Tag Archives: vegan

365 Meatless Meatballs

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I came home from work exhausted on Tuesday, and realized that before I got to relax, we still needed to go to Target and Whole Foods. :p We were at that point where we really HAD to get groceries, no more procrastinating was allowed. I also realized that the last thing I wanted to do when we got home was cook, so I commissioned Thomas to make me some spaghetti and meatballs while I got a nice hot shower in. (I think I got inspired seeing the ad for Gardein’s new meatballs.)

I usually make my own out of TVP, and WF didn’t seem to have Gardein’s new product, so we decided to try the 365 brand. He baked them in the oven on a prepared cookie sheet according to package directions, combined them with 365 basil pasta sauce, and served it over whole wheat spaghetti.

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They were really good. Well seasoned, nice texture, absorbed some of the sauce. Definitely glad we picked these up! We’ll have to try their other meat analogs sometime.

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Leftovers made an excellent lunch the next day too! :D

January Raw Kickoff: Day 3 and a Raw Carob Peanut Butter Dip recipe

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Well, as things sometimes go…

Day 3 of my raw didn’t really happen. We had leftovers of the carrot slaw for lunch (no breakfast, a more common occurrence than these nicely planned days I had accomplished) and ended the night with some delivery pizza. :)

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We split an extra large roasted garlic, spinach and basil pizza sprinkled upon delivery with nooch (nutritional yeast) and crushed red peppers!

However, my raw carob powder did get delivered and I was able to put together a nearly raw carob peanut butter dip/sauce recipe to share with you! I decided to order raw carob powder instead of my usual raw cacao since caffeine just sends me into anxiety mode. I used a recipe from Raw Food as a guide. Her recipe called for tahini, and since my tahini was roasted anyway, I figured I may as well use some of the peanut butter for a nice chocolatey combo that I knew would go over well with Thomas.

You can easily make this completely raw with any raw seed or nut butter you can find. I don’t buy them because they’re so expensive, but you can make your own. If you want to make your own raw peanut butter (you can buy raw peanuts on amazon), or any other raw nut butter for that matter, just toss the raw nuts in a food processor or high speed blender, and blend until smooth. You may need to add a little oil. Google it.

[Nearly] Raw Carob Peanut Butter Dip

1/2 c. peanut butter   (or preferred seed/nut butter)
7 tbsp. raw carob powder
2-3 tbsp. raw agave
1/2 c. of water, plus more to desired consistency (I ended up with about 2/3 c.)

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a small, resealable jar. Adjust water to desired consistency.

It will thicken up in the fridge, so you may need to thin it out again. My inspiration recipe said keeps for 1 week in the fridge, so halve this if you don’t need so much.

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This recipe made about a small jar of peanut butter’s worth. We’ve been using it on toast and rice cakes, you can add it to your smoothies or stir it into nut milk.

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It also made a great dipping sauce for fresh cut apple slices, and would be amazing drizzled over banana slices, marshmallows, or on a [raw] sundae! I also happen to know it is perfectly decadent eaten off of a spoon! :)

January Raw Kickoff: Day 2 & a Raw Apple Cobbler recipe

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Day 2 started out much like Day 1, with the buckwheat groat porridge, though this time I ran it in the Vitamix until it was warm.

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For lunch I made us some celery soup. You can see most of the ingredients above! It was delicious and the avocado kept us full for a while.

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Dinner came from Matthew Kinney’s Everyday Raw Express. I made the Curried Carrot Slaw, Endive, Pine Nuts, Golden Raisins.

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Only minus the endive, because it is too expensive, with regular raisins, and with ALMONDS instead of cashews for the sauce because Thomas is allergic to cashews. (I do this all the time now as a straight substitute and have had no problems. I’m going to try to make some artisan almond cheese one of these days based off of a cashew recipe.) I served it on romaine leaves as incredibly fresh and tasty burritos. The pine nuts gave this the necessary filling ingredient. The sauce on this combined with the mint was just so flavorful.

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For dessert, I made this apple cobbler, very similarly to the way I made the pear blackberry one the day previously.

Raw Apple Cobbler

2-3 apples, cut into bite-sized pieces
drizzle of raw agave
sprinkle of cinnamon
pinch of ground ginger

1/2 c. almonds
1/2 c. raisins
pinch of salt

1. Place apples in a 2-3 quart dish. Drizzle with lightly with agave and toss with spices until lightly coated.

2. For the topping, add almonds, raisins, and salt to the small bowl of a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of fruit.

Winter Holiday Wrap-up: Holiday Feasting & A kitten!

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Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

My holiday cooking this year was a little atypical. Being that we spent Thanksgiving Day driving through Texas, eating seitan sandwiches from Austin’s Counter Culture (delicious!) in a gas station parking lot (above!), I went ahead and made us a nice spread a random day in December.

