In My Vegan Life

this blog is a-changin'

2012-01-16T17:16:00.001-05:00

In recent months I've been thinking about changing the focus of my blog. Admittedly, there isn't currently much of a focus outside the goings on "in my vegan life", but that's the way I planned it. I wanted to keep an online scrapbook. However, I'm ready for a change and I would love your feedback! I've thought of a couple of themes that I'm excited to blog about and wondered which theme appeals to more readers.

Theme 1: My quest to find the BEST vegan Pad Thai and vegan chai in Portland.
Two of my favorite things. This is pretty self-explanatory. I've been on this quest since I've moved here, and thought since I'm searching anyway, I might as well document my experiences to help others! I would provide reviews and photos of the area's offerings and probably post some recipes too.

Oh man. This is the best Pad Thai: From Vientiane in West Philly.

Theme 2: My experience as a veganic gardener in the Pacific Northwest.
I love gardening. And have started documenting my journey from turning a weed-infested outdoor space into the lush permaculture paradise I hope it will be one day. This is a pretty expansive theme and would cover everything from before/after photos of our patio project to instructional planting posts to product reviews to recipes made from homegrown ingredients and more. Like the doggle photos? Well, there'd be more of them in this approach!

Little tomato seedlings from last year.

Whichever theme I go with, I will likely have "random post" days, where I'd post a recipe or a chair makeover or photos from a trip to the coast. Also, during the Vegan Month of Food, you can expect a departure from the regular theme and instead find recipes galore.

So, what do you think??

Easy Sugar Cookies with Barely Pink Icing

2012-01-05T15:11:00.002-05:00

It must have been a dozen years ago that my friend, Alison, surprised me at my Bubbie's house for Thanksgiving. Along with her came a big bag of scrumptious sugar cookies that she and her mom baked and decorated with a smooth sheen of icing. This sugar cookie recipe remains my favorite, with minor adjustments, of course.

The beauty of sugar cookies is, granted you don't go overboard with the icing, they're not too sweet. The slightly crunchy, slightly crumbly texture of the cookie paired with the sweet almond-flavored icing makes for a scrumptious treat. These 3 dozen cookies were gone in a matter of a few days and I wish I could say there were more than two people eating them!

I left the rolling pin and cookies cutters in the drawer, in favor of the easy "log method." And although I'm providing the full recipe for the icing below, I only made a half batch for my full batch of cookies.

Ethel's Sugar Cookies, veganized!
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer, combined with 4 tbsp water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

1. Beat oil, sugar, vanilla, and "eggs". Stir in the flour and baking powder, using hands if necessary.
2. Form the dough into a long log, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 375*F.
4. Make sure that the circumference of the log is the circumference you'd like the cookies to be. Unwrap the dough log and with a sharp, floured knife, make slices about every 1/4" or so. You'll get about 3 dozen small cookies. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. They don't spread much, so you can probably pack them all in on one sheet.
5. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. If you're going for larger cookies, adjust the baking time accordingly. Decorate with icing when cooled.

Decorator's Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tbsp almond milk (or soy, or whatever, even water would be fine)
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
coloring*

1. Combine all ingredients and mix until smooth and spreadable.

*To get the "barely pink" icing, I defrosted a few frozen cranberries and squeezed out the juice! You'll see I got a little cranberry pieces in the mix too.

Proper beach attire

2011-12-28T19:22:00.003-05:00

I am very lucky. Although my family lives thousands of miles away, my three siblings, mom, and mom's boyfriend all came to visit us last week! We had fun spending time together: watching movies, exploring Portland, playing board games, cooking at home. We also took a day trip to Cannon Beach, which is a lovely place to visit any time of the year. One doesn't go to the Oregon coast to sunbathe in December, so we occupied ourselves in other ways.

After my family flew home, Matt, the doggles, and I took a short trip to the Olympic Peninsula. We found a cottage in Forks, Washington, not too far from the Olympic National Forest and some breathtakingly beautiful beaches. It rained, as expected in the rainiest part of the country. We were in a rainforest, after all. It was glorious.

The four of us donned our raincoats and set out for our first hike together, not encountering any beast or person for the entire two hours on Christmas morning.

What a beautiful part of the country!

Happy New Year! I hope 2012 is filled with happy surprises, time spent with loved ones, and new opportunities for us all!

A very good veggie burger!

2011-12-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

Do you remember Heathen Vegan's Spicy Cajun Lentil Patties from Vegan MoFo? It was one of those recipes that I instantly bookmarked to try post-MoFo. However, I found it calling to me during MoFo, so I gave in and made these delicious burgers.

Following the recipe, my first batch of the patties came out really tasty, but crumbly- like the consistency of a dry sloppy joe- even with added gluten. I baked my patties instead of pan frying for ease and to use less oil, and maybe to warm up the house a little.

A bit crumbly, but totally delicious!

Last night I made a batch, deciding to use mashed squash (squashed squash?) instead of the vital wheat gluten. That made the mixture too wet, so I ended up adding in wheat gluten. The consistency still wasn't perfect. I'll need to continue to experiment. However, both attempts yielded really satisfying burgers, especially with all the trimmings and some super great buns I found at the store. If you're in Portland, check out Portland French Bakery's Pub Buns, available at Whole Foods.

Veggie Sushi!

2011-12-01T16:07:00.000-05:00

Recently, my friend Carly (whom you may remember from this MoFo guest post) and I got together to plan our Thanksgiving menu. And Thanksgiving menu planning is no good on an empty stomach, so we decided to make lunch.

We made a lovely assortment of veggie sushi, which included various combinations of red bell pepper, dill pickles (my favorite ingredient!), cucumber, avocado, cilantro, Tofutti cream cheese, and parsley. In some of the rolls we used quinoa in place of the rice.

We dipped the sushi into spicy mayo (Sriracha + Veganaise) and tamari and ate it with split pea soup and a nice spinach salad with roasted cashews and miso-tahini dressing.

A lovely lunch with lovely company! Never made sushi before? Check out my step-by-step instructions that I posted a while ago!

What do Papa Tofu and I have in common?

2011-11-18T15:42:00.001-05:00

A love for Ethiopian food!

This week I've been doing a little cooking from Kittee's Papa Tofu Loves Ethiopian Food. Kittee has done a great job of explaining techniques, ingredients, and recipes in this adorable zine. She worked really hard on both the designs and the recipes and it shows. I'm super happy to have it in my collection.

The recipes I've tried so far have tasted really authentic, but even more importantly, yummy! It was hard to decide on just a few dishes to try this week. I'll be cooking through these pages, until I've tried every recipe, and then keep going! The most fantastic thing about zines is that the number of dishes to try is manageable.

So what have I made this week?

Don't mind the horrible state of the injera. I wasn't gentle with the ripping.

Here you'll see (clockwise from top right): Ye'abesha Gomen (mild collard greens), Ye'miser W'et (red lentils in a spicy gravy), mushrooms sauteed in Niter Kibbeh (seasoned "butter"), and Selata (tossed salad) with Citrus Vinaigrette.

The Ye'abesha Gomen was gingery and really on par with greens dishes I've had in Ethiopian restaurants. I loved the Ye'miser W'et the most. I actually made that one in the slow cooker, minus the initial sauteing. We've had variations of the salad for three nights in a row. The citrus vinaigrette is really simple, but I love it. It's definitely going to become a go-to dressing in my house.

Tonight I'm going to make Keysir Allecha (Ethiopian style beets) to go along with leftovers of the other dishes. It's been really easy to prepare one dish every night to add to the plate.

Super Breaded Tofu Dinner and a Thank you!

2011-11-01T20:45:00.002-04:00

The full title of this meal is "Super Breaded Tofu 'Fried Chicken'-y Dinner" from Rabbit Food Cookbook.

Now that's a big lunch! (And I ate it all!)

Vegan MoFo gave me the kick in the butt I needed to cook more from this cute little book. Last night I made the above meal, which I loved. It contained four components:

Breaded Tofu
The tofu was wonderful! I don't know why, but I've never done the "shake 'n bake" thing which involves throwing the ingredients for the breading in a baggie, tossing in the cubed tofu, and shaking it up. It worked out so well. I did stray from the recipe just a bit by baking the tofu at 350* for 40 minutes (flipping half way through) instead of pan frying it. The result was crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside, peppery goodness.

Sauteed veggies
This was pretty straight forward- just green beans, carrots, and onion.

Mashed potato
Again, pretty straight forward.

Brown Gravy
Deeeelicious! Again, I sort of strayed from the recipe. Instead of using the exact dry ingredients listed in the recipe, I just threw in what was leftover in the baggie from the tofu. This was a really, really good gravy. There was almost this mustard taste, but there was no mustard in the recipe! (Please excuse the 'gloppiness' in the photo- these were my reheated leftovers, which I was too lazy to heat separately.)

Also, I wanted to extend a big thank you to the lovely folks that honored me with a Liebster Award last month. I'm going to be playing catchup in the weeks (months?) to come and will be sure to post links to some "under 200" blogs that I love.

Thank you so much:

Dawn from Veg-Am
Glauce from All About... (vegan) Food
Christine from Christine Eats Gluten-Free And Vegan
Jeni Treehugger from Heathen Vegan

Aaaand the winner is...

2011-11-01T16:17:00.001-04:00

Random.org has decided that the winner of one pink jar of grape jelly is Number 9: Amberle. Amberle, please send an email to inmyveganlife a t gmail dot com with your address! Congrats! I hope you enjoy the jelly!

Thank you for all the ideas, everyone! I'm definitely going to try some of them soon!

Collard Wraps and a Wrap-Up

2011-10-31T17:07:00.001-04:00

It's the last day of MoFo! Although I'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief, I've also enjoyed the immense amount of vegan goodness shoved in my face this month. I'll miss it! I've enjoyed reading so many new blogs as well as old favorites. I look forward to continuing to read throughout the year until MoFo 2012! On my own blog, I've been able to blog every day, with the help of a few friends, but I didn't succeed in blogging about greens every day. Oh well!

Just a little roundup of some of my greens dishes this month! Try the collards soup!

For my last Vegan MoFo 2011 post, I decided I really needed to go out with a greens dish. I give you "Collard Wraps with Sunflower Seed Spread".

Sunflower seed spreads are really versatile. A creamy texture is achieved by soaking and blending the seeds. You can add whichever herbs or flavorings you'd like. In this version I've flavored the spread with rich miso, garlic, and parsley. The spread is accompanied by leftover majadra, shredded beets, carrots, and red cabbage, and sliced onion and cucumber.

Collard Wraps
Ingredients:
6 collard leaves
sunflower seed spread (recipe below)
shredded or sliced veggies of your choice
prepared rice, quinoa, beans, or lentils of your choice

Method:
1. Bring a pot large enough to fit a collard leaf to a boil. Blanch each leaf for about 20 seconds. Rinse under cold water. Set aside.
2. Fill the rolls with your fillings. If the leaves are large enough (unlike mine), roll them up like a burrito so that the short ends are folded in before you roll the long side up.

Sunflower Seed Spread
Ingredients:
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked in enough water to cover for about 1 hour, save 1/2 cup soaking water
1 tbsp miso
1 tbsp raw tahini
1 small clove garlic
pinch pepper
pinch smoked paprika
several leaves parsley (pulse a few times into it)

Method:
1. In a food processor, combine the sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup soaking water, miso, tahini, garlic, pepper, and paprika. Process until smooth. Add the parsley and pulse a few times so that the parsley is distributed throughout the mixture, but remains in bits.

Here are some photos of the wraps I made last time. You'll see the leaves were a little bigger, so I was able to make wraps that retained their contents a little better. Last time I filled the wraps with quinoa, black eyed peas, bell pepper, tomato, parsley, carrots, and the spread.

Here you'll see the leftover contents of the wraps, as a salad with the wraps in the background!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for homemade grape jelly!

IMVL's first ever GIVEAWAY!

2011-10-30T19:03:00.000-04:00

Update: Amberle, you're the winner! Please send me an email with your address to inmyveganlife at gmail d ot com.

Friends, I made a big batch of grape jelly for the first time, from grapes I picked from my own yard. I used mostly green grapes along with several bunches of deep purple grapes, which yielded this fantastic pink color. See the original post here.

Up for grabs is a little jar of this delicious pink stuff. I'm not going to lie. There's a lot of sugar, but that's jelly for you. Three simple ingredients: organic grapes, organic cane sugar, and pectin. There was a lot of pulp straining involved, but it was worth it!

Grape jelly for you?

What will you do with this jar of jelly (besides the obvious pb&j sandwiches)? Well, that's up to you. So far, I've enjoyed it best, slathered on a homemade biscuit with Earth Balance, as pictured below.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below. You earn extra appreciation points if you tell me what you intend to use the jelly for. I'm looking for grape-y inspiration! This giveaway is open to EVERYONE everywhere, but there is only one jar up for grabs. I'm saving the rest as holiday gifts for friends and fam. A random winner will be chosen at 10:00 a.m. PST on Tuesday, November 1.

Dovetail Bakery is Love

2011-10-29T15:22:00.001-04:00

I love this place. It's my favorite bakery and on weekends one has the option of the super delicious biscuits and gravy with tempeh bacon. Did I mention Dovetail is one of (at least) three vegan bakeries in Portland? My friend and I stopped by this morning and had a serving each before I drove him to the airport. I didn't have my camera with me. I did, however, get some treats to go, which are photographed below.

Morgan, from Dovetail was one of the competitors in Vegan Iron Chef earlier this year. And I was excited to hear that a more extensive menu (sandwiches! soups! salads!) will be rolling out of the bakery on NE Alberta St. soon. I hope they stay in that spot forever, as it's really convenient for me :)

Oh the soft, moist goodness.

