Breakfast Rice Bowl

Get creative when it comes to breakfast. J and I have taken to preparing shakes every morning before work because they're portable and packed full of fruits and veggies. But on the weekends, I really enjoy sitting down with a good book, a cup of coffee, and a nice breakfast that I can eat with a utensil! 

Enter Breakfast Rice Bowl. You can really make this however you want - different veggies, different dressings, add fruit, etc. But here follows my version this Sunday morning:

Breakfast Rice Bowl

1/2 to 3/4 cup of brown rice luke warm or cold (I used leftovers and microwaved them for 30 seconds)

5 cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup shredded purple cabbage

1/4 cup julienned raw beet

2 Tbsp tahini 

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar 

1 tsp lime juice

1-2 Tbsp nutritional yeast 

Serves 1

Mix it all together in a bowl and enjoy! If I had a navel orange or clementine on hand I likely would have added some sliced, in addition to a splash of orange juice mixed in with the rice. You could also add blueberries or strawberries. If you wanted something sweeter but don't have fruit, you could add some agave, honey, or maple syrup as well. 

Month Long Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Challenge

We're back at it again! My doctor (who is actually a nurse practitioner) recommended for the third time that I try going gluten-free and sugar-free for at least a month and asked that I document how I feel. I picked the month of June because, leading up to this point, I haven't been feeling so great. I've been sluggish, been getting more headaches, stomach pain in the evening, and my acne has been out of control. So I started on Tuesday with a well-crafted meal plan and a lot of conviction.

Week one has gone pretty smoothly, though not without some ups and downs. On Tuesday, I had a mild headache which I attributed to sugar withdrawal. On Wednesday, the headache morphed into a tension headache - sugar detoxing coupled with high stress from work, a pending storm, and not enough calories in my system? It was the set up for a bad scene. I ended up leaving work early and, after eating a handful of almonds and drinking two big glasses of water, I actually felt a lot better. I'm sure stepping away from work and my computer screen was a big help too. Thursday through today I have been feeling great! I'm not craving sweets and gluten was really easy for me to cut out.

Here's a sampling of our meal plan last week - I started by using other people's recipes so that I can get the hang of it and then begin writing my own!

Tuesday
Breakfast: Wild Blueberry Shake from lunchboxbunch.com
Lunch: Green Goddess Bowl from lunchboxbunch.com
Dinner: Vegan Macro Meal from lunchboxbunch.com

Wednesday
Breakfast: Wild Blueberry Shake from lunchboxbunch.com
Lunch: Green Goddess Bowl from lunchboxbunch.com
Dinner: Bake Stuffed Sweet Potatoes from lunchboxbunch.com - modified, we just topped them with diced tomato, broccoli, and tahini

Thursday
Breakfast: Homemade Shake - 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed berries, 2 Tbsp peanut butter, 2 cups almond milk - Serves 2
Lunch: Green Goddess Bowl from lunchboxbunch.com
Dinner: Celebratory dinner at Green Elephant (it was J's last day of work at his old job!) - I had the spicy green leaves salad with gluten free dressing and brussels sprouts

Friday
Breakfast: Homemade Shake (see above)
Lunch: Lunched at Local Sprouts - I had the fiddlehead salad special with balsamic dressing
Dinner: Sesame Miso Zucchini Noodles & Tofu from Snixy Kitchen

Saturday
Breakfast: Almonds, peanuts, and blueberries (we bused down to Boston and need something easily portable!)
Lunch: Tofu Pad Thai at My Thai Vegan Cafe in Boston's China Town
Dinner: Sesame Miso Zucchini Noodles & Tofu from Snixy Kitchen

Sunday
Breakfast: Sweet Citrus Avocado Dreamboat from lunchboxbunch.com
Lunch: Green Power Tower Salad from lunchboxbunch.com
Dinner: Raw Macro Bowl with Knock-Off Dragon Sauce from Raw Food Recipes

Our snacks throughout the week consist of homemade oil-free hummus with veggies, frozen grapes, apples, and baby carrots.

So far, I've lost 6 pounds. I'm hoping to add at least 20 minutes of walking to my days to continue on this track and I'll keep monitoring the effects of GF/SF eating - maybe you'll want to test it out too? Check out other recipes we're considering on our Pinterest board!

Multi-Grain Pineapple Stir Fry

Multi-Grain Pineapple Stir Fry

1 1/2 cups medium grain brown rice
1/3 cup quinoa
3/4 cup millet
1 veg. bouillon cube
5 or so cups of water

1-2 Tbsp olive oil
4-5 small crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1/3 cup pablano, chopped (optional - we like it spicy!)
1 cup fresh pineapple, in one-inch cubes (you'll be sorry if you used canned - it's just not the same!)
8 oz of tofu, drained, pressed, and cubed
1 1/2 Tbsp Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari
1-2 Tbsp Thai Spicy Sweet Chili Sauce (optional - any kind will work, just make sure it's vegan. You can find this in the Asian foods aisle at your food store or at a local Asian market.)


Prepare the grains by rinsing and then placing them in a rice cooker. Crumble the bouillon cube on top and pour in water. Start your rice cooker and let it work its magic. I will usually lift the lid every once in a while to stir just to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom. If you don't have a rice cooker, you can make this on the stove, too.

Next, dry fry the tofu in a cast iron or non-stick skillet. Heat the skillet up to med-med high heat. Once it's reached temperature, add the cubes of tofu. Let them sit! Don't play with them other than pressing down or you will end up breaking them. Once the tofu is easy to flip (it comes right off the pan and doesn't stick - if it still sticks it's not ready!), flip it on the other side and follow the same steps. You can dry fry all four sides if you wish - sometimes I'm lazy and just do two. When you're finished, remove from the pan and set aside.

