Monday, September 29, 2008

saturday pasta, sunday beer and football chili

Saturday night I made the Lemon Cashew Basil Pesto (from ED&BV) on whole wheat pasta. I added a handful of nutritional yeast to the pesto and a handful of cherry tomatoes when I mixed it all together. Add some garlicy toast, and you are good to go!
oooh green gooodness

The pesto was more mellow and smooth than a pesto with pine nuts. I highly reccommend!

Sunday I made chili. Chili is a fall must. As you saw from the last post, we now have an abundance of peppers. A lot of them went into this chili, as you can see:
pepper and onion goodness

After 4 cans of beans and a million tomatoes, it ended up looking irresistably yumtastic.
ooooooh chili. so much chili.

it just keeps getting better.

Michael suggested we make some cornbread, and I realized we had everything for it on hand, so we whipped up the Skillet Cornbread from Veganomicon. It was perfect. Succulent, sweet, moist...corny. Cornbread is something I've missed since becoming vegan. Not that I ate it that much before being vegan, but you know every once in awhile you want something from your omni childhood and are not sure how it will turn out veganized... Well cornbread works just frigging fine.
thank you family, for my cast iron skillet birthday present

We served it up with some fresh avocado. So. Good.
decadent deliciousness

Finally, it all added up to a perfect football and beer day. The combination of cornbread, chili, and avocado was literally to die for. I would die to eat this. Maybe. Anyway, our two omni buddies, Andrew and Duff, loved it too. And my aspiring vegan friend Erin had some leftovers and I gave her the recipe in order to fool her omni family. We shall see the results!
best meal of the fall. or whenever, or always.

And tonight, I am cooking these:
i will let you know how this goes

Saturday, September 27, 2008

mexi night and farmers market

Last night, Michael was in the mood for a meximeal. However, we didn't have the ingredients on hand for our usual quickfix of nachos... So we got creative! A lot of chilies were involved in the making of this nicely spicy meal.
stoplight chilies

Since we didn't have any 'meat' crumbles or tvp on hand, we gave some tofu a quick marinade of hot sauce, lemon juice, rice vinegar, cumin, and smoked paprika. It was then pan seared on the lovely cast iron skillet. The tofu we used was different from our usual brand, and it was delicious! The tofu only sat in the marinade for about 5 minutes, so the flavors were very light, but spicy, but the tofu itself had a really nice, smooth flavor unlike any tofu I'd had before, so it turned out very nice.
sizzle sizzle

I made a mexi-style couscous with a can of diced tomatoes, chilies, scallions, chili pepper and cumin. Again, the flavors were subtle, but very fresh.
lovely fluffy couscous

For a nice edible garnish, I whipped up a quick and inauthentic pico de gallo. I cubed up some red and yellow tomatoes, added some chilies, sliced scallions, and parsley, then finished with a squeeze or two of lime and a pinch of salt.
yummy fresh delicious

All this came together with some toasted whole wheat tortillas and some clover sprouts for a nice, earthy crunch. Hot sauce for added awesomeness points.
michael's plate... he's so good at presentation :)

This morning we went to the dwindling farmers market. There are less and less vendors and the veggies get less and less interesting... But we still managed to get a good haul!
like 5 different types of peppers, october beans, yellow cherry tomatoes

Teehee...Michael went a little nuts with the hot and sweet peppers while I was off searching for sweet potatoes. I think we might have to eat chili for the rest of the month to use all these up!
cabbage, sunflower head, new potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes, apples, sweet potato squash, and an apple gourd

Right now, we are a tad obsessed with silly looking gourds. They're so funny looking and fun... Michael saw this apple gourd and couldn't resist, and I have to agree that it was too silly to pass up. I'm not sure about that sweet potato squash, I've never heard of that before, but... We'll cook it up and see what happens. I'm into new stuff. I've never cooked turnips before, either, but there ya go.

After a nap, we woke up and had some more apple pancakes. Those farmers market apples are so good as a warm, sweet topping for pancakes.
yumtastic fall breakfast

Off now to do laundry. Big Saturday cleaning fest today, wooo...

