Apron Strings

Today was the Big Baby Marathon on Cartoon Network!! I was super proud of Dave and wanted to make something special for lunch while we watched. Enchiladas felt like just the thing! Big Baby Enchiladas?

1/2 a vidalia onion, diced
1/2c mushrooms, sliced

2c spinach, shredded

1c fresh corn kernels
1 can black beans, squished - you can do this with your bare hands, a fork or in the food processor. I think the former is the best/most fun!

10 corn tortillas
1 can enchilada sauce
1 block vegan cheeze (I used Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack, but your fave will be just fine!)

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a small frying pan, sautee the onion and mushrooms in a little oil or margerine until the onions turn translucent. Toss the spinach in and cook it all up, stirring, for a couple of more minutes until the spinach wilts down. Dump the mixture into a big bowl and add the corn and beans. Add your hot sauce until the mixture is as hot as you want!

In a lightly oiled 9X12″ pan, pour about 1/3 of the enhilada sauce, spreading it across the bottom.

Divide the veggie mixture between the tortillas, rolling them up as you go. Place them seam-side-down in the pan. Dump the rest of the enchilada sauce over everything, trying to sort of evenly coat your 8 little enchiladas. Top it all off with your cheeze and toss it in the oven.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the cheeze is a little melty. Serve!

I won’t even call this “egg” salad, because there is nothing eggy about this dish. You can serve it as a dip with pita or corn chips or in a sammich! If you go the sammich route, I recommend sliced avocado on top. Of course, I recommend sliced avocado on most dishes…

3/4 c Veganaise (you can try a different soy mayo, but I haven’t found any better than Veganaise)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 t dried herbes de Provence
1 T teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 block tofu, diced or crumbled
2 scallions, diced
1c shredded carrots

Whisk the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl until they’re well combined. Add the tofu, scallions, carrots and toss. Serve!

This keeps for up to a week in the fridge. I like to make a big batch of it and use it to pack lunches all week!

Woah, 2 posts in a single day? And both are bean- and salsa-based! I guess I’m working through a craving!

I’ve made this before with black beans, but it’s just as good with pinto! Here’s the details!

2 ears corn, raw or cooked

1 can pinto beans, rinsed
2 scallions, minced
1/4c olive oil
2T hot sauce
2T chili powder

1 Haas avocado, diced
1/2c salsa

You could use an equivalent amount of frozen or canned corn, but it’s so much tastier right off the ear! To remove the kernels from the ear, hold it upright at the tippy top, and cut downwards along the cob. You’ll want to do this over a large bowl or kernels will go everywhere. Be super-duper careful while you do this, please! Finger is not a good spice in this dish. Don’t cut tooo close to the cob - better to lose a little meat than to have cob in your salad!

Toss the corn with the beans, scallions, olive oil, chili powder and hot sauce. If you’re making this in advance, here is your stopping place. Cover and chill until you’re ready to serve - up to overnight.

Just before serving, toss in the salsa and the avocado. If you want to get fancy, reserve a little avocado to put on top! I did not get fancy, as you can see in my picture. In fact, I was halfway through the bowl when I realized I should take a picture! D’oh!

This serves 4 as a main dish and 6-8 as a side.

I have the day off today and tomorry to get ready for The Indie Craft Experience this Satuday, so I decided to make a semi-elaborate breakfast! OK, I have a confession here. I was pretty sure this was going to be gross. Imagine my surprise when it was totally delicious!

On top of being yummy, it’s easy to make! It took less than 15 minutes!

2T olive oil
1/4 block tofu, cubed
1/4 of a yellow onion, diced
2t chili powder
1/3 can pinto beans
1/2c broccoli florets (optional, but delicious! Use whatever veggies you have around!)

nutritional yeast, to taste (optional)
hot sauce, to taste (I used a couple of tablespoons of my current fave: Choula)

2T sour kream
2T good salsa

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and add the onions, tofu and chili powder. Stir everything up for 2-3 minutes, then toss in the beans and broccoli. Cook for just a few more minutes - until the broccoli turns bright green (or whatever veggies you’re using look done).

Transfer the whole shebang into your bowl and toss it with the nutritional yeast and hot sauce. Top with the salsa and sour kream, and serve! Ta da!

Woa, I just found this draft from May 8th and realized I never published it! Well, here it is…

Lori sent me a Slate article about being a herbivore this morning, and I love it!

The meat of the article (get it??) is about the relationship between herbivores and omnivores at the table, and there are some really great bits about that. I like how the article underscores that most herbivores aren’t watching you eat your hamburger and also silently marking you down as a horrible, disgusting person. It goes on to sort of ask the same courtesy from omnis. Here is my favorite quote:

Finally, grant me one more cordial request: Please don’t try to convince us that being vegetarian is somehow wrong. If you’re concerned for my health, that’s very nice, though you can rest assured that I’m in shipshape. If you want to have an amiable tête-à-tête about vegetarianism, that’s great. But if you insist on being the aggressive blowhard who takes meatlessness as a personal insult and rails about what fools we all are, you’re only going to persuade me that you’re a dickhead.

Can I get an amen? How many vegetarians/vegans have had a meal ruined by a moment like this? And the argument that one time one herbivore railed on them at one meal strikes me as awfully judgemental. Do you have such a low opinion of me that you feel the need to get in the first blow? That’s awfully insulting.

Anyways, I hope all that didn’t come across as preachy. Food is something I care a lot about. I love to cook and to eat. Feeding my friends is one of the ways I show them I love them, you know?

I think reactions like the ones the author describes are not limited to food stuff. Folks are threatened by things they don’t agree with or don’t understand. I’m sure I’m as guilty of this as anyone else when faced with things that just make no sense to me at all. Maybe I need to work on my ability to “agree to disagree.”

