review: Vega Smoothie Infusions

Hello there.  In case you hadn't noticed...it's summertime (at least around here).  You know what summertime means for a lot of people?  Increased smoothie action.  Yeah that's right.  We all know that smoothies are pretty darned good for you, but there is nothing wrong with adding a little power punch to your morning meal.  In fact...it's an awesome idea.  

Recently, the lovely people at Sequel Naturals contacted me to try and review their Vega Smoothie Infusions.   

These infusions are the power punch I'm talking about here.  They are full of awesome stuff such as protein and fiber and Omega 3s.  They're organic and completely allergen free.  So, uh, you basically have no reason to not add them to your smoothies.  In fact, if I may quote, 'each serving of Vega Smoothie Infusion provides more protein than 2 large eggs, more fiber than 2 slices of whole wheat bread and more Omega 3 than 6 oz of wild salmon.'  Huh.  Take that, omnivores.

my superhero smoothie

Ok, I'll admit, I don't really drink that many smoothies.  It's not that I don't like them, because I do.  I just don't...think about them that often.  And the fruit I buy rarely lends itself to smoothies without being a pain in the butt, like peaches or cherries or pears or whatever.  Actually, that sounds like a delicious combination, now that I'm thinking of it.  Anyway, it's silly because smoothies are so easy to make and so easy to take with you on the go if you're in a hurry and are so awesomely good for you!  Thus, I'm back on the smoothie bandwagon.  The powder provided to me was easily blended up with this combo of banana, peach (no less a pain than usual, mind you), and blueberries and I could barely taste it...though it did have that taste of 'Hey, I'm eating something really healthy.  Cool.'  

But...um...you know what I like about a million thousand times more than smoothies?  

that's right.

Brownies.  So here is the totally rad thing about Vega Smoothie Infusions:  they can be used as a flour substitute for part of the flour in baked goods.  Uh huh.  You read that right.  You can effectively hide the healthy from yourself in a big old batch of brownies, if you so choose.  And if you take that path, I might just say that you are a very wise person.  Since that's what I did.  These brownies were downright amazing.  They weren't too sweet, were super chocolatey, had the best texture of a vegan brownie I've ever had (cakey, but also somehow fudgey...don't ask me how it happened)...  And never have I ever felt so good about eating 3 brownies in one sitting.  I mean...they're healthy.  It just felt right.  It wasn't just me, either.  I made these with my friend Becca and she proclaimed them sufficiently awesome, and I had to basically fend Michael off with a chair to get a freaking picture of them before they all magically disappeared.

And so, I have a recipe for you, in case you already have some of this wonder product.  Oh, and if you don't, I reccommend that you go buy some as soon as possible.  You'd be doing your health a serious favor.  I mean, athletes eat this stuff.  Like, good athletes that are vegan and not into selling you crap like regular athletes are.  Gatorade.  pfffffft.  

Super Brownies a la Jessica  (I adapted their original recipe)

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup coconut milk

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour, or a gluten free flour)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar (I used Florida Crystals)

1/2 cup Vega Smoothie Infusion

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegan semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8x8 inch glass baking dish.  Mix the wet ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix the dry in another, then add to wet ingredients in thirds, making sure to not overblend.  Fold in the chocolate chips, then pour mixture into the prepared baking dish, spreading evenly.  Bake for 35 minutes.  The toothpick won't come out totally clean, if you use that trick.  That's fine.  Allow to cool, if you can stand it, and then gobble them up.  These are lovely with a glass of soymilk, by the way.

All in all, I've been very pleased with my Vega Smoothie Infusion experience.  They make healthy food healthier and junk food healthier and me healthier, all in one go.  Visit their website for more product information!

featured on vegan.com!

Check it out, folks!  A photo of tofu crab cakes that I posted on my Flickr account was featured by Erik at Vegan.com.

it can't rain all the time...

