Broccoli and "Cheese" Soup

It's been awhile since I've had broccoli and soup seemed appropriate with the cold weather. I've always thought that yellow split peas taste like cheese, so why not experiment and see how close I could get to broccoli and cheese soup?

Broccoli and "Cheese" Soup

• .5c uncooked yellow split peas
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cubes vegan boullion (sea salt and herbs)
• 3 crowns of broccoli, chopped into small pieces
• 1 cup soymilk

Cook split peas and onion in enough water to cover by 1-2 inches, adding water as necessary so there's no less than 1/2 inch of water on top. Meanwhile, steam broccoli until soft.

Once peas are tender, about 25 minutes, add boullion and blend mixture together until smooth. Add broccoli and soymilk and mix well. If it's too runny, mix 2TB flour with a few TB of water, add to soup, and stir continuously until it thickens.

It tasted way better than the canned crap I'm most familiar with, which I guess isn't that hard. This will probably become a go-to dish since it was really easy to make. Next time I might roast the broccoli and onions, too.

Curried Carrot Soup with Ginger Lime Barley

I'm obsessed with making "curried" soups, despite the fact that the "curry" I use is not in any way, shape, or form authentic. I only buy McCormick's because the Giant grocery was remodeling and changing everything around in the store, so I could no longer find my Mexican curry that was strangely amazing. Who knew?

This is pretty easy to make but takes a little while to prep and cook.

Curried Carrot Soup with Ginger Lime Barley

• 1 bag baby carrots, quartered
• 1 medium/large yellow onion, diced
• 1 TB (or more) olive oil
• 1-2tsp Curry powder
• 1.5c soy milk + .5c water
• .5 cup uncooked barley
• 1 square inch of peeled ginger, whole
• 1TB lime juice

For the soup, toss carrots in olive oil and sautee 15 minutes, then add onion. Cook until soft, 20 minutes or so. Add curry powder and cook for another 2 minutes. Add milk and water. Blend together.

Steam barley and ginger in 1 cup of water. Add lime juice when done.

Ladel soup into bowl and top with barley.

Curried Turnip Soup

I don't ever recall in my entire life eating a turnip. I also cannot recall a time where I ever thought I should eat them. Until this week's trip to the grocery store. I try to get new veggies/foods when I can, and these purple and white beauties called out my name. The parsnips nearby also shouted to me, but ultimately I went for the turnips instead. Maybe next week, parsnips.

Not having had them, I blanked on preparation methods. For some reason I've had curry on my mind this week and had to talk myself out of making curried cauiflower soup last night. Good thing I held off as I had a miniscule amount of curry powder left.

Curried Turnip Soup
6 turnips, peeled and chopped
.5 cup uncooked quinoa
1 small yellow onion
2 cups soy milk (I use unsweetened)
curry powder
4 cloves garlic, minced

Steam turnips. Combine quinoa, onion, and 1 cup water in small pot. Bring to a boil then simmer 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed.

When turnips are soft, place in large pot (I saved about 1/3 of them because I like my soup chunky). Add milk and curry powder (1-2tsp probably works for most people, though I use more). Blend until creamy. Add garlic.

Ladle into bowls and top with quinoa. Makes 2 large servings.

This was so easy to make and absolutely delicious. Who knew I would love turnips? I bet it would be good with a dollop of Better Than Cream Cheese. Tomatoes might somehow make a nice pairing. I can't wait to experiment this fall. Of course I will roast them, assuming my oven is ever fixed. Yes, I cry every day that I don't have the ability to roast everything in my apartment.

Red Lentil Dal

Every time I see red lentils I want to buy them, but I'm paralyzed by my inability to determine how to cook them. On my last trip to the grocery store, however, I threw caution to the wind and got a giant bag full. More than I intended since they came out of the bin faster than I anticipated. Fine with me.

Evidently red lentils are amazing with curry since that's what most of the recipes I found were. I settled on one that at least allowed me to tap into separate spices instead of my curry powder (which I love). The Red Lentil Dal recipe is from Epicurious, though mine is slightly modified.

Red Lentil Dal

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1.5 onions, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
  2 cups water
• .5 cup dried red lentils
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• .5 cup bulgur, cooked in 1 cup water until water is absorbed
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• Salt and pepper

Heat oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add half of onions and 2 minced garlic cloves and sauté until tender and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Combine water, lentils, remaining onion, 2 minced garlic cloves, turmeric, cumin and ginger in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until lentils are tender, about 15 minutes. Purée have of the mixture until smooth. Mix in sautéed onion mixture. Simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spoon bulgur into bowls. Spoon dal over. Top with tomatoes and add fresh pepper to taste.

My first dance with red lentils was pretty good, only it really could have used some additional flavor, mostly cilantro. It made 2 good servings and was pretty easy to make, except I dirtied 3 pans in making it. Overall, I'm not as scared of the red lentil and will hopefully enjoy them again soon.

Chocolate Cherry Pudding

I make pudding all the time because it's just so easy. The fun part is deciding what else to mix in- nut butter, maple syrup, cocoa powder, etc. This week I bought an amazing assortment of fruit that included a bag of delicious cherries (and some green bananas that took a week to ripen, boo). So I've been making this simple, delicious dessert all week.

Chocolate Cherry Pudding

• 1 cup cherries, chopped
• 1 cup soy milk
• 2 TB cornstarch
• 2TB cocoa powder
• 1tsp maple syrup (you'll probably want more)

Add cherries, cocoa, and milk to a small pot and let flavors mingle as long as you'd like (an hour is enough). Add corn starch and stir until it mostly dissolves. Add to medium-high heat (not too hot or it'll burn) and stir constantly until it boils. Once boiling it should quickly thicken up. Remove from heat and stir in maple syrup. Enjoy hot or cold.

Curried Roasted Beet Soup

Today was the first evening this week that they predicted evening rain, so I actually had time to cook a good dinner instead of rushing to the dog park. I opted for the beets since I actually had time and they take forever to cook. This recipe came to me as I rode the Metro home, newspaperless because I was stuck in the Metro for 30 minutes this morning and already finished the sudoku, crossword, and all of the articles. So maybe this morning's fiasco was a good thing.

Curried Roasted Beet Soup

• 8 beets
• 1 red onion, sliced into half-rings
• Olive oil
• 1 ear white corn, uncooked with kernels sliced off
• 2 cups soy milk
• Curry powder
• .5c bulgur, uncooked

Fork holes in the beets and bake on 375 until tender, about an hour. Toss onion in olive oil and bake about 25 minutes (so 40 minutes after the beets go in). Meanwhile, cook the bulgur in 1 cup of water with a pinch of salt for 15-20 minutes until water is absorbed.

When beets are soft, let them cool down (I put mine in the freezer for a couple of minutes). Remove the skin, which will be soft and easy to take off. Chop the beets and add to a large pot or blender along with onions, curry, half (or all if you want it smooth) of the corn, and the soy milk. Blend to desired consistency. Spoon into bowl and top with bulgur.

This is one of my favorite dishes I've ever made! Since the onion and beets had cooled and the corn and milk were cold from the fridge, I chose to eat the soup cold. Usually I like my meals hot, but this was so good. It was sweet from the roasting and the corn, but the curry gave it a nice spice and flavor. The color was a beautiful magenta, and the chunks of veggies were delicious. I'm definitely making this again. And again...

Chocolate Bread

For some reason I just had to have chocolate bread tonight, despite it being 9:15 and close to my general bed time. I scoured the internet- surely there is a quick and easy recipe? Finally, in the depths of vegweb.com I found Cocoa Applesauce Bread. I wasn't sure I had enough flour or sugar, then I double checked and I was good to go. Until I got almost through and realized I only had, maybe 1/4 cup applesauce. Ooops. I made several changes to the recipe, partly to cover for my lack of applesauce and partly because, well, that's what I do.

Chocolate Bread

1 2/3 cup flour (can use 50-50 whole wheat)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
2 TB flax in 6TB water

Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Add wet, being careful not to overmix. Bake in loaf pan on 350 for 50 minutes. Let cool.

Well, all my substitutions/changes could not exactly save this bread. It didn't really rise so it came out log shaped. But the taste is delicious- it's not cakey or overly sweet (probably because I cut the sugar in half), but it's definitely chocolatey.

I'll try it again when I have all of the ingredients.

Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

It's the end of my food week so I clearly needed to get rid of some veggies. This is a meal that dirtied a ton of dishes and was not really quick. But it was fun and delicious.

