I feel like lately I've been getting stuck in a rut in a lot of different ways - work gets tedious, I never seem to make progress on anything, and I end up eating the same things a lot. I did finally get around to making a new recipe the other day - Gobi Manchurian.

It's an Indo-Chinese recipe featuring battered and fried cauliflower in a tomatoey sauce. I got the recipe from an old issue of VegNews. It came out pretty well - considering I'm a novice at battering-and-frying. And *gasp!* my mother ate it, too!

I also found some vegan zucchini tamales at Whole Foods last week. They're delicious with green chile sauce. Why? Because EVERYTHING is delicious with green chile sauce.

You can sorta almost see my super cute houndstooth skull plates from Target! What would I do without Halloween sales?

We've been growing a basil plant and some tomatoes since June. As a result I've been looking for every possible excuse to eat fresh basil. Pasta with tomato and basil has become one of my default lunches when I can't decide what to eat.

Somewhere in all my still-packed stuff is a book on backyard gardening. Now... as it happens we don't have a back yard, just a porch. (Well, technically there's a pit of rocks that you can walk out into downstairs, but there's not much sunlight.) But I've been checking out a lot of urban gardening blogs and it seems like you can grow almost any vegetable you want in containers. Do I smell a new hobby?

Recipe: New Mexico Green Chile Sauce

So I realized I actually do have a few recipes to share that I've neglected to post here. I keep some of this around AT ALL TIMES and I put it on virtually everything I eat. Everything. To be honest, I have no idea how much oregano and cumin I put in this because I've never actually measured it. This recipe is just my best approximation. I believe I've mentioned before that green chile will cure pretty much any illness (well... maybe not an upset stomach. But it's great for colds, flu, etc.)

My father has the Pasquale's restaurant cookbook, and it turns out their green chile recipe is remarkably similar to mine. (But mine is better than the one in their cookbook, imho.)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. olive oil (add more if needed)
1/2 a large white or yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp. flour
28-32 oz. chopped New Mexico green chiles*
2 cups vegetable stock
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2-3 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
dash crushed red pepper flakes

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until almost translucent. Add garlic and continue to sauté until golden brown. Add flour and stir for 30 seconds. Add green chile, vegetable stock, salt, oregano, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

*Yes, I DO mean New Mexico green chiles. New Mexico green chiles are a unique variety that aren't grown anywhere else. If you live in the vicinity of New Mexico there's a good chance you can find frozen green chile in your local grocery stores - check Whole Foods if you can't find it elsewhere. The farther you get from New Mexico the harder it is to find, but you CAN get canned green chiles in unexpected places.

Recipe: Not-So-Green Berry Smoothie

This has spinach in it. I swear.

So I don't know about where you guys live, but it's been freaking hot here. It was over 100 every day for about a week. Long story short, I've been making smoothies a lot - especially for a burst of energy before kung fu.

The way I see it, the key to making a really awesome smoothie in the summer is to use frozen fruit. In general, I use room temperature bananas and frozen everything else. This recipe is good for people who want to try making a green smoothie but are squicked out by the color. The key to the deep red color is blackberries. The color is intense enough to overwhelm the green spinach without turning brown.


Ingredients


2-3 huge handfuls of spinach
1 ripe banana
several frozen peach slices
loads and loads of frozen mixed berries (my mix has blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
a little bit of your favorite plant milk (vanilla or original flavor, I use coconut milk)
1 or 2 ice cubes

In a blender, add spinach, banana, and peaches. Fill the rest of the blender up with berries. I'm not joking. Add just enough plant milk to get it going. Blend thoroughly, stir if necessary. If it's just too thick and not blending properly, add ice cubes and a little more plant milk.

My smoothie matches my hair!

