Thursday, January 28, 2010

Jamaica......

How nice would that be? Sitting on the beach in Jamaica, next to the blue water, the sand between my toes, no laundry to do or house to be cleaned. Now that I am awake from my dream, lets talk about food. Since I couldn't be in Jamaica, I decided to make Jamaican food. The recipe comes from the cookbook Vegan Fire and Spice. I served Jamaican spiced tempeh nuggets with Jamican baked vegetables and a side of brown rice. I overkilled a bit on the vegetables, making way to much. So much that I have a large container in my freezer now. Which is okay for one of those crazy days when there is no time to cook. The meal was a bit pricy for me. I spent $30 which is still cheaper than dining at a restaurant. There is no way you could feed 8 adults for $30. I am just cheap and purchasing an arse load of organic potatoes can be a bit expensive. But, like I said, I overkilled on the veggies making way to much, so it would have cost less if I hadn't made enough to feed an army. I am glad I stayed at $30. I try to make that my cost limit. We really enjoyed the dish. Josh requested that I make it again in the future. I hope everyone else liked it too.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Tomato & Greens soup, rice, Rosemary Lemon Tofu

This week I made Tomato & Greens soup from Carol Ann Sayle's Eating in Season, served over brown rice, and Rosemary Lemon Baked Tofu from vegweb.com.

The soup is SO simple and used up the last of my frozen tomatoes from this summer. I used mustard greens in the soup, but it's very flexible and I've used everything from kale to escarole, and the recipe suggests bok choy or mizuna.

It's 2lbs tomatoes, skins slipped off, simmered with 2T olive oil, 2T tamari, minced garlic for 15 min. Then add 3quarts water, 1 large bunch chopped greens, salt & pepper, 1/4-1/2c apple cider vinegar. Simmer for another 20-40minutes depending on how toothsome your greens are.

We enjoyed the baked tofu, but I think next time I'll use a bit less lemon.

I calculated the meal to cost about $18

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Taste of India....

For my Wednesday night co-op meal, I cooked Indian food. Authentic, probably not. Tasty, yes. I served curried tofu, tamarind lentils and samosa stuffed potatoes. All three recipes come from the cookbook Veganomicon. I am to lazy to type out the recipes, so if you are interested in them. Just let me know and I will have Josh make a copy of each for you. I estimated the cost of the meal to be right at $20. The most expensive item being the potatoes. Thankfully the store sells organic bags of potatoes now. So it kept me under my $25-30 co-op meal range. Josh and Adam really liked the meal. Arthur ate a few bites of tofu. I loved it, but then again, I like curry anything. I hope everyone enjoyed the meal as much as we did.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Tunisian Couscous

Tonight's meal was Tunisian Couscous from Robin Robertson's Fire & Spice. I used potatoes instead of turnips, but otherwise followed the recipe as written. I tripled the recipe to have enough for all 4 families.

The side was brussels wraps filled with roasted sweet potatoes in a cilantro-lime dressing. I love the combination of the sweet & tart! Brussels greens are super healthy and are the perfect shape for wraps, like big ping-pong paddles. The greens, potatoes, and cilantro were all from Boggy Creek Farm.

I also included a couple handfuls of dried Deglat Noor dates for dessert/sides to round out the middle-eastern feel of this meal.

This meal cost a little over $25.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Tuesday's meal

I'm just getting around to posting about the meal I made this Tuesday. My children have both been going through challenging phases right now and spare time is (even more) limited!

Tuesday night's meal was the Savory Chard Pie from Fat-free Vegan Kitchen. Most of the chard came from my garden. I wanted to do a chard-heavy meal because I knew that even my hardy chard plant wasn't going to survive the brutal freeze that was forecast several nights in a row last week. Poor plant has been with me through 3 seasons, but this winter was its last. Rest in peace, tasty chard plant!

The side was Pineapple Fried Quinoa from allrecipes.com. I didn't think it'd be as popular as it was! I altered the recipe as written to use only 2c liquid per 1c quinoa, I used vegetable broth instead of chicken, and subbed crumbled firm tofu instead of eggs. I think the recipe's author may have been using low-sodium soy sauce, so next time I will cut back on the soy sauce and add to taste instead of just putting in what the recipe calls for!

I calculated the cost of the meal to be about $23, since I had to buy a couple pie tins to supplement my 3 here at home.


Thursday's Dinner.....

