Author Archives: Kinenchen

Dec 07 2011
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Main Dishes

WTF is moussaka!? (kinda like lasagna but not…)

The final product in this recipe fell apart and wasn’t ready for it’s close-up, Mr. DeMille. I thought about scrapping it and waiting until the next time I made it but then I put it in my mouth and realized it would be criminal not to share.

I bought this bad boy at my farmer’s market. It’s an “heirloom zebra eggplant” or so the sign said. For this recipe, any eggplant will do. Moussaka is a dish I was introduced to by a Greek friend. She’s from Cyprus so my recipe might have a different flare than you’re used to. I learned to make this dish with cream and lamb. There’ll be none of that today. Moussaka is kind of like lasagna: it’s comfort food layered with eggplant (or zucchini), meat, potatos, and mushrooms and then smothered with a bechamel cream sauce. But like I said… no meat or cream. This recipe is comfort food with fiber, protein, lutein, vitamin C, and enough other nutrients to make your mom proud. Okay, get a load of this.

1 eggplant, sliced longwise, 1/4-1/3 inch thick and soaked at least 4 hours in lightly salted water (zucchini also works and you don’t have to soak it)
1/4 cup bread-crumbs or blanched almond flour
For the filling…
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1-2 chopped soy sausages (optional, or you can use my black-eyed pea burger *winkyface*)
1/2 onion, diced
1 chopped tomato or 1/3 cup canned diced tomato
2-3 tbsp tomato paste
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp sage
salt and pepper to taste
Combine the onion and garlic in a medium frying pan. Sautee over medium-high heat until the onions begin to become tranlucent. Then astir in the sage.
Add the rest of the ingredients and set heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally while the mushrooms cook down and get tender and allowing some of the moisture to evaporate.
Make the bechamel sauce while this happens. No pictures… it just looks like ranch dressing.
‘bechamel’ sauce
1 box silken tofu
1 tbsp onion salt
1 tbsp garlic salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 dash of lemon juice
1 pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste
Combine all the ingredients for the bechamel sauce in a blender or food processor. Mix until smooth and creamy.
Preaheat the oven to 350C/175F. Coat your pan lightly with olive oil. Cover the bottom of the dish with half the bread-crumbs or almond flour (I used almond flour). Add a layer of eggplant, overlapping if necessary (you can sautee it lightly first if you want it extra tender but it can make them harder to work with and I like mine a little chewier), the mushroom/soy sausage filling, another layer of eggplant and top with the bechamel sauce and the rest of the almond flour or bread-crumbs.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the moussaka begins to bubble.
EAT IT!
This is Christie, signing off. I’m full.
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Dec 06 2011
5 Comments
Snacks

Chips and Dip? Oh yeaaaah.

The star of this show is the Florida avocado.

Avocado is full of potassium, B vitamins, and vitamins E and K. They’re also loaded with fiber and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Research has suggested that the monounsaturated fats in avocado can help lower cholesterol levels. I could go on about how awesome avocado is in terms of nutrition but let’s get to the deliciousness. There are a lot of ways to eat avocado. I’ve had it in brownies, ‘milk’shakes, salads, veggie sushi, and my personal favorite… guacamole. I prefer Hass avocados  (the ones with dark skin) but one of my colleagues has a tree in their yard and brings crates of the fruit to work and I’m a big fan of stuff for free. Florida avocados are a little bigger than Hass avocados so I’m writing this recipe accordingly.

1 green skinned avocado or 2 Hass avocados

juice from 1 lime

6-12 cloves of garlic, minced

garlic salt and hot sauce to taste

I like a lot of garlic so I added 12 cloves, the avocado, and the lime. I mooshed it with a fork until I liked the texture. Then I started adding the garlic salt and hot sauce, I used Tapatio, mixing until I liked the taste. Then I scooped it up with blue corn chips and stuffed them in my eating hole.

It’s great on quesadillas or on tacos too. Apparently I’m all about vegan junk food.

This is Christie, signing off… to eat the rest of that bowl of guacamole.

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Dec 05 2011
1 Comment
Thoughts

Culinary Adventures

When most people think about going vegan they think to themselves “WTF am I going to eat?” No pizza, no burgers, no burritos, no BLT, no cheesy fries, no milkshakes; it’s all off the menu. I had that sensation when I learned that I was allergic to gluten, the protein in wheat. No pasta, no bread, no cake, no cookies, nothing battered and fried. After I moped for a few weeks eating only cheese, cashews and dried cranberries (poor me, right?) I started to branch out. I started to discover foods I’d never tried before. I started cooking for myself. I learned substitutes. I started reading labels. I started thinking about exactly what it was I was putting in my body.

A friend of mine who also has Celiac’s disease said, “It’s impossible to have a food allergy and not be obsessed with food.” I agree with her.

