What's Up In My Kitchen - Recipe Round-Up (Finally!)

Ok, go glance at this article.  It will make you smile.

Blended chia pudding: if you don't like the texture of chia pudding, just blend it!  Makes all of the lumps go away, and it has the texture of yogurt.  Here, topped with piles of granola.

 

Made a batch of tofu feta.  Only this stuff is better than your normal tofu feta, because it's a LOT firmer.  Changes: 1/3 cup agar flakes, 3 tbsp olive oil (I ran out).  Wow, this stuff was good on a salad!

 

Pancakes... Mmmm... Sans frosting and raisins (which I left out and added a few pepitas), these make 2 292 calorie servings.  And the servings are HUGE!  I wanted to make the frosting, but forgot to chill my can of coconut cream... :(

 

 

 

Roasted Veggie Salsa - my first shot at homemade salsa.  I would recommend using less lime juice, but otherwise I loved this recipe.  Oh, and I used hatch chilis instead of jalapenos.  Because I have ALWAYS wanted to use those things...

 

Quinoa/Adzuki bacon.  Dang, this stuff smelled SO good in the oven.  Changed: cooked the beans, cooked up 1/3 cup quinoa to replace the buckwheat, Italian seasoning instead of thyme, and no oil.  It was a bit crumbly, but that was OK by me.

 

As for lunches... well, I've made a wrap with peaches, basil, lettuce, avocado, and sugar free blackberry jelly - yum!  Lots of fruit!

 

 

 

My other wrap has been peaches (can you tell I like peaches?) with the tofu feta, bacon, lettuce, and avocado.  Again, yum!  (adapted from Iowa Girl Eats)

 

 

 

Another new b-fast food: banana bread in a bowl.  Blendm, let sit for 45 minutes or so, and it's like ice-cream for breakfast.  Did I mention you should top it with chocolate (which turned out very good, by the way!)

 

 

 

 Salad dressing!  Good for using up a surplus of basil... Fat free and creamy basil blast for your salad!

 

And, finally, 100% whole wheat strawberry pepita muffins (adapted from Chocolate and Carrots)!  Mix:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup pepitas

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/4 cup stevia baking blend

1 cup almond milk

1 tbsp apple cider or white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup chopped frozen strawberries

 

Pour into muffin tins and bake (I have only a mini muffin pan - this made 24 muffins, 250 calories for 7 muffins.  Bake for about 17 minutes for mini muffins, probably 27 for regular)

 

 

What's Up Wednesday #6

Interesting article about agave - Why I Never Use Agave Nectar.  I never knew this stuff!

I tossed leftover veggies/setian on a bbq sauce - slathered bun, and called that dinner.  (Ok, so I had my usual soup and salad too...)

Friday was a MASSIVE cooking session for me! 
First up, I made Colby Cheese from Ordinary Vegetarian.  This was my first time trying agar... THAT STUFF IS SO WEIRD.  No kiddin'... I omitted the lemon juice (all my lemons went into making lemonade!), used 2 roasted bell peppers, cashews, and straight up sesame seeds instead of tahini.  It smelled fabulous...
Secondly was a strawberry bbq sauce, which also smelled really good.  I slathered it on tofu slabs, and stuck that on a sandwich.  Uh, YUM!  (Adapted from Vegan Yack Attack) Changed to the sauce: half recipe, 3/4 cup strawberries, add a bit of water, and ~1/4 cup sugar free blueberry jelly... I ran out of strawberries...

Lastly was this super-awesome-amazing salad dressing from Fat Free Vegan.  I followed it pretty closely, just doubled it, used a shallot in place of onions, and used sesame seeds in place of tahini.  Oh, gosh, this is the BEST dressing I have made in ages.. Susan is such a dressing genius.

And on Tuesday, I made a little army of vegan sausages!  OK, guys, repeat after me: I will read the instructions in the recipe and not blindly assume that all water goes directly in the dish.
I totally added the two cups of water to the gluten... and you can imagine how watery THAT turned out... -_-  Oh, well.  I ended up omitting the apple part of the sausages, using 1/2 cup oat flour in place of oats, 1 1/4 cup gluten, and 1/4 cup brown rice flour in place of rice.  They actually turned out realllllly good, though.  Although they did need about 45 minutes of baking time, not 30.  But, still, I think the flavour can best be discribed as 'calming', if that makes any sense at all...