But it certainly will if it's the fourth of July and you have plans for grilling.

cheating nature

Luckily, Michael and I have this lovely little electric grill (bequeathed to me by my parents) that works just fine in a pinch.  Which is good, because we had some major grill plans.

zucchini/summer squash/seitan kabobs

We'd gone to the farmers market that morning (absolutely no sign of rain at that point, mind you), and bought loads of veggies (see end of post for the haul).  I made a quick half batch of seitan and we kabobed (kabobbed?  can I make that a verb, please?) the hell outta some fresh squash and zucchini with it.  Michael is the official grillmaster because I have ladyhands and tend to get burned.  He probably gets burned too, but whines less about it afterwards.

beautiful spring onions

Hey, guess what?  Spring onions are totally rad when you grill them.  The only bad part is that we ate without knives and you can't really bite them at this point, so be ready to have an entire onion in your mouth for a bit.  Unless you care to use a knife, that is.  (wuss.) 

land of forgotten watermelon

We also grilled watermelon, but were too full afterwards to eat it.  FYI: fresh off the grill, it just tasted like hot watermelon.  

combofabulous

That all combined into this monster plate: steamed green beans with dill and lemon, new potato salad, kabobs, corn on the cob (just...corn), grilled onions, and a fresh white cucumber.  Thinking back, here's what's local from the market: beans, potatoes, squash, zucchini, corn, the onions, and the cucumber.  Not bad, eh?  It was all delicious and I just have to say that we do a pretty darned awesome holiday spread, even when it's just the two of us for dinner.

Oh, almost forgot!  Michael whipped up this lovely antipasta style salad for lunch earlier in the day.

my talented boy :)

Red and yellow tomatoes, yellow beets, white cucumber, green chili, artichokes, and basil with a nice balsamic vinaigrette drizzled on top.  All local except for the artichokes.

As for the market, here's what we got:

squash, zucchini, yellow beets, corn, jalepenos, hot green chilis, spring onions, rhubarb, red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green bell peppers, and white cucumbers.

All for $20 on the dot.  I felt a bit nervous about our abundance of tomatoes and peppers and such yesterday (plus was being a lazy bum on the sofa most of the day and didn't feel like cooking anything too involved)...so I asked my good friends of the PPK for suggestions on just what to do with all that veg.  The perfect reply came for...gazpacho!  Honestly, I've never really liked gazpacho (salsa soup, anyone?), but Michael loves it and I needed to use up stuff, so I made it. 

yellow gazpacho

And you know what?  It was awesome!  As a confirmed gazpacho hater, I must say that my gazpacho kicked ass.  So easy too...here's what I did:

Yellow Gazpacho That Is Better Than All Other Gazpachos

3 medium yellow tomatoes

1 medium red tomato

1/4 of a large white onion

1/2 green bell pepper

3 green chilis

1 small cucumber (mine was white)

3 cloves garlic

1/2 -1 tsp cumin (to taste, really)

about 1/2 cup water

2 tsp olive oil

3 or more Tbsp red wine vinegar

juice of 3 limes

salt to taste

Roughly chop your veggies (seed the peppers), put them in the blender with everything else, and blend it.  Yeah, that's it.  Refrigerate it if you want it cold (I did and it ruled).  For a nice chunky garnish (chunks are good, friends), dice up some more tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, cucumber, and a jalepeno, drizzle with lime juice, and add it to your soup.  Mine was mega spicy, but that's the way we do shit around here.

As for the rest of those chilis?  What to do, what to do....

this'll work for now.

i love sandwiches

Or sammiches, as I prefer to call them.  Before we enter into that discussion, however, you must first see our farmers market haul from the first offical market of the season.

green peppers, pattypan squash, spring onions, white cucumbers, red potatoes, green beans (blue lake?), beets, summer squash, and a ginormous cabbage

All for around $20.  Not bad.  There were fewer stalls than usual and no greens (so frustrating!), but...  what can you do?  Michael and I still had a fun time going around and talking to the growers.  We also brought my buddy Becca with us, and it was her first time ever, officially popping her Huntington Farmers Market cherry.  Hooray!  Michael also managed to get interviewed for the evening news (his closing line was 'Eat your veggies!'), but we don't have cable or local channels, so we didn't get to see it.  That boy just attracts cameras wherever he goes.  Sheesh.  No, I'm not jealous it wasn't me they interviewed.  Really.  I swear.  Ok, maybe a little bit.  

