Breakfast Pasta!

I always cook way more pasta than I need. Why not? I just put the leftovers in a colander and pour hot water over it to refresh it! This morning I had the brilliant [if I may say so myself!] to have pasta for breakfast .

It was easy since I had vegetables prepped already. I melted a bit of Miyoko’s “butter” in a big skillet, and added yellow squash, zucchini, onions, and peppers, throw in a couple of big handfuls of minced kale, crumbled in some tempeh bacon, added the brown rice pasta, and flipped it around until it was hot.  While I was doing this, Garry was scrambling some “Just Egg”, a vegan egg substitute—we added that at the last minute. Then I topped it with some creamy vegan feta by Violife.  I really love starting my day with vegetables!

Not your usual breakfast but it was just right— Don’t be afraid to do something different with your meals!

 

Thanksgiving 2019

Just like I do every year, I toyed with the idea of preparing something different for Thanksgiving this year, but as usual, I kept it pretty traditional, because as I always say, “Nothing else tastes like Thanksgiving”!

For the main course I simply bought a couple of celebration roasts. Field Roast makes them and they’re delicious. No prep–just heat them up! I made a raw cranberry sauce too–I just minced a bag of fresh cranberries in the food processor, added a chopped orange, and some sugar. I liked it much better than a cooked cranberry sauce. And we also had gravy!

And I made a nice corn pudding:

My sweet potato dish was just mashed sweet potatoes, topped with cooked, chopped pears, some dried cranberries, pecans, a sprinkle of salt, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

I made some whole wheat rolls and offered Miyoko’s vegan butter to go with them.

And Brussels sprouts–just roasted–nothing added!

I had to have macaroni and cheese, all vegan of course, and I added some broccoli.

I made 2 stuffings this year:  a cornbread stuffing, and I tried a cauliflower stuffing too!

Instead of succotash, I made Hoppin’ John! I loved this, all spicy and smoky!

And I had lovely smooth mashed potatoes, roughly peeled, with garlic and rosemary.

Unfortunately, I failed to get photos of the desserts that guests brought. We had a great

Dutch apple pie and an amazing pumpkin caramel cake!

As a matter of fact, I can’t believe I didn’t get photos of the great folks who came to share the feast with us, but I did get this great photo of my brother with 2 of our dogs!

Sweet/Spicy “Chicken” and Waffles

This started when a mycophagist friend gave me a couple of bags of mushrooms called “chicken of the woods”.  I thought that I’d tried them before, but no, I had not. I’ve never tried anything like this! By the way, a “mycophagist” is someone who collects mushrooms for the purpose of eating them.  I don’t trust myself to go out in the wild and forage for mushrooms and not poison myself.  Rachel knows her stuff and I’m grateful that she’s so generous! I  looked up the nutrition info on chicken of the woods, and it’s impressive! A serving has 14 grams of protein and is a good source of Vit. C and potassium

Some time ago I did a Nashville Chicken [vegan!] pizza here that I called “Scorned Woman Pizza” and I tell the origin of how the spicy hot dish got it’s name, so put in a search for that here if you’re interested. It’s a good story, very spicy. TeeHee!

Once you try Hot Nashville chicken [or in my case, the vegan equivalent!] you’ll never forget it. It’s so hot it’ll take your breath away, but with a touch of sweetness too. It’s irresistible. I wanted to cook the chicken of the woods mushrooms like fried chicken, but I’d never cooked fried chicken before, I don’t fry anything now, and I haven’t even tasted chicken in over 35 years. I  used the old ancestral cast iron skillet and called on my ancestors to talk me through it! And they did.

Then I had a vision— I wanted to do a mash-up of Nashville Hot Chicken and Chicken and Waffles. I got really excited about this; I hadn’t been so excited about any food since I discovered aquafaba!

 

Here’s what the mushrooms look like:

Here’s a close-up. You can sort of see how “chicken-y” they look. These mushrooms are really sturdy, and they don’t shrink when you cook them.

 

I broke them up into manageable pieces and boiled them for 10 minutes in vegetable broth, like Rachel recommended. I drained them well, and tossed them in these spices:

1 tbsp. onion powder

1 tbsp. garlic powder

1 tbsp. smoked paprika

1 tbsp. cayenne

1 tsp. seasoned salt [I used Slap Ya Mama seasoning, and yes, it’s that good.]

I dipped the spicy pieces into a mixture of oatmilk and ground flax seeds. Then dredged the pieces through flour and seasoning salt.

Then, God help me, I fried them. I can’t remember the last time I fried anything, but I just went for it. No photos of that process because I don’t want to be vulgar. Here’s the end result though—big pieces of spicy fried chicken of the woods!

I made some whole grain waffles. Why don’t I make waffles all the time? They’re so easy! No recipe here for those–might share that later!

With classic chicken and waffles, you just use maple syrup or honey on the waffles alongside fried chicken, but this is Nashville HOT, so I made up this special syrup:

1 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2  tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. cayenne

1/4 tsp. salt

~~Heat in a small saucepan. Stir till everything’s well mixed.

I had to add a little something else to this meal. I’m all about the beans and greens, so I threw this together—I chopped up greens and onions, sauteed them and added in a can of beans and some cooked chopped butternut squash. I left them rather plain, since everything else is so highly seasoned.

So here it is—the waffle is crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, the fried chicken of the woods is all kinds of spicy, that hot-sweet syrup is flowing over it all. And there’s a little bowl of beans and greens to make it all decent.  The dill pickle slices are part of the Nashville Hot Chicken deal and trust me, they are just right. I took the hot and sweet theme a step further and added a few slices of sweet pickled jalepenos.

Garry and I were in awe of this meal. I don’t say that lightly. Is it the heat that made us feel a bit euphoric, or maybe those mushrooms had a little something extra?  We’ll need to do more research. We do have leftovers and some Nashville hot on a biscuit sounds really good for breakfast tomorrow!

 

Thank you, Mama Nature, and you too, Rachel!

EDIT: Had to share what we did with the leftovers for breakfast. Nashville HOT chicken of the woods is great on biscuits too. I added a little vegan cream cheese to cool it down a little, brushed on some of the spicy maple syrup, and added the pickle slices. And of course I had to have some veggies to keep it all decent. Hey, mushrooms are a vegetable, so are pickles….

One more—I had a few pieces of fried chicken of the woods, so I tossed them in Frank’s hot sauce, cooked up a box of Daiya macaroni and cheese, and sauteed a couple of big handfuls of greens, then layered it all up in a spinach wrap and grilled it. It was a carb lover’s dream!

More Food Prep!

Here’s a short blog with some of the dishes I made with all the prepped food from my last blog! I did some very basic things like rice and vegetables, and some wraps with vegan cheese and vegetables, but I also made a beautiful Thai massamun curry with a can of coconut milk, curry paste, and I added a can of seitan. I got all these from an Asian market. And it went together in minutes because I had all the veggies cooked!

This made enough for Garry and I to have 6 meals from it. I cooked up some brown rice and topped it with some spicy peanuts. This dish is always a revelation–don’t know why I don’t have it more often–we always love it!

I made this for breakfast, or whenever! A big container of home fries, and not just potatoes and onions. This one had potatoes, onions, peppers, soybeans, tofu,  spinach, and butternut squash.

So we had this for breakfast a few days, topped with avocado cubes, and because I love it, ketchup!

Now that it feels like fall, I made soup! I cooked  a butternut squash until soft, seeded it, and pureed it, added the rest of the vegetables, added enough water to make soup, cooked it for a while and the only seasoning: salt! It was flavorful, thick, and savory. I shared it with friends and it was a hit. With food, most of the time, it’s best to just keep it simple and let the food speak for itself. We had a couple of slices of that fabulous “life-changing bread” with a bit of melted Daiya cheese sprinkled with some “everything” bagel seasoning, and needed nothing else!

Food Prep

I haven’t done a food prep blog in a while, so here we go!

I don’t really have a plan, just some things that need to be cooked, good basic ingredients that are good on their own, and I’ll get creative with them later.

I roasted some new potatoes with salt, pepper, some onion powder, and rosemary.

 

 

I steamed some broccoli, and cut it up into bite-size pieces:

I had a bag of baby carrots, and steamed them:

Cooked some lentils and edamame:

Stir-fried some tofu cubes with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder:

Made up some tempeh “bacon”–I’ve really streamlined my recipe, just coconut aminos and liquid smoke!

I roasted some peppers and onions, and there’s a few mushrooms in there too.

I made 2 loaves of “life-changing bread”.  You can put in a search for it here–it is amazing, and yeah, life-changing! This is a photo of it before it’s baked.

Okay, I think we’re all set for a few days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I Ate Wednesday

I haven’t done one of these in almost 2 years, so I’m bringing it back!

Breakfast was 2 cups of coffee [Thanks, Garry! You make the best.], and a whole grain English muffin w/  a slice of vegan cheese, a vegan sausage patty, and a big handful of spinach, and a perfectly crisp apple.

Lunch was a mix of brown rice/ carrots/ kale/ riced cauliflower, and lentils, and roasted acorn squash with a sprinkle of sunflower and pumpkin seeds. This was really good, and I learned that the skin of acorn squash is perfectly fine to eat. I was lucky enough to get some from my little vegetable garden this year. Also, I learned that all 3 of our dogs love acorn squash, so I’ll have to cook extra for them next time!

One of my favorite snacks: a few roasted rosemary potato wedges dipped in mustard.

Dinner was a beautiful, simple salad of arugula, a chopped peach, strawberries, and blueberries, a bit of my cultured cashew cream cheese, and a sprinkle of white balsamic vinegar. This was so perfect, and look how pretty it is! This was a nice way to enjoy some of the summer’s last peaches, but as time goes on, it’s great with apples or pears and walnuts too.

Perfect Pickle Pizza!

A couple of weeks ago the country was divided by an online controversy,  no, not that—this time is was over pickles on pizza.   There are purists out there who say it’s not pizza if it’s anything but marinara, cheese, and pepperoni on the crust, but it’s a new day, friends, and what’s that old saying—-

I agree wholeheartedly. These days you can buy pickle juice shots, pickle-flavored chips and popcorn, frozen pickle popsicles, fried pickles, pickle vodka, and even pickle-flavored lip balm, so a pickle pizza isn’t that much of a reach. Or is it?

This quarrelsome controversy started in Webster, New York, at Rhino’s Pizzaria and Deli. On their menu, it’s called “The Big Dill”—so clever! A few years back an employee went to a local Pickle Festival and boldly thought “Pickle Pizza. Why not?” What I want to know is why was I not informed that there’s a pickle festival???

I’m nowhere near Rhino’s Pizzaria so I decided to make my own and of course, it’s all vegan. So the pickle pizza they enjoy in Webster, New York, is pretty straightforward—put garlic sauce down first, cover with cheese, then a generous scattering of dill pickle slices.  You either love the idea or hate it. I was simply intrigued….

I made up a quick whole wheat pizza crust, heated up the pizza stone in a very hot oven [550 degrees F].  After letting the dough rise for an hour, I rolled it out and placed it on the wooden peel and loaded it up. I didn’t make a garlic sauce, I just used this:

This garlic spread is very flavorful; I don’t buy it very often because I’m tempted to eat it with a spoon–it’s that good. You could also use a nice garlic-y vegan aioli.

Next, a decent sprinkling of cheese [I used Daiya mozz], and add the pickle slices. The pickles I used were ones I made myself, just a simple “refrigerator” pickle.  We had a lot of cucumbers from our little garden this year. I added red onion slices to the pickles, and decided to add those pickled onion slices to the pizza.

After I loaded up the pickled cucumber and onion slices, I added a generous sprinkle of dill, and just to add a little extra something, I added a bit of “everything” bagel seasoning.

Here it is before it went in the oven. At this point, I wasn’t sure how this was going to bake up….I had that “what was I thinking?” moment.

I slid it off the peel and onto the stone and set the timer for 9 minutes. It smelled wonderful while it was baking!

Here it is—

Oh my friends—this pizza….words fail me. It was just amazing. It was savory, herb-y, pleasantly tangy and briny, and all that on a grainy, pillowy crust. This will not be my last pickle pizza. Garry loved it too. Next time, even more pickles!

So what do you think? Are you for it or against it? All I can say is if you can’t handle the thought of me enjoying the wanton splendor of this very nontraditional pizza, well, “dill” with it! [See what I did there?]

It’s not like I’m putting pineapple on pizza or something crazy like that. That would be just too much…

Chanterelles–They’re Magically Delicious!

It was a glorious day when a friend gave me a big bag of chanterelle mushrooms that she foraged herself. [Thanks, Rachel!] You can contact her on Facebook at The Forageher; she’s very knowledgeable and a sweetie too!  Those chanterelles seemed so rare and beautiful and exotic that I was intimidated–just the name itself, “chanterelle”, sounds so elegant. I started looking for recipes to do justice to these rare jewels and feeling more and more daunted. I stood there wondering what to do and I swear I heard the chanterelle faery say “You ain’t fancy. Just cook ’em!”  It’s not wise to argue with the faerie folk so I just cooked ’em.

I chopped everything up and sauteed them  with salt and pepper–that’s all. Now I have this quantity of mushrooms to draw on and season as I like for a few different dishes, and we feasted on them for a few days in several different incarnations.

 

This was a very simple dish—a nice crusty slice of whole grain bread, toasted and topped with a tangy cultured cashew cheese, chanterelles [seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and a little garlic] and cannellini beans, flourished with a little parsley. It was so simple, but so nice!

Next I made a couple of pizzas; one with the cultured cashew cream cheese [tastes just like chevre] and the chanterelles, arugula, and some pine nuts. Oh my….

The other pizza was more traditional with pesto, zucchini, tomatoes, chanterelles, sun-dried tomatoes,  garlic and vegan mozzarella. We couldn’t pick a favorite between the two! Did I mention the homemade crust? I found the easiest recipe, but that’s another blog!

I wanted to keep making things with these amazing fungi, so I added a few vegetables to make the stash last a bit longer–some onions, peppers, and spinach. Oh yes, I had a cunning plan….

I used to love a philly cheesesteak back about 30 years ago. It’s not difficult to duplicate when you’re a vegetarian, but as a vegan it takes a bit more finesse, but because the chants are substantial and meaty it worked!  I made  some rolls using that pizza dough recipe, made up a batch of “cheese” sauce made from carrots and potatoes [You can find that by searching “Freaky Cheese Sauce”], and then it was just a matter of assembly. Behold how great this looks—I don’t care who you are, that’s a sexy sandwich!

Vegans in general seem to have a fetish for pulled pork substitutes, we’ll pull pork anything, except pork! TeeHee! And why not—that spicy, sweet, salty thing happening. Who wouldn’t love that?

So I took the chant/veg mixture, added some of my favorite barbecue sauce, put it all on a whole wheat bun and threw some simple red cabbage slaw on top [Just red cabbage tossed with vinaigrette and a touch of maple syrup]  and I’m in greedy girl heaven! But beware, it’s a mess to eat, so probably not a good choice for when you have visiting dignitaries over.

There was something magical about all these dishes–that seems to be the case when you eat something wild from the woods or fields, or maybe there was a little faery magic. Who’s to say?

Raw Fruit Crumble

This is the ideal summer dessert when peaches are plentiful. It couldn’t be easier, but you’ll need a food processor. Get an 8″ or 9″ inch pan and load it up with chopped fresh peaches. I added some blueberries from our garden too since the birds were kind enough to leave us a few.

You’ll need :

1.5 cups raw almonds

1.5 cups pitted dates

1.5 tsp. cinnamon

~~~Place the almonds in food processor bowl and process until ground. Doesn’t have to be too finely ground.

~~~Add the dates and cinnamon to the ground almonds and process until the dates are chopped fine and nicely incorporated into the almonds. Also, it’s important to not leave your food processor unattended as it may dance off your countertop! Grinding dates is hard walk and it’s very important to grind the almonds first.

If you prefer other nuts, you can certainly use them. Walnuts or pecans are great too.

~~~Sprinkle nut/date mixture over the fruit and press down a bit.

That’s all. It’s delicious and keeps for a few days.  Pro tip: As long as you have the food processor out, why not prep an extra batch of the almond-date mixture and keep it in the refrigerator? You can make a fruit crumble for one, or you can add it to oatmeal, or make a grown-up version of cinnamon toast, or use it to top ice cream, etc….

What I’ve Been Eating…

I haven’t posted much lately, because I haven’t made anything lately that calls for a recipe. I’ve just been throwing things together and keeping things very simple. I like simple! Here are a few things:

I made a simple spicy lentil dahl topped with baked tofu and cucumber and red pepper and rolled it into lettuce leaves. I love that hot/cold combination.

Is this weird? Sweet potato, broccoli, lentils, drizzled with tahini and a few pumpkin seeds–I think I had this for breakfast. It may look weird, but it’s really good!

One of my favorite things: a slice of crusty whole grain artisan bread with ANYTHING! This one was toasted with vegan cheese, cucumber slices, sweet pepper, clover sprouts onion, red cabbage and tempeh bacon. A couple of romaine leaves on top to hold it all together and yeah, it’s a bit of all right!

That’s 1/2 a Hail Merry chocolate almond butter tart [Garry gets the other half!] with lots of fresh fruit.

Toast with avocado, jalapeno sauce, and cashew cheese, and strawberries. Sometimes this is all I want. Comfort food.

I love to cook up lots of different things  and then I can have a full plate of food anytime, and it’s always different, This time, potatoes, cannellini beans, tofu, zucchini, corn red cabbage, mushrooms, and a drizzle of Goddess dressing!

Here’s a couple of bean burgers over greens, topped with tahini dressing and sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Those little burgers were great–I have to make those again, only because they were so easy to make!

Sometimes all I want is fruit, especially in the summer.

I love sandwiches SO MUCH! This one is festooned [why don’t I use that word more??] with hummus, avocado, red peppers [roasted and fresh], cucumber, tempeh bacon, baked tofu, vegan cheese, lettuce.

I think this avocado toast is just gorgeous! There’s that whole grain artisan bread from Trader Joe’s, cashew cheese, avocado, onions, peppers, and a sprinkle of everything bagel seasoning, which makes everything great!

Beautiful little salad that I made with the cucumber explosion that’s happening with our garden. I made a salsa [non-traditional!] with cucumber, black beans, corn and onions, in a sweet-ish vinaigrette. I love red cabbage–it adds such a pretty extra pop of color.

I have my dehydrator out on the counter and have started making flax/hemp “pancakes” again.  Yes, because they’re easy. You can also use the cakes for savories too. This time I went for sweet—maple syrup and berries and the first peaches of the season!

I see lots more raw food of all kinds in my future–it really is all I want in the summer.