super stuffed calzones!

we loved last weeks pizzas so much we decided to make calzones last night! mmmmmmmmm! we stuffed our calzones with nom! nom! nom!'s tofu ricotta, baby portobellos, spinach, italian spiced tvp, onions, green peppers, and bell peppers. oh yes, they were yummy & made up for the fact that was pretty icky outside. i wish it would stop with the wintry mix & just snow!

italian spiced tvp

ingredients:
3/4 cup tvp crumbles/small flakes
1 cup water
1/2 not-beef bouillon cube
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 small yellow onion, finely diced
1-2 tsp liquid braggs
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
a pinch or two of sea salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper (less if you like)
1 tsp red chili flakes (less if you like)
1/2 tsp olive oil

what you'll need:
- small mixing bowl
- small saucepan + lid

what'cha gotta do:
add water + 1/2 not-beef bouillon cube to the saucepan. bring it all to a boil then add in the tvp crumbles. remove from heat, cover with lid, and set aside for 10 minutes. once the tvp is reconstituted transfer it to the mixing bowl & return the saucepan to your stove. heat olive oil on medium-high and saute onion until it starts to brown (about 4-5 minutes). remove from heat and the onion to the mixing bowl with the tvp (you can also saute some green peppers with the onions). add in remaining ingredients & combine well. adjust seasonings to taste & enjoy!

creamy polenta bowls with spicy black beans & roasted tomatoes

sunday, when we baked our ciabatta, we roasted up a few tomatoes for these spicy black bean & polenta bowls (because roasted tomatoes are sooooo gooooood!). for our bowls of yummies we simply combined the roasted tomatoes with the spicy black beans and served 'em over some super creamy polenta, topping it all off with the jalapeno-lime creme (we added in 1/4 cup cilantro to the jalapeno-lime creme for extra mmmmmmm) from Real Food Daily.

these spicy black bean 'n polenta bowls were amazingly awesome! creamy and spicy - warmed us right up! usually we make firmer polenta squares, but i'm loving this creamy polenta deliciousness! this meal was pretty darn easy & we really like the idea of beans & creamy polenta - next time we'll try out different beans and veggies. the combinations of deliciousness are endless!

ingredients:
4 cups cooked black beans
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp sriracha
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
10 slices of jarred jalapenos, minced
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp olive oil
5 large tomatoes, sliced thick
1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 cups of water
1/2 tsp sea salt (optional)
1 tbsp earth balance
2 tbsp tofutti cream cheese (optional. omit for soy-free!)
olive oil cooking spray

what you'll need:
- large pot
- non-stick cookie sheet/large baking tray
- large mixing bowl
- whisk

what'cha gotta do:
spray cookie sheet with a little olive oil cooking spray. roast tomatoes on 425 degrees for about a half hour. remove from oven, allow to cool, and roughly chop. place roasted tomatoes, black beans, jalapenos, olive oil, and all the spices (including the sriracha) in the large mixing bowl; combine well. (you could add in some sauteed veggies of your choice here, too - green peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc. mmmmmmm!) adjust seasonings to taste & set aside.

while your tomatoes are roasting you can start on the polenta. bring 4 cups of water (+ sea salt) to a boil in the large pot. whisk in the cornmeal until it's all incorporated. lower heat to a simmer & add in the earth balance. cook for 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes until done. stir in cream cheese (if you like).

place a 1/4 of the polenta in a bowl, add spicy black beans & tomatoes on top of the polenta, and top it all with some jalapeno-lime creme (and some more sriracha if ya like). enjoy!

p.s. - this recipe makes for 4 large servings.

carrot-yam soup with sweet cashew cream

earlier this week i found the Angelica Home Kitchen cookbook online and was browsing through it when their recipe for creamy carrot & sweet potato soup caught my eye. we both love us some sweet potatoes & carrots - so decided to try something similar using carrots 'n yams!

we used homemade veggie stock, yams, a bunch o' chili powder and raw agave nectar - topping it all with a super easy 'n super scrumptious cashew cream. the cashew cream sweetened it up just a tad bit more & rounded the soup out quite nicely. this soup ended up being one of my favorites, and dan really liked it as well. yay for a tasty success! sweet 'n creamy - yummy goodness!

makes for 6 big 'ol bowls o' soup...

ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & diced
2 medium yellow onions, diced
10 medium carrots, peel & diced
6 cups veggie broth
1 tbsp raw agave nectar (it's a-okay if you don't use raw agave)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp olive oil

what you'll need:
- large pot + lid
- blender

what'cha gotta do:
heat olive oil in large pot over medium heat. add in the veggies & spices. cook for 5 minutes, stirring about every minute. add in agave nectar and cook (stirring frequently) for another 5 minutes. cover pot with lid & cook for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes (making sure the veggies don't brown). add in veggie broth, bring everything to a boil, cover & reduce the heat to medium. cook for about 10 minutes until all the veggies are tender. transfer soup to blender & puree until smooth. top with cashew cream & enjoy! :)

alls ya need to do for the cashew cream is add about 1/3 cup raw cashews & about 1/2 a cup (to 3/4) of plain rice milk (or any plain non-dairy milk) to your blender and blend until smooooooooooth. that's it! (if you want your cashew cream a little more sweet you can add in 1 tsp of agave nectar.)

we made some ciabatta (because it's so easy) to accompany our soup this evening. (using all whole wheat flour & subbing in plain rice milk.)

pizzas with tofu ricotta!

superw00t! dan made us pizzas for his thursday night dinner! ooooooh, our favorite! we haven't had pizza in weeks and he must've known i've had a serious pizza craving!

using our recently tweaked pizza dough recipe he created some delicious garlic stuffed crust pizzas! after seeing some rock'n tofu ricotta on krispycheks' blog nom! nom! nom! we knew we had to add some to our pizzas, too! if you all haven't had a chance to check out nom! nom! nom! you really need to get your buns over there! it's one super stellar blog! krispycheks bakes some serious yummies (she's working on publishing her recipes, too), one of her new year's resolutions is to become a chocolate connoisseur (so bad ass, right!?!) - her blog just rocks! you've gotta check it out! oh yes, and her tofu ricotta = AWESOME! making some for yourself is a must! easy to make and oh-so-delicious, fo 'sho!

we hope everyone has a fantastically wonderful fun infused weekend! we'll be report'n back on sunday with our "soup 'n bread" night eatz. mmmmmmmmmm!

roasted garlic hummus wraps with rosemary-garlic new potatoes ('cause ya can't have enough garlic)!

we've got a lot of bulk chickpeas in our cabinets waiting to be used for something super tasty. chickpeas = most awesome & hummus = even more awesome! we decided upon hummus wraps last night - filling our wraps with hummus, green peppers, red bell peppers, carrots, sprouted beans, cucumbers, and spinach! roasted garlic hummus is super easy to make & oh-so delicioso! this time around we cut back on the spices and let the roasted garlic flavor shine on through. mmmmmmm! using a little fresh rosemary from our garden and more garlic we roasted up some scrumptious rosemary-garlic new potatoes. roasted veggies with cool wraps was such a nice combination!

roasted garlic hummus

ingredients:
3 cups of cooked chickpeas (we love cooking up dried beans 'cause they're cheap, we can get them in bulk, and they taste sooo much better than canned)
1/4 - 1/3 cup reserved bean water (just save a little bean water when you drain your cooked chickpeas)
2 heaping tbsp tahini
juice from 1/2 a lemon
10 cloves of roasted garlic
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp olive oil

what you'll need:
- food processor or blender

what'cha gotta do:
place roasted garlic in food processor. pulse until well minced. add in chickpeas & pulse them up a bit - then add in the reserved bean water (as little or as much as you like, depending upon the consistency you love the most) and pulse until smooth. add in remaining ingredients and blend until well combined. adjust seasonings to taste & enjoy!

happy burritos!

not much of a recipe today - last night we made burritos in an attempt to use up some more of what we've got on hand around the house. trying to work through a lot of bulk beans, grains, etc - and so burritos it was! we stuffed ours with some spiced up adzuki & kidney beans, brown rice with lime & tomatoes, and some sauteed peppers 'n onions. oh yeah, and cheezy sauce. mmmmmmmmmmmmm! we've posted the recipe for the cheezy sauce before, but the recipe for our "go to" cheezy sauce is below...

ingredients for the cheeze sauce (we simply reduce & tweak susan v's recipe):
1/2 cup rice milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup cashews (or walnuts!)
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp miso
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
1-2 tbsp(s) corn starch
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp sriracha

what you'll need:
- small pot
- blender

what'cha gotta do:
while your sauteing the veggies you can make the cheeze sauce! blend cashews until they're super fine in the blender. add in remaining ingredients and combine well. pour everything into the small sauce pan. heat on medium, stirring every couple of seconds until it thickens. remove from heat.