Eggplant Green Bean Pasta with Tomato Lentil Sauce

• .25c lentils
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 large red onion, chopped/diced

• 1-2TB olive oil
• 1 eggplant, cubed
• 3-5c green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces

• 3/4c dry rye pasta, cooked

Combine the first 3 ingredients in a pot, cover with water, and boil until lentils become very tender, adding water as necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste. Blend 1/2 of it together.

Heat oil in skillet or pot. Add eggplant and cook 5-10 minutes until starts to become tender. Add green beans and cook to desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

Mix pasta and eggplant/green beans together. Top with sauce. Sooooo good.

Millet (Take Two)

Last time I tried to cook millet, it turned into a mush even though Dr. Andrew Weil claimed it would come out like rice. So this time I made it with less water. I dry toasted .25 c millet and added 2/3 cups of water along with a half a yellow onion. It came out delicious, fluffy, and amazing. I also had a roasted ear of corn and roasted carrots.

But I'm happy I conquered millet. Now maybe I can conquer pan-frying...

Roasted Beets and Tofu Atop a Garlic Millet

What an adventurous day. First rye pasta, now millet. I decided to pass up the couscous for this new (to me) grain since it was the only one in the bins I haven't tried. I wasn't so sure what to do with it, but did some Googling and found that it has a 1:3 millet to water ratio and cooked like other grains. I knew I needed to use up the beets in my fridge, but I couldn't decide what the protein should be. Split peas and lentils didn't seem right, and tofu popped into my head. Luckily I was stopping by Whole Foods for something else (which they didn't have) and soy milk and grabbed some tofu as well. I've never seen "Super Firm" tofu before, but it was cheaper than the tofu I buy at other groceries so I couldn't pass it up.

Roasted Beets and Tofu Atop a Garlic Millet

• .5c millet (uncooked)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 small beets
• 1 package Cubed Super Firm Tofu, drained
• Olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash beats and pierce with fork. Place on baking sheet and roast for an hour or until done. Spray olive oil on and add salt to the tofu, toss to coat evenly. Add to baking sheet and cook 30 minutes or until browned.

Toast millet in dry pan for 2-3 minutes until it gives off a nutty aroma. Remove from heat and let sit a few minutes. Add 1.5c hot water, bring to a boil, and let simmer 25-30 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed. Add garlic to millet at some point during cooking- the earlier you add, the milder it will be and the later you add, the stronger it will be. I added mine with about 10 minutes left.

When beets are cooked, cut off top and bottom and slice in half. Let cool 10-15 minutes and then remove the skin. Cube and toss in with the tofu and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon mixture on top of millet.

So Dr. Andrew Weil tells me that if you simmer millet, it gets fluffy just like rice. That was a lie. While it came out delicious, it was the consistency of polenta/grits- not what I was expecting. Otherwise, the dish was fun. Each ingredient had a completely different texture and all three flavors seemed to mingle well. I don't think anyone would be wowed by it, but it wasn't a flop.

Summery Rye Pasta

Since my grocery bill has been low from traveling so much, I decided to splurge a little at the grocery store. I ended up in an aisle I rarely visit and found something amazing- rye pasta. 100% rye. I don't usually eat pasta because it always seems like I get too many calories for not enough filling, but it's nice to have on hand for a quick meal. Today I had some veggies leftover from last week's shopping, so I thought I'd throw most of it together for an easy pasta dish.

Summery Rye Pasta

• .75 c uncooked rye pasta
• 1 small/medium onion, sliced (if you are not a massive onion fan, you may want to use half an onion or a quarter
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 large tomato
• 3 cloves garlic, 1 peeled and 2 in skin
• .75 TB olive oil plus extra

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut 1 clove garlic into small pieces, add a touch of salt, and make into a paste by smashing with the flat side of a knife. Add to olive oil and set aside. The longer it sits, the better it will be.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until tender. Spray onion and broccoli with olive oil and toss to coat; spread on baking sheet. Cut tomato in half, spray with olive oil, and place skin down on baking sheet. Add rest of garlic. Bake until browned, about 20 minutes, stirring once midway thorough (leave tomatoes whole an flip garlic).

Add everything but tomatoes to a large bowl. Put tomatoes on top and gently tear open with knife to mush it up. Add garlic olive oil and toss to coat. Enjoy!

This was perfect for an oppressively hot afternoon- I didn't have to stand in a sweltering kitchen to long. The only thing I would add is some freshly ground pepper. Yum.

Mexican Bruschetta - Special LBDelicious Crossover!

I spent the weekend with some good friends, including LBDelicious. We'd had a long weekend full of delicious but totally unhealth food, so we wanted a light dinner that was somewhat healthy. A quick survey of the fridge found some great crusty bread, an onion, garlic, an avodcado, and colby jack cheese. We tossed around a few ideas and ultimately decided on this delicious snack.

Mexican Bruschetta

• 1/2 loaf crusty bread


• Chunk of cheese cut into squares to top the bread (we used colby jack but vegan cheese would work just as well, especially since it doesn't get as melty)


• 1 onion, chopped


• 4 cloves garlic, chopped


• 1 can fire roasted tomatoes


• 1-2 tsp adobo suace


• 1 avocado


• Juice from 1/2 lime


• 1-2 tsp Cumin

Preheat oven to 350. Sautee onion in olive oil until translucent. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes with a little water and adobo and let simmer 20-30 minutes.

Cut bread into 1/4 inch rounds and toast in oven. Flip and add cheese until it melts.

Mash avocado and add lime juice, cumin, and salt to taste. Spread on bread.

Place tomato mixture in bowl as a dipping sauce.

This really hit the spot. In fact, LBD's finance gave an "mmm" of approval. The cumin really pulled everything together. Yum. (Picture coming soon!)

White Summer Salad (Hot or Cold)

I've taken a blog hiatus for the summer since I was globetrotting: Philly, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Vegas, Houston, Charleston, and San Francisco (next week). There was little innovation and lots of reliance on standbys (split peas and barley or lentils and bulgar), though I am happy to report that I had no problem getting my airplane food past security this time. I can't remember everything I took onboard, but some highlights include my stuffed acorn squash (which I pulled out in first class), some roasted zuccini and carrots, fresh strawberries with the tops cut off, and many peanut/cashew butter sandwiches.

I just got home from an amazing trip to Charleston and didn't feel like cooking. And didn't have much to cook with. Before I left I remembered my head of cauliflower I bought and didn't want it to go bad while I was gone for 5 days. So I stuck it in the freezer. The entire head. Plunked it right in. I thought I'd see if my experiment worked.



White Summer Salad

• 1-2 TB olive oil
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 onion, sliced into semi-rings
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 cube vegan bouillon with sea salt and herbs
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
  

Prehead oven to 375. Add chopped garlic to olive oil in a small bowl and set aside. Bring 1 cup water to boil. Add quinoa and cook 15-20 minutes or until water is absorbed. Toss onions and cauliflower with olive oil (I use my pump sprayer). Roast until brown- 25-30 minutes.

Mix quinoa and veggies together in a large bowl. Crush boullion in olive oil mixture until it dissolves. Add to bowl and toss to coat.

This was a perfect easy to make summer salad, and it made 2-3 large servings. I'm sure it will be even better tomorrow cold once the flavors mix. Next time I might add some nuts or seeds for crunch or white beans for a little more substance. Oh, and the cauliflower seemed unscathed by the random freezing.

Rhubarb Applesauce

Can you believe I've never had rhubarb? I think I had a rhubarb strawberry piece of pie once, but really didn't understand the rhubarb. Well, it's finally in season and I was inspired to purchase some at the farmers market, despite it not looking like the red chute I expected. It looked a little too much like celery. But it did not deter me. The rhubarb farmer had a nice little sign up, undoubtedly from answering the same "what is rhubarb and what do I do with it" question combination repeatedly. It mentioned stewing them, so I figured I'd start there. I asked the woman to help me pick it out and she looked at me like I was crazy, grabbed 2 long stalks, and asked for money. I was a tad embarassed.

Two stands down I was calculating how much money I had left (since they seem to only take cash) and decided I'd take a quick peek, with the intention of not actually getting anything. They had some bins of apples- nothing too exciting, I thought. But there was a kind I'd never heard of- Virginia's own Stayman variety. I took a taste and liked it, so I picked up 4 of them. On the way home it hit me that stewed apples are delicious, and I was told to stew the rhubarb...so why not add them together like I do with other fruits?

Rhubarb Applesauce
2 large apples
2 long chutes of rhubarb
Cinnamon

Cube the apple and cut the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. Add both to a saucepan with 1/4 cup of water. Boil 30-45 minutes until nice and soft. Add cinnamon.

Rhubarb tastes a lot to me like a Granny Smith apple, but maybe even with a little more pucker.
Combining it with the apple was a good idea- came out quite tasty.

