The Saucy Coconut

Gardein Beefless Burger Open-Faced Sandwich

2012-01-17T12:50:00.000-06:00

I know, another product from Gardein? Yes! I really like Gardein products. These burgers were great! I did have these in a "traditional" hamburger way as well as this open-faced sandwich way.

For this dish, I sauteed a bunch of onion and mushrooms together, and made a sort of gravy sauce. I toasted some bread, pan-fried the burger, and put it all together with some peas on the side.

Gardein Buffalo Chik'n Wings

2012-01-07T20:32:00.000-06:00

Another Gardein
product. As usual, I enjoyed these quite a bit. Very saucy, and actually spicy! I served these with agave for dipping sauce, but it would be really cool to make a ranch or bleu cheese sauce for these.

Curried Split Pea Soup with Dumplings

2012-01-01T16:41:00.000-06:00

I essentially made the curried split pea soup from
VWAV. (I make that soup regularly because it's so easy and cheap.) I added in frozen carrot slices and some whole wheat dumplings.

I had no idea how to make dumplings. I was making drop biscuits and had a lot of dough left over so I made tiny little balls and plopped them into the soup to cook. They turned out dumpling-like and tasted fine.

Another shot:

Coconut Curry with Wild Rice and Okra

2011-12-31T23:33:00.000-06:00

This was AWESOME. I made some wild rice first. Then I started some onion sauteing in oil, added garbanzos, the wild rice, and coconut milk. LOTS of vegetable broth, curry paste and frozen carrots and okra. It was a thick stew more than anything else. I loved it, so did Mr. Coconut. It was one of those days where we did not have much food left in the house and what was left did not seem to mix. This is yet another example of how coconut milk and curry paste or powder is the great equalizer and makes anything delicious together.

Another shot:

Mini Brownies

2011-12-31T10:56:00.000-06:00

Mini Brownies! These are actually from Pillsbury:

I filled half of them with the raspberry filling and half were plain. The raspberry filling was actually delicious! These were also great because there was no egg replacement needed.

Gardein Beefless Tips with Spaghetti

2011-12-07T09:41:00.000-06:00

So the picture is AWFUL, I know. It was not a great day for my crappy camera. I assure you, though, that this was DELICIOUS. I think it was the first time I've had Gardein's Beefless Tips. I sauteed for a bit with onions and garlic and then added frozen broccoli and Newman's Own Garden Peppers Sauce. The beefless tips became very juicy and took in a lot of the flavor of the sauce. These beefless tips would make AWESOME veggie kabobs and I really want to make those on the grill next summer.

I really like Gardein's products. Almost every one that I have tried is really delicious. I splurged on several of their products recently so I will have a few product reviews coming up.

BBQ Seitan Ribz with Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli, and Cashew Cheez Sauce

2011-12-04T18:19:00.000-06:00

I finally made those infamous bbq ribz from
Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. Totally worth it.

I somehow forgot the nutritional yeast and I did not have paprika at all and I used peanut butter for the tahini/nut butter. They still turned out great. I could have kneaded them a bit less and made them more thinly spread, but had quite a difficult time getting it spread out in the pan.

I made these with combination baking in the oven and grilling on the George Foreman Grill. I used Ken Davis BBQ Sauce, a favorite in my house.

Mr. Coconut liked the ribz so-so, he was more of a fan of the broccoli and cheez sauce. [on a small tangent...I have been OBSESSED with making perfect nacho cheez dip for tortilla chips this past week. I've made about 4-5 sauces in the last 7 days or so--that's a post for another day.]

This sauce was made from blending raw cashews with water, nutritional yeast flakes [nooch], mustard, pimentos, garlic salt, onion powder, and salt. The thing that has troubled me about cashew cheese is the consistency. I tried in the food processor and with a stick blender, and there was still too much grit for my taste - to the point where I was beginning to doubt all these recipes for "creamy" cashew cheez sauces.

Then I used The Magic Bullet and suddenly I understand how fantastic cashews can be for a cheese sauce! Creamy, light, airy. Delicious on broccoli!

I really liked the ribz and I am excited to try them again!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-25T12:58:00.000-06:00

America celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday and I was right there, eating along with everyone else. We had a ton of food, and tons of leftovers. Above is actually a shot of my plate this morning since I did not get a picture of the full plate yesterday.

I made chickpea cutlets and stuffing. Family supplied the rest of the food: mashed potatoes with celery root, diced rutabaga, wild rice with some other things in it, green beans with craisins, dinner rolls.

I also made a maple pecan pie recipe from
The Post Punk Kitchen:

A family member also made a wonderful salad with pomegranates, pears, raspberries, and grapes plus a wonderful vanilla dressing:

Vegan Month of Food V - Wrap Up!

2011-11-01T13:23:00.000-05:00

Vegan Month of Food Wrap-Up!

I made 26 individual posts, and did 22 days. Not bad for my first Vegan Mofo! This was the fifth annual Vegan Mofo, and I REALLY look forward to participating next year. I've already been contemplating different themes and ideas.

What did I learn? To not hold back and post, post, post! This made me not afraid to post things, even if I've made the exact same thing or don't have a recipe. Talking about food is something I LOVE to do, so why not do it more? I am also trying to be more entertaining as my writing is seriously dry and I need to cut loose a bit. Food is fun.

So, for reference, here are the various posts I did thorughout this month. I tried to put them into similar groups, but some just had no category to fall into.

This month I posted about food trucks, twice, and
I also documented my annual visit to the MN State Fair.

Soups and Stews dominiated this month: one made okra, tomato and quinoa; one with kidney beans; one with white beans; a lentil soup; and a hard lesson learned with old beans.

I made & ate several sweet things, including breakfast:
chocolate chip cookies and cookie cannonballs; blueberry waffles which on a later day became pancake pelotas. I also tried some chocolates from Sjaaks.

I tried my hand at making seitan bites and curried seitan strips with great results.

I "baked" - sort of: I tried samosas in puff pastry and
a whole wheat chickpea pot pie.

I did a couple Asian-inspired dishes (aside from those not already listed):
broccoli fried rice and mock duck coconut curry, curry sauce from pureed butternut squash and tried out Thai Veggie Chicken.

And the other food posts with no identifiable category:
cornmeal crusted tofu with broccoli, mango/parsley/raspberry smoothie, onion tater tots, taco beans & rice, and I took a stab at a chik'n salad sandwich.

To round everything out, I showed off my empty fridge and discussed how I reuse bottles for everything.

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies & Soft Cookie Cannonballs [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-31T13:27:00.000-05:00

It's the last day of Vegan Month of Food
!!!! It's been a blast doing this and I am already excited for next year, haha. I have also been thinking of different themes or putting more thought into next year's event. I'll have more on my reflections and recapping what I did this month tomorrow. Today, let's talk cookies.

Ah, cookies. I LOVE cookies. All types, you can't really go wrong. In my house, there is a great cookie debate. I like a crispy cookie to dunk into milk and then devour. I could easily put away a sleeve of Oreos. Lots of people prefer chewy, soft cookies, but I only like those if they are fresh from the oven. Mr. Coconut, on the other hand, prefers chewy, tender cookies that melt in your mouth, no milk necessary.

Did you know? Target's Market Pantry brand chocolate chip cookies are accidentally vegan. Both the crispy and chewy varieties. They taste like Chips Ahoy! I've actually found quite a few generic brands of cookies that are accidentally vegan.

No store bought cookie can top the wonderfulness of homemade, though. This is mainly because I love eating cookie dough, though.

I had a craving for cookies and happened to have all the necessary ingredients on hand, so I made THIS recipe for chocolate chip cookies from The PPK. The only thing I changed was using cornstarch instead of tapioca flour. It worked great. I used
Ghirardelli chocolate chips - the semi-sweet variety.

I must say that the dough felt a bit oily, and maybe next time I make these I'll try cutting back on the fat and subbing in flax seeds or something. I baked these for a little longer than I should have so they were quite crispy. I loved them

Since I have a small cookie sheet and could only bake 8 at a time, I pulled out my donut hole maker and went to work on delicious cookie "cannonballs". I had to cook these for much longer than the machine wanted to, about 2-3 "rounds" to get my desired texture. The cannonballs turned out great and the best of both worlds: firm, almost crisp outside with a chewy, tender inside.

I then took whatever remaining dough was left and made 3 smallish cookies and baked them in the toaster oven just to see what would happen. The cookies were still great! These were a little chewier than the oven-baked ones, mainly because I baked them a shorter amount of time.

A close up of a cannonball:

And a close up of a cookie:

Puff Pastry Samosas [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-30T17:19:00.001-05:00

Vegan Month of Food has only one more day left!

I experimented a bit with puff pastry today. I made a samosa mix: potatoes diced very small, cooked with small diced carrots and onions and frozen peas. I cooked the mixture with curry powder, veggie broth, garlic, and salt. I finished it with a little flour to help thicken the broth and some cilantro and parsley.

Then I spooned the mix onto thawed squares of frozen puff pastry, wrapping to the best of my ability. I baked at 400 degrees F until golden brown. The above photo was the most successful triangle shape I made.

In the end, there was too much pastry to filling, but I'm not sure how to fix this other than using phyllo dough instead off puff pastry. I would like to try more of a mashed potato approach to the mixture: make curry mashed potatoes and then mix in cooked onion, peas and carrots.

Here's a photo of the other various shapes that came out of this batch (with some cookies cooling on the edge of the photo, that's another post, though):

Sjaak's Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites &Chocolate Orange Bites [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

Vegan Month of Food is almost over.

I stopped by the co-op yesterday and picked up some delicious chocolates from Sjaak's. Little individually wrapped peanut butter chocolates and orange chocolates. The peanut butter chocolates are the ones pictured above, from Sjaak's site.

Awesome and delicious. I really want to get a giant bucket of both flavors, haha. I really enjoyed both, Mr. Coconut preferred the orange ones.

Thai Veggie Chicken [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-28T11:25:00.000-05:00

Photo from: http://www.onestopnatural.com/index

Vegan Month of Food continues!

A product review for Karen & Sisters Veggie Thai Chicken.

They sell all sorts of interesting macro and vegan items at a store nearby, so I like to try them out from time to time. I had this product the other day, and it wasn't bad. Chewy, thin strips made of TVP, with carrots, cabbage, onions, and other seasonings/spices. It can be eaten cold or warm. The texture is interesting, I thought for sure it was made of wheat gluten, but checked the ingredients to be sure.

I heated mine up, and ate it with soy sauce and sweet and sour dipping sauce. It was a great lunch. Filling, and tons of protein. It would work great in a larger stir fry or other rice/noodle dish.

Pancake Pelotas with Smoky Maple Tempeh Bacon [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-27T21:38:00.000-05:00

Vegan Month of Food continues, only 4 more days!

So I got a donut hole/cake pop maker from Bella Cucina. The first thing in my head to make: "pancake pelotas" (as named by Mr. Coconut) -- aka waffle balls, aka Pancake Puffs, aka aebleskivers.

These were SO MUCH FUN to eat. I cannot emphasize that enough. The sheer delight of popping one of these adorable little waffle balls into my mouth with vegan butter, syrup and a piece of smoky maple tempeh bacon from Tofurky --- my mouth exploded with joy. It took a while to make these, but they were pretty easy: pour batter into holes, close the device, and then pop out the little puffs when done.

The tempeh bacon was quite delicious, also! I will DEFINITELY be making this entire breakfast again, hopefully this weekend.

I really want to make donut holes and/or cake pops with this thing too. I am also imagining all sorts of food I can make into adorable little round balls. Miniature food is awesome.

more pictures:

Curried Seitan Strips [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-26T09:05:00.000-05:00

Vegan Month of Food continues, and I need to pick up the pace!

