Stumbling Into Fall

Happy Labor Day!  I can't believe I haven't blogged anything here in over 4 months.  Things have been pretty hectic around here.  We got engaged at the end of June and have been trying to plan a wedding in 5 months, which is totally doable, but still crazy.  Also, I've been struggling with some health issues.  Back in March I started getting constant headaches, which was a big deal for me as I never really got those in the past.  After many trips to the doctor and many co-pays, turns out I have migraines triggered by a damaged nerve in the back of my head.  I've been on medicine which is helping, but it has made me have no appetite, therefore my desire to cook and create new recipes has completely gone away.  Anyway,  I decided that I still have to eat, and well so does Dan, so I am going to try and post some new recipes and photos of the food that we make.  

I know that it's only Labor Day and summer is still here, but I love Fall and always have.  I can't wait for it to come.  The colors, the smells, and the foods are all my favorites.  I'm working to force fall here as quickly as possible.  I was wanting some mushroom soup the other day, so made up this recipe for a rich, creamy, yet healthy and plant based soup.  It's so easy to make, you'll never by the canned stuff again.  I can see using this in Thanksgiving green bean casserole...hmmm...who needs to wait for Thanksgiving???  Hopefully you'll join me in welcoming Fall, perhaps more gracefully then I do.

Creamy Mushroom Soup
1 yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups mushrooms, sliced (i used a mix of crimini and button but use whatever you have on hand)
1/4 cup white wine or champagne
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1 package mori-nu silken tofu
1 cup vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste

In a saute pan with a small amount of cooking spray of vegetable broth, add onions and garlic and cook until onions are translucent.  Add mushrooms, salt, pepper and rosemary and cook until mushrooms are tender.  Deglaze pan with wine and cook for another 3-5 minutes.  Allow mixture to cool for 10 minutes or so.  In a blender or food processor, add mixture, tofu, and broth and blend until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with green onions.  

Enjoy!  I also topped mine with Sriracha for a little added spice!

For those of you who want to keep summer around, this soup is actually really good served chilled as well.  

Sometimes You Just Need A Little Comfort Food

This week seems like it has been dragging.  We were on a cruise this past weekend until Monday so I didn't work that day, but somehow my 4 day week seems like it has been 14 days.  Then of course being out of town, I have yet to go grocery shopping so it has been pretty bare in our fridge this week.  We've been piecing together meals with what we have, due completely to my lack of motivation to go to the store.  Today all I wanted to eat was something comforting.  Soup to me always does the trick.  Never mind that it was 85 degrees out today, I was determined to make a yummy soup out of stuff I already had in my cabinets.


In my pre-plant based days I loved this boxed roasted red pepper and tomato soup from Trader Joe's.  We probably ate it 3 nights a week.  Unfortunately it contains milk in it so it is no longer a staple in my household.  I got the idea this afternoon to make my own, I have roasted red peppers and I have canned tomatoes so why not?  You can of course make your own peppers and tomatoes but who wants to do that after being at work for 9 hours...not me.


I did want something yummy to top the soup with and decided to make my own croutons.  Of course we are out of bread, so I did stop in the French Market on my way to the train and picked up some whole grain sourdough bread and some fresh basil (because I can).  The bread is great b/c it has like 3 ingredients, flour, water & salt or something ridiculously easy like that.  


So I just started throwing together things I had and stumbled upon a hit with us. Dan even thought it was the Trader Joe's soup!  And for very few calories, you get big flavor and a filling soup, not to mention that it's so pretty.  


Vegan Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup with Pesto Croutons

1/2 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 jar roasted red peppers, drained
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 cup vegetable broth (and a little extra for sautéing)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 ounces silken tofu
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano
dash of red pepper flakes
pesto croutons(recipe below)


In a medium sized pot over medium heat, add onions, garlic, bay leaf, and a splash of veggie broth.  Sauté until onions become translucent.  Add in the remaining ingredients (except croutons and tofu) and simmer for 10 minutes.  


Remove the bay leaf and add the tofu.  With a hand blender or a real blender, puree the soup until it has a smooth consistency.  Taste the soup for seasoning and add additional salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with croutons, fresh basil and green onions.  




Pesto Croutons
2-3 slices bread, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup veggie broth
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)


Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  In a food processor combine garlic, basil, broth, salt and nutritional yeast until completely combined.  Toss the pesto with the bread pieces until they are coated.  Place on a baking pan covered in parchment paper.  Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes, turning every so often until the croutons are crispy.  You can also do this in a toaster oven if you like.  


VeHere's what they look like before getting toasted, you will need to stop yourself from just eating them as is...

This dinner was exactly what we needed this week!  What kinds of foods do you find comforting when the work week is seeming a bit too long?

Veggie Maki Salad

So I've posted before about my making easy sushi-esque stuff at home (see here).  When I did that it was more like an appetizer, not going to be a whole meal unless you ate a dozen of them.  SO I thought about how to bulk it up and make it into a real meal.  So why not add some lettuce to it.  This came together in a snap and with the oil free wasabi ginger dressing on top it was perfection!  Definitely a keeper in our house.  