Sauteed Beets with Greens, Baked Curried Tofu, and Brown Basmati Rice

This is a meal. All of my Omnivore's Dilemma reading over the holiday weekend contributed to me thinking I'm eating the best way possible. Really, though, the fresh beets I bought at the farmers market are the only local thing on the plate. But wow are they amazing. Thanks to the book, I assaulted the woman at the stand with a million questions about their farm- which she was excited to answer. No pesticides (no)? How far is the farm from here (2hrs)? Why are these beet greens different than the others (different variety)? $5 later I had a fresh bunch of pesticide-free beets with their greens attached. I may have skipped home a little.

Sauteed Beets with Their Greens
1 bunch beets with greens
olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Cut off the beet ends, peel, and chop into small pieces. Add to the pan and sautee until soft. As they cook, remove thick stems from greens and run the knife through the greens a few times so the pieces are more manageable. When the beets are soft, add the greens and cook 1-2 minutes until they wilt and turn a vibrant green.

Baked Curried Tofu and Brown Basmati Rice
Meanwhile, I had some firm tofu in my fridge that I wanted to do something quasi-new with, so yesterday morning I drained it, sliced it into 15 fingers, and slathered it with some of my random Mexican curry powder and olive oil. So it sat in the fridge soaking up all the curry goodness for almost 2 days. I put the fingers on a baking sheet and popped them in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, flipped, and cooked maybe 15-20 minutes more until nice and brown.

Basmati rice is pretty easy- 2 parts water to 1 part rice, add a pinch of salt, and cook for 45 minutes. It can take awhile, so I recommend starting with this one.

The beet is perfection. The sweet beet and the bitter greens create something amazing. And amazingly beautiful. I might take the long route back from the kitchen at the office tomorrow so I can make everyone admire my dish. The whole thing was delicious, easy, and perfect for a lazy summer evening.

Arugula and Potato Soup

A few months ago, back when my TV was actually plugged in, I saw Giada De Laurentiis make a Creamy Arugula and Lettuce Soup that inspired me to make something similar with spinach instead of arugula awhile back. However, I have not stopped thinking about arugula since. It's delicious and it always called my name at the grocery store, but I always held back from purchasing it.

Today I summoned my inner hippy. I rode my bike to work (a practice ride for next week). I walked the mile to and from the farmers market where I purchased some beautiful beets with greens, apples I'd never heard of, and rhubarb. I brought it home and walked a mile to and from the organic store where I finally gave in and purchased arugula to accompany some red potatoes I had leftover. Thanks for the inspiration, Giada.

Arugula and Potato Soup
2.5-3 cups water
1 medium/large red onion, sliced
2 red potatoes, cut into small chunks
3 cups arugula
1 cube veggie boullion

Bring water to a boil and add onion and potatoes. Cook 15 minutes or until onion is transluscent and potato is soft. Add arugula and cook until just done and wilted (it will turn bright green), about a minute. Blend all ingredients with immersion or normal blender. Add boullion. Stir until it's all dissolved. Enjoy.

All of my exercising left me needing some protien so I served mine atop a bed of quinoa. Delicious and easy. Perfect as a rooftop dinner on a beautiful evening. Yum.

Easy Curry Lentil Stew with Quinoa

Earlier this week I decided to do a quick run by the grocery store after work, and evidently every single other person in the city decided to do the same. I popped in for the essentials- dog food and nut butters, but I also needed some cumin for a pink bean dish I made but didn't blog about because I was lazy. Some how I meandered into the international food aisle and stumbled upon dirt cheap spices, including smoked paprika (something I've never had but always wanted), cumin, chili powder, and curry powder. My last curry efforts have been less than stellar because I'm fairly certain the curry somehow went bad. Really bad.

My old curry was always in a teeny jar and that always spoiled, so of course I bought this giant jar that had no information other than a simple label with the word curry (it was from Mexico). Undaunted, I threw it in my basket and headed to the checkout with the rest of the world.

I wasn't exactly looking for something easy tonight, it just happened that I needed a lot of protein since I had catered lunch at a meeting with no real veggie option. So I went for my go-to lentils.

Easy Curry Lentil Stew
.5 cup lentils
3 cups water
1 medium/large red onion, chopped
2 red potatoes, chopped
15 baby carrots, quartered
salt
3-4 tsp curry powder (adjust to your level)

I brought the water to a boil and added all the ingredients. It looked for 15-20 minutes. With about 5 minutes left I added 2 tsp of the curry. Once it was done, I removed from heat and added the rest. It sat for a few minutes so the flavors could mingle, then I served atop a bed of quinoa.

This dish was one of my favorite things I've cooked in quite some time. The lentils were a bit mushy, which is how I love them, and the curry flavor was perfect. It made 2 portions at about 375 calories each (including the quinoa). Yum!

Lentil Creamed Spinach with Garlic Quinoa

I thought I'd be creative and make a creamed spinach with soy milk and pureed lentils. I envisioned a thick "cream" sauce so I could eat my spinach on a plate next to my quinoa. That's not quite what I got. And I dirtied 3 pans and numerous other utensils in the process. It was better than watching TV.

Lentil Creamed Spinach
2 small/medium red onions, chopped
1TB olive oil
2 TB flour
1 bag spinach, chopped
3 portabellas, cubed
.25 cup lentils
.75 cup soy milk
touch of nutmeg (1/4 tsp)
salt/pepper to taste

Cook lentils in small amount of water until all of it is soaked up and the lentils are mushy. You may need to keep adding water as necessary. In a blender, puree lentils with soy milk and nutmeg.

Meanwhile, in a frying pan heat olive oil and add onions. Cook on medium-low heat until they start to brown and carmelize, which may take 20 minutes or so. Add flour and stir. Add cream mixture and stir like crazy. I had to add water because it was too thick (and evidently I added too much). Add spinach. Let it cook down for a minute or so, then stir in with the sauce. Add mushrooms and let cook until spinach is bright green but wilted. Remove from heat and let cool, praying the sauce thickens.

On the side I made some garlic quinoa (toast some garlic in olive oil, then add quinoa and cook as usual).

The dish was not amazing, mostly because it wasn't what I pictured when I dreamed it up. It was alright and could have used some more flavor, though I'm not sure what. Maybe some lemon would have helped it? This will not be my last lentil sauce attempt, but I probably won't make this again.

Stuffed Tomatoes with Sauteed Beets on the Side

There was a lot of tension in the kitchen tonight as I took on both stuffed tomatoes and beets. Tonight, unlike the past, I came out a champ!

Sauteed Beets
4 beets, washed thoroughly, peeled, and chopped/diced
1 red onion, chopped/diced
1 TB olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Add oil to frying pan. When hot, add onions and cook 10 minutes until translucent. Add beets and cook 20 minutes until done.

Stuffed Tomatoes
2 beefsteak tomatoes
1/2 c lentils
1/2 c bulgur
1.5 cube veggie bouillon

I cut out the middle of the tomatoes, scooping the pulp into the pot. Then I simply boiled the lentils and bulgur together with the tomato for 15-20 minutes, adding the bouillon towards the end. I use vegan veggie bouillon with sea salt and herbs. It's amazing.

Once it was cooked, I scooped it into the tomato, which I did not cook this time.

I was pleasantly surprised by both. Last time I made the beets, I boiled them and ate them by themselves. It was a little too much. The onions helped tone it down some, and I think the cooking method improved the flavor some. The tomato was perfect as the stuffing was amazing. Delicious!

Spicy Garlic Sesame Broccoli with Red Beans and Quinoa

Work was less than ideal today so I had to let off some steam by taking a long walk with the dog. When I got home I wanted something relatively simple so I could eat and go straight to bed. I knew the fresh broccoli in my fridge would do the trick.

Ingredients
.5 cup quinoa
1TB sesame oil
Several medium heads of fresh broccoli cut into trees (I had maybe 6 cups?)
4 cloves of garlic (less if you aren't a garlic lover like me)
1 cup light red beans
Red pepper flakes to taste
Salt to taste

Cook quinoa (combine with 1 cup water, bring to the boil, simmer 15 minutes or until all water is absorbed). In a large pan (I wanted to use my wok, but it needs to be retired), heat oil on medium. Add broccoli and garlic. Toss to coat. Cook for 5-7 minutes until broccoli becomes bright green and is your desired level of crispness, stirring regularly. Add beans, salt, and red pepper flakes. Cook another minue. Remove from heat.

I ate the broccoli and quinoa side by side, but you could mix them all together or eat the broccoli atop the quinoa. It made 2 large servings (I used a LOT of broccoli). This was so easy and tasty. The sesame oil gave it a nice, unexpected flavor (since I rarely use it). It would have been even better with sesame seeds, but I've never bought them in my life. Maybe next time.

