Vegan MoFo Day 30: One day left!

Hey MoFo-ees! I can’t believe that Vegan MoFo is pretty much over with! Tomorrow expect some sort of round-up post. It seems like people tend to do those…and I never have. Anyways.

I was going to post this recipe last night, but got wicked caught up with doing Hindi homework (damned repetitive sentence writing practice!). And I had to wake up at 3 am this morning to get to Syracuse University to watch the NYSFBC finals at 8 am. So I turned in early. But this was dinner last night. I was going to use it for a Vegan Iron Chef recipe since the secret ingredients were carrots and oats this week…but enjoy anyways! The filling would also be great inside of a wrap or on top of rice or something.

Autumnal Tempeh Kheema “Pot Pie”

 

Yields 1 9″ pie pan, or 8×8 pan

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1 8oz block tempeh, cubed
• 2 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1 tsp each garlic and onion powder
• 1 cup cubed buttercup squash
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1 tsp garlic and ginger powders
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder
• a pinch of turmeric
• 1 cup frozen peas

 

Topping:

 

• 2 cups cubed buttercup squash
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/2 heaping tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 heaping tsp ginger powder and onion powder
• a dash of coriander powder
• 1 tbs tofutti better n’ cream cheese

 

Directions: 

 

For the kheema:

 

In a large cast iron skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, start to brown your tempeh over medium heat along with the first 2 tbs braggs, garlic powder, and onion powder. Cook until it starts to brown, stirring pretty much constantly to prevent any major sticking. You may have to give another spray or two of your nonstick. Once pretty well browned, add in your squash, carrots, almond milk, ketchup, other 2 tbs braggs, and seasonings. Stir to make sure that everything is well mixed together. Keep over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to steam, at which point, reuse the heat, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once your carrots and squash are tender, and the milk is absorbed, add in your peas, stir, remove from heat and get to preparing your topping. You could also transfer this to your pan of choice at this point.

 

For the topping and assembly:

 

Preheat your oven to 375F.

 

Boil your squash in enough water to cover it until it is falling apart tender. Once at this stage, drain and return to your saucepan along with the 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup almond milk, and oats. Cook this over medium heat until it gets thick and creamy. When it has cooked, reduce to low, add in your spices and tofutti, stir to mix thoroughly (basically to ensure the tofutti melts into the mixture…) and spoon on top of your kheema. Spritz with nonstick cooking spray and bake for 25 minutes.

So no cooking today. I was at the field band conference from a little before 8 in the morning, left around 1 pm, got back home around 4 pm, packed my bags, at dinner (‘shroom scramble!), went grocery shopping, and got back to my apartment just about an hour ago. Uhhhg. Busy. No time to exercise, which is making me a little anxious. But all in all it was a good day. My sister’s marching band did good (proud of ya, Rigby!), I got to walk around the University campus which is BEAUTIFUL for those of you who’ve never been to Syracuse, I was able to buy two kabocha squash at the grocery, found some kale finally, found some affordable brussels sprouts FINALLY…and I am almost done with my reading. Which makes me very, very happy.

Now I have to finish my reading, do discussion questions, maybe study a little bit of ethics…but for now a question for you all…

Who has seen that new So Delicious! Coconut Milk brand Greek Style coconut milk yohgurt? For the life of me, I’ve been looking for it everywhere and haven’t been able to find it yet…is it even commercially available yet?

Vegan MoFo Day 29: Stuffing tofu, breakfast goodies, and general playing catch-up

Hey all, sorry I’ve missed posting for the past few days. School has been a killer this week…it was just non-stop work. I really ought to be doing work right now, but I’m affording myself a little bit of a break this weekend. I still have a little Hindi to finish, a chapter in a book to read (thankfully it’s short…), discussion questions, studying/practicing Hindi (that’s a given…), and studying for ethics…ugh. Too much to do, with too little time.

