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!

Weekend Yums

Nothing like being Captain Obvious, but I love the weekends.

Weekends mean movie nights, family hikes, longer runs, visiting with friends, and spending time outside. 

It also means enjoying some favorite treats that I don't indulge in during the week.

Such as...homemade pizza. I usually make a quick/non-yeasted crust, but I just tried Mama Pea's Tried and True Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, and it was great. I topped it with some tomato sauce, chopped mushrooms, diced red onion, and Daiya mozzarella. If I ask my son what he wants for dinner, he will say "PIZZA!" every time. He loves it as much as I do!

It was ooey, gooey, melty, and delicious, although I think some kalamata olives would have really kicked it up a notch...next time!

Another Saturday evening, we came home late and wanted to eat pronto. I grabbed a package of sourdough wraps, some hummus, and vegetable errata (arugula, tomato, cucumber, carrot) and made some quick sandwiches while frozen fries were baking in the oven. A frosty glass of Colorado Native beer hit the spot! Beer + french fries + ketchup = awesome.

Sometimes, it's fun to indulge your inner college kid and just have snacky food for dinner. I made some OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings from Appetite for Reduction and some Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta and went to town!

After having onion rings and bruschetta for dinner, it just makes sense to follow up with some "Not Guilty" Chocolate Chip Cookies. I mean, really. You've got to hit all your food groups!

As much as I love my big salads and smoothies, I also love to have fun foods on occasion.

What are some of your favorite weekend indulgences?

Fall Favorites

As much as I like trying new recipes, there are certain dishes that I always return to. When the air gets crisp and the days get shorter, I always pick up some chicory and fennel and make the greatest salad known to man, aka the Roasted Fennel and Hazelnut Salad with Shallot Dressing from Veganomicon:

Pictures just do not do this salad justice. It is amazeballs.

Two big heads of fennel (and three big shallots) are roasted with a drizzle of olive oil and S&P.  The fennel is added to a head of chopped chicory, some toasted hazelnuts, and dried cranberries. The roasted shallots are blended with some olive oil, hazelnut oil (I subbed more EVOO), white wine vinegar, maple syrup, tarragon, thyme, nutmeg, and salt. It makes a thick, creamy, savory dressing that is out-of-this-world delicious.

There is only one thing that could possibly make this salad any better, and that is a hunk of freshly baked No-Knead Swedish Cardamom Braid from Vegetarian Times:

This is the best tasting bread I've ever had. Don't just take my word for it - try it yourself. I've made it a bunch of times, and everyone I've served it to has LOVED it.

We washed down our salad and bread with some Southern Tier Pumking beer:

I love pumpkin beers, and this one is in a class of its own. It's fantastic! It was the perfect treat to go with our yummy fall dinner. I highly recommend it!

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 9: Jolly Old England, Part 1

I am very fortunate in that I have made a total of 3 trips to England. My first trip took place in 1995, when I was a senior in high school. I was dating a boy from England (let's call him "The Brit") who had moved to my town a few years prior. His family graciously invited me to come along on their annual visit home during the Christmas holidays, and I happily accepted. My parents got on the phone and called Virgin Atlantic (remember when you had to do that? Before the Internet?) and booked my ticket, and before I knew it, I was on my way to the motherland!

The Brit's family was from Leicester, a large city of about about 300,000 people in the East Midlands. We spent most of our time staying with his grandparents, a lovely, sweet couple named Maurice and Vera. I just loved them - Maurice called me "luv" and Vera made us mince pies and lemon crepes. They lived in a charming duplex with a beautiful English garden in the backyard.

FYI - this picture of their home is from my second trip, in July 1997. It wasn't nearly this sunny and green in December!

After a couple of days in Leicester City, we drove back down to London for the day. I was beyond excited to see some of the places I'd only seen on TV or read about in books, such as...

Big Ben (Parliament! Come on, you know I said that line a few times!)

That's me on the left, with The Brit and his sister, Anna, on the right.

Trafalgar Square, including the pigeons! (back when there were TONS of pigeons in the Square)...

Hey, 1995-self: nice wallet chain!

A real, authentic red London telephone booth (with a real, authentic pay phone! Remember those?!)

The Tower of London, including a real Beefeater:

Tower Bridge (aka "London Bridge" - this is a shot of the tower as I'm riding over the bridge on a double-decker bus):

And many other cool places, like Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, and St. James Park. This is also the trip when I got my rockin' shiny red Doc Martens boots, which I still have, and still wear! I'll put a pic of those in my next England post :)

We spent Christmas Eve day in Bath, a city founded by the Romans in southwestern England. The city was gorgeous and looked so beautiful with its holiday decorations, and the Bath Abbey was spectacular.

We spent Christmas Eve night, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day with The Brit's aunt and uncle in Somerset, a lovely county in southwestern England. I had never seen or heard of Christmas crackers before (those gold tubes at each seat), so I thought they were quite cool!

