Brunch served by…the soup n@zi?

Yep. I call myself the soup nazi. Because I love soup. And if you eat meat at a meal when I make soup then…NO SOUP FOR YOU! But you’re all good and deserve to try this recipe from Happy Herbivore for Red Lentil Curry Soup. It’s really delish. Just spicy enough…they’re just so perfectly balanced, and the soup itself is nice and creamy. And simple. And FAT FREAKING FREE! Could it be much better? I think not. Now go and make this soup. Now. So says the soup nazi.

Now yesterday I promised a picture and recipe for the strawberry shortcake. And THANKFULLY mum went to the supermarket and picked up some more berries, so here’s the food porn to go with the recipe!

And the recipe:

• 1 recipe Basic Baking Powder Biscuits
• 1 pint of strawberries
• 1/2 cup (more or less) sugar

Make your biscuits. In the meantime, either just place your strawberries in a bowl with the sugar to release the juices, or do the whole saucepan thing so create a juicy-saucy constancy thingy (I’m just so descriptive…)

And what else is the soup nazi serving for brunch? Why, none other than a vegan version of the old brunch favourite eggs over asparagus! Now commence drooling:

Ingredients to serve one

• 4 oz asparagus, steamed (weigh then steam)

Scrambled Tofu

• 1/4 block of firm tofu, pressed
• a few pinches/shakes of: garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, turmeric, curry powder
• 1 tsp nooch

Mustard Sauce

• 1-2 tbs yellow or dijon mustard
• 1.5 tsp nooch
• garlic and onion powder, to taste
• a pinch of salt
• water to thin

Directions:

Prepare your sauce (just stir together and set aside). Steam your asparagus. In a small skillet (nonstick or cast iron), crumble your tofu over medium heat. Let it brown a little. Add your spices (not the nooch yet) and maybe a little water if it looks too dry. Lower heat to low and add your nooch. Scramble til everything is nice and combined and not all grain-y like. Remove from heat.

To Assemble:

Place your steamed asparagus on a plate. Top with your scrambled tofu and then top that with your mustard sauce. Eat!! It’s super yum.

Happy Memorial Day (aka, grillin’ time)

As you can tell, I posted variations for the carb conscious and the carb lovers. Choose what you wish. It’s delicious any old way. 🙂

Makin’ Biscuits Like it’s Nobody’s Business (Plus other stuff)

ohmygodifrigginlovecolinfirth!!!

Now that I got that off my chest…let’s talk about biscuits then, shall we? Because I know that’s what you came here for. The carbs. You like them. You all do. We all do. Universally known fact that makes people like be babble. So yeah. I decided to whip some up this afternoon because my mum bought some loverly, luscious, and LARGE (I emphasize large) strawberries (seriously, some of them were the size of small apples…) so she could make strawberry shortcakes (tomorrow’s recipe…). But here’s my basic recipe, that I bet is pretty much the same as the rest of the world’s:

Basic Baking Powder Biscuits

Yields 12 or so

Ingredients:

• 2C A.P. flower
• 5 tsps baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 5 tbs vegan margarine (I use Smart Balance Light…yes, it’s vegan)
• 2/3 C non-dairy milk
• extra flour for dusting

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 450F.

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in the margarine with your fingers (crumble as you would a streusel topping…make sure you’re able to form some pea-sized lumps)…or with a pastry cutter/knife if you feel like cheating. Add the milk and mix together with a fork until a dough forms. With floured hands on a floured surface, pat your dough lightly into a rollable shape. Roll out to your desired thinness (I like about 1/8-1/4″ for a nice sized biscuit). Cut with a biscuit cutter, place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, until golden and delicious.

Very yummy. Oh and by the way…I finally got around to making the Magical Coconut Cookie Bars from VCIYCJ (since I finally found vegan graham crackers…). My mum’s crazy about them. So, so good. Make them at night, though. That gives you time to chill them without being tempted to eat one.

