What I Ate Wednesday

What I Ate Wednesdays – Clean Out The Pantry Edition

This What I Ate Wednesday is dedicated to pantry cuisine. After all of the storms we had last fall and winter, it seems I started accidentally hoarding food. I’ve been doing a touch of spring cleaning and reorganizing, and that including cleaning out the pantry. Things were so out of control in there that I didn’t know what I already had, so I just kept buying more. I’ve been cooking my way through all of the canned foods and dried goods I’ve had on hand, reorganizing as I go. I’m happy to report that all is under control once again, and the food on hand is back to a manageable amount. Here’s some of what I made:

Pantry Chili. This was made with two cans of diced tomatoes, a can of pinto beans, a can of kidney beans, two cans of black beans (because I accidentally opened the second one), some broth, tomato paste, some frozen corn, a little tvp, and onions, carrots and zucchini I had on hand from my co-op. I based it on my Three Bean Chili recipe and added lots of spices.

Trader Joe’s Thai Green Curry. I used jar of Trader Joe’s Curry Sauce, a can of coconut milk, a little vegetable broth, a can of green beans (I will wholeheartedly admit that I think canned green beans are pretty disgusting, but I bought them when preparing for Hurricane Sandy), a can of white beans, and diced carrots and onions from my co-op. (I had a lot of carrots and onions on hand from my co-op.)

Spicy Stir-Fry with Mushrooms and Bok Choy. This is less of a pantry cuisine dish, and more of a “what can I do with those rice noodles that have been in there forever” dish. I had half a block of tofu in the fridge, along with bok choy from co-op, so I threw this together. One of the rules I set for myself when cleaning out the kitchen was that I had to use produce from the co-op and items from the pantry – I couldn’t go out and buy anything new. But I will admit that I did go buy some mushrooms, mainly because I just love mushrooms and I hadn’t cooked them in a while.

Clean Out the Pantry Pasta. This may look like a blob of whiteness, but along with rice noodles, the dish contained artichoke hearts, diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, sun-dried tomatoes and arugula.

Pineapple Fried Rice. This seemed like a better idea in my head than it did on my plate. It was made with both brown and red rice, tofu, pineapple, frozen spinach, frozen peas, fresh onion and cashews. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t my favorite of the pantry dishes I made.

Now that my kitchen is clean and organized, what should I make next?

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What I Ate Wednesday – Random Dinners

Since I’ve already shown off what I eat in a typical day, for today’s What I Ate Wednesday I thought it would be fun to show off a few random dinners from the past week. My breakfasts and lunches don’t really vary too much from day to day on weekdays, but dinner is where I get creative, so this is probably the meal everyone wants to see anyway!

There was Tempeh Marsala one night. The recipe made four servings so I had it for lunch one day too. This has been one of my most popular recipes so far this year, and it was even a favorite on Gluten-Free Fridays last week!

I had some fingerling potatoes from my co-op, so I made Roasted Niçoise Salad with Cashew Goddess Dressing one night. The recipe is from Nut Butter Universe by Robin Robertson. This was amazing and I was happy that it made four servings, so I was able to have another salad for lunch the next day.

Also from Nut Butter Universe I made Penne Primavera with Avocado and Cashew Cream. I almost made my standard pasta and veggies dish, but then decided to flip through the book to see if there was something I could make with pasta and the ingredients I had on hand, and I’m so glad I did. Nut Butter Universe is favorite new cookbook!

After last weekend’s outdoor potluck Dennis and I kept the grill out and hunted around the fridge for food we could throw on it. We came up with tofu, onion and pineapple skewers, baked potatoes and asparagus. I also made a quick broccoli slaw.

After Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s event at Peacefood Cafe last week, I picked up dinner to go and brought it home to NJ. I ordered a Pan-Seared French Horn Mushroom Panini, a Mediterranean Oven-Dried Seasonal Vegetable Panini and some chickpea fries, which Dennis and I split when I got home. Those paninis are works of art. I’d kill for a Peacefood in NJ! (Just kidding – of course I wouldn’t kill anyone. Maybe I’d slap them around a little though.)

Make sure you check back in next week to see more adventures in the life of my tummy!

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What I Ate Wednesday – Two Potlucks in Two Days

This Sunday I hosted the first Montclair Vegans outdoor potluck of the year, and then on Monday my friend Jen hosted an outdoor picnic potluck at Montclair’s beautiful Presby Iris Gardens. So for this week’s What I Ate Wednesday post, I’m showing off what it’s like to eat at two vegan potlucks in two days!

Sunday’s potluck had a Cinco de Mayo theme. It was the first time we used our our backyard this year, and I made chipotle marinaded tofu and veggie skewers that Dennis barbecued on the grill. There was so much food, I needed two plates just to sample it all, and I’m not even sure what all of the dishes I ate were. My first plate contained a few beany dishes, cornbread, cauliflower with nacho “cheese” sauce, hummus and pita bread, stuffed grape leaves, pasta, and a one of my tofu skewers.

Plate two contained a sweet potato dish, baked plantains, raw sunflower seed tuna, and a beans and greens dish. There were also rice crackers and carrot sticks. (Excuse the mess on the plate that the first round of food made!)

