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Cooking Basics: Chopping Onions

Becky Striepe — Wed, 04 May 2011 11:00:51 +0000

Confession: chopping onions is one of the toughest things for me in the kitchen.

Not that the act of chopping onions is difficult, but those suckers make me cry like nobody’s business. After a few minutes with a sliced onion, I can’t see through the tears in my eyes, which isn’t the ideal state when you’re handling a knife.

This onion-chopping method is quick and efficient, which is key if you react to them like I do:

The only thing I do differently is removing the ends. Instead of that fancy move with the paring knife, I just use my chef’s knife to slice the ends off.

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by little blue hen

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | Comment
Post tags: chop an onion, chopping onions, cooking basics, easy, onion, onions

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Baked Tofu Chops with Boozy Broccoli

Becky Striepe — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:00:30 +0000

I’ve mentioned before that my husband is an omnivore and that we sometimes will cook separate suppers when he wants meat. Sunday evening was one of those nights. Instead of cooking totally separate dinners this time, I decided to adapt his pork chop recipe using tofu instead. The result was a glass pan full of comfort food!

This made four servings and was perfect with some broccoli sauteed in red wine and garlic to go with.
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post tags: baked tofu, broccoli recipe, comfort food, dinner, easy, healthy broccoli recipe, main dish, tofu, vegan, vegan comfort food

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Easy Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

Becky Striepe — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:30:04 +0000

If you’re my Facebook friend, you’ve probably seen me talk about making cinnamon rolls pretty much every weekend for the past month. This is because of an amazing discovery that I can’t believe I only sorted out one month ago!

Here’s the thing: a lot of those store-bought tubes of crescent rolls are vegan. Just do some careful label-reading, since recipes change and different varieties can have dairy in them, but it should be pretty easy to find some kind of crescent rolls that are free of animal products.

Basically, what you’re making is a cross between crescent rolls and cinnamon toast. Here’s what you need:

1/4c non-hydrogenated margarine
3t cinnamon
2T brown sugar

1 tube of vegan crescent rolls

In a small bowl, whisk the margarine with the cinnamon and sugar.

Roll out the crescent rolls flat, and spread the cinnamon mixture evenly over all of them.

Roll them up, just like you would if they weren’t filled with decadent, cinnamon-y goodness.

Bake according to package directions.

Devour with friends and coffee!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments
Post tags: breakfast, cinnamon rolls, easy, vegan baking, vegan cinnamon rolls, vegan recipe

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Vegan Grilled Cheese

Becky Striepe — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:57:44 +0000

OK, the title of this is a little misleading. Instead of grilling this sandwich, I cooked it up in the toaster. When I was a kid, that’s how we always made grilled cheese. It’s super easy and doesn’t dirty up that extra pan!

Since a sandwich full of Daiya didn’t seem like the most nutritious lunch, I sauteed up some turnip greens and covered them in hot sauce. YUM! It felt just like the kind of lunch my folks would have made me as a kid!

I know you probably don’t need a recipe for this, but just for posterity, here is the recipe for this!

Vegan Toasted Cheese

2 slices good, whole grain bread
1T Earth Balance
1/4c Daiya cheddar shreds (or your favorite vegan cheese)

Spread the Earth Balance on one side of each slice of bread. If you want to get really decadent, you can double the margarine and butter the outsides, too.

Pile the Daiya onto one buttered slice, close up that sandwich, and stick it in the toaster. If the cheese isn’t fully melted by the time the bread is browned, stick the sandwich in the microwave for 30-60s. That should do the trick.

Meanwhile….

Sauteed Turnip Greens

1 bunch of chopped turnip greens (or your favorite green)
1 clove of garlic, minced
smoked salt and black pepper, to taste
1T olive oil
hot sauce, to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium high and toss in the garlic and the greens. Stir constantly until your greens soften a bit and turn that lovely bright green color.

Season with the salt, pepper, and hot sauce, and serve alongside your sandwich, which should be just about done!

Man, I wish we had more Daiya in the house so I could make this again for lunch today!

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Faux: Quickie Take on my Favorite Vietnamese Soup

Becky Striepe — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:30:56 +0000

You guys, it has been chilly around these parts! Since I refuse to turn on the heat until we hit serious cold temperatures, it’s been cold in the house, especially during the day when I’m trying to get work done. That means I’ve had soup on the brain!

This is sort of a take on the leftovers soup from the other day, but it’s much more….focused. I had a serious craving for pho and decided to whip up the closest thing I could using ingredients I had on hand. Pho/faux! Get it?

It took 5 minutes, including chopping, and was super delicious, comforting, and filling!

Vegan Faux
1 1/2c water
1t broth paste (I used Better Than Bouillon No Chicken, my fave!)
1/2c leftover rice or noodles
1c spinach, coarsely chopped
handful cilantro, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1-2t apple cider vinegar (Or juice from 1/2 lime, if you have one on hand. I didn’t!)
1/4 block of tofu, cubed
handful of cashews
hot sauce, to taste (I used home made habanero hot sauce, but whatever sort you dig is fine)

Combine the water and broth paste in a soup bowl and microwave on high for 2 minutes. (Time-saving hint: I bet you can chop all of those veggies and cube the tofu while that heats!)

