Tag Archives: vegan mofo 2015

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 7: Messy Joes

September 7, 2015

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Any I.T. Crowd fans out there? I hope so because they are the theme of todays dish. My husband and I have been rewatching the series and I forgot how hilarious it is. I recently watched Fifty-Fifty where Jen and Roy take their dates to Messy Joe’s. The next day all I could think of was Moss’ gentle voice saying “Messijo” as I was eating my leftover sloppy joe sandwich. Then it clicked, sloppy joes are very messy, in fact you could call them messy joes. I should make my own Messijos by switching up a sloppy jo recipe!

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So I had to think what would take a very American dish and make it British. What about basing it around a british style curry? I tried looking for some of the premade British curry mixes, but none of the local stores had them. So I had to make it from scratch. The end result are four huge “messijos” or 6 smaller ones. The brilliance of sloppy joes is that it is pretty flexible so you can add more traditional peppers to the mix, or swap out TVP for lentils.

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And if you want to embody more of the IT spirit, you can start the dish by rubbing some chocolate on your forehead. It won’t really effect the taste of your messijos but it will give you a couple of laughs with your friends about how you have chocolate on your face, not shit. And then you can lick it off afterwards. Which is semi yummy.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: curry, I.T. Crowd, it crowd, messy joes, sloppy joes, tomato, tv, TVP, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 6: Masala Bloody Mary

September 6, 2015

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I might be one of the few people who got stumped by todays prompt to recreate a dish from a restaurant. I don’t eat out often, and I think part of the fun of eating out is that it is something you can’t make. So the desire to recreate is a little low. At first I thought about recreating the heirloom beans with a hazelnut-tomato vinegrette that I had from Charlie was a Sinner. But truthfully they were pretty simple, and I felt weird adapting an already vegan recipe. And then I started thinking of NON-vegan restaurants I’ve been too lately, which is pretty much only Indeblue. And then I thought about the bloody mary.

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Then it occurred to me that their bloody mary might not of been vegan, because I always forget about Worcestershire sauce. Even though the bloody mary tasted awesome, the texture was a little off. It was really thick, and some of the spices, particularly the black pepper, were just in chunks. So I thought I could surely make something better, especially since I had a bunch of delicious tomatoes picked from my CSA farm.

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I am a big bloody mary fan, but I am aware of it’s very un-vegan potential. It is one of the few savory cocktails that are popular, and therefore it is easy to add animal based umami flavors. A lot of cocktails end up using beef consommé or bouillon and worcestershire sauce, and that is if they didn’t fancy up the cocktail. Some places will add a slap of bacon or shrimp instead of a celery or pickle garnish. And then there is the Mary’s Canadian cousin Caesar that uses clamato juice. Ugh! And I am not going to get into the whole bloody mary mix. So many disappointments!

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So what’s a vegan suppose to do? Well, make their own, duh! It is easy to make in large batches and serve in a pitcher for Sunday Brunch. And it tastes pretty good without the vodka too! So if you aren’t a drinker or underaged, you are still in luck. I tried to make this drink pretty simple, no fancy appliances. So hopefully most of you guys will have these two things: a blender and a nut milk bag. And your set!

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Of coarse it is in order to point out that this isn’t a normal bloody mary. I got this at an Indian restaurant that was serving brunch, so it uses a curry blend in the drink.

I’ve heard from my sister who has traveled to various parts of Europe, and even lived in France for a year that Bloody Mary’s are a very American cocktail. Since Vegan Mofo has a lot of readers across the globe, I would love to hear if you had any Bloody Mary. When do you drink it? In a bar or brunch like Americans do? You wouldn’t think Bloody Marys would be such a brunch drink because of the vodka. I recently told my father in law how you make it, and he seemed pretty surprised!

Side note- if this is your first bloody mary, there are some standard garnishes. Celery is the classic, but I prefer the pickle (I just didn’t have any for the photo.) But there is still more variation including carrots, olives, and heck, do some facon-bacon!

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: bloody mary, cocktail, cocktails, curry, fusion, tomatoes, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015, vodka

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 5: Project 365: Days 241-247

September 5, 2015

Day 241: I couldn’t pick just one photo from the farm. A bright sunflower and a dew on some silk.

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Day 242: Close up of the ricotta filling from my calzones!

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Day 243: Because of Vegan MOFO, I decided I didn’t want to have to post a month’s worth of photos in October, and I figured I would try and take photos within the prompt of the day which is “Best sandwich ever.” So tried to photograph as many sandwiches as I could for the week. Monday I got a salad pita sandwich from Health Haven. I was surprised how busy they were, plus they have vegan cheese!

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Day 244: Brought in some leftover sloppy joe filling for lunch at work.

