Savory Pie hmm hmm hmm

Today Paul and I made Pie yayy!! My only verdict for making things are only to use up dying food. It was my first real food that I've eaten since school started. School is quite hectic and I barely have any time for anything.

We used a vegweb recipe for the pie crust I found it really oil though. When Paul made the pie crust it pooled on the bottom of the pan.

Recipe
1 Baked pie Crust from Vegweb
1 Medium Onion
1 Shallot
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Bunch of Watercress
1 Bunch of Spinach
A handful of Amaranth Leaves ( Yeen Choy)
Tofu
2 1/2 + 1 1/2 Tbsp Vegan Oyster Sauce
10 oz Froze Firm Tofu, Thawed
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
Salt for taste
Oil for sauteing

• Rough chop and wash the watercress, spinach and amaranth leaves. If you don't have amaranth leaves just substitute with spinach.
• Slice the onions, shallots and garlic.
• Squeeze out the excess water from the tofu and crumble them into a separate bowl and mix in the 1 1/2 Tbsp of Vegan oyster sauce, garlic powder and salt for tasting.
  
• Preheat the oven to 450 F.
  
• Pour some oil onto a pan and heat it up on high heat. Add the onions and lower the heat to medium and saute the onion for two minutes, a little before the onions are cooked thoroughly. Then add in the shallots and garlic and saute for another minute.
  
• Add in the leafy green mixture and saute them until they start to wilt. Then add in the 2 1/2 Tbsp of vegan oyster sauce and enough salt to taste.
• Add in the tofu mixture into the pan. It should absorb all the excess water from the leafy greens.
  
• Continue to saute the food until all the water is absorbed by the tofu and remove from heat.
• Pour the mixture into the baked crust and placed the pie into the oven and bake it for 20-25 minutes. We made some decoration for the top of the pie so we baked until the extra pie crust on top turned golden.
  

Lots of salad

Long Week


Since last week of Friday my b/f and Moses has been redoing an apartment in Brooklyn. It took us four days to finish and during one of those days we went to an authentic vegan Caribbean Restaurant. It was awesome. My b/f and Moses ordered the vegan hamburger but I bought my own lunch for that day. I made mushroom rice. The employees made the burgers fresh there. It was awesome. It wasn't like those frozen patty that they heated up, it was fresh. I took a bite out of my b/f's and it has a very delicious special sauce coating it. I couldn't help myself staring at all the baked goods so I bought myself a Cassava Pone and I bought my b/f a coconut roll but it wasn't the traditional coconut roll. It was colored by beets.


We worked Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. On sunday we went to the beach with a group of friend. I bought in the Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from the FatFreeVegan blog. I think it tasted great but I don't think my other friends really liked the taste of nutritional yeast. :/ I can't force them. It's just that I have to pick better choices of vegan food they are more fond and use to.


Yesterday I bought some food to a picnic with my b/f but it was raining so we ate it in the car. I made some macaroni and cheese from VegWeb. I thought it tasted ok but it wasn't cheesy enough for your regular maracroni and cheese but it was pretty decent. I also made some garbanzo and black bean salad.


Yields 4 Serving 194 Cal/ Serving

8 oz Garbanzo Beans, Cooked and Drained
7 oz Black Beans, Cooked and Drained
1 Handful of Spinach
1 Handful of Amaranth ( Or just another handful of Spinach)
1/3 Cup Scallions, Chopped
1/4 Cup Cilantro, Minced
1 1/2 Tbsp Basil, Minced
1 Tsp Fresh Lime Juice
1 Lemon Boy Tomato, Chopped (I used it for color since it's very yellow. You can use a regular beefsteak tomato)
10 Grape Tomatoes (Also used for color)
6 Green Olives
Salt and Pepper to taste

Green and Brown Goodness

Vegetarian Times Vegan Thumbprint cookies


My boyfriend wanted to buy some Pepperidge Farm Verona cookies which are totally not vegan but he is not a vegan yet but he trying. I know he wasn't going to buy it but nevertheless, I felt bad and I told him I'll make him some vegan thumbprint cookies since apparently this current September issue of Vegetarian Times happens to have a recipe vegan thumbprint cookies.

I found the cookie to be quite tasty but before the initial bite there was a strong aroma of soy/tofu. I think it's just from the Soy Garden Earth Balance margarine I used. I also found the cookie to be a bit softer than how I hoped it to be. I used mayhaw jam rather than the traditional raspberry jam. I only had the mayhaw one at the time.

