Still employed

The 10th was Aaron's birthday, so I decided to try making something neat. The picture up top is Butternut Vindaloo served in some kind of squash that i forget the name of. The recipe was from 'Vegan With a Vengeance', I just added cauliflower. I was just eating left overs with couscous and they go together well. We also ate it yesterday with a fried tofu salad. Dark green lettuce mix with halved cherry tomatoes, green onions and tofu cubes fried in olive oil with lemon juice, garlic salt and thyme.

The picture below that is an all-veggie meal that I decided to make. There are lemony-dill carrots, broiled string beans with margarine and sliced almonds, and mashed potatoes.

Below that is a fried rice which was delicious beyond all description. I don't even remember how I made it, so you'll just have to take my word that it was really really really good.

Aaaand finally there's a picture of the Double Fudge Oat Cookies I made from a recipe in "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Its the sequel to 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World' and I can't wait to make more.

Work is hard

Who knew that work was hard and not fun? Why was I not informed?
Usually when I get home from work I flop on the couch and don't think again until the morning. But I still have to eat, so here's a few things I've been shoving in my face hole:

My friends and I went to the Vegetarian Food Fair the other week. It was a lot of fun, as always. I didn't buy as much as I did last year, but I did get Quinoa for cheap, some fake chicken which I haven't cooked yet, and the sequel to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, titled Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Above the text is a picture of the Quinoa Salad I made the other day. I just took mixed greens, chopped avocado, halved grape tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, and cooked quinoa, and mixed it together with some olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Turned out really tasty, and quinoa has a crazy amount of protein and iron. Served with "beef" skewers from Gardein.

The top picture is my dinner from last night. I made some Basmatti Rice (cooked with vegetable broth and margarine), and ate it with peas and fake mutton from The Perfect Vegetarian in Kensington Market.

That's it for now. I'm going to try and stop letting my job eat my life. We'll see how that goes.

Thought you were rid of me

Okay, so I haven't made a post since my job started. Well it's been hard and I've been tired so :-P
This post will be an amalgamation of whatever the hell recipes I remember from the past month. Enjoy.

Lunches
I've been trying to take my lunch to work as often as possible. Partly because the office is in the middle of nowhere Brampton and you literally have to drive to get anywhere that sells food. Some of the things I've brought are:

• Sandwichs: Almond Butter and Raspberry jam; Cucumber, Tomato and Toffuti cheese slices; Toffuti herb and garlic faux cream cheese with vegetables; Tofurky Hickory Smoked sandwich slices with mustard, lettuce and tomato
  
• Amy's brand Frozen meals
• Fruits
• Wheat thin crackers and Mr. Christie's cocoa wafers
• Left overs

I've also gone out to lunch with coworkers or by myself if I laze out and don't make something. I've gotten Thai Express, Terriyaki with Tofu, Giant Salad, Sushi, and a Veggie Burger.

I've been trying to still cook when I can. I've made Creamy Curry Vegetables with Jasmine Rice (picture above) and Chickpea Noodle Soup. One night I made Artichokes, Brown rice (with a little lemon and thyme), and warmed up some Gardein chick'n in dijon mustard sauce.

Peace.

2 Days Until The New Job

Coming soon: Vegan packed lunches. Follow the exciting adventure of me figuring out how to keep myself alive while at work. My mommy bought me a lunch box.

Tonight I've had three slices of Twelve Grain toast with Tofuti herb and chive flavoured imitation cream cheese. These were eaten at separate times, I just kept going back for more 'cause it tastes like sex. Usually I don't like vegan cream cheese by itself 'cause you can kind of taste the soy. I buy the plain kind to make vegan cream cheese icing for carrot cake (note to self, make cream cheese icing and carrot cake). But the herbs in this stuff makes it delicious. I was going to use it to make sandwhiches to bring to work, but I might finish it before then.

The picture at the top is of a dinner I made a few nights ago. The vegetable dish is Rustic Roasted Veggies from 'How it all Vegan'. This is one of the very first recipes I ever cooked. Served it with white rice, which soaked up the flavour well.

Countdown to employment

Howdy.
I've been spending my time alternating between getting ready for my new job and enjoying lazing around while I can.

This evening I made Rustic Tomato Lentil Soup from 'How it all Vegan.' I used flax pasta and added a bit of that 5 Chinese Spice stuff because it seemed a little under-spiced. Turned out delicious and there's tons left.

I stocked up on salad stuff recently, so I've been eating a few of those. The picture above is the salad I had for lunch today: Earthbound Farm Organic mixed greens, organic baby spinach, bean sprouts, tomato and walnuts with Oil and Vinegar dressing.

And a few days ago I made TLTs (Tempeh, Lettuce and Tomato) Sandwiches for dinner, again. This time it had bean sprouts and baby spinach instead of regular lettuce. The tempeh was that smoked maple flavour stuff again.

