Lemon-Thyme Roasted Tempeh and Veggies with Barley-Mushroom Pilaf

As a skilled home cook and someone who gets excited about food on a fairly regular basis, I find myself the recipient of gifts of unusual ingredients at times.  Once, a friend brought me a celeriac for the sole purpose of seeing what I would do with it.  :)  (I made soup.)  I am the frequent recipient of "I bought this and now I don't know what to do with it -- you will!" ingredients, and occasionally, these special ingredients are selected just for me.

Such is the case with the mason jar full of "Purple Prairie Barley" that has been languishing in my cupboards for a year and a half.  While I appreciate the thoughtfulness of this gift ... I don't love barley, (I typically find it too chewy for my tastes,) and rarely cook with it.  I do enjoy using pearled barley in risotto-style meals from time to time, but as a rule, I don't keep barley on hand.  I don't recall ever cooking hulled barley previously, so this extra-special barley was a bit of a stumper.

Googling "recipe purple barley" brought me up short, too -- most of the recipes were for salads, which I'm just not in the mood for right now, and besides, the veggies required for these summery meals are no longer in season.  I also infrequently make "protein-veg-grain" meals, so I rarely am looking for a carb-heavy side dish.

Thinking a little more about barley, I remember that mushrooms are frequently paired with barley, and since I also had a packet of dried porcini mushrooms in my cupboard (which I believe were also a gift!) I decided the two were destined for pilaf territory.

But, what to pair with the rich, earthy, umami-rich pilaf I was dreaming up?  I needed something lighter and brighter, something that would wake up my palate and bring some color and interest to the plate.  Something that would provide contrast in both flavor and texture, without "fighting" the barley.  Lemon-Thyme Roasted Tempeh and Vegetables to the rescue!

Barley-Mushroom Pilaf

4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup hulled barley, soaked for at least 8 hours and drained

1/2 oz dried mushrooms (porcini, shiitake, or a mixture of whatever you like or have on hand)

2 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

1 tbsp butter (or olive oil)

1 cup finely-chopped onion or leek (white and light green parts)

1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt/to taste

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp dried thyme

Directions:
1. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil.  Add the dried mushrooms, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes, or until the mushrooms are soft and the broth is infused with mushroomy-goodness.  Strain, reserving both the mushrooms and broth.  Stem the mushrooms (if needed) and finely mince.
2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and translucent.
3. Add the soaked/drained barley, vegetable broth, and minced rehydrated mushrooms, and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.  (I use a heat diffuser to prevent scorching the bottom layer when I cook most grains, but this is entirely optional, especially if you trust in your stove.)  Check the barley at this point -- if there is excess liquid, remove the lid and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid has cooked off.
4. Enjoy!  Leftovers freeze well, if you are so inclined.

Lemon-Thyme Roasted Tempeh and Veggies
4 servings

Ingredients:
zest and juice of one lemon
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
8 oz tempeh
seasonal vegetables, cubed (I used eggplant, butternut squash, broccoli, and red bell pepper)

Directions:
1. Make the marinade: combine the zest, juice, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, vinegar, and olive oil in a small food processor or blender (or in a mason jar, if you plan on using a stick blender.)  Puree until smooth and emulsified.
2. Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil.  Add the tempeh, cover, lower the heat, and steam for 10 minutes.  Remove the tempeh and cool slightly.  Cut the tempeh into cubes, and gently toss with 2 tbsp of the marinade.
3. Toss the prepared vegetables with the remaining marinade.  (You can add the tempeh to the bowl, too, but it can be delicate and crumbly at this stage, so your choice.)  Allow the veggies and tempeh to marinade for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Farenheight.  Dump out the veggies and tempeh onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Remove any delicate veggies (broccoli, asparagus, green onions, etc.) and set aside.  Roast the tempeh and sturdier veggies for 20 minutes.  Stir/flip the tempeh and veggies, add the delicate veggies, and return everything to the oven for 20 more minutes.
5. Enjoy!