I usually love Dovetail's scones most of all, but today the lemon poppy seed muffins and cinnamon rolls beckoned to me to take one of each of them home. Matt and I will enjoy them, along with some green tea, while working through a Halloween movie marathon based on some of the recommendations made by Katie from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk. Have you been following along with her Vegan Dinner and a Horror Movie theme? It's fun!

I guess we're not really following Katie's dining suggestions, with the beautiful baked goods and all, but her recommendations are really imaginative and some of them sound downright delicious!

Yum Yum Yum Lentils and Rice

2011-10-29T03:33:00.000-04:00

Majadra is a Middle Eastern dish consisting of lentils, rice, caramelized onions, olive oil, and salt! Simple! I think it's comfort food at its finest. I've posted about this easy and satisfying dish before. I saw this episode of Everyday Dish (doesn't Rose seem like the sweetest lady?) a while ago and have made it a few times since, tonight being one of those times. It's great! Perhaps the best thing about eating this dish is that it's an excuse to turn on the oven and heat up your kitchen a little after spending all day trying to fix your furnace to no avail.

You should give this a try yourself!

Rabbit Food Cookbook: Lentil Soup

2011-10-27T20:07:00.001-04:00

I picked up a copy of Rabbit Food Cookbook when I visited Portland three years ago. (I actually got it for a friend, but decided to keep it myself! Shhh.) It's an adorable little book with hand drawn pictures. I love it.

Being the vegan cookbook collector that I am, I haven't gotten around to trying many recipes. I have, however, tried the lentil soup recipe, which is now my go-to favorite. It's quick and hearty, and as I've discovered, adaptable. Last night I made a half batch, which will provide the two of us with at least two meals a piece. I didn't have potatoes or celery on hand, so I left out the potatoes and used carrot greens in place of the celery. Delish!

I noticed this little book is making its rounds on the vegan blogosphere. Check out Kittee's post at Cake Maker to the Stars, which features the falafel recipe from the book (I'm going to have to make this soon!) and a GIVEAWAY, ending tomorrow morning. Also, be sure to visit the other blogs mentioned in the post to see some of the other recipes from the book.

I have all these plants, post-mofo, which now include cooking through this little book.

Grape Jelly!

2011-10-26T23:25:00.000-04:00

Do you remember these grapes from Monday's post? Well, guess what. They're now jelly! This jelly is lighter in color than traditional grape jelly because most of the grapes were green.

Take that you grapey beasts!

Making jelly sure is messy, but I think the time spent making my kitchen sticky was worth it. I now have 22 jars of grape jelly to give as gifts to friends and family. I'm thinking about offering a jar as a giveaway the last day of MoFo. Is that strange? Would people not really be into a homemade jar of grape jelly? Tell me!

22 jars of homemade grape jelly!

Tonight I had my first "real" taste (this excludes what was happening as I was cleaning up the stick jelly-cooking pot!) of the grape jelly on a homemade biscuit with some organic Earth Balance. I base my biscuits off of the recipe found in Vegan Comfort Food, but I use canola oil instead of margarine, and just mix the wet ingredients right into the dry. Also, I don't actually measure the anything!

Oh man! This was really good. I'm thrilled with how the jelly came out and, really, this was the perfect way to enjoy it. Although, I'm thinking about making grape jelly scones this week too.

UPDATE: I forgot to link to the recipe I used for the jelly. Here it is! Also, I'm replacing that horrible nighttime photo with one taken this morning!

Lovely Outing with the Lovely Celyn

2011-10-25T21:28:00.002-04:00

Do you know Celyn? She blogs over at Miso for Breakfast and during MoFo, she's doing a giveaway EVERY day. She's kind of insane. She's also really sweet and a pleasure to spend time with, so I was thrilled when she invited me to grab lunch at Green Wok, a vegan Chinese restaurant in SW Portland.

After lunch we headed to Barbur World Foods. If you know Celyn's blog, you may have seen her tour of the grocery store. It was the baklava that got me!

Oh man, I filled my basket with some tasty treats like...

Zaatar pizza! I couldn't resist gobbling up a slice before Matt got home for dinner. It's pretty simple, just a thin-crust pizza with zaatar on top, but they make it fresh while you wait. It's crisp and has all that zaatary goodness, which is a little difficult to describe, but contains thyme, sesame seeds, sumac, and olive oil. Only $3.50 for the whole thing too!


Zataar pizza.

Want a bite?

Baklava! I haven't yet sunk my teeth into one, but I am so excited for dessert tonight! I think I grabbed one pistachio-filled and two walnut-filled.

One for me, one for Matt, one for good luck!

Falafel! Baba Ghanouj! Hummus! Barbur World Foods makes the falafel fresh, to order, too. You'll see their house made baba ghanouj, hummus, and tahini dressing on the left. I also picked up some cherry tomatoes and huuuge pita bread.

To that I added fresh kale and collards from the garden, carrots and onion. Look at me, being all "greens theme."

A mighty fine sandwich, methinks.

Lastly, I decided Matt and I would have a mini root beer taste-testing. Plus, Celyn sold me on the rose lemonade. I look forward to trying that tomorrow.

I had a great time! Thank you for introducing me to a new and great place, Celyn. I enjoyed teaming up to discuss veganism with a curious employee. I hope this person will try some of the great vegan spots in Portland that we suggested. (She started the conversation with us and I could see here wheels a'turnin.)

Now, Matt and I are going to sit back with our falafel sandwiches and watch some Dexter. Cheers!

PS- Grape jelly tomorrow. I ran out of time and sunlight today!

Grapity Grape Grapes

2011-10-24T18:59:00.003-04:00

After doing yard work for several hours today, I decided I'm not going to go crazy with an intricate meal for dinner tonight, and am instead going to throw together a big salad.

What was I doing out in the garden you ask? I started off planting some new native plants we picked up over the weekend. Then, looking up for the umpteenth time at the neighbors' horrific grape vines, and being annoyed for the umpteenth time that they do nothing to maintain the, in my opinion, noxious weed, I rolled up my sleeves, got out the ladder and loppers and started hacking away. I wish I had taken a before photo so that you could be appropriately impressed with how dutifully I freed our fence and the other neighbor's holly tree. This shot of our huge yard waste roll cart will have to do!

You can see the grape vine clump on the other side of the fence, which appears to take up their entire yard!

Okay, okay, so what does this have to do with VeganMoFo? Grapes! In the process of warring with the neighbors' grapevine, I collected a big box worth of grapes. For now I leave you with a photo of the grapes. Perhaps tomorrow I'll have the finished product. Can you guess what I'll be making with all these grapes?

Why yes, very fresh. Interestingly, both varieties taste the same!

It was a beautifully crisp and sunny fall day today, so I was happy to be outside, even when picking through the uneven ground and leaf litter below me to find every last scrap of grape. Did you know grapes (and raisins!) are extremely toxic to dogs? Our dogs don't. I'm hoping I didn't miss any grapes out there!

Not every recipe is a winner

2011-10-24T00:10:00.000-04:00

I set out to make a really delicious "greens themed" red chard quiche, homemade crust and everything. I threw in a bunch of stuff I thought would make a magnificent dish (tofu, soaked cashews, miso, mustard, tamari, tarragon, red pepper flakes, daiya, nooch, chard, onion...) and really couldn't eat more than one slice. It was too rich, too salty, too soft, just too much. I liked the crust (I used Julie's recipe from Vegan Diner), but wish I had twice as much.

I think I went wrong with the cashews, miso, and tamari. Maybe I even put in too much nooch. I think I'll leave quiches up to the professionals and stick to following tried-and-true recipes in the future.

I couldn't even make it look delicious. I think the hot sauce made it worse!

Matt, on the other hand said it was good. Lucky him- he gets to take the rest for lunch this week!

Quiche fail.

A Trip to the Food Co-op

2011-10-22T22:26:00.001-04:00

I'm a lucky duck to be living in Portland for many reasons, not least of which is being able to choose between four grocery co-ops in the city. Naturally, Matt and I joined one closest to us, and close it is- just a 10 minute bike ride. Since moving to Portland and finding myself with some time on my hands (I'm unemployed), I decided to become a working member at Alberta Co-op. Every week you'll find me working in the bulk herb section, which allows me a greater discount at the register and when placing special orders.

Today was Member Appreciation Day, in which owners get 15% off everything, so Matt and I took the opportunity to stock up. While I was there, I decided to snap a few photos to give you a tour of our local food supplier!


My favorite parts of co-ops are the bulk sections. This one contains lots of things like cereals, beans, nuts, sugars, flours, chocolate chips (3 kinds!), dried fruit, grains, and flax seeds.

Alberta Co-op sells fair trade products when available, which is really super in my opinion!

In this bulk section you'll find items like maple syrup, wheat-free tamari, vanilla extract, agave, and vinegars. Just bring along your preferred vessel and fill 'er up.

And here you have things like arrowroot powder, baking soda, and dry soy milk powder.

Here's my section! I couldn't get a good shot of it due to the large crowd in the store, but you can imagine how the herbs extend around the other side of this compartment. The neat part: this unit actually has these huge drawers that pull out to reveal storage space for the back stock. Pretty sweet.

This is the tea section. The different color labels coordinate with the different classifications of tea. Green=green, etc.

I think the produce section at Alberta is also top-notch. The employees do a really great job in keeping everything fresh and beautiful. There's Matt perusing the selection, deciding on dinner.

Another bulk section. Here you'll see such items as Daiya, Tofutti Cream Cheese, Earth Balance, Vegenaise, and seitan.

Sometimes the nice people at Alberta Co-op leave food samples for customers to try. Here we have kiwi berries and apples.

Bulk kombucha- if that's your thing. I tried the white rose flavor and really liked it.

I haven't included all the bulk sections (like shampoo,soap, lotion, nut butters, tofu/tempeh, miso, etc.), but here's a shot of the bulk dish/laundry detergent. Pretty snazzy.

As I said, I'm pretty lucky to shop at such a great place. Do you have a coop near you?

Tom's Pickled Green Tomatoes

2011-10-22T02:57:00.000-04:00

I'm a bad MoFoer. Here I am, posting at 11:55 p.m. and not even on topic. Again, I give you the pitiful "oh, but at least it's a 'green thing' if not a greens dish."

My dad's girfriend's father has been making pickled green tomatoes for years, which I've had the pleasure of enjoying on several occasions. With Matt's and my first garden producing bounty of green tomatoes, I decided to use his recipe and make a few jars myself. Even following his directions (mostly), my tomatoes didn't come out exactly the same. It may very well have been the varieties we grew, which I wasn't the biggest fan of. You live and learn, as my father-in-law says.

Next year I'd like to further explore the pickling universe as I have tried and loved many pickled things. Among my favorites are these okra pickles, which is funny because I ordinarily don't like okra. What is your preferred pickled treat?

Easy Peasy Split Pea Kale Soup

2011-10-21T01:25:00.000-04:00

Ever since Fanny from Cooking Vegan Food Up North visited and prepared a Swedish dinner for us, I've been making variations of this split pea soup. Adding a swirl of yellow mustard to a soup was a new thing for me, but I love it!

The beauty of a split pea soup is that it comes together quickly and doesn't require pre-soaking the peas. This, and the fact that I always have yellow split peas on hand, are probably the reasons that I make this dish a lot. Oh and it's tasty, filling, and healthy! This time I added diced bell pepper, shredded carrot, and Red Russian kale.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups yellow split peas
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 shallots, diced (or a small onion)
2 sprigs of thyme, stems discarded
7 cups vegetable broth
2 carrots, shredded
several handfuls of kale, chopped
yellow mustard

Method:
1. In a soup pot, saute dried split peas in olive oil for a 5-10 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add the bell pepper, shallots, and thyme, and saute for another 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the vegetable broth and stir. Cover pot and simmer 20-30 minutes until the peas are soft. In the last 5 minutes, add the shredded carrot and stir.
3. Turn off heat. Add kale to the pot, cover, and let steam for 5 minutes.
4. Top with a swirl of yellow mustard!

Kale Skordalia

2011-10-19T20:09:00.003-04:00

When I saw the recipe for Green Skordalia in my Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates book, I decided it would be perfect to try during MoFo. According to the cookbook, Skordalia (also called Skorthalia) is a "pungent Mediterranean garlic paste" which is enjoyed on toast, whisked into soup, dolloped on veggies, or served as a dip. Usually white with bits of herbs in the mix, this Skordalia is green due to the kale.

The recipe was pretty quick and simple. Basically throwing the ingredients into a food processor. It was definitely GARLICKY with the recipe calling for 6-8 cloves of the raw stuff. I was slightly off put by the slimy texture, which I assume came from the kale. Still, it was tasty and I now have a ton left over. I think I might turn the leftovers into soup. By the way, I replaced the yogurt in the recipe with a blended cashew sour cream.

Pink Drink!

2011-10-18T20:07:00.000-04:00

Veggies and fruits really contain the most amazing colors, and it's always exciting to see this vibrancy in fresh juice. Today I pushed Red Russian kale, two Honeycrisp apples and half a lemon through my juicer and got this pretty pink drink.

A patient person would have waited until all the foam floated to the top before pouring the juice into the glass! Next time I'd like to try it with Granny Smith apples, a green variety of kale, lemon, and a bit of ginger for a vibrant green, gingery drink.

The Best Mung Dal

2011-10-17T21:59:00.000-04:00

I haven't actually tried every mung dal out there, but I'm willing to bet I'd still rank this one pretty high if I had. I first saw this recipe on the Post Punk Kitchen forum and decided to give it a try since I had all the ingredients on hand. Since that night several months ago, I've been in mung dal heaven.

This recipe is simple and really, really satisfying. You can adjust the spiciness level to your preferences, and add a good squeeze of lemon juice and cilantro for a fresh, flavorful taste. I can't tell you how much I love this dish! And so, even though it doesn't contain greens (rather, it contains green things), I'll introduce to you Mung Dal from Sonia at the Seven Spice blog.

I salivate just looking at this photo.

I don't have a pressure cooker, so when I make this soup, I soak the mung beans for 2-8 hours and then cook them until the texture indicated in the recipe.

Sorry for taking another break from my greens theme. I just got home after traveling ALL day and decided to use a backup recipe.

Lasagna with Spinach, Mushrooms, and Butternut Squash - RAW

2011-10-16T22:44:00.011-04:00

Hi all!

Amanda has asked me to post on her blog while she is out of town at her grandma’s birthday party. I am friends with the Supreme Master and Lady Beth (see their posts below) but unlike them, Amanda does not have a nickname for me and has mentioned me on her blog by my real name, Carly. Amanda and I have been friends for about five years, when we became roommates through veggieroommates.com (yes, you heard me right! Alas, this website sadly no longer exists). We were roommates for the last two years of Amanda’s college days and my first two years of grad school in Florida. I stayed in Florida to finish my degree and work for The Nature Conservancy. Surprisingly, I then got a job with a conservation non-profit in Portland and ended up moving to the same town that Amanda currently lives in. Small world!

I have been a vegetarian since I was 12 (if you are counting that means I have been veg for 19 years!). I grew up in a meat and potatoes family in central Wisconsin, which means being vegetarian was not easy! The only green vegetable my family ate at the time was iceberg lettuce. I am not exaggerating. I have slowly been adding greens into my diet as I have found that I remarkably don’t dislike them, despite what others in my family may prefer. In fact, I LOVE them! This has rubbed off on my family as they have actually started to eat romaine lettuce, spinach and….broccoli! I am hoping to get them to start eating kale and collard greens soon but that might be an uphill battle.

Anyways, on to the food. I love experimenting with RAW foods so I thought I would give it a try for Amanda’s blog. This recipe does take some preparation but not as much as most RAW recipes. You will need a mandoline and either a food processor or high speed blender (like a Vitamex). You will *not* need a dehydrator (whew!). I used cremini mushrooms here because I work for a non-profit and can’t afford the wild variety. But if you are able, a combo of oyster, shitake, and cremini would probably be lovely!

This Recipe has been adapted from Matthew Kenney’s Everyday Raw Express

Lasagna with Spinach, Mushrooms, and Butternut Squash - RAW

1 very small Butternut Squash

Cashew Cream
2 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 ½ Tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Spinach
2 cups baby spinach

Mushrooms
1 cup cremini mushrooms
1.5 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon nama shoyu
1/2 Tablespoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Peel the butternut squash, cut in quarters and remove seeds. Using a mandoline, cut the squash into thin slices. Each slice should be at least 3 inches long. Toss with a bunch of olive oil and salt. Soak for 30 min or more. Rinse and drain before using.

For the cashew cream, soak the cashews for about two hours. Drain the water (do not use it!) and rinse the cashews. Pulse cashews, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, olive oil, water, salt and pepper in a food processor or high speed blender until smooth and fluffy.

Chop mushrooms very finely. Toss mushrooms with all ingredients and allow to marinate for 30 min or more.

Wash and chop spinach.

Layer squash, cashew cream, spinach, and mushrooms. Repeat. Garnish with more oregano and thyme. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, if desired.

2011-10-15T10:01:00.003-04:00

Greetings All!

Just like Supreme Master, I have been asked by the lovely Amanda to contribute as a guest blogger in her absence. Amanda may have referred to me in previous posts as Lady Beth and I, too, am a frequent traveling companion of hers. I am going to try to make this post as grammatically correct as I can, in case another mutual friend of ours (we'll nickname him Grammar Guru) is reading. :)

I met Amanda five years ago back in college. After we graduated, we have not lived in the same cities but have managed to have at least bi-annual visits/food travels. I love warm weather and cannot tolerate much cold (opposite of Amanda), so I chose to return to South Florida after I graduated college. While warm weather abounds, tons of vegan options do not.

I have the fortune of having vegan parents in the area who cook some scrumptious meals. Unlike our weather preferences, Amanda and I have similar tastes in food (not surprisingly, she already posted a recipe of my favorite green meal - massaged raw kale salad). To not duplicate simialar recipes, I leave you with one of my dad's signature dishes. While the dish itself does not use a green, the sister vegetable of the main character is a green. The recipe is a slight green deviation.

See a recipe for this German entree at http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=25808.0. Personally, I prefer the recipe with no raisins, and recommend that you alter the sugar/vinegar ratio based on your sweet/sour preference ratio. To keep with the green theme, feel free to use green cabbage as opposed to red -- or create a dish with a combination of the two!

Happy eating.

Peanut Kale

2011-10-14T11:41:00.008-04:00

Happy VeganMoFo Hump Day!

Hi everyone! Amanda has asked me to contribute as a guest blogger today while she’s out of town. You may know me from one of her many travel adventures, as we’ve stuffed our faces in countless cities together across the continent. She refers to me as Shivels, which is a nickname that I hate! So while I have full reign of her blog today, I’m going to go ahead and change my nickname to Supreme Master.

Moving on.

A little background information on me: I’ve been vegan for over 8 years. Amanda and I met in Florida but I moved to Seattle 3 years ago. I moved here mainly for the food but I tell mainstream society it was for graduate school. Which is partially true; I just picked my school based on which city had better food to offer. So here I am!

As a grad student, my nutrition has had its ups and downs. Finals week are the worst and most days involve me throwing Amy’s microwaveables in my backpack or ordering a pizza and hoping it’ll last me my next three meals. This pattern usually leads me to reflect upon my nutrition at the end of the week and panic. I then try to think of the most nutritious way I can make up for my sins. In my panic, the gloomy Seattle clouds part and a light shines down upon the kale in my fridge.

Sometimes I’ve been so short on time and so desperate for nutrients that I’ve just taken bites out of a bunch of kale before bed. Not ideal. Other times I’ll have it juiced. Oftentimes I’ll just sauté it with some garlic, braggs and seasame oil. Regardless of how I eat it, I always resort to a kale cleanse to clear my conscience. The last time I did this, I was looking for something different and came across this recipe for Creamy Peanut Kale on vegweb.

I like this recipe because not only is it delicious, but it's fast and simple. Prepping for it really just involves chopping the kale and making the peanut sauce.

Wilted and nearly-dead kale, ready to become something more!

Another thing I appreciate about the recipe is that once you have the kale, it's likely you'll already have the remaining ingredients sitting around the kitchen. So if you're ever looking for a quick and easy recipe to clear your conscience of your gluttonous sins, give this one a try!

The end product may look something like this, although I usually make a thicker peanut sauce than what the recipe makes. (Caution: my pictures were taken with a smartphone on a plate with streaks on it. Not the food porn you're used to, I'm sure. Sowwy!)

I'd like to end this Hump Day post by sharing a song by fellow vegan, Leslie Hall. Go ahead and give it a listen and remind yourself of the deliciousness and nutritiousness of VeganMoFo!

-Supreme Master

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows

2011-10-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

Taking a break from the greens to enjoy some chocolate and peanut butter cookies!

Have you made this recipe from Isa and Terry's Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar? This was my first time. I think I ended up with a too-oily batter, which made the chocolate part of the cookie flatten more than it should have, but the cookies were still quite good.

A little more like flying saucers than pillows, but tasty all the same!

I've only tried a few of the recipes from this book, but I feel like this is the season for, among other things, cookies, so I want to give more a go! What's your favorite cookie recipe, either from VCIYCJ or elsewhere?

Kale Sandwich

2011-10-12T15:58:00.001-04:00

This may be the most boring way to enjoy kale, but perhaps you never thought about it before. If that's the case, then you're welcome for the introduction! Matt has kale in his sandwich every day. Sometimes I eat it this way too, as evidenced below. Fresh-from-the-garden kale is tougher than some lettuces, but it's just as sweet as, say, romaine. I think it's a great addition to sandwiches.

Kale sandwich with shredded carrot, Vegenaise, mustard, oven roasted tofurky, and tomatoes- on Dave's Killer bread.

Pssssttt. Did you see my previous post about the Flash Mob Blogging event?

Vegan MoFo Updates here at In My Vegan Life

2011-10-12T15:33:00.000-04:00

Sadly, I will be out of town and without an Internet connection for the next few days, so I will probably miss oodles of excellent MoFo posts. Happily, I am visiting my grandma on the east coast for her birthday! I'll get to spend some time with family that I haven't seen in a while and get in some much-needed book club reading on my long days of travel.

There will probably be a combination of guest blogging and magical Blogger posts automatically updating in the next few days. You should look forward to it!

Also, BIG NEWS! Have you heard about the FLASH MOB that's happening this Friday, aka VeganMoFo Humpday?? No? Well, on the following link to participate and learn more! http://tiny.cc/qmtv5

See you when I get back!

Spinach Lasagna

2011-10-12T01:15:00.002-04:00

Lasagna is one of my favorite meals. My mom's lasagna to be precise. In honor of my MoFo greens month, I decided to make spinach lasagna. I've heard rumors that you can skip pre-cooking your lasagna noodles if you make sure to pile on extra sauce, so I decided to experiment. And it worked!

Spinach Lasagna

Cashew cream sauce (recipe below)
A splash of olive oil
60 oz of your favorite pasta sauce(that's kind of a lot, so feel free to mix up a few types)
Lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 or 2 packages of frozen spinach, defrosted
Other veggies of your choice (I used black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, red bell pepper)
Follow Your Heart mozzarella, chopped
1/2-1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Method:
1. Grease a lasagna pan with a little olive oil.
2. Pour about 15 oz of tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan.
3. Alternately layer the uncooked lasagna noodles, vegetables, tomato sauce, and cream sauce. When you come to the spinach, squeeze out some of the water, but not too much. This will provide more liquid for the cooking noodles. I did one full layer of bechamel and then plopped down a few globs in another layer.
WARNING: The noodles will make the dish expand a little. Don't, as I did, overfill the pan. Leave a little room at the top.
4. Preheat the oven to 350*.
5. While the oven is preheating, place the FYH, soy milk, and nutritional yeast in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until the mixture is melted. Pour over the top of the lasagna.
6. Bake the lasagna, covered, for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional half hour. Broil the last few minutes if you'd like, to get bubbly brown spots on top!
7. For easier cutting, let the lasagna sit for 10 minutes or so before serving.

Cashew cream sauce:
3/4 cup raw cashew pieces, soaked in 1 1/2 cups water for an hour
1/2 tsp bouillon
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Method:
Blend cashews, soaking water, bouillon, and garlic until smooth. Put the mixture in a saucepan, stir in the nutritional yeast, and heat over medium-low, stirring often, until the consistency of a thick tomato sauce.

Other tips:
-I would have liked a thicker, layer of the cashew cream sauce. I think next time I'll combine this sauce with a tofu ricotta for a thicker, yummy white layer. (You can't even see the layer in this photo- It's toward the bottom.)
-Use a sauce that you like. I've found that good lasagnas start with good sauces.

Kale Salad with Buffalo Tempeh

2011-10-10T21:01:00.000-04:00

We eat a lot of "bowl" dishes in our house. Last night we ate a big salad that consisted mostly of kale, but also had beets, carrots, tomatoes, and sweet peppers from the garden. Perhaps the star of this dish was the buffalo tempeh. Sooo...kale as a salad (unmassaged). I topped the salad with Annie's Woodstock dressing.

Yuck! Sorry for this horrible night-time photo!

I make this spicy, salty tempeh a lot. In fact, I think I've determined I only really like baked, dry and slightly crunchy tempeh (like the tempeh that comes with Dovetail's biscuits and gravy- ohmigosh). If you're like me and don't love tempeh, you might still love this dish. I love to eat this buffalo tempeh in a sandwich with arugula, thinly sliced red onion, and Vegenaise too. Use your imagination- it's a really versatile recipe.

Buffalo Tempeh:
several globs of Earth Balance, melted
several shakes of hot sauce (my favorite brand is Crystal)
1-2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 package tempeh, sliced

Combine the Earth Balance, hot sauce, and garlic in a wide-bottomed glass dish. (Like a pie pan.) Set the tempeh in the mixture, flipping to coat it. Let it marinade for at least an hour. Spread the tempeh out in the dish and bake it at 350* F (I use a toaster oven) until a little crispy, about 20- 25 minutes.

Collards with Queso

2011-10-10T00:50:00.000-04:00

It was only recently that I first tasted the amazingness that is Food for Lovers' vegan queso. I found myself with several open jars of the queso after Vida Vegan Con, and needing a way to use it. Horrible dilemma, I know. Using this queso as a dip is my favorite way to scarf it down, but when the tortilla chips ran out, I turned to an old favorite: collards!

I simply steamed some collard ribbons in a skillet with some water. When the water evaporated, I added the queso, mixed it up, and served it alongside a couscous and mung bean salad with veggies. (Hungarian pepper, collards, and several types of tomatoes from the garden!)

Tamari Sauteed Collards

2011-10-08T20:12:00.001-04:00

This is another really simple go-to recipe. I love the flavor that's created when you combine tamari, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil. I usually flavor baked tofu and cooked lentils with these ingredients. In this dish I added pressed garlic.

This is really as easy as chopping up some collards and sauteing them with garlic, olive oil, a splash of apple cider vinegar, and a splash of tamari. I added some Field Roast sausage that I wanted to use up and ate it with brown rice. A simple, quick, and tasty lunch! Try it. It might even become a go-to dish in your home too!

Mulled Apple Cider

2011-10-07T18:25:00.000-04:00

For much of the Northern Hemisphere, this time of year cues the ubiquitousness of 'homey' spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, used in baked goods and even in home decorations. I, for one, am prepared for fall. I bought my fall-scented candles from my favorite vegan-owned candle company (currently I have warm cookies alight) and broke out the mulling spices. I love mulled apple cider. Simmering on the stove, the spicy sweet scent fills the house, and once ready, the steamy drink is like comfort in a mug.