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Starting in the top left you’ll see my Maple Glazed Brussel Sprouts w/Apples & Onions, and some store bought cranberry sauce. Bottom row is my Perfect Pumpkin Pie, a tasty casserole from the Veganomicon, Carmelized Onion and Butternut Squash Roast with Chestnuts, and my perfected Cornbread recipe.

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Hello, gorgeous. You can see all the wonderful casserole here up front. Butternut squash, white beans, and chestnuts combine with caramelized onions and breadcrumbs and sage to give you that taste of stuffing, with a bunch of extra goodness thrown in.

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I’ve always read that it’s better to grind your own flax seed, but I felt just fine about buying it pre-ground and keeping it in the fridge in a glass jar. However, Thomas could only find the whole seed at Trader Joe’s.

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No matter, I scooped out the amount I needed and put it in the vita-mix for a few seconds. Worked like a charm.

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I was ecstatic about this cornbread using my new, super secret (not really) ingredient. And I updated my previous recipe accordingly. Just the perfect combination of salty and sweet, with a nice texture and no added oil.

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Christmas Eve wasn’t all that far away from my impromptu meal, so some of these items were repurposed, including the cranberry sauce, and the very little that was left of the casserole and brussel sprouts.

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But I also made some sweet potato mash and baked up a field roast celebration loaf with some onions and green beans. The field roast was incredible, and we enjoyed eating the leftover slices cold, right out of the fridge.

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For the mash, I simply baked the potatoes during the prep and baking of my other dishes. (1.25 hours) Once cooked through I mashed them with a bit of butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt & pepper.

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I hope you all had a safe and happy winter holiday season! It was a bit sad to be away from everyone we love this year, so I’m actually pretty glad it’s all over. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to travel home for one of the holidays. The bright side was between Christmas and the New Year, we added another member to our family.

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This is Midna, our 16 week old sphynx kitten! She’s the sweetest little baby, and she is slowly but surely starting to put up with Ganon. He came on a little strong on day one, so she’s been hissing and growling at him a whole lot over the last week, but I was super excited last night when they managed to share a blanket together in peace. Today they were running all over the house playing.

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Ganon’s only 2 months older, but he’s about 3 times the size of Midna right now, but she’s proven that she can hold her own! She is one of the sweetest kittens I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing mommy to.

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Annapurna Cafe – Capitol Hill, Seattle

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Had to tell you about a recent discovery in Capitol Hill. Not only is Annapurna close enough to us to walk to, but they have everything  vegan clearly marked on the menu, and it was the best service we’ve had since I can remember. Not only is the food clearly marked vegan, but they know what it means. After ordering, the server inquired if we were vegan, and told us he’d hold the mint sauce, which has dairy.

(I’m going to go ahead and just apologize for the very poor pictures. Even though I have this amazing cameraphone now, this place is really dimly lit, and I didn’t want to keep drawing attention to us with multipe attempts at flash photography!)

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We started with the vegetable pakoras (fried veggies battered in chickpea flour) which came with tamarind sauce and mango chutney.

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Thomas had the Monk Stir-Fry Tofu and mixed vegetables stir-fried in Tibetan style with garlic and ginger sauce, served with brown rice $9.95. I snuck a little taste and the sauce was delicious.

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I got the Saag Chana Fresh spinach cooked with Chick peas and freshly ground Indian spices $9.95. Even though I was incredibly full, I literally could not stop eating this until it was gone, save for some brown rice. Very nicely spiced.

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We also got an order of roti bread, which served as a wonderful vehicle for the spiced sauces and chutney. Overall a wonderful meal, extremely attentive waitstaff, and a pleasant, cozy restaurant.

Annapurna is located in Capitol Hill at 1833 Broadway, Seattle WA 98122. 206-320-7770. Open 7-days a week. See website for hours. Happy hour is 3-6pm with $3.99 appetizers.

Maple Glazed Brussel Sprouts with Apples and Onions

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Now, I’ve made roasted brussel sprouts before, but I recently had some at Mohawk Bend in L.A. that left me wanting to experiment. They do theirs with maple syrup, apples, and almonds, but I decided to try apples and onions in a maple dijon glaze here. The dijon is pretty subtle, but not integral to the dish, so I’d say it’s safe to leave it out if you’re not into mustard.

Maple Glazed Brussel Sprouts with Apples and Onions

2 lbs of brussel sprouts, ends trimmed, loose leaves removed, and cut in halves
olive oil
salt & pepper

1 large apple, chopped small
~1/2 large onion, chopped

3 tbsp. real maple syrup
1 scant tbsp. dijon mustard
1.5 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 450*F. Mist a large oven proof baking dish (preferably something heavy, like cast-iron) with olive oil and add prepared brussel sprouts. Mist with a little more olive oil and toss with a bit of fresh ground salt & pepper. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway, or every 10 minutes.

