time changes everything

I don't think it was all that long ago that I bought a bag of Nate's Meatballs for some recipe and wished they were a bit better than they were.  They weren't bad, they just weren't anything special.  The girl who rang up my groceries that night, however, thought they were the bee's knees.  So, upon some research, apparently that occurred two years ago.

Good to know, though, that Nate put those years to good use, because when I used "his" meatless meatballs tonight when I made Southwestern Meatballs with Corn-Black Bean Salsa from Clean Eating magazine, they were spectacular.  I'm not sure what product development took place, but they looked better, cooked better, and tasted better than they did two Novembers ago.

Not surprisingly, Angst begged persistently and loudly.  Angst Loves Meat Analogs (and Spinach).

I served the meatballs and salsa over a pilaf of bulgur and brown basmati rice and the whole thing was delicious.  I have never actually eaten a turkey meatball - I stopped eating animals around the time making beef out of turkey became "the new thing," so I never really had a chance, if you want to look at it like that.  Nevertheless, these reformulated meatballs had an appreciable poultry flavor, so I couldn't help but wonder if that was their aim.  The "old" meatballs were definitely more ground beef-y in both texture and taste, even appearance - they had that grayish color I could never understand why beef had.

The salsa itself was quite tasty, made up of canned black beans and canned tomatoes with a cup of Trader Joe's brand frozen corn and a teaspoon of cumin (because heaven forbid we make something "southwestern" without cumin).  It went well with the meatballs, and the chicken-y flavor actually worked far better with their flavor profile than a more beefy flavor/texture would have.

Thanks for reminding me why I read you, Clean Eating!

biryani improv

It all started last night, coincidentally while I was cooking dinner.  My cell phone rang, and although I usually ignore it, I decided to see who it was.

"Hey Natalie, I'm sorry to disturb you on a Sunday night, but blah-blah-blah-building-up-to Can you work tomorrow even though you're scheduled off?"

"Uh...yeah.  Can I be off on Friday in exchange?"

"Uh.... I can probably make that work.  Does this throw a huge wrench in the works for you?"

"No, not really, but it would be great to have Friday off."

"What about an allen wrench?"

"Yes.  It throws an allen wrench in the works.  Can I have off Friday if I come in tomorrow?"

"Yes.  Thank you so much.  I owe you. At least a caffeinated beverage."

"Friday off will do just fine.  I'll see you tomorrow."

And that's the story of why I was working today, instead of sleeping in and drinking coffee and eventually going food shopping, but mostly, having enough energy to properly prepare the Vegetable Biryani from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.

I didn't get a very good picture, but rest assured, it tasted much better than it looks.  Authentic?  Probably not - I skipped a few steps and improvised a few others (ghee is not exactly vegan), but it came out just fine and finished cooking much sooner than it wanted to.

I made an excessive amount of rice because I was supposed to layer it with a veggie filling before baking it for a half hour.  I'm sure it would have been even more mouth-wateringly delicious if I had done that, as I have in the past, but tonight, after working due to a big street festival right outside our store encouraging higher-than-average foot traffic, I just didn't have the energy to go through the entire process, so instead, I just heaped the rich veggie curry on top of brown basmati rice.

It was delicious and  hit the hungry spot just fine.

I did construct the "rest" of my incomplete menu last night.  Mind you, the only reason it was incomplete is because I meant to be off today and then not again for a week.  Now I'm just trying to make it through Wednesday (I work later on Thursday, so Mister's on his own).

1. Pineapple Curry Tofu from the most recent issue of Clean Eating magazine.  I used to buy these every time they hit the newsstand, then contemplate whether to subscribe, then end up not subscribing because of how meat-centric most recipes are and how illogically protein-focused the magazine can be sometimes.  Nevertheless, I agree with its most basic tenets so I always end up buying it again.  It's probably been about a year, though, so I figured I'd look again and this issue had a decent number of "safe" recipes.

2.  Southwest Meatballs with Warm Corn-Black Bean Salsa, also from Clean Eating.  The recipe in the magazine includes instructions on constructing the ground turkey-based meatballs, but I'm just going to buy some Nate's at Whole Foods tomorrow.

3. Vegetable Chili Bowl from The Low GI Cookbook, contributed by one of Australia's National Treasures.  I've made this once before and remember being pretty impressed with how it came out.

green goodness! it's special sauce!

