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.

Halfway point

I'm over halfway! I've hit the 25,000 word mark on the NaNoWriMo novel so that surely means I have time to write a blog post.

Last weekend when Dandelion the Bitter Green was out of town I think I ate nothing but Mexican food, or my version thereof.

Friday night was roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes served in a tortilla with leftover rice and kale and carrots dish and avocado.



Saturday night was pinto beans flavored with miso and broiled carrots and zucchini, served in a sprouted corn tortilla with more avocado.



Sunday was more pinto beans cooked with chard, kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) slices roasted in the oven, the leftover carrots and zucchini and some more tortillas.



Monday night Dandelion the Bitter Green made the entire meal. I think all I did was boil water. And everything he made was delicious.

We had rice and lentils with a salad of steamed broccoli and carrots, fried tempeh bacon, arame (a seaweed), and sunflower seeds.



Tuesday night we had pizza from our local pizza place.

Wednesday night is pasta night. Tonight it's served with fresh walnuts (from the almond lady at the farmer's market!), fried tofu, and brussel sprouts and carrots with garlic.

Try, Try Again

Apologies in advance for the month of November. I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month where we crazy fools try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I'm on track so far but if anything falls behind it will probably be the blog. So look through the archives and pick your favorite thing that I've forgotten I ever made and ask me to write about that. In December.

For now, a quick list of what I've been eating. It's likely to be frozen pizzas and take out once the real novel writing starts because time spent cooking is time I should be writing. Hence the chance the procrastinate and write a blog, cook a meal, or, gasp, eat dinner at an actual table.

Friday night: Steamed veggies (carrots, bok choy, and purple kale) tossed with vinegar and oil, served with rice and lentils.



Saturday night was Halloween so we ate burritos from Papalote's after wandering a small section of the city in our fancy costumes. This is the best burrito place in town, especially if you are a vegetarian. Tofu mole, actual vegetables, soy chorizo-- these guys have everything a vegan could want and more.

Sunday: pancakes for brunch and a red lentil cauliflower curry for dinner. With a side of purple kale over brown rice.



Monday: Brussel Sprouts! If you are not a fan of the b. sprouts you really should be. When cooked well they are some of the most delicious vegetables ever. I seriously can't get enough. This recipe was simple and from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. (Buy it! Support my company!) We ate it with a shitake and rice dish which totally reminded me of Japan. I have no idea how Dandelion the Bitter Green did it so I can only say it was delicious and a fabulous combination.



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Brussel Sprouts with Garlic
1 lb sprouts, ends cut off and cut in half
about 5 cloves of garlic
some olive oil

Heat the oil in an oven proof pan (cast iron works great for this), add the brussel sprouts in one layer cut side down. (If you can get them all in one layer you must have a really big pan! Mine did not fit so I had to do more stirring than he recommends but it still worked.) Let them cook until brown on the cut side. Then add the garlic, stir and toss in the oven (which you very intelligently pre-heated to 400 degrees.) Stir every ten minutes and cook for a total of 20-30 minutes. The brussel sprouts come out soft, sweet, and tasty. I had to stop myself from eating them all that one night.
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Tuesday was more leftovers because that cauliflower curry makes a lot of food.

Wednesday was an attempt to use leftover rice in some more interesting way. For once, as sometimes happens, I didn't like what I made. It was rice with carrots, kale, and almonds. But it was boring and had no flavor. I also made roasted sweet potatoes and red potatoes with thyme. That dish was good but didn't make up for the other one which of course made a huge amount and I will be eating it all weekend.



Thursday: I tried to fix the dish from last night (since I have so much of it I can't let it go to waste) and it worked much better. I heated up a skillet with a little water. Added the rice dish and some soy sauce and then added two spoonfuls of almond butter and a touch more water. Stirred it up until it was all coated and was very happy with the results. Day 2 = Success!

Quinoa and everything else

This post is for Julia because I finally made quinoa and have included instructions below. Quinoa is one of my favorite dishes because it's fast and easy. Before that though I made a delicious polenta and steamed veggies dish with a side of black eyed peas seasoned with miso. (Ok, technically Dandelion the Bitter Green made the polenta because he is better at polenta than I am. I have a quick cook method that does not pass muster with the Dandelion.)



The next night we ate leftovers. The day after that we made soup. Here is the pre-soup ingredients: mushrooms, carrots, burdock, and parsley. Plus some heirloom Anasazi beans.



And the excessive vegan cupcakes made by the Cheerful Baker from recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.



A simple dinner of brown rice with broccoli. Served with leftover soup.



And finally the quinoa dinner. Served with Anasazi beans and roasted kabocha slices. The quinoa also had carrots and bok choy tossed in while cooking.



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Quinoa:
The trick to quinoa is that you either have to wash it really, really well (and drain with a fine mesh strainer) or you can use my method which is easier. This is because quinoa has a natural coating which is kind of bitter and soapy tasting. Therefore you want to wash it well so that it tastes good instead. Or you can roast it in a pan before adding the water as described below.

