December » 2010 » VeggieGirl

Tempeh Piccata

A few weeks ago, my friend Jenna was talking about the chickpea cutlets piccata that she had made, and I realized that I have never had anything piccata. So it was time to piccata something! Instead of chickpea cutlets, I opted to make tempeh. I Googled “tempeh piccata” and the first thing that came up was a recipe from Vegetarian Times, so I used it. It was easy to make and extremely delicious. It left me wondering “how have I lived without piccata for so long?” I served it with quinoa and kale to make the meal super delicious and nutritious.

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Holiday Cookie Swap

On Sunday I had a holiday cookie swap with Montclair Vegans. Sarah Gross joined us and brought lots of Rescue Chocolate for us to purchase for Christmas gifts. It was so much fun!!

I made candy cane chocolate chip cookies from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur.

Elsa made gingerbread cookies with white chocolate.

Christine made mocha chip oatmeal cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Emily is new the group and decided to join us an hour before the cookie swap, so she stopped at Whole Foods and picked up some Uncle Eddies cookies.

Jenna made delicious chocolate chip sunflower seed cookies.

Deana made sesame seed thumbprint cookies. These are perfect “Dennis cookies”.

Jen C and Prairie made maple sandwich cookies.

Lori just moved in to her apartment and her kitchen isn’t set up yet, so she picked cookies up at Whole Foods.

Jen G made chocolate raspberry cookies.

Amanda made two kinds of macaroons.

Sarah brought lots of Rescue Chocolate!

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Goodbye Schroeder

I spoke too soon yesterday when I said my little Schroeder was doing pretty well. He took a turn for the worse and we had to say goodbye to him this morning. Schroeder had been with me since he was just two months old and we had a really special bond. He loved belly rubs more than any other cat I’ve know, he gave kisses and nuzzles on demand and he was an excellent snuggler. He was the best cat ever and he will always be greatly missed. Thank you to everyone who has been sending well wishes and kind thoughts. It’s greatly appreciated.

As a tiny two pound kitten, Schroeder loved sitting on top of this scratching post.

Schroeder with his best friend Lucy

Schroeder and Lucy at Christmas time in their favorite spots on the sofa

Schroeder and baby Archie

Schroeder keeping a safe distance from kittens Archie and Clementine

Schroeder and I in 2008

Happy Birthday Schroeder!

Today I’m going to break from my regular talk about food and nutrition to talk about my other love: cats. I have three cats right now – Archie, Clementine and Schroeder. Archie and Clementine are twins and are still babies at a year and half years old. Schroeder is 13, and today is his birthday! Actually, I’m not really sure when his birthday is, but I adopted him on February 13th 1998, and they told me he was 8 weeks, old, so I’ve always considered December 13th to be his birthday.

I adopted Schroeder to keep my cat Lucy company, because she had just lost her brother Linus, who died of a rare cancer called hemangiocarcoma. Lucy seemed lost without her brother, and she needed a companion. She was not at all happy with me when I brought tiny Schroeder home, and she even smacked him around a little bit, but she soon warmed to him and the two were inseparable for 11 years.

A few weeks after Linus passed away, his foster mom called me and said that there were two litters of kittens at the shelter where she volunteered. She told me to go take a look at them to see if I wanted one. If I did, I could take it home or ask them to hold it for me. If I didn’t want one of them, she told me to tell them what kind of kitten I wanted, and they’d let me know when one arrived. I really didn’t expect to go home with a kitten that day, but I went to take a look at them. Each litter had four kittens, and one of the litters was really feral and wasn’t ready to be adopted. The other litter was very cute and playful and ready to find homes. I took each one of their carrier and held them many times. Each time I took out the tiny orange tabby, he put his head on my shoulder and went to sleep. A shelter volunteer said “I think that one just chose you,” and I knew I had to take him home with right then. He was was the teeny tiniest little fluff ball when I adopted him, and at just 2 pounds he was runt of his litter. I originally called him Peanut because he was so small, but then changed his name to Schroeder, because in Peanuts, Lucy loves Schroeder, and I wanted my Lucy to love my Schroeder too.