Friday, September 26, 2008

soup, nuggets, and beer

I'm almost embarassed to post these pictures, and if the dinner wasn't so good, then I wouldn't. But it was delicious, and I feel bad talking about amazing food if I don't post photos of it. So disregard the pics. Look past the blurriness. I promise that someday I will find my tripod and start taking decent photos. If we didn't eat so late at night and the lighting in my apartment was better, this wouldn't be a problem. But oh well.

So. This dinner was comfort fall food at its best. If it's possible to beat that pot pie. Well, it didn't beat the pot pie, but it was yummy on a different level. Comparing soup to pot pie is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are fabulous in their own ways, but they just aren't even close to being alike. Without further ado:
soup and nuggets = happiness

Ok, so the soup you are seeing is the One Wild Chick Soup from Eat, Drink & be Vegan. There is only one word for this soup: omnomomnomnom. Cookie monster style. Like, shove it in my face ultra fast and enjoying every moment of it: nom. This book is, to me, a little daunting because some of the recipes seem a little complicated or use ingredients that I don't just..have. Which eventually I will get over and won't bother me at all. But this particular recipe.. I had everything already in my cupboard, and I followed the recipe exactly, and it. was. wonderful. I took leftovers for lunch today, and even though it was super thick like day old soup gets, it was even BETTER (if possible) than last night. It tastes just literally like chicken and rice soup from back in the omni days. Minus the nasty meat and meat juice and plus lots of healthy ingredients (the whole recipe calls for like 1 tsp of oil). I'm gushing a little bit here...but it was that good. One last look:
i would tentatively describe this soup as 'orgasmic'

I had some leftover seitan from the pot pie, so I made a recipe for Spinach Nuggets from VegWeb. I've been wanting to make this recipe for awhile now, but have never had tofu and seitan just on hand to do it. And I'm really not energetic enough to just make some seitan for something that calls for tofu anyway. It just seems a little silly. Well, not silly. Because they were really, really good. Except for the fact that I added way too much salt. And forgot the tomato paste. The tomato paste omission didn't really matter, I don't think. But the recipe says to add extra salt to the mix because it might be flavorless without it. Maybe their seitan wasn't as naturally delicious (and salty) as mine. So if your seitan is salty to begin with, don't add extra salt. Wait and taste the mix first. Also, I baked these for about twice as long on each side than the recipe said. It really firmed up the texture and made them...handle-able. I couldn't figure out the right dipping sauce for these... ketchup wasn't it. Michael dipped his in goddess dressing, but I didn't like that. So I just ate mine plain, and they were just fine like that. Give this recipe a try. If you have a food processor, it's super easy to throw together.
anything in nugget form is tasty. i wonder why that is...

There ya go, that was our Thursday meal. Fairly simple, and highly delicious. Thank goodness it's soup season.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

the only pot pie in my eyes

I thought about titling this entry "oh great, it's going to be one of those evenings..." but I decided to try to start out on a more posi note. No one wants to hear about how everything I touch today gets broken, which puts fear in my heart when the time comes for dinner making... oh wait, I guess you just did. Well, anyway. Let's try again:

Generally, I would not reccommend that anyone actually eat half a pie. But the rules get changed for the Seitan and Veggie Pot Pie I made last night. This is not my first pie venture, but it is my first pot pie venture. I pretty much made the recipe up on my own, but I borrowed a gravy technique simply for measurements from Alternative Outfitters. But I changed it some, so I'll go ahead and post the recipe here for you. It's fall, it's pot pie and soup and bread and casserole season. So get ready for a lot of that from me, because I am all about warm, yummy dinners on cool fall days. Michael calls it putting on our 'winterfat'. We vegans need to bulk up some for those cold as fuck winter months. Well, maybe I don't need to bulk up, but he does, and I'm happy to oblige and just worry about it later (ugh Spring weight loss season, how I hate you). So anyway, here's what my pie looked like out of the oven.
ok, i know it's kind of ugly. ignore that. we had crust issues.

