Asparagus and Tofu Pad Thai

I was hoping winter was over. I know, I know- it's still February. I really enjoyed the 70 degree sunshine last week, though. Now it's cold and snowy again. Oh well, at least it's a good excuse to cook!

• 7 oz rice noodles, cooked and kept warm
  
• 2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
• 4 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1-2 Tbsp agave nectar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup asparagus, chopped
• 8 oz baked tofu, cut into 1/4 inch thick pieces (you can use pre-baked "Thai" flavored tofu, or you can marinate tofu in soy sauce and bake it yourself!)
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
  
• 1/2 white onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp minced ginger
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
  
• crushed peanuts and chopped cilantro for topping

1. I know this looks like a lot of ingredients, but it's really very easy.
   
2. Saute the onion, garlic, and ginger in the sesame oil.
3. While that is sauteing, make the sauce by mixing the soy sauce, agave nectar, peanut butter, and lemon juice.
4. Once the onion has started to soften, add the asparagus and tofu.
5. When the tofu is heated through and asparagus turns bright green, add the bean sprouts, green onion, and sauce. Mix.
   
6. Stir in the noodles, top with cilantro and crushed peanuts. Eat!

Vegan McMuffins

Everyone loves brinner (breakfast for dinner) but sometimes you want something other than pancakes all the time. Try these little guys with a side of hash browns (just grate a couple potatoes and fry them in Earth Balance and season with salt and pepper).

• 1 pound drained tofu
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 t salt
• vegan Canadian bacon or sausage (I used Yves Canadian Bacon)
  
• vegan cheese slices (I used Vegan Gourmet)
• English Muffins (try making your own like these!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and salt in a ceramic baking dish.
3. After draining and pressing the tofu, cut it into 1/4 inch slices (or you could get fancy and make circles to match the English Muffins).
4. Bake the tofu in the baking dish containing the vinegar/oil/salt for 13-15 minutes. Flip and bake for 10 more minutes until slightly browned
5. Place the Canadian bacon, cheese, and tofu on the English Muffin and heat in the oven or microwave until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

This recipe brought to you by The Black Angels album "Passover"

English Muffins

Nothing makes me more excited/angrier than discovering I can make something at home when I've been buying it at the store for years. English muffins are now one of those things.

• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 1/4 t active dry yeast (one package)
  
• 1 cup warm water
  
• 1/4 cup melted shortening
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. First, stir the yeast into the warm water. Let it set until it starts foaming and smells "yeasty" (5-10 minutes).
2. While the yeast is foaming, warm the milk in a saucepan. Dissolve the sugar in the milk. Add the shortening and let it melt.
3. Add this milk/yeast/shortening mixture to 3 cups of flower and the yeast-water. Mix. Once it is combined, add the rest of the flour (only use as much as necessary to form a soft dough.
4. Knead the dough for 5 minutes or so until it's sort of elastic. Put the dough in a greased bowl and let rise for 45-60 minutes.
5. After the dough has risen, punch it down and use a rolling pin to roll it out so it's about 1/2 inch thick. Using a drinking glass (or biscuit cutter if you want to get fancy) cut circles. I got about 18 muffins. Try to get them as close together as possible- it's really hard to re-roll out the dough.
6. Place the circles on a piece of waxed paper that you have sprinkled with corn meal. Sprinkle the top of the muffins with corn meal as well. Cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes.
7. Cook the muffins on a griddle on medium heat- about 10 minutes on each side. I just kept squeezing the sides until they felt soft but cooked through.

This recipe brought to you by the new Radiohead album, "The King of Limbs".

Philly Cheez Steak Sandwiches

Cooking with friends is one of the greatest joys of my life. It’s a great way to be involved in what you end up eating. Everyone contributes and makes suggestions and has a good time. It turns a simple meal into a whole evening event. That’s why these Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches are SO good. They are kind of complicated, but the end result is SO WORTH IT! There are 4 basic components: The bread, the seitan, the veggies, and the cheez sauce. Here we go!

Bread

You can basically use whatever kind of bread you want. I recommend some sort of sandwich bun type situation. I was lucky enough in this meal to have bread made by my good friend.

Seitan

I like making seitan from scratch. It’s so much cheaper than buying prepackaged.

• 1.5 cup vital wheat gluten
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 t salt
• 2 t. paprika
• 1/4 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. cumin
• 1-2 t. pepper
• 1/8 t. cayenne pepper
• 3/4 c. veggie broth
• 4 T. tomato paste
• 2 T. olive oil
• 2 T. vegan Worcestershire sauce
• 1-3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 cups veggie/”not beef” broth

Mix everything together in a bowl. Once it’s pretty well mixed, start kneading it. When I made it, I did not add any more flour. It was kind of sticky, but it stayed in a ball pretty well and I wanted to make sure it didn’t get too chewy. Once you have kneaded it for about 5 minutes, roll it out so it is about an inch thick. Cut it into pretty thin slices (something like ¼ inch thick and 2 inches long). Remember- you are trying to mimic Philly cheese steaks, which have really thin pieces of steak. The seitan will also expand a little when you cook it. It’s kind of time consuming to slice it so thinly, but it makes it so much better. After it has all been sliced, boil it in the 4 cups veggie/ “not beef” broth for 35-40 minutes. I made this the night before and let it marinate in some vegan Worcestershire sauce overnight.

