bagel dogs

woo! bagel dogs tonight!

on the way back from boston, we stopped at one of the masspike stops and all there was was a mc donalds, ben and jerrys, honeydew dougnuts, and a pretzel place. the pretzel place had prezel dogs, and it reminded me of my childhood favorite treat...the bagel dog.

so i set off on to create a veggie recipie for one...

remembering that i'm an eyeballer, you can adjust the recipie to suit your needs. Hope you're familiar with making yeast things...

Bagel Dogs

2 c flour
1/2 c water
spoon of sweetner of choice
pinch or so of salt
1/2 teaspoon of yeast

some vegan hot doggies

Mix everything minus the flour in a bowl and let the yeast do its thing. Mix in flour and knead into a nice dough. Let it rest for a bit and then divid into 4-5 hunks. Roll out into a rectangle and roll up a hot doggie in each--bagel dog style. You can boil them for a couple minutes if you want, or you can just pop them in the oven (I did, I'm lazy) and bake at 400 or so until toasty golden done. Then eat with lots of good mustard. OHH. bagel doggie heaven.

i gave up on the camera option (unless you want to send me one...). I will be drawing in the awesome program PAINT all the junk I make now. But really, a picture is a picture, drawn by me or not.

Back from Boston

now that i'm back and the cat has had her fill of snuggles, i'm online. woo.

i ate way too many bagels this weekend. it was like the only vegan thing places had. on top of that, there was only butter or cream cheese for them, so they were dry bagels. i thought (ha ha ha) boston was veg-friendly, but now i learned my lession: pack my own damn food.

we did go to a cafe were i ordered the most awesome of hummus wraps and some soup. it was the only "vegitarian" place on the list of places to eat. the holiday inn failed me of complimentary internet, so i stocked up a little at trader joes and ate bagels. it wasn't a healthy healthy weekend, but it wasn't bad. i just finished off the cabbage in my fridge, which reminds me of why my home is my favorite place to eat at. i don't have to wonder whats in stuff or get the "crazy" look when i ask about foods having eggs or milk stuff in it ("well, i don't think it does"....pause...."isn't there an ingrediant list you could check?"....huffy...."okay, hang on") dude, i'll scan the ingrediant list for you, if it's too much. actually, i would prefere it that way!

now, like the cat, i believe it is nap time. no fun plans but going back to classes this week. i'm joining the co-op next weekend and i have my first meeting-thing! wooo!

sushi

i'm not sure if i have a post about sushi, but it worth raving about. then i'll tell you about my new favorite book, vegan with a vengance!

sushi: a simple nori roll stuffed with avacado. i bought 5 over the weekend and, well, i do love avacados but this is getting to be a bit much. so i'm making avacado rolls. sushi is very easy to make with a little practice and really impresses people for some reason.

vegan with a vengance: i love this book. i've made a ton of recipies out of it. the other day, the gf and i had some fronch toast and it was CREEPY like how i remember french toast being. yumm.

i spent some time procrastinating and checking out some of the other vegan blogs, very awesome. it makes me want a digital camera. my roommate and gf have one, but they never are around when i want to take a picture. interesting.

i'll be in boston this weekend for a conferance. let me tell you that i don't care about the conferance as much as the ABUNDANCE of vegan/veggie places in boston to stuff my face at. the idea of going into a place and not getting a strange look asking if the bagels have egg in them (eh, peaches cafe).....

(edit) look at the friendly avacado roll i made! i had soo much avacado left over that i just ate it. carrots make a clever little nose, but i didn't add carrots to my avacado rolls. they weren't avacado-carrot rolls, after all.

rice is nice

i recieved my copy of vegitarian times in the mail yesterday at school. as i looked through it, i found their section on casseroles and noticed an "indian" inspired dish with chickpeas, rice, and spices. getting home, i knew what i was making for lunch. however, not being one to "follow" recipies, i just started wing'n it.

