Mac and Bleu Cheese

I bought this expensive cheese at Food Fight and have been using it so slowly. My choice of bleu cheese is because I was never able to eat it as a non-vegan because I am allergic to molds. Next I will try out the moz.
This is a wonderfully rich food. I was able to cut down the sharp flavor but still give a sense of it.

Mac and Bleu Cheese:
1 cup soy milk
1 cup shredded bleu cheese from Scheese.
1/4 cup tofutti cream cheese
1 Tbl. Nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

8 saltine crackers

8 lasagna noodle, broken (or other pasta that you need to use up.)

1 large tomato

1. Cook pasta as normal
2. Bring the first 4 ingredients to a boil in a medium sauce pan, then reduce until it is all melted. add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Chop tomato into bits.
4. Drain pasta and rinse with cool water.
5. Mix pasta and scheese mixture until evenly coated. Add tomatoes and mix a bit more.
6. Press into 9x9 pan and sprinkle with crushed crackers.
7. Bake for 30 min 350F
8. Let cool, serve and enjoy!

Sweet Tofu and Green Beans

This was fantastic! But there's no real recipe, but I will try my best.

Hazelnut marinated tofu with almond breading on a pile of Sweet onion sauce sauteed with green beans.

At my local farmer's market I found this hazelnut marinade. It's pretty much soy sauce with a lot of hazelnut flavor. That's the main part of this recipe.

I marinaded one block of tofu over night in this hazelnut marinade.
The next day I breaded the tofu in a mixture of chickpea flour, almond flour, cayenne pepper, salt and a dash of ginger.
These were baked on a cookie sheet at 425F for 12 min. each side.

The sweet onion sauce is a wonderful recipe I tested for Isa and Terry (of the Post Punk Kitchen fame). They have a new cookbook coming up and though it's far from being ready for sale, you should keep a look out for it.
The sweet onion sauce was mixed with green beans and sauteed until done.

The sweetness of these two dishes went together nicely. If I drank wine, or knew anything about wine, I would have served wine with this dish because it just seems appropriate.

Chick Chicken Soup

Is it clear yet what my favorite bean is?
This wasn't a good summer soup, more of a hearty winter soup, but very tastey.


2 Cups Veggie broth
1 Cup chickpeas
4 Cloves garlic
1 cup chopped Wheat Meat
1 Head broccoli
2 Tbl. nut. yeast
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the garlic with some olive oil, when clear add veggie broth and cooked chickpeas and wheat meat and bring to a boil.
Add nutritional yeast, mustard powder and other spices.
Cook on high for another 10 minutes. The soup should start to thicken.
Add chopped broccoli and serve when broccoli is bring green in color.

Pesto Chickpeas

As you may know, I am not a fan on pasta, but once again I found myself wanting pesto pasta. After figuring out it was really just the pesto I wanted, this is what I came up with:

Pesto Chickpeas:

1 cup cooked chickpeas
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
1/2 bunch basil
2 Tbl. chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 Tbl. pine nuts
salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the chickpeas with some garlic and olive oil until the chickpeas are cooked all the way through.
2. Prepare the pesto. Food processors are best for this job, blenders second best, and mincing with a knife is third. My food processor left, the blender broke and I was left with a good sharp knife (I could write a country song!) Basically, process, blend, mince, everything together. Add some olive oil and mix until pasty.
3. Mix together and serve warm.

Sweet and Savory Green Dinner

Simple Salad and Green Beans Dressed Up
With very lose recipes.

Salad with Figs and "Honey" Mustard Dressing:
Simple salad of: torn butter lettuce, thinly sliced carrots and onions; tossed together.
Chopped figs and slivered almonds added.
Then drizzled with an agave, mustard mixture right before serving.

Maple-Mustard Green Beans:
This was based off of Isa's maple, mustard potatoes and string beans.
Steam the green beans and just before they are done, transfer to a frying pan.
Mix the sauce and pour over the green beans in the frying pan. Cook until the sauce has been cooked and well coated on the green beans.
Serve warm.