Using the same hot pan, cook the carrots in some olive oil or canola oil, whichever you prefer. Add bell pepper, broccoli, and pablano and a splash of Braggs Liquid Aminos. Add mushrooms after a few minutes. Finally add pineapple and cook until everything is a little browned or charred. Add sweet chili sauce and stir to fully incorporate. Remove from heat.

Your grains should be finished by now - add grains to the bottom of a bowl, top with veggies and a few tofu squares.

Serves 4

Butternut Squash Curry Soba Dinner

On Sunday, J and I went out for a drive and ended up in Scarborough. We'd always known Lois' Natural Marketplace was there, but for some reason we hardly ever go. It's in an area we don't frequent and so it's easy to forget - but boy, we won't forget it now!

Lois' has that distinct health food store smell - vitamins, herbs - I don't know what it is, but every health food store has that same smell. As we wondered the aisles we were dumbfounded but the number of vegan products - many of them products we have never seen at Whole Foods. We walked away with a large bag of Little Lad's Cashew & Date Granola, a small bag of Ener-G's gluten free sesame pretzels, King Soba Pumpkin, Ginger, & Rice Soba noodles, a vegan donut from Holy Donut (who knew they had vegan ones?!), local raw honey, and LizLovely Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies.

Today, winter decided to hang on and give us one last (maybe?) snow storm. So I decided to take the soba for a test drive and to utilize left over butternut squash from the soup we'd made the night before. The soba was good but not the best I've had. Certainly worth trying. It was a bit more sticky than the buckwheat soba I typically buy and the flavor (pumpkin & ginger) is very very faint and easily masked by spices and veggies. Nonetheless, dinner was tasty and you can try it out using King Soba or any brand of soba you'd like!


Butternut Squash Curry Soba Dinner
1.5 cups butternut squash, cubed
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 block of tofu, drained & pressed
1/2 yellow onion
1 package King Soba's Pumpkin, Ginger, & Rice Soba
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 tsp curry
1/2 tsp coriander
1 cup chopped broccoli
salt & pepper
1/2 to 1 jalapeño, diced
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 scallion/spring onion, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Toss butternut squash and carrots in a little olive or canola oil and bake 35-45 minutes, until veggies are tender when poked with a fork.

Cook the soba as instructed. It is important to wash it with cold water afterwards so that the noodles don't all stick together so don't skip this step!

Dry fry the tofu. Set aside.

In a skillet, cook onion in olive or canola oil. Once onion is translucent, add ginger, curry, cardamom, and salt and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Next add broccoli and jalapeño pepper. Add the butternut squash and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer for several minutes. Finish by mixing in the soba and topping with scallion.

Serves 3-4

Invest in a tofu press - you will thank me.

I like to cut the tofu into 4ths (the long way) and then cut each quarter in half, and then in half again on the diagonal, forming little triangles. 

Dry frying is one of our favorite ways to prepare tofu. There's no added fat from olive oil and it makes the outside nice and crispy while the inside remains light and fluffy.

Sushi Night

Although it's time consuming, J and I love making sushi together. It's a great meal to make with someone and there are so many combinations to try - it never gets old! We got hit with yet another snow storm today and decided not to risk driving to restock our fridge, so it was a let's-see-what-the-heck-is-in-the-fridge-and-wing-it kind of night. Wing it nights might be some of my favorite. Somehow we always end up with awesome results!

First, I started by making the rice (while J was kindly shoveling) because it needs to cool before you can handle it. I used Alton Brown's sushi rice recipe and it turned out nice and sticky. While the rice cooked, I chopped up a bunch of different veggies. It's fun to cut up all the options hanging out in your fridge and use whatever you end up using without worrying about not using it all. If you don't use it all, you can throw it into a salad for tomorrow's lunch, or save it in a container for a stir-fry later in the week. In other words, don't sweat it!

So tonight I sliced yellow bell pepper very thinly, some dinosaur kale, sautéed some thinly sliced mushrooms in a little oil and Braggs, julienned a few carrots, diced up a 1/4 cup of cilantro, thinly sliced a 1/4 of a cucumber, and 1/2 of an avocado. I also sliced some tofu in long, thin rows after it had been pressed.

Then J took over and started the assembly process! To accompany the sushi, we made a delicious tahini miso ginger sauce from This Rawsome Vegan Life which J used inside one of the rolls and we also served as a dipping sauce on the side.

While J assembled the sushi rolls, I made a Seaweed Salad similar to the recipe we posted about a year ago. This time, I added some of the sautéed mushrooms and didn't marinate the tofu, but just tossed it in. 


I used some of the leftover sticky rice to make two rice balls which had avocado in the middle. To make rice balls, you'll want to wet your hands with cold water to prevent the rice from sticking so much. Pick up a handful, create a little crater in the middle, and mash the avocado into the crater. Then cover it by patting and rolling the rice into a ball. Sprinkle some sesame seeds and kelp granules in a dish and roll the rice ball around to coat.

We made the table up all fancy and served dinner with sake shipped to us by my best friend straight from Japan.

