Galaxy Vegan Cream Cheese

It is spring (actually it has been for a month, but I'm behind).
The flowers are blooming, our lawn is literally a jungle out of
control, and all sorts of new veg products are hitting the shelves
faster than you can say 'march hare'.

One of the newest vegan cheeses on the street is Galaxy Nutritional
Foods cream cheese, which I got the pleasure of trying out for
all of you!

Not only is there an 'original plain' flavour, but there is also a
'chive and garlic' flavour much to Monkey-man's delight.



I can't lie, I love my bagels. But I wanted to do something a little
nicer than bagels to try out something new.

So with the 'original' we made some crepes and stuffed them with
the cream cheese, diced apples, spice and drizzled it all with
agave.



The flavor is milder than it's dairy counterpart without that
gross sour aftertaste. The texture is cross between any other vegan
(or nonvegan) cream cheese out there and sour cream. It is soft and
perfect for spreading. It doesn't turn your toast to crumbs while
you're trying to spread a layer of goodness.

We got a little spicy with the Chive and Garlic and made some
jalapenos poppers for Monkey-man's Bday.



Because it was already seasoned with just enough garlic and chives,
all we had to do was fill some halved and seeded peppers, sprinkle
with paprika and bake. Oh, yeah-- And eat to our heart's content!

We still had a little bit of each left over so we had a little European
meal the other night for dinner. Monkey-man made some classic borsht...



And I made some dumplings to go in it.



To fill the dumplings I cooked 1 cup TVP in enough vegetable
broth to make it soft, then added some salt and pepper, sage,
soy sauce and a little bit of molasses. A little plop of
vegan cream cheese and some wonton wrappers later... Deliciousness!



I really dug Galaxy's new product, I liked how smooth and versatile
it was. And the chive and garlic addition? Very nice, tasty and
savory, but not overwhelming or artificial tasting. And I just saw
it stocked in my little health food store! What a coincidence!

Good on ya Galaxy!

P.S. We just back from Paso Robles, CA and I have some great wine
stories to share with you all!

Plethora of Panini: pairing and pearing

I know when I've hit the tail end of a series. It is usually when I
really can't imagine eating that dish once more in a very long time.
I still have the last few paninis on the docket, but I am growing
very near to not being able to eat another for a while.

In fact I'm starting to crave chimichanga... If I can't grill
sandwiches, I'm gonna find something else to grill.

Since this Panini was so extraordinarily simple and not very
high in vegetable content, I had to pair it with another more
nutritious dish. Monkey-man has been complaining about wanting
soup because he doesn't want to get sick. So instead of arguing
that it isn't soup that will keep him from getting sick it is
a good load of vitamin heavy veggies, sleep and exercise--
I quietly made him some sweet potato stew and he was content.

The stew had sweet potatoes, russet potato, bell pepper, turnips,
onions, garlic, cabbage, and carrots. It was a simple base of broth,
soy milk, whole wheat flour, sage, paprika, bay, oregano, sea salt,
black and white peppers, and peanut butter. I don't usually pair stews
and sandwiches, I usually go with a bisque or blended soup.
But as long as you are sure to moderate with a smaller sandwich,
it is perfect.

The panini was stuffed with vegan rice pepper jack cheese, sliced
apples and pears, a sprinkling of garlic powder, and if you're
adventurous, some jalapenos! The sweetness of the fruit is perfectly
balanced with the spiciness of the 'cheese' and peppers.
I've also heard of pair peaches or apricots with brie, but
I'm not sure what vegan cheese I'd use for that. The vegan brie
we did make from The Uncheese Cookbook had much too much onion
powder in it and I cannot imagine that going with peaches...
I'll keep experimenting and get back to you on that one.

Get your fix with sweet, spicy, and savory all at once.
That's an order!

Pumpkin Patch Part Five: Pumpkin Tomato Soup

Whenever it starts getting a little chilly or if I start getting sick,
I insist on tomato soup for dinner. Thankfully I am not ill, but we
have had some crisp autumn evenings as of late.

Tomato soup has to be one of the easiest soups you can just about
make... Actually, now that I think of it-- it IS the easiest soup
you could make.

We'd get tomato soup and saltines as children when we were sick.
I don't know if my Mom made it or bought it, but it made me feel
better. If Dad was home we got miso, which I was not a fan of at the
time. When I got older and my Mom got sick, I made some tomato soup
for her. Except she is so picky I couldn't use garlic or onions and
she wanted it to taste just like traditional canned soup.

Well, I snuck some onions in anyway and managed to skip the heavy
cream with soymilk and she didn't complain. Yet, I found that it
did lose some of the richness it had before. The way to gain that
real creaminess is with cashews!

