sandwich yumminess

I've come to realize that some of my favorite meals are sandwiches. I especially like tofu egg salad. When I was little, I ate peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches every day; the only other one I'd rotate in was egg salad. After going vegan, I needed something to substitute and came up with this:

This is my own recipe, modeled after the way my mom made egg salad:
1 box firm or extra firm tofu, mashed up
1/2 cup Vegenaise (more if you think it's a little dry)
1/4 cup diced celery
seasoned to taste with:
~3-4 tbs nutritional yeast
~1/4 tsp curry
~1/4 tsp ground mustard
enough turmeric to make it nice and yellow
1/4 tsp onion powder
a few sprinkles of parsley, salt, and pepper

The curry & ground mustard give it a nice kick, and I have to eat it with diced celery for the crunch because otherwise I feel like I'm eating mush, plus that's how I always ate it as a kid. I like to eat this version freshly made over toast; this time it was 12 grain. And by the way, Vegenaise is awesome. I can and do eat it right out of the jar.

This week I also made the Maple Dijon Glazed Potatoes and String Beans from VwaV. I got a preview of how it turned out from Eat Air and it looked tasty. And indeed it was tasty:

It was good, but not mustardy enough for me, even though I put an extra tablespoon of dijon in it. Next time I know! It's definitely a good side dish, and a way to get myself to eat string beans. Growing up I didn't like them; I didn't realize this was because my mom cooked the hell out of them. She does this with a lot of veggies because that's how she likes them: mushy. I think this is why I didn't realize that I actually did enjoy many vegetables until I was much older and cooking them for myself to a non-mushy consistency. Anyway, while I don't have an undying love for string beans, I will eat them, and more than the 1 per meal that I was forced to consume as a child.

There's not a whole lot of inspired cooking going on at the moment, mostly due to school finishing up for the semester. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks that will change... I can't wait to show off all sorts of fun things once my CSA starts in June! Though I've heard that it's been a cool spring for the northeast, so it might take a while for things to get going.

Cram it all in...

The title of this post is how I feel about life a lot of the time... I'm trying to cram as much as possible into this little life of mine. Today was about cramming family, cooking and schoolwork into the day (well, laundry too).

After babysitting my cousins and staying over my aunt & uncle's last night, we stopped at the in-laws' on the way home. We've been together since my pre-vegan days, so his parents have had to adjust to my eating choices as well, since they love to feed us. One thing I don't have a picture of for your viewing pleasure are the empanadas they made me. Previously all his parents made were meat or cheese empanadas; when I stopped eating cheese, it was a travesty that I could not take part in the empanadas (they're a big deal in the family). However, this sparked an empanada revolution! Soon eggplant empanadas came along... a cousin who is a chef made some chipotle mushroom ones for New Year's. Other family members have asked, why does she get all the cool empanadas?? Well, why not? There is a world beyond carne y queso!! Anyway, there were eggplant empanadas waiting for me today at the in-laws' apartment for lunch. Yum!

In between paper writing and laundry, I decided I wanted to make some vegan cookies for my class tomorrow, in honor of our field trip on the topic of ecological restoration. I chose the Ginger Cookies from VwaV:
I think some of them came out a bit too molasses-ey, but still tasty. Next time I might cut the molasses a little. I always wonder how cookbooks come up with the numbers of cookies that will come out of a batch; the book says 2 dozen, and I sized them like the book says and I got about 3 dozen. Oh well.

To further avoid folding laundry and writing about NYC's 2030 green goals, I made the orange ginger tofu triangles from The Voluptous Vegan. It's simple because you let the tofu marinate, pour off some of the marinade, and then bake. Easy peasy! While that was going on I even made a smoothie, some rice and garlic-ey spinach to go with the tofu. I only realized I was out of brown rice when I couldn't find it in the pantry, so white rice it was, cooked in my handy dandy 3 cup rice cooker from CVS.
I'll be having this for lunch tomorrow as well. The nice thing about the tofu is that it's pretty good cold as well, so I will throw it on salads and such as well.

