Vegan Thanksgiving: Mashed Acorn Squash

A few years ago I would have no idea what to do with a squash. A coworker told me how good roasted squash is. She bought me a delicata squash and told me to just cut it in half and roast it. I was so intimidated by this new food that I never made it and the squash went bad sitting in my kitchen. Something clicked in me though, and not long after that I went and bought another squash, took it home and roasted it. I’ve been hooked ever since! It’s so easy, versatile and delicious – I can’t believe I was afraid of it!

This is my own creation, and I’m really sure where I came up with the idea. It’s a super easy to make dish. I cut an acorn squash in half and scraped out the seeds. (Just about any winter squash will work.) I placed the pieces cut side down in a baking dish filed with a little water and roasted in the oven for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees. I also roasted a few garlic cloves by sprinkling them with olive oil, wrapping them in foil and placing then placing them in the oven. Once it was cooked, I scraped all of the squash out of the skin and placed in a bowl. I added the roasted garlic cloves some olive oil and salt and pepper and mashed it all together with a potato masher. Mmm, mmm, good!

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Vegan Thanksgiving: Stuffed Mushrooms

I’m often asked what vegans eat for Thanksgiving and my answer is always “food”. Thanksgiving does not have to be about a dead turkey. There are so many wonderful “side dishes” that a vegan can eat like royalty on this holiday. And I use the term “side dishes”with hesitation, because it usually refers to the food that sits next to the meat on the plate. Since vegetables and grains are just as important – if not more so – than protein, I think all dishes deserve equal attention.

Just like brussels sprouts, I used to really dislike mushrooms. I think it’s because the only ones that were ever brought into my house while I was growing up were the canned variety. Canned mushrooms are gross. But I really, really love mushrooms now and I make them all the time.

Stuffed mushrooms are super easy to make. I’m not sure what goes into the non-vegan variety, but I think it’s sausage. (Or is it crab meat?) But meat is not needed to make a stuffed mushroom. I simply use the mushroom stems! This recipe is my own creation, and I’ve never, ever measured any of the ingredients or written anything down. I’ll do my best to tell you how to make it. Just adjust the ingredients to your liking.

Start with about 16 large mushrooms. The larger the better, because they will shrink when cooked. Clean them and remove the stems. Chop the stems up into tiny pieces and sauté them together with a few cloves of minced garlic until everything is soft and fragrant. Add breadcrumbs to the mixture, mixing in a a little olive oil if it’s too dry. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and bake in the oven at 375 for 20 – 30 minutes, until they’re tender. These area always a hit at gatherings!

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Vegan Thanksgiving: Brussels Sprouts

My friend Jenna and I were supposed to teach a vegan Thanksgiving cooking class yesterday, but unfortunately we had to cancel it. My cat Schroeder hasn’t been feeling well lately, and the vet just discovered a tumor in his intestines. The stress of having a sick cat and preparing for a class at the same time is too much for me, and I didn’t think it would be a good idea to have 15 people in my house with a sick kitty.
Schroeder had surgery on Wednesday. The vet was supposed to remove the tumor, but he found that it’s in a bad spot it would be too risky to remove. Schroeder’s been recovering from the surgery and he rested all weekend. Hopefully we’ll get biopsy results tonight and find out if there’s anything we can do for him. I’ll be sure to post updates.
Before we found out about the tumor, I had been preparing for the cooking class and I had bought a lot of the groceries needed in order to test the recipes one last time before showing other people how to make them. So I decided to make it all for dinner over the weekend. Since it’s almost Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share the dishes with you this week.