This was from last week, another experiment with vital wheat gluten to see if I could make edible treats easily. Most recipes for seitan take an hour or more, but I like these quick and easy ways of frying them or baking them. I used the same techniques as my last seitan experiment 2 posts ago, but changed up the ingredients. I made a miso-soy sauce to add into the vital wheat gluten, a bunch of curry powder, some hoisin sauce, some soy sauce. Next time I think I will go for more miso because I couldn't really taste it, but these were still delicious.

I wound up baking these off as larger strips, like chicken fingers almost, and then cooling them and slicing into strips. I put them into a dish that I served with bean thread noodles, okra, & broccoli with a sauce of hoisin, soy, miso. It was really good. These reminded me of the steak/chik'n strips I buy once in a while, but WAY cheaper and kind of fun to make.

Here's a shot of the strips before going into the larger noodle dish:

Bajillion Bean Stew: A Lesson Learned [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-23T20:31:00.001-05:00

Vegan Month of Food continues!!!

So pictured above is "Bajillion Bean Stew", as I named it. Looks good, right? Sounds good: black beans, pinto beans, butter beans, split peas, lentils, white beans, black eyed peas, etc. I added mixed vegetables, potatoes, and okra.

Well, it was awful.

Problem #1: Old Beans.
I've had them for a long time, I don't even know how long. That made for gross tasting stuff. All the problems below are pretty much moot because of this one, but I'll lay them out anyway.

Problem #2: Too many beans in one mix.

Too many mixed dry beans made for ridiculous cooking results. The butter beans were just right, which meant the lentils, split peas, and other small beans were nearly decimated.

Problem #3: Wrong seasonings.

I have been out of veggie stock/bouillon cubes for a while, and that would have given the stew some depth.

Problem #4: Okra, overcooked.

I put the okra in too soon and this resulted in weird consistency throughout the stew.

So, a pretty big disaster despite high hopes. This is what Vegan Month of Food is about, though: posting everything - the experiments gone wrong included. I was really disappointed because it was a TON of food that was wasted, but it was inedible. That's saying something, because I will eat just about anything, even bland *blech* stuff, to not waste it. Ah well, it took a decent picture and it is chalked up to food lesson learned.

Chik'n Seitan Bites [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-22T12:31:00.000-05:00

Vegan Month of Food marches on.

I need to pick up the pace for the last week of mofo! I've got more pics from last weekend, and I am happy to say that I was able to finally get more groceries to fill my empty fridge, haha. I hope to make some cool stuff for this last week of Vegan Month of Food!

This was Sunday's concoction: Chik'n Seitan bites. I used the same technique and similar ingredients as I did with These Chik'n style bites and with these seitan strips.

Roughly, my ingredients included: vital wheat gluten, a LOT of Montreal Steak Seasoning, Old Bay Seasoning, steak sauce, a little canola oil, and some water. I kneaded everything for several minutes, then tore off chunks and lined my toaster oven pan with foil and put the chunks down on the pan. I baked in the toaster oven for about 15-20 mins on 350F, flipped the chunks to the other side, and baked another 10 minutes or so.

They were really salty but also pretty tasty. I ate them with BBQ sauce.

Broccoli Fried Rice [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-20T20:03:00.000-05:00

Vegan Month of Food continues...

This is what I made on Sunday. I used up the rest of the brown rice we had, and sauteed it with onion, garlic, and mixed veggies. I also added broccoli to give it something more. It was tasty. I mixed in hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and sriracha.

My Fridge [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

This post is for the Lightlife Products giveaway over on veganmofo.com. The giveaway is a fridge full of Lightlife products.

This is my sad, empty fridge. We're going grocery shopping tomorrow, thankfully. Our pantry isn't too much better.

More shots of the fridge & freezer.

Lots of frozen fruit!

Broccoli and a frozen banana:

Lots of condiments...

Random things in the fridge - lots of nuts, miso paste, water, rice milk, salsa, yeast, Smart Balance Light, and a block of tofu.

So that's all, wish me luck!

Taco Rice & Beans with Limes [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

Vegan Month of Food continues...

This was something made over the last few days. Just 2 cans of black beans, half an onion, frozen corn, brown rice, and taco seasoning. Served with lime wedges and hot sauce. Yummy!

Mango Parsley Raspberry Smoothie [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-17T19:10:00.000-05:00

Smooooooth sailin' into the last 2 weeks of Vegan Month of Food!

I made this on a whim, because why not? I am running low on food supplies, and it's been interesting to see what I can come up with. The other morning I was trying to figure out what to make and fell into a black internet hole of reading about green smoothies and staring at all the delicious recipes...could I make one?

I had a ton of frozen fruits and a ton of rice milk, and my parsley needed to be used STAT. So....Voila! Mango-Raspberry-Parsley smoothie. It was...interesting. Not great, not bad. I think it could have benefited from a more creamy non-dairy milk with more fat: coconut milk, almond milk, even soy. It would also be better with some mint and/or other greens. All the same, I think I want to see what other smoothie-flavors I can make so I can use up all the frozen fruit I have.

Cornmeal Crusted Tofu with Coconut Curry [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

Over halfway through with Vegan Month of Food!

I've recently discovered cornmeal to coat tofu and other items I want to fry or bake. It's great and makes things really crunchy! I don't have exact measurements, but I've been mixing cornmeal, salt, pepper, old bay seasoning, and other spices/seasonings until it tastes decent to me. I've used red pepper flakes, garlic salt, onion powder, seasoned salt...you get the idea.

For this dish, I think I baked the tofu bites, but I could have pan-fried them, I can't remember. I served with broccoli and a mix of brown and wild rice. I served the whole thing with a coconut curry sauce: coconut milk & curry paste or powder.

Lentil Soup [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-15T17:39:00.001-05:00

Vegan Month of Food marches on...

Lentil soup is one of my favorites to make because it is so simple and lentils cook so easily - no soaking necessary.

For this soup, I sauteed some onions and garlic in olive oil, and added about 2 cups of diced up potatoes and 1.5-2 cups of diced carrots. I added about .5cup of butternut squash that was diced, 2 cups of dry lentils, and probably 6-8 cups of water. I also added a ton of curry powder and some salt. I brought the whole thing to a boil, then put it to a simmer until everything was tender and cooked through. I also added more water as it cooked. This made a TON of soup and I've been eating leftovers for days.

Mock Duck with Coconut Curry [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-14T08:16:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I owe this blog at least two days of multiple posts for Vegan Mofo.

Oh! And, I won something! I was super-excited to see my name up at the Vegan Mofo Blog. They have been doing daily giveaways, and I WON the So Delicious giveaway! Yay me! Ok, on to the food...

Mock Duck is easily one of my favorite foods, ever. It's the key in my favorite Laab Salad, it is my favorite pizza topping and my favorite at-home stir fry with curry sauce ingredient, as pictured above.

The curry was simple: one can of coconut milk and a couple spoonfuls of green curry paste. The stir fry: I sauteed onions that were thinly sliced and roughly chopped, then added the mock duck. Make sure to THOROUGHLY rinse the weird oil that they are canned in, and then I chopped the pieces to be more even in shape and size. I added a bag of frozen veggies that had asparagus, carrots, mushrooms, and other veggies. The whole thing is served over brown rice, but easily could be noodles instead.

Chickpea Pot Pie With Whole Wheat Crust [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-12T18:48:00.000-05:00

I missed another day for Vegan Month of Food! Yikes! I'm actually doing much better than I anticipated I would, so that's great.

For today's entry, we have a delicious Chickpea Pot Pie. It was the first pot pie I've made from scratch, and it was AWESOME. Don't know why I haven't been doing this for years, because I love pot pie, and those Amy's pot pies can get expensive!

Ingredients:
onions, frozen mixed vegetables, butternut squash (diced), russet potatoes (diced/cubed), garlic (minced), wild rice, chickpeas.

For the crust, I kind of looked at other recipes I found on the internet, and I liked the recipe from Apartment Therapy @ The Kitchn's technique: freeze everything: the flour, the mixing bowl, the fork/cutting instrument, butter. I used only whole wheat flour and mixed in with a store brand of margarine that we recently found (it doesn't taste that great, I prefer Earth Balance for my stick butters). The crust was good, but I think I'd like some white flour in there next time, or even making a bottom crust as well.

For the sauce, I used Road's End Golden Gravy packet. It worked great. I used some flour to help thicken it after I added a lot of water for the rice to cook in. I seasoned with salt, thyme, and sage.

I finished in the oven until the crust was done. Excellent dish. I liked the wild rice as something different and the chickpeas went really well with everything.

Onion Tater Tots with 3 Sauces [vegan mofo]

2011-10-10T20:52:00.001-05:00

So...a simple post for Monday. I made a few things on Sunday, but will post them throughout the week. Until then, a shot of Onion Tots from Ore-Ida. Three Sauces - Sriracha, Grey Poupon, and ketchup. They were pretty good.

Reusing Containers[Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-09T18:22:00.000-05:00

Reusing is the second component of the Three R's of Recycling [reduce, reuse, recycle]. I love to reuse or re-purpose containers (or anything, really) and make them useful beyond their regularly expected lifespan.

I recently began reusing glass soy sauce bottles for canola and olive oil as well as for balsamic vinegar. Once I finish a bottle of soy sauce, I run it through the dishwasher to clean it out thoroughly and fill it with various liquids.

The top picture shows the bottle with canola oil. It's handy because the spout/pour top looks like this:

That top allows me to pour oil in a controlled way for cooking or oiling pans. I use the same bottle for balsamic vinegar:

And I used a glass Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce bottle for olive oil.

I am rather obsessed with reusing any and all glass containers: pickle jars, salsa jars, any condiment jar. They are great for storing soups, dry beans, flour, sugar, leftovers. Plus, if I get sick of them, they can still be recycled.

Blueberry Waffles [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-08T13:51:00.002-05:00

I told you I'd make up for missing a post yesterday! Vegan Month of Food continues....So I stumbled upon Krusteaz brand blueberry pancake mix at Target a few weeks ago. Shockingly, the mix seems to be vegan and it's a "just add water" mix---no egg or dairy substitute needed! Now, they are not healthy, mind you: imitation blueberry pieces is a big indicator of that. But hey, it's cool to find something that is super easy in a national chain store for when in a strange city or just plain lazy. They turned out great in the waffle maker, as you can see above. Here's a shot of the box:

MN State Fair 2011: Island Noodles [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-08T12:42:00.000-05:00

Argh! I didn't post anything yesterday, so I will make up for it today and tomorrow. Vegan Month of Food, or Vegan Mofo, is throughout the month of October this year. This is the fifth year of Vegan Mofo, and my first in participating. The idea is to blog about vegan food: with recipes, pictures, talking about favorite appliances or techniques, favorite ingredients -- you get the idea. Anything about vegan food! The aim is to post 20 days out of the month, or everyday if you can. My goal is to do as many days as possible. Follow the link above, or here, to veganmofo.com to find out more and see all the wonderful participating blogs and their awesome posts.

Ok, on to Day 8 for me (I've posted 6/8 days in October so far):

The MN State Fair takes over the last two weeks of summer every year here. I love it and go every year. There are a few vegan items here and there: snowcones are generally ok, lemonade, etc. The roasted corn stand is awesome - just as for no butter. One stand I found last year was the Island Noodles. I grilled the folks about ingredients to check for fish sauce, etc. Without my prompting, they told me it was completely vegan, and you could add chicken if desired.