I added the vegetables I had on hand, but this really would be good with whatever you enjoy in your vegetarian sushi or what you have in your fridge, sauteed mushrooms or asparagus would be really good her as well.  Add some cubes of baked tofu as well.

Veggie Maki Salad with Wasabi Ginger Dressing - serves 2


1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 romaine lettuce heart, chopped
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1/2 carrot shredded
1/2 cucumber, julienned (cut into thin strips)
1/2 avocado, diced
2 stalks of green onions, chopped
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 sheet nori or any seaweed snack
Wasabi Ginger Dressing (recipe below)


Arrange chopped romaine on a plate.  Top with remaining ingredients or any vegetables you like.  Drizzle on dressing and enjoy!  We like things pretty spicy in this house so we added a little chili sauce to ours but that is completely optional.


Wasabi Ginger Dressing


1 tsp wasabi powder
2 tbsp hot water
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 clove minced garlic
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 tsp powdered ginger (you can also use fresh ginger root juice but I had no ginger on hand)


Combine wasabi powder and hot water until dissolved in a small container with a lid. Add in remaining ingredients, pop on the lid and shake to your hearts content.  Taste dressing for spice.  Add more wasabi for spicer, add more water if too spicy for you until you reach your desired level.

What The Fork Do You Eat?! - part 1

Every time I mention to someone that I eat a plant-based diet, or vegan, I typically get a perplexed look followed by several uncomfortable seconds of silence.  90% of the time the next thing out of their mouth is “So what do you eat?”.  Apparently by not eating dairy, meat and other animal products there is not much left..right?  WRONG!

I decided to blend my love of food, my love of photography and my quest to make people realize that I eat far more then lettuce into this blog.  Now I do post a lot of recipes here but I also eat all of these!  Look for the weekly installment of What The Fork Do You Eat?! of things I eat that I don't always blog about.  A lot of this is eating out for lunch, etc.  Goes to show that there are vegan options at many fine establishments.  Also, let's me show off my new art project above...spent some time in the produce department in search of foods I can make look like vegetables...here's another favorite:

Okay..onto the reason for this post.

Last week I was in Vegas for work, so yeah, not posting the stuff I ate there....we are going to forget that week ever happened.  So this is some highlights from the week before.  Enjoy!

Jamba Juice oatmeal for breakfast one morning.  They make it with soy milk so it's 100% plant based.  You can get it with bananas, berries, apples, plain or just brown sugar like I have here.  Got the brown sugar in a small moment of weakness...hey it happens.

Hit up the juice place in the French Market before work one day.  Was feeling a scratchy throat so got a cold fighter.  Contains grapefruit, orange, lemon, apple, and ginger.  Yum!

I totally have a weakness when it comes to sandwiches.  I love them.  Since there are 5 potbelly's within walking distance of my office (you think I exaggerate?) it's hard to resist. There isn't anything specifically vegan there, but I love to get their pizza sandwich, hold the cheese and pepperoni, double the mushrooms.  Add some lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and italian seasoning and it is a yummy lunch that isn't all that bad for you at around 300 calories...my problem is I always get baked chip...bad Jody!

It seems like more and more places are having vegan options.  Soprafinna in the city is one of them to start offering such options.  I tried the panini with roasted red pepper hummus, basil dressing, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, roasted tomatoes and lettuce.  It was delicious!  They also have a portabella sandwich, which is good but this is better!

This is to prove that I still do cook.  I was using up some veggies we had in the fridge and sauteed up some yellow squash, tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and a little hot sauce.  Put it on a flatbread with 1/4 of an avocado.  It was a quick and delicious meal.  Had some veggies that wouldn't fit in the flat bread so they made a great side dish.

Lastly I made a batch of my Veggie Chili on top of some quinoa and topped with an avocado.  Made enough to have several lunches with this in the days to come.

So there you have it!  A blend of some homemade and some eating out.  Stay tuned for more adventures in plant-based eating!

I will eat them here and there. Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

Now Dr. Suess was the first to write about green breakfast food, but since I don't eat green eggs and ham, or regular colored eggs and ham for that matter I figured it was time to write about my own green breakfast.  

After a recent trip to the produce market this weekend I found myself with an abundance of spinach (forgetting that I already had some I bought 2 more bags!).  Now we go through spinach pretty quick here, but this is a little much even for us.  I started adding spinach everywhere...into my morning smoothie, into salads, into dinner pasta dishes.  I set out tonight to make my oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow morning and thought...what the heck.  In honor of earth day coming up this weekend make your breakfast more green!  


Green Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal - Makes 1 Serving

1 apple diced (I leave the skin on b/c I'm lazy)
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (i like unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/2 cup packed spinach leaves
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

In a non-stick sauce pan (you can use the same pot you plan to make the oatmeal in for less dishes), add a small layer of water, place at medium heat, add diced apples and let cook until the apples are tender.  Remove from pan if using the same pan for the oatmeal.




