VeganMofo: Weekend Edition

So maybe this would be a good time to talk about my serious addiction to biscuits and gravy?!? Seriously?!!? I think I need a support group. Maybe you do, too. Let me know, we'll talk.

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Love.

We also enjoyed some pretty swank vegan pizza - a refrigerated crust from TJ's topped with some marinara, leftover roasted veggies (carrots, parsnips, cauliflower, garlic, cherry tomatoes and onion) and some leftover field roast sausage, crumbled. Topped with a packet of Chreese sauce. It was really good! Quick and easy, just what I was in the mood for.


It was a "use-up-all-these-aging-leftovers" kind of weekend, so I transformed my leftover pumpkin puree (from making VWaV Best Pumpkin Muffins) into pumpkin pancakes. They were wicked, wicked good. They reminded me of when we used to get pumpkin pancakes all the time in Michigan at The Original Pancake House. Topped with tonnnnnns of whipped cream. I need to work on the vegan whipped cream angle. Maybe next time we'll try some coconut milk whipped cream, been meaning to give that a go. Anyway, try these pancakes, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Pumpkin Pancakes of Powa!
Serves 2 adults and 2 kids

1 3/4 cup ap flour (or some combo of ap flour and ww pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg (or 1/2 tsp already ground)
egg replacer for 3 eggs (4.5 tsp egg replacer mixed with 6 tablespoons water)
1 1/2 cup nondairy milk
3/4-1 C pumpkin puree
4 T canola oil
1 T molasses

Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Mix toghetha. Cook in a skillet. EAT IT! Yum.

***************

Continuing with my southern comfort food addiction, last night we had fried seitan chicken, smoky collard greens, and some crazy good pickle chips and radishes that we made. I made the seitan the day before, using the recipe from Yellow Rose Recipes - I've been digging that recipe a lot. I think next time I make fried chicken, though, I would probably try to carefully slice my cutlets in half. They were a little squishy in the middle. But serioulsy, it was wicked good anyway, this is a minor thing.

Another Vegan Southern Feast

I used the Jay-Lo's Fried Chicken recipe from La Dolce Vegan! and I think this is the best it's ever worked. It was almost eerie how convincing it looked on the plate!

The collards I've talked about before here, and they were as magical as ever, even without mushrooms. Quote from Chad, "If you would have told me a year ago that I could love collard greens so much, I would have laughed in your face. But I want to eat these every day." Seriously, try this recipe! It's soooo good.

The pickles were kind of a last-ditch effort to save some aging cucumbers and some radishes that I had no use for. Oh and a red banana like pepper. I used a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and they've been in our fridge for quite some time. They are so sour and awesome and addictive! It's really hard to stop eating them. Silas is a big fan of the radishes, what a freak child! I think the texture of the cucumbers is weird for him, but the radishes remain crispy. In fact, I have some radishes from the CSA that I need to slice up and throw in the dwindling jar...

Is Anything Better Than Biscuits and Gravy!?!

The answer to that question is yes: Biscuits, Gravy AND Smoky Collard Greens!

I've been super under the weather lately. So please excuse my tardiness.

We got home from a long drive on Sunday and I was feeling super tired and wonky and not in the mood for anything. Until I thought of biscuits and gravy. And collards. OMGYES.

So I cooked up a batch of the collards (and biscuits and gravy) from my cooking class the other night. Verdict: Complete, freaking awesomeness. The instructor was totally anti-liquid smoke (I'm fine with it, but definitely willing to experiment). So instead she uses smoked paprika and chipotle in adobo to lend a smoky and a tinge of spicy elements to the greens. But the real, over the top trick to this recipe? Molasses. Black-strap molasses. Yes, I said molasses.



I forgot to ask the instructor for her permission to post this, but I'm pretty sure she's cool with it. It's her recipe, not mine!

Miss D's Smokin' Collards
by Dawnula Koukol
Serves 4-6, Prep time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 45 min-1 1/2 hrs

• 1/2 C olive oil
• 3 C chopped yellow onion (about 2 onions)
• 6 oz or 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 2 T garlic, sliced
• 1 T chipotle in adobo
• 2 1/2 T smoked paprika, divided in half
• 1/4 C apple cider vinegar
• 1 T soy sauce
• 3/4 C vegetable stock
• 4 T molasses (black-strap)
• 5 lbs (or about 4 bunches) collards, cleaned, stemmed and chopped

In a large stockpot, heat oil on medium. Add the onions and mushrooms, saute for about 6 or 7 minutes or until the onions are wilted. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the chipotle, half of the paprika, vinegar, soy sauce, vegetable stock and molasses.

Stir in the greens, a third at a time, pressing the greens down as they start to wilt. Cook the greens, covered, for about 45 minutes. Ad the last half of the smoked paprika, salt and pepper and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

*****

I halved the recipe with mucho success. In fact, I only had 1 bunch of collards when I made this, so I cooked it as stated, but then added a bunch of cleaned/stemmed/chopped kale when I added the last of the smoke paprika - because kale doesn't need to cook nearly as long as collards do. It worked really well!

Try this recipe - it is soooooo good! The smokiness, the sweet of the molasses, the savory mushrooms and the pieces of sliced garlic - it's just tooooo gooood! And I'll have you know that I ate this meal combo for three meals straight - and would have kept going but ran out of leftovers. And I want it again. NOW! Alas, too many other vegetables to deal with in the fridge right now. Why do you taunt me, cabbage, parsnips and cauliflower?! Why must you aggravate me arugula?! Blarg!

Oh yeah, and in order to try to tame my overabundance of leeks (?!) last night I whipped up a quick simple batch of Potato Leek Soup. I used Mark Bittman's recipe, cuz I lurve him. We also had some garlic toast to dip. YUM!

