Vegan MoFo Yellow Week Recipe Roundup – Chickpea Edition

I couldn’t go through a whole week of yellow foods without having at least some celebration of the chickpea!  Today I am sharing some recipes that showcase this wonderful legume.

Each and every one of these is a tried and true favorite of mine.  I can attest to their deliciousness AND the fact that they come together quickly.  This means that they are all great weeknight meals, and make great leftovers too!

From Cookbooks
Lemon Chickpea Lentil Soup from Eat Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton (click for recipe)

Tamari Roasted Chickpeas also from Eat Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton (click for recipe)

Chickpea Quinoa Pilaf from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terri Hope Romero (recipe reprinted here)

From the Blogosphere
Chick & Split Pea Curried Gravy (click for recipe) by How to Feed a Vegan (an oldie but goodie!  I posted about it way back in 2009!)

Maple Mustard Beans and Greens by Tina Haupert of Carrots ‘n’ Cake, for Health.com (click for recipe)

I made mine with frozen Swiss chard and corn (I didn’t have peas)

Chickpea Flour Pancakes Two Ways:
Jumbo Chickpea Pancake (click for recipe) by Angela of Oh She Glows
Chickpea Flour Pancakes with Cauliflower and Shiitake Mushrooms (click for recipe) by Vegan Richa

If that photo doesn’t make you want some, I don’t know what will!

If you have a favorite chickpea recipe, please share it in the comments!

Peanut Passion

Well, I knocked out my take-home exam yesterday, so today I’m going to finish my short paper and then get crackin on the long one.  All I really want to do is go for a run and spend the rest of the day drinking margaritas.  At least I have a mini-Cinco de Mayo fiesta with H to look forward to tonight.  I’m making Ancho Lentil Tacos from this recipe, posted Tuesday on the Post Punk Kitchen blog.  My lentils are currently simmering away, which I find very exciting.  We’re also going to have guacamole (duh) and Coronas.  Hooray!

Anyway, I don’t have that much time to post but I was feeling antsy about blogging so I am putting up some pictures of peanutty goodness that I recently enjoyed.

First up is the Love Bowl from Good Karma Café in Red Bank, NJ.  Menu description: Sautéed seasonal greens, brown rice, black beans and your choice of tofu or tempeh. Topped with your choice of sauces: Thai coconut, spicy peanut or sweet mustard sauce.

I chose tofu with spicy peanut sauce.

Good Karma is a vegan restaurant with alot of raw options and is close to my parents’ house so I gave it a try when I was visiting them for Passover a couple weeks back.  This thing was really…nourishing.  I mean, it tasted nourishing, if that makes sense.  The greens (I think they were collards) were quite bitter but the tofu and beans balanced it a little.  The sauce was really thick and filling.  Definitely not spicy, and I would have added hot sauce if I could have done so without having to travel past my grandmother’s watchful Passover eyes (tofu, beans, rice, and peanuts are all “kitnyot”…not strictly kosher for passover for many people) to get it!  I also think I would have enjoyed this more if the peanut sauce had been thinned and sweetened with a little agave for a better balance of flavors.  Overall, though, I liked it, and I’m looking forward to visiting Good Karma again next time I’m in NJ and trying some of the other yummy-sounding things on their menu.

Next we have my Easter dinner.  Ha, yes, I’m transitioning from Passover to Easter just like that.  H and I went to his family for dinner on Saturday night of Easter weekend and I was feeling a little awkward beforehand, since at that time I was contending with not only vegan food restrictions but Passover restrictions as well.  Hence, I brought my own dinner.  I felt like maybe this was a dick move, but his family was totally cool with it, and relieved too, I’m sure.  I hate being an inconvenience when other people are going out of their way to be nice and have me over for dinner.   Anyway, it all turned out fine, except that, like a fool, I left my camera at home so I don’t have a picture of the assembled dinner. But here are some of the components of what I ate:

This is my version of the Maple Ginger Mango Tofu from the Love Veggies and Yoga blog. It is Maple Ginger Peach Tofu, since I used this:

I sliced the tofu reeeeally thin, as instructed:

The veggies in the first pic are from the frozen packaged Trader Joe’s “Harvest Hodgepodge” mix.  Genius.  I always have this in my freezer.  I enjoyed the tofu and veggies over rice pad thai noodles, topped with Peanut Passion Sauce from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan.

This is the sauce:

It is awesome.  Like, really friggin’ awesome.  I do not make it that often, because it is so high calorie, and H and I are both on the wedding diet so it’s not really a wise thing to keep on hand.  However, a batch of this is incredibly tasty and versatile, as you can use it as a dip for veggies or a spread for sandwiches or a marinade for tofu, etc. etc….or you could do like I do and mix in some coconut milk and then slather it all over some pad thai noodles.  That’s the stuff. I used part of this batch as noodle sauce, and contributed the rest of it as an appetizer (with crudité) for the Easter gathering at H’s house. It was a big hit!

Then I ate the leftovers (noodles, Peanut Passion sauce, veggies, and plain old sauteed tofu, since I finished all the Peach tofu at Easter dinner!) for lunch over the next week:

With a buttload of chili garlic sauce, obvi:

Finally, though it’s unrelated, I thought I’d share the fact that last week, the search engine term “me want honeycomb” was used four times to find my blog.  Yeah…I don’t know.

Woo! Much longer post than I’d anticipated writing.  That’s just how these things go!  Back to writing things that are not fun at all…

Gobbling Garbanzos

Man, I just friggin’ love chickpeas. Their texture is pretty much perfect, the flavor is tame enough to be dressed up with just about anything, and they are super-healthy. My only problem with chickpeas is that I eat too many of them, which is not the best thing for me to do when I’m watching my weight, because they are pretty calorically dense.

But I digress. Two of my favorite ways to cook chickpeas are either Indian-style (in my own, very loose adaptation of chana masala) or in the Quinoa-Chickpea Pilaf from Veganomicon.  Observe:

Indian-style: this is one of my impromptu “masala” chickpea dishes.  Basically I sautee some onions and garlic, then add a buttload of veggies (carrots, broccoli, some potatoes, and in this one I used fresh tomatoes, though I often use canned).  Then I add a liquid, either broth or one of those delicious simmer sauces in a jar that you can buy at the store.  I usually use broth (mostly because I can’t take the salt in the jars, but they are delicious, and handy when you want something super-quick).  Then add the chickpeas (I almost always used canned these days because I’m lazy).  If using broth, you then need to add lots of good spices.  Curry powder, obviously, and some cumin, chili powder, a little garam masala, and black pepper.  I just do it to taste.  It’s so tasty and lasts for days.
(Sorry for the weird picture…for some reason, no matter how I format it, it still looks odd. Oh well. It was tasty.)

PILAF!!!  From Veganomicon, this is one of my favorite recipes ever and I have made a rule that I cannot eat any of it until 20 minutes after it’s done cooking…for some reason when it’s piping hot I cannot resist throwing back bowl after bowl of it, so I have to wait for it to cool and then slow my roll and enjoy it.  LOVE the taste of the ground coriander in this.

Oh, and I have the nutrition facts for it! Well, sort of. The following numbers are based off of my observation that the recipe yields roughly 6 cups, and then from that I derived the following numbers for a serving of 1 cup (or 1/6 of the recipe):
224 calories, 38g carbs, 5g fat, 8g protein, 6g fiber, 518 mg sodium, 14% DV iron, 26% DV Vitamin B6, 5% DV calcium, 5% DV Vitamin E. Woo!

Another fun way I like to make chickpeas in order to eat them as a snack or as a salad topping is to roast them (like Dreena’s Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas…I think from ED&BV).  And I am dying to try this recipe from Fitness Magazine for Indian-Spiced Roasted Chickpeas, for obvious reasons (namely, that I am obsessed with both chickpeas and Indian food).

Happy gobbling!

Cape Codding

Early this summer I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Cape Cod, which has quickly become one of my favorite places.  There is something so exhilarating and relaxing about spending time in a place so filled with natural beauty and simple charm.  A few weeks back, a group of my friends from law school headed out to H’s house on the Cape for a weekend of baseball and beaching. 

I took it upon myself to be the food provider for the 10 of us for the weekend, and spent several days prior to it preparing for this.  Here is what I made:

1) Lower Fat Banana Bread (with chocolate chips!) from Veganomicon

2) Five-Spice Almond Cookies (which we made into Five-Star Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches, natch) from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan

Fresh out of the oven (sorry for the craptastic picture)

Best ice cream sandwich ever (P.S.-that is not my arm!)

3) Coconut Lime Cookies from Vive Le Vegan (not pictured, but see a batch I made last year here)

4) Cumin-Cinnamon Vinaigrette from ED&BV (not pictured)…I chopped some cucumbers and tossed them with this dressing and a little oregano for a really delish salad

5) The spice mixture from ED&BV’s Blackened Tofu recipe, which I used to make cajun scallops** (not pictured, but see the results of this mixture on tofu here)
**please see my note below

6) A variation of the stuffing from Self magazine’s Couscous and Feta Stuffed Peppers recipe (not pictured)

All of the food was very well-received and appreciated, and we had a wonderful weekend!

So, about those scallops…

On the Cape the emphasis is heavily on seafood.  While I know this might be controversial to many vegetarians and vegans, I have no problem cooking non-veg options for others.  In fact, in the interest of full disclosure, that day I also made broiled haddock for the company.  My food preferences are solely mine, and I wouldn’t presume to prepare an entirely vegan menu for 9 omnivores and expect them to enjoy it as much as I would.  I feel that trying to impose my points of view on any topic (be it diet or things like politics, religion, etc.) on others can only backfire; people don’t like to be told what to do or made to feel that they are wrong…each person needs to come to his or her own decision about how he or she wants to live by making their own personal judgments.  That being said, I think it’s very important to show non-veg*ns how enjoyable vegan cuisine can be, which, if I may say, I think I did very effectively with the breakfast bread and desserts, as well as the couscous and salad.  I think every little bit counts, and each time I prepare veg food for non-veg*ns that they actually enjoy, I hope that the next time they will be slightly less surprised by the fact that they actually enjoyed it. 

Anyway, I just needed to put that out there.  I know not everyone agrees with me, and I would definitely be interested to hear the points of view of others. 

I have a ton of pictures of meals to post from the last few weeks and hope to do so soon!

SouperBowl Sunday

Who am I kidding, I’m not watching the Superbowl…just tuning in every so often to check out the commercials. What I am doing is posting about one of my favorite soups that I’ve ever made, Lemon Chickpea Lentil soup from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton.

Pre-puree (complete with steam!)

Finished product

A perfect little dinner…soup and sauteed kale

This soup was SO. GOOD.  Thick and flavorful and filling.  I actually added more cumin than the recipe called for because I was loving the earthy Middle Eastern taste of the soup.  I would definitely make this again.  It was simple and it is perfect winter fare.  Anyone who has ED&BV–make this recipe!

Health is Wealth, And I Am Poor

I like junk food.  Alot.  Especially sweets. This is why I gained weight last semester.  That, and the fact that law school trains us outside of the classroom to be lawyers by shoving alcohol at us at every turn (in all seriousness).  I’m planning to be alot better this semester, and in general, I’m off to a good start!  However, this past week and weekend I was a little bad with the sweet-ing and dessert-ing…

First, the least of all evils, Zucchini Spelt Muffins, from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton.  I made these once before, but that time I used yellow squash instead of zucchini, and used the full 2 cups of banana that the recipe calls for, while this time I substituted about half with applesauce (because I ran out of bananas).  I made these just for fun, but mostly because I had a zucchini that needed eating.

Lovelies

These were sooooo delicious warm out of the oven, and were a little less sweet than that ones I made with yellow squash.  I brought some to school the next day and my one friend said she liked the flavor but thought the texture was a little weird.  I ate another one and they did seem a little grainy, so maybe I overbaked them?  Also, about 48 hours after I made them, the ones that I had covered in plastic wrap went bad!  I was really upset; I hate wasting food.  I think next time, storage in the fridge in a plastic container with a lid would extend their life.

Next up are Mucho Margarita Cupcakes out of my brand new copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero!!!  I actually debated quite a bit with myself over whether or not to purchase this book because it might very well lead me to bake (and eat) cupcakes every week, but I felt so sure of the many hours of fun I’d get out of it that I bit the bullet.

Before icing

After icing

I made these for my roommate’s birthday because we both love margaritas, and everyone who tried them really liked them!  My roommate’s boyfriend said “It’s like chewing a margarita,” which I thought sounded bad, but he assured me that it was a compliment.  Two small warnings about these: 1) licking the bowl might make you a little tipsy, and 2) the icing is pretty runny, and though I added more confectioner’s sugar to thicken it as the recipe suggested, I found that it was still too runny to be able to do the pretty sugared rim I had intended, so I ended up just sprinkling the sugar on top.

Lastly, going with the theme of unbridled unhealthiness, I wanted to share some pics I’ve had around for a long while of my favorite go-to recipe to knock the socks off of my non-vegan friends.  These are the Cookies ‘n’ Cream version of Basic Chocolate Cupcakes with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which I had found online several months ago.  I usually make this as a double-layered cake, but here are some pics of actual cupcakes made from this recipe:  

yes, I am the kind of girl who has star-shaped baking tins

It’s so sad how you can totally tell by the sheer beauty of those pictures that a) they were taken with my old, dearly departed camera, and b) they were taken in outdoor lighting during a season when there was actually daylight and you could bear to go outside for more than 5 seconds.

And actually, now that it’s nearly my half-birthday, here is my birthday cake that I made for myself back in August:

I made an Oreo cake for a friend of mine who has been known to say things like, “Vegans are stupid” and “I’m not saying that you can’t cook.  I’m sure you prepare the food well, but that doesn’t change the fact that nothing tasty is vegan.”  He ate the entire thing and then, yes, admitted that “vegan” and “tasty” are not mutually exclusive.

Though vegan cupcakes and losing weight just might be… :b

Playing House

It’s unbelievable, but as of Monday, my second semester of law school is underway!  I have a pretty good schedule this time around, meaning I’ll have lots of time to cook and even get to the gym. 

I spent the last 2 weeks of my vacation doing a whole lot of nothing, which felt amazing, especially since I haven’t had a winter break since college.  I spent a good part of the last week helping out a friend who had recently undergone surgery and cooking for that friend, who is an omnivore.   It’s not my style to try to convince anyone to become vegan, and though I’m not opposed to cooking non-vegan for someone else, the fact is that I’m most comfortable with and adept at cooking vegan foods.  To that end, when cooking for others, I try to make dishes that anyone can enjoy, and I think I am usually pretty successful! 

Now, for some reason I only have photos of one entree.  There is a picture of one of them on my friend’s camera, which I’ll try to retrieve soon, and the other got eaten before its photo op.  Sowwy.

The photographed entree was Bean & Corn Tortilla Lasagna with Avocado from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan.
 

The whole shebang

A nice little portion (with lime, as suggested!)

I loved this recipe hot out of the oven.  It makes six servings and I ate two of them right away, doused with chipotle hot sauce (because I am a spicy food fiend!).  My only issue with this recipe is that it doesn’t work especially well as leftovers, which I guess I should have anticipated because of the avocado.  The weird thing was that the avocado stayed green and fresh-looking but tasted funky after 1-2 days.  The rest of it was still delicious so I just picked out the avocado.  So if I made this one again, I’d do it for a family dinner or at some other occasion where all of it would be consumed in one sitting.

Because I am a sweets lover and because I equate desserts with comfort and love, I made sure to make lots of them during my friend’s recovery.  For these, I used my beautiful brand-new copy of The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton! 

First, Chewy Nutty Cereal Chip Squares

These are heavenly.  Seriously, I kind of want to make some tonight.  My only complaint about these is that they fall apart fairly easily when picked up.  I might use a little extra maple syrup next time and see if that makes a difference.  For this batch, I used peanut butter instead of almond because that was what I had open in my kitchen. 

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
 

I have never been a huge fan of oatmeal raisin cookies, but these rock.   Well, okay…I actually should admit that because I didn’t have any raisins, I used chopped Turkish apricots, so really they were Oatmeal Apricot cookies.  But they still rocked.  They were so soft and chewy and flavorful.  Between me, my friend, and my friend’s roommate, they were gone in about a day and a half.  

Coconut Raspberry Squares
 

I apologize for the less-than-stellar picture, but the lighting was terrible in my friend’s kitchen.  I know they kind of look like pizza squares, but that’s not the picture’s fault; they actually really look like that.  I have to be honest and say that I didn’t love these; the flavor and texture reminded me of Passover (a holiday that I loathe) because they tasted a bit like matzoh with cream cheese and jelly. 

I have some more fun food to post about, so look for that in the next few days!

A Vegan-ish Christmas

Happy New Year!!! First, news: I got a new digital camera for Christmas so now I can get back to blogging. Yayyy!!!

Second, food!  Christmas 2008 was a bit of an unusual holiday at the Cook house.  M was away for the week and didn’t return until about 7 p.m. on Christmas Day, so most of the presents and stuff happened at night instead of our usual morning.  Also, the food was alot different than normal.  Both of my parents have been working really hard to lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle, with great results!  Because of this, our Christmas dinner was very veggie-heavy, and actually was 100% vegan outside of the turkey.  It might not seem like alot, but it was really exciting stuff for me!  We had mounds of roasted vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, asparagus, and rosemary potatoes.

Here are all the veggies laid out, waiting to be roasted:

 

Then we had to consolidate in order to fit everything in the oven.  Aren’t they gawwwgeous??

 

Here is a picture of the spread, before the turkey came out: there are the veggies of course, plus a quinoa dish (with assorted chopped vegetables and spices cooked in), and in the pear thingy was the most delicious squash soup (made with onions, roasted garlic, broccoli and cauliflower stems, and butternut squash), which my Daddy invented (no pic of the soup itself…but you get the idea.  It was orange.) 

 

As for dessert, traditionally every year M and I spend all of Christmas Eve day baking cookies to bring to our neighbors and friends.  The cookies we always used to make weren’t vegan, with the exception of one: Betty Crocker’s gingerbread!  I was so pleased last year when I realized I could continue to make this holiday favorite. 

 

Since M wasn’t here this year to bake with me, I didn’t go too overboard, but I did make sure to carry on one Cook family tradition, the Tiny Tim gingerbread cookie.  I think this originated 2-3 years ago, when M and I were cutting out the cookies and she accidentally cut off one of their legs.  For whatever reason, we called the cookie Tiny Tim (though I’m aware that Tiny Tim’s ailment had nothing to do with having only one leg!) and every year we make one.  So here he is. 

 

Our other dessert was Gingered Pear Crisp, which I believe is from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan.  I didn’t have the foresight to bring any of my cookbooks home with me for the holidays, so I got the recipe off of Dreena’s blog. 

 

The pear crisp was delish; I loved the flavor of all the spices in it, and the topping was addictive.  If I made it again, I’d definitely use a different sort of pear (maybe Bosc or really ripe Bartletts), because the d’Anjou pears I used were a little too firm for my liking, even after baking.  I guess I wanted it to have more of a gooey texture like apple crisp, and I think altering the type of pear could make the difference.  Still, a really yummy and festive dessert!

I’m on break for another week and I’ve been cooking up a storm, so I’ll definitely have more posts to make.  Also, I used a Christmas present (Amazon giftcard!) to finally purchase The Everyday Vegan, and I’m really excited to start cooking out of that as soon as it arrives!

A Mega-Post for the Greater Good

Ooookay!  It’s time to put up all the pics I have from the last few weeks in one big post.  I’ll understand if no one reads it, but I really really want to get on a regular posting schedule and blog about what I cook when I actually cook it, like the rest of the food blogging world does!  Honestly I admire all of you–I am still relatively new to this so bear with me this one time and hopefully after this I can maintain a regular schedule! 

Enough of that…on to the food!  I made a couple of recipes that I’ve seen used frequently in the vegan food blogosphere, which I had been dying to try out!

First up was Blackened Tofu from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. 

I made mine with tofu that had been pressed, frozen, and then defrosted (because I always prefer the texture of tofu that has been frozen!).  I served it up with some couscous tossed with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil and some chopped cucumber from our garden (which I will miss so much now that I’m in Boston!).

Couscous Closeup

A Perfect Little Meal

So simple and soooo delicious!  Definitely something I will be making often during the semester. 

I have also now successfully made the Tamari-Roasted Chickpeas, also from ED&BV, that I have seen on so many people’s blogs, and that have made my mouth water every time I’ve seen them!  Actually my mouth is watering now just thinking about them…

Made with fresh rosemary, which I highly recommend

For a really fantastic, light summery meal, I made the Chickpeas along with Kalamata Walnut Tapenade from Vive Le Vegan by Ms. Burton.  It kind of has the look of used coffee grounds, but if you are anywhere near it you can smell the delicious olive-y aroma and you will know that it’s more than edible! 🙂

I served this to Dad and M, with some crackers to go with the tapenade.  I ate my tapenade with a whole-wheat mini-bagel, and my chickpeas over a spinach salad, which contained the chopped remnants of one of the largest white mushrooms I’ve ever seen:

Apologies for the slightly horrifying no-makeup pic, but this mushroom was intense

I loved loved loved the chickpeas, and I liked the tapenade alot.  The only issue I had with the tapenade was that it was incredibly salty.  I think this is due to the olives I used, not to the recipe.  The recipe actually calls for “sea salt to taste”, but I don’t even think I added any, and it was still super-salty!  I would definitely make the recipe again though.  And as for the chickpeas, I’m pretty sure they will be made weekly here in my Beantown (how appropriate!) kitchen 🙂

Here is a pic of my little spread (a little went a long way!):

Last night, I got around to making Snobby Joes from Veganomicon. 