I was at least able to cook a little during small breaks on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I was in a major mood for tofu. I have an abnormal love for tofu. I very much enjoy eating it lightly pressed and uncooked. Probably not everyone is like this, but well…I am. So if you don’t like the taste or texture of lightly cooked, unseasoned tofu the next recipe is not, and I repeat NOT for you. But if you’re adventurous, this will not disappoint…

Eat me!

Stuffed Tofu Surprise (for tofu lovers only)

 

Serves: 1 major tofu lover

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1/4 block pressed lite firm tofu (I use Nasoya)
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree (canned or homemade
• 1-3 tsp tofutti cream cheese (depending on how much you want a cheesecake-y taste)**
• 3 packets stevia extract in the raw
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

 

Directions:

 

This is only for tofu lovers because well…the tofu is pretty much unflavoured other than the stuffing.

 

Preheat your oven to 350F.

 

As best you can, scoop out the middle of your tofu block (I did this from the side that would allow the deepest amount of filling).

Put the scooped out tofu in a food processor along with your pumpkin, tofutti (or cashew butter), sweetener, and spices. Puree.

Then stuff the puree into the pocket that you created in the tofu. Spread the remaining puree on the top and sides of your tofu block (and then draw a face on it with one of those Wilton brand icing tubes if you have no life, like me...).

Bake for about 15 minutes, basically just to warm the tofu cube, and enjoy, you tofu loving fiend!

I came up with this one day while walking to campus. I’ll tell you, some weird stuff and ideas come about when you don’t talk to people all day long. You start talking to your tofu instead…scary.

For those of you who would like to eat something a little more well…normal, then this recipe is for you. It’s good for breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner. Dessert um…no so much.

Spinach, Squash and, ‘Shroom Hash

 

Serves 1

 

Ingredients:

 

• 2-3 oz cubed kabocha squash
• 2-3 oz rough chopped oyster mushrooms
• 1-1 1/2 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1/2 tbs each: garlic powder, onion powder
• 1 large handful of baby spinach

 

Directions:

 

Boil your squash in a saucepan until just tender and pierceable with a fork. Drain in a strainer and set aside.

 

In a smallish cast iron skillet, spray some nonstick cooking spray and cook your mushrooms over medium heat. After cooking them for a minute or so, add in your braggs, and onion and garlic powder. Stir together and cook for about another 4 or so minutes. Add in your handful of spinach, mix everything together to incorporate the spinach into your mushrooms, and cook until the spinach is wilted. Add in your cooked squash, stir, remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and munch!

 

Variation: Try adding some tofu or tempeh instead of, or just before the mushrooms. Beans would also be a nice addition, if you’re looking to up your protein or fiber intake. Also, try experimenting with different greens. 

And for those of you who want something both breakfast-y and dessert-y then THIS is for you. It is so good, I feel totally and utterly guilty for eating one

Sweet Surprise Cinnamon Roll

Yields: 16 smallish rolls, or 12 larger rolls

Adapted from Healthy Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns by Side of Sneakers

Ingredients:

Carrot Puree:

• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 2 packets of stevia extract in the raw
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Rolls:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 packet quick rise yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/4 cup carrot puree
• 1/4 cup stevia extract in the raw (or white sugar)
• 1 tbs baking powder
• a pinch of salt

Filling:

• Remaining carrot puree (a little over 1/4 cup)
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1/4 cup stevia extract in the raw (or white sugar)
• 1 tbs cinnamon

Icing:

• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbs tofutti better n’ cream cheese
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Boil your carrots until they are very very tender. Transfer to a food processor along with the stevia, cinnamon, and vanilla, Puree until there’s pretty much no more lumps left. Set aside.

In a measuring cup that can hold 2 cups of liquid, warm up your milk in the microwave for a minute. Then pour in your packet of yeast, tsp of sugar, stir and allow it to bloom. That should take around 10 to 15 minutes. The longer your let it bloom, the more bubbly and puffy it’ll get. One bloomed, add into a mixing bowl along with 1 cup of flour, the oats, puree, stevia (or sugar), baking powder, and salt. Mix. Add in another cup of flour and mix again. Repeat with the remaining cup and then transfer to a floured surface and kneed for 10 minutes, adding flour as needed. Lightly re-flour your surface, and roll out your dough into a roughly 12×8 inch rectangle.

