What's on the Menu

My menu is abbreviated this week, because we're going out of town starting Thursday afternoon through Monday. Part of the time we'll be staying with my parents and cooking there, but we'll also be attending our first Unschooling Conference, Life is Good - we're so excited! So we'll be staying at the hotel two of those nights for the fully steeped con experience.

Monday: Tofu Pineapple Curry over Brown Basmati Rice (recipe from Vegan Express - new!)

Tuesday: Gimme Chimis (out of Eat, Drink and Be Vegan - one of our faves!) and Mashed Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

Wednesday: African Peanut Soup (from Local Bounty - new specific recipe, though we've had versions of this soup before)

Thursday: Leftover smorgasboard

What I've Been Up To...


I just took that bad boy out of the oven a few minutes ago. Yay, bread! It's half whole wheat and half (local!) white. I made some last week and it was really, really good and probably cost me less than $2 to make.

Farmer's Market, Revisited
This weekend we made it to the local farmer's market, and boy howdy has it picked up since the last time I was there! I was there probably a month or maybe a month and a half ago (it's year-round) but man, was I disappointed. There were so few veggies and they were SO expensive! And tiny. I can't even remember what I bought, but I walked away quite a bit poorer and much more down-trodden than when I arrived. Not so yesterday! Yesterday it was positively bustling with fresh food fervor - people lined up for local organic plant starts, veggies were piled high and inspiring, there was a band playing...and it didn't hurt that it was a gorgeous, sunny day! So I stuck to my meal plan and only bought a few food items, namely, some fresh asparagus, some spring carrots, an awesome mix of salad greens, including baby spinach and pea shoots (!!!), and some spring onions and garlic.

For lunch, I made Asparagus Leek Curry out of Local Bounty.
It was crazy good! I made a few substitutions: instead of leeks I used some of the spring onions and garlic, and I didn't want to open a can of coconut milk (it only called for 1 cup) so I used one of the plain coconut milk yogurts that have been haunting my fridge for a while now. The results were really, really good! I would probably use regular coconut milk next time (the yogurt has a sweetness to it, despite being labeled "plain). The spice combo of this recipe is off the hook - turmeric, cumin, cardamom, cayenne - really really amazing. We ate this over white Jasmine rice. And I was super proud of myself for using some previously frozen homecooked chickpeas instead of opening a new can. Bonus!

Leftover Transformation Shenanigans
I didn't get a picture of this meal, but I gotta say I *LOVE* transforming leftovers (that nobody wants) into new meals that we all do a little dance for! Last night for dinner I was poking around the fridge trying to figure out what we would eat then and what we would be eating for lunch today. The leftover Rustic Black-Eyed Peas and Mushrooms were glaring at me - I knew it was time to eat them or freeze them, and I honestly didn't think that I liked them enough to freeze them. So, to the cookbooks I went. I dug out Passionate Vegetarian and found a recipe for Hillbilly Hummus - and it saved the day!!! I threw my beans, some peanut butter, some of the spring garlic, salt, apple cider vinegar and some sage in the food processor, and voila! Totally new meal. We had the hummus in whole wheat pita pockets with some Chow Chow (also been haunting my fridge forever) and some of the fresh salad mix. What hummus was left over was devoured with the aid of tortilla chips. And my fridge is haunted no more!

Crazy Container and Topsoil-Bag Garden
On our farmer's market extravaganza we also purchased a bunch of plant starts (6 alpine strawberry, 3 (or 9?!?) broccoli starts, and 6 basil). Yay! We planted the strawberries and broccoli in bags of topsoil.


After we transplanted the broccoli, we started to wonder if there were more than one plant in each start...here's a close-up, can anyone weigh in? We think there might have actually been 3 starts in each one...to be continued.

We also had three tomato starts that we planted and I transplanted my perennial herbs (rosemary, oregano, chives) to bigger pots. (The thyme looks bad, but I think it's going to rally!)

Some of the basil went in the tomato containers, others are on their own in other containers.


We even planted some lettuce seed in two bags of topsoil. Oh, and some nasturtium seeds in a weird container left by the former tenants (trellis included!). So we're on our way with our goofy garden. Next up: peas! We just need more dirtbags. Heh heh.