(this time we put cheezy sauce all over our roasted broccoli! cheezy delicious!)

minestrone & garlic knots!

sunday has become our weekly soup 'n bread nights, and in searching for a tasty new soup to make this week i knew i'd find some inspiration and rock'n recipes on Marni's blog La Vegan Loca! Marni's been crank'n out some awesome posts (as she always does!) as part of her rock'n new years resolution, when i saw her master recipe for minestrone soup i knew we had to make some minestrone to enjoy ourselves. you just can't go wrong with an herby soup full of all kinds of yummies! delicious, fo 'sho!

if you all aren't familiar with La Vegan Loca you're really missing out! Marni's blog has so much to offer - tasty recipes that will make your tummies happy, tips & information on everything you could ever imagine (she really thinks of everything!), and this woman makes her own booze! need i say more?!?

okay! here's what we did for our minestrone...

ingredients:
2 cups cooked kidney beans
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup uncooked orzo
2 medium-sized russet potatoes
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 large tomatoes, diced
3 medium carrots, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
8 cups veggie broth (we used homemade!)
1/4 cup dried basil
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp oregano
2 bay leaves
1 tsp olive oil

what you'll need:
- one large pot (w00t!)

what'cha gotta do:
heat olive oil in the large pot on medium heat. add in onions and cook until they start to become clear. add in garlic, celery, & carrots and cook for 3 minutes. add tomatoes and all the spices (including the bay leaves), cook for 4 minutes more. add potatoes & veggie stock - adjust seasonings to taste. bring everything to a boil then reduce to a simmer. cook until the potatoes begin to soften then add in the uncooked orzo & beans. cook until the orzo is al dente, remove from heat & enjoy! so simple, so good, and you'll have soup for days! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!


we enjoyed our soup with some whole wheat garlic knots. we just made a batch of our pizza dough (using all whole wheat flour this time) and kneaded in 1 minced gigantical clove 'o elephant garlic. then we just made little bread knots and baked 'em on 425 for 10 minutes. garlicky goooooood!

p.s. - the minestrone recipe makes for 6-8 servings, and the dough recipe made for 9 knots. :)

country potato soup 'n whole wheat biscuits

dan & i are giving our bathrooms a bit of a makeover as the people who lived here before us never believed in fixing leaks. with the help of some awesome family members we'll be working on 2 of the 3 bathrooms this weekend. last night we headed over to home depot for grout, adhesives, trowels, etc. & got home a little late. while dan started pulling up old tile i decided to make us a quick dinner that would warm us up (it's pretty cold here in rva, too) & keep us full.

we enjoyed another one of Bianca's tasty tester recipes - country potato soup. oh man, it makes for some gooooood eat'n! chunky 'n creamy bacony goodness! mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! stick to your ribs awesome! i love a tasty recipe that takes just about a half hour to whip up, and in sticking with the quick, easy 'n tasty theme i made some whole wheat biscuits while the soup was coming together.

ingredients:
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp vegetable shortening
1 cup plain rice milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

what you'll need:
- medium mixing bowl
- non-stick baking sheet

what'cha gotta do:
preheat oven to 375. combine all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl. add wet ingredients and stir a bit (not too much) until you've got a nice dough (it'll be a bit sticky - if it's too wet/gooey add another tbsp or two of flour). turn the dough out onto your floured counter top and gently knead for about 30 seconds or so. pat the dough out to about 1/2" thickness & cut out biscuits (we form the last biscuit with our hands using the leftover dough). bake for 10-11 minutes & cool on a cooling rack (although we usually just kinda gobble them up from the baking pan.). hooray, biscuits! p.s. - this biscuit recipe makes for 8 medium-sized biscuits.

teasing you with more tester recipes...(and more sprouts!)

we were doublesuperhappyfaced when Bianca of Vegan Crunk posted a tester recipe for her country fried tempeh steak 'n gravy. we couldn't wait to try it, and having plenty of local tempeh (and all the other necessary ingredients on hand already) we gave her tester recipe a whirl last night.

