fake chicken lo mein

The brand Gardein has recently made a ton of new vegan fake meat products...a lot are carried at Target. Some are not that good, some are great.
There website is great:
http://www.gardein.com/products.php?t=fresh
Out of their fresh stuff I like the Sante Fe Good Stuff a lot. The BBQ pulled shreds are good too, but there are a lot of different vegan fake pulled pork options. The chiken strips are no different then all the other fake meat chiken strips. The herb dijon breasts are DISGUSTING, but the rest of the fresh options are ok, especially if served on the side with something like veggies and mashed potatoes, or pasta.

Now their frozen selection is even better- the buffalo wings and the BBQ wings are not that amazing, but ok. I have not tried the burger. But the other options are all great. In particular, I LOVE the chipolte lime chicken fingers, and the mandarin orange crispy chicken is PHENOMENAL. I also love that their food packaging comes with great recipe ideas, and their website has a ton of recipes as well.
My new favorite quick and easy dinner is making some udon noodles and mixing in the mandarin orange crispy chicken. Once the noodles are cooked I put both the chicken (with the sauce that comes in the package) and the noodles in a wok and cook for a bit longer, frying a bit. Delicious.

vegan cmofort food...Tempeh, avocado and tomato sandwich

This is my version of a BLT, modified from Otherside Cafe's TLT...
I did one layer of lightly fried lightlife tempeh bacon strips, one layer of sliced avocado, one layer of tomatoes, and nayonaise on the toasted bread, served with chips on the side, goes best with a good light beer!

Lentil stew

This was meant to be a lentil soup but the lentils sucked up the water- so it was more like a stew, but I think I liked it better that way...

Ingredients:
6-8 peeled and chopped carrots
1 red bell pepper chopped
4 white potatoes peeled and chopped
2TBsp olive oil
1tsp sage
1tsp marjoram
1tsp oregano
1tsp thyme
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp rosemary
1TBsp vegan worcestershire sauce
2TBsp garlic
2 TBsp nutritional yeast
1 can chopped tomotaoes
1 cup white rice
1 package lentils
1/2 cup coy sauce

Directions:
In a large soup pan saute the spices and garlic in the olive oil. Then add the carrots and potatoes and cover with the spice mixture. Then add the lentils, rice, tomatoes, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and yeast.
Add 8-10 cups of water (so it covers most of the additives) and bring to a boil. Then turn to low and simmer for 30-40 minutes.

Even though it wasn't a soup it was a spicey deliciousness!

a vegan thanksgiving

This weekend has been BUSY!
Went to a co-workers place for a thanksgiving dinner after work on Thursday- I brought along black bean and sweet potato enchiladas as well as some vegan stuffed mushrooms. Randomly one of the pies she had was vegan so had some of that too. Drank a little too much, as always.
The next day was Friday and after work my mom came up to visit- we went to Elephant Walk for a tasty dinner, always a favorite.
She stayed in a close by hotel. Then on Saturday we went to the BPL to admire its art, then to Veggie Galaxy for brunch, then the the MFA for the Degas show (not very good I have to say, I liked the pieces of other artists better then Degas' there). She left after that and I got ready for a vegan thanksgiving party.
About a dozen people came. The menu was all vegan, and this is what we had:
-tofurkey
-Mashed potatoes and gravy
-a 3 bean casserole
-tofu, lettuce, kale, and tomato salad
-vegan stuffing
-a mushroom side dish
-apple and cranberry sauce
-berry crumble pie
-vegan chocolate chip cookies
-LOTS and LOTS of wine
Plan to host it again next year, and don't knock tofurkey until you try it! The attached picture is our fridge after the party- leftovers to last the next week for me and Mark.

vegan BBQ chicken pizza

Tried something new- I love the smell of ANYTHING BBQ, and while I don't miss chicken (there are meats I miss even though I know I will never eat them again for ethical reasons, poultry is not one that I miss), I thought the regular buffalo chicken pizza Mark got the other week smelled good, so I thought I would take a recipe for BBQ chicken pizza and make it vegan.
It turned out ok- I was a little unimpressed but it was edible the night I made it. I will say when I ate it for leftovers the next morning it tasted a lot better the second time around.
Ingredients:
1 package of daiya mozzarella cheese
1 premade pizza dough package
1 package of smart brand fake chicken strips
BBQ sauce

Directions: roll out the pizza dough.
Line with a layer of BBQ sauce.
Place the fake chicken over this layer.
Cover with mozzarella.
Cook at 375 for 12 minutes.

creamy tomato pasta

Ingredients:
Pasta
1 can diced tomatoes
1 TBsp mixed spices (I used 21 spice from trader joe's)
1 TBsp olive oil
2 TBsp garlic
1 container tofutti cream cheese

