Category Archives: Recipe

Quick Cookies and Cream Coconut Pie

September 23, 2016

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I’ve been sitting on this recipe for awhile now. It came about early on in my pregnancy when Jon and I had two different family get togethers back to back. We are pretty big home bodies. We are both introverts and usually need a day to relax and calm down from family get togethers. This was going to be a VERY busy weekend. It would involve me running to our CSA, quickly go grocery shopping, and then cooking something for party number one.

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But being pregnant I kind-of wanted a dessert. But I didn’t have much time to prep anything. I remember loving the No-Bake Dark Chocolate Chickpea Pie with Pretzel Crust from Pickles and Honey, but had a craving for ~~oreos~~ cream filled chocolate cookie sandwiches. I also didn’t have some of the ingredients on the list and didn’t have the time to go to Whole Foods to get them (read: cocoa butter and coconut sugar.)

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So I decided to make two pies, which worked out wonderfully. Everyone loved the pie, and I got so many people asking what made it vegan. Chickpeas! Funny thing is that I have no idea how to make these type of no bake pies without vegan ingredients (pudding mixes?) It has always been beans and tofu for me. No one could even taste a hint of bean-y-ness to the pie. The big kicker? All the “tweens” went to town on the pie since they never heard me utter the word chickpeas in their presence. Most came out to the adults to say how much they loved that pie.

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So how did I make two pies on such a tight schedule? Well, there was a lot of cutting corners. One is that I bought pre-made pie shells. I picked up the Nabisco Oreo brand pie crusts because it was the only vegan chocolate pie crust option at my local grocery store. You can make your own pie crust just by googling oreo pie crust or just making a chocolate cookie crumb crust. What I do like about the ready made pie crusts (other than saving time) is that you have a plastic dome that you can use to cover the top of the pie for traveling.

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I also cut time down by using cocowhip. Make sure you plan ahead so you can thaw the whipped cream. One container makes the perfect amount for two pies, but below I will give the amount to use for only one pie (because you rarely need TWO pies.) You can double recipe if you like a lot of whipped cream on your pies if you want. But the whipped cream topping is where most of the “cookies & cream” flavor is coming from since you beat the sandwich cookies into the whipped cream. And naturally you could always make your own rad whip or coconut whipped cream.

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The last reason this pie is so quick to make is because you just need to blend all the ingredients in the filling, and that’s it. I strongly suggest that you use a blender not a food processor since a blender will get smoother results. I recommend putting all the ingredients into the blender as I have them listed since I had the best blending results (aka less times I need to stop and scrap things around.) The recipe is largely similar to chocolate chickpea filling on Pickles and Honey, so I recommend checking that recipe out if you want something less sweet.

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The pie can be eaten right away, but I suggest letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight. The chickpea filling naturally thickens up a little so you get cleaner cuts. I didn’t wait long enough for the photo (oops!) and got a more squished slice. Yikes! But since it is so easy to make, you can easily impress family members with your crumb decorating. I know I had a few family members saying “You made this?” with an air of surprise. Not sure why… maybe it didn’t seem like something I would make?

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: chickpeas, chocolate, chocolate creme sandwich cookies, cookie crumb crust, dessert, newman os, oreo, oreo pie, pickles and honey, pie, recipe

3 comments

Savory Pesto Zucchini Muffins

August 12, 2016

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It has happened guys- I am featuring a recipe on the blog! The last time I posted a recipe was in March– which I am a little shocked about. I thought my last recipe was from Vegan Mofo 2015. But part of me hiding away from recipe making has been because I’ve had a little mental block. When I first got pregnant I was just mentally and physically drained. Then when hunger started to kick in, I got pretty tired of sugar fast. Why? Sugar was in almost all snacks that were quick to eat on the go.