Island Noodles are a stir fry of soba noodles and a TON of veggies: bok choy, peas, cabbage, broccoli, onion, carrot...they say it's 21 veggies, which I believe. Here's a shot of the giant wok:

A blurry photo of my container:

And a close-up of the inside, with my added sriracha:

It made my day for a satisfying lunch at the fair. I also had some corn and beverages as well as some awesome french fries.

White Bean Stew [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

Vegan Mofo Day 6!

As mentioned previously, stews/soups are some of my favorite things to make. They don't take much effort, make the house smell great (and warm up), and it's easy to make a giant amount of food for many days (or months, with freezing).

Another no-recipe post, but the ingredients are onion, garlic, salt, white beans, carrots, wild rice, barley (I think, maybe brown rice instead). This was the first time I used dry white beans, and it was pretty easy. I just soaked the beans before going to work and let them sit all day. Then when I got home I cooked them for a while before putting together the soup. Next time, I will cook the beans longer so they are a little more tender.

I made this soup a while back. Tonight's dinner was rather boring, just pasta, broccoli, parsley and red sauce. I was too lazy to photograph it. Hopefully this weekend will bring more inspiration for foods!

Kidney Bean Stew [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-05T22:29:00.001-05:00

Tonight was Chipotle but I forgot a camera. I may be able to get a blurry cell picture from it, but was way too stuffed with burrito to want to try.

Instead, here is a bean stew I made a few weeks ago. Tomato-based, with kidney beans, mixed veggies, wild rice and barley or brown rice (can't quite remember, sorry!).

Simple, and it made a ton of food for several days for two people. Plus, it's really cheap!

Okra, Tomato & Potato Curry [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-04T19:16:00.000-05:00

Vegan Mofo, Day 4!

So this is what I whipped up for dinner tonight, with delicious results!

A stew/curry of tomatoes, potatoes, okra, quinoa, curry powder, onions, garlic, spicy Rotel for more tomato-y goodness.

I didn't measure anything, really. This was an experiment to work on something in the future. I think that this is a great example of why I don't blog all my food. I feel bad if I don't write down a full recipe and measure everything, etc. By the time I even start thinking about that, I give up on considering blogging and just eat some food! So this is a great push to keep posting about food, recipe or not.

Coconut Curry Squash Sauce Revisited: Now with Okra! [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-03T21:04:00.003-05:00

Vegan Mofo is continuing! I hope I can actually keep up with this but fear that I will fall off the map again, so to speak. Ah well, revel in more delicious food experiments!

I was gifted another butternut squash, so I decided to revisit the Coconut Curry Squash Sauce to see how to improve it.

This time around, I tried to write down a recipe. This is what I've got so far:

600g cubed butternut squash
60g onion
1 can (15oz?) coconut milk
15oz can garbanzo (chickpeas) drained and rinsed
2-3c baby spinach
.75 10oz frozen okra
2c broccoli
3t red curry paste
1t curry powder
salt

Ok. So that's my made up recipe. I will say that this time around my coconut to squash ratio differed quite a bit. I used less squash and still the same amount of coconut milk (1 can) to see if the sauce could thin out compared to last time.

I measured the squash and onion, and had cans of garbanzos and coconut milk. Everything else is a guess/estimate.

I cubed up the squash, and steamed it until soft with some water. In a separate pan, I sweated finely and roughly chopped 60g of onions in some olive oil with salt.

I mashed the squash, then added the coconut milk and onion and curry paste. I pureed with my emulsifier blender until smooth.

I added the frozen okra and broccoli, and waited until they were almost done before adding the spinach and garbanzos. Throughout all of this I would add salt to taste. Really, vegetable broth or cubes would have been handy, but I had neither. I think that broth is the missing element in this sauce and will add depth and complexity to the flavors. Next time!

As the rest of the sauce was cooking, I made rice noodles (which takes all of 5 minutes, really).

I served the dish over noodles and used soy sauce and hot sauce to season further. I also served over brown rice after the rice noodles were gone. All delicious. I hope to continue to work toward an actual usable recipe with this one day, but it's getting better!

Chik'n Salad Wrap [Vegan Mofo 2011]

2011-10-03T20:47:00.001-05:00

Vegan Mofo Day 3 (ok, day 2 of me posting, but doing great so far)!!!

It's been great to challenge myself on making something blog-worthy everyday, even if my camera is full of fail and I hate it.

Tonight: Morningstar Chik'n Griller patty, heated and mashed up. Mixed in some Vegenaise, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, dill pickle juice, sweet pickle relish, and minced onion. I didn't have any celery or I would have added that, too. I heated up a tortilla, put a bunch of spinach on it, then spread the chik'n salad on top of the spinach and wrapped it.

Served with my sad looking potato chips. But they were tasty! I garnished it all with some flat leaf Italian parsley. I liked my wrap, even if I still hate my camera for frustrating photo shoots.

Hola Arepa: Food Trucks [Vegan Mofo]

2011-10-02T20:15:00.001-05:00

More food truck coverage for Vegan Mofo!

Pictured above is an arepa, like a little patty of corn dough cooked on a griddle and split open and filled with various foods. This particular arepa is from Hola Arepa, a food truck in Minneapolis. This one is filled with black beans, tomato, pickled cabbage. I also got the side of chips as well as salsa and guacamole.

DELICIOUS. It was super tasty! I have been craving another one ever since. Hopefully I can get another before it gets too cold and they close for the season.

Birthday Explosion, Part 2 of 2: Food Trucks [Vegan MoFo]

2011-10-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

[Give Beets a Chance: veggie dog from Magic Bus Cafe @ Food Truck Food Court.]

It's Vegan Mofo! AKA the Vegan Month of Food, an annual event of vegan food bloggers. I really wanted to sign up but failed to do so by the deadline. I am going to be participating anyway and hope to blog a lot this month. You can head on over to VeganMofo.com to find out more.

Today's post is the second part of my birthday explosion. I wanted more than anything to go to the various food trucks that have popped up all over Minneapolis/Saint Paul these past few years. On Wednesdays, there is a Food Truck Food Court in Saint Paul and I went there to check it all out.

We went first to the Magic Bus Cafe, a cool purple bus serving up veggie (and meat) dogs with various relishes and toppings. The one pictured at the top of this post is a dog with a beet and sauerkraut relish, the one below is a spicy dog with jalapeno relish. Sorry for the blurriness in these photos, it is incredibly difficult to take decent photos outside with my camera.

After chowing down on dogs, we hit up Gastrotruck and had two delicious black bean burger sliders.

Finally, we had to have dessert: cupcakes! These beauties were from Cupcake On The Go, the truck version of Cupcake. These were amazing and super-rich. Yummy! Fantastic birthday lunch.

Birthday Explosion, Part 1 of 2: Evergreen Restaurant

2011-09-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

[A stack of fried tofu appetizer from Evergreen Chinese Restaurant.]

It was my birthday at the end of August, and I celebrated with food. This is the first of two parts of my birthday food adventure. For my birthday dinner, I decided upon Evergreen Chinese Restaurant, one of the best Chinese restaurants in Minneapolis -- particularly for vegans.

It has an extensive list of what can and cannot be made vegan, including what may have whey or casein, those tricky dairy ingredients that seem to slip into everything. Almost everything on their huge menu can be made vegan, and they have tons of meat or vegetarian dishes so everyone can be satisfied.

The food is awesome because of the sheer amount of flavor injected into every bite. Take, for example, the Three Cup Tofu:

I get this dish almost every time I go to Evergreen. I don't know how they get that much flavor into the tofu, but there it is: garlic, green onions, other mystery ingredients and sauce that equal pure bliss.

In addition to the fried tofu at the top of this post, we got the fried spring roll appetizer:

And for a second entree, we ordered the Pepper Fired Mock Pork:

We also tried the seaweed knot appetizer, but did not get a picture of those.

All in all a delicious time!

Coconut-Squash Curry Sauce - Two Ways

2011-09-16T12:23:00.002-05:00

I have been cooking lots of new foods as well as trying new eateries lately, but I have not had proper posts about it. As the photos have been piling up, I have been putting off blogging more because I can't think of a time I will have to sit down and post all of them. Then an idea came to me: just do one or two posts a day for a while. Constant content for the blog, small amount of time to put it together.

Perfect.

So, enough jibba-jabba, let's talk about food!

This is AMAZING. In the words of Mr. Coconut, "the best thing I've eaten in 6 months." I was gifted a butternut squash from a co-worker's garden, and was pondering what to do. Butternut Squash soup? Just steamed? Roasted? So many possibilities...I saw I had a can of coconut milk and just started to experiment.

I began by peeling and cubing the squash, throwing it into a pot with a little water and steamed it. This was a medium-large squash, so there was a lot there, several cups of cubes. Then I added the coconut milk and some red curry paste. Stir stir stir. Mash mash mash. Whipped out the emulsion blender and pureed until smooth. It was really thick and soup-like. I added salt to taste, and then decided to add canned pineapple with the juice (not syrup).

While all of that was going on, I was boiling rice noodles and steaming frozen broccoli. Then, I decided to make semolina pasta as well because it seemed to be a great sauce for pasta. It was!!!

So, this sauce is really versatile. With the pasta, it was reminiscent of butternut squash ravioli. With the rice noodles, we added soy sauce and sesame seeds for more of an Asian flair. Either way, awesome. I will be honing this sauce more in the future. I would add onions, garlic, broth, and maybe more coconut milk.

Here's another photo:

Pasta with Spinach, Sauce and Sausage

2011-08-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

This was an impromptu dish for dinner. I had some Gimme Lean hanging around, so I took about half the tube and seasoned it with red pepper flakes, oregano, and fennel seeds. I shredded some onion and garlic into a pan, sauteed, and added the sausage. Then cooked it until browned up to my liking.

The sauce was another experiment from a few days ago. We have no red sauce in the house, but TONS of tomato paste. So, I figured I would try to make sauce from that. I started by shredding half an onion with a grater, and roughly chopped 4-5 small cloves of garlic. I sauteed these in a pan with some olive oil. Added some oregano and salt. I used 2-3 cups of "not chik'n" broth for more depth and 2 cans of tomato paste (the small 6 oz ones). I just kept simmering and stirring and adding water as needed to smooth everything out. It turned out great! I've been rather impressed with myself for that sauce.

For this specific dish, I made elbow macaroni and spooned over some fresh spinach. I poured the sauce over the noodles and put the sausage bits on top. A super-yummy dinner!

Night Grillin'

2011-07-28T16:30:00.003-05:00

Ah, night grilling! We decided it was time to grill, but got distracted and before we knew it, darkness had taken over. But that did not deter plans for eating grilled food!!!

I sliced a bunch of zucchini, thanks to a giant zucchini gifted to me by a co-worker. I used my mandoline to slice both crinkle-cut style and regular slices. I marinated in olive oil and my fave, Montreal Steak Seasoning:

Next, I used the mandoline again for thick-cut potatoes and onions to put into a foil packet along with olive oil, salt and whole peeled garlic cloves. Here's a picture of the packet:

Everything on the grill:

Just the 'burgs (we used Boca Big Burgers):

My bun awaiting the 'burg (yes, that is a zucchini slice under the onion):

Chik'n Strips with Edamame Vegetable Blend and Quinoa

2011-07-28T13:34:00.000-05:00

A simple meal, with Morningstar Chik'n Strips, a steamer bag of frozen veggies (Mukimame Vegetable Blend from Target) and quinoa.

