Tofu Spaghetti Balls

This blog post is dedicated to Valentines day. What better way to celebrate love then referencing the classic Lady and the Tramp movie with Spaghetti and meat balls. This recipe however is a cruelty free version, made with tofu balls!

Adopted from my favorite vegan cookbook author Sarah Kramer's Vegan A Go-Go!

Pasta enough for two people

Tofu balls: makes around 10 - 12 balls

• 1/2 cup of firm tofu crumbled by hand (approx half a package)
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 1/2 tbsp of tahini
• 1 tbsp of tamari
• 1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup of green onion (optional)
• 1/4 tsp of garlic (optional)
• 1 very small onion minced
• 1/4 tsp of mustard
• black pepper
• 1/4 cup of flour for coating
• 2 tbsp oil for frying

In a large bown, mix together the tofu, 1/4 cup of flour, tahini, tamari, sun dried tomatoes, green onion, garlic, onion, mustard, & pepper with hands. Form balls with approx 1/2 tbsp of the mixture into a ball, and coat with flour until all tofu mixture is used.

Set them aside, and heat or prepare homemade pasta sauce.

In a frying pan on medium heat fry tofu balls in oil until browned all over. Once the sauce is hot, you can put them into the sauce. Let them sit in there for 5 minutes to absorb the flavors.

Serve over pasta and with Pinot Grigio.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Happy New Year! This post is coming out very late. But the holiday sure were busy. Actually the last 3 months have been busy. I've had many plans for blogs, but with my late nights and lack of sunshine in my kitchen, pictures haven't done the food justice. And what good is a blog without pictures?

So for the first blog of 2011 I have a treat! One of the best cupcakes I've had in awhile. Adapted from Martha Stewart's 'Cupcakes' cookbook, Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cookie Cutouts! This recipe is rich with flavor that is sweet but not to sweet because of the spicy dense cake, and topped with the most lovely butter cream icing imaginable. And to boost a gingerbread cookie. It is two deserts in one!

Cupcakes (makes 22)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• *2 tablespoons ground ginger (used fresh grated ginger)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together flour and spices.

2. On medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the molasses and beat until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low Gradually add the flour mixture, beating until just combined.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three quarters full. Bake rotating tins halfway through. Bake for 25 minutes.

Icing

• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 pound (4 cups) confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. With an Electric mixer, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.

2. Reduce speed to medium. Ass the confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. After every two additions raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate frosting, then return to medium. This should take 5 minutes. Frosting will be very pale and fluffy.

3.Add Vanilla, and beat until frosting is smooth.

Gingerbread men (4 dozen 2 inch cookies)

• 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. In another bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and molasses, and beat to combine. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture from other bowl, beating until just combined.

2. Divide dough into thirds, flatten each piece into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or overnight).

3. On a generously floured piece of parchment paper, roll out one disk of dough to just under 1/4" thick. Brush off excess flour and freeze until firm, about 15 min.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Using a cookie cutter of your choice quickly cut out shaped from dough and transfer to parchment lined baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart, as you work. Freeze until firm, about 15 minuted. Repeat with remaining disks of dough.

5. Bake cookies until crisp but not darkened, 8-10 min. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool before decorating.

*Note the sad faced gingies. These were made for a going away party around Christmas time. They were a cute tasty way to say bon voyage to a best friend.

Vegan Thanksgiving

This year we decided to host a Thanksgiving potluck, veggie style. (of course) I wanted to make something that the meat heads would say 'this is the best thanksgiving ever!' So I stumbled upon an special thanksgiving blog post from a recipe book I have, Vegan Yum Yum. After hesitating and reading how hard it is to make your own seitan I sucked it up and bought the stuff to make it. And with little tweaking managed to figure out a better consistency for the wheat meat. (dough)

Stuffing:
3 shallots
1 large apple
2 cups of mushrooms
3 gloves garlic (roasted)
7 Fresh Sage Leaves, chopped
2 Thyme Sprigs, leaves only
1cup of pecans & walnuts mixed (roasted with butter)
5 cups of cubed sourdough bread
1 cup of vegetable broth
salt & pepper

(note: this stuffing is so good on its own you can place it in a oiled caserole dish and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.) I had extra so I made it both ways!