Veggies

Just sauté up some onions, green peppers, and mushrooms in some olive oil with a little bit of garlic, salt and pepper to taste.

Cheez sauce

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegan margarine
• Salt & pepper to taste
  

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a sauce pan. Add the water and stir until everything is mixed. Add the margarine and heat until it is as thick as you want.

Once all the components are done, put the seitan and veggies on your bread, cover in sauce and try not to cry at the deliciousness.

Pulled Ports

This is one of those meals that can be as easy or as difficult as you want. I (of course) think that the more of this you make yourself, the better it will taste!

• 2 portobello mushrooms (stems removed, washed)
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 T olive oil
  

If you want to stop here, feel free. Just saute the mushrooms, onions, and garlic in olive oil and top with store bought BBQ sauce. Pour over some bread and eat. Pretty yummy.

• 5 oz can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 T liquid smoke
• 2 T black strap molasses
  
• 2 t garlic powder
• 1/4 t red pepper flakes (more or less depending on how hot you want it. I'm sort of a wuss)
• 1 t salt
• 1t pepper
  
• 1/2 bottle of beer (I used Boulevard Wheat because it was what I was drinking while making this)

If you want to make it more complicated (and in my opinion, more delicious), you can make your own BBQ sauce. I've been experimenting with different recipes. I like this, but I'm still working on it. Just mix everything in a sauce pan and heat. Pour sauce over sauteed mushroom/onions and mix. Enjoy over some hearty (homemade) bread and enjoy with some veggies. On a side note, why do brussels sprouts get such a bad rep? They're delicious!

Chocolate Covered Coconut Balls

I love Mounds bars. Chocolate + Coconut = Heaven! Sadly, Mounds are not vegan (and have some weird ingredients I can't pronounce). Luckily, they are easy to make. Before we start, let's all take a minute and giggle at the word "balls". I will use it multiple times in this recipe, and I thought we should get the giggling out of the way early (c:

• 1 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (unless you use sweetened coconut)
• Approx 3 T agave nectar- or however much you need to get the coconut to stick together.

• 4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Almond Milk

Combine coconut, powdered sugar and agave nectar. Wet your hands and roll mixture into balls (I made 16). Place these on waxed paper and stick them the freezer while you do the next step. Melt the chocolate and sugar over a double boiler. Add the almond milk a little at a time until the chocolate mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat. Roll the cold coconut balls in the chocolate mixture. Place the now-chocolate-covered coconut balls on waxed paper and place back in the freezer until the chocolate sets. Eat!

French Toast

Happy Sunday!
French Toast

• 2 cups soy milk (or other non-dairy milk. I bet almond would be good!)
• 4 T flour
• 3 t sugar
• 8 slices bread (I just used store bought, but I think homemade would hold up better)
• non stick spray
• powdered sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup, etc. for topping

Mix soy milk, flour, and sugar in bowl or pie plate. Dip bread into mixture on both sides. Cook on griddle that has been coated with nonstick spray until lightly browned. Flip and repeat. Top with whatever your heart desires and serve.

TVP Taco Filling

Some days it is Friday and all you want to do is stop on your way home from work and pick up something for dinner. But on some of those Fridays, you will only have $5 in your checking account and will somehow have to come up with $10 to pay to see your husband's improv troupe perform at Thunderdome (everyone should go and vote BTW!). On those days, making something quick and easy is almost as good. Here is a recipe for TVP taco filling. (TVP stands for texturized vegetable protein- not the best sounding ingredient, but it's very versatile and very good. Vegans need a PR person to rename some of these ingredients...) It is great for tacos, nachos, etc. Tonight, I made nachos with TVP, salsa, and sour cream (feel free to use this recipe)

TVP Taco filling

• 1 cup TVP
• 1 cup veggie broth (I used "not beef broth")
• taco seasonings- cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper to taste)

Boil the veggie broth and spices. Once it starts to boil, remove from heat and add TVP. Let stand for 5 minutes to rehydrate. THAT'S IT. Super easy. Super good.

PS- when I was naming this post, I originally named it "TVP Taco FEELING". I don't know what that says about me...

Tempeh Tortilla Soup with Tofu Sour Cream

I love using the crock pot. The whole house smells AMAZING when I get home from work. Nothing is better on a frozen February day.


Tempeh Tortilla Soup

• 16oz Tempeh
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 can corn (drained)
• 1 can pinto beans (drained)
• 2 cups veggie broth (I used "Not Chick'n" bouillon cubes because they are the best I have found)
• 2t cumin (or so- I never really measure spices)
• Any fresh veggies you have around- I used onions and green peppers
  

Cut up the Tempeh and veggies into bite sized pieces. Add everything to the crockpot and cook on low for 8ish hours. Serve with vegan Sour Cream (use store bought or see below for a yummy recipe) and some tortilla chips.

Sour "Cream"

• 1 10.5 oz container of Tofu (crumbled)
• 1T olive/vegetable oil
• 2T apple cider vinegar
• 1t agave nectar
• 1t salt
• garlic/onion powder to taste

Put everything in a food processor or blender and mix until smooth.