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.

vegan black bean flautas

I made these a couple weeks ago for one of Mark's family's get togethers for Easter, and sadly it tasted good but did not work out as well as I would like...still, a good recipe for appetizers at a party.
Ingredients:
1 chopped yellow onion
2 TBsp chopped garlic
2 cans of black bean
2 tsp chili powder
1 jar pre-made salsa
1 cup frozen corn
corn tortillas

Directions:
heat a small amount of olive oil in a pan and then add the onions and garlic. Cook until browned. Then add the beans, chili powder, and 1/2 cup water.
Simmer on medium until the water is evaporated.
Then remove from heat and mash the beans until at least half the beans are mashed, 1/2 in tact.
Then stir in the salsa and corn, and hat for another couple minutes.
Scoop the mixture to fill the middle of the corn tortilla, wrap, and place on a baking sheet. Cook as many as you want at 425 for 6-10 minutes.
I have made them before and they are a hit at parties as appetizers...the problem was I amde them at home and took them to the Herlings which was an hour away, and then they had cooked a lot of food for Easter so it was a big debate on when and how to cook them...so by the time they were cooked the corn tortillas had all broken and fallen apart... :(
But here is a picture of the filling...the filling alone is great so I might use that in the future to fill tacos or something.

The Cape Relay 2011

I just ran the Cape Relay with a team from work this weekend and it was lots of fun, with some new experiences for me. I definitely hope to run another one as long as I get asked to in the future!
what happened?
We arrived at Angell and packed our van, 6 people per van for our 12 person team plus Courtney (DT's girlfriend) was our designated van driver. Then we were off to the Borderland State Park for the start. Our team left at 10:45- our van, van 1, did the first round of legs. Charity started, and it got hot fast. All 6 of us ran our legs, with our first experience of the "Dynamic Warm Up Dude" at Leg 5- he made an appearance at every other round of legs, where he ran up and down the parking lot doing lunges, sidewinders, and sprinting.
My leg was leg 6, which was the one that handed off to our Van 2 at the end. I expected to run about a 10minute mile...we were supposed to have a "you're a mile from the finish" sign when I was, and I anticipated seeing that sign around 3:17p meaning I would hopefully finish my 6.9 miles by 3:27p. Well by 3:20 I was worried I had not seen the sign since I was behind schedule- then I cam e around a corner and a cop directing traffic told me I was almost there, and when I asked how far he said less then a quarter mile! I ended up finishing at 3:22p, 4-5 minutes ahead of schedule. By that point our team was 20 minutes ahead of our anticipated time.
Our team continued to knock off time. While Van 2 ran their 6 legs we went to Plymouth near the next major exchange. We showered and relaxed at Hennesey's house and wandered down to down town plymouth. Of course, Van 2 was supposed to be done by 10ish but instead cam in at an hour early, so we didn't rest at all.
Then started the night legs. It was a new experience for me. I started my leg at 12:30am, and running with a headlamp and a flashlight up hill for 6 miles in the dark and alone was difficult, but an experience.
After that Van 2 took over again. We went to the next major exchange and slept, stinky and sweaty in the van for 3 hours. At 5am we were up and ran our last legs at 6am.
Eventually we waited for van 2 at Meadow Beach in Truro on the Cape, and our team came in at 12:30p, which was an hour and a half ahead of scheduled. It was a great experience and I hope to run a relay again...plus there was a beer garden at the finish which kept our eyes on the prize. ; )

another great wine night: recipe index

Mark and I hosted another great wine night last night. There were lots of requests for recipes, and all the food I made I have actually posted recipes about before. In December there is a blog about Christmas dinner with the Herlings where I wrote the corn salad recipe. Then in March there was a blog titled" To all my vegan friends where I posted the chili casserole recipe. The only modification I did last night was added a cup of apple juice and used morningstar veggie crumbles instead of tempeh when making the chili. This was the first wine night with no leftovers, weird!

The only downside last night was that I had all the cooking done before, whereas I normally spend the first hour cooking- which keeps me from drinking too much. I started drinking with everyone else last night, and got way too tipsy...

back from Hawaii....

I have been in Hawaii for the last week for those of you who did not know...and here is my blog about the trip!