Peanut Curry Sauce from Ruam Mit Thai

2011-07-28T13:29:00.000-05:00

Not the best picture, from inside a box of takeout, but this is one of the BEST dishes around. Pha Ram Long Song from Ruam Mit Thai in Saint Paul. DROOL: Red curry, coconut milk, crushed peanits, served over steamed spinach and (the way we order) with fried tofu. Can also be done with mock duck, but they fry the tofu to order, so it's always delicious. Plus, they separate everything out for takeout so nothing gets soggy. yum yum yum yum

Accidentally Vegan: Keebler Jumbo Fudge Sticks

2011-07-28T13:23:00.000-05:00

I found these in my day to day perusing of junk food as being accidentally vegan. These are the peanut butter flavor, as opposed to the original vanilla flavor. I much prefer the PB flavor. To be clear, the mini fudge sticks are not vegan, but the jumbo ones are. Weird, I know.

Not healthy in the least, but a nice sugar bomb.

Smoky Beans with Quinoa and Corn

2011-07-28T13:19:00.000-05:00

A spin on one of my favorites, Smoky Beans and Rice, this time with quinoa and kidney beans rather than black beans and rice. Any bean will do, as would any grain. I added corn to this one for something extra.

I made a TON of quinoa and have been using it for everything: beans and quinoa, broccoli and quinoa, quinoa as hot cereal in the morning with soymilk and dried or fresh fruit.

I sauteed onion and garlic first and in another pan heated veggie broth. Then I added two cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed, to the onions and garlic. I added in frozen corn and just when it was getting un-frozen, I added a ton of quinoa to the ratio I preferred, and mixed everything. A few drops of liquid smoke, another big stir, and then added some veggie broth and allowed it to simmer until the broth was absorbed by the beans and quinoa. The liquid will absorb more after cooking, so keep that in mind.

New Blog Design

2011-07-06T20:27:00.000-05:00

Whoa, changes!! I have been playing around with layouts and designs, and like this new book-background one so far. It brightened up the blog a lot and I'll stick with it until I find an awesome coconut image to use as a background.

Hopefully I'll be back to posting more regularly because there are a lot of things I want to make and also a lot of restaurants I want to try out in the coming months.

Quinoa, Broccoli, Potato and Tofu with Curry Sauce

2011-07-06T19:39:00.003-05:00

This was dinner for today.

I boiled some russet potatoes that I cut up into smaller pieces to cook faster, and while those cooked I made some quinoa and marinated tofu that I cut into cubes. I marinated in a sauce I made: soy sauce, dijon mustard, hoisin sauce, pickle juice, hot sauce. I then sauteed onions and garlic until soft, then set aside and started to pan-fry the tofu cubes.

At this point I started steaming the broccoli.

The quinoa was about done, as were the potatoes. I put potatoes aside, and then boiled water to dissolve a bouillon cube and curry paste in for the "sauce".

After the tofu was done to my liking, I set it aside, rinsed the pan out and then started to reheat the onions and garlic. Once it was getting hot, I added the potatoes, quinoa and broccoli, then stirred everything together. I added the curry sauce and heated until some of the liquid absorbed into the potatoes and quinoa.

I served in bowls with the tofu on top, a few shakes of sesame seeds to finish it off.

Indulgent Dessert: So Delicious Coconut Ice Cream Bowl with Toppings

2011-07-06T19:27:00.005-05:00

This is a bowl of 2 flavors of So Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream, my hands-down favorite vegan ice cream. The flavors of "ice cream" are: Cookie Dough and Mocha Almond Fudge.

I cracked a sugar cone over the ice cream, and then some chopped cashews. Finally, I covered the whole mess in Hershey's Hard Shell Chocolate Topping. This stuff turns into a hard chocolate shell in a few seconds once it makes contact with cold items, like ice cream.

Needless to say, this was delicious and indulgent and awesome.

4th of July 2011

2011-07-06T19:21:00.005-05:00

Not a food photo, though I did make some grilled food for 4th of July. I also played a lot of chess outside with Mr. Coconut.

I grilled up marinated tofu inside a foil packet, we also grilled veggie dogs and potato/onion/garlic foil packets.

I failed to photograph any of this, but at least there is a photo of one of the chess games.

Boca Burger with Peas, Corn and Mashed Potatoes

2011-07-02T18:01:00.003-05:00

Nothing spectacular, other than the Burger Shark in the potatoes. Just a pan-fried Big Boca Burger (slightly larger than the regular-sized patties) with mashed potatoes and peas and corn. Some Earth Balance for butter, salt and pepper.

Bowtie Pasta with Green Pepper Strips

2011-07-02T17:55:00.003-05:00

I was out of red sauce, but also had a lot of pasta and a lot of green peppers to use up. What to do?

This was the result. The peppers were a nice change from my usual broccoli or spinach. I just cut up 3 green bell peppers into strips and sauteed with onions and garlic. I like my cooked peppers to still have some snap in them, but you could cook until your desired texture. I might try to do more of a julienne cut next time, but this worked for a simple quick dinner.

Curry with Tofu, Broccoli, Cauliflower and Red Potatoes

2011-07-02T17:35:00.003-05:00

This may not look that impressive or pretty, but it was DELICIOUS.

Just as the title says, this is tofu, broccoli, cauliflower, and red potatoes with coconut milk curry sauce poured over it. I served it over brown rice.

The method

I pan fried some cubed up tofu, using garlic, onions, and soy sauce. While doing this, I already started steaming cut up red potatoes and allowed them to start cooking. Before they were done, I added a bunch of frozen broccoli and cauliflower to steam them as well. I made the sauce with one can of coconut milk and some red curry paste. Yum yum yum!

The potatoes added a great texture and rounded out the dish with a "full" mouthfeel.

Here's another photo to see the whole bowl:

Open-Face Sandwich: Cashew Cheese, Tomatoes, and Basil

2011-05-16T23:48:00.004-05:00

I've been experimenting with nut cheese lately. I wasn't able to get raw cashews, which I know may affect the taste and texture. I've been experimenting with roasted unsalted cashews, soaked and blended. The first time around, I added sundried tomatoes, salt, lemon juice, water and garlic. My errors? Too much garlic, a little too much salt, kind of bleh. This time? 1 clove of garlic, a touch of sea salt, a little water, some nutritional yeast, and a touch of liquid smoke. Not bad. I am not in love with the texture - it's like hummus but weird, but not bad. Hard to explain.

Mr. Coconut has not tasted any of it yet, it's far too much into it's infancy to be worth giving to others yet. I like it, it's not bad. But I've had amazing raw nut cheese before, and this is not it yet.

With all that negativity, I liked this sandwich. It was delicious. I also tried the "cheese" with some pasta. Again, I need to get the texture to a better consistency. Maybe in the Magic Bullet as opposed to my tiny food processor would get it there.

Sweet Potato Oatmeal Casserole: From "Oh She Glows"

2011-05-16T23:07:00.003-05:00

This is a sweet potato oatmeal casserole from the vegan blog, "Oh She Glows". The recipe can be found HERE.

Basically, it's oatmeal with a cooked sweet potato and banana mashed in, then covered with a crunchy pecan topping and baked.

The only changes I made were: I used 1 cup coconut milk beverage from So Delicious and 1 cup soymilk. I didn't have chia seeds, so I used a little more oats.

Delicious breakfast for several days! I really like the blog "Oh She Glows" and found it in a round about way. Hopefully I will do more recipes from there in the future.

Pesto Chicken Sandwich: Leftovers Day 3

2011-05-15T13:14:00.006-05:00

What else can be done with leftover ingredients from Stuffed Manicotti?

Sandwiches! The sandwich above consists of 1 Morningstar Chik'n Griller, a schmear of pesto tofu ricotta, and some tomato bruschetta mix. The bread is Arnold's brand. I've been a fan of their sandwich thins, and now they have flat/skinny hot dog "buns" called fill 'ems. They aren't on their website yet, but Wegman's has it up on their site, here.

Stuffed Shells

2011-05-15T13:07:00.004-05:00

The best part about making Stuffed Manicotti is that we usually make a lot of it, so we have lots of leftovers. We had some jumbo pasta shells, so for the past couple days we have been making dishes of 2-3 shells filled with tofu pesto ricotta and covered with sauce.

Stuffed Manicotti Dinner

2011-05-15T12:55:00.005-05:00

Mr. Coconut and I cooked a tasty Italian-style dinner for Mr. Coconut's Grandparents. We decided to make one of our favorite meals, Stuffed Manicotti, which I've blogged about before.

I made some focaccia-style bread and some bruschetta mix to go with it. We made some sauce from a combination of some canned whole peeled tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, oregano, tomato paste, and basil. The star of the show, though, is the pesto tofu ricotta. A blend of basil, garlic, olive oil and walnuts for pesto; mixed with extra firm tofu. We stuffed that into cooked manicotti and then spooned sauce over the top and baked it to heat through everything.

We served the meal with a salad of greens, onions, snap peas, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds toasted and salted).

A Close-up of the meal:

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls!

2011-05-08T22:08:00.004-05:00

Wow. I spent all day today making cinnamon rolls. I used a recipe from Vegan Yum Yum. Wow, it was a LOT of butter, almost too much, but that was the point. After studying a lot of different recipes on the internet, I decided that this one was a good place to start. It seemed the most like a butter-egg-dairy style recipe you might find from a bakery.

I learned a lot of lessons from this experiment that will help me with future baking, in particular with cinnamon or other rolls. I am excited to try to make a healthier version of these while still having similar taste.

In short, these were AMAZINGLY delicious. They are also AMAZINGLY high in calories, just like the ones made with animal products. They clock in at around 650 calories without any icing/frosting. Very indulgent.

Snobby Joes with Coleslaw

2011-05-08T18:29:00.004-05:00

I've made vegan Sloppy Joes plenty of times, with "beef" crumbles, tvp, or lentils. However, I've never made it from scratch, I've always just used a can of Manwich. I finally decided it was time to just suck it up and make it from scratch. Well, that and I had a TON of lentils that I just barely burned a few of while trying to make the lentil meatballs yesterday.

I used an oldie but goodie from The Post Punk Kitchen, Snobby Joes.[link to recipe] Pretty straightforward. I didn't really modify anything other than using red and yellow small sweet peppers because I had a ton of those and no green bell pepper.

I served the mixture on Arnold's Multi-Grain Sandwich Thins along with spinach and a small bowl of coleslaw

The coleslaw was just a boring bag of shredded coleslaw, BUT with the awesomeness that is Organicville's Non-Dairy Coleslaw Dressing. I like it quite a bit as it hit the spot for my strange coleslaw craving of the past few weeks.

Here are more photos!

A closeup

Spaghetti-Nos with Mini Lentil Meatballs (From The PPK)

2011-05-07T20:29:00.003-05:00

I have been dreaming about this recipe for the past month, ever since I saw it over on The Post Punk Kitchen. Finally, I could wait no longer and I gathered the last ingredients necessary to round out this recipe.

The idea of this is to veganize a classic from many people's childhood: Spaghetti-O's and meatballs. I served mine with strawberry Kool-Aid, as pictured above, to really bring home the kid meal feel.

I'm not going to re-post the recipe here, but you can see it over on The Post Punk Kitchen. The only big modifications I made was to substitute the oregano with thyme and mini wagon wheels as my pasta rather than the "traditional" Anellini style.

Short review, delicious! I would probably make the mini lentilballs even smaller next time, and I would really like to try the Anellini style pasta to see the difference. The mini wagon wheels were great, but they are also a little thick for these purposes.

But don't worry! I have plenty of pictures.

Here are two of my prep counter, complete with laptop on the site with the recipe. (The container that says couscous is actually holding the vital wheat gluten.)

And a couple pics of the mini lentilballs before cooking:

And one last closeup of the finished product:

Vegan Pho With Tofu and Garnishes

2011-05-01T20:56:00.007-05:00

Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup consisting of a very flavorful broth usually made from beef. Thanks to a generous co-worker who provided me with a recipe and some ingredients, I made a vegan version.

A quick note: I didn't have a lot of whole spices, so I subbed ground. I would not necessarily recommend this but it still worked out great.

Recipe: Reposted from Food.com, with some changes in directions by me as well as substitutes in bold and italics
BROTH
1 small unpeeled onion, quartered -- I used an onion that was about 91g
2 unpeeled shallots, halved
8 garlic cloves, halved -- I peeled these even though the recipe didn't specify
Ginger, coarsely sliced -- I wound up using about 1/8 of ground ginger because I did not have fresh ginger. I would recommend 1 inch of fresh ginger.
2 [3 inch] cinnamon sticks -- Again, I only had ground, so I used 1t ground cinnamon
2 star anise pods -- I subbed 1t ground star anise
4 cloves -- I subbed 1t ground cloves
8c clear veg stock
3T Soy Sauce
salt, to taste

SOUP:
1lb Rice Noodles
8oz fried tofu or cooked seitan
6 scallions, thinly sliced
1.5c bean sprouts
1 lime, sliced into wedges
basil or mint or cilantro (or all of them); a big handful left whole
hoisin sauce, to taste
sriracha chili sauce, to taste

1. In a large pot, heat to medium-high heat and dry roast onion, shallots, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves. Stir occasionally until vegetables begin to char. I would recommend leaving the spices out until the vegetables start to char and then adding the spices in. I burned a few spices before the vegetables could char, but the broth still tasted great in the end. Prep the other vegetables/garnishes during this time as well.

2. Add the veg stock and soy sauce, bring to boil. Then lower heat to simmer, cover for 20-25 minutes. Start another pot boiling to cook the rice noodles.

3. Strain broth into a clean pot and discard the solids. Taste and add salt if necessary, set aside. Check noodles and drain them, rinsing thoroughly. Make a plate for the garnishes. I set mine up into little bowls for some items and larger items just on a plate, like bean noodles and chopped bok choy.

4. Put noodles into bowls; ladle the broth over the noodles. Garnish as you see fit. Enjoy.

The broth is the key along with a bunch of garnishes to really punch up the flavors. Fresh herbs and bean sprouts along with lime juice and soy sauce makes for a fantastic meal. I also added some fried tofu, but mock duck or other faux meats would work great as well.

Above is a photo of my garnish plate: bean sprouts, sliced jalapenos, cilantro, scallions, basil, and chopped bok choy are the ones I had around.

Below is my soup bowl, fixed up with everything. Rice noodles [I used larger flat rice noodles rather than the vermicelli style I usually get] with the broth ladled over it and then I topped mine with sautéed mushrooms, fried tofu, and all of the fixin's from the garnish plate along with some lime juice and shoyu.

Roasted Asparagus with Whole Roasted Garlic Cloves

2011-04-24T15:07:00.003-05:00

Simple recipe for spring to utilize the short window of asparagus season.

Pre-heat the oven to about 400 degrees while you prep the asparagus and garlic.

I like to cut just the ends off of asparagus and leave most of it in tact. Then I washed the spears, placing in a single layer on a baking sheet. I peeled one head of garlic and scattered the cloves throughout the asparagus. Drizzled olive oil and sea salt, mixing with my hands so everything was evenly coated. Pop in oven, 15-25 minutes until desired tenderness is reached.

Med. Breakfast: Hummus, Tabouli, Pita Chips

2011-04-15T07:48:00.002-05:00

An unusual breakfast, sure. It is still delicious, any time of day. Pita Chips served with hummus and tabouli for dipping. Hummus is Sabra Brand with Pine Nuts. I like Sabra in any place I cannot find Holy Land.

I ate my breakfast with a mini-V8 (low sodium) and water.

Chik'n Style Seitan with Pasta

2011-04-11T18:37:00.003-05:00

I thought about the seitan strips from yesterday all day and how I could improve or experiment with the flavors and seasonings. So I did.

Recipe:

dry ingredients
1c vital wheat gluten
3T nutritional yeast flakes
about .5-1t Old Bay Seasoning
a dash of Montreal steak seasoning

wet ingredients
.13c soy sauce/shoyu
.5c veg stock
.25c water
1T olive oil

Again, heat up oven to 375 degrees F. Mix dry ingredients and wet separately, then combine. Mix well until ball forms, then knead. I rolled into a cylindrical log, and sliced up as thin as I could. Lay onto lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake for 5-8 mins on one side, flip and then other side. I was getting impatient, so I wound up pan frying after baking to crisp up some of the pieces.

I served on penne pasta with organic strained tomatoes as my sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Seitan Strips with 3 Sauces

2011-04-10T22:05:00.006-05:00

I really wanted to make some sort of seitan since I had most of the ingredients. I was out of chickpeas, so no chickpea cutlets and in fact did not have any premade beans and didn't feel like making a batch of dry beans. I also did not want to wait over an hour for a giant seitan loaf/log.

What to do?

VegWeb to the rescue! I found THIS Recipe after a quick search for "easy seitan".

I modified it ever so slightly by grating in some garlic and adding a teaspoon of lemon juice. I sliced the glutenous log into strips and baked as directed, but a tad longer to get more crispy. Served with 3 sauces: "zesty" steak sauce (aka generic Heinz 57); generic A1; Ken Davis BBQ Sauce; and a soy sauce I made with grated garlic and some hot sauce stirred together.

Verdict: WOW. Easy, chewy, and pretty healthy. I've often fried up and eaten plain chik'n or steak-style strips. This is a fantastic alternative and I know what all the ingredients are. The add-ins could be endless for experimentation: add some tofu? some hot sauces, ginger, lime juice? Savory Italian style? BBQ for the grill?

Plus, given that I completely botched some brownies earlier today, this experiment turned out fantastic. I also made focaccia bread sometime between yesterday and today which turned out great, a little too dense, but still delicious. Just in case anyone thought I had given up on baking.

What's in the Pantry: Saturday Night Edition

2011-04-09T23:33:00.004-05:00

There's nothing to eat! I hear and think that a lot. In truth, I have a lot of staples in my pantry and fridge/freezer and when pasta just won't cut it, the tried and true become the stars.

This Saturday's dish? I am calling it "Broc-Caul-Lentil Curry" - pretty much what it sounds like. I started with about half an onion diced (small-medium dice), 4 cloves fresh garlic minced, 4-5 cloves roasted garlic minced, 1/2 cup (dry) brown lentils cooked separately until tender, 1 (10oz?) bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, 10-12 pieces frozen pineapple, 1 can coconut milk, 1/2 can red curry paste, and some fresh ginger as well as some ground ginger.

Served over brown rice and wild rice. (I cooked wild rice while making this dish and already had brown rice ready to eat.)

So as stated above, I cooked some lentils separately with a veggie bouillon cube for flavor.

I diced and minced the onion and garlic, respectively. In a large saute pan, saute onion until tender, add a sprinkle of curry powder and some salt along with the roasted and fresh garlic. At this point I also shredded up some ginger and added that as well as some ground ginger. Stir lentils, perhaps add some more liquid to the lentils.

Next, I added to the large saute pan the bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower. I added a little veggie broth that I had in the fridge to help steam the veggies. I added some frozen pineapple after a few minutes. I then added the can of coconut milk. The red curry paste I buy comes in cans the size of tuna fish cans, and it is REALLY spicy, so I added about 1/3-1/2 of the can of curry paste.

I dumped in the lentils, and stirred everything. Let cook until the pineapple and frozen veggies are heated through. Serve over rice of some kind. Orzo or cous cous would work too, or on it's own.

On's Thai Kitchen: Tofu Pad Thai and Mock Duck with Green Beans

2011-04-03T12:48:00.004-05:00

On's is a new-ish Thai restaurant here in Saint Paul. It is a delicious addition to the Midway. The photos are blurry (sorry) because I took them quickly with my phone. Perhaps next time I will take more time and get a decent photo. Above is a dish that originally was supposed to be with pea pods, but they were out and subbed green beans instead. I had it with mock duck, and it was delicious.

Below, a blurry Tofu Pad Thai. Very delicious. We also had a fried tofu appetizer which was pretty good, the sauce is amazing. Mr. Coconut spoke with the owner, On, and she verified that everything is made from scratch so a large variety of the dishes are vegan-friendly by request. I am excited to continue going here and enjoying more delicious Thai meals.

Smoky Beans and Rice with Tortilla Chips

2011-02-18T19:17:00.002-06:00

This has been a recent favorite of mine. Again, follows the theme of cheap, easy, and fairly simple.

Again, no real "recipe" here with accurate measurements. Once I make this a few more times, I'll get a solid measured recipe with it. I still have not worked out the spice to lime juice to smoky flavor ratio.

I used black beans in the above photo, but I've also used a mixture of black and pinto beans and mixed light and dark kidney beans. I always use brown rice, though surely white rice would work, just not as nutritious.

I use about half a large onion, diced; several cloves of garlic (3-4), minced; 2 cans of beans (the 15 oz style, or one of the larger cans or a bunch of cooked beans that I make from dry beans). Usually I like a fairly even ratio of beans to rice, about 2-3 cups of each, though I prefer a little more beans than rice.

I start by sauteing the onion in a little oil and adding the garlic. I shake on some cumin and salt, mixing well. Then I add the cooked beans, stirring well. I pour in some veggie broth and then shake a little of liquid smoke into the pot. Seriously, a little goes a LONG way.

I add a generous amount of rice, 2-3 cups, stir. I add more veggie broth, and simmer until the broth really gets absorbed into the beans and rice. (This will happen even more after it cools down, so it's okay if it seems like there is too much liquid when you turn off the heat.)

At this point, I have added lime juice, cilantro, hot sauce, or nothing. I have not perfected this yet, but I've gotten some tasty combination and ratios of all three add-ins. I've also added frozen corn. This goes great with salsa and chips, or just as a hearty lunch.

Penne Pasta with Kicked Up 'Meat' Sauce

2011-02-18T18:58:00.003-06:00

I've been eating a lot of pasta lately: it's cheap and filling and easy to make. However, I can easily get in a rut with pasta. I love Newman's Own pasta sauce, but just red sauce and pasta can get old.

I thought for a bit how to kick up the red sauce I had in the house. After a moment or two, I came up with a plan and began. (No real measurements, but the next time I do this I'll get more specific.)

Ingredients:
1 jar Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara (or any red sauce you like)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 med-large onion, small dice
.75c TVP (crumbles, dry)
1 can vegetable broth
fennel seeds (1T I think?)
salt
1/2 package fresh spinach

I started by sauteeing the onion and then the garlic. I added fennel seeds to the mix, to saute and toast them a little. I added some salt, then poured a little of the veggie broth in and let everything simmer for a minute or so. I added the jar of sauce, stirring everything together. I kept adding veggie broth to thin out the sauce and prevent the pre-seasoned red sauce from super-concentrating in flavor.

I added TVP, stirring and allowing it to hydrate in the sauce to soak up the flavors. I then added the spinach and turned off the heat, stirring until the spinach had adequately cooked in the sauce.

Pour over pasta of choice and enjoy!

Broccoli & Cauliflower with Baked Tofu in Curry Sauce

2011-02-18T18:20:00.004-06:00

This was dinner earlier tonight.

