Les Bouchées Quotidiennes

This is an extra-long post because I am posting all of the things I've eaten before my wisdom teeth surgery, which is in two days! This blueberry cobbler smoothie will probably be perfect after I get my teeth out too, even though I made this last week. This smoothie is super easy, lemony and delicious! I've been using a lot of my local blueberries as much as possible lately, which I'm storing in the freezer.

I made Kara's delicious vegan omelette last week, which I stuffed with a smoky balsamic mushroom and spinach filling. I love how ridiculously filling these vegan omelettes are and they only have a few ingredients, minus the fillings! It kept me full for more than a few hours. For the filling: I just sauteed some thinly sliced cremini mushrooms in a pan with some olive oil until lightly browned. Then I added a heavy splash of balsamic vinegar and a few drops of liquid smoke, then stirred in some chopped spinach, until everything is soft and flavorful!

Probably my favorite recipe I've tested for the cookbook: spicy almond butter noodles with edamame, ribbons of cucumber and carrots, steamed broccoli and peanuts.

Another delicious blueberry smoothie! This one has vegan yogurt and GF rolled oats for some extra sustenance. 

I made some very flavorful deviled eggs as a snack last week using sriracha, hard-boiled egg yolks, some vegan mayo and leftover homemade garam masala hummus. I then topped each one with a Thai basil leaf. These were amazing!

I LOVE trying new variations on Caesar dressings, and this one from Veganomicon is incredible because it's made with silken tofu and finely processed almonds. The best part of this salad was definitely the roasted garlic croutons, which I made GF by using Udi's GF whole-grain bread. I also added chopped cucumbers, chickpeas and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast to make one delicious and filling salad!

A mushroom, green onion and thyme omelette I made for breakfast!

I made a very quick and filling smoothie at work: one green superfood chocolate packet, 3 frozen bananas, a heaping spoonful of peanut butter and a few splashes of hot water. I loved this chocolate superfood packet and I can't wait to try the other flavors!

I haven't had a samosa in years, so these samosa-stuffed baked potatoes were a great substitute (since I can't have the pastry dough)! They didn't take too long to make, but I certainly wouldn't cook them on a week day. The flavors of the samosa filling were absolutely delicious and very authentic! I'd recommend this for anyone who loves samosas, but doesn't want to go through the process of making samosas. This recipe originally comes from Veganomicon. 

I recently snagged some local okra from a produce stand, so I finally broke down and made these okra fritters again! I made them GF by using Bob's all-purpose GF flour and added some Cajun seasoning in order to add a little more flavor. I made these years ago, and they are still delicious and very easy to make! I topped mine with some vegan mayo and a few more sprinkles of Cajun seasoning.

I haven't made banana bread in a while, but this summer squash banana-oat loaf with an almond streusel really caught my eye! I have never used summer squash (except zucchini) in desserts. I used local two-tone summer squash. Of course, I also love that this recipe is already gluten and dairy-free, so no substitutions needed! I also can't believe I've never baked anything with a streusel topping before this! This loaf was super easy to make and very lightly sweetened, which I really love. 

I made another wonderful recipe from Veganomicon this morning, which was this corn and edamame sesame salad. It took only ten minutes to make and is a great lunch served with some rice crackers! I love anything that is flavored strongly with sesame, and anything with edamame!

Les Bouchées Quotidiennes

Hi everyone! So did I mention that I got another recipe testing position? Well I did and it's for one of my favorite bloggers: An Unrefined Vegan. This was my first recipe I made for her, and I can't say much, but it was a delicious, lemony creamy pasta with steamed broccoli! I also wanted to mention that I finally bought a vegetable steamer basket last week. Since taking my nutrition class, I realized how important it is to keep the vitamins and minerals intact in my vegetables so they don't diffuse into the water (which is how you can lose most of them). So I invested in a steamer to try to keep as many vitamins and minerals as I can! I highly recommend getting one if you can.

I spent a few hours at the farmer's market last weekend and had a great time. Mike was out of town so I prepared myself a fancy lady dinner: a big salad with organic romaine, farmer's market cherry tomatoes and a silken-tofu fresh basil dressing. I also roasted some potatoes with fresh rosemary, whole garlic cloves and olive oil (highly recommend trying this!). And of course, one of my favorite cocktails: elderflower lemonade and gin!

I am so happy that I've been keeping up with most of my summer goals this year! I'm lame and make a list every single April/May of things I want to try over the summer. One of them was to make sushi, which I FINALLY did last weekend! An employee at Sur La Table recommended this silicone sushi mat because it doesn't stick to the nori/rice, and she was right! Luckily my friend Sofia has made sushi before, so I let her roll some first. We used this spicy tempeh nori roll recipe from Veganomicon. This recipe is great for first time sushi makers because it's easy, has minimal ingredients, and oh my gosh it's tasty. It almost tastes better than some sushi I've had in Greensboro! We were very pleased with how these turned out!

