Red Lentil Soup

I have a ton of things I want to blog about but currently I am fighting the feeling that I am coming down with something as I can't stop sneezing and my head feels like it was hit with a brick.

I will have to make due with a short post filled with a yummy dinner I made last night based loosely on this recipe by Fat Free Vegan.  I googled red lentil soup and hers was the first one I looked at.  I didn't have time to read what Vadouvan is and I still have not, but I did base my soup on hers.  I used some mustard seeds, onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, and paprika and cooked them up with the red lentils and water.  After 20 minutes I added a little salt and a can of fire roasted tomatoes.  I then served it up on top of a bed of swiss chard along side a salad.

 

After the soup sat for a minute or two, I stirred in the chard.  This was delicious!  More on the salad and those seeds topping it another time when I don't feel like my head is going to explode!

The Future of Food

I just watched The Future of Food on Hulu.  I wish every single person in the world would watch this documentary.  More importantly, I want to know if our president has seen it.  I wonder if I wrote him a letter if he would write back.  Or an email?  Anyone ever contacted a politician?  Regardless, watch the documentary if you haven't seen it.  Meanwhile, I'm going to be looking for ways to get involved.  Wish me luck!

Cupcakes!

So, if you thought this was rainbow frosting then you are pretty gullible.  Do you believe everything the interwebs tell you?  This is in fact, rainbow cupcake batter!

 My mom has taught me many things over the past 25 years and making rainbow cakes and decorating them happens to be one of my favorites!

I absolutely love how these turned out!

They are so perfect for this little hippie.  :-)

 

 I used these silicone baking cups which I liked and disliked at the same time.  They were kind of small which meant more cupcakes but they also did not peel off very well.  Not too much of a problem according to everyone who tried them, but not quite what I expected. 

But who wants to hear about that when they can see the finished product?

Well, here you go!

 I only used 2 bags for the frosting and I didn't clean out the tips every time I switched colors which resulted in some pretty cool effects.  Like the green swirled in the blue on the bottom right cupcake.  And the heart changing colors on the bottom left.

And just for good measure, a couple of the other rainbow cupcakes.  Hope you enjoy!

The batter bubbled up and created these little blobs!  Teehee.  Ok, I'm done.  Really.  Really.

Peanut Butter Toast

This is something not new to my repertoire but I did try out a couple of twists last week.

First I was inspired by CCV to dip the toast in cinnamon and almond milk (though I took a shortcut and added the cinnamon to the milk)

Then one day I decided to forgo the milk at all and just sprinkled the cinnamon directly on the toast.

Yum!

I leave you with a tease of my cupcake post.  Is that rainbow frosting?  Guess you'll have to tune in to find out!

Semi Home Made Cooking with Allison

The other day I was really craving some cereal.  I haven't really eaten much cereal since going vegan because I don't care for soy milk that much and I tend to think of cereal as not as nutritious as other possible meal candidates.  Regardless, sometimes when you get a craving you just have to indulge.

I took some granola that I had made and mixed it with some agave until it made clusters.

Then I added some flake cereal that I had bought in an attempt to make a meatless loaf that never really worked out.  I topped the whole thing with some almond milk.

Let me tell you, this was addicting.  I ended up finishing all my granola and the rest of the box of cereal over the course of a week.  I have to say that I am pretty glad it is gone and I can go back to eating things more like this:

For which I have equal love (okay, maybe not quite equal, but don't tell the salad). 

Inspiration

When I started this blog I pretty much just wanted a place to record some of the yummy food that I made and possibly to show to friends and family if they ever asked what I eat as a vegan.  If I happened to gain some followers, all the better.  I am pretty sure that it was vegan blogs that are solely responsible for my being vegan and I have a lot of love for many bloggers I have never had the pleasure of talking to.  One blogger I have talked to and who continues to be a source of inspiration and a downright motivator for living an optimistic life is Chocolate Covered Katie.  Katie has such an enthusiastic view towards life and food that I find it hard to look away.  In fact, I spent a good portion of the weekend looking over her past posts.  This led to my making a few things and making a list of another gazillion that I want to make some day.  I have a few posts coming up about those adventures along with some cupcakes that I made for my Moms 60th Birthday which turned out so fantastic!  Tonight however, you'll have to make due with my Stir Fry dinner.

It wasn't my intention but once I saw it I couldn't resist recreating what Katie did here.

Stir Fry with Rice

What?  You say there's no rice?

There it is! (Katie, I hope you don't think I am crazy)

This was a really good stir fry.  The rice was just cooked with some carrots and peas and a little Bragg's.

 The veggies I actually steamed and my boyfriend stir fried the tofu (I could do without tofu to be honest).

 And now that he knows how to stir fry tofu, I never have to do it again.  Muahahahah.

Chocolate Covered Katie Love

Today I finally threw together some fudge babies following Katie's recipe.  I found a digital scale right before xmas and have loved having it.  I attempted 3 kinds.

First

Cashew Cookie Larabar
These ended up a little too gooey so I rolled them in shredded coconut.

Then I had a little fun and added some almonds to the top.

Next

 Original Fudge Babies

These were also a little gooey but I think my dates were extra juicy.  I think I could have added a few more walnuts.  But they weren't so gooey that I needed to roll them in coconut.

Finally I attempted the original fudge babies sans cocoa powder but with the addition of chocolate chips.  Unfortunately this one did not come together because it was a little wet.  Doesn't mean it wasn't delicious, it just didn't form into bars.

I also spent some of the day looking over Katie's older posts.  So far I want to try Texas Caviar and Sweet and Sour Seitan.  My boyfriend and I went to dinner at Sipz on Wednesday and though I am usually not the biggest fan of the restaurant or of imitation meat, their "chicken" had the most realistic texture ever.  I really want to try to master seitan.  When I was looking up seitan I came across this recipe that I also really want to try.

And in case you haven't heard, Katie is giving away a vita-mix blender.  If you have ever wanted one, I suggest you visit this page.

Thanks!

Banana Everything Cookies

Not the best picture in the world which is sad because these might be the best cookies in the world.  I cannot find the website I got this recipe from but I recall it saying it came from the New York Times originally...I think.

Doesn't really matter though, I am committing this recipe to heart and claiming it as my own.  Not too sure I will ever need another cookie recipe.  I was amazed at how little flour and how much oats this recipe called for.  The dough is a little sticky and hard to form (as you might see from the fact that I stopped forming them and just plopped them in little piles) but it is sooo delicious.  The first time I made these cookies I followed the recipe exactly as it was posted except I divided the batch in half and did one half with raisins and walnuts for myself and the other half with just chocolate chips for my boyfriend.  The second time I doubled the recipe but cut the sugar in half.  I feel like the banana, raisins and chocolate chips give enough sugar that I could almost completely omit it next time.  I also tried blending the banana, sugar, oil and vanilla in my blender and that worked so well. 

Without further ado, I give you:

Banana Everything Cookies
1 ripe medium banana
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour (plus 2 tbs if the dough is too wet)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Blend banana, oil, sugar and vanilla
Mix flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
Add wet to dry
Fold in oats, walnuts and chocolate chips

Roll into balls using wet hands or be lazy like me and just plop them on a parchment covered cookie sheet
Bake 10-12 minutes until just brown

Yield 2 dozen

And be careful, those 2 dozen will be gone in no time.  Especially if you think of them as breakfast food...nomnomnom.

Don't think that I have been eating nothing but cookies though, I did manage to make a pretty good soup today.

Lentils, corn, carrots, celery, red cabbage, swiss chard, onion and green onion.  I ate it cold with some sea salt and vinegar chips.

Last but not least, Katie of Chocolate Covered Katie is giving away a Vitamixer!  If you want to enter, go here and follow her directions.  I just recently acquired a digital scale and so I will be making some fudgie babies following the exact directions tomorrow and posting about it to get 6! extra entries.  So excited!  Katie, you rock!

Depression Hurts

Something or other can help

Not sure if that's the right tag line for that commercial, but you know the one?  Where they have pictures of inanimate objects that look like they are frowning and then smiling?  These remind me of that commercial.

For xmas my boyfriend got me 500 Vegan Recipes.  I love this book!  I have already made quite a few recipes out of it.  Starting with this one which is Cinnamon Quick Bread.  This bread was really simple and very delicious.

 Not sure my topping came out quite right, but good none the less.

Next, I made a dinner consisting of Au Gratin Potatoes and Riblets.

 

 The potatoes were a little too tofu-y and the riblets were a little too tough.  I might have cooked them too long.  Not too bad and with a few tweaks might be repeatable.

Finally, I made a breakfast cous cous from the book.  I added almond milk to each individual serving and added just a bit of agave because it was a little dry and bland, but I really liked the idea and it just happened that I had cous cous in my cupboard just waiting to be used.

Mmmm

I don't recall at this point which recipe I used to make the brownie (I believe I have it written somewhere in my kitchen) but these were some of the best brownies I have ever made and that includes the beet brownies which were darn good.  I topped this one with some vanilla coconut milk ice cream and some cocoa powder mixed with agave and water.  I may or may not have had this for dinner 2 nights in a row.

I don't feel so bad about that because I also had this delicious salad somewhere in there.

 Again, can't remember the specifics, but avocado, kalamata olives, spinach, tortilla strips and a dressing probably made of tahini and lemon juice.  Yum.  Now I wish I had eaten that for dinner.

I also made this delicious refrigerator soup using up the last of my veggies.  Red cabbage, chard, fresh corn, carrots, onion, a couple of potatoes and some fresh dill.  Man was it delicious.  I ate it with avocado and some rye toast with earth balance.  All in all I recreated this meal 3 times in 3 days.  Once with guacamole instead of plain avocado.  Yum.