Magazine Week!

This week, I'm going to embark on a theme I was going to do last year, but ran out of weeks. Each day will feature a different cooking magazine's recipe that I will veganize, or simply just use as an inspiration. Today is also the deadline for our first Iron Chef challenge: Mashed potatoes.

I found this recipe while trudging through all the pork-and-grease-filled delicacies on the Southern Living website. I scanned it, then got up and got to work. I measured nothing. That's the lovely thing about soup.



Vegan Loaded Potato Soup
2 servings

3 potatoes (I don't think it matters what kind. I used russets, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 cups chick'n veg broth
1 tbsp nooch
3 strips of Smart Bacon or vegan bacon of choice, diced
3 green onions, chopped
1-2 tbsp Earth Balance
salt and pepper
frozen green peas
1/3 cup Wildwood plain soy creamer
2 pieces of bread, ripped apart
Daiya cheddar

Preheat broiler.
Cook the potatoes, and mash them. Cook the bacon and onions in Earth Balance over medium heat until they start smelling awesome. Put the potatoes, broth, nooch, bacon, onions, and peas in the potato pot and heat to boiling. Remove from heat, and stir in some creamer. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour into two oven safe bowls. Top with ripped up bread, and enough Daiya to cover. Broil until melty and nom nom looking. Let cool. Garnish with more green onion, Tofutti sour cream, whatever.

Calm before the storm

The first week of MoFo is usually a hodgepodge for me, and I get right into themes on the second week. Tonight, I decided to make myself some leftover soup, and a grilled Daiya sandwich.



I like to mix dried rosemary into some Earth Balance and spread that on the outside before grilling. Try it. It's addicting.

So, I went grocery shopping today. I forgot my piece of shit camera, and took cell phone pictures, but they're all too small and bad. I really want a new camera. Something with a great macro setting for food photos. Not incredibly expensive. Good optical zoom. Post recommendations in the comments!

But, one picture I will share is this one.



Oh, hells yes.



Goodnight, MoFoers! Magazine week starts tomorrow.

No more Ms. Nice Vegan

I will freely admit that I can be a real bitch. But, I am usually pretty cool about doing favors. I don't usually have issues switching shifts with people, or staying to close, or coming in early, and that's pretty rare for my store. Today, I came in early to relieve my sick boss. He left, and then I noticed that no other managers were coming in for five hours. I thought, well, if I get a break, I'll just eat some peanut butter filled pretzels, and I'll be okay. At that point, all I'd eaten was a Hall's.

After hours of doing nothing but helping customers, vendors, following shoplifters, and filling in Christmas candy, I finally called Pizza Lucé and ordered: "A mock muffeleta, no cheese, with rinotta, and the vegan peanut butter bar." I then specified again, "Vegan," and "no animal products." Yeah. I got a muffeleta and the vegan peanut butter bar. There was no cheese on the sandwich. Just oh, about half a pig.

Long story short, um, shorter...it took another half hour for them to make it right. I was still bummed because I knew that sandwich was going to waste and it was just more death for nothing.

My food (vegan; I checked) showed up, and I finally ate around 7:30pm, about seven hours after my breakfast of one lozenge.





If anyone from Pizza Lucé is reading this? You guys totally owe me a free sandwich.

And next time I get a text to come in early? I'm deleting that shit and going back to bed.

Surprise!

Today I dug out a bag of 17 bean & barley soup mix from Trader Joe's. That's all it is. A bag of beans and some barley. I did a quick soak, and threw it in the slow cooker with some Not Beef broth, and left for work. All day long, I thought, "It's going to suck. I have the worst luck with dried beans. The last time I made this in a pot, it was inedible." Then I got home and was welcomed by a delicious aroma as I entered my third floor hallway. I got inside, stirred the soup, added some leftover diced tomatoes and some Boca crumbles.



What a surprise. The amount of dried basil, salt, and pepper was perfect. The beans were tender and hadn't disintegrated like I'd feared. My tummy has been a mess for a couple of days, and this was just the perfect thing; nourishment without a whole lot of crazy ingredients to make me queasy later. The broth was thick and didn't have any weird foam in it that beans tend to do to my soups. This soup mix is going to be a regular purchase, because I know I can slow cook it and have a wonderful dinner when I get home. Makes me look forward to winter.

