Why I never cook steel cut oats on the stove

I don't know why I have an inability to cook steel cut oats on the stove, but I do.  I've tried to do this seemingly simple procedure several times and have always succeeded in making a total mess of it.  Case in point:

Would you want me doing this to your poor innocent stove? I think not.

I get everything set up, and I leave the room for a half hour after making sure that they are gently simmering in their water. I come back, and that was the sight that greeted me. Not much fun to clean up, trust me.

So how do I usually cook steel cut oats if not on the stove? I use a crock pot.  I discovered this method after a thorough introduction to steel cut oats over at the fat free vegan kitchen blog.

My slow cooker was given to me by my parents after they got a new one, so it is rather ancient (well, let's just say that they got it as a wedding present and have been married 25 years or so).  It takes me about 4 hours (sometimes 5) to cook my oats, but if I have homework or reading that needs to be, it is convenient to go stir it whenever I need to take a break.  I cook two cups at a time, which gives me enough oats for an entire week's worth of breakfasts.

I really like steel cut oats because they are rather filling and a whole grain.  To reheat my oats, I get a few scoops of cooked oats that are congealed and pour a little non-dairy milk over them.  I put this in the microwave for a minute or so. Then I add a little maple syrup, ground flax seeds, and frozen raspberries and microwave it for another minute or two. Stir well, and you have a very satisfying breakfast indeed.

Old pictures and Plans

In my attempt to take pictures of desserts today, I found some old pictures from Thanksgiving.

Here is the pumpkin pie I made at the last minute because my dad didn't tell me that he wanted a pumpkin pie until there was no time to make a better one. This is from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen and is without a crust. Not sure if I am a big fan of the lack of crust.  On top is some Soyatoo straight from Deutschland that I brought home just for the occasion in August.

This is just a basic scrambled tofu from VwaV with homemade vegan sour cream plus hot sauce on the side. The pancakes are from VwaV as well and are banana walnut.  Not a bad way to start the day if I do say so myself.

With the semester done and finals finished, I won't have to worry about school for three weeks. This means that I'll be at home trying to get my very omni family to eat vegan food.  Next week we'll be on vacation, but I managed to sit down with my dad and sketch out a basic menu.

Monday: Non-traditional pizza with roasted eggplant and garlic hummus from YRR, homemade 2/3's wheat crust, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, and Trader Joe's soy chorizo.  Very different but very tasty.

Tuesday: Southwestern bean chili in the slow cooker. Then I'll make corn bread to serve with it.

Wednesday: Our traditional Christmas Eve lasagna made vegan. Whole wheat pasta will be coupled with cashew tofu ricotta, tomato sauce, bell peppers, possibly spinach and some other secret ingredients.

Thursday: I'll be trying to ignore the very non-vegan slaughtered pig that the rest of my family will be eating. The sides will be vegan though, and I have decided to make myself falafel since I have a ton of chickpeas from tonight's hummus as well as parsley.

Friday: Tempeh Shepards Pie. This will be a good way to use the mashed potatoes from the day before and the tempeh that I brought home with me. Plus, a vegetarian friend highly recommended the Veganomicon recipe.

Hopefully there will be plenty of pictures and updates in the next few days and couple of weeks!

VeganMoFo: Roommate bonding Wednesdays

I am not sure how this started, but it has become a thing for the roommates in my apartment to all have dinner together on Wednesday nights. What makes it even more special, is how it will be one of us cooking for the other three. Last week, the volunteered cook wasn't even vegan, but she cooked a vegan meal since two of us in the apartment are vegan. I hadn't cooked a Wednesday dinner yet, so I volunteered for this week.

Last time my other vegan roommate cooked, she make pasta, so I knew that I wanted to make something different.  I didn't want to make something overly vegan (just yet).  Thus, I wanted to avoid tofu or tempeh.  Luckily, my parents went to the Farmers' Market for me at home while I was taking the GRE Chemistry subject test last weekend, so I had some fresh produce like butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, and green bell pepper. I was initially thinking of a lasagna of some sort, but after seeing the Pumpkin and Black Bean Casserole on Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, I knew that I had found the perfect dinner.

Do yourself a favor and make this soon while squash is in season! I used butternut squash instead of pumpkin, and it turned out amazing. It is very flavorful even if I went a little heavy on the cumin and paprika.  The nutritional yeast gives it a little something without tasting overly vegan-y.  Everyone loved it and ate it so quickly that I forgot to get a picture! Like Susan says, it does look a lot prettier in the pan than it does on the plate, but the taste certainly makes up for that.

VeganMoFo: The sweet versus savory breakfast conundrum

Sorry about the lack of picture again, but let's face it; toast is not very photogenic.  You might have guessed it from my previous statement, but I did in fact have toast this morning for breakfast.  Not that it was totally boring, mind you. One slice had a generous helping of crunchy peanut butter, and the other had roasted garlic hummus with tomato slices.  Hopefully such a simple meal gets bonus points because the bread is homemade.

But what is this breakfast conundrum? I often wonder whether or not I will be appealing to my sweet or savory side in the morning, and sometimes I have to appease both.  Usually, toast is my fall-back, but I can easily vary it with different toppings.  The two mentioned above are regulars, but I also have been known to just eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, have toast with chocoreale (at least, until it runs out), or spread with tofutti cream cheese and toasted a second time with raspberries on top.

My other usual breakfast is much more filling and consists of steel cut oats.  Early this year, I read this post over at the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog, and I figured that I should give steel cut oats a try. Up until then, I had only had steel cut oats after soaking them overnight in soymilk and then just heating up the bowl in the microwave in the morning.  As low key as this method was, it made for some chewy oatmeal.  After reading the post, I decided to try steel cut oats in a more authentic manner.  I had several unsuccessful stovetop attempts, but I finally found out that the slow cooker method works best for me.  It is great because I can just set it up while I do homework and just randomly stir it every hour or so.  The method that I used came from here. Note: my slow cooker takes longer than the time listed because it is rather old (aka it was a wedding present of my parents, which I got to claim after they got a new one last year).

But what do I do with all those oats after I cook them? I simply let them cool and stick them in a tupperware container.  When I cook 2 cups of oats, I get enough cooked to last me for a week.  Morning preparation is easy. I just scoop some out into a bowl and pour a little soymilk on it because it will have congealed a lot.  Zap it in the microwave for 1 minute or so then take it out and mash it up with the spoon so that the oatmeal clumps break apart.  I add in my other flavorings (lately, I have been favoring ground flax, maple syrup, and raspberries) and heat it up for another minute or so. Stir vigorously and enjoy!

So as you can see, my breakfast choices lean on either the sweet or savory side. I have been known to make pancakes, but only when I have a lot of time to spare.  Cinnamon rolls would also hit the spot, but the infamous pumpkin ones of Don't Eat of the Sidewalk fame have yet to be made. (Perhaps I'll finally do it this weekend when I am at home for Fall Break aka get all the loads of homework done that you have fallen behind on.)  As for other savory items, I do love my scrambled tofu, but I usually fix it for dinner and rarely for my morning meal. I prefer to get a huge helping of fiber/grains as opposed to protein.

And, to make up for the lack of photos, I will leave you with the (mostly) whole grain bread that I have fallen in love with.  It is a hybridization of several have cake, will travel recipes, though the identities of them have become unclear over time.

(Mostly) Whole Grain Bread

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup bread flour

~1/2 cup rolled oats

~1/2 cup 7 grain mixture (I found it in the bulk bins at my local (very hippie) health foods store.)

2 tsp vital wheat gluten

2 tsp soy milk powder

1 1/4 cup water

2 Tbsp molasses

2 Tbsp canola oil

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp yeast

I use a bread machine (stolen from my parents as well due to a lack of use), so I just toss in the wet ingredients, then the dry (make sure to put the oats and grains in first so that they are mixed in better), and finally the yeast on top.  Don't for get to set it to a whole wheat setting so that it kneads it properly. Sit back, relax, and become hungry as your place fills with the amazing scent of baking bread.

 I am too lazy (and have too much homework aka Physical chemistry and German exams this week) to write out what to do sans bread machine. Go to the above mentioned have cake, will travel blog, and you will find some wonderful directions there.

What to do with an eggplant

What is this you may ask? It is the Eggplant Paprikash from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen. It was amazing. It was suggested to serve it with noodles, but I was lazy and had it with couscous instead. (Plus, I had eaten pasta the previous day.) I pretty much followed the recipe except that I omitted the onion and only used 1/4 cup of sour cream, if that, and I ad-libbed with soymilk for the rest of it. 

This stuff was absolutely amazing. I actually made it almost two weeks ago, and I am planning on making it again with the eggplant that has been sitting around my kitchen. It was so savory, and the eggplant practically melted in your mouth.  The sour cream/milk combination was definitely the element that gave it a little something that you couldn't quite put your finger on but that pulled all the flavors together.

I have lots of other backlogged post ideas, but I may or may not be waiting for VeganMoFo to start so that I can be ahead before I get behind...