Taking a break from my 'greens' them to enjoy a hot cup of mulled apple cider.

My friend, Tcat, bought me a tin of Williams-Sonoma mulling spices last year. This dry mix contains cinnamon, orange rind, allspice, and cloves. You simply add it to apple cider (or unfiltered apple juice) and simmer for 10-20 minutes.

Slow Cooked Chana Saag

2011-10-06T15:02:00.000-04:00

Do you have a slow cooker? Probably. You've probably been slow cooking for years. Well, I am late to the slow cooking party. We never had a slow cooker when I was growing up and I've had literally no exposure to them. That changed last week when my very first slow cooker arrived in the mail.

Meet our new addition!

Before it even got here, I reserved a few slow cooking books from the library. This week, I excitedly cracked open The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester. I've now made two dishes from this book and they've been fabulous! Of course I had to try a greens recipe, so I made Chana Saag (I opted to use spinach along with the chickpeas). The Indian dish wafted its gingery, spicy aroma through my house all day. Lucky me!

The doggles long for some chana saag.

This dish was really simple and really tasty. I've never been to India, but Indian cuisine is one of my favorites and this Chana Saag tasted pretty authentic to me. I opted to use a bit of leftover cashew sour cream in the place of nondairy milk. The citrus flavor really shined too, creating a creamy dish, both rich in substance and complexity of flavor.

For a little added flavor, I topped my chana saag with cilantro.

Usually Matt takes a sandwich to work everyday for lunch, but during MoFo, he gets to take leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Last night he was especially excited to hear there were enough leftovers for his lunch. Just one of the perks of doing so much cookin'!

Savory Collard Pies

2011-10-05T16:21:00.000-04:00

I love Mediterranean spinach pies. Love. I decided to give this recipe a try, using collards instead of spinach because I had a bunch on hand. The dough was nice and workable and after baking, the pockets were fluffy, yet thicker and stiffer than some spinach pies I've had at restaurants. The leftover, uncooked, filling even made a great side salad!

When using collards in this recipe, you can skip squeezing out the excess water, but you'll need to massage the greens a little longer. Also, make sure you remove the stems from the collards!

I didn't have sumac, so I left it out, but I definitely think it would be worth it to track down the spice if you plan on making this dish. I also skipped the cornmeal in the recipe and instead used greased cookie sheets. I really recommend piling in the filling, using much more than the recipe says. I think mine could have used a higher filling-to-dough ratio.

Collards and Mac

2011-10-04T19:54:00.000-04:00

Mixing a vegetable in with your mac and cheez isn't exactly a novel idea anymore. I've done broccoli, cauliflower, and peas, but perhaps my favorite mix-ins are collards. I like to cut them into long ribbons so I can swirl them up with my fork, each bite having a plentiful amount of both the veg and the mac.

Kristen from the Noochy Noodle spoke really highly of the Cheezy Mac recipe from Julie Hasson's Vegan Diner. I just got a copy of the book from the library, so I thought it would be a perfect recipe to try for this dish. And it was! This recipe is creamy with a great smokey flavor. It's only been recently that I've started liking smokey flavors, so it was my first time using smoked paprika, but certainly not the last!

So how did I prepare the collard ribbons?
I started out with enormous collard leaves, cutting out the stalks (and giving them to patiently waiting doggles), and lining them up on the cutting board.

Then, I rolled them up, lengthwise and started slicing.

I plopped the collard ribbons into a pan and steamed them for about five minutes.

For dessert I made the couscous cake that won me over at A Bug and a Fish. However, I flavored mine with rosewater instead of vanilla and used pistachios and home-grown strawberry slices for the top. It was quite good. Apparently couscous cakes have been around forever, but I've never heard of them before! I think I'm going to try making it with quinoa for a nutty, gluten-free dessert.

Oy. It wasn't ready in time for natural light. And I wasn't going to wait until the next day to eat it!

Lastly, I leave you with photographic evidence of Andy's method of opening a soy milk container.

Oh, Andy.

Velvety Collards Soup

2011-10-03T16:30:00.000-04:00

This soup became an instant favorite in my house. I opted to make a creamy, blended soup that still had chunks of vegetables. It's a really simple recipe, taking a short amount of time to create, and allowing the individual flavors of the ingredients to come through. Hot, satisfying, and healthy, this soup can be enjoyed right now or anytime!

This recipe makes two generous bowls of Velvety Collards Soup, perfect portions for VeganMoFo, but you could definitely double it.

Ingredients:
1 large yellow potato, peeled and diced
1 small bundle of collards, stems discarded, and chopped
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 carrot, shredded
1/2 small onion, diced
1 sprig parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed
4ish cups vegetable broth (I just used "Better Than" bouillon and added water until the right consistency was achieved)
salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to drizzle on top

Method:
1. Boil the potato in water until soft (about 8-10 min). Meanwhile, steam collards (about 5-6 minutes) until bitterness is gone and collards are soft. Reserve about 1 cup of the potato cooking water, draining the rest. Cool.

2. While potato and collards cool, saute the carrot, onion, parsley, and garlic in olive oil for 5-7 minutes. Add vegetable broth. Add half the cooked potato.

3. Blend the other half of the potato and the collards in 1 cup of the potato cooking water until smooth. Add to the vegetable broth mixture and stir until the contents are well combined.*

4. Serve hot with a swirl of hot sauce and nice piece of sourdough and a salad!

*If you have a high-powered blender (like a Vitamix) you may need to spoon foam off the top of the soup.

A date with Kittee's cheezy kale chips

2011-10-02T20:24:00.000-04:00

As MoFo veterans are aware and noobs will soon learn, VeganMoFo is almost as much about community-building and camaraderie as it is about the promotion of vegan food. It's nice when you can involve your "real world" friends in the festivities too and yesterday, my friend Carly came over to make Kittee's deliciously cheezy kale chips.

If you use your imagination, you can see kale, in its natural habitat, in the background of this photo!

Matt made it home from a hike in time to help us devour these beauties. I think they were gone within 10 minutes, paired with Oregon-made Wandering Aengus Cider.

A fine snack!

These chips are everything you could ask for in a snack. They're the perfect amount of flavorful and are totally modifiable to your taste preferences. Extra spicy? Sure! I've even used a grated beet instead of the carrot for equally tasty results. These chips are also pretty nutritious! The only problems are that they're gone waaay too quickly and I guess they do take a little babysitting in the oven if you make them the way I did (see below). I really, really recommend giving these a go!

A few notes about how we deviated from the original recipe:
-I don't have a dehydrator, so we used the oven. I also don't have enough patience, so we adjusted the cooking temp to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and baked them for about 30 minutes total, flipping and checking on them about every 7-8 minutes. Each time we took them out, we decided to eat the few crispy ones, since they'd just burn anyway! -We used tamari instead of Bragg's, Aardvark hot sauce instead of Sriracha, and regular old chile powder instead of the chipotle variety.
-And, per Kittee's suggestion, we threw in a pressed clove of garlic.

Throw in that pinch of chile powder, Carly!

VeganMoFo GOES GREEN

2011-10-01T08:50:00.000-04:00

Welcome MoFoers!

A note about my theme for 2011:
I have decided to pay tribute to my first vegetable garden (i.e. use up the veggies I have on-hand) and go with a “greens, greens, and more greens” theme this year. Here at In My Vegan Life, during the month of October, you’ll find many greens dishes, both originals and cookbook finds ranging from savory one-pot meals to sides and snacks. When I say “greens” I mostly mean collards and kale, but I will also be using yummies like spinach, chard, and beet greens on occasion. In an attempt to avoid the dreaded “VeganMoFo Burnout”, I will most likely also include some non-greens posts.

Without further ado, I give you a recipe, which, although quite simple, quickly became a staple in our home after we watched a cooking video by Russell James, The Raw Chef. This isn’t the exact original, but it’s pretty close*. I love the nutty creaminess that the tahini gives the dish, along with the tartness of the lemon, the sweetness of the agave, and the kick of the cayenne. I think it can be eaten as a meal by itself, but it also makes a great side, and certainly creates the perfect bed for something like buffalo tempeh or baked tofu. If you are a lover of kale, you will be a lover of this dish. Give it a try!

Why yes, those are greens and tomatoes from the garden!

Massaged Kale Salad with Tahini and Lemon

Ingredients:
1 bunch frizzy kale**, stems removed
2 tsp lemon Juice
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup raw tahini (sesame paste)
Pinch of cayenne powder
1 tsp agave
Sesame Seeds, opt.
Grape/Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half

Steps:
1.   Massage kale with the salt and lemon juice, until it begins to wilt.
2.   Use your hands to mix in the remaining ingredients.

*I leave out the hemp protein powder and sprouted buckwheat the original recipe calls for.
**Even though I didn’t in this instance, I’d recommend using a frizzier type of kale in this dish. It really makes a big difference.

PreMoFo Doggles

2011-09-29T17:22:00.000-04:00

It's almost upon us. You know what I'm talking about. IT'S ALMOST HEEEERRREE!

In the meantime, a totally non-food-related post, to ineffectively counteract the wave of food content that will soon be overtaking this blog:

You have a beautiful, sunny fall day in Portland. What to do? What to do? Oh yes, soak up some vitamin D with the doggle buds and woohoo! Doggle bath party!

Gah! Naked Doggles!

Okay, so they don't actually love the baths so much, but they do love being out in the sun. Poor timid-of-wet-grass Emerson has a few rough months ahead.

Blackberry Cream Crepes

2011-09-08T00:26:00.005-04:00

Inspired by the amazingly-dark purple blackberry syrup I made from the berries Matt and I picked last week, I decided to make Blackberry Cream-filled crepes for dinner.

The crepes were crispy around the edges and soft in the middle, textures which paired well with the richness of the blackberry cream cheese filling. The syrup on top gave the dish just a perfect amount of additional sweetness. As I devoured my crepes I was reminded of why they remain a favorite for lazy Sunday mornings. They're easy to make, filling, and really have that 'wow' factor. Just have a look at the color of that dollop of filling I plopped on top.

I usually make these with blueberry jam, which has pretty much the same effect. Here were my steps. (I didn't actually measure the ingredients!)

Crepes
makes 8 med-large crepes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
1 3/4 cups almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp canola oil

Filling:
3-4 tbsp vegan cream cheese
2-3 tbsp jam or fruit syrup (your choice!)
2 tbsp vegan yogurt

powdered sugar to sprinkle on top
fruit syrup to drizzle on top

1. In a medium-sized bowl mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and egg replacer. Add almond milk, vanilla, and oil and mix until smooth. The batter should be thinner than pancake batter. If it's too thick, add more almond milk.

2. Heat up a non-stick pan to med heat. A cast iron pan works beautifully. Use cooking spray each time you pour a crepe into the pan and before flipping it.

3. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto pan and move the pan around until the bottom is evenly coated in batter. Let cook for a few minutes until it browns on the underside and isn't runny on the top. Spray the top with canola oil. Flip and continue to cook a few minutes. Transfer to a plate when finished and keep warm in the oven while you're making the rest.

4. While your crepes are cooking, mix together the ingredients for the filling. I find stirring it with a spoon, and then using a whisk to fully incorporate the mixture works best.

5. When your crepes are ready, spread about a tbsp of jam along the center of each and roll them up, from one end to the other.

5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and drizzle with fruit syrup.

Sauvie Island

2011-09-04T21:34:00.006-04:00

Matt and I took advantage of a comp-day he earned by working really late hours the week before, and headed to Sauvie Island on Friday. It was our first trip to the 26,000 acre island, even though it's just north of Portland.

Before leaving the city, we stopped to pick up breakfast goodies at Sweetpea Bakery. Just look at the size of that chocolate chip scone! I was really digging the lemon danish- flaky and moist in all the right places. Mmmm....danish.
Then we picked up falafel wraps from Wolf and Bear's, deciding to eat them at a nice spot on our island walk. I really recommend their wraps, which are all vegetarian, and can be made vegan. Their falafel is great, and with accoutrements like grilled eggplant, kalamata olive tapenade, and full-of-fresh-herb-flavor hot sauce, you really can't be disappointed!
Upon reaching Sauvie Island, we visited Oak Island, a park with grassy fields and, as the name suggests, many oak trees in all stages of life, surrounded by water on three sides.
We did the 2.5 mile loop and then some, picking blackberries all the way. Want to know a secret? The berries in the shade are sweeter than those in the sun! Lucky for us, we had drink containers left over from our lunch to collect the berries in.
It was a lovely walk, but also quite hot...which is why we were thrilled to find a "gourmet" snow cone and Italian soda stand outside a produce market on our way off the island. I decided on a strawberry lemon Italian soda, while Matt went for the blackberry peach.

Tula Gluten-Free Bakery

2011-08-31T14:09:00.005-04:00

My plans changed for the morning, which allowed me to bike over to Tula, a new gluten-free bakery in my neighborhood. They opened a few weeks ago, and aside from getting an iced soy latte to go (quite good!), I haven't tried any of their fare. Contrary to their Facebook page, only about 50% of their baked goods are vegan.
I decided to get a lemon tart and iced latte to go. The tart got a little rough-looking from the bike ride home. Luckily, it stayed in one delicious piece. The tart was, well, tart, with a real lemon taste in the filling. The crust was a bit dry and cracker-like, but nutty and tasty all the same. The sweet pop of the blueberries complimented the tastes and textures of the crust and filling.

The latte was tasty too!

I'll be going back, for sure.

