Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Tuscany Tempeh


Tuscany Tempeh
3 servings
3/4 onion chopped
1 package of tempeh cubed
1 head broccolini chopped
1 zucchini chopped
1/2 can of tomato sauce

2 tsp oil
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp braggs
2 dashes garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp of chili powder
1/2 tsp of thyme
1/2 oregano
1 tbsp of lemon juice

Fry the tempeh and onion in the oil until tempeh becomes lightly browned.  Add the seasonings.
Stir until well coated.  Add the broccolini and zucchini when the vegetables become softer, add the half of a can of tomato sauce.  Let it cook until it gets warm.

Turn off burner and serve, can be served with rice, bread, pasta or tortillas or potatoes.

I had this for lunch today and ate it with ciabatta bread :)  it was amazing and very easy to make.



Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Baby Bok Choy Delight

This is super simple, I've had a bit of a busy week, and I am on my way out for dodgeball, so I literally made in this in less than 10 minutes.

Baby Bok Choy Delight:
serves 1
3 heads of baby bok choy, chopped, keep leafy greens apart from the tougher stems
handful of peanuts
5 shakes of curry powder
3 tbsp of tahini
1 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp of nutritional yeast

Steam stems until soft, add the greens, but only for a few seconds, turn off burner and stir.
Roast peanuts separately.  Then add them to the greens.
Add curry, tahini, lemon and nutritional yeast.

plate full of food :):)  

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Tomato curry peanut pasta

I have to apologize before hand, because I know the pictures would have come out well, but my camera battery died... :/ Sad story.  

Tomato Curry Peanut Pasta
2 servings

Enough pasta for two
(boil some water, cook separately)

Tomato curry:
2 cups of halved cherry tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 carrot

2 tsp of oil
3 garlic cloves
1/8 cup of peanuts
1/8 tsp of garlic powder
1/8 tsp of onion powder
14 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of garam masala
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp agave
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp thai red curry 
1/8 tsp of powdered vegetable broth (or salt)
1 tbsp of nutritional yeast 
2 tsp sriracha sauce


While the pasta is cooking, chop the vegetables.  Heat oil, peanuts, garlic and seasonings up until garam masala until fragrant.  Mix in the rest of the seasonings and add the tomatoes and carrots.  Stir well, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft.  Add the green peppers, and let simmer for an additional 2 minutes.  

Ready for serving :) 








Friday, April 25, 2014

Spicy Cabbage Goulash

This morning was my usual action packed chia apple cereal

For lunch I decided to make something with cabbage, peanuts, vegan chorizo, tofu and carrots

I wanted the flavors to burst, while still feeling like I was mostly eating healthy vegetables.

Spicy Cabbage Goulash
serves 2

2 tsp of oil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8-1/4 red pepper chilli flakes
1tsp mango powder (can use 1 tbsp of lime or lemon in replace of)
1 tsp ginger
1/8 cup of peanuts
3/4-1 package vegan chorizo
2 oz baked tofu cubed (optional)
4 cups chopped green cabbage
2 carrots chopped
1/2 cup of water
1tsp agave
1 tsp braggs (soy sauce)
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp tahini










Heat oil in a pan, add from pepper to peanuts.  After a few seconds add the the tofu and vegan chorizo. Stir for a 30 seconds, and add the vegetables.  Mix well, and add 1/2 cup of water.









Cover with a lid and let steam/simmer for 5-7 minutes.  Or once cabbage is soft but still crunchy.  Add agave through the tahini, and it is ready for serving!


Thursday, April 24, 2014

Lazy Thursdays


My eating schedule right now, is definitely a bit out of the norm, as it is finals basically until May 15th for me.  This means that healthy eating, is much less on my radar of habits.  My goal is basically to consume calories because, at times of high stress I've been in situations where I don't eat and I don't feel like eating, and that is a pretty bad place to be.  I would rather eat poorly but still be eating, than for go food altogether.

Anyway.

So this morning, I didn't end up eating breakfast really, just because I had so many e-mails and things to catch up on that I didn't get around to breakfast until noon, which by this time it's lunch.