Take 3/4 of a 1 pound loaf of sourdough and slice into cubes, with the crust on. Spread out the bread on a baking sheet and bake at 300º F for 30 minutes, tossing half-way through.

In a large, deep skillet, heat oil and saute shallots until beginning to color at medium heat. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until soft. Add herbs, roasted garlic, apple and roasted nuts. Add bread and toss. Add broth 1/2 cup at a time over low heat until stuffing is softened but not overly soggy. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.



Makes 4 quarters. (8 servings)
Seitan
4 x 1/3 Cups 100% Wheat Gluten flour
1/3 Cups Chickpea Flour
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp Salt
2 1/3 Cups Warm Vegetable Broth

Mix all ingredients until well combined. Add the vegetable stock and gently mix with your hands until all of the dry mixture is moistened. You should have a soft, squishy, wet dough. Knead a few times, and agitate the dough by squeezing and pressing it.

Dump the dough out onto a large cutting board and use your fingers to press it out to a 12×18″ rectangle. If the dough is too springy, let rest for 15 minutes before rolling it out. Cut the dough into quarters:

Heat a large, non-stick skillet over medium - high heat with some olive oil. Briefly pan-fry the seitan pieces until just barely golden brown on both sides. This gives color, flavor, and kick-starts the cooking process so your pieces will be easier to handle.

Place stuffing on top of a piece of seitan, covering the whole surface. Roll up the seitan, stretching it to make as tight a roll as possible. Let the roll rest on the seam.

With kitchen twine or any cotton string you have, tie up the roulade so that it doesn’t unroll.
Place the tied roulades on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Lightly brush with olive oil. Bake at 350º for 30-40 minutes, turning half-way through, until golden brown.



These were pretty time intensive, and a bit of work because seitan is hard to work with. Make sure you use a non stick pan to fry them, the seitan can be very sticky. Even though they were a bit of work, they were well worth the work, and I will defiantly make them again for Christmas.

Birthday Burritos

This year Stephen asked instead of going to a fancy restaurant, he would rather me make him my famous burritos. Being a nice girl friend I agreed... Unwillingly I might add, but in the end it was well worth the work, because these bad boys sure are yummy.

Makes 10 burritos

Preheat oven to 350 cook for 25-40 min until edges are golden brown

I n g r e d i e n t s :

Bread & grains:

10 Large tortillas wrap (white or whole wheat)

2 cups of white or brown Basmati rice 4.5 cups of water

Cans:

1 can of black beans

1 can of refried beans (medium - hot)

¾ cup Salsa (medium - hot)

Cheese:

1 block of Cheese (preferable Monterey Jack)

½ block of cream cheese (room temperature)

Vegetables:

1 large onion cubed

1 red pepper cubed

1 green pepper cubed

1 cup cubed Mushrooms

1 ½ cups Cilantro minced and, or 1 stalk Green onions diced

Spices:

Paprika

1 tsp. Cyan pepper (*hot optional)

1 tbsp. Onion powder

1 tbsp. Chili powder

3 tbsp. Cumin

Juice of ½ Lime (optional)

3 Garlic cloves / 1 tbsp. Garlic Powder

I n s t r u c t i o n s :

· In a medium pot cook rice following the directions on the rice package for four servings.

· Dice all vegetables and cilantro (optional) and place in a large bowl. Except only add ½ of the diced stalk of green onions if you choose to just use green onions.

· Add the black beans to the vegetables along with all spices, and drizzle lime and mix until spices are well blended.

·

In a smaller bowl cream the cream cheese and add the refried beans to it

· Grate the entire block of cheese

· In mean time if your rice isn’t finished dress the 10 wraps starting with the refried bean, cream cheese mixture in the centre of the pita, approx one heaping tbsp. and spread out a little bit. Then add a handful of cheese.

· Once the rice is finished, place in bowl of vegetables and spices. Add salsa to the rice & veggies and mix until well blended.

· Place the burrito filling on the cheese in the centre of the wraps, just enough so you can still fold the wraps.

· Fold the wraps using instruction below;

· First fold the bottom of the pita ¼ of the way up

· Then take the right side and fold over all the filling

· Then take the left side and fold over until you touch the table with it and try to pull tighter to insure the fold will stay, place the seam down on the pan.