the verdict: sweet jeebus, absolutely damn delicious! dan's words were, "i've never had tempeh like this before - it's so awesome!" and i couldn't have agreed more! these tempeh steaks are some serious southern food - and the gravy was so delicious i was eating it with a spoon straight out of the pan! mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! total comfort food, fo 'sho! and when we paired our tempeh with some of dan's garlic smashed potatoes (he makes the best smashed taters!) & peas 'n corn - yeah, it was one helluva stellar dinner!



now about those sprouts we've been growing...i found a yummy way to eat them: sauteed brussels + sprouts + brown rice + sesame seed oil = oh-so fantastical! it's my new favorite bowl of yumminess! i just made up a big batch of brown rice monday night & when i get home on my lunch break i do some sauteing and throw it all together in a matter of minutes! tasty, fast, and filling - and pretty darn good for you, too! i'm loving me some sprouts! superw00t!

happy almost friday, everyone!

it's lasagna time! mmmmmm!

there's a glorious amount of delicious looking lasagnas around lately & we haven't had lasagna since becoming vegan (actually, it's been longer than that for both of us. sheesh!). i always thought making lasagna was waaaay too involved and time consuming (and dan's never been a fan of lasagna) so i never got up the nerve to try it out. but this week it's getting pretty darn cold and we thought a comforting lasagna was in order to warm us on up!

sunday afternoon we made the ricotta, cashew cream, and marinara while we had some free time to cook (our weekdays are getting pretty hectic lately). all we had to do this evening was throw it all together & bake - making our lasagna soooo easy & soooooooooo delicious! i can't believe we waited this long to make lasagna - it's gotta be the best we've ever had! saucy, creamy, noodley goodness....superw00t!

for the filling we used Isa's tofu ricotta recipe (making it with local herbed tofu) & Veganomicon's pine nut cream (only we used raw cashews instead 'cause we have a bunch on hand at the house & pine nuts get pretty darn expensive!). for veggies we roasted up eggplant slices when we were roasting the tomatoes for the marinara on sunday, and added in some sauteed spinach to round it all out. putting it all together was a snap.

we made 2 small lasagnas in bread pans with just 1/2 a box of whole wheat lasagna noodles, layering it up like so: marinara sauce, whole wheat lasagna noodle, cashew cream, eggplant, tofu ricotta, spinach, & sauce - then repeat! we covered the bread pans with aluminum foil & baked covered for 30 minutes on 350 (no need to preheat). topped the lasagnas with some bread crumbles and our parmesan cheeze - then baked uncovered for another 15 minutes. we also made sure to let the lasagna set for a good 15 minutes before we cut into it so it would cooperate coming out of the pan & hold together well. you can totally stuff your lasagna with whatever veggies your heart desires the most - be it mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, etc. - it's all so good! oh yeah, here's our marinara recipe...

ingredients for the marinara sauce:
6 large tomatoes
1 large yellow onion
3-5 bis 'ol cloves 'o garlic
1/4 cup white wine
30 leaves of fresh basil, chopped
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch (or two) of sea salt
olive oil cooking spray

what you'll need:
- cookie sheet
- large skillet (we used our cast iron. w00t!)
- blender

what'cha gotta do:
spritz cookie sheet with a little olive oil cooking spray and places slices of tomatoes on. roast on 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. heat 1 tbsp olive oil in the large skillet over medium heat & saute the onions until they become clear. add in garlic and saute until fragrant, but don't let it brown. add in white wine and cook for another 2 minutes (until it reduces just a little), then add in your roasted tomatoes, (we kinda squished the slices with our hands over the skillet while adding them in) oregano, onion powder, sage. reduce heat to low & cook for 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes or so. remove all the sauce from heat and transfer to a blender. blend until smooth & return sauce to skillet. add fresh basil, tomato paste & baking soda and simmer for another 20 minutes. :) taste again, adjust seasonings if needed, and remove from heat.

p.s. - fun lasagna themed palindrome: "go hang a salami, i'm a lasagna hog!" not necessarily the most vegan palindrome, well - i'm taking it to be veggie salami! :)

butter bean burgers & testing out Bianca's corn casserole!

we've been craving more bean burger goodness since
Amy's super tasty black-eyed pea soul burgers we enjoyed last week. we haven't had butter bean burgers in a while & decided to make up a bunch for dinner and work lunches. doublew00t!

we also tested out Bianca's recipe for creamy corn casserole, and roasted up some asparagus while the casserole was do'n its thing. :) first, let me tell you how awesome Bianca's corn casserole was - GLORIOUS! we've never had anything like it before - creamy corn goodness with lots of yummies to round it out - mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Bianca's cookbook is gonna kick some serious ass! ;)

and here's our recipe for butterbean burgers - these are some of our faaaaaaavorite bean burgers!