All fancy sake comes in a juice box with a straw :-)

Nemo Roasted Veggies with Pesto over Spinach Spaghetti

We live in Southern Maine so of course we've spent the majority of the last two days homebound, shoveling, taking snowy walks to the Speckled Ax for soy lattes and the Works Bakery for a bagel with Tofutti cream cheese, and baking. I named the following recipe in honor of our dear storm, which has yielded a whopping 31.9 inches of snow, "Nemo Roasted Veggies with Pesto over Spinach Spaghetti." It was a real pantry raid since our last trip to Whole Foods did not take into account the impending storm. Nonetheless, we ended up with a cozy, quite satisfying meal!

Nemo Roasted Veggies with Pesto over Spinach Spaghetti

1 rutabaga, cubed
1 turnip, cubed
1 portabello mushroom, sliced into 1 to 2 inch pieces
1 sweet potato, cubed (skin on or off, you choose!)
1 fingerling potato, sliced thinly (could use more, but that's all we had!)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
1-2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 package of spinach spaghetti (or a whole one...we tend to make portion sizes for 2 or 4 and you don't need a full package for that)
3 Tbsp Seggiano Raw Basil Pesto (this stuff ROCKS - you can find it at most Whole Foods)
1-2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 410 degrees.

Toss all of the veggies in a baking pan and coat with olive oil. Roast in the oven for 45-65 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before handling.

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain, and return to pot. Coat pasta with olive oil and  pesto.

Serve by placing pasta in a bowl and topping with roasted veggies. Voila! Take that Nemo!

Rice Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Rice Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Instant Vermicelli Rice Noodles - about half a container 

1 package of flax tempeh, chopped into small 1/2-inch cubes

1 Tbsp olive oil 

1 yellow onion, diced 

5-6 cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 large carrot, sliced

1 1/2 cups broccoli, chopped

Peanut Sauce (modified from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Roberston):

1/2 cup crunchy honey roasted peanut butter 

1/3 cup Braggs Liquid Aminos

3 Tbsp rice vinegar

1 1/2 Tbsp light brown sugar

2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 tsp Asian chili paste

water

For the sauce, mix the peanut butter, Braggs, vinegar, and sugar. Add the oil, ginger, and chile paste and stir until smooth and well blended. Taste to adjust seasonings - we like it hot, so sometimes we add some cayenne pepper too. Add some water to achieve desired consistency - we like it to be fairly thick but wet enough to coat all of the veggies and noodles. 

Next prepare the tempeh - preheat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, add the tempeh cubes and brown on each side. Set aside. 

Using the same skillet, heat some olive oil and add the onions. Cook until translucent and then add the carrot. Cook until tender, and add mushrooms and broccoli, cooking through. 

Cook the rice noodles according to the package instructions. 

Mix a little bit of the sauce in with the rice noodles to coat. top with vegetables and more sauce. 

Chickpea Cutlet Parm with Homemade Tomato Sauce

One of my favorite foods when I was little was chicken parm. Coming from an Italian family, the dish was served at many family gatherings. I remember a warm house with lots of hugs and smiles and loud chattering at a crowded table.

20+ years later, I still crave good Italian food, but it's surprisingly hard to come by in the vegan world. When we go out to eat, our options are Thai, Indian, and Asian fusion. Most Italian places would cringe at not being able to use cheese or eggs in their preparations.

A while back, we prepared Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon (if you don't have this book - you need it. I promise). J remembered this and asked if I thought we could do a twist on Chicken Parm using them. I said, "Why not?!" and we've tried it out on friends twice now. Everyone loved it! Below you'll find our modified version of Isa's cutlets as well as J's homemade tomato sauce recipe. The sauce recipe makes a lot so be prepared to save some in your fridge for another meal or you can freeze it for one of those crazy nights when you don't have time to cook!

Chickpea Cutlet Parm with Homemade Tomato Sauce

Chickpea Cutlets (modified from Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero's cookbook Veganomicon):

Makes 4 cutlets

1 cup canned chickpeas, drained
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup of homemade vegetable stock
2 Tbsp Braggs or soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, grated with a microplane or minced
8-10 fresh basil leaves, chopped/minced
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1-2 fresh sage leaves, chopped/minced
1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika


In a mixing bowl, mash the chickpeas with the olive oil until there's no whole chickpeas left. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead for about 3-5 minutes, until strings of gluten have formed. If you've never used wheat gluten before, as you're kneading, you'll notice that the mixture will get a little more tough and you'll see these "strings" of the gluten forming. You aren't done until those have formed - that's what will hold it together and give it the meaty texture.

Next, divide the mixture in half, and then divide each half again so that you have four balls of dough. Knead each again for a moment or two and then stretch them out on a flat surface until they're formed into rectangles about 6 x 4-inches. They'll be fairly thin - about a 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Cook each cutlet for about 6-7 minutes on each side - browning them a bit.

Justin's Pasta Sauce
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow paper, chopped
1/3 to 1/2 of a poblano pepper, finely chopped
8-10 mushrooms, chopped or sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh thyme, removed from stem and chopped
1 vegan veggie bouillon cube (or 1 tsp bouillon powder)
Salt & pepper to taste (about 1 tsp each)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
2 six ounce cans tomato paste
1 twenty-eight ounce can crushed tomatoes
5-8 fresh tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup of red wine (make sure to get vegan red wine!)
1/2 cup of homemade vegetable stock (optional)

In a large pot, saute the onions, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, garlic, oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, and bullion cute in olive oil over medium heat until the onions are translucent. Stir in the brown sugar, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and red wine. Cover and let simmer on medium-low heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring often. If sauce is too thick, add stock.

Putting it All Together!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a baking pan, layer the bottom with tomato sauce and some fresh basil leaves. Lay the cutlets on top and top with a few spoonfuls of sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella flavored Diaya. Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes, until the cheese melts.

In the meantime, prepare a box of spinach linguine in lightly salted boiling water. When the pasta is al dente, save 1/2 a cup of the starchy pasta water and drain the pasta. Dump the drained pasta back into the pot with 1-2 Tbsp of Earth Balance, 1-3 ladles of pasta sauce, and the 1/2 cup of starchy pasta water.

Use tongs to plate by pulling mixed pasta out of the pot and twirling down onto the plate (this creates a neat pile that looks beautiful). Add a little more sauce on top. Place one of the cutlets next to the pasta and garnish with some fresh basil leaves.

Polenta "Caprese"

Caprese salad is made with some combination of fresh (uncooked) mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes. J made his own take on it using cooked and fresh ingredients and polenta to replace the mozzarella. It was incredibly delicious. The polenta was nice and crispy and the juice of the tomato softened it slightly. We used our own basil plants to top it off. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Polenta "Caprese"

Polenta, prepared in advance - J made a creamy polenta and veggie saute the previous night. We put the left overs into an 8 x 8" glass dish, spread it out smoothly, covered with plastic, and put it in the fridge. The next day, the polenta was nice and firm. We used a cookie cutter to cut it into circles and then sliced those circles in half (not through the top - through the side, still maintaining the circle shape). We had about 10 circles.
Roma Tomatoes - sliced into circles - one per polenta ring
Fresh basil
2 Tbsp Earth Balance
Olive oil

In a skillet, melt the Earth Balance. Fry each ring of polenta, allowing it to get a little darkened (we actually like a little char) and crispy.

In another skillet, add a little olive oil and heat the skillet. Fry each ring of tomato.

Plate: Alternate polenta and tomato slices, fanned out across the plate. Top with fresh basil leaves.

Spiced Lentils with Mashed Cauliflower and Delicata Squash

Spiced Lentils with Mashed Cauliflower & Delicata Squash

1 small yellow onion, diced
olive oil
1 small carrot, chopped
1 cup mixed french lentils
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cumin
salt
3/4 - 1.5 cups veggie stock (Depends on how soft you like your lentils. We like them a bit firm so I used 3/4 of a cup.)

1 small delicata squash, cut into rings and seeded

1 small head of cauliflower, chopped
2-3 Tbsp soy creamer or almond milk
1 1/2 Tbsp Earth Balance
salt & pepper
1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne

In a pot, cook the onions in some olive oil until translucent. Add carrots and cook until softened. Add in spices, lentils, and veggie stock. Cover and simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Once the liquid's absorbed and the lentils are cooked, remove from heat and set aside.

While the lentils are cooking, steam the delicata squash for 5-10 minutes until bright yellow-orange and tender. Remove from pot and set aside.

Steam the cauliflower for 20-30 minutes until very soft. I mean very - like falling apart soft. Remove from heat and drain off the water. Return cauliflower to the pot and mash with a potato masher after adding in Earth Balance, soy creamer, salt, pepper, and cayenne. After mashing it a bit, get it really smooth by transferring it to a food processor. Process until it looks like mashed potatoes.

To plate: Place a base of the mashed cauliflower in the center of a plate. Top with some of the lentil mixture and 2-3 squash rings. Sprinkle with a little salt and if you like, drizzle a little olive oil on top. Serve!

Serves 3-4.

Warm Breakfast Quinoa

So for the past few weeks I've been "sort of" doing the anti-inflammatory diet I mentioned several posts ago. The week I decided to start, I got a stomach virus and the only food I could keep down was pretzel rods - not all that gluten-free. Following my illness, I was pretty much on track until J and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary last week with a vacation to Vermont (more on that to come).

Although I've been loosely following this "diet," I must say, I do feel a bit better. I feel like I've got more energy and I'm not craving things quite as often. My general daily routine is to have my Warm Breakfast Quinoa dish around 7:30 a.m., then, as recommended by a former guest poster, I drink Bolthouse Farm's Green Goodness mixed with protein powder around 10:00 a.m. Sometimes I'll eat some almonds and pecans around 11:30 a.m. and then I have a salad lunch between 1-2:00 p.m. Occasionally I''l have some fruit in the afternoon at work, but I'm normally good until I get home. Dinner varies every night - last night J made polenta and veggies.

I thought I'd share my breakfast recipe with you, though. It's become a real favorite for me, topping my love of oatmeal even. It's warm and cozy in the early morning and packed with protein and antioxidants to get you on your feet. I make a big container of quinoa every week or so and I'm good to go for days. Remember - quinoa quadruples in size when you make it so a little does go a long way!

Warm Breakfast Quinoa
1/2 cup cooked mixed quinoa (I mix the red and plain quinoa - there's also black but our Whole Foods just stopped carrying it...which bums me out big time because it's my favorite kind!)
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 cup defrosted frozen or fresh blueberries
1 Tbsp Sunbutter
1 Tbsp local honey
1 Tbsp chopped pecans
almond milk

I begin preparing this overnight so that the chia seeds have time to plump up and aren't crunchy. If you make it the morning, I'd suggest removing the chia, unless you like crunchy tiny little seeds that get stuck in  your teeth. So the night before - I put the quinoa in a bowl and sprinkle on the chia. Then I mix in the blueberries and a splash of almond milk - just enough to absorb over night. I cover it up and leave it in the fridge.

The next morning, all of the milk is absorbed and the chia seeds have plumped up. I add in the sun butter and honey and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes. I sprinkle on the pecans and top with some more almond milk, just as you would with oatmeal.