The thumbprint cookies does not even really resemble a thumbprint cookie. It looks more like a jam filled cookie. I know my boyfriend LOVES jam, well filling in general. He over does it many of the time so I decided to over do it just for him. Rather than giving the cookie a cute little thumb indentation, it was more like a huge TOE indentation. I over filled the middle with jam and it kinda spread during the baking process. Oh wells.

Yields 36 cookies 76 Cal/Cookies
1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Margarine, Room Temperature
1/3 Cup Vanilla Soymilk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 Tsp Almond Extract
1 Cup Raspberry Jam [ Use any, Apricot taste good as well ]

• Sift and combine all the flour, baking powder and salt together in a big bowl.
  
• Beat the sugar and margarine together.
• Then slowly beat in the soymilk, vanilla and almond extract.
• Beat ind the flour mixture until everything is well combined
• Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.
  
• Preheat the oven to 325 F.
  
• Take the dough out and roll it into 36 balls and place it onto a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined onto of the cookie sheet.
• Gently flatten the the ball of dough a bit and make an indentation with your thumb.
  
• Put the cookie sheet back into the refrigerator.
• Pour the jam into a bowl and break up the big chunk of jam with a fork.
• Then place pur the jam into a pastry bag or a zip lock bag with a hole slit on a corner.
• Take out your cookies and fill the indentations with the jam.
  
• Place it into the oven and bake it for 12 to 15 minutes or or until lightly browned.
• Cool the cookies on a cooling rack.
  

Fat Free Vegan Can't be Beet Chocolate Cake

I got this recipe off of FatfreeVegan. I wanted to get rid of some of the beets that I had in my fridge. These little cupcakes were really delicious but I found it to be a bit too chocolaty. This cake were moist and not dense despite the fact that it was made up of mainly whole wheat flour. I wanted to get rid of the baby food that were in my cupboard so I used that instead of the apple sauce and I also reduced the sugar from 1 Cup to 3/4 Cup. I found the cupcakes to be sweet enough but my boyfriend thought that it was very subtle and would preferred it to be sweeter. He described it as eating very dark chocolate. I made them as cupcakes since it were much easier for me to eat and I gave more than half away to my boyfriend since I'm the only one in my family who eats vegan food, chocolaty food and sweet food. I would never be able to finish it.

Avocado Amaranth CousCous for 1 Person

I don't normally post meal recipe since I'm never measure anything I just eyeball it so the measurements for this will obviously be from eyeballing. I hate it that I am the only one eating. My parents thinks that because I am vegan I don't have much to eat want so they don't eat my food even though I offer it to them. They also don't like any other type of food other than Chinese. I always end up with so much leftover and I hate that so this recipe should be enough for one person. I still think it's more than enough for one person. It's like for one and a half person. This dish is a bit Chinese and a bit Middle Eastern. I believe that's where it originated. I have never seen amaranth leaves sold anywhere else except for the Chinese market so if there aren't any amaranth leaves available, you can use spinach.

In Cantonese it's called Yeen Choy (莧菜). Amaranth is also called Chinese spinach and there are two varieties. There are the white and red. The white are just the regular green leaf but the red one has purple in the middle of the leaf and the purple branches outwards. When you blanch the red amaranth, the water turns purple like beets. Amaranth are very high Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium and iron. There is up to 28% Calcium and 17% iron in one cup of amaranth. That's how much I can grab with my chopstick at one time and I tend to reach for my amaranth several times cause I love it oh so much.

Yields 1 serving/ 289 Cal per Serving
1/4 Cup CousCous
1/4 Cup Vegetable Broth

2 Big Shallots, Finely Diced
1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
Handful of Amaranth, Rinsed and Roughly Chopped [You can use Spinach]
2 Tsp Thai Basil, Minced [ You can use Basil ]
2 Tsp Cilantro, Minced
2 Strand of Green Onions, Finely chopped
1/3 Stalk of Celery, Finely Diced
1/4 Avocado, Diced
5 Grape tomatoes, Quartered
1 -1 1/2 Tbsp Tomato Sauce or enough to lightly coat everything.
Salt for tasting

• Lightly spray a nonstick pan with oil and cook the shallots on medium heat for about 3 minutes.
  
• Add in the garlic and continue to cook until the shallots are transparent.
• Then add in the amaranth and cook until they are dark green. Then put it in a dish and set it aside.
  
• Cook the couscous with the vegetable broth in the same pan as the onions until all the broth is gone. Please watch carefully since there is very little couscous and moisture, it will easily burn.
• Fluff it up with a fork and mix the shallot and garlic into the couscous.
• Lightly toss in the basil, cilantro, leek, celery, tomatoes and avocado.
  
• Add in the salt and tomato sauce and lightly coat everything. I used tomato and basil flavored tomato sauce.
  

Slow week

Yes it has been a slow week. It's the second week of summer school. Calculus/intergals is hard work. After classes I go straight to work and on the days I have off, I spend all my time with my b/f. Not a lot of time for cooking. I've been just microwaving morningstar veggie bites for dinner and what not. I still have a lot of lacto octo vegetarian food...

I got this recipe off of recipezaar I still need to get rid of my vegetarian items.



Avocado Pie (Lacto Vegetarian)

8 in" pie/Serves 8 Slices - 282 cal/serving

Filling
1 /173g Avocado
1 14 oz/397g Condensed Milk, Canned
1/3 Cup/79 mL Lime Juice, Freshly juiced

Crust
12 1" by 2"/93g Graham Crackers, Crumbled
2 1/2 Tbsp/37 mL Baby food or Applesauce, Sweetened

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Make the crust by crushing the graham crackers into medium coarse grains.
  
• Cut the baby food/applesauce into the graham cracker until the mixture is cut into texture like coarse bread crumb.
  
• Press the crumb onto the bottom of a 8" circular pan.
• Place the crust into the oven and bake it for 10 minutes.
• Let the crust fully cool before filling the crust.
• To make the filling pit and skin the avocado.
  
• Put the avocado, lime juice and condense milk into a blender and blend it into a thick puree.
  
• Pour the filling mixture into the pie crust and let it chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
  

Verdict: Need to use up some left over vegetables.

It taste much better as leftover since the casserole firmed up and the tofu absorbed more of the flavor.


Vegetable Casserole (Vegan)

9" bu 5" loaf/4 servings

1 15 oz Block Firm Tofu, Thawed or in Packaged
1/4 /152g Eggplant, Sliced into 1/4"
1/2 /164g Large Zucchini, Sliced into 1/4"
3/4 /114g Large Onion, Sliced into 1/4"
2 Cup/592 mL Tomato Sauce
Vegetable Oil

• It's best if you use thawed tofu because it absorbs more flavor. Drain the tofu and press as much liquid out of the tofu as possible with a heavy weight.
• Slice the tofu block into 1/3".
  
• Cook the Onions in a pan with some oil until half way tender then add in the zucchini and eggplant. Season with some salt and pepper and cook until tender.
  
• Drain as much liquid as you can because when you bake it, all the water sweats out of the vegetables.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Line the bottom of the pan with about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce or enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Then line the next layer with tofu and cover it with another 1/2 cup of tomato sauce or how ever much it takes to coat it.
  
• Line the next two layer with the zucchini and the onion and cover it with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
  
• Then line the last layer with the eggplant and coat it with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
• Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes.
  

Verdict: Had a lot of plums and I love spreads ;3 Stored in gerber jars. That's why I've been using a lot of baby food in my baking recently. I bought 24 jars of baby food for 10 dollars at my local market with my b/f. I felt like I had a baby and I didn't even know it. I got this recipe off of epicurious. Note: Preserve is not as sweet as jam. It's a tad bit sour for those who dislike sour stay clear of this recipe!

Plum Preserves (Vegan)

Serves 4 4oz jars

2 lb/907 g Plums, Any
1/2 Cup/100g Sugar,Granulated
1/2 Cup/118 mL Water
1 3" Cinnamon Stick

• Pit the plums and roughly chop them into large pieces if you like large pieces in your spread and smaller pieces if you like jamish like spread.
• Mix the water, plums, sugar and cinnamon stick into a small pot and simmer it for about 45 minutes or until it reaches the consistency you like.

Verdict: Homemade is the best even if it is organic.

Cashew Butter (Vegan)


Yields 1/2 Cup/ 16 Servings of 1 Tbsp = 48Cal/Serving

1 Cup/129g Cashew, Salted Roasted
or
1 Cup/120g Cashew, Raw
Salt

• If you are roasting your own nut, preheat the oven to 325F
  
• Place the raw nuts on a shallow rectangular pan. Do not pack your nuts!
• Sprinkle enough salt for your tasting.
• Roasted for about 10-20 minute or until golden brown. Stir often because they burn easily
• Put the Cashews into the blender and blend it until it turns into butter.

**Note: If you like crunchy cashew butter, blend the whole cashew until it's chopped into coarse pieces and reserve 2-3 Tbsp. After you blend all the cashew into a cream, fold in the reserved cashew pieces.