ingredients:
3 cups cooked butter beans (large lima beans)
1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
15 saltine crackers, crushed (or 1½ cup bread crumbs)
¼ cup nutritional yeast
6 slices jarred jalapeno, minced (optional – if you want a little kick)
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp olive oil
olive oil cooking spray
¼ cup cornmeal

what you'll need:
- large mixing bowl
- medium pan for sautéing veggies
- large skillet/pan for cooking burgers
- small plate
- food processor (optional – for making crumbling saltines & blending veggies)
- potato smasher or large form

what’cha gotta do:
heat 2 tsp of olive oil in the medium pan on medium-high. toss in the diced onion & bell pepper - sauté for 5 minutes. next add in the minced garlic & minced jalapeno pepper – sauté for another minute or two & remove from heat. now you can do 1 of 2 things (it's totally up to you!): you can either blend up your veggies in the food processor for a more smoooooooth burger - or leave 'em as they are for more chunky goodness. but either way - once you're decided, transfer your veggies into the large mixing bowl. :)

place the butter beans into the large mixing bowl with the sauteed veggies and smash them all together using a potato masher (or use a fork to mash ‘em, too). crush up the saltines (or use your food processor to do it for ya) and put them in the mixing bowl (or add in the bread crumbs), add the nutritional yeast, garlic powder, & onion powder. combine everything together & season with sea salt 'n pepper if you like.

form burger patties with your hands (we make 6 patties – but you can make them as big or as wee as you like). spread the cornmeal out on a small plate and roll each patty into the cornmeal, coating each one thoroughly with cornmeal (don’t forget the sides!).

heat a little olive oil cooking spray in the large skillet/pan (we used our cast iron skillet) on medium heat. once the oil is heated place the cornmeal coated patties into the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes (until lightly browned). flip the patties over to cook for another 3-5 minutes until lightly browned.

remove from heat, place on a bun (i like to add a little vegenaise to mine, dan prefers salsa on his), and dig in!

p.s. - did we tell everyone that we make our own vegan "parmesan"? alls yas gotsta do put 1/4 cup walnuts (or pine nuts) + 1/4 cup nutritional yeast + 1 tbsp raw sunflower seeds (optional) in your food processor & whirl it around until it's all processed. takes just a minute to make and lasts a good while in a sealed container in the fridge (we reuse old jam jars & such just for this purpose). soooo simple & much cheaper than buying it. oh yeah, and if you're trying to get some B12 outta your nutritional yeast make sure it's fortified with the stuff. we thought all nutritional yeast had B12, but last week i ran out to grab some more and it turns out both our local markets have bulk nutritional yeast that's WITHOUT B12! eek! i've gotta find some online that's fortified. just a heads up though.

test'n out some awesomeness! cinnamon pecan pancakes, tempeh bacon, & chipotle chickpea chili!

this weekend we got to test a bunch of fantabulous recipes for Bianca of the stellarly southern Vegan Crunk. she's creating a most rock'n southern cookbook and we get to be some of the lucky recipe testers. superw00t!

saturday morning i got up early and ran 6 miles (more cherry blossom training), then tiptoed around the kitchen and made some of Bianca's cinnamon pecan pancakes to surprise dan with a super scrumptious breakfast. they're actually supposed to be waffles, but alas, we are wafflemakerless. these cinnamon pecan pancakes = ooooooooooh yum! i believe we inhaled them all in about 2 minutes. cinnamony sweet goodness - mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! they were perfect with some hasbrowns and a hot cup o' tea!

i'm sure you all have been over to Vegan Crunk - but if you haven't, well, you're really miss'n out on one glorious blog of southern deliciousness! so what are you wait'n for?

here's Bianca's smoky tempeh bacon we gobbled up this morning - hands down the best tempeh bacon we've ever had! perfectly seasoned & just damn delicious!

this afternoon we watched the Giants lose the playoffs (supersadface!), but Bianca's chipotle chickpea chili got us happyfaced again! (totally forgot to take a picture of the corn muffins we made to accompany her chili - opps!) this chipotle chickpea chili is spicy & hearty and made our mouths and stomachs most happy! our omni friend james was over for the game and said it was oh-so tasty, too! hells yeah! since we're so in love with this chili we're going to enjoy the rest this evening and take Jenn's idea of making chili fries! thanks, Jenn!

