Veggies Veggies Veggies

The past two weeks have been a little crazy in our little household. Midterms, speeches and rent have all been due and you know I, the great procrastinator, dutifully put it all off until the last minute.

The challenge was adhered to last week, but not in the order I was supposed to do. And this week? Pssh, nothing. I stick to nobody's rules, not even my own.

Instead of making 3 recipes out of my Weight Watchers book, I made one and then made three other recipes out of The Reader's Digest Vegetarian Cookbook. Let's delve into a couple pictures, shall we?

That's right, I only have two.


#1 - Zesty Chickpeas & Shells


From the Weight Watchers book. I thought it was pretty good, Jeff didn't like the whole chickpeas in it. I may have also thrown in some tempeh that I NEEDED to use up, so there was a double dose of protein in that dinner!

#2 & #3 - Curried Lentil & Vegetable Pilaf with Hot Cajun Wedges

The pilaf is made with coconut milk, so it was incredibly rich and creamy. And SO MANY VEGETABLES!!!! It made a ton of food, so leftovers last week were pretty amazing. The cajun wedges got thrown in there to use up some potatoes and were also delicious. Then again, potatoes are an almost daily occurence here....

Next week I'll be on track with the Vegetarian Times Cookbook. I'm planning on making more than 3 recipes since the book is incredibly large.

Have I mentioned that I got into Portland State for fall term? Uber excited.

Melty, Stringy, Awesome.

At first, the blog post was going chatter on about the Indian feast I made for some buddies. But first, I must talk about Daiya vegan cheese. I tossed some Cheddar shreds into Jess' vegan mac and it was creamy and awesome. But nothing, NOTHING beats dinner tonight. I whipped up some impromptu pesto (cashews, nooch, oil, basil, water, s &p) and layered thinly sliced potatoes and small broccoli florets on top. I then proceeded to drown it in mozzarella Daiya. You see, guys, it's been awhile since I've had a true, "cheesy" slice. It's been a long week, so I indulged.


YOU GUYS. My husband, the omni and discerning cheese eater, says this the best pizza I have made in the history of us, vegan or not. That's a huge nod to Daiya. It's creamy and rich and cheesy....sigh. And without all the bellyachin' on my end.

Now, the feast. I love making people food, especially if they're not vegan. Which is admittedly 95% of the people I know in real life (in Portland even!). I bought Robin Robertson's Vegan Fire & Spice due to my husband's urging and decided to cook all my feast out of that. Many hours and pages later, I managed to pull it off and have 3 dishes finish right at 7pm. Here's what I made:

Spiced Potato Salad - this will definitely be making potluck rounds.

Spicy Indian Green Beans - healthiest dish that night

Curried Mushrooms - Crowd Favorite

Lentils in Onion Gravy - very last minute contender, awesome add.

That, my friends, is a lot of food. I fed 5 people that night, two of them being boys with enormous appetites and STILL had leftovers for some partners that couldn't be with us. All involved love the dishes and I highly recommend this book. Everything I've made out of it has been a hit.

Know Your Onion!

The first book in my self-imposed cookbook challenge was Christina Cooks by Christina Pirello. Christina has a cooking show on PBS's Create Channel and focuses on whole, natural foods. As a matter of fact, I have heard her say the word "vegan" only once in the many times I've watched the show, but that's exactly what she cooks! She also introduced me to a family favorite: bok choy. As the blog title (lovingly hand-picked by the Shins) suggests, the recipes I chose were pretty onion-rrific. Not a problem 'round here, at least not usually.

The recipes I chose were exactly what I've been needing since this school quarter started: not full of processed foods (hello, Tofurkey slices!) and full of color. Yum. I also cooked the last recipe up with a special nostalgic dish that I will share at the end of the post. I should also add that while she says the recipes make 4-5 servings, I have a endless appetite as of late and the foods have not lasted more than one day.

#1 - Lentil, Red Pepper and Basil Saute.


I've mentioned before that mushy lentils creep me the hell out. I think I've gotten over that. As you can tell by the photo, these lentils are past the point of mushy and the overall dish was incredibly delicious. The pepper is roasted, but you can't really tell once everything is incorporated, which made me sad. Oh well.

#2 - Asparagus with Blood Oranges and Shallots.

AKA the dish of a million shallots. Seriously, it calls for eight. And if you haven't noticed, those are definitely not blood oranges. Silly me for not grabbing them. Sweet lemons slipped in unnoticed and filled the citrusy gap. The asparagus took a little while longer to get past the "raw" stage but this was so quick and easy to make it didn't really matter. But, you'd better like shallots.

#3 - Baked Onion Slices.

The reason I picked this is for Jeff. The boy is an onion fanatic. Annnnnnd, guess who didn't like it. He thinks it was too sweet and the onions got too soft. I personally loved it and I normally avoid red onions like the plague. We paired this with MYSTERY DISH #1.

MYSTERY DISH #1 - Peachy Not-Chops, adapted from my mother.

My mother is a fantastic cook. Peachy pork-chops is something that was made on very special occasions due to the very high amount of oil called for. I have made the original a handful of times but it's been at least 8 years since I've had it. Since Mommy will be thrilled that I shared this with the world, here you go.

