Sunday Vegan Sunday

Adjust your bookmarks

2009-12-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

Well, despite the rumors, we've been eating pretty well the last few months, we just haven't always had the time to post about it.

In the interest of saving time, we've moved the blog to a short-format tumblr blog here:

http://sundayvegansunday.tumblr.com/

See you over there!

Sweet Tooth

2009-09-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

In the interest of frugality and out of a sense of DIY-i-tude, I was going to make our bread this weekend. But then I made cupcakes and ice cream instead. Oops.

These are chocolate avocado cupcakes, from Vegetarian Times, sans the glaze they called for (and didn't really need anyway), because I couldn't be bothered. I was too busy making Peanut Butter Chocolate Chile Ice Cream, as inspired by this episode of Everyday Dish.

Neither of these are particularly thrifty or healthy. Those cupcakes call for a full CUP of maple syrup! I got a good deal on a giant jar of the good Vermont stuff at the greenmarket, but holy cow, a cup is a LOT of syrup, and syrup, deal or no deal, is not cheap. They are delicious and moist and perfect, though, so it's worthwhile. Especially if you've been dreaming about them for a week like I have. See how dark and delicious they look? That is some serious chocolate action. They do look disgusting when you're mixing the avocado up, though. It turns out looking a lot like snot or the slime from Double Dare:

The ice cream is in the freezer, and will be ready tomorrow, when I have nothing but cupcakes and ice cream for dinner.

I made it with hemp milk, peanut butter, brown sugar, cayenne, NM red chile powder, cocoa powder, and vanilla extract. Early tastes are promising!

Migas, two ways

2009-09-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

While visiting the Porters on the Cape (I promise I will eventually put up the pictures of our delicious meals there, as soon as I get them from Pete), we jotted down this recipe from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express, which I love because it's organized seasonally, and is written sensibly, which is to say, with no real formal measurements in the recipes. The whole book is full of recipes like the ones I used to get from my mom over the phone, jotted down in a notebook that is now spattered with batter and oil.

The recipe we brought home to test run was nice & simple and combines two things we love: chickpeas and leafy greens. Our go-to quick & healthy dinner is sauteed chickpeas (with or without garlic, depending non our rush & what's on hand) seasoned liberally with turmeric and kale, chard, or spinach steamed on top and stirred in. It's filling, it's good for you, and it's really easy. Migas, a la Bittman are pretty much the same thing, but with fried bread chunks, no turmeric and a dash of cumin. Pete was worried that they would be bland, but he didn't need to. So yum. (I think it also helped that we cooked our own chickpeas with a clove of garlic & a bay leaf in the water, a la Kellie Porter.)

As if I needed another reason to love Mark Bittman.

While I was looking for the recipe online, to see if Bittman said anything else about it online, I came across a bunch of posts about the more traditional TexMex version of migas, made with eggs & torn up stale tortillas, and a bunch of cheese. Not vegan, but delicious, and we did have some stale corn tortillas in the fridge...so I winged it, subbing black beans for chickpeas, and corn tortillas for bread, and chard for kale and adding a couple of chopped chipotles in adobo (hot!) and a tomato.

These turned out to be equally delicious (Pete didn't like the smokiness of the adobo sauce, but I didn't mind it), and made a huge amount of bean-chard deliciousness, which I had in burritos for breakfast for the next few days. This one's easy, cheap, and yummy!

Also, congrats to Laura on going all-veg! I've been thinking about putting together a post of resources and tips for eating vegetarian on the cheap, and places to find good and simple recipes. Hopefully I'll get that down here in the next week or so!

Laura the Vegetarian

2009-09-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

My identity and practice as a vegetarian have now begun. Of course, most people I know ask me why I've decided to forgo meat (others congratulate me), and the reasons are many and varied. There are aspects of politics, the environment, and my own feelings about how animals are treated in the meat industry that have contributed to this lengthy decision. Part of the change is for health (though I've been told to make sure to replace that protein in my diet) as I want to increase my vegetable consumption. It also seems highly practical in a lot of ways. I will save money buying groceries and will cook at home more often, which I enjoy. The main reason for the choice, though, is that I realized I don't need meat on an emotional/intellectual level, so why eat it?

I enjoyed cooking in Costa Rica a lot and below is a photo of sauteed onion and bell pepper over rice made in the villa we stayed at in San Ramon. It's good to be home in my own kitchen with things like cheese graters and an oven. I'm hoping to post a lot more to this blog in my continued adventures of cooking vegetables because they are so tasty and wonderful.

I am a bit worried about how to start this endeavor without spending a lot of money. I know that in the long run I will save money, but starting out getting spices and cooking supplies can be very costly. I have a fairly decent stock of spices and some staples, but things like muffin tins, baking dishes, cast-iron pans, etc., are lacking in my hodge-podge kitchen. Regardless, I've got the means and the know-how and the hunger, so here goes.

Turn Over a New Leaf, or, How to eat a bunch of kale every day.

2009-08-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

Our mother & stepfather live in the charming beachside town of Half Moon Bay, California. I love to visit them for so many reasons (they are fabulous, the beach is nearby and the pelicans fly right along the waves if you sit on the beach early enough in the morning, they live much nearer to my siblings and the all-important nephew), and one of them is the coastal farms all around and the Californian ecological ethos that makes it possible to get good, fresh, local, healthy food.

A fairly recent addition to the area, and the list of places I like to visit when I'm out there, is a local chain of grocery stores (pardon me--community markets) called The New Leaf. The store seems kind of like Whole Foods at first, and it is, but if Whole Foods weren't evil and corporate, but actually what they present themselves to be: committed to sustainable agriculture, commerce and community. They source as much as they can locally, produce-wise, and tell you where stuff comes from and the staff is super friendly and like to let you taste things and make conversation. It's probably a lot like what Whole Foods was like when it was a whippersnapper.

Last time we were out there, my mom pointed out, in the deli case, a kale salad that she & Mike had been enjoying a lot lately, and knowing how I feel about kale (and worried that vegan me will starve if she doesn't get tons of special food for me), she got two big containers of it. You guys, I lived on that stuff for the week I was there, and I never ever got sick of it even a little bit. It was good on its own, and it was good with avocado on top and it was good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We ended up going back to get more, I ate so much of it. So of course when I left, I wrote down the ingredients listed on the label and promised myself that I would try to duplicate it at home because I really need to eat more green leafies.

