Tasty Stuff

Last week we got a HUGE amount of produce at the market: lettuce, mixed greens, radishes, turnips, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, shiitakes, kale, swiss chard, satsumas, sprouts, mustard greens, broccoli, green beans, and cucumbers.

I sort of made Robin Robertson's Fusili with Potatoes, Green Beans, and Lemon Basil Creme from her cookbook, "Vegan On the Cheap". I made noodles...udon noodles.  I left out the potatoes. I left out the oil & used almond milk instead of soy. Basically, I made her sauce and spooned it over the udon noodles with steamed vegetables (yellow squash, zucchini, & carrots). Then I had leftover sauce spooned over a baked potato with steamed veggies. Both were delicious! I'll definitely make this one again.

The other night, we had a friend over and I needed something quick for a starter, while I finished cooking my main meal. I found a recipe for Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus in "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen."  I thought I had sun-dried tomatoes.....I KNOW I have them.  I couldn't find them. Oh well, it's basically made from zucchini, which I DID have.  So I made the recipe, and just left out the tomatoes.  It was pretty good....perhaps a bit too much tahini for my taste. Next time I won't put in as much, and will add maybe a bit more salt or lemon juice.

Then for the main meal I made two parts: my mix 'n mashed potatoes and one of my Indian dishes. You can find them on my recipes page.

(the curry is in the front, the potatoes in the back)

BROWNIES! I've been craving something sweet and chocolate for a while now. I hadn't baked anything in a while, so I finally made some brownies the other night.  Found a recipe in Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet" for Coffee Fudge Brownies.  They're excellent! And I just happened to have some decaf coffee from the morning, still around. How convenient :)

I used whole wheat flour only and used raw cane sugar (1 1/4 cups).  I did add oil (what??). I mean, the recipe called for oil and I used some, but not all. I usually leave out the oil entirely. I also left out the nuts & glaze. Didn't really need the extra calories on top of the brownies themselves. The brownies were very cake-like. So if you like dense brownies, these are not for you. They are delicious though!

Remember when I went to NYC and brought back Murray's whole wheat everything bagels??? I finally pulled one out of the freezer the other day and smothered it with Tofutti Cream Cheese.  The fine folks over at Tofutti sent me some coupons for free products so I thought I'd pick up some of their cream cheese and sour cream.  They both use NON-HYDROGENATED oil! I don't use these products all that often, but for once in a while use, like my 'once every couple of weeks'  bagel n' cream cheese, it's really delicious!

(my half bagel with Tofutti Cream Cheese)

And for the sour cream, I made my Sour Cream Dip! So good!

Coming up: My CSN Store item review. It's a very cool item!

If you missed it, check out my own recipe for Vegan Queso.

What are your thoughts and experiences with these stores? Which are your favorites? (I've only shopped at Pangea & Cosmo's so far)

Pangea Vegan Store
Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe
Vegan Essentials

Eat smart,

T.

Greens and Sweet Rice

Sorry about the lack of posting lately.  We've been busy and out of town.  I'm back now with a few days off still until I go back to work (Mardi Gras vacation), so I've got some time to catch up.  I'll probably create more than one post today.

So back to Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet".  I had some sweet brown rice that I'd gotten at the Asian market nearby, so the Barley with Sweet Rice and Corn sounded perfect.  The combination of barley with the rice was delicious.  (I still need to buy/make Gomashio) I served this with my Collards and Cabbage.

Tanya's Collards and Cabbage:


1 huge bunch collard greens, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
2 cups shredded green cabbage
2 tbsp rice cooking wine/mirin
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
soy sauce
sesame seeds
ginger
salt


Saute the onion in a little water until soft.  Add the garlic and stir/cook for another minute. Add the collards. Cover and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the cabbage. Cover and cook another minute.  Add soy sauce to taste and the rice wine.  Add spices to taste. Serve over cooked grains.


I made my own pizza again a few days ago.  I finally bought a pizza crisper(pan) and that did the trick for keeping a really crispy crust all over.  I also pricked the crust all over with a fork, before pre-baking it for 5 minutes or so in the oven.  It was soooo good, and crunchy, yay! You can find my original pizza recipe here.

Enjoy!  I'm out of vegetables (what???), because we were out of town and the next farmer's market isn't until Saturday......sigh.....I did break down and buy some broccoli at the store today.

Hope you all had a good Mardi Gras!
Eat smart,
T.

Miso Soup and Collard Greens

First of all, I want to thank those of you who came out to our NOLA Musicians Benefit Concert for Haiti yesterday in the cold and rainy weather.  We had a lot of fun playing! Thanks to all the musicians who played, and to Eva, Cherie, and Carlos R. for helping to put it together.

And since it's been so cold and rainy, I thought it would be a good day to try some miso soup!  I had some mellow white miso in the fridge so I found a recipe in Robin Robertson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes.  I left out the tofu, since that would add extra calories.  I found it to be a little on the watery side, so I added a little extra miso and soy sauce (which it said you can do....to taste).  It was delicious!  It made a lot of soup, so we've been heating it up for leftovers :)

I've also been reading Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.  I found a great recipe (Sicilian Collard Greens with Pine Nuts and Raisins) for collard greens, which I had in the fridge from the farmer's market.  I left out the pine nuts because I didn't have any....she says you can use pumpkin seeds instead, but I didn't any of those either.  It was still good.  And I left out the oil, because I'm trying to leave out as much oil as possible from my cooking.  My husband thought there were too many raisins for the small amount of greens that it actually cooked up (they really shrink!).  So next time I'll put in fewer raisins, but it was a very tasty dish.

For those of you wondering, the local (New Orleans) vegan bake sale for Haiti will NOT take place on Saturday.  It will be rescheduled due to Mardi Gras and Superbowl happenings.  I will keep you posted.

And here's a picture of the lunch we took to work the other day.  I used the Sunflower Seed Falafel recipe as a spread on the nori sheets and added vegetables. Soooo good :)

Eat smart,
T.