More Praises for "Hearty Vegan"

 I decided to dust off my growing cookbook collection and get to gettin' with the cookin' if you know what I mean. I opened up Hearty Vegan: Meals for Monster Appetites by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman. The pictures had me drooling. Yowza! I picked a few dishes based on ingredients I had at home, made a shopping list for what I didn't have, and was off to work.

The first picture is of the Cheesy Chili Bake. I had a few cups of chili that was looking lonely and wanted to do something creative. This was a great move on my part. This ain't your momma's chili mac-- the shit was fabulous, the stuff of ultimate comfort food. Then again, that's Hearty Vegan in a nutshell for you-- ALL the recipes are for mouthwatering, homestyle, and rib sticking delights. The chili bake has a cheesy sauce inside the bake and another one on top for twice the cheese goodness. This is a must make for anyone craving cheese. I topped the casserole with some french fried onions for flair.

Breakfast, anyone?

These are the Chocolate Pecan muffins from the breakfast section of the book. Don't be fooled by the chocolate top. The muffins contain three types of grains to keep you filled and energized to tackle what the work week may bring you. 

Brrrr, it's cold outside! How about a Pot O' Lentil Stew?

This was a delightful way to end my Sunday: a nice lentil stew served with some Smoky Pub Cheez. Who knew you could recreate the bar cheese sensation with oatmeal? I know I've hit your curious nerve. Now go make it? The spread has a nice mellow bite and is perfectly smoky, a must bring to a party. The lentil stew warms you up from the inside out and is full of lentily-vegetabley goodness. 

I made all of this and that's just the tip of the iceberg for this cookbook! The instructions are easy to follow, the pictures are drop dead gorgeous, and the recipes are inspiring. I mean, don't you want to make your own vegan peanut butter cups? How's about waldorf salad wraps? And what in the hell are Irish nachos? You'll have to buy the book to find out. 

I'll be covering more vegan cookbooks in future entries to ignite the spark within you all.

A Tale of Two Soups and My Opinion on Farts.

 Brrrr! It's cold outside! Time to warm up with soup. Today we have a tale of two soups. The one above is a tasty red lentil vegetable soup complete with a giant dumpling. The spice blend used is my new favorite: Mediterranean. For X-Mas, my kids got me this big container of the stuff and I've been using it for soups, vegetables, and veggie burgers! It's a mixture of cumin, coriander, oregano, rosemary, salt, and a pinch of cinnamon! The dumpling is the rug that ties the room together. For an elastic second, I forgot that it is just 7 degrees outside my door!

The second soup is a vegan ham n' bean soup that I found on VegWeb. My spouse wanted to try it, so we did. We used pintos instead of the recommended black eyed peas, and had fantastic results. When I was little, I was a bean with bacon soup junkie, and this reminded me of that commercial canned soup from so long ago! If you're craving a smoky, salty, bacon-y, and beany soup, this is for you. To answer the question, "Will this make me fart?" The answer is "Yes, duh." If you're gonna go vegan, expect some gas. After all, you're eating a lot of beans! I'd still take a room full of morally superior vegan farts any day over the stench of one omnivore fart.

I have no beef with lentils

I'm so in love with Snobby Joes from Veganomicon, they are on my regular menu rotation. Woah, that made me sound like I'm all organized n' shit, and have planned menus. I don't. I just sit around watching TV and will say to myself, "You know what you haven't had in a while, Jen? Snobby Joes." From there it's a short mission to forage for the pantry staples to make this dish. If you want to make it even faster, prep your lentils the night before and just throw everything together. Dinner in less than 30 minutes, readers. Seriously, I use lentils in just about everything. It is my go-to in lieu of ground beef.

Something else I think about when I'm lounging around watching my stories on the teevee is how much I love to read inspirational articles. Funny, right? Thinking about reading when watching television. I am a hoot.

When I just need to be reminded why I do what I do, is this article by Vegan Outreach. Unlike other angry, agitated, and acronym filled organizations, VO is all about small steps and working towards an actual goal instead of living in an unreasonable all-or-nothing paradigm. Moving in a direction that spares animals, even in a slow motion is better than never doing anything. Don't forget that! Example: my SUPERomni spouse that grew up eating pigs with his cows told me that he wanted to go pescatarian, for himself. Not because anything I've done or said--just because he's tired of the flesh world.

Now some would say that isn't good enough. I say a big fat WRONG! Will he ever go all the way and shout Viva La Vegan from the rooftops? I have no idea. I mean, I'd love to hear him say that, but no one has to be me but me--and at the end of the day I want to know that I've given people the dignity to be themselves, even if I don't completely agree with what they do. Lord knows not everyone agrees with me and I'm still loved.

What I do think is amazing is that he is completely open to doing something positive like this. I'm so proud of him. I'd like to take credit for this, but I can't. He made the decision to do what is real and right for him, to find his own truth. All I can do is continue to cook really good vegan meals for him and just be a good example. Let this be your mantra: something is better than nothing.

Not masa-ing around: tamale pancakes

Oh what a terrible pun. Here's a shot of me from my Compassionate Eating class at church. I've had the honor of teaching 6-8 congregants the mental, physical, spiritual, and ethical advantage of eating a plant based diet. The results have been amazing! People are really jazzed about the class and have been trying more and more vegan dishes at home.

We had the following for dinner the other night:
Tamale Pancakes

Who wants to spend hours filling corn husks with masa dough? I want to get right to eatin' so I created a pancakey version of this for your enjoyment. The toppings are really up to you!

pancake batter you'll need
3 c. masa harina for tamales
3 c. water
1/3 canola oil
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder

Mix dry with wet thoroughly and set aside. It won't be batter, and it won't be dough. Get your toppings prepared!

Lentil Topping

• 1 c. lentils
• 4 c. water
• 1 chopped tomato
• 1 chopped bell pepper
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 t. cumin
• 1 t. habanero hot sauce
• 2 t. chili powder
• 1/2 t. paprika
• 1/2 t. oregano
• 1/4 t. cayenne (optional)
• black pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cheddar daiya cheese (optional, throw in at end)

Cook lentils-(this takes about 20 minutes), then saute them with a little olive oil and the other ingredients. Keep the heat low and cook for a good 15-20 mins. You can add onion if you want to, but I didn't. I made the dish a little neutral spice-wise because I have varying shades of people who do/don't like hot dishes. This is essentially my go to recipe for vegan taco meat.

Guacamole!

• 2 avocados
• pinch salt
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

Smash everything together. C'mon, it's guacamole for cryin' out loud!

You can also have the following toppings:

• jalapenos
• refried beans
• fresh cilantro
• finely chopped green apple, YES apple! This is nice if you make your toppings spicy, it's good for coolin' off.

Get a griddle or skillet ready to cook on medium heat. Using 1/3 c, measure out the masa dough/batter and spread out a little with a wooden spoon. Cook one side for about 4 minutes, then flip again for another 4. you want them to be slightly crispy. So I guess this is more of a tostada pancake? Who cares. It's forking amazing.

For dessert we had chocolate chip cookies using Abuelita chunks! I wasn't wild about the turn out, but the students loved them! I thought they tasted more like muffin tops.

I used the following recipe:

• 1 c AP flour
• 1 c ww pastry flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 c. sucanat
• 1/2 c. applesauce
• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 3 T ground flax seeds
  
• 1 c. vegan yogurt + 1/3 c. warm water, whisked
• 1 circle Abuelita cocoa, chopped into chunks-(this will be messy and grainy!)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry with wet ingredients and dollop large spoonfulls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. These will get fluffy! Bake for about 10 minutes. Let them cool completely, then eat. They will be muffin-toppy and cinnamon chocolatey. Again, I wasn't wild about them, but 6 against one says differently!

OYMST Day #4: I Have No Idea What I'm Doing

When the holidays are over, I still like holiday food. Here we have a nice lentil, rice, & walnut loaf matched with some cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce-(no sugar!), and mashed turnips in lieu of potatoes. That bit of yellow in the far right corner is my new love, the golden beet. I'll talk more about that later.

Although my intentions were to reduce some of the carbs by including more veggies, I must have done something wrong in the cooking process, because the turnip mash was watery and not very creamy. Note: use coconut milk in the future and a little garlic powder. That ought to do the trick. Or maybe do 1/2 potatoes and 1/2 turnips, kind of like Isa's caulipots- (photo in link by Maggie Muggins) from Appetite for Reduction.

I'm finding that I'm still pretty hungry between meals, and I'm not sure whether that is psychological or physical. Regardless, I still snack away and stick to nuts, fruit, or vegan yogurt between meals. The objective is to lay off the dessert, not diet! I'm just amazed at how much of my daily food intake was from dessert type items. I want to carve out better habits for myself so I can appreciate my dessert a little more instead of mindlessly stuffing my pie hole.

Is there an activity you find yourself doing that has gone autopilot? What is it? What can you do to make it a special experience again?

Thanks for supporting my project and please spread the word about Operation Yank My Sweet Tooth!

MOFO Day #24 True Grub: Russell Edgington's Spine Tingler

Is your tired lentil loaf old news? Russell has a suggestion for you.
As he effortlessly removes the spine from the nighttime anchorman on TBBN, he emphasizes the a few crucial points:

1. During the month of October it is expected to make your dinner look gory. Try taking that veggie loaf recipe and turning it into something scary with some gruesome presentation.
2. Take care of your back. You'll never know when a crazy assed vampire king will come up from behind and mess it up beyond recognition on live television.
3. He is not in favor of the Vampire Rights Amendment.
   

I used this recipe. Really, just use your favorite. Shape into a spine and accent by coating the whole thing with some ketchup and accenting it with red pepper. Go big! Pairs well with mashed potatoes and a nice side salad.

And please, go see a chiropractor.

MOFO Day#12 True Grub: Jesus Saves Chili

Now that Fall is here, you need to get a batch of chili made. It's such a cheap dish, one recipe usually makes a metric butt load, fills you up, and is full of FIBER!

Everyone has their favorite recipe, and I don't really care which one you make. Just make it for Jesus, because of the ultimate sacrifice he made and I love him so. Not the Son of God-(he's pretty cool), but the super hot nurse/brujo/demon boyfriend of Lafayette's played by Kevin Alejandro. He's so dreamy. Me-yow.

I threw together a really mild one made with lentils and pieces of Grampy's Goat Tongue. I've been keeping the spices on my main dishes lower than usual so my daughter can eat what I make. I doctored mine up with some fresh cilantro, avocado slices, salsa verde, hot sauce, and a cornbread skull made with the recipe from Veganomicon. Where did I get the skull molds? Read about it here. Pieces of pepper and olive were perfect additions to bring out the skull's gorgeous features. I dressed the top of the skull with a little Queso For Lovers, one of my swag bag gifts at Vida Vegan Con. That stuff is more powerful than Jesus's ability to communicate with the dead.
If you're lost and overwhelmed by all the vegan chili recipes out there in the vegan blogging universe, here are a few of my favorites:

Eggplant chile mole from Appetite For Reduction- Super meaty with eggplant. If you miss Skyline Chili, this is the one for you.

If you're looking for an unusual white chili, you can try my Chili de Fogo that I made last year for Torque from the PPK.

My spousal unit makes the best chili on the planet with a Kroger seasoning mix, a three bean blend, and some smart ground. And he isn't even vegan!

Right now, everyone is raving about Mollyjade's chili recipe. You should totally buy the Sunny Days in Texas cook zine with that recipe and many more. I snagged one at Vida Vegan Con. $$ goes to an animal sanctuary!

moo-ha-da-ra what?

i think the spelling is moujadara. i suspect the pronunciation is moo-HA-dar-ah, but i could be wrong seeing that i'm as honky as they come. ANYway, the recipe is simple: seasoned lentils over a bed with basmati rice, and topped with super delish caramelized onions. fucking amazing. i could eat this every day. (using Sarah Palin voice) and also it gives you really spectacular farts.

MOFO question: how do you caramelize your onions? i'm not speaking in euphemisms either. i slice the onion in half, make sure the slices are in strings and rings-(not diced), saute them in a nice little bath of olive oil, and once clear i CHEAT by adding a spritz of balsamic vinegar and just a pinch of turbinado to make them gloriously brown and super sweet.