salad dressing challenge day #2

Today's salad involved romaine lettuce + carrots + celery + green chilies + tomatoes + corn. I thought that all those potentially gooey toppings would have been plenty of sauce in order to not miss my dressing, but I think I was mistaken. This was a good salad in theory, but it ended up lacking something. I think some beans and/or rice and/or salsa would have really made this one shine. Ok. Lesson learned. Next salad!

salad dressing challenge day #1

Now it may sound boring to you, but I love salads. In fact, I take a homemade salad to work almost every single day. For some people, this would get really monotonous really fast, but not me! I like to mix up what I put in my salads- from greens, to pastas, to fruits and nuts- salads can really be quite versatile and nutritious if you just use a little creativity. My one problem with all this salad eating, however, is what to put on top!

Salad dressing bores me. We have a couple in the house, and they taste fine, but I'm always shocked to see how high they are in fat. This realization has brought me to the salad dressing challenge for the week! Can I be more creative than just using the same old dressing out of the bottle everyday? Thus is the challenge.

For the first day of my adventure, I made a salad with romaine lettuce + carrots + tomatoes + avocado, and a very simple vinaigrette. I mixed a little olive oil, with a little balsamic, and added some crushed pepper. Done and done. It was an easy dressing to go with my simple salad. So far, so good. Let the challenge commence!

chipotle sausages

I have to make a quick post about these vegetarian sausages, because my mom will not stop raving about them. At first I thought she was being ridiculous, but today we made tacos with them, and wow- they ARE delicious. Sometimes vegan meat substitutes end up tasting horrendous, but I am actually pleasantly surprised with these Mexican chipotle chorizo sausages from Field Roast. It cooks up real fast, tastes great, and is pretty versatile.

Today we had tacos with pico de gallo, lettuce, and vegan cheese, but the sausge is good in all kinds of other stuff too- tofu scrambles, sauces, sandwiches, etc. etc. Well done Field Roast! Tasty tacos + kombucha + sunny backyard patio = lovely sunday. Too bad the dog did not enjoy the beautiful day as much as I did. She hates baths.

Fabulous. ♥

sesame stir fry with mushrooms & asparagus

I love stir fry dishes, because they're so easy, so quick, and the results are always fantastic. This particular recipe comes from my parents, and it's ridiculously fast and delicious.

you need:

* some asparagus

* some sliced mushrooms

* sesame oil

*sesame seeds

Snap off the gross bottoms of the asparagus, and chop them into bite sized pieces, and then slice the mushrooms up as well. Heat a little sesame oil in a wok, and throw in the asparagus. When it's getting slightly tender, throw in the mushrooms, and cook everything until it's just the way you like it. Finally, toss in some sesame oil and sesame seeds on top, and voila! There you have yourself dinner. I cooked a little brown rice to go with it, and also added some soy sauce and chili garlic hot sauce. It's stir fry! You throw stuff in, and it tastes great. Ooh! I should have put tofu in too. Oh well, next time for sure!

lemony quinoa with onions, tomatoes, & basil

Tonight's dinner inspiration came from two other recipes that I've been meaning to try out for quite some time. It's a mash-up of Alicia Silverstone's "hot rice with cold lemon, basil, and tomato," (from The Kind Diet) and Lorna Sass' "quinoa-corn salad with basil" (from Short-Cut Vegan). I frankensteined the two, and came out with something delicious of my own!

You need:

* 3/4 cup quinoa

* 2 1/2 cups water or veggie stock

* 1 cup corn

* some chopped onion

* some chopped tomato

* some chopped fresh basil

* 1 lemon

Bring a pot of salted water (or vegetable stock) to a boil. I find that cooking rice, cous cous, or quinoa in vegetable stock instead of plain water, really gives the grain a nice flavor. When the liquid is boiling, add the quinoa and cook for 11 minutes. After the 11 minutes, add in the corn, and cook for 5-ish more minutes, until the quinoa is tender to your liking. Drain the mixture well, add to a serving bowl, and fluff. The book says to wait until the quinoa is room temperature, but who can wait that long when it looks so good? Add in the tomato, basil, onion, and squeeze the juice from the lemon into the mix. Stir everything together, and when all the flavors have melded properly, serve it up! This was exactly what I wanted tonight. Something fresh, light, and delicious. Perfect.

peanut sauce

You know what was silly of me? Posting all about seroendeng, and not including the recipe for the peanut sauce! My bad. So without further ado, here it is, delicious peanut sauce straight from the Holland friends.

