Planning Ahead for the Work Week

I have confessed in the past that I understand the virtues of planning meals ahead of time but that my execution is lackluster at best. Now that I'm back to work, I will admit that I am still uneven in this area, but I have found that the weeks where I plan ahead make all the difference in the world - especially for lunch.

What is it about lunch that makes or breaks things? I love eating out, but my bank account surely does not. Yet when I'm in a time crunch during the week, my creativity simply evaporates and I start to consider an ascetic lifestyle where maybe I don't have to cook so much.

But then, my wonderful friend Sonjmarie came over one day on maternity leave, cooked us a ton of food, and left it in our fridge. Both her company and the delectable meals she left behind were delightful. One of the things she prepared for us was baked ziti, which was both marvelous and flipped a light switch in my head - hey, why don't I make a pan of ziti over the weekend and either freeze it or bring it in for lunches during the week? And a cheap week's worth of meals was born!

The nice thing about baked ziti is that it super adaptable for both palates and wallets and continues to be super easy to make. For example, I love to make it with Daiya shreds, but Greg doesn't like any cheese (vegan or otherwise), so I leave it out of his portion. I also tend to use Beyond Meat lightly seasoned chicken, particularly because my local Whole Foods regularly offers $1 off  coupons for it, but if you don't like that or it's a little expensive, simply use something like beans or veggie-based mock meat crumbles that's on sale - or nothing at all! I promise, it will still be delicious.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but frankly, this is so easy to whip up and pull together, that I didn't want my lack of illustration to stop me from posting and slow down your own weekly meal planning. :)

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Baked Ziti
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:
Spray oil
1 pound of dried pasta
1 jar of tomato sauce (I like 365 Brand Roasted Red Pepper)
Approximately 14 oz of protein - optional (Beyond Meat chicken (diced), Gardein or Boca crumbles, or beans all work well)
One bag of shredded vegan cheese - optional (I like Daiya - you can be creative! Use mozzarella for a more traditional take or pepperjack for something spicy and fun)

Method:
1)Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2) Prepare pasta according to package directions.
3) Mix in jar of sauce and other mix ins if you prefer (add the protein and approximately half a bag of cheese)
4) Spray a 9x13 pan and pour in the pasta mixture.
5) Top with remaining cheese, if your prefer.
6) Bake for 20-25 minutes (until cheese and/or pasta starts to brown).
7) Serve and enjoy, or cool down and portion into containers for a week's worth of lunches!

Easter Bunny Cake, or a Foolproof Way to a Festive Dessert

I am, admittedly, not a very crafty person. I love to bake and make a ton of cookies for the holidays, but then have my sister arrange the plate. I attempt to make cute cards and such for Greg, but really I am pretty sure he holds onto them because he has a big heart; he certainly doesn't keep them because they look good. Every time I see a Pinterest "fail" meme, I quietly nod to myself and realize those "disaster" photos perfectly encapsulate any project I've ever attempted.

So with that introduction, I give you - the bunny cake!

Yes, this adorable piece of Americana was actually baked, put together, and decorated, by me! Several years ago, my mom found a Betty Crocker ad that explained how to create this wonder and passed it along to me, and we have had an annual bunny cake pretty much ever since then - the only difference is that the cake is vegan now, but the concept remains the same.

I realize lamb cakes or even lamb butter is usually all the rage this time of year, but that usually requires special molds of some kind, which is not in keeping with my mantra of keeping things easy and cutting down on the special equipment you keep in the house. The beauty of the bunny cake is that nothing extraordinary is required - just a knife and cutting board.

First things first - one layer of a cake! Or, if you have a cupcake recipe (like the one I used from  Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet), prepare the equivalent of 12 cupcakes but pour in a round pan instead.

Once the cake is cooled, cut it in half.

 Then frost the bottoms of the bake and push the two halves together. (Full disclosure: I did not frost this cake because I needed to freeze it  for later use! But I hope you can see where I'm going.)

About a third of the way up of the semicircle, cut out a notch.

Place the cake that you cut out at the end of the semicircle. Now, you have a head, body, and tail!

Another angle of the bunny masterpiece.

And then frost! Basically, I use a vegan buttercream frosting - think the Domino Sugar buttercream frosting recipe, but to make it vegan, sub Earth Balance, non-dairy milk, and organic powdered sugar (to make sure the sugar is vegan); I also usually leave out the salt. (Okay, I just realized typing that I pretty much have my own riff on the Domino Sugar recipe, but still - it works!)

Frost the entire creation, then coat with shredded coconut to give your bunny a fluffy coat. You can create a face using vegan chocolate chips or Starburst jelly beans or Jolly Ranchers jelly beans, since those are vegan. Then I usually cut out ears from a sheet of paper (just two long ovals, with one of the ends cut bluntly so they stick flat behind the head), stick those in the notch, and you're done!

For bonus points, you can also put some coconut in a disposable container, add some green food coloring, and shake until the coconut is green. Put it around the bunny for grass, put on extra jelly beans as eggs, and you have a cute and delicious Easter dessert, ready to go!

Whether you celebrate Easter or not, I hope all of you enjoy the holidays, spring, or whatever makes you happy!

Easter/Spring Extravaganza Week! (or A Great Excuse to Make Crustless Vegan Quiche)

Hooray for Spring! Seriously, if you are in Chicago, then you know we got run through the ringer with weather. So bring on the sunshine, walks outside with Baby M and the puppies, and general glad tidings!

For some of us, this time of year means Easter is on its way. Vegans often find holidays can be a bit of a struggle, particularly for Easter with its hams, lamb cakes, and eggs, so this week's posts will focus on ways to have a vegan-friendly, delicious, celebratory Easter without feeling like you're making sacrifices. I'll have you covered with Easter basket ideas - and even dessert!

If Easter isn't your thing, chances are you are at least a fan of brunch. Brunch is an area that tends to be tricky for vegans. When people thing brunch, most dishes are very meat- or egg-based, which can make things tough. Chances are, though, if you tell your omnivorous friends that you will make them a big batch of scrambled tofu - though delicious, you will likely scare them off by the name alone.

So what to do if you are in charge of Easter breakfast or brunch this year, or if you want to have folks over for brunch just because, and you aren't sure what to make? Vegan crustless quiche is the order of the day, my friends.

I've played with this recipe for a few months and finally gotten it to place where it is all kinds of delicious without much effort. It has been a hit every time I've made it, and no one ever believes it's vegan (or accidentally gluten-free!). Plus, I've made a double batch ahead of time and eaten for breakfast each morning before work, which gives it major bonus points. You can also make the quiche ahead of time and pop it in the oven right before guests arrive, and you don't have to mess around with having a perfect crust. Basically, this recipe has it all.

If you want to entertain with this quiche, I would recommend pairing it with a simple salad, Tofurkey Tempeh Bacon, potatoes, fruit, and mimosas (for vegan sparkling wine, check out Barnivore.) If you feel that you need a second entree, I heartily recommend Chubby Vegan Mom's French Toast, which is delicious. (Hat  tip to Angela for the original inspiration for this creation.)

Soak 1/2-3/4 cup of cashews for at least one hour (or overnight in the fridge). Press 1/2 block of firm or extra firm refrigerated tofu. (You can do this by putting the tofu between two plates and putting a heavy can on top.)

Drain the cashews. In a food processor, pulverize the cashews until they become mealy.

 Discard the pressed tofu liquid and add the tofu to the food processor, processing until starting to become smooth. Then add one jar of sundried tomatoes in oil, onion powder, garlic powder, and 1/4 cup of non-dairy milk (I usually use unsweetened almond milk, but any will do), salt, and pepper. Process until smooth (some sun-dried tomatoes chunks are fine). [If you are making ahead of time, at this point you can put the tofu mixture in the fridge.]

