Love for Let Them Eat Vegan!

When I first became vegan nearly 6 years ago, I did so for health reasons. I had high cholesterol, severe acid reflux, and I was at the very end of the healthy-for-your-height weight spectrum. Making the change from omnivore to vegan was actually really easy for me, as I didn't miss cheese or dairy milk the way many other new vegans do. I certainly didn't miss meat at all, since I'd never really been that fond of it anyway. 

The struggle I had was in figuring out what to eat, and more specifically, how to prepare it. I'd never had tofu or tempeh before, let alone quinoa, hemp seeds, kale, plantains, or almond butter. I spent much of my first year of veganhood making some truly awful dishes (ie. unpressed, unmarinated tofu, sliced into slabs and fried....mmmmmm). It wasn't until October of 2007 that the cookbook I really needed was published. That book was Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan, and it changed my life! Dreena Burton's recipes were uncomplicated, unfussy, and super nutritious. Most importantly, though, they were delicious! She gave suggestions on what to pair with certain recipes, and her sections on ingredients and cooking techniques were invaluable to me. I have been a big Dreena fan ever since, so naturally I was thrilled when her follow-up cookbook, Let Them Eat Vegan!, came out earlier this year. It has 200 (!!!) recipes and I plan on trying nearly all of them, just as I did for ED&BV. I've blogged about some dishes I've already made (Kale-Slaw with Curried Almond Dressing; Lemon Dijon Green Beans; Caribbean Fusion Stew; Moroccan Bean Stew with Sweet Potatoes; Tempeh Tickle), but this week I decided to go crazy with Chapter 1, Breakfast Bites and Smoothies. The first thing I made was the Wholesome Oat Snackles!, which Dreena says are like having your oatmeal without the bowl. With oats, oat flour, raisins, hemp seeds, applesauce, and maple syrup, they certainly lived up to the hype! I also included a handful of mini chocolate chips, which is listed as an optional ingredient. I don't say no to optional chocolate.

Here are the snackles before cooking:

...and here they are afterward. They were so good! Oat-y, chocolate-y, chewy, and bite-sized. I'm sold!

The next day, I tackled two recipes for breakfast cookies. Breakfast cookies. 'Nuff said.

Behold, the Monsta! Cookies. This time I was smart and pressed them down into a cookie shape.

These babies are loaded with oat flour, spelt flour, shredded coconut, flax meal, pecans, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, and maple syrup. They are packed with healthful ingredients, and although Dreena says these are not your dessert kind of cookie, I'd have to disagree. To me, they are a breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and late-night snack kind of cookie. I should know, because I had one at each of these occasions. I had to freeze half the batch to keep us from eating them all in one day, which really made for some chewy frozen cookies when we dug them back out of the freezer the next day :)

I also made a batch of the (appropriately named) Breakfast Cookies:

I had to make a few ingredient substitutions, but I stayed pretty true to the recipe. These cookies have oats, cranberries, raisins, chocolate chips, nut butter, ground flax, and maple syrup. My son loved having cookies for breakfast, and so did I!

The next day, I made the Oat 'n' Applesauce Muffins:

I'm not a big muffin person myself, but these sounded too good to pass up. And I'm so glad I made them - they were devoured by myself, my hubby, and my son. My son ate 3 of them for breakfast! With oat flour, oat bran, quick oats, raisins, flax seed, applesauce, and maple syrup, this was something I could feel great about feeding him.

Lastly, I made a savory dish for dinner, the Fragrant Kidney Bean Lentil Dal, served over basmati rice with a side of green beans:

It has red lentils, kidney beans, ginger, orange juice, garlic, and lots of delicious spices. It was perfectly seasoned, and other than omitting the red pepper flakes, I didn't change a thing. It was sooooo good. If you love Indian food, then you should definitely make this!

I can't wait to try more of the recipes in LTEV. I haven't even gotten to the burger, pasta, cookie, cake, or ice cream chapters yet! You'll be seeing more yummy food from this cookbook in the future. Thanks, Dreena!