And adding Pumpkin is such an amazing twist. You get a lovely
orange colour instead of the light redish-pink and a very slight
tinge of squash. I hope you like it!

Pumpkin Tomato Soup

4 cups chopped, skinned tomatoes
1 cup chopped pumpkin, I used cooked but you can start with raw
1 med onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bouillon cube
1/2 tsp sage
1/3-1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions and garlic in a stock pot in a few tbsp of
water or mild oil until the onions appear translucent and the
garlic is fragrant.

Add the tomatoes, bouillon, sage, and pumpkin (if raw only).
Add some water if you are using fresh tomatoes.
Cook covered for about 15-20 minutes on med-low heat, adding water
if it appears to need it. Add the pumpkin and heat through for
about five minutes. Add the cashews, sugar, and seasonings.

Remove from heat and transfer to a blender. Blend in small
batches, minding the heat. Move back to the stockpot over the
heat until ready to serve. If the soup appears too thick, you
can thin it out a bit with some veg broth or non-dairy milk.
Make sure the seasoning is adjusted and enjoy!

Monkey-man whipped up some garlicy pumpkin seed crackers, which
we sprinkled on top!




I then heated some soymilk in smallpan, just for a minute or so
and frothed it in my french press. I've got to get the hang of
soup designs with cream...

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

Whenever I don't really feel up to cooking or I'm worried abut
time, I make soup. It was one of those 'what needs to be used
in the fridge' days. I didn't have a lot of open kitchen time
and had a ton of broccoli that needed to be used, so cream of
broccoli soup it was.

I like adding potatoes because it adds a heartiness and
thickness that is so yummy. You can either use a variety of
vegetables or keep it simple with some foundation onions and
garlic then add a dash of nutmeg!

Monkey-man likes his soup with all the big vegetable chunks,
but if I'm cooking for guests and such or if I used some funky
or odd shaped veg I'll blend the whole batch. It is also good
if I want to hide a certain vegetable from my picky Mom. Even
blending half is good and gives you the best of both worlds.

I served these with some baked potato cakes. They are super light
fluffy biscuits. I also added a little bit of kale to keep the super green
color. It is important to try and chop everything around the same size
so that it cooks evenly.

Simple Broccoli Vegetable Soup



2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, minced
2 medium potatoes, cubed
2 small crowns broccoli, chopped
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 leaves of kale, shredded
1 bouillon cube
1 1/2-2 cups unsweetened soymilk or nondairy milk
2 tbsp braggs
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp sage
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste
water

Saute the garlic and onion briefly with water, until tender
and fragrant. Add the remaining vegetables (except kale) with
about a cup of water and cover. Continue to cook, stirring
occasionally until potatoes are almost soft. Add the kale and
cook for about 5 more minutes.



Either add to a blender and add soymilk slowly until you get
your own desired thickness or just add the soymilk and
nutritional yeast if you're not blending. Keep on low-med heat
to heat added soymilk, but do not boil.

If blended, add nutritional yeast last. It adds a nice subtle
cheesy taste that rings of old cream of broccoli.

7 Days of Irish Luck, St. Patrick's Day: Irish Garlic Soup

Unfortunately I am behind a day. School is coming to a close
and trying to take my sanity with it. So when I got home last night,
I had such a headache I went to bed without dinner.



But today I was so caught up with the beautiful day -- how
could I not be in the mood to cook? So after I made some
cookies for my cousin, I started dinner for the Monkey-man
and myself. It was just what we wanted. Warm, rich, and filling.

This is such rejuvenating soup. If I was under the weather,
I'd take it over miso any day. The traditional recipe calls
for egg yolks added at the end to thicken it up and add another
layer of richness (fat).

I got that thickness by just adding a tablespoon of arrowroot
to a little bit of soymilk and adding it at the end.

I served it over sliced, toasted bagels- like croutons. Yum!

Irish Garlic Soup



Ingredients

12 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
3 tablespoons of earthbalance
2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour
4 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1/4 cup soymilk
1 tablespoon soy sauce/braggs

Melt the earthbalance over low heat, adding the garlic and
onion. Cook on low-low for about 20 minutes. Add the flour,
turning up the heat to cook the flour for a few minutes
into a roux.

Add the vinegar, soy sauce, and broth and cook for another
30 minutes. Finally add the arrowroot powder to the soymilk
and pour into the soup slowly. Season with a little bit of
salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 more minutes.

Serve over croutons.



(Tomorrow is St. Patricks! Pull out that green tonight~)

Easy Soup: ABCs & Vegan Candy Bars to the stars

Busy with school the past week I've needed fast, quick fix foods
for dinner. But no crap that was gonna make me crash or leave me
hungry and coked out on fats.