 When you are ready to bake it, fold in 2.5-3 oz of spinach with the tofu mixture.

 Like so. Honestly, if you want to add a little more or a little less, feel free!

You can put this quiche in a greased traditional round or square pan. If you double the recipe, it fits well in a 9x13.

 Place in a preheated oven. It bakes at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or a 350 degree oven for 40-45, until the top and edges start to brown.

And voila! You have a very fancy looking yet substantial breakfast to wow your guests without much effort at all.

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Sundried Tomato and Spinach Crustless Vegan Quiche
Serves: 3-4 (when doubled, serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
1/2-3/4 c. raw cashews
1/2 block of refrigerated firm or extra-firm tofu
1 jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil
1/4 c. non-dairy milk (I use unsweetened almond milk)
1-2 Tablespoons of onion powder
1-2 Tablespoons of garlic powder
Salt and pepper (to taste - I tend to use 1/2-1 tsp. of salt and 1/4 tsp. of pepper)
2/5-3 oz of spinach
Spray oil

Method:
1) Soak cashews in water for at least one hour (or overnight in the fridge)
2) Press the tofu for one hour. (I usually put it between two plates with a heavy can on top.)
3) Drain cashews and pulverize in a food processor until mealy. Discard pressed tofu liquid and add tofu to cashews, processing until somewhat smooth.
4) Add sundried tomatoes (with oil), non-dairy milk, and the spices. Process until smooth; some sun-dried tomatoes chunks are fine. (If you are preparing ahead of time, stick this mixture in the fridge until ready to bake.)
5) Fold spinach into mixture; feel free to add more or less spinach as desired.
6) Add to greased (with spray oil) round or square pan (or, if double, 9x13 pan).
7) Bake in preheated oven either at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until the tops and edges are starting to brown.

Serve or enjoy as an easy breakfast throughout the week!

Feeding the New Family

Hello readers! I am back on the blog after having crossed the great divide from pregnancy into parenthood. Baby M arrived and she is wonderful and perfect in ways that Greg and I could have never imagined.

When Baby M was born, I learned a lesson that I intellectually understood pre-baby but felt viscerally as a new mom - BRING NEW PARENTS FOOD. Truly. I recently found this list of ways to be helpful to new parents. I had a friend who also recently become a new mother point out to me that the only problem with this list is that number 10 should repeat bring food, simply because it's that important. And she is correct.

You may feel that bringing food simply feels like a token or like you are going through the motions. Friend, I am here to tell you: FOOD IS EVERYTHING. Baby M was stubbornly breech, so I had a planned c-section, and frankly I was in no position to cook until 6-8 weeks postpartum. And really, even if I hadn't had surgery, given the effort and exhaustion that goes into caring for a newborn, plus the fairly constant stream of calories you need if you choose to breastfeed, I simply can't imagine I would have been ready to cook for that period of time anyway. Had we not had family and friends feed us, I'm pretty sure I would have starved to death. The number one tip I have given friends who have become new parents is that the price of admission to come visit the baby needs to be food of some kind, and I stand by that advice, 100%.

With that said, what kinds of food should you bring? The reality is that new parents probably don't have time to do any food preparation, so ideally the food you bring will work cold or can easily be pulled out in small portions and zapped in the microwave or warmed up on the stove. (As a note, ideally this food should be brought in containers you never need to see again, like Gladware, and remember to tell the new parents you don't want it back so they don't feel like they need to chase you down to return your storageware!)

So what should you bring? Many endless choices abound (and Greg and I benefited from the talent and creativity of others immensely), but one that I can't recommend enough is the wonderful classic: Soup!

Soup is really wonderful to bring for many reasons:
- It meets my criteria of being easy to reheat and eat.
- It's extremely delicious.
- It's super easy to make.
- It's great for vegans, adaptable for those with food sensitivities, and embraced by omnivores alike!

If you want to be really fancy, stop at Panera Bread and pick up a sliced loaf of sourdough bread, which is accidentally vegan - hooray!

My nephew was born a few months after Baby M, and feeling as strongly as I did about bringing food, I made batches of chili and froze it in my sister's freezer, and then everytime I went to visit, I made sure I had food, and that food was almost always soup and bread. Oftentimes I would make a variation on this soup and bring it along.

Another great option, which also happens to be a staple in my house, is a variation on Zesty Black Bean Soup, from the fine folks at Whole Foods. This soup is full of flavor - and seriously, so easy to make, it's almost embarrassing.

First, heat up approximately 1 Tablespoon of oil (olive, vegetable, canola - whatever you have on hand) in a stockpot over medium to medium high heat. Add the veggies of your choice. For us, this is usually frozen corn and bell peppers.

Once the veggies have some color on them (usually after 5-10 minutes, depending on if you started from frozen), add your spices. For us, it's onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, and, the secret of this recipe, a bit of cinnamon!

 Stir in your black beans and tomatoes (crushed or diced, whichever you have on hand - though we tend to go the fire roasted route for an extra bunch of flavor), add your veggie broth, and bring to a boil.

 Once the soup is boiling, bring to a simmer for ten minutes -and that's it, you're done!

Once the soup is cooled down, load it up in disposable storageware and head out to the lucky family who will receive your bounty! (Or double that recipe so you have dinner, too.)

And that's all there is to it! So go ahead, get cooking, and be a hero to a hungry new family who will only be too happy to eat up your efforts. :)

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Black Bean Soup (as adapted from Whole Foods)
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. plant-based oil (I usually use olive oil)
1 pound of the veggies of your choice (I usually use half frozen corn and half frozen bell peppers)
1 to 2 Tablespoons of onion powder
1 to 2 Tablespoons of garlic powder
1 Tablespoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 to 2-15 oz cans of black beans, rinsed and drained, 1 1/2-3 cups of cooked black beans
1 - 14.5 oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes
32-48 oz of vegetable broth (I usually use 48 for a brothier soup; you can always use a 32 oz container of broth and add water for the rest)

Method:
1) Heat oil in a stock pot on the stove over a medium-high flame.
2) Add veggies; saute for 5-10 minutes (depending on if you are using frozen) until the vegetables have some color on them.
3) Mix in the spices, beans, and tomatoes. Add the broth and bring to a boil.
4) When the soup is boiling, reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
5) Serve or package up for a lucky family!

Keeping It Real - Let's Put Things in the Microwave

Hi everyone!

I apologize for my relative silence. It's not a lack of passion as much as it is a plethora of baby. I am very excited to meet our little girl very soon, and apparently nature has decided that, in preparation for our baby, I need to be an unconscious as much as possible. This means that my own cooking at home has pretty much decreased to nil. Then Greg pointed out to me that perhaps folks want to know what I do when cooking just isn't in the cards, and I thought that was a great idea, so here's a post for the curious!

It's true that when I cook I tend to go for easy, which on a vegan diet is usually pretty easy. You can really minimize food prep time, complicated recipes, and tons of dirty dishes on a vegan diet, which is great for someone who likes to cut to the chase, just like me. But occasionally...like when you feel like you are 15 months pregnant...you just want food to appear. So here is how I have been handling those situations.

