Loving the environment and all it's creatures!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Fruit Salad with a Twist

My non-vegan friend, Susie, had a get-together and put out a spread of only vegan appetizers.  Almost brought tears to my eyes.  I have the best friends!  This fruit salad she made was fantastic and so simple.  I took the picture with my cellphone but I hope you can tell how wonderful it looked.


She used a melon ball spoon to cut the cantelope and honeydew melon and then mixed it with thinly sliced onion, bite-size pieces of cucumber, chopped fresh red peppers, and freshly ground black pepper.  That's it!  She thinks it tasted better after sitting in the refrigerator for a while.  All I know is it tasted great!  Oh yeah... it was really healthy too.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta

My friend, Laurie, gave me this recipe from an old "Vegetarian Times."  It is FANTASTIC!  I took the completed product to a friends cocktail party and it was a hit!  No one would have known it was vegan if I hadn't told them.  I made it a couple of hours ahead.  The lemon juice in the recipe kept the avocados from turning brown.  It truly was fabulous!

Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta

2 T. lemon juice
2 T. red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1/2 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 avocados, peeled, pitted, and cubed
baguette, sliced and toasted

Combine lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, oregano, and black pepper in bowl.  Whisk in oil, then stir in cilantro and parsley.  Fold in avocado cubes.  Spoon avocado mixture onto toast slices, and serve.

Serves 6

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Maddy's Market in Calabasas


If you live in the Calabasas area you might want to check out Maddy's Market.  It has so many great vegan products, events, and lectures.  They are a full service market but do focus on organic items and include a lot of vegan and raw inventory.


Maddy's Market is located at 26767 Agoura Road, Calabasas, CA 91302.  Here is a link:  http://maddysmarkets.com/index.shtml

Martha Stewart's Vegan Episode


Hooray Martha!  She will have a vegan show on March 30th on the Hallmark Channel.  Tune it at 10am to see her cook vegan and talk with Biz Stone (Twitter co-founder) and Kathy Freston (author of Veganist).  They will make seitan bourguignon and other vegan treats.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spiritland Bistro in Santa Barbara

Raw Lasagna at Spiritland Bistro

Spiritland Bistro is a GREAT restaurant in Santa Barbara.  Their food is terrific and the menu well labeled.  Their goal is to be 100% local organic.  They do serve meat and fish but their menu is labeled so well with designations for vegetarian, vegan, raw, gluten free, soy free, etc.  There are many choices for vegans.
The lunch menu also has 3 bento boxes that are vegan.  This place is a little pricey but I thought it was worth it.

I had the soup of the day which was a vegan potato-leek topped with sauteed wild mushrooms and a drizzle of truffle oil.  I also had the Arabic Artichoke Puree with pita bread and the Grilled Avocado and Tomato Salad.  Both were fantastic.  My friend had the French Lentil, Walnut & Wild Mushroom Pate and she loved it.

Here is a link to their menus:  http://spiritlandbistro.com/home-mainmenu-1/dinner-menu

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Caper Vinaigrette

I found this recipe on some pages I ripped out of a magazine a long time ago.  I don't even know which magazine to give the credit.  The recipe is easy and the salad is very good.



Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Caper Vinaigrette

2 heads cauliflower, trimmed and cut into 2-inch florets
2 roasted red peppers, chopped into bite size pieces (from a jar is fine)
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
3 T. fresh lemon juice
¼ cup capers, drained

In a large bowl, toss cauliflower with ¼ cup olive oil, ½ t. salt and ½ t. pepper.  Spread cauliflower on two sheet pans and roast until just tender and browned in spots (about 20 minutes).  Stir cauliflower halfway through cooking time.

Whisk together lemon juice, ½ t. salt, ½ t. pepper in large bowl.  Slowly whisk in remaining ½ cup of olive oil.  Whisk in the capers.  Add cauliflower and red peppers and toss to coat.  Serve at room temperature.

Can make a day ahead and then pull out of refrigerator to get to room temp.