I love this recipe!  My roommate (not vegan but very veg-friendly–hi K!) liked it too.  I actually ate it with tortilla chips (as seen above)–maybe that’s weird but it was delicious!  I’m planning to freeze the leftovers to use all semester long. 

Actually I spent alot of the week cooking freezer-bound meals, including the Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon, which I’ve posted about before.  I also made Veggie Burger Patties, from Josh at My Vegan Cookbook.  I actually made these last week for a barbecue at my parents’ house, and this week while being industrious I doubled the recipe and froze eight of these beauties to eat when I will be too busy with Civil Procedure reading to even boil water for pasta!  Here is a piccie:

Do you love my mom’s little fish plate? I do!

Closeup

This recipe is a great find.  They are quite hamburger-like, insofar as I enjoy them best on a big ol’ bun with lots of ketchup, mustard, lettuce, and tomato.  I’ve also eaten them on an English muffin with salsa and that was very enjoyable too 🙂 

During my last week at home, there was another fun, simple little meal that I’d like to share. This one did not from books but consisted of one recipe-in-the-head and one recipe-from-Panama. Fresh Herb and Tomato Pasta Saladand Patacones (aka “Tostones”).

For the pasta salad, I first went a-picking:

Beautiful garden tomatoes, with some cucs thrown in for good measure

The finished product

It contained fresh chopped basil, cilantro, and fenugreek, the chopped tomatoes, and a drizzle of balsamic. It tasted so fresh and delicious and was great served cold.

Plus patacones!

These are patacones con ajo. Basically you wash, slice, and salt a plaintain, then deep fry it until it gets a little darker in color. You then flatten it (in Panama they use an authentic volcanic rock for the smashing but we used the side of a cleaver). In this case, we slapped on some crushed garlic before smashing. Then you fry them again until crispy. Totally unhealthy but totally delicious 🙂 Something we all need once in a while!

Finally, on to the soups!!  On one of my last nights at home, Dad and I whipped up the Ancho-Lentil Soup with Grilled Pineapple from Veganomicon, a recipe which I had been eyeing from the first time I ever cracked open the book!

First we made the ancho chile powder!

The finished product

Heaven.  That is all there is to say about that.

And finally, Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans, also from Veganomicon, which I made this week and which is happily chillin out (pun intended) in my freezer as we speak 🙂

Oven-roasting garlic was a new experience for me, and squeezing the soft goo out of the cloves was slightly disgusting but oddly satisfying. This soup is just delicious, filling and satisfying. And pretty easy to make too! I pretty much am gunning to make every soup recipe featured in this book, because these ladies know their soups and it is well worth the effort!

Okay I’m done! Congratulations if you’ve reached the end of this monster post!!!

A Lovely Evening

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a few days…I’m finally up in Boston and getting settled in!  I love it so much here already and I’m actually really excited about starting classes next week! 🙂

I wanted to post about a wonderful meal that I shared with E, J, and J’s girlfriend a few weeks back.  It consisted of the following:

Sauteed Seitan with Mushrooms and Spinach  and Fresh Rosemary Focaccia, both from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Sunny Pineapple Yogurt Cake with Orange Glaze from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton

I was so proud of making the focaccia; it was my first time making bread!  I used fresh rosemary from our neighbor’s garden and it was pretty good.  Eaten with olive oil, it was divine.  (And it smelled like heaven of course…I love rosemary!)

Focaccia

Seitan

The Whole Meal (this was the night after I made the tomato basil sauce shown in this post, so I served the leftover sauce–which was even better the second day after the flavors further melded overnight–with pasta.)

And of course, dessert!!

All in all, it was a fantastically fun night with some of my favorite people, and I was happy with the way the food turned out.  E especially loved the seitan dish, and J’s girlfriend was a big fan of the tomato basil sauce.  J liked the focaccia and I even got him to try a bite of seitan (he’s not a terribly brave eater normally). 

On a side note, I am happy to report that my stove in my apartment in Boston is highly satisfactory (though it gives off alot of heat!).  I spent most of today cooking up stuff to put in the freezer that I can eat throughout the semester.  And just for fun, I would like to share a photo from earlier this evening, when I baked Dreena’s Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies (which I’ve made before and which I love intensely).  Here they are, pictured with a magical sign that was a gift from my mother, and that is highly appropriate and relevant to my life.