I was pleased with how both of these recipes turned out, although I was definitely more pleased with the tempeh and veggies.  Blame the barley.  I just don't LOVE it.  Do you love barley?  I do have a couple cups of Purple Prairie Barley left ... what to do?  Any fabulous recipes to share?

400-calorie dinners (vi)

Full disclosure: I've kind of fallen off the calorie-counting bandwagon this past week.  Why?  Well, I've had a number of meals involving guests, (either at my house or out,) parties, and other fun things to attend, and calorie-counting is a little bit tedious in front of others.  :)  I've still been trying to eat healthfully and keep portions reasonable, I just haven't been weighing or measuring things.

However, I did manage two "properly" counted 400-calorie meals this past week:

Biscuits and Gravy:

Really, there's nothing even remotely healthy about this meal, except for a hefty protein dose -- fat and white flour smothered with more fat, white flour, and a bit o' tempeh.  :)  Just goes to show that even when counting calories, there's room for an occasional indulgence, right?  (Plus, this is one of John's all-time favorite breakfasts, and I had a package of tempeh in the freezer . . . hard to say no to that, right?)  I used the buttermilk biscuit recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook,  make a batch of "Tempeh Sausage Crumbles" from Vegan with a Vengeance, (using extra olive oil,) then finish the mess off with a sprinkling of all-purpose flour, and half vegetable broth/half milk.  Cook until thick, and breakfast is served!  This week, I happened to be out of regular milk, and subbed in buttermilk with excellent results.  (I did omit the lemon juice called for in the tempeh sausage crumbles, as I didn't want things to get too weirdly tangy, and John is also sensitive to sour tastes in food.)  John declared this my best batch of biscuits and gravy to date!  Woot!

Bibimbap:

Why on Earth has it never occurred to me to make bibimbap at home before?  Hands-down my favorite order at any Korean restaurant, ("no beef, tofu please!"), and a cinch to make at home.  3/4 cup brown rice tossed with 1 tsp each toasted sesame oil and rice vinegar, topped with shredded carrot, diced red onion, shelled edamame, tofu, nori, sesame seeds, a sunny-side-up egg, and a dribble of sriracha.  Heaven!  Protein-packed, too, which is guaranteed to keep me full well into the evening. A great use of whatever veggie odds and ends we have on hand, I can see this becoming a frequent repeat at our house, especially with beautiful, in-season summer produce!  (Plus, anything involving eggs is always a hit with John.)

Have you had Korean food before?  What's your favorite order?  (As an aside, the syrupy-starchy-sweet-potato bite is my favorite of those little side dish ban-chan salads!)

400-calorie dinners (iii)

As I continue to clean up my diet, watch my portion sizes, and focus on getting more exercise, I find the most indispensable tool in my kitchen, hands-down, is my scale.  (I have this model.  And no, Escali, doesn't know a thing about me, and if you click on that link, I won't earn any money.  I just really like this scale!)  It's easy to use, the batteries last a relatively long time, it's easy to store, (I keep it in its original box on end in one of my cupboards,) and it comes in a wide variety of colors if you enjoy having your kitchen be all matchy-matchy.  :)  (Or you just like orange, or whatever.)  The scale weighs in both grams and ounces, which has been invaluable for this whole calorie-counting thing, as sometimes it's easier to pull out the scale and weigh out 110 grams of cottage cheese, instead of digging the 1/2-cup measuring cup out of the dishwasher and hand-washing it . . . again.  Know what I mean?

I also use my scale often when preparing recipes, (specifically, I almost always weigh grated cheese . . . the cup measurements I find given with most recipes are often WAY off,) and to weigh oils and lye when making soap.  Moral of the story?  My scale gets more than daily use lately, and when I'm not counting calories, I still pull it out several times a week.

Do you have a kitchen scale?  What brand do you have?  Love it?  Wish you had another type?  Use it?  Gathers dust?  I'm curious.

