A Week In Review

you eat those massive cakes, boo

This week was rather busy for me, but I have been able to come home and have dinner with the boo at night, which is a new thing for us. Andy decided to make pancakes for dinner the other night. In the 10" skillet. Go big or go home, I guess!

vegan/glutard alcohol sponger

potato spinach hash


purple potato (par cooked)
frozen assorted veggies
spinach
baked tofu
daiya mozzarella
earth balance
sliced onion


In a hot skillet, melt some earth balance, caramelize the onions. Add potatoes and brown, add your other veggies and spinach. Dump in a bowl, sprinkle with vegan bacon bits and daiya. Inhale to soak up all that whisky.

 knock-off sushi bar ginger vinaigrette
If you don't have a microplane, its cool, use your box grater.

1 small carrot
1"x1" chunk peeled ginger
2T rice vinegar
2T lemon or lime juice
2t dijon mustard
splish splash of water
soy
olive oil



Using your fancy purple handled microplane, shave the shit out of a carrot and that hunk o' ginger into a mason jar that has a lid. Dump in all other ingredients, screw the lid on, and shake it like a polaroid. Or a shake weight. Use your imagination. Adjust seasonings to your taste preference, and shake more if it needs more emulsification. Pour over romaine and tomatoes with carrot shavings, and feel like royalty.

"life is short, eat dessert first."

plantain + chocolate 

"dirty" plantain shake and champagne, cause I keep it classy.

The grocer nearby sells it's "on its way out" produce at a sharply reduced price. Being a scavenger who likes to preserve things, I decided to buy some of these "over ripe" plantains to see what I could make of them. They are now my go to dessert, or other snack staple! Straight out of the peel with some peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. Cut into pieces, freeze, and you have a base for some smoothies or "ice cream". Vegan ice cream is crazy expensive, at $2 for three to four massive plantains, this is a much more inexpensive alternative for snacks and desserts.

frozen plantain + dutch cocoa + peanut butter + sweetener + H2O

    

  Enjoy with halvah crumbled on top. Or cookie scraps. Or dollops of lyngonberry jam. Oh Ikea...

Stretch (Those Dry Stores)

For full effect, please turn your spotify on to "A Song for Our Fathers" by Explosions in the Sky

One of the things that got me really excited about moving to New York was the availability of a huge farmer's market with tons of locally grown and produced foods, wines, and plants. I went last Saturday and scored arugula, local honey (seriously, stop buying the crap in the store, it is but a shadow of what REAL honey tastes like), onions, chevre (goat cheese), purple potatoes, and to boot there was some sort of pot rally going on, and a hare krishna booth. I felt like I walked onto the set of a Hair production. I did spend maybe 20-25$, but the honey and cheese were the most expensive at about 6$ a pop.

hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hareee!

In addition to this, I've forsaken Whole Foods for a bit in favor of using the farmer's market for fresh produce, and this slapshack spot nearby that is kind of like an Aldi's back in Erie, except they carry a lot of the brands I tend to purchase (like Almond Breeze, Bob's Red Mills). They also have tons of frozen veg (my life source for home meals) and they carry gluten free beer for about as much, if not less, than it is back home. Needless to say, now that the vacation is over, we are not dining out and are a bit rationy.

If I've not mentioned my giant vat of peanut butter before, I'll mention it again. I love it. Like a fat kid loves... peanut butter cake. No bake cookies are one of my favorites, as well as any other combination of peanut butter and chocolate. I'm pretty sure I gained this affection for the two while in the womb, as my mum and I go bonkers for Reese's and other concoctions. I made a batch of these pups all vegan and gluten free to enjoy with my glutard beer. Heaven. Now the problem is I can't stop eating them...

Glutard Vegan No Bakes

 

2 cups sugar
2 oz baking chocolate (usually vegan, especially the cheap stuff)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup almond milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
Waxed paper or Foil

In a small pot, melt the coconut oil, sugar, chocolate, and milk together. Bring to a simmer. 

