Cook Now, Study Later

  It feels like forever since I wrote my last post. This past week dragged on way too long. I had exams in two different classes yesterday, so I spent most of the weekend studying after working the 5am opening shifts at Starbucks. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but I'm working towards a Masters in Nutrition and Registered Dietitian certification. I applied to Hunter College in Manhattan, so I'm still waiting to hear if I've been accepted to the program. For the past year, I've been taking the pre-requisite science courses at my local community college. I was also busy playing homemaker this week, since my mom was visiting my grandpa in Florida for his 93rd birthday. I always cook my own meals, but this week I had to feed my dad as well. He was born and raised in Sicily, so he really only has a taste for dishes with familiar Mediterranean ingredients. In addition to Italian food, I can usually serve him Greek or Middle Eastern style dishes, but Asian is out of the question. I made the "French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme" and "Chestnut Lentil Pate" recipes from Veganomicon one night. The soup was nice, but next time I would add tiny pasta and give it a spicy kick with cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. I used a bag of organic roasted chestnuts that I bought at a Korean market in the pate and substituted green lentils. I served the pate with melba crackers. It had a subtle sweetness from the chestnuts, but the nutmeg was a little overpowering for me. I also made a side of "tempeh bacon" from Vegan With a Vengeance, which is one of my favorite recipes. Another night I adapted a recipe for a chickpea, artichoke, and almond salad from Vegan Yum Yum by adding crushed tomatoes and serving it over whole wheat pasta. I had made this variation once before, and it was definitely better the first time. I think I overcooked the pasta a bit, because I usually prefer mine to be chewy "al dente" style.

On Friday night I picked an unassuming recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, because it sounded healthy and I had most of the ingredients on hand. I made "beet, barley, and black soybean soup with pumpernickel croutons" (which is author Isa Chandra Moskowitz's interpretation of the classic Russian borscht). The soup had a beautiful magenta color, and interesting sweet, sour, and earthy flavor. I didn't have pumpernickel bread, but substituted some dense, chewy German dark rye bread for the croutons. These, as well as some fresh dill, rounded out the dish. My picky father actually ate two large bowls of this soup!
                


















Tonight, Danny and I made a vegan version of "Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos" from AllRecipes.com, which we served with arugula salad and Trader Joe's sweet potato chips. We substituted black beans for the kidney beans and added some sweet plantain. They were good, but to make them really addictive I would add a lot more plantain, some brown rice, and corn. After dinner we baked up "Chocolate Chai Cupcakes" from VegWeb. They had a nice moist consistency, but the chai flavor was not strong enough (I even used three tea bags). I don't bake often, so I've never made frosting before. We attempted a recipe for "fluffy" frosting, but it turns out that coconut oil is not a good substitute for shortening. The frosting tasted good, but didn't really thicken, so we were unable to pipe it. If anyone has suggestions for making good frosting, let me know!

It seems as though I've tested a ton of recipes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's books this past week. Some were hit or miss, but overall her recipes are solid. I just remembered that I also tried the "chickpea cutlets" with "mustard sauce" from Veganomicon last weekend. I was actually really grossed out the first time I tasted the cutlets. I'm not a fan of vital wheat gluten, so the gumminess that it gave the cutlets turned me off. The mustard sauce was also overpowering, because I used a strong Dijon mustard and the capers were too vinegary. The next day I baked the leftover cutlets in the toaster oven, and they seemed to cook through more in the middle. I spread some tahini on them and then the mustard sauce and voila! the taste and texture had improved tenfold. Next time I make them I might try baking them instead of pan frying them and serving them with a different sauce. I had a gallon of this mustard sauce leftover, but found a great use for it! My new favorite salad is romaine lettuce, orange wedges, kalamata olives, chopped Medjool dates, and hemp seed with the mustard sauce as a dressing. If you don't want to whip up the mustard sauce, I've had this salad before with a simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Confessions of a [Food] Shopaholic

