Five Out of Six Ain't Bad

The past two weeks have kept me busy in the kitchen, especially with my husband being gone for half of that time! It's amazing how many dishes one person can accumulate, and how much house cleaning there is with just one person to do it! I have a new respect for how much my dad did when he stayed home with us.

This post's title is in reference to the five awesome dishes I made this week, and the one that flopped. I'm starting with my favorite and working down to least fav. First up are these scrumptious, utterly yummy "Swallow-it-All Banana Balls," from Dreena's first cookbook, The Everyday Vegan. I have to say, the title really had me laughing (sexual innuendos, anyone?) so I am renaming these simply "Banana Bites." Mine were pretty big, so they were really three bites in one (Schweaty Balls, anyone? NPR and Sat Night Live!). But oh, my god, they really were good. AND... no sweeteners! I really mean it! They mostly contain ripe bananas, dates, apples, and unsweetened, dried coconut, along with some ground oats and nut butter. They were so moist and combined the two flavors I love the most. Plus, they allowed me to use up some cereal crumbs I had laying around. I actually used raisin bran, instead of cornflakes. A great, healthy, filling snack. Four stars!

On we move to the second best... Grilled Yuca Tortillas from Veganomicon. I have been wanting to make these for a while, since I love yuca, which is like a very starchy, sticky potato. I added sliced kalamata olives, as suggested for an add-in, along with the jalapeno and bell pepper already called for. I actually grilled mine on our outdoor grill. The yuca was amazingly cheesy-like and it melted in my mouth..... I ate it later in the week by grilling leftover filling on the stove top and adding some good salsa - even better!! Four stars!

The side dishes pictured here are some grilled okra (nothing like the slimy stuff you might be wary of! Just crunchy and beautiful with olive oil, salt and pepper!) and my third favorite meal of the week...







Edamame Corn Salad. I took inspiration from Veganomicon's Corn-Sesame-Edamame Salad (or something like that) and added some local, organic grape and cherry tomatoes. I also did not cook the corn. I just cut it fresh off of the cobs (also local, not organic)! Soooo good. The sesame oil and rice vinegar just shone through in the flavors and it was as easy as could be to throw together. I could have eaten it just as it was, with nothing else! Four stars!

Fourth in line, but still really, really good, were the Seitan Gyros, from Vegan Express. I made them for my hubby, as he likes seitan and we both like (or used to like, in my case) gyros. Typically, they are lamb (ack!) but the seitan was moist and chewy enough (not in a gross, faux meat way, but in a pleasant, seitan way) and so perfectly flavored, I enjoyed every bite! We ate it whole pitas, just folded in half, with lettuce, tomato, and a cucumber raita (yogurt sauce). My only complaint was that the plain soy yogurt was too sweet and the seitan actually wasn't spicy enough! Still, very quick and very good. Just fry up the seitan, chop the veggies, and you're golden....Three stars!

Unfortunately, we're nearing the bottom of the post. I hate to write anything bad about a recipe, especially one from such an accomplished and yummy cook as Dreena (remember, her Banana Balls/Bites were number one this week!), but this Cashew-Ginger Tofu (from ED&BV), was just not all that great for me. I think I sliced the tofu a little thin, so the pieces were floppy and broke apart in all that sauce. I love, love tofu, but this was only so-so for me. No golden, crunchy crust, no firm bite. It must not be made for any tofu-haters! The creamy sauce was good, but got kind of grayish looking after a couple nights of leftovers. On its own, probably two and a half stars but I decided to lay it atop the real flop of the week....



No recipe this week compared to my own nasty creation. It all started out so innocently. I wanted to use up some red cabbage I had kicking around. I went to the farmer's market and got some fresh beans, carrots, bell pepper and mushrooms. They were so beautiful (see below shots)! But the cabbage leaked red all over my beautiful mushrooms and looked ten times worse than the tofu, especially after sitting around as leftovers this week. I ate it because I cannot waste food, but bleah - don't cook red cabbage in a stir fry!! One and a half stars, maybe.
I leave you with the bounty of last Saturday's farmer's market. Beautiful berries, and such gorgeous, organic mushrooms!!! Four stars for summer produce~ Enjoy the weekend and sorry for the late post!

SURPRISE!

