Indian Night In

Around 5pm I decided that all I wanted for dinner was beer bread and hummus. I had ingredients to wing a hummus but not enough flour to make the bread. I could a. walk across the street to the corner grocery and get some flour or b. fork over a little more cash for the real stuff at Lebanese Taverna conveniently next door to the grocery. It took me 15 minutes to come to the conclusion that I didn't want to leave the apartment at all, my kitchen was actually fully stocked, and I probably need to have a little more caloric discression after a week of binge eating. After a conversation with someone this afternoon about being fiscally responsible, I decided to use what I had in the kitchen.

I opened the fridge and was completely uninspired. Kale. Tomatoes. Butternut Squash. Mushrooms. Yuck. I couldn't come up with anything remotely interesting and could only see each ingredient in a silo when, out of nowhere, I had a flash of inspiration. I opted to make a kale/chickpea concotion and did a little Googling for some assistance. Apparently I wanted to make something similar to Balti. Evidently my strange concotion has probably been made many a time by many a generation. Does that make me brilliant for discovering something on my own that had already been discovered? Yes.

My yearning for whole wheat bread something was consuming me, so I rememered that I could make Roti. Jennilicous and I were just talking about roti as we shared her first Indian feast in which we both tried to see how much we could shove into our bodies before our stomachs would explode. And then we added a little more.

So it nicely came together for me. I mixed a cup of whole wheat flour with some water (maybe 2/3 cup? I started with .25 cup and added more until it was firm/stiff). Once I made it into a dough ball, I added in some chopped garlic and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes with a moist cloth atop. It must be amazing if it has to freaking rest.

Meanwhile I sauteed a large red onion in some olive oil (1TBish) until transparent, then I added some garlic for a minute or two. I cut up 7 plum tomatoes, which are my favorites, and added them in along with some of the liquid from a can of chickpeas. I threw in some salt, curry powder, the chickpeas (sans liquid), and a gigantic 16oz bag of fresh kale and cooked until the kale was done. My brother inspired me to buy the kale since he mentioned it several times while I visited him last week. Good job, bro!

While that was going I made 3 little balls out of the dough and flattened them out into little circles that were not thick but not really thin. I am a chump and can't succecssfully use a rolling pin, so I used the palm of my hands. And it worked like a charm. I put the last remaining drops of garlic olive oil into a frying pan and put it on medium. Then I realized that this was pretty stupid because olive oil has a low smoke point and I really needed the temp on high. Oh well. I turned the heat up a little more but not all the way and cooked both sides of the roti until they were brown. It's much more fun to make them when you have a gas stove because the next step is to put the roti on the open flame for a few seconds per side. But, considering my history with heat sources, it's probably better that my kitchen is lame.

The kale mixture made 3 large servings- more than I expected, which was a nice surprise. I can't wait to try it reheated when the curry has had time to mingle more with the other ingredients. And the roti were the perfect accompaniment. The garlic chunks inside it were super amazing. I'm now delightfully full and overpoweringly odorous.

Christmas Recap

Since my grandmother is still recovering from her April cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment, I spent Christmas in Georgia with her and my parents. To ease my mom's constant burden of being her caregiver, I thought I'd cook dinner. Little did I realize, however, that I'd have no access to internet or cell phone because I was back in 1955 rural Georgia. Let's just say my improvisational skills were really tested.

I settled on:
Stuffed acorn squash- I cooked barley and lentils in some veggie broth and added some cranberries, cilantro, and hot Mexican-style chili powder, then stuffed it into the squash. The colors were delightful and very Christmas-like
Pecan stuffing- I made stuffing with a little extra margarine for flavor and some pecans since my grandmother has a pecan orchard and they were fresh off the trees
Sweet potatoes- I added roasted garlic, chives, and margarine to some boiled (w/skins) sweet ptoatoes
Sauteed spinach with caramalized onions
Beer bread

I also wanted to make some gingerbread cookies, but alas, no blog access for the recipe, and I didn't want to buy molasses because I knew no one else would ever use it and it would just get tossed. So I searched my computer and found this recipe for Chocolate Chip Walnut Pumpkin Cookies that I luckily had saved. I omitted the eggs, forgot the baking soda, subbed unsweetened apple sauce for the oil, used pecans instead of walnuts, and added a cup of cranberries. I think it had too much chocolate (blasphemy!) and I'd probably leave it out altogether if I was going to make it again.

I ate these damn things left and right as if I was going to die if my stomach wasn't completely full with cookies. Every 10 minutes I'd scarf down 2 more to the point where I wanted to vomit. Yet I kept eating...

Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup

In the past I have professed my love for the sweet potato. Sometimes I struggle with moderation, and I overdosed on the poor tasty tuber a few too many times. I was running out of new ways to enjoy it and reverting to my regular fallback recipes.

In trying to figure out what I was going to finish up in my fridge before the holidays, I stumbled upon some sweet potatoes. So I Googled "sweet potato soup" and found this recipe for Ginger Lime Sweet Potato Soup, which is kismet because I had all 3 of the titled ingredients. I didn't have celery or, gasp, onions, so I just sauteed some diced baby carrots until tender. I, of course, had no cumin, so I added some chipotle flakes and chilli powder along with grated lime and ginger leftover from my delicious homemade ginger ale. I added 4 med-large sweet potatoes (cubed) and boiled until done. Then I got out my favorite tool of all time, the immersion blender, and blended half of it (ladeled out the other soup into a bowl because I like chunks). I added the 1/2 cup of soy milk and swired it around so it looked pretty until it mixed in. Meanwhile, I boiled 3/4c lentils and 3/4cup quinoa. When it was done, I added some salt and lime juice.

It made 4 very large but low-cal servings. It really would have been fine doing .5c each lentils and quinoa, but I needed some extra protein for dinner, so tonight's bowl was a little fuller than the others.

I never would have imagined using these flavors together, but it was amazing. I could definitely taste the lime and the ginger but not in an overpowering way. It was just so unique. I think the lime turned my lentils and quinoa into crack, too, because they were amazing on their own. Next time, it gets some Better Than Cream Cheese instead of the soy milk.

Thanks, Puddin'!

I used this pudding recipe (that I've blogged about before), but I had no cocoa because I used it to make pudding last weekend.

