Fun With Your Food

Another sinfully delicious class at school with Christina.
There were TONS of items made (including alcohol free mimosas) but I’ll focus on the 2 I’m most likely to make asap.




Tempeh sausage. Disclaimer: I do NOT like sausage real or fake about 90% of the time. What wins me over in this one are 1) It’s tempeh- my new favorite thing besides kuzu 2) the simplicity 3) the flavor combination of the spices. All around yum! I’ve already bought the tempeh to make this one… maybe this weekend while Cara and I have out ANTM fest… Brunch + reality tv drama = fantastic day

CREPES! I admit they intimidate the hell out of me, so much so that I was NOT about to jump up and volunteer to make them in class haha. I was about 2 seconds away from making some this morning but I realized that I would have been about 1/2 an hour late for work… I’m thinking it’s a friday treat anyway right? Plus I busted out the food processor out last night and made some sweet cashew cream. To me cashew cream is like god himself came down from heaven and whipped up a creamy vegan treat. Which is odd again b/c cashews are my least favorite nut to eat whole.

Moving on. I’ll be making those soon. Look out for them.

Also, I’ve been tagged by Flowers at home to share 7 interesting things about myself. Rules:Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog and tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links. Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Teddy facts:
1. I’m part Eskimo- naturally blond haired Eskimos represent!

2. I do NOT like asparagus. Boo HISS I know… I’ve never met anyone else who doesn’t like it. I’ll eat it but I’ll never choose to make it myself

3. There is a large scar on my left ankle from a cut requiring 19 stitches when I was a kid. The thing I remember most about the accident is that the cutest boy on my block held my bleeding foot… no pain, just the boy haha

4. I have a very large DVD collection (well over 100 movies) and I watch them ALL

5. If I could live in any era clothes-wise it would be the 50-60’s. Though you couldn’t tell that from how I dress haha

6. I hate flying to the point of mini panic attacks but in the past 5 years I’ve been to south east Asia twice and Europe once- and that wasn’t enough I want to see more! Sometimes you’ve gotta suck it up and push through to get to something amazing

7. When I was 2 apparently my favorite song was “Pour some sugar on me” by Def Leppard

Okay this post is TOO long… I’m not sure WHO to tag soo I cheat and tag EVERYONE… comment and let me know when you’ve completed this!

Teddy

My internet refused to work last night and I have to say it was quite a problem. But, as promised, my creamy southwestern black bean soup with tahini drizzled on top! See? It looks good right?
Now this rated even higher in my book:

Vegan sushi rolls that I munched on at lunch yesterday (can you tell it’s in my lap? haha)

Inside is short grain brown rice, fried tofu, and avocado. I’ve always been intimidated by making sushi but I decided that I just needed to go for it. I’ll be the first to admit this isn’t the prettiest roll I’ve ever seen. It is far better than I expected to do. I’m not sure why I thought the roll would completely explode or something.

Ok I’m off to work. See you guys on twitter!!

LIFE GET’S BUSY:
And I forget to download pictures…

Completely unacceptable right?
Well I’ll describe last night’s meal and then post the picture I took later on tonight

Do you ever have left over beans and you’re just SICK of plain ole beans? Yea me too. Last night actually. Solution: a hearty BEAN SOUP- yum

I had some black beans with the fixins (onion, spices, some veggies) but just reheating them and adding water would still seem stale and not fresh. I chopped some fresh veg and placed them in a soup pot with just enough water to cover them. No one likes soggy over cooked veggies so I only simmered them for a couple mins before adding in my beans. Just bring the whole mess to a boil again give it a VROOM VROOM in your blender/food processor/whatever.

If you want to add richness (read delish healthy fat), dribble a teaspoon of tahini on top. When you all see the picture I’m sure you’ll be very impressed

Until then, I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Teddy

What did I say? I was a baking fiend this past week! I actually made 3 varieties of brownies because I used these small containers.

Peanut butter, Pumpkin, and Double chocolate

The best was peanut butter and that is why it’s not pictured. It was gone before I could take out the camera!

More on this weekend: Part of this intensive “path to wellness weekend” was a diagnosis of how to improve your health in general. I’m a pretty healthy gal but there was one suggestion that I KNEW I would hear and really didn’t want to listen to……. Bake less

You mean everyone doesn’t bake 4 times in one week?? haha

The baking process is incredibly relax to me. I need to learn to bake and not eat as much of what I’m making. How lucky my coworkers and friends are…

I’m thinking of trying some flour-less baking this week. Any recipe suggestions?? (I swear I’ll only eat ONE… Cara, I’m counting on your help!)

