Awesome Tofu Wraps

I made these awesome tofu wraps about a month ago or so. I plan on making them again, but the thing is that I only used random stuff around the house. I can do that again, and I guess I shouldn't be upset that they will never be the exact same. Who knows, I could even make them better (if it's possible!).
These are more like "un-wraps" also.
I didn't measure anything and just threw a bunch in. I served it on a red chili tortilla and over rice. I put so much food in there I couldn't eat it as a burrito/wrap so I just picked it apart.

This is the veggies cooking before the good stuff...

Ingredients as follows: tofu, spinach leaves, tortillas, brown rice, olive oil, lemon juice, fresh spinach, yellow green and red bell peppers, garlic, onion, black beans, carrots, soy sauce, peanut butter, chili flakes, ginger, and cumin
A close up of awesomeness.
This was my special plate.

These were our plates. Ray fell asleep while it took me an hour to make these, so I covered his up and put it in the fridge for the next day. I enjoyed mine a lot and it was probably one of the best things I have ever made.

And this is the final product...

Shmoo's Sprouts

I finally decided to try brussels sprouts for the first time. Edit to post: This was made around the end of January, possibly even before that, I am just transerring posts.
Continues...
Being vegan for so long now, and vegetarian for way longer, I am suprised at myself for have never tried them before.
Thanks to fabulous Shmoo (who's 7) and his awesome mom Jennifer, I have had the opportunity via www.veganlunchbox.com to try these sprouts for the first time. I am not going to base my overall opinion on this first time, because I know I messed up and overcooked them (see below).

The recipe is called Best Brussels Sprouts and they are made with olive oil, salt, veggie stock, sugar, pepper and apple cider vinegar. To me, they are like baby iceberg lettuces (which I hate iceberg, no nutrition, just water), but these were green and looked good. Too bad they were overcooked because I know they would have been better, although the flavor was fine.
I also made veggie soup (see previous blog) but left out the potatoes. I of course loaded it with about 5 different beans, lentils, herbs and veggies.

Next I cut the tips off and trimmed anything necessary.
Trimmed and Cut.
Next I added them to hot oil and browned them with sea salt on top.
Then I added the stock and let them simmer, they should have steamed more.
Now they are turning browner (yellower) than they should. This is overcooking.
But I left the lid on anyway and peeked inside... and I added the rest of the ingredients (I don't have the exact recipe in front of me).
Eew, this is how they came out. They tasted fine (spices were ok) but they were too well done. But... I ate them with soup, actually, I ate the soup and only tried one. We had a guest over, hence the three plates, not two. Note the cumin seeds and poppies: they are just out because I was refilling containers. None of those were in the ingredients of the foods I am showing here. I do want to make lemon poppy muffins, that's why I have the seeds, and as for the cumin, well, I always buy ground, and this is a change of pace.
I think it will be a long time before I try these again.

Dolmas

I made stuffed grape leaves (also known as dolmas or dolmades, or probably a lot of other names too...) a few weeks ago for the very first time. Note that I eat these quite often, but have never made them myself. I wanted to do this a week ago but left the jar of leaves (as well as tahini) in the car for about a week, and decided that they probably got too warm in the sunshine. Plus, plenty of microbiology labs have given me the confidence to not "feel bad" and just toss it away because I know what kinda crap grows on there anyway.

Back to the point... I finally bought another jar of leaves and in perfect timing because the night before Miriam (http://www.knockedupvegan.com/) posted her recipe and she made all these while super-pregnant and with a sore shoulder. In that case, me NOT pregnant, and my shoulder sucks too, I decided to go ahead and give it a go.

At first I didn't know how many to make. Miriam's looked small and skinny but that could have been the camera angle. I have always eaten shorter fat ones or even large ones too. I had no idea how much filling to put in but soon enough realized that too much filling is bad and makes everything fall apart. I had a lot of filling on the floor (yes, my fatness Killian enjoyed it).
This is what the grape leaves consisted of. I started to follow Miriam's recipe, but decided to leave out cinnamon and allspice, but I liked the idea of one reader's from Turkey (I think) and she puts lentils in hers. I have only had rice/veggie ones and Miriam had chickpeas. So, I decided to go for both lentils and chickpeas with the rice. I used basmati so it cooked faster. I also decided to throw in my own ingredients.

Here it is:*grape leaves
*one and a half cups basmati rice (organic)
*about a third cup green lentils (they really look brown)
*about a half a cup of organic chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
*one bunch fresh parsley
*mint
*2 tomatoes, diced small
*fresh lemon juice (I used about a half of a super-small lemon)
*garlic (just because I have to add garlic to everything)
*cumin
*black pepper
*sea salt
*crushed red pepper
*olive oil (a bit)

I decided to stop measuring after the rice and lentils because I didn't even know how many this was going to make anyway. I just added stuff based on my cooking experiences and the ratio seemed ok to me. Next time I will add a bit more of each spice.

