Tofu, raw salad

I finally tried the General Tao’s Tofu everyone on VegWeb was raving about. The tofu had a very nice texture, and the broccoli was yummy- as always- but the sauce was far too sweet. I have never been very big on sugary foods, and I really did not like it in a dinner recipe.

I am trying my best to eat more raw foods. I eat very little processed food, but my raw vegetable intake is lower than I would like. I am shooting for 50/50 in my meals, and I sometimes don’t quite reach it, but I did pretty well with this salad. It is green leaf lettuce, homemade salsa, avacado, carrot, cabbage, red sweet pepper, black beans and baked tortillas.

Tomorrow I will have a few recipe posts. I made samosas for the first time tonight and they were delicious!

Does anyone know how to make my Flickr pictures, to my blog, without them getting all tiny? I don’t know how to fix it, but I know it is possible. I’ve seen quite a few blogs this way =/

waffle

I love waffles. In my pre-vegan days, I was never too excited at the prospect of pancakes, waffles of french toast, but lately I have been craving them like mad. For dinner of course =)

The recipe is Apple Waffles from the PPK. I’m sure all the nutritional value of using fresh apples and apple juice is lost by drowning them with syrup and Earth Balance… but hey, I have to eat junk every once in a while, right? I am still in highschool- it’s mandatory =D

The only changes I made to the recipe was to omit all of the spices except cinnamon. I didn’t have anything else but nutmeg on hand, and I was being super lazy and didn’t want to go through all the work of opening two spice containers.

I will have a lot more to post tomorrow, but it is monday and I have loads of school still waiting for me. Phooey.

Spinach, sun-dried tomato couscous

Couscous:
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup uncooked Couscous

Bring water, salt, and oil to a boil. Pour in couscous, stir quickly, cover and remove from heat. Let sit for five minutes, then fluff with a fork and serve.

Spinach garnish
2 cups thinly shredded fresh rinsed spinach (do not dry the spinach)
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons + 1 teaspoon olive oil
3 stalks chopped green onion
2 gloves garlic, minced

While the couscous is cooking, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and cook until fragrant and slightly softened. Add in sun-dried tomatoes, and cook until warm. Quickly add in the wet spinach, and cook over low heat until wilted (be careful not to overcook or the spinach will become squishy).
Spoon couscous onto a plate, and top with spinach garnish. Sprinkle with a small amount of olive oil, and salt if desired.

O.K., kitchen appliance/accessory craving time. I want one of these like you would not believe. When you can make doughnuts as gorgeous as this, who could resist?
I always think I have so many more food pictures, but when I actually go to post, I realize how much more often I need to photograph things =/

Beans and Rice

Bountiful Beans and Brown Rice from La Dolce Vegan:

-It is next to impossible to take a good picture of beige food… especially beans =P

banana-coconut muffins

I have hypoglycemia. Not as bad as some, but enough to where I have to be careful with my refined sugar intake. For about three-four months I was on a completely sugar free diet. I could not have corn syrup, or sugars and I had to be careful with how much fruit juice I consumed.
My blood sugar is doing much better now, but I am still very careful to reduce the sugar in my diet. I came up with this recipe about a month ago, and I love it! I took this recipe, veganized it, and completely cut out all of the added sugar. The banana and the apple sauce do have natural sugars in them, but those are far better than anything refined.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (or a mix of whole wheat/white)
1 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 very ripe banana, mashed (the bananas provide a lot of sweetness to this recipe, so use extremely ripe- almost black bananas)
1/4 cup vegetable OIL
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup applesauce or other egg substitute
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and lightly spray or line 8 muffin cups.
2. Whisk dry ingredients in bowl. Whisk wet ingredients, and 1/2 cup of the coconut in another bowl. Fold in flour moisture until just barely moistened. Do NOT overmix!
3. Divide batter among cups, and sprinkle with remaining coconut. Bake until puffed and slightly golden- about 23-25 minutes.

*I accidentally wrote shortening but I meant oil. Sorry about that!

I absolutely love ‘toasted’ coconut, and the coconut on the top of these muffins gets slightly brown and crispy- it tastes delicious.

I am going to be gone all weekend, so no posts until I come back. My mom and I will be trying a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Denver, so I will hopefully be able to get a few pictures.
Also, I finished my driving hours! I will finally be able to get my license. 50 hours doesn’t seem like much in the beginning, but cramming most of it in at the end is a little time-consuming.

Basil Lasagna Rolls

This is one of my favorite dishes I have made. I love basil, and the sauce has quite a lot. I use the pesto for this recipe all the time! It is my favorite for sure.

2 Tablespoon olive oil
5 green onions, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 1/4 cups grated zucchini
1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup vegan spinach pesto (you can use your own recipe, or the one I provide below)
1/3 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt to taste (Seriously do not add until you taste! I ended up oversalting, and omitted the salt from the sauce to cut down on the salty flavor)

Sauce:
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup water
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes- blended (I hate chunky tomato sauce, but you can just used diced tomatoes if you prefer)
1/4 fresh minced basil, or one Tablespoon dried

12 or so lasagna noodles

Heat half of the oil in over medium heat, add half of the green onions and all of the garlic. Cook until soft. Place in a food processor or blended with the sun dried tomatoes, pesto, bread crumbs, cayenne, and salt. Blend until smooth. Stir in the zucchini. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Heat the remaining oil, and lightly cook the remaining onions. Add in the sauce ingredients except for the basil, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then stir in basil. Reduce heat and keep warm.
Cook lasagna noodles. Drain and spread on wax paper. Pat dry.
Divide the chilled filling among the noodles, roll each into a tight spiral and place in a lightly greased 13×9 glass pan. Lightly nap the tops with a small amount of the sauce. Cover with aluminium foil and cook in a 350 degree oven for 20 minites.
Spread a small amount of the sauce over each one and serve.

Pesto recipe:
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups lossely packed fresh spinach
1/4 cup olive oil

Blend or process until smooth.

I am still working on an about me page- maybe by the weekend… maybe.
Also, does anyone know how to ‘hide’ part of my post behind a cut? I would like to figure it out so I can minimize the page stretching.

Hello world!

A food blog seemed like a good idea… hopefully it turn out to be one. I am new to the whole food blog thing, so I am not sure how to get it started.
All recipes posted here will be animal and cruelty free: AKA Vegan. A great recipe on veganism can be found here. I would definitely recommend it.
I am still working on links and pages, so bear with me. The about me section will be done very soon… hopefully. For now, my very first recipe post. We’ll start with something nice and un-healthy – full of sugar

1/4 cup earth balance margarine
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 oil
1/4 soymilk
1 1/2 peanut butter (I used chunky)
2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups oats
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

350 degrees F

1. Sift flour, oats, soda, salt and cinnamon.
2. Cream peanut butter, margarine, and sugar until well combined. Stir in applesauce, milk and oil. Cream until well combined. Beat in molasses and vanilla. Fold in oat/flour mixture.
3. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork.
4 Bake for 12-14 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottom.