Lunch on the Patio.

This was a valentine's gift to myself: a relaxing, leisurely lunch on the patio with the sun blazing overhead and me shaded underneath an umbrella reading a good book. I can't ask for anything better to do on this gorgeous Sunday. We're lucky to get this kind of weather here while snow storms ravage the majority of the country. I will enjoy it while we have it. So, on to my lunch. I had a platter of dips (hummus and baba ganouj) with pita bread and cucumbers, a Lebanese eggplant and chickpea stew, sweet little clementines and a beer and tomato juice. Yes you heard that right! I used to love Clamato y cerveza when I was omni and the only way I can kind of duplicate that is to use tomato juice instead of Clamato. Tastes great and works for me!


The two dips in the front are hummus and baba ganouj that was leftover from my lunch yesterday at Gaby's Mediterranean cafe. I also had a big thing of hummus that I made last week so I added some of that to my plate as well. Drizzled with olive oil and flanked by cucumbers, this was heaven.


The star of the meal. Mnazalet Al-Batinjan or Eggplant and Chickpea stew from "Tables of Lebanon" cookbook. Easiest recipe ever. It's beautifully fragrant with cumin and mint leaves. The eggplant is so tender, it melts in your mouth. I love this dish.


Scoop some on bread and eat!


Dessert was the chocolate beer waffles from Vegan Brunch cookbook. Yummy! I served them with blueberry/maple syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar.

It's all Greek to me.

I went to the library a few days ago and checked out a Greek cookbook called "The Olive and The Caper". It's not a vegetarian book but there are so many appealing vegetarian recipes in it that I wanted to try out this weekend. I should say that my interest in Greece and greek cooking has been sparked up again because of a suspense novel that I'm reading that takes place in this magical place. (The book is My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart by the way.)


First up, Eggplant and Yogurt Dip. I swapped greek yogurt for plain unsweetened soy yogurt. It's a beautiful mixture of eggplant pulp, yogurt, garlic, red onions and salty black olives. This was amazing. I'm definitely going to make this for parties.


Next, "Russian" Salad. Green beans, carrots, potatoes, in a lemon-caper mayonnaise (vegan mayo of course!). It's supposed to also have lima beans and peas but I left them out. Very good and creamy.


For the main dish I made Gigantes which are big beans in a tomato based sauce. We're supposed to use authentic greek big beans here but large lima beans are a popular replacement. I didn't really use the recipe from the book but instead adapted this recipe I found online. The beans are baked with diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, dill, oregano and olive oil. I replaced the honey with a bit of sugar and left out the carrots. They baked up beautifully (though a little mushy) but were so tasty both warm and at room temp.


Closeup of the tender buttery beans. The dill flavor shined through just the way I had hoped.


My plate with a side of pita for dipping!


To go with the Mediterranean theme, dessert was orange blossom cake with fig yogurt sauce. I used kittee's basic vanilla cake recipe and subbed a little orange juice and orange blossom for some of the water. For the sauce, I just whisked a few spoonfuls of fig jam into plain soy yogurt.


The cake was moist and sweet with orange blossom notes. The yogurt sauce took it to another level. So many beautiful flavors!

Pancake Breakfast & Iraqi Eggplant Casserole

This morning we had pancakes (Vegan w/ a Vengeance recipe) and veggie sausages. The sausages are Lightlife's Gimme Lean ground veggie sausage which I shaped into little links. They were perfect with the fluffy pancakes and maple syrup!


Not the most photogenic dish... This is the eggplant casserole recipe from my Iraqi cookbook "Delights from the Garden of Eden". It has eggplant, onions, peppers, garlic and chickpeas in a savory tomato sauce. The recipe called for too much liquid I think so it was still a little watery at the end but I didn't mind that much. Next time I make this I'll decrease the liquid a bit.


Casserole served on top of couscous with a garlicky yogurt sauce, pita and arugula and cucumber salad. So delicious!

VeganMoFo: Mini Meze

Meze = a selection of small dishes

My husband and I like to do this every so often for dinner. It's fun to just have an assortment of things to dip bread and vegetables into. Don't have to slave over a stove or put anything in the oven. I whipped up some hummus yesterday so all I had to do today was prepare za'atar in olive oil and make a second dip. Since I used my new favorite book yesterday, I didn't want to miss another chance to use it again. I looked in the "Appetizers" section and found an eggplant dip that looked good. This eggplant dip is called Bathinjan Mfasakh in arabic and the recipe originates from Syria and Lebanon. It was very easy to prepare. I just needed to salt the eggplant and drain it for a while and then quickly saute in olive oil until browned. Then I mashed it all up and added vegan yogurt, garlic, dried mint, salt and pepper. YUM-MEE. We used whole wheat pita and fresh cucumber for dipping. For drinks we shared a Gingerberry kombucha.


Closeup of the eggplant dip.

