Sloppy Joe Pasta

Okay today I experimented with Sloppy Joes in the Pressure cooker, it came out really good!

1 cup dried lentils
1 chopped onion
3 garlic cloves chopped
2 cups of water
2 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tsp of chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
8oz tempeh roughly sliced /chopped


I mixed all of these ingredients in a pressure cooker on high for 10 minutes. This unfortunately wasn't enough time. So I did another 5 minutes. Still wasn't quite enough time, So I am thinking that 20 minutes in the pressure cooker with unsoaked lentils should be enough.  Fast release.

After the first round of 10 minutes I added

1 can of diced tomato
3-4 dashes of chipotle powder
1/4 c tomato ketchup
1/2 tbsp yellow mustard

That's when I put them back in for 5 minutes.

But I have heard that acidity in tomatoes makes it harder for lentils to get soft.. so maybe it's possible
that the first round could only be like 15 minutes with the lentils, and if you wanted to do a second round you can otherwise, it tasted pretty good after the first round, the only reason I did another was I was thinking maybe the lentils could get a bit softer. They did get a bit softer, but not as soft as maybe I would have preferred. I was so hungry though I ate it anyway :)

I also cooked up a package of spiral noodles... mixed it with the sloppy joe stuff, and sprinkled it with nutritional yeast.

It was amazing.

:) 

Possibly the best vegan breakfast?

Luckily this past week I've been on a homecooking/working out binge daily.

For breakfast a couple of days ago, I made:
Steamed kale
Steamed acorn squash
Scramble tofu (1 tsp of oil, tofu, plus generous dashes of herbs (mixed, basil), nutritional yeast, paprika and a bit of salt and pepper)

I mixed it all up afterwards, I wasn't able to eat the all of it.

And last night, we had family over my mom made a vegan chili full of veggies -- broccoli, bell peppers, sweet potato, beans, corn, tomatoes, and mushrooms.

I made this corn bread recipe, which turned out awesome and everyone loved it!
http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-cornbread-115929

This morning, I mixed my leftover bfast from the other day, kale, squash, tofu, plus corn bread, and raosted chipotle bean dip (available at natural grocer) Kind of like a scramble, and wow, it is amazing!!

Next bfast with company I am making this for sure! Chipotle beans, cornbread, plus scramble of kale, tofu plus squash!

Different but works sooo well in the morning :)

Just found this gem

Wow I just found this... I liked how they put this together and labelled everything so very nicely :)

http://www.vegan.com/cookbooks/

Pressure Cooking and Slow Cooking

As a graduate student,
Can I just say how much these things are just blissful ways of getting wholesome nutrients in a no fuss way??

So last week, I got a bit of a cold. Thank god vegan colds are like, the most amazing kind of colds you can get. So compared the colds I used to get before I went vegan. It was like snotty, coughy, feverish monster for at minimum a week. Okay maybe I didn't have a fever for a week. But Sore throat would last 2 days, bad sneeze would last 2-3 days, bad cough would last 3-5 days. It was awful. And I'm sure everyone can relatively relate to the awfulness that a cold can be. I also used to get these 3-4 times a year!!! And that was normal!

Okay as a vegan, I get sick once per year... if that.. maybe even once per year and a half.

This is how it usually plays out.
Okay so maybe I will have one day of death. Tiredness, sore throat. (Monday last week)
But the day after, I was relatively okay, a bit of fatigue, a bit of a runny nose, but nothing even close to what it used to be before being a vegan.
Day after, a little bit of a cough, but pretty okay. The intensity of a vegan cold is like a 2, and the intensity of a vegetarian/meat eater cold is like a 10, on a scale of 1-10.

 A pretty dramatic difference.

Anyway.

So last week I made soups that I've been living on ever since lol.

Both inspired from the Vegan Pressure Cooking Cookbook by JL Fields
And one made in a slow cooker while the other was made in the pressure cooker.

While I also made rice on the stove.

Apart from the soup, this week I've eaten a lot of green apples, and gardein  (not) fish sticks, I am totally in love with those.  I made a nice salad with the fish sticks, plus romaine lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers- I used a garlic mustard dressing (olive oil (1 tbs), lemon juice (1/2 lemon), 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp mustard... that was for one serving, but I think there are better mustardy garlicy dressing recipes if searching for it online.

Okay so I made:

Potato, Apple and Lentil Soup:
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 sweet potato diced
2 potatoes diced
1/4 teaspoon of smoked paprika
dash of cayenne
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 apples diced
1/2 cup dried green lentils
4 cups low sodium veggie broth
1/2 tsp salt
ground black pepper
1 cup frozen mixed veggies

Throw everything into a slow cooker on high, and voila, 4 hours later you got some delightful stew!!

Creamy Kale Miso Soup:
4 garlic cloves cut in half
1 small sweet onion quartered
1 carrot diced
4 cups low sodium veggie broth
150g silken tofu
1 bunch broccolini chopped
1 cup brussel sprouts
1/2 cup of green peas
3 tbsp yellow miso
black pepper

Throw everything into a pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes, let it slow release.  If after 10 minutes it hasn't released, let out the pressure.  Once you open it up, I used an immersion blender to get it creamy.

I've been eating this stuff on rice all week.  :)

Scrambled Tofu and Sauteed Kale

Scrambled Tofu:
(for one)
1/2 package of silken tofu
1 tsp rice bran oil
1 tbsp nutritional yeast seasonings
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
dash of rosemary
dash or two of black salt
dash or two of black pepper
1 garlic cloves minced

Heat the oil and garlic in a pan, add the tofu. Let sizzle for 5 minutes, stirring as needed.
Add the soy sauce if it starts looking a little dry. Add the seasonings, stir fry for a couple more minutes until heated thoroughly.

Sauteed kale:
1 tsp rice bran oil (also great with sesame oil)
1 tsp soy sauce
2 minced garlic cloves
3 cups of chopped kale

Fry garlic in the oil, for a few minutes and then add the kale. Sizzle the kale until it's wilted but still bright green, and may even get a bit crunchy on the edges, if not it's still tasty!

Add the kale and the tofu to one plate and garnish with chopped tomatoes.

Chia breakfast and BLT wraps

These have been my two most common foods this week. And my chia breakfast I've been having for months and months now.

Chia Cereal:
3 tbsp chia seeds
1 scoop of vega nutritional shake vanilla flavor
enough water to cover
2 tbsp apple sweetened cranberries.

Mix everything together and let it soak for a few minutes and it is ready to consume. I also travelled around New York/ New Jersey last week, and took ziplock bags full of these three ingredients and I had an instant nutritional breakfast anywhere I went.


BLT wraps:
This takes less than 5 minutes to make, I was inspired by visiting a vegan restaurant in NYC and ordered this, and it was sooo amazing! I craved it so much afterwards that as soon as I came home I bought the ingredients so I could make it too.

2-3 leaves of romaine
1/2 tbsp vegan mayo
1 slice of cheddar vegan cheese (I use Daiya)
3-4 slices of tomato
(the restaurant also had avocado in the wrap, however the avocados at my local organic store were pretty unripe so I went without)
2 slices of tempeh bacon
1 wrap

I take the shortcut way, of using a microwave.. Take a wrap, put the slice of cheese on one side, plus 2 slices of bacon.  Microwave for 45 seconds. Add the tomato, lettuce, and mayo to the other side of the wrap. Roll it up and consume :)

So easy and so satisfying :)