Fun With Your Food

I made a bit of a boo boo this week and bought far too much tofu. When I say too much tofu I mean about 4 containers of tofu; don’t ask, I went the the grocers several times and forgot what I had bought. The only solution to this non-dilemma is tofu feta!
Ingredients for this simple feta:

1 block of tofu

3 T White Miso
1/4- 1/2 cup Olive Oil (now is the time to use your best oil)

Herbs including: 2 T Oregano, 2 T Basil, 1 T Black peppercorns (optional), 1/2 T red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 cup Ume Vinegar
And a jar of some sort

Mix all the herbs, miso, and ume in the jar into a paste. Crumble the tofu into the jar and coat everything by stirring with a spoon or shaking the jar. Pour in the Olive oil and let to seep down through the coated tofu.

Place in your fridge and forget about it for a few days but eat within a month. I plan on having some pasta and salads with it. Hopefully I’ll have my pasta machine soon so I can make some ravioli with it! But be wary of the whole peppercorns in there, pick them out before serving.

Teddy B

I have a new all time favorite cookie recipe. I’m happy to report that I properly measured and wrote down every ingredient. 3 friends have sampled them thus far and we all agreed it’s a great cookie.
I hope everyone tries these.

Vegan peanut butter oat cookies with dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup natural PB
1/4 cup maple syrup (grade A or B)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
dark chocolate chips (as many as you’d like!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine PB, maple, brown sugar, oil and vanilla in a bowl. Wisk well to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. In a separate bowl combine flour, oats and baking soda. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and fold together Adding the chocolate chips once the mixture comes together.
Measure tablespoon sized cookies and place onto lined baking sheet. These cookies do not spread. How they go into the oven is very close to what they look like when they come out. Therefore, I pressed them flat with a fork. Bake for 7-10 minutes and allow to cool before eating

Happy eating. I’m off to eat more of these cookies

Teddy B

I’ve been meaning to try this trailer for months. An all vegan trailer? How could I NOT try it?

What I sampled:

The BBQ Jackfruit

The Philly Seitan with Cashew Cheese

1st- I love that this place is very reasonably priced. The sandwiches are 6 bucks a pop and you definitely get your moneys worth.

Out of the two, I preferred the BBQ. The sauce was spicy and I enjoyed the lightly grilled onion and pickle on top. Be warned though, if you are adverse to spicy at all, this is not for you. The Philly seitan was well seasoned though the cashew topping would have been better replaced w vegan cheese. When I eat a Philly I’m not looking for healthy; I want greasy cheezy goodness. That being said, I still liked it.

I’m looking forward to going back and trying other, new menu items.

Teddy

Counter Culture:
Website: http://www.countercultureaustin.com/

This is another long overdue post. I made this peanut butter cheesecake with a dark chocolate almond crust over 3 months ago and I’m still tempted to create it again. In fact, when I tweeted about it I had a LOT of buzz (even the LA times said something- woah! that made me feel special). What really made me happy was my friend liking it so much that she ate it with her hands on the way to the airport then said i tricked her when she found out it was vegan lol.
Tofutti was nice enough to send me some vouchers so I would test out their products. I have used Tofutti quite a few times in recipes and really like their Cuties but I have to say this is NOT a healthy recipe that should be eaten often. It’s great for potlucks and holidays or special occasions, just like any other rich dessert.

I know you are tired of my talk and want photos…

the whole gooey cheesecake

See? The texture is nice

My recipe is a mini cheesecake because it’s just me eating it and i didn’t need to eat a WHOLE cheesecake. I think you’ll have to multiply it by at least 3 to make it into a large, family-sized cheesecake. Also, I decided to make this no-bake but you CAN bake it if you’d like. I was just impatient and it looked so darn good, why wait?

Tofutti Peanut Butter Cheesecake:

4 oz tofutti cream cheese
1/2 cup of sugar
1/8 cup “milk” (I used coconut)
1/4 cup self-ground chunky peanut butter (you can use your fav nut butter)

Blend all ingredients together (a mixing bowl is fine- food processor not needed but can be used)

The crust is similar to a raw date crust, I just added some melted chocolate (the measurements are for this small recipe so remember to multiply this to family sized as well!)

1/2 cup Pitted Dates
1 cup Blanched almonds
1 tsp vanilla
About 2 Tablespoons melted chocolate (instead of water to make the mixture moist)

Blend all items together in a food processor. If the mixture is dry I recommend adding some of your milk. Let the whole cheesecake chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

There ya have it. Enjoy!
Teddy

Where HAVE you been Teddy? Answer: traveling, living life and not worrying so much about blogging. In the last 2 months I’ve visited Egypt, England, and California for the holidays. With all that going on I have to be honest and say I didn’t even WANT to blog (though I’ve still maintained the habit of photographing most of the meals I eat).

Therefore, it’s a new year and time for a new post.

I love making beans from scratch. It’s super easy and they taste far superior to the canned ones you buy in the grocery store. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve bought my fair share of canned beans for quick veg friendly meals or apps; however, in an ideal world, I’d make them from scratch all the time. Anywho, since the new year is a special occasion I went all out and made a batch of black eyed peas with sweet potatoes.

Traditionally, in the southern states, blacked eyed peas are made with pork and collard greens for good luck on the first of the year (the beans are considered lucky and the collards represent dollar bills). You know me, I have to mix things up. I took out the pork and collards but left in all the luck of the beans.

Black Eyed Peas with Sweet potatoe
1 cup dried black eye peas
1 yellow onion (chopped)
3-4 cups of water
1 sweet potato (washed and cut into small chunks)
1 Tablespoon smoked sea salt (regular salt is fine too)
1-3 Tablespoons cilantro (depending on your taste)
1 green onion chopped for garnish (optional)

* I made my beans in a pressure cooker but you can do this in a large pot, just increase the boiling time for the beans to at least 1 hour.

Place the beans, onion and the water in the pressure cooker (do not add salt until you add other ingredients) and bring to pressure. Let the beans cook at full pressure for 20-30 minutes. Bring the pressure down and add in the sweet potato, salt, and cilantro. Let the mixture simmer for an additional 20 minutes until the sweet potato is soft.

Serve over rice, polenta, in a tortilla or any way you fancy. I like mine with white rice and topped with green onion (perhaps avocado too)

Do yourself a favor and eat your way to luck this week!

Teddy