Rice & Wheat Balls

Our fridge was empty last night - we're talking baron. We haven't gone food shopping all week because I wanted to clear out a lot of foods before starting to try out the anti-inflammatory diet on Monday. So last night felt sort of like that show Chopped where they put random things in front of you and tell you to create a meal.

Surprisingly, I was able to pull something together that was really tasty and, with the addition of more veggies next time, I think it's a keeper. We had a few of Nate's Savory Mushroom Meatless Meatballs floating around our freezer, about a cup of broccoli florets and stems, an onion, garlic clove, and the butt of some ginger. Oh, and rice. We always keep a stock of grains on our shelf, all lined up in Ball jars. There's rice, lentils (green and multi-colored), quinoa, polenta, arborio rice, couscous, amaranth, millet, buckwheat, and steel cut oats. It's nice to always have a stock of various grains and legumes - I recommend everyone stock their kitchens this way. It makes nights when the kitchen's bare go a little easier!


Rice & Wheat Balls

2 cups uncooked brown rice
5 cups homemade vegetable stock, or water
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 inch of ginger, grated
1 cup chopped broccoli
5-6 Nate's Savory Mushroom Meatless Meatballs (or whatever brand you choose)
1/2 cup fresh basil
olive oil

Sauce:
1/4 cup Hoisin Sauce
2 Tbsp roasted red chili paste
2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

Cook your rice in a rice cooker with the vegetable stock (you can also use water, but the veggie stock really imparts a great flavor and I recommend you try it at least once).

Defrost the Meatless Meatballs in the microwave.

While rice is cooking, put a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the onions. Once onions are translucent, add garlic and ginger. Then Meatless Meatballs and cook until nice and browned. Add the broccoli and basil and cook. I like it when things get a little charred - but cook it to your preference. Then remove from heat and set aside.

Mix together the sauce ingredients - those aren't exact measurements as I don't normally measure things out when I'm making sauces so just taste and make sure you like it.

To serve:
Put some rice in the bottom of a bowl (you'll have more rice than you need - yay! left overs for another dish) and top with veggies. There were enough for 2 servings, but if you added more veggies you'd get 4 probably. Serve with sauce on the side. I'd like to try adding some mango in the future - I think it would go with the flavors really well and add some natural sweetness.

Guest Post by Lindsay!

Today we continue our theme on how to be a vegan on the go! Below is a post written by a fellow vegan who lives in New York. She's a busy artist in graduate school who doesn't have time to fuss with complicated recipes. Lindsay proves that it's easy to be a vegan on the go if you put a little thought and planning into it.



TIPS ON BEING A TIME EFFICIENT VEGAN
Being a gluten-free, soy-free (even coconut-free) vegan is not always the easiest thing
when you are out and about all the time. Plus, I am a full-time student commuter. Fast
food or even supposed “health food” venues are not always friendly to my way of eating.
I have, however, come up with the perfect way to pack food and prepare for the day that
stays within my restrictions, tastes yummy, and treats my body right…in just one hour (I
do a variation of this EVERY morning…so if I can do this, so can you). Think of it as a
morning food meditation. If you set your alarm one hour earlier tomorrow, and continue
to do it one day at a time, by the end of the week you will be used to it, and you will
naturally start going to bed earlier. This way, you won’t be grabbing unhealthy
snacky foods, wasting money on food out, or wasting time trying to read every
label in a store to find something you CAN eat.

Let’s go through this step-by-step.

1) Put brown rice and water into rice cooker (this takes one hour). I cook 2 cups of dry
rice (with 4.5 cups of water) at a time, and it stays good in my fridge for 3-4 days. I can
eat brown rice (in lieu of oatmeal) as a breakfast cereal, add it to my salads, or throw it
into an evening stir-fry to make fried rice. I can even make a quick rice dessert pudding.
It is ridiculously easy and good for you. Make sure you always have some on hand. To
make it extra delicious, soak the rice overnight, and the texture turns out creamy. You
wont be able to go back to using non-soaked rice. It also adds to the nutritional value of
the rice and ensures that it is clean (we’ve been hearing in the news about all that arsenic
in rice, so it’s never a bad idea to do an overnight soak). In an extra hurry?? Put on rice
first first thing before you even brush your teeth, and it will be done before you know it.

2) Put on oatmeal water. I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats. One
serving needs one cup of water. When it boils (after about 3 minutes), I add ½ a cup of
oats, and let it cook until most of the water has evaporated. Then I let it sit for 2 minutes.
While this is cooking, I prepare my fixings. I add these things to a bowl: 1 tablespoon of
chia seeds, 1 tablespoon of ground flax, 1 tablespoon of cacao powder, 4-6 strawberries, a
banana, two tablespoons of SunButter, and a sprinkle of salt. Then when the oatmeal has
finished sitting, I add it to my bowl, add a little almond milk, and the effect is divine. It’s
like dessert for breakfast, but every ingredient is good for you. I use Himalayan sea salt
and unsweetened almond milk. Take your vitamins with this and drink some green tea,
and you will be ready to face even the toughest of days.

Note: If I’m really in a rush, I eat my breakfast while I am preparing my food for the day.
The macrobiotic people would censure me, but we’re talking about efficiency here!

3) Packing snacks. I need to pack at least 2 snacks each day. Usually I pack some
conglomeration of: raw nuts and dried fruit, an apple or any other fruit (sometimes with
nut butter), some carrot sticks or other vegetables (sometimes with hummus), a health bar
(the brands that I like are Macrobars, Luna Bars, Pulsin' Bars), and rice, corn, or kale chips.
And the amount that I need depends on whether I make a smoothie or not as I leave the
house…I’ll get to this in step 8.

