A trip to the farmers market

Nothing better then a chilled-out Saturday.. Especially after a late Friday night!  I was planning to spend the day at home devoted to catching up on the blog and maybe watching some movies. Instead, I got out to the farmers market before 11:00 am (a miracle for me on a Saturday)! There is so much more available when you get out to the market before noon. Normally when I get to a farmers market most of it is sold out, so I think it can be assumed that I came home with a big bag full of treats!

While it was great to get out early... It makes me wonder why we don't have a night market here? Edmonton has never been night-owl friendly, but maybe it needs to start. I would go.
So, what kind of treats did I find while out and about today?
The first place I hit up was the olive stand. I love olives; they are so packed full of flavour, so salty, and so satisfying. I bee-lined for the stand and what normally is picked over, was completely full of yummy spreads, oils and...Almond-stuffed olives! It seemed like a weird combination, but trust me, this is so good! I don't know if I would put these into a martini, but what a awesome snack! These will be coming to work with me on Monday.

I made my rounds to the fruits and veggies and it was unfortunate that the selection was not the best. I am sure it has something to do with our weather. Even so, I managed to get cucumber and carrots and tomatoes. I have to say it has been a while since I have seen decent tomatoes in the stores. These smelled so good, I let the person selling them know how nice it was to see good tomatoes. She reminded me to stop buying the crappy ones in the grocery store and to buy local.. She is right, they are way better.

Behind the veggie stand was something I have not seen before in the farmers market, a mushroom stand! I couldn't help myself and impulse bought an assortment of mushies. In fact, I don't even know what types were in the basket. They just looked so good and earthy, I figure I will find a use for them. Suggestions so far have been risotto and risotto. I think coming soon will be a post on my first ever attempt at making risotto.

On my way out of the market, I came across a hemp stand. Out of curiosity, I went to chat with the person there. I know very little about hemp, other than you can make a myriad of things with it. I have tried hemp hearts and hemp milk and really liked both. I bought a big container of hemp hearts. The woman at the stand talked about all sorts of things you can make with it. Milk, flour, protein powder.. So I plan to do some experimenting with this. It would be really nice if I could make my own milk. I have been thinking about this one for a while since soy and almond milk are kind of pricey and seem like they should be an easy process.

A week of eating out

The past week has been a weird one for me. I have been especially lazy, without a camera and without a kitchen at work to bring in left overs. I used this as an excellent excuse to try to eat out all week. Finding places to eat seems like it would be tricky for a vegan in a city like Edmonton, but it is not as bad as you think! Some simple ground rules that I find make things a bit easier:

1. Stay away from the big franchises or any restaurant that has 'assembly artists' instead of cooks.
This maybe is a good rule for anyone looking to eat out. No offense to the lovers of places like Denny's and BPs etc, but the food is full of garbage, not fresh, and in the end, I just never feel satisfied.

2. When you feel stuck, go somewhere with an eastern menu
Sometimes, even when restaurants have vegan options, I find that they can be a bit limiting and I get stuck with salads and appetizers. Sometimes an easy way to avoid this is to eat east. Thai, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese all tend to have more vegetarian options in my opinion.

3. Call first
If trying a restaurant, call ahead and ask. It seems easy enough, but I always forget to do this. It is really helpful to talk to someone at the restaurant ahead of time because you will get a clear picture of how veggie-friendly a place is. Even if they don't have much on the menu, if you ask and give a bit of notice, chefs will often make something for you.

4. review the menu
Another challenge I face is that people don't know what to make a vegan. Sometimes before I go to a restaurant, I go online and check out the menu. When I get there, I can ask if they can combine the veggie options to make something for me. I have used this tactic a couple times and while my non-vegan dining companions may think I'm the 'weird, picky orderer'. In the end, I get what I want and the kitchen learns something new for the next vegan that comes in.

