Cold Dinners For Hot Nights

Lately we haven't been making many heated dishes. We live in an un-air conditioned apartment and when we're feeling over-heated and tired from work, the last thing we want is a warm plate full of heavy foods. So on Saturday, I peered into the fridge and realized we still had two large containers of veggie stock and a bunch of containers collecting more veggie remnants to make yet more stock - what to do when you're over stocked! It's hot out; Yoga Soup is out of the question.

I remembered when I was growing up my mom used to make us vichyssoise (vee-she-swa) in the summer. Many of you are saying, "Vee-she-what-now?!" It's okay - I'll walk you through this one. Vichyssoise, as defined by Wikepedia is "a thick soup made of pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock" and is usually served cold. Apparently there's a debate over its origins - French or American - but Julia Childs calls it an "American invention" and at the very least, this vegan version is! 

I followed the VegWeb Hot Pepper Vichyssoise recipe posted by queen-o-hearts. After roasting the potatoes, leeks, pablano, jalapeno, garlic, and spices, I could have just eaten a bowl of the veggies. They were deliciously spiced and honestly, who doesn't love roasted veggies?! They'd taste great chilled and served over greens.

Roasted veggies

The soup was easy to make and tasted delicious warm and cold. Despite the heaviness of some of the ingredients - potatoes...soy milk - it was actually light and refreshing and had a slight after-kick. As I was making the soup, our furbaby Bob was trying very hard to distract me....

A cat's life is rough, man.

To accompany the soup, I made Spicy Tempeh with Asparagus, Ginger, and Chile from a new blog discovery, A Profound Hatred of Meat. I'm so glad I stumbled across this blog because blogger Carly Sitner has got some fabulous recipes - check it out! I modified the recipe a little using Lalibela Farm's Black Bean Tempeh, ground ginger (sad face, we were out of fresh), and chili flakes because we didn't have any fresh chiles. It came out pretty good, but Justin thinks we should use less rice wine vinegar when marinating the tempeh because it seemed to really take on the vinegary taste. I'll either cut that in half or eliminate it next time I try the recipe. 

Hot Pepper Vichyssoise, Tempeh & Asparagus, and Quinoa/Flax Seed Bread from Whole Foods

All in all it was a great dinner that was not too hot and heavy - perfect for a mid-summer's night! These two recipes are keepers, folks.

Making do with an emptying fridge

Last night, after finishing my last baking order for the week, I peered into the fridge for dinner ideas. A lone cucumber, bag of carrots, and emptying jar of salsa stared back at me, daring me to make my move. As I uttered comments of discontent, Justin yelled in and said, "Let's just order out." I thought about it, but then I thought, No way! We need to save money because we may be moving in a month or two and we've eaten out too much lately (our original goal of one eat out pass per month has fallen by the wayside recently). I mustered up courage, flung the fridge back open, and rolled up my sleeves.

Our pantry is always well stocked with grains, so I pulled out the rice cooker and started a batch of brown rice. Then I heated a skillet with some olive oil and added the rest of an onion - less than a 1/4 cup, but hey, at least it didn't get wasted. After the onion was cooked, chopped up 3 carrots and threw those in. I followed with beans and some spices, and ended up with a really nice Mexican rice and beans dish. Ta-da! My man even went back for seconds. Here's my recipe:

Odds & Ends Mexican Rice & Beans
2 cups brown rice
olive oil
onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 tomato, diced
1/2ish veggie stock
1 can garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1/3-1/2 cup TVP
Mild - hot salsa
salt & pepper
chili flakes
chili powder
cayenne pepper

Heat the onion in olive oil over medium heat. Once onions are translucent, add carrots and cook until they are tender. Add veggie stock, beans, and TVP and cover. Let the mixture simmer covered for a while, allowing the beans to soften, stirring occasionally. You may need to add more veggie stock or water as it gets soaked up pretty fast by the TVP and beans. After 10 mins or so, add in the tomato (I did it here because I didn't want them soggy, but you could add them earlier) and salsa and mix. Add spices - I didn't measure, so just be mindful of how spicy you want it to be.

