Cooking away the cold ...

(updated)

LINK TO COOK BEHIND THE APRON
I have noticed other blogs I enjoy reading have been posting their 28 cooks "coming out". I did mine a few days ago, but wanted to add a link to it again.

Now back to food (my favorite subject)...
It is really cold here ..... like below zero cold and I'm not talking wind chill. BRRR! I live in an "extreme" (winter and summer temperature differences) weather area. As I was contemplating the ability to complain I decided to look through past blog entries to find warming thoughts, here is a link to a post I made in July when the thermometer was reading over 100 (and no not dry heat). I won't complain anymore. Instead I will begin to think different warm thoughts ... like crock pots and soup. The crock pot is god send, I love warm comforting food when I get home. Yesterday I made a recipe from Bryanna's Oct-Dec 2006 newsletter called LOCRO (a squash and vegetable stew). She didn't make it in the crock pot, but I did. I had it on low all day (about 8 hours) and it worked well. I used 2 3/4 cups mixed vegetables instead of the recommended corn and peas. I also made seasoned brown rice in the rice maker and refrigerated it for quick micro heating when I was ready to serve. Although the recipe looked simple and didn't stand out as exciting, it was excellent.... even DD said this is pretty good. It is pretty colorful too. I have a basket of four more butternut squash I want to use up so I'll be trying more recipes with them soon.

ON TO LUNCHES (Can you tell I'm having fun with these?)
This is a whole grain English muffin sandwich with one of Bryanna's crock pot steak patties / roasted red pepper and onion, a romaine salad with sprouts/ red pepper/ purple onion/ currants, homemade apple pie filling sprinkled with homemade granola, and "sushi" pickles that I made using a recipe from the book Summer in a Jar by Andrea Chesman. The pickles are made with large thin slices of ginger root and carrots and tastes just like the little pink pickled ginger slices on a sushi bar (yum).

The steak again only cut up with some seasoned brown rice, romaine salad with sweet corn relish (Andrea Chesman's book again, homemade using my home grown garden gooodies too), home canned pear slices that I didn't grow (no pear trees here) but bought in abundance from an organic Amish farmer, and strips of roasted peppers and onions to add to my rice and steak. The little red container has balsamic dressing for my salad.

Today's lunch. If you turn your head like you would to read a smiley you will notice that this lunch has a container of Stacey's pita chips, roasted red pepper dip from Marie Oser's Soy of Cooking, romaine salad with carrots and sprouts, a sorta trail mix container including roasted peanuts/sunspire m&m's/ currants, along with a banana which I intend to use as a "poker" to pick up the "trail" mix.
NOTE: The red pepper dip called for 2 cloves of garlic. I used two fresh cloves and let my magic bullet mixer whip it with the roasted red pepper, seasonings and tofu smooth. The garlic has come back to haunt. I really like to taste of this so the next time I make it I will roast the garlic with the red pepper.

Thanks to the Oser cookbook and then confirmed by Megan the Vegan I have been hankering mushrooms. My new Oser cookbook calls for ground chicken style gimme lean, which I have never bought before and I didn't want to make any from scratch so, I then decided to have something different for supper and prepared the mushrooms to use another time. I then remembered the mushrooms I made some time ago using brussell sprouts so I looked it up and decided these are what I would try again . . . . here's the link to my previous entry about them and ia link to the recipe included.

Since I bought a 24 ounce package of the nice stuffer size mushrooms I had plenty of stems and 1/3 of the package which I could make into another dish. A dish like Oser's creamy mushrooms sauce over pasta. I actually left the recipe out and asked DH to make it so supper would be ready when I got home tonight. We'll see how it turns out, DH is a sweetheart and said he would however I will c hop the carrots and onions this morning as a time saver for him this evening. I'm looking forward to it, will share pictures later.

No pictures of the pasta because DD chopped the carrots into a salad with romaine and used up the sliced mushrooms I had planned for the sauce also before DH could get on the pasta. Last night we had pita pizza and salad NOT the pasta. I also still have the mushroom caps for stuffed mushrooms, but intend to use them soon.

Seitan Steaks and New Oser Cookbooks

Bryanna's new Vegan Feast Newsletter just came out. I always love to see what new ways with seitan she is coming up with. This month my "must try's" include these steaks and some kebabs which I will try next weekend. Sometime my "must try's" get me so excited that I will stay up playing in the kitchen all night. I did start these before bed on Thursday, then on Friday morning we took the steaks out to make lunches and refrigerated the rest.

Picture one.... rolling out the seitan dough. This dough was a bit rubbery-er (that's not a word) and hard to roll out, but they did with persistence, a little water and a rolling pin. The previous seitan cutlets dough in which tofu is added is much softer and easier to roll, actually they were just pressed flat in my hand. I, myself, like them either way however the family usually prefers the dough with tofu (esp in "ham" loafs or spam as one of my sister's calls it).

Picture two.... Dropping the dough in the warm crockpot cooking broth. The broth was in the crockpot for about an hour on low before the "steaks" were ready to drop. I used my new 6 quart crockpot for this. I like the fact that this new pot has a carry feature that locks the lid in place and has a slot on the handle to attach the spoon. I was also amazed at how much it could hold compared to my oval 4 quart pot (which I will always use for the seitan roasts because I like the shape best in that).

Picture three.... What it looked like when I woke up this morning.

Despite the difficulty with the dough we really enjoyed these, however they are made with red wine which DD really didn't like but once she grilled it and put the sauce on it she thought they were good. I like A1 steak sauce, the ingredients list isn't to bad other than that darn corn syrup which is in everything and it is vegan. DH prefers BBQ sauce and DD likes ketchup the best. DS has gluten issues and doesn't get into these. Although I can and have made my own sauces, I used purchased sauces this time.

UPDATE:
Bryanna posted a response in comments about the ability of the seutan dough to be pressed by hand. ALSO - DH just told me last night that this is his favorite seitan steak yet. (yeah) Even though DD didn't like the wine flavor, I did and obviously so did DH.


NEW COOKBOOKS - - - -
At Christmas time I earned enough points on my credit card to get a gift certificate for amazon.com (my favorite reward). I purchased these three cookbooks by Marie Oser. If anyone else has these, would love to hear your favorite recipes.
I first discovered her at the same time I found Bryanna's books. I checked the books out from the library and still have a few handwritten recipe cards in my file box from that time. She uses several prepackaged goods which I could not afford at the time I first found the books, today I more interested in some new ideas and flavor combinations.... maybe I'll try a few of the convenience flavorings or soy meat just to see how they compare with my favorite "from scratch" Bryanna recipes sometime. Besides just the soymeats, there are many other recipes I'd like to try sometime also.

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I have another lunchbox picture to post soon. Today I have the chance to go to my favorite little Indian store when I do some other shopping. I am hoping that the store has their new cafe open (last time I went they were remodeling to allow for it).

Wow! I have a headache and prepared-ness

It has been sometime since I would stop at the convenience store and get a large cuppa diet cola (caffeine free to make it a "little" better). Now that it is not as easy for me to make up my favorite drink and sip all day like I did when working for myself and around my house, I thought yesterday that a diet cola sounded like a good thing since I was out shopping all day and I was thirsty. Yes, I should have chose the water, they had that too and countless other drinks were a possibility but I "jumped ship" and opted for the pop. "It has only been almost a year since I have had any. 32 ounces surely wouldn't kill me, after all I eat such a good diet and the nasty would be quickly "detoxed" out, " or so I told myself.

WOW WAS I WRONG!

Less than 1 1/2 hours after finishing that 32 ounce thing which I gulped like fresh water I started feeling something like a major migraine coming on. I have experienced many headaches in my SAD eating days although I have discovered since changing my lifestyle that I am not really prone to them. I have also had only one migraine in my entire life. It was a three day affair, not fun at all and I was glad to see go. I (and the doctor after a cat scan) attributed it to the stress of going back to college again after twelve years while managing a household, family, and a teenager with special needs since it didn't come back I was okay with this explanation. I immediately grabbed aleve and hoped that would be the end... not quite, aleve'd up and still have it today. The moral of my story.... I need to continue to "just say NO" when it comes to the artificially sweetened pop. I have never had such a quick reaction before, but I guess now that my body is used to being "un-toxic" these things are majorly noticeable to me now. I have no other symptoms, just the headache for which I am drinking plenty of fluids with hope of flushing out the trigger.

ON TO OTHER THINGS, THINGS LIKE BEING PREPARED FOR ????

I am planning a weekend soup and legume canning session soon. I have been reading the Apocalypse Chow book by Jon and Robin Robertson. Although I am not a gloom and doom thinker, I realized that my pressure canner is a gem to help me in the case of emergency too. However, I got it to save money and be able to get rid of a very large freezer from out bakehouse (which still works and is a place I store garden produce, excess grains, breads, dried fruits, etc. I realized that if the electricity goes out for a week a whole years worth of great organic and home grown frozen goods will not be of much help unless I attempt to feed the entire town a couple of days.

I have read sites where dried veggies, and vacuum packed cans of grains can be purchased to "prepare" for ????? Although I agreed that prepared is something important I never really bought into the idea of having a box of food stuffed away so that I could use it someday or worse to figure out how to use a bunch of dried stuff on a regular basis (so it wouldn't go bad) when I wanted fresh. Now I know with my pressure canner I can have the convenience home canned soups / legumes, prepared TVP taco or "sausage" meet on a regular basis (okay not fresh, but handy and I do like eating it) while at the same time having a stock of something saved for the "big one".

To remind me here's a little about my pressure canner . . .
23 quart pressure canner:

I purchased this wonderful (and large) device around July of last year. I started canning with my garden green bean and potato harvest and continued into soups, spreads, and other low acid foods. I like having some canned food like this on hand, it provides the convenience I need however coordinating a good day of canning of my own soups takes time to use the day wisely for maximum value. For example, 1 pot of Sicilian style split pea soup makes 7 pint jars. A 2 pound black bean pot of feijouda makes 10-12 jars. My pressure cooker holds 18-10 pint jars or seven quart. The quart jars are to big for what we typically consume at one time and if I am cooking to feed this many then I would just crockpot a pot of soup and have leftovers. It takes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours of my time to complete one batch... there is a 1 1/2 hour period in which I simply must babysit the pressure gauge to ensure it stays where it needs to be.

I also like lemon juice from concentrate sweetened with stevia. Now I can have a sweet drink that is not jammed with sugar or worse yet headache provoking chemicals while still be "prepared".

Anyone else prepared? What is in your storage box?

Stuffed in green with a lunchbox

I made stuffed green peppers in the crockpot using a recipe from The Vegetarian Slowcooker, although I once made them in the oven several years ago and didn't like them I was pleasantly surprised this time. I like these alot. The stuffing is basically brown rice, salsa, minced onion, and red beans with salt and pepper. I cooked the red beans in the crockpot to (way easy!) and was impressed with how easy this was and how the flavor improved when onion, garlic, and a bay leaf was added during the cooking process. Although the recipe adds a sauce made from canned tomatoes and seasoned I happened to have some homemade pasta sauce leftover in the freezer that I added some cumin to. I had three large green peppers that fit well in my 4 quart pot and divided the stuffing equally between the three... the stuffing was supposed to make 4 peppers but my three were large and all the stuffing was used for that purpose.

I cut the green pepper to make a " flower so it would spread out in a bowl that would contain all of the stuffing. I spooned extra sauce on the top and sprinkled it with some veg Parmesan sprinkles (Bryanna's homemade stuff using English walnuts). Today's lunch is a bowl of this. I attempted using the laptop lunchbox to carry this, but it just isn't made for this style of feast... back to the Tupperware. I added a chocolate soy protein bar to complete this meal.

Next I present pictures of my last couple of days lunch that did fit in the little box. I had another lunchtime meetings (the one that I starved at last time, but it is the day I also ordered my lunchbox) and received many compliments on the box as well as the "really healthy food".... I don't like to be set apart as though my food is somehow "different", I think my food should be the standard against what all food should be compared to. I think comments should be made about when other people choose the dead, preservative packed, etc, etc... like somehow IT stands out and needs to be mentioned. Anyways, I smiled and said it is tastey when the comments were made.

Wrap containing leftover dahl with sprouts, a small plastic "roll" of my zucchini relish (blue ribbon county fair stuff) to add to my wrap, and Dreena's Curried chickpea with sweet potato she calls it a casserole (made in my crockpot) but I think it is more of a hearty stew - I liked it.

Then I have a pumpkin seeded lentil burger (Dreena recipe) with a side container of homemade rhubarb chutney, a salad with more pumpkin seeds and currants, soy yogurt, two dark chocolate pieces, and a wrap all folded up and ready to be used for the burger with some salad. However, when lunchtime came I actually didn't feel like making a wrap using my pretty burger so I folded the chocolate inside the wrap and ate it dipped in my stevia sweetened soy yogurt.... not quite what I had intended but a nice change non the less.

The weekend will soon be approaching, my New York sis will be flying in again to share my "detox" stew as she calls it .... the clam style chowder from Bryanna's 20 minute cookbook. I have some seitan steaks cooking in my slow cooker right from Bryanna's latest Vegan Feast Newsletter. I'll be sharing this sometime this weekend. Have a great one too!

Lunchboxes (bigger pictures)

For Erica. "My what big food pictures I have." :)

Some lunch boxes from last week.
Brown seasoned rice, pineapple / mango mix, salad sprouts, onion curry relish in the lil' red container(link to recipe), and What a Dahl (slow cooker recipe).

A sandwich on homemade bread maker machine bread with sprouts currants and soy cream cheese spread, Dreena's earthy lentil stew, apples with currants (home canned from our apple tree) and stevia sweetened plain soy yogurt with a saran wrap plastic cover.

To answer Midwest Vegan's question from my previous blog entry I noticed last week that sometimes my salad juices would leak in side the box a little because only one container has a lid. I'm still loving it anyway, I just put a little plastic over some things now but not everything needs this (like the sandwich) because the food stays in place even while carrying it strapped to your shoulder.

I liked this one a lot. 3 small Dreena pumpkin seed coated lentil patties (home made rhubarb chutney in the small red container), romaine salad with a few extra pumpkin seeds and craisins, Sweet potato mashed with cinnamon and stevia, and 2 squared dark vegan chocolate (yum!).

I now have a coffee pot at my desk at work that I keep hot water in. A cup of hot herbal tea after my yummy munches is a wonderful treat.