So, I heated up 1c soy milk, added 2 TB cornstarch, and then once it gelled I removed from heat and added 1-2tsp maple syrup and 1TB peanut butter. Well, actually I added them all in at the same time, which resulted in some lumps. But I'm pretending that didn't happen because it was otherwise the tastiest thing I have ever eaten in my life. I'm not sure if it was the maple or what, but it was amazing. And I scarfed it down, so that's why you get no photo.

Did I mention this was the greatest food item of all time?

I've Been Waiting All Day to Make This Pizza

Because I haven't been feeling well (jetlag from my ridiculous LA overnighter), I decided to cheer myself up with food. I need to overdose on veggies since I am not feeling well, and I wanted to sneak in a little protein that is not peanut butter. What's better than pizza?

I used my onion-herbed beer bread recipe (3c flour, onion, herbs, 1 bottle beer) as the basis for crust. I flattened it out into 4 mini-crusts on a greased cookie sheet. I put it in a 375 degree oven for a few minutes while I assembled the sauce, which is strangely similar to my creamy tomato soup- 3 regular tomatos, 2TB tomato paste, 1 package of firm silken tofu, 4 cloves garlic, and salt/pepper- using my handy dandy immersion blender. I slapped the sauce on the pizza and put it back in while I made the other toppings- spinach (2pkg frozen), mushrooms (10 white), and thinly sliced red onion (.25c). I added those to the pizza and put it back in while I chopped up 2 roma tomatoes and 10 black olives. Last time out, I added the tomato slices, olives, and capers (the greatest ingredient ever). I let it cook a few more minutes then turned the broiler on for a few more so the tomatoes would roast a little.

I had to write the blog while it cooled, otherwise I'd have burned my mouth. It's pretty good- though the sauce could have been stronger (more salt/tomato paste maybe?. And I used frozen spinach, which made the crust a little soggy in the middle because I didn't strain it very well.

Still hit the spot.

Nuts!

I'm on my way out the door to see Patrick Dempsy, but I made some spiced nuts for Tara's sitter. Through the brilliance of Google, I found this recipe for spiced walnuts.

I liked the maple syrup aspect, but in the end, they weren't as flavorful as I'd hoped. Of course, I didn't follow instructions on measurement, so I could have added more cinnamon. We'll see what Tara's friend thinks. But I had a catastrophe with this measureless snickerdoodle recipe and came out with intensely spiced cake-like cookies. Minus the over-spicing (I followed the recipe and added more than I thought necessary) they would have been great...

Gingerbread Cookies

Although LBD sent me her gingerbread cookie recipe (thanks!), I'd already found one from the Post Punk Kitchen that I already actually had all of the ingredients for in my kitchen (except for cloves, which I won't buy because they seem ridiculously expensive).

I've never made gingerbread anything before so this seemed a little daunting. But it turned out easy and absolutely delicious. I also thought I'd ice some of them for no real reason. I did a little digging about found this easy Gingerbread Vegan Icing recipe from the Vegan Lunch Box. I made 2 batches of icing since I cooked half the dough the day I made it and then the other half a day later. For the first batch I used a good amount of vanilla and regular soy milk, and the second included less vanilla and soy nog. I liked the first better, but it was a little runnier.

No style points, but the taste makes up for my inabilitiy to prettify things.

Easy Meals for the Lazy Chef

Coming back from a long Thanksgiving and then preparing for another one-night stand with a celebrity in LA (relax, it's just an overnight dash from the East coast over to the West coast to play with someone famous), I hoped to minimize my time in the kitchen. So lunch the next 2 days is a strange concoction that somehow tastes fabulous:



Creamy Tomato Green Bean Soup

Boil .5 cup brown rice in 1 can veggie broth for about 10 or 15 minutes. Add 3 cups fresh green beans (and more water/broth if necessary) and cook until green beans are done. Meanwhile, using your handy dandy immersion blender attachment (or a blender), blend .5 block of silken tofu (firm), 2 TB tomato paste, and some canned chipotle in adobo sauce. When the green beans are done or almost done, add the creamy mixture to the pot and add salt to season. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Enjoy the strangest but most delightful concotion you've had in awhile.



Chipotle Polenta with Lime Infused Spinach/Artichoke/Roasted Garlic

I'm fairly certain you can guess from the title what's in it. I boiled some polenta, salt, and chipotle powder (which I will use for chipotle brownies soon!) until creamy. At the same time I boiled one package of frozen spinach and one package of frozen artichokes, which I didn't know existed. I added some salt and roasted garlic and cooked until piping hot. I added the lime juice, stirred, then piled atop the chipotle polenta and added jennilicious' favorite plant- cilantro. Some of the bites were amazing...and some were just ok. I'm not sure how that can happen. Yes, that's my unsweetened homemade cranberry ginger ale.

Holiday Delight

Armed with new batteries for my camera that seems to run out of batteries once a month even though I only use it for food blogging, I am back with a vengence!

Tonight I was feeling especially merry as evidenced both by the excessive Christmas decorations adorning my apartment and by the seasonal delights I made. I've been wanting to make some sort of cranberry soda since I had a giant bag of berries leftover from my acorn squash stuffing. I did some googling and came up with this recipe, a combination of homemade ginger ale and cranberry juice recipes:

1 cup peeled, finely chopped ginger

3/4 bag fresh cranberries

2 cups water

Boil cranberries until the pop, add ginger for 5 minutes, then set aside for 20 minutes. Strain into container of your choice- I opted for a glass jar. Now, I suppose you should combine it with club soda, but I'm a huge fan of seltzer water and used that instead. I just mixed until I found what I liked. To sweeten, make a simple syrup by mixing 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of boiling water and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Add what tastes good to you.

For dinner I went for some stuffing, and when I looked up the recipe I noticed that on the same page was a recipe for Brussels sprouts, my favorite. So, from page 228 of the November 2006 edition of Better Homes and Gardens, I used this Old-Fashioned Bread Stuffing recipe. My only change was that I used fresh sage and fresh tarragon (left over from the squash stuffing) and I used vegetable broth instead of chicken.

Also on that page I found this recipe for Creamy Brussels Sprouts. I followed it for the most part, again subbing veggie broth for chicken, but it calls for whipping cream and cheese so I had to get creative. I creamed together a half block of silken tofu and about 1/4 soy milk to replace the cream, and I made no attempt to sub for the cheese mostly because I overlooked it when I was making my shopping list.