Snacking in a healthy manner can be hard. Especially since I have lots of specifics. I work in framing and it is important that my hands are clean. I work with lots of historical documents, works of art, and sometimes completely worthless junk. But something like an apple I have to sit down, eat, then wash my hands. Hummus and veggies? Oh please. Way too messy and time consuming! So I often will snack on a clif bar, crackers, or worse- candy. So I am constantly trying to think of something to eat that is dry but has no sugar.

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So I started to think about zucchini bread. Most zucchini bread in the USA are sweet. I have even posted a chocolate zucchini muffin on the blog way back in the day. I searched high and low for zucchini quick breads, and usually found savory recipes that used yogurt or different types of cheeses in them. I made one since I had leftover yogurt. But, I wanted to make a recipe that didn’t need a “fake” vegan food. Plus, the recipe made a whole loaf, and I figured if you are making zucchini bread, it is probably summer, and you don’t want the oven on for an hour. Muffins it would be.

I think I made 3 different batches before nailing this recipe. The biggest problem was that the muffins were too dry. The flavors were always amazing. But it would be painful to eat, and crumbs would get all over the place.

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So if you make these muffins, you can use cupcake lines if you are like me and are lazy about cleaning up. Or you can oil your muffin pans, which probably would give better results. Just make sure your muffins cool ALL THE WAY DOWN before taking off the cupcake liners. Otherwise they’ll just stick to the paper (ie. don’t do what I did for that photo. Wasn’t worth it for the sexy steam shot.)

Nutrition? Well, they are a great quick little snack. They are about 160 calories per muffin, and pack 5 grams of protein. If you used enriched all purpose flour and fortified nutritional yeast, the stats are pretty nice. 65% of B1, 54% of B2 (riboflavin), 30% B3 (Niacin), 45% of B6, 15% Folate, 7% Vitamin C, 17% Vitamin K, 10% calcium, and 8% of iron. You can see more of the stats here, I skipped the macros partly because it will be heavily influenced by what type of pesto you use. I used a avocado based pesto, so the fat content is different than the one I plugged into Cronometer (which is probably a traditional basil-olive oil based pesto)

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So what makes these muffins so full of B vitamins? A mix of flours. I bought a bag of kamut/khorasan flour awhile ago since it was on sale. This isn’t gluten-free, but an older variety of wheat. Which kind-of means it is packing a lot of natural vitamins that have been lost with modern varieties. But it does have a certain texture so I mixed it with some regular whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. And help give a savory flour I also mixed in some chickpea flour which helped give a more complex nutritional profile as well. Truthfully I think the flour is more nutritious than the zucchini.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: all purpose flour, besan, chickpea flour, kamut, khorasan, nutritional yeast, pesto, recipe, whole wheat, zucchini

13 comments

Kimchi Hot Pot Soup

March 14, 2016

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Last Monday I was able to hang out with Alexa and try out two new restaurants. It was amazing. But one thing we talked about was our diets, cuz that is what vegans and weight lifters do. Alexa mentioned how she is eating a high protein diet, trying to get about 113 grams of protein and 150 grams of carbs. It made me think about my diet, as I have started to shift towards a very carb-veggie heavy diet. I hit my protein requirements, but I like trying out new recipes. One thing I learned in art school is that sometime making rules for your art can actually help you creatively. So you might see more protein heavy recipes on the blog.

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This recipe was already slated to be posted on here, but it fits Alexa’s dietary requirements. High protein and low fat. I used tofu originally in the recipe, but you can sauté some seitan and stir it with the noodles, mushrooms, and bean sprouts at the end. So how much protein? Well I actually shocked myself a little once I crunched the numbers- 52 grams of protein, 63 grams carbs, and 10 grams fat! That means 44% of the dish protein, 30% is fat, and 26% are carbs. The numbers will shift a little depending on the tofu brand you use or if you use seitan instead of tofu. The dish is pretty hearty, and is 550 calories, which might be a little too big for one person to eat in one sitting, as I can imagine with Alexa (I am usually the one cleaning a plate while she tends to just save it for later)

So where is the protein coming from? Well it is comes partly from the Explore Asian bean noodles. These noodles have particular texture so you might not want to just sub them for normal pasta. But they work well with lots of asian style dishes where they use noodles that aren’t made with wheat. That is why I think they work so well with this hot pot. A quarter of a package has a total of 25 grams of protein, making it the highest protein noodles out there…. well the same protein content as Banza chickpea noodles. I used the adzuki bean noodles, since I like the taste of red beans. The prices I am finding online are around $5 a pack, but I was able to get them at Wegman’s for $3.50, making each serving around 88¢, about 50¢ for the tofu, and $1 for the mushrooms (less if you sub for carrots or a cheaper mushroom). I am not really sure how much the rest would cost as I made the kimchi and broth at home. The other ingredients might cost a bit at first, but the last for a long time.

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So let’s talk about the soup outside of nutritional content. Let’s talk about the cultural context. So many people know that kimchi is a korean pickled cabbage. There is also a popular korean stew called kimchi jjigae. Kimchi jjigae has become so iconic and has become a popular dish in Japan- translating into kimchi nabe. The differences are subtle, but my vegan version is a little bit more like the Japanese version… with protein noodles. If you are interested about the differences, Just One Cookbook does a good job explaining all the differences.

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I’ve mentioned how I love my individual sized hot pots, or donabe have been a life saver. I admit, they are kind-of pricey. You can use other types of pots, and you can find similar things in Asian food markets for a discounted price. Take a look around. But since the dish is designed to be eaten by one person, the recipe is small. So if you are using a normal pot for everyone, adjust accordingly. It is easy enough to double or triple the recipe for however many people will be eating with you.

If you do buy a donabe for this recipe, I found a blog post about seasoning your pot! Most pots don’t come with manuals, so I had no idea this was something that needed to be done a day in advance. It will make your pots last longer and doesn’t take much effort to do.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: adzuki noodles, enoki mushrooms, gochujang, high protein, hot pot, japanese, kimchi, korean, miso, mung bean sprouts, nabe, tofu

3 comments

Coconut Peach Ice Cream

February 20, 2016

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I’ll level with you guys. If I was perusing the blogosphere I probably would poo-poo this recipe. I am usually the kind of person who makes everything from scratch. It has only been recently I started to use pizza dough from a grocery store. When I tell my husband that I don’t want to cook, and I want to have pizza it actually means I bought premade pizza dough and I am usually making a pizza. Nope, no ordering out. Is it because there isn’t any vegan pizzas available? No, I am just so hard wired to make dinner that not cooking dinner is still cooking.

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So what is this recipe then? Well, during Thanksgiving I hosted dessert for my family and thought I should offer whipped cream. I bought So Delicious Coconut Whip and thought it would be a hit. The problem is that nobody touched it because I totally forgot no one in our family actually uses whipped cream, or rather they only have it in very specific situations (aka angel food cake.) So I kind-of got stuck with a full tub and refroze it, having it sit there since.

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Then I randomly wanted some ice cream and thought I might as well make some nice cream. Short of some ripe frozen bananas, I took a gamble and used my frozen peaches and leftover So Delicious Coconut Whip. It worked out. It wasn’t just peach flavored, but the coconut whip peaked through in the flavor, which I really liked.

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I figured I would post the recipe since you never know who will find the recipe valuable. I mean honestly, you can’t make everything and I might see myself picking up some more cocowhip for a party. And there will be leftovers, so I would probably find myself making this again. Is the recipe healthy? I would say it is better than normal ice cream. Your fruit is full of vitamins and fiber. And even though traditional whip cream is heavy on calories, the vegan cocowhip only uses 120 calories total, with 8 grams of fat, less if you use the reduced fat cocowhip.

A quick note on the ingredients, the coconut whip MUST BE FROZEN! Because of this reason I don’t recommend replacing it with homemake rad whip or whipped cream from a can. I used home frozen peaches where I left the skins on. Storebought peeled peaches will give a smoother texture. You can also use whatever fruit you want. Want pineapple? That would be cool. Want berries? Tasty but you might want to add a little bit more sweetener. Mangos? Okay I need to stop, I’m getting hungry. And finally I used maple syrup but you can use whatever liquid syrup you want.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: coconut whip cream, cocowhip, maples syrup, nicecream, peaches

2 comments

Easy Curry Tofu Hot Pots

February 2, 2016

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It has been awhile since I’ve posted a recipe on the blog. I guess I needed a break from Vegan MOFO, where I posted a whopping 14 recipes, that is almost a new recipe every other day! And there is the holidays where I get a little scared of breaking out the new recipes and try to stick with the classics. And I really haven’t been feeling like cooking as of late. I think my new house set up seems like such a bigger commitment to either be in the kitchen or be on the computer. In the old apartment the computer was so close to the kitchen I could hear if something would overflow and hear timers, etc. Now the computer is on the second floor, and I just get anxious that something bad would happen.

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But before I talk about this hot pot, can I stop and talk about mourning someone who died awhile ago? Last night I noticed that my husband has been really preoccupied, and more stressed than normal. Sure work might of been really crazy, but something seemed different. Turned out he found out one of the girls he dated in high school died, but it happened several months ago and he was just finding out.

I know this can suck, and can happen often in smaller town. It has happened to me, with my friend Pete. We were friends senior year of high school and he wanted to hang out during our breaks during college, but I was sadly in another state and couldn’t hang out. I made some comment about his brother with Alexa, then proceeded to ask about Pete. She was dumbfounded and told me he past away, like 2 years ago. Nobody mentioned it to me because everyone thought someone else told me.

It was weird, because I couldn’t really talk to many people about it, because everyone already knew for such a long time. They had already passed the different grieving phases, so I was kind-of left alone with my feelings. I felt terrible for not being able to go to the funeral, not being able to hang out when we could of, and I felt bad for his brother, who under the circumstances of the death, felt responsible. Where do you turn? Luckily I could talk to Alexa about it, and I had a friend in my area who actually went to college with Pete, and also thought I knew about the death. So it we talked about awesome he was.

For my husband this girl got his by a car while running, so maybe it hit him on a closer level since we both go running. So now I am a little nervous what my next run will do to his nerves. But it is bound to happen. I don’t know, it is such a weird feeling about finding out someone passed away so long after it happened, it can feel embarrassing and isolating on top of all the feeling you get from mourning.

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But this post is about soup, so we will change the topic. This curry hot pot is one of my favorite weeknight dinners. It is super simple to make, and probably only need 10 minutes of prep time. Just chop, add broth, and boil. No sautéing, or prepping the protein. And even better, it is super easy to customize! That can be great when your partner doesn’t totally jive with your palette. In this case it is my husband not wanting his soup as spicy as mine. And if they don’t want tofu, it is easy to sauté some meat or faux meat for them. One wants a gluten-free diet? Use some other noodle (I’ve tried bean noodles, it is bitchin)

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It is worth noting the star of this recipe are individual hot pots. It was something I never bought because I thought it was silly and maybe a waste of money. It went on a wishlist for our wedding, and my sister and brother in law bought them for us. I mean it is an expensive item- $36 a pot, and you need to buy TWO for a couple. But I can safely say this is the greatest thing for two people living with each other. It is nice to have our own bowls for own meals. I’ve already posted recipes for dolsot bibimbap and mushroom hot pots with these pots. Again, this made it so I could have my super spicy bibimbap, while my husband could have his whimpy version. If you in a serious relationship and living with your significant other, I totally recommend buying them. You get the satisfaction of making what you want but sharing a similar experience.

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Keeping with the idea of customizing, this recipe is super flexible. I posted what I made in these photos, but I’ve switched around the ingredients. I’ve made this with seitan sausage instead of tofu, grilling the seitan and adding it in with the ramen. I switched noodles, switched the veggies (using sautéd onions, raw celery, potatoes, etc), this is a forgiving recipe. If you are thinking of different veggies to use, I usually use winter vegetables that last long in the fridge. Celery, radish, root veggies, cabbage, nappa, green onions, carrots, heck try out some beets. Go crazy. That is what I love about hot pots. Super simple stuff here.