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Day 245: Some PB&J for my husband’s lunch… sort of. He likes a peanut butter sandwich and a jelly sandwich, apparently together is bad….

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Day 246: Grilled Daiya cheese and bean sandwich. Sadly I got impatient and ate it before the cheese melted. Oh well.

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Day 247: I was distracted and didn’t photograph my sandwich, which was Field Roast Wild Mushroom Deli Slices with green leaf lettuce, and fresh tomatoes from my CSA. It is amazing! But featured in the photo is the post for tomorrow!

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Posted by Jennifer in 365, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: 365, 365 2015, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 4: Tomatillo Berry Crisp

September 4, 2015

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Anyone know where to get purple tomatillos? My CSA has them, and they are probably my favorite thing. But truthfully, outside of my CSA, I’ve never seen them for sale. I guess maybe at some diverse farmer markets? This recipe can be made with normal green tomatillos, but it won’t be as sweet, and a little more tart. You also won’t get such a lush purple color. But don’t worry, you can even see with my crisp that some mostly green tomatillos snuck in.

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Is this really a weird flavor combination? I am not sure. I actually got the idea from my CSA, as they have a big book of recipes according to the vegetable at hand. It happened to be opened to tomatillos one day and I saw the suggestion- strawberry-tomatillo crisp. I thought adding other berries to the mix would be perfect! A quick google search shows a few other recipes for tomatillo crisp, but it really isn’t as common as strawberry rhubarb pie.

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I think my husband was blown away by the flavor. The berries don’t over power the tomatillos but most people aren’t use to the flavor of cooked tomatillos. So the end result is something really unique. Guests will be scratching their heads about what flavor combination is going on.

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Sadly the purple tomatillos are reaching their end at my CSA so I won’t be making another batch of this. I can say that I will definitely be making this again next year!

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: blackberry, cobbler, crisp, strawberry, tomatillo, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 3: Easy Peasy Spicy Rice Cakes

September 3, 2015

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I really enjoy Korean food. I suppose this recipe could of been placed for the “share your favorite cuisine” prompt on day 25, but this recipe is so simple! I am not the type of person who does “quick” and “easy” unless it is re-heating older dishes. I can tell you right now that this isn’t a “healthy” recipe. I am not sure what the health benefits are outside of the carrot.

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If you aren’t familiar with Korean food you probably have never heard of this dish. If you are going to a Korean restaurant in the US, you probably would get served these as an appetizer. But in Korea they are often served in street stalls and speciality restaurants. At the speciality restaurants it is usually that you order a big serving of rice cakes (according to your party) and order add ins. I first was introduced to this concept from the Korean show Let’s Eat. The main character Soo-kyung orders a big pan of Ddukbokgi (spicy rice cakes) with ramen, and lots of other non-vegan foods. It is a great scene to sell the dish with all or orgasmic moaning and all.

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This recipe is super simple, you can make it on the fly for yourself for lunch or as a starter. But you can easily make a more sustainable meal by doing the add ins. Traditional add ins aren’t really vegan, eggs, fish cakes, blood sausage, mandu (pork dumplings) and cheese. But some options are vegan like ramen noodles, rice, and fried batter. You can sub some vegan versions of the food like some daiya cheese, vegan sausages, veggie dumplings, and fried tofu. Look, I never said this stuff was healthy. This Korean COMFORT food.

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Now, let’s talk ingredients! Although this is simple to cook (sauté carrots and rice cakes, then boil in a spicy sauce) the ingredients might seem a little foreign if you don’t have easy access to asian food market. The ingredients that will be hard to find are the rice cakes and gochujang. Gochujang is a thick paste made from fermenting chili peppers. I wrote about it on the blog, and give a recipe for cheaters gochujang. Gochujang is starting to pick up in popularity, and I was able to pick up a pack at Wegman’s!

The rice cakes are fairly common in lots of other asian cuisines. You can buy them in a log to slice, or you can get them precut. They can come in many different shapes, like these flat ovals that I used, little spheres, or long logs. There are even novelty shapes like stars, but they tend not to be available in the US. (if you want a sneak peak at the fun shapes, you can check out this REALLY old Eat Your Kimchi video) Try going to HMart, which specializes in specifically Korean foods. But most Asian food markets should have rice cakes. They need to be refrigerated (which is why they are hard to buy online), so check in those sections. And keep in mind mochi is different from the rice cakes for this recipe. Mochi is usually sold sweetened. If you are worried, check the ingredients.

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So start with this simple recipe, and next time, jazz it up. Add sausages, some soy cheese, more veggies, whatever your mind can think of. This is seriously a yummy meal, and quick to make.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: appetizer, carrots, ddukbokgi, gochujang, korean, Korean Food, rice cakes, street food, tteokbokki, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 2: Basic Vegan Calzone

September 2, 2015

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I didn’t grow up with the “normal” childhood foods. My mother is very open to new types of foods and loved to cook. I remember when we would make a list of food for the week, and being asked what I wanted. I blurt something out like lasagna, then be shut down “We already have a pasta dish” or “We are already having Italian on Tuesday.” Variety was a huge priority. I guess it still is. When I ask my husband if there is something he wants to eat, his response is usually “We have so many things, I don’t remember all the dishes.”

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I remember couscous, falafels, pancake dinners (which I hated), tuna casseroles, rice and beans, and seafood quiches. Not the normal kid foods like mac and cheese, hotdogs, and hamburger helper. Actually funny story, I tried making the tempeh helper in Appetite for Reduction and wondering what the hell to do with the cheese sauce. I am still not sure what to do with it- I just mix it all in with everything else.

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We did get excited for pizza night. It is possibly the only thing I liked that my father would make. He rolled out huge square thin crust pizzas. The gold mine were the middle pieces since they had no crusts. Then we would get even more excited about calzone night when my older sister was feeling up for it. My perception of calzones is shaped by the ones we made at home. In fact whenever I would go out, I felt so disappointed by the restaurant versions. Too much cheese, not enough ricotta.

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Even today I am still not sure how other people perceive calzones. My husband asked if I was going to put our recently made homemade tomato sauce (he picked 22 pounds of tomatoes last weekend) in the calzone and I flipped out on him. Tomato sauce is strictly for dipping! Sure you could add FRESH tomatoes to the inside, but never the sauce. Pretty much I like my calzones to be big giant white pizzas that are rolled up.

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Pretty much anything can go in a calzone. Sky’s the limit. Leftover tofu, seitan, and facon-bacon are great meat replacement options. I usually keep it simple, red pepper oil, and sautéed veggies. I used sautéed red italia pepper and green bell pepper, then sliced raw shiitake mushrooms and marinated them in soy sauce and a little oil. But sun dried and fresh tomatoes, olives, canned mushrooms, broccoli, roasted garlic, and spinach (or any other green really) all make great fillings

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So if you haven’t herd of red pepper oil yet, you are missing out. It is our secret weapon in the recipe. You can use Giada’s fancy recipe, or do what I do- mix oil and red pepper flakes and let sit for several hours. The longer it sits, the most intense the flavor. So if you are making calzones for dinner on Sunday, the hot pepper oil should be the first thing you make in the morning. There isn’t any official ratio to follow, but tend to do one tablespoon oil to one teaspoon red pepper flakes.

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A lot of my “recreating” with this recipe was mostly just getting ratios right. I’ve made vegan versions in the past, but pretty much just making a tofu-ricotta filling for myself, and the original recipe for everyone else. I think I tried making a vegan version when I was in Philadelphia, but our oven was broken and we were left with raw dough covered in black smoke. I curse and was pissed by the wasted money. I probably would of thrown them out of the window if my husband wasn’t there. We weren’t married yet at the time, so I couldn’t let him see how freakin crazy I am.

So make sure your oven works so you aren’t tempted to throw these delicious calzones out the window.

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The recipe takes awhile… really. Probably 2 hours overall including cleaning up and such. But it is well worth the time since I’ve never eaten a calzone that is similar in restaurants. The recipe makes 4 reasonable sized calzones, or 2 massive calzones. I made the smaller ones, but realistically, when I make them, we eat the massively sized calzones.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: bread, calzone, cashews, pizza dough, red pepper flake oil, ricotta, tofu, vegan, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015, vgnmf15

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 1: Three Vegan Breakfasts

September 1, 2015

Welcome to Vegan MOFO 2015! The first prompt is talk about what you ate for breakfast. Most people get confused about what to serve a vegan for breakfast. Who can blame them? Pancakes, bacon, sausage, yogurt, milk, eggs, french toast, what is left to eat? Orange juice and toast? So we thought it would be a good idea to show a sample of what a typical breakfast is for us, including my husband.

Jennifer

Like a true (hippie-dippie) vegan, I start my breakfast off with a glass of homemade kombucha. I like adding the gut friendly bacteria to my diet each morning, and they are supposedly most helpful when consumed on an empty stomach. So I always pour myself a glass right away in the morning and drink it while I get some chores done, like putting away the clean dishes, washing any remaining pots and pans from the night before, or prepping a lunch for my husband and myself.

If I plan on working out, I try and have a very light “breakfast.” In the winter it is usually a small muffin, chia pudding, or a simple oat, water, and banana shake. But since I am swimming in produce, I ate a quarter of a giant yellow watermelon. This gives my tummy something to burn while I do my reps or go for a short run.