Liz and I came across a recipe for roasted shallots and it gave us an idea. Here is the idea: What if we based an entire meal around dipping bread into things??? I hate to just blatantly brag on us, but…we’re geniuses! This dinner was amazing!

We picked up a loaf of Olive Boule and a package of Nan at the farmers market along with tons of roasted garlic and the makings of pesto. The pesto was my contribution, and the approximate recipe is below! We served Liz’s roasted garlic topped with black sesame seeds and minced scallion.

We also had garlic flatbread and herb Mary’s Gone Crackers, which are totally delicious!

Brian and Kip brought curried lentil dip and the most amazing bruschetta! Kip’s bruschetta had mushrooms, roasted peppers, onions and this vegan aioli on it. Out of control! I have to nag her for the recipe, because DANG.

Lori brought dark chocolate fondue with strawberries and bananas. Because Lori is also a genius, she used almond milk in the fondue instead of soy. So good! We put the chocolate right out with all the other food. I highly recommend eating dessert right in the middle of dinner. It was so decadent!

In conclusion, this is definitely happening again. Now, here’s the approximate pesto recipe, as promised!

Approximate Pesto
2 bunches of basil
a few handfuls of pine nuts
at least 4 cloves roasted garlic (I think I used 5)
1/3 - 1/2c nutritional yeast
1t sea salt
1/2t white pepper
1c olive oil

If your food processor is big enough, toss everything in and blend it up! If not, you might have to do it in batches. Either way, once everything is all blended, you’re ready to serve! I’d definitely recommend serving at room temperature. This works as a dip for bread or crackers or on top of hot pasta! Or really….anywhere! Pesto potato salad, anyone?

<3

OMG you guys, my favorite local baker, The Dulce Vegan, was written up in today’s Daily Candy!!! And! It mentions that she delivers! Delivers! Vegan baked goods! AAAAAAAH!

There was a vegan potluck in Candler Park today, and it was fantastical! I of course forgot my camera, but luckily other folks were more remembery. I snagged this pic from my friend Leigh. There were at least 4 sorts of vegan cupcake: rootbeer, chocolate chocolate chocolate, strawberry lemonade and chick o stick. I had never heard of Chick O Stick before today, but let me describe it to you: DECADENT! It tastes like super-rich, coconutty toffee!

The food was amazing! There were tons of salads, casseroles and awesome desserts. The Dulce Vegan brought a Pineapple Upside Down Cake that I managed to eat despite being completely overstuffed with delicious food. I made garlic tempeh with Tahini Miso dipping sauce. I love food you can eat with a toothpick! Here is the approximate recipe:

Tempeh
1 package tempeh, cubed
1t each sea salt and white pepper
2t garlic powder
2T nutritional yeast
2T olive oil + 2T sesame oil

Heat the oil in a large skillet and toss in the tempeh and spices, stirring to coat. Cook for about 7-10 minutes, until the tempeh is browned on all sides.

Sauce
1/2c tahini
1/4c miso paste
2t herbes de Provence, dried
2-4T apple cider vinegar, depending on how vinegary you like it
your favorite hot sauce, to taste
2-4T nutritional yeast
water

Whisk together everything but the water until really well combined. Add enough water to get the sauce as thin as you like!

You can serve this hot or cold. It’s totally cool to make this the night before you’re going to serve it.

2 large potatoes, cooked (microwaved is probably the easiest), cubed
1 baby vidalia (or 2-3 scallions), chopped into little pieces
1c peas and carrots (I used defrosted from frozen)
3T veganaise
1T mango pickle (be careful pick out any pieces of pit!)
2t fennel seed
1t each curry powder, coriander and garam marsala

In a large bowl, mix everything up really well! You can serve this warm or cold. It would be really nice with some flatbread and maybe steamed veggies on the side. Yum!

I ended up in a long conversation with someone the other day (Liz?) about dessert sushi. The ones I’ve seen are usually filled with various candies and wrapped in a fruit rollup. I wanted to make some dessert sushi that was a little less sugary.

2 c sushi rice
1 can full-fat coconut milk whisked with 1 can water
3T agave nectar

1 large bunch basil (bigger leaves will make your life easier later)

1 plum
1 nectarine

Cook the sushi rice with the coconut milk and water. I put it all in the rice cooker. If you don’t have one, follow the package directions, using the coconut/water mixture in place of the cooking water. When the rice is ready, stir in the agave nectar and set it aside to cool.

While that cools, you can prep everything else! Slice the basil leaves in half. You want to be careful here, because the leaves will tear if you’re not gentle when you’re cutting them.

Slice the fruit into pieces about the length and width of your thumb, and as thin as you can. Thinner slices will also make the next part easier.

You’re ready to roll! Grab a couple of tablespoons’ worth of rice and ball it up in your hand. You want to mold it into an oval shape. Make sure you really squish the rice up well. The more you squish, the better things will stay together. Top your rice with a piece of fruit, gently pressing, so the fruit won’t slide off. Finally, wrap a piece of basil around the whole thing. The ends of the basil should be touching the rice on the opposite side of the fruit. Carefully smooth the basil down onto the rice - this will hold your nigiri together.

Repeat the steps in the paragraph above until you’ve run out of either rice, fruit or basil! Now sneak a piece before you bring the plate out for your friends. Serve!

This will keep overnight if you store the pieces in a single layer in an air-tight container. More than one night in the fridge will cause the rice to dry right out.

PS - Mint would work really well for this, too, and you can of course substitute any fruit you like for the nectarine and plum! Maybe mango?