VWAV's Chickpea and spinach curry. I made it with some coconut milk. hmm... :3

Many unsuccessful dishes =/

Attended a family bbq for July 4th so I decided to bring some food there and my mom asked "Why? There's yam and fruits" Wow very nice...yam and fruits. I decided to make the Green pepper wheat gluten steak. It's a recipe I got off of vegweb.com. It's modified to what have had in stock. Here's the recipe I used.


Green Pepper Wheat Gluten Steak (Vegan)

recipe yields 4-6 serving 246 cal/serving

1 12 oz Pkg of Gluten (the one found in the chinese supermarket)
1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
2 Tsp of Sesame Seed Oil
1/2 Cup of Onion, 1 inch half ring
2 Cloves Large Garlic, Minced
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Black Pepper, Grounded
1 Tsp Fresh Ginger, Grounded
1/4 Tsp of Guilin Garlic Chili Sauce (Hot sauce will do)
1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper, Grounded
1 Vegetable Bouillon
1 Cup Hot Water
1 lb Chopped Plum Tomato
2 Large Green Peppers
1 Large Red Pepper
2 Tbsp Corn Starch
1/4 Cup Cold Water
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

• Drizzle a pan with the olive and sesame seed oil and saute the onions. Then add the pepper and salt and saute it until they are almost tender.
• Add the gluten and cook until the sides are lightly brown. Don't burn them! Then add in the ginger and garlic.
• Dissolve the bouillon in the cup of boiling water and add to the gluten in the pan.
  
• Let the food simmer for about 5 minutes and then add the tomatoes, peppers, cayenne and guilin garlic chili sauce and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
• In a small cup or bowl create a slurry with the corn starch, soy sauce and cold water. Combine until all the corn starch has dissolved.
  
• Mix the slurry into the food in the pan and let it cook until the sauce reaches your desire consistency.

I also made some vegan seasoned faux "sausage" patties but I don't think it tasted that great. It tasted a bit too herby since the recipe required a lot of herb. I like the texture of the pattie though.



Avocado = Guacomole :) Two attempt using two different recipe. I like the 2nd one more. I got this recipe out of one of my vegetarian book.

Guacamole (Vegan)

Recipe: Yields 4 Serving 173 Cal/Serving

2 Ripe Avocado, Mashed
2 Tomatoes, Seed and Chopped
6 Scallions, Finely Chopped
1-2 Jalapeno, Seeded and Finely Chopped
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Cilantro
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Peel and seed your avocados and then mash it up well with your fork or masher.
  
• Quickly add the lemon juice and mix well. Then add the tomatoes, scallions, jalapeno, cilantro, salt and pepper. Incorporate all the ingredients together.
• Serve with tortilla, crackers, bread etc.

"Zucchini in bikini are walking down the stairs" an excerpt of the lyric from the the children show "Banana in Pajama". Wow...I feel old that was from my childhood. Needed to get rid of my zucchini so I ate it. I also needed to get rid of my dairy items. The light cream has been sitting in my refrigerator for about a month.


Zucchini Dessert Pie (Vegetarian)

Recipe Yields 8 Servings 283 Cal/Serving

1 9 Inch Pie Crust (you can make your own or omit it to make a custard)
2 Cup Pureed Cooked Zucchini (About 2 really large zucchini)
1/3 Cup Rice Syrup
1/3 Cup Sugar, Granulated
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
3/4 Tsp Ginger, Grounded
1/4 Tsp Allspice, Grounded
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg, Grounded
1 Cup Light Cream, warm or (Vegan version: Soy Cream)
3 Tsp of EnerG + 2 Tbsp Water

• Peel and cut your zucchini into 1 inch cubes and microwave it for about 8 minutes on high or until tender.
• Drain out off all the water from the zucchini!!
• Put the chunks of zucchini into your blender and blend it until there are no more solid pieces.
• Mix the puree with the rice syrup, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg.
  
• Warm the light cream and pour it into the puree mixture along with the egg replacer.
• Pour it into the pie crust and bake it for 425F for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 250F and bake it for 40-45 minutes or until your knife comes out clean when inserted near the middle of the tart.
  
• Let it cool down completely before serving.
  

Attempted to make pumpernickle rye bread but I'm not sure if it's really pumpernickel rye since it doesn't taste anything like the one my ex job had. Who knows I guess Ill try again with another recipe.


