Thursday, February 28, 2008

Mock Egg-Salad Sandwiches



I needed an excuse to bake some bread.

These babies hit the spot.




I followed Lee's "Tofu egg salad" recipe from the PPK website but added a tablespoon more of country Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of chopped red onions, a tablespoon of nutritional yeast, and a handful of chopped Italian parsley for more flavor. They were delicious. Creamy and tangy with a good "egg-y" texture from the firm tofu. I was really impressed.

For the bread I followed the recipe for whole wheat bread straight off the Bob's Red Mill website. I used Bob's Organic Whole Wheat Flour and I was really pleased with the taste and crumb of these loaves. Not as sweet as my beloved honey whole wheat bread (King Arthur Recipe) but I think for savory sandwiches like this one, the honey sweetness wouldn't be right.

This bread tastes great. It tastes just the way whole-wheat sandwich bread should taste and even better slightly toasted.


Now what sandwich should I make next?

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Pantry Challenge - take 2!



Yay, a challenge! I want to see how long my family of 2 plus 1(large 90 pound beast) can last with just some essential groceries and the basics in the pantry. Last month we were able to cut our 500-600 dollar a month grocery habit in half due in large part to an unexpected snow storm that trapped our car in the garage. This month I want to bring that bill down to $250 or even $200 if I can.



Just doing my part to kill the U.S. economy.

What do you expect from the daughter of an immigrant?

So, 12 days in - $95 bucks down (including dog food) we have left:

In the Fridge:


2 heads of cabbage
condiments galore
3 carrots
4 celery stocks
2 pints of yogurt
1 pint of ricotta
half a red onion
12 day old bunch of parsley
yeast
1/2 bottle of white wine
beer

In the Freezer:


2 bags of frozen broccoli
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
vodka
1 bag of frozen spinach
1 box gardenburger breakfast sausages


In the Pantry:


1 bag of dried beans
2 small bags of lentils
1 can of black beans
rice
1 box of spaghetti
canned tomatoes
oils, spices, salt and sugar
little bit of whole wheat pastry flour
honey
can of sweetened condensed milk from like 2005?
half a box of dried cereal
tea and coffee
.5 oz of dark chocolate
vinegars


I figure we could last another week, maybe even two if we tried REALLY hard. I'm going to try and push us to get through Sunday. No soy milk makes breakfast pretty tough. We ate the last of our hot cereal this morning. I'd bake us something if we had enough flour left. Breakfast sausages don't fly for Jason.

He may not make it. He needs his cereal.

"Come on man! Don't wimp out on me now!"

Lentils for breakfast, anyone?

Saturday, February 16, 2008

As American as Mac and Cheese! (sans cheese)



Just in time for Presidents' Day.

I made Get Sconed's recipe for vegan Mac and Cheese but added a tablespoon of country dijon mustard for a bit more tang and used whole wheat penne. It has a great hearty flavor to it. I think this the sort of thing that I could make for "mac and cheese traditionalists" without worry. Creamy even though there's no cheese, no butter and no milk. Maybe not something to make for my Italian mother, though.

It was tasty in a burgers and fries sort of way.

Jason loved it last night. Loved it even better cold, for lunch.

Must be that nutritional yeast.

Now, I wonder if I can pull off a non-dairy version of Jason's childhood favorite, noodle casserole?

hmmm...

Friday, February 15, 2008

Valentine...


We've been vegetarians for just about 3 years now and this past year I've tried to add more vegan recipes to my repertoire. Cutting back on eggs and dairy while incorporating more vegan products (besides veggies, grains and legumes) into the mix.

It's challenging.

But fun - like a science experiment with your taste buds. Who would have thought something called nutritional yeast would finally make tofu taste good?
And vegan curries rock.

We happen to live in one of the best places in the world for vegans/vegetarians. Vegan blogs profess our big city neighbor to the north as "Vegan Mecca" for crying out loud. And we certainly have more hippies per capita than Stumptown!

Veganism aside, it's fun trying new things and even better when they turn out to be delicious.

Last night J took me out for the big V-day holiday. This is the one night a year that he gets to call the shots on dinner. It's always a surprise. I never know where or what or when.

Last night he made reservations for us at a new Vegan/French restaurant in town. A sweet little bistro style place downtown. The menu was full of some interesting vegan appetizers and entrees as well as a couple vegetarian (i.e. with cheese) options. Sticking to the spirit of the evening, we ordered all vegan:

sesame crusted mushrooms
mixed greens salad with walnuts
french lentil filo stack with cashew creme sauce
black bean empanadas


Well, the food was so-so. Appetizers good - entrees mediocre. But I don't think it is because the food was vegan. I think the flavors just didn't meld well. The chef was bold with his choices and I applaud that. But bold doesn't always mean good.

One thing I love about some of the better restaurants in town is that I often come home and try to make a few of the dishes myself - and I usually make them a bit healthier.

Not after last night.

We came home and raided the pantry for my chocolate chip banana muffins :)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Sweets for the sweet

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins







Nancy Silverton's Cake Donut(holes)





Banana chocolate-chip muffins

I made these for me. In my humble opinion, chocolate and banana is a match made in taste-bud heaven. I used a 3 oz dark chocolate - 80% cacao bar chopped up into little bite sized bits of goodness. I made this with whole wheat pastry flour, a cup of Nancy's non-fat yogurt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, canola oil, one egg and a cup of mashed bananas.

They are great warm (with the dark chocolate oozing out) or cold.


Classic buttermilk cake donut-holes

These little guys were for Jason. Fried little vittles topped with cinnamon and sugar - nuff said.

I picked up Nancy Silverton's: Pastries From the La Brea Bakery from the library this weekend.

Foolish, foolish girl.

How can I stick to my healthy salad and veggie plan with this book in the house? I swear everything in this book calls for at least 2-3 sticks of butter. Believe it or not her cake donut recipe was one of the healthiest recipes in the book. I adapted the recipe a bit and made only half the recipe and I made little holes instead of the proper donuts out of shear laziness. I also used yogurt in place of buttermilk.

They came out perfectly - light and crunchy with just a hint of nutmeg and that divine cinnamon smell throughout the house.

Best donut recipe I have made, yet.

Nancy Silverton made Julia Child cry in pleasure. You will too if you make these donuts.

"A Triumph!"

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Spinach Power Salad!




Okay, after a beer and chocolate post I thought it would be appropriate to post a healthy vitamin packed recipe. It isn't quite salad season, but who cares? It's the Chinese New Year and temple food (as Ms. Lawson likes to call it) is called for. Here goes:

Super Spinach Power Salad
serves one

Baby Spinach - 1-2 cups
Napa Cabbage - 1/2 cup cupped
Romaine - 1/2 cup chopped
Roma Tomato -1 chopped
Onion- 1/4 small red diced
Olive oil/brown rice vinegar (just a teaspoon or so of each) with salt and pepper to taste

Chickpea Fritters (Mark Bittman's falafel recipe again!- chickpeas, onion, garlic, parsley, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, lemon juice, baking powder)


Take that Dr. Oz!

I had this with a yummy soy-blueberry-banana smoothie. I'm on vitamin overload right now. Ready to do anything :)

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Chocolate Porter Cupcakes





These are an adaptation of an adaptation.


I recently came across everybody likes sandwiches blog on red ale and chocolate cake which is an adaptation of Nigella Lawson's Guinness Chocolate Cake.


I didn't have Guinness or red ale in the house - but I did have the happy medium: Porter! And not just any porter, but Oregon's own Deschutes Brewery's Black Butte Porter. I had to try it out. Tis the season for chocolate, as you know.


Cupcakes are a lot more fun than cake and bake more quickly - which I find is crucial with a sudden chocolate craving.

"Must have chocolate, now!"


Basically I stuck to the Nigella recipe just subbed the porter for the Guinness. I also skipped on the frosting since we didn't have any cream cheese in the house. But I will definitely try these again with the frosting. These little guys were delicious on their own, but they could use a bit of sweet, dense cream on top. Just like a good pint.

Yummy and moist with a great tangy twist.


Pair with a game of Scrabble and your best buddy ;)

Friday, February 1, 2008

Pantry Challenge


Have you come across these Pantry Challenges online? It sounds like an awesome idea to me; try to survive for as long as you can on just what you have left in the pantry.

I suppose it depends a lot on the size of your pantry. I've checked out a few pictures of these pantries from folks who have lasted a long time. These pantries are stocked with enough food to make it through a good 6 months! We're talking HUUUUUUUUGE. So it isn't exacly what I would call an equal opportunity challenge.

Our pantry is one top cabinet in our galley kitchen. Modest to say the least. But it does the job.


However, we inadvertently entered a pantry challenge of our own when the snow fell and completely blocked our driveway this last week. Being wimpy west-coasters we were not prepared for that much snow! Also, big J busted a window in the car that we had recently equipped with studded tires. So we were stuck.

We could walk to the main places we needed to get to during the week, but we couldn't get to a proper market and back with all the weekly groceries in the snow.(I can just picture us hiking up the hills in the slushy snow with our stolen grocery cart!)

So we were forced to make it through the week on just the leftovers in the pantry. I was pretty impressed with the outcome. Breakfast was interesting since we were out of cereal and milk and it turns out J isn't a fan of old-fashioned oats. But he toughed it out. We drank Tetley tea in the mornings since we were out of coffee by Monday and I had to soak a ton of dried beans for pantry soups and improvised supers.

But we did great!

I'll bet we could make it another week or so. But I need me some coffee!

I think we'll do a proper pantry challenge after we restock the anemic pantry with some of the basics like yeast and sugar, canned tomatoes and the aforementioned heavenly brew.


We'll be living it up pioneer-style!


Well, pioneers with in-door plumbing and heating, spendy dog food, and organic dark roast of course!