foodluv.net

This cucumber kimchi recipe was so easy to make especially since I already had the Korean brand red chili flakes (handy in cooking in general).  We had a bunch of cucumbers from Farm Fresh Delivery that were starting to go bad.  I was thinking I wanted to make dill pickles out of them, but then kimchi popped into my head instead.  The thing about kimchi versus dill pickles, for me at least, is kimchi almost always sounds good, but dill pickles I need to be in the mood for.  I swear I should’ve been born Korean My mp3 player thinks I was!

So first step was googling since I was at work, I also checked one of my Korean cookbooks when I got home, but I ended up sticking with the one I found online for a reason i have since forgotten.  I have made a cabbage kimchi before and this was a lot easier in my opinion.

Cucumber Kimchi recipe

What I did differently

• used non-Asian cucumbers
• Let them sit out with salt longer just because I didn’t get back around to them when they specified
• cut the green onion up thinly instead of big pieces like the recipe photos show
• I missed the part about letting the jar sit out 24 hours before refrigerating until I reread it as I made this post. oops! still yummy!

If you make some please share!  I plan to make more tomorrow!

VeggieMealMaker.com came through again!  Our second recipe attempt was Eggplant Parmigiana and it was easy turned out great.

Description

This breaded eggplant recipe is my stab at mimicking Olive Garden’s Eggplant Parmesan – which I love! I had never cooked eggplant and I’m glad that I did – this dish rocks! Don’t let the big purple vegetable scare your from going gourmet at home. Give this dish a try!

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 1/3 c cornmeal
• 1/3 c nutritional yeast
• 1/3 t basil
• 1/3 t onion powder
• 1/3 t garlic powder
• 1 pk spaghetti
• 1 cn pasta sauce (or jar)
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese (optional)
• 1/3 c whole wheat bread crumbs*
• dash Parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain, rinse and set aside. Heat pasta sauce in a medium sauce pan until warm.

2. Peel and slice eggplant into 1/4” rounds.

3. Combine dry ingredients mixing thoroughly.

4. Press eggplant rounds in bread mixture coating each side thoroughly.

5. Bake breaded eggplant on a lightly oiled cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15-20 min on each side or until golden brown.

6. Serve eggplant topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella and parmesan cheese over spaghetti.

*Bread Crumbs:
Finely chop 2 pieces whole wheat bread in a food processor or blender low. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 6-8 min or until dry and crunchy.

Notes

For a vegan option, omit the cheese or replace with a suitable alternative.

Lightly misting eggplant with h20 will help the bread crumbs to stick to the eggplant.

Our tweaks:

• swapping for vegan cheeses
• We used whole wheat bread crumbs we had on hand rather than preparing them.
• I dipped the eggplants in water rather than misting them because misting wasn’t enough to make a difference

VeggieMealMaker.com should totally give me a free subscription so I can just make everyone else want to use it!

Last night Shawn & I made the Black bean & zucchini soup recipe I got from a week trial of the site VeggieMealMaker.com.  This soup was really easy to make & was very tasty!  I’m looking forward to the leftovers for dinner tonight!

Recipe:

Description

This black bean soup is so tasty – you would never guess it was so easy to prepare! Try it topped with crunched up tortilla chips.

Ingredients

• 2 cn black beans
• 1 zucchini – chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1 diced tomatoes
• 1/2 onion – chopped
• 2 clv garlic – minced
• 2 c water
• dab oil
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 1 t cumin
• 1/2 t oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Wash and prep veggies.
2. Combine water, tomatoes & black beans in a large pot and bring to a boil.
3. Saute onions, peppers, garlic & seasonings in a dab of oil until onions are clear. Add to pot.
4. Carefully (soup is hot!) blend / puree 2 or more cups of soup mixture. Return blended mixture to pot, mix well & serve hot.

Notes

If you have picky eaters that don’t like “chunks,” blend or puree the whole batch.

We had to ad-lib a couple times, for example, it doesn’t say how to cut the peppers, so I chopped them (also we used both whole peppers instead of half).  The other part it doesn’t mention is when to add the zucchini.  I added it in step 3 and that worked great.

Here are some photos:

Step 2:     
Step 3:     
combined:

eat! :        

We ate this soup with a dollop of Tofutti Sour Supreme & some Trader Joe’s Organic tortilla chips.  If you make this comment and let us know!

Made this recipe from the kind diet book by Alicia Silverstone. It turned out yummy with a tweak. In the past I haven’t had luck with the use of lemon juice so instead of 3 tablespoons I used 2. I think it could have done without or with less. Then again, I’m not a fan of sour taste. I’d never used arborio rice before. It was great and different from our rice use prior. Next recipe I’m planning is hearty pinto bean stew. It sounds delicious! In other news I think the Whole Foods bulk food section is our new friend!

Burgundy Stew ala "Vegan Dad"

This afternoon I made Burgundy Stew from the recipe at Vegan Dad. Other than a few hiccups, it turned out great!  The recipe is as follows:

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 leek, white and light green part, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 15 whole pearl onions
- 3 turnips, cubed
- 2 parsnips, sliced
- 2 large carrots, sliced
- 2 large potatoes, cubed
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 cups veggie broth (more, if needed)
- 1 19oz can white beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tbsp basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 cups baby spinach
- 1/4 cup tomato paste

METHOD
1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute leeks and garlic for 5-7 mins, until softened and beginning to brown. Add onions, turnips, parsnips, potatoes and fry for 2 mins.
2. Add wine to deglaze the pan, then add veggie broth, beans, and basil. Season to taste, then bring to bubbling. Reduce heat, loosely cover, and simmer for about 20 mins, until veggies are cooked. Add more broth if stew gets too dry.
3. Mix tomato paste into the stew, adding more broth if needed to get a nice thick consistency. Add spinach to the pot and cook for a min or so, until spinach wilts but is still a vibrant green. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve.

My only problems were, either my pan was considerably smaller than his (he doesn’t specify) or the potatoes and turnips were considerably larger than his.  What I ended up doing is, after I did step 1 part 2 and saw that I couldn’t remotely stir the contents, I dished back out lots of the turnips and potatoes into a bowl.  That bowl is now in the fridge and possibly will be boiled to make some sort of mash later. Also, he doesn’t mention when to add the carrots.  I added them with the onions, turnips, parsnips, potatoes in part 1 and it worked fine.

The rest of the recipe stayed the same and the stew was quite good and very hearty as stated on his site.  Shawn and I both liked it, but Shawn would have liked a fake beef-ish product in it with it being a stew.  I have gotten to the point where some fake, heavy wheat derived products make me sick, so I’m cool as is.

Side note, the white beans came in 15 ounce cans, so less of those.  Spinach came in a 6 ounce bag, so I have more than 4 cups, but I could see adding more, and I have more, so YAY!  I used a generic cooking wine for the red wine since I did my shopping before 11 am on a Sunday and couldn’t buy real red wine.  It was good enough, I would’ve bought some cheap-ass red wine anyway haha!

If you make this, please take a photo and let me know…let Vegan Dad know too while you’re at it ^_^

This is it!  The Golden Bowl recipe I got from Vegetarian Times has come through several times.  It’s become a guide that can be changed depending on what veggies you like and/or have.  If you like tofu and soy sauce, you’ll like this too!

Give it a try! Let me know if you like it!

Shawn & I have made several Vegetarian Times recipes in the past couple weeks. Not sure what got into us, we really hadn’t done many of their prior…at least that come to mind right now. My Dad bought us a subscription last June after we stopped eating meat, thanks Dad!
We made Baby Bok Choy and Shiitake Mu Shu Wraps , but we made this without mushrooms and just fried tofu. It was really yummy!!  We also made Pepper Crusted Cashew Goat Cheese & a Tomato & spinach quiche from the latest issue.  Those recipes aren’t on their site yet.

We made a pot of Cincinnati Style Chili with Smart Grounds and a packet spices. It turned out so good. I ate it everyday from Sunday to Thursday. Started with Cheese coneys, then chilitos at work, then just chili & cheese. We still have Chili, Smart dogs and buns, but no cheese. The spice pack doesn’t appear to have MSG either.

Tonight we’re going out to eat with Shawn’s co-worker to Kim’s Korean, our favorite! His friend has never had Korean food, so this will be fun! Tomorrow we’re visiting my family and eating at a veg friendly place called Christopher’s. We enjoyed it the last time we ate with them there.
I found a Boca lasagna that was great for a work lunch too!
13 Reasons why we must eat meat is pretty funny

I made this vegan bread in the bread machine yesterday and it turned out great!  It made a cute little loaf that shouldn’t go bad before we get to eat it!

This recipe for vegetarian beef stew was wonderful!!  Next time I will brown the morningstar farm beef strips longer.  After simmering it for a long time the beef strips broke down a lot and lost the texture.  For the part that says

2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups reconstituted vegetarian ‘beef’ bullion

I used Better than Bouillon no beef base for the whole amount instead.

It flavor was just like my Mom’s stew I grew up on!  It was wonderful!

I searched online to find a recipe that’s like the one I sort of use to make shepherds pie, but none of them were quite right.  My version may actually be a little boring to some people who are used to more stuff in it.  When I made it with meat it was just beef, onion, potatoes, celery, carrots and spices.  Now it still that, but with fake meat crumbles instead of beef.  I don’t really use a recipe anymore, but I probably should write one down next time I make it.  I also cheat and buy the packaged mashed potatoes, but I think in the future I will make my own because there’s a lot of junk in those packaged ones.  Ok so here’s a slight recipe without exacts, because I haven’t paid attention!

Ingredients:

1 12oz. package of fake beef crumbles

small or medium onion, chopped

1 large carrot chopped

1-2 stalks of celery, chopped

rubbed sage

paprika

salt & pepper

2-3 cups mashed potatoes, or 1 pkg of Bob Evans pre-made

cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. saute onion until translucent, I sprinkle paprika as I do this. Not sure how much, until it has a nice brown color
3. while doing that blanch celery & carrots and set aside
4. add fake beef crumbles to onions and basically just heat that up.  Sprinkle with rubbed sage to your heart’s content. I really sprinkle a lot of the sage and paprika, really.
5. add carrot & celery and heat that up with it
6. salt & pepper to taste
7. pour all this in a pan (I have a pyrex casserole type thingy, see photo)
8. cover with mashed potatoes
9. sprinkle with shredded cheddar or lay slices across (I used Cabot sharp cheddar in slices)
10. sprinkle more paprika for color (I forgot to that time)
11. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so.  Basically you’re just trying to get it hot & melt the cheese since it’s all cooked prior

Sorry I am a bit vague, but you can get more ideas searching for shepherds pie on allrecipes.

Other people even put tomatoes in their’s, which sounds gross to me, but that’s what is great about this recipe; you can throw whatever you want in it and go!