Vegan Brunch

I mentioned last week that I want to pick a cookbook each week and try three recipes from it. Well, I've had a head start on my goal! Not only did try three recipes from Party Vegan, I also made a few things from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I love this book and have made many delicious things from it in the past.

 It was cold out, and I was craving hot tea and warm muffins, so I flipped through Vegan Brunch to see if there were any recipes that I could make with the ingredients on hand. Coffee Chip Muffins seemed to fit the bill! I swapped out the wheat flour for spelt flour. They were super quick and easy to make, and they were absolutely delicious!! These muffins totally hit the spot!

And because those muffins were so good, I also made Zucchini Spelt muffins. The recipe calls for 2 cups of shredded zucchini, but once I had my zucchini all shredded, I had three cups. I made a batch and a half and made 12 mini muffins as well as 12 regular sized muffins.

 I made a Puttanesca Scramble for dinner (or should I say brinner?) a few days ago. I added nutritional yeast and a little Daiya mozzarella to it because I was in the mood for something cheesy. This was a really good twist on the tofu scramble. The olives and tomatoes gave this dish so much flavor.

I also made Potato Spinach Squares. Potatoes and spinach go so well together! This is the same recipe I made for the brunch potluck on Sunday.

The scramble and squares were perfect together. I had meant to make this meal for Dennis's birthday brunch, but it didn't happen. I'm glad I was finally able to make it, because it was delicious!

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Kung Pao Veggies and Tofu

I made this recipe from Andrew Weil a few months ago. I really liked it, but I forgot about it somehow. I was looking through my food photos on Facebook a few days ago and saw the picture I took of it. I was reminded of how delicious it was, so I ran into the kitchen to make it again. I changed the recipe to suit the contents of my fridge. If you don't have all of the ingredients, you can adjust accordingly. 

Kung Pao Vegetables and Tofu

Ingredients:

1 container of tofu, drained and cut into small pieces

1 bunch of broccoli, cut into small pieces

1 cup red onion, chopped

1 cup crimini mushrooms, chopped

1 cup unsalted peanuts

4 tablespoons peanut oil

1 teaspoon garlic chili paste

Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:

Stir the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Cook the tofu pieces in two tablespoons of peanut oil on high heat. Flip occasionally and cook until they are golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, heat the remaining oil and add the onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, until they are translucent. Add the broccoli, mushrooms and peanuts and cook for a few more minutes. Then add the garlic chili paste, tofu and sauce. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Serve with brown rice or rice noodles. 

This dish is so delicious that you will completely forget how good for you it is. Broccoli, mushrooms and onions all contain powerful anti-cancer properties. Tofu is known to fight high cholesterol and heart disease, and peanuts are known to prevent hypertension. 

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Snowday Stew

In case you didn't hear the news, had a big snowstorm here on the east coast Sunday into Monday. We had lots of food in the house, so I wasn't one of those crazy people who ran out to the store to buy soy milk and bread. I didn't have any plans for meals though, so I took inventory of the fridge and decided to make eggplant and peanut stew. Like I said yesterday, I'm a huge fan of spicy peanut sauce, so I've made this dish a few times since my original post.  I didn't have all of the ingredients called for in the recipe, so I improvised. Never be afraid to improvise if you don't have all of the ingredients a recipe calls for. It's pretty impossible to "break" something like this. Here's what I did:

Eggplant Peanut Stew
Ingredients:
2 tablespoon peanut oil
1 cup red onion, diced

Small piece of fresh ginger, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 large eggplant, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 bag frozen okra
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
sea salt
cayenne pepper
red pepper flakes
dried basil

Directions:
In a large pot over medium heat, saute the onions, garlic and ginger in 1 tablespoon of peanut oil for a few minutes, until the onion turns translucent. Add the eggplant and tomatoes and cook for about 5 more minutes. While that's cooking fry the okra on high in the other tablespoon of oil until the okra slime dissipates. Add the okra to the pot along with the broth, coconut milk, peanut butter and maple syrup. Add a pinch of salt, a little basil and the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. Let simmer for about 15 minutes, until the eggplant is soft. Enjoy!

