miso soup

So it may not look like the most appetizing thing in the whole world, but I could not be more pleased with my very first attempt at homemade miso soup! This is a picture of the leftovers, devoured cold, today at lunch, but it was super tasty hot, last night for dinner too! The recipe inspiration came from here, but this version is definitely my own.

You need:

* about 4 cups vegetable stock

* about 2 tablespoons white miso paste

* about 1/2 cup soy sauce

* a bunch of thinly sliced green onions

* a block of tofu cubed all tiny-like

* seaweed cut into strips

* 1 cup-ish water

Pour the vegetable stock into a pot, and bring it to a boil while you're chopping, and getting everything else ready- this includes taking the miso paste, and mixing it with the soy sauce in a little bowl. When the stock is boiling, reduce heat a bit and add in the tofu. Let this simmer a few minutes, and then add in the miso/soy sauce mixture. Turn the heat down a bit lower and add in the sliced green onion and seaweed. Let everything meld together, give it a taste, and adjust flavors as necessary. I added a cup of water here, to dilute it just a little, and make it stretch farther. That's all there is to it- miso soup! It's apparently really good for you, has tons of great ingredients, and is delicious hot and cold. What more could you ask for in a meal? :)

salad thoughts

I'm always hunting for something special to put in my salads to make them extra tasty. The other night, the roommate and I grilled out on the back porch, and after everyone ate their fill, I took the leftover zucchini and bell pepper, and added it to my salad for the next day. I know it's something so silly and simple, but it added so much to my meager greens! I was even content with using plain old olive oil & balsamic on top! I'm inspired.

For tomorrow's office luncheon, I made: romaine + cabbage + carrots + avocado + tomato + sauteed asparagus. I fried up the asparagus with just a little pepper and sea salt, and I can already tell you that that tomorrow is going to be one delicious Wednesday!

mango noodle stir fry

After a long crazy weekend, it always feels nice to get back to eating well and working out. I'm quite happy with my first real homemade dressing. See that beautiful jar full of pink? Oh yeah, that's it. I pureed a few strawberries with a splash of olive oil in the magic bullet, and was done! I poured that over a bed of romaine with tomatoes, jicama, corn, and carrots, and was quite pleased! Maybe next time, some vinegar or sugar would help? Hm, I'm not sure what it needed, but I know that I'm on the right road to delicious homemade dressings!

Now I know this is probably a meal overload, but dinner was inappropriately delicious, and I can't just NOT share it! The inspiration came from the Vegetarian Times that's currently out on shelves. This is the chilled noodle salad with mango (page 83), reinvented via me and the roommate. Sorry the picture is so shoddy- the lights were dimmed so we could continue to binge-watch True Blood during dinner.

You need:

* Thin rice noodles

* Veggies to your liking- chopped

* 1 mango chopped

* 1/2 cup soy sauce

* Juice from 1 lemon

* A teaspoon-ish chili garlic sauce

* A few teaspoons light brown sugar

Prepare the rice noodles as directed on the box while you're chopping up all the vegetables (we used onion, celery, green bell pepper, and carrots). When the noodles are almost ready, fry up your vegetables until they are the desired texture. Meanwhile, mix the soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, brown sugar, and lemon juice together in a small dish. When the vegetables are tender, add the noodles, sauce, and mango, and toss together until heated through. We added a little extra sauce, and some shrimp, but really, it's all about what you like. It was a fantastic meal if I do say so myself!

4th of july

My poor salad dressing challenge was, of course, instantly ruined with an office luncheon, and a horrible lack of groceries, but I don't think that it's over. Prepared salad dressings still bore me, and often shock me with the number of fat grams in every serving, so I'm still on the hunt for dressing alternatives! I've been looking around google, and I'm liking that there are lots of great ideas out there- pureed fruit, low fat (& vegan) yogurt with spices, a little oil with mustard or ginger or shallots. The possibilities are endless and I'm ready to continue the search!

On a side note, I hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July. I've been awfully m.i.a as of recent, but I'm attempting to climb back on the wagon, so there will hopefully be some tasty postings appearing here very soon.

Funfetti cake + cream cheese frosting + fresh fruits = one badass independance day cake- definitely NOT vegan, but festive regardless. If you wanted a less sinful version, simply replace the eggs, and you've got yourself a vegan funfetti cake! The Post Punk Kitchen has a really great article on egg replacers- highly recommend! You could also substitute that oil for some applesauce, and feel even better when you devour that second piece of cake! Happy holidays! I hope it was lovely. ♥

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. ♥