Vegan Baking Class

Last night I went to a vegan baking class with Doron Petersan, the owner of Sticky Fingers Sweets and Eats here in the DC area. It was put on by Living Social, which recently opened a location downtown, as a part of their new gourmet series. I didn't see much of the space, but they did have an art room and a phenomenal cooking class space. I felt like I was a student at the Culinary Institute of America! First we made S'mores Brownies. Here are my (and my partner's) brownies, fresh out of the oven:

We also made the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar Cupcakes with Spiced Rum icing that helped Doron to win Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. We used an ice cream scoop to make them all the same size (and to have less of a mess). I'll definitely be doing this from now on!

The class included drink pairings. We had a beer with the brownies and a dark and stormy with the cupcakes. I don't know why I haven't had a dark and stormy before, but I think that is all I might drink from now on! It's ginger beer, rum and lime. Perfection!

We took my brownies out of the pan first, so we sacrificed beauty for taste. I ended up with essentially a giant s'mores brownie cake (with deeeeeelicious Sweet and Sara marshmallows):

Here are the finished cupcakes. I need to work on my icing skills.

And here is me and Doron! What a great night! I would definitely go back and take other Living Social classes.

Vegan Seafood

In my pre-veg early twenties, I very suddenly developed a severe shellfish allergy. I was forced to cut them out of my diet cold turkey (cold shrimp?). Now I wouldn't eat them even if I could due to ethical reasons, but I would be lying if I said there weren't times over the years when I missed shellfish. A few weeks back when I saw Sophie's Kitchen vegan seafood appear in our local market, I decided to give it a try, if only because my Mom developed the same allergy and I know she misses it badly.

They come frozen, so you simply thaw them out long enough for them to separate and then add them to whatever you are cooking.

For us, that meant a stir-fry with an orange sauce. I added them in during the last few minutes of cooking time.

We served our stir-fry over some brown rice. Since I accidentally bought prawns instead of shrimp, they were enormous. As for the taste, they were chewy and slightly gummy, but I think it's been so long since I had shrimp that I am not sure I was a good judge. Jesse really liked them, but I felt like I could take them or leave them. If I get them again, I think I will try the shrimp, which will be smaller.

I also picked up some vegan breaded calamari, which I will review here once I get a chance to give them a try.

Dinners Lately

Lately, I've been cooking lots and lots of bowls for dinner, meaning a grain or base of some sort, steamed veggies, a protein and a sauce. They are a perfect dinner, usually provide leftovers for lunch and are a great way to use up what you have in the fridge. I've been trying to cook gluten-free (more on that in another post) as well, so these bowls are good for that purpose too. If you pile on the veggies, it looks and feels like a ton of food for not a ton of calories. For great ideas, check out the section on bowls in the back of Appetite for Reduction (love, love, LOVE this cookbook!).

Soba noodles, black beans, steamed broccoli and zucchini with green onion miso vinaigrette from AFR.

Brown rice, steamed broccoli, sesame tempeh and peanut lime dressing from AFR (BEST SAUCE EVER!!!! I want to put it on everything everyday.)

Quinoa, steamed broccoli and green beans, baked tofu with spicy orange sauce (from a bottle).

Vegan Mofo 14: Thanksgiving Dress Rehearsal

Last night I decided to do a Thanksgiving dress rehearsal. We usually go to Jesse's aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving and like to bring something veg to share. I always try the recipes beforehand so I can be sure they will be delicious. First up: Pumpkin pull-apart rolls!

These were pretty easy as far as bread goes and tasted delicious!

Then I tried making Harvest Pies. Here is the butternut squash, cranberry and shallot mixture after it came out of the oven.

Potato, carrot, onion, spices and white wine on the stove.

The pies before going in the oven.

The final product: one roll, one pie (with vegan gravy that was superb) and a salad. This dinner just tasted like Thanksgiving. So comforting and warm and yummy. I also made a pumpkin pie but its crust was a disaster. Thank goodness my copy of Vegan Pie in the Sky is on its way to me!

Vegan Mofo 13: Tempeh Sloppy Joes

I made Sloppy Joes for dinner the other night on a whim. It was snowing (?!?!) outside and I wanted a quick comfort meal. The truth is, however, it was really on a whim because I had never had them before. Even in my pre-veg days, I have never eaten red meat. When I was first given a hamburger to try, I told my Mom it looked like worms and that was that. I did, however, grow up in a house where these were made from time to time. I wasn't sure that I would actually like them since they had the same smell as the animal ones I had grown up around.

The verdict: These are awesome. I love having another way to use tempeh, especially because I don't love it on its own and this is an easy way to get more protein. I also like the veggies in there and the fact that I get to eat these on a burger bun! The recipe came from this post on the Vegan Dad blog. I highly recommend giving these a try!

Sautee green pepper, onion and celery.

Add grated tempeh that has been steamed with soy sauce.

Add spices and sauces.

The finished product!

Serve with roasted brussel sprouts and sweet potato tater tots.

Vegan Mofo 5: Good Vegan Eats

Some snapshots of what I've been eating lately:

Ridiculously amazing vegan pizza from Whole Foods: thin whole wheat crust, extra garlicky sauce, roasted tomatoes, artichokes, kalamata olives, squash, zucchini, spinach and Daiya. This may be the best pizza I've ever had. And it was $3.

Curry noodle soup (rice noodles, spicy curry broth, kale, sprouts, cilantro, basil, carrots and edamame) with spicy tofu from Java Green. The perfect lunch!

Brown rice sushi with cucumber and avocado.

Tofu bibimbob (brown rice, mixed veggies, pickled radish, baked tofu), also from Java Green

Butternut squash ginger and orange soup from Color Me Vegan, topped with cilantro, orange zest and green onion

"Tropic of Tempeh" from Vegan on the Cheap: rice topped with coconut curry tempeh, carrots, red pepper, onion, pineapple and a yummy sauce.

I've eaten these things AND lost 8 pounds in two weeks. Life doesn't get much better than that!

Vegan Mofo 4: Sunday Night Dinner

I am a football widow. During neglect season...I mean, football season, my Sundays are pretty empty. Jesse joined a fantasy football league this year, which means that unlike previous years where he only watched Saints' games, this year he has a reason to see them all. I decided that because of that, I'm bringing back the Sunday dinner. It gives me something to do and ensures that I get to see him for at least a little bit on Sundays! This past week we had:

Roasted brussel sprouts. We love them, so I make enough that we can have leftovers. I sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and baked them on 375 until they were brown and soft.

For the first time ever, if you can believe it, I cooked with tempeh! The Buffalo Tempeh recipe from Appetite for Reduction just looked too delicious to pass up. I used the already cooked tempeh from Trader Joe's. Here it is marinating.

Then you cook it in a pan with a little non-stick spray while reserving the marinade.

In the last five minutes, you add the marinade to let it cook down.

I also made this Lemony Kale Salad recipe that I found in the Oprah magazine. I know how healthy kale is. I've tried it baked and I've tried it in soups. I just don't really care for it. This salad is the exception. When kale is massaged, it gets a new texture that I find much better tasting. Since this recipe calls for hemp seeds, you get an extra protein boost as well! It's amazing and I highly encourage you to try it out.

Dinner is done!

Vegan Mofo 2: Pumpkin Spiced Pancakes

The weather finally shifted this weekend in the greater Washington, DC area. The air was cold and crisp. While on a grocery shopping trip at Trader Joe's, I saw a huge display of all things pumpkin. I grabbed a can of plain pumpkin puree (okay, so I grabbed a few!) because I like to put it in just about anything this time of year. When we returned home, I hit up my cookbooks to find something delicious to make. The winner? "Spiced Pumpkin Pancakes" from Julie Hasson's Vegan Diner. I've owned this cookbook for several months but I haven't made anything from it just yet. If all the recipes are as good as this one, I need to get moving on making some more!

