Not together!
Forgive me, I’m tired. I actually have some AMAZING pumpkin lasagna to share, but I need to write up the recipe, and it’s going to take me a bit. So please forgive me, while I share two other photos instead.
This is cold udon noodles with peanut sauce, plus cucumber, red pepper, carrot, scallion, and black sesame seeds.Really, I just took the recipe from VwaV (cold udon noodles, peanut sauce and seitan) didn’t add seitan, and added a few other veggies. It says to layer it, but I find I like to mix the noodles in sauce so I get a taste of the fabulous peanut sauce in every bite. Seriously, this is the best peanut sauce I’ve ever had.
This is another recipe from Veganomicon. I got a bunch of cookbooks for Christmas but I still can’t stop cooking out of my usual ones. I actually made this while I was in Ohio with my family, and everyone loved it – there were no leftovers to speak of. Cinnamon sounds weird in a tomato sauce, but it is amazing, and the pine nut cream ….. heaven!
I promise I am going to post the pumpkin lasagna recipe soon! Here is a teaser photo of it in the meantime.
I have photos to share (and two recipes!), so let’s get to it.
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and low-fat blueberry lemon muffins. Both are from Joy of Vegan Cooking.
Strawberry jam-filled oat bran muffins, also from Joy of Vegan Baking. I have to admit, I haven’t made anything other than muffins from this cookbook, but the muffins ARE really really good!
Have I mentioned how much I love making sushi? Actually, my favorite thing ever is a sushi potluck of sorts – make the rice ahead of time so it’s good and at room temp, and have everyone bring their favorite vegetables. Teach people how to roll the sushi, and then enjoy the crazy combinations they come up with!
This past weekend, I went to quite possibly the best Chinese restaurant in Georgia, Harmony Vegetarian Chinese Restaurant. Usually I don’t like fake meat, but theirs is AMAZING. Anyway, whenever I am up there, I am obligated to make a trip to Buford Highway Farmer’s Market. Okay, some parts aren’t so fun, like the sad fishies swimming around in their tanks. But then you can get amazing freshly made tofu, and frozen vegan Korean dumplings!
This is also from Buford Highway Farmer’s Market. It is a sweet Korean rice cake called yak shik. I wish I would have remembered to write down the ingredients, but it had glutinous rice (obviously), chestnuts, walnuts, almonds, jujube, and …. other good stuff.
And last but not least:
Chocolate-peppermint cupcakes, with peppermint frosting, chocolate ganache, and a candy cane garnish. I made 5 dozen of these for my students, and they LOVED them. A bunch asked for seconds, but obviously I only had enough for one each.
Low-fat blueberry lemon muffins, adapted from Joy of Vegan Baking.
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
Zest of two lemons
3/4 c. turbinado sugar
1 c. soy milk
1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 c. canola oil
1 t. lemon extract
1 1/2 c. fresh blueberries
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease your muffin tins.
In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar, milk, oil, lemon extract, and lemon juice. Mix well. Add the flour mixture, stirring until the ingredients are just blended. Gently fold in the berries using a rubber spatula.
Fill greased or nonstick muffin tins about two-thirds full. Bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the tins and cool on a wire rack.
Chocolate-peppermint cupcakes, adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
1 c. soy milk
1 t. apple cider vinegar
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. peppermint extract
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).
Pour into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
Peppermint frosting, adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
1/2 c. nonhydrogenated shortening
1/2 c. Earth Balance
3 1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted if clumpy
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. peppermint extract
1/4 c. plain soy milk
1 or 2 drops of red food coloring
Beat the shortening and margarine together until well combined and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes.
Add the vanilla and soy milk, and beat for another 5 to 7 minutes until fluffy.
Take care everyone!
I’m sorry I’ve been so terrible at updating this thing, but I have good reasons I promise!
1. I don’t get home until 6:30 most nights, which makes it impossible for me to take good pictures with natural light.
2. My job, while immensely wonderful, is a bit emotionally draining (I work with refugee children).
3. I seem to have lost the USB cord for my camera.
4. I’m lazy. I’ve made all sorts of interesting things and then don’t feel like cleaning up to take pictures.
Enough excuses! One of my resolutions this year is to update this food blog (with PICTURES, so this doesn’t count) at least twice per month. I am going to try my damndest to do this. I figure twice per month isn’t asking too much, since that means I can take the pictures during the weekend.
Here’s to another year of delicious vegan food!!! The new year signifies for me the one year mark since going vegan, so I am stoked.
I know, I stink. I’ve not updated in over a month – a friend of mine recently pointed it out. The combination of the heat and the new job has made it such that I haven’t been making anything fancy. Plus, I just keep forgetting to take pictures of stuff. I’m afraid the few people who were checking out my blog are probably long gone now that I’ve been so sporadic in posting. Oh well.
Anyway, to make up for my hot and cold posting, I have lots of pictures to share!
Black bean vegetable soup, plus jalapeno corn bread, both from Veganomicon. For some reason I tend not to be into super beany soups, but this one is fantastic, especially with some fresh avocado sliced in.
Latkes with dill horseradish sauce. OMG AMAZING. These were so incredibly delicious. Although I think I ended up putting in about twice as much horseradish as the recipe called for because, surprisingly, fresh horseradish is actually not nearly as piquant as the bottle variety.
This is an adapted version of Ancient Greens on Grains salad, from Vegan Planet. I couldn’t find kamut, so I used farro instead. I also just used all the veggies I had on hand in it, and added in some marinated baked curry tofu in there. This is quite possibly my new favorite thing ever. I love the contrast with the quinoa and farro, all the veggies, and then the delicious balsamic vinaigrette.
“Helloooo? Can I get some service please???” Of course Tati had to check out what I was doing. The bubbly green stuff is Jones Green Apple Soda, which may as well be crack. I stopped buying the chemicaly crap with high fructose corn syrup back in January. However, Jones doesn’t use that crap, it’s delicious, and it’s been on sale! I still try to keep myself from buying it a lot because I don’t want to get back into a pop fueled craze like the one that basically single handedly got me through graduate school.
Oh, and those are the pear tomatoes from my garden in the salad. It really thrills me.
Nara contemplates the cupcake. But that is no regular cupcake – it’s a chocolate coconut cupcake with coffee buttercream. Nom nom nom. Have I mentioned how much I love Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? I made these since we were having friends over and they were snarfed down.
And now a gardening update!
After months and months of watching, watering, and waiting, my pink brandywine tomato plant is FINALLY producing a tomato. YAY!!!!! There are a number of flowers on the plant too, so I’m hoping to one day actually be able to make a beautiful tomato basil salad, all from my garden.
My basil plant has been doing really well. I really need to make some pesto before it all goes bad.
Two jalapenos are ripening on the plant as we speak. Can you spot them both?
My pear tomato plant has been fantastically prolific. I can’t wait for next summer because I’m going to plant more vegetables (and maybe even a couple fruits?) and I definitely plan to plant at least 3 of these babies.
How has your gardening been doing?
Sorry I haven’t posted in so long. I have a few foodlicious pictures to share, I just haven’t been feeling particularly verbose lately.
That is a BBQ Seitan and coleslaw sandwich, recipes from Veganomicon. However, instead of using regular seitan, I used the recipe for seitan cutlets in the book. I also doctored up the coleslaw with about a 1 inch cube of fresh grated horseradish, and a little sugar. It doesn’t quite have the sweet and tangy flavor I associate with my Dad’s coleslaw, but I think it’s going to be the closest I get without using Miracle Whip (gag).
Banana coconut bars, from Fat Free Vegan. My photo isn’t nearly as pretty as hers, but these little babies are low fat, sweet and delicious, the perfect thing for someone with a ridiculously hard to control sweet tooth like me.
I have a couple more pictures, but I’ll save them for another day. I hope all is well with everyone else! Hopefully once I get used to my job and schedule I’ll get back more into the swing of updating this thing.
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.