Last Thursday, I went pumpkin picking with my mom. I have been doing this every year for basically my entire life, and I was not about to break the tradition. It was a great chance to test out my camera. I have been taking pictures whenever I have time, and learning how to use all the professional features (exposure, aperture, shutter seeds, things of that nature). I also made black bean burgers a few days ago. I know it is really cold out, but I grill all through the year (even in the snow). I just bundle up, and go for it. I swear, I live in California in my head. On Saturday, I went to Veggie Heaven and got take out. It is an amazing Chinese restaurant that my mom and I love (and my dad thinks is just okay). I got moo shoo veg chicken. It tasted so good. I bought a pumpkin lantern at AC Moore (it’s right next to Veggie Heaven). Hope everyone had a good weekend.


Black Bean Burgers
(On a whole wheat bun with BBQ sauce)
My recipe

G-Town

I am back! I got back late Sunday night and have a had an extremely homework saturated week so blogging was put on the back burner for a while. As I said before, I went to visit my brother at college. he goes to George Mason in Fairfax, Virginia. He is actually transferring after this semester because he does not like it. Mason is a commuter school so the campus is dead most of the time. We went down for family weekend. Instead of doing the activities the collage had planned, we went into Georgetown and shopped all day Saturday. Georgetown is like a mini New York City that is a lot cleaner (I have nothing on NYC, but G-town is almost spotless). The town had tons of upscale stores (Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, J. Crew, and even Armani and other designers), it also had some great little shops. I have come to the conclusion that I love Georgetown. We ended up eating of this very antivegan restaurant for lunch. The only vegan thing was salad, which I got. I lived on peanut butter, soy yogurt (the hotel had a fridge), fruit, the banana bites I made, and the fruit and nut bars I made, the whole weekend. We ate dinner at Panera Bread and I got the black bean soup (yum!). Before we dropped my brother back off at Mason, we went I for lunch. We were driving around and we came to a vegetarian restaurant called The Sunflower. My brother and my dad actually agreed to go in, and my mom (being almost totally vegan, when convenient) was all for it. It was a cute little Chinese/Japanese/Americaish/other style place. I ordered the Organic Braised Tofu (the picture was with my camera phone). It was tofu, broccoli, and other asian veggies in a ginger sauce. It was very good. We also ordered a piece of vegan pumpkin pie (the entire menu was vegan upon closer review). Anyway, that was my weekend.

Away For The Weekend

I am dieing to make cupcakes! Sadly, I am going to have to keep you in suspense until next week. I am going to visit my brother in college this weekend and I do not want to have left over cupcakes sitting in the fridge while I am gone. I am sure my family could have eaten some before we left, but I do not want any cupcakes wasted. My brother loves my banana bites (as you can see by this post). I baked a bunch today to bring to him. I could have brought him cupcakes, but they are just too hard to transport and I do not have a container that they could fit in without getting squashed.


Banna Bites
(Original post)
I found letting the batter sit for 5 mintue before you scoop it out helps them hold their form. I do this while I am preheating the oven.

Getting Ready To Take Over The World

I have been so busy getting to know my new camera these past couple days, that I haven't had the chance to post my pictures from the weekend. I had a lot of homework and studying to do on Sunday (almost the entire day) so on one of my breaks I wanted to experiment with the fruit and nut bar recipe. They came out so amazing and I think I am going to continue to tweak this recipe. I also used silken tofu for the first time to make eggplant “parmesan” . My whole family loved it and I think the picture came out very good. When I got home today, a small box was waiting for me at the door. I picked it up and saw the smile synonymous with Amazon.com. I literally screamed out loud because it was, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz [who also wrote Vegan With A Vengeance] and Terry Hope Romero)!!! I, of course, had to take a picture of it and read it from cover to cover as I waited for my pictures to load. I am so souped to start making cupcakes! The book was not suppose to come until November, 2nd, so I am not prepared with cupcake papers (but I do have a piping bag). Stay tuned for cupcakes...

