I made tofu scramble.

Last weekend (I’m feeling a little delayed) I made one of our favorite weekend breakfasts, tofu scramble — but I made it for dinner, which I suppose makes it a favorite dinner too. It changes depending on what veggies we have in the fridge — this one had asparagus, red bell pepper, and green bell pepper, plus the tofu, of course. [Also, I did not edit these photos AT ALL so they suck.]

For this type of dish, it’s best if you freeze the tofu the day before, then thaw it in the fridge (or by setting the package in hot water) before you use it. Once it’s thawed, press as much of the water out of the tofu as you can (we even specifically purchased a press for this but you can use towels and a stack of cookbooks like we used to) — and then it’s ready to be put in the pan!

To make things a little more exciting this time, we used a soy version of chorizo sausage that Ryan had picked up. This added a bit of spice to it, and it turned out really great. [And you can see my amoxicillin bottle on the counter as well.]

Once the veggies were tender and everything was heated through, we wrapped it up in tortillas and it was delicious.

Do you have favorite weekend breakfasts? And do you eat breakfast for dinner too?

I made black bean quinoa.

This was quite a delicious addition to our weekend: black bean quinoa.

Quinoa is a super easy grain to cook with, but one that also makes you look fancy. It doesn’t take as long as regular rice, although it’s not quite as quick as Uncle Ben’s 10-minute rice which we are accustomed to.

We already had the black beans prepared from dry beans, which we had done earlier in the week (and was easier than I expected in the crockpot). We prepped the quinoa, added the beans and a can of corn (and a generous helping of seasonings like cumin and even a little cayenne), and that was it! The meal was delicious and hearty, especially when wrapped with a flour tortilla like we did for our leftovers the next day.

Have you ever used quinoa?

Such a lame-o!

Yep, that’s me – lame.  I haven’t updated either of my blogs in way too long, and I could just blame school and two jobs and keeping up with the house, but I’ll just settle for saying that I am lame.

But HERE is something I have been up to:  filming cooking demonstrations! Actually just one so far, but I think there will be many more to come. As you may know, Ryan and I put on a twice-monthly “meat-free meals” discussion at the library:  people come, we talk about whatever the topic of the moment is, and we eat some really good food.  Well, knowing me, handing out free food and recipes just wasn’t enough:  let’s FILM it in total Food Network style! Granted, I’m not quite to that level yet, but let me get a few more videos under my belt and then we’ll see.

Without further ado … (and no, this is NOT my kitchen! I wish!)

Breakfast Banana Split

073.365 – 2010.03.14
Originally uploaded by marleah

I love when I have weekends off. I get all these ideas for fixing fancy Sunday morning breakfasts, and this was one of the simpler ones. It’s the Not-Just-for-Breakfast Banana Split, from The Vegan Table cookbook. It’s fairly basic, and very customizable – bananas, vanilla nondairy yogurt (I used Silk brand), and fresh fruit. There were no fresh strawberries available at the store, so I got frozen, which were still delicious. We also topped it with blueberries, and instead of using regular granola, I used the Yogi brand strawberry granola crisps. I also modified the recipe by adding a drizzle of melted dark chocolate (Newman’s Own Organics)! It was tasty and filling, even though it was lighter than a lot of fancy breakfasts (think pancakes and syrup).

I’m sure I’m not the only one partial to fancy (yet easy to fix) breakfasts – does anyone have any great ideas they want to share?

Oatmeal Blueberry Cookies

Oatmeal Blueberry Cookies
Originally uploaded by marleah

This was another type of cookie that I made last weekend, and it’s one of my new favorites. Yes, I already took a bite out of the cookie before I thought to take a picture of it, so sorry about that. But that just proves how amazing they are! I figure they are perfect for breakfast, since you know, they do have oatmeal and blueberries in them.

Recipe:

• 1/2 lb (2 sticks) Earth Balance (butter), softened
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I ran out of brown sugar, so I used 1/2 cup brown and 1/2 cup regular–plus next step)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (so with above notes, I used 1/2 cup brown and 1 cup regular)
• 2 eggs’ worth of Ener-G egg replacer
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups oats (old-fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup blueberries (or raisins, or raspberries)
• Optional: 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (I didn’t add these, but then someone asked if I did, and I thought it sounded really good.)

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Beat together Earth Balance and sugars until creamy.
2. Add the prepared Ener-G egg replacer and the vanilla; stir well.
3. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add to egg/vanilla mixture. Mix well.
4. Stir in oats and blueberries; mix well.
5. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls (or I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop and drop) onto cookie sheet (I sprayed mine with Pam).
6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet, then move to wire rack.

The original recipe says it will make 4 dozen, but I make bigger cookies (so I can say I just ate one cookie instead of three, you know), so mine made about 20 cookies. You could probably stretch it to 2 dozen.

ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies
Originally uploaded by marleah

I finally got a chance to do a bit of baking this past weekend, and luckily at the store I had found The Peanut Butter Company’s “White Chocolate Wonderful” flavor of peanut butter. This totally inspired me to make some peanut butter cookies! This is the recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking; the only change is using fancy flavored peanut butter. They turned out pretty great, but the recipe already called for vanilla, which was the main flavor of the peanut butter. I didn’t get much of a white chocolate flavor from the cookies, although the vanilla did come through.

The Peanut Butter Company has other delectable flavors, including “Cinnamon Raisin Swirl” and “Dark Chocolate Dreams” (ooh, that would be great in cookies too!), as well as “The Heat is On,” which is a spicy peanut butter that is best used in sauce for stir fry and the like. I haven’t found the latter two locally, but I’m tempted to just order them online.

Taco Pizza

047.365 – 2010.02.16
Originally uploaded by marleah

Ok, I admit, I took a bite of the pizza before I remembered to snap a picture of it! But it was so irresistible that I just couldn’t wait.

The crust was made from scratch by Ryan, from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. It was really tough to have enough flour when rolling the dough out so that it wouldn’t stick, but to not have too much so the dough wouldn’t move around. After we made the crust, we topped it with refried black beans mixed with mild Rotel, then added black olives. We also made the cheese from scratch based on a recipe in The Vegan Table. It’s made from cashews, nutritional yeast, soymilk, and agar agar (a type of seaweed). It’s pretty amazing! It tastes like cheese, has no cholesterol, and it actually melts on the pizza.

Once the pizza was baked (we went about 20 minutes at 450), we topped it with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and salsa. I also added some Tofutti sour cream and guacamole to mine. So good!

Ryan’s kryptonite is pizza – that was the hardest thing for him to “give up” when he became vegan. I’m pretty satisfied with cheeseless pizzas, but he’s not so much of a fan. I’m so glad we’ve got this cheese recipe to turn to when we just need a plain old pizza.

Rice and Double Peas

023.365 – 2010.01.23
Originally uploaded by marleah

This was something I whipped up last week when there really wasn’t much to fix. Really simple too:

Prepare your brown rice; drain if needed. Add black eyed peas and one can of regular peas (drained); heat through.

Plus we had some homemade bread to go with it. The book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day is amazing!  (More amazing is the fact that Ryan is in charge of the bread-making.  I love it.)

Black Bean Salad

Black Bean Salad

Hungry yet? I’m quite proud of the photo I managed to take of this delicious side dish or appetizer. This was served at one of our Western Kansas Vegetarian Society discussions, and it went over quite well. I found a similar recipe from VegWeb and altered it a bit here and there. I’ve made a version both with and without the cilantro, and each time it has been a success. I of course prefer the version with cilantro, but when you know people who have allergies, what can you do?

Black Bean Salad (makes 8 servings or so)

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn
2 tomatoes
1/2 red onion
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 anaheim pepper
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
2 chipotle peppers, chopped
1/2 tbsp minced garlic

1. Drain and rinse black beans well.
2. Drain corn.
3. Dice red onion, peppers, and tomatoes; chop cilantro.
4. Mix all ingredients together, including the olive oil, garlic, and vinegar.
5. Chill, covered, for at least 4 hours.
6. Serve with tortilla chips, or wrap in a corn tortilla.

Moroccan Stew

Moroccan Stew 2 on Flickr

Just one of the many recipes from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s new cookbook, The Vegan Table! This stew turned out excellent. Ryan was skeptical about the sweet potatoes, as he had only ever had them years and years ago at a family Thanksgiving and could not stand them. Thankfully, he got over that! And yes, there are onions in this dish! I have decided that instead of just eliminating onions because I was convinced that I didn’t like them, I will actually include them in dishes when they are in the recipe. And what have I discovered? That I LIKE onions! I’m not sure if it was just my tastes changing or what, but I like them. I even was craving onion rings from Sonic, something I have NEVER purchased for myself. And I got them and they were so good! It’s like some crazy kind of alternate universe where we eat onions and sweet potatoes now. This is what Colleen has brought us to.

Anyway – this stew is being served over quinoa, which was prepped with vegetable broth instead of water (delectable). If you don’t have this cookbook yet, you need to get it!