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If you are wondering where to get vegan ramen there are a few places. Some of the style of mainstream American ramen (oriental and chili) are vegan, and you can just toss the flavor packets. But that seems a little wasteful, but easy to find at your local supermarket. There is an organic all vegan ramen line called Koyo Natural Foods. They sell organic ramen noodles that are plain and have no flavoring. They also sell packets with powders, but I think my hot pot packs more flavor. Your next bet is to check out an Asian Market and look down their aisles. Look under the noodles aisle, ramen package aisle, and refrigerated sections. Read ingredients as egg can be a common ingredient in some of the fresh noodles. I found a package of noodles that came in round dried blocks, and came in one bag. So it saved money and packaging. Once you find a ramen source, you will likely go nuts for it. Continue reading →

Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: cabbage, carrots, curry, death, hot pot, japanese, mourning, radish, soup, tofu

5 comments

The Reanimator & Suspira – Two Spooky Cocktails

October 29, 2015

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I’ve seen a few “spooky” cocktails out there. Some do make me get the Halloween feels, but most just have spooky photos and a spooky name. Maybe these do too. But I tried to keep some “creepy” ingredients, mostly kombucha and absinthe. Why are they spooky? Well both drinks are brightly colored like many candies. Eerily unnatural if you will. Then kombucha really reminds me of the blob with it’s mother culture. You are drinking living creatures by having this drink.

Absinthe on the other hand has a more sinister history. For anyone who hasn’t had the drink before, it is composed of various plants, but the most well known ones are wormwood, green anise, and sweet fennel. So it really has a taste like licorice. It is often described as a liqueur but it has no added sugar so it is technically just a spirit. Absinthe became popular in 19th-20th century France in part because of a wine shortage (European grapes were plagues by a bacteria from the United States) and also from soldier drinking it during the war to prevent malaria (thanks to the wormwood). The drink was popular with various artists, and got a reputation for causing hallucinations. Often the effects of the drink were described as being visited by the Green Faerie. Many paintings show a poor soul drinking absinthe while being visited by the green faerie, being driven to madness. Although wormwood technically does have some psychoactive chemicals, the amount present is absinthe is minimal. Many countries banned the drink, but once proven to be no more harmful that other alcoholic drinks, the bans were lifted.

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So next question, is absinthe vegan? It should be. Absinthe is characterized by the plant based flavoring, not what is used to produce the alcohol. There is an absinthe that is made from honey, which is unusual. If you want to be safe, you can see the list of approved vegan absinthes on barnivore. There aren’t many listed, and truthfully I have only seen one of these liquors sold in a store- Lucid. And I understand that what you find at your local liquor store might vary greatly from mine, but I used a very cheap absinthe called Parnasse. I got it for roughly $14 from Total Wine and More. Would I get it again? No. Hell no! But it gave me an idea what absinthe tasted like, and I am now more willing to splurge more money on a bottle when I run out. Another way you can try absinthe are those cute little bottles of booze. Total Wine and More sells one brand- so grab it if you can get liquor shipped to you in your state.

And what about that beautiful green color? Well, I know my bottle artificially colors it, but some companies choose to let the liquor stay clear. But there can be a natural green color, it just won’t be as bright. In the past, some companies used copper to color the drink green, which is thought to be the culprit to it’s hallucinatory reputation. So if you are looking for something more natural, look for less toxic green colored bottles.

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Ever read a recipe, and make it, but the recipe is so simple that you don’t need to look at it again next time you make it, so you completely forget where you got it originally? That happened to me with The Reanimator. I couldn’t for the life of me find the recipe, until I found it on a fluke. I knew it was in the book Let’s Bring Back the Cocktail, but where? There are so many recipes. Turns out the original drink was “Battery Charger” and I made some artist interpretations on it. Which is fine, but when I tried to find it again I was looking for all the wrong things.

