Roasting for heat

I've been using the oven a lot lately in an effort to warm up the apt. It usually works quite well even though my oven is erratic. I have an oven thermometer and highly recommend one. I had no idea my oven was so off all the time! It's at least 50 degrees cooler than advertised most days but then again sometimes it's hotter than it claims. There's no rhyme or reason so the thermometer makes all the difference. You'll notice when it finally warms up here. I promise to not roast any more vegetables if that happens.

On Friday last week I made my favorite dinner, which if you can't tell is beans and rice in a corn tortilla. I've found these amazing sprouted corn tortillas and I am totally in love. I even ate the tortillas plain the next day; they are that good. We ate more of these as leftovers the next night and I did not mind.



Sunday I made biscuits (after making an awesome --and not pictured-- tofu scramble for brunch). The sourdough butter"milk" biscuits were served with roasted vegetables (cauliflower, brussel sprouts, red cabbage, and carrots) and more leftover pinto beans and rice (from the faux-Mexican meals earlier).



Monday Dandelion the Bitter Green made the red lentil-cauliflower curry from Veganomicon. I think it was the first time he'd followed a recipe in a while so he followed it to the letter. I noticed that I tend to fudge it now that I've made it several times. The critical ingredient that I always forget: squeeze of lemon juice at the end. Keeps everything not too heavy.



Tuesday night was cornbread with the hottest jalapenos ever, made in the cast iron skillet. Spicy but delicious. Served with black beans and more roasted vegetables (brussel sprouts, carrots, red cabbage, and a few shitake mushrooms).



Here's my latest roasting recipe.

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Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Yes, really make it that hot. It will sear the veggies giving them that awesome brown crunchy look.

Cut up bite sized pieces of any veggies you like (hard ones like carrots, broccoli or cauliflower work best but onions, leeks, cabbage, bok choy are also good. Avoid anything too leafy as the delicate leaves will burn.)

Put them on a cookie sheet. Spread generously with olive oil and herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme, basil, etc.-- fresh or dried. If fresh leafy herbs add at the end of cooking.)

Put them in the oven for 20 minutes stirring when you think of it.

Turn the temp up! (to 500 baby-- hot, hot, hot!)

Cook for another 10 minutes at the new temp and try not to burn off any eyebrows when you stir.

Eat and delicious.
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Tonight I'm making a rye and black bean soup. Plus cauliflower, carrots, and dried porcini mushrooms. Will report back later with results.

Quick and dirty

Yes, it's time for another hurried post as I scramble to finish my NaNoWriMo novel. I'm past the 35k mark but there are only 7 and a quarter days left to reach 50k. Yikes! So here's the quick and dirty low down on what I've been eating while franticly novel-ing.

Thursday was a rice and lentils day with carrots, cauliflower, and bok choy. Served with my favorite quick and dirty dish: broiled tofu! (Thanks Veganomicon!)



Friday I went to LA for a yoga event, so I ate a sandwich in the car on the way down. Yum.

Saturday in LA I ate at the M Cafe. Highly recommend it. I had a seitan cutlet served over rice and veggies. I was so hungry and excited for the excellent food that I forgot to take a picture. The one negative comment I have for them: the chocolate cupcake was delicious but the frosting sucked. Since half the point of a cupcake is the frosting it was very disappointing.

Sunday morning we had brunch at Real Food Daily. I had a gluten-free waffle with soy-whipped cream and strawberries. It was served with tempeh bacon and hashbrowns. The one negative comment for them: the tempeh bacon was so salty that it really tasted like bacon but I couldn't eat more than one piece. That's too bad because it was delicious in some ways and I had three pieces on my plate. And I appreciated that it was homemade tempeh bacon, not from some pre-flavored package a la Herbivore. Still, I should be able to finish my bacon.



Monday night we had squash soup with a secret ingredient of black-eyed peas. Served with rice this was a delicious soup made by Dandelion the Bitter Green.



Tuesday last week we made buckwheat and a red lentil pate. This was served with a burdock, carrot, and broccoli kimpira.



Wednesday: more soup leftovers with rice and baby bok choy.



Thursday was quinoa served over salad greens tossed with kale, carrots, and broccoli. Special ingredient: fresh walnuts from the farmer's market!



Friday night we ate snacks for dinner. Yep, we really did.

Saturday I tossed all the leftovers into one pot and made something with broccoli, carrots, buckwheat, and quinoa. We served it with a fresh batch of broiled tofu to liven it up.



Sunday night we had burritos. Tonight we're having falafel. Yes, that's what happens sometimes when it's quick and dirty month.

My Own Private Idaho (Kitchen)

A week back and finally getting into the swing of things. Honestly I'm so happy to be able to cook our own food again. (And trust me, I never thought I would say that.) And just happy to be back in my own kitchen with familiar ingredients. I don't think we saw a carrot more than once on our trip and here I think we eat them every day.

