Category Archives: Dinner

Loaded Mashed Sweet Potatoes

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Sweet potato, an indigenous tuber found in Nat...

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Tami over at Vegan Appetite hosts “Food Network Friday” – a call to cooks everywhere to “veganize” the chosen Food Network recipe. I was excited that I got to pick this week’s recipe: Loaded Mashed Potatoes by Paula Deen. Paul Deen, as you probably know, is the Queen of Cream…and Bacon and Cheese. So modifying her recipe for Loaded Mashed Potatoes, which was loaded with cream, bacon, and cheese, was lots of fun.

Paula Deen’s recipe uses Idaho potatoes. I decided to go a different route and use sweet potatoes as my base. My mom used to make that sweet potato casserole – you know the one with the mini marshmallows – and I had that in mind as I put this together.

loaded sweet potatoes(I learned it’s not easy to photograph mashed potatoes and have them look as good as they really are!)

Loaded Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients
Serves 6

  • 4 medium sized sweet potatoes, cut into quarters
  • 1/2 C So Delicious Coconut Beverage (OR you can use soy milk)
  • 1/4 C Earth Balance natural buttery spread
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 1 t freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1.25 t salt
  • 6 T packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 C unsweetened coconut
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions

  1. In a large stockpot, cook potatoes in enough  water to cover for 15 to 20 minutes or until tender.
  2. Drain potatoes and return to stockpot. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth; adding all other ingredients except the pecans. With a spatula stir in the pecans if you are using them. Add more salt or other spices, if necessary. Serve immediately.

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Vegan Thai Pumpkin Soup

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A pumpkin stem

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I went to a local pumpkin patch the other day – don’t you just love pumpkin patches? There is just something so enchanting about walking through a sea of plump orange pumpkins. I took home up a few carving pumpkins and a sugar pumpkin. Usually the smaller sugar pumpkins are the ones used for cooking, but I decided to try cooking one of the carving pumpkins just to see how it would turn out.

I sliced the carving pumpkin into large hunks, and scooped out the seeds and the stringy stuff. Then I put the pumpkin pieces on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and baked at 325F for about 90 minutes.

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I scooped out the fleshy part and discarded the skin. Then tonight I made pumpkin soup! I love the Thai combination of coconut, chilis, and pumpkin, so I started with those ingredients and went from there.

Vegan Thai Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

  • 2 T canola oil
  • 4 shallots, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 Thai chilis, chopped
  • 2 T chopped ginger
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 2 1/4 C veggie broth
  • 1 can lite coconut milk
  • 4 C chopped cooked pumpkin
  • 1/2 t Thai chili paste (for extra spice – optional)
  • Fresh ground pepper to taste
  • Salt to taste

Directions

  1. Pour the oil into a large saucepan or stockpot, and heat over low heat. Add the shallots, garlic, chilis, and ginger and saute until the shallots are soft.
  2. Add the cinnamon, veggie broth, coconut milk, pumpkin, and chili paste. Bring to a boil, and then lower heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the flavors have emerged.
  3. Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Here’s the finished soup, garnished with fresh basil:

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I served the soup for dinner, along with thick slices of my homemade Multigrain Bread:

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The bread recipe came from a book that Kat lent me, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart and Ron Manville. If you are into baking your own bread, this is a great book as it gives a lot of the explanations on how the recipes work. It’s so interesting and chock full of recipes, so of course I ordered my own copy so that Kat could get her book back! There was one time when I never made bread from scratch, but it’s actually quite easy and not as time consuming as you might thing. Oh and homemade bread tastes amazing :) . Now it just seems like such a waste to buy bread!

Do you cook with fresh pumpkin? What do you make with it?

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Everyday Eats

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Eats

A typical day of vegan food…

Remember the Pumpkin Pie Smoothie?

smoothieThat was breakfast this morning.
Mmmmmmm!! Delish.

And lunch was another oldie but goodie: Apple Cherry Oatmeal

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For dinner I tried a recipe from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan, Blackened Tofu, which would easily fit in here:

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So in a last minute play, I rebounded with this:

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which went very nicely with our brown basmati rice and steamed broccoli.  :)

Run

I hopped on the treadmill today and went for a run. I know…it was beautiful outside today. But the treadmill is SOFT and the gym has WATER and so I opted to run inside.

Distance: 6 miles
Pace: 8:40 minute mile

I found out the gym now has BodyPump classes – has anyone tried this? I think I might give it a go next week. Right now I am running 6-8 miles every other day, and on opposite days getting on the elliptical machine or going to a vinyasa yoga class. I also have gotten back to walking the dogs 2x a day – about 2 miles each time. I LOVE running, walking, and yoga but the elliptical machine is…well…dry. So I’m looking for something else to add in.