In a smallish bowl, mix together your filling ingredients and spread evenly on your dough rectangle. Then, roll up as you would a jelly roll cake.

Spray an 11×7 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Slice your “roll” into 12 to 16 rolls, arranging them cut side down in the pan.

Now preheat your oven to 350F and let your rolls raise while the oven preheats. Once heated, bake for 20 minutes.

Now you have two choiced…allow them to cool before icing, or ice right away. Just mix the icing ingredients together until there are no lumps, drizzle over the rolls, and enjoy!

And why “Sweet Surprise,” you ask? Because of the carrots! I wish I had some whole wheat flour to use in this recipe, alas I did not. Having them be whole wheat would make me feel marginally less guilty about eating one. It’s kind of awful…I feel like that the food I’m eating is total junk and that I should be eating a lot more healthfully than I am. I feel like it’s completely irrational for me to be eating something like a cinnamon roll. *sigh* but that’s just me…I wish I had a rational attitude towards consuming food

Vegan MoFo Day 26: On making attempts…

Ya win some, ya lose some. Honestly, I couldn’t think it could be more true. And I think it is not easy in the least to even being to make an attempt at changing something. Or starting something (or finishing something…). People don’t like change, it’s just a fact. I’ve said it before (and it’s been a while since I’ve even contemplated this idea…)…we as humans have this idea of fixation and permanence in a world that is in a constant state of change, with no objective “perfect” standard. For anything. So I guess what I’m saying is…it’s okay to try new things?  Don’t be lazy? Don’t get down on yourself?

Okay. There’s my positivity for the day. Now let me get back to my “Debbie Downer” attitude towards life and re-achieve normalcy. So tonight I “attempted” at making a vindaloo style dish with eggplant and shiitake mushrooms. You know what I found out? I really don’t like eggplant. I had to throw the whole dish out, which is something I haven’t done in ages. I just would have never eaten it. I feel bad for wasting food, but man. Not good.

But what was good was my lunch. Which consisted of all “safe foods” for me…all super healthy, low calorie foods that I like.

Spinach Mushroom Scramble

 

Serves 1

 

Ingredients:

 

• 2 oz lite silken tofu, mashed with a fork
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/8 tsp kala namak
• a pinch of turmeric for colour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 oz oyster mushrooms, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup (1 large handful) baby spinach

 

Directions:

 

Mash together your tofu with your spices in a cereal bowl.

 

In a smallish cast iron skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, start to cook your mushrooms over medium-low heat, no stirring. After about 3-ish minutes when they start getting a little bit brown and cooked looking, add in your tofu mash, and cook for about another 3-5 minutes, or even a little longer if you like to have your scrambles a little crispy. Then add in your handful of baby spinach, cook until totally wilted and mixed in, and serve. I like mine with a squirt of ketchup.

I know, it’s more of a breakfast than lunch. But a nice warm tofu scramble is nice on a sh***y day.

I also totally refuted what I said yesterday about not baking anything by making a mock-Starbucks loaf, akin to their marble pound cake. Except for it’s low in calories, fat free, and guilt free. That is “guilt free” for anyone but me, the worlds biggest carbo-phobe. Not matter how “healthy” I make something, I always feel guilty for making something like this and eating it and enjoying it. It makes me feel awfully gluttonous. But that’s just me…you all deserve to enjoy this loaf…

Marbled Loaf Cake

 

Yields: 1 9×5 loaf

 

Ingredients:

 

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup xylitol (I use Ideal brand)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup soy yohgurt (I use Silk Live!)
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbs cocoa powder
• 1 tsp chocolate extract (optional)
• 1 tsp espresso powder (optional)

 

Directions:

 

Preheat your oven to 400F and spray your loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

 

In a mixing bowl, combine your four, sweetener, baking soda and salt. Add in your applesauce, soy yohgurt, vanilla, lemon juice and water. Mix to combine. Transfer half of your batter into a smaller mixing bowl. To the larger bowl add in the cocoa powder and the optional ingredients, if using. Marble into your loaf pan by alternating dollops of the two batters, and swirling them together with a fork or knife. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing.

