other people's awesomenesses!

i'm starting to feel kinda bad because we're always talking about how darn busy things are around here, but we really are two very busy bees. dan's knee-deep in his fire fighter recruit school and i'm working hard to make life easy for him while he's getting his booty kicked every weekday. i'm making sure to sit every day for meditation and practice tons of yoga to keep my head on straight, and i've been having super fun adventure times with julie (which makes both of us most happyfaced!), too. so while we're not blogging as much or creating any new recipes worth sharing right now, we're still here and do'n well and kick'n booty as best we can!

now on to other people's awesomenesses!

first up we've got a big 'ol plate of Lazy Smurf's gallo pinto, tequila-lime-agave 'fu & arepas. yes, indeedy! waaaaay back in december i read about her pinto gallo obsession and knew i had to try it. if someone's singing the praises of their favorite dish i wanna be on it like fondant. dan and i are all about some rice 'n beans these days and i can tell you that Lazy Smurf's gallo pinto is the best darn rice 'n beans dish we've both had! at first i was thinking of skipping out on getting some dried ancho chile peppers because you know, sometimes a girl just wants to be all lazy boned 'n stuff, but i'm glad i got off my bum and grabbed some - they're ridiculously good. plus, toasted and grinding your own spices is some serious badassery. wow, wow, WOW to this pinto gallo on one bahbillion levels. puuuulease do yourselves a favor and make this. it's even yummy with pinto beans instead of black beans (if you're a noodle bowl like me and realized you didn't have any black beans on hand). go get your gallo pinto on, folks!!!

while we're talk'n about noodle bowls....check out this scrumptrulescent bowlful of kittee's pho. yeah, that's right - pho! complete with some saucy baked tempeh triangles, kittee's xgfx sausage ballz, and lots of other crazy delicious ingredients. kittee's cook'n up a fantastical xgfx zine and we're so lucky to be testers! her pho recipe is on her site, but you're gonna have to wait for the xgfx zine to get the sausage ball recipe, my friends. trust us though - it's worth the wait. dan's never had pho and it's been ages since my last bowl. all we can say is that kittee's pho blows all other pho outta the water. while we were slurp'n our pho we didn't say a word - only mmmmmmmmms, ohhhhs, and yays! if you wanna see more tester teasers you can check out more absolutely excellent goodies in Allyson's rock'n & rad post. awesome all around!

'cause we don't have any fun recipes of our own to share with you all today, here's a fun picture of julie-beans on the river rocks this past friday afternoon. she & i had a momma bear-baby bear (sometimes i call her my baby bear - i know, it's cheezy as hell. poor julie has a bahbillion nicknames: puff, stinky, bean, ju, jujubee, silly bear, noodle, fuzz-butt, chick-a-dee, jelly bean.....just to name a few.) day together. i ended up taking a half day and we had quite the adventure on the foot trails and on the rocks down at the james river. an excellent time - we wore ourselves out.

until next time, my friends. toooodles!

black bean stew over coconutty cilantro-lime rice & xgfx awesomeness!

last week we needed a super fast meal – it was getting late and our tummies were rumbling. i can’t remember what we originally had on the menu, but it wasn’t happening. what did happen was the best damn beans ‘n rice kinda meal we’ve had in a looooooong, looooong time. after dinner dan and i both confessed to already looking forward to devouring our leftovers for lunch the next day. this is that good. sure, the photo isn't the most appetizing (it was late at night and it is a dark stew), but it's damn delicious and comes together crazy fast – 30 minutes, if that. yay!

ingredients:
1 cup uncooked white rice (we used basmati)
1 cup water
1 cup light coconut milk (you can use full-fat if you like, we had the light on hand)
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
1/2 green pepper, finely diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
2 cups cooked black beans
2 cups veggie broth (or 2 cups water + 1/2 veggie bouillon cube)
2 shallots, minced
4 cloves o' garlic, crushed & minced
1 habanero pepper, de-seeded & minced (use a jalapeno for less heat)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp coriander
1 bay leaf
lots of chopped fresh cilantro & parsley
1 tbsp cornstarch
tons of chopped green onions
juice from 1 lime, divided
sea salt & lots o’ fresh cracked pepper

what you’ll need:
- strainer
- medium pot
- olive oil cooking spray
- medium pot + lid
- potato smasher
- small bowl

what'cha gotta do:
pour 1 cup of water & 1 cup of coconut milk into one of your medium sized pots. pour your rice in the strainer and give it a good rinse. add the rice to the pot with the water & coconut milk. bring it all to a boil, give it one good stir, cover & turn to low – let this cook for 20 minutes then sit covered off of the head for another 5 minutes.

while your rice is making itself awesome get a pan heated up with a little olive oil cooking spray spritzed all up in there. saute the peppers, onion, garlic, shallots, and habanero on medium heat until the onion softens. add in the black beans & all the spices - saute for another 3-5 minutes. toss in the veggie stock & bay leaf, bring it to a boil, cover with lid then reduce to a simmer. cook for about 10 minutes. remove lid and smash up the beans a good bit. a few whole black beans is cool, but you’re look’n to smash most of them up. place cornstarch in the little bowl and mix it with a little cooking liquid from the stew until it's well combined - then add it to the black beans & stir everything until it thickens up a bit more. remove from heat & find that bay leaf – get it outta there. squeeze in juice from 1/2 of your lime & toss in 1/2 the parsley & cilantro you chopped up. go ahead and add in 1/2 of those green onions, too. adjust seasonings to taste & let it veg out for a few minutes while you finish the rice. once rice is done add the juice from the other ½ of the lime + the remaining parsley & cilantro - add in a little sea salt 'n lots of fresh cracked pepper. get a bowl big enough to fit your appetite, add in some coconutty rice & smother it all with the beans – top with some more cilantro and green onions. oh yeah, it’s even more glorious with sliced avocado on top. enjoy!

