Mother's Day and Food on Sticks

Well first of all happy Mother's Day to all the moms, step moms, dads pulling double duty, expecting mothers, those working on the process of becoming a mother and the list goes on.  I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a step mother and I feel very loved and appreciated.  I received an awesome card from my stepson, a wonderful text from my stepson's mother, a beautiful card from my mother-in-law and my hubby took me to lunch.  Oh and I called my mom of course. :)

Dessert from lunch today…I need to learn how to make this (no I don't).  

We've had a jammed packed weekend.  We kicked it off with a family wedding on Friday, having friends over Saturday night, and celebrating Mother's Day today.  AND we finally saw the sun for the first time in about a week!

Back to business..So if you've been reading this blog you've realized that I love cooking for people by now.  As I mentioned we had friends over last night so of course that was my time to shine.  Our friends are not vegans (thought thankfully they are very open minded!) so I needed to come up with something they would enjoy.

I'm also cooking for a five year old so I opted to make some kabobs.  Everyone enjoys food on a stick right?  Eating off a stick somehow makes food more fun for kids, I highly recommend it if you're not afraid of your child poking his or her eye (or their siblings).  

I made two versions of kabobs, one I will share with you now.  They went over really well! As you can see from the picture below I made a ton of kabobs for four people, but we only had three leftover!  I call that a success. 

 Our more popular kabob was my take on sweet and sour.  Here's what I did…

Ingredients

• 1 block extra firm tofu (pressed)
• 1 pineapple
• 1 red pepper chopped
• 1 green pepper chopped
• 1 sweet onion chopped
• about one cup of your favorite BBQ sauce
• about one cup of your favorite grape jelly

This recipe was super easy and honestly fun to make!  First step is to press your tofu to get out all the extra water.  I used my trusty tofu press, but if you don't have one wrap the block in a towel and place something heavy on top (book, tea kettle, etc.).  Next I created my marinade.  I whisked together my BBQ sauce and grape jelly to create a sweet and sour marinade.  Once my tofu was drained I chopped it into cubes and placed in the sauce.  I let this set for about twenty minutes.  

Next part is the fun part.  Chop up your peppers, onions, and pineapple and get to sticking.  I love creating different combinations of colors on the skewers.  Once all my veggies and tofu were "stuck" I placed them in the oven and cooked them for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees.  I will be making these again for sure as well as experimenting with different combinations of proteins and veggies.  Happy Mother's Day everyone!  

Vegan Sloppy Joes

We've returned from an amazing road trip (I'll post later) and I'm back to cooking.  I absolutely love traveling, especially with my hubby.  We visited some interesting places, ate some awesome food, and saw one of my good friends along the way.  One thing I love about traveling though is that it makes you really appreciate the comforts of home so much more.  I love eating out, but after a week away I was anxious to get back to cooking some vegan goodies.

I may have overdone it this week.  I made some vegan skewers and also sushi for the first time ever.  I see a lot of meals on sticks for my family in the future.  I love experimenting, but sometimes you need to keep it fairly simple especially on busy week nights.

I've been craving lentils (I know, that sounds weird) but really they are delicious!  They're good for you too!  We've been trying to minimize our processed food intake.  As much as we love Gardein their products are highly process and should be considered a special treat.  I've been trying to incorporate more tofu, tempeh, beans, and lentils into our meals.  Here's one way I incorporated lentils…

Ingredients

• one package of Trader Joe's precooked lentils
• one 15 oz. can of tomato sauce (I used Trader Joe's organic tomato sauce)
• 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
• 1/2 green pepper chopped
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• salt and pepper to taste 
• your choice of bread (I bought a baguette at TJ's and sliced it)

I love how this child and husband approved meal came out.  It was a hardy dish loaded with healthy ingredients.  It was super simple to make as well.  I cooked the sloppy joes in a cast iron skillet, but you could use any pan.  First I sautéed the garlic and onion with a minimal amount of vegan butter then added the peppers.  Once this was fragrant I added the precooked lentils, can of tomato sauce and BBQ sauce to the pan.  I stirred and let this simmer until the lentils were heated.  I piled the lentils on some bread with lettuce, vegan mayo, and some avocado I had on hand.  Boom.

I couldn't make this meal too simple, so I decide to throw some homemade back onion rings into the mix.  This meal was a hit.  The lentil sloppy joes also can make a great topping on a salad as well.  I know I've been snacking on them all weekend.  Whole food goodness (with onion rings).     