Tonite's dinner is Cholent. It is a Jewish stew. The recipe comes from Veganomicon. I made this dish once before when I first received Veganomicon and we loved it. I like all the vegetables, beans, TVP chunks and the smoothness of the broth. This is a perfect meal for a rainy day. By the way, I had the brilliant (sarcastically speaking) idea to triple the recipe thinking that if I doubled it there would not be enough. Holy cow! Tripling the recipe made enough to feed an army. There is our dinner tonite as well as leftovers for lunch. Plus two containers in our deep freeze. Tripling this recipe is not necessary. I served it along with a side of bread. I used the "Outrageously Big Bread" recipe from vegweb. I also made some chocolate zucchini bread as a treat. The recipe is from vegweb as well. Enjoy. The cost of the meal plus both breads was $25. Still cheaper than dining out or purchasing bread at a bakery.

Thanks to Alison for subbing in this week while Karen is on holiday. The lentil curry dish with rice was delicious. I "heart" curry. I was very happy to have leftovers for lunch today.

Claire's swiss chard dinner pie was terrific as was the fried pineapple quinoa. I had to fight Josh and the boys for the quinoa. Our little bear Adam ate a slice of the dinner pie. Such goodness.

Hope everyone has a lovely day.

peas and love....
Krys and the boys


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Monday's meal

I stole an entire meal idea from Courtney over at the South Austin Dinner Co-op.

And I have to say, this turned out to be one of my favorites. Courtney mentioned that she mistakenly added the ketchup into the "meet"loaf instead of just using it as a garnish and I thought the mix seemed a little dry so I added it in too. Still, I didn't add much (about a 1/2 cup?) and I was really pleasantly surprised at how moist the muffins turned out (yes, I made my meetloaves into muffins too). I will definitely make this meal again, though I might use mini-loaf pans instead and serve it with gravy on the side (to be added to the loaf or the potatoes).

But, oh, the beet and carrot slaw. That was divine! I'm reposting the recipe here just b/c it was so good it deserves to be seen prior to the jump!

Beet and Carrot Slaw
1/4 cup orange juice
2 T EVOO
2 teaspoons red-wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 medium bunch of beets with greens
2 medium carrots, grated

In a large bowl whisk together the juice, oil, vinegar and mustard; season with salt and pepper. Cut the greens off the beets; discard stems and cut leaves into 1/4 inch wide strips. Peel and grate beets. Add to bowl along with beet leaves and carrots. Toss.

This recipe comes from Everyday Food, I'm pretty sure.

Big props to Courtney for putting this meal idea together!

Last, on a slightly sad note, I'm going to miss the co-op for the next few weeks while I take a break. Thankfully, we've got a sub stepping in (and hopefully she'll be blogging here soon). I'm going to miss these dinners and we'll really be looking forward to getting back in the rotation soon!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Carrot-Raisin Muffins

from "Vegan with a Vengeance" page 47
makes 1 dozen muffins

1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup rice or soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrot

Preheat oven to 400. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or lightly grease with oil.

Soak the raisins in a bowl of hot water and begin preparing the batter. In a large mixing bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and salt. Create a well in the center and add the milk, oil, and vanilla; mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Fold in the grated carrots. Remove the raisins from the water and fold in.

Fill the muffin tins three-quarters full. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Let cool on a cooling rack.

White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup

From "Vegan with a Vengeance" page 67
serves 6

2 tbs. olive oil
1 medium-size onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 tsp. salt
A few dashes fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
4 cups vegetable broth
3 cups cooked great northern beans
3 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste
2 heads garlic

To roast garlic: Preheat oven to 350. Peel off as much of the papery skin as you can and put the garlic in the oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and, when cool, squeeze the garlic out or peel the skin away from each clove.

In a stockpot over medium-high heat saute the onions in the olive oil for 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the salt, black pepper, and fennel seeds; saute for 1 minute. Add the broth, beans, sage, and bay leaf, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Add the roasted garlic and puree in batches in a blender or preferably a food processor. Return to the pot and add lemon juice. Serve garnished with fresh fennel leaves if you have some, and/or some peeled carrot and/or parsley.

Ethiopian Food.....