I'm a little slow to jump on the Green Juice Train and I'm not ashamed to admit it's partially because I don't have any unquenchable desire to drink algae.

I think my mom might need a moment.

Anyway, I'm sure it would be more enticing and rewarding if I made my own green juice like this superstar, but I do not have:

• the time
• the desire
• the juicer

So instead, every once in a while, when I feel like I need an extra kick of Healthy, I'll buy some.  I've found that I quite enjoy Naked's Green Machine - enough that I can ignore the algae as long as I shake it before every sip.

Tonight, I stopped into Whole Foods to grab a couple of items I had intended to get at Trader Joe's before remembering I wouldn't be able to get there until Sunday and I didn't have the ingredients for enough complete meals without those things to get to Sunday, so it was all a moot point.  Anyway, I had picked up everything I went in for (except cauliflower, which was either hiding or absent, but I didn't see it) and I'm not even sure how I was in a position for this to catch my eye, but I did see Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness and decided to give myself a little punch since my chest is still tight and I keep hacking up a lung if I breathe too many times in a row and I make too much noise at night trying to breathe for poor mister to sleep and it's probably bad form to cough on customers.... enough reasons?

Good, because truth be told, once I got it home, my courage and drive somewhat evaporated.  I mean, really - you cannot look at this and tell me it screams, "Ooooh ooh, ME!  I'm tasty!"

Not exactly irresistible.  Nevertheless, I hate being sick and I like taking care of my body and if "8 delicious juices" delivering "14 powerful nutrients" including iron, vitamins B6, B12, A, and C has to be green....well....I guess it has to be green.  I have nothing against green, by the way, but that "juice" is what we call in my world murky.

Fortunately, it is quite delicious.  I think it might be slightly less sweet than Naked's Green Machine and I'm okay with that, though I think Naked will still be my favored green smoothie.  I almost bought R.W. Knudsen's Mega-Green juice when I was there yesterday, but I just cannot do it.  There's something about the way it's marketed that makes it look as though there's no way it will be anything but straight-up nasty.  Maybe someday I'll be adventurous enough to find out, but this week was not that Someday.

In other news, Mister and I have an astonishing talent for being at our most OughtToSeeADoctorness during the three months out of the last 5 years that we haven't had health insurance but I still don't regret not devoting an entire paycheck to COBRA coverage between now and when my coverage at work kicks in.

Dinner was chock full of veggie goodness, though (by the way, is everyone else aware of how awful Chock Full O' Nuts coffee is?  Well, now you are).  With the snow peas I picked up at Whole Foods, I was able to make the Hoisin-Braised Tempeh Tofu with Chinese Vegetables from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy that I was daydreaming about all day.  Everyone at work was female today, so instead of music, we had the Food Network on and watched way too much Rachael Ray, who I have deemed The Anti-Vegan.  I swear, I've never seen anyone include that many animal products in their recipes. 

Back to dinner.

It was good and the tofu worked so well I can't really imagine tempeh being better, but I'll probably never know since Mister dies if I even say the cursed word out loud.  Dinner is always fun when it involves snow peas and hoisin sauce amuses me because it kind of looks like Chinese BBQ sauce.

It was good, but not outstanding.  There were two weak points - one the fault of the book and one was my poor choice of accompaniment.  I served it over brown rice, expecting the braising sauce to be more potent.  It wasn't dreadful, but I can almost taste how much better it would have been with rice noodles instead of rice, so I may try that in the future.

In the book, it doesn't actually tell you when to add the hoisin sauce, so I added it just before the 15 minute simmering time.  I figured this was probably right since it was meant to braise the "tempeh" and wouldn't do a very good job of that if I didn't add it before the braising time.  I tasted the sauce when I added the snow peas for the last few minutes of cooking and it barely had any flavor since it was diluted with nearly the same amount of water, so I added more.  The recipe calls for 1/3 cup, but next time I make this, I will probably go with a half cup from the start and possibly less water, since the bok choy seemed to still have some clinging to its leaves, which added to what I had poured in.

Despite the slightly frightful tightness in my chest, I am still looking forward to the first truly cool day of autumn this Saturday.  Since I'm teaching, I can even dress appropriately for the cold, thereby decreasing my chances of catching tuberculosis!

photo credit

three swings and a hit

Tonight is actually the first time I've cooked anything since the last time I posted.  While it was slightly less messy to have other people preparing my food, it was only marginally more relaxing this time around.