Without further ado, here are a few more 400-calorie dinners we've enjoyed this week:

Spaghetti and beanballs:

First things first . . . there are more than 400 calories pictured above.  (I had a weird day, with little time for snacking, so I had a big dinner.)  I did learn an important and valuable fact this week, however: an ounce of dry pasta weighs about 2 1/2 ounces cooked.  (You can find anything on the internet . . . !!)  My pasta serving in the above meal was about twice what I'd normally eat, topped with a portion of homemade mushroom marinara, and a few Vegan Beanballs.  Delicious!  The beanballs were a cinch to prepare, and have kept beautifully as leftovers for lunches this week.

Burgers and fries:

I made a full batch of Melody's All-American Burgers, divided the base into 16 2-ounce burgers, and froze half.  These burgers are simple to prepare, inexpensive (I didn't have to purchase a single ingredient to make these!), and have classic veggie burger flavor.  I enjoyed my burger with a homemade half whole-wheat brioche bun, (divide the given recipe into 12 equal-sized pieces,) lettuce, tomato, and 2 tsp mayo.  Side of sweet potato waffle fries, some ketchup for dipping, and a pickle!  Yum.

Reubens:

(I must have been craving classic comfort foods this week, because I've made a lot of traditionally "meaty" dishes' vegetarian cousins . . . but I digress!)  You, too, can enjoy a reuben while attempting to clean up your diet.  How?  Homemade rye, (I use the recipe for "Deli-Style Rye" from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,) 2 tsp thousand island dressing, half an ounce of swiss cheese, 1/4-cup of home-grown-home-cultured-home-canned sauerkraut, and two strips of seasoned tempeh.  I cooked my sandwich using a spritz of olive-oil cooking spray, which probably saved the most calories when comparing to a traditional veggie reuben.  Verdict?  Delicious, and I'm not entirely sure John even noticed I didn't cook them in butter.  Only comment I received was, "Good night for a reuben."  :)

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I hope you are enjoying my 400-calorie dinner posts!  Let me know if there's a specific meal you'd like to see as part of this series -- I'm always looking for more meal ideas.

the dough also rises

Ha, ha.  Pardon my ridiculous title -- let's just say I've been baking up awesome yeast breads lately!

Yesterday, I made Whole-Wheat English Muffins!  My second time with this recipe was a definite success -- like anything, the more you practice, the better/faster/more efficient you get.  While English muffins are slightly fussy, they are totally worth the extra time and effort in the kitchen.  Far more delicious than store-bought muffins and full of nutritious ingredients you select, at a fraction of the cost!

Step 1: Prepare dough

If you are familiar with how to make pizza crust or any other type of yeast bread, you can easily make English muffin dough.  It is a basic whole-wheat dough, using a blend of whole-wheat and all-purpose flours, enriched with milk, a little honey, and a little melted butter.  P.S. I don't have a big stand mixer, so I do my kneading by hand, which has always worked fine for me.

Step 2: Shape and allow to rise again

The biggest change I've made from the recipe as written has been shaping my English muffins using slightly smaller portions -- I have good success with 3 oz dough per muffin, (yes, I use my scale,) which makes 15 or 16 muffins from the linked recipe, instead of 12.

Step 3: Skillet-browning
















The recipe mentions that the two characteristics of an English muffin that make them unique are the dusting of cornmeal, and the turn in the skillet.  Possibly the most time-consuming part of the process, (cooking 5 minutes per side,) this takes a bit if you don't have a large griddle to cook a whole baking sheet-full at once.  I will likely return to using my griddle next time, although I always love using my cast-iron frying pan.

Step 4: Bake!

This recipe suggests a final trip into a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes; my muffins seemed more done after 10 minutes.  They were a little crowded on the baking sheets, and I think my oven runs cool, so that definitely explains it.

Have you ever made English muffins?  What did you think?  I have a feeling these will become a standard piece of my baking repertoire, especially since they freeze beautifully, too.

