the awesome, the awful, the so-so

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.

Signs of Spring

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.

Ikea finds, 100 calorie snack, Udon Noodle Splurge

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!

Tofu Scramble, Po' Boy, Beanballs and Lemon Squares

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

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

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. 

a hearty breakfast for a day in the mountains

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!

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.

testing, testing

Well, I have tried out some potential problem foods including onions, garlic, tomatoes and potatoes. All went pretty well but I think I am going to continue to limit my consumption of these foods . . . since I could eat onions, garlic, tomatoes and potatoes every day. Onions seemed to be the problem child out of the four which is a bit heart breaking. I'm not sure I will completely get rid of onions in my diet, but I think I can eat them in moderation and definitely try not to eat them every day. I have been eating loads of bok choy, rice as well as salads like this one that had romaine lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, grated carrots and cucumbers.

I don’t think Jared should suffer since he doesn’t have any aversions to foods so I somehow mustered up the will to make a few things for him this weekend.
Saturday morning, I made him breakfast in bed with banana pancakes (my basic pancake batter with a mashed up banana) topped with strawberry sauce made with frozen strawberries, agave nectar and maple syrup. Jared was very happy, but tried not to rub it in, too much anyway.

I also made Jared a Thanksgiving inspired meal to thank him for working so hard every week, working long hours every day, doing a difficult and thankless job (he's a stock broker) while I still look for work. He was my official taster for almost every one of these items since I couldn't eat most of the things I made him. I made some more cranberry jelly, green beans, mashed red potatoes with sea salt, soy creamer and whipped Earth Balance, along with stuffing that had celery, onions, apples, veggie stock, poultry seasoning (just the name, not actual poultry in the seasoning)and Earth Balance buttery sticks that was made on the stove top but baked in a casserole dish in the oven. Lastly I made a pan gravy with browned all purpose flour, whipped Earth Balance, sea salt, black pepper and veggie stock. The only thing I could safely eat were the green beans since they were only seasoned with sea salt and sunflower oil and I tasted a potato after it was boiled but before it was mashed with all the soy products. JARED WAS BLOWN AWAY BY EVERYTHING! The only thing I didn't make on the plate were the potato rolls Jared found at the grocery store bakery, which ended up being accidently vegan. Jared likes to make mashed potato, stuffing and cranberry jelly sandwiches with them. From start to finish, it took about two hours to make this meal, so that's good to know for holiday meal planning in the future.

granola power!

I haven't made granola in a really long time and so I made a batch tonight. Mine almost always has nuts, seeds and cinnamon. Here is my basic recipe for granola but the cool thing about granola is you can pretty much add any dried fruits, nuts, seeds, chocolate/carob chips and spices/extracts. Of course, you can put only nuts or only seeds or only dried fruits but you may need to add additional oats. This isn't an exact science so play around with it until you find a technique/recipe you like!

2 tbsp Earth Balance (buttery stick)
4 tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
2 tbsp Agave Nectar
1 1/4 cup Oats
1/4 cup chopped nuts (whatever you like/have on hand)
1-2 tbsp seeds (whatever you like/have on hand)
cinnamon to taste (or whatever spice/extract floats your boat)
pinch of sea salt

* Preheat oven to 300 degrees
* In a small pan, melt on low heat the Earth Balance, Pure Maple Syrup and Agave Nectar.
* In a medium glass bowl combine the oats, nuts, seeds, spice(s) and the sea salt.
* Pour melted mixture on top of oat mixture and mix until everything is wet.
* Pour sticky mixture on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
* Bake for about 30-45 minutes (really depends on yr oven) until most of the wetness is gone. STIR MIXTURE SEVERAL TIMES DURING BAKING!!!
* Remove parchment paper with granola on it from the baking sheet onto counter top or cutting board and if using, stir in any dried fruits at this point. Let the granola dry completely. This cooling will actually be what makes the hot still moist granola turn magically into the crunchy stuff you are use to.
* If it lasts long (which it won't) store the completely cooled granola in a tight fitting Tupperware container.

~Nut Ideas- pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamias, peanuts, peanut or other nut butter (please note, if you are going to use a nut butter, melt it in with the margarine/syrup/agave).
~Seed Ideas- sesame, sunflower, ground flax.
~Dried Fruit Ideas- cranberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, raisins, apples, apricots, banana chips, coconut flakes, dates.
~Miscellaneous Ideas- chocolate chips or carob chips (I would wait for the mixture to be 100% cooled down before adding these though)
~Spice Ideas- cinnamon, freshly ground nutmeg, cardamon.
~Extract Ideas- vanilla, almond, coconut.

Combo Ideas-
- walnuts, dried apples, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg.
- almonds, dried cranberries, vanilla extract.
- peanuts, peanut butter, chocolate chips.
- cashews, macadamias, dried banana chips, coconut flakes, cardamon.