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Fruit and Nut Bars

I took this recipe and changed it to make these energy style, very healthy, bars. If you have the prepackaged prunes then all you really need is a 1/2 cup to do this recipe.

1 cup whole spelt flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup prune puree (or one 2.5 oz baby food container of prunes)

1/2 cup chopped dates (2 whole dates)

1/2 cup chopped driedapricots

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and knead with your hands until well blended. Press the dough into a parchment paper lined (or lightly oiled) 8 in. by 8 in. glass pan (or some would call a square casserole). Cut into squares before cooking. Bake for 25 minutes. Keep in the refrigerator.

Vegan Eggplant Parmesan
This recipe is from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. I have had this recipe in the "to make" section of my recipes binder (yes I am that organized). I wanted to save it until I had my camera. I used hemp bread to make the bread crumbs because I conveniently ran out of bread that day. I also used the almons instead of the vegan pamesan. I ended up baking it for 45 minutes because the eggplant was just too tough. It was a great recipe that I will be making again. I am planning on eating some left overs when I am done here.

Vegan Cucakes Take Over the World

I can not wait to start baking!

I LOVE MY NIKON D-50!

I have been saving for a good camera for as long as I can remember. Photography has been my passion from a very young age. I used to want to be a food photographer. Now I can finally pursue my hobby as a photographer; as well as producing fantastic pictures of my cooking adventures. I have had my Nikon D-50 for less then 6 hours., and I already love it. There are so many features I have to learn, and some I don’t think I ever will. Hope you all enjoy the new quality of my pictures as I strive for higher quality cooking.

Apples

My first food subject, the picture is so clear!

Pita with avocado, tomatoes, and fresh spinach

If you compare this picture to the other pita picture in a recent post, the difference in quality is astounding.

Spinach; Oh, How I Missed Thee!

Now that the quarantine on the amazingly flavorful green leaf has been lifted, it is time to celebrate! I used fresh spinach (not from a bag) to make these two dishes. First I made an all spinach salad with tomatoes and carrots. Then, I made grilled pizza with spinach and yellow peppers. We need to support spinach in it’s time of need.

3 Day Weekend!!!

I had a three-day weekend because of Yom Kippur. I am not Jewish, but for those of you who are, I hope you enjoyed your day; especially your break-fast. The three-day weekend gave me a chance to catch up on some much missed cooking. On Saturday, I made some hummus which I ate on a whole wheat pita with campari tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and crunchy cucumbers. Then on Sunday, I had to go to the Fall Festival in my town and help out, because I am in the National Art Honors Society. I had to paint kid's faces for an hour. One community service hour down, 19 more to go. Before I had to leave, I decided to try this recipe for fruit and nut bars that was just screaming to be made.

Hummus
















Fruit and Nut Bars

This recipe is from Jennifer Shmoo, of Vegan Lunch Box, and can be found here. It is part of my on going quest to bake no added sugarl, no oil, Eat to Live friendly, foods. I did not have enough raisins, so it was made up of mostly apricots. I also used pumpkin seeds and almonds because I did not have walnuts. I think I am going to use this recipe as a base and change it around a little bit.

A Very Chile Day

I woke up this saturday morning to find that the temperature must have forgotten the inbetween warm and freezing weather, and went straight for absolutely frigid. I had prepped some granola the night before that was now ready to bake. I love having the oven on when it gets really cold, it feels amazing. On cold nights, soup is almost mandatory. I made this awesome chile with TVP (textured vegetable protein). I also baked some corn bread to have on the side.

Granola
I changed my original recipe because I had the cooking time wrong.

3 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup peanuts
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup maple syrup

Combine dry ingredience in a plastic container. Pour the maple syrup on top until everything is lightly saturated. (You can use more if you think you need it, but if you use to much your granola will be a hunk). Cover the container and let it dry in the refrigerator overnight. This allows the flavors to seep in. (If you must have granola you can just cook it now, but the drying overnight really enhances the flavors).