I like to pretend this is the ye-old jägerbomb. I may of had one or two of these in college, but I like to point out that I went to art school. We knew why we were drinking booze, it was to get drunk. Why bother with crappy beer? But this drink is actually very different. I am not sure what Red Bull is suppose to taste like, but the red in this drink is from grenadine, you know like in a Shirley Temple. The mix between pomegranates and licorice is a big eye opener, which is why I named the drink The Reanimator. The color of your drink will rely on the grenadine you use and the absinthe you use.

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What I love about these two drink is how different they are. This cocktail I named Suspiria in honor of my favorite horror film of the same name. The movie features so many vivid colors, including green, and evil being are witches. This completely looks like some mystery witch brew. The drink features lime juice and bee free honee to flavor it. This really lets the true colors of absinthe shine through, but still working with the lime-citrus flavors. If you can’t use kombucha, feel free to just use water.

I hope these two drinks give you the courage to give absinthe a try! They are both really very different from each other, giving something for everybody.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe Tags: absinthe, agave, agave syrup, Bee Free Honee, cocktail, cocktails, grenedine, halloween, kombucha, lime juice, limes

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 30: Roti Dal Quesadillas

September 30, 2015

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Last day for Vegan MOFO, and I have mixed feelings of happiness and sadness. I am glad to call it quits for this year because I AM TIRED! And I have so much food! Our fridge just isn’t that big. I can’t really freeze most of the leftovers, so it has been a real balance between use up my produce, getting the right amount of posts, and eating up enough of the leftovers. And I’ll be a little sad to see Vegan MOFO go since it has been fun, and nice to have prompts to direct my creativity. Or just force me to write up a post. I mean I’ve been meaning to write a post about planning a trip as a vegan for awhile.

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For the last post we make a fusion meal of roti and dal quesadillas. I feel like this is a triple ethnic whammy since I feel like quesadillas been bastardized enough by Americans, so it is kind-of a American-Bastardized Mexica meets Indian food. Sounds good to you? What I love about this meal is that it is a great way to put a twist on leftovers. In fact I got the idea from our leftovers from dinner. We had so much dal and roti leftover, and I thought what if? The results are amazing! And will vary as you choose different types of dal and different types of cheeses!

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I first tried the recipe out with Chao Slices, the creamy original. It was pretty good, but the downside was it has a higher melting point and you need to break them up. The second time making this I used the Daiya shredded cheddar cheese which worked out well. Both had their own benefits, but both gave a yummy creamy texture to the dryer dal. Feel free to swap out the roti for normal flour tortillas, as most people don’t have easy access to ready made roti (and may not want to make them).

Use any dal you want, as long as it is very thick. I used the dal from Vegan Eats World (the Sri Lankan Red Lentil Curry), and subbed lentils for split peas. If you don’t know a dal recipe, I always like Vegan Richa, as she has easy recipes and knows authentic Indian cuisine. Heck I even made a link for all recipes with “dal” in the description aka I used for the word dal in her search engine.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: daiya cheese, dal, indian, quesadilla, roti, vegan, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 28: Tomatillo Baked Tofu Burritos

September 28, 2015

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Sadly I couldn’t exicute the original plan for this post. Alexa and I were going to do a joint post of us having a debate on tacos vs burritos. Alexa was all set to make a drawing of us and all. BUUUUT…. she had some issues at work where they were suddenly down a person. We’ve all been there with small businesses, someone is fired, has to leave suddenly, or your boss refuses to replace someone and you find yourself working over 40 hours. So she worked a lot of days in a row and needed a break. Then my husband had to work on an emergency project over the weekend and hogged the computer so I really didn’t touch it. I actually had to plug our old computer in to make the post on Saturday. But luckily I’ve been meaning to post this recipe on this tomatillo tofu burrito.