I’m thinking of making these, plus other cookies for a bake sale that I’m going to be hosting next weekend to raise money for farm sanctuary. Have any other ideas of baked goods? I’m thinking cookies (most likely chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodles, GF cookies, sugar-free cookies, oatmeal cookies…), maybe some brownies, muffins, cupcakes…I’ll keep you all updated on this…

In the meantime, what are all of you Americans doing for memorial day tomorrow? Grilling? BBQ-ing? Not knowing there’s a difference between grilling and barbecuing? Wondering were on earth the word barbecue came from? All of the above? So anyways, I decided to whip up some chorizo sausages tomorrow to grill up…from VB. They’re so good. I used up the rest of my black beans from my bean dish the other day. I sure do like making seitan. I need a “praise seitan” shirt. Vegan humour is so much fun…

In the meantime, I came up with a little snacky recipe since it got late tonight, fast, and I realized that I had not eaten anything yet. I bring you…

Italian Asparagus:

Serves one

• 4 oz trimmed asparagus
• 2 tbs ketchup or marinara sauce
• .5 oz vegan mozzarella cheese, shredded
• salt
• garlic powder

Simply steam your asparagus with your preferred method, top with the tomato-y topping of choice and shredded cheese and salt and spices. Now depending on time and patience, either microwave for a minute or so, or pop under your broiler. Eat. Now. Top with vegan parm or nooch if you want.

That’s all for today. Do tell though, what are you all grilling up tomorrow?

(updated!) Survey (I’m bored. Sorry.)_

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
Unsweetened Vanilla or Plain Almond Breeze.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Pizza rolls, mediterranian style bakes lima beans, vegan cream puffs.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Garlic and a little bit of nooch sometimes.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
My first attept at making the impossible vegan pumpkin pie from FFVK. The recipe turned out right, but I kind of stuck a wooden spoon in a running blender and bits of wood shards were in my pie. Oops. Embarassing.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Probably sauerkraut. Or gherkin pickles. The little ones are so cute.

6. How do you organize your recipes?
I don’t. 🙂

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Trash for now. I’d like to compost…

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods… what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Tofu, asparagus, butternut squash.
9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Chocolate chip cookies. Or mac and cheese.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

It’s soy delicious fruit sweetened vanilla ice cream.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
My food scale. Does that count? But I am partial to my cafe frappe machine…which is useful in no way for cooking but I loves it.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Any and all. Except for fennel. And anise.

13. cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

My great-aunt gave me a Betty Crocker cookbook when I was really little. My oldest vegan cookbook is my PETA’s Vegan College Cookbook.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Blackberry.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Any sort of dessert. Or classic spinach lasagne from HIAV. The tofu ricotta blows me away.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tofu.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Depends on my mood. I’ve been on a dinner kick lately.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Lots of cereals, recipe boxes, oatmeal…lunchboxes…junk.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Broccoli, my sister’s french fries (ew),  It’s Soy Delicious FS Vanilla ice cream.

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Earth Balance. Forgot that today…

21. Favorite grocery store?

Wegmans or Feel Rite Fresh Market.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

Coconut cake, cream puffs, my granny’s dinner rolls and my mum’s “pinwheel” cookies.

23. Food blog you read the most. Or maybe the top 3?
Fat Free Vegan, Vegan Dad, Happy Herbivore. And the PPK.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Lindt’s 90% Cacao dark chocolate.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
I’ve been trying to be frugal lately so probably brown rice syrup.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
Yeast.

After yet another long hiatus, I return…with a recipe!

Hey guys, sorry it took me such a long time to post again. I was in an uncomfortable spot mentally with food. I couldn’t get myself to post anything…blogging was making me feel obligated to cook and bake when I didn’t want to, and being around food was making me feel rather uncomfortable. Fear not, that feeling has gone far, far away! I am doing my better with eating and whatnot and have been enjoying cooking more and more. For any of you out there like me who are afraid to eat, this is what worked for me: cook. Just do it. And cook what you like. Although you may not eat what you cook immediately, eventually you will feel like you’re missing out on NOT eating it and will try a little bit. And enjoy it. Seriously. That’s how I am at least (I came to that little realization after making the carrot bisque from VWAV). So enough of that…I obviously cannot list EVERYTHING that I’ve made within the past months, muchless days or weeks…but I can at least share the pics of the meal that I made for my mum’s b-day two days ago:

Black Beans with Chipotle with Adobo Sauce and Broccoli Polenta from Veganomicon

This was amazing (yes folks, I ate it! And man do I love spicy food.). I made everything as directed, except with the polenta, I ended up making kale polenta because I found that my broccoli went all moldy on me (sob).

