Black Bean Soup, Fruit Salad

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.

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.

Tofu Marsala, Soup and Biscuits

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!

tomato bean soup and whole wheat maple bread

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.

very busy weekend in the kitchen

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).

clearing out the kitchen

Every now and again, I like to clear out the kitchen and restock. This includes canned goods, dried herbs and flour in the cupboards, fruit on the counter tops and veggies in the fridge. It started last night with a veggie and tomato soup. I used up the majority of the veggies in the fridge including carrots, celery, green beans, zucchini, fresh thyme and parsley along with onions and potatoes from my veggie basket. I also included a box of veggie stock, a can of tomato sauce, dried rosemary, oregano, basil, sea salt and black pepper. I also made whole wheat flour biscuits using hazelnut milk instead of soy milk, which surprisingly went with the soup, despite having a heavily hazelnut flavor.

For dessert, I used up the plums that, on their own, were kind of mealy and flavorless. After splitting, coring, filling the center with brown sugar and whipped Earth Balance and baking for a few minutes, they came back alive.

Tonight, I didn't feel like cooking, so I whipped up some hummus that had fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh garlic, canned garbanzo beans, tahini, almond butter, olive oil, agave, sea salt and black pepper. In an attempt to get rid of a bag of unbleached all purpose flour, I also made a loaf of bread. I spread the hummus on the fresh bread with sliced tomatoes and red onion. It turned out to be a pretty great dinner.

screaming for veggies

After weeks of testing various baked goods and dining out with company, my body finally had enough. I went a bit crazy at the farmers market today, restocking my fridge and counter tops with veggies and fruit. I came home with tomatoes, bok choy, sweet potatoes, zucchini, apples and bananas, to name a few.
Tonight started with a simple soup. I decided to try and duplicate a veggie soup I always get at one of my favorite chinese restaurants called Chinese Buddha. To start, I cooked garlic in sesame oil until the garlic was golden and crispy (careful not to burn it). I added water, yellow miso paste, ginger, onions, a touch of soy sauce (flavor and color), sea salt and black pepper to the crispy garlic. At the last minute, I added loads of bok choy and zucchini to complete my soup. It was pretty good but next time I will use less oil.

Then I had what turned out to be a very red, orange and brown dinner. I baked a sweet potato until just tender. While the sweet potato baked, I grated up a zucchini and onion sprinkled with sea salt to suck out most of the moisture. The slightly dehydrated zucchini and onion were added to left over jasmine rice, black pepper, flour and a "eggy" slurry of 2 tbsp ground golden flax seed and 3 tbsp water. I formed these into patties and fried them in canola oil. I also sliced up a tomato for good measure. The sweet potato was split open and topped with whipped Earth Balance and cinnamon sugar mixture.

Now I feel back to normal.

fresh baked bread, tomato lentil soup

I love making bread. I love kneading the dough, the smell of yeast before and after baking and watching the whole thing change at every step. The bread I made today was reminiscent of yeast rolls my Grammie made when I was growing up, in both taste and smell. I started with about 3/4 cup of lukewarm water, a packet of yeast, a squirt of agave nectar, a glug of olive oil and sea salt. Once everything was dissolved, I added about 2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour, in 1/2 cup increments until it came together in a ball. I put more flour on my very clean counter top and kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. When all was said and done, I probably used 2 1/2 cups of flour. In a glass bowl, I covered the ball of dough with olive oil & plastic wrap until it doubled in size. After doubling in size, I put it in a loaf pan and again let it rise until it peeked over the top. I baked it at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, squirting the inside of the oven with water (with my trusty squirt bottle) 3 times within that 10 minutes. Once it was browned, I brushed the top with olive oil and turned the temperature down to 375 and let it bake for another 15-20 minutes. The hard part is letting it rest in the loaf pan for 15 minutes and then letting it cool on a wire rack for about another 20 minutes.
Fascinating, something that started as this . . .

Ended up looking like this . . .

And this . . .

To go with the bread, I made a tomato lentil soup that had onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, red lentils, tomato paste, garlic salt, black pepper, ground coriander, a vegan bouillon cube and a bay leaf.

It's my Birthday!

So, it happened. I turned 28 today. First things first. My lovely husband bought me these birthday presents. I got a really cool tea press, which worked really well and a new garlic press since our old one was dead. He also got me cute stickers, a cool vegan cookbook called ExtraVEGANza by Laura Matthias and the August edition of VegNews magazine (which I now hope to subscribe to). Jared did an awesome job!

Since I needed to use the mung bean sprouts I grew last week I decided to make a miso noodle bowl for lunch today. I made a homemade broth out of celery, onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, fresh parsley, black peppercorns, soy sauce and mirin. I strained the broth and added miso paste. I cooked soman noodles in a separate pot. I added raw zucchini, snow peas and mung bean sprouts to a big bowl, added the miso broth and noodles and topped it off with a bit more veggies.

A big bummer having a birthday on a Sunday means having a nice vegan meal out was very difficult. Both of the places we tried going to tonight, Cafe Sunflower and Veggieland, were both closed on Sunday! Turns out a lot of places we like to eat at are closed on Sunday but since we usually only eat out on Saturdays, we never knew. Anyway, we ended up trying a place called Top Spice which is a Thai Malaysian place. It was pretty good and they had many things to chose from. We of course made sure no fish sauce was in our dishes.
Jared got Spicy Basil Tofu:

And I got Garlic Tofu (Sorry the picture is dark. We turned the flash off):

Originally, we were just going to get dessert out at Cafe Sunflower or Veggieland so we didn't make a birthday treat at home. Since those plans fell through and we didn't have time to make something, Jared and I bought an apple pie from our local health food store along with Soyatoo Whipped Soy Cream (which was absolutely AMAZING!).

hummus, lentil soup, shakes

Today was filled with yummy eating! Jared and I decided to get out of the house today to go look for bikes. We finally got out of the house in time for lunch and decided to go get some Mediterranean food. We went to the Olive Bistro in Atlanta but the falafel pitas weren't as good as the last time. We did order the hummus small plate which came with whole wheat and white pita that was pretty fantastic.

For dinner, Jared made his AWESOME lentil soup. He put carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, red lentils, veggie stock, sea salt, black pepper and ground coriander. He also toasted slices of ciabatta bread to dip in the soup. I love love love this meal.

For dessert, I made "milk" shakes out of chocolate hazelnut soy yogurt ice cream, better pecan soy ice cream and chocolate soy milk. I don't even need to tell you how wonderful this was.

corn chowder, a literal midnight snack

Tonight I made corn chowder. It wasn't the best batch I ever made but Jared ate 2 big bowls so I guess it wasn't that bad. It had leeks, sweet onion, carrots, celery, garlic, red potatoes, fresh corn, fresh parsley, veggie stock, soy milk, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, sea salt and black pepper.

The problem with insomnia is the midnight snacks that come with it. I made a half grilled "ham" sandwich with cranberry sauce and Vegenaise.