4) A cooler and lots of food storage containers. You are going to need a cooler of some
sort if you are going to be gone all day with no access to a refrigerator. As a student I
don’t have any fridge access. I use a cold compress and an aluminum water bottle filled
with ice inside of a soft cooler that I got at Whole Foods. It keeps the contents cold and
food safe for at least 8 hours (as long as there’s no dairy or meat…but if you are vegan,
you have no need to worry).

5) 2-4 BIG salads at once. Always make more than one salad at a time. Salads take a
long time to prepare, and it’s way easier to just cut up a few extra vegetables than it is
to pull out all the vegetables again and again. If I have leftovers from the night before,
I only need to pack one salad for the day; otherwise, I eat one for lunch and dinner. To
put into your salads: any kind of vegetable that you want. Be creative. If you aren’t
creative and need help, today my salad consisted of: mixed greens, chick peas, avocado,
red onion, kalamata olives, carrots, and cucumber. Anything goes. Dressing lately has
been balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, and flax oil with a few herbs from my spice rack.
Simple yet delicious.

6) While you are waiting for your rice to finish: read the newspaper, empty the
dishwasher, check email, write out your to do list for the day, check your Facebook, go
to the bathroom, take a shower, put on your makeup, brush your teeth etc, etc. Pack up 2
servings (3-4 cups) in a preferably glass container and continue to step 7.

7) Putting it all together. So, today, you are going to eat:
breakfast: oatmeal and fixins
snack 1: green smoothie (step 8)
lunch: fun salad with brown rice and balsamic vinegar, an apple
snack 2: raw cashews, raw almonds, dried figs & gogi berries (or any other snack
from the list)
dinner: leftovers from last night OR fun salad #2, with brown rice and balsamic
vinegar, and an extra fun snack.

Put all of these things into your cooler. Pack a fabric napkin and metal silverware (let’s
be good to the environment too). And you are almost ready to go.

8) Just before you head out the door, make a GREEN SMOOTHIE. The most efficient
way of doing this is buying a pre-made green drink (my favorite is the Bolthouse Farms
Green Goodness, but Odwalla and other companies make them too), and throw it in a
blender with a serving of protein power. This becomes your morning snack that you can
sip on for an hour or so while you are commuting, or in my case during my first class of
the day. There are thousands of green smoothie recipes to be found online if you feel
more creative or have 4 extra minutes (I don’t always).

Please note: If you are sick of brown rice, you can use other grains to supplement,
such as making a quick cold quinoa salad with chick peas, red onion, cherry tomatoes,
cucumbers, turmeric, and cumin.

There are thousands upon trillions of variations to my morning routine and food listed here, but this serves as a basic day. Sometimes I buy a veggie sushi at a local supermarket for my dinner and eat it with a bag of chips.

Also, please note: If you are wondering about all the dishes this creates, sometimes I
have time to wash them and throw them in the dishwasher right at the moment, and other
times I don’t, so I fill them with water and leave them until I get home at night (at 10pm
sometimes?!?). I tell myself that soaking the oatmeal pan, oatmeal bowl, and blender is
the best way. How you do your dishes is up to you, but if you do this every day, you’ll
find the dishes do themselves.

9) Go about your day as usual and wait for people to be impressed with how prepared
you are for your life! Remember efficiency is key. Time is money.

Lindsay Garcia
www.lindsaygarcia.com
lindsaydgarcia@gmail.com

Snacks!

I'll admit it - I am just one of those people who loves to snack. I could easily eat snacks all day long instead of three main meals. But vegan snacking can be tricky - especially when you're on the go - so here are my top 6 favorites:

1. Nuts and Dried Fruit
Seriously cannot go wrong here. You're packing in the protein, the fruits satiate that craving you have for something sweet and this is totally portable. But here's the trick - experiment with combinations. It will blow your mind. I always start with a 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill it with varying combinations. I buy all my nuts and dried fruit in the bulk aisle at Whole Foods (don't buy trail mix - it's ridiculously expensive and I find that I eat more when it comes already mixed together!) - but here's the cost saving trick: compare the price per pound on the bulk bin to the price per pound on the packaged ones they have in the same aisle. Sometimes the packaged is cheaper! Here are some of my all time favorite combos:

Raw Almonds + Raw Pecans + Dried Sour Cherries + (vegan chocolate pieces if you really need chocolate)

Raw Almonds + Pepitas + Lightly Salted Sunflower Seeds + Dried Cranberries

Raw Cashews + Dried Blueberries + Hazelnuts

Pepitas + Lightly Salted Sunflower Seeds + Dried Cranberries + Pecans + Almond Slivers

2. Toast with Avocado and Flax Seed Oil
Ok, not so great for on the go but this is seriously one of my all time favorite snacks. I toast one slice of bread, then pour about a teaspoon of flax seed oil on it and spread it around, then I take some avocado (maybe a quarter) and I mash it on top of the bread and top it with some sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I just ate a slice...nom nom nom.

3. Fruit
No-brainer. Fruit's one of the most portable snacks you can find. Bananas, berries, and apples are my favorites because they're the least messy. I will never bring an unpeeled orange to work. NEVER. I can just see orange juice spraying all over the papers on my desk; squirting a co-worker in the eye. Temporary blindness! Yea, not happening.

