I just posted this recipe on VegWEb, but the last time I submitted a recipe on there it never even went up, so I'm posting this one here too.
Skillet Tomato & Barley Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup barley
1 cup water
vegetable oil to sautee in
1/2 white onion
2 stalks celery
1 tbsp fresh basil (less in dried)
1 can condensed tomato soup + 1/2 can water
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp garlic powder

In a small pan, cook the barley and water as you would rice.

While that's cooking, sautee the onions and celery. Then add basil. After that's all tender add soup + water, spices, and barley. Simmer a little while longer so all the spices can mingle. Then enjoy!

I love hummus. My breath smells bad and I have to constantly chew gum for months on end, but I love hummus.

I also love homemade tortilla chips. They are soo easy and good. I didn't know how well they would turn out, but I was pleased with the results. They actually should've cooked for a little longer because some parts were too soft, but flaws are good the first time around. This entire thing was actually a really quick meal/snack, and that's always good because I'm constantly shoving food down my mouth as quickly as possible before work so that I don't have to eat garbage there.

And speaking of work, my thirteen hour shift today became a zero hour shift because the sky shit all over the Northeast. This was my driveway this morning :]. My neighbor's had two trees uprooted too, but I couldn't get a good picture. Seriously, all last night all I could hear were branches falling. It was ridiculous. I'm actually really suprised that we have power back already; National Grid was saying that it probably wouldn't be restored until Sunday at the earliest. That being said, ours went out around 12:30 last night and didn't come back until about 2 this afternoon.

On a completely different note, I finally used a cast iron skillet that I bought several months ago, and just seasoned tonight. I made an interesting creation. It was onions, green peppers, corn, barley, vegetable broth, and taco sauce. And it was phenomenal. Except that I didn't actually let the barley cook all the way. The taste however, was pretty much what I wanted it to be. It was a little too acidic, so next time I'll have to work on that.

well, can't you see that it's just raining...

Okay, it may not be raining, but it's awfully damn cold out. And therefore, banana pancakes! Well, more specifically Banana-Hazelnut Pancakes, but, "I'll make you banana-hazelnut pancakes..." just doesn't flow as well.

So how about a recipe?

1 cup flour (all I had was all-purpose, but I think whole wheat would have been better)

1 cup soymilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 (over)ripe banana

splash of vanilla (this could probably be omitted if you use vanilla soymilk)

handful of hazelnuts

super generous sprinkle of chai spice

This makes what is picutred on that blue plate that's facing the wrong way. I really need to find a way to fix that.

Apples & Cranberries

So, I have not posted lately, and that is quite the let down. I have been cooking though! Tonight I made a delicious (and vegan!) apple crisp, and a few weeks ago, I was testing Thanksgiving recipes. And I hopefully didn't erase the pictures.


Okay, now let's talk about delicious apple crisp. And vegan margarine. So I was searching the ingredient lists of most all of the margerines at the grocery store, and not having any luck. That is, until I stumbled upon the Smart Balance, and I was astonished to find that I didn't have to read the ingredients because it was clearly labeled on the package! It was fantastic. So I made apple crisp with it. And because I had apples that I picked about a month ago, and I was a little hesitatant to eat them raw.
Oh yeah, and shortly after the picture was taken, the amount of apple crisp in that dish decreased...well, I'm going to say that there is a significant amount missing.


Now, onto Thanksgiving. So, what you are seeing in the picture that I cannot put in the right direction is stuffing, cardamom cranberry sauce, and a Boca chiken patty.

So the stuffing didn't taste right. I didn't use sage because I didn't have any on hand, but it would have been ideal, and the recipe I used called for vinegar and I think I may have used too much.

AND here's the recipe for the cranberry sauce...because it's perfect.

1 12-oz. bag of cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, plus the juice from slice
1/2 tsp. cardamom

1. Bring the water, sugar, and orange to a boil
2. Add the cranberries and boil for about another 10 mins.
3. Towards the end of the 10 add the cardamom
4. Either serve warm or chill overnight (things just aren't as exciting at room temperature)

Well, I'm totally excited for Thanksgiving. There will maybe, hopefully be a post sooooon with more Thanksgiving recipes/testers. Until later,
Amy!

BBQ Seitain

So, I still have seitan left over from the other day. It would have all been gone by now, but Friday I worked from 12pm until 2am, Saturday I was in NYC from 7am until 12am and Sunday I slept.

Anyways, tonight I had to make a quick dinner/lunch before bringing my brother somewhere, and we didn't have very much food in the house. So seitan and bbq sauce seemed like the best idea. I cooked the seitan in a little vegetable oil to heat it up before adding the bbq sauce, then I stuffed that into a tortilla shell with loads of spinach. Sooo good.

But yeah, I went grocery shopping tonight, so I'm planning on making something better tomorrow.

Seitan 'n' Dumplin's

So, I lost the cord for my camera for a while, but it's back now.. and I can stop taking pictures of food and not doing anything with them.

Rather than recapping the past week or so, I'm just going to dive right into today. My first seitan expirience went amazingly well, and the $6 bag of vital wheat gluten was well worth it. For the seitan I used:
1c. vital wheat gluten
3/4c. water
1/4c.-ish soy sauce
a healthy sprinkle of poultry seasoning and garlic powder
then, 6c. water (it probably would be better with broth, but I didn't have any)
with a good splash of soy sauce, a sliced onion, and a few carrots.

So while that was cooking I made gravy that I didn't use, but I'm still going to keep it.
Okay, when the seitan was done I made the dumplins (which apparently cannot be said without a Southern accent). Those were:
1c. + a little more flour
2tbsp baking powder
2tsp vegetable oil
poultry seasoning
salt
pepper
2/3c. soymilk
They had some sugar in them too, but these are wayyy to sweet, so I'm not including it.

I then cooked said dumplins in the same broth that cooked the seitan, and found that they broke apart and made the broth into gravy. Soo I used that instead of the gravy I made.

All in all, a sucess!

So, lunch today. I battled with falafel and I lost. I don't know what happened. I used the same recipe that I always do, but for some reason, when I fried them, they completely fell apart. It was super frustrating.

Anyway, after the falafel kicked my ass, I decided that General Tao's Tofu would be the way to go. Yes, everyone in the world's favorite recipe from VegWeb, but I did it with tempeh, and made some other alterations as well. And while it doesn't taste like the General Tao's I remember from Chinese restaurants, it's still damn good.

Dinner tonight is probably shitty salad and an apple. Buuuut I don't have to work tomorrow, so it's Mexican night! It would just be taco night, but I'm going all out and making churros too.

AHH! I don't know why the picture is sideways.

omgz first post!!!

Well, here's the story. I want to start eating better, and become vegan. Really, the only reason I haven't made the change yet is because I'm lazy. That's it. Laziness. When I make actual food, it's almost always vegan, but then I'll go and make Macaroni and Cheese and mes everything up, or someone else will cook, and I'll eat it because it's there. And it is ridiculous because I am going to school for culinary arts starting in January. Annnd, not only am I assuming that I will be the only veg*n in that school, I think I'm also the only one that's working in fast food. So, I'm basically a total hypocrite. On a better note, after culinary school, I'm planning on/hoping to open a vegetarian (but mostly vegan) diner.

So, I just ordered a Laptop Lunchbox, and I'm totally excited for that because I am going to start bringing my lunch/dinner to work with me so I don't eat shittttt. So, after this post, I foresee this blog turning into a place to pour my adventures (and probably misadventures) in veg*n cooking, and occasionally some venting about life itself.