Trying Raw

So, I got it in my head that I would try to make a complete raw feast, based on some recipes I found on Pinterest. I am interested in raw foods, but it often seems like a ton of preparation. For example, I was going to do raw falafels. But to do this, you need to sprout your chickpeas several days in advance. So I moved back the date of my raw meal and started sprouting. It did not go so well for me. 

The chickpeas grew cute little tails, all right. They also smelled like garbage. Like, an obvious bacteria smell. Maybe I should have kept the jar in the fridge? The instructions were not clear. I have more dried chickpeas, so I can try again some time. These went in the trash.

Instead, I made the baked falafels from Appetite for Reduction. Always so good. My kids go to town on them.

To accompany the falafels, we made the Mediterranean-Style Cashew Cucumber Dip from Veganomicon. It's like a raw vegan tzatziki sauce. Jackson and Olivia are getting skilled with the veggie peeler.

Lots of dill is key! We had plenty left over for dipping carrots and pita chips.

Finally, I made a cauliflower tabouli. I guess you would call it high raw, since it has green olives in it, which aren't raw. The lemon juice/olive oil dressing kind of "cooks" the cauliflower, which takes the place of grains in a traditional tabouli. Tasty!

Since Jackson, Olivia and I were working together so nicely in the kitchen, we also made some hempseed salad dressing. It is so good! I love those nutty hempseeds. I ate it on a salad of mixed greens, roasted beets, goat cheese, and leftover falafels.

Please share any favorite raw food recipes with me!

Climb So High

Jackson recently had the chance to do a little rock climbing at the Chinese New Year festival. (I didn't get any good pics of the dragons this year, but you can check out a past year's celebration.)

We had to wait in line "forever and ever" (about 20 minutes), so he was dying to get his gear on and get going.

When he realized he was much higher than my head, he decided to come on back down.

Olivia did some magnetic wall climbing. I do not see the appeal of this activity, since it's clangy and awkward and 9 times out of 10 the kids will get stuck, unable to move, in need of an adult's assistance. But that's the one she chose.

With mucho help from Daddy, she had fun as well.

Some recent items that have made their way into my grocery cart...

Gelatin-free jello. My kids are fascinated by the rainbow-hued, jiggly cups of jello they see at the store, and I was happy to find this brand that's not made from horses' hooves.

Toasted coconut cashews from Costco...where have you been all my life? I have to ration these.

Daily Greens cold-pressed veggie juice. Daily Greens is a local company and their claim is that one bottle of juice contains nine servings of vegetables. I liked the refreshing taste...like celery lemonade.

Another local brand, Oh-Kimchi vegan daikon kimchi. We sampled this spicy condiment at the farmer's market and had to bring a jar home.

It's great on a veggie burger...I'm trying to think of other uses for it.

Have a great weekend!

The Great Homemade Milk Experiment

I recently checked out a book from the library called Living Raw Food, which inspired me with its variety of homemade non-dairy milk recipes. I decided to try them out and see if I liked any of them better than my usual brand of almond milk.

First I made hemp milk. It was super thick. I strained it through a fine mesh sieve.

It was still quite thick, and the hemp milk grounds tended to collect at the bottom of the glass (even after straining). If I made this again, I would double the amount of water, to thin it out. I can't decide how I feel about the earthy, green flavor that the hemp seeds impart. Sometimes I find it gross, but other times I like it. Kind of like drinking wheatgrass juice.

Next I made coconut milk, using dried, shredded coconut. This had a more "milky" consistency i.e. not so thick and creamy. For coconut milk lovers, this is probably a cheaper option than buying it at the store. Personally, I am not a huge coconut milk convert. I prefer nut milks.

That brings us to my third experiment, cashew milk. Living Raw Food suggests a shortcut of using cashew butter instead of soaked raw cashews. This milk was the fastest to make, did not require straining, and had the best flavor out of the three. I liked it so much I made another batch when my first pitcher ran out. 

Cashew butter is pricy ($14 per jar at the food co-op), so I'm not sure how much money I would save making this at home instead of buying my usual almond milk. But now I know I enjoy the taste of cashew milk. I guess the next step is to make it with raw cashews, which would be cheaper than using cashew butter, and see how we like that. I should also try making my own almond milk.

Do you make milks at home? Got a favorite recipe?

Tony's Birthday at La Condesa

His baby face means that he still occasionally gets carded to buy alcohol, yet Tony actually celebrated his 39th birthday this past weekend. My parents were visiting and were kind enough to watch Jackson and Olivia so I could take the birthday boy out for a fancy dinner.

Tony chose La Condesa, a "modern Mexican" restaurant in downtown Austin. We arrived a little early for our reservation, so we hung out at the bar. I ordered a mojito. It was full of tangled mint leaves, and it was nice and strong!

While we waited, I admired the restaurant's design. Very hip and stylish. The light fixture above our heads caught my eye.

