I'm still alive

Hey y'all :D
Bad news: My camera is still missing :(
Good news: I'm saying hi!!
I was just in Hairspray, my school's musical. It was AMAZING! Theater is so much fun. I have an audition next week for a production as well...There will be pictures from that soon.
I've been cooking a little, I made some super amazing chocolate chip coconut blondies, which I'll have the recipe for soon :D In the meantime, I've been eating a lot of frozen fruit with almond milk, veggies with tofu, chickpeas, and carrots. The usual. I'm planning a little get together this weekend, and I'm cooking a moroccan themed meal. That's a surprise, because Hoai An, I know you're reading :)
How is everyone out there in the blogging world? I'm still reading plenty of blogs, but things are so busy right now it's hard to comment on all of them :/
Thanks for checking in guys! Hope to be having a real post soon.
O

Sigh...really?

If you're wondering why I haven't been posting lately, its NOT because I can't find my camera cord!
Even worse.
Can't find my precious digital camera...and I have so much to share. POOPY. Well ASAP I will be posting.
The musical at my high school is going great! Wer'e doing hairspray, and I have practice basically every day for a few hours. It's really coming together, and I'm having so much fun...
Food lately has been OK. Hummus, veggies, white bean dip, coconut pudding, salads, soup. The usual :D I'm sitting down to some whole foods sesame tofu with cooked broccoli, carrots, and a spicy peanut sauce. Yum. I had a lot of baking this weekend, more fauxtess cupcakes plus a new cake!
I'm sorry that it looks like I'm dissapearing! I'm not trying to-I spend plenty of time on the computer. As soon as I find mean Mr. Camera, life will be good. Talk to you soon :D
O

Remember when...

I have a big post coming with tons of pictures and recipes, but I don't have time to upload them all tonight :(

But instead, I spent time today foraging through my computer, and I found some food pics that I have never uploaded before onto my blog. In fact, these were pictures before my blogging days! (shocking!) Enjoy!

(This was the failed matzoh ball soup...you can see why I didn't post it...)

Soon will be recent pictures :D Hope you liked the oldies.

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!

Nice to see you again, blog.

Hi guys! Camp was so fun...if there are any readers from cabin 13 then this is a shout out to you! I had such a good time hanging out and working hard to put on a great concert on sunday, even though 7 1/2 hours of singing a day was hard work. I think choir is going to be really good this year.

I love them! I'm on the far left on the bottom.
Shell on the beach!

For the food sitch: I brought these snacks, and finished everything except one lara bar and 2 rice milks. The delicious rice crisp bars were enjoyed by people in my cabin, as well as being eaten by myself:)

The food at the camp was...*to put it nicely* not the highest rated by campers...The great thing was that there was a salad bar available at lunch and dinner, loaded with lettuce, assorted veggies, hummus, garbanzos, kidney beans, TOFU!, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and plently of dressing options. They also had peanut butter, and I liked to mix a little of that with soy sauce to make a dipping sauce for my tofu. I was very happy and really only ate that for lunch and dinner-I changed it up between the options, and I didn't think the food was ALL that bad :D

On sunday, my parents came up to see the concert. They took me out to dinner (how nice) at a place about 25 minutes from the camp, and it was lovely! I got brown rice with sauteed seasonal vegetables (zucchini) with hummus, and a small side salad with a yummy dressing. The portions were really small, but everything was so fantastic. There was also this cute loaf of bread which I sampled.

Of course we couldn't just leave it.

I arrived home today and relaxed a bit, had some rice (I was seriousley craving whole grains since I had nada at camp) and caught up on blog posts.

My dad and I went shopping at a really cool, new asian market right near our house. I loaded up on napa cabbage, daikon, hijiki, kombu seaweed, a large bag of brown rice, barley, black eyed peas, rice syrup, mirin cooking wine, miso paste, umeboshi plums, carrots, celery, black sesame seeds, and my dad got a crunchy rice snack (which had wasabi so I didnt eat it) and maybe one or two other things, not really sure :D

We also stopped by Hillers to get sunflower seeds, collard greens, a bag of cereal, and my dad got granola, and a couple other things. I went to bed bath and beyond to get icing decorator tips and bags, and muffin cups. YAY!

I cooked a lot this evening, made gomashio, toasted seeds, and prepared a delicious dinner for myself.

Brown rice with a little gomashio, some seeds, chopped daikon, and scallion. Steamed collards and napa cabbage drizzled in sesame oil and seeds, and a small cup of miso soup with some daikon. So healing :D
I think I made enough brown rice for a week, or more! Yum. Its so delicious and healthy.

I have some fun food posts coming up soon after the weekend or so, but before then I'm not sure...I'll probably not be able to contain myself and bake something. So talk to you later blog!

Thank you for reading (:

4th of July weekend-and stuff

I've been busy lately! Well, the weekend. I spent 5 hours this morning on the computer, eating banana soft serve, and dancing to lady gaga. So that was a lie.

