Chickpeas Romesco, Calzones and Cashew-Ginger Tofu

I'm doing one post for three different meals because I've been feeling particularly lazy this weekend. So lazy, in fact, that I went to bed at 7 p.m. last night. We also spent the better part of yesterday afternoon (and this afternoon) at the playground. The kids have had so much fun! So, on to the cooking...

Friday night, I finally used up the last of the chickpeas I'd cooked the previous week. I made chickpeas romesco over garlic-saffron rice again. Both of those are from V-con. I swear, this may be my absolute favorite meal. It is just ridiculous. It's so freaking easy too, so you really can't lose with this one.

Yesterday the kids were talking pizza. It's their favorite for sure. They like my homemade pizza (still making it with the dough recipe from VWaV) better than anything we can order around here. That makes me feel pretty good since they generally turn their little noses up at nearly everything I make. It was calzones again for Sleek and me. Sleek had his with ricotta, mozzerella and spinach. For mine, I sauteed some onion, garlic and eggplant. When it was all softened, I added some chopped roasted red-peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. I put just a tiny layer of mozzarella over the veggies. It was off-the-hook! I may have to start making pizza/calzones a weekly thing around here.




I got a new cookbook right before I left for my parents' house, so I've had a good time looking through it since I got back. It's called Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. Carrie has made several really nice looking recipes from it, so I ordered it back in February. It actually took me about 7 weeks to get it! Anyway, tonights meal was made from ED&bV. A baked cashew-ginger tofu. The cashew-ginger sauce was made from cashew butter, fresh ginger, tamari, vingar, agave nectar, garlic and water. I served it over coconut rice, which is from last month's Cooking Light. It's really simple. Just jasmine rice cooked in "lite" coconut milk with a couple of bay leaves. It went perfectly with the sauce on the tofu. I also made a little broccoli and red pepper stir-fry. I made a light soy-sesame sauce for that. Just mixed up some soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, agave nectar, thai chile paste and water. Everything was just awesome! A very, very good dinner. One which I will make again, certainly. I can't wait to try some of the other recipes in ED&bV.




When I planned all of my meals and made my shopping list, I forgot Sleek would be out of town for a couple of nights this week. I may not cook for the next couple of nights and make the previously-planned meals when Sleek returns. Maybe I'll post about my daily fruit/spinach smoothie that I have for breakfast every morning! Sound exciting?

Sleek introduced me to a new band this weekend. They're called Mr. Gnome. He brought home the CD, and told me to play it ASAP because he really thought I'd like it. Well, I certainly do. Very interesting. I think they're just a two-piece band, but they sure know how to make a lot of noise. Sort of trip-hop with some hardcore heaviness. Nice.

Hey Y'all!

Jeesh! The kids and I just got back from a little "vacation" to my hometown to visit family. I was thinking I'd do a post while there, but my mom's computer wouldn't let me log in to blogger! I was totally shut out. WTF? Anyway, I'm still here. I just made up my menu for the next week, and I've got lots of good stuff to make in the next week. I'm not cooking tonight since the pantry is bare and I just can't take the kids to the store. (They make me spend at least $20 more than I spend when I'm alone!) So, I'll be back with a good food post tomorrow. In the meantime, check this out. It's just a little something I "stumbled upon" thanks to g2thelow. One time, Rebecca mentioned that my blog was like food porn. Well, click that link above and you'll see the ultimate food porn. I'm talking XXX. It's not all veggie, but there are some kick-ass baked goods on there! The photos are really nice too.

Spicy Chickpeas and More

Last night was another recipe from Vegetarian. Spicy chickpeas. They tasted very much like channa masala, but were less saucy, and maybe even better. They were spiced with tumeric, cumin, garam masala, fresh ginger, minced green chile, a couple cloves of minced garlic and tamarind concentrate. Really easy to make to. Just saute onion until soft. Add above ingredients and saute for a couple more minutes. Add a couple cups of chickpeas and a can of diced tomatoes and simmer for 45 minutes. That's it. I served it over jasmine rice, and made a side of steamed cauliflower and broccoli. To season the veggies, I toasted a few cumin seeds in about a tsp of oil, added a pinch of tumeric, and poured it over the veggies. The toasted cumin seeds gave it a nice little crunch.

