I Smell Good...Because of My Dog

Any mother out there will tell you that it can be near impossible to find time for a shower some days when you have a small baby. Today was DEFINITELY one of those days! Determined to leave the house without offending everyone who came within 3 feet of me, I had to find a way. Then, Nala Monster herself came to mind.

Nala Monster and the baby do an outstanding job of entertaining each other every day. The dog loves to sit and stare at the baby, just out of his reach, while the baby squeals with excitement while trying to reach for her ears. I had to use this to my advantage!

I strapped the baby into his carseat, hung a few toys just in case, and brought both the carseat and the dog into the bathroom with me. Worked like a charm! My entire shower was spent listening to happy baby noises! Ah, a solution that is almost worthy of a parent hacks submission.

Now it's time for me to enjoy a tall/soy/no-whip/gingerbreadgingersnap latte/hold the funky ginger flakes, and finish my Christmas shopping!

Lasagna Pizza

Lasagna and pizza put together into one amazing, VEGAN dinner! YUM!

In one pan, I cooked up some grated carrots, finely chopped celery, onion, and garlic with a few dashes of Italian herbs. After the veggies cooked through, I added a lazy jar of storebought spaghetti sauce.

In another pan, I put some extra virgin olive oil, margarine, and a couple of cloves of pressed garlic on low heat, and thickened it up with some flour. Next, I mixed in some unsweetened soymilk, mashed firm tofu and ground raw cashews. At the end, I added some nutritional yeast. This is my "cheese."

I layered it all into a baking dish with the lasagna noodles while the sauce and "cheese" was still warm. On the top layer, I added some of my favorite pizza toppings: black olives, pineapple, sweet onion, and vegan pepperoni.

I think it's pretty safe to say that this dish was a hit...I'm actually surprised that Rob didn't lick his plate when he was done!


This is definitely not a diet food!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rob is on swing shift this week, so posts have been scarce. Not because I haven't had anything to say, or any food to share. There's been plenty. In fact, Rob even made cookies! Really!! The guy whose best meal is canned tomato soup with minute rice made homemade cookies from scratch! Something about swing shift just takes away my time and inspiration to post.

Until tonight!

I was totally prepared to go without a Thanksgiving post, and even a Thanksgiving. For months, he knew he was supposed to work that afternoon. So we decided to not make a big deal out of it. Why stress myself out all morning for an elaborate lunch that we have to quickly inhale so he makes it to work on time, and then I'm left spending the rest of the afternoon getting fat off of cleaning up the leftovers while dealing with the baby? What kind of holiday is that? Don't ask me, because that's not how it turned out!

Yesterday evening, I get a phone call. He got the day off! At the last second they decide to give half of his crew Thursday off, and the other half Friday off! WOOOO! WAIT! NO! Tomorrow off? We don't have ANY Thanksgiving food, it's 6pm on Wednesday night, and Rob has the car! Luckily, I was able to get ahold of his friend Dave, who was nice enough to drive me to two stores so I could get my Tofurky and all of the other little Thanksgiving must-haves. Whew!

We invited Dave to have dinner with us. It was the least we could do since he was nice enough to take me shopping! Holidays are more fun with company anyway. I knew the boys would be watching football, so I whipped up some dips for them: Pine Nut and Garlic Hummus and Black Bean Dip. They were just sort of thrown together at the last second so I don't have actual recipes. Here's the general idea of what I did though:

For the hummus, I toasted up a handful of pine nuts, a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil. I seasoned it up with some fresh rosemary and thyme, as well as dried basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. After letting it cool a bit, I ground up everything in a food processor with tahini, more olive oil, and some vegetable broth. It turned out a little dry. It needed more tahini and olive oil. It tasted excellent though!

For the black bean dip, I drained and rinsed the beans and threw them in a pan with a few cloves of garlic and toasted them as well as black beans could be toasted. They were seasoned with cumin, chili powder, a little bit of oregano, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt. This was blended up with olive oil and veggie broth, and I managed to not make it too dry. It was a big hit!

Both dips were served with fresh veggies and chips for dipping (of course they ate the chips and left most of the veggies...boys...), and black olives. The hummus is on the left, and the black bean dip is on the right.


Dinner turned out great. The Tofurky turned out excellent. I used my usual recipe.


