Random Eats

Hey there! I think I'm finally getting over this stupid sickness. Still a bit of coughing and a runny nose, but hopefully that will subside soon enough.

And even though I haven't been blogging about it, I HAVE been cooking.  So here are some recent eats:

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (with date sugar)

Home grown arugula,greens, kale, & sprouts in my homemade bagel!

Udon noodles with Lindsay's Almond Butter Sauce & Soy Sesame broccoli (& other veg)

SO GOOD!!! (I tried to use more almond milk to replace some of the coconut milk, for less fat)

Ummm, more roasted vegetables??

Valentine's dessert: Strawberry Peach Cobbler with vegan granola.Yum.

From the Happy Herbivore Cookbook!

Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki. Excellent! Just needed a bit more sauce to go over the rice :)

Roasted Veggies with Lindsay's Cheddar Cheesy Sauce, although I've also made her Quick Queso Sauce (also very good and so easy to make)

Other stuff:

A broccoli rice dish....might post a recipe if I can remember it :)

My Broccoli/Cauliflower a la Lemon dish atop Trader Joe's Harvest Grains.

And there you have it.  

I'm thinking of starting a beer blog.....about beer tasting.  You know, since I drink so much of it.....and I love to try new beers all the time....might make sense.  I'm ALWAYS taking pictures of my beer, so why not?

Here's a question for you bloggers out there: Wordpress or Blogger?  Which is better and why? Which is easier to blog from the road/travel?

Eat smart,

T.

Bob's Red Mill Giveaway!!! [CLOSED]

Hiya....hope you've all had a good week. It's gotten pretty darn cold down here....it was 29 degrees the other morning!!! Brrrrrr......at least I can keep warm in the morning with my hot oatmeal :)

Speaking of oatmeal, I've got an amazing giveaway for you. I contacted Bob's Red Mill a while back to see if they'd be interested in doing a giveaway for my readers and they agreed! I've never done that before, but I really love that company. (And it doesn't hurt that they carry my whole oat groats that I MUST have in the morning) Please check out their website and you can follow them on Twitter too!

Look at all the awesome stuff I ordered from them:

AND.....they offered to send me some free samples. I thought for sure they'd be tiny little 4 oz packets or something, but nope....FULL sized bags:

I made the 5 Grain cereal a couple of times and topped it with my usual dried fruit and nuts...but replaced my usual agave with the date sugar.  The cereal is really chewy and has a great flavor. I mean, you really feel like your eating a healthy bowl of whole grains! The date sugar was good.....it wasn't as sweet as agave, but then again, I didn't put on a ton.  I bet it would be good in baking, in place of regular raw sugar.  I'll have to try it. I have yet to try the Steel Cut Oats....but I'm going to make them tomorrow!!

(5 Grain Rolled Cereal)

(date sugar)

I used the 10 Grain Flour in my Whole Grain Bagels and they were great! I still have some left, so I'm excited to use it in my next whole grain recipe! Maybe pizza dough!

Anyway, back to the giveaway.....THREE lucky winners will receive a gift pack including Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Organic Brown Flaxseed, 10-Grain Hot Cereal, and Nutritional Yeast!!!

Here are the rules for the giveaway:

Mandatory Entry:

(please leave your email in the comments, if it's not public)

1. Tell me what your favorite whole grain is and how you usually use it.

Extra Entries:

1. Tweet about this giveaway and include @TanyaTheViolist and @Bobs_Red_Mill (once per day allowed & please leave a link to your tweets)

2. Follow me on Facebook.

3. Follow me on Twitter. (leave your Twitter ID in comment)

4. Blog about this giveaway and leave a link.

Leave a comment for EACH entry (incl EACH tweet).

Open to U.S. & Canada Residents (and overseas APO addresses only)

Giveaway will end on January 31st, 2011 at Midnight CST.

.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Eat smart,
T.

Whole Grain Bagels and a winner!

Recently, I contacted Bob's Red Mill to see if they wanted to do a giveaway for my readers and they said YES!! I love this company. Look at the awesome stuff I got on my most recent order:

They offered to send me some free samples as well, so I took them up on their offer. I was expecting tiny little bags of stuff, but they sent full sized bags, like this one, which I used in my bagel recipe and they turned out great :)

So stay tuned for an awesome giveaway from Bob's Red Mill. And there will be THREE winners!!

