Leftover Wonders

Recently I have been doing a fair amount of cooking. Which is great, but it means that I have a ton of leftovers. I tend to cook meals meant for 4 people and slowly eat the meal over the week. However, sometimes it gets old real quick. So, I have donned myself as the king of reinventing leftovers. I must say, however, that I hate leftovers. I don't like eating them, but out of a college student's budget, it becomes necessary.

So, if you have been keeping up with my blog, you know some of the recipes I've made over the past week. Well, I'm going off to Saint Louis today and I thought about making a wonderful breakfast to last me throughout the day until I got to STL to have dinner. Also, I needed to get rid of everything out of my refrigerator because I didn't want anything to spoil while I was gone. So this is where the wheels got a-turnin'....

First, let's start with the staple of any breakfast: the waffle/pancake/french toast. I had a leftover banana and some blueberries from my raw vegan ice cream as well as some almond flour from my gluten-free almond cardamom cookies. I decided that today I wanted to do a waffle. So, I mashed up the banana with some sugar and coconut butter. Added a touch of organic, gluten-free vanilla and almond extract. Then added the salt, almond flour, regular unbleached flour, and baking soda. I also needed to use up my vanilla hazelnut rice milk before I left. Therefore, I added that as my liquid. Then I folded in the blueberries. Tah dah! Blueberry almond waffles! I topped them with leftover berry sauce from the cheesecake. I REALLY needed to get rid of that!! So, it worked out perfectly.

Next, I had some tofu that was about to go bad. I also had some spinach pesto left over. Really simply, I made a tofu scramble. After pressing the tofu, I crumbled the tofu in a large skillet with some preheated olive oil. After sauteing for a while, allowing all of the excess water to be evaporated, I added a spice blend that I made. Just some nutritional yeast flake, salt, pepper, a dash of cayenne pepper, table seasoning, and italian seasoning. After a minute or two, I added the spinach pesto, and it was done!

Finally, the best part of the entire meal, I made the hash. I had left over vegan sausage from my biscuits and gravy. Also, I had left over potatoes from my down-home, country-themed dinner. In addition, I had some peppers, red onions and mushrooms left over from our picnic and my tofu croquettes. I simply sauteed the vegetables and sausage, cut up the potatoes a little finer, and added it together. Whew...made the best damn hash I've ever had! It was so good and filling!

Overall, this was the best darn breakfast I've ever eaten!! It is totally diner-worthy, vegan or not. It was full of veggies, various types of proteins, fruits, oils, nuts, and so much flavor! And the kitchen clean-out was a success! I literally have no more leftovers, well, except for breakfast leftovers. But it is one of the most satisfying this is to turn an already creative dish into another.

This morning, la lengua de un vegan is very satisfied!

P.S. I might update about my vegan adventures in Saint Louis. Hopefully, it turns out deliciously! :D

PICNIC!!

Kathryn sauteing the spinach!

Today was a day-long preparation of food with a capstone picnic to celebrate food and friends. Amazingly, the meal was entirely veggie/vegan and mostly gluten-free!! This is going to be a post that is more than just about food. It will be about the people and the events.

A couple of friends and I gathered to start cooking for the picnic around eleven. The two lovely ladies with whom I cooked are both pescatarians and one just recently went dairy-free! Yay, right?! She feels light like a feather and I'm soo proud. Anyway, we started out cooking a vegan spinach white bean dip. It is by far one of my favorite hummus-esque dips. The recipe can be found here. It's so simple. Just some sauteed spinach and garlic, then thrown in a blender with some white beans, oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice. It is so tasty with some toasted bread, pita, chips, anything!

Looking in the bulk section for pine nuts...super excited!! 

We were going to make a pesto for the sauce on a pizza. Unfortunately, we ran out of spinach for the pesto and we did not have any pine nuts. So, we made a field trip to our local co-op, the Merc. We got some organic, local spinach. It was extremely beautiful. We also picked up some soy cheese. But what we were really looking for were the pine nut. I looked all over the bulk section. For some reason I just expected them to be in bulk; however, I forgot they are extremely expensive. So, after looking around all over the place, we found them wrapped individually on some shelf in about quarter-cup packages. Perfect amount actually. So, we had our field trip and it was back to the apartment to make the pesto! When we got back we started to add all of the ingredients into the blender. I normally use a food processor, but Kathryn did not have one. Well, come to find out, the blinder is not the best way to go about making pesto. In an attempt to get the pesto to process, Kathryn stuck a bamboo spoon in the blender to push down the ingredients. Not the best idea. Before you know it, we had bamboo splinter pesto. But it was alright!! :) We were able to go back to my apartment and use a food processor and use the 5 lb bag of FREE pine nuts that I had in my freezer. The pesto turned out perfectly.