There was a massive bowl of mashed potatoes that required some serious muscle to mash. I might have gone a little overboard with those. Which, of course, is way better than not making enough!! Yay for leftovers!


Dave brought the cranberry sauce, which turned out awesome!


Not Pictured: Sweet baked yams, green beans (from a can...not worth a picture), homemade apple crisp (Mom's recipe), and sparkling cider (because we're wild like that). It was a great meal that I was very lucky to have. I definitely have something to be thankful for.

Burlington, VT: Because Saratoga Wasn't Cold Enough

It's Rob's 4-day weekend this weekend, and we wanted to get out of the house and out of town. Gas prices are way down and our hybrid gets 40mpg, so we started looking at places to go for a short day trip. We notice right away that Burlington, VT is less than 3 hours away. Neither of us really knew anything about the place, other than it's supposedly the hippie capital of New England. That doesn't really give us an idea of what we're supposed to do when we get there though. Rob looks around online and finds a couple of Starbucks locations and seems really happy about it. Starbucks? Really? What's the point of driving 3 hours away to a so-called hippie town for Starbucks? No way!! He goes back to searching, and finds a locally owned coffee shop called Muddy Waters. He seemed to like where it was located, so that's what we settled on. It was official. We were about to drive 3 hours north in November for a scenic drive and a cup of coffee.

The drive turned out to be really beautiful. The entire way we either had a view of mountains, or frozen rivers, or big lakes, or a combination of the three. It was really great. It even made up for the fact that we missed our exit and added almost another hour onto the trip! I'm only disappointed that we didn't take a ferry ride across Lake Champlain. I know, I know. After all of my ferry rides between Bremerton and Seattle, I probably would have been over it within minutes. It would have been the perfect place to just sit back and nurse my baby though.

Three Four hours after leaving our house, we finally made it to Burlington. We found our coffee shop right away and a parking space right out front. Score! That's always a bonus in freezing weather, especially when you're hauling a baby around. We walk up to the door, and Rob makes one last plea for Starbucks. Ha! Not a chance! After one peek inside, I wasn't going anywhere. It looked like you were walking into a log cabin! I walked inside and got excited when I saw a group of people with a carton of chocolate soymilk on their table. Then I got even MORE excited when I looked at the menu: Vegetarian Chili, Hummus and Veggie Plate, Smoothies...all in addition to the coffee! I forgot all about the sandwiches I packed and ordered a hummus platter with my coffee.


After our coffees, we decided to wander out and explore downtown for a while. We were back in the car 5 minutes later with the heater cranked up, on our way back to Saratoga. We loved what we saw of Burlington...but next time we visit, we're either wearing snowsuits, or waiting for warmer weather.

Yam Fries with Broccoli and Tofurky Kielbasa

Tonight for dinner, I baked up some yam fries, coated in olive oil, and seasoned with fresh garlic, rosemary, and thyme, and sprinkled with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Served with broccoli, cooked with lightly browned Tofurky kielbasa. Too yum!!

Chili and Corn Muffins

The furnace repairman wasn't able to make it last night (grrrrr!!!), so we were forced to find a way to stay warm for one more day. I don't have a chili recipe for you, since I was in the kitchen trying to throw everything in the pot as quickly as possible, but I DO have pictures! For the corn muffins, I used my favorite cornbread recipe off of VegWeb, with only a slight modification: I skipped mixing the egg replacer with water, and just mixed the powder right into the dry ingredients and made sure it was whisked in really well. Mmmm...there's nothing better than a hot oven and bowl of chili to warm you up...except for maybe a functional furnace...

It Smells Like Snow...Inside My House

BRRRR!!! My furnace still is not working. We have somebody coming by in a few hours to look at it. We were able to get through the night by using the baseboard heating in the bedrooms. They actually seemed to keep the bedrooms warm better than the furnace! Unfortunately, the baseboard heaters in the living room and kitchen are functioning as well as the furnace. Rob seems to think that there is something wrong with the baseboard heater in the kitchen that is tripping the circuit breaker, and that the switch that turns on the furnace is on the same breaker. Whatever that means. All I understand is that the heat is not working in the living room and I either get to freeze in here, or hide out in one of the bedrooms. I think I'll allow myself to freeze just a little bit longer.

