A Whole Lotta Food

First up is an amazingly yummy curry posted originally by Fairly Odd Tofu Mom a while back. It’s Aloo Mutter Gobi (Spicy Cauliflower, Potatoes and Peas). I saw it again on Veg-a-nut's blog and she was raving about it. Like veg-a-nut I used less oil and light coconut milk. I also used edamame in place of the peas. I have to agree with veg-a-nut, it is soooo good! Anytime I have made Indian food before it’s never been quite as good as from a restaurant, but (even if I do say so myself!!) this could easily have came from a top notch Indian restaurant! Wee G was well impressed! So, thank you Fairly Odd Tofu Mom for this wonderful recipe! I will be making it again many times I am sure!

I also made some garlic and coriander naan bread to go along with it. I forgot to add the baking powder and only realised just before I was going to cook them...oops! So I tried to knead the baking powder in to the dough!! They actually came out reasonably well considering!

Then I still had some coconut milk left over so used it making this Coconut Millet Pudding. I got the idea from a recipe on the millet packet that used dried coconut. I missed out the dried coconut and used the coconut milk in place of some of the soy milk in the recipe. It came out pretty nice, but slightly dry and I had to add more soy milk after it was cooked. Yummy served with a dollop of jam. It wasn’t very coconutty mind you...

Artichokes were on sale in their thousands in Trader Joe’s last week and I’ve only ever eaten them a couple of times before so I jumped at the opportunity to try them again. I followed the instructions I found on this web site and served them with some melted Earth Balance margarine and some Vegenaise (thinned down a little). I know that you eat far from the whole thing, I was a little disappointed that for all the effort there really was next to nothing to eat...I couldn’t even find much in the way of hearts in them. I probably ate more mayo and margarine than artichokes!!

Another exciting find, at Whole Foods this time, was Living Harvest Hemp Milk. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as hemp milk and was keen to try it in the hopes it would be a nice alternative to my usual soy milk. First of all I drank it plain and I really didn’t like it. A couple of mouthfuls was more than enough! It was kind of nutty, but even after a good shake it seemed a little oily to me. However I did use it to make a quick smoothie the next day and I was happy to find that I couldn’t taste the yucky flavour this time (smoothie made with 1.5 cups hemp milk, 2 dates and a banana). If I was to continue to buy it I would probably use it mostly as an ingredient until I got a bit more used to the flavour.

This is some scrambled tofu from VWaV with added courgettes and broccoli. This is so good and makes a great brekkie with some whole wheat toast.

This is a mix of two recipes I have posted about previously – Far East Spicy Tofu and Tofu and Pineapple Stir Fry. It was basically Meoldy’s sauce from the Far East Spicy Tofu with tofu and fresh pineapple, broccoli and mushrooms. It was gorgeous! I love Melody’s sauce...it’s so tasty!

Mexican Weekend

On Saturday for dinner I made some Mexican Rice. I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com and adapted it. I love the spices in this and the colours from the tomatoes, green pepper, sweetcorn and green chickpeas. It’s very flavoursome and not too spicy.

Then on Sunday we went out to eat at Sharky’s, a Mexican fast food kind of restaurant nearby. I forgot to take photos, but I had a yummy fajita plate that had spicy tofu, veggies (onions, squash, courgettes), organic rice and beans and guacamole served with flour tortillas. Very tasty and I love that they offer tofu as a fajita/burrito/taco filling.

Mexican Recipe (Serves 2-3)

½ cup brown rice
1 cup water
½ medium onion, diced
2 tsps vegetable oil
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 garlic clove, crushed
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander seed
2 tsps paprika
1 pinch red pepper flakes
¼ tsp Tabasco sauce
1 green pepper
1 can tomatoes, chopped
1 cup frozen, sweetcorn, defrosted
1 cup cooked chickpeas
Salt to taste

Place rice and water in medium pot. Bring to boil and simmer for around 35 minutes until cooked. In a large frying pan heat oil over a medium high heat. Add onions and pepper and cook for around 5 minutes. Add garlic, turmeric, cumin, coriander seed, paprika and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, Tabasco, sweetcorn and rice and stir through until heated thoroughly. Add salt to taste.

Increase Tabasco and red pepper flakes if you like it spicy.

Serve topped with avocado/guacamole or vegan sour cream and chopped fresh coriander (cilantro).

Brown Rice and Green Lentils, Baked Portobello Mushrooms, Cornmeal Coated Tofu and Bean Salad

This rice and lentils recipe came from a recipe book I had years ago. I no longer have the book as it, and several of my other cookbooks, met a soggy end when I had the great idea of storing them near the sink. I have pretty much the worst memory of anyone I know so when I thought about making this recipe I remembered there was rice and lentils and ummmm..... Well, I think there was onions, garlic and soy sauce and there might have been thyme. So that’s what I put in and it turned out really yummy. I also had a search on the internet and found a few recipes that had fried, caramelised onions included which sounds really yummy. I am certain that the onions in my cookbook were cooked along with the lentils and rice so I did that to keep the fat content down. I had it with a baked Portobello Mushroom and broccoli. I like some strange combinations sometimes... :)
Next to the Balsamic Strawberries this is my new favourite thing – Bean Salad. Not very exciting, just a mix of chickpeas, edamame, green beans, sweetcorn, red onion, parsley and Simple Cider Vinaigrette from Vive Le Vegan! It is so yummy! I made a ton of Rice and Lentils so I had plenty left over and next day for lunch I had some with the bean salad on top. I added some home grown mung bean sprouts (that is about as green fingered as I get). Delish!

I bought some cornmeal recently for a recipe I was going to make, but I forgot what it was (see what I mean about my memory?!) so I thought I would use some to make this Cornmeal Coated Tofu. Wee G liked that they looked like fish fingers (fish sticks) and wanted to know if I could make them taste kind of fishy. I think I could use some kind of seaweed, but I don’t really know anything about seaweed. We tried sprinkling them with some kelp granules but I think those taste salty rather than fishy. Any suggestions?

Far East Spicy Tofu and Green Beans

What could me more fun than testing recipes? Not much, that’s why when Melody at Melomeals.com was looking for recipe testers I volunteered straight away! She is hoping to publish her own cookbook in the future, and if all the recipes are like this one then I expect she will do very well!

This is a simple to make, spicy dish that was filling and aromatic. We loved it and had it for dinner one night and then lunch too the next day. The only thing I will do differently next time is that we will probably have some other veggie in place of the green beans as Wee G isn’t too keen on them. Head over to Melomeals.com to see Melody’s pic of this delicious dish.

Tofu and Pineapple Stir Fry

I bought a fresh pineapple and wanted to do something other than eat it “as is” because that’s what we usually do. I found this recipe in Carol Vorderman’s Detox For Life. In the book the recipe actually uses tinned pineapple, but Wee G and I agreed that the best part of it was definitely the fresh pineapple. It’s a very basic recipe and garlic and ginger are the only added flavours. I was concerned that it may be bland so I marinated the tofu for a little while in some tamari and apple cider vinegar (as per the stir fry in Vive Le Vegan!) before frying it and then added the tamari/vinegar to the stir fry at the end. It was nice, but still not the most flavoursome meal. I would only make it again if I had some fresh pineapple going spare.

Chinese New Year and Pancake Day

I am little late posting these pics we took on Sunday at Chinese New Year. We went to a vegetarian Chinese restaurant called Garden Wok in Tarzana that we found out about on the internet a while ago and just got round to trying out. Almost everything on the menu was vegan. The three or so things that weren’t were clearly marked. We decided to order the Complete Dinner which included an appetizer sampler, soup, entrée and ice cream to finish. Needless to say it was far too much! It was really scrummy and we will definitely be back. The photos were all taken on my phone so they are not the greatest...
Spring roll, crispy wonton and chicken drumstick (the drumstick wasn’t actually vegan...I probably should have asked them to miss it out or substitute it, but I forgot when ordering).
My Corn Tofu soup. I realised when eating this that it has been years since I have eaten any kind of soup in a Chinese restaurant. I am never quite convinced that it will be vegetarian, but in this case I was pretty sure!
Wee G had Wonton soup. He also tried mine and said mine was better...ha ha!!

“Chicken” curry. This was Wee G’s main course. He really enjoyed it as he always loves getting curry at the Chinese places at home. This was a little spicier than most at home, but he still loved it!
For my main, I got Asian Flavoured Tofu. It came with a choice of sauce and I chose home style. It was so nice...a little sweet and a little spicy and a whole lot yummy! I really love fried tofu from the Chinese, but I prefer a little less tofu and a little more veggies on my plate, so I will have to find something more veggielicous next time...any excuse to go back!!

I never got a photo of the ice cream...we were too busy eating it!! I had cherry soy ice cream and Wee G had blueberry...yum!

And today is Pancake Day which is traditionally the day to use up all the stuff you’re supposed to give up for lent. I think it’s generally called Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) here in the U.S. We are not religious, but always happy to eat pancakes!! We had these yesterday for brunch as Wee G had the day off work. I always use this recipe (halved, and omitting the oil) for our pancakes and I usually use about half whole wheat flour and half white flour. Yesterday I made them with all whole wheat pastry flour and they were so good!! I only recently discovered whole wheat pastry flour and now I am using it for everything! For about the first six mouthfuls all I could get out of Wee G was “Mmmmmmmmmmmm”, so I think he liked them!


We had these with some apple, mango and kiwi fruit, a drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon!

Spreads and Sandwiches

I like margarine a lot, but let’s face it, it’s just a tub of fat destined to make your bum bigger. So, when I found a recipe for Easy Veggie Butter in How It All Vegan using tofu I had to try it. It’s basically tofu and oil blended together with a little salt for flavour and a little turmeric for colour. I usually use Earth Balance Whipped which has about 144g fat per cup, whereas this has about 33g fat per cup. That’s about 78% less fat! It whips up in a flash and you can slather it on your toast for 78% less guilt!
Once you have made your Easy Veggie Butter you can then progress to adding other stuff in to it and transforming it in to a spectacular sandwich spread. Next recipe along from the butter in the book is Stephanie’s Nummy Yummy Veggie Spread. Let’s just call it Nummy Spread for short. This adds herbs, garlic, tomato, peppers and onion.
And if you feel you haven’t added enough yet, you can do what I did and mash up some chickpeas and mix them in to the nummy spread to make a super spectacular sandwich spread.
This is the final sandwich with some lettuce, tomato and guacamole added. I also attempted to make a cute little radish rosette like Jennifer’s at Vegan Lunch Box. I didn’t bother to go back and look at Jennifer’s photo before making my radish rosette, if I had it might have turned out a little better...or perhaps not! This is another sandwich using the same sandwich spread. No chickpeas this time, but I have added lettuce, yellow pepper, tomato and cucumber.

So, the Easy Veggie Spread is great on toast. It doesn’t taste much like margarine before you put it on something else though... On it’s own it does just kind of taste like tofu and oil. The nummy spread is a nice change for eating on a sandwich. I did find the onion and garlic a little strong, so I’d probably cut down on them next time and maybe add some different veggies.

BBQ Pomegranate Tofu (Crunchy Style)

I am not the biggest fan of BBQ sauce, but I wanted to try BBQ Pomegranate Tofu from Vegan With A Vengeance for Wee G because he’s into that kind of thing. Plus I saw this pomegranate glaze in Trader Joe’s and figured it must be pretty much the same thing as the pomegranate molasses called for in the recipe. It looks like molasses...all thick and syrupy. This is actually the second time I have made this tofu. The first time I made it I found it a bit sickly sweet so this time I cut down on the maple syrup, but I have to say it was still too sweet for me. Wee G agreed that it was too sweet as well, so unfortunately that is the end of BBQ Pomegranate Tofu in our house. The thing is, the pomegranate glaze is yummy on it’s own, so I will need to find some other ways of using it up. I think maybe it would be nice in salad dressing. In the photo we had some stir fried baby bok choy and some Thai Coconut Rice (not the recipe for Coconut Rice from VWaV, but similar). The sauce looks kind of lumpy cos I used crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth.

And a bit of peanut butter trivia: According to ilovepeanutbutter.com 60% of consumers prefer smooth over crunchy peanut butter. Pah! In the minority again! But at least I can be thankful I don’t suffer from Arachibutyrophobia which is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. If you do suffer from this rare condition then you will be glad to know that for $147 you can find help here . My advice to sufferers is don’t eat peanut butter...and there’s no charge for that :)