Sundays are for muffins :-)

I was craving muffins Sunday morning, and found a basic vegan recipe on About.com. I’m inherently unable to follow recipes, so naturally I tweaked this one a bit and came up with the easiest, healthiest, and perhaps tastiest muffin I’ve made in a while, vegan or not!

Here’s what I ended up with:

3 bananas- the blacker, the better!
¼ cup canola oil
¾ cup sugar (I cut this down from the 1 cup in the original recipe, and I think ½ would be plenty)
2 cups flour (I used half fine ground whole wheat flour and half ground flax seed)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Mix the first 3 ingredients in one bowl, the last 3 in another, the combine. Distribute evenly between 12 greased or lined muffin tins and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

You could easily add nuts, dried fruit, a bit of peanut butter, or a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to make delicious variations of this recipe! If I make these again, I’m going to sub coconut oil in for the canola, and add walnuts and cranberries. DELISH!

Snacking--Curtails My Creativity; HELP!

As everyone working with me knows, I’m a huge fan of snacking (my drawer is infamous!!). Snacking  gives me something to look forward to throughout my day (for those of you not lucky enough to have a snack drawer at your disposal--OK, I admit it, mine’s rented--this extensive form of snacking might not be a viable option, but please, continue reading), and it keeps me from wanting to crawl under my desk with a pillow and blanket after gorging myself with an ungodly-sized lunch, which I tend every now and then to purchase—usually when my snack drawer needs restocking.  

Luckily this week is not one such week, as I have a stockpile of wasabi-soy almonds (my one indulgence), walnuts, pistachios, dates, figs, smart-pop kettle corn and green tea. I usually pair the fruit and nuts with tea and a piece of fruit from home and eat the almonds and kettle corn when a salt-craving arises.

However, in my attempt to avoid processed, high sodium/sugar foods as much as possible (as well as stay within my budget), much creativity is needed, and, to be honest, mine’s waning;  and so, I plead with you to share your favorite snacks so I can revamp my drawer during my weekend grocery run.

Green Bean and Sesame Noodles

When sharing this recipe, I step up onto my pedestal and advocate making your own sauces--they taste better than just about anything from a store with a reasonable price tag and (more often than not) mean less sodium and fewer preservatives.

I wanted to make a peanut sauce, but alas, I was out of peanut butter; so I opted for a spicy mustard sauce instead:

Mustard (preferably stone ground)
Soy sauce (preferably reduced sodium)
Teriyaki sauce
Cider vinegar
Srirachi

If you happened to have peanut butter on hand, you could easily sub it in for the mustard. My general strategy tends to be mix and taste until you like it, the up side being it suits your taste, the down side being you will inevitably create the Mona Lisa of sauces and never be able to recreate it again.

I started by pan-frying green beans, carrots, Anaheim pepper, garlic and onion. Once they browned a bit, I added my sauce and a bit of water so nothing would burn (I taste test when cooking green beans--I'm texture-particular) and let everything simmer (for the extent of my dish washing--15 minutes, I suppose). You may now drool over the finished product: whole wheat spaghetti noodles (or noodle of your choice) and sesame seeds with the veggies. Guten appetit!

 P.S. Sorry about the cell-phone quality pics...real camera coming soon :/.

White Bean Hummus--Dare I say, better than the original?

I bought a massive bag of white beans over the weekend, only to quickly realize I could be moving in mere months and have a solid 10 pounds of beans, lentils, and peas to consume--time to get creative!

Although I don't claim to have invented this white bean spread, I believe it was a sign from whatever higher power appeals to you that I forgot to buy chick peas, and was thus obligated to sub white beans instead. While I won't bash the original, this white bean spread has its advantages:

1) When using dried beans, as I usually do, chick peas are a nightmare; white beans don't take near as long to reach a blendable softness.

2) It might be that white beans retain more water than chick peas, but I didn't add as much oil as I do to hummus before there's enough liquid for it to swirl and blend in my food processor.

3) For anyone without a food processor in her/his possession, these beans are very blender friendly (chick peas, in my opinion, are not)--I'd imagine you could even make this without an appliance using a potato masher and a fork.

4) The taste was amazing! Definitely smoother than hummus--and creamy--almost like butter.

So, chick peas vs. white beans? I can't decide, but my lunch looks delicious! Hummus, kalamata olives and cucumber with pita chips.

P.S. If you have some great ideas for beans or lentils, let me know! I'm going to need them...

Delicious First Dinner

I figured hearty was the way to start out my week because:
1) I bought pasta at the store
2) Pasta dishes are usually quick to make
2) I generally come home from work feeling like my stomach is eating itself
3) Pasta is a comfort food for many people, so, in the hope of avoiding any feelings of loss and/or deprivation--a tactic I believe to have been successful--I made pasta.

The recipe was pretty simple. I sauteed onions, greens (you could use anything, but I used dandelion leaves, turnip greens, and spinach), and garlic (I don't really time things when I cook, I just add ingredients to the pan as I finish chopping them) in olive oil and a bit of water until the greens were wilted. You could add Italian spices if your heart desired, but I only used salt and pepper. At the last minute, I added a few Kalamata olives just to heat them through.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume everyone can boil pasta (whole grain, of course), which I did, then tossed with olive oil. I topped the pasta with the leaves and drizzled everything with a bit of balsamic vinegar. Hearty, and full of flavor!

The Green Smoothie

I've always been a breakfast person (and you should be, too); lately, I've also been a dedicated smoothie maker. With health and sustainability in mind, there's no time like the present to go green.

I've done green smoothies before, but I usually just added spinach; this week, I'm going all out. I chopped cucumber, celery, kale and spinach (I also saved the celery stalks and kale stems--they make great veggie broth). I'm also using orange juice, a banana, and frozen strawberries.

I know the pre-preparing seems extreme and anal, but seriously, it took me 20 minutes to chop and bag everything; plus, my smoothie making the next morning was extremely simple.

I'm perfectly aware that anyone can throw a bunch of stuff in a blender and turn it on, but I choked down some nasty green liquids before making a smoothie I could tolerate, let alone enjoy--so take my advice.

That said, be liberal with your greens; once blended, they shrink to nothingness in the bottom of your blender--so load it up! I blend the greens, whatever liquid you plan on using (juice, soy milk, green tea, whatever), and any non-frozen fruit you're using, in my case a banana.

I found when using frozen fruit, if you blend your non-frozen ingredients first, everything ends up smoother in the end--always a desirable outcome when making "smoothies"--and you avoid the never-pleasant, in-tact-spinach-leaf-in-my-smoothie fiasco.

As a side note, when using greens with strong flavors, like celery and kale, make sure you use at least one sweet fruit in your mix to cover the the green-y flavor. My go-tos are mangoes, pineapple, and bananas. What else you add is your decision entirely--my choice of strawberries tasted great, but the color wasn't exactly what I would dub appetizing.

Welp; bottoms up, I suppose. To health!

The 28 Day Challenge

Tomorrow marks the first day of 28, in which I will eat 100% vegan meals, proving to many nay-sayers:
1) I will NOT keel over dead after a day without meat;
2) 28 days vegan does not mean 28 days of salad;
3) The pictures I post of my meals WILL, indeed, have you salivating and unsatisfied with your fast food and frozen dinners.

I should also mention, while the market for vegan substitute products is gaining momentum, I do not intend to rely on the same old recipes by simply substituting a vegan version of my favorite meat and dairy products; these foods, while perhaps better than the alternative, are still processed and not in line with my real goals--overall health and culinary creativity--and do not make economic sense, given my limited income. 

While this is not a pledge to stave off eggs and dairy forever, this is my attempt to reduce my own consumption of un-sustainably produced, processed, and hormone infused "foods." It is also a public invitation for anyone entertaining the idea of veganism, or simply wishing to consume less meat and fewer animal bi-products--be it a meal-per-week, a vegan-until-dinner, or an all-stops-out approach--to become a more responsible consumer.