Feta "cheese"

One of our favorite pizzas is a Greek pizza with spinach, diced tomato, red pepper, olives, loads of garlic and feta. We used to make this as our Friday night pizza almost every week, sprinkled with tons of feta and mozzarella cheese. Yum! It was really tasty. I've missed it since I stopped eating a lot of cheese. Speaking of cheese, it's been a hot topic lately- I heard this story on NPR yesterday and my friend Emily sent me a link to a similar story a few weeks ago. I agree with what they say at the end of the article about how the French consider a cheese a treat, like a dessert- "fromage ou dessert" or "cheese or dessert" but not both. When I was living in France we actually rarely had what Americans would call "dessert" after dinner- instead we had a piece of fruit or a small, plain yogurt. Sometimes, for a treat we had a piece of cheese and it was savored as a treat. I like this attitude toward food- savor what is a treat, don't eat too much of it and don't eat it all the time. I'm not saying I'll never eat cheese again- I just want to change my attitude toward it... such as not eating tons of it on a pizza like it's a normal, healthy dinner.

Anyways. We had our favorite Greek pizza tonight for dinner, topped with this delicious "feta" cheese. It actually tastes like feta and I'm content:) Here is a link to the original recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb. extra firm tofu, drained and pressed (you can do this with paper towels or kitchen towels and some cookbooks on top, to get out some of the liquid.
2 Tbs water
4 tsp yellow miso paste
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp salt
2 tsp basil, dried
1 tsp oregano or marjoram, dried
1/4 tsp rosemary, dried
1-2 Tbs nutritional yeast

1. Press the tofu with towels and set aside for about 10 minutes. Unwrap the tofu and break it into big pieces and place it in a medium bowl.

2. Whisk all the remaining ingredients together, except for the nutritional yeast. Pour mixture over the tofu and break the tofu into smaller pieces. Let sit for at least 10 minutes (I kept mine for an hour or two in the fridge).

3. Sprinkle the nutritional yeast on top and mix it together again. Use in a salad or on a pizza!

Liz's dressing and Liz's salad

Because my mom is awesome, I grew up eating salad every night with dinner. Really, every night. Now that I'm on my own we don't do this but we do try to have a few different green veggies with every dinner. It's not salad because for awhile I was just so bored with salads. I never liked dressing. In fact, I used to just eat mine plain when I was growing up- like a rabbit. A healthy choice but so boring! I know salads are good for me but I didn't LOVE salad.

Until I met my friend Liz.

She makes this AMAZING salad with a fabulous homemade vinaigrette. This is what was missing from my salads!!! Go make it tonight for dinner. You probably have everything on hand already for the dressing.

"Liz's Dressing"

Ingredients:

olive oil
fig balsamic vinegar (this is what we used but I've had it with many different kinds of vinegar- feel free to experiment! It's also pretty yummy with apple cider vinegar.)
a few garlic cloves, minced (use a garlic press!)
mustard (good mustard is best- not yellow mustard)
salt
pepper

For one medium-sized bunch of lettuce we use a few Tbs of olive oil, about the same amount of vinegar, 3 medium cloves of garlic, a few dashes of salt and pepper and about a teaspoon of mustard. I never measure it out- I always eyeball it so this is not necessarily exact. Feel free to play with the quantities to your taste! This balsamic would be fantastic on a pizza or on a marinated portobello mushroom or even over pasta and veggies. I haven't tried any of these but this dressing always inspires me to want to try it on other things.

1. Mix everything together with a fork or a tiny whisk. Set aside until ready to use.

2. Mix again, to make sure it's all still together and pour over your salad.





"Liz's Salad"

Ingredients:

1 bunch red leaf lettuce (We couldn't find it at the store this week! Such a pain! It really is best with red leaf, trust me.)
1 tomato, cut into whatever sized pieces you'd like (we used 2 small tomatoes)
1 avocado, cut into chunks
whatever else you'd like to add. Liz likes to add black beans- a great addition! Michael likes to add black olives, which are also pretty good.

We made this last night with black olives and green leaf lettuce. Serve with Liz's dressing. This salad is a hit with company and is a good salad to have with different types of meals. We had it last night with an Amy's roasted vegetable pizza and it was a delicious and easy dinner.

My favorite part of this salad (other than the dressing) is the avocados. Well, probably the avocados with the dressing is what I love. Oh man. I want some right now and It's definitely still only breakfast-time. Good thing we have some leftovers for lunch!

Garlic croutons with fig balsamic

Last week I was skyping with my good friend Liz, who also happens to be a foodie. While I was talking to her I was baking bread and was also making homemade bread crumbs with some stale bread on the bottom oven rack. We got to talking about bread crumbs and ended up having a nice discussion about why one should never buy bread crumbs and should always make them. Have you ever read the list of ingredients in store-bought bread crumbs? I don't know what half the ingredients are. I'll do a post about how to make bread crumbs next time I make them but today I'm going to talk about homemade croutons. Liz was telling me about a time when she made these and they sounded wonderful. Enjoy these on a salad, on soup or just as a snack.

I recommend baking your own bread weekly or bi-weekly as needed. If you have a few hours at home you can make your own bread. I've stocked up recently and have a few loaves in the freezer but next time I make it I'll do a blog post. I say to use your own bread because you know exactly what ingredients are in it and you also can use the odds and ends in creative ways (bread crumbs, stuffing, or croutons, for example). I made these croutons from ends of 2 stale bread loaves I had hanging around. If I'm not sure I'll use them I stick the ends in a bag in the freezer and then I can pull them out as needed. This week I had a feeling I'd be trying out this crouton recipe so I just kept them in the fridge. I used two kinds of bread because I had two kinds of stale bread on hand. Use whatever you have- it's a great way to have a homemade snack and also to clean out your fridge or freezer. If you don't make your own bread use some leftover good bakery bread or rolls- sandwich bread would even work if you have some of that to use up.

Ingredients:

stale bread, cubed
olive oil
fig balsamic vinegar (so delicious- but you can use whatever dark vinegar you have on hand)
*roasted garlic, chopped (I used this only because I had some leftover from yesterday- you can use dried)
salt and pepper to taste
vegan parmesan (not necessary but I had about a teaspoon or so to use up so I threw it in)

plastic freezer bag
cookie sheet
aluminum foil

1. Preheat oven to 375º and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

2. Cut the bread into cubes and place in the plastic freezer bag. Sprinkle in the garlic, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and vegan parmesan.

3. Close the bag tightly and shake gently to make sure the pieces are evenly coated.

4. Stick in the oven for about 20 minutes, gently stirring them on the sheet about halfway through. They're done when crispy and crunchy on the outside. Some ovens might take longer than others. If they're still a bit soft but are browned leave them sit on the cookie sheet for a bit and they should firm up as they cool. If they're still soft be sure you're using stale bread- if you want to make these with fresh bread just lightly toast it in slices before cubing to dry it out a bit.

5. Cool on the cookie sheet and store in an airtight container or bag once completely cooled.

*You can use whatever spices you'd like if you want to make different kinds of croutons. Feel free to experiment with different flavors!

How to eat a pomegranate

"Nature's Skittles"

I'm a little late to jump onto the pomegranate band wagon. Maybe everyone out there already knows how to cut and eat a pomegranate but I just learned how to do it and my mind was blown. It's so much easier than I thought it would be! Here's how it happened: my parents were visiting us for Christmas and my mom decided she wanted to get everyone a pomegranate for their stockings. I thought this was a nice, festive touch to the holiday but I also thought that then we'd be stuck with a lot of pomegranates and no way to eat them. To my surprise my mom shared that she had just learned a really easy way to get to the seeds (she learned it from one of the people who works at Wegmans, one of the best grocery stores on the planet and there aren't any in Colorado). Anyways. My parents eat these all the time now. They sprinkle them in their oatmeal, eat them for snack or bake them into muffins. My parents are spunky, active 60 somethings who volunteer a lot and like to do healthy things so I'll take a note from them and follow their lead. By the way, my mom is who I call with any cooking question and she almost always has an answer for me. She'll probably pop up pretty often in this blog.

The seeds are what you want to go for here- they're wrapped in tasty, juice-filled skins. When you open a pomegranate you'll realize why pomegranate juice is so pricey- it's hard work to get to the juice part! Enjoy these on your daily oats or even stick them in a baggie and sneak them into the movies! My dad calls them "Nature's Skittles"- not sure where he heard that but it's fitting. They are super sweet and a great way to satisfy a craving for candy.