I guess I took an unannounced hiatus there. Oh well, sue me.
Well, let's jump right in. I haven't done too many fancy meals lately so I'll have some lazy vegan advice at the end of this post.

Today I made a standard Vegetable-Rice-Fake Meat meal. They remind me of some of the food I ate as a kid. Today it was White rice (with onions and garlic), yellow string beans (totally ate these all the time as a kid, the taste was nostalgic), and Yves Veggie Cuisine Souvlaki Veggie Skewers. The fake meat was not my favourite. I bought it 'cause I haven't tried it before, but I don't think I'll get it again. Probably just personal taste, though.

I've been trying to get more non-soy protein in my (and Aaron's) diet, so a few days ago I made Tibetan Lentil Soup. The recipe is from 'Fresh at home' by Ruth Tal Brown and Jennifer Houston, but I made a few changes. The biggest one is that I didn't notice I was out of cumin until I started cooking, so I used a Five Chinese Spices blend (it has fennel, clove, cinnamon, fagara and anise) which I'd bought randomly and wanted to try. I also upped the number of carrots and threw in a diced yellow bell pepper I had in my fridge. Turned out really tasty and it lasted a good while.

About a week ago I made Orange Chocolate Chip Pancakes. That was pretty much the best thing ever. I took the regular pancake recipe from 'Vegan with a Vengeance' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and added the zest from one orange, most of the juice from the same orange, and about a cup of chocolate chips to the batter.

So other than those I've been surviving off mostly easy eating or take out lately. A nice coffee with soy milk and toast with margarine and jam will do me just fine. I've also been eating a lot of fruit. In the last little while I've had honeydew, bananas, kiwi, peaches, and some apples. It's been super freaking hot, and nothing is better than cold honeydew after a sweaty walk. I bought a box of Multigrain Wheat Thins (which I like way way better than the originals) and wolfed them down in about a day. Also bought a Theobroma organic chocolate bar with banana chunks. Freaking BANANA CHUNKS. These things are beyond amazing and I could easily eat 4 in a row.

Looks like Amy's started selling a new type of vegan burrito; Amy's Breakfast Burrito with organic black beans and tomatoes. I really like it, and it's a good microwavable meal for when you don't want to cook.

So that's it for now. I will try not to be lazy and make no posts for two weeks again.

G20 Weekend

Well this last weekend has been a kind of shitty one for Toronto. The downtown was turned into a police state where people could be searched or arrested without cause. Windows were smashed, a few cars burned, several protesters and bystanders arrested and detained, along with some guilty parties, and idiots threw rocks at cops. Civil rights were violated, and a few people behaved like solid gold douche-bags.
Hosting the G20 meetings in down town Toronto when there are plenty of beautiful, difficult to reach parts of Canada where you don't have to shut down a whole city and hire an army of cops just to get together was psychotic.

Going back to Friday, it was Pride themed Rocky Horror, and I think it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.
Come out to the Rocky Horror Picture Show with a live shadow cast at Bloor Cinema on the last Friday of every month.
Right next door is Ghazale, one of my favourite places in the city of Middle-Eastern food. The last picture above is of the box of take out I got after the show.

Above the picture of the take out is a shot of one of the Tempeh Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches (or a "TLT")I made for myself and Aaron on Saturday. I used Marinated Tempeh Smoky Maple Meatless Bacon, which is a product I don't think I've used before but it was really really good. Looking at/tasting these strips right out of the package I was doubtful, but after frying they're sweet and savory and delicious.
You can also see some of the chocolate chip cookies with orange zest I made with a friend, in the background.

On Sunday I made Curried Split Pea Soup, but I don't have a picture of that one because I couldn't find my camera on Sunday. The recipe was from 'Vegan with a Vengeance' but I added cauliflower and carrots to the soup to make it more substantial. Very tasty.

Finally, today I had my friend Nick over for lunch, since he's going to China on Wednesday and I will miss him. I made curried vegetables and chickpeas with couscous. It was based on a recipe from 'Vegan with a Vengeance' called Spinach and chickpea curry, but I added carrots, cauliflower and celery, which I think totally worked. It was a delicious tomato-based curry dish and we really liked it.

We had a small earthquake today in the T dot. First one I've ever felt. It was pretty awesome, especially since the crappy old apartment building I live in didn't even fall over. (The apartment I inhabit within the crappy building is actually quite cherry.)
The G20 is also going on, and last weekend the Much Music awards were going on right outside where I live, so I've pretty much decided to hide inside as much as possible.
Better than the garbage strike we had last summer.
Currently looking at a very bright moon on a very pale sky, next to the C.N. Tower. Pretty.

I've been improvising my way through a lot of left over ingredients lately, to varying degrees of success.
The first picture up top is of Herbed Potatoes and Fried Tofu. The potatoes turned out great. I chopped up about 4 potatoes (skins left on, scrubbed), and mixed them with Omega Oil (Grape seed, extra virgin olive and flax seed oil), a whole lot of roughly chopped garlic (like practically a whole bulb's worth), a chopped onion, and a package-full of halved champagne mushroms on two baking trays, then baked them at 450 degrees C until the potatoes pierced easily with a fork (maybe half an hour? I forget).
The tofu somehow ended up really really salty even though I'm sure I didn't put that much salt on it. It was still okay but I'm going to consult a recipe next time I try to do something like this dish.

The next picture down is of a peanut butter, jam and banana sandwich which Aaron made the other day. Super yummy.

Finally, yesterday I made some pretty quality Ginger brown rice just by sauteing one chopped onion, about 7 cloves of chopped garlic (I really really like garlic), and a left over chopped up chunk of ginger in some of the Omega Oil, then added 2 cups of brown rice, stirred to coat it in oil, added 6 cups of water (this turned out too be a bit too much, go with 4 or 6), a bay leaf, and around a teaspoon or two of vegetable broth powder, and let it cook. Served with corn on the cob and Chick'n Nuggest (I threw out the package so I don't remember the brand.) The fake meat was delicious, a great dish for kids. Like most fake meats, it was high in sodium, so you don't want to be eating them everyday. But they taste really good and so I think can be worked in to a healthy diet.

Well, I graduated

I've been done school for a few months already, but my actual graduation ceremony was yesterday. It was really long and boring and my mom through a fit, but whatever. I've got my diploma now. Plus a bunch of pictures of me looking dorky.

To celebrate I made myself and Aaron each a little celebration cake. Photo featured above. Mine said "Hooray for Me" (it was going to say "Hooray for Stephy" but I ran out of room) and his said "Aaron = Sex".
The recipe was Chocolate Orange Cupcakes from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The icing was Wilton brand Sparkle Gel icing.

Today my friend Rena came over and we made Jasmine rice with Gardein brand Classic Style BBQ Skewers.

The other day I was volunteering as a community steward with the city, cleaning up garbage, watching for pollinators, and removing invasive species at the Spadina Quay wetland, and I found a raccoon skull. It is freaking boss. I put it on my shelf, but I feel like it should be attacked to a hat or something.

Stuff I have eaten recently:

• Vegetable and tofu chow mein from King's Cafe in Kensington market
• A chocolate vegan cupcake from Wanda's Pie in the Sky, also in Kensington
• Peas from the pod
• Baby carrots
  
• Lots of coffee with Silk brand soymilk.
  
• Chocolate Monkey Smoothie made with soymilk from The Hotbox Cafe, once again in Kensington market. (I'm actually not sure that the chocolate sauce used in this is vegan, unfortunately.)
  

Vegetable Noodle Soup with Chickpeas

Well, I've done it. I've discovered the best tasting soup ever.
I based it off a recipe I found on the internet (Here: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=25698.0), but I changed it a lot.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 5 cloves of garlic, chopped
  
• 1 large onion or two small onions, chopped
• 1 leek, chopped
  
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 4 carrots, chopped
• 1 large potato, chopped
  
• 1 tomato, chopped
  
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 6 cups of water (or three cups of water, three cups of vegetable broth)
• 1 cup of pasta (I used shells. Bowtie would also work well.)
• 1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
• 1 bunch of spinach, chopped (or baby spinach un-chopped).
  
• Salt to taste, pepper to taste, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp dried sage

- In a stock pot over medium heat, saute the onions, garlic and leek in the oil for 5 minutes
- Add the celery and carrots and saute for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the water, tomato and potato. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and let simmer (covered) for 35 minutes.
- Add the chickpeas, pasta and dill, and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Add the rest of the spices and the spinach.

I hope you end up liking this soup as much as I did.

Hey look I'm back.

I've been lazy about updating lately, but I've got two great entries comin' atcha, so stay tuned.

First news: I have invented possibly the best way to cook rice and lentils ever. Here's the recipe:
Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced (that means chopped)
• 1 cup white rice
• 1/2 cup brown lentils
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 4 cups water or vegetable broth
  
• 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp tumeric, dash of peper, 1 bay leaf
  

- In a large sauce pan or small pot, saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil for 10 minutes.
- Add the rice and lentils and stir to coat with oil.
- Add the water or broth, tomato, and spices. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes, or until the rice and lentils are fully cooked.

I served this with Garlicky Kale.

I also made a super yummy Veggie and Hummus Sandwich at some point. This one had sliced cucumber and tomato, hummus, and garlic salt on toasted flax bread. Can't really beat a good hummus and veggie sandwich for lunch, in my opinion.

Okay I've got a delicious soup to blog about, but it's so amazing I'm going to make its own post.
Peace.