Sauce:
2 Tablespoons yellow mustard
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

The Brian Burger

Mr. Bolsh, my pseudo-husband, is a big guy and needs to eat a lot of food to stay alive. I often like light meals that highlight the flavors of the veggies. Brian just likes anything that tastes pretty good and fills him up.
I like to try to make things for him that taste FANTASTIC and fill him up. So this is what I came up with:

The Mr. Bolsh Burger
Toasted bun
Lots of Vegenaise
1 grilled portabella mushroom cap that was marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, thyme, salt, garlic, and onion powers
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Tempeh faken bacon, or some marinated temphe in some braggs, liquid smoke, spices and a splash of maple syrup.
Mustard
Avocado slices
Tofurkey slices
Love

In order of appearance: (from bottom to top) bun, vegenaise, portabella mushroom cap, avocado slices, mustard, tomatoes, tofurkey slices, tempeh, avocado slices, lettuce, vegenaise and a toasted bun.
We did decide the tofurky wasn't needed to make this burger.

He was quite happy. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed he needed to eat two of these, but he loved the taste so much he couldn't stop!

Sweet Scramble

This was made for the livejournal Vegan_cookoff.

I'm a big fan of sweet things for breakfast, but I wanted to play along in the vegan_cookoff community, so this is what I came up with. It's a lot like oatmeal, but has a different texture. Next time I will add more apples and roast them.


Sweet Scramble
1/2 block firm tofu
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup chopped apples
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup blue berries
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
large dashes of: clove, nutmeg and ginger

1. Shred tofu and start to saute with some olive oil an 1/4 cup agave
2. Add chopped apples and spices, saute more.
3. Add apple sauce and saute until sticky. Add sliced almonds.
4. Place blueberries on top of scramble and let cook for about two minutes.
5. Mix together and serve with sprinkled almonds.

Zucchini side dish

If you planted zucchini, this is the time of year you, like me, are probably sick of zucchini bread, and wondering what to do with the mountains of squash you have. Or maybe your neighbor is paying you to take theirs.

Last night I was planning on having some steamed zucchini, but it turned into this wonderfully flavored dish that still highlights the flavors of the veggies. I served it with some fresh harvested red and purple potatoes which were roasted with oil.


Zucchini Side Dish
1 large garden zucchini
1 big handful spinach
1 Tbl. Minced sundried tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. Rosemary
1/2 tsp. Chopped fresh marjoram
salt, pepper to taste
olive oil for sauting

1. Cut the zucchini into 1/4 rounds and cut in half
2. Place zucchini in the steamer and sprinkle with rosemary. Let steam. Just before it's finished throw the spinach on top and cover until just steamed.
3. Saute two cloves of garlic in olive oil, add sundried tomatoes and marjoram and saute until garlic is clear.
4. Place zucchini and spinach in a bowl, pour/sprinkle the garlic mixture over and mix together. 5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper before serving.

Side note: Right after I took the photos I dropped the entire plate on the floor! Most of it was saved. The mess left on the floor has been black-dog-approved.

Maple Chard Salad

Salad:
2 cups chopped chard
2 Tbl. shredded carrots
2 Tbl. toasted slivered almonds
1/2 Cup fresh blueberries

Dressing:
3 Tbl. Maple Syrup
1 tsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1/8 tsp. guar gum (thickener)
pinch cayanne
1/8 tsp. paprika


This is pretty simple, but it's so fantastic with the sweet of the berries and maple syrup and the bitter of the chard. The toastiness of the almonds brings this really nice round flavor to it all.

Frozen Blueberry Treat

Inspired by Jess's sister - blueberries, chocolate and coconut


Chocolate Coconut Blueberries
This was very simple!

