Throw everything in the pan curry

I am a firm believer that great things come from one pan. I will throw everything i have in the fridge in a pan and serve it up about once a week or every two weeks.
This time I also used up a can of pigeon peas that I bought for the first time. I’ve never eaten them before so I didn’t know how I would like them. Turns out they were the perfect thing for my vegetable curry.
I cooked onion, garlic, pigeon peas, tomato, carrot, and mushroom in one pan and added a couple scoops of curry powder and soy milk. Simmered for 10 minutes and devoured! I will be buying more pigeon peas next time I go shopping! Next time I’ll use a little less curry powder and I think this meal will be perfect. It’s great for leftovers too!
What do you add to your curry?
Or what’s your favorite one pot meal?
-Kerri

Lentil Soup, lots and lots of lentil soup

I’ve been wanting to cook lentils for a while now. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten the before this year. They always looked weird and un appetizing to me. Some lovely Indian dal changed me mind. I’m still too intimidated to cook Indian food at home, so i made lentil soup. This recipe is simple and tastes great! It came out more like a stew, perfect with a piece of toast. It tastes way better than it looks, trust me 🙂 

Simple Lentil Soup:

1 lb green lentils

1 large potato

1 large tomato

3 large carrots

1 med onion

6 leaves of kale

5 cloves of garlic

2 tbs oil

1 quart vegetable stock

2 cups water

salt and pepper

 

In a blender, pulse garlic, onion, carrots, and kale. This cuts down on the chop time.

 

Heat oil in large soup pot.

Add vegetables from blender to pot.

 

Add salt and pepper. (A good large pinch)

Chop potato into small pieces and add to pot, stir occasionally, cook for 5 minutes.

Rinse lentils with cold water.

Add Vegetable stock to pot. (I poured the stock into the blender and then into the pot so I could get every last little piece of the green vegetable mix out of the blender.

Add extra water (I added 2 cups and it came out pretty much like stew, add more water of veg. stock for a thin broth)

Cover pot and let cook for 30 minutes.

taste test lentils, continue to cook until lentils are soft but not mushy.

Serve with toasted crusty bread.

Enjoy. Makes enough for sharing and the freezer 🙂 

The Sweet Simple Pleasures of Late Summer

My neighbors started a small but amazing garden this year. They generously gave me some of their tomatoes the other day.

These tomatoes are the most flavorful tomatoes I can ever remember tasting. They are far and above, way better than the tomatoes in my CSA.

I ate these tomatoes by themselves and they were awesome, but what really hit the spot was my open faced tomato and  mayonnaise sandwich.

I have a sweet memory of my first tomato and mayonnaise sandwich. I was probably 11 when I went through a pretty severe Harriet the Spy phase. Harriet love tomato and  mayonnaise sandwiches, so of corse I needed to try one.

My Nanna lived with us, and she saw me making the sandwich in the kitchen and got all excited. Seeing the tomato and  mayonnaise sandwich stirred up memories of her past and childhood when she used to make them all the time. She said that she had not seen one in years and years and decided to join me and have a sandwich of her own.

Now tomato and  mayonnaise sandwiches are like comfort food. It always brings me back to that day with my Nanna in the kitchen and Harriet the Spy on my mind.

I made my tomato and  mayonnaise sandwich open faced this time because the tomatoes were so beautiful I thought it would be a shame to cover them with a piece of bread.

I toasted scali bread in the toaster oven (an italian style bread covered with sesame seeds), and topped the toast with vegan  mayonnaise and large slices of tomato.

I could eat this everyday for the rest of my life.

-Kerri

Red Rice, Corn Pudding, and Green Beans

Tonight, I browsed my Happy Herbivore cookbook and made two recipes for dinner: Charleston Red Rice and Corn Pudding. The results were great, especially with the rice!

Charleston Red Rice

2 cups of cooked rice

4 tablespoons tomato paste

1-2 teaspoons of hot sauce (I used Sriracha)

Garlic powder

Minced onion or onion powder

Cayenne pepper

Salt

Pepper

Simply mix everything together and warm. So easy, so delicious!

~Kate

Super Market Vegan – mainstream items you didn’t know were vegan

When I go to the super market I buy a lot of items in the natural food section (what Mike lovingly refers to as, “The Hippie Section”).

I find a lot of fine items there, but it takes me a while to become familiar with a lot of the food marketed toward vegetarians and vegans.

Transitioning to a vegan lifestyle is a lot easier when you keep some familiar food in your diet, to go along with the sometimes-alien vegan food.

The snack department is not a place were a lot of people want to think about what they’re eating, they just want it to be fast and taste good. So as you can imagine, I loved finding out that a lot of my favorite snacks are vegan. This means I can indulge in a guilty pleasure and only feel guilt about the calories and not about animal products.

Take a peek into my cupboards and see some of my favorite surprisingly vegan food.

Oreo: the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. “Milk’s favorite cook”, try everyone’s favorite cookie!

Mary Jane, my favorite candy. I was surprised when I didn’t find honey on the ingredients list.

When you want salty not sweet go for pretzels. When nothing less than super will do, a hot Super Pretzel will never let you down.

***

Here’s a list of surprisingly vegan items you can find in or around you super market. For a huge list go to PETA’s article on the subject.

Ritz Crackers

Nesquick Syrup

Most Energy Drinks

Nabisco Grahams – original

Gravy Master

Many Breakfast Cereals

Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate

Reduced Fat Bisquick

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels – no butter – Cinnamon Sugar, Garlic, Jalapeno, Original, Raisin, & Sesame.

***

What are your favorite foods that could be added to the list?

Meatless Meatballs with Marinara and Veggies

Once again, the Happy Herbivore has provided a vegan version of one of my favorite foods. I have been craving meatballs lately and decided to try the HH recipe. My experience with meatless meatballs in the past has not been very good, so I had pretty low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised with the result of these ones, though!

 

While the vegan meatballs were cooking, I roasted some tomatoes I got from my CSA and some eggplant. I also added some homemade marinara, pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, vegan Parmesan, and fresh basil to complete the meal.

 

Since I cannot share the meatball recipe (you will need to buy the Happy Herbivore cookbook for that!), here is my super easy, homemade marinara sauce recipe.

Marinara Sauce

• 1 tablespoon Fra Diavlo oil (Omit if you don’t like spicy sauce or if you want it to be fat free)
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 -2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning (I like mine to have a lot of flavor, but adjust it to your tastes)
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 can tomato paste

Heat the oil and then add the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 90 minutes. Enjoy!

~Kate

What To Do About Cookouts

So far my family has tried to be accommodating about my new vegan lifestyle. Mike’s sister, Beth, has gone out of her way to cook me meat free sauce at a family pasta dinner, and at her barbeque she grilled veggies before the meat went on the gill (so thoughtful). However it is ultimately up to me to make sure there are vegan options.

Mike’s youngest sister, Sarah, graduated from high school this year, and the family celebrated with a pool party cookout. Most cookout food is just grilled meat, and if there is a veggie it’s mostly mayo potato salad, or bacon fat beans. I decided it would be best to bring something to ensure I didn’t spent the day eating empty hot dog buns just in case.

I had a few cucumbers from my CSA and not a lot of other ingredients, so I decided to make cucumber salad, and to bring enough for everyone. That way when everyone eats it and tells me how good it is I can see the looks on their faces when I say “and it’s vegan too”. So congratulations to Sarah for graduation high school, and congratulations to me for whipping up an awesome summertime side dish!

Cool Cookout Cucumber Salad:

notes:

• I didn’t measure any of the ingredients, just keep tasting it til it’s awesome.

• For milk I used Almond Breeze original unsweetened almond milk, but you can use whatever milk you have handy

• A lemon could be used instead of the lime. I only had limes at the time and it ended up pairing quite well with the cucumbers believe it or not.

• I used about 4 cucumbers, for variety I cut them all into small chunks but not uniform size, just smallish.

• I also varied how much peel I left on each cucumber, this added dimension to the flavor, look, and texture of the dish.