Directions:
Cook the pasta according to the direction.
In a sauce pan heat the garlic in the olive oil on high. Then add the tomatoes and spices, turning the heat to low for 10 minutes. Then add the tofutti cream cheese and heat through.
Once the pasta is done coat with the sauce. I also added brocolli and cauliflower as well which added a little to it.

veggie hot pot

This dish tastes SO much better then it looks. This is leftovers a couple days later, which were just as good as the first time. An excellent fall warm dish, one of my favorite dishes in the last couple weeks. I took a vegetarian dish and made it vegan again here.
Ingredients:
For the veggie center:
2 TBsp canola oil
2 TBsp garlic
1 chopped white onion
1/2 cup chopped chives
1 YBsp chili powder
6-7 peeled and chopped white potatoes
2 cups peeled and chopped carrots
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup flour
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp thyme
1 can red kidney beans
1 can tomato paste
2.5 cups vegie stock

Directions:
Heat the oil in a sauce pan and saute the garlic and onion in this for 5 minutes. Then add the chili powder for one minute. Then add the potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, chives and cook for another 4-5 minutes. Stir in the flour for 1 minute.
Add the stock, tomato paste, choppe tomatoes, kidney beans, and thyme and then bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and place in a casserole dish. Bake for 30 minnutes.

While baking, make this topping- For the cheese triangles:
1 stick margarine
2 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup daiya cheddar cheese
5 TBsp soy milk

Hand stir the margarine, flour, and fake cheese together, and add soy milk as needed to make a smooth dough. Roll the dough out to 1 inch thick and then cut in to small triangular shaped pieces.

After the casserole has been cooking for 30 minutes remove and place the triangles on top. Sprinkile with a little extra fake cheese. Bake or another 30 minutes.
So delicious.

corn and green tomato salad

I saw green tomatoes at Trader Joe's this week and had to buy them. But then I realized I have been eating salad for lunch for a couple weeks now and I didn't really want to eat the usual salad with these tomatoes (typicaly Lidnsey salad is spinach, cukes, tomatoes, maybe chickpeas, and/or peppers). So I found this unique salad online, and it is way too simple, just too ingredients, but tasty.
Ingredients:
1 bag frozen corn (I used the microwaveable kind)
2 cups chopped green tomatoes
1 TBsp italian seasoning

For the dressing
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground allspice
dash of Salt and pepper
3 TBsp olive oil

Just mix up the corn and tomatoes with the italian seasoning first, then whisk together the dressing and serve over the salad.

sweet and sour stir fry

This recipe was ok- actually tasted just like the restaurant sweet and sour dishes I have gotten- the problem, I keep thinking I like sweet and sour dishes and then when I get them I am always dissappointed. I am just not a fan of warm pinapple I guess. But this was fun to make, and I did not hate it, as well as Mark liked it.
Ingredients:
rice
2 TBsp peanut oil
1 bag frozen diced green peppers
1 bag gardein fake beef chunks
1 cup carrot chips
1 cup cashews
1 cup mushrooms
2 TBsp V8
2 TBsp rice flour
2 TBsp white vinegar
4 TBsp soy cause
1 can pinapple chunks
1 cup cherry tomatos (I really only used them since they were leftover and I did not want them to go bad)

Directions:
heat the oil in a wok. Then add the bell pepper and gardein beef chunks and fry for couple minutes. Then add the mushrooms and carrot chips and tomatos and fry for a couple more minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together the V8, rice flour, vinegar, soy sauce, and 6 TBsp of pinapple juice from the pinapple can. Add to the wok and let boil. Then add the pinapple chunks and cashews. Serve over rice.

mushroom and walnut stroganoff

I have done a lot of cooking in the last 2 weeks- time to update the blog with new recipes. I will start with my least favorite of the recent dishes: mushroom and walnut stroganoff- I took a vegetarian recipe and made it vegan. The picture makes it look like poop, and while it was not that bad, I will not be making it again. That being said, it did taste better as leftovers then the first time around.
Ingredients:
olive oil
1 chopped white onion
2 TBsp garlic
1 tsp. cumin
2 cup mushrooms
2 TBsp flour
2 cups veggie stock
1 container of tofutti sour cream
1 cup walnut pieces
pasta of choice (I used linguine)

Directions:
Cook your pasta according to the box.
While that is cooking work on the sauce: fry the onions and garlic for a couple minutes in a sauce pan. Then add the cumin and mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes.
Then add the flour and mix for one minute before adding the stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the walnuts and sour cream after 15 minutes and cook for another 5 minutes.
Then serve over the pasta.

baked pasta dish

This one was ok...the Daiya Fake cheese was probably the best part.