So what do you think…is it a bad idea to be incorporating something like a treat such as this back into my diet? Granted, it’s only adding in about 100 calories more a day…but should I try to eat something healthier instead?

Marble Loaf with pumpkin puree, tofutti cream cheese, and orange marmalade...

Should one allow oneself a treat like this, or just try to stick to strictly health foods?

 

Vegan MoFo Day 25: Is it Friday yet?

Because I’m so ready for it to be Friday. I seriously have been reading the same book since about 5 this afternoon. My. Brain. Hurts. And I feel like I’ve totally carb-o-loaded. Which is not making me happy. I’m trying to make a concerted effort to consume a few more calories a day since my intake is so low, and that is totally freaking me out. I feel like the “extra” food I consume is junk food that will make me fat…like I have the mindset of “I could have eaten 100 calories worth of something healthier.” I suppose after today I’ll refrain from baking for myself for a while to avoid the carbs. I need to focus on consuming only healthy food. God only knows what I’ll do with the rest of what I made tonight…this is delicious and all, but the carbs are throwing me out of whack…

Spiced Pumpkin Spinach Pizza

 

Yields 1 pizza, 1 8-9″ round or 1 8×8 square flatbread

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1/2 recipe basic pizza dough (I made mine with white whole wheat flour)
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (or homemade pumpkin puree)
• 1/2 tsp each: garlic powder, ginger powder, garam masala
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup (1 good sized handful) baby spinach

 

Directions:

 

Have ready your pizza dough, for starters.

 

Preheat your oven to 400F. Prepare your pan of choice by spraying with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkling with cornmeal. Stretch/press your dough to fit the pan that you chose. In a mixing bowl, mix together so there are no spice-lumps the pumpkin puree and spices. Spread evenly onto the dough. Top with the spinach and bake for 17 minutes. Serve!

 

Variation(s): Mushrooms, onions, broccoli, and other leafy greens would make a great addition to this. I was just lazy, hand no time, and didn’t bother putting anything additional on my pizza.

Uhhg…I feel so unaccomplished today. All I did was read this evening and I didn’t even finish all of the chapter…and I still have a bibliography to write up. Forget wanting it to be Friday…I want it to be December 8th already so I can be done with classes for the semester! Alas…it will come soon enough, right?

So what do you do when you feel like what you’ve eaten is “wrong?” Do you just let it go and hope tomorrow is a better day?

Vegan MoFo Day 24: You know you’re too busy when…

1) You feel totally weighed down, even though it’s only Monday.

2) You just spent 4 hours straight doing homework.

3) Even making a salad feels like an accomplishment.

Yeah, I had plans today to make some shepherd’s pie. Um…so yeah, that didn’t happen so much. It is kind of amazing how much time it feels like you lose staying on campus for an extra hour and a half. I decided to do that today, to get some extra Hindi practice in. That was all well and good but MAN I felt like I was in a total time crunch when I got back to my apartment.

I started my work immediately when I got back, and I seriously have been working almost constantly from that point (oh around quarter after 5) to about a half an hour ago (oh around 10:30). I did manage to take an hour out of that time to whip up a quick salad to last me a few days:

Meethee Subzi Salad with a Spiced Yohgurt Glaze

 

Yields 6 cups

 

Ingredients:

 

• 3 cups cubed kabocha squash, boiled until just able to pierce with a fork (6 or so minutes)
• 2 cups chopped cauliflower, steamed for 5 minutes
• 1 cup chopped carrots, steamed for 12 minutes
• 1/4 block (about 1/2 cup) cubed lite firm tofu (I use Nasoya)
• 2 tbs soy yohgurt (I use Silk Live!)
• 1 tbs jaggery (or brown sugar)
• 1 tbs water (or non-dairy milk)
• 1 finely chopped date
• 1/8 tsp each: ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cardamom

 

Directions: 

 

In a large mixing bowl, combine your cooked vegetables and your tofu (I don’t cook my tofu before adding it).

 

In a small bowl, whisk together your soygurt, sweetener, finely chopped date, and spices.

 

Add this to your vegetables, stir to coat, and serve chilled.

Perhaps I’ll get around to making a shepherd’s pie tomorrow. Or maybe a pumpkin pizza. Or something. Hopefully something. I don’t think I have too much work to do. Only a chapter to read in Reconsidering Untouchability, discussion questions, a bibliography, studying for an Ethics exam coming up in two weeks, an Ethics reading and well…that’s it.

What is your favourite thing to eat when there is not enough time to actually cook?

Vegan MoFo Day 23: But why’s all the kale gone??

Food shortages of food are not fun.

Especially when what is lacking is my precious kale! I swear, the last three times I’ve went to the supermarket, there has been either A. Crappy looking old kale or B. NO KALE AT ALL! WHAA? AND to top it all off, I just bought the last three packs of mori-nu lite silken tofu tonight. Eeps. I best not run out…otherwise that means no more pudding!

But anyways, I was able to get around to cooking a bit today, when I wasn’t finishing up my next chapter for my caste course reading. I know my theme is “souper sunday” but I decided to make a curry instead. Which is sort of a stew, right? So how about I bend my own terms a bit and make it “stewper sunday” instead. Man that sounds cheese-y. Quick, make some curry before I say something else stupid…

Gobi aur Kaddu Curry 

Yields ~7 Cups

Submitted as a Wellness Weekend Recipe at DDD

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped kabocha squash (or other winter squash)
• 4 cups chopped cauliflower
• 2 cups chopped broccoflower (or additional cauliflower, or broccoli)
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup almond (or coconut) milk, divided
• 2 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1 tsp sriracha
• heaping 1/2 tsp each: garlic and onion powders
• heaping 1/4 tsp each: coriander powder, ginger powder, turmeric
• 3 oz finely chopped kale

Directions: 

First, a little prep-work. Boil your kale until just barely tender (ie you can pierce it with a fork without it breaking apart), drain, and set aside.

Steam you cauliflower and broccoflower for 4 minutes (this can be done at the same time, size of steamer provided).

Now in a large cast iron skillet, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray over medium-low heat, first add in your squash, cook, stirring for a minute, and add in the rest of your cooked veggies. Now add in your ketchup, water, 2 tbs “milk,” the braggs, sriracha and seasonings. Mix to make sure that everything is coated. Cook over this sustained heat, stirring constantly for around 5-10 minutes. Now add in your kale and remaining 2 tbs of “milk.” Stir everything together, wilting the kale as it mixes into your curry. Serve warm with rice or your preferred flatbread.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hindi terms, “kaddu” is referring to the squash (even though it is technically the term for pumpkin…), and in this case “gobi” can either be referring to the kale, cauliflower, or broccoflower. For some weird reason, “gobi” means all of these (and cabbage!) in Hindi *shrugs* don’t ask me why!

Speaking of Hindi, I have a quiz to study for for tomorrow.

Best get on that…but for now a question….

Halloween is almost a week away. What are you planning on making? Dressing up as anything? Having any wicked vegan Halloween parties? Handing out vegan candy to little children? Scaring little children?

Vegan MoFo Day 22: I come baring sweets and pie!

Mmmm...cookie pie bars. As an apology gift for missing the fast few days of posting. I was wicked busy last week writing numerous essays and reading half of a book regarding the signifigance and relevance of the Chamar’s position in the caste system and Indian society…but that’s all finished! Woo! For once, it feels nice to have some free-ish time. I swear, the one post I made over the course of the week was like the one and only time I got to cook anything at all. THAT is how busy I was. Total. Insanity. Anyways! I was at least able to make myself stuff like yummy tofu pudding, and I was able to have my various curries I made at the beginning of the week…and soup as well.

Salted Caramel Mocha Tofu Pudding!