Split Pea and Bulgur Stuffed Tomato

I was so excited about these beaufiul beefsteak tomatoes at a decent price at the grocery this weekend. I couldn't resist. I knew exactly what I'd do- stuff 'em!

Ingredients
1 medium/large red onion, chopped or diced
.5 cup yellow split peas
.5 cup bulgur
3 TB nutritional yeast
Salt/pepper to taste
2 beautiful beefsteak tomatoes

In a medium sauce pan, bring 2-3 cups of water to a boil and add onions and split peas. Cook for 15 minutes, then add bulgur. Cook for 15 minutes until the bulgur is done. Stir in nutritional yeast and salt/pepper.

Meanwhile, carefully massacre tomatoes by cutting off top and carefully scooping out the middle. Try not to rip the side or cut through the side or bottom. Put guts into stuffing and let it cook for a few minutes (5 to 15).

Add stuffing mixture to tomato and put in oven on 350 for 10 minutes or so. I'm only guessing because I royally messed this part up. I put them in for maybe 20 minutes while the stuffing cooked. I opened the oven and they had deflated. Good thing I have no camera to produce any evidence. I took my flattened tomato and topped it with the...former stuffing, now topping. I use these ingredients together all of the time, but this was definitely one of the tastest ways I've combined them. Probably because I usually mix the tomato in with it, but his time it was separate and I could really taste it.

It made 2 delicious servings and I can only imagine how amazing it would have been if the tomatoes and been little serving bowls. Next time, my friends...

Cherry Biscotti and Mocha Chocolate Chip Muffins

I have some more enticing to get people at work to come to my 9am meeting I scheduled, so I thought I'd make biscotti. I found an easy Biscotti recipe on vegweb that seemed doable. As I was making them I got scared because it wasn't coming out like I'd hoped, so I found this Mocha Chip Muffin recipe on Post Punk Kitchen, thinking the mocha was perfect for the morning. Strangely, both recipes call for emulsifying, a word I can't recall seeing in a recipe ever.

And I apologize for still not having photos. Food blogging without pictures is like driving the scenic route with no windows. Maybe this weekend someone will buy me a digital camera a few weeks early before my birthday. Jeff, feel free to say something to my dad like, "Hey, Bill, I would love to see pictures in Anne's blog, maybe you could get her a camera while she's in town this weekend. You'd be the greatest dad and colleague of all time." Just a suggestion...

Biscotti

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups of flour (half white, half whole wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup dried cherries
2 tablespoons flax seeds & 1/4-1/2 cup of water
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup melted vegan soy butter
2 TB macadamia nut liqueuer
1-1/2 teaspoons grated lime rind
soy milk for browning

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine the flour and baking powder; stir in the dried cherries. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wetness of the flax seeds, maple syrup, soy butter, macadamia nut liqueur and orange rind until thoroughly emulsified. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Stir the wet into the dry until soft, sticky dough forms. I needed to add a ton of flour because it was too sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface; with hands, form into smooth ball. Divide the dough into about 6 uniform balls and make into 8-12 inch long strips. The original recipe calls to make 2 long logs, but the dough was too sticky so I had to make them smaller. Transfer each to its own ungreased baking sheet. The original recipe says to brush the top of each log with a bit of soymilk for aesthetics, BUT I tried this on half of mine and it didn't work. They ended up sticking to the pan and not cooking as much as the others.

Bake at 350F for 20 min. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet placed on top of a cooling rack for 5 min. Transfer each log to cutting board. With a sizable and sharp knife, make firm cuts on a diagonal at about every 2cm. The original recipe says "stand the cookies back up (sideways) on the baking sheets," which makes no sense so I just put them back on a pan and return to oven for 20-25 minutes longer, or until golden. Remove to rack and let cool. A little lesson I learned the hard way- don't put on bottom rack, or if you do, watch them very closely. Some of mine ended up a little darker than I'd hoped. So I did what any good chef does- I coated the bottoms in chocolate. I melted 1/2 cup chocolate chips and dipped the underside of each piece into it, placing them on wax paper in the fridge until cool (about 30 minutes).

If I ever make these again, I'll skip trying to brush with soy milk, and I'll make my logs skinnier. I'd also like to play with the flavors more. One of my coworkers doesn't like nuts so I didn't add any, though the chocolate and cherry combination was great. I'd also avoid the bottom shelf :(

Mocha Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup white, 1/2 cup whole wheat)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unprocessed cocoa
2.5 teaspoons instant coffee
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners. In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a seperate bowl, wisk together wet ingredients (soy milk through yogurt) until emulsified. Pour wet into dry and combine until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill muffin tins almost to the top. Bake 18 - 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

These came out amazing! Very fluffy and moist and chocolatey. Originally I was thinking a vanilla cake with chocolate chips, but you really can't go wrong with chocolate on chocolate. I'd go ahead and call these perfection.

Maple Strawberry Muffins and Flourless Cashew Butter Cookies

I'm giving a lunchtime presentation at work tomorrow on a topic that most colleagues probably don't really care about, so I thought I'd lure them there with baked goods. I didn't want to make more brownies or cupcakes, so I though muffins would be nice. But I wanted a twist and remembered the random fresh strawberries in my fridge. Maple Strawberry Muffins seemed perfect though not healthy by any means. I then caved and thought about a cookie and knew I wanted a nut butter cookie. Thus, the Cashew Butter Cookie was born.

Maple Strawberry Muffins

The recipe I used is very close to this Vegan Blueberry Muffin recipe I found online.

Ingredients

2 cups flour, I used half wheat and half white
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup margarine
Egg replacer for one egg, I used 1 TB ground flax mixed with 3 TB water
1 tsp acidic fruit juice, I used some pineapple juice but lemon/orange/lime will do
2 TB real maple syrup
1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a muffin pan. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the soy milk, margarine, egg replacer, maple and pineapple juice and stir until mixed. Add the strawberries.

Spoon the batter in to the muffin pan, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until muffins are golden brown.

The muffins are a little messy because I cut up the strawberries, but they were pleasant.

Flourless Cashew Butter Cookies

I found this recipe for Flourless Nut Butter and Whatever You Want Cookies on vegweb and decided it seemed intruiging and ridiculously easy.

Ingredients

1 cup of cashew butter
3/4 white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TB ground flax seed mixed with 3 TB water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Dark chocolate morsels to top cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix everything until well combined.

Cover dough and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Form 1 tablespoon dough balls for each cookie. Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart. Press down slightly with a fork to make criss cross typical of peanut butter cookies. Top with chocolate.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.

The cookie dough was amazing! I had no idea how much they were going to spread out, however, so I evidently smushed them too flat :( That or the recipe should have called for baking powder, not soda. I'm debating throwing them out, but I'm sure someone at work will eat them...

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower Soup

While my brother and his wife were in town, we ate at one of my favorite places to take visitors, Zaytinya, which is a delicious Mediterranean mezze (tapas) restaurant. One of the dishes we got was Roasted Cauliflower with sultans, caper leaves and pine nut puree, and it reminded me that I hadn't made my spicy roasted cauliflower in ages. I wanted a whole meal of more than cauliflower and today was ridiculously cold, so I went for a soup.

Ingredients

• 1 medium/large head of cauliflower
• 1 medium/large red onion
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• Red pepper flakes
• Olive oil spray or mist
• 1/2 cup dark red kidney beans
• 1/2 cup barley
• Salt
• Parsley

Preheat oven to 375. Break apart cauliflower and place on baking sheet. Spray with oil, add salt and red pepper flakes (.5-1 TB maybe), and mix until coated. Cut red onion in half and slice into thin half moons. Place on separate baking sheet with garlic and spray with olive oil. Roast 20-30 minutes, stirring a few times.

Meanwhile, cook the barley and when it's done add kidney beans, parsley, and salt and stir. When the veggies are done roasting, add half to the barley and blend the other half with .5-1 cup water until smooth. Add the barley mixture, stir, and serve.

It hit the spot on a cold night.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'd been promising my brother and his wife the whole weekend that we'd make cookies, and we got just drunk enough last night for that to come true. I didn't have chocolate chips, just (non vegan) butterscotch chips and pecans. I'm pretty sure we would have eaten it no matter what I put in.

I found this recipe for Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies on vegweb and used it since I actually had all of the ingredients. I've used Enola in baking the past few times, mostly because I want to get it out of my pantry, and I've become the accidental food chemist. Through several baking attempts and random mental notes, I realized that Enola makes baked goods very crispy and not expand. A long time ago I made the best white chocolate peppermint cookies a few different times because they were so great, but they turned out different each time because, as it turns out, I used Enola once and another oil another time. So these chocolate chip cookies I made ended up like some of the others I've made with Enola- they don't expand and get unusually crispy. But not necessarily in a bad way, it's just different. And we were drunk so it really didn't matter.

