Day to Day Life: Week 3

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery
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I’ve got no help to offer when it comes to ideas of how you lose a shoe when it’s nearly 20 degrees outside… Well, nothing overly logical except that it wasn’t on your foot to begin with.

IMG_6084_zps3ce2fd6f This week started off with these beet root brownies that not only stain your flesh maroon, but taste amazing.

IMG_6296_zps3b216f64This robin has been coming to visit me every day for the last couple weeks. Be it while I’m in the kitchen, or living room, upstairs in the bathroom… I look out the window and there’s my feathered friend. Tell you the truth – it could possibly be three different birds and I wouldn’t know the difference. Whatever.

IMG_6435_zps7a969fde I made these seitan chicken sausages with sun-dried tomatoes and spinach earlier this week. While I tried to photograph them before cooking them, I couldn’t stop laughing at how they resembled cat crap. Or, as my sister referred to them: cat p…ickles.

IMG_6402_zpseb904511 Photo editing buddy.

IMG_6912_zps41dea2b4 We had homemade burritos one night. I’ve been studying the art of a homemade burrito (meaning to and not meaning to) for the last six years. I wrote about it one time here.

IMG_6883_zps75f78bfa Being able to walk into the park, despite living right downtown, in five minutes is always a pleasure I forget about. I enjoyed the frosty, icy ponds this week.

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Laundry for d-a-y-s, all week, every week. Let’s not discuss how my 7-year-old stepson’s jeans are nearly the same length as mine these days.

IMG_6338_zps067bbc84Coffee, black. Toast, sourdough cranberry hazelnut. Breakfast, lunch, dessert (minus the coffee).

photo_zpsb8ae4f92Colors this week included lots of pink, turquoise, and sunshine.

IMG_6897_zpsd566af03Somebody had a field trip at school this week… If you need a dose of sweetness and entertainment, check out your nearest ice skating rink when the only folks out there include 7-year-olds, 10-year-olds and teacher-folk.

IMG_6952_zps342467a9I made a cheese stuffed whole wheat herb crust this week for a veggie pot pie… Excessive and delicious. Recipe will appear sometime in the near-ish future.

IMG_6856_zpsedb1a20bAll business.

IMG_7339_zps1889354dWe were waiting in line for Silas and his buddy Sydney as they got hot chocolate after ice skating. I looked up on the hillside next to us and saw this little dude hunting around for things to eat. He’d pick things up, then duck behind the tree really slowly, only to come peeking back out. Odd to see him in the early afternoon.

IMG_7012_zpsab2c6902Night time staircase shadow with messy bun.

51c4aaac626f11e2bf2722000a1fbc66_7 Weekend banana pancakes: recipe from memory, the way I remember my mom making them when I was growing up. Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, oil, eggs, vanilla extract, bananas. Who needs pre-made pancake mixes?! (Recipe forthcoming.)

Posted in Day to Day, Life, Photography | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Chicken Seitan Tortellini and Pesto Soup

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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Let’s talk about persistence. In the last week, I’ve had the three recipes I’ve blogged, posted on Tastespotting, Foodgawker, and Healthy Aperture. One of those recipes came with two rejections, thus three submission attempts at each site… As well as a re-do in photographing the food to go along with the recipe. That isn’t said in some bragging form, in the least bit. See, every time something I  post here is shared somewhere else, I feel like I’m about two-years-old. I get super excited, grateful, and happy. Everything I submit anywhere comes with time, love, parts of myself, and my everyday real life… the same way I hope any worthwhile blogger approaches their work or art.

When I approach a new recipe idea, it’s always in the same form. I don’t want to put the effort into something I won’t be proud of. I won’t share something here that doesn’t somehow reflect where I’m at in my current state of  cooking and recipe concocting. This soup isn’t any different.

I saw a recipe back in November, from a friend, whose soup was based on leftover Thanksgiving turkey. I have to admit – despite not cooking meat at home, there are numerous times (all the time) that I crave chicken and turkey. It has been the hardest thing about this cooking-lifestyle to give up for me. Seitan has become an easy replacement. I like making my own, using vital wheat gluten, and rarely rely on store-bought varieties, although most are quite decent. I don’t have many homemade seitan recipes on this blog, since I am constantly trying to experiment with recipes I’d actually feel good about sharing. However, in a soup like this, store bought seitan won’t steer you wrong. As well, I used Rising Sun Farms cheese tortellini, which is pretty available around here, but you can use whatever variety is available and/or accessible to you. Fresh tortellini won’t take as long to cook, so pay attention to the package instructions.