Ingredients:
1 box farafelle
1 bag frozen carrots
1 bag frozen peas
1 can diced tomatos
3 TBsp garlic
olive oil
Daiya mozzarella and cheddar cheese

Directions:
Fry the garlic in some olive oil. Then add the tomatos and cook on medium for 5 minutes.
Cook the farafelle as usual.
Boil the carrots and peas until cooked.
Once everything is cooked mix the pasta, tomato mixture, carrots, and peas together.
Put in a baking dish. Cover with Daiya fake mozzarella and cheddar cheese.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Fake BBQ chicken calzones

This one was super easy and delicious.
Ingredients:
1 package of premade pizza dough (I used trader joes this time)
2 packages of gardein fake BBQ chicken strips
1 package of Smart Bacon
Daiya mozzarella cheese
extra BBQ sauce olive oil

Directions: fry the smart bacon as directed on the package in the oil.
Remove the bacon and in the same pan heat the packages of fake BBQ chicken strips. Crumble the bacon in to small pieces and add back to the pan. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
Roll out your pizza dough in to a circle. On half the circle pile the fake chicken mixture. Top with some extra BBQ sauce and sprikle with Daiya fake mozzarella cheese. Roll the top part of the circle over on top of the calzone and mold the dough together around the edges. Slice several 1 inch holes in the top of the calzone.
Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.
Makes two VERY large and filling calzones.

banana chocolate chip muffins

Made some tasty banana chocolate chip muffins today. Used an old recipe from my blog: http://crunchyvegan.blogspot.com/2010/12/vegan-banana-bread.html
Basically just used mini chocolate chips and baked as muffins instead of a cake- only took 15 minutes to cook instead of 20.

Tater tot casserole

I am so glad that Lauren showed me the blog Meettheshannons since I have been following them and trying a lot of their dishes. Of course, I can only really try the dishes when I am off as a lot of them take a lot more time then I usually do to cook, but on my days off it is worth it.
And, many of them, like this one, lease you with 4-5 days of leftovers for lunch!
This was one of my favorite meals yet- It had so many perfect flavors, and the little bit of fake melted cheese in it was great. Here is the link:
http://www.meettheshannons.net/2011/09/betty-crocker-project-texas-tater-tot.html

fun with fake fried fish

This was a new experiment for me...made a whole meal of fake fish like stuff, kinda...
First I made fried shitake mushrooms, modified from a recipe online:
For the batter I mixed 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, and a splash of pepper mixed with 2 TBsp of water. I used this to coat the mushrooms and fried in 3 cups of olive oil. This was probably the tastiest part of the meal.



For the "fake fish" I literally used the beer batter fake fish recipes from meet the shannons' blog found here:
http://www.meettheshannons.net/2010/08/betty-crocker-project-beer-batter-fried.html
The batter was amazing.
I also made their vegan tartar sauce but that was a little bit wasteful on my part...both Mark and I don't like tartar sauce (which I didn't know Mark didn't like it) so that was a bit of a waste.



But otherwise the meal was quite tasty. Made some corn to go on the side.

vegan potato tacos

So I bought a bunch of potatoes recently for a specific dish, but ended up having a lot of leftovers. I wanted to try to use them up and knew we were having John and Robin over for dinner...I was planning to make my vegan mexican chicken dish with fresh avocados- so I googled "mexican potatoe salad". I ended up finding a couple weird recipes and tried one- it was ok, not great. I forgot to take pictures and decided not to post it as it was relatively boring and I probably won't make it again. but, in my searching I saw a recipe for "potatoe tacos" that looked interesting, so I made some adjustments and tried that this week.

Ingredients:
1 TBsp veggie oil
1 TBsp fajita seasoning
4 peeled, boiled and chopped potatoes
1 container of pre-sliced white mushrooms
Daiya mozzarella and cheddar cheese
1 can vegetarian refried beans
1/2-3/4 cup of salsa
soft taco shells
sliced avocados

Directions:
preheat the oven to 350.
Stir together the oil and fajita seasoning. Then toss the mushrooms and potatoes in them until evenly coated.
Arrange the potatoes and mushrooms on a baking tray. Sprinkle with a layer of mixed vegan cheese. Bake for 15 minutes.