Peachy Not-Chops

4 seitan cutlets (I used the V'CON recipe and while I had an incredibly difficult time getting the damn cutlets to flatten out, it still turned out fine)
1/4 cup flour
3 tbsp canola oil
s & p to taste
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp lime juice
1 lime, sliced (yep, forgot this too...)
1 16oz can sliced peaches (save liquid)

Dredge cutlets in flour and saute in oil in skillet over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes each side. Salt & pepper to taste. Remove cutlets from pan and add curry powder and lime juice. Saute 30 seconds. Pour peach liquid into pan and reduce over high heat 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add cutlets to pan and cook 5 minutes. Dump in peach and lime slices and cook 5 more minutes. Serve with steamed rice.

If you see a dish you'd like the recipe too, it's probably on here. If it's not, I will happily email it all over the world.

Challenges

I've decided to impose a cookbook challenge of my own to up my blogging rate and use books that I don't normally cook out of. I made a list of 5 books that rarely see the light and will cook out of a sixth that will be chosen by random. By random, I mean I will line the books up and see which one the big cat steps on.

My list, as follows:

Christina Cooks by Christina Pirello. When we were forced to switch to digital, I discovered we had 3 OPB channels, one of which carries Christina's cooking show. I haven't been able to catch it lately but watching someone cook vegetables and not much more....sigh.

Take 5, Weight Watcher. Yeah, I bought this the first time I went through the program and I've cooked out of it once? Twice? Anyways, both times have been lovely and most of it is easy to veganize. Well, the stuff that doesn't revolve around meat, but I'll probably veganize one of those!

The (Almost) No Fat Cookbook by Bryanna Clark Grogan. What, you think I should lose weight? 'Cause that's totally not why I picked this one.

The Vegetarian Cookbook. It's Reader's Digest, has pretty pictures and lots of dairy. BRING IT ON.

The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. Circa 1995, this thing is HUGE. I haven't cracked it open since scoring it at a vintage shop for $5....

Stay tuned.....

Vegan Chinese. Or, how I learned to love the atomic bomb.

Once upon a time, when my sister and I were little, we would get to go to these large family get-togethers at the only Chinese place near our rural home, Silver Dragon in good ole Battle Ground. The group would get the family dinners and my sister and I would dare each other to dip our food in the spicy mustard. I may have dreamed of working there. I also have fond memories of eating Chinese after my first move out of my mother's house, sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded by boxes and good friends.

Beings as this is Portland, vegan Chinese isn't hard to get. We have Vegetarian House in Chinatown, the place that I first learned that Orange Chicken, one of my most favorite foods in the world, was possible in a vegetarian state. However, if I'm not in the middle of my once a week paper route, I'm not going downtown. When I moved to SW, I swore that I would visit Green Wok, a mere mile from my house.

And visit we did. Jeff and I hit up the lunch buffet, a smorgasboard of all-you-can-eat starchy goodness for $6.50 on weekdays. If I were still working a full time day job, I wouldn't be able to try it out. LUCKY ME, I'm underemployed and my school is so very close AND I have ample to time to stop in and have lunch.....

Behold, visual stylings of a buffet Chinese lunch:

"Egg" roll, chow mein (my 2nd most favorite Chinese dish) and fried rice hiding in the back

Cute l'il bok choy, some kind of tofu-mushroom dish

Beef deliciousness, tempura broccoli

As Gwen Stefani regrettably sang "this sh*t is bananas" and so, so worth the very low price tag. I couldn't help dipping my "egg" roll in spicy mustard. Y'know, it's not so spicy when you're an adult.

My Fledgling Hobby-Business.

Market of Surprise

Moving to a new neighborhood isn't always easy. Well, the moving part sucks, of course, but sometime you don't feel like you connect to the neighborhood. Such is the case with me.

Don't get me wrong. I love our new apartment (maybe not as much as our old rickety duplex) and I love how relatively quiet it is. Oh, and how it only takes me 4 minutes to get to school. But now, if we want to go out, we can't just step outside of our door. There's no produce market across the street or a coffee place down the block. It's been a tough transition. I was incredibly spoiled in SE Portland.

To relieve boredom and feelings of isolation, this morning Jeff and I went on an early morning photo adventure and decided we would find a cafe in our new neighborhood for breakfast. A friend of mine had told me Marco's Cafe had a tofu scramble, so we headed that way. The options for the scramble were sparse - tofu with either Tandoori veggies or BBQ veggies. I wasn't feeling BBQ that early, so I went with Tandoori and hazelnut toast.


The tofu was bland, but the veggies were quite delicious. That pile of potatoes? Apparently they're roasted reds. They tasted like boiled, slightly mashed reds. I think Marco's is taking a step in the right direction, but there is so much room for improvement!

Little did we know, something magic was to be found across the street....


Originally we only went in for a Sunday paper. Jeff started to wander to the back and that's where we discovered what is now our favorite place in SW Portland.

How often do you see this many beers from Norway?!

Beer as far as the eye can see! Local beer (including Upright Brewing, who don't even have a storefront!!), international beer, small beers, big beers....it was amazing. I managed to find the beer I've been searching out since I first had it at The Horse Brass, Anderson Valley's Winter Solstice. Jeffrey chose some Irish reds and then we decided it was time to leave, NOW. I mean, it was still 9am on a Sunday!

Oh, John's Marketplace, we WILL be back.