Hooray!

Our power is back!!!!!

 

Update

Still no power…not scheduled to get it again until Friday.  That’s actually pretty good considering that a lot of people I know aren’t scheduled to get theirs back until Sunday.  The novelty has worn off and I am so craving a decent meal!  All things considered, we’re doing really well.  At least our hot water heater is gas, so we’ve all gotten to take showers and I’ve been able to make some oatmeal and some other stuff on our gas stovetop.  The weather is so beautiful, so we’re not needing AC or heat and that’s another good thing!  It’s really strange, though, to be experiencing this major power outage when it’s been bright sunshine for the last few days!  Anyway, thanks to everyone for the well-wishes, but we really are doing fine.   Other than no electricity and not eating very good food, things are pretty much normal.  Hope to have some good food to post about after the weekend!

 

A very temporary hiatus

We had a major wind storm yesterday afternoon (hurricane force winds in Columbus, OH????  Unheard of!!), courtesy of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression/Pain-in-the-Patooty Ike.  We haven’t had power since 4PM yesterday and we might not get it back for a few days, although I certainly hope that’s not the case.

In this case, I guess I don’t really need to continue on my fridge and freezer purge because Mother Nature is taking care of that for me.  We moved some food to my parent’s refrigerator, but the rest of it will be no good in just a few hours from now.  

So, until the power is restored and the fridge is replenished, I’ll be on hiatus.  I’m writing this post at work (OSU has its own power plant, so we’re like the only place in town that’s operational!), so I’ll still be able to check in with all of you to see what’s cookin’.

My best to everyone else who has felt the effects of this storm!

 

The Great 2008 Fridge and Freezer Purge – Days 3 & 4

So the fridge and freezer purging continues…

Wednesday

BBQ Tofurkey Sausage sandwiches with vegan cheese slices, mangoes, and avocadoes with cheezy zucchini and some leftover corn on the side.  Not pictured: blueberry, strawberry and spinach smoothie.

This tremendously easy meal to prepare was one of the hardest I’ve ever made because I did it while holding a screaming child.  It’s been a bit of a fussy environment in our home these last few days as my munchkin cuts some molars.

This meal, though, did use up lots of food that was taking up space in my fridge and freezer.  Here’s what I used up:

-three leftover whole wheat pitas
-two leftover tofurkey sausages
-the rest of a mango
-the rest of an avocado
-a zucchini that was going really, really soft
-leftover cheezy sauce
-some leftover corn
-the rest of a bag of frozen blueberries (for the smoothie)
-the last orange juice box in our fridge (for the smoothie)
-the rest of a carton of strawberries (for the smoothie)

This meal was way successful in terms of both taste and the number of items I purged from my fridge in freezer in order to make it.  The sandwich is really straightforward; it’s just some shredded tofurkey sausage cooked up with some BBQ sauce.  I really wasn’t sure, though, what I was doing when I started preparing the zucchini.  I cut it up into strips, sauteed it until browned, threw in some whole wheat panko breadcrumbs and some garlic and chili powder.  It was looking pretty good, but then I decided to just go ahead and throw in the rest of the cheezy sauce that was in my fridge.  After it was heated through and served, I took a bite and the taste was interesting at first, but kept getting better and better.  The zucchini ended up being my favorite part of the meal.

Thursday

Pan-fried vegan tofu and veggie wontons and broccoli with peanut sauce.

The screaming toddler, one-handed dinner prep continues.  I really made zero attempt to be creative tonight, but I made some great freezer space by using a whole bag of frozen wontons and the remaining 3/4 of a bag of frozen broccoli.  I also used up a good portion of some peanut sauce I had in the freezer.  The wontons were good, but kind of spicy (not too much, though) and not at all filling (I’ve been so snacky all night!).  What can I say about the broccoli except that broccoli+peanut sauce=yum.