Here's the list:
kale
pumpkin seeds
sunflower seeds
sesame seeds
red onion
liquid aminos (Bragg's)
lemon juice
olive oil

So here's what I did tonight, when I finally made this salad at home, and it turned out to be just as good as the New Leaf's version:

Wash and stem two bunches of farmer's market kale, then tear or chop into bite-sized pieces.
Put the kale in a mixing bowl with a half teaspoon of salt and massage the kale until it wilted down and turned emerald green and was stewing in its own sweet juices.
Chop half a red onion into dicey pieces, add to bowl.
Add a handful of pepitas (pumpkin seeds). Mine were raw, but you could toast them, I suppose.
Add another big handful of sunflower seeds. Again, mine were raw, but this is optional.
Add a generous pile of sesame seeds. These were toasted, because that's what I've got and that's how I like them.
Squeeze the juice of one lemon into small bowl.
Add a generous squirt of Bragg's Liquid Aminos. (Maybe I'll measure next time, but I think it would be hard to go wrong here.)
Add a couple of generous squirts of flax oil. (I know it's not on the list, but if you're going to eat healthy, you might as well go all the way. Also, flax oil has a really lovely nutty flavor that I have grown quite fond of.)
Add a little olive oil, because you can't go wrong with olive oil. Probably not necessary, what with the flax oil, but it was on the list, so I added some.
Whisk to emulsify and pour into the salad bowl.
Toss that salad up and you're ready to eat!

This is a recipe that will keep in the fridge for a while. Make a whole bunch and take it for lunch every day! Mix it up by adding apple slices and raisins, or topping it with baked tofu, or tempeh cooked in some delicious manner, or add home made croutons just before eating or eat it over rice or other cooked grains. It's great in the summer, because you don't cook anything, and great in the winter because there's only kale and onions at the farmer's market in the winter. It's great nutritionally because between the kale and the seeds you get a ton of calcium and proteins and other good stuff. It's cheap, too, and it feels like a real meal. I'm full right now. So full. And I have lunch for tomorrow. Did I mention that the whole thing only took me about half an hour?

Rrrrrancheros!

2009-08-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

As we all know, Pete loves potatoes. No brunch is complete without some kind of home fries. Since making the Lemon Roasted Potatoes (minus lemons) from Veganomicon for dinner with Reed & Courtney, he'd decided that this dish is It. The Potatoes. So we had them again for brunch this morning.
Along with the Tofu Rancheros from the September issue of Vegetarian Times. The recipe is pretty quick, and the ingredients are simple. The potatoes take forever, though, so we started those first, and everything was done almost exactly on time.

It's too bad I didn't notice that the recipe made enough for 6 people. We were starving by the time everything was ready, so our eyes may have been a bit bigger than our tummies.
But we have leftovers to last us pretty much the whole week.

Chickpea Fried Rice: Fast, Furious

2009-08-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

We got home from a weekend of fresh, delicious food with the Porters at the Cape (about which more later) to a home devoid of fresh vegetables. And we were tired. And it was hot. The solution? A quick, cheap, easy and nutritious meal of fried rice with chickpeas. It's not ideal, but we had all the ingredients, and it was fast. Plus, it made enough that we don't have to worry about lunch for tomorrow!
How-to:
Start 1 & a half c. rice cooking in stock or broth. When it's about halfway done, start the chickpeas frying in the wok/pan. Add frozen corn & peas to the rice when it's nearly finished, stirring it all together. When the chickpeas are beginning to brown, and the rice is finished, mix it all together and stir fry in a wok or large pan.

I added a squirt of liquid aminos right at the end. A touch of soy or tamari sauce would also be good. I also topped this with hoisin sauce because I love that on everything, and we have a jar of it from our Pet Cemetary dinners/band practices.

Costa Rica Tacos

2009-08-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

While staying at the hostel in San Jose in my first week, I bought groceries to save some money and made food in the hostel kitchen. It was nice also to be able to cook while on vacation. There's definitely something to being in charge of your own food.

As it was a communal kitchen, I didn't end up taking photos of the process, but got a couple good ones of the final product. It was a very simple meal, starting with yellow saffron rice, topped with sauteed onions, tomatoes, and avocado. It was almost perfectly vegan on corn tortillas when I ruined it with cheese! But it was a delightful dinner and the onions were fantastic. I found some seasoning here that is a nice complete blend. I'm taking it back home with me to experiment with some more.
While cooking, another hostel resident struck up a conversation with me. He was a Canadian who was cooking some Ramen noodles beside me. When I was telling him how great my tacos were going to be and described the different parts, he said all I needed was some chicken or steak to make them complete. I shook my head and said, "Nah, I don't need meat." I realized that I totally and completely meant this statement. Maybe there will be a day that comes when I don't need cheese or eggs or yogurt, too. Who knows. But I think my life as a vegetarian is going to start very soon. I feel ready to live the lack of need on an everyday basis.

Jicama & Radish Salad

2009-08-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, enough with the wrap-up. This is a recipe deserving of its own post, mostly because it came out of nowhere and I really like it.

We had our friends Reed & Courtney over for dinner tonight, and I'd been wracking my brains all week to figure out what to make. I had half of a giant jicama left that Mom had sent me (the package came to my office, and one of my coworkers said: "Your mom knows that we have jicama here, too, right?"), and some limes that were on the verge, and then I thought some more, and then I came up with this recipe. I didn't take a picture of the finished product, but I got some nice ones along the way.

The Dressing

Squeeze one lime, hard, and get all the juice out. If you have two limes, squeeze them both. But maybe, like me, you discover that one of the limes is old and hard. That's okay. One will work. You want to squeeze the juice into a medium-sized jar.

Add 2 Tbsp. Sesame oil and 2 Tbsp. Flax oil (or 4 Tbsp. sesame oil. I added the flax for nutritional value). Add 1 tsp. Tamari. Put the lid on the jar and shake it. Emulsify!

Add a generous pinch of black pepper. If you have a pepper grinder, you should grind some fresh pepper in here. Shake the jar again. Yum.

You could use lemons, but you should probably make lemonade with those. Add basil or mint to the lemonade, and a couple squeezes of agave nectar. Later, before dinner, spike this lemonade with gin and add a splash of tonic. Then remember that you have blueberries in the fridge. Add some blueberries and muddle. This drink is so totally refreshing it almost makes you forget the stupid humidity.

The Salad

This salad is way too much of a hassle unless you have a food processor with a grating element. Or if you love grating things, or cutting them into matchsticks. I have a food processor with a grating element, which is why this recipe was born.

Grate your jicama.

Mine was really giant, which is why it filled the entire bowl of my food processor. That was only HALF of the jicama! I know. I hardly believe it myself.

Then grate a bunch of radishes from the farmer's market. Toss the two together in a bowl with the dressing (shake the dressing again first! emulsify!). I didn't get a photo of this, but it turns a little pink.

You can set this aside for as long as you want. Prepare ahead and assemble the salad later, like this:

Get out your nice salad bowl and line it with a mixture of baby arugula and baby spinach. The spinach is optional, but the arugula is kind of necessary. I suppose you could sub with watercress. Both have a little bite, which is nice here.

Put the jicama and radish mixture on top and toss together.

Wash and quarter some fresh cherry tomatoes. If you have a garden, I hope these come from it. Otherwise, farmer's market. Or, okay, wherever you can find them. There is a blight and all. Add them to the salad.

Dry roast some pepitas on the stovetop. Pepitas are pumpkin seeds, the shelled kind. They're green and cute and puff up when you toast them. Just put them in a dry skillet over medium heat and shake them around every now and then until they get toasty on their bellies. Top the salad with these.

You could probably double the dressing recipe, if you wanted to dress the salad some more, but I liked it a little subtle. I imagine this would be tasty if you added some cayenne to the dressing too.

We served this salad with two items from Veganomicon: The old standby, chickpea cutlets, and the new favorite, lemon roasted potatoes. Except Pete forgot to add the lemon. That's fine, though, because I want to make more of that lemonade, and they were still perhaps the best, creamiest, most sublimely tasty potatoes I have ever eaten.

We also made some vanilla ice cream based on this recipe from Vegan Dad, to which I added NM red chile powder (just a smidgie) and some cinnamon-vanilla spiced sugar. I used hemp milk, almond milk, and coconut milk. Decadent! We have big plans for our ice cream maker based on this experience. Next on the docket: Peanut butter, carob & chile ice cream! (I really think I could have used more chile powder on this batch.)

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

2009-08-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Even though I haven't been posting, I've been cooking. Part of the problem is that I always forget to take pictures, or don't take pictures of the whole project. I have the best intentions, though. I really do.

Anyway, here's a roundup:

Picnic at the Park

We made limeade, which was cool and refreshing

and sandwiches, equally delicious

and packed it all up and ate at the park, watching cargo boats go by. A lovely early summer day.

Homemade Ravioli

Mostly fell apart in the water, but we froze the leftover dough and will give it another shot.

I had a birthday party

I had probably the best birthday yet this year. With a cherry on top.

More sandwiches!

Sandwiches are a great summertime meal because you don't have to heat up the dang kitchen and it's fast, so you can get to the beach quicker.

These ones had roasted garlic, avocado, some seaweed flake stuff, cukes, mustard, and sprouts.

Pete doesn't like cukes, so I had a side of cucumber "chips" too. His sandwich was cheese & avocado, but I couldn't get a good picture.

Summertime Stir-fry

I love the farmer's market in our neighborhood, mostly because it's convenient to bike down there on a Saturday morning.

Stir fries are also great in the summer because you can just grab whatever at the market and throw it together. Easy! Quick! Healthy! Pow!

Sushi!

Sushi is surprisingly simple and fast. I honestly don't know why we don't make it more often.

If you don't have a sushi mat, invest the $5 and get one, and a bit more for a small bag of sushi rice and some nori wraps. Then fill the sushi with whatever you have handy. We were pretty conventional here: cucumber, avocado and radishes! If you get a really spicy radish, you don't even need the wasabi.

Fried Plantains

2009-07-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

So, I know that I have been so terrible at updating, even though I have been cooking some delicious vegan and vegetarian dishes. Mostly, I forget to take photos while I'm cooking, think that what I'm making is not interesting enough to post, or just am a lazy bum. Sometimes it's all three.

This post is sort of a double fail though because I didn't cook the plantains myself and the photo featured isn't even of the actual plantains I ate. But man, were they delicious.

I figure that this is a good subject as a Costa Rica edition of Sunday Vegan Sunday, or at least the first CR Edition, seeing as this week I am most likely going to be cooking at the hostel to save money and will most likely also buy pretty much just veggies to save money. I'm interested to see what foods I can find and maybe I'll try actually making some fried plantains myself while I'm here. The lunch I had today was awesome, though not vegan. But it did include great black beans, some rice, and the surprisingly fantastic fried plantains. It might be the sort of dish that is only really good if it's cooked correctly, or maybe plantains are just way better cooked than bananas are. Nevertheless, they were very delicious and a wonderful new food.

Now I'm only half of a SVS blog loser.

Spring Spring Spring Spring Spring

2009-05-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

This spring has been a bit funny, alternating between cold, cold and rainy and warm and sunny until this week, when it decided to get really warm and the pee smell New Yorkers enjoy so much this time of year started to rise off the sidewalks once again. I'm thrilled in spite of the smell, because this means that the farmer's market selection will go from strictly winter greens, if you're lucky, and those wicked apple cider donuts (and I mean wicked in both the New England and traditional senses), to a cornucopia of greens, fruits, vegetables and flowers. It's so much more fun to eat in the springtime, and I was getting sick of winter foods.

Today's dinner, inspired by a recipe from Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins' The New Basics Cookbook, features a bunch of delicious springtime vegetables, and is quick and hearty to top it off. (One of the things I love about The New Basics is that I can look up whatever ingredient I have on hand, in this case, asparagus, and they give you, well, the basics, and a bunch of related recipes. Such a great resource!)

Here's what we've got: asparagus, ramps (whose leafy tops were erm, over refrigerated), some spinach, tempeh, and toasted sesame seeds, soy sauce and sesame oil. If you can't get ramps where you are, some garlic or green onions might do the trick. Shallots might also be good. That's all you need. It's simple, delicious, and cooks up in about 20 minutes.