we'll be posting more tester recipes this month - so stay tuned! hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

garlicky asparagus-spinach pesto love'n pasta!

last night we decided some time to watch a movie and veg out was needed (we kinda missed all the veg'n out we got to do over the holiday together). i wanted to get some knitting in, and after watching the movie dan wanted to play some vids. to ensure we got lots of time to relax he whipped up a super fast & doubly fantastical pasta that was simply the best, fo 'sho!

he tossed in some pesto we had made (& had freezed) back in the fall with the last of the basil from our garden. he then sauteed up some elephant garlic, asparagus, & spinach in a little olive oil & earth balance - combining the garlicky veggies with the pesto to create this most scrumptious pasta! so good that we kinda stuffed ourselves. :) who knew the combination of spinach and asparagus would be so yummy?! i'll post the pesto recipe again below, and if you're feeling extra unlazy (we just needed some relax'n time) you should totally make your own homemade pasta. homemade pasta rocks the hardest (and you don't even need a pasta maker)!

ingredients for the pesto:
8-10 cloves roasted garlic
1/3 toasted walnut halves
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
4 tbsp olive oil, divided (you can use less oil & a little more water if you like)
2+ tbsp nutritional yeast (huzzah for B12!)
20 fresh basil leaves
a few pinches of sea salt
1-2 tbsp warm water (this is optional. you can always use more oil instead. we like to use some water from the pasta 'cause it's a bit thick.)

what you'll need:
- food processor

what'cha gotta do:
place roasted garlic cloves + 2 tbsp olive oil in the food processor. process until well minced. toast the pine nuts + walnut halves (we toast ours up in our little toaster oven. it just takes 1 cycle.), add them to the food processor & pulse until well chopped. add in the remaining olive oil, a pinch of sea salt, the nutritional yeast, and a little warm water (or more oil, if you like). give it a whirl, then add in the basil leaves - pulse just enough to chop 'em up (not too much) & you're good to go. if you don't have basil you can use asparagus or spinach for your green! yum!

Amy's black-eyed pea soul burgers

in searching for another super tasty bean burger i had printed off a recipe for some rock'n looking black-eyed pea soul burgers from tahinitoo (formally known as "vegan addict"). sunday we had made some whole wheat buns and wanted to put them to good use, and since bean burgers are easy, tasty, and nutritionally rock'n we thought they'd be perfect for a quick wednesday night meal.

so how does a black-eyed pea soul burger taste, you ask?! absolutely awesome! actually, to quote dan (with a mouthful of bean burger), they're "damn delicious!" yay!

if you haven't been over to tahinitoo you absolutely MUST. not only does Amy's blog have the best title, she takes the most beautiful photographs, she cooks the yummiest looking deliciousnesses (right now she's got some serious food porn go'n on from some tester recipes that will knock your socks off), and this girl makes her own reusable produce bags to reduce her impact! super stellar!

for our soul burgers we did just a few things a bit differently: #1. we actually used pinto beans. turns out we were out of black-eyed peas. i coulda sworn we had some. no worries - pintos worked out perfectly! #2. we rolled our burgers in cornmeal ('cause we love cornmeal the most!). #3. we cooked ours up stove top. & #4. we roasted our broccoli & cauliflower instead of steaming (because i'm pretty bad at steaming veggies. i tend to steam the life outta them. eek!).

you should also pretend that our soul burgers look as good as Amy's do. we couldn't get a pretty picture to save our lives. i blame crap lighting & the fact that we were so hungry and really wanted to eat. i can tell you that we're going to be making these soul burgers again & again! they were just sooooo flavorful & delicious! next time we'll make sure we've got some black-eyed peas around and try them how they were intended to be. ahahahaa!

we enjoyed our burgers with the rest of the roasted broccoli & added a little garlic & pine nuts. i had vegenaise & tomato on my burger - dan had ketchup & sriracha on his. they were both gloriously good. you've gotta check out the recipe the next chance you get!

ethiopian awesomeness & W.I.P. wednesday!

