Burgers, BBQ + Measurements (not mine! dirty!)

Butternut, Red Bean + Quinoa Burger w. Chipotle Aioli

This is a version of my most favorite veggie burger recipe of mine. I was out of a few things so I had to do with what I had. This is usually made with millet and has leeks and peppers in it as well. The original inspiration for this burger was from one of the weekly specials at my last job. I was craving it one day when I wasn't working and set out to make my own version since I wouldn't ask for the recipe. It's more fun experimenting I think. It's changed here and there over the past 2 years but I'm really happy with it and am going to set out getting proper ingredient measurements, since you can't write recipes without measurements! I'm really trying to get better at writing things down especially since I'm aiming for self publishing a book or zine at the end of the year.




Reno (basically 10 months)

With the craziness that is Reno I'm finding it hard to do, but it will happen. She is standing now, attacking the cats (one of them decided to attack her back yesterday.) I thought it was a good experience for her but she went right back to it this morning. She's eating big girl foods now (including the above veggie burger without the aioli, and avocado sandwiches.) It's all so crazy. Oh yeah and some of her babbles are curse words. At least they aren't ones that we say so we can be assured she is just babbling and not calling us horrible names or vodka.

More food...



Maple-Hoisen Grilled Seitan and Brooklyn Deli Macaroni Salad

I'm pretty sure I haven't posted about this before. I think it was one of my forgotten meals. If you've seen it already well then you get the pleasure of seeing it again.

We went to a friends house to see a friend who was visiting and had a BBQ. I brought along the V'Con macaroni salad above. Which I need to say now if you haven't made this yet you must make it now. I love it. I've always loved macaroni salads but never "deli" ones. I love this "deli" one -the peas! You will never see the peas.

Since I was the only non meat eater there I also marinated some Seitan in my Maple-Hoisin Marinade. This is a recipe that I'm actually writing the measurements down for and I am almost satisfied with it. One more go at it and I will post it.

p.s. I have a very exciting post planned for tomorrow. It's a newer version of something people got really excited about a month or so ago. I'm really excited about sharing it.

Breakfast and Cupcakes

Tofu Scramble + Sausage Breakfast Burrito

It's Tuesday so I have to bring you some Tofu goodness. I've become quite the tofu connoisseur over the past 2 months and it's not going to stop just yet. We were at my parents house this weekend with my sister and our friend Rachele. On Sunday we decided to have a nice breakfast. While the others dined on eggs and bacon Rachele and I dined on VwaV "inspired" Tofu Scramble with some sorta veggie style sausage. It was very good and hit the spot. My father even tried some after asking what is was and being told it was "fake eggs" or "feegs". I yelled out it was scrambled tofu. Don't call my shit fake. It's real people...real!!



Buckwheat Pancakes w. Bananas


Fathers Day breakfast for Peter. Yellow Rose Recipe's Buckwheat Pancakes. Peter's been asking for them for ages so he got em. My favorite thing about this recipe is that there is a mashed up banana in the batter. They were so good. Since I now have a big bag of the flour in my posession we will be eating these more often.



Chocolate Cupcakes w. Vanilla Buttercream

I'm on the phone with my sister. Another call is coming thru..it's Peter's Grandma. She asks if I can make dessert for the dinner she was hosting that night. I said "Yes." I call my sister back 25 minutes later and tell her that "I had to make cupcakes." She says "You made cupcakes?" "Yes." I said, "They will be out of the oven in 5 minutes." I then had to explain that I can't help it if I can whip out a batch of cupcakes in 15 minutes from scratch. It's just something I can do. It's something you can do to if you baked a lot.



So good. They were from VCTOTW.

Salads...Tofu Tuesday! (on tuesday!!)

Buffalo Tofu Salad w. Candied Pecans and Ranch Dressing

Back in the day when I would frequent a theme restaurant beginning with the letter H and ending in hans I would devour a Buffalo Chicken Salad. Oh it was so tasty and good. I finally decided to make a vegan version after all these years. Panko crusted Tofu drenched in a tangy hot and sweet sauce. Cinnamon, cayenne and maple candied pecans. Homemade Ranch Dressing. Crispy tortilla strips. If only I had some vegan blue cheese to crumble on top. I added some red bell pepper and cucumbers (the latter of which I had to remove because of a funky taste). All that was missing was some tomatoes. With the recent tomato problem and local restaurants not serving them I've just decided to stay away for a bit until I can get to the farmers market and get some local ones.

