Recipe Test # 2. And FAJITAS

Last night I was super hungry and wanted something delicious. I got home around 9:30 after work, and though I was tired, I also wanted to try another recipe out for Tami over at Vegan Appetite, so I picked a super simple one: cheezy sauce.

I whipped this recipe up in just a few minutes, while boiling water for pasta. I used old-fashioned bowtie pasta (not wheat or quinoa or anything fancy), and threw in some of my homemade seitan, some broccoli, and some peas into the water as the pasta was cooking.

When done, I drained the pasta mix, threw it into the cheezy sauce pan to coat everything, and POW! It was done. It took maybe all of 30 minutes. Super delicious. Homemade mac and cheese, vegan style.



Tonight, I wanted to use my bell peppers--I had organic yellow, green, and red left in the fridge, as well as some other tasty veggies. I whipped up some fajitas:



Janessa's Fajitas

Fajita Mix (you can buy, or make your own.)
* 1/2 veggie bouillion cube, crushed (I used CelifibR Vegan Chicken kind. I like them because there's not salt added. You can find them at Food Fight Vegan Grocery.)
* 1 tsp chili powder
* 1/2 tsp paprika
* 1/4 tsp onion powder
* 1/4 tsp garlic powder
* 1/4 tsp cumin (I use more because I love the stuff)
* 1/4 tsp cornstarch
* salt, to taste

Mix all ingredients together.

Fajitas
(serves 4)

* Olive Oil
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 red onion, sliced
* 3/4 cup veggie broth, separated
* 2 cups peppers, sliced (use whatever kind you have on hand. I had organic green, yellow, and red, and I used all of them)
* 1/2 cup cremini mushrooms
* 1/2 cup seitan (make your own or purchase from store.)
* 2 cups spinach, separated
* 4 tortillas
* 1 can black beans (You can use homemade--I was out, or pinto beans if you'd rather)
* 1/4 avocado
* 1/4 cup salsa

Heat olive oil in pan. Mince garlic and slice onions. Throw em in the pan, cooking for only about 3-5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup veggie broth. While that's happily cooking away on the stove, start your beans. If from a can, rinse them in a strainer before cooking (this gets rid of all that added salt). Put into pot, adding 1/4 cup veggie broth and seasonings. I used just a bit more cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and a touch of basil.
While the beans are cooking (stir often!), add chopped peppers, mushrooms, and seitan to garlic and onion mixture. Cook for another 5 minutes. A Check beans. Add fajita mix to your veggie mixture, followed by remaining 1/4 cup veggie broth. It should be a bit liquidy at this point, but don't worry, it'll cook down. Add 1/2 the spinach (1 cup)

Throw your tortillas into the oven at 300 degrees. This takes only about 5 minutes to heat up.

Everything should be coming to a head on your rangetop right about now. Take out your tortilla, add a scoop or two of beans, a big ladleful of fajita veggies and seitan, , and top with salsa and remaining spinach.

I also made a quick tofu ricotta to top this bad boy, but that's totally optional. I just had some tofu in the fridge that I wanted to be used up.



Tofu Ricotta
* 1/4 cup tofu, pressed and crumbled
* 1/8 cup nutritional yeast
* 1 tsp lemon juice
* salt, basil to taste
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This took about 45 minutes to make (not counting cleanup time, and dishes, though annoying, take about 10 minutes). I used this ratio, and just threw 1 tortilla in the oven. I have leftovers for probably 3 more meals, easy.


Dinner tonight was AMAZING (probably helped that I made another batch of margarita tonight. Threw in the limes, rind on this time--thanks for the suggestion, Shelley!-- 1/2 grapefruit, some raspberries, ice, tequila, triple sec, and agave. Num Num Num. Makes about 2 8 oz margaritas, but I only put in enough liquor for 1 margarita, so it's not too strong). It didn't take too long, it was a great way to use up a lot of stuff I had in the fridge, and it's easily adaptable. Throw in some frozen corn. Use water instead of veggie broth. Use way more onion and no mushrooms.... super customizable for whatever your tastes. And now I have leftovers for work tomorrow.

Sweet.

Recipe Tester. That's me!

I volunteered to test recipes for a new cookbook. Tami over at Vegan Appetite is writing a cookbook. Her recipes are always amazing, so I jumped at the chance to try some of them out.

I'm actually snacking on the first one as we speak. Chocolate Chip Quickcake. It took me 25 minutes to make it, from start to finish. I won't be able to post any recipes (obviously. that's what the cookbook is for) but I can and will post pictures. Like this one:


You probably can't tell from the picture, but this is not a cookie. It's a cake. Probably about as big as my head. If you held it up to my face, it would hide the whole thing. Until I eat through it.

Keep your eyes out for more testers--there's some really delicious looking ones I can't wait to try.

Monkeys & Margaritas

First:

Fresh Orange, Raspberry and Lime Margarita

When I got home from work yesterday, I wanted blended goodness. I threw an orange, 2 limes, and 1/2 cup of raspberries into my VitaMix with some ice, tequila, and triple sec. 30 seconds later, frozen fruit goodness with a kick.

Next:

Funky Monkey
I went to the Alibi Karaoke Lounge with Shelley last night. I ordered the funky monkey which had banana and sprite and coconut rum and pineapple juice. It was, as expected, pretty disgusting. But fun. I watered it down and it eventually tasted like banana water. Mmmm. :)


This morning:

I wanted a different kind of Green Smoothie, and I found this recipe over at Healthy Tipping Point (which she in turn got from someone else).

