Glowing Green Monster

So, I am in the middle of writing the final draft of my final chapter of my final (ur well my ONLY) dissertation, and what do I do? Well obviously, I catch up on my much neglected blog! Since I haven't had much time to cook, or, well, to take care of anything but writing for that matter, these posts will be filled with fun tips on how I was able to survive, well-hydrated and fed, throughout the hellish, grueling dissertation process. Wait a minute, I am not done, you say? Well, technically no, but get me another green smoothie and watch me cross that PhD finish line.

Speaking of green smoothies, have you been introduced to the Glowing Green Smoothie? Be warned, if you start reading about Kimberly Snyder's beauty tips, you might actually consider going vegan, and if you actually make yourself a Glowing Green Smoothie, you might be tempted to chuck your blender for an ethereal Vitamix. So, unless you have some windfall cash floating around, you might want to hold off on this health adventure.

Ok, to be fair, this enthusiasm might actually be the smoothie talking. I kid you not. I am only on my second batch and I have been literally bouncing with energy. This isn't always a great thing. I need to learn how to handle my smoothie. For instance, yesterday I was so intensely concentrated on writing that I didn't have time to think about preparing food, so I decided to drink smoothie all day long. While this might be good for some, for me it meant a 4 am bedtime. Oh yeah, and for someone getting up at the crack of dawn to start typing, that's crazy! While you correctly assume that my insomnia may be a factor of extreme anxiety brought on by the stressful process of writing, I say to you that such anxiety cannot account for my zip. I was dancing at 3 am. Okay, it was probably both stress and the power of good greens, but I've decided to limit my smoothie downing to am hours anyway, otherwise I risk becoming the Glowing Green Monster (see Lady Gaga for the positive use of this term).

In any case, I heartily recommend it!

Now back to writing...

I Love the Way that Peppers Love Me

Who doesn't love the challenge of hot peppers? They use all of their chemical wiles to thwart being eaten, yet we pluck them from nature, and, if you are like me, daringly cut them up without gloves in hungry anticipation of a tiny inferno in our mouths. Then, once the burning subsides from the palate, that insidious capsaicin makes its way into our eyes and we are blinded by a brief but memorable moment of pain and regret that we were ever so silly as to try and conquer the safeguards of nature without gloves! Well, perhaps you are not so silly as I, but let's face it, peppers tend to make their presence known.

I will never learn to heed the warnings of working with exposed pepper seeds. At this point, it must be that I love the way that peppers love me - pain and all. But, I do not want to play favorites, all peppers - even those benign little sweet ones - are staples of my kitchen and today I've got three recipes that are packed with peppery goodness!

Mixed-Bag Bake: Sweet Peppers, Potatoes, Butternut Squash & Shallots

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash cubed
8 small potatoes halved
2 shallots quartered
6 cloves garlic in skins w/ tops cut
8 small sweet peppers
olive oil
rosemary
salt and pepper

This is a very easy recipe. Throw everything into a baking pan and copiously cover with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add sprigs of rosemary. Bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees or until a fork goes easily through the potatoes and squash. Salt and pepper to taste.


Pepper Pizza

Ingredients:
1 pizza crust (I make my own, but you can use already made wheat pizza crusts)
1.5 C tomato sauce
2 tsp thyme
1/3 C chopped onions
1 green pepper, chopped
1/3 C banana peppers
Hot pepper oil

1. Quickly saute' the onions and green peppers
2. Spread the tomato sauce on the crust and sprinkle with thyme
3. Scatter the onions, green peppers and banana peppers over the pizza
4. Lightly pour on some hot pepper oil.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until the crust is crisp.

Philly Pepper Sandwich

Ingredients:
1 semi-hot pepper chopped
1 cubanelle chopped
2 small onions chopped
1/3 C mushrooms chopped
1 T olive oil
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 T Vegan Worcestershire Sauce (*usually you can find this in Asian Groceries)
soft sandwich buns

1. Saute' onions, peppers and mushrooms together in olive oil for about 7 min until soft.
2. Add the liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce and saute' until absorbed.
3. Fill your sandwich bun until it overflows and enjoy!


Mmmmmm peppers! Followed later by Oooouuuuch peppers!

Hot Rice and Beans on Greens

I started out this year as a mean vegan culinary whiz, but then the impossible chaos of life changed all that rather quickly. I suppose that I could have been blogging about what I have been eating, but that would mean that I'd have to admit that I actually ate chickpeas out of a can for dinner! Despite all the snazzy new prepared animal friendly fare, quick 'n easy is still hard for the die hard vegan. So, I will omit the last few months of unsavory, and forgettable eating habits, and highlight some of the few bright spots when I was actually able to fill my belly with yummy vegan sustenance.

