journeys and adventures!

That is, a journey to my health food store and adventures in new recipes.

On Saturday, after blogging and watching it snow and generally laying about, I made a trek to the Healthy Life Market.  Healthy Life Market is code for overpriced stuff that's good for you.  Seriously, I only go here once every month or so, for two reasons:  it takes 20 minutes to get there and it's fucking expensive.  Sometimes, though, a girl needs to splurge on stuff that she can only find at the health food store.  And don't think those jerks don't know that they have a monopoly on the local healthy person market.  Jeez.  Sorry, but the prices really are ludicrous at this place.  I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it again.  Now it's time for you to tell me that what I got was worth the price and the drive.  No, I'm not going to tell you how much I spent.  Suffice to say that it's probably more than you think it is.

chickn nuggets, tofutti pizza, FYH mozzarella, organic tofu, ezekial bread, EB sticks, and some fake pepperoni

ww pastry flour, beet sugar, ww couscous, nutritional yeast*, green lentils, cumin, chile powder, cayenne

coconut milk, almond butter, d-mannose, wild rice blend, nature burger mix, quinoa pasta

So I guess I had a decent haul.  The nuggets and pizza and part of the pepperoni are already gone (also, the most expensive food things, of course...one does pay for convenience).  This morning I had that sprouted bread as toast with some almond butter.  I've never had either of these before, and must say that they're pretty good.  The bread is very earthy with all the seeds and sprouts in it and the almond butter is...well, it's good, ok, but not nearly worth the price.  Seriously, that tiny jar was $5.  What?  Why?  I mean, I get that almonds are more expensive than peanuts...  but I think...  I might...  like peanut butter better.  I'm sure some of you are gasping in horror right about now, but, eh!  Call me crazy if you must.

I also made good use of the tofu and whole wheat couscous last night.  Ahem.  Look:

you know you're intrigued

That is pesto hummus stuffed tofu.  I got the idea here, but honestly did not even read through the recipe once before making it.  In fact, I saw the title over a week ago and it just popped into my head, and I thought, 'I do not need a recipe for this.  I can make it up as I go.'  And I was right.  I'll post my recipe below.  It may or may not be close to my muse, but again...no clue here.  I suppose I could glance at it before I link it, haha...  But I probably won't.**

Anyway, I used the last of the pesto I had sitting around.  Half of it on the tofu, half of it mixed into my couscous.  I had a couscous overload last night.  It was a bit ridiculous.  You can see this from my picture:

that isn't even half of the couscous i made

Those are turnip greens and sugar snap peas with a nice tahini sauce in the background.  They were good, but I dumbly forgot to wash my greens before steaming them.  There may or may not have been alcohol involved in this silly omission.  The flavor was good though.  That tahini sauce is:  tahini, lemon juice, scallions.  And it was tangy and wonderful.

Here's the recipe for the tofu.  I must warn you, I cut some corners with it, but this dish was really delicious, despite my laziness.

Pesto-Hummus Stuffed Tofu

1 block extra firm tofu (not silken), pressed and cut into 4 large chunks

1/2 cup hummus

2-3 Tbsp basil pesto

a bottle of italian dressing (sigh, yes, i marinated it in italian dressing from a bottle)

Ok, so once you have your four chunks of tofu, slice a slit into one side.  This slit should make a little pocket inside and not go through any of the other sides of the chunk.  I hope that makes sense.  Marinate them in the Italian dressing for about an hour, turning them fairly regularly so that all sides get nice and soaked.  

Preheat your oven to 375F once the hour's up.  Place tofu and marinade in a small glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.  Then take it out.  Mix up the hummus (mine was already prepared by my local deli) and the pesto (guh, it came from a tube, honestly).  Then spoon it into a plastic bag, cutting off one corner of the bag to form a makeshift piping instrument.  Pipe a generous amount of the hummus mixture into the slits you cut earlier.  Pop the dish back into the oven for another 30 minutes.  

That's it.  It was embarassingly easy.  And it was delicious.  Make sure you use a tofu that you like the flavor of, since the marinade doesn't really penetrate all the way to the middle in that hour.  I'm sure it would be even better with homemade hummus and pesto.  But isn't it nice to know that it was good with storebought stuff as well?  I think so.

Oh, I was going to do a review of those holiday soy drinks.  Well...  How about, instead:

This stuff:

Tastes infinitely better than this stuff:

I didn't take those photos.  Silk doesn't even have a picture of that pumpkin spice crud on their website.  Even they know it's not good.  As for the Vitasoy?  I can't wait to get back to the store to stock up.  Anything chocolate and mint is basically a no-brainer for me.  It all stems back to the days when my dad would surprise me with a treat of peppermint patties on the occasion that he might pick me up from school.  Oh, how I rued the day that I found out they weren't vegan.  Sad.

*Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, yes I know I just asked you for nutritional yeast from Elkins when you go and then went and bought my own the next day.  Please, still get me some if you go.  I only got that bag because I'm addicted to the stuff and it's only a pound and it costs 9 fricking dollars a pound here, which makes me insane.  I'm sure I'll need/want more by the time I see you in a couple weeks.  (a big huge bag, please!)

**I did look at that recipe and mine is so much easier.  Granted, they made a sauce to put the tofu in, but they didn't think of the idea of making a piping thingamabob instead of somehow trying to put it in with...a knife?  huh?

Vegan Mofo day 9: all hail seitan (roast). and a story.

Well, I was going to make soup last night, but got a request from Michael that we have a 'meatloafy' type meal.  Since I wasn't really in the mood to create another loaf-type meal just yet (the last one was a bit of a disaster, though fairly edible), I went for a seitan roast instead.  One of the things I used to make all last winter was roasted veggies, usually with tofu mixed in, so I went with that same type of idea here, but with a badass block of seitan in the middle instead of the tofu.  Here it is on our plates, in all it 'meat'-y glory.

sometimes it freaks me out how much like meat seitan really is..wheat meat, woo!

I started with the seitan recipe from VWaV, but added about a tablespoon of poultry seasoning and a couple teaspoons of smoked paprika for maybe a more chicken-ish taste?  I don't know.  But it turned out really tasty, besides the fact that I added too much lemon zest and it was a little lemony.  After wrapping the whole thing up in foil and steaming it for 40 minutes, into the baking dish (unwrapped) it went with lots of veggies!  I believe there was: potatoes, an onion, some turnips, loads of carrots, some garlic, broccoli...oh and just 2 stalks of celery.  I had a vegetarian (incidentally vegan as well) brown gravy mix that I stirred up with about 2 cups of veggie broth, poultry seasoning, dried thyme, and 1 tsp cornstarch.  Pour this over everything, cover in foil, pop that bad boy into a 425F oven and forget about it for about an hour.  Actually, after 40 minutes, I took the foil off so that the veggies would brown a little, then put it back in for 20 minutes.  If you make this, let it sit for about 15 minutes before you serve so that the gravy sets up.  It won't be really thick, but it'll be smooth, not ultra liquidy.  (I keep using -y on things today.  sorry.)

the seitan is like a king in the middle of a sexy vegetable harem

Slice, serve, eat.

we tried to get a cutting in action photo, but neither one of us had the patience...  we were hungry and this smelled deeeeelightful.

Seitan's really filling.  After 2 slices, I was totally done.  But that means, leftovers!  I had my part of the leftover roast today for lunch between slices of multigrain bread, some cheezy sauce I'd made Sunday, guacomole, and a big handful of spinach.  For being a strange combination of flavors, it was pretty damned awesome.

Tonight I'm making the leek and bean cassoulet from Vcon.  I'm a little late on the uptake on that one.  I've wanted to make it since before I even got the book...  I was hoping it'd be rainy and chilly this evening for it, but...it's like 70 degrees and beautifully sunny outside instead.  Oh well..  my only real concern is that it's going to be a lot like dinner last night.  But I have my heart set, so I'm just gonna suck it up and do it.

So...  something I was thinking about earlier: since becoming vegan, I am literally obsessed with food.  I think about it constantly.  As soon as I'm out of the shower in the morning, I'm thinking what to have for breakfast (i.e. what to put in my oatmeal that morning.  today it was frozen strawberries and maple syrup).  Around 11am, I start mentally doing inventory of my kitchen to think of what I can make really quick for a great lunch...or salivating over leftovers from the night before.  4 pm and wham! I'm hungry again and wondering what we've got at the house for a nice snack.  Then around 8 it's time to start dinner, of course.  This all seems fairly normal, except for the fact that every single moment I'm at my desk I'm looking through food blogs or I'm on the PPK or VegWeb talking about food, thinking about what would be good to make soon, copying and pasting and printing recipes.  It's to the point that I have more recipes printed out than I could ever make in a year, probably.  I'm always thinking about food, in some way.  And I'm starting to think that's a little weird.  

I don't have much to do these days, so maybe that's part of it.  And I love vegan cooking and seeing the cool results I can get from sometimes still-strange ingredients.  But before I was vegan, I didn't think about food much until I got hungry.  Then it was just like, ugh, what can I eat to get my stomach to shut up?  I mostly survived on canned beans (microwaved with cumin and a slice of cheese), bags of minute-rice with soy sauce, and spaghetti with plain jar sauce, even as an omni.  (I've never really cooked with meat, it always grossed me out to handle it.)  I mean, I ate good food still.  My mom and dad and grandma are all awesome cooks and I grew up eating some seriously tasty stuff.  I guess something happened when I went to college where I just stopped giving a shit about food.  It was annoying that I had to make it myself all the time or pay for it when I went out.  So my diet became that of what I described above and chicken sandwiches from Wendy's (I stopped eating red meat when I was about 19).  Blegh!  I didn't want to put in the effort to nourish myself properly.  As long as I could get up in the morning and get my work done, I was fine with that.  I seriously neglected my tastebuds.  And honestly, most of what I ate made me feel guilty because it was so unhealthy.  I craved all the stuff that's not good for you.  

