Garlicky Mushrooms and Kale

Miss M and I recently moved into a quaint (fancy word for tiny and un-exciting) apartment in downtown Lincoln, NE for a short term stay before we head off to Godknowswhere (a word a just made up for 'we oftentimes fly by the seat of our pants and don't know what the hell is coming next'.)

It is our intention to depart Lincoln within 9-12 months and see the world a bit, then settle (I use this term loosely) somewhere near the ocean, preferably with little to no winter.

It's an extremely exciting time for me, as I'm in the midst of transitioning into the career of my dreams. I don't actually like to refer to this thing as a career, because it's not really. It is indeed quickly becoming my livelihood, but that's not the reason I do it. I can feel this thing buzzing through every cell of my body. I can't NOT do it. I would do it for FREE, and in fact have for a long time. If you're curious what this thing is, go here...

But in the meantime, we are here. In this apartment. We immediately painted the dining area from fire engine red, to banana yellow. Here is Miss M exhibiting her extraordinary painting techniques.

I'll be sure to share pictures of the finished diggs... when it's completed, which might be two minutes before we leave. Just saying.

And now to the entire point of this post... the first thing we cooked in our new place. We were without gas for the first 4 days we were here. Which was super great because my oven and stove are run on gas, as is the hot water heater. So, it was cold showers and cold food for us!...
Until the fourth day, when it dawned on me that I am the owner of an electric skillet. DOH!

So, this is what we cooked in our electric skillet.

Garlicky Mushrooms and Kale with Potatoes

This is a recipe I adapted from Isa Chandra's 'Appetite for Reduction' which you can find in my little Amazon store (I think... I should really get with the program) Anyhoo... I love this book. It's what I cook from mainly these days. 

The original recipe does not call for potatoes. I added them to make for a heartier meal, as opposed to just a side dish... which I believe, is what it's intended to be.
 It's so simple and yummy and healthy. You can't really go wrong.

Here's what you'll need:
2 large russet potatoes, thinly sliced 
EVOO
Fresh Garlic (about 4-6 cloves) 
8 oz mushrooms
a couple bunches of Kale
Veggie broth 

~ Heat a couple teaspoons of oil in a skillet (electric.. or NOT)
   Add sliced potatoes along with S&P to taste. Cook until softened slightly. Remove from skillet.

~ Heat a couple more teaspoons oil and add mushrooms along with a little more S&P. Saute til softened (about 7 minutes)

~Add chopped kale in batches. It will look like a buttload of kale (that's a technical cooking term, if you didn't know)  but it'll cook WAY down. Cook until wilted about 10 minutes, adding splashes of veggie broth if sticking.

~ Throw in the cooked potatoes, and saute' for another 5ish minutes.

In my world, this is served with lots o'hot sauce. Cholula, to be specific.


Enjoy!

And know this....
There is no one on the face of this planet that can do what you can do, in precisely the way that you can do it. You are here for a reason. we need you... the world needs you to embrace your gifts and share them. YOUCANDOIT!!! 



If you're new around here, check out this post to see some of my favorite recipes. EVER.

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Sun-Dried Tomato Falafels

Falafel, Falafel

FA lafel 

faLA fel 

Falafel, FALAFEL

I really enjoy how this word feels in my mouth. 

Falafel. 

I also really enjoy how they taste in my mouth. Have you ever made them?

This was a virgin Falafeling for me. Both eating and making. 

They're really easy to make. If you've ever made hummus before, you can totally do this. 

Even if you haven't... I have faith in you.

I believe they will become a staple around my diggs. 

I like stuff that I can make ahead of time and throw in my freezer to pull out for a quick meal when I'm feeling ultra lazy. 

Do you love hummus as much as I do? Because if so, these little falafels are basically little hummus patties. 

It's a little hard to see what's going on in the picture above, what with the explosion of vegetables and everything. Please allow me to explain...

 If you can locate a pita pocket, within it see if you can spot an orangish little
circle-y thing. 

That's a falafel. 

Which we shoved inside a toasted pita with greens, tomatoes, onions, and a little Earth Balance dairy free mayo. We ate these little bad boys with some curry oven fries that you can find here, at the Post Punk Kitchen. 

You will need:

SUN-DRIED TOMATOES. CHICKPEAS. GARLIC. CURRY. CAYENNE. WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR. ONION. CELERY. PARSLEY. 

~ Into your food processor, throw 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, 2/3 C water, 1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed), heaping T garlic, 3 tsp olive oil, 2 tsp curry, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp cayenne.  Process until combined. 

~ Empty into a bowl. Stir in 2/3 C flour, 1/4 C each of finely diced red onion, celery, and parsley.

~ Form your dough into hand sized patties. I made mine kind of flattish since I intended on pita pocketing them, but I think a traditional falafel is a little more egg shaped... I really don't actually know. We do what we want around here. Traditions be damned. 

~ I browned my falfels in a little bit of olive oil in a cast iron skillet, but next time I will probably bake them... I'm thinking 350 for 20 minutes?? I'll let you know how long they take next time I make them. If you should happen to make them before me and bake them, let me know what you did. That's be kick ass. 

What are you going to do with this beautiful spring day? I'm feeling the urge to do some cleaning, air out the house, and go for a nice long run. It's going to be in the 70's where I'm at! Man, I love Spring. 

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Crockpot Black Bean Soup with Sun-Dried Tomato Polenta Cakes

I made the most incredible and easy curry the other night that I can't wait to share with you. I realize this has nothing to do with black bean soup, but I just HAD to tell you about it.

Unfortunately, the picture I took was somewhat horrific. I really need to work on improving my photography skills. At any rate, it's going to have to wait. I'm making another batch today just to have on hand... so it won't be long before I get the opportunity to share.

In the meantime, here is a basic but delicious black bean soup that I made this weekend for Miss M and I's date night, which we spent watching many episodes of the Cake Boss and stuffing our faces with Mango Sticky rice (it seems we can't get enough of this stuff.)

We ate our black bean soup with sun-dried tomato polenta cakes. If you've never had polenta, you're in for a treat (although Sweets might disagree, I love it) . It's so filling and satisfying, and goes exceptionally well with this soup if you ask me.

We have some rainy-chilly-ness going on where I live today. Perfect weather for a warm-you-up-dish like this.

For those of you polenta newbies, let me explain what goes down with cooking it:
Right after making polenta, it is a creamy consistency (which I find to be delicious for a savory breakfast), but after refrigerated becomes firm. I made polenta for breakfast while getting my soup crockpot ready from this recipe I found at Cadry's kitchen, then refrigerated the leftovers, sliced, and fried to serve with dinner that night.

Here's what you'll need for your polenta:

STONE GROUND POLENTA. VEGGIE BROTH. NON-DAIRY MILK. NUTRITIONAL YEAST. SUN-DRIED TOMATOES. GREEN ONION. 

~ Bring 2 Cups Veggie broth to boil. Add in 1/2 Cup Polenta. Bring to boil and whisk for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

~ When all the liquid is absorbed, stir in 1 T Nutritional Yeast Flakes, 1/4 C non-Dairy milk, 2 T Chopped sun-dried tomatoes, one chopped green onion, and salt and pepper to taste.

~ Eat some for breakfast if you like. Yum. Then spread the remaining (don't eat it all!) in a squarish dish (for easy slicing later) and refrigerate.

On to the soup.

You will need:

BLACK BEANS. ONION. BELL PEPPER. CELERY. GARLIC. JALAPENO. CARROTS. PARSLEY. OREGANO. CUMIN. CORIANDER. THYME. FIRE ROASTED TOMATOES. CRUSHED TOMATOES. CILANTRO. 

~ I used dried beans for this because they're super cheap, and I think they have a better bite to them. However, this takes a little advanced prep time. Dried beans need to be soaked over night, or if you fail to plan ahead like i do, you can quick soak which will go like this:

Put 1 1/2 Cups dried black beans into a large stock pot and cover with cold water. Bring to boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 1 hour.

~ Drain your soaked beans, return to pot and add 6 cups fresh water. Boil for one hour.

~ Pour beans and their liquid into crockpot along with 1 diced onion, 1 diced red bell pepper, 1 stalk diced celery, 1 diced jalapeno, 2 diced carrots, 2 T dried parsley, 2 T oregan, heaping T of cumin, 2 tsp coriander, 2 tsp thyme, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 c veggie broth, and 1 cup fire roasted tomatoes.

~ Cook on low for 6 hours. If you like your soup kind of creamy, you can use an immersion blender to blend up some of the beans at this point.

~ Before serving, stir into crockpot 3/4 Cup crushed tomatoes and a couple Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro. This will give the soup a loverly fresh flavor. Then salt to taste.  Turn up to high while preparing your polenta cakes.

~ Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron skillet and add sliced cold polenta. Fry until golden brown and heated through. Now you got yourself some polenta cakes!

Enjoy! 

I think I'm going to use my soup leftovers to make black bean nachos... 

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Grilled Roasted Veggie Sandwiches with Hummus & Avocado

I would have to say that really, the only slightly difficult thing about switching to an entirely Earthfood based lifestyle, is probably giving up the restaurant comfort foods that I have always turned to. That being said, in the 7 weeks since I started this Season of Vegan thing, I've found many replacements that are suitable, if not better than my original loves.

This lil' sammy qualifies for submission to the

 'even-better-than-the-original'

 category. 

We have this little sandwich shop here in town called Bison Witches and I have always loved the veggie sandwich I got there. It was warm and melty and gooey, loaded with fresh vegetables and cream cheese and provolone.

Seeing as how I'm not eating dairy anymore, I was wondering if it would be possible to get the same great flavors of this sandwich I love so much without the cheese. I decided that adding a zippy, lemony, garlic hummus to this sandwich, then grilling (ya know, grilled cheese style) would give it that creamy buttery taste I was looking for. It did. And Holy Crap was it good.

Here's what I put in this here lil' Samich:

Slice, drizzle with olive oil, S&P and roast at 350 for 30 minutes:
Portobella Mushroom 
Zucchini
Yellow Squash 
Red Pepper 

For Hummus whirl around in food processor: 
1 can chickpeas 
2 T Tahini 
3 T Lemon Juice 
4 cloves minced garlic 
1 tsp salt (more or less to taste) 
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
drizzle of olive oil 

~~ Add more lemon juice and/or olive oil until desired consistency

Build yo' Samich:
On a piece of Rye Bread layer up your hummus and roasted veggies, along with some freshly sliced onions, tomato, and avocado. Top with more rye bread (duh). Your sandwich should be HUGE.

Butter both sides generously with Earth Balance Butter and grill until golden brown, smooshing down with a spatula while grilling.

 You could use a Panini grill too, if you had one. I'm old school and not that fancy... however, if someone would like to buy my a panini grill I certainly wouldn't protest. I'll take a VitaMix too, while you're at it.

My blogger friend Cadry got a VitaMix for Valentine's Day. I'm super jealous ;)

What kind of kitchen gadgets do you wish you had?

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Creamy Mushroom Risotto

This meal was pure genius.

Last night Sweets and I, with our combined brilliance, came up this meal. He was wanting to prepare supper for me since I'd been cooking my ass off all week... what a sweet man! (I wonder where he gets his name?)

I said that would be lovely, however I was still on a quest to provide my fellow Earthfooders with more good recipes for creamy things before the weeks end seeing as how my last couple attempts, although entertaining, were not shareable.

With the upcoming snow storm we were expecting, a creamy mushroom risotto sounded comforting and warm and absolutely perfect. Sweet's was wanting to replicate a blackened tofu dish he'd smashed (Sweets Lingo) during a trip to Denver in the very first days of his Earthfood adventure.

Mushroom Risotto and Blackend Tofu??... 

Yes please.

I've had some arborio rice in my pantry for months that I'd purchased solely for the purpose of concocting a spectacular risotto creation (which by the way, I had never attempted before).

I was putting it off though due to all the risotto woes I 'd heard. I went into the production of this dish expecting it to be laborious and complicated with less than predictable results... these are the tales I'd heard of risotto creating.

 Lucky for you, I'm here to bust myths and shit. This is easy. So just do it.  

Although this does take a considerable amount of time and stirring, the process was really simple and in fact after my Pad Thai making experience earlier this week, was downright breezy.

After a long day at work I was in white wine sipping, risotto coddling heaven. 

 DO THIS, JUST DO IT:

 ~ You will need two sauce pans for this. In the first, warm 4 C.  veggie stock. Place on a back burner and keep warm.

~ In second pan, stir together 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 T. fresh thyme, 1 C. roughly chopped mushrooms, 3 sliced green onions, and a drizzle of olive oil. Saute' til mushroom's liquid begins releasing.

~ Add in 1 C. Arborio rice and another drizzle of oil. Stir until slightly browned and poppy (about 5 minutes). Pour in 1/2 C. white wine and stir until aborbed.

~ Pour yourself a glass of wine and get ready to stir, stir, stir. 

 (this is very important. your risotto will not turn out properly if you skip it. consider yourself warned.)

~ Add 1/4 C. broth and stir until absorbed. Keep repeating this until rice is tender and creamy.

~ Saute/ another 1/2 C. mushrooms in a small skillet with 1 T Earth Balance Butter and S&P until tender. Stir into risotto along with 1/2 T. nutritional yeast and S&P to taste. If you have it, use Tamari (aged soy sauce) in place of the salt for additional depth of flavor.

We ate our Mushroom Risotto with Blackened Tofu (you can find the recipe here) and a Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Maple Dijon vinaigrette, which was sooooo yummy. I'll be sharing that recipe with you next week.

 This is what we woke up to this morning. 

Totally bizarre after a week of 60 degree weather.

Nebraska is weird.

What's the weather been like where you are?

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The Mother of all Fettuccini Alfredos.......................... Dairy & Gluten Free!

Here's my text to Sweets after making this alfredo sauce the other night:

"I just made cheeseless, dairyless alfredo sauce.... and it actually tastes like alfredo!!! I'm beside myself with f**king amazement! Who woulda thought."

This may be my most gratifying accomplishment to date. And has totally confirmed to me that I will never be lacking by choosing an Earthfood based diet.

This was a tender F**k yeah moment for me.
I don't usually fake cuss so much, but this is serious.

Non-dairy Alfredo sauce took a bit of research on my part. This wasn't something I'd ever attempted to make. In fact, even before our new food adventure (an entire season of vegan) began, Miss M had always been in charge of making the cheesy cream laden version of this dish, for which she always used a copycat recipe of The Hard Rock Cafe's Alfredo Sauce. 

 My end desired result was for this was to be similar in flavor to the recipe that Miss M used to make... she is the household lover of Alfredo, after all. This ended up being a conversion of about 3 or 4, maybe even 5 different Alfredo recipes I ran across. I'm not really sure who to give credit to. Maybe I'll just give it to myself this time.

And if you're wondering, it does taste like M's Hard Rock Cafe version. Winner.

You're dying to know my recipe. Aren't you?

Ingredients:

GARLIC. NON-DAIRY SOUR CREAM. CASHEWS. ALMOND MILK. EARTH BALANCE BUTTER. WHITE WINE. NUTRITIONAL YEAST. NUTMEG. ONION. BASIL. OREGANO.

~ Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the top off a head of garlic and place on a sheet of tin foil. Drizzle with olive oil, form a foil packet and throw it in the oven for 30 minutes. 

~ Meanwhile, in a food processor combine 1/4 Cup non-dairy sour cream (I use Tofutti. Tastes just like regular sour cream. I swear.), 1/2 Cup Earth Balance butter, 1 T wine, 1 heaping Tablespoon nutritional yeast, 1 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 2 Cups almond milk, and 1/3 Cup of cashews that have been soaked in water for at least 2 hours. Mine happened to be soaking overnight... the longer the better. Process til smooth. 

~ In a skillet, saute' one small diced onion with a drizzle of olive oil until translucent. Add 1 T wine and saute' a couple minutes more.

~ Add onion and roasted garlic to food processor, and process til smooth. Transfer to a sauce pan and add 2 T cornstarch that has been dissolved in a small amount of liquid (almond milk or water). Add to saucepan along with 3/4 tsp, basil and 3/4 tsp. oregano. 

~ Bring to simmer and cook until desired thickness. Serve over rice noodles, which may I point out makes this not only dairy free, but gluten free as well. Oh yeah.

~ If you have any sauce left over, I highly recommend putting it on top of a freshly shredded potato browned in a drizzle of olive oil for breakfast in the morning. Hashbrowns Alfredo!

What are your most gratifying accomplishments,

your tender F**k yeah moments?

Inquiring minds wanna know...

 

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10 Minute Peanut Butter Noodles

These noodles = LOVE for Chandra 

I shared Sweet's Peanut Butter noodle creation with you at the beginning of the month. Ever since then, they have become a go-to food for me. I can't get enough. I have lady-fied them up, and gotten their preparation down to a science. I'm so good at this, I can have these delectable noodles ready to put in my face a mere 10 minutes after arriving home from work. I'm pretty convinced that you can too.

Here is my super secret scientific process for creating Lady-fied 10 minute peanut butter noodles (Never fear Dooods, you can eat these too. I'll letchya... as long as long as you share with your girlyfriend type person. Or your mom.)

You will need: 

RED BELL PEPPER. JALAPENOS. LEFTOVER BAKED TOFU. RICE NOODLES. PEANUT BUTTER. RICE VINEGAR. SOY SAUCE. GREEN ONION. CILANTRO.

~ First thing first.... soak your noodles. I use the rice stick noodles that you only have to soak in warm water in order to prepare. You can find these in your Asian food Isle, most likely. These will take 10 minutes, which is perfect! 

~ In a microwavable bowl mix together 1/4 C Peanut Butter, 1 1/2 T rice vinegar, 1 1/2 T soy sauce, 1/2 water. Microwave for 2 minutes. Stir. Microwave another minute.

~ While you're waiting for your noodles and peanut butter sauce, cut half a red bell pepper and half a jalapeno into thin slices.

~ Thinly slice one green onion and small handful of cilantro. Set aside until the end. 

~ Warm up some left over baked tofu in the microwave.
(Anytime I make tofu or grains such as rice, steel cut oats, or quinoa I always make extras to use throughout the week. It makes my life SOSOSO much easier) If you should happen to not have any tofu left over, you can find a recipe for Sweet's perfect baked tofu here. However, this will turn your 10 minute noodles into a significantly longer process.

If you don't have any leftover tofu... I say F**k it, go easy on yourself and just eat sauce and noodles. (For more on F**k-ing it... go here. And to Miss M and Friends... Bleepity bleep, but you must know this stuff. It's important.)

~ Now you will assemble your goods....

Drain your noodles, toss with peanut sauce, tofu, and peppers. Top with green onions and cilantro. Maybe even some crushed peanuts if you're feeling super nutty. 

Today I have 2 questions for you:
#1 What are the quick & easy go-to meals that you just could not live without? 
#2 What are some things you might like to say F**k it to today? 

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Roasted Veggie Lasagna

It's been awhile since any sort of cooking activity has gone on in my household. At least cooking of the sorts that I would like to share here. I'm pretty sure no one would be impressed with, or would care to hear about my finesse with pre-packaged tuna curry from Trader Joes (which has been my go-to food, as of lately) or my ability to boil brown rice. Which now that I mention it I did, for the first time ever, recently burn while cooking... so I'm not even fully confident in this skill anymore...

But burned rice be damned, I decided to have a couple friends over this weekend for dinner with Sweets and I. My girlfriend Lindsay , who I invited over along with her husband, is a vegetarian. I happen to love this because it gives me the excuse to make an entirely Earthfood based meal. Yay!

I decided on Roasted Veggie Lasagna, Red Pepper Hummus with sweet peppers and cucumbers for dipping, Ceasar Salad, and a loaf of Garlic Asagio bread.

Veggie lasagna?! You may be thinking.

I encourage you to try my version and dare I say, "You may even enjoy lasagna of the roasted veggie persuasion as much (if not more!) than you like the traditional version"...??

Brave of me, I know. But trust. 

Behold! the layers of this lasagna...

Sauce: Saute one minced sweet onion in EVOO/S&P for a few minutes. Add 3T of real butter and 1/2 lb sliced portabella mushrooms and more S&P. Cook until onions are translucent and mushrooms are softened. Add a jar of marinara and 1 can of italian style tomatoes. Simmer while roasting veggies.

Veggies: Cut in half and seed 2 red bell peppers, and cut lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices 1 eggplant & 3 small zucchinis. Toss in EVOO and S&P. Roasted on baking sheet for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

Cut the tops off 2 bulbs of garlic. Place individually on sheets of foil. Drizzle with EVOO, wrap up, and toss in oven with the roasting veggies.

Remove skins from roasted red peppers and cut into 1/2 inch slices.

Ricotta: Mix together 15oz of ricotta, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Squeeze roasted garlic into separate dish and mash with fork. Add to ricotta mixture. 

 

Chop up some fresh basil... 

And the only other ingredients you will need are lasagna noodles and Mozzerella. 

Duh.

I built my lasagna in this order:

• sauce
• noodles
• ricotta
• veggies
• mozzerella
• basil 
• repeat as many times as possible, ending with a layer of just noodles and sauce on top. 

I covered this with foil and refrigerated for 24 hours, simply because I wasn't going to have enough time to cook the day my guests were coming over, but you could bake immediately if you so desired.

Bake covered in foil at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and top with remaining Mozzerella and some Parmesan cheese. Bake for an additional 15 minutes, then let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy! 

Peace & Love, 

Chandra Nicole

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