I separated the tips of the asparagus from the stems (the original recipe called for just the tips, but I can't be bothered to find something else to do with the stems), and the ramps from both of those, and cooked in stages, according to the delicacy of my ingredients. Here's my method:
1) Heat about 2 Tbsp. of sesame oil in your trusty wok over medium-high heat and add the tempeh, stirring it around for a bit until it gets slightly brown. Add 1 Tbsp. soy sauce or tamari and stir it around. I also add a splash of water so the tempeh steams a bit (I've heard this tempers the bitterness that tempeh sometimes has).
2) Add the stems of the asparagus and stir around (this is a stir fry, so you should pretty much be stirring constantly) until they just start to brighten in color.
3) Add the ramps (if you're using the leaves of the ramps, you should probably hold them to add with the spinach) and stir until they just start to get translucent.
4) Add one more Tbsp. tamari/soy sauce, stir.
5) Throw in those asparagus tips, and yes, stir.
6) When the asparagus tips are tender, but still crunchy, add the spinach and mix it in until it cooks down. Taste, and if necessary, add more soy sauce. Sprinkle sesame seeds liberally over the whole shebang.
7) Dinner is ready! (Oh, you could make some rice or cous cous to have this over if you want to, though I like naked stir fries every now and again.)

So much catching up to do!

2009-05-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

So the end of the semester happened, and even though I haven't been posting, I have been cooking, and taking photos. Here are some highlights:

POTSTICKERS

I mixed up recipes from Vegan Yum Yum and Vegan Dad and made these with a chickpea-shiitake filling. They're fun to put together!

Be sure to get all the air out so they do that thing where they seal up at the end:

You fry AND steam them, and then fry them again! (They go vacuum-sealed when you lift the lids after they're done steaming. So cool to watch.)

A quick, delicious and elegant meal. It will really impress someone if you invite them over for home-made potstickers, and it's a fun dinner to make with a friend, since you have to assemble them.

CHICKPEA PANCAKES

These might be the easiest thing ever, and they're delicious with Pete's curried lentils, or, as I had them here, with avocado and salsa for breakfast.

I didn't write down where I got the recipe from, but I looked at a few different places, and might have made this up as an amalgamation of a few, or maybe not. Apologies if this is your recipe. Here's what I used:

1 c. chickpea flour (garam)
1.5 c. water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. cayenne (or a little more, if you like it spicy like we do)
1/4 c. vegetable oil

Gradually add the water to the flour, whisking to remove lumps. After a smooth paste is formed, add the rest of the water and spices. Cook these kind of like crepes over medium-low heat, brushing your skillet with oil before and between pancakes, and swirling the batter over the bottom of the pan to cover it. They should cook ~3 minutes/side. The cooked parts turn kind of reddish-brown when they're ready.
If you add a little curry powder to the batter, they get a nice flavor as well. This seems like a versatile base, and because it's made with chickpea flour, it's protein-packed!

BAGELS!

These took a long time, but most of it was spent waiting for them to rise. Plus, kneading them for 10 minutes was my workout for the day!

I made a half-batch, but should've made a whole batch, because then I'd have enough for Pete & I to have one each for breakfast every day for the whole week. As it is, we gave two to our friends this morning, split one, and will have one each tomorrow. Good enough for me!

SANDWICHES

We've been making some really yummy sandwiches lately. Pete likes to make a parmesean/honey sandwich every now and then, which is not not not vegan, but it's delicious if you eat that sort of thing. We've decided that sandwiches are the thing for the summer. You know what else sandwiches are good for? Picnics. But maybe not these monsters. I had sandwich all over my face while I was eating that thing. I had to hold on with both hands so it wouldn't totally get away from me, and I still had a bit of a salad left on my plate in the end.

Here's what's inside: roasted baby garlic & onions from the farmer's market, avocado, tomato, roasted cherry tomatoes, sunflower sprouts (my favorite) from the farmer's market, and cucumber (not in Pete's). So delicious.

Isa & Terry, You Geniuses, I love you.

2009-04-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

I made these "Peanut Butter Pillows" of theirs and they were so good. Not too hard to make, not too many esoteric ingredients and it's chocolate & peanut butter together. What else do you want? Eat these warm out of the oven with some cold milk.

This is what you need for the chocolate cookie mantle:
And this is what you need for the creamy peanut butter magma:
Use your kindergarten clay skillz to make peanut butter balls:

Wrap up the pb ball in a layer of chocolate cookie dough:

They cook up a bit, so give them space on the cookie sheets:

Did I mention that these are delicious?

SVS East: Mom Edition

2009-04-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

Mom came out and stayed the night with us last week, and we made Vegan Dad's Crispy Cajun Chickpea Cakes in her honor.

I messed them up, but Pete took over and we had a delicious dinner nevertheless.

I think that next time I would have added more flour, but I was too excited that Mom was there to slow down and do things right. The recipe definitely made more than the three of us needed, and it took a while to fry them up in batches (maybe we should have used our much larger frying pan), so we ended up eating while standing around in the kitchen keeping Pete company while he cooked.

On the bright side, Mom was there! Double fun!

Two Easy Pieces

2009-03-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

First of all, I can't believe I've already made two batches of these and haven't shared them. Via Vegetarian Times: Chocolate crispy rice treats!

Last time I made them I used carob chips, since they were languishing in the fridge and needed to be used sooner than our chocolate chips did. They were so delicious we used them again this time.

These are quickly becoming a favorite around here, and only take about twenty minutes to put together. The tough part is letting them cool off before you try to cut them apart. This time, almost as soon as I'd patted the top flat, Pete was asking when we could eat them. I said 15 minutes, but five is all I can stand. When they are warm, these are really nice and gooey. Just be sure you do all the cutting when they're still warm-ish (they're softer that way).

Second up, in the "actually healthy" and savory department, curried lentil burritos a la Pete. He made this up one day a few weeks ago, and we're guessing that he did it the same way tonight. We ate them too fast for a photo, but here's some of the ingredients he used:

So delicious. Maybe some day we'll get the recipe out of him, but I think he basically just cooks up some lentils, onion, garlic, maybe some cauliflower and potato, carrot, whatever's around, then throws it all in a big skillet and adds curry powder and a touch of cayenne. Wrap it up in a warm tortilla, and you're set!

Sunday Vegan Sunday - West Coast Edition

2009-03-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

This is the west coast live and in person edition of Sunday Vegan Sunday. It's re-dubbed by me, Laura, and for some reason Jess turned out sounding like strongbad and I sound a little bit like a loopy Southerner. Enjoy!