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some of you guysers may have seen this adorable and fun badge floating around on the interwebs. if you click on it you’ll be swooshed over to a magical place full of other xgfx peeps (xgfx = gluten-free vegan)- it's the xgfx web community.
MEGAsuperw00t! kittee of cake maker to the stars, Allyson of Manifest Vegan, & i have banded together to bring you all some fantastical xgfx awesomeness. this is all part of mucho bigger project that we’re working on - so put your patience pants on & keep check’n back!

gumbo(ish)!

this is an “ish”-dish because we’ve never had traditional gumbo before so we winged this one after searching around online for traditional gumbo recipes. not too sure how authentic our gumbo is, but it was really fun taking bits and pieces from recipes & adding in our twists to make one fantastically tasty dish! we had half a bag o’ soy curls leftover in the freezer and 2 portobellos that wanted to be eaten – so gumbo it was! i don’t think traditional gumbo has mushies in it, but they add a nice meaty texture and a darn good flavor to the gumbo. we used a whole habanero pepper, so if you’re looking for something with less fire go easy on the habanero or sub in a jalapeno or two. we absolutely looooooved this gumbo - i think the yumminess comes from the glorious roux. the gumbo wasn’t difficult to make, it just took some time, but we had plenty of that sunday afternoon and made it happen.

gumbooooo(ish)

ingredients:
½ bag o’ soy curls, crushed (or 1 cup of tvp) - you can always omit to make it soy-free!
2 portobello mushies, diced small
3 large tomatoes, chopped
1 medium white onion, finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced
2 stalks ‘o celery, finely diced
2-3 cups okra (we used frozen)
3 cups water
1 veggie bouillon cube (or 3 cups of veggie broth instead of the water)
handful of parsley, roughly chopped
handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
juice from ½ a lime
3 cloves of galic, crushed & minced
1 habanero pepper, very finely minced (we kept the seeds ribs in for extra heat)
2 tbsp chickpea flour
1 tbsp brown rice flour
¼ cup safflower oil (or any other high-heat oil)
2 tbsp g-f & vegan worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp black pepper (or 20ish turns of your fresh pepper mill)
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp coriander
¼ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp garlic powder

what you’ll need:
- olive oil cooking spray
- small saucepan
- whisk
- baking sheet
- large pot + lid
- small pot + lid
- strainer
- large mixing bowl
- small mixing bowl

what’cha gotta do:
spray the baking sheet with lots of olive oil cooking spray & place the chopped tomatoes on there. roast the tomatoes on 300 degrees for about an hour to an hour & a half. set aside.

once your tomatoes are finishing up with the roasting, add the veggie bouillon cube + 3 cups of water to your small pot & bring it all to a boil. once boiling, add in the soy curls, cover & remove from heat. let this chill out for 10 minutes while you spray the large pot with olive oil cooking spray & heat to medium.

add the garlic, celery, onion, green pepper, and habanero pepper to the large pot. sauté, stirring often, until the onions becomes clear. in the small mixing bowl combine all of your spices – then add JUST HALF of them to the sautéed veggie mix (reserving the other half of the spices for those soy curls & mushies later on). stir half of the spices into the veggies and let it cook for another 3ish minutes. now get back to those soy curls! :)

place the strainer over the large bowl & dump it all into the strainer so the excess water is caught in the large mixing bowl (waste not, my friends!). press the soy curls (i like to use a coffee mug for this) to remove a lot more water then set the curls aside for a few minutes.

get back to your spicy veggie mix & add in the roasted tomatoes, okra, and reserved veggie broth (leftover from the soy curls). bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat, add in 2 bay leaves & worcestershire sauce, and cover. let this simmer for about a half an hour.

spray the small saucepan with a generous amount of olive oil cooking spray and sauté the soy curls for 3-5 minutes. add in the portobello mushies and the remaining ½ of the spices. sauté until all the moisture from the mushies is cooked off and set aside. now on to the roux!

clean out the small pot you used for the soy curls & add in the safflower oil. heat the oil on high heat and once hot add in the flours. whisk like a crazy person and keep on whisking for a few minutes – continually so the flours do not burn. they’ll turn a beige color (like peanut butter), then to a darker beige, and finally to a dark brown. once the roux is a dark brown color remove it from the heat and add it to the pot ‘o gumbo. stir & cover the gumbo once again. (if you want to have your gumbo over rice get a move on and make that now!)

uncover the gumbo after 30 minutes of simmering and add in the mushies and soy curls. stir in the lime juice, cilantro, & parsley and let this all kinda hang out off of the heat & uncovered for about 10 minutes. adjust seasonings to taste, top with some green onions, more cilantro, and fresh cracked pepper (if you like) & enjoy!