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This morning I went for a run, so I had a shake when I got back. I always try to eat some spirulina in the morning to help with allergies and because it has so many good vitamins and minerals in it. There are pretty much two ways I eat spirulina– a chocolate shake or a matcha shake. This morning I ate a matcha shake. It is very simple and easy to put together since by the end of my workout I am always craving a cool drink with lots of calories.

Alexa

This was a really fun and easy experiment for me. I’ve been seeing one of my coaches at the gym to help me with my nutrition and eating to help aid my work-outs. I told her I was mostly vegetarian in diet (still livin’ that flexetarian lifestyle) so she helped me set up a meal plan based around that. Normally for breakfast I’ll eat 2 egg whites or 1 egg and 1 egg white along with 1/4 cup oatmeal (with 1 teaspoon of coconut oil mixed in) and a 1/2 cup of berries. Jen suggested that I try to make a tofu scramble for Vegan MoFo, which I had always wanted to do because I LOVE a good scramble, but had always been hesitant because I thought mine would never live up to what I’ve had in the past.

Well, it was incredibly easy to make this. And it turned out pretty well too! I’ve heard several people say they add nutritional yeast, turmeric or cumin to give the tofu some flavor and that yellow color of an egg scramble. I only had cumin in the house, but I also added a bit of curry powder and chili powder to it (and later I added sriracha…because I live for that sauce). I sautéed some onions, orange bell peppers and tomatoes in with the tofu and spices as well. Normally the eggs are supposed to help with getting some protein into my body post workout, as I’ll normally take a morning class. When Jen pointed out that that tofu has about as much protein as eggs does I felt a little bit better about maybe adding this into my routine a bit more often, but in smaller portions.

Oatmeal used to be a very “meh” ideal breakfast item for me. When Karen said I should put coconut oil into it and mix it with berries and a sprinkle of cinnamon I first thought “hmm, that’s interesting…” . Now I’m hooked. The consistency is perfect and I love the flavor of the coconut oil with berries. On occasion, such as today, I’ll substitute the oil for almond butter instead. Both options are great and this breakfast really keeps me full until lunch time, which ranges from about 12:30-1:30 depending on when I ate.

Jonathan

My husband is a creature of habit. My morning starts with kombucha sure, but each batch is different and I switch between types of tea to create the brew. Then my shakes and “pre-workout” food changes. Not my husband. When we first started dating he use to eat a bagel and cream cheese every single day. Then he found out that his tummy got upset by it, so he switched to oatmeal.

Boring plain oatmeal.

He was so proud of himself, he crunched numbers and found out that he would save so much by using the big container of quick cooking oatmeal. I asked if he wanted some sugar, cinnamon, anything else. Nope. Gross. I thought it might of been a family thing, perhaps his Mother and Father had plain oatmeal? When I asked about it apparently his mother doesn’t like oatmeal and his father was all “WHAT THE HECK THAT SOUNDS GROSS?!” So there is clearly something wrong with my husband.

BUT I did convince him to start adding granola to give a little boost since he was getting hungry too fast (duh, you are just eating oats!) And depending on the season, he will add some berries from our CSA or chopped apples that I prep for him. I didn’t take a picture of his oats because they are disgusting and I figured readers wouldn’t want to see naked mushy oats.

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Then comes his second breakfast. Sure I have three different stages to my breakfast, but that is really just a “workout” thing. If I don’t run or lift, I just have one shake. But my husband is a calorie burning machine and needs to have a shake to drink when he gets to work. He is pretty boring, just chocolate or chocolate peanut butter, or just peanut butter. Lately I’ve been making him peach peanut butter shakes. But today was just chocolate.

The Coffee

We are all coffee people. Jon likes to have his coffee everyday and normally just gets the Wegman’s brand to save money. Jen finds this coffee too fruity for her tastes. But on special occassions Jen will buy him a special roast, like the Royal Mile Nicaragua Mama Mina that she got him for his birthday.

Jennifer on the other hand doesn’t drink coffee first thing in the morning. She drinks her cup around 10 am, probably because she finds coffee too harsh on an empty tummy. Sometimes she makes herself an iced latte before heading out to work using Black Cat Classic Espresso by Intelligentsia.

Alexa gets her coffee from Booskerdoo or Rook. She liked to get the big jar of coffee concentrate from Rook when she can, but finds that it actually disappears way faster than she would like, and is trying to limit herself to 1 coffee per day, it used to be up to 4 COFFEES on a bad (good?) day. She also loves everyone who works in her local coffee shops and wants to give them patronage because they are just the sweetest and really know their coffee.

So that’s it guys. Three vegan breakfasts. There are two shake recipes below if you want to be like us. Anyone else out there is a little freak and eats plain oatmeal? I think my husband needs team oats allies.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: breakfast, chocolate, coffee, green tea, matcha, oats, recipe, smoothie, smoothies, tofu, tofu scramble, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015, vgnmf15