The recipe called for a mix of ground ginger, all spice, nutmeg and cinnamon. You really can't go wrong when you mix these with some pumpkin.

First you mix together the dry ingredients. In the background, you can see my cookbook stand, which felt frivolous at the time, but is by far the best $24.95 I've ever spent.

You mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and then combine the two.

Voila! Autumn-y spiced pumpkin goodness. These will be making many repeat performances in my kitchen this fall!

Vegan Mofo 1: The Newest Mofo on the Block

Today begins Vegan Mofo! You can read more about what it is here, but basically this means that for the month of October, I'll be blogging a lot. And each of those posts will include something about vegan food, whether that be a new recipe or a review of a cookbook, product or restaurant.

Since this is my first time doing this, there won't be any sort of theme, other than the fact that we just made a commitment to keeping a vegan kitchen (which really only meant getting rid of the eggs that Jesse, my boyfriend, likes to make French toast with and the parmesan cheese I was sometimes cooking with). I'm excited to get back in the kitchen and create some yummy looking stuff. I'm also excited to use more of my many, many cookbooks. This past month has included a lot of introspection and evolution in my thinking on veganism and I'm hoping to include some of that as well. If you are new around here, some of my favorite things include my Vitamix, the Food for Thought podcast, avocado, yoga, Latin American film, Sweet and Sara marshmallows, reading lots and lots, Boston Terriers, and traveling anywhere and everywhere. I live with my boyfriend and I'm currently trying to get healthier.

So please, come along on this journey with me. I promise to try to post a wide array of things if you promise to read it. Happy cooking!

Weeknight Meals

I often post my culinary experiments on this blog. However, the truth is that I only post the ones that I think are blog-worthy, meaning that they took a lot of work or are pretty to look at. Since I decided to reignite my mission to get healthy, I thought I would show you a typical weeknight dinner.

Here is last night's meal: a 365 brand fajita-sized tortilla from Whole Foods (I think it was red chile flavor...?), topped with Cava's spicy hummus (can't get enough of this stuff!), cucumber, red bell pepper and baby spinach. I made roasted brussel sprouts as a side. I never liked them until I had them roasted! Here's how you do it: Cut off the hard ugly bottoms, cut the large ones in half so that they are all roughly the same size, cover them in just enough oil so that they don't stick to the pan, sprinkle with your topping of choice (garlic powder and black pepper, though I've also used fresh garlic, lemon, a veggie spice mix and parmesan cheese at different times) and bake on 375 until they're soft. Perfection! This was a great, quick meal that left me more than enough time to get in a trip to the gym!

Weeknight Dinners

It is *hot* here in the metro DC area. The heat index is at 111 today and supposedly will be even higher tomorrow. During these impossible days of summer, I never feel like cooking, particularly not after dealing with public transportation. Lately I've been experimenting with mixing some homemade food with packaged food for dinner, a la "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee" (I hate that show with a passion, but I digress...)

Last night's dinner? Dry pan-fried tofu cooked via the method in this recipe, green beans, zucchini and red pepper cooked with Seeds of Change's Jalfrezi Simmer Sauce. I made basmati rice via a traditional cooking method I learned in my Northern Indian Vegetarian Cooking Class last Spring (it has been worth every penny I spent on it, locals!), which requires zero attention once you get it going. I also heated up some frozen tandoori naan from Trader Joe's. It made more than enough for Jesse to get a few lunches out of the leftovers as well, which is crucial in our house.

Simple, delicious and minimal hands-on cooking required. Perfect! What are your secrets for quick weeknight eats?

Delicious Dishes

Summer Lovin' Curried Corn and Veggie Chowder from Appetite for Reduction. Veggie-filled, easy to make and delicious. This will definitely make a repeat appearance in our summer menu rotation. I can't recommend this cookbook highly enough and I tell everyone I know to go get it NOW, NOW, NOW! Isa, feel free to hire me as your publicist. You can pay me in scrumptious vegan eats.

