Pasta Primavera

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.)

St. Patrick's Day Twice Baked Potatoes

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!

An Update, Simple Food

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.

our house dressing

Since we have lived in the Atlanta area, we have gone to Soul Vegetarian many a times. Last time I wrote about Soul Vegetarian, I mentioned their incredible salad dressing, which I believe they call Prince dressing. Last time I was in there, I was determined to find out what was in it so I could make a variation of it at home. The creaminess lead me to believe that it was tahini based, but the waiter gave me the ingredient list that included nutritional yeast, tamari, garlic, water and olive oil. That was a few weeks ago and since then, I have been messing around with a recipe that I am proud to call my own but all inspiration and a huge head nod goes out to Soul Vegetarian.
My version has a few more/different ingredients and is awesome on salads, sandwiches, rice, and potatoes . . . I have also been known to dip crackers, french fries and chips in it!
Warning: it is VERY garlicky and does have a somewhat strong nutritional yeast base. You can eat it right away, but I think it tastes better when it’s had time to chill in the fridge. I have made it with a hand whisk once but to get the creamiest consistency, I have used my immersion blender every time since. If you don't have an immersion blender (GET ONE!), you could try using a food processor or regular blender . . . I'm just not sure what kind of consistency you will get.

No Joke Dressing (Our House Dressing)

1 cup nutritional yeast
2/3 cup water (I use filtered water)
2 tbsp soy sauce (I use 2 tbsp, but you can use less if you'd like)
2 tbsp agave nectar (you might want less . . . a lot less, but I love it this way)
2 tsp granulated garlic (yep, the dried stuff)
2-3 small (or 1-2 medium/large) crushed garlic cloves (told you it was garlicky!)
1/4 cup neutral oil (such as sunflower, safflower or canola oil)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, combine nutritional yeast and water together with a spoon until totally incorporated. Add the soy sauce, agave nectar, granulated and crushed garlic and blend well with the immersion blender. Once smooth, slowly add the two oils. I use two oils because the olive oil is a really strong flavor and the neutral oil helps keep it smooth without an additional flavor. If you want to cut some fat, I’m sure you could use less oil but it won’t be as creamy and you may need to add a touch more water so it won’t be too strong. This makes 1-1 1/2 cups of dressing.

sweet potato onion tart, tomato salad

Tonight's meal was inspired by this beautiful bowl of little tomatoes . . . some of the best tomatoes I've ever had.

I made a basic pie crust with whole wheat pastry flour, all purpose four, sea salt and Earth Balance buttery stick. While the dough chilled, I caramelized two onions in olive oil and sea salt. I also broke out my mandolin to thinly slice a sweet potato and baked the slices until tender. Once the onions were completely caramelized, I added a thinly sliced garlic clove and several stems of fresh thyme. Next, I rolled out the chilled dough and cut the dough into circles. I baked the circles for a few minutes. Once the dough was a little brown, I arranged the sweet potatoes and onions atop the circles and finished baking them off. I plated each tart with a spring mix salad and lots of the tomatoes in a homemade vinaigrette with fresh lemon juice, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, sea salt, agave nectar and olive oil.

tofu triangles, watermelon and the best dressing!

When we can't think of anything we want to eat but have tofu in the house, I almost always make this snack. Sometimes I press the tofu but this time I just cut the tofu into triangles and drained them on a paper towel. They were coated in corn starch and garlic salt and shallow fried in canola oil. I made a dipping sauce out of mirin, soy sauce, natural sugar, sriracha chili sauce, sesame oil, green onions and sesame seeds (both white and black).

My favorite part of summer, maybe the only thing I love about summer . . . WATERMELON! This one was pretty perfect.

Last but not least, the best vegan creamy style dressing ever. And I made it! It is a cross between ranch and green goddess. It is very naughty because it has the triple threat: Vegenaise, Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Tofutti Sour Supreme. I blended the three together with my immersion blender with a couple green onions, a handful of fresh parsley, agave nectar, celery salt, garlic salt, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper.
I made a salad for dinner with spring mix, broccoli, tomatoes and of course the dressing.

The dressing also tastes amazing with tortilla chips. Plus I like the green hue with the yellow corn chip. Lovely.

Cheezy Gemelli Bake

Tonight I made a mac and cheeze dish with gemelli pasta, which are short rods twisted together in a spiral pattern. The cheezy sauce was made from a margarine and flour roux seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, onion powder, ground mustard and a pinch of turmeric for color. Hemp milk and soy milk were added to the roux and nutritional yeast stirred in at the last minute. I added the cooked gemelli pasta and cheezy sauce together, added to a baking dish coated in margarine and topped with fresh bread crumbs I toasted with olive oil. Since the dish was already cooked, it was just baked off to get a brown top and sides.
So good!
As to not be totally out of control we had a salad with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, grated carrots, celery and green onions topped with a homemade miso dressing that had miso paste, fresh lemon juice, soy sauce, water, sesame oil, grated ginger as well as black and white toasted sesame seeds.

Jared's big salad

Jared made us a big salad yesterday for dinner. Elaine (on Seinfeld, duh!) would have been proud!
Jared's big salad had romaine lettuce, sugar snap peas, carrots, red onions, green olives and raspberries. He also made a vinaigrette which I think had lemon juice and olive oil. I know the vinaigrette had raspberry preserves, because it was my idea. Even though I am not a huge fan of olives they weren't so bad in this salad.