Fried Rice Collard Wraps

A while back I posted what is, in my opinion, the Best Fried Rice recipe. I've recently gotten into collard wraps and so I thought...well why not make that fried rice more portable and stick it in a roll!

Fried Rice Collard Wraps

1 batch fried rice with a few shakes of black toasted sesame seeds
1 bunch collard greens
olive oil
fresh lemon juice

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil.

2. Lay a collard leaf down on a cutting board with the more protruding underbelly side of the leaf facing up. Take a sharp knife and slice out the largest, toughest part of the stem. You'll go about half way up the leaf. Repeat with all the remaining leaves.

3. Once the water is boiling drop your collards into the pot and let them boil for about a minute or until they turn a bright green. Drain the leaves and run cool water over them.

4. Combine several Tbsp of oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Place a collard leaf on the cutting board. The side that is facing the cutting board will be the outside of your wrap.

5. Using a pastry brush lightly coat the leaf in the olive oil and lemon mixture. Arrange the leaf so that its a solid piece - remember you took out part of the stem so unless you arrange it there will be a gaping hole in the middle of your wrap.

6. Place a large dollop of fried rice towards the bottom of the leaf in the center portion of that bottom half. You will fold the wrap in the same way you fold a burrito. Fold the outer, vertical sides of the leaf over onto the rice and then grab the very bottom, horizontalish side and begin to roll up, tucking the vertical sides in as needed until it is fully rolled.

7. Repeat with remaining leaves and rice. Serve with garlic chili sauce.

Vegan Mofo: The Best Fried Rice and Chocolate Avocado Pudding

One of my favorite things to make is fried rice. It's easy, it's tasty and it's filling. The oils that I use in my fried rice were originally gathered by Alicia Silverstone in the Kind Diet but we differ on ingredients to go in the rice. This dish is great because it's customizable. You don't need to measure things, you don't have to follow a set of ingredients, just keep tasting till it tastes right! As with a lot of Asian dishes, I have found, a lot of knowing when the dish is done is based on smell. If you want your fried rice to have a saltier flavor, add more tamari till it smells salty. If you want it to be more vinegary add more vinegar until it smells like you have enough. Personally I prefer more salt to vinegar but to each his own.

Fried Rice for 2

1 cup basmati brown rice, cooked
3 organic carrots, sliced into rounds but not peeled
1/2 red onion, diced
1 portobella cap, cleaned and sliced
toasted sesame oil
brown rice vinegar
braggs liquid amino or tamari
(also consider things like peas, kale - which should be added at the same time as the rice, cabbage, daikon, adzuki beans or water chestnuts)

1. Heat about two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil in your cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and mushrooms. Sautee until the onions are getting translucent and the carrots and mushrooms have taken on a darker, saturated color - about 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Add the already cooked brown basmati rice. Stir the veggies and rice together to mix. Start adding your vinegar and tamari a little at a time. I tend to do about 1-2 tablespoons worth of tamari first, then about a teaspoon of vinegar. Taste.

3. Let the rice and veggies keep cooking until the carrots are soft but certainly not mushy. Keep seasoning as needed. I would guess that I use roughly 3 tbsp of tamari and perhaps 2 tsp of vinegar in all. Serve hot topped with sesame seeds, shriracha or just as is!

For dessert I have been somewhat obsessed with avocado pudding lately. I don't remember where I first saw it but I jotted down the ingredients from somewhere and then just finally got around to making it. SO GOOD!



Oh were you expecting a picture of it? I ate it all....

Avocado Pudding

2 ripe avocados
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp carob or chocolate powder

1. Put it all in a blender. Blend. Eat.

This dessert is so simple and so tasty. Everyone I have made it for, and I have made both carob and chocolate, agree that it has so much more complexity and character than your standard pudding, while still satisfying that fat-kid desire to finish (or start) the meal with a Snack Pack.

Vegan Mofo: Early Fall Avocado Kale Salad

You know those first few days when it first starts to get blustery and the first few leaves begin to shift in color? That time of year is certainly upon us! Soup! Boots! Hot Tea! Everything to get excited for. But I must admit, the end of summer has it's sadness too. The saddest part of summer ending for me is the disappearance or scarcity of some of my favorite summer eats like sweet corn, tomatoes and avocados.

While I'll admit I eat avocados all year round, like its my job, like its going out of style, like your mama gave you...wait that doesn't work....they have a tendency to get, shall we say, poopy after the summer months. So as my last hurrahs of summer come to an end I have been adding in the last of the summer avocados to my salads, sammies and puddings.

This salad is a massaged kale salad. That is, you wont SEE the avocado because it's been used as a massage oil to slap the kale into a more digestible and palatable form.

Massaged Avocado and Kale Salad

1 cup chopped and washed kale, tough end of stems removed
1 cup chopped and washed chard
2 ripe avocados
2 ripe red plums, sliced
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup golden raisins
2 tbsp chia seeds

1. Place the greens in a large bowl. Scoop both avocados out of their shells and into the bowl. Add the lemon juice. Use your hands to massage the avocado into the kale until the greens are soft and dark green. This takes several minutes.

2. Top the salad with plums, raisins and chia seeds. Sprinkle a touch or salt and pepper if desired.

Roasted Sherry Portobellos

Portobellos are a wonderful thing. They can also be an annoying thing because they seem to have made it on the list of "what vegetarians/vegans eat" along with hummus and oreos. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with any of those. It's just that..one gets tired of eating the same few staples at every party, bbq and restaurant.

Nevertheless, I still love a good roasted shroom. This week I bought the caps with the intention of experimenting a bit. Thanksgiving is right around the corner it seems and this year I was thinking of adding a portobello to my list of things I will slave over and probably be the only one to eat (Little do they know I'm ok with that! All the treats for me!) during the feast.

Pre vegetarian/vegan Lacey was a nut for meat. Especially turkey. I've been contemplating what to cook that will satisfy all my taste cravings. My family has a tradition of making Drunk Turkey. Every year we buy bottles of sherry and baste and baste and baste the poor turkey until the house is full of the sweet smell of syrupy alcohol.

So here it is - Test One of Sherry Shrooms

1/2 cup sherry
2 tbsp each of Tamari, olive oil and balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
the juice of half a lemon

Whisk all the ingredients together.

Place the 3 to 4 cleaned caps in a casserole facing up, gills exposed, and spoon half of the sherry mixture into the caps and pour the rest into the bottom of the dish so both sides of the mushrooms get coated. Marinate for half an hour.

Heat the oven to 400. Roast, covered with a lid or aluminum foil for half an hour. Flip the caps over and roast for another 15 minutes or so, uncovered. Serve hot or let them cool and slice them.

These portobellos turned out well but more work must be done. The sherry was actually a bit overpowering. I will be trying them again soon but they worked wonderfully in the sandwich I had for lunch.


Sherry Portobello Sammy with Lemony Spinach and Basil Pesto

Vegan Mofo: Black Bean Zucchini Patties

Hey everyone, it's MOFO time! As I mentioned in a previous post I will only be blogging about vegan food this month so all my Buddhism, relationship, yoga talk will have to be put on hold. But for now, let's talk about food!



These patties are an adaptation from a Whole Living recipe. The patties were meant to be a twist on falafel I believe but I chose to make them more Mexican inspired by switching out the beans, adding spices and changing the topping and of course I veganized it.


1 zucchini
half of a red onion
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs*
2 tbsp ground flax seed whisked with 3 tbsp warm water
salt and cracked pepper to taste
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
fresh spinach
pita bread cut into halves
several tbsp roasted corn salsa



To make the patties:

1. Throw the black beans in a large bowl and with a potato masher or sturdy fork mash the black beans down until it forms a paste. Having some whole or partially uncrushed black beans is just fine.

2. In a food processor (or by hand if you want to go all natural!) shred the zucchini and red onion.

3. Add the shredded veggies, cup of breadcrumbs, whisked flaxseeds and spices to the black bean bowl. Use your hands to mix everything together well and then form the mixture into 8 patties.

4. Heat enough oil to coat the bottom of your skillet (cast iron! I can't tell you enough how awesome cast iron is for this kind of stuff) over medium heat. Fry each patty until its brown and crisp on both sides then remove them to a plate.

5. Stuff each pita with fresh spinach or green of your choice. Place a patty on top of the spinach and serve with salsa.

To take the patties to go I found it better to slice them in half and then wrap them in a whole wheat wrap with the spinach, reserving the salsa on the side until you're ready to eat the sandwich.

* To make breadcrumbs place several slices of stale whole grain bread in the food processor and then pulse until the bread is reduced to crumbs. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until toasted, at 400 degrees.

Cherry Lemonade

Hello Blog Readers!

I know I have been MIA for a while but the works are demanding a lot of my time these days. Don't fret though, I have lots of fun stuff to share! This post features a recipe AND two of my newly acquired old treasures.

I may have mentioned before that Katie and I order a weekly produce box from Argancia. We get a bounty of fresh, local goodies every Sunday (except this Sunday because they shipped our box to someone else, grrrrr) which means lots of yummy food to be made! Last week we got these local Virginia cherries in the box and, unlike their slightly larger, plumper cousins the Bing, these cherries were a little less sweet than I had hoped.

Never to be daunted, I decided to make them into lemonade! If you've made lemonade from scratch before there really isn't much to it and adding the cherries is just one extra step. Make the lemonade the day before you go to the beach or have a cookout so it has lots of time to chill in the fridge.



Cherry Lemonade

3/4 cups sugar
1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
1 full cup cherries
4 cups cold water

1. Put the sugar and a cup of water in a saucepan over low or medium heat. Stir it often. While you're doing this take your freshly washed cherries and pluck the stems out and then slit them in half. No need to pull them apart or pit them.
2. Plop your cherries in the pot with your dissolving sugar and stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and you have a simple syrup.
3. Strain the cherries out but reserve your syrup of course!
4. Combine the cold water, syrup and lemon juice in a pretty little pitcher and mix. Refrigerate until it's time to serve it.



The tea cup in the pictures was part of a house warming present from Pang, isn't it cute?! The small turquoise table cloth is something I bought yesterday at On a Whim in Leesburg. If you haven't been there you really really have to go. They have amazing stuff and I will be posting about some of the other goodies we saw there soon!

Vegan Pecan Pumpkin Muffins

Mama Lori was kind enough to make these little treats for me the other morning. USUALLY I'm not a big fan of having bumps in my muffins unless its of the chocolate variety. But, to my surprise and delight (I get excited about my tastes maturing) I really enjoyed these. And I enjoyed them even more the next day when they had developed that slightly tacky texture on top. You know the texture I'm talking about? No?



She presented the muffins to me in this delightful and very familiar little tin. I picked this tin of cookies or biscuits as they are called out for Lori while we were in Paris. I've talked about La Cure Gourmande in previous posts. Love their design work.

Makes 12
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs (egg replacer plus water)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 to 1 tsp cloves
1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/3 cup water
chopped pecans

1. Prepare the vegan egg replacer according to the package. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Mix together the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat together the sugar, oil and eggs. Add the water. Add the dry mix.
4. Fold in the chopped pecans and pour into muffin tins.
5. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Serve with pumpkin butter or a bit of maple syrup!

Carotte Rapée

Few things say France to me like carott rapée. Kids eat it, adults eat it, maybe even the French feral street kittens eat it. It's that popular. The markets of France are always equipped with long bodied, green topped carrots (it's carotte in French) for the eatin'. This week while I was at the Common Market (returning some what I thought would be vegan nutella - which turned out to be crushed hazelnut butter that was all runny and gritty and tasted nothing like chocolate despite the label boasting that it was chocolate hazelnut spread) I saw these beautiful, vibrant red carrots. I didn't NEED them but I felt I NEEDED them. So they came home with me.


And then I was at a loss for what to do with them that would let them shine. And then I thought - if my time in France has taught me anything it's that a single vegetable can be considered a meal because.....well just because i guess. Pumpkin soup, beet salad, avocados eaten with a little balsamic vinegar, leek quiche, you get the idea.

Carotte Rapée can be made lots of different ways but in the end its all pretty similar and pretty darn simple



Carotte Rapée for 4

5 to 6 large carrots, peeled and then grated
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and mustard until well combine. Pour over the grated carrots and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy.



While the French will heartily chow down on this simple side with nothing but a fistful of bread, I have found that it also works well on sandwiches, on top of salads, and even thrown into a burrito or taco. Any way you choose to eat it, it's pretty great!

Chop Mexican Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

I've been a bad blogger. I apologize. Here is me trying to get back on the horse. So recently I subscribed to Vegetarian Times magazine. Great mag with lots of healthy, quick meals. For those of you that got the July/August magazine you might remember this recipe. I changed aspects of it to suit my taste, but the credit certainly goes to VT on this meal.

I've been trying to eat more veggies lately. I came to the sad discovery that multivitamins aren't inherently vegetarian. I don't know why I thought they would be, but then I was in the Common Market looking at vitamins and noticed they had a bunch marked vegetarian and vegan. Huh....so I did some research. No more Centrum for me. And hey, here is an idea...why not get my vitamins and minerals from a good diet. Yes!



Mexican Chopped Salad

Salad:
1 small head of romaine, sliced
1/2 bunch spinach, stems removed, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 avocados, diced
1/2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and then sliced
the corn cut from one fresh cob, raw
1 can black beans
several large pieces of roasted red pepper, sliced
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 cup broccoli or alfalfa sprouts

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
juice from one lemon and one lime
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
pinch cayenne pepper


1. Heat the oil, garlic, cumin, coriander, sugar and salt in a saucepan for until the garlic begins to sizzle.
2. Blend the remaining dressing ingredients with the garlic oil. Blend in a blender if you want it to be smooth (I left it chunky)
3. Toss over the chopped salad




I gave this salad to a few friends without the dressing a few days later and the veggies had marinated to the point where they even liked it with no dressing at all. If you want the salad to last a few days keep the avocado on the side and just top each bowl with it rather than putting it in the whole mixture.

Vegan Pot Pie

Pot Pie...oh pot pie. When you decide to cut out meat and dairy your brain immediacy jumps to all the things you can't have. "Are you serious?! No alfredo? No cheese fries? No cheesesteaks?"

And then a few weeks go by and a month or two and then you realize: Hey, I can still have those things if I really want them! And they still taste great. Want the proof? I took this pot pie over to Pang and Robin's (a pesca-vegetarian and a meat eater) and afterwards Pang said she had "meat pot pie stomach" and Robin took a bite and for a split second she thought I had "tricked" her into eating meat.

There you have it - meat eaters and veggies alike will love this.



Vegan Pot Pie

1 pack of 4 Fieldroast Apple and Sage Wheat sausages, sliced (so good!)
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup yellow onion, diced
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced
1 can sweet corn, drained and rinced
3/4 tsp thyme, minced
3/4 tsp sage, minced
3/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp tamari soy sauce
2-4 tbsp canola oil
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup vegan margarine (Earth Balance)
1 puff pastry sheet rolled out to by 12x10 inches

1. In a small sautee pan brown the wheat sausages with 1 tablespoon canola oil. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the from pan and set them aside.
2. Next make a roux. To make a roux, melt the vegan margarine in a saute pan over low heat, add flour little by little and whisk constantly until light brown in color and thickened. Set aside to cool. Put the veg stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
3. In a 5.5 qt. stock pot, cook the onions in canola oil for 3 minutes then add the carrots, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add already boiling stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Whisk in nutritional yeast flakes.
Add the roux a bit at a time and continue to cook as sauce begins to thicken. Stir in sausages, tamari and corn. Pour the mixture into a large shallow pan to cool. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
4. Once the mixture is cool, pour into individual ramekins, glass pie pan or small casserole dish. Cover mixture with puff pastry (be sure to leave a small excess of pastry for folding and fluting of the edge) and seal edges. Cut small slits.
Bake for 35 min or until the top is nice and brown and the insides are bubbling though the slits in the crust.

Spicy Hummus Wontons

Over the past few weeks I have been making these little guys for lunch for Ryan and myself - experimenting with different flavored hummus, different folding of the wonton skins, and different toppings - so now I am ready to share them.



The idea is pretty simple. Put little spoonfuls of hummus onto flat squares of wonton skin, fold, fry, and eat!

Spicy Hummus Wontons

Roasted Red Pepper and Jalapeno Hummus
Wonton skins (they usually come in a pack of 100 so perhaps use a 1/4th at a time and freeze the rest for the future)
Extra virgin olive oil
Cayenne Pepper
Shriracha

1. Using your brand new cast iron skillet (oh wait you don't have one? get one! or use what you have i suppose...) pour enough oil into the skillet so that the bottom is covered with a thin layer. Heat over medium heat.

2. Here is how you make them. Use a cookie sheet or a large cutting board and cover it with wax paper. Lay out as many wontons as you can handle (I usually do 12) and put a small spoonful of hummus on each square.


3. Fill a small bowl with water. Dip your finger into the water and gently trace the outline of half the square.


4. Fold each square in half and fold the top two corners down towards the straight edge. They should look like this.


5. When the oil is hot place as many wontons as will fit in the pan without them touching into the skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until they are crispy and brown. Remove from the skillet and transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Repeat the process with any remaining wontons.


6. Serve with Shriracha and cayenne pepper and even a little more hummus for dipping.


Enjoy!

Lemon Blueberry Muffins - revisited

For those of you who are regular readers you are probably thinking its time for me to close up shop and move on with my life. Wait...she's doing lemon blueberry muffins again? Didn't she just do those like 2 weeks ago. Yes, but wait! These are different I promise. Here is why. First...




I got this lovely little antique citrus juicer! I used one of these in France and kinda fell in love with it and decided my life would not be complete until I had one of my own.



Another reason these muffins are different is because this time I decided to go vegan. And for those of you who are about to poo poo this - taste testers (ie the boys I live with who don't have a preference between vegan and non-vegan muffins) have confirmed that the vegan ones are better.



The basic base for these muffins came from the book Vegan Yum Yum, but she made Lemon Cranberry Muffins. Which would have been cool too but I had blueberries. This is the first recipe from her book that I have tried (even though I tweaked several thinks) and now I can't wait to try more!


Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins (12 muffins)

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
the zest from 1 lemon
1 cup plain soy milk
the juice from 1 lemon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 small carton blueberries, rinsed and dried
1 tbsp raw sugar



1. Preheat the oven to 400 F and line your muffin tin with paper liners or grease them.
2. In a large bowl mix together your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, cornstarch, and lemon zest.
3. In a 2 cup liquid measuring cup mix together the soy milk, vegetable oil, vanilla, almond, and lemon juice.
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until almost combined.
5. Toss the blueberries in a bowl with the raw sugar, then add them to the batter and mix everything together until its just combined.
6. Fill the muffin tins. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Using a knife, pop each muffin out of its tin and either place it on a rack to cool or turn the muffins slightly sideways in the tin to prevent soggy bottoms.

Vegan Oreo Cupcakes

So recently I bought myself the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World book...and I love it. These were my first project from the book and I can't wait to try more. I took a cupcake over to my brother who is deathly afraid of the word vegan and even HE loved it. Just a few days later we made a double batch together (its hard to bake with him because he eats them all before they can get frosted!). So...vegans and non vegans alike will love these and I highly recommend the book and I will keep you posted on further experiments!

Vegan Oreo Cupcakes
Makes 12

1 cup soymilk
1 tsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (I like lemon juice myself)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped oreos

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line your muffin pans (I did big ones the first time and minnie the second time)
2. Whisk together the soy milk and lemon (or vinegar) in a big bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat until the mixture is foamy. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, the cocoa powder and the salt. Add in two batches to the wet ingredients and beat until there are no large lumps. Add the oreos.
3. Fill your liners and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Move the cupcakes to a wire rack and let them cool completely.

Oreo Frosting
1/4 cup non-hydrog shortening
1/4 cup non-hydrog margarine (Earth Balance is a good one and they come in baking sticks!)
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup plain soy milk
1/2 cup crushed oreos

Beat the shortening and margarine together until fluffy. Add the sugar and beat 3 more minutes. Add the vanilla and soymilk and beat 5 more minutes. Add the oreos. Spread!

Red Lentil Vegetable Curry

Know what these little guys are?

How about now? Ok so you probably didn't need to guess since the answer is right in the title. That's right! Red lentils!

Missing my Kazu curries while I was in France, I made this dish a couple times and now that I'm a little homesick for said France - Im making it again. This curry can be done with any veggies and Im sure it will still turn out great - it would also be good with brown lentils - but I wouldn't really mix it with green lentils.

Lentil and Veggie Curry

1 soup spoon of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1-2 tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 cup of red lentils
14oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 1/2 cups veg stock
1 tsp chili paste (or skip it if you dont like it too spicy)
1 pound potatoes, cubed
1/2 a head of broccoli, cut into florets
garnish: cilantro, plain vegan yogurt



1. In a big sauce pan heat the oil over medium low heat and then add the onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, curry, chili powder and the carrots and cook for 5 minutes or just until the onion is soft.
2. Incorporate the lentils, tomatoes and the vegetable stock. Bring everything to a boil then reduce the heat, cover, and let the curry simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add the chili sauce (if using), along with the potatoes and broccoli - cook 15 to 20 minutes more or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Serve the curry over rice, quinoa, or cous cous. Top with a bit of fresh cilantro or some vegan yogurt