Day Off!

So today is my fantastic day off. I spent my morning being pretty lazy and watched a movie while eating my power breakfast. My power breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. It is simply grape nuts, some Bob's Honey Granola, a piece of fruit cut up and a spoonful of sunflower seed butter. One day I'll post a picture but I keep forgetting because I get so excited about eating it. I did also decide to experiment with making a Seaweed Salad. Since I'm staying in Oakland watching my friends dog, I have to take a new bus to work and it goes right through Chinatown so I decided to stop and check out the seaweed selection.

I found a bag of dried and stringy seaweed in a corner store for a dollar and decided I should give it a try. I have no clue what kind it is since I can't read chinese but it looked like it would work and was such a small investment. Next I got home and put my seaweed in some water to hydrate it. After it was soft, I put enough for me to eat in a small mason jar. I would say approximately 2 cups of seaweed. The rest I kept to the bare minimum.

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame seed oil
Black sesame seeds for garnish (I ran out of my tan ones)

Considering the seaweed smelled like the bottom of a lake before I added the other ingredients, I was pleasantly surprised by the final product. I added everything, shook it up in my mason jar and had it for lunch an hour later.

Mockery Creme Brulee

So I have a bit of a sweet tooth and my absolute favorite dessert is creme brulee or a simple egg custard. So I found a very simple recipe for Vegan Creme Brulee.

1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk

¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1/8^th teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons vegan milk of choice (I chose coconut)

4 Tablespoons + 1 ½ teaspoons corn starch

3 Tablespoon light brown sugar

4 Tablespoons vanilla sugar 

Mix together ¼ cup of the coconut milk with the granulated sugar, salt, vanilla extract, coconut milk, and cornstarch.

Next heat up the remaining coconut milk and the brown sugar on medium heat on the stove and add the mixture slowly. It should start to thicken.

Finally put it in ramekins or mason jars or a bowl etc and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours or until firm.

For the crispy top you can either  sprinkle the custard with sugar and then take a torch to it or if your container is safe for the over, you can sprinkle it with sugar, turn the oven on broil and place it on a pan close to the top to burn it. You just want a quick scorch. You don't want to cook the whole thing. I didn't do either. I lack a torch and over safe ramekins. The final product is more like a coconut pudding rather than creme brulee. Also, the coconut flavor of the pudding chills out over the next day or so. I've also been eating it with little bites of peanut butter. You can mix in chocolate chips (Trader Joe's makes vegan ones.), toasted coconut, little marshmallows, almonds etc.

French Toast Fail

Every Saturday morning my boyfriend and I make French Toast. We've been doing this for about 7 months now so when I decided to try being vegan we actually had a conversation about french toast. At first I said I would just eat oatmeal and he could still make his french toast. Then I found an simple recipe to make vegan french toast and he said he would try it. So here it is-

1 banana

1 cup coconut or almond milk

1 Blender

6 slice of bread (we used 3 vegan nut bread slices for me and 3 classic white bread slices for him)

We put the banana and the coconut milk in the blender and pureed it until it had the same consistency as normal french toast batter. You are free to add more or less of either one depending on your personal taste.

Now the hard part. We set the burner on medium low and adjusted from there as needed. When you lay down the bread on the pan make sure you give it time to brown on the bottom without burning it. I am a premature flipper and would lose half the banana batter on the pan. 

I personally like the nut bread because it has more structural integrity. The white bread acts like a sponge and sucks up everything and you have to be very careful not to destroy it. My boyfriend also didn't like the fact that the middle stays a little soggy. He wants it completely dry all the way through. I don't mind the moisture. Even with normal french toast I think he tends to overcook it to the point of it being like dry toast. 

So in an attempt to fix the soggy bread dilemma for my boyfriend, we decided to improvise and make the batter thicker by adding flour. I don't know why but we thought this would keep the white bread from absorbing as much of the batter but it didn't. This was flawed logic. The flour ruins the taste in my opinion and doesn't help at all. In fact the middle was soggier. Before it tasted like banana bread. Now it tasted like flour. I think my boyfriend liked the flour. It was hard to tell. It didn't fix the soggy middle. Kudos to my boyfriend for trying something vegan with me. I personally like the original recipe of just banana and coconut milk. My boyfriend needs his eggs. 

Back in the Saddle

It has been a few months since I've really done anything artistic besides the homework that my teachers gave me. So yesterday I started working on a new cartoon. All I've really managed to do is create my two main characters. Since the last cartoon I made had so many scenes, I wanted to focus on something that had a single location.

I like the bug the best.

Leftovers

Today's recipe was inspired by the fact that I have some Pearl Tomatoes and Cilantro in my fridge that need to be used today. I also tend to keep cans of beans and frozen corn in my kitchen to quickly toss in any variety of dishes like salads and quinoa.  I now present to you...

 Lazy Girl's Corn and Black Bean Salad (serves 4)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tbsps olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white sugar

1/2 tsp black pepper (ground)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

12 tsp old bay seasoning or chili pepper

3 tbsps fresh cilantro (chopped) 

15 Pearl Tomatoes or 3 regular tomatoes

1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)

1/2 bag frozen sweet corn (drained) 

The whole thing takes 15-20 minutes to prepare and then you let it sit overnight.

 Mix together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, white sugar, black pepper, ground cumin and old bay seasoning.