Stew and a rabbit (but not rabbit stew)

So my twin sisters left yesterday to spend a month in Italy. About 30 hours before they had to go, one of them calls me and says that the very flimsy plans she made for someone to take care of her pet rabbit have fallen through, and she needs me to watch it until she gets back. There is literally not another soul who can take this rabbit (apparently), and even if they did, there's a good chance that it would be someone who didn't care about its needs. So now I've got this rabbit for a month.
The thing is, rabbits don't make very good pets. They're dumb, like hamsters (but unlike rats, which are very smart and affectionate and awesome). Unlike hamsters, though, rabbits need a lot of space. They also don't need human affection or interaction, and really don't enjoy being picked up.
I'm doing my best to keep her happy. During the day when I"m home and can watch her I let her run around most of my apartment (except the bathroom, bedroom and computer room). She's running around the big space and exploring.
She's still really cute and soft, and they don't smell, so it isn't really an inconvenience.

So today I cooked my own version of Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew from Vegan With a Vengeance. I used just one regular jalapeno pepper (instead of two chipotle ones), and it was still way too spicy for me. I really don't like spicy food. Other than that it turned out well, and Aaron does like spicy food. I added a few ingredients like an eggplant and some TVP. This was a really interesting dish, with lots of ingredients and flavours.

More beans!

I tried another new bean recipe yesterday. You're supposed to eat a ton of them for fiber and stuff. This time I made Larry's Re-Fried Beans from 'How it all Vegan.' (This was the first vegan cook book I ever bought and I'm still finding awesome new recipes in it.) They were really good. All the right herbs (including fresh cilantro, which I wouldn't have thought of on my own) and some tomato. You're supposed to mash them up with a fork after you cook them, but I just left them in bean form.
To go with the beans I made some fancy brown rice. It went like this: 1/2 cup short grain brown rice + half a cup wild brown rice, cooked in 3 cups of water with a tbsp of Omega 3 oil (a mix of flax seed oil, olive oil and grape seed oil that I bought), and 1 tsp marjoram. After it cooks, add 1 tsp salt and 1/4 cup (ish) of flax seeds.
Whole dish pictured above, plus peas.
Turned out really delicious. I ate it with some lemon juice squeezed on top, which worked better than I expected.

The adventure of the really fucking garlicy pesto

Today's meal was an adventure.
It started yesterday when I had my first day volunteering with a city of Toronto community stewardship program. I'm with the Spadina and Queens Quay wetlands team. It isn't really a wetland. It's just a little naturalized area right on the harbour. Animals and birds live there though, and it's a nice little spot. I might try going to some other sites also.
Anyways, it was mostly introduction this week, but we did pull some garlic mustard plants out. They're an invasive species that out-competes native plants and screws with the ecosystem. They are also edible. I took a bunch home, pulled off the young leaves, dumped the rest, and washed the plucked leaves by letting them soak for a few hours (changing the water twice).
Then I found a recipe for Zesty Tomato Pesto in 'Vegan with a Vengeance.' I picked it because it looked less fattening than most pesto recipes and I'm trying to drop some pudge.
So since the recipe I came up with was pretty different from the original 'Vegan with a Vengeance' recipe, here is the recipe for:
Super Fucking Garlicy Pesto
4 medium tomatoes (chopped)
1 bunch fresh spinach
1/2 cup green onions (chopped)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp olive oil (I decreased this from the original 1/2 cup in order to decrease the numer of calories in the dish.)
4 cloves garlic (crushed or minced. I crushed them, which is one reason the dish was so increadibly garlicy.)
1/2 cup fresh garlic mustard leaves (This grows all over Ontario. It is a tallish, bendy plant with small white flowers. You can look it up on google. The young leaves can be plucked and used. Wash very well first.) or fresh basil leaves, if unavailable.
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Blend all of the ingredients in a blender, then heat and serve over whole wheat pasta.

Puppies and Mexican food

Today for lunch I had a simple mixed lettuce salad. I like having salads for lunch 'cause I'm never very hungry until the evening anyways so I prefer to have something light. You can't see it in the picture, but there's some really tasty oil and vinegar dressing on that lettuce. Also flax seeds.

Pictured below that is Aaron's Mr. Noodle Concoction of the Day.

Yesterday Aaron and I went to Sneaky Dee's (College and Bathurst) for lunch. Unfortunately I was dumb and forgot to bring my camera. The food was choice, though. We shared a plate of vegan nachos and a vegan fajita. Then for dessert (despite being totally stuffed already), I ordered a vegan cupcake. THEY HAVE VEGAN CUPCAKES! It was a Pumpkin Spice vegan cupcake to boot. So excellent I haven't words.

Today we went to the animal lovers rally in Queens Park. There were many small puppies. Above is a picture of me playing with one. Note the look of pure joy.

