In ‘n Out

Hey, friends! I wish I had another fun recipe to share today, but I’d be lying if I said I did. I spent the weekend up in Syracuse visiting my sister; it was family weekend at her college, so up the family went. Unfortunately, our big ol’ family van decided it was high time to get sick, and since it was a Sunday when that happened, the local auto places had no access to the part we needed. So my dad stayed up in Syracuse with the van while my mom rented a car and drove home with my grandmother, her boyfriend, and me. Good times!

To be honest, we probably would’ve just spent another night in Syracuse if not for the fact that I have a flight to catch this afternoon. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I’m flying out to Wisconsin for an on-site interview. I applied to this company at the request of my BFF and didn’t expect anything to come of it, but one thing led to another and now they want to meet with me in person. Pretty crazy, huh? So I’m flying out today and have all-day interviews and tours tomorrow, and then I fly home bright and early Wednesday morning. I’m a little bit nervous, but mostly just curious – even if I don’t wrangle a job offer out of this, it’ll be a great experience.

So that’s that. I’ll leave you with a photo of some AMAZING peanut butter-chocolate chip-oatmeal cookies I made a few weeks ago. My family couldn’t get enough of these suckers.

I used this recipe, and it definitely lived up to the 4 1/2 star rating. I appreciate the use of whole wheat flour and the small amount of canola oil; most of the fat in these cookies comes from the peanut butter. These made the perfect indulgent, sweet, late-night treat.

Again, sorry for the sparse posts! I’m probably going to bring my laptop with me, since I won’t have much to do tonight and tomorrow night, so who knows; maybe I’ll get a post up tomorrow night. In any case, happy Monday, friends!

Sweet Potato, Corn, & Black Bean Burritos

Apples weren’t the only produce we took home when we hit up the orchard/farm a few days ago. We also bought a couple pounds of sweet potatoes, and I’ve been itching to use them since then. To be honest, I used to dislike (read: hate) sweet taters. I know, I know. But I have issues when foods that I expect to be savory are actually sweet, and the idea of a sweet potato never really did it for me. Add in my aversion to oddly textured foods (I’m a freak, I know) and sweet potatoes were low on my list of likes.

However, in the interest of fairness, last spring I decided to give sweet potatoes another chance. I started with oven-baked sweet potato “fries” and discovered that they were actually pretty darn tasty. I cautiously raised my acceptance level from “get that crap away from me” to “I suppose I could try some.” After oh-so-bravely trying plain ol’ baked sweet potatoes (loaded with cinnamon, of course), I realized that my childhood aversion to the pretty orange tubers was just silly.

Still, though, I can’t help but harbor a secret well of distrust for using sweet potatoes in certain situations, and sweet potato burritos were definitely high on that list of dubious delicacies. But since I knew I couldn’t use those beautiful local sweet taters for anything less than an exciting, explorative dish, I knew I had to face my fears one last time. So last night I came up with a sweet potato burrito recipe that surprised and delighted me. Now my sweet potato rating has rocketed from “yeah, these are good” to “GIMME MOAR PLZ!” Take a look at these little lovelies, pre-oven.

Okay, I realize that they look like plain Jane burritos right there, but trust me – these were bursting with a delightful blend of flavors. I absolutely loved the textural contrast, too; I saw one recipe online that recommended mashing the potatoes and the beans, but that just seems silly to me. The whole beans and corn kernels work to give your mouth a little textural surprise in each bite. Not to toot my own horn, but this super-easy recipe is definitely a winner!

(Mom’s photo, again!)

Sweet Potato, Corn, & Black Bean Burritos
Ingredients
2-3 sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
1 ear corn, de-kerneled (you know what I mean!)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped
1/2 T minced garlic
Cumin
Chili powder
Cayenne pepper powder
Salsa (I used some of my dad’s homemade salsa)
4 whole wheat tortillas

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Cook and mash your sweet potatoes using method of your choice. I nuked mine (for convenience reasons) and that worked just fine. While your potatoes are cooking, heat a bit of olive oil in a pan and add onion and garlic. When they’ve begun to brown, throw in your corn kernels and black beans. Reduce heat, add spices to taste, and let the mixture sit for a bit while you mash your potatoes.

Once your beans and corn are nice and warm, lightly heat your tortillas. Spread a couple of spoonfuls of the mashed sweet potatoes on a tortilla and cover with the bean and corn mixture. Top with salsa if desired and fold burrito-style. Be careful not to overfill! If necessary, use toothpicks to secure the burritos. Arrange them in a lightly sprayed pan – I used an 8 x 8″ pan and packed them fairly close together – and place in oven. Cook for about 12 minutes, remove from oven, and let cool for a minute or two. At this point, you can slice them diagonally down the middle and garnish as desired.

Apples in Autumn

Happy autumn, friends! It’s the first full day of fall and I’m about to be an unashamed SUB – a Seriously Unoriginal Blogger. Celebrating the advent of autumn by making something with apples is pretty much the epitome of food blogger cliche, but let’s face it – there’s not much else that screams AUTUMN! like a post about this particular fruit.

And honestly? I don’t mind, because going apple picking is one of the highlights of fall. I have many fond memories of heading to local orchards with my family when I was a kid, and since my wonderful college provided free transportation to a nearby orchard, I was able to go apple picking even while 1300 miles away from home. This year, I headed to Dame Farm and Orchards with my mom, aunt, and a friend. Oh, and by the way – all the pretty photos in this post were taken by my wonderful mommy since I didn’t bring my camera to the orchard with me.

The picking was fabulous, probably because it’s still early in the season. We’d never been to this orchard previously, and we appreciated the fact that it didn’t feel overly commercialized – we paid a man in a small wooden stall, and he didn’t take credit cards. They also had an impressive variety of apples, and the trees were laden with fruit.

The temptation to grab an apple and take a bite is nearly unconquerable when these luscious beauties are hanging tauntingly at eye level.

And everyone filches a couple apples for sustenance whilst harvesting fruit under the hot sun, right?

We also saw some gorgeous seasonal produce, like all these bright and colorful squash.

And of course there were pumpkins galore.

I love the odd one out on the bottom of that picture.

All in all, we had a lovely day and returned home with about 30 pounds of apples. Yeah, you heard that right. That’ll make a lot of Apple Pie Oat Bran! Last night, though, Mom and I put our apples to use by making a batch of homemade applesauce. Rather, I kept an eye on the huge pot of apples, water, and sugar for a few hours and made sure it wasn’t exploding or doing anything equally bad, and then Mom stole the fun part and got to use our applesauce maker/strainer thing to mash up the apples. Oh well. At least I can drown my sorrows in this huge bowl of applesauce and revel in the joys of autumn.

(The peanut butter jar (my breakfast; it’s full of oat bran & PB leftovers) is there for scale purposes, in case you were wondering. Oh, and this photo is mine… hehe.)

I’m on a [Zucchini] Boat!

The late-summer zucchini lovin’ continues! Inspired by a couple of fantastic-looking recipes I’ve seen floating around the blogworld recently, I made some zucchini boats of my own for dinner a few nights ago.

Using recipes as a vessel for a delicious stuffing is always genius in my book, but somehow I’d never thought of using zucchini in this capacity. How stupid! They make perfectly charming and delicious boats, and you can improvise the stuffing based on whatever veggies/leftovers/grains strike your fancy on a given night. When I served them, I only had two zucchini in the fridge, so I ended up serving quite a bit of the stuffing as a side dish. With a couple of slices of rye bread, this made an excellent dinner.

(Mom photographed the meal again… hehe.)

Although I basically opened the fridge and pulled out random bits of food, I’m going to post a really rough recipe anyway.

Zucchini Boats Stuffed with Israeli Cous Cous
Ingredients
3/4 cup Israeli cous cous
A few zucchini
Veggies for stuffing – I used grated carrot, chopped mushrooms, fresh corn, chopped olives, and chopped onions
Spices – I think I used oregano, thyme, a bit of cayenne, and herbes de Provence
Tomato sauce, if you have a jar you want to finish
Whole wheat breadcrumbs

First, preheat your oven to ~375. Next, make your cous cous or grain of choice; I’ve seen rice and quinoa used in different recipes. As your grain is cooking, start choppin’ your veggies and and heat a bit of oil in a pan. Cut your zucchini in half and use a teaspoon to scoop out their innards. Throw all your veggies (including the zucchini innards) into the pan and let them saute up a bit; spice as desired. When they seem properly softened, add them to your grain and combine. Then add tomato sauce (or chopped tomatoes or a bit of tomato paste) and flavor with some nutritional yeast if desired. Add breadcrumbs if you feel like it.

Next, stuff your zucchini boats with the grain and veggie mixture; heap the mixture as high as it’ll go without causing your boats to capsize when you put them on a lightly oiled baking pan or dish. Liberally douse the boats with bread crumbs for a nice crunchy top, put ‘em on the pan, and pop the pan in the oven. Cook until the zucchini is soft and the bread crumbs are crunchy.

…I told you it’d be a rough recipe. If you do try it out, I’d recommend maybe using a higher oven temperature and adjusting as needed during the cooking process.

And this concludes my latest zucchini lovefest. Have a fantastic night, folks!

Chana, Chana, Chana Masala! (+ a recipe, yo)

When I had a small army of visitors last week, we ate out fairly often, and although I didn’t appreciate the strain on my wallet, I did enjoy discovering a few new restaurants. The vegan paella I found hidden at the bottom of the menu at a restaurant that focused on seafood was a surprising treat. When I placed my order, I had no idea that I was about to receive what was probably somewhere around a pound of a deliciously seasoned paella, spiced with saffron and brimming with meaty mushrooms. I barely finished a quarter of it; the bowl looked like I’d barely nibbled on a few grains of rice! I got at least three more meals out of those leftovers. We also ate at a few Asian-inspired restaurants, and I enjoyed one of my favorite dishes ever, pad thai. On girls’ night, my best friend and I had some delicious mooshu and spring rolls. But one thing we didn’t have was Indian food.

So I decided to remedy that a few nights ago. I’ve recently taken over dinner duty for my parents and myself three nights a week, since they’re both educators and are therefore back to work. Since I am mostly unemployed, I figured it was the least I could do to stop feeling like a financial drain. I now get to do most of the grocery shopping and can exercise my culinary prowess on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I decided that Indian food had to be on the menu for my first Monday in the kitchen.

Deciding what to make was simple. I’ve been craving chana masala lately, so I whipped up a batch based loosely on this recipe from VegWeb. Since I was cooking for three, I augmented the recipe by adding extra chickpeas, and I added lots of garam masala, curry powder, and crushed red pepper flakes because my family likes it hot. The result was a fragrant, spicy dish that tasted delicious over brown rice.

(My mama was so impressed with my meal that she photographed it! Silly mommy. Doesn’t it look like a funny little open-mouthed face, though?)

For a side dish, I consulted my growing list of “Crap I Want to Make,” a Pages document of recipes I will try at some point in the vague future. I immediately zeroed in on the Potato Vada from The Voracious Vegan. But then I realized that these tasty-looking morsels are deep fried, and I’m not really a fan of frying (read: large amounts of hot oil frighten me) and I’m trying to keep things healthy. So I decided to create my own vada-like dish. Thus, Potato-Corn Vada were born! These are a healthier, baked variation on the potato vada recipe that looked so good. I took a few ideas from a few sources, combined them with the local corn my dad had picked up, and came up with a yummy side dish for any Indian meal.

These are a delicious counterpart to a spicy main dish. The corn provides a burst of fresh sweetness that helped temper the spice of the chana masala. Because they’re baked, you can eat two or three without feeling uncomfortably full.

I will note that this recipe is a work in progress. I’d recommend making the vada thinner than the 3/4 inch patties I created, which is why I say 1/2 inch in the recipe. Also, even after baking for 20 minutes and broiling for ~2, they didn’t quite stay together. I might try using a slightly higher oven temperature. With that said, here’s my recipe!

Baked Potato-Corn Vada
Ingredients
2 large potatoes
1 1/2 ears corn, raw (yields just over a cup)
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 T chickpea powder
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t salt
1/2 t garam masala

First, you’re going to boil your potatoes. Start the potatoes ahead of time, because the rest of the recipe doesn’t require very much prep time at all. Heat up some water in a medium saucepan, chop your potatoes into medium pieces, and throw ‘em in the boiling water.

While your potatoes are cooking, de-kernelize your corn. Stand it up lengthwise and use a sharp knife to remove all kernels. This can get messy, so keep a towel underneath your cob to catch errant kernels. Once you’ve got your corn removed from the ear, place the kernels in a small food processor and pulse it a few times. It’s okay to have some kernels that are still whole; you just want to get some variety and have some that are in smaller pieces.

Next, chop up your onion and cilantro. You can adjust these measurements to taste or even omit the cilantro if you’re not a fan. Now’s probably a good time to start preheating your oven to 350˚F and to spray a nonstick pan with oil.

By now, hopefully your potatoes are cooked through. Dump ‘em into a strainer, and once they’ve cooled a bit, transfer them to a large bowl and mash those babies! Next, add the corn, onion, and cilantro to your taters. Now comes the fun part – it’s time to get your hands dirty! Mix up the big ol’ mess until it’s well combined. Then add the chickpea flour and spices (again, adjust as necessary) and stir these in with a large spoon.

Now start forming your patties. Take a decent sized ball of the mixture (about 1/3 cup, I’d guess) and form it into a ball. Flatten it a bit (about 1/2 inch thick) and then place it on your pan. Continue until you finish up the mixture. You can lightly brush the tops with a bit of oil if you’d like, but that’s probably not necessary. Now pop the pain in the oven for about 20 minutes until they’re slightly browned on the top.

You could also make thinner patties, bake ‘em for ~15 minutes, and then put them under the broiler for a few minutes to crisp them up. Or you could certainly shallow-fry thinner patties. The possibilities are endless!

Confessions & Contemplations

Confession time: ever since my guests left, I’ve been in a bit of a funk. My siblings are back at their respective colleges, my parents are (mostly) back to work, and I’m a bit lonesome. At least I’ve got a few high school friends around and I’m now working (very) part-time as an office assistant at my uncle’s store. But other than that, I’m feeling a bit adrift. And with this mild case of the blues has come a certain lack of inclination towards exercise. I’ve been going to bed late, getting up late, and I can’t seem to get up the motivation to go for a walk/run.

Today, however, I made a concerted effort to fight the ennui. It’s a gorgeous fall day, crisp and cool and brightly sunny, so I decided that a nice, leisurely bike ride was in order. I hopped on my sister’s trendy Schwinn (my bike was in the back of the shed and I didn’t feel like digging it out!) and set off.

I think this was just what I needed to reset my brain. Cycling around my neighborhood gave me the perfect opportunity to just sort of contemplate all sorts of things, from job possibilities to what I’d make for dinner tonight. As I pedaled past one house, I heard the unmistakable sound of kids playing outdoors, and I was momentarily confused – it’s back-to-school time; had I stumbled across a group of naughty children playing hooky? But I quickly realized that I was hearing the sound of recess – my old elementary school and its playground were just visible through a little patch of oak trees, and I could just barely see kids running around playing jump rope and kickball and all those fun games.

Honestly, this inspired a mix of nostalgia and longing. Sometimes I miss being a kid and not having to think about crap like student loans, the GRE, and jobs. It’s easy to say that things were “so simple” when you were young and that you wish you could go back. But when all is said and done, I guess you have to just look back with a certain bittersweet remembrance and take all your past experiences and let them influence your future decisions. And guess what – neither mourning the past nor worrying about the future does any good in the present! So, despite the temptation to fall into the depths of despair about my big question mark of a future, I returned home with a determination to focus on the present, to live in the moment, and not to waste my time moping around and raiding the pantry while watching guilty pleasure TV shows on Hulu at midnight.

And then, as a reward for my newfound sense of perspective, I tried something decadent and delicious for dessert after lunch. I picked up a plantain the other day, something I’d never previously eaten. This afternoon I sauteed half of my new acquisition in a little Earth Balance, brown sugar, and orange juice. The brown sugar almost caramelized, and the plantain slices were sweet, soft, and generally fantastic. Although I’d been a little skeptical at first, I’m totally sold.

How do you enjoy plantains, if at all? Do share your ideas!

Zucchini for You, Zucchini for Me…

Given the fact that spiralizers are also known as “saladaccos,” I’ve christened my brand new spiralizer “Sallie.” A few days ago, I tested Sallie’s capabilities by making perhaps the most obvious spiralizer dish possible – zucchini “pasta” noodles.

My spiralizer test started off with a minor hitch. I thought we had a zucchini in the vegetable crisper, but apparently cucumbers are easily confused with zucchinis when viewed through plastic refrigerator drawers, and I got a nasty surprise when I attempted to remove my “zucchini” from the fridge. This minor setback was remedied by an impromptu trip to the grocery store, where I was pleased to discover locally grown zucchinis on sale. Score! I picked up a few lovely specimens and headed home.

The poor little zucchini didn’t know what hit him – Sallie’s blades made fast work of the little devil and reduced the sucker into a surprisingly large pile of gorgeous green noodles. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with the results. Although I’d wanted to make a raw marinara sauce to top my pasta, necessity (and a lack of certain ingredients) proved once again to be the mother of invention and I instead came up with a fairly tame broccoli pesto-type topping for my pasta. Mixed with some fresh cherry tomatoes straight outta the garden, this was one of the tastiest and simplest lunches I’ve had in a while.

Holy delicious vegetables, Batman! Doesn’t this look so pretty? And the broccoli-basil pesto was super simple to make. I love having basil plants sitting on the backyard deck; I can go harvest basil whenever the need strikes! I’m going to include the “recipe” for this pesto, but it’s super simple and could definitely benefit from any sort of spice you’d like to add.

Super Simple Broccoli-Basil Pesto (makes a large batch, more than enough for one bowl of zucchini noodles!)
Ingredients:
2 heads broccoli
1 large handful basil (adjust to taste)
~1 T olive oil (again, adjust to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste

First, steam your broccoli for about a minute or two, just to soften it up a bit and to give it that lovely bright green color. To keep this recipe 100% raw, I’m sure you could skip this step and still have it turn out just fine. Then put your broccoli in a food processor and give it a few whirls until it’s in noticeably smaller pieces. Add your olive oil and basil and process it ’til everything’s pretty finely chopped. Add spices to taste and pulse the whole shebang a few more times to mix it up. And that’s it. Super simple!

Now, you’d think I would’ve gotten my fill of zucchini at lunch time. But oh no, I couldn’t leave well enough alone, especially with those gorgeous local zucchinis sitting pretty in my fridge. So that night I whipped up a batch of the St. Patrick’s Day Zucchini Muffins from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

Susan never steers me wrong. These were moist, flavorful, and delicious. They’re completely fat free since I didn’t include the crumb topping; I just sprinkled them with a little bit of cinnamon sugar. I also used a flax “egg” in place of the Ener-G, since I don’t have any egg replacer.

These muffins went fast. My decidedly non-veg*n brother was home for the weekend, and when I caught him munching on a muffin after lunch, he told me that he actually prefers my vegan muffins to “regular” muffins! I’m not gonna lie; that made me feel a little melty inside. Three cheers for delicious vegan baking!

Deliveries & Delicacies

Yesterday, the UPS truck drove up to my house. As my little doggies reached epic levels of barking frenzy, the delivery man deposited this innocent-looking package on my front step.

Hmm, what could it be?

Aha! Of course – it’s the spiralizer I won from Katie‘s contest a few weeks ago! Just look at this lovely little lady.

Ain’t she a beaut’?

Alas, I haven’t yet broken in my new friend yet. She arrived yesterday just before dinnertime, and as my dear daddy was already making a delicious dinner feast, I didn’t want to usurp his role as top chef for the night. But rest assured that some super spiralized meals while be making their way onto my little blog in the very near future!

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a quick photo from this morning’s breakfast. After spending a wonderful week with my boyfriend, best friend, and another close friend from college, I’m in a bit of a funk now that they’ve left. What better way to cheer myself up than by making french toast and dousing them in locally-made maple syrup?!

Yum. While this tasty breakfast didn’t quite salve my saddened heart, it definitely helped to ease my woes. My visiting aunt and uncle – who are both vegan! – have never made vegan french toast before and were amazed by how “real” it looked. I’ll have to share the VWaV recipe with them in the future.

Absence Apologies

Hello, friends! I apologize for the silence this weekend – my parents, sister, and I drove to upstate New York to help my sister move into college, so we were extremely busy! I can’t quite articulate how strange it felt to see my little baby sister getting ready to start college. She was a big bundle of nerves, but I felt so proud and excited for her! And I’m a little envious that she’s just beginning her four years at college. I’ll admit it – I am a little disappointed not to be returning to school this year! It feels so strange to know that, until grad school at least, I have no academic obligations. I’ve always loved school, so I feel a little lost now that it’s September and I’ve nothing to do but apply for jobs and study for the GRE. I guess I’ll have to live vicariously through my little sister!

Anyway, I had very few chances to get online this weekend, and honestly, I didn’t miss it. Sometimes I like to take little technology breaks; knowing that I’m constantly connected in one way or another sometimes makes me feel obligated to keep up on Facebook/email/blogs/Twitter/everything, which stresses me out a bit. So I enjoyed the mini break.

I also enjoyed the opportunity to eat at my first vegan restaurant this weekend! My sister’s college is in Syracuse (it’s not SU, though!), so my family and I journeyed to Strong Hearts Cafe for lunch on Sunday. I’m so thankful to have a very veg-friendly family; my mom is mostly vegetarian (she eats fish occasionally), my sister used to be vegetarian (grr), and my dad (who is an awesome cook) is more than happy to cook vegan meals for the whole family, since he knows it helps his tendency toward high cholesterol. My brother is the most omnivorous of all of us, but he was home tending to the dogs this weekend and thus couldn’t complain about going to a vegan restaurant. We did take my sister’s boyfriend, though, and although he loves his meat and spent a good portion of our meal making jokes about “vegan water” and such, he pronounced his french toast “delicious.” Victory!

My dad also enjoyed his spicy tofu scramble, mostly because anything spicy is automatically good in his book. Mom loved her chickpea sandwich and “Dreamsicle” milkshake; I had a few sips of that and it was indeed a dreamy, creamy delight! My sister and I both got the BLT, and although I was really excited about it because I used to love BLTs but haven’t had anything remotely like one in ages, I was a little disappointed. I didn’t realize they’d use quite so much Teese and vegan mayo, and I really wasn’t keen on that addition. It would have been much tastier without all that extra crap. Once I scraped it off the bread, though, the taste improved considerably. VeggaSis, however, didn’t really care for the sandwich at all and only ate half. We wrapped up the rest so my dad could have a snack later for the 5 1/2 hour drive home, but it ended up getting a little soggy in the cooler and thus went to waste. Ah well. Overall, I really enjoyed the restaurant and can’t wait to return next time we’re in Syracuse visiting my sister! Oh, and I apologize for the lack of photos – I’m still a little shy about taking food photographs in public.

I do have a couple of photos for you, though. On the night before she left, my lovely little sister and I made vegan sugar cookies. I doubt many of you are familiar with the Mighty Boosh, but we made Boosh themed cookies!

I won’t explain all of the cookies; just ask if you’re curious! And you should definitely check out the show if you like surrealistic, dark, British comedy. They’ve just released their DVDs in the US, so I know what I want for Christmas!

I also have to admit that my posts will be few and far between in the next week or so. My boyfriend is flying in for a visit, another friend from Carleton will be starting grad school nearby, and my BFF is also visiting! It’s going to be a mini Carleton reunion and I think I’m going to be quite busy. Apologies!

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. I’ll leave you with a close-up of a few cookies – this is a bottle of Baileys (“Have you ever drunk Baileys from a shoe?”) and Vince Noir’s glam red boot.