I think soup has got to be one of the easiest things to cook.
They can be made fast or slow, you can put whatever you want in
them, and even if its going badly they are so easy to fix or
change into something amazing.

I found some cute alphabet pasta last week so I decided to make
a tofu noodle soup. Its a pretty straight forward list of ingredients...

1/2 onion
1 clove garlic minced
1 cup cabbage
1 carrot, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
1/2 block tofu
3-4 cups vegetable broth
1 white basil
salt and pepper to taste
3 oz of small pasta

Just saute your onions and garlic in a little bit of water
over medium heat until translucent and fragrant. I used
vegetable bouillon cubes and thin them out with water, so
whatever you choose is fine. Add the vegetables next adding
the water/broth slowly. Add your basil and let simmer until
your veg is getting tender. Add your pasta ensuring that
there is enough water or broth to be absorbed without leaving
your soup like stew. Once your pasta starts to cook, add the
tofu (extra firm) cut into cubes and continue to cook until
your pasta is al dente and tofu is warm through.

Add the salt and pepper to taste.
I had mine with a slice of toasted wheat sourdough from TJs.
(AHH, I'm so hungry right now!!!)

Over the weekend I hung out at Monkey Man's and we hit up the
whole foods in Pasadena where we picked up our second vegan
candy bar from Go Max Go Foods.
The first we had was the Jokers bar, which I guess is like a
snickers and was pretty darn tasty, but this is the one I was
really dying to try.



The Twilight bar is pure Milky Way Goodness. Its like getting
a vegan shot of heroin. Sorry, I don't know why I'm doing all
these comparisons with drugs today. But it was good.
Only difference that you can taste is a little bit of the rice
flavor from the rice milk in the chocolate. It comes across as
coconut at first, but its real subtle.

Sorry the pictures are kinda bad, they were taken in a dark car.



Perfect chocolate, smooth caramel, and oh so fluffy... stuff.
Nougat? I don't know! Its fuffy! And its GOOD!

Potato Leek Soup and Rustic Garlic Bread

Thinking back, when I was a teen I ate the same thing a lot.
Had pretty much generic meals every other night and never
tried anything new. Believe it or not, I was a picky picky kid.
I guess that's why I'm so tolerant with my little brother and Mom.
Because I was just like them.

I'm not sure if its the influence that veganism has had on my life or
the wonderful support I've had from my boyfriend, but with the
exception of snacks and some breakfasts I rarely if ever eat the same
thing twice in one month. Unless its seriously on of our all time
favorites like chili-cheeze taters or curry.

And I've been on a major cooking crazy. Monkey-man swings off
to work and I make dinner for when he comes back. What a good
little domestic witch I am! (ha) I think its really the excitement of
surprising him with something new that we haven't eaten together
before.

Now, with my organic delivery I've been getting bushels of leeks
and we've been throwing them into all the soups, stews and
stir-frys right along with the onions but I haven't made him potato
leek soup before. I've been dying to try my friends recipe which
sounds amazing, but I've get to have both leeks and apple cider
in my fridge at the same time. I will someday!!!




Basic-basic-basic Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients (for two)

1 med onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large leeks, halved and sliced
2 med-large potatoes, chopped (I used russets w/skins)
4 cups of veg broth
salt, pepper, and rosemary or dill
1 bayleaf

Saute the onion in a little bit of water over medium heat until
translucent. Add the leek and garlic. Keep adding water if it
starts to stick. Saute for a few more minutes and then add the
potatoes. You can saute with olive oil to add a little more flavor
if you like.

Throw in the potatoes and vegetable broth, along with whatever
herb you picked and the bayleaf. I use anywhere from 1/2 tsp- 1 tsp
dried herb, but please flavor to taste.

Bring to a boil and turn down and simmer until the potato is tender.
About 20-25 minutes. Flavor with salt and pepper and using an immersion
blender, blend about 1/3 to thicken up slightly.

Pre-blended


After blending...




I'm not sure why I thought this was going to be rustic
but sure enough didn't come out like it.



Don't get me wrong, it was delicious and fresh, warm bread is
always welcome. But I wish I had added more garlic. I put in
about 6 whole cloves halved when I could have put in twice that much.


And this should have really been fermented overnight, but hey.
It served its tasty purpose.

If at first you don't succeed, put it in a pie

succeed
I had the best intentions of making a wonderful pot of smokey
pumpkin soup. I had a container of pumpkin that I had frozen
from Christmas and was intent on using it up.

I made the soup before, but something went horribly wrong.
It tasted pretty bad, but in the way where you can't place
what was wrong. It is supposed to be blended smooth and
flavoured with a wee bit of condensed liquid smoke.
It imparts memories of smokey gouda cheese and oven roasted
pumpkin. Yet for some reason this time it came out tasting
more like smokey feet.