Before I get to the big surprise, I'm sharing a yummy food shot. My parents were in town for the week (a rare occasion) and I was excited to try out some tried-but-true meals, as well as some newbies. This BBQ Tempeh sandwich with grilled pineapple and Mango Ketchup from the Candle Cafe Cookbook was a big hit all around, even for my meat-loving father. He declared it, "very good!" which is a big complement coming from him, and went back for seconds. We've made it before, with great success, so we knew it would be palatable, to say the least! Four stars!

Now for the surprise... You remember a couple of posts back, when I was sharing pictures of my garden? And how excited I was to watch the bean plants grow? Well, I went out earlier this week to do my daily garden inspection (weeding, watching for pests/mold, etc.) when I noticed that the bean plants didn't look very... beanish. They were just too short and round. I watched them over the next few days when all of a sudden, nestled under the canopy of leaves, I discovered.....




These are DEFINITELY not beans! I thought, maybe they're some kind of squash, or something. When my mother, experienced gardener that she is, came and looked at them, she suggested....







MELONS!

















Now, I know I planted bean seeds. Or at least, they came from a packet labeled "organic bush beans." And they certainly looked like bean seeds when I planted them. I should know, being a Kindergarten teacher for so long (you do lots of fine motor activities with dried beans!). But, as disappointed as I was (I love fresh beans!), I was also ecstatic - MELONS! I also love, love cantaloupe and honeydew melons (of which I think these are the latter). Whatever they turn into (I'll take any guesses!), I'm excited that they are thriving so well and just praying that the resident groundhog doesn't get them first! Either way, I still got a thrill out of planting seeds and getting such great returns with such poor soil and over watering (the garden has been flooded several times with rain). And, it's a great story! Now, onto more food....


This is the Spicy Peanut Tempeh with Cool Cucumber Salad from the most recent Veg News magazine. I have to say, their recipes don't disappoint! The tempeh was marinated and skewered with some red onion and plums. Even my warm-fruit hating husband enjoyed the plums! In fact, he made this dish himself - yay! Unfortunately, I could tell right away by the sweetness in the peanut sauce that he had used Jiff peanut butter (ugh!- with all its added sugar) but I didn't complain and was just happy that he had made the effort to cook while I was at work! I whipped up the cucumber salad while he grilled (it's in the same issue, meant as a side dish for the tempeh) and was only disappointed in the incredible heat! Cool, my ass. The peanut sauce wasn't spicy enough, though, so this kind of balanced the two. Not bad, overall. Maybe three stars for the tempeh and two for the salad.
Continuing the grill-fest on the first night my parents came into town, was this delectable Penne with Grilled Vegetables, from The Vegetarian Grill. It was really very easy (julienne and grill the veggies, cook the pasta, toss with tomato sauce) since we used an organic jarred sauce, instead of grilling the tomatoes for a homemade sauce (although this would have been amazing, I'm sure!). I snuck in whole wheat penne (the men in our family can't abide the grainy texture) and left out the goat cheese from my portion (although everyone else raved about the way the cheese really enhanced the dish). I really must get my hands on some Teese! Three stars for everyone else, two for me, sans goat cheese.

The next night, I had to work, so we all made do with leftovers. But the following night we gorged on vegetarian and vegan pizza. Here is Isa's Pizza from Vegan with a Vengeance, on the homemade crust. We use Rustic Crust, too, when we don't have time for a fresh one. Everyone raved over this pizza. It has tofu ricotta (the white lumps), pesto (the green lumps), kalamata olives (soooo good!) and mushrooms (I think we used cremini). Everything is a little bit salty, so we leave out quite a bit of salt from the pesto. Everyone loves pizza! Four stars!
But wait, there's more!




One night, we were invited over to our neighbor's for dinner (including an incredible rice salad that I have to recreate!) and I brought ED&BV's Lemon Poppy Seed Crackle Cookies. They were pretty, easy, and even chewy (although I think they were chewy because I put them in a Tupperware container shortly after they cooled). A little too "poppseedish" for me, and needed more lemon maybe, but still very good!


On their last night in town, my mother and I whipped up Dreena's Spicoli Burgers from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. They really were pretty easy, especially with a rice cooker to do most of the work. They do have to chill for 30 minutes, so be prepared! There isn't very much prep work, overall. They can be expensive, since they call for one cup of hemp seeds, and they are a little mushy on the inside, but I would make these again just for the flavor! Three stars for sure. We were out of pita bread or hamburger buns (I finally found ones without any high fructose corn syrup- yay!) so we ate them naked, as suggested with her Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette, alongside some salad and....

