hate anything (besides the obvious non-vegan items) but I do have strong dislike for a few items, even though at times I will suffer through a meal if they have these items.
1. Mushrooms- I've tried really hard to like mushrooms. I've had grilled portabella caps, stuffed mushroom caps, on top of pizza, in pasta dishes and in salads but I just can't like them. Funny thing is, I like the flavor, I just can't stand the texture. My brain thinks of them slimy and rubbery. The only mushrooms we usually have in the house is if Jared does the shopping (he loves them) OR we do have some dried shitaki mushrooms for when I am making an Asian veggie broth, which of course they would be strained from. Sorry, I just can't like mushrooms.
2. Olives- Like mushrooms, I have tried over and over to like them. I LOVE olive oil, I like the flavor of a briny olive juice but I just cannot like the texture of olives. I will eat olives if they are in something, but not a whole lot of them. Canned black olives are an absolute NO though . . . the kind they put on nachos and pizza. Those just gross me out.
3. Artichokes/Artichoke Hearts- I'm not sure why I don't like artichokes. There is something texturally I don't like. They seem chewy and that is not something I like in a veggie. Pre-vegan days, I was known to partake on the famous spinach artichoke dip at parties (you know, the dip in the big bread bowl) but I went out of my way to avoid the chunks of artichokes. My dad made artichoke dip that he blended very, very well and it wasn't bad. I will not eat them in a salad, pasta dish or on a pizza. I might try a fresh artichoke boiled and then the leaves dipped in melted Earth Balance, but that is a big maybe.
4. Brown Rice/Whole Wheat Pastas- The difference with this dislike is that I will eat these things if that is what people make for dinner but you'll never see my buying or serving such things. Jared loves these things but I just never got into them. Growing up, we just never had brown rice or whole wheat pastas and my palate is just really use to the sweet, starchiness of the white varieties.
5. Raisins- One of the very few dried fruits I can't stand. I just can't get past the thought that they were once grapes. I know and love the taste of grapes and it just seems wrong to make them all wilty and make them not taste like a grape. Again, I would eat raisins in very small amounts but you won't see my oatmeal cookies with them or my celery peanut butter snacks with raisin "ants."

What are some of your Loves and Dislikes?

Harmony, Bake Off

2007-12-02T15:49:00.001-05:00

After reading about Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant from Luminous Vegans' blog (who I actually got to meet today!) we have been there 3 times and it gets better every time. It is on the outskirts of Atlanta and takes a bit to get there but it so worth the drive. One of my favorite things they have there is actually something they give to use at the start of the meal. I eat it as both a salad and palate cleanser and it is made out of grated carrot, daikon radish and cabbage marinating in a sweet rice vinegar. I am gonna start making this at home because it s that good.

I got the General Tso's "Chicken" (my new favorite thing there)

and Jared got the "chicken" with sting beans, which also rocked!

Today was the 2007 Holiday Bake-Off at Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe. I ended up making an Amaretto Cheezecake with a cinnamon graham cracker crust. It actually turned out really good . . . But not good enough to win : (
Here are some pictures of the bakeoff goodies:

Jared and I at the bake off

It was a lot of fun being in a room full of like-minded people. It was especially cool to meet fellow local vegan bloggers (check them out Luminous Vegans), who we hope to hang out with in the near future.

Spicy Jamaican Patties

2007-11-30T15:52:00.000-05:00

I am testing out old recipes and decided to change up my Jamaican patties. Normally I make these with TVP granules and tomato sauce along with seasonings but today I was out of TVP. I made this batch out of sweet potatoes, light red kidney beans, onions, garlic, cinnamon, all spice, cayenne pepper, sea salt and curry powder. The pastry is my homemade recipe, which is a basic pie crust. To round off this meal I had a modest salad (romaine, grape tomatoes with Our House Dressing) and an orange sliced up. This has been one of my better lunches in a while.

caponata, the perfect pizza dough

2007-11-28T14:27:00.000-05:00

I am not a big fan of olives but my dad made some caponata while I was visiting and I discovered that, despite having olives, I love the stuff. I made up my recipe that turned out awesome.

1 medium eggplant (I peel mine, cube it, salt it and let drain for about 30 minutes)
1 medium sweet onion sliced thinly
5 medium cloves fresh garlic finely chopped
14.5 oz can of peeled and petite diced tomatoes
2 tbsp natural sugar (or agave would work)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (more or less to taste)
2 tbsp drained capers roughly chopped
1/4 cup green olives (with pimentos) roughly chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley roughly chopped
Olive oil for cooking

After the salted eggplant has drained for about 30 minutes, rinse off the salt from the eggplant with cold water. Then with a clean kitchen towel or paper towels squeeze eggplant out so they aren't super wet. In a large skillet (I use non-stick) liberally coat the pan with olive oil and fry the cubes of eggplant until completely cooked through and have a nice color on them. In a seperate medium pan, sautee the onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add the can of tomatoes, sugar and salt and pepper. Once that cooks for a few minutes, add the cooked eggplant, adjust seasonings and turn off the heat. Stir in the red wine vinegar, capers, olives and parsley.
Some people eat this with toasted bread as a dip. Jared and I had the warm caponata over pasta though and it rocked!

I had a few interested people in my pizza dough to use for the pan fried pizza I made a couple posts back.
With the guidance of my awesome dad, here is a really great pizza dough that I now make in the bread machine. If you don't have a bread machine, you'd have to knead it by hand until it was elastic and let it rise until doubled in size.

1 1/4 cup warm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeast)
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp active dry yeast (or you could just use 1 packet, which is 2 1/4 tsp)
1-2 tsp sea salt (depending on your palate)
2 tsp natural sugar
1-2 tbsp Olive oil (i just do a couple glugs, so this is a guess)

Add the ingredients in order to the bread machine pan. The setting on the bread machine should be PIZZA/PASTA DOUGH (that's what it is called on mine). Once it has risen, you can use it right away or store it in the fridge for a day or two. I shape my pizza by flouring the counter top and roll it out until desired thickness with a rolling pin. I'm sure this pizza dough could be baked in the oven as a traditional pizza but I have only used it in the pan fried method, which is my new favorite way to eat pizza. I made a pizza with some of the left over caponata (reheated).