This is an easy alternative to chicken noodle soup, that’s both hearty and relatively healthy. Between the tortellini and the vegetables, it’s filling. Truth is, even without the seitan, this soup would be both hearty and filling.

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Chicken-Seitan, Tortellini, and Pesto Soup

Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 small leek, cleaned and chopped (tough green parts removed)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups parsnips, peeled and diced (about 3 small parsnips)
2 stalks celery, stringy parts removed, then diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced in rounds about ¼-inch thick
3 cups Yukon gold or red potatoes, cut in cubes or bite-size rounds
10 cups No-Chicken broth *
12 oz. chicken-style seitan
2 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped fine
1 tsp. ground white pepper
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. granulated garlic
¼ tsp. celery seed
2 bay leaves
salt, to your liking
1 pound frozen cheese tortellini

* I love using No-Chicken broth in most anything. It’s the best vegetarian store-bought broth out there (in my humble little opinion). If you can’t find it, use vegetable broth. Truth be told, I used half homemade vegetable broth (with lots of cracked black pepper) and half No-Chicken broth, because that’s what I had to go on.

Directions:

In a large stock pot, add the olive oil, chopped leeks, diced onion, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the onions are translucent. Add the diced parsnips, celery, carrots, and potatoes. Stir to combine everything evenly. Add the chopped sage, pepper, coriander, garlic, celery seed, bay leaves, and a bit of salt (not too much – maybe a scant half-teaspoon – you can always add more later if the soup needs it). Cover and cook for at least an hour over medium-low heat.

Uncover the soup. Stir the soup and reduce the heat to low. Stir in the chicken style seitan and frozen cheese tortellini. Taste the broth and add more salt and pepper to your liking. If things have thickened up more than you like, add more broth. Cook, uncovered, for an additional 15-20 minutes over low heat until the tortellini float to the top of the pot (indicating that they’re heated through).

Serve hot. Store refrigerated for up to three days.

Posted in Dinner, Life, Lunch, Meatless Meat, Soup, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Vanilla Bean and Pear Vodka Cocktails

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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Whenever I decide to have a drink, chances are I want good bourbon, neat. Or on the rocks. Maybe a delicious microbrew. Preferably dark. I will rarely order a cocktail. It’s not really out of snobbery… Maybe it’s just something that has come along with getting older.

For instance, when I first started drinking coffee (around finals week my first term of college), it had to contain lots of chocolate. If it didn’t have chocolate, surely it needed massive amounts of sugar. And half-and-half. By the time I finished school, my coffee could only have milk in it. Even the thought of sweetness made my stomach flip-flop inside. These days I enjoy my coffee black. Even a bit of vanilla soymilk or rice milk makes me cringe.

Okay, maybe it is snobbery. Sugar snobbery?

That said, while I don’t often indulge in cocktails, it has more to do with the attachment my brain makes to instances in the past where I’ve gotten sick from drinking… 90% of the time that has been after mixed drinks. However, when I saw this beverage on Pinterest nearly a year ago, I thought it sounded quite tasty. Then I forgot about it until the other day.

I love the vanilla bean speckles that dance through this drink. The only thing I found wrong with this beverage was telling myself that a drink really does mean a drink. Even when it tastes like a dreamy dessert of vanilla and pears.

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Vanilla Bean and Pear Vodka Cocktails

Yields 4 drinks

Ingredients:
1 cup good quality vodka
2 cups pear juice
1 vanilla bean
2 ripe limes
ice
unrefined cane sugar

Directions:

Add the vodka, pear juice, scraped vanilla bean, and juice from one of your limes into a shaker filled with ice. Cap the shaker, then shake vigorously for 20-30 seconds.

Cut the remaining lime, running it along the rim of four highball sized glasses. Dip the glasses into the unrefined cane sugar.

Pour the contents of the shaker, including the ice evenly into the four glasses. Add more ice to your desired amount (I like to add enough that the drink reaches the glass’s rim). Garnish with a slice of lime.

Posted in Booze, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

When Winter Moves From Inside-Out

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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Since I was about twelve, I’ve known what it’s like to ride out lows that feel like they’re going to bury me alive. That’s a decade and a half filled with periods of wanting to close myself off to the world, week-long – month-long, periods of time where unburying my head from under my pillows feels like the most grandiose chore. Major and minor times of depression, where it feels like the rest of the world couldn’t possibly have any idea why I’m not at all hungry, why it feels like work to move from one room to the next, where my mind recesses itself when all I’m trying to do is sleep, why I don’t want to talk about it.

When you’re in it, it’s big and overwhelming. I’ve been medicated for it, but not since I was a teenager, because once I turned eighteen, I had some say in deciding that it felt better to actually feel things (even if it got to be a lot sometimes), rather than numbing my feelings away to move through my days. The truth is, I still have periods like this in my life. Times where I don’t want to socialize, I don’t want to talk about how things feel. Times where it takes a lot of effort to motivate myself to get up and be productive. Even if “productive” means spending some time in fresh air, or doing a few loads of laundry, or writing things I’ll never attempt to place on this blog or submit to some poetry journal out there in the world.

This time of year, where sunshine is limited and the cold clings under my skin, I find that the chances of low-feeling days are increased drastically. While I like to allow myself to feel those things, at some point I have to decide how much it’ll overtake my life. So I try going to the gym even though I don’t want to. I make the effort to laugh or find humor anywhere I get the chance. I cook things that are filling and have some nutrient value to them, even if my body says it isn’t hungry. I’ve found that things like the following oatmeal are easily filling and help keep the motivation going. But even if you’re not depressed, or sad, or tired and unmotivated, these oats are lovely. And really, most of the work happens overnight while you’re sleeping, so as far as motivating yourself goes – it just takes the tiniest push.

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Blueberry-Nut Overnight Slow Cooked Steel Oats

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1¼ cups steel cut oats
1½ cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)
2-4 tbsp. unrefined cane sugar
½ cup shredded coconut flakes
¼ cup sliced almonds (roasted or raw)
¼ cup chopped walnuts
1 vanilla bean, scraped (or ½ tsp. vanilla extract)
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. sea salt
¼ tsp. ground ginger
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
3 cups milk (keep this vegan by using nut or rice milk)
2 cups water
2-3 tbsp. unsweetened dried cranberries (optional)

Directions:

If you’re using frozen berries, rinse them under cold water until the water runs clearly rather than purple. Allow the blueberries to drip-dry for a minute or two.

In your crock pot, stir together the oats, berries, sugar, coconut flakes, almonds, walnuts, vanilla bean, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cranberries if you’re using them, until all the ingredients are well mixed.

Stir in the applesauce, milk, and water until just combined. Set the crock pot to low heat, then cover and cook overnight (or 6-8 hours).

When ready to serve, fluff the oatmeal gently with a fork or spoon. Add enough milk to your individual serving in order to get the consistency you prefer.

Posted in Breakfast, Gluten-Free, Life, Lunch, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Beet Root Brownies

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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January is one of those months. The kind where cold isn’t an exciting snowy winter time adventure. That happened back in December. It’s lingering and face-chilling. January is too early into the new year to be hopeful for spring green colors, or flower buds showing up in unexpected places. January means that staying in bed just a little longer in the morning is almost crucial, rather than a mere desire. January tells me to wear long sleeves over longer sleeves, then tie a scarf around my neck, blow dry my too-long hairs, tie them back, put on two pairs of socks and real people shoes instead of slippers. January asks for large pots of soup. It begs to fill our house with the intoxicatingly rich scent of chocolate hot in the oven.

January doesn’t take a lot of convincing when it comes to rich, filling food. But January also doesn’t cancel out the guilt that comes after eating a whole pan of brownies. The obvious solution? Make your brownies a little healthier so you can convincingly tell yourself there was some nutritional value, not just the satisfying of your sweet tooth. Beets are the not-so-secret ingredient in these brownies. Beets, which are high in fiber, potassium, and folate. Beets that are thought to fight cancerous cells. They keep these brownies ridiculously rich and moist. They’re more cakey than fudgy, but delicious nonetheless.

While the original recipe was written entirely in the metric system and my Americanized  ass  self needed to convert everything, and I fully realize that my proportions are not entirely accurate, at least according to the original recipe. But they created a very tender crumbed, tasty, chocolate-y not so beet-y rich brownie. You won’t be disappointed.

As well, since I can, this song is good for a cold January night that in fact calls for both a vanilla pear vodka cocktail, followed by warmed up brownie. I shall listen to it on repeat exactly 142 times and then call it an early night, followed by an early morning workout.

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Beet Root Brownies

Recipe heavily adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Ingredients:
½ pound fresh beets
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1¼ cups unrefined cane sugar
2 sticks plus 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
8 oz. dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. sea salt
butter, softened (about 1 teaspoon)


Directions:

Boil the beets in water until they’re easy to pierce with a fork (25-35 minutes). Immediately place in ice cold water to stop the cooking and keep the beets’ color vibrant. Peel the beets then grate with a box grater. Set aside until needed.

Preheat your oven to 355° F. Line a 9×9-inch pan with parchment paper, then brush lightly with softened butter.

Cut the butter up into large chunks (think table-spoon sized cubes) and break the chocolate up into equally sized pieces. Mix the chocolate and butter together in a double broiler, stirring occasionally until the mixture is completely melted, combined, and smooth. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, gently beat the eggs for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and vanilla extract all at once and then blend until the mixture is slightly airy (2-3 minutes). Slowly add the chocolate mixture (about ¼ cup at a time at first, to make sure the heat from the butter/chocolate doesn’t cook the eggs), until completely combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture, until just combined.

Use a rubber spatula to fold the grated beets into the batter. Do not over mix, as that will cause the brownies to be tough. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, then smooth the top with your spatula.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of your brownies comes out clean or with few crumbs attached.

Let the brownies cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, and then transfer (with the parchment paper) to a cooling rack. Serve warm or cooled. Store in a tightly covered container.

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Posted in Baking, Dessert, Life, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Day to Day Life: Week 2

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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IMG_5949_zpsbad6d786I love how quiet it is when it’s snowing. Sitting on our front porch watching how each flake catches the wind seemingly in a different pattern while drinking a hot cup of coffee feels like well spent time.

IMG_6034_zpse7fc84eaWhat?!

f9f513ea592511e292fc22000a1f9806_7_zps2b94d2db This was one of my favorite meals for a while… for four days straight.

IMG_5779_zpse1bde0e5 I cleaned out the freezer this week. If it doesn’t look like it, just imagine the disaster before this picture. I felt creepishly like an adult while doing this – after all, what kind of non-adult gets excited about cleaning out the freezer? Seriously.

IMG_6014_zps0ae143cd Entirely normal every day life right here, folks.

IMG_4662_zpsf38e677c Rooftop snow patterns.

ce68b8e8587211e29cc222000a9f38cc_7_zpsc10f068e Salmon burgers on Dave’s Killer Bread with lemon dill aioli? Yes, sirs.

photo-2_zpsc6d7629b My sister sent me this coat for Christmas and I cannot get enough. Plus, hairs for days… in need of scissors, stat.

IMG_6046_zps098f3a3c So many lines I love.

IMG_5950_zps3b7f49e4 Somebody else has been enjoying watching the snowflakes gather.

IMG_5977_zps1e9c8072 Babies.

Posted in Day to Day, Life, Photography | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Baked Barbecue Panko Tofu

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

Forbidden Rice Blog | Baked Barbecue Panko Tofu

I grew up with tofu around. Little cubes of white bean curd, topped with soy sauce, ginger, and green onion. Pockets of deep fried tofu (aburaage) filled with sweet sushi rice. Stir-fried pork tofu – a dish my mom would make that I don’t remember much about except salty pork laden with soy sauce and the same fried tofu as inari sushi (which I’d hunt out at dinner time – less pork, more sweet fried tofu!).

Tofu is low in calories, relatively high in protein, low in fat and high in iron. Quintessentially, it’s a dang good option for my family. I try to balance the soy with other vegetarian options week-by-week, including whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruit, or wheat based plant protein. Honestly though, tofu is one of my favorite options for versatility in non-meat dishes.

The following recipe started off with a plan to make baked tofu chicken nuggets, which I love to dip into barbecue sauce when eating. Then my husband stated he was craving barbecue tofu (no breading), which I am not crazy about. I wondered how I could combine both, a crispy baked tofu and the barbecue flavor saturated into the tofu rather than just as a dipping sauce. That’s where this experiment came from and the result was quite gratifying. I love crispy tofu and often resort to frying it to get a golden color and super crunchy texture. This baked tofu had a lovely color to it, though, and got wonderfully crunchy and flavorful.

I served this tofu alongside mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. It made a great sandwich for lunch the following day as well!

Baked Barbecue Panko Tofu

Yields enough tofu for 4-6 people.

Ingredients:

For the sauce:
1 cup ketchup
½ cup water
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp. light brown sugar
¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper
¼ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. granulated garlic
½ tsp. fresh lemon juice
1½ tsp. yellow mustard
1½ tsp. vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. red chili pepper flakes

20 oz. super firm high protein tofu
2 cups panko bread crumbs
1 tsp. granulated garlic
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. ground white pepper
½ tsp. smoked paprika
½ tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. dried thyme
canola or sunflower oil

Directions:

Slice the tofu horizontally, into rectangular pieces about ¼-inch thick. Arrange the slices of tofu in a single layer on a clean dishtowel or a few layers of paper towel, then add another towel or paper towels on top, to absorb more of the water out of the tofu. Let the tofu sit 45 minutes to 1 hour.

While the tofu is hanging out, get out a small pot. In it, combine all of the ingredients for the barbecue sauce. Whisk together, to combine everything well. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, allowing the sauce to cook for about 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Lightly brush a large baking sheet with the canola or sunflower oil. In a baking dish, combine the panko bread crumbs, granulated garlic, sea salt, white pepper, paprika, oregano, and thyme. Lightly toss to combine everything well.

Dip the tofu slices into the barbecue sauce, turning them a couple times to coat the tofu well. Now dip the tofu into the panko mixture, pressing firmly, but also gently so you don’t break the tofu. Turn and coat the other side with bread crumbs, too. Place the tofu on your prepared baking sheet. Continue to do this until all the tofu is sauced and breaded!

Lightly drizzle a little oil over the top of each breaded tofu slice. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the tofu over. Return to the oven and bake an additional 15 minutes. Brush the top of each slice with some of the leftover barbeque sauce. Bake for about 10 more minutes, flip and do the same thing for the other side.

Serve hot. You can drizzle on more of the barbeque sauce when serving as well if you’d like!

Posted in Appetizer, Dinner, Lunch, Meatless Meat, Sauces, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Vegetable Chow Mein with Tofu

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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Despite being half Japanese and growing up in a home where we occasionally ate Asian-inspired dishes, the truth is, I don’t cook a lot of Asian food. I enjoy eating it. If I had to live on things like nori (seaweed), rice, sushi, noodles in various sauces with tofu and fresh vegetables, I’d be entirely content with my diet. But. My family is often into Mexican food and Southern comfort foods. There isn’t a fine line between those and Asian cuisine – it’s a big, bold, CAPITAL LETTER kind of line. However, when it comes to the kitchen and meals, my creative license is pretty wide open.

I’ve been craving stir-fried noodles for a good month. When the simultaneous craving for fresh vegetables hit hard earlier this week, I knew I could combine the two into something that would easily satisfy my food yearnings. After I got home from the grocery store, my husband asked what I had planned for dinner. When I responded with, “some kind of chow mein,” he exclaimed, “WHAT?! That’s some of that yang food,” laughing. “Yang” has been a generalized Asian term in our household since a conversation with my now 14-year-old stepson about currency in Japan. My husband jokingly had said, “You can trade your American dollars for some of that Japanese yang,” wherein he meant “yen.” So “yang food” merely refers to Asian-flavors and dishes my family isn’t often exposed to (and while so very far from being PC, being Asian myself seems to make it more funny than offensive, to me). I hope you aren’t offended.

Mostly because these noodles were delicious. The sauce is made up of various flavors that offer depth, intensity, earthiness, sweetness, and spiciness. It all balances with the crisp tofu and vegetables. I enjoyed this chow mein (which simply means “stir fried”) for days. First, hot as dinner. Then for three lunches afterwards, cold. And my husband’s verdict? Yang-approved.

Vegetable Chow Mein with Tofu

Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients:

14 oz. extra firm tofu, cut into cubes (about 1”x ½”)
¼ cup oil
24 oz. fresh chow mein noodles *
1 large carrot, peeled and julienned
2 cups fresh bok choy, chopped into bite-sized pieces (about ¾-pound)
1 cup fresh snap peas, ends cut
1½ cups fresh broccoli florets
1 small red bell pepper, cored and cut into thin strips
3 cloves garlic, minced
one 2” piece of ginger, peeled and minced
2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp. black bean garlic sauce
2 tsp. fish sauce
¼ tsp. sesame oil
2-3 tbsp. sunflower or peanut oil
sriracha sauce

* I used Annie Chun brand Organic Chow Mein noodles. If you can’t find fresh chow mein, dried noodles are acceptable. Just follow the directions on the package for cooking them before adding them to this stir-fry.

