Indian, Mexican, Asian, and American!

No theme today, just a roundup of some yummy foods I've eaten recently!

Indian-Spiced Lentils with Spinach and Rhubarb from Vegetarian Times, served over some brown basmati rice. I had such high hopes for this dish, but I was a little underwhelmed. You would think that a dish with rhubarb, raisins, and ginger would be exploding with flavor, but I thought this was rather bland. I think it needed some lemon juice. I also would add the raisins later in the cooking process so they maintain some of their sweetness. My hubby really liked it, though.

Clockwise, from top: Hearts of Palm and Jicama Salad from Southern Living magazine; Mexican Millet from Veganomicon; and frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's. This plate was a pleasing melange of textures, flavors, and temperature (cold salad; hot millet; warm corn). Yumbles.

Spring Vegetable Stew with Soft Polenta from Vegetarian Times. You can't see the polenta because it's buried underneath the veggies, but trust me, it's there. I've made this recipe before and loved it, but this time I had to make a bunch of substitutions - frozen leeks instead of fresh leeks; zucchini instead of yellow squash; yellow pepper instead of mushrooms; and canned whole tomatoes instead of chopped tomatoes. It definitely tastes better when you make it according to the recipe! I also think it needs way more salt, IMHO. Still, it's pretty tasty and nutritious.

Clockwise, from top: homemade coleslaw (I tried to replicate the awesome spicy coleslaw from Sweet Tomatoes, but I missed the mark); Marinated Asian Tofu from Veganomicon; frozen broccoli; and millet. Yup, I love me some millet!

Forty-Clove Chickpeas & Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction. Mushy, garlicky goodness!

Masala Baked Tempeh from Appetite for Reduction and Purple Kale Salad with Creamy Apricot Ginger Dressing from Choosing Raw. I loved the contrast of the spicy, crusty tempeh and the soft, sweet kale salad. Great combination!

Another favorite from Choosing Raw, the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce. This dish is a hit in my family! The creamy bean-and-mashed-sweet-potato filling rocks my socks and I love the slightly spicy tomatillo sauce. A little melted Daiya Pepperjack cheese on top doesn't hurt, either :)

Have a wonderful day!

Broiled Blackened Tofu with Caesar Chavez Dressing

Doesn't that look good?

For last night's dinner, I made some Broiled Blackened Tofu and Caesar Chavez Dressing from Appetite for Reduction. Now, the dressing, I love. I don't just mean love, I mean luuuuuuuuuurve this dressing. I told my hubby I could take a bath in this dressing. I've made it several times, and it is always fabulous. The tofu, on the other hand, was another thing.

My reaction was (verbatim): "Ugh. I hate when tofu tastes like tofu."

Don't you?

Tofu shouldn't taste like tofu. Tofu, right out of the container, tastes gross. It's got a weird texture and unpleasant flavor. However, if you treat your tofu right (by pressing it, marinating it, and the baking/frying/otherwise cooking it), tofu is pretty awesome. I don't know about you, but I prefer my tofu to be awesome.

I hate to say it, but as much as I luuuuurve AFR, I did not luuuuuurve this tofu recipe.

The tofu is simply sliced, dipped in soy sauce/olive oil, dredged in blackening seasonings, and broiled for 12 minutes. That's it - no pressing, no marinating. I did press my tofu anyway, just because it makes the texture much better. But without any kind of marinade, there was no way of infusing flavor into the tofu. And that left me with unawesome, tofu-y tofu. Blech.

It did look pretty coming out of the oven. Some pieces definitely had more of the blackening seasoning than others, but they all were seasoned. Unfortunately, the inside was still soft and TOFU-Y!!

I sliced up the tofu and put it on top of some raw baby spinach, chopped cucumbers, and steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, haricot verts, green peas). I drizzled the dish with plenty of the Caesar Chavez dressing, which was the best thing about the dish, unfortunately.

So I was kinda bummed that this dish didn't turn out so well. I think I'll stick with marinated and baked tofu from now on.

A Feast of Veganomical Proportions

It's no secret I'm sort of infatuated with Appetite for Reduction - I've been cooking (and blogging) about it pretty consistently ever since I got the book last Christmas. But before AFR rolled on to the scene, I was fairly committed to one of Isa and Terry's other cookbooks, Veganomicon. Billed as "The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook,"it is a treasure-trove of great recipes for every food occasion: breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, desserts, snacks, appetizers, soups, salads, and everything in between. I've cooked a lot from this book during the last four years, but I realized there were some recipes I hadn't revisited in quite a while.

So, one night, I cracked open my copy of Veganomicon and made not one, not two, but three recipes from the epic tome!

First up: Escarole with Capers and White Beans.

This is a deceptively-simple-but-looks-rather-fancy dish that combines sauteed escarole, beans (I used cannellinis), garlic, capers, and red pepper flakes (which I omit). It takes just minutes and is pleasingly chewy and hearty. We love it topped with some nooch!

I also made some Tomato Couscous with Capers (but with millet instead of couscous) and some Marinated Italian Tofu. Millet is probably my favorite grain, and I substitute it all the time for the less-nutritious couscous. The couscous/millet is pretty aggressively flavored with ground cloves, which I found slightly off-putting. However, I think it would be really solid if one were to just omit the cloves.

The Marinated Italian Tofu is soaked in balsamic vinegar, white wine, broth, tamari, garlic, and Italian seasonings, then baked until the tofu gets firm and chewy. Isa has included her marinated tofu recipe   (Italian, Asian) in all of her savory cookbooks, and it's virtually fool-proof and guaranteed delicious!

It's fun revisiting an old friend like Veganomicon. I should really get back to making some old favorites!

I'm Still Here....

...but Vegan MoFo nearly killed me.

Well, not really. But it sure did make me want to take a blogging break!

I've still been cooking, baking, and trying new recipes. I just haven't been motivated to blog about them :) But here is a sample of what I've been cooking lately:

Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes from Peas and Thank You:

Blueberry Carob Pancakes from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan:

Mini Tofu Frittatas, also from Peas and Thank You:

Sweet Potato Lentil Chili and Cornmeal-Crusted Plantains, both also from EDBV:

Spinach Salad with Persimmons and Spiced Pecans in Shallot Lemon Dressing, with a side of steamed mixed veggies, from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen:

Two Step Southwestern Stew from Vegetarian Times:

...along with some Cowgirl Cornbread from Peas and Thank You:

More cornbread-y goodness: Fresh Corn & Scallion Cornbread from Appetite for Reduction:

Classic Black Bean & Veggie Chili, also from AFR:

A Vegan Bowl from AFR - quinoa, baked tofu, carrots, red pepper, steamed broccoli, and Caesar Chavez dressing:

Portobello Salad with Spicy Mustard Dressing from Veganomicon:

Perhaps I will be getting my blogging mojo back soon. It is fall, after all, and that means lots of yummy breads, soups, and pumpkin-y foods for me. I definitely need to up my pumpkin consumption!

Vegan MoFo Day 6: Memories of Montreal

It's sort of notable that even though I've lived in Rhode Island for 30+ years, and Canada is only about 8 hours away by car, I've only been there twice in my life. This seems wrong. It's a whole other country that I could (and should!) be exploring, and I wouldn't even have to cough up the money for a plane ticket!

Not only have I made just two trips to Canada, but both trips were to the same place: Montreal. The first time I went was with my high school French class on a field trip, circa 1995. It was a lot of fun, in the way that overnight trips with your underage classmates in a foreign country can only be fun. I mean, the drinking age is 18 in Montreal, and my classmates and I were mostly ages 16 and 17. You do the math.

What I remember most from my first trip to the Great White North are the things that typically register on the radar of most teenagers (or at least, teenagers in the mid-90's): our teacher/chaperone brought her new boyfriend along, which was...odd, and they wore matching Boston Marathon warmup jackets the entire trip, even though I'm pretty sure neither of them was a runner; we saw an IMAX movie and mostly just took pictures of each other wearing the Canadians' version of 3D glasses (which were, by the way, ENORMOUS); we saw lots of horses in the country and declared that each of them was named Maria Chapdelaine; we ate dinner at a dive bar called La Cage Aux Sports; our teacher put masking tape across our hotel room doors at night so she'd know if we tried to "escape"; someone "escaped" and tore the tape off everyone else's doors, foiling our teacher; and I woke up one night to find one classmate crawling into my hotel room through the balcony window (hi, Trevor). Let's just say that although the purpose of the trip was educational, the cultural highlights didn't exactly register in my adolescent mind. I mean, yeah, we did visit Notre-Dame, Olympic Stadium, and some weird place called the Crypt ("Please, DO NOT SIT ON THE RUINS!!"), but mostly, it was just a fun time with my school mates.

My second foray to Montreal was over Labor Day weekend in 2006. I wanted to go back and experience Montreal again (paying actual attention, this time), and my hubby was excited to make his first visit to Canada. We spent our first evening walking around Old Montreal and taking in an amazing evening light show at Notre-Dame.

I don't have any pictures of the light show itself, but here are some pics from the inside of Notre-Dame. It is, without question, one of the most beautiful churches in the entire world! It is primarily turquoise and gold on the inside (if I remember correctly), and it is exquisite.

On Saturday morning, we went for a nice long run in Mont Royal Park and then spent the day wandering around the city. I had my first real vegan meal ever at Le Commensal, a Canadian vegetarian restaurant franchise. It's the kind of place where you choose your food buffet-style and then pay by the kilogram (although now it's apparently a load-your-plate-for-one-fixed-price kind of joint). I remember having tofu for the first time here and really liking it. I also remember getting a juice-box-thingy of soymilk, which I thought was really fun. Yes, I'm five years old.

I think one of our fondest memories of Montreal, though, was running uphill from our hotel to Fairmount Bagel for Monday's breakfast. We must have run about 4 miles in the rain just to get to this little hole-in-the-wall bakery, which is renowned for having some of the best bagels around (take that, New York). We grabbed a couple of bagels and cream cheese (for my hubby), stuffed them in a paper sack, and then ran downhill in the rain back to our hotel. We sat in our room, still wet, and enjoyed the best-tasting bagels of our lives. I'm not sure if they tasted so good because 1) we were starving, 2) they were warm, and we were wet and cold, or 3) they actually were the best bagels around, but we enjoyed them nonetheless.

In honor of my two trips to Montreal, I decided to make two sorta French-Canadian-ish recipes for  dinner tonight. Okay, it's a stretch, but whatever.

First up: the Bistro Broccoli Chowder from Appetite for Reduction. Broccoli, potatoes, parsnips, onions, garlic, and rosemary are simmered together, then partially blended with some almond milk for creaminess and body. It was really tasty and the perfect choice for a cool autumn evening. And I could totally picture them serving this at a cute little bistro in Old Montreal. So there ya go.

I wanted to pay tribute to my first-ever taste of tofu at Le Commensal, so I turned to my favorite vegan Canadian cookbook author - Dreena Burton. Her recipe for Lemon-Herb Tofu in Vive Le Vegan! is one my favorites, and it was a great accompaniment to the soup. And she's Canadian. Wait, I said that already.  

I hope you enjoyed notre petit voyage a Montreal. Tomorrow we'll be making a quick stop in my home state of Rhode Island! See you then :)

Greek Pizza and Other Weekend Eats

I love the 4th of July, especially when the holiday falls on a Monday. It always means a weekend full of fireworks, food, and fun. We had a great time at our family cookout on Friday night (although, with a 2-year-old, we had to leave before the fireworks began). Yesterday, we began our day with a nice family run (that is, my hubby and I ran and pushed our son in the jogging stroller!) and then drove to LL Bean in the late afternoon/evening just to get out and go somewhere. Since I wasn't sure if there'd be any vegan-friendly restaurants in the area, I packed sandwiches and snacks for us to take with us.

Of course, with the three of us, that means three completely different sandwiches :) I had almond butter, banana, cinnamon, and raisin; hubby had cashew butter, almond butter, cinnamon, raisins, and jam; and my son had sunflower seed butter, cinnamon and jam. At least we all ate the same kind of bread.

I also packed some drinks and some bags of Trader Joe's Lite Kettle Korn. We'd never tried it before, but all three of us loved it!

After church today, I made some Basic Scrambled Tofu and Cornbread Waffles from Vegan Brunch. I added spinach, kalamata olives, red onion, broccoli, and ketchup to my scramble. Along with a cup (or four) of carrot juice, it was a tasty, filling lunch.

For dinner tonight, we wanted to have pizza so I looked in the fridge and pantry to see what I could find. I'd bought some baby spinach earlier in the day, so I thought a Greek pizza might be nice. While my hubby made the dough, I sliced some red onion and tomato and chopped up some spinach and kalamata olives. I layered the dough with some pizza sauce, basil pesto, tomato, spinach, red onion, kalamata olives, and some Daiya vegan mozzarella cheese and baked it on our pizza stone.

I was really happy with how easy this pizza was to make - and tasty, too! My son devoured it, which made his Mommy happy since it was loaded with fresh veggies.