The stuffing was a little bland despite my addition of fresh herbs. I'm wondering if they cooked too long and lost their flavor. Or maybe I just prefer poultry seasoning. And I suspect the veggie broth was less than stellar because it wasn't high quality.

The sprouts were interesting but I enjoyed them. Nutmeg is the secret ingredient in everything and even though I don't particularly care for it, it made the dish what it was. Next time I'll use Better Than Cream Cheese instead of tofu/soy mlik and I bet it will taste even better.

And of course, they were both delightful chased down with my delicious cranberry soda.

The Blog is Back!

The past 3 months have been insane with travel taking up nearly 50% of my time. So now I've decided to go back to food blogging- but really only because I've been eating some good things and can't remember them. So, no, it's not about the 10 of you who actually read this. It's about my failing memory....



One of my greatest creations that saved me on 2 separate trips in November was lentils, green beans, and whole wheat pasta with some salt and garlic olive oil. I simply made it the night before (well, the 2nd time I made it the morning I left), let it sit and marinate, then enjoyed on the plane as everyone else was eating the crappy plane food. I even got desperate the second time and grabbed some canned green beans and it was still delicious.



This week I also experimented with stuffed acron squash and lentil loaf. Yes, I said lentil loaf. I followed this reciple for the squash, but made it my own so that it ended up being:



2 gigantic acorn squash

.75 cup wild rice, .25 cup brown rice

2 veggie bouillon cubes 2 cans veggie broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

a large yellow onion

2-3 stalks of celery

1/4 cup (or so) chopped walnuts

2TB each fresh tarragon and sage

3 cloves garlic

1/3 cup fresh cranberries

salt

ground black pepper to taste



Then I followed the general cooking instructions, adding the cranberries at the same time as the walnuts and the herbs as close to the end as possible. I either undercooked the rice inititally or overcooked it when reheating in the oven because it was pretty crunchy, which was a little less than ideal. But it was still very tasty.



The lentil loaf was lentil, yes, but not loaf. I think some of my issues were that I didn't know if 2 cups of lentils meant 2 cups dry, cooked, or 2 cups of cooked lentils. Then I didn't have breadcrumbs so I substituted 2 pieces of stale bread. And I had no marinara sauce, so I added some tomato paste and chili powder. Looking back, I should have added more tomatoes and spices and let it sit in the loaf pan to cool. Instead, I wasted no time in turning it out onto a plate where it quickly became lentil mush. But I didn't touch it, mostly because my dinner guest had to postpone until the next night. So the next night I got it back in the loaf pan to heat it up (I'm scared of the microwave) and it was more loaflike, but less flavorfull than I hoped. I made a sauce for the top that consisted of 3 roma tomatoes, cilantro, chili powder, and 2 tb tomato paste blended together. It was alright the first night but inedible the second night. You know I still ate it though.

Tofu, I'm Not Scared of You!

My camera has no batteries because it evidently takes a LOT of power to take 30 pictures.

Since I'm going to the beach this weekend and Iowa for the Livestrong Presidential Cancer Forum, I wanted to use up my produce. I purchased some portabellas on a whim this week, and I had some green beans. I needed some protein, though, so I decided to throw in some tofu, too.

I pan-fried the firm tofu I'd cubed in a light layer of olive oil spray. I actually didn't touch it, so it got nice and brown. But I didn't feel like browning all four sides so I browned 2 sides and threw in the green beans with some red wine vinegar. When those were almost done, I added strips of the shroom. Meanwhile, I cooked some couscous and topped it with the veggies. A pretty easy and tasty dish. I had no onions so next time I'll make it like I usually do my caramalizing some onions first. Yum.

Chickpeas and Barley

In need of an easy meal, I cooked .5cup barley (my favorite grain) and mixed in .5cup chickpeas, 2 cloves of roasted garlic (threw them in the oven with the paper on for 15 minutes or so on 400ish degrees until soft), .5TB olive oil, and some dried basil. It was good.

Smoothie Greatness

Smoothies are pretty easy to make, but I've come up with the tastiest combination ever.

• Fruit- banana, berries, peach, etc. (I generally use 1 banana and a handful
  of berries)
• Soy milk or silken tofu (the latter works great, I'd use maybe .5 block or
  1 cup of soymilk)
• Unsweentened, non Dutch processed cocoa (1-2 TB will do)
• Nut butter (1 TB is fine but you might need 2TB to get a really strong
  flavor)
• Coffee (mix up a couple teaspoons/tablesoons in small amount of
  water)
• Cinamon
  

Today I got smart and decided to put the soymilk and coffee in ice cube trays in the freezer for about an hour along with the banana (peeled) and raspberries. I love my smoothies thick and almost frozen, but adding ice cubes dilutes the flavor...

Save the Vegetables! Soup

Evidently I overpurchased on veggies last week, which means that I didn't need to buy much this week, but I had to come up with a way to use them up because the thought of throwing out food makes me want to cry. So I did what I love to do- threw it all in a pot to make a soup.



On hand:

1 medium onion

6 cloves garlic (I had to buy a giant pack of garlic becuase I needed it one day and the only nearby place tht had it sold it in 6 bulb packages)

3 large yellow squashes

4 plum tomatoes

4 cups of green beans

1 medium head of cauliflower

1 cup frozen corn



1 can light kidney beans



.5 cup barley (my favorite grain)

.25 cup each quinoa and bulgur



Simply seasoned with seasalt and pepper. If it was topped with avocado, it would contain all essential food groups! It's a nice summery soup and should feed me the rest of the week- it made 5 gigantic servings.

All Chili-d Out

Hello, my name is Jennilicious, and I'm a badbloggeroholic. I haven't posted in ages because, let's face it, I'm a lazy-good-for-nothing. I decided to go ahead and post this short and to-the-point blog to get myself back in the habit.

I got paid yesterday, so I made a beeline to the store after work. Despite the fact that I was starving, I managed to stay fairly focused and made good food choices. I walked through the produce section and saw all that veggie stuff and thought I'd try something new. I saw the Lightlife stuff and decided on the Smart Chili.
Once home, I debated how best to use my chili. I had some sour cream left after making spinach dip for a barbecue at work (at least it was light sour cream, right?), so I thought chili nachos would hit the spot.