In the meantime, here's my recipe for whole grain bagels:

Tanya's Whole Grain Bagels:

1 1/2 cups water
1 TB agave nectar
2 cups Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour
2 cups of Bob's Red Mill 10 grain flour (-2 TB vital wheat gluten)*
2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast


poppy seeds, minced garlic, sesame seeds, coarse salt, etc...for toppings.
few tablespoons of non-dairy milk for glazing


This recipe is for a bread machine (mine is a Zojirushi), but you can make it by hand. Just follow a standard bagel recipe instructions for mixing and kneading until they're ready to shape.


Place the first 6 ingredients into your bread machine according to your machine's instructions. Mine puts it in the order of liquids first, then the rest, with the yeast last, making sure it doesn't touch the liquid. Mine also warms up the ingredients. If yours does not, use lukewarm water and let your flours warm up to room temperature first. Turn on your machine for the wheat dough setting. Mine takes just under 2 hours.  


*note: I put the 2 TB of vital wheat gluten at the bottom of a measuring cup and fill the rest with the flour.


When it's done, take out the dough and on a good work surface, divide it into about 10 pieces.  (if you want larger bagels, divide into 7-8 pieces instead) Roll each into a ball.  Cover them with a towel and let rest in a warmish place (no drafts) for about 30 minutes.  

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to a boil on the stove and preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Also spray a large cookie sheet with oil and set aside.  When your dough balls are ready, poke your thumb into the middle of each and create a hole. Loop the dough around your finger a few times to widen the hole. When your bagels all have holes, put them into the boiling water, 3-4 at a time.  Boil them for about 30-60 seconds on EACH side. Transfer them to the sprayed cookie sheet.  

Put the non-dairy milk into a little bowl and use a brush to glaze each bagel before you add the toppings.  Add toppings as you wish...seeds stick easily. If you use dried minced onions, like I did...soak them for a few minutes first. They tend to burn (I let them burn), so if you don't want burnt onions, add them 10 minutes before the end of your baking time. Garlic and onions are more difficult to spread on top of your bagels, so do those first, before you pour on your seeds.  Place the bagels in the oven and bake for approx. 20-25 minutes.  If they aren't quite browned, leave them in for a few minutes longer.  When done, transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

(you can use whatever whole grain flour you like, but I really like Bob's Red Mill)

....and the winner of the Tasty Bite giveaway is.......Elisabeth!

Her comment was: "The Bombay potatoes look great!"
Please send me your full name and address, so I can send out your box of goodies! Congratulations :)

Stay tuned for another amazing giveaway from Bob's Red Mill. It's gonna be a good one!

Eat smart,
T.

Vegan Pizza Day is coming up!

Happy New Year everybody!!!

Vegan Pizza Day is coming up on January 29th. For more info on it and where to find vegan pizza in your area, click here. And it would be really helpful if you know of a place that has vegan pizza to add it to the list!! At home here, I'll have to make my own, but that's ok. I've got a great recipe! If you DO make your own, both Daiya and Teese work very well and melt nicely.

Don't forget to enter my Tasty Bite giveaway!! You have until tomorrow at noon CST. Hurry up!

Other things I've been eating:

Tempeh sauteed with spices and sauerkraut with homemade "thousand island" dressing.

Raw fudge from Rawmazing. Yum!

Nut Nog from Raw on $10 a Day. Good stuff!

Mexi-Millet! Always good.

A great combination!!

Upcoming posts: whole grain bagel recipe and a Bobs Red Mill Giveaway (3 winners)!!!

(my bagel teaser)

Eat smart,

T.

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.

Tomorrow's Meals

Well I guess I'll discuss what I'm making tomorrow, so that I actually make it AND so my husband can read ahead and see what he's going to get for lunch and dinner.

Tomorrow's lunch: omelette with sauteed yellow squash, onions, tomatoes, and anything else I happen to find (I'll let you know tomorrow!)

Tomorrow's dinner: sandwich of kosher/vegetarian cheese, vegenaise (or mustard for my husband) and freshly sprouted sprouts. Rolled up in a whole wheat wrap. No, I didn't make the wrap. I should learn how to make those. I also love the whole wheat tortillas.

Oops, forgot about breakfast:

Well I didn't get to setting up the rice cooker for my groats tomorrow, so I'll eat one of my own whole wheat/spelt everything bagels for breakfast. Lately though (thanks to my brother) I've been eating oat groats (with flax seed, oat bran, and a tiny bit of almond milk) with a little agave nectar in the morning. It's sooooo good! I love the texture and flavor. So easy to put the groats in the rice cooker and set it to be ready for me to eat in the morning (Thank you, Zojirushi).

I think that's it for today, unless I get another urge to write about food :) Did anyone figure out the difference between jam, jelly, and preserves yet? Or are you going to make me Google it?

Ok then, goodnight all....sleep well.

Eat smart,

T.