Birthday Food: Homemade Bread, Muffalettas and Cake!

It was Mr. Bananas for Smoothies's birthday the other day, so I decided to go all-out and make him a birthday feast of his favorite foods.

I haven't made them in a couple of years, but I remember how much my hubby loved the Veggie Tempeh Muffaletta sandwiches from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. It's a delectable mix of chopped olives, capers, red peppers (raw & roasted), sauteed tempeh, celery, green onions, garlic, red wine vinegar, and olive oil. It's salty, tangy, and uber-delish.

The filling is layered on crusty bread and topped with some avocado, spinach, and sliced tomatoes. Lousy baker that I am, I would normally have bought some bakery bread, but I took a chance and tried to make my own bread - the Sunflower Artisan Loaf from 1,000 Vegan Recipes.

Success! It rose beautifully and was super-easy to make, even for a novice like myself. In fact, the dough rose so much that I ended up splitting it into 2 loaves before baking. I just cut 5 minutes off the baking time and it came out perfectly.

I sliced one of the loaves horizontally, like so:

Then I scooped out much of the middle part in order to make room for the yummy filling:

Next, I added some sliced avocado:

Then I topped it with some sliced tomatoes and baby spinach:

Finally, I put the top back on and pressed down hard to smoosh everything together:

Finally, I used a serrated knife to cut the sandwiches in half. Here's an inside look:

I was tired after all my bread-and-muffaletta-making, so I just threw some sweet potato tots in the oven for a side dish:

My hubby was thrilled to have his beloved muffaletta sandwich again :) And he was very impressed by my attempt (and victory!) at bread baking!!

We made sure to save some room for birthday cake and ice cream. I don't make cakes very often, but I immediately thought of the delicious Apple-Cardamom Cake with Lemon-Maple Frosting from Vive Le Vegan!:

This cake is as healthy as cake can get - it is made with oat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, applesauce, spices, and a minimum of oil and (natural) sugar. The frosting is silken tofu-based and includes maple syrup, lemon juice, lemon zest, and agar powder. The best part is that you can eat an two enormous slice of this cake and not feel gross afterward. Yay for natural sweeteners and whole-grain flours!

The only thing I didn't make was homemade ice cream. Hey, that's what Trader Joe's is for! Cherry Chocolate Chip Soy Creamy....oh yeah!

Happy birthday to my sweetie!

Caribbean Fusion Stew

When scanning through Dreena Burton's new cookbook, Let Them Eat Vegan!, one of the recipes that immediately caught my eye was the Caribbean Fusion Stew. Now, I am a huge, HUGE fan of Dreena's soup and stew recipes - in fact, her Sweet Potato Lentil Stew from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan is probably my favorite recipe of all time. Her winning combinations of veggies, beans/legumes, and spices are always a hit in my household, so I was excited to try this exotically-flavored dish. I was certainly not disappointed!

This stew is brimming with vegetables, beans, and lentils, boasting vibrant flavors in a spiced coconut broth. There are red peppers, onions, plantains, red lentils, black beans, kidney beans, ginger, coconut milk, zucchini, broccoli, cilantro, and fresh lime juice here, all served atop a bed of brown basmati rice. I squeezed extra lime juice on top for some more zing!

This stew was AWESOME. I'll make it again for sure!

Tempeh Tickle, Lemon Dijon Green Beans, and Salad

I'm a huge fan of Dreena Burton and her cookbooks. I've made over 80 recipes from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, and I found her baby/toddler nutrition guide in Vive Le Vegan to be immensely helpful when starting my son on solid foods. Naturally, I was super excited when her newest cookbook, Let Them Eat Vegan, arrived in the mail recently. There are 200 recipes in this book, and there are many that I am very excited to try. However, tempeh-lover that I am, I was immediately drawn to her recipe for Tempeh Tickle:

Tempeh is marinated in white wine, tamari, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, oregano, and garlic, then pan-grilled to perfection. Look at those grill marks - yum!