Tonight I made a dinner that Sleek had requested. In the Vegetarian cookbook, he saw a recipe for asparagus with hollandaise sauce and another for asparagus and eggs. He wanted a combo of the two. Another really easy dinner. I roasted the asparagus, and poached the eggs in ramekins in a pot of boiling water. The hollandaise was really easy to make. I think it would have been a bit creamer and more "solidified" if I had used butter instead of Earth Balance. The flavor was really good, though, and definitely lighter than your traditional hollandaise. I don't eat eggs very often, but when I do at least I can get free-roaming, pasture-fed eggs from a farm right outside of M0-town. If I couldn't, I definitely wouldn't be eating them at all.



I kicked it old-school in the kitchen today with Beastie Boys License to Ill and Check Your Head. Sweet!

Chickpea Cutlets, Quinoa Salad, and Stir-Fry

I cooked up a massive batch of chickpeas over the weekend, so be warned--lots of chickpea dishes coming this week! Last night it was the chickpea cutlets from V-con. These are a definite favorite around here. I didn't have all the ingredients for the mustard sauce that I made with them last time. I decided just to wing it with a onion gravy. It turned out really, really good. As a matter of fact, I think I liked the cutlets better with the gravy than the mustard sauce. I started the gravy by sauteeing a small onion in a smidge of canola oil. While the onion was cooking, I wisked 1/4 cup of flour into a cup and a half of No-Chicken broth. When the onion was soft, I reduced the heat to med-low and poured in the broth mixture. When it got to the consistency I wanted, I turned off the heat. Then I added a splash of soy sauce, a good pinch of thyme, a pinch of paprika, a pinch of sage, salt and pepper. Mmmmmm. It was so good. I made some steamed cauliflower and broccoli to go with it.

Yesterday for lunch I made some black-bean quinoa salad. I saw it on Keeta's blog, and she got it from Jenny's blog. LOL It's a trickle-down recipe. It's so easy to make, and just so good. I just put a tiny drizzle of olive oil over it, and gave it an extra squirt of lime since I went light on the oil. It was perfect over a bed of baby lettuces. Who needs dressing when you have something this good on your green salad?



Tonight I just wanted to do something really simple for dinner. I did a garlicky veggie stir-fry. I stir-fried an onion, a couple carrots, a couple zucchini, a bit of broccoli, half a red bell-pepper, and several minced garlic cloves. I sprinkled it with salt and pepper at the end, and served it over brown rice. It's nice to do something simple like that and actually let the veggies themselves flavor the dish.




I haven't really been writing about any music these last few days. That's because I'm slightly embarrassed about how much I've been listening to In Rainbows. I'd say it's an average of three times/day. It's got me.

Soup and Pizza (Again!)

Well, the kids asked for pizza again today. Since I had nearly everything I needed to make it, I indulged them. For the "grown-up" pizza, I used some fresh spinach, roasted red peppers and banana peppers. Since I left the cheese off my half, I made sure to put lots of sauce on it. YUM. Today we took the kids to see Horton Hears a Who, and that was lots of fun. We all enjoyed it.

Yesterday, I made a really nice soup. It was a leek, pea and broccoli soup from the Vegetarian cookbook. It also had some potatoes in it, which gave it a nice and creamy texture. It had no oil or dairy in it, so it was fat-free and loaded with veggies. It was seasoned with a bay leaf, fresh parsley, salt and pepper. The whole thing was pureed at the end. It was a lovely green color. So good!


Friday evening I attempted to make falafel. The recipe was also from Vegetarian. It was a recipe for bite-sized, deep-fried falafel nuggets. I wanted to make pan-fried patties. I don't know what went wrong, but I noticed the falafel mixture seemed awfully wet. I wasn't too sure what would happen. I formed it into patties and put it in the pan. It sort of fell apart. I managed to salvage two of the patties, and they crisped up nicely on the outside, but were complete mush inside. They tasted really, really good though. The rest of the patties sort of fell apart and weren't really edible. I definitely plan to try it again. Maybe I didn't drain my chickpeas enough? Maybe the recipe was strictly for deep-fried falafel nuggets? I don't know, but if anyone has any advice, I'd welcome it. (Oh, and once again, I forgot to take pics of this and the soup!)


Has anyone else noticed their grocery bill skyrocketing? Holy crap! I used to spend between $75 and $100/week. I can't get below $150 now! I feel like I'm not even buying as much as I used to. It's really frightening to me. If something doesn't change, this blog will become very boring. I'll have to change the name to: Chez Mama: How to Get Creative With Beans and Rice. I have a feeling the worst is yet to come. I don't know how people are going to manage. I'm glad we'll have the CSA this spring/summer. That will help for sure.

