Homemade Sriacha - Vegan MOFO Days 9 and 10

I know I know I didn't post last night... but I couldn't help it our internet is really finicky and I can't post from my phone! When I tried to write from the school's computers it wasn't letting me input pictures either :-(. Anyways here it is a little late!

For those of you who don't know what Sriacha or Rooster Sauce is, it's essentially a chile and garlic sauce. I'm not one for super spicy foods so I usually don't add too much of the stuff, however this homemade stuff is fantastic! My friends and I followed this recipe and it was really simple and turned out great! If you're a fan of the bottled stuff or like spicy things in general I'd strongly suggest this stuff!

It all starts with fresh chiles:

Then they meld with the vinegar overnight:

Then get cooked a little:

AWESOME ACTION SHOT!!!

After it's processed it's strained really well. We processed the pulp again to make sure all the juices got into the Sriacha, here's the leftover pulp.

AND IT'S DONE!! And delicious too I might add. The color is AMAZING although you can't really tell from the pictures.

One of my friends made a thoroughly kick ass label for it... I think we may use this for future condiment making adventures as well!

(I don't know if you can read it but this Sriacha was born from the fires of hell just yesterday! :-) ).

In other not-as-exciting food news, I've been cooking up some fairly simple but still tasty food the past few days.

Tuesday was a stuffed squash kind of day.

Simply an acorn squash roasted stuffed with portabellos, onions and quinoa.

Today was an even-less exciting bowl of quinoa topped with the makings of Fat Free Vegan's Kochu Chang Substitute. This recipe is what got me addicted to miso and is amazingly tasty on a plain old bowl of quinoa. I took a picture but as it turns out a dollup of red miso on a pile of rice doesn't look too appetizing so I left it out! :-)

Anyways... Long story short - everyone should learn how to make their own condiments!! More are coming soon!

Lunch, Dinner and HOMEMADE SRIACHA!!! Vegan MOFO Day 8

Well it's officially been over a week of Vegan MOFO and I'm still going strong!! Ok cooking-wise today was a little boring and I apologize! Even after going home for a mere 24 hours, my schedule's all out of whack... that might be daylight savings time too, who knows. All I know is that I miss my kitchen terribly (as well as my mom and puppy but let's be real you're all here to hear about the FOOD!).

Anyways today's lunch started out with a new product from my hometown grocery store!! Well when I say "new" I mean it's really an ancient grain that's recently been re-discovered.

Behold Farro!

I'm not sure if you've had the chance to try this delightful grain, but it's amazing. While the instructions were a downright lie (1 part grain to 3 parts water!!!) it cooked in about 15 minutes to the perfect level of doneness. It has a great texture, like al-dente pasta with a slightly nutty flavor (think sunflower seeds type of nutty). It's also chock-full of protein!


I needed something to go with my delicious farro so I cooked up some spiced squash and onions. I basically just sauted half an onion along with half an acorn squash and a ton of paprika and cumin!


While it was good it was missing a little something... zing you may say. After trying to figure out what could make this even more tasty, I discovered the guac I had sitting in the fridge... PERFECTION!




After lunch I met my fabulous little cousin (who's essentially my baby sister) for delicious coffee and I had this soy-"White Hot Love" specialty drink which had mocha, carmel, and hazelnut flavored deliciousness! I forgot to take a picture before I dug in... I'll have to post more when it's the barista who makes foam jack-o-lanterns!! This one isn't as exciting.




For dinner I wanted something quick so I threw together some garlic, oyster mushrooms and kale drizzled it with sesame oil and added some paprika and miso.


It doesn't look like much but man did this hit the spot!

On the subject of miso, I found this great brand that's local for me and has all sorts of really interesting types of miso. My favorite, South River Miso's Adzuki Bean Miso, just so happens to be soy-free and chock full of beans and grains! It's not a smooth miso so I'm not sure how it would do in a soup form, but if you see this stuff on the shelves give it a try!



Now for the part of this post I'm sure you're all looking for... Homemade Sriacha!

We're following this recipe, and I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow! The chiles need to sleep overnight before we can go on, but it smells delicious right now! I'm not big on spicy foods but this is pretty exciting.

Chopping the main chiles... I don't remember what they're called but they're the long skinny red ones.


We also added a few habeneros for an added kick!


Shhh the peppers are sleeping until tomorrow! :-D

Best Kitchen "Gadget" EVER - Vegan MOFO Day 7

I need to clear the air... if there is a useless kitchen gadget or some ridiculous product that can only complete one task I will probably decide that I have a need for it. However, about five years ago my mom got a gift certificate from William Sonoma. We don't have a lot of fancy kitchen stuff so it was kind of a big deal for us. So much of a big deal that we couldn't figure out what to buy, and there aren't any Sonoma stores near us and we'd always forget the certificate anytime we were near one. Cut to FIVE years later when I saw a friend's ridiculous looking pan and realized that it could be purchased for the exact amount of our gift certificate. Also, William Sonoma was AWESOME about honoring such an old gift certificate, I know there are certain laws requiring companies to be better, but five years is a pretty long time and they didn't give us any trouble whatsoever!

I assumed it was for some method of cooking eggs, but eventually found out that it was an Ebelskiver Pan. Ebelskivers are essentially filled pancakes and might seem complicated but are actually REALLY easy to make! I even use the pan for non-stuffed muffins, which are amazing because the edge of the Ebelskiver gets super crispy while the inside is light and fluffy! A how-to video can be found here if you're curious!

Ebelskivers are also decadent while having the same nutritional value as pancakes, and for me they're way healthier because I don't add butter or syrup to them!

My favorite way to make Ebelskivers is to just use the Perfect Pancake recipe from Vegan Brunch, but you can use your favorite pancake recipe, it's pretty flexible. This morning we stuffed our Ebelskivers with raspberries and chocolate chips!

To make things easier I stuff a chocolate chip into each raspberry!

Cooking Ebelskivers look like UFOs!

For some reason they look eerily like eggs, but I assure you they're not!

OM NOM NOM!

Disclaimer - I was not paid to do an endorsement, just love the product!

Vegan MOFO Day 6 - Sweet Potato Stew, Chocolate Cake and VEGAN MARSHMALLOW FLUFF!!!

First off I know what you're thinking... "You ACCIDENTALLY made vegan fluff??" The answer is a resounding YES! More to come on that later... but here's a teaser pic!

It was super easy, cheap and doesn't have a ton of crap or chemicals!

Anyways, back to what I had planned to post about! I'm home for the weekend and therefore get to cook in MY kitchen!! Even better is the fact a few months ago my mom went vegan, and since she's basically the only other long-term vegan I know (friends have dabbled and dieted) it's fun being able to cook for her! Not to mention I came home to find the table looking adorable! AND the fridge stocked with SOY FREE Earth Balance!!! Apparently our local supermarket started carrying it out of the blue and I'm super excited about it!

I made this stew a few weeks ago for friends and we scarfed it down, so I figured a re-make would be fabulous. I started off with this recipe and changed enough that I'll post my version! If you have the chance to get cumin seeds I can't recommend doing it enough. It may seem pricey or like it would be a pain in the butt, but it's completely worth it! And you use less because it's more potent (not to mention has better flavor) so you save money in the long run!

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Stew

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash - chopped

1 or 2 largeish sweet potatoes - chopped

2 large onions - chopped

1 head of garlic - roughly chopped

2 cans of black beans - drained and rinsed

veggie stock (for the bazillionth time this week use Better than Bouillon it gives you way more control over how much stock you use!)

2 tbs cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

juice of half a lime

Saute squash, sweet potato and onions until soft. Add enough veggie broth to cover (monitor as you go to ensure your desired stew consistency). Throw in garlic and spices. Simmer until squash breaks down. Serve with a touch of vegan butter on the top and some fresh herbs or scallions!

The makings of an amazing soup!!

The finished product!

Now the part I'm sure all of you are wondering... how did she make vegan fluff in 5 minutes??? Remember how yesterday I mentioned the glorious coconut creme I found in the fridge? I thought it would make a perfect frosting for a cake... oh man was I WRONG. First I was using a different brand of coconut milk so I'm not sure if that made a difference or not, but the creme wasn't as firm or whipped like this time... I may have needed to refrigerate it for longer too, who knows? Anyways I thought it would be fine if I just added some powdered sugar to it.... yeah DID NOT WORK! Proof of fail is pictured below!

You can't see from this picture but the cake's top layer has basically slid off the bottom layer! Whoopsies :-). While I was making the "frosting" I started thinking that it seemed an awful lot like marshmallow fluff! Taste, texture, EVERYTHING! It even got the same level of gooey as fluff does, but dries with a non-sticky surface (keeps the gooeyness though!!!)

Stupid Simple Marshmallow Fluff

1 can full fat coconut milk, chilled and only the fluffy creme part of the milk, not the watery part

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Whisk together!

Serve in a pb&fluff sandwich, or however you'd use the original stuff!! More recipes with this stuff are sure to follow!

Another Soup Kind of Day - Vegan MOFO Day 5!!

So I had a quick post this morning as I had to get up about 3 or 4 hours earlier than normal and figured a delicious breakfast would be a great way to start the day. The awesome food stuffs continued throughout the day as I finished yesterday's "Pick Me Up Soup" which was just as awesome day two as it was day one and desperately needed as a quick lunch!

Tonight I decided that the weather is still pretty sucky so I kept up with the soup theme and used a bunch of veggies I had lying around. The result? AH-MAZ-ING!!!! I also learned first hand how to make coconut whipped cream accidentally. Yes it is that easy as I had thrown some left over coconut milk in the fridge only to find a supremely light whipped coconut creme when I opened the container. Give it a try and you won't be disappointed!

Soup Cooking!! Isn't it a beautiful soup??

Here's the recipe of the day, once again use whatever you've got on hand, sub squash for sweet potatoes, omit the kale, add greens, whatever you like!

Sweet Potato and Kale Curry Soup

1 large sweet potato roughly diced

1 onion diced

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 inch of ginger grated

veggie broth to your desired consistency (you can use water if you'd like the soup has more than enough flavor to carry itself!)

2-3 tablespoons curry powder (amount depends on strength of powder so start off light and add to your taste)

dash cumin, paprika, lime juice, salt and pepper

about 1 can coconut milk (or as much as you have)

1/2 bunch kale

Saute onion, garlic, ginger, and sweet potato. After a few minutes start adding curry powder. Cook until onion is translucent and sweet potato is soft. Deglaze the pan with water or veggie broth to desired soupy-ness. Season with cumin paprika, lime juice, salt and pepper. Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes, taste and adjust spices if necessary. Add coconut milk and simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes. Add kale and cooked til the kale is wilted to your liking (about 5 minutes).

Serve and enjoy!!

And because I find summaries super useful I'm going to try to keep it going!

To summarize:

Cost: About $4 using pantry staples

Servings: 3 large servings

Special Ingredients: Coconut Milk (I'm not counting curry powder again as it's a spice and if you don't have any, it's well worth the $2 or $3 to get some!)

Rating: Another 10/10!

Breakfast of Champions!

Don't let the simple ingredients fool you... sometimes this is just what the doctor ordered and is a great way to start off an early day headed to the lab.

Banana Boat

1 banana

nut butter of choice

chocolate chips or whatever other delicious things you have on hand (coconut, more nuts, fruit!)

Assemble...

EAT!!!

I'll post later today just figured I'd throw this in because chocolate in the morning is always a good idea :-D.

Oh Rainy Days

VEGAN MOFO DAY 4!!!!

I have a love hate relationship with rain... if there's a thunderstorm or downpour I'm in love if there's the obnoxious ominous clouds and a puny little drizzle I'm not too happy. Today was one of those days... the days when it's pitch black when you wake up, your heat wasn't as toasty as you'd like and you just can't get out of bed. I would love to say I made the following concoction for lunch or an early dinner however I didn't get started making dinner til about 7:30ish and didn't eat til 10pm, which isn't great I know but hey I'm a college student. The point I'm attempting to make is that this soup should be your new go to soup... for on a gloomy day, when you're sick or just need a good pick me up, I swear to god that this is that good and super easy to make!!

While I'm posting this recipe... I am a firm believer in NOT sticking to recipes 100%! Use what you've got on hand, what you feel like or whatever. Also although I am a kale addict (no seriously I eat kale like it's candy or something) I'd never had it in a soup before today. If you've tried it and didn't like its texture, I'd strongly recommend trying it in a soup at some point. It brings out a brightness of flavor and literally melts in your mouth. Give it a shot!

Pick Me Up Soup!!!

1/2 acorn squash roughly chopped (or whatever you have on hand)

1 onion - diced (any size)

1/2 head garlic - minced

2 inch piece of ginger, grated

2 scallions - diced

1 can cannellini beans drained and rinsed

vegan veggie broth (preferably made either from scratch or Better than Bouillon Veggie Broth I swear it's the secret to amazing soups and risottos!)

dash each of cumin, paprika, cilantro, salt, pepper, lime juice

1/2 head of kale chopped into bite sized pieces

Add acorn squash, onion, garlic, and half of the ginger to a pot and saute until squash softens. Next add the veggie broth, scallions and seasonings to taste. After cooking for a bit add more ginger and the beans (I don't know if matters whether or not you wait to add the rest of the ginger but I did and it was delish!) Cook until the squash "becomes one with the broth" (ie when the broth gets super thick and the squash kind of disappears). Throw in kale and cook for about 5 minutes more.

EAT!!!

I also am procrastinating terribly over one of my labs so I helped a friend make mushroom broth! Having never made broth before it certainly was a learning experience. First - they take a LONG time to cook! We also got a late start but I am convinced that late night cooking with good friends is the cure to college stress... it's a theory that's yet to be corroborated but we'll see :-). Anyways here's a picture of the glorious broth soon to be morphed into something even more amazing!

Why I'm Vegan

So I'll get to the food in a bit, but I decided to address the single most question I've been asked in my 10 years as a vegetarian and 2 as a vegan: "Why?" I'll be honest as a small child I don't think I made the connection between animals and meat. It wasn't that I was clueless it just hadn't really crossed my mind that the burger I was eating used to be a cow. I think I probably figured it out somewhere around 1st grade and it was something I couldn't get out of my head. On my 10th birthday a local hospital was having a vegetarian info session and I BEGGED my mom to take me (similar to the way I begged for puppies or ponies :-D ). She happily obliged, however so many years later all I remember about that night was that they had raw tofu tastings. I don't know about you but I still can't stomach a plain old piece of raw tofu!! Anyways that scared me 0ff of being vegetarian for a few years, but my heart still broke every time I'd eat meat. My mom saw this and we started eating more plant based until I finally made the jump a few days before Thanksgiving as sort of a trial run. I remember thinking that it'd be ok if I ate turkey because it was a holiday and a special occasion, and as soon as a piece hit my plate a wave of nausea hit me. What had started as a personal challenge quickly became a part of me and my beliefs.

Becoming vegan was a bit harder of a jump to achieve. It was a goal that I'd had in mind for a while, but it really hit me my sophomore year of college. I had recently been diagnosed with arthritis and was starting to feel the effects when I was watching a telethon that featured "Crazy Sexy Cancer." I was blown away, here was this lifestyle that I'd always been intrigued with proving to help the body protect itself. The next day I had my last non-vegan meal (eggplant parm with tiramisu I should add) and I felt the same way I did after I made the decision to go veg - it was right for me. Of course there were cheese cravings every now and then but those quickly subsided and I realized that my taste buds changed and food tasted better and I liked foods I had hated before. I haven't noticed too much of a health change since going vegan, just how nightshade veggies effect my pain levels (they have a tendency to increase joint pain when eaten in excess).

Long story short for me there is no easy answer to "why are you vegan." People ask wanting to hear that you've lost weight, cured the common cold, saved a slaughterhouse or stopped global warming, but when it comes down to it this is just the right lifestyle for me. It might not be right for everyone but I can't imagine living any other way!

Anyways back to the food! I figured since my recipe today was a pretty large fail I'd start out with a story :-). I'll start by saying I have never cooked dried beans before. Call me lazy but canned beans are just too damn convenient!!! Anyways one of my friends makes them all the time and just "throws some stuff in a pot" (her words) and it ends up delicious. I decided to give it a shot with some squash I had lying around and some black-eyed peas. Needless to say I learned a few lessons:

1) Don't add beans to slightly cooked vegetables that turn to mush when cooked.

2) Beans have a much stronger flavor when you cook them yourself so be sure to have equally as strong spices!

3) I need to pay more attention to the "stuff" my friend throws into her beans!!

Anyways I've added a picture but I'll leave out the recipe this time because well you don't want to make this!

Also I went out to my favorite Mexican place, Tortilla Sams, for dinner and got their fabulous Big Tofu Burrito. It doesn't look like much but let me tell you it is shear heaven on a plate!! I can never get my tofu to come out this successful, but as soon as I do I'll let you know!

Quick and Easy!

So, I've practically given up on finding good vegan options in our Campus Center food court. Last year there were a few days where I'd discover the salad bar chock full of stuffed grape leaves, hummus, pitas, and tabbouleh, while other days there'd be barbecue tofu and broccoli as an entrée. Imagine my surprise this year to be greeted with a "Chef's Salad" filled salad bar with practically no vegetarian options... it was a salad bar filled solely with pre-mixed salads filled with cheese and meat. Then they decided to shrink the salad bar to half its original size, taking out the fruit section :-(. NOT COOL. But hey a girl's got to eat, and they had a burrito bar today and had TEMPEH as a filling option!!!!!!!!! While the burrito itself wasn't fabulous, I am genuinely impressed with my school's catering company for putting forth a great effort and hope they continue to do so in the future!

For dinner I played the "I don't want to go shopping so let's see what I can make out of random things in the pantry" game. Fun times :-). Anyways I ended up choosing one of my favorite quick and easy standbys that can be made with things I usually have on hand. It's Susan from the Fat Free Vegan's Ridiculously Easy Chick Pea Curry!! Fat Free Vegan is another blog I'm hopelessly addicted to and have had great results with every recipe of hers that I've tried. Today I doubled the amount of chickpeas, tossed in some cannellini beans, added way more curry powder than was called for and subbed basmati rice for quinoa (because I'm out :-( ). The result, as always with Susan's recipes is a deliciously healthy meal. I usually like to serve it over sauteed kale, but once again I really need to go food shopping!

To summarize:
Cost: about $5

Servings: about 5 generous

Special Ingredients: Curry Powder (but you should have some on hand!)

Rating: 10/10!!!!

Jumping into Vegan MOFO Head First!!

I've tried to get this blog started on more than one occasion... and have never really had the will power to keep it going (or actually get more than one post at a time!). Those days are over... in theory! I'm challenging myself to cook a new food every day for an entire month. My goal is to find inspiration from fellow bloggers and to not post food that I can't link to or create my own recipe for. My three goals (other than continuing to blog) are going to be creating food that is 1) DELICIOUS, 2) healthy, and 3) wicked freaking cheap (as I'm a broke college student!).

In the spirit of Halloween, here's the delicious cake I made for a few friends. If you haven't already been to the consistently drool-worthy www.chefchloe.com , I suggest you head over there right now!!!! While you should really read her blog in entirely (you'll have meals for weeks!) I'd highly suggest her chocolate cake recipe as well as her pumpkin penne. I've made both in the past few days (although forgot to take pictures of the pumpkin penne) and both were AMAZING. I usually hate cake but this one is absolutely perfect. I wasn't thrilled by the frosting, but then again I added pumpkin liquor to mine which made it way too sweet for most. The pumpkin penne was to die for!! I subbed butternut squash in for pumpkin as I had some fresh and slow cooked it until I had a super creamy and delicious sauce. I left out the sage and the pecans just because I didn't have any on hand, but I'd love to try this recipe again when I do!!

Of course, as promised here are the pics!!! I'm not much of a photographer but I'm just using my phone for now... if you can't tell from the pictures it was delicious :-)