VEGANMoFo: Iron Chef Challenge!

What the heck is that up there? Well I'll tell you. In a minute. (Ha! I'm so like crappy network news!)

So fellow vegan blogger Katie (aka mrsbadmouth) from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk came up with the brilliant idea of doing an Iron Chef-style challenge for this weekend. Read about in detail here. But anyway, she picked 2 ingredients that we have to cook with this weekend and post our results (by Sunday noon). No prizes, just good ol' blogger glory.

What are the two ingredients? I'll tell you - right now!

Apples and Ginger! What an awesome autumn choice, right?

So of course like 9 gabillion sweet ideas come to mind: muffins, scones, pancakes, pies, whathaveyou. But I was like No Way, Man! I'm going against the grain, cuz I'm a Vegan and that's how we ROLL!! So what did I make?

Cheezy Apple Gratin with Gingered Cream Sauce

Yep. So here's what's in this thang:

• 1 lb(ish) of apples - I think I used 5-6 medium sized (that we picked ourselves at Fall City Farm!)
• 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs (mine were mixed with some EB - leftover from Mac and Cheese topping)
• 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts
• 11/2 C plain soymilk creamer
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 - 1 inch of grated ginger (mine was frozen)
• s&p
• 1 C of Swiss Melty Cheez from The Uncheese Cookbook (or your own fave cheezy sauce)

What I did:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Put the soymilk creamer and almond milk in a saucepan over lowish heat. With a microplane or very small-holed grater, grate the ginger straight into the pan, stir and fagettaboutit.

Core and slice your apples (peel if you want, but seriously who wants to peel?!). Mine were medium-thin slices, I was kind of in a hurry.

Combine your breadcrumbs and walnuts in a small bowl. In a casserole dish (I used enamled cast iron) layer about half the apples, sprinkle with salt and pepper, follow with half the nut-crumb mixture, the rest of the apples, s&p, and the rest of the nut-crumb mix. Finally, pour the warmed ginger cream over the whole shebang (it should cover the apples about 3/4 of the way up the dish).

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until very soft. About 10-20 minutes before it's done, remove the dish and pour on (or sprinkle on you grated) cheesy sauce. Return to oven for remaining 10-20 minutes, or at least until the cheesy sauce is bubbling and has baked in.

Commentary 'Bout It
At first I wasn't planning on the cheezy sauce. Then I tasted the gratin 10 minutes before it was done and I was like, "Hm...this tastes like an apple crisp that got all mixed together." And I really wanted savory! What to do?!? Cheesy sauce, of course. And it really made the difference!

The first taste is POW! Noochy cheese. Followed by sweet, mellow, soft apples. Than finished up with POW! Garlicky-onion nooch cheese. It's a pretty good combination of tastes. I think it would be great on the side of any dinner plate, especially chickpea cutlets or oooh! curry baked tofu.

I think I would grate more ginger in next time, just for fun. So increase if you want!

For full disclosure's sake, I got the idea for this gratin from my main man Mark Bittman, in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Because I love it. I whisper sweet nothings in its invisible ears.

Eggplant Parmesan Supremo

Welcome back to day 2 of VEGANMOFO!

So we had this eggplant and I was all "maybe I'll just make ratatouille" and then I was like "But that doesn't have pine nut cream and I WANT IT." So, eggplant parmesan it was. And boy did it FREAKING ROCK!

Eggplant Paremsan Supremo
aka, Eggplant Farmesan (according to Silas)
Here's what I did:

1 Medium eggplant*, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 Breading recipe from Everyday Dish's seitan cutlets - but you'll need a LOT of panko, just an FYI (1-2 cups, maybe?)
Some Mushroom Marinara(my recipe below)
1 batch of Pine Nut Cream (from Vcon)

Lobster Mushroom Marinara:
1-2 T olive oil
1/2 medium onion*, chopped fine
1 crazy freaking lobster mushroom,* thinly sliced (This was from our Mushroom CSA - replace with whatever mushroom you want, about 1 cup thinly sliced)

1 28 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 tsp garlic powder (OMG I was out of fresh garlic! Half of an entire bulb was moldy, and I had already shopped. Rawr).
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2-1 tsp salt
pinch sugar
1 glug (2-4 T) red wine*

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sautee until translucent. Add the mushroom (if you're using the lobster mushroom - start to freak out how much like seafood it smells as it cooks! Seriously!) Sautee until soft.

Take your immersion blender to the opened can of tomatoes and puree. Alternatively, throw it in the blender or food processor until smooth. Add the onion-mushroom mixture, tomatoes and everything else to a saucepan and heat through. Taste, adjust the seasonings.

Fry up the eggplant over medium heat until brown and crispy on both sides. Put one layer of eggplant down in a 9x13 dish. Cover with Marinara. Carefully spoon on and spread out the pine nut cream (we had a little leftover, but more will definitely not hurt!). Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes, or until the pine nut cream looks set and starts to form little cracks, like this:

We served this alongside some brown rice linguine. It was so good! Silas, the vegan toddler wonder, couldn't get enough. Let's just say that between the three of us, it is now completely gone, between dinner and today's lunch. Yeah, like that.

* = local organic

Amaranth Porridge = Notsomuch, thx.

So I checked out Lorna Sass's Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way from the library and was flipping through it last night. First of all the book totally rocks, it has cooking info and instructions for all those obscure grains you want to try at the health food stores (kamut, millet, funky colored rices, wheat berries, groats, etc). It has substituting instructions and she's all about having you cook extra to freeze so you have some wicked fast recipes on your hands for later.