Stir-Fried Leafy Greens and Marinated Tofu

2009-02-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

I found two delicious, complementary recipes from Veganomicon, which I am greatly enjoying. One was Easy Stir Fried Leafy Greens and the other was Marinated Asian Tofu. I decided to use Kale for my leafy green, and it turned out really well. I was nervous because I've only cooked Kale once before, but this was a recipe that was difficult to mess up, which is my favorite kind of recipe.

I had originally intended for the tofu to be baked, but ran into a problem with the pressing draining process:
I think the problem was that I needed to get extra firm tofu instead of just firm tofu, or I pressed way to hard to drain it. For whatever reason (my theory is that tofu is a fickle substance to work with) it crumbled into lots of tiny pieces instead of the eight even pieces required for baking tofu. Using my newly acquired cooking improv skills, I decided to marinate the tofu anyway and fry it, making it into more of a tofu scramble. It worked out very well, and the tofu was very flavorful and delicious, blending nicely with the kale.

We made some jasmine rice and had the tofu and kale over it. It was delicious with white wine and made for awesome leftovers, as well. Ellen and I had a lovely dinner.

Happy Chocolate Day

2009-02-15T14:57:00.000-08:00

I was going to make this chocolate raspberry whiskey cake for our friend Kelly's birthday while she was in town last week, but I got the flu instead. But I had been thinking about that chocolate cake for so many weeks that I couldn't NOT make it this week in honor of Kelly, Valentine's day, and chocolate itself.

The cake itself whips up pretty quickly. In fact, the recipe calls for an 8" cake to be cut in half (with raspberry jelly between the layers), but in my 10" pans, the cake turned out super flat, so I just whipped another one up for a second layer! Voila! It was almost too easy.

Unfortunately, the second cake somehow ended up completely crumbling when I tried to lift it up to layer it on top of the first, so it ended up being a bit of an "earthquake cake." Still delicious, though, and quite lovely when I added the glaze.

I think the glaze might be a bit too much sweetness for me, but it's good. I mean, it's chocolate and margarine with whiskey and sugar, so it's all good things. It's just all good, rich things.
If I made this cake again, I would
a) Make it when more people are around to help eat it. We now have way too much chocolate cake in our refrigerator. Anyone who wants to come over and eat cake tomorrow, in honor of President's Day, is welcome. Everyone knows George Washington & Abe Lincoln loved chocolate, whiskey, and raspberries. Especially together.

b) I would probably leave the glaze out of it, especially if I were making a version just for me. I like the rasperry jam filling. Or maybe I'd just smash up some fresh rasberries and spread them over the top of the cake.
Happy birthday, Kelly! I'm sorry you didn't get to eat this cake with us!
(This is Kelly in our kitchen. She would have been smiling even MORE if she'd had this cake too.)

Playing Catch-Up

2009-02-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

My internet has been out at my house, which is endlessly frustrating and I'm also in the throes of sudden life change. Excuses aside, I haven't posted in a long time and I apologize for the delay in the deliciousness. Below are some photos from making chickpea cutlets, which were very yummy and a great meat substitute, not to mention really fun to make. We had to re-mix the chickpea mixture about three times due to forgotten ingredients. Combined with carrots and couscous, it made for a wonderful meal.

See, Matt enjoyed it.

Staples & Homemades

2009-01-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

There's a great article at The New York Times by Mark Bittman about must-haves in the kitchen. I've read a few articles by him (notably one about how tiny his kitchen is) and I like his style. He keeps things simple (thus, "The Minimalist") and is no-nonsense in his cooking approach.

I think the best place to start is to start saving your jars and then start a collection of grains and dried beans, and then experiment with those. Also, keeping lemons in the house is great, not only for cooking, but for adding to water. I like to start my day, many days, with a big glass of water with a whole lemon squeezed into it. On those days, I am more awake than usual. It's also great for your liver, I understand.

"Tuscan" White Bean Soup

2009-01-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

I made this last night as a sort of whip-it-up soup, and as a tester for the dinner I'm making tonight for my father-in-law, who pretty much only eats Italian food. He especially mentioned a white-bean soup. I had looked up about a million white-bean soup and pasta fagioli recipes, and even picked one, but then last night, Pete was on his way home and had a sinus thing going on, and I hadn't soaked beans or done anything, and I didn't have the patience for the fancypants recipe I was going to use, so I just made this instead. It's a lot like my other Friday-night soups (and I even made it on a Friday night!), but with tomatoes and white beans.

I'm not calling it Tuscan because it's particularly Tuscan in origin, but because it makes it sounds more Italian, and because I used canned beans and tomatoes. (Get it--TusCAN?) I'd use fresh tomatoes if they were in season, and soak the beans if I were planning better. I made ours pretty spicy, to try to help clear up Pete's sinuses, but you can leave out the cayenne altogether if you want.

A word of warning: this makes a lot of soup, which is good for feeding a large group, or for freezing, or bringing to someone in need of home-cooked meals who can't cook for themselves and loves to eat soup every day. Pete & I each had two bowls, we filled this giant jar, and there was still another bowl left over. We're eating this soup all week long!

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, diced
5 carrots, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh thyme (about 6 sprigs)
1 Tbsp. miso paste
4 cloves garlic, sliced
4-5 roma tomatoes, diced--use fresh or canned depending on the season, with their juice
1 can white beans (cannelini or navy beans, your choice), drained & rinsed
~6 c. water
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 bunch of kale, washed & chopped into bite-sized pieces
cayenne, salt, pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

Method:
Heat olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add onions & saute until just translucent, then add carrots & stir. Add thyme & stir well for a minute or two. Add garlic slices and cook until you begin to smell the garlic. Stir in miso paste and a splash of water. Stir until water is evaporated and miso coats other ingredients. Deglaze the pot with water, and add tomatoes and beans. Stir until ingredients are well mixed, add water and bring to a simmer, then reduce heat. Add lemon, cayenne, and salt/pepper. Add kale and stir until wilted & bright green. Dilute as needed, reduce heat, and serve!

Christmas Vegan Christmas

2009-01-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

A lot of vegan cooking happened while Pete & I were on the West Coast with Laura & the rest of the family. (Even some SVS-team cooking, about which more later, from Laura.)