Just stuff

Yesterday I went to the Red Room for a friend's birthday. I got the Vegetable Stir Fry with Tofu. It came with white rice and they must have put like 10 cloves of garlic in it. Freaking amazing. (I just forgot the word cloves and had to look it up in a cookbook. My mind is starting to go.)
Late night snack was toast with margarine and raspberry jam.
They're out of vanilla soymilk at the store by my house, so I'm drinking my coffee with chocolate soymilk today. It's like a mocha.
We just finished the box of Wholegrain Premium crackers which I bought a little while ago. Those make for good snacking.
When I was little we used to call them "square crackers."
That's all for now!

Vegetables!

Today I had a really big job interview. It went really well. Hopefully I'll have a grown up job soon.

My weight has been bouncing around a lot in the past year, and I'm back up to being heavier than I want to be. SO my plan is to eat lots and lots of vegetables until I get a little bit skinnier again. I've been snacking a lot on salads and raw vegetables. Salads are good 'cause you can make them interesting with all sorts of weird ingredients. Veggies are good for dipping in hummus.

The picture above is from dinner last night. The first dish I made was a baked beans recipe from 'How it all Vegan.' This was my first time making baked beans and they turned out pretty good. Protein and fiber!!! I think this is also the first time I've served beans as their own dish. They make a great meat - substitute and are super filling.
I also made "Honey"-Lemon Carrots from the same book. The honey is actually maple syrup, so they should really just call them syrup-lemon carrots. Anyways they were really awesome too. I increased the amount of lemon juice in the recipe by a whole lot because they only said to put in a little bit and I like lemon. I now know about 4 ways to cook carrots all by themselves, all of which are delicious.
And finally, corn on the cob, which is in season again. Corn is always a good idea. ALWAYS.

Peace

The bag of avocados

So the other day I went to CostCo with my mum, and one of the things she bought me was a big of like 5 avocados. I'm trying to use them all before they go too soft.
If you've never eaten an avocado, I pity you. But they way to tell if they are ready is they should be a bit soft, so that when you push your thumb into the outside it gives way. But it should be mushy! If it mushes all up as soon as you touch it, then it's gone bad. When you cut it open, if the avocado is ripe the skin will peal off easily. If it isn't ripe, the skin will stick and it will be hard to peal. If the inside is brown or black, it's going bad.

Okay, so yesterday I made an Avocado Salad. It was a butter lettuce mix (I dunno what that means either, just light coloured lettuce), a bunch of chopped avocado, pine nuts and grated carrot. I kind of invented a salad dressing to go with it. Toasted sesame seed oil, rosemary vinegar, salt and pepper. I'll firm this recipe up and post it in full later.

Today I had an Avocado and Hummus Sandwich. Toasted flax bread, margarine, roasted garlic hummus and half a sliced avocado. Delicious. Could have used some salt and pepper.

Well I've got a big job interview on Tuesday that I'm stressing out about, so I'm gonna go work on being ready for that.

Cupcakes and Cereal

Yesterday Aaron and I made cupcakes to celebrate our three year anniversary. They were Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.'
Two words: Holy Balls. These were amazing. Possibly the best cupcakes that the universe has ever known. The only change we had to make was I didn't have almond meal or corn flour, so we added some spelt flour instead, which has a nutty taste. The recipe contains coconut milk, ground flax, cinnamon and even more good stuff. Freaking amazing

I just had a pretty epic bowl of cereal. Morning Crisp Simply Strawberry Granola clusters, Original All-Bran, Oatmeal Crisp Maple Nut Flavour, and Nutra-Cran Sprouted ground flax with cranberries, in Vanilla Natura soymilk. I'm pretty sure I'm full of enough nutrients to jump over a few buildings. I'll go try that.

I'm about to leave for a volunteer orientation meeting. I'm going to be a Community Stewardship Volunteer. Hurray for me. That means I get to play in the dirt and help keep urban green space clean and awesome.

Cherry Blossoms and the Buddha Bowl

Today Aaron and I rode our tandem bike to High Park to see the cherry blossoms. We got some falafel and samosas and ate them in the park.

The other day I made a pretty complicated dish out of 'Fresh at Home - Everyday Vegetarian Cooking' by Ruth Tal Brown and Jennifer Houston. It's the cookbook from Fresh, a vegetarian chain restaurant. The dish was called the New Buddha Bowl (pictured above) and had a few layers to it.
The first layer is brown rice, then tofu cubes (they were supposed to be marinated but I just used regular ones), the topped with the dish's sauce. On top of that you put bean sprouts, tomatoes and cucumbers, a spice mix, then coriander and lemon slices. Like I said, fancy. Really awesome, though.

I've been pretty lazy about posting lately. Chalk it up to looking for a job.