Post VVCon Dinner

2011-08-29T22:16:00.005-04:00

The stars aligned and I was able to buy a cheap last-minute ticket to Vida Vegan Con this past weekend. Among many other things, my ticket afforded me a gorge fest with an array of rich, sometimes less-than-healthy, foods. In addition to that, Matt and I played host to our Couchsurfing guests and ate out quite a bit in the past several days. (More on the conference in the next post!)

Today I was craving simple, fresh foods, so I made a tasty tabbouleh salad and majadra for dinner.

The tabbouleh contained our first ripe tomatoes, our first lemon cucumber, and some parsley from the garden, as well as bulgur wheat, minced onion, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
The whole grain bulgur wheat added quite a bit of earthy nuttiness, and I just let it soak in water instead of cooking it.
After enjoying majadra for years at Middle Eastern restaurants, I watched an episode of Everday Dish and decided I should make it myself. Well, that was a while ago, but I've finally gotten around to making this simple dish. The dry fluffiness of this slightly salty dish is enhanced by the sweetness of the caramelized onions. It's a really comforting dish. And guess what. I followed this recipe exactly. That's almost a first for me.
Quite a nice pairing I think.

Gluten-Free Almond Butter Cookies

2011-08-19T20:52:00.005-04:00

The recipe for these absolutely delightful sweets came from Madcap Cupcake's blog. Sooo tasty. I blame my oily almond butter for the spreading, but these crisp, rich cookies are so yummy, I don't mind one bit. Only five ingredients and no flour, whatsoever.

What was that? You noticed that I've already eaten a few of them since they came out of the oven half an hour ago? So?

Family Portrait!

2011-08-15T13:46:00.011-04:00

My photographer friend, Carly, came over to assist with a fun project yesterday. We have the honor of appearing in the Cares4Pets 2012 calendar, scheduled to be released in a few months, and Carly snapped some great shots of the four of us together. As you can imagine, it's not always easy to photograph pets, and given that ours are of a particularly squirmy variety, Carly did a fabulous job! I like how so many of them feature Emerson's tongue on Matt's face.

Which shot is your favorite?

(Don't worry; The chosen image will be much crisper than those portrayed here.)

Food from our garden

2011-07-23T22:21:00.009-04:00

Apparently, our growing season here is off to a late start, but since this is the first garden Matt and I have had, we don't really know the difference. All we know is that we're excited to reap the benefits of our hard work in prepping and maintaining our garden!

Our teeny plum tree has lots of delicious, marble-sized fruits.

Last night I made collard wraps along with some pineapple ginger couscous.

From the garden: collards, a beet (pictured above,) parsley.

The wraps contained black-eyed peas, quinoa, carrot, tomato, yellow bell pepper, parsley, and a sunflower seed spread that I whipped up. It was so good that I want to share it with you!

Lemony Sunflower Seed Spread

Ingredients:
1/8 cup sunflower seeds, soaked for a couple of hours, then drained
juice from 1/2 lemon
2-3 tbsp miso paste
1 large clove garlic
cayenne powder to taste
sprig of parsley
handful of black-eyed peas

Directions:
1. Mix everything in a food processor. I added the black-eyed peas because I had a batch already cooked up and the consistency helped bring everything together.
2. Resist eating the spread right from the food processor, instead plopping it inside your favorite wrap.

Our collard leaves were tiny and we had lots of 'innards' left over, so I just made them into a side salad with a fresh beet from the garden!

With our 70ish tomato and pepper plants, I expect to soon be over-run by tomatoes and peppers. In the mean time, it's fun watching the progress, like the tomatoes growing on this volunteer plant that popped up among our strawberries. Roma tomatoes, perhaps?
Lastly, a photo of the carrot we pulled up today in order to gauge their progress.

Happy summer!

2011-06-21T23:40:00.008-04:00

Lately, we've had a delightful paring of warmish days and cool evenings in Portland. I love it. And the boys are certainly loving it.
Tonight we honored the coming of the season with yummy (and appropriately named) summer rolls! We were told by our Vietnamese friends that this is a relaxing meal, meant to be enjoyed with loved ones, as you put together your summer rolls just the way you like.

The fillings included baked tofu, homegrown spinach and lettuce, sauteed carrot and onion, homegrown spearmint, orange bell pepper, and cucumber. I made two dipping sauces: a sweet tamarind peanut sauce and a chili garlic sauce. Really yummy!

(This photo doesn't really make the summer rolls seem appetizing. I think it needed a dash of dipping sauce to liven it up! They were good. I promise.)

I also made a batch of herbal sun tea and cooled it down with a couple of frozen boysenberries.
Aaaand we had our first strawberry harvest of the season. They were deeelish!

Happy summer to you, folks in the Northern Hemisphere!

We grew it and we ate it

2011-05-16T23:10:00.012-04:00

Well, our garden is thriving. We have a ton of stuff popping up every day. Some of it we can even identify! On the deck, we've sewn a few galvanized planters with a variety of seeds and our arugula/lettuce mix was ready to eat today!
Doc didn't need any convincing to collect our salad.
Emerson hearts arugula.
I threw together a simple green salad of steamed kale and arugula with a tangy tahini garlic dressing.
I also made some yellow pea soup, based on the Swedish soup that Fanny made while visiting, and roasted garlic couscous. It was a really nice dinner, especially sitting outside in the setting sun on our newly painted Craigslist chairs with our lovely new Etsy cushions.

Voodoo Doughnuts

2011-05-06T21:54:00.004-04:00

Fanny and Martin from Cooking Vegan Food Up North are visiting, so of course we took an obligatory trip to Voodoo Doughnut. We got the Vegan Dozen, a great assortment of raised and cake donuts.

Fanny's expression more accurately captures the excitement!

Then there were three

2011-04-02T14:14:00.005-04:00

I'm about to run out with Doc to finish ripping out the grass from our vegetable bed so that we can begin planting tomorrow, but before I go, I wanted to post this update.

Remember this chair? I found it on the Philly streets, sad and broken. I breathed new life into it and I love it! Now it has company. I found two chairs in Portland as a neighbor was cleaning out his grandmother's house. One was missing an arm and both were in terrible need of reupholstering, but they had nice structure and were in decent shape (much better than their older sibling.)

My plan is to collect five "street chairs" total, fix them up, paint them the same color, and cover the seats in the same fabric. They will sit around our lovely farm table, coordinated, but not too matchy. Two more free chairs to go!

Isa's Genius "Mac and Shews"

2011-03-08T19:36:00.006-05:00

I was craving something casserole-y and thought of doing a mac a cheese. Serendipitously, an unrelated visit to the ppk blog resulted in a drool-worthy shot of "Mac and Shews" in my face, and dinner plans were made! I love the star ingredient, saurkraut, but often struggle with getting through an entire jar of it.

This recipe is good hot or cold, but I don't know that I would put it in the same category as "mac and cheese." With some tweaking I think you could get more creaminess and less tang, but I love this recipe as is, and for what it is.
I paired the Mac and Shews with a Caesar salad, using my now world-famous dressing and toasting some croutons. The dressing is never measured and always thrown together. This particular incarnation included Vegenaise, dijon mustard, capers in brine, raw garlic, olive oil, nooch, pepper, and lemon juice.

It was a nice, tangy meal. Followed up with chocolate pudding. Two thumbs up!

A preview of what's to come

2011-03-02T17:21:00.003-05:00

Under the guidance of a Mr. Joel Verdon, I have been working on several furniture building projects of late. Most excitingly for me, I've begun work on a work/storage station for the kitchen. This beaut will sit in my "nook" area and will house spices, herbs, teas, produce, oils, vinegars, etc. I've installed two rustic shelves full of vintage mason jars containing beautiful legumes and grains above where the station will go. I love how it looks and can't wait until the station is complete!

So far, we've created the legs, beautifully tapered by Joel, and the apron, the front of which will also become drawer space for spices and teas. I brought in a jar of mung beans to my local paint store and found the PERFECT color to match. (This is my absolute favorite color- love it!) The legs and apron have been sanded a few times and painted twice. Each leg has a double bolt to provide extra stability for those awesome doughs I'll be kneading.
More photos soon! Hopefully the entire project will be complete by next week.

A couple of cuddling doggle shots:

Andy and Em enjoying the fleeting sunshine. Notice Andy's arm around Emerson.

Doc snapped this one when Emerson came to cuddle with me on the sofa last night and put his arms around my neck. A very unflattering photo of me.

Tomato Babies

2011-02-24T10:52:00.005-05:00

Even though our vegetable garden currently looks like this:
Doc and I have been feverishly planning, preparing, and beginning our gardening activity. This is the first time either of us has had a garden and we're beyond excited. Just take a look at our outrageous seed collection.
I started our tomatoes and peppers last week and fretted over them until a couple of days ago when the first tomatoes started to pop up. So far 38/72 tomatoes and 3/72 peppers have appeared. Cute little babies!
I'm still concerned about them becoming "leggy" without overhead lighting. Hopefully keeping them near the bright window and rotating them everyday will suffice.

Last week we also planted a large bed of natives in our front garden. They're all very tiny, but once they get a bit bigger and the threat of major doggle tramplization has passed, many of them will be transplanted out back. I'd take a photo, but we're in the middle of a snow storm.

My birthday!

2011-02-10T03:27:00.011-05:00

I celebrated my birthday today, ushered in with well wishes from lovely people, and even a visit from a few friends and my brother!

Brother, Nat, cuddling with the Emerson.

The birthday celebrations included dinner at Portobello Vegan Trattoria, game night back at our place, and TWO delicious cakes. Just look at 'em! DocDufresne made an amazing cheezecake with strawberry sauce, and my buddy Shivels from Seattle, made a decadent chocolate cake topped with rich chocolate icing, coconut, and almond slivers. Aahhhmazing!

Yuuummz.

I've been very excited about our soon-to-be epic garden (see Evidence A, below.) This will be a first for both DocDufresne and me, and we might be getting a little carried away, but it's hard not to with a blank slate of a lot. Today, Doc stayed home from work, and after we ate the yummy French toast he made for breakfast, we walked to the nursery down the street from us to pick up some more veggie and flower seeds.

Evidence A: The once empty lot (minus the 90 yr old house and garage)

Then we headed to Native Bowl to pick up lunch to go, and trekked to the highest location in Portland to witness a spectacular view. We were able to see many mountain ranges, including Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helen's, and Mt. Rainier.

I didn't bother using my polarized lens and it was a little hazy, so Mt. Hood isn't really clear in the photo.

After that, Doc and I rushed home so that, with the remaining daylight, we could play with the boys in the new backyard! We had a fence installed and it was finished today!!

Andy had quality time with a certain Mr. Frisbee.
So much so, he didn't want to come in when it was time to.

Emerson enjoyed his first time off leash outside grazing.

Finished up the day watching the Star Wars trilogy. A great birthday!

Bonus sweepy little doggleson shots.

Curry leaves!

2011-01-21T17:15:00.003-05:00

My goodness! I've been a total blogging slacker. I usually don't do posts without photos because I find them boring, but I felt I just needed to get something out there.

I have been in love with fresh curry leaves since coming back from Ft. Lauderdale in November. My friend gave me a few branches (technically they're leaves, and the little "leaves" are leafletts) from her parents' curry tree. My favorite thing to do with them is make rice dishes. Lately I've been making "skillet meals," which make for easy preparation and easy clean up. I made a version of dirty rice that was sooo tasty, it's become a staple.

This week, after a trip to a local Asian mega market, I attempted to recreate a dish I had about a year ago at a vegetarian Indian restaurant outside of Philadelphia. While the outcome wasn't quite as I remember it, it was deeeelicious. I based the dish off of this recipe, but increased the amounts for many of the ingredients. I'm going to keep playing with it and will post photos and a recipe soon!

Until then, nom nom nom, I'm going to keep enjoying these tasty curry leaves.

VeganMoFo: Mom's Banana Bread

2010-11-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

Recipe: Banana Bread
Family Member: Mom by way of Grandma Jane

Brief Description: We always had fruit in my house growing up. Bananas *ahem* ripening faster than they were eaten was a common occurrence. My mom would peel them when their peel was pretty much black, toss them in a zip lock baggie and keep them in the freezer until she was moved to make a huge batch of banana bread. Then, she’d encase the beautiful finished loaves in plastic baggies, and keep them in the freezer until it was their turn to be defrosted on the counter and devoured. A perfect process, me thinks, especially when the results are so tasty.

We don't seem to have the problem of bananas ripening too fast in our household. However, after returning from Florida following a delightful Thanksgiving at my mom's, we were left with a quite brown banana and a quite brown pear. Banana bread! Er. Banana Pear bread! Ohhhh my! This bread is goo-ood!

Original Ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
3 tbsp sour milk (2 tbsp milk, 1 tbsp lemon juice)
1 cup mashed banana (~2 bananas)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Original Directions:
1. Combine sugar, shortening, eggs, sour milk, and bananas.
2. In separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Incorporate into other mixture.
3. Fill two greased bread pans ¾ full and bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes.

Vegan Notes: I find sweet breads like this easy-peasy to veganize. Just sub non-dairy milk for milk and applesauce for the eggs (about 1/4 cup per egg). Voila! For ease and thrift, I often just use vegetable oil in place of the shortening as well.
(Note: This particular incarnation of my mom's recipe is more aptly titled "Gluten-Free Banana Pear Bread with Pecans!" I used oat flour this time and a combination of brown sugar and evaporated cane juice for the sugar. This is just how things are done in my kitchen. There's rarely any getting around substituting ingredients! Waste not, want not, and all that. You'll also notice I made four mini pans instead of two regular sized ones. I cut the baking time down to 30 minutes.)

VeganMoFo: Dovetail Bakery

2010-11-28T22:09:00.005-05:00

Okay. So I sort of fail at Vegan MoFo. I was pooped and jet-lagged and frankly, a little tired of cooking, so just before midnight (the night before a series of flights beginning at 6 a.m.) on Thanksgiving I realized I hadn't posted, and oh well. Then I didn't post my travel day. Then I didn't post the day after my travel day. Oy!

