Leftovers Inspire the Nonconventional

Lately, I've been having some interesting food adventures. Realizing that I have 32 cookbooks (what... I can't help myself!), I feel obligated to try out more new things as opposed to my standard go-to recipes. Also, despite the winter cold and snow, I'm trying to still get a decent amount of vegetables while decreasing the fat or creamy based recipes. Plus, I've been trying to stretch things and switch up leftovers so that they don't get boring. Which brings me to the pound of mixed greens and spinach that I bought two weeks ago. Yes, you heard me right, for some reason I bought lots of greens for myself. I did the typical salad and sandwiches but I mixed things up a bit when the greens were losing their prime.

The first experiment doesn't include a picture, simply because the result wasn't very photogenic. Using some leftover silken tofu in my fridge as well as a few handfuls of greens, I improvised a variation on the vwav tahini sauce, which also included pulverized chili flakes, a nice addition if I do say so myself. This sauce was folded into quinoa with corn and peas. A quick yet tasty meal. But I had lots of sauce leftover, and inspiration struck...

Unconventional lasagna! I had a partial box of whole wheat lasagna noodles languishing in my cabinet, so I was able to whip up a mini one in my loaf pan. The layers consist of pesto, which used up the last of the greens, the aforementioned tahini sauce, and hummus instead of cashew ricotta, sour cream, and tomato sauce! The hummus was great, as it was homemade, and this most recent batch was better than normal for some reason. (I blame it on guessing some of the amounts instead of measuring.) With the greens and tahini overlap, the flavors complimented each other quite well, along with the added spiciness of the chilies. I would highly recommend this combination if you are in the mood for a non-tomato based lasagna!

A tempeh love affair

When I first came back to school, I spontaneously grabbed a 2 lb package of bulk tempeh while at the co-op instead of the usual 8 oz package that I usually get. Why, you ask? Because the bulk one is only $7 or $8 while the small one is $3 a pop. Simple economics even a budding chemist can figure out. Most of it was used to make recipes that I already knew and loved (and will blog about, since I got creative), but tonight was different. I finally tried my hand at tempeh bacon from Vwav.

After letting it marinate all day while I was on campus, I decided to keep it simple. Above is the naked open faced sandwich with toasted homemade bread, greans, tempeh, red peppers, and avocado. On top, were a generous few dollops of Caesar dressing from Veganomicon. (For some reason I was mentally unhinged enough to buy a full pound of mixed greens/spinach earlier this week. So much salad has been consumed in the past 24 hours, and more creative methods may need to be devised soon...)

So much for self control

The tempeh wingz from Don't Eat off the Sidewalk are dangerous. Case in point, this photo was taken during breakfast. That's right, breakfast. A double batch (aka a whole pound of tempeh) didn't even last 24 hours in my kitchen. I suppose that I could be doing worse...

And sneak peak for coming soon, a review for Ithaca's new veg cafe as well as my attempts at more simple meals.

Vegan Disney 2009

At the end of December, my family had the yearly trek down to Disney World in Florida. This was my third year eating vegan at Disney, and I find myself learning more each time that I visit, even though I only visited the parks for one day this year. Following, is a brief summary of the places where I ate as well as an interesting new observation that I had, one that was a first for my yearly visit. (I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I somehow managed to leave my camera at home during this trip.)

Earl of Sandwich (Downtown Disney): Enjoyed a lunch of the roasted veggie sandwich. I'm rather fond of toasted sandwiches so this really hit the spot. The only small change that had to be made to the meal was to request the balsamic sauce instead of the usually used Mediterranean (which contains dairy).

Rainforest Cafe (Downtown Disney): The chef came out to talk to me after our rather large party arrived. I ended up with a veggie pasta with olive oil and garlic and bread on the side. Not the most imaginative dish, but it worked, and I had enough leftovers for another meal.

Backlot Express (MGM Hollywood Studios, technically sans MGM but I grew up saying it...): This is a counter service restaurant as opposed to a nicer sit down. The veggie sandwich was vegan, once requested without the cheese. I was surprised to find that the tomato pesto on it was vegan as well as the black bean salad that came on the side. Not too bad for a quick in the parks option.

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (Magic Kingdom): The veggie burger is now vegan! I was very excited to see this mentioned somewhere else, and it proved to be true. The only alteration that needed to be made was to have the tapioca bun, which is the gluten free and vegan bun option.

Bakery of sorts on Main Street in Magic Kingdom: Has packaged vegan chocolate chip cookies. (As well as caramel corn.) The cookies weren't too bad, as far as packaged cookies go. I was just glad to be able to have a chocolate/sweet snack along with the rest of my family.

Turf Club Bar and Grill (Saratoga Springs Resort): This was the nicer sit down restaurant at the resort where my family's time share is. I was skeptical about my dining options, even though Disney is always great with accommodations at sit down places, since the entire menu is very meat centered. I ended up having quite a nice meal. The chef came out to talk to me, and we figured out a dinner and desert for me right at the beginning of the meal. I got a portabello burger, but not to be boring, the burger also had roasted balsamic veggies on top. This sandwich ended up being huge, and I could hardly fit the whole thing in my mouth to take a bite. Along with a side of fries, this was a very filling meal. For dessert, he had a gluten free vegan spice cake. It was a little dry due to being storied in the freezer, but I was surprised to have a slice of cake with frosting that I could eat, and the frosting was perfect and not too cloyingly sweet. My dad could hardly tell that it was gluten free as well as vegan when he tried it.

All in all it was a great visit, though I did have an experience at the two counter service meals that I had never had before. Because I had to make an alteration to the meal (omitting cheese or switching the bun), the person at the register made a big deal about it and kept saying it was due to the allergy (even though I said I was vegan), and had to have the manager come and approve it and talk to me even though I had already checked the vegan friendliness in the ingredients book that each register has. It was a little obnoxious in how it took a lot longer and held up the line, but at least Disney is serious about getting this sort of thing right.

Cookie Sloppiness

I tried my hand at gingerbread cookies last week. The recipe (from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar) was aptly spiced, but I had a lot of issues with rolling out the dough. Chilled it for a few hours, but no matter how much I floured my counter, I still had issues with the dough sticking. Good thing I was only doing circles and nothing elaborate. To up the dorkiness, I even attempted to use the frosting to write different elements, since I was serving the cookies to chemists after all. Let's just say that writing with royal icing (or whatever cookie icing is technically called) is much harder than you'd think...

And now for a bonus snow shot on Cornell's campus:

Bread and Breakfast

Somehow, in all of my German/European jaunts, the simple breakfast of toast with various spreads and fresh fruit has become my staple. Before becoming vegan, I was really big on cereal, but afterwards, I started eating it less and less. I think it was a combination of the cereal expense (when I lived on my own at school), and the soymilk in the cereal just wasn't doing it for me. In the deep of winter I'll switch to steel cut oats, but for most of the year, I'm a toast kind of gal.

I've even been experimenting with making my own jam (in small as needed batches), and you'll see a slice with cherry jam peeking at you from the back of the picture. My default has been two cups fruit with one cup sugar, and varying the cooking time. I still haven't found a good cook time as my first cherry jam was too much like soft candy (whoops! Had to mold it with my fingers instead of spreading with a knife), and the more recent didn't set up enough. I also made quince jam, which was my first experience with quinces! It was a lovely pink color and somewhat delicate tasting. I used the recipe found here.

I didn't want to talk about jam today, but rather my love of the sunflower seed spread that is so popular across the pond. If the states are lacking in the food department, it is a variety of spreads for bread or veggies. I brought back a myriad of several flavors, but my favorite was Apfel-Zwiebel (apple-onion). This sounds like a rather odd combination, but it is amazing. Since I no longer have my original jar, (it has long since succumbed to a mold invasion after residing in my fridge too long, as I kept putting off finishing the jar), I am not entirely sure if the taste of my homemade spread is exactly the same, but it sure is close. I based the recipe off of the one found on Mihl's awesome site and the ingredient list on my original jar:

Sonnenblumenkerne (sunflower seeds) 29%

Wasser (water)

Zwiebeln (onions) 19%

sonnenblumenöl (sunflower oil)

Apfelpüree (apple puree) 4%

Zitronensaft (lemon juice)

Meersaltz (salt)

Pfeffer (pepper)

Like the true science nerd that I am, I really did play around with the ingredient percentages to figure out the right balance of amounts. My tweaked recipe is below. It is really easy, and is not as liquid-y after a time in the fridge.

1/2 cup + ~1 Tbsp raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup water

4 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt

dash of pepper

1/3 cup white/yellow onion*

6 tsp apple sauce*

You basically throw everything together in the food processor, except the * denotes extra preparation. For the onions, I chop them up pretty small and saute them alone until they start to get glassy and soft. Don't cook them too long or they will get overly sweet. I usually do a whole small onion, which produces more than I need, and save the leftovers for some dinner dish later in the week. I add the onions to the food processor last, and puree half the amount rather well, then add the rest and just let them mix in slightly, since I try to make it authentic with small onion chunks in the finished product. For the apple, I take a decent sized one, not an overly sweet variety. Chop it up (skin intact), put it in a small pan with 1/3 cup of water, and let it boil and cook with the lid on for 15 minutes or so, until the apple is quite tender. I puree it in the food processor first, measuring out what I need, and eating the rest. (This very simple and satisfying applesauce of sorts was inspired by Mary.) Enjoy!

I should probably live in Europe

Seriously. I get a total kick out of European/German things. Just last night, the German post-docs that I know introduced me to a few of their friends who were in town. Even got to speak a little auf Deutsch, and boy was I rusty (but still managed to get complimented on it?). Weird.

But back on topic, here is something that I should have shared a month and a half ago, but yeah... So, belatedly presenting my ppk care package exchange!

For anyone who has been over the pond and back a few times, you'll recognize the yellow postal service package and symbol on the box that is similar from to several different countries. I was lucky enough to have an exchange parter from Austria, which was great fun, and an excuse for me to send a card in German along with my mailed goodies.

One of the cutest things in my package, hands down, were the owl pretzels. Seriously. How can you not love those little guys? I found that dipped in the hazelnut spread that I also received, together they made a great sweet and salty afternoon snack. Mmm too bad those birdies went into my stomach a bit too quickly.