Then add the peanut butter and vanilla. 

In a decently large bowl filled with your oats, pour in the bubbling mass of chocolatey peanut butter goodness. Do not lick the spoon, it's like napalm... trust me. 

Mix together your gooey mass and spoon onto parchment or foil, and try to allow them to cool as long as you can resist. I also added cinnamon to mine. Cause it's good. Once cooled they can be stored wherever because they're not going to hang around long. 

 

For when you are lazy... never forget the dry stores.

 

Edamame Ragout with Rice spirals.

Rice Pasta (cook according to directions)

Thawed edamame

Tamari

Try not to suck at photography because you're impatient to eat it.

Liquid smoke

Coconut oil

Thawed "Parisian Blend" vegetable mix, or whatever frozen veg you have on hand

Thawed spinach

1 Half a can of tomato puree

Oregano

Basil

Garlic granules

Black pepper

Salt

 

Daiya Mozzarella

In a small non stick skillet, melt some coconut oil (like 1-2 tsp) and one it is hot add the edamame. Be sure to pat them dry or they steam instead of searing. Give them a few flips to brown them, and then squirt some liquid smoke and tamari on them and let the liquids reduce. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat up your tomato puree in either a large non stick skillet (I really just wanted an excuse to use the ones I had just purchased from Sur la Table) or sauce pot. Add veggies and edamame. Season with herbs and salt and pepper. Ideally you want fresh, but since we're being bohemian here, dried is acceptable... but do be sure to feel guilty about it.

Place your pasta in a bowl, top with sauce/veg "ragout" or pick some other fancy name to fool yourself that you're actually eating something that's not a hodgepodge. Top with fake vegan cheese or reg. cheese for your partner (cause it's just not fair having food allergies sometimes). Proceed to inhale.

 

I. Love. BaoHaus.

Clockwise: Apple Sidra, Taro Fries, Uncle Jesse tofu bao. Heaven.

Sometimes, it's okay to cheat... so long as you go to the farmer's market afterwards and compensate by buying stuff that you'll cook at home later. Taro fries are seriously, mind blowingly delicious.

Blackened Tofu + Balsamic Arugula + Escabeche + Sticky Rice

Many people hate tofu. I know, don't lie, it's cool. You just had it bad one time that some f-ing hippie made it for you and it had no seasoning on it, and was all slippery, and bland. Freezing tofu totally changed the texture. The ice crystals make these little matrices and it has a texture akin to a chicken pattie (maybe that's because those patties have so much soy in them... something to think about), making ideal for tofu salads or other frying applications. Just try it, and if you hate it, okay, you can hate tofu.

Rice is also another one of those gems, like beans, that you can make a big batch ahead and eat it throughout the week. Heck, if you're going to make fried rice I RECOMMEND you use day old rice. Having lost a lot of its moisture it will fry up nicely and un-clump easier.

1 cup water
1 cup rice, rinsed 3 times til the water runs clear. Let sit until it turns opaque again.

In a small pot, rice + water. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Reduce to the lowest possible setting for about 10 minutes. Turn heat off and allow to sit.

For the tofu,

tamari
smoke seasoning
marmite
water

smoked paprika
african bird pepper
thyme
black pepper
salt
basil
garlic granules

Make a marinade with the first four ingredients. It should be salty as sea water. You don't have to add Marmite but I like the umami it adds. Cut (a 14oz brick) of tofu into 1/2" slabs and submerge in marinade for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together the spices with 3 parts paprika, 3 parts herbs, and fill in the blanks after that. Go easy on the spice, it will get spicier as it sits. Keep the mix in a glass jar because the paprika will not only stink up plastic with smoke smell forever, but it also has the tendency to stain. If you have a cast iron skillet, this is the best, but I chose to use my new non sticks. Heat up your pan, and meanwhile shake some out onto a plate and dip your tofu pieces covering all sides in the spice mix. Place in a DRY pan and cook til it has some black spots, kind of roasted like.