First things first, for anyone local in Chicago, I'd love to give a shout out to the fine folks at the Misericordia Hearts & Flour Bakery. I have blogged about their wonderfulness before; this great organization provides job opportunities for adults with development disabilities, which is tremendous. Also tremendous is that they sell many vegan baked goods at Chicago Farmers' Markets around the city - hurrah! I've already warned the Misericordia folks that I will be making weekly trips to pick up their delicious chocolate-cranberry cookies until this little girl is born. :) Or, if you aren't local, you can order a vegan variety box here:

 

 If you're wanting to go the "processed food" route, I would also heartily suggest checking out The Laziest Vegans in the World. This site does a tremendous job of reviewing processed vegan food when you simply don't want to cook. Also, you get great tips - like the one I recently got that EARTH BALANCE HAS BOXED MAC AND CHEESE. Of course, vegan mac 'n cheese exists elsewhere and in other forms, but frankly, I want the stuff that is reminiscent of a certain "blue box," and apparently, this stuff might be it. Needless to say, I will be tracking this stuff down and finding it to try AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Finally, I have been very pleasantly surprised by the findings at my local Target. I have been really impressed with their growing selection of frozen vegan items. Typically, as I have written before, I usually do our shopping at Whole Foods (because yes, you can shop there and not go broke, and I often find that my vegan staples are much cheaper there than anywhere else), but since I've been on more of a pre-packaged kick lately, I've been taking advantage of the sales and discounts at Target. And, of course, I want to reward Target for carrying vegan items at reasonable prices!

So what have I been enjoying at Target lately?
- Gardein. I admit, it took a little while for Gardein to grow on me. Then when I ate Gardein products at Wynn in Las Vegas (which, by the way, is entirely deserving of a post of its own), I realized that I had skipped out on Gardein way too early. Gardein now has a place in our home. My favorite lately? The Beefless Sliders! So tasty, so easy to prepare, and one of my favorite vehicles for eating Earth Balance Olive Oil Mindful Mayo.

- Amy's Kitchen. Amy's products are all vegetarian, and I've noticed that more and more are vegan. For example, Veggie Loaf, which used to have honey in it, has now been reconfigured to be vegan. And it's delicious. I also appreciate how clearly the packaging identifies what is vegan and what is not. My go-to favorites lately have been the Black Bean Vegetable Enchilada and the Spaghetti Italiano.

 

My hope is that I will keep posting other products that I stumble upon that I really enjoy. Sure, in an ideal world, we would all be cooking from scratch all the time, but at the same time, for whatever reason, it's not always the most realistic approach. So don't feel bad if you need to indulge in taking a little help from the microwave at times - the animals will still thank you and you will still feel better!

Hooray for Puree! The Shortcut to an Easy Creamy Vegan Soup

One of our favorite go-to dinners in our house is homemade soup. It requires relatively little planning on my part, is easy and quick to throw together (I usually go from nothing prepared to dinner table in about 20-25 minutes), and is a healthy and delicious way to use up all sorts of odds and ends lurking in the fridge or pantry. I've previously swooned about our love for soup, so if you're looking for my footprint for an easy dinner, click here!

Although chunky veggie or bean soups are usually the standard in our house, sometimes I crave a good creamy soup. Usually when people go vegan, they believe they will say sayonara to the velvety goodness of a broccoli or potato soup. I am pleased to say - they are wrong! First, you can always veganize your old recipe by using non-dairy milk (or, my favorite if I'm converting a cream soup recipe, soy cream). If recipe conversion isn't your jam, or you don't want to go to the store for something like soy cream, one quick search on the internet for "vegan creamy soup" should convince you that there are excellent ways to pull together a creamy soup with the same flavor and punch of dairy-based recipe.

While those recipes are delicious, I almost never make them because I believe they usually aren't my brand of cooking (my "brand of cooking" being failure to plan ahead or a general laziness to run to the store). For example, many of these recipes call for soaked cashews. I agree that soaked cashews make an excellent base for cream soups and nut cheeses - heck, when I make vegan quiche, I always use soaked cashews. I also like that you are getting the bonus of nutrients and good fats of nuts. But I almost never have cashews in my house, much less the foresight to soak them; plus, if you are nut-free, cashews won't do you any good, or if you're trying to cut calories, you might be nervous to add nuts.

So how do I get around this problem? Through experimentation, I have found that making a soup that has a starchy vegetable, then pureeing it, gets the exact same flavor and texture of a traditional creamy soup, without this soaking craziness.

Conveniently, most creamy soups are made with starchy vegetables. For example, years ago, I wrote about an easy, creamy butternut squash soup that is perfect for the holidays. The recipe is a perennial favorite, and yet it is has got to be in my top five of easiest fancy things I make for guests - roast some veggies in broth and you're done! You can basically apply the concept of that recipe to any combination of foods you are trying to soup-ify, and you'll probably have good luck.

I put this theory to the test last night. I was on my own for dinner, and I just wanted something comforting, easy, and delicious. Greg is a deep lover of soup, but he's also one of the most freakishly healthy people I know; he never liked animal-based creamy soups, so he doesn't seek out a vegan version. (I know, he's weird, but totally cute, so let's just go along with it.) After digging through my relatively bare pantry and fridge, I realized I had the fixings for a creamy soup for one, so I put my theory to the test and indulged in a delicious, thrown together potato and broccoli soup for one.

I'll show you what I did below, but with two caveats. First, this was enough for one person, though this recipe easily scales; just quadruple or do what you need to do to make this a family dinner. Second, I happened to make mine a potato soup, but I will include little tidbits along the way to let you know how you can take advantage of any veggies you have floating around your house.

First, I heated about 2-3 tsp. of olive oil in a stock pot over medium to medium-high heat, then added a quarter bag of frozen broccoli florets. Of course, if you're making this at home, use whatever frozen or fresh veggies you like.

Since my starchy vegetable of choice was these 5 red potatoes floating around my fridge, I needed to scrub and chop those first and gave the broccoli a head start. Obviously, if you're using a winter squash, you'll need to skin it, seed it, and chop that, too. If you are using something like corn, however, and you're just going to crack open a frozen bag for your  recipe, just throw that right in with the other veggies.

Saute all of your veggies together with your spices. For this iteration, I used about 1 Tablespoon of garlic powder, 1 Tablespoon of dried rosemary, 1-2 tsp. of dried thyme, 1-2 tsp. of dried sage, and about 1/4-1/2 tsp. of salt with some cracks of black pepper. Anyway, saute until the veggies start to pick up some brownish color (about 5-7 minutes). I often find that when I saute starchy vegetables, they stick to the bottom of the pan, even if I use oil. If this happens to you, try and deglaze the pan with a little veggie stock or water; that should do the trick.

After that, add your liquid. I had about 1 cup of vegetable stock on hand and added another 2 cups of water. Boil for about 12-15 minutes, or until your starchy vegetables are soft (as shown above). After that, puree away! I usually use a stick blender, but if you don't have one, then let your soup cool for about 15 minutes and run through batches in the regular blender. You can make the soup as smooth as you like or leave in chunks. I reduced my liquid a bit too far, so when I blended the soup I added about 1/3-1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk, but that was actually to loosen up the soup, not to give it creaminess or flavor; it had plenty of that on its own!