This was a quick inspiration one evening that is very similar to the No-One-Likes-the-Vegan-Police Burritos. I wanted something green, and something smokey. I had a bit of a liquid smoke obsession, as you'll notice from my earlier blogs, and this is the tail end of that romance, though I still do enjoy my collard greens faux smoked. Following my typical method of throwing things together and then eating them, this is basically an exploration into the fridge and pantry. It's a hearty, warm and cool kind of taco-salad that goes well with hot sauce.

Hot Rice and Beans on Greens

Ingredients:
1 onion chopped
1 tsp celery salt
1 can kidney beans rinsed
1 cup cooked brown rice or barley
1/2 C tomato sauce
sprinkle of liquid smoke
chopped romaine or other lettuce

1. Saute onion in a bit of olive oil for about five minutes
2. Add the celery salt and saute another minute
3. Add the kidney beans and smash about a third of them
4. Add the rice, sauce cook until warmed through
5. Sprinkle on some liquid smoke
6. Serve on a bed of lettuce

This is an easy recipe that can also be translated into burritos. Next up: Buffalo Tempeh Sandwiches, Mix 'n Match Butternut Squash Bake and Pepper Pot Pizza

Green Bean, Carrot Stir-Fry with Brown Jasmine Rice

I had a dish of green beans once in Beijing coated with tasty bits of pork (or what I thought was pork). I dreamed about this meal as much as I pined away for the lychee tea, and I never thought that I'd try to recreate the crispy beans at home vegan-style, but I was recently overwhelmed by a desire for a mountain of salty, smokey green beans.

I think that green beans are highly underestimated in American cuisine. Growing up my only experience with green beans came by way of a metal can or as an overcooked mush-fest of a casserole covered with funions. It's not that I didn't get fresh vegetables at home, it's just that green beans weren't really on the menu. When I first decided to purchase fresh beans, I was a bit taken aback by the hairy, spindly pods that felt like bony fingers when I scrubbed them. Then there is the prep time; scrubbing, cutting, steaming - they aren't a quick pop in the pot kind of meal. But, there really is nothing like a medley of crisp green beans lightly flavored. Plus they are just so damned gorgeous on the plate! This quick recipe has recently become a weekly treat. Sometimes I forgo the brown rice bed and just eat a heaping plate of veggies.

Green Bean, Carrot Stir Fry with Brown Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:
Marinade
1/4 c vegetable broth
1 T soy sauce
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T liquid smoke
1 T maple syrup
1 clove crushed garlic

Stir Fry
1 T olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 lb fresh green beans, scrubbed with ends cut
1/2 C baby carrots
1 orange pepper (optional)

• Add all the marinade ingredients together and let sit
• Cut and prep all the vegetables
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet
• Add marinade and all veggies together
• Saute' all vegetables for about 10 minutes until onions are browned, peppers soft and beans and carrots softened (they should be crisp not mushy!)
• Serve on top of cooked brown jasmine rice

The key for me in this recipe is the crispy, over-cooked onions. They soak up the marinade and particularly the liquid smoke, and give the vegetables that salty goodness that I love.

So good!

No-one-likes-the-Vegan-Police Burritos

Yes, I have been avoiding you. I have been in a food slump. For the past three months vegan cuisine has been...well, kinda difficult. There, I said it. Vegan Police come get me.* It all seemed so easy a year ago in Rome when I was forced, without a properly equipped kitchen or an adequate budget, to invent recipes as I went along with ingredients that I just happened to have on hand.** So easy, in fact, that I decided to start blogging about it!

So why did I find myself a mere few months ago unable to throw two things together to concoct anything resembling a meal without a serious cookbook consultation? What happened to my relationship with food? All of a sudden vegan food didn't seem so cool anymore. I couldn't remember the last time it made me smile. Things just weren't as exciting as they used to be. Night after night it was just bitterness and disappointment. I just didn't know what to do..... It was time to take a break. First I tried an even stricter diet that didn't work, then I went a little crazy in Spain with some cheese. Nothing seemed to help.

Finally, I got my groove back. I reacquainted myself with delicious food in Italy. Deep red ripe tomatoes lightly bathed in olive oil and a touch of aged balsamic vinegar, fresh crusty bread dipped in vegetable minestra, lightly sauteed green beans slightly salted, and limone gelato. One week back in the boot reset my love of vegetables! It didn't hurt that someone else was doing the cooking either as I was able to remember that cooking is only a prelude to the reward of eating.


So, that revelation with the help of a new job, new city, new kitchen and a once again poorly stocked pantry, have reset my creative juices -- which are basically various flavors of olive oil! Enjoy this fabulous new recipe from a born-again veggie lover!