Schroeder’s has been the sweetest little snugglebug since kittenhood. He’s always been really sweet and easy going, and he never minded when Lucy would give him a knock on the head – he would just scamper off the other way. As a kitten, he loved lap sitting, and would often climb my legs while I was standing, because he didn’t understand that laps went away when people stood. He’s always loved legs too, and usually sleeps on mine, no matter where I am. Schroeder and I have a special bond, and he always knows when I’m feeling blue and in need of a snuggle.

Schroeder’s had a rough two years, but he’s a strong little kitty. Sadly, in January 2009 Lucy passed away. It was obvious that Schroeder missed her and was in need of company, but I wasn’t ready to bring another cat home yet. In July of 2009 we found a large lump on his paw, which turned out to be a cancer of the cartilage. His leg had to be removed in order to keep the cancer from from spreading. Shortly after his surgery, we adopted Archie and Clementine to keep him company. He gets cranky around them and sometimes growls, but he also often snuggles with them and grooms them, so I know he’s happy to have the company. Sadly, Schroeder was diagnosed with cancer again last month. He has hemangioscarcoma, the same rare cancer that Linus had. The prognosis is not known, because this disease is rarely seen in cats. He started chemotherapy a few weeks ago and is doing pretty well. He’s definitely more tired and has less energy than usual, but he’s keeping his appetite up and still rolling over for belly rubs. On Saturday we momentarily lost him somewhere in the house, only to find him hanging out on Dennis’s dresser. There are so many people out in cyber space who have been wishing Schroeder well, and I want to thank everyone, because I truly appreciate it. And a special thank you to team Honey Bear from The Distance Healing Network who have been sending Reiki to Schroeder.

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Spinach Mushroom Lasagna

I’ve had a hankering for lasagna for a few weeks now, so I finally headed into the kitchen and set about making one. I had a few recipes, but in the end, I just threw a bunch of stuff together and did my own thing. The ricotta recipe is based on the cashew ricotta recipe in Veganomicon.

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

1 package of no-cook lasagna noodles (I used rice pasta)

28 ounce can of tomato sauce (or you can make your own, of course)

5 ounce container of spinach

10 ounce package of mushrooms, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

14 ounce package of firm tofu

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

2 tablespoons vegetable broth

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup Daiya cheese (or more, to your liking)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Sauté the spinach in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Set aside.

In a food processor, blend together the cashews, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, broth and nutritional yeast. Crumble the tofu and add it to the food processor. Blend until the mixture is thick and looks like ricotta cheese. Add more vegetable broth if the mixture is too thick. Add the cooked spinach and pulse until it’s mixed in.

Sauté the onion in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until they’re soft.

Spoon a quarter of the tomato sauce over the bottom of a casserole dish. Layer a third of the noodles over the sauce. Spoon another quarter of the tomato sauce over the noodles, followed by half the ricotta and half of the mushrooms. Cover with a third of the noodles. Then spread another quarter of the tomato sauce over the noodles, followed by the rest of the ricotta and mushrooms. Cover with the rest of the noodles and spread the rest of the sauce over the top. Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle the Daiya cheese over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Enjoy! This tastes even better reheated the next day!

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Breakfast Sandwich

Okay, as a holistic health counselor I’m going to tell you that this isn’t really the ideal meal to start your day out with. It’s full of processed foods and gluten. But as a person who occasionally craves something a little greasy and needs a little bit of comfort food from time to time, I will tell you that this is a really delicious breakfast. I’ve made it for house guests – vegans and omnivores alike love it.