In the end this was just as good, if not better, than the theme restaurant version. I think the secret is the pecans and tortilla strips. This will be a favorite salad for dinner meal for the rest of the summer I think.



Balsamic-Basil Marinated and Grilled Portobellos


I generally don't eat mushrooms but will still buy them occasionally. However, made this way I'd eat them at least once a week. It's such a great marinade that I've been throwing together for a year or so. (I swear I will measure all the ingredients the next time) Balsamic vinegar, shallots, garlic, basil, tamari, olive oil, salt = incredible flavors. Especially thrown on top of a mesclun salad with walnuts, raddishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and red bell peppers. The salad is just dressed with some olive oil, lemon and salt so that it isn't dry. The marinade that coats the mushrooms flavors the whole dish when eaten.

Tofu Tuesday? Thursday

Tofu + Vegetables w. Orange-Peanut Sauce

This post was meant for Tuesday. Unfortunately on Tuesday night around 9 pm the craziest storm I've ever been apart of hit our area. The badness lasted only a few minutes but we were feeling the after affects for almost 24 hours. Since that's about how long we went without power. Luckily it came back early evening on Wednesday, real lucky since they were saying we wouldn't have it until Sunday!! Sadly I have to throw away A LOT of food that was in the fridge and freezer. We ate out last night and will eat out again tonight. By tomorrow (friday) we should be all stocked back up with food and condiments so I can start cooking and baking again.

Enough of my storm story.

Above you will see another of my new "lets eat more non hidden tofu" meals. Lightly fried Tofu, just pressed and fried, with a big mix of vegetables including string beans, red bell peppers, broccoli, scallions and garlic. The sauce is one I've been working on for awhile now which is a peanut sauce with orange juice. I love the combo of those two ingredients. They work so well together that I now want a toasted bagel with peanut butter and a big glass of OJ for breakfast. I have no edible food or OJ in the house right now...the storm!!!! Curse you!!!

I'm off to clean out my sad fridge. See you in a day or two.

Wild Blueberries

Blueberry + Chocolate Chip Scone

Jeez! I wanted to take the holiday weekend off from blogging about food and almost 2 weeks has past. Time flies I suppose. Good news for you is that I've been cooking + baking during my brief hiatus. Today I bring you some baking.

Trying to save some bucks I've been making us breakfast on the weekends and extra baked goods for Peter to eat during the week before work. I'm not a big fruit eater and if I'm going to eat fruit, especially berries, they almost always are frozen. I've been really enjoying some frozen Wild Blueberries I bought at Whole Foods a few weeks ago. Good news for me I spotted them at Costco's so I'm sure the bag there is twice the size for the same price.

Above is the basic scone recipe from VwaV which I added blueberries and chocolate chips too, yes we eat chocolate for breakfast! I cannot recommend that combination enough. Peter loved them. I just liked them but enough to make them again. They were very biscuity and not too sconey for me. I'm now on a hunt in my apartment for a scone recipe I used in a restaurant I baked for.



Blueberry Corn Muffins

Another VwaV recipe. I believe they are called "Sunny" or something like that because of the lemon used in it. The book isn't readily available for me to confirm the name. I'm sure you all have the book. If not, buy it. We LOVE these muffins. A blueberry and corn muffin all in one with a lovely lemon zest flavor added. I prefer these warm, split in the middle with some Earth Balance spread on them. Peter eats them as is.

past few

Indian Croquettes w. Lemon-Garlic Stringbeans and Broccoli

First I was going to make my favorite veggie burger then realized that I didn't have kidney beans after I already started cooking the food. All I had were chickpeas and I didn't want them in my veggie burger. The meal quickly took a turn to being Indian inspired. I sauteed butternut squash w. garlic and onions until soft then added the chickpeas and mashed it all together in a wooden spoon. Added some ready to be tossed cilantro, slivered almonds and just cooked quinoa and mashed some more. Too help hold it all together I added some vital wheat gluten. All this together made a perfect moist croquette after lightly frying them in some olive oil. Since this wasn't a planned meal I didn't have anything to make a nice little curryish sauce for it so I just topped it off with fresh cherry tomatoes. Turned out that was all that was needed. These were even good the next day out of the fridge cold and then later for lunch warmed over some mesclun with a lemon and olive oil dressing.





Last Minute Enchilada's

Last night was our last Wednesday Night Potluck for a few months. The weather is getting nice. The sun is staying out to at least 8:30 so we need to do other things besides eat and watch reality tv every Wednesday.