Sunday of Labor Day weekend we made spicy red lentil dip with rice and broccoli, carrots, and onions sauted.



Monday was marinated tempeh with kale and carrots in an almond butter sauce. Served with brown rice. Note: the almond butter sauce makes everything taste better and is so easy to make! It's simply almond butter, miso, water, soy sauce, and a tiny bit of sweetener like honey or brown rice syrup. (More almond butter than miso and everything else to taste.) Mix it up with a little water until it's the consistency you want and you are good to go.



Tuesday night was a blended broccoli carrot soup with rice and lentils. Wednesday: a stir fry of baby bok choy and carrots served with tempeh and soba noodles.



Thursday night was taco noche, my favorite night. Corn tortillas with spicy pinto beans, blanched kale, shredded zucchini and avocado. My latest desire is for a tortilla press so that I can make my own tortillas. So good and so simple.



Friday night was a new favorite from Veganomicon, Broccoli Polenta. You add broccoli as you cook the polenta and then set it up in a pan. Ideally (if one has time for these kinds of things) you then cut pieces out and pan fry or broil them. That night I did not have time for it. Still delicious. I also made the famous broiled tofu. The tofu was weird that day though, way too soft, so the pieces kind of fell apart before they even got in the broiler.



Saturday I got clever with the leftovers. Polenta with broiled zucchini and carrots and a spicy bean dish on the side.



Sunday was stew with barley, lentils, carrots, and broccoli. Monday I made corn bread with onions and jalapenos to go with the stew. I've never made corn bread before (never even really liked it before) but I thought this one was pretty good. Plus it was so much fun to cook it in the cast iron pan. I wish our bigger cast iron pan didn't have a wooden handle. I just love putting them in the oven after using them on the stove.

Know when to follow

I was so ready for brown rice and kale this week. It's kind of a joke about macrobiotics, that that's all we eat. It's totally not true but I would have been happy to have it after last week. After my parents left my mother-in-law arrived. That meant pizza, Japanese food, and Millennium (high-end vegan food). The Millennium meal was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture until my plate was clean. (And no, I did not lick it clean. Just very, very carefully ate every tiny bit.) It was blackberry BBQ tempeh with corn/pozole mash, collards greens, and some sauces.



I had several awesome drinks as well. A Strawberry Snap (black pepper infused vodka, strawberry puree, ginger agave, Proccesco) and vodka added to a Blueberry Smash (muddled blueberries, lemonade and something else). Oh, and a dark chocolate cheesecake for dessert.



After all that rich food we made a very simple dinner on Sunday. Brown rice and lentils (hurrah!) with roasted broccoli and carrots.



Monday night was me trying to follow a recipe without having all the ingredients. A split pea soup became a split mung beans and carrot soup. But it did have homemade croutons which were totally easy and delicious. (Recipe from Macrobiotics for Dummies)



Tuesday was another recipe night. (I was obviously feeling brave this week.) Red lentil cauliflower curry from Veganomicon. Delicious even when (again!) I didn't quite have all the right ingredients.



That lasted through Wednesday (and maybe into the weekend!) Tonight will be a simple meal of a salad, toasted buckwheat, steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), and adzuki beans all tossed with vinegar and oil.

Before Solstice

This is my last chance to blog, update facebook, or tweet about anything for at least a week. I'm headed off into the New Mexico mountains for yoga, camping, and lots and lots of stars. And I really can't wait. The only thing I will miss (besides for my addiction to twitter and facebook) is food. We are guaranteed to have the same thing every night for a week (mung beans and rice and half a head of iceberg lettuce). Sigh. So I've avoided eating anything that reminds me of mung beans this week in honor of diversity!

Wednesday night was pasta night. We had that delicious broiled tofu from Veganomicon again. (I am so addicted to that recipe! I can't help myself. It's just so easy and fast and delicious.) Served the tofu with soba noodles and a quick stir-fry of broccoli, carrots, and kale.



Thursday night was taco noche (noche de tacos). Dandelion the Bitter Green made rice before he left for a rehearsal and I made pinto beans spiced with miso and garlic. Then a quick saute of two kinds of kale and baby bok choy.



Tonight we're having a quick dinner before a party of cupcakes extraordinaire. (Courtesy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, another awesome cookbook.) Leftover rice became risotto with broccoli and carrots and dried porcini mushrooms.

Weekly Recap

A great wrap up of a week's worth of food:

Wednesday: A one pot meal of leftover rice with cauliflower, carrots, and greens. Plus another fabulous version of the broiled tofu. I just can't repeat how much I love Veganomicon and the awesome recipes it's brought me.



Thursday was a liquid dinner for me. After a 2 1/2 hour yoga class I went to a show that Dandelion the Bitter Green was playing at and had beer for dinner.