Dessert was an amazing raw cheesecake and mixed fruit.

There were less people at potluck number two on Monday, but the food was just as good. I made a rice salad that everyone loved, so I may just have to post the recipe later in the week. There was also a pasta dish, a seitan and noodle dish, a green salad and my friend Jen’s homemade bread.

Potlucks are a wonderful way to gather people, share recipes and have fun. It’s also a great way to show omnivores how diverse and delicious vegan food is! I highly recommend throwing one and seeing what develops.

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Happy May Day! And happy Wednesday! Since I’ve already shown off what I eat I eat in a typical day, and there weren’t any special occasions in the past week, I’m just going to show some random meals for this week’s What I Ate Wednesday. These are just a few photograph worthy things that I’ve eaten over the course of the past week.

One day Dennis woke up saying he felt like having a big brunch, so I headed into the kitchen and made us a big brunchy feast with a tofu frittata, hashbrowns and sautéed greens. It was super yum and I was full for most of the day!

Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes recently arrived, and I immediately ran into the kitchen and whipped up some Lemony Spelt Scones. These were great because they weren’t too sweet and didn’t contain any white flour.

I rarely make the same meal twice, but I just can’t get enough of the Szechuan Stir-Fry with Fiery Peanut Sauce from Robin Robertson’s Nut Butter Universe, so I’ve been making it every few weeks. Fortunately there were leftovers so I was able to have it for two meals last week!

The owners of Rutherford Pancake House just opened Maywood Pancake House in Maywood, NJ, so we headed over for breakfast one day. I had the Roman tofu scramble with home fries.

After the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale, I was exhausted and hungry, so we went to Veggie Heaven in Montclair. I got a dish I’ve never had before, and I’m not sure if it was called Crispy Almond Tofu or Crispy Tofu and Almonds, but you get the point – it was tofu and almonds with a bunch of veggies.

There may have been a giant Whole Foods pizza at some point over the last week too. (Hey, sometimes a girl just wants a pizza!)

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What I Ate Wednesday – A Typical Day

In my recent What I Ate Wednesday posts, I’ve been showing off special meals, potlucks, road trips and visits to various restaurants. Today I decided to do something a little different and show what I eat in a typical weekday while I’m working from home.

On weekdays I usually start the day with something simple, like a gluten-free English muffin with sliced avocados and nutritional yeast. Sometimes I add some fruit if I have some on hand (and I remember it’s there!). Sometimes I like to start the day out with a smoothie, but lately I’ve been working out first thing in the morning, and I usually want something more substantial when I’m done.

I almost always make myself a giant salad for lunch. I like to add lots of fixin’s so that it fills me for the afternoon. This particular salad is made with romaine, pea shoots, carrot, avocado, baked tofu, chickpeas, tomatoes and pumpkin seeds and it’s topped with Victoria Moran’s Cool Dilly Tofu Dip or Dressing. (The recipe can be found in her book Main Street Vegan.)

After lunch I almost always have a few squares of dark chocolate and a Teeccino latée.

One of my favorite afternoon snacks is a sliced apple with nut butter. This particular day I reached for Jem raw nut butter. I started off with chocolate hazelnut spread, but tragically there was only a small amount left in the jar, so I had a couple of apples slices with it, and the rest had almond cinnamon spread.

Dinner is usually a wild card, and I like to get creative with my evening meal. I rarely make the same thing twice! On this particular day, I made pasta with beans, greens and mushrooms in a cashew cream sauce. The recipe will be up here on my blog tomorrow, so come back and check it out.

And that’s what a typical day is like for my belly! Come back next week to see what else I’ve been eating.

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What I Ate Wednesday

It’s Wednesday, which means that it’s time to show you what I ate! This week instead of showing what I ate on a particular day, I’m going to show a bunch of random meals I’ve eaten over the past 7 days.

Some of my home cooked meals include salad (I eat a giant salad just about every day!), Tiramisu Pancakes from Chloe’s Vegan Desserts (the pancakes tasted much better than they looked!), Save the Kales’ Miso-Curry Glazed Squash, Tofu and Kale with Chickpeas, Potatoes and Pepitas and my own Thai Coconut Tempeh with Pineapple Salsa (the recipe will be here on my blog tomorrow).

Sometimes I just don’t feel like cooking, and when that happened last week I decided to try a new Daiya frozen pizza. Unfortunately my ancient oven burnt it, but it was still pretty tasty, and I’m sure it would be even better if it was cooked properly. I served it with a giant side salad.

I trekked into Manhattan one day and had lunch at Peacefood Cafe’s new downtown location with my friend Lisa. I had chickpea fries and mediterranean oven-dried seasonal vegetables sandwich, which was made with cashew cheese and pesto. I loved it so much that I want Peacefood to open a cafe in NJ so I can eat like this more often!

On Saturday night, Dennis and I went out to eat at Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant in South Orange. We started out with Yetimatim Fitfit and then we had a vegetarian sampler with various vegetable and bean dishes. My favorite is the chickpea Shimbra Asa.

And there you have the dietary highlights of my week! Come back next week to see more of my culinary adventures.