Lemon Bars from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Perfectly tart. These are the best lemon bars I've ever had, vegan or not. This is a great book for learning to veganize all of the classics. Please forgive the presentation. The recipe says to sift powdered sugar over the bars just before serving. I don't own a sifter and the organic powdered sugar I had was a little clumpy. I tried sprinkling it onto the bars and well, you can see the results. I promise they taste way better than they look!

Delicious Dishes: Jesse Edition

Now that Jesse no longer has to study for the MCAT every day, he has decided that he is going to start cooking for us one night a week. Last Friday night, he made this: a Southwestern chowder from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. This book uses well-known, easy-to-find and cheap ingredients to make yummy dishes. I appreciate being reminded that vegan food can be quick, cheap and healthy. There is a sidebar "Splurge a Little" section that tells you ways you can kick the dish up a bit by adding a few things here or there. This one suggested adding diced avocado on top of the soup. You don't have to ask me twice to add avocado! Mmm. Overall, this was a really good, healthy dinner that I can see us making over and over again as a weeknight staple. And a special thanks to my Love for making us dinner!

Last Weekend...

...I made a few dozen of these hamantaschen, in honor of Purim. This year I went with cherry preserves and apple pie filling. There are recipes for these all over the web but I have found that the recipe in A Treasury of Jewish Baking comes out perfect every single time. And now I've been sucking down green smoothies and eating veggie sushi non-stop. Time to do some Spring cleaning, in all aspects of life!

Delicious Dishes: Hamburger Buns

Would you believe me if I told that I never ate a hamburger bun until recently? It's true. I've never eaten red meat and I don't like veggie burgers unless they look like vegetables (as opposed to fake meat) and I've made them myself so I know what is in them, so I've simply had no reason to eat hamburger buns in last 29 years. All that changed in the past week or so.

First, I made Analiese's "Best Ever Black Bean Burgers". I love cilantro and avocado, so I made the "zesty" variation. Burger, baby spinach, tomato, lots of avocado and salsa on a Whole Foods' whole wheat burger bun, Deeeeeelicious! And more than just nutritious and yummy, these burgers are also very filling. Here's a picture of our dinner (with some simple mashed sweet potatoes):




Since burger buns come in quite a large pack for just the two of us, I wanted to find another way to use the remaining ones. Inspired by a wrap that I had at Soul Vegetarian awhile back, I decided to try barbecue tofu. I love barbecue sauce and eat it pretty infrequently since I gave up chicken a few years back. So very easy! I pressed the tofu in my handy Tofu Express, brushed it with sauce and baked for about 40 minutes on a baking sheet. I flipped and basted one time at the 20 minute mark. I served them with baby spinach, tomato, and a ton of pickles. I added a little sauce to the tops of the buns so that they wouldn't be dry. This would be a terrific thing to add to our weeknight recipe routine--quick and easy! (Forgive me for the paper plate--our dishwasher is out of commission and we had some left from a Superbowl gathering we had!).

What are some vegetarian-friendly ways you use hamburger buns?

Delicious Dishes: Biscuits

This weekend I was inspired by this post on the Orangette blog, so I tried my hand at biscuits for the first time. Light and fluffy. Warm and golden. Perfect! (Now I am on a mission to find a much more calorie-friendly but equally as delicious version.)

Delicious Dishes: 2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma

I made the "2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma" from Appetite for Reduction last night. The more I cook from it (and the others written by her), I am convinced that there is nothing that Isa Chandra Moskowitz can't do, or at least nothing that she can't make taste AMAZING.

Coming in at just 180 calories a serving (without the rice I added), it is a keeper. It feels like comfort food. Rich, spicy and warm. And it comes together in about 30 minutes (less if you are a quick chopper) and makes enough to have a ton of leftovers. Next time I am going to try adding some dry pan-fried tofu, as Isa suggests on one of the sidebars. Yum!