Serve the mixture hot over the brown rice, or mix it all together and then serve.
Makes 4-5 servings.

And of course after dinner, there were cookies left over from the 3 orders I had this week, so dessert was a cinch :)

Vegan Linzer Tarts

Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography

So I took some leftovers for lunch, and also brought some cucumber salad. Cucumber salad is SO easy to make and so refreshing when it's hot outside. Pick up some fresh dill and cukes at your local farmers market and just chop them up, throw them in a container with some white wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and let it sit in the fridge for a day or so. Yum!

Lunch: Mexican beans without the rice, cucumber salad, grapes, and a small salad with radish and hummus.

Today's lesson: Even when you think there's nothing in your kitchen, try to make it work and you might surprise yourself with a new recipe. You just need to think outside the box and let the ingredients you have on-hand inspire you!

Spicy Noodles With Shitake Mushrooms And Mustard Greens

I knew tonight was going to be a hectic one, so as I was leaving work I jumped onto VegWeb to find a quick and easy recipe for dinner. Ta Da - Spicy Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Mustard Greens. We made a bunch of modifications, listen closely:

-Much less rice noodles because 10.5 ounces is A LOT!

-Sans green onions just because we didn't have any

-Dandelion Greens instead of Mustard Greens because Whole Foods didn't have mustard ones

-Serrano chilies because WF didn't have the Thai chilies

-Braggs instead of soy sauce

-Vegan Mushroom Sauce 

-Asian Garlic Chili Paste instead of Sweet Chili Sauce

-No mint leaves

-Added veggies: edamame and broccoli

-Added seitan 

We made it with more liquid so that it was more like a soup and it came out really well - nice and spicy. My fiance didn't like the greens, I of course loved them. I love the slightly bitter taste of them paired with the spice and the sweetness of the carrots. 

I was perusing on of my newest favorite blogs, Vegansaurus, which led me to the blog The Vegan Stoner. This blog is fantastic - all simple, yummy looking recipes with beautiful photos and adorable doodles. The creators are currently working on a cookbook and I'm super excited to see it. We will certainly be trying some of their recipes in the next few weeks! 

Left-over Veggie Syndrome

I looked into the fridge this afternoon and noticed that we've got all these odds and ends and a shit-ton of veggie stock. I also noted that we have 4 containers of veggie ends waiting to be made into stock for next week. Eep! Stock overload!

I figured the easiest way to use up a quart or two of stock would be to just make some soup, but like I said, most of what was lurking in the fridge was sort of random. And so, voila, Random Soup was born! Honestly, 9 times out of 10 you do not need to hit up the food store when your pantry's getting low, you just need to switch on some creativity!

I wanted to serve a salad with my Random Soup so I started by roughly chopping up an onion, 3 carrots, 2 russet potatoes, some left over eggplant, garlic, and some Portland Winter Farmers Market goodies - a turnip, golden turnip, and rutabaga. I tossed them all into a roasting pan with some olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme and let them roast for about 1.5 hours, stirring every once in a while.

 Portland Farmers Market goodies: Olivia's Garden Greens, Turnip, Golden Turnip, Rutabaga, & some kind of potato that looks like a large version of fingerlings

After the soup was completed, I served it with the cooled root vegetables on top of Olivia's Garden greens, also from the Farmers Market. You could use some dressing if you want, but I think the flavors of the roasted veggies against the crisp salad greens are glorious and that a dressing would just cloud the flavors. 

Here's the soup recipe, but I didn't measure things so the measurements are just guestimates. I recommend you try making soup from the random odds and ends in your fridge too - it's pretty fun :o) 

Random Soup

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, sliced

1/2 eggplant, cubed

1 can black beans

1 can white beans

1-2 cups of kale, chopped

salt & pepper

cumin

turmeric

cayenne 

3/4 cup wild rice

Lots of veggie stock 

In a large pot, saute onion in olive oil until soft. Add carrot and cook until softened. Then add beans and eggplant - cook 1-2 minutes. Add kale last and cook until it turns dark green and has softened a little. Add spices to the saute mix and saute for a while until the flavors combine. Then add veggie stock followed by rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 30-60 minutes until rice has softened and flavors are combined. Add spices if needed. 