The one and only plus side to all of this is that it motivated us to go out to dinner! We ate at my FAVORITE Indian restaurant, Karavalli. The food and service are always outstanding. I had my usual: Vegetable Samosas as an appetizer, and then Lassoni Gobi, which is basically breaded cauliflower with some sort of sweet and sour sauce. It's absolutely amazing!


Rob ordered Aloo Gobi, which wasn't our favorite. Good, but not as good as other food we've had there.


Now, of course, the basmati rice! What Indian meal would be complete without it?



I'm definitely going to have some leftover for breakfast! After that, I just might have to start up the oven and bake something - maybe some corn muffins (note: when I use that recipe, I just mix the dry egg replacer with the other dry ingredients, I don't bother mixing it with the water). Not because I'll still be hungry, but to heat up this friggin house! Baby Levon probably won't put up with that though. I have him bundled up like the little brother in A Christmas Story, and he doesn't like it!

When 71 = 64

It's 3pm and about 32 degrees here. Since I've been stuck in the house absolutely freezing, I cranked the heat up to 71. After several hours of still feeling cold, I went to check the thermostat. It was still set at 71 degrees, but the actual temp was down to 64! 64!!! That's not very close to 71! Hopefully my husband knows how to fix a furnace...If not, I guess I'm baking cookies all night long to help the baby stay warm.

Creamy Potato Soup

The weather here has been ridiculously cold these past few days - I've even seen snow flurries! Snow already!! I guess I'm not in Seattle anymore! With all this freezing going on, Rob and I decided it was time for one of our favorite cold-weather comfort foods: creamy potato soup. Bonus: I was able to use up a few more of the fresh herbs I have left over from making the Tofurky! Unfortunately, this wasn't the most photogenic batch...I almost didn't even post a picture. I used broth instead of water, unpeeled red potatoes, and red onion, which gave it sort of an odd color. Trust me, it tastes better than it looks. Here it is:



As usual, everything is approximate. Use your own tastes and judgement as your guide.

Ingredients:
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
1-2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1/2 bell pepper (I would recommend sweet bell pepper, but I just used the leftover green one I had in the fridge)
1/2 large onion, or one small onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2-1 head of cauliflower
2-5 potatoes (if you're using big potatoes use 2 or 3, if you're using little red potatoes like I did, use 4 or 5)
3 cups vegetable broth or water
1/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup or more of plain, unsweetened soymilk
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp margarine (optional)
few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2-1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

Instructions:
Rinse, peel, and scrub vegetables as you normally would. If you're using the big, brown potatoes with thick skins, go ahead and peel those. If you're using the little red potatoes, go ahead and just give them a scrub and leave the skins on - the skins are the best part!

Preheat a big soup pot to medium-medium high heat, and lightly coat with olive oil

Finely chop carrots and celery and add to heated pot, add a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir.

Finely chop onion, and add that next. Add another pinch of salt and pepper. Stir.

Mince garlic and finely chop bell pepper. Add them at the same time. Salt and pepper. Stir.

Dice potatoes into medium-small pieces, while keeping an eye on the veggies in the pot and stirring them occasionaly. Add the potatoes when they're all chopped.

Remove "leaves" from rosemary sprig and mince. Add along with all other seasonings. Don't bother removing the leaves from the thyme sprigs - they'll fall off on their own while cooking.

Stir in broth or water and corn. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Let simmer for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. I literally use the "thyme" as my timer! When the leaves fall off the thyme sprig, it's done!

Remove from heat.

Optional: Using a potato masher, mash everything up to make it thick and creamy.

Add soymilk, nutritional yeast, and margarine.

Serve it and love it!

Dinner by Rob

I was a little less than thrilled last night when my husband came home an hour and a half late from work...without calling. I was even less thrilled when he proceeded to ask me what was for dinner. What's for dinner, you ask? Whatever you're cookin', buddy! Then, to my surprise, he started poking around the kitchen looking for meal ideas that are within his ability to cook! He finds a couple cans of tomato soup and a box of minute rice and decides on Tomato Rice Soup. Works for me! He even chopped up some veggies to add to it! I helped him season it up a bit, and we served it up with some toast, guac, and green onions. Thanks, Rob - you're off the hook (but still call next time).

As Promised: Tofurky!!