Here’s how to make it: Drain a package of tofu. I usually wrap it in a kitchen towel the night before and leave it in the fridge, and it’s ready to use in the morning. Thinly slice the tofu and then marinade in a little bit of olive oil, Braggs Liquid Aminos and apple cider vinegar for a few minutes. Then fry until crispy on both sides. While that’s cooking, heat up a few slices of vegan “bacon”. I use Lightlife Smart Bacon. For the cheese, you can either melt a little cheese on the tofu while it’s cooking, or you can toast your bagel and melt the cheese over it in the toaster oven. I spread a little bit of Earth Balance on both halves of the bagel, then add two slices of “bacon” and two slabs of tofu to each bagel. And then, eat and enjoy!

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Tempeh Fricassee

As I mentioned last week, I grew up eating things out of boxes, bags and cans. I never at anything with any kind of exotic sounding name like scallopini, marsala, piccata or fricassee. Until recently, I didn’t even know what dishes with those names were. Fortunately, veganizing those meals is very easy.

I saw a recipe for Tempeh Fricassee and it looked so good that I wanted to try it, even though I didn’t know what fricassee meant. It turns out it’s a catch-all term used for a stew. It’s usually made with meat that’s been stewed in gravy. This recipe uses tempeh, mushrooms and leeks. The recipe calls for celery leaves and herbs to be tied together, added to the stew and later removed, but I skipped that step and used dried herbs instead. I also altered the recipe slightly by adding a little cornstarch to thicken the stew. This was really, really delicious, and it was a nice warming meal for a cold evening.

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Skillet Macaroni with Broccoli, Mushrooms and Cheese

Well’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving interactive recipe post from the New York Times was making the rounds on Facebook last week, and the skillet mac and cheese caught my eye because I really love mushrooms, broccoli and cheese together. I didn’t have an oven safe skillet, but there were a few recipes I wanted to try that called for one, so Dennis bought me one. Most girls like their guys to buy them expensive jewelry and things, but I prefer kitchen stuff!

As soon as I got my hands on that skillet, I ran to the kitchen and set about veganizing the recipe. It was pretty good and I’ll definitely make it again. Next time I will probably add more nutritional yeast and a little less milk, but here’s what I did when I made it the first time:

Ingredients

4 ounces Daiya cheddar (about half a bag)

2 ounces Daiya mozzarella (about a quarter of a bag)

1 tablespoon Earth Balance

1 small yellow onion, chopped

6 ounces cremini or white button mushrooms, sliced

3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill all purpose gluten-free flour)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

3 cups unsweetened, unflavored non-dairy milk

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 ounces small pasta shells, cooked and drained according to the package instructions (I used rice pasta)

4 cups small broccoli florets, cooked in boiling water for 1 minute (broccoli can be added to the pasta during the last minute of cooking, then drained with the pasta in a colander)

Preparation

1. Mix the cheeses in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Melt the Earth Balance in a large, high-sided, oven-safe skillet. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the mushrooms and cook until they release their liquid and it comes to a simmer, and then reduces by about two-thirds, about 5 minutes.

4. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables in the skillet. Stir well to coat.

5. Whisk in the milk in a steady, thin stream until creamy. Then whisk in the nutritional yeast, mustard, tarragon, salt and pepper. Continue whisking until the mixture starts to bubble and the liquid thickens, about 3 minutes.

6. Remove the skillet from the heat. Stir in the cooked pasta and broccoli.

Then add half of the mixed cheeses and give it a quick mix.

7. Preheat the broiler after setting the rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the ingredients in the skillet. Set the skillet on the rack and broil until the cheese melts, about five minutes. (If your skillet has a plastic or wooden handle, make sure it sticks outside the oven, out from under the broiler, so the handle doesn’t melt.)

Yield: Makes four servings.

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Back to Sprig and Vine

Last week I went back to Sprig and Vine in New Hope PA. Dennis and I had dinner with our friends Deana, Jessica and Greg. The food there is so amazing – I just wish it wasn’t an hour away! Dennis and I drove down early and walked around Lambertville and New Hope a little. It’s a cute area, so it’s totally worth the drive.

We ordered appetizers, but we dug in as soon as the plates hit the table and forgot to take pictures of them.