Calzones

Since I enjoy making pizza dough, and the kids want pizza every couple weeks, I decided that this time I'd make calzones for Sleek and myself. The dough recipe from VWaV makes enough for two large pizzas, so I made the kids their usual cheese pizza and had just enough dough for two calzones. I decided to fill them with a mixture of ricotta, mozzerella, fresh spinach and lightly steamed broccoli. I went really light on the cheese and heavy on the veggies for mine. I honestly had no idea how these would turn out, but I hoped for the best. I baked them on a pre-heated pizza stone at 500 degrees. I'd say they baked for 10 minutes or so. I didn't time them, just kept an eye on them.

Well...They turned out AWESOME. Holy smokes, I almost can't wait to make them again. Next time I want to just do veggies. Maybe some sauteed eggplant, sundried tomatoes and onions. Now THAT really sounds good. You could really put anything in these. I dipped mine in some pizza sauce I'd made. I use pureed tomatoes with some salt, Italian seasoning and garlic powder. I swear, it's so much better than any pre-made pizza sauce I've bought. YU-HUM! Sleek actually said it may have been the best calzone he's ever had.

Last night, I made another recipe from Vegetarian. It was a sweet and sour bean hot-pot. Really interesting, and very good. Some different flavors for sure. It had limas, great northerns, chickpeas and green beans. Also shallots. The sauce was made with tomato sauce, ketchup, apple juice, cider vinegar, dry sherry, butter (I used Earth Balance), soy sauce and brown sugar. With a little thyme and marjoram added before baking. All this was topped with sliced potatoes that had been blanched. The liquid came up over the potatoes while baking, so the topping wasn't as crisp as the one in the cookbook photo. It was very good, though. Super-easy too. I forgot to take a pic before I dug in!

Spicy Cauliflower and Potatoes

So, I mentioned that Sleek found a vegetarian cookbook in our cupboard last week. I've made recipes from it the last two days, and I've been shocked at how freaking good they are. Last night, I made the Spicy Cauliflower and Potatoes. The recipe seemed so simple, that I was a little worried it would be bland. Not bland at all. It was amazing. You start with boiling the potatoes whole, then peeling them and cutting them in one-inch pieces when they cool. After that, you lightly toast the spices (cumin, corriander and tumeric) in a little hot peanut oil. Then you add the cauliflower into that along with a splash of water. Stir-fry until the cauliflower is soft. Add in the potatoes and cook a little more, then remove from the heat. This is the best part...Heat a little more peanut oil in a skillet, and add some minced garlic and cumin seeds to toast. Drizzle over the cauliflower and broccoli. OMG! This stuff is like something you would get at a good Indian restaurant. I'm not even joking. I made a little raita to go with it. I just used some plain yogurt and added some shredded cucumber and chopped mint. So good!

Today, I was back in the kitchen early. I wanted to make the brown bean salad, which is also from the Vegetarian cookbook. I wanted something healthy with a decent amount of protein that I could add to my dinner. I made the salad, which is really easy. The beans are simmered a little with water, an onion, some thyme and bay leaves. The dressing is made with chopped parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and cumin seeds. It reminds me of tabbouleh minus the bulgar, if that makes sense. So good and healthy. (For this recipe and the spicy cauliflower one, I used half of the oil called for in the recipe. I can't tell that it took away from either dish at all.)

For dinner, I decided on Chinese brussel sprouts and veggie fried rice. The sprouts are also from Vegetarian. (Be prepared for lots of recipes from this cookbook. It is INSANE!) These brussels are so easy. Just stir-fry the chopped/shredded sprouts in a tad of sesame oil. Add a splash of soy sauce and a sprinkling of Chinese Five-Spice Powder, and that's it. I made the rice the same as usual, but I added some broccoli this time just make it a little more nutritious. YUM!


Yesterday, Sleek and I received our tickets for the Radiohead show we're going to in May. So, I decided to listen to their latest album, In Rainbows. I liked it a lot the first few times I listened to it, but this time it got me. I mean, it really got under my skin. I see myself listening to it constantly until the show. Holy smokes. It's amazing. While listening to it, I got so excited about going to the show that I actually started jumping up and down and giggling. Yep. I'm that dorky. After In Rainbows, I proceeded to listen to three other Radiohead albums: Amnesiac, The Bends and OK Computer. Can you tell I'm a little excited? ;)