When I realized that my conscience wouldn’t allow me to rationalize eating animals and their reproductive secretions, I was surprised by a pang of glee, knowing I would embark on another adventure and learn more foods I’d never tried. I realize my personality would have caused me to explore anyways, but eliminating a handful of commonplace foods (not unlike when I was forced to skip something as ubiquitous as wheat) meant I could explore the alternatives with gusto.

At my farmer’s market this weekend I got some strange fruits. The little yellow ones are called egg fruit (hopefully a reference to their size and shape) and the big green one is called black sapote or chocolate fruit. I’ve never tried either before. I’ll let you know how this little adventure goes. Let me know what new thing you try because you decided to enact “Meatless Monday” or just to have a vegetarian or vegan meal just for the fun of it.

This is Christie, signing off.

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Dec 03 2011
11 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Who can live without burgers? Not this girl.

Okay, I love sausage and burgers. I just hate that they’re full of stuff that’s not very good for you like cholesterol and lots of fat and that animals have to die to make them. This is a recipe I’m still working on but it’s more than good enough to share. To make my black-eyed pea burgers (taste better than they sound, promise) you’ll need to combine the following in a large bowl.

2 cups/15.5 oz tin of black-eyed peas (field peas also work), drained and set the liquid aside
2 tbsp tapioca, potato, or arrowroot starch
2 tbsp flour (I use oat but whatever kind you like)
2 tbsp rolled oats or quinoa
2 tbsp flax meal (optional)
1/4 very finely chopped mushrooms
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1.5 tbsp Italian seasoning (if you don’t like your sausages spicy, I recommend herbes de Provence instead)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp coriander seeds
garlic salt to taste
hot sauce to taste
oil for frying

Once everything is in the bowl except for the garlic salt and hot sauce, start mooshing. This might be a great job for any children in the house, it’s fun and can be done with your hands. Add the liquid from the canned peas until the mixture is doughy and somewhat dry but not crumbly. You shouldn’t have to add very much.

When it starts to look uniform (as above ) take a taste. Don’t worry, there’s no risk of E. coli or Salmonella, it’s not meat! Start adding hot sauce and garlic salt and continue mooshing until it tastes right to you. When you like the flavor and texture, pick up a good handful of the mixture and form it into a patty shape. This recipe should make 3 generous patties for a regular sized bun. They won’t shrink much during cooking because there’s no lard to dribble off into the pan leaving you with an emaciated burger.

I prefer to bake mine at 350F/175C for 25 minutes or until crispy outside and still mooshy inside but you can pan fry them in olive oil to the same effect if you’re feeling decadent. I like that these are fat and cholesterol free but mostly because my Dad and sister have high cholesterol and I’m sure they’re not alone.

I toasted my buns and melted my cheese for the last 2-3 minutes of the bake. This cheese is Daiya. They sell 5 lb. blocks and shreds. Yeah, I admit it. I have a 5 lb. block of non-dairy cheese in my fridge. I’m not ashamed of my 5 lb. block of non-dairy cheese. Daiya is the best cheese substitute I’ve found for cooking. It’s great in quesadillas, on ‘burgers’, for mac and cheese, pretty much anything you can think of… okay, that’s my Daiya plug. There are other non-dairy cheese that I like but that’s another blog post.

Did I mention that you can refrigerate these burgers for 2-3 days until your ready to cook them up or freeze them for up to 3 weeks? Yeah. You can. Also, the buns came from the Zen Cat Bakery (http://zencatbakery.com/) a gluten-free and vegan bakery. They are also awesome and make gluten-free vegan brownies that can defeat my PMS with a single bite!

This didn’t last long. If you try it, would you let me know how it goes? Here’s to your healthy burger!!!

this is Christie, signing off.. to eat another guilt free burger.

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Nov 27 2011
4 Comments
Cooking Gallery

Vegan Cherry Vanilla Almond Cheesecake

I usually cook from scratch because I have Celiac’s disease. That means that I’m allergic to the protein in wheat called gluten. My kitchen is a gluten free zone so I’m inclined to work with whole ingredients that I can be fairly certain are not contaminated with the infernal substance! This culinary contribution might be a little daunting to the inexperienced but I’m pretty sure anyone with some motivation and a free afternoon can make this recipe. Otherwise, get yourself a pre-made graham cracker pie crust, a can of cherry pie filling and skip to secton 2 – just keep in mind that canned filling and pre-made crust are both loaded with preservatives and highly processed refined flours and sugars. (That’s code for: my recipe is probably better for your body and for the environment.)

Make the crust first. The ingredients necessary are as follows:

1.5 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp syrup, agave nectar or molasses
2 tbsp flax meal (optional)
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
a dash of cinnamon
olive oil spray
In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda and mix well. Stir wet ingredients in until uniform and doughy. If you’re feeling adventurous, add a half teaspoon of cocoa powder. Moosh the dough into a oiled 9.5 inch glass pie dish. Moisten your hands with water if the dough sticks to your hands. Bake at 325F/160C for 10 to 15 minutes, until it starts to brown at the edges. Set it aside and prepare the filling.
 