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I might be a little biased in the Taco and Burrito debate. I worked at Animo in the past, and their specialty is burritos. They get pretty creative with it, pretty much pushing boundaries between wrap and burrito. Hey I am cool with that because there is something very satisfying about having hot beans mixed with cold lettuce. I do like tacos, but oddly I don’t make them often. Maybe because I usually don’t plan a meal, and just kind-of pile stuff on. So the end results are too many flavors. But some days I get my shit together and hold back on making too many fillings with my Kohlrabi Kimchi & Adzuki Bean Tacos and Miso-Harissa Acorn Squash Tacos. Burritos are a little hard to add too much. Just rice, beans, salsa, and an add in (tofu in this case, but roasted veggies are pretty good too!)

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And what I love about burritos is the portability! If I wanted to have tacos for lunch I would have to store everything in their own containers. Then build them like a homemade lunchables. I wasn’t into them when I was little, so I am still not into it as an adult. But burritos are all wrapped up and ready to go. Just roll in tin foil and twist the ends. Burritos work with a lot of leftovers to hide them as something much more interesting. For example a lot of leftover stews and curries I wrap up in a burrito with leftover rice. That’s it! You can sometimes switch it up. For example I leftover chili and made various types of burritos using different leftovers, sometimes rice, sometimes with lettuce, sometimes with tofu, sometimes different salsa, etc. It makes the lunch fun and interesting.

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The secret to a good burrito is portions. If you are using rice and beans, I keep the ratio 43% rice, 52% beans, 5% salsa. Just a slight bit more beans than rice, and a little bit of salsa so the rice isn’t too dry. When you are having a filling like tofu or veggies I make it about 32% rice, 32% beans, 32% filling, 4% salsa. You will get a burrito that isn’t going to leak all over your hands. And there is enough rice to keep the burrito form. Check out that photo below! Keeping to the almost equal portions equation!

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These burritos take a good bit of time to make, but need very little actual active time. Sometimes I double the beans and rice so I can make leftovers with it. But this amount should be enough for about 4-5 burritos, depending on how much you stuff your flour tortillas. Learning how to wrap a solid burrito might take some time, but when you figure it out, you will really impress people, making this a great dinner for guests.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: black beans, brown rice, burritos, taco, tofu, tomatillo, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

1 comment

Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 26: Curried Red Lentil and Spaghetti Squash Soup

September 28, 2015

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I may have fallen behind on my posts. I think I will be short one post in the end, which is fine since I didn’t like some of the later prompts. See on Friday I got a call from my Father in law. Turns out he had tickets to go see Houndmouth in New York City. But his wife was sick and couldn’t go. He would of asked Jon but he knew that he was swamped with work. So I figured why the hell not? Surely seeing a concert is much more important than staying at home working on a blog post, which I think most MOFOers would agree. So I went and had fun.

The band was great, though I wasn’t a huge fan of the crowd. I’ve been to a bunch of concerts including D’espairs Ray and Gwar, and I have NEVER seen so much drinking. Like I was on the balcony looking down thinking “I see a lot of beer cans, does this always happen and I just don’t have a birds eye view?” Then while leaving there was just tons of beer soaking on the ground from people dancing with their beer cans. NEVER had that happen before. Well, I guess it could of happened at Gwar, but then got covered by mystery liquids. But it wasn’t like the crowd is obnoxious drunk, they were pretty enthusiastic. I just tend to not like when the crowd is more enthusiast than me about music, probably. Oh and the pot. So much pot being smoked. ANYWAYS…. moving to the prompt…

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I am snowed in and can’t leave the house! What will you do?! I had to think hard about how to interpret this prompt. See I am a pretty good planner. My mother worked weird hours, so she would make a habit of picking out meals for each day of the week, then shopping for all the meals. So if it snowed hard, I would continue to just make what I was planning for dinner. So then I tried to dig deeper into the prompt, what would prevent me from making a dinner? Power outage! I have a gas stove so I could still cook, just couldn’t open the fridge really. So this dish uses all shelf stable ingredients- or fresh… okay technically I used homemade stock, but store bought stock works fine! I also used fresh tomatoes, but canned crushed tomatoes work great too.