For the salad,

Place arugula in a separate bowl, drizzle with balsamic, lemon olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss.

To assemble,

Rice in the bottom of the bowl, arugula on one side, slab o' tofu, and your "escabeche". Pour on some extra soy or dijon mustard if you feel frisky.  

because Glenlivet isn't just for old men, and is suitable for Cinco de Mayo.

Granola Pucks/Manhattan Recyclist

Yes. Pucks. Because bars are square! (rimshot)... ahhh...

I made a pot of millet last night and then didn't know what to do with it, so I figured I would wait until I had some time today to mill it over.

I had roughly 1.5 c of cooked millet leftover, so I decided to dry it out and make energy bites with it.

Spread ye cooked millet out on a baking sheet and place in a 350 degree oven, check every 5 minutes or so and mix it so it toasts nice and even-like. You want it a golden brown and a little crunchy, so that it will add texture.

Once your millet it ready, let it cool down a bit and gather the other ingredients:

• 3/4-1c of a nut butter, I chose smooth peanut butter because well.. it's all I have
• whole flax seeds
• flegg (1T ground flax + 3T hot water, let sit)
• 1/2c quick oats
• cinnamon, ginger
• 2T-1/4c honey
• any seeds, berries, or other bird food you may fancy

literally throw everything in a bowl, mix, and do lick the spoon like a heathen

Then you can mix and adjust til it is moldable. Form into little patties or pucks and place back onto that cookie sheet you dried out your millet on. The oven should still have a bit of residual heat that can help dehydrate the cakes a little further. Use that noggin!

 

I totally ate three of these today...

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Later on in the night, when that pizza craving hits...PIZZA VEGGIE BURGERS!!! Take leftover chickpeas and pulse in blender with tofu, mix with oats, breadcrumbs, and dehydrated veggies, and leftover risotto, form into patties, roll in breadcrumbs, and fry til golden on both sides. Add cheese of choice (Daiya mozz for me, cow mozz for Andy) and serve with some sort of Italian-ish sauce. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

never use flash for food. but sometimes if you eat it all before you realize the flash had been on....

Cook something every day and feed it to someone you love. Or just yourself. You should love yourself. Or write about it because the people you love are far away. xoxo

Manhattan Minimilalist Meal Número Uno

After an hour being stuck on the George Washington Bridge in the most epic of traffic jams (with such features as several semis cutting across four lanes of traffic) we finally got into the city, said screw it and parked the car in a garage for the night carrying what we could on our backs like slightly lighter skinned and lighter dressed sherpas, threw the carryings in our bedroom, hopped on the subway and had dinner at Carmine's with some family of Andy's that happened to be in town. Apparently they are known there for their massive portions for eating family style. We were an hour late for dinner, but there was still tons of scrumptious chow left, such as antipasto salad that was full of fat green and kalamata olives with little peperoncinis that burst in your mouth like flavor crystals, embarassingly squirting soppy juice on you. So technically first meal here was covered, with some leftovers to spare.

peanut butter + flax + sunflower seed + honey

Today we got the car from the garage, drove around in circles, watched a USPS truck almost get stuck, and unloaded all the rest of my crap. I had little to no desire to start cooking anything just yet, the knives, and my hand joints both need a rest. I made quick and dirty energy bite.

the supplies, sans that bottle of peach schnapps... not mine.

So most of what the pantry consists of is a massive tub of peanut butter, a box of Element Bars, many rices, beans, spices, and dehydrated things. I unfortunately forgot my smoothie additions in my mom's fridge, but those can easily be replaces... I do really want some Japanese green tea right now, dang.

Well, though lunch consisted of a bowl of bird seed and nut butter, dinner will be much more rich since we are going to Epicerie Boulud for dinner to kill 3 birds with one stone: eating, researching/spying on my possible new job, and hitting up Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get some bed lifts, because organizing a Manhattan apartment is like a large game of tetris.

Huzzah!