8 posts tagged “ed&bv”

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 127

Dec 19, 2008
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I have been cooking more food lately, probably because of the warm weather we are still enjoying, for which we are really grateful. Now I am actually contemplating what to cook again for tomorrow.

Polenta Casserole, recipe on page 138 of Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. I used nutritional yeast instead of soy cheese and It is the cheesiest thing we have tasted in five years.

Polenta Casserole

Szechuan-Style Tofu with Eggplant, page 56 of Vegan Express. This is a great recipe. The dish is so flavorful. You can easily whip it up in 20 minutes and serve it over a bed of warm brown rice. I am discovering more good recipes in Vegan Express every week.

Szechuan-Style Tofu with Eggplant

Chickpea Cutlets, from Veganomicon. I do not have this cookbook any more. This recipe was saved from more than 6 months ago. I guess by now I am the last person on this planet to have tried this recipe. These cutlets are literally everywhere in the blogsphere. I certainly do not need to praise them more.

Chickpea Cutlets

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 125, Hodgepodge

Dec 4, 2008
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I have been cooking but it has become rather hard to keep up posting more often. We always seem to have many things piling up onto the to-do lists. "It's always something" has been such a cliche in our household now. I didn't have time to come up with any new recipe. Nor did I participate in any cooking contest like I planned. I cooked from cookbooks and my recipe collection. Alas! 'Tis life. We ought to be grateful for what we have though. My husband and I have begun our little "self-compliment" group, inspired by LaidOutInLavendar. It is not easy at all. Gosh, I never knew it could this hard to say a few nice things about ourselves without feeling weird or discouraged. But we are trying. It's much easier to compliment each other, but when it comes down to the self-compliment... I guess we just don't know ourselves well enough.

Anyway, here comes the food porn, as usual. The first thing is from VwaV, page 28, "Fronch" Toast. It was great, but next time I will definitely add some cinnamon and nutmet to make it more traditional.

Fronch Toast

The second thing is Bryanna's Hunan Tofu. I made this before, a long while ago that I can't even remember. This time I didn't even fry the tofu beforehand because I wanted more of a soft and juicy texture. It turned out even better than I remembered. Surely a keeper!

Bryanna's Hunan Tofu

And I served the Hunan Tofu with Indian-Spiced Quinoa from Vegan Planet (page 229). I skipped raisins because I generally don't like them in the savory dishes and used walnuts instead of pine nuts as I simply ran out. It's the first recipe I have tried out of this vegan cookbook. I loved the flavors and short preparation time. I will definitely try some other recipes soon.

Hunan Tofu and Indian-Spiced Quinoa with Walnuts

Finally, a recipe from one of my favorite vegan cookbooks, Eat, Drink & Be Vegan - Monkey Minestrone (page 97). I totally adored this soup, but my husband actually preferred my own minestrone. How sweet! I didn't use any corn, but added some potatoes and soy beans. I think the soup was made more earthy and meaty this way. I also added three tablespoons of tomato paste to make the soup thicker.

Monkey Minestrone

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 123, Moonstruck

Nov 21, 2008
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Moonstruck (1987) is definitely my all-time favorite movie. I guess by now I've seen the movie like 20 to 25 times. I've tried watching this movie every day for 10 days straight and I'm still not tired of it. Nowadays there is almost no chance of seeing such a cute, lovely and family-friendly movie that makes you drool over the Italian food and feel all so romantic like a high-school kid. Therefore, I made my Moonstruck Minestrone to commemorate all the happy feelings this movie has instilled in me.

D's Moonstruck Minestrone

D's Moonstruck Minestrone
(makes 6-7 servings)

1 large yellow onion, halved and then sliced thinly
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
3 large stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into bite size
2 cups tomatoes, roughly chopped and juice reserved
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 medium cabbage, cut into bite-size pieces
7-8 cups water
4 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 bay leaves
3 tsp. Italian herb seasoning
1/2 cup canned red kidney beans, drained
1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute onion, garlic, celery, carrots and cauliflower over medium heat for about 9-10 minutes until they soften a little.
2. Add tomatoes and cover. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Uncover, add water and cabbage. Turn heat to high to reach a slow boil and stir in the tomato paste and herbs. Mix well and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes.
4. Add beans to the stock and heat through. Cook another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm (and now you can watch one of your favorite movies while eating it).

Besides the minestrone which I really love, I'm also extremely fond of coconut pies. This time I made the V'con basic single pastry crust again and made the Lime Sucker Coconut Pie (Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, page 200). This pie has the perfect balance of sweetness of the coconut and fresh tanginess from the limes. It rendered me completely defenseless.

Lime Sucker Coconut Pie

EDIT: I remembered to take a closeup shot today, before I ate my pie.

Lime Sucker Cococnut Pie

This year for Thanksgiving, we actually bought a loaf of Tofurky Roast with Stuffing and the Gravy. But we didn't wait until the actual day to try it out. The roast was alright, but I guess we are not huge fans for giant seitan roasts (a little too heavy for us). I made a Caper and Mashed potato Salad (recipe by Peter Minakis of Kalofagas) on the side, which turned out amazing. I recently found out about Peter Minakis's blog which features many great Greek recipes and beautiful food photos. If you're interested in Greek cuisine, you can check it out.

Tofurky Roast with Gravy and Caper Potato Salad

Raspberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Celestial Cream

Jan 31, 2008
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These pancakes (ED&BV, page 36) from Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink & Be Vegan were awesome. They were not sweet and were almost deliciously savory, and with the celestial cream (ED&BV, page 29) they were truly heavenly. Fluffy and light. I was completely sold. I actually felt that pancakes could constitute a healthy meal. Oat flour and cornmeal can't hurt. I will try using rice flour next time to make it gluten-free too.

Raspberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Celestial Cream

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 74

Jan 23, 2008
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I didn't cook much. I only have some ordinary food photos to share. I took three photos of the our first whole wheat bread made in the bread machine. I was very excited so I had to take more than one photo. I also made the Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas (Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, page 68). That was very tasty. Nothing beats the fresh rosemary. Finally, we made some plain vegan pancakes (OK, a little sweet) and roasted some asparagus with tarragon.

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 69

Jan 14, 2008
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I made only half a batch of Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies (Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, page 184). Yes, I only make half a batch of everything sweet now, since I will be the only one eating them for the next few days. The new Swiss dark chocolate bars I bought were really good. They contain 85% cocoa, which makes them taste quite bitter. I love bitter chocolate bars. I guess I will be baking some chocolate cupcakes and chocolate cakes. OMG, it's almost like everything starts with "choco". Enough digression. The spice cookies were GOOD! I ate two right out of the oven. The melty chocolate chunks were oozing out. Ultimate yumminess! By the way, I used oat flour instead of barley flour (1:1). You can also use all-purpose flour (less 2 tablespoons). I will be making more wheat-free baked goods from now on because they taste better and have a better texture somehow.

Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies

I also made the first vegan Stuffing in my life. The original recipe is by Veglicious. I followed it strictly so you will have to check out the blog yourself. It's really worth your time though. I found a few great vegan recipes there.

Stuffing

Personally, I don't think it's quite fair that stuffing is only a side dish. Just because stuffing is typically used to stuff a dead turkey's body afte its innards are taken out, it's only called stuffing? We call it Beyond Stuffing in our household. It's perfectly fit to be an entrée.

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 64, Mega Post

Jan 6, 2008
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Zucchini Pizza (No. 3)

I continued with my zucchini pizza experiment and this is the third pizza on the left. I put 1/4-inch water in the pan and cut zucchini lengthwise into two halves and steamed for 8-10 minutes. Then I cut zucchini into thin slices and laid three-four layers of zucchini on the base. The white sauce worked well but I didn't exactly like the sauce. I think I'll try a olive oil garlic base next time. The final result was good enough as you can see, but I can surely do better than this. I'll try to pre-bake the pizza crust for 7-8 minutes and roast the zucchini beforehand too, as RachJ kindly suggested.

Maybe in a few more days I will make another batch of pizzas and update with the new result.

Both my husband and I are on a diet but we crazily love coconut. As long as I have shredded coconut and coconut milk/cream sitting in the pantry, I have no excuse not to make us a nice coconut cake to reward ourselves a little for our effort. I know our effort hasn't been that noteworthy yet, but we can use a little consolation. In fact, the coconut cake (from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, page 190) came out so heavenly that my husband took a big slice of one layer before I could assemble and add the frosting. He dipped the cake in the frosting too.

Coconut Cake

I didn't use the Coconut Dream Frosting (ED&BV, page 191) though. Not that I didn't want to. Who doesn't want to dream in coconut flavor? Sadly, I didn't have several ingredients so I had to adapt. But amazingly my own frosting came out to be very addictive too. Maybe a little too good for my poor husband. He's not even into sweets but the coconut flavor is just too irresistible. So here's my macadamia frosting recipe.

Macadamia Frosting

2/3 package silken extra-firm tofu

1 cup & 2 Tbsp. organic powdered sugar

1/2 cup roasted macadamia nuts

1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla soymilk

1 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp tapioca starch

In a blender or food processor, chop up macadamia nuts until like crumbs. Pat tofu with paper towel to remove extra moisture. Add tofu to the nuts and blend together until smooth. Scrape down sides if needed. Add powdered sugar, soymilk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract, and blend thoroughly to mix well. Finally, add in tapioca starch and blend in thoroughly again. Refrigerate immediately for at least a few hours before applying. I let it sit in the fridge overnight.

I didn't apply too much frosting on the cake because I knew I would get too "excited". I still managed to justify to myself how I could have two slices though.

Coconut Cake (Closeup)

Did I mention before that Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink & Be Vegan is a very practical and wonderful cookbook? I'm totally in love with this cookbook right now. I didn't use it until a few days ago because I never spent much time looking through everything in the book, for a good reason too - Veganomicon simply rules! But in all fairness, ED&BV is very practical and the recipes are wholesome and easy to follow. And you will have very tasty food without going through too much trouble. I just tried out the Palak Soyabina Panira (ED&BV, page 137) which is a tofu version of the indian dish Palak Paneer (spinach, cheese and a blend of spices). It was mighty tasty and it took me only 20 minutes altogether to prepare and cook. I didn't make our own marinated tofu and used half a package of fried tofu.

Palak Soyabina Panira

And I had my second try on Potato-Edamame Samosas with Coconut-Mint Chutney (VwaV, pages 80-82). I was very lucky this time to have a huge success with these delicious and satisfying samosas. My husband always says that samosas are the ultimate "junk food" (in the sense that you really spoil yourself with the fried dough, mashed potatoes and the Indian spices) and he was surely glad to get some finally. I had to photograph the filling because it just looked so pretty.

Potato-Edamame Filling

Now we can see the final samosas looking all very golden and smelling awesome, and the elegant-looking chutney. Vegan with A Vengeance is still so awesome!

Potato-Edamame Samosas

Coconut-Mint Chutney

Wow, I can't believe this post turns out to be quite long. I guess nowadays I'm really a cooking maniac. Until tomorrow (or maybe later) then.

So What The Heck Do We Eat? -- Day 62

Jan 2, 2008
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I was out of idea as to what to cook since I began my new diet two days ago. I know it's part of the cliche New Year's Resolutions. But I instinctually feel that this year will be rather important for my personal growth. I even started a food journal again to hold myself accountable. I lost a lot of weight by doing so a few years ago without any struggle or mind game. I'm sure that I can do it this time.

Anyway, enough of the boring weight control. Let's move onto the food. I found this wonderful recipe of Banana Berry Coconut Muffins on the PPK. The original recipe is from Maria Esztergalyos. I somehow got it into my head that these were scones. So I blindly baked some scones, Banana Blueberry Coconut Scones. Only five minutes ago did I realize that I made a mistake. But it was a lovely mistake. These scones were really yummy and not very sweet. I made the low-fat version by using applesauce instead of oil. I omitted oats because I didn't have any, and I subbed frozen blueberries just because I love them. I picked one scone that looks like Snoopy. Doesn't it look cute?

Banana Blueberry Coconut Scones

For the serious meal, I was too lazy to stand in the kitchen for 2 to 3 hours. Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink & Be Vegan came to my rescue. ED&BV has been laying around the house for a couple of months but I never seemed to use any recipe from that book. I really don't know why. But the Quinoa Chickpea Confetti Casserole (ED&BV, page 140) just screamed out to me. I didn't mind letting the oven do all the work. I didn't have a fennel bulb (funnily, I just threw one out) so I subbed zucchini as the recipe recommends. I happened to have only yellow bell peppers so this casserole didn't look really like a confetti casserole, unfortunately. But boy I was happy with the result! The quinoa tasted really yummy with all the flavors from chickpeas, zucchini, herbs, peppers, and garlic. I didn't make the maple balsamic sauce to drizzle all over the quinoa though. I'll have to try it soon.