But back to amaranth. So I was reading about how it's like quinoa, in that it has the complete amino acid chain and is a good source of protein, blah blah blah. I also just saw a gorgeous amaranth plant at my garndening class last weekend, so I was reinspired to give it a go. We had some on hand, and I'm not even sure I had ever tried it. So I soaked it overnight and cooked it up for breakfast this morning.

Erg. I'm not usually a texture-phobe, but I just couldn't get into this one. No matter how much agave, cinnamon or coconut oil I added, the runny texture just creeped my gullet out. It reminded me of that glop they have to eat on The Matrix, you know the one I'm talking about? The whole tastee-wheat-chicken conversation? Right, like that. Silas inspired me to try to just drink it like a soup, and that almost caused some hurling on my part.

So I don't think we'll be having that again. Which is too bad, because Chad and Silas both kind of liked it. I'm going to have to try a savory recipe for amaranth; I'm determined to like it, kind of like how I feel about beets (how can they be so pretty and yet taste so much like dirt?!). I'm willing to give it another go. Stay tuned for the Amaranth Chronicles.

Bread and Other Awesomeness

This was an awesome food week!

We started out with some Brown Rice Cereal with Raspberry Coulis. Sounds fance, doesn't it?

It's just leftover short brown rice with some almond milk, agave nectar and pureed fresh raspberries. But it was soooooo good! And a great way to use up leftover rice. Here's a link to a general recipe if you want proportions, etc.

Dinner #1!
I also tackled one of my fears this week - barbecuing pizza. It just always sounded so weird - like why doesn't the dough fall through the cracks?! I just didn't get it. Until I watched this Everyday Dish episode and was shown the light!
We made 2 smallish pizzas - one (pictured) was topped with leftover pesto, leftover grilled portabello mushrooms, sliced tofurkey sausages and fresh garlic. The other was similar but used marinara sauce. They were awesome! I will definitely BBQ pizza again in the future. A great way to enjoy pizza in the summer.

A note on pizza dough: I have been cutting out all the white flour in recipes in a test run of Chile's Discretionary Eating Challenge - and it's been going well so far. Which is why I made this ALL whole wheat flour pizza dough! I basically just replaced the white flour with half bread flour (locally bought when we lived in Michigan!) and some whole wheat pastry flour. I also added a tablespoon or so of vital wheat gluten, but otherwise I just followed a regular old pizza dough recipe with great results. Try it!

And a little dessert...
I also made a batch of Snickerdoodles (from La Dolce Vegan) using all whole-wheat pastry flour. Straight out of the oven they tasted a little wheaty, but the next day I really don't think you could tell a difference at all.

Another dinner - asian style!

Another fabulous stir fry using up bits from our CSA box and farmer's market purchases. This one utilized fresh peas (shelled myself, woo!), piopinno mushrooms, green onions, garlic, ginger, broccoli, fresh noodles and our favorite of all time local Small Planet Garlic & Herb Tofu. A little bragg's and sesame oil and we were good to go.

Dinner #3! Mexican-asian-italian fusion!
So another one of my own challenges to myself is to start utilizing the dry beans we have on hand. They are just so much cheaper than canned, and we are a bean loving family. So I made a batch of adzuki beans, but I seem to always mess them up. I didn't soak them this time (because I read adzuki's don't need to be soaked) but I overcooked them. It was like bean mush; the beans pretty much lost all their integrity. They tasted fine but it annoyed my sense of aesthetics. Grr.

Anyway, I warmed them up later with some sesame oil, braggs, garlic, green onion, and then added julienned chard to wilt at the end. Served over brown basmati rice (which I also kind of messed up. I blame the toddler for this one though!) and topped with chopped fresh cilantro. On the side is a green salad and...

Foccacia! Woo-hoo!!!! I love foccacia and I think I've only made it once before a LONG time ago. It's basically souped-up pizza dough, so I felt pretty comfortable. Again, I used a combo of whole wheat pastry and bread flour with some additional vital wheat gluten and it turned out great. I topped it with fresh rosemary, olive oil and salt, YUM!


Dinner #4: Awesome McAwesome-son!
So I still had the baby fennel problem to deal with. I knew there was a recipe I had made before that called for it (but I had always subbed onions, never being much of a fennel buyer). I found it, switched it up some, and therefore feel ok publishing it here. This recipe is based on one from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons.

Isareali Couscous Stew of Joy

2 T EVOO
1 C Israeli couscous (uncooked)
3 baby fennel bulbs, thinly sliced in half moons
6-7 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp fennel seeds
3-4 C julienned chard leaves
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, liquid reserved into a measuring cup
Scant 2 cups veggie broth
1 cup boiling water
3-4 T Yumm Sauce (optional but delicious!)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, fennel, fennel seeds and couscous and sautee for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, see how much tomato juice drained from your tomatoes. It'll be approximately 1/4-1/2 cup. Make up the difference with veggie broth until you have two cups total. Add that and the cup of boiling water and the chard to the pan. Cook, stirring often for about 11-12 minutes.

Add the Yumm Sauce, vinegar and s&p and stir. Taste, adjust seasonings as necessary. Serve hot with crusty bread!

I also made a batch of Parsley-Tahini Vinaigrette that I learned about from the Vegan Brunch class I took a while back at the Detroit Evolution Laboratory (miss them!). It is soooooo awesome. They are cool with publishing their recipes as long as I attribute credit to them. This recipe is under creative commons by Angela Kasmala.

1 c. oil (olive, sunflower, or grapeseed are all good choices)

Juice of 1 lemon

3-6 cloves garlic

½ c. fresh parsley

2-3 tbs. raw or toasted tahini

2 tbs. brown rice vinegar

1 tsp. each salt and pepper, or to taste

Add garlic to bottom of blender and blend. Add remaining ingredients and pulse a few times to combine.

