The return of the SF Vegan Bakesale!!

Yea!!! It's back!! My favorite excuse to bake lots of sugary sweets is the SF Vegan Bakesale. You may have seen my post from the last time I contributed to the bakesale and the sale was extremely successful. This time the bakesale will be to benefit Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue, and from what I hear, I think this bake sale will be even bigger than the last! 

Mark your calendar and bring your dollars over to Ike's on Saturday October 17th. (If you haven't eaten at Ike's they have super yummy sandwiches) Be prepared to be tempted... you will always end up buying more than you meant to! 

...Now what to make, what to make? 

Pumpkin Oatmeal with Berries and Soy Yogurt

This is one of my all-time favorite breakfasts, and I eat it a few times a week this time of year! In short, here is whatcha do:

Heat up some water (about a cup) and pour it over 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1/4 cup pumpkin puree (you can use more if you like it extra pumpkin-y)in a bowl, give it a stir. Cover the bowl and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then stir in 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and either some stevia of agave if you like your oatmeal a little sweet.

Top this off with some chopped strawberries, blueberries, and a dollop of soy yogurt for some extra creaminess and nutrition. The final touch is one tablespoon of fresh ground flaxseed. This gives texture and your daily dose of the very important Omega-3 fats that are hard to get. 

Eat warm and enjoy the flavor of fall.

Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce, Veggies, and Meat-free "Beef"

Tonight I felt like going asian style and using up some of the homemade Peanut Sauce that lives in my refrigerator always. My hubby loves peanut sauce, and will put it on anything, and I do mean everything- pizza, salad, whatever... so I try to always have some on hand. And I love real Japanese buckwheat soba noodles. They are almost like comfort food. Buckwheat is actually not related to wheat, and is very nutritious. These noodles are a blend of buckwheat and wheat, and the buckwheat is what gives them the dark brown almost grey color. 

I am not one to use a lot of the meatless meat products, but sometimes it is just nice to switch it up a little and use them. Tonight was one of those nights. I grilled up some of the meatless "beef" strips and tossed them in there with the real good stuff: broccoli, carrots, spinach, edamame, and scallions. Anyone can throw this dish together very quickly: just steam your veggies while you cook the noodles and grill the strips, then toss it all together. A very tasty monday night din din. 

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies and a road trip to Bodega Bay

Today we are taking a little road trip to Bodega Bay where we will help one of our close friends celebrate his 30th birthday party... so naturally I had to make some chocolate chip cookies (Any excuse to make classic chocolate chip cookies!) I don't know if I have mentioned that I am a total cookie monster... I know I know, I talk about nutrition all the time, but we all have our weaknesses and what would life be without indulgences from time to time? Mine is chocolate chip cookies. I have mastered the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's a little different than your standard vegan version of Nestle toll house. In this recipe you use the butter (earth balance of course!) cold and I also refrigerate the egg replacer mixture for a few minutes. I  use a blend of barley flour, oat flour and whole wheat pastry flour (so maybe there is a little nutrition in there... just a little though) and a combination of unrefined rapadura and evaporated cane sugar for the sweetener. These cookies are the perfect blend of chewy, soft, crisp and of course chocolatey. I can't wait to share these with our friends out on the beautiful north coast.

Tostadas with Sauteed Squash Blossoms & The kick off of Vegan MoFo!

More time has elapsed since my last posting than I would have liked, my life has been a little crazy lately, but today is the first day of VEGAN MOFO! So that means I am going to be posting a looottt more! What is Vegan MoFo? It is Vegan Month of Food! You can read more about it here: Postpunkkitchen, but the basic idea is that bloggers all over the world will write as much as they can about vegan food, from home kitchen experiments, to tried and true techniques, favorite ingredients, and great vegan restaurant meals.... at least 5 days a week! So be ready for some serious blogging, and to learn lots about delicious, plant-based cooking! 

... On to my tostadas.  I actually took this picture a few weeks ago and have been meaning to write a blog about it for awhile now, but better late than never, right? I had picked up some late season squash blossoms at the farmers market, and wanted to integrate them into some other dish... and I had a hankering for mexican food. It was a Sunday, and I love to spend time in the kitchen on Sunday, it's like therapy/mad scientist day for me... I can try out new things and really find it relaxing, actually. Plus, my husband gets to eat whatever concoction I have made for dinner (may be a good or bad thing for him... depends :) So I made some homemade tortillas. My Grandma is Mexican, and when I was young I remember her making homemade tortillas when she was babysitting my brother and I, and I really think there is almost nothing better in the world  than I fresh homemade tortilla that is still warm (with some Earth Balance on it, of course) They really aren't hard to make, just time consuming. Here is a good recipe for tortillas.