1 12oz. box silken tofu
1 tbsp enerG egg replacer or tapioca, arrowroot, or corn starch
1/2 tsp. baking soda (add this last)
1/2 cup cashews
1 tbsp. syrup, agave nectar or molasses
juice of 1 small lemon (about 2 tbsp)
zest of 1 lemon (almost 1 tsp)
1/2 cup almond or soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp salt
Pre-heat oven to 325F/160C degrees. Warm almond milk (microwave 20 seconds, stir, repeat until warm), dissolve the egg replacer or starch in the almond milk. Place the tofu and cashews in a blender along with the rest of the ingredients and blend, scraping down the sides as needed with a spatula, adding almond milk slowly, until a thick, smooth, creamy consistency results. Mix in the baking soda right before you pour it into pie crust. Bake 45-50 minutes or until just barely firm. Allowing it to cool and refrigerating or freezing lightly before serving will firm it to the proper texture. While it’s cooling, prepare the cherries.
 
10 oz frozen or fresh cherries, halved or whole (pitted)
1 tbsp syrup, agave nectar or molasses
1 tsp. lime zest
1 tbsp corn, tapioca, or arrowroot starch whisked into 1 tbsp cool water
Combine ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil, covered, on medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer, stirring once or twice, until the cherries have given off their juice and have softened. Add in starch slurry and allow to cook for another 2-3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Reheat it, pour it over the top of the cheesecake and top with toasted almond slivers.
I also melted some semi-sweet chocolate with some coconut oil and drizzled it over the top to make you say, “oooh… that looks yummy!” and give it a try.This is the finished cheesecake before my other half and I devoured it. Some of our friends at Thankgsiving Dinner missed out. Oopsie!
this is Christie, signing off to go eat more ‘cheese’cake.
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Nov 23 2011
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Snacks, Thoughts

I’m vegan and I eat salad… sometimes.

Spinach salad with pecans, currants, seasoned tofu and raspberry vinagrette.

This post has a picture of a salad, but it’s really about spinach. People ask me “where do you get your iron?” as if beef is the only thing on the planet that has iron in it. I’ll tell you: spinach is the best source of iron I can think of after having consumed several glasses of wine. Ounce for ounce, spinach has almost twice the iron compared to beef. Calorie for calorie, spinach has ten times the iron versus beef. No wonder Popeye was so studly after freebasing the stuff. As an added bonus, spinach contains calcium and vitamins A & C. Beef offers cholesterol and fat. Anyways, I’ll get off my spinach soap box for a little while and tell you a bit about this salad.

Salad isn’t the only thing I eat, even though the rabbit is my power animal. Still, salad doesn’t have to be boring. This one includes tofu that I marinated with dill and lemon. It reminds me of feta cheese. It’s a nice balancing element to the mellow pecans and sweet currants. Balsamic dressing might have been superior to raspberry but still delicious, crisp and refreshing. Now I have to go make some vegan quesadillas so I don’t get too self righteous about being a health nut.

this is Christie, signing out

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Nov 22 2011
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Thoughts

Introduction

My name is Christie. I’ve known Melissa for a few years and she’s invited me to contribute to this blog. I’ll admit I’m flattered. I’ve gotten into a habit of creating home-made vegan dishes and posting pictures of them on my FaceBook page. I’ll keep telling myself that they’re photo worthy and anticipate adulation. I’m probably also one of a handful of vegans that she knows.

I became a vegan for three reasons. 1. It’s better for the animals. I always hope this one is self explanatory but I have a few anecdotes about why it isn’t. 2. It’s better for my body. My family history includes heart disease and cancer and research shows that plant based diets can reduce your chances of suffering from both. 3. It’s better for the environment. This is probably the least discussed reason for going vegan so I’ll elaborate, but just a little. Factory farming of animals creates more greenhouse gas than all transportation combined – trains, planes, cars, buses, motorcycles, ships, etc. That’s more than 20% of all carbon emissions, according to the UN, from farming animals. I hope that statistic blows your mind. Factory farming of animals is also the biggest user of fresh water of any industry and pollutes more water than any other industry. Factory farming of animals is also one of the biggest sources of human disease – to mention a few, just think about swine flu, bird flu, antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria and at least 76 million cases of food poisoning that happen in the United States every year.

These reasons are all important to me and I hope at least one is important to you. Whatever your reason, even if you just want a challenge, I anticipate I’ll win more converts with delicious looking food than cold statistics. I hope you’ll peruse this blog and gain insight from our 2 different perspectives as to why rational people who love food would voluntarily forego bacon, sausage and cheese.

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