Supper and the Single Girl

Vegan Meals and Random Thoughts

Monday, July 31, 2006

Pesto!

I'm sure you know that just about all of North America is sweltering in a heat wave. It's especially bad in California where people have died in 110-plus temperatures. And I have the desire to smack the snot out of anyone who dares to suggest that global warming is a hoax. And I hope that the heat will break soon and/or we get a nice, hard rainstorm.

Anyway, I did a little grocery shopping tonight to pick up a few things and made this:


It's Bulghur (or bulgur) Couscous with Veggies, a recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen, and a sun-dried tomato pesto from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance, the book inspired by the PPK. I had some leftover sundried tomatoes from my raw dish last week, and used those. The recipe suggests simmering and soaking, but lazy vegan that I am, I say buy the oil-packed ones instead and save some time. You can also reduce the oil in your recipe a tad. The pesto was creamy and just a bit garlicky. I probably did not have enough sun-dried tomatoes, but it did have a nice pale orangey color, as you can see. And it was quite, quite tasty. I'm hoping the tomatoes added enough vitamin C to help me absorb the iron in the spinach.

I didn't want to be boring and have just that, so I cut up a cake of tempeh and adapted Dreena Burton's Tofu Tidbits from The Everyday Vegan to make Tempeh Tidbits. Unless a dish calls for silken tofu or a creamy texture, you can adapt most tofu recipes for tempeh. Lightlife's Flax Tempeh is already fairly soft, so there's no need to steam it beforehand. Believe me, I appreciate that timesaver too. I liked the tofu tidbits when I made them, but I loved the tempeh tidbits and will probably make it this way from now on (hope you don't mind, Dreena). I didn't marinate, as the recipe suggests, but I will try next time.

And I'm so happy that I used most of my leftover spinach, the rest of my zucchini, and the rest of the tub of mushrooms--yay!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Whooo!


I had some tofu defrosting in my fridge, so I decided I should cook it today. I made the sesame tofu from The Garden of Vegan, which calls for Asian chili sauce. I decided to buy some a few weeks ago since so many appealing recipes call for the stuff. So I got the sweet chili sauce. I doubled the recipe (it calls for half a package of tofu) and added additional seasonings as it was cooking. I also made, as you can see, my delightful millet, the recipe for which you can find on www.vegweb.com or on the Vegan Club blog. Also included are some lemon rosemary carrots, another recipe I created.

Maybe I used too much sauce, although I didn't quite double the chili sauce as I did the Braggs and nutrititonal yeast, but it was a bit spicy. I'll make it again, for sure because it's not so spicy that I feel I'm going to die like the Mexican tempeh I made with one teaspoon of chili powder. I always love the millet, because of the mix of seasonings and dried fruit.

On other topics, Bush, in his infinite lack of wisdom, vetoed federal funding for stem cell research. I'm actually surprised it got that far, what with our fetal-rights Congress clearly not caring about anyone who has actually been born, save for a woman in a persistant vegetative state. But some of them apparently realize that these embryos are going to be trashed. Bush, of course, managed to find a handful of families who had "adopted" embryos and had them implanted. Far more embryos die during the process of implantation, since doctors implant several embryos with the hope that one will "take," and far more embryos are destroyed when the couple who created them decide not to go through with in vitro anymore. Since these embryos are never going to be implanted in a uterus and never become human beings, why not see if they can possibly be used to save lives.

I also wonder why those who oppose stem cell research on the grounds that it "destroys human life" don't object to animal testing of medications and medical procedures. After all, animals are bred, raised, tortured and killed in the name of science. And these animals, unlike embryos, actually suffer. They feel pain. Thalidomide was proven safe in animal tests, but caused horrendous birth defects when given to humans. I wonder if other drugs that have been taken off the market were also proven safe in animal testing.

Now, we don't know how safe using embryos would be, but it's certainly worth a shot, is it not? Aren't the lives of people suffering from Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other debilitating diseases worth more than a cluster of cells about to be destroyed anyway?

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

RAW!!!