On sunday, I ran my first 5K!!! I was with my sister Fiona, (right), me, my sister Kate (left of me) and my dad (far left). It was so exciting! I ran the whole way, and placed 16th in my age group. My time was 29:53.

I'm the one with the funny looking legs...

I've really been into this banana soft serve. All you do, literally, is slice bananas, freeze them, then put them in the food processor for a few minutes. They actually turn to the consistency of ice cream, soft serve! I flavor mine with a splash of vanilla. I'm working on other flavors too-I made chocolate peanut butter by putting a few teaspoons of cocoa powder, a tablespoon of creamy peanut butter, and a squeeze of agave/maple blend. It's so yummy! The plain soft serve makes a great breakfast with some berries and nuts thrown on top. It's really all I want in this 90+ weather. I am staying away from hot food completely!! I'll have pictures tomorrow for that-I am making another batch then.

For fourth of july, I made very traditional tofu and rice!! Haha...not. I made BBQ (hey, that's fourth of july!) pomegranete tofu. YUMMY! It was homemade bbq sauce, and the tofu was baked to perfection. This was from VwaV. On the side, I made coconut rice with toasted coconut. This was amazing! I don't remember the last time I had jasmine rice, and this fulfilled my desire to have it. For the rest of my meal, my dad grilled asparagus, some fish, chicken, and there was always the standby hummus and carrots to munch on before dinner. And most importantly...chocolate peanut butter cups!! The recipe is in my blogroll, so look there. The post is literally called chocolate peanut butter cups.

BBQ pomegranete tofu

1 lb tofu, drained and pressed, sliced into eighths

2 T peanut oil

1 T soy sauce

BBQ sauce:

1 T peanut oil

1 cup shallots, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon chineese five spice powder

2 cups vegetable broth

a few dashes black pepper

1 6 oz can tomato paste

2 T creamy peanut butter

2 T pomegranete molasses (what the heck?! I used molasses. Sorry Isa! Not going to go foraging for pom. molasses!)

2 T soy sauce

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp hot sauce (or more as you like)

1 tsp liquid smoke

Garnish:

1/2 cup fresh pomegranete seeds

Preheat oven to 350. In a 9x18 (preferably glass or ceramic) baking pan, dredge the tofu in peanut oil and tamari to coat on both sides. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip the slices and bake for 15 minutes more.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce.In a saucepan over medium heat, sauté the shallots in 1 tablespoon peanut oil for about 5 minutes, add garlic and five spice powder, sauté 1 minute more. Add veggie broth and bring to a simmer. Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the pomegranate seeds) and bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently.

At this point your tofu should be baked. Pour the sauce over the tofu, covering all over. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes more. Remove from oven. Garnish with pomegranete seeds.

And this beautiful dish needed some coconut rice, so heres that.

2 cups jasmine rice, washed

1 can (13.5 oz.) coconut milk

1 cup water

a cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp salt

finely grated zest of 1 lime

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Add rice, milk, water salt and cinnamon stick to a sauce pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover pot and simmer 20 minutes. Add lime zest and stir with a fork. Remove from heat, cover and let sit 10 more minutes. Meanwhile prepare the shredded coconut.Heat a skillet over low-medium heat. Add the coconut and toast, turning frequently, for about 3 minutes, or until coconut is brown and toasty.Remove the cinnamon stick from the rice and serve, sprinkling the toasted coconut over each serving.

Yeah, I took that picture.

This was so good! at one point, I think the BBQ sauce made its way over to the rice, and it all merged. Still yummy.

The PB cups were a disaster!!

Tricked ya. They rock. Only 1.5 left in the freezer:( Good excuse to make more?

I have been thirsty lately (yes, for blood...) because of this crazay weather. I made the Peach and Mint iced tea from The Kind Diet. This was so refreshing! Gotta give this a try.

4-6 Kukicha or green tea teabags

4 ripe peaches, cut into 1/4" pieces

1 small bunch fresh mint

maple syrup to taste

Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Place the teabags in a heatproof pitcher. Add the water to the pitcher, and steep for 10 minutes. Remove the teabags and allow the tea to cool.

When cool, add the peaches, mint, maple syrup, ice, and serve. Yum!!

I am not really sure whether to EAT the peaches, or if it's just to flavor the tea...I ate them. It would be such a waste to throw away perfectly good Georgia peaches, right?

Tonight, a spur of the moment thing, I made summertime succotash from the kind diet. This was yummy! Quick too. Didn't have to cook much. It's a lot better cooled, but still good piping hot.

1 tablespoon Earth Balance butter
1 teaspoon Olive oil
1 cup Diced red onion
1 Garlic clove, minced
1 (10-ounce) package Frozen baby lima beans, thawed (see Note)
1 cup Fresh or frozen corn
1 cup Cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons Chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons Chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon White or red balsamic vinegar

Heat the butter and oil together in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, and saute' for 5-7 minutes or until the onion begins to brown. Add the garlic, and cook 1 minute longer.
Stir in the lima beans, ans saute' for 5 minutes. Add the corn and tomatoes and saute' for 1 minute or longer or until just heated through. You don't wait the tomatoes to collapse and release their juices. Remove from the heat, and stir in the parsley, basil and vinegar. Serve warm or chilled.