Super Duper Bonus Points to anyone who can tell me what kind of flowers are growing behind the lettuce bags (the red ones). Peonies? I'll get a close up soon. There are a lot of mystery flowers on this property. Bless the former owner, she had a green thumb and we now we are lucky enough to reap the rewards.

VeganMoFo: Weekend Roundup

A cooking class! Mac and Cheese! Gardening class! Such weekend!

Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh, Take Two

This time I used something labled "hot sauce." Much deliciousness ensued, much less hotness than last time. Still a weensy bit hot for the toddler, but I LOVED it. The moral of the story is to never substitute any ingredients in Veganomicon. Ever.

Grilled corn on the cob was awesome, again.

Cooking Class: Southern Vegan Comfort

So I took this class at our local co-op natural food store, PCC. It was awesome! This was only the second (vegan) cooking class I've ever been to, but I just love them. It wasn't like I'd never made biscuits or vegan sausage gravy or collards before - I had, and I love them. But it's just so great to learn from other cooks. Because I don't get a chance to cook with a lot of people. My mom, my husband, occasionally a grandmother maybe. But you really can learn a lot by just cooking with other people, and in this case, we were watching an actual chef who had a lot of experience, both vegetarian/vegan and omni. Little tips I picked up that were new to me:

• In the summer when you have bunches of fresh herbs, save the bunch of stems and use it as a pastry brush to baste stuff on the grill or to get oil into a pan. Yummy herby goodness!
• Save woody stems from thyme or other herbs in a ziploc in the freezer for stock
• Our instructor also saves scraps from onions, carrots and celery together in a freezer bag, and in a separate bag she saves mushroom stems. Because sometimes she wants all-around veggie stock, but sometimes she just wants a mushroom stock
• A touch of blackstrap molasses can take collards from good to OMGWOW!
• Thinly slicing garlic instead of mincing can provide a delicious shake-up to meals and gives more of a surface are to get that delicious bite to garlic in your mouth

One of the best things I came away with from this class was the idea of NOTHING GOING TO WASTE in her kitchen. She really did save everything for another use. She also talked about how she likes to make big batches of food but hates leftovers - and I can so relate. So in her case, she transforms them into something different everytime. So a big batch of collards will get eaten in soups or stews, or thrown in wraps, etc.

Another great thing I came away with from this class? Confidence. I have a tendency to over-rely on recipes, and sometimes you just don't have a recipe for making over the leftovers in your fridge. That's where creativity - and some confidence - come into play. And I put them to play the next morning!

Leftovers + Biscuits = Biscuits and Gravy!

So here we have some leftover hot-sauce glazed tempeh crumbled up and fried in some EVOO, then some rustic white beans with mushrooms thrown in there, and some leftover mushroom gravy from a few nights ago. I thinned it out with a little almond milk and added some fennel for that sausage-y flavor. And you know what? It was freaking awesome. Seriously, some of the best vegan sausage gravy I've ever had. Over really freaking fantastic biscuits (used Yellow Rose Recipes for that one).

VegNews Mac and Cheese: OMGYUM!

So The PPK boards had been all a-chatter a while ago about this recipe, and I LOVE me some mac and cheese, so I had to give it a whirl. Verdict: AWESOME. I can't believe I finally found a nooch-free mac and cheese!!! (I like nooch and all, but come on. Not every single time). The combo of cashews, lemon juice and the cooked veggies was amazing. I tasted it pre-baked and after baking, and I have to say that Chad and I both really liked it better pre-baking. The breadcrumbs were a little much and somehow there was a weird fishy aftertaste post-baking. But I will most certainly be making this recipe again, soon. I might cook just a bit more pasta, because it was pretty saucy pre-baked - maybe bump it up from 8 oz to 10 oz. If you love mac and cheese, try this recipe!!!

Oh you wanted to take a picture of that? Uhhh....

The reason I don't have a pic of the mac and cheese in the baking dish. Thanks, dear.