I made the Banana Split Pudding Brownie from VWAV. It tasted great but it was a bit too fudgy. I know it's suppose to be pudding but was it suppose to be goey? The photo I saw on ppk does not look like pudding. In fact it looked solid. I think the error occurred because I reduced the recipe to by 1/4 and I ended up baking it in a muffin pan since I don't have a small enough pan. The top of my brownie lumped inwards. It deflated!! Maybe it's because I filled the muffin pans too much. Who knows...I'll try baking it in a rectangular pan next time.

Gingersnaps and Seitan

I'm trying to update shorter and more frequent entries.

Today my b/f and I went to the Museum of Natural History. We packed our own lunch and went out to a vegetarian/vegan friendly restaurant listed in Veg-Out! for New York by Justin Schwartz.
I made some pull "pork" bbq sandwiches from vegetarian times, slightly modified and some gingersnap cookies from simple vegetarian recipes, modified as well.


Pull "Pork" BBQ (vegan)
Vegetarian Times, May 07 issue pg. 68

Yields 6 Serving 189Cal/Serving

1 Cup/140g Chopped Onion
1/4 Cup/32g Minced Garlic
1 15 oz Garden Flavored Tomato Sauce (you can use any Tomato sauce)
1 Tbsp Prepared Horseradish
2 Tsp Molasses
2 Tsp Cider Vinegar
1 Tsp Lemon Zest
2 8oz Packaged of Flavored Seitan. (you can use plain)
Olive Oil, however much you need
Serve with Rice, Bread or Pasta.

• In a saucepan heat heat up some olive oil and add your chopped onions into the pan and cook until they are tender.
• Add in your minced garlic and cook it for about a minute.
• Pour in your tomato sauce and mix it and cook it for several minutes.
  
• Add in your prepared horseradish, molasses, cider vinegar lemon zest and 1/4 cup water and mix well.
• Let it this sauce simmer on low heat while rinse your seitan if it's flavored. You want to rinse it and give it a squeeze because you want it to absorb the flavor of your sauce but not lose it's packaged flavor.
  
• Shred your seitan and fold it into your sauce mixture. Cook it on medium heat until the seitan absorb the sauce and the mixture is thick.
  
• Serve with rice, pasta or as a sandwich.

Gingersnaps (Vegan)
Modified Recipe from Simple Vegetarian Recipes

Yields About 40 2.5" cookies 64Cal/Cookie

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 Cups/300g Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup/200g Granulated Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients
1/4 Cup/84g Molasses
1/4 Cup/64g Mixed Cereal Baby Food (It can be any baby food with fruit puree or you can use sweeten applesauce)
1/4 Cup/407g Vegan Margarine (Soy Butter)
3 Tbsp/44 mL Rice Milk or Soy Milk or Almond Milk
5 Tbsp Grated Fresh Ginger

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease the cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl combine the whole wheat flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
• In a smaller bowl combine the molasses, apple sauce, vegan margarine, rice milk and freshly grated ginger.
• Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and gently fold in the liquid. Don't over work your batter.
• Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, spoon out a ball and place it on your cookie sheet and flatten it with moist hands or a greased spoon. Leaving a 1" space in between each cookie.
• Bake for about 12-15 minutes. These will yield chewy gingersnaps but gingersnaps are suppose to be crispy so if you want it to be crispy you have to over bake them a bit. Bake until they are a darker brown.
  

Sushi!!

I haven't really been cooking or baking this week because I'm still feasting on the food I've made last week and the weeks/months before that...I'm having such a problem trying to get rid of these dairy and egg products. I'm such a hoarder of food. I buy and buy and I never use it in fear of not having it for the next recipe. I guess I'll go to the fourth level of hell xD OH wells. In addition to the abundance amount of food I have, my b/f and I have been eating out a lot and I've been going over to his house to eat. Rawr!! Poo!!

VWAV and VCTOTW finally came in the mail yesterday despite the fact that I ordered it two weeks ago. So damn excited!! Anyways Enough ranting and bullpooping.

Mock Tuna (Vegan)

I've made mock tuna for I was craving for some creamy spread and I also had a can of garbanzo bean that was calling me. I got the recipe off of vegweb. I didn't do much to change it.

Recipe Yields 4 Serving 155.75 Cal/Serving

1 15 oz Can of Garbanzo beans
2 Tbsp Vegan Mayonnaise (Nayonaise, Veganaise, Homemade...whichever)
1 Tbsp Sweet Pickle Relish
2 Tsp Dijon Mustard
2/3 Tsp Fresh Lemon Juice ( A little more if you like )
Salt and Pepper to taste

• Drain and rinse your garbanzo beans, you can use your own cooked garbanzo beans (less sodium and much more healthier).
• Mash up your garbanzo beans with the potato masher or use a fork if you don't have a potato masher.
  