last april i took dan out to try ethiopian foods at our local ethiopian restaurant. he thought it was "alright", but found the spices to be a bit overwhelming. i looooove ethiopian yummies and my friend emily & i go every now again - it's sooooo goooooood. i wanted to try and make ethiopian yummies that dan might like - homemade without too much spice or oil (i knew we could tone those down just a bit) - so sunday night i picked up kittee's zine papa tofu and made a bunch of ethiopian goodness for us to enjoy tuesday night. i figured if i made the dishes ahead of time (we made the injera last night as the dishes were reheating) the flavors would have more time to really get to know each other.

we made the niter kebbeh (seasoned "butter"), injera (spongy sourdough flat bread), atar allecha (split pea puree), and kittee's yetakelt w'et (vegetables in a spicy red gravy). i used just 1 tbsp of niter kebbeh per dish, toned down the berbere spice in the w'et just a tad, subbed green peas for green beans in the w'et, and we let our 100% teff injera sit for 2 1/2 days. the verdict: wahooooooooooooooo, glorious! i was sooooooo scared the injera would be fussy, and we didn't have a teflon pan so we used a bit of olive oil cooking spray - it turned out to be soooo delicious - and it worked! i have heard injera is super hard to make - but it was perfect! we followed kittee's directions and oh my gosh, yay! we both gobbled everything up! it was so delicious! dan said we should enjoy ethiopian awesomeness more often!

thank you so much for the rock'n recipes, kittee! if you guys haven't checked out her recipe site, pakupaku, you need to right now! it's loaded with information and a million tasty recipes! and if you don't already have papa tofu you need to order it NOW!

alrighty - now here's my W.I.P wednesday! has everyone been to Shelly's blog Musings From The Fishbowl? you need to get your butts over there if you haven't - 'cause Shelly's blog rocks so hard! not only does she make the most tasty looking yummies (try her smashing grain casserole immediately!) but she's one helluva crafy lady! a while ago she had this awesome idea to start posting her "works in progress" (W.I.P.) on wednesdays - showing off all the crafty projects she's work'n on.

W.I.P. has really caught on - and this past monday my fellow blogging buddy allularpunk, of Awesome. Vegan. Rad. (which is awesome, vegan, and rad multiplied by a million), was telling everyone that she's learning to
knit and she's gonna participate in W.I.P. wednesdays, too. i told allularpunk i'd try not to be such a chickensh*t and join in...

it all starts two decembers ago when i wanted to learn to knit. i signed myself up for a beginner's class at our local yarn shop the Yarn Lounge. i knitted a scarf or two over the next few months at the beginning of last year and then the knitting kinda faded out. however, more recently i've found Stacey's blog Te Amo Vegano! (you need to check out her blog 'cause it's fantastically stellar!) - and her knits and totally inspired me to start knitting again! (have you all been over to Bitter Sweet lately? Hannah just finished knitting a sweater! superimpressedface!)

okay, enough rambling - here's my W.I.P ----> a scarf for dan's sister! dan's momma gave me this yarn 2 christmases ago. it's wool (at the time we weren't vegan and so i decided i should use it up instead of wasting it) and multicolored and all the colors his sister loves (i think/hope!). so as soon as i'm done this colorful ribbed scarf it's going to her. pretty cool, huh?! i can't wait to have it all finished - then i'll post another picture before i send it off to its new home! w00t!

what's everyone else got go'n on for their W.I.P wednesday? i totally showed you all my knits - now you show me yours! ;)

sushi, sushi, sushi!

my dad & momma got us a mandolin slicer for christmas (doublesuperw00t!) - so last thursday night we put it to some good use - dan made us sushi for his thursday night dinner! we had carrot-cucumber rolls, avocado rolls, "cream cheese" 'n cucumber rolls, and sweet potato rolls with agave nectar. super stellar! my contribution to our meal was the fresh spring rolls - i stuffed 'em with edamame, bell peppers, soba noodles, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. i think i could eat sushi every day! mmmmmmmmmmmmm!

this evening i'm headed out for more sushi with a friend - so i apologize for such a short post. hoooooooooray for sushis!

roasted garlic potato soup

roasted garlic & roasted potatoes are up there on our list of favorites - so we thought a soup composed of them both would be quite delicious! we were right - roasted garlic potato soup is absolutely stellar!

this soup was super easy to make, which was perfect because we've been relaxing all day & savoring the last evening before work starts up again. we enjoyed our soup with some of happy herbivore's whole wheat beer bread (which is fantastical & also easy to make!) and some roasted asparagus (we're on a roasted theme here tonight, what can i say!?!).