So, back at my apartment we assembled the rest of the dishes. We made the pesto and assembled the pizza and it turned out delicious! It had soy cheese, pesto, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. It was delicious (picture left). I also made some chinese tofu croquettes with homemade sweet and sour sauce (picture right). It was really good. I was surprised. A friend of mine at the picnic compared it to a baked pakora. And I could definitely see that. It was loaded with carrots, scallions, mushrooms and green bell peppers. The sweet and sour sauce had pineapple juice, agave, apple cider vinegar, garlic and cornstarch. I wanted a dessert and to use my new caradmom that a friend gave me. So I made some vegan, gluten-free almond cardamom cookies. They were really good! I was a tad shocked. 

So, we went to picnic with food in-tow. It was a beautiful park and everyone brought delicious food and drinks. In total, I had the bean dip, pizza, croquettes, spinach-strawberry salad, and cookie with a some sangria. The sangria was beautiful and was provided by Sarah. It was equally as tasty. She has a knack for wine drinks. After a delicious meal and great conversation, we went to a landmark fountain on our university campus and had a blast. 

To be honest, today was an awesome day. It was full of food and friends. I could never ask for anything more. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was able to express myself in so many different avenues. I love all of my friends! And you're all great veggie cooks too! I have probably never said this, but I really appreciate all of your valiant attempts to make all your meals vegan even if you aren't. It really means a lot, I never even had to ask. And everyone knows I don't expect vegan food but you guys still do it out of the kindness of your hearts! I will always remember and cherish these times.

This vegan loves you all! This was the story of a day in a foodie vegan's life. These were the meals the satisfied la lengua de un vegan. 

My Grandparents Would Be Proud!

As I've said before, I love trying to make omnivorous food vegan---trying to make it as close in taste as possible. I'm starting to really master this technique. Today I made country fried "chicken" with pepper gravy, lemon potatoes with a leek garnish and spinach pesto broccoli.

Ever since I made the pepper sausage gravy for my biscuits and gravy, I thought about making country fried "steak". I thought they'd go perfectly together and they reminded me of my childhood. It was probably one of my favorite dishes of my mother's. So, I made a seitanic style patty made from chickpeas. I just mushed up some chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with some bread crumbs, vital wheat gluten, spices and some veggie stock. It was really simple. You must knead it for a while in order to get the meaty texture and to form the gluten. So, any Celiac's disease people reading this...stay far far way from this dish! I made the pepper gravy in the same pan with some flour, soy milk, salt and lots of pepper.

The potatoes were simple as well. I just put them in a pan with some olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper. I like to roast low for 30 minutes and then on high (approx. 425 degrees) for ten to fifteen minutes. I feel like they are tender but crispy on the outside. I topped with some sauteed leeks.

The broccoli was simple. I just blanched them for 2 minutes and then shocked them. I returned them to a pan and added the spinach pesto (recipe follows).

Spinach Pesto (I don't really measure, so this is approximate)

2 heaping handfuls of spinach
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup (or more) olive oil

Put the first 4 ingredients in a food processor. Blend until homogeneous. Slowly start to pour in the olive oil until a nice saucy, pesto-y texture.

Overall, this was a great dish, only took me about an hour total to make. I'm soo full from it still. I am now thinking of what I should make next. I think I need to hang out with more omnis to see what they eat.

