Things I Have been Cooking Lately

Sorry to be away for so long. Due to my tax class, I really did not cook at all the first week of the month. But that is now completed (I passed) and may result in some work starting in January, but I won’t know about that till December. And I have been cooking a lot, since my refrigerator totally ran out of food.



The first thing I made was on November 6, the only day that week with no class. I decided to make the Curried Udon Noodle Stir Fry from VCON, which had been on my list for the past few weeks. It turned out fairly good, but I did make a few errors. The first was making the roux for the gravy; I don’t think I did it correctly. Either that or it is supposed to be much thicker than I realized. The second error was in trying to warm up my precooked udon noodles in a colander under hot tap water, when I should have used a pan with hot water instead. As you can see, they all broke apart. I will just have to try again, because even with all those errors, it was quite good. But a visit to Just Hungry may be in order to learn more about Japanese curries.



The next time I was able to get some cooking done was after the class was over, last Wednesday. I made the Seitan & Polenta with Fresh Greens from Vegan Express again. This time I got the bok choy, but decided to use Vegetation’s variation of seitan sausage. The sausage I used was the Field Roast Italian Sausage. They had been sitting in the freezer just waiting for it to cool down a bit (and it has finally) so that I could make this again. I think that Vegetation may have been onto something, because using sausage just seems to make this recipe better. If you know of someone who thinks that vegan food is bland, feed them this and they will change their minds.

The last three things were part of lunch today, but I made them last week. Just did not get any pictures till today.



First, my lunch today was one of the Black Bean and Potato Patty from 366 Ways to Cook Beans, Rice and Grains; my latest cookbook purchase. It is not a vegan or vegetarian cookbook, but all the recipes are by default vegetarian and most can be veganized quite easily. In this case, I substituted chickpea flour for the eggs and used panko breadcrumbs. Put some salsa on top and these are quite good, they would be good plain as well.

On the side is Cranberry Waldorf Salad. It has all the standard items in a regular Waldorf Salad; apples, celery and walnuts and adds crushed cranberries to the mix as well. If you are still looking for some salads for your Thanksgiving dinner, this would be a good one to think about, since it lets you put cranberries on the table in a way more people may find to their liking.



The last item is my desert for today; the scones from VwaV, done as the chocolate chip variation. I had to use my only and last container of MimicCreme to make them, but it was worth it. They definitely are a different texture when using crème instead of all milk. Unfortunately, since I can no longer get MimicCreme that will mean that I have to make my own with cashews or use the So Delicious Coconut Milk Cremer when making these.

Catching Up Again

Hi, guys. Sorry I have been away for so long. It was at first due to my new position and TeddyBear having his hours changed so that we didn't get home until after 7:30 every night. Which just left me with very limited time to do things, even cook. And then my assignment suddenly ended and just could not seem to get the energy up to write here, even though I kept taking pictures. My assignment ended two weeks ago today and I finally decided that I have to do more than read the news, read blogs, read books (finished Shogun, The Hobbit and completed Book 1 of The Lord of the Rings), apply for jobs and cook.

So here are some of the things I have done. All of these are from the last week of May until the 12th of June. And need I add that this is very picture heavy, so sorry about the slow load time for the page.


This is Colorful Vegetable Fajitas made into a burrito with rice, Galaxy Naturals Rice Vegan Cheese Slices in Cheddar.

This is the main box from my new lunch set I bought from Lunchsense.com. I just bought the inner boxes, but they have lunch boxes as well. All of the containers are Lock n Lock, so they will not leak. Here is is filled with Quick and Easy Vegetable Curry and rice.

This is the drink container from the lunch set, filled with chocolate almond milk.

Here is the complete lunch set, with the two small side boxes as well. As you can see the large box also has insets, so that you can bring two items in the box, if one wishes. However, it will leak since the top does not seal the dividers. Here the set is filled with Sloppy Sams, Angie's Dads Best Cabbage Coleslaw, sliced apples, walnuts and No Pudge Brownie Clone. It can be made vegan by omitting the egg whites and using a vegan yogurt, in this case vanilla coconut milk yogurt from Turtle Mountain.

This is a quick and easy veggie stir fry I made one night for dinner. It is just frozen japanese vegetables, diced and fried chickpea Burmese Tofu, store bought teriyaki sauce over rice.

Here are the Sloppy Sams again, with Harvard Beets and Angie's Dads Best Cabbage Coleslaw on the side.

Curried Eggplant Soup (with some plain coconut milk yogurt) with Harvard Beets and some steamed kale mixed with canned, diced tomatoes on the side. I made the soup for a food blogging event I planned on doing, but couldn't figure out how to do back links (annoyed).

Here is the Curried Eggplant soup again with a cheese quesodilla made with Galaxy Naturals Rice Vegan cheddar cheese slices. I liked the soup, but it was a bit to spicy for my taste. The next time I make it, I will use less curry.

Catching Up

Thank you for all your well wishes. You will all be happy to know that my fingers are much better today, with just a hint of a blister on my pinkie left. It should be gone in a day or two. And I am usually not so accident prone in the kitchen, but when I get busy and distracted, these things will happen. Vegetation, your suggestion of anesthetic crème is a good idea, but since we have limited first aide supplies, I had to settle for some aloe. Works just as good.

You will all be happy to know that I did not starve during all of this. On Friday for lunch I had some stir fried rice with some of the leftover stir fried vegetables in the refrigerator, rice and more the Sweet and Spicy Curried Miso Stir Fry Sauce. A nice simple lunch I could make easily with one hand.

For dinner I had some fried seitan with green beans and Dijon Beets. The seitan is coated in the leftover breading mix from when I made Lolo’s Fried Seitan Steaks a few weeks ago. Oh, trying to bread anything with one hand is an experience I suggest you avoid, very messy. The Dijon Beets are from the PDQ Vegetarian by Donna Klein. First thing I have made from this book and a nice way to eat beets. Basically you just heat up the canned, sliced beets and then coat in a dijon vinaigrette. Here they are warm, but you can eat them room temperature as well. And I really like this book from Donna Klein. It is based around products you can buy at the grocery store, such as pre-prepped and frozen products; so it works well for the way that I cook. Many of the dishes also seem to hold up well over a few days, so planned leftovers are an option. I believe that this is one of her first books, and like her other ones, it contains no recipes with tofu. Expect to see more from here.

Dinner tonight is Sweet and Sour Lentils, more of the Dijon Beets (room temperature this time), rice and steamed cauliflower with Citrus-Date-Sesame sauce from VCON. The recipe for the lentils is from vegweb.com. Not quite sweet and sour enough for my taste, but is nice in that it doesn’t make a lot. I have another recipe from Recipezaar, but it makes a ton, since you start with ½ lb lentils. Both are good though. The Dijon Beets were quite good from the refrigerator, so when I do finally get a job, they will be a nice addition to my lunch boxes.

All for today, see you tomorrow.

Fresh Stir Fry Vegetables

Dinner tonight was a treat. I didn’t get to my natural foods store till yesterday and had planned on buying some kale, but was unable to find where they had it in the store. However, I find some of their fresh stir-fry vegetables, so I grabbed those instead. Don’t think they buy these packs, so I would guess that they come from vegetables that are a few days old from their fresh produce section. Generally the vegetables included are onions, bell peppers, zucchini and bok-choy. Not a bad combination and the only one I have found that has a cabbage in the vegetable mix. The whole tray makes enough for two meals, so the veggies I didn’t eat tonight went back into the refrigerator after being cooked. I will cut them up a bit more and put them in wraps for lunch. Oh, and that is more of the Sweet and Spicy Miso Curry Glaze on top.

I also made some rice milk today, since I had to make some rice for dinner. And I learned one big lesson. Do not make it with molasses. Yes, the molasses does add iron and other nutrients (which is why I added it to the recipe), but it makes the milk brown. I think I will stick with agave or light natural sugar in the future. But I do plan on making my own rice milk for drinking, simply to save money. And I most likely will not make this recipe again, since it is easier to start with uncooked rice. This one would be convenient, if you are someone who often makes rice during the week, however.

Frozen Vegetables Lo Mein and Stir Fry Sauce

Dinner was really simple tonight. Used up the last of the soba noodles and frozen vegetables in the freezer. Then used some more of that stir fry sauce I used last time. Did it Lo Mein style this time, just to make it different.

Was planning on doing something else, but still don’t have any energy after this morning. Spent the whole morning taking civil service tests so I can get on a list to be a library assistant in a Hillsborough County library. Mind you, this didn’t get me an interview. Only on the list, if they decide to hire and then decide to interview me. The data entry test was bad enough, but the written test was hard. I felt like I was back taking my ACT or GRE again, and I haven’t had to take a standardized test in over twenty years (oops, just gave a way my age a bit). I forgot how draining they can be. I took my GREs (general and psychology) in one day and that was not a good idea. Then I went to work at McDonalds for my evening shift (pregan days). I was half brain dead for two days after doing that. Hopefully, this will result in me getting a job, since it has cost me a fair amount of money, gas and time up to this point.

Stir Fry Vegetables and Raw Cashew Cheesecake with Mangos

Dinner was what I was trying to have a few weeks ago. I went back to my standard frozen stir fry vegetables and was happy to find for once, that it did not have a big chunk of broccoli in it and nothing else. However, the vegetables are not what this is about today, this is really about the glaze used on them, Sweet and Spicy Curried Miso Glaze. This is a sauce I found over at vegweb.com, a site that has tons of vegan recipes. It sounded like an interesting mix of ingredients, so it has been in the recipe book till I could give it a try. And the taste is quite interesting. It was not hot, nor spicy, nor salty, but a bit of all three with an bit of sweetness as well. I most likely could have put in more curry paste and miso, but was afraid of using to much initially. The glaze could also have mellowed from sitting in the refrigerator for a few weeks. However, I liked it just as it is and this may become my regular glaze for simple stir fries, since I really don’t want to overwhelm the vegetables and it doesn’t make a lot of glaze.

As a bonus you get to see the desert I have been eating for a the past few days. Lunch for me was late today, so I ended up eating it with dinner. This is the Raw Vegan Cashew Cheesecake from the July/August 2008 Vegetarian Times. I wanted to see if it would work to just eat the filling and not make the crust. So far it has been sitting in the refrigerator since Monday, and has set up and stayed quite firm. Of course, for me it isn’t quite raw, since I didn’t use raw agave nectar nor fresh squeezed lemon juice nor vanilla seeds, but it is still quite good. Definitely a keeper.

Stir Fry Veggies with Soba Noodles

This was a much better dinner than last night. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of veggies in the bottom of the bag, mostly broccoli; so I also added some peppers and onions from that stir fry mix to up the nutrition a bit.

However, tonight is not about the stir fry, but about the noodles. I do love soba noodles and contrary to how they are usually eaten, I like to eat mine warm in a stir fry or a lo mein. Cooking for myself, as I do most nights, however; I very seldom buy them because I don’t want to be stuck with a big bag of uncooked noodles or have leftovers. Also trying to portion them out is a pain as well. But I found this bag at one of my grocery stores that solves both problems. The bag has the noodles proportioned into single servings and it only has three servings in it. This is just perfect for someone like me. Once it is open, just stick it in the refrigerator for safe keeping until the next time. And no mess of trying to portion out the noodles and having all of them fall out of the bag and onto the floor. Now the next time I want to make some, just get the bag and pull out a bundled set of noodles. Easy as pie.

All for tonight. See you tomorrow.

Corn and Pepper Stir–Fry

Tonight’s dinner is courtesy of Lindsay over at the Happy Herbivore . I was checking out the recipes on her site (linked there from somewhere else, just don’t remember) and happened to notice this one. Since I love both baby corn and peppers, it was a no brainer. It also doesn’t make a lot, which is another plus. Now just to let you know, those are fresh peppers sliced by me before they went into the pan. I didn’t cheat this time, because I do like to use fresh vegetables, when possible. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any snap peas and the store and had no green beans in the freezer, so those got left out. To make up for that, I just put in the entire can of baby corn. My market did have fresh baby corn this week, but they didn’t look that good, so canned it was. And since we only have orange juice around here, that was used in place of the pineapple juice, but I don’t think it affected the flavor. And one final change was to mix the cornstarch and water with the sauce base before adding to the pan, cause in some things I am just lazy. And this all came together from prep to eating in 20 minutes. Just right for a quick weeknight meal.

Now I am sure you all want to know (or at least those of you that haven’t had this already), was it good. It was very good. The best thing about is that it is fat free, so a nice recipe to have when one has been overindulging. Definitely something to keep in my recipe box (or my cookbook software , as it were). This would be a great meal to take for lunch and reheat in the microwave. It will work great as leftovers in a wrap, which is how most of my leftovers end up. Makes as easy lunch at home. However, the next time I make this I need to remember to cut the peppers bite size. Leaving them in the strips made it a bit hard to eat.

Lindsey has some interesting recipes on her site. If you haven’t been there already, please go and check them out. She also has two cookbooks, one out and one coming out soon. They are both in PDF, so you get them within a day or two of your order and each one is quite inexpensive. I see her first one has a Soy Free Spinach Quiche, so that alone makes the $5 dollars a good use of your money. I would get it for that recipe alone, since her technique probably has other applications and I need to eat more spinach (don’t we all). She also does not use a lot of tofu, so most of her recipes are automatically soy protein free from the start.