Mediterranean Night

The theme was Mediterranean. I pulled memories of my days on the Mediterranean coast of Spain to create a wonderful dinner only worthy of that great European sea shore. When I first moved to Southern California, it reminded me of my year in Spain anyway. Several times I've made my versions of Paella, Tortilla Espanola, and Ensalada Verduras.

This time, I referred to my new favorite cookbook, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, and made "Conchiglie with Green and Black-Eyed Peas, Pearl Onions, and Basil.

YUM! I rarely eat plain white pasta, but this time I just had to! I mean, I'm just following the recipe. And I couldn't find whole-wheat or quinoa pasta shells.

The cookbook describes this dish to be a favorite among children because they like discovering hidden peas inside the pasta shells. Cute! I actually kinda enjoyed that small delight as well...

Chickenish Salad

Whenever I heard about someone making chicken salad I thought it sounded like the most disgusting thing ever. Apparently it was like egg salad, but with mushed up chicken instead of eggs. Gross.

Well. I came across this recipe for a vegan "chicken" salad and I thought I'd give it a try. After all, it isn't really chicken! It's meat-free of course, and made with my favorite bread spread ever -- Vegenaise. (By the way, it's pronounced like how you say the first part of vegetable, and then add "nayz." Some people thing it's pronounced like how you say "I'm a vegan." I mean, just look at the spelling. It's obviously a soft g. Anyway...)

I love anything you can put on a piece of bread or cracker and can call a "spread," so I was really excited to try this. I hoped it wasn't as nasty as I thought real chicken salad sounded like.

And boy did my dreams come true! I love this stuff! I've made it a couple times and eat it for lunch as a sandwich or on crackers or pretzels. It is so good! Not only that, but it's super easy to make and you can do so many different things with it. Here's the basic recipe I use, but feel free to modify it however you want. As you can see, the picture above shows a different version of the stuff on the crackers below. It all works, and it's all dee-lish.

2 cups dry soy curls
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp McKay's Chicken seasoning

1/2 cup Vegenaise

1st -- Put soy curls in a large bowl, cover with hot water, and soak for 10 minutes
2nd -- Drain soy curls and dice finely, or chop in a food processor. I like to use my Tupperware Chop and Prep -- this thing is amazing if I haven't already mentioned that. I love it.

3rd -- Mix together the chopped soy curls and all the other ingredients.

Finally -- Indulge immediately! But try to save some for lunch this week!

Vegan Cheesy Pizza

Oh pizza, you are my friend and my enemy.

Before I was lactose intolerant (when I was like 10) I used to be a part of this book reading program where you could win a free personal-pan pizza from Pizza Hut each month if you read a certain amount of books. I loved that mini, cheesy, saucy, doughy goodness each and every month. That was pretty much my last memory of eating real pizza.

Because then I started getting really sick every time I ate cheese and ice cream. So forever after I was delegated to tasteless dough covered with dried sauce and veggies every time pizza was on the menu. Blech.

As we know, the options have expanded and most trendy pizza bistros will at least drizzle their whole-wheat dough with some olive oil and add some whole garlic cloves or something. But the whole idea of pizza just doesn't really appeal to me. At all. Until now.

Pizza places all over Southern California are starting to add VEGAN PIZZA to their menus! No, this does not mean "hi vegan, here's your baked bread with a few veggies thrown on top." It means wonderful, cheesey, gooey, pizza goodness!! Just like when I was a kid! I have never had a vegan-cheesey-pizza in a restaurant before in my life. I've made them at home a few times, but isn't it so nice to be able to eat out once in a while?

I discovered PizzaSalad in Thousand Oaks, which serves any of their pizzas with soy-cheese or soy-free-cheese. When I asked if their soy-free-cheese was Daiya, the guy said he didn't know the brand name, but "here's the list of ingredients." I looked at the soy-free-cheese ingredients and it was definitely Daiya. Sure enough, as soon as I tasted it, my assumptions were confirmed.

This stuff is amazing! It is a cheese subsitute that actually melts and tastes delicious. It's what I use in my mac and cheese recipe, and I love it.

At this awesome little Pizza place, I ordered the "Zesta" which had spicy sauce, roasted red peppers and jalepenos on it.

My coworker ordered the "Ftelia" which had green olives, yellow onions and
artichokes on it.

They were both smothered in Daiya cheese and were so amazingly delicious.

I finally researched some places in San Diego that also serve this kind of pizza and I am definitely going to try them. Pizza has returned to my life!

Vegan Chili and Lime Rice

While visiting my parents last month, my dad picked up this recipe from his local grocery store and thought I would like to try it.

I mean, hello! Of COURSE I would like to try it! Not only is it beans and rice which is practically my favorite combination of food ever, but I'll pretty much try any recipe you give me. If it's vegan, that is. And if it's not, I'll make it vegan -- dare me.

So here you go Dad! I wish you could have been here to taste the results!

The rice was definitely KEY to this meal. Something about the coriander and lime in the rice pulled all the flavors of the chili together. I added extra chili powder and cayenne pepper (which isn't even in the recipe) to give it a little extra kick. Otherwise, this recipe is right on. It was probably the best chili I have ever made -- and the lime rice is amazing. I'm definitely going to be making this again and again.