Above is a picture of Baked Beans and Tofurky Beer Sausages.
Took about 5 minutes to make and those sausages are damn tasty. Definitely top quality fake meat. They taste good with the bean juice, too.

Two days ago I made Stir-fry again. This time it consisted of celery, ginger, a green pepper, cauliflower, onion, garlic and Yves' faux chicken. Cooked with some sesame oil and tamari sauce, plus some basil and thyme.
Served over white rice.
Here's one way to make white rice incredibly delicious: add a little olive oil and garlic salt to the water while it cooks.

Back to learning how to do an interview.

Indian Food

The search for a job intensifies. My mom has been helping me a lot with my resume and cover letters.
In other news, I started drawing my first biomechanical picture today. Inspired by this guy:
http://anderstattoo.deviantart.com/

Yesterday our friend Megan came over and I made a crazy amount of Indian food; tomato rice and curried vegetables.

The tomato rice is a recipe that I got off the internet and have been playing with for a while. Here it is:

• You need 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of margarine, 1/2 a large yellow onion (chopped), 2 cloves of garlic (chopped), 3 stalks of celery (chopped), 2 large tomatoes (chopped) OR one can of chopped tomatoes, 2 cups of vegetable broth, 1 cup of long-grained rice, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp basil, 1 tsp parsley, 1 tsp marjoram, salt and pepper to taste.
• Heat the margarine and oil in a large saucepan, then add the onion, garlic and celery. Saute for 5-10 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes and spices and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add broth and bring to a boil.
• Add rice, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

The spices for this can be played with however you want.
Make this dish extra awesome by adding 1/2 cup of toasted pumpkin seeds.

To go with the rice I made Creamy Curried Vegetables from 'How it all Vegan' by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. They were amazing. The more I cook with coconut oil the more I love it.

Summary

This is my 100's post so I thought I'd do a quick list of some of the food's I've already posted. Anyone who doesn't think there is a lot to eat when you are a vegan should read this. It should be kept in mind that a lot of these things can be cooked in many different ways and combined to make new meals. This applies especially to tofu, but a lot of vegetables and grains as well. Spices are very important in vegan cooking. Similar dishes can taste very different, and plain dishes can be made very interesting depending on what herbs and spices are used.
Okay, here we go:

• Fruit - i.e. Mangos, bananas, pomegranate, star fruit, melons, pears, kiwis etc.
• Berries - i.e. blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.
  
• Potatoes - i.e. Mashed, roasted, baked, french fries.
• Tofu - i.e. scrambled tofu, marinated and baked, fried, etc.
• Breads - i.e. ancient grains, flax bread, multigrain, whole wheat, sour dough, bagels etc.
  
• Sandwiches and wraps- fillings include tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, sprouts, cucumbers, onions, spreads, PB&J etc.
  
• Spreads/dips - i.e. hummun, guacamole, hemp spread, tofu based creamy dips, nut butters, preserves etc.
• Soups - Tomato, vegetable and rice, miso, carrot, mulligatawny, split pea, mushroom barley, carrot, corn chowder, butternut squash etc.
  
• Tea, Coffee, Pop, Water, Juice, etc.
  
• Cooked vegetables - i.e. artichokes, peas, asparagus, mushrooms, corn, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach etc. There are probably a lot out there that you've never tried.
  
• Rice - i.e. Brown rice, jasmine rice, tomato rice, pilaf, etc.
  
• Faux meat - There are dozens of packaged varieties from a number of different brands. Some are better than others.
  
• Baked goods - i.e. Banana bread, cakes, muffins, cookies etc.
  
• Pancakes - i.e. Banana, raspberry, chocolate chip, etc.
  
• Cereal with soy milk - not all cereals are vegan but many are. i.e. Frosted flakes, All bran, Cheerios, etc.
  
• Pasta - With tomato sauce, olive oil, vegetables, pesto, etc.
  
• Lentils
• Couscous
• Salads
• Kugel - Kugel recipes often contain egg, but this can be substituted with egg replacer, soft tofu and other options.
  
• Veggie burgers and Veggie dogs - available in many restaruants.
  
• Dark chocolate - Many brands of dark chocolate bar are vegan, though many are not. Read the ingredients list.
  
• Vegetable sushi
• Falafel
  
• Borritos
• Nuts and seeds - i.e. sunflower seeds, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, etc.
  
• Crackers
• Stirfry
  
• Beans - i.e. Kidney beans, blackbeans, edamame, chickpeas, etc.
  

For dinner a few nights ago I made Asparagus with mushrooms and brown rice.
I didn't have a recipe, was mostly just playing around. I chopped up a bunch of asparagus (cut off and dispose of the ends first) and cooked them in olive oil with chopped mushrooms, 4 cloves of garlic, chopped green onions salt, margerame and thyme in a covered sauce pan. Put the mushrooms in first and let them cook covered for a while until they let out some of their juice.
To the rice I added steak seasoning, margarine, onion powder, salt, and flax seeds.