Moving on- I had some quinoa to use up, so I mixed that with some vegetarian refried beans for the protein layer of my tostada. I spiced this mixture up with some great seasonings: Chipotle chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. The next layer of the tostada is diced Heirloom Tomatoes (mmmm... I wish these were in season year round) Then, the squash blossoms. I sauteed these lightly with some sliced garlic and olive oil. Very simple and very tasty. The whole dish is topped off with some tangy avocado cream (Avocado, lime juice and cilantro processed in the food processor with a pinch of salt) and some fresh chopped cilantro.

Voila! I love food with layers, you get the best of every layer in each bite. This dish is absolutely bursting with flavor, and the best part is that it is totally adaptable- you can add in extra layers of any of your favorite mexican style ingredients. 

Spring Rolls with Collard Greens

For any of you who live in the bay area, you may be familiar with a popular vegan restaurant chain, Cafe Gratitude. It is one of my favorite treats to go there and have a really delicious and fresh meal, in a nice atmosphere. I often try to recreate their dishes at home. This one was kind  fun. One of their appetizers is spring rolls, but they wrap them in greens instead of rice paper. I have done dolmas wrapped in collard greens before, so I was confident I could recreate these spring rolls somewhat successfully at home. So I bought some collard greens, and all of the veggies that I wanted to stuff them with: avocado, carrot, scallions, heirloom tomatoes, bell peppers, and I decided to add some marinated tofu (not on Cafe Gratitude's menu). And it was surprisingly easy! So, I blanched the collard greens whole. You do this by bringing a large pot of water to a light boil, and then dipping the whole leaves in the water for a few seconds until they start to turn bright green. Then you submerge the leaves in ice water to stop the cooking process. Once the leaves are cool, you remove the stems so that you have two equal sized and shaped "wrappers". Give them a quick pat dry with a paper towel. At this point, you should have all of your fillings of choice prepared- any veggies and even fruit, that you like: cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, papaya, orange slices, arugula, mint or other herbs, etc. Now you are ready to roll. Put your filling in a line on the lower side of the wrapper closer to you, leaving a little bit of room from the bottom. Then pull the part of the wrapper closer to you up and over the filling, fold in the two sides like a burrito, and then roll it away from you until all of your wrapper is used up. It may take a couple trys to get your rhythm going with this, but you will get it, I promise! If you are having a hard time keeping all of your filling together, then you could always add a little sauce like a peanut sauce to your fillings to keep them from falling apart. If you don't have a sauce on the inside, then I highly suggest a dipping sauce. In this case I made a sauce with almond butter, just like they serve at the cafe.  This can easily be made by whisking some almond butter with tamari, rice vinegar, minced garlic and ginger, and a little chili paste. I finish it off with some lime juice for an extra little kick. Slice the rolls in half at a diagonal, and serve either as an appetizer, or a few rolls with a side dish as an entree. 

Purple Power!

I just had to share these incredible purple foods.. this first one is a purple yam. I first had a purple yam when I was in school at Bauman College and one of my teachers brought one in to show us. She had baked it, and we all tasted it just plain without any seasoning at all, and it was delicious. Ever since then, I have been keeping my eyes open to try to find them again. Well I was at the farmer's market, and low and behold there they were, a small basket of purple yams almost hidden behind larger baskets of regular potatoes and yams. So, of course I bought more of them than I needed just because I was so happy to have found them again! This photo was taken just after I baked the yam whole, then split it in half, and what was inside was this stunning color and beautiful design! The outside of the yam is virtually colorless with just a light beige skin to it. I still eat the skin however, because as with all potatoes and yams, a good amount of the nutrition is contained in the skin.

To the right, is purple cauliflower. This is a little bit easier to find than purple yams, but the purple cauliflower can add some really amazing colors to several dishes. The taste is very similar to cauliflower, maybe just a little bit more complex. My favorite way to prepare this is cut into florets, and simply tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Then roast in the oven turning once or twice for about 25 minutes. You could certainly also integrate purple cauliflower into curries and casseroles, just know that you are going to have a gorgeous intense purple color to your dish!

Purple vegetables and fruits are packet full of beneficial phytochemicals and flavonoids that are great for protecting you against heart disease, cancer, and help to improve brain function among several other benefits. Eat up!