2. Mist a large skillet with olive oil, and heat to low-medium. Cook apples and onions until the onions are translucent, about 7-10 minutes.

3. Whisk together maple syrup, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and a little bit of salt & pepper.

4. Pull brussel sprouts out of the oven, and reduce heat to 375*F. Carefully mix in apples and onions, and drizzle with glaze. Return dish to oven to bake for and additional 10 minutes. Broil on high for 3-5 minutes until there are brussel leaves that look charred and crispy.

Unfortunately, the prep was not all smooth sailing…

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I’m still getting to know my Seattle kitchen appliances, and it appears that I overloaded the garbage disposal with brussel sprout ends. Fortunately, Thomas came to my rescue…

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In no time he had found the offending clogged pipe and cleared the problem. It was mostly brussel sprouts and some onion skins. Oops!

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Here are the trouble makers all pretty and ready to head into the oven.

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And here they are all nicely roasted and glazed! :)

Reheating was pretty much the same as the last part… 10 minutes at 375*F, and 5 minutes under the broiler on high to crisp them back up! Enjoy!!

Vegan Garbanzos con Chorizo (Chickpeas and Sausage)

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Okay, it’s been a while, but here’s another veganized cuban classic! This was my 1st try at Garbanzos con Chorizo. In an attempt to be thriftier, I made the chickpeas from scratch, but you can easily use can beans. I’ll leave the salt up to you depending on what you decide to do there. When I get the right combination I’ll mark it as such, and add it to my recipe page. This really came out so good, I don’t think I’m going to change the recipe much in the future.

Vegan Garbanzos con Chorizo (Chickpeas and Sausage)

1/3 c. olive oil (will probably try to cut this back some more next time)

1 large onion, finely chopped
1 green pepper, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 oz. tomato sauce (alternatively, you can use a whole 8oz can of tomato sauce, and skip the tomato paste and water)
3 tbsp. tomato paste
1/2 c. water

3 cups of well rinsed garbanzos, or 2 cans worth
1 package of vegan sausage (I used a 14 oz. pack of Tofurky Brats, but there are vegan chorizo out there.)

salt & pepper, to taste
dash of cayenne pepper, optional

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil over low heat in a large, deep skillet. Add onion, pepper, and garlic. Raise heat to medium, and cook for about 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce, paste and water, and cook for a few more minutes.

2. Stir in chickpeas and sausage, cover, and drop heat to low to simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally, and taste for seasoning.

You’re done! Serve over rice and enjoy.

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I’m not the biggest fan of chopping things finely. Especially when it comes to onions, so I cut the onions into eighths, and threw them in with some roughly chopped pepper and garlic.

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Ta-da!

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This worked out really well for the sausages too. I chopped them up and threw them in.

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And pulsed them to the perfect, crumbly texture.

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Result: I really thought this recipe was going to use more tweaking, but this first attempt came out pretty awesome. Not a whole lot of work yields a whole lot of flavor here. Not only that, it made my kitchen smell like my grandma’s used to. I’m adding it to the recipe page.

365 Organic Peanut Butter Balls

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As we continue to wade through the holiday season of junk food, I am apparently still capable of being suckered in by things like junky breakfast cereal. We’re usually the health cereal types, but when we saw these on the shelf at Whole Foods, clearly marked vegan on the front of the box, we grabbed a box. And then Thomas told me I should probably make that two.

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Remember Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch cereal, friends? Well, as it turns out that’s accidentally vegan. (If you ignore the 2nd ingredient, white sugar.) These are only slightly better for you, and the second ingredient is still sugar, but hey, it’s organic palm sugar, and they don’t have any hydrogenated oils! (They actually don’t have any added oils.) :) Fair warning though, these still rough up the roof of your mouth a bit too, but they’re oh-so-good, and make a good dessert or snack, if not a healthy breakfast.

We’re definitely going to need a nice raw food cleanse come January!

Roadtrip Post 2: Day 4 Counter Culture & Easy Tiger – Austin, TX

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Day 4 of our road trip was the day before Thanksgiving. We were happy we were getting to spend the entire day in Austin, because we were now going to spend actual Thanksgiving day driving through the rest of Texas, instead of LA as we had originally planned. So I sought out what I thought would be a sure thing, so we could go pig out properly in one of Austin’s fully vegan establishments.

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And that sure thing was Counter Culture. Originally, I had hoped to eat there the night before, but by the time we got into town and checked in at the hotel, it ended up being far too late, so we hit the bricks to seek it out the next day for lunch! The weather was super nice out, so we sat outside.