Speaking of salads, I found a new salad dressing that I am really enjoying:

Now, mind you, I have no idea if it actually tastes like caesar dressing; I haven't had that since I was a wee lass. But it's very tasty in its own right; it has a nice blend of spices and a bit of a mustardy taste. It tastes like something that I can't put my finger on, but in a good way. Plus it's got omega-3s and is organic! It's good to break out of my italian dressing rut once in a while.

always a hit, sometimes a miss

What do you do when you have some... let's just say 'aged'... kale waiting in the fridge? This!:

Baked kale is my absolute favorite way to prepare this healthy green leafy vegetable. It's so easy too, just tear it up, spray with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and garlic powder, and bake. Voila, melt in your mouth crispy kale bits! You can't go wrong. My parents thought I was nuts when I made it at their house a few times, but kale was never a vegetable that had crossed the threshold of the house when I lived there. Mom & Dad are not particularly adventurous with their veggies...

Anyway, the kale was made as an accompaniment to a new recipe I decided to try out: VwaV's fettucine alfreda (but using spaghetti). I started to worry after I toasted the pine nuts and they smelled weird; I'm pretty sure they were fresh, unless the stuff in the bulk bin at Whole Foods was old. Here's what dinner came out like:
Sadly, I can't say that I'm much of a fan of this sauce, which is unfortunate because it certainly made a lot. It just has an odd flavor. It's not inedible, but I think I'm kind of done with it. I'm not sure what I was expecting from it but this sauce just tastes funky. Sorry, VwaV, you know I love you, but this didn't do it for me.

I'm so excited!

This is not entirely food related, yet it is completely food related. In my efforts to eat more in line with SOLE (Sustainable; Organic; Local; Ethical) principles, and my efforts to fill my apartment with plants (to Danny's dismay), I decided to try to grow a little of my own food. Off I went to the Seeds of Change web site to order some organic seeds. Sadly I did not find organic potting soil. But I planted tomatoes and 3 kinds of squash (tahitian, delicata, and french zucchini that are round!). I forgot that it takes a freaking long time to actually get any food out of this, but I am nearly at the point where I will reap my rewards:

This effort has been fraught with problems. I was under the impression from what I'd read on indoor cultivation that shaking the tomato plants would be enough to pollinate them... yeah, didn't happen. The ones that have set are ones I decided to try pollinating myself.

On the other hand are the squash plants... apparently the zucchini plant is solely male because it has only produced male flowers for literally months. The tahitian squash still just has some really large buds. But here is my pride and joy:

It was the only female bud on the delicata plant and I pollinated and set the fruit just like the old days. I spent a year working in the plant breeding department as a field trial assistant, breeding various squashes, peppers and melons mostly, so I am well versed in how to handle this. There's a new female bud, so hopefully there are more squashies on the way!

Experimental goodness

I got an avocado on sale at the ghetto Pathmark down the block the other day, and it was perfectly ready today. Naturally I did the only truly respectable thing you can do to an avocado: make guacamole! What I usually make is super simple - mashed avocado, a minced fresh garlic clove, salt and lemon juice. Yes, lemon, not lime, though either is okay; I just usually have lemons in the fridge, less often limes. Today I got slightly fancier and added some ground cumin and dried cilantro, but I almost always stick with the basic. And I never mar my guac with diced tomatoes... raw tomatoes are disgusting! I wasn't really in the mood for chips, so I had two of these babies for lunch:

Toasted organic whole wheat bread, a la whole foods brand. I like cheap & tasty. I also had a baby romaine salad. Oh man, I can't wait until my organic CSA starts in June!!


Tonight I decided to experiment a little by making the Tempeh & White Bean "Sausage" Patties from Vegan With A Vengeance, partly because I had all the ingredients on hand. I was a little afraid because I don't like meaty tasting things, and I never ate sausage in the first place; I was quite picky. But I like tempeh and I like beans, so what the heck. As I was making it up, it seemed kind of icky and didn't smell good, though that may be a result of my allergies (thanks NJ pollen explosion!). So instead of cooking all of the half batch I made (as the mix will keep a few days), I just made two patties:
Despite tasting nothing like sausage, I was pleasantly surprised. These ended up pretty tasty. Yay! I think I need to adjust the seasonings a little b/c I kind of just threw stuff in since I was making a half batch AND using dried instead of fresh herbs. VwaV, I shall not doubt you again; you have not failed me thus far.