First I stocked a pan with leaves (rinsed and drained) and cut up onions and carrots. Then I cleaned and prepared about a third of the jar of leaves and put them out and pressed the veins down. This was annoying and boring. Worth it though.

Then I combined all the ingredients. The rice/chickpeas and lentils were NOT cooked before hand. All of this is dry ingredients and everything cooks in the leaf. Yum. Everything got better as I went on and "practiced". Dry ingredients mixed together and ready for rolling. I have no rolling photos. I was very new at this and frustrated because they kept ripping and stuff kept falling apart and I wanted to throw the leaves across the room. But I controlled myself (with little effort) and continued on. I ended up going through all 61 leaves, but only made about 40 stuffed leaves, as I had a few disasters now and again.

All rolled up and in the pan... A closer look, not the best rolling efforts. I should have done a google-search on rolling last night instead of this morning. About.com has great grape-leaf rolling photos.

Then I added some tomato sauce as well as enough water to cover the leaves completely.
Then I put a heavy plate on top of the leaves once they came to a boil. I turned down the heat and simmered with a lid for about 30-40 minutes with the heavy plate on top.
This is after cooking. You can see how some were stuffed too much and fell apart. They still tasted pretty good. And the leftover nasty one that fell apart too much to try to save. I just tossed the rest. The final product. You can see how some got brown on the sides of the pan. And I accidentally spilled tomato sauce in the leftover rice mixture but decided to cook it up anyway so I added a bit of water and covered it to cook alongside the leaves in another pot. Ray ate most of this, as grapeleaves aren't the best to him, just the filling.

And that's that. I need to practice. I want to roll sushi too, but for now, these leaves are enough to practice. They seem harder than sushi anyway. I like eating these leaves with olive oil or hummus too.

I'm Turning Into Lentils & Rice

Lentils and Rice I forgot when I made this but it was just ok. I would next time use a different grain on the bottom and not puree as many lentils. I also went a little cumin-happy and decided I like cumin way too much and added a bit more than the recipe. Big mistake. And I would cut down on the turmeric a bit, but not much. Here's a close-up photo.

Ingredients:
onion
olive oil
carrots
garlic
red chilis
veggie stock (only a bit)
water
red lentils
turmeric
cumin, ground
sea salt
ginger
tomato
cilantro
black and white pepper

And this is how it turned out... Ray stuck his nose up to it and the yellowness freaked him out. He was surprised and happy that he liked it. He ate a lot and I was happy too. Of course, I had enough for myself! I served it over brown rice. Next time I need to add quinoa or something better.

Lentil Veggie UnWraps

I was going to make this yesterday, but it was late and so much "wasted cooking time" had passed and I went to the store and had Seduction Bread for dinner. Had it with red lentil hummus, mmm... but kind of boring.

Anyway, I had been thinking of these wraps ever since my FABULOUS Vive le Vegan and The Everyday Vegan came into my life (last week). Dreena, my "ice cream buddy", thank you for writing these great books!

Typical situation, I did not have every ingredient, so I had to change it up a bit. I mostly followed the recipe, and did not change it by choice. I will list the ingredients that I used and put an * by the ingredients that were my own and not even mention what should have been in there. Out of respect (ethics and law, too) I will only list ingredients and sorry, I will not give out the exact recipe.

And the reason they are unwraps is because mine always fall apart, all over me, so I may as well think they are wraps and just dig in and use a fork or something. I also made some brown rice (as a side or in the wrap) and I just ate some with my main meal.

"Lentil Veggie Wraps"
red lentils, cooked
whole wheat tortillas (one per person, unless, I guess, you're big or super-hungry)
sesame oil *(mine wasn't toasted)
rice vinegar
sea salt, iodized
ground black pepper
carrots
romaine lettuce, super-crispy-stem-parts removed*
long, thin cucumber slices
jalepeno pepper*
and leftover red lentil hummus* (garbanzos, red lentils, spanish paprika, garlic, cumin, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt)
cilantro

Note: all veggies were raw.

The only thing cooked was lentils, rice and previously garbanzos (for the hummus).

I attempted to make the Orange Miso dressing that is suggested on the page, but I don't keep miso in the house. Knowing that at the store the other day (and knowing I was going to make these) I bought OJ which is an ingredient, but no miso.

Instead, the dressing I made was sort-of following Dreena's. Again, the * means it's my own thing. Here goes:
Organic OJ, calcium added*, no pulp
rice vinegar
agave nectar*
ginger, grated, small
hoisin sauce
super-tiny splash of apple cider vinegar* (felt it was necessary, I'm just weird)
sea salt
ground black pepper
olive and sesame oils
*** I just blended the shit out of all of this and it was awesome!!! No miso, but gingery and orangey.

Overall, the un-wraps were good (at least to me) and I think just edible to Ray. *Edit to post: Ray just read this and is making me say this: He disagrees and said, "it was good. I said it was just ok. It was good." Which one is it? Based on the leftovers, I'd say that it was just ok to him.

And... I plan on posting all my "previous posts" tomorrow.

Leslie's Veggie Bean Soup

“Just Dump It In, All-Organic Veggie Soup"
A recipe made up by Leslie.
*This was made right after Christmas-time.

I simmered the carrots in olive oil to start, but to make me even huge-r, I forgot to discard the remaining oil from simmering and after preparing the ingredients, I just dumped everything in at once (minus salt) after that and did as much “straining” as I could. I even broke up some super-good bread to soak up the oil. It’s still really good, but on the oily-side for my preferences.

Here's the ingredients that I would never ever ever ever measure. Measuring sucks. But then again, I wouldn't have had the "oil problem" had I measured. Here goes:

-water (from the cooler, of course)
-olive oil, screw the extra virgin kind.
-carrots, I used about 4 medium to large ones, peeled.
-celery stalks, about 6 or 8 of them.
-potatoes, I peeled them this time. Normally I wouldn't but they were ugly.
-tomatoes, about a cup, chopped and I used a lot of the juices for broth.
-garlic, of course
-red beans
-brown lentils, about 2 cups cooked, yum
-barley, not very much, maybe about a half cup or so, eye'd out
-northern beans
-garbanzo beans, ugh I used way too many and they were the smallest guys I have ever seen.
-onion (in a cheesecloth because I only like the flavor of onion, not texture)
-fresh ground pepper, with the new pepper grinder I got Ray for xmas
-iodized sea salt, I threw this in after cooking hence me not liking to cook with salt or much salt
-ginger, I'm mad I didn't have any fresh, but to taste and good for the tum
-cayenne pepper, for heat!
-veggie pasta (organic durum wheat semolina, beets, spinach, carrots, annatto seeds), see the photo. This was an add-on just to make the soup full of more stuff, but the pastas got really soggy and I even just cooked them alone for 3 or 4 minutes, way under the regular cooking time.-I would have thrown in some zucchini or greens which was not there due to Ray convincing me otherwise at the store. I guess that'll be for another soup, but I would have really liked some floating greens in here.

I would have to say that this soup was a big success. It simmered on the stove for about 3 hours. It is really really tasty, colorful and Ray gave me the ultimate compliment by saying it looks like his Grandma's soup. But her's is made with dead chickens inside. Not mine. I would rate this soup a 9 not a 10 only because of the oil incident. Otherwise, it was tasty and healthy. Too bad it's not cold enough to really "need it". Aw shit, I'm gonna jinx myself, aren't I?!?!?

There's actually a shitload of beans and lentils in the soup, but they like the bottom of the pot and very hard to see. I'm glad I took these photos. The other stuff in there is the veggie pasta, which is what I use whenever I make pasta (rarely, usually once every three months or so).

And my special soup bowl (you will soon catch on that I have favorites and special everything)

Simply Couscous

When I am super-hungry, I usually make couscous.
Reasons why:
1: I love couscous
2: I like that it is itty bitty pastas (semolina)
3: It only takes 5 minutes!
4: Almost anything goes in it
5: Almost everything goes with it
6: It can be hot or cold... it's always good
7: Great for a quick, "lazy" meal

As I was hungry and as I spent most of the weekend making random creations, I decided to put my creativity aside and make a simple couscous.

*The green bowl is always my special bowl. Red is Ray's*

If you don't know, all you do is boil water (or veggie broth) and add couscous. Cover, take away from the heat and let it sit (like rice) for only five minutes. I usually give it about 7 minutes, just in case.

While the mini semolinas were becoming fabulous couscous, I shredded a carrot, chopped a few pieces of romaine, cut garlic, felt like adding some raw cashews, took out some soy sauce, olive oil and sea salt. I think I was in the kitchen for about ten minutes. This is so easy to make and it's amazing that many times I just stand in the kitchen for ten minutes before I find my mind.

Verdict: Of course I loved it. I served myself more than Ray (which I always do with couscous, rarely anything else), and I ate everything. When I asked Ray how it was he said "good". Minutes upon minutes later I look at his special red bowl and when I see that it is not being gobbled up, I decided to ask again.
"Is it good?" (which I should already know since I asked, but...)
Makes face.
"Tell me the truth!!!"
"It needs a little something..."
Something what?!?

And I know he must have just meant salt, more soy sauce, or even another spice probably. Oh well, as I never make couscous more than once the same anyway!