Monday, March 21, 2011

Red Lentil Soup with Turnip and Parsley

Since it was so cold and rainy yesterday, I made soup.  This soup recipe comes from Terry Walters' book, "Clean Start."  All the recipes appear to be vegan and gluten free.  I have never cooked or tasted a turnip before.  I liked it.  The soup was delicious and pretty easy.  I didn't have the mirin so I used cooking sherry.  I also substituted canned beans for the cooked beans and canned tomatoes for fresh tomatoes.

Red Lentil Soup with Turnip and Parlsey

1 ½ cups dried red lentils
3 cups water
Thumb-size piece kombu
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 celery stalks, diced
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. mirin
1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes
1 turnip, peeled and diced
1 ½ cups cooked great northern beans
4 cups vegetable stock
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley

Rinse and drain lentils.  Place in pot with water and kombu and bring to boil.  Skim and discard foam.  Reduce heat to simmer, partially cover and cook until lentils are soft (about 20 minutes).  Remove from heat and set aside.

In soup pot over medium heat, sauté onion, garlic and celery in oil until soft (4-6 minutes).  Add mirin, tomatoes, turnip and beans,  Stir to combine ingredients.  Remove and discard kombu from lentils and add lentils to soup pot.  Add stock, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from heat.  Stir in 1/3 cup chopped parsley and serve topped with remaining parsley as garnish.

Serves 8

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Death of a Little Friend

Lost my little buddy, Toby, a couple of days ago.  Having trouble writing in the blog without him laying all over the computer.  There is still cat hair between the keys.  I will enter a new post tomorrow.  So sad.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Hip Vegan in Ojai


My vegan meetup group hiked Shelf Road and then hobbled on over to a great new restaurant in Ojai.  The Hip Vegan is fantastic!  Totally vegan with great raw and gluten free options.  I had the Hip Hip Hooraw Wrap which doesn't look that exciting but it was!  It was filled with spicy jalapeno almond pate, guacamole, lettuce mix, and sprouts.

Hip Hip Hooraw Wrap

Indonesian Wrap

Baked Tofu Sandwich

Tostada

Seitan BBQ Sandwich

The Soup of the Day was a vegetable millet and it was delicious.  One of my friends had the Date Shake and she loved it.  I also saw some fabulous looking raw brownies.  The Hip Vegan is definately worth a visit.  http://www.hipvegancafe.com/



Thursday, March 10, 2011

Easy and Healthy Vegan Dinner

 This meal is easy, healthy AND cheap!


Start roasting the tomatoes in the oven (see the last blog post) because they take the longest.  Then get started on the tofu.  So easy..  Just these three ingredients.


Put a quarter cup of Wondra in a shallow bowl.  Drain the tofu and pat it dry with a paper towel.  I cut it in half and save the other half for another time.*  Slice the tofu into 1/4" thick slices.  One at a time, put the tofu into the Wondra flour and coat both sides.  Saute the coated tofu in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  Cook it at least 5 minutes per side on medium.  I like it a little crispy.  Add 2-3 tablespoons of vegan Asian-style salad dressing to the frying pan.  Put it in in the pan - not on top of the tofu.  The dressing will bubble up a little.  It's ok.  Shake/swirl the pan a little to distribute it and coat the bottom of the tofu.  After just a minute or two, flip the tofu and swirl the pan again to coat that side of the tofu.  Give it another minute and it should be done.


This can of spinach and mustard greens by Jyoti is a quick and easy side dish.  It has about three servings and is a little spicy.   I get a case of it delivered through Amazon.com.  Shipping is free when I order some of my other products.


This Multigrain Pilaf from Trader Joe's is great!  It has a few beans thrown in there too.  Just microwave for two minutes in the bag.  I take it on trips in case I have trouble finding vegan food.

So, that's the whole meal.  Pretty easy... pretty cheap... pretty healthy.