This pudding (seen above) is one I made over the course of last week…

Salted Caramel Mocha Tofu Pudding

• 1/2 block lite silken tofu (mori-nu)
• 3 packets of stevia extract in the raw
• 1 heaping spoonful of instant espresso powder (like the sort of spoon you eat cereal with…)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 capfuls chocolate extract
• 1 capful caramel extract
• a few granules of fleur de sal/coarse sea salt (NOT TOO MANY!!!)

Just puree everything but the salt in a food processor until there are no more tofu lumps. Scrape into a bowl, sprinkle GINGERLY with the salt and enjoy. Feel fancy. I sure did.

As for today, I whipped up two batches of cookies for Rigby’s school’s marching band’s field show. I made the cookie pie bars and a batch of pinwheels, since they’re her fav.

And for dinner tonight I decided to venture away from my usual Indian cuisine, and made some *super delicious* Italian food!

Italian Polenta Pie of LoveYields 1 pie

Submitted as a Wellness Weekend Recipe at DDD

Ingredients:

Cashew Ricotta:

• 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least an hour
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• heaping 1/4 tsp garlic and onion powders
• 1/8 tsp coriander powder
• a healthy pinch of salt

Cheezy-Herby Polenta Base:

• 1 1/2 cups water or broth
• 1/2 cup polenta (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
• 1 1/2 tbs nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder and onion powder
• a healthy pinch of: dried oregano, dried basil, salt

“Beans and Greens” Sauce:

• 1 small onion, sliced into thin half-moons
• 1 cup cooked black beans (canned is fine)
• 1 7 oz can tomato sauce
• 2 tbs ketchup
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1 tsp sriracha
• 1/2 tsp garlic and onion powders
• a healthy pinch of: dried basil, dried parsley, dried oregano
• 1 cup finely chopped kale

Directions: 

It is considerably easier to make the “ricotta” ahead of time, so let’s start with that. Blend together all of your ricotta ingredients in a food processor. Want it to still be a bit lumpy, not totally pureed. It gives it that “ricotta” texture. If you’re making this well in advance (ie the night before or morning of), transfer to a container and set in the fridge until ready to use. If you’re going to go straight forward with the rest of the recipe, then just set aside until you’re ready to use it. It will thicken a tad.

Preheat your oven to 400F.

In a saucepan, bring your 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Once a boil has been reached, whisk in your polenta, reduce the heat to low and stir constantly until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. When it has got rather thick after that amount of time, add in your nooch, garlic powder, onion powder, dried herbs, and salt. Whisk everything together. When mixed, press this mixture into a pie plate sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a cast iron skillet, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, sauté your onions over medium heat. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until they start to soften. Add the cooked beans, and cook for about another 3 minutes, giving another spray of cooking spray if things start to stick. Reduce heat to low and add the tomato sauce, ketchup, vinegar, and other remaining ingredients other than the kale. Keep on low heat and mix. Now add in your finely chopped kale, and mix everything together until the kale is pretty well wilted. Remove from heat and spread this mixture over your polenta base. Top all of this with your cashew ricotta, give a quick spritz of nonstick cooking spray (for browning purposes), and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, and enjoy!

OR if you don’t care if your polenta breaks up a little upon removal from the pan…dig right in!

Tomorrow I’ll return to my fav cuisine. I’m thinking baingan bharta, and some sort of soup/stew with tofu in it…

What are you planning on making this weekend?

Vegan MoFo Day 19: Missing posts and mystery veg

What is that crazy looking thing? An underwater sea castle? A mysterious alien spacecraft? No my friends…it’s broccoflower. Or romanesco. Or green cauliflower. Whatever you prefer to call it…it is yet another super healthy, super tasty member of the brassica family of vegetables, just like cauliflower and broccoli. And I got one at the university farmer’s market today!

