More adventures feeding Omnivores

Tonight my dinner guest was my fabulous German friend, Sunny. I met her at the gym I work at and loved that she's always wearing yellow! Matching your clothes to your name=winning. Sunny is a music therapist and was in charge of the tunes while I supplied the culinary magic. Sometimes Germans have amazing taste (hello electronic music) and sometimes questionable taste (David Hasselhoff anyone?). This was displayed beautifully by the Macarena and Chicken Dance sandwiched in between other amazing music that didn't make your ears bleed :D. Germans also have a reputation for a serious love afair with meat, so I was a bit nervous about the response to vegan food. For our culinary delight, we had Chickpea and Spinich curry from Vegan with a vengance.

I realize this doesn't look that awesome. Lighting was poor and curry is hard to make look pretty.

 For the second round, I made avocado chocolate mousse on fresh local strawberries.

Here's a little secret-if you dessert looks like turds, shredded coconut hides a multitude of sins.

I picked these bitches myself (in a mini skirt no less) so was extra proud of them! Dessert and dinner were enthusiastically recieved! Woo hoo. Winning over German Omnivores-check mark!

Sunny may never talk to me again. We laughed at this picture for two hours and I promised not to post it on the internet. I lied.

Whipped Creme:The Holy Grail

There are some things that are (in my humble opinion) unduplicatable. Brie. Deviled eggs. Whipped creme. UNTIL NOW! Now don't let my shouty capitals alarm you, but feel free to let them excite you right down to your undies. Vegan whipped creme is here, and it's so flippin amazing you'll want it to take a bath in it.

It comes, of course, from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who has come up with pretty much every one of my very favorite recipes. I was going to blog about something else tonight, but when my new buddy Shannon found out there was a recipe for vegan whipped creme-there was no other choice. The recipe for Rad Whip, in all it's glory! Don't let the complicated steps throw you off, it doesn't take more than about 20 minutes of active work and the results are out of control. Get ready for all kinds of whipped creme madness!

Book Review: Appetite for Reduction

I've been a bit of a slacky blogger as of late, so to make it up to you- I'm going to sift through some food porn, write up some of my favorite dishes and hopefully blow your ever loving mind with vegan goodness. Before I do that, I have to gush about my favorite Christmas present. I've been an obsessive fan girl since I picked up Isa's first book "Vegan with a vengeance". At that time, I was a new vegetarian with the cooking skills of a seventh grader. A lot of the recipes sounded amazing, but had weird ingredients that required some searching and a lot of trying strange things. They also required skills and time management in the kitchen that I didn't have yet. So I made lists, went on ingredient treasure hunts and dove in feet first. I had so many delicious results that I had to have each book as they came out (many were co-authored by the awesome Terry Hope Romero, who me and Jules got to see in person at the Toronto Veg fest) :Veganomicon, Vegan brunch, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, and Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar. I couldn't even begin to choose a favorite. Veganomicon is a vegan Bible, with basics like how to cook rice and beans plus recipes for just about every veggie or occasion under the sun. Vegan brunch has the best tempeh bacon in the world. As for cupcakes and cookies, I use these about every other day. Certainly not healthy, but amazingly delicious! When I want to show people how fantastic vegan food can taste, I look no further than these two. Appetite for Reduction doesn't have deserts, but it makes up for it with incredible, fast and easy recipes. All are under 400 calories and many are under 200; if you care about that sort of thing. Our favorite so far has been the Caesar Chavez salad with eggplant bacon. It's creamy, it's smokey, it made me weep with happiness. We also loved the blackened tofu with butternut squash coconut rice. Epic win! Isa started off in Brooklyn, and an international flavour in her cuisine really shines through.Check out some food porn from the book here. If you are just starting your vegan journey, are veg curious, or just looking for some great new cookbooks-I highly recommend picking up one of these bad boys. You might start a novice, but you'll leave a pro!

It's mother pumpkin muffin time!

Yay, fall! All the cliched fall things are here, and after 4 years in Texas everything is new and exciting again. Changing leaves! Meals from a crock pot! Pumpkin in a can! No wait, pumpkin in a can isn't very exciting. Until now! *cue high temp Euro pop music and imagine me dancing* I am going to impart to you what is promised to be "The best pumpkin muffin" recipe, and so far the hype has legit. I got this book from "Vegan with a Vengeance", which in my humble opinion is the very first book you should add to your vegan cookbook collection. This recipe is at least marginally healthy, and if you swap the white flour for whole wheat, half the sugar and use apple sauce instead of oil- you can eat it for breakfast guilt free. Or just make it as is and eat 4 for breakfast because you deserve it :)

The Best Pumpkin Muffins

From Vegan with a Vengeance

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 TBS baking powder

1/4 TSP salt

1 TSP ground cinnamon

1/2 TSP ground nutmeg

1/2 TSP ground ginger

1/4 TSP ground allspice

1/8 TSP ground cloves

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 TBS molasses

Preheat oven to 400f. Lightly grease or line a twelve muffin (or mini muffin but reduce cooking time accordingly) tin. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, soy milk, oil and molasses. Pour the wet and dry together and mix. Fold in a cup of chopped walnut/fresh or dried cranberries/combo/or not. Fill cups and bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick or knife in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Curried Carrot Bisque

Have you been searching for dish that tells people you're both wordly and sophisticated? Your mullet and neck tattoo may have thrown them off before-but no more! Curried carrot bisque to the rescue. This fancy soup has it all-cheap to make but high on looks and mass appeal. Chock full of carroty goodness, this soup is a perfect way to welcome fall! It also comes from one of the most bad ass chef's around, Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Make sure to bookmark the Post Punk Kitchen website, these dishes are the bomb! I like to garnish with cashew creme and cilantro.

Prep time: 10 cooking time: 30

Equipment: Large soup pot

Ingredients:3 pounds carrots (about 6 large), peeled and cut into a little small than 1/2 inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped 2 tbsp peanut oil (vegetable oil will do)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp curry powder

3 cups vegetable broth or water and 1 bullion cube

1/2 tsp salt

1 13 oz can coconut milk

1 tbsp maple syrup

fresh black pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large soup pan over low-medium heat, cook the onions and carrots in the peanut oil for 7-10 minutes, cover and stir occasionally. You want the onions to get brown, but not to burn, although if they burn a little bit it's not the end of the world. Add garlic and curry and salt, saute 1 more minute. Add 3 cups water, cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer, 10-12 minutes, or until carrots are tender.Add the coconut mik and bring to a low boil. Turn the heat off. Use a submersion blender to puree half of the soup, if you don't have a submersion blender then puree half the soup in a blender and add it back to the soup pot. Add the maple syrup and stir, serve hot.

http://theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=249

Enjoy!

Vegan cupcakes take over this blog

This blog seems to be as good a time as any to profess my deep and obsessive love for all things Isa Chandra Moskowitz. If I had a vegan guru, Isa would be it. She authored a group of cookbooks that combined amazing vegan food, cooking lessons, sharp dialogue and general bad ass-ery. I first fell in love with "Vegan with a Vengeance" and have bought every cookbook of hers since (a tip for all you cookbook collectors-check Amazon first, amazing deals!). People often think that being a vegan must be very restrictive. Turns out that instead of eating less kinds of foods, I eat way more! Things like leeks, mustard greens, beets, tempeh and the list goes on and on.( I know that might not seem appealing AT ALL to the masses, but you don't know what you're missing!) I wouldn't know the first thing to do with them if it weren't for this creative cook. Plus, it all just tastes so freakin' good. Isa, if you are ever directed to this blog while randomly Googling your own name-you complete me (in the kitchen). Thank you for making me want many random food themed tattoos (which I won't get because I am too yellow bellied), for teaching me how to freestyle, for helping me not wreck my kid's birthday celebration with weird hippie food, and for Punk Rock chickpea gravy. Since this blog was supposed to be about cupcakes I won't go into the gravy today, but even writing about it means I must have it for dinner. So back to cupcakes. Who doesn't love a fancy, cakey, individual cups of perfection? Being a vegan doesn't mean having to give up decadence and treats, it just means finding other ingredients to get the job done. Vegan baking tends to have a bad rap, as one of my favorite people once said "That shit is dense." I've made three different kinds now from "Vegan Cupcakes take over the world" with mixed results. Vanilla agave with chocolate buttercream frosting were meh. The frosting was out of this world, but the cupcake part was no good. It all worked out though, since this kind was for the kids and I have yet to see a child eat the cakey part regardless of what it's made of. Red Velvet however were super-hyper-mega yum. I think the difference was that this kind used oil. I've said it before and since I'm a one trick pony I'll say it again, fat=taste. The last type were maple cupcakes with maple brown sugar glazed walnuts. The walnuts alone made me want to cry with happiness. That last batch weren't for an occasion like the birthday cupcakes, but cupcakes make any day celebratory. Since they were maple, they are automatically an old Canadian family recipe and needed flags. So, try your hand at vegan cupcakes and please invite me over!

Vegetarian Chilli: A food cliche

Is there anything more overdone in the vegetarian world than veggie chilli? Hellz yes, it's name is the veggie burger. The only thing though, is that chilli is warm, homey and easy to make. There is a reason it's repeated at nauseum. On the chopping block for this evening was Field Roast Chipotle Sausage. If you've never tried Field Roast, you haven't lived. It is way, waaaaaaaay better than any other fake meat I've ever tried (I'm looking at you Tofurkey-gag). It is in no way a diet food, with roughly 20 grams of fat per link. That's why it taste so delish, fat = taste. They come in Italian, apple sage and chipotle-all of which we tried and loved in a borderline obsessive way. I've been so congested lately that spicy was in order. For this little ditty, I used garlic, red pepper and frozen corn. I also cooked up a mixture of chickpeas, pinto and black beans. Making your own beans is easy peasy and cheap. They usually say to soak overnight, but it seems like every time I do that it's epic fail. So, just a rinse and then boil them until soft-usually a few hours. I added all of those things to a pan with two chipotle sausages, plus a can of organic tomato sauce and a can of water. I then added salt to taste and about 1-2 tbs chilli powder. I simmered for about 30 minutes while I whipped up a batch of Jalapeno cornbread biscuits. Costco has these dehydrated jalapeno pieces that are the bomb for cooking with. *swoon* The recipe for the biscuits came out of " Vegan Brunch" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Isa is my vegan superhero. I'll save my love fest for some other blog because I need more room, but if you need a good place to start your vegan cookbook collection-start with hers.
I added some lime to my chilli to replace the sour taste I once got from sour cream. A little cilantro and this bitch was dreamy.