yum...beer....

...as in Beer Battered anything! Sunday night I made Beer Battered Seitan Strips based on a recipe posted by Jess at Get Sconed. Oh these were delicious. Not so healthy but that's ok you can't eat healthy all the time. The next time I make these I will not make a potato side dish. Although delicious it was a bit heavy and carby. As a dipping sauce I made a Pesto Aioli using some fresh pesto I made with some wilting basil mixed with vegan mayo. Did we enjoy this meal hot off the stove? No. Its hard to eat a hot meal once you have a baby. She seems to want attention as soon as dinner is ready.



The other evening I was feeling nostalgic and remembering my early vegetarian days as a teen when I first discovered chili. My chili back then wasn't as good as it is now simply because back then I was afraid to try cumin. I was stupid but slowly started using it and now all these years later am a cumin addict. I also thought I didn't like beans but I couldn't eat broccoli for every meal (which I did for a few days in the very beginning, oh the horrendus gas pains I had in my chest) so slowly thru the miracle of chili I learned to love both. Now I get gas pains in my chest from broccoli and beans. This chili contains 3 ingredients I usually don't use in chili: zucchini, corn and Field Roast Chipotle Mexican "Sausage". I also made some yellow rice because I was feeling festive.

Desperation Dinner.

The other night I was desperate for food. I hadn't had a chance to eat all day. Reno, who is a good baby, decided to be cranky for a bit and Peter was out picking up our new stereo. It was a bit impossible to cook with her needing attention, but if I didn't I would have passed out and I was getting a major headache. I managed to get her to sit in this rainforest bouncer chair on the kitchen table for about 15 minutes while I whipped up this delicous but desperate Italian Stirfry. It consists of Zucchini, Broccoli, Cherry Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, Carrots, Pinenuts and fresh Basil. It was great and made me feel a ton better. Even better is that it was something that i've never made before so yeah to me for creating a new dish.




Here are some new pics of Reno. I never got around to telling you all about the birth and everything BECAUSE!!! my second night home from the hospital I ended up back in the hospital with a pretty wicked kidney infection! It was horrible! I was on all these drugs and such which I ended up being allergic too and my face swelled up 5 time bigger then my face already is!! I had to spend the night in the hospital (would have been two nights if I didn't have the allergic reaction) I've never been sick or allergic to anything so this was all a bit too much for me. But i'm all better now (i think) and Reno is a wonderful baby. She only wakes us up once or twice at night to be fed and sleeps the rest of the night away. She's already grown 2 inches!

I've pretty much recovered from the birth. It was pretty horrible being induced because the induction processed worked alittle too well with me and it all happend to fast which in the long run I guess is better than laboring for 20 or more hours before pushing, the whole thing took only 12 or so with actual contractions and labor being only 5 hours.



So I should be posting more often now since i'm back cooking us dinners and such which i'm excited about. I've missed making my dinners and I can't eat anymore take out or other people meals anymore! See ya's soon.

7lbs 12 oz. 19 1/2 inches

Here she is!!! Reno Sofia!!!! Born Friday August 31 at 11:36 a.m. 7lb. 12 oz. 19 1/2 inches.

More info to come later in the week!

Sent home AGAIN!!

How long will this last?? That question has finally been answered. Tomorrow night (thursday) at 8pm I go to the hospital to be induced. This little bundle of joy that i've been carrying in my body for OVER 9 MONTHS will be born friday night at the latest.(at least i hope that's the latest) I went in today for another ultrasound and non stress test and they said everything seemed fine go home and come back tomorrow night. Why they just couldn't induce tonight is beyond me since i'm pretty sure nothing is going to happen tonight on it's own. But you never know.

This will be my last post til at least the beginning of next week when I get home from the hospital and hopefully will be introducing you all to the beast who's been sucking the life out of me all these months.

Have a great weekend and think good thoughts thursday night and friday. CIAO!

Sent home.

No baby yet. My test's at the hospital all turned out well so they decided the baby can stay in longer. Such a shame. I was hoping that the ultrasound would annoy the hell out of her so she would come out but no luck yet with that. It annoyed me though I almost fainted 2 times during it from laying on my back. I had to keep asking to sit up for a few minutes. It was horrible. They also approximate that she weighs 9 POUNDS!! I almost fainted for a third time after I heard that. Those approximations aren't alway's that accurate though.

Have a good weekend.

BROWNIES!!! (updated 8/23)

UPDATE: Still no baby for us. If I don't go into labor by noon tomorrow I go to the hospital for some test just to make sure she is doing alright. So if you don't hear from me tomorrow or saturday that means i'm prolly staying at the hospital to somehow give birth to this monster kid. :)



Today was rainy and cold. I wasn't feeling well. I was bored. So I made my Vegan Choc Chip-Walnut Brownies! My favorite part of a batch of brownies are the edge pieces. I love the crispy edge. I made these brownies in cupcake pans so that they all had that edge piece taste, which they did. They however didn't make me feel any better though. It's a first that chocolate didn't lift my spirits but I was still happy to make and eat them. So was Peter.

baby is LATE!! boohoo...(UPDATED)

UPDATE (8/21): no new news. nothing has changed from the week before at the dr's visit. if the baby doesn't come by friday i have to go get a non stress test and a ultrasound test at the hospital. if those come out well they send me home. if they don't i guess i stay and have a baby induced out of me or cut out of me. i blame the cold rainy weather. she just wants to stay where it's nice and warm.



Saturday was my due date...Baby Unknown decided not to show up. So I decided to make Potato-Carrot Pancakes. Served with some store bought applesauce. These made me so happy except for the fact that my apartment stunk like fried onions all day today (sunday). Open windows and a candle fixed that problem.



I heard a myth that basil helps bring on labor. I don't believe in labor myths but I used this as an excuse to eat lots of basil. So I thawed some VwaV seitan and my basil-miso pesto for dinner tonight. It's simply angel hair pasta with pesto topped with seitan chunks dredged in the chickpea flour breading that I created in the post below. It was so carb-y and heavy but delicious. I watch Top Chef all the time and on one episode this one team made pasta with pesto and meatballs with other stuff so that was the inspiration for this dish. Peter said the seitan reminded him of some sorta meatballs that one of his Italian Aunts use to make so I was pleased.

As per a Pesto recipe that alot of people request whenever I make it..I'm sorry to say that I don't have one. I'll tell you what I do though:

Throw in a Quisenart:

1. A huge handful of Basil
2. A bunch of raw pinenuts (you could toast them if you like)
3. 2 large cloves of garlic
3. 2 fork/spoonfuls of mellow miso

Blend until chopped up...add some salt then run the blender while slowly pouring in some extra virgin olive oil.
Taste and add more pinenuts, salt or miso as needed.

That's basically what I do. The times I've tried to measure everything out it just doesn't come out as good as when I just blindly dump everything in the blender.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment so hopefully she will have some goods news about being somewhat dilated. I also hope that her tinkering around and checking things out will help move the process along.

still cooking...no baby.

Today I had one of those day's where I just layed on the couch ALLLLLLLL day long. Which I think in my situation is acceptable. How I got off my ass to make tonights dinner I have no idea..I was aching and slightly cramping through the whole thing.



Italian Seitan w. Pesto, Lemon Potatoes and Cauliflower...YUM!! Yesterday I made the seitan recipe from VwaV. I froze most of it for after baby dinners but kept a few slices around for dinner tonight. The seitan was dredged in a mixture of chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, dried basil, salt and pepper and fried in a few tablespoons of oil. For the potatoes I just cut em up, squeezed 1/2 a lemon on it (leftover from my guacamole lunch) added some olive oil salt and pepper and roasted them until crispy. Simple sauteed cauliflower...then topped it all off with some homemade Miso-Pesto that I made tonight. Everything was great, especially the seitan. This will be something I make more often. It was so "meaty" and satisfying and using chickpea flour instead of regular flour really made this dish great. (I also use chickpea flour in the seitan recipe instead of the white flour that is called for)



Angel Hair Pasta w. Cauliflower, Stringbeans, Carrots and Tomato Paste. For some reason I really really like cauliflower in pasta. I sauteed cauliflower, stringbeans, carrots and garlic in some olive oil. Since I opened a can of tomato paste to make the seitan recipe mentioned above I needed another use for it so I added a few tablespoons to the pan after everything was cooked and thined it out with some pasta water. Then added the pasta and mixed it all up. I really liked using tomato paste along with some fresh tomatoes in this dish..It gave it a nice slow cooked flavor. It also gave me another use for tomato paste because I alway's end up throwing at least 1/2 of it away because I either forget about it or don't know what to make with it.

Well my official due date is this Saturday. So please think of positive labor pains for me. I have a feeling she might wait until the weekend is over though..but you never know. Everyday it feels like more and more is happening so I hope she's almost ready to send out her signal and get things moving.

6 days she's due.

I havn't posted in almost a month due to baby exhaustion. She is due next saturday august 18th. I'm hoping she comes sooner then later. If you know what's good for you don't ever get pregnant in the month of November because being 9 months pregnant in August is horrible! I just sit around with the air on and my big belly exposed to cool off. Plus i've been living in a cold shower at least 2 times a day. I've been cooking though on and off and have some porn to show.



I'm calling this Indian Inspired Chickpea and Veg Ratatouille. I had alot of veg in the fridge, it was 8 o'clock at night and we were hungry. Luckily I found a can of tomatoes in the food closet to stew it all together. I served it as is without rice or anything because I didn't feel like it.



Two Bean Cashew Chili with Corn Biscuits. I didn't have enough ingredients to make cornbread. I didn't have enough flour to make regular biscuits so I took a biscuit recipe and substituted 1/2 of the flour for cornmeal, making an interesting Corn Biscuit. It needs a bit of work and something else added to it (i'm not sure what yet) to make it a new and delicious recipe.



Stir Fry Veg with Noodles and Peanut Sauce.



Chipotle "Sausage" and Potato Hash. All we had in the house were potatoes, a grain veggie burger, a chipotle Field Roast "sausage", some carrots, garlic and onions. I fried em all up and added a ton of paprika. It tasted like heaven.



Dirty Rice w. Black Beans...another way to use Field Roast Chipotle "Sausage". I'm obsessed with the stuff.



Someone finally dwarfed Riley and I'm afraid it's me.

Soy Vay

Out of pure lazyness I havn't been posting anything. I keep saying to myself "tomorrow". Which should not have been a problem especially since i'm not working anymore. I have all the time in the world right now. On to the food.

Black Bean and Vegetable Taquito's w. Guac and Salad. These were crispy and delicous. Unfortunalty as I was taking my last bite of taquito the power went out. For two hours. Peter didn't eat yet and didn't get to eat them until lunch the next day. This is the type of meal you need to eat when it's made in my mind. The corn tortilla's get alittle weird the next day.



Sweet Teryaki Stir Fry. Right as I needed to add my tamari slurry to the stir fry I realized I didn't have anymore tamari. I freaked out for a minute and then found a jar of Soy Vay Teryaki Sauce/Marinade. It worked so well in the stir fry that I made the exact same dish the next night for dinner as well. It was so nice and sweet and nutty because of the cashews and the two type of sesame seeds that were in it. (black and white).




This is a crap picture. But prolly one of the best curry's i've made ever. I had my first contraction earlier in the week (just a practice Braxton Hick one) nothing to bad at all. I started to freak out that I havn't made any food for us for after baby is born and home (exactly one month from now if all goes as planned) So I made a huge pot of curry with the hopes of freezing at least 2 extra meals for us. That didn't work out. The next day I was so tired we just ate what should have been frozen for dinner and the day after that Peter took it to work. Maybe thurs or fri i'll try batch cooking again.



Our new baby "travel system" is all set up. CB, as with everything new for baby, had to be the first to use it. Thank goodness Riley is too fat to jump into anything baby related. He would break it. Recently he's been demanding that I pick him up to put him into the kitchen window. Its insane that I give in to a cats wishes.

past week.

A lot has been going on in the past week.

*Last Thursday was my last day of work. YEAH!!!! Although I do miss it terribly. It just wasn't possible for me to work anymore because of the baby in my belly.
*Last Saturday was my baby shower which was a surprise up until I drove past the restaurant and saw my friend Cheryl's bright orange car with the autism sticker on it. Our apartment is now overflowing with baby stuff.
*I've was terribly sick in the beginning of the week due to the baby. Sleeping all the time, dizzy and blah.
*The 4th of July was a bore which was fine with me.
*Now that i'm feeling better and ready to cook again i'm going to my parents for the weekend..So hopefully next week i'll have a bunch of new stuff to show you all.

Because of the baby shower I made the above dish. It was a take on something served at the shower. Orecchiette w. Broccoli Rabe and Cannelini Beans. The original dish used spinach and had broth in it. I used Broccoli Rabe instead and left out the broth for more of an oil based pasta dish although I did add some of the pasta cooking water to the dish. This was better then the original at the shower. While I was making it Peter was turning up his nose at the idea of beans being in it. In the end he loved it though and thought everything was perfect about it. It's even better cold the next day. I ate it for breakfast.



Today was a hot day. (for me at least) So for lunch I made us a nice COLD and CRUNCHY salad. Raw beets, Jicama, Cucumber and Avocado over baby greens lightly dressed with lemon, olive oil, salt + pepper.

dinner party

We had our friends Alan and Ashley over for dinner the other night. They too are expecting a baby 2 weeks before ours is due so we hang out once in awhile to be pregnant together. I was nervous about what to make and my sister suggested my "meat pies". I took her advice and made em and they were delicous as usual but even more delicous this time with the addition of the magical spice know as Paprika. I don't know what it is about paprika but I now add it to almost everything and it just makes everything taste just a bit better.

The seitan pies are filled with mashed potatoes, very simply mashed with extra virgin olive oil, some potato cooking liquid and a few pats of earth balance, salt and pepper. The "meat" part is finely chopped seitan, shallots, carrots, garlic, red wine, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. I could eat these all the time they are so good. They are even great the next day cold out of the fridge. Along side the pies I made my Chickpea, Asparagus and Balsamic Salad that i'm obsessed with. As well as garlicky stringbeans (not pictured for some reason.)



Dessert was ind. Crisp's filled with fresh blueberries, raspberries and peaches. Topped with a walnut-oat crisp filling. ( I forgot to take a picture of the crisps with the topping on them.) I love making everyone there own individual desserts. These were great. All the filling had in it besides the fruit was some maple syrup so it is super easy to make. I love crisp. I have extra topping in the fridge that I just keep eating out of the bowl.



For us girls that can't have any liquor. I made us a pregnant friendly Sangria made with o.j., grape juice, seltzer, a bit of suger, sliced lemon, sliced orange and a cut up peach. I figured it wasn't fair that the boys would be drinking all there beer or whatever they were going to drink. I had such a sugar high from all the fruit that I consumed with this meal that I felt hung over the next day.

Mexico meets Italy and they like each other.

I've been ignoring all the food in my fridge this past week. After work and a nice nap today I emptied all the 1/2 dead veggies I had and decided to make a veggie pasta sauce. After I added all the ingredients plus basil I went to the pantry to find some chickpeas or another italian friendly bean. To my horror all I had were black beans. My brain was telling me NOOOOOOOO! DO NOT ADD BLACK BEANS TO ITALIAN PASTA SAUCE!!! My brain was also telling me YOU NEED PROTEIN!! So I sat on it for a few and contemplated leaving out the beans/protein and just stick a few spoonfuls of peanut butter in my mouth. I eventually added the beans. It was delicious. Not that the black beans would taste wrong or bad but I just didn't want black beans in my tomato sauce. So to keep with the new mexican-italian theme I added mexican oregano to the sauce as well just to tie it all together. I still might stick a few spoonfuls of PB in my mouth though.



Pomegranate Chip Ice Cream by purely decadent. Very Good! Very floral tasting..almost yogurt like.

lots of food

I've been cooking and photographing our food but have not been posting it for some reason..so here's the lot of it....plus an extra non food photo.




Part one of two dishes to tonights meal. Potato and spinach pakoras with papaya and orange chutney. The chutney was store bought. The pakoras are my own recipe.



Part two of two dishes to tonights meal. Red Bean and Broccoli Curry. Served as is without rice or anything else. The sauce is coconut milk based.



One of the best salads i've made in awhile. Just your average mesclun greens topped with a mix of: chickpeas, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, grilled asparagus and fresh basil marinaded in extra virgin olive oil, fig-balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Peter and I each ate 2 huge bowlfuls of this stuff.



Simple Rice and Beans with Simple Guacamole. It's simple because I only added cumin to the beans instead of all the other crazy spices I usually add. The same with the Guac...not alot of ingredients in it this time. It was food shopping night so I had to keep it quick and easy.



Linguini w. Sundried Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives and Pine Nuts in oil.



Indian Biryani Stirfry. Basically it's the same as the last Veggie Fried Rice but with Indian spices instead of tamari.



We purchased a crib and finally set it up today. CB thinks it's for her.

good chinese

Why can't chinese restaurants make there veggie fried rice like this. More veggies less rice? After a not so delicious chinese restaurant dinner the other night i've been craving that good chinese taste. Then after a day (today) of having an alien that is growing in my uterus dance and ram her baby ass against my insides all day I needed a comforting and healthy meal. Veggie Fried Rice MY Way was that meal. I feel a whole lot better even though that alien baby ass is still assaulting my insides.

clean out

The last two nights have been clean out the fridge meals. Above is "the people's pizza" crust topped with a super delicious ripe tomato, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and pine nuts. Served with some garlic and red chili flake sauteed broccoli. I picked up "the people's pizza" crust the other night at whole foods because on the ingredient list they wrote: really good extra virgin olive oil and I couldn't resist. It's a very very thin crust pizza which I didn't care for after the first bite. After the second bite I devoured my 1/2 of the pizza I loved it so much. I will probably alway's have a peoples pizza crust in my fridge now for an easy dinner night.



This isn't your average tomato sauce with fake meatballs. It's Moroccan Tomato Sauce w. Falafel!! I was trying to figure out a way to use up the rest of the falafel and I didnt really want to make a sandwich out them because that's my least favorite way to eat falafel. So I created this super good Moroccan spiced tomato sauce filled with fennel seeds, orange zest, onions, cilantro and a bunch of other ingredients. We loved this meal. I would make falafel just to make this dinner again.



Here is the sauce just bubbling away until the falafel is warmed through.

Falafel for Sale

I love falafel. I never make it though. Simply because I think it takes too long. When in fact it's one of the easiest foods to make ever (as long as you soak the chickpeas the night before). You don't even have to precook the chickpeas! Just load everything into the quisenart and blend away. Then you just fry away in some nice oil. This was from a recipe that I found in the New York Times food pages a month or two ago and has just been hanging on the door of our fridge waiting oh so patiently to be made. It's a pretty good recipe but I believe it needs some extra spice or something like that. It made so many that if Peter's mom was here she would say "We need to have a falafel sale!" I don't think she's ever eaten falafel let alone knows what it is. But when she makes a ton of some sorta food she's alway's having a "sale". Its hysterical.

I plopped the falafel onto mesclun greens with some tomatoes, cucumbers, olive oil, lemon, salt + pepper. If it wasn't so late when I was making these I would have made a tahini dressing to pour on top as well.

Cinnamon Blueberry Pancakes

After days of frustration, tears (hormone related) and new batteries I finally got my camera to work again. How did I get it too work again? I don't know. I just kept replacing batteries, memory cards and pressing buttons and all of a sudden it started working. I think he just needed a vacation from taking food photos.

Instead of going out for breakfast this morning I decided to make us breakfast for once. I made the most delicious and cinnamony blueberry pancakes ever. Peter declared them the best pancakes he's ever eaten. I also learned today that he doesn't like cinnamon (which is insane!) he ate the pancakes anyway without knowing that the spice he was tasting was cinnamon until I told him. I'm thinking of starting a pancake sunday in our home. I can't wait until plums come in season because I have an idea for ginger plum pancakes!

sad face.

My trusty camera has decided to crap out on me. Hopefully it is just a rechargeable battery gone bad situation and not an I need a new camera situation especially since the camera is only 1 1/2 years old. humpf!!! The most frustration thing about this is that i've made a couple of brand new recipes this week that I wanted to share with everyone and it's just not the same writing about them without pictures. On a good note I will be making these new dishes again very soon because I liked them so much and hopefully my camera will be in working mode. For now I am hot as hell..being 6 months pregnant in the hot summer heat is not fun at all..so it's off to an A/C filled movie theater. See ya later.

Pesto Mania!

I went to my parents house last weekend to celebrate mothers day and had a bunch of food in the house to use up. So I went pesto crazy. Above is an Arugula Pesto using 1/2 pinenuts and 1/2 walnuts (i ran out of pine nuts) Now I LOVE basil pesto! So I was never to keen on making pesto with anything else. But with a box of baby arugula left over that wasn't going to survive the weekend I just went for it. I will forever now be using my leftover arugla to make pesto. It was so good. I dare say I might have even liked it better then my beloved basil pesto.



It's not a toasted bagel with peanut butter but the next best thing. Toasted leftover ciabatta with peanut butter. My favorite breakfast.



The above mentioned Arugula Pesto



The not as delicious Basil Pesto. I had to make it in the blender because my quisenart was in the dishwasher with VwaV alfreda sauce on it that only the dishwasher could clean. I will never use the blender again. I had to use so much more olive oil then I like using and it just didn't taste the same. (for some reason the aruglua pesto in the blender came out perfect...who knows? I believe arugula just want's to be a scene stealer)