Chickpeas and More Granola

I cooked up another massive batch of chickpeas on Tuesday. Crazy, I know, but it's so comforting to me when I have a freezer full of chickpeas waiting for me to use. They are my favorite legume, by far.

I'd heard of "mock tuna-salad" before, and people online just seem to rave about it. So, I thought I'd give it a try. I'm going to just call it "chickpea salad," though. To me, that's a much more appealing name. I was skeptical about it being so tasty, but it truly is. I can see it being my go-to meal for the evenings when I just can't manage to cook a full-on meal. Here's how I made it:

Cooked chickpeas (I'm not sure how much, maybe a cup and a half? Doesn't really matter, as all
the other ingredients can be adjusted to suit the amount of chickpeas used.)
Vegenaise
A little minced onion
Diced pickles

Mix it all together, and there ya go. I had it on some toasted whole-wheat bread with some fresh tomatoes. So. Freaking. Good. I've had one for lunch the last three days. I already can't wait to make more.




Last night, I made one of our favorites here. The Chickpeas Romesco from V-con. As usual, I made the Garlic-Saffron Rice to go with it. It's so easy to make, and it's one of those dishes that upon tasting it, you'd think I'd slaved over the stove all evening.

I've still been making granola like crazy. I've finally tweaked the recipe enough that I think I can call it my own. This is it:

1/8 cup wheat germ, toasted
1/8 cup flax meal, toasted
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, toasted
1 cup of nuts, chopped and yes, toasted
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup of unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
1-1.5 cups of dried fruit

Mix all the dry ingredients (except dried fruit) in a large bowl. Add oil and brown rice syrup and mix well. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30-35 minutes, stirring every 10 or so minutes.

You can get really creative with this, and make pretty much any kind you can dream up. So far, I've made it using raisins, dried apples and walnuts. I think my favorite so far is blueberry hazelnut. This week I made cherry almond. I added a bit of almond extract to it to give it a little extra flavor. Next week, I'm either going to do either tropical or peanut chocolate chip. Decisions, decisions.

Cookies, Pizza, A Big Salad and Chili Dogs

Last Friday was Annelies's last day of kindergarten. I can't believe the school-year flew by so fast. My little girl is a first-grader now. It truly makes my heart ache. Although, since last Friday, I've spent my days playing mediator for the kids. When they aren't fighting, they're zipping around the house. Trashing the place and screeching. I may very well lose my mind before the end of summer. Maybe once we get into a routine, things will run smoother. For now, though, I feel like I can't get a single bit of work done and I want to go to bed at 8 o'clock at night. I'm worn out already!


To celebrate her last day of school, I made her favorite sugar cookies and her favorite dinner, "Mama's homemade pizza!" I didn't do too much cooking the rest of the weekend since Sleek was out of town. I had lots of salad mix and fresh spinach from the CSA, so I did eat a good bit of salad. Wondering what to do with my bunch of fresh chives, I decided to try a vegan ranch dressing. It turned out to be excellent. Here's what I did:

3/4 cup soy milk with a good splash of cider vinergar. Let it sit for a few minutes until it curdles.
3 TBS Vegenaise
a good pinch of sugar (You can make it on the sweeter side, or not. Just whatever you like.)
pinch of salt
good pinch of dried parsley
black pepper

Whisk it all together, and there you go! It's best after it's been in the fridge overnight. The flavor of the chives really comes alive after a day or two.

When Sleek arrived home, I decided to make some buffalo tofu salads. After pressing the tofu, I sliced it and brushed both sides with a mixture of peanut oil and shoyu. I baked it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Then I flipped it over and baked it for 15 minutes more. After that, I covered it in buffalo sauce and baked it for 15 more minutes. I let it cool a bit, then put some slices on the salads. I put some french fries on top, then followed with the ranch dressing. So good! A great way to use up the CSA salad greens. I figure on one big salad a week for dinner as long as we're getting this many greens. Oh, and I made the buffalo sauce by melting about 1/3 cup Earth Balance and adding 3/4 cups of hot sauce to that.


Last night, I went with an idea that Sleek had the first time he sank his teeth into a Snobby Joe. Veggie chili dogs. I bought some veggie dogs and made the very simple Snobby recipe as a chili. Add some mustard and chopped onions, and OMG! It's a vegan chili dog! Even better than the "real" thing. I made some of my vegan macaroni salad to go along with them. A true summer meal.


I'm at my parents' house for the next several days. My next post will be Julian's birthday post. My little guy will be 4 on Monday. 4!

Long Time, No Blog

Wow. It's been over a week since I posted. It all started with Sleek being out of town last weekend. I took a little break from cooking. Then, I woke up Monday morning with a nasty sore throat and congestion. I'd finally caught the cold that Sleek and the kids had. I thought I was in the clear. I was feeling much better by Wednesday, though. Still a little tired, though, so instead of blogging I was going to bed early. I'm not going to go in depth about every thing I cooked last week. I'm just going to do highlights.

Monday evening, feeling like crap. I decided to make some "no-chicken noodle soup," which I had made last winter. It was the perfect thing to ease the sore throat. Who says you need chicken in your soup to make it therapeutic?

I think it was Wednesday evening that I made the Lemony Roasted Potatoes from V-con. My God, they're good. I could've damn near eaten the whole pan. And it's 2.5 lbs. of potatoes! Thursday, I made a mixed vegetable, Malaysian-style curry. It was in a recent issue of Cooking Light. Instead of okra, I used zucchini. I made coconut rice to go with it. It was nice and spicy, and worked to clear my sinuses a bit.




Friday evening, I decided on BBQ tofu sandwiches with coleslaw. I made the BBQ sauce from V-con, and baked the tofu. For the slaw, I sliced half a head of cabbage, a couple carrots and half an onion. I made the dressing with Vegenaise, soy milk, cider vinegar, a bit of sugar, a pinch of cumin, and a dash of salt and pepper. It may have been the best slaw I've ever made, and the sandwiches were just ridiculous. Sleek said, "You could sell these."



Also on Friday, I decided to take it upon myself to make some homemade chewy granola bars. I just kind of winged it. They turned out to be AWESOME. They're pretty sweet, so next time I'll definitely reduce the amount of brown rice syrup and brown sugar. Here's the deal:

1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups puffed millet
1 1/4 cups puffed brown rice
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup Sunspire chocolate candies (natural M&Ms)
3 TBS melted Earth Balance
1/3 cup natural, unsweetened peanut butter
1 1/4 cups brown rice syrup

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in small bowl. Mix dry ingredients until all mixed up. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir (or mix with hands) until combined. Press into 9X13 inch pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.



Today was the first day of the season for the Morgantown Farmer's Market, so I was all over that. At this point, it's pretty much greens, meat, jellies, eggs, and plants. So, I got a nice little head of bibb lettuce, and a beautiful bunch of purple kale. For dinner this evening, I made a salad with the lettuce. I found a recipe for a bibb lettuce salad with butter dressing, so I decided to give it a try. Very different. Very buttery. Very good. For the kale, I sauteed an onion and garlic until the onion was nice and brown. After boiling the kale for about 3 minutes, I drained it and added it to the pan with the onions a garlic. I made a sauce for it using about a tablespoon of Earth Balance, 2 TBS of tamari, and a tsp of balsamic vinegar. I think it was the best kale I've ever tasted. I'll be getting two bunches of it next week. The kids wanted some mashed potatoes, so I made some of those too. I made a simple onion gravy by dicing and onion and browning it in a non-stick pan. (I didn't even use any oil!) Then I added some minced garlic, a pinch of paprika and a pinch of oregano. Then I added a cup and a half of no-chicken broth with about a 1/3 cup of flour whisked into it. I stirred while letting it thicken, then added a splash of tamari and salt & pepper. It may have been the best meal of the week.



Only a week until the Radiohead show! Whoooo-hooooo! Two new (to me) bands I'm really liking right now: Old Crow Medicine Show and Amos Lee. That's thanks to Olives and the mix cds she made as party favors for her daughter's birthday. Now that's a great party favor!

Oh, for anyone who is interested...Sleek made a slide-show revealing the horrors of mountain-top mining. It's posted over at Picture West Virginia. It's quite disturbing.

Chipotle Black Beans With Mexican Millet, Veggie Reubens and More

I've taken a few days off from the world of Blogger. With the weather getting really nice, I find my evenings being consumed with other activities. We've had a 10-day run on nice weather, it seems. We're trying to get outside as much as possible. Oh, and Sleek started a new blog called Picture West Virginia. It's really cool, so I'll be participating there for sure. If you're a West Virginian, or are just interested about what life is like in the Mountain State, come on over.

Okay, cooking...Tuesday evening, I decided to make use of some of the black beans I have in the freezer. I noticed a really interesting-looking recipe in V-con for chipotle black-beans. It was really easy with just a few ingredients, so I was game. The recipe intro mentioned that the Mexican millet (also from V-con, obviously) would accompany the beans nicely. The millet also was very easy with few ingredients. I'd never had millet before, so I decided to give it a try. Well, let me just say (and Sleek agrees), that the beans and millet completely blow my regular black beans and Mexican rice out of the water. Wow. This is the way it's going to be from now on. The millet is very interesting. Soft, but crunchy. A nice change from the usual rice. And the chipotle sauce for the beans. Yaaaaa-hoooo! Look out! That is some spicy stuff. So freaking good. This meal would be absolutely perfect with some cornbread.

Wednesday evening I made one of our favorite sandwiches, veggie reubens. These are just killer. Even just the veggie filling with some of the dressing drizzled over is good. You don't even need the bread and cheese! (I ate them as leftovers that way.) Last night, Sleek requested the tried and true chickpea gravy from WaVV. It's always awesome. This time I served it over some whole-wheat egg noodles for a change. Definitely comfort food.


I've made muffins a couple times this month. After the first batch, Annelies asked me to make her some blueberry muffins. (They're the only kind she likes.) Last week when I had over-ripe bananas and had to make muffins, she was crestfallen when she asked what kind they were. The poor kid just wants some blueberry muffins. So, I decided that I would make her some today. I scoured the internet for the perfect recipe. I had to find something that would be suitable for her. (Read: not uber-healthy.) I finally found a recipe from Ina Garten. It's loaded with butter, sugar and eggs. I knew I couldn't go wrong with these. I did use dried blueberries instead of fresh. I poured some hot water over them so they would plump up a bit. I followed the rest of directions perfectly. (Including a stick and a half of butter!) The recipe made 16 good-sized muffins. Let me just go ahead and say it: They are the perfect muffin. The best blueberry muffin I've ever had in my whole entire life. Incredible! Sleek is out of town for the weekend, so I made sure to put several in the freezer just so he'll get to try them. I have a feeling these will go fast!

Snobby Joes

I know it's getting redundant with all the V-con recipes I've been doing recently. The only thing I can tell you is...Expect them to keep on coming! LOL There are lots of recipes in there I want to try, and it's a big cookbook. Tonight I made the Snobby Joes, which are a lentil-based version of sloppy Joes. I made up my own sloppy Joe recipe last summer, so I was sort of hesitant to try these because I was afraid they'd be a lot better than mine. I definitely wouldn't say they were "better". They're different for sure, but as far as goodness goes, I'd say mine are right on par with them. I'll definitely make them again, but I'm not replacing my own recipe with these.

To go with the Joes, I made some sauteed onions and spinach with an Asian-style peanut sauce. I mixed a little peanut butter with some shoyu, rice vinegar, agave nectar and Thai chili paste. I just poured the sauce over the spinach and onions when they were softened. It's really easy, and delicious.

Still haven't listened to the new Colin MacIntyre album yet, but it will be on tomorrow. Probably all day. LOL While I was cooking, I checked out a band called Reigning Sound. Sleek put it on my iPod a while back, so I decided to check them out today. Good stuff.

Veggie Reuben Redux

I feel like I just haven't been cooking much lately. I guess I haven't, or I'd have more to post about! My dad came to visit on Monday, and offered to watch the kids while Sleek and I went out to do whatever. We decided to try the new Japanese steakhouse, Fujiyama. I'm not a huge fan of Japanese steakhouses, but I know Sleek really likes them. I was in the mood for some sushi, so I looked forward to trying it there. It was just okay. I ended up getting the vegetable meal from the grill. I think if you've eaten at one Japanese steakhouse, you might as well have eaten at every one. Nothing special, and highly overpriced. I don't care if I ever go to another one. The sushi is much better at Ogawa, a regular Japanese restaurant here in town.

The next night, my dad was feeling like ordering some Chinese food (he can't get decent Chinese where he lives), so that we did. I don't like to get Chinese very often because it tends to make me not feel very well. I kept it kind of light with broccoli and garlic sauce (no oil) and steamed rice. Much, much better without the oil.

Last night was veggie Reubens again. I can't believe it took me this long to make them again. They really are so good! I could probably make them once a week and never get tired of them. I'm making a serious effort to start eating healthier, so I've got a big bag of lettuce and veggies cut up and ready in the fridge. I've been trying to mainly eat fruit for breakfast and raw veggies for lunch. I do fine until about 2 p.m., then I feel like eating everything in the house!

Veggie Joes

Heh! Silly me. I thought I "invented" veggie joes last summer. When Sleek and I ate meat (just over 3 years ago, now), we frequently ate sloppy joes. I had been craving some joes last summer, when I also happened to be wondering what the hell to do with the mountain of veggies I had from the CSA. Veggie joes popped into my mind. I decided to just kind of wing it with the sauce, and amazingly they turned out awesome. I have since seen a version of veggie joes in every vegetarian cookbook I've looked at! Every time I make these, I get that Adam Sandler song stuck in my head for at least two days! OMG. Y'all must watch that. Adam Sandler and Chris Farley may be my favorite comedy duo ever.

So, here's what I do: Dice up some veggies. I like zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, onions and bell peppers. I saute them until just soft. Then I add various amounts of beans. (I don't really measure, but I'd say about 2 cups.) I usually use pinto beans, but yesterday all I had cooked were chickpeas. So, I lightly mashed the chickpeas and added them to the vegetables. Finally, I added about 1 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice.

While that was all getting heated through, I made the sauce. If I had to guess on the measurements, it would go something like this: about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, 1/2 cup to a cup of ketchup, 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a couple TBS of yellow mustard, splash of vegan Worcestershire, several shakes of paprika (I just keep adding and tasting until I get it right), a dash of salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. Mix it all up and pour it into the veggies and heat it through.

This really is an easy dish to make, and it's just so good. Plus, it's just full of veggies, so it's good for you too!

Tuna Melts

Well, dinner this evening didn't go as planned. I'd planned on making a chickpea and spinach curry from VWaV. I opened the cabinet to get out my can of diced tomatoes, and realized I didn't have any. The closest thing I had was tomato soup, and I just don't think that would've worked. So, I spied a couple of cans of albacore tuna, and decided on tuna melts and broccoli. We usually eat fish every few weeks or so around here. Anyway, I made up the tuna salad using two cans of albacore, some diced sweet pickles, some pickle juice and about 2 TBS of "lite" mayo. I spread the bread with Earth Balance, and grilled it on my cast iron griddle. I put on some shredded cheddar, sauteed onions and the tuna. They really turned out well, and Sleek thought they may have been the best tuna melts ever! I'll be making the spinach chickpea curry for lunch tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

Two weeks ago on Austin City Limits, Sleek and I saw a band we thought was really good. They're called Explosions in the Sky. They're completely instrumental. We TiVO ACL, so we've been watching that episode a lot this week. I need to get some of that on my iPOD.