To accompany the tempeh, I made another recipe from the book, Lemon Dijon Green Beans:

Fresh green beans are briefly cooked, then tossed with fresh lemon juice, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, garlic, and tarragon. They are wonderfully crisp-tender and packed with flavor, not to mention, incredibly easy to make!

Finally, I rounded out the meal with a new salad from 1000 Vegan Recipes, Baby Greens with Pear, Pecans, and Ginger Dressing.

Baby romaine, celery, toasted pecans, and diced pear are combined with a fresh dressing made with sherry vinegar, olive oil, shallot, grated ginger, agave, and assorted spices. My hubby and I both love ginger and thought this was very, very good!

This was a hearty, satisfying meal that was enjoyed by all.

Vegan MoFo Day 29: Washington, D.C.

Today we're going to take a trip to our nation's capital. Even though D.C. is only a 7-hour drive away, I'm ashamed to say that I've only been there a handful of times in my life. Let's just say I suffer from an acute case of Rhode Island-itis. This condition dictates that anything that is more than, say, 15 minutes away is "too far" (or, as we like to say, "too fah.") What do you expect from us? It only takes an hour to traverse our state. We can pretty much have all of our needs taken care of within our puny little borders. Why on Earth would we willingly drive halfway down the Eastern Seaboard? Hmmm...something to ponder.

But anyway...the last time we ventured to D.C. was in April 2009. We drove down for a few days to see the sights and visit my hubby's family.

We were very excited to visit the International Spy Museum:

But, I must admit, we were even more fascinated by the Crime Museum. We got to see the set of America's Most Wanted and shake hands with McGruff the Crime Dog. We also got to see lots of crime instruments and tools, like these:

Yeah, I know - not too exciting, but none of the other pictures came out too well :(

I think the highlight of our trip, though, was getting to visit Sticky Fingers Bakery:

I got a cupcake and a Cowvin, a vanilla cream-filled oatmeal cookie sandwich.

The cupcake was pretty good. But the Cowvin?

Ahhhh-maaaaa-zing! 

We also enjoyed lots of other yummy vegan fare: spicy empanadas at Julia's Empanadas; sandwiches and salads at Java Green; Ethiopian food at Dukem; and pizza with soy cheez at Ella's Wood Fired Pizza. We loved the melting pot of different cuisines available all throughout the city!

In honor of all the multicultural restaurants and foods we enjoyed in the city, I cooked up a pot of  delicious Moroccan Bean Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Roasted Figs, courtesy of the amazing Dreena Burton. This recipe will be in her upcoming cookbook, Let Them Eat Vegan! I can't wait to get it!

The soup is supposed to have a combination of black beans and chickpeas, but I used big fat fava beans instead. I think it worked really well, and I'll make it this way from now on. This stew was so awesome!

I can't believe MoFo is drawing to an end. I hope you've been enjoying it!

My Son's First Cooking Lesson, Inspired by Mama Pea

I always love seeing an Amazon.com box on my doorstep. Yesterday, I got to witness the actual delivery itself...with gritted teeth, as I watched my mailman shove my watermelon-sized package into my cantaloupe-sized mailbox. *Sigh* At least it was only books and a CD.

The semi-mangled box contained three things I have been eagerly anticipating: Mama Pea's first cookbook, Peas and Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love; Vanessa Carlton's new CD (finally!!! FINALLY!!!), Rabbits on the Run; and Kristen Suzanne's Easy Raw Vegan Soups cookbook. Squee!

I immediately threw Vanessa's CD into my laptop and got it cranking while I started perusing Mama Pea's cookbook. I just love Mama Pea. I love her style and reading all about her two adorable and funny little girls, Gigi and Lulu. I showed their pictures to my son, and he declared that they were both pretty, but he was especially partial to 3-year-old Lulu :) Anyway, Mama Pea is always cooking with her girls, and it got me thinking that it was really time to start cooking with my boy. He's only 2, but he loves to help and he has lots of enthusiasm. I figured he'd be game to start his first cooking lesson.

What to make was actually a very easy decision - I wanted to make some healthy snacks for my son, so I decided we'd make two things out of Dreena Burton's second cookbook, Vive Le Vegan! I'd already made both recipes before and knew that they were not only tasty and nutritious (and toddler-approved), but also really easy to make.

First up was the Apple-Hemp Muffins:

These are wholesome, whole-grain muffins sweetened with maple syrup, cinnamon, cardamom, and applesauce. They also contain my favorite little nonpsychoactive plant, hemp. The USA is the largest importer of hemp products, and yet, it cannot be (legally) grown here. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Tee hee.

But really, the muffins were just a warm-up for the main event...the Energy Cookies.

These are so delicious, it almost seems wrong to call them healthy. When people hear "healthy cookie," they probably think of those Snackwell's cookies that taste like *$!#%^&. These actually taste GOOD. For realz. They are called Energy Cookies because they are loaded with good-for-you-stuff like sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, carob chips, flax meal, maple syrup, and blackstrap molasses. Yes, even carob, maple syrup, and blackstrap molasses have nutrition - carob contains protein, B vitamins, calcium, and iron; maple syrup contains zinc and manganese; and blackstrap molasses is loaded with calcium and iron. All three contain more than what I listed, but these are just a few examples. Reach for these natural sweeteners and throw out the Splenda!

I wish I could say I got pictures of my son stirring the cookie batter, but let me just say, it was a struggle to keep the cookie batter in the bowl and not in my son's mouth.

Here are the cookies and muffins, chillin' out on the cooling racks.

My son was very proud of his first cooking effort, and so was I. The cookies and muffins were delicious, and he's ready to take on his next cooking challenge. I will be, too, once I finish cleaning up :)

White Bean and Walnut Bruschetta

Seeing as I haven't gone grocery shopping in approximately 10 days, my refrigerator was starting to look pretty bare this morning (except for some of the great northern beans I cooked on Monday, which I still haven't finished!) I decided to do my menu planning for the week and figure out some ways to use up the rest of the beans. I know people swear by freezing their home-cooked beans, but I've just never enjoyed the texture of frozen beans - they always taste mushy to me. I'd rather use them fresh or canned, but that's just me.

I knew I had half a frozen baguette languishing in my freezer, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and make a family favorite for dinner which would use both the beans and the baguette - the White Bean and Walnut Bruschetta from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. ED&BV is one of my favorite and most-used cookbooks. I know I've been cooking up a storm from Appetite for Reduction lately, but that's partly due to the fact that AFR is one of my newer cookbooks. I've had ED&BV for almost 4 years now, and at last count, I had made almost 80 recipes from it. I love Dreena Burton's cooking philosophy - she emphasizes fresh vegetables, beans, whole grains, natural sweeteners, and alternative flours (such as barley, oat, spelt, and buckwheat, rather than just using wheat flour all the time). I found her infant/toddler feeding tips in Vive Le Vegan! to be enormously helpful when my son started solids, and she's just a cool person in general. Even though she's a big-time vegan cookbook author, she's still nice enough to be friends with me on Facebook! :)

The White Bean and Walnut Bruschetta is one of those recipes that looks so fancy, but it is SO easy to make. I think it took me 20 minutes from start to finish! It's simply white beans, chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, walnuts, salt, and olive oil, mashed and spread on toasted slices of baguette. We had it with a simple side salad drizzled with some quick homemade agave-dijon-flax dressing.

Here's the bruschetta topping:

Spread on some pre-toasted baguette slices:

 Then back into the oven for a few minutes to warm through:

And finally drizzled with some EVOO:

This would make a lovely party appetizer, but my hubby and I love to just eat it as a main dish with some salad. We told my son these were "little pizzas" and he gobbled them up (once he figured out how to pick them up LOL)!