I heated up the chili, which just meant opening the pouch it comes in and throwing it in the microwave, dumped it on some tortilla chips, and slapped some sour cream and jalapenos on top.

I was starving, so I managed to down the whole plate in no time. But, the chili was pretty disappointing. It tasted rather like ketchup, and I hate ketchup. It was way too sweet.

Looking at the Web site, it seems Lightlife is headquartered in Massachusetts, which could explain this flavor scheme (sorry Veganne!). Any chili I've had here in Texas has had at least a modicum of spicy heat. This had zilch. What gives?

Garlic Sesame Asparagus and Herbed Barley

Somehow the asparagus I'd bought 2 weeks ago wasn't quite dead yet, so I felt it was time to finally eat it. I'd been putting it off because I didn't want my pee to smell, but I'm not sure why I was so worried about that. I was inspired by this recipe on vegweb, but I had no sesame seeds so I improvised- shocking I know.

I added 1 TB of sesame oil and 3 cloves of chopped garlic to 24 spears of asparagus. Then I stuck it in the oven on about 375 for maybe 10 minutes until it was done.

Meanwhile, I cooked some pearled barley and when it was almost done, I added a variety of Italian herbs and some vegan margarine (Earth Balance).

Delicious. I just wish I'd remembered to add the garlic to the oil ahead of time to let it infuse like I do with olive oil. But, still wonderful.

Steamed Cauliflower atop a Bed of Tomato-Cumin Cilantro with Spicy Cool Tofu Sauce

A long title, a tasty dish. I'm a huge fan of all in one dishes (not necessarily casseroles...or is that the definition of the word?), and today I needed a little of each food group (except fruit).



So, I cooked some quinoa with tomatoes and cumin, steamed some cauliflower, and made a sauce with 1 package of silken tofu , a bunch of cilantro (that's PARSLEY to you, jennilicious!), chipotle pepper, and salt. When I first made the sauce, it was missing something, so I added more of everything. I retasted and it still wasn't perfect, and then I realized the key: garlic. So I added 3 cloves and it was amazing.




















Not only is it tasty, but it looks pretty. The picture doesn't do it justice- cauliflower seems to be camera-shy lately. But if I actually cared when I "plated" it, it could have looked so much better. What's that atop you ask? Green onion. It was dirt cheap so I've been cooking with it all week.




As far as changes/improvements, it could really, really use some lime. I'd probably put it in the quinoa and possibly the sauce as well. And perhaps the quinoa could have used some chili powder.

"Creamed" Spinach

I had been dreaming about this dish all afternoon because I thought it was simply brilliant. Of course I would, I thought it up.

I steamed a head of cauliflower (left over from last week and about to be unusable), then used my badass immersion blender to cream it along with a touch of unsweetened soy milk, 2 cloves of raw garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, and nutritional yeast. I also added some water to make it soupier. Then I added an entire bag of fresh spinach (that I'd torn) and cooked until the spinach was wilted.

While brilliant in my head and no too untasty, it wasn't what I hoped because the cauliflower was so thick- the idea was that the cauliflower would be a "cream" sauce. I like creaming cauliflower, though. Well, I just like cauliflower. I'd like to make it again with some onions and mushrooms. And maybe some Better Than Cream Cheese. But still good.

I'm repurposing it tomorrow- on top a bed of yummy quinoa.

Chipotle Polenta

I've made polenta now the last 2 nights.

Thursday- I made polenta and added chipotle to the corneal. I then topped it with homemade salsa (chopped up one small on the vine tomato, half a red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and some cilantro). And the best part- I added some chili powder/cumin to a few TB's of Better Than Cream Cheese. Now, in the past I feel I may have maligned this stuff. But, it's my crack cocaine (that and silken tofu). I love it. This dish was awesome, except I didn't cut the onion into small enough pieces so it was a little overpowering.

Friday- Same first sentence and last dollop. Instead of salsa, though, I cooked .25C of lentils with the other half of the red onion and another tomato. And a dash of salt. The lentils alone were amazing. On top of the polenta, though, was fantastic. Yum.

Lentil Soupish

I threw together lentils, corn, red onion, garlic, cilantro, chili powder, cumin, and a little salt. It was good and easy (just like jennilicious).

Vegan Cupcake Weekend

Last weekend I celebrated my 10 years as a cancer survivor and received an awesome book as a gift- Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. It might be the greatest book of all time. So I declared this weekend National Vegan Cupcake Weekend.

From the moment I got the book, the marble cupcakes called out to me. Probably because I had all of the ingredients already in my apartment. But, I had a request to make the maple cupcakes. So I did what anyone else would do- I made both.

The marble cupcakes actually looked cool and weren't that hard to make. I topped them with a coffee buttercream icing. The maple cupcakes were sort of a nightmare for some reason (more my fault than the recipe). I accidentally left out the brown sugar and screwed up the maple coated walnuts. They still came out delicious.

Both icing recipes made enough for 24 cupcakes, so I was forced to make 24 more cupcakes the next day. This time I tried vanilla and chocolate. One of my accidents from the maple cupcakes resulted in my vanilla extract all over my counter, wallet, and bananas. So I replaced it with pomegranate liqeur, but it was barely noticeable and still vanilla-y. The chocolate was delightful. So I alternated the icings and had 6 chocolate with coffee, 6 chocolate with maple, 6 vanilla-y with coffee, and 6 vanilla-y with maple. They were all amazing though not the most beautiful in presentation.

Cauliflower with Tomato Basil Tofu Sauce

It's basically what it sounds like. I steamed some cauliflower and, again using my fantabulous attachment to my immersion blender, blended together a plum tomato, 1 clove of garlic, .25 block silken tofu, salt, basil, and randomly some nutritional yeast (though I'm fairly certain it didn't add anything to it).

Tofu sauces are amazing. Thank you jennilicious for introducing me to tofu, once my nemesis, ironically because of jennilicious' failed attempt back in undergrad. This is a quick, tasty dish. And I'd definitely lick the sauce up off the floor. I may have licked the plate clean, too.

I tried taking pictures for about 10 minutes, but I was ultimately unsuccessful for whatever reason.

Lentil Delight

Lentils rock.