With only a few days of Vegan MoFo 2010 left, it's silly to not come in with a strong finish on my family food theme, but it appears I'll be doing so.

At least I have some wonderfully delicious baked goods from Dovetail Bakery, my local vegan shop of goodness, to soften my disappointment in myself!

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite bakery in the whole world. How could it not be with goodies like this cinnamon bun, maple pecan scone, mixed berry bun, and lemon poppy seed muffin? Their scones, including their strawberry darling, are soooo delightful. I love them because they're not overly sweet.
Oh! Oh! I also picked up some Lady Gray tea. My favorite!

VeganMofo: Mom's Brisket

2010-11-24T21:03:00.007-05:00

Guest Post by DocDufresne

Growing up in my household, we didn't have a lot of creative foods. My dad came up with some crazy stuff now and then (spaghetti soup! wtf?)

One of the special occasion staples was brisket. My mom made this every once and a while.

I called her up to get the recipe from her (keep in mind that my family doesn't eat meat any more, although my mom is not quite veg) and the exchange went something like this:

Me: Hey Mom, what's the recipe for brisket that you used to make?
Mom: You want to make brisket?
Me: Well, for MoFo, Amanda is veganizing family recipes.
Mom: Hmm, this seems a little difficult.
Me: Well, I'll come up with something.
Mom: Okay, well, I marinated the brisket with a sauce made of onion soup, ketchup, mustard, and a carbonated beverage.
Me: Carbonated beverage? Like beer?
Mom: Yeah, beer, coke, whatever.
Me: ?????@!@#!? coke?

Since this was my family's recipe, I made this. To make the seitan, I based the recipe on this. Keep in mind that I'm terrible at following recipes, so I didn't quite stick to it. For the water, I substituted beer. I made up a sauce of beer, ketchup and mustard. It wasn't bad.

I served that with steamed sweet potatoes and leftover beet/cabbage/carrot salad.

Thanks for reading.

VeganMoFo: Mom's Lasagna

2010-11-23T22:30:00.003-05:00

In my opinion, my mom makes the best lasagna ever. It seems that whenever I make it, I use the same method, and pretty much the same ingredients (this component of her lasagna changes based on what she has on hand), but I can never duplicate her results. Maybe the secret ingredient really is love. I think someone who loves you, spending the time to create something really tasty creates the best food.

My mom's lasagna usually contains cottage cheese and cow's milk mozzarella, but when we're together she makes a mean vegan lasagna for everyone to enjoy. Last night's version contained black olives, artichoke hearts, and hearts of palm, plus a lovely tofu ricotta based on the recipe found in Vegan with a Vengeance, two jars of sauce, lasagna noodles (of course,) and it was topped with Daiya.

Sorry for the crappy nighttime photos.

VeganMoFo: Spiced Apple Cupcakes

2010-11-22T23:53:00.003-05:00

Oy! Another break from my Family Recipe theme. Sorry! I have a good excuse though...I'm actually spending time with my family!

The day before we left on our trip, I made these lovely cupcakes for...uh...breakfast... I saw the original recipe at Wasabi Peas, for Spiced Apple Bundt Cake with Tofutti Cinnamon Glaze and had to try it! It would have been cuter if I had mini bundt pans, but these cupcakes won where it really counted- taste! Yums!

PS- I used canola oil in place of the shortening. :)

VeganMoFo: Bubbie's Oatmeal Cake

2010-11-21T11:00:00.001-05:00

Recipe: Oatmeal Cake
Family Member: Bubbie

Brief Description: I have to admit, I don’t recall eating this growing up, but my dad told me that this Oatmeal Cake is amazing, so I decided to try it. It’s a very dense, not overly-sweet cinnamon-flavored cake with a ganache-type icing mixed with nuts and coconut. Very tasty. Doc was super impressed with this cake. I thought it would have been lovely with some sliced apples baked into it, upside down style, and a glaze on top. Just a thought.

Original Ingredients:
Margarine - 1/2 lb (2 sticks)
Oatmeal - 2 cups
Boiling Water - 2 1/2 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
Brown Sugar - 2 cups
Eggs - 4
Flour - 2 2/3 cups
Baking Soda - 2 tsps
Cinnamon - 2 tsps
Vanilla - 2 tsps

Original Directions:
1. Pour boiling water over margarine & oatmeal. Stir and let stand 20 minutes. Stir again.
2. In separate bowl beat sugar and eggs together. Add to Oatmeal mixture.
3. Combine last 4 ingredients and add to oatmeal mixture. Place in buttered and floured pan.
4. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes.
5. While cake is still warm frost with following frosting.

FROSTING

Original Ingredients:
Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Butter - 6 tbsp
Milk - 1/3 cup
Walnuts - 1 cup
Cocoa - 1/2 cup
Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup

Original Directions: Bring brown sugar, butter, and mild to a boil and remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients and frost cake.

Vegan Notes: I used Earth Balance as the margarine/butter, 1 cup applesauce instead of the eggs, and soy milk as the milk.

Other Notes: It would have been good to double the frosting recipe since I used two round cake pans instead of a rectangular one. I also put some of the frosting between the layers.

(Sorry again for the horrendous nighttime photo)

VeganMoFo: Let's Make Applesauce!

2010-11-20T12:01:00.001-05:00

I'm taking a quick break from my family recipe adventure to bring you APPLESAUCE!

I had a gazillion (37) apples from my farm share this week. Doc has been taking one to work every day, and I've used a couple here and there. I use applesauce a lot in baking, so I decided to preserve some of my own to use throughout the year (or until it runs out...)
Here's how to make and preserve your own apple sauce!

1. Sterilize your jars. See directions below.

2. Start off with beautiful Oregon apples.
I used a lovely mix of tart, sweet, fruity, earthy- tasting apples, including this crazy-colored one. Anyone know what type it is? It was a little mealy, but tasted as you would imagine, with almost a hint of strawberry!3. Chop 'em up! Discard seed part of the core. (Peel them first if you'd like.)
Save the butt and top part of core for your doggle friends. They'll give you lots of kisses.

Nom!

4. Blend the apples in batches (I fit about 3 apples at once), using a little apple juice to get the sauce a mixin'. You can actually skip this part if you want, and just cook the apples longer.
Plop it into a big pot.
5. Cook your applesauce for 30-50 minutes, until it's as soft as you want it, and HOT! Add sugar if needed (mine didn't), cinnamon, and whatever else tickles your fancy. I left mine somewhere between chunky and smooth.

6. Fill your hot, sterilized jars with applesauce. Here's where the canning funnel comes in really handy. Place a dry lid on each jar.

7. See "Step 3" in "How to sterilize jars" below.

8. After the boiling, I took the rings off so they wouldn't rust from the moisture. I'm going to put them back on after they've dried.

How to sterilize jars
1. Wash jars and lids in hot, soapy water. Rinse with hot water and set aside to dry.
2. Sterilize them in the oven, in a pot of boiling water, or by using another method. I opted to put them on a cookie sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350*, but according to this website, I didn't need to since I later boiled the filled jars. I've used the boiling method before, but it's tricky without the proper tongs!
3. Once sterilized, fill jars with apple sauce and then boil in a pot for 15 minutes.

My 23 remaining apples turned into 17 half pints and 1 quart of applesauce. I'll leave the math up to you.

VeganMoFo: Mom's Hamantaschen

2010-11-19T17:40:00.003-05:00

Yum yum yummmmm!

Recipe: Hamantaschen
Family Member: Mom

Brief Description: Probably one of my all time favorite cookies, my mom’s Hamantaschen are not overly-sweet. Hamantaschen are a traditional Jewish dessert made for Purim. I’d imagine that the sugar cookie-like pocket containing fruit filling would very much appeal to pro-pie folks. Make a big batch and share them with friends!

Original Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
4 cups flour
½ tsp salt
Fruit filling (my mom always used Baker Fine Dessert Filling in poppy, apricot, prune, almond, and cherry)

Original Directions:
1. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add flour and salt. Mix well until a stiff dough has formed.
2. Roll flat and use a round cookie-cutter to cut circles. Fill the center with fruit filling. (Not too much!) Pinch corners to achieve a triangle shape.
3. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350* for 20 minutes.

Vegan Notes: I used 4 1/2 tsp EnerG Egg Replacer and 6 tbsp warm water for the eggs and Earth Balance for the butter.

Other Notes: I don't have a round cookie cutter, so I used the rim of a large glass, dipped in flour. Make sure you're working on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin. The consistency of my dough wasn't wet enough, so I added a splash of water. Make sure you fill and form the cookies quickly, or else the dough will dry out and it will be more difficult to get them in the right shape. You also want to make sure to pinch the corners really well so that the fruit filling doesn't ooze out during baking. Also, I couldn't find the fruit filling that my mom uses, so I used some apricot preserves and some cranberry/apple butter. Both came out deliciously! I baked my cookies about 25 minutes. It all depends on what kind of cookie sheet you use. Mine is lighter in color, so it takes longer for things to bake. I got over two dozen cookies out of my batch.

Pre-shaping

Pre-baking

Pre-eating

VeganMoFo: Dad's Taco Pizza

2010-11-18T18:07:00.002-05:00

Recipe: Taco Pizza
Family Member: Doc's Dad

Brief Description: Dining at Doc's parents' home is quite the culinary experience. His dad is often the one doing the cooking and he's a big fan of imaginative one pot "kitchen sink" meals like vegetable stir fry with cherries and the rice mixed in. Doc recalls many such imaginative meals from his childhood, including Taco Pizza. It's pretty good! It's like a burrito (more than a taco, I have to say!) in pizza form, but a fork is pretty much necessary. As referenced in my last post, I used this pizza dough recipe with minor changes.

Original Ingredients:
pizza dough
1 can refried beans
enchilada and/or taco sauce
shredded cheese
taco toppings (shredded lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, onions, sour cream...)

Original Directions:
1. Spread refried beans and sauce on top of the pizza dough. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and dough is finished.
2. Cut into individuals slices and top according to each persons tastes!

Vegan Notes: Make sure the refried beans are vegetarian. I used Follow Your Heart mozzarella for the cheese.

Taco pizza in the oven, before the toppings!

VeganMoFo: Pizza and Pomegranate Bejeweled Quinoa Stuffing with Walnuts

2010-11-17T17:36:00.009-05:00

Last night I decided to get to work on another family recipe, Taco Pizza, but realized I didn't have the right sauce on hand. What I did have was some pasta sauce, Follow Your Heart mozzarella, and black olives. I whipped up a batch of pizza dough, deciding I really wanted to try a new recipe. Unfortunately, I didn't realize to get a great dough-y crust, you need to let the dough chill in the fridge for 24 hours (among many other steps). I tried to speed up the process by adding double the active yeast called for. I also didn't have bread flour on hand, so I added 1/4 cup gluten to 3/4 cup all purpose flour. I let it rest for about three hours. I love the way the dough felt. I had never used a high-gluten flour for pizza dough before. It makes all the difference!

The verdict? It wasn't perfect, but it was good! I think I could have let it bake for a tad longer (mine was in at 500* for 15 minutes) to achieve a bit of charring, which I love. The FYH was nice and bubbly...ahh what a beautiful sight!

The other dish I prepared for dinner was totally a recipe I threw together to use up ingredients I had on hand. I know. It's a strange combination with pizza, but the flavors in this stuffing are so nice together. You get hit with fresh parsley, then a the tangy-sweet of pomegranate jewels, the earthy flavor of the walnuts and quinoa, the sweet of the apple... So yummy!

This is basically what I did...

Pomegranate Bejeweled Quinoa Stuffing with Walnuts (and lots o' other stuff!)

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
1/4 white onion, minced
3 carrots, peeled and cubed
2 cups vegetable stock
2 apples, cubed
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
fresh parsley to taste, roughly chopped
1/3 cup quinoa, rinsed
pomegranate jewels from one pomegranate*
salt and black pepper to taste
a dash or two of ground thyme
a few tablespoons of light olive oil

Directions:
1. Slice the butternut squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard. Cut the top of each half so that you're left with a "bowl." Keep the tops. Place the two "bowls" in a covered baking dish in a 400* oven and bake until soft (about 20-30 minutes, maybe?)

2. While the squash is baking, prepare the stuffing. Cut the rind off the two squash tops. Cube the squash tops.

3. Dry sautee the onion in a pan on medium heat. Add the cubed squash and carrots. Sautee for five minutes, stirring often. Add vegetable stock, and cook covered on medium-low heat for about ten minutes. Stir! Add apples, walnuts, parsley, and quinoa. Continue to cook covered for another 5-10 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is soft. Add pomegranate jewels, salt and pepper, thyme, and olive oil.

4. Fill squash bowls with stuffing. (There will be a lot left over.)

*This is Pom Wonderful's suggestion for obtaining the pomegranate jewels. "Score fresh pomegranates and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranates under water to free the arils (seed sacs). The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl."

VeganMoFo: Grandma's Wacky Cake

2010-11-16T17:33:00.003-05:00

(Sorry for the icky nighttime photo!)

Recipe: Wacky Cake
Family Member: Grandma Jane

Brief Description: An already-vegan recipe, developed as a result of rationing during WWII, Wacky Cake is a chocolate cake made with vinegar (wacky!) and no eggs or milk. The recipe that my Grandma and mom use is a great one for kids to help with. If making this cake with kids, be sure not to skip the “wells” step! I don't have a rectangular pan, so I used two round pans. I also made a chocolate ganache-like icing for the top. So so good! My go-to chocolate cake recipe.

Original Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups cold water
2 tsp vanilla extract

Original Directions: Mix dry ingredients directly in rectangular cake pan. Create six wells in the dry mixture. Add different wet ingredients to each well before mixing. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Vegan Notes: None!

For the ganache icing I just mixed the following ingredients until I had the consistency I wanted:

melted Earth Balance
Powdered sugar
cocoa
vanilla extract
soy milk

VeganMoFo: Bubbie's Split Pea Soup

2010-11-15T19:54:00.003-05:00

Recipe: Split Pea Soup
Family Member: Bubbie

Brief Description: I saw my Bubbie, who lived in Pennsylvania, about once a year growing up. Coincidentally, upon my graduation, I moved to Pennsylvania several months after she passed away. While certainly no vegetarian herself, my Bubbie always made accommodations for my vegetarian aunt, and later me, taking it upon herself to veg*nize favorite dishes to be enjoyed by all. One such dish is her Split Pea Soup. Simple, filling, and tasty. It might be a little plain to your taste, so feel free, as I do, to use veggie stock instead of plain water, and add a few splashes of hot sauce to taste. I used a combo of yellow and green split peas this time.

Original Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 lb dried split peas
2 qts water
1 small onion, diced
Grated carrots (it appears she never told me how many…)
¼ cup barley
Bay leaves
½ tsp liquid smoke

Original Directions:
1. Sautee peas in pot with oil. Add onion and carrots. Add water and the remaining ingredients and stir so that nothing sticks.
2. Simmer for 45 minutes with a lid partially covering the pot, until the peas melt down.

Vegan Notes: None!

VeganMoFo: Grandma's French Breakfast Puffs

2010-11-14T13:23:00.004-05:00

Recipe: French Breakfast Puffs
Family Member: Grandma Jane

Brief Description: These calorie-dense sugary treats were saved for special weekend breakfasts in my family. They really should be enjoyed right out of the oven. Sugar. Cinnamon. Butter-like substance. You can’t go wrong. This time I made mini puffs (15 min at 350*) and halved the recipe.

Original Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg

6 tbsp butter
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Original Directions:
1. Beat together 1/3 cup butter, sugar, and egg. Add milk.
2. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add this mixture to the butter mixture. Combine.
3. Fill greased muffin tins ¾ full and bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes.
4. While the puffs are baking, melt 6 tbsp butter in a heat-safe bowl. In another bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
5. When the puffs are finished baking, dip each one in the melted butter completely, then coat each in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Eat!

Vegan Notes: I did what I often do in baking recipes and subbed canola oil for the butter in the first mixture. For the butter needed the second time in the recipe, I used Earth Balance. I used EnerG Egg Replacer for the egg, and since I just finished up the last of the almond milk in the fridge, I used soy creamer for the milk.
Open up!

VeganMoFo: Dad's Pumpkin Pie

2010-11-13T20:02:00.005-05:00

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie
Family Member: Dad

Brief Description: This is so not an original family recipe. My dad loves pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie. His preferred recipe is the one found on the label of Libby’s pumpkin puree. It’s a good balance of spices. I haven’t found a vegan pumpkin pie recipe that I really like, so I’ve decided to tweak this one. It’s still not perfect to my taste. (See the notes below about coconut.) It also wasn’t quite the perfect consistency. I think it would have done well to go in the oven a bit longer, but the crust started to burn. I’m going to try a half cup of silken tofu next time, in place of the eggs. Still, REALLY yummy! Also, it should be noted, that I used the tried-and-true Libby's canned pumpkin. The organic stuff I usually get just isn't quite as smooth.

Original Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
Whipped cream (optional)

Original Directions:
MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

Vegan Notes: For the eggs I planned on using silken tofu (1/2 cup), but forgot to pick some up. Instead I used 3 ½ tsps of EnerG Egg Replacer plus 4 tbsp warm water. For the evaporated milk substitution, I used 6 oz coconut milk* (not lite!) and 6 oz of vegan non-dairy creamer. I used the pie dough recipe found in Veganomicon with good results. I didn’t top mine with whipped cream, but could have whipped something up easily with pre-soaked and blended raw cashews and sugar.

*I love coconut, but not in everything. For instance, I really don’t like the coconut-based ice creams, yogurts, or milks. For my tastes, this was a little too much coconut flavor. Next time I’d use somewhere around 3 oz coconut milk to 9 oz creamer, or just all creamer. It was still really tasty. I just didn’t totally care for the hint of coconut.

VeganMoFo: Dad's Peppery Sweet Acorn Squash

2010-11-12T21:06:00.007-05:00

Gaah! I ran out of daylight to take photos of the pumpkin pie I made last night (I blame Kittee for agreeing to taking a trip with me to see a guy about canning jars), so I'm pulling a photo from the archives for today's recipe. Pumpkin pie tomorrow!

Recipe: Peppery Sweet Acorn Squash [GF]
Family Member: Dad

Brief Description: This is somewhat of a recent family recipe. Last year my dad told me about his preferred method for preparing acorn squash and we've been making it his way ever since. The black pepper and sweet brown sugar are such a wonderful combination. If you're lucky (and get the right balance of "butter" to sugar) you'll end up with globs of gooey caramel-type goodness on your baking dish. Soooo good.

Original Ingredients:
1 acorn squash, cut into eighths
several pats of butter
8 or so tbsps brown sugar
lots of freshly ground black pepper
a drizzle of maple syrup (optional)

(Sorry I don't have exact measurements, I really just eyeball it.)

Original Directions:
Place the squash, shell side down, in a baking dish. Top each piece with a pat of butter, approximately a tbsp of brown sugar, pepper, and a drizzle of maple syrup. Bake at 400* for about 30 minutes, or until the squash is soft.

Vegan Notes: Sub Earth Balance or another butter-like-substance for the butter. Easy!

VeganMoFo: Grandma's Cucumber Salad

2010-11-11T13:42:00.005-05:00

Recipe: Cucumber Salad
Family Member: Grandma M

Brief Description: This is another recipe from Doc’s side of the family. I’ve had this dish a few times when visiting his parents. It comes from his grandmother, whom I never met, sadly. I know I would have really loved her though. This salad is a vinegary side with crisp cucumber slices and onion. It’s also already vegan! I halved the recipe since there are only two of us and it accompanied three meals. And since I'm such a pepper fanatic, I added black pepper. And I sliced the onions the wrong way! Gosh! I just can't follow directions.

Original Ingredients:
2 large cucumbers
1 large red onion
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. salt
2 TBSP. sugar

Original Directions:
Pare and slice cucumbers thinly. Slice onion into thin rings. Place in a bowl with the cucumbers. Bring remaining ingredients to a boil. Pour over cucumbers and onions. Refrigerate at least several hours.

Vegan Notes: None!

VeganMoFo: Mom's "Tuna" Salad Sandwich

2010-11-10T15:35:00.005-05:00

Recipe: Tuna Salad Sandwich
Family Member: Mom

Brief Description: I ate this A LOT growing up, sometimes right out of the bowl with a fork. Luckily, these days I leave the stinky canned tuna behind in favor of chickpeas. (Chickpeas might just be my favorite bean, due to their versatility.) I know there are a ton of “untuna” salad recipes floating around, so I can’t quite take full credit for this. I opted to leave out the relish this time, and topped the “tuna” salad with lettuce and sliced cucumber and tomato. So filling I could only eat half a sandwich for lunch!

Original Ingredients:
1 can of white tuna (I think?)
Tons of mayonnaise
A squirt of yellow mustard
Sweet relish to taste
Diced onion to taste
Chopped celery to taste (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sandwich bread

Original Directions: Mix everything together, save the bread, of course. Put it between two slices of bread, and eat.

Vegan Notes: I used Grape Seed Vegenaise, and cooked and mashed chickpeas instead of the tuna (canned chickpeas would have been fine!) I also added a few dashes of rice vinegar for a little sharpness. I made a bunch so that Doc could take it to work this week. These are the amounts I used:

4 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2- 3/4 cup Vegenaise (it’s a lot, I know!)
2 celery stalks, diced
1/4 onion, diced
3 tbsp yellow mustard
few splashes rice wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

VeganMoFo: Mama A's Stuffed Peppers

2010-11-09T16:11:00.004-05:00

(Not the prettiest looking dish, I know...)

Recipe: Stuffed Peppers
Family Member: Doc’s Mom

Brief Description: Obviously, these weren’t something I remember growing up with, but I made them last night and they were tasty! I think next time I won’t parboil the peppers first. I definitely also didn’t bake the stuffed peppers for more than 15 minutes. I accidentally mixed the tomato sauce in with the filling, but it still came out well. And I guess my peppers were puny because I definitely had a TON of filling left over.

Original Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
2 cups cooked rice
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TBSP. vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes, drained
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup bread crumbs
4 large green bell peppers
2 cups tomato sauce

Original Directions:
In pan, saute onion and garlic in oil over medium heat until soft. Add ground beef and saute until brown. Stir in tomato, thyme, salt and pepper. Remove from heat; stir in parsley, bread crumbs, and rice. Mix well. Stuff parboiled peppers until almost full; pour tomato sauce over top. Cover and bake 30-35 minutes at 375F.

Vegan Notes: I used Lightlife’s Gimme Lean Ground Beef style meat substitute for this dish and it worked well. UPDATE: I just finished up the last stuffed pepper and think I would have preferred tempeh or tofu in place of the "meat;" tempeh prepared similarly to that in the Vegan Sausage Pastry Puffs from Vegan Brunch. Mmmm.

As an aside... I served this with cubed and baked apple, squash, and sweet potato and oh my gosh. What an excellent combination. I put a few grinds of lemon pepper, a few shakes of salt, a quarter of an onion sliced, and a sprig or two of parsley. After baking for about 40-50 minutes, the apple/squash/sweet potato were so soft and there was a deliciously sweet sauce sitting in the pan. Yummm.

VeganMoFo: Dad's Chocolate Peanut Butter Bon Bons

2010-11-08T18:25:00.005-05:00

Recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Bon Bons [GLUTEN FREE]
Family Member: Dad

Brief Description: Chocolate. Peanut butter. Need I say more? An easy-to-make super sweet confection that will impress pretty much everyone out there.

Original Ingredients:
1 cup chunky peanut butter (smooth also works just fine)
2 tbsp melted butter
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp butter

Original Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, melted butter, and powdered sugar. Blend with a fork until well mixed.
2. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Combine chocolate chips and solid butter. Heat until melted and smooth when stirred, either in a double boiler or in the microwave.
4. Using a fork, dip the balls in the melted chocolate. Let the excess drip off and place the dipped balls on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until hardened.

Vegan Notes: Just sub Earth Balance (or another vegan butter-like-substance) for the butter and you’re good to go!

VeganMoFo: Grandma's Cinnamon Apples

2010-11-07T22:13:00.005-05:00

Recipe: Cinnamon Apples
Family Member: Grandma D

Brief Description: Okay. This really shouldn't be called a recipe, but it's still a special dish to me. When my grandparents lived in Pennsylvania, their property was home to a couple of apple trees. After picking the apples, my grandma would chop them, toss them with cinnamon and a little sugar, and stick them in the freezer, to thaw and eat throughout the year. At least I think that's how she made them! I spoke to my grandma a couple of weeks ago and she couldn't quite remember. What she did remember was how much she loved having the apple trees, and how incredulous she was that the next occupants of the house cut them down (I know!) She was thrilled to hear that Doc and I are planting two apple trees in our yard come February. I love my grandma! She's an incredible, funny, loving woman, and she'll be 90 years old this month!

VeganMoFo: Aunt W's Baked Oatmeal

2010-11-06T13:44:00.003-04:00

Recipe: Baked Oatmeal [GLUTEN FREE]
Family Member: Aunt W

Brief Description: Tasty and hearty, with a hint of sweet, baked oatmeal is a truly comforting breakfast dish, perfect to warm you (and the kitchen) on a cold morning. This Pennsylvania Dutch recipe, comes from my Aunt W who lives near Amish country. She's a great cook and this is one of my favorite recipes of hers. My dad made this for Doc and me when he came to visit us in Philly. Soooo Yummy and I don't even really like oatmeal!

Original Ingredients:
1½ cups Oatmeal (not instant)
1/3 cup sugar (white or brown)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup raisins
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ cups skim milk
1 egg
1 tbsp oil
½ peeled apple chopped or shredded

Original Directions:
1. Mix all dry stuff together in a mixing bowl
2. Mix all of the wet stuff, egg and chopped apple together
3. Pour the mixed wet stuff, into the mixed dry stuff and mix
4. Pour mixture into a baking dish or pie plate, cover and refrigerate overnight to allow oatmeal to soak-up the milk
5. Preheat oven to 350F
6. Take it out of the fridge and sprinkle with a little cinnamon
7. Bake uncovered for 35-45 minutes until firm
8. Slice into wedges. Serve in a bowl with fresh sliced fruit and milk, or plain with maple syrup
9. Enjoy!

Vegan Notes: I used vanilla almond milk in the place of the diary milk and applesauce with a dash of EnerG Egg replacer to replace the egg. I also halved the recipe since it was for just the two of us. We topped the DELICIOUS baked oatmeal with vanilla almond milk and maple syrup.

VeganMoFo: Bubbie's Potato Salad

2010-11-05T16:53:00.005-04:00

AKA THE BEST potato salad.

My family dish today is special because my dad actually found a hand-written version of the recipe from my Bubbie, who is no longer living. Thanks for scanning it for me, Dad!
That may be a little hard to decipher so here's what it says:
"boil Potatoes
juice from sweet mixed pickles
pour over warm potatoes
1 tsp mustard yellow
gently mix up
mustard seeds a few
when cool
chop mix pickles
celery and onion
chopped
mayo + mix
salt + pepper"

As you can see, there aren't exact measurements, and some of these steps can be taken several ways. This is what I came up with in recreating it:
The sweet mixed pickles are really the star ingredient. Soooo yummy! You've gotta try it- and feel free, as I did, to use each ingredient to taste.