My birthday was Friday, and one of the fabulous gifts my boyfriend got me was Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet. None of the recipes require a dehydrator, but some of them can be labor-intensive, as I found out. I made a raw "lasagna" with zucchini noodles and an nut cheese I found on www.alisacohen.com, as Cornbleet does recommend dairy items. The cookbook is not strictly raw, I'm sure--the recipes call for olive oil and other non-raw ingredients, but what I'm after is not purity, but being able to fix a meal without turning on a stove or oven

The lasagna was quite tasty, but it's just not very pretty, so no pictures. I also think I had too much sauce for the zucchini noodles, so maybe I'll cut the rest of the zucchini I got and toss it in the mix. I also made a dessert, a flourless chocolate "cake," and topped it with frozen cherries (I'll have to make a cashew creme sauce for next time). And this turned out much better appearance-wise:

Because the cake has no added sugar, it is a tad bitter, but it's still chocolatey goodness, I think, and I'll definitely make this again.

Proponents of raw food believe that cooking foods above a certain temperature (which varies) tends to kill all the enzymes and healthful properties. They refer to living foods, which means, of course, not cooked. While it's best to move away from processed foods, some foods are more easily digested when cooked, such as carrots. Tomatoes and mushrooms have more nutritive value when they are cooked. Grains, which are difficult to prepare raw (I have heard of sprouting, but in my tiny kitchen, I am not about to try it), have many healthful properties. And it's hard enough being vegan in this cruel world without further reducing what I can eat.

Still, eating more wholesome foods and a raw dish a few times a month is reasonable (at least during the summer), and I will try to create more foods, probably on the weekends, that don't make use of my oven. I also have tons of spinach, since I bought way too much thinking I'd need it for my lasagne, so if you have any ideas, let me know.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Mmm, yummy

As I said, I did quite a bit of cooking last night. Crazy me, I even turned on my oven to make sweet potato fries. I adapted a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and used ginger and paprika, instead of coriander and cumin, for a tasty difference. I also made the Moroccan Chickpea Patties from Vive Le Vegan! but they did not hold together in the pan. It didn't look like I would be able to get a good picture, so I didn't take one. Hey, I'm just a gal who likes to cook, not a caterer or food stylist. But it was certainly good. I used a dab of the gravy I made for yesterday's "chicken-fried seitan," but amazingly, it works, it works, so I will not only be sure to make all these recipes again, but make the gravy to go with it. The gravy is best for "Southern-style" cooking--mashed taters and biscuits and fried seitan or tofu. If the heat index goes below 100-degrees sometime this week, I may just make some "buttermilk" biscuits. You know how nonvegans can make buttermilk by adding a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of cows' milk? Well, it works the exact same way with soy milk.

I hope everyone can stay cool 'cause it's hot pretty much all over the US and probably Canada, too. Drink lots of water, stay indoors, and remember a tepid shower does wonders at cooling you off. In fact, I think I'll go have mine now.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

I'm sorry, so sorry

I has been too hot to cook. This is the sort of weather I dealt with when I grew up in Florida, where the temperature and the humidity are in the neighborhood of 90, and a rainstorm only makes the humidity worse. I also had a few projects at work that practically ate my brain.

My cat turned 15 a couple of weeks ago, and my boyfriend got her all sorts of neat stuff, like a window perch:


And he also got catnip bubbles and a "gun" to blow lots of them, driving her nuts (helped along by the catnip she ate):


And here is the dinner I cooked tonight.


I made a chicken-fried seitan recipe and some gravy from "The Dirty South/Hot Damn and Hell Yeah," a double-sided book I picked up when I was in NYC. If you like Southern-style cooking, you will probably like this. I never got around to trying the recipes until now, though. I also did some cooking for tomorrow night, and I'll feature that food then. The seitan had a peppery taste, probably because I put in a bit much pepper or it didn't get mixed quite right. Some of the recipes are imprecise, which I don't mind, as I'm the sort of person to fiddle around with recipes to make them my own. The corn salad was something I picked up at Whole Foods last week, and was still very tasty.