You need:

* 2 1/2 Tbs peanut butter

* 1 cup milk (I make mine vegan with rice milk)

* 2 Tbs ketchup

* 2 Tbs soy sauce

* sambol, tabasco, or ground hot peppers

* 1 clove garlic- chopped

* 1 small onion- chopped

* sugar

* pepper (black and/or white)

* great spices that you have on hand

Heat a little oil, and fry up the onion and garlic until brown. Add a little sugar, pepper, and any spices of your choice, but no more than a teaspoon of each (curry, coriander, cumin, ginger, chili powder, and cayenne pepper are all nice). Add the peanut butter and milk, and stir until the peanut butter has dissolved, and the sauce is smooth. Add the sambol (or tabasco), ketchup, soy sauce, and some crushed peanuts or coconut if you'd like. If it's too thick, add milk. If it's too thin, let it boil slowly until thick enough. Bon Appetit!

I know it's an awfully vague recipe, but the peanut sauce came out so good, and it's great on just about anything. Rice, noodles, veggies- it all tastes a little better with some peanut sauce on top :)

tofu scramble

After a ridiculous weekend filled with Pride activities and the Westword Music Showcase, it was so nice to head over to the parent's house for a lovely Father's Day brunch on the back patio. We had hash-browns, Morningstar sausage patties, and a tofu scramble, a favorite breakfast item for all three of us. The entire affair was incredibly delicious.

for a tofu scramble, you will need:

* a random assortment of veggies, spices & other things you'd like

* a block of firm tofu

Put a little olive oil into a skillet and soften up all your vegetables & other items. Today we had onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, and chunks of soyrizo. When everything is the way you like it, take the block of tofu, squeeze out all the liquid, and crumble the tofu into the skillet. Mix everything together, and season- we use garlic salt, pepper, tobasco sauce, and cumin. I am all about the cumin. Once everything is mixed up and heated through, serve it up! We topped ours with rice cheese and let it melt into gooey deliciousness. It was a lovely morning and a very tasty brunch. Happy Father's Day, Pop! I love you!

seroendeng & other delicious things

I love the fact that my parents are adventurous cooks. They're the reason why I love and appreciate so many different kinds of foods. Occasionally a dish will turn disastrous, but most of the time they turn out beautiful dishes that I would have never even thought of trying. This is exactly what happened yesterday when I went home to see Mom and Pop. This recipe comes from our friends in Holland, and is called seroendeng (seh-roon-dang). Apparently there's amazing Indonesian food all over Holland, and this is one of our friends' favorite dishes.

You need:

* 1 small onion

* 1 clove garlic

* 1/2 cup peanuts

* 1 cup shredded coconut (also add 1 tsp. brown super if the coconut is not sweetened)

* spices

Fry up the onion and garlic in a little olive oil. Add cumin, cloves, ginger, coriander, and the peanuts. Then add the coconut and fry until light brown. Mix together well and serve!

Above is our dinner. On the left is the seroendeng, on top is fried veggies (mixed with the same spices as the other dishes), on the right is peanut sauce, and in the center is a big heap of white rice. You're apparently supposed to eat them all separately with the rice so you can really taste the flavors, but when everything got mushed together, it was pretty damn good. It was quick, easy, and delicious. I will definitely have to look further into Dutch Indonesian food.

no hurry vegetable curry

What a perfect meal for a wonderful night. My friend Quinn came over this evening for dinner, drinks, and some girl talk, so I decided to try a tasty looking recipe from Robin Robertson's Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, called no hurry vegetable curry- and let me tell you, it was fantastic.

I chopped up everything last night, and stored it in the fridge, so when I got up this morning, the only thing left to do was measure spices, and throw everything in the slow cooker. 10 hours later- voila! The vegetables came out perfectly tender, and all the flavors really came together nicely in the end. It needed a little more salt than I anticipated, and I didn't like how soupy it was, but when Quinn brought out a package of Naan for sopping up all the sauces, everything was set right again. Great food. Great company. Great night.

quick sandwich & pasta slaw

You know what makes a wildly busy day at work amazing? A great lunch. It may be obviously simple, but I threw together this meal in 5 minutes, and it totally made my day. Carrots? Check. Orange? Check. Sandwich? CHECK!

*avocado

*bread

*delicious mustard

*tomato

For this simple sandwich, I mashed half an avocado with a little salt and pepper, and spread it on one side of the bread. On the other piece of bread went spicy brown mustard, and then the sliced tomatoes went in the middle. DONE AND DONE. I think it could be enhanced with some vegan mozzarella cheese, or perhaps some sprouts. Even without those delicious extras, it was a super simple sandwich that totally hit the spot this afternoon. I'm pleased :)

When I got home from work, I had to eat quickly before the company softball game (which was, of course, rained out). I recently purchased Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson, my vegan idol, and I'm outrageously excited to start trying out some recipes. Pasta slaw (page 91) is the first of many delicious meals.

It's just a big mix of cabbage, carrots, green onions, apples, pasta, and I added a can of kidney beans to make it a little more substantial. My only suggestion: make more dressing! The flavors are subtle, which is nice, but since I made so many veggies, I think a little more sauce would really help. Otherwise, the slaw is fantastic, and since it's so hot right now, a healthy, cold salad loaded with fresh ingredients is perfect. All in all, a very tasty day. I'm excited to take some pasta slaw to work tomorrow for lunch. Yumm.

lemon birthday cupcakes with lemon frosting

What a beautiful weekend for some birthday shenanigans. Yesterday was my friend Molly's 23rd birthday, and being that she is vegan, me and the roommate threw a fabulous vegan appetizer and cocktail hour before the bar crawling commenced. Homemade guacamole, vegetable kabobs in homemade teriyaki marinade, lemon cupcakes, and plenty of drinks for all.

The cupcakes were superb- a total smash hit with everyone! The recipe comes from Robin Robterson's 1,000 Vegan Recipes aka one of my all time favorite cookbooks. Robin Robertson is my vegan idol, and every single one of her recipes is outrageously delicious. I used the white cupcakes and "buttercream" frosting recipes with the lemon variation. I've made the spice variation before, and they were great as well. All in all, everything was delicious and the birthday celebration was a blast. Happy birthday Molly! ♥

overnight pineapple oats

Warning: This is an oatmeal post from a girl who does NOT like oatmeal.

This recipe is from Lorna Sass' Short-Cut Vegan, a fantastic little cookbook I got from my friend Christy this year. I don't normally like oatmeal, but this recipe totally has me hooked. Her version called for a couple of items that we didn't have in our pantry, so here is my version of Lorna's overnight pineapple oats:

* 3 cups oats

* 1 cup pineapple chopped up with juice and all

* 1 1/2 cups soy milk (it was about half rice and half soy)

* 1/2 teaspoon ish cinnamon

* A dash of salt

Combine everything in a glass bowl, cover, and let sit overnight. In the morning, throw in some sliced bananas and you're ready to go! My roommate liked his helping warmed, but I actually preferred it served cold, in a cup, devoured in the car while running late to work. It's light, nutritious, and the pineapple and banana are so nice first thing in the morning. It also makes a ton of food, so there's plenty for the whole week. I might make this one OFTEN :)

lemony orzo with broccoli and white beans

Tonight was one of those nights where the fridge was empty and we didn't feel like going to the store, but still managed to throw together a delicious meal! This is an original recipe from yours truly and I'm very pleased.

You need:

*One head of broccoli cut into bite sized pieces

*As much orzo as your heart desires

*One can of white beans (we had Great Northern on our shelf)

*Juice of one lemon

*Olive oil and various seasonings

Bring a pot of salted water to boil, throw in the orzo, and let it cook until al dente. Meanwhile, saute the broccoli in a skillet with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and any other spices that strike your fancy. Open the can of white beans, drain, and rinse well. When the orzo is done, drain. Add the cooked orzo, white beans, and lemon juice to the skillet with the broccoli. Mix everything together, and when it's all warmed through, you're good to go! My roommate added butter and parmesan to his serving, but I think it's tasty as is. A successful meal from an empty kitchen if I do say so myself!