Vegan Quiche

Well I have been terrible at this whole blog thing.  I have a ton of excuses, I had an incredibly busy month at work, I'm taking a Sheltered English Immersion class which is about as fun as it sounds, and life is just busy in general.

Don't worry, I haven't neglected feeding my family.  In fact, I've come up with some recipes that have been well received in our house.  Now it's time to share...

I've always been partial to quiche.  Mainly because it helped me pass French class in high school.  I'll explain...

 I was terrible at French because 1. I was/am a terrible speller 2. I was completely uninterested.  My guidance counselor used to give me a hard time because I could get an A in AP English, but was sliding by with a B- in French class.

Well that B- took a lot of work!  Mostly my mom's work and by work I mean she made me quiches for extra credit.  Yes, I am dating myself here.  I went to school when you could actually bring food in for the class.  Oh the good old days before all these food allergies and worrying about kids' BMI's.  So yes, I earned a hefty 10 points of extra credit for bringing in quiche and passing it off as my own creation.  A web of lies...

So today, as you know, my family and I are vegans, but quiche is still on our menu.  I did a little experimenting and came up with something that's pretty damn close to quiche, is super versatile, and


is packed with protein and veggies.

Ingredients

•  1 block of silken tofu
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• veggies of your choice (I used onion, garlic and broccoli)
• 1 cup vegan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

I've been branching out in the world of tofu.  Silken tofu is awesome!  You can make smoothies, desserts and so much more with it.  If you've never cooked with silken tofu before don't be alarmed by it's appearance, it's delicious.  You not press silken tofu but I would recommend wrapping it in a cloth for about 20 minutes to get the extra water out.  Next you are going to throw your tofu in a blender with some nutritional yeast and salt and pepper to taste and blend together until the mixture is smooth.  

Next saute your veggies.  I used garlic and onion and threw in some frozen garlic.  Once that was cooked I placed my veggies a large mixing bowl.  I added the vegan cheese and then mixed in the tofu and nutritional yeast.  Mix everything together  I sprayed a Pyrex pie dish and added the mixture.  I sprinkled some more vegan cheese on top and cooked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Obviously this is a crust less quiche, I have yet to make this using a crust.  Let's just pretend we're trying to be healthy here.  

It came out looking like a quiche!  My husband really loves this recipe.  We have a CSA box starting in June and I think this will be a great way to incorporate some of our veggies.  I want to to try this with kale sometime for sure.

Bon appetit!
     

Review: "Porkless" Pork

I've had a contentious relationship with pork my whole life.  When I first became a vegetarian in high school it was a gradual process.  Pork was the first meat I cut out of my diet.  I mean there's a reason why two major world religions don't eat pigs right?  Plus pigs are smart and (sometimes) adorable creatures that deserve our respect.

Well I've been reunited with pork (well kinda).  Gardein is on a tear right now with their products.  As I mentioned before I made a pilgrimage to Whole Foods last weekend and picked up some vegan goodies, among those some sweet and sour "pork less" pork.

Holy Cow! Or Pig?

This tasted so much like the real thing (as I recall) it almost made me nervous that it was real meat!  Between the texture and the flavor it was amazing.  The sauce was awesome as well.  I made my dish with some onions and peppers in our cast iron skillet.  Next time I'm going to add some pineapple to it as well.

I paired it with one of our favorite vegan products from Trader Joe's, Japanese style fried rice.  If you haven't tried this out yet I highly recommend it.  It's definitely a different twist on fried rice.  I usually pick up a bag every time I hit up TJ's. 

This was overall a pretty simple dinner to throw together.  I guess you have to have meals like that sometimes right?  I can't wait to see what Gardein has coming next!

Spring and Vegan Seafood

It almost feels like spring is here.  Almost.  We've brought our dog to the dog park twice this week after a long hiatus.  That's a sign right?

Our plants are starting to sprout which is pretty exciting.  I hope I can be a good plant mom to them, I don't have the best history in the world with growing things.  I replanted some scallions and they really have thrived.  It's so satisfying to eat something you have grown yourself, even if it is a garnish (a delicious garnish).

I'm also excited about the new products Gardein has put out.  I heard through the grapevine that Whole Foods was having a deal on Gardein products so I made a special trek there on Saturday.   I usually do all of our grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Stop and Shop, but Whole Foods occasionally has some great deals of vegan products. I was delighted to see new products I have never seen before and picked up some "crabless" crab cakes and some "porkless" pork.

I have yet to try the pork but I could not wait to try the crab.  My husband is not a fan of seafood so I only made a few to sample.