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce (or 1 egg substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup of some kind of chips, chocolate or whatever you prefer
1/2 cup nuts

Preheat oven to 375. Mix first 5 ingredients together. Mix flour, salt & baking soda in separate bowl, then add to the first bowl. Mix in your chocolate chips/nuts and drop on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for about 8-10 minutes.

You can't really go wrong with cookies.

Low-Cal Banana Muffins/Banana Bread

Since I have company in town I can actually make a lot of baked goods without fear that I'll eat them all before they have time to even cool. So I busted out an old recipe for Banana Muffins. I have no idea of its origin, but I do know that I changed it significantly from whereever I got it anyway.



Ingredients

• 1c white all purpose flour


• 3/4 c wheat flour


• 2 ¼ tsp baking soda


• 1/2tsp salt


• 2/3c sugar


• 1 TB ground flax mixed with 3 TB water


• 1 TB oil, I used Enola which is allegedly not all absorbed by your body


• 2 TB unsweetened applesauce


• 2 TB vanilla soy milk


• Vanilla extract, I omitted this becuase I have none


• 2 mashed bananas, I used 2 from my freezer that I let thaw on the counter for an hour


• 1/2c chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, etc)
  

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Mix the wet together in a small bowl. Add the wet to the dry and mix until batter forms. Bake on 350 for 25-30 minutes if making muffins (recipe makes 12) or for 45 minutes if making bread. Each muffin has 140 calories without nuts and 175 with nuts.

The apartment definitely smelled amazing while these baked, and they turned out nicely. They were moist on the inside and had a nice crust on the outside. It seemed, though, like they could have used more salt or maybe a little more banana.

Guiness Cupcakes with Macadamia Frosting

Guinness = delicious, and cupcakes = delicious. So Guinness cupcakes should be stellar, right? A good friend who is a fellow Guinness lover had a medical procedure done where he couldn't eat/drink for awhile, so I thought I would make him some cupcakes for when he got home. And I figured it would be ok to make a dozen of them since my brother and his wife came in later that day. The point being that I knew I wouldn't eat them all because I had enough people to help me.


I found this great recipe on Dulcedo for Guinness Cupcakes with Baily's Irish Cream Frosting and I had to make it. Evidently it's actually from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which was an excellent gift from a great friend for my 10 year cancer survivorship anniversary. I must have been too busy ogling the hazelnut cupcakes to notice the stout cupcakes.



Ingredients for Cupcakes

• 3/4 cup soy milk


• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar


• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour


• 1/3 cup unprocessed cocoa powder (original recipe calls for Dutch-processed)


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1/4 cup Guinness


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 1/3 cup canola oil


• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I omitted this because I'm running low)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.


In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the soy milk and the vinegar. Add the Guinness, sugar, oil, and vanilla to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. Add the dry ingredients in two batches and beat until well incorporated.Fill your cupcakes containers of choice 3/4 full.


Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly touched. Transfer to a wire rack and allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.


Icing

I got lazy and made a simple icing:

• 2-3 cups confectioner's sugar


• 2 TB macadamia liqueur


• Splash of vanilla soy milk

Mix together and enjoy.

These were solid chocolate cupcakes. I think I overdid it with the icing- it's incredibly sweet and may detract from the cake. There was a nice thing crunch on top where I evidently overcooked them, but I think it made them better. And you cannot taste the (very minimal amount of) Guinness.

Easy Bean Dip and Mashed Basil Garlic Cauliflower

I got home late because I stupidly stopped by the gym after work. Why is that stupid? Because it was gorgeous outside. Back to dinner, I wanted something easy.

The bean dip is easily the best thing I've made in awhile and perfect for a party. I blended together:

• 1 cup dark red kidney beans (I'd cooked some dry beans weeks ago and had extra, so I threw them in the freezer and they came out ok but a little mushy- perfect for a dip)
• 1 TB Better Than Cream Cheese
• .5 tsp chipotle powder (maybe a little more)
• .5 tsp chili powder
• Lime juice
• Cilantro

I ate it with 3 pieces of toast and would have eaten it off my floor.

The cauliflower was easy. I steamed a medium head of cauliflower and realized when it was almost done that I meant to roast some garlic. So I threw 3 cloves into the steamer for a few minutes. Then I removed the cauliflower but kept the garlic in while I chopped up some basil. I added the basil and 1TB Earth Balance margarine and mashed, then chopped the garlic and mashed in as well. Delicious!

Easy Vegan Brownies with Cashew Butter Icing for the 100th Post!

Since this marks the 100th post (Jennilicious 3, Veganne 97), I'm going all out with brownies. Well, they are actually for work, but I've been waiting for something good to blog about to celebrate the occasion.

I can't believe I've never blogged about these "Scrum-Diddly-Umptious Vegan Brownies" on Recipe Zaar because they is great. It is a good chocolate fix and no worries if you eat half of the pan in one sitting- it's only got 950 calories total so less than 500 calories for half (sans icing). Sometimes it comes out a little cakey, probably when I don't add the chocolate chips. But following the recipe as-is below makes the greatest brownies ever.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly spray or oil an 8 x 8 baking pan. Mix applesauce, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (and cinnamon if using) together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the applesauce mixture. Mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips (and walnuts if using). Spread in prepared pan and bake 25-30 min, until center is firm and not sticky. Cool completely before slicing.

I iced half of the pan with a concoction I made by heating together 3TB cashew butter and .25c soy milk. It wasn't very smooth and not what I wanted- good thing I only iced half. The taste was ok, but the consistency was off. Maybe I should have heated the cashew butter without the milk.

And the camera is dead. Gone to camera heaven. It took 10 pictures on 4 brand new batteries and acted strange. Anyone want to buy me a digital camera?

Boiled Beets

My first experience with beets was Thanksgiving 2007 when my family went out for dinner. I was feeling adventurous and plopped a beet on my plate as we passed the dishes around. Surprisingly I thought they were tasty despite being obviously straight out of a can (like all the other food). Within weeks of returning home, both my brother and father had bought fresh beets, and I'd been thinking about it, trying to come up with the best way to cook them.

I'd stare at them at the grocery store, reluctant to bring something home without knowing anything at all about how to cook it. Week after week they'd call my name between the spinach and the cauliflower. And to be perfectly honest, I wasn't 100% sure those dirty things were actually beets. Then, on the week where I severely underestimated how many veggies I needed, for some reason I reached in the bin and grabbed four beets.

And they sat in my fridge all week as I ate every single other thing I had, beating myself up for not buying more veggies. I finally started researching how to cook them and, naturally, wanted to roast them. However, all the roasting recipes require putting the beets in a foil pocket. Great. I don't have foil. I cook everything with a basic metal spoon, so I tend to consider foil along the lines of a bonus or just flat out cheating. So my next option was to boil them. And that I did.

I put my 4 beets in a pot with enough water to cover them and let them boil for at least an hour, scared to death they'd boil over and stain everything in my kitchen. They didn't. They just gently boiled away. When they seemed soft after gently pushing on them, I placed them in another pot with cold water where they sat for a few minutes. Using my fingers, I removed the peel, which was much easier than I anticipated. I sliced them up on a white plate, added salt, pepper, and Earth Balance soy butter.

They are reminiscent of potatoes, but not quite the same. They were alright, but I'm not eager to boil them again. I do, however, really want to try roasting them and I had the strange urge to puree them. Ok, that's not so strange for me since I look for any excuse to break out the immersion blender. The best part is that nothing is stained, not even the white plate I put them on. Whew.

I tried taking a photo, but they were camera shy.

Creamy Beer Onion Soup

Shiner Bock. I had one tonight at the movies as I watched The Unforseen, a great movie about uncontrolled growth in Austin and the environmental impact. It took me back and made me a little homesick. Especially the Shiner.




I got home and was starving, and the Shiner wouldn't leave my thoughts. The only vegetables I have left are beets and onions and the beets seem like they'll take forever to cook. Beer Onion Soup just seemed ideal.





Ingredients

• 2 medium/large red onions, cut in thin half circles
• Olive oil to coat the onions
• 1 bottle beer (Shiner)
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup soy milk (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Roast the onions and get the beer boiling in a pot with water. When the onions are done, add them to the beer along with salt and peper and let simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the beer reduces down by half. Blend with immersion blender to smooth out, especially if you used 2 onions. Remove from heat and mix in soy milk.





