Quinoa Enchilada Casserole.

Made my old standby today which actually I haven't made in a while. Find the recipe here. This time I used spinach, chipotle pinto beans and El Pato jalapeno salsa/tomato sauce for the sauce. And if you're wondering what the orange topping is, it's Vegenaise mixed with a bit of salsa and lime juice.


Excuse the messy plate. This was my second helping topped with avocado.

Macrobiotic Meal.

Brown jasmine rice, steamed carrots and green beans, baked yam, gingered black beans with miso-sesame dressing and a wakame salad that I forced myself to eat. I hate seaweed.

So. I'm trying to cut back on overly processed foods and fat. I've been a giant stressball these past few months and my diet has been poorly because of it. I've been leaning far too much on white bread, frozen veggie burgers, sweets, sweets and more sweets. I have a macrobiotic cookbook called The Self Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner that emphasizes macrobiotic eating as a way towards a balance of your mind, moods and body. It favors whole grains such as brown rice, millet, quinoa, barley etc as a staple and to be eaten with fresh, unprocessed foods such as vegetables, beans, sea vegetables and some minimally processed soy foods like tempeh and tofu. Easy enough I thought. I'd like to eat several meals a week like this but I'd have to do more research to make it interesting. Tonight's dinner was pretty basic and kinda boring. But at least it's a starting off point.

Tofu Bean Burgers, BBQ Pinto Beans, Raw Slaw, Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes

Stayin' in for "Carmegeddon" weekend and to prepare for it, I made an array of comforting foods to enjoy.


These tofu-bean burgers are the best. I try not to eat too many frozen veggie burgers so homemade is the way to go. Recipe here. I topped them with grilled onions and a homemade thousand island sauce.


This came to be when I noticed way too many cans of plain pinto beans in my pantry. I flipped through my "366 delicious ways to cook rice, beans and grains" book and saw a recipe for Slow Cooked Spicy Barbecue Pinto Beans. I loosely followed the recipe in which I mixed tomato sauce, brown sugar, chili powder, onions and garlic with the beans and let them slow cook in the oven.


Beautiful 'Raw Slaw' from the "Urban Vegan" cookbook. Since all the other dishes are kind of hearty and rich, I wanted a lighter coleslaw with an oil and vinegar based dressing. This one is perfect.


And dessert is always something I like to have on the weekends. This is the Mexican chocolate cake recipe with shop bought chocolate fudge frosting (I think it's Pillsbury).

Kidney Bean Curry

Indian curry tonight! I used a channa masala recipe but substituted kidney beans for the chickpeas. Deliciousness!

Cowboy Chili.

I finally got around to watching 'Brokeback Mountain' last night and aside from the fact that it made me weep, it put me in the mood for a hearty cowboy style chili. Got this recipe from Country Living website and veganized it by using tvp soy chunks instead of beef. It used corn masa mixed with water to thicken it in the end as well as pureed chiles that have been soaking which gives the chili an amazing red color. I'll post the recipe here with my substitutions.

Vegan Cowboy Chili

1 TB olive oil (plus a little more for later)
1 cup tvp chunks (plus boiling water to rehydrate)
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
14 oz. veggie broth or water
1 TB chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
2 cans beans (any kind), drained and rinsed
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
2 dried ancho chiles or any dried chiles you prefer
1 TB masa harina de maiz
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB cider vinegar
1/4 tsp sugar


Directions
1. Rehydrate tvp chunks: Put tvp in a bowl and pour boiling water to cover. Let sit for a little while. You will know that they are hydrated when you squeeze a piece between your fingers. It will be soft. If it's still firm, let soak longer. Drain water and setr tvp aside.
2. Rehydrate ancho chiles: Place them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them about a cup.
2. Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven. Saute onions on medium high until translucent about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute. Add tvp chunks after they have been drained. Add a splash of olive oil and stir around to coat.
3. Add vegetable broth, chili powder, cumin, beans and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30-40 minutes or longer.
4. Puree the chiles: Remove and discard stems. Place softened chiles and the soaking liquid in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth -- 2 to 3 minutes.
5. In a small bowl, whisk the masa and water together. Stir masa mixture into the chili. Add ancho chili mixture, salt and vinegar and sugar. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Season with more salt and pepper if desired.

