Sweet Potato and Broccoli Salad with Pomegranate-Peanut Dressing

The more I cook, the more confident and relaxed I get about cooking. I used to follow recipes to the letter, hesitant to ever deviate from the instructions or ingredients. I just lacked the confidence or knowledge to improvise or make intelligent substitutions. Now that I have several years of cooking under my belt, I am much more comfortable making changes on the fly and substituting ingredients when necessary.

Such was the case when I made the Sweet Potato and Broccoli Salad with Pomegranate-Peanut Dressing from 1000 Vegan Recipes. The original recipe calls for cooked sweet potatoes, celery, green onions, ginger, lemon juice, fresh broccoli, peanut butter, roasted peanuts, and fresh pomegranate seeds. I wanted to make a few healthier switches, swapping almond butter and sliced almonds for the peanut butter and roasted peanuts, and maple syrup for the sugar. I also did not have fresh pomegranate seeds or fresh broccoli, so I used dried cranberries and frozen broccoli. I also cut the amount of oil in the recipe from 4 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons, and added a bed of fresh baby arugula for some greens. I stayed true to the spirit of the recipe, but I customized it to my own personal tastes and supplies. That, I think, is the way to cook!

This salad with filling, nutritious, and most importantly, tasty! It was even better the next day after the flavors married a bit. Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try some substitutions, because it will help you become a more confident cook!

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.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad with Grilled Tofu

I'm sorry I've been neglecting my blog, dear friends! I must confess, I've been devoting my usual blogging time to other pursuits in the last month: reading The Hunger Games trilogy; visiting my parents in Florida; doing a Bible Study; watching an insane amount of Ryan Gosling movies; and joining The Providence French Language Meetup Group so I can practice my French. I've also been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather we've been having, going on walks and hikes with my hubby and son. 

Nevertheless, I have been cooking and enjoying some new recipes. I've been especially keen to try more new recipes out of my favorite cookbook, Appetite for Reduction. Although I'd already made nearly all the salad recipes in the book, there was one I hadn't yet tried, the Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad with Grilled Tofu.

This salad is fresh and light, perfect for those hot days of summer (and spring, here in the Northeast!) Cucumbers, red onion, string beans, greens, and fresh mint are tossed with cooked-and-cooled rice vermicelli noodles, grilled tofu, and a peanut-mint gremolata. The gremolata is simply chopped peanuts, chopped fresh mint, and lime zest:

The salad is tossed with a lime-spiked chili garlic sauce, giving the dish a nice punch of heat. This dish was really easy to put together and my hubby especially enjoyed it. I can see myself making it again!

My Pasta Salad, with a Twist

I've blogged about my pasta salad before. Not to toot my own horn, but that pasta salad is pretty darn delicious. I've brought it to countless potlucks, cookouts, and parties, and it's always a hit.

That being said, it is a pasta salad. Pasta salads are usually something I crave in the summer time, not the dead of winter. But for some reason, I had a hankering for pasta salad the other day.

Now, my pasta salad recipe is not complicated: it's basically just pasta, fresh veggies, canned chickpeas, and a dressing made of Vegenaise, Italian dressing, salt, pepper, dried dill, and dijon mustard. Pretty basic stuff.

Until you realize:

You have no Italian dressing.

You only have a couple of tablespoons of Vegenaise.

You don't have the required veggies.

Hmmm.

I would not be deterred. And I sure as heck wasn't making a trip to the grocery store!

No bell pepper? No problem...I just used some jarred roasted red pepper.

Not enough tomato or celery? No problem...I just used what I had. I added extra cucumber to make up for it.

No dressing? No biggie...I just made a batch of the Mediterranean Olive Oil and Lemon Vinaigrette from Veganomicon. I mixed this dressing with the last bit of Vegenaise and dijon mustard. Worked like a charm!

I mixed everything together and then served it on a big bed of baby arugula for some extra greens.

I love it when an experiment turns out well!

CCK's Flourless Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Sometimes, a girl's just gotta have a chocolate chip cookie.

Like, now.

I don't want a dozen cookies. I don't even want half a dozen cookies.

Okay, maybe I do want half a dozen cookies.

But really, I just want a cookie. In my mouth. ASAP.

Fortunately, that's why we have Chocolate-Covered Katie.

Her Flourless Chocolate-Chip Cookies take mere minutes (minutes!!) to make - a few minutes to throw everything together, and only 6 minutes to bake. That's it, folks. You want cookies in a jiffy? Go see Katie.

And loooook:

Her recipe makes a half-dozen cookies.

Perfect! Three for three, three for my hubby. My son had already gone to sleep, so no cookies for him...you snooze, you lose, buddy!

I totally would have shared, though. If there had been any left, that is :)

Penne with Marinara Puttanesca, Spinach, and Garlic Bread

There are some nights when I am just too tired, too unmotivated, too whatever to cook. These are nights when I should really just get some takeout. And then I remember something:

You're vegan.

And you're cheap.

The end.

Takeout just isn't on my radar anymore.

Fortunately, I always have some pasta, canned tomatoes, frozen veggies, and frozen bread on hand.

Voila, dinner is served.

The sauce is Marinara Puttanesca from Appetite for Reduction. It's simply canned crushed tomatoes, kalamata olives, capers, and spices, and it takes mere minutes to make. Even a tired Mommy can throw this dinner together in 20 minutes.

While the sauce was simmering, I boiled the pasta (I used brown rice penne from Trader Joe's), cooked the frozen spinach, and broiled some garlic bread (whole grain bread, Earth Balance, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning). Easy peasy.

It's delicious, nutritious comfort food that you can whip up in minutes. Believe me, if it were any harder, we would have been eating cereal for dinner :)

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.

Mixed Vegetable Curry with Basmati Rice

I've been on a bit of a curry kick lately. There's just something so appealing about a big bowl of tender veggies, fragrant spices, coconut milk, and soft basmati rice. Curries highlight some of my favorite ingredients - fresh ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, coconut - and they make the house smell so darn good when they are bubbling away on the stove. They are also endlessly adaptable, lending themselves easily to substitutions and personal preferences.

The Mixed Vegetable Curry from Party Vegan is a perfect example. The recipe calls for fresh green beans, cauliflower, and jalapeno (along with other veggies). I had none of these ingredients on hand, but I did have some fresh baby bella mushrooms, red bell pepper, and baby spinach. I also had some frozen green beans. I used the veggies I had on hand and otherwise followed the recipe as instructed. In just 30 minutes, I had a beautiful, comforting bowl of curry laden with tons of veggies and kidney beans.

This is a great way for kids (and adults!) to get a bunch of nutrition in one meal. In this one dish, there are a rainbow of different veggies (onions, carrots, garlic, ginger, green beans, mushrooms, bell pepper, spinach, and peas); protein and fiber from kidney beans; and whole grain brown rice. It's also a great way to expose young palates to a variety of different flavors and spices. Don't be afraid to get spicy! :)

Random Eats

Here's a random assortment of things we've eaten lately:

Quinoa, steamed broccoli & cauliflower, raw & steamed carrot, baked tofu, raw kale, and AFR Caesar Chavez Dressing:

Curried Chickpeas and Greens from Appetite for Reduction, along with some steamed cauliflower and Traditional Cranberry Sauce from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan:

One Wild Chick Soup from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, along with some Fancy Biscuits from How It All Vegan:

A saute of fresh zucchini, yellow pepper, and red onion, seasoned with some basil, oregano, salt, and pepper:

Sweet Potato Drop Biscuits (subbed with canned pumpkin) from AFR:

A homemade, on-the-fly baked rotini casserole, with shredded carrots, zucchini, spinach, onions, garlic, tofu ricotta, and tomato sauce:

Mellow Lentil Sniffle Soup from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan:

Have a great weekend!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to My Little Guy!

I really can't believe it, but my little guy just turned 3 years old!! He has been the greatest blessing to my husband and I, and we just praise the Lord for him. He is the light of our lives and we are just so thankful that God chose us to be his parents!!

To celebrate his birthday, we took a trip to the Mystic Aquarium in nearby Mystic, CT. We've been wanting to take J to the aquarium for a while now, so we thought his birthday would be the perfect occasion. The aquarium ended up being a great choice, because it's just the right size for a family with small children. They have both indoor and outdoor exhibits, which allowed us to get some fresh air as well as duck inside when we needed to warm up.

J is a huge fan of "Finding Nemo," so he was thrilled to get up close and personal with Nemo and Dory.

He especially loved the "black Nemos" they had in one tank!

Later, we enjoyed a special birthday dinner at home with J's grandparents. I made Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting from Peas and Thank You, since a) we love carrot cake and b) J is incredibly smitten with Gigi. All I had to do was tell him that this was Gigi's fifth-birthday cake, and he was sold. Mama Pea, J asks me at least once a week if we can come to Oregon for a playdate with Gigi. Do you think that could be arranged? :)

Anyway, the cake was AMAZING. Like, no joke, the best carrot cake AND best cream cheese frosting I've ever had. Seriously drool-worthy!