Oh gods! Ok, it wasn't quite that bad. I'm exaggerating.
But we put it aside in hopes of the flavour settling and
it mellowing itself out.

The next evening I cooked up some onions, garlic, carrots,
potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a bit of bell pepper with
some sage... mixed the pumpkin soup in and dumped it in
a pie crust.



For some reason my curse hadn't worn off yet and my
crust came out bready. Not bad, but not flakey.
Oh well. It still tasted damn good.



Pies, or shepherds pies, or even pasties are a great
and delicious way to use up leftover soup.
That's why its an even better idea to have a batch of
pie crust in your freezer for emergencies.
I still have an uncooked pumpkin in the kitchen, now
I need to decide if I'm gonna attempt pumpkin soup again
or if some pumpkin sweets are in order.
Oh well, I'll probably just make curry!

Still high on the holidays

Our Christmas, I'm actually glad to say, was very quiet.
Usually I spend the Christmas eve and the later part of
Christmas Day running around and trying to visit with as
many people possible. But this year I got to have a very
peaceful day with my Boyfriend.

We spent our time dozing, eating Christmas goodies,
cooking, and opening presents. All of my favorite things.






























This is our wee little Christmas Tree.




























I love our funny little tree topper. Neither of us are in
to angels or stars, so we improvised a little.
We're both just starting out pretty much in LA again,
so neither of us have much stuff built up.
(except for all the random things my aunt and grandma keep
sending me, but that's for a whole other story)


















Me in front of our wee tree.

I made breakfast before we opened presents.
Or started it rather. We opened while it baked.
I made my traditional Christmas dish, Cranberry-Orange Sweet Buns!























































































Then we opened presents, lots of vegan goodies!
I got some awesome gadgets!







































































I also got a bunch of little do dads from my folks and some
great intellectual reads! Can't wait!

So we watched Elf, my favorite Christmas movie, while eating
some sweet buns. Then I passed out because it was just too
much excitement for me.

Later on we went around Hastings Ranch and looked at Christmas
lights. Each block has a different theme, my favorite block
was the peace dove themed. The design was very pretty and well
thought out. On our way back we drove up Christmas Tree Lane
in Pasadena.




























































After that we came home for dinner of Borscht and quesadillas,
yes a weird combo but very good all the same.



































Overall it was a very lovely Christmas. Our Christmas Eve
was pretty fun, lots of visiting and driving. We were up
in the Mountains for a night with my Grandparents. I have
photos from there, but sadly I left my camera there, so right
now I'm just bumming off my boyfriend. Hopefully I will get
it back soon and get back to more consistent blogging.
Until then, I hope you all had an excellent Christmas and
have a safe and Happy New Year.

Dinner Pie, Oh My: Part Five

I've heard it said "Eat Dessert first, you never know when

you're gonna die." I strongly concur.

However, what if your dessert was hijacked by a dinner

disguising as a dessert. Like a pie, that wasn't your

average pie...

Yes my friends, I am talking about the dastardly meal

that is shepherds pie or worse yet pot pie. Shepherds pie

though is very often mislabeled... It actually is just a

veg and meat pie topped with potatoes and baked. Pot

pie actually has a pie crust.

I remember my dad making shepherd's pie when I was

a kid and I hated celery, so I never wanted to eat it.

And you have to admit that dinner pie isn't the most

photogenic or appetizing looking meals... So naturally,

as most children do, I had to give it a suitable nickname.

My Dad's shepherd pie became "Shepherd's Hulgh" --

as in a puking noise. I'm not sure how to spell that, but

you get the picture.

I feel pretty bad about this because my Dad is a damn

good cook and he doesn't cook nearly as much as he used

to, very sad. Also, I know that if I had his shepherd's pie today

I wouldn't be complaining.

We did a special take on the whole shepherd's pie idea today

for dinner... Our filling was just a load of mostly broccoli that

could be the base of a very good soup. (onions, garlic, broc,

carrots, sage, rosemary, bay leaf, soymilk, salt, pepper,

and a vegan roux).

Now the crust is what brings us back to the traditional sense

of shepherd's pie-- taders. Instead of lobbing some potatoes on

top we made a potato crust, as follows.

Potato Pie Crust

2 cups mashed potatoes, cooled

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

Mix all but water. Slowly add water until a ball is formed.

Divide and roll out in to about 1/8" thickness.

This is good for a 9" crust and up. We used an 8" pan and

still had some dough left over. Once the bottom

of the crust is in place, pierce some holes in it with a fork

and prebake for about 8 minutes at 350F.

Pour in your filling and apply the top crust. Cut a couple of

slits in it, so the heat can escape. Bake for 30 minutes or

until golden brown.

My Shepherds "hulgh!"

Hee hee looks like the pie puked though!