Let’s start with brussels sprouts. I used to totally hate brussels sprouts. My mom used to buy frozen ones and microwave them with butter. Blech. But Dennis likes them, so years ago I decided to give them a try and find a way to cook them that we would both like. Over the years my taste buds have changed, and I really like them now. My favorite way to make them is to roast them with olive oil, salt and pepper. I really love the crispy edges. Chef Chloe recently did a blog post with vegan Thanksgiving recipes, and she has a recipe for maple roasted brussels sprouts that looked really good. It’s starts out pretty much the same way I make roasted sprouts, but maple syrup is added towards the end of roasting. I used almonds instead of hazelnuts, because hazelnuts make my mouth itch. The end result was really, really tasty, and I think I’m going to make this dish for my friends on Thanksgiving.

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Recipe Testing for Robin Robertson

I’m testing recipes for Robin Robertson‘s new cookbook! I’m so excited about it! I don’t know what it will be called or when it will come out, but I’ve seen the list of recipes, so I know it’s going to be a good book. I have ten recipes that I will be testing and I’ve made half so far. I can’t say much about them, but I can show you pictures of what I made and tell you that they were delicious! 
Spicy Peanut-Hoisin Noodles with Tofu and Broccoli

Coconut Curry Chickpeas and Cauliflower
Roasted Ratatouille

Tempeh with Mellow Mustard Sauce
Mac and Cheezeburger Bake
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Tofu Teriyaki

When I was little my parents and I lived in South Jersey, and my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents lived in North Jersey. To my young brain I thought we lived days and days away from them, but now I realize it’s only about an hour and a half drive. We rarely went out to eat back then, but whenever my Poppop came down to visit, he always took us out to a restaurant called Charlie’s Other Brother. I loved when he visited, and I looked forward to going out to eat.  I always ordered a Shirley Temple and teriyaki chicken, which I loved.
Quite often our memories can be sparked by food. Last week my friend Jenna posted a recipe for tofu teriyaki on her blog Good Good Things, and it mad me think happy childhood thoughts of eating out with my Poppop. I ran out and bought teriyaki sauce and tofu so I could give it a try. Jenna served her tofu with broccoli, green beans and rice noodles, but I made mine with broccoli, mushrooms and brown rice. This meal was delicious, and did not disappoint. The only thing that was missing was the Shirley Temple! 
I just checked, and Charlie’s Other Brother is still there! They no longer have teriyaki chicken on the menu. (They now have teriyaki steak instead.) There is absolutely nothing vegan on the menu, so I can’t imagine a situation where I’d ever eat there again, but I will always have fond memories of going there when I was little.
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Scrambled Tofu

I went vegetarian in 1992. Back then there weren’t very many packaged vegetarian products on the market. There weren’t very many vegetarian cookbooks out there either. I got most of my recipes from the Peta Cookbook Please Don’t Eat the Animals and Vegetarian Times. I used to buy Green Giant veggie burgers – which tasted a little bit like the box they came in – because they were the only veggie burgers I could find at the grocery store. As a vegetarian I ate lots of cheese and eggs, so in 2001 when I went vegan I had to learn how to cook all over again, and I began trying new foods and recipes. As more people went vegan, lots of good cookbooks were published, and more and more vegan processed foods hit the market. I tried them all, and my diet went from things like veggies, beans and rice to highly processed mock meats and fake cheese. My meals could have been mistaken for those of an omnivore, if one didn’t see the package the foods came in. As I learned more about nutrition, I went back to eating more whole foods and I now reserve processed foods for rare occasions. 
During the week, I usually have smoothies or oatmeal for breakfast, but I weekends I really like to have something warm and comforting, and I usually make scrambled tofu. I love scrambled tofu because I can throw whatever is in the fridge in, and no matter what it is, I know the finished product will taste good. Sometimes I splurge and add vegan sausage or cheese. This time I used red bell pepper, onion, lots of mushrooms, nutritional yeast, soy bacon and Daiya cheese. This was the perfect meal to start out a lazy Sunday with!
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Ted Leo and the Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World changed my life. I did a lot of baking before I went vegan, but once I gave dairy and eggs nine years ago (I was vegetarian for 9 years before that), I wasn’t sure how to make cookies and cakes anymore. There weren’t any of the wonderful cookbooks that we have today back then. When Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World came out, I got copies from a few different people as gifts (and I kept them all), who no doubt wanted me to start baking again. I immediately ran to the kitchen and started mixing together sugar and flour. People were impressed with my little cakey creations and I immediately gained the title of “Cupcake Queen”. Cupcakes are an excellent way to introduce people to vegan foods and show that we aren’t all sitting around eating sprouts and drinking wheatgrass. (Not that I have a problem with sprouts and wheatgrass!)