J was super-excited to eat his "Gigi-cake"and declared it "yummy in my tummy!" His grandparents also loved it and even had seconds....yay!! All in all, we had a wonderful day with our special little guy. But I don't think we're going to wait another year before eating that cake again! :)

White Bean Salad with Fennel and Avocado

I'm always on the lookout for a good main-dish salad recipe, so when I saw the recipe for White Bean Salad with Fennel and Avocado in 1,000 Vegan Recipes, my interest was piqued. The salad is composed of many of my favorite ingredients: cannellini beans, fresh fennel, grape tomatoes, fresh parsley, kalamata olives, fresh lemon juice, red onion, and avocado. These ingredients all bring something unique to the dish and combine to make one seriously creamy, tangy, salty, crunchy, and herbalicious salad. The author, Robin Robertson, suggests adding cold cooked brown rice to turn this into a one-dish meal, but I opted for (what else) some fresh baby arugula and a side of sauteed broccoli rabe.

Best of all? This salad came together in about 20 minutes. Now that's something else I can get excited about!

Valentine's Day Food: Quinoa Puttanesca, Salad & Raspberry Blackout Cake

I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for Valentine's Day. I like the idea of cards, chocolate, kisses, snuggles, and telling someone you love them. I enjoy preparing a special meal for my hubby and me, topped off with a delicious and decadent dessert, which MUST include chocolate. This is a requirement!

This year, I decided to cut myself a little slack and not devote hours and hours to preparing a romantic meal. Instead, I baked a cake the night before and then made a simple but elegant dinner. Rather than dining by candlelight alone, we ate off trays in the living room with our son, watching The Sound of Music. It might not have been romantic, but it was fun :)

Our first course was a salad of baby arugula, sliced dried figs, and pistachios with an agave-apple cider vinaigrette. It was inspired by Gena's Fig & Pistachio Salad from Choosing Raw:

We enjoyed our salad with a glass of Cupcake Winery Riesling. I served it in a champagne glass to make it more romantical :)

Our main course was the uber-flavorful Quinoa Puttanesca from Appetite for Reduction. This super-saucy dish is studded with kalamata olives and capers, two of my favorite ingredients. Quinoa is a great alternative to the traditional pasta because it soaks up the sauce and makes every bite really scrumptious.

And, of course, the most important part of any Valentine's Day meal is the dessert. I decided to make something I've been lusting after for ages and ages...the Raspberry Blackout Cake with Ganache-y Frosting from Vegan with a Vengeance. Rather than make the full recipe, I decided to halve it and make half of a two-layer cake. It could not have been easier to do: I halved all the ingredients, baked one 8-inch round cake pan (rather than two), and just cut the finished cake in half. I frosted it as directed and ended up with a beautiful half-moon-shaped cake. The crumb is chocolate and raspberry-flavored, with a raspberry-preserve-and-chocolate-ganache middle layer and frosting. It was.....amaaaaaazing. My picture is totally crappy, but I didn't want to waste any more time taking pictures when this cake wanted to jump into my mouth.

You can't even really see the middle layer, but it's there, trust me. This may have been one of the best cakes I've ever eaten in my life, and there will be much more of this cake in my future. It was the perfect ending to a great Valentine's Day meal!

Quinoa, White Bean & Kale Stew

Another day, another fabulous stew from Appetite for Reduction. I think if I could only keep one cookbook for the rest of my life, it would probably be AFR. I just really enjoy what Isa enjoys - hearty, healthy, nutrition-packed meals filled with veggies, beans, whole grains, and spices. Isa, if you're out there and reading this, I just want to say: thank you. And, I'd love to test for your next cookbook. And, I like Throwing Muses, too. We could be BFFs, you know. Just sayin.'

So, this stew is pretty much the essence of AFR: it has grains (well, quinoa is technically a seed, but close enough), beans (cannellinis), veggies (leeks, garlic, carrots, parsnip, potatoes, kale), and spices (fennel seeds, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, S&P). It's loaded with flavor and everything goes into one pot, which makes clean-up a breeze. You gotta love that!

I've made this with and without the parsnip, and I actually prefer it without. I love parsnips, don't get me wrong, but I think they taste a bit out-of-place here. I've also used a head of broccoli rabe for the kale, and that works great, too. This recipe is very versatile and can be adapted to suit your veggie/bean/spice preferences. It's great on a chilly winter day when you need something warm in your belly.

Chickpea Piccata and Mashed Potatoes

I have recently discovered the fabulousness that is Chickpea Piccata from Appetite for Reduction. I made chicken piccata once, back in 2001. I was a newlywed living in Germany with no job, no friends, and NO cooking skills whatsoever. Pretty much every meal I made came out of a can, a box, or the freezer, so I must have been feeling really industrious to tackle chicken piccata. Or maybe I was just embracing my inner domestic goddess. Who knows. I never made it again, by the way. I didn't want my new hubby to get used to real, from-scratch cooking when there was a whole pantry of boxed mashed potatoes and canned carrots waiting for him.

But anyway...I never forgot about that luscious, lemony, caper-studded sauce. The chicken I could totally do without. That's what chickpeas are for! Not to mention, hello, chickpeas are so much easier. Who wants to pound out chicken breasts, flour them, fry them, and all that jazz? Not me. No thank you. This piccata comes together in less than 30 minutes, and that includes making REAL mashed potatoes, FROM SCRATCH!! I'm proud to say that I've been boxed-potato-free since 2003.

The piccata is silky and delicious, flavored with shallots, white wine, and capers. My mashed potatoes are simply peeled, diced, and boiled yukon golds, mashed and flavored with just some salt, veggie broth, and a mere tablespoon of Earth Balance. They are so creamy and buttery, you'd swear they were loaded with butter and milk - but they're not!

The mashed potatoes are served on top of a pile of baby arugula, which wilts beautifully underneath. A pile of steamed broccoli finishes off the dish, because everything is better with steamed broccoli, n'est-ce pas?

Trust me - I'm not waiting another 11 years to make this!

Salad Daze

I love salad. Now, this may come as a shock to you, seeing as I'm vegan and all (wink wink), but I really, really love salad. Anytime I go out to eat at a restaurant, I usually want to order a salad. I get a gleam in my eye and say things like, "I can't wait to have a salad that someone else made for me!" Because, let's face it...making salads can be kind of time-consuming and tedious. I wish I had a never-ending salad bowl in my fridge (kind of like the Olive Garden's never-ending pasta bowl, but...not). But since I don't, I'm usually forced to make my own.

For years and years, I made pretty much the same simple salad to accompany my lunch and dinner: some organic greens (baby spinach or baby romaine), some sliced carrots, sliced cucumber, sliced celery, some fresh lemon juice, a squeeze of Bragg Liquid Aminos, and a drizzle of olive oil or flax oil. Sometimes I'd throw some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds on there, but most of the time, that was my basic salad. And it was fine, if not a little boring. But lately, I've been wanting more and more main-dish-style salads. The problem I've been having is, even though I have a plethora of vegan cookbooks, I have a hard time finding the types of salad recipes I enjoy. I love salads that are greens-based, with plenty of fresh raw veggies, some protein (beans, tempeh), maybe some cooked grains (millet, quinoa) and a unique dressing to add some flavor. Sounds simple, right? And yet I struggle to find what I'm looking for. So, I've been taking matters into my own hands and experimenting with some new salad combinations.

Here's one that showed a lot of promise: baby arugula, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, cannellini beans, kalamata olives, nooch, and homemade white balsamic dressing. Pretty tasty.

However, I knew I could kick it up a notch. I tried again, this time using chickpeas instead of cannellini beans and adding some capers and dulse flakes. Better!

This one was a simple little side salad, but it was really easy to make and very delicious. This is baby arugula, chunks of tomato, cucumber, capers, and white balsamic vinaigrette. Yum!

This salad, which I had for dinner last night, could be really fantastic, but it still needs some work. This is baby arugula, chunks of tomato, roasted red pepper, cucumber, roasted mushrooms, cooked barley, marinated chickpeas, pine nuts, and white balsamic vinaigrette.

I actually thought the salad needed even more of a flavor punch. Marinating the mushrooms before roasting them would have helped immensely, I'm sure.

One thing I did really like, however, was marinating the chickpeas beforehand. It really boosted the flavor and it was easy as pie. Here's my technique:

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry+ 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar + 1 tablespoon regular balsamic vinegar + 1 mason jar = yummy marinated chickpeas. Give 'em a good shake every now and then and let them soak in the fridge. It only takes an hour to infuse them with some good flavor.

I'm always on the lookout for more good salad recipes/ideas, so if you have any, let me know!

A Super Bowl Spread

Did that just really happen....again?

I'm not sure I can believe it. I didn't sleep well last night, and I woke up once drenched in sweat. I take my sports seriously.

Oh, Patriots...not again. Not again!

We had all our Super Bowl snacky-food at the ready. We had a big plate of OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings from Appetite for Reduction:

We had a big plate of Sweet Potato Fries and ketchup from Vegan with a Vengeance:

We had a plate of sweet 'n sticky tempeh buffalo wingz, using breading and buffalo sauce recipes from Party Vegan:

We had frosty cold beer:

We had some CCK Deep-Dish Cookie Pie for dessert:

And we had a fire crackling away in the fireplace. 

I mean, we couldn't have been any more ready to watch the Pats win. 

Sadly, it was not meant to be :(

At least we'll have those onion rings. And sweet potato fries. And wingz. And pie, and beer. Hmmph.