Lots of Mushrooms and Joyous News!

There’s excitement in the eat’n veg’n family, but first let’s see how mushroom crazy I’ve been lately.

Along with plenty of the fresh variety, I snagged a huge bunch of dried mushrooms from Costco in Alabama. I don’t love rehydrated mushrooms, but they’ll do in a pinch, especially when they’re rather exotic.



I’ve made all these yummy dishes:

Broccoli and Mushroom Stirfry

Snap Peas and Mushrooms

Purple Cabbage with Mushrooms and Pickled Ginger. Isn’t it colorful!!!

In addition to all the mushrooms, I’ve really been enjoying the seasonal produce.

Roasted Cauliflower with Tandoori Spices

I got this beautiful kale in my CSA box.

I steamed it with some green garlic, also from my box.

I’m eating clean these days, pretty much low fat high raw until at least March 27. What’s so special about March 27? That’s the day Chase gets married!!!!! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!

Vegan Dinner Party!

Hi, everyone! I’m back from my wonderful week of vacation at my sister’s home in Alabama. The highlight of the trip was hosting a vegan dinner party. We spent the whole day cooking and had a blast. Thanks to all of you who offered recipe suggestions. We decided on a Mexican theme because we love it, and frankly, good Mexican food is hard to come by in Alabama. Your hosts/chefs:

For our entrée, we chose the oh-so delicious Bean & Corn Tortilla Lasagna with Avocado from Eat Drink & Be Vegan.

For our sides we made Messy Rice from Vcon and added in fresh cilantro for a Mexican flair, and a tossed green salad. We plated for our guests and the plates were beautiful.

Here’s our table. You can tell which is my seat by the bowl of broccoli.

Yes, those are margaritas next to some of the plates. The meal was fabulous and our guests loved their dinners.

They also loved the TWO desserts we made. I selected recipes from Vcon which I had made before and knew would be a hit. One was my favorite, Apple Peanut Caramel Bars.

The other was my sister’s favorite, Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.

Needless to say, the desserts received rave reviews. After dinner the ladies asked for recipes, looked through the cookbooks I had brought with me, and asked me lots of questions about my diet. They said I inspired them to eat healthier, so I’m hopeful I truly did.

My sister had recently bought a Blendtec blender and received a set of All Clad cookware for Christmas. We cooked and ate a LOT and had so much fun together in the kitchen. And my little nephews are enjoying green smoothies every day! During the week I also made Hide the Lentils Spaghetti Sauce from ED&BV (forgot to take a picture) which everyone liked. And we made two soups. Boy, that Blendtec really makes some creamy soup. One was a butternut squash (not vegan because it was made with chicken broth).

The other was Potato Leek Soup from Urban Vegan. (Sorry for the steamy picture.)

Now I need to get off the sweets and back on my diet… again!

Daring Cooks Challenge - Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I made this challenge the day after coming off my detox. The only requirement to this challenge was to marinade, so I took that quite literally. I chose to prepare Portobello mushrooms in the marinade recipe given (without the oil). I put my mushroom in a big plastic bag.

I made the marinade.

And then I poured the marinade into the bag and let it do its thing in the fridge for a couple of hours.

I didn’t skewer the mushrooms, just pan seared them.

Before I got the mushrooms in the pan, I made myself a side dish of Swiss chard. First I cooked the stems with a bunch of onion.

Then I added in the whole bunch of greens.

Those brown mushrooms needed some color. The final product was beautiful and delicious!

I’m posting from my sister’s home in Alabama so if this format looks weird I apologize. I still want to hear your “must make” recipe ideas for our vegan dinner party!

Detox Success

The 7-day detox went quite well. The goal was to shed a few pounds and get the sugar out of my system. The sugar cravings are gone, my appetite is down, and I lost 9 pounds. And I feel great! The first couple of days I was a little tired, but the rest of the time I had so much energy I could hardly sleep. The detox diet was strictly raw fruits and veggies. The hardest part was no salt. The next hardest part was no hot food during the coldest weather in 25 years. And I missed cooking. I really wasn’t ever hungry until the final day. Here’s what I ate in one form or another last week.






The seasoning is Bragg's salt free blend. I alway tossed very well before digging in!

These berries are defrosing and were delicious when ready. Some fresh fruits I ate were apples, pears, blueberries, and bananas.

Wednesday my mom and I leave for Alabama to visit my sister and her family for a week. I will be in charge of healthy vegan dinners. I will also be cooking for at least one, but possibly two dinner parties for omni guests interested in becoming vegan. I would really appreciate your recommended recipes – your own or from cookbooks – to wow my family and friends. I’m packing Vcon, Urban Vegan, and Dreena’s books to take with me.

PS: I’m still trying to catch up with all of your blogs. I’m doing the best I can while going to work and packing!

PSS: I just clicked on the new Go Vegan blog in the Foodbuzz box and it crashed my computer. Did this happen to anyone else?