Lentil Quinoa Patties

Welcome to my first real-food-blog. I have so many recipes, ideas in mind, as well as photos stored, ready to share and trade. I am learning how to do all of this real-blog stuff. Stick with me and I will have my lovely food photos up soon. I am transfering them from another magical place.

In the meantime, I have been wanting to make lentil patties, but with some type of grain. You see, I eat brown rice a lot and wanted something else. I eat quinoa every once in a while, and decided that (just like my fabulous lentil-quinoa stew) the two together in the form of patties with a bunch of other veggies sounded good.

I started to follow two recipes from Vive le Vegan. Instead, I took bits and pieces of both recipes, plus my skills and imagination, and came up with this...

Ingredients are as follows (but not limited to). I also didn't really measure!
red lentils, cooked *about 1c
quinoa, cooked with lentils because I'm lazy sometimes *about 3/4c
olive oil *about two teaspoons total and just used for saute
garlic *2 cloves and I roasted it first
raw cashews *about a handful. It sounded good.
red, yellow and green bell peppers *about 1/2c minced
one jalepeno, seeded
onion *just a quarter of one since I'm weird about onions but like the flavor
fresh parsley *about a tablespoon or so
carrots *1.5 diced
celery *just one stalk, diced
hoisin sauce *about 2 tablespoons
rice vinegar *about 2 tablespoons
sea salt *to taste (I used about a teaspoon, but would have liked more)
ground black pepper, to taste
chili flakes *a pinch
tahini *2 tablespoons
whole wheat breadcrumbs for the outside
spelt flour ***note: I ended up using this because I needed a binder and I know spelt is heavier than whole wheat, so I went with that. I probably added about 3 tablespoons, 2 more than I wanted to.

Overall, these patties were great. It took me almost 2 hours total but that is because I let the mixture chill in the fridge for a while so it could 1: cool down, 2: bind together better, 3: get me out of the kitchen for a while.

Here's a few more photos.
This is the pre-mixture. Just the veggies with the roasted garlic and before mixing it with everything else.

This is what they looked like while cooking...

And this was the final result. I ended up not eating them with the fabulous Seduction Bread (filled with pumpkin seeds, millet, and much much more good stuff). First, I ate the romaine, just straight-up. Then I dug into the patties (they were a bit soft, too soft for on bread) and finished off with only once slice of bread. I was stuffed.

Fin.

Miriam's Zucchini Muffins

Made: Friday, Feb. 3

I made Miriam's WONDERFUL fat-free, sugar-free, zucchini banana muffins. They were really good despite me using the oven for the first time in a month and having it smoke (again!!!) and I pulled them out early. But now they are fine since I cooled them in the fridge.

See her post for the recipe, but it was great using apple sauce instead of oil and agave nectar instead of sugar. There were tons of grated zucchini, bananas, cinnamon, and hammer-smashed raw almonds.

Crispy Treats AKA Snacks

Organic Rice Puffs

Brown Rice Puffs: I made some fabulous rice crispy treats. I am going to keep experimenting since I didn't measure anything with these, threw a lot of stuff in, and well... they came out really good! Ray has requested to have these as "snacks" every day. I agree, but I cannot dare make them this way every day. I would get huge. But, for every once in a while, this is a great feast, and I will post in the future my modified versions. I already have ideas...

Organic Brown Rice

Used in Place of Sugar (for just about anything)
I placed the ingredients (added vanilla a bit later) into a saucepan and heated on super-low heat for almost an hour. Maybe about 45 min to an hour.
Keep Stirring!!! I added the vanilla about half way through and kept stirring. The goal was to get it hot and melty so it would be "easy" to spread. It still wasn't that easy, but I'm also not that strong. Stir until melty... the chunks are the almonds.
Check to see if it's melty enough. Stick your finger in there to make sure it's as awesome as it looks... I poured this all into two different bowls of the cereal. I don't really have big bowls and I used the whole bag of cereal. Don't forget, I didn't measure, so I had no idea how this ratio was going to work. It did.
Mix with brown rice. And... into a lightly oiled or non-stick baking pan. Chill it for a while...
Cut open view.

Here's the ingredients:
-brown rice syrup
-peanut butter
-almond butter
-vanilla
-barley sweetened chocolate chips
-agave nectar
-organic brown rice cereal

(all items were organic... I don't "try" all the time, but I guess it just so happens. Better anyway, so I'm happy)



Millet Puffs

Millet Puffs:

It consisted of Nature's Path organic millet puffs, my own squeezed organic peanut butter, organic brown rice syrup, organic agave nectar, organic vanilla, and a handful of barley sweetened chocolate chips. Ray wanted more snacks to take with him so I made these... I am staying away from them.