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Tempeh Piccata

A few weeks ago, my friend Jenna was talking about the chickpea cutlets piccata that she had made, and I realized that I have never had anything piccata. So it was time to piccata something! Instead of chickpea cutlets, I opted to make tempeh. I Googled "tempeh piccata" and the first thing that came up was a recipe from Vegetarian Times, so I used it. It was easy to make and extremely delicious. It left me wondering "how have I lived without piccata for so long?" I served it with quinoa and kale to make the meal super delicious and nutritious. 

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Back to the Grocery Store

I feel like I'm always at Whole Foods. Despite the fact that I come home with bags and bags of food, the fridge always seems empty. This time I went with a plan, so there are lots of tasty meals that I will be making in the days ahead. In the meantime though, I picked up dinner at the salad bar. Dennis had a meeting for the film he's working on (more on his film next week) and I didn't feel like cooking dinner for one. I filled a container with steamed and grilled veggies: kale, eggplant, sweet potatoes, broccoli, beets and cauliflower and then I added some tofu and a grain mixture. When I got home I drizzled a little olive oil and lemon juice over the whole thing. It was quite delicious, and look at how colorful it is. Remember - the nutrients in veggies are in their colors, so make sure you have lots of colors on your plate. Try to aim for 4 colors in each meal.

Coming up next week: recipe testing for Robin Robertson, Dennis's short film, cupcakes and Ted Leo, the V Note and more!

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The "I Didn't Have a Dinner Plan" Stir-Fry

Despite the fact that I did finally go grocery shopping, I didn't have a plan for dinner. So I hit the fridge and pulled out a few things that I thought would go nicely together: asparagus, onion, mushrooms, tofu, kale and two hot peppers. I stir-fried them together in olive oil with a little Bragg's Liquid Aminos and rice vinegar and threw in a can of chickpeas. I also cooked up some quinoa to serve it all over. It was quite a nice impromptu dinner!

So where do I get my protein? From this dish!! Tofu, chickpeas and quinoa are all very high in protein. Even asparagus has a decent amount of protein! The average female needs 45 grams of protein and the average male needs 55 grams. Out of curiosity I tallied the protein amount in this meal, and it came to about 45 grams, so it contained all the protein I needed for a day! And of course, I also ate breakfast and lunch which also contained protein, so in one day I consumed a lot more protein than I need. 

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Cashew Curry Casserole

Although I'm not a curry newbie, curries are relatively new to my food world. I think I had my first one about 3 years ago or so. (Or maybe earlier, I can't remember.) I can't believe what I was missing out on all those years! Curries are now my favorite cold weather meals! And they are so much easier to make than I originally thought they would be. Just throw together some veggies in coconut milk with curry paste, and you're done!

This recipe is from The Urban Vegan, and it's one of my favorite curries. The recipe calls for broccoli, tomatoes, onion and chickpeas, and it suggests adding red pepper, mushrooms or summer squash. I added all three, so I had quite a lot of veggies. I doubled the sauce recipe, which is made with coconut milk, red curry paste and cashew butter. The sauce is poured over the veggies and then it's all baked in the oven. It's so good that this recipe alone is worth the cost of the book!

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Cauliflower Gratin

A few months back Vegetarian Times had an article about cauliflower that was accompanied by lots of yummy look recipes. Unfortunately, the magazine arrived at my house around about the same time that the large insect living in my cauliflower showed up, so I didn't try any of the recipes. Now that I'm almost over my fear of cauliflower, I decided to revisit the issue and see what I could make. This Cauliflower Gratin dish looked really good, so I wanted to give it a try. It was super simple to make, and it was a nice light dish that wasn't too filling.

