Veganmofo15: #14 share something vegan with non vegans~!

Today's theme seems a little bit cheap, because I live with non vegan housemates who eat vegan most of the time at home so really all I did yesterday was make dinner while they mouse proofed our pantry.

We had a lonely squash of mysterious origin and a lone sweet potato, so I decided to put both into the oven while the housemates went to Canadian tire. I was debating between making Yellow Rose Recipes butter nut squash (with a few adjustments due to my roommates terrible diet restrictions which prohibit 90% of food stuffs**) or doing a Veggie Mac-n-Cheese with blended veggies for the sauce.

Obviously, I opted for lasagna and made a few adjustments: Namely replaced butternut squash with the small mystery squash and sweet potato (hoping that by blending it into a sauce it would reduce the amount my roommate consumed within safe levels, and it did!). I left out all the garlic and onion, although I did sneak some onion salt into the filling again not much to avoid potentially murdering my roommate. Defrosted some tofu and diaya cheese.

All in all it turned out pretty good considering! Everyone enjoyed it and no one died eating it. The squash had a more subtle flavour and next time I think I'll up the salt as we were missing many of the glorious flavours this dish usually has. But it was rich, creamy, subtly flavoured and pretty good for you.

I added vegan parm to my slice!

***I forget what it is she cannot have but it basically means she cannot have mushrooms, onions, garlic or anything related to either garlic or onions. And crazy restrictive amounts of  things like sweet potatoes, avocados, beets and very few greens. It is pretty terrible, but we are on the hunt for Asafoetida which she can eat and mimics the garlic/onion flavour well.

VeganMofo15: Tell us about your favourite cookbook! #VGNMF15

I know I have posted so so many times about this book, but it remains one of my favourites Joanna Vaught's Yellow Rose Recipes (YRR). I tested for this cookbook and I keep singing it's praises, the page layout and design was done by sir Joshivore of Herbivore Clothing.  Features adorable art from Amanda Bear , and is basically a PPK dream come true.

Behold the glory!

To get started the book is gorgeous! Filled with flavour and easy to make recipes, don't forget our main lady was writing this bad boy while growing her son inside her. This continues to be one of the book I reach for again and again, with many favourites I've added to my own repertoire for daily/weekly consumption. While the glorious original is no longer in print, Joanna did make the new revised recipes available in a smaller self published collection (I own both).

The book has so many gems from breakfast tofu scramble, to the only vegan cake my granny will make, to my one true love the bechemel sauce (which as a broke university kid, I eat a lot of).

I've blogged about this book again and again, so I won't bore you with more  but this guy is worth your time.

My top three recipes (excluding the tofu scramble/seasoning mix!)

BECHEMEL! 

This sauce has been a routine crowd pleaser in my house. Simple, easy, cheap and ultra smooth and creamy. It is remarkably rich without being overly heavy and will add life to any pasta or rice bowl dish. Bonus Points: for making the roast squash lasagna with this magical sauce to wow any lunch box or dinner party.

Grilled Portabello!

Nothing spells summer like these mushrooms and that marinade (with is also amazing for tempeh, tofu etc!). Every BBQ season I bust these guys out and it's one of the recipes I send out the most. 

 I grill these all year round and have been known to bake them for dinner during more than one snow storm.

Crusted Tofu!

This book does simply home comfort neck in neck with the oous and awws for dinner parties. The crusted tofu (adapted from the seitan recipe) holds up great cold in sandwiches or wraps, which is key for my lack of microwave work options.

Seriously, there is something for everyone in this book, and I cannot imagine life without it. Every holiday trip I make sure to pack it for our Roasted Ginger Vegetables or Sauces or just in case we stay an extra weekend to have access to some good vegan dishes.

It does holidays, birthdays, everyday, weekday and everything in between it is one of the best all around cook books I own and it is tattered and food splattered to prove it.
Joanna was kind enough to get back to me, although the original is no longer in print folks can get copies of Yellow Rose Recipes Greatest hits from Joanna on Amazon here.

http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Rose-Greatest-Hits-time-tested/dp/1475082738

Veganmofo: Favourite blog post oldie

Sometimes the simplest of posts are the best. There are so many brilliant vegan food blogs it almost seems like a cop-out to call on the ppk's blog. But heck, it's just so swell.

Obviously Isa has all kinds of amazing recipes, tempting photos and glorious colour close up shots of said food.

But one of the posts I love refering people to, especially students, is the big old pot of bean post!

So simple, but sometimes contextualizing a plan for say.. what do you really do with that giant pot of beans you just cooked? hits it home.

PPK Blog What to do with a big pot of beans.