Yummm...I just had an AWESOME early Thanksgiving dinner! The Tofurky was a hit at the meetup - it disappeared quick! It ended up slightly drier than usual since I accidentally arrived an hour earlier than the meetup actually started, and we didn't bring out the food until an hour after the meetup started. Oops! Two extra hours in the warmer might have been a bit much. It was still moist enough, but I've made better. I guess that means I'll just have to post more pictures of my next one!


The recipe:

Place Tofurky in refrigerator to thaw at least 24 hours before you intend to use it!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
1 Thawed Tofurky
2 Tablespoons vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2-3 Sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 - 1 Sprig of fresh rosemary
3-5 Fresh sage leaves
2-3 Cloves of garlic
1-2 Carrots
2 Stalks of celery
2 Medium red potatoes
1 Small-medium onion
Vegetable broth, as needed (I prefer No-Chicken broth, but it was not available at my store. If you can find that, use it!! Otherwise, any veggie broth will do)
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Instructions:
Mix margarine, oil, soy sauce, a few grinds of pepper, and a pinch of salt (easy on the salt...you have soy sauce in there!) in a small dish

Remove leaves from thyme and rosemary and chop into fine pieces. Finely chop sage and garlic. Add to above mixture and whisk together with a fork. Set aside.

Remove Tofurky from plastic casing and avoid injuring yourself like I did.

Now for the REALLY fun part: Attack it! Take a small knife or fork, and stab several small holes around the Tofurky. This is an essential part of achieving a moist end result!

Place Tofurky in the center of a 8x11 baking dish

Apply entire margarine-oil-soy sauce-herb mixture to Tofurky, spreading it around as evenly as possible. If there is extra, just pile the rest right on top!

Peel, rinse, and chop carrot(s) and onion

Wash and chop celery and potatoes

Arrange vegetables around Tofurky

Add more salt and pepper over everything (optional, but recommended)

Add vegetable broth until vegetables are almost covered

Cover tightly with foil

Cook 1 hour 10 minutes covered, remove cover, and cook 10 more minutes (same as package instructions)

Avoid placing in warmer for 2 more hours afterward like I did (ha)

Thinly slice and enjoy!

Note: I would not recommend skimping on ANYTHING! The oil and margarine might sound like a lot, but c'mon. It's the holidays! Fresh herbs are absolutely essential. If you don't want to buy tons of fresh herbs that you don't plan on using anything else, take another look in the fresh herb section of your grocery store. Usually around the holidays (if not all year round) I am able to find a "poultry seasoning" mix containing those 3 herbs. This will cost you much less and leave you with much less waste. The vegetables are also important, even if you don't want to eat them. The flavors season the broth even more, and the broth steams and soaks into the Tofurky. I've had this thing prepared many ways, and trust me - This is the way to do it!

Ahh...Now if only I had recipes for all of the food that everyone else brought tonight...YUM!

Moe's!

One thing that really made me sad when I moved from the west coast to the east coast was the sudden loss of my beloved Taco Del Mar. How was I going to survive without my beloved Baja Bowls?! Then, Moe's Southwest Grill came into the picture. Yum! Rice, black beans, guac, pico de gallo...and tofu! The tofu was actually a little bland but I'm still happy to have the option. It all comes with all the chips and salsa you can eat! WOOOO!!

Seasoned Toasted Chickpeas

This afternoon, I had two things to face: I was hungry for a snack, and it was absolutely freeeezing in my house! I needed something that would warm me up as well as fill my tummy. So I went for something I could cook in the oven. Seasoned Toasted Chickpeas it is!!

There are countless ways to accomplish this yummy and healthy snack. This is what I did:

Preheated oven to 375

Drained and rinsed 1 can of chickpeas
Coated a baking pan with extra virgin olive oil
Pressed 2 cloves of garlic through a garlic press, straight onto the olive oil
Added a bunch of ground cumin, some chili powder, a few dashes of oregano and paprika, and some fresh ground black and red pepper
Mixed the oil, garlic, and seasonings thoroughly
Added the chickpeas, and stirred it all together so they were evenly coated

Baked for about 10 minutes, stirred, and then baked them for about 10 more minutes. They still needed a bit more crisp, so I stuck them under the broiler for a minute or two. I added a few pinches of salt when it was all done.

I didn't bother posting this in true recipe form, because you can really substitute anything for whatever you like. I've seen a recipe on VegWeb.com where they used only Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper, and a different baking temperature. I've also seen other recipes where the toasting was done on a stovetop skillet. You really can't go wrong with this!

Bonus: After I was done cooking and turned off the oven, I went ahead and left it open so it could help heat my house a bit more. Obviously this would be an awful idea if you have small children running around. Use your common sense on that one.

Top Ramen: More Than Just Packing Material. What?

Isn't it amazing how you can go from making an an awesome, homemade, healthy dinner one night to making...Top Ramen the next. It's my comfort food! My best friend Holly and I would spend day after day making massive batches of ramen and veggies. LOTS of veggies! Not even us crazy girls would eat deep-fried noodles with packets of salt and msg plain! We would fill a big pot of boiling water with lots of garlic, onion, broccoli, carrots, and whatever else we happened to find in the fridge that day. I'm out of broccoli tonight, but I ended up with a bowl full of carrots, celery, onion, peas, corn, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds. All of that veggie goodness almost makes up for all of the unhealthy..."stuff" in that flavor packet.



Sadly, I can't seem to find the vegan Oriental flavor in the Top Ramen brand ANYWHERE around here! So now, whenever my mom decides to send me packages from across the country, she uses Ramen packages instead of styrofoam. How cool is that??

Countdown to Tofurky Day!

With my move to the east coast, this is my first holiday season spent entirely away from my family. They've always been only a few hours away, so I have always been able to spend at least Christmas or Thanksgiving with them. Not so this year. Luckily, I still have something to look forward to: I volunteered to cook the Tofurky for the local VegHeads meetup! Now, forget all of the yucky things you have heard before about the tofurky. Forget bad experiences with dry, rubbery ickiness. I make the BEST darn tofurky you'll ever taste - and I'll have my recipe and pictures posted here by Sunday (Monday at the latest)! It is super fun, and super simple to make. This is one recipe that I am very excited to share!

Indian Spiced Potatoes and Veggies

Note: All amounts and times are approximate. I rarely measure or watch the clock while I cook. This recipe is EXTREMELY versatile - Feel free to adjust the seasonings and veggies as you see fit. You won't shouldn't go wrong.

Ingredients:

4 medium potatoes
1-2 carrots
1 medium red onion
1 medium red bell pepper
1 large tomato
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 small head of broccoli

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, as needed
Salt, to taste
Fresh Ground Black Pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp ground Coriander
1 tbsp Curry Powder*
1-2 tbsp ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 Bay Leaf

Preparation:

Peel and wash potatoes, carrot(s), onion, garlic. Rinse bell pepper and remove seeds. Rinse broccoli.

Add enough extra virgin olive oil to a medium-large soup pot, enough to lightly coat the bottom, and turn heat to medium/medium-high.

To avoid having to use a timer, I chop the vegetables in the order listed above, one at a time: potatoes first, chopping all potatoes, adding them all at once, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and stir. Next with the carrots, then the onion, and so on. The time you finish chopping the next vegetable is generally the time it's ready to go in the pot. Chop everything except the garlic into bite-sized pieces. Mince the garlic.

Once all vegetables are added, toss in the rest of the seasonings, and let your nose be your guide. It should become very fragrant once you stir them in.

Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the tomato juice is reduced to to almost non-existence, stirring often enough to keep everything from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Serve with basmati rice, and enjoy!

Serves 2-4

*Check to see if your curry powder contains salt. If so, you will want to add much less salt as you cook.

Variation: Stir in a can of coconut milk right before serving. You'll need to add probably 50% more of the spices. This makes an excellent, creamy, curry-like dish!

My Baby is 5 MONTHS OLD Today!!

Awww, it is amazing how fast time goes by. Only 5 months ago, I was in Washington State, about to have a brand new baby boy, who I would have to pack up and drive across the country only 3 weeks later. I have to say, I couldn't have asked for a better baby. It is amazing how well he put up with that trip! He is very laid-back, just like his daddy. Just this morning, he celebrated his "birthday" by sleeping in for a whole hour after I woke up! I was able to get dressed, have a cup of of hot chocolate (Silk light chocolate soymilk...with an extra scoop of chocolate powder, so it was no longer considered light), let the dog out, goof around on the computer, and pump 5 oz of breastmilk to get ahead (and I had plenty to spare). What a guy!! If only there was something extra special I could do for him at this age, other than prop him up against the arm of the couch and force him to watch camera flash after camera flash while I take his 5 month photo.

Welcome!

Welcome to my (boring) world!