Absent

My Mondays have been quite full of things other than cooking as of late, one of those things being getting our new garden in order! We have been working hard (sporadically) on getting it all together, but it is coming along. Fresh veggies and herbs this summer is so exciting. We still need to collect the dirt from a local composter, and get fencing to go around the posts, but it is coming along!

Also, my friend Lynn had a sleepover some time ago, the same night we here in Memphis got a good foot of snow. It was an awesome night, full of good food and games, and the snow drifts... which in case you didn't know, is freaking rare here. It was a potluck sleepover, and I brought vegan oatmeal creme pies. I looked up the recipe for the Little Debbie version and modified it, the cookies were an oatmeal, molasses, blueberry, and the creme was made using ricemellow (a fairly new product as I understand) and a whole lot of cornstarch.



Unfortunately, the ones in the picture are the only sandwiches to come of it. The cookies were so soft and the creme so heavy, they where a mess to eat (and extremely sweet). We ended up eating them with the creme acting as a sort of dip that you spooned onto the cookie as you ate it.

But really, the thing I have been eating mostly has been scrambled tofu. I know, I know. You ask: "isn't that like the thing that vegans eat until they are on the verge of hanging themselves?" Well, apparently I work backwards. I have always been a bit apprehensive when it comes to cooking tofu at home... it is so easy to go 'blah.'
But one night, the leftover tofu from making mac-n-chz was going to go bad, and I had a bunch of veggies from making salads that where not really enough to make a salad... so why not? I tossed the veggies in some olive oil, crumbled the tofu into it, threw in a bunch of curry spices and, viola! Tofu scramble.


"
It has gotten to where I make it so much, I have made a jar of "scramble spice". It is made of tumeric, corriander, cumin, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, and little bit of sage.




In this meal, I get lots of green veggies and iron, red bell pepper antioxidants, tofu protein, the nutritional yeast provides B12, and a tspn of flax seed oil for some Omega 3. Awesome.

a little bit of soul...

Hooray for not feeling ill! And hooray for my veggies, who held up over the week until I was able to cook them. Last post I talked about how gross I felt and how, maybe, I should health up my recipes. And this time I did.

I went with a southern soul food meal, which isn't at all unheard of, but fun nonetheless. One thing that surprised me was the lack of vegetarian crock pot recipes. Even for something as simple as black eyed peas!! So these concoctions are totally on my own, outside of some advice on cooking times.

Black Eyed Peas with Snapped Green Beans

1 lb dried black eyed peas
1/2 lb fresh snap beans
2 cloves garlic
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sage
1 cup of your choice of fresh veggies (tomato, bell pepper, onion, carrot)

Sort black eyed peas and soak overnight.

Rinse and place into crock pot, cover with water.

Add garlic, fresh tomato, bell pepper or onion (or carrot or whatever you desire) add to brew.

Add bay leaves, sea salt, black pepper and sage.

Turn on high, let cook for 4-5 hours (check it occasionally)


Turnip Greens

1 bunch turnip greens
1 ear fresh corn
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp tyme
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Chop up turnip greens and scrape corn kernels from cob. Put in pot and cover with water, add spices and vinegar. Let come to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook until tender.

Corn Bread

2 tbsp vegetable shortening
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg substitute (powdered sub or applesauce)
2 cups stone ground corn meal
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp molasses
1 3/4 unsweetened soy or almond milk

Melt shortening in skillet (cast iron is best). Mix all dry ingredients plus molasses; then add egg sub and soy milk. Should be a thick mixture. Add melted shortening, and layer into heated skillet. Bake at 400 degrees, 25- 35 min or until brown.

Mashed potatoes are E-Z, make as usual, only soy butter not shortening, and soy milk. I like to throw in some garlic and fresh rosemary--and leave the skins on!

Welcome to the Minority

"About 3% of strict vegetarians are overweight."

Hmph. I may have to rethink this blog's focus a bit. In the sense that, well, I haven't exactly been cooking low fat, just for taste... and it has shown up in my waistline. So maybe from now on it will be: Southern Cooking Healthy Vegan Style. Either way, I got about 40lbs to shed.

I also found these wonderful food pyramids:

a very nice painted version of the one from the USDA


This is a vegan one that I can try to base my daily eating habits on:


and this one is based on the actual American diet:


That is a lot of cheese.

Under the weather

I had plans for a soul food meal. Black-eyed peas (not from a can!) Turnip greens (also not from a can!) Mashed potatoes, fresh corn on the cob, biscuits. Maybe even a cherry pie. But today I am not feeling so hot, or actually a little hot. About 99.3 degrees. I have all the groceries, hopefully they will hold on till next Monday.

*Fudging* Fudge!

OM Effing G. When I said adventures in the kitchen, a fire drill wasn't what I had in mind. I have made 2 (and a half?) attempts at making the chocolate candy, once with peanut butter. It sounded SO easy. Liars.

The first try with PB was a simple recipe. Melt soy butter, mix with 1 cup peanut butter, add chocolate chips and four (4!) cups of confectioners sugar. Um, I just couldn't do four. That might have been part of the downfall, but it was still sweet as all get out. Also, I had trouble getting all that sugar to mix smoothly--so the fudge had little pellets of sugar throughout. A cure for a sweet tooth for sure, but not what I was aiming for.

Numero two was more involved. Ingredients included coconut milk and coconut oil--it sounded promising. Here is the recipe:
4 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
12 ounces coconut milk(pure coconut milk with nothing added, i.e. Thai kitchen brand)
18 ounces vegan chocolate
1/2 lb extra virgin coconut oil
3 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 pinch sea salt
1 nuts, of your choice or raisins
INSTRUCTIONS
Bring to a boil the sugar and milk, and let it boil exactly six minutes, stirring constantly. (If you can do this over a double-boiler it will help you, but it isn’t required.).
# 2 In another pan or bowl, have the chocolate, oil, vanilla extract and salt ready. You can use chocolate chips or good quality bar chococate. The better the quality of chocolate, the better the fudge.
# 3 Pour hot mixture of sugar and milk over the other ingredients, and blend together until all the chocolate has melted.
# 4 Add nuts—whatever type you prefer, and in the size you prefer in fudge.
# 5 Pour into pan and set for six hours in the fridge until the fudge has set.

I got my goods and came home ready for some serious candy making. I followed the instructions closely... up until the part where the sugar and coconut milk came to a boil... and in under 3 seconds, it had gone from starting to boil to boiled over. Onto the eye of the stove with flames shooting up. Needless to say, I didn't make it the full six minutes asked for. I carried on, however, and here was the result after nearly 10 hours in the fridge:


*also pictured is the double boiler I found at the thrift store the next day.

It was a gooey, gooey mess. The texture was more of the chewed up Mound's candy bar variety, and when you lifted up the foil, the pan was filled with oil. I went to the thrift store for a bit of retail therapy and (que angelic choir) I saw a double boiler for a mere 4.00.

I read up that sometimes you can revive a batch that won't set up, by melting and adding more chocolate. Considering the amount of chocolate I had already invested, it seemed worth a try. I added a bit of soy butter (in hopes on downplaying the nearly overwhelming coconut flavor, as well as some dried cranberries and sliced almonds-in case I was more in the mood for Almond Joy?) and slowly stirred the mixture until it finally had a smooth texture. I then poured it in to a pan greased with vegetable shortening.
I let it chill in the fridge overnight and popped it into the freezer for a bit this morning.



It is still a little too soft to get out of the pan, I may have to cave and buy aluminum pans next try. The two cubes that got wrecked by the spatula I formed into balls and rolled in powdered sugar. All said and done, unfortunately, this fudge may have to be eaten by spoon.

I have one more attempt in me. I REALLY want to try carob fudge, but seeing how Brett isn't the biggest fan of carob, and I haven't yet produced a decent straight-up fudge. The next idea is to use soy creamer to replace evaporated milk, and maybe a vegan egg replacer and use an old fashioned Better Homes and Gardens formula. But, for now, I am chocolated out. Mainly because liquid chocolate is messy and gets everywhere, and I have liked more than a small amount off my fingers : )

meatloaf.

So... meatloaf. There are about a billion of these on the web, this one sounded hearty without relying too much on 'wheat meat.' I followed it pretty much exactly, I have some ideas that I may try another time to make more of my own recipe (like this time I added a bit of tahini).

(http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/2007/01/good-meatless-loaf-and-gluten-free.html)

This recipe makes a good all-around vegetarian “meatloaf”, and the leftovers can be used as vegetarian “crumbles”. You have the option of using veggie “hamburger crumbles", or ground seitan, or TVP, Or a mixture. The scrubbed potato, oatmeal, optional flaxseed and onions make it a fairly high-fiber protein dish. And, by the way, you can halve the recipe, if you like.

The "hamburger" part:
4 c. vegetarian “hamburger crumbles” (such as 2 pckgs. Yves “Ground Round” plain)
OR
ground seitan (NOT ginger-flavored) mixed with 1/4 c. hot vegetarian broth in which you have dissolved 1 tsp. Marmite yeast extract or 2 tsp. dark miso

The rest of the ingredients:
1 c. raw oatmeal (old-fashioned or quick rolled oats)
8 oz. potato, scrubbed or peeled and grated (this is about 1 1/3 cups grated, or a potato about 4 x2 1/2")
2 medium onions, finely minced (a food processor does this best)
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. ketchup
1/4 c. nutritional yeast flakes
OPTIONAL: 1/4 c. ground flaxseed
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic granules
1 tsp. EACH dried thyme and savory
1/2 tsp. EACH dry basil, oregano and sage
1/2 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
(you can use your own seasonings)
Topping: (optional)
1/2 cup low-sodium ketchup, barbecue sauce, or tomato sauce

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

NOTE: If you want a fine-textured loaf, grind the “crumbles”, the seitan, or the reconstituted soy protein in a food processor or a food mill until ground quite fine. If you want it rougher-texture, leave it “as is”.

Mix all of the ingredients together well in a large bowl with your hands.

Press the mixture into an oiled or nonstick 9x5" loaf pan (you can line the bottom with cooking parchment, if you like). Cover with a thin layer of ketchup, barbecue sauce, or tomato sauce, if you like. Bake for 1 hour, covering the pan with foil for the first 1/2 hour. Let the loaf stand 15 minutes; turn out on a plate. This firms up as it cools and can be reheated. Great on sandwiches!

Servings: 8

Kombucha Adventures Continued

If you read my old blog, you would see one of my last posts was about me and my attempts at making Kombucha tea, yielding mixed results. Number one came out crazy tart and only produced one bottle. Two I didn't even bother drinking there was so little tea left, but I did have four scobys! Well, on to #3! This last batch I just bottled, it looks SOOOOO much better. Also, my boss Karen gave me a guide book to making the tea, and in some ways it has been helpful in making the fourth batch. Mainly in helping me identify if I should keep or discard a scoby, and how to maintain the ones I do keep.
These are the bottles from the third try--look, there is more than one!

*Here are the things I changed between batches two and three*
One: I switched from the Pyrex bowl to a thoroughly washed 2 gallon pickle jar.
Two: I started using a box of Lipton cold brew I had in the cabinet.
Three: Organic sugar, but not raw sugar.