yay for another tasty soup 'n bread night success. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

ingredients:
5 medium sized russet potatoes, diced (skins on - it's the best part!)
1 head of garlic
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 large shallot, sliced thin
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 tsp sea salt, divided
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp sugar
1 cup plain rice milk
6 cups of water
1/2 not-beef bouillon cube
4 tsp olive oil, divided (or a little olive oil cooking spray)

what you'll need:
- 7"x7" square of aluminum foil
- blender
- 9x13 baking pan
- large pot
- olive oil cooking spray

what'cha gotta do:
spray the baking pan with a little olive oil cooking spray. place diced potatoes in pan & sprinkle the potatoes with 1/4 tsp sea salt. take your head 'o garlic & peel off the outer layers of skin. cut about 1/4" off the top of the bulb of garlic so that you can see the individual cloves of garlic (you may need to cut off 1/2" depending on the size of your bulb 'o garlic). place garlic bulb in the center of the aluminum foil and drizzle 2 tsp olive oil over the exposed garlic cloves. wrap the aluminum foil around the garlic bulb (not too tightly) and pinch the foil together at the top. place the wrapped garlic bulb in the center of the 9x13 baking pan with the potatoes and roast the potatoes & garlic for about 35-40 minutes on 400 (stirring the potatoes 1/2 way through the cooking time). once the potatoes are tender and the garlic is roasted - remove from oven.

in the large pot heat 2 tsp olive oil on medium heat. add in shallots & onion and cook until onions begin to caramelize. add in the sugar and cook for another 3 minutes. once your garlic bulb is cool go ahead and squeeze out the cloves into the large pot with the onions & then add in the roasted potatoes. cook for 5 minutes then add in the water & bouillon cube. bring everything to a boil, add sea salt & pepper. reduce heat & simmer for 10 minutes. transfer 1/2 soup to your blender & add in the raw cashews & rice milk. puree, set aside blended soup - then puree the other 1/2 of the soup. return both batches of pureed soup to the pot & you're all set. enjoy!

Lisa's spicy tomatoes, white beans and spinach on garlic bread

wow! that's the first thing we both said upon tasting Lisa's extraordinarily excellent spicy tomatoes, white beans and spinach on garlic bread. this dish is divine! the perfect combination of flavors & it's simple and down right fantastical. thank you for another delicious recipe, Lisa!

we used 3 large tomatoes instead of canned ones (as we're both bpa paranoid) & roasted them (before adding them to the dish) along with 2 giant cloves of elephant garlic. reduced the olive oil to 2 tsp, increased the white beans to 2 1/2 cups (we can't get enough white bean love around here! ahahhaa!) and used a 1/2 tsp of dried sage (as we didn't have any fresh sage leaves.

if you haven't visited Show Me Vegan you've gotta check it out. we've tried several of Lisa's recipes (her tempeh spread & black bean hummus - just to name a couple) and they've been nothing short of awesome! be sure to try this recipe because it's soooooooo good! our new year's eve dinner was so tasty - filled us up with yumminess & got us ready for an evening with friends & fun for the new year!

p.s. - smashing up one clove of the elephant garlic & basting it on some of the leftover ciabatta (from sunday's soup 'n bead night) with a smidge of melted earth balanced proved to be the best garlic bread we've had!

sprouts!

happy new year! we hope everyone rang in the new year with superhappyfaces! dan & i had a stellar evening - and we found ourselves most excitedfaced because today marks our 1 year "veganversary"! it was this day last year when we decided that the veganism was for us! what an awesome year - and there are soooooooo many more to come! w00t!

a looooooooong while ago (back in may, i want to say) i wanted to start sprouting. i looooove sprouts, but i hate all the darn plastic packaging they come in (makes me most sadfaced). so i ordered up a few bags 'o sprouts from sprout people but then we kinda forgot about them.
last weekend we hit up a bunch of local thrift stores with friends where i found an unopened box of biiiiiiiiiiig mason jars for $3.00! i immediately knew what we could to do with them! sprouts!
we started sprouting last saturday and check out our first batch! aren't they the cutest!?! this is some of the beanie's awesome mix - a combination of "green, marrowfat & yellow peas, crimson, eston, green & red chief lentils, beige garbanzos and adzuki beans" - and it'll rock your socks off! so tasty & so much fun to eat! so far we've been eating them by the handful, but does anybody have any rock'n sprout recipes they'd love to share?! what else can we do with all these tasty sprouts? :)