Veggie Food Club!

I can't seem to cook small, no matter how hard I try. So then I'm eating off one pot of something for the rest of the week. It doesn't matter how much I love something, after the 5th meal of it I'm pretty tired. And I'm not the only one, my friends are doing the same thing. So why not trade?

Here's how it works: 4-5 people each cook a large vegetarian or vegan meal making servings for each person and one extra for a sample. We all get together on Sunday, assemble a plate of samples, and chow down. Then for the rest of the week none of us need to make a lunch!

Here's what came to the table on Sunday.
At 12:00, we've got a submission by me, and also a test run on Thanksgiving. It's a holiday loaf from a recipe in Friendly Foods by Ron Pickarski. Basically it's tofu blended with flavorings, stuffed with a yummy sagey stuffing and served with a side of mashed potatoes. All vegan.
At about 2:30 we've got Lisa's dish, a Mexican polenta bake. It's beans, seasoned TVP, tomatoes and corn with a layer of polenta on top. Very tasty. Vegan, if you leave off the cheese.
At around 5:30, Tristan brought us what was proported to be the "Worlds Best Quiche." And it was very good! It was tofu blended up with spinach, veggies and onions, totally vegan if made with a vegan crust. It was light and lemony and I'm glad I've got two pieces!
At about 7:00, I made another dish. It's the familiar green chile bake.
And rounding out the week, we've got a heaping dose of Si-getti, prepared by Si. It's whole wheat penne pasta with a spicy tomato sauce and lots of fresh veggies. Very delicious, and also vegan.

I love this veggie food club! It's a great way to spend time with friends, plus we're all helping each other out. And I'm proud that none of them balked at the vegetarian requirement, and many, in this week and previous weeks, are actually vegan without trying! How cool. And the food is always excellent!

Bubbling, simmering red sauce...

Ah, here's what I meant when I dreamt of bubbling simmering red sauce! I've concocted vegan versions of this before and while interesting, lacked that creamy...something.

Well, the answer was quite simple and really if you think about it, obvious. Mayonaise. Or rather, Veganaise. This recipe is from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak. When the veganaise is blended with tofu, garlic, fresh basil & salt & pepper, it becomes the perfect warm creamy filling. It was so rich and decadent!


And truly, this is better with the tang that the red sauce brought to the dish.

(But alas for those of us that count our points on The Program, it's a tease. Three shells and I'm out more than a quarter of my day's allotment. But I think I got the basics now, so next I'll experiment with different fillings or using the filling in different dishes. Like lasagne! Stay tuned...)

Green Chile Bake

Okay, I confess. I love green chile. You could wrap a cat poo in a corn tortilla and smother it in green chile sauce and I'd snarf it down. With a little inspiration from Karina at [glutenfree]goddess, I've thought up this casserole (luckily, with no cat poo included!).

From the bottom up, it's a corn tortilla, a layer of refried black beans, another corn tortilla, a layer of Quorn "chicken", vegan sour cream and fried onions, another tortilla, and the top layer is mashed yam with more vegan sour cream & green chile sauce. It's topped with one more tortilla then generously smothered in a healthy layer of green chile sauce.

Mmmm... delicious! Plus warm and spicy for these cold wet rainy days. And leftovers store well, not that they remain in the fridge that long!

Tex-Mex Loaf

Mmmm...loaf.

My sis-in-law Trena mentioned in the comments on the chili post how some women's emotions are tied to food. Don't I know it!? Here's a great example: one of the hardest things for me to avoid when James was sick was tomatoes. Not meat really, but tomatoes! I'd usually get just one and whitle away at it over the a couple of days. But pizza sauce was out, spaghetti was out, (red sauce) lasagne, etc. On one of the first times I went grocery shopping after he died, I found myself standing in front of the canned tomato section in awe & wonder & a little bit of guilt. I can eat tomatoes again... and suddenly my mind was full of yummy bubbly dishes simmering in various red sauces.


And here's an interesting tomatoey application: Tex-Mex Loaf. This is a veganization of a Joy of Cooking recipe. And it was pretty easy, all I had to replace was egg. Anyway, this is tvp, tomato sauce, black beans, onion, jalepeno, fresh cilanto, etc. A big shout out to El Vee for improving it even further with a spicy ketchup & tabasco glaze.

I gotta tell ya, I love the loaf! It's got all of my favorite things: easy assembly, leftovers & longevity (in the fridge and on my palate!) It also makes a great taco filling, if it lasts that long. I also whipped up some mashed red potatoes with vegan sour cream & green chile enchilada sauce, and some steamed veggies.

Chili

Here's how I got interested in cooking again. I needed to eat. I could wolf down yet another bag of fast food or eat out one more time, but usually that meant feeling like crap afterwards. I needed something easy, fast, super tasty and could last me through a couple of meals during the week. Plus, monsoon season has arrived here in Western Washington and what goes better with cold wet rainy days & nights than something warm and spicy?

So here it is - vegan chili. I found this recipe in Vive le Vegan by Dreena Burton and it's excellent! Tons of beans, lots of onion, green bell's, garlic & spices and Smart Ground, a vegan grain "meat." It couldn't be a simpler.

And I suppose it would easily feed a family of 4, but it also feeds one single gal 4 times over the week and freezes quite nicely. Since I made and scarffed down the first batch, I think I've made 4 or 5 batches since then, and have even fed it to friends. I will continue to make it all throughout the winter, it's perfect!

Back to blogging...

I'm finally back to blogging.

The purpose of this blog when I originally started was to chronicle what James and I were eating, to show everyone just how much variety we could still maintain in our diets even when we were vegan with food restrictions.

But times have changed. James is no longer with us - having lost his battle with lung cancer in August. For weeks and weeks after his death, the kitchen became nothing more than a hallway with appliances, another counter surface to cover in bills and junk mail, a place to toss the too-frequent empty bags of Taco Time. Food was not important. In fact, food & cooking was something I avoided - I had spent so much time and energy in my previous life as James' caretaker that I couldn't bring myself to create anything in the kitchen.

And the other question I asked myself was: what now? How do I get excited again about food? And what is it that I'll be eating? The answers slowly came over time. Here it is: I eat mostly vegetarian, with occassional fish and no dairy. I know it's a little half-assed and I'm sure there are other vegans out there that scoff at my lack of commitment to "the cause" but the only cause I'm maintaining is my desire to feed my body what it needs to stay healthy.

I can't even begin to explain the impact James has had on my life, and the impact he continues to have even after he's gone. And seeing as how this is a food blog and not my daily emotional diary, I won't go into detail. But I will say this - if there's one simple pat statement that I can attribute to James and his attitude it's this: Live life. This world was so important to him and I carry his desire to live fully with me every day. So this means taking opportunities that are presented, this means enjoying each part of your everyday and finally, it means it's time to start cooking again!

And the focus of this blog will continue to remain vegan. I hope you will enjoy.