I also had some Blackberries. I freaking love blackberries. Seriously, I can't think of a better snack than a bunch of blackberries.

Brunch for dinner

I love having breakfast food for dinner. Yesterday I made a pretty awesome breakfast-dinner of Scrambled Tofu and Roasted potatoes. (top picture).
For the tofu, I fried half a purple onion, 6 chopped cloves of garlic, one chopped yellow bell pepper and one chopped red bell pepper in olive oil. I then crumbled (or smooshed) in two packages of silken tofu. You can use firm tofu for this recipe, but silken tofu makes it turn out more like eggs. For spices I used salt, pepper, dill, turmeric, curry powder, cumin and paprika. It turned out really delicious and colourful.
This recipe is a great replacement for eggs. The only difference is that while eggs have their own flavour, with this recipe you add the flavour in the form of spices. Spices are very important to vegan cooking. I recommend playing around with them a lot in order to get familiar with their flavours. My favourites are rosemary and dill.
Spices were also the major factor in the potatoes I made to go along with the tofu scramble. I set the oven for 450 and then washed and chopped 4 potatoes in to bite-sized pieces. I never peel my potatoes 'cause there's lots of good nutrition in the peel. Instead I scrub them with a coarse brush under water. This removes the top layer of skin but leaves most behind.
The next step to this dish was mixing the potatoes with some olive oil (vegetable oil is also good) and a ton of spices. I then proceeded to covered them with the remainder of my Crousset brand Tuscan Bouquet spice blend. They were finished after about 35 minutes.
These potatoes turned out unbelievably good. They were gone in like an hour.

Tonight I made myself a Hummus and Vegetable Sandwich. Fresh lettuce (i like a lot of lettuce on my sandwiches), tomato, avocado, hummus, margarine and black pepper on flax bread.

Stephy's Sicky Soup

Yesterday I made my own version of Jana's Winter Sicky Soup from 'How it all Vegan' by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. I think I changed it enough to claim it as my own, so here's the recipe to Stephy's Sicky Soup:
You will need: 1 small butternut squash (peeled and cubed), 6 medium carrots (washed and sliced), 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 small onion, 2 leaks (chopped), 3 tbsp fresh ginger (grated), 8 cloves garlic (chopped), 12 cups vegetable stock or water (I use half and half), 1 pinch of cayenne pepper, 1 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp salt, 3 tbsp fresh rosemary (chopped), juice of half a lemon, 1 bunch of dandelion leaves (chopped), 1 bunch of kale (chopped), 3 tbsp miso paste, 1/4 cup green onions (chopped)

• In a large soup pot, saute the squash and carrots in the olive oil on medium-high heat for 10 minutes
• Add the onions,leeks, ginger and garlic and cook for 5 more minutes
• Add the stack, cayenne, curry, salt, rosemary, lemon and greens. Simmer on medium-low for 40 minutes.
  
• Remove from heat and stir in miso and green onions.
• Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
  

This soup is great when your sick. The lemon and ginger really open up your sinuses and are great for you immune system. The greens and vegetables are full of important vitamins that will help you get better. Make this soup for yourself or someone you love!
Any other leafy greens can be added or stand in for the ones I used. Collard greens or spinach would also be good.

I'm siiiiiick!

:( I has a sick. Sore throat and runny nose and all that jazz.
But it's an opportunity for a blog post!

Right now I'm drinking hot vegetable broth. The dehydrated kind, you just pour boiling water over it and you have an instant soothing drink.
I've also been drinking a ton of tea. Mostly lemon zinger and lemon chamomile. Lemon is good when your sick. Honey would probably be good right now, I'm using Agave nectar instead. It tastes and looks exactly the same, but perhaps without some of the nutrients in honey. Honey is one of those grey-areas in veganism. Most will agree that it isn't vegan, however.
I've also been drinking lots of orange juice. I also discovered the best sick drink ever: a Fuzzy Navel! That's when you mix peach schnapps in your orange juice. If you're staying home from work anyways, you might as well get a little hammered.
Aaron is going to go buy me ingredients later so I can make soup. More on that later.

Today, dinner was Gardein lightly marinated meat-free dijon breasts, (Tee hee. Breasts), Artichokes, and Jasmine Rice.

There are a few different ways to cook fresh artichoke. They all start with cutting off most of the stem (leave about half an inch) and the top 3/4 of an inch or so of the leaves. Then I cook it like this:

• Put an inch or two of water in a pot.
• Add 1 tsp margerine, 1 tsp salt or garlic salt, and 2 tsp lemon juice.
• Put the artichokes in the pot, cover, and bring to a boil. (This is called broiling because you half boil, half steam the vegetable.)
• Cook for 15 minutes, turning over once.
  