Kale Polenta

Lower Fat Deep Chocolate Bundt Cake from Veganomicon

 And here’s the cake! Man was this rich and moist. One of the better vegan cakes that I have made. And I didn’t even have to make it low fat myself!! Woo hoo! I also used the Quick Melty Ganache from Vegan Cupcakes. Yum.

Ahh, I may as well share a fun vegan story. There once was a nasty meat eating man who killed squirrels (not kidding). He hated vegan food. One day, his rad-tastic vegan daughter made dinner for her family. That dinner included the amazing sausages (chorizo to be exact…) from VB. He at it, never knew it was vegan, and went on to be as miserable as ever. Minus the fact that he loved the dinner. He wasn’t miserable then…just to clear it up. So, the recipe I made was from Vegan Dad’s blog…the Penne with Seitan Sausage in Tomato Sauce. It was really good. I may just make that sauce recipe a regular for me…and the seitan sausage. I’ve been on a seitan making kick lately, honestly. I’m not so scared of it anymore. I’ve made those, the chicken seitan from LDV…and a bunch more. Next I’m gonna try my hand at seitan o’ greatness. I do prefer the steaming method to boiling.

And now the recipe that I promised!  This is a recipe for a totally liberal spicy (or not…) tofu and/or veggie wrap. I mean liberal. This wrap as as liberal as a tea party member is conservative and freaky:

The Liberal Wrap

Serves: 1

• 1 large cabbage leaf (or any other veggie leaf. Or a tortilla. Or a flatbread. Or a savoury crepe. Whatev)
• 1/2 C pressed firm tofu, cubed (or however many steamed veggies you want. Or both)
• Spices to taste: I recommmend garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayanne pepper, salt, but use whatever you want
• Hot sauce to your liking (added to the pan of tofu/veggies and spices)
• 1/8 C ketchup, plus hot sauce to taste: Or if you don’t want it spicy at all, use a cheese sauce, or thai peanut sauce, or bbq sauce…anything to your liking. Just arrange your spice choices accordingly.

Mix up your sauce of choice.

In a nicely sized skillet over medium heat, saute your tofu (if using veggies, add about 1/2-3/4 C water to steam). Allow to brown (or until water evaporates.). Add spices, and then hot sauce (if using). Remove from heat and add veggies or tofu to your sauce and toss to coat. Place this all in your leaf of choice and enjoy!

Told you it was liberal. It’s more of a basic template than a recipe…but who cares. It’s good.

Snow sucks.

Well, the storm they’ve been talking about for like three days FINALLY hit. Yeah. The day I wanted to go grocery shopping. So I got up at 6 am to work out thinking that I was going to be leaving early before the mobs of people appear at the grocery…but noooo. The weather was awful. Mum ended up going and I cleaned house most of the day. Which was nice. I mean…she left at like 9 am and  got back at 3 pm. She had originally expected to get back at 11 am. So I’m glad I didn’t go. My exercise schedule would have been totally thrown off  (I know, I know…I’m being obsessive about my exercise…bad bad me…). But I got a lot done. My room’s clean, I have a nice little office space to do my business, and EVERYTHING is organized. For once. So cool. Plus I got stuff prepped for dinner. Since it was so crappy and cold out we had leftover pizza, salad, steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots), and the Butternut Squash Tomato soup from How It All Vegan! I subbed crushed tomatoes for diced (mainly because that’s apparently all the store had, plus diced tomatoes gross me out a little bit…). It was delish. And really warming. Nothing better than ginger and spices on a crappy cold day 🙂

I was going to whip up a batch of muffins tonight, but NO. My brilliant father managed to get BOTH of our family’s cars stuck in 4 feet of snow in our freshly plowed driveway, so he had to get his retarded drunk brother and his equally stupid, drunk neighbour to tow him out of the driveway. Brilliant I tell you. ANYWAYS. They had to sit in the kitchen drinking and acting like a-holes DURING MY BAKING TIME. Which made me so mad. So so mad. I’ll have to do that tomorrow. Oh, exciting news. My little sister (who usually hates veggies) has decided she likes cauliflower and is starting to like broccoli! She likes broccoli most when dipped in MY butternut squash “cheese” sauce! I’m so glad that’s a keeper 😀 Want the recipe? Well here you go:

Butternut “Cheese” Sauce

Yields: 1 Cup

• 1/2 Cup non-dairy milk
• 1/2 Cup butternut squash puree
• 1/4 Cup shredded vegan cheese (1 oz)

In a saucepan (small) over medium heat, whisk together until smooth and thickened.

