On Hiatus

I am participating in National Novel Writing Month, which takes up absolutely all of my time in the evenings. The point of the contest is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and I am waaay behind. I will not be posting here until after the 30th of November, when my novel-writing is complete and my brain is fried. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Veggie Burgers

I have never made a veggie burger before. I have made black bean burgers, which were just okay, but never a true veggie burger. For some illegitimate reason, I've always looked upon veggie burgers as lifeless, tasteless, and not possibly as good as Boca burgers or Morningstar Farms burgers. But due to a dearth of food in the house and no desire to go out to the store, I made veggie burgers from Vegan with a Vengeance. I really would like to lie and say I came up with them myself, especially since I have NOT been creating many new recipes at all, but alas, they are all Isa's. I fixed them up on homemade buns with Vegenaise, lettuce, pickles, and ketchup, served with sides of french fries and love.

Sea Cakes and Buffalo Wings

If you haven't checked out Rhymes with Vegan, I implore you to do so immediately. I don't remember what I was searching for, but while I was searching for it, Meagan's blog popped up. I literally looked at the entire blog in one sitting. I was absolutely captivated by the recipes, pictures, and her Lunch Delivery business, where she delivers food to friends and acquaintances for lunch. Too bad she doesn't live in Arizona. :(

But at least I was able to find her blog and immediately make two of the recipes, sea cakes and tofu buffalo wings. I will say that I may have gone a little overboard on the beer batter, using Arrogant Bastard Ale rather than something a little less "in your face," but it was delicious and VERY filling. The sea cakes were light and tasty, and delicious dipped in "tartar" sauce. I have a feeling I will make both of these dishes often. Check out Rhymes with Vegan, if you haven't already!

On a side note, my left eyelid has been twitching all day. It's been really irritating.

Soyrizo Soft Tacos

Lately, I have not been making too many new dishes. I have been feeling a little mentally tired lately, and have not had too much creative energy. It's really disappointing to lack mental energy, because there are soooo many things that I want to be doing! I have a lot of interests, and I am trying to dig up the creativity to begin working on music and playing the clarinet again. Not only am I mentally exhausted after work, there is simply not enough time to do all of the things that I want to do. For now, I am going to attempt to make more new meals and focus on the music a couple of times per week. Maybe that will change in the future, but I do not want to force myself to do something - I want to enjoy all of my endeavors. :)

Anyway, here are soyrizo tacos. I don't think that I have ever had actual chorizo, but this soyrizo is what I imagine the real thing to taste like. It is so rich and flavorful! I fried the soyrizo in a pan with some olive oil over high heat, so as to char the soyrizo a bit, adding to its authenticy. I then spread it into a corn tortilla (one of the 357 that came in the package I bought) with the usual Mexican accompaniments - lettuce, tomato, avocado, Tofutti sour cream, and some cheese for me. I just can't believe how many corn tortillas came in the package - I have a feeling they will languish in the fridge for quite a while. Good thing I'm not squeamish about expiration dates!

Chicken Shawarma

Last week, Jeffrey and I took a road trip to San Francisco. It was amazing, and went by way too fast. On the way, we stopped in San Luis Obispo to eat at The Natural Cafe and stay the night in a hotel. We made it to San Francisco the next afternoon, and had such a blast hanging out with family and friends. We ate at a ton of great places, but of course, I took no pictures. We did go to a place called Weird Fish twice during our stay. They offered lots of fish dishes and also vegan fish (seitan) and chips, as well as a "fish" (seitan) sandwich. Delicious. We also went to Herbivore, before a night of especially drunken debauchery, where I had a giant bowl of curry noodle soup, Jeffrey's sister Amanda had a tempeh sandwich on foccacia, and Jeffrey had the delectable chicken shawarma, which he of course asked me to repeat at home immediately. I did some research on the chicken part to see if there was something other than seitan that I could use, but with no luck. A last minute decision included frying strips of Morningstar Farms chicken strips until they were just tender, letting them cool, marinating them, then frying again until crisp and delicious.

I also finally learned how to make real hummus, as opposed to the chickpea mash that I have been making for years. The secret, I learned, was to combine the lemon juice and tahini until it becomes a frothy cream, then adding the chickpeas, one handful at a time, and blending until smooth and delicious. I should mention, that a decent blender is required for this process. Otherwise, you will be like me, combining said lemon juice and tahini in a crappy blender, pulsing on low and adding water like mad. But anyway, just be careful if you have a cheap blender and not something like a VitaMix, over which I covet daily.

Chicken Shawarma
Ingredients:
one bag of Morningstar Farms chicken strips
4 whole wheat pitas
one cucumber, sliced
2 pickles, sliced
2 C shredded lettuce
1 tomato, sliced
1 recipe chicken marinade (follows)
2 c hummus, homemade or storebought

Marinade:
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 tbl lemon juice
3 tbl olive oil
1 tsp curry powder

Cook the chicken strips until just warm and tender. Coat with the marinade and let sit for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, chop cucumbers, pickles, tomato and prepare hummus if making from scratch. Also, shred lettuce if not using the pre-shredded kind.

Fry the chicken on a skillet in olive oil until brown and crispy. Set aside. Warm each pita briefly on the same skillet. To assemble, spread 1/2 C hummus on a pita, followed by lettuce, cucumber, pickle , tomato and chicken. Fold with care, by beginning to wrap the pita from the bottom in the shape of a cone. Follow with aluminum foil and wrap the pita about halfway. Serve hot.

Spring Rolls and Stir Fry

I took a little break from any serious cooking last week. I was having a really tough time at work and not sleeping well at all. Fortunately, that passed and I am back to my normal self. With things a a bit less crazy at work (for now) I will have some time to cook new dishes and actually take pictures before scarfing down the food. Yesterday, I made up for a week of dinners like spaghetti and spent a couple of hours in the kitchen making spring rolls and a curry stir fry. I got the idea for the spring rolls from Vegan with a Vengeance, however; I adapted the recipe so I could stuff more goodies into the rice paper.

Let me just say that I love Asian markets. There is one literally down the street from my home, House of Rice, and I really don't know why I don't go there more often. Besides having a bounty of Asian goodies at a fraction of the cost of regular grocery stores, they also have other random items and a lot of pretty dishes and serving plates. There is a larger Asian market a little further in Chandler, called Leelee's, but I rarely make it down there. I should do it more often.

At House of Rice, I picked up a lifetime supply (seriously, it was a lot) of rice paper, a package of vermicelli, a baggie of fresh Thai basil, and a can of "Vegetarian Mock Duck" I found lurking in the recesses of the market. I had to test out a couple of the cans, as some of them were dented, but thought I'd give it a shot. We weren't impressed - the duck was very sweet and as Jeffrey said, "It was just seitan." Next time, I will make seitan myself and save the two bucks.

Spring Rolls (makes 12 rolls)
rice paper
4 oz. vermicelli, cooked, rinsed with cold water, and set aside
2 small carrots, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks
1 small cucumber, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks
1 avocado, diced
1 mango, peeled and sliced into thin strips
1 C cilantro leaves
3 large Romaine leaves
1/4 cup crushed peanuts

Set out a pie dish or other flat, shallow pan and fill with tepid water. Soak the rice paper, one by one, for about 15 seconds each, until flexible. Lay out the paper on a plate or cutting board and assemble as follows, right in the middle of the paper: 2 tbl vermicelli, 4 carrot strips, 4 cucumber strips, 4 avocado chunks, 3 mango strips, a strip of lettuce, a handful of cilantro, and a sprinkle of crushed peanut. Be careful when you wrap it. Fold in the outer sides, and while holding them in with your middle and ring fingers, pull up the bottom portion with your thumb and index fingers to cover half of the paper, then roll. Repeat until your ingredients are gone or you are really sick of rolling.

The curry was simply a mix of the mock duck, broccoli, onion, and bell pepper over rice, served with my dad's yummy curry sauce that he makes oh so well (leftover from Sunday family dinner and frozen), and sprinkled with cashews. By the time I was finished with everything, I was tired. I'm surprised I was able to take pictures. Hopefully you won't find them too appalling.

Noodles that were Supposed to be Pancit but were Not

Who knew that substituting wide udon noodles for rice vermicelli would change an entire dish from Filipino to Japanese? A lot of people, probably, but who cares? I am a big fan of udon. My plan was to make the pancit dish out of Vegan Planet, which I did, but I was disappointed in the recipe's lack of onion and garlic, and I would have liked the sauce a bit sweeter and more plentiful. I did throw some creepy vegan shrimp in, along with tofu and seitan, and although I fancy the concept, it's definitely a strange one.

I've been thinking that I want to be more creative in the kitchen and make up more of my own meals. I tend to follow recipes, and although I have been branching out and substituting and actually spending time thinking about what flavors work well together, I still dive for the cookbook whenever it's time to prepare something. All three of you that read this blog, send me your wishes for more creativity in the kitchen in the weeks to come!

On another note, I have downloaded Living Cookbook, which is as exciting as it is overwhelming. The recipe software has seriously everything you could hope for as far as recipe and panty organizing, nutritional information, and a boatload of recipes. The cool thing about it too is that you can tweak the existing recipes to your liking, so for instance if there is a chicken dish that you find appealing, you can edit the recipe to substitute seitan for the chicken (after adding seitan to the ingredient database, of course). I could go on for hours about it, but my real dilemma is whether or not to buy it. It's only $35, however I am a cheap ass and try not to spend money on anything unless I really need/want it. Will I use it on a regular basis? Will I become irritated by its vast capabilities or frustrated when attempting to calculate the amount of zinc in hearts of palm? These are the burning questions, and the days in my trial version are dwindling.....