While the potatoes and mushrooms are baking, stir together the refried beans and salsa in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with a paper towel and microwave on high for 3 minutes.
Spon the bean mixture in to the bottom of the taco sheels, then place the potatoe mixture on top of that. Then put whatever taco topping you want on top (I had avocados I needed to use so I tried that).
I thought it was a pretty tasty and unique taco dish- Mark was not a fan, which is ok, not every dish I make is good. Mark thought it was "too much like baby food", so I guess he does not like refried beans.
But I thought it was a good dish, if you want to use up some potatoes in a unique way give it a try!

taco salads

I think I make too much mexican...but it's so easy to convert vegan!!
I made taco salad for several nights in a row this week- initially made tacos but had enough leftovers that I could just break up the tacos in to chip sizes and layer the bottom of a boil with it. Then I placed mornigstar crumbles that had been cooked with red kidney beans and some fajita seasoning in the bowl, then on top of that fresh chopped tomatoes, then on top of the daiya cheese. Then just microwaved and served with some vegan sour cream- so easy and tasty.

Sweet Bean and Potatoe Casserole

Nothing too special about this dish- but it was great for leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 pound of potatoes
Olive oil
3 TBsp margarine
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 TBsp thyme
1 TBsp marjoram
1 can butter beans
1 can chickpeas
1 can kidney beans
1 busshel of chopped green onions
1 container of chopped up portabella mushrooms
1/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup apple sauce
1 cup V8 or two small cans of V8
1/4 cup red cooking wine
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS:
Peel and slice the potatoes. Boil until soft. Drain and toss with a small amount of olive oil.
In a large saucepan add the margarine and flour, V8, apple sauce, sugar, ketchup, cooking win, and soy cause. Heat and whick until it thickens and comes to a boil.
Turn the heat down once boiling and add in the beans, chickpeas, onions, mushrooms, and spices. Stir well and keep heated for a couple minutes.
Spoon the mixture in to a casserole dish.
Layer the potatoes on top of the mixture overlapping slightly and completely covering the bean mixture.
Cover and bake at 400 for 1 hours. Remove the foil about 20 minutes prior to finishing to brown the poatotoes.

The Kennedy Tour

Mark has been complaining that we don't do enough together when we have the weekends off together- so when I saw tht livingsocial had a 1/2 historical tour I jumped on it. This past Saturday Mark and I went on "The Kennedy Tour". It sounded a little lame- 90 minutes of a walking tour around Boston pointing out sites famous to the Kennedys, but it was actually quite fun- considering we would have otherwise been in the house being lazy watching TV or reading...the guy giving the tour knew his stuff, and we learned a lot of neat new facts about Boston with regards to its history and links with the Kennedys, it was a lot more fun then we both anticipated.

meat and potatoes vegan style

Thought I would try a traditional meat and poatoes dinner vegan style, it took no time at all to make and was pretty tasty!
I used the new gardein fake chicken...they have a couple flavors but I used this one for this dish- basically just heated it up in the microwave while cooking everything else (I know, lame).


Then I made mashed potatoes from scratch- easy enough- boil some peeled potatoes, then mash and add some soy milk and margarine.
I then took a bag of fresh spinach and steamed it down, then fried it in a little balsalmic vinegar.
I was lazy with the gravy too...just used Han's Vegetarian Brown Gravy (which involves stirring a powder in some boiling water until it thickens, but it is vegan and tasy). And then voila, the vegan version of meat and potatoes was complete- AND TASTY!

fake cheesey lasagna

This was by far one of the best meals I have made, and the picture does not do it justice.
I took a recipe for a cheesey lasagna and converted it vegan.
Basically it was a layered lasagna that had two main vegan substitues: the sauce and the cheese.
Ingredients:
Vegan bechamel sauce
(silken tofu, soy milk, vegetable bullion, margarine, flour, olive oil, and vegan cream cheese)
lasagna
mushrooms
tomatoes
margarine
vegan parmesan cheese
daiya cheddar cheese

To make the bechamel sauce:
Blenerize 1 package of silken tofu with 1.5 cups soy milk, 3/4 cup water, the vegetable bullion cube, and toffutti cream cheese. Then heat 1 TBsp oil and 5 TBsp margarine in a sauce pan. Add4 TBsp flour and whisk for a minute, then add the blenderized ingredients.
Whisk while on medium heat for about 5 minutes until it thickens.

For inside the lasagna layers:
chop 4 tomatoes and heat with 1 TBsp olive oil for a couple minutes until wilted.
Set aside and then saute 2 cups sliced mushrooms with 2 TBsp garlic in 1 TBsp olive oil. Add 1/4 lemon juice and let simmer until the mushrooms are browned.

Then cook the lasagna noodles as you normally would.