Valentine's Day Delight!

We stayed in for Valentine's Day because, let's face it, most resturants are jam-packed and many serve a "special," highly limited menu, which makes vegan options scarce. Besides, nothing says "I love you" like a homecooked meal!

I've been getting into stews, soups, and chowders lately. With the cold weather upon us, these hearty dishes warm us up in a jiffy. So last night we decided on Vegan Black Bean and Corn Chowder. One word: YUM. I packed some of the left over chowder for lunch today and had it cold - and even cold, it tastes delish!

Lunch: Left-over Chowder, Fresh cut veggies and a banana with peanut butter



Recipe? Here we go...this one's coming from my head so pardon any mistakes!

Vegan Black Bean & Corn Chowder
1 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
1.5 cups frozen corn, defrosted
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
salt & pepper to taste
3 cups of veggie stock (make you're own! it's EASY!)
1.5 cups textured vegetable protein

In a large pot over medium heat, cook onions & garlic in some olive oil. Cover and let them get soft, about 5 mins. Add beans, tomatoes, corn & spices. Add veggie stock and simmer. Taste and add salt & pepper to your liking. Add the TVP and let the chowder simmer, uncovered, for about 30-45 minutes. The TVP will soak up a lot of the juice, so it will look brothy at first but then get nice and thick. Add more stock if you need to thin it out. Serve hot!



I prepared the chowder, my boyfriend prepared the drinks: champagne with a hibiscus flower floating on the bottom and some hibiscus syrup mixed in - gloriously romantic. It was certainly a wonderful Valentine's Day meal :)

What a crock!

Sunday - I looked at my calendar for this week and felt anxious. A stressful work week, several after work obligations, etc. Something I've learned as I've embarked on this vegan journey is that I cannot just "wing-it" for dinner. I need a plan in place. Whether it's a recipe from our coveted Vegan on the Cheap, something we've made up in the past, or homemade pizza, I need a plan. So I looked at our busiest nights and the nights I thought, "Wow, I am not going to want to come home to cook" and I remembered my faithful old crock pot.

Now I had always thought that crock pots were for cooking meat balls, or sausage, or chili, or beefy stew. But low-and-behold, Vegan on the Cheap's got an entire slow-cooker section and just do a search on "slow cooker" on VegWeb and the possibilities are endless!

My yellow and maroon crock pot, handed down to my from my grandmother, was sitting below a shelf on our kitchen floor collecting dust. This old girl may not be new and flashy with all of the nicer amenities like a timer or alarm, but I knew she'd get the job done. I set my alarm for 6:20am the next day, hopped out of bed and threw a bunch of veggies into the deep marroon basin - onion, carrots, black beans, kale - some spices - cumin, salt, pepper, paprika - 5 cups of homemade veggie stock, and set the dial to low.

9 hours later, I'm greeted at the front door by a hungry crying kitty and an amazing aroma filling every space of our apartment. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to come home to the smell of food that's been cooking all day and know that all you'll need to do is wash the dishes. Exhausted from a long day at work, my boyfriend and I grabbed bowls and ate the hearty stew like Black Beans & Kale Soup while watching LOST in bed. A perfect end to a tiring day.

We'll call it....Neat Joseph!

Last night, after an exhausting day, my boyfriend and I were relaxing and realized we still hadn't eaten dinner around 9pm. I was starving and had NO desire to cook. So, my ingenious boyfriend gets an idea-- he takes a can of Manwich (which, surprisingly, is vegan- no joke!) and cooks it with some left over rice, TVP (he cooked the rice and TVP with a little veggie stock and soy sauce in the microwave first), fresh spinach, and some cayenne pepper. We toasted some bread and made amazing sandwiches!

