veganized

Playing catch up a little bit longer!  Our internet should be hooked up at some point tomorrow.  f.i.n.a.l.l.y.

We had Ann + Kurtz over for dinner, Saturday night [Jan 2nd], to celebrate Ann’s birthday.  They are adventurous and quite knowledgeable when it comes to their food, so I figured it was appropriate to try a recipe from my new cookbook.  I decided on, Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos.  The book is split up with recipes by the season but this one was actually in the “anytime” section.  I made sure to ask A + K if there was anything they definitely did not want to eat and their reply was “no meat.” :) Not a problem!  They aren’t vegetarians, but were a little “meated out” over the holidays. 

Oh yeah, the meal was completely vegan.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a full on vegan meal like this before. 

First I made the cashew “cheese” topping.

3 ingredients:

• canola oil
• nutritional yeast
• raw cashews

I used the mini food processor for this job.

Finished product:

While I was making this and preparing the guacamole, I had sweet potatoes baking away in the oven.

I made a simple guacamole from the Clean Food book as well.  My dad got me a nifty little gadget for garlic.  It works much better than the clamp/press type.  You know the one with the 2 handles that you stick the clove in the little hole, flip the handle around, squeeze and garlic comes out.  I always seem to lose more garlic in that thing than what I can get out of it.

This worked so well!

There are 2 sides to it, and you basically puncture the clove in between the 2 sides and then twist and scrape out with a knife.  Love it!

I had to squeeze a lot of limes for the guac + potato/bean mixture.

Pre-smashing

Post-smashing – The author of the book said to put the pits back in the bowl of guac, cover + refrigerate if you’re not going to use it right away.  It is supposed to help it from turning brown.  We only had it back in the fridge for 10min, so I can’t say if this really helps or not.

Made a super quick salad + dressing. 

• Arugula
• 1 green pepper chopped

I made a creamy chipotle vinaigrette dressing, however I forget exactly how I made it.  Again, I need a journal in the kitchen!  I remember the ingredients but not the exact measurements.  I used a hand blender to combine the ingredients.

• chili peppers in adobo sauce
• safflower mayonnaise [hmm, not sure if this was vegan or not]
• unfiltered apple cider vinegar
• olive oil
• s+p

I’m pretty sure that was everything.  It was extremely delicious.  It had a nice tang but also had a good kick to it. 

The burritos consisted of:

• black beans
• diced tomatoes
• mashed sweet potatoes
• red onion
• lime juice

They were rolled up and topped with salsa, corn and the cashew cheese, then baked.  I can post the whole recipe if people are interested.  Just let me know!

I must say, these were MUCH better than I thought they would be.  The smooth potato filling was awesome and the flavors totally worked together.  Everyone enjoyed it and couldn’t get over how healthy and filling it was. 

No one missed the meat or the real cheese!

I spread a little of the guac on mine too! 

Happpppy Birthday Ann!

….

Sunday night – Jan 3rd – Another dinner recipe from Clean Food.  

I made vegan Shepherd's Pie.  The recipe called for using Seitan instead of meat.  They were out of it at the store we were at so I picked up 2 different kinds of Tempeh.  I know I am always talking trash about soy ;) but I mianly just mean in it’s highly processed, non-organic form.  I have been doing a lot of further reading and finding out that when it is fermented [like with tempeh] that it is more easily digested, among a list of other things.  More on that soon!

I made some coconut chai tea while I cooked.  I dropped in the cinnamon stick for some extra flavor.  Covering your mug while steeping always helps move things along!

A little nervous about the tempeh!

It looked like packed rice.

The tempeh mixture is underneath this mound of spinach.

Before being topped with whipped potatoes.

Then it was topped with mashed taters [with plain rice milk, olive oil, s+p] and baked for 20min.

Chris really enjoyed it.  I thought it was really good, except I noticed a little bitter flavor from the tempeh.  Has anyone experienced that before?

We had some Dope Whine and watched a movie after din.  Yes, that is Dakota on the bottle.  I posted about that wine awhile ago, but for my new readers, Chris + I got to make 30 bottles of wine as a wedding gift.  We got to pick out the type of wine, mix it all up, then come back to the store to bottle + label it.  I came up with the label :)

…

Monday, Jan 4th - Breakfast

• rolled oats/oat bran + milk
• 3/4 banana mixed in – 1/4 on top
• pnut butter glob
• chia seeds
• jelly

Off to Starbucks to post this and do some Craigslist hunting!!!

Have a great week everyone!

~Ashley         

catching up

The rest of the New Year’s Eve:

I finallllllly got to take my Bodum glasses out of their box.  I was more than excited to finally use these.  We didn’t have room to keep them out at our apt. in Charlotte. Bodum = <3 <3 <3

Pat + Nat brought over a mini keg of some delicious Left Hand beer.

Hello there!

Had a few of these :)

I don’t think we’ll ever run out of ping pong balls.  The wild rice turkey soup was staying warm in the crock pot.

Ann made a delicious salad.

We threw together a quick balsamic dressing.

Jose, Kurtz [Chris] + Ann

Hovan made a deelicious tray of veggie lasagna. 

10pm - Time to call Ohio to wish the fam a Happy New Year!

Hovan [Jon].

Kurtz + Ann –> cutest couple 2010

Hi Pat!

the hubs + me

“When is everyone going to leave so I can sleep?”

Getting a game of flip cup prepared in the dining room.  Classy.

A little bubbly. 3 – 2 – 1 Happpppppppppy New Year!!!!  The countdown always seems to kind of sneak up on me.  The time was flying by!  We watched the ball drop in NYC…although it’s somewhat lame because it’s just replayed since we’re 2hrs behind, haha.

Hello pumpkin pie!! Why did you get burnt in the oven??? Well, actually just the crust.  I blame it on the oven…it is pretty terrible so far.  I even covered the crust with foil. Gr.

However, the filling was DEElicious.  Ann, Natalie, and I went at it with spoons.  Because why not!?

We devoured about 2/3 of the pie. hehehe

New Years Day: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANN – brunch at Kurtz + Ann’s place for her bday – There may have been some bloody mary’s and mimosas.

I had 1 + 1/2 mimosas and quickly realized it was nap time and I was done drinking for the rest of the day.

Purdy flowers.

Read the text in the red strip.  Is that for REAL!?  Seriously, who wants to see an interactive map! COME on!!!!

Homemade pecan roll was excellent!

GO BUCKS!!! Ohio State was playing in the Rose Bowl.  Chris rocked the Jim Tressel sweater vest.  The OSU coach [Tressel] wears a similar vest at every single game. 

Awesome egg casserole + homemade bread + grapes.

About 10 hours later I enjoyed some leftover turkey soup.  So so so sooooo delicious.  The color however, is not as pretty.  I drank it with some wine that I used in the soup.  mmmmm

small glass of vino.

My new FAV cookbook.  I urge everyone to buy this book. 

The new Yogi cereal I have talked about a few times.  SO good.

Oat toppings on Jan 2nd.

With a little coffee.

Super crunch. mmm

I think we’ll be getting internet this Wednesday.  Hopefully!!     

~Ashley                         

i’m alive…but still no internet

Hi there!!  I feel like I haven’t posted in weeks!  We have been insanely busy and still are without internet.  We had a problem with the provider we were going to be using, Qwest.  Finally, Chris ended up canceling it before we really even got it.  It was a bit ridiculous.  So now we’ll be waiting another few days or so before someone can come out and get us hooked up.  For now, I’ll have to rely on Starbucks.  I literally have not checked my email in 3 days.  It feels a bit odd.  So I apologize if anyone was waiting for a response! 

Rewind:

New Years Eve prepartions:

I have been craving pumpkin pie since before Thanksgiving.  I decided to finally make my own. 

Graham cracker crust with walnuts + pecans.  I didn’t follow a recipe, but also included melted butter + honey.  Honey is KEY in making graham cracker crust.

I also made a wild rice turkey soup with the leftover turkey from Christmas dinner.  We made turkey stock from the carcass, which turned out to be the most flavorful stock I’ve ever had.  We included tons of seasonings, garlic cloves, onions, apples, carrots, etc.

Target wine cube. YUM!  After cooking the veggies with 2 strips of bacon [for flavor] I streamed in about 1/2c of this white wine to scrape up the drippings.  It really enhanced the flavor of the soup.

Crust, before baking. 

Pie filling.  I subbed sucanat for sugar and it worked perfectly.

All stirred up.

Baked crust.

Utilizing my cook book stand finally!

This thing rocks.  It collapses for easy storage and when you’re using a book that doesn’t have rings you can set it behind the plastic so you don’t splatter food on it.  It also keeps you on the right page.  I hate when I’m using a cook book because I always lose the page I’m working on.  It was a wedding gift from Crate + Barrel.

Super sleepy doggies.

Mixing in the 1/2 + 1/2.

Processing the garlic for Curry Honey Hummus.

Needed more curry.

Soup’s done!  It was seriously so so so good.  I used a recipe but also did a bunch of things that weren’t in the directions.  I hope I can remember what all I did.  I should keep a journal in the kitchen so I can write down things like this!  It was insanely flavorful and the perfect creaminess.  I used Lundberg’s wild rice, which was delicious.

Hearty!

So I got the idea to make curry honey hummus because they had it on special at Vine Street [restaurant in Denver] the other night.  They change up their hummus daily and this is what they had that night.  It had the perfect amount of sweet + spicy [spicy flavorful, not spicy hot].  I used a simple hummus recipe from the book Clean Food, that Chris got me for xmas.  I am in LOVE with this cookbook and will talk more about it soon!

Then, from there, I just kept adding curry + honey, and s+p until it tasted right.

The bowl was wiped clean, 2 nights in a row.  Everyone really liked it.

I’ll post the recipe soon!

That pepper looks like a strip of bacon, no?

I have a lot more photos from NYE and NY day that will be posted soon!  I just wanted to make a quick post and let you guys know I’m still here and will be back in full force asap!!

Happppppy New Year!! I can’t believe it’s 2010!? Weird!

~Ashley