I finally got cable Internet--hooray, hooray. Now, it takes a lot less time for my photos to upload here and for me to download stuff. I ended up with an external modem, which I don't mind because I can turn it off when I'm done for the evening. My kitty is keeping me company--she likes to lie on the sofa while I putter about online. She's happy as long as I'm here. And she's getting to really like her new window perch, I think. She was a little nervous of it at first, but sprinkle catnip on it, and she learns to love it. Maybe I should try that with her prescription canned food...

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Quinoa Rocks

And I wish I could show you a picture, but my camera's batteries died as I was trying to take pictures of tonight's dinner. I found a recipe on The Vegan Club blog when there was a quinoa recipe contest. The woman who submitted the recipe has a blog of her own, Vegetarian Family. You can link to the recipe here. Now, I didn't have the fresh parsley the recipe called for, so I used a little dried and cut up a couple of scallions for color. I also used flaxseed oil instead of olive oil (since you mix it in after everything is cooked). And I got creative and used half original quinoa and half red quinoa to make the dish even prettier. I'm especially happy because I got to use the rest of a container of grape tomatoes that I had lying around my veggie drawer.

Quinoa, a South American grain, is an absolute superfood, with a full complement of amino acids and (who knew?) Omega-3 fatty acids. You want to rinse quinoa before you cook it to remove the bitter saponin coating, and it's also a good idea to toast it in the cooking pot before adding water to bring out the flavor.

I also tried to adapt a recipe to make rosemary tofu, but the amount of liquid was too small and boiled off as soon as I got it in the pan. Oh, well. I had mushrooms to coat my tofu, and I can figure out another sauce to add some flavor to what I have cooked. But I used up a bag of mushrooms that were lying around the veggie drawer, and I'm happy about that, too.

I have to do some more grocery shopping soon. There are lot of recipes I want to try, so I need to make a list, check it twice (ha!), and get cooking again.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

working through my leftovers

Well, if you've seen weather reports, you know that it has been rainy, then blazing hot here in Washington, DC. As I am living with just my cat, I end up having plenty of leftovers. I bring them for lunch, but still three entrees will last a while. Then my boyfriend's mom came into town, and I had a handful of meals in restaurants.

One of the newest museums in DC is the Museum of the American Indian. Like all museums, it has a cafe, but unlike most museum cafes, this has tons of options marked vegetarian, like black bean tamals (what they call a tamale), a quinoa salad, various veggies, a wild rice salad, and little fruit cups. Yes, they serve meats, but if you're veg*an, you can easily get a pretty tasty meal. Like most museum food, this was rather expensive. Unlike most museum food, it was quite tasty. And it seems I'm becoming quite a quinoa fan. But quinoa is an awesome grain, packed with nutrients and a good source of protein.

Our lunch on Tuesday was not so successful. One of our favorite places for Middle Eastern, Skewers, was closed on the 4th, so we went around the corner and found a place called Pasha Bistro. Now, I have issues with a place calling itself "Bistro" where you order your food at the counter and get your drinks from a cooler. I also have issues when a place advertises a special, but won't give it to you unless you ask. And I had serious issues with the food. The hummus was bitter and didn't have that smooth taste that hummus is supposed to have. The tabbouli was all parsley with a few specks of tomato and what was allegedly bulgur, but I'm not sure. The only things I did like were the falafel and the fries, but I can get better falafel and fries with better service only a few blocks away for less. Even my boyfriend hated it, and that is saying a lot because he's one of the easiest people to please when it comes to food.

Luckily, our dinner, at a Thai place near the Verizon (ne MCI) Center was much better. They seem to get vegetarian -- or at least point out on the menu to let your server know if you have allergies, and there are times when it's tempting to fake allergies, but I decided to play it straight. Next time I go, though, I'm going to have to ask if I can sub brown rice for white.

I've got tofu defrosting in my fridge for tomorrow, and I really have to make more seitan, but I've just felt too lazy lately to do it. But I so need to give myself a kick in the pants. I promise I'll have something good soon!