On Thursday, we had another management dinner.  We were so rowdy, the VP ended up buying a bottle of wine for the neighboring table as an apology for our behavior.  Don't let his contrite behavior fool you, though - he was complicit in his own (quieter) way.  Eschewing the Brazilian steakhouse this time in favor of Redstone Grill, dinner involved less meat only in a way that involved each person getting their own plate, rather than servers continually presenting a "parade of meats" on skewers, even if your little placard says NO.  There were exactly two items on the menu that I could eat, which is still two more than there were at the last dinner.  I spent more time than was probably necessary trying to decide between a pesto and tomato flatbread or a fairly generic salad.  I went with the flatbread.  Aside from the [male] colleague seated across from me challenging me to a pickled ginger eating contest, nothing blog-worthy happened.  After a while, you can't really put a comical twist on the same tired remarks about what the crazy vegetarian is going to eat in these delightful veg-unfriendly suburbs.

Friday night's dinner was far more enjoyable, both for the culinary and the company.  I met up with a dear old friend for dinner at Cedars.  It has been far too long since I've seen her, which probably helped me in my adventurous menu choices.  Mister and I have a fairly standard order when we go:

• an appetizer of falafel, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), hummus, and baba ghanoush
• fries with grilled peppers and onions
• Mister gets a falafel sandwich or spanakopita
• I get Imam Baldi

Following Dear Friend's lead, I started my meal with the Tabbouli salad, which was surprisingly parsley-heavy.  The tomatoes were uniform in dice and marinated to perfection, and there was just barely enough bulghur to hold everything together.  I would definitely recommend this and will get it again in the future.  At my urging, Dear Friend ordered the Imam Baldi and I ordered the Vegetable Sayadia.  It was very tasty, kind of like a Lebanese risotto, though there were far more mushrooms involved than I would have liked.  In the most ladylike way possible, I shifted them, one by one, to the side of my plate and happily shoveled the rest into my mouth.  It was a delightful dinner, complete with fun and intimate conversation.

I finally got to make Fusion Enchiladas and Mango & Black Bean Salad for tonight's dinner.  The enchiladas are from the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Clean Eating magazine.  I have been holding on to the salad recipe from the March 2008 issue of Cooking Light magazine.  I made the Fusion Enchiladas immediately after purchasing that issue of Clean Eating, noting at that time that I would have to make them again, substituting seitan for the recipe-prescribed sirloin.  I did just that tonight and it came out much better.

I marinated the seitan briefly with a crushed [huge] clove of garlic and a tsp of cumin, then browned it as much as you can brown fake meat in a nonstick saute pan.  I stirred in a diced red pepper, a cup of frozen corn, and two cups of baby spinach, and while that cooked I pureed the "refried" edamame with its various components (click the link above for the recipe).  It occurred to me while I was cooking just how miserably displayed my growing photography skills were when I made this in September, so I decided to get some action shots, rather than just an ugly and concealing whole wheat tortilla lump.

a thin layer of pureed "refried" edamame, topped with the seitan filling

all my ducks (enchiladas) in a row, ready for their brief baking time

I believe I pulled the salad recipe out of a special feature Cooking Light was doing about 6 essential foods to eat each day - the ingredient highlighted in this recipe was the black beans, but I was thoroughly impressed with all the ingredients and how they played so well together.

I did learn a fairly valuable lesson while preparing the salad: ripe mango is really slippery.  I don't know what, if anything, can be done about that for future preps (and they will happen!), but I nearly lost that little sucker right off of my cutting board a few times!

vegan version fusion

Today I discovered a glimmer of courage I had not previously observed in my mother - she fed my father tofu! I didn't believe she'd do it and she proved me wrong and I just wish I could have been there to see the faces my "if it's not meat, it's not food" father made. She called me last week to ask if she could find tofu in a "normal" grocery store and where to find garam masala and I so didn't believe she would really feed my meat-and-potatoes father the Punjabi Peppers & Tofu but she did! Well done, mom.

Last night I made my Pomegranate Saute on Cinnamon Bulghur again. I guess it's a good thing when you like your own recipes enough to reprise them? It didn't look any different from the first time, so if you want to see what it looks like or get the recipe, look here. I did substitute pineapple juice for the apple juice in the recipe because I have better things to do with my time than chase down a small-serving bottle of apple juice. It didn't really taste any different, though I did need to add a little bit of salt to counteract the sweetness.