On another note…

I came across an article in the Baltimore Sun called Turn Over a New Leaf: Vegan Diets are Moving Solidly into Mainstream. How awesome is that? The article says there are about 1,000,000 vegans in the USA, and that the rise of “eating locally” has resulted in an increase in vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. It also includes a recipe for Manhattan Vegetable Chowder that looks awesome!

Have you seen an increase in people going vegan?

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But I Don’t FEEEEEEEEL Like Practicing Yoga

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MIAMI BEACH, FL - JUNE 11: Julia Meshcheryako...

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There are certain things in life that you know are good for you.
And there are certain things that you know are good for you AND you happen to enjoy them as well.
Let’s call these things “Healthy and Good.”

My list of Healthy and Good include eating healthy food, taking the pups on long walks, playing my guitar, meditating, practicing yoga, reading.
There’s more but that’s a good start.

What’s on your list of Healthy and Good?

Go ahead and think about it…write them down. I’ll wait.

Click here for thinking music

Now look at your list.
How many of the Healthy and Good are you doing on a regular basis?

When I look at my list, I see SEVERAL Healthy and Good that I am NOT doing regularly.
Instead, I opt to spend my time dallying on the InterWebs, playing WordTwist on Facebook, or zoning out in front of the TV.
All of which at the time SEEM to be what I want to do.
But if you ask me for my OPINION of those activities, I would say they are uninteresting and a waste of precious time.
They don’t make me feel especially good.
They don’t help me get closer to accomplishing any of my goals.

So WHY do I keep doing them?
WHY do I do them at the expense of doing Healthy and Good activities that better reflect my values and make me feel HAPPY?

I just don’t get it.
Why do we avoid the very things we know are good for us and we enjoy doing?

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Marty Update + Daiya Vegan Cheeze

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We got great news about Marty today :)

We took her to the Oncologist, who said we have four options. We have OPTIONS! That alone was awesome to hear.
I won’t bore you with the details, but basically we are opting for surgery, which has a 95% cure rate!
The surgery will be on Thursday at South Paws in Fairfax.
I feel very good about this. I really liked the Oncologist. We met the surgeon too, and I really liked his as well.
So we’re all feeling very optimistic today :)

I also got my root canal finished today – yay!

Run

I went for an early run today at the gym because it was rainy and gloomy out.

  • 6.21 miles
  • averaged 7.2 mph which is about an 8:20 minute mile – I was cruisin’!
  • average incline: 0.75

I’m so excited to run the 5k with the Runners in Training in November!

Eats

Next to learning more about Marty’s situation and getting my root canal topped off, the a highlight today was making vegan pizza with Daiya cheese.

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Daiya is a relatively new brand of vegan cheese. In case you’ve never tried vegan cheese before I can tell you this: they ain’t great. The better “non-dairy” cheeses aren’t really non-dairy as they contain casein in them. The non-casein cheeses rarely melt very well and don’t have the best taste.

Daiya is different! It’s completely vegan, made with plant-based ingredients.
I used the “Italian Blend” flavor and found that it melted very well and had a creamy, full mouth-feel to it.
I also put other vegetables on my pizza and so the Daiya was a wonderful accent to those veggies (I used up the rest of my Tomato Salad! Thank you again Kat for the recipe!).
D. had a plain “cheeze” pizza because as I’ve mentioned before he will only eat plain pizza. He liked the Daiya too. He called it “pizza-y” and said it tasted good. He said it didn’t taste as good as dairy cheese but it’s definitely something to buy again.
Now I thought the Daiya tasted great but then again I don’t think dairy mozzarella really has much flavor and the Daiya was pretty mild too. But I also had it with other veggies so I’m sure that makes a difference.

Before going into the oven

Before going into the oven

Before...

Before...

After baking for about 10 minutes

After baking for about 10 minutes

Daiya also comes in Cheddar Style which I will definitely be trying. Overall I give Daiya a solid “A!”

(By the way I made the yeast-free pizza crust from La Dolce Vegan! It was so good – thin and crispy – but kind of more like a cracker than pizza crust.)

Have a great evening…stay tuned tomorrow for a GIVEAWAY!

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I Heart Colorado

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I’m having the BEST time in Colorado. Here’s what we’ve done so far:

Sunflower field outside of Denver

Sunflower field outside of Denver

  • Yesterday we drove to Fort Collins and visited our friends Gary and Tiffany and their beautiful kids. They took the afternoon off to show us their hometown and wow did we love it! We ate at Avogadro’s Number where I had a delicious homemade tempeh sandwich.
  • When we got back to Denver we ate dinner at WaterCourse – our favorite veggie restaurant of all time. We ordered a Buffalo Tofu Sandwich with sauteed greens and broccoli (amazing!), a bowl of green chili soup (D. loved it but too spicy for me. since when am I a spice wimp? Is this a sign of old age?), and the “Frings” – a basket of 1/2 french fries and 1/2 onion rings (thumbs down on the fries but the rings rocked!).
  • This morning I went for a run through Cheesman Park and City Park. The weather was perfect and surprisingly I was not winded from the higher altitude. I ran 6.6 miles in 60 minutes – a little slower than usual but I felt great.
  • After I showered and dressed, D. and I hiked all over Denver. We went to “Lo-Do” (lower downtown Denver) and ate breakfast at Organixx where we got delicious scrambled tofu with fresh (really fresh!) fruit.
  • From Organixx we walked to a cute neighborhood called “Hi-Lo” (between The Highlands and Lo-Do). We stopped at the Savory Spice Shop and loaded up on vanilla sugar, dutch cocoa, berbere Ethiopian seasoning, chat masala, vietnamese saigon cassia cinnamon, freeze dried shallots, and Italian herbs. I loved this store and cannot wait to cook and bake with my new spices!
  • We then hiked up to The Highlands. I wasn’t too impressed with The Highlands. Maybe my expectations were too high?
  • Then…back to WaterCourse! Tonight we ordered the blackened tofu with coconut cream, rice, broccoli, and avocado, and the  Po Boy sandwich – a crispy cornmeal crusted portobella with coleslaw and garlic ailoi. We topped it off with a Ho Ho Cupcake and a slice of chocolate pie. All vegan of course! I can’t believe I forgot to take a single picture…it was all so good.

We walked a total of 10.8 miles and that was after my 6.6 mile run! I think I might sleep for a very long time :)

Have you been to Colorado? What do you love most about it? What do you love about Denver? Fort Collins?

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Chickpea and Spinach Curry

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I wrote an email to McDonald’s today hoping to get an answer as to why my Pet McDonald’s Hamburger has lasted as long as it has. This is what I wrote:

Hi!

A few years ago, well six years ago, I purchased a McDonald’s hamburger (plain) and decided to keep it in it’s original wrapper and bag and not eat it. I still have it, and there is no mold growing on it, no bugs, no funky smell, nothing. It’s just a little smaller from dehydration. So I’m curious as to how this can be. I know if I leave bread out on my counter for a week or so it will grow moldy. And I know that cooked meat will go bad too. Can you please tall me how it is that the McD’s burger looks exactly as it did 6 years ago with no refrigeration/freezing/preservation of any kind by me? I know you only use “100% beef” and that doesn’t make sense to me that it doesn’t spoil. Thanks so much. I really look forward to your response.

I cannot wait to get their response! I got a confirmation that they received the email and hopefully they’ll respond soon!

Eats

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Today I played in the kitchen making a curry. I’ve never made my own curry before – I think it turned out OK but I’d love to hear your suggestions on how to make it even better! It’s a sweet curry, of course! We’re having it for dinner tonight with garlic naan and some baby spinach that I’ll throw right into the pot when I’m heating the chickpeas. So for what it’s worth, here it is:

Chickpea Curry
Serves 6

Ingredients

3 cups dry chickpeas – you could probably use canned too – I just didnt’ do it that way.
Spices

  • 1 T canola oil
  • 1 t turmeric
  • 1 T ground coriander
  • 1 T cumin
  • 2/3 t cardamom seed, whole
  • 4 cloves, whole
  • 1 cinnamon stick, broken up
  • 2 t grated nutmeg (I used fresh – yum!)
  • 1/2 t black mustard seeds
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 t salt (optional, but I think it was a good add)
  • fresh ground pepper to taste

Sauce

  • ginger peeled, about 2″X2″
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 cup onion
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
  • 2 T brown sugar
  • 1.5 cups water

Directions

  1. Soak the chickpeas in water – make sure they are covered by about 3 inches – for about 2 hours or so. Then cook in water about 1″ above the level of the chickpeas until almost done. Keep an eye on these – it took about 45 minutes for them to be “almost done” but this will really depend on how long you let them soak. Drain out the excess water.
  2. Saute all of the spices except the salt and pepper until fragrant.
  3. Blenderize the sauce ingredients until fully blended.
  4. Add the spices and the sauce to the chickpeas and cook until the chickpeas are soft.
  5. Add the salt and pepper to taste.
  6. Remove the bay leaf and anything else you don’t want in there – like perhaps the whole cardamom and the cloves – unless you like biting into those sorts of things.

ENJOY!

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Veggie Cobbler + A (Possibily) Surprising Yoga Practice

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Eats

I made a delicous Summer Veggie Cobbler recipe tonight that I found on Oh She Glows. Here’s what I liked about it:

  • Lots of veggies
  • Gave me something to do with the gorgeous eggplant that I got at the farmer’s market last weekend!
  • I already had all of the ingredients on hand
  • Easy to put together
  • Yummy
  • D. liked it :)

I prepared it pretty close to the recipe – a few changes:

  • I used eggplant, summer squash, and cherry tomatoes for the veggie filling
  • I added dried sage instead of fresh
  • I cooked it at 375 for 35 minutes – didn’t need to use the broiler to brown the top as it was already brown
  • I used dairy mozzarella instead of soy cheddar
  • I love lots of crust so I used the entire crust recipe – you could probably halve the crust recipe if you don’t want as much as Angela recommends
  • I used soy milk instead of almond

Here’s the recipe with my modifications:

Ingredients:

Filling:

  • 2 T Butter or Earth Balance
  • 3 T all purpose flour
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 T dried sage
  • 4-5 cups summer veggies – eggplant, squash, cherry tomatoes (or whatever you have on hand)
  • 1 t fine grain sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Crust (on top):

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2.5 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/4 t cayenne spice
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
  • 4 T Butter or Earth Balance, melted
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  • 1 cup plain low fat soy milk + 1/4 t vinegar

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375F and lightly grease a 3-3.5 quart casserole dish.
  2. FILLING: Chop all veggies into small pieces. In a large saucepan, combine the butter and flour and stir until it thickens. Next add the veggie broth and keep stirring. After about 5 minutes add all the chopped veggies. Mix well and then pour the veggie mixture into the casserole dish. Sprinkle with half of the cheese.
  3. CRUST: Mix the dry ingredients, then the butter and cheese, and finally stir in the soy milk / vinegar mixture. Mix well.
  4. Spoon the crust over the veggies and cheese. Top with the remaining cheese.
  5. Bake for about 35 minutes. If the cheese hasn’t browned on top, you can turn on the broiler for a few minutes at the end of the cooking time.

YUM! I love the idea of a “veggie cobbler.” It was similar to a veggie pot pie. I can’t wait to try it again with some new ideas I have for it. How are you preparing your summer veggies?

Run

I ran to the gym today!

  • 11.5 minutes running outside – not sure of the distance
  • 27 minutes on the treadmill, averaging 8.20 mph
  • 11.5 minutes running back home

It was REALLY hot outside this morning. I don’t know how people run outside in this. After 11.5 minutes I was so happy to be at the gym where I could get some water and A/C!

yoga

You might be surprised to hear this, since I am a vinyasa yoga teacher, but here is what I did for my 630am home practice today. It was a balanced practice (no peak pose) and all asanas were in the viniyoga style (not vinyasa!):

  • Started lying on my back, focusing on my breath
  • Apanasana (knee squeeze)
  • Dwi Pada Pitham (bridge)
  • Balasana (child’s pose)
  • Cat / Cow
  • Tadasana (mountain pose)
  • Vira 1 (warrior 1)
  • Uttanasana (standing forward bend)
  • Trikonasana (triangle)
  • Balasana (child’s pose)
  • Janu Sirsasana (head to knee pose)
  • Apanasana (supine knee squeeze)
  • Jathara Parivartanasana (supine twist)
  • Apanasana (supine knee squeeze)
  • Savasana

This practice took about 30 minutes. I had a breath pattern that I used for the standing poses where I went in and out of the pose three times and then stayed for 5 breaths. I really love practicing this way – I feel rejuvinated after the practice and I notice things that I don’t notice during a vinyasa practice, for example today I noticed tightness on the right side of my upper back.

Ok – early to bed tonight :)

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PBU LUV

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It is SO FANTASTIC to be healthy again! YAHOO!!!

I slept in until 7am today and then got up to make our morning smoothies:

  • Lite Vanilla Soy Milk
  • Kale
  • Spirutein Vanilla Protein Powder
  • Banana
  • Cinnamon + Vanilla + Salt

I know – boring!  I have some version of this every morning. It’s just SO YUMMY and it’s exactly what I want when I wake up. So there you go.

I walked the girls and then headed out to teach yoga at Beloved Yoga. It was kinda crazy teaching after laying around for three days – I actually felt out of breath a few times. I wasn’t too breathless though that I couldn’t go for a run afterwards! After class I ran 4 miles and walked 1 mile. It felt really good to be back :)

Anywho, lunch was another fruit salad with coconut and almonds – yummy! Like the morning smoothie, I’m not getting tired of fruit salad either! I also melted some mozzarella cheese on a warmed-up Ezekial Sprouted Grain Tortilla and rolled it up with some fresh baby spinach stuffed inside.

Afternoon snack: Amazing Grass Superfood in Chocolate mixed with 8 oz coconut water + an apple.

Dinner: another smoothie! DOH! I think I’m a SMOOTHIE ADDICT. A smoothieholic, if you will.

At some time during the day I was perusing the interwebs :) and stumbled upon a nugget of pure genuis: PBU!

PBU is the brainchild of Emily over at Curly Top. Plagued by stomach aches caused by fatty peanut butter and unable to find a suitable alternative, she created the answer to her peanut butter woes and hence PBU was born.To make PBU she mixes regular peanut butter with almond milk, and adds in any additional flavorings or seasonings such as sugar, salt, cinnamon.

I gave it a whirl tonight while watching “4th and Long” (don’t ask). When I used Emily’s ratios I came up with something that was quite runny. I added in more peanut butter, and, since I then ran out of peanut butter, I threw in some PB2. I also used a hand mixer. I unfortunately didn’t measure out the exact amounts of the ingredients I used but the the result I got is light creamy peanutty goodness.

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Of course I already ate a few spoonfuls! Tomorrow I’ll be trying it out on rice cakes, in Fage, and yes, in my smoothie :)

Do you love peanut butter too? What’s your favorite recipe or use for it?

Easy Bean and Veggie Salad Recipe

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Happy Sunday everyone! I just loved today :)

I got up at 645am and took the girls for a walk. It was so lovely outside that when we got back home I decided to go for a run. I ran for 40 minutes -not sure how many miles that was but I’m guessing around 4.25 – 4.50. It was perfect running weather – overcast and slightly cool. I listened to Achtung Baby, my favorite running tunes :)

Then I taught a yoga class at Flow Yoga – what a nice turnout we had! Again it was super hot in the studio and we were all dripping with sweat at the end. I LOVE practicing in the heat – not too hot though!

Then I got to hang out with my friend Ginny, one of my favorite people! We did some yoga together and then headed into town for lunch. Ginny is an AMAZING massage therapist. I told her my hip was a little sore and right away she said “well we can work on that right now!” (I love having massage therapist friends!) Well my hip feels 1000 times better. Thanks Ginny!

The food rundown for the day:

Breakfast: Smoothie

  • banana
  • spinach
  • homemade almond milk
  • touch of vanilla + almond extract + cinnamon + salt
  • Spirutein Cookies n’ Cream

Delish!

Lunch: Minestrone soup + curried chickpea salad + decaf soy latte at South Street Under.
The curried chickpea salad was AWESOME. I have to figure out how they made it!

Ginny gave me a small piece of Gnosis raw chocolate to try. It was so yummy that I went out and bought a bar for myself. They are really pricey ($10!) but you really just need a tiny piece to feel really satisfied. I got their Fleur de Sel Bar – these are the ingredients:

  • Cacao beans
  • Cacao butter
  • Agave nectar
  • Fleur de Sel salt Pink Himalayan Salt crystal
  • Manna blue green algae
  • Vanilla bean
  • Love

Isn’t that cute? I can’t wait to try it. :)

Dinner: Bean and Veggie Salad + home-brewed peach iced tea + Skinny Cow

Easy Bean and Veggie Salad Recipe

  • 15 oz can mixed beans – mine was kidney, garbanzo, and northern
  • 15 oz can black eyed peas
  • 1 pint sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut in half
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1/2 red pepper, diced
  • 2 stalks celery, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1/2 zucchini, diced (it was leftover :) )

Dressing

  • 2 T white wine vinegar
  • 2 T extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 t dried basil
  • 1/2 t dried oregano
  • 1/2 t garlic powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • freshly ground pepper to taste

This was a wonderful, light salad – just what I was in the mood for tonight!

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Best part of the day: D. suprised me with this when I got home!

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Isn’t it beautiful? I’ve never had an orchid before and I love it!

I’m listening to Blue Shoes by Katie Melua right now. What a beautiful voice she has!