Our Lives Through Food

Posted on March 8, 2008 by jodie

Being on Spring Break right now, I’ve had a little time to start reading. For pleasure, that is. I finished one book I had started a couple of weeks ago, called Bento Box in the Heartland, by Linda Furiya. I actually had taken this out of the library right before moving to CT, and I had to return it unread, as I just didn’t have time with all that was going on. Once I was settled here, I took it out of the library again. Notice that it’s now March. I’m loving that grad students get to take books out 6 months at a time here!

What does any of that have to do with veganism? Well, nothing, really. The book itself is not at all about a vegan diet (though there are a few ideas for vegan meals in it), but rather a memoir through food. Many of you may have already read this (or another recent food memoir, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, by Bich Minh Nguyen), but I think it’s worth blogging about. Food is so tied to our lives, possibly regardless to the culture you’re from. Or the culture you create. I certainly wasn’t raised vegan- we had steak in my house growing up as often as we could afford it (ok, so it was mostly london broil, but my dad loved it). St Patrick’s Day is coming up- there was always corned beef and cabbage at my house (and if you’re interested in a vegan version, Bryanna has one over at the Vegan Feast Kitchen). Of course holidays had their special meals, but there’s lots of memory attached to the everyday dishes and how they were prepared and consumed and shared. My dad was sick most of the time when I was growing up. I distinctly remember during one of his longer hospital stays all of the neighbors and family friends bringing over all kinds of cooked food for us, since my mom was working two jobs at the time and driving up to Boston to see my father in the hospital in between. They brought fully cooked hams, a turkey, lasagne- actually, thinking back, it was pretty much like a holiday meal. That gesture of food sharing was important to my family back then.

Food plays such an important role in our lives, even if you never eat those some dishes again. I could probably write for days on the subject.

How has food played a role in your life?

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Let's say…

Posted on March 7, 2008 by jodie

Let’s say that today was your last day of class before Spring Break. You’re excited! And hungry, and ready for something different since you’ve been eating leftover lasagne for the last week. Of course you did go to an awesome potluck with friends the other night and last night you went to a drug dinner at a fancy-schmancy steakhouse, but that just can’t compare to what you can whip up in your own kitchen. For the record, the steak house did make you a vegan meal (salad, pasta primavera and lemon sorbet for dessert. Not really your favorite, but hey, it was free. And educational. And interesting.), so no worries there. So anyways, you’re in the mood to make something good. And decadent. You just saw this post, and it inspired you. Especially since you happen to have a stack of wonton wrappers in your freezer. And a half-eaten container of Tofutti Cream Cheese in your fridge. And you cut up a bunch of scallions the other day so you could get rid of the wilted ends when you were changing over the compost bin. Not to mention the fact that you used to love crab rangoon and you haven’t had it in years. Well, you never loved the crab part, but the whole fried dough with cheese and scallions… yum. So, you decide to make a vegan version. And this is what you come up with.

Looks good, doesn’t it? Aren’t you glad you had these things hanging around?

And let’s just say that you happen to have half of a block of frozen-thawed tofu all cut up in your fridge, waiting for you to use it up quickly. And there’s still plenty of oil in the pan from your wontons. Well, I bet you might make sesame tofu, since it’s one of your favorites. And since you have some cooked up rice in the freezer along with some green beans, you’ve got a whole meal. Look at it!

Now let’s just say you’re full. Very, very full. And you promise not to eat fried foods again for a while. At least after the rest of your sesame tofu is gone. Yum.

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Some recent meals

Posted on March 2, 2008 by jodie

I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. Half the time I don’t remember to even take a picture of what I’ve made, and most of the rest of the time, I’m just too tired. Also, I eat a lot of leftovers. I usually try to make at least 2 or 3 servings of whatever it is that I’m making so I can take it for lunch the next day or too, plus I freeze a fair amount of leftovers as well. It gets the job done, just doesn’t make for terribly interesting blogging.

At any rate, here are three meals from the last couple of weeks.

The first is marinated tempeh (soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, apple juice, garlic and a few other things, thrown in a 350 degree oven for an indeterminate amount of time. I kind of forgot about it, but it turned out fine anyways). It was pretty good. Also in this meal are the wasabi mashed potatoes and baby bok choy recipes from Veganomicon. Except the bok choy is the regular variety.

The second is saffron risotto with edamame and spinach, adapted from a Vegan Feast Kitchen recipe.

Finally is today’s lunch, which is spaghetti squash with tomato sauce and Trader Joe’s Meatless Meatballs. I made the sauce the other day for a lasagne, but I forgot to take pictures of it. We’ll see if there are any leftovers I can get a good shot of.

I really ought to be studying, so I think I will.

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Long time, no post!

Posted on February 14, 2008 by jodie

Sometimes I’m just too damn hungry to bother taking a picture of my food before I eat. That, and not everything I make looks all that appetizing. C’est la vie, right?

But here is today’s bounty:

Pad Thai. I was a little overzealous with the siriacha, but it’s still mighty tasty. It will be my lunch for the next couple of days, too.

Valentine’s Day Cookies. I made them to share will all my friends at clinical tomorrow. They are little bites of sugary goodness, adapted from this recipe.

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Mac & Cheeze

Posted on January 23, 2008 by jodie

There’s a lot of vegan mac & cheeze recipes out there, but this has to be the easiest. I just got it from x_bluerose_x over at LiveJournal in the vegancooking community, and as she points out, it is made of WIN.

