Fun With Your Food

Okay I just HAD to post this link. lol

Eat your sea veggies…

Have a good day!

Last week we had a “one pot” meal making class. I show up to class and there are grains, veggies, spices everywhere. Instead of sticking to a recipe our instructor simply said “here’s what you have to work with- experiment with something you’ve never tried before”
It was a virtual free for all and I have to admit I felt a little like Iron Chef. Boy was it overwhelming for a second; mostly because it’s not your kitchen and you have 9 other people cooking and moving things and trying to get THEIR ingredients.

We all made it through with some great dishes. That night I particularly exhausted and I just knew that I did not want a strong, heavily spiced dish. I needed something relaxing yet filling.

I made a brown rice with leeks, miriam wine, marjoram and so forth. My new ingredient was freeze dried tofu. All I could think when I was taste testing it was “man this is a SPONGE”, but not in a good way at all.

Have you ever used freeze dried tofu before? What did you do with it?

Teddy

I’ve found the easiest dessert ever! If you haven’t tried baking sweet mochi you should. I made this last night. All you need to do is cut the block of mochi into 1 inch squares, flavor and bake at 450 for no more than 10 minutes.

They pack well so they’re good for my lunches at work. I used the cinnamon raisin flavor but suggest adding a little sweetener and spices to create a stronger flavor- for instance some agave and extra cinnamon.

The state capitol, I trek about 6 blocks to sit here most days. I read under those trees or simply people watch the whole time- I love to people watch!

Lunch time is a mini escape for me, a time to relax. Do you have anything special you do on your lunches?

Teddy

You may have noticed me talking about a lot of weekend classes so I decided to take pictures this weekend. I mean did spend 90% of my day doing this

David Briscoe is a macrobiotics guru per se. At the age of 17 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and through a macrobiotic diet, he has been off of his medication and healthy for years. You can see why I wanted to attend right- interesting subject matter for sure.

He has a book about it called A Personal Peace. It’s out of print right now and it’s a little pricey.
Amongst lecturing and teaching, David cooked a meal for us. I’ll share what we had with you.

Aduzki bean soup
David preparing the soup

Pressed salad (I actually helped make that one!), buckwheat and couscous, sweet n sour yams (with an organic homemade dried cherry on top from David’s wife) and baked brussel sprouts and rutabaga with thyme and oregano.

It was a great meal and an interesting lecture series. I recommend reading anything of his you can find. He has great theories on food and it’s effect on the body.

Hope your weekend was a great one!

Teddy

I find myself eating more soups now that the days are getting shorter but as I’ve mentioned, I’m growing tired of my signature creamy squash soup. This carrot, miso, ginger soup is sweet and doesn’t necessarily need to be pureed (I like it that way though).

The ingredients are pretty simple:
Carrots, onions, celery, water, miso and ginger juice

For two weekends I’ve been busy in different lecture/cooking series at school from 8am to around 6pm. I’m happy to day that next weekend I will have NO SCHOOL or WORK. You have no idea how excited I am for a weekend off. SLEEP. GLORIOUS SLEEP.
Last night I was able to go to see Ben Folds (fantastic!)- I won FREE tickets and it was a great time but it kept me out later than I anticipated.

Even though it’s barely 9:30 here I am heading to bed to get some much needed shut eye. I need to be perky for the 2nd week at my amazing new job!

Teddy

Vegan ceviche is a dish I was extremely excited to learn in class. While I ever much enjoyed it, I have to admit there are things I would change and things that I LOVED about this dish.
LOVED- 1) Hemp oil- I’ve always been curious what this oil taste like and since we used it in class, I got a taste. Oh my! I have a new favorite oil to dress things with- it’s so nutty and yet light. I guess I can see why it’s expensive now.
Things I would change:
less raw onion, it is such a strong flavor that it will end up overpowering everything after 2 bites if there’s too much.
Anywho, here’s a rough recipe that I like (not exactly what we used):

1 block extra firm tofu frozen then thawed (don’t like tofu? try coconut meat instead- in small diced chunks)
1/2 c. lime juice
1 bunch cilantro
1 cucumber pealed, seeded, diced
1/2 red onion finely diced
various mushrooms (button, oyster…) cut into thin slices
Agave nectar
Shoyu
Umeboshi vinegar
Hemp Oil
Nori Flakes (optional but gives extra sea flavor)

Mix onion, cucumber and cilantro with 2-3 tablespoons of lime juice and a splash of ume vinegar and let sit for at least an hour
In a different bowl, mix tofu (or coconut), mushrooms, 1-2 tablespoons shoyu, agave (to taste) and lime juice and let stand for an hour or two as well
Once marinated combine contents of two bowls and sprinkle with nori flakes and hemp oil (YUM).

Now just general food porn from class:

Ridiculous amount of hummus we made this weekend. Don’t worry, we don’t let anything go to waste. We eat what we make and take some home for friends/family to try!

A sea of grain burgers being fried up- we used cornmeal to coat them and they turned out crisp and held together very well.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this but I took a look at my calendar and I don’t have a day off from both school and work from Oct18th- November 1st. That means not one day of sleeping in past 6:30 am (not even weekends people!). Boy I’m going to be tired! No worries though, I’d rather be tired from doing something I’m passionate about and love than something that makes me miserable. This will be the best kind of tired I’ve ever felt…….

Teddy

I’ve only made poached pears one other time and I used a white wine. I decided to use a little fruit juice this time and make the dessert have a fall feeling by adding a cinnamon stick to the broth. If you’re in need of an incredibly simple yet seemingly “fancy” dish, this is the one.

Peal a pair, cut it in half and scoop out the “guts”
Place in liquid and spices of choice to boil for about 20-30 mins

POOF… you’re pretty much done. I decided to kick it up a notch (am I allowed to say that without pay some sort of royality? haha) and make a sauce out of the juice by adding a thickening agent (kuzu, arrowroot, agar agar).

If you try it, let me know how it turns out or your variation of it!

Teddy

I have a new job and it’s going great!
Unfortunately it means I’ll have to start posting at night now because there’s simply no time in the mornings. So all you night owls, heeeerrrrreee’s Teddy.

Now that it’s officially fall now and I’m craving pressed salads. I mean, went through a pumpkin and fall flavors phase, but I’m craving change. Last week I made a few pressed salads to satisfy my desire for freshness. Above is THE BEST pressed salad ever… well, I thought so.

Cabbage
Carrot greens
Gala Apple
Green onion
Walnuts
Vegan creamy poppy seed dressing

Teddy

If you live in Austin and are vegan you’re probably aware that Dhaba Joy (Austin’s vegan bakery/cafe) recently closed it’s delicious vegan bakery doors with virtually NO warning leaving both it’s out-of-work bakers and die-hard fans deeply distressed.

While I can’t open a new bakery, I’d like to do my own part in helping these bakers during their tough times. So vegans of Austin, and the world, do not fret! Andrea and Kathryn are now taking online orders Via their myspace:
ATX Vegan Bakers

Not a fan of myspace?
Call: 512.351.6502 OR 517.614.7903

Talking on the phone annoys you?
e-mail: atxveganbakers@gmail.com

Need proof that these two girls are the best vegan bakers around??

What’s that? You live FAR from Austin and don’t think you can order?? NO WORRIES. Andrea has hand drawn, glued, cut and pasted her first cookbook and it can be purchased here:
Andrea’s Esty’s Page

As Andrea says “Its more than a cookbook…its a work of art”

Now, no excuses people. Show a little vegan love LOL. I mean, I know if I were stranded suddenly without a job I’d love any help I could get so I need to do my part here.

Teddy

PS- also for any friends back home my birthday is a month away and counting…. perhaps this post will give you bday gift ideas?! haha

Happy weekend everyone!

I’ll be at a cooking workshop from 9am-3pm all weekend so I’m not sure I’ll have time to post but I wanted to let you know that I’ve gone through and updated my links. Please let me know if I’ve missed anyone, it’s entirely possible since it’s been SO long since last time I updated them.

Have a great weekend!

Teddy