Chili, cats, and cookies

Sorry it's been a while since the last post. :) I made this amazing chili with homemade seitan from Vegan with a Vengeance a little while ago, plus corn muffins from The Kind Diet with peanut butter. Yum.

I had a pet photoshoot...of my cat Bourbon.

And made these cookies (my own recipe!) It had coconut, homemade almond/walnut maple butter, and they were really yummy. I wrote down the recipe, somewhere, but I can't find it :( I'll let you know-they were super good!!

                                         

Shortbread cookies

              

Hello blog world...I think I finally figured out this new way to post stuff. I 'upgraded' my dashboard or something, so now posting and uploading pictures is different. Easier, if I may say so myself.

Happy late valentines day! These shortbread cookies from The Kind Diet were made in honor of the holiday. I enjoyed a lovely weekend with my family at my grandma's house, also celebrating my niece's 5th birthday.

                         
I love this picture!!
                                              

Vegan chocolate truffles...

Jiffy mix company!! Went on a photography walk.

I have to go and do some work, shower, clean up...I'll blog soon!
:)

CAMERA RESOLVED....

Hello all! I had a snow day today!! Just thought I'd awkwardly throw that in there.

I have a new camera. We will not talk much about this. Its the same kind as before, only in blue :) Heres a recap of my camera mishaps if you care/are bored.

1. Red camera is dying

2. New camera #1!

3. The camera cord is gone

4. Found it. Joy.

5. So now the camera is gone.

6. And found again.

7. The camera died.

For the sake of my sanity and lack of sleep, I'll let you consume (no pun intended) these photos without much explanation.

Roasted red pepper hummus. Nom.

Barley casserole with tahini dressing from The Kind Diet.

Peanut butter/agave rice krispie treats (some w/chocolate) from The Kind Diet. Nomnomnom.

Another form of art: A painting I did on a deconstructed shoe shelf!!

A weird abstract painting.


Vegan ice cream! Almond dream. With coconut and almonds and a strawbery. Nomz.

Well, before I sign off...a recent dillemma (sp?). I had some soymilk in cereal the other day, like I normally do, (almond most of the time, but there was a sale on soy) and felt somewhat nauseous the whole day. I thought it was just a little cold, and didn't think much of it. The next day, I had some tofu at dinner, and for the rest of the night, was in excruciating pain!!! The day after that, I had a small sprinkle of soy sauce on lentils. As soon as I finished eating, the thing came back.

I'm going to give up all soy for a while. Vegan, no soy. Haha right. But as I decided upon giving up soy for a while, it occured to me that maybe I should just give up some other stuff too. All white sugar? All white flour? Should I go macro again? (didn't really talk about it, but it did happen haha.) I'm just confused about what I should do.

I gotta clean a little and go to bed, but I'll see you guys tomorrow :)

A new week

Ello 'der.

I had a great day today!! I ran a 5k with my dad and sisters this morning. A few players from our soccer team were in it-thats the reason for my soccer shirt. It was really cool, and the route wasn't extremely hard, but I think it was a bit harder than the last 5k.

I finished at 29:55 chip time, which is 1 second off from the last 5k!! That time was 29:54. Bummer. But I still had fun, and I hope to improve next time. Beforehand I had a massive honeycrisp apple, and later in the day I cooked this beauty:

Barley casserole from The Kind Diet. All I can say is MMMMM. I'll look forward to this tomorrow for dinner! It has barley, I threw in some spelt berries, carrot, celery, shoyu, spices, and a delicious tahini dressing with onions and spices. Its then layered and baked, and the tahini dressing hardens a bit on the top, but is still oozing when you eat it. So good!!!
I've had various attempts this week on making vegan pudding. Thats right. So first I tried chocolate pudding...FAIL. I tried it again, even more of a fail! Today I tried pumpkin pudding, and the first time it was so runny, and I tried to reduce it more and little pearls formed of like, cornstarch. I was really confused. Now in the fridge I have a little pumpkin 'pudding' but its more of a weird custard. Whatever. I'll try again!! I know I can do this!!