That's all for now! Right now I've got Fresh Dill and Caraway Seed Rye Bread (longest. name. ever) cooling on the rack, and some chickpeas soaking for our upcoming meals. Stay tuned!

I Love Summer

So we got our CSA share yesterday and guess what was in it? Raspberries! They are coming out of our ears. Our backyard berries are definitely slowing down though, so we won't be reaping the raspberries too much longer. Now when the heck are my apricots going to ripen?

Our CSA share also contained Baby Fennel! I have no idea what to do with it, but I'm super excited to find out. We also got some awesome looking Bibb lettuce, fresh garlic, green onions, rainbow chard, shelling peas, dill, and asiatic lilies. Oh! We also joined an additional Mushroom CSA!!!! So we got some delicious FRESH little Pioppino mushrooms! Yay.

We've been cooking more as the heat hasn't been so, well, hot lately. ;)

My final recipe test for Colleen Patrick-Goudreau came out really delicious - Scotch Broth. Which is actually more like a veggie soup/stew rather than broth - barley, split peas, lentils, leeks, carrots, etc. Oh and potatoes. Very hearty and filling, and subtly flavored. It would be great with something like seitan sausages or something in that neighborhood of strong flavors.

Here's Silas enjoying his portion:

After our first CSA box last week, I made up giant Vegan Dagwood Sandwiches with a side of Simple Chard from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. So easy and so delicious!

The sandwiches consisted of:
Herb and Onion Bread from Great Harvest Bread Co.
Avocado slices (thriftway)
Tomatoes from the farmer's market
Chickpea cutlets
Bibb lettuce (CSA)
Home Sprouted Mung Bean Sprouts
Cashew Cheese

YUM!

We also enjoyed a Tempeh Caesar Salad this week:
I just fried the tempeh with EVOO with a little grill seasoning, savory and tofu scramble spice mix from Yellow Rose Recipes. Then we topped it with Dreena's Living Caesar salad dressing (next time I'll use less lemon - it was very lemony), and some fresh tomatoes and mung bean sprouts and homemade croutons. Awesome!

Upon receiving my CSA bounty last night, I felt inspired to use up some of the older produce as well as featuring some of our new mushrooms - so stir-fry was the answer!
What I Did:
I got out my trusty wok, heated up some peanut oil over fairly high heat and fried up some of our most favoritest of all time Small Planet Garlic and Herb Tofu cubes. After removing those, I added some farmer's market broccoli and carrots from last week's box, as well as about 1/4 cup of water to steam fry. When they were pretty tender, I added about 1 cup of little mushrooms, 3 cloves of minced fresh garlic, 6-7 chopped green onion, and about 1 cup of sliced sugar snap peas. I added a couple of squirts of Bragg's and about 1 tablespoon of finely grated ginger and a bit of our cool new red celtic sea salt. At the very end I added the tofu back in and threw in 2 handfuls of mung bean sprouts (sprouted at home!). It was AMAZING!!!!! Maybe it's because I wasn't using any kind of recipe, maybe it was because everything was so fresh (and local and organic), or maybe it was the bottle of local chardonnay that we were well into.
I don't know, but it was fabulous. We had it over brown rice. (And that bottle was empty when Silas got a hold of it, I promise!)

Fresh Herburgers!

Ok this recipe has it's roots in Mark Bittman's Bean Burger recipe (from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian) but I changed it up enough that I feel ok about posting it here.

1.5 C of Cannelini Beans
1/2 C cooked brown rice
3/4-1 C old-fashioned oatmeal
3 cloves garlic
5 green onions, roughly chopped
1 small handful EACH (approximately 1/4 cup) of:
cilantro
italian parsley
And a couple tablespoons worth of fresh dill
Large pinch of salt
Freshly ground pepper

I also added about 1 teaspoon of Bill's Chick'nish seasoning and a large pinch of my tofu scramble spice mix mentioned above, so just throw in whatever usual seasonings you like - it's an adaptable recipe!

Put EVERYTHING in the food processor, starting out with the smaller amount of oatmeal. Pulse and process until everything is combined. Check out your mixture - does it look too wet to form patties? Add some oatmeal and process some more.

When you are reasonably satisfied with your mixture (taste for seasoning - nothing in there will hurt you!) use WET HANDS to shape it into patties.

Fry up your patties on a pretty hot skillet with some EVOO (I use cast iron). Flip when it gets brown on the bottom, about 3-4 minutes and cook until the other side is browned.

We had ours with HOMEMADE (!!!) wheat bread, cashew cheese, ketchup and lettuce - they were awesome!
Local vs Vegan News

Ok, it's not really a competition, but I just wanted to post these links about greenhouse gas emissions and diet - in the Vegan vs. Local Omnivore Challenge, the vegan wins!

Do Food Miles Matter?

And the original report that is quoted above can be found here:
Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States

What I'm taking from this is that being a locovore is good, being a vegan is better, and being a locovore vegan is best! I'm personally recommitting to sourcing as much of my vegan diet as locally as possible.

Even When the Universe Hates Us...

We still eat well.

This picture of Silas really captures my mood lately:
We have now entered the lovely stage of the spring I like to call "the waiting for him to call nightmare." In this scenario, the "him" refers not to a boyfriend or whatever, but to the imaginary job person who is calling to offer Chad a job. This has nothing at all to do with food or eating, but I thought it might help to explain the surliness that might just come screaming through the computer to eat your faces off, lovely readers. Let's just say we thought we had something in the bag (in SEATTLE!!!) and now it just looks like we are one of 4 lucky candidates who gets to go BACK. Again. For an interview with the president. Because bringing back FOUR of the SIX original candidates interviewed in the first round is perfectly reasonable right? RIGHT!?!???! Who DOESN'T want to bring back 2/3rds of the candidates to interview a THIRD time!?! Not me! Why don't we bring all six back? Why not!

Anyway. We are also waiting to hear back from a Rancho Cucamonga job (I swear to god I didn't make that town up). And there is another interview in San Diego in two weeks. And then we go to Oregon to chew our nails down to the quick and plead with any deity, mineral or vegtable who will give us audience to get us the hell out of this decaying place. Please.

So every time the phone rings we jump. And hope. And every time it's not our ticket out of here we die a little inside. But still, we cook good food and eat it. Because that's what good vegans do!

I will spare you all the rest of my mental breakdown.

Begin Foodiness!

Some catch-up!


Black Bean Burgers with Cilantro-Cashew Cheese, Curried Carrot Dip, Chips and Pickles!So even though I have several bean burger recipes that I like already, I decided to give the black bean burgers out of Vcon a shot. They were good! They didn't change my life, and I think they could have used a hefty pinch of salt, but they were solid. The cashew cheese continues to change my world and is transformed into a magical topping for these burgers by stirring in some minced cilantro. We also had some leftover Curried Carrot Dip out of Vcon - always a crowd pleaser, but it makes a LOT, so sometimes it's hard for us to use it all up in time.

Magical Granola with Sliced Bananas

Chad LOVES some granola. I always want to have made it - the night before. Even though it doesn't take long, I have issues with breakfast recipes that don't require my full attention from start to finish. As in, if it's going to take an hour, I want to be at the stove the whole time doing stuff. I have a problem with stir-it-up-and-wait recipes in the morning. Too hyper I guess! But I made it happen last week. Note to self: double or triple the recipe in the future, because this amount only got us through two days! We are granola hogs.

I got inspiration from Vegan Lunch Box for this granola recipe, but I feel that I've changed it up enough to share with y'all!

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup raw pistachios
3/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup maple syrup

Preheat your oven to 300F. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir to coat. Spread the mixture evenly on a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 3o minutes, stirring halfway through.

Let it cool if you can wait that long. Stir in dried fruit if you want (we don't, but up to 1 cup works fine). Serve with vegan milk or yogurt and sliced bananas.

Out of Town Vegan Guest!

We had a friend visit for a few days last week (one reason I'm so behind blogging). She is vegan, too, which made things uber easy. We enjoyed some great food out - Pizza at Amici's and Middle Eastern ood at La Pita (thanks for the tip, Jennifer!) and awesome Ethiopian food at The Blue Nile. La Pita sent our guest into a frenzy looking for a recipe to recreate the amazing garlic dip that we found there (and used to get at La Shish) - it's some magical combo of garlic, olive oil and salt, and some people say potato. And a freezing cold mortar and pestle. Still haven't tried to make it, but someday soon because that stuff is seriously garlic crack!

I also made some food that I forgot to photograph (or maybe just felt too nerdy to do it in front of our guest). One morning I made tofu scramble (VwaV) and diner potatoes (Vcon). The potatoes were tasty, but kind of a pain. Why do potatoes take so darn long to cook?!? Another morning I made a double batch of pinto sausages and a double batch of powerhouse pancakes (it was a double batch kind of day). Another morning I made Drop Biscuits from Joy of Vegan Baking (awesome!) with leftover sausage. And one day our guest cooked lunch for us, and even though there was a sugar-salt confusion, it all turned out fine (I keep containers of both sugar and salt near my stove. You just have to know that the sugar is unrefined and brown, and the salt, though sea salt, is white. And decidedly not sweet!)

Today to try to reign in some of my sanity while Chad took Silas out to play, I whipped up a batch of these Raspberry Oat Bars:

Kind of a shoddy pic, but they are delicious! So few ingredients, but still awesome (basically, quick oats, flour, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and vegan butter with some raspberry jam layered in the middle. So good!) Perfect with a glass of unsweetened almond milk.

I also made up a batch of Apple-Sage Seitan Sausages, which were really good. They were more involved than the Pinto version, but I wanted to try a new sausage recipe. Next time I would add a little more salt, but otherwise these were a great combo of sweet and savory (and I love the fact that I finally got to bust out the Marmite that's been taking up space in my pantry for a while!). We had them for lunch with steamed broccoli and artichoke hearts topped with a little fresh cashew cheese and leftover tomato-caper couscous (Vcon).

I need advice and/or recipes!!!
So today I went to our local middle eastern grocery (which I always forget is sooooo close) and found myself in the bulk section where I quickly grabbed any random spice that had previously been called for in a recipe that I never had on hand. And this, dear readers, is why I'm looking for recipes that call for ground Sumac or ground Fenugreek. Because now that I have them, I can't remember which recipes called for them! And I know they're out there, and now I have to make them. Because the smallest container I could get for each was huge. So help a vegan out! You will have my undying gratitude.

Vegan Baking Weekend!

Homestyle Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Mmm, my house smells like chocolate chip cookies! With no animal products! These cookies are so freaking amazing, I think I might have to make them weekly. And let me say that that is a lot of cookies, because I'm the only one in the house who can eat chocolate! Chad's allergic, and because of that we're keep Silas away from chocolate until he's a little older. Luckily this recipe only makes 11-12 cookies, so it's not too bad. They're sooo good, I might only eat cookies today! Seriously, these are like tollhouse cookies, just perfect. I'm so in love.

So how can you enjoy these fabulous cookies? They are courtesy of Dreena Burton, author of Eat, Drink and Be Vegan and Vive Le Vegan and The Everyday Vegan. She also has a blog, eat, drink and be vegan and a recipe blog, Dreena's Vegan Recipes. It all looks delicious!

