However, that doesn’t really resolve the issue of our kitchen being unbearably hot, even without the oven being turned on. These two appliances are definitely going to be my BFFs during the hot and humid summer:
That’s a slow cooker and a George Foreman grill. Lately I seem to be making a lot of soups in the slow cooker. I know it’s probably weird to be making soup during the summer, but what can I say? I’ve been wanting soup!
If anything, I’m hoping this will help me be a little more creative. I’m definitely going to try out grilling yellow summer squash, instead of my usual way (roasting it). And grilling tofu can be just as delicious as baking it.
Speaking of soup, I ended up making a nice hearty stew the other night in the slow cooker.
I ended up adapting it from this recipe. I forgot to put soy milk in it, but I actually think I like it better like that. I also added 2 T. of olive oil, some yellow summer squash, and some fresh herbs from my garden. Mmmm. It’s especially good with the whole grain herb bread from Vegan Planet.
I put fresh basil, chives, and parsley in it, as well as dried marjoram and thyme. This is quite possibly my favorite homemade bread.
Okay I’m a total hypocrite. I talk about hating to turn on my oven, and then I bake bread and the fudgy wudgy blueberry brownies from Veganomicon (they are SO ADDICTIVE and yummy). But I’m at least using my oven less than I usually do?
And in exciting news:
My first ripe pear tomatoes! My father informs me that pear tomato plants are prolific, so I’m hoping we’ll be dining on lots of these little guys throughout the summer.
I hope everyone else who is gardening is having lots of success!
Our pipes still aren’t fixed. The handyman spent most of the day puttering around, buying stuff at Home Depot, then puttering some more. Then he told me he would come back tomorrow so he could work on our pipes all day, leaving a big gaping hole that leads directly to outside. Lovely. It’s not like we have air conditioners running or that there are approximately 5 billion bugs and rodents that would love to get into our house. I’ve covered up the hole as well as I could (out of concern that our cats would get curious and fall to their deaths), but there’s still a good gap that concerns me.
Anyway, I went ahead and made the butternut squash stew, and I’m not sure how I really feel about it.
It’s tender, but meh. It’s pretty bland honestly, which is a disappointment. I even did something completely uncharacteristic for me and added extra salt (I’m very sensitive to salt, so that is something I would almost never do). It’s sad, because it’s actually quite fragrant. I wish I could figure out what’s missing from this, but I’m stumped. I’m also not big on the tofu - I like my tofu crusty and chewy, but thought maybe I’d like it this way too. Not so much. But the entire point of making something in a slow cooker is to keep from having to turn on my gas oven, or one of my eyes, to save energy (and HEAT). Oh well. Maybe the flavor will improve overnight.
Or at least I HOPE they’ll be done today. Our handyman came over earlier to take measurements, I’m just waiting for him to come back and get started.
Anyway, I have no pictures to share, especially since it’s already gotten ungodly hot here. I live in Atlanta, and we don’t have central air in our house. We do have two window air conditioners, but the way our house is set up, our dining room and kitchen don’t really get any of that air, so it gets ungodly hot in there even before I’ve turned on the oven or stove (I have huge box fans set up to circulate the air, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much). So it looks like I’m going to be making a lot of smoothies, salads, and cooking a lot of stuff in our slow cooker.
Speaking of which, I have a great recipe for a pumpkin pie smoothie (but no picture, but hey it’s a smoothie, use your imagination: big tall frosty glass, filled with a delicious thick orangish brown smoothie with tiny little speaks from the pumpkin pie spice). It’s what I’ve been having almost every morning for breakfast, along with a piece of whole grain toast slathered in nut butter.
Pumpkin pie smoothie
INGREDIENTS:
1 c. soy milk (I use silk soy milk with omega 3 dha’s - low fat almond milk is good too)
1/2 c. pumpkin puree
1 medium ripe banana, peeled, cut up, and frozen*
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
optional: 1-2 T. ground flaxseed
optional: 1-2 T. pure maple syrup (agave nectar would work too)
* I usually buy a bunch of bananas, and whatever ones I don’t eat before they get a bit overripe, I peel them, cut them up, stick them in ziploc bags in the freezer. I got the idea from Vegan Planet actually. It’s really great because frozen bananas add creaminess to smoothies without any added fat.
DIRECTIONS:
Pour in the soy milk, pumpkin puree, banana, and pumpkin pie spice. If using, also add in the ground flaxseed. The smoothie doesn’t need the maple syrup, but it somehow makes it taste more like pumpkin pie with it in. However, it still tastes great without it. Add it in if you’re using the maple syrup. Blend until smooth, and drink up.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I think tonight I’ll be making this really great recipe I found off savvy vegetarian for Vegan Thai Butternut Squash Stew with Tofu, Coconut Milk, and Toasted Almonds. It sounds like I have to do a bunch of prep work before sticking everything in the slow cooker, but I think it may be worth it. Assuming our dining room no longer looks like a disaster area, I should hopefully have pictures of it up tomorrow.
Oh, and if anyone has any great vegan slow cooker info, I’m all ears! I have Robin Robertson’s slow cooker cookbook on my wishlist but can’t get it yet. So I’m mostly looking for online archives or something. I know I’ve been looking through fat free vegan’s, and through recipezaar.
While I’m finally starting to feel better, my entire dining room is covered in …. stuff. Basically, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to take any decent pictures of food until they FINALLY fix the pipes to our bathtub, because the only way to get to our pipes is through our dining room wall, and I’m hoping this will be happening soon, so I don’t want to put everything back, only to have to move it all again twice. Ugh, just thinking about this frustrates me! But hey, here are some gardening photos, as promised.
I have to apologize in advance for my not-quite so beautiful backyard. Unfortunately, thanks to the drought last year, I think whatever grass was in here (we weren’t living here last summer so I can’t say for sure) must have died. We rent our house, and while we got a fantastic deal on it, it can be very frustrating, as our landlord drags his feet to do anything. In any case, I never bothered to ask him about replanting grass as it’s largely cosmetic, and there are still a lot of outdoor water restrictions here (thus, I use a watering can).
Because of the sad state of the soil, and the fact that I don’t think we’ll be living here for more than a year or two, I decided to just do container gardening. In my herb container, I am growing (clockwise): cilantro, jalapeno, chives, parsley, basil, and oregano (in the middle). Sadly, my thyme died. 
I’m also growing mint, but it’s planted outside of my container gardening, since it’s an extremely hardy plant. My parsley was much larger, but then I cut about a cup of it out for a vegetable stock recipe. My cilantro has also reached mutant-tall proportions. I tried to take a picture of it, but wasn’t very successful.
I’m growing two kinds of tomatoes in a container: pink brandywine and yellow pear. The pink brandywine is growing very tall, while the yellow pear seems to be more delicate, and growing out. But today, I discovered something really exciting!
My pear tomato plant is starting to bear fruit!!!!! YAY!!!! I like tomatoes, but I was never one of those people who could just eat tomatoes plain, until I tried my Dad’s pear tomatoes last year. So I can’t WAIT to have pear tomatoes of my own.
All right, wish me luck that our pipes will be fixed soon!
Sorry it’s been a while, but I hope everyone’s Memorial Day Weekend was a blast (unlike mine, which while I got to spend time with my hubby, I also spent the majority of it sick)! Unfortunately, my plans to photograph the burritos were thwarted when I forgot to buy flour tortillas. D’oh! Such is life. I ended up spending a very nice relaxing week up in Ohio, visiting parents and such.
However, since then I’ve been unfortunately saddled with a rather nasty cold or … something. I thought it was allergies, but then I thought it was a sinus infection, and now I can’t stop coughing. Whatever it is, I want it to go away already!
Since my nose has been constantly stuffed up, my throat’s been sore. I’m usually not much for tea, but this stuff has been a godsend. Plus, I’m starting to actually quite like the tea. It makes my throat feel better and makes my sinuses feel slightly less plugged.
I have something to admit: I never actually eat in our dining room unless we have guests over. However, I was so excited about this soup (sherry laced garlic soup from Vegan Planet), I sat down immediately after taking photos and slurped it all up. This soup is for garlic lovers only, as it involves a good 10 cloves of garlic. Admittedly, the recipe called for only 1/2 cup of uncooked pasta, but as I was one of those obnoxious kids who tried to steal all the noodles in the chicken noodle soup, I decided I couldn’t be held in by directions and put in a bunch more.
On top is of course some fresh parsley from my container gardening. In just a week, my cilantro and parsley went from regular sized to mutant sized. The cilantro is all the way up to my hip now. I definitely need to take pictures of my gardening. As it’s my first real year gardening, I’m just growing herbs and two different kinds of tomatoes (yellow pear and pink brandywine).
Perhaps tomorrow! Although to be honest, until I’m better I’m probably going to be living on a diet of toast, tea, and a little soup here and there.
Sometimes I don’t know what I’d do without Veganomicon. Soooo many of the recipes in there are absolutely priceless. For example: the black bean burgers. Sadly, I never think of actually taking pictures of them, but if you google image “black bean burger Veganomicon,” there are a number of tasty looking pictures.
However, for making them the best ever, you need sweet potato fries with lots of ketchup, guacamole, and these:
Why you ask? Because quite simply they’re the best pickles in the entire universe. I actually hated pickles until my Dad made me try these. The funny thing is I’ve actually never been to Tony Packo’s (and no they’re not paying me to advertise their pickles :P), and since I’m vegan I obviously wouldn’t be able to eat 99% of the stuff they make. Nonetheless, they’re an Ohio institution, and if you love pickles you MUST get these. You can actually order some off their website. My husband and I are addicted, so these are the only pickles in our house. We always get a few jars whenever we go back to Ohio to visit my relatives.
Anyway, I mention this because I had guests this past week, and you can imagine my surprise when I found out the two of them, native Ohioans, had never tried a Tony Packo’s pickle. Now I’m on a mission. A pickle mission. ….. Not really. But I still needed to mention them because everyone needs sweet hot pickley goodness in their lives.
Anyway, this weekend I have to drive back to Ohio, so other than stuffing my car full of pickles, my sister is actually giving me her old air conditioners. I’ve also been thinking about making her some chocolate peanut butter bombe cupcakes, as her birthday is on the 21st. At first I was thinking about making them here and bringing them, but it’s a 12 hour drive, and they’re kind of delicate, so I think I’m going to make them once I’m actually out at my parents’ house.
Anyway! I have real food news too!
I got the really horrible idea of making a recipe of poor man’s fudge from the livejournal community veganfoodpics last night. Of course, I veganized the recipe given, so I used earth balance and silk lite soy milk instead of butter and milk.
I think I might have boiled it for just a tad long, but nonetheless it’s delicious, if not way more sugary than stuff I normally like. And yet I keep eating it! I need to throw it away or something. I feel like I’ve been experiencing sugar highs and crashes all day from eating this.
And! I have probably been eating way more peanut butter than I should be lately. It’s mostly because I’ve become obsessed with this recipe for peanut sauce/marinade. I actually don’t put peanuts in mine, because I use natural peanut butter that I buy from the farmer’s market (they grind it fresh right in front of you). Now, I don’t know if it’s because I use natural peanut butter rather than the really processed stuff at the grocery, but the consistency is more marinade-like, but it’s really great as both a marinade for tofu and a more subtle flavoring for stir fries (I don’t like stuff inundated with sauce, so I find it perfect for this purpose).
Peanut sauced stir fry!
I can’t really give a specific recipe for this, since I kind of just tossed stuff together and added things until it looked right, but I can give you an idea of what I did.
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb extra firm tofu, drained, pressed, and cut into 12 square pieces
peanut sauce or marinade
1 T. peanut oil or other high heat resistant oil
half 1 large onion, chopped*
2 medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped*
the florets and peeled and chopped stalks of 1 head of broccoli, separated*
a handful or so of snow peas*
1 c. frozen corn, partially thawed (measuring out before you start things up should get it there by the time you need to toss them in)*
1 c. frozen peas, partially thawed*
leftover brown rice
*These are the vegetables I used because I had them around. Obviously, you could use whatever vegetables you have hanging around your fridge, waiting to be used.
DIRECTIONS:
Marinate the tofu in the peanut marinade for at least an hour - I like to do this in a 9 inch pie pan (you should have enough in there so that the marinade comes up at least halfway up the tofu), turning over halfway through. About 25 minutes before the tofu is done marinating, heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Once done marinating, place the tofu on a cookie sheet, place in the oven, and bake for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven, flip the tofu over, and put back in the oven to bake an additional 10 minutes. Both sides should have a nice bit of a crust, chewy and taste subtly of peanuts and spice.
Heat a wok to medium-high heat, pour in the oil. When it’s good and hot, put the onion, carrots and chopped broccoli stalks in the wok. Cook until they’re almost soft, about 3-5 minutes.
Mix the snow peas in, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add in the peas and corn, mix, and add in the brown rice about a handful at a time, until it seems like the right mix for you. Cook until everything is nice and hot and the peas and corn are cooked through.
Mix the marinade (if you use natural peanut butter like me, the little peanut parts tend to settle at the bottom), and then pour about 1/4 c. of the marinade at a time into the wok, mix, and taste. Keep slowly adding more until it’s to your taste. When serving, cut the tofu into half, forming triangles, and arrange on top of the stir fry.
Tomorrow I’m going to be cooking up mustard greens (assuming they haven’t gone bad on me already … AGAIN - mustard greens refuse to stay good long enough for me to cook them), and making burritos, to try and use up veggies before I head up to Ohio. If I can get motivated, I’ll try to post again tomorrow.
We haven’t had bread in the house for weeks because I’ve been lazy and haven’t felt like baking my own bread. Plus, my husband only seems to like soft bread, so I’ve been trying to find a good vegan recipe for soft italian bread (his favorite). If anyone has suggestions, I’m all ears!
Recently, I’ve been trying to buy produce according to season and locality, rather than just buying things for recipes that sound good. Thus, I’ve found myself making a lot of recipes where I cook vegetables and toss them in rice, pasta, and so on.
Since I’ve been trying to cut down a bit on my pasta intake, I’ve started eating more rice. I’ve actually had this bhutanese red rice sitting in my pantry for almost a year now, but never knowing what I should use it for, it continued sitting unused. Well, no more! It is really delicious. I am definitely going to be cooking up the rest sometime soon.
Anyway, following is a recipe for what I’d like to call rice salad. Really, you can be flexible in the vegetables, I would just suggest those that accompany bright flavors and minimal cooking, to cut down on time.
Bhutanese red rice salad
INGREDIENTS:
For the rice
1 c. bhutanese red rice
1 1/2 c. water
pinch of salt
small splash of olive oil (I find it helps the texture and richness of rice, but it’s not completely necessary)
For the salad
1 T. olive oil
1 t. salt
1 t. freshly ground pepper, or to taste
2 small to medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium red onion (yellow works fine if you don’t have red), chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 bunch of asparagus, tough ends snapped off and cut into 1-2 inch pieces
1/3 c. sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil, julienned
2 roasted yellow peppers (I used ones from a bottle, but you could also obviously roast them yourself), chopped
2 small avocados, chopped
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
Note: using the sun dried tomatoes packed in oil is important because once everything is cooked and you add in the lemon juice, the excess oil from the tomatoes and the lemon end up creating something like a vinaigrette.
DIRECTIONS:
Cook the rice: combine the rice, water, salt, and olive oil in a medium sized pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover, reduce the heat to its lowest level, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, keep covered for a few minutes, then fluff it and put the cover back on to keep it hot until the vegetables are ready.
While the rice is cooking, prep the vegetables, and heat a large, wide pot over medium heat. Pour in the olive oil, and once heated, add in the onions, carrots, and garlic. Cook until soft, with a bit of a bite - about 5 minutes. Add in the asparagus, and cook until they’re tender, about another 5 minutes. Once everything is properly cooked, turn off the heat and add the peppers and tomatoes. Once they’re warm and integrated, mix in the rice. Once everything is mixed, carefully stir in the avocado. Pour the lemon juice over the rice and vegetables and stir around to get everything coated in the lemon juice. Taste for salt, pepper, and lemon, and add to taste.
Oh, if you’re concerned about protein content, this would be fantastic with some rinsed and drained white beans, or maybe some drained, pressed and baked tofu (perhaps marinated in lemon and olive oil as well?). The possibilities are endless!
Mmmm!
Also, a simple recipe for a smoothie. It’s something I make when I want something sweet and/or chocolatey, but am either feeling lazy or don’t want to feel guilty about making a ton of cupcakes.
Chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie
INGREDIENTS:
1 c. soy milk
1/4 c. natural smooth peanut butter
3 T. natural unsweetened cocoa powder
3 T. maple syrup
2 ripe bananas, cut in chunks and frozen
1 T. ground flax seed (optional)
1 1/2 handfuls of semisweet chocolate chips (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
Put all the ingredients in a blender, blend, enjoy! You can also make this with non frozen bananas, but it won’t be as frosty and delicious. The flax seed won’t add anything except nutrition, and doesn’t leave any taste. The chocolate chips aren’t necessary either, but make the smoothie a little “chunky” and remind me of a shake I used to get at Rax when I was little - I think it was a chocolate chocolate chip shake. I just remember the little bits of chocolate chips and PURE GLEE that went along with it.
That’s the smoothie (with a banana chip on top, mmm), along with my favoritest (relatively) new purchase, the platy liter water bottle! And behind that is a Christmas present, a Vietnamese wine jug that Charlie got me from a really cool fair trade international import store in downtown Decatur. I apologize for the crappy picture - our dining room is in shambles as we’re getting our bath tub fixed, and in order to gain access, they had to take apart our dining room wall and our dining room table is covered in …. stuff. Unfortunately, our dining room is the only really great source of natural light in our house.
Wish me luck, our water has been turned off for hours, and the handyman left because the kit he got didn’t have a particular part so he had to return it. I haven’t had a proper shower in almost two weeks now (don’t worry, I’ve been taking baths :P). The diverter is supposed to get replaced, but apparently our pipes are so rusted that even with the new diverter, our water pressure won’t be much improved. Sigh!
Haha, just kidding. I never actually realized how often I eat pasta until I started writing this blog. I’m going to pretend it’s just a phase. Otherwise I might have to change the name of my blog to “the pasta obsessed vegan” or something.
I apologize for the crappy lighting, I need to stop taking food photos at night. Or I need a light box. I should really get around to making one for myself.
In addition to my obsession with pasta, I’ve also recently been obsessed with avocados. The downside of course is that my husband hates avocados (yes he’s a freak). But that doesn’t keep me from buying at least 3 a week anyway! They’re full of healthy fats, a beautiful green, a good source of protein, and buttery/awesome. I don’t feel too bad about it because just as this article states, “[a]ccording to the Health Canada booklet Nutrient Value of Some Common Foods, one avocado provides a substantial amount of vitamin A, calcium, potassium (three times as much as a medium-sized banana!) and B vitamins, including B6 and niacin. Avocado is high in monounsaturated fats and essential fatty acids, including omega 3 and 6 fats. These essential fats are required by the body for healthy skin and hair, brain development and clear thinking, and a clean metabolism.”
I’ve also read somewhere that avocados have even more calcium/protein than a glass of cow’s milk. If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is.
In any case, this is how I justify my avocado addiction.
Rough recipe for the pasta (it still needs to be played with/perfected):
Super green pasta
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. whole wheat thin spaghetti
3-4 T extra virgin olive oil (you could easily replace with vegetable broth if you’re trying to avoid refined oils)
1 t. coarse sea salt
1 t. freshly ground pepper
juice of 1 1/2 large ripe lemons
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
a handful each of parsley and cilantro, chopped
1 1/2 c. frozen peas, partially thawed
2 small avocados, roughly chopped
DIRECTIONS:
Cook the pasta according to the package directions in a large, wide pot. Drain and spray with cold water while it’s in the colander to keep the pasta from overcooking.