I bought this ready made Pav Bhaji -- this is traditional Indian food which is commonly referred to as a 'street food'.  Unfortunately, like I said, I didn't cook this myself.

But here is a recipe I found for it:
http://ketaki-thewhiteelephant.blogspot.com/2011/09/pav-bhaji.html
can always replace the butter with oil, or vegan butter
Picture is from the website



Other than that, I have been snacking pretty much all day on apples, chips (I know not healthy)

and also been having a ginger lemon tea which is amazing and I think has been magically helping me
to be more motivated to do schoolwork. 

Or so I like to think.  Not sure what I will have for dinner, I still have leftovers.  

But I've been having the same leftovers (the curry)... so I may just eat more apples and figure out something else.  

Oh the world of laziness. 

Why does laziness and finals have to happen at the same time?

PS in my down time I've started watching the prime amazon movie features.  

Mostly bollywood movies, unfortunately many of them aren't the best, but yesterday actually
was a rather cute one, Kismat Connection, made me laugh a few times anyway.

Anyway. Have a good one!  Hopefully I will have some more original recipes soon :):)


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Spicy Plantain Cocoa Curry

So, my tendency is to use a recipe for inspiration, but it when it comes to the actual ingredients and methods.. I have a tendency to make it up as I go.

I guess the normal thing to do would be to plan out a weekly meal plan and recipes, and buy the ingredients for that.

I do the opposite.  I search the fridge for ingredients and find recipes that moderately match, if nothing matches sometimes I will combine 2-3 recipes to make it fit.  Sometimes it works.. and sometimes there are some pretty bizarro land creations.

This specific recipe, I semi thought that it was doomed, until the final ingredient was added and it came to life!  That is what I often find, most recipes when 'bad', they are just missing 1 thing.  And it's that one thing that turns terrible to amazing.

In some cases that one thing may not necessarily be an ingredient but a very out of the box action to bring it back to life.  One particular thing that can't be fixed though, is burning.  Sorry, hahah can't reverse that one.

Apart from that even, after baking a cake -- there can be other uses for that cake.  I have even taken a cake and reblended it with sugar and other missing elements  to only put it back into the oven!!! And you wouldn't believe but it was saved!  This is a pretty extreme example but it's totally possible.  Lol maybe it stems from my utter desire to not waste any food.  Who knows.

Spicy Plantain Cocoa Curry

I think to make this recipe easier, one can just use coconut milk instead of the base that I made.  But since I had no coconut milk,  made do with a very interesting combination that came out okay!

Ingredients
2 plantains chopped
1 tbsp oil
2 cups of green beans chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 cups of water
1/8 asafedtida powder (1/2 tsp of garlic powder would also work)
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp cumin powder
2 shakes black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp cocoa butter
1 tbsp tahini (optional)
1 cup dried coconut (or fresh coconut if you have)
1 cup warm water
1 tsp agave
1 tbsp dried tamarind (or tamarind paste if you don't have a powerful blender)
1tsp paprika
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Soak the coconut in the water for 1/2 hour to an 1 hour.
-- If you have a vitamix or blendtec, you can get away with not soaking the coconut,
or if the coconut is fresh.  It just makes the consistency a little less grainy

In a pan, heat the oil add mustard powder, asafetida, and curry powder until sizzly.  Add the plantains, green beans, carrots and 2 cups of water, mix.  Add turmeric, nutritional yeast, and salt.  Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover with a lid and cook for 30 minutes (until vegetables are tender).

Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat oil for the sauce, add cumin powder, 1/4 tsp chilli flakes, and black pepper.  Roast for a few seconds.  In a small blender, add coconut and water, cocoa butter, tahini, roasted seasonings, water, agave and tamarind.  Blend until smooth.

Once plantains are tender, add the sauce.




Add paprika at the end for color!



If the taste is too much of cocoa, add more red chilli flakes until desired hotness is attained.  The spice of the dish is what makes it come alive!


Some great side accompaniments:  Roti's or tortillas and Indian pickle, yesterday I had it with roti's and lime pickle... it was amazing!!













Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Protein Packed Green Salad

Protein Packed Green Salad
serves 3-4
1 package of baked tofu chopped(or make it yourself)
1 marinated and chopped portobello mushroom
1/2 cup sunflower sprouts
1/2 bundle kale finely chopped
1 cup romaine chopped
1 celery chopped
1 tomato chopped

Marinade
2 tbsp balsamic
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp coconut aminos (can use other soy sauce)
2 tbsp sunflower seed oil (other oil works as well)

Dressing
3 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp balsamic
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 shakes garlic powder
3 tbsp of water
1 tsp agave
---stir until creamy and smooth

Marinate the mushrooms first.  Put them face up on a plate.  After mixing together the marinade, pour it onto the mushrooms.  Let it soak for 30 minutes, they can also bake for 15 to speed up on the process.

Toss the kale, sprouts, romaine, celery, tomato, tofu together.  Whip together the dressing and stir it into the salad.


Once mushrooms are ready to go, chop them up to also add them.



Monday, April 21, 2014

Busy Mondays

A few months ago I became really bored of the regular breakfast options.  I used to be good at either getting a vegetable juice in the morning or a green smoothie.  But after having some pretty bad headaches quite often, I decided to switch up a lot in my regular food routine.  I stopped eating bananas and actually having smoothies and juices -- I wasn't sure if the easy assimilation of the sugars were maybe part of the issue in my headaches?? Really not sure.

I don't like heavy foods for breakfast.  

Somehow I ended up with this recipe, which I love.

Chocolate Apple Chia 'Cereal'
2-3 apples chopped (pears can also be used or berries) 
2tbsp-3 tbsp of chia seeds soaked in 1-2 cups of water or nut/seed mylk of choice
1 tbsp of cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp of lucuma powder (optional) 
1 micropinch of stevia

Cut up apples (pears or berries) and place in a large bowl.

Measure chia seeds and put in a glass, fill the glass almost to the rim of water or mylk.  
Let sit for 5 minutes -- stirring every minute or so.  
Add stevia and powders to chia mixture.





Once chia seeds inflate, pour them over cut fruit.  


For Lunch, I had bought some Chorizo and decided to cook that up with some beans.  

Chorizo Green Beans:
2 cups green beans
1/2 cup vegan chorizo
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tbsp of wine vinegar
1/4 cup of water
1 dash red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp of nutritional yeast

Combine all ingredients.
Let simmer for 5-10 minutes
Until green beans have become hot
but still crunchy




Sunday, April 20, 2014

A Vegan Easter

My mom hosted a potluck today, and I helped in figuring out what we should make as the main dish.

We decided on some Indian dishes:
Dal and tikka masala made with tempeh


(Dal) Zucchini lentil soup

Serves 8 (we doubled the recipe)

3/4 c lentils
4 cups of water
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 cups chopped zucchini

1 tbsp oil
1/8 asafetida powder (hing)
1 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 cup of onion
1 cup tomatoes chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp garlic powder
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup cilantro chopped

Fry onions in oil with hing, cumin seeds, tomatoes, ginger, turmeric, salt and garam masala.

Add all ingredients in a slow cooker except for lemon and cilantro.

Cook on high for 2 hours, and low for a few more if needed.

Add the cilantro and lemon after the slow cooker is turned off.


Tikka Masala with Tempeh
5 servings

8 oz tempeh cut into strips
2 tomatoes chopped or can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup coconut milk
2 garlic cloves
1 onion
2 broccoli heads
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp agave
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp chile flakes

Fry onions, tempeh, garlic, ginger, cumin, salt and turmeric in a pan. Than add all of ingredients
into slow cooker, cook on low for 4 hours

-- Vegan sour cream can be added for extra thickness
or coconut cream

Green Salad
8 servings
1 green pepper chopped
1 cucumber chopped
2 tomatoes diced
4 radishes sliced
2 heads of romaine lettuce
Dressing of choice :)

We also made a lot of rice to go along :) as well as...

Banana Bread
(1 pan 12'' x 6")
3 large overripe bananas
1/2 cup ground flaxseed mixed with half of a cup water
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp molasses
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/4 c maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mash bananas in a large bowl, add flaxseed mixture after soaking for a few minutes,
add oil, sugar, molasses, seasonings (only half tbsp of cinnamon) and baking soda.

Once well mixed, add flour.

After flour is distributed into batter, pour into oiled pan.  pour maple syrup atop in a zigzag motion across, and add the rest of the cinnamon as well.  A spoon can be used to mix swirl it in further.
Bake for 45 minutes



My sister in law made an amazing vegan chocolate cake with coconut frosting, inspired by:
http://kitchentonirvana.com/2014/01/09/chocolate-cake-with-maple-coconut-buttercream/


HAPPY EASTER :):)








Saturday, April 19, 2014

Day 1

It's finals.  And yesterday was my first visit to the new store in town, 'Natural Grocers'.

I am so used to only having a very small selection of products to choose from.

Give a vegan choices and it could be dangerous for that vegan's pocketbook.

I bought quite a bit to say the least.

I am living with a friend, and just thinking about the feast that I was going to have upon my arrival home from the grocery store made me feel way to gluttonous and disgusting.

So I was happy to give my friend and call to see if she wanted to indulge with me on all of the amazing products that I haven't been able to consume storebought since I was a non vegan.

They had things like vegan spring rolls, dumplings, cake, snacks, candy...... holy lord.

Give a vegan options during stressful finals.. oh you bet they will be spending a bit o' dough.


We had an amazing party of....

Falafels on gluten free rice tortillas
tahini and lemon dressing
lime juice just for extra moisture (falafels can be dry sometimes)
tomatoes
jalapeno and garlic havarti cheese by Daiya (amazing, this stuff melts and makes fabulous quesadillas)
fresh greens
sunflower seed sprouts

vegan dumplings with soy sauce

vegan spring rolls with that special red sauce

Broccolini -- this was previously unavailable in my town, but I must say it's an amazing vegetable!  Definitely a new favorite
I prepared it by sizzling 2 cloves of garlic in 2 tsp of oil in a pan.  Adding 2 cups of chopped broccolini 2 heads of brocollini and stirring.
I put in about 1tsp of kelp powder-- a salt substitute
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
1-2 tbsp of nutritional yeast
1 tsp of vegan butter (earthbalance)

It came out amazing!  very lovely.

We also snacked on baked nori squares - sesame flavored
jalapeno kettle chips -- oh so addictive and amazing

After dinner we indulged in Vegan icecream which happened to also be low glycemic!  Luna and Larry's Organic Coconut Bliss icecream flavored Chocolate Walnut and Brownie!! :):)  Oh it was delish.

We finished eating around 10pm :):)

What an amazing evening of food!!!

Thanks Natural Grocers :)



Hello Everyone

This blog is dedicated to my sister in law who is ever supportive of all of my crazy food inventions.  And maybe even food addictions.  She recently suggested that if I created a food blog, that she would need to know about it.

I brushed off the thought when it occurred, but after it soaked into my brain, I thought it may not be a bad idea after all.

Many people wonder what a vegan eats.  

Many people would like to become vegan but maybe don't know what they would be able to eat.

Many people perhaps are vegan but don't always explore the possibilities of invention and new products.

And many people just like making vegan meals every now and again, because they are sooo amazing :):)

This blog is for all of the above people, who are interested in learning about vegan products and new twists of old recipes.  

My hope is that I can be consistent with this blog.  

I will do my best to post the main dishes of the day.

Unfortunately I am not perfect, and although I realize that an ideal diet would consist of a healthy portions of a variety of fresh foods, I don't always live up to the role.  

I am a busy college student, and it's the unfortunate reality that packaged foods are a blessing in my life, even as I know that they aren't the healthiest, I do trust that one day I will be able to rise above their presence in my life.

Just as I know that excess cooked oil, fat and sugar are also perhaps not quite health foods, again, as a busy college student -- I use it as my excuse.  I know some very busy individuals who are able to maintain totally amazing pure diets while being busy...

as of now, this isn't fully my reality

but if something in the meantime changes in the way I do things and I start only preparing everything from scratch and eating super healthy... go me. that's awesome.  

In the meantime, this is the reality of this blog... a real life food diary of a vegan... healthy and maybe not so healthy choices.. but hopefully some recipes and product reviews on the way :):)

Have fun and eat well :):)

Esther