Easy, huh? Enjoy all!

More fun with vegan pizza…and cookies.

Like I said yesterday, my little sister’s friend came over this afternoon after school. They were doing something weird like making Justin Beiber t-shirts whilst watching Hannah Montana movies *gags* Oh well. I can’t help what they like…yeah so on a side note before I talk about food, who in the WNY region heard about this “big storm” we were supposedly getting? Yeah, so what happened to that? The weather was perfectly fine. Don’t you all just LOVE how meteorologists overreact about everything! So anyways…onto the food part. I felt like being nice, so I made dinner for the lil’ munchkins. Pizza seemed safe. I decided to use the yeast free dough recipe from La Dolce Vegan with 1/2 Cup of Paul Newman Marinara sauce, four slices of vegan mozzarella slices (galaxy brand…), some mushrooms and kale. The kids loved it 🙂 they said the crust was delicious. PLUS I made the chocolate chip cookies from La Dolce Vegan, and they loved them too. Haha…they cookies with tofu in them. I’m so sneaky. Well, everyone enjoyed the meal (which also consisted of steamed veggies…) except for my dad. I think he’s not eating my vegan food just to spite me (hurray for arguments…). He’s such a jerk. Anyways. Here’s a nice pic of da pizza pie 😀

and the cookies…

So, tomorrow is a shopping day. Got to get some nice fresh produce. Maybe some butternut squash so I can make a nice soup or roasted veggies. I’m in the mood for fresh. So that’s what’s up early tomorrow. Hopefully my copy of Vegan A Go Go will come tomorrow…I ordered it two days ago on ebay…and I CAN’T WAIT MUCH LONGER. Then I have the rest of the day to do whatever. I love days like that 🙂

It’s George Harrison’s birthday!

Yes, I celebrate the birthday of deceased Beatles. I’m lame, I know. But I’m obsessed so…I don’t care what you think. Haha. *ahem* Anywho. I decided to honour the fantastic George with a CAKE! I used the Vanilla Cake recipe from How It All Vegan! and the Chocolate Mint Frosting from The Garden of Vegan. Except I didn’t have any mint extract so I just used vanilla. And it was gooood. And vegan. Like George. 🙂

I was far too lazy to make dinner tonight. Making that up tomorrow, though. My little sister’s friend is coming over for the afternoon after school *yippie…* so I’m making them vegan pizza and garlic bread for dinner. Bwahaha. And vegan chocolate chip cookies. With tofu. I’m just so devious XD.

Now for some important news. I’ve finally found a local vegan group called the Buffalo Vegetarian Society. Any Buffalo blog readers out there? You should join up. Anyways, there’s going to be a potluck March 13th which I’m super excited about. Any suggestions of what I should bring? I’ve never done a potluck before…I’m thinking a nice casserole or a crock-pot of soup or something of the like. Share some recipes, while you’re at it if you have any! Now I’m watching re-runs of Project Runway so…bye loves ❤

Can butternut squash taste like cheese? Why yes it can…

Guess what? I finally came up with a recipe! MYSELF! Woo! Not some pitiful veganized thing or anything like that…a legit recipe! Anyways. It’s a casserole. A squash casserole. And it’s good. I had it with supper tonight. It gave me another excuse to use my new casserole dish :). My mum and I loved it. My dad on the other hand who is a total cauliflower hater didn’t even try it. Big baby meat head…*scoff* So anyways, here’s the recipe…

Butternut “Cheese” Casserole – serves 4 (1 Cup per serving)

• 2 Cups Butternut Squash, Cubed
• 2 Cups Cauliflower, Chopped
• 1/2 Cup “Milk”
• 1/2 Cup Butternut Squash Puree
• 4 oz (1/2 Cup) of your favourite vegan “cheese” grated

• 1 Casserole Dish
• 2 9×13 Dishes
• Patience!

First you have to prep your squash and cauliflower.