Anyway, on to the the real meat (so to speak) of this post.  (soy protein?  wheat meat?...we need a new saying here.)  I was scanning through pictures that haven't yet made it onto the blogeroonie, and I noticed that I have an inordinate amount of pictures of sammiches.  I guess, in a regular post, they sort of get overlooked in a 'oh, they're not really a meal that's creative or fun and no one cares about my sammich obsession' kind of way.  I mean, I think that, until I look and see a bunch of neglected sammich pictures building up and begging to be shown.  Poor sammiches.  It's your turn.

monster dinner sammie

I guess I could have color-corrected that one a bit more.  Oh well.  Anyway, this is something Michael and I do from time to time, and I'm sure I've talked about it before.  At least once.  But there are evenings when we look at eachother and ask, 'What do you want for dinner?' and one of us (ok, usually him) suggests, innocently, 'Giant sammich?'.  I say innocently because, this is one mothereffer to make.  Really.  It always, always involves a trip to the grocery store, which is why I generally veto the giant sammich, even though I love it.  You see, I never buy chickn strips anymore, so there's that.  And, yeah, it has to have them.  And it's rare that we also have: roasted red peppers, artichokes, black olives, avocado, basil, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, zucchini (those last two are optional, but phenomenal), some type of Italian dressing, and a huge loaf of ciabatta bread all at once.  But seriously...once all those things go on there together...  you're in heaven.  You see, you assemble the sammich and then wrap the whole thing tightly in plastic wrap and set a heavy book on top and leave it for like a half hour so that all the flavors combine and get extra awesome.  And then you eat it.  Like, all of it.  We never have leftover giant sammich.  So anyway, that's one sammich obsession.

rad lunch sammich

Next up is the lunch sammich.  Lunch sammiches are, generally, lighter.  The bread isn't quite as serious.  There's probably some fake lunch meat on there.  What makes this one particularly awesome is the lunch meat that Michael's mom got from Indiana that's like cranberry and tofurkey or something...I can't remember, but it's Thanksgiving themed.  Oh, and this was right after I learned that I love raw squash and zucchini (they are sauteed on the giant sammich, by the way), so this one has thin slices of both of those.  Ok, honestly?  The real reason I eat sammiches most of the time is to have a vehicle for mustard.  I had some fancypants mustard that I put on this one.  And you probably know about my mustard obsession.  Sometimes, I put 2 different types of mustard on one sammich.  Just to see what will happen.  Also, for those of you who love avocado, but don't know how to eat it on a sammich without it slipping out all over the place, do this:  mush it up on the top piece of bread.  Use a fork.  That way, it's more like a spread.  

the emergency sammich

Chances are, you have the makings of a sammich in your fridge in case of emergency.  If not, the components of a sammich are not that expensive.  This particular sammich came about the other night when our city had a water main break and there was no water for like 5 hours.  I know you don't REALLY need water to make a decent meal, but...  well...  you sort of do.  But you know what you don't need water to make?  That's right.  A sammich.  We happened to have some leftover lunch meatses and fake cheese (from the seitan parmesan night) and bread and lettuce and avocado, so when I learned the water was out, I just walked to the corner market, purchased 2 tomatoes, 2 gallons of drinking water, and a case of beer, and I was set for the night!  These we fried old school style in the cast iron skillet (just the cheeze and meats inside, then added the toppings after the bread was nice and black).  Once we ran out of lunch meat, I made a cheeze and tomato sammich and Michael had a PB&J (another classic, of course).  We did have this with a huge salad, in order to get some nutrition out of the meal.  I also, for the record, like how this sammich looks like a face with blueberry eye-stalks.  

the smooshed sammich

I really like paninis.  I like paninis so much that I will put just about any type of sammich in the Foreman grill and squash the hell out of it.  There is just something about a seriously compact sammich that was once huge and hard to put in your mouth.  Especially if the bread is big, like this bread was.  Plus, they're crispy and pretty and warm and lovely.  I remember this sammich in particular because we made them for a late afternoon lunch in between episodes of Jekyll (awesome show for the first few episodes, then it gets stupid and sucks).  Sammiches are good to eat while you watch tv or movies because you don't have to look at them to make sure you're getting all the good bits in your mouth at once.  That's the beauty of the sammich.  All the good bits are there, all the time.  I mean, if you make it right.  