I have a busy busy week plans, so I apologize in advance for not posting a ton. Have an awesome week you guys :)

Goodbye summer 2010...

*Sigh.* This time of the year is always hard. No more camps, BBQ's, sleeping in, or whatever other mindless activities I choose to do over the summer. It always ends with a weekend at my lakehouse with our family from Pennsylvania that come up, which is a good closing to summer even though its sad. :(

On the bright side, we had tons of fun. Lots of cooking, boating and being cold in the water while tubing, playing guitar, and dancing. My dad and aunt took over the kitchen, so I was pretty distant in terms of cooking :D I did contribute though, I cooked a day before we went up to the lakehouse so I wouldnt get in the way of their intense cooking trance. I made:

Spanikopita (Spinach pie) from vegan with a vengeance: (!!!)

Since I'm 1/2 Greek, I felt the need to make a traditional greek dish sometime in the near future. And why not veganize it?!?! I had a spanikopita recipe sitting around in VwaV, and even though I was a bit aprehensive of the... TOFU... (and whether my family would be OK with it) it turned out great! Phyllo dough is hard to work with, I wont lie. The trick is to keep it damp, but to not actually let water touch it. (While you work with it.) Oiling it is a crucial step, or it will get all dry and burnty and NARSTY. But for my 1st time working with it, I think I pulled it off :)

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for brushing phyllo

2 bunches fresh spinach, rinsed, long stems removed

1 bunch scallions, thinly chopped and trimmed

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chopped dill

2 lbs firm tofu, drained and pressed

1/3 cup fresh lemon joice

2 tsp oregano

dash of nutmeg

3/4 cup ground walnuts

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tsp salt

several dashes black pepper

1 box thawed phyllo dough

In a large pan, sautee the spinach, scallions, garlic, and dill in the 2 tbsp of oil. Sautee until completely wilted ansd soft, and a good amount of liquid has sweated out of the greens. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temp.

In a large seperate bowl mash the drained tofu until a smooth but grainy consistency. Take the cooled spinach mixture and squeeze out as much liquid as humanly possible, then add it to the tofu. Add the lemon juice, oregano, nutmeg, nutritional yeast, ground walnuts, and the 1/4 cup of olive oil. Mix well with your hands, and then add the salt and pepper. Taste the mixture, it should taste pleasantly salty and tangy. Make sure the filling has cooled to room temperature before stuffing the phyllo dough for the spinach pies.

[There are 3 methods of making the spanikopita, and I chose the triangle method, because it served the most.]

Traditional triangle shape:

Preheat oven to 350'F. Take 2 sheets of dough, brushing olive oil generousley on 1 sheet, then layering the other sheet on top of that, then brushing that with oil. Score the stacked sheets lengthwise into 3 strips. With the short end nearest to you, place scant 2 tbsp of filling in the top left corner of the long rectangle. Grabbing the corner of the dough, fold it rightward so it forms a triangle, fold it towards the left to form another triangle, and continue folding this way until you cant fold any more. Wrap the remaining bit of dough around, underneath the triangle. Brush with lots of oil and bake on a baking sheet for 10-12 minutes, until deep golden brown and puffy. YUM!!

I also made a pan of coffee fudge brownies from The Kind diet, which were FANTABULOUS. No pictures though... :( UGH.

Today I did some shopping with my mom at trader joes, and I got some things to have for the week. I start at a new school tomorrow and we eat lunch at 10:47 in the morning! EWW!!! So I figure I'll be able to stomach peanut butter/almond butter/hummus sandwiches that early and maybe a snack for later. But thats a bit early for me :/

I got some ingredients to make a lazy casserole from VwaV, cuz I was hungry and it seemed yummy. (Did that rhyme? Not really.) It was chickpea broccoli casserole, and for the first time I've made any casserole of sorts, it was freaking delicious.

Totally easy. Just a one pot kind of deal. (Or casserole dish, in this case.)

3 16 oz cans of chickpeas (I threw in a can of white kidney beans-even better!)