In case you can't read that horrible picture of the recipe, here it is. It's from:
communicatingfoodforhealth.com

1 cup brown rice (I used white)
2 cups water
dash coriander, garlic, pepper
2 limes, cut in wedges
1 can no-salt kidney beans (I used dry kidney and pink beans, soaked the night before)
1 can no-salt diced tomatoes (I used 1 large fresh tomato, diced)
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/2 can tomato paste (I skipped this)
1/4 cup water
1 tsp chili powder (I added 3 more teaspoons...SPICY!)
1 tsp cumin (another KEY ingredient! Do not leave this out!)
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Cook rice, water and coriander/garlic/pepper in a pan or rice cooker until done. Add the juice of one lime, fluff with a fork and allow to stand

Meanwhile, cook chili by adding kidney beans, diced tomatoes, minced onion, water and the rest of the seasonings to a medium skillet; bring to boil then lower to a simmer.

To serve the chili, mold the rice in a small cup and place in the center of a bowl. Surround with chili. (I just added the rice on top of the chili.)

Garnish with lime wedges.

Roasted Veggies and Polenta

This is a meal Aunt K often prepares for us when we visit. She likes to stress the importance of eating things that only have ingredients you can pronounce and know what they are. I think this is some of the best advice I've ever heard. I mean, even though you might be able to pronounce "maltodextrin," do you know what exactly that is? Why would you want to eat food that consists of mysterious ingredients? (What in the world is tartaric acid?) Also, it's important to look for food that doesn't have a mile long list of ingredients, most of which you can't pronounce.

Roasted veggies and polenta is completely all natural, with simple ingredients that everyone has heard of: vegetables and corn. That's it. My package of dry polenta has only one ingredient in it: corn.

I used Bob's Red Mill polenta, which was super easy.

This is how I did the roasted veggies:

1 red pepper
1 small onion
10 mushrooms
1 garlic bulb, cloves separated and peeled
10 stalks of asparagus
6 fresh brussel sprouts

Cut all the veggies into bite-sized chunks, put into large mixing bowl.
Drizzle olive oil over veggies. Sprinkle sea salt and pepper over veggies.
Mix the veggies and oil mixture together well.
Spread veggies onto a pan.
Roast in oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, follow the directions on the polenta package. Make sure to mold it in a bowl after it has cooked for awhile, so you can slice it into pieces.

Pile the roasted veggies on top of some slices of polenta and feel free to pig out. It is SO good!

This meal is comprised only of vegetables; it is so filling and so delicious! No guilt-factor at all. It is the perfect healthy meal for a weeknight when you just want to whip up something quick.

TRY IT NOW.

Mac and Cheesey-licious!

'

My vegan bff JT showed this recipe to me months ago. I've made it about two times already, but this time I modified it a bit and it was seriously the best version yet. I know I say that every time, but it's for real this time.

Both my husband and I went back for, not seconds, but THIRDS! We actually had to stop ourselves from finishing off the whole pan in one sitting. Let's have some self-control! W said this version matched real mac and cheese the closest I've ever made, "and I don't have to worry about how much I eat!"

I used the already cooked whole wheat noodles and other ingredients from that unfortunate mac and cheese pancake disaster; and this is how I made it:

First:
(Pre-heat oven to 350)

12 ounces cooked noodles (approximately one package of noodles)
1 1/2 cups daiya cheddar and mozzarella mixed cheese
1/4 cup chopped vegan ham or bacon slices

--put noodles and most of the cheese in a big mixing bowl. Set aside.

Next:
1 heaping tablespoon earth balance
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
Couple shakes of salt and pepper
1 heaping tablespoon flour
1 cup rice milk (original flavor)

--Heat the first earth balance, garlic, salt and pepper in a small sauce pan. Once butter is nice and melted, whisk in the flour, until it's pasty. Stir in the rice milk until you have a nice, thick liquid sauce.

--Pour the sauce into the mixing bowl with noodles and cheese. Stir very well.

Then:
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

--Sprinkle nutritional yeast on noodles and sauce. Continue to mix well.

--Transfer to square baking pan.

--Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Add a few sprinkles of paprika and crushed red pepper. Finally, top generously with bread crumbs.

--Bake for 28 minutes.
--Move to top rack and broil on high for 2 minutes to crisp up the top. (This was W's suggestion and it was amazing!)

Vegan Vietnamese!

While on a work trip this past week, I discovered this amazing little restaurant in Reseda. I had read rave reviews about it on the blog, quarrygirl.com, so I was really excited to try it. Vegan Viatamese! I couldn't have asked for a better lunch.

When I walked in, the owner and chef, Kevin Tran handed me a menu. I literally had no idea what to order. I just stared. I love places where I can eat ANYTHING on the menu! Whatever I choose. Finally the chef said, "You new here? Sit down. I'll make you something. You want soup or noodles?"

I said noodles "and a roll please! Yes! Surprise me!"

The Ham Spring Roll was so amazing. I felt a little awkward sitting there by myself stuffing my face with the tofu roll, but I mostly didn't care. I had to stop myself halfway through the second one so I could make sure to have enough room for the surprise entree, whatever it was going to be.

It is called Udon Stir Fry 2011. It tasted so fresh and delicious. Noodles, tofu, and veggies. My favorite things all mixed together! So flavorful and wonderful! I can't believe I live 120 miles away from this place, because I want to eat here every day.