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What I Ate Wednesday – What I Ate Over the Weekend

Another week has gone by and it’s time for another edition of What I Ate Wednesday! This week I’m going to show off what I ate over the weekend. I ate out both days and both times it was at restaurants I have never been to before.

On Saturday I went to a belated secular Seder dinner with the Shannons and a bunch of their friends at John’s of 12th. I had never even heard of John’s of 12th until about a month or so ago. It’s an Italian restaurant in New York City that’s been around for eons and apparently they added vegan food to their menu about 2 years ago. Dennis had seitan parmesan and I had seitan all a rosa which was seitan with artichokes and peppers in a mushroom and wine sauce. It was so lip-smacking good that I’m still thinking about it!

On Sunday we went to Loving Hut for lunch. It’s been around for a while, but it’s about half an hour or so away and I’ve been too lazy to make the drive. Dennis and I split nachos and an appetizer called Crispy Delight. We each had a panini, which came with sweet potato fries and roasted pumpkin. It was so much food, I did not finish it all, so luckily there were leftovers later.

Other meals throughout the weekend included a great big tofu scramble, a gluten-free English muffin with avocado and nutritional yeast, a salad and leftovers.

Come back next Wednesday to see more off my culinary adventures!

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What I Ate Wednesday – The Easter Edition

Welcome to another edition of What I Ate Wednesday! This week I’m going to show of what Dennis and I ate for Easter brunch. We never really celebrate Easter, but we try to do something fun together like visit a museum or go out to eat. This year we went to NYC, had lunch at Blossom and then saw Orphans on Broadway, which stars Alec Baldwin, Ben Foster and Tom Sturridge. The plays been in the news a bit lately because Shia LaBeouf was originally cast in it, but he and Alec Baldwin had a bit of a falling out and he ended up leaving the show. It was a very good play, but it felt a bit short to me. It seems like the more expensive the play, the shorter it is.

Before the show, we went to Blossom in Chelsea. Blossom has several locations in New York, and I love them all. I’ve never had a bad meal at any of them..

I started out with a pot of tea. Look at how cute that pot is!

I had the tofu benedict. It consisted of an English muffin, soy ham, tofu, hollandaise sauce, roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus. I was in the mood for breakfast food, and I ordered this because it’s something I wouldn’t make at home for myself. The flavor combo of the smokey soy ham and sweet hollandaise sauce seemed a little weird at first but after a few bites I really started enjoying it.

Dennis had rigatoni in porcini cream. I had a few bites and the cream sauce was heavenly.

For dessert I ordered chocolate ganache. I wasn’t really sure what to expect since ganache is kind of a sauce or topping. It turned out to be a little piece of cake with a thick layer of fudgey ganache served with vanilla ice cream and peanut butter drizzle. This is my kind of dessert!

Dennis had a piece of berry cheesecake.

My wish is for Blossom to come out with a cookbook so I can try to recreate these amazing dishes at home!

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What I Ate Wednesday

It’s Wednesday once again! It’s hard to believe that spring is already here and this is the last Wednesday of March. I’m looking forward to warmer weather and cute skirts with sandals, but it’s still quite chilly here in New Jersey. But I digress. Here’s everything I ate last Wednesday.

Breakfast was a toasted gluten-free English muffin with sliced avocado and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

Lunch was a big salad with lettuce, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, baked tofu, peanuts and a spicy peanut dressing. This is a variation on my Pad Thai Salad.

I had a little mocha smoothie pick-me-up snack. I used coconut milk, a banana, cacao powder, hemp, maca and a caffeine-free coffee substitute called Cafix. This was quite tasty.

For dinner Dennis and I went to a restaurant called Park and Orchard, and I wrote about it this week in my Devil Gourmet Meatless Monday column. We used to eat there more often, but we don’t live as close as we used to, so we probably go about once every year or so now. We started off with steamed veggie dumplings in spicy peanut sauce.

Remember when entrees at restaurants came with soup or salad? Well, they still do at Park and Orchard! I had a salad with creamy tofu dressing.

I ordered a tofu, broccoli and shiitake stir-fry in black bean sauce. The menu warned that the sauce was spicy, but I did not heed the warning and found that this was a little too hot for me. I ended up switching plates with Dennis.

Which was fine, because he had ordered their vegan lasagna, which is made with layers of polenta, tofu ricotta and fresh veggies. This is hands-down my favorite dish on the Park and Orchard menu.

There’s nothing vegan on their dessert menu except for strawberries, coffee and tea, so I had a cup of lemon tea. I was quite stuffed, so there was no need for dessert anyway. The portions at Park and Orchard are so huge that Dennis and I we were both full and we had leftovers to take home for lunch the next day.

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What I Ate Wednesday the Green Edition

It’s Wednesday once again! For this week’s What I Ate Wednesday post I’m going to show off all of the food at a vegan green brunch potluck I hosted on Sunday for Saint Patrick’s Day with my Montclair Vegans MeetUp group. A lot people attended, and all of the food was amazingly delicious. I really love seeing the creative dishes people bring to these events and I’m already looking forward to my next one!