I went to Hawaii for IVECCS Spring Break, a conference for ECC people in vet med. Mark was supposed to be my guest, but bailed, which sucked, but it all worked out since my good friend Katie from vet school lives and works in Hawaii, and she attended the conference too!

I arrived Wednesday afternoon in Hawaii, Kauai to be exact, and relaxed in the hotel myself that night. It was an easy day. I went for a "run", which ended up sadly just being a 2 miler since it was 85 degrees and very humid.... I had not acclimated yet.

Thursday was an all day event for the conference. A lot of the speakers were my old professors from Tufts, which was great. Most of the topics were interesting. The conference was geared towards ER vets, not specialists, so it was a little basic for me, but that was comforting, knowing that I know more then I think I do. Thrusday night they hosted a lua for us, which was fun, and they had lots of great food. I was worried it would be all about the roasted pig, but there were actually about 5 different vegan options, plus some of the best pina coladas I have eever had (made with coconut milk).

Friday we had off, so we planned a day trip. Katie, her friends Julie and Isabelle from her internship, and Eric (Julie's husband) and I all went for a day long snorkel adventure. We arrived at the tour place at 6am, then took a boat out along the Napali Coast for 4 hours. The Napali coast is VERY isolated and beautiful, and one of the only ways to see it is via boat. I kept thinking that I watch too many movies since a lot of the views reminded me of movies, but then I found out I was right, and a lot of famous movies were filmed there: Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean, etc. There was marine wildlife galore: sea turtles, humpback whales, spinner dolphins, and manta rays, and all but the whales were super close along the side of the boat. The down side...I turned out to be quite sea sick, I spent the majority of the time that the boat was in motion at the back puking my guts out...puked 4 times, mostly dry heaving and water at the end, ughh...it took a lot out of me.

The boat then took us to a different island with a bird sanctuary, and we spent an hour in the water snorkeling there, BEAUTIFUL fish, and that is where we saw the manta rays. By 3pm the trip was over, and while it was beautiful and I saw some of the most amazing wildlife, I was glad to have land under me again.

That night we had sushi for dinner (yummy sweet potatoe sushi for me). Needless to say, my vomiting was from sea sickness and not a hangover, but after spending 4 hours of straight heaving I avoided alcohol for 2 days.

Saturday morning I was waiting for the elevator when a chicken appeared on our floor, alone in the elevator, pretty darn funny. The conference went on for the morning, and then Saturday afternoon we went out to the canyon to try to hike. We stopped at Island Taco on the way and I had an amazing meal: tofu taco with cilantro and lime sauce, delicious! I am going to try to make it again sometime myself. The Canyon was a little rainy, mainly because the elevation was so high, but we got a brief 1 mile hike in. Then on the way out stopped at the Kauai brewery- everyone got the platter of seven different Hawaiian mini beers...I normally would have too to sample all of it, but after the day before I sipped and barely finished one beer.Then we watched the sunset on the beach on the south coast before heading back home.

Sunday morning was the conference again. Got to speak with some of the people from Tufts which was nice. Then we drove to the north shore to try and relax on a beach- sadly it was raining pretty hard. We were able to visit a light house on a bird sanctuary before it started raining: saw whales in the distance and on the sanctuary saw tropic birds, albatross, red footed bobbies, frigates, and shearwaters. We saw a cool cave, fed a stray dog with a broken leg that had probably had several litters of puppies (she was so sweet, I wanted to take her home and fix her!), and then shopped in a little town near the beach. We went to a thai restaurant for dinner that night, had a tasty peanut stir fry.

Monday was our last day, and we had the day off again. We went for a kayaking trip: we kayaked up the main river in Kauai about 2 miles both ways, and stopped at a trail. We hiked this trail with our group and guide about a mile both ways to a secluded, 100 foot waterfall in a national park. It was quite an adventure, especially since the hike entailed crossing a river AND sloshing through 1 foot deep mud trails. It was quite a work out and very enjoyable. It was a little annoying that the other guests on our tour were not very kayak savy, and they did not follow proper etiquette well which resulting in someone ramming, scraping, and bruising my leg while we were getting out of our kayak and they were landing.

Julie fished an injured bird out of the river (a Japanese white eye we think) and we called around until we found a rehabber to take it. Then we relaxed at the pool for 3 hours until we headed to the airport and home.

Now that I am home I really miss the weather since it is rainy, cold, and windy here. Hopefully it will get warmer soon!