Tomorrow's payday. Will I do one last scrounge-in-the-cupboards dinner, or will I go shopping? We'll see.

Out of practice.

I've noticed that my usual brilliant writing has taken a shit in the last year. I completely own this one. I'm lazy, I have a shitty work schedule, and coming home and throwing some noodles in a bowl with frozen veggies and peanut sauce is hardly blogworthy. I also think I may have sacrificed some precious brain cells. So please, bear with me as I grow back my writing (and creative cooking) legs.



Here's what I'm working with tonight:



Brown basmati rice, some tofu, leftover diced tomatoes, red curry paste, coconut milk, and an onion. I knew it would be a curry of some kind, but I had to get the rice going really fast because it was already 11:00pm, and I have set standards for myself with MoFo. By midnight, or I am a disgrace.



I ended up skipping the tomatoes, and making a red coconut curry tofu with peas. Ah, peas. I just knew I had to have a bag in the freezer. I love them so much. I'll hang on to the tomatoes for something else. Does anyone have some extra creative juices they'd like to give me?

Brokeity ass broke.

So, the trip ended up costing me a wee bit more than I'd planned. I have a little wiggle room once my cell phone bill is paid, but not enough to go dropping mad cash at Whole Foods like I need to.



So, the Vegan MoFo theme until payday is: Eat What's in the House. Today's lunch: Smokey Acorn Squash Chili. Items used: one acorn squash, one onion, two cloves garlic, some leftover kidney beans, two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (found that in the back of the cabinet), canned diced tomatoes, and some spices. A little agave and cinnamon made it interesting.



Another sucktastic picture. The breakroom isn't exactly a photo studio, what with the formica and fluorescent lights.

For tomorrow...something with that can of coconut milk lurking in the cabinet? Um, black mango tea? Uh...some Newman's Own Marinara? I guess it all depends on how the election turns out. I may just eat cereal for the next few days.

Happy World Vegan Day!

Oh, and Happy Vegan Month of Food! Day one!


I came home today after a long weekend with friends in Chicago. I'm pretty jealous because a) Chicago has way more vegan choices for restaurants, and b) the tap water is drinkable. I'm also in love with Ellie and Tim's beautiful house and pantry. A pantry! I now have a new prerequisite for future apartments.

Ellie picked me up at the airport on Friday, and we went straight to Demera. We have a tradition with Ethiopian Diamond, but this is a new place that deserved our gusto for all things served on injera. The tikle gomen was amazing. The ye-misir wot: heavenly. We destroyed our lunch before I had a chance to take a picture of it in it's whole form, so here's the damage:



Afterward, we hit the Asian market and Whole Foods. Once loaded up with provisions, we planned out the food and timing for the Haunted Housewarming. We caught a sliver of a show at The Empty Bottle, and headed home. Saturday was going to be busy as hell, so I insisted on brunch the next morning. We went to Lula Cafe in Logan Square. It got all kinds of raves on Yelp for it's vegan-ness, but I was stuck with one menu item. Tofu Scramble, which I wanted anyway. What didn't do it for me was the cubed tofu (I like my scramble scrambled), the goddamned cantaloupe in the fruit dish, and that stuff there on the right? Not Earth Balance.



The Gimme Lean sausage patties and the coffee were good, and it fueled us for our day in the kitchen.

I truly suck at life because Ellie and I made a TON of sushi, and I got no pictures of it. Two platters each of nori rolls and inari parcels. I made three batches of rice; one that was made pink with beets, one that was yellow with shiitake mushrooms and green onions, and one that was red with raw beet, carrot, and spinach. We rolled cucumber, bell peppers, green onion, and avocado. The inari pouches (plain fried, turmeric yellow, and spicy red) were stuffed with ginger and the different kinds of rice. I guess they were a hit, because they were inhaled.

Ellie whipped up a batch of my Mediterranean Red Lentil Iron Chef Soup:



And I finished making the cupcakes as people started to arrive. They are gluten free, chocolate with peanut butter caramel filling, and chocolate ganache. This picture sucks.



The weird holes on top are from filling them by hand. Chunky peanut butter + Wilton pastry bag = peanut butter caramel explosion. Which doesn't sound that bad, but it is when you have guests storming the kitchen.

Now, as for Mofo...I have been contemplating several themes. Magazine recipes veganized, candy week, squash week...but am looking for more. Tomorrow will be a late night post, I'm sure.