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!