And then one day, I met Michael.  And he was vegan.  And he wouldn't talk to me about it.  So I looked it all up online and that's where it started.  I wanted to bake him something.  Because he lived off of veggie sandwiches from various craptastic restaurants around town and spaghetti that he'd make in a slow cooker (sorry, hunny, but pasta loaf is gross).  So I made him lemon squares.  Then I wanted to cook him something.  So I made a vegan lasagna.  And they were both fricking awesome!  And the best part was that I didn't feel guilty eating them.  I knew what I was putting into the food.  Soon after, I became vegetarian.  I was only eating chicken or fish maybe once a week, and when I did, it felt wrong.  So out it went.  It took a lot longer for me to realize that cheese made me feel like shit too.  But eventually I was eating less and less dairy (I had cut out milk and eggs long before because I knew they were gross), especially after Michael moved in and I was cooking for him a lot more.  Then, one day, I was over it.  I'd read some stuff.  It made me ill.  And once I stopped eating cheese...well...  What was the point of not being vegan?  I'd stopped my M&M addiction a few weeks earlier, so there was no draw to the crappy candy that we call 'chocolate' here in America.  I mean, I still love good dark chocolate, but milk chocolate and candy bars were gone from my life.

And that's when this real obsession started.  Because I wasn't just cooking for Michael anymore, I was cooking for me.  For the first time in my life, I started giving a shit about what I was feeding myself (or not feeding myself, in some cases).  I stopped caring about being thin, for once, and started focusing on being healthy.  Goodness knows I haven't lost any weight as a vegan.  I've gained a few pounds.  And I'm totally fine with that.  Because I get to eat a lot more and not feel guilty about ANY of it.  Well, maybe once in awhile I feel some guilt after eating oreos or nachos, but not really.  Not that bad.  I'm nourishing myself in a way that I never have before.  And I love it.  I'm getting to eat real meals with the added benefits of my food being sustainable, cruelty-free, and pretty damned nutritious.  I've only been vegan for 5 months, even though I'd cooked vegan for Michael for much longer than that.  And I'm healthier and happier than I've ever been.  Not once have I been sick (this is coming from a pretty sickly person before).  I am more conscious of the world around me, in terms of environmentalism and what is and is not basically right in my mind.  I am living as much of a cruelty-free life as I have control over.  

I'm happy.  

So if my obsession with food is a little much...forgive me.  I'm still relatively new, I'm enjoying my healthy relationship with food, and I'm still excited about how much more awesome I am now that I'm vegan.  

Enough of that.  I didn't even expect to do that.  Sorry if it was a bit long.  I promised to link to a pizza crust recipe, I believe.  Here you go.  I usually add a dash of oil to the yeast mixture after it's done getting foamy.  It seems like a big crust, but as you could see from the pictures of my pizza, I take that extra and fold it up on itself to make a nice doughy crust for the edges.  Enjoy!

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.

This Is Only the Beginning

Hmm. I've been wanting to start up a food blog for awhile now. So here it is! This will mostly be a running commentary on the concoctions I come up with in the kitchen from day to day... With lots of pictures! Though no pictures right now. My internet at home is down, so I have to sit in the parking lot of a local craptastic fast Italian food chain (no names, no names...) with my laptop and steal their internet for now. Because Starbucks sucks. I will name THEIR name. Because they make me angry. More on that later. Maybe. Oh, I got distracted... I'm using the internet at work now.

Anyway, a bit about me. I'm vegan. So only vegan recipes will be posted here. Which is awesome. And also rad. I love to cook and bake, although since it's summer and about 3 thousand degrees outside (not counting the humidity, which is...unbearable), meals are somewhat simple as of late. But still delish. You'll see. I have loads of pictures that I've been taking of my dinners and sometimes my lunches to post (maybe tonight after work if you're lucky).

What else about me... I've been vegetarian since October 2006, slowly and steadily becoming vegan ever since. I finally kicked my cheese addiction a few months ago and here I am! That may make me sound like a newbie, but I'm not for one simple reason: my ever hungry and live-in boyfriend, Michael, has been vegan for years and I've been cooking for him for over 2 of those years. So I've got it down, for the most part. In fact, I didn't even start cooking until I became vegetarian, and cooking vegan food is most definitely one of my passions. I think about food. A lot. Like, most of my day. I love to eat, and I love to feed people.

Enough about food for a minute. I'm a receptionist at a law office. I have a BFA and a Master's degree in photography, but the town I live in for now BLOWS and there are no jobs in my field. So I am a working artist, but I don't get paid for it. So this pays my bills. Barely. But still. You'll inevitably hear about my job, depending on my mood and whether I actually feel like talking about it. It's not really like... 'part of my real life' if you know what I mean. It's just what I do for 8 hours a day to pass the time and pay the rent.

I love to read. I am a big nerd. I only ask for books and cooking tools for birthdays and christmas.

And that's enough for now. I will steal some internet later and post some food pics, ok? jeez, be patient.