Rawish Chocolate

So, just maybe you've heard of Averie over at Love Veggies and Yoga.  Well, she makes some pretty inspiring raw treats.  Recently we've been going crazy over Coconut Oil Chocolate.  This stuff is tasty!  We have been trying different variations: chocolate and walnuts, peanut butter chocolate, and chocolate with blueberries (I do not recommend using frozen).  Besides Agave, we have found that it is also delicious with Brown Rice Syrup or Barley Malt Syrup.

Below I have posted the ingredient amounts we used for the Peanut Butter Chocolate.  Check out the original recipe and see more pics on Averie's site.
Here are some images of our trials with chocolate and walnuts:

For one large bar of Coconut Oil Peanut Butter Chocolate I used:
3 T.   Coconut Oil
4 T.   Agave or Brown Rice Syrup (agave will be sweeter, so accommodate your tastes)
2 t.    Vanilla
5 T.   Cocoa Powder
1  1/2 T. Peanut Butter

Heat oil and sweetener in microwave until coconut oil is melted.  Stir in Vanilla, then cocoa and lastly peanut butter.  Freeze until hard.  That's it!

So what are you waiting for?  This stuff is quick, easy, and delicious!

Shanghai Tofu (China) and Potatoes with Creamy Tomato Sauce (Colombia)

Back to the food, finally!  You may have noticed that we're not too worried about sticking with one culture at a time.  To me, it's kind of exciting to mix dishes from different cultures and see how they can compliment one another.

It seems that Colombian food is a good choice for mixing cultures, since the food is already a mixture of tastes (see Colombian Cuisine).  Like in many parts of the world, the food will also depend on the region of Colombia.  Sad for veggies on vacation: "Colombia is not a paradise for vegetarians as the Colombian diet includes a lot of meat." (see South America: Colombian Food) And how about this quote from a description of Fritanga (a heaping pile of meat): "Guaranteed to sate any carnivore and send any vegan into therapy..." (see Traditional Colombian Food).  But for those of us making our own food here at home, no problem!  Just a few tweaks here and there.  On the South America: Colombian Food page you can find a wonderful list for common dishes served in Colombia.   For the vegan side of things they have huge quantities of tropical fruit and coffee, of course!

Since China is quite big, here's a bit about Shanghai:  Shanghai's cuisine is mostly a combination of the surrounding areas, being a relatively new city (see Shanghai Cuisine).  Sugar is a very common ingredient, especially in combination with soy sauce, and more is used in Shanghai dishes than in any other city in China.  Speaking of soy sauce, Shanghai chefs are known for their use of heavy and highly flavored sauces (see Shanghai Food).  Alcohol is also commonly used, like in "drunken" meat dishes.  On a vegan note, smelly tofu is a popular local treat in the street.  

 

Potatoes with Creamy Tomato Sauce or Papas Chorreadas (Colombia)
  (adapted from Extending the Table)
2 T. margerine
6 green onions
1/2 an onion, diced
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 c. soy milk
1 t. cilantro
1/4 t. oregano
pinch of cumin
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup cheezy sauce - more if you like! (we used a recipe from Vegan Vittles)
8 large potatoes, cut into four pieces and boiled

In a skillet, over medium heat, melt the margarine.  Add and fry onions (green and red) and tomatoes.  Stir frequently and cook for about 5 minutes.  Lower heat and add everthing except for the "cheese" sauce and potatoes.  Cover, while cooking over low heat, stirring often.  Meanwhile, fix your "cheese" sauce.
After 5-10 minutes, add the "cheese" and heat everything together for about 5 minutes or so.  Pour sauce over potatoes and serve.


Shanghai Tofu or Hongshao Zhurou (China)
  (adapted from Extending the Table)
2 pkgs Firm Tofu  (more if you like, the sauce is supposed to cover 4 lbs of meat)
3/4 c. soy sauce
3 T. agave nectar
2 T. lime juice
1 in. ginger root, sliced
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2-3 anise stars
2 c. water

Bring everything, minus tofu, to a boil.  Add tofu, cover and simmer over low heat for 1 or 2 hours.  Be sure to turn the tofu periodically to help it absorb flavor more evenly.  Remove cover, increase heat and cook 15-20 min., until only about 1 cup of liquid remains.  Slice and serve.