You can find the recipe for these cookies here. OR! Even better, you can watch a show of Dreena making these cookies here! They are simple and delicious. Make them!

Dreena's Apple Hemp Muffins

As I'm blogging this I've come to realize that I'm having a Dreena kind of weekend. ;) Friday morning I woke up and whipped up a batch of Apple Hemp Muffins, which are awesome. They are tender and subtle, not too sweet, perfect for the morning with a cup of coffee or green tea. Or a snack in the middle of the day with some chocolate almond milk! The recipe can be found in the Mar/Apr 2008 edition of VegNews. I would definitely make these again. Those little hemp seeds are nutritional powerhouses and this recipe is GREAT for using up applesauce that might be on the verge of going bad in your fridge (it uses a whole cup).

Chickpea Navy Bean Cutlets!

So earlier in the week I cooked up a big batch of navy beans (like a whole pound). The original use was for White Been Leek Cassoulet from Veganomicon - which was awesome! But it certainly didn't use up the whole batch of beans, so I've been throwing them in things all week. So last night as I was trying to decide what to make for dinner, I wondered if any other bean would work in the Chickpea Cutlet recipe from Veganomicon....and the answer is yes, navy beans are your friends! I followed the original recipe exactly, except instead of mashing the beans with a potato masher, I blended them in the food processor with the oil - those little buggers kept slipping through my potato masher unscathed. This went a lot faster than mashing, anyway, and I might do this in the future for whatever bean I use. I've also found that these cutlets - whatever bean you use - are improved by being very, very thin. And because they have vital wheat gluten in them you can really pat them thin without the risk of falling apart on their way in to the frying pan. So smoosh the crap out of those suckers, baby! Thinner! Thinner! Yes, really, they can be thinner than that, keep going!

We had these with smashed red potatoes and a side green salad. Oh, and the red wine roux from V-con. Which was kind of a pain to make and not really worth the effort, imho. Although our mediocre results could certainly be from the quality of the wine we used, or lack-thereof as the case may be. It was seriously bad. Undrinkable. I think it was a bargain bin purchase, and now I know why. No legs at all, just so flat flat flat! But other than that, it was a good meal. And some ruby port after dinner was a nice way to quickly forget how bad the wine was.

Oh yeah! One more thing I made that I unfortunately didn't get pictures of....The original title of the recipe was something like Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars, and it's by Collen Patrick-Goudreau out of the Mar/Apr 2008 issue of VegNews. The original recipe is basically peanut-buttery rice crispy treats covered in a layer of chocolate. Ok, sounds awesome, right? Well....Silas isn't eating peanut butter yet, so we subbed Cashew Butter. And Chad's allergic to chocolate, so nix the topping. So after getting everything else mixed together and pressing it into the pan, we realized that they probably weren't going to cut or hold shape without the chocolate topping. So we threw it back in the bowl and rolled them into little no-bake balls instead. OH MY GOD. These things were so freaking good! Chad and I agreed that they taste really similar to the peanutty goodness of the Whatchamacalit candybar. And because of this, we would like to rename our version Watchamyballs. Hahaha! No, but seriously, you have to try them!

Whatchamaballs
2 cups of crispy brown rice cereal, crushed
1 1/2 cups cashew butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup earth balance margarine, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Roll small balls of the dough in your hands to form whatever sized balls you like. Try not to eat them in one sitting. Store leftovers in the fridge!

For some reason Chad convinced himself that they're healthy so we ate these in no time flat. "What, they're all cashew butter and brown rice! What could be better?" And I'm thinking, yeah, healthy....powdered sugar and margarine, part of the four food groups...But really, it's a pretty good compromise.

So now I've got the house to myself for a while. I'm so psyched! I'm planning on hanging out in my sunny kitchen, listening to cool podcasts, planning this week's meals and cooking. What could be more relaxing! :D

DDELC Week #5

Meal #1: Ok, this doesn't totally fall into my guidelines for local-ness, because we had a lot of non-local spices and such, but the bulk ingredient of each piece of this meal was local, so I'm letting it in! The coconut creamed spinach was so good I thought I would die of deliciousness. I've never been a huge fan of creamed spinach, but this was a totally different animal!

Cumin-Lime Tofu: ok so the bulk of this was local tofu (Ann Arbor, MI - 40 mi) and the marinade was totally non-local (cumin, evoo, allspice, braggs, lime juice, cayenne pepper). Oh and local honey (Davisburg, MI - 41 mi)

Dumpling Squash (Capac, MI - 51 mi)
Organic Butter (non-local)*
S&P

Coconut Creamed Spinach
Spinach and Garlic (Yale, MI - 65 mi)
Dried Chilies (non local but soooo old)
Coconut Milk (non local but leftover from another meal the day before)
EVOO, S&P - nonlocal

Meal #2: So delicious! I'm in love with my newest cookbook, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. The black bean cutlets (and the black beans themselves), and the broccoli recipes were both from there and totally freaking awesome! I can't believe how easy and delicious the cutlets were. I'm never buying veggie burgers ever again.

Black Bean Cutlets:
Black beans, oatmeal, eggs: Kingston, MI (83 mi)
onion: Yale, MI (65 mi)
chili powder, salt & pepper: non-local
Gravy:
mostly water, with backyard thyme and non-local braggs, cornstarch s&p
Roman-style broccoli
Broccoli: local farm, can't remember where in MI
Garlic: Yale, MI (65 mi)
Chilies: non-local but in the pantry forever
evoo, s&p: non-local

Delicata squash with Honey Butter: Yale, MI (65 mi)
Honey: Davisburg, MI (41 mi)
Butter: non-local organic valley*

Meal #3

Victory is mine! I've been looking for a good vegetarian bean sausage recipe forever - most use soy (which is fine, but highly processed and not usually local). So I took the black bean burger recipe from the other night and paired it with the seasonings of a tempeh sausage recipe I like. The results were fabulous!