Spanish Rice and Beans

Tonight's dinner was a very simple one pot dish, the 'spanish rice and beans' from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. It was very delicious.

Cheese n Pickle Sandwich, Tuscan Braised Beans

This was my breakfast this morning. Daiya cheddar and Piccalilli on sunflower rye bread. It was sooo good. Must try this with Branston pickle next time!


I made the Tuscan Braised Beans from The Urban Vegan cookbook for dinner. It's so good with pita bread or even by itself! The beans were braised with olive oil, lemon, vinegar, garlic and sage. Yummy!

'Use What You Have' Weeknight Meal.

While at work today I was scanning my pantry and fridge in my mind trying to come up with an idea for supper. I came up with: potatoes, brown rice, cabbage, spinach and beans. So this is what I made with those items. It all came together in about an hour. I cooked up some brown rice first and while that was cooking, I made the potatoes. I sauteed onions and garlic with olive oil and then added cubed red potatoes and a bit of water. I let them cook covered until the potatoes were almost tender. Then I added a couple handfuls each of shredded cabbage (bagged coleslaw) and chopped spinach and seasoned with salt, pepper and Trader Joe's 21 Salute seasoning and let cook a little longer until potatoes were done. For the kidney bean salad, I just tossed the beans with a minced clove of garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried parsley, salt and pepper and chilled it in the fridge before dinner.

Welcome to VeganMoFo!

Hiya! Today is the first day of VeganMoFo! What is VeganMoFo? It's short for Vegan Month Of Food and this whole month a bunch of food bloggers including myself will be posting like crazy all the beauteous deliciousness of vegan cuisine. There are something like 500-ish bloggers participating in this which is just fantastic. This year will be my 3rd year of joining in the celebration. Hope you enjoy! Check out the blogroll for a complete list of MoFo-ers!


Today is also World Vegan Day and to celebrate I made red chile burritos! The red chile sauce is made from dried ancho and new mexico peppers that were rehydrated in water, then pureed and simmered with cumin, oregano and salt to make this lusty brick-red sauce.


These were the fillings for the burritos: tex mex couscous and refried beans. Recipe for couscous below.

Tex Mex Couscous

3 roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1 jalapeno
1 TB olive oil
2 TB lime juice
salt to taste

1 cup water
1 cup couscous
1 cup chopped spinach, optional

Blend tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, jalapeno, olive oil, lime juice and salt until fairly smooth, it's ok to have a few chunks. Set aside. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan, add couscous, stir and cover for 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and add blended sauce and toss. You may add chopped spinach at this point.

Quinoa-Beans and Greens Tortilla Casserole

You've seen this thing a million times on my blog. Instead of burrito style I made it casserole style with layered pieces of tortilla between the filling of quinoa, kale, beans and sauce.


Recipe here.

Black Eyed Pea Salad

I was thumbing through an Iraqi cookbook from my collection called "Delights from the Garden of Eden" and was inspired to make this salad after reading a description of A Medieval Appetizer of Black-Eyed Peas. It's simply black eyed peas tossed with onion, tomato, garlic, lemon juice and sumac juice. I made mine with onion, tomato, garlic, lemon juice, cilantro, dried dill, ground sumac and olive oil. Was delicious!

Father's Day Dips.

I made a couple dips to enjoy with my folks today on Father's Day. There's nothing like a beautiful weekend with sunny breezy weather, dips, chips and beer! This one is a refried bean dip with guacamole, fresh tomato, vegenaise mixed with lime juice and chili powder and sliced jalapenos.


Edamame hummus though we can't really call this hummus can we, since we're not using chickpeas? Well it's made similarly with edamame, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, ground cumin and coriander. It's a gorgeous green color and went very well with fresh carrots and celery.

Bulgur, Beans & Broccoli Burrito.

I was seriously stumped as to what I was going to whip up for dinner tonight. I wanted to eat something filling yet something that would take no time at all to make. I opened up my pantry and the first thing I saw was a container of bulgur. I've been following the 'My Veggie Kitchen' blog which recently featured some quickie meals made out of bulgur. I decided to try the beans and bulgur taco filling but use it for a burrito. I used pinto beans instead of refried beans and I also added a couple tablespoons of La Victoria taco sauce. It was the perfect filling for my whole wheat tortilla along with steamed broccoli, avocado, "sour cream" (made from Vegenaise, lime juice and taco sauce mixed together) and habanero hot sauce!

Sauteed Kale and Black Eyed Peas with Tomato Couscous

I was inspired to use kale and beans together after looking at the latest post over at the Mitten Machen blog. I can't say I've ever cooked the two together. So glad I tried it because it was really good and went perfectly atop a mound of tomato couscous (w/ a dollop of harissa for some heat!). I had a small cup of leftover tomato soup from the other day and used that with some water to cook my couscous. Such a great revamping leftovers idea as well as a beautiful color.

Greek Gigantes, Lemon-Caper Potato Salad & Baba Ganouj

You don't understand, I crave Mediterranean flavors all the time! Yes, I switch gears and do Thai or Indian and even good old American but when it comes to food that just does it for me, it's this kind of food. I think it's because of the glorious mediterranean climate here in California that gets me in the mood. Today I revisited Greek Gigantes. I made it once before using a recipe I found online. This time I used Diane Kochilas' recipe from "The Greek Vegetarian" cookbook. You're supposed to use authentic greek big beans but large limas do the trick just fine. I also omitted the honey and used a bit of sugar to counterbalance the tartness of the tomatoes. They turned out beautifully creamy and tender and flavored with lots of dill. I also made potato salad with lemon-caper mayo and dill. Also baba ganouj and fresh pita to round out the meal. Husband and I ate together and washed it all down with a cold beer/tomato juice cocktail.

Edited to add a picture of dessert! How could I forget to put this up?

Date cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. All vegan!

Beans on Toast, TVP Tacos and Refried Beans

Leftover Heinz beans from last night made an excellent breakfast on toast spread with Earth Balance and sprinkled with black pepper. And I didn't forget the tea.



I couldn't wait to make refried beans from scratch again and this time with black beans. The easiest way for me to do it is to put the dry beans (1 lb. plus 8 cups water) into the crockpot the night before and let them cook. This morning all I had to do was reserve about a cup or so of the cooking liquid, drain the beans and heat them with sauteed onions, garlic, liquid smoke, the bean liquid, olive oil and salt/pepper while mashing with a potato masher. Seriously perfect beans. I also made red chile sauce with the dried guajillo, new mexico and arbol chiles. For the tacos, I used textured vegetable protein. The tvp meat was sauteed with olive oil, onions, garlic and taco seasoning.

EDIT: Still cooking from my pantry!
Pantry staples used: dried black beans, dried chiles, tvp, liquid smoke, olive oil, spices, Heinz Beans, white bread
Other items: onions, garlic, lettuce, tomato
Items purchased: taco shells, Earth Balance

Cooking out of the pantry: Portobello Tacos, Refried Beans and Rice

Check out my lunch today. It was superb! Portobello tacos, rice and beans. I wanted to make refried beans from scratch weeks ago but never got around to it because I had other things in mind. This weekend seemed just right for it. The bag of pinto beans in my pantry was calling my name as well as another item from my pantry that I forgot to add to my list: a bag of dried New Mexico chiles. I have a book called "The Power of Ancient Foods" and there is a recipe for red chile sauce that I planned to make along with the refried beans. I cooked my pinto beans in the crockpot overnight so they'd be ready this morning. (My crockpot has a new name: "The Bean Machine". I don't use it for anything else anymore.) So anyway back to the beans, I sauteed some onions and garlic in olive oil, added the cooked and drained beans, mashed them up and let them simmer with salt, pepper, about a cup of the bean cooking liquid and a touch of liquid smoke. I don't think I can enjoy canned refried beans ever again! The beans were stellar, just like in a restaurant. The rice was wonderful as well. Fresh guacamole and lime wedges made it all complete.