At one point while the onions were simmering in the beer, I tasted the broth and was immediaely disappointed. I probably would have cried except I'd gotten rid of all my tears once I sliced into the onions. But I added some more water and let it cook a little longer. It got better but I was still concerned. Then I added the soy milk and it was perfect. Exactly what I wanted on a cold night. I also used 2 slices of bread to soak it all up. I would have made croutons but didn't feel like turning the oven back on.

Cream of Spinach Soup with Bulgur

I got home from work late after attending a less than stellar networking event/seminar on advocacy. And I decided to walk the 2 miles home without changing into my sneakers. Sometimes I'm brilliant like that. At least the event gave me time to plan dinner, which needed to be fairly easy since I was getting home late. Not too inspiring, but what can you do...




Ingredients

• 1 TB vegan margarine (I love Earth Balance)
• 1 medium red onion, diced or chopped into whatever size you prefer
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 bag fresh spinach, washed and chopped
• 2 TB flour
• 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 2 cups water
• 1.5 cubes veggie boullion
• 1 TB Better Than Cream Cheese
• .5 cup bulgur + 1 cup water

I followed the same process as my Cream of Mushroom Soup. I heated up the margarine and added the onions, cooking for 10 minutes until translucent. Then I added the garlic for 2 minutes and the spinach until it sarted to wilt. I added the flour and stirred for a minute or so (I evidently don't "get" how to use flour as a thickening agent), then the soy milk and water. I stirred, hoping it would thicken, and it didn't, so I assumed that would never happen and added the bouillon and cream cheese. Once it was all melted and mixed in, I removed from heat. While that was cooking I also got the bulgur going- simmering with the lid on for about 15 minutes or until the water was absorbed.

It hit the spot after a long day. And I'm too tired to think of ways to improve it. Ok, well maybe make it all milk with more cream cheese, but then I'd get fat again.

Split Peas and Barley with Spicy Kidney Bean Cream Sauce

Uninspired. That's how I felt on the Metro ride home from work as I desperately tried to come up with a dinner idea. And that's how I continued to feel as I stared at my bare cabinets in search of something that caught my eye. Nothing. The problem is that I got all my veggies in at lunch with my Spring Vegetable Salad and needed grain and protein for dinner, limiting my choices severely. I really wanted some veggies, but evidently I didn't do such a good job grocery shopping and will barely have enough to last me to this weekend. So I went for my go-to dinner and made split peas and barley. Except I got a sudden flash of inspiration as I was walking the dog.

Ingredients

• .5 cup yellow split peas
• .5 cup barley
• 1 large red onion
• 2 TB Better Than Cream Cheese
• .5 TB chipotle in adobo sauce
• .5 cup cooked dark red kidney beans
• Fresh cilantro to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Combine split peas, barley, and onion in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until tender, checking to make sure there's enough water. Remove from heat and add cilantro, salt, and pepper. Meanwhile, blend together the cream cheese, beans, and chipotle until smooth. It makes 2 medium/small 375 calories servings.



Experiment successful. It wasn't overwhelmingly spicy, but it had great flavor and was easy to make.

Spring Vegetable Salad: Harnessing the Power of Steam

All winter I've been obsessed with roasting. Since spring is around the corner I decided to try a new cooking method to obsess over, one that doesn't raise the temperature in my apartment. Tonight, the steamer basket became my new best friend.

I needed something with protein but didn't want to use the usual suspects (lentils/split peas), then I had the brilliant idea to use quinoa since it is a complete protein. I also wanted to use some fat in my favorite form- olive oil- to help me feel full when I reheat it for lunch. And the asparagus made me feel like it is spring, which it almost is. This dish was incredibly easy to make.




Ingredients

• 1 bundle of asparagus (I estimate mine was about 24 stalks), bottom woody part removed and cut into bite size pieces
• 2 medium/large tomatoes
• 1 large red onion, sliced into large pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• .5 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 1-2 TB capers
• 1 TB olive oil
• Fresh dill to taste, I think I used about .25 cup
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring garlic, qunioa, and water to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed, just like rice. I actually stick my ear in the pot to see if I hear water. In another pan, add onions to steam basket for 7-10 minutes or until they begin to soften. Add tomatoes (whole) and steam for about 4-5 minutes or until the skin starts to pull away. Remove tomatoes and add asparagus. Steam with onions for 2-3 minutes (it's done when it's bright green).

In a large bowl, cut/mush tomatoes so they are bite sized. Add olive oil, asparagus, onions, capers, dill, quinoa, salt, and pepper. Thoroughly mix and adjust seasoning as necessary. It makes 2 large servings or could be 4-5 servings as a side dish.



I ate it hot, but I bet it's great cold. It was nice, light, and refreshing. It seems like a good potluck food.

Baked Bananas

I was doing a little blog checkup this morning and noticed that somehow I've never posted about Baked Bananas- the greatest healthiest treat of all time! I make it every single Saturday and Sunday that I'm home and thinking about making it the rest of the time. Overripe bananas are the best for a lot of things because all of the sweetness comes out. And as I mentioned in another banana post, you can just throw them, peel and all, into the freezer and use for Baked Bananas, smoothies, baking, etc.

Bananas are also very good sources of vitamin B6 and good sources of vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and manganese. Not to mention they protect cardiovascular health, soothe ulcers, improve elimination, protect your eyesight, build better bones, and promote kidney health. And who know how amazing cinnamon is! It's an excellent source of manganese and a very good source of fiber, iron, and calcium. It's anti-clotting, anti-microbial, controls blood sugar, boosts brain function, improves colon health, and protects against heart disease. And how can unprocessed cocoa be bad for you with its flavanoids and healthy fats? Baked Bananas = Super Snack.

Ingredients

1 banana

1TB cocoa (unprocessed and unsweetened)
1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 350-375 degrees.

Slice 1 banana lengthwise, careful not to pierce the bottom skin. Place banana, the older the better, on foil lined baking sheet or in a Pyrex dish (there are juices that leak out that may harm an otherwise nice baking sheet, though I don't line mine in foil because mine are not nice). Add about a Tablespoon of cocoa inside the banana. You may have to slightly open it up so the cocoa doesn't get all over the pan. And it's probably best to try for about a teaspoon at a time for the same reason. For extra excitement, you can add a half teaspoon of cinnamon. Bake for 15-20 minutes (the peel will be black). It will be soft and mushy so be careful transfering to a plate. Savor and enjoy. And then let me know how amazing I am for introducing you to the greatest food ever.

Creamy Tomato Soup w/Cauliflower Base

Yes, it's another tomato soup recipe. But it's different this time, I swear! I had some poor tomatoes that were on their last legs and I knew I wanted to roast them because, well, I'm obsessed with roasting. Oh, and it makes them taste even more amazing. Usually I use tofu as the base to make it creamy, but I wanted to use cauliflower to be a little different. And because it, too, was on its last leg.

Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower, cut into small pieces

8-10 roma tomatoes

4-6 cloves garlic still in paper

1 cup unsweetened soy milk

Olive oil for roasting tomatoes

.5 cup fresh basil leaves (whole)

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Steam califlower until soft. Meanwhile, cut tomatoes in half lengthwise and toss with olive oil (I used my oil sprayer-genius). Place cut side up in baking dish and add garlic. Check after 15 minutes and rotate dishes and flip the garlic over. Check after 10-15 minutes to see if garlic is soft. When it's become soft or just started to brown remove and let cool a few minutes. When tomatoes start to brown, remove from oven.

In an empty pot or blender, add cauliflower, tomatoes, basil, garlic (remove paper, you can generally just squeeze it out), and salt and pepper. Blend together until it turns a nice shade of orange-pink and becomes smooth. It makes 2 large servings or 3 medium servings, and you get most of your veggie servings all in one sitting.

I could eat this every day. I would consider adding some red pepper flakes and/or some croutons, but it's pretty perfect as-is. Maybe some wine, but I'm still not sure how to cook with it yet, so maybe next time.

Deconstructed Green Bean Casserole

I blame Top Chef for me using words like "deconstructed." I don't know if what I did fits, but I'm going to pretend like it does and that I'm an amazing chef.

I thought of this recipe yesterday while making my "cream" of mushroom soup and almost couldn't wait a whole day to make it. It was pretty simple and contained 3 things:

1. Green beans- about 3 cups trimmed on both ends and steamed.


2. 2 cups of "cream" of mushroom soup, which was about half the recipe (though I added a little pepper)


3. 1 large red onion, cut in half and sliced in half rings, tossed with some olive oil and roasted on 375 for 20 minutes, stirring every 5.

I put the green beans on the plate, topped with he soup, and topped with the onions. Voila!

