Author Archives: Kinenchen

Sep 09 2012
5 Comments
Lazy Vegan

Lazy Vegan: Bachelorette Chow!

A while back, Brent posted about what he calls bachelor chow. It turns out I have a lady version of this dish. Mine is fairly straightforward and has a nutritional profile that my needs and just happens to compliment Brent’s version well. Before I was vegan this included tilapia but that was quickly and easily replaced with less expensive, cholesterol-free chickpeas. That’s most of what you’ll need:
1 tin of chickpeas, drained OR 1 cup of chickpeas, soaked and pressure cooked
1 10 ounce or 1 lb. bag of frozen vegetables (I prefer mixes with broccoli, carrots and peas or beans)
whatever combination of hot sauce, tamari or soy sauce and teryaki sauce or mushroom sauce does it for you
1 tsp olive oil

I put the chickpeas into a pan with the olive oil and often some flake red pepper or cayenne and fry the chickpeas until they get all steamy! I add the frozen veggies and stir-fry until they’re hot and then add sauces to taste. This is a versatile budget friendly meal that’s pretty family friendly. When I make this for me and Brent, I’ll use 2 10 ounce bags of vegetables or a 1 pound bag. It usually comes out to less than $5 for dinner for 2, less if you start with dried chickpeas. Fresh, frozen or dried black-eyed peas (sometimes called cow peas), lima beans, edamame or green peas are great for when you want a change.

What’s your super quick and easy meal for days when you don’t really want to cook?

This is Christie, signing off!

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Sep 07 2012
2 Comments
Main Dishes

Lighter Green Thai Curry

Brent and I eat too much delicious food apparently and are trying to figure out more ways to enjoy our favorite foods without packing on the pounds. I decided to make some Thai green curry.

To start, Brent chopped this mountain of vegetables. We put just about everything that we had into this bad boy including

1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 lb. of green beans

2 portabella caps, sliced

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 onion, sliced

5 scallions, chopped

4 Thai peppers, sliced

a small knob of ginger

1 tin of bamboo shoots, drained

1 13.5 oz. can of light coconut milk

1.5 cups of almond, soy or coconut milk

1 handful of Thai basil (optional)

1 tbsp green curry paste

juice and zest from a lime (save half for wedges to garnish the dish)

1 drop of lemongrass extract or 1 stalk of lemongrass, pounded to release fragrance

olive oil

1 tsp coconut or turbinado sugar (more if you like it sweet)

salt to taste

Check curry pastes carefully. Many contain shrimp paste which is bad for anyone with an allergy and not suitable for vegans. I started by putting the Thai peppers, lemongrass or extract (remove the lemongrass before serving), onion and ginger into the pan with some olive oil.

I sauteed them until the onion started to brown. Then I added the coconut milk, lime zest, sugar and curry paste. I didn’t get as much zestyness as I wanted from the lime so I added some additional lemon zest (2 pinches) when I was adjusting the sweetness and seasonings.

Then we added the broccoli, green beans, and mushrooms and allowed them to steam lightly for 3-4 minutes while mixing them into the sauce. If you’re interested in adding some protein, a 2.5 cups of chickpeas or some pressed cubed tofu would make an excellent addition. I added the scallions, bamboo shoots and bell pepper about 5 minutes later. I squeezed the lime over it and mixed in the Thai basil. and stirred it until I could smell the basil.

We served it over quinoa with white wine. German style white wines compliment this kind of dish well, particularly riesling or gewurztraminer. It was definitely a spicy green curry but much lighter than I’m used to. I mostly tasted vegetables and peppery coconut which isn’t a bad thing. I’d love to hear how you lighten up your favorite dshes.

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Sep 06 2012
10 Comments
Main Dishes

Hope and Corn Chowder

The Vegan’s Husband named me as a baton carrier in the Hope relay and I’ll tell you I was a little nervous. It seems like a lot of responsibility.