Well, by the time came to put on the top crust, I was totally over crustmaking and rolling, and I mostly blame that on the fact that I used whole wheat flour (not pastry flour). I was out of AP, and whole wheat pastry flour is so expensive here that I tend to get frugal and not use it when I should. So... use pastry flour if you go the WW route. Or regular AP would of course be fine, but I was trying to cancel out all the fat in the crust with at least a healthy carb. The problem is that it doesn't stick to itself and just wants to flake...well...anyway. It was frustrating, and looks ugly as crap, but it tasted good (if maybe a little grainy, but that didn't bother me ONE BIT).

Also, for my seitan, I used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I steamed it for 40 minutes intstead of simmering it like the recipe says. I find that simmering it in broth makes it uber salty, and simmering in general makes seitan spongey. Steaming makes it nice and firm, and the flavors you put in the seitan are the flavors you get when you eat it. So... that's just my two cents. For this recipe, I divided the seitan into 4 cutlets before steaming, and used one of them for the pie. It was about the size of my hand (so..what, like 5"x3"x1"). I'm just telling you all this so you know how much to use in the pie, because you can't use too much because it just won't all fit, unfortunately. Ok, on to the recipe.

Seitan and Veggie Pot Pie

for the crust:
5 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening (or room temp vegan butter)
6-7 Tbsp water

for the gravy:
1/3 cup vegan butter (i used earth balance)
1/3 cup flour
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2/3 cup unsweetened soymilk
1 3/4 cup water
1 veggie bouillon cube
1 tsp poultry seasoning (i used one that was heavy on the sage..mmm!)

veggies/seitan:
1 seitan cutlet, chopped into 1" pieces
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery ribs, sliced
3-4 baby red potatoes, cubed (really small ones, i'd use only 1 or two regular sized taters)
handful of broccoli florets
couple handfuls of spinach
handful of peas (i forgot these and kicked myself later, but you should use them)
2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
3 or 4 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Method:
Heat oven to 425F.

First, get your pie crust started (you could also just use frozen pie crusts...if you want to CHEAT). Mix together the flour and salt. Cut in shortening until the flour resembles fine crumbles. If you have a pastry cutter, you can use that, but I just used my hands. Sprinkle on the water and mix in (really, just use your hands, it's easiest) until you have a smooth dough. Divide into two equal pieces, roll one out to fit a 9 inch pie plate, put it in the plate and leave it alone until later. Cover your other dough ball with plastic wrap, or it will dry out (like mine did).

Next up, chop your veggies. You will steam these before they go into the pie crust to bake. This is my genius solution to steaming lots of different veggies: Get a medium pot and put about 2 inches of water in the bottom, along with your steaming apparatus (ours just fits into the bottom of the pot). Then, chop your veggies in the order they'll need to cook, starting with the ones that take the longest, and layer in the pot accordingly. Mine went potatoes, carrots, celery, spinach, broccoli. Lid it up and turn on the heat. By the time you start to smell the veggies, they're done. This took me until I was done with the gravy. Drain them when they're finished. note: the parsley and scallions (and peas if using) don't get precooked!

Ok, so while the veggies are steaming, make your gravy. Melt the buttery stuff in the bottom of another medium pot. Add the onions and cook for about a minute, then add the flour and stir until it's bubbly. Turn off heat. Pour in the soymilk and water, drop in the bouillon cube, and add the poultry seasoning (sage, thyme, and oregano would work fine). You might also want to grind some pepper in at this point, if you like (i do). Put back on the heat and bring to a boil, stirring all the while. Hold it there for about a minute, and keep stirring. You will see it thicken. Take off the heat.

Add veggies (including scallions and parsley and peas this time) to the gravy along with the chopped seitan. Stir it up and pour it in the piecrust. Roll out the second crust and fit it on top the filling. Crimp down edges (michael did this for me, i was too frustrated) and make sure you make some slits on the top for the steam to escape. Or you could do something creative like cut out little shapes and then use that dough to make nice cute decorations. I just wasn't there yet. Brush top crust with oil, if you want it to be a toasty brown (i'd honestly had enough fat content at this point though). Place pie on a cookie sheet lined with foil (in case it overflows), throw it in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.