Just what I expected- and better than the original. "Fried onions" in a can scare me and roasted onions are definitely healthier and tastier. Next time I'd add a little salt on top of the green beans and maybe cut them into smaller pieces so they fit on my spoon. Or I could use a fork...

"Cream" of Mushroom Soup

The portabellas I bought this week were calling out to me- and they wanted to become the tastiest "Cream" of Mushroom Soup ever. And I made their dreams come true.

I did a little Googling and came up with a recipe based on a recipe from The Modern Vegetarian's blog and one from Veganfood.net. My hybrid:

1 TB olive oil
1 medium/large red onion, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
5 medium portabello caps, diced in large pieces
1.5 cups water
1.25 cups unsweetened soy milk
2-3TB flour

I sauteed the onion in the olive oil until soft. I added the garlic for a few minutes until fragrant and then put in the shrooms. I let it cook 2-3 minutes and added the water and some salt. As that came to a boil, I mixed the flour with the cold milk (I think to prevent clumping). Once boiling, I added the milk mixure and let it simmer for a few minutes. When it didn't thicken as I was expecting, I happily got out my immersion blennder. Scooping out about half of the chunks into a bowl, I blended the remainder in he pot until nice and smooth. I added back the chunks, stirred, and removed from heat.

It was so creamy, rich, and delicious. If you aren't a HUGE garlic lover, you can probably just use 2 cloves. It made 2 large servings at 250-300 calories a piece and could have stretched to 3 servings. I put mine on top of some barley for some extra texture. And I licked the bowl clean.

I thought about adding a cube or two of veggie boullion but wanted it "naked" first. I debated adding pepper, too, but it was just so good I was scared to mess it up.

Still no camera...but it wasn't pretty anyway- it was dark grey.

Tomato Basil Tofu atop Barley

Thinking I'd mastered pan frying tofu, I thought it would be a great dinner. I finely chopped up 1/2 red onion since I was out of garlic, added a few leaves of fresh basil, salt, and 2 TB olive oil all to the frying pan. I tilted it and let the flavors mingle for a couple of hours.

In a small pot I added 1 cup of water and .5 cup barley, brought to a simmer, and let cook for 30 minutes until all the water was gone. As that cooked, I put the frying pan on medium heat and when the oil was hot, I added some strips of extra firm tofu (I cut 1 block into 12 strips). I let it fry for 10 or so minutes and was getting worried. So I tried to flip it, but most pieces stuck. It was not a good moment.

It looked like some of the bits in the pan were starting to burn, so I added 2 large tomatoes, 2 plum tomatoes, more chopped fresh basil, and .5-1 cup water. I let it simmer for 15 minutes or so. When the barley was done, I made two servings and topped with the tomato basil tofu mixture.

It was a little oily but yummy. It made two 500 calories servings and was filling. It could use a little more flavor- maybe veggie boullion or the rest of the onion. Now I'll go back to cowering in fear of the beast that is tofu...

(No camera batteries yet, my apologies!)

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzels (Dog and Human Treats)

Today my lovely Tara turns 8! In celebration I wanted to make some dog-friendly and people-friendly treats. Pretzels seemed like the right way to go. I did my googling, but didn't use vegan since I thought it might be easier to veganize it myself. But, the first entry for "peanut butter prezel" was this vegan recipe. I had all of the ingredients and it seemed easy enough.

These are the ingredients I ended up using:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup soy milk
3 tablespoons natural creamy peanut butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vegan sugar
1 teaspoon salt

I mixed it all together, split into 2 balls, and then pinched off little bits and rolled into long chains with my hands. Since Tara is 8, I twisted them into figure 8's. They cooked 20ish minutes on 400 degrees and I took them out when they started to get brown.

I was a little worried initially about the consistency- would they be super soft? hard? Well, they came out sort of both. I may have overcooked them, which made them a little crunchy, perfect for dogbart and alright for humans. Then I nuked .5cup vegan chocolate chips for about a minute and dipped some of the pretzels into it. I put them on wax paper and placed them in the fridge to cool, about 30 minutes. These are clearly for humans only.

To make them better for dogs, you just leave them in the oven for several hours once you turn it off. They get nice and crunchy (too hard for humans), perfect for doggies. I would have taken a photo, but the camera batteries died the other day while I was taking a movie of Tara stalking a housefly.

Overall, as human treats the pretzels were not amazing. They seemed a little bland, although I could see them being good as more savory treats (herbs and cheeze, maybe). I might experiment with them again, but they're definitely not going to be used for impressing anyone.

On the Road Again

I made another one-night jaunt over to the west coast and knew I'd have limited access to decent foods. So I think I actually packed more food than clothes. I took:

Barley and split pea soup with roasted onion and nutritional yeast
2 bananas
2 TB cocoa powder to dip bananas in
Spinach/chickpeas/tomatoes/onions atop quinoa
1/2 cup walnuts
3 peanut butter sandwiches (2 pieces whole wheat 50 calories bread with .75-1 TB PB)

I had some fruit at the event I was there for, but because I went a long time without eating, I was starving by the time I got back to the airport. And then my flight was delayed. So I ended up buying a bag of jalapeno chips and a hummus/veggie sandwich in case the plane didn't have any food I could eat. However, I lucked out- United offers snackpacks that aren't horrible for you. My RightBite included:

Bumblebee Sensations Lemon & Pepper Seasoned Tuna Medley (3 ounces, 110 calories)
Late July Organic Crackers (1 package, 100 calories)
Wild Garden Hummus (1 jar, 73.5 calories)
Stacy's Multigrain Baked Pita Chips (1 ounce, 130 calories)
Fino Selections Gouda cheese (1 ounce, 101 calories)
Newman's Own organic California raisins (0.5 ounce, 45.5 calories)
Mini-Toblerone (12.5-gram bar, 66.5 calories)

Sweet Potato Supreme

I spent a ridiculous amount of time and energy going grocery shopping today, despite the fact that I'm leaving for 10 days on Saturday. So when I got home it was already 3 and I was starving. I wanted something quick that I could get going while I cooked lunch and I remembered my favorite go-to veggie for quick- the sweet potato.

I nuked a medium/large sweet potato for about 12 minutes while I chopped up some fresh cilantro and chives from my up-until-this-point-sort-of-disappointing Aerogarden as well as 1 clove of garlic. When the potato was done, I cut it in half and cut out a small hole from the middle of each half to which I added some Earth Balance margarine, garlic, herbs, and salt and pepper. I meant to add chili powder but forgot.

I smushed it all up and ate it on 2 pieces of whole wheat toast. Perfect quick afternoon meal.

Lentil Burgers Pt II: Repurposed and Back with a Bite

Since my lentil burger recipe made a million burgers, I had some for dinner last night and lunch and dinner tonight. I figured I'd do something a little different for tonight, so I changed them up a little bit. Not much, but enough.

To the cauliflower cheeze sauce I added a little spicy brown mustard. It was the best move I've ever made. Since I bought bread today, I made an open faced sandwich with my new sauce on the bread side and on the top so my roasted onions seasoned with salt and pepper would stick. Amazing.

Sweet Potato Lentil Burgers

I had an extra sweet potato, and, while I was tempted to make another pot of soup with it and some peanut butter, I opted for something new. I did some Googling and found someone else who's done some Googling and came up with something similar to what I wanted. These red bean, sweet potato, and quinoa patties seemed great, so I took a crack at it and made a few substitutions.

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1/2 cup uncooked lentils

1 medium (fist-sized) sweet potato

1 medium red onion

4-5 cloves garlic

6-7 baby carrots

1-2 TB chopped fresh basil

1-2 tsp dried basil

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 TB red wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/4 cup uncooked couscous in lieu of breadcrumbs

This used up a lot of pots, so I inititally cooked the lentils until tender but not quite mushy. Then at the same time in different pots, I:

1. Boiled the sweet potato that I'd cut into small chunks
   
2. Cooked the quinoa


3. Cooked the onion in a little olive oil until clear, then added garlic and carrots for another few minutes.

Once done, I added them all to a bowl that could have been slightly bigger, along with the basil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I smushed the sweet potatoes on the side of the bowl and mixed everything together. I added the couscous at the end and gave it a few more stirs. Then I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours until I was ready for it.

I'm not a big fan of frying, whether it's deep or pan. After shaping into patties, I sprayed some olive oil (my mom gave me a great pump thing so it sprays just a little pure oil) on both sides and put on a baking sheet at 350 for 20-30 minutes, flipping mid-way through the cooking time. I cranked it up to 400 for the last 10 or so minutes to get it crispier. It made 7 large patties, though I ate one before I cooked it. You can easily stretch it to 8, and I calculated there are about 1000 calories in the whole batch.