And that's it! I yielded one extremely filling, extremely satisfying bowl of potato soup. You can always mix in some nutritional yeast if you want some cheesiness, but personally, I thought this was delicious as it was.
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Easy (and Very Free-Form) Creamy Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:
Oil
Your starchy vegetable of choice (potatoes, winter squash, corn, etc.)
Other vegetables (think of what goes well with your starchy vegetable! Potatoes and broccoli are an easy match; corn works well with bell peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini; I chop in greens and even apples with my squash; onions and garlic taste delicious in everything)
Spices (same idea - potato matches well with rosemary/thyme/sage or even just an herbes de provence mix; corn works well with cumin/chili powder/cayenne pepper, or you can add some liquid smoke; butternut squash is delicious with curry or a little cinnamon)
Salt and pepper
Cooking liquid (I would use at least some vegetable stock for flavor, but water can get you the rest of the way)
Unsweetened non-dairy milk (optional, and only if you accidentally over-reduce your soup)

Method:
1) Heat oil in a stock pot over medium or medium-high heat. I usually start with about a Tablespoon; if you are cooking for a crowd, you might add a touch more, or be prepared to add some cooking liquid to deglaze the plan if veggies start to stick.
2) Saute veggies with spices, salt, and pepper until veggies start to brown (about 5-7 minutes). Deglaze the pan or add oil as necessary if there's sticking.
3) Add cooking liquid to just cover the veggies.
4) Bring to a boil and cook until the starchy vegetable is soft - about 12-15 minutes (though corn will probably only need ten minutes).
5) Blend together using a stick blender, or cool down soup for 15 minutes and run soup through a blender. If the mixture is too thick, loosen it up by adding small amounts of non-dairy milk (about 1/3 cup at a time) until the consistency is as desired.

Enjoy!

Meal Ideas: The World's Easiest Taco Salad

One of the biggest daily challenges anyone faces, vegan or otherwise, is meal planning. It can be hard to think about what to have for dinner tonight, much less for the next week. I think meal planning can be especially daunting for  a new vegan - in addition to figuring out what to eat, you likely have a pattern of  foods that you use as a fallback, many of which probably aren't vegan, so then you feel like you are going to starve.

Have no fear - I will help you through this hurdle! It's an area where I used to struggle, too, and frankly I didn't realize meal planning was a vegan stumbling block for me - until I read Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's 30-Day Vegan Challenge and she talked about this very phenomenon and offered very practical solutions to combating this problem. (That is one of the many reasons her book is so helpful - please help her bring the book back into print by contributing here! If you want more information, check out my post one her campaign here.)

Since I know how helpful it was for me to have some guidance both for meal planning generally and for vegan meals particularly, I plan on devoting some of my posts to planning healthful and tasty meals. So if you're a new or experimenting vegan, I hope these posts help you see that eating well (both in terms of nutrition and taste) doesn't have to be overwhelming. Or if you're a vegan who is bored with your usual routine, I hope I can shake things up for you.

Today's post will be about one of our favorite lunches: taco salad.

I will admit that in terms of weekday lunches, I have it pretty easy. Since I work in downtown Chicago, I am surrounded by a number of establishments that have accidentally vegan food (seriously - I'm looking at you Chipotle, and Noodles & Company, and Protein Bar, and Pret a Manger, and Panera Bread, and many others, which I will post about later!) and the mecca of vegan chains, Native Foods. But let me tell you, paying for lunch can add up fast. Plus, I realize that not everyone is so lucky to have so many lunch options - or, if you're like Greg, you have a job where you don't have any time to leave the premises to get lunch, much less find a joint where you can get vegan food.

To help us save some extra cash and ensure that poor Greg can actually eat during the day, I started to prepare our lunches ahead of time. This taco salad recipe evolved from a list of lunch suggestions that Colleen recommends in the 30-Day Vegan Challenge. She provides a basic framework for this (and other!) easy salads, and this taco salad has become a tasty and super easy to prepare staple in our house. Here is how our family prepares taco salad.

Before I begin, I would like to say that this salad is very free form - it usually morphs based upon what we have in our house, what sounds good, and anything I'm trying to use up.  For example, since summer is almost upon us, fresh veggies from the farmer's market would be great in this salad - or not so fresh veggies that are getting ready to go bad. Today's version of the salad is a direct reflection of my pregnant state - I'm in my third trimester, I'm tired, and I have no desire to cut things up. So frozen veggies to the rescue!

First, heat up about 2-3 teaspoons of oil over medium to medium-high heat in a saute pan. If you are trying to cut down your oil intake, you can add less oil and use spray oil to cover the rest of the pan, or you can heat up some vegetable broth instead of oil. Add your veggies - this time around, I added half a bag of a frozen three bell pepper mix and about 3/4 cup of frozen corn. Saute until the veggies start to brown. For me, since the veggies were frozen, this took about 10-12 minutes (fresh veggies will take about 5-10 minutes), until the vegetables started to look like this...

I apologize - I know the picture isn't the best, but notice that the bell peppers are softened and the vegetables have picked up some color from the pan.

Once the veggies are prepared, throw in some beans and spices. You can use canned beans or dried beans prepared ahead of time - check out my recipe for Easy Slow Cooker Beans if you'd like to try and have some beans on hand, for recipes such as this one. Here I added about 3 cups of black beans, or the equivalent of two drained and rinsed cans of beans. Veggie crumbles would work well, too.

In terms of spices, for taco salad you can use a taco seasoning packet or, as Colleen recommended, you can just throw in chili powder, cumin, and salt, which is what I usually do since I'm not organized enough to have taco seasoning ahead of time. Here, I added about 1-2 Tablespoons of chili powder, 1/2-1 teaspoon of cumin, and 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt. We are also big garlic lovers in my house, so I added about 1-2 Tablespoons of garlic powder (yes, pregnancy has made me disinterested in chopping up fresh garlic - I have no guilt!). You could also zest this up by adding fresh or bottled lemon or lime juice as well, or if you want a little kick you can use cayenne pepper (or you can add part of a diced jalapeno when you're sauteeing the veggies).

After mixing in the beans and spices, go ahead and add some salsa; this picture shows roughly 3/4-1 cup of salsa. In a surprising twist, don't feel like you have to use an expensive salsa - I usually add the mild or medium store brand. I prefer jarred salsa, both due to my aforementioned pregnancy laziness and because jarred salsa tends to be a little runnier, and I like adding the extra moisture to the pan. Plus, since you are adding so many other flavors to the pan, having a fancy salsa is less important. Greg concurs - he is very particular about his salsa and rarely uses the basic store brand for his chips, but he loves the salsa in this taco salad.

Anyway, go ahead and mix in the salsa and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the salsa has reduced into a thick sauce. I usually start light on the salsa and more if necessary so this phase can go quickly. Usually I can reduce the salsa in about 3-5 minutes, though if I add too much, it can take up to ten minutes.

And here is the delicious final product, ready to eat, in about 20 minutes! You can prepare this weekend before a work week or throw it together during the work week since it cooks up so quickly.

We usually eat this salad for lunch, but it can easily be classed up for dinner, too. Here are some serving suggestions:
- I took this salad and split it into two containers for lunches. You can reheat it or eat it cold - we like it both ways.
- You can enjoy it with chips if that's your bag, but it's great on its own.
- If you want to class it up a bit and make it more like a salad, you can mix in fresh greens before you eat it (or cook the greens right in), or scoop this out on top of greens. I would use something a little hardier, like spinach or raw or lightly cooked kale.
- This would work well with some sliced avocado on top or a dollop of guacamole.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

---
Quick and Easy Taco Salad
Note: since this recipe is free form in nature, this recipe will provide basic guidelines to throwing together a taco salad. Don't be afraid - be creative! (Or simply use up what's leftover in your house.) If you would feel better with some more specific measuring guidelines, please check out my commentary above for two servings.

Ingredients:
Oil (canola, vegetable, grapeseed, or olive all work well), spray oil, vegetable broth, or any combination of these three ingredients
Fresh or frozen diced veggies (we like bell peppers and corn)
Black beans or veggie crumbles
Taco seasoning packet (or 1-2 Tbsp. chili powder, 1/2-1 tsp. cumin, and 1/2-1 tsp. salt)
Optional extra spices and flavors (garlic, cayenne pepper, and lime or lemon juice are all possibilities)
Salsa

Method:
1) Heat oil/spray oil/vegetable broth in a saute pan over medium or medium-high heat. (If you use oil or an oil/spray combo, you can probably use 2-3 teaspoons. For veggie broth, I would put a thin layer on the pan; as the broth evaporates while you cook, you may need to add a Tablespoon at a time so your food doesn't stick.)
2) Saute your vegetables until they begin to brown. Fresh veggies will cook in 5-10 minutes; frozen will probably take a little longer, like 10-15 minutes.
3) Mix in black beans or veggie crumbles plus the spices.
4) Add salsa; I like to start light (like 1/2-1 cup) and add more if the mixture looks dry. Reduce the mixture until the salsa becomes a thickened sauce. Depending on the amount of salsa you add, this can take 3-10 minutes.

Enjoy! Make ahead for an easy lunch or throw together for a fast weekday dinner. Check out the post above for serving ideas.

The World's Easiest Vegan Fudge Recipe (Or How to Make Friends and Influence People)

I confess; this post might end up being my undoing. I am so excited about this can't lose fudge recipe: I know how daunting vegan baking and cooking can seem (though I promise, it doesn't have to be!) and just how difficult it can be to find an easy vegan fudge recipe that is still delicious, which is why I decided to share it.

And therein lies the personal problem for me. I have made this fudge countless times and shared it with friends and family at parties and brought it as a hostess gift. It is always wildly popular and loved by all who eat it, but once those folks read this post and see just how easy it is to make, they might feel like I'm phoning it in whenever I bring it as a gift. But for my fair readers, it's a risk I've decided to take.

I am truly stretching my brain to remember where I found this recipe for the first time. I remember the day I found the recipe. I just desperately wanted fudge. Fudge usually involves marshmallows; I don't usually keep vegan marshmallows in my house and they can be on the expensive side (though I strongly recommend the delicious Dandies brand if you are inclined to go buy some). I also wasn't excited at the prospect of standing over a stove and going through the actual rigamarole of fudge-making; I just wanted to fudge to appear. I think I may also have wanted peanut butter and chocolate, too.

Now that I reread that passage, I must have been having a cranky day of fudge craving - yikes!

Anyway, I ended up ordering vegan fudge from Realist Mermaid on Etsy. When the fudge arrived later that week, it was delicious (though I just checked, and sadly, it appears she took down her store). But that did not fix the problem that I wanted fudge NOW. So I looked around on Allrecipes and found what appeared to be the world's easiest, three-ingredient recipe for fudge. All three ingredients were in my house. There was almost zero effort in putting it together. And there was chocolate AND peanut butter in it. I excitedly made it and I've never looked back!

This fudge recipe has been a hero to my countless times. I've thrown together as a dessert when I've been invited to parties at the last minute, it's been a great on-the-go snack (both for winter, when fudge tends to make a holiday appearance and summer, when I want to keep the oven off), it is fancy enough to be wrapped up nicely and presented as a hostess gift, and it can also feed at least one pregnant lady who OH MY GOODNESS NEEDS CHOCOLATE NOW. (I'm going to keep it real with you - I'm actually eating this fudge while I'll type this post.)

Here's how it all comes together!

These are the three ingredients you need - one cup of vegan chocolate chips, one cup of peanut butter, and 3/4 cup of maple syrup. For chocolate chips, I like the Enjoy Life brand, though I've also been known to get the Whole Foods 365 brand Vegan Semisweet Chocolate Chips. (Ghirardelli Semisweet Chips also used to be vegan, but it's been awhile since I've checked.) For peanut butter, I always use natural peanut butter. I tend to get chunky, but smooth or chunky will work. For maple syrup, just get the real stuff. Grade A or B is fine; the grade has to do with the color and flavor, not the quality, so just get what's on sale (I keep a big jug of it in my fridge).

Add all of the ingredients to your pot and melt together, stirring constantly, over medium-low to medium heat. This should only take a couple of minutes...

...until it looks smooth and yummy, like this! (Of course, if you use chunky peanut butter, the peanut chunks will remain. I think that's a positive thing personally!)

Line a square pan with parchment paper. Pour in the fudge mixture and spread it evenly throughout the pan. You might find the edges do not neatly go down; that's okay. Those pieces will just turn out "rustic," which means your friends will believe you that it's homemade, or you can just cut off those little pieces and eat them yourself later. :) If you don't have parchment paper, you can also grease the pan with vegan butter (like Earth Balance), but I strongly encourage you to use parchment paper; it really makes the job - and most any other baking or cooking job - easier.

When you're done, cover and put in the fridge for at least an hour. With this batch, I was tired, so I stuck it in the fridge overnight. When the fudge is firm, remove it from the fridge. Lift the fudge out of the pan by holding onto the parchment paper.

Remove the parchment paper and put the block of fudge on a cutting board. Cut up into slices (I usually cut columns, then rows, as demonstrated above).

And voila! Delicious fudge, ready to be shared! Or not... :) Happy eating!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
adapted (I'm pretty sure) from Allrecipes

Ingredients:
1 c. vegan semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
1 c. peanut butter, smooth or chunky (I use natural peanut butter)
3/4 c. maple syrup (Grade A or B is  fine)

1) Melt together chocolate, peanut butter, and maple syrup on the stove over medium-low to medium heat until smooth.
2) Pour mixture into an 8- or 9-inch square pan lined with parchment paper or greased with vegan butter, like Earth Balance.
3) Cover and chill in refrigerator for at least an hour, until firm.
4) Cut fudge into squares (if using parchment paper, I recommend lifting the fudge out of the pan first, peeling off the paper, then cutting up the squares on a cutting board).
5) Store in the fridge.

Easy Peasy Dried Beans

Two of the biggest questions I often hear about going vegan involves expense and meal planning - specifically, how do you figure out what to cook and keep the cost reasonable?

Like any diet you pursue, vegan or otherwise, planning ahead is one of the best things that you can do to tackle both of these problems.  If you live in the real world, though, "planning ahead" may not be in your habit pattern or, frankly, your vocabulary. While I certainly don't want to discourage you from planning ahead, there's no need to feel guilty if you can't think past your next meal, much less what you will be eating for a week.

I am one of these latter folks. Some weeks, I've got a perfect meal plan all set up on Sunday, with the shopping and food prep done, and we are ready to execute. Then there are other weeks where I open up the fridge and desperately hope there's at least a container of Whole Soy & Company yogurt in there so at least I have breakfast worked out, and whatever you do DON'T ASK ABOUT DINNER.

One of the best tricks I've figured out for both of these meal planning scenarios is to have some beans on hand. I'm not going to get into the merits of beans - there has been enough written on their awesomeness that I don't need to get into much detail here. They are also extremely versatile, which I plan to tackle in future posts. But let's be real - they can also be super annoying.

How can the humble bean be annoying? Basically, you've got to make a decision: canned or dried. You can't beat the convenience of canned beans; crack open that can and you're ready to go. If you prefer minimally processed food, though, then there's no question that dried is better than canned. Canned beans are also relatively more expensive: I can spend $2 on a one-pound bag of organic dried beans and end up with multiple cups of cooked beans, or I can spend $1.19 on a can of organic beans and yield, well, a can of beans. Now, with this said, in the processed food/expensive spectrum, neither of these violations are particularly egregious, so if you prefer to keep canned beans in the house, I tip my hat to you. If, however, you prefer to go the dried bean route, you will end up with healthier product at a fraction of the price.

But oh, dried beans, what a pain you are to make, what with your soaking and rinsing and boiling and taking several hours to get done. Ugh. That is, until I watched one of my close friends make a delicious dinner, using a slow cooker and zero soaking of beans. ZERO SOAKING OF BEANS. So I found the recipe, adapted it a bit, and realized I could use the crock pot to prep my beans and stick them in the fridge or freezer or ahead of time with almost no effort.

I admit, I still have to make these ahead of time, but I can prep these beans on a whim, without planning for soaking time or being close to the stove at all times. I can basically rinse out some beans, pop them in the slow cooker, and run errands or go about my day while the beans are preparing themselves. And Greg often prepares these beans, too; he will notice that our bean supply is low, so he'll just knock out a quick batch while he's working on other things. It's a huge help! I used to stray away from the slow cooker for making beans because I've read all kinds of things online about getting an uneven product, but I have to tell you, I have now prepped beans this way countless times and never had a problem.

So here we go!

First, figure out what beans you want to use. This recipe should basically work for any bean; Two BIG warnings though:
- NEVER use this recipe for red kidney beans. Kidney beans contain a naturally occurring toxin that the old version of bean prep knocks out...but I'm not confident that the slow cooker can neutralize this toxin. As a result, in my house, we eat canned kidney beans, where this toxin is never a problem. In my mind, it's worth the slight extra cost for the peace of mind.
- There is no need to use a slow cooker to prep lentils or split peas; these are quick cooking, non-soaking beans that should just be prepped on the stove (although there are plenty of delicious slow cooker recipes that utilize lentils or split peas - and in those cases, have fun!).

Anyway, for this example, I used about 2 cups of black beans. Two cups is pretty standard in my house, but I've used more and less; I find it doesn't really matter.

 Place the beans in a strainer and give them a good rinse, sorting out beans that are broken or just generally look unappetizing and removing any rocks that may have accidentally gotten in there. (I remember reading that tip once, thinking it was weird and unlikely, and then one time actually finding rocks.)

Place the beans in the insert of any slow cooker, then fill up the insert with water until it's nearly full (leave maybe an inch or two at the top.

Cover and cook on high - that's it! Check after about 3 1/2 hours, but the beans should be pretty well cooked after four hours. You'll know they are done because they are soft and tender to bite into without dissolving into mush, or, if you are a visual person, you should be able to pull on the skin of the bean and it easily pulls away.

When the beans are done, dump them in the strainer and rinse them with cold water. This does two things. First, it stops the cooking process. Second, if you are like me and sometimes (which means often) forget about the beans and they are a bit overcooked, this will help firm the beans back up. (In related news, if you think you overcooked your beans, fear not! They will be fine, usable, and still delicious after the cold water rinse! If you're still not convinced, pop them in the freezer. I promise - it's really okay.)

At this point, do as you please! I usually put some in the fridge and the rest in the freezer, and then they are ready for my use when I am having a meal prep panic attack.

Happy Bean Eating to you  and yours!!

Easy Slow Cooker Beans

Ingredients:
Up to one pound of beans (do NOT use kidney beans/red beans or lentils or split peas)

1) Place up to one pound of beans in a strainer. Rinse and pick through the beans to remove broken beans and anything that shouldn't be in there.
2) Put beans in a slow cooker insert; fill with water, leaving 1-2 inches of space at the top.
3) Cook beans on high for 3 1/2-4 hours, until beans are soft and tender to bite. You should be able to pull on the skin of the bean and it easily pulls away.
4) Rinse beans in a strainer with cold water.

Beans are now ready to go in any recipe or can be put in the fridge or frozen.

The Farmers' Market Love Affair Continues

I've talked about how farmers' markets are to me what shoes are to Carrie Bradshaw: it's fundamentally an intense love affair and a scary proposition all at the same time.

I've taken the love a step further; my friend Katie introduced Greg and me to Newleaf Grocery in Rogers Park, and it is now officially all over. Newleaf delivers weekly, organic produce boxes that include almost entirely local produce with some an additional surprises thrown in. For example, I was thrilled to see mangoes this week; I popped it in the blender with the raw ice cream recipe, and a wonderful concoction was born - and devoured. Even better - Newleaf delivers year round, which means my madness can continue well into the winter months. Oh happy day!

Of course, adding Newleaf into my farmers' market mix means that I am really setting myself up for produce overpurchasing. Don't get me wrong; the boxes from Newleaf are plentiful and a great deal, especially considering the contents. Unfortunately, because I have no willpower when it comes to fruits and veggies, each time I walk past any kind of farmers' stand (which are all over Chicago now), I end up taking something home.

I've talked before about herding those veggies together and making soup, but sometimes I want to change it up a bit. Greg loves stir fries; I think they're fine, but I don't necessarily seek them out. Thank you Shape magazine for featuring a recipe for Indian Vegetarian Curried Fried Rice. It gave me the best idea for putting together a base recipe to help me clean out some vegetables - and some grains, too! Yes, sometimes I have a variety of leftover grains lurking around my house, from rice to quinoa to millet, and this stir fry is a great way to make those disappear as well. Depending on the grain you pick, you can also make this dish gluten free as well.

Finally, if all of my talking about farmers' markets leaves you wanting more local fresh produce, but you don't know where to turn, check out Local Harvest. It's a tremendous resource for finding anything you could possibly want, from stands to CSAs.

Clean Out the Pantry Stir Fry (adapted from Shape magazine)
Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:
Grain of your choice (be creative, or just clean out what you have! Our favorite is quinoa)
Vegetable oil (use something with a higher burn temperature, like vegetable, canola, or grapeseed) or spray
Onion, diced, if you're using it
1 tsp. powdered ginger (or 1 Tbsp. minced fresh, if you have it)
1 1/2 -3 cups vegetables (favorites include garlic, green beans, carrots, celery, peppers, corn, broccoli, but seriously anything would work)
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 -2 c. beans (take your pick; I usually use ones I'm cleaning out of the fridge. I've used chickpeas, black beans, red beans, and pinto beans)
1 - 1 1/2 c. tomatoes, if you're using them (fresh, sliced, or canned; even crushed works)
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
A couple cracks of black pepper

1) Prepare grain according to package directions. When you are within 10 minutes of finishing the grain, start the stir fry in a separate pan or wok.
2) Heat oil or spray in pan; add onion, if using it, and ginger. Stir fry for about 30 seconds; add your vegetable mix. Stir fry for about 2-3 minutes, until vegetables are crisp tender but cooked.
3) Add in curry powder; cook with other ingredients for about 10 seconds.
4) Add beans and tomatoes; cook for 2-3 minutes, or until all liquid is reduced (whichever happens second).
5) Mix in soy sauce and pepper; cook for one minute.
6) Serve over grain.

Ask Veg Baker, J.D.: Why Does Making Eggplant Scare the Pants Off of Me?

Okay, perhaps my title is a little goofy, but it's supposed to cut to the chase about a series of questions and misconceptions that people tend to have about eggplant. So, I thought I would just systematically attack the myths and fearmongering that accompany eggplant prep so everyone will be more likely to enjoy this wonderful farmers' market staple.

Question One: How do I pick a good eggplant?

As with most produce, knowing how to select the proper eggplant can really make or break your cooking experience. This isn't meant to be scary, though; picking a good eggplant is actually quite easy to do. It simply requires that you ignore marketing and confidently follow the proper steps to picking the right one.

I feel that most people gravitate towards the largest, most purple-y eggplant they can find, because whenever they see pictures of this pretty bulbous beast, that's what it looks like. Resist my friends - these eggplants actually tend to taste the worst. The bigger an eggplant, the more likely it is to be bitter. Instead, I recommend you buy smaller (or several smaller, depending on your cooking agenda) eggplant instead; it is far less likely to be bitter or brown inside.

You also want an eggplant that is firm to the touch and that has smooth, non-blemished skin. If it feels even the slightest bit soft when you touch it, put it back. Yes, I realize most eggplant at the grocery store feels soft to the touch. That doesn't mean you should buy it! Eggplant has a very short shelf life, so if you can find it fresher, like at a farmers' market or your local CSA, I'd go that route. Also, don't buy an eggplant unless you are going to make it that night or no later than the next day. Yes, they really do go south that quickly.

Finally, don't let the color throw you too much. There are many different varieties of eggplant that all taste great but that are different colors. I just made eggplant last night that was purple and white speckled, and it was fantastic. Just follow common sense - does the color look like it could just be a different variety of eggplant? Then grab it. Is it brown and moldy and gross looking? Then keep walking. Trust me, this is very easy to do in practice.

Question Two: Do I need to salt my eggplant, or, how do I get rid of the bitterness of an eggplant?

This question is actually more controversial than you might think. Intellectual minds differ on whether salting is required.

For those who have no clue what I'm talking about, salting an eggplant is thought to pull the bitterness out of an eggplant. You cut the eggplant into slices, sprinkle salt on the pieces, and lay them in a sieve for 30 minutes. Rinse, and you've got workable eggplant.

The short answer: salting will never hurt an eggplant, so if you're nervous about it or treat salting as a security blanket, go nuts. Personally, I never salt, for a number of reasons. First, I'm lazy. Second, as addressed in Question One, if you buy a fresh, smaller eggplant, bitterness is likely not an issue. Third, a lot of the bitterness of an eggplant is actually in the outer skin. As a result, I tend to just slice off the skin and cook the goodness that is inside.

So short answer: there is no real wrong answer. If you follow the basic steps in selecting an eggplant, salting is likely not necessary, but it will never wreck your final product.

Question Three: Why bother with eggplant if there is no nutritional value?

Sigh. This stereotype is perpetuated by eggplant haters, and I'll never understand it. It is true that, in the scheme of fruits and vegetables, eggplant is probably the most nutritionally lacking, in the literal sense - it's pretty much just water. That said, that doesn't mean that eating eggplant is like eating donuts or something. Quite the opposite; it barely has any calories and I believe it is really high in one of the vitamins...I just can't recall which one. Maybe A? Regardless, worst case scenario, eating eggplant is like drinking a glass of water, so don't let it throw you.

It's this nature of eggplant that makes it so popular and a favorite of mine, frankly. I feel like it is the tofu of the vegetable world; you can prepare it pretty much anyway you like and it will take on the fabulous flavors of whatever you mix with it. This provides an almost zero calorie way to bulk up your meals to fill you up without adding anything horrible.

In fairness, this sponge-like quality of eggplant means that it also has a tendency to absorb a lot of oil, too. Although delicious, that could quickly convert eggplant into a high fat food, so be careful. I tend to head this off at the pass by using spray if I saute eggplant, or I broil or grill it instead.

Question Four: Why is preparing eggplant so complicated?

Making eggplant in and of itself isn't complicated. Like most any other food, it is as easy or hard to cook as you make it. I think when most people think of eggplant, they think of eggplant parmesan. Don't mistake me, I love eggplant parmesan. Greg and I had it served at our wedding! That said, I never make it at home. I find that it is very expensive and labor intensive to do, and I just don't think mine tastes as good as the wonderful dish the fine people at Maggiano's prepared for our reception. In fact, eggplant parmesan is one of those rare dishes that, if I want to serve it, I have it catered - it's just better taste-wise and more cost effective.

Eggplant parm isn't the only way to make eggplant, though. There are a number of ways to make it, including cutting it into slices and grilling it or broiling it, frying it or sauteing it on the stovetop, adding it to a stew or Moroccan tangine, or tossing it in a stir-fry.

The recipe that follows is one of my new favorite ways to make eggplant; it is so easy and quick to do, you can't mess it up. I wouldn't recommend eating the final product of the eggplant from this recipe. It will, frankly, be kind of bland. Rather, I use this method to prep the eggplant for use in another dinner recipe, like adding it to a sauce or a curry, or even just cooking it up with other vegetables to go over rice, or to spice it up and put it in a salad. The point is: this recipe is a great first step to help you get the eggplant ready so you can feel free to be creative with eggplant in other recipes while knowing that you have properly cooked the eggplant in the first place. Enjoy!

Versatile Steamed Eggplant (adapted from The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet)
Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced
Approx. one pound of eggplant, skin removed, cut into matchsticks
Salt and pepper

1) Combine onion and 1/4 c. water in a wok or deeper pan on high heat; reduce to simmer, cover, and steam for 3 minutes.
2) Mix in eggplant with another 1/2 c. water. Cover and steam, stirring every 90 seconds or so, until the eggplant is tender but not mushy or falling apart. This could take anywhere from 5-8 minutes. If there is any extra water in the wok, drain through a sieve and reserve onion and eggplants.
3) Sprinkle scant amounts of salt and pepper. It's ready to move on to its recipe du jour!

Note: The onions are also quite tasty in this, so I tend to keep the eggplant and onions together and omit or reduce any onions that might be in the final dish.

Guilt Free Ice Cream and Easy Homemade Milk

This post is a two-for-one: it allows Greg to indulge in his love for ice cream while I can avoid grodiferous milk.

In the fairness of full disclosure, I should mention that I have never liked milk. Granted, there are extremely compelling vegan and health reasons for not drinking dairy, and I agree with those wholeheartedly. Since I try to avoid the preachy on this blog, though, I'll just front with another fact of life. I have always disliked milk, even when I used to eat 5-inch thick steaks. Seriously. My mom used to add chocolate to my milk when I was a kid and simultaneously pay me a dollar or so (which was truly a fortune to a 5 year old!), and I wouldn't do it. I hated the taste; it made me gag. My parents used to order chocolate milk for me to drink at lunch each day, and I just gave it to whatever kid had forgotten his or her lunch that day. I finally confessed after third grade I never drank it, and my parents kindly stopped ordering it for me. I always did - and still do - eat cereal totally dry. You get the picture.

Now in a drastic shift from my sour feelings towards milk is Greg's adoration of ice cream. It's kind of funny, actually, because Greg is by far the healthiest eater I know. We just signed up for a CSA, and although it's no shock I'm all for it, Greg is really excited about it, too, and all of the things we can do with our weekly allotment of fruits and vegetables. Truth be told, we may need to buy a bigger share because Greg will likely polish off today's box in the next two days. So needless to say, it's always a surprise to people how much he adores ice cream. But Greg being healthy Greg, he always feels bad about it. Even though I certainly think he deserves a treat and is in tremendous shape, he feels bad about this particular indulgence of his.

How do we reconcile these things? Raw almond milk! I was reading Ani Phyo's Ani's Raw Food Kitchen when I sort of saw her recipe for Vanilla Mylk but didn't really think about it. (Remember, my relationship with milk is long and torturous.) But then, I noticed her suggestion that her mylk can be run through an ice cream maker and turned into "ice cream." She had my attention.

As my previous posts have indicated, I love using our ice cream maker, but there is a drawback: when making ice cream, the recipes I use have to boil the ingredients on the stove top, and then I have to wait 3 or 4 hours for the mixture to cool before I make ice cream. Since I have no patience for these things when my sweet tooth is calling, I tend not to make it much. With raw ice cream, though, you can go straight from blender to ice cream maker, no waiting. Hooray!

After making mylk for the first time, I also realized that the recipe for vanilla mylk is a perfect base for making other flavors of ice cream. Want mint chocolate chip? Add a small amount of peppermint extract to the blender and dump in chocolate chips during the last 5 minutes of churning in the ice cream maker. Have a ton of seasonal fruit? Blend it directly into the mylk or cut it into chunks and add it towards the end of the churning - or both! Basically, this can't go wrong. And, bonus - the mylk tastes good as milk and can live in the fridge for a few days. Woo hoo! Maybe there is hope for me!

As for Greg, he loves the raw ice cream experiments. First, it's vegan, so no guilt. Second, he's even more impatient than me when it comes to ice cream, so there's only a half hour wait for his treat to go from blender to maker to spoon. Third, this stuff is definitely nutritionally better than what you would get at the store. The only "sugar"? Dates. The only fat? Almonds, and there's protein, too. No cholesterol. And a bonus: cheap to make!

Ani also has a recipe for chocolate mylk, which would probably make another great ice cream base. Once I make that, I'll report back with a recipe update.

Vanilla Mylk, adapted from Ani Phyo/Raw Ice Cream Base
Yields: Pitcher of mylk/3.5-4 quarts of ice cream (my 3.5 quart ice cream maker can hold this recipe)

Ingredients:
1/2 c. almonds
1/2 c. pitted dates
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt
4-5 c. water
Other ice cream favorites (fruit, peanut butter, cookie dough, chocolate chips, nuts - be creative!)

1) To make mylk, combine first five ingredients until smooth in a blender. There will be some almond bits floating around at the end; you can either strain them out or leave them in, it doesn't matter.
2) For ice cream: before combining ice cream ingredients, add any fruit or flavored extracts you'd like to try, and then blend. If you like slushier ice cream, add closer to 5 cups of water. If you like a stiffer ice cream, then go closer to 4 cups. Again, for a smoother ice cream, strain out any extra bits, but you can leave them in if you like.
3) Freeze mylk mixture according to ice cream maker instructions. If you are adding mix-ins (nuts, fruit chunks, peanut butter), add them during the last five minutes of the churning process.

Patriotism and Pizza!

I would definitely qualify myself as patriotic. I think part of why I love being lawyer is because I am amazed that there was a group of men who put together such a radical form of government and that 200+ years later, it continues to function well. I also think it is critical that people question government and debate about the country's structure, because that is what continues to make the country great. (For real - the summer I studied for the bar, I studied Constitutional Law on the Fourth of July in honor of the country. Yep - I'm a dork.)

And yet, I'm not a huge fan of the Fourth of July.

Say what now?

Here's the thing: I like the Fourth of July for its historic reasons, obviously. And in theory, I like how the country celebrates, with relaxed parties, bbqs, tasty eats, and fireworks. (Okay, maybe not fireworks if you're a Sheila the Dog, but she just crawls between Lucy and Molly, who protect her from the loud noises outside.) So what's the problem? I tend not to get to actually celebrate the holiday. The Fourth is one of Greg's busiest flying days, so he's gone; my friends tend to go home; and my family is elsewhere with other plans. Which pretty much means I'm in the city, on the couch, kinda bored and bummed out.

But not this year! The Fourth was rescued! The night before, I found out my friend Katie D. was also abandoned on the Fourth, and so she came over - we had a blast! We decided to put together a menu on the holiday and then go shopping. At the time, this seemed like a good plan, until we realized we had put together a menu of pizza, watermelon, and three desserts.

Check that. We made the most awesome Fourth of July menu of all time.

The pizza, although not a traditional Fourth choice, was just fun to make. Greg and I have been getting into pizza making lately because it is cheap, easy, and tasty. Now that I have kicked my fear of proofing yeast, we make pizza a bunch. We have experimented with a bunch of ingredients and finally settled on a recipe we love. I hope to have a gluten free version soon, but I'm not there yet - I tried to make a gluten-free hybrid dough, and I felt like I had personally dined at a gravel buffet...blecch! But I'll keep working at it.

Anyway, this pizza crust is ridiculously easy and it pretty much does its own thing all day. Or, alternatively, it's super easy to freeze and thaw, which is also a bonus. The recipe actually makes two crusts, so it's great to have a pizza one night and freeze the other crust for a quick dinner later. We do love the crust as pizza, but I've doctored it a bit so it has more of a focaccia flavor with a crust texture. Hmm...now I wonder if you can bake the crust by itself and cut up the crust as flatbread...but for another time!

Pizza Crust (adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance)
Yields: 2 pizza crusts

1 c. warm water (I go to the point where it is hot but I can still comfortably touch it)
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 package of active dry yeast
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. olive oil, separated
3 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
Dried rosemary

1) Proof the yeast: combine water, sugar, and yeast and mix well. Let sit for 10 minutes. If the water is any of the following, the yeast is good to go: smells like beer, bubbling, frothy on top. If not, toss it and try again - your yeast is kaput.

2) Mix together flour and salt. Mix 2 Tbsp. olive oil into the yeast mixture, and slowly mix into the flour combination, until a dough ball starts to form. Not all of the flour will ultimately get incorporated, but that's okay.

3) Take the ball and place on a clean surface. (I leave whatever flour didn't make it into the ball in the bowl, but I know others try to incorporate it into the ball.) Knead for ten minutes. I personally have never had a problem with stickiness, but if yours starts to stick, just add a touch of flour onto your work surface. No need to knead too hard. (Wow, isn't that a sentence.) Just kind of play around with the dough for ten minutes.

4) At the end of ten minutes, the dough should be a smooth ball. Rub it in the two tsp. of olive oil and then sprinkle with the dried rosemary. Really, no need to measure; just sprinkle until it makes a cute pattern. Pop the rosemary ball into a bowl and cover with a towel. Let sit for an hour (or longer - seriously, don't sweat this too much).

5) At the end of the hour, gently punch the dough so it deflates. Knead again for about a minute. If you plan on freezing a crust, cut half the ball in half, wrap in plastic wrap and foil, and pop in the freezer (I'll give freezer directions at the end of the recipe). Anything you're eating that day, go ahead and make another ball, put back in the bowl, and cover for at least two hours, but again, don't knock yourself out if you're late getting back to it.

6) After the two hours is up, remove the dough ball. If you did not previously cut the dough in half, do that now. Go ahead and stretch the dough into a crust in the greased pan you will use. I personally use a metal pan with holes punched in the bottom, but that's because I registered for one when Greg and I got married. We also have a metal pizza stone which is good. Or, you can also use a rimmed baking sheet. Seriously, don't buy something special just for pizza if you don't already have it. Also, you will stretch the dough pretty darn thin, to the point you will probably be afraid it will rip. It won't, don't worry. And if it does, just take some dough from a thicker part of the pizza, patch the hole, and keep going, no big whoop.
**I realize this part can be tricky, but don't worry about it too much. Moskowitz has a great attitude about this, though; if it looks funky, just tell people it's rustic, and they'll think you're very gourmet.

7) Now - the fun part! Add sauce, toppings, the whole 9 yards. Put in a 500 degree oven; check after 8-10 minutes. Just bake until it is the texture you like, and enjoy!

FOR FREEZE AHEAD CRUST:
Thaw the dough ball in the fridge. When you are ready to make pizza, spray a bowl with cooking spray and put the ball in. Cover with a towel and let sit for at least two hours. Start with step 6 above, and you're good to go.