One last thing... this morning I made Coffee Gingerbread Oatmeal... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Good stuff.  I made bottomless oats, and then added the banana and spices from this recipe (and stevia), using instant coffee powder in place of brewed coffee.

Oh, sorry, I lied.  HERE's the last thing... I made a coffee flavour of my b-fast tofu dip, which went very well with pizzerts.  Just blend silken tofu, almond milk, instant coffee grounds, and stevia.

What's Up Wednesday #2

Gingerbread Cookie Oatmeal.  That's right. So sweet!  A combination of Bottomless Oatmeal and Gingerbread Oatmeal (minus the molasses, lots of sugar free maple syrup, no coconut, steiva)

Been reading a good book: They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie. It's nice to actually read a book again, since I've been so busy with school work :D

I made these coconut flour sandwich thins (with guar gum and no nooch)!  Since the bread that I've been using had milk in the ingredients list (!) I knew I had to switch.  So, then I stumbled onto Foodie Fiasco - and WOW what a fabulous blog!  So many low-cal, healthy things.  Anyway, the sandwiches were super good.  Although, next time, I would make 8 pieces instead of 4, and then there would be no need to cut them in half. (UPDATE: I did make the 8 pieces yesterday, and it worked marvelously!)

Pineapple-Orange Setian - using oatmeal for the soy flour, mirin for the olive oil, and leaving out the nooch.  So, it was quite an ordeal to get this cooked!  First, I steamed it for 30 minutes.  It was still undone, so I baked it at 350 for 15 minutes.  Then I had it in a stir fry, but it was still super gummy.  the next day, I cut it into thin strips and grilled it on my panini press, and now it's OK! ;)  Next time, I would just steam it for 45 minutes and then grill it.  THAT should be muuuuch easier!

I've been enjoying this sandwich for lunch, on the sandwich thins that I made, with the Pineapple Orange Setian.

Super yummy salad dressing, a great way to use up that tomato paste in the fridge! ;)
(Of course with lots of changes: tomato paste for sauce, added LOTS of mirin, cider vinegar for the tarragon vinegar [have any of you ever seen this? I sure haven't], onion powder not juice, and Italian herbs in stead of dill)

And here's an interesting link that vegnews posted on facebook, in case you didn't read it: how being vegan saves water too!  Wow, we're sooo good! ;)
Ok, so another VegNews story.  Gross, or interesting?  You decide!

Tomato-Olive Salad Dressing

M said this tastes like creamy tomato soup.  Well, I dunno about that, but it's tastey ;)

Adapted from An Unrefined Vegan

Blend together 1/2 cup tomato paste, 1/4 cup mirin, garlic powder, dried basil and thyme, 1 stevia packet, a few tbsp sugar free maple syrup, 8 olives, 1/2 cup mirin, juice of 1 small lemon, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1/2 tbsp veggie bullioun, and 1 tbsp nooch.  Add more mirin, until desired consistency is reached.

Lotsa Baked Beans

Wow!  Ok, so before you make this dish, make sure you have lots of things to soak the beans in, and lots of dishes to bake them in.  I filled a 13x9 casserole dish, 4 small ramkins, and 2 large ramkins.  Now I know what I'll be having for dinner this week... but it's totally ok - these are amazing, and just spicy enough for my wimpy taste.  Adapted from I Eat Food

Oh, real fast before I forget, I also made a pretty good salad dressing: tofu mayo (silken tofu + lemon juice), apple cider vinegar, dried spearmint, dried basil, and raspberry syrup.

The beans were a mixture of GIANT lima beans, pinto, great northern, and red kidney.  About 1 1/3 cups dried of each, and then soaked overnight and cooked.  Then I sauteed a large onion, a couple of carrots, and a small-ish red bell pepper, and added the beans.  The sauce was 16 oz canned tomato sauce, 1/2 cup light bbq sauce, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup molasses, 1/3 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup dijon mustard, 1/2 tbsp liquid smoke, 1 tsp chipotle chili powder, 3 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp allspice... yup, that's all..

Then this was stuffed into pans/ramkins and baked for 45 - 90 minutes, depending on the size of the pan. 

The one thing I would change next time would be to add a bit more sauce, although I had the smallest ramkins tonight so they might have dried out anyways.  It was still so amazing and satisfying - it's been waaay too long since I've made baked beans...

Soup, Salad Dressing

Yeah, ok, not so creative on the names.   You got a problem with that? 