VeganMoFo: Lebanese Eggplant Stew with Pearl Couscous

A beautiful and simple dish from Tables of Lebanon cookbook. It has only a few ingredients: olive oil, garlic, onions, eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, water and cumin. I added spinach to it instead of the zucchini that it originally called for. You'd never guess these few ingredients would yield such a tasty stew. I served it on top of pearl couscous (aka Israeli couscous) and it was delicious! I think it would be wonderful on rice as well as regular semolina couscous.

Penne with Summer Vegetable Sauce

So the first day of Autumn has passed but it certainly still feels like summer here in Southern CA. It's downright hot and nasty right now. I probably should have made a salad for dinner but opted for this summery vegetable pasta made with fresh and beautiful produce: eggplants, zucchini, red bell peppers and mushrooms. Oh, and canned plum tomatoes from Italy! It was adapted from a recipe from 'The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen' cookbook. It was a delicious celebration of the bounties of summer. Goodbye Summer, I'm looking forward to Fall now!

Meze Supper.

Tonight husband and I wanted to dine on an assortment of appetizers or "meze". I was happy to make a dip of chickpeas and fava beans (not quite hummus because I only had about 1/2 cup of chickpeas), za'atar in olive oil with fresh tomato and onion as well as a light eggplant dish, Misaqua'at Betinjan bil Laban or 'Browned Eggplant with Yogurt'. I used plain unsweetened soy yogurt* and added about a tablespoon of vegan mayo for more creaminess. Try as they might, soy yogurts just do not have the same texture nor flavor as regular dairy yogurt. The vegan mayo added to it made it much creamier and it was simply flavored with salt, garlic, cumin and coriander. This recipe is from a Iraqi cookbook I have called "Delights from the Garden of Eden". The recipe is also online here. The eggplant was really good (well, anything that is fried is good!) and the salty olives and pita were yummy accompaniments.


Chickpea & Fava Bean Dip with Za'atar topped with fresh tomato and onions.


Yummy fried eggplants with garlicky soy yogurt!


All together...

*Note: The best plain unsweetened soy yogurt is Wildwood Organics. The other brands plain are just way too sweet.

Detox Week 1, Day 3

Sweet craving go away! I was watching the Food Network yesterday and there was a show about cake decorating and looking at the chocolate layered with buttercream, I almost died...just a little. I had some grapes. I think I need to get more exercise, way too much tv watching. After the holidays I did a lot of couch sitting with a bag of chips. I was quite the lazy bastard! So definitely need to get in some exercise. I usually do a half hour to an hour walk with my dog everyday but it doesn't feel challenging enough. Shall I get out my Tae Bo dvds? We'll see...

Here are today's eats:


Breakfast: Oatmeal with bananas, raisins, macadamia nuts, poppy seeds and a tiny drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious! It kept me full until lunch.


In case you're wondering, Gillian's plan allows natural sweeteners like maple syrup, barley malt syrup, brown rice syrup and so on. Just in small amounts. I made homemade date syrup a few days ago. I should have put this in my oatmeal but I forgot about it until just now.




Lunch: Green Leaf/Spinach Salad w/ beans, Spinach Soup w/ pumpkin seeds(from You Are What You Eat cookbook)


Snacks: 1 Braeburn apple, thinly sliced. Just how I like it.


Just how Buster likes it too!


Dinner: Baked Aubergine and Mushroom Stack (YAWYE cookbook). This was served with brown basmati rice and a green salad.

I'm really enjoying eating all this great, healthy food. My normal diet doesn't stray too far from this but includes way too many white foods (white rice/bread/pasta) and far too many sweet treats filled with sugar and calories. Eating this way is new for my husband who is stuck on delivery pizzas, hot dogs (the non-vegan kind), microwave popcorn, kraft mac n cheese, chips, soda and beer. I'm glad that he's trying new things and is going along with it well. I'm secretly hoping that after the three weeks, he won't mind giving up his pizza here and there to have a healthy meal that is good for both of us.

Food as Art, a Sweet Treat and a Sleeping Pup.

Made my dinner ahead of time today so I wouldn't have to bother later. I took the 'Baked Aubergine (Eggplant) and Mushroom Stack' recipe from the You Are What You Eat cookbook and improvised a little. It was supposed to have fennel and red onions but I didn't have them so I used yellow onions and added grape tomatoes in place of the fennel. And I think I did good because the addition of the tomatoes makes for beautiful looking food. I was entranced by the colors as I snapped some photos. Here are my favorite shots. (By the way, I haven't tasted this yet. It does smell very nice though...lots of garlic in this.)


Sitting on some fresh arugula for more color. View number 1 of the stack.


View number 2 which I think works better aesthetically for me...


Two stacks surrounded by a lush arugula forest.

I'm still enjoying my new Breville blender and have been making a fresh smoothie every morning. I've discovered a sweet smoothie that I like to prepare when I'm craving dessert. It contains: 1 cup ice, 1 cup soymilk, 1 frozen banana, 4-5 dates, 1 tsp cocoa powder and 1 tsp vanilla extract. It's delicious.



And a bonus puppy shot. This was Buster this morning, unable to get out of bed to face the day. I even pulled the shades open and he still didn't get up!