Black Bean Sausage
2 cups beans (or 1 14-oz can) drained (Kingston, MI 83 mi)
1/2 medium onion (Yale, MI 41 mi)
2 cloves garlic (Battle Creek, MI 118 mi)
2 T Braggs (or soy or tamari) (non-local)
1 egg (Kingston, MI 83 mi)
1/2-3/4 cup rolled oats (not instant) (Kingston, MI 83 mi)
1 T fennel seeds (non-local)
1 t dried basil (Dirty Girl Farm, ??? MI)
1 t dried oregano (Dirty Girl Farm, ??? MI)
1/2 t dried sage (Dirty Girl Farm, ??? MI)
1/2 t red pepper flakes (non-local)

Put everything in a food processor and pulse until chunky, adding a little water or onion if it's too dry or more oats if it's too wet (to test, just grab a small handful and try to form it into a sausage patty - it should stay formed reasonably well and not be too gloppy).

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add 1-2 T olive oil. When hot, add as many sausage patties as will fit (leaving room to flip over). Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over each of the patties while they fry. After about 5 minutes, flip over and salt and pepper the other sides. Cook until the other side browns, about 4-5 minutes more.

These are so good and easy. IF you don't feel like frying up the whole batch at once, just pop the mix in the fridge and fry it up as you need. The mixture even holds together a little better after it's been refrigerated. Just use within 2-3 days probably.

I'm totally psyched to keep messing with this recipe - different beans, different spices...I really want to add some chipotle pepper next time (dried or canned in adobo?). I love recipes with endless possibilities!

We had these sausages with local scrambled eggs. YUM!


*The butter debate: I was really conflicted whether to buy local non-organic butter of unknown production methods rather than non-local organic butter. At this point, I'm going with the non-local organic valley butter. The whole point of this local thing is that I'm trying to tread more lightly on the earth, and if I have no idea how sustainable the animal husbandry practices are of a particular non-organic farm (and we can probably assume the worst unless I could find it directly from a farmer, which I can't), then I feel good about supporting the farmers that contribute to the Organic Valley coop. From what I've read about it (and maybe it's all just PR), they support small farmers and sustainable methods. Plus, I've also heard that the conventional fallout like pesticides and herbicides are more concentrated in fat cells, so butter is something to really buy organic. So that's my reasoning at the moment. Subject to change.

Dark Days ELC, Meal #3

Hello, hello!

This week here at Maybe Local, we enjoyed a really delicious meal of Portabello Stroganoff with Roasted Roots on the side.



Portabello Stroganoff Breakdown

• 3 tablespoons butter (40 mi)
  
• 1 large onion, chopped (CSA)
  
• 3/4 pound portobello mushrooms, sliced (farmer's market - local)
  
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (non-local)
  
• 1/2 cups sour cream (173 miles)
  
• 2.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour (Hampshire Farms, 83 mi)
  
• 1 Squeeze Braggs (non-local)
• 1 tsp veggie worchestshire sauce (non-local)
• 1 splash white wine (non-local)
  
• 8 ounces dried egg noodles (produced in MI from ingredients with unknown pedigrees - my 1 freebie per meal)
  

I followed the directions pretty much as written, except I added the braggs, worchestshire sauce and wine with the veggie broth, and reduced the sour cream as others on allrecipes.com had suggested. It was GREAT! We will definitely have this again. Next time I'm thinking of adding beef-style seitan - wicked good!

Roasted Roots

• 4 carrots, peeled and chunked (local - farmer's market)
• 3 parsnips, peeled and chunked (local - farmer's market)
• 1 onion, cut in wedges (CSA)
• 1 handful of small beets, halved/quartered (CSA)
• 1 delicata squash, peeled and chunked (CSA)
• Olive Oil (non-local)
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (backyard!)
• s&p (non-local)

Basically I just combined all of the above and threw it in the oven for about an hour at 375. I stirred things around a few times.

And although I reserved my squash seeds for roasting, I didn't use them in this meal, so no bonus squash points for me!

Other delicous local endeavors this week have included: Ratatouille (local peppers, onions, garlic, eggplant and tomatoes baked in olive oil and herbs - yum!). We're still enjoying those leftovers. I also made a pretty local apple crisp that has been rocking our socks - although it would be slightly enhanced if we weren't out of cinnamon ice cream (from our favorite local producer!). There's a road construction issue that's standing in our way of ice cream, and it's not pretty.

Tomorrow should be another local success: Maple Baked Beans and collard greens! I've got the navy beans cooking in the crock tonight (local from Hampshire Farms! I freaking love that place). Tomorrow I'll get the beans "baking" in their maple-y goodness and figure out how the hell to make collard greens. Any tips would be appreciated!

I'm really looking forward to the farmer's market tomorrow. I never knew how much it could anchor the whole week. Tomorrow we're in need of some onions, garlic and eggs and whatever else is inspiring. Oh and portabellos! And maybe squash, because, can you ever really have enough winter squash?!?

And I'd also like to report that there have been no breakdowns in mental health despite the fact that our CSA has ended. This was our first Tuesday in many many weeks that we did not pick up a share. I know I'll miss it, but I'm actually just enjoying the freedom right now of only eating veggies that I'm in the mood for. There are just only so many peppers, eggplants and arugula that a girl can eat, you know?

Aaagh! I'm Late!