I have made waaaaaaay too many soups to keep coming up with names... and the salad dressing, well, it's too good for a name.  We'll just call it Salad Dressing.

For the soup, adapted from here:
Veggies were equal amounts of onion and carrot (large piles), 1/2 lb green beans, tomato sauce, and potatoes.  It also got some red kidney beans.  Seasonings were 1 cup white wine, 1 tbsp each sumac and paprika, and vegetarian chicken bullion.  Thickened with cornstarch and finished off with vegetarian meat.  It was quite good, and chunky too...

The salad dressing happened because I opened a container of tomato paste for the soup, and then decided it was unneccessary (read: it wouldn't fit).  So I jumped over to AllRecipes, and saw this.

My version consisted of 1/2 cup each mirin and tofu mayo*, 6 oz tomato paste, 2 hefty tbsp brown sugar, a bit of apple cider vinegar, mustard powder, garlic and onion powder, caraway seeds, liquid smoke, and paprika.  It made quite a bit and was very tomato-y, but it was really yum!  I loved how it was different from other dressings that I have made.  The only thing that I would change would be to use tomato sauce instead of the paste, which might make it less tomato-y...

UPDATE 1/30: Ok, so I got a really bad grade on my precal test.  I feel the need to put this in here... I'm sulking.  Now for the actual update - this dressing thickens up A LOT.  A LOT A LOT.  So, I would advise dumping in more mirin and vinegar to thin it out... then do that the next day as well, because that's how thick it gets.

*Tofu mayo: half cook 18 oz silken tofu and blend with 1/4 cup lemon juice.

Zesty Salad Dressing

Sooo... I kept forgetting to get a picture of this dressing- that's why the bowl is so empty in the picture.  This dressing came out of the need to use up a bit of cilantro and a whole bunch of basil- our plant is growing to mutant size.  Maybe M gave it steroids... Anyway, I was a huge fan of this dressing.  It was a bit "too vinegary" for M, so I ended up eating all of it, which was perfectly OK by me.  It has a nice zip to it, and livens up a salad nicely.  I bet it would be really tasty on a baked potato, too, or something similar to that.

Zippy Salad Dressing

Makes 2-ish cups

1 cup fat free mayo

Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp raspberry vinegar
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup cilantro leaves, chopped
½ - 2/3 cup basil leaves, chopped
1/3 cup onion, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk until no lumps remain, and chill until ready to serve.

Summer's Special Salad Dressing

M and I finally made it through the Asian Dressing, and we needed a new one to cover our lovely salads in.  M had requested a raspberry dressing, and that was what I was going to make.  It turned out surprisingly good, and a nice rosy colour.

The dressing ended up being a lot creamier than I had originally planned, but, hey, it still tasted great, and was quite easy to whip up.  My masher did quite a fine job with the raspberries, and no blender was needed.

Today M and I also took a trip to a new grocery store that someone we know works at.  It was a Mexican store, but they really carried all sorts of things- such as raspberry vinegar!  Perfect addition to the dressing!!  We also got some dried pink beans... you will probably be seeing those very soon.

Summer's Raspberry Dressing

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 1 cup fat free mayo
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp raspberry vinegar
• Onion powder, to taste

Mash the raspberries to a sauce with a potato masher or some such thing, add other ingredients, and stir well.  Refrigerate until needed.

Salad Dressing- Asian Style

I love salads.  Can't have dinner without one- literally, I have an almost obscenely large salad with every dinner.  But, of course, that means M and I go through a ton of dressing!  A while back, I started to make my own, because it really is so much cheaper- not mention healthier- than storebought.  And I just feel better too, knowing that it's mine...  Anyway, I have come up with several over the course of time.  This one is what I call the Asian One.  So easy to make, and a great one for salads, although I'm sure it could be used for a variety of things, so get creative.

Asian Salad Dressing
A very versatile dressing- somewhat creamy as is, but feel free to up the mayo for more creamyness, and the vinegar for less creamy. It will get a lot thinner after it sits for a day or two. Also, sometimes I will add more chili sauce for heat. Like I said before, dressings are really so versatile. Just go wild!

Makes about 1 ½ cups, 10 calories/tbsp

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup fat free mayo
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• ¼ tsp tumeric
• ½ tbsp chili sauce
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ¼ cup apple cider or regular vinegar

Preparation

1. Combine all ingredients and whisk well to work out any lumps. Chill until ready to serve.