I’m having a good time with the purge and it seems to be going well in that I’m using up a lot of food, but it’s also kind of boring.  On the other hand, though, it is kind of nice to take a break from cooking and baking; my time in the kitchen this week is less than half of what it’s been every other week for the past 4 or 5 months, but I hope to get back into the groove as soon as the purge concludes!

 

The Great 2008 Fridge and Freezer Purge – Day 2

I’m spending this week using up all of the food that has accumulated in our fridge, freezer, and cabinets and am going to do everything possible to not buy any additional food items until we go on our normal weekend grocery shopping trip. Tonight’s dinner was another everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type burrito. Here’s what I had on hand that I used up with this dinner:

-corn cut off the cob from 6 ears of corn (from the last two weeks of CSA veg boxes)
-1/2 a can of black beans leftover from a previous meal
-a head of swiss chard from this week’s CSA
-1/2 of an avocado
-two leftover butter bean burgers cut into strips
-three whole wheat tortillas (all that was left from a package of 6)

I sauteed the corn in some olive oil and added in 1/2 teaspoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder. I added in about 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. I mixed in some black beans and the swiss chard until it wilted. To serve, I put some of the corn mixture in a tortilla, added some of the butter bean burger strips and some avocado slices. I wrapped all of it up tight and dug in. It certainly wasn’t the greatest meal ever, but it certainly wasn’t the worst! I still have some corn left over, but I’ll probably be able to use that up at some other point this week. It is honestly the sweetest corn ever. I guess that’s one of the benefits of living in Ohio; we have good corn. The area I live in now is urban-ish, but the high school I went to growing up was surrounded on all sides by corn.

So, I think the first two days of the Great 2008 Fridge and Freezer Purge were both successful. See you all tomorrow for day 3!

 

Weekend Roundup

I’m really late in posting my weekend roundup, so let’s consider this a weekend/Monday roundup.

It was a busy weekend since my husband was away at a wedding on Friday and Saturday nights, so that left me on round-the clock one-on-one toddler duty. The munchkin and I had a lot of fun and did our own little tour of Columbus playgrounds – I think we went to the playground six times (four different playgrounds) between Friday at 6PM and Sunday at noon. All that playground-touring meant that there wasn’t a lot of time left to spend in the kitchen. Here’s the lowdown on what I did manage to cook up this weekend:

Bagels!!!!

This was my first-ever attempt at bagel making. It went pretty well. I used this recipe (mine didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as those pictured in Happy Herbivore’s post!). They were a bit tough and chewy, but they tasted pretty good and toasted up nicely. I’m going to try to make them again and maybe use a combo of whole wheat flour & whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat & all-purpose flour instead of the white whole wheat flour I used.

This isn’t anything I made from scratch – it’s a Sunshine Burger. I’m posting about it because Sunshine Burgers are really good (maybe the best frozen veggie burgers out there) and I want to give them a good recommendation. There are only three per box and they’re about $3.50 a box, but that’s still a ton cheaper than it would cost to buy a veggie burger at a restaurant.

It seems that my Everything-But-the-Kitchen-Sink burritos inspired Jessy this weekend and, at the same time, her Butter Bean Burgers were inspiring me! These burgers are nothing short of fabulous – and so simple to make! We ate them alongside some super-sweet and yummy corn and some leftover chipotle and white bean pasta. It was a delicious and perfect late-summer dinner!

This is what we had for dinner tonight. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but let me explain what I’m going to be up to this week. I am going to spend all of this week cooking things using ingredients that we already have in our cabinets, refrigerator, or freezer. Our freezer, especially, is out of control and we need to really eat up some of that stuff before we go buy more groceries. I don’t anticipate many gourmet meals this week, but I expect it will be incredibly satisfying to use up what we have before going and getting any more. So, this meal consists of pasta with Summertime Tomato Sauce (I finished up three already open bags of pasta and I used some tomatoes that were on their last legs), half a bag of vegan meatballs and half a bag of frozen broccoli (both from our freezer and now they’re all gone – yippee!) and some carrots (white satin variety) from this week’s CSA. The carrots were the star of the show; I cleaned them up, sliced them down the middle, put them face down in a hot skillet with some olive oil, let them sear for a minute or two, poured a little sweet curry sauce (1/4 t garlic powder, 1/4 t curry powder, 2 t agave nectar, 1 T water) over them, let them sit for a minute and then flipped them over to brown a bit on the other side. The carrots are incredibly floral in flavor and I was a bit taken aback at first bite, but then I could not stop eating them!

