i made some food and used my BREADMACHINE!

I basically spent the past week and half sicker than I've ever been. It was a super rough time and I am so so glad to feel like myself again. It's weird to be stuck on the couch and not have the energy or willpower to do any of the things that usually are done in a day.

Now that I am back to feeling like myself, I was super glad to get back in the kitchen. I spent some time organizing the fridge, hitting the health food, grocery stores and restocking my fridge. This is the type of household chore/task that my hubby just isn't his best at... and he's been the one trying to hold our lil house together while I've been sick.

Onto my cooking catch-up,

I bought some Tamarind pulp a while back and I was tempted to make an Indian-style Tamarind sauce, like the kind that comes pretty standard at Indian restaurants with Samosas? Well.. My attempt didn't taste anything like that, but did have a BBQ saucey vibe. I had started with some Tamarind pulp, some toasted cumin seeds, some molasses and some water, then simmered this on the stove until syrupy. I let this concoction bubble away for like 30 minutes, it got thick and saucey... but I really didn't love the direction it was headed on its own.

I decided to use this sauce as a flavor component in a BBQ sauce. I started out the base of the sauce with peppers, onions, garlic, and celery. I sauteed this for a while, then added canned tomatoes, brown sugar, spices, vinegar, etc. I added in my Tamarind mixture and let this all cook together for over an hour. Then I blended it smooth with a stick blender. Came out TANGY TANGY TANGY. Had a lil with a pan-cooked Gardein chicken cutlet, tasty BBQ-y to me.

I made enough to fill three jars!  No exact recipe... but slightly structured by ideas in cookbook BBQ sauce recipes.

I also decided to put together some "Crock Cheez" from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. I used the basic recipe (Tofu, nooch, spices, Miso, etc..) I substituted Malt Vinegar for the lemon juice, and I think it gave it a bit of a "Beer-y" vibe. Like most recipes I've tried in this cookbook, it came together really easy, with ingredients I usually have on hand, and tastes like something not home-made. I referred to it as "Beer Cheez" when I packed some in my hubby's lunch.

I really enjoy this recipe, I noticed that overnight it has became really thick and really reminds me of Crock cheese I remember my parents getting in gift baskets when I was a kid.  As you can see, the recipe made quite a bit, I was able to fill up two containers. Although, I'm sure this stuff won't last long once my husband tastes it.

Whole Wheat-Sunflower Bread

The last "cooking" I did before I completely exhausted myself was baking a loaf of bread. I have to admit I've been baking quite a few loaves of bread lately. I've been slightly-obsessed with using my "new-to-me" breadmachine.  5 minutes worth of work, a little patience, and then, Ta-Da- Hot Bread!

I inherited a Breadman Ultimate from my Mother-in-Law who no longer wanted hers. I got offered it months before I actually remembered to bring it home with me from her house. I did not know what I was missing! Ever since it has arrived home, it has been getting a lot of use. I've really been quite impressed with the product that it makes, especially in regards to the amount of effort I've put in to making the loaves.

(Before I got sick) I've been making at least 2-3 loaves a week, and we've stopped buying commercially made bread.  This has definitely been saving me cash! (Flour=way cheaper than $4 loaves of artisan bread) I've really indulgently enjoyed the loaves I've made with all-purpose unbleached white flour, but I've also been searching for great tasting-healthier bread. The "French" cycle makes really wonderful, chewy "European" bread, it's hard not to eat the whole loaf.

The loaf I made last night was Whole Wheat-Sunflower, this was an all-whole wheat flour loaf. I have enjoyed the ALL whole wheat loaves, but they are definitely denser and don't offer the same chew factor as the white flour loaves. I am still looking for the perfect recipe that balances the yum-factor with the health-factor.

I have been trying out recipes I've found online, and utilizing the recipes that come with the breadmachine, I think I am going to be working on finding perfect, vegan recipes and posting them in the near future. I've definitely had to search for recipes, as many I've found contain milk powder, eggs, and other non-vegan ingredients. I find this a bit frustrating as the best tasting bread I can find at the grocery store contains the shortest list of ingredients.

I promise I will keep you posted on breadmachine adventures.

Here are some of the resources I've found online, please share with me if you have any good (and healthy) recipes!

"Fat-Free Vegan" forums- Breadmachine Recipes
"Go Dairy Free" forums- Honey 1/2 Whole Wheat Bread Recipe * Delicious
"Veg Source" forums- Bryanna's Breadmachine Recipes w/Starter

baked potato pizza and buffalo tofu nuggets!!!

For our Friday night dinner, I decided to make pizza. For some reason, I can't get enough of potatoes on pizza, so this is a baked potato pizza with onions, sliced potatoes, daiya cheese and bacon bits, yum yum yum! As I was making the pizza, my hubby was very concerned that there wouldn't be enough protein in dinner, I think he was over-hungry and a lil grumpy, but I do love him with all my heart ... so I decided to make him some spicy proteiny nuggets to keep him happy and grump-free.

All in all, this was super yummy and satisfying for a Friday night. It came together quickly and was nice and junk-foody. We thought the only thing that could possibly have made it better was some ranch dressing for dipping, so maybe next time I'll do that. The Buffalo nuggets were very easy, they might become a regular snacky food for us.

oh hello yummy pizza time

Here's what I did:


Baked Potato Pizza
ingredients:
  
1 package of pizza dough (I usually make dough, but prepared is cheap and super convenient)
1 sweet onion, sauteed with a little olive oil
1 potato, sliced thinly
Daiya Pepperjack "cheese"
Bacon bits (storebrand is vegan around here)

-Preheat pizza stone in oven @ 500 degrees
-Roll out dough, top with onions, then potato, then "cheese."
-Bake on pizza stone until nice and golden... maybe 13 mins?
-Top with bacon bits!

Buffalo Tofu Nuggets
ingredients:

1 block extra firm tofu, drained
Cornstarch
Earth Balance
Frank's Red Hot

-Cut tofu into little chunks, I sliced widthwise into 8, then in 1/2 again
-Coat tofu in cornstarch
-Fry in big cast-iron skillet with some earth balance, until all the nuggets are nice and brown
-Put in big bowl and coat with Frank's Red Hot   

thai lettuce wraps and massaman curry

So.. I made this yummy dinner and I thought I would share with y'all. I have been less than motivated to blog recently. Mostly... when I cook yummy dinners, I just want to eat them and I'm too lazy to take pictures :)

This is a very Thai inspired dinner... authentic? Of course not! The lettuce wraps were a memory from a dinner at PF Changs. I looked on vegweb.com for a recipe.. found this one --> here, but definitely didn't follow it very closely. Here's what I did: (Came out DELICOUS!!!!!)


Thai Lettuce Wrap:

ingredients:

2 packages of mushrooms (white button and porcini)-chopped
1 package tempeh-cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic- minced
1 small chunk ginger- minced
1/2 c. lemongrass broth (2 tb dried lemongrass soaked in hot water, then strained)
good squirt sriracha
2 Tb peanut butter
2 Tb Bragg's- more to taste
1 head Boston lettuce 
sprouts

-In castiron skillet, med heat, add lemongrass broth, then garlic and ginger. Cook for a couple minutes then add mushrooms and tempeh and other ingredients. Cook until mushrooms are soft and mixture is moist.
-Serve in crispy lettuce leaves. We topped ours with some sprouts for added crunch

massaman curry

Massaman curry is my ABSOLUTE favorite Thai curry to get at restaurants (potatoes, peanuts and tofu? hell yes!). I got an email from VegNews with a homemade version and decided to try it. Here's a link to the --> recipe. It was definitely yummy, but needs some work. My hubby realized that there were no red peppers in the recipe, but there usually are at our favorite Thai restaurant, and I think it would have benefited from some. Since I made this for guests, I doubled the recipe... and ended up added 4 limes worth of juice to it.. The lime was way overwhelming, still tasty curry, but really really tangy. So, I think I'm going to have to tweak this recipe for a perfect at home Massaman curry.

Dinner was enjoyed by all, and the Hubby would like Thai lettuce wraps everyday.

"egg" salad sandwich

I wanted a hearty healthy lunch today, so I turned to a cookbook that I haven't used in a quite awhile. I got American Wholefoods Cuisine several years ago when I first started cooking for myself. I found a nice recipe for making an egg salad with tofu. Basically, I pressed the tofu, then cut it into lil cubes, then mixed with chopped celery, vegenaise, mustard, dried dill and curry powder. I seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper. Great flavor and texture very similar to the egg salad my mom made me as a kid.

For my sandwich, I used Heidelberg multigrain bread, piled on shredded carrot, arugula, a roasted red pepper, the "egg" salad and some spicy mustard. Great lunch :)

diner-style breakfast

I haven't been inspired to blog much lately, mostly because we've been super busy, and posting little blurbs and pics on facebook is much lazier than posting on here :)

Today's breakfast was quite epic, so I thought I'd share with the blogosphere. Yesterday was the hubby's birthday (we were up late celebrating...) so when we woke up, we were in great need of a big satisfying breakfast. In our pre-vegan days, we would be off to Miss Albany diner on mornings like this. But as vegans in Schenectady, NY, we need to fend for ourselves when it comes to diner-y food.

The menu for our diner breakfast: hash browned potatoes, spicy tofu scramble, guacamole and EB slathered toast :) AND COFFEE!

We started the hash browned potatoes first. I used Adirondack Red potatoes from the Greenmarket. They aren't sweet like sweet potatoes, but have pretty red flesh all the way through. They are quite delicious and cook up a cool dark red/brown color.

for the potatoes:
-2 big potatoes (Adirondack Red for us)
-1/2 onion
-peanut oil
-paprika, s&p
-1 clove garlic

-cut up the potatoes REALLY small so that they don't take forever to cook.
-we started with some oil in a cast-iron skillet over med-high heat. cooked the onion a lil, then added the potatoes and spices (to taste).
-don't stir the potatoes around too much, and you'll get a nice crisp on the potatoes. stir every five minutes or so until they start to be nice and brown
-i think ours took around 2o minutes until i was satisfied. once i turned i heat off, i added the clove of garlic (minced or pressed), then stirred it around.

While this was cooking we got our tofu scramble ready. Tofu scramble only usually takes about 10 minutes to cook... so we overlapped our cooking times.

for the scramble:
-1/2 block extra firm tofu
-onion powder
-garlic powder
-turmeric
-s&p
-1/4 onion, chopped
-2 marinated hot peppers, chopped (we used some leftover peppers that were from the bulk olive bar at the grocery store, use whatever is on hand)
-handful cherry tomatoes, chopped
-2 carrots (we used purple carrots), shredded
-nutritional yeast
-vegan cheese

-in a small bowl, crumble tofu and season up with some with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and turmeric. i don't really measure, but i am usually pretty conservative with the turmeric (only 1/2 tsp would be enough). stir this mixture around and set to the side.
-in a small frying pan over med heat, add a lil oil, and cook the onion a bit. once onion starts to cook, add in veggies (hot peppers, tomatoes, or anything you want). cook this for a minute then add in tofu mixture, cook this around until bright yellow and it starts to firm up (7-8 min)
-once it looks like firm scrambled eggs, stir in shredded carrot and a handful of nutritional yeast, it should be sticky and almost cheesy.
-we topped ours with some shredded vegan cheese (FYH monterey jack). i put it on top, turned the heat off and put a lid on the pan. the "cheese" was melty in about a minute.

The scramble came out super spicy, so we ate it with some guacamole :) We both gobbled up our breakfast and while we ate, talked about how cool it would be to own a vegan diner of our own some day...

tofu scramble

With these gloomy fall mornings, we've been craving substantial breakfasts. Today I decided to make the hubby a tofu scramble. There are so many different versions of this recipe online, I always just do my own thing with whatever I have on hand. Here's what I did today:

ingredients:
3/4 block extra firm tofu
2 T nutritional yeast
dash garlic powder
dash onion powder
dash turmeric
dash Spike seasoning
1 T peanut oil
1/2 small red onion, chopped
1 carrot, grated
salt, fresh ground pepper and hot sauce to taste

-crumble the tofu in a bowl and stir together with nooch, garlic powder, onion powder and turmeric. your mixture should be a little yellow and slightly fragrant
-in castiron skillet, cook up the onion with a lil oil, when the oil starts to get soft, add the tofu mixture in
-season with spike, salt and pepper
-cook until the mixture isn't so moist, maybe 10-15 minutes
-stir in grated carrot, top with a lil hot sauce

This recipe would work with a whole bunch of different veggies tossed in, and with lots of different spices. I was thinking this morning that it would be good with some curry powder in it. Very filling and satisfying breakfast :)

maple walnut 'cream cheese'

This cream cheese was my contribution to Father's Day brunch :) This is my version of a recipe I've seen many variations of. The cheese base is raw cashews and tofu. Tasted really good on toast and bagels

ingredients:
1 package firm tofu -water squeezed out
1/2 raw cashews
1 Tb extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 cup maple syrup
good dash cinnamon
fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 c. raisins
1/3 c. walnuts

-Using food processor, process tofu, cashews and olive oil until really smooth (this takes several minutes). The consistency should be really creamy and fluffy almost.
-Add in salt and spices, add maple syrup to taste/sweetness level
-Add in the raisins and walnuts, pulse several times until chunks are small, but still there.

I've made a similar cream cheese with added garlic, onion, herbs and veggies. yum yum!

Key Lime Pie

A friend brought an amazing Vegan Key Lime Pie over to our house last week, it was so delicious that I needed the recipe. She shared :) so..I recreated it for this weekend. I forgot to take a picture until there was only one piece left, so it looks a lil crazy, but yummy nonetheless. I used this recipe, this pie is so creamy and decadent, it's really more of a cheesecake than pie.

Recipe notes: I used the exact tofu and pudding mixes asked for and Follow Your Heart Creamcheese (which is yummier and has way less weird ingredients than Tofutti), and a storebought vegan pie crust :)

Curried Tofu Salad

We went to a friend from my work's house for a barbeque on Friday night, when I asked what I could bring to share, she suggested something with tofu. I am usually apprehensive to serve tofu to people to non-vegan/vegetarian eaters. Tofu gets a bad rap for 'being bland,' so I knew I wanted to make something with lots of flavor! Curried tofu salad :) yummy! Good with crackers, and as a sandwich filling.

ingredients:
1 1/2 blocks extra firm tofu (frozen, thawed, squeezed dry and crumbled)
1/4 onion chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/2-3/4 cup vegenaise
1/4 cup mango chutney
1 tsp turmeric
curry powder and red pepper to taste

vegan mac w/ sweet potatoes

Our honeymoon in Mexico was wonderful, we stayed at a fancy resort and ate tons and tons of guacamole :) The food we missed most from home was vegan mac.
So I made it right away when we got home..

Here's the recipe for my standard "cheese" sauce for vegan mac :) This amount of sauce is good for 16 oz box of pasta (shells, noodles, whatever...) I usually add some sort of veggie, this time I added sweet potato cubes

(note: this recipe was inspired by vegweb.com)

ingredients:
1 1/2 c. nutritional yeast
3/4 c. canola oil or earth balance
1 1/2 c. soy milk
1/3 c. Bragg's Liquid Amminos
1/4 block extra firm tofu
1 T paprika
1 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
1 squirt dijon mustard
lots of fresh ground black pepper

-combine all ingredients together and blend, i like to use the immersion blender and blend until its a thick-creamy cheesey sauce

-stir in with cooked macaroni (1lb), and veggie of choice, top with bread crumbs, bake for 20-30 mins until bubbly and a little browned

sundried tomato alfredo over fettuccini, grilled asparagus and double-garlic bread

It was time for another "Lost" night dinner :) Leah brought over some nice wine and some really yummy garlic bread (the bread had whole cloves of garlic already baked in). I grilled some asparagus on the stove top on a grill pan, just tossed with a lil oil, salt and pepper.

I also made some fettucini alfredo, I cooked up a pound of whole wheat fettuccini, and tossed it with the sauce. Here's the recipe for the sauce:

Ingredients:
1 cup raw cashews
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 box silken tofu
2 Tb nutritional yeast
1 Tb earth balance butter
2 Tb soy milk
salt and pepper
1 chopped onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
2-3 Tb sun dried tomatoes

-In a food processor, place all of the cashews in, and pulse until the nuts are a fine powder. Add in lemon juice, tofu, nooch, butter, process until smooth. Add in the soymilk, process-- this should be a thick paste now (cream cheese texture)
-In small frying pan, cook up the onion and garlic in a little oil, until a little brown.
-Add onion, garlic and sun dried tomatoes into food processor, process again until smooth.
-Transfer sauce into small sauce pan
-While your pasta is cooking, add in some starchy pasta water into the sauce, and whisk until you get the consistency you want, I added about 2-2 1/2 cups of starchy water.
-Combine the pasta with the sauce (yum yum!)

Recent Kitchen Adventures

This was our Valentine's Day Dinner. I made up some naan, I found this recipe online somewhere... Can't seem to find the link anymore though. Also made some curry with red lentils, chickpeas, spinach and coconut milk. We had some mango chutney in the fridge as a condiment. yum yum yum!










We had a pizza night w/ our friend Kaitlin :) We made two different pizzas. I found a great recipe online for whole-wheat pizza dough.
The only thing I did different from the recipe is using white whole wheat flour.

This first pizza has some leftover red sauce on first, the chopped artichoke hearts and red onion. We put lots of vegan cheese on top (Follow Your Heart Mozzerella and Almond Mozzerella).

This one baked for 14 min @ 425




This pizza was Vegan Buffalo Chicken, I made a blue cheese dressing Kaitlin baked three vegan chicken patties (Health is Wealth brand), then chopped them up and tossed w/ Frank's Red Hot.

We spread the dressing all over the pizza (about half the amount of the recipe), then the spicy chicken pieces, added some red onion.

Lots of vegan cheese on top.

Baked 15-17 min @ 425 :)



This is today's breakfast :)

I put some salt, pepper and nutritional yeast in a bowl, then dredged slices of tofu in the mixture.

I fried up the tofu in a cast-iron skillet for a couple minutes on each side. I put some Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack cheese on top to melt. A little Frank's red hot on top, then served on a whole wheat English muffin :)

Tofu Salad Sandwich

Whenever I use tofu in a recipe, I almost never use the whole block. With any leftover tofu, i cut it into thick slices, put into a freezer bag and stash in the freezer.
The freezing makes the tofu all chewy and changes the texture completely.

Then I always have frozen tofu on hand for tofu salad :)

To defrost the tofu: put in a bowl, pour boiling water on tofu, let sit until completely defrosted.


For salad:
-defrosted frozen tofu
-chopped onion
-tamari sauce
-chopped nuts: i used pistachios, almonds and walnuts
-vegenaise
-salt, pepper, curry powder

All the amounts depend on how much tofu I use... I always just put a splash of tamari sauce in, a sprinkle of spices, enough nuts to make it crunchy... And LOTS OF VEGENAISE!