In the lasagna pan place a layer of the sauce, followed by noodles, then a layer of mushrooms, then sauce again, then a layer of daiya cheese. Then on top of that place more noodles, then a layer of tomatoes and sauce, then some daiya cheese and noodles. Repeat with however many more layers of veggies you have. (I did one more layer after that of mushrooms and tomatoes, then sauce, then daiya cheese, then noodles, and then on top of the noodles a thin layer of sauce sprinkled with vegan parmesan cheese).
Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

It really was amazingly tasty.

chickpea, pepper, and tomato salad

Simple and easy salad made with veggies I did not want to go bad...
INGREDIENTS
-cherry tomatoes sliced in half
-1 can rinsed chickpeas
-2 TBsp garlic
-1 orange and 1 yellow bell pepper chopped
-1 TBsp dried basil

DRESSING
-2 TBsp lemon juice
-4 TBsp olive oil
-1 tsp sugar

I mixed up the salad ingredients together and then pre-packaged several days worth of salad for lunch, then I whicked the dressing ingredients and brought along as the dressing for the salad each day.

vegan mashed potato pizza

Pre:

This was a new experiment...We went to sacco's bowling alley a couple weekends ago with friends, enjoyed good beer and a couple rounds of candle pin. They have excellent vegan pizza there too. Their special that day was mashed potato pizza (not vegan) and Mark Elledge said he had it before and it was delicious.
So I went home and googled some recipes- I guess it is a tradition that started in New haven, CT with the Yale college kids. Basically you take a layer of mashed potatoes as your sauce, and whatever toppings you want. I made a vegan version to experiment and it was REALLY tasty...
Ingredients:
pizza dough (I bought premade from trader joe's, it was vegan obviously)
mashed potatoes (from scratch using whatever recipe you use, probably about 4-6 potatoes worth)
olive oil
topping of your choice (I used brocolli and mushrooms)
Daiya cheese (mozzarella and cheddar).

Directions:
Roll out the dough with some flour and then place on a floured baking sheet. Drizzle a layer of olive oil over the dough.
Once the mashed potatoes are cooked spread a layer about 1/2cm thick over the entire dough.
Then apply you toppings (mushrooms and brocolli for me).
Then apply a layer of cheese so the toppings are covered.
Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes.
Post:

vegan lo mein

Used my new wok to make this easy and tasty meal:
Basically I mixed up some udon noodles, brocolli, shitake mushrooms, mini corn, waterchesnuts, and fake beef chunks in Trader Joe's General Tsao's sauce.
Super tasty and lots of leftovers!

silly mental images

Somehow Mark and I were talking about wild dogs, and I mentioned I knew of people who lived in rural Europe who told stories of packs of wild dogs that if they caught you alone on the road they would attack. Mark thought this a little far fetched, and maybe it is, I have never seen it.
But then Mark said "I wonder what a pack of wild dachshunds would look like? Just imagine like 50+ dachshunds in a pack running like the wild animals they are, tearing ass as fast as they could like they were on a mission. And after the pack runs past, the stragglers that had or need back surgery would come through, hobbling in their ataxic way." It juts formed such a strong mental image in my head and I couldn't stop laughing imagining it I thought I would share it.

great vegan meal weekend

this weekend I made a mexican chicken dish for dinner on Saturday and vegan berry crepes for brunch on Sunday, both fantastic!
The crepes were using the vegan yumyum website recipe, with some drizzled on vegan chocolate syrup from whole foods that I added.

The mexican recipe was modified from one I found online:
ingredients:
1 package fake chicken strips from trader joes
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 bag frozen corn
1 can black beans
1 cup brown rice cooked as directed
1 jar salsa
2 TBsp chili powder
1 TBsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cumin
2 TBsp liquid aminos Braggs
2 TBsp cilantro
2 TBsp olive oil
fresh avocado

Directions: fry the oil and fake chicken until brown. Then add the chili powder and cook another minute, then remove from heat. Apply a little more oil to the pan and fry the peppers, then add the corn, salsa, black beans, and all the remaining ingredients. After heating about 5 minutes add the fake chicken back in and cook another 2-3 minutes.
Serve over rice with freshly sliced avocado. Delish!

tofu and pistachio stir fry

http://www.cookveg.co.uk/vegetarian-recipes/recipe/tofu-snow-peas-and-pistachio-salad1/

This stir fry I pretty much made directly from the recipes, and I served it over cous cous, which was deilcious! I use trader joe's teriyaki tofu. Not a lot of sauce, but packed with flavor.

asparagus and brocollini with fake beef soy dish

This was a unique, modifed dish from a yum yum recipe, and I swear, it tastes a lot better then it looks (I forgot to take a picture so this was the 3rd day leftover that I took a picture of).
First I made some cous cous for the rice part of the dish.
Then for the main dish-
Ingredients:
1 package of your choice fake meat (I used fake beef cubes)
2 Tbs Oil
2 Tbs Garlic
1 TBs crushed red pepper flakes
1 package of brocollini chopped
1 package of asparagus, chopped
1 Tbs Brown Sugar
3 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
2 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
1 TBs Sesame Seeds

