Simple Meals and Food Gifts

I fell in love last week with a simple tahini sauce I made. I hope I wrote it down and can find it so I can use it for my homemade falafel later this week. Oh - I just made for the first time my own chickpeas, not from a can, for my falafel and they are so incredibly sweet and delicious! Anyway, I first put the tahini sauce on broccoli and japanese yam.

Then I put it on broccoli and cauliflower over soba noodles. This was so good I ate it two nights in a row.



Several of you have asked about the japanese yam, so I took a picture of one. It tastes like a sweet potato, but not quite as sweet, and it has a very creamy texture. I get them at my asian market.



At our office Christmas party we had a fajita buffet. They were kind enough to think of me this year, and I got to have some wonderful grilled veggie fajitas to go with the beans and rice. (Usually I just get beans and rice!) There was plenty of veggies left over, so I brought some home and had them over lentils one night.




Today I took my gifts of Texas Trash to the office and everyone went crazy for it. I made another batch last night for the family to snack on. I also made VWAV pumpkin oatmeal cookies since Dori at the Bakehouse blogged about them. I found them a little bland, maybe it's because I've had this cold. But I ended up adding a powdered sugar cinnamon glaze to them. These also got rave reviews. Chase took most of them. He gave some to my mom and she thought they were some of the best cookies I've ever made. I'm sure she doesn't think they're vegan.



Here's my cookies and trash.



I also made mustard for a few special people.



Today I had lunch at Nu Age, my fave veggie restaurant, and they proudly displayed their "2006 VegNews Best Restaurant" plaques. I had their beautiful salad.

Sunday we had a family dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Green Pastures. It's a restored 1800s home which serves a massive buffet on Sundays with plenty of vegan options and even a tofu dish! Here's Chase and my mom at the front door. I wish I had better pictures of the wonderful architure and beautiful holiday decorations. The grounds are full of peacocks. The males have about an 8 foot span of feathers they proudly display. They are breathtaking. (They were also mostly in hiding on this day.) And yes, we are quite comfortable in our short sleeves. It was 82 degrees Sunday afternoon!

Here's all of my family, except my sister who lives in Alabama with her family, in the foyer before being seated. My parents are retired, and my baby brother is an environmental engineer. I will be visiting my sister between Christmas and New Year's.

Me and my angel.....

And lastly, I was clearing out my cookbook shelves of all the meat books I still have and don't use, and I found this!

Isn't that hysterical!?! I'm sure I worked on this at least 20 years ago. I was glad to see that most of my recipes were for vegetable and low fat dishes, along with some family favorites. I have a few golden oldies I want to prepare and show you later!

The dividers had some interesting tips I wanted to share with you.

"White rice will be fluffier if 1 teaspoon lemon juice is added for each quart of cooking water."

"For lighter muffins, heat greased muffin tins in the oven for a few minutes before pouring in the batter."

"To test that bread dough has double in bulk, insert your fingers 1/2 inch into the dough. If the dents remain, the dough is ready to be punched down." (I think I knew this one already)

And my favorite - "Fresh vegetables make tasty additions to green salads."

Let me know if you try the rice or muffin tips.

Tomorrow is my last day of work until Jan. 4!!! Chase and I are planning on decorating Christmas cookies on Thursday, and making some other cookies and Christmas granola after that.

Stay well, everyone!

Comfort & Joy

Comfort -- We've been sick :( Chase is better, but now I've got the sore throat and fever thing that's going around. Since we may not get to do our regular Sunday dinners for a few weeks, we planned Thursday dinners for this week and next. Tonight we had true comfort food - shepherd's pie. The filling was fresh onions, carrots, and green beans, and frozen corn and peas, and tofu. I used 3 medium white potatoes and my japanese white yam for the topping. We also had steamed broccoli and homemade wheat bread.

Before it went in the oven:



Ready to eat.





I have been wanting to make a sesame seed candy, but was waiting until I found soymilk powder so I could adapt a recipe that used powdered milk. Well, I haven't found any powdered soymilk in this whole huge town. I decided to make the candy today anyway using coconut and vanilla custard powder I got from the asian market. I also added in agave nectar and peanut butter and a few coconut flakes. Here is Black and White Sesame Seed Candy - pure fat and totally high calorie and deliciously addictive.





Joy -- This past Sunday we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. Here are some pictures of my favorite holiday things.

My prelit artificial tree. Chase is allergic to fresh Christmas trees.


My mantle.



My wall banner.



My star-shaped Santa pillow.




My handpainted Santa gourd.



A picture of Chase, 3 years old, with Santa.

Stromboli & Minestrone

Tonight was fancy soup and sandwiches so we could spend time putting up our Christmas decorations.

Yesterday I made the dough for the stromboli. Tonight we rolled it out and filled it with onions, roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, pepperocini peppers, spinach, and thin sliced tofu. Two things to remember if you ever make this: (1) the filling ingredients must be very dry and (2) since it's not filled with the usual deli meat and cheese, you must season the filling. We sprinkled on some italian seasonings, garlic, and red pepper. I also served a marinara sauce (from a jar because I didn't think about it ahead of time) and an italian dressing as dipping sauces.










The stromboli baked up beautifully and it tasted awesome. Plus it was fun! I also made a minestrone soup that was thick with every vegetable imaginable, and two kinds of white beans and pasta. It was kind of a mixture of all of the italian soups in Nava's new soup book.