Sofia and I had a fancy food party last weekend, which consisted of making sushi and my hands down no questions asked favorite zucchini fritters. I have made these once before and there is just no comparison to any I've ever had before. The ingredients are so simple, but the outcome is absolutely incredible. I don't know if it's because of the cast iron skillet or grating the zucchini through a food processor, but these are the tastiest little zucchini fritters in the world! To make them GF, just sub bob's red mill GF all-purpose flour. It's that easy!

I've obviously been on a fresh herb kick lately, so I decided to make these herbacious eggs with cilantro-lime brown rice. These eggs have cumin seeds, turmeric, fresh oregano, coriander, and fresh thyme. As you can imagine, the resulting flavor is craaazy good. I could have eaten four whole eggs this way by myself. The cilantro lime rice is the perfect background for these eggs, and I'm sure adding vegan sour cream/cashew cream on top would make it even tastier. If you're vegan, I'm positive that you could make a tofu scramble or omelette using the same herbs and get the same results!

Somehow I've never put chia seeds in smoothies, but now I think I always will. It makes the smoothie thick, almost fluffy, and delicious! This is a strawberry ginger smoothie, which is the perfect accessory to a good book!

This is another recipe testing dish: a white bean salad with a creamy Italian dressing! I seriously can't wait for this book to come out! Everything has been so delicious so far.

I had some leftover tempeh from our sushi rolls, so I made some tempeh "bacon" with it. I just cubed the tempeh into small pieces, chopped leftover onion and two cloves of garlic. I sauteed the onion and tempeh in oil, on medium until the tempeh was lightly browned. I then added some soy sauce, liquid smoke and apple cider vinegar until it was absorbed into the tempeh (just enough of each to make it taste like bacon and light on the liquid smoke). Then I added the garlic in the last few minutes of cooking. Served on some GF toast slathered with vegan mayo, it was the perfect breakfast and lunch with a side of Thai pickles!

I bought a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard at the market last weekend for only $2, so instead of using it for my favorite minestrone recipe, I decided to try something new. I made this bowl of quinoa, swiss chard, and roasted sweet potatoes with a tangy miso sauce. This recipe is super easy to make and is great for all seasons! I left out the chickpeas due to laziness and tested another recipe instead, which was lemon-garlic baked tofu. And obviously, everything was drizzled with sriracha! 

catching up

So I definitely haven't posted in over a month...which means I've been incredibly busy! Here are some things I cooked last month and I'll have another post up soon!

This tempeh cacciatore was pretty amazing! I don't think I ever ate chicken cacciatore when I wasn't vegetarian, but the flavors here were great! You cook the tempeh in a mixture of red wine, tamari, and Italian herbs along with a ton of vegetables and olives. This recipe can't be found in a cookbook or on a website, so if you would like the recipe, just leave a comment with your e-mail address!

I finally got an ice-cream maker! I can't wait to use it. I think I will do peach ice cream first. Have you ever made ice-cream at home?

New found love: boba tea

Birthday pizza for Mike. I made my absolute favorite: kale, red onion + pistachio with a homemade crust and lots of garlic.

This tofu chili has been on my to-make list for quite a while now. I finally made it and it's incredibly easy, cheap, and delicious! It has a ton of protein from tofu and beans, and extra delicious topped with hot sauce, corn chips and vegan cheese. I highly recommend it and I'm sure it even freezes well! //whole foods market

I made one of my favorite cakes for Mike's birthday: a pina colada cake with pineapple, dark rum and cream of coconut. It's actually pretty simple to make and so delicious! The pineapple rum glaze was amazing. I substituted: 1 C sorghum flour, 1 C tapioca starch, 2 tsp xanthan gum, and earth balance vegan butter sticks. //smitten kitchen

This lovely colorful little salad is full of green onions, mangoes, black beans and red pepper! This would be great as an easy summertime meal or for a picnic/work lunch. The recipe is very straightforward, simple, and takes less than 10 minutes if you have leftover cooked quinoa. There's something really great about eating this salad because of the sweet bites from mangoes! //veganomicon

New bar tools: swizzle spoon, measuring shot glass, and perfect ice cube trays. 
Drink pictured: 1.5 shots dark rum over ice topped off with ginger beer and a lime wedge.

I have been craving donuts for quite some time now, so I made these incredible baked banana donuts with a coffee glaze. The process of making these donuts is different, but still easy. You use thawed (previously frozen) mashed banana, vegan sour cream, bourbon, etc. I would like to try the PB glaze next time. I subbed: 1/2 C sorghum flour, 1/2 C tapioca starch, 1/4 C almond flour + vegan sour cream. These would be amazing with coffee! //vanilla bean blog

This is now easily one of my favorite pasta dishes: pasta al pomodoro. Using cherry tomatoes, you cook them down until they release their juices along with garlic and Italian herbs. No heavy cream or butter needed; the leftover pasta water will thicken the sauce for you as it boils away. I can't express how easy, filling, and satisfying this pasta was. Alongside gluten-free vegan garlic bread, I was in heaven. //eat this poem

Gin and tonics

Once again, I learned that Daiya's faux cheese wedge makes me incredibly ill. I am just going to have to deal with that one. When I made pizza for Mike's birthday, I used vegan gourmet's mozzarella block which worked just fine and tasted/melted wonderfully! I later made these sinful buffalo tempeh kale grilled vegan mozzarella sandwiches. This would obviously be better if you can have regular cheese, but vegan still did the trick! I served these with oven fries and it was amazing/filling! //vegan yack attack

(997) le dîner de cons

Well I guess I have been really busy because it's been over two weeks since my last post! But things are kind of back to "normal" now, you could say, except it is the end of school. My classes are getting harder, I am certainly more stressed, but I only have a little over 3 weeks left (!!!). I haven't been cooking too much due to being out of town, having a friend visit from NY, and just having too many books to read for class. I also only had to cook for one person for about a week since the boy was away to Puerto Rico for business. So things are back to how they were (kind of) so I should be in the kitchen more now! 

This dish has a ridiculous amount of protein: corn-quinoa pasta, kidney beans, tempeh, and nutritional yeast. If I remember correctly, it had well over 35g of protein per serving! The best part is, this dish is incredibly cheap, filling, and quick, like most Happy Herbivore recipes. It's called tempeh chili mac because it greatly resembles regular chili mac. //happy herbivore everyday

Sometimes I just want incredibly good Indian food, but it's next to impossible for me to eat Indian restaurants/or out at all. Even though this is probably not authentic, this curried chickpeas and greens with jasmine rice was amazing! It comes together in less than 30 minutes and leaves you with so much food. I was eating this (happily) for days. There is no better combination than ginger, garlic, garam masala and other Indian spices! //appetite for reduction

I have become a little obsessed with making tofu scrambles for brunch on the weekends. I really need to try out vegan omelettes and benedicts before I get bored with scrambles! This particular scramble, from the PPK, is a blackened tofu scramble with onions, garlic, swiss chard, and tomatoes served with garlicky vegan buttery grits. I really enjoyed the blackened flavor of this scramble and it obviously is a million times better with hotsauce! //the PPK

There is something so incredibly satisfying about baking a cake. The process is slow, relaxing, and quiet. Playing music when I cook or bake is a must. Lately I have been listening to my huge Wes Anderson playlist, the Beach Boys, or Yelle. This cake is now being hailed, by my parents, as the best cake I've ever made (note: they say this after every cake). I made this for Easter, so it needed to be springy and light: so I made the lemon coconut bundt cake from Veganomicon. I was so pleased with the delicate flavors of this cake. Here are the substitutions I used: 
-1 C tapioca starch -1 C millet flour -1 C almond flour -3 tsp xanthan gum
The almond flour gives the cake a very soft crumb and the millet flour makes it a little denser. I will definitely be making this again! //Veganomicon

A very unhappy Easter Bunny!

Easter grill dinner on my father's new grill: asparagus, portobello mushrooms, brown sugar-soy sauce salmon + lemon garlic salmon

Sometimes I seriously have to force myself to cook something, even if it takes little effort. I steamed broccoli and seasoned it with nutritional yeast and garlic powder. Then I baked a potato, split it down the middle, stuffed it with Amy's organic canned baked beans, vegan butter, nutritional yeast, and garlic powder. You better believe I ate the entire thing! 

I have discovered one of the greatest tofu products ever: Twin Oaks tofu More than Tofu. I used the garlic shiitake one for this recipe, which also has quinoa and amaranth for extra protein! For once 8 ounce block, I believe, there are about 32g of protein. I decided to pan fry it until golden to eat with this amazingly simple stir-fried noodles with broccoli and portobellos. I will definitely be making this again all the time because of how simple it is! I seriously recommend this tofu because it comes pre-seasoned/marinated so all you have to do is fry/bake/grill it! It didn't need any seasoning whatsoever. //Foreals Life

South in your mouth: Cheerwine, lime juice, gin
Blueberry Lemonadka: lemonade, Stoli vodka, blueberries

Well, the weather finally perked up in Greensboro. It may be hot as crap outside, but I still crave soup year round. I made this very easy, simple, yet satisfying soup: tomato-rice soup with navy beans and roasted garlic. I did not roast the garlic, however, because of the onset of laziness. The soup is still delicious though and just what I wanted today. It takes no effort at all. If you do roast the garlic, the only thing you're chopping is an onion. Too easy! //Veganomicon