Directions:

Prepare your tofu: place the cubes of tofu on a clean dish towel (or a couple layers of paper towel), covering with another towel. Gently press the tofu evenly with your hands. Let the tofu sit for 10-15 minutes. Fill a small saucepan with the ¼ cup of oil. Working in batches, fry the cubes of tofu until they’re lightly golden in color (1-2 minutes per batch). Use a slotted spoon to transfer the tofu to clean paper towels to drain excess oil. Continue cooking until all the tofu has been fried. Set aside until needed.

Prepare your vegetables: bring a large stock pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the woodier (stem) part of the bok choy and broccoli florets to the boiling water for about two minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon then quickly rinse with cold water. Add the carrots and snap peas, cooking for about one minute. Again, remove from the boiling water, rinse with cold water, and then set the bok choy, broccoli, carrots, and snap peas aside until needed.

Heat a large wok over medium-high heat. Add the sesame oil and two or three tablespoons of sunflower/peanut oil. Add the garlic and ginger to the oil, stirring around to evenly distribute your ingredients. Sauté until fragrant (2-3 minutes). Add the rice wine vinegar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, black bean sauce and fish sauce, stirring everything well.

Add the red bell pepper to the sauce mixture. Then the noodles, stirring to evenly coat them with the sauce. Fold in the carrot, bok choy, snap peas, broccoli, and tofu. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, tossing to make sure everything is evenly. Add in sriracha to your taste (I added about one heaping tablespoon, which added a good amount of heat). Serve hot.

Posted in Dinner, Life, Lunch, Meatless Meat, Sauces, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Slow Cooked Steel Cut Oats with Apples, Pears and Walnuts

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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One of the more difficult things about this blog really isn’t the cooking, or experimenting with recipes, or even the photographing (except perhaps this time of year, when I’m hoping for daylight, but don’t have dinner ready at 1 o’clock in the afternoon for photographing…). The most challenging thing is often sitting down and figuring out what to write here.

Do I tell you about the overcast and pink-gray skies that have been threatening snow or rain, or rainy snow all day? Do I tell you about the crickets that are currently residing in our pet frog tank, driving me nuts because they won’t stop chirping at any hour of the day (and freaking night)? Do I tell you more about my crazy brain and the constant back and forth I seem to reside on, between completely rational and then entirely, unnaturally, insane? Maybe we need to discuss my re-found love for a hot toddy that has just the slightest splash of bitters and then a knob of ginger, perfect for any day in January? Shall I share soley about oatmeal?

Maybe I should just tell you we got a crock pot from Craig’s aunt (thanks, Phyllis – I know you’re getting this message via e-mail :) for Christmas and I love the thing. At the moment it’s housing homemade vegetarian sloppy joe mix that’s deep crimson due to all day slow simmering (and most certainly, there are the easiest dang homemade hamburger buns relaxing on our countertop waiting for my husband and stepson to come home from the gym for dinner). We have made family-thrown together-black eyed pea stew in this new gift. And my personal favorite so far, the following recipe. The crock pot makes steel cut oats so simple for a breakfast dish, deliverable at normal human breakfast hours. They cook overnight and the flavor is huge. Once I had placed all the ingredients for these oats into the crock, the closest reminiscent flavor I could name was apple pie. The flavor isn’t very far off, either… and who wouldn’t appreciate pie for breakfast?

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Slow Cooked Steel Cut Oats with Apples, Pears and Walnuts

Serves 6.

Ingredients:
1¼ cups steel cut oats
1 large apple, peeled, cored, diced into small cubes (I used Braeburn)
1 large ripe Green Anjou or Bartlett pear, peeled, cored and diced
¾ cup raw walnuts, chopped into small pieces
¼ cup dried unsweetened cranberries
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
½ tsp. ground Ceylon cinnamon
¼ tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves (small pinch!)
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups milk
2 cups water

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients in your crock pot. Stir to combine everything evenly, then cover and set the crock pot to low heat, for 7-8 hours (overnight).