Grilled Rosemary Potatoes! These were my own recipe (just drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with chopped, fresh rosemary, then grilled on medium heat for about ten minutes each side), so I was very proud of how good they turned out. AND, I worked the grill all by myself! My husband loves the grill, and always takes charge, so much that I didn't even know how to light it! But I did it all by myself this time, and am now queen of the grill :) Three stars for the potatoes.

We finished the night with Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream (vegan, of course!) from the Vegetarian Times, June 2008 issue. I haven't made ice cream (dairy or otherwise) in years, so I was excited to turn on our "vintage" (1970s) ice cream maker! It's electric, so there's not a whole lot of work. And the results? Fantastic! My dad, an ice cream connoisseur, rated it "excellent," although he thought it tasted more like raspberry, especially with the slight grit from the seeds. It really was like sherbet, and I enjoyed every bite. Sweet, but not cloyingly. Fruity, but not too much, either. Four stars! What a great way to end the meal and the week! I plan on making more cool treats with my Vice Cream cookbook that I've had since last summer. My husband has asked for Mint Chocolate Chip!

While they were here, Hobbes entertained us all by climbing into suitcases and also playing "security guard," for my dad's laptop....











But wait, there's more!....
My garden continued to flourish this past week. Here are the zucchini flowers, and then, much to my surprise, a zucchini all of a sudden appeared! I had no idea they grew "upside down," like this! Isn't it cute?















I waited as long as I could, and then picked it, to enjoy with some white bean-rosemary dip (a modification of ED&BV's white bean dip with thyme and basil). So tender and delicious! Why do non-vegans always ask, "So, what do you eat?"

But wait, there's more!...




My gladiolus continued to bloom and surprise me last week as well, with white, purple, and yellow blossoms. The buds looked like ballet slippers, smooth as silk and ready to dance off the stalk!











And I leave you with a shot of "green energy," or our new solar clothes dryer! :) It was the best thing ever when our old one broke. Enjoy the weekend!

Summer Treats!

If you're a muffin fan, these muffins are a "must make!" These Banana Blueberry muffins from La Dolce Vegan are incredible. Moist, fluffy, sweet, fairly healthy....and a great way to use up overripe bananas! :) I think the molasses gives them their darker flavor. I even used whole wheat pastry flour and applesauce instead of the oil, for an extra healthy - oomph! Four stars!



Meanwhile, the other two overripe bananas went into the making of this Banana Cake, also from La Dolce Vegan. I added some chocolate chips to the batter, too - yum! I didn't have any confectioners sugar on hand for the frosting (that's a first!), so I whipped up some of Isa's (VCTOTW) chocolate ganache and sprinkled the whole thing with chopped walnuts. My coworkers enjoyed this treat before the holiday weekend, but there was still some left to take home - oh rats! :)

Here's what the inside looked like.... very moist and fluffy and just superb! I love, love bananas. They were my favorite as a toddler and I still can't get enough. Four stars for the cake - but I'm not the biggest chocolate fan, so only three for the ganache.







One night this week, my husband surprised me with having dinner on the table (now that I'm working full time and he's got the summer off - how strange it feels!). He made this fairly complicated sandwich - I was so proud! It was the recent Vegetarian Times cover recipe: Mediterranean Pressed Picnic Sandwich. How luscious.... Fresh ciabatta bread, spread with homemade pesto on one side and jarred tapenade on the other. In between sit slices of grilled red pepper, zucchini and portobella mushroom (we did the shroom in lieu of summer squash). This was all drizzled with balsamic vinegar before being pressed for a while. It was really, really good, but even better the next day, after the flavors melded even more! Yay for male cooks and grills! Four stars, for sure! The bean salad in the background is also from that issue: Picnic Caviar. I made that one and it was really excellent! A nice kick of spice and love the cilantro. Four stars for that one, too.

So I leave you this week with some shots of my gorgeous lily, just blooming now for us. It opened up overnight, after a heavy storm. I've been watching the bees in my veggie garden, and hope to have some pics of vegetables very soon! Have a great week!

Things to Do

My husband used to laugh at my for making so many "To Do" lists. He even got me a PDA so that I could waste less paper with lists. I love my PDA. I still make lots of paper lists....This one is from LindyLoo....

What are five things on your to-do list for today?