Both of these dishes were extremely tasty and will be served again!  Adam suggested cutting the tofu up ahead of time to absorb more flavors.  The taste was very much like a ham baste and the tofu was juicy!  The potato dish was saucy, creamy and wonderful! 

More about the food and Recipes:
Colombian Food Recipes
South America: Colombian Food
Recipes Wiki: Colombian Cuisine
Shanghai Food

Pantry Raid Mash-up

For last night it was a pantry raid for a meal to toss together.  Here's what I ended up with:                                 

Pantry Raid Mash-up

leftover falafel

28 oz. diced tomatoes
1 carrot (thinly sliced)
sm. head of broccoli (chopped up)
1 1/2 - 2c. black beans

1 onion (diced)

1 c. cooked rice

2-3 cloves garlic

7-8 mushrooms (sliced)

1 1/2 - 2 c. water

basil

oregano

cardomom

coriander

pepper

Saute onion for 3-4 min.  Add carrots and mushrooms and saute for 5-7 min.  Add garlic and saute for a min. or so longer.  Then add falafel, broccoli, tomato, water, black beans, rice and spices.  Heat through and serve!

Served up with cornbread from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  The only changes I made with the cornbread recipe were: 2 Tbs. agave to replace sugar and 1/4 c. sorghum flour in place of 1/4 of the AP flour.  I picked the sorghum flour up on sale (yeah freight store!) and have added it here and there to baked goods for fun ;)

Something exciting to mention:  Saturday I went to a Kitchen Garden program at the library and I am so psyched to get started this year!  Adam and I have dreams of growing most of our food some day and I'm hoping to expand this year (last year we only grew tomatoes and peppers).  Sunday, Bobbie (fellow librarian and friend) and I are off to hunt for seeds at nearby Baker Creek :)

Creamy "Crab" Pasta and Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

Creamy "Crab" Pasta

Last night we tried Match Meat "Crab". We haven't eaten crab for three years, so our memories may be a little hazy. It wasn't worth the $12 spent. The texture was decent and it had a fishy flavor, but it didn't really seem like crab specifically. So if you feel like splurging to try something new, feel free, but I didn't find it to be worth the dough. We are however interested in trying another flavor sometime, like chicken for this "Chicken Picatta" or perhaps one of the great looking recipes I've seen on Vegan Thyme recently: Country Fried "Steak" and Moroccan Crab-less Curry. So who knows we may give the "crab" another try someday.

For the pasta sauce I used this Creamy Basil Pasta Sauce found at About.com:Dairy Free Cooking. After following the directions (before adding noodles) I added the "crab" (which had previously been fried in olive oil), some fresh spinach and freshly ground pepper. Then we tossed in fettuccine noodles.

At Mama Jeans that night Adam found some wine from Kaiken on sale to go with dinner. Last summer we were on a Cabernet Sauvignon kick, so naturally he gravitated toward it. We haven't picked up wine for awhile. This one wasn't quite dry enough for me. It was slightly sweet and tart. I am no wine expert, so that's the best description you're going to get!

Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies from VCIYCJ
These were pretty tasty. The only thing I substituted was coconut oil for canola oil because we already had it on hand. I generally like soft cookies, but these were a little cushier than I would have liked. That is, until they cooled. A few hours later I discovered that they had developed a nice crispness on bottom while retaining a softer interior. Delightful :)
I still have yet to taste a perfect sugarless chocolate chip cookie, but someday!
I'm so please that this book offers several recipes with alternatives to sugar. If you do not yet own VCIYCJ, be sure to check out the PPK for a sneak preview ;)

More to come: Sushi, zines and a nomination...

Want a free cookbook? (and more)

This could be yours:

To get your copy head over to Vegan Family Style! Even if you have a copy of this book this blog is worth a visit. I just stopped by in the midst of my hitting familiar and new blogs adventure and am very glad I did! Recent entries include: raw desert, orange pudding cupcakes and green smoothies.

It's wild. I've been to so many blogs the last couple of years and sampled many recipes, but I just didn't really interact. Crossing that line still feels a little strange. But believe me, I'm quite anxious to get involved in the online vegan world. I haven't had many vegan friends and it seems wonderful to have this whole community available.

So, next up my first hat! I'm pretty psyched because I'm not great about finish projects unless it is some sort of assignment, like for work, school or perhaps a gift. I started knitting recently (actually this was a second go at knitting) and I finally completed something! Now I'm ready to begin a new project or two.

Eats and Drink of the day:

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast cookies (VCIVCJ)

First attempt from VCIYCJ! I'm very excited about this book. Just flipping through, every pic is absolutely amazing. Today I had to try something. We had a couple of very ripe bananas, so that was a start. I chose the recipe for Banana Oatmeal Breakfast cookies. Going
with the things we already had: I substituted pecans for walnuts. I didn't have quite enough oats, but threw in some pumpkin seeds. We didn't have dried cranberries, but I look forward to trying it with these next time! Despite the changes they still seemed wonderful and I'm excited to try the rest! This recipe already uses brown rice syrup and agave, so there was no need for a sugar substitute.

Falafel Reubens

With toppings minus thousand island.










After toasting with mixed green salad.







Chickpea Cutlets (VWAV) and gravy, roasted brussel sprouts and roasted potatoes

A tasty dinner with Chickpea cutlets covered in shiitake gravy, roasted brussel sprouts and potatoes. The brussel sprouts were seasoned with oil, garlic and salt. The potatoes were seasoned with oil, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, rosemary, coriander, oregano and lemon juice. Thanks to the lemon juice and coriander combo these were slightly tangy and delicious!

Brews in Review

Well, Adam has been working at a local liquor store for the past 6 months or so. He just recently got a job at the library and will no longer be there, so we are taking advantage of the discount while we still can :) Tonight he brought home a 6 pack of Tripple (New Belguim) and one tall pint plus 6 oz. of Deep Enders Dark Porter (Anderson Valley).

Tripple wasn't bad. I don't really have a lot to say about this one, it was decent. I will say that New Belguim Brewing Co. is known to be a very sustainable crew, so that's a good thing. Not to mention they put out a fine line of beers.

Now the Deep Enders Dark Porter. Oh, this was wonderful. This beer had a wonderful clean, smooth dark malty taste. The maltiness was not overwhelming, but just enough to add a little sweet tang. Another great thing about these guys? Solar powered! I highly recommend this beer! Lucky for us, Adam will be able to get a 12 pack of these babies for $22 :) Those will definitely last us awhile!

Perhaps the best Pumpkin Muffins

Yesterday morning was a perfect day for brunch :) A cold, snowy day with no work or need to leave the house. I decided to make a breakfast casserole and muffins. There was a partial can of pumpkin in the fridge and chocolate chips. Adam was in charge of rummaging through cookbooks for muffin ideas while I worked on the casserole. He discovered The Best Pumpkin Muffins recipe from VWAV, which had somehow slipped by me previously. What a great discovery! We prefer to use sugar alternatives (though I often make an exception for vegan chocolate...), so I made a few changes.

Substitutions:
Original ---> Sub.
Sugar ---> Date Sugar
Molasses ---> Brown Rice Syrup
Veg. Oil ---> Apple Sauce

Other Changes: No ground cloves (I'm not a fan with pumpkin) and about a cup of chocolate chips. (Click for full recipe)

Mmm...these were delicious and a new household favorite!


For the Scrambled Tofu Casserole I split 6 buckwheat biscuits in half and spread across the bottom of a 9" x 13" dish. On top of the biscuits I spread scrambled tofu and seitan mixed with a cheezy sauce. And then spread a thin layer of the rest of the cheezy sauce on top. (No pic of this one.)

A great sweet and savory combo!


I'd like to get to know those who stumble across this blog. So, here are two questions:
What is your current favorite cookbook?
What new (or new to you) cookbook are you most excited about?