Uhh-Cajun to Cook

Cooked up Shirley's Cajun Red Beans & Rice from LDV this week. It was very.. bland. I thought in measuring the spices that something had to be off and it Shirley was! Above is a shot of the sauteed veggies, broth, & spices coming to a boil for the rice to be added, just because I thought it looked pretty. In reading through the ingredients I thought red pepper would likely taste better, but I went ahead and used green as listed because I knew there was a reason for it - color!! Below is the finished dish, I had to add spices before eating it, if I make this again (as I likely will since I do like beans & rice meals) I will definitely add more spices when cooking.

All in all, this is a basic dish that truly one doesn't even really need a recipe for; so due to the "nothing special" factor, I did not award a high rating.

rating:

2.5 pineapples

I'm Stuffed!

I've made several dishes from Vegan with a Vengeance; it's really a must-have cookbook.

This, however, was the first time I made Black Bean, Mushroom, and Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers. And now that I've eaten it, I can say it's but the first time of many. I'm so glad there's leftovers because I'm anxious to eat it again!

Here I've taken a photo to show the filling before the peppers are baked:

The filling called for a Tbsp Chili Powder. Now I don't know if it's because I used Chipotle Chili Powder, but I added a bit less & these still came out pretty spicy.

This was very easy to make. I chopped all the veggies beforehand, and from there, the dish practically made itself.

I was proud of coming up with the idea to reserve a few slices of mushrooms to garnish the top prior to baking; here's the dish, ready to eat:

rating:

5 pineapples

I haven't had this in over 5 years...

..and it tasted so good this morning!

LDV's Freedom French Toast is now yet another reason breakfast is my favorite meal of the day!

It was so easy to make, and even easier to eat! I was worried initially because the batter looked thick, but these little slices of heaven turned out perfectly. I'll definitely be coming back to this recipe again & again! The only change I made was to add a ton more cinnamon than was called for & add nutmeg as well.

rating:

5 pineapples!

Indian Lover

I think of all different types of cuisine, Indian may very well be my favorite. Indian dishes incorporate a real appreciation for fine spices. This kind of food tastes like no other. Indian food can be enjoyed before even taking a bite - it has great appeal due to the rich colors, and most importantly the mouth-watering scent!

Recently, I attempted cooking my first Indian dish. It turned out quite well, apart from consistency. I don't think LDV's recipe for Aloo Gobi Potatoes & Cauliflower called for enough liquid. At only 1/2 C of vegetable stock, look how thick this is.

The best Indian food I've ever had was at Purnima in New York City. There, the aloo gobi was much... wetter, not quite as wet as say a bowl of soup, but certainly much more so than this recipe created. I even added more stock to this recipe, but I was afraid to add too much & take away from the spices; next time I make this I'm going to adjust the whole thing in hopes it will turn out closer to what I had in NYC.

I served this over jasmine rice, simply because I love the smell of jasmine rice cooking. It's really one of the best scents in the world.

For dessert I decided to hazard an attempt at LDV's Mint Chocolate Fudge. This was a mistake, because I don't have a candy thermometer. The recipe didn't turn out like fudge at all... but of course I've been eating the results anyway. It tastes good, but the texture isn't right at all. Ohh well, chocolate is still yum!

rating:

3 pineapples

dessert.... for breakfast!

Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie

1 frozen banana

Soymilk (enough to cover blades & add to taste for perfect consistency)

1/2 scoop Life's Basics Plant Protein powder

3-4 ice cubes

1 1/2 tsp carob powder

1 Tbsp natural peanut butter

1-2 drops of molasses

Blend to perfection & enjoy!

*note: I don't actually measure the carob powder, peanut butter, or molasses; the measurements given are approximate. Experiment & add more/less to taste.

rating:

5 pineapples

ain't nothing wrong with cornbread

...unless in your haste you forget to add the sugar and only have olive oil to bake with. Oi!

Let me explain.

I started making the corn bread, then had the wonderful idea to do this:

once I had all the dry ingredients mixed up, I put them in a zipper bag and wrote in Sharpie the remaining bits of the recipe - sort of like a store bought mix. Great idea to save time in the future, but not so great when upon mixing up the dry ingredients again, I left out the sugar.

Now the bread is still edible, just not as sweet as I might prefer it.

On the whole, I love this recipe from LDV. It's called Wolffie's "Buttermilk" Cornbread, and what's so wonderful about it is that it calls for equal parts of flour & corn meal, which I think create the perfect texture.

Here it is (without the sugar, oops) baked & partially eaten:

Even though I forgot the sugar the 2nd time mixing the dry ingredients, it wasn't even noticeable as I ate this bread atop chili.

For the main dish, also from LDV, I cooked Tasty Tempeh Chili. Not to say I dislike tempeh, but typically I find I can't eat very much of it because the nutty flavor is too rich for me. However, cooked inside this chili it was delicious. Hands down, this is the best tempeh dish I've ever had. There's another chili recipe in this book that I've made several times before and this one is just as good. My boyfriend prefers the other recipe himself because he doesn't like the "crumbly" texture of tempeh in the chili.

We had this with salad, and the recipe made enough that we'll be having leftovers next day.

rating:

4 pineapples

face not food

Nothing to do with food, but another kind of vegan goodie: make-up!

I took my first trip into The Cosmetic Market yesterday in the late afternoon. I got some fabulous Urban Decay products I cannot wait to try out!

I have really been wanting the Eyeshadow Primer Potion, but with all those color choices I decided that I would cheat for now, and use their Cream Eyeshadow as a base. I selected the shade Midnight Rodeo. I also couldn't resist the allure of 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil and got that in the shade Stash.

I'll be sure to come back & add to this with my thoughts after I've used the products. I've never tried Urban Decay before, other than the powder brush I have (and love. I won it from a contest at peta2.com), so I'm very excited!

------------------------ Edit to add Review ---------------------------

9 Aug 09

I have used this make up a few times now, and I'm ready to share my opinion!

Cream Eyeshadow: not crazy about the way this goes on; I can't seem to get an even finish. I do love how it holds my mineral make up on with intense color pay off, so it certainly serves the "primer" function I had hoped it would. Secondly, the glitter ends up getting all over my face (though not terribly so - I just have to do a bit of clean up). I am pleased with the color as well; it is fairly close to my skin tone, so it's perfect for an all-over-the-lid color. I would get more shades, but I think first I will end up buying just the Primer Potion & make use of the mineral eye shadows I already own.

24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil: wow! this really does glide right on! Typically I have to heat my eyeliner pencils before applying just to soften them up; this step is not necessary for these pencils. The color is only okay, but it does last long as well, which the pencils I had previously did not. I'd definitely be interested in other shades.

rating:

4 pineapples