For dessert I made an apple cranberry crisp. I used red and green apples and fresh cranberries. The topping was made with oats and nuts. It was the most beautiful red color.




I also made VWAV sparkled ginger cookies, soft variety. These will definitely be in some gift baskets. They are delicious.



I thought I had a picture of my Christmas tree. Oh, well, maybe next post.


Time to clean up.......

Soup, Quiche, Breads, White Chili Recipe, etc.

Earlier in the week I made Leslie's Gypsy Soup. I followed her recipe exactly, except I used all sweet potatoes (didn't have any white potatoes), so mine is a little darker than hers. The soup is really, really, really good. I know there are some variations on different blogs, but Leslie's combination of spices really makes this soup rock. See Leslie's version here http://eatpeaceplease.blogspot.com/, which was adapted from Kris http://squirrelsvegankitchen.blogspot.com/, who adapted from somewhere else......


I made Nava's Oat Walnut muffins to eat with the soup. I didn't put in quite as many walnuts and instead sprinkled some hemp seeds on the tops. These I couldn't get enough of cuz they are awesome!



Last night I made Susan's Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/12/mini-crustless-tofu-quiches.html. They are every bit as delicious as she described. She left out one important piece of information though. Instead of putting the mixture into the muffin cups, you could just pour it into a bowl and have yourself an awesome dip! I'm not kidding - the batter is as good as the quiches!



On Saturday (when it was literally freezing) I went to the farmers market and got some beautiful veggies. I got sweet potatoes, apples, Brussels sprouts, giant broccoli and cauliflower, and greens - Russian red kale, and my favorite salad greens, mizuna and arugula.



Let's have another look at that broccoli!



I sauted the kale and added in the leftover quiche veggies to have with the mini quiches. Isn't this kale beautiful!!!




I also shopped at Whole Foods and the asian market. I got some weird whole grain soy sauce at the asian market and the yuba sheets. I had a finger taste of the soy sauce and nearly gagged. Chase said he used less than a teaspoon for a giant stirfry and he loved it - said it tasted like Bragg's. So it's obviously very strong. I will certainly get my money's worth, if I'm ever brave enough to try it again. I should have taken a shot of the back side of the bottle. It lists all its nutrients, like Bragg's, including B-12.



I also baked a whole wheat loaf and gave it to Chase. I didn't have any, but he assured me it was as tasty as it looked.



Also made fresh cranberry and farmers market apple muffins.



I made a stirfry using the Massaman red curry paste Megan blogged about. I used broth instead of coconut milk in my stirfry, so mine is really red! http://meganthevegan.blogspot.com/



For Ben -- I hope you can find some GF baking mix soon. Here's what to look for.



And as promised, my recipe for White Chili:

1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large white potatoes, diced
4 - 5 cups water
1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable broth granules
1 teaspoon Tabasco (or to taste)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
salt & pepper to taste
2 cans cannelini beans, rinsed and drained
1 4-ounce can chopped green chilies
1 pound baked tofu, cubed (I baked cubes covered in cornmeal, nut. yeast, and s&p)

In a soup pot saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft. Add the potatoes, water, broth, and seasonings. Cover, set heat to low, and cook about 20 minutes until potatoes are tender. Add one can of beans, then puree the whole pot. Add in the second can of beans, chilies, and tofu. Check consistency at this point. Depending on how much water you used, you may need to add a cornstarch slurry (I did). Continue to simmer for at least 20 more minutes. Taste for seasoning before serving. We like heat and kept adding more chili powder, so our chili became less and less white! We served the chili with fritos, cilantro, and salsa.

It's awfully tasty!!

White Chili, "Yuburrito," & Brownie Pie

I guess it's finally winter here, so it was perfect weather for chili. Instead of our usual sweet potato and black bean chili, I decided to try a veganized version of a killer white chicken chili I used to make. I started with a basic potato soup recipe, then seasoned it with chili spices, and added white beans and baked tofu. It was every bit as good as the chicken version, but with no chicken, butter, cream, or cheese. It was thick and chunky and spicy, and warmed and comforted us cold weather wimps. The recipe is at the end of the post.

We finally bought some yuba sheets (I've loved all the things Megan did with hers http://meganthevegan.blogspot.com/) and wanted to fill it with a mexican style filling, thus, the "yuburrito." Since it was our first time to play around with it, we decided on one giant burrito, filled with beans, roasted red peppers, and green onions.

Here it is being filled.


Here it is ready to bake.


Here it is ready to eat.


Of course we had to have our broccoli. I got this giant broccoli from the farmers market Saturday morning - it was broccoli heaven. Get a load of the size of this!


I used a little more than half of it for roasted broccoli and onions.



For dessert I wavered between smores pie and brownie pie all week, but when I couldn't find any vegan marshmallows, decided on brownie pie. Well, I broke the pie crust this morning, and thought, oh well, I can make crustless brownie pie. Then tonight the soy whip turned out to be a dud, so we really ended up with PPK brownies baked in a pie plate. Bazu posted about these earlier and they looked so yummy. http://wherestherevolution.blogspot.com/. The batter was super stiff and hard to mix. But they turned out to be pretty cakey with a fudgy center.

Lots to post later this week, including Leslie's yummy Gypsy Soup! http://eatpeaceplease.blogspot.com//