I bought pre-cut cauliflower and steamed it for a few minutes until it was tender. While it was steaming, I sautéed onion and then added canned chopped tomatoes and some capers. It's then layered together with feta (I used vegan Sunergia Soyfoods feta) in a casserole dish and placed under the broiler for a few minutes. While it was broiling I sautéed up some purple kale with a little garlic. Voila - dinner in less than half an hour!

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Pumpkin Quinoa

It's day four of Pumpkin Week! Since I love pumpkin and I love quinoa, when I saw this recipe for pumpkin quinoa from Koko's Kitchen, I HAD to make it. Since the recipe called for caramelized onions and sage, it didn't taste like it should be a breakfast food, like the pumpkin alfredo did.

Pumpkin is an excellent source of vitamin A. It is also full of vitamins C and K, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc and iron. The nutrients found in pumpkin are anti-inflammatory, are know to slow the process of aging and can reduce cholesterol. Most people buy pumpkins to decorate with at this time of year. Yes, they are pretty, but they're so nutritious, that they're much better off in your dinner than on your doorstep!

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Pumpkin Alfredo

It's day three of Pumpkin Week! Today's dish is Pumpkin Alfredo. I found this recipe on the Manifest Vegan blog. I used rice pasta and served it with sautéed purple kale.

I will admit that this dish did not live up to expectations. The sauce seemed a little too thick, and because of the cinnamon and allspice, this seemed like a breakfast pasta. It wasn't bad but any means, but it just didn't seem like a dinner dish. My friend Jenny tried the recipe and tweaked it a little. She added some vegetable broth, onion, garlic, sage and cayenne, and she said it was delicious, so I'm going to give it another try soon.

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Pumpkin Oatmeal

Welcome to day 2 of Pumpkin Week! Todays' dish is pumpkin oatmeal. This is one of my favorite breakfasts for this time of year. If I have time, I bake it after cooking it on the stovetop and make sort of a casserole. I usually top half of it with pecans and the other half with pumpkin seeds, making his and hers oatmeal, since Dennis doesn't like pecans.

Pumpkin Oatmeal

1 cup rolled oats

1 banana, cut into chunks

1 cup canned pumpkin 

2 cups milk of choice (I use hemp milk)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons cashew or almond butter

handful of pumpkin seeds

Boil oatmeal in milk. Turn down heat to medium and stir in the pumpkin, banana, spices and seeds. Cook together for a few minutes until oatmeal has thickend. Turn off the heat and then stir in the nut butter.

Baked Oatmeal

Once oatmeal has been cooked, transfer to a casserole dish. Sprinkle chopped pecans or pumpkin seeds on top. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes.

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Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

I have declared this week to be Pumpkin Week!

This is the time of year for yummy fall foods, my favorite of which is pumpkin. I've been adding it to everything lately and I'll tell you all about it in upcoming blog posts.

This is a recipe given to me by friend Vanessa. It wasn't vegan, so I veganized it and swapped out wheat flour with spelt flour. The topping is supposed to be crumbly, but when I made it, my margarine wasn't cold enough and the topping was sort of a paste. I put it on top of the muffins anyway, and it gave them a nice little crunchy crust, which was pretty tasty. These muffins did not last very long at all in my house!

Muffins:
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons water mixed with 3 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups apples, peeled and finely chopped

Streusel Topping:
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold margarine such as Earth Balance

Directions:
Preheat over to 350 degrees
In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
Add liquid ingredients and stir until just moistened.
Stir in the apples.
Spoon into greased muffin tin or a muffin tin lined with paper liners, about 3/4 full.
Sprinkle with streusel topping.
Bake for 40 minutes.

Makes 24 muffins.

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Eggplant and Peanut Stew

I'm not really sure how I stumbled across this recipe, but some how I found the Glitter and Glue blog and this recipe. I'm a total sucker for anything with peanut sauce, so I wanted to run into the kitchen and immediately make it.