Happy New Year! Time to Detox

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as I did. After finally finding some time to sit at my computer, I need to catch you up on my holiday eats, so here goes.

Christmas Eve Chili with beans, butternut squash, carrots, corn, peppers. So good we even served leftovers for Christmas dinner.



Christmas dinner contributions – mashed potatoes

Shredded Brussels sprouts with cranberries and pecans (Alton Brown recipe)

Tuscan Braised Beans from Urban Vegan (completely awesome)

And treats – gingerbread men (from leftover house dough)

Cherry and Pecan loaf

Mint chip cookies (obviously not vegan)

Banana Oat Bundles (from Vive), half with dried cranberries, half with mini chocolate chips

And my New Year’s Day dinner – blackeyed peas with brown rice, bok choy for greens, and broccoli because I always eat broccoli for dinner.

I enjoyed way too many treats during the holidays and found myself in serious need of a sugar detox. So I signed on for a Seven Day Detox with The Raw Divas. I began Saturday and feel so much better – yay! I’m eating only raw fruits and veggies. It’s not difficult, but I do miss cooking. I moved my mixer off the counter and replaced it with the blender to make green smoothies. Oh, and salt. I do miss a sprinkling of flavored sea salt on my veggies. I mentioned on my last post that I got a new camera for Christmas. Now even my boring salads can look yummy.

Or a handful of almonds.

See you next time with lots of salads….

Daring Bakers Challenge – Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

All I can say about this challenge is I did it. I did it on a very small scale as I was short on time and as always, short on patience. I enjoyed making the dough and my tiny gingerbread house templates. I made a one-fourth recipe of dough as I was sure 9 cups of flour was more than I needed, and far more than my stand mixer could hold!

None of my house (bungalow) pieces were more than three inches.

Once cut, they baked for a few minutes.

The challenge was to build a house and get it to stand on its own. That much I accomplished. My frosting was quite stiff and gave me so much trouble as I was applying it to the walls. I did the best I could, summoning all my patience to hold the pieces until they became glued together. I bought a few different types of the typical gingerbread house decorations, and voila. Here you can see that my little house is smaller than a bottle of candy sprinkles.

Like I said, I didn’t create a masterpiece, but I did it.

You don’t have to leave a comment; I’m just posting cuz I gotta. I’m technically still on vacation a few more days, then I’ll be back with a vengeance showing off the new camera I got for Christmas!

Christmas Treats

I’ve been doing lots of Christmas baking lately and want to share a couple of recipes. The first recipe is for some most excellent Ginger Cookies. The recipe I found was almost vegan, except for the eggs, so it was easily adaptable. The recipe includes a little cocoa powder, and the method is different from any other cookies I’ve made in the past. They are rolled in coarse sugar, so they turn it out crispy on the outside and remain chewy in the middle. They are spiced just right. I think they’re the best I’ve ever made.



Ginger Cookies
(adapted from Once Upon a Tart)

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 eggs (I used EnerG egg replacer)
½ cup molasses
1-1/2 cups vegetable shortening, melted and cooled to room temperature
4 cups AP flour
1 T. cocoa powder
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. cloves
½ t. allspice
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
coarse sugar for rolling

Directions:
Heat oven to 350º and position rack in center of oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together, using the whisk attachment of an electric mixer on high speed until light and well incorporated. Turn mixer to low, beat in the molasses, then the shortening.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, spices, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to wet ingredients using the paddle attachment of your mixer on low speed until no flour is visible. (My mixture needed about 3 T. of water at this point to get the dough to come together. If you make the nonvegan version with 2 eggs, this won’t be necessary.)

Pour a handful of coarse sugar onto a plate. Scoop up heaping teaspoons of dough and roll between your hands to form cookie balls (about 1-1/2 inches in diameter). Roll each cookie ball into the sugar, then place onto the baking sheet. (No need to flatten.) Bake for about 11 minutes or until almost set.

Cool the cookies on a wire rack briefly, then transfer off the baking sheet to cool completely.


The next recipe is Cherry Pecan Bread. It’s my favorite bread to bake for Christmas because it’s pink! It’s really a cake baked in a loaf pan. It’s soft and light and perfect for Christmas morning. I made mini loaves to give as gifts (and had one left over for me!).

Cherry Pecan Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
¼ cup margarine, softened
¾ cup sugar
1 egg replacer
1 t. vanilla
1-1/4 cup cherry juice + nondairy milk
1 8-ounce jar maraschino cherries, juice drained and reserved
½ cup chopped pecans, preferably toasted

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Drain the cherry juice into a 2-cup measure, then add enough milk to make 1-1/4 cups. Coarsely chop the cherries.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the margarine, sugar, egg replacer, and vanilla until light and well incorporated. Stir in dry ingredients alternately with cherry juice mixture, stirring just until combined after each addition. Stir in cherries and pecans.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until tester comes out clean. (Bake mini loaves for about 35 minutes.) Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!