Recipe: Fettucine with Amazing Veganized Ragu Sauce

No matter what your reasons are for adopting a vegan diet, there are some recipes you don't want to stop eating. This was one of them. My Grandmother Lynn made this recipe for us when I was a kid, and my mother kept making it because we all liked it so much. You have no idea how happy I was that my herbivore version came out so well. In some ways I like this better than the original, which was really greasy.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp olive oil
5 Tbsp vegan butter (non-hydrogenated margarine)
2 Tbsp finely chopped yellow onion
2 Tbsp finely diced carrot
2 Tbsp finely diced celery
12 oz. beef flavor Smart Ground (Gimme Lean works too)
salt
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk*
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
28 oz. canned diced tomatoes
1 lb. package fettucine

Put the olive oil, 3 Tbsp of the butter, and onion into a saucepan over medium high heat and saute until onion has turned a light golden color. Add carrot and celery and continue sauteing until they begin to change color. Add Smart Ground, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add some salt and stir. Add the wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until it has evaporated. Add soy milk and nutmeg and continue to cook, stirring, until most of the milk has evaporated. Add tomatoes and stir, and once they start to bubble, turn heat down very low. Simmer uncovered for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Add a bit more liquid as necessary.

Cook the fettucine in salted water according to package directions. Drain well and melt the remaining butter over the cooked pasta. Stir pasta into the ragu sauce and serve.

*Note! There is a difference between "plain" and "unsweetened" soy milk! Plain has no added flavors but DOES have added sugar. Use unsweetened soy milk for cooking.

Now Playing: D.A.F - Alles ist Gut

Recipe: Tomato Lentil Soup

It's been cold and miserable on and off, so I've been in a soup-making mood. (Also I'm lazy and slightly busy, and soup doesn't take a lot of babysitting.) My mother suggested this recipe, so this isn't my usual lentil soup, but it was delicious. The biggest key to perfect soup is letting it cook for as long as possible to let the flavors mingle.

Ingredients


2 Tbsp. olive oil (you'll probably need to add more later)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 medium stalk celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup dried lentils
4 cups water
4 tsp vegetable bullion
1 tsp dried thyme leaves

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic, and sautee about 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Keep an eye on it, if the garlic overcooks it'll get very bitter. Stir in remaining ingredients except tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes at the absolute minimum, 45-60 minutes is best. Add a little more liquid if necessary.

When the lentils and vegetables are tender, add the tomatoes. Simmer uncovered for at least another 15 minutes - 30-45 minutes is best. Remove bay leaf and serve.


Now Playing: The Cure - Lullaby

Recipe: French Bread

This is my favorite quick bread recipe - all it takes is a little kneading, a short time to rise, and you have bread. There are no fancy ingredients or anything like that. Serve with soup or spread with vegan butter, or whatever else you want. This bread is one of the first recipes I ever learned to make, and I still bake it all the time. Be careful about the temperature of the water - if it's too hot, it will kill the yeast. If you don't have a thermometer don't worry too much, just heat it enough that it's warm to the touch, but not hot.

Ingredients


1 1/2 cup warm water (130° F)
1 Tbsp. honey or agave nectar
1 1/2 Tbsp. dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 450° F. In a large mixing bowl, combine water, salt, honey, and yeast. Let stand 5-10 minutes, until the yeast has activated. Add flour and knead lightly until most of the flour has been worked in. Shape into 2 loaves and turn into a baguette pan. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. Make slashes in the top with a knife and spray or brush with salt water. Bake 20 minutes.

Recipe: New Mexico Green Chile Stew

Okay, a few months ago I had a friend ask me what vegetarians eat when they have a cold, since they can't eat chicken soup. The answer: THIS. It's the best. Seriously. I made this on Saturday because everyone in my house is crazy sick right now - I have this obnoxiously persistent head cold, my sister has walking pneumonia, and my mother seems to have whooping cough or something because her coughing is keeping me up at night. Anyway, we were sick and I was homesick for New Mexico, so I made a big pot of this, and it was delicious. If you don't like tofu in soups or just don't want tofu in THIS soup, you can leave out the tofu and add an extra can of pinto beans.

Ingredients:


2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 a medium onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz. extra firm tofu, drained and cut into bite size cubes
4 Tbsp flour
32 oz. vegetable stock
28 oz. chopped New Mexico green chile
2 small tomatoes, diced
1 stalk celery, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 large carrot, cut into 1/2 inch slices
3 small potatoes, diced
1 (15 oz) can pinto beans
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper, to taste
dash Tabasco sauce

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and sautee until onions are translucent. Add tofu and saute about 2 minutes, adding more olive oil if necessary. Add flour and stir well. When the tofu and onions are evenly coated with flour, add vegetable stock and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat and simmer at least 45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. I prefer to let it simmer at least an hour and a half or so. Serve with tortillas, biscuits, or bread - or top with crumbled tortilla chips.


Now Playing: Skinny Puppy - Stairs and Flowers (def wish mix)

One of the things I hate the most...

Am I the only person who hates it when you spend a ton of time cooking something and then you don't like it? It's one of the things I dislike most, probably only second to stressful parking situations. (Don't laugh, I hate when I can't find parking and I have a paranoia about my car getting towed.)

This past week was trying - not because of any huge emotional event, but because it was one of those weeks where something goes wrong every day.

Right, the cooking thing. Monday (I think) I made a dish called Disco Stew that I got out of this cookbook. It sounded awesome, and it was... okay. Not nearly as good as I had hoped. That was going to be my big recipe to share of the week, and it didn't come out well, so that's why I didn't post about it. BUT, since we'd had such a bad week, and my mother was feeling sick, I made a big pot of green chile stew - my own recipe! I served the stew with these Flaky Chive Biscuits. Everything came out perfect.

Green chile stew and biscuits

I've also been eating a lot of veggie burgers - I got the Boca Vegan burgers and they're pretty good (especially with green chile... New Mexico people will know what I'm talking about.)

Vegan Boca burger with lettuce, tomato, red onion, ketchup, and Vegenaise.

My problem with blogging is that I think of ideas for posts and then don't write them down, so I end up just rambling like this with miscellaneous pictures of food. And here's a picture of me:

Lazy snow day outfit

And here's a picture of my cat:

I actually wrote down my chile recipe (usually I just kind of throw things in) so tomorrow after I'm done working I'll post it.

Until next time!

Updates and Food Snapshots

I've been absent for a while, yes - I'm still not quite in the habit of blogging, but I'm working on it. (Albeit more for my own satisfaction than anybody else's.) I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooking because I've been busy, but I did make a quick throw-together lentil stew the other day, so next time I make that I'll post photos and the recipe.

My mother made kale chips, much to my surprise

Coffee and a bagel with peanut butter - one of my favorite breakfasts, and yes that IS a squirt gun on my desk.

Vegan burrito from Chipotle - yes, you can eat vegan there!

On Monday I got invited to a private staff party at City o City in Denver. The crowd was approximately 100 yuppies, 100 hipsters, and lone gothy me. I had a great time though - who can say no to free drinks and free veg Thai food? My friends David and Davey of Bike Theft played a few songs and there was much revelry and jubilation.

On Wednesday Davey invited me out to the monthly vegan dinner, Chomp. The cuisine this month was Cajun, and featured some absolutely amazing chocolate-caramel turtles that I wish I had gotten the recipe for.

In other news, it's sunny today, but yesterday it dumped almost two feet of snow on us. Lovely weather for laziness and tea-drinking.

Happy Saturday!

Mediterranean Lunch

Today's lunch: Pita with hummus and mixed greens, and a healthy serving of Couscous Confetti Salad. (I left out the raisins because I didn't have any on hand.) Delicious. Note: If you do make this couscous salad,  I highly recommend getting someone to help you chop vegetables. That's where most of the prep work goes.

I've started saving vegetable scraps to make my own soup stock. When I have about a pound of them or so I'll share my stock-making adventures.

Now Playing: J.S. Bach - Double Concerto in D minor

1/16/12 - Food and Old Friends

Today I went to see my friends Jordan and Jillian. We've known each other since the fourth grade but don't usually see much of each other since I was living in a different state for about five years. Today I had a great time catching up and playing music.

Jordan is much better at finger picking than I am.

Of course, hanging out with me always involves food because I'm one of those people who has to eat roughly every 20 minutes (that's why I have a food blog in the first place). Jill is also a vegetarian and Jordan's gluten intolerant, so we went on an adventure to Whole Foods to acquire something quick, vegan, and gluten free.

Vegan Blueberry Muffins... not so gluten-free.

The Bombay Potatoes are my favorite from Tasty Bite. They're vegan, free of MSG and preservatives, and best of all, fucking delicious. Seriously, if I could only eat one meal for the rest of my life, this would be it. Probably. (I'm a sucker for Indian food.)

Bombay potatoes with basmati rice. Yum.

Now that we're living in the same town again, I look forward to many more days of food and music - maybe next time with more actual cooking involved. Jordan and I talked about writing music together while I'm here. I think we can both learn a lot from each other because we play completely different styles of music.

I remember when she was a puppy - now she's getting a gray muzzle. But she still jumps on me.

Until next time~

Now Playing: Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence

Recipe: Carrot and Red Pepper Soup

This is my second PCRM recipe adaptation. The original recipe put a few instructions in a curious order, and I thought it lacked complexity of flavor - but it could just be because I think everything's better with a little peppery kick. This soup has a wonderfully fresh, smoky-sweet flavor and goes great with a grain or pasta dish on the side.

Ingredients


1 white or yellow onion, chopped
6 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups vegetable stock
2 red bell peppers
2 cups unsweetened soymilk
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
dash of Tabasco sauce
salt and pepper
paprika, for garnish

In a large saucepan, bring the vegetable stock to a boil. Add onion and carrots and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

While the carrots and onion are cooking, cut the bell peppers in half and remove seeds. Place the halved peppers skin side up under the broiler until the skin is well charred - check them roughly every five minutes or so. When the skins are blackened, remove from the broiler. Set aside and let sit, covered, for about 15 minutes. Remove the charred skin - it should peel off easily.

In a large blender or food processor, blend the carrot mixture, soy milk, and bell peppers, adding small portions of each until completely blended. Note: If your food processor is getting full, back off on the soymilk. Return to the pot and stir in remaining soymilk, lemon juice, and vinegar. Season with Tabasco, salt, and pepper, to taste. (I tend to use quite a bit of Tabasco, but I like everything spicy.) Heat slowly until steaming, but do not boil. Serve topped with paprika - don't skip this! I promise it makes it all come together. (Well... I guess you could skip it.... just don't tell me.)

And there you have it. :) A delicious blended soup for all seasons.

Now Playing: Killing Joke - Follow the Leaders

1/5/12

Lunch today: Amy's Indian Dal Curried Lentil soup, and a slice of Rudi's whole wheat toast with Earth Balance vegan butter. Yum~

Staying with my mother at the moment - I lost my house back at the end of October due to roommate issues, and I have things here to sort out anyway (i.e. all of the things from my childhood and adolescence that are lying around cluttering up the place.) My mother is going on a new diet to eliminate chemical additives in food, so with luck I can get her to eat more plant-based meals. If only I could get my sister to eat my cooking I swear she eats McDonald's practically every day.


Well, I plan to be cooking as much as possible, as well as checking out the vegan options at some local restaurants. An old friend of mine from high school gave me some recommendations, so I'm hoping to check it out soon.

Now Playing: Christian Death - The Blue Hour

Recipe: Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal

This is my first recipe adaptation from the PCRM 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. This breakfast is simple and tastes quite like apple pie. The original recipe suggested quick-cooking oats, but any proper foodie can tell you that's sacrilege. Trust me, it's much better this way.

To tone down the apple flavor, reduce the amount of apple juice concentrate - just make sure that the total amount of liquid adds up to 2 cups.

Ingredients


1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2/3 cup apple juice concentrate
1 1/3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and top each serving with a sprinkling of cinnamon. Serve with fresh fruit or  raisins.