What you need:

1 pomegranate
sharp knife
cutting board
bowl filled with cold water
strainer
container lined with paper towel


1. Slice off the top and bottom of the pomegranate. Don't worry if some juice escapes- these are really juicy and you will still get a lot of the good stuff when you're' done with it.

2. Make sure you have your bowl full of cold water ready- I like to put it in the sink so I can catch the extra bits in one place that's not on my countertop. Carefully score the pomegranate in 3 places and gently pull apart over the bowl.

3. Taking one section at a time, gently remove the skin and the seeds, letting the seeds plop to the bottom of the bowl. If you submerge the piece of pomegranate in the cold water the seeds will easily release and sink to the bottom.

4. When you're done with all sections pick out the little bits of skin that may have made it to the bowl and strain the seeds.

5. Pack in a paper towel-lined airtight container and store in the fridge. These keep for maybe a week in the fridge though we haven't been able to keep them around that long.

Beans

OK so beans are really easy to make and freeze ahead. I cooked up a huge batch of white beans a few weeks ago and after they cooled I stuck them in baggies in 1 1/2 cup quantities and then put them in the freezer. Now whenever we feel like having beans we can. We usually like to have white beans with pasta dishes to add a little extra protein and fiber. No need to stick with white- you can make ahead all types of beans.

I'm not going to include a recipe because you can just follow the directions on the bag or throw them in a slow cooker or google a way to do them. Cooking your own beans is really easy and quite economical as well. We got 8 baggies of cooked beans (the equivalent of 8 cans) from the bag of dry we bought for only about $2.00. Eight cans of beans costs around $8.00. Not only will you save money but you will also enjoy the taste of home-cooked beans.

A freezer full of beans!

If you need them in a pinch and don't have time to defrost overnight you can take a baggie and soak it in hot water which quickly defrosts the beans.

Apple sage sausage

This vegan recipe is from The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester. One weekend I was motivated to do some cooking ahead and I made this and beans and tomato sauce and stuck it all in the freezer to use at a later date. We used half of the recipe this weekend- some on a homemade pizza and some with a pasta dish. We still have the other half of the recipe left over in the freezer. I guess where I'm going with this is it freezes really well! Just take it out the night before and stick it in the fridge or leave it on the counter for a few hours from the freezer and then stick it in the fridge. You don't have to cook it in a slow cooker- you can make the uncooked sausage into patties and cook them on the stove top or in the oven.

"Apple sage sausage" from The Vegan Slow Cooker

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

1 cup walnuts pieces

1 cup vital wheat gluten

2 Tbs nutritional yeast

1 cup applesauce

2 Tbs ground flaxseed mixed with 2 Tbs warm water

1 Tbs vegan chicken-favored bouillon

2 Tbs sage

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp Hungarian paprika

1/2 to 1 tsp salt (to taste)

Pepper, to taste

1. In a food processor, pulse the walnuts and cooked rice until the mixture is coarsely ground

but not puréed. Combine the nut mixture with the remaining ingredients in a large mixing

bowl. Cover and refrigerate (over night if you want to do this the night before- if not, no

need to refrigerate). 

2. Put the mixture into an oiled slow cooker crock. Cook on high for 1 ½

to 2 hours. Break down the loaf into small pieces in the food processor, and process until it

crumbles (you can skip this step if you'd like and just crumble it by hand when you want to use it). Store what you won’t use in a week in the freezer.

I recommend freezing it in quarters and taking it out as needed. This is about a quarter of the batch and it was plenty to use on a cookie sheet-sized pizza. It has a meaty texture without tasting like a weird and processed vegan meat.

Emergency tomato sauce

Does this happen to you? You're about to start making pizza or pasta and you realize that you forgot to thaw the delicious homemade tomato sauce you had put in the freezer to use at just these moments. Or maybe you forgot to pick up jarred tomato sauce at the store (stay tuned for a future blog post on homemade tomato sauce to stick in your freezer- you'll never buy tomato sauce again). Worry no more!

We like to keep canned diced tomatoes on hand for different things- tacos (I know, fresh is better), pizza toppings, my homemade freezer sauce recipe AND for emergency tomato sauce. When we go to Sam's we usually get a 6-pack and that way we don't ever have to worry about not having tomato sauce!