Take one cup of quinoa, heat up some oil in a skillet pan (or a frying pan with deep sides). If you want you can cut up some garlic or onions and add them now. Let them get nice and brown.
Then add the quinoa. Let it roast in the pan (stirring frequently) until it starts to pop and smells toasted (1-2 min). Once it reaches that magic toasted point you can put in the water (or stock), usually 2 cups. Stir it up, cover the pan and let simmer, checking occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Towards the middle of that cooking time you can add veggies or beans to the quinoa to make an awesome one-pot meal. I like this method because then there are fewer pots to clean. This makes enough for about 3-4 people, depending on what else you are serving with it.
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Pasta night, made entirely by Dandelion the Bitter Green because I had a bike accident that evening and didn't feel up to cooking.



Tonight: Roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes with brown rice and lentils.

Home cookin'

There haven't been a lot of homemade meals this last week between the work dinners and the visiting relatives. Here's what has happened.

Saturday night we ate at Millennium, "San Francisco's Premier Vegetarian Restaurant". The food was more amazing than usual. I think it's something about this time of year. Our waitress even comped us a plate of sorbets! (I <3 Millennium.) I can't even describe what was in my entree because it was so complicated and good. I think it was a forbidden black rice cake with Asian veggies in a coconut, lemongrass and cauliflower sauce. Divine!



The huckleberry cheesecake was not all that. The vegan cheesecake at Weird Fish was actually better in a traditional cheesecake kind of way, though this was delicious in a huckleberries are awesome kind of way.



Monday we finally cooked again: stuffed butternut squash with broiled tofu. The squash was stuffed with (and by) a suggestion of Dandelion the Bitter Green. Brown rice and lentils (which we already had cooked), carrots, kale, and walnuts. It was an especially delicious combination with the butternut squash.



Tuesday was my choice of roasted veggies (carrots, leek, parsnip, and sweet potato) with the secret ingredient-- hijiki!( a small skinny seaweed) Served with another rice/lentil/kale combo.



Wednesday night is pasta night, this time with tempeh instead of tofu. I fried the tempeh first with onions then cleaned the pan and fried a whole mess of kale (redbor and dinosaur) with garlic and lemon juice.

It Takes Two

Have I ever mentioned that it takes a village to make dinner? Because it really does. Because some nights you need to do laundry or go to a show. Some nights it's a team effort. So I'd like to give a shout out to Dandelion the Bitter Green who made several of this week's dishes. They were excellent and you've taught me everything I know.

The seitan I made last week needed to be used so many of the dinners included seitan, until now when we're out of it. Thursday's was one of the best: ground seitan with onions, served with rice and steamed carrots, cauliflower, and kale.



Friday night I made my super nachos: seitan with pinto beans and chips (and yes real cheese) served over salad greens and avocado.



Saturday I ate at Weird Fish with friends. It was delicious (seitan fish and sweet potato chips!) and we got there before the crowd.

Sunday was seitan cutlets, broiled in the oven with fresh oregano, served with polenta and grilled cauliflower, carrots, and kale. This was one of the many delicious meals made by Dandelion the Bitter Green.



Monday was quinoa, pinto beans, and steamed carrots and bok choy. I was doing laundry so again Dandelion the Bitter Green prepared an excellent meal.



Tuesday was roasted root veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, butternut squash) served with leftover grain and sauted greens.




Tonight is pasta night served with a stir-fry of carrots, broccoli, bok choy, and garbanzos spiced with garlic and ginger.

All Hail Seitan

I made seitan again last weekend (along with chocolate chip cookies). Most people seemed more interested in the seitan recipe than the best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. So included in this post is the recipe for SEITAN!

But first, Thursday night we ate a squash soup made from the Red Kuri squash. I don't actually know what that squash is like other than they had it at the farmer's market and it was small enough for me to take home. It's slightly bigger than a pomegranate and about the same shape but more of an orange-ish red. So a lovely pureed soup with roasted squash seeds and kale as a garnish.



Friday night was a make-your-own-taco night. Avocado, carrots, parsley, and watercress topped pinto beans with a garnish of squash seeds.



Saturday night we ate pizza because I was still busy making seitan. Here's the seitan recipe from "Cooking with Seitan" by Barbara and Leonard Jacobs.

2 cups gluten flour
1 cup water or stock
1 cup plain soy milk (or more water)

Mix all the ingredients together with a fork until a dough forms. Mix until the dough becomes thick and stiff and then knead it for a few minutes. (Note: The first time I did this recipe I misread the directions and thought it said to knead for 10-15 minutes! This time I did 10-15 times as it specifies and it was not elastic enough. So somewhere between 10-15 times and 10-15 minutes.) It should start to look like playdough, super elastic-y. Let it rest 2-5 minutes and then knead it a few more times. Then let it rest 15 minutes. Then cook it in a broth for 1-2 hours.

The Broth:
4 cups water
1/4- 1/2 cup soy sauce
3-inch piece of kombu (a seaweed)
4-6 slices fresh ginger
1 Tblsp sesame oil

And then I made "steak" and onions with roasted sliced potatoes (with fresh herbs!) and an almond butter ginger kale side dish, served with wild rice. (Ok, it was really seitan and onions but I like to call it steak.)



Sunday I also made cookies. Yum!



Monday night we made a kale/ seaweed salad with avocado and carrots.



Tuesday night was a quick one-pot meal of quinoa and carrots and broccoli with a can of cannelini beans, spiced with cumin and coriander as well as fresh mint.



And tonight was a broccoli leek soup served with bread and garnished with sauted kale.