I had know idea what to bring this week. Friends were already bringing a potato dish and all I could think of making was Potato Pancakes which would make no sense because we would all be in a carb coma. 30 minutes before I was to leave I had an idea. I don't think I've ever made enchiladas before but that is what popped into my head. I had leftover Kabocha Squash that I roasted a few days before and have been feeding to Reno since then. She was getting sick of it as was I serving it to her so I used it in the Enchiladas.

I chopped up some garlic, onions and jalapeno which were then sauteed in olive oil. Then I added a can of drained and rinsed black beans and the leftover squash. I felt it needed something tomato-y so I added maybe 2 tablespoons of this hot salsa that we had leftover from the pizza party. (That salsa was HOT! Just the 2 tablespoons heated up the dish to incredible levels!) I stuffed it all inside some corn tortillas and topped it off with 1/2 a jar of Salsa Verde and baked, covered with foil, in the oven for about 20 minutes. Took it out and dumped the rest of the jar onto the tortillas and took it to my sisters and just kept it warm in her oven until dinner time.

I'm happy to say it all went over well except that it was just a little bit too spicy for some. I'm happy that one was left so that I can eat it for lunch today.



Pesto

Some homemade Parsley-Pinenut Pesto tossed into cute little pasta topped with string beans and zucchini sauteed with garlic. I for some reason love zucchini with pesto pasta dishes. I highly recommend that you give it a try.

oops!

Pizza Swirl

So I made a big oops! this weekend. I had a pizza party and didn't take any pictures. It also wasn't just any ol' pizza party. It was a Street Fighter II Pizza Party a la my husband's wish. We had a lot of friends over, ate a lot of homemade pizza and had a Street Fighter II competition which I lost miserably and my husband won. It was surprisingly a good party. It was actually the first party we have ever thrown in either of our apartments!

Anyway I had a leftover pizza dough and some topping left in the fridge and used it up with the help of cashew ricotta to make a completely new dish for dinner last night.



I rolled out the leftover dough into a rectangle and spread a layer of a really thick and creamy cashew ricotta on it. Then topped it with a leftover mix of sauteed onions, orange, yellow and red bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli and herbs de provence. Carefully rolled it up into a log (like if you were making cinnamon rolls). Then rolled the log into a ball. Which kinda reminded me of a sleeping kitty.



Inside shot close up

At first I wasn't sure how to cut the thing after it was done. We then decided that cutting it into wedges was the best and obvious way to go. Let me just say that this was great! You have the crusty outer layer of pizza dough and then creamy layers of ricotta, veggies and dough inside. I served it with a Red Wine Tomato Sauce.

Swap.

I took part in the May Care Package Swap on the PPK forums this month. It was my first time participating and I'm so happy I did. Below is what I received from my partner Catalina!



Asian Grocery Goodness



Baked Coconut Rolls



Soursop Candy



JACKFRUIT!!!



Spices

I'm really looking forward to using the sausage seasoning.



Rice Cake



Asian Grocery take II



Chocolate and Cashews



Cabernet Conserves



The whole lot all together.

Tofu?

Southern Fried Tofu w. Sauteed Spinach, Carrots + Zucchini

I do eat tofu. Usually it's blended into a sauce, or made into ricotta, or desserts. It's rare that I actually squeeze and press a block of tofu, cut it up, cook it and eat it. Since my sister really likes Tofu I've been experimenting with it the past few Tuesdays (she's comes over every Tuesday). Last Tuesday I just cooked it Buffalo Style like I do with Seitan all the time. Which turns out to be a great way to serve Tofu to a Tofuphobe.

This Tuesday I fried it up Southern Style with a thick coat of crispy batter. It was really good. It was a last minute decision to make it this way so we just had ketchup to dip it in. Next time I'll make a Chipotle Aioli or even an Agave Mustard to go along with it. I'm slowly becoming a drain it, press it, slice it, cook it, eat it tofu girl.

To get the batter nice and thick I first dipped it into some soy milk mixed with Dijon Mustard (whole grain mustard).

Then into a flour mixture of:

unbleached white flour
paprika
cayenne
nutritional yeast
salt
pepper
i wanted to add onion and garlic powder but couldn't find it for the life of me so add those as well. I eyeballed everything so I can't give you even approximate amounts at this time. Next time It will be all measured out.

Dip it back into the milk/mustard and then again into the flour mixture. This will give it a nice and thick coating that will fry up really well in oil.