Meal planning is something I'm a bit obsessed with and it makes a lot of sense yet somehow I never seem to be able to stick with even my looses planning attempts and these kind of voyeuristic posts really help me get a feel for planning.

Plus beans are the go-to food for cheap living, so there is a bonus

Black Beans:
Day 1 ? Black Bean Burgers
Day 2 ? Chili
Day 3 ? Sauteed with Greens
Day 4 ? Tamale Pie
Day 5 ? Black Bean and Quinoa Salad
Chickpeas
Day 1 ? Dill Hummus Sammiches
Day 2 ? Moroccan Chickpea Stew
Day 3 ? Falafel
Day 4 ? Chickpea Samosas
Day 5 ? Chickpea Hijiki Salad Sammiches
White Beans
Day 1 ? Pasta Fagioli
Day 2 ? White Bean Quinoa Croquettes
Day 3 ? Roasted Garlic and White Bean Soup
Day 4 ? White Bean and Tempeh Sausage Patties
Day 5 ? Vegetable Soup with White Beans

Chickpea Salad Variant with pickles!

Obvious these are just some guidelines but what are your favorite bean dishes? or beans even?

My Chickpea pot might look more like this

Day 1 Chickpea Cutlets
Day 2 Chana Masala (I use kittee's dal recipe or YRR)
Day 3  Chickpea Salad (which I though I'd blogged about before. Lazy style onion/celery/garlic/chickpea/vegan mayo +acid)
Day 4 Pot pie!
Day 5 Chickpea Noodle Soup Vcon
Day 6 Scrambled Chickpeas!

Day 7 Salad with chickpeas on top (because they are so good! Or Roasted chickpeas)

My black bean list would include tacos, YYR Refried Black Beans, AFR Mango Black Bean Salad, and YRR Black Bean Soup

Veganmofo: Fuck yes pumpkin! Pumpkin Pie Loaf/Muffins

This recipe is a based of Yellow Rose Recipes Aloha Bread and The PPK's Pumpkin Bread and various PPK pies with coconut milk.

I didn't write down the exact ratios so please let me know if you try this! This recipe made a double batch of muffins and fairly large loaf for me.



Pumpkin Pie Loaf or Muffins

Dry

• 2 cups white flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  2 tps baking soda
  1 dash of salt
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
  2/3 cup white sugar

Proximately:

• 1 1/2 TBS cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp mace
• 1 tsp cloves
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp all spice (or Chinese five spice if your out like i was)

Wet

• 2 generous cups pureed pumpkin
• 1 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  1/2 can coconut milk
  1/3 cup toasted coconut (Optional any add ins like chocolate chips/nuts would be good too)
• earth balance for greasing

Preheat to 350 degrees and grease muffin or loaf tins with earth balance. If using coconut and it is not pre-toasted spread in single layer on pan and watch closely until colour changes.

Mix all your dry ingredients into a bowl in the order listed (I would advise sifting because I ran into issues with the baking soda clumping). Whisk together until evenly distributed. Add spices and stir again.

If you roasted the pumpkin previously like I did you can skip the preheating (just turn it down to 350 to cool)and go straight to pureeing pumpkin. Make sure to have all your pumpkin pureed in case the mixture is too dry, you don't want the wet baking soda to sit around long.

Add your pumpkin, oil, vanilla and stir to incorporate. Crack open the coconut milk and add roughly 1/2 can until the batter reaches a good consistency. Fold in your toasted coconut or other toppings.

Now divide the batter into greased muffin tins and loaf pans (I did a double muffin tin and large loaf, alternatively you can do more loaf pans or muffins to suit your preference).

Place trays into heated oven, as I had both double muffin tin and large Pyrex loaf pan side by side the muffins took approximately 40 mins and the loaf pan was done in 80 mins.

Set timer for 30 mins to be safe and check on muffins or set timer for 40 mins to check on loafs. You want an knife inserted to come out clean, if not return to oven for 20 min intervals. Remove and place on cooling rack these are super moist and might pull apart while they are still warm (messy but soo good). Allow to cool before storing in fridge with plastic wrap or in container.

 Closer look. Tasty

Enjoy alone or with Earthbalance or jams!

Veganmofo: Lunches!

Lunch is an often neglected when it comes to the food enthusiest. Dinner is the main show, brunch has it's fans, breafkast can be impressive and lunch is mandatory.

Well I figured it might be neat to have some lunch worth braggin about.

Today's Lunch is brought to you by YRR and the ever fantastic lunch buddy leftovers!

A few years ago I began toying with the idea of Cooking my way through a cookbook, the book I choose was Yellow Rose Recipes by the Lovely Joanna Vaught. After all it was a kick ass book, with good old fashion belly pleasers. As always life got in the way, and a year later I'm still working on it.

