what to do with all those veggies?

First off, I would like to say that I am so excited, because I've fallen in love with a new apartment.  It is consuming all of my waking (and sleeping) thoughts.  Michael and I are going to look at it today, as he hasn't seen it yet...and everyone should cross their fingers for us that we decide to get it and are able to move into it in 2 weeks time.  Because it would be so awesome.  Even though the kitchen is rather small.  I don't know where on earth I would put things like this rad farmers market haul:

beets, tomatoes, potatoes, summer squash, purple peppers, spring onions, and cabbage

more tomatoes, including adorably colored little ones, new potatoes, more purple peppers, green peppers, white cucumbers, and a ginormous zucchini

There is barely enough space in our kitchen for it all.  That's our haul from Saturday...we spent $30.  Which isn't too bad, considering how many tomatoes and peppers we got.  I already started freezing some peppers (this new place, should we choose to get it [hope!], is only 2 blocks from our current apartment, so transporting food and frozen stuff won't be a problem, thankfully) so that we'll have plenty when it's after their season and they get all crazy expensive in the grocery store again.  

Anyway, you might wonder what we do with all these veggies during the weeks, that we have to buy so many every Saturday.  Well, like I said, we freeze some (cabbage, besides the peppers).  And we eat a lot of them (um, tomatoes) on sandwiches.  But sometimes it's nice to do something a bit fancier.

scalloped pofabutatoes

Michael loves potatoes.  And I love noochy cheeze sauces.  Other scalloped potato recipes we've tried have really fallen short of both our expectations, but I found this one at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  Anything that Susan stamps with her little girl's approval...yeah, we'll love it.  And this was certainly a hit.  We totally finished that whole pan in one night. 

soup?  in the summer?

Hey, guess what?  Soup is easy.  We ate this summer squash soup, also from fatfreevegan.com, along with the potatoes.  I made mine a little differently...leaving out the celery (didn't have any), adding some zucchini and more broth.  Then I stupidly added a bunch of cayenne to it (I honestly don't know what possessed me) and some garlic powder (which got a little pervasive).  Still, the soup was awesome.  It was so creamy...velvety, almost.  I never thought that summer squash would make a good soup, but there you go.  It does.

cheezy potatoes of awesomeness

You can seriously count on Susan to make a ridiculously fabulous, failproof recipe.  I don't think I've ever tried anything of hers that I didn't like.  The woman should write a cookbook.

But honestly, all I've really wanted to eat since July started is stuff like this:

raw, honest veggies

Michael and I both work a lot of evenings now, which means that one or both of us don't get home until after 9, which in turn means that we are tired.  One night I got off work at 11:30 to fine this lovely raw and fresh plate of awesomeness.  On top are zucchini shreds, something I've fallen in love with recently.  Super thinly sliced (you'll need a mandoline) raw zucchini and summer squash make a lovely little salad with a little olive oil, vinegar, and thinly sliced basil.  Don't get me wrong, those tomatoes were rad, too, but I am a tad bit obsessed with that salad for now.  

You can even see it here, blurred in the foreground:

another very late night dinner

You'll have to pardon the crappiness of this one...it was seriously like 2 in the morning when I took that photo.  But yeah, you see?  If I'd been taking photos of everything we eat recently, you'd be seeing it a lot more (but we've been doing reruns, like ruebens and such).  Anyway, this scramble was super tasty.  It had been awhile since we had one...but the real star of this meal was those potatoes.  Yeah, they're roasted, but we microwaved them first so they only took like 10 minutes to roast in the oven.  Smart, eh?  Anyway, they only have some seasoned salt, pepper, and paprika on them, but they are so, so good.  

Next up is yet another Michael dinner (he's been terribly helpful lately with me working evening shifts).

cabbage rolls!