I wanted to try something a little different (for me) with lentils so I dreamt up this concotion. I cooked .25 cups lentils for about 10 minutes, added a cup of diced yellow squash, a cup of frozen diced zucchini, and .5cups frozen chopped spinach (trying to get rid of stuff in the freezer to make room for the aforementioned soup). While that was going, I used my badass immersion blender attachment to blend together .25 block silken soft tofu, some dried dill, a little (too much) salt, and a splash of soy milk. I put the "sauce" in the fridge to keep chilled and when the lentils/veggies were done, they went in the freezer to quickly cool. I mixed the two together for a lentil delight. And it makes a big bowl that's around than 200 calories.

I dried draining the lentils/veggies and throught I got most of the water out. Not as much as I'd hoped, so instead of a creamy mixture, it's a little more watery than I envisioned. But at least the oversalting of the "sauce" wasn't noticeable since I didn't flavor the lentils/veggies otherwise. To make it a more complete meal, it might be good with some bulgur or quinoa.

The "sauce" is actually really good and I might start making this often and using it as a dip for my baby carrots. I can imagine it with some sundried tomatoes and basil or maybe rosemary and garlic. Yum.

Still Around...Barely

I haven't posted in 3 weeks because I've either been too busy training to cook anything creative or out of town. As a result, I've now gotten sick. So today I decided to make soup- and lots of it. My freezer is now full for those long days when training takes up too much time...*Sigh*

I sauteed 2 medium onions and 4 cloves of garlic until transparent. I diced some tomatoes and threw them in the pot along with some water. I let them boil for 15 minutes or so and added 4 cups of yellow squash, one giant can of kidney beans (it held 9 servings), and an entire package of organic wheat spaghetti. I was feeling uncreative because my brain was shut off so I only seasoned it with salt and pepper, but in the end it was a good decision. It cooked until everything was done, and then I scooped it into 8 containers (about 375 calories a piece).

It hit the spot and was just what the doctor ordered. I'm glad I made heaps and heaps of it because it's something I won't mind eating over and over again. Good job, self. Maybe next time I'll use a nice veggie broth for more flavor.

(It is soupier than the picture leads you to believe.)

Memorial Day Dilemma

I was invited to a Memorial Day potlock with 4 hours notice. Normally that would be plenty of time to go to the grocery store (which was on my list of things to do anyway) and come up with something yummy to make. However, I opted instead to go on a bike ride.



So before I took my bike out, I was waiting for my mom to call me and thought I'd see if I could get started on something (plan B was to buy something, gasp!). I went to vegweb, my favorite for recipes, and checked out the potlucks and picnics category. I stumbled up the recipe for Three Bean Pasta Salad and did a quick inventory of food in my apartment. I thought I could pull something together.



I immediately cut up 4 cloves of garlic and smashed them into a paste, adding a little salt and olive oil to assist. I then let it marinate together in the fridge while I drained and washed a can each of black, garbanzo, and dark red kidney beans. I then decided to use up my baby carrots and carefully cut them up into thin strips. Very time consuming. I also defrosted some frozen cut zucchini that I randomly got the other day (I didn't know they made frozen zucchini). But it seemed seasonal.



I threw in the beans, zucchini, and carrots, then I added the olive oil/garlic mixture I'd made, carefuly not to add a lot of the garlic since I was pretty sure it would be garlicky. I also thought some dill would make a nice addition so I threw some dried dill in as well. I mixed, set in the fridge, added more olive oil and dill to the olive oil/garlic mixture, and went off on my bike ride.



When I came back, I cooked 1 cup of barley and steamed 12 stalks of asparagus. With the asparagus I decided to be fancy- I steamed them for just a couple of minutes and tossed them in an ice water bath. I see it all the time on TV and I'm really sure what it does, but it seemed apporpriate. And it cooked it down so I could add it to the dish. When the barley was done, I put it on a plate and stuck it in the freezer for 10 minutes or so to cool it down. I then added the barley and asparagus to the salad along with the olive oil/garlic/dill mixture and some salt. I'm so scared of over salting so I tried to minimalize the amount I added. It also had a strong garlicky taste, which is fine by me. Then I put it in the freezer just to make sure it's all cold enough.

It was pretty tasty and it lasted forever, which was great during my first week of tri training!

Bean Pile

I used to make something similar to this dish fairly often a few years ago. I rediscovered it tonight and am glad I did. A coworker named the dish way back then.

I got .75c whole wheat spiral pasta going in one pot and heated up 1TB sesame oil in my frying pan. I sauteed a medium onion in the oil and added some green beans (4cups?) when the onions were transparent. I seasoned with some sea salt and red pepper flakes.

I eat green beans every week and it seems like they are the same every single time. So the sesame oil was a nice departure from the norm. Overall, the only thing I'd do differently is cut the green beans into smaller pieces so I can shove them in my mouth faster.

Squashtacular

I bought a few too many yellow squashes last week, so I've been eating them too often. I was tired of stewed squash and wanted to do something new. So I did my favorite cooking trick- I roasted them. I cubed 2 large squash and cut 1 medium onion into strips. I tossed both in 1TB of olive oil and put in a 400degree oven until nice and brown. I only seasoned it with some salt because I couldn't figure out what herb would be best. Meanwhile, I cooked some barley, my favorite.

It was a perfect alternative to stewed squash. I just wish it didn't make my kitchen so hot. Sometimes I had the salt just perfect, but some pieces could use a little more. I blame the sea salt for my inability to flavor things correctly.

Spinach Chickpea Goodness

The past few weeks have been hectic with board meetings, travel 2 weekends in a row, and my workload picking up significantly. So, I haven't had the time to cook, much less blog about what I'm eating. Sadly, 2 days last week I had to settle for (don't take it the wrong way, I love it, but it's no homemade treat) peanut butter sandwiches. But I did go to a "Tex Mex" place (as you'd suspect, DC "Tex Mex" doesn't even come close...) and was proud of myself for avoiding the chips and then only eating half of my veggie burrito. I brought the leftovers back with me, but decided they weren't worth my time.

This afternoon's meal was not quite what I expected- but pleasantly surprising. I sauteed some onions and garlic in about 1/3TB olive oil. I added 1 cup of chickpeas. There was a moment of panic when I looked in the cupboard and couldn't find them. But after moving every single can of beans out of the cabinet, I found the garbanzos hiding in the back. Whew.

I added an entire bag of fresh spinach, about 2TB of white wine, 1.5TB nutritional yeast, and lots of mustard. And salt (amazingly not too much) and pepper. This is clearly my favorite easy sauce for things.