Next add the chopped cilantro. Then chop and add your tomatoes. I would go ahead and give it a good mix now so you can start to cover everything.

Next drain and rinse your beans and add them to the mix and finally add your corn. You are free to change the proportions of everything.

Add more corn if you want more corn, I pretty certain I added alot more than 3 tbsps of cilantro because I love cilantro. If you hate cilantro then skip it. Just make sure if you are subtracting something that you replace it with more of another ingredient. Or add a new ingredient. I'm sure some red peppers might taste nice. That's the great part about cooking. You can fly by the seat of your pants and experiment with what you like. And the best part it it is totally vegan.

Nabeyaki Udon

Holy Vegan Diet Batman! This is awesome!

So I'm a little excited about this recipe for a few reasons. The first is that it is vegan and tasty so I don't feel deprived.  The second is I got to play with some new vegetables and some that I'm already a huge fan of. The third is I think this is something I can very easily make at work by putting all of the ingredients in a mason jar and then adding hot water during my break. So first, let me give you the ingredients of the original recipe and then my modifications in parenthesis.

1 dried shitake mushroom (I couldn't find dried so I used fresh.)
1 tablespoon maitake mushrooms (yeah, those were $13 and I already have white mushrooms in my fridge that I need to use so I used those.)

Sauce

2-4 tsp shoyu (aka soy sauce)
3-4 tbs water from the shitake mushrooms (I used water)
5-8 drops ginger juice (I used the Ginger People brand. I <3 their products)
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice or rice vinegar

Vegetables

1 carrot cut into bite size pieces (I used shredded carrots and broccoli slaw from Trader Joe's to save on time)
1 stalk broccoli cut into bite size pieces (see above)
1 leek cut into bite size pieces, white and green part
1 baby bok choy
1 handful bean sprouts
2-3 napa cabbage leaves or collards roughly chopped (I used Savoy cabbage)
4-6 Dandelion Greens, roughly chopped (I couldn't find any but I'll keep my eyes open next time I'm at the farmer's market)
1" piece of kombu

1 package of Udon Noodles (I could only find Chow Mein)

So the first thing I did was start chopping my vegetables.

After I chopped each one I would throw it into a large bowl. The broccoli slaw was super easy since it is already shredded. The leeks were fun because I've never actually cut up a leek. I got the pre-trimmed leeks from Trader Joe's so I think that took out most of the leg work and margin of error. I did some mild internet research on my phone but mostly just chopped them up like shallots. I added in some extra bok choy and cabbage because I personally love both of them.

Next I got my veggies and my noodles on the stove to boil. The veggies cooked super quick (2-3 minutes). I could probably do a little less time when I do this again. I did want a little bit more crunch but what it ended up being was still super delicious and not mushy or soggy.

Finally I made the sauce. Super quick and easy.

So technically there is a whole keeping the noodles, veggies and sauce separate and doing a dipping thing.

I decided to mix everything together and just made a simple soup.

I think it's really good. The sauce adds a little salty flavor but not too much. So I think it was a successful dinner and in the future will be a successful lunch if I put the udon noodles in the bottom of the mason jar, chopped veggies on top, add the sauce and then at work add the hot water.

Vegan She-ro

So here I am on day 7 of being vegan. This has been an interesting journey. It has been a lot easier than I expected it to be. I think mostly because I already make some vegan choices in my life that I just didn't realize were vegan. For example, I don't drink milk. I use coconut milk for everything and have even gotten my boyfriend into coconut milk too. I also started using more super foods a few months ago so one of my favorite lunches is a Vegan Burrito Bowl previously referred to in my world as just Burrito Bowl. I also started a quest to add more fruits and vegetables into my life. The hard part is not cutting out the obvious animal products like milk, cheese and lamb(Actually, that's a lie. I love cheese. RIP Cheese). Now its finding the hidden milk derivatives on package labels. This has also brought about the rule that if I don't know what 3 of the ingredients are then I probably should not be eating it. Luckily in San Francisco we have a treasure trove of vegan delicacies and easy to read labeling. 

Another hard part has been that I work for a cupcakery. Not a vegan cupcakery. A full on butter, cream and buttermilk cupcakery.  I love my company and I love my job and I get to do a lot of really cool things like help plan weddings and be on t.v. shows. And I love cupcakes. I love how they taste. I love how they make you feel and I love the memories that they evoke from your childhood. However, lets face it, they are bad for you and even if I wasn't vegan I should not be eating them. So it has given me a great incentive to cut out baked goods but it is also hard to be surrounded by temptation. I'm not going to lie. The cream cheese frosting was asking me to eat it yesterday. Luckily it did not win and my streak of 7 days vegan is still intact. Just 21 more days til my goal of one month vegan is complete.

Oh, but the good things about being vegan, not just the cupcake deprivation part. I honestly feel great. My body feels better and stronger. I feel lighter and have more energy. My stomach has not been as upset as it has been and my headaches have gone away. I've been really into this because it has also challenged me to explore new recipes. I'll post more but later today I am making Nabeyaki Udon and for the first time ever cooking leeks. Ooooo leeks. They sound so exotic. 

Oh, and a fun fact I learned in my 7 days of being vegan. Bac-o's (that's right, the bacon bits you put on your salad) are vegan. Shhh, don't tell North Carolina.