deconstructed tacos

I'm not sure if these can even be called tacos, because when I think of tacos I usually think of something with lettuce and tomatoes, and these have neither. "Deconstructed tacos" sounds better than "Deconstructed taco-ish-things" though, eh?

I believe everyone should have several meals that they can make off the top of their head in a short amount of time and with minimal ingredients -- a "holy crap I'm tired and don't want to cook" type of recipe. This is one of my standbys for when I get home after a long day, and as a result my husband and I end up eating them about once every week... but that's okay, because they're so tasty!

Ingredients:
1 8 oz. package WestSoy seitan
1 tbsp olive oil
Taco Bell taco seasoning (or your choice of vegan taco seasoning)
Yellow corn taco shells, broken down the center
1 Hass avocado, diced*
Your favorite salsa
Tofutti vegan sour cream

Directions:
Slice the seitan into bite-sized pieces. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a skillet. Brown the seitan for three to four minutes, stirring a couple times to get all sides, and then set aside. Using the same skillet, follow the package diretions for your seasoning mix -- for the Taco Bell kind, this is add 3/4 cups water to the seasonings in the skillet over medium heat. Stir until dissolved and then let it come to a bubble, and let it bubble for a couple minutes to thicken. Add the seitan to the mix, stir to coat, and let cook for about three more minutes. When done transfer to a bowl, top with diced avocado, a couple spoonfuls of your favorite salsa, and a dollop of vegan sour cream. Eat by scooping with the taco shells!


*This tip may seem silly, but before I became vegan I had never done anything with avocados and I didn't know how to choose one from the store, and I would absolutely butcher them trying to get the fruit out. If you don't know how to select or cut an avocado, this video may help.

creative (or uncreative?) use of leftovers

I know this isn't the most exciting looking dish, but it was actually really good. The night before I'd made the White Bean & Walnut Bruschetta from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan and I had a bunch of leftover cannelli beans, tomatoes, and fresh basil*. Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the bruschetta... which is a shame, because it was incredible in it's deliciousness. Anyhow -- instead of pondering what to do with my leftovers until they went bad (which is what usually happens), I decided that the ingredients were good enough over bread, so they'd be good over angel hair too. I was right!

*A beginner's tip for fresh basil -- I've found that a lot of vegan recipes call for fresh basil, and while a lot of the time you can get away with substituting dried herbs when fresh are called for (by using 1/4 of the measurements called for fresh), basil is often one of those where you'll want to use the real thing. Most grocery stores will sell small packages of fresh basil, but those are expensive, so I'm thinking of growing a pot of it on my porch this summer.

super tasty potatoes + super tasty soup = tastebuds explode

The potatoes pictured here are my favorite recipe out of Vegan with a Vengeance. I'll admit I haven't tried everything in there, but if all of the recipes were children trapped in a fire, this is the one I'd save: Maple-Mustard-Glazed Potatoes and String Beans. Long name, amazing results -- to quote a phrase from the (yourcityhere)helpwanted.com radio ads. As these potatoes will probably crop up in future meal photos, I want to focus on the soup.

The original recipe came out of Real Simple magazine, which is kind of a crappy magazine, but I bought it once to see what it was like. It was also non-vegan, so I replaced the bacon with tempeh bacon and half-and-half with regular almond milk. Some soy creamer might be pretty good too. Anyhow, the recipe!

Smoky Corn Chowder

3 slices of tempeh Fakin' Bacon
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika*
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 10-oz package frozen corn*
3 cups vegetable broth
1 cup almond milk
salt & pepper
scallions to top


Cook the tempeh bacon in a wok or soup pot according to Lisa Specialty: Use wok oil & Mongolian fire oil, and spread a thin layer of A1 sauce on top of each piece. Or don't do that -- it's your bacon and you can do whatever; leave it plain if you want. Cook for four minutes, then flip and cook another four minutes. Set aside. Use the same pot to cook the onion for 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, paprika, and red pepper, stirring, and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the corn, broth, and almond milk, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, and chop up the tempeh bacon into small pieces while waiting. Transfer half the soup to a blender (after letting it cool slightly) and then puree until smooth. Return to the pot, and add salt and pepper to taste. Divide the soup into bowls and top with scallions and tempeh.