We made vegan versions of some of Mom's traditional Christmas cookies (snickerdoodles and walnut bars, whose recipes I'll post later on), and even roasted vegetables again, this time with Mom and stepDad, who loved them:

We used brussels sprouts, carrots, yams, butternut squash, scallions, pearl onions, parsnips, broccoli, and cauliflower. For the sauce, I tried to remember the Vegetarian Times recipe to my best ability, and ended up using:
2 Tbsp. OJ
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
and tossed everything together over spinach. We ended up with leftovers AND with enough chopped vegetables to have a second batch after we left!

Since Mom & stepDad also have a waffle iron, we took the opportunity to try out the Pumpkin Waffle Recipe from theppk.com I've been dying to try since I saw it reviewed on vegalicious.

We subbed coconut yogurt & almond milk for the soy ingredients. Both of them were vanilla-flavored, so we left out the vanilla.

We made them three times that week, and the last time, when Laura was there to help, I decided to make a few revisions, just for fun. I used applesauce in place of the oil, and agave nectar in place of the sugar, which made for a much wetter batter. This was fine by me, since I'd had to thin out the batter considerably the first two times.

Unfortunately, the lack of oil meant that the waffle stuck to the iron for longer, and Mom had told Laura that she would know the waffles would be ready when they don't stick to the iron. So, the first batch was a little crispy.

But still delicious. We didn't take any pictures of the next batches, which turned out perfectly light and fluffy and delicious. You'll just have to take our word for it.

While we were trying out pumpkin recipes, Mom also made a batch of Vegan Dad's Pumpkin Scones. Even though we all had huge sandwiches for lunch that day, we couldn't stop eating them. We had eaten all of them by the time I thought to take a photo. I wasn't there for the baking (I was out trying on my bridesmaid's dress with the future-sister-in-law!), but Mom said they were really easy. Recommended!

Sunday Comic Sunday

2008-12-18T16:39:00.000-08:00

Sidenotes

2008-12-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my favorite vegetarian and vegan dishes that I've been making since before the blog:

One of my favorite quick meals, this quesadilla is super fast and tasty.
Just melt cheese on a tortilla, slice avocado onto it after removing from heat, sprinkle lemon juice and pepper and voila! a delicious and slightly nutritious vegetarian dish.

Also, my favorite side: heirloom tomatoes with balsamic vinegar and dried basil.
Simply chop, toss together and enjoy. Great easy side dish for dinner.

I also had a super awesome vegetarian sandwich and soup that were so good I had to photograph them quick before I ate the whole thing.
The 'meat' of this sandwich was thick slices of mozarella. Add tomatoes, spinach, basil, some sauce and foccacia bread and you've got a bomb sandwich. For a vegan option, tofu could definitely be substituted in.

The vegetable soup was amazing, the best I've ever had. I ate it too fast to photograph it.

Two fast dinners

2008-12-05T18:58:00.000-08:00

1. Miso Soup & Toast

Ingredients:
Boiling water
Miso paste
Sea vegetable (wakame, in this case)
Bread

Methodology:
Put water on to boil and bread in toaster (or in the oven, if, like us, you don't have a toaster). Meanwhile, put about a Tablespoon of miso paste in your favorite bowl with some dried seaweed/sea vegetable. DO NOT BURN THE TOAST. I do about twice a week, and it never fails to disappoint me.

When the water has come to a boil, remove from heat, let sit for a minute and then pour over seaweed and miso paste. Stir until all paste is dissolved. Do your toast up as you like it, and voila! Dinner.

(I made mine with Udon noodles, in which case, you should boil the noodles with the water & then add miso paste and sea vegetables to the pot with the noodles & hot water when the noodles are finished cooking.)

2. English Muffin Pizza & Salad

Pizza Ingredients:
English muffin, split
Pizza sauce (in a pinch, regular tomato sauce also works)
Toppings as desired (pictured: mushrooms & capers)

Methodology:
Put a generous spoonful of sauce on each face of the English muffin. Add toppings. Bake in oven for a bit. Again, DO NOT BURN!

Salad Ingredients:
Spinach
Mushrooms
Cherry/plum tomatoes
Walnuts (it's tasty to toast these sometimes)
Topped with Balsamic vinegar and flax oil

Crazy Vegan Crazy

2008-11-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

This week we made...oh, just roll the tape:

Red Lentil Soup (w/ yellow lentils) from Peter Speer on Vimeo.

Yes, some of us do get a little punchy when we're cooking. Or all the time.

Pardon my totally offensive melange of accents.

Say Yes to Pesto

2008-10-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

So, I had a difficult time with making pesto. The only blender I have is the Magic Bullet, pictured above. It is a great blender for small meals, great for smoothies/mixed drinks, and pretty easy to use and clean, plus small (good for a small apartment). But sometimes it does not work like a normal blender and there need to be special recipes for it.

I tried out one recipe for pesto and it turned out pretty bad; it was almost liquefied and not too tasty. I tried a little on a small bowl of bow-tie pasta (my fav) and it was edible, but not good. In fact, it was bad. Very bad.

I decided to try again, this time with a recipe I found online specifically for the Magic Bullet blender. It looks a little different, as it includes vegetarian Parmesan cheese (I used normal Parmesan, don't know if that matters) and salt [?]. Waaaaaaaaaayyy too much salt. Plus it needs to be microwaved, which meant I had to go to Eirik's to make it because I don't have a microwave. It was better than my first attempt, but I would definitely not add salt (or add a lot less) and it took a lot longer than the recipe said.

I guess we all had misadventures in pesto this cooking time around. I'll post the pictures and recipe for the Tortilla soup soon so that we can see how that goes for the Speers.

Pesto Monsters

2008-10-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

So we forgot to take photos of the actual pesto from two weeks ago. And because of our triple-party planning & school and work, we're a bit behind on the Sundays (sorry, Tortilla Soup).

BUT, we did make pesto. Look! A pesto monster!

And another one!
.

I had thought pesto-roasted potatoes would be delicious. Not like this, they're not. Still a work in progress.

This weekend is looking like an unlikely time to get back on track with the dinners, and we'll see you here the following week, and you'll be on a plane Sunday night eating airline food while we'll be sleeping like a couple of hibernating bears and eating reception leftovers.