Apparently, these were a pain in the ass to make because they have a lot of preparation, but all I had to do was enjoy them, so...  Anyway, they're stuffed with some sort of tempeh/tahini mixture and they were a totally rad use of a giant head of cabbage we had from another market haul.  So yummy!

fake meat - the ultimate in laziness

I ventured to the grocery store last week to pick up fruit and some veggies we can't get at the market, and got some sweet stuff on sale.  Like those fancypants carrots and fresh brussels sprouts, and uh...  some fake chicken breasts.  They have Gardein stuff in our Kroger now, which is highly exciting, but then also bittersweet, because it's madly expensive.  There was a dollar off coupon on this package I got (2 chicken patties in a Tuscan sauce) and I was mega tired, so I splurged the $4 on them.  And they're really good!  The texture is a little too meaty for us (checked and then rechecked the package after cutting into them...but they're vegan for sure), but the flavor was nice and the sauce they came in was seriously delicious.  It reminded me a little of a Lean Cuisine sauce...which for most of you probably sounds totally gross, but I lived off those things for about a year before I met Michael, so it was sort of a fond memory.  I mean...sort of.  Anyway, I also made the mustard sauce from Veganomicon (my favorite sauce, ever) to go with the steamed carrots and veggies.  All of it mixed together was pretty damned phenomenal.

openfaced sammies are sammiches too.

I'm going to finish up with a couple of lunches.  I've been trying to do hearty, but not weigh-me-down lunches recently, as Michael's been working doubles and then I go in to work in the evenings and need to be filled up without feeling like taking a nap afterwards.  I made this openfaced sammich twice this past week.  We had some leftover rye bread from ruebens.  Topped with some red pepper and green olive hummus that I'd made, fresh red tomatoes, and fresh basil, it hits the spot, fills me up, but leaves me ready to go for the rest of the day.  

more lunch options

I made this curried chickpea salad a couple weeks ago, and it was awesome.  I never ate it on bread, just like this, in big clumps, and I was happy as a clam about it.  I honestly don't remember what all is in there...chickpeas, onions, celery, carrots, vegenaise, leftover fake cheese that we'd made, lemon juice...and lots and lots and lots of curry powder.  And some cayenne, for a kick.  Paired with some fresh veggies, like this white cucumber (green on the inside!), it's terribly tasty.  Nom.

So don't forget to eat lunch.  And be creative with your veggies.  And...wish us luck on the apartment again!

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.

Jessica tested, Michael approved

So, for whatever reason, the internet is working.  I'm actually stealing someone else's right now, which hasn't worked all through the previous week, but right now, is.  I'm taking advantage and posting; hopefully it won't die on me halfway through, right?  First off, I know I said I had recipes for you, but upon retesting one of them, I realized that the first time was a fluke.  It was a seitan recipe that was defreakinglicious.  I tried to recreate it last night, from memory (but now taking notes) and it didn't taste the same.  Therefore, I have more testing to do.  The other recipe was for a butternut squash and leek risotto.  That's pretty self explanatory though, and again, I didn't write down what I did specifically, so I forget.  I am completely lame, I know.  I do have some scraps of paper with notes on them, however, and really do plan to make these happen again so that you can have the recipes, because they are the ultimate in yum  Want to see how yummy?

i admit to my use of flash

I was so hungry by the time I churned this out that I almost forgot to take a picture.  This plate was actually sitting on my lap at the time of said picture taking, and no flash just wasn't cutting it.  And I also want to point out that I spent over an hour yesterday looking for my tripod and can't find the damned thing.  I really do want to take better pictures of my food.  There is no reason for me not to.  Well, now there is, because apparently my tripod has gone the way of the buffalo.  