Tonight, however, I went out on a limb... it creaked a little, but it didn't break and I'm not sure I'll push my luck with this one, though I like the idea enough to try to modify it further in the future (I dare you to say that 5 times fast - further in the future...). I made Fusion Enchiladas from Clean Eating Magazine. I made a couple of substitutions and omissions, since the recipe in the magazine may contain quality ingredients, but one of them used to run around on 4 legs and we're not down with that. Anyway, I'm not going to give you the recipe, but I'll let you know about some of the fun bits of making it.

Okay, okay...I'll give you the recipe. By the way, if you aren't into magazines but still want to learn about the tenets of clean eating, Tosca Reno has published The Eat Clean Diet as a cookbook full of other helpful tidbits.

Fusion Enchiladas from Clean Eating, Sept/Oct 2009
"REFRIED" EDAMAME (pronounced eh-dah-MAH-may)
1/2 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, smashed (I pressed 4)
1 cup frozen shelled edamame beans
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp fresh lime juice (I just squeezed a whole lime)
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

"BEEF" FILLING
1 1/2 tsp olive oil, divided
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
8 oz sirloin beef, thinly sliced*
1 cup corn kernels
1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced
2 cups baby spinach (I just used a whole 5 oz bag)
1 1/2 cups all-natural, low-sodium tomato sauce, divided (I used a 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce - I wouldn't do that again - not enough sauce and not enough flavor)
Sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
8 small whole wheat flour tortillas (about 6-8" in diameter) (I used 6 medium sized)
1/2 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (omitted)

*I used Amy's All American veggie burgers. I cooked 3 burgers for 2 minutes in the microwave (sacrilege) then cut them into strips to saute in step three. It really didn't go as I had planned and in the future, I will either use seitan like I thought I would originally or I will use a different veggie patty - these just didn't hold together very well.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Prepare "refried" edamame: Bring 2 cups water to a boil over high heat. Add onion, garlic, and edamame, bring back to a boil and cook for 4 minutes. Drain onion-bean mixture, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Pour bean mixture and reserved liquid into a food processor and add cumin, chili powder and lime juice. Puree until almost smooth and season with salt and pepper. Scrape into a bowl and set aside.
Prepare "beef" filling: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 tsp oil, garlic and cumin. Add beef and mix well to season.
In a nonstick saute pan, heat remaining 1 tsp oil over medium-high heat. Add beef and saute for about 1 minute, until lightly browned. Add corn, red pepper, and spinach, and mix well to combine. Add 1/4 cup tomato sauce and cook for 1-2 minutes, until heated through. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.
Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish and set aside.
Spread tortillas out in a single layer on a flat work surface. Scoop 2-3 Tbsp edamame filling and spread in the center of each tortilla. Top with 2-3 tbsp "beef" mixture and roll tightly. Place enchiladas seam-side down on top of tomato sauce in baking dish. Cover with remaining tomato sauce, top with cheese (if using) and place dish in oven. Bake enchiladas until hot throughout and cheese is melted, about 8 minutes.

entertaining an army

I've made a progressive sequence of meals over the past few days. On Tuesday night I made Punjabi Peppers and Tofu so that we wouldn't have any leftovers (and it worked brilliantly). On No-Cook-Wednesday, I just heated up what was left of the corn bisque I made earlier in the week and threw in some leftover rice to calm the flavor of the nutmeg. I continue to be perplexed by how much heat that sprinkling added and I cannot find information anywhere on why nutmeg would make soup bite me.