I wanted to include a recipe that was easy and delicious and loaded with nutrition. Chowders are usually loaded with fat and cholesterol so I’m giving you one that’s high in fiber, protein and flavor. I started with the following:

1 12 ounce carton of silken tofu (we use MoriNu organic)

cilantro (stems and/or leaves)

3 tomatillo, chopped

1 small onion, diced

1 6 ounce jar of sliced pimientos

1 jalapeño, diced (optional, for spice)

1 10 ounce bag of frozen corn (we used Cascadian Farms organic)

1 cube of veggie bouillon

1 generous pinch of flake red pepper

1 cup of water (more or less depending on your needs)

1-2 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

First, pre-heat your oven to 400F/205C. Grease a baking sheet lightly and put your tomatollos (whole but papery husk removed) on it. When the oven is hot, put them on the top rack near the broiler coil. This particular day it took only 8 minutes to blacken the skin (above). I wish I knew a better way to time this stuff without lighting them on fire but all I can advise is to watch them closely after 5 minutes. When they’re done, set them aside to cool. Also, don’t forget to turn off the oven.

I put the block of tofu into my blender along with the cilantro and bouillon cube. Whenever I use leaves from cilantro I put the stems in a bag in my freezer for use in recipes like this one. Freezing preserves the aromatic compounds that give cilantro it’s unique (and to some offensive) flavor that is lost in dried coriander powder. The stems are also very flavorful and full of fiber. I blended the tofu until it was creamy.

Meanwhile I added a teaspoon or so of olive oil to a pot and sauteed the onion, pimientos and jalapeño. We like food spicy so if you’re shy, consider adding a quarter or half of the jalapeño.

When the onion had become translucent, I added the flake red pepper and frozen corn  and continued stirring until it was thawed.

I added the tofu and used another cup of water to get some of the remaining tofu out of the blender. I added it until I liked the consistency of the chowder.

I took my tomatillo and chopped them roughly. I stirred them in gently and served garnished with fresh cilantro leaves.  Brent ate his with corn chips and there were no leftovers which made me sad. I love awesome lunch and even better when it’s high protein comfort food.

My recipe is soy based so if you’re sensitive to soy I’d love to hear if this recipe works with cashew or coconut cream

Now that we’re full of delicious food I can be more objective in my choices on to whom I’ll pass on the Hope baton!

1. Whatcha Reading? is a blog that covers a broad range of topics relevant to vegans from cooking and baking to eating out and weird situations that come up when you’re a vegan in a carnist world.

2. an Unrefined Vegan Is anything but unrefined. This blog features stunning photography or mouth watering vegan food and something out of my cooking comfort zone: baking. Breads, cookies, cakes and muffins abound here along with other vegan goodies… give it a look.

3. CameraPhone Vegan appeals to me through 4 things: cooking, reviews, sampling local eateries and being local to me so I can go and try those delicious foods. The writing style is lively and accessible and they give helpful hints about what’s gluten-free and vegan and both! (Thank-you!)

4. I’ve become a big fan of the Teapot Vegan. This blog is so honest as to be indispensable. It reminds me that identity and being vegan are intertwined with health, self image and day-to-day life. I often suffer from tunnel vision and this blog brings me right back to seeing the whole picture.

5. Last and not least Vegan Monologue is a blog that does great product reviews and doable recipes. The photography is great and the instructions are easy to follow.

That just about wraps up this post!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Sep 04 2012
2 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Other Lazy Vegans: Veggie and Noodle Stir Fry

When I want something light, quick and easy I usually reach for a bag of frozen veggies and a bag of tofu shirataki noodles. Today I prepared the noodles by adding them to a large pan with a tablespoon of corn oil, some flake red pepper and vegan oyster sauce.

When that was hot and delicious looking I added a bag of Asian style veggies and stirred it until it was also hot and delicious looking.

We also added some frozen edamame and shitake mushrooms.

It took about 15 minutes, start to finish. Never underestimate the value of stir fry… and not just the nutritional value.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Sep 02 2012
2 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Other Lazy Vegans: Sausage and Eggs

If you’re thinking about burgers this Labor day weekend, you might want to check this out (and the list of beef, pork and poultry products recalled for contamination with potentially deadly bacteria at Food Safety News) before you make any important decisions about burgers. Saturday is a glorious day when I get to sleep in 2 hours before going to a grueling double session of Brazilian jiu jitsu. “Sausage” and “eggs” is the kind of all American breakfast that you’d expect a pair of martial arts enthusiasts to enjoy except that my jiu jitsu dojo was the first place in South Florida outside my vegan farmer’s market that I’d met other vegans.