I really did eat half this pie. It was so amazingly delicious that I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand it!!
how on earth could you resist this? you can't. it's that simple.

So this was a huge hit. Next time, I'll use my pastry flour and do something creative and lovely with my crust. But seriously, when it's just Michael and me, presentation isn't always the first thing on my mind, especially when things like crusts are giving me fits. Forgive me? kthnx.

I think I was going to say something else, but I'm blanking. Maybe I'll remember later....

eta: I can remember one thing I was thinking about. I absolutely love having a blogname that starts with an 'A' because I'm at the top (or close) of anyone's blogroll that has added me. I know that's silly, but I just love, as a new blogger, seeing my blog on other amazing vegan blogs. Thank you to all that have added me! If I for some reason haven't added you yet, let me know and I totally will. I'm all about spreading the vegan word, friends.

query

Hey, did you guys know I reply to your comments in the comments section? Just curious. Cause I do. I'm not ignoring you. And I luuuuurve comments, so keep em coming.

Was that a shameless display of attention whore-ness? sorry.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

another post with no pictures

I have no pictures today because yesterday we ate out. We got veggie burgers and fries. Oh, and our burgers, we realized too late, had cheese in them. WHY WHY WHY would this not be on the menu description? I know, I know I should have asked. But I didn't. I'd had a few beers and didn't think about it. Now I know better. This among other terrible meals out recently are why I am officially OFF eating out in this town. Execptions will apply for pizza and beer nights, but that's pretty simple to make vegan. Nothing else out there is vegan for me. It's all tainted and terrible. I almost barfed. But didn't.

Anyway, tonight I'm making a seitan/veggie pot pie. I saw one on a blog recently and can't for the life of me remember which one, so I'm winging it with the recipe. Seitan's in the steamer... and silly me, I must make my own pie crusts which is a giant pain in the ass, but better than frozen, I guess. I'm a glutton for punishment. I mean, I can make a decent pie crust, especially armed with my grandma's recipe. I just don't really feel like it today. I'm sure it'll be worth it though. Homemade is almost always the way to go.

In other news, I bought a giant can of pumpkin today. Oh yes. You just get ready, people. I'm going on a pumpkin binge that won't be over until January, I expect. I've never cooked with pumpkin before, but I've never been vegan in the fall before, and I am going all out. So stay tuned.

And tomorrow I will have a recipe for seitan and veggie pot pie and I have a hunch that it will be good. I hope. I've seen pot pies all over blogs recently, and even though I've never made a pot pie (or had a homemade one, as far as I can remember), I am up to the task. Ahhh..enough procrastinating. Time to make some crust.

book thing

So...I'm at work. And I am more than a little bored. If you'll notice, I've busily (ha) spent my day adding new blogs to my blogroll. Check em out. Tell them how awesome I am, so maybe they'll link back to me. Or something. Anyway, in the midst of doing this, I found this fun little piece of mindless stuff to do on Erica's blog. As a big book nerd, it caught my attention. I am helpless to resist doing this rightthissecond:

Here are the Top 100 Most Popular Books on LibraryThing. Bold what you've read, color what you own. Star what you liked. Star multiple times what you loved! (I also colored [but not bolded] what I own but have not read..Michael and I go to a lot of booksales and I have some catching up to do.)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling (32,484) **
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling (29,939)**
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling (28,728)**
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) by J.K. Rowling (27,926) **
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling (27,643) **
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling (27,641) **
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (23,266)*
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21,325)
**
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling (20,485) **
1984 by George Orwell (19,735) *
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (19,583)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (19,082)*********** (my favoritest book ever)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (17,586)*
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (16,210)*
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (15,483)**
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (14,566)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (14,449)**
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (13,946)
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (13,272)
Animal Farm by George Orwell (13,091)*
Angels & demons by Dan Brown (13,089) *
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (12,777)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12,634)
The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (12,276) **
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (12,147)**
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976)**
The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Part 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,512)**
The Odyssey by Homer (11,483)
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (11,392)
Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (11,257)
The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, Part 3) by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,082)**
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979) **
American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (10,603)**
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537) **
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (10,435)
The Lovely Bones : a novel by Alice Sebold (10,125)
Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card (10,092)
The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman (9,827)**
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman (9,745)Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)
Emma by Jane Austen (9,610)
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (9,598)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (9,593)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (9,433)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (9,413)
Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (9,343)
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (9,336)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (9,274)
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (9,246)
The Iliad by Homer (9,153)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (9,084)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (9,080)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (9,027)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (8,960)**
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (8,904) **
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (8,813)
The Little Prince by saintexupryantoinede - 75k - (8,764)*
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (8,421)*

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (8,417)**
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (8,368)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (8,255)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8,214)

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (8,191)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (8,169)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (8,129)
The Complete Works by William Shakespeare (8,096)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (7,843)

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (7,834)
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (7,829)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare (7,808)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (7,807)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (7,793)

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (7,710)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (7,648)*
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (7,598) *

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk (7,569)
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (7,557)

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman (7,534)**
Atonement by Ian McEwan (7,530)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7,512)
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7,436)*
Dracula by Bram Stoker (7,238)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (7,153)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (7,055)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (7,052)

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (7,043)**
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (6,933)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (6,901)
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (6,899)
Neuromancer by William Gibson (6,890)

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (6,868)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (6,862)
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (6,841)
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (6,794)
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (6,715)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (6,708)
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (6,697)


hmmm..I have some reading to do, most definitely. Ok..back to 'work'.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

loaftastic

I made this tempeh loaf since Jessy from HappyVeganFace was talking it up. Naturally, I did different things. I cannot follow a recipe to save my life.
i don't have a 'platter' per se, so it kind of curved

I didn't happen to have any red peppers, so I used tomatoes instead, and added a layer of FYH vegan mozzarella (which honestly didn't work so well). I completely forgot the oats and water. So really, it's a completely different recipe. I won't post a new one, since it was just sort of ok. Actually, I really really liked the tomatoes in it, but the mozzarella was.... well it didn't melt like I thought it would. Of course. I mean, it is vegan cheese. Anyway, here's a shot of it after we cut it. It didn't photograph so well sliced and on the plate (fell apart much).
filled with yummy goodness

Michael thought it tasted very rich. I'm ok with rich, but I have to agree with him on this. Too rich can be weird. Still good though. Can something be good and still weird? I say yes. Case in point.

I do like the idea of a loaf though. I may make my own variation of a loaf soon. I especially like the idea of a filled loaf.

All through the post I kept typing 'load' instead of 'loaf'. I wonder what Freud would say about that.

Monday, September 22, 2008

i forgot some stuff.

So I was washing the dishes just now, cataloguing all the food I've made in the past 3 days (yeah that's right, I haven't done dishes since Friday), and realized I forgot to post about the crabbycakes!
as you can see, i got plenty of beta carotene in this meal

This is the recipe that I usually use for the crabcakes. However, this time I didn't realize that I was out of celery. So I ended up adding way too many other veggies to compensate (is there really such a thing?) and they didn't stick together as well as normal. Oh well, they still tasted good. A couple of tips on that recipe, though:
1. do not put in that extra tsp of salt. unless you enjoy eating food that tastes like the ocean. literally. and this is coming from a salt lover. the Old Bay adds plenty, i promise.
2. freeze your tofu, then thaw, press, and chunk it. the texture ends up more... seafoody? anyway, if you put regular tofu in your food processor like it says, you'll just have a creamy tofu cake, which still tastes good, but could be improved upon.