Here's my pizza recipe:

Easy Greek Pizza
Serves 2 hungry adults and 1 hungry toddler

First, place a pizza stone in your oven and preheat to 450 degrees. Then, start making the dough:

Dough:
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup water

In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking powder, sea salt, basil, and oregano. Make a well in the center, then add the olive oil and water. Incorporate the liquids and the dry ingredients until combined, then knead dough on a floured surface for 5-7 minutes. Stretch dough into a round shape (keep in mind, since this is a "quick" dough and not a yeasted dough, it doesn't stretch like a normal dough would. Just use your hands and shape it into a circle). Place on a greased metal pizza pan, then place pan on pizza stone. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from oven and top with pizza ingredients.

Toppings:
1 large vine-ripened tomato, sliced thinly and blotted well with paper towels
1/4-1/3 cup kalamata olives, chopped
2 large handfuls baby spinach, chopped
1/4 of a medium red onion, thinly sliced, then chopped
1 cup Daiya vegan mozzarella
basil pesto, to taste
pizza sauce, to taste

Top pizza as follows: pizza sauce, basil pesto, sliced tomatoes, spinach, red onion, kalamata olives, Daiya mozzarella.

Bake an additional 10 minutes. Slice and serve!

The only thing that would make this perfect is to have some leftover CCK Deep-Dish Cookie Pie for dessert - but alas, it's all gone :( I'm sure I'll be making more very soon...like tomorrow, maybe?

Mamma Mia!

I don't know how it happened, but I ended up spending 5 hours straight in the kitchen today. I totally hadn't planned on it and, to be honest, I'm a little bummed that I ended up spending such a beautiful day stuck in my kitchen. I did have some company, though - the Mamma Mia! soundtrack, played on repeat. I listened to it 4 times through - that's how long I was in the kitchen! Of course, I would have been done faster if I hadn't had to stop and get down with my bad self every time "Dancing Queen" came on :)

So, there are two reasons I was in my kitchen all day: one is that I wanted to make the Sanctuary Chef Salad from Appetite for Reduction, and the other is that I wanted to get some prep work done for tomorrow's special Father's Day meal for my hubby. I just had no idea that the salad would take me over 3 HOURS to make! Yeah. The salad required me to make 4 different recipes! Herb-Roasted Cauliflower, Eggplant Bacon, Basic Baked Tofu, and Sanctuary Dressing. I had to chop, season, and roast the cauliflower; slice, marinate, and twice-bake the eggplant; press, marinate, and bake the tofu; and make the dressing, which required many steps itself - blanching silken tofu, then blending it with a bunch of other ingredients in the food processor. Then I had to chop and wash some romaine lettuce, slice some radishes and red onion, and shred some carrot. All of this would have been somewhat okay if the salad had totally rocked when it was all done and put together. But no. I was really disappointed with the salad. Sigh. Oh well. I'd been wanting to make this salad for a long time, so at least I can cross it off my list. And now I don't have to spend another 3 hours in the future making this salad! See, bright side!! And my hubby liked it. Well, he said he liked it but that was after I told him that he better say he liked it since I'd spent 3 hours making it! :)

Here are the components, ready to be assembled in the salad:

Chopped romaine lettuce, Basic Baked Tofu, Eggplant Bacon, Sanctuary Dressing (in the jar), Herb-Roasted Cauliflower (next to the dressing), shredded carrots, sliced radishes, sliced red onion, and grape tomatoes.

 Here's the salad before I added the dressing:

 And here it is, all dressed.

I liked the Herb-Roasted Cauliflower on its own, but not so much in the salad. It got kinda soggy in a wet-crouton-y kind of way. But by itself, it was pretty tasty. I'll definitely make the cauliflower again. The salad? Never. Again!!

I also did some prep for tomorrow's dinner. I decided to make the Jamaican Tempeh Patties from Vegetarian Times and the Charming Chocolate Cupcakes from How it All Vegan! My hubby loves both of these recipes, and I haven't made either of them in a while. Today I made the dough and cooked the tempeh for the patties, so all I'll have to do tomorrow is assemble and bake the patties. I baked the cupcakes and made the frosting today, so they'll be all set for tomorrow. These cupcakes hold a special place in my heart - they were the first vegan dessert I ever made, and this was the first vegan cookbook I ever owned. They are still my favorite cupcakes ever!! They are sooo chocolately and delicious. Here they are, fresh out of the oven and unfrosted:

I'll frost them before I go to bed tonight. But how yummy does these look? They get an awesome, almost-crunchy top to them, which I love. I also usually stick a knife through the middle so some of the frosting can get inside, just like a Hostess Cupcake. Yum.