I've never had mushroom tacos before and I'm glad I tried this. They were so meaty and juicy. The red chile sauce was really nice.

Portobello tacos recipe here.
Mexican rice recipe here.
This short video shows pretty much how I made the red chile sauce.

Pantry staples used:
dry pinto beans
dried new mexico chiles
rice
tomato sauce
corn tortillas
herbs/spices: cumin, oregano, cayenne

Items from fridge etc:
onions
garlic
cilantro

Items I needed to purchase: 2 portobello mushrooms and avocado

Belizean Stewed Beans, Coconut Rice and Chocolate Cake

Daaaaamn! This was so delicious! I've never had authentic Belizean food before but I wanted to give it a try when I learned that they use coconut milk in a lot of their dishes. My kinda food, I said! I looked up a lot of recipes online and kept coming across "Rice and Beans" so many times. In that recipe, the beans are cooked together with the coconut milk and rice. I decided to do it seperately by pre-cooking my kidney beans in a crockpot the day before and then today sauteeing onions, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper then adding the beans (with the broth it was cooked in) and the coconut milk and letting it stew for about a half hour. Wonderful on top of coconut rice and with a side of fried plantains and coleslaw. Here is the beans recipe that I worked from. I omitted the pig tail for obvious reasons.

Coconut Rice recipe
(I don't know where I got this recipe. I wrote it out on a piece of paper and failed to note where it came from!)

2 cups water
1 cup basmati rice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
cinnamon stick

Rinse rice if you want (I did not.). Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Stir in rice, salt, coconut milk and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil again. Lower heat and cover for 30 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and fluff rice with fork before serving.


For desert I continued with the use of coconut milk by adding it to this basic chocolate cake. I think it would have tasted more like coconut if I hadn't poured the rich chocolate ganache over it! Oh well, it was still very very moist, just very chocolatey.


Vic from The Life blog inspired me to make this cake when I saw a photo of his crazy delicious looking cake. Thanks Vic!

Pinto Bean and TVP Tostadas

Something I threw together after work. I just sauteed some chopped onions, garlic and jalapeno, added shredded kale, tomato sauce, rehydrated textured vegetable protein (for that ground beefy texture), pinto beans and spices like chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder and cumin. So yummy.

Weekend Meze.

It rained last night and the forecast had predicted rain today but it has yet to come. I took advantage of the current blue skies and sun with slight breeze to lunch al fresco once again. I'm really getting used to this! It makes me look forward to the weekend. Come summer, this is will be a regular thing. Can't wait.


Another meze lunch with lots of things to nibble on and again with the mediterranean theme. I just got a new cookbook, "The Greek Vegetarian" and I wanted to use it today. I made from it Eggplant Puree with Walnuts and Fava Bean Stew with Mint. I also made hummus and a greek salad.


Hummus on the left and Eggplant Puree with walnuts (Makedonitiki Melitzanosalata) on the right. The eggplant puree was delicious and garlicky. The walnuts are first ground to a paste and then processed with roasted eggplant pulp.


Fava bean stew with mint (Koukia Stifado me Dyosmo). Delicious and filling tender fava beans with a base of tomatoes, red onions, garlic, mint and dill. I added dill because I'm crazy about it and a lot of greek dishes have fresh dill so it seemed rather fitting.


Greek salad with cucumbers, olives, red onions and "Betta Feta", a tofu based faux feta from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook. Drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.


First of the jasmine blooms I've seen this year.


Buster eating pita.


Dessert is banana bread that I made with the biggest ripest bananas that I found in our fruit bowl. The cake sunk in the middle a bit because of my impatience. I peeked in the oven way too many times!