In a blender or food processor, add non-dairy milk and spinach.  Blend until spinach is completely chopped and milk is all kinds of green.


In sauce pan add water, oats, milk mixture, syrup & cinnamon.  Cook on medium heat for 3-5 minutes stirring often.  Once the liquid is absorbed by the oats, add in the apples sprinkle with a little extra cinnamon and ENJOY!


I PROMISE you will not taste the spinach at all.  You are adding in a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals with very few calories.  
This has me thinking...what else can I make green???

Mac & Cheeze Pleaze!

I've been searching a yummy mac and cheese recipe since becoming plant-based.  I have tired a few and they are okay, but I was looking for something a little more.  


Last year in my non plant-based days I made a smoked four-cheese risotto that was amazingly delicious.  I missed that, I can remember how yummy that tasted.  I was reading a cooking magazine the other day and it had a recipe for a risotto made with pasta, ditalini to be exact.  Ditalini are the small little tube pasta.  I think this would work with any small pastas.  


The smoky and cheesy flavor hits the nail on the head of what I had the night a year ago.  


Smoky Mac & Cheeze, risotto style


2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 cup ditalini pasta
1 cup beer (I like a brown or amber ale)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
dash of black pepper
1/3 cup nutritional yeast (see below to find out what the heck this is)


In a small sauce pan heat up vegetable broth.


In a larger sauce pan, spray some cooking spray and add garlic cloves and onions.  Cook for a few minutes until onions start to become translucent.  Add in pasta and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often.  Add in beer.  Continue to stir until most of the beer is absorbed by the pasta.  Continue to add a little of the broth (about 1/4 cup) to the pasta and when it is absorbed, add more until the pasta is cooked and has a creamy consistency.  


Add in the remaining ingredients (onion powder, paprika, turmeric, liquid smoke, garlic powder, salt, pepper, & nutritional yeast).  Mix throughly and serve.  I like to add some greens to mine (broccoli, peas, spinach, it all works!).

What the heck is nutritional yeast anyway?


According to wikipedia, nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast which has a slightly nutty, cheesy flavor to it.  It is a source of many nutrients including protein and vitamin b-12.  It can be found in health food stores and on the internet.  


It might be referenced as "nooch" in vegan/vegetarian conversation.

Don't Be Alfredo Of It...

Apologies for the cheesy title...couldn't help it and it's been a long day.

Now who doesn't love Italian food....for me it is the ultimate comfort food.  Since going plant-based I have veganized some of my favorite Italian food, Pasta Primavera, Lasagna but I have yet to tackle my favorite of all the Italian foods...Fettucini Alfredo.  

Ever since I can recall Fettucini Alfredo has been my favorite.  Who can resist the buttery, creamy, cheesy goodness?  Well...me...for the past 10 years.  Blame it on a decade of watching calories but I haven't touched the stuff since I became legal to drink.  Now that I am plant-based I definitely can't have it...or can I?

I was surfing around one of my favorite blogs (happyherbivore.com), seriously check it out she is a genius with fat free and low fat vegan recipes and has awesome cookbooks.  The baking she can do with applesauce is impressive (60 calorie/0.7 gram of fat chocolate chip cookies umm...yes please!).  Back to the point, I noticed that she had a recipe for Instant Vegan Alfredo.  Be warned omnivores, some of the ingredients are a little scary...I mean I was a little afraid to make this.  Silken Tofu, Nutritional Yeast?? Seriously?  I have dabbled with nutritional yeast (nooch if you want to be a cool vegan) but never gone this far with it.  

Well I got over my initial fear, bought some silken tofu and nooch the other day and decided to make it for dinner tonight.  It came together in a jiffy (15 minutes total).  In addition to the posted recipe; I add 3 cloves of garlic (why not), a little extra salt & pepper, and about 1/2 teaspoon of oregano.  Also just at the end of the pasta cooking I threw in some frozen peas (maybe about a cup) and frozen broccoli (probably a cup as well).  

This TOTALLY hit the spot.  I mean if you are a connoisseur of Alfredo sauce then yes, you will think this tastes nothing like it.  But if, like me you have taken a vacation from Alfredo for any length of time then this satisfies that need completely.  I didn't even have time to take a picture with my legitimate camera I was eating it so quickly, trying to figure out how many more minutes I would have to spend on the elliptical tonight to justify eating the whole pot!  As an added validation of it's tastiness, even Dan thought it was good and he is tofu's toughest critic!

I keep thinking of other veggies you can add to make this a different meal every time.  Maybe some sun-dried tomatoes and basil.  Perhaps some asparagus...the options are completely endless.  I would also make sure to serve this immediately.  Although it still tastes good after it's sat for a while, it definitely does not look as appetizing.  Probably going to have this in my lunch tomorrow so I'll let you know how it reheats.

So what I learned this evening is that although I usually will try anything once, don't be scared to try something in very uncharted territory, it may surprise you. 

What's something you were nervous to try but it turned out to be one of your favs?