5. Use your online resources
Lastly, if you are on message boards or the web, you'll find that there are lots of vegan sites that post about good restaurants. Try twitter, http://www.happycow.net/, http://www.urbanspoon.com/ or just google the city you live in and vegan. You will be surprised at what comes up. I personally love Happy cow, it is an amazing resource and when you find a good spot, add it on to the site. Fellow vegans will appreciate it.


Hopefully this will help make dining as a vegan a little easier. Some places in Edmonton I have been dining at this past week:

Mucho Burrito: A little Mexican fast food chain that I go to if I need a little junk food fix. They have a vegetarian burrito that is really good and if you say you are vegetarian, you get free guacamole! Not bad if you ask me :) Sometimes fast food is handy, and I find that the food is pretty good here and it is not nearly as unhealthy as a big thing of french fries!

Cocodi: Ah, my home away from home... I love this restaurant. I would go every day if I could. Things that I love at this restaurant: Fattoush, Spinach Fatayer, Hommus, Baba Ghanoush and grape vine leaf rolls. While most of the entrees are not vegan, I find that the appetizers are more than enough to keep me happy. Plus the staff is great and the shisha is always ready!

Bistro India: I tried this place for the first time recently. It is located in a cursed location (Many restaurants have tried, but rarely stay longer than a few months). The food was so good. I had a vegetable and cashew dish and a bunch of lentil cakes with sauces. So, so good. I fully recommend this place. The staff was nice and the place was very nice inside.

Doans: Ah, sweet and salty tofu vermicelli.. I love you. A great meal and very affordable. Sometimes the service is a bit slow, but I have never had a bad meal. A lot of the dishes here are non-vegan, so read the menu before trying.

Wok Box: Wok box has upgraded their menu and pretty much any of their dishes can be made with tofu instead of meat and that is nice. Last time I went, I had the jungle curry and it was really good! I love pineapple and I am trying to incorporate more spicy foods. This definitely had a kick, but was seriously good. They also have veggie samosas and spring rolls and other snack options.

Tokyo Express: OK, I know this is another fast food chain, but seriously, I was eating out all week this week! A girl's gotta budget :) Tokyo Express has also changed their menu recently and have a number of veggie options now. I love their sprout salad and yam rolls. They also have a veggie combo which is pretty good.

Cha Island Tea Co: This little shop was my office last week. Have to thank them again for letting spend way too many hours there! While they do not have a vegan sandwich yet (I will continue to bug them on this one), they are now doing a soup every Wednesday. I checked and all the soups are vegan! They also have almond milk available for your tea and have vegan snack bars like Lara.


Well, I am off to the grocery store now. A week of eating out has really made me miss cooking. If you have any good tips for eating out as a vegan, send me an email. I am always looking to try new places. I heard about an Ethiopian restaurant on Whyte ave that does a veggie buffet, I may have to loook into that one next time I eat out.

Night all!

Creamy Coconut Carrot Soup

OK, so this post is... two weeks late? I don't know why it is difficult to stay on an easy blogging schedule. I haven't been cooking much this past week so I guess I figured I could take some time off from he blog too. Shame, shame :)

So, here we are in the dead of winter and I was really wanting a rich, warm soup. I didn't want to go to the grocery store (It was -20 C out!!). I went through my fridge and thought I could maybe come up with a carrot soup recipe.

First, I was just going to find a recipe and do things the easy way, but nothing that I could find felt right. In the end, I made my own recipe and it was amazing! I based it off of a Carrot Ginger soup from the Everything Vegan Cookbook, but I changed so much, you'd barely know that I used it as a guide.

Here it is:

Creamy Coconut Carrot Soup 

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp olive Oil
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 Sweet Potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 inch piece of ginger, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 red lentils
• 1 small green apple, peeled and chopped
• 4-5 cups of vegetable broth (Four for a thick soup, five if you like it a bit thinner)
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt

 

 

First step is to prep all the ingredients. Get everything peels and chopped and ready to go in the pot. Heat a large soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Next add the onion, garlic and ginger and heat until the onions become soft and translucent. 

 

Next add in the carrots,potato and apple and stir and heat for another minute or so. Add in the Cinnamon, Thyme and bay leaf then the lentils and broth.

 

Bring the soup to a boil and then lower to the heat and let the soup simmer for about 15 - 20 minutes, until the lentils are cooked and the vegetables are soft.

 

 

 Once cooked either transfer the soup in batches to a blend, or use an immersion blender (that's what I used) to combine all the vegetables. Once smooth stir in the coconut milk and salt. Put the soup back on the stove and heat through.

 



Although my finished pic is not great, I swear this soup is amazing. It is best served hot, but I also tried it cold and it was pretty good that way too. I think you could even add a bit more carrot and a bit less sweet potato (the one I had was really big) if you want a super carrot-y taste. However, I think the ingredients really complimented each other well.

If you want to find something that will warm up a sub zero day, give this one a try.

I am now searching and trying to figure out what I should make next... Cookies, maybe? If anyone is reading, please send me some suggestions!

Winter Escape Picnic

For what seems to be the first time in a long time, I woke up and saw blue sky... Then... SUNSHINE! Such a nice day today. I almost forgot that it was still winter. Unfortunately I promised myself that today would be a cleaning day. The pigs were dirty, laundry is way overdue. So I kept my promise and stayed in. Since I hate winter and snow, I probably am enjoying this sunny day better watching it through a window. That way, I don't have to deal with the slushy snowy mess outside.

 

Inspired by the sunshine, I decided to make a summery picnic lunch. I found this recipe in The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone.

 

Tofu Salad

• 1/4 cup of frozen peas
• 1/3 of a block of tofu
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery (I did half of this)
• 3 olives, chopped (I used green pitted)
• 1 Tbsp rinsed capers
• 2-3 slices of dill pickles, chopped
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped scallion
• 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
• 1 Tbsp Vegenaise (I doubled this)
• 2 tsp umeboshi plum paste
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

 

So this is very easy to make. First, take the tofu and press it while you prep the veggies. Blanch the peas for a couple minutes so they are bright green.

Next, chop up all the veggies and set aside.

Once everything is prepped, boil 1/2 cup water and steam the tofu for 5 minutes. When it is done, transfer it to a bowl and mash it up with a fork.

 

Next add all the other ingredients to the bowl of tofu and mix until it is well combined. I like a creamier salad so I doubled the Vegenaise in the original recipe. You may want to start with one tablespoon and then add the second if necessary.

 

 

Makes 1-2 servings. You can eat this as a salad or on a sandwich. I decided to make a pita boat with some green leaf lettuce. This recipe has some seriously strong flavours and really packs a punch. Since I was having a winter picnic, I decided to make some lemonade... well limeade actually which went so good with this.

Super awesome to eat in the sunshine!



Cooking without a recipe a la Chef at Home

Well, it is Monday. It is freezing out and snowing and I am getting over a nasty cold. I am trying to get back into meal planning and while making the meal plan is not so difficult, following it is my challenge. Today for dinner I wrote 'stew'.

Well, so many options here all of a sudden. I took stock of ingredients and I didn't have enough of traditional stew ingredients. I did, however, have two sweet potatoes and really wanted to use them.

Following the Michael Smith theme of cooking without a recipe... I decided to just to go free style. A little scary for me as I have screwed up many a recipes by trying to ad-lib herbs and spices. Here is what I came up with..

Stay outta the Snow Sweet Potato Stew

• 1 tbsp Oil
• one onion, chopped
• two cloves of garlic, chopped
• One package of Seitan, chopped (about 500g)
• 1/2 tsp red chili flakes (Or maybe a small hot chili, diced)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp all spice
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 coriander
• salt and pepper to taste
• two sweet potatoes, approx 1 1/2" dice
• one can of diced tomatoes
• approx 1 cup vegetable broth
• one can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• one head of broccoli, chopped

Prep all the ingredients and in a large pot heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent. Add in the seitan and  cook another 2-3 minutes. