The Vegan(ish) Experiment

Day 336: Mediterranean Pasta

2009-12-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

I haven't been around much lately, but I have a very good reason. Unfortunately, I can't announce my exciting news for another couple of weeks, so stay tuned! (To my friends/family who don't already know the news: No, I'm not pregnant.)

Anyway, if you're annoyed that I'm teasing you with my secret, distract yourself with this dish. It's an easy meal, prepared mostly with pantry staples. (If you want it to taste fresher, though, plan ahead like I did and visit the olive bar at your supermarket - the olives, sundried tomatoes, and roasted garlic can all most likely be found there.)

Update: My secret was that I was spending all of my free time preparing to fulfill one of my life's goals, appearing on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Unfortunately, I ended up playing against a fantastic guy ... who went on to win that season's Tournament of Champions. Needless to say, I lost. However, I came in second place (and was the only person to get Final Jeopardy right), and it was an awesome experience.

Mediterranean Pasta

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

1 (12 oz.) box whole wheat pasta, prepared according to package instructions
1 (14 oz.) can quartered artichoke hearts, drained well
15-20 olives (I used a combination of kalamata and jumbo green)
2 avocadoes (optional)
pine nuts (optional)

For the sauce:
1 (14 oz.) can tomatoes (diced or not)
4 cloves roasted garlic (more if you love garlic - it's just a mild migraine trigger for me)
10-12 small oil-marinated sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
5 kalamata olives (pitted)
salt and dry crushed red pepper to taste

Directions:

While pasta is cooking, use a blender or food processor to pulse sauce ingredients until they are well-mixed, but still chunky.
When pasta is done, drain and return to pot.
Add olives, artichoke hearts, and sauce to the pasta. Warm over a medium flame until heated through, stirring constantly.
Top with sliced avocado and pine nuts, if you want. (I didn't have pine nuts this time, but have used them in this recipe before and they were great.)

Day 311: Six Word Saturday!

2009-11-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

For an explanation of Six Word Saturday, click here:

And my Six Word Saturday is:

Is H1N1 one word or four?

Looks like our house has been invaded ... so far it's Molly and D. I'm exercising obsessively good hygeine, but feeling pretty pessimistic.

Day 285: Thai Peanut Noodles with Spinach

2009-10-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

This recipe is one I whipped up in less than half an hour on a weeknight, when I was short on perishables except for a soon-to-be-old bag of spinach. You could make the recipe without spinach, too, but I like the color and nutritional value it adds.

Thai Peanut Noodles with Spinach

Ingredients:

6 oz. (pre-cooked weight) whole wheat angel hair pasta

1/2 c. smooth peanut butter (I like to use Teddy's, an all-natural brand)
1 can lite coconut milk
1 T. red chili paste (Sambal Oelek chili paste is pretty mild, but if you or your kids are really heat-sensitive, you might want to add a little less)
1 T. brown rice syrup (or 1 t. agave nectar)
2 T. apple cider vinegar
1/4 t. garlic powder
salt to taste

1 10-oz. bag spinach

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions.
In a medium saucepan, combine peanut butter and coconut milk. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until mixture is smooth.
While peanut butter/coconut milk mixture is heating, place spinach in a microwave-safe container with a couple of tablespoons of water. Cover loosely and microwave for 1-2 minutes, until spinach is wilted.
When peanut butter mixture is smooth, add remaining ingredients and continue to heat over medium-low until warmed through.
Add noodles and spinach to sauce and stir over medium-low flame until the entire mixture is warmed through.

Day 250: Seasoned Kale Chips (Or, How to Get a 2-Year-Old to Eat Greens)

2009-09-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Kale chips have been all the rage in the food blogosphere - I started seeing them a few months ago. "Kale chips? I like kale, but ... kale chips?" was my initial reaction. I read too many good reviews, though, and decided to try and create my own version.

Kale is pretty tasty, but not my favorite green. I usually tend to buy quick-cooking spinach or escarole, or spicy mustard greens, or slow-cooking but oh-so-tasty collards.... Well, needless to say, I like my greens. But kale always just tasted kind of bland to me. And, while I think all greens are beautiful, for some reason this sight never piqued 2-year-old Molly's fancy:

When baked, though, kale turns into something that looks ...well, kind of strange:

Seasoned Kale Chips

But, if you can get past the ugliness, seasoned kale chips are an amazing snack - crunchy, a little salty, savory, and all-around addictive. Bet you can't eat just one ... at least Molly, D, and I couldn't. I must say, it warms a mom's heart to hear her toddler say, "More kale chips, please!"

Ingredients:
2 bunches kale
2-3 T. olive oil
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. chili powder
1/4 t. coriander
1/4 t. cumin
1/4 t. salt
scant 1/4 t. onion powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º F (about 175º C).
Wash and thoroughly dry kale (a salad spinner works well for this).
Tear kale into large pieces, discarding stems - toss them or save them for stock.
Spread kale onto cookie sheets. Line them with parchment paper first if you want to minimize sticking.
Sprinkle or spray kale lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with spice mixture.
Bake kale for 9-12 minutes, or until crispy but not burnt.

Day 222: Mustard-Dill Potato and Asparagus Salad

2009-08-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

I've been cooking a lot this summer, but not updating this blog as much as I'd like. I'm done teaching summer school now, though, and I have a whole week off before I go back to start the new year. So I'm going to schedule a few blog posts to get me through the first hectic days of the fall semester.

We went to Haymarket last weekend, as we often do, to pick up a ton of inexpensive produce. We found some lovely fingerling and baby red potatoes that I just had to buy ... but what could I make out of them? It's been too hot to do roasted or baked potatoes, and I don't like mayonnaise (or the vegan alternatives), so potato salad seemed out of the question. Until I asked myself, "Hey ... why does potato salad have to have mayo in it?" And this recipe was born:

Mustard-Dill Potato and Asparagus Salad

Ingredients:
About 2 pounds of assorted potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
1 1/2 bunches asparagus, trimmed* and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 c. chopped chives
1/4 c. chopped dill, not packed

1/4 c. olive oil
zest of one medium lemon
juice of two medium lemons
1 1/2 t. dry ground mustard (or less if you don't like much spice)

salt and pepper

*To trim asparagus, hold both ends. Bend the bottom end until it breaks off. This will get rid of the part that's too tough to eat. You can toss it, compost it, or save it and use it to make your own veggie stock.

Directions:

Put the potato chunks into a large pot. Cover them with water, about an inch above them. Boil until tender (about 15 minutes, depending on how small you cut them).
While the potatoes are boiling, steam the asparagus until it is slightly tender, but still crisp. (I did this by putting it into a microwave-safe dish with a couple of tablespoons of water. My old, low-wattage microwave took 5 minutes. Most would take less.)
Combine potatoes, asparagus, chives, and dill in a large bowl.
Whisk together oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mustard. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and mix well using a rubber spatula or large plastic serving spoon. Be careful not to break up the potatoes too much.
Season with salt and pepper. Chill for at least half an hour before serving.

This was filling enough to be eaten as a main dish, and it got better the longer it sat in the fridge!

Day 208: Fennel-Dill Salad

2009-07-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

I love summer, in part because it is the only time of the year when I'm in the mood to eat lots and lots of cold salads. I am a huge cold salad fan ... it just doesn't sound so good when it's freezing outside.

While browsing the produce section of Stop and Shop on Saturday, I had an idea: Wouldn't fennel and dill go well together? I've made fennel salad before, from this fantastic recipe, but it had tarragon in it. So I decided to try and invent a fennel-dill salad. And it was so good. Feel free to add or subtract ingredients; this ended up being a combination of what struck my fancy at the store and what I had sitting in my veggie drawer at home.

Fennel-Dill Salad

Ingredients:

1 bell pepper (I used 1/2 red, and 1/2 green), julinned
2 fennel bulbs, cut in half and sliced thinly (spritz them with lemon juice to keep them from browning)
1/2 bag of broccoli slaw mix (julinned broccoli, carrots, and cabbage), or other cole slaw veggies
1 cucumber, sliced thinly and sprinkled with salt
1 bunch scallions, green parts only, diced
1/2 c. chopped dill

1/3 c. olive oil
juice of 4 very small lemons, or 2 large lemons (about 1/4 c.)
1/4 heaping tsp. celery salt
1 clove minced garlic

Salt & fresh ground black pepper

Instructions:

Combine oil, lemon juice, celery salt, and garlic in a food processor or blender.
Combine vegetables and dill in a large bowl. (Yes, I know that bell peppers are actually fruits, not vegetables. But I'm calling them vegetables anyway. So there.)
Pour dressing over salad and toss. Serve immediately or chill.

Day 204: How To Make Fruit Unappetizing

2009-07-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick laugh for you all - I love finding stuff like this! So cringe-worthy:

I'd hate to see how much they charged if it were ACTUALLY fresh...

Day 198: Shockingly Good Black Bean and Millet Burgers

2009-07-17T04:41:00.000-07:00

Note: I have written more posts than usual lately, so if you're stopping by for the first time in a week or two, make sure you check out all of them!

I recently made Chickpea Cakes Piccata from the Happy Herbivore's blog. They were easy and tasty (although I would add only half of the recommended poultry spice next time, and the sauce made too much - I would halve that part of the recipe). "Why don't I make bean cakes more often?" I asked myself.

And out of that question came this recipe. I am prouder of this dish than almost anything else I have created. It was a smashing success (no false modesty here!) It's very healthy and tastes shockingly good. It is now in competition with the veggie burger from The Druid Pub for the Becki's Favorite Veggie Burger blue ribbon. Whether you are vegetarian, vegan, or neither - try this recipe! I wish I could make it for all of my readers.

Black Bean and Millet Burgers

Ingredients:

1/2 cup millet (you can also use another small grain like quinoa, which looks very similar to millet when uncooked - I think even whole grain couscous would work. Cook either according to package instructions.)
1 1/2 cups water
1 pinch salt

1 medium onion, chopped into a few large pieces
1 bell pepper (I used 1/2 red and 1/2 green), seeded and roughly chopped
1/4 t. salt
1 T. canola oil

2 cans black beans, drained (It's okay if they're still kind of wet - just drain through the can lid.)
1 T. cumin
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. salt
About 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
I think it would be tasty to add 1-2 chipotle peppers to the black bean mixture, but haven't tried it yet. If you do, please comment and let me know how it was!

More canola oil
Whole wheat flour

Directions:

Add millet, water, and a pinch of salt to a medium saucepan. Heat on high until boiling, turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes until water is absorbed.
While the millet is cooking, use a food processor to mince onion and pepper (do not puree - just pulse until very, very finely minced). If you don't have a food processor, use a blender and do it in batches. A hand blender (immersion blender) would also work.
Heat canola oil on high in a large skillet or sauté pan. Add onions, peppers, and 1/2 t. salt. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.
Stir together black beans, cumin, garlic powder, and 1 t. salt. Pulse in a food processor until beans are mostly broken up, but not pureed. Stir cilantro into the mixture.
Combine millet, bean mixture, and onion/pepper mixture in a large mixing bowl. Stir until well-combined. Use your hands to create 6 large or 10 medium-sized patties.
Lightly dip each patty in whole-wheat flour, brushing off any excess.
Brush a large skillet or sauté pan with canola oil. Cook patties on medium heat until browned, flip, and brown the other side (You may want to brush more oil onto the skillet before laying the flipped burger down). It takes several minutes per side. Don't make the burner too hot, or the patties will brown before heating through.
I served the burgers on sprouted-grain (Ezekiel bread) English muffins, topped with avocado slices and store-bought fresh salsa.

Day 195: Ginger-Sesame Noodle Salad

2009-07-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

I love summer vacation - I have more time to do things like creating new dishes. This one was a pantry/fridge clean-out recipe, and it turned out well! Even Molly (who is very picky these days) liked it.

Ginger-Sesame Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

1-inch (2.5 cm.) piece of ginger, peeled and chopped into a few big pieces
2 t. tamari (or 2 1/2 - 3 t. soy sauce)
2 T. apple cider vinegar
3 T. sesame oil
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 dash cayenne pepper

1/2 box (about 6-7 oz.) whole wheat spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions*
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 bell pepper (I used 1/2 red and 1/2 yellow), julienned into ~1/4-inch strips
1/2 c. julienned carrots (I used pre-packaged ones)
1 1/2 c. broccoli florets, steamed**
1 T. sesame seeds, toasted***

Directions:

Mince the ginger using a food processor, scraping the sides as necessary
Add the next five ingredients and blend until fully emulsified.
Combine all of the other ingredients in a large container, add dressing, seal, and shake until well-tossed.
Chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

*In contrast to white pasta, I usually cook whole wheat pasta using the maximum cooking time (e.g., 11 minutes if it says 9-11 minutes on the box). I find that this helps it not to have such a tough texture.
**I put the florets into a Tupperware container with a tablespoon or so of water, covered them loosely, and microwaved them for 2 minutes in my very slow microwave.
***I put the sesame seeds into a dry pan and shook it over a high burner until they started to brown and become fragrant.

Day 193: Hobo Veggies and Indoor Camping

2009-07-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

D's two daughters (featured in my Caribbean Tabbouleh post) left yesterday. We miss them a ton, but we had a fantastic time while they were here. It's hard having them live so far away.

D took a few days off last week, and we reserved a campsite in the White Mountains for Tuesday and Wednesday. N (the 9-year-old) had studied the Appalachian Trail in school, and was excited to see and hike a small portion of the trail for herself. Our weather here has been depressingly bad this summer, with more wet and cool days than anything else. But it got warm and gorgeous over the 4th of July weekend, so we had high hopes for camping.

And then we watched the weather forecasts. And we watched them and watched them, hoping that somehow they would change. They didn't. We canceled our trip, disappointed but relieved -- it rained hard for two days straight, with big thunderstorms both in Boston and the White Mountains. It would have been a miserable and dangerous couple of days.

So what did we do? Well, you know what they say ... When life gives you lemons, set up a campsite on the enclosed back porch! (Or something like that.) Our 3-4 person tent just barely fit between the walls of the narrow, long room:

We made hobo veggies in the oven, since we didn't have a campfire. (See below for the recipe - these were SO good!)

We fired up the camp stove and sat around it, making pita pizzas and s'mores (both non-vegan). We played cards to the light of camping lanterns and told jokes:

I don't know what made it feel the most like a true camping experience: the plastic smell of the tent, the fold-up chairs, the cheap beer, the flannel shirts that N and I wore, or the s'mores. What I do know is that it's a night that none of us will forget any time soon, probably more memorable in the end than a camping trip would have been.

And now, the recipe (adapted from one here):

Oven-Baked Hobo Veggies

Ingredients:
About 20 small baby potatoes, cut in halves (if very small) or fourths
1 bell pepper, cut into strips
4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch segments
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
Vegan margarine
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F (about 170° C).
Cut 4 pieces of aluminum foil, about 18 inches each.
Divide the veggies into fourths, putting one batch in each piece of aluminum foil.
Put 2-4 pats of margarine onto veggies in each packet.
Sprinkle garlic powder on top of each batch of veggies (as much as you like). Season with salt and pepper.
Fold each piece of aluminum foil over the veggies, making a packet to hold in the juices.
Bake packets until potatoes are done (it took 70 minutes for mine.)

Makes four large servings.

Day 180: The Neti Pot

2009-06-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

I'm writing a non-food-related post today, about one of my current best friends. I know many of my readers like to live natural lifestyles, so I hope I can convince some of you to get to know this friend of mine:

The Neti Pot

(Not-very-good picture taken with my phone -- camera out of batteries)

Those of you who read my sister's blog will have heard of this strange device. A few months ago, C.Beth posted a courageous picture of herself using a Neti Pot -- a little pitcher that you fill with warm saltwater and use to irrigate your nose and sinuses. I am not as brave as Beth, so I'm not posting a picture of myself using this thing. However, seeing as how she and I are identical twins, her picture will still give you a pretty darn good idea of how I look when I use a Neti Pot.

Saline irrigation has been clinically shown to have positive effects. I am a pretty big skeptic when it comes to alternative therapies -- I like my medicine to be science-based, and I am much more likely to take a clinical-trial-backed prescription than a non-FDA-approved herb -- so I use the Cochrane Report website when I want to find out if a therapy has been shown to be beneficial or not. The Cochrane folks have looked at 8 studies done on nasal saline irrigation, with the result that, "Saline irrigations are well tolerated. Although minor side effects are common, the beneficial effect of saline appears to outweigh these drawbacks for the majority of patients. The use of topical saline could be included as a treatment adjunct for the symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis."

It is recommended that people with chronic nasal problems (like me, with my allergies) use the Neti Pot every day, twice a day. I'm not that dedicated. But I do try to remember to use it when I get a cold. (I know that the above quote talks about chronic rhinosinusitis, not acute conditions like the common cold. But I couldn't find any studies done regarding irrigation as a therapy for acute conditions, and I figure it can't hurt.)

I got an ear and sinus infection last month after battling a cold ... I hadn't remembered to use my Neti Pot. Then I came down with a cold on Thursday. I started to use the Neti Pot, morning and night. By Friday, it was one of the worst head colds I'd had in a long time. And by Sunday ... it was almost completely gone. I had a similar experience a few months ago, right after I'd gotten my Neti Pot, when it seems to have helped me get over another cold much more quickly than usual.

So, thanks to my wonderful dad who sent me my Neti Pot after seeing my comment on Beth's blog - she's made a believer out of him, and he, in turn, helped convert me! If there's anyone reading who is interested in getting a Neti Pot for themselves, you can usually find them in your local drug store (right by many of the alternative therapies that I usually eschew). Or, get yourself over to any big site like Amazon and order one.

Day 178: Caribbean Tabbouleh

2009-06-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't been writing, because it was our last few weeks of school. We've been extremely busy. I've been on summer vacation since Thursday, though, and am finally able to spend some quality time in the kitchen.

For the next couple of weeks, I have some help -- my two stepdaughters, visiting from Minnesota:

Nearly-11-year-old C., my sous-chef (she's fantastic at chopping veggies and herbs)

And 9-year-old N., my nanny (she kept Molly busy while C. & I were cooking and D. was at the store)

Luckily, C. and N. are adventurous and were excited to be the guinea pigs as I tried a new invention -- Caribbean Tabbouleh. Like Middle-Eastern tabbouleh (a.k.a. tabouli), it contains bulgur wheat, cucumbers, onions, and a lemon/olive oil dressing. But I also added some Caribbean spices, pineapple, mint, and colorful bell peppers. It turned out fantastic, a bright and fresh dish for summer (which finally seems to be hitting us here in New England, albeit in a very wet way.)

Caribbean Tabbouleh

Ingredients:

1 c. bulgur wheat (I used coarse bulgur)
2 T. olive oil
2 c. boiling water

One 20-oz can pineapple tidbits, well-drained
2 cucumbers, chopped
1 bunch scallions, just the green parts, chopped
1 bell pepper (I acually used half a red one and half a yellow one), seeded and chopped
A handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped

1/2 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. garlic powder
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch cayenne
salt to taste
Juice of two small lemons (about 3-4 T.)
1/4 c. olive oil

Directions:

In a heat-proof bowl, stir the olive oil into the bulgur. Add the boiling water. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes, then drain.
Allow bulgur to cool, then add all chopped vegetables and herbs.
Whisk lemon juice, vinegar, and spices together. Pour dressing on salad, toss, and chill. (The longer you can chill it, the better ... I think we made it about half an hour before we ate it. It was fantastic, but I expect it will be even better tomorrow, as these types of salads are...)

This makes a good 8 servings or more.

Day 159: Lentil Salad with Cilantro-Cumin Dressing

2009-06-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

It's FINALLY warming up here. Supposed to get cool again by the end of the week, but I'm ignoring that fact for now. Warm weather means nice salads at our house - the kind you can make and leave in the fridge for days, and they get better every day. Yum!

This recipe was inspired by the one here (for cooking the lentils) and the one here (one of my favorites). The dressing is so good - I'd definitely make it again for a regular green salad!

Lentil Salad with Cilantro-Cumin Dressing
(The side dish is Simple Cauliflower from 101 Cookbooks - a recipe we just discovered and have made twice in the last week, just because it's so good.)

Ingredients:
2 c. dry lentils
1 small onion, peeled and halved
1 t. minced garlic
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

3/4 c. cilantro leaves, unpacked
1/2 c. olive oil
1/2 c. lime juice
1 T cumin (I used a little more because I'm a cumin fanatic)
salt to taste

3 small, or two large, multi-colored bell peppers, diced
1 (4-oz.) can diced fire-roasted green chiles
1 (14-oz.) can corn kernels
a bunch scallions, chopped (save the white part for another recipe)

Directions:

Put the lentils, onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and pepper in a large pot. Cover with 1 1/2-2 inches water and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 30 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Drain if necessary.
While waiting for water to boil, start the dressing: blend cilantro and olive oil in a food processor. Leave at room temperature while lentils are cooking so that the cilantro infuses the oil.
Chop peppers and scallions.
While lentils are draining, finish the salad dressing: add lime juice and cumin to the food processor and blend well. Add salt to taste.
Combine drained lentils, vegetables, and dressing. Season with salt as needed. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Day 151: Spinach and Fiddleheads Siciliano

2009-05-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful trip to Los Angeles last weekend, and when I came back, I had to bring my laptop to the Apple Store for repairs. I still haven't gotten it back (it's been 5 days, and they said 5-7 days), so I finally broke down and am writing this post on our desktop at home. (And, just as I had first started this post several hours ago, our iMac started to crash ... I had to find the startup disk in the basement and repair the main volume of the hard drive before I could finish. Sheesh.)

Have you tried fiddleheads? They are baby ferns, only available for a few short weeks starting in May. They look funny, but they are oh-so-tasty. I think they smell kind of like asparagus, but D doesn't agree with me - so you'll just have to try them yourself to see, if you can still find some now that June is upon us! This recipe is inspired by the Escarole Siciliano from AllRecipes.

Spinach and Fiddleheads Siciliano

Ingredients:
1/2 bag (5 oz.) spinach
1 lb. fiddleheads
2 T. capers
6-10 olives, chopped
2 T. canola oil
lemon juice to taste
fresh-ground black pepper

Directions:

Wash the fiddleheads well - I tend to scrub them with my fingers to get all the grimy stuff off. (This is the step that takes the longest!)
Trim any ends off of the fiddleheads that stick out more than half an inch or so. There shouldn't be any long stems.
Heat canola oil over high heat in an extra large sauté pan or large pot.
Stir-fry the fiddelheads until they start to become fragrant (maybe you'll think they smell like asparagus, but maybe you won't) - about 1-2 minutes.
Add spinach and toss well. Cook for another couple of minutes, until spinach is wilted down.
Remove from heat, add capers and olives, and season with lemon juice and pepper until desired taste is achieved.

That's it! Super-easy and SO good.

Day 138: Comfort Food - Pasta Primavera!

2009-05-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite comfort food dishes before I went vegan was (I'm so ashamed to admit this) the Campbell's Soup version of Chicken Primavera, made with good ol' Cream of Mushroom. Campbell's is not the most natural product, to say the least. We always got the Healthy Request style soups, because they did not have MSG ... but they did have all kinds of additives to make up for less fat and salt.

So, when I was feeling under the weather last week, I really wanted some comfort food. I decided to adapt the Chickpea Divan recipe from Vegan Spoonful, because its vegan roux makes the base for a really nice creamy sauce.

The verdict: This recipe came together quickly, and I liked it a lot. But not as much as I would've liked it if it had a ton of Parmesan in it, like the original Campbell's recipe. Oh well. I don't really want to go down the road of soy cheese - I try to keep my processed-food intake limited to soy milk and tofu. Maybe next time I will try it with some nutritional yeast, though. Donal thought the sauce was too bland - I didn't agree, but he likes things really spicy or otherwise full of flavor. He added some Vietnamese hot sauce to it, and liked it that way. To each his own!

Be warned: this recipe makes a LOT! Feel free to cut it in half.

Pasta Primavera with Chickpeas

Ingredients:
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. garlic powder
2 t. salt
1 t. dry thyme
1/2 t. white pepper
1/2 c. vegan margarine
4 c. vegetable broth
1 bag frozen mixed veggies, whatever mixture you like
1 can chickpeas
1/3 c. white wine
1 c. unsweetened soy milk
1 box whole-wheat pasta (we only had couscous, but I would've preferred it on a large pasta like farfalle or penne)
chopped parsley to garnish

Directions:

Begin cooking pasta according to package directions.
Mix the flour, garlic powder, salt, thyme, and pepper.
Melt the margarine over medium heat. When melted, add the flour mixture. Stir well.
Add vegetable broth. Whisk until all lumps are gone.
Add frozen veggies and chickpeas. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce becomes bubbly and thick.
When thickened, remove sauce from heat and add white wine and soy milk. Season with black pepper and additional salt if needed, pour over pasta, garnish with parsley, and serve.

Day 131: The Best Tempeh Tacos

2009-05-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

I know I've been doing a lot of Mexican food, but I make no apologies! Hopefully some of my readers like it as much as I do.

These tempeh tacos, which I made with the same Spanish rice I blogged last week, were really good. Better than the ones I made back in January, and definitely an easy dish that we will make again and again. The marinading process means planning ahead is a necessity, but once it's time to cook the tempeh, it comes together very quickly.

The Best Tempeh Tacos

Ingredients:
1 (8-oz.) package of tempeh
2 t. dry minced onion
1 t. chili powder
1/4 t. crushed red pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. oregano
1 t. ground cumin
1 T. tamari (or 4 1/2 t. soy sauce)
2 T. lime juice
2 T. water
2 T. canola oil

Taco shells (I use Bearitos brand, which has no hydrogenated oils or artificial anything)
Other taco fixin's (our fridge was pretty bare, so we just used canned refried beans and salsa. Lettuce or other greens would've been nice, though - or my tangy jicama slaw would have been heavenly!)

Directions:

Slice the tempeh into 1/2-inch slices.
Place tempeh in a small pot and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine all other ingredients except oil. This is your marinade.
Take tempeh out of the water and place in a ziploc bag with the marinade. Refrigerate for at least an hour (I did more like 4 hours)
When finished marinating, heat canola oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry tempeh until browned on one side. Flip and brown the other side.
Assemble tacos. We heated the shells in at 350° F (about 170° C) for five minutes, lined them with warm refried beans, put a couple of sticks of tempeh in each shell, and covered in salsa.

Day 124: Super-Easy Spanish Rice and Chimichangas

2009-05-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

I'm back, and thanks so much to everyone who left sympathy remarks on my last post.

Recently, it was a weeknight and I didn't have any food planned. During the weeks before my mother-in-law passed away, we were spending almost all of our free time at the hospital. Things like meal-planning went by the wayside.

We were in the mood for Mexican food, so I whipped up this:

Super-Easy Spanish Rice and Chimichangas

This meal took about 30 minutes, and was so good. (I wonder if the fact that my "super-easy meals" are often Mexican-inspired is due to my hometown being 10 miles from the Arizona-Mexico border? Not that these recipes are authentic!) This meal was little more fatty than most stuff we cook, but a nice treat when we were in the need of some comfort food. You can always forego frying the chimichanga, and just have it as a burrito, if you want to reduce the fat content.

Super-Easy Spanish Rice

Ingredients:
1 family-sized bag of instant brown rice (I use Success brand, and love it - one bag makes 3 cups rice)
1 onion, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 small (8.5-oz.) can of corn
1-1.5 cups chunky salsa (I used the fresh kind available in the produce section)
1 T. canola or olive oil
Chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions:

Cook rice according to package instructions (it takes about 15 minutes, including waiting for the water to boil)
While rice is cooking, chop onion and brown in oil, in a medium saucepan, over medium heat.
One minute before rice is done, add peas to onions. Stir.
When rice is done, add rice, corn, and salsa. Stir over medium heat until heated through.
If desired, or if your cilantro hasn't gone bad like mine had (grr!), remove from heat and stir in chopped cilantro.

Super-Easy Chimichangas

Ingredients:
4 whole-wheat tortillas (warm in microwave for 20 seconds if not soft)
1 can refried black beans (I use Amy's or Bearitos, whichever is cheaper, and love both)
1 cup salsa verde (I'm faithful to the $3 kind from Trader Joe's)
3 T. canola oil

Instructions:

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium-high.
Stir salsa into black beans.
Distribute black beans equally onto all four tortillas.
Roll burritos. Fry in oil until browned on one side, turn, and brown the other side.
Serve with more salsa.

Death in the Family

2009-04-20T07:00:00.001-07:00

This is D with his mom, Helen. We lost her yesterday, at the age of 62. We have spent an awful lot of time in the hospital the last few weeks, and the Internet has (rightly) taken backseat. I will return to my frequent comments, tweets, Facebook updates, and (semi-)regular blog posts soon, but I'm not sure when.

I met Helen six years ago today, only three weeks after meeting D. We already knew we would end up married, although it was over two years before we did it. I didn't feel like I knew Helen well until the last several months, though. She was slow to open up to me, and I suppose I was in return, until she became sick and we both started to reach out to each other.

I am so grateful that I was able to really know her, to love her as family, before she died.

I am grateful that Molly loved her Nana and got to see her often.

I am grateful that D and I were by her side when she took her last breaths, and that she was so peaceful and free of pain as it happened.

I am grateful for the ICU nurses, who learned the family members' names and greeted us every time we came to visit. It takes a very special type of person to work in an environment where the private grief of families is so prevalent. They were amazing.

I am grateful for last Sunday, Easter, when Helen had a very good day. She was talking, the breathing tube out for a few days. She knew where she was, and she was able to see and talk to four of her grandchildren. Her room was a celebratory place that day, with Irish folk music playing so loudly that it must have entered the rooms of patients halfway down the hall.

I'm grateful for the funny memories that keep popping up, like when D told me about how his mom used to put him on the handlebars of her bike and ride him to Cub Scouts. And yesterday, when we passed a Christmas Tree Shop (a discount store full of trinkets, figurines, and the like - not all holiday-oriented), and I commented that we should have her memorial there, because she loved it so much. D said that they'd see a dip in their sales now, and we both laughed and cried at that.

We are exhausted, and it hasn't completely sunk in yet. We're discovering that, although we know she is gone, believing it is something altogether different. The belief comes in waves, and I think it will gradually build over the months. Some day, her death will be fully real. I think we're all kind of glad it's not yet.

Day 94: Macrobiotic Oatmeal Cookies

2009-04-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

Way back on Thanksgiving Day, my sister Beth had a blog post that asked readers to say something they were thankful for. Beth was thankful for something starting with the letter A, the first comment was to include a thanks starting with a B, and so on. Whoever got to Z first would win cookies from Beth.

If you are bored, stressed, or otherwise in need of a laugh, go back and read all the comments on Beth's post. I dare you not to giggle. Beth didn't count on me and D hijacking the contest (and D trying to cheat his way to a win by starting with Z and going backwards from there.) In the end, after much family hilarity, I won fair and square by a few seconds.

Every day for months, I looked for my cookies in the mail. If my sweet tooth struck, I would say to myself, "I'm not going to make or buy cookies. Maybe Beth's cookies will come TODAY!" But they didn't.

Just kidding. In reality, I forgot all about the contest. Months later, Beth called me and said, "Your cookies are on the way!" and I said, "What cookies?" She had to remind me about the contest. This was near the end of February, and we'd been staying away from almost all refined sugar since January 1. Ugh. What would we do with an entire batch of cookies?

And then they arrived: Beth had looked online and found a recipe for Macrobiotic Oatmeal Cookies. Gluten-free. Sweetened with maple syrup and pumpkin puree. No added oils, flour, or white sugar. And they were yummy. Just a hint of sweetness, sort of like a really moist granola bar. We actually ate them for breakfast for the next few days.

I got the recipe from Beth and discovered that its measurements were listed by weight, not volume. I could "borrow" one of the digital balances from my school's chemistry lab for awhile (not a good idea, considering the toxic stuff they work with in chem class), or I could do some research on the densities of the ingredients and convert the measurements to teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups. Being a math/science geek, I opted for the latter. I also added cinnamon to the recipe, because everything's better with cinnamon. For those of you who don't think it's fun to do density calculations while you're cooking (you crazy people), I'm posting the adapted recipe here.

Macrobiotic Oatmeal Cookies

This is a great recipe to play around with - what other dried fruits, nuts, and seasonings could you use? I'm thinking a pinch of nutmeg next time ... maybe some chopped pecans ... dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots ... sweet potato puree instead of pumpkin ... Mmm!

Ingredients:
3/4 c. raisins
3/4 c. slivered almonds
2 c. old-fashioned oats
1 - 2 t. cinnamon (Mom, you have permission go crazy and add a whole tablespoon ... I know you will, anyway!)
3 T. maple syrup
1 c. soymilk
1/2 c. pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling - just pure pumpkin. You can freeze the leftovers if you use canned.)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F (about 170° C).
Toast almonds in a dry saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until lightly browned and fragrant. Pour onto a paper towel to cool.
Mix raisins, oats, and half of the cinnamon in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Chop nuts and add them to the mixture.
Pour syrup, soymilk, pumpkin, and the other half of the cinnamon into the same saucepan you used for the nuts. Heat over low flame, stirring, until it boils.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir to mix.
Place spoonfuls of cookies on a cookie sheet (you can press them down to make them more crispy and cookie-ish, like Beth did, or keep them more ball-shaped to make them moister and more like a soft granola bar, like I did). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until slightly browned.

Day 88: Super-Easy Mexican-Style Pasta

2009-03-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

So much for posting more often. Last week was more busy instead of less! I have a whole pile of yummy food pictures, ready to be posted ... when I find the time.

In an effort to save on groceries, I decided that one meal last week should be assembled from solely pantry ingredients. (Except the cilantro, which I already had in the fridge and needed to use up before it went bad.) This dish isn't traditional Mexican (pasta? huh?). But the flavors are Mexican-inspired. And, taking a scant 30 minutes to prepare (including boiling a big pot of water for the pasta), I'm willing to sacrifice a little authenticity! We loved this, and so did Molly (except the corn, which for some reason she doesn't like these days).

Mexican-Style Pasta

Before I give the recipe, here's another tip. Have you ever gotten annoyed when you had to throw away most of a bunch of cilantro, because you couldn't use it fast enough? Thanks to Alton Brown and Simply Recipes for this idea:

Tip #4 for Easier Vegan(ish) Cooking:
When you buy cilantro, snip off the ends of the stems (like you would for fresh flowers). Place the cilantro into a tall Tupperware container or a simple glass. Add water so that the ends of the stems are submerged, but not the leaves. Cover the container - either with a Tupperware top, or with an inverted plastic bag (I use the bag the cilantro came in.) Change the water every day or two. Your cilantro will last TWO WEEKS if you do this. No kidding. Even here in New England, where the cilantro is surely many days old by the time it hits my supermarket. If you're a visual learner, click the Simply Recipes link, above, for pictures.

Super-Easy Mexican-Style Pasta

Ingredients:

1/2 box (8 oz.) whole-wheat pasta (I used angel hair - cooks the fastest)
2 cans Mexican stewed tomatoes (get these if you can - they have a way deeper flavor than spicy diced tomatoes)
1 (15-oz.) can black beans
1 (15-oz.) can corn
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
cilantro (optional)

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package instructions.
While pasta is cooking, put one can of tomatoes (including liquid) into a food processor, blender, or bowl. (I used a bowl and a hand blender.) Pulse until smooth. Add olive oil and blend.
Drain the beans, corn, and the other can of tomatoes.
When pasta is done, drain and put back into pot.
Toss pasta with sauce, non-blended tomatoes, corn, and beans. Stir over medium heat until warmed through.
If desired, garnish with roughly chopped cilantro right before serving.

By the way, this recipe is so not macrobiotic. It contains tomatoes, which true macro people don't eat. And, if I were being a true macro cook, I would soak dry beans and cook them on the stove, and I'd cook organic corn-on-the-cob and cut off the kernels. But I like tomatoes, and they don't trigger migraines for me. So I eat them. And the whole cooking-beans-from-scratch thing (which I do, fairly often, but more on the weekends) and fresh-corn-off-the-cob-thing would kinda NOT make this a 30-minute recipe.

Day 81: The Key to Good Baked Tempeh

2009-03-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

It's been over two weeks since I last posted. I've been very busy with school, and have also been making a concerted effort to be more "there" for my family in the evenings. I get to spend so little time with D and (even worse, because of her 7:30 bedtime) Molly. Running to the computer and sitting there for an hour or two doesn't help!

So this is a quick post, and on this lazy Sunday morning, with Molly playing and D sleeping (Saturday is my sleeping-in day), I'm hoping to bang out a couple more that I can schedule to be posted later in the week.

I'm excited to share with you the newest tip I've discovered, so without further ado...

Easy weekday sandwiches:
Tempeh, hummus, & spinach on sprouted-grain bread

Tip #3 For Better Vegan(ish) Cooking
Before marinating tempeh, cut it into strips and boil it in water for 10 minutes.
Then, drain and marinate one hour before baking.

I got this tip from a tempeh recipe in Veganomicon. They said it would help the marinade to soak into the tempeh, and BOY did it! I even ended up overdoing it the first time I tried this tip - I added too much soy sauce to the marinade, and the tempeh was overly salty. I cut down on the soy sauce the next time, and it was the best baked tempeh we'd ever had.

For marinade ideas, see Day 43 (Spicy Mustard Marinade) or Day 20 (Garlic-Lime Marinade, plus links to several marinade recipes I enjoy.)

After boiling and marinating, place tempeh into a casserole in a single layer. Bake at 350 until it is well-browned (it took me over an hour to bake it, because it was so saturated with marinade.)

And finally, a health update: The first two weeks of March weren't great. Three migraines a week. I had weaned myself off of Inderal, a preventative that I've been taking for years. And I think I was getting a lot of rebound headaches as my body learned to deal with not having this beta-blocker drug in it. But things worked themselves out: I had a migraine yesterday morning, my first in 8 days. Note that even the annoyance of 3 migraines a week is better than the 5 I was getting at the end of 2008...

Day 66: Indian-Style Coconut Curry (a.k.a. Crudité Curry)

2009-03-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

These posts are getting a little fewer and farther-between, as experimentation in the kitchen naturally slows down ... we're starting to repeat some of the dishes that we've really enjoyed!

Last Saturday, we got a babysitter (an all-too-uncommon occurrence these days) and went to a friend's 30th birthday party. It was a pretty big bash, with tons of food. At the end of the party, the birthday boy's mother-in-law was trying to get rid of the leftover grub. She had what must have been at least a whole platter of veggies and dip; we took the veggies and left the mayo- and sour-cream-based dip. It was a huge bag of vegetables, already cut up and ready to be simmered in a giant stock pot. So on Sunday, we made curry!

Indian-Style Coconut Curry (a.k.a Crudité Curry)

Most coconut curries are Thai, but this one uses more Indian curry spices. If you are not a fan of curry powder, just use a little extra of the other spices - but don't add any more fennel; this was very fennel-y as it was.

We also added some veggies from the fridge - bell peppers and eggplant. In the end, we froze about 2/3 of the curry, and still ate off of the remaining 1/3 for three nights. So you may want to cut this recipe in half! As with any curries, don't sweat it if you don't have all the veggies, or if you have some that aren't listed here. Curries are a great fridge-cleaner-outer, and shouldn't be over-planned.

One thing you might want to add, suggested by Donal after we had already finished cooking this, is some chopped-up apple (at the end) or some raisins (at the beginning). A little bit of sweetness would have been nice.

Indian-Style Coconut Curry

Serves at least 12 hungry people!

Ingredients:
1/4 c. canola oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 pounds firm or extra firm tofu, cut into 1" cubes and drained
2 (14-oz.) cans coconut milk*
1 large (28-oz.) can tomato sauce
1 heaping tsp. ground turmeric
1 t. ground mustard
1 t. fennel seed
1 T. ground coriander
1 T. curry powder
2-3 T. chili paste**
3 bell peppers (we used green, yellow, and red), cut into strips
1 large tomato, chopped (not peeled or seeded)
3 c. broccoli florets
3 c. carrots, chopped
1 large eggplant, cut into biggish cubes
salt to taste
1 1/2 c. sugar snap peas or snow peas

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened.
Add tofu and cook for 10 minutes or until starting to brown, stirring occasionally (but try not to break it up)
Add coconut milk and tomato sauce. Stir in spices, adjusting to taste as necessary.
Add all vegetables except the peas. It will look like there isn't enough sauce to match all the veggies, but remember - they will sweat a lot of liquid, thinning out the sauce.
Bring the sauce to a boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. The longer the better!
10 minutes before you take it off the heat, stir in the peas. Serve over brown rice or other whole grain.

*We always use half lite and half regular. Most recipes only call for one can, so we use half a can of each and freeze the rest. I made this recipe with a couple of bags of coconut milk from my freezer, thawed beforehand.
**We used more, but if serving to small kids you should use less. If you can't find this stuff, use a little bit of dried crushed red pepper or some Thai red curry paste - but be careful, both of these substitutes pack more of a punch, so you probably will want to use 1 T. or less.

Day 61: Simple Black Bean Sandwich Filling

2009-03-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

I made a very successful coconut curry last night, which I'll blog soon [edited to add: click here for that one!] But first, a quickie.

No picture today, because this dish is ugly! But it tastes good, and it goes inside a sandwich ... so no one cares what it looks like. I made this Black Bean and Green Olive sandwich filling when I realized I had no baked tofu or tempeh for our sandwiches tomorrow. It has three ingredients ... hard to beat that!

Black Bean and Green Olive Sandwich Spread

Ingredients:
3 T. refried black beans (I use the organic, vegetarian ones from Bearitos - they are SO good!)
2-3 jumbo, or 4-5 regular-sized, green olives
1 T. salsa (I use Trader Joe's salsa verde; use something spicier if you want more kick.)

Directions:

Chop olives into small pieces.
Mix all ingredients and spread on pita or firm bread.

This only makes enough for one big sandwich, so scale up as necessary. We used a cabbage-and-broccoli slaw mix on the sandwiches with it. Yum!

Day 58: New Food Pyramid

2009-02-27T04:48:00.000-08:00

The wonderful blog My Year Without Sugar just alerted me to a new food pyramid made just down the road from me, at Harvard.

Here's a low-res picture of it:

I just printed out a higher-resolution version in color here to hang up in my classroom.

Any thoughts? I love it! The old food pyramid let people get away with eating a ton of white carbs and red meat if they wanted to. This one emphasizes whole grains, vegetables, and healthy proteins. Yay!!!

Day 55: Vegan Moussaka!

2009-02-24T05:13:00.000-08:00

My friend Rachel loaned me her copy of Veganomicon, a huge vegan cookbook. I've made two dishes from this book so far, and it's enough to convince me that I need to buy my own copy. Both dishes were big successes. I think this is one of those cookbooks that you'll find in most vegan kitchens, sort of a Joy of Cooking for plant-eaters. Thanks, Rachel, for the loan!

The first dish I made was vegan moussaka. If you've ever had moussaka at a Greek restaurant, you know that it's sort of like Greek lasagna. No noodles, but it's a layered dish that typically includes tomato sauce, cheese or bechamel sauce, lamb, and eggplant. Considering that half of the ingredients I just listed are animal products, it's hard to imagine how a really good version of this dish could be made in a vegan kitchen. Well, luckily, I didn't have to imagine it - the authors of Veganomicon did it for me! And they kindly gave me permission to reprint the recipe here. It's not a recipe for a weeknight (takes too long), but is completely worth all the work. It would be a crowd-pleaser at a dinner party. Next time I make lasagna, I plan to adapt both the tomato sauce and the pine nut cream from this recipe (subbing Italian spices for the Greek ones).

Vegan Moussaka

(For a much prettier picture, taken by the cookbook authors, click here.)Scroll to the bottom of this post for the recipe, try it, and see if you don't go and buy the cookbook yourself!

The second recipe I tried was a lot easier, and will definitely be part of our repertoire from now on:

Plantain and Pinto Bean Stew with Parsnip Chips

Thanks to D for making this with me! The spiciness was just right (for us - unfortunately too much of a bite for Molly), and the plantains were a perfect addition. You'll have to buy the cookbook for this recipe, though.

Eggplant-Potato Moussaka with Pine Nut Cream

From Veganomicon, used with permission. My comments are underlined.

Serves 6 to 8
Time 1 hour 20 minutes (or 2 hours if you have a toddler and/or are not very fast with a knife)

Vegetable Layer:
1 pound eggplant (I found this to be 1 not-too-big, but maybe bigger-than-medium, eggplant)
1 pound zucchini (For me this was 3 small zucchinis. Probably 2 big ones.)
1 1/2 lbs. Russet or baking potatoes (6 medium russet potatoes for me)
1/4 c. olive oil (I didn't measure)

Sauce:
1/4 c. olive oil (I used less)
4 large shallots, sliced thin (I used one medium onion)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. vegetable broth or red wine (I used white cooking wine, which was good)
2 (15-oz) cans crushed tomatoes, with juice (I used 1 28-oz can)
2 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. ground cinnamon (I used less - D isn't a huge fan - I guess he does have SOME faults.)
1 bay leaf
Salt (I actually didn't have to add any, probably because I assume there was some in the canned tomatoes)

Pine Nut Cream (The BEST part! So good!)
1 lb. soft silken tofu (I used NaSoya 50% less fat)
1/2 c. pine nuts, plus additional for garnish (optional - I didn't do this because I only bought a 1/2-c. bag, at $3! Does anyone know any cheaper sources for pine nuts?)
3 T. lemon juice
1 t. arrowroot powder (I didn't need this. If you do need it and don't have any, you can use 1/2 heaping t. cornstarch)
1 clove garlc
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (add more at the end if you can't taste it - I had to)
1 1/4 t. salt, or to taste
white pepper (I probably shook in a good 1/4-1/2 t, and it had a nice bite. By the way, white pepper at the supermarket was $6. I got some at the Armenian store, probably as much as 2 supermarket containers, for $1.80!)

1/2 c. dry, fine white bread crumbs (I used coarse, whole-wheat panko crumbs - and it was yummy!)

PREHEAT THE oven to 400. Lightly oil three baking sheets or shallow pans. (I used cookie sheets lined with foil for easy clean-up.)

Prepare the vegetables:
Wash the eggplant and zucchini, and trim the stems. Scrub and peel the potatoes. Slice the eggplant, zuchinni, and potatoes lengthwise into approximately 1/4-inch-thick slices. (Yes, long slices - they will be layered, so don't worry if they are cut sloppily. Just try to keep not too thick, and not too thin. Too thin on the eggplant, I discovered, makes it stick to the pan when you roast it.) Rub the eggpland slices with a little salt and set aside in a colander in the sink or in a big bowl for about 15 minutes to drain. Briefly rinse with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel. (I forgot the rinsing step! But the salt made the eggplant really good, and there's not much salt in this recipe, so I'll probably skip the rinsing next time too.)

Place each vegetable on a separate baking sheet. Distribute the 1/4 c. oil among the three sheets and sprinkle the vegetables with salt (except the eggplant, if salted already. I forgot to salt the other veggies, and did not find the recipe to need any more salt. So will probably skip this next time, too.) Toss to coat the vegetables on each sheet, making sure each piece is completely coated with oil. (This is easy if you've lined the sheets with foil - you can grab both ends of the foil and fold them together to toss the veggies.) Drizzle a little extra oil on the eggplant, as it has a slight tendency to stick (or place the eggpland slices on oiled baking parchment. I don't have any parchment, but may get some for next time, because they really do stick.) Spread out the vegetables on each sheet; some overlapping is okay. Roast the pans of zucchini and eggplant for 15 minutes, or until tender. Roast the potatoes for about 20 to 22 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Allow the vegetables to cool. (Once cooled, if the zucchini is watery, blot excess liquid with a paper towel so that the casserole is not too wet. I also blotted the oil off of the potatoes.)

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the tomato sauce:
Combine the remaining 1/4 c. olive oil and minced garlic in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Heat over medium heat and let the garlic sizzle for about 30 seconds, then add the shallots and cook until soft and translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until slightly reduced, another 3 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, oregano, ground cinnamon, and bay leaf. Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 12 to 14 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should reduce slightly. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaf, and adjust the salt (if necessary.)

Make the pine nut cream:
In a food processor, blend the pine nuts and lemon juice, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until a creamy paste forms. (Do NOT use the immersion blender, unless you want little bits of pine nuts all over one area of the kitchen. Which you will then be finding for months. Use the food-processor attachment.) Add the tofu (at this point, I put it all in a mixing bowl and switched over to the blender attachment), garlic, arrowroot (or corn starch, or nothing), nutmeg, salt, and white pepper. Blend until creamy and smooth. Taste it and feel your eyes widen at the shock that there is no cream in this creamy sauce.

Lightly oil a 9x13-inch pan and preheat the oven again to 400, if necessary. Spread 1/4 cup of tomato sauce on the pan, then add successive layers in order of half the eggplant, half of remaining sauce, and half the breadcrumbs. Spread all the zucchini on top of this. Top with a final layer each of eggplant, potatoes, sauce, and bread crumbs. Use a rubber spatula to evenly spread the pine nut cream over the entire top layer. Scatter a few pine nuts on top, if desired.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and a few cracks have formed in the topping. Allow to cool 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Day 47: Vegan Sloppy Joes

2009-02-16T13:02:00.001-08:00

I made Sloppy Joes for dinner on Valentine's Day. Is that unromantic? Well, at least they're red ... And D and I got a babysitter and got to go out the next night, which was perfect.

This dish was very successful, in large part because of this amazing organic ketchup that I found. It's sweetened with agave nectar instead of the unfortunate high-fructose corn syrup that American companies generally use. I'm not a big ketchup fan ... or I wasn't until I tasted this stuff! The flavor is so good - way more tomato-y than other brands, a little spicy (but not hot), and a little sweet. I'll never buy Heinz again.

So, Sloppy Joes ... the real test is, does the 2-year-old like them? A properly-made Sloppy Joe will be a hit with any kid. Molly's been a picky eater lately, so I had my fingers crossed. You tell me if you think she liked them:

Hopefully that convinced you, and you'll make this easy-and-tasty dish yourself. D and I loved it, too. By the way, I was inspired by a recipe over at Simply Recipes, which I made in the past. But I wasn't crazy about the spice mixture in that one, so I improvised. And of course, that recipe isn't anywhere close to being vegan ...

Vegan Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:
2 T. olive oil
1 medium or large onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
2 small (or 1 large) stalks celery, diced
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup agave-sweetened ketchup (or at least organic, sugar-sweetened if you can't find the really good stuff)
1 large (28-oz.) can tomato sauce
1/4 t. cinnamon (less if you aren't a huge fan - you can really taste it)
1/4 t. ground sage
salt to taste
2 (15-oz) cans beans (I used one can garbanzo, and 1 can kidney), drained
6 Whole-wheat sandwich rolls or hamburger buns (the least nutritionally-iffy ones at my supermarket were Thomas' mini bagel buns. Sort of a cross between a bagel and a hamburger bun.)
Vegan margarine

Instructions:

Saute onions in oil, over medium heat, until translucent.
Add carrot and celery and cook for 4 minutes.
Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes.
Add ketchup and tomato sauce. Stir until well-blended.
Add cinnamon and sage. Stir well. Add salt to taste.
Add beans. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer 10-20 minutes (the longer the better).
Toast and butter bread. Serve open-faced, with the Sloppy Joe sauce poured over both halves of the bun.

I think this sauce would be good over rice as well, or even added to a macaroni bake. But then it would be called something other than "Sloppy Joes" ...

Day 43: Spicy Mustard Marinade

2009-02-12T04:00:00.000-08:00

Have you got one of those awful colds that seems to have caught everyone? (I personally like to think a cold catches me, rather than the other way around!) I have it, D had it, and Molly got it so bad that it turned into an ear infection. My little two-year-old is on antibiotics for the first time in her young life.

Anyway, this marinade will clear your sinuses faster than you can say, "Achoo!" It's spicy and oh-so-good. Nice to invent something successful, after the bland garam masala marinade I attempted a couple of weeks ago (and tried again last week, with only marginal success). Reduce the cayenne and crushed red pepper, or just replace the cayenne with chili powder, if you like things less fiery.

Baked Tofu and Tempeh with Spicy Mustard Marinade

Spicy Mustard Marinade

Ingredients:
1/4 c. soy sauce
2 T. lime juice
1 T. dijon mustard (I like the seeded kind)
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
a few good shakes dried crushed red pepper
1/4 t. dry mustard

Directions:
Stir well. If using as a marinade for baked tofu or tempeh, follow my recipe here. I marinated the tofu for a couple of hours, which was wonderful. But the tempeh only got about 10 minutes, as I didn't realize we were out and had to go buy more. It was still excellent. I sliced it very thin this time, which I think helps. The baked tofu link has some ideas for sandwiches, too. (The White Bean & Caper spread from my previous post also goes nicely with this, balancing out the spiciness.)

Day 42: White Bean & Caper Dip with Rosemary-Garlic Pita Chips

2009-02-11T04:00:00.001-08:00

I'm not sick of hummus yet, but was ready for a change. So this week I made a big batch of white beans (soaked overnight this time - gotta love foresight) and experimented. The resulting dip looked like mashed potatoes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but it didn't taste like them, which I think is for the best. The dip isn't incredibly strong in flavor, but is complex and mouth-watering. Molly even liked it, which surprised me because of the caper flavor. And the chips ... well, who can say no to pita chips?

White Bean & Caper Dip with Rosemary-Garlic Pita Chips

Here are the recipes:

White Bean & Caper Dip or Spread

Ingredients:
about 2.5 cups of white beans (3/4 cup dried beans)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. capers, drained
1/4 c. olive oil
2-3 T. lemon juice
salt to taste
water

Directions:

Soak and cook beans according to package instructions (or use the quick-soak method, or just use 2 cans of beans - I used Goya Small White Beans and added a strip of kombu, removed at the end).
Use a food processor or hand blender to thoroughly mix all ingredients.
Salt to taste
I made this thick, because we use it as a sandwich spread as well as a dip. But you can add water, a couple of tablespoons at a time, if you want it creamier and thinner.

Rosemary-Garlic Pita Chips

Ingredients:
6 small, or 4 large, whole-wheat pitas
2 T. olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 t. garlic powder
1 T. dried rosemary
1/4 t. salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F (175 ° C).
Cut pitas into eighths.
Mix other ingredients in a large zip-top bag.
Add pita to the bag and shake until well-coated.
Place chips on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake until crispy, turning once, about 15-20 minutes.

Day 41: Vegan Lasagna

2009-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

I tried making vegan lasagna for the first time. BOY, was it a lot of work. (Although as D, who was helping with all the cooking, said, "You know, it takes less time if you just get the sauce from a jar instead of doing it from scratch...")

The sauce was only mostly from scratch, though. I took a shortcut with canned, previously-seasoned tomatoes. D was worried he wouldn't like it, because it wasn't very tomato-heavy and he likes really tomato-ey sauces with his lasagna. There were several other ingredients that muted the tomato flavor. However, he loved it, probably more than I did. (I think I may have preferred a more traditional tomato-flavored sauce ... go figure! I absolutely loved the flavors of the sauce I made, and I'll make it again.... but for a comfort food like lasagna, I think I may need a more basic marinara.)

Like every lasagna I've ever seen, it's not incredibly pretty. (The next day when we had leftovers, it had had time to set up a bit and the different layers stayed more intact.) But it is as moist as it looks in the pictures, and the tofu ricotta, although it didn't really taste like cheese, had a nice familiar texture and an excellent subtle flavor.

Vegan Lasagna

The beautiful side dish is mustard greens, green beans, and mushrooms, adapted from a recipe here.

If you choose to use this recipe, feel free to experiment with the sauce - whether it's adding something new to it, taking something away, or even just throwing in a store bought jar of the red stuff (watch out for sugar content!) - and reply here to tell me how it was. I'm interested to try different versions of the recipe.

Vegan Lasagna

Before Starting: Find someone who will help out with the lasagna, make the side dish from scratch, and do the dishes. Thanks, D!

First, The Sauce:

Ingredients:
2 15-oz cans Italian stewed tomatoes in juice (you'll have to add basil, oregano, etc. if you don't have the Italian ones)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 very small butternut squash (or 1/2 of a larger one), peeled, seeded, and roughly cut into chunks
2-3 T. oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 package tempeh, cut into very small chunks (don't use if you don't love the flavor of tempeh - you can really taste it in this sauce)
salt
8 oz. sliced mushrooms

Directions:

Add tomatoes, pepper, and squash to a pot and heat over a medium-low flame.
Heat the oil in a skillet. Cook the onion until it is starting to become transparent, and add the tempeh. Cook, stirring regularly, about 8-10 minutes until it is browned. Add the garlic 1 minute before the tempeh is done.
Add the tempeh, garlic, and onion to the sauce. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer at least two hours (we did three hours), stirring occasionally. After an hour, add salt to taste. After an hour and a half, stir very well, using the spoon to mash up the butternut squash so that it dissolves into the sauce.
Add mushrooms 10 minutes before taking off the flame.

Next, the Tofu-Spinach Ricotta:

Ingredients:
2 T. sesame oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. tofu, drained and cubed (no need to press it)
2 T. tamari, or 3 T. soy sauce
1/2 t. dried basil
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
Salt, if needed

Directions:

In a large skillet (don't bother to wash the skillet you used for the tempeh - just reuse it), cook onion over a medium flame.
When onion is just beginning to brown, add garlic. Cook 1 more minute.
Add tofu, tamari, and basil. Stir-fry for 5 minutes.
Remove from flame. Add tofu mixture and spinach to a mixing bowl or food processor. Pulse with food processor or hand blender until a chunky texture is reached.
Add salt to taste, if necessary (I use reduced-sodium tamari so I can control the salt content of my dishes, so I had to add a little. Using regular tamari or soy sauce may mean you don't have to add any.)

The assembly:

Cook a box of whole-wheat lasagna noodles according to package instructions. I recommend starting this 30 minutes before the sauce is done, because boiling that much water takes awhile. If they finish cooking early, rinse with cold water so they don't stick.
Preheat oven to 375.
Layer the ingredients in a large, oiled casserole. I had a lot more sauce than ricotta, so I did it in this order: Sauce-Noodles-Ricotta-Sauce-Noodles-Ricotta-Sauce-Noodles-Sauce.
Sprinkle nutritional yeast on top, if you want a little bit of a Parmesan cheese feel to the dish.
Cook for 30 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before cutting.

Coming up this week: recipes for White Bean & Caper Dip, Rosemary-Garlic Pita Chips, and Spicy Mustard Marinade!

Health update: 1 migraine (today) - a full 2 weeks after the last one. Got rid of it very easily with prescription meds, which are working better now that I'm not using them 5 times a week....

Day 36: Quinoa Tacos with Tangy Jicama Slaw

2009-02-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days since I've posted, but I haven't stopped cooking. I wasn't planning to blog about the stew I made Sunday - it was from The Self-Healing Cookbook, so for copyright reasons I do not want to post it here. But I decided, at the last possible second, that I will give you a picture so that you can see how tasty it was. I only had about a half-serving left in the fridge, so this pic is taken in an oh-so-lovely Ziploc storage container:

Hearty Autumn Stew

This stew contains carrot, cabbage (my addition, because I didn't have any daikon radish), onion, celery, parsnip, butternut squash, kombu, tempeh, and peas. I also added a little leftover brown rice. It was hearty, warming, and a perfect dish for our family to munch on this week - we've all had colds, and this felt like a vegan version of chicken stew. Definitely worth buying this cookbook!

Have you ever had jicama? Its Anglicized pronunciation is HIC-uh-muh, and it is the root of a native Mexican plant. Jicama is like a turnip in texture - crunchy and a little starchy - but has a little bit of a sweet tang to it, like a mild green apple. It's such a great, surprising salad ingredient. It soaks up dressing, too, so jicama salads taste even better the next day.

Last night, having tired of leftover stew for 3 nights, we made Quinoa Tacos with Tangy Jicama Slaw. The filling for the quinoa tacos is an old favorite from allrecipes, and the jicama recipe was inspired by one from Rachael Ray, but has been changed so much that I think I can call it my own now.

Here are the pictures:

Quinoa Tacos with Tangy Jicama Slaw

And the slaw recipe:

Tangy Jicama Slaw

Ingredients:

1/3 c. olive oil

1/4 c. lime juice

1 T. cumin (less if you aren't an insane cumin fan like I am)

1/4 t. garlic powder

1 medium-sized jicama, roughly juilenned

1/4 head cabbage, shredded

2 carrots, grated into ribbons with a vegetable peeler

1/4 c. cilantro, chopped

3-4 green onions, chopped

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine first four ingredients in a small bowl or measuring cup.

Combine jicama, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and onions in a large bowl.

Pour dressing over salad and toss well. Season with salt and pepper.

Eat as salad, or as a taco topping.

Mmm... after thinking about that jicama salad, I think I'll have to go have some leftovers!

Migraine update: have not had one for ... NINE DAYS. !!!

Day 31: Kalamata Olive Hummus

2009-01-31T12:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, hard to believe it's the last day of the month. Will we continue our vegan(ish) experiment? I doubt that any of my readers are on the edges of their seats from the suspense . . . I think I've made it fairly clear that we're enjoying the food and its positive health effects. So, yes, we will continue. D has lost around 8 pounds (we finally bought a bathroom scale), my migraines are down to a fraction their previous frequency (only one in the past 10 days ... infinitely better than the 5 a week I was getting), and we feel better all-around.

There's only one drawback so far, and that's that it's harder for me to keep a healthy weight. I have to remember to eat often, because our regular meals have less fat and calories than animal-based meals. I did well the first few weeks of the month, but when Molly was sick this past week and D was in Ireland, I didn't sit down and eat as often as I should have. A few pounds I didn't need (or want) to lose melted off within just a few days, and I'm making a point to eat when I'm hungry, focusing on foods that have healthy fats (like beans and nuts).

I find I have an easier time keeping the weight on if I surround myself with healthy, easy snacks. So today I took some kalamata olives that had been sitting in the fridge for a week, and I made a super-easy hummus:

This took about 5 minutes, and D and I both loved it. I think Molly will like it too, but she is still getting over some of the, um, juicier digestive side-effects of her virus, so we're giving her bland food for now. If you want to make it yourself, assuming my mention of poor Molly's problems didn't spoil your appetite, here's the recipe:

Easy Olive Hummus

Ingredients:
1 15-oz. can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained (keep the liquid) or 2 c. cooked chickpeas*
1/3 c. sesame tahini
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2-4 T. lemon juice
1/4 - 1/2 c. pitted kalamata olives (or black olives, if you aren't crazy about the brown ones)
1-2 T. juice from olive jar
fresh-ground black pepper

*To cook chickpeas: soak 1 c. dry chickpeas (with one strip kombu, optional) for at least 6 hours. Drain. Cover with water (at least 1 inch above the beans) keeping the kombu in the water if desired, and bring to a boil. Decrease heat and simmer, covered, for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, until tender. Remove kombu at the end, if you don't want specks of it in your hummus.

Directions:
Place chickpeas and tahini in a mixing bowl. Puree with a hand blender. Add olive oil and lemon juice; puree. Add olives and olive juice; puree. If you want the hummus to be creamier, add a little liquid from the beans or water. Add salt if desired (I didn't find it needed any, because the olives were salty). Drizzle olive oil on top - be liberal with it if you're trying to put on the weight like me! - and sprinkle with black pepper.

Eat with whole-wheat pita chips or fresh veggies, or use as a sandwich spread.

Day 29: What a Week

2009-01-29T07:09:00.000-08:00

I have had the week from hell. D left for Ireland on Saturday, and I've been missing him a ton. On Sunday, Molly got sick. She stayed sick, with her fever spiking to 104 more than once, for three days. I stayed home from work to nurse her back to health. (I always thought I had a lot of respect for single moms ... but now I have even more.) We had a snowstorm, and I got to do all the shoveling (Molly woke up from her far too-short nap right after I started, so I had to put on Dora and run inside every 5 minutes to check on her.) Yesterday morning, when I was holding a sobbing Molly, I just lost it and started to cry with her.

Today is a new day. Molly turned a corner by the end of the morning yesterday, and by the afternoon I had my little girl back. You would've never known she'd been sick. And D is coming home this afternoon; I'm leaving work half an hour early to pick him up. Whew!

Haven't done much cooking while running a miniature kiddie hospital, but last night I did make Couscous with Peanut Sauce from The Vegan Spoonful blog. (I was planning on eating leftovers yet again, but at lunchtime I had bumped into the container full of Caribbean Beans and Quinoa, and they ended up all over the floor. I didn't mourn too much, as I hadn't been crazy about the dish in the first place.)

Anyway, the couscous dish was AMAZING. Make it, even if you aren't crazy about peanut sauce. It does not taste like Thai peanut sauce. I used half peanut butter and half tahini, because I was almost out of peanut butter. That's the only thing I changed about the recipe, and I think it added to the flavor. (In fact, if you're one of those people who isn't crazy about peanut flavors in savory food, I think the sauce could be made with just tahini and no PB.) I also made broccoli on the side, which (as The Vegan Spoonful lady says) is tasty when dipped into the sauce. I can't wait to have leftovers tonight.

In my last post, Amy asked what will happen to this experiment when February rolls around. Well, I guess everyone will have to come back on February 1 to see!

Health update: had a migraine on Tuesday; not surprising with how stressful things were at home. First one I'd had since the previous Wednesday. No pain since then, except my aching back from all the snow shoveling ...

Day 25: Succulent Spinach, Questionable Quinoa, and Tasteless Tofu

2009-01-25T17:39:00.000-08:00

I want to start this post with a health update: no migraine since Wednesday! That's four full days migraine-free. Here's hoping for five!

And now, back to the food...

Today I made Sesame Spinach:

But before I give that recipe....

I realized today that I have had a lot of luck with all the new stuff I've been cooking. I've liked everything so far. Why did I suddenly come to this realization? Because my good-luck streak ended: I have now made things, two days in a row, that I didn't particularly like.

The first was Caribbean Beans and Quinoa, a recipe from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog that looked really tasty. My mom gave it high marks after she made it. And I can say, after making it, that it is a good recipe ... all the flavors are well-balanced ... but it just wasn't my thing. So check out the recipe, and by all means try it - I think many or most people would be into it, and I myself didn't dislike it, but I won't make it again. (A note if you decide to try it: it did not have nearly enough salt for me. I think this may be because I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned, and olives from the olive bar at the supermarket instead of from a jar.)

The second was this week's baked tofu. I didn't make tempeh this time, because D is out of town through Thursday, so we don't need as much lunch fixin's. (No, that's not a misplaced apostrophe - it's the plural of fixin', which is a contraction.) I thought it would be cool to try and invent an Indian marinade based on garam masala, dry mustard, a little bit of cayenne, and ginger. And the marinade smelled good. But it didn't soak into the tofu at all. I think I needed to include some fat in it. Next week, I will try it with olive oil, and I'll post the recipe if it's good. As for this week, I have bland tofu for my sandwiches. Luckily, I made some fast-and-easy roasted red pepper hummus yesterday, so its flavor should help mask the tasteless tofu!

And now, the Sesame Spinach. Finally I invented something good! (I haven't even let myself search the 'net for it ... I don't want to know that I wasn't the first inventor.) This recipe takes 10 minutes, makes your kitchen smell heavenly, and adds a nice, light bit of flavor to the spinach without overwhelming its naturally good taste.

Sesame Spinach

Ingredients:
1 10-oz. bag spinach
1 T. sesame seeds
1 T. sesame oil
1 T. canola oil
salt and pepper

Directions:
Toast sesame seeds in a large pot over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant.

Turn heat down to medium or medium-low and add oils. (Sesame oil smokes easily, so put it on medium, but watch closely and be prepared to turn it down if necessary.) Stir sesame seeds into oil. When oil is heated, add spinach. Stir to coat. Cook, continuing to stir, for a few minutes until it is as "wilty" as you like it to be.

Let rest for a few minutes before serving. The spinach goes down to a fraction of its original size, so this only serves 2-3. A great way to get your greens!

Day 23: White Bean-Cauliflower Soup and Chard

2009-01-23T04:04:00.000-08:00

I found a yummy-looking cauliflower & roasted garlic soup recipe at VeganDad's blog recently. However, I like to have more protein in my dinner, or I tend to wake up hungry in the middle of the night ... and heavy garlic is a definite trigger for my migraines ... and, well, isn't any dish really better with ginger?

So I made some navy beans and brown rice on my day off Monday, which leads me to...

Tip #2 for Easier Vegan(ish) Cooking
Plan your menu over the weekend, and prepare any needed
beans and rice ahead of time to save your weeknight hours.

Even though I was feeling all responsible and plan-ahead-y, I didn't think to soak the beans overnight. So I used the quick-soak method, and it worked great.

Here is the White Bean-Cauliflower Soup:

And the Swiss chard (on rice) that we had on the side:

The soup was mellow, but at the same time unbelievably rich and creamy. Tasting its smooth goodness for the first time, I had a hard time convincing myself it wasn't full of heavy cream. Also, it smelled uncannily like roast turkey when we reheated it the next day, and it tasted even better because the flavors had a chance to mix overnight. D and I both agreed so strongly that this smelled like turkey (and in that mouth-watering way, not in an, "isn't that weird???" way), that we thought it would be a good vegan Thanksgiving or Christmas soup. Molly even liked it!

The last time we bought chard, we got a not-so-good bunch that was just too bitter to eat - even though this is our go-to chard recipe, tested before with great success. I'm glad we tried it again, because it's restored our faith in chard. The juicy piquancy of it balanced out the soup well, and it, too, was better the next day.

One more off-topic comment before I type up these recipes: D's grandfather in Ireland ("Granda"), with whom he lived for three years in college, passed away yesterday morning. He had been extraordinarily healthy at the age of 88, and would have probably lived another decade if not for the infection that struck him about a month ago. My heart goes out to my husband and his mom, who are flying there tomorrow night. We will miss you, and I wish I could be there with you to help share the load.

Here are the recipes:

White Bean - Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:
2 T. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets and then chopped coarsely
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
1/2 - 1 c. water or broth
3-5 cloves garlic*
About 2 c. cooked (1 c. dry) white beans (I used Goya Small White Beans, quick-soaked and cooked according to package instructions. Can be prepared a day or two ahead of time. I added 1 strip of kombu, and removed it when the beans were done.)
1/2 c. nutritional yeast
Unsweetened soy milk**
Salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400° F (~200°C).

Peel garlic cloves. Put them on a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, and fold the aluminum foil into a packet around them. Roast in oven 15-25 minutes, until soft and turning golden-brown.

While garlic is cooking, chop onion and celery and saute over medium heat in a large pot in olive oil. When onion is starting to brown, add cauliflower and ginger. Pour water or broth over cauliflower until the cauliflower is about half-submerged. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer until cauliflower is very soft (about 10-15 minutes, depending on how small you cut it).

Add garlic, beans, and nutritional yeast. Stir over medium-high heat until entire mixture is very hot. (Remember, you'll be adding soy milk, which will cool it - so make it hot!) Remove from heat and blend thoroughly with an immersion (hand) blender. (You could do this in batches in a food processor or standard blender, but it will take longer.) When the entire mixture is creamy, add soy milk in small amounts and blend until it is at desired texture. (We made it pretty thick.)

Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to bowls and sprinkle cayenne pepper on top to taste. If desired, garnish with parsley. (We only had dried.)

*We used 3 cloves. The roasting mellows the garlic so much, though, that I think I'll try more next time. Unlike the recipe that inspired this recipe, this is not supposed to have a heavy garlic flavor - but I wish I could've tasted it just a little bit more.
**I use Silk Unsweetened. If you only have "Regular" (i.e., sweetened) soy milk, I'd recommend thinning with water instead.

Lemon-Pepper Swiss Chard

Ingredients:
2 bunches Swiss chard
2 T. vegan margarine
1 t. minced garlic (2 cloves)
1/4 t. dried crushed red pepper
1/4 c. lemon juice
White wine (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Wash chard. Trim stems and cut chard into 1/2-inch wide strips.

Melt margarine in a large stockpot over medium heat, stirring so it doesn't burn. Add garlic and crushed red pepper. Stir until garlic is starting to brown. Add chard; stir to coat. Turn heat to medium-low, cover pot, and cook 8-10 minutes, until chard reaches desired consistency (we like it really soft.) Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice and, if desired, a splash of white wine. Season with salt and pepper.

Day 20: Baked Tofu & Tempeh

2009-01-20T11:23:00.001-08:00

Happy Inauguration Day to you all! Whatever your political beliefs, I hope everyone is inspired to see the barriers that were broken down today. Here's my favorite post so far about history being made. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, whatever - be prepared to get choked up if you read it.

I've been making baked tofu and baked tempeh every Sunday, so that we have a tasty sandwich fillings for our weekday lunches. This week, I made them on Monday instead - we had the day off in honor of Martin Luther King.

In an attempt to make our lunches not too boring, I make a different marinade every weekend. I've tried Szechuan-style, lemon-tahini, and (before our experiment officially started) peanut. All were very good; I think we liked the Szechuan the best.

Wondering what to try this week, I rememberd that my sister, C.Beth, had posted our mom's garlic lime chicken recipe (a family favorite growing up) a few weeks ago. I decided to adapt it to make it vegan (the original recipe had Worcestershire sauce, which contains anchovies), and see if it would work as a tofu/tempeh marinade. Yay! It was the best we've made so far. Molly loved it - and the only tofu we've ever gotten her to eat is the little pieces in miso soup. Tempeh is something she had, until she had this recipe, refused to try.

Baked tofu and tempeh are not particularly pretty, so I didn't bother to take a picture. But here are the recipes:

Vegan Garlic Lime Marinade:

Ingredients:
2 T. tamari, or 3T. regular soy sauce
2 T. lime juice
1 clove (or 1 t.) minced garlic
1/4 t. dry mustard
fresh-ground black pepper

Directions:
Mix all ingredients - my favorite way is to throw them all in a Ziploc and shake. The Ziploc will come in handy if you are using this for tofu.

Marinated Baked Tofu:

Ingredients:
1 lb. extra firm tofu, pressed*
1/4 cup of the marinade of your choice, or one recipe of the Garlic Lime marinade, above.

Directions:
After pressing the tofu, cut it into 3/4-inch cubes** - some people prefer to do slices instead. Marinate in a Ziploc bag for at least one hour in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 300° F.

Place marinated tofu, in a single layer, on a cookie sheet. (To ease clean-up, line the cookie sheet with aluminum foil.) Bake for 45 minutes and turn tofu. Bake for another 30 min - 1 1/2 hours, until it is brown and crispy all over. Baking time will depend upon how much moisture you have pressed out of the tofu and how thick the pieces are. (If you don't have a lot of time, you can use a 350° or even 400° oven and bake until browned - but it will not be as crispy.)

*To press tofu, put a few layers of paper towl on a cutting board. Place the tofu on the cutting board and, using something like a can of soup to wedge under it, place the cutting board in the sink at a shallow angle. Place a plate on top of the tofu and a heavy can on top of the plate. Leave at least one hour. This gets the moisture out of the tofu so that it can bake up nice and crispy.
**I prefer to cut it myself rather than buying the pre-cubed. The pre-cubed tofu, at least the brand I have tried (Nasoya), is smaller than I like.

Marinated Baked Tempeh

Ingredients:
1 package tempeh, cut into 1/4-inch slices (slice the short way, not the long way - your slices will be about 1" x 3" x 1/4".)
1/4 cup of the marinade of your choice, or one recipe of the Garlic Lime marinade, above.

Directions:
Place tempeh in one layer in a baking dish (line with aluminum foil for easy clean-up). Pour marinade over tempeh and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300° F.

Bake tempeh for 30 minutes. Turn slices and bake for 30 more minutes, or until browned on both sides.

Tofu and/or Tempeh Sandwich
Spread hummus or tahini on both inside surfaces of a split pita pocket. Add baked tofu and/or tempeh and any or all of the above: shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, bean or alfalfa sprouts, spinach or other greens, sliced bell pepper, etc.... Pack for lunch with a piece of fruit. This is really really good!!!

Day 18: Snowed-In Coconut Soup

2009-01-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

I've been making menus on the weekend, so that I can do grocery shopping on Sunday and have my week planned out. Well, today things did not go as planned. The 2-4 inches of snow we were supposed to get turned out to be more like 8, coming down fairly heavily all day until mid-afternoon. (And we're supposed to get another few inches overnight. Nice.) So I didn't get to do my morning grocery shopping trip.

I was all excited about trying The CrockPot Lady's Thai Coconut Soup, but was missing several of the main ingredients. Well, you know what they say about Necessity's maternal instincts. I used the recipe as an inspiration, creating Snowed-In Coconut soup from mostly frozen, jarred, canned, or dried ingredients. I doubt that it tastes very similar to the original recipe, but it was good!

If you want to re-create my pantry-, fridge-, and freezer-based adventure, here's the recipe (it is 100% vegan, unlike the inspiration recipe, which contains fish sauce.)

Snowed-In Coconut Soup

Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable broth*
1 can coconut milk**
2 T. lemon juice & 2 T. lime juice***
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. chili paste (LOVE this stuff, which we get at the Asian store, but easier to find this stuff in the supermarket)
1 T. tamari or 1 1/2 T. regular soy sauce
1 t. minced garlic
1/2 c. dried mushrooms****
8 strips roasted red bell peppers
8 oz. frozen mixed vegetables (I used the stir-fry mix: broccoli, green beans, carrot strips, sliced mushrooms, onion strips, and diced red bell peppers)
1 lb. extra-firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes

Directions: Combine broth, coconut milk, juices, ginger, chili paste, soy sauce, and garlic in a crock pot. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook on high 2-3 hours. If desired, add salt, more chili paste and more lemon juice at the end.

*I use Vogue Cuisine Instant Vegebase, a low-sodium, MSG-free powder. It is $3.49 at Whole Foods and makes 20-25 cups of broth when added to hot water.
**When I use coconut milk, I always use 1/2 can of regular and 1/2 can of lite, to cut the fat. I then mix the remaining half-cans and freeze them in a Ziploc. I usually forget I've frozen them and open two new cans the next time I am cooking a coconut dish. So today I found three bags of coconut milk in the freezer - score!
***We recently found this amazing brand, Sicilia, that is not-from-concentrate. It tastes fresh-squeezed, unlike the "Real"Lemon/Lime from-concentrate juices.
****I used 5 dried shiitakes and about 1/4 c. of dried black cloud fungus, available in Asian stores. Tastes WAY better than it sounds.... It's the brownish-black stuff sticking out of the soup in the pic. If you can find an Asian store, the dried mushrooms there are SUPER cheap.

End-of-week health update: 2 migraines, a 60% reduction from last week.

Day 16: The Health Effects, So Far

2009-01-16T17:44:00.001-08:00

Our vegan(ish) experiment officially began two weeks ago last night. One of my main purposes for starting this experiment, aside from just being more generally healthy, was to decrease my migraines.

I've been getting 5 migraines a week for several weeks now. It's hard to describe how physically and emotionally difficult it's been to have pain more days than not. And I've been concerned that the prescription pain medication I've been taking nearly every day would lead to rebound headaches. Eventually, the brain starts depending upon the analgesic effect of pain pills.

So where am I now?

I did not have a migraine Monday, January 12.
I did not have a migraine Tuesday the 13th. I checked my migraine log that my neuro makes me keep: the last time I'd gone two full days without a migraine was December 16-17.
I did not have a migraine Wednesday the 14th. The last time I'd gone three full days without a migraine was Thanksgiving weekend.
The migraine I had on Thursday the 15th was mild; I caught it early and the meds worked fast.
I did not have a migraine today, Friday the 16th.

So something is working. And it's not just the headaches; I feel like new. I have more energy. I have less of that general feeling of malaise that I think many of us start to have semi-regularly in our late 20s or early 30s. After I eat, I feel rejeuvenated instead of weighed down.

Something is working.

***
And now, a jerk back to reality: I have not been doing this experiment in a controlled, scientific way. To really test the vegan(ish) diet on myself, I should try to change just my diet, and nothing else. And, of course, a double-blind or even triple-blind trial is what a real researcher would do.

But this is not a university research department, this is my life. And I am sick of pain. So I have made other changes besides my diet.

I haven't had coffee since New Year's. I still drink tea, but I find that the lower levels of caffeine in tea make it produce much less of a "crash" than coffee does.

And my neurologist has helped me make some changes, including preventing and better treating neck tension (a big trigger for me). She also put me on a new migraine prevention/reduction drug. (It's one I've never taken before, but is actually not a "new" drug.)

The drug she put me on is supposed to take 3 weeks to take full effect. The doc said that sometimes people start to feel an effect after the first full week.

I started it last Saturday, 6 days ago, and Monday is when my three day no-migraine run started. I can't imagine that such a long-acting drug would have taken effect within 2 days. I really think that I have the positive lifestyle changes to thank, more than the drugs.

Something is working. And I have been breathing the world's biggest sigh of relief for the last five days.

Day 13: Comfort Food and an Interview

2009-01-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

First, tonight I made one of those casseroles that just screams, "Comfort Food!" A creamy, flavorful, gooey, messy dish ... with breadcrumbs on top, of course. It's another recipe from The Vegan Spoonful blog: Chickpea Divan. If you take a look at the recipe, note that I used unsweetened soy milk (not soy cream) and whole wheat panko breadcrumbs, left out the vegan mayo, added some mixed frozen veggies, and used white cooking wine from the cupboard.

Whether you are vegan or not, Try this recipe. Beth, this is one your carnivore hubby will love! And Chickie, if her tastes are anything like Molly's, will love it too.

The pic:

If you're wondering what that stuff under the chickpeas is, it's millet. This whole grain looks a lot like quinoa when you buy it, but it cooks up very fluffy - almost creamy, like mashed potatoes. Like quinoa, it cooks fast - 25 minutes - and requires no soaking. A nice thing to keep around.

So that's the comfort food. And now, the interview. Mary Murtz, who writes a wonderful blog that I enjoy and is a fellow vegan(ish) experimenter, posted her answers to an interview meme that's going around. Here's the rules:

The blogger (in this case, me) answers five questions.
If you, a fellow blogger, want five new questions to answer, reply to this post with the words, "Interview Me!" I got my questions by replying to Mary's post a couple of days ago.
When you post your answers to the five questions I send you, you agree to interview your commenters if they ask for it, just as I am agreeing to interview you.
One more thing: if you don't have a link to your email on your profile page, I'll just post the questions as a comment on your blog.

Hope that makes sense. So here are Mary's questions and my answers:

1. What one sentence advice would you give your daughter about growing up to be a strong woman? I would tell Molly to relish asking questions, to be comfortable with being unsure ... because being sure about life would mean she thinks she's got it all right, and that would mean she has no room for growth. Growth is what makes it all worth it.

2. What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you that you have NOT already talked about on your blog? Once I was at a bar, listening to a band I love. I looked at the clock and thought it was almost 1 AM (closing time). The band finished a song and I yelled out, "One more!" - hoping they'd play all the way up till the moment the place closed. The singer looked at me and said, "I hope we do about 10 more..." and I realized it was almost midnight, not almost one. I still turn red when I think of that.

3. If you could change anything about yourself (NOT PHYSICALLY) what would it be? I would be one of those incredible people who functions just fine on 4 hours of sleep per night, with no consequences. (I guess that's kind of physical, but whatever...)

4. Assuming all goes as you wish, what will you say at the end of the year when someone asks you what your proudest accomplishment was? I inspired and taught young people while still giving a more-than-fair amount of energy and time to my family and friends. (Managing to achieve my fantasy in the answer to Question #3 would help with this...)

5. What movie that other people loved did you absolutely NOT love, and why? I thought The English Patient was one of the most overrated movies ever. Same for Titanic.

So, if you want five new questions, created by me, that you can answer on your blog ... just reply, "Interview Me!"

P.S. Typing this small so as not to jinx the migraine gods... 2nd day in a row with no migraine today. First two-day break I have had since December 16-17 (my neurologist makes me chart my migraines.)

Day 11: Red Bean Hummus, Lentil Soup, and Collard Greens

2009-01-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

Sunday is becoming my cooking day. Today I made Szechuan-marinated baked tofu and tempeh for this week's lunches (no picture included; it's pretty boring-looking), plus...

Red Bean Hummus
and...

Moroccan Lentil Soup
AND...

Chipotle Collard Greens

Scroll to the bottom of this post for the Red Bean Hummus recipe, made with Azuki / Adzuki / Aduki beans (the spelling varies, as it's transliterated from the Japanese characters.)

The amazing collard green recipe is from the Homesick Texan, one of my favorite food blogs. Even though I no longer can eat most of the stuff on this blog, her blog is still worth reading for the wonderful stories and the amazing food photography. For those of you who love your greens with lots of ham and/or bacon, give these a try. The smoky chipotle peppers made me not even miss the meat, and the strange-seeming addition of peanut butter did not make them taste very peanut-y, but did give the sauce such a nice, smooth mouthfeel that I had to put it on rice just to soak up as much of the goodness as I could! This was a team effort, and was one of both my and D's favorite dishes we've made so far.

The Moroccan lentil soup is a recipe from The Crockpot Lady, a very cool blogger introduced to me by my sister, C.Beth. The Crockpot Lady spent all of 2008 using her slow cooker every single day. Many of her recipes are vegetarian or vegan, and almost all are gluten free (she has a child with celiac disease.) I changed the recipe a little -- blackeye peas instead of pinto beans, no chickpeas, and 3 cups of broth instead of 4. The soup sat for about 9 hours, and it was so flavorful. I made it with less cayenne pepper than the recipe called for, so Molly could eat it -- and she gobbled it up. It still had a little bit of spice, but she had her milk, so she was fine.

On Friday, we went to the Japanese restaurant around the corner for a mostly-macrobiotic (but not at all vegan) meal. We already go there often, and it'll probably be a weekly treat for us on this new diet. $23 at this place gets you a meal for two, including salad, miso soup, a good-sized sashimi platter, veggie and shrimp tempura, rice, and ice cream. We said no to the ice cream, so the only non-macro thing on the menu was the white rice (which Molly eats far more of than I do). It's a nice treat, especially when you add on edamame and a spicy tuna roll like we did, and super-cheap!

Saturday was D's dad's birthday party, at a pizza joint called Flatbread in Portsmouth, NH. They use all organic ingredients, and they try to buy local - although they aren't able to do it for many of their ingredients this time of year. We ordered their vegan pizza (it's not on the website, but is on their normal menu), with tomato sauce, caramelized onions, garlic oil, olives, and mushrooms. It was so flavorful that I didn't even miss the cheese! Any New Englanders out there really need to try this place. I did, however, have half a cupcake for dessert. If there's any time to cheat, it's at a birthday party.

And, finally, the promised recipe: Red Bean Hummus. A bit of background first, though. Adzuki beans are the beans behind the red bean ice cream and other red bean-paste desserts you find in Asian shops and restaurants. They are not sweet, but are often put into sweet recipes. This was my first time making them. I think they taste more like pinto beans than any other type, although they look like miniature kidney beans. They're about the size of lentils and, like lentils, do not have to be soaked. I put this recipe together, using the hummus recipe from Vegan Spoonful as my inspiration. The flavor is a little different from regular hummus, and a nice change.

Red Bean Hummus

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. dry adzuki (azuki, aduki) beans
1 strip kombu seaweed (optional, but will help tenderize, flavor, and de-gassify the beans)
6 c. water

1/2 c. tahini (sesame paste)
4-6 T. lemon juice
2 T. lime juice
2 cloves garlic
1 T. ground cumin
3 T. olive oil, plus more for drizzling
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
cilantro to garnish (optional)

Directions:
Add the beans, kombu, and 3 c. of water to a pot. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove from burner, add the other 3 c. cold water, and bring to a boil again. Simmer for 1 hour, or until beans are tender.

If desired, remove kombu (I didn't - it blends in well, and the flavor is very mild after it's been boiling for an hour and a half.) Drain beans and pour into a food processor or mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients and pulse, either with the food processor or with an immersion (hand) blender. (A regular blender will work too, but you'll probably have to do it in small batches.) If it's too thick, you can add a little bit of water. These beans are not as dry as garbanzo beans.

When finished, transfer to a serving bowl. Drizzle olive oil on top and garnish with fresh-ground pepper and cilantro.

Eat with whole-wheat pita (baked into chips or not), fresh veggies, etc ... or it makes a great sandwich spread!

Day 7: Tempeh tacos!

2009-01-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Monday, I was back to teaching after a nice, nearly-two-week Winter Break. We now have a little routine set up: come home, cook and eat dinner, and then I prepare the next day's lunch while Donal does the dishes. We're not only eating healthier, we're also saving a ton of money on lunch. Previously, I would usually eat frozen dinners (all-natural, but still not the best), and he usually got soup or a sandwich from a cafe.

Monday, we had leftover barley-mushroom soup (see the Day Four post). Even better the second day! I added some spinach to it while reheating it on the stove.

Lunch every day has been some variety of tofu/tempeh sandwich: hummus on whole-grain bread or whole-wheat pita with marinated tofu and tempeh, shredded cabbage, spinach leaves, and sometimes shredded carrots. We've also been bringing fruit, and we both brought a few days' worth of quinoa pilaf, made with veggie stock, to keep in our fridges at work and round out the meal. Click here to make your own marinated tofu (we did the lemon tahini marinade this time); for tempeh, use the same marinade but cook at 300 for just 30-40 minutes (turning after 20 minutes).

Snacks are nuts, wasabi peas, and dried fruit. I definitely get hungry more often on this diet, and I have the tendency to lose weight when I'm busy if I'm not careful, so the tasty snacks we've been eating have been crucial.

On Tuesday, we had tempeh-peanut saute with bok choy and spinach on whole-wheat pasta. The recipe was from The Self Healing Cookbook. It was good, although not our favorite dish so far. I didn't take a picture of this one.

Tonight, I was going to make couscous with peanut sauce ... but we are all peanuted-out. So I made tempeh, pinto bean, and rice tacos instead:

Because I grew up in the Southwest, this was comfort food for me. And a plus: our pantry held some organic taco shells with only oil and masa (corn flour) as the ingredients, unlike the hydrogenated oil-ridden ones sold by the big brands.

Here is the recipe [Edited on 5/11/09 to add: I prefer the other tempeh taco recipe I invented, which you can find here!]

Tempeh, Pinto Bean, and Brown Rice Tacos

Ingredients:
2 T. canola oil or olive oil
1 package tempeh (available in the produce section, near the tofu)
1 package of natural taco seasoning, or use the recipe here like I did (I omitted the corn starch)
1 cup water
1 can pinto beans, drained
2 c. cooked brown rice

Taco shells, heated in the oven for 5 minutes at 350
Shredded cabbage
Salsa
Chopped cilantro

Directions:
Crumble tempeh into ground beef-sized crumbles. Heat oil in a large skillet and add tempeh. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes until tempeh is browned. While tempeh is browning, mix dry ingredients of taco seasoning (if you're making your own) into 1 cup of water. After the tempeh is browned, add beans and heat through. Add water/seasoning mix and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes, until most of the liquid is gone. Turn off heat, add rice, and stir.

Spoon tempeh, bean, and rice mixture into taco shells. Top with shredded cabbage.

This was a quick dinner - about half an hour; we took a shortcut and used the 10-minute boil-in-bag rice I keep in the pantry for emergencies.

Stay tuned for my next post, in which I'll write about my burgeoning correspondence with Jessica Porter, the author of the Hip Chick book. I had emailed her, and she emailed back a really nice, very cool reply -- with a bunch of links for me on the scientific research that's been done on macrobiotics. I've been putting off writing back to her until I can look into the links, but suffice it to say, I feel bad about being snarky in my review of her book! I was impressed by her desire to discuss the philosophy and science behind macrobiotics with me, in spite of my transparent skepticism in my blog (which she read.) More on this later, but Jessica, if you're reading this -- thanks so much for the email, and I will reply soon!

Day 4: Shopping and Stew

2009-01-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

We did a big shopping trip the day before yesterday - a little Asian store near our house (we're lucky to live in a big Asian neighborhood, because many ingredients in macrobiotic recipes are Asian ones that are more obscure to most Westerners), Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. We bought a ton of stuff to stock our cupboards, including millet, hulled barley, dried garbanzo and adzuki beans, tahini, tempeh, tofu (super-cheap at the Asian store, and made right down the street from the school where I teach), wakame and kombu seaweed, miso, tamari, brown rice syrup, brown rice vinegar, dried mushrooms, nutritional yeast, quinoa,...

This was my first time ever of buying 12 out of the above 16 ingredients, although I had tried all but the brown rice syrup and nutritional yeast. I had bought tofu, dried mushrooms, quinoa, and tahini in the past. It was all a little pricey when added together ... but many of the ingredients will last a long time in the fridge or pantry.

A small sample from our trip:

Yesterday afternoon, I made hummus from the wonderful recipe at The Vegan Spoonful blog. I've made hummus before, but never from chickpeas that I cooked myself. I don't know why I've always been so afraid to cook beans (rather than buying them in a can) - it was simple, but it does require soaking overnight, so not good for a last-minute dish. I added kombu to the soaking and cooking water (a type of kelp - I had no idea there were so many varieties of seaweed out there), which helps tenderize the beans and prevent their more ... pungent side effects.

I didn't take a picture of the hummus. It turned out really pretty, with coarse-ground pepper, a few chickpeas, and a swirl of olive oil on top. And then I took one of the homemade pita chips I'd thrown together in 10 minutes and ruined the pretty picture. So click over to the recipe to see how the hummus is supposed to look! It was really, really good. Molly LOVES it. She eats it with a spoon. She calls it "Thomas" instead of "hummus." ("More Thomas, please, Mama!")

Finally, for dinner, we put some of our new ingredients to work on Barley Mushroom Soup from The Self Healing Cookbook. I don't want to put the recipe in this post, because it's copyrighted and I didn't really adapt it enough to call it my own. But basically, it's a kombu-and-mushroom broth with barley, sesame oil, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bay leaf, dill, cabbage and miso all added in at various points. It was really, really, really good. Thick, somehow creamy (without any "creamy" ingredients), and surprisingly filling! It was even better tonight when we had it for leftovers.

Here is a picture (I looked at my camera manual and am getting slowly better at food photography):

I've done more cooking, too - marinated and slow-baked tempeh and tofu for lunch today, with enough extra to bring during the week, and quinoa pilaf to bring for lunch. Maybe more on that stuff later, but leave a comment if you're interested in the recipes (or search around my delicious.com page, under the "vegan" label).

Needless to say, I'm enjoying the adventure!

P.S. I have mentioned tempeh several times, without ever explaining what it is. It is sort of a cultured soybean cake, with other whole grains added in. The one I used today had millet, barley, and brown rice in it. It has a really good texture and is a great meat alternative (one that doesn't add all kinds of unpronounceable stuff to make it taste like meat - it doesn't taste like meat, it tastes like tempeh. And that's good!) It can be sliced or crumbled. Tempeh is cultured, just as yogurt and many cheeses are cultured. Here's a good picture - you can see what a complex texture it has.

Day 3: So Far, So Good

2009-01-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

Well, everything is not going according to planned ... but that's a good thing.

We started out as expected, with Chickpea Curry and Escarole Siciliano on Thursday night:

The escarole is a bit strong for Molly, but I think she would eat that curry every day if she could. I adapted the recipe quite a bit from the allrecipes site, so scroll down to the end of this post if you want to see how I made it. The escarole was made without recipe adaptations; click here if you want to try it. It is SO good, and a nice way to eat greens if you are afraid of the dreaded over-boiled lump of pre-frozen spinach that you grew up with.

That dinner brings up ...

Tip #1 For Easier Vegan(ish) Cooking:
When making rice, make LOTS extra. It keeps in the fridge for a
few days, and is great for fast lunches ... and even breakfasts!

I was planning on making marinated tempeh and miso soup for lunch the next day, but we have a 2-year-old with a cold who was not up to heading to the Asian store and Whole Foods on Thursday night. So Friday rolled around, and I was stuck: what to do for lunch? I'm sure we'll do our share of PB&J, but I was hoping to do more actual cooking for this long weekend before I'm back at work on Monday.

So I opened the fridge and saw leftover rice (see Tip #1, above), leftover canned kidney beans and petite peas (Molly's go-to meal when she doesn't like what we're having), corn tortillas, and a bag of onions. And I made...

10-Minute Bean-and-Rice Tacos

We ate these so fast that I had to take a picture of the leftovers in an ugly Gladware container, instead of on a slightly prettier plate. So it's an extreme close-up. The recipe is at the bottom of this post.

That didn't even use up all of my rice; I'd made so much extra on Thursday that I still had a good-sized serving left in the fridge. So this morning, I made a little breakfast rice - warm rice, soy milk, cinnamon, and chopped prunes (yes, I like prunes. You should try them sometime.) Rice for breakfast may sound weird (except to about 2 billion Asians), but it's really no different from eating other grains like oatmeal. It was tasty and filling. (Macrobiotic people aren't huge soy milk fans, because it is still processed food. However, I don't think I could do this transition without it. I bought Silk Unsweetened, and it turns out I like it better than the normal soy milk - which, to my surprise, has sugar added. Also, it's fortified with the vitamins and minerals you'd normally find in milk.)

By the way, I'm doing the tempeh tomorrow, and will post about it then. We still have leftover taco filling and curry to eat for lunch today. That's why it's a good thing that all is not going as planned - the leftovers are stretching further than expected.

And now, for the recipes! (If you aren't interested, scroll down anyway for a show-off pic of Molly on Christmas morning)

Chickpea Curry with Rice

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 chopped large onion (or two small)
2 tsp. chopped garlic (I use the jarred stuff, a welcome shortcut)
2-3 tsp. chopped, peeled ginger (or 1/2 - 1 tsp. ground ginger)

8 whole cloves
1-3 tsp. ground cinnamon (depending on how much you love it)
1 Tbsp. ground cumin (or less if you aren't as much of a cumin fanatic as me)
1 tsp. ground coriander
OR
halve all of the above ingredients and add 1 Tbsp. garam masala spice mix (available in the Indian aisle or from McCormick in the regular spice aisle - this adds SUCH a good flavor)

1 Tbsp. curry powder (optional)
salt to taste
1 pinch cayanne pepper (we leave this out so it's not too hot for Molly)
2 (15-oz.) cans garbanzo beans, UNDRAINED
frozen vegetables (broccoli, peas, carrots - whatever you have on hand)
chopped fresh cilantro (we didn't have any this time, and it was still good)

Directions:
Heat oil in a large skillet or saute pan. Add onions and cook until they are starting to turn brown and caramelized on the edges. Add spices, garlic, and ginger and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Add garbanzo beans and frozen veggies. Bring to a boil, turn heat down, and simmer for up to 45 minutes - the longer, the better.

For a nice cold-weather variation, soften some chunks of carrots and parsnips in the microwave (just until starting to get soft) and add them instead of frozen veggies.

Serve over brown rice (we found some yummy brown basmati) with chopped cilantro on top.
Serves 6-8.

10-Minute Bean-and-Rice Tacos

Ingredients:
1 T. canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 c. leftover brown rice
1 c. kidney beans
1/2 c. petite peas or other veggies
2 t. cumin
1 t. chili powder
salt to taste

6-8 corn tortillas, softened (wrap in paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds; turn over and add 20 more seconds if necessary)
salsa (I like Trader Joe's salsa verde; D likes their habanero lime)
lettuce, spinach, or other raw greens; cilantro; sliced radishes; or whatever taco add-ons you prefer

Directions:
Fry onion in oil over medium heat. When softened, add other ingredients. Stir until well-mixed and heated through. Spoon a small amount of mixture onto the center of each tortilla, add salsa and garnishes, fold over, and eat!
Serves 3-4.

The Promised Show-Off Picture:

Day 1: The Experiment Begins!

2009-01-01T12:12:00.000-08:00

Well, we're starting tonight! As soon as Molly wakes up from her nap, it's off to the store for groceries. Luckily, the supermarket around the corner has a nice selection of bulk foods and health food. And we'll have to hit up the Asian store and Whole Foods for a few things, too.

I promised my readers a menu, and I've made one. We're starting off with a dinner composed of two dishes which we already know and love - and they both happen to be vegan-macro-friendly. I've planned out our meals for the next 8 days, but will just share today and tomorrow with you for now. Check back for pictures and reviews of the dishes.

Breakfast every day is cereal with soy milk. I'm not a huge breakfast person.

Thursday, 1/1:

Dinner:

Chickpea curry on brown rice (one of our favorite dinners; contains a nice blend of spices but no curry powder. Molly likes it too!)
Escarole Siciliano (we LOVE this greens recipe. We are using 1 head of escarole tonight.)

Friday, 1/2:

Lunch:

Miso Soup from The Self-Healing Cookbook - see yesterday's post for a short introduction to this fabulous book
Marinated tempeh from The Self-Healing Cookbook, in whole-wheat pita with bean sprouts and tahini (I'll explain more about what tempeh is in my next post)

Dinner:

Leftover chickpea curry
More Escarole Siciliano, made fresh from a second head of escarole

And finally, a preview of what's to come in the next few days: barley mushroom soup, baked tofu with lemon-tahini marinade, quinoa pilaf, tempeh peanut sauté, homemade hummus, couscous with peanut sauce ... yum!

So it begins!

Day -1: A Guidebook, and a Delay

2008-12-31T08:42:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted - we spent a wonderful few days in Minnesota with D's two older daughters. Ate lots of junk (even when trying not to; chain restaurant food uses lots of additives to make up for poorly-trained chefs and a resistance to buying quality, fresh ingredients), and paying the price now, migraine-wise.

The first piece of news: We're having a snowstorm here in the Northeast, and D has to work today (we share one car), so it looks like we won't be able to do a good shopping trip until tomorrow. I've decided to start our experiment, instead of tomorrow morning, either tomorrow evening or the next morning. My next post will be a menu of what I'm planning on cooking in the upcoming week.

The delay will also enable us to get Molly a little birthday cake - she's a New Year's baby, turning 2 tomorrow - without worrying about breaking our (admittedly breakable) rules. No birthday party yet (it's a bad time for it, with so many people out of town), but maybe in a couple of weeks.

The second piece of news: As I alluded to last week, I have found a book that I think is going to work very well as a guidebook for me. In fact, I put it up as a "Book That Will Change How You Think About Food" in the left-hand column of my blog. It is The Self-Healing Cookbook, written by Kristina Turner. Ms. Turner lost her husband to cancer, but he held on for several years before succumbing. During that time, they changed to a macrobiotic diet. It helped his health immensely, and made his last few years probably better than they would have been. One thing I love about this book is that it was written after his death. She knows that a diet is not a cure-all; but she believes so strongly that macrobiotics improved her husband's quality of life - and continues to improve hers - that she still wrote a book on it.

This book is .... hard to explain. It's typed on a manual typewriter, with hand-drawn illustrations and hand-lettered headings. And it's sold almost half a million copies. It just has heart (and I'm not normally that sappy). Plus, it has great recipes and a wonderful attitude. It encourages readers to do eat what makes them feel good -- not good in the short run (like a sugary cupcake), but overall good. And it gives excellent guidelines for doing so, but admits that the rules are different for everyone. It encourages moderation and occasional splurges. I wish my words could give a more powerful explanation ... I guess I'll just close by saying, read this book. Just see if it touches you. I dare you! Click on the small icon of the book in the left-hand column of this blog to purchase it, or just to read an excerpt (by clicking "Look inside.")

Day -6: My Number-One Reason for Wanting to be Healthier

2008-12-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Day -8: I am not a Hip Chick

2008-12-24T04:20:00.001-08:00

I've taken a break from blogging for the last few days, trying to absorb all the reading I've done. I've also struggled with more migraines than I'd like to admit, which tends to slow me down.

The first book I read to try and prep for our experiment was The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics:

I really thought I'd love this one. And it is a good reference for cooking different whole grains and such. And it does have lots of yummy-looking recipes, like ...

Mediterranean Barley Salad,
Millet-and-Cauliflower Mashed "Potatoes" with Mushroom Gravy,
Vegan Lasagna,
Pumpkin-Seed Salad Dressing, and
Lots more that I'll have to try!

And ... well, first let me say that I really think I read it with an open mind, although an "open mind" for me means, "Could this Eastern philosophy conceivably be explained in a Western scientific way, at least in the future?" (Eastern-origin treatments that I think Western science should look at more closely include yoga, acupuncture, and such.)

But I read way too many statements like,

"Throw out the microwave. . . . The electromagnetic radiation necesary for microwave cooking is so intense and so yin (whereas normal heat comes from yang energy) that it is weakening to the blood and produces chaotic energy."
.... HUH? This really bugged my science teacher self. Microwaves, in fact, are electromagnetic waves -- LIGHT that our human eyes just happen not to be able to see. They are of a wavelength right in between RADIO waves and INFRARED waves. Infrared waves are coming out of our bodies all the time, since we are warm-blooded. Night-vision goggles usually detect infrared heat. And radio waves ... well, those are all around us too. Microwave ovens work by taking liquid in food and speeding up the molecules, which makes them hotter. Regular ovens do the same thing, but with a different type of wave that feels "hot" to us. That's it.
And, "Go out and get an apple. And a saltine cracker. Put them next to each other and just relax. Let your inner compass feel if there is any relationship between them. . . . " If this statement resonates with you, blog reader, please go out and take the advice. Let me know what your inner compass tells you about the apple and the saltine. I'm trying not to say anything TOO snarky here, . . . so I'll just stop.

After I was done reading through the book, I said to D, "I just can't buy in. I don't think the macrobiotic thing is going to work for me at all, except that I'll get some good recipes out of it. This is just not how I view the world."

And then I read the second book I had bought, and . . . WOW. More on that in my next post!

Day -11: The Great American Meal

2008-12-21T05:01:00.000-08:00

A timeline:

Saturday:
6 PM - Walk into the snowy night, bundled up. Go two blocks and walk into Hancock Tavern.
6:15 PM - Get beer. Discuss appetizers. Starving after a day of Christmas shopping.
6:15-6:35 - Wonder what's taking the server so long.
6:35 - Order food. Ask server for water (for the second time).
6:50 - Get buffalo chicken tenders. Eat too many while waiting for entree.
7:15 - Get entree (single-sized Mediterranean pizza). Eat two small pieces and stop. It's not very good, and the chicken filled me up during the 40 minutes between ordering and actually getting the entree.
7:40 - Where is the server? Start putting Molly's snowsuit and boots on to send a message.
7:45 - Get the check. Try to convince D that we should only give a 15% tip. (That's like a 10% tip in states outside of the Northeast.) He righfully points out that, although this server is really not good, we come here a lot. We don't want to get on her bad side. We settle on a 22% tip. That'll show her.
8:00 - Arrive back at home, feeling pretty gross. D points out that most restaurants that take almost two hours end up costing a couple hundred bucks. I think you get what you pay for...
Sunday:
5 AM - Stagger out of bedroom. Find Mylanta. Chug it straight from the bottle.
5:01 - Stagger back to bed, holding stomach. Go back to sleep repeating the refrain, "I really do feel like crap when I eat crap. I really do feel like crap when I eat crap."
5:10 - Dream of bloatedness, heartburn, and indigestion.
6:30 - Molly wakes me up. I still feel gross.

I'm definitely ready to start this experiment. We eat healthy enough most of the time, which just highlights how absolutely disgusting bad-for-me food makes me feel. How on Earth do some people eat like this every day?

Day -12: The 2-Year-Old Macrobiotic

2008-12-20T07:03:00.000-08:00

I've started doing a little reading on macrobiotics, and a lot of it sounds very familiar. In fact, it sounds an awful lot like my 2-year-old Molly's preferences.

Molly...

... is a vegetarian by choice - she does not like meat
... loves miso soup, edamame, every type of bean she's ever tried, many vegetables, brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat couscous, whole wheat noodles, nuts, seeds
... thinks raisins and other dried fruit are gummies. (We don't discourage this little self-deception ... she often asks for "raisin gummies" for dessert.)
... thinks peeled cucumber slices are cookies (again, we don't discourage this, and "cucumber cookies" have become a treat since we discovered it)
... doesn't like most nightshade fruits/vegetables (eggplant, peppers, tomatoes ... although she does like potatoes, which are nighshades)

Molly isn't vegan; she drinks skim milk and is a cheese lover. But it's still 12 days till our experiment starts, and she's far more than halfway there already!

Day -14: Sweet Potato & Black Bean Tacos

2008-12-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

First, thanks so much to the several wonderful folks who have commented in support of our experiment. I think that, just like any major change in habits, having a support group will be a big help.

I bought some sweet potatoes the other day, planning on making a yummy-sounding sweet-potato-and-lime dish I saw on The Crockpot Lady's blog. And while that still sounds good, I found something even better on Amy's blog, which I investigated after she commented on yesterday's post. So tonight I'm going to try Sweet Potato Burritos. Oh, yum yum! I know our experiment hasn't started yet, but (a) the recipe sounds too good to wait, and (b) I already cook a lot of vegetarian food -- so this won't be a shock to D or Molly.

Update after dinner:
It turned out tasty! D loved it (with lots of chipotle salsa), and Molly ate a few of the black beans and a whole tortilla - but wasn't into the sweet potato. Oh well.

Here's the pic:

This is my first real attempt at food photography. Out of focus, I know!

And the recipe, modified from the above link based on what I had in my pantry / fridge:

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Tacos
2 T. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (1/2"-3/4" cubes)
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 T. cumin (or less if you aren't as much of a cumin fiend as me)
1/2 t. chili powder
1 t. ground coriander
dash cayenne pepper (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
3 T. tomato paste
1 1/2 c. water
1 can black beans
12 corn tortillas, warmed
shredded baby spinach
salsa

Heat olive oil in a skillet at medium low.
Saute onion, garlic, sweet potato, and spices until the sweet potato starts to soften (10-15 minutes).
Mix tomato paste and water and add to the skillet. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer until sweet potato is cooked through and soft, but not mushy (20-25 minutes).
Add beans and heat through. Use a potato masher to mash about half of the mixture. Stir well.
Overlap two tortillas on a plate. Place mixture on tortillas, adding shredded greens and salsa on top. (I used Trader Joe's salsa verde; D used homemade chipotle salsa prepared by blending Herdez chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.)

Serves 6.

Day -15: Introduction

2008-12-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, in the middle of one of my tougher migraine periods (translation: 3 or more in a week), I said to D,

"Hey, I'm thinking of radically changing my diet. Any time I've read about anti-headache diets, they focus a lot on staying away from certain meats and cheeses, and on eating more fresh food and fewer additives. I wonder if it would work for me."

D's initial reaction was one of skepticism ... but, after a few days, he said out of the blue,

"You know, I've been thinking about what you said about changing your diet. I'd like to try it with you. But let's wait until after the holidays."

And so the one-month vegan(ish) experiment was born. We aren't doing it for ethical reasons, so we'll be cheating occasionally. I doubt that D will give up milk (he has a glass of skim milk with dinner every day), and we aren't asking Molly to give it up either.

A little bit of research has shown me that a macrobiotic diet is almost what I'm looking for. I tend to be a Western-Empirical-Science-type, and am not particularly into the yin/yang approach taken by macrobiotic theory, but the diet does a great job of balancing foods. I won't cut out nightshade vegetables (couldn't live without tomatoes, peppers, etc.) or avocados. But we will use a lot of macro guidelines so that we can make sure we're getting all the nutrients we need, and we'll use lots of macro recipes because there's a ton of yummy ones out there.

I've ordered a couple of books: The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics and The Self-Healing Cookbook. They should arrive by the end of this week or the beginning of next, and I'll blog about them as I'm reading them.

So welcome, readers, and thanks for supporting us in our experiment!

12/18/08: Edited because I'd misremembered one of the books I ordered!