1) Write some thank yous
2) Read a good book....for work (ha, ha! - no, really)
3) Do the cat litter - yuck.
4) Look for a new front door - no accidents, just want a new one.
5) Get a fresh pineapple from BJ's - sorry, but this is one food I won't give up just be a locavore!

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1) A banana
2) Almond butter on a spoon
3) my homemade trail mix
4) A Cliff Bar (organic and vegan!)
5) A banana (I've been addicted since babyhood)

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?

1) Give lots of money to environmental lobbyists - why not beat the oil companies at their own game?
2) Pay off all my debt and my family's debts
3) Start my own farm sanctuary
4) Travel the world with my husband
5) Give money to start after-school clubs and libraries for kids and teens in urban areas

What are five of your bad habits?

1) Correcting people's grammar (actually, just my husband's- sorry!)
2) Breaking things (I rush too much!)
3) Hurting myself (see number 2) - I hit my head on a bathroom stall door, sliced open my hand with a serrated knife, and dropped a heavy chair on my foot all in one week.
4) Interrupting people with what I think they're going to say
5) Being too hard on myself for all these bad habits!

What are five places where you have lived?

1) Massachusetts
2) Tennessee
3) Virginia
4) New Jersey
5) Paris and London and Sydney (ok, it was only for vacations, but doesn't it sound good?)

What are five jobs you’ve had?

1) firefighters' retail store (I know more about fires than I ever thought possible!)
2) camp counselor (the best, most underpaid job ever!)
3) bookstore/convenient store (I sold mostly cigarettes and newspapers)
4) waitress/ hostess (I sucked)
5) teacher and librarian! - yay!

Tag! You're it if you ...

1) Got a tattoo because you really wanted one, not just because it's now cool
2) Really do love tofu
3) Believe that animals and the earth do not belong to us
4) Believe that global warming is real, and if not, believe that we should just stop polluting - geez!
5) Love Moby or Kaki King

Just copy this survey into your blog if you meet any of the above criteria, and don't forget to link back to mine. Oh, and read the previous post for my real food adventures this week!

Lots of photos!

This weekend, we were away for a friend's wedding, so these shots are actually from the week before. Looking at them still makes me hungry!

First up, this is the Sausage, Pepper, Broccoli and Zucchini Pizza from Nava Atlas's new book, "Vegan Express." I was appeasing my husband with the idea of pizza, plus cleaning out my freezer a little by using up the vegan Tofurky kielbasa that had been there for....oh, a little while. This recipe was quick as a wink. We just roasted the veggies in the oven, along with some sundried tomatoes and olive oil. The recipe called for vegan cheese, so I went with the Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheddar brand, which is halfway decent. The veggies go on top of the pizza AFTER the pizza is half cooked, which means the veggies don't get overdone, the crust is perfect, but also (unfortunately) the veggies really don't stay on the crust and go rolling off at every bite. Despite these technical difficulties, the flavor was AMAZING. We used Bertolli's organic tomato sauce with basil and it really made the pizza perfect (we usually use this spaghetti sauce for pizzas, as it's so flavorful, not too sweet, and no high-fructose corn syrup!). At any rate, it was a success overall, and a good starter recipe for this cookbook (my newest acquisition). Three and a half stars for flavor, two and a half for portability.

We also made the last of the three wraps featured in the Candle Cafe Cookbook. This was the Mexican wrap (showed unrolled here), which featured a citrus-marinade for the tofu, quinoa, black beans, and an incredibly refreshing salad consisting of avocado, radish, tomato, cilantro, jalapeno and the rest of the marinade. Overall, I really liked this wrap. Not as greasy as the Middle Eastern Wraps from last time, but still not spicy enough for me. I would give this three stars, though, it was still really good!
Then, it was on to the, "You Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate" Cookies, from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. I made these for the co-workers at my new job at the library! That, by the way, is going AWESOME. I hate to ruin a good thing by jinxing myself (I've already knocked on wood), but I feel so, so very happy there. I leave work everyday smiling, have an hour lunch break during which I can GO ANYWHERE I WANT, and I get to READ at night for homework! I can already feel my incredibly low blood pressure drop even further. Also, as some of you remember my dizziness saga (not vertigo), well, can you believe it's gone??? I think it was probably the medicine, but honestly, I also believe that the minute I left the school for the last time and began my new job, a great weight lifted off my shoulders, and the pure joy I felt at my new beginning helped disperse the bad karma that was hanging around. Really amazing and really strange...Well, at any rate, the cookies were a HUGE hit - "You would never know they were vegan!" was the funniest compliment, but the best one was the fact that my husband ate almost an entire batch (I doubled it) by himself and went back for seconds right after his first! They were chewy, moist, and perfectly delectable! Good thing I made two batches :) Three and a half stars (only because I'm not a big chocolate cookie fan!).
To escape the temptations of cookies, I made a huge salad that night, with leftover quinoa and black beans. The dressing was ED&BV's Creamy Basil Dressing. It was incredible! So flavorful and definitely creamy. The cashews added yet more protein to an already protein-bursting meal (quinoa is a high-protein grain, don't forget). As most foods contain trace amounts of protein, this goes to show you CAN eat "rabbit food" and be strong and very full! Three stars for the dressing.