1. Freeze about 1 cup of blueberries in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

2. Melt about 1/3 cup chocolate chips on low until all melted. Make sure not to burn the chocolate.

3. Dip the frozen blueberries in the melted chocolate. You might only be able to coat one side and that will be enough for flavor.

4. Roll in shredded coconut.

5. Place back on the cookie sheet and refreeze.

6. Serve about 1 hour later.

Another photo can be seen here.

Corn Chowder

Corn chowder
This is easily one of my favorite recipes. I look forward to corn season each year so I can make this. It seems more complicated than it is, but this recipe is much better with the homemade broth.

4 ears of corn
2 potatoes
4 cups water
1/2 - 1 large onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 can light coconut milk
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
teaspoon

1. Broth: Fill pot with 4 cups water. Remove skins from onions, potatoes, and garlic, put in water. Cut the kernals off the cob (like this) and place the cobs in the pot (like this). Boil until mixture is about 2 cups. (This takes about as much time as it does to prepare everything else and clean up a bit.)

2. Chop onion into bits, saute until clear and a bit browned. Set aside.

3. Chop potatoes into bite sized pieces while onion is sauting (like this). Set aside with corn and chopped garlic.

4. Strain broth. Return clean broth back to pot, add 16 oz. light coconut milk or soy milk.

5. Add sauted onions, chopped potatoes, corn, garlic, 1/2 tsp. pepper, salt/braggs, and some fresh or dry tarrgon.

6. When potatoes are almost done, turn heat down and let cool 5 min before serving.

7. Remove about 1/2 of the soup and blend unil smooth. Return to pot and mis together.

8. Pour into bowls, adding a few taraggon leaves. Dust with salt, pepper.

9. Serve.

Alterations:
Soy milk can be used for those who are sensitive to the taste of coconut or want a low fat version.
Blue potatoes makes a wonderful fun color of soup and helps brighten up this light colored soup.
Other veggies can also be added, but I prefer to highlight the simple and sweet taste of the corn.

Blueberry Madness

Jess and I went blueberry picking this last weekend and I have about 7 pounds of blueberries to go through! This is very exciting.

First up on the cooking adventures with blueberries was breakfast!


Coconut Blueberry Pancakes
Basic recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.

1 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup water
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp. Coconut extract
1 cup frozen blueberries

Mix as normal and cook as normal.

Coconut sauce:
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 handful coconut shreds
pinch of a thickener like gaur gum or some corn starch

1. Heat everything in a sauce pan on medium heat until reduced a little.
2. Pour over pancakes when ready to serve.

Pasta Salad

This pasta salad hit the spot and was worth the boiling of water on the hot day.


- 2 1/2 cups dry pasta
- One eared corn on the cob
- 1/3 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 10 baby carrots
- 12 oz. jar of marinated artichoke hearts, chopped (reserve the juice)
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1 sprig fresh tarragon, chopped
- 1 sprig basil, chopped
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds, minced (optional)
- 1/4 cup dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1 Tbl. dark vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste

While the pasta is boil, chop the herbs and vegetables of your choice.
When the pasta is almost done, rinse with cold water.
Add the juice of marinated artichokes and all the other vegetables and spices to the cold pasta and mix together.
Chill and serve cold.

Is it hot where you are?

Cooking has been difficult with the heat so I've been preparing lots of raw fruits and veggies.
Adding fresh herbrs from the yard like basil, mint, and lavendar has been a nice touch to my ice water.
I also highly recoment one cucumber slice and two mint leaves, one of the most refreshing combinations yet.

Baked Ricotta

Baked Ricotta
My mom got a non-vegan version similar to this at a resturant the other night and it inspired me to make this. I am unsure if it's really called baked ricotta, but this is what I am calling it now.

1 block firm, silken tofu
3-5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped basil
1 cup chopped spinach (I used frozen)
1/4 cup finely chopped soy moz.
2 Tbl. chopped sun dried tomatoes
salt and pepper

Place in a bag and let marinate over night.

I rolled them into balls, making sure to squeeze out as much liquid as I could before frying.
At first I used too much oil and they fell apart, as you can see in the picture. They stayed together much better using just a bit of oil. However, they weren't that beautiful.

Dinner is served with a salad with basil and balasic vinegar dressing and some steamed summer squash. The baked/pan fried ricotta was served on a bed of tomato sauce with some soy cheese served over it.

D-lish!

S'more Soy Cream

Frozen S'mores
I am still working on it so it's not there yet.

-Vanilla ice cream that's a little sticky from adding too much guar gum. Store bought super vanilla would probably be fine.
- Chopped chocolate chips
- Crushed ghram crackers.

Mix the chocolate chips into the vanilla soy cream. Roll into small balls and roll into the crushed ghram crackers and refreeze before serving.

Lemon-Coconut Bundt Cake

Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake
No recipe because it's for Isa and Terry's (of The Post Punk Kitchen) upcoming cook book. I just wanted to get you excited about some of the recipes.
This was such a wonderful little cake that was so moist and flavorful.

The Best Brownies Ever

Now, I know what you're thinking when some vegan claims to have made great brownies, "yeah right!" I totally understand. I worked for 6 years to find great vegan brownies. Most of them are too cakey to be real brownies. It was rather frusterating. I got to the point when I thought real brownies couldn't be made. Until I came across this recipe in livejournal.
Here is the original recipe.

Coconut Brownies
~ 1/4 tub of Earth Balance Buttery Spread, softened
~ 1 cup brown sugar
~ 1/2 cup Florida sugar
~ 4 tsp Ener-G egg replacer + 6 Tbsp water
~ 1 tsp coconut extract
~ 1 tsp baking powder
~ 1/2 tsp salt
~ 1/2 cup cocoa powder
~ 1 and 1/4 cups flour
~ 1 1/2 cup shredded coconut

~1/3 cup chocolate chips
~3 Tbl. soy milk.

Cream together the Earth Balance and sugars.
Add the egg replacer and extract and beat until well combined.
Add the baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and flour and beat until just combined.
Stir in the coconut.
Spread into a 9" square pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.
Let cool.
Bring the soy milk to a quick boil, add the chocolate chips and remove from heat.
Pour over and let cool for about 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Beans and Greens

Beans and Greens

1 bunch chard
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 beans (I think I used pinto beans but most any bean will do.)
1 Tbl. Braggs/soy sauce
1/4 cup Salsa

Steam the garlic. When the chard is half wilted add the garlic, beans, braggs and salsa. Mix together until hot.

This is a real quick and easy meal. It's also rather healthy with all that iron!

Grilling

Over the weekend my husband, pup and I were in Gig Harbor, Washington visiting my aunt and grandmother. Much TV was watched since both my aunt and grandmother are currently disabled. I was inspired to grill after watching some shows on the Food Network. Seeing how my aunt just got a new grill it - was perfect!

(The Food Network makes me want to get cable, but then I would never cook.)















This was actually my first time grilling on a real grill.

We had the sweetest of all onions, the juicest of all portabella mushrooms and the most beautiful zuchinni.

They were marinated in a balsamic, garlic marinade using Newman's Own Balsamic Vinegar dressing with added italian spices, and lots of garlic.
















The master griller herself.

Sporting my Food Fight shirt and flipping some veggies.















See those beautiful grill lines!? When I was a kid and meat I always had my dad put those grill lines on my dead animals because I liked the way it looked. Now I am able to get the same look.

I can't wait until we get a house and I can start grilling more. Maybe using some different woods to create different smokey flavors, just like my dad

We also grilled corn and it had the most wonderful flavor.















When we got home I tried to grill some more on our little electric George Forman grill. The lines came across but they were a bit too mushy. The electric grill didn't do all I wanted it to. But it was still great.

I made a very summery picnic meal. Some corn on the cob, cantaloupe, grilled veggies of course, and some coleslaw.

Corn season is wonderful!