At any rate, that's the seitan cutlet that I'm talking up, and dude, seriously, it was amazing.  Denser than the usual recipe, which I like.  I'm not a fan of 'fluffy' seitan.  This one is not.  Fluffy, that is.  On top is a gravy Michael mixed up that had orange zest in it and it was the yum.  In the back you see my risotto which was creamy and savory/sweet.  And it had leeks, with which you cannot go wrong.  

tempeh blt

This is a sammie that had all odds against it, and still turned out delicious.  We wanted BLTs, but had no fakin bacun, but there was a package of tempeh in the fridge.  However, we didn't have, like, any of the ingredients for the marinade in VWAV, so we winged it.  And hello buddy did it turn out wonderful.  I do remember the recipe for this one, but not the specific measurements.  I was going to go figure it out real quick when I transfered the pictures from my computer to Michael's desktop for uploading, but then the internet started working and I don't want to jinx myself by moving one inch.  This one I will have for you, tomorrow probably, since I'll be doing W.I.P. Wednesday.  

Our friend Chase, who was here on New Years and loved our food was here for both of the above  meals and loved all of it.  I don't think he finished his risotto, but he only left like 2 bites, so it couldn't have been that bad.  I figure if something is omni-approved, it must be fairly decent.  Well, unless that person has terrible taste.  So I guess the jury is still out.

Anyway, on to more exciting things:  I am testing recipes for a future vegan cajun cookzine by Sarah (she doesn't have a regular blog up yet, so I can't link to anything for you) called Cookin' with my Craw-Daddy.  Here are my first two attempts!

Creole Stuffed Mushrooms

Or, Muffuletta Mushrooms, she hasn't decided on the title.  I like muffuletta better, personally.  Anyway, these were really good!  Very spicy and sausage-y (but using TVP, nothing 'fake') with a fabulous taste of olives.  I was highly impressed with this one.  I'm no expert on cajun cooking, but if spiciness and tastiness are key, then...there ya go!  And for those of you (coughmecough) that don't really love mushrooms, Michael and I decided that the mixture would be completely wonderful stuffed into red bell peppers as well.  Michael did love the mushrooms though, and ate them all up with no hesitation.  Success!

Smothered Potatoes

This is another spicy, spicy creation.  The method for cooking the potatoes is pretty genius and they are perfectly tender, with just the right amount of kick.  I'd say these would be rockin' with a tofu scramble.  They weren't at all bad with the mushrooms, either!  Anyway, you should definitely look forward to getting this zine, and keep checking back here because more recipes are being posted for me to try out regularly.  I'm so happy to be a tester for something, especially something as yummy and awesome as this!

Just for kicks, here's my plate:

messy at best

You can see that I put a bunch of nutritional yeast on my tatoes and used a lot of the leftover mushroom stuffing to top one of my seitan cutlets (that the recipe isn't ready for yet).  

soup 4eva

Since it's so freaking cold here, and also since Michael and I both have been a little sickly, we've been eating a lot of soup.  In fact, I'm making more tonight.  The above specimen is something Michael whipped up for our lunch this past week.  It's a carrot soup, but not like a creamy one.  It's brothy (which I love), but still has carrots pureed up in it.  Just the perfect amount of spice and hotness and wonderfulness inside.  He also made some couscous that was bangin'.  His goal was to make everything in the same color family (warm toned oranges).  Totally worked.

And just to prove to you how cold it is here:

kitchen window frostastic

Guys, that is not the type of frosting that yours truly gets excited about.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.  Stay warm, everyone!  

I still have other news that I am bursting at the seams to tell you about, but...  I can't yet.  What!  hahaha...  

p.s. happy inauguration day!  

brinner!

Hey!  Looklooklooklooklook!

wait, what?  is that a....cranberry!?

Indeed, friends.  That is a cranberry you see.  In fact, those are cranberry pancakes.  I got the idea from Hannah over at Bittersweet (recipe linked here), but I didn't follow her recipe because I didn't have any white cornmeal.  So I used the basic recipe for pancakes in Vegan with a Vengeance and added cranberries to it.  The pancakes themselves were...not fluffy haha...  But they were still good!  The cranberries were genius (thanks, Hannah!).  Nice and tart.  They balanced out the sweetness of the syrup on the pancakes.  And they do cook in the time it takes to cook the pancakes, in case you were wondering.  I had my doubts, but it all turned out well.

