Chickpeas Romesco, Calzones and Cashew-Ginger Tofu

I'm doing one post for three different meals because I've been feeling particularly lazy this weekend. So lazy, in fact, that I went to bed at 7 p.m. last night. We also spent the better part of yesterday afternoon (and this afternoon) at the playground. The kids have had so much fun! So, on to the cooking...

Friday night, I finally used up the last of the chickpeas I'd cooked the previous week. I made chickpeas romesco over garlic-saffron rice again. Both of those are from V-con. I swear, this may be my absolute favorite meal. It is just ridiculous. It's so freaking easy too, so you really can't lose with this one.

Yesterday the kids were talking pizza. It's their favorite for sure. They like my homemade pizza (still making it with the dough recipe from VWaV) better than anything we can order around here. That makes me feel pretty good since they generally turn their little noses up at nearly everything I make. It was calzones again for Sleek and me. Sleek had his with ricotta, mozzerella and spinach. For mine, I sauteed some onion, garlic and eggplant. When it was all softened, I added some chopped roasted red-peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. I put just a tiny layer of mozzarella over the veggies. It was off-the-hook! I may have to start making pizza/calzones a weekly thing around here.




I got a new cookbook right before I left for my parents' house, so I've had a good time looking through it since I got back. It's called Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. Carrie has made several really nice looking recipes from it, so I ordered it back in February. It actually took me about 7 weeks to get it! Anyway, tonights meal was made from ED&bV. A baked cashew-ginger tofu. The cashew-ginger sauce was made from cashew butter, fresh ginger, tamari, vingar, agave nectar, garlic and water. I served it over coconut rice, which is from last month's Cooking Light. It's really simple. Just jasmine rice cooked in "lite" coconut milk with a couple of bay leaves. It went perfectly with the sauce on the tofu. I also made a little broccoli and red pepper stir-fry. I made a light soy-sesame sauce for that. Just mixed up some soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, agave nectar, thai chile paste and water. Everything was just awesome! A very, very good dinner. One which I will make again, certainly. I can't wait to try some of the other recipes in ED&bV.




When I planned all of my meals and made my shopping list, I forgot Sleek would be out of town for a couple of nights this week. I may not cook for the next couple of nights and make the previously-planned meals when Sleek returns. Maybe I'll post about my daily fruit/spinach smoothie that I have for breakfast every morning! Sound exciting?

Sleek introduced me to a new band this weekend. They're called Mr. Gnome. He brought home the CD, and told me to play it ASAP because he really thought I'd like it. Well, I certainly do. Very interesting. I think they're just a two-piece band, but they sure know how to make a lot of noise. Sort of trip-hop with some hardcore heaviness. Nice.

Chickpeas Romesco With Garlic-Saffron Rice

Wow! I chose this recipe from V-con just because I had so many chickpeas in the freezer. Little did I know that I would be making a classic dish. It was amazing. Definitely dinner-party worthy. Super easy to make too. To get started you make the sauce with roasted red peppers and canned fire-roasted tomatoes. Get it all pureed and cooking, then add some white wine, thyme, rosemary and red wine vinegar. At the end, you stir in the chickpeas and some ground almonds. It's a Spanish-style dish, and it definitely has some new and different flavors going on.

As the cookbook recommended, I served it over garlic-saffron rice. I had never used saffron in cooking before, but I always noticed it in the spice section at the grocery store. It's pretty expensive, but if it keeps relatively well, it will last quite a long time. I loved the rice. It turned out beautifully. I made some roasted asparagus to go with the chickpeas and rice. Just drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled on some salt. Perfect.

So, I finally listened to Colin's new album yesterday. Wow. It's definitely different than his previous works. That is to be expected though, since this is his first time working with a producer. His three previous albums were written, performed and produced by him. That is certainly impressive. So, The Water definitely sounds more "produced", but it's still awesome. I'll be listening to it daily for a while for sure. Now he just needs to get a US tour organized!

Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Yeah. You read that right. When Sleek spotted this recipe in V-con, we knew it was on. I love, love, love samosas. Of course, I don't get to eat them very often since we don't have an Indian restaurant within an hour of here. I was all over this recipe. It's quite easy too. The yellow color comes from tumeric. They also have mustard and corriander seeds, along with some sauteed onion, garlic, carrots and peas. These would just be out-of-control drizzled with a little tamarind sauce. I made the spinach and chickpea curry from VWaV to go with. YU-UM!

This evening, I made some simple veggie fried-rice and some broccoli and red peppers in a sweet-spicy sesame sauce. No recipes needed for these, I just wing it. I can't even tell you how good this fried rice is. Way better than what you would get at most Chinese restaurants. I only use 2 TBS of oil, so it isn't greasy at all. Plus, with long-grain brown rice and lots of veggies, it's actually healthy. I cook the rice in no-chicken broth instead of water. I think that extra bit of flavor really helps. After the rice is cooked and the veggies are softened, I just add the rice into the skillet with the veggies and add some soy sauce.

For the broccoli... I stir-fried it in just a smidge of oil, and when it was nearly done I added the red pepper. I had made up a simple sauce of brown sugar, water, soy sauce, garlic and Thai chili paste. I got the pan really hot, and poured the sauce over the veggies. I let it boil for just a couple of minutes, then took it off the heat. This is a really good meal if you're looking for a healthier alternative to Chinese take-out.


I listened to one of my all-time favorite albums this evening. Say Anything...Is a Real Boy. I probably hadn't listened to it for a year or so, but I feel like it may be in regular rotation once again. It is so good. It's really hard to describe, but I'd call it alternative rock with a punk-ish influence? The music itself is more complex than you'd find in your standard modern punk-pop, and the lyrics are intelligent and hilarious at times. Definitely a different sound. Sleek and I saw them in Pittsburgh about a year and a half ago. They rocked the house. They were touring with Dashboard Confessional, and I think Sleek and I were the oldest people there. Well, besides all the parents who took their adolescents and young teens to see the show. LOL

Orange-Sesame Tofu with Veggie Fried Rice

This evening I decided it was time for orange-sesame tofu again. I haven't made it for a couple months, so it was definitely time. I decided to make a simple veggie fried rice to go with it, along with a broccoli and red pepper dish. It was quite an involved meal to make, with lots of prep work. Since I've posted the tofu recipe before, I won't go into that part.

Yesterday evening, I decided to throw together some veggie fried rice to go along with the honey-baked lentils I had made. It turned out so good that I decided to make it again tonight. Here's what I did: First, I cooked my rice. That's one cup of long-grain brown rice brought to a boil with one cup of water and one cup of No-Chicken broth. Cover and turn heat to low, simmering for 50 minutes. In the meantime, I finely chopped half an onion and half of a red pepper. I sauteed those in oil until slightly browned and softened. (With a clove or two of minced garlic.) Yesterday when I made the rice, I used some diced carrots. I didn't have any this evening, so I improvised with the red pepper. When the rice was finished, I let it cool just a little, then added it to the hot skillet with the vegetables. I added a few splashes of shoyu, and that was it. I'm telling you, it's so easy and just amazingly good. Way better than the usually-greasy fried rice you get at a Chinese restaurant. I also made it with brown rice, so it's whole grain!

I saw a recipe for a sesame broccoli and red pepper dish in my Hippy Gourmet cookbook. Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I made it. I just steamed a head of broccoli. Then made a sauce with garlic, shoyu, rice vinegar, a bit of oil, and turbinado (raw) sugar. When it was ready, I added the thinly-sliced red peppers and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. I swear it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time. Wow.

I've still been kicking the Pandora classical Christmas station. I'm thinking that will be it for me until Christmas Day rolls around. By Christmas night, I'm ready for the whole thing to be over with. LOL!

Sunday (Not)Soup

Well folks, today was my first attempt at making risotto. I was inspired by carrie's risotto that she posted about on her blog, Adventures in Vegetarianism. I decided on the sun-tomato and mushroom risotto from VWaV. Sleek hates mushrooms, and doesn't really like sun-dried tomatoes either. It's a good thing he was gone for the day! I felt like I needed a strict recipe since I was a "risotto virgin." It was a little time-consuming, and definitely required constant attention when the time came for adding broth/stirring. My arms were certainly tired when the 1/2 hour of stirring finally ended. I was well-rewarded with a steaming hot dish of risotto, though! Holy crap. It was so good that I just couldn't believe it. OMG. Risotto will definitely become a regular dish around here. I can't wait to experiment with some different flavors. I'm thinking a garlic/parmesan or roasted red pepper/spinach risotto would be good. (Sleek-friendly too!)

One thing that helped me get through all that stirring was listening to Beirut's "Gulag Orkestar". I know I've mentioned that album here before. I really can't stress enough how amazing this album is. Please check it out. You won't be disappointed.

Enchilada Mama

Sometimes I really crave Mexican food. I mean really. Since I'm trying to avoid restaurant-eating when possible, I decided to try my hand an enchiladas. I've looked at bottled enchilada sauces in the store, and most of them have a two-inch long ingredient list which usually includes chicken stock. Since I don't eat that type of animal (not to mention the other offenders on the ingredient list), bottled sauce isn't an option. So, I dug up this little gem on the web. I was beginning to get everything ready to go ahead with it, when I realized that I'm out of chili powder. The recipe calls for 3 TBS! I really, really didn't want to load up the kids and head to the store. So, I said, "Screw it!" and made my own damn chili powder. I used paprika as the base, then added some cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. It turned out great!

I made up my enchiladas using some fresh spinach, sauteed onions and shredded Monterey Jack. I like to use soft, corn tortillas because I think they have a much nicer flavor than flour tortillas. So, I rolled them up, put them in a baking dish, poured some sauce over top, then sprinkled with a little more Jack. They weren't the most beautiful looking enchiladas I'd ever seen (see pic), but I was sure they'd taste just fine. (And they did.)

To go with the enchiladas, I made up a brown rice/black bean/tomato/corn concoction. I started by chopping an onion and a big clove of garlic. I sauteed those in just a smidge of oil for about 5 minutes. Then I add a can of diced tomatoes, drained. Then a few scoops of cooked brown rice, a couple of scoops of black beans, and a couple of handfuls of frozen corn. I seasoned it with cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper. It actually turned out really, really good!

When I got started in the kitchen, I kicked Coldplay's "X&Y." I swear that album somehow increases my serotonin levels. It is so awesome. Sleek just told me to check out Young Galaxy, which I'm listening to as I write this. They sound very cool.

I'm always down with checking out new music, so if any of the three or so people who read this have any suggestions, I'm totally open to them!

Oh, and sleek is going to show me how to post photos throughout the blog so I can do step-by-step things once in a while.