*Store the extra tofu in a covered bowl of fresh water in the refrigerator.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Don't Forget the Simple Things

The Italians are right!  Sometimes we screw things up by being too complicated.  Stick to the basics and it will be good.  Italian food often uses very few ingredients but they are good quality ingredients.  Not too much extra seasoning to mask the taste of the natural food.


Don't forget to just saute mushrooms.  Yes, in my recent post I stuffed mushrooms with all kinds of ingredients.  And they were good.  But, mushrooms are a great dish just sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.


 Sometimes, I have to resist pouring a little cooking Sherry in the pan.  It's not necessary, just a habit of "dressing it up."


Tomatoes!  Lovely tomatoes are great just as they are.  Cut them in half.  Put the tomatoes in a baking dish and pour a little olive oil on them.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Great!


  Sprinkle with sliced basil if you like.  See!  I can't help dressing it up.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Vegenaise and "Follow Your Heart"

I love mayonnaise!  I didn't think I could become vegan because I love mayo so much.  And then I tasted Vegenaise...  Fabulous!


Now and then, I go to the "Follow Your Heart" store and restaurant.  They are the creators of Vegenaise.  Their store is in Canoga Park and the restaurant is in the back.


This is a sample of one of their old "Specials" flyers.


Their every-day menu is great too.  Definately worth a visit if you are in the area. http://www.followyourheart.com/marketandcafe.php

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Easy and Elegant Vegan Dish

This elegant dish is SO easy.


 I used already prepared convenience foods.


Slice the polenta and saute in very little olive oil - one tablespoon should do it.  Flip after the first side is golden brown.  I like to cook it for a while so it is pretty firm.  In the meantime, pour the pasta sauce in a saucepan, heat it up and keep warm.  Put a couple slices each of the zucchini and eggplant on a microwave plate and zap until warm (2 minutes depending on your microwave).

Assemble by putting a large scoop of sauce on your plate.  Alternate adding a slice of polenta, eggplant, zucchini, a little sauce, a little cheese... and repeat.  I sprinkled some red pepper flakes and sliced basil on top but it isn't necessary.

My meat-eating husband liked it too.  I would serve this to guests.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Vegan Stuffed Mushrooms - Two Recipes

My cousin, Nikki, made some fabulous stuffed mushrooms and I had to copy her.  I didn't have all the ingredients she told me to include, so here is my version.  I love that she grinds in an apple.  It gives it great flavor and texture.  This is a pretty healthy stuffed mushroom with an asian flair!   I also made a creamier version with Vegenaise that has a pesto flavor.  Both are delicious.


Nikki's Stuffed Mushrooms
12 Baby Bella mushrooms or creminis
2 T. fresh parlsey
1/4 of an apple
2 small green onions
1 t. garlic, minced
1 cup fresh spinach
3 baby carrots
2 T. pine nuts
2 t. soy sauce
2 t. sesame oil
1 t. dill weed
pepper to taste
1/4 cup mozzarella style soy cheese

Clean mushrooms and remove stems.  Put half the stems in a grinder/chopper with the rest of the ingredients - minus the soy cheese.  Pulse/grind until all the ingredients are finely chopped.  Remove the blade and mix in cheese by hand.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Rub each cap with a little sesame oil or spray with cooking spray.  Space the mushrooms on the cookie sheet and stuff with mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.


Creamy Stuffed Mushrooms
12 Baby Bella mushrooms or creminis
2 T. fresh parlsey
2 small green onions
1 t. garlic
1 cup fresh spinach
2 T. pine nuts
1/2 cup canned white beans, drained
1/4 cup Vegenaise
1 t. sriracha hot chili sauce or other hot sauce
pepper to taste
1/4 cup mozzarella style soy cheese

Clean mushrooms and remove stems.  Put half the stems in a grinder/chopper with the rest of the ingredients - minus the soy cheese.  Pulse/grind until all the ingredients are finely chopped.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.   Spray mushroom caps with cooking spray.  Space the mushrooms on the cookie sheet and stuff with mixture.  Top each mushroom with soy cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.