Here are a few other things I've baked and cooked this weekend:

Buttermilk Scones

An incredibly simple, delicious recipe, using just enough butter for richness without becoming heavy, these scones seem infinitely adaptable, and will be a frequent repeat at our house.  I added some dried cranberries this time; chocolate chips and almonds for sure next time!

Irish Oatmeal Bread

My go-to sandwich bread, I decided to bake up a couple of loaves this weekend, while I had the flour and yeast out for the English muffins, and stock up my freezer with healthy, homemade, whole-grain carbs.

One of our favorite dinners - Quiche!

I rolled out a homemade pie crust and filled it with the above recipe, adding about 2 cups finely chopped fresh spinach.  John and I both love quiche, and it makes such a great, light meal -- perfect leftovers for work lunches, too!

And last but not least, tempeh reubens:

Storebought rye bread, thousand island dressing, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and "Seasoned Tempeh," from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.  A mighty fine sandwich for a cool, rainy Sunday!

And, I better run . . . Monday morning always creeps up on ya, doesn't it?  Hope you had a good weekend, too!

atop brown rice

Most weeks, I spend some time over the weekend prepping meals/ingredients for the coming week, and last weekend was no exception!  I ended up cooking up three cups (dry) of brown rice for our meals this week, and it wasn't even enough!  Ha!  We stuffed some of that rice into burritos, and had the following two meals:

"Mapo Tofu," from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant:

While this was a good, quick, easy to prepare weeknight stir-fry, (especially when I prepped all of the veggies and sauce ingredients ahead of time,) the flavor was a little . . . strange.  John exclaimed immediately how tangy the sauce was, and I tended to agree.  :(  Personally, I like my homemade stir-fry sauce better, so I guess we'll be sticking with that one!  However, this was a perfectly acceptable meal.

Coconut Curry:

I don't use a recipe for this meal -- just fry up some tempeh or tofu, add veggies, a couple tablespoons curry paste, a tablespoon each sugar and tamari, and add a can of coconut milk.  Rich, flavorful, and delicious!  This week, I used tempeh, sweet potato, red onion, and green beans.  I'm not always a huge fan of leftovers, but this meal improved with time -- bonus.  John wasn't sure about the sweet potato in a Thai-style curry, but I love it!

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I'm really thrilled about this three-day weekend, although it's raining this morning.  John and I have some errands to run, lots of gardening to do, and a camping trip to prepare for!!!  I can't WAIT to go camping!  What are you looking forward to this holiday weekend?

Lately I've Been . . .

Watching . . . 

BBC's "Planet Earth" series.  We've finished two discs so far, about six episodes total, with many more to go.  (Good thing I spread them out in my Netflix cue!)  We have been enjoying them, both for pretty pictures and learning opportunities, and sometimes an excuse to take a nap on the couch.  :)  We tend to enjoy the "making of" spots at the end of the episodes more than the actual episodes.

Eating . . . 

Magic Kale Salad with tempeh bacon

And Buttermilk French Toast

Planning . . . 

On taking better care of myself this spring.  I've been lucky in the past, having lots of walking naturally incorporated into my daily routine.  With this new job I started in October, not so much.  :(  I'm scheduling weekly walks with a small group of friends, and also hoping to slowly reintroduce yoga into my week.  I'd like to work my way up to three times a week!

Reading . . .

Either the Harry Potter series start to finish, or the Anne of Green Gables series start to finish.  I need a brain break and some de-stressing!  Which series should I read first?

Inspired By . . . 

People who cloth diaper their babies.  I fully plan to cloth diaper my own children someday, whenever that may arrive, but lately, we've generated a LOT of laundry, just the two of us.  I couldn't imagine laundry for a family, PLUS diapers every few days!  Wow.  Major props to those of you out there who manage to stay on top of that.  :)

Excited About . . . 

Our garden!!!!!!!!  Seriously, it's worth that many exclamation points.  The snow is finally, finally, FINALLY starting to melt!  We're getting some spring things started inside, and hoping to till in a bunch of compost in a couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed!

