Fajitas Revisted: Breakfast

Okay, first of all I LOVE this picture. It looks so kick ass! The reason why it looks this way? First, the food is still very steamy and hot. Second, this was taken at 5am or some very early hour like that so the light from outside is very gray and gives the steam a foggy look. I punched up the color a little bit in photo editing, so the red peppers are POPPING out like mad.

Now, on to the good stuff. I took the fajitas from the day before and added even more mushrooms as well as some spinach. AWEOSME. Very tasty and filling breakfast.

Fajitas with Mushrooms

Sauteéd Morningstar steak strips, red and green peppers, onions and LOTS of mushrooms.

specifics:
137g of onion
7g garlic
188g green pepper
186g red pepper
231g morningstar steak strips (1 whole bag)

Cooked separately for the mushroom hater:
110g mushrooms

The picture above showcases the mushrooms more than anything else. The other photos were a bit blurry and weird looking, but here's a look at one of them:

Sprouted Grain English Muffins with Almond Date Cream Cheese Spread

I don't know exactly why I made this, but I'm glad I did. I just toasted an English muffin (I get these really yummy sprouted grain ones from Whole Foods) and spread 1T of Tofutti Cream Cheese on each half. Then, I took one almond date roll that I had purchased from the co-op and smashed it into the cream cheese so it became a spread. I'm sure that a better way to do this would be to thoroughly mix the cream cheese and date nut roll in a separate container, but this was more fun.

This was an awesome sweet and savory mix of flavors. Overall, a little indulgent but worth it.

Carrot Cake, aka Marvelous Return of the Food Blog!

Whoa. It's been a while! Well, I hope to update more than once a month. I'm going to aim for once or twice a week. I started school again and my schedule is overwhelming to say the least. I am still eating, though!

To start us off, above is a picture of carrot cake a co-worker brought for me. It was from a wedding of some sort. Very thoughtful. The cake was scrumptious. I really enjoy carrot cake and this slice did not disappoint.

Juicy Lucy: Vegan Style

This is my vegan version of a Juicy Lucy, which is a legendary burger around Minneapolis. I've never had a "real" Juicy Lucy, but have had it described in detail and read about it a lot.

I used a Vegan Boca Burger, sliced in half horizontally to create two skinny patties, and I then inserted one slice of Vegan Rice Cheddar Cheese by Galaxy Foods. (I haven't been able to find the American flavor or the Pepper Jack flavor, but I want to. I like this "cheese" quite a bit because unlike Tofutti slices, this stuff is trans fat free!)

I ate the whole concoction on one piece of bread, and folded it all in half to have a weird double cheeseburger juicy lucy type of thing. It was tasty, but I believe that there wasn't enough fat in the burger to achieve true "juiciness".

Black Bean Burger Experiment Number One

This is my first time maing a veggie burger from scratch. It was tasty, but didn't hold together very well.

My recipe, made up:

386g black beans, drained and rinsed (I used one 25oz can, drained and rinsed)
83g onion, small dice
1 clove (7g) garlic, minced
2 jalapenos
1/2c hydrated TVP
1/4c salsa
1/2c frozen corn
3/4c cooked quinoa

spices:
taco seasoning, cumin, salt, pepper


1. hydrate the TVP in veggie broth or other flavorful broth.
2. Mash the can of drained beans in a bowl with a masher or fork or hands.
3. sautee onion, add cumin (1/2t?)
4. once onions start to brown, add garlic and salsa and frozen corn
5. after a minute or so, add TVP, mix thoroughly, add some taco seasoning and a little liquid. I only added a tiny bit of taco seasoning, and this recipe probably doesn't need any at all.
6. once mixture is thoroughly seasoned, turn off heat and add to bowl of beans.
7. mash/mix everything together.
8. add 3/4c quinoa, mix until it seems like a lot of the liquid is absorbed.
9. with a 1/3c as a scoop, make patties. Using the 1/3 measurement cup, you should get about 8 patties.
10. Fry up the patties, freeze the leftovers. Serve either on a bun or with chips and salsa, garnished with cilantro.

So....yeah, we'll see how they turn out after they have been frozen for a while. Maybe then they will stay together better. Or, I can just go back to the drawing board on this one.