Last night I made Vegetable Etoufee (pronounced eh-too-FAY) from One Dish Vegetarian Meals by Robin Robertson. Etoufee is french for "smothered" which refers to the thick tomato-based roux in which the vegetables simmer. This dish is apparently standard Cajun fare, although it normally includes shrimp or crayfish (straight out of the Louisiana bayous?).
Yesterday was a hungry day. Mister thinks it's because we don't eat a normal dinner on Wednesdays, but I don't think that explains all of the other Thursdays that weren't hungry days. I had a bigger breakfast than usual and thought to myself, "surely, this will hold me through training until I can have a snack." I had a meeting right when I got to work and went from there directly into my training class. I got about an hour into the training and realized I was so hungry that I felt weak and wasn't sure I was making sense. Miraculously, I finished the module I was teaching and then unloaded my trainees on the more seasoned agents they would be shadowing until lunch time. I immediately ate my gnu bar (more on that later) and to my profound disappointment discovered that I actually felt hungrier than I did before I ate it! I thought, "oh, my body just needs a minute to realize I ate something," but about 5 minutes later I was still so hungry I was becoming nauseated and shaky. Against my better judgment, I went to the cafeteria and bought an iced tea, a banana, and a "home-made" granola bar. After wolfing down the banana and granola bar, I finally felt better and made it through the next couple of hours until lunch. I happily slurped up my big bowl of soup and was good to go for a little longer. About halfway home, though, I realized I was starving again. I'm pretty good about recognizing my body's symptoms and it usually gives me a little more warning before going into full-on we're-never-going-to-eat-again panic mode, but when I say I was starving I was seriously hungrier than I've been in a long time. In fact, I couldn't even think about cooking dinner until I had eaten a piece of bread with my Dark Chocolate Dreams PB on it. The point I'm trying to make is this: I made Vegetable Etoufee because it was the fastest-cooking meal on my menu.

On to the next! Although we do have a decent amount of last night's dinner to make into upcoming days' lunches (probably 2), the sheer volume of tonight's meal amazed even me. At least I know what I can make the next time I have to feed an army (or my husband's side of the family). Tonight I made the imaginatively named Penne Pasta with Fresh Veggies from The Vegan Table. The yield was even huger than Isa's Seitanic Jambalaya - see for yourself!

That's the biggest pot I have and the food comes up to the handles! I got this recipe from the section of Colleen's book she intends for dinners with 4-6 people. I think she's assuming they will all have seconds (maybe thirds) and not eat any of the clever side dishes or appetizers also on the menu/table. I had 2 of those servings and Mister had 4 (he must have really liked it!) and we still had about 3.5 qts of leftovers. I got an idea of how much bigger this dish was than I thought it would be when I was prepping the vegetables and they filled a 2.5 qt bowl to the top.

Anyway, it was very tasty - the penne was only one ingredient, equal with the rest due to their abundance. This will probably be a good dish to bring to family dinners, potlucks, and any USO shows I do when I'm famous.

I constructed and shopped for this week's menu today - it was a gorgeous day for walking around my neighborhood.

1. Fusion Enchiladas from Clean Eating Magazine. This magazine is awesome, though admittedly "out there" sometimes. The basic principle is to fuel your body well by eating minimally processed, whole foods. I can dig. This recipe actually calls for beef sirloin, but I have some tricks up my sleeve.

2. Two-Bean Soup with Kale, with Cheese-Tomato Toasts from Cooking Light Magazine. I don't have anything witty to say about this yet.

3. Pomegranate Saute on Cinnamon Bulghur - it's time to use up those last 5 peanuts. I might give it a tropical twist with some pineapple juice this time around, if I don't feel like hunting down apple juice. It's harder than it sounds!

4. Five-Spice Vegetables & Tofu with Green Tea Rice - and this time, if I actually use the 5-Spice powder instead of ground cloves, I'll actually post the recipe!

5. Brazilian Black Bean Stew from Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. There's a story here, too. First of all, I think it's awesome that this soup recipe calls for chunks of mango. Second of all, mangos appear to be at the peak of ripeness right now. Finally, a friend of mine actually took a picture on his vacation with his wife that made me crave this soup. You know those little cards they stick up on posts next to soup tureens to let you know what kind of soup is inside and what's in the soup? He saw a Vegan Black Bean Soup card and thought it would be funny to send me a picture, so I thought, "I haven't made that incredible (and beautiful) black bean stew in a while..." Isn't that a heartwarming story?

I expect to post more frequently (really???) in October. I'm going to be taking part in Vegan Month of Food III, aka VeganMoFo 2009. I'm also considering going vegan for the month as an experiment, and as part of the detox effort I mentioned earlier. I guess that means I'll have to get the soup with cheese toasts out of the way before Thursday, as well as my cupcakes.
By the way - I am completely unimpressed with Gnu Food bars. They had them at the register at Whole Foods, so I figured I'd give them a try. Well, I've tried three and I didn't like any of them.
1. they don't taste very good
2. they have a gritty texture and hard bits that stick between my chewing teeth. I don't appreciate that.
3. they're twice as expensive as any of the bars I do like (PS I got another box of Nectar Cacao bars today)
4. not only do they not satisfy my hunger, they seem to enhance it!