I’ll tell ya what, I couldn’t have been happier that it was farmers market day today. I was so out of ideas for what to make myself this week. I ended up allowing myself a little time to cook and bake this evening considering I didn’t get the chance to at all yesterday (I still have to conclude my essay and go over it to put in citations…and read another chapter in Reconsidering Untouchability…). But anyways…today I bought up my broccoflower, a big bunch of kale (which is awesome because I was totally out of greens…), a spaghetti squash, and an eggplant (baingan bharta!). Now this means I have plenty of inspiration for recipes that don’t just include various combinations of squash and cauliflower. Woo! Take tonight for example. Now from what I can conclude, a korma is simply a curry that contains some sort of cream, or a nut or seed paste. And that’s what this is. I don’t like a lot of gravy in my curry (I prefer dry curries really…), so this is a bit unlike your typical, thick-gravy kormas. It’s good all the same:

Mixed Veggie Korma

Yields: 6 cups

Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped broccoflower, steamed for 5 minutes
• 2 cups chopped cauliflower, steamed for 5 minutes
• 1 cup chopped kabocha squash, boiled until just tender
• 1 cup chopped broccoli, steamed for 5 minutes
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1 tsp sriracha

Spice paste:

• 10 cashews
• seeds from 3 green cardamom pods (or 1/2 tsp cardamom powder)
• 1 tsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, ginger powder, coriander powder
• a healthy pinch of salt
• black pepper, to taste
• 1-2 tbs water

Directions:

In a spice grinder, grind together all of your paste ingredients (other than the water) into a fine powder. Transfer this to a small dish along with the water, mixing to make a paste. Set this aside.

In a large cast iron skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, combine all of your cooked veg over medium heat. Add in your paste, 1/2 cup of water, ketchup, braggs, and sriracha. Cook, stirring to make sure everything gets mixed together, for around 10 minutes, or until your “gravy” starts to bubble and thicken up just a tad. Serve warm with rice or chapati.

If you can’t find broccoflower or just plain don’t like it, go ahead and use any combination of cauliflower and/or broccoli as long as it adds up to 6 cups chopped, raw.

I even got around to making a dessert tonight as well!

I had a can of open pumpkin puree to use up an thus…this was born! It is more of a loaf-style cake than a loaf of bread, but take it how you will.

Pumpkin Loaf Cake

Yields: 1 9×5 loaf

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup xylitol (I use Ideal brand)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (canned is fine)
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F and spray your loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, combine your four, sweetener, baking soda and salt. Add in your “wet ingredients” and mix. The batter will be very thick and it may seem like you’ll want to add more liquid, but don’t. Just keep mixing until everything is combined. Spread into your loaf pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing.

And it is absolutely divine with this tasty spread…

Gingerbread Dip

Yields: 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped cauliflower, steamed or boiled until very tender
• 1 14 oz can white beans (or chickpeas)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbs xylitol (or preferred sweetener)
• 2 tbs blackstrap molasses
• 1 tbs jaggery (or brown sugar. Omit if sweetening with brown sugar)
• 1 tbs sesame tahini or nut butter (hazelnut would be good…)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ginger powder

Directions:

Puree until very smooth, around 5 minutes, scraping the sides as necessary. Eaaaaat.

Man, I was busy tonight! Well, I think I’m gonna hit the sack now. Tomorrow comes early and I have an essay to finish and a book to read. I’m just too tired to tonight. Damn the business of mid-semester!

Wellness Weekend Recipes

Vegan MoFo Day 17: Free time? What is this “free time” of which you speak?

Like seriously. I swear I have ZERO hours of free time this week, and that means to cook to! I somehow managed to scrape an hour out tonight to make my ‘make ahead’ meal for the week, but still that left me feeling like I had no time to do homework! Maybe I’m just anal about my work? Because let’s see…I have two pages done out of a four page essay that is due Friday. I completed my Hindi homework (I just need to copy a few more notes down…). And I have to read the Introduction and first chapter of a book called Rethinking Untouchability for my caste course. Oh, not to mention I have to look for some sort of ‘life history’ for a book presentation for that course AND start building a bibliography for my final research project! AHHG!