Posting my Dark Days Eat Local Challenge Meal, #2. I don't know what happened, just one of those weeks that got the better of me.


The Menu:
Roasted Kuri Squash with honey butter
Honey Baked Lentils
Steamed Broccoli
Green Salad

We picked up the Kuri squash at the farmer's market yesterday, having never tried one and feeling the need to buy some of the amazingly cool looking squash on offer. The broccoli and red romaine lettuce for the salad were also purchased the day we ate them, which is cool and made them extra delicious!

Recipes:

Roasted Kuri Squash
Serves 4

1 Kuri squash, halved and seeded (seeds reserved) (can't remember the distance, but local!)
Butter (non-local)
Honey (Davisburg, MI - 41 mi)
S&P (non-local)

Preheat oven to 375. Pour some water into a 9x13" pan. Place squash, cut side down, in the pan. Roast until easily pierced with fork, about 1 hour.

Using a spoon, scrape all the squash flesh out of the shells. Use a potato masher to combine, adding butter, honey, and s&p to taste. Serve!

Honeybaked Lentils
see my last entry for the recipe!

Steamed Broccoli
Ok, I'm not going to go into it here - you all probably know how to steam broccoli! We had ours served with local sunflower seeds sprinkled on top and salt and pepper. Yum!

Our salad consisted of local red romaine lettuce and CSA arugula, which made a great mix. We had it with store bought dressing after I realized that even if I made a homemade dressing it would still be out of all non-local ingredients. ;)

All in all it was a great meal. We had enough leftover roasted squash that we made pumpkin-style squash pancakes for breakfast this morning!!!

Squash Pancakes
(adapted from this recipe on allrecipes.com)

• 2 cups local whole wheat pastry flour (Kingston, MI - 83 mi)
  
• 3 tablespoons raw honey (Davisburg, MI - 41 mi)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (non-local)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (non-local)
  
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice (non-local)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (non-local)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (non-local)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (non-local)
• 1 1/2 cups milk (Calder Dairy, local!)
  
• 1 cup kuri squash puree (local!)
  
• 1 egg (local!)
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (non-local)
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (non-local)

1. In a separate bowl, mix together the honey, milk, squash, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

YUMMMM! I love when my local dinner spills over into my local breakfast!

Oh, and here is a bonus mostly local meal from earlier in the week:
Spinach-Rice Casserole from the Moosewood Cookbook utilized local spinach, onion, garlic, eggs, milk and sunflower seeds (non-local butter, cheese, Braggs, salt, nutmeg, cayenne, and parika. Oh and brown rice!)

And Roasted Acorn Squash with honey butter (notice a theme here?). Good stuff!

Dark Days Eat Local Challenge, Meal #1

Well, our first DDELC meal was a total success!

Menu:
Roasted Delicata Squash with honey butter and dried cranberries
Honeybaked Lentils
Braised Brussels Sprouts
Tamari Roasted Squash Seeds

Roasted Delicata Squash
Serves 2

2 Delicata squash, halved, seeds and pulped removed and reserved (CSA - 65 mi)
2 T butter (non-local, exempt)
2 tsp honey (Davisburg, MI - 41 mi)
2 T dried cranberries (Not sure on the distance, but they're from MI)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Place squash, cut side down, in a rimmed baking pan. Roast for 30-40 minutes, or until tender when poked with a fork.

After the squash come out of the oven, place 1/2 T of butter, 1/2 tsp of honey and 1/2 T of cranberries in each half. Serve!

Honeybaked Lentils
This recipe comes from someone on MotheringDotCommune. It is the MOST delicious way to serve lentils, hands down. If you use brown lentils (like I did), they come out the consistency of baked beans or so. If you use red lentils, expect to eat this as soup, which is just as delicious, just different.
Serves 4, or 2 with leftovers

1 cup lentils (Kingston, MI - 83 mi)
2 cups water (0 mi!)
2 tbsp honey (Davisburg, MI - 41 mi)
2 tbsp soysauce (non-local, exempt)
2 tbsp olive oil (non-local, exempt)
1/2 tsp ginger (non-local, exempt)
1 clove garlic (CSA - 65 mi)
1 small onion (CSA - 65 mi)
salt & pepper (non-local, exempt)

Option 1: Bake in a covered dish at 350 until tender (about an hour and a half).
Option 2: Put everything in a saucepan on medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. When boiling, reduce heat to simmer and cook until lentils are tender, about 40-50 minutes.

Simmered Brussels Sprouts
from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
Serves 4 or two with leftovers

1-1 1/2 lbs brussels sprouts, trimmed (CSA - 65 mi)
2 T butter or olive oil ((non-local, exempt)
1 clove garlic, smashed (CSA - 65 mi)
1 T plain breadcrumbs (non-local, freebie)
1 T lemon juice (non-local, exempt)
pinch of dried parsley (non-local, exempt)
salt and pepper (non-local, exempt)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil; salt it. Add the sprouts and keeping the heat high, boil for about 10 minutes or until just tender. Drain and plunge into cold water. Drain again.

Heat the butter or oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add the garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add the sprouts and the breadcrumbs. Stir until heated through, about 3 minutes

Remove the garlic if you want (I left it in), toss the sprouts with lemon juice, parsley and salt & pepper.

Roasted Squash Seeds
from The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz

Preheat the oven to 325F. Place the pulpy seeds in a bowl of water, and use both hands to remove chunks of pulp and fiber from the seeds. When reasonably clean, drain the seeds. Toss the seeds with your choice of seasoning (I used a squirt or two of Braggs). Spread seeds out on a cookie sheet in a single layer, and bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until seeds are lightly toasted and crispy all the way through.