Apologies!!

Please excuse my extended hiatus! This is going to sound insane, but I finally accomplished my dream and moved to Japan! In my rush to get everything organized and packed, I somehow managed to misplace the cord that allows me to upload photos from my camera to my computer, and haven't had a free moment since I arrived in July to replace it (after all, going to school in a new country is a little stressful!). I've got some recipes on the back-burner, and after I replace my missing cord I will be ready to update on a semi-regular basis once again!

(Photos taken with my cell phone camera)

Breakfast

I've moved back home with my mother for the next few weeks, and instead of taking over the kitchen and destroying it, I've toned things down for the time being. This has been my typical breakfast for the last week or so: mini whole wheat bagels, dried apricots, strawberries in foamed almond milk (sprinkled with LAMILL granola), and a tiny almond latte.

Life is great! Hopefully I will have a real update soon.

deconstructed rice bowl

This recipe is almost embarrassingly easy, but is a common staple around my house. My rice cooker has a delay function, so this is one of those things I can come home and whip up in a few minutes, which is something I need to do with more and more frequency these days. My favorite thing about this meal is that I can use whatever I have lying around the house to put it together. Frozen vegetables, fresh vegetables, tempeh, tofu, seitan, leftovers, whatever! It's amazingly versatile, and always tastes good. There's no down side!


Ingredients:
For the rice...
3 cups short grain white rice, cooked
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar

for the sunomono...
1/2 cucumber
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

for the toppings...
assorted frozen or fresh vegetables

extra firm or super firm tofu
tamari
blackening spices
olive oil or olive oil spray

for the garnish...
1 tsp black sesame seeds
1 tsp white sesame seeds
1 tsp crumbled nori

Cook the rice in your rice cooker or in a pan, as per the instructions indicated on your device or on the back of the package. When the rice has finished cooking, drizzle the seasoned rice vinegar over the top and fluff it to coat entirely.

Mix the sliced cucumber and rice vinegar

Towards the end of the rice's cooking cycle, you can start to prepare the other ingredients. I tend to just dump the frozen vegetables in a nonstick frying pan, and toss them over medium to high heat until they're good and hot, then set aside. When finished, spray or drizzle a bit of olive oil in the same pan, and add the tofu. Sprinkle your blackening spices (I use a blend my brother created, which I will link to whenever he gets around to posting it. In the mean time, something like this would work) over the top of the tofu, and toss. Please be careful!! The smoke from the spices can be very potent, and will hurt your eyes if you aren't! When the tofu is almost done cooking, you can add as little or as much tamari as you'd like to the pan. It will cook very quickly and stick to the pan, so take it off of the heat and toss the tofu immediately to coat. Set aside.

Add the garnish ingredients to the same pan, and toss until toasted. It will not take long. Be careful not to burn, as the pan will be hot from repeated use.

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and enjoy!

Hella Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was a kid, Christmas was my favorite time of year. Every Christmas eve, I would diligently lay out not only the obligatory milk and cookies for Mr. Claus, but an array of baby carrots and cherry tomatoes that I had stolen from the vegetable plate for his nine reindeer. Now that I'm older, that most coveted of jobs has been passed down to my younger step sisters, and I instead turn to the quest of creating the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie.

Now, I'm not going to claim to have made the perfect chocolate chip cookies, because I know that depending on what your tastes are, the perfect cookie could be anything. So, while this may not be THE chocolate chip cookie, I'm going to go ahead and say that this is it for me. It's packed with chocolate, with a hint of saltiness to balance it out and steer it away from being cloying. They're soft right out of the oven, but firm up enough to keep them from crumbling to bits when you eat them. Go ahead and eat five or six. I won't tell.



Ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup earth balance
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar (or vanilla sugar if you have it)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean
1/4 cup plain unsweetened soy yogurt
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Combine the salt and two flours and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars with a fork, then scrape the contents of your vanilla bean, vanilla extract, and soy yogurt into the butter/sugar, and mix until incorporated (save the leathery outside of the vanilla bean to make your own vanilla sugar!). Mix in the flour and chocolate chips. Roll the dough into ping-pong sized balls and bake for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet.

This dough can also be rolled and frozen to cut later!

Tomato Pesto Tarts

Another super easy recipe for you college students who want to class things up with minimal effort. These "tarts" are super easy and quick to make for a dinner party or gathering, and look like they took a lot more time than they actually did!

Ingredients:
Puff pastry
Tomato paste
pesto (I used this recipe)
mixed olives
fresh tomatoes

Thaw the puff pastry, and preheat the oven to 450. Using a cup or a large round cookie cutter, cut the pastry into rounds and set aside on an oiled cookie sheet. (You can roll the extras in cinnamon sugar and bake later for a dessert!)



Spread the tops of the rounds with a thin layer of tomato paste. Put a dollop of pesto in the center, and top with a slice of tomato and bits of chopped olives. Sprinkle freshly cracked pepper over the top.



Bake until the puff pastry has risen and the tomatoes begin to look cooked (It should only take a few minutes). Best served warm!

Protip 1

Protip: bake your bananas in the skin before you put them in your banana bread!