Preheat your oven to 375 F. Now peel and cube your squash and place in a sprayed 9×13 baking dish. Cut your cauliflower into flowerets and stems (or just use frozen) and place in another 9×13. Roast in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (squash). For the cauliflower, especially if using frozen, just keep it in the oven until tender. When done, take two cups of squash and two cups of cauliflower and toss in a casserole dish and set aside.

While your veggies are roasting, start your sauce. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together your “milk” and butternut squash puree until smooth. Bring up to a simmer. When simmering, stir in half of your shredded “cheese” until melted in. Simmer until thickened to your liking.  (makes one cup of sauce)

Mix together  your sauce and veggies in your dish and top with the rest of your “cheese.” Reduce the heat of your oven to 350F and bake for 30 minutes, or until the “cheese” starts to bubble. Actually, I baked mine for 20 minutes and then popped it under the broiler until brown-ish, bubble-y and a little bit crisp.

So yeah. Delish.

The other night I was a lazy little vegan. I made a vegan pizza with store-boughten dough (tee hee…). But it was good. Just a pillsbury thin crust with 1/2 cup of Paul Newman Marinara sauce, 6 slices of vegan mozzarella cheese, a handful of sliced mushrooms, and some kale. Yumm…I was so lazy. Oh well. We all have those days, right?

All in all, I think that I’ve been having a pretty good week. I’ve been able to eat without freaking out too much. I haven’t been exercising myself to death. I’m slightly less anxious about life. I’ve been able to get out of the house AAAAND! The swelling in my feet has been going down! Finally. That was starting to freak me out. Anyways, back to my anxiety. I’m really considering taking up some yoga classes. Sounds like a good way to focus my energy, ya know? 🙂 Pretty excited…

Cookbook no-go, plus vegan junk food! What a combo!

So guys, I got out again. I went to the bookstore looking for Vegan a GoGo thinking that it would actually be in stock. But guess what? It wasn’t. Has anyone else ever noticed how unorganized Barnes and Nobel is? Or is it just the one I go to…oh well. I’m ordering it online now. *laughs* I guess it was an okay day. I had only one break-down thinking that I couldn’t eat. Got over that…thankfully. But still, it was pretty bad. Like you want to hear that though, right? Right. Onto the vegan junk food part! Woot! Has anyone ever heard of the loverly Canadian dish called poutine? Well basically it’s french fries drenched in gravy and cheese curds. My first experiance with it was once in Ontario on my way home from Stratford at a rest stop…(it was Wendy’s…) I had a bite of my friend’s (note- this was when I wasn’t a vegan. It was years ago). So for some reason this idea popped into my head the other day…vegan poutine! It’s super simple. Here’s what I did:

Vegan Poutine:

• 4-5 medium potatoes, cut like french fries
• salt (to taste)
• garlic powder (optional…or any preferred seasonings.)
• 1/2 cup vegan gravy (I used the recipe from Happy Herbivore, but use your favourite)
• 3 oz vegan mozerella/monterey jack cheese, cubed

Pre-heat your oven to 400F. Slice your potatoes and lay out on a greased cookie sheet. Season to your liking. Bake your fries for 30 minutes, stirring once half way through. When done, move your fries to a casserole dish and set aside. Now prepare your gravy. Take 1/2 cup of the gravy and pour over the fries. Next cube your cheese and sprinkle evenly over your fries and gravy (it doesn’t have to be totally covered). Set your oven to broil, and pop your casserole dish under the broiler until your cheese starts to melt and bubble a little. There should should still be cubes, but I suppose you could have your cheese as melty as you want it. Now serve!

I didn’t have any of this tonight (this was when I was having a bit of a mental break-down…) But everyone in my family liked it, and said that they would request it again! So it’s a keeper. 🙂 Plus I had an excuse to use my new casserole dish! hahaha….

Oh, and I forgot. I had more good news yesterday that I forgot to tell you all…I forgot to say that I was just accepted into my first college that I;m thinking of transferring to next semester! Woo! No more community college!!! Now I’m just waiting to hear from FIT, but that won’t be until March when they send out acceptance letters. I shall keep you posted on that.

Just a question for you all, especially very active people…have your feet ever swollen up? Like really bad? If so why, for how long, and how do you stop the swelling? Because for the past week my feet have been terribly swollen and I don’t know why…helps?