Food I Made Then Ate + A New Zine

Chichi beans + basmati rice. I adapted this recipe from  Staten Italy: Nothin' but the Best Italian-American Classics, from Our Block to Yours (by the pizza cuz guys). I served it with leftover naan.

 

Southern-ish bowl: basmati rice topped with pan grilled spiced tofu, collard greens and black eyed peas. Hefty amounts of hot sauce included! I love collard greens - simply made with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper flakes. It is so comforting!

Not the best photo but whatever! Fried veggie dogs with ketchup, mustard and sauerkraut from the neighbor (the best ever!) on naan - because we love Trader Joe's naan. Fries with ketchup round out the meal.

I released the newest issue of The Stay at Home Girlfriend - #16 over the weekend, please check it out! It is full of cats, vegan recipes, music, mental health/self care, beer tastings and more!

Miyoko's Creamery Aged English Smoked Farmhouse Review

I got to finally try this much talked about product. I usually feel pretty bad when I drop $10 on a luxury product but had a gift card for Whole Foods and treated myself!

I crumbled half the wedge, almond milk and some pepper for a pasta sauce and mixed in some conchelie pasta. It was tasty and rich. I paired it with balsamic tofu and oven white beans, broccoli and baby zucchini in a olive oil, lemon, nooch and pepper marinade. This might be as fancy as I get guys!

I like the cheeze on it's own, nibbling on it delicately. It is also really good on whole grain crackers. I shared some with my neighbor who was impressed as well. I will have to try more flavors. I should note I never had fancy cheese growing up, I cannot compare it to non-dairy cheese of the past. I know tthough I just really like it! So far it has been in every Northern CA Whole Foods we have been too. Some locations have more flavors than others.

[Vegan MOFO] Mama Mia Monday - Simple Pasta Sauce

I recently bought the book The Glorious Vegetables of Italy - hoping it would inspire me and add more flair to my Italian dishes. First recipe I tried was the Simple Tomato Sauce - since it was cheap: I had garlic from the farmer's market, canned tomatoes, olive oil (always on hand!) and dried basil (I subbed the fresh for dried since Trader Joe's was my shopping store for the day and they do not have fresh basil ever...)

The sauce is good - a bit plain perhaps. I added a big pinch of nooch on top of the sauce with garlic bread (of course). The sauce calls for two cloves of garlic - I am thinking it needs 4 cloves or more, I did not really notice the garlic flavor. Also besides salt the only other spice/seasoning is basil. Next time it will get a kick of pepper, red pepper flakes and oregano.

I am still not done with the bags of organic pasta I got from Costco - good thing we like pasta! Also we scored more loaves of bread for garlic bread there this weekend! I never really had garlic bread growing up, bread from the oven at my grandmas would be olive oil and cheese...Mom would serve pasta with fresh bread from the store. Matt had garlic bread at home.Now we are all about the garlic bread! Garlic bread is now my comforting favorite!

[Veagn MOFO] Friday Finds - Vedge Sauce

A few months back while shopping in the bay area Matt and I went to Williams Sonoma - because we are fancy like that. Well, actually I was on the lookout for the sauces that VegNews posted about by Vedge Restaurant. After asking a few people and looking around we found them, I decided on the tamari sesame flavor and Matt plopped down $16 and we were good to go.

A sauce that costs as much as a meal was going to be saved for something special I told myself. Well, 2 weeks ago I forgot BBQ sauce for our weekly night of BBQ soy curls and as I scrambled around to find something to use I came across the sauce. I said why not and gave it a go.

Matt and I both like this sauce - I super really like it. It has a sweetness to it that is not to sweet, just a sweet kick. I taste garlic and giner along with other spices. It goes well with a bit of Sriracha or Middle Easter hot sauce thrown it to kick up the heat.I know $16 (with tax) is a lot for a sauce but I will buy it again. I am using a bit at a time so I can hold off on making it another pricy habit.

[Vegan MOFO Day 1] Mama Mia Monday - Zucchini Pasta

Family fact: My Grandma Cookies (that is what we called her due to her cookie jar) made my grandpa pasta everyday. Everyday it was some sort of pasta dish - I assume she switched it up. When we were over there I remember my grandma bringing a plate or bowl of pasta to my grandpa at the table.