I remember having the Christmas dinner being wonderful, with lots of traditional English foods like plum pudding, mince pies, roasted potatoes, ham, and chestnut stuffing. It was definitely a neat experience to share a holiday meal in another country!

However, if there is one food memory that truly stands out for me, it was the first time Anna's grandmother served me up a plate of mushy peas. I can't even remember what else was on the plate, although I suspect it may have been fish and chips. I just remember taking a bite of those mushy peas (with a douse or two of malt vinegar, per Anna's instructions) and thinking ooooooohhhhhhh yesssssssss.   Mmmmmmm.....

Okay, so now I have mushy peas on the brain, thank you very much. I decided to take matters into my own hands. Yes, I googled "vegan mushy peas" and found this recipe. She's right - it's not authentic, but it was tasty, and that's good enough for me. With some Tempeh in Hearty Mushroom-Lager Sauce and mashed potatoes, it was good old pub-grub for dinner!

Tempeh is cubed, browned, and then cooked with some mushrooms, beer, and dijon mustard. I was having a bit of a rough day with my son, so I took a few nips from the measuring cup of beer to take the edge off.

It definitely helped!

Along with a pint of porter (not Guinness, although it was in a Guinness glass), it was a jolly good meal to remember jolly old England.

If only I had some mince pies for dessert :)

Eggplant Provencale

There's nothing better than free food, right? I think I've rhapsodized about this before. Recently, I was the lucky beneficiary of not one, but two people's garden overproduction, and on the same day, no less!

Bag-o-plenty #1 came from my hubby's parents, who had a bumper crop of tomatoes, purple eggplant, zucchini, and green peppers. Since I was too busy lazy to till my own garden this year, I've gotten downright giddy when gifted with others' homegrown produce. I love being asked, Do you want some of our extra veggies? Will you use them? Um, is the Pope Catholic?

Bag-o-plenty #2 came from my good friend, Allison. She had a monster bag of white eggplant and cherry tomatoes for me. She didn't ask if I'd want them. She knows me pretty well :)

So, I now had an unexpected (but greatly appreciated) bounty of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and peppers on hand. But what to do with them? I started flipping through my cookbooks, looking for inspiration. Then I remembered a recipe I had made a couple of years ago from Vegetarian Times for Eggplant Provencale. I was pretty sure it had all of these ingredients in it. Turns out - I was right!

Eggplant, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and garlic are sauteed together, then tossed with chopped green olives, capers, parsley, and spices. 

A light coating of Italian breadcrumbs, nooch, and melted Earth Balance tops it off before baking.

I rounded out the meal with some steamed broccoli and brown rice rotini tossed with some eggplant pasta sauce. Yum!

The eggplant was silky, soft, and delicious, and the combination of tomatoes and breadcrumbs reminded me of Eggplant Parmesan. It was fabulous!

Summer Rolls

It was a complete coincidence that tonight's dinner was Nectarine and Basil Summer Rolls from Vegetarian Times - I mean, what could be more appropriate for the first official dinner of summer than Summer Rolls? I totally didn't plan it that way, but I think it's a fun co-inky-dink :)

I was laughing as I was making dinner, because my hubby wandered into the kitchen and said, "We've had these before, right?" I said, "Yes, hon, I usually make them once (just once!) every summer!"I think the reason why I only make them once every summer is because I don't ever have rice paper wrappers on hand, and they take a bit of prep to get ready. However, this year I decided to switch out the rice paper wrapper in favor of a good old collard leaf and make collard rolls. You know what? It worked great! I'll definitely make them more often now because I often have collards on hand.

The recipe calls for nectarines, avocado, basil, and watercress leaves rolled up in rice paper wrappers and served with a tangy, succulent almond butter-rice vinegar-maple syrup-soy dipping sauce. The sauce is amazing - I could probably drink an entire bowl of it. But I've discovered over the years that my tummy is particularly sensitive to having both avocado and nuts in the same meal. This is an important principle of food combining that I have learned to obey. I substitute coconut butter for the almond butter because coconut is a much better combination with avocado. It also tastes freakin' DELISH mixed with the rice vinegar, maple syrup, and soy (I substitute tamari). Yumbles.

Here's a collard leaf, stacked with basil, sliced nectarines, avocado, and some baby spinach:

 Here's a whole bunch of 'em:

 And here's one all sliced up and purty:

 I also made a salad and topped it with quinoa and Carrot-Ginger Dressing from Appetite for Reduction. Here's the dressing (looks sorta like baby food, doesn't it!)

 Salad with baby spinach, celery, radishes, orange pepper, quinoa, cucumber, and the dressing:

For my afternoon snack, I had a Blueberry Cardamom Breakfast Smoothie:

It's one of my favorite smoothies and I'm not sure why I haven't made one in so long! I love everything in it - blueberries, bananas, cardamom, and cinnamon. It's so simple, yet so brilliant! And what a lovely color. It hit the spot this afternoon!