it’s greeeeeeeen

24 Aug

{Thanks for your participation in my poll below! I think it stands that I’ll be playing around with cheesecake!}

While I love to talk about food and about all of the delicious vegan feasts we enjoy, I can get tired of the questions. You know the kind, where the inquirer doesn’t actually care what the answer is, they just have to ask in that pointed way, to try and make a spectacle of you.

“What are you eating?”

Most people are decent when it comes to the workplace lunch room, but I do work with a couple of these people. The people who stop their conversation when I pull out my lunch to start inspecting what I’ve brought. The people who would never be willing to try the bites I offer up, but can’t help playing 20 questions to figure out what’s in it and how I made it, all while turning up their noses. The people who complain that I never bring in any cake and then won’t even try it when it’s sitting on the lunchroom table.

Whew. Apparently I needed to vent.

Anyway, those questions get old. However, there are some things I eat that I love to rub back in these people’s faces.

The greeen smoothie is alive and well in our home. I often have one for breakfast and pour them into a Mason jar so I can take it to work and enjoy it at my desk, in lieu of morning coffee. But in the world of Hot Pocket breakfast sandwiches and frozen bagel sticks piped full of cream cheese (can they produce more disgusting things?), this Hulk-inspired drink never fails to turn heads.

And you know what, while I tire of having my quinoa/salad/hummus wrap/tofu lunch selections dissected, I never tire of sucking down a delicious green smoothie and detailing all of the ingredients. I think it’s because to many people it’s the most revolting thing I consume at work yet it’s probably the most dessert-like (next to the cake they won’t touch). It’s amazing how badly we judge books by their covers.

When did green become such a bad thing?

Green Meanies Smoothie

3 full kale leaves, with stems, washed*
1 inch square patch of wheat grass, washed*
1-2 handfuls of spinach, washed
1 frozen banana
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 tbsp. coconut oil

Place ingredients in order listed into the container of a high power blender (tear the kale a bit). Process on high for 1 minute, scraping down the inside of the container if necessary.

Serves 2.

*If you don’t have a high powered blender (Vita-Mix or BlendTec), I recommend removing the kale stems and omitting the wheat grass.

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input needed!

23 Aug

I’m having a dilemma and I need your input.

Cheesecakes- cake or not. I’m not sure if I should include cheesecakes in my book on cakes and wanted your feedback. Here is the support for and against:

For: By having cheesecakes, we have cheesecake! Yay! And they are often gluten free, or easily adapted to be so, which makes the world a better place.

Against: They’re not really cake and are taking away the valuable book real estate afforded to more traditional cake recipes.

What do you think?

waffley cakes

18 Aug

We are a pancake house- primarily because we’re lazy. Waffle irons are hard to clean and I always seem to end up either tearing them or burning them. Yet, the allure of the waffle still remains. Those little indentations to catch syrup and a crisp edge… yum.

Imagine my extreme happiness upon seeing this pan, on sale no less:

I have a pretty strict no-nonstick rule in our house, but for as often as we’ll use this I had to break my own rule. This cute pan turned out adorable little pancakes with a crispy edge and, with the help of some canola non-stick spray, each pancake was easy to pop out of pan. These particular pancakes were the Banana Pecan pancakes (sans pecans) from VWaV.

Served alongside our staple sun-dried tomato tofu scramble, it made for a simply fabulous breakfast with no torn waffles or frustrated crying to speak of.

Sun Dried Tomato Scramble

1 package water-packed firm tofu
oil
1 medium yellow union, diced
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. dried basil
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, drained and chopped (pureed in processor, if possible)
1 large carrot, sliced into thin discs
3 cups fresh baby spinach, rinsed
1/4 cup sweet corn
1/4 cup kalmata olives, chopped

Drain and press tofu. In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp. oil on medium heat and sautee onion for 5-8 minutes, until translucent. Add the oregano and basil and combine, adding a bit more oil if the mixture begins to stick. Crumble tofu on top and mix well. Add the sun dried tomatoes and carrot and mix to combine. Top with spinach and cover with a lid to wilt. Lower heat to low-medium and let cook for about 5 minutes. Stir to incorporate the wilted spinach and add the corn and olives. Continue to cook on low until heated through.

Serves 3.

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i’m melting…

15 Aug

It’s very hot in Portland. Meaning in the 90s. Most folks here don’t have air conditioning, so it can get pretty miserable. We are fortunate enough to live in a house that sits north-south on the lot with few side windows, meaning that we get virtually no direct sunlight in the lower level of our home, keeping it relatively cool; this is the only time of year this factoid is beneficial.

But, I’m not complaining. The PacNW has been getting ripped off from having a full summer, with lots of weather in the 70′s, so I’m soaking it up. The clouds and drizzle will rejoin us soon enough, so in the meantime I’m enjoying the ice cream maker I purchased on clearance last fall.

I adapted this recipe from a local food publication called Edible Portland. This was my first try at using MimicCream, as I’ve just used soy milk in the past for ice cream. I would probably try it with soy creamer next time as the texture of the MimicCream is nice, but there is a definitely a discernible trace of nut flavor, even with all of the plum flavor. Not a bad thing, per se, but I’d like to try it without.

That said, we’re still really enjoying this cool, tasty treat plus I was able to use a variety of local plums. An ice cream maker is a totally unnecessary and indulgent toy and takes up a lot of space, but when you want to make something random like this, it’s sure nice to have one!

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