*sigh* Anyways. Here’s what I managed to throw together tonight…it should last a few days…

Narangi Curry (Orange Curry)

 

Yields: 6 cups

 

Ingredients:

 

• 3 cups chopped cauliflower
• 2 cups chopped broccoli
• 2 cups chopped kabocha squash
• 1 cup chopped mango (frozen is fine)
• 1 cup cubed firm tofu, lightly pressed (I used Nasoya Lite Firm Tofu)
• 1/4 cup each: soy yohgurt, tomato ketchup, water
• 1/4 tsp tamarind concentrate
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder and garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp garam masala, cardamom powder
• 1/8 tsp turmeric, coriander powder
• a pinch of salt

 

Directions:

 

In your preferred steaming vessel, steam your cauliflower and broccoli for five minutes. In a small saucepan, boil your squash until just tender, drain, and set aside. In a large cast iron skillet (sprayed with nonstick cooking spray) over medium heat, combine your cooked vegetables, the chopped mango, soygurt, ketchup, water, tamarind concentrate, and seasonings. Mix everything together. Cook over medium-low heat for about 10-15 minutes, or until the mango starts to cook down some. Once cooked, remove from heat, stir in your cube tofu and serve.

And it’s only called “orange curry” because well…it’s rather orange in colour. Not because there is oranges in the curry.

I also whipped up some pudding…

Mmmm…pudding. Pudding makes the world and a-ok place to be. Even when bogged down with work.

What do you do when you feel like you have nothing to do but work? Do you allow yourself some “down time?”

Vegan MoFo Day 16: Soup for days and essays

Uhhg, the latter is not so fun. I have my first major essay due this coming Friday in my course on the caste system and guess what…I have to use Chicago style citation! I don’t know how to do Chicago style citations! Or footnotes for that matter (Anyone care to enlighten me? Like seriously.) It seriously confuses me. And it isn’t as if I have that fancy new Microsoft Word software where it basically does the citation for you (I use TextEdit on my Mac). But anyways…that’s the fun I have planned for this week. Thankfully it only has to be 4-6 pages long, so that should be cake. Pssh, I hope I have time to make a cake. Or anything for that matter. I will try my best to getting to posting something each day of this week (sorry about missing Friday…no time for veganizing the FN last week), but I don’t think that I will concentrate on a movie theme. No time for that type of creativity.

To last me most of the week for meals, I made a huge batch of my Curiouser and Curiouser Soup today. And, I made a small batch of a new type of stew…and I must say, it’s mighty tasty…

Garam Kheema Subzi Stew (Warm “Kheema” and Vegetable Stew)

Yields: 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs TVP granules soaked in 2 tbs water with 1 tsp braggs liquid aminos and a pinch each of garlic, ginger, and onion powders**
• 2 cup chopped cauliflower
• 1 cup chopped kabocha squash
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1 tsp sriracha
• 1/4 tsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, ginger powder, garam masala
• 1 tbs besan flower mixed with 1 tbs water

Directions:

In a measuring cup, pour your mixture of water, liquid aminos, and spices over your TVP and let it sit for about 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed.

In a saucepan, add together the chopped cauliflower and kabocha squash with the water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and simmer until tender, but not falling apart. Once tender, reduce the heat to low and add in your peas, ketchup, sriracha, and seasonings and stir. In a measuring cup, make a slurry out of the tablespoon of besan flour and water, and add this to your soup. Stir, raise the heat to medium-low, cook for another minute or two to warm up and serve.

[Wellness Weekend Recipe]

I also quick whipped up a dessert for the fam before I left for my apartment for the week. I decided to make well…this!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Yields: 1 big-ass cookie pie

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies (plain Chocolate Chip Cookie Variation…or whichever you prefer)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375F. Spray a 9″ pie plate with nonstick cooking spray. Prepare you dough as per the recipe. Press into the pie plate and bake for 16-18 minutes. Allow to cool COMPLETELY before slicing (otherwise they won’t slice…you wouldn’t go around slicing a warm cookie now, would you?)

Just don’t eat the whole pan at one time, loves. Remember…it’s a whole batch of cookies in ONE PAN which means major calories per slice. Restrain yourselves

Now I must be off…I have a reading on the Chamars of Madhopur to finish reading. Until tomorrow!