first, i put a scoop of rice in the rice cooker. ta da! i love my rice cooker, mostly because it can cook all kinds of grains and crap because it has a time based on weight or something, so it knows when the water is absorbed or whatever. next, i heated some mustard seed in a little oil until it pop pop popped, and added that. Next, one diced onion, cooked in a little oil until clear, went in the pot. Add one diced up carrot, a small handful of currents, some ginger and cumin, and we're set. Oh, wait, now we're not. chickpeas! but, not being a big fan of the canned bean, i discovered i didn't have any in storage for such emergencies. never fearing trying something, i tossed in half a scoop of chana dalh into the cooker. add some water and turn it on. ta da, a while later it popped. let sit a while to finish absorbing moisture and discover it needed a little more spices and cook time. that's fine, add half a cup of water and turn it back on. finish with some salt and roasted cashews, and it was (still is, since i have more leftovers!) in my fridge.

delish!

and everyone send their warm wishes and love to my friend caseface, who decided to go veggie! she really likes meat and it will be challenging for her she says, but she realized that she loved animals and doesn't want to eat them!

Frozen Veggies

Last night I made a stir fry with some frozen veggies I had. For some reason, I feel like I don't eat enough veggies so I'm making an effort to eat more of them. Then I think about it and I'm not sure what I really eat. Beans and carbs....yumm. And lots of fruit.

But I don't really like frozen veggies. Some, like potatos and butternut squash, work well. Corn is also fine. But I really like my veggies fresh so I can put them in salads or eat them raw. But it costs too much to have a nice variety of fresh vegs unless i eat and eat and eat them up. Being a single vegan, its a bit much.

Still I have a freezer full of veggies and I eat them. I don't like them reheated though. Poor things. Tell me what to do with zee frozen veggies.

a french dinner...

so the graduate student org on campus was giving out french composer series piano tickets for free! i snagged a couple tickets for tonight and plan on taking my special lady, but i thought it would be fun to make a "date" of it--complete with a fancy french (homecooked!) dinner.

needless to say, i didn't manage to find anything really french to make. i found a recipie for french dips using portabello mushrooms (yumm....shrooms...) but we thought it sounded too good to wait and made it the other night!

so, needless, i decided to combine elegant dishes with simple, heart satifying dishes. here is what i have planned and cooked for tonight.

great northern bean, garlic, and wine spread on wholegrain crackers
this is an adaptaion of the recipie veganlunchbox put together for the "valentines" day menu in satya magazine. basically, i had 1/3 of the stuff needed and improvised. it's delish though.

great northern bean and roasted garlic soup
this is taken from vegan with a vengance. except she uses a different bean. you can see the bean theme today, i pressure cooked a HUGE batch of gn beans this morning...ohh! must eat them up. haven't tried it yet, but it looks good. don't try putting it in the food processor, it will make a mess. i promise.

mini pizza with tempeh, veggies, and whatever i find
pizza is a classic favorite of mine, so why not mimic the pizza joint down the street and make some heart shaped pizza? i made a double batch of tempeh snasage crumbles (from v.w.a.v.) and just love putting them on homemade crust with sauce, tofutti cream cheese, peppers and onions, and some nurti-yeast. delish.

chocolate pudd'n with organic wildberry preserves
also from v.w.a.v. last time we made it (the way the recipie is writen) with the arrowroot it was like rubber. so i tried it with some cornstarch this time, so we'll see. i topped it with wildberry preserves. i don't know why, but it seemed fancy.

A squashy dinner

One of my comfort foods is potatos. Well, fried hashbrown potatos. When the day is crappy and I can't muster up the effort to make a cake or something nice for dinner, I make hashbrowns.

Here is a "revision" of hashbrowns that offers a bit more...nutrition...and less fat than normal "tasty" hashies. Well, these are tasty too.

Squashy Hashbrowns with Spicey tempeh crumbles

Get some frozen hashbrown potatos (the square cut) and some frozen chopped squash.
The Spicey tempeh I made is from Vegan with a Vengance, the most awesome cookbook I own. Get it and make some, or make "sausage" style tempeh crumbles. Or whatever.

Spray pan with some oil (I use a misto--it's awesome). Add veggies until content and some tempeh. This is all just whatever amount you want. I usually do 1/2 taters and 1/4 the other two things. Salt and pepper if ya like, and cook on low heat until hashbrowned. You might want to add a smidgin of water to it and leave a lid on your pan, since the squash is a bit thick and takes a bit of time to defrost and cook.

But this stuff it great. I love squash and tempeh together.