In conclusion, you do not need to work at Subway to be a sandwich artist.  It's better to be a sammich artist in your own home with better ingredients and you don't have to wear gloves and your kitchen probably doesn't smell like pizza subs as soon as you walk in.  

The end.

totally rad and surprisingly easy dinner

And sort of healthy.  

seitan parmesan

Ok, super easy components:

1. Basic seitan recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance with the following modifications: Instead of 1/2 cup soy sauce, use 1/2 cup of water; add a tsp of onion powder and a crapload of poultry seasoning and one golden seasoning packet; steam 40 minutes (made into cutlets and wrapped in foil) instead of simmer.

2. Bread those using breadcrumbs and rosemary mixed together (some old bread + rosemary whirred around in the food processor).  For the wet part, we did soymilk with about a Tbsp of ground flax mixed in.

3. Spray a baking sheet, put them on, bake at 350F for about 25 minutes.  Then your seitan is all done.

4. Make teeny skinny strips of zucchini and summer squash and boil them for like 2 minutes, then drain.  That's your pasta. 

5. Pile up veggie-noodles, add your favorite pasta sauce, top with seitan and some fake cheese.  We made the buffalo mosterella cheese from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook (which was also totally easy and delicious and cheap).

Also, we reconstituted some dried morel mushrooms and cooked them up in some Earth Balance.  They were rad on the side.  Anyway, it's a healthier alternative what with baking the seitan and using veggies as the noodles.  Not too heavy for your tired and hot summer belly.  And fun to make!  And easy!  You are doing yourself a serious disservice if you don't try this.  I mean it.

eat good food all year long

Time for more summertime awesomeness easy peasy lazy hot and sweaty meals!  First up is a radioactive picture of some lovely zucchini provencal that I made with my friend Becca.  We also baked some tofu with bbq sauce and she sauteed red cabbage in raspberry vinegar with apples (amazing).

lovely layers

This was kind of like a lasagna without noodles.  And it ruled.  You can find the initial recipe here, but we used 3 zucchini, 3 tomatoes, and added tons of minced garlic to each layer.  Even better that way.  Anyway, it's something to do with the mountains of zucchini that I'm sure you'll have this summer.  It's always good to have a nice zucchini recipe.

who needs color when you can have tots and corn and breaded things?

Ha.  Seriously though, these were the tofu fish sticks from Vegan Dad's blog, and they were fabulous.  A bit messy to prepare, but worth it.  Nice and crunchy with a soft interior.  I had no idea you could get things this crunchy by just baking them.  We made the tartar sauce as well, but I hated it because I am, as you might remember, currently hating vegan mayo.  Blegh.  Anywho, we channelled our inner children and had them with tots and corn on the cob.  That's how we roll.

we eat healthy crap too, ok?

This kick-ass salad was assembled by me.  I made this salad specifically to go with this wonderful lime thyme dressing from VegWeb.  You know, I always used to think my mom was nuts for putting strawberries in salads.  Not so, friends.  Paired with a nicely salty salad dressings, strawberries in salads are the bomb.  Anyway, after I made the dressing, I marinated some tempeh in about 1/4 of it, and then pan fried it to get it nice and browned.  Genius, let me tell you.

how could anything this green be bad?

Everyone:  make this dressing.  I didn't think it tasted overly thyme-y, but maybe I didn't add enough.  At any rate, I only added 2 Tbsp of the sugar, which was way too much for me, so I reccommend only adding 1 Tbsp and working up from there.  I also added way more salt and lime and a little red wine vinegar to make it more tart.  We ate the leftovers of this dressing for days on salads.  Fabulous.

smoked tofu is awesome.