• Mix in the sweet pickle relish, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Banana Cottage Cheese Sandwich (Lacto-Vegetarian)

It is my attempt to get rid of all my dairy products. This was open from like 1 weeks ago =X Surprised it didn't mold. It tasted perfectly fine so I made a sandwich with my over ripe banana. Sorry I spelled banana wrong in the photo. Eh... I still have my never opened 32 oz plain yogurt and sour cream that is a few weeks pasted it's sell by date. Thank goodness it's sealed in a vacuum container.

Recipe Yields 1 Sandwich 440 Cal/Sandwich
1 Medium (118g)Ripe Banana
2/3 - 1 Cup (150g-225g) of Low Fat Cottage Cheese (axelrod or friendships)
2 Tsp (8g) of Sugar
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
1/4 Tsp Grounded Cinnamon
2 Slice of Whole Wheat Bread

• Slice your banana thinly (about 1/2 cm) width wise.
• Mix the sugar, vanilla, ground cinnamon into your cottage cheese.
  
• Spread the cottage cheese onto your first slice of bread, line the banana slices on top of the cottage cheese, spread the cottage cheese on top of the banana and then line it with the bananas again and continue until you've ran out of the banana or the cottage cheese.
• Top your sandwich with the other slice of bread and enjoy.
  

Tomato TVP Fried Rice (Vegan)

It's fried rice I've made and brought to work for lunch. I bring lunch to work everyday now since most of my co workers order take out for lunch. There aren't many choices for vegetarian/vegan food and besides who knows if they cook the food on the same cooking wares. Made it with some tomatoes, garlic, some TVP I've made months ago.


Sushi (Vegan)


Verdict: I have 5 pack of nori, cucumbers and sushi rice so I need to get rid of some.
I got the sushi rice from about.com and the filling, I just used what I had.

Recipe Yields 8 Serving (8 pieces)
Bamboo Mat
Sushi Rice (Recipe follows)
Filling (Recipe/Instruction follows)
8 Sheets of Nori (Roasted Seaweed Sheets)
Bowl of Water

Sushi Rice
3 Cups (600g) Sushi Rice [clear short grain rice, the white short grain rice are the glutinous sweet rice]
3 1/4 Cups (769 mL) Water
1/3 Cup (79 mL) Rice Vinegar
3 Tbsp (37.5g) Sugar
1 Tsp Salt

• Wash and rinse the rice several times.
  
• Pour the rice and the water into the rice cooker and turn it on. (If you don't have a rice cooker use a small nonstick pot, pour the rice and water into the pot and let it simmer and continuously stir until the rice has become white and absorbed all the water.)
• After the rice is cooked, pour in the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix it well and do not mash your rice.
  

Filling
1 English Cucumber
1 Medium Carrot
1/2 Cup of Mock Tuna Salad
1 Package of Takuan (can be found in the asian frozen section)
Tofu marinated in Miso Sauce (Recipe follows)

• Peel and deseed your cucumbers. If you are not using English cucumbers and your using a cucumber with a nice crisp skin, you don't really need to peel them. Some cucumber have really crisp skin not those waxy tough skin. The crisp skin actually adds texture to your cucumbers.
  
• Julienne your cucumbers, carrots and takuan into 1/4 cm by 1/4 cm strips.

Miso Marinated Tofu

• 1/5 Block of Extra Firm Tofu
• 1 Tbsp Miso Paste, Shiromiso
• 2 Tbsp Water (1 Tbsp if you want your tofu to be more flavorful)
  

• Line your tofu with a clean towel and place some weights on it to squeeze out all the excess water for about 30 minutes.
  
• Meanwhile mix your miso paste with the water to create a diluted miso sauce.
• Julienne your tofu into 1/2 cm by 1/2 cm strips and let it soak in the miso sauce for at least 15 minutes.
  

Constructing Your Sushi

• Place your nori on your bamboo mat.
• Even spread some rice on your nori. Make sure you get the sides. Just leave a 1 cm gap at the top edge of your nori.
• Place the filling about 2 cm away from the bottom edge of nori.
• Grab the bamboo mat and the nori and tuck the bottom edge of the nori under the filling and tightly roll your nori into a roll. Make sure you dont roll your bamboo mat into the sushi.