4. Dates stuffed with Pistachio
Remember that detox J and I did last winter? This was one of my favorite snacks. Buy a container of pitted diglet dates from Whole Foods and raw pistachios. Put pistachios in a food processor and process the heck out of them. It becomes a sort of powdery-ish pistachio paste. Slice the dates open, stuff them with the pistachio paste and top it with some unsweetened shredded coconut. I have an extreme sweet tooth as you may have guessed (after all, I am a baker) and this totally does the trick when I'm going out of my mind with cravings.

5. Hummus
You really can't go wrong with hummus. We always make ours at home because, well, for one thing it's cheaper, for a second, we can make it ANY flavor we want, and for a third we know where our ingredients are coming from and it's super duper fresh. Here's recipes for our Cucumber-Dill Hummus and our Ginger-Lime Hummus. It's not hard, I promise. I like to dip in sliced veggies - but sometimes we'll use it as a condiment on a sandwich too.

6. Pop Cakes
So Pop Cakes are these crazy things they sell at Whole Foods and our cat Bob is addicted to them. We like them too. They're sort of like rice cakes, only more compact and they don't fall apart or taste like cardboard. They're so versatile! Have them with hummus, PB&J, tapenade, Tofutti - the possibilities are endless.

Guest Post by Liz!

The following is a guest post by my friend Liz who lives in Washington, D.C. She has a busy life, working as an environmental specialist and fostering shelter dogs in her spare time. Like many of us, she doesn't always have the time or energy to commit to making gourmet vegan food in the kitchen. Read below for Liz's awesome simple quinoa dinner recipe:

Last night I got home late, hungry, and tired. I didn't want something fancy. I didn't want to fuss with a cookbook. I didnt' want to run to the grocery store. So I thought about what I had on hand and it reminded me of an amazing meal I had at a DC restaurant awhile ago.

That meal was quinoa and roasted veggies in a balsamic reduction. It was decadent and delicious. So this recipe feeds 4 and is very filling - the two tall, meat-eating guys I live with ate every last bite but didn't need seconds.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa (I used red)

1 zucchini, sliced and quartered

Olive oil

2 cloves minced garlic (or as much as you like)

Small amount of minced onion - I used red for a bit of a kick

Dried or fresh basil, or Italian herb blend

Balsamic vinegar

Directions: 

Start the quinoa cooking, then prep your veggies while it's boiling.

1. Cook the quinoa (if you don't know how, this is how I did it: for a cup of quinoa, fill the pot with a cup and a half of water, turn on the heat to about medium, rinse the quinoa, add the quinoa. Once the water gets to a boil, lower the heat so you have a simmer going. Stir the quinoa now and then.  I have no idea how long I cook it for - I just watch for the little white tendrils to appear on the side of each quinoa seed. With red quinoa it's easy to tell because the seeds will "pop" and you can see the translucent insides of them.) Once it's done, turn off the heat, drain any leftover water, fluff it with a fork and transfer it to a large bowl.

2. In a skillet, heat 1 T of olive oil, the garlic, and onions. Once the onions turn translucent, add the zucchini, turning the pieces over to brown both sides, about 10 minutes total.

3. In a small bowl, make a simple balsamic vinaigrette with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and whatever herbs you like (I recommend basil, or an Italian blend), plus some salt and pepper. Whisk with a fork and taste test by dipping some bread or a cracker into the dressing.  I don't measure when I make my vinaigrette - I do it on sight and taste. For this recipe, I went heavy on the vinegar.

4. Your quinoa should be done by now - transfer it to a large bowl, and add your vinaigrette to the pot the quinoa was in (this step is optional). On low heat, stir your vinaigrette for a few minutes.

5. Transfer the zucchini to the big bowl with the quinoa. Pour in the balsamic sauce and stir. Set aside.

7. Plate!

The meateaters were as in love with this dish as me. It gets even better the more veggies you use, but we were just working with a limited supply. Beets are fantastic in this as well - you get the whole sweet-savory mix going on. Caramelized onions would work too.

It couldn't be quicker and easier, and it was definitely a crowd pleaser. Only uses 1 pot, 1 skillet and 1 bowl, so it's easy cleanup too!

Orange-Clove Pancakes

I woke up this morning before J and really wanted to make a yummy pancake breakfast. I started thinking about my favorite fall smells and remembered how, when I was a kid, we used to take oranges and stick cloves in them and bake them in the oven to dry them out. I always loved the rich, sweet smell  and started craving it this morning. I also had left over raspberry sauce from a cake order I made on Friday and thought this would be a great way to use some up.

Orange-Clove Pancakes
Makes 5-8 pancakes

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves, plus extra to sprinkle on top
2 Tbsp canola oil
1/3 cup juice squeezed from an orange (I used the juice of one medium orange)
1 cup almond milk
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 to 1 1/2 tsp orange extract (depending on how strong you want the flavor to be)
2 oranges (one for juicing and one zested and sliced with pith removed)

Cooking spray

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Form a well in the middle and add the oil, orange juice, almond milk, maple syrup, and orange extract. Mix until ingredients are combined. Stir in orange zest. It's ok if there are a few lumps left over.

Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Once hot (2-5 minutes) spray with cooking spray. I used a measuring cup for 1/3 of a cup to measure out each pancake. Don't flip your pancake until there are a bunch of little bubbles on top - be patient! If you flip too early it can be messy. Once you're all done, serve them as you like.

I served them with raspberry sauce drizzled around then edge and then placed sliced orange on to top of the pancakes and a few fresh raspberries. I sprinkled the tops of the pancakes and the oranges with some ground cloves and served with some maple syrup on the side.


Before J came out, I cleared off our coffee table and set up a little brunch breakfast with a pot of freshly made tea from Dobra. It was certainly a nice way to start the day!