If you've never eaten a fresh artichoke, the way you do it is to pull off the leaves and scrape the white soft flesh off of their bottom with your teeth (where they were attached to the whole). Some people like to dip the bottom of the leaf in melted margarine or mayonnaise before biting it. When you are almost out of leaves, cut off the tiny purple ones in the center (with a knife pointed slightly down to get their bottoms). Now you have the heart of the artichoke sitting on top of the stem. You can eat the whole heart. You can eat the stem too, if you like, but some people find it bitter.
Artichokes are one of those under-represented vegetables that most people don't usually eat. But they're good for you, taste yummy, are fun to eat, and make a good vegetable dish for a meal with a few parts to it.

My jasmine rice turned out amazingly flavourful and delicious today. Here is how I cooked it:

• Chop one small onion and two cloves of garlic.
• Saute in a sauce pan with olive oil until the onions are tender.
• Add the rice and stir to coat it with the oil.
• Add two cups of water, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 a cup of frozen peas. Stir.
• Let cook until the rice has absorbed the water. Around 20 minutes.
• Let sit for 5-10 minutes then serve.
  

I hope you enjoy these recipes.

Kiwis and tea

My computer is working incredibly slow today. Also I've been trying to upload a picture to my new Twitter account all day and it just doesn't want to let me.

On to food, I've got a new recipe cooking in the oven. I shall report back after it has been sampled.
Yesterday I went grocery shopping and came home with a bag of organic kiwis (pictured above.) Try and tell me those don't look delicious. I looooove kiwis. Apparently they're also crazy good for you. Mad amounts of vitamin C and the like.

Aaron finally got turned on to tea while we were in Scotland. Yesterday I made us both cups of Celestial Seasonings Vanilla Hazelnut tea with vanilla soy milk and some sugar. It tastes like a cake. I've tried other vanilla hazelnut teas but this one is by far my favourite. Yoga Tea brand Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut is also really good, it just tastes spicier.
In other tea related news, I bought a tea ball (is that what they're called?) so I can enjoy loose tea! Today I had some of the Mayan Chocolate tea I bought from 'All Things Tea' on Bloor street. (Also pictured above.)

Inventing

Today I have two recipes that I pretty much made up. MAKE THEM!

Today I made Lavender Pancakes. I adapted it from the pancakes recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance.
To make them you will need 1 and 1/4 cups of whole grain flour (substitute 1/2 cup for white flour, if you like), 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tbsp canola oil, 1 1/2 cups of soy milk (or other milk substitute), 2 tbsp dried lavender (I bought mine in Kensington market), 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tbsp maple syrup.

• Put 1 and 1/2 cups of soy milk in to a sauce pan and heat to a simmer. I used vanilla Natura.
  
• Add the lavender to the soy milk and let it simmer covered on medium-low for 15-20 minutes. (You don't want it to boil. If it starts boiling, reduce the heat.)
  
• Strain out the lavender, saving the milk in a large bowl.
• To the soy milk, add the wet ingredients (including the maple syrup) and mix.
• In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir (ideally with a wooden spoon) until just mixed.
  
• Fry with vegan margarine.

Yesterday I made a pretty nifty lentil dish, which I shall also share with you:
You will need 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 cup of brown lentils (or any kind of lentils, probably), 1/2 cup of brown or wild rice (you can use a full cup of rice if you want there to be more food with more rice, just add more water so it all cooks), 1 purple onion, 1 red bell pepper, spices.

• Saute the chopped onion and bell pepper (plus some chopped garlic if you want, I add garlic to everything) in the olive oil for about 10 minutes.
  
• Add the lentils, rice, and 3 1/2 to 4 cups of water (if the water is all gone and the lentils don't seem tender enough, add some more water), plus about 1 tbsp of cumin, 1 tbsp rosemary, 1/2 tbsp of paprika, 1/2 tbsp curry powder, and 1 tsp salt. (Adjust the amount of each spice as you like, or replace some if you want.)
  
• Cook until ready (about an hour).
• Add a couple drops of hot sauce, or something else to make it spicy, if desired.
  

Banana Bread

The other day I made some pretty stellar banana bread from a recipe in 'The Joy of Vegan Baking'.
Now, I've made a few recipes from this book and so far every one of them needed at least one ingredient to be altered. This recipe needed about 1/4 less sugar. I also was going to add cinnamon, which I think would have turned out really well, but I forgot to put it in :-P.
Anyways, I learned for next time and this loaf was still pretty delicious. The recipe said to use a cup of chocolate chips and an optional cup of walnuts. I thought that would be too much stuff so I put in half a cup of each. It turned out perfectly. One cup would have been too much chocolate, especially the semi-bitter stuff I was using.
It was enjoyed by many.

Now Aaron and I are off to goth it up at PANIC.