We were soon seated, and started off our meal with a salsa sampler.

Tony had a pork chop for his entree, which he enjoyed immensely. He also had a side of Mexican street corn, sprinkled with chili powder and dry, crumbly cotija cheese.

I'm sorry for the increasingly poor quality of these pics. I was using my phone's camera and I didn't want to use a flash, so they are pretty dark. But this was such an awesome meal, I felt like it was still worth posting about.

I had the chili relleno stuffed with quinoa and butternut squash, swimming in a hot tomato broth. It was so good. The quinoa soaked up the yummy tomato sauce, and the poblano pepper was so tender it was practically falling apart.

For my side, I ordered the grilled green beans with epazote. They were nicely charred and very addictive.

We ordered more drinks as we ate. I tried a caipirinha, which came with blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries floating in it. Like the mojito, it was strong and tasty.

The dessert menu was so crazy, we had to order something. We decided on the remolacha con coco -- a beet juice-colored cake served with chocolate mousse, coconut sorbet, hazelnuts, and pickled beets. Believe it or not, the salty-sour flavor of the beets was perfectly offset by the smokiness of the hazelnuts and the sweetness of everything else. It was perfect! I even relented and used the flash.

The next day was Tony's actual birthday, and I made him some birthday enchiladas. I used this recipe but subbed sweet potato greens for the kale. They were so good! It was a big production -- blanching the greens, making the cashew cheese, making the enchilada sauce -- but the end result was well worth it.

The birthday boy was pleased!

Simply Summer

I'm back...after two weeks...countless hours on the phone with Dell...and one new hard drive.  

I missed this. But I did find other ways to fill my days.

Nectarines love mint, and so do I. No matter how high the summer temperatures get, mint is cool and refreshing.

Nectarines with Mint Cream

4 nectarines, sliced

1 cup cashews, soaked in water for at least 1 hour, then drained

1/4 cup non-dairy milk, plus more as needed

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

2 Tbsp. agave syrup or honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a food processor, combine cashews, 1/4 cup milk, mint leaves, agave or honey, and vanilla. Process until cashews are ground up. Stream in more milk as needed to reach a smooth, creamy texture. Chill the mint cream for 1 hour. Spoon over sliced nectarines and serve cold.

How have you been?

Shahi Paneer - Tofu in Tomato Cream Sauce

This one's from 30 Minute Taste of the East, which I don't own yet (it's on my Christmas wish list), but Aimee at theglobalvegan posted the recipe.  

I love the first 30 Minute Vegan cookbook, so I was excited to try the authors' take on Indian cuisine.  I marinated the tofu overnight so it would really soak up the "paneer" (Indian cheese) flavor, then baked it. I was really pleased with how it turned out.  If you miss eating paneer on the Indian buffet since becoming vegan, this is probably as close to that flavor and texture as you can get! And the spice mixture is just right, adding a ton of flavor to the creamy tomato sauce (the cream is from ground cashews) without being overpowering. 

Chard-Stuffed Manicotti with Creamy Cashew Sauce

After Thanksgiving, I was taking it easy in the kitchen for awhile. But last night, I felt like making something a little fancier. I came across this recipe in 1000 Vegan Recipes and realized it had been too long since I made manicotti.  It can seem daunting -- boiling the manicotti shells, making the stuffing, making the sauce, and of course stuffing the shells and baking it.  But none of this is difficult, only time-consuming.  And it always looks nice when you serve it up.

I'd always used spinach in my manicotti, and I'd never made one with a white sauce before. I found that the chard was an excellent substitute for the spinach -- I always love chard.  But, the tofu filling could've been more flavorful. Next time I'll mix in some lemon juice, nooch and garlic, like I usually do when making a tofu ricotta. The white sauce was also on the bland side. I do like the idea of using cashews to make a creamy sauce, but cashews and milk alone do not make a good sauce. (The sauce, by the way, was really thin when I poured it over the pasta shells, which made me nervous. But it thickened up nicely in the oven. I let it cool for about 10 minutes afterwards, and it was perfectly set when I cut into it.)

Tony and I improved the flavor by spooning a little marinara on top, although we still couldn't get Jackson interested in it. We ate it for dinner and again for lunch today with some roasted brussels on the side. Yep, I still can't get enough of them.

Check it out -- Averie at Love Veggies and Yoga is giving away a $50 Chocomize gift certificate to create your own customized chocolate bars, yum!

Boo-berry Creeps

Sorry dudes, I know that is one terrible pun. But, since I left the Halloweenie-themed foods to the experts like Robin, I had to attempt to make my completely innocuous Halloween brunch sound at least a little spooky. And even though the most ghoulish thing about them is the scary blue stains they leave on your teeth, the cashew-filled crepes with blueberry sauce from Vegan Brunch were a perfect start to the day.

Behold the crepes...of doooooom.

Not too frightening? That's good. You should've seen the first couple crepes that went in the trash dog's bowl, though. Yikes.

I made these with whole wheat pastry flour, and there's really no t a lot of sugar in the whole recipe. Plus you get a fair amount of protein from the cashews, which are ground into a creamy ricotta-type filling.

My biggest tip for crepe-making would be this: don't even think about flipping that crepe until it is sliding around in the (nonstick!) pan of its own free will when you tilt the pan. If you try to get your spatula under it before it's moving around freely, it's gonna tear. And then your ravenous Boston terrier will be happy, but you will be sad and crepeless.

Nobody wants that, least of all this little pumpkin and her tiger cub buddy.



Cashew Cheese and Lucky Me!

I’m in a great mood today. First I found out I won a copy of Robin Robertson’s Vegan On The Cheap. I’ve been following Two Vegan Boys’ cook-through of this book, and all the recipes sound so delicious. Plus, Tony and I have committed to building our savings over the next few months, and I’m sure this book will show me new tricks to save money on groceries. That will be awesome, because groceries are SO expensive here. I’m still in sticker shock over “east coast prices,” it’s crazy!

Second, I was honored with a Versatile Blogger Award from the lovely Jenny at vegan and so forth. My blog is just a baby, I’m still learning how to make my posts the way I want them -- I certainly didn’t expect to get any kind of award. Thank you so much, Jenny!

The rules for this award are:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award
2. Tell 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award on to 10 bloggers you’ve recently discovered and you think are fantastic!

7 things:
1. My favorite thing to do is travel. I love planning a trip and having it to look forward to. These days, with two little ones, we're limited to road trips, but that’s fine because we’re in a new part of the country (new to us) and there’s lots to explore. I’m pretty good at reading maps, following driving directions and orienting myself in a new city. I think delivering pizza in the days before Mapquest helped me develop these skills.
2. I’ve lived in Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and New York. And we are hoping to move again soon -- not sure where -- it’s always an adventure!
3. I enjoy doing yoga, going to art galleries, going to concerts, cooking of course, and sleeping! I am a big sleeper, I need my 8 hours to be totally functional!
4. I'm the world’s slowest reader. I like to read, but it takes me forever to finish anything. I used to feel embarrassed because I had not read all the “classics,” but now I don’t think it has affected my life too badly.
5. I absolutely love getting all dressed up and will look for any excuse to do so.
6. My favorite movie is The Philadelphia Story, followed by The Royal Tenenbaums. My taste ranges from arty French films to Will Ferrell movies.
7. I’m blessed with a strong immune system and am rarely sick. I’ve never broken a bone, and never spent the night in the hospital until I had Jackson. On the other hand, I bump into things constantly and my legs are usually covered in bruises. Sexy!

And now I have 10 awards to give out -- how do I choose? Here goes!
1. Shorty can burn!
2. Lima’s Vegan Kitchen
3. Seitanic Vegan Heathen
4. The Shenandoah Vegan
5. Blessed Vegan Life
6. That Pain in the Ass Vegan
7. Snacking Squirrel
8. Allotment 2 Kitchen
9. Wing-It Vegan
10. Feeding Tiny Vegans

That was fun!...Now, on to the food!

I have no desire to go back to eating real cheese, but man, sometimes I really miss eating cheese and crackers! I used to snack on Wheat Thins and cream cheese practically every day. Looking for a solution to my craving, I made a batch of Basic Nut Cheese (by the way, that has got to be the most unappealing name ever for a vegan dish) from The 30 Minute Vegan, using cashews that I soaked for 2 hours beforehand as suggested.

My results were mixed at first. It was WAY too watery. I would suggest adding the 1 ¼ cups of water called for in the recipe only if you want a very thin cheese sauce. I wanted a pate' to eat with crackers, so I ended up adding another full cup of cashews to get it to the thick, creamy consistency I was after. Then it was fine. It was actually better than fine. It tasted great and I couldn’t wait to eat some. For lunch I mixed it with leftover seitan taco meat from Taco Night, along with taco sauce, chopped tomato and avocado, to make some awesome cheesy nachos.

For dinner, the main event – cheese pizza! I scattered a few chopped kalamata olives on top and that’s all that was needed. This cheese is so flavorful and it has such a creamy texture…a little thicker than ricotta, for comparison. Yum! Tony liked it too; he said it was one of the best faux cheeses I’ve made.

Note -- the recipe suggests adding some fresh herbs to the cashew cheese for flavor. I didn’t have any, so I added 1 tsp. dried rosemary. It worked fine in both my dishes. I think next time I make this cheese specifically for a Mexican dish, I’ll add some chopped pickled jalapeno or maybe some cumin. For a pizza, oregano or basil would be nice.

Whew! This post wore me out, I think I might need 9 hours of sleep tonight. Have a great weekend!