The next day:Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spred the granola out in a single layer. Bake for 20 minutes (depending on the oven). The granola should be completly dry and crunchy when cool. Enjoy with your favorite vegan milk of choice (I like vanilla soy), add it to a trail mix, or just take along plain.

I always change the amount and type of nuts and seeds I use. You can do anything you want, as long is it equals a cup. You could also add raisins after cooking.
















Chile
I found the recipe here: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12858.0. I think it tasted very good. I have never used TVP before, so it was a good experience. I like the texture the TVP gives it, and the added protein.































Cornbread
This was also a vegweb.com recipe: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5729.0. It tasted like the real thing! Nice and moist and perfect.

Mi Sopa es MUY Caliente

I always love to create my own original recipes but I decided to venture out and cook a few more things from cookbooks. I think it is a good base for creating my own recipes. I also preordered Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, so if your my friend, you already know what your birthday present is going to be.

Basil Tofu Ricotta


(Vegan With A Vengence pg. 133)































It did not taste like ricotta but was still really good with whole wheat pasta.

Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew
(pg.60)































This is the second try on this soup. The first time my mom and I split up the ingredients to prepare. One of her jobs was preping the spicy hot chipotle chiles. When I went for my first spoonfull of the soup, my eyes began to water and my mouth was on fire. It turns out, my mom added two CANS of chiles! The recipe called for two chiles (that is about 16 more then we needed) The next go around for this soup producted fantastic results.

I always complain about my camera (example). I have been saving forever for a good DSLR camera. I have settled on the Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR. I am still searching online for the best price. If anyone has an comments on DSLR cameras please share.

Vegan Ventures; With a Vengence

Pumpkin seed- crusted tofu
(VWaV pg. 155)

*The recipe says to fry these, but I decided to saute them.

Continuing on with my Vegan With a Vengence cookbook(/food bible) theme, I decided to try a tofu dish. I have a theory that if cooked correctly, everyone can find a way to prepare tofu that tastes good to them. Most of the time, people who eat meet like tofu that resembles chicken. This dish looked and had a similar texture to chicken. I served it over quinoa for added protein. Don't be afraid to cook with the other, other white meet.

First Soup of The Season

I love summer. I also love seeing the good in things. That said, the only good thing I could find in the brutle fall and winter months is cooking and baking. I love filling the house with the smell of good food and standing near the hot stove on those freezing winter nights. I love the warm feelings you get eating a big bowl of piping hot soup or stew. With the coming of the chilly weather, I have to be optimistic at that at least I can enjoy my cold weather food.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

This is from Vegan With a Vengence (Isa Chandra; you're my hero!), page 62-63. It was so creamy and perfect. I did not have any onion so I had to use onion powder. I am sure real onion would make it so much better.
















I have never worked with butternut squash before, and this is not what I thought they looked like. I was expecting a gord with a long neck and bulb at the end. The sticker said "butternut squash" and I belive everything I read.
















I have been neglecting this cookbook so I decided to resort back to it. As you can see, I have a very percise system when it comes to ladeling pages. Blank yellow is any food, yellow with a D is dessert, and red is tofu.





















Our throwback food processor is 18 years old. It worked great for processing the soup. I usually use the mini processor that came with the blender, but I needed more room and power. This has a small crack in it and a very small amount of soup was lost, but it still does the job.






























You can see the steam coming off the soup. So good!

Jalapeño Madness

Yesterday, I was craving somthing spicy. When it comes to foods I am a huge fan of heat, so I wanted to use the jalapeño pepper I had in the refrigerator. I realized I had a ripe mango on the counter which reminded me of an amazing recipe. I went to my friend Paige's house and her mom made us mango salsa. It was fantastic! I did not know the exact amount so I just used the basic idea.





Mango Salsa

(Recipe compliments of Paige's mom)

1 mango; cubed
1/4 cup medium white onion; chopped
1/2 of a jalapeño pepper; finley chopped*
1/2 cup tomatoe; cubed
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Serve with chips.

*Caution: wear gloves when chopping the jalapeño peppers, especially if you wear contacts. It is hard to get the juices of your hands, even if you wash them very well. You can use more or less jalapeño, depending on how much heat you want. You can also omit it all together.



I put the salsa inside toasted whole pita bread because I did not have any chips.

Dinner: Salad and Homework

I realize I set the table wrong (fork on the left, napkin on the right) but a place setting does not usually include a chem binder either.

This was a simple salad with tomatoes and lots of chickpeas. I also had an apple and some chai tea.

I am still here!

I am relaxing with my first two days of school out of the way. But with a full load of classes, I am stressed. (This semester, I have Chem Honors, Drawing (for 1 quarter then intermediate ceramics for another quarter), Biology Honors, US history AP, and Spanish 3. Next semester, I have English 2 Honors, Algerbra 2 Honors, Gym (yay!), and history and spanish three go all year. When I am feeling stressed, I bake. So I decided to break out the trusty brownie recipe.





Brownies

2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup oil (I use canola oil)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegan chocolate (recemended but not required)

Boil water and 1/2 cup of the flour over low heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches the consistency of a thin gluey paste. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Mix vegan sugarand brown sugar, salt, vanilla, cocoa and oil. Then add the flour-water mixture. Mix well. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder and the chocolate chips, if you choose to add those.

Spread mixture into a greased 11 x 7 pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until a knife can be inserted and come out clean.

Store in the fridge for longer brownie life.

Grilled Veggies and Couscous: What An Amazing Combination

I grilled up some fresh famrers market squash, pattypan squash, and zucchini. Then I added them to couscous which I cooked with tyme. Very simple.

I am going back to school tomorrow so I will probably be posting a lot less often. I will still try to post somthing a least once a week but I can not make any promises until I know how hard my course load will be. Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and for everyones great comments.

Disaster

It looks so pretty...

But tasted like crap!!!

I bought bad apples but I did not taste them first! Then I changed the ingredients because I was missing a lot of stuff. I will work on this recipe and post again with the new, better tasting, version. It should have been an apple crisp with a nut crust. I did not have apple juice so I used apple sauce, not a smart move. It was not sweet enough at all. Oh well, I wil learn from my mistakes and keep on trying.

Tagged

I was tagged by Midwest Vegan to be a part of the Traveler's Lunchbox project to find out the top five thing people should eat before they die. My job is to pick the top five things I have eaten and think everyone would eat.

My Top Five

Peanut Butter- This ground up legume goes with everything. I love it on whole wheat bread, paired with sweet grape jelly, or licked off my fingers after dipping them in the jar.

Vanilla Silk Soy Milk- I could not live without my soy milk. I have it on my cereal every morning for breakfast. It also helps me feel normal, insted of the weird vegan, when I go to Starbucks with friends and have the freedom to order my favorite soy mocha or a soy chai latte.

Vegan Brownies- This was the first vegan desesrt recipe I ever attempted to make. They are chocolaty goodness of yummy gooey magic, and a dark chocolate lovers dream!

Pink Lady Apples- Oh my gosh, these apples are so tasty and sweet! They are never mealy, even when out of season. I found these at my health food store and always stock up on them.

Tofu- This could be the greatest food on earth. The preperation possibilities are endless. "Broiled tofu, sauted tofu, stir fried tofu, tofu on the barbie..."

Food Processor Double Feature

Today I was really hungry so I automaticly went to the refrigerator and reached for the bread. The plan was to toast it and eat it with some chunky peanut butter. When I went to look for the peanut butter, I found tahini (seasame paste) which reminded me that I have a recipe for hummus waiting to be made. It's my first time making hummus so I did not know hwat to expect. It came out so yummy and creamy.




Hummus

1 small garlic glove
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one 15 oz. can, drained and rinsed)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1/4 cup tahini (seasame paste)
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley (1 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (red pepper)

Put garlic, chickpeas, and lemon juice in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add the tahini, parsley, salt, and cayenne and proccess until smooth and creamy. Store in a tightly covered container in the refridgerater.

I cut a pita in half and toaster it. Then I added hummus, tomatoes, and cucumber. So much better than having peanut butter again.
































Kate's new and improved black bean burgers

My original recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup grated onion
1/4 cup grated red pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon (or 1/2 for very spicy burgers) each of dried red pepper, cumin and chili powder
1 teaspoon each of oregano and basil
1 tablespoon parsley
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1/2 cup coarsely chopped sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 15.5 oz. can black beans
2 tablespoons of water
3/4 cup of wheat germ

Directions:

After grating the red pepper and onion set them aside in a medium bowl. Combine the garlic, spices, almonds, sunflower seeds, and oil in a food processor and pulse until texture resembles bread crumbs. Transfer mixture to the bowl. Put the black beans and water in the food processor and process until smooth. Add this mixture to the bowl along with the wheat germ. Mix (preferably with your hands) completely. Separate into five balls and shape into patties. Make sure the patties are not too thin or they will fall apart. Grill for 8 minutes on each side, or until slightly browned. Enjoy with your favorite burger fixings.

Serves: 5































This recipe-revamp was caused by a mistake made me blending the ingredients out of order and then adding water to the bean part. The final product was a wet mess so I looked for bread crumbs to throw in. I could not find any bread crumbs but I grabbed some wheat germ. I thought, why not? This was the greatest mistake of my life. They taste so much better and are way less crumbly.

New Recipe!

So my brothers off to college and now I have freedom over all dinners. I cane ven use tofu now without him freaking out. But it is very strange and quiet without him here.

I made the simplest lunch. I sauted whole shitake mushroom caps and spinach. Then I thinly sliced a tomato. I layered them on whole wheat bread to create this sandwich.











Rigatoni with zucchini and eggplant

I have wanted to try this dish forever. I got it from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I can not find the direct link so I am re-typeing the recipe.


1 large zucchini -- sliced in 1/4" half moons
1/2 medium eggplant -- cubed
1 large onion -- chopped
1 bell pepper -- seeded & chopped
3 cloves garlic -- minced
3 tablespoons water -- (more as needed)
12-14 ounces tofu -- (lowfat) mashed
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried basil (divided)
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (divided)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes -- (optional)
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons salt -- (divided)
8 ounces pasta -- rigatoni or other small tubular pasta
two 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes (fire roasted, if available)
3 tablespoons tomato pastesoy Parmesan (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°.
Boil pasta according to package directions, cooking until just barely tender (a little undercooked is better than overcooked). When it's done, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water before draining the pasta.

While the pasta's cooking, sauté the eggplant, zucchini, onions, bell pepper and garlic in 2 tbsp. water in a nonstick pan over medium heat, adding more water if needed to prevent sticking. When the vegetables are tender, add the reserved pasta cooking water, 1 tsp. basil, 1 tsp. oregano, the rosemary, 1 tsp. salt, tomatoes, and tomato sauce; stir, and keep warm.

Combine the mashed tofu with the pine nuts, parsley, nutritional yeast, and remaining basil (1 teaspoon), oregano (1/2 t.), salt(1/2 t.), and red pepper flakes. Stir the cooked rigatoni into the tofu.

Lightly coat a 4-quart casserole with vegetable oil spray. Spread a thin layer of the vegetable mixture over the bottom (you just want a little sauce there to keep the pasta from sticking). Place a layer of half the pasta mixture, then cover with half the sautéed vegetables; repeat layers.

Cover the casserole and bake it for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 15 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with soy Parmesan cheese, if you want.


Cooking the veggies and sauce.














The tofu and nutritional yeast mixture tasted like cheese!














Rigatoni out of the oven.




























My whole family really enjoyed this recipe. It's a good way to hide tofu. I halved the amount of zucchini and added half a squash. I did not have fire roasted tomatoes so I used regular canned ones. I also did not add soy parmesan at the end. All and all it was a successful recipe!