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So, what have you been up to?

pumping up the produce

As I wrote earlier in the week, I am trying to make an effort to eat more produce these days -- specifically, more veggies!  I tried to center our meals around veggies this weekend, and chose Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers as my "focus cookbook."  (Do any of you ever do that when you are meal planning?  Sometimes when I'm overwhelmed by ideas and options, I choose one cookbook and select only recipes from it for upcoming meals.)

Breakfast Saturday morning:

How to have French toast nearly effortlessly on Saturday morning?  Slice the bread and set it out to dry before you go to work on Friday morning.  Friday night before bed, make a custard, (I used 4 eggs, a cup of milk, a tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla, several dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a pinch of cardamom,) and soak the bread in the fridge overnight.  With these simple jobs done, all you have to do is get up and fry up your toast!  Yum.  I made us a beautiful fruit salad for the side.

Saturday supper:

Since butternut squash is John's favorite soup variety, I figured I better try the recipe for "Thai Butternut Squash Soup" from my focus cookbook.  I was really pleased with the results!  I made a couple of small modifications, (I roasted a whole squash instead of using frozen puree, used more spinach, and used the whole can of coconut milk and less water,) and we both loved this.  (I especially loved the salty, savory little "tofu croutons!  Tasty delicious.)

Sunday lunch:

"Magic Kale Salad" with pan-fried tempeh.  A repeat, for good reason!  Felt so good to eat a huge plate of greens!

Sunday supper:

A favorite from my focus cookbook this week, "Saucy Hungarian Eggplant."  I haven't made this in ages, and what a shame!  Light yet hearty, this stew is totally nutritious, flavorful, and also helped me take advantage of the GIGANTIC bag of bulgur I bought from Costco not too long ago.

It wouldn't be a quiet weekend without a baking project!

I really felt like baking today, although I wasn't ready to start my Christmas cookies quite yet.  :)  I searched the interwebs for a somewhat healthy muffin recipe full of holiday flavors, and ended up adapting a recipe for molasses spice muffins . . .

Whole-Wheat Gingerbread Muffins
Yield: 24 mini-muffins plus 8 standard muffins

Ingredients:
1 stick butter at room temperature (I used salted)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, buttermilk, and molasses, and stir until smooth.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, and spices.  Stir into the wet ingredients just until combined.
4. Fill muffin liners 1/2 to 2/3 full.  (These puff up a lot, thanks to the buttermilk/baking soda reaction!) Bake mini-muffins for about 15 minutes, standard muffins for about 24 minutes.  Cool, and store tightly covered at room temperature (or in the fridge, if you don't think you'll eat them in a few days.)

Lately, I've been enjoying scooping some of my muffin batter out into my mini-muffin pan, and taking those to work.  I love to bake, but we can't always get through a full batch of muffins before "the fuzz" gets to them.  :(  My coworkers have been enjoying the somewhat healthy, homemade "mini-treats" I bring occasionally!  A great solution to my "problem," and a win-win for everyone!

Special Occasion Potatoes

Can you believe Thanksgiving is nine days away?  I certainly can't.  I had dinner with a friend last night, and we were both kind of surprised that the holiday season is already here, you know?

Last week, John and I were talking about our Thanksgiving plans, and what I might make for our dinner this year.  I suggested I might like to make scalloped potatoes; John mentioned he would really like mashed potatoes and gravy.  His response to my desire to make scalloped potatoes?  "Well, just make them this weekend!"

Done.

"Hot-Sauce Glazed Tempeh" from Veganomicon, oven-roasted broccoli, and Scalloped Potatoes.  Real Simple saved the day again, with another stellar, easy-to-prepare recipe!  I would definitely save this recipe for special occasions in the future, as it is RICH and delicious.

So, I'm curious . . . what would your vote be -- scalloped or mashed?

The rest of our T-day menu is as follows . . .