I also made some greasy potatoes.  

greasy goodness

These were roasted in some canola oil, seasoned salt, pepper, and onion powder.  They were lovely, especially with some (lots of) ketchup.

Oh, in case you don't know what brinner is, it stands for 'brown dinner'.  See?

no veggies.  none.

Just kidding, it means breakfast for dinner.  Those are the tempeh sausage crumbles from VWAV.  They were amazing.  And you know what?  Despite the complete and total lack of vegetables here (potatoes don't really count towards nutrition, no matter how good they are), it was really, really great.  Like, really great.  I surprised myself, especially since I generally suck at making breakfast.  I don't even especially like breakfast that much.  But apparently, I like it for dinner.  The best part?  The pancakes were like dessert, so I didn't get a sweets craving afterwards.  Woo!

So go make yourself some pancakes.  Because you deserve it.

bustin' out some burgers

Patience, everyone, patience.  I want you to know just as much as you want to know!  Oh, I also forgot to tell you that Michael says thanks for all the birthday well-wishing.  He had a truly fantabulous birthday, indeed.

After baking for 3 hours, I had a strange air of confidence around me.  Everything had turned out so well, and it all went so smoothly...  that I thought to myself, 'Self, you can make anything tonight!  Everything you touch turns to gold!'  ha.  Well, I was planning on making a lovely soup, but ended up not having time before Michael got out of work.  So I decided to make up some burgers.  Like, from scratch.  Also, with no recipe.  And honestly, they aren't bad!  The texture leaves a little to be desired, so I'll wait until I have the recipe down pat before I tell you how I did it, although I will tell you my basic ingredients:

okara (leftover from making the soymilk last week)

chili hot beans

wheat gluten

onions

peppers

jalepenos

garlic

nutritional yeast

And this is what they ended up looking like:

not a bad lookin' burger...oh yes, and there were tots.  many, many tots.

I baked them at 450F for about 45 minutes, which made them nice and crispy (ok, just a little burned, maybe) on the outsides, but they were still mushy on the inside!  I need to figure out my bean:gluten ratio.  I used a whole can of beans, which made waaaaay too many burgers:

there's 4 more on another sheet that you can't see

The flavor was tasty and all in all, for winging it, I think I did ok.  There's no real opinion from Michael because he came home from work super sick and a kinda vomitous.  So he only had tots...

glorious, glorious tots

Although, he did just have one for lunch and said that they were pretty good, but really spicy.  Maybe next time I won't use 3 jalepenos, huh?  Anyway, obviously, the tots were the star of this show, with the burgers a distant second place.  

Today, I am feeling quite craptastic myself, so we're having a brothy soup for dinner.  Michael's making it for me and there is an Asian twist involved, so make sure you come back for that one tomorrow.  Oh, and don't worry, package buddy, all baked goods were packed up and ready to go last night before any sickness came into the house.  All is well.

more mofo-ing

Oh, crap that ASPCA commercial with Sara McLaughlin is on...  must must must look away...

Ok.  Well, as promised, I made stuffed peppers and creamed potatoes last night.  Michael tried to convince me not to make the peppers, for whatever reason, and I kind of wish I had listened.  Because I did something 'creative' that did not work.  Oh well.  Lets start with cocktail hour!

Michael brought home some spiced cider and a bottle of dark rum from the store...  And although I call myself a cider-hater, it was so so good.  He rocked it up with some pieces of apples and lemon zest and cinnamon, and cloves, and pumpkin pie spice, so maybe that's why I liked it.  Who cares, because served up in our hilarious jackolantern mugs, it was just what I needed after a crappy day at work and the weather being less than pretty.

this one's mine.  i think it looks like a panda..michael says it looks more like a racoon.

Wanna see the peppers and potatoes?  Here ya go:

gotta love michael's garnish.  his plates are always prettier than mine!