Ingredients:

1 can diced tomatoes
Italian spices (I usually use basil, oregano and cracked red pepper)
*1/2 tsp to 1 tsp sugar
additional ingredients (not necessary, but delicious): **red wine, roasted garlic, black olives, mushrooms, really whatever you feel like adding to doctor it up.

1. While your pasta is cooking dump the entire can of diced tomatoes with the juice into a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.

2. Add spices, sugar and wine (and other ingredients) and let it simmer quietly for about 15 minutes- or until you really need it- up to about 45 minutes.

3. Use as needed. That's it.

*The sugar is very important in this emergency tomato sauce recipe because it helps cut the acidity of the tomatoes. You don't have to use sugar- just about any sweetener will do, really. I've made it with agave nectar in a pinch.

**Tomato sauce tastes so wonderful with a bit of red wine cooked into it. The alcohol simmers off with the sauce and leaves the rich taste of red wine.

Roasted garlic

 Michael and I love garlic. In fact, if a recipes calls for 2 cloves we put in 4. We could have garlic with almost any savory dish and not be sick of it. This recipe for roasted garlic is from my friend Jessica. I used to shy away from recipes with roasted garlic because it seemed like something so tasty would also be quite complicated to make. Who knew that roasting garlic would be so easy!? It's super easy and delicious and if you buy your garlic in bulk like we do it's a great way to use up some of the garlic as the bag comes to the end. I used it today with a pasta dish but you can use it really however you'd like- the possibilities are endless. If you roast it long enough it will get mushy and this is wonderful smeared on a piece of crusty homemade bread.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of garlic- or however much you'd like to do at once
salt
pepper
olive oil
other spices if you'd like
aluminum foil
oven (I'm really just trying to make this list longer. As you can see, there are very few ingredients and did I mention it is going to be so easy to make!?)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF or really whatever temperature you need to between 350ºF and 400ºF if you're baking something else along with this. I recommend not turning your oven on just for roasting garlic but in a pinch it can be done!

2. Cut the tips off the garlic with a sharp knife. It should look something like this:

3. Place garlic in some aluminum foil and sprinkle some salt and freshly cracked pepper on top and then drizzle a little olive oil on top of that.

4. Wrap the aluminum foil around the garlic and place on a baking sheet (or a loaf pan, or really just on the oven rack). Cook for about 15 minutes or more- depending on how roasted you'd like it. Trial and error can be your friend!

5. Now you have delicious roasted garlic. The garlic cloves smoosh right out of the skin and are so easy to use from here. You could put it on pizza, sandwiches, salads, pasta, with some steamed broccoli, spinach, etc. Sometimes I like to just eat it by itself. Enjoy!

Vegan Parmesan

Broncos are on in the background!

In our house we've been known to be addicted to parmesan cheese. Michael even says it should be considered one of the major food groups. As I've been turning to veganism I realized cutting out parmesan would be a big step for me and I needed to find some alternative for when we have pasta or pizza or really anything and everything we use it for. There are a lot of recipes floating around for fake parmesan and I've only tried a few but this one has been a big hit. It's from Vegan on the Cheap, another cookbook Michael gave me for Christmas. We've made a few recipes from this book including the "Big Stick Pepperoni" and the "Comfort Loaf" and both were great. I'll definitely be writing more about this cookbook in the future.

Here's the Parmesan recipe, taken as written from Vegan on the Cheap:

"Faux Parm"

Only 3 ingredients!!

1/2 cup slivered raw almonds
3 Tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt

In a food processor, finely grind the almonds, pulsing to avoid over processing. (Do not overprocess or it will turn into a paste). Transfer the almonds to a small bowl. Add the yeast and salt and stir to combine. Keep your faux parm stored tightly covered in the refrigerator, where it will keep for up to 2 weeks.

It doesn't look great but it does taste great!

Variation: You can substitute walnuts, sesame seeds, or another nut or see for the almonds. (I haven't done this yet, as I have really enjoyed the almonds but I will let you know if I do try a different nut or seed.)

So this recipe does not taste exactly like parmesan cheese but it does do the trick when I'm craving something else with my pasta. Since we've been eliminating cheese on our pizza I've also been sprinkling this on top instead. Enjoy!