My friends like to tease me that I eat wheat grass (haven't tried that yet) but I really do love healthy foods. This is one of the best banana breads I have made in a long time, simply because it's not loaded with sugar like most quick breads of this kind! It also comes from Nava Atlas's Vegan Express. It was quick, easy and rose to a great height (some vegan quick breads can be quite flat!). But the taste? Moist, fruity, and not too sweet! The dark quality comes from the cocoa powder (no butterfat here!), and it made me feel like I was eating Boston Brown Bread! Yum. The whole wheat pastry flour, walnuts, and unsulfered apricots (so much better than the regular sulfur-orange kind!) made it even more healthy. Three and a half stars for this baby.
As I was away this weekend, noshing on wedding food (which wasn't too bad) and pina coladas (which were awesome!!), here are some photos for the week:

One flower that is blooming out of a row of bulbs. Not sure what it is, although I'm sure someone out there in blog-land could tell me....











Plus, the beans in my vegetable garden! They are bush beans, and I just recently staked them, because they apparently grow better beans when air can circulate. I saw a bee pollinating their flowers this afternoon - yay!







And here are my zucchini plants, yet to flower, alongside my arugula plants, just recently sprouting from seeds.











And last but not least, my crappy deck filled with lovely pots of various herbs, plants (including spinach in the long pot!), flowers, and veggies (also not yet producing). Can't wait for the meals yet to come from here!

Bring back the grill!

With my husband back in town, it was back to the grill for us. I made the Middle Eastern Wraps from the Candle Cafe Cookbook, to follow the Indian Wraps from last week. (Yes, I did the grilling, but he turned it on - I'm too afraid!) Here it is, ready to roll up and nosh....





Inside were these marinated, grilled tofu slices and sliced and grilled eggplant. I thought the marinade was a little too oily, so I left out some oil. I'm getting braver in the kitchen every day!...








The great thing about vegan grilling (or cooking, baking) is that there is little worry about contamination! The recipe called for putting a nice chickpea, cucumber, olive, onion and parsley mixture into the remaining marinade from the tofu. It was still a little too oily, but very refreshing!






Here is the final product, all rolled up with some millet (it called for couscous, but I was opting for a healthier, protein-powered grain). Very oily but still good! Could have been much spicier. I didn't like it as much as the Indian Wraps from last week. However, we're on to try the last of the wrap trio, with Mexican Wraps tomorrow night! Keep scrolling to see what I made for dessert....



OK, I never make dessert for myself and rarely for my husband, but it was my friend's birthday so I had a real excuse to bake this week. I've been dying to try the Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies from Veganimocon for a while. I had read some blah reviews, but I went for it anyway. Despite a typo (there was applesauce in the directions, but not in the ingredient list, so I left it out), they turned out... amazing! VERY fudgy and probably the best brownies I've ever made! The only unfortunate part? You could hardly tell they had a jar of blueberry preserves and a cup of (frozen) blueberries in them. Still, thy were damned good....
Here is a closeup to make you drool...













And here is a totally non-food related shot of nine years of crap... Nine years of books, posters, and other teacher materials.... now cluttering my garage....















and part of another room (the stool is my husband's - he's a high school teacher). I moved everything out over the course of a week, and yesterday was my last day as an employed teacher. What a strange feeling. Strange, but awesome, because when I go to work at the library (I'm already there part-time. I start full time on Monday), I am so incredibly happy. I want to hug the bookshelves (I kid you not) and I can't stop smiling as I drive home, even after a late night. It's where I was meant to be! And, as an added incentive, I have more people to share my veganism with (and to teach how to recycle!).