Enough of my dinner, I want to bring up something really quickly. Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, my roommate's drunken girlfriend started yelling about how soy is bad for you but steak is good for you! I got really offended at first. I almost marched my ass out there and started screaming some healthful, vegan rhetoric. But, I decided after five seconds of contemplation that it was hilarious. She's a fat ass, so is her boyfriend. I mean, I have NOTHING against people who eat meat. But don't say soy is bad for you when you're overweight and unhealthy and eating steak all the time. I just felt bad for her because she is just uneducated. No one can argue that soy is worse than steak. She should eat a smaller portion of her steak with some more veggies on the side. I probably wouldn't care so much. I can't blame her for not knowing any better. And let me add this really quickly, I am not a huge fan of soy. I think we should find out protein and other things through natural means such as grains, nuts, and legumes. I'm also not saying that soy can't be bad for you. However, I am saying soy is not as bad as meat. I don't judge them, why should they judge me?

Anyway, I will be making another post this week because we are having a picnic and I have a couple of recipes I want to try out. Until next time, these were the things that come from la lengua de un vegan.

Cheesecake Factory, Eat Your Heart Out!!!

Wow. It's been a long time. My absence was a byproduct of many different factors, but mainly just being busy and having a slight bout of food aversion. Thus I had nothing to update about and really no time. But recently, really just in the past weekend, I exploded with some tasty dishes.

So, I've had this package of tempeh in my fridge for like years now. Well, not really, or I might be dead right now. But, if you don't know what tempeh is, it's like a vegan's analogue of red meat. It's made by fermenting soy beans which allows it to have more meaty texture and retains more protein, vitamins, and fibre. Anyway, I decided that I have been craving barbeque really badly. So, I made my old family's bbq sauce recipe. Then I pan seared the tempeh, poured the bbq sauce on top and roasted it in the oven. What is the perfect accoutrement to bbq besides baked beans? Fries!! So, I made some chipotle garlic sweet potato fries. I'm telling you, I've had vegan bbq once before and it wasn't as satisfying as this meal was. It was also only the second time I've ever had tempeh. I think I might like it better than seitan. But, just in all reality, I don't like vegan meat analogues all that well. I prefer trying to get my protein through other sources than through 'fakes'!

My main goal when cooking vegan is to really make something so ubiquitously iconically omni into something equally delicious as a vegan meal. I've already mastered the Tres Leches cake, which obviously by pure translation of its name has three different milks in a egg-based yellow cake. I thought that was my pinnacle of omni-vegan transformation, but I think I one-uped it with my vegan cheesecake. I've tried several versions and attempts at a vegan cheesecake. But, sad to say, I've failed at all of them; however, my raw vegan mango cheezecake was delicious, but obviously wasn't a reputable "knock-off" of the real thing. So, instead of using cashews as the main ingredient, I splurged and used Toffuti cream cheese. In order to make the cheesecake even better, I decided to make a couple of sauces. I made a fresh blueberry pomegranate sauce as well as a caramel sauce. I tired to be as authentic and take as much care for this cheesecake as possible---I even used a bain marie. I went all out in order to make this cheesecake perfect. Thank God this was made during the summer because not only was it extremely time-intensive, but it also cost a small fortune. For both sauces and the cheesecake itself, it probably cost around 35 dollars. Now, if you think about what a cheesecake costs at the Cheesecake factory, it's pretty comparable.

I would say that this was a better cheesecake that even what my grandmother made. And that was her signature dessert that I made with her every time I saw her. This was a perfect substitute and finally squashed my three-year-long wait for a perfect vegan cheesecake that doesn't taste any different. I even had a friend that ate it up so quickly, I don't even know where it went! I even had a picky eater say it tasted good. Hallelujah, right?! Hah.  So, overall I think that this was a major success!!

Furthermore, over the weekend I continued my quest to revitalize iconic omni dishes with veganism. So, for breakfast I made biscuits and gravy. My gravy was a sausage gravy even. I found some vegan biscuits after hopping from one grocery store to another. I baked them off like you would any other time. I then sauteed my vegan sausage and then simply made a roux with unbleached flour and soy milk. I added a ton of pepper. And boom! It tasted just like I remembered when I was a kid. Weird thing though, I always poured honey on top of my biscuits and gravy when I was younger. Vegans obviously don't eat honey, and my agave nectar is blueberry flavored. So, I didn't really have the most nostalgic flashback, but it was pretty close.

Overall, I think that my quest is a continuing success! I'm soo excited to try something new. I don't know what I'm going to try next, but hopefully it turns out great!!

Until next time, these were the dishes that satisfied la lengua de un vegan!! :)