An ode to Kim and Lauren

Hi friends,

I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Life threw me a few curve balls recently and haven't been doing as much on the creative cooking side of things. So, I figure this is a good time to tell you about a couple of the cook books I've been adoring. As I think anyone should, I have a small plethora of cook books (vegan and vegetarian, even some non-veggie) piling up in my dining room closet, and I try to use them as much as possible to keep things exciting. However, I've been using these two on an almost daily basis lately.

Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin:

I absolutely love this cookbook. My sister got it for me for my Birthday in December and I plan at least one meal a week out of it. I've never read any of the Skinny Bitch books, but after reading through this cookbook, I really appreciate the approach they've taken to spreading the word on veganism and will completely reconsider. Plus, she's damn funny.


Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm:

I swear that our taste buds are twins. I love the personal touch she gives to the book and I would be lying if I said that she wasn't a motivation to me starting my own cooking blog. She hasn't had a new post in a while, but check out veganyumyum. All the dishes I've made from this book/blog are fantastic and there are pictures of almost everything (taken by her, of course...), to boot! I love a good picture of some grub.

Cooking with beer!

This was good, but I definitely don't feel as if it deserves a recipe post. Yet. In theory, it sounds fantastic... a thick, pureed soup with roasted garlic, roasted butternut squash, fingerling potatoes, onions sauteed with fresh sage, then reduced with Sierra Nevada Porter? I'm drooling...

I will perfect it. I will.

On a side note, that bread was amazing. I could have eaten the whole loaf. Too bad I didn't bake it.

Stewing

Wow! Three posts in one day. SOMEONE had a little catching up to do. This was actually tonight's dinner and dang, it was tasty (at least for my first attempt at "beef" stew!). I can't say I invented this one completely on my own. Since I've never made a stew before, I looked at a bunch of different recipes to see what the common factors were and went from there. It'll need some tweaking, but I'm happy with my start!

Ingredients:

1/2 leek, sliced finely

medium yellow onion, diced

4 medium size carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch slices

2 large celery stalks, sliced finely

2 large cloves garlic, minced

3 rosemary sprigs

3 bay leaves

2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch cubes

2 tbs flour, divided

1/2 bottle red wine

4 cups veg. stock

1 package seitan

salt and pepper, to taste

4 tbs canola oil, divided

Season seitan with salt and pepper and coat lightly with 1 tbs flour. Heat a dutch oven over medium heat and add 2 tbs oil. Add the seitan to the oil and saute until browned. Remove seitan and set aside. Add onions, celery, and leeks to the remaining 2 tbs oil and saute until golden brown. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Stir in the seitan. Cook for another two minutes, then cover with remaining flour and stir to coat. Add red wine and stir. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Add vegetable stock, potatoes, carrots, bay leaves, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil again, then reduce heat and simmer for about an hour and a half.

Remove rosemary sprigs and bay leaves before serving, kids! Enjoy!

spinach and onion scramble with home fries

I love a good tofu scramble, and this was... soooo-oh-oh-oh-oh good. At least I thought so. Matt wasn't in tip-top shape when I gave him his plate on Sunday morning, but that just meant I got to eat whatever he didn't! ...And that was a majority of his half.

With the recent ambush of snow storms, It seems I've taken to making brunch a lot. That might be apparent since this is my second brunch post in a week. I promise for more variety soon. Also, I swear I've never used this much Daiya in one week in my life... I've just had it on hand.

For the scramble:
1/2 large yellow onion cut into half-moon slices
2 cloves of garlic
two heaping cups of fresh baby spinach
1 tub lite firm tofu, crumbled
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbs turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1tsp paprika
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tbs grapeseed oil
salt and pepper, to taste
Daiya cheddar to garnish

For the potatoes:
1/2 lb fingerling potatoes, cubed
1tbs old bay seasoning
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbs grapeseed oil

Boil your potatoes until soft, about 15 minutes and drain. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium to high heat. Add potatoes to skillet and toss until coated in oil. Add salt, pepper, and old bay seasoning. Stir occasionally so that the potatoes don't burn.

Once the potatoes are in the pan, heat 1 tbs oil over medium heat in a non-stick skillet and add the onions. Saute until the onions are translucent and add garlic. Cook for about a minute. Add the tofu and fold onions and garlic until combined. Add the spices and nutritional yeast and stir until the turmeric turns the tofu an egg-like yellow. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until well heated. Add the spinach at the end and stir until it's wilted into the mixture. Top with a bit of cheese once it's on the plate.

(I'm typing this and wishing I had leftovers.)

Mex-suey

I'm going to file this one under "stupid easy" because it was very last minute and not very well thought out. Like last week, our Monday night was a bit hectic and I was more concerned with getting grocery shopping done so that I could come home and watch "Chuck" than I was with cooking dinner. I had some Daiya cheddar left over from the strata and figured I should find a way to use it.

1 un-drained can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
3/4 cup uncooked pasta
1/2 a package (170 oz.) soy chorizo crumbles
1/2 cup of daiya cheddar, divided
1tbs olive oil

Cook the pasta per package instructions. While the pasta cooks, saute the pepper in the oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and soy chorizo to the pepper and cook until pasta is done. Add the pasta to the soy-rizo mixture and toss well. Add a bit of daiya before serving.

Not terrible for a 15 minute dinner...