Tahini Rice Noodles Revisited

Remember how I made Tahini Rice Noodles the other day? Well, after an awesome session at Springboard Pilates and a brusque walk home, I felt like a big plate of veggies, rice noodles, and tahini again! I took a picture this time so you can actually see what it looks like. Made a few changes such as adding zucchini, carrot, and white turnip and not using bell pepper. I also included a few shakes of dulse granules on top for some seaweed-goodness. And again, it's delicious.

Let me just mention that the kale, red cabbage, white turnip, zucchini, carrot, yellow beans, and radish are all from our farm share through Snell Family Farm. It's incredible how amazing it feels to eat food that was picked a few days ago and didn't need to travel from California or New Mexico to get to your plate. Farm share = do it. You will thank me.

Also, I'm seriously love tahini, you guys. I might need an intervention; I almost added it to my oatmeal this morning.

Veganized Heirloom Tomato Galette

I might be mildly addicted to Pinterest. But at least I actually use my boards and don't just randomly pin things that get left forgotten for months. A while back, I saw this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Tartelette, for Heirloom Tomato Galette and I pinned it, knowing I would figure out a way to make a vegan version. Well, that day is here, my friends! Well, it was here...

Saturday was one of the first really chilly nights of the season and, while I love to go walk around the town, I was craving a night in with my guy - snuggling while watching a movie, cooking together, drinking wine - perfect fall night. So below are my chances to Tartelette's recipe for those of us of the vegan persuasion. In the future I'm going to make my own dough. I got super lazy and just bought multi-grain pizza dough from Whole Foods, which is mighty different from the pastry dough called for in the recipe. But even so, it was delicious. My favorite part is folding over the crust. It creates a "stuffed crust" illusion that's really yummy and surprising. With the rest of our pizza dough, J made an awesome Stromboli. It was a yummy, warm, cuddly kind of night!

Veganized Heirloom Tomato Galette
Modified from Tartelette

Dough:
Ok, like I said, I took the easy road and bought ready-made pizza dough. But you can easily modify her recipe by subbing in a stick of Earth Balance.

Ricotta Filling:
Remember those awesome Flatbreads we made from Post Punk Kitchen? We took the creamy spread, sans scallions, red peppers, and with only 1 Tbsp lemon juice, and used that in place of ricotta. J also used it in the Stromboli.

Topping:
4 heirloom tomatoes
Fresh herbs straight from our windowsill: oregano, basil, & cilantro

So we made it according to her directions using our substitutions, and then popped it in the oven, but only for about 30-40 minutes - remember - we were working with pizza dough not pastry!

It was easy-peezey to make and proves, yet again, that any recipe can be turned into a delicious, cruelty-free meal! Try it veganizing your favorite recipes and if you need advice on substitutions, just leave me a comment and I'll try to help you out!

Tahini Rice Noodles

Tahini Rice Noodles
8 oz wide rice noodles
1/2 to 3/4 cup red cabbage
1 kale stem with leaves removed
1/4 cup orange bell pepper, sliced
1 crimini mushrooms, diced
1 large radish, thinly sliced
4-5 yellow string beans
1-2 Tbsp light tahini paste
1/2 tsp Braggs
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp flax seed oil
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Cook rice noodles as indicated on package. Drain and rinse with cold water. Return to pot and toss with flax seed oil. Let sit.

In a small skillet, heat olive oil. Add radish and bell pepper and cook through (I like them to get a little blackened). Add in mushrooms and string beans. Cook through. Add Braggs and then add cabbage and kale and cook only until the kale's bright green. Remove from heat.

Toss room temp rice noodles with tahini. Add veggies and toss. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper.

Serves 2.


The majority of this dish was made using produce from our farm share with Snell Family Farm!

Roasted Root Veggie Soup

So it's been over a month, hasn't it. I'm sorry friends! We moved at the end of July into an awesome third floor apartment in a historic building. We're talking staircase, 2 bedrooms, wide window sills, all utilities included - bam! We lucked out :)

Other than that, work is super duper hectic right now and I'm usually wiped by the time I get home and, sadly, writing a post is the last thing on my mind. But here I am again with a new recipe for you - it's my "I'm sorry let's make up" present on this late August night.

So the recipe - tonight I whipped up a Roasted Root Veggie Soup sans potatoes. Don't get me wrong, I love potatoes, but sometimes they seem to weigh things down and I really wanted the flavors of some of our unsung root veggie heroes to shine through. I'll admit this is not a pretty soup - it's kind of beige/yellowish and lumpy....but dang it was tasty! Try it out! It's good warm or cold.

Roasted Rood Veggie Soup
Serves 3-4

1 medium sized turnip, peeled & chopped
1 small rutabaga, peeled & chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
3 carrots, peeled & chopped
6 unpeeled garlic cloves
1 small leek, thinly sliced
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
1 tsp fresh or dried rosemary
4 cups veggie stock
1-2 Tbsp red pepper flakes
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place veggies in a foil lined pan and drizzle with oil. Roast about one hour.

Meanwhile, create a little foil pocket for the garlic and drizzle with oil. Roast separately from other veggies, about 30 minutes.

Unwrap veggies, let cool a bit. Squeeze garlic from skin (be careful! it's super hot and the oil can burn!) Set aside.

Heat 1-2 Tbsp oil in a pot over medium heat. Add leek and cook until tender, 6-8 mins. Add veggies, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and veggie stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring it up to a boil and then reduce to simmer, 5-10 mins. Remove from heat. Puree using a blender or immersion blender - the latter is recommended! Season to taste.