Overall, I thought they were excellent.  Before I was a vegetarian I was a fan of seafood, not so much fish but everything else.  I made the cakes in our cast iron skillet with a tiny bit of oil and browned them on each side.  Now, I'm not sure these "crab cakes" would rival Maryland crab cakes but as far as a vegan option they were pretty spectacular and really tasted like crab.  I would bet you could serve these as an appetizer to your non vegan friends and pass them off as the real thing.  I dare you to.

Unfortunately the husband and child are opposed to fake seafood or seafood in general, but I guess that means more crab cakes for me.  Score.

I made us some pretty rockin' vegan chicken soft tacos last night.  Whole Foods had a great deal on avocados so I picked up a few for dinner.  Had my family been more welcoming towards seafood I would have made vegan crab cake tacos, but oh well.  Maybe another time.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

As I've mentioned before I'm not a baker.  Baking makes me nervous.  Forget one thing or add a little too much this and that and you've ruined it all.

Well I made some chocolate chip cookies today (with the help of my five year old assistant) and I/we didn't ruin them!  They actually came out really good!  Good enough for me to want to share with you in fact.  

The child and I have varying degrees of colds right now so I'm not sure if our cookies would be board of health approved, but they were certainly husband approved.  I searched the internet for different chocolate chip cookie recipes that were specifically vegan.  I honestly feel like sometimes vegan baking recipes are made to be too complex and contain a lot of ingredients that one doesn't not usually have in their kitchen.  I felt a little discouraged and decided to search regular scratch chocolate chip cookie recipes and "veganize" them.  

I found a few different recipes all containing ingredients I have in my kitchen (yes I have a bag of chocolate chips on hand don't judge) and I got to veganizing!  

Here's what I did…

Ingredients

• 1/2 Earth Balance vegan butter (melted) 
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 flax eggs (I'll explain)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 bag of vegan chocolate chips (sometimes these are "accidentally" vegan but you can fine dairy free chips in the healthy (expensive) section of the grocery store as well.)
• 2 1/4 cup flour (I just used all purpose flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt 

So to review flax eggs are not that scary!  First you need some flax seed meal, I use Bob's Red Mill (I get mine at Xmas Tree Shop of Job Lot…so much cheaper).  All you need to do is whisk one tablespoon of flax seed meal with three tablespoons of water to make one egg equivalent.  Let the mixture sit for about five minutes.  

While your flax eggs are setting whisk your salt, baking soda, and flour together.   In a separate bowl mix together your sugars, melted butter, vanilla extract and flax eggs.  Slowly pour in your dry mixture and stir together.  I felt like my mix was a little dry to I added a few splashes of almond milk (you could use water too).  If I made this recipe again I might experiment with adding another egg but stick with this for now.  Then add your chocolate chips!

Have your oven preheated to 375 degrees.  I scooped out my cookie dough with and ice cream soup and spread my cookies about two inches apart on my cookie sheet.  I covered my pan with aluminum foil because I have a cheap cookie sheet and I was afraid they would stick.  I cooked my cookies for about 25 minutes.  

I personally think they came out great.  They were nice and chewy.  It's a super easy recipe I'll defiantly be making again soon!

Review: Eggplant Garlic Spread

I am so happy to be on school vacation.  I love my job, but I also love being able to sleep in past 6 am.  School vacation also is a great excuse to get together with friends and family and eat/make some yummy food.  

To kick off off school vacation I got together with some of my teacher friends on Thursday night.  We had so much awesome (and all vegan) food.  The girl who was hosting is an amazing cook and someone I love talking food with.  She made an awesome appetizer which I have already made for two parties (and it's only the following Tuesday).  

Let me introduce you to Trader Joe's Eggplant Garlic Spread.  I know many of you are not fans of eggplant, and neither is my husband yet he loves this appetizer dish.  It's a nice flavorful savory spread and I have a feeling I'm going to be experimenting a lot more with it.  

So anyways, the only app I've made with this spread (and I'm an expert because I've eaten an entire load of bread with this speed so far) is super simple and easy.  All it is is toasted bread, eggplant garlic spread, and chopped black olives.  Simple.  Easy.  Delicious.  I left the olives off of some of the bread since I know not everyone is a fan.  I would imagine tomatoes would work great as well.  

So next time you're at Trader Joe's I would recommend you pick up this spread.  You won't regret it, even if you're not an eggplant fan.  

P.S.  school vacation week is when I realize that my dog sleeps for about 80% of the day.  I definitely want to request being reincarnated as a dog next time around...