Sunday, July 22, 2007

Hiatus

Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated last. I've been eating out loads. I'm off to Europe on Tuesday! I can't wait, loads of wonderful food and drink! I celebrated my birthday at a wonderful Thai restaurant! When I get back I'll be cooking lots more, I promise! Cheerio!

I promise to post one recipe from Tuscana, Italia.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

I want a fun-guy

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't try to make up witty titles. I had 8 oz of chanterelle mushrooms to use up, so I googled what I could do with them. I ended up making:

Chanterelle and fire roasted tomatoes over whole wheat pasta.
Ingredients
8 oz chanterelle mushrooms
1 small onion
20 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
dried basil
dried oregano
dried rosemary
splash of red cooking wine

Cut chanterelles into bite sized pieces. Place in buttered baking dish. Dice one onion over top of mushrooms. Bake covered in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Add all other ingredients and bake for another 15 minutes.

Serve over whole wheat pasta.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Southern Night

After a nice run and swim combo I was imagining a really yummy Southern inspired meal. I had BBQ Riblets in the freezer (Garden Burger) and wrapped them in foil and put them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

I made this recipe from FreshDirect.
Mashed Cauliflower
6 cups water
Kosher salt
1 pound cauliflower, separated into medium-sized florets
2 tablespoons Earth Balance
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup grated cheese (Vegan version)
White pepper


1. Pour the water into a heavy bottomed pot, add 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the florets and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain.

2. Return the florets to the pot over low-medium heat and cook for 3 minutes to evaporate any excess liquid. Add the Earth Balanc, oil and cheese. Break up the florets and incorporate the other ingredients with a potato masher, and season generously with salt and pepper. Add small can canned corn (I used just regular sweet corn, I bet creamed would be even better).

I also made the store-brand boxed corn muffins and veganized the recipe.

All in all, it turned out quite good!

I like the mashed cauliflower better with a little mustard mixed in as well.

Grilled Tempeh Tacos

I had a friend over on Sunday and we decided to cook and watch a film. We ended up with Vanilla Sky. It would have been cool to have a Vanilla theme, but we didn't. We played a little with Vegan Planet's "Soy Meets Grill" recipe and ended up with Tempeh Tacos with Tomatillo Salsa.

Tempeh:
Boil in enough water to cover tempeh for about 10 minutes.
Coat with spices and grill about 10 minutes.

Spices:
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cayenne or other red pepper

Grill for about 10 minutes. Also grill a mildly spicy pepper to add to the salsa.

Tomatillo Salsa
3 small tomatillos, broiled in the oven for about 10 minutes until they begin to pop.
3 small red tomatos
1 grilled mild/spicy pepper
cilantro
juice from lime

Cut the tempeh into strips and fold into a tortilla (corn or flour). Top with salsa and enjoy!

We also steamed some beets to have as a side dish! Delicious!