I love to shop. And I don't mean clothes shopping, I mean grocery shopping. I only make 2-3 trips to the grocery store a month, but I really stock up each time I go. I never really buy anything unnecessary though; I stick to the staple foods on my shopping list. Lately I've been trying to see how long I can go with just the staples in my pantry, fridge, and freezer. That means I have to search my cookbooks and recipe databases online to find recipes that will utilize what I have on hand. Last night I made an "Ethiopian-Inspired Red Lentil Soup" from Fat Free Vegan. It wasn't as flavorful as I expected, and the tiny red lentils nearly disintegrated into the stew. I also substituted peas for the string beans and added some bulgur wheat. I'm not a huge fan of potatoes or peas, so I think those ingredients turned me off. It definitely wasn't bad, but next time I would prefer it spicier and with some injeera bread to dip in the stew. I also had some fresh basil in the fridge, so I made the pesto recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, replacing the nutritional yeast with hemp seeds. I made the pesto a little too salty and garlicky, but it was delicious nonetheless. Just when I thought I was done cooking, I had an urge to bake. Since I had work at 5am the next morning, I decided to make a quick and easy recipe. The recipe for"Vegan Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies" was printed in my local newspaper recently, and despite the misleading title, it does not contain any artificial sweeteners! By "sugar-free" it just means without refined sugars. Instead, this recipe uses only 2 tbs. of pure maple syrup and bananas to naturally sweeten the cookie. I found the exact recipe online here, but don't be fooled by the horrible reviews! This cookie is chewy and moist, with just the perfect amount of sweetness. I added carob chips to some of them to give a chocolately flavor. I'm sure they are really versatile too--just maintain the same ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients. You could probably use almond butter, coconut flakes, dried fruit, nuts, etc.

Vegan Italian Food...It's Not An Oxymoron!

Growing up in an Italian-American family with a father from Sicily, I've had more than my fair share of Italian cuisine. In fact, I've had so much pizza and pasta in my lifetime that I have avoided making Italian food and going to Italian restaurants in the past few years. I still rely heavily on Meditterranean ingredients in my cooking though, such as olive oil, garlic, onions, tomatoes, etc. This past week I experimented with homemade vegan pizza. As someone who used to take all of the cheese off of her pizza, cheese-less pizza sounded delicious to me! I used store-bought whole wheat pizza dough, which I kneaded with some flour and spread onto a greased baking pan. Then I applied a light layer of pesto and followed with a slathering of tomato sauce. For the topping, I used Trader Joe's frozen "Marinated Grilled Eggplant and Zucchini" (which I microwaved to defrost beforehand). I added a few chopped sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and kalamata olives. I placed the pizza into the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. You could definitely use a pizza stone, but I love the chewiness of the crust that results from using a regular old baking pan. Danny and I devoured the entire pizza in one sitting. The best part about this recipe is that it only costs about $5 total and is better than any purchased pizza I've ever had. Last night I attempted to make "Lentil-Rice Balls" from Vegan Lunch Box. They are basically faux meat balls made with lentils, brown rice, whole wheat flour, and Italian seasonings. Served with pasta and marinara sauce, the texture was very close to real meat balls or sausage. On their own, they were a little bland, and the cumin seemed to be the only spice I detected. Today, I drizzled the leftover lentil-rice balls with tahini and voila--they tasted great! From Vegan Lunch Box, I also tested the "Cheesy Roasted Chickpeas"last night. As the cookbook warned, they were definitely addicting-- they had the texture of roasted chestnuts and a "cheesy" flavor from nutritional yeast. So vegan Italian food is definitely possible and delicious! Remember--most regions of Italy feature whole grains, legumes, fresh vegetables, and seasonings in their dishes. In all of my visits to Italy, I was never once served "chicken parmesan" or butter on white bread in a restaurant. Come to think of it, I've never seen those things in my own house.