I didn't have any bread, and didn't want to make roti since the patties were slightly labor intensive. So I steamed a head of cauliflower and made a cheezy cauliflower sauce for the patties. I put about 1/2 cup of the cooked cauliflower in my immersion blender attachment (a blender is fine) and added some salt, pepper, fresh cilantro, soy milk, tahini, and nutritional yeast.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup with Quinoa

I've been eating leftover soups this week as well as going with my fallback of barley and split peas, so tonight I thought I'd get a little exciting with my food choices. I had a lot of good ingredients sitting around so I came up with this soup, which is a variation of of sweet potato soup I've made before.

I cut 2 medium sweet potatoes into small wedges and boiled them until soft. I also added about 1tst of fresh ginger. When the potatoes were done I added another 1tsp or so of fresh ginger, some chipotle powder, chili powder, and salt. I blended with the immersion blender and added 1 cup of soy milk and 2 TB of red wine vinegar. I'm pretty sure I should have added the vinegar in before the milk, but oh well.

In another pan I sauteed 4 cloves of garlic in a little bit of olive oil and then added 1c water and .5cup quinoa. Once that was done, I added 6 chopped scallions, salt, and juice from 1/2 of a lime. I scooped the soup in a bowl and, surprise, surprise, added the quinoa mixture to it.

It was pretty spicy but delicious.

Black Bean Soup with Mango Relish

I bought a bunch of dried beans a few weeks ago at the organic market by my house. I used them in some amazing chili, which sadly never made it to the blog. But I'd been really wanting to use the black beans separately, and I was hoping to come up with something involving mango and rice. So I Googled black bean mango rice recipe and came up with this Cuban Black Bean Soup with Mango Relish.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't have a lot of the ingredients. So I improvised and made it my own way. The ingredients I used:

1TB olive oil
2 diced red onions
4 chopped garlic cloves
1-2TB chili powder (I ran out of cumin...)
2tsp fresh chopped ginger
1 cup dried black beans, soaked overnight
6-8 cups water
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
salt

I sauteed the onions and garlic in the olive oil until clear and soft and then added 4 cups of water, the beans, the vinegar, some of the salt and chili powder, and 1tsp of the ginger. I cooked it for 30 minutes or so and then added more salt, chili powder, and ginger. I scooped out some of the beans and blended the rest of the mixture until smooth. I added back in the beans and some additional water, which turned out to be too much.

As the beans cooked I made 1cup of whole grain rice and the mango relish, which I decided to change a little.

1 mango, diced
3 roma tomatoes
juice of one lime
3 scallions
5 or 6 leaves of purpil basil
.5tsp ginger
pinch of salt

I scooped the rice into my mug (all of my bowls were in the dishwasher, which necessitated the mug, which refused to produce a good photo for me), added the soup, and topped with the relish. The soup on its own was not amazing. But the relish made it stellar.

Baked Apples and Peaches

Fruit is amazing when it's cooked. Baked bananas with some unprocessed cocoa are my favorites. But other fruits cook well, too.





I sliced one gala apple and one little peach and put them in a pyrex dish with about .5 cup of milk and some ground cinnamon. They baked on 375 for 15 minutes and I turned and added 2TB flax seed because I was reading something the other day about how great it is and I remembered that I still have quite a bit of it in my fridge that I haven't used in ages. My original plan involved peanut butter. They baked for another 15 minutes or so.

The picture isn't the greatest, but it tasted nice. I should have put the cinnamon on closer to the end and it possibly could have cooked 10 or 15 minutes longer.

Purple Basil Tomato Soup

This isn't really different from my last attempt at tomato soup. I sauteed 1 medium red onion in a little olive oil and added water, 1TB tomato paste, 2 large tomatoes, and 6 roma tomatoes. I brought to the boil and added a few leaves of purple basil since I think the regular basil in my aerogarden killed it. (The purple basil had fallen over last night when I got home. I suspect the regular basil was blocking light or otherwise bullying it.)

Once it boiled for about 15 I added 8 or 10 white mushrooms that I'd chopped up. I let these cook for just a few minutes and then scooped out half of the chunky parts so I could use my immersion blender on the rest. I also added in about .5 cup of soy milk just to make it a little creamier and a few more basil leaves for flavor.

The real best part of everything was the lentil couscous salad I made to go in the soup. First I cut up 3 cloves of garlic, added some salt, a few chopped basil leaves, and 1TB olive oil. I let it sit as long as I could so the garlic and basil would infuse into the oil. Meanwhile, I cooked 3/4 cup lentils until just done so they weren't yet mushy, and I made 3/4 of couscous. Once all the cooking was done, I mixed the oil mixture, lentils, and couscous together and put about 3/4 cup into each of the 4 servings I made. Then I garnished with a gigantic purple basil leaf.

It was great- the raw garlic added extra zing to the soup. I promise I'll get more creative with tomato soup in the spring.

Sorta Chunky Tomato Soup

Since it's 6 degrees outside I thought I'd make some nice warm soup for lunch. And since I've been watching TV all day because it's 6 degrees outside and because I hurt my back running on Friday and have consequently been spending a lot of time with the heating pad, I decided on tomato soup because Sandra Lee (semi-home) made it and it seemed like the right thing to do.

My initial idea was the roast the tomatoes, but since I don't write these things down until after I've made them, I forgot. So, I started with 1/2 a red onion, sauteeing it in a little olive oil until translucent. Then I added 6 tiny cloves of garlic for a few more minutes and deglazed the pan with some red wine vinegar. I've wanted to use rwv in my tomato soup, but I didn't know how it would react to soy milk. But today I'm daring. Bold, even.

After deglazing, I added some water, 6 small plum tomatoes, 1 TB tomato paste, and 8 white mushrooms. I let it cook a few minutes then added 1cup of unsweetened soy milk. After stirring it all up, I scooped out half of the mixture and used my immersion blender to smooth out the rest. Once I added the pulp back in I tore up a few leaves of basil from my aerogarden. It's growing ridiculously high so I had to cut it back a little. What a shame to have fresh basil that I was forced to eat...

Now I don't ever remember having a single bowl of tomato soup in my life until the past year. So I never experienced what I understand is true tradition- grilled cheese and tomato soup. However, Sandra Lee reminded me of this true American meal and I thought I'd follow suit with my own version. I toasted a few pieces of whole wheat toast and spread with a thin layer of french onion Better than Cream Cheese. My favorite part was removing the crust and letting it sit in the soup to get a little soggy. While not exactly what everyone else grew up with, it hit the spot. And made just enough for another meal.

Roasted Potato Soup

More potatoes. Hooray!

I've been salivating over the idea of roasted potato soup for days. More than a week, in fact. I've decided to throw together my favorite things- taters (as Little Mommy calls them), onions, and garlic. I wedged up 2 medium taters and tossed them with .5TB olive oil. I also sliced up a red onion (both because the produce was lacking and because of my possibly false belief that it has more nutrients because it's red) and tossed with .5TB olive oil. Really, between the two I used .75TB in case you are a stickler. Then I got 6-8 cloves of garlic with paper on them. I put them on baking sheets on 375-400 and stirred every 10 minutes or so until they started to brown. The garlic went on the sheet with the onion- paper on but no oil.

Before we go any further, you may be concerned about all the garlic. Don't. I'm a huge garlic lover, and I could easily add more. When it's roasted, it becomes much milder and really soft. It's good to spread on bread. But I digress.

I then added one cube of veggie bullion to some boiling water (3ish cups) and half of the roasted veggies, blended with my immersion blender, and added in the rest of the veggies. Pretty simple. You can use any type of broth- it's really to add a little flavor and thin it out some. You may also want to add salt, but it depends on how salty the broth is you use. The whole thing makes 2 sort of small servings at about 250 calories a piece by my estimate. So I added in some couscous (I used .5 serving- 110 calories) and topped with Better Than Sour Cream.

It was exactly what I wanted. Only there's not enough.

Roasted Potatoes and Onions with Cheeze Dipping Sauce

I bought some regular potatoes at the grocery store on a whim. Mostly because I wasn't ready for more sweet potatoes. I'd been dreaming of ways to cook them since they seem like a special treat because I consider them a forbidden food.

The first up in my potato madness is to continue with my roasting obsession. I cut up 2 medium potatoes into wedges, added .5 TB olive oil and some salt, and roasted on 375-400, turning every so often. I also roasted an onion (sliced then sprayed with cooking spray) because I can't stop thinking about them. And I also dreamt about a dipping sauce- Better than Sour Cream and nutritional yeast. It tastes like French onion dip to me. Amazing. Greatest dinner ever.