For tonite's meal, I made Ethiopian food. I "heart" Ethiopian food and since it is pricy to dine out for such a meal, a long time ago I opted to attempt to make my own. I found the recipes in the cookbook zine Papa Tofu. It is written by KitteeKake who is an awesome vegan from New Orleans. For the meal I made Yemiser W'et which is lentils in a spicy red sauce, Gomen aka collard greens, and some Ethiopian spiced potatoes. I estimated the meal to cost around $17.00. Pretty good for feeding 8 adults. And you couldn't feed 8 adults for that cheap at the local Ethiopian restaurant. All the veggies used were organic and the tomatoes were free since they came from our Fall garden. We were fortunate enough to produce an arse load of beefsteak tomatoes. I hope everyone enjoyed the meal.

A quick comment about Claire's meal. We loved it and I especially loved the fact that Arthur our broccoli hater ate a whole serving of the main dish without a fuss. Normally when he eats broccoli he gags and then immediately spits it out as if I had served him a forkful of poop. So, we thank you Claire. And I will definitely be making the dish again. Josh loved it too and was happy to see that there were leftovers. The baked apples were delightful. My boys inhaled one in a few minutes and asked for more. I need to make a dessert one of these nights. You ladies have baked some lovely fruit and I feel like a schmuck for not contributing.

My two cents on Monday night's soup. It was so good. Very warm and comforting. I spoke of this soup to a fellow vegan and he wanted the recipe which I will gladly share. It is another dish that I will make in the future as well. And the salad was tasty. Josh said the yellow tomatoes tasted like candy and he could not get enough. He liked them so much that there was none for my salad. Tomato-stealer! And the croutons with EVOO was boss. Thanks Sunni for warming my soul with the soup.


I am looking forward to Karen's soup tomorrow night. I am definitely benefitting from her using my VWAV cookbook. Last week's tofu was great. I was so happy to come home to it after walking the pedestrian bridge in the cold during the First Night festival.

This dinner co-op is genius. I am so lucky to have such wonderful people cook for my family. Thanks ladies. Hope you have a lovely week.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Creamy Broccoli & Mushroom Bake

Tonight's dinner was the Creamy Broccoli & Mushroom Bake from VeganYumYum, braised baby bok choy w/ shallots adapted from Veganomicon, and baked apples. I didn't take pictures because both of the main dishes are a bit of an ugly duckling!

Karen got a quick red lentil & brown rice casserole, but it was more like a dal than a casserole, since it doesn't actual "set" into cut-able pieces. I hope it worked out for you guys!

I thought the Broccoli & Mushroom bake had too much salt, personally. I should have remembered that the sauce had soy sauce in it before I added the "pinch" of salt to the broccoli/mushroom mixture. I also used ritz crackers instead of bread crumbs on the top, so that added some saltiness as well.

Of course, I claim hardship because I had to spend THE ENTIRE DAY with Casper in the backpack. It's hard to cook when there's a baby pulling your hair!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Provencal Chickpea Soup

Monday night's dinner is Provencal Chickpea Soup, grilled crostini croutons, roasted fennel, salad and baguettes. I wasn't planning to include the fennel but after I accidentally bought it in a moment of mommy brain at Central Market on Saturday (I was supposed to be buying leeks, which I later had to go back for!), I got inspired to go ahead and make a side out of it.

The soup is from Mediterranean Harvest.

Provencal Chickpea Soup

1 pound dried chick peas, picked over, rinsed, soaked for 6 hours or overnight and drained
8 c water
1 large leek, white and light green parts only, cleaned and chopped
4-6 garlic cloves (to taste), minced
14 oz can chopped tomoatoes
A bouquet garni made with 1 bay leaf, a few sprigs each fresh parsley and thyme, and a parmesan rind (*I used a typical bouquet garni which also included sage and omitted the parmesan rind)
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 T EVOO, additional for drizzling
1/4 c chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
8-12 garlic croutons (Crostini)

1. Place the chick peas in a large soup pot, add the water, and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam, then add the leek, garlic, tomatoes and bouquet garni. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for an hour.

2. Add 2 t. salt to the beans and simmer for another hour, until the chick peas are tender. Add pepper, taste and adjust salt. Remove bouquet garni.

3. Puree soup with hand-held blender or pulse in food processor. It should retain some texture. Return to pot and stir in 1 T EVOO and parsley; taste and adjust seasoning.

4. Heat the soup through and serve, floating a couple of garlic croutons in each bowl and drizzling on a little stream of EVOO.

note: this soup keeps well for about 4 days; it will continue to thicken so you may wish to thin with water.