The peppers were really just...meh.  The reason is that I added artichokes to it.  Normally, I think this would be just peachy, but I didn't use marinated artichokes, I just used frozen ones.  And I've finally come to the conclusion that they taste WAY different from marinated artichokes.  In fact, it was so overpowering that it completely knocked out the taste of the cherry tomatoes and fresh basil that I added (wasted).  The base was quinoa, which was chewily perfect.  Too bad it tasted like straight up baked artichokes.  

such a shame because they look so adorable in the pan.  that's nutritional yeast on top.

And, as you could probably guess, we have lots of leftovers of them.  I'm gonna suck it up and have one as a snack in a minute.  Maybe it'll taste better today.  Cross your fingers, and here's hoping.

There was a success in this meal, however:  Creamed Potatoes with Peas!  I was talking about how this is a dish from my childhood that I really wanted to veganize, and I think I came fairly close.  It's a little different, but the taste of these is so frigging awesome, I don't even care.  Welcome to a new and wonderful way to make potatoes.

oh my.  stay tuned for a recipe in a moment.

Finally, here's my (less palatable looking) plate of dinner.  I got through one pepper, but I polished off those potatoes, and had the leftovers of them for lunch.  And this comes from a certified potato-hater (mostly because they make me feel gross when I eat too many).  That did not apply in this situation.

please just feed me creamed potatoes for the rest of my life

K.  Recipe time:

Creamed Potatoes with Peas

2-3 pounds new potatoes (or any baby potatoes)

1 cup of frozen green peas

4 Tbsp vegan butter (i used earth balance)

a lot of unsweetened soymilk

1-2 cups veggie broth

1/4-1/2 cup AP flour

1-2 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp poultry seasoning (heavy on the sage)

small handful of nutritional yeast

salt and pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in a big soup pot, and almost cover with soymilk.  Leave about 2 inches exposed (this took an entire small carton of soymilk, for me...what is that, 1/4 gallon?).  Finish covering with veggie broth.  Add the vegan butter and boil until the potatoes are tender (about 20-25 minutes).  The soymilk solution will look like it's going to boil over because it gets foamy, but it won't, so don't worry.

Once potatoes are cooked, turn off the heat and give it a good stir.  Add peas, flour, and cornstarch, then stir until the sauce has thickened into a gravy-like consistency.  I'd start with 1/4 cup of flour and 1 Tbsp of cornstarch, then add more if you need it.  Once it has thickened, add the poultry seasoning (or seasoning of your choice), nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper.  

Eat.

Yeah, it's not very good for you, but sometimes you just really need some comfort food, and this is it.  Plus, it's super easy to whip up.  

Dinner tonight is still a mystery, but I have a few ideas.  I think I might go to a cookbook for this one, since last night's was sort of a debacle.  Happy Mofo-ing, kiddies!

mega post, as promised

Finally, yes? Ok, throughout this post I will cover my birthday and most of the food involved, my new experiments with Veganomicon recipes (bday present, yay!), and some random pics/recipes that I barely remember eating, let alone making (sorry). There is one golden one in here, however. Keep your eyes peeled for some butternut squash.

K, lets start with my birthday weekend. Sunday, Michael and I drove to Athens, OH to go to Casa Nueva, a lovely restaurant that is worker owned and very supportive of local growers, producers, and healthy eating. While their menu is not entirely vegetarian, there are lots of options, and even specially marked vegan items (and more than just one or two!). If you live close by, definitely pay them a visit. If the food pics below aren't enough incentive, they also have an extensive beer list (over 100 types, I'd say) and they make their own liquor infusions for mixed drinks. Come on, now.

tofu fries appetizer, served with a sundried tomato/basil aioli. we ate a bunch before i remembered i had my camera there for a reason.

stacked vegan enchiladas w/swiss chard and eggplant, served up with jasmine rice, black beans, and guacomole

They make all their salsas and guacomole in house (there are lots of varieties of salsa!) and they even have a vegan queso. Mmmmmmm... Unfortunately, they had already sold out of their only vegan dessert option. That's ok, though because we were stuffed.

