C to tha SA

The first few weeks of the CSA were a bit rough, between rain and hail, but we've still been getting plenty of greens each week, rain or shine- even if the emphasis lately seems to be on the former. Last Thursday when I picked up our share I did so in a heavy afternoon thunderstorm. The farmer, Luke, was kind enough to let me take refuge under his awning with the veggies.

Soaked to my bones

 I stuffed the saddle bags of my bike with heaps of freshly picked, wet, dirty veggies (my favorite!) and pedaled home as fast as my little wet legs would take me. Here's a picture of the share for the week:

Clockwise- spinach, rainbow chard, basil, snap peas, breakfast radishes

 Since it was time for a late afternoon snack after pounding out 3.5 miles as fast as possible on the bike, I decided to take advantage of the fresh spinach and make a smoothie.

 I had about two cups firmly packed, so I processed that first and then added raspberries, coconut milk, a magical banana, chia/flax seeds, and some ground ginger.

 Pretty much as soon as my food processor stopped, the sun came out. Perfect timing for a picture!


The basil was put to good use in a pasta sauce, and the chard was dumped into another smoothie. The snap peas are excellent raw, just the way they are, but hummus is a worthy companion. I grated a few of the radishes into a salad, and the remaining few are hanging around waiting for a dinner to take part in. Tomorrow we have another pickup- I wonder if this one will be rain or shine?

Breakfast is Hard. Make it Easy.

I've never been a big breakfast eater. I was usually not hungry, so I'd skip it, and then eat at around 2 p.m. when I was ravenous. I had slumps in energy this way, but it was just so hard to eat when I wasn't hungry. Bobby finally convinced me about a year ago to just start trying to eat something small, even just a piece of fruit. I did that for one week, and all of a sudden I started waking up ravenous. My metabolism kicked up, my energy evened out, and I didn't get cranky headaches late in the day. I'm a bit believer in eating only when you're hungry, but this experience showed me that sometimes one may need to kick start things. Now I couldn't skip breakfast if I wanted to, because my growling stomach flat out won't let me.

All that being said, I'm still not going to tuck into a mound of food at the crack of dawn. A light and simple breakfast is still easiest for me to eat. As a result, the first meal of the day (after a big glass of water) usually looks like this:

 My standby has become either an apple or a banana, sliced, sprinkled in apple pie spice (this doesn't have sugar) and chia seeds. I round it out with one tablespoon each of almond butter and peanut butter. The "rules" of combining proteins don't really apply as long as you're eating a varied diet, but I like to eat almond and peanut butter together because it is a complete protein, and if I'm eating one or the other, I may as well eat them together. This gets me through my morning run, or an hour of power yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays mornings. After those activities I'm much more interested in a larger meal. Plus, between the chia seeds and the nut butter I get a good head start on protein for the day, and the fiber of the apple keeps me full through my morning workout. Last but not least, a day started with apple pie spice is guaranteed to be a bit more awesome than a day without, right? Right.

Return to Tasty Harmony

I've raved about Tasty Harmony before. The all vegetarian/99% vegan restaurant is a go to for local, organic, delicious food. We stopped by weekend before last and I fell in love with a salad. Which is kind of awkward since Bobby was right there. It's called "The Meal". On their website, it is described as "Two living sunflower croquettes over baby salad greens, red and green cabbage, shredded carrots, shredded beets, avocado, tomatoes and shaved red onions. Comes with a side of our Green Onion Tahini Dressing." A synonymous description could be "Pure raw veggie goodness". Here is a slightly blurry cell phone pic of it.

I included my hand as a size reference. This thing was definitely a meal

I had the chilled hibiscus tea to wash it all down. That green onion tahini dressing was so good. I think that tahini is almost as magical as bananas. I have yet to eat anything with tahini that didn't taste amazing. Those sunflower croquettes were also good enough to warrant such a fussy name. They crumbled nicely and served as a much healthier version of a crouton.

Tasty Harmony has specials that change often, and on this visit they were featuring a stuffed poblano pepper plate with their cashew cheese and vegan sour cream. It was also very good. It was similar to a chile relleno, but not quite. It wasn't my favorite relleno type dish, but it was definitely up there.