Teddy

Hi Folks!

I want to let you know I’m alive and kicking… Unfortunately I’ll be in class today from 9am to 7pm. That doesn’t leave much time for cooking huh? Oh I’m sure I’ll be cooking up something tonight. It’s hard to go a few days without cooking a meal. I find it relaxing to cook, so I’ll squeeze in some “relax time” tonight I’m sure.
Wish me luck in my studies and I’ll see you with food in hands tomorrow

Teddy

Mishaps can often lead to great recipes. For instance, I accidentally brought the wrong kind of flour and out of that, this experimental cookie was born. I’ve only made this cookie once and it needs another test run (or before I nail down the recipe but, so far so tasty. Coconut and peanuts are satisfying flavor combination to me so I wanted a cookie that a reflected that…

I have to say, not quite there yet but well on my to finding that recipe.

This weekend I have class from 8 am to 9pm everyday… speaking of which, I need to leave NOW

eek… have a good- hopefully not too busy- weekend

Teddy

Warning: I’ve been baking tremendous amount as of late. This is NOT an exaggeration. Days I baked this week – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday… and now it’s Friday so we’ll see if I have time to bake today. Hm I wonder why I resisted baking on Wednesday? Oh yea, I went to bed around 9pm that night just because I could (I normally have class until 10)

So you’ve made it through another week- have a freakin cookie!

Perhaps I’m bland or old fashioned but nothing beats a good chocolate chip cookie. I’m proud to say I did not use a recipe on this one. I put together my own recipe avoiding the use of granulated sugars.

Cookies for breakfast with coffee will start my intense weekend. Warren Kramer is in town and doing an intensive macrobiotic weekend. When they say intensive they MEAN intensive. 9am to 9pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Let’s hope I make it out ALIVE…. that may be another cookie worthy occasion

Teddy

I have a new favorite way to eat tempeh- fried in sesame oil then dribbled with a little shoyu.

It was necesarry to add that picture and comment about the tempeh because you simply cannot see it in the completed udon bowl. This is another class picture again (you thought ALL that tempeh was just for lil ole me?? oink oink). Items included in our udon bowl are- tempeh, dashi broth, shitake mushrooms, carrots, diakon radish, diakon radish greens, wakame and udon noodles.

I think I’ll make some dashi broth at home in the next few days. I love shitake mushrooms and this broth is full of shitake goodness. Off to work now!

Have a fantastic day and check me out on twitter. I’m now twitter obsessed by the way.

Teddy

I’ve found that growing up in southern CA gives you mad cravings for mexican food throughout your life. Election tacos are my new favorite creation. In fact, I’ll be having them for lunch today. Why are they election tacos? Well, it was election night, I wanted them and that’s good enough for me.

Any other night they would be fried tempeh tacos. Ingredients:

Tempeh (boiled/simmered for 20 mins and then pan fried in sesame oil and finally splashed with some ume vinegar for extra saltiness)

Caramelized yellow onions

Avocado

Hot sauce and cilantro to top it off

Not pictured are the sweet potato fries I had along side the tacos. Also I believe a SoCal thing, french fries and mexican food. After my feast I headed to a friends house for some cookie baking(I was less than thrilled with my cookies but everyone else seemed to enjoy them) and election watching. I’m awfully tired because I ended up not getting home until around 1am.

I must mention- YAY THAT PROP 2 PASSED IN CA!!!

What was your election meal?

Teddy

This can be a simple side dish or can be added to your grains/one pot meal for extra pazzaz.

I used 1 sweet potato chopped in thin chunks, an onion, a whole mess of spices and topped it off with some fresh parsley (cilantro would work well too but I was out).

Suggested spices to use: Coriander, Paprika, Cumin and a tiny tiny pinch of cinnamon (b/c it can so easily over power everything)

Combine everything and sauté this mix in some oil on med to high heat for about 10 mins (if you leave the lid on it helps hold in moisture as well). This is another one of those dishes that sounds fancier than it is. I also get the hunch that using curry powder as your spice would create an appropriate and delish flavoring.

Still on my voting kick… hope you’re as excited for election day as I am. I think I’ll start planning my election meal tonight!

Teddy