 So here is YRR's Delightful Cajun tofu in bento format

This one was pretty simple, wild rice in the rice cooker, produce box veggies in the steamer and leftover YRR Cajun Tofu.

For storage sakes and added flavour, I went with BBQ dipping sauce kicked up with Blair's Hot sauce (review to come). Simple and Tasty

Veganmofo: YRR Mission Continues: Cajun Crusted Tofu

 

 One of those cookbooks you keep coming back to paired with one of those recipes you always wanted to make but somehow never got around to it.

Yellow Rose Recipe's Cajun Crusted Tofu has been tempting me since it's testing days.

So when I defrosted some homemade tofu and thought, what am I gonna do 2 lbs of tofu YRR had the answer.

First came the Cajun spice, which let me tell you is worth the cover price alone. These were cripy, chewing bundles of delight.

Diner was pretty simple, wild rice, steam carrots/broccoli, Garlic braised cabbage, YRR Cajun Tofu and some amazing Mustard Chow from the Market.

Braised cabbage!

Crispy tofu slices

Something Simple

Dinner tonight was something simple but a big venture from my week of stomach flu and crackers.

Grilled Cherry Tomatoes
Grilled YRR Portabellos
Mashed Potatoes (with skins!)
Blanched/Sauted Asparagus

Portabellos
Simple summer staples to start with the Mushroom caps and Cherry tomatoes were marinaded in Joanna's Yellow Rose Recipe Portabello marinade a lovely balsamic/lemon/garlic combo with my home made veggie stock from the other day. I let them soak for a few hours tossing and turning.

Heated the Gorge Foreman Grill for 5 minutes and seared for 4 minutes, rotate 90 degrees and sear some more. If you aren't using a two sided grill, you'll wanna flip them at some point.

For bonus points you can pour some of the marinade which escapes into the drip tray back over your plated mushrooms and potatoes.

Grilled tomatoes
The cherry tomatoes were skewed and added in the last few minutes to grill.

 Mashed potatoes
Standard far, wash, cut, boil in salt water until falling apart. Drain potatoes, return to pot with a spot of margarine, cracked pepper, grey salt and adding some of my home made vegetable broth (dark onion style, hence the colour) and mashing them together until fluffy.

Asparagus
Snap the hard ends into the composts bucket and toss them into the potato water for a few minutes then remove. Heat some margarine in a skillet over medium high heat and toss the blanched asparagus in the pan until it sears. Crack black pepper over top and toss in some grey slat. Shake and sear until you get things the way you like them.

And that's about it.

Cheap Vegan Eats: Rice cooker to the rescue!

So I haven't gone out for groceries in a while, with my excessive zombie apocalypse food hording ways I decided it was time to eat through some of the backlog. I'm looking at you storage room, pantry, rubbermaid bins and freezer. Especially the freezer, because I miss smoothies with frozen fruit or freezing meals for later.

So this coupled with my desire to upgrade (read: rebuild) my pc has led to some major cost cutting in not eating out or buying groceries. Which means, produce has been a rarity, I do shop with the sale flyers and if enough things are on sale I will venture out, but I digress.

Tonight is another looking into Cheap Vegan Eats!
This may be one of my all time favourite topics, although not always the tastiest. I love being frugal, I love reading about other people's frugality. I love secrets and tips and saving money. I feel no shame.

So tonight diner is brought to you by every poor students best friend: the rice cooker.

 I lucked out and had some of YRR's Bechemel Sauce  leftover from last night, this is a super easy and fantastically tasty recipe which I've blogged about a few dozen times.



It's a fantastic sauce, creamy, rich, smooth and I always, always, always have the ingredients on hand. And when I'm super hurting (no margarine or soymilk) I can still make my poverty sauce version.

• Leftover Bechemel Sauce YRR
• Brown Basmati Rice
• Water
• Lemon Juice
• Frozen mixed veggies
• Frozen Peas
• Cooked chickpeas

Basically I added rice and water to the rice cooker, dropped the frozen mixed veggies into the rice cooker steamer basket with a squirt of lemon and walked away. Once the rice was done or near done I added some frozen peas and re-heated my sauce. Tossed it  into a bowl, topped with sauce, salt, pepper and nooch with a sprinkle of chickpeas (but you can really use any bean, seitan, tofu, tempeh or bacos you have around).

The bowl is a pretty great low budget, low time, minimal effort way to eat something healthy. You can sub in any grain, sauce, spice, vegetable, protein mixture you have on hand. Or get fancier by turning on your stove and making a noodle bowl. It's a great way to use up your leftovers.

And another great excuse to make a large batch of baked tofu, tempeh, beans or seitan for the week.