More Testers

Here are this week's testers for Joni Marie Newman's vegan fusion cookbook.

 

Sesame Tofu Fingers - a bit fancier than your standard roasted tofu, these little guys are fried, coated in a creamy sesame sauce, then baked.

 

 

Sesame Miso Ginger Garlic Dressing - delicious in a wrap with spinach and tofu fingers. Probably would be perfect with any greens.

 

Sesame Tofu Noodle Bowl - another use for the tofu fingers. Miso broth, udon noodles, and veggies make for a light, healthy dinner.

 

Cold Cabbage and Noodle Salad - this one really wowed me. How such basic ingredients as noodles and cabbage can taste so good that I end up eating two bowls, I'll never know.

 

Spruced Up Cedars

While running errands this weekend, we stopped to take some pictures of some particularly well-dressed cedar trees.

It seems that people have taken to decorating random trees along the highway.

 Don't the trees look happy, with their festive trimmings? I hope they bring a smile to commuters' faces.

One of my errands was to replenish my tea stash. Now that winter is just around the corner, I'm drinking countless mugs of tea all day long to keep warm! Natural Grocers was having an awesome sale on Yogi Tea. Better than turning up the thermostat!

 Another thing I crave during cold weather is oats. I loved this bowl of oat bran with chia seets, cacao nibs, and of course a big scoop of peanut butter.

Here's the first meal I made from a cookbook I just purchased -- Robin Robertson's Quick-Fix Vegan. I'm a big fan of Robin's recipes, and of course I'm also a big fan of meals that can be on the table in half an hour or less. I loved the subtle flavor of the tahini-sesame sauce in this Farfalle with Sesame Cabbage.

One morning, Jackson and I made Magical Coconut Bars. They will be a Christmas present for his daycare teacher.

When I was small, I helped my Granny make these bars every Christmas. They are the first food that comes to mind when I think "Christmas."  So I was really excited to make them with my little one. Granny called them Hello Dolly bars, and she made them with sweetened condensed milk. This recipe calls for coconut milk, which makes the bars super coconutty and awesome.

Tonight, Tony is watching the Cowboys game, so I thought I would make a "game night" meal. First I made spinach dip in a bread bowl. I got the spinach dip recipe off the side of a silken tofu package. I love using recipes that I find in random places -- especially when they turn out this good! Tony loved this dip. We all did. I'm sure it will make another appearance before the holidays are over.

I also made another recipe from Quick-Fix Vegan, called Muffaletta Pizza. Muffaletta, if you didn't know, is a sandwich that originated in New Orleans. It's typically loaded down with meats and cheeses, and dressed with a tangy olive salad. In this recipe, you top the pizza with a spicy chickpea spread, artichoke hearts and avocado, then you spoon the olive salad on top. Since it features several of my favorite pizza toppings, I was loving this pie. Now I'm totally looking forward to trying more of Robin's quick meals.

My goal this coming week is to greet every morning with a smile as big as the ones you see below. The fact that I stocked up on all those yummy teas should make that goal a little easier to accomplish.

Hope your week brings lots of big smiles, too!

Invasion of the Alien Flowers

Some weekends, it feels like we are barely home at all. Which is fine because I am not a homebody. This weekend, however, we purposely kept our plans to a minimum so we could get stuff done around the house.

I made a curtain for the guest bathroom.

I also worked in the yard, and noticed some crazy-looking purple flowers that have bloomed almost overnight. We don't know what they're called, so we've christened them "alien flowers."

We did go out to dinner on Saturday, with a couple we met in our childbirth class when I was pregnant with Jackson. It was really neat to see our two little dudes, born one day apart, now nearly three years old and playing side by side. It's amazing how fast you go from this...

to this!

For Sunday dinner I made the Tamarind Tofu Cabbage Bowl from Vegan Yum Yum.

I wanted to use up the last of my terrible, seedy tamarind paste.  Now I can buy a different brand and enjoy the sweet and sour flavor of tamarind without having to pick out rock-hard seeds. 

Tony and I enjoyed the flavors and textures of this dish, but the kids were not into it. Jackson ate some tofu cubes, but neither he nor Olivia would touch the cabbage. I guess I need to serve cabbage more often and get them used to it.

I had a hard time cooking this meal with Jackson, too. I'll be honest -- as much as I love having the kids in the kitchen with me, it doesn't always work out. There were many steps to the recipe. Making the rice. Pressing, cubing, and sauteeing the tofu. Chopping and sauteeing the cabbage. Making the sauce. Toasting the almonds. Jackson is good at adding things to a bowl or stirring a pot, but he does not have much patience for waiting around while I get everything out and do the prep work. I want to come up with a solution for this that doesn't involve sending him in the other room to watch Cars while I get everything ready. But he is still just a little guy.

For dessert we had rice pudding with pineapple. So good! Rice pudding on its own is not that exciting, but there is something about the addition of pineapple that makes it pretty amazing.

Have a good week!

Austrian Noodles with Cabbage

Do you ever come across a recipe in a cookbook and think, "This looks so plain -- will it have any flavor?" And then you make it, because you want something easy, and you're like "Whoa, this has crazy flavor!" and it disappears in no time? Sometimes it's good to be reminded how delicious a few simple ingredients can be. Last night I made Austrian Noodles with Cabbage, from 1000 Vegan Recipes. Pasta (the recipe calls for linguine but I used rotini 'cause that's what I had), onion, cabbage, a little butter, and caraway seeds -- that's it. So easy, especially if you have an unused jar of caraway seeds hanging out in your spice rack. I shudder to think how long they'd been lurking in mine.  I always assumed caraway tasted licorice-y, like fennel, and I never knew what to use it in.  It's actually what gives rye bread its flavor. It also pairs extremely well with cabbage. Who knew?

Armed with this new knowledge and a tasty bowl of noodles, I settled in to catch up on some Walking Dead episodes.  Zombies crack me up with their slowness. What happens if a zombie drinks Four Loko?  Does it increase their energy levels, or does guarana have no effect on a zombie's central nervous system? These are the questions I ask myself.

Seriously, next time you have some s ad, bare pasta, saute a little shredded cabbage and onion. Cover the pan and let it get nice and caramelized, and toss in some caraway. The Austrians are onto something here!

Ethiopian Feast

 

Happy MoFo Week 2, guys!

Do you like Ethiopian food? I first ate it several years ago in Philly. I remember being a little wary of scooping up the lentils and veggies with nothing but my fingers and some weird spongy bread. No utensils?  But of course it was awesome! I made it a point to eat Ethiopian food whenever I could find it from then on. However, where I live now, there's no Ethiopian restaurant nearby. After eating it in Montreal last month, I vowed to learn how to make it myself so I wouldn't have to wait until my next vacation to have it again!

First, I tried making "traditional" injera. Injera is the light, crepe-like bread that you tear into pieces and use in place of utensils to pick up the food and transfer it to your mouth. It tastes like sourdough. The way I understand it, in Ethiopia, injera is made from only teff flour and water, with a little salt added. It is fermented for at least 24 hours and up to three days. I found a recipe, mixed up the batter, and left it sitting out on my counter. The next day, my kitchen smelled like gym socks and I wasn't sure if that was good or bad, so I went ahead and made the injera. It was really flat, not puffy like the kind I've had in restaurants. It also had a strong nutty, fermented taste. There was no way anyone in my house was going to eat this injera.

Luckily I had a backup plan -- the injera recipe from Vegan Lunch Box. This sounded more like the bread that is served in Ethiopian restaurants in the U.S. -- softer and fluffier, with a mild flavor. This recipe worked perfectly -- no fermentation necessary! I couldn't believe how easy it was.

The other dishes I made were gomen (collard greens), mesir wat (spicy red lentils), and atakilt wat (cabbage and carrot stew).

The greens were my favorite -- very garlicky and gingery. The lentils were savory and spicy, and the cabbage stew was mild and buttery. I think that's why I like Ethiopian food, because each dish seems to complement the others and there's a nice variety of flavors.

The feast took about two hours to prepare. There were a ton of veggies to chop, and also, I only have one big pot, so I had to wait for the lentils to get done before I could make the cabbage stew. I didn't mind since I had my little entertainer with me. Check out his drum solo.

If you like Ethiopian food or even if you've never had it before, I encourage you to try the recipes linked above, because they are good ones and not hard to prepare. You'll be surprised how much it tastes like restaurant food, or at least, I was!