Rustic White Bean Soup with Rosemary + Southern Lovin' Cornbread

So some more leftovers were magically transformed into something new and delectable last night for dinner after gardening class (which is so awesome! I heart Seattle Tilth!) So I took the remaining Rustic White Beans and Mushrooms, threw it in a pot and put it on low while I cooked me up some fantastic southern style cornbread (veganized the Sour Milk Cornbread recipe from The Gift of Southern Cooking). I used a mix of white cornmeal and yellow (I LOVE real southern style - read: NOT SWEETENED - cornbread, and they tend to be made with white cornmeal). It was sooooooo good! And had so few ingredients. I need to get some more white cornmeal because I want to eat it everyday.

So back to the beans - I pureed them with my immersion blender, added some fresh chopped rosemary and a splash or two of lemon juice and then when it was served I drizzled some olive oil in each bowl. It was SOOOOO GOOOOOD!!! Sorry no pic, I can't find my camera cord and I'm not making too much noise looking for it cuz the dude is sleeping. Thank dog.

Wheat and Potatoes, et al

Here's what's been on our menu of late!

Fronch Toast with Leftover Scramble and Potatoes


I can't remember if I've made the Fronch Toast from VwaV before, but I was happy with the results. The garbanzo bean flour gives it that weird metallic eggy taste that's missing from most vegan french toast recipes. But the biggest plus of this recipe? It totally didn't stick while cooking. Bitchin'.

Fried Tempeh with Almond Sauce, with Assorted Salads
So I had defrosted tempeh on Monday without a definite idea of what I planned to do with it. I finally decided on some fried tempeh and some kind of peanut-type sauce. So while I fried up the tempeh in peanut oil, I found a recipe for peanut sauce in Vegan Planet. It was AWESOME! Oh, but I subbed almond butter for the peanut, just to see what it would be like (plus, the toddler could eat it without me worrying). I served this over leftover diced baked potatoes (remind me never to buy a 5 lb bag of potatoes ever again - we just don't eat them fast enough!). On the side is Quinoa Black Bean Salad and a basic green salad with balsamic maple vinaigrette that I made up on the fly. A satisfying meal all around, and I definitely need to copy that sauce recipe before I return that cookbook to the library!

Leftovers Extraordinaire
Do you love to transform leftovers into something totally new? Me too. So this is some leftover quinoa with steamed broccoli and peas and some AWESOME smoked cubed tofu (Soy Boy, I think?) with leftover almond (peanut) sauce. Soooooo good! I'm going to have to buy stock in that tofu, it is outrageous, and so easy to deal with - it's ready to eat out of the package. The toddler is also a huge fan, so yay protein. I had this for dinner last night and lunch today, it was THAT good.

Slow Cooker Seitan Pot Roast


It's been a Robin Robertson kind of week here, what with this meal and the awesome peanut sauce recipe from Vegan Planet! Ok, that picture above of the whole deal IN the crockpot looks a little scary (brains!?!), so here's what the plated version was like:


Much less brain-y. It was soooo good! God, there is nothing like having that warm, secure feeling of knowing that dinner will be ready just by lifting the lid of the crockpot! This took about 7-10 minutes to prepare this morning before Chad left for work, and then voila! It was ready when he got home. This was sorely needed today, because none of us are sleeping well since Silas has a cough and was coughing ALL. NIGHT. LONG. At about 15 minute intervals, so you'd *just* fall asleep and then COUGH! HACK HACK! COUUUUUGH!

But I digress. (It's the sleep deprivation). This was an awesome, hearty meal. I will definitely be making this again. It was my first try at seitan in the crock, and I'm really glad it worked out, because seriously, what could be easier? I think next time I'll try to make the seitan dough more "roast-y," this time I made it kind of flat to cover the veggies so it was kind of thin and disc-shaped. Just an aesthetic thang.

Random Baking
Oh, and I did make some cookies that didn't last long enough for photos - 2 batches of Dreena's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies. I think I could eat a batch a day, seriously. I made one with regular chips and one with carob, so the dudes could partake. Chad was very impressed. The carob was actually really good, very malty, not chalky at all. Although now he is wondering if he has a carob allergy because he was getting the fluttery allergy feeling after eating them. ARGH! This chocolate lover can't win. :/