Dinner - March 9, 2010

So far behind. Trying to get started again with the posting. We have been cooking but I have been so busy with the new job and volunteering. This is a mango and black bean salad served with a side of broccoli. Maybe there was a recipe. Maybe it will come to me.

Dinner - February 24, 2010

This is a TLT (Tofu, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich from Eating Well's Ipod Touch Application. In the background you can see Black Bean Soup from Eating Well Magazine's February 2010 issue. The sandwich recipe can be found here. The soup recipe can be found here.

The recipe calls for extra firm tofu but I had (and generally prefer) firm tofu. I smashed it under a pipe plate with some weight on it before proceeding with the recipe. I found the tofu came out of the oven as promised which is unusual for me and backed tofu. I used veganaise for the mayo. I thought these sandwiches were good but should never be compared to a sandwiches with bacon. The tofu tasted mostly like mustard to me.

The soup calls for prepared salsa. I did not have any so I substituted 1/2 cup diced tomato, a clove of garlic, a 1/2 tsp of adobo sauce, and 1/4 cup of bell pepper. I added the cilantro un-chopped to the food processor with the last batch of soup. This soup was easy and better than canned.

Lunch - February 4, 2010

This morning I made chili and cornbread for our lunches. The night before we had some prepared soup and bread along side a big green salad for dinner. All of those ingredients were delivered by our new grocery service, Farm Fresh Delivery. It was great to have an easy, healthy, and tasty meal. Next time I will have to order enough for leftovers.

I am working on developing my own chili recipe. Below is a quick rundown on the ingredients.

Kristen's Chili - Try 1
1 onion chopped
2 shallots chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 jalapeño chopped
3 mini peppers chopped
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp cumin
8 oz seitan ground in food processor
2 tbsp tomato paste
12 oz chopped fire roasted tomatoes
1 14 oz can black beans rinsed
1 14 oz can chickpeas rinsed
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 tbsp lime juice
1/3 cup cilantro
Salt

Vegetable broth
Onion trimmings
Shallot trimmings
Carrot tops
Celery
Olive oil
Water

I made the broth as I was making the chili.

We both thought the chili was quite good. I had planned on developing a chili with pinto beans but I was pretty happy with the texture of the chickpeas today. I am not sure which way to go next.

Dinner - January 29, 2010

From my meal plan for the week we have Black Bean Tostadas with Cherry Tomato Salsa from Berley's Fresh Food Fast. We have liked this recipe for years and have served it to guests.

This night I tried reducing the lime juice in the salsa to half and doubling the black beans in the black bean and seitan mixture. I rounded the measures on the spices to compensate for the extra beans. I used a potato masher to smash some of the beans while they were cooking. I put about half of the seeds and core from the jalapeno in the salsa and that was plenty hot for me.

I think these adjustments are improvements. Next time I think I will try and make a little more salsa to balance the increase in the bean mixture.

I made up all ten of the tortillas in the package into tostadas. Two is probably a meal but I think someone ate four.

Dinner - July 6, 2009

Sometimes even in the summer you need an easy meal from the pantry. This may be familiar and is from the recipe "Smokin' Drunken Chili" in Myra Kornfeld's The Healthy Hedonist. I posted about this back in June. You can find the previous post here.

I again made this without the beer and with the avocado chopped and stirred into the pot. I also make this in the dutch oven as a one pot meal. This time I served it with corn chips from the store.

I have in my notes that I can make a double recipe in just under an hour so I am going to give this a 3 for a preparation rating as a good week night meal. I feel kind of funny giving something as humble as chili a 5 rating on taste but I would serve this to any meat eaters so I guess it earned it.

Dinner with Jiffer

Tonight we made Jiffer eat weird food. She said it was okay.

This was menu 3 from the summer section of Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast (page 92). In the foreground is Seared Tofu with Spicy Black Beans and Mango Salsa and in the background is Chilled Avocado Soup with Lime and Jalapeño.

Avocado soup was super easy, quite unique, and pretty good. It is suggested to serve with a dollop of sour cream which we did not do. It also calls for some crispy fried tortilla strips on top. I did make these for Jiffer but I forgot to ask if she thought they added anything. This make 4 large servings. I ate the rest of the soup several days later and it was still a very pretty green. I want to try this soup again on smaller scale.

The black beans were on the bland side. Matt and I found they needed salt. The ginger smelled great when they were cooking but maybe they needed a little bit more. We used some organic black beans which are plain to start with so perhaps I would have had more success using S&W or adding some garlic and salt on my own.

The mangoes I had for the salsa where called Champagne Mangoes. Jiffer and I stood over the sink sucking every last bit off of them. These were the best mangoes I have ever had. I am glad we enjoyed them when we did because with the jalapeño in the salsa the enjoyment was not quite the same.

The recipe calls for staking the beans, tofu, and salsa on top of rice. I make a little white rice for Jiffer but Matt and I went without. The salsa was a little to spicy for me to completely enjoy. I am guessing if I had some rice that may have worked out to the right spice level.

The black beans and tofu rely on the salsa for the majority of the flavor. So anytime I have a ripe mango or two I would probably make this recipe again for me and Matt since the rest of the ingredients are pantry regulars. I don' think I will serve it to others. Thanks for trying it Jiffer.

Matt and I had an Albarino with this meal which appears to be about the right wine.

What does a Herbivore take to a Pig Roast?

I decided on a Black Bean and Rice Salad. I don't now if there is a right answer to this question but I did learn a few things.



When cooking for a pig roast, here is what not to do:
1. Spend time going to farmers market for fresh vegetables
2. Make your own fresh vegetable broth
3. Make a double recipe (about 2 gallons)

Of course that is what I did. While the few who tried it said they liked it, I am still trying to get rid of it.

I used a recipe that I used to make 10 years ago as the base. It can be found at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/2369. I suggest checking out all the resources available at http://www.epicurious.com/ if you haven't been there.

I used brown basmati rice instead of white. I used home made vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I used lime juice instead of orange juice. I also added a little adobe sauce to kick up the spice. I only added a about a 1/4 cup total of olive oil for the whole recipe and a little bit of pumpkin seed oil.

Before I added all the rice and oil, Matt had some for lunch. I then took it to the pig roast. I then brought most of it home from the pig roast. I had some for a midnight snack. The next day I cooked up some spinach with garlic and mixed it in to a couple of servings and we had that for a late lunch. The next day I cooked up some frozen corn with garlic and mixed that into a couple of servings which we took for lunch (Matt ate his on top of a spinach salad). I took the big tub back to work to have with a lunch grill out. I looks like a little more is missing.