I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers pieces in a wrap or on a roll with some greens and mayo.



Chickpea Salad w. Avocado on WW Pita

I love making Chickpea Salads. I've been making them for years and each time they are completely different from the last time. Sometimes I put cornichon pickles into it. Sometimes I go heavy on the mustard and mayo. Sometimes there is curry powder added. Sometimes non of the above and I go a completely different route. This one was heavy on the mustard and mayo and made for a nice spicy mix w. red onions, celery and garlic.

Happy Mothers Day (after)!

Blueberry Pancakes w. Tempeh Bacon

Happy momma's day to all you mom's out there!

I made Mothers Day breakfast for us yesterday which included Blueberry Pancakes from VwaV and some store bought Tempeh Bacon. I love making breakfast but it's something I don't do very often. By the time Reno is fed and ready for the day Peter or myself just drive to Whole Foods to get some breakfast pastries and some Starbucks coffee's. It's a waste of money and gas especially since I have all the ingredients I need to make us breakfast and morning caffeine drinks, an espresso machine (for me) and a French Press (for him) at home. So I'm hoping to bring you more breakfast goodness to look at each weekend.

oh yeah..I need to tell you what blueberries I used for these pancakes. I picked up some Wymans Frozen Wild Blueberries. They are the best and I will never use another type!!



Chocolate Chip-Walnut Brownies

Mothers Day dessert! We went to my in-laws for mothers day along with my parents yesterday for a nice sit outside BBQ. I brought along the 3 bean salad w. warm cumin lime dressing (yellow rose tester that I posted about a few post below) AND some of brownies! I love these brownies. These are a version of another version of another version that I make all the time. The recipe still needs some work before it's the perfect version of the original brownie recipe.



Reno (8 1/2 months)

Ms. Reno enjoying her first Mother's Day celebration w. her Dad. What was she saying all day mothers day?

DADADADADADADADADADADADADADA!

What a little punk!

sigh.

View outside my kitchen

Yesterday I woke up to another rainy-go no where day.



Gorilla Espresso A Go Go

The type of day where you need a double shot of espresso with a bit of Green + Blacks Hot Chocolate mixed in. (an ever so slight amount)



Lunch

You also need some Shells and Chreese for lunch.



Dinner

Then some Chili w. Kidney Beans, Cashews + Chocolate.

Vampires need not apply...

Seitan Wrap w. Raw Spinach, Avocado and Aioli served w. Garlic-Rosemary Fries

Seriously, garlic is oozing out of my pores. I had some seitan in the fridge that
reminded me of the kind my last job had. Which in turn reminded me of my favorite after work snack I would make for myself while I was finishing up my shift. This is my at home version of that wrap. Crispy seitan sauteed in a bit of olive oil with a ton of garlic which I put in a wrap w. raw spinach and avocado. The aioli was some mayo w. garlic and onion powder, paprika, cayenne and basil. I didn't have much mayo left, only about 3 tablespoons in total, so it was a very thin layer on the 2 wraps but the perfect amount because the spices were so heavily used and strong in flavor. I was very pleased as was Peter. It filled the craving.



Garlic-Rosemary Fries

To add on to the garlic overload of tonights dinner I decided to throw a ton of garlic onto the fries I had in the oven along with some fresh rosemary I got from my mom. There is no reason to eat plain o' fries when you can dress them up. Then again a plain fry dipped into an amazing mayo is heavenly.



GARLIC!!

Whoa! That's a huge clove! No camera trickery there my friends! That one clove was used for the seitan and the fries. I ran into the supermarket the other day for garlic and they had nothing. I searched and searched. Nothing. Then I found some elephant garlic hidden under some packs of basil. I couldn't believe how huge these cloves were. Half of this beast would have been more than enough for the whole meal and I love lots of garlic. It was funny having to slice it and dice it like an onion. I'm a fan.

take out or stay in

Veggie Heaven Appetizer Dinner


Believe it or not from time to time I don't feel like cooking. Especially if Reno is being a beast for 5 days straight and Peter is going out. We don't eat out much or even take out much. Our food at home taste better, is better for you and also cheaper. My sister was coming over and mentioned she got $20 for helping a friend and I told her she should buy us dinner with that $20 since she didn't want the money anyway. She did! We settled on Veggie Heaven our only local vegan restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey.

We decided that we would order a bunch of appetizers instead of a separate entree each to have an assortment of good stuff.

Starting with the red strips at the top of the plate:

BBQ Ribs (my new current obsession)
Sesame Noodles
Chicken Nuggets w some sorta sweet fruity sauce
Dim Sum
Scallion Pancakes

This was all perfect and filled a craving I was having for Chinese Food. We also ordered cheesecake (for me) and green tea cake (for nicole) but I forgot to take a photo. I love their cheesecake but I don't love the green tea cake. It's just not a flavor my tastebuds agree with, Nicole however loves it.





Hoisin-Maple Seitan

My new favorite marinade. My mom made a marinade for grilled corn on the cob that I used on some seitan while I was down there this weekend. It was great! I've changed things around a bit and added maple syrup to the mix just to give it an extra something that I think it needed. This is one of those marinades that taste better after it is cooked and the bit of maple caramelizes a bit. I need to play around with the amounts of each ingredient a bit and then I will post the recipe next week sometime.



3 Bean Salad w. Warm Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette tester

Another Yellow Rose tester recipe from Joanna. Really really good! So colorful. Great for the hot days of summer that will soon be approaching. I can see making this on a Sunday and eating it the rest of the week for lunch or as a side to dinner.



Late July mini pb sandwiches

I try not to buy these too often simple because I could eat the whole box without even thinking. I love them and I love the design on the package so much that I hate to recycle it when I'm finished.

Falafel and disappointed vegetarians.

Falafel, Tahini Sauce, Pita, Mesclun, Couscous Tabbouleh

Did you ever go to a party and meet other vegans/vegetarians and be a little disappointed in them? These people were very nice. They came to a BBQ with a cooler of food to cook for everyone, which made me so happy. They mention that they bought seitan, I was THRILLED, I ask did you make it yourself? I got looked at like I was purple and had 5 heads and no hair. "No" they said "we did make falafel once."

Sigh.

Who would have though that I would finally meet other non meat eaters who bring a cooler of food to a bbq and they don't cook. I'm not saying you have to cook but it would be nice to meet some that do like to cook once in awhile.

I invited friends over the other night and since I had "we did make falafel once" on my mind I decided to make myself some falafel for the 20th time or so. This was a cross between 3 recipes I usually switch using. The sauce was simply tahini, lemon, salt and water just mixed with a fork until it became a happy saucy consistency.



Couscous Tabbouleh

This is one dish that came to mind the day I went shopping for ingredients for the dinner party and i'm glad it did. Couscous, tomato, cucumber, parsley, garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. It is the perfect picnic salad in my book and gets better the longer it sits in the fridge.



Falafel Pita w. Tahini Sauce

yuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.



Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Shake

Having guests over for dinner? You MUST serve dessert. Even if that dessert is blended up goodness.

Anniversary and Special Cupcakes

Seitan Taco's topped w. Mesclun and Apple-Radish whatever served w. Creamy Black Beans

Yesterday (april 22) was our 2nd wedding anniversary. 2 days before that (april 20) marked we believe 13 years together! Holy moly! We celebrated the day in between and went to NYC to eat at Blossom. I didn't take any pictures because the lighting in there isn't for picture taking. I can say it was a delicious dinner and Peter wants to go back again. Now onto the meal I made for our real anniversary.

Seitan Tacos! These were one of the best taco's I've made in awhile. It was all because of the Apple-Radish (relish, salsa, slaw? i don't know what to call it). The taco seasoning was kinda spicy so the cool, crisp taste of the apples and radishes really complemented the whole dish.

I cooked my black beans differently too. Instead of chopping up the jalapeno I just left it to cook in the beans whole and then took it out before serving. It made the beans so much more spicy this way and so much more delicious.




Chocolate Mint Cupcakes w. Mint Buttercream and Hot Pink Sprinkles

Instead of a cake we had cupcakes at our wedding. Chocolate cupcakes with hot pink buttercream. While making chocolate cupcakes yesterday I decided to add some mint extract to everything after I found it in my pantry. The buttercream was a little toothpastey but in a good way. The cake was moist and perfect. I didn't want to spend extra money on food coloring so hot pink sprinkles were the way to go to recreate the "look" of our wedding cupcakes.



Chocolate Mint Cupcake w. a COOKIE baked inside!

I had some chocolate mint cookies on hand and decided to see what would happen if i buried one inside an uncooked cupcake. If you look hard enough you can see it in the middle of the cupcake pictured above. It came out great and I'm going to experiment more with cookies in the cake.