Holy Yum! So good! I modified it a bit to include what I had around.

Best Green Smoothie

* 2 cups greens (I used mustard greens, collard greens, and some butterleaf lettuce)
* 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
* 2 T flax seed
* 1 banana
* 1/2 apple
* 1/2 pear
* ice

Throw in y0ur VitaMix, blend, and be transported to green heaven.

Climate Control by eating more chicken? An Earth Day Post

An article in the Food Day section of The Oregonian that came out today called "Your Climate-Friendly Kitchen: take some simple steps toward a low-carbon diet" focuses on the small steps we can take to reduce our carbon footprint.There are some great points in here, but there's a few that I have issue with.

The author, Leslie Cole, discusses the now well-known fact that global warming is caused in large part to meat and dairy farms and agriculture. But rather than suggest that we focus solely on a diet comprised on plant-based foods, she merely suggests to modify the SAD (Standard American Diet). One woman she interviews, Helene York, sustainability manager from Bon Appetit Management Co., says, "It's not that we eat red meat or cheese that's a problem. It's how much we eat."

I beg to differ. Thinking like that tends to let us, as humans who have put our earth in this position, off the hook. As Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson says in The Face on Your Plate, "The very words 'human-caused greenhouse gas emissions' terrify us because they contain the implicit criticism that we are the cause of our own impending destruction" (34). Ms York is telling us that we don't need to drastically modify our lifestyle because that would be too much a hardship on us. Go ahead and continue eating farmed animals--especially chickens. "In fact, based on a peer-reviewed Life Cycle Assessment study, chicken is more carbon-friendly than tofu made from U.S.-grown soybeans and manufactured in the United States."

What?! Though this sentence implies that it's better to eat chickens than cows simply because chickens are not ruminate animals*, my main concern in that she compares eating chickens to eating tofu. I have a problem when people assume that you need to pick one: protein from animals or protein from tofu. That is your choice. Tofu is made from a bean, everyone! A soybean. It is high in protein, but check out all these other types of beans out there that are also protein-rich: lima bean, navy bean, black bean, pinto bean, garbonzo bean, kidney bean... hell, just look in a 15 bean soup to see what a variety there is out there. In addition to beans, grains, nuts, seeds and veggies all have protein. It doesn't need to be an either/or. If you choose not to eat chicken, that doesn't mean you have to eat tofu. We should all be getting protein from a variety of sources. (And we don't need nearly as much as we think we do. I'll have a later post discussing the Protein Myth.)

The article addresses some key issues:buy locally, buy seasonally, reuse your non-plastic bags, compost, and curb your food waste. These are all great starts. I would like to see, however, a more progressive Earth Day article discussing the benefits of a vegan diet for our planet, as well as more focus on growing food in a sustainable manner. Our planet is precious. It's not going to get better by following the SAD traditions we have a hard time moving away from. Our diet is one of the single biggest ways we can change the earth. It's up to us.
Happy Earth Day!


*Ruminate animals such as cows, sheeps, and goats have a special process of digesting their food. They can digest fibers and plants that are otherwise inedible, but in the process of doing so, they produce methane, which leads to climate change.
For more on this, visit the EPA website.

Waffles, Sangria, and Vegan Mini Quiches

Waffles!
If you have a waffle maker, make a batch of waffles on your weekend. Freeze each waffle individually in a plastic bag. For a quick breakfast or snack, simply pull one out, stick it in your oven or microwave or toaster, and top with whatever you want (I'm partial to maple syrup, peanut butter, and sliced banana). It doesn't take very long and is so much better for you than packaged frozen waffles. Plus, you can dress them up a bit--add fruit, almond extract, flaxseed, coconut, chocolate powder... there's many options!

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Sangria!
White Sangria:
1 bottle white wine ( I used Riesling)
1/2 cup Grand Monarch, Grand Marnier, or ghetto-style: Triple Sec
Fruit--use any kind. I used 1 1/2 Meyer Lemons and 1 cup sliced strawberries.
Serve with a float of soda water.

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Vita Mix!
This is my first breakfast smoothie. The one that turned out brownish.

My next few smoothies have been better. Yesterday I made:
3 kale leaves
handful baby carrots
raspberries
blueberries
banana
mango
1/2 apple
flax seed
water

It was great. Suuuper filling!

Today I used:
Blend of kale/mustard greens
handful baby carrots
raspberries
banana
apple
flax seed
soy protein powder
water

Yum! I love getting so many fruits and vegetables in one meal. Most Americans struggle with getting in the required fruit and veggies each day. I know I have difficulties, because I could probably just eat tacos for every single meal and be happy, but that's not going to cut it (anymore). Breakfast smoothies like these are great starts!

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Mini Veggie Quiche!
For an Easter Brunch on Sunday at my friend Andrea's house, I really wanted to make vegan quiche. I found a great recipe.

I sauteed garlic, onion, cremini mushrooms, organic red pepper and chives together.
In my vitamix I combined the rest of the ingredients (silken tofu being a key player) and then combined the two mixtures. I ladled the batter into muffin tins, and this is what they looked like when they came out:
They turned out okay. They were tasty, but I want them to be bigger. Taller. They shrunk. I would fill them completely full next time I tried.

They all got eaten at the brunch though! (Along with most of the apple pie coffee cake I brought).