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?
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!
My problem is an addiction mostly – I am addicted to burritos. They’re so easy, nutritious and delicious. Sure, they dirty up a few pans, but the stuff is so easy to throw together that it’s seductive. My husband also loves them because he’s an omni and my feelings don’t get quite as hurt as when he throws meat and cheese into his portion of my vegan meals.
Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the burritos because I tend to eat them up before they fall apart/ before I can photograph them. I do however have a very simple recipe for how I fix my black beans for the burritos.
I tend to treat my black beans the way I treat my guacamole – I use it to get rid of bits and pieces I have hanging around the fridge, so feel free to change up/adjust what I put in.
Black bean stuffing
1 T. olive oil
1/2 small onion, or 1/4 a large onion, chopped
3 medium cloves of garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, partially seeded (or completely seeded, depending on your spice preference) and minced
1/2 large ripe tomato, chopped
2 handfuls of frozen corn (1/2-1 c., depending on your taste)
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 t. coarse sea salt
1 T. chile powder (preferably chipotle chile powder)
1 t. cumin
1 t. coriander
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped (optional)
Preheat a small pot with the oil over medium heat. Add in the garlic, onions, and jalapeno, and cook until the onions are translucent. Add in the tomato and corn, and cook until the tomato’s soft and given off a good bit of its juices, and the corn is no longer cold. Pour in the black beans, salt, chile powder, cumin, and coriander. Cook for about 5 minutes, taste and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Cook until there’s no longer any real liquid, and the beans are just slightly mushy. Throw in the cilantro, cook for one more minute, take off the heat.
Put in a heated burrito shell with jasmine rice, sauteed onions and peppers, salsa (I like trader joe’s chipotle salsa), and guacamole.
In other meal news:
Pumpkin cinnamon rolls, from Don’t Eat off the Sidewalk. They are time consuming but so amazing, I’m thinking of making a huge batch and freezing them for when guests arrive. The problem is I’m afraid having a huge batch of those would be way too tempting for me to handle.
Also, since pictures of my cats with food seems to becoming a theme in this blog, I must share this:
That’s a piece of chickpea broccoli casserole (from VwaV), with a fun blend of grains I got from Trader Joe’s – I think it was called harvest grains blend and had israeli couscous, red quinoa, orzo, baby split peas, and a couple other things – cooked with garlic, leftover broccoli stems, carrots, vegetable broth, and a good amount of white wine. And of course, Tati is looking on, wondering why I didn’t serve her up a plate.