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We got there during happy hour, and started out with a couple of really tasty local brews from Hops & Grain: A sustainable brewery in Austin. They had two selections which just so happened to fit our beer palettes perfectly.

An ALT-ERATION – a blended base of German Pilsner malt with hefty portions of Munich, Vienna and just a touch of de-bittered black malt, for Thomas.

And a PALE DOG – an American Pale Ale. A blend of Vienna and Caramel malts with a sweetness of grapefruit and tropical fruit, for me. $4 each.

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We ordered a SPICY BAKED ARTICHOKE DIP – Creamy baked artichokes with a touch of jalapeño, accompanied by a selection of bread, $7 which you can also get Gluten free for an extra $2. Really delicious, and so much bread. We ate all of it.

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We also ordered a GARBANZO “TUNA” SALAD to split, since we were really hungry and had trouble deciding on our entrees. A scoop of garbanzo salad centered on a bed of mixed greens, tomatoes & thin red onions with vinaigrette dressing, Gluten-Free, $7. I ordered it over kale, though!

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I ordered the LENTIL LOAF – Herbed lentils & vegetables topped with house-made ketchup and served with a side of tahini mustard sauce, Gluten-Free, $12. I ordered it with GARLICKY GREENS and PAC MAN kale salad. Look at those little carrots cut to look like pac man! So cute. I really can’t pass up a lentil loaf if I see one. This one tasted really good, but the texture could have been better. It was kind of dry on the outside and dense on the inside. We figured it might have been because it was gluten free. The tahini mustard was terrific on the garlicky greens, and well, more kale for me. I was happy and stuffed. Didn’t get quite through the loaf.

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The same way that I’m a sucker for a lentil loaf, Thomas is a sucker for vegan pulled pork. He got the JACKFRUIT BBQ sandwich. Shredded jackfruit covered in organic chipotle bbq sauce, topped with onions & pickles. (There’s a GF option for this too.) $8. It got a superior rating from him of being “Really Good”. I tasted it too. It was. :) He got it with a side of cornbread which wasn’t sweet enough for either of us. There are two kinds of cornbread in the world, and we are of the cakey, sweet cornbread loving school. This is from the other one. Still, it’s cornbread. It’s still good.

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Before leaving, we packed up two Thanksgiving sandwiches for our day of driving ahead. I really wish we had packed up some of the pumpkin cheesecake too, but Thomas is allergic to cashews (we think) so I decided against it.

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Later that night, we headed back out down 6th street to enjoy our last night in Austin, and decided to check out Easy Tiger, a Bake Shop and Beer Garden. They have a lot of good beer on tap, and it’s a really cool location. The store front on the street level just looks like a counter for a bakery. If you go down stairs, there’s a full bar and restaurant area including shelves of board games, a huge out door area that includes covered tables, and also a wide open area that has several ping pong tables.

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When I asked the waitress about their Dog Fish Head 60 Minute IPA (my fave!), because it said (Randall) next to it, and she told me what the Randall was. (The brown wine bottle looking thing in the pic below with the Dog Fish Head sticker on it!)

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It’s one of only 4 in existence, and it’s a device Dog Fish Head came up with to run beer through it to give it extra hoppy taste. I decided to give it a try…  Honestly, the taste wasn’t much different, but it did make the beer kind of warm! Their other beers were nice and cold, though!

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I was still full, but Thomas was a bit hungry, so he ordered the Vegetarian version of their house made sausages. It’s actually vegan and consists of Beets, Lentils, Brown Rice, Flax Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Herbs, and Smoke, and comes served with Sautéed Pickled Peppers. You can get just the link $5, or on a pretzel bun for $7, but the pretzel bun isn’t vegan.

Okay, it’s way better than it looks! After trying it, I ended up ordering a link for myself. Extremely tasty! As we left I asked if any of the breads were vegan in the bakery upstairs, and the girl told me the only one they had at the moment was the 9 grain bread, so we took a loaf to go for the road. (Literally!)

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the details of the rest of our trip!

Leftovers! Penne with Italian Sausage and Roasted Potatoes

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Just a quick hearty meal I threw together in a flash!

Ingredients

8 oz brown rice penne, cooked according to package directions

1 package of Tofurky Italian sausage, sliced into 1/2″ rounds, and browned in a dry skillet

~1 c. Leftover roasted potatoes, onions, and garlic

~2/3 jar of pasta sauce

How I did it:

I simply browned the sausages while the water heated for the pasta, and simmered the leftover veggies in the sauce. Then I tossed the sausage in with the sauce until the pasta was al dente, and combined everything. Done!

A very quick, filling meal. More lengthy posts to come; I just wanted to say hi!

;)