Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, a coworker invited me over, as well as people from his lab. He made a turkey, which he made all by himself. It was first for him so he was very nervous about it turning out badly. I made homemade biscuits by Paula Deen and a French silk pie for Steven. They weren't vegan, so I just had a bite of each to taste them. I made the pie at a friend's house because I don't own a stand mixer powerful enough to mix the ingredients to the right consistency. Next time, I will make the whipped cream on the day of the consumption, instead of in advance. I made a a faux turkey that was decent. It is from Vegan Cooking Club. It was better than I expected, but it was a little stretchy (maybe not fully cooked) in certain middle parts. I dipped it in my potatoes to make it better. Steven and I had talked in advance about setting aside some of the veggies for me to make with Earth Balance instead of butter. So I got my own portion of potatoes to whip with soy milk and Earth Balance and my own portion of corn to add Earth Balance and pepper to. I steamed some green beans for everyone. I wanted to serve them with roasted pine nuts, but I burned the pine nuts. Boo. I also made glazed carrots using a recipe from Recipezaar (#40452) for everyone too, which I used Earth Balance in and no one noticed. This was my first vegan Thanksgiving. Last year, my mom got me a Quorn roast which has some egg protein in it and I had most of the sides. I really enjoyed the meal. I had thought about making baked cinnamon apples as my dessert but I didn't.

In other news, I have discovered my favorite bread contains vitamin D3. The Arnold Dutch Country Whole Wheat was once listed as "accidentally vegan" by PETA, I think. I noticed today that this is not the case. Vitamin D3 can only come from animals, unless the company is getting it made synthetically (doubtful). I am sad. I will have to find a new bread to avoid the D3. I think Arnold has another whole wheat bread that is vegan, which I really like so I'll have to check the label next time I'm at the store. Turns out my favorite Naan bread also contains buttermilk, so after I finish this pack no more! I need to find a vegan version somewhere. I don't want to cook every single thing from scratch. Curry is one of my "go to" dinners when I come home late. A can of organic diced tomatoes, a can of organic beans, add in some fresh garlic and onions, and voila! Serve with Naan or rice and dinner is served! Soooo yeah, we shall see how I can work around that.

In a random note, I found a vegan thin mint style cookie at Costco. They are so freakin' good. No wonder Steven claims to have gained ten pounds due to my love of sweets. Guess I'll be cutting back for both of us. He is going to start doing P90X again in the mornings. Maybe I should start hitting the free gym at work in the afternoons.

LML (Love My Life)

Now, on to the food porn!

I used the marinade from vegandad's tequila chili lime tofu to soak my tofu briefly before grilling it. I topped it with a little salsa. The "refried" beans are made from scratch! I used a recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. The Mexican rice is from a box from the Publix Greenwise section.




Grilled some seitan. The recipe is based on fatfreevegan's recipe.




Romaine lettuce topped with organic chickpeas, sauteed onions, garlic, and bell peppers. A healthy salad that actually tastes like something!

My Life Is Amazing!

=

Since this is my hobbies blog... On my trip to Minnesota, I read several books: Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, and Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. I started reading Thrive, but I haven't touched it since. Oh well. Steven and I have been cooking up a storm! I am really starting to come into my own and be confident in my cooking skills.


Sweet and Sour Malaysian Tofu from Vegan Dad:


Quick and Easy Fried Noodles from Vegan Dad:


Red Bean and Coconut Quinoa from Swell Vegan:


Sloppy Joes-style Lentils from food.com, formerly RecipeZaar:


Red Beans and Rice (a basic Google Search will turn up a decent recipe):


Purchased Italian Herb Tofu, served with potatoes cut using my Jacard mandolin:


Vegan Waffles and Hash Browns:


Asian dishes we made up during our date night:


Grilling Night:
Me:

VeganDad's recipe

I absolutely adore my new boyfriend, Steven! He loves to cook with me, even if he's not vegan. He's very accomodating. We cook one to two nights a week together. We made the Sesame Crusted Tofu with Udon Noodles from VeganDad. He had chicken because he's not a huge tofu fan. But he did admit that the super extra firm tofu I got is better than the other (less dense) forms. It is, I really like dense tofu. The squishy kind is icky.





We went to the Keys and found two vegetarian restaurants. I got BBQ tofu and fried tofu at the Cafe. I got a BBQ tofu sandwich at Sugar Apple, but I was so hungry I didn't even snap a photo of it like a dum-dum.

I am planning to make the Malaysian sweet and sour tofu and Thai-style sweet and tangy noodle dishes from VeganDad soon. His food looks amazing. Eventually, I will make his one of his mac and "cheese" dishes. I found a Leahey and a Road's End mac and "cheese" at the store.

Springtime

Been craving seitan. Health food store by my house was closed today, so hopefully they will have wheat gluten when I stop by tomorrow. Also, saw a sale on organic canned beans that I am going to hit up tomorrow. Sometimes I'm too lazy to soak and cook beans. (Dumb, I know.) I've been eating a lot of pre-made foods at home, veggie burgers mostly, and sandwiches so I need to quit being a bum and cook more often. I should plan my meals in advance more often.

Also, my work finally admitted they've been paying me too little. When they cut me a check for the difference, I'm hoping to do some shopping and take the kitties to the vet. After that, I'll either save it or do some work on my car maybe... With the increase on each check, I plan to be able to buy more organic foods and be more adventurous in my cooking. I'm no longer in debt to Visa from the move!! So woo-hoo!!

I'm still alive...

I haven't updated in forever.

Recently, I made some red beans and rice. Soooooooo effin' delicious. No photo because I scarfed it down in two sittings. An entire pound of red beans and one batch of rice. Yum yum. I soaked the beans overnight and cooked them the next day in the crock pot. When I came home from work, I cut up some onion, green bell pepper, celery, and garlic. I sauteed those in some olive oil. I transferred the beans to a big pot on the stove with the heat up high, because I wanted to reduce the amount of liquid. Once some of the liquid evaporated, I added the sauteed veggies and a ton of cajun seasoning. I was super happy to find Tony Cachere's at the store. {I like to add it on my fries, yum yum.}

Yesterday, I made tofu burritos. I pressed the tofu and marinaded it in a store-bought garlic and herb marinade. It was a little too strong for my taste, so I am glad I had rice and black beans to balance out the flavors. I will probably cook up the rest of the tofu tomorrow or the next day.

Tonight, I'm making some seitan. I split the recipe in half. I mixed taco seasonings into one half. Ashley used her homemade seitan crumbles to make crumbles for tacos. I decided to season the seitan itself so it would be easier to make tacos. Just heat and go. Lol. I know, I'm a bum sometimes. Hope it's tasty.

Other than that... The cats are doing great, my research is finally focused on my own project (not a group project), and my classes are boring. Anyways, I'm going to go clean the house and write in my personal blog.

It's Been A Minute . . . .

I've been pretty busy. Between work and socializing, I've been cooking easy foods. Chili, soup, salads, tacos, etc.

I made some bread in my bread machine. I turned it on and left it, instead of waiting for the machine to mix it and then let it rise so I can bake it on my own. I made it because I was craving a grilled tofutti "cheese" sandwich and I didn't have any white bread. I ended up cutting the slices too thick for the tofutti grilled cheese. It was good to nibble on for a few days.





I also made stuffed shells using the recipe from Vegan with a Vengenance. Sooooo freakin' delicious. Super easy and tasty. The first serving I was able to taste the nutritional yeast and I thought it was a little weird. But when I ate the leftovers, it wasn't as strong. I'd definitely make it again! When I get paid on Friday, I will get some more tofu.


Stuffed:


Cooked:



In other news, I've started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. It's written by Khaled Hosseini, best known for writing The Kite Runner. I'm not done with it yet. But it is getting interesting... Also, the Twilight movie comes out in like 2 weeks. I can't freakin' wait to finally see the movie!