My batch tonight had pecans, sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg.

the ultimate comfort food: biscuits and gravy

Wednesday, at 2 am (so, Thursday morning) Jared's shoulder popped out of socket in his sleep. This is a recurring thing from a football injury in high school, that happens about every year and a half to two years . . . so, we are not strangers to ER trips at all times of the day or night. As you can imagine, this is a very painful thing for Jared and we try to talk about all sorts of things (food and music are the usual suspects) to keep his mind off of the pain and to make time go by for both of us. So, we talked about what he would like to eat when we got out of there and of course after we got to go to bed. As his personal short order cook, biscuits and gravy was requested. We finally got home about 7, fell asleep about 8 and slept til 2 in the afternoon. So, we had breakfast for lunch and biscuits and gravy is what Jared and I had.
I got the biscuit recipe from Love Like A Vegan's blog and they turned out great, not as pretty though. I'm not sure why but I didn't end up having to use as much soy milk as the recipe called for. The gravy was my version of years and years of me paying attention to how my Grammie made her breakfast gravy (hers either had bacon or sausage bits & grease). I first browned 4 heaping tbsp of unbleached all purpose flour in a frying pan under medium heat for only a few minutes (watch closely!). I took the browned (not scorched/burnt) flour out and added a touch of canola oil to fry up 3 frozen veggie sausage links, along with a glug of maple syrup. After those browned, I mashed them in the pan until they were very crumbly. I took out the sausage crumbles and added 4 tbsp of Earth Balance (buttery sticks) to the pan. I made a roux with the Earth Balance and browned flour, added sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Once the roux cooked for a few minutes, I slowly added soy milk until the gravy came together at a thickness we liked . . . we like our gravy on the thick side. If you like a thinner gravy, add more soy milk. I then stirred in the sausage crumbles. I can't even tell you how much this was right on to how my Grammie's gravy taste. We were kind of amazed actually.

best breakfast ever

I could eat this plate of food everyday. Jared and I collaborated on this breakfast. Jared made the potatoes that had onions, garlic, sea salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper in it. All I did was cut up the tomatoes and sliced up the avocado. I sprinkled some sea salt on the tomatoes and avocado. The combo of the potatoes, tomatoes and avocado are unbeatable.

Big Breakfast, Light Dinner

This past weekend was lazy, hot and humid. I did very little cooking for these reasons but did manage a Saturday morning pancake and maple glazed veggie "sausage" link breakfast. This was just my simple pancake/waffle recipe with whipped Earth Balance with veggie sausage links that I cooked with canola oil and a bit of maple syrup. If you've never had maple syrup on your "sausage" links you're missing out!

Last night I roasted Brussels sprouts and yellow summer squash in olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and whole garlic cloves. I added the roasted whole garlic cloves along with olive oil and green onions to some couscous I made. Pretty good and very simple. The veggies only took about 20 minutes to roast so the oven wasn't on for too long!

Athens, GA: The Grit, Clocked

So, Jared and I decided to check out Athens today, which is about an hour from where we live. We researched places to eat and decided upon The Grit for brunch and Clocked (couldn't find a website for them) for a late lunch. I was a bit disappointed with both meals over all, although they had good points to them.
My dish was very exciting on paper. It was Potatoes and Veggies with grits and biscuits . . . ALL VEGAN! The grits were creamy and delicious and the biscuits are some of the best I have ever had (except for my Grammie's). The main dish had way to many green peppers, which I am not super wild about anyway, the potatoes were not cooked enough and the whole dish was too heavily powdered with nutritional yeast.

Jared had better luck with his plate, which was Tofu and Veggies. He had potatoes on the side with his and they were seasoned nicely but again, not cooked enough.

All and all, The Grit has a lot of potential. We would try them again, but maybe for dinner instead.
On to Clocked. This was a diner style place. Just about everything on the menu could be made vegan, which is cool in theory.
Here is a picture of Jared (he didn't know he was being photographed) waiting for our food. Very cool decor. I mean, they had velvet wallpaper!

I got what was promised to be a Philly Cheeze "Steak" which when I think of a philly cheese it has thinly sliced "meat" and a cheesy sauce. I know a cheeze sauce would be kinda hard but the cheese on this wasn't very good. The "steak" was just a veggie burger. I felt cheated. There were peppers and onions too which were okay. The french fries were pretty good as they were actual hand cut potatoes. I got mine with this amazing Basil Jalapeno "cream" sauce to dip my fries in. Pickles were pretty good. Dills, sliced thick.

Jared got a Patty Melt which had a veggie burger, grilled red onions, Russian dressing and some kind of vegan cheese on a marble rye. He said it was good but something he could have made at home. He also got french fries.

I'm not sure I would repeat Clocked . . . Maybe for some fries and that creamy Basil Jalapeno "cream" if we were out late.

raspberry peach topped waffles, Green Sprout

It's Saturday, so that means I made waffles this morning. This is one of the tastiest and easiest recipes ever. It has 1 cup of unbleached white flour, 1 tbsp baking powder and a pinch of salt with 1 cup soy milk, 1 tbsp agave nectar and a splash of canola oil added to it. This is a fluffy waffle batter so we have to stir it up every time we add batter to our waffle iron. The topping was a a couple of spoonfuls of raspberry preserves mixed with a splash of maple syrup with a perfectly ripe peach and raspberries stirred in.

We were running around today and went to Green Sprout for lunch.
I got Orange "Chicken" and

Jared got "Shrimp" and broccoli. They nailed the shape, color and texture of the shrimp, which freaked me out a bit.