Puttanesca Scramble and Two-Step Southwestern Stew

This weekend was supposed to be sunny and pleasant. This weekend ended up being chilly, gray, and drizzly :( Boo! However, we didn't let it stop us from getting outside. In fact, both my hubby and I thought it would be a perfect time to go kayaking on the pond near our house!

My son is stubborn and independent...just like his Mommy and Daddy! He insisted on handling the paddle by himself quite often during our hour-and-a-half outing. It gave my hubby the opportunity to wave and pose for pictures while my son handled the rowing duties. Sometimes it's hard to believe my son is only 27 months old! We're so happy that he loves being outside and active.

All that unexpected kayaking made me super hungry! I was already starting to think about lunch options before we even got off our kayaks. I knew we didn't have any leftovers from last night, so no luck there. I was craving some tofu or tempeh - something, well, meaty! - after all of that paddling around. By the time we got back to our house, I was a starving, raving lunatic so I grabbed a container of tofu and my copy of Vegan Brunch and looked for the quickest, easiest tofu scramble recipe I could find. I struck gold with the Puttanesca Scramble, which could be made in approximately 15 minutes with mostly pantry ingredients. It has tomatoes, capers, and olives, and it was deliciously salty and succulent. I didn't have quite enough fresh tomatoes, so I subbed in some jarred roasted red peppers. My hubby and I finished off the entire batch in one sitting, along with a side of steamed spinach. It was fabulous and couldn't have been easier to make!

Thankfully, I had already prepared the brown rice and Green Onion-Miso Vinaigrette for last night's dinner, so throwing together the Sushi Roll Edamame Salad from Appetite for Reduction took almost no time at all. And it was really, really great - spinach, shredded carrot, shredded cucumber, sesame seeds, avocado, edamame, and brown rice, drizzled with a tasty dressing. Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot locate the pictures I took (??) I'm positive I took pictures. I think they went to lost-photo-land, though :( Sad me. The salad was gorgeous!

I do have pictures of tonight's dinner, though - Two-Step Southwestern Stew from Vegetarian Times, and Grandma's Cornbread Made Vegan from VegWeb. I had already made the cornbread a few weeks ago and stuck it in the freezer, so all I had to do was pull it out and let it thaw out for a few minutes. This cornbread tastes great fresh or frozen, so I often will make extra and freeze it.

This stew takes 15 minutes to make - it's simply some fresh zucchini and onion, along with canned diced tomatoes, hominy, and kidney beans. It's great for those nights when you want something quick and nutritious! My son gobbled up his stew and lots of cornbread, so I'll be making this again :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, life has been crazy lately! With the long holiday weekend, my hubby's birthday, music class, mom's group outings, and other things going on, I've been super busy and haven't had a chance to blog. Truthfully, I've also had several nights lately where I've eaten some "repeats" and thus didn't feel the need to blog about them. But here are some of the yummy things I have had lately...

Green juice with celery, cucumber, ginger, carrot, spinach, and lemon juice:

Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing from Veganomicon, seaweed & wasabi rice crackers, and an Asian salad (not pictured):

And, for my hubby's birthday, a special dinner and birthday treat. He requested the Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu Po'Boys from Veganomicon:

This sandwich is the bomb-diggity. For realz. The tofu is mega-delicious and almost sort of catfish-like:

The tofu is baked and served on a crusty baguette with some cholula-spiked Vegenaise, cabbage slaw, and pickles. I had some extra cornmeal mixture left, so I decided to toss some chickpeas in it and roast them. They were really good - all 3 of us loved them!!

For his birthday dessert, he chose something new to try, the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I did not let my lack of on-hand ingredients deter me - off to Whole Foods I went to get the necessary coffee extract, coconut extract, and vegan shortening. My hubby is an amazing man and I was happy to bake him something special for his birthday! The cupcakes, by the way, were A-MAZING. And I am no baker, believe me!

My son was excited to try one of Daddy's birthday "pupcakes" -- too cute! He liked it, although I replaced his frosting with some coconut butter, which he loves anyway. I wasn't risking a big sugar-high right before bedtime!!

Finally, I hosted my mother's group at my home yesterday. I planned a scavenger hunt/nature hike-themed outing and thought that "ants-on-a-log" would make a fun snack:

It's just sunflower seed butter, raisins, and organic celery. Easy-peasy!