This particular variety, Bahama rice sausage – swinging Italian sausage, was unassuming right out of the package. I heated them by sauteeing in my favorite fry pan and presented them along with some scrambled tofu to my fellow vegan ninja for breakfast.

The texture was nice: firm and moist. The flavor was disappointing. We tasted strong cumin and some pepper but otherwise we had to slather them with hot sauce and garlic salt (which they did compliment well) in order to make them tasty by themselves. Sadly, I wouldn’t get them again. I liked how easy they were to prepare and that I could recognize the ingredients(like rice and lentils) in the whole patty. They would be fabulous at any BBQ slathered with mustard, relish and everything else that makes a burger good!

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Aug 31 2012
8 Comments
Raw

Sprouts! … and a giveaway!!!

Sprouts are the freshest greens you can have in your house on a regular basis and for pennies. All you need is a jar, a rubber band, a piece of screen and some organic seeds for sprouting. I’m using mung beans (left) and a spicy sprouting mix (right) that I got from my local farmer’s market. You don’t need a lot, they get big fast. Place the screen over the mouth of the jar and wrap the rubber band around it to hold the screen in place.

Every day, at least once a day and preferably twice a day you’ll need to rinse the sprouts. To do this you’ll fill the jar with enough water to cover the spouts and empty it through the screen and into the sink. Do this 2-3 times. Don’t worry if they get stuck in the screen. They’ll be fine.

Somebody accidentally ate the spicy sprouts before she remembered she needed them for a photo opportunity but here are the mung beans below.

YUM! That tablespoon or so of mung beans made a whole jar of sprouts. Cheap, easy and delicious! This is actually a giveaway. When I bought the screen I had to buy a HUGE roll so I want to part with some. We need at least 30 entrants or September 30 (whichever comes first) and all you have to do is the following:

1. like and follow our blog

2. like us on FaceBook

3. comment below on what you favorite kind of sprouts are and your favorite way to eat them (mine is Mung bean sprouts in pad thai!)

Then I’ll ask each of the randomly selected winners (3 in total) to email us their address and I’ll send you 2 bright shiny pieces of screen for your own jar of sprouts! Thanks to Somer at Good Clean Food for the brilliant idea!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 29 2012
8 Comments
Raw

Mean Green Openface Sandwiches!

I’m calling this the mean green sandwich because it’s full of raw, good-for-you awesomesauce and they’re open face because I like to look my meal in the eye. Fortunately these don’t have any eyes because I have issues with that. The first thing I did was make a basil garlic spread using the following:

1 very large handful of basil leaves

5-6 peeled garlic cloves

1/4 cup of pumpkin pits

1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tsp Meyer lemon olive oil

2 tbsp veganaise

1/2 tsp flake red pepper

1/2 cup of water (you might not use all of it)

I blended all of that up, adding water as needed to form a spreadable texture. We spread it on sliced, toasted gluten-free bread and topped it with spinach and avocado.

I added a lot of extra flake red pepper because I’m just that kind of girl. This was a fast and delicious meal. The buttery avocado was a great contrast to the spicy basil and pesto. The nuttiness of the bread and hemp reminded me I was getting a heaping dose of omega fatty acids and protein to go with my antioxidants and iron.  It would have been great in a nori wrap with sprouts too for a real raw meal! Maybe we’ll do that next time and until then, nom on!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 27 2012
4 Comments
Main Dishes