I was standing there in the kitchen and I said, "Well we just can't call these Vegan Sloppy Joes." I'm tired of naming vegan food after other food that already exists---I don't want it to taste like a real Sloppy Joe...I don't like meat and don't expect or want it to taste like meat. So my boyfriend exclaims, "I've got it! We'll call it Neat Joseph!" Love it.

So we took our Neat Joseph's into the bedroom where the plugin electric heater was warming up the room, shut the doors, dove under the covers, and had dinner in bed while continuing our LOST re-marathon. The sandwiches were wonderfully filling and nice and warm on a bitterly cold night. This was an easy dinner and I totally recommend it for those nights when you're in a rush or just want something fast. And...the awesome part, it was wicked cheap. I mean, think about it- the can of Manwich is less than a dollar and we buy TVP in bulk. Good job, boyfriend :)

Pizza! Pizza!

There are two major reasons I decided to start this blog:

1. To hold myself accountable to my new vegan lifestyle and my goal to lose 60 pounds in a year. I will be gloriously honest with all of you over the course of this year and hope to think of you as a source of encouragement- my cheerleaders, if you will.

2. To de-mystify the vegan lifestyle. Although the city I live in is primarily liberal and open-minded, I keep running into individuals who look at me as though I'm an alien when I tell them I don't eat meat. Is it really that strange to you? Some of the things I hear around the water-cooler at work are mildly offensive and just proposterous and, moreover, indicate to me that many people don't even know what it means to be vegan and jump to their own conclusions. I am not a hippie. I'm not a free-spirited-Berkinstock-wearing-fairy-loving-spiritualist. I am a young professional working in corporate America who wears suits to work and drives a Chevy Impala. You don't have to be a "type" of person to be vegan. Yet, people who don't understand lump us into a category and treat us as "different." I get frustrated and angry, but what's the point! This blog is to help educate so that I can turn that anger into something positive.

Ok- so are you ready for yesterday's menu? It was wicked good, I promise! And I must tell you, I hopped on the WiiFit last night and found that I've lost 2.5 lbs in 3 days- horrah! Clearly eliminating cheese from my diet is doing some good.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with Fruit Compote
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup of water
pinch of salt
The left over fruit salad from last night's dessert
1/2 cup Almond Milk

Cook the oats, water, & milk in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir in the fruit salad from last night's dessert (never let anything go to waste!) and microwave for 30 seconds. Pour the almond milk on top and eat!

Lunch: Left-over rice with broccoli and snap peas
Left over rice from previous night's dinner, about 1 cup
1/3 cup homemade veggie stock
Handful of broccoli
Handful of snap peas
You can use whatever veggies you have on hand!
Pinch of sea salt

Put it all in a bowl and microwave for 2-3 mins. Yum!

Dinner: Pizza! Pizza! Night
1 lb pizza crust--- we got ours at the food store and used Portland Pie Wheat Dough (this may not be a completely vegan dough, but we were in a hurry; you could make your own vegan dough)
Stuff for pizza!

We made 2 pizzas- one with a sauce made from a diced tomato, pesto, and garlic then topped with vegetarian sausage and orange bell pepper and the other made with a base of pesto then topped with sauteed onion, tomato slices and fresh spinach. Bake them in the oven on a pizza stone for about 20 mins at 400 degress---Belissimo!

Dessert: Chocolate Surprise Brownies (From Vegan on the Cheap, with my modifications in red)
Makes 16 brownies

1 cup cooked or canned black beans, drained & rinsed
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp canola or other neutral oil
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ripe banana
2 Tbsp instant coffee (we didn't have instant so we just very finely ground 2 Tbsp of Coffee by Design's Ethiopian coffee)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegan semisweet chocolate chips (we didn't have vegan chips, but had a ton of regular since I run a baking service)
1/2 cup walnut pieces (optional) (we did not use these- the boyfriend HATES walnuts!)
1 cup frozen mixed berries, thawed in the microwave

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside. In a blender or food processor, combine blackbeans, sugar, & oil and blend until smooth. Add the banana, coffee, cocoa, and vanilla, and blend until smooth. Scrape the mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnut pieces, if using. Fold in mixed berries. 

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 mins.