* Okay, I admit I would be a terrible cookbook chef. This is the recipe I was looking at when I was whipping up this soup, but I didn't exactly follow it. I was initially trying to halve this, and then abandoned that idea, so I put corn in until it was "about right". I have no idea how much was actually in there. So... add corn until you think it looks right! Helpful, eh? Also, I like paprika and made the terrible mistake of thinking that I could just sprinkle in a little bit extra. So I turned the bottle over the pot and... whoosh! I somehow thought it would come out slower! Oops! I scooped out as much as I could, and in the end the soup was very paprika-y, but that somehow made it. Again, no idea how much was in there. If you want more flavor, add more paprika... just do it the right way. ;-)

seitan and green beans

I'd never tried seitan before this meal, and had a package sitting in my fridge for quite a while before finally taking the plunge with this recipe from Vegan Planet. I'd also never used shallots, and just so happened to have picked up a bag of them.

Everyone should really own that cookbook, because it's awesome. Basically for this recipe, you steam the beans, brown the seitan for about five minutes in olive oil along with the shallots and garlic, and then transfer the seitan to a bowl. Add some sherry to the skillet, then stir in a little dijon, tamari (soy sauce) and vegetable stock and let it reduce for about 10 minutes. Add in the seitan and the beans, let it heat a couple minutes, and then serve over rice (next time I'd use brown instead of white). Go pick up the book if you want specifics though!

This meal officially made seitan my favorite vegetarian meat. It has a such a perfect texture, and the flavors in this dish were divine. The next time I have my parents over for dinner, this is what I'm making. I think even my meat-loving father would approve.

continuing with the breakfast theme

On the morning of this picture I'd woken up late and had only about 45 minutes to get ready, but decided that about half an hour of it should be devoted to making breakfast anyway. And you know what? It was totally worth the mad-dash thereafter and the being late to class by 5 minutes.

Judging by the color of this smoothie, I think it was raspberry-strawberry. I always keep a good stock of frozen fruit in my freezer -- bananas, raspberries, and mangos for the most part. Every smoothie I make has strawberries, though, and I also almost always have fresh strawberries in my refridgerator also. I've noticed that if I try to use all frozen fruit for a smoothie my blender chokes up and wants to die, so fresh strawberries is easier on its old bones. I also throw in a handful of spinach since it's not even detectable with all the sweetness of the fruit, then blend it all up with orange juice and a bit of water.

Also pictured: Tempeh bacon doctored to my standards by sauteing it in a mixture of wok oil and Mongolian fire oil, with a touch of A1 sauce in the mix. Also, an onion bagel with fake cream cheese and green onions.

This was like the most awesome breakfast ever!

a breakfast that is not cereal

Normally I eat a totally boring breakfast. I'm not a morning person in any way, shape, or form, so usually my level of functioning upon waking is enough to merely pour myself a bowl of cereal, or if it's a good day then actually operate the microwave to make oatmeal.

I was feeling a bit more ambitious on the day of this picture though, and plus I had some really interesting fruit to use up before it went bad. One was a dinosaur egg, and the other a... plout? I can't remember the exact name. They were both plum-peach hybrids, but had slightly different coloring. I cut them up and spooned some granola and black cherry soy yogurt on top. It was *delicious*, and soooo filling. I was feeling totally stuffed when I went off to class.

Also, organic chemistry book? Gone. That evil spectre has since been banished from my life!

an introduction

Why start a vegan blog when the blog-o-sphere is already so cluttered with them? Well, for one thing, I haven't seen any blogs that are aimed towards beginning vegans or budding cooks. Something like that may very well be out there and I just haven't stumbled across it, but in any case, this blog is my attempt to fill the perceived gap. Also, to show my mom what sorts of things I'm eating. Hi mom! ;-)

From my own personal experience, transitioning to a vegan lifestyle can be very overwhelming -- the recipes you're looking at have all sorts of strange ingredients you've never heard of, you have no idea what to do with tofu, and besides which you're a busy college student who is more used to eating boxed meals than spending time cooking things from scratch (okay, maybe that last part was just me). Whatever your cooking background, I hope this blog can be of some help in learning to create simple, healthy and vegan meals!

- Lisa