 Tasty Harmony rolled out their summer menu, so I'm sure we'll be visiting them a time or two over the next few months. In the meantime, I want to own whatever machine shredded the beets in my salad. I would never cook again, I'd just shred everything. This might be why I shouldn't own such a machine...

The Joys of the Simple Salad

I think the best thing about giving up animal products is that your taste buds start to change. I crave raw veggies like never before, and I've gotten to the point where previously reviled foods- mushrooms, coconut, raw carrots- are in the regular rotation. Nowhere is the change in taste more evident than in the arena of salads. Previously I always put cheese on a salad, and usually some croutons* and some creamy dressing. When we first gave up cheese, I will admit that I felt like something was missing. Now, though, a raw salad packed with veggies and drizzled in a vinaigrette dressing is something I often crave.

This was a random lunch salad. I tossed spinach, red leaf lettuce and kale together for the greens. To that I added baby heirloom tomatoes, red and orange bell peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, and about half a cup of canned white beans. I added avocados and a generous two tablespoon serving of chia seeds**. Then, I crumbled up one of my favorite salad additions- a Sunshine Burger. I've mentioned them before in this post. They crumble really nicely into a salad, they have about 10 grams of protein, and they are soy free (made from rice and seeds). This is an incredibly filling salad. I ate it after a morning that included biking to the gym and back (7 miles), lifting free weights while at the gym, and then running two miles upon getting home. This kept me full and happy for 5 hours until dinner time. If it's been awhile since you've had a simple salad with basic ingredients, give it a try. It might feel like something is lacking, but eventually you might surprise yourself with the kinds of cravings you start to have. I willingly eat coconut, after years of being almost nauseated by the smell. People and their tongues can definitely change. Amen.***

*My salad as a child consisted of croutons and ranch. True story.

**Please buy these in bulk and do not allow yourself to be fleeced! I have never paid more than $7.99 a pound for chia seeds, and that's on the high end. Lots of retailers are charging outrageous prices for dinky little bags. It's highway robbery. Get thee to a bulk bin.

***I dunno, it just started feeling like I was testifying of my changed life, so the "Amen" felt right.

CSA Potluck Muffins

I've talked before about how much I love having a CSA. The CSA we had last year was incredible, but we ended up switching to a newcomer on the scene this year. This was primarily because our new CSA is right off of one of the bike trails, and we happen to live only a mile and a half a way off of  said bike trail. The charm of biking along the creek to pick up freshly picked, local, organic veggies direct from the farm was too much to deny.

Last week was the CSA kickoff pot luck. I love pot lucks, because they're such a good return on investment. I only have to make one dish, but I still get to choose from a buffet of various food. That's sound economics right there, ya'll. I decided to make an old standby, the blueberry banana muffins from How it All Vegan. As usual I cut the sugar in half and added a bit more blueberries- 1 1/2 cups instead of 1 cup. These are made with whole wheat flour, but even with half as much sugar they are still an excellent sweet bread.

 The recipe says that it makes 12 muffins, but even when I fill the tins up to the top, I always have batter left over. Since I only have 2 muffin tins and I don't want to have to wait, I just pour the leftover batter into a bread pan and bake it along with the muffins. This lets me add in random things to experiment. In the past I've added chocolate chips, nuts, or  more fruit.

This time I added in a generous portion of unsweetened/unsulphured dried coconut. It went really well with the bananas and the blueberries. We kept the bread for ourselves, and loaded up the muffins on the back of our bikes to take to the CSA.

 Biking along the trail...

 the creek...

 and one of several wooden bridges you cross.

 When we got to the farm we parked our bikes along with everyone else. Check out all the bike trailers for  hauling little nuggets. I sometimes wish someone would haul me around in a trailer. Kids. They get all the breaks!

 We picked up our share for the week. Lots of greens- kale, chard, lettuce. Mmmm, salads and smoothies.
 The  muffins were added to the communal food table and then we chowed down. Turns out our co-members are good cooks as well as interesting people. We hung out for an hour or two, and I was happy to see that the muffins were quickly polished off. I admit that is one thing that is a bit nerve wracking about pot lucks- you don't want your dish to go untouched or left out, like the last kid picked for the kickball team.

If you're interested in getting a CSA for yourself, check out Local Harvest. You might be surprised at what your local community has to offer. I can't promise you'll have a full scale farm a mile and a half from your apartment off of a bike lane, but I can bet that you'll be able to find a good network to plug into.

Sausage and Biscuits

When I made this jalapeno corn gravy, I knew there would be a lot left over. In fact, part of the reason I decided to go ahead and make it was because Gimme Lean breakfast sausage was on a great sale. I figured we'd have th gravy on some potatoes for dinner, and then I'd make some whole wheat biscuits from scratch, fry up some veggie sausage, and douse it all in the gravy. Well, that's exactly what happened, and it was excellent.

 Truth be told, Bobby is the resident baker. He's usually the one who gets up on weekends and makes biscuits from scratch, or busts out my Great Granny's 1950's waffle iron and makes banana waffles from scratch. Because of this, it's nice for me to make biscuits for him sometimes, too. He found this recipe online about a year and a half ago, and with some tweaking it has resulted in the best vegan biscuit I've ever had.

Despite being whole wheat, it's not super dense and heavy. I used coconut oil in place of the lard or butter that most biscuits call for and they tasted great. The biscuits only take about 5 minutes total to measure, mix, separate, and put on the baking sheet. They cook for 12 minutes, so while they were busy making my kitchen smell great I cooked the veggie sausage and re-heated the gravy.

The finished product

 This was very good. I liked the gravy even more the morning after, because the jalapeno had a chance to really permeate everything and it tasted a bit spicier. Some fresh cracked black pepper on top made it just about perfect. I think this might also be a good gravy over some breakfast potatoes sauteed with red and green bell peppers. Who knew I could love a creamed corn look-alike so much?

Daiya Makes an Appearance

The vegan world has been raving about Daiya since mid 2009. Bobby and I were excited to try it during our long road trip all over the Western U.S. in late 2009. We tried it for the first time at the enormous Whole Foods in Las Vegas. It was on a freshly made to order pizza, hot off the pizza stone. Bobby loved it. I found it to be a bit too sticky. However, as far as cheese replacements go, this is one of the best. I just prefer nutritional yeast and/or cashew cheese, personally, and Vegan Gourmet makes the best mozzarella substitute in my opinion. All that being said, Bobby adores Daiya, so I made some enchiladas the other night just for him. No, really, I didn't eat any of this. Bobby still has some leftovers frozen for future lunches. I did try a bite though, and it was good despite my Daiya dislike.

Fresh out of the oven

 So, I can't find the pictures of the process, or of the plates- sorry, friends! Basically I roasted up a bunch of veggies, and then pan fried white corn tortillas, rolled up some Daiya and the roasted veggies in them, and then doused the whole thing in some tomatillo and enchilada sauce. More Daiya went on top, and then it went in the oven (covered with foil) for 30 minutes. For the last 10 minutes I took off the foil so that the Daiya could brown.

On the side I made Spanish "rice", but I used cauliflower. I've talked about replacing rice with cauliflower before in this post. I just sauteed up some garlic, red onions, various bell peppers, and finely food processed cauliflower. Then I added in tomatoes, cumin, and chili powder. At the end I decided to just dump the black beans in with it, too. This was really delicious and would be excellent with some tofu scramble in a tortilla in the morning with a side of hash browns.

The Daiya cooked up really well in the enchiladas. I think it would be important to utilize the foil in any casserole style dish until the very end, just to keep it from getting dried out. A great thing about Daiya is that it isn't soy based, which is excellent for those with soy allergies, or people like me who try to steer clear of too much processed soy. You can find it in Whole Foods, and Sprouts has it as well. Plus I imagine that any quirky health food store would stock it, too.

Gravy Train

I'm going to go ahead and say it- I despise creamed corn. Well, let me back up. Corn is not my favorite of foods. Oh, sure, I'll eat it. I'll never be picky enough to turn down something simply because corn is in it. But, on the whole, corn doesn't really make me sit up and smile unless it's on a cob, roasted over a fire. Out of a can? Ehhhh, do I have to? And creamed? No. Just...no.

So, with that out of the way, I'm going to go ahead and admit that what I'm about to show you looks suspiciously like creamed corn. But, per the first paragraph, I hope you will understand that if it tasted anything like creamed corn, I would not be endorsing eating it. That being said, if you do like creamed corn, I'm sure you'll also like this recipe for Jalapeno Corn Gravy, courtesy of Veganomicon.

I followed the recipe standard style. About the only thing I would change next time is a bit more seasoning. It lacked a depth of flavor, and I think that could be corrected with some sauteed red pepper, or some cumin, or even a bit of adobo sauce.

 Ingredients, part one (see, I'm not a real cook. A REAL cook would never use canned veggie broth. They would make their own and simmer it all day with fresh picked herbs or something. Bring on the cans!)

 Ingredients, part two. Let it be known that I grated off a huge chunk of my skin with my zester during the processing of that garlic. Worth it. Garlic is delicious.

 Anytime I saute onions, I think it's the best smell ever. Then I sauteed onions with jalapenos. Somehow, that's also the best smell ever. In an ever expanding universe, these things are possible.

 Corn gets added in and tossed around the pan until it starts to brown.

 I'm always amazed at how well corn starch can thicken up anything. The only fat in this is the bit of walnut oil I sauteed the veggies in, and no flour is cooked in fat like most gravies. Once it simmers for a bit, you just food process the whole thing. I added a bit more veggie broth at this point because it was looking dangerously similar to creamed corn and my alarm bells were clang a langin' in my brain.

 The finished product, waiting to douse some mashed red skinned potatoes.

This was really good. I would definitely make it again, with the spice changes I suggested at the beginning of this little picture show. I served it with Gardein chicken tenders, a rare mock meat indulgence, and barbequed pinto beans. Oh, and this beautiful salad.

I think the corn gravy would also be excellent plopped on top of a spicy black bean soup, or poured over enchiladas. It's pretty versatile and keeps well since it has virtually no fat. A lot of gravies harden up in the fridge, and when you pull them out for leftovers they kind of make you pause and think "Wait... do I want to be eating this? It's a block of jiggly, cold fat". Of course, the answer is yes, you do want to be eating it, because we all know that jiggly cold fat gets heated up into creamy, warm fat and it's delicious. So I guess I'm not really making a point here...

Anyway, here's a new point- jalapeno corn gravy is a winner.

Avocado Continues to Be Awesome

The other night I was craving a creamy pasta sauce, but I didn't want to hassle with a cashew cheese, and I didn't have any nooch (nutritional yeast) anyway. I did, however, have an avocado. Into my food processor went: an avocado, some walnut oil, rosemary, roasted garlic, pink Himalayan sea salt, and fresh ground black pepper. Oh, and a bit of red pepper and a splash of almond milk. I think I also added a squeeze of lemon...wait, basil was in there, too. Ok, I think that's all. The end product was delicious- creamy, but still light, and the avocado/lemon/basil flavors felt like a summer happy dance in my mouth. I sauteed some zucchini, red onions, white beans, and red pepper, and boiled up some totally not health nut plain old white flour spaghetti. I tossed all of the previous together with the avocado pasta sauce, and then topped it with some fresh, sliced, baby heirloom tomatoes. Oh, heirloom tomatoes. You will be the death of me. And by that I mean, the opposite of the death of me since you are delicious and are good for me.

I continued my love affair with the baby heirlooms with a side salad full of organic red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, more white beans, red pepper, chia seeds, and my beloved vanilla fig balsamic.

And everyone was very, very happy that night. The end.

Coconut Kick

I had been meaning to try out a tofu based cheesecake recipe from How it All Vegan and I was finally motivated to do so when the graham cracker crusts I purchased on deep clearance officially passed their "Best taste by" date. There are a few variations on this cheesecake in the cookbook, with the basic bones staying the same and different ingredients being swapped out to create different flavors. I tweaked it a bit by replacing the half a cup of oil with half a cup of mashed banana, and cutting the sugar in half. I figured banana coconut cheesecake would be just as good. I also added in some more spices, as the only flavoring called for was vanilla extract. It took me a while to come around to tofu, but I still don't like that distinctive tofu-y taste in all its pure taste glory, so the spices were necessary (in my opinion). I got all Martha Stewart with a totally gratuitous sliced banana decoration on top, finished up with some coconut I sprinkled on the last 10 minutes so it could get all toasty.

The verdict, per Bobby, was that it was delicious. I have to say though, that the texture was definitely more custard than cheesecake, and even with the addition of the spices the tofu taste was definitely still lingering in the back ground, kind of photo bombing the flavor profile. It was plenty sweet, so cutting the sugar didn't affect this, I think it's just that when you put an entire block of tofu into a pie, well, there ain't no getting 'round the tofu taste. I would be interested to see what would happen if I cut the tofu in half, but honestly I'm thinking that the best dairy free cheesecakes are probably going to be raw, and made out of nuts. I mean, look at this beautiful thing. Yeah, I know, it's incredible. That's a future experiment, trust me! Check out My New Roots in general. It's a fabulous food blog. Lots of inspiration there, and beautiful pictures to boot.

Good Morning!

I'm not much of a breakfast eater. I used to skip it religiously, since I was never hungry. Now I make myself have something, usually either an apple or a banana, sliced, sprinkled with with apple pie spice and chia seeds, with a side of peanut butter. However, I'm never going to be someone who leaps out of bed and wants to chow down on biscuits and veggie sausage and a plate full of pancakes at 7 a.m. Bobby, however, is precisely that someone. So I made these guys on a random weekday morning.

Banana chai pancakes with toasted coconut + mystery sauce

The recipe came from one of my favorite cookbooks "How it All Vegan ". A lot of vegan cookbooks can be overly fussy and they seem to call for ridiculously expensive health store ingredients just to be jerks about it. This cookbook is refreshingly basic. Pretty much every recipe has less than 15 ingredients (including spices) and they don't constantly rely on tofu. These guys were made with no oil thanks to mashed bananas, and I subbed a half a cup of the almond milk for a half  a cup of chai tea. While one side was cooking, I sprinkled unsweetened coconut on the top, flipped it, and finished cooking it while toasting said coconut. Bobby ate his plain. I had mine a few hours later, and drizzled it with that mysterious brown sauce. What is it, you ask? Chocolate? Blueberry syrup? Nope. It's balsamic. Vanilla fig balsamic, to be exact.

I'm a bit obsessed with balsamic anything, and it was just the thing to cut the sweetness of the pancakes. We picked up these three little friends at the farmer's market last weekend. They are all delicious. The woman makes her own special flavor blends, and I'm grateful for every single one. That blackberry ginger is going to be so good on some vanilla coconut ice cream...

Tasty, Tasty Harmony

There is an all vegetarian, predominantly vegan restaurant that we love, called Tasty Harmony. I had to share these pictures of the insanely delicious food they have, even though said pictures are from my phone and, as a result, a bit blurry. All of the food pictured here is totally vegan, and completely wonderful.

 Vegan quesadillas with black beans, yam, and assorted veggies, drizzled with vegan sour cream and cashew  cheese.

 Yam with chocolate chili, drizzled with more vegan sour cream and cashew cheese. Topped with chopped green onions.

But this, this is my favorite- nachos with jackfruit "pulled pork", black beans, vegan sour cream, cashew cheese, guac, pico de gallo, and homemade chips.

If you ever have the chance to try out jackfruit prepared as meat, please do so. Jackfruit is crazy, in that the texture is so similar to pulled pork/brisket. If you get the kind canned in brine, it's not sweet, and you can marinate it in/rub it with whatever spice you want. I'm still trying to find some jackfruit around here so that I can try out a jackfruit recipe. Colorado doesn't have nearly as many Asian groceries as Texas, so I'm hoping to pick some up at the huge Asian World Market in Dallas when I'm back in Texas.

My Kitchen: Simple, Frugal, Functional

I thought I'd give you all a tour of my kitchen. It's a pretty typical apartment kitchen- not very large, with an open bar to the living room and dining room. But honestly? I prefer this size because I joke that from the center I can "work the room" like I'm in a control center. Two steps in any direction, or a quick turn on my heel, and I can reach my oven/stove/microwave, sink, fridge, or pantry. I can easily clean as I go along, since I'm forced to if I want to maintain order and space availability. There isn't the option of just piling things on an island, or a stretch of counter- it's necessary to rinse, clean, and dishwasher load as I'm cooking, which makes clean up a snap. Usually the only clean up when I'm done cooking is the dinner dishes and whatever pots I used :)

This is the view from the corner of the bar, standing in the living room.

This is the view standing in the entrance of the kitchen. That skinny door is our pantry, and the trash can lives there too.

I've said it before, but I adore my spice rack. It's actually a corner shelf for a bathtub, and it works like a charm. I dislike spice storage systems that require you to use specific bottles that fit into specific holders. I also dislike how small generic spice holders usually are- I think this holds somewhere around 35-40 spice bottles. It was under $20 (far cheaper than any of the dinky wooden spice racks I priced at several stores) and it was easy to bolt to the wall on the side.

I love these canisters. They were purchased piece by piece at 3 different thrift stores, and all together they total less than $15. They are all sturdy ceramic, with good clasps. From left to right I have brown sugar, turbinado (raw) sugar, wheat gluten, baking powder, cornmeal, wheat flour, and sugar. This set up makes baking and cooking so much easier than fussing with bags and jars. On the far right are my two wooden cutting boards- the one on the bottom was my Great Granny's, the small one on top I got from Target. I use the small one for chopping onions and garlic, because even with vinegar rinses the wood can hold on to strong smells so it's just easier to work separately.

This is a close up of the top picture on the back wall. It's actually a gift bag that I purchased for $1. I like how quirky it is. Bobby says it reminds him of Russian religious icons. The frame was given to me.

The picture below it is a postcard I got from PETA, of cows congregating around an angel statue. I purchased the frame for $1, and since it wasn't made to hang up I used a bit of yarn and a tack to hang it.

On top of the fridge are jars of couscous and pasta, as well as any crackers we might have on hand. I've had these baskets for 5 years now, and they were $2 and $4 respectively. Since I'm short, I don't mind blocking the cupboards above the fridge because this is a more practical and accessible storage solution.

The inside of the cupboard to the bottom left of the stove. This is every single pot and pan I own, along with a large bowl in the background and my colander nested inside it. I cook a lot, but I've never needed anything more than these pots. The one on the very top is non-stick, but everything else is stainless steel, purchased secondhand or given to me. Oh, and that white shelf? It's awesome. It keeps me from having to nest every pot and pan into a teetering tower of mess and chaos.

The cupboard to the bottom right of my stove. This is all of my casserole/baking dishes/muffin tins, with the exception of two cookie sheets in another cupboard. Again, another white shelf makes the cupboard far more functional. The two Pyrex dishes on the bottom nesting together get the most use, and it's easy to slide them in and out instead of having to dig them out from under a pile of their friends.

To the right of the stove- all of the cooking knives, olive oil bottle with a drizzle top, and all cooking utensils.

This is the baking/tea cupboard, to the left of the microwave. Food processor and measuring cups/spoons on bottom, various baking items middle (with another handy white shelf), and tins/boxes of tea on top.

This is the view from the back wall of the kitchen, looking out into the dining room. That shelf you see in the background holds cookbooks and 4 mixing bowls nested together. Oh, and we use all cloth dish rags and napkins, which you can see draped over the sink. The yellow is for counters, the blue is for dishes (I like to keep them separate, what can I say :)

So that's it! On a final note, I used to have about double the amount of pots, pans, utensils, and kitchen gadgets that I have now. Then one day I realized how redundant most of them were, culled them out, and ever since I'm pretty much anti-gadget. It makes kitchen organizing so much easier, and it saves a ton of money too. I don't like clutter and superfluous decorations, but I still think that for how streamlined and small our kitchen is (and how little money was spent on it) it's functional without looking too sterile. If there was a window in this kitchen it would be just about perfect :)