Cold/Flu-Kicking Soup

GERMS
are evil.
But we all fall sick; be it due to the season, be it working in germ-prone environments, be it dorm life, be it otherwise.

The best way to clear your system? Take-No-Shizer-Soup!
Take any combination of dark leafy greens, a tasty veg stock, tomato paste/sauce, your body weight in garlic, a similar amount of ginger, some cayenne pepper, a little bit of lemon, any combination of vegetables, perhaps a grain or two, and consume liberally. You will feel better!

Vegan Pancakes!

Simplest recipe ever! And delicious!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

* 1 cup flour
* 1 tbsp sugar
* 2 tbsp baking powder
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 1 cup soy milk
* 2 tbsp vegetable oil


Preparation:
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl until well mixed.

Mix in the soy milk and oil and beat together until batter is smooth.

Drop 1/4 cup of batter at a time onto a hot oiled griddle, or well greased frying pan over medium high heat. When bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake, approximately 3 minutes, flip, and cook the other side for another 2 minutes. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts: One pancake provides approximately: Calories: 149, Calories from Fat: 50
Total Fat: 5.6g, 9% Saturated Fat: 1.0g, 5%
Cholesterol: 0mg, 0%
Sodium: 58mg, 2%
Total Carbohydrates: 22.2g, 7%
Dietary Fiber: 1.2g, 5%
Sugars: 2.4g
Protein: 3.7g
Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 0%, Calcium 22%, Iron 9%, based on a 2000 calorie diet

"Honey" Mustard Tofu with Kale and Yams = Yum

I've been slacking on cooking properly, especially in terms of making new things, and documenting them for your viewing and possibly also cooking pleasure.



My new friend and former neighbor David (<--- click that, he is quite the renowned artist) helped me to finally attempt this delicious recipe for Honey Mustard Tofu with Kale and Butternut Squash I've been meaning to try after spying it on Made Just Right, which is Earth Balance's blog of deliciousness. Earth Balance - you know, they're the ones who make the best vegan butter, and have recently started making other things too, like soymilk and peanut butter (it's the healthy kind but it tastes like JIF, sweet.)

Instead of butternut squash, we used sweet potatoes/yams. I substituted the honey with dark raw agave nectar, which worked nicely. Instead of 1/2 a TBSP of chili powder, I used 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. We used extra garlic. And be careful if you follow that recipe, it doesn't list vegetable stock as an ingredient until it mentions it in the directions.

I served it over quinoa, made simply with just a dash of Cajun seasoning, and later dressed a little bit with Braggs Aminos. Voila!



For dessert, we melted some chocolate chips and dipped these incredibly fresh, sweet strawberries in them. It was a success:




All photos courtesy of David Newman.

Vegan Chocolate Peach Cobbler

In addition to veganizing, there seems to be a theme here of chocolatizing everything.


*This photo was made with a free polaroid maker, let me know if you want the download information*

Vegan Chocolate Peach Cobbler
I Adapted/modified this from a couple different cobbler recipes

Ingredients:

- 4 TBS Vegan Butter (i.e. Earth Balance)
- 6-8 sliced Peaches
- 1/2 Cup Flour
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 Cup plain rice/almond/soy/etc milk
- 1/4 tsp Vanilla (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Melt the butter in a baking dish. Mix in the peaches until coated.
Sift dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl, and mix with wet ingredients. Pour onto peaches and mix. Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with sugar, and allow to cool. Serves 4-6.

Vegan Scones

This was my first time making scones. Despite following the same recipe, the two batches somehow looked drastically different. Both were a success.
I added some extras to it, like vanilla extract and cocoa powder, to make it interesting.

More adventures in Deliciousness

Signature dishes round two: Ben approves of Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf. Added are a stir fry of greens in nutritional yeast to make it cheesy, grilled asparagus, and boiled corn.



This Coconut Red Lentil Soup (click for recipe) from 101 Cookbooks was incredible! Flavorful, aromatic, filling, and even photogenic. I absolutely recommend making it.

I paired it with:




Pasta Della California from the sassy favorite Post Punk Kitchen.
While a great idea, I feel that this would work better with couscous, quinoa, or anything otherwise that absorbs flavor better than pasta does. It was still delicious though.

All in all, good feasts.

Signature Dishes, Part 1

This post is very much overdue, but, better late than not ever?

I find myself making some of the same dishes over and over again, mainly because they are:
(A) Tried and True
(B) DELICIOUS
(C) A hit with both my vegan and carnivorous friends.
And so forth.

Kali and Christy, two fabulous individuals who happen to be RVing across the country at this moment, an account of which you can follow here (and should, this blog is complete with pretty pictures!), came over in July to try some of these signatures for Kali's birthday.

Behold, Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf from Veganomicon (which is apparently available in its entirety on Google Books, holler! ...wait a minute, I do not use expressions like "holler!") and the simplest and yummiest Vegan Chocolate Cake! Let me know if you would like the recipe to the latter as well. I tend to change up what I add to it, such as fruit, berries, and so forth.
Click on the photos to enlarge.


The birthday dinner, assembled and complete. So I have a little too much fun with presentation.


Closeup: In addition, we have veggie dumplings (not homemade, sorry! but something to try and make another time!), a simple salad, and fruit for garnish/decoration.


Hmmm.


I seem to be missing my cake pan, so lately the chocolate cake has come in the form of cupcakes/muffins. Christy helped - notice her flawless distribution of the batter. You're hired!


Birthday Kali approves!

And how can you get a cameo in the culinary adventures section of this blog, you asked? It's simple, cook with me! Or, be cooked for by me.

This is what I want my Food Porn to look like

Now that I am down to one job instead of four, I really need to kick all excuses to the curb for why I haven't been putting more time and effort into food preparation and attention to its content, and trying to eat more raw.
I have: Veganomicon; some raw books thanks to a very lovely and knowledgeable Ukulele playing friend (including Juliano's RAW! where I found that amazing Pomegranate Guacamole idea) ; and The Post Punk Kitchen online; among others. I am surrounded by farmer's markets. Aside from salary woes and lethargy, no excuses.

This is a recent post in a Raw Veganism community that I follow on LiveJournal.
Don't be afraid to click. It's food porn silly, not the other kind, of course it's safe for work. But I assure you it is orgasmic nonetheless.
These pictures are amazing. I do not have such a high quality camera. Mine is a really old digital Canon I got off CraigsList some years ago, and had to ride the commuter rail to a mill town to obtain. The train ticket cost more than the thing itself. It functions of its own accord and mood. Any stunning photos taken with it have been accidental and subject to lots of my amateur editing.
My signatures include various versions of vegan chocolate cake and vegan cheesecake, Veganomicon's Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf, Vegan Latkes; and yes, I have made these amazing Potato Kale Enchiladas once from the glorious PPK! (I substituted all the hot peppers with poblanos though).
So if anyone with jaw dropping photography equipment and talents, such as in the above, wishes to team up with me to take pictures of my culinary adventures when they finally take flight again, do tell.

Especially when I hunt down that Cafe Gratitude raw vegan Tiramisu recipe I have been lusting after and finally manifest that amazing creation myself. At which point we will have to have a Prince/ss Tea Party as well.