Sushi, Take Two

As the title of this post suggests, I've only made our own sushi at home once before. Here's the second attmpt. I still need to rock the patience a bit, and I am dying to finish up the brown sushi rice I bought because I'm convinced it's the culprit for my less than stellar rice in the rolls, but it tastes good!

This is just a quick veggie roll with cuke, carrot, and avocado, some freshly made wasabi, and a side of Sizzling Tofu.

Sizzling Tofu is really just extra firm tofu pressed well, cubed, and then sauteed in a bit of peanut oil til lightly browned. A teryaki type sauce made from soy sauce, mirin, and sugar is sprinkled on to further brown, the heat is upped, nutritional yeast is generously added, and the rest of the sauce is added and sauteed to coat, sizzling all the while, hence the name! ;)

Here's a shot that shows off the tofu a bit more, but I reeeally need a little tripod. I hate the flash pics and I'm just not steady enough to get good ones without it.

Ginger, Ribz, & Phyllo Pie

A beloved and much missed friend has come to stay with us for the weekend, and a hearty meal of 2 new now favorites on our table was in order.
The start of our meal was a refreshing, clean out the fridge salad of Boston Lettuce, some cucumber and carrot matchsticks (from our sushi the other night...post about that one soon!), tomato, alfalfa sprouts, chickpeas, avocado, and my personal favorite, That Ginger Dressing (from here). I'd always used my mini food processor for this dressing and, while great, it was rather liquid-y and not quite right. Enter the amazing immersion blender and viola! perfect, just like in the Japanese restaurants!

Next came Susan's Ribz, which I'd been dying to try. As it looks like we'll round out our summer still without a grill, I opted to bake them all the way to the end (350 oven, bake for 20 min, baste, bake for ten more, flip, bast, and bake for ten final min). These are AMAZING! we loved them. I just used a store bought sauce but looking forward to trying my hand at a homemade for next time. They are super easy to whip up (I used peanut butter as my nut butter ingredient) and I cannot wait to share them with others. Their texture is per-fec-tion. If only all seitan recipes turned out this spectacular!

Finally, another first time recipe at our house, Dreena's Broccoli Mushroom Walnut Phyllo Pie from Vive. I knew just by the ingredients that this would be great, and it is! The general consensus was that it was good, but that the walnut taste dominated a bit too much. I blame this on not toasting the walnuts enough so they were more raw tasting than the recipe likely requires. I want to make this again, but am interested in trying it with one or two small changes. Can't wait to see how that goes, but for now? I'm just excited to eat up the leftovers!

I wish I'd gotten a good shot of the top of the pie. Her technique for schrunching up the top layer makes for a very pretty presentation. Ah, what the heck...here's my crappy photo of it ;)The phyllo is perfectly flaky and the whole pie has a meaty, almost cheezy flavor. It's filling and tasty. If you haven't tried this one yet, do! Just remember to fully toast your nuts so they don't overpower the flavor.

More Mango Muffins

I just love me some alliteration in the morning ;) There are no shortage of mangoes right now and I just couldn't help but veganize a recipe on the internet to use two overripe mangoes left in our recent purchase. These are really moist and tropical tasting. You can make bread rather than muffins if you prefer but you'd need to cook it at 350 for about an hour, according to the original recipe, and may need to make a foil tent if the top browns too much during the last 15 min of baking if making the bread.

Moist Mango Muffins

1/2 cup vegan sour cream
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup soy yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped mangoes (very ripe)
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut (didn't have any so I tossed in 1/4 cup unsweetened dried coconut, reconstituted. I know that the flaked would prove MUCH tastier)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 teaspoon rum extract (I didn’t have it so I just used dark rum)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375 for muffins, 350 for bread.
Mix sour cream and margarine together. Then add mangoes.
Add eggs,sugar, then extracts, then coconut.
Mix dry ingredients (except sugar) together and incorporate into the wet ingredients, stir till all is combined well.
Pour into lined or greased muffin tins (makes 18 muffins) or
Pour into a greased large loaf pan (5 by 10)and bake in a preheated oven for approx 1 hour.
Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

These are more mango-y than the last batch, but I can't decide which I actually like best, they're both super yummy. I only used soy yogurt in this recipe to replace the eggs in the original as we had some that needed using up, but I'm not a fan of soy yogurt in general so I'd probably just use a banana next time.

Does anyone other than me think it's hilarious that spell check within an internet program does not register the word 'internet'? Cracks me up every time ;)

Ta Da! Tostadas!

Mexican Food has always been a favorite cuisine of mine. I always thought going vegan would mean no more for me. WRONG!I've since learned that ya don't need cheese or even cheeze to make amazingly tasty Mexican fare. Tonight I chose to throw together some quick tostadas. So easy!

Here I heated some Amy's Organic Refried Beans w/ chilies while warming my corn tostadas, dropped on a healthy dollop of Dreena's Creamy Cashew Avocado Cream (I freaking LOVE this stuff...'s just too bad you can't see my pretty star design I made after adding it!), added shredded butter lettuce, fresh tomato, a long and winding ribbon of Tofutti sour cream, poured on some freshly made salsa (last grocery shopping outing I spotted some of the most beautiful tomatillos and rushed home to make some), and added a tiny bit of fresh chopped cilantro.

Lazy Much?

I've been spending more time trying to keep our kitchen clean for prospective buyers than I have cooking in it as of late, which is what I'd love to blame for this really tasty, healthy, filling, but tooootally lazy meal. Honestly, I'm embarrassed to even mention it....
Looks good, no? Rice, pinto beans, avocado. You're thinking, C'mon DGMGV, there's nothing wrong and, actually, everything right about good ole fashioned rice 'n beans. I'll let ya in on a little secret......

they're from a CAN! Yup, my laziness of late knows no bounds. In my defense, I was more curious than anything else when I first spotted Eden Organics' line of rice 'n beans at the grocery. When I actually ventured to pick up a can and read the label to find them low in sodium and see that they were about a dollar and change a piece, with about three servings per can? I was enticed enough to toss a couple into my cart (both the pinto and brown rice pictured and a can of kidney and brown rice as well, the latter of which I devoured yesterday after stirring in some homemade salsa without thinking to snap a picture).

I gotta tell ya, add a few of your favorite spices and these babies are cheap, easy, tasty, and healthy...you know, aside from the fact that they spend their days before gracing your bowl in a can.

Either way, with a nice side salad of fresh veggies, nuts, sprouts, and raisins (yeah, 's true. the salad dressing is Annie's not one I made. so lazy. sigh.) this was a great meal for a girl who just didn't have the time to be in the kitchen, embarrassed or not!

And speaking of lazy. I woke the other day a bit late and started making some fauxsage crumbles with tempeh. Halfway thru I realized I had neither the time or desire to whip out biscuits or some gravy to go with it so I did what any lazy (but super savvy!) vegan would do... I wrapped that delicious fauxsage up in a whole wheat wrap with fresh tomato and avocado and enjoyed it with half an organic apple and some raw almond butter.

Lazy never tasted so good!