Where I like to cook and bake, Dennis likes to make short films. His latest is called I Hear You and he’s in the middle of post-production on it right now. Super cool vegan indie music legend Ted Leo makes a special guest appearance in the film, and as a thank you for being so super cool, I made him some cookies and cream cupcakes. Dennis said that Mr Leo loved them!

Here’s the trailer for I Hear You. No word yet on when and where it will be shown, but I’ll keep you posted.

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The V Note

A new restaurant from the owners of Blossom opened in New York City recently called The V Note. Since I love the Blossom restaurants, I knew I had to get into the City immediately and try it. The menu is made up of all the best items from Blossom, Cafe Blossom and Cocoa V, with a few new dishes added to the mix.

I went to V Note on Saturday with my friend Jessica. We both ate way too much food and gave the restaurant two thumbs up! Jessica and I agreed that the Blossoms need to put out a cookbook, so we can give their creations a try at home!

We started out with a Pea Cake, which we split. I really love the chipotle aioli they serve it with. 

Even though I’ve been avoiding wheat, I really wanted a sandwich. I gave in to temptation and had a BLT with sweet potato fries. The sandwich was made with tempeh bacon, breaded tofu, lettuce, tomato and chipotle aioli. In was on delicious ciabatta bread.

Jessica  had the Bacon Cheeseburger. It consisted of a veggie burger, soy bacon, mushrooms, Daiya cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and aioli. She really loved it.

We fished the meal off with delicious chocolate fondue. It was served with fresh fruit and a few cookie bites. The chocolate was so rich that we couldn’t finish it all, which is strange behavior for two chocoholics!

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Back to the Grocery Store

I feel like I’m always at Whole Foods. Despite the fact that I come home with bags and bags of food, the fridge always seems empty. This time I went with a plan, so there are lots of tasty meals that I will be making in the days ahead. In the meantime though, I picked up dinner at the salad bar. Dennis had a meeting for the film he’s working on (more on his film next week) and I didn’t feel like cooking dinner for one. I filled a container with steamed and grilled veggies: kale, eggplant, sweet potatoes, broccoli, beets and cauliflower and then I added some tofu and a grain mixture. When I got home I drizzled a little olive oil and lemon juice over the whole thing. It was quite delicious, and look at how colorful it is. Remember – the nutrients in veggies are in their colors, so make sure you have lots of colors on your plate. Try to aim for 4 colors in each meal.

Coming up next week: recipe testing for Robin Robertson, Dennis’s short film, cupcakes and Ted Leo, the V Note and more!

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The "I Didn’t Have a Dinner Plan" Stir-Fry

Despite the fact that I did finally go grocery shopping, I didn’t have a plan for dinner. So I hit the fridge and pulled out a few things that I thought would go nicely together: asparagus, onion, mushrooms, tofu, kale and two hot peppers. I stir-fried them together in olive oil with a little Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and rice vinegar and threw in a can of chickpeas. I also cooked up some quinoa to serve it all over. It was quite a nice impromptu dinner!
So where do I get my protein? From this dish!! Tofu, chickpeas and quinoa are all very high in protein. Even asparagus has a decent amount of protein! The average female needs 45 grams of protein and the average male needs 55 grams. Out of curiosity I tallied the protein amount in this meal, and it came to about 45 grams, so it contained all the protein I needed for a day! And of course, I also ate breakfast and lunch which also contained protein, so in one day I consumed a lot more protein than I need. 

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Dr. Fuhrman