Pasta holds a special place in my heart. First thing - I am a Sicilian girl - I love pasta, I have organs made of noodles, marinara blood and olive oil for life fluid in my brain! My mom - busy working mom would make pasta for us, not the way grandma did but using jar sauce, ground meat and a loaf of bakery bread...In high school when I went vegetarian she started making me my own little pot of sauce so I could eat it meat free. Sometimes there would be a salad on the side - with ranch dressing. I find the idea of ranch + tomato based Italian sauces so tasty when others think it is gross. Whatever! I made pasta for Matt and I about 2 years into our relationship, I bought quinoa pasta and made olive oil chocolate chip cookies for dessert. That night I discovered I am deathly allergic to quinoa and what a good guy Matt is, when he spent the night cleaning up my barf from the bedroom to the bathroom.

I do buy jars of sauces, doctor up loaves of bread from the store with a garlic-nooch-olive oil spread and do not eat pasta every day....BUT I make my own noodles - kind of...

Enter the spiralizer. After finding out Matt can tolerate zucchini this summer (it is green after all) I went zucchini crazy! My mom gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday and I read reviews and watched videos and decided on getting the GEFU Spirelli Spiral Cutter. I liked the size, the design and the ease of it.

I wanted to get my zucchini pasta on in full force but knowing Matt I knew he would not dig that. So I have been doing 1/2 whole wheat pasta noodles and 1/2 spiralized zucchini. After draining the cooked pasta, I toss in the spiral zucchini and toss in the marinara sauce, so everything is at the same temperature.This is a good way to get greens into your pasta, cut down on wheat and/or try something new. People often think pasta dishes have to be heavy - you can lighten things up this way and still have all the great classic taste!

Pumpkin Mac, Baked Tofu And Broccoli

 

I have had the pumpkin cheeze sauce from Oh She Glows in my to do recipe pile for awhile now. I finally got around to it and was not let down! It is really creamy and satisfying. I did not really get a pumpkin taste, the nutritional yeast does come into play though. I was hesitant to give it to Matt because well, it's pumpkin based and he is often odd about things like this. He liked it though and he said it went well with the broccoli. I also made baked tofu from Appetite For Reduction - since I am trying to cook along with the cook book challenge over on the PPK.

The broccoli is easy. Take a few cups of broccoli heads, steam in a pan with a lid and a few drops of water, till the water is gone ( a few minutes) on low heat. Add a bit of lemon olive oil to the pan, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a pinch of S&P and a nice sized pinch of red pepper flakes. Toss and cook for 2-3 minutes and serve!

This is a pretty fast meal - one of those 30 minute meals, if you do not count the tofu marinating for a hour. However that is down time and does that really count?

Easy Enchiladas

I love enchiladas but they have become rare around here because they take so much time and energy to make. I would make the sauce from scratch - 30 minutes and then roll each corn tortilla. I am kind of impatient!


Last night I experimented with making a easy sauce that turned out great and layering the tortillas instead of rolling them, it cut down the time and effort by 15+ minutes.

Easy Enchilada Sauce

3 tablespoons of Earth Balance
1/4 cup all purpose flour
8 oz of tomato sauce
1 and 1/4 cup of water
a pinch of fresh cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of chili powder
2 teaspoons of hot sauce

Melt butter on medium heat in a medium stock pot, Slowly whisk in flour, add tomato sauce, whisk some more, add water, stir and then add spices, stir again, reduce heat to a simmer, cover
with a lid and cook for 15 minutes. Easy huh?

Also with dinner I served some luscious mangoes covered with lime juice, salt, chili powder and hot sauce! Super tasty! We had rice to - we always have red rice with Mexican food!

Another Easy Vegan Dinner: Meatball Subs

['Meatball' Subs - Easy And Tasty]
1/2 package of Trader Joe's meatless vegan meatballs
1 Jar (or less - depends if you like lots of sauce) of Trader Joe';s Marinara Sauce
1 package of whole weat hot dog buns
a few thin slices of your favorite vegan mozzarella

Simmer your pasta sauce for 5 minutes, to get things cooking. Add the meatballs and gently stir to coat meatballs with the sauce. Lid your pot and do not touch for 15-20 minutes and toast your buns on a low setting in the oven. TIP: If you try to stir the sauce your meatballs will become mush - you do not want that. Slice, shred or chunk the mozzarella, place in the toasted buns, add your meatballs and top with extra sauce! Yum! Add some chips and you have dinner in about 30 minutes!