· Sprinkle more cheese on top of all the burritos

· Cook for 20- 40 minutes until golden brown on the edges

Korean Bibimbap & Hobak Chun

I am so excited to post this recipe! My new roomie Jooyoun from Korea (Daegu) taught me how to make the most amazing dish ever, Bibimbap (mixed rice.) A tradional Korean dish that is healthy and oh so spicy and full of flavor.

Serving 6

Ingredeants - Bibimbap

3 or 4 Carrot cut julienne

1 Onion

Bunch of Spinach

1 Zucchini

3 Eggs

Bunch of Mushroom

Sesame seed oil

Salt for frying

Kim (seaweed)

2 cups Steamed calrose rice

Sauce

1 cup Hot pepper paste (found at asian food markets - we used Sempio)

1 cup Apple Sauce

Hobak Chun

3 Zucchini

1Egg

1 Cup flour

1 Cup Water

Salt

Jalapeño Pepper (optional)

Olive Oil for frying

tlbs Sesame Seed Oil

1 tbls soy sauce

Cut all vegetables in small strips (julienne) and then fry them in sesame seed oil with salt. Place on a plate. Let cool.

Mix hot pepper paste with apple sauce and let sit.

Heat rice.

While rice is cooking make the Hobak Chun

Mix the egg, flour water salt well to form the batter.

Dip the Zucchini into batter. place onto oiled frying pan. Place Jalapeño Pepper on top for added spice, and fry until batter turns golder brown.

Mix the sesame oil and soy sauce together to make yummy dipping sauce for the battered zucchini.

Place rice on plate and put the prepared vegetables on the outer edges of rice. put the hot pepper paste in the center of the rice and place kim on top. Mix everything together to make it nice and spicy. (red color) And enjoy! This recipe is so easy and delicious, makes a lot at once, so it's great for big dinner party and leftovers.

Zucchini Overload

I've recently been responsible for maintaining my father's Vegetable garden. This has overwhelmed my fridge with zucchini and cucumbers. With the bountiful harvest now in my hands, I've come to the conclusion I can't just give this all away. Some mass pickling, jamming and loaf making needs to take place. In which I'm very very excited for.

Tomorrow night is Viki's going away party, so I'm going to bring a zucchini loaf among a cherry pie (maybe) to her house for dinner. I'm sure we will post what we make later this weekend. So stay tuned! But this post is only gonna be the delicious zucchini loaf!

Ingredients!

walnut & cranberry zucchini bread
(recipe adapted from Simply Recipes)
2 large eggs
1 1/3 c sugar
2 T molasses
2 t vanilla
3 1/3 c grated zucchini
2/3 c roasted walnut oil (or melted unsalted butter or another oil)
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t nutmeg
2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1 c chopped pecans or walnuts
1 c dried cranberries or raisins

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the eggs, sugar, molasses and vanilla together until well creamed.

Stir in the zucchini, oil, salt and baking soda. Add in the flour, a cup at a time, until well blended. Sprinkle in the spices and fold in the nuts and the cranberries.

Butter and flour 2 loaf pans. Divide the batter between the two pans – each will be about half full which will give the loaves room to rise. Bake for 1 hour or until the done – when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then invert them onto racks until thoroughly cool. Makes 2 loaves.

This is a great recipe for Zucchini loafs. Very wintry. More suitable for end of September, than this balmy 30 degree heat we're having today. I haven't tried to many and look forward to testing out more!

Grandma Guy's Energized Banana Loaf of Awesome!

A dear friend of mine passed along this recipe to me some six months ago, as I had been searching for a good banana bread recipe. And it is glorious. So easy that I make changes every time I bake it. I also triple the recipe (baking for me is done in bulk), making enough to have that same banana bread every morning for a month. Breakfast consists of a decent sized piece of bread coupled with plain yogurt and berries. Om nom nom.



Grandma Guy's Energized Banana Loaf of Awesome!

Standard recipe x 3:

3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup butter
6 eggs
4.5 cups flour
3 tsp baking soda
7 mashed bananas

Additions:

Lots of walnuts.
2 tbsp (or more) cinnamon
2 tsp (or more) vanilla
2 tbsp (or more) pumpkin puree

I often put less mashed bananas and instead a decent amount of pumpkin puree. I play around with it. Just so long as it has the right consistency to bake.

Bake at 400* roughly until done.