Here goes:

Boil pasta. (Whole wheat penne used here).
Drain, but leave a little bit of water.
Throw into bowl.
Grate or chop a melty commercial vegan cheeze. I used Veganrella Cheddar Style.
Cover bowl, toss in microwave for 30 seconds (I did 45 seconds, as my cheeze was frozen).
Mix it together, and eat.

Is there any easier way?

The vegan cheeze really melts down like Velveeta with just a little bit of water, so this is probably most like the boxed Kraft Dinner that uses the Velveeta packet, not the one that uses the powdered cheese product.

And if you happen to be doing Weight Watchers, I believe this recipe would be considered completely core (when using whole wheat pasta), unless they’ve taken soy cheese off the list. Score.

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Cupcakes!

Posted on January 21, 2008 by jodie

I am bringing these to a potluck dinner for the people interviewing to be students here this evening. This is the first time I’ve busted out the pastry bag to pipe the frosting.

Just plain old chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting, with red and pink decorator’s sugar.

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Pumpkin Waffles and Tempeh Bacon

Posted on January 21, 2008 by jodie

My attempt to make the Pumpkin Waffles from Vegan with a Vengeance last week did not come out so well, so I decided to give it another shot. This waffle is the least deformed one that I’ve made so far. There’s even one good edge! I’ll have to keep working at this, and maybe try some other waffle recipes at some point.

I absolutely love the tempeh bacon, also from VWAV. I don’t officially follow the recipe anymore, but I think I still make it pretty close to the original. What’s left will be the basis for some sandwiches/wraps this week for lunches.

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A lunch, a dinner, and a vegetable I find I don’t like.

Posted on January 17, 2008 by jodie

Salad in a pita, using the oven-fried tofu I made the other night. Nothing special, just a tasty and filling lunch.

Tonight’s dinner. The pasta is based on a recipe in the January issue of Real Simple, with very minor alterations. It’s whole wheat spaghetti cooked in vegetable broth with parsley and chick peas. Simple (as the magazine name implies) and really, really good. I’m not kidding.

On the other hand is th vegetable. The only reason I put it in a separate dish was because I wasn’t really sure how to plate it with the pasta, but I’m glad I did. I’ve been experimenting with other vegetables to increase my veggie intake, and decided to try collard greens. I had some leftover canned tomatoes as well, and while I’m not usually a fan, I figured that they’re cooked sufficiently, so they would be okay. And actually, they were. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that I really do not like collard greens. Would not ever make again.

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First day of the semester!

Posted on January 14, 2008 by jodie

Yesterday my 8AM class professor sent out an email to make sure that we checked our email in the morning, in case she canceled class because of the impending big bad storm. While the weather report was looking pretty promising before I went to bed last night, I did not have much hope when I looked out the window:

But I checked my email anyway, since that’s what I do. I presume that my professor lives up near Hartford or something, because she mentioned a pile of snow outside her door in her class cancellation email. We have to be in class for an extra half hour tomorrow, but that will be okay.

With the fact that there was no actual snow on the ground in New Haven and there wasn’t an announcement yet about my 10AM class, I decided not to go back to bed. Instead, I decided to make waffles. Specifically, the Pumpkin Waffles from Vegan with a Vengence. Unfortunately, I did not bother to look up instructions for my waffle iron and I had never used it before, so they did not come out pretty. A picture was not taken, though it was eaten anyway.

Still with a bunch of time on my hands and no further class cancellations announced, I decided to make myself a nice lunch for later, rather than just throwing some food into a bag. I busted out the Laptop Lunch bento and went to town.

Salad with carrot, cucumber and red pepper; cherries; carrot sticks and salad dressing; and half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Also pictured is the water bottle with lemon water and my precious Diet Coke.

That leaves dinner. I bought some brussels sprouts at Trader Joe’s the other day, and found an awesome recipe to use for them in Veganomicon. The recipe there calls for an awful lot of oil, so I didn’t use quite as much, and I used blue cornmeal instead of standard because, well, wouldn’t you if you had blue cornmeal hanging around? The rice is simply one of those shelf-stable pre-made rices from Trader Joe’s, and I also made oven-fried tofu. All very good, but I put far too much on my plate. I’ll have to finish it tomorrow.

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2 vegan cupcakes, 1 frosting

Posted on January 13, 2008 by jodie

Tomorrow is the first day of classes for the spring semester, and a few of us are having an afternoon of board games to celebrate our last day of freedom. I’ve made some cupcakes, because that is what I do.

I flipped through Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, looking for a non-basic recipe that I had all of the ingredients for. Generally speaking, I make two batches for such occasions, and I’ve been branching out to one basic (chocolate or golden) and one fancy recipe. But I can’t stand the idea of making two frostings. I have a couple of cans of frosting that happen to be vegan tucked away on the top shelf of my cabinets in case there’s ever a frosting emergency, but I’d prefer not to have to use them. I decided that the cream cheeze frosting for the carrot cake cupcakes would work for both those and the chocolate cupcakes, and since I had all the ingredients for both, I went to work. The picture above is the carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheeze frosting and walnuts, below are the basic chocolate cupcakes with the same frosting and pink decorator’s sugar.

I’m sure that both will be tasty. The carrot cake cupcakes didn’t rise very well and seem suspiciously muffin-y to me, but I bet they’ll get eaten in spite of that.

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