Directions:
Fry the fake meat, brocollini, and asparagus with the sesame oil.
Add in the garlic and red pepper flakes once the veggies are tender.
Add the sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar just prior to removing from heat. Toss.
Mix with sesame seeds and 1 more teaspoon sesame oil. Serve over the cous cous.

mexican mexican

Being a vegan I find random stir frys or something mexican is always a quick and easy stand by.
In the last month I have made fake chicken fajitas and fake crumbled beef tacos, both super tasty. I like tacos, esp since making my unique lime-cashew-tofu tacos, but I find it is hard to fit all you want to in to a taco.

a mini vacation weekend!

Mark and I had an EXCELLENT weekend, it was my only "vacation" trip this summer- short but sweet.
We left super early on Saturday for NYC- got there around 10:30- I had found a cheap coupon for 24 hour parking at a lot across from our hotel, and when we pulled up to drop our car off this family was waiting for their car. Some attendant drove up with a big grey SUV, and the family stated it was not their car. It was hilarious when the attendant said "Really? This is not your car?!" almost arguing with them as if they did not know their own car. Hilarious! Didn't instill much confidence in us, but our car ended up surviving its 24 hours.
We checked in to our hotel- The New York Inn; it was $130 a night, which is the cheapest hotel I could find on Manhattan (on 9th and 47th in Broadway)- and it turned out to be te SHITTIEST hotel we have ever stayed in, but we had to laugh about it. The room was smaller then a dorm room with a full size bed, we barely fit, but it served it's purpose.

We then walked several blocks to the pick up for our living social deal. There were about 30 people in our group. We were driven 2 hours to Pennsylvania where we got in to the Delaware River. We kayaked with the group down the river for a little less then 2 hours. It was BEAUTIFUL weather. The river was crowded with tubes (which Mark had never heard of tubing, hilarious, he thought it was the laziest activity ever). There were a couple spots with rapids. It was super fun and relaxing.

When we got to the take out they had lunch waiting for us. We ate lunch and then the bus drove our group another 45 minutes to Crossing Vineyard, a winery in Pennsylvania. There the co-owner talked us through a wine tasting of 12 different wines of theirs. None of them really stood out- they weren't bad, but they weren't exceptional, esp. for their price since Mark and I are such winos and we buy all our wine on price these days. The owner was great though- quite a salesman and had lots of fun stories. He taught us a lot about paring wine with food which was nice. Showed us around the winery too and how they make their wine. If I was ever to try a different career I think I would like to go in to the wine business. I would love to live on a vineyard.

We ended up buying 3 bottles and got a good group discount. Then the bus drove us home, we got back to NYC at 10pm. I bought vegan asian food from Zen Palate for dinner.

On Sunday we slept in and then drove to Central Park. Visited the Central Park Zoo (which is one of my favorites since it is so small and quaint) and then headed home.
Got home about 5pm. It was a great, but short, trip.

wow it's been a busy week...

This last week really feels like summer with all that has been happening.
Last week I was on "PD" which stands for personal development. Basically I spend the week working on reading literature and working on any presentations I have coming up. However, on Wednesday it was "The Roast" which is the big party they throw for all the graduating interns and residents. One of the second year residents would have been working so I switched with him and worked 1p-1a on Wednesday. I came in to work the next day at 9:30 so that I could attend the official graduation for all the leaving interns and residents. Then I put in a full day's work and at 6pm went to a local bar with Quinny to discuss potential research projects. We came up with a decent amount of ideas.
Got home at 8pm. On Friday I put in a half day and Friday night was wine night. It went well, except for the first time ever I ran out of food and felt horrible about it. Everyone left at 10pm except Ryan and Julie too, which was weird.
On Saturday we drove to Maine to see Mark's family, we left at 10:30am and got there at 1:30, then stayed until 6pm.
We came home and at 9pm went out with some more of Mark's friends for drinking and dancing. It was a little tiring, stayed out until midnight.
Then on Sunday we relaxed a bit. We saw Super 8. We got asked to go out again but called it a night at 10pm.
On Monday I didn't get home from work until 7:45, but then we packed up some stuff and went to the Esplanade. We watched the fireworks on a blanket surrounded by thousands of people with Josh and Caitlin. Despite being SO tired, it was worth it, although not sure if I will go next year. They estimated somewhere between 400-800,000 people there, and walking home was a bitch- didn't get home until 12:30am.
Tuesday I worked another full day, getting home at 7:30.
Then on Wednesday we went to visit Mark's dad in the hospital after his surgery and grabbed some drinks with Gersh in the evening.
Today (Thursday) has been the first low key day this week. Didn't get nearly as much work done as I wanted with regards to stuff from work, but I hopefully will have more time next week on elective.

For food at the wine night I made two dishes from Vegan Yum Yum.
The first was an asparagus tart: http://veganyumyum.com/2008/09/asparagus-and-white-bean-pesto-tart/
I personally didn't think it was that great, and the puff pastry burnt a little.
But then I made the classic pistashio pesto pasta, and it was a hit, good as always:
http://veganyumyum.com/2007/05/pistachio-arugula-pesto-with-penne-and-sauteed-broccolini/

experimenting with non-traditional salads

I have been wanting to eat more salads, but am very bored by the classic salads everyone eats. So I have turned to vegan yum yum and tried two of their salads in the last week.

Last week I made this avocado salad: http://veganyumyum.com/2010/01/avocado-wasabi-salad/
The dressing ended up looking more like hummus but once you mixed it up with the salad it had a cheesy element to it, and the taste had a little kick too.

Then this weekend Danielle and Courtney gave me a ton of kale (their friend own's part of a community garden and has more kale then what she knows to do with.
So I tried this recipe:
http://veganyumyum.com/2009/07/blt-salad/
I made some modifications: I used Trader Joe's Teriyaki flavored tofu- I cut it in to small pieces and fried it in a little olive oil. I also added some broccolini- I cut that up in to small pieces and mixed it in with the salad.

Both turned out super tasty, but something tells me they are not the most healthy salads.

lime cashew tofu tacos

This recipe is a new one and I have to say I am quite proud of it. When I was in Hawaii I had lime cilantro tofu tacos that were delicious, so I decided to look for a similar recipe here on the mainland. My googling did not find one, but I found a couple other recipes, and I modified several elements of a couple recipes and ended up with this new creation of mine.

Ingredients:
soft tacos (I had 8 and this dish makes enough for 8 tacos, but Mark and I at two each for 2 nights)
For the tofu:
1 block extra-firm tofu
olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 TBsp garlic
2 TBsp cilantro spice
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Whisk together all the liquid ingredients.
Place the tofu on a stack of papertowels above and below it for 45 minutes (this sucks a lot of the juices out making it firmer).
Cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes and place in a container with the marinade overnight.

The next day, for the cashew slaw, ingredients:
1/8 cup lime juice
1/8 cup vinegar
2 TBsp soy sauce
2 tsp agave nectar
1 TBsp garlic
2 TBsp mirin (found in most whole foods stores)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup cashews
1 TBsp cilantro spice
1 package pre-shredded coleslaw

In a food processor blenderize all the ingredients except the slaw. Then use the liquid to coat the slaw.
Take the marinaded tofu from the day before and fry in a small amount of olive oil.
On the taco shells place several pieces of tofu and then top with the slaw mixture. Roll up and enjoy this delicious tofu taco dish! (I think this is one of the first times I cooked the tofu and liked how it turned out).

raw tahini noodles

I recently made this dish from vegan yum yun:
http://veganyumyum.com/2008/07/nearly-raw-tahini-noodles/
The nice thing about it is it makes TONS of leftovers, and the recipe is right, it really is a cool, refreshing meal on hot summer days!

dinner night

I made a tasty gnocchi and salad dish for some friends the other night.
Festive brocolli salad is always a hit.
Ingredients:
1 bag of dried cherries
1 chopped medium red onion
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
3 cups chopped broccoli florets
4 TBsp red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup vegan nayonaise (mayonaise substitues)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Whisk together the nayonaise, red wine vinegar, and sugar- use this as dressing and mix over the salad.


For the gnocchi dish:
1 bag gnocchi
1 can pigeon peas
1 red bell and 1 yellow bell pepper chopped
1 chopped red onion
1 package sun dried tomatoes in oil
Italian spices

Directions:
Boil the gnocchi
In a frying pan place a small amount of olive oil and saute the peppers and onions. Then add the sun dried tomatoes. Then add the pigeon peas.
Once all is cooked mix all together in large serving bowl with some italian spices.
This was a really good meal!

spicy tahini pasta with fake chicken

I got to try a new recipe for Witt and Ryan the other night when they came over for dinner, it turned into a tasty and spicy pasta with a nice balance of fake meat on the side.
The pasta ingredients:
1 box of whole wheat rotini
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 bag frozen cauliflower
1 can pigeon peas
2 TBsp garlic
1/4 cup tahini
1 TBsp lemon juice
2 TBsp soy sauce1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
1 cup veggie stock
2 TBsp sesame seeds

directions:
cook the rotini as per directed.
In a blender, combine the garlic, pigeon peas, tahini, lemon juice, soy sauce, and cayenne until smooth.
Combine this withe the veggie stock in a pot and heat on low, stirring.
Just before the rotini is done boiling, add the broccoli and cauliflower and boil another 5 minutes.
Drain the pasta and veggies. Mix the tahini sauce in, covering well. Then stir in the sesame seeds.
It was a little spicy, but very filling.

Then on the side I baked gardein's chicken strips as per the directions on the package, Just before they were done baking, I poured tomato sauce and fake cheeze over them and baked another 2 minutes.

This picture is the leftover I had for lung the next day- it doesn't do it as much justice as it deserves, this was a really good meal!

vegan fettuccine alfredo

This was a new one for me- and another one that tasted better as a leftover since the alfredo like sauce got harder.
Ingredients:
fettuccine
mushrooms
asparagus
3 TBsp garlic
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup vegan margarine

I cooked the fettuccine like any pasta while making the sauce. And the asparagus and mushrooms- I just had some in the fridge so decided to use them in the dish- I boiled them separately while working on the sauce.
For the sauce:
Saute the garlic and margarine until garlic is browned.
Add the yeast and whisk until blended in, cooking at medium-high.
After a couple minutes add the soymilk and whisk in. Turn down to simmer and continue to whisk until becomes thick...(This was the tough part for me, it didn't really thicken like most of the creamy recipes I make).
Then toss with the fettuccine and asparagus and mushrooms. It was tasty, but here you can tell it was a little soupy with regards to the sauce. However, I put a lot in containers as leftovers, and those congealed so that when it was reheated in the microwave it was the perfect, expected alfredo sauce consistency!

vegan "gyros"

I stole this recipe from the TVP website. (textured vegetable protein in case you were wondering). I recently bought some TVP, my mom used to cook with it a lot when I first went vegan but I have little experience...then I realized I had no recipes for it!
I went to the "Bob's Red Mill" website and tried their vegan gyro recipe, which turned out to be great!
The website is here: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=637
I did not put in any mint or lettuce, and it was still super tasty!

super easy peanut stir fry

I think stir frys are so amazing and so EASY! This one was just some gardein veggie protein, carrots, cauliflor, brocolli, peanuts, and peas in a store bought pre-made vegan peanut satay sauce over jasmine rice.

A busy weekend...

Last weekend was a busy one, and lots of fun too!
Friday night I actually got to go out dancing with Mark and company...I was pretty tired though, I am an old lady afterall and meeting at a bar at 10:30 is super late for me.
Saturday night was Mark's dad's 65th suprise bday. It was fun, I got to help set up with Jacqui and Matt. And I finally after 3 years met Mark's extended family. Of course everyone was wondering who I was and almost couldn't believe I existed.
I made an apple coffee cake as well as a pesto potatoe salad for the party which were both big hits :).

The recipe is super simple.
Then Sunday was just as big of a day. We got up at 8am and headed to Albany...stopped by my mom's house and picked up Mark's commissioned paintings of the Philly City Hall building which he loved. Then went to Heather and Denis' house for Heather's bday party, which ended up being more of a kid party, but it was fun. It was neat meeting some of your students (adults learning english better), they were very interesting people.
Then we went to my grandma's house for dinner. It was nice, but my brother and my cousing couldn't make it which sucked. We did make a pit stop at my brother's liquor store where he was working and bought 3 cases of wine for $210...A long and tiring but fun day overall.

my first vegan stew

I have never really made "stew" before...always made soup or chili...but I recently bought a weird brand of vegan soy sausage at the store since I was intrigued, and then had no idea what to do to cook with it, so I looked up a recipe to make a vegan stew with it...


Ingredients:
soyrizo (above)
1 chopped yellow onion
1 chopped green bell pepper
5-6 red potatoes peeled and diced
1 cabbage cut in to small shreds
4 parsnips peeled and chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 TBsp soy sauce
3 cups veggies stock
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 cans chickpeas
2 tsp oregano

Directions:
In a large soup/sauce pan heat the onions in some olive oil until soft.
Then add the pepper until soft.
Then add the potatoes, cabbage, parsnip, tomatoes, soy sauce, and veggie stock. Cover and simmer on medium low until the veggies are tender (50 minutes or so).
Then add the oregano, red pepper, and chickpeas and cook for another 10 minutes.
Lastly add the veggies sausage (the soyrizo package had me fry it in a little olive oil for 5 minutes until browned and it was all crumbly when I added it to the stew).
Cook for another couple minutes and enjoy! I had 4 days of leftovers with this meal. And Mark really liked it too, said it was one of the best stews he had ever had with the potatoes perfectly cooked.