1 large onion, chopped thinly and quartered

3 large carrots, shredded

1 head broccoli, cut into small florets

2 tbsp thinly sliced chives

1/2 cup bread crumbs

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup veggie broth

1 tsp salt

(I added a little white pepper, black pepper, and a few tablespoons of this fabulous nutritional yeast stuff.)

Preheat oven to 350'F. In a large bowl mash the beans well, using a fork or potato masher. Add the chopped vegetables and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and mix, then add the oil and mix again. Finally, add the vegetable broth and salt (and other spices + nut. yeast if you are using it) and mix once again. Transfer the ingredients to a 9x13 inch casserole dish, and cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 more minutes. Serve hot. :)

Talk to you guys later...wish me luck tomorrow!

The Kind diet invades my plate once again

Recent eats:



Pressed salad from The Kind Diet, brown rice with hummus and sesame seeds. Yummy dinner!

Heres the recipe for the pressed salad:

5-6 leaves napa cabbage

3 red radishes, thinly sliced (I didnt have any so I added some red onion instead)

3 whole scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1 orange or apple, thinly sliced and peeled

1 1/2 tbsp umeboshi vinegar

1 tbsp rice vinegar or balsamic

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

Comine all the veggies and fruit in a mixing bowl. Add the vinegar and massage the vegetables with your bare hands until they begin to wilt and release some of the liquid. This may take a few minutes. The massaged veggies should feel very wet by the end. Form into a mound and place a plate on top of the vegetables, and put something heavy like a kettle filled with water or a juice jug on the plate to weigh the salad down. Press for 20-30 minutes. Drain off the excess liquid, give the salad a good squeeze with your hands. If it tastes too salty, rinse it under cold water, then squeeze again. Add the seeds and toss, then serve. Yum!

My dad asked me to pack his lunch today, so I made him 2 mini burritos with 2 mini ezekiel tortillas, leftover refried beans and brown rice, some pressed salad, and a little tahini dressing. This was technically another recipe from the kind diet, the Clean mean burritos. I didn't have tofu to make the tofu sour cream, but I think these still count. Hope he likes it!! I also packed some carrot sticks, 2 small rice krispy treats, and a few almonds.

I am planning on making some soup with the black eyed peas I soaked and cooked yesterday, maybe just with onions, carrots, and a miso base? I dont know its getting to be soup weather, in my opinion :D

Talk to you guys later!

The baking chronicles

Helloo everyone! I really am posting a lot lately...well I bake a lot! Oh you know that. I took the blondies to the wedding shower, and there were definetly plenty of other desserts. The spread was lovely, as well as the shower.

They're house was so photogenic...so pretty!

And so is my niece! Christina is so goregous.
Today my lifelong friend Hannah came over for lunch. We went to whole foods, and got ingredients to make...

FALAFEL!!

We didn't deep fry it, but we pan fried it on both sides and it was quite yummy. Also some tahini dressing and hummus, mixed veggies, and pita. Great meal around 2:30!

The colorful spread...sorry blurry picture!Tahini dressingHannah-filling her plateFRESH!

My plate
A new addition to the condiment palate-GOMASHIO! Gomashio is a salty topping made up of 18 parts sesame seeds, 1 part salt. I think mine was more like 10 parts sesame because I didn't get enough, but it's a great way to add flavor to a dish without too much salt. Its surprisingly salty for being so low in salt. Just toast sesame seeds, grind in a mortar and pestal with the sea salt. Pretty easy and makes a great topping to vegetables, rice, or anything else you like.

Of course we got the baking bug...
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (adapted from The Kind Diet)

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup maple sugar (org. evaporated cane juice for me-maple sugar is too $$$!!)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup safflower oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. molasses
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F'.

Combine the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the syrup, oil, vanilla extract, and molasses. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips. Using your hands, roll tablespoon-size scoops of dough into balls. Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and press down slightly on the balls to flatten the tops. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.

I also did a few with raisins and peanut butter...these cookies were great! The amazing thing about vegan batter is that you can eat the batter and not feel bad about the eggs. LIKE.

They turned out really big and I made a few smaller ones too. Definetley reccomend these!