The following morning, uncover the oats. Stir everything. Add enough milk to individual servings, until the oats are your preferred consistency. Enjoy while still warm.

Posted in Breakfast, Gluten-Free, Kids, Life, Lunch | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Vegetarian Pepperoni Sausage

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Julie Hashimoto-McCreery

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I shall confess that on the first day of this year, I absolutely ate a chicken fried steak smothered in sausage gravy, two over-easy eggs, and half a Belgian waffle for breakfast. Call it post-drinking (a.k.a. hangover) food. Call it… oh, an absolutely unnecessary indulgence. As I was eating this chicken fried steak, I realized I hadn’t missed it for the last six or so years. I told my husband I was nearly certain that I could make the same thing, perhaps an even more flavorful version, using vegan Gimme Lean sausage.

That’s the whole thing for me these days. I don’t cook meat at home and often when I order it when we go out, it’s out of habit rather than an actual craving for something carnivorous. It should be easy enough to eliminate from my diet all together. I enjoy seitan a lot, especially experimenting with homemade flavors. It easily takes the place of chicken for me when that is the sort of protein I’m craving. There are soy-based, grain-based, mycoprotein-based, ready made vegetarian “meats” available in a vast number of flavors. The only thing that has ever been disappointing to me is an available replacement for spicy meats like pepperoni, andouille sausage, or chorizo sausage.

Field Roast actually makes a great Chipotle sausage that is similar to chorizo in flavor. Yves makes a vegetarian pepperoni that I do not like – it doesn’t have much spice to it at all and the texture is a bit too rubbery than I’d like. I recently discovered Tofurky’s version of pepperoni. It’s closer in consistency to traditional pepperoni and has a little more spice than Yves,’ but still lacks the spicy kick I enjoy in the pepperoni that tops pizza or hangs out in an Italian sub sandwich.

Having made homemade vegetarian hot dogs, various sausages, etc. that were seitan based, I decided to try a homemade pepperoni, where I could control the spiciness. Don’t be intimidated by the amount of ingredients in this recipe. The beautiful benefits are two-fold: one, you will recognize everything that goes into these sausages (no unnamable animal parts here!) and two, the food processor does the majority of the work for you!

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Vegetarian Pepperoni Sausage

Ingredients:

1¼ cups vital wheat gluten
5 oz. extra firm high-protein tofu *
1 oz. sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
3 cloves garlic
¼ cup tomato paste
¼ cup canola or sunflower oil
1 tbsp. liquid smoke
¾ tsp. sea salt
¾ tsp. smoked paprika
½ tsp. dry mustard powder
½ tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. fennel
½ tsp. ground anise
½ tsp. ground white pepper
½ tsp. red chili pepper flakes
½ tsp. dried ancho pepper
¼ tsp. celery seed
¼ tsp. red wine vinegar
1-4 tbsp. water

* I really enjoy using Wildwood High-Protein tofu, but realize this may not be readily available everywhere. If you don’t have access, simply use any other extra firm tofu (NOT silken).

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients, minus the water, in a food processor fitted with the large chopping blade, or a good quality blender. Blend the mixture until it comes together into a ball of dough (3-5 minutes).

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Note: this is about 30-40 seconds into blending.

If the mixture is very dry or having a hard time coming together, add one tablespoon of water at a time, blending well after each addition, until you have a soft but not overly sticky dough.

Let the mixture rest for five minutes. Split the dough into four equal sized rounds. Use your hands to roll each ball into sausages about 1–1½ inches around, 9-10 inches long. Wrap each individual sausage tightly in plastic wrap, then foil. The plastic won’t melt onto your food, but will keep moisture in while the pepperoni cooks.

Fill a large pot with about 1½ – 2 inches of water. Place a steam basket, or bamboo steamer on top of the pot. Place the sausages in the steamer in a single layer. Cover and steam for 60-75 minutes, until they are firm to the touch. Turn the pepperoni over about half way through the cooking time.

Remember to check your water level periodically as the pepperoni cooks (I’ve made the mistake of letting all the water evaporate – bad news!).

Allow the sausages to cool at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before attempting to open and slice. Cut into thin rounds and use as you would any other pepperoni!

Keep the unused pepproni wrapped tightly until ready to use. Store in the refrigerator.

Posted in Dinner, Kids, Life, Lunch, Meatless Meat, Sides, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments