Veg of the Week

 

...Tofu!

I was craving tofu,noodles, and sesame oil the other night. I ended up with something yummy andvegan. I made a pasta dish, including gluten free noodles, tofu browned in afrying pan, a few oils and seasonings, and fresh veggies. If you are cravingAsian- inspired comfort food that is still somewhat healthy...here's what youdo!

You will need onepackage of firm or extra firm tofu. Use half of the package and press it to getthe extra moisture out. Don't know how to do that? Just wrap the tofu inseveral paper towels to soak up the moisture, set it on a plate, and stack abunch of heavy books on top of the tofu for a few minutes to press all thatmoisture out. It will cook much nicer and have a good texture to it.

While you are doingthat, start your pot of water for noodles.

I used a cast ironpan, because... they are awesome! This is a fairly new discovery for me, soI've been cooking everything on cast iron. Put a small amount of olive oil (Iused the spray bottle version) on the pan, and also cover the pan with about1/2 -1 tsp sesame oil. Set you heat to medium and throw in some chopped freshveggies of your choice. I had a red jalapeno, an orange banana pepper, and ared bell pepper on hand, so that's what I used. Mushrooms are a great option toadd in.

Once your tofu hassat under the heavy books for a few, unwrap the tofu from the paper towel. Cutit into bite size strips and add to the pan with your veggies. It will brownnicely with the oil in the pan. I sometimes have to add a little extra oil soit doesn't stick to the pan.

When your waterstarts to boil, throw in about 3/4cup of gluten free noodles and followdirections for boiling on your noodles' container.

 

 

browning...

 

 

While everything is cooking, prepare the bowl you will eat this in. Add some splashes of soy sauce, sesame oil, a tsp of vegan butter, sriracha hot sauce, garlic, crushed red pepper, nutritional yeast, and anything else you may like, to taste. You can see a rough estimate of how much I added, here. Not too much really...just enough to barely cover the bottom of the bowl.

 

 

Then, prepare your strainer by putting a small handful of spinach in it. When your noodles are ready, pour them in the strainer with the spinach in it, to wilt to spinach.

 

 

When your tofu is browned, your noodles are al dente, and your bowl is prepped, throw everything in the bowl and stir.

 

This literally takes less than a half hour!!

 

And because this is a dog blog...here's what Shadow decided to "munch" on..

 

STUFFIES!!

 

 

Vegan comfort food and stuffie fun, ~Anna (&The Pooches)

Veg of the Week

 

...overdue. To be completely honest, I fell off the healthy eating wagon for a while. Now, I still maintained my exclusively vegetarian and vegan eating...I just wasn't eating healthy options. I noticed that when the healthy eating went away, it took my motivation, positive attitude, and energy along with it. And so began the cycle of needing the energy and motivation that healthy eating and exercise give you in order to be able to exercise and eat healthy. Hmpf. Luckily, a few things happened to jolt me back into where I need to be. First...my personal trainer friend who looks fabulous asked me to be in her wedding. This may be a frivolous reason to get back into my healthy habits, but... I want to look good if I'm going to be in a wedding! ;) The other helpful event was that a friend of mine is training for a half marathon. It got me thinking about when I ran one in 2010, and I started exercising. So now I'M signed up for a half marathon, on Oct 21, 2012!

Let me just say my mood is great, and I am getting that amazing internal sense of happiness and motivation back. As hard as it is to keep up with healthy habits, eating healthy and exercising really is essential to live the best life you can. And for me, eating more and more vegan foods makes me feel that much better. It feels like...eating with a purpose. I will look back to this blog post if I start to lose my motivation. 

 

Today I just want to share with you my lunch. I find my craving today peculiar... Although I am the type of person who would be content with summer weather all year- round, my appetite seems to be craving all that is Fall...

 

I couldn't resist a warm bowl of tomato-basil soup and a vegan grilled "cheese" sandwich.

 

The tomato basil soup was just a simple canned soup...200 calories for the whole can. The catch with tomato soup is that if its "Creamy" tomato, it can go up in calories by a lot.

 

For my sandwich, I used 100% whole grain bread, earth balance vegan butter, and Daiya brand vegan "cheese." I put a layer of spinach between the Daiya, because spinach is amazing.

 

 

If you look closely, you'll see the dog salt/pepper shaker.
No post is complete without dogs in it! :)

 

 I love this meal because not only is it good, it's fun to eat!

Perfect for dipping... mmm.

 

 

What vegan meals have you tried lately?

Are you ready for fall?

 

~Riding the healthy habits wagon, -Anna (&The Pooches)

 

Veg of the Week

...long overdue!

I've been eating a lot of the same things I have already blogged about on here before. Between that and just adjusting to my still somewhat new work schedule, Veg of the Week has been lacking.

I think I've posted about these chocolate cupcakes with almond buttercream icing before but...they are SO good I have to talk about them again. This is only the second time I've made them because the first time I made them I couldn't stop myself from eating 4 at once, which resulted in a big stomach ache :)

Messy cocoa powder and flour :)

These cupcakes and the icing are vegan. They are also made from scratch, which is fun to me because it feels like art!

The recipe is pretty easy. Like I said, I've posted it on here before, so I'll just give you the site to the original link on Ohsheglows.com. It's http://ohsheglows.com/2011/03/08/vegan-chocolate-cupcakes-with-vanilla-almond-frosting-and-raspberry-glaze/

Naked cupcakes!

I bought a very cheap, very non-Kitchen Aide stand mixer. It works for now. But one day... I WILL have my own Kitchen Aide stand mixer, maybe even a custom one!

Icing, mixer, and my very beat-up print-out of the recipe.

Fluffy icing! It was slightly hard to spread smoothly so I think next time I'll add a little more almond milk. The recipe stated 1.5-2 tbsp, and I did about 1.5.

Cute little cupcake all dressed up <3

*burp*

Next I made these fancy little things I found at the store today:

Eggplant fries! I saw a dish with battered eggplant at Olive Garden once...I didn't get it, but have wondered what battered eggplant would taste like ever since.

you just follow the directions on the bag... preheat oven to 400 degrees... lay fries out on a pan...bake for about 18min, turning once.

And...EAT!

I love ketchup.

These were pretty good. I don't find myself feeling like I've been missing out by not trying this sooner, but they definitely weren't bad. Anything I can dip in ketchup is good by me. Plus, I like that it's a twist on the traditional french fry and you don't get just one starchy vegetable- instead you get a mixture of flavors. So it's a fun change-up from the regular french fry.

What new recipes have you tried lately??

Hoping your week if full of flava! ~Anna (&The Pooches)

Veg of the Week

...yummy stuff!

I actually made this a few weeks ago. I found these vegan chick'n filets at the store and decided to try them out.

And I also found this at the store, and it had directions for how to "bread" chicken with it. So of course I had to use it for a vegan version!

I covered the vegan filets with a little olive oil to make sure the peanut mixture would stick, then dumped the peanut mix and filets into a bag and shook.

Then put them in a baking dish...

And then sprinkled the extra peanut mixture on top. Then I put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The filets didn't have baking instructions, stating that stovetop was the best way to cook them...but I decided to try it.

Meanwhile, I made brown rice and Quinoa.

The meal tasted very yummy, but the packaging definitely was right for not puting baking instructions for the product, because look how much moisture ended up in the pan after baking:

It really was very good still, but I was hoping for a dry breaded feel. I think next time I will try this with Quorn brand filets, because they do well being baked.

I put canned mushrooms and fresh green peppers in with the pan as well, which made for a fun variety of flavors. It was very good both served over brown rice and the quinoa. I'll let you know when I try it with the Quorn brand!

I had made this the same week as Spud's birthday. Here's what we got him for his present!:) Shadow got the pink toy because we didn't want her to feel left out of course.

~More fun with food, -Anna (&The Pooches)

Veg of the Week

...after an evening out.

Chad and I don't go out very often, but when we do, we try to have a lot of fun! We decided to go out last night. This morning, after a night of a few drinks and staying out late, I didn't feel my best. You only live once, right? Right...

So here's a sure fire way to re cooperate after a night out:

1. Wake up. Chug water.
2. Decide that cereal with almond milk and coffee is essential.
3. Drive to a grocery store with a Starbucks inside
4. Buy coffee, cereal, and the ingredients needed to make Oh She Glow's 15 minute olive-oil-pasta/ . This meal is also essential.
4. Sip coffee while driving home.
5. Chug more water....and coffee
6. Decide the pasta sounds better than cereal- go to the link for the pasta and make it in 15 minutes flat, because that's really all the time it takes.
7. Eat. Feel amazing. Conquer the day (well...at least get through the day! :) )



Please note: eating out of a cute bowl makes everything taste better.

I could seriously eat this pasta every day.

Click the link above to find the original recipe posting. The www.ohsheglows.com website is seriously amazing.

The recipe is easy to adapt to what you have in the house too. Here's what I did this morning:

Yield: 1 large serving or two small servings

Ingredients:1 serving (3oz) of your choice of pasta I used gluten free spirals

1/4 cup chopped walnuts, dry toasted I left this out because I didn't have it. The protein would be good though...

1/2 cup + 1-2 tbsp of your desired heat level salsa

1.5-2 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil

2-2.5 tbsp nutritional yeast (gives it a creaminess)

1-1.5 tbsp ketchup

1/2 tsp garlic powder, or to taste

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

Pinch red pepper flakes

1/4-1/2 cup chopped red pepper (optional) I used green pepper because it was half the price of a red pepper at the grocery store!

1/2 cup spinach

1/3 cup cooked lentils I left this out because lentils hurt my stomach sometimes. I was going to add chick peas because I had an open can in my fridge, but when I got it out I saw they had gone bad :( I also had an open can of artichoke hearts, so I tore a few up and tossed them in to the sauce. I like the texture it provided.

Directions as described from the recipe link:

1.Cook 1 serving of pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, grab a small pot and turn heat to medium. Add chopped walnuts to dry pot and lightly toast for a few minutes, being careful not to burn.

2. After toasting the walnuts, add in the rest of the ingredients (except for the spinach), to taste. Be careful as the walnuts will sizzle and may splatter when you add in the salsa.

Stir well and heat on medium-low for another 7-8 minutes.

3. Place spinach in a colander and rinse.

When pasta is cooked, remove from heat and pour onto the colander (with the spinach in it) and rinse lightly.

Drain and then add the spinach and pasta into the pot.

Now pour the sauce into the pasta and spinach and stir well.

Season to taste and adjust flavours if necessary.

You will be so happy you tried this recipe. I feel so much better today after following my night-out-recovery plan!

Don't forget, hugging your pooches also helps :)

~Having weekend fun, -Anna (&Chad &The Pooches)

Veg of the Week

...on the go.

I'm not saying it's good to always eat frozen meals.....but what I can say is that sometimes you just gotta make do, and there are some really cool vegan "on the go" options. Since this past week has been so much GO GO GO, I thought I'd share with you one way I made dinner quick, easy, and vegan.

Step 1: Stopped at the grocery store across the street from my work.
Step 2: Rushed inside and grabbed an Amy's frozen dinner.
Step 3: Microwave via directions.

...devoured food. :)

I found myself tired and lacking motivation, and also craving a tomato verde sauce smothered on something. I could have caved and bought a jar of tomato verde salsa and a bag of tortilla chips and eaten the entire contents of both, but I knew there was something better out there!

I had a faint memory of an Amy's brand burrito I had eaten a long time ago... I thought it was tomato verde related.....and it was! Score!
It is good even cooked in the microwave :)


And it's healthy! And vegan!


And in keeping with the "taking it easy" theme, that's all I got for ya. Goodnight :)
~Keepin' it simple and veg, -Anna (&And the Pooches)

Veg of the Week

...Muesli!

I was offered a new job a few weeks ago (YEA!) and took myself out to breakfast to celebrate.
I had heard of Muesli but didn't really know what it was. I saw it on the menu at the restaurant I went to, and thought it sounded good, so I ordered it!

(NOTE: I AM STARTING MY NEW JOB TOMORROW AND IT'S A BIG DEAL FOR ME! JUST SAYIN'....WISH ME LUCK...OR PRAY...OR WHATEVER!)

Doesn't it look so yummy?! The served it with vanilla yogurt.

After trying it, I couldn't wait to eat it again. So I looked around at the grocery store, and found Dorset brand cereals. Check them out here: http://www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/mueslis/

Once that was all gone, I wanted to try to make some because I knew I had a lot of the ingredients on hand. I found an easy recipe online, here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/muesli

Here's how easy their recipe is:

4 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ (I didn't have this so I just left it out)

1/2 cup wheat bran (I didn't have this either! So I used ground flax seed)

1/2 cup oat bran

1 cup raisins (I did a half cup of raisins and a half cup of dried cranberries)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I did a mix of cashews, pecans, and almonds)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (I didn't have these so I used Chia seeds!)

Mix it all up and store in an airtight container!

Then when you eat it, add in fresh fruit. I added many different fruits when I ate it. I like to eat this best with almond milk poured over it. I tried it with soy yogurt and then realized the soy yogurt still had dairy in it. FAIL. (note- read the labels if you want to try something non-dairy!)

Muesli with blueberries and strawberries...



Muesli at work....

Muesli with bananas!

Sorry...I am having some technical difficulties with Blogger....For some reason it is turning everything I type into hyperlinks and I cant post the pictures the way I want. I will try again in a bit...

~Anna (&The Pooches)