Lighter Thai Yellow Curry

Brent and I are still trying to find lighter versions of our favorites and yellow curry is on that list. We recently became acquainted with PB2 thanks to co-author Melissa and have found it to be everything it’s advertised to be: a low-fat full-flavor version of the comfort food I know and love. This made this dish possible along with 2 bags of generic frozen vegetables. As a biochemist I’ve learned that the best ways to preserve labile (that’s how biochemists say ‘unstable’) compounds is by storing them frozen or dried and preferably both. Dried and frozen veggies, nuts and fruits are something I often choose over canned or ‘fresh’ (i.e. not from our farmers’ market). While tinned and fresh produce is often useful and tasty, you never know how long it’s been sitting on a shelf or in the back of a refrigerated truck while the nutrients have been breaking down due to natural processes that can be slowed or stopped by freezing or drying. There is still a lot we don’t know about how our bodies work and scientists discover new compounds that are important to health and nutrition more often than you might think. Variety and well preserved or fresh foods are the best ways to make the most of compounds we don’t know about just yet, as far as I’m concerned.  I digress… lets talk curry. We used the following

1 lb. bag of generic frozen seasoning mix (pepper, onion, celery)

1 lb. bag of generic frozen mixed vegetables (zucchini. carrot, lima beans, cauliflower)

1 13.5 ounce tin of chickpeas, drained OR 1 cup of dried garbanzos, soaked overnight and parboiled

2 generous pinches of cumin seeds

2 tbsp minced ginger

3 Thai chilis, sliced

1 pinch of cayenne (optional)

1 pinch of cinnamon

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp PB2 dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1 tsp coconut or turbinado sugar (more if you like sweeter curry)

salt to taste

We combined the cumin seeds with minced ginger in a deep skillet with the olive oil. We stirred it over medium high heat until it was fragrant. We started the rice at this point because we used brown rice with took about 45 minutes. The curry was ready about 15 minutes before the rice.

To this we added the seasoning mix of vegetables, peppers, cinnamon, PB2 in water and chickpeas. I stirred it until the vegetables were thawed and heated thoroughly.

Then we added the rest of the veggies and sugar and stirred until the vegetables were hot and tender.

This was a lighter curry and tasted divine. Thanks to PB2 we had something light and nutritious and good enough to share though I’ll probably make some tweaks in the future. Let me know if you get to try this and what you’d do to improve on it.

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 26 2012
3 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Other Lazy Vegans: Junk Food that isn’t Junk

Even “hint of lime” chips often contain sour cream or whey for flavoring and this makes me SO angry. Being limited to greasy potato chips or plain corn chips gets a little old so we’re trying out some alternatives to let you know what’s in the bag.

Plentils come in 4 flavors (sorry, the other 2 aren’t in the picture because we ate them already): sea salt, dill and sour cream, margherita pizza and garlic parmesan. They’re light and airy and the flavors are outstanding. I particularly liked the margherita pizza and Brent liked the garlic parmesan. We’d buy these again. They’ve got a decent amount of protein, fiber and iron in each serving and aren’t terribly greasy or heavy. They’re $3.99 per bag and the bag is pretty big but it’s mostly air. If you’re sensitive to gluten, these are a great alternative to health chips that often contain wheat ingredients.

Nacho, sea salt and pepper and pico de gallo are the thee flavors we tried from Beanfield’s . The nutrition data is pretty good, there’s a reasonable amount of iron, fiber, protein and calcium. They’re $3.49 per bag and there’s a lot more than in Plentils. The texture is light and crispy and the flavors are awesome. These are both great alterniatives for people who can’t have corn chips but want to enjoy their salsa!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Aug 24 2012
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Lazy Vegan, Main Dishes

Spicy Cheesy Toasty Toast!

I was serving some soup and was going to serve just plain old cheesy bread but decided to spice it up a little. I combined the following:

1/2 onion, diced

1 smaller tomato, diced

1 jalapeño, minced

1/4 cup TVP

I mixed these all together, adding the TVP until most of the moisture from the tomato was absorbed. I didn’t want soggy bread, don’t judge me.

I spooned the mix onto my bread (this is gluten-free and vegan made by a local lady), added a few slices of Follow Your Heart mozzarella and baked it up near the broiler so it would get toasty and delightful. It was at 400C/200F and for about 5 minutes. Watch it carefully.

When I took it out, it was indeed toasty and delightful.

I’d do this again because it was quick, easy and delicious and had lots of veggies in it for something that barely took 15 minutes to make. I hope you get to try it!
This is Christie, signing off!

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