VeganMoFo: Root Veggie Soup and a Sundae

2010-11-04T18:32:00.004-04:00

I decided to take a very short break from my MoFo theme to bring you Fill-up-a-pot-with-leftover-veggies-from-farm-share Soup, starring heirloom leeks, beets, green onions, carrots, oregano, and parsley, along with cans of kidney beans and diced tomatoes, splash of extra virgin olive oil, and a bit of salt and pepper. You see, Thursdays are pick up days for our weekly farm share. I wanted to use up the remaining "old" stuff to make room for the new.

I also couldn't resist showing you the awesomeness that is the pumpkin/chocolate soft serve sundae I picked up at Back to Eden today. I had mine topped with housemade caramel sauce, rainbow sprinkles, and chopped peanuts. By the time I got it home to snap a photo of it, the sundae was a tad melty, but still so tasty.

PS- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRIEND JASON!

VeganMoFo: Grandma's Noodles Romanoff

2010-11-03T16:21:00.003-04:00

Recipe: Noodles Romanoff
Family Member: Grandma Jane
Brief Description: Another staple from my childhood, Noodles Romanoff is a salty, gooey, mass of noodles in white sauce. The best part in my pre-gan days was the ton of parmesan cheese solidified on top after baking.

Original Ingredients:
1 bag egg noodles, cooked according to package instructions
1 cup large curd cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
4 tbsp minced white onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
Tobacco sauce, to taste
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese (you know, the kind in the green plastic shaker)
Original Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients, save the parmesan cheese. Place in a casserole dish. Top with a ton of parmesan cheese.
2. Bake at 350* for 40 minutes, until the parmesan cheese is slightly browned on top.

Vegan Notes: For the cottage cheese I made a mixture of crumbled firm tofu, vegan sour cream, a dollop of vegan plain yogurt, vegan cream cheese, nooch, and salt. I used vegan equivalents of the other non-vegan ingredients, including rotini pasta in the place of egg noodles and “Vegan Grated Topping” and some nooch in place of the parmesan. I used quite a lot of the Worcestershire and hot sauces, and it came out tasting pretty much exactly like how I remember, but it was a bit drier. I would bump up the liquids by using the whole container of sour cream or adding unsweetened soy milk. Tasty!

VeganMoFo: Bubbie's Tabbouleh

2010-11-02T15:30:00.004-04:00

Recipe: Tabbouleh
Family Member: Bubbie
Brief Description: This side dish needs very little introduction. Tabbouleh (or “tabouli”) recipes vary in the amount of each ingredient used, but generally include the same contents. This recipe is heavier on the parsley. Tasty with the perfect balance of flavors, I’ve enjoyed it all of my life. Perhaps it’s cheating a little, but this one is also naturally vegan.

Original Ingredients:
¾ cup bulgar wheat
2 chopped tomatoes
4 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 cups chopped parsley
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

Original Directions:
1. Place bulgar wheat in a heat-safe mixing bowl. Pour boiling water on top until it’s 1 inch above the bulgar wheat. Let sit for 15 minutes.
2. Strain the bulgar wheat and let cool to room temperature.
3. Add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Serve chilled.

Vegan Notes: None! Enjoy this along with your favorite homemade hummus and pita!

VeganMoFo: Welcome and Chili Con Corey!

2010-11-01T15:47:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the fourth annual Vegan Month of Food!!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, the temperature is dropping and the skies are turning gray and drizzly. Much to the surprise of my neighbors, I kind of love this weather. For one thing it almost necessitates comfort food like the following meal. Not only are many of the recipes I'll feature this month rich, cold weather food, but they have a way of transporting me (or Doc) back in time. My MoFo theme this year is “Veganizing Family Recipes,” and I’m having a ton of fun sifting through my recipe cards, asking relatives questions about their famous dishes, and often challenging myself to come up with vegan solutions to hurdles like “corned beef.”

Mostly, I’m just super excited to read fellow bloggers’ posts this month! Ahh Vegan Mofo; ever inspiring; ever drool worthy. Have fun, folks!

PS- Unfortunately, I do most of my cooking at night...the photos are going to suck.

Recipe: Chili Con Corey [GLUTEN FREE, depending on the faux meat used]
Family Member: Dad
Brief Description: I remember, fondly, eating this dish winters, and even summers when visiting my dad. Of course, in those days, I preferred a pile of cheese sky-high.

Original Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
12 oz canned pinto beans, drained and rinsed
24 oz crushed tomatoes
Crushed red pepper flakes
Ground cayenne pepper
Salt
Black pepper

Original Directions:
1. Brown turkey in a medium soup pot over medium heat 15 minutes. Drain well.
2. Add to pot with ground turkey: onion, green and red peppers, garlic, beans, and crushed tomatoes. Slowly “heat-to-taste,” adding crushed red pepper flakes, and ground cayenne pepper. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
3. Cover pot, stir periodically and simmer over medium-low heat for 30-45 minutes until vegetables are soft.
4. Serve over white rice and top with cheddar cheese.

Vegan Notes: Since I was using a dry faux crumble, I added about ½ cup water during the first step, as well as a splash of olive oil since meat is pretty greasy. I didn’t soak the crumbles prior to cooking because I wanted them to retain some chewiness. Plus they were going to stew with the rest of the ingredients in step 3. I forgot to account for the wet weight of the crumbles. 1 lb of dry crumble is too much! It still came out very tasty, though! Topped it with cheddar Daiya.

This is the faux crumble I found at an Asian supermarket in town.

Doggles in the Sun

2010-10-20T19:03:00.005-04:00

I've been devoting a good portion of my would-be blogging time to revving up for Vegan MoFo lately. I'm super excited about my project- Veganizing Family Recipes. It may not be an apparently interesting theme, but there are some AWESOME recipes in store next month!

Portland has been glorious lately. Just absolutely gorgeous weather. While we're saving up for a backyard fence, Andy and Emerson have been rigged up to the deck, soaking up the sun. I snapped some photos today. Can you tell they love having a place to spend time outside?

Money to a great cause! 2011 Cares4Pets Calendars!!

2010-10-11T14:40:00.006-04:00

The weather is getting cooler and you know what that means; time to start planning your holiday shopping!

As many of you know, until our recent move, Doc and I volunteered on a regular basis with Cares4Pets, a WONDERFUL pet rescue group in Philadelphia- the same group we adopted Andy from two years ago. One of the projects I became involved with was the 2011 Cares4Pets calendar. This calendar serves as a fundraiser for the small group while showcasing twelve success stories- happy pets with their new families. Along with helping plan the calendar, I did four of the photo shoots for the project, including these two and these two!

I'm asking today that you consider pre-ordering a 2011 Cares4Pets calendar in place of your usual calendar. And if you're so inclined, we would love love love you to purchase a few calendars as gifts. If, for some amazing reason, you would be interested in purchasing a larger amount, there are freebies to be had.

Montana poses for her close-up.

The calendars are $20 each (plus shipping) and absolutely all proceeds go directly toward the rescue, rehabilitation, and placement of homeless animals. Please visit the Cares4Pets website at http://cares4pets.org/ for more information about the group. While there, feel free to take a look at the cats and dogs up for adoption. (Sponsorship of an animal in need also makes a great gift! C4P will even send your loved one a certificate!)

Calendars can be purchased through PayPal by clicking on the button found below. Alternatively (and preferably!) payments can be sent via snail mail. Just make sure to print out this form , which includes all the pertinent information to mail along with your check. If you are unable to pick up the calendar in person, please include an additional $3 for shipping.

Questions? Email me at inmyveganlife AT gmail DOT com.

2011 Cares4Pets Calendar!

A blue house!

2010-10-01T17:07:00.005-04:00

I promised (or threatened) that I'd be posting house updates. Well, here's one.

We just had the house painted by an awesome company (Portland folks, if you're in the market, I can talk your ear off about Crew Painting.) It's impossible to tell from this particular "before" photo, but the paint was in major disrepair, peeling in large chunks off the house. The color was fine, but Doc and I had our hearts set on a blue house.

BEFORE

AFTER

Aided by the color expertise provided by Crew Painting, we found a perfect medium, slate-y blue ("Schooner") for the body, off white with a slight green tint ("Paper Mache") for the trim, and a darker slate color for the foundation. We love it! It's a bit hard to tell from this photo (and the overcast skies when it was taken), but it so beautifully brings out the honey in the front door. The front also looks so much better without the plastic shutters next to the windows (although I needed to be convinced to leave them off) and I love the accent of the neutral yellow curtains in the front.
Please ignore the majorly over grown shrub lining the driveway and the evidence of my "pruning" alongside it. Soon (let's hope!) this will be beautifully landscaped to match the beautiful paint job, as we say "goodbye" to the grass.

Recent Food Hauls

2010-09-17T14:11:00.001-04:00

Well, Doc and I are in our new house and we love it. We've been busy getting settled, entertaining visitors, and fixing things! In the coming months I'm sure I will be posting many "before and after" photos of our progress.

Switching topics: I wanted to share my recent delicious food hauls.

We now live very close to Dovetail bakery (among many other wonderful vegan [and non] establishments), which means I can expect to put on a few pounds. Just under three weeks ago, after our LOOOONG day of moving, I stopped by Dovetail to pick up some breakfast goodies. I am in love with their assortment of scones. The people at Dovetail are so nice. I even got two free chocolate chip cookies!

cinnamon pecan scones

sticky buns with pecans

cinnamon buns

chocolate chip and black and white cookies

I'm loving the connectedness of this town. Our Realtor set us up with a great painting company, the hands-on owner of which told us about the farmer's markets that his wife coordinates, including one at their home, a couple of blocks away from us. After stopping by last weekend, Doc and I signed up for Late Bloomer Metro Market's CSA-like deal and last night we were delivered this:

two dozen Tokyo Rose, Gala, and Sansa apples

seven Stark Crimson pears

a bunch of purple and golden fingerling potatoes

three ears of corn

four beets

a head of cabbage, large cucumber, and large yellow onion

two zucchinis and two yellow squash
(I'm not a huge zucchini or yellow squash fan, but I have big plans for making zucchini bread, especially now that the weather has turned cooler.)

aromatherapy tea in a cute little beaker

All organic or transitional for $29!

The boys checking out the new digs.

Mini Guava Turnovers

2010-08-18T19:08:00.006-04:00

I've been making my way through a tin of guava paste. First I made guava cake. Then it was guava puff pastries. Now, as the heat wave has ended here in the Portland area, I've turned the oven back on for guava turnovers. These are extra special because they're mini!

If I can stop eating them (I've already had 4 sitting here writing this post!) we might just top them with vanilla ice cream for dessert later.

Very simple to make, these babies come out so cute and tasty, you have to try them!

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Earth Balance
3- 4 tbsp cold water

Guava paste (approx. 3-4 oz), cut into 16 squares
(opt.) turbinado sugar for the top

Steps:
1. Mix the flour and salt. Add the EB, cutting and stirring with two knives until the mixture is lumpy. Add the water and knead with your hands a little. Form the dough into a ball and refrigerate for half an hour.

2. Roll out dough onto a greased cookie sheet with a rolling pin until very thin.

3. Using a pizza cutter, cut the rolled dough into a square. It doesn't need to be perfect. (Set aside the remaining pieces to use for an ugly jumbo turnover.) Using the pizza cutter, cut a line through the middle of the dough horizontally, then vertically. Then divide those sections each in half again, so you end up with 16 squares.

4. Place a square of guava paste on each square so that it's closer to one end than the other. Fold the dough square in half to create a triangle. Pinch the sides together and use a fork to further seal the pastry. Repeat for the remaining 15 turnovers.

5. Sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar and bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes or until the turnovers are golden and some of the filling has spilled out.

Enjoy right out of the oven!

Update: Yes! Vanilla ice cream and mini guava turnovers (reheated slightly in a toaster oven) are a winning combination!

rescued loveseat gets another look

2010-08-16T19:24:00.007-04:00

Anyone remember this love seat?

Before

After

After After

I grew tired of the bright orange and decided to subdue it a little with varying shades of green. You'll also notice I added another back cushion. The middle cushion cover came from Ikea a while ago. The other two I purchased on Etsy.

Waterfalls of Looooove

2010-08-03T14:47:00.010-04:00

Photos of the many waterfalls we saw on our hike at Wahkeena Falls yesterday.

Marriage begins with a waterfall. The years pass swiftly over the rocks, love and passion transform like water to mist, to water again. There are obstacles. There are multitudes of paths. There are springs and streams before the fall and there are rivers and vast oceans after. Life's journey, navigated by love through trickles and torrents, sometimes sees a waterfall, that breathtakingly, achingly beautiful crescendo, that misty existence where love and beauty, heartache and understanding are experienced in the intertwining of life.
Okay, with two years of "official" partnership under my belt I'm hardly the authority on marriage. So, you know, ignore my ramblings. This week with family in town and Doc's and my two-year wedding anniversary, I've been thinking about happiness.
I am married to a wonderful person, who is very much my partner in every way, have great friends and family (several of whom have already visited us in Oregon since our move!), am so completely thrilled with our new community, and am all around pretty blissful. There are downsides, sure, but that's life and isn't life wonderful? If you think about it, how lucky each and every one of us are to have a life, have relationships, have flowers and art and rain- you can't help but realize our shared existence is something that should be appreciated and savored, not unlike a piece of good vegan cheesecake.

(It was a very long hike, especially the "up" part.)

Happy anniversary, my wonderful person. <3

Miniature Update

2010-07-25T00:56:00.002-04:00

Oh gosh. It's been forever since I last posted. I promise to post soon- probably after my family leaves town next week.

We are in the middle of a sale for our lovely new house. If all continues to go smoothly, we'll be in our beautiful 1928 Portland bungalow September 1st! More to follow.