Ok, I'd never had smoked tofu.  We were in Indiana this past weekend to see Michael's family, and I saw this in a health food store and just had to get it.  Amazing.  It's...creamy.  Like cheese.  It tastes more like cheese than any vegan cheese I've ever had.  Weird, but very cool.  It's rich though...I probably didn't need to eat all that, but what the hell.  Served up cold (straight out of the package) with some roasted asparagus and curried couscous (recipe from the idiot cookbook).  I cut my tofu up into little bits and mixed it with the couscous and it ruled.  I so wish we could get this stuff around here...but it's like 5 bucks a package, so it's definitely a luxury item for us.

i made muffins!

Another VegWeb recipe.  I kind of forgot that I had a bajillion recipes saved on there and revisited them this past week a bunch, obviously.  These gems are orange poppyseed muffins.  And they were glorious.  Though not really orange-y.  I even added the zest of a big orange along with the orange juice (fresh squeezed).  Next time, I will add twice that much zest.  Also, here's a perk: the only fat they have in them is from the flax seeds.  They're not even gross or dense because of it.  Fluffy.  Moist.  Almost cupcake-like.  Oh, another bonus: they are super cute on top!  I don't know how that happened, but I definitely am a fan. 

israeli couscous is not for everyone

By 'everyone', I definitely do not include myself.  Because I loved it.  Michael, not so much.  But that's ok.  I ate the crap out of this.  For it, I roasted 2 tomatoes that I diced beforehand with some sliced green olives, then added that to the prepared couscous.  We found this for $1.50 a bag at Big Lots, which makes me happy.  It was a nice lunch, anyway.  For me.

everything in the kitchen pasta, plus portobellos

This weekend at Michael's parents' house, we cooked dinner the first night.  Basically, anything I found in the kitchen, I put in the pasta.  That includes asparagus, green olives, spinach, onions, scallions, roasted red peppers, and artichokes.  It was very vegetable-y and yummy.  Michael grilled the mushrooms, and even though I claim to hate portobellos, these were delicious.  I was also kind of drunk though, so I might blame that.

summertime classic

Because of my embargo on vegan mayo, I have to be creative when it comes to pasta salad now.  As some of you might remember, I am enthusiastically obsessed with the flavor combination of mint and dill.  This pasta salad was the perfect vehicle for it.  Those two herbs, plus peas, scallions, and red cabbage, then a generous dousing of olive oil and red wine vinegar.  It was heavenly.

the best dips are the accidental ones

Right?  Well, maybe.  Anyway, I was starving and wanted hummus, but didn't have any chickpeas.  Or lemons.  Thus, curried white bean dip was born.  I made it in about 2 minutes and it was absolutely addictive.  I even have a recipe.

Curried Bean Dip

1 15 oz can butter beans, drained (or other white bean.  or any bean, really.)

2 large cloves of garlic

1/4-1/2 15 oz can coconut milk

1 Tbsp chili garlic sauce

1 Tbsp red curry powder

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp dried dill

1 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp salt

Throw the beans and garlic in a food processor and process until smooth(ish).  Add spices (except salt) and 1/4 can of coconut milk, and continue to process, adding more coconut milk until it gets to the consistency you like.  Add the salt, to taste.  It's spicy, so if you're a wimp, leave out the chili garlic sauce or use yellow curry powder.  Wuss.

recently, we've been stealing herbs

Yeah, we found this apartment building down the block that has rosemary, mint, oregano, and lemon verbena growing in the yard.  No one's ever around.  What?  Anyway, it's fun to add fresh, free herbs to food.  For example, here we added mint and dried dill to those beans.  And roasted the potatoes with rosemary.

the basil is ours

Yeah, too bad there's nowhere with free basil, huh?  Oh well, we have some growing in our kitchen (and two other plants maturing on the porch).  Basil and tomatoes are a classic summertime combination, but add some avocado to that mix and...  Oh my.  It's pretty, too.

Hope you're all still enjoying your summer!  Except for those of you who are now having winter.  Disregard.  Remember, even though it's a million degrees out and you're hot and sweaty and tired, that's no excuse to not eat decent food.  Though, admittedly, I do use that excuse from time to time.  Nobody's perfect.

contest winner!

I'm out of town, so a short winner post is in order for my contest ending yesterday. Anna wins! Anna, please contact me so (my email is linked in my profile) with your address so that I can contact the people from Food, Inc., and get you your books! Congratulations!