So, if you’re interested, you can stay tuned this week for some fridge and freezer delights that will surely feature some Morningstar farms products, some frozen tater tots, and some smoothies made with half-empty bags of frozen fruit. (I promise I’ll try to get back to more exciting stuff next week!).

 

Chipotle and White Bean Pasta

I have a very vegan-friendly friend (hi, Nicole!) who is also very thrifty and recently gave me a great little vegan cookbook she picked up for $.50 at a library book sale.  The book is Everyday Vegan by Jeani-Rose Atchison.  I’ve really enjoyed reading the recipes in this book over the last several nights and have found more than a few that I really want to make.  The one that most caught my eye is pictured above.  It is called Chipotle and White Bean Pasta.  It is certainly a twist on typical pasta recipes, but it’s a good twist!  After only one bite my husband declared that he definitely wanted me to make this again.  I followed the recipe as stated, but then added some diced mango and avocado on top.  This really helped to tie everything together and gave this pasta some zing.

I hadn’t seen or heard of Everyday Vegan prior to my friend giving me the book, but I give it a really good recommendation (check out the limited preview on Google Books (this recipe is on page 200)).  The recipes are uber-healthy and diverse, too!  I’ll have at least one other recipe from this book to share with everyone after the weekend!

Speaking of weekends…I hope all of you enjoy yours!

 

Veggie Kids

I wasn’t going to post today because I didn’t cook at all yesterday (so…dreadfully….hot), but then I got an e-mail from parents.com (a weekly toddler milestones update) and there was something interesting in the e-mail’s sidebar.  It was the results of this poll:

Weekly Poll Results
Vegeterian or carnivore? According to a poll of moms on parents.com:

90% – Wouldn’t consider raising their child vegetarian

7% – Said they are considering it as an option

3% – Were unsure

Read more about how to plan a healthy diet for your child.

Those results shocked me.  Seriously, 90% wouldn’t even CONSIDER raising their child vegetarian????  Are people that committed to their meat?  This is blowing my mind because the poll isn’t saying 90% have decided not to raise their child as vegetarians, but that they won’t even think about it.  I’m astonished that that huge amount of parents won’t take a few moments to investigate a vegetarian diet for their children, but likely have no problem giving their babies hot dogs.  I was at a BBQ this weekend and these kids were chowing on hot dogs and my stomach was turning.  What sort of health benefit does a hot dog provide a 14-month old, or a two year old, or a four year old….heck, even a 45 year old????!!!  My daughter was all curious as to what the other kids were eating and even reached for their food and I just distracted her the best I can.

The good news is that parents.com did include tofu in its recommendations for calcium- and protein-rich foods for toddlers 12-24 months, so at least they are presenting possibilities for a vegetarian diet to their meat lovin’ readers.

 

Everything-But-the-Kitchen-Sink Burritos

Last night’s dinner was an awesome combination of a ton of leftovers and about-to-go-bad veggies in our fridge, hence the name “Everything-But-the-Kitchen-Sink Burritos”.  I threw some onion, red pepper, yellow squash, tofurky sausage and collards in the skillet and sauteed them with some garlic powder and chili powder.  At the very end, I tossed in some of the leftover lemony roasted potatoes from Monday night’s dinner.  We wrapped up the mixture in wheat tortillas spread with tofutti cream cheese and topped with salsa and avocado slices.    Delicious!  Our fridge is a lot emptier now, too!

 

Weekend Roundup

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I hope all of you who live in the US enjoyed the long weekend.  I guess the passing of Labor Day also means the unofficial end of summer has passed, too.  We’re having scorching hot weather here in Ohio, though, so it still seems like summer is going strong.

I spent a bit of time in the kitchen this weekend and, thankfully, everything I made other than the cream puffs turned out really delicious!  Here’s the rundown:

Friday & Saturday

My husband wasn’t home on Friday night, so the munchkin and I had some pasta with VeganYumYum’s popular creamy tomato sauce.  Saturday lunch featured the any-time-of-day burritos from Vegan Express.  I’ve made these before, so I won’t post pictures again, but I do want to reiterate that these burritos couldn’t be faster or tastier!

We went to a “Pay it forward” party at a neighbor’s house on Saturday, so I just had some leftover pasta before we went because there were no vegan-friendly options.  No big deal!  It was so nice of my neighbors to hold this party, though.  Basically, they had a raffle and took donations for our community’s resource center.  They provided wine, food, a children’s concert (adorable!) and a bouncy tent (crazy!).  It was a lot of fun and it really helped to wear out our daughter before bed time.  Hooray!

Sunday

My mom had an end-of-summer get together at her house on Sunday and I provided some side dishes and a vegan dessert.  I made the Smoky Spuds with Barbecue Beans from Cooking with PETA.  So easy (it’s just sweet potatoes, black beans, and bbq sauce) and so good!  It was well-liked by most everyone and made for some awesome leftovers.  I also made the Indonesian Style Vegetable Salad, which I just made last weekend, but we liked it so much that I wanted to make it again.  I was able to find jicama at the grocery, so I used it this time and there really wasn’t that much difference between this salad and the last one for which I used yellow carrots.  In fact, I should have probably stuck with the yellow carrots because I sliced three of my fingers across my mandoline while I was julienning the jicama.  The tips of my fingers are sore and it hurts for me to type this (how’s that for dedication?  just kidding.).

I also contributed a delicious (and huge!) cantaloupe from my CSA and a chocolate vegan dump cake.  Instead of using the glaze called for in that recipe, I topped the cake with the quick chocolate ganache recipe from VCTOTW.  The cake was super easy and super good.  You know, nothing special, but really satisfying.

I didn’t get pictures of the cake (if you just picture a chocolate cake in an 8 x 8 pan you’ll get the idea), but here’s a pic of the beans (with some cheddar-style vegan rice cheese on top), cantaloupe, and salad:

Monday

I made a special treat for my family on Monday morning – mochi!  I’d never had mochi before, but after reading this post the other day, I really wanted to try it.  I bought some of this (the cinnamon raisin type) at Whole Foods.  It was so easy to make; cut the mochi into 1 or 2 inch squares, pop them in the oven and wait for them to poof up.  I served our mochi with agave nectar drizzled on top.  Delicious!

Since the oven was still warm (the mochi had to be cooked at 450 degrees – yikes!), I made another simple treat.

My brother-in-law brought some tortilla chips to the bbq on Sunday and had a real easy way to make them; take a few (as many as you want) whole wheat tortillas, slice them into strips, spread them out onto a baking sheet, spray or brush on olive oil and sprinkle on some salt.  Toast them in the oven at 400 degrees until nice and crisp (mine took about 10 minutes).  Easy, right?  My daughter absolutely loved munching on these yesterday.  How great to find an easy, but child-pleasing treat!

I got a little fancier with dinner last night, but both the entree and the side dish were still incredibly simple.

The inside shot.

For the entree, I made Pesto-Stuffed Tofu Steaks from Vegan Planet we had Lemony Roasted Potatoes from Veganomicon on the side.  It was my first time making both of these recipes and both were tremendous hits!

All in all, it was a great Labor Day weekend.  I’m looking forward, though, to getting back to reading all of your blogs!  Have a great day!