Potatoes Galore & Wild Rice Salad

Vegetarian Magic (potato salad only)

Richard is obsessed with potatoes right now. I made these hashed browns by using my mandoline slicer at 1/8″ thick, slicing the potatoes, and then stacking them and chopping them into smaller pieces, adding about 1 onion and 2 T. of olive oil to the preheated cast-iron skillet, cooking on low-medium with the lid on. I will have to make these crispier and cancerous, because that’s exactly what he wants. Weirdo…

The potato salad is good. I never used to like omni/lacto-ovo ones, but vegan mayonaisse is tasty. This has Yukon Gold potatoes, red bell pepper, carrot, onion, celery, Vegenaise, mustard, celery seed, and a touch of cayenne. I added flax oil, too, but used less Vegenaise than called for.

The wild rice salad has orange dressing, with hemp oil and vitamin B-12, sunflower seeds, and cranberries.  Very refreshing!  gluten-free

I’m making a few more things, seitan & buckwheat noodles with green onions, teriyaki seitan, green beans with almonds and margarine, and some roasted asparagus, but I think I’m done with photos for now.

As a side note, the blueberry muffins I made yesterday were very good cold today.  So there you have it!

I have no idea why this whole post is a link to the wild rice salad picture!

Hempnut Brownies

 

Hempnut Cookbook

Check it out, brownies that don’t stick to the glass pan!    Lessens my cleanup time.  These turned out really good, but I’ll warn you – they are crunchy brownies, not chewy or cakey.  They also are higher in fat than some other recipes but great flavor.  contains wheat

Tacos & Tortilla Soup & Miscellaneous

 

Vegetarian Magic (soup only)

I know the tortilla soup picture didn’t come out the greatest, but this soup was fab!  It has onions, garlic, tomatillos, red bell pepper, tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro, corn, spices, and of course tortillas.  Loved it!  Was gluten-free, too.

I made the tacos with seitan and an organic taco seasoning mix.  The refried beans have pinto beans, onion, garlic, and spices.  The rice is simply brown rice with salsa.  And the gaucamole, in its creamy gloriousness, has tomato, onion, lime juice, garlic, and cumin.  contains wheat

I made blueberry muffins from Tofu & Soyfoods Cookery today that taste great but they didn’t turn out perfectly.  A bit too moist.  Eh, we’ll eat ‘em.  Also, I don’t like how this book has recipes with isolated soy protein.  I can see people using TVP even though I personally don’t consider it healthy, but isolated soy protein?  Huh?  Why?

I am going on vacation soon, so this might be the last picture, unless I make something tomorrow morning for Rich.  He totally needs help with food!  I will probably have some pre-made stuff for him.  I’m going to see my sister, nephew, and brother-in-law, so I will attach a picture.  My sister is my best friend and we used to look like twins, but now my hair is lighter.  <3  She’s on the left; I’m on the right; this is at my brother’s wedding in February this year.  My mom is also in the picture.

I have two product recommendations today.  First is Good Karma Foods Organic Rice Cream, especially the carrot cake flavor.  These are soy- and gluten-free items, fairly healthy, and I am so wowed by the flavor.  I thought Temptation was the best vegan ice cream out there, but now I’m not so sure.  I found myself looking at the calories and mentally calculating how much the whole pint would be. 

Lastly is Dr. Praeger’s burger.  I first had one in South Bend, IN and hadn’t been able to find them since.  They are all vegetable and grain burgers; the one I had before was Tex-Mex.  Today I found California style!  Yay!  The only downside is that they are not organic. 

I emailed Sunshine Burgers to find out where to get those in IN.  Hopefully they respond.  (See Eat Peace Please’s blog)

Easy, Low-Fat Spring Rolls

These spring rolls, in constrast to my three-hour prep time rolls, are a cinch, but not quite as flavorful.  Still good!  They merely have mung bean thread noodles, carrots, green onion, pepper, and sesame oil in the middle, wrapped in one layer of spring roll wrapper (get them at Asian markets, no egg or artificial colors), sealed with a flour and water mixture, and then baked at 400 F for about 20 min.  I sprayed them with oil; this is much lower in fat than the spring rolls I made previously, where they were brushed with oil and then also pan-fried in oil after baking.  I realized that part of my mistake was using a double wrapper previously, so the roll didn’t get as crispy.  Sweet & sour sauce is fairly simple to make as well.  I didn’t dirty a single measuring spoon for this one!  We also had pineapple rice leftovers.  contains wheat

Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce and Thai Tofu

 

Rebar Modern Food (omnivorous)

Note:  This cookbook gets the dreaded omnivorous mark of death due to having fish and other sealife flesh and fish sauce in recipes, even though it was supposed to be a vegetarian cookbook.  Most recipes are easily made vegan and it is veg-friendly.

The stir-fry here is super flavorful!  I’m very glad I made it.  The tofu is marinated overnight or during the day for 8 hours and pan-fried til crispy.  The peanut sauce is coconuty with a hint of heat.  I unfortunately didn’t have any tofu marinade left to season the vegetables but they were still good, seasoned with the peanut oil I used.  gluten-free

Green Mango Salad

 

The Nut Gourmet

The salad has unripened mango, jicama, red onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, lime juice, rice vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, peanuts, and sweetener.  I also added guacamole.  It was pretty good – I’m not quite sure I like jicama or unripened mangos!  gluten-free

Tofu Fried Steak with Potatoes, Kale, Biscuits, and Corn

Cooking Gluten-Free! [omnivorous] and Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey

I cannot believe this recipe for tofu-fried steak!  Seriously, it tastes eerily similar to a crunchy, coated chicken.  Not necessarily the chicken flavor but the texture, and if I were at a restaurant as opposed to making it myself, I might question what in the world I was eating!  Rich and I gobbled it up!  The gravy recipe is from the same book.  I made everything gluten-free, subbing a g-f flour mixture for the wheat/all-purpose called for. 

The buttermilk biscuits are from Cooking Gluten-Free!  They were okay, a little dry because I had to add more flour than called for, and I didn’t want to spread a pad of margarine on them, considering the recipe made 6 biscuits and had 1/2 c. of margarine already.  (Plus, the tfs takes some oil, about 2 to 3 T. per batch (4 at a time x 2)). They are good, just not awesome or anything.  I will have some with jam tomorrow for breakfast.  They have a gluten-free mostly rice flour mix plus teff flour.

Then we have our kale and corn on the cob!  gluten-free

 As a side note, I really debated whether to get this book.  While I understand why it was titled the way it was, I do not think of having tofu or any other plant-based food as “instead” of a flesh food or secretion, since I don’t believe humans should be eating the animal foods and torturing/killing non-humans in the first place.

No Added Sugar Apple Pie

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Sugar-Free Cooking With Stevia [omnivorous]

Mmm, this pie is very good! The recipe, including the crust, is very simple and easy to make and turns out wonderful. You can see that the crust is flaky and perfect texture. I used whole-grain spelt flour. Adding a little sugar and some health to the mix, we had Soyatoo whipped cream on top and a drizzle of agave nectar-cinnamon-flax oil mixture. wheat-free

 Does anyone elsel really love this stevia stuff?!

Tofu Spring Rolls w/ Spicy Sauce

Fresh & Fast Vegan Pleasures

This isn’t exactly from F&F but based off of a recipe in there, the mushroom wontons.  I used tofu instead of mushrooms, and then realized I just didn’t have the patience to wrap 25 wontons tonight (or why should I any night, when you get more food with a spring roll?!).  So here they are, even baked crispy, no pan-frying or deep-frying necessary.  Both of us loved them!  contains wheat

Pineapple w Rice & Vegetables

The Nut Gourmet

Rice with cashews, tofu, red bell pepper, carrot, green onion, garlic, ginger, broccoli, peas, and pineapple, all stuffed into one convenient bowl.  GREAT recipe, although I did add my own preference of vegetables and cashews instead of peanuts.  gluten-free