Add the rest of the ingredients minus the cashews and heat for 2 more minutes on high.

Stir in the cashews, and serve piping hot!

This makes one bowl of soup, perfect for a quickie, solo lunch. To make more, I’d still do them one at a time. If any of the bowls get cold while you’re prepping the later ones, you can always toss them back in the microwave for a minute to heat them back up.

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: cooking, easy, pho, soup, vegan, Vegan Mofo, veganmofo, Vietnamese food

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Easy Cooking: Leftovers Soup

Becky Striepe — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:30:52 +0000

Sometimes, no matter how well I plan, life keeps me out of the kitchen and I give in to the call of that Chinese delivery menu. This weekend Dave and I were both under the weather, and I had a craft market, so I decided to treat myself to delivery from my favorite vegan Chinese place in town: Green Sprout!

A couple of entrees, some hot and sour soup, and vegan chicken drumsticks was plenty of food for a couple of meals, and on Sunday evening there was just a bit of each entree left. That’s when Dave had a brilliant idea: why not stretch those leftovers by making them into soup?

Seriously, guys, my husband is a genius!

This meal took about 5 minutes per bowl in the microwave and was perfect after a long day at Candler Park Fest!

Ingredients:
1c water per person
1t miso paste or your favorite broth paste per person
Chinese leftovers (I had Empire Chicken and Dave had steamed veggies with tofu)
leftover brown rice
rice vinegar, optional

To make one bowl of soup:
Grab a large soup bowl and heat the water and broth paste for 2 minutes on high in the microwave. Whisk with a fork until the broth is smooth, then add the leftover entree (sauce and all) and the rice. Heat for 2 more minutes on high, and you’re ready to serve! Add a splash of rice vinegar, if things are a bit bland.

It was so simple and tasty! The bowl with Dave’s steamed veggies and tofu let the taste of the broth really shine. The sauce from my Empire Chicken gave my soup an awesome sweet/spicy taste that was delicious with a little vinegar to add some sourness.

I love Green Sprout and would have been perfectly happy eating Empire Chicken for yet another night, but it was nice to have a little meal variety and stretch our food budget, too!

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Sickie Soup

Becky Striepe — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:30:46 +0000

I went straight from a post-Phish road trip hangover to some kind of head cold. That’s not ideal, since this weekend is Candler Park Fall Fest. Obviously, intense soup therapy was in order!

Since we’d just gotten back from a road trip, the cupboard was pretty bare, which meant we didn’t have the makings for Get Well Soup. This was sort of a cobbled together situation, so you can definitely use whatever veggies you have on hand.

In a large crock pot combine:

4c water
4T miso paste (whatever sort you like! Broth paste would be fine, too, just check the package to see how much you need for 4c of broth)
2T ginger, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 or 6 turnips, greens included, chopped
1/2 lb green beans, ends snapped off and cut into bite sized pieces
5 scallions, chopped
your favorite hot sauce, to taste

Turn the crock pot to high, and cook the veggies for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the turnips are nice and soft.

Serve piping hot, and feel better soon!

Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by alyssssyla

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Basil and Arugula Pesto

Becky Striepe — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:38:23 +0000

Hey, remember when I used to post recipes here? Things have gotten really hectic for me, so most of my cooking has been quickie recipes and repeats, so I haven’t had much to share with you. Today’s lunch, though, was something special. It started as a fridge dump, but this pesto rocked my socks! The secret was adding a bunch of tangy arugula and substituting something different for the pine nuts. Yum!
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2010. | Permalink | Comment
Post tags: cooking, easy, Food, pesto, sauce, vegan, vegan pesto

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Vegan Nutella

Becky Striepe — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:27:43 +0000

Oh my goodness, you guys! I made nutella, and it was vegan! Not only that, it was delicious, easy, and used only four ingredients!

(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: cooking, dessert, easy, hazelnuts, nut butter, nutella, snack, vegan

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Almond Cranberry Maple Granola

Becky Striepe — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:30:42 +0000

I thought I’d posted my trusty granola recipe before, but when I went back to look for it yesterday it was nowhere to be found! Luckily, I just whipped up a fresh batch of granola, and it came out deliciously!

I used almonds and dried cranberries, but pretty much any combination of nuts and fruit would work well. Cashew and apricot! Pumpkin seeds and dried cherries! Mixing up flavors is easy and fun.
(. . .)
Click here to read on!

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments
Post tags: almond, breakfast, cooking, cranberry, easy, granola, maple, oats, vegan, whole grains

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Glue and Glitter » easy

Cooking Basics: Chopping Onions

Confession: chopping onions is one of the toughest things for me in the kitchen.

Related Posts:

Baked Tofu Chops with Boozy Broccoli

Easy Vegan Cinnamon Rolls

Related Posts:

Vegan Grilled Cheese

Vegan Toasted Cheese

Sauteed Turnip Greens

Related Posts:

Faux: Quickie Take on my Favorite Vietnamese Soup

Related Posts:

Easy Cooking: Leftovers Soup

Related Posts:

Sickie Soup

Related Posts:

Basil and Arugula Pesto

Vegan Nutella

Oh my goodness, you guys! I made nutella, and it was vegan! Not only that, it was delicious, easy, and used only four ingredients!

Almond Cranberry Maple Granola