VEGAN MOFO!

Apparently, next month is the Vegan Month of Food. The idea is for food bloggers to try to post something every weekday. EXCITING! MOTIVATION! Participants are going to be put into the PPK RSS feed, so that is pretty rad.

Bring it on, October!

Also, just for fun, here is a picture of my friend Shmoo's cat, Isabelle.



She is such a beautiful little princess!!

Ok, bye.

more potatoes, tofu, roasted veggies, heirloom tomatoes!

I picked up these beauties at the farmers' market this weekend...



I decided that they would have enough flavour to hold their own in a very basic sauce, and I was right! They were so very lovely.

I used about the amount of tomatoes that you see in the photo above, or maybe a handful more.

I cleaned the tomatoes and cut them in half, heated some olive oil and garlic in a pan, and then tossed the tomatoes in.

I simmered them until they were a bit liquid-y, added 1 teaspoon of sugar (they were pretty tart), and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. I then continued to let them simmer on low heat until they reached a more sauce-like consistency.

SO SIMPLE!



The rest of dinner was composed of some roasted mushrooms and zucchini; some leftover "burger" mix (see earlier post), simply pan fried instead of floured into burger form; and some stips of marinated tofu.



Roasting veggies!
Mushrooms were cleaned and rubbed with olive oil before tossing them into the oven preheated to 350F. They stayed in there for about 10 minutes before I added the oiled zucchini chunks to the mix (it takes less time to cook). They probably stayed in for another ten minutes. I don't usually time roasted vegetables, but rather test them periodically to see what's what.

The tofu was the "Marinated Asian Tofu" from the Veganomicon.

The whole thing was sprinkled with fresh cilantro.

All-in-all, pretty delicious dinner.

Curried tofu stuffed peppers; potato, pumpkin and black bean "burgers"; greens.

The other day i made a lot of potatoes... a lot! I had a huge pot full of boiled yellow potatoes, so I decided to mash them up with some other delicious things that I had kicking around the kitchen.

"Burgers"



- Large saucepan half full of potatoes. (ok, so that's a pretty ghetto description, but i don't really know how to quantify the potatoes)
- Half a can of pumpkin puree (make sure that it is NOT pumpkin pie mix!)
- One bunch of chard, chopped and blanched for three minutes.
- One can of black beans, rinsed.
- LOTS of garlic.
- Several tablespoons of olive oil.
- Salt and pepper.

This delicious mess was formed into patties, and then patted with flour. They were then fried in a hot pan with a bit of oil for about 3-5 minutes on either side.

I also sprinkled them with some Sheese, "cheddar style" fake cheese.

Stuffed Peppers
The peppers were stuffed with a crumbled curried tofu, and some really lovely green tomatoes that I picked up at the farmers' market. The peppers were rubbed with a bit of olive oil, before being stuffed, and tossed in the oven at 350F for roughly 12 minutes.



Tofu, roughly:
- 1 package of extra firm tofu, crumbled.
- 2 teaspoons of peanut oil (but any oil will do, really)
- 1/4 teaspoon each of cardamom and ground ginger.
- 1 teaspoon of curry powder.
- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds.
- several splashes of tamari.
- 1/2 teaspoon of chilli paste.
- garlic!!

The greens were just a mix of random things picked up from the farmers' market, and were tossed in lemon juice and flax oil.

nori strips and hummus.

Ok, so this is one of my less fancy photos of food, but making a post without a photo seems silly.
I am not normally one for food with a lot of packaging, but a friend recently introduced me to these little snack packs of seasoned nori, and they are the greatest!
This weekend, I ate them like crazy. I also had made a bunch of hummus, so I ate them together, and it was even better. Woot!



Since nori is a sea vegetable, it's packed with all sorts of vitamins and minerals, as well as omega-3s (and 6s, but 3s can be harder to get).

My hummous isn't incredibly special, and recipes are abundant enough on the internets, so I won't bother posting one here. To your standard hummus mix, I added a HUGE bunch of basil, and probably about twice as much garlic as your average bear.

chocolate cake, with kick.

I don't normally agree with posting other people's recipes directly from their cookbooks, but since this was also posted on the PPK blog the other day, I don't have a problem with it.

CHOCOLATE CAKE!

1 cup almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular (or a mix of both)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain (a few tiny lumps are OK).

Lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan. Pour in the batter and bake for 32 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted through the center comes out clean.

I didn't have a springform pan on hand, which turned out to be mildly problematic... but it turned out alright in the end.
Also, modifications!!!!
To the above recipe, I added one teaspoon each of cinnamon and cayenne, along with a handful of chopped up dried sour cherries.
Cayenne adds a bit of spicy kick, and the cherries add little sweet and sour pockets of goodness. Cinnamon is lovely in just about anything baked, as far as I am concerned.
Sadly, almond milk cost a whopping $3.50 at my local Safeway (not my usual grocery store), so I stuck with soy. Thankfully, SO NICE now makes an unsweetened version that is still fortified. Who knew?!

GANACHE:
Also modified from the PPK recipe, my chocolate ganache contained:
2/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
100g of dark chocolate (An entire large, lindt bar. The one that I used was 55% cacao)
4 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat the soy milk in a saucepan, then break the chocolate into bits and mix it in, until melted. Add all other ingredients and whisk everything around until it's nice and smooth. Let cool at least 15 minutes before using.

Before pouring the ganache all over the cake, allow the cake to cool. I tossed mine in the freezer for a bit, because I was impatient.

That's all great, but where are the photos!?!?!

Right here.



YUM!

simple dinner.

I like to enjoy new potatoes while their around, so this dinner had some more of those (boiled) with some more lovely, broiled yellow zucchini, fried mushrooms with red pepper and a tofurkey smokie. yum!

The mushrooms and red pepper were shopped up and then tossed in a cast iron frying pan with some garlic (how much really depends on your taste), a splash of tamari, and a generous pinch of paprika.

The potatoes were topped with tofutti sour supreme, mixed with a squeeze of lime juice, and some chilli paste (once again, the amount really depends on your taste for spice)

That's pretty much it.

salad!!

For some reason or another, salad is something that I often overlook when it comes to meal preparation. Then, I remember it, and am overjoyed by the deliciousness of fresh vegetables.

SALAD!!



I usually don't toss my salads, because I like to be able to eat bits and pieces of whatever I want. I also prefer salads if they have a few cold, fresh vegetables, and a few warm cooked ones.
This salad incorporated:
-fresh spinach and green leaf lettuce
-grated beets and carrots
-sliced cucumber
-lightly steamed yellow beans (just a few minutes, so they remain a little crispy. yellow beans are a little sweeter than the green ones, and they are DIVINE.)
-boiled new potatoes
-lightly broiled , sliced, yellow zucchini (once again, a little sweeter than green zuc. i coated the slices in olive oil, and then tossed them in the toaster oven at 350 F, for about 10-15 minutes)

WONDERFUL!

For the salad dressing, I combined:
-several tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce
-a few teaspoons of sesame oil
-a splash of apple cider vinegar
-a splash of maple syrup

The salad dressing was ok, but it was the topping for the new potatoes that was really amazing.

Potato topping:
-half a cup of tofutti fake sour cream
-6 to 10 drops of hickory liquid smoke (if you see this stuff, buy it! it's delicious.)
-between 1 and 2 teaspoons of lime juice
-between 1 and 2 teaspoons of maple syrup

The only thing that would have improved this salad, would have been the addition of some pumpkin and/or sunflower seeds, and some pea shoots or sunflower sprouts. Otherwise, it was the perfect summer dinner!!

Salad! Salad! Salad!