That's all for now...Maybe more cooking soon, but right now I have no interest in going upstairs where I think I will be baked into cookies the second I walk in. (oven-bake-me? Oh whatever.) Did I mention we don't have air conditioning?

Ginger Baked Tofu

I swear, this tofu is the best I have ever had. I used to have this "thing" about baked tofu, complaining that it was too soggy or something. It's from The Kind Diet, by the way, and it's her favorite tofu recipe. Now I know why. I had made it before, but was in a big hurry to get it done because a. I was hungry and b. it was like, 10 o'clock at night. So I can't say I put my full 'spirit' into that batch...But it worked for this! And it changed my perspectives on tofu. Fo-eva.

About 2-4 servings

1 lb firm tofu

1/3 cup shoyu (soy sauce)

1 Tbsp toasted or untoasted sesame oil

2 Tbsps minced fresh ginger

1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

1/4 cup brown rice vinegar

2 Tbsps umeboshi vinegar

1/2 tsp crushed red-pepper flakes (optional)

1 tspn brown rice syrup (optional)

Finely chopped scallions for garnish (optional)

Cut tofu in half width-wise, then slice in half again. You will be left with 4 tofu "steaks".Pour 3/4 cup of water into a bowl. Whisk in the shoyu, oil, ginger, garlic, vinegars, red-pepper flakes (if desired), and rice syrup and pour over the tofu, covering it. An 8"x6" dish works perfectly. Marinate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Either drain the baking dish of the majority of marinade, or place tofu on a baking sheet & baste with the marinade. Reserve the remaining marinade.Bake tofu for 15-20 mins. Turn the tofu pieces with a spatula, baste again with the marinade, bake for 10-15 mins longer. Garnish with scallions & serve warm.

I served this with a large dollop of tasty brown rice (SEE! I even garnished it!) And some green salad with roasted eggplant, using some of the marinade for a dressing on the salad. It works perfect! Enjoy this tofu to your hearts content-I'm telling you if you were ever skeptical about tofu (I WAS) try this and you will have an epiphany.

NYC and vegan restaurants

Over these past few days, I went on a trip to New York city. We had so many adventures, and explored a bunch of cool restaurants. We also saw Hair on Broadway which was really fun, and went to the top of the empire state building. Yep, all that touristy stuff. But it was really cool to be in times square.

On the first day we went to check out Zen Palate, an all vegan restaurant. I ordered the Miso soup and the grilled tofu salad. Everything was so delicious, the servers were very friendly, and service was really speedy. It was a sweet getaway from the hectic streets of NYC. Later that night we visited the (windy) empire state building!

On Thursday, we stopped by the Candle cafe for lunch, after going to the metropolitan museum of art. It was very crowded, but it was a highly rated place so we stayed for lunch. That and we were all hungry and had walked a ton. Did I mention it was 90'F that day!? Yeah.

At the Candle Cafe I got a Mediterranean platter with garlicky hummus, baba gannoush, warm pita bread, and raw veggies. I also got the daily vegetables (zucchini and green beans, some cauliflower) with a tangy vinaigrette.

My friend who I spent this whole trip with is by no means a vegan, and I'm proud of her for finding things at these restaurants that didn't serve meat or dairy. So I think my dad was too, because he took her out for NYC style thin crust pizza after a light lunch at the candle cafe. My friend got guacamole with chips, and my dad got a salad. They then shared a thin crust pizza at a nearby place with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. I think they needed that!

After seeing Hair that night on Broadway, which was awesome, we went out for Greek food. It was about 11 o'clock, and we were all pretty much hungry and tired, but still a bit pumped from the show. I ordered the hummus, (yes, I know...) and spread it on the bread set on the table, with some cucumber slices. I got vegan grape leaves too, filled with rice and pine nuts and yummy spices. So even at a Greek place at 11 o'clock at night I found stuff!

On Friday, we went on a very long tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island. Although my friend and I were impatient to leave, it was interesting to see all those names on the plaque at Ellis island. The artifacts in the museum were surprising and the way they set up the museum was very much how it looked when immigrants arrived.

When we came back on the ferry, we went into SoHo and found a little Mexican place. We got guacamole and salsa with chips, and I got a salad with a lime-cilantro vinaigrette. After some shopping in SoHo, we met my dad's cousin at a jazz club and listened to music for a while. Afterwards, we walked over to Spring street Natural. This was soo yummy! Even the bread they set on the table was addicting. I split the spring rolls with my friend, and later got stir fried vegetables over brown rice with some amazing sauce that I wanted more of. This place serves dairy as well as free range chicken and some steak, but they mark all of their vegan options.

There were many more places we wanted to check out, but after all 3 days in NYC doesn't allow you to do everything. Thanks for reading!