Nutloaf
mashed potatoes (likely with buttermilk and chives)
Mushroom Gravy
Spiced Sweet Potato Casserole
Caramelized Onion and Herb Stuffing
Creamy Corn Pudding
Creamed Spinach Casserole
Double-Cranberry Chutney
Pecan Pie

What are you planning for your Thanksgiving menu this year?

Meal planning gone awry

Do you ever have those moments when meal-planning goes a little awry? I have had the ingredients for this "Hoisin-Glazed Tempeh" from Vegetarian Times on hand for a couple of weeks now, and just got around to making it today. Although I'm not a huge fan of frozen veggies, this was definitely an acceptable use of frozen green beans. The sauce was good, but I'll likely add some sambal oelek next time. On the positive side? We always love tempeh, and I forget how much I love cashews in stir-fries. Another bonus? This is one speedy meal in preparation - awesome for a busy weeknight!

Here's the link to the recipe:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/hoisin-glazed-tempeh-with-green-beans-and-cashews/

unplanned break

Well, here I am, black from a sort-of unplanned blogging break -- I guess I haven't been cooking much these past couple of weeks!  Come to think of it, I have been eating out much more than usual, using up leftovers, and eating very basic, non-photogenic meals.  :)  I did whip up a couple of nice meals this past weekend, though!

Beets, goat cheese, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette over mixed greens:

Thai Lettuce Wraps:

These were phenomenal!  Sweet, spicy, salty, rich, and packed with healthy, crunchy veggies and herbs, most from our garden.  I've been on a quest lately to find and try more recipes for tempeh, as John likes tempeh a lot, but doesn't care for tofu as much.  This was definitely a winner!  Anyone have any favorite tempeh recipes they care to suggest?

Breakfast prepared by John:

Mixed berries, croissants from the Farmer's Market, chard from the garden, and scrambled Farmer's Market eggs with local Tilsit and green onions from the garden.

 Homemade pizza:

"Olive Oil Dough," from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, topped with olive oil, caramelized onions, mozzarella, four different kinds of mushrooms (including chicken of the woods, which we found while hiking yesterday!), Shepherd's Way "Super Blue" cheese, thyme, and black pepper.  Oh, yum.

eat-a-thon

Sometimes the weekend feels like an eat-a-thon . . . or more accurately, maybe a cook-a-thon?  I do the majority of my cooking over the weekends these days, (i.e., when John's around,) and have a tendency to live off leftovers during the work week.  Does anyone else seem to follow this pattern?

Here are a few more things we made/ate this past weekend . . . 

Magic Kale Salad with Maple-Glazed Tempeh:

Fluffy Sprinkle Sugar Cookies:

Homemade pizza:

Zucchini Bread:

And breakfast -- scrambled eggs with feta and basil, courtesy of John, and whole-wheat buttermilk pancakes with strawberries:

It was a tasty weekend!

"I could eat this every week."

That was the comment I heard during dinner last night; too bad it's been at least six months since I last made this meal!  Whoops.  Well, in my defense, it wasn't the healthiest dinner around -- but it sure was tasty!

Homemade buttermilk biscuits, split and topped with tempeh sausage gravy.  I pulled the biscuit and creamy gravy recipes from The Betty Crocker Cookbook, and stirred in "Tempeh Sausage Crumbles" from Vegan with a Vengeance.  Yum, yum, extra yum.

And I just had to show off how tall and fluffy my biscuits grew:

salad days

It's hot.  (And I don't have A/C!)

"Too hot to sit on the couch" hot.

"Too hot to sleep" hot.

"Too hot to turn on the stove" hot.

("Too hot to eat" hot, for that matter!)

Except, well, one still kind of has to eat.  Consequently, I have been eating nothing but salads for days.

Magic Kale Salad with "Tempeh Bacon" from Vegan with a Vengeance:

Taco Salads:

Mixed greens, steamed beets, goat cheese, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette:

Tempeh Nicoise:

What do you eat when it's too hot to eat?

More kale!

Lately, we can't seem to get enough kale, so I keep searching for and trying new kale salad recipes. Dinner tonight was pretty incredible, if I do say so myself ... Kale, Apple, and Tempeh Salad (using this recipe for the tempeh,) with Wedge bakery bread and olive oil for dipping on the side. Vegetables sure do require a lot of chewing, but they are so worth it! Delicious, healthy, light, yet filling; a perfect summer dinner for hot, humid weather! (P.S. about half the kale we harvested from our garden this morning!)

weekend eats wrap-up

 

John and I have had an incredibly busy, but incredibly fun weekend -- Farmer's Market, window shopping at Mother Earth Gardens, a quick browse at the CSA Fair at the Seward Co-op, cooking with the first local veggies of the season, some work, homework, and chores, (hey, we can't have fun ALL of the time,) a hike at Afton State Park, an ice cream cone and some exploring in downtown Afton, and tonight, a pizza on it's way from Galactic. (We're pooped!)

I did manage a little cooking and baking this weekend, in-between all of the fun!

Tempeh reubens, with a side of Magic Kale Salad

Oatmeal Apple Muffins:

And JIF Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookies, with chocolate chips:

Time to make a salad . . . the pizza should arrive momentarily!

Reuben? Rachel?

Dinner last night:

I'm back on my tempeh reuben kick -- Wedge pumpernickel bread, Annie's thousand island dressing, Bubbies sauerkraut, organic sliced swiss, and "Seasoned Tempeh" from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. Kale Slaw with Peanut Dressing and sliced apple on the side. Damn, I love that slaw recipe!

Here was a question asked of me during dinner last night that I don't have the answer to: what's the difference between a Reuben and a Rachel? Anyone out there know? Do comment, please!

I heart soy foods

I have been the tofu and tempeh queen lately -- check out some of this weekend's eats:

Friday night's dinner was co-created by myself and my friend, Ann:

Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh, from Veganomicon, with sides of roasted brussels sprouts, roasted eggplant, and Messy Rice (also from VCON, not pictured, since the rice took longer than I expected it to, and we ate it after we ate everything else. Classy, I realize, but we were hungry!)

An egg and cheese bagel briefly interrupted the soy food marathon:


And then I made pho for lunch!

I decided, at the last second, to make a half-recipe of pho this time around, and it was just right -- I got two meals worth out of the deal, and ended up marinading the other two pieces of tofu and sticking them in the freezer for the time being. More soy leftover for another day!

What weekend is complete without a baking project?

I made Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes for a dinner party at Tiffany's house Saturday night; I, of course, edited the original recipe a little bit. I followed suggestions made by several reviewers to use oil instead of butter, and also used a full can of pumpkin (as recommended,) and I also skipped the cinnamon in the frosting. I LOVE cream cheese frosting, but wasn't convinced I would love cinnamon cream cheese frosting, and didn't want to potentially destroy perfectly good cream cheese goodness. ;) Additionally, I only baked off 12 of the 24 cupcakes; I filled the remaining liners and popped the unbaked batter in my freezer. I'm assuming the batter will thaw and bake off just fine in a few weeks, once I decide I need more cupcakes?

Anyone else out there ever tried freezing cake or muffin batter?

blurry, but delicious

Here are last night's blurry, but delicious, tempeh fajitas:

Homemade corn tortillas (from my freezer,) topped with refried black beans, queso fresco, marinated/panfried tempeh, bell peppers and onions, and salsa. Plenty of leftovers means I get to enjoy this dinner again tonight!

Here's the marinade recipe, if you're interested:
1 clove garlic
juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
(Puree everything together, unless you want to mince the garlic finely and then whisk)

Method? Simple: I simmered the tempeh for 10 minutes to "open it up" and get the bitterness out, coated slices of the tempeh in the marinade, added the raw peppers and onions, and then poured the rest of the marinade over top of everything. Parked in the fridge for nearly 24 hours, the tempeh became smoky, (thanks to the cumin,) flavorful, and delicious! I might add some cayenne or ground chipotle pepper next time, to make things even more interesting. :)