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So pretty much the only “fresh” ingredients would the spaghetti squash itself and onion/garlic that is chopped up. I think most seasoned cooks always buy bags of onions and has a bunch of garlic on hand. Spaghetti squash not so much. I am not a big fan of spaghetti squash, but I always get some from the farm. I am always trying to expand my palette so I always force myself to eat the squash that is given to me. It isn’t like I don’t like the taste, it is just such a weird texture that I never know what to do with it. Then I saw online that a spaghetti squash could be used in a soup. I thought this would be more interesting than just subbing pasta for squash, like most recipes.

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The end result was a thick stew. The red lentils are super cooked, and perhaps slightly “dal-ish.” I loved how the spaghetti squash sort of holds all the parts of the soup together. The active time is pretty low, and there is lots of downtime. But I think this would be a great soup for a snowy day.

Oh and you know how I mentioned how I don’t really like spaghetti squash? Well almost every year I grab the squash, then somehow get my in-laws squash from their CSA share. So the squash last even LONGER! It kind-of gets pushed aside because it lasts longer than say, ripe tomatoes. So by the time I made this soup, the seeds in the squash started to sprout! It was pretty crazy! At first I thought that here was a worm in my squash, nope just the sprout.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: red lentils, soup, spaghetti squash, squash, tomatoes, Vegan MOFO, vegan mofo 2015

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Vegan Mofo 2015 Day 24: YUKI eat some curry

September 24, 2015

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I love YUKI. Most people don’t know who the heck she is, and I don’t blame most western readers! YUKI is a singer from Japan, and I fell in love with her lead vocals in the band Judy and Mary. I pretty much love all projects and collaborations that YUKI does including a duet with Chara, an album with some B-52 members, and her superband Mean Machine. And if you click on any of those links- sorry for the low quality videos. The songs are pretty old, 13-15 years old, plus Japan doesn’t really like using YouTube as a way to promote music videos.

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My love for YUKI got stronger as I got older because of her bold personality. She is creative, spunky, cute, and sexy all into one. Then as she went solo, she got married, had children, and snag about it all. She seemed grounded, and still continues to sing even with children, which isn’t that common on Asian countries. She has released lots of photograph books, novels, and drawings that show she really does more than just music. Oh her music videos are visually awesome!

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I picture YUKI being a pretty traditional Mom. So I imagine her making homemade Japanese style curry from scratch. She would probably use Beyond Meat Chicken-free Strips since she friggin loaded, and because she just doesn’t have time to make her own seitan. If you want you can use a curry packet, I found that some of the Japanese curry packets are actually vegan, but still read the backs before buying. I find Japanese foods love to sneak in bonito flakes at any given chance! Also check thetonkatsu sauce when buying it in a store. The brand I bought was vegan, but there weren’t any others to compare ingredients to. Making this curry at home isn’t that much extra work. All you need to do cook a roux in another small pot, adding maybe like 5 extra minutes to the cook time.

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YUKI would be a little fun so I think she would shape her rice into animals for her kids. This isn’t very hard, and I was even able to do it with brown rice! Just try and get a short grained brown rice, and I got sticky results using this method. Remember- steaming the rice afterwards is key and you will want to let the rice start way before you start the curry so it can cool down to comfortably shape it. Oh! And don’t forget to wet your hands, otherwise all the rice will stick to your hands. I used nori sheets and kitchen shears to cut out facial features. This makes the rice characters cute, and the nori melts in the curry, giving you some extra vitamins and much needed iodine.

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Posted by Jennifer in Recipe, Vegan Mofo, Vegan Mofo 2015 Tags: allergy friendly, apple, beyond meat, brown rice, carrots, curry, gluten-free, japanese, Japanese food, kid friendly, kids, nori, peas, potatoes, soy-free