Ingredients (roughly):
119g onion, small-fine dice
156g tofu (this was one 12oz package, weighed after baking)
1.5T curry powder
.75c frozen peas
1 package (16oz) of frozen broccoli and cauliflower
(comes to about 225g of broccoli, 225g cauliflower)
.13c ginger, minced
14g garlic, sliced thinly
1can (14oz) coconut milk
1/4can veggie broth
1T olive oil

Serve with:
Brown Rice or plain or noodles

1. I started this whole endeavor by cubing the tofu and setting onto a foiled and oiled pan. I used my toaster oven. Set at 350 degrees F, bake for 20 mins. Flip, then bake another 20 mins. I flipped one last time and baked another 20 mins, and it came to the perfect consistency (in my opinion)

2. Near the end of the second 20 minute baking of the tofu, I started dicing my onion and slicing my garlic. [This is where the ginger should be minced, but I forgot all about it until much later on.] I heated up a pan on the stove and poured about one tablespoon of olive oil. Check the tofu and flip and bake again as needed.

3. Put the onion in the pan, saute for a bit until onion is soft. Add garlic. [again, this is ideally where the ginger would be added, but I added it later because I forgot about it for a while.]

4. Add baked tofu cubes, saute in pan. Add curry powder, mix everything together well, then add some veggie broth to help the curry really get into the ingredients.

5. Add broccoli and cauliflower, adding veggie broth as needed to help cook the frozen vegetables.

6. Add coconut milk, stirring everything together. Add frozen peas.

7. Simmer until everything is cooked to your liking. Serve over brown rice.

Birthday 2010: Recap

2011-02-11T22:19:00.005-06:00

My birthday was months ago, but here is a short recap on some of my fooding adventures on my holiday. First up, as pictured above, a piece of Chocolate Cake from My Local Co-Op, Mississippi Market. I really like picking up a couple pieces of this cake, that they always have available. It's delicious and simple and awesome with a glass of soymilk or almond milk.

Next up, Punch Pizza. It's my new favorite local pizza joint. Cheap, delicious food that is easily vegan and brings quality ingredients to the forefront. Plus, AMAZING freebies throughout the year via social networks. One of the smartest restaurants I've ever seen utilize Facebook, Twitter and a blog. First, the Punch Salad:

Mixed greens, pine nuts, balsamic vinegar. I believe the actual Punch Salad comes with prosciutto and cheese but vegan without those two. Focaccia comes with the salad and is also vegan.

Next, one of the "basic" pizzas, a margherita (crust, sauce, basil) with the dipping sauces of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the crusts:

Truly awesome pizza with a truly smart company. These folks should be the business model for all restaurants.

Twenty Eleven: The Year of Baking

2011-02-11T21:59:00.005-06:00

As the delicious looking (and tasting) Garlic Pull-Apart Roll can show, I finally crossed into baking. Awesomeness. I really started at the end of 2010, but it helped to kick start 2011 into a baking frenzy.

I started with white bread:

(I used THIS RECIPE to start off everything.)

I moved into the rolls, and eventually to a focaccia-white bread mix and finally into wheat bread. Super easy, super delicious.

My goal, hopefully by the end of February is to make cinnamon rolls.

Oh, and? I started making the infamous chickpea cutlets at least once a week since the end of December 2010. Delicious lunches -- I've enjoyed them the most served cold with an A-1 sauce or yellow/Dijon mustard.

Obviously this is the first post in several months. Part of my New Year's Resolution is to post more often. I have been cooking a lot more and hope to showcase more of my risks in cooking as well as a lot of my "typical" meals.

Fried Pickle Slices

2010-10-31T19:01:00.003-05:00

No Picture, though I will DEFINITELY be making these again, very, very soon!

I started with Claussen Dill Halves, my pickle of choice. I sliced the halves up into 1/4 inch slices. I used a tempura batter mix and dipped the slices in that, then rolled in panko bread crumbs. I did a few plain, then added seasoned salt to the panko so the rest were flavored.

I used a pan with vegetable oil to pan-fry the slices, a few at a time. I fried until golden brown and flipped so the other side of the slice would match.

I drained on a paper towel on my plate, and dipped in Frank's Red Hot.

DELICIOUS. Crispy, salty, tangy. I would probably cut my slices thicker next time, 1/2 inch or more. My tempura batter could also have been a little thicker.

Product Review: Tofurky Pepperoni Pizza

2010-10-23T11:11:00.002-05:00

Last night, I tried one of three frozen vegan pizzas offered by Tofurky, powered by Daiya. The pepperoni is in the Totino's Party Pizza style that I remember growing up: diced up pieces of pepperoni. The crust is thin and crisps easily. The cheese: not nearly enough -- we added some of our own Daiya cheddar to the pizza.

The other two varieties offered are Cheese and Sausage. I am really interested in getting a cheese and adding my own "meat" toppings, such as the regular pepperoni slices from Yves or some Gimme Lean sausage.

It's expensive (I believe $8.99 USD at my local Whole Foods) for a frozen pizza, BUT given that a mock duck/rinotta (or soy cheese - Follow Your Heart brand) medium pizza costs $16-17 USD to get delivered, it's comparable and still really tasty. I mean, we're coming along when I can go buy a frozen vegan pizza at a store not 50+ miles or mail ordered to me.

Product Review: Ian's Mac and NO Cheese (GF)

2010-10-22T16:51:00.003-05:00

So I'll start my renewed commitment to the food blog with a product review. Ian's Mac and NO Cheese which is also gluten free. It uses nutritional yeast for the cheesy base, so it is a lot different than Amy's Mac and Cheese with Daiya. I like it, though.

I use a microwave to make this stuff, and the directions are: poke holes in plastic, then micro for 2min on high, then remove overwrap, stir, micro one more min, and let stand. After the first 2 minutes, during the first stir, this stuff is REALLY questionable: it's runny, the pasta is not done, and does not resemble any mac and cheese I know. Do not give up! After the next minute in the micro, the sauce thickens and the pasta becomes more al dente.

This stuff alone is not bad, but I have been really enjoying it with mixed vegetables and sliced veggie dogs along with some ketchup and hot sauce. Definitely not for everyone, but worth a try.

Hello, World! I'm Not Dead.

2010-10-22T16:45:00.004-05:00

Five months. FIVE months since the last post?!?! I have to stop this nonsense. There are perfectly good reasons for this.

1. My camera broke, so I got a new one. I don't really like the new one.

2. I need to renew my Flickr account. (Plan to do in the next couple of weeks.)

3. Need to cook even more! I've been eating plenty, just not very *blog-worthy* stuff.

Never fear, I do not plan on abandoning this project/documentation. I like to see how I've evolved both as a cook and as a photographer. Plus, it helps to keep me creative if I know I have an "audience" to present to -- no matter how big or small. There will be updates -- hopefully LOTS -- very soon.

Spicy Tofu Triangles

2010-05-16T22:43:00.002-05:00

Mr. Coconut cooked these up a while back.

He marinated drained and pressed tofu in Frank's Red Hot and Old Bay Seasoning, then pan-fried until crispy. Very easy and delicious.

Roasted Beets with Beet Greens

2010-05-16T22:39:00.002-05:00

Simple, nutritious, and delicious!

I roasted the beets by wrapping them in foil and baking until soft. Wash beets gently so you don't break the skin -- this keeps nutrients inside and the juices which stain everything sealed inside. Slice up after they are roasted/cooked.

I chopped up the greens and sauteed with onions and garlic and served immediately. I added a splash of white vinegar to the greens as well as salt.

Soft Tacos

2010-05-16T22:33:00.003-05:00

Here's my attempt to make tacos photogenic. Atop a lightly toasted flour tortilla: taco-seasoned TVP, refried black beans with garlic, fresh sweet corn with lime juice and cilantro, rotel tomatoes with habaneros, chopped cilantro, Tofutti sour cream. I added fresh spinach and taco sauce before folding up as a taco and eating.

I know I said that the next taco night I'd make my own tortillas. I still plan on making my own, I just need to get a cast iron pan first. I know I can do it without one, but I'd like to get one anyway and this seems like the perfect excuse.

Loaded Potato Skins

2010-05-16T22:22:00.004-05:00

Wow. These were a lot of fun to make and even more fun to eat.

I took about 6-7 russets and baked them in the oven until soft, about an hour. I let them cool down until I could easily handle them, and sliced each on in half. I scooped out the insides and set aside in a bowl. I wound up adding Tofutti sour cream, daiya cheddar and daiya mozzarella to the insides along with some butter and homemade bac-os, stirred it all up and scooped it back inside the potatoes. I baked a while longer, added a mix of cheddar and mozz daiya to the tops of the potatoes along with the rest of the bac-os and broiled until the cheese melted. I sprinkled green onions on the tops and devoured.

Here's a close-up of the potatoes:

Amy's Rice Mac and Cheeze

2010-05-16T22:13:00.004-05:00

I already reviewed this in my previous post. Here's photo proof of the deliciousness. It's truly creamy, unlike any vegan mac and cheese I've had before.

Yum yum yum. Overpriced? absolutely. Worth it for the delicious convenience.

Homemade Bacon Bits

2010-05-09T17:49:00.004-05:00

For the potato skins I made, I figured that they needed bacon bits. I've heard that Bac-Os(TM) are vegan (obviously check the ingredients as they can change and vary region to region), however I didn't really want to buy some. Instead, I decided to try my hand at making my own.

I bought some TVP, which I've used before in many dishes. I purchased it recently so I can give Taco Night another go.

I've made homemade tofu bacon before, so I just used those ingredients and applied them here.

I rehydrated 1/4c of TVP granules in about 1/4c of boiling water. Then I heated a pan up and poured about 1tsp of vegetable oil in it. I let the pan get very hot, then added the hydrated TVP.

Separately, I mixed together about 1/8c of soy sauce (use Kikkoman or better, no La Choy please!) with 1tsp of liquid smoke and a couple drops of Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

As the TVP fried up, I added the sauce mixture and continued to fry it until it crisped up a bit. Presto! Now you have some "bacon" bits to add to baked potatoes, salads, or any other dish you can come up with.

New Product Reviews: Daiya Cheese, Amy's Mac & Cheese, Rice Cheese Blocks,

2010-05-08T22:43:00.008-05:00

So, this is a no-photo post. There is a very good reason for this.

I have found the best vegan cheese ever, and most (all?) of the dishes have resulted in not blog-worthy photos. What is this mysterious "cheese"? Daiya.

Seriously, check out that link. Gluten, soy, dairy free. Yet...delicious. It comes pre-shredded, in mozzarella and cheddar flavors. (At least at my local Saint Paul, MN, Whole Foods.) My chief complaint is that the package is not resealable and forces me to either dump the contents into another zip-top bag or to utilize my chip clips. (There are roughly 3 individuals who are laughing at my chip clips because they know exactly where they are from.)

Mr. Coconut and I have made several quesadillas and added the cheese to various burritos and pasta dishes. Not to mention just dipping the quesadilla slices in spicy taco sauce, awesome salsa and other dips. Yum! Other dishes in the past two weeks that added Daiya cheese: red potato hashbrowns with Daiya; red potatoes thinly sliced with garlic and onion and olive oil -- plus cheese at the end. I know, a bit potato-heavy, but other than quesadillas and potatoes and pasta, the Daiya cheese ran out quickly.

On that note, I also tried the Amy's Non-Dairy Rice Mac & Cheeze. Amy's previously had a "soy cheeze" mac & cheese that was not vegan. They also had a rice macaroni & cheese that was not vegan. However, this new stuff is made with the aforementioned Daiya cheddar. SO AWESOME.

Back story:

I loved making my own mac & cheese, and still love it even as a vegan. I'm a fan of Road's End mac and cheese mixes. I'm also a fan of making my own mac and cheese with nutritional yeast.

Long before I was vegan, I became obsessed with this frozen mac & cheese from Michelina's. It was creamy, dreamy, quick and comforting.

Guess what? The Amy's mac and cheese tasted just like I remembered Michelina's tasted like. Amazing.

Word is that Galactic Pizza an awesome local pizza joint, is using Daiya as its vegan cheese.

Another new product I tried in the past few weeks was the Galaxy Rice Cheddar block of cheese. I've talked about my love of the rice cheddar cheese slices. It's nice to have soy-free selections in the vegan cheese market. The block of cheese shredded finely was pretty good in Tofurky sandwiches after being heated up for 30 seconds. Not nearly as good as Daiya -- like no where near. This stuff is still the most awesome vegan cheese next to Daiya, though.

So now I have more Daiya and I plan on attempting photo-worthy dishes. My main thought is to make the best potato skins ever: baked up russets with sour cream, green onions, Daiya cheese, and -- possibly -- bacooo bits. (I have a plan on making my own Bac-O Bits with some TVP. Maybe, maybe even make some killer twice-baked potatoes, we'll see.

Afternoon Snack: Ants on a Log & Carrot Sticks

2010-04-25T17:02:00.003-05:00

A snack blast from the past. "Ants on a Log" is a snack from many people's childhood, including mine. It involves filling celery sticks with peanut butter and covering with "ants" or raisins. To this snack I added chopped dates in addition to the classic raisins. I also had some carrot sticks. Just a simple snack, healthy and satisfying.

Chickpea Noodle Stew

2010-04-25T16:47:00.003-05:00

My soup/stew of the week: Chickpea Noodle Stew! Another "throw a lot of things in the pot" stew, so again, I apologize for not having a concrete recipe.

Ingredients:
diced onions, carrots & celery for mirepoix
one can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
vegetable stock
olive oil for sauteing the mirepoix
garlic, 2-3 cloves, minced
salt, tt
elbow macaroni noodles (or any noodle at all)
vegetables (I used frozen broccoli and peas)
vegetable stock (1.5c/2c)
water

Instructions
1. Saute the mirepoix on low heat with olive oil and some salt until onions are soft and translucent. (do not brown the onions; looking for soft, maybe yellowish from oil, but not brown) This may take 5-15 minutes. I kind of wanted some texture from the carrots so I started adding other ingredients faster than I might for other soups.

2. add garlic & chickpeas

3. add vegetable stock and water

4. bring to boil, add some noodles. I just tossed in what looked like a good amount. My initial plan for this dish was something more brothy but the amount of noodles I added made it more of a stew than a soup. Still delicious, but next time I might back off the noodles a little more.

5. as noodles are nearing done time, add in some vegetables. I added chopped frozen broccoli and frozen peas. I also added more salt, but I'm a salt fiend.

6. Done! Scoop into a bowl and enjoy.

Double Decker Tacos!!!

2010-04-25T13:06:00.006-05:00

Taco Night! If you follow the Flickr-linked photo above, you'll get complete labels on the fillings.

Taco night is awesome. And last night was no exception. Refried beans makes excellent "glue" to hold a soft flour tortilla to a hard corn shell. Perfect. ~~Morningstar crumbles~~Someone pointed out to me that Morningstar changed the crumbles ingredients and it's no longer vegan. Grr, stupid ingredient change! Boca crumbles are still vegan. with spicy taco seasoning was the "meat" for this dish. Other layers include: homemade garlicky guacamole, diced tomatoes, chopped black olives, chopped onions, spinach instead of iceberg lettuce, chopped cilantro, and spicy taco sauce.

It was delicious!! I believe that another taco night, or perhaps some taco pizza, will happen very soon.

Another pic:

Vegetable & Bean Stew with Spicy Biscuits

2010-04-25T11:30:00.007-05:00

I made this quick vegetable stew the other day. I also made biscuits, a variation of the recipe from the other day. I added some liquid from the stew as well as red pepper flakes to the mix to create a spicy version. Another make it up as I go, so not an "official" recipe, but here's roughly what I did.

The Stew

Ingredients:
1 28oz can of Fire Roasted tomatoes
1 15(I think)oz can of dark red kidney beans
1 15(I think)oz can of white kidney beans (cannellini)
1 8oz can spicy Ro-Tel [diced tomatoes with habaneros)
1/2 a large onion, med. dice
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
frozen corn
cumin
paprika
chili powder
water
veg stock or bouillon cube
1tsp oil (for sauteing onion & garlic)

Instructions:

1. in stock pot, saute onion in oil until soft, add garlic and spices to taste

2. add drained and rinsed beans and can of tomatoes

3. add Ro-Tel, stir everything

4. add water. I basically filled the big tomato can with water and dumped it in and added a little more

5. bring to boil, add some frozen corn and or vegetables of choice. Sweet corn really works with these flavors but I'm sure many others would work.

6. bring down to simmer. If you feel like it, add vegetable stock or bouillon cube for flavor.

Done! The flavors of both the stew and biscuits are even better the second day. This lasted for most of the week for both me and Mr. Coconut's lunch.

Biscuits!!

2010-04-18T18:01:00.004-05:00

These delicious biscuits are courtesy of a recipe from Savvy Abby a blog that has tips for cheap vegan living from a VegNews Associate Editor. Great blog, I just started reading it today thanks to a heads up from a VN newsletter I get. As I was perusing the blog, I saw the recipe for the biscuits and was happy that I had all of those ingredients so I immediately got to baking.

I used olive oil and rice milk for my oil and non-dairy picks. Mainly because that's what I had available. I used regular all-purpose white flour because, again, that's what I had. Savvy Abby says that any combo of oil or flour or non-dairy liquids can be used. The basic recipe is really versatile: add sweetness for a sweet biscuit, use fresh herbs and garlic and other add-in ingredients. Go wild!

Here is a pic of a biscuit I had with Smart Balance and blackberry jam:

Delicious! I used the suggestion of a 1/4 measuring cup to measure out the biscuit dough for baking. I found that it created biscuits which were a little too large and had difficulty in getting some of the centers to be done all the way. They were still delicious and took 15 minutes, tops. They would be great in soups, gravies, with a sausage patty and tofu, sandwiches, etc.

Chickpea & Couscous Curry

2010-04-18T17:34:00.004-05:00

Simple curry/stew that was quite delicious and lasted for several days. I just made it up as I went along, so I don't have exact measurements.

Ingredients:
1 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
same can filled with water
1c dry cous cous
half of a large onion, medium-large dice
2-3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 can of chickpeas (15oz size?)
variety of frozen vegetables
curry powder, 1-2 Tablespoons (or to taste)
salt, to taste
olive oil, 1t

directions:

1. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. In a large-ish stockpot, saute the onion in the olive oil. Add curry powder and continue to saute until onion is soft. Add garlic and saute a little more.

2. Add tomatoes and chickpeas. I also added some frozen vegetables. I just dumped in whatever looked like it would be tasty in this dish. I had a big bag of California Blend" which had cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. I also added some frozen peas. Many vegetables, fresh or frozen, would be great. Potatoes, mixed veggies, etc. Next time, however, I am going to add the veggies later on.

3. Add water. I just used the same can of tomatoes and filled it up with water and added it to the stew. Simmer for 20 minutes or so.

4. Add couscous. I just threw it in dry and let it cook in the stew.

5. After couscous is finished cooking, the dish should be done. I enjoyed with sriracha but it was also fine on it's own.

It thickened up quite a bit the next day. I might add less couscous next time, and try not to overcook the veggies as they did this time. I personally wanted more curry flavor and some more spice to the dish. It was still delicious.

Black Bean and Rice Tacos w. Toasted Corn Tortillas

2010-03-04T01:16:00.004-06:00

This was something I whipped up when I had very little in my pantry. These ingredients are all staples in my pantry.

The only item that isn't necessarily a staple would be the quick-cooking wild rice blend. I always have a lot of brown rice on hand, and sometimes minute white rice. This particular brand is really easy to make: I boil one small can of veg stock (about 1.75 cups, not sure on ounces) and add a little olive oil or butter. Add in one cup of the rice and drop down to a simmer for 15 minutes, then remove from heat and keep covered for another 15 minutes or so.

I seasoned up a can of drained and rinsed black beans with some standard sauteed onion and garlic and cumin as well as salt.

Sauces and condiments are a huge staple in my house, and El Yucateco green habanero sauce is a favorite of mine. According to the company's website, this particular flavor of hot sauce registers 9,000 on the Scoville Scale. For reference, according to the scale as listed in Wiki, a bell pepper rates as a "0" and a jalapeno is in the 2,500-8,000 range. This sauce is the radioactive-green looking stuff on the tacos.

Another pantry staple in my house is a stack of corn tortillas. They are pretty cheap and can be frozen so long as you fry or, in my case, toast the tortillas after defrosting. Corn tortillas fall apart pretty easily if they don't get some structural integrity from frying or toasting. I came up with toasting as an alternative to pan-frying for a healthier alternative. I remove the tortillas from the freezer and pry off 4 (or less/more) tortillas. I then microwave them in a stack until they are *just* defrosted. Then place in toaster oven until they become more sturdy. Don't toast for too long or you'll get a crispy tostada rather than a usable taco shell.

one more pic:

Fried Okra Bites w. Hot Sauce

2010-03-04T01:10:00.003-06:00

Straightforward snack: we discovered these fairly cheap frozen breaded okra bites at Super Target from a generic (not a Target-brand) brand of frozen vegetables. The instructions require them to be fried, and once I opened the package I saw why: the breading coating the okra is not cooked through and needs to be fried rather than baked. It *might* work to bake it, but I seriously doubt it.

I ended up pan-frying about half the package in vegetable oil until golden brown overall with more crispy ends. I served it with Frank's Red Hot Sauce. These are pretty delicious, though somewhat heavy due to the amount of oil the pieces hold even after pressing out as much as possible in paper towels.

Teese Vegan Cheese Review: Teese Quesadilla

2010-03-04T00:28:00.006-06:00

So this is a quesadilla made with Teese cheese (see below for long review and thoughts on this new product). I served it on a sprouted grain tortilla and garnished with cilantro. Green Mountain Gringo was also served with it. GMG is my favorite mass-marketed shelf-stable canned salsa, second only to Salsa Lisa which is a company based right here in Saint Paul. GMG has great flavor to it, and the "hot" is actually REALLY hot. Salsa Lisa always tastes really fresh and is kept in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Salsa Lisa also has a hot flavor I like because it is actually very hot.

The quesadilla wasn't too bad, but overall I don't really care for Teese cheese.

And now a thorough review of Teese:

Teese is a fairly new (though old news by now) vegan cheese. When it first became available to the public, it swept across the vegan food blogosphere like wildfire. It finally came to my local Whole Foods late last year, so we had to try it out.

I've made and tried my fair share of vegan cheeses. There will never be a true replacement for "real" cheese. It's been so long since I've had cheese (over 5 years) that I don't really remember it. What I look for in a vegan cheese is something vaguely reminiscent of what I do remember. I tend to favor homemade or restaurant house-made recipes over the mass-marketed cheeses. The one vegan mass-marketed cheese I like are the rice slices from Galaxy Foods. The mouthfeel mimics the over-processed Kraft singles. My thought is, if you're going to eat something that processed, why not choose the vegan version?

Okay, back to Teese. Word out in the vegan food blogosphere was that Teese melted awesomely and had a great texture, taste, etc. I tried the nacho cheese sauce, the "hard" cheddar, and the mozzarella. The sauce was weird, and I thought pretty gross overall. Of course, I'm spoiled because The Triple Rock, one of my favorite restaurants in Minneapolis for vegan eats, has mastered a vegan nacho cheese sauce which is nutritional yeast based.

I can't remember what we tried the mozz on, but I seem to vaguely recall we put it on a cheeseless pizza from Papa John's or something. It was adequate.

So last, but not least, I made a quesadilla with the cheddar Teese and a sprouted grain tortilla. I placed the tortilla in a warm pan sprayed with some non-stick oil. I shredded a lot of the Teese and placed it on one half of the tortilla and folded the tortilla in half. I cooked it by placing a weight (like a heavy lid) on top of the tortilla itself. I also flipped the whole thing at least once. The Teese got melty, that's for sure. However, it did not stay that way for long.

[I expected this as the thing that makes cheese melty is a milk-derived protein called Casein. A lot of "non-dairy" and "lactose-free" cheese contains this protein and makes it not vegan.]

Unlike the other main mass-marketed cheese available, Follow Your Heart(aka Vegan Gourmet), the Teese solidified into a more plastic texture. It was not very appealing. I also felt that the Teese did not stay in it's melted state for very long, at least it was a much shorter time than FYH. The texture & overall mouthfeel in Teese's melted state was pretty good, and I would say even better than FYH. Teese is interesting because it didn't disintegrate and morph into a pool of oil if heated too much, which is a major downside of FYH. Again, I couldn't get over how...plastic...it was. When bits of cheese fell out of the tortilla and onto the hot pan, it never turned to oil, it just became crispy and strangely plastic-like.

Overall, it wasn't too bad. I don't think I will be dropping that much money (something like $6-9 USD per what I believe are 10oz tubes). Those tubes are also a great disappointment compared to the resealable package offered by FYH. I'll stick to homemade stuff and my occasional indulgence of the rice-based single slices.

White Bean and Potato Soup with Crispy Garlic Rounds

2010-03-04T00:24:00.003-06:00

I found this in random folder and saw it had not been uploaded. I vaguely remember making this, but it was a long time ago. I'm pretty sure it started with onions, garlic, salt and some other seasonings. White Cannellini Beans, canned, were drained, rinsed, and added. Then some water, possibly veg. stock. Then sliced potatoes, I'm guessing gold russets. Cooked until tender and mashed/blended until at a consistency I liked. I don't have a large blender nor do I have a stick blender (though it's on my wish list) so it's not really possible for me to puree. That's okay as I tend to like most of my soups to be a bit thick and hearty.

I garnished with fresh Thyme and served with some crispy garlic rounds.

VWAV: Curried Split Pea Soup 2, served with roasted vegetables and melba toast

2010-03-04T00:05:00.004-06:00

I've made this before, and it is the only thing I've made from Vegan With a Vengeance the popular vegan cookbook that is ubiquitous in the vegan food blogosphere and beyond. I actually may have made a few other recipes, but this is the only one I always have the ingredients for by default and it is SO EASY to make, I keep going back to it.

This time around, I served it with roasted vegetables that I tossed and marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The vegetables I used: red, yellow, and green bell peppers; zucchini and yellow squash. I cut all the veggies into as Placed on cookie sheet and roasted in oven until tender then placed under broiler to get some of that charred roasted flavor.

I garnished the soup with shredded carrot, which is how it is recommended to serve in the cookbook. I highly recommend this because it gives a great added texture and flavor layer to the soup. I also served with pieces of melba toast, which I am always in love with because they are miniature in size and adorable.

A second photo, this time of the whole plate. (I LOVE the lighting I was able to get for this photo. I've found it is still hard for me to get decent lighting for most of my photos, but I'm working on a makeshift lightbox for the future.)

The Great Cake Waffles Experiment: Chocolate and Vanilla

2010-03-03T23:22:00.005-06:00

I love making cake, but the problem I have with making most desserts is that I don't typically have tons of people to share the dessert with. So when I make a large number of cupcakes, cookies, or just a big cake, Mr. Coconut and I end up gorging on all of it within 2 days or some of the dessert goes bad.

My solution came in the form of my waffle iron. Genius, pure genius.

I've seen/read/heard of other folks using waffle irons for cooking things other than waffles. I also know I am not the first person to think of cake batter in a waffle iron, but nonetheless it was a delicious experience.

I used Cherrybrook Kitchen brand cake mix in vanilla and also chocolate. Cherrybrook Kitchen is an awesome brand of cake, cookie, and other baking mixes that are allergen free, which makes all of their products vegan. They also have a decent line of gluten-free mixes. These are available at Whole Foods, Super Target, and local co-ops in my area.

It took a while to get the timing and amount just right. I used my Belgian waffle iron, which made for some extremely delicate pieces that fell apart easily. A regular waffle iron with smaller squares or pockets, whatever you want to call it, would probably be better for a more sturdy piece of cake. I sprayed the waffle iron with non-stick spray, ladled in what I figured out to be the perfect amount, closed the waffle iron and waited. My iron has a self-timer with a green light that indicates when you should pour in the batter and a red light which indicates when it is done. I found I had to wait for a minute or two after the red light came on in order to get the cake in one piece.

All in all, light, fluffy cake was done within minutes. I was able to store the pieces in the fridge in an airtight container for a lot longer (and a lot easier) than a whole cake. I used some frosting from Pillsbury that is "accidentally" vegan and decorated with sprinkles. I couldn't frost easily because I was too impatient to soften up the frosting enough to spread on the delicate pieces -- so no photo of the frosted end result.

Here's a shot of the vanilla pieces in the waffle iron:

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-28T12:19:00.004-06:00

From the bottom left: Fiery Sweet Potatoes[recipe from NYTimes], Chik'n Tofu Triangles, stuffing with onions, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts. There is also an apple slice on the far left.

The sweet potatoes were great! (click on "Fiery Sweet Potatoes" above for the link to the NYTimes Recipe) Blending coconut milk & curry paste into the sweet potatoes was a great idea, and I would make these again. Next time, I will give them enough time to really crisp once in the baking pan so a crust of sugar can be more formed. I became too impatient and took them out of the broiler a little early.

I've made Chik'n Tofu many times before. This was yet another experiment. I used firm tofu (water packed kind), and drained/pressed for a while longer than I normally do. I made a mixture of flour, poultry seasoning (a mix of dry herbs like thyme and rosemary) and some chicken seasoning (another mix of seasonings: salt, garlic, etc.) I sliced the tofu into triangles and then coated each piece with the mix and baked in the toaster oven for 45 minutes. They came out too dry and not seasoned enough -- too much flour. They were still tasty, just not awesome as the last few times.

The rest of the items were pretty straight forward. I roasted a head of garlic in the toaster oven with olive oil and kosher salt for 40 minutes -- or until soft. The garlic just scoops right out. I boiled red potatoes until soft, drained, then added the garlic and a little soymilk and a lot of vegan butter until at the consistency I wanted. I'm a fan of potato skin, so I leave it on.

Brussels sprouts were not as tasty as I've made in the past but again, still delicious. Stuffing was from a bag of bread cubes and my own diced onion and some seasonings.

I love that my plate isn't all brown/beige!

Olympic Cafe: Kapa'a, Kauai, Hawai'i

2009-11-28T10:25:00.002-06:00

Breakfast at The Olympic Cafe in Kapa'a on the island of Kauai in Hawai'i. This place was great. There were vegan options for most of the dishes. Pictured above: "Kim's Scramble" subbed with tofu instead of egg. Green and red bell peppers, onions, tarragon and other spices with fresh papaya on the side as well as a lime wedge to enjoy with the papaya.

Lunch: Vegetable wrap with fresh tofu and a side of papaya and a lime wedge. Mr. Coconut had a Thai veggie wrap, not pictured, but was the most delicious meal ever.

Other food enjoyed in Kapa'a Town: Bubba Burger, which had delicious and unique Taro Burgers, made from taro root which is grown in Hawai'i as well as other islands. There was also a lovely coffee shop called Java Kai which had delicious vegan muffins and cupcakes which we had each morning for breakfast.

Wedding Food: MGM Grand in Las Vegas

2009-11-27T18:01:00.006-06:00

March? Really? It's been 7-8 months since the last update? Whoa.

Well, The Saucy Coconut has been quite busy, as this post will prove. Yes, there was a wedding, and the reception was catered by MGM Grand Las Vegas in the Skylofts. I married Mr. Coconut in July, and the ceremony was great. Most importantly to this blog, there was great food. We had a chips and salsa station which also doubled as a taco station, a "build your own pita/falafel" station, lots of fruit and vegetables and some of the TASTIEST vegan cake EVER.

Pictured above: fruit kabobs with pineapple, melons, and strawberries.

Next: Vegetable "trays". If you're a vegetarian, chances are you've ended up at more than one buffet where there are only vegetable or fruit trays to choose from. While my wedding did have vegetables, I LOVED the way they were presented, such as the fruit kabobs above or the standing holders of vegetables below.

Close-up of the yellow squash and zucchini spears:

Grilled Vegetable Kabobs:

These have patty pan squash, artichokes, tomato and mushrooms. Hummus for dipping.

A giant mound of falafel:

An unimpressive picture of the most impressive cake I've ever had:

A more traditional fruit tray:

While in Las Vegas, we also visited Yellowtail inside Belaggio and Chin Chin inside NYNY. Next post I'll feature the food had on the honeymoon in Kauai, Hawaii.

Baked Tofu with Spicy Green Beans, Broccoli, and Rice Noodles

2009-03-08T18:47:00.003-05:00

This was an experimental tofu marinade made of rice vinegar, soy sauce, veggie stock, ginger, garlic, agave nectar, chili sauce, sesame oil and peanut oil (only a TINY bit because those are REALLY strong flavored oils).

I marinated the tofu in pieces for about an hour, then baked for quite some time (45 minutes?). I made the mistake of first baking in a glass dish, which does not get that nice texture that a sheet pan or metal pan gives. So I transferred to foil and a metal sheet pan until I was too impatient to wait longer.

While the tofu was baking, I made one of my favorite snacks ever: spicy green beans. Just sauté garlic and ginger with fresh haricot verts (the long skinny green beans). Make sure you take the tops off. It's easiest to take big bunches and just chop off both ends. I also split many of them in half for easier eating. Anyway, as you have the garlic and the ginger and beans going (in just the smallest amount of oil or just cooking spray) pour in chili sauce (like what I call "Chunky Sriracha") and soy sauce. Coat the beans with this mixture, and you're done! I like to keep the beans really crispy and just slightly cooked. Place in a bowl and eat with hands or chopsticks (or forks). Great appetizer, really healthy.

As a complete side note, I am quite picky about soy sauce. You should NEVER be using stuff like La Choy. Kikkoman is decent, but I highly recommend you get into shoyus. I've been in love with Organic Shoyu from San-J for years.

Also in this dish: rice noodles and steamed broccoli.

Vegetable Stir Fry: Mock Duck and Bean Thread Noodles with Broccoli

2009-03-08T18:36:00.003-05:00

Another fairly simple stir fry. I love bean thread noodles as an alternative to rice noodles. They have a much more chewy texture, at least to me or the way I make them. The best part is that just like rice noodles, they are about a dollar for a pretty big bag.

I drained two cans of Mock Duck and pan-fried them with a lot of garlic, ginger paste, garlic chili sauce, and soy sauce. I also cooked up some frozen stir fry veggies: broccoli, snap peas, carrots, mushrooms, onions. Mixed together and promptly enjoyed.

Eden Pizza: Thai Mock Duck

2009-03-08T18:28:00.004-05:00

This is a new local pizza joint, Eden Pizza. They have a variety of vegan options, including this tasty pizza: the Thai Mock Duck.

It has Thai sauce, mock duck, broccoli, red onion, cilantro and peanuts. DELICIOUS. I loved it! I look forward to eating Eden Pizza again soon when I have my allotted delivery food money for the week.

Not the best picture, next time I'll get it more in focus. This pizza was too good not to share, though.