Another Delicious Breakfast Sidenote

2008-10-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Whenever I can, I like to make a sort of brunch on the weekends, and have a hot breakfast that's more than toast & fruit at least one of the two days. Among my favorite things to have is tofu scramble, specifically with a toasted sprouted-wheat English muffin, homemade salsa and sunflower sprouts like this:

Here's how to scramble your tofu:

Ingredients:
1/4 block of tofu
[put the rest of the tofu in a tupperware in water & change the water every now and then, like every day or so, or use it up soon, or invite people over for breakfast]
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 heaping Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (not garlic salt!)
a pinch of salt
a dash of pepper
chile powder, according to how hot you like it
a splash of tamari (optional)
[spice measurements are extremely rough estimates--adjust yours to taste & experiment freely!]
2 Tbsp. olive oil for the frying pan

Put tofu & spices in a bowl.
Use a fork to smash the tofu and coat it in the spices.
Heat the oil over medium heat in the skillet that is already turmeric-stained. Not the other one.
Throw the tofu in there and scramble it up til it's done!

While you're doing that, toast your English muffin or toast.

The salsa is easy:
roughly dice one small/medium tomato
add some chopped green chile (canned is fine, I guess)
stir it up.
You can add other stuff if you really want to, but I like the rough simplicity of just chile & tomatoes, personally, especially with this breakfast.
But, if you really wanted to, you could add:
cilantro
salt
pepper
cayenne (extra bite!)
garlic (fresh or powdered)
cumin

I like having all of this over a bed of fresh, crispy sunflower sprouts. I got the ones in the picture from the Farmer's Market, and watched the guy actually cut the sprouts from the container they were growing in. I am a sucker for these sprouts anyway, but they're especially welcome in the mornings.

Enjoy!

Sidenote: Leftovers Friday

2008-10-12T11:22:00.001-07:00

So I was getting ready to make that vegetable stew for dinner again on Friday night when I realized that the baby bellas I'd bought earlier had gone south, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. I'm too ashamed to post a picture of all the food we had to get rid of, but I realized that:
a) I was going to have to clean out the fridge right that moment, and,
b) I was going to have to improvise on the stew, since I was now out a few of the ingredients.
And that's when I decided it: Friday nights, we're going to have to make something delicious from whatever we've got left in the fridge that's about to go bad, or that's been in the fridge for just a bit too long. That way we don't waste that food, and the fridge is cleared out for my Saturday morning grocery trips.

So I pulled out most of the good stuff that was left in the fridge, along with a few staples, and decided that we'd have an old fashioned "whatever's left" stew.

Aside from the staples, like olive oil and lentils, we had most of a tomato (I had to cut the gross-ish part off), a slightly withered orange pepper, some carrots, a lemon from when I had my cold earlier in the week, an onion, two potatoes, and from my trip to the greenmarket last Saturday, a bunch of nearly wilty kale (Note: kale often revives nicely if you dunk it in some cold water and swish it around after chopping it.), half a loaf of bread, and a honeycrisp apple for dessert. I chopped my ingredients up and threw them in my stockpot and cooked them roughly according to the vegetable stew recipe.

In hindsight, because of the lentils I added, I should have held off a little longer before adding the kale, but it turned out okay anyway. It looks disgusting, but I promise you it tasted delicious.

I burnt the heck out of the bread when I tried toasting it to have on the side, but I'm saving it for breadcrumbs. Ben and I split the apple, dipping it into sunflower seed butter and a really delicious flavored sugar Pete's mom got me for Christmas last year. It was like vegan caramel apples! So delicious, and so unfortunately not pictured.

I went to the new Bay Ridge greenmarket the next morning and re-stocked our fridge with fresh veggies, and next Friday, we'll take whatever we have leftover and improvise something else. Meanwhile, we have plenty of this stew to take to work with us for lunches! As Ben noted, "It's so thrifty!"

Lisle, I'm hoping that my posts about what I do with my odds & ends will help you out in the "what do I do with these ingredients?" department. It's a good opportunity to get creative!

third Sunday

2008-10-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

We made the vegetable stew earlier in the week, and didn't document it, because it was mostly an experiment. It ended up saving my life when I got a cold on Monday. I came home and added some lemon and raw garlic and cayenne and eating it with toast. It was so good and cleared my sinuses for at least an hour. Thank you, hearty vegetable stew!

We made dinner so quick (I was starving!) that we didn't even remember to take photos! Because I'd picked some up at the Union Square greenmarket after stumping for Banned Books Week like a good librarian, we had roasted portabellas (a la V-con) and made the chickpeas dish with tatsoi (a relative of bok choi) instead of spinach, . Here's a photo of tatsoi, since I didn't take one, which is a shame because it was a really lovely specimen:

This is definitely one of my new favorite greens. It had a really good flavor and was kind of crunchy, even after cooking. If I can keep finding it at the greenmarket (and keep finding time to go there during the week), I will be having this again and again, though probably not as often as my true sweetheart, kale.

We cooked the portabellos after the chickpeas (it was a hectic hungry dinner cooking, which usually leads to a disorganized meal), and it was definitely a winner. We'll also be having these whenever I come across fresh portabellos.

Here's a very dim picture of Pete's, from when I suddenly rushed in and saying "We totally forgot to take photos of everything for the blog!!! ARGH!"

Note, if you can, the totally charming TV tray. We finally found a pair!

Sunday # 3 - Tumeric Chickpeas and Spinach (+ Irish Soda Bread + Vegetable Stew)

2008-10-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

West Coast
This was a landmark dinner for me. Not only did I cook three different dishes, I had someone else there to eat the food with me afterward. It was sort of like a mini dinner party, and a success! The chickpeas were yummy (and pretty), but I didn't get enough spinach, so they turned out to be a little dry. But it helped to have the yummy vegetable stew because we just poured some of the stew onto the chickpeas. I also made couscous to go with the chickpeas and some Irish soda bread as a side for the stew. It was really fun, really delicious, and really awesome. Not to brag, or anything.
The stew was very colorful and easy to cook. The recipe makes tons of soup, so it's good leftovers, and it's chock full of very healthy veggies like kale, bell pepper, and mushrooms. The flavors are awesome and I was very happy that there was so much garlic in this recipe. It was also very pretty with the yellow pepper, orange carrot, red tomato, and bright green kale (unfortunately not pictured).

The Irish Soda Bread was incredibly easy to make. I bought a new baking sheet and it turns out it's too big for my tiny little oven so I improvised. I made them vegan with soymilk instead of buttermilk and they were very tasty and great with the stew.

I managed to make all of the dishes and not ruin everything, so I say SUCCESS! It helped to have an extra set of hands there, but really, I was the chef. I'm sure Matt will agree. See, there he is, agreeing.

West Coast - Tofu a la Bourguignonne (+ bonus Asparagus Soup)

2008-10-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

I absolutely loved the Tofu a la B. (which is what I call it because Bourguignonne is hard to pronounce and spell). It was delicious and made for excellent leftovers. The mixture of flavors was great and for me the tofu soaked up just enough of the sauce to make it a good contrast to the rest of the dish. I had it over some rice, which was very nice. I ended up letting it simmer longer than the recipe suggested as I attempted to "let the sauce thicken", but it was still very tasty.

I also wanted to try out a recipe for Asparagus Soup:
Looks like baby food, pretty much tastes like it, too.

I had a few problems with this, not just the fact that it ended up tasting exactly like pureed asparagus. It took a lot longer than the recipe said (30 minutes), and maybe this was due to my inexperience or lack of a cooking partner or management of two (count 'em, TWO) dishes at once, but it seemed to take for freekin' ever to finish this. Plus, I ran out of room in my pot and ended up having to leave out the yogurt, which was a bummer because I think that may have made it a little nicer and creamier. I just added a lot of salt to the end result and it tasted okay, but I recommend either some serious cooking improv skills for soup with this one or sticking to better veggies.

The Tofu a la B. was great to cook and I haven't cooked tofu before and so was a little wary, but it's now one of my favorite dishes and I look forward to cooking with more tofu. Plus, it's a pretty easy dish and good by itself or as a side. Also, the wine makes for a pretty color as it cooks and is a great addition to the cooking/eating experience. I'm a little ashamed to say that I nearly finished the bottle of wine by myself, but you know, it's important not to waste a $2 bottle of wine.

It was a messy, green and burgundy cooking night. I took a little less photos because I was a little flustered with two dishes (count 'em).

Sunday #2: Tofu a la Bourguignonne

2008-09-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight we tried out this fancy tofu a la bouguignonne recipe Laura picked out. It seemed like a simple enough recipe, and the savory ingredients that make up the sauce sounded tasty. Plus, it sounds like something Julia Child would recommend making for dinner. (Well, minus the tofu, I suppose.) We don't cook a lot of French food around here, so it was a new set of smells in the kitchen for us. I was looking forward to the broth--onions and mushrooms together make for delicious times, especially when you throw some wine into the mix.

Of course, when cooking with wine, it's important to have a glass for yourself.

Some notes from the cooking:
*The tofu turned purple in the wine, which reminded me of the denim beans.
*It's nice to cook in pairs, because it makes it easier to do the dishes while you cook, and the chopping takes half the time.
*The sauce didn't really thicken up much.
*This dish would be best with some rice or maybe even pasta. We had toasted English muffins.

Pete didn't love it, and I agree that the tofu was a bit lackluster, but the sauce itself and the mushrooms especially, were pretty delicious. I'd try this recipe again, but maybe with seitan instead of tofu.

Sidenote: delicious breakfast

2008-09-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Oatmeal with pepitas and black sesame seeds, just a touch of cinnamon (added while the oatmeal was simmering), and a bit of fancy vanilla sugar on top. And soy milk, of course.

Mexican Millet and Beans: East Coast

2008-09-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

We recently started soaking dry beans instead of using canned ones. It's not quite as easy as canned beans (step one: open can step two: rinse step three: dump onto food), or as quick (you have to soak at least overnight, and then cook them for an hour and a half), but they are super delicious. (Another pro to soaking the beans: if you soak them for a really long time, like a couple of days, it gets the gas-makers out of the beans.) We soaked a combo of black beans and great northern beans, and the black beans turned the white ones a really lovely range of purples and lavenders. I like to call them "denim beans."

They didn't look quite this beautiful after we cooked them, but they were tasty, and that's what counts, right?

We used the millet, which was delicious. We didn't take nearly enough pictures, but here's a terrible video of us adding the millet to the onions et al.

And then there's the delicious, delicious kale. Here's how easy this was: Wash and chop the kale, put it in a bowl with some oil (I used flax oil, which is a good source of omega fatty acids) and a sprinkle of salt and crunch it up in your hands until it breaks down a bit.

Here's the thing about our dinner, we made something like 12 cups of beans, and a double recipe of the millet. We were hoping to have enough for a few lunches for the week. We ended up with enough food for a family of 6 for a week.

The millet and beans looks like Alpo in real life as well, but it's still really tasty. Here's how it looks a week later (granted, we didn't have it for lunch EVERY day).

I am so sick of Mexican Millet right now.

But not kale. Never, ever kale.

Sunday # 1 - 9/21/08: Mexican Millet

2008-09-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

West Coast

This first Sunday we cooked Mexican Millet, a recipe from Veganomicon.

I have to say, I really don't cook that often. This is part of this experiment, along with experimenting with vegetarian dishes, I am experimenting with dishes made by me. So I ended up cooking only the millet, or in my case, rice. I think this was not only because I do not cook often, but also because I am cooking for one. So it ends of feeling a bit silly making three parts to a meal that I will mostly put in the fridge for later. I am sure as we continue on, I'll get more comfortable with everything. I did experiment with the recipe slightly, making it a vegetarian rather than vegan dish by adding cheese and sour cream to the end product. I also added black olives, which was a great addition, but Jess hates them.

I'm fairly certain I did most things wrong while cooking this dish. I chopped instead of diced, I diced instead of chopped, I used a pan that was too small, I didn't have a lid that would fully cover the pan, I browned the onions too long, and much, much more.

I would say, in my limited experience that the proof of the value of a recipe is how good it turns out when you fuck it up. And this was great. Tasty, scrumptious, and a delightful home cooked meal. Plus, it makes excellent leftovers. Last night it was my dinner again, but this time with an over easy egg in the middle. I also plan on making a burrito with beans and LOTS of olives. Now I just have to find something to make with the leftover ingredients.

Someone with little experience cooking can make this turn out delicious, despite cooking equipment and the lack of meat. My faith in vegan recipes is growing. Bring it on.

For dessert, I had strawberries with sour cream mixed with brown sugar. Delish.