Friday I cooked for my dear friend Ravi Inder Kaur who is moving to England to be with her new love at the end of the month. I made broccoli polenta from Veganomicon, which was essentially polenta with broccoli added, cooked in a pot and then poured into a mold, and then fried. I also made sweet potato fries and tempeh bacon. Plus I tried a quick trick a friend suggested for greens. I used collards that night, cut up some fresh ginger, and after a quick stir-fry I added almond butter. It cooked down into a delicious sauce.



Saturday was leftovers from Friday with an addition of a kidney bean dip using the last of the roasted garlic.



Sunday was more leftover polenta with a adzuki beans, kale and carrot dish.



Monday night take out. Tuesday night was my first ever Thai coconut soup! Made with leftover rice, tofu, carrots, and broccoli. I thought it turned out great though Dandelion the Bitter Green thought it was not spicy enough.

Secret Ingredients, part 2

I tried for another secret ingredient tonight. It's so secret, and in a soup, that you'll never be able to guess. For those of you playing at home I'll have to tell you what it is: roasted garlic. I made roasted garlic earlier this week because I'm reading Cooking Green: Reducing your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen by Kate Heyhoe. I was making something else in the oven and felt I should make good use of it being on by roasting some garlic at the same time. I also have a lot of garlic from our recent camping trip near Gilroy, garlic capitol of the world so it seemed worthwhile. Of course now I have way too much roasted garlic. Never, you say? I'm kind of sick of delicious walnut bread with hummus and roasted garlic, myself, after having eaten it for three days straight. So tonight I thought I'd try a different way to deal with the garlic.



Inspired by a recipe in Veganomicon (still my current fave) I made a broccoli-rice soup with adzuki beans. I added the garlic to the soup, but after I had blended it and I admit, I was too lazy to get all the gear back out and blend again. So it's a secret ingredient on many levels this time since you can't taste it until you happen to hit a lucky piece.

Last night was a quinoa one-pot meal but of course I forgot to add the canned beans. Thanks to Veganomicon (Thanks Isa and Terri!) I made a quick dish of basic broiled tofu. I've never used my cast iron skillet in the broiler but that was so much fun I plan on doing it again. I also made a quick sauce to liven up the quinoa. It's so fast and easy I've listed my (vague) steps below.



Super Easy Almond Butter Sauce:
A small amount of hot water (less than 1/4 cup)
Couple of spoonfuls of white miso
Couple of spoonfuls of almond butter
Dash of soy sauce (to taste)
Mix it all up until it's a sauce-like consistency and serve on anything.

Sunday was Thai food take out because I got a flat tire on our bike ride home and was feeling cranky.

Saturday was the day to finally cook the artichokes we got on the camping trip. I tried roasting them in the oven but it didn't really turn out that well. They remained tough yet tasty. Perhaps they were already past their prime. I also made these amazing seitan cutlets, again inspired by a recipe in Veganomicon that I didn't have all the ingredients for. The cutlets were a huge hit, a tad messy, and so delicious. I will definitely be doing something like that again. Hooray for cutlets!

Day of rest

Sunday I don't think I ate anything. I mean, I did eat things. I had pancakes for breakfast. (Alas, no strawberries until Wednesday's market.) And I think I ate bread and hummus in the evening. But I certainly didn't cook. It was my official day of rest after the all-day meditation on Saturday.

And on Monday we ordered pizza. It's actually a really healthy pizza which you could make yourself if you are not close to my local pizza place (Bambino's in Cole Valley). Pesto sauce (with no cheese, just basil, pine nuts, garlic, and oil), arugula, broccoli, and mushrooms. No cheese on the top either. Quite good and healthy too. (And Bambino's is now used to us calling for pizzas with no cheese.)

Tuesday was the exciting night this week. I still had my overdue copy of Veganomicon, which I love so much I plan on buying this weekend. I highly recommend it for the witty banter plus the lovely recipes. Everything is vegan but quite flavorful and delicious and some of them are super quick and easy. Good categories too, like brunch food or one-pot meals. (I'm queen of the one-pot meal, by the way.)

So I made Lemony Roasted Potatoes and Braised Seitan, Brussels, and Kale. And I also made stock because both of these recipes called for it so I felt like that would be too much cheating. The potatoes totally rocked though they took a lot longer to cook. Maybe because I used a different kind of potato (new potatoes vs. russet?) or maybe my oven is not right. But once they came out they were awesome! I have been eating them as leftovers since then and still loving it.

I was scared about the Braised Seitan because I'm hesitant to eat brussel sprouts any way except roasted. If they are not fully cooked they are nasty. But this was delicious. Cooked with red wine, garlic, tarragon, thyme, and basil. It had a very meaty flavor to it because of the spices and the wine and it was quite good.

Plus I want to make a plug for the authors of Veganomicon. They also wrote the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook, which is so over the top amazing I can't even describe it. Omnivores are super impressed by the cupcakes even before learning they are vegan. And apparently they are coming out with a brunch cookbook soon too. I am lining up now for that.

Wed: pasta!