Next up is the day my parents came down and I cooked them lunch. My mom insisted that I take process pictures for my blog, so here she is, adding the tofu mixture to the veggies for our mini crustless tofu quiches (from FatFree Vegan Kitchen). I didn't get a picture that day of the finished product, but there is one below from where I made them earlier that week (yes, they are that good).

now you see where i get my skillz

Next up is me kneading my seitan sausages. These were a major hit, when served up hoagie-style with some Italian peppers on buns.

sooo appetizing, that ball of mush

sweet potato fries...we made way too many

this is what it looked like all plated up. we served the quiches earlier as appies.

The truly awesome thing that is next is my birthday cake. Our family birthday cake recipe is called Wacky Cake and it is naturally vegan and amazingly chocolatey, and perfect in every way. The fudgey icing my mom makes isn't though. Well, it's chocolatey and perfect in almost every way except that it's not vegan. So I gave her the chocolate buttercream icing recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and she made it PERFECTLY. Way better than I ever could. I'm missing my cake now, darnit. Anyway, here again is another case where I ate half my serving before I remembered to take a picture. Get over it. That's Rice Dream mint chocolate chip ice cream, by the way.

i could barely slow down enough to bother with this photo, but my mom deserves some credit, here

Presents were rad of course, too. I got a cast iron skillet, a cake decorating set, a cooling rack, loaf pans, new measuring cups/spoons annnnd.... the Veganomicon. Finally. Anyway, more on that later. First, feast your eyes on some tired kitties that love presents almost as much as me, for a different reason.

tired from playing too damn hard

And the very last thing from the birthday part of my post is.. the beautiful flowers that Michael sent to my office on my real birthday! He handpicked each flower at the florist and they were just perfect. (He also got me an AWESOME bike!) We had dinner that night at the Indian place in town, but I didn't bring my camera.

he is just tooo sweet. also, if you look close, you'll see my mom there with my nephew, my dad's radtastic mustache, my neice, and a stack of planet earth books. glimpse into my life!

Next up is my recent foray into the world of the Veganomicon. If you don't have this book yet, please do yourself a favor and go get it, immediately. So many delicious recipes, so little time... *sigh* Anyway, first is the dish that has made me love kale.

braised (seitain), kale, and brussels sprouts

I didn't do the seitan with this because I was using a different protein, but had some kale that needed used up. There are sundried tomatoes in this, and seriously, it is so delicious that I almost died. We served this up with some scalloped potatoes and hot sauce marinated tofu. Michael made the potatoes and used more potatoes than the recipe called for, but didn't really add more of anything else, so they weren't too creamy, but still tasted yum.

herb scalloped potatoes

hot sauce marinated tofu with the rest of it

The tofu was very good, although a little too spicy. This is my fault for insisting on using a habanero hot sauce that I'd never had before. It is apparently incredibly fucking hot!

The next night I made the chili-cornmeal crusted tofu and some mexican millet. Both were absolutely perfect. Besides the fact that I don't know how to cut tofu into triangles. We left out the cilantro in the millet and topped it with scallions instead. Michael and I both think that cilantro tastes like pure death. Yeah, we don't like it.

Om nom nom nom nom nom nom

Ok! On with the randomness part of my post. First up, farmers market from last Saturday. I'm super sad that I missed the market this weekend for the wedding. I mean, it was totally worth it, but I'm gonna miss my fresh veggies this week. Oh, I spent $13 here:

various peppers, apples, beans, sweet potatoes, jalepenos, tomatoes, cantelope

Michael loves pancakes. Almost too much. I love pancakes to an extent, but... Like the late, great Mitch Hedburg once said, 'Pancakes... great at first, but by the time you're done, you're sick of em.' Or something like that. But it's true. Still, these were really good. I made an apple compote (maybe... I'm not sure what a compote really is) to go on top. I'll even give you the recipe! The pancakes are just made from Bisquick. We're lazy, at times.

Apple 'Compote'

3-4 small green apples, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tbs vegan butter

pinch of salt

1-2 tsp of cinnamon

nice little amount of fresh grated nutmeg (or some powdered would be fine)

Melt the butter in a small skillet, then add apples. Saute for a few minutes, then add the brown sugar and stir well. Sprinkle on the cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg, stir, and cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally until apples are tender, but not mushy (about 8-10 minutes). Serve over pancakes... or ice cream!

One day for lunch I made a sammich. I prefer most sammiches openfaced because you get to have more stuff on them, with less mess falling out of your bread. This is some tempeh (boiled 10 minutes beforehand) heated up with some cheeze sauce, atop homemade bread and topped with yellow tomato slices and some sliced basil (plus salt and pepper).

i couldn't eat all this, but what i did eat was awesome

Oh, and here is some potato salad that Michael whipped up from a combination of the recipe from Accidental Vegan and my additions. You can find this recipe on VegWeb.

this never survives day 2. we can't get enough.

And here's some more randomness:

baked tofu on a big salad

seitan stirfry

mini crustless tofu quiches (made with zucchini instead of mushrooms)

the quiches with some paprika infused couscous

And now for the grand finale! My closer today is something I made up, mostly all by myself, with just a teeny bit of inspiration (just the herb combo) from a Turkish cookbook I have. I present to you... Baked Butternut Squash filled with Mint and Dill Rice! Oh, but it's so much better than it sounds. The addition of apples, raisins, peas, and slivered almonds really rounds out the rice, making it a little sweet as well as savory. And if you've never tried mint and dill together before, try it before you mock it. I didn't know how good it would be, but I was seriously just blown away by the flavor combination. You'll see.

all plated up nice and purty

you know you wanted a closeup of that rice

And now, for the recipe.

1 large or 2 smaller butternut squash, slice in half lengthwise

1 3/4 cups jasmine rice (forgo the brown here, ok?)

3 cups veggie broth or water

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup frozen (or fresh) green peas

1/3 cup apple, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 green cup raisins

1/4 cup slivered almonds (toasted would be good)

1 small bunch of dill, minced

1 small bunch of mint, minced (I'd say about 1/2 cup each here, or more, if you like)

1 Tbsp olive oil (plus more for drizzling over the squash)

2 Tbsp vegan butter

salt and pepper to taste

Start by placing the squash into a large baking dish and drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place into a 400F oven and bake for about a half hour.

Meanwhile, start your rice. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet. Add onions, apples, and raisins and saute until onions are translucent. Add the rice, stirring to coat in the oil mixture, then stir in the broth or water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until almost all liquid is absorbed. Toss in the peas, almonds, mint, and dill (plus season with salt and pepper), cover the pan and leave to steam for another 5 minutes (if you were cooking this alone, steam it 10 minutes).

Remove the squash from the oven and spoon in the rice mixture. The squash at this point should be almost soft enough to eat. If it's not yet, then leave it in the oven until it is. Anyway, you'll probably have more rice than can fit in the openings, so just spoon it around the squash. Cover and put back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until the flavors mingle.

It's so good. You'll love it.

So that's it for my mega post. I'm going to try to start posting more often, now that things have quieted down around here, for the most part.

Oh, I almost forgot! Mom and Dad brought me down a ginormous growlab on my birthday! It stands about 5 feet tall with 2 shelves that have sunlamps over them, and it's about 5 feet wide, too. What should I grow? I'm planning on herbs (I already have 2 types of basil in my window, so that'll go in) like rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill, etc. But what else do you think? Cherry tomatoes? Cucumbers? Lettuces? Does anyone have any growlab experience and know what types of veggies would be good here? I'd love to do bell peppers, but I'm not sure they would work.

Well, until next time.....