Using the same pot, pour in the olive oil or vegetable broth and lemon juice, let them reheat over medium heat and mix in the onion and garlic. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until the onions is soft.
Mix in the herbs and peas and cook until the peas are cooked through, about 3-5 minutes.
Carefully mix in the avocado and check on the pasta. If it’s sticking together, spray some more water on it and toss with your hands until the pasta is easily separated.
Add in the pasta about a handful at a time, shaking off any excess water before putting it in the pot, mixing carefully until all the pasta is incorporated.
Turn off the heat, garnish with extra cilantro and enjoy.
Anyway, other than gorging myself on pasta and avocados, I actually spent the weekend in Alabama was it was my niece’s 3rd birthday. In celebration, I made a ton of cupcakes:
Going clockwise: chocolate peanut butter bombes (chocolate cupcakes with peanut buttercream and chocolate ganache), vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and multicolored sprinkles, and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and chocolate sprinkles. Another not so amazing picture, but unfortunately I basically needed to frost and run as I ran out of confectioner’s sugar and Charlie wanted to leave the moment I finished frosting. Normally I wouldn’t make that much chocolate stuff, but my husband’s family is a bit more conventional in their tastes. The star was of course the chocolate peanut butter bombes. I had several people at Mary’s birthday recipe ask me for the recipe. I only wish I could claim the genius, but it’s of course a recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I was planning on keeping it a secret that all the cupcakes were vegan until they were devoured, but my FIL Jimmy asked me if the cupcakes were vegan like all the ones he’s seen on my flickr account, so my cover was blown. Such is life.
Anyway, I actually have a fair amount of extra chocolate buttercream, so now I have to figure out what to do with it. Make more cupcakes? We shall see!
Here is the pie as promised!
And a recipe!
NUTELLA PIE
INGREDIENTS:
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
1/3 c. hazelnut liqueur (suggested: frangelico)
12 oz. extra firm silken tofu
1 t. vanilla extract
1 T. agave nectar
1 prepared graham cracker crust (see below for recipe)
DIRECTIONS:
Place a small metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Melt the chocolate and frangelico in the bowl. Once off the heat, stir in vanilla.
Combine the tofu, chocolate mixture, and agave in a food processor (you can try this in a blender, but I wouldn’t trust mine as it’s kind of thick). Blend until smooth.
Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate for 2 hours, or until the filling is set.
For the graham cracker crust (I just followed the directions on the side of my graham cracker crumb box):
1 1/4 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/3 c. melted earth balance
3 T. sugar
Mix all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Press evenly into a 9 inch pie pan. Cook for 8 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or leave in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
I’m actually ambivalent about this crust. The next time I make it, I think I’m going to use my mom’s recipe for graham cracker crust, which is the following:
1 1/2 graham cracker crumbs
6 1/2 T. earth balance
1/4 c. sugar
Mix all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Press evenly into the pan and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.
This pie is good, but a bit too rich and dense for me. I may be playing with this more! Still though, not bad for a start.
In an attempt to conquer the behemoth that is Vegan Planet, I decided to try one of the stir fries that was in one of the 20 chapters (this chapter was entirely dedicated to stir fries and such). It’s funny because I thought adding liqueur to a saute dish was kind of weird, but it gave it this amazing, rich taste that just took it up to amazing heights. As a result, right now I basically want to douse everything in frangelico.
Sauteed tofu with shallots, almonds, and frangelico (the recipe actually called for amaretto but I didn’t have any), on a bed of organic spinach. Next to it is quinoa, cooked in vegetable broth and frangelico.
Soooo good. I especially like it on the spinach, because it makes it kind of like a nice warm salad, and the spinach doesn’t need any dressing.
I also actually made a chocolate pie spiked with frangelico, but it’s still chilling in the fridge, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. The recipe is super easy though. It might actually be a bit too rich for me, so I’m going to have to play with it a little.