NO-ONE-LIKES-THE-VEGAN-POLICE BURRITOS or
SMOKEY CHICKPEA RICE AND ONION BURRITOS


This recipe is a total invention. I pulled leftovers from the last few days and threw a bit of everything into the frying pan. I have yet to restock my spice rack from the move, so the flavors are accidental, but pretty wickedly tasty!

Ingredients:
1 medium onion chopped
1 T olive oil
two shakes of liquid smoke
1 tsp red chili olive oil
1/2 tsp celery salt
3 T tomato sauce
1 C cooked chickpeas partly smashed down with a fork
3/4 C cooked brown rice
2-3 T water
1 T chopped parsley

1. Saute onion in olive oil in a medium frying pan until translucent
2. Add the liquid smoke, hot olive oil, celery salt and cook for about a minute and add tomato sauce
3. Add chickpeas and rice and stir to combine. Add water and stir. Cook until the sauce thickens.
4. Remove from heat add the chopped parsley and place in a soft burrito shell
5. Add salt and pepper as needed

The chili olive oil gives this dish a really beautiful orange hue and some spice, and the celery salt and liquid smoke combo really makes this dish "meaty" in flavor. Don't forget the parsley to add some much needed green to the dish. Buon appetito!!!

* see Scott Pilgrim vs the World
** to be completely fair, all ingredients in Italy are better, fresher, prettier, tastier...need I go on?

Wasabi Hummus

Ten days before a three week trip to Spain and Italy, I had the brilliant idea to start a diet. But you are vegan, you ask? Of course, and I do eat many healthy things, but I also eat a lot of junk. Just because it's vegan doesn't mean it's healthy. Shall I give you some examples? My morning cup/s of coffee are coupled with about a cup of non-dairy creamer (which is mostly fat) and a very generous helping of sugar. I snack on those dangerously vegan things like Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos, or Peanut Butter Zigzag non-dairy ice cream, and the worst culprit of all is the gratuitous amount of olive oil I use to drown the vegetable dishes that I make. I'm not saying that EVOO is bad, merely that when you start to use a quarter cup of it each night for dinner, then it may start to have an adverse effect on you. Not to mention my fair use of processed soy products which helped me through the initially uninspired years of veganism. I would have most definitely quit this eating routine without the ease of tofu, tempeh and soy milk. It is still a good way to sneak protein into your diet, but soy is also one of the most fatty vegetables.

So, here I was thinking about how I was going to live through Spanish tapas (which, btw are pretty much all meat or cheese) and I figured that it was the perfect time to cut out all the fat from my diet all together. No oils, less salt, no processed foods. Now, I know that there are critics out there that may laugh at my attempt to go even more healthy than vegan. I risk becoming a social pariah never able to enjoy a meal with her friends. Come on! I'm not going raw, just going lean for a few days. There are vegans of all sizes, and there is one thing that is true for most of us, we love to eat. So, for this impromptu diet I have been eating only things that come from the ground and that come to me in the form that they appear in nature like oats, rice, quinoa, vegetables and fruits. I'll be honest, it totally sucked at first, but I have been getting better at making incredibly flavorful things that satisfy any hunger pang. Today, I'm sharing one such recipe that I came up with that can easily be translated from hummus to potatoes!

WASABI HUMMUS

This is the BEST. No need for added salt, olive oil or anything but a cup of chick peas from the can or soaked and cooked and wasabi paste. If you have not been introduced to the versatile flavor of this Japanese horseradish, then you are seriously missing out. It is a perfect addition to spice up anything from mashed potatoes to stir fry and it gives this hummus a streak of heat.

Ingredients:
1 can chick peas drained and rinsed
1/2 C h2o
2 tsp wasabi paste*

Place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Eat with sliced vegetables or pita chips.

*For full disclosure, you can't find tubes of wasabi paste in nature, but the paste has nothing artificial about it and you are using such a small amount. You can also use a fresh wasabi root and grate it for use in this recipe.

Almost-ten-years-but-not-quite Black Bean Tamale Notes

Like Valentines day, our Anniversary was filled with a lot of cooking. Well, my husband doing a lot of cooking to be exact! Usually our wedding anniversary falls during a time when I am abroad. June seems to be the month most convenient for research trips to Italy (and I am not complaining!), so this year we wanted to forgo the typically fancy dinner and we made a feast from one of my favorites The Voluptuous Vegan. If you have followed some of my earlier posts you will know that this book offers some crazy satisfying meals (I mean full meals with plating instructions to boot!) that are, at times, labor intensive, but always worth the work.

For the big 7th my husband and I went for this fun recipe for Tamales to show our dedication to both cooking and each other. This meal comprised of Pickled Red Onions, Masa Harina Tamales with Black Beans and Tomatillo-Cilantro sauce and Chayote, Red Pepper and Corn salad. We also threw in some brown rice made with black bean water, which was a nice addition.