This stew contains okra, which I don't make very often, but I do like a lot. The main reason I don't cook it much at home is because it tends to be a slimy, which is a huge turnoff when cooking and eating food. The okra did add a bit of slime element to this dish, but I was able to work through my fear of slime and I ate it anyway. It was really delicious, so I'm glad I did. My friend Karyn read online that if you stir fry okra at a high heat, it keeps it from being slimy, so I will do that next time I make this. And I will definitely make it again because it was so good.

It is believed that okra originated in Egypt and was a favorite of Cleopatra's. In other countries, it is called gumbo (the stew is actually named after it), bhindi and lady's fingers. Interestingly, it is from the same family as cotton, cocoa and hibiscus. Okra has many healing properties; stabilizing blood sugar and reduce inflammation being two of the main ones. It is high in vitamins C, A, K and B vitamins, as well as iron, calcium, magnesium and manganese. So buy some okra and give it a try!

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Tofuna Salad

Even though Autumn is here, we had a few warm days here in NJ, and I felt salad was in order. Like I said on Tuesday, I've added small amounts of soy back into my diet and I've been okay with it. I came across a tofuna salad recipe that looked really good, so I made it - with my own alterations, of course. Dennis and I both really loved it, so  it will definitely be back in my meal rotation.

Tofuna Salad
serves 2-4

1 container firm organic tofu, frozen

1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon mustard

1 tablespoon tamari

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

2 celery stalks, diced

1/4 cup onion, diced

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced

1 teaspoon kelp

1 teaspoon dried dill

1.  Remove tofu from freezer. Allow to thaw. Squeeze the water out of it.

2.  Crumble tofu, add remaining ingredients and mix. Chill for a few hours so tofu can absorb the flavors. Season to taste.

3.  Serve as a salad or on sandwiches.

Feel free to add or subtract ingredients to your own liking!

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Double Broccoli Quinoa and Black Bean Patties

Yep, I've made both of these recipes before. But I wanted to show them off again because I will be making them at my healthy protein cooking class on Sunday, October 17th.  I will also be making tempeh with green beans and lentil carrot soup. My friend Jenna will also be making a few yummy dishes.

The class will held at my house in Montclair, NJ. If you're interested in attending, please drop me a line - Dianne@DianneWenz.com. There's still room left for a few more people.

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Beans and Polenta

This is a dish I like to make a lot in the cooler months, and it's quick and easy, so it's good for an after work dinner. I cup up a tube of pre-made polenta and grilled the pieces on the stovetop. In another pan I cooked peppers, onions and tomatoes and then added a can of black beans. I sprinkled a little bit of Daiya cheese on top once it was all cooked. Delicious!

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Spicy Quinoa and Chickpeas

Now that it's getting cooler out, It's time for some hearty warming foods! I've added more cooked grains into my diet because they're warming and . This meal is a stir-fry made with peppers, zucchini, onions and chickpeas. I added red peppers flakes and hot peppers to add some spice to the dish. This meal is perfect for a cool fall evening!

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Rutherford Street Fair

Monday was the annual street fair in Rutherford, NJ. It's usually extremely crowded, and the vendors tend to sell over priced junk, but Dennis and I like to go anyway. It's a good excuse to go to Rutherford Pancake House for lunch and Sweet Avenue Bakeshop for vegan cupcakes.

Rutherford Pancake House is very vegan friendly. They have quite a lot of vegan options on the menu. Most aren't very healthy because it's diner food, but we all need a little bit of junk food here and there. I usually have salad with my meal to make up for the whatever it is I'm eating. Dennis and I both had big salads, and we split a large plate of vegan nachos. I would have liked a little more cheese on the nachos, but they were really good!

Sweet Avenue Bakeshop is at the other end of the street, so we joined the crowd and walked around until we found ourselves in front of it. Sweet Avenue is a totally vegan cupcake bakery. They also have a few cookies and candy bars for sale. Their menu changes daily, and usually have gluten-free choices. 

I bought a gluten-free chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, as well as gluten-free pumpkin cupcake. Both were super delicious!!! Yum!

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