I served these up with some mashed sweet potatoes and kale. Want a recipe? Sure you do, because they. were. awesome.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Kale

several sweet potatoes, cubed (i used around 9 small ones, or you could use 4 normal sized ones)
small bunch of kale, destemmed and chopped into small pieces
2 shallots, sliced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 Tbs Earth Balance (or other vegan butter)
splash of soymilk
splash of veggie broth
salt and pepper to taste
oil spray (or 1-2 tsp olive oil)

Start out by covering your cubed potatoes with water, then boiling until tender and mashable. (Again, I do not take the skins off potatoes, but feel free to do this if you like.) This takes about 20 minutes after it boils. Drain potatoes.

In the same pot, spray some oil and saute shallots and garlic over medium heat until barely translucent. Toss in kale and stir around a bit, until the leaves turn a brilliant green. Now splash in your veggie broth (less than 1/4 cup here). This will steam your kale super fast. When it's all nice and wilty, turn off the heat and add the sweet potatoes. Mash em up with the kale, then add the vegan butter and soymilk. Whip up until smooth, then salt and pepper it to taste.

The end result here is sweet, but not super sweet, salty, but not super salty. The kale adds a lovely crunch and actually goes very well with the sweet potatoes. Yum!

This is where I give the finger to kale, because I'm finally figuring out how to trick myself into eating it. I know it's good for me, but I have a hard time eating it, unless properly prepared. So kale with sweet potatoes is good, and kale with beans (from Yellow Rose Recipes) is good. Score!

Wow, two posts in one day. This may just be a record.

beer and football sunday

As I mentioned earlier, fall Sundays are designated for beer and football. And delicious, easy food. I started out our munchiness with some hummus.
finished this bad boy off today mmm

It was kind of a concoction... I wanted it to be sundried tomato flavor, but ended up adding a bunch of other stuff. Hummus is forgiving though, so it turned out yum anyway. That's a homemade tortilla chip you see wedged on the top of the mound:
a nice healthy alternative to store bought chips

For the chips, I just cut a bunch of whole wheat tortillas into wedges, sprayed with canola oil, sprinkled with cumin, and baked @ 400F for about 5-8 minutes. They were nice and crunchy without being oily and salty. Really let the hummus shine through.

Remember the chestnuts from the farmers market haul? Well, I roasted them.
so cute all popping out of their shells

Unfortunately, I learned that I like chestnuts raw. They have a mushy, potato-y texture after they've been cooked which I just did not like. Also, some wormies decided to make a meal of some of these too, and I got kind of tired of going through the effort of peeling them just to see a worm had beat me to the punch. Gross.

And, as promised, MexiPizza. A favorite around my house that hasn't shown its delicious face in a long time. We were overdue for some mexiawesomeness, and I made this one all on my own while Michael did his homework (he usually insists on making the 'meat' and having creative control... but not this time!). So first off, you need a crust. I used to use a storebought one, but then realized it had honey in it. So now I make my own, which ends up being way more mouthwatering anyway.
just look at that sexy crust. oh yes.

Next, put down a layer of refried beans, then some sliced onions and diced jalepenos (actually, I used chilies this time, but whatever). Brush some salsa onto the crust edges and bake (whatever temp and time your crust calls for). This is what it looks like once it comes out:
so toasty and browned and lovely

Now's the time for toppings. I usually heat up some crumblers (Morningstar brand) and corn with a packet of taco seasoning. That goes on first. Then an entire small can of sliced black olives.
yeah, I know. it only gets better though.

Finally, top with a bunch of shredded lettuce, a jar of salsa and some sliced scallions. Hmm... this looks okaaaay... but it's missing something...
almost doooone!

Oh, wait, that's right.



GUACAMOLE.
slice and top with your favorite guac recipe. it's really NOT DONE until you put the guacamole on it. I'm serious.

K, that's it for today. I need to use some tempeh today, before it gets moldy. I'm not so good with tempeh, but I shall do my best. Hope your Monday has been better than mine. Thank goodness work's over, at least. Now I'm off to clean up after beer and football Sunday. I mean, it's pretty obvious from the title of the day that dishes weren't getting done, right?