Once the spinach wilted (5 min), it was ready to be devoured. The only thing I'll do differently next time (and I will be making this again) is to cut up the spinach before dumping it into the pan.

Monochrome Mealtime

The past few days I've been making quick, easy meals. But they have all tended to be very monocrhomatic.

Thursday- Green
I made green split peas with frozen spinach. I then added some balsamic vinegar at the end for a little flavor. By the end of the bowl, I wanted to vomit. I don't like balsamic vinegar. Give me red wine vinegar any day.

Friday- Yellow
I boiled some yellow squash with onions and added yellow split peas. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Quick, easy, and tasty.

No pictures, though.

I Couldn't Have Said It Better

An excellent article from the New York Times that speaks directly to my cooking philosophy:

The Minimalist: A No-Frills Kitchen Still Cooks

By: Mark Bittman

More Pizza

When I left my apartment this morning, I intended to walk about 2 miles from the Metro to a bicycle store to purchase a bike for the triathlon I'm doing to celebrate 10 years of cancer survivorship and to raise money for the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. I got to the bike shop and purchased a bike (woohoo), but they didn't have it in stock so my plan to ride it home was shot. Instead I hiked the 8 miles back home. That is deserving of pizza.

I started by caramelizing 2 small onions, though I'm fairly certain I didn't do it right. I sprayed the pan with a little olive oil spray, but didn't actually use oil like you're supposed to. Oh well. Then I deglazed with some red wine vinegar and let it cook about a minute. I took all but 1TB of the onions out and set aside for later. To the onions still in the pan I added 2 cloves of garlic. After about a minute I got impatient, added a TB of white wine, and added 2 cups of canned organic diced tomatoes. After preheating the oven to 425 , I let the sauce simmer while I took the dog out.

Upon returning, I made the same recipe for pizza dough (only I did equal parts flour and .5 cup cornmeal instead) that I've made before and stuck it in the oven for 5 minutes. Meanwhile I added a bunch of different Italian spices to the tomatoes in addition to 1 cup of frozen chopped spinach since I needed another serving of veggies for the day. I also put 3 servings of meatless buffalo chicken pieces in the microwave to thaw a little so I could cut them up into tiny pieces. After I took the dough out, I put the sauce on and 4 TB of Better than Cream Cheese. I popped it in the oven to melt the cheese then spread it around and topped it with the onions and the buffalo meatless chicken pieces. I put it back in the oven until it was all warm and the crust looked done and turned on the broiler to get the meatless chicken crunchy.

I'm generally hesitant to consume fake meat because I'm scared it will be horrendus. However, every time I've had it, I've been pleasantly surprised. The only problem with this fake meat was that it was too dry for what I wanted- by that I mean that I was hoping for something smothered in a spicy sauce. It was sort of spicy, just not what I was hoping for, but I'd kind of gathered that from the picture. Could you give it to a meat eater without them realizing it's meatless? Probably, but they'd probably think it was a little lacking or trying to be healthy. But I'd buy it again.

As you can guess, it was fantastic. The cream cheese cooled the little heat from the meatless chicken, though I sadly couldn't really taste the onions. It clocks in at about 2000 calories total (crust about 1000, tomatoes 120, onions/garlic 50, meat 390, and cream cheese 120). I ate half of it because I was starving from my long journey, but there is enough to have 4 decent servings.

Hot Hot Hot!

Inexplicably, I decided I needed to, had to, use my cornmeal tonight in whatever I made. Perhaps it was my lengthy examination of Amy's products as I stood in the frozen food aisle at Whole Foods today trying to pick out something for lunch since I haven't gone to the grocery store in forever and don't have many ingredients to cook with. Amy's makes a tamale pie dish that has a cornmeal topping. Inspirational...

I wanted to use the ailing cauliflower in my fridge in a somewhat new way, even though "mashed" cauliflower is one of my favorite things. And I needed some nuts/beans/seeds so I went with my favorite standby- lentils. Back to the cornmeal. I was searching around the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen blog, one of my favorites, and stumbled upon a fun Tamale Bites recipe that looked intriguing despite knowing full well that I have no Twinkie pan or anything remotely MacGyverable. But I did have what I (mistakenly) remembered being a giant silicone muffin pan. My plan was to carve out the inside of a cornbread muffin and stuff with my strange concoction. It worked, I guess. But instead of the cornbread bowl I envisioned, it was like a thimble.

Simultaneously, I cooked 12 cornbread muffins with this recipe from Vegweb, except I used applesauce instead of the oil. I estimate the entire batch has 1200 calories. I also steamed a head of cauliflower and blended it with .25 cup water and about a TB of frozen chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. And, miraculous, I cooked .5 cup of lentils with 1 small onion until they were done but not mushy and added the last maybe TB of tomato paste I found cowering in my freezer, cumin, chili powder, and a little salt.

The cauliflower turned a nice shade of orange and was delicious on its own, but extrordinarily spicy (yum). I'm going to start eating lentils like this way more often- they were simply delicious. The cornbread didn't seem to burn and despite sticking my finger almost all the way through one of them to check for doneness (evidently premature on my part), the muffins came out fine. I'm not sure I'd ever serve just those because they were a little bland. I might add some corn and, yup, chipotle. But maybe powder instead of the actual pepper.

I somehow expertly carved out the insides of the muffins, scooped the tiniest scoop of cauliflower in it, and added a tad of the lentil mix atop. Originally I envisioned the cauliflower as more of a soup and the lentils as something that sits in the middle of the soup, both in a cornbread bowl.

The cornbread bowls came out cute, yet too small for me to eat soup out of. Now, I'd definitely hollow these out again and put something in them- maybe lentil dip or refried beans or something. Or maybe I'd get a bigger pan.

I'm really proud of this meal- it was really good and really fun.

What about the leftover cornbread muffins? I crumbled up 2 of them in a bowl with cinnamon and 8th Continent Light Vanilla Soy Milk for breakfast the next day. Better than my Cheerios.

A Day in the Park

My dog and I spend lots of time at the park, often sleeping, when the weather is nice. We always pack lots of snacks and water/drinks, but since we had a guest accompanying us, I thought we'd make something a little more fun.

The first thing that came to mind was some sort of fresh fruit spritzer. I'm not sure what that means, but I wanted something with freshly made juice and whatever people mix it with that isn't alcohol (I'm strangely anti drinking during the day). Strawberries sound delightful, possibly because I was eating them when I dreamt up this plan. But I was worried that our guest wouldn't like strawberries, so I went with mangoes instead, as if those are generally more people friendly than strawberries. I also had some Pink Lady apples, my favorites of all time, so I thought I'd use those as well.

In grad school I purchased the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer that I'd been eyeing for months. It was the best $100 I ever spent- back in grad school. I'd use it every day to make tons and tons of juice, but it's been sitting in my cupboard since I moved to the D.C. area. However, that all changed.

After some quick Googling, I found that I should mix 2 parts fruit juice and 1 part sparkling water or wine. I'm not exactly sure what that meant, so I ended up juicing 4 mangoes and putting the juice in a large water bottle, then filling up part way with soda water. The juice that came out was pretty thick but tasty nonetheless. I did the same with the juice of 4 apples. There was no measuring, but a simple taste test at the end indicated I might have gone a little heavy on the soda because the juice seemed diluted, especially in the mango spritzer. Lesson learned.

And, of course, you have to serve it in glass jars. If I wanted to get fancy, I would have frozen some fruit (grapes, strawberries, pineapple) and used them as ice. Or I would have frozen the puree or edible flowers in ice cubes. Or I would have put some chunked fruit on skewers or toothpicks. And garnished with mint. But, that's too much effort when I'm just going ot the park. (I only added the strawberry for the picture).

And since I was having something so sweet, I thought a nice unsweet treat was in order. I happened to finally tune into Get Fresh with Sarah Snow on Discovery Health this week to see her make some oat/peanut butter/cocoa patty goodness. I am choosing to ignore the fact that honey is not really vegan, and I left out the spirulina because I'm just not sure about it yet. And I left out the whole flax seeds and replaced it with more oats because I'm not sure I'll ever use whole flax again. Oh and my oats were really 5-grain hot breakfast cereal.


I halved the recipe and made one set of patties with peanut butter and the other with cashew butter. I went to great lengths not to let the flavors mix. Everything was fine until I decided I had to use both hands to form patties and put on cookie trays. There was chocoloate/nut butter goodness everywhere. No, I'm not complaining, just saying...I finally made the patties and put them in the freezer as long as I could so they'd harden some.

The "cookies" are essentially a very healthy version of the no-bake cookies you had as a kid. I'd like to try adding a little salt to them, but we'll save that for a time when it's just me devouring all of them.

It was perfect for the park, but necessitated some paper towels. Great times.

Mexican Sweet Potato Tofu Stoup

Mexican Sweet Potato Stoup

2 small onions sauteed with
6 cloves of garlic then added
dry white wine to deglaze and
water with
1 package of extra firm tofu, cubed, with
4TB garlic chipotle salsa and
Chili powder, cumin, salt to simmer 15 minutes, then
2 medium/large sweet potatoes and
1/2 c bulgur until done

I originally envisioned this dish with black beans, but the tofu in my fridge had been in there for way too long. While I'm tempted to give up on tofu, I'm determined to learn out to cook with it (which I didn't do well in this dish). The tofu doesn't taste bad, it just wasn't what I was hoping for. And I oversalted in my zeal to make it taste Mexican since all the spices I used had salt in addition to the heaping amount of salt I threw in. Next time I'll use black beans, lime, and chipotle and pray that it comes out a little better.

"Ochazuke"

Since I'm feeling a little sick today and I wasn't sure my leftovers from last night would be that great without a little help, I decided to make "Ochazuke." Traditional Ochazuke is leftover rice and green tea with seasonings on top. Things like seaweed, plum, salmon, etc. I use the quotes because, while my dish and the traditional dish both contain green tea and leftover rice, I'm pretty sure most Japanese people don't add chickpeas, kale, and Tony Chacheries. And they probably use white rice instead of brown.

I don't have a picture since I ate it at work, but all I did was mix last night's food together and add some green tea. Just what the doctor ordered, but could have used a little more of the spices.

Crunchy Spicy Garlicky Kale and Chickpeas

I thought I found a recipe online once with kale and chickpeas, but I searched and couldn't find anything. So got .75c of brown jasmine rice going and then I tossed a can of chickpeas in a dish, sprayed with olive oil spray, and rolled them in some Tony Chachere's and roasted on 400 for about 15 minutes, or the amount of time it took me to take the dog out.

I added about 6 cups of cut kale that came from the largest bag of kale I've ever seen. To be honest, though, I'm not sure I've ever seen kale in a bag. I also put 4 cloves of garlic with the paper on them on a cookie sheet and let them cook separately until they got soft and yummy. I added them to the kale/chickpeas and turned on the broiler to get the kale nice and crispy. All together, it made 3 servings at about 350 calories a piece.

This dish was surprisingly good. The crispy kale and beans were a delight, and the garlic was amazing. I only wish I'd added more. Yum.

"Curry" Quinoa Lentil Stoup

Let's get this out of the way from the getgo- I dislike Rachel Ray. I'm not exactly sure why, but something about her bothers me. Yet I still watch her shows. At any rate, I took the word "Stoup" from Rachel Ray for lack of a better term to describe my concoction.

I sauteed some onions and garlic in a tiny bit of olive oil (I think I may just start leaving this sentence out since it's a given). Then I added water and .5 cup lentils and let it boil for 15 minutes. I added 2 TB of Better Than Cream Cheese, which isn't but is still good, and reached into my spice cabinet for my trusty jar of curry powder only to find that it wasn't there. Apparently some jerk in my apartment, where I live alone, finished the curry and didn't buy more or tell anyone. Ugh. So I made my own "curry" with turmeric, cumin, chili powder, nutmeg, and a half a cinnamon stick. Oh, and I remembered salt this time. I also added .25 cups quinoa and let it cook for 10-15 more minutes until the quinoa was done.

I took out the cinnamon stick and let the stoup sit about 15-20 minutes to let the flavors come out, or at least that's what I envision happening, since I had to face the nor'easter and take the dog out. The apartment smelled lovely when I returned.

It was surprisingly tasty and hit the spot on such a gross, cold, rainy, crappy day. And I was too busy enjoying my dinner to crop out the shadow from the picture.

Seasoned Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Mustard Dipping Sauce

I heart sweet potatoes. Duh.

I cut up 2 giant sweet potatoes and split them into 3 groups. I added a touch of olive oil to all 3 and then seasoned them differently. One group got just salt and pepper, one got "Mexican Style Chili Powder" (chili powder with cumin), and one got rosemary, greatest spice ever. I baked them for 30-40 minutes on 400, refusing to flip them since I was feeling defiant. And I went to great lengths to keep the flavors from mingling.




I scraped a few very small chunks out of the frozen chipotle peppers in my freezer (orginally canned chipotles in adobo), nuked them for 10 seconds, then added a tablespoon or two of regular mustard. Simple. I will not dip the rosemary fries in the mustard for no real reason.










They are amazing. Duh.

Not Your Mama Herman's Roni Rolls

In college Nick Herman's mom, Mama Herman, would make amazing roni rolls. They were so simple and so delicious, especially after single-handedly consuming 3 gallons of cheap beer. I wanted some pizza-type of food today since it's another calorie-free weekend (thanks LBD!), so I dreamt up this concoction. Note: there is no pepperoni in my rolls, nor is there anything resembling pepperoni. So, basically, they aren't roni rolls at all. And as for the pizza theme, there isn't even any tomato anything near these.

Mama Herman would start with store bought pizza dough. But since I'm lazy and not feeling well, I thought I'd whip up my own dough that I seem to be perfecting lately. I followed my usual recipe (search the archives under pizza) but added Italian herbs (surprised?) and chopped onion. If I hadn't finished off the beer last night, I would have made my herbed onion beer bread instead. I rolled the dough in to 8 large balls and then realized they were too large. So I took half of each ball, flattened it out by hand (probably would have been easier with the rolling pin, but I can't figure out how to use it), and added a chunk each of mozarella vegan cheese and cheddar vegan cheese. I rolled up, placed on cookie sheet, and baked on 375 until it looked done on the outside.

While it was cooking, I added some sea salt to 2 small cloves of minced garlic and used the back of my knife to make it into a quasi garlic paste. I put it in my lovely ramekin and added a tablespoon or two of olive oil. This is the perfect dipping sauce for anything. And the longer it sits out, the better it gets. Not that I've left it out all day and eaten it later...

Just before they were done, I used a spoon to spread some garlic olive oil atop the rolls. Who needs a brush...Anyway, I let them cook a few more minutes and took them out. The chese was oozing out and it was all I could do not to lick the pan. Then when I took off the two breadsticks I made with the last bit of dough, I remembered that I forgot (of course) to add salt to the dough. So I quickly salted the tops of my rolls and put them in the oven for a minute .

It's sort of a good thing that I bit into one and the cheese oozed all over me. Because I had to go back to the kitchen to get a bib and remembered I'd left the other tray of them in the oven. Oops. At least I turned the oven off. Don't worry, they didn't burn and even if they did, I'd scarf them down anyway.

I have learned today what food porn is. Not only is there cheesy goo oozing all over me (it's even in my hair) as I eat a completely delicious treat, but I'm also watching my secret boyfriend, Michael Chiarello on the Food Network. It's pure filthy goodness and I now need to go shower.

Oh, and I just noticed cheese on the wall.

Green Bean Pocket

I made this last week but haven't had time to post anything since I ramped up my exercise routine. Maybe I'll post about that later...

I randomly had some whole wheat pita bread and, surprise, surprise, wanted to use it up. So I cooked some green beans in red wine vinegar, my favorite. I then added some soy milk, mustard, and nutritional yeast to make a "cheese" sauce. I let it simmer until the green beans were done and then scooped them into the pita. I put it in the oven for a little bit to get a tad crunchy. It was pretty good, fast, and easy. Should I randomly have pita again, I'll probably to something very similar.

My Tastiest Creation Yet

I love sweet potatoes. They are a great lunch- I often just pop one in the microwave at work for 9 minutes and eat it plain for lunch. When I went to California, I cooked some sweet poatatoes and cut them up to take with me on the plane. Sweet potato fries are also a delight.

So for brunch today I decided to use up my last sweet potato. I put it in a 400 degree oven and let that baby bake for what seemed like forever. While it was baking, I cooked 2 very tiny onions and 3 cloves of garlic in some leftover sauvignon blanc from Friday night that sadly did not get consumed. I cooked them until they were pretty brown, deglzing the pan with the wine a few times. While I was waiting for the potato to be done, I also made .25cup of whole wheat couscous with a generous amount of dried Italian herbs.

When the sweet potato was done, I (amazingly) scooped out all the potato and mixed with the wined onions/garlic and mashed it up. I also added 1TB Earth Balance Soy Butter to the couscous and let it melt a little bit from the general kitchen heat. I topped the potato with the couscous, applying with a spoon and using my hand to smush it down. I then put it back in the oven to broil and get the top nice and toasty.

It was heavenly! And it looked pretty! The sweet onions/garlic went so well with the caramalized sugars from the sweet potato, and the herbed topping was so good. The best part was getting a little of the couscous, some sweet potato, and the crispy skin. It might have been a smidge better with some salt, but that's not really an option until I go to the grocery later. Simply amazing.

Balsamic Creation

I've been intrigued lately by balsamic vinegar and decided to bite the bullet and purchase some during my last shopping spree. As usual, I had some items to get rid of in my fridge- asparagus, snow peas, and spinach. While I originally thought I'd use the wok to stir fry all the veggies with some balsamic vinegar, I also wanted to make some polenta. I didn't feel like making it and waiting for it to congeal, so thought I'd bake the veggies with polenta on top.

I made three servings of dinner (about 400 calories)- 3 cups snowpeas, 27 stalks of asparagus, and 5 cups of fresh spinach mixed with balsamic vinegar and pepper (the grocery didn't have sea salt, so now I get to go to the organic grocery and probably snag some more Better than Cream Cheese and other goodies). Meanwhile, I sauteed 6 large gloves of garlic in olive oil spray and added 5.25 cups of water when the garlic browned. On the side I mixed 1.5 cups cornmeal (my weird baking mix) with 1.5 cups cold water. Once it boiled, I added the cornmeal and stirred for 10 minutes or so until creamy. I then poured it on top of the veggies and popped it into the 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

So how was it? I'd say average...It needed something else...probably salt. I'd love to add some mushrooms and maybe veggie broth to it.