Still tasty....here's one without chips:

Spinach Florentine Ravioli with Brussels Sprouts, Mushrooms, and Onions

This was lunch today. So fulfilling.

The ravioli is indeed vegan, from Rising Moon Organics.
This is a luxury purchase for us, since it's a bit expensive for a very small amount. However, it is a treat to have frozen ravioli that we can make really easily.

The sauce is good old Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara, and it's topped with Parma! Vegan Parmesan, a deliciously addictive parmesan alternative. It's nutritional yeast based, with walnuts and sea salt as the only other ingredients. Another luxury item since it is also quite expensive.

On the side, I sauteed 40g of onion, 90g of brussels sprouts, and 41g of mushrooms in a small pan with some salt and one or two sprays of the canola cooking spray.


Another picture for good measure:

Sriracha Potatoes

Just potatoes mixed with sriracha. They look cool. Taste good, too.

I have a couple of food theories. Number one, anything can be made into a sandwich. Anything.

Two, almost everything is tasty with sriracha on it. Casey from Top Chef answered the question I've long been wondering: Is Sriracha Good With Ice Cream? The answer: No.

A close third is everything is better (or at least tasty) deep fried. Cookies, candybars, potatoes, onions, vegetables, fruit, dough, ice cream....

That's about it for universal or near universal food truths.

Curried Broccoli with Carrots, Sweet Potato, and Quinoa

I usually make this with cauliflower and will again in the future. Not that this dish is bad with broccoli, but I think cauliflower works much better.

What You Need:
(serves 2)
1c cooked quinoa
300g sweet potato, cubed
200g carrots, baby, sliced in half lengthwise
150g broccoli
80g onion, large dice
2t curry powder
2t ginger paste
2 cloves garlic, minced

For The Quinoa:
I made extra, because it's always useful for any number of dishes. The directions are simple: one cup quinoa, two cups water. I add some salt for flavor, you could also cook in broth of some sort for flavor. Bring to boil on stovetop, bring down to simmer, COVER! DO NOT TOUCH for 15-20 minutes!!!!!! Seriously. It'll be done.

The Rest of the Dish:
(Apologies, I made this a couple weeks ago and my notes are missing the cooking times.)

1. Lightly steam carrots, until just barely tender.

2. While the carrots are steaming, sautée onions (I just use a little spray oil so the fat content is extremely low in this dish) and cubed potatoes until the potatoes get tender and can almost slide a fork through.

3. Add carrots to the pan, mix thoroughly.

4. Add broccoli, ginger, garlic, curry powder. Add a little bit of liquid (water, .25-.5c) and stir everything together. Cover until the liquid is nearly gone. This helps to steam everything a little. Stir, Stir, Stir until everything is mixed together and evenly distributed.

5. Plate up. 1/2c of quinoa and about half of the veggie mixture per serving.

The calories for each serving (NOT including Quinoa) is HERE. The 1/2c quinoa info is HERE.

Bento Birthday Box

This is a dinner from Midori's Floating World Cafe, a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis. This is from their special all vegan menu, which is available only at the restaurant and only if you ask. If you click the picture, it should bring you to Flickr where I labeled the picture.

clockwise, starting with the rice:
tempura veggies
veggie sushi rolls
soba noodles and wakame
fruit
pickled ginger and pickled veg in center

I also had some agedashi tofu, a special vegan version (dashi = fish broth, and the agedashi tofu is usually served with bonito (fish) flakes. At Midori's they serve it with a shitake broth, and nori strips.)

Sub Sandwich with Four Bean Salad and JoJo Potatoes

I didn't make any of this meal: a Veggie Delight from Subway with no cheese and ALL the veggies; 4 Bean Salad (garbanzo, green bean, white green bean, baby lima bean) from the deli counter; and JoJo Potatoes from the deli counter.

Cheesecake On Parade

In Celebration of my day of birth, I was given and consumed a LOT of vegan cheesecake. All of the cheesecake was from the lovely Muddy Paws Cheesecake in Minneapolis, where they have over 180 flavors of dairy cheesecake and many many flavors of vegan cheesecake. They also have vegan cheesecake single slices available daily, at least one to two flavors.

The large picture shown above is a whole blueberry chocolate chip cheesecake. Wow. That's all I have to say.

Here's a slice:



I was unable to get a decent picture of this Raspberry Almond Cheesecake, you'll have to trust that it is better than it looks here:



Finally, an apricot? style cheesecake. I'm not sure, but that was my best guess as I ate it. It was an unlabeled gift, I just know it was vegan and meant to be consumed by me, haha:

Manicotti Stuffed with Pesto Tofu-Ricotta

So, I made this a few weeks ago, but it's taken me a while to get around to posting it.

Really, really tasty. It's also quite simple to make, the pesto is probably the most complicated part of the meal. Well, I usually make a sauce from scratch and that takes a while, but I cheated this time and simply added some onion, garlic and spices to good old Newman's Cabernet Marinara.

Basically, make a pesto, blend it with some extra firm tofu that has been drained and crumbled. Boil manicotti or shells or other stuffable pasta, stuff with petso-tofu mixture, set in 9x13 baking pan, cover with sauce, and bake until bubbly. If we had some soy cheese, it would be done when the soy cheese was melty, possibly browning.

I'll put some more pictures up on this post later. Until then, here's the recipe:

Pesto:
110g basil leaves, fresh, no stems
110g pine nuts
3T Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic
salt to taste

--> Blend until a thick paste. May need more or less olive oil or garlic. This amount was just right for 1lb (or one of those water packed containers) of tofu.

Sauce:
1.25 jars of Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara (I'll check the oz later)
60g onion, small dice
3 Cloves garlic, smashed and minced
2T olive oil
2-3 "turns around the pan" of balsamic vinegar (I have a pourer spout on my balsamic, and if you ever watch Rachel Ray, she often uses this measurement. I just mean that I pour in large circles in the pan...make sense? No? I'll clarify when I edit later.)
good shakes of (to taste):
red pepper flakes
poultry seasoning
oregano
garlic salt
kosher salt
pepper

---> start with sauteeing the onion in the olive oil. add garlic, and pour in sauce. Add balsamic, stir. Add seasonings. Let cook for a while (15-20 mins? less? I need to find my cooking notes.)

Berry Smoothie

An easy berry smoothie made with fresh berries, flax seeds, and Vanilla Soy Yogurt from Silk.


What You Need

100g blueberries
100g strawberries
1T flaxseeds
3/4c vanilla soy yogurt

I put everything into the smoothie cup of the Magic Bullet, blended, and I was done! Tasty and nutritious.

Peanut Butter with Apples and Agave Nectar

Again, this is really simple yet satisfying. Can you tell I have some apples to use up?

Take a piece of bread, spread some peanut butter on it (about 1T or more if you desire) and add some thinly sliced apples. Drizzle with agave nectar, which is very similar to honey.

On the plate are extra pieces of apple, also drizzled in agave.

Curried Potato Apple Burrito

Weird, right? But tasty, I swear. So, going off my idea for curried mashed potatoes, I decided to continue testing my theory that everything is good in sandwich form. Soups are about the only thing unable to really be in sandwich form, but bread is usually good with soups, and soup can be served in a breadbowl which is almost a sandwich.

Ok. Here's what you need. I'm only going to link to the picture, because something happened to the pic and it turned a bizarre violet-pink. I have no idea what happened, but it is blinding and somehow replaced the original. Whatever.

What You Need (also link to pic)

mashed potatoes, I used instant
curry powder
raisins
coriander chutney
apples
tortilla, I used French Meadow small Fat Flush tortilla

Put about 1/3c potatoes, mix in 1/4t or less of curry powder (a little goes a long way). Mix in a tiny amount of coriander chutney and add some raisins:



Slice some apples thinly, add to tortilla. Fold like burrito and enjoy. I recommend more apples for better texture. I thought this was quite tasty.

Curried Mashed Potatoes with Raisins

Simple. Tasty. I just made a lot of instant mashed potatoes, and decided to come up with some more interesting things to do with them.

I simply added a little bit of curry powder, 1/2t or 1/4t, and a bunch of raisins. Stir until thoroughly mixed and enjoy.

Peppers and Onions with Rice

Simple, satisfying dish. I just felt like eating a lot of vegetables. And bell peppers were on sale, so I decided on peppers and onions.

I used about half an onion, somewhere around 70g I would say. I cut up 4 bell peppers: 2 Orange/Yellow, 1 Red, 1 Green.

Sautéed them together with a couple cloves of minced garlic and served over rice. Really good.

I might post a big long how-to on slicing the bell peppers, but that is a lot of work and I still have to upload a lot of photos.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, aka Everytime I Broil I Think of Ted Allen

Brussels Sprouts. Don't like them? You should try them again. Seriously. Roasted Brussels Sprouts are the way to go. Brussels Sprouts are like mini cabbages. In fact, they are related. Why are they called Brussels Sprouts? They were cultivated early on in Belgium, of course. They are low in fat, and a good source of Riboflavin, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Potassium and Manganese. More info HERE.

What You Need:


350g brussels sprouts, ends cut off, sliced in half, rinsed

Marinade:
1T Olive Oil
2T Balsamic Vinegar
2T Lemon Juice
1T Bragg's
1t Ginger Paste
1/4t ea salt and pepper
2 cloves of garlic, Smashed, then minced

1. Preheat oven to 375 Degrees F.

2. Cut off ends of sprouts:


3. Peel off bad leaves. Spotted, yellowed, etc. I find it's easy to do this after the end is cut off.

4. Slice in half, the long way:




As a side note: Alex, who doesn't care for brussels sprouts too much but will eat these, said that cutting them in even smaller pieces would be a great idea. So if you're trying to feed non-believers, this may be the way to go. I would suggest quartering.

5. Rinse thoroughly in bowl/strainer/whatever.

6. Make marinade: put all ingredients in a bowl and stir/whisk together.

7. Put brussels sprout halves into the marinade. Mix/stir until evenly coated. (Use hands if necessary. That's half the fun of cooking: using your hands.)

8. Place sprouts on sheet pan, put in oven. Cook for 12-15 minutes. Halfway through, take out sheet and give a good couple of shakes to move all the sprouts around. Sprouts should be carmelizing (aka look kinda black). There is a fine line between burning and carmelizing.

9. Broil for 1-2 minutes. Keep an eye on them. Broiling can lead to burning very quickly. I have a gas oven, and had no idea where my broiler was. Until Ted Allen came along. On Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, Ted showed some poor sap how to broil in his gas oven. I had no IDEA it was in the bottom of the oven. I know what broiling is, but it never clicked that it would be in the bottom of the oven. So that is why everytime I broil, I think of Ted Allen.



10. Done! Here's another picture of the sprouts. Top with salt and pepper if desired, or some butter. Great as a side dish or alone.

Tofu Spinach Salad with Jalapenos, Cucucmbers, and Green Peppers

Here is a picture from sometime last week, a salad I made to take to work. It's made of a couple cups of baby spinach, sliced cucumbers, green peppers, jalapenos, and cubed tofu.

For the tofu, I used up more of the frozen then thawed tofu from the other day. I was keeping it in the cold water container, so I squeezed out the excess and cubed the tofu, 100g total, to put into a marinade. A note for the future: this tofu is extremely chewy, and I say the smaller the cubes the better. My cubes were a little too large.

Marinade
1T Olive Oil
2T Balsamic
splash of lemon juice
Splash of Bragg's
cracked black pepper
shake of red pepper flakes

Stir up the marinade, then add cubed tofu. It's crazy! The tofu is a sponge and all of the marinade should be able to soak into the tofu. I must say that there was something missing from the marinade. Maybe too much Bragg's and lemon? I'm not sure. It was tasty in the end, just a little tangy.

Once tofu has soaked up the marinade, sautée for ten or more minutes. It takes a while, and you may essentially burn some parts of the tofu. My aim was to get some crispiness, but it didn't really work.

Once tofu is done, cool down, then place in a container (I used a zip-top bag) in the fridge for the salad tomorrow. Note: This tofu would be fine warm, too, I just liked it cold on my salad. It's easier to keep things cold than warm.)

The salad amounts are as follows:

100g tofu, cubed and cooked after marinating
90g Green Pepper
100g cucumbers
10g jalapeno

I often don't like dressing, and for this salad I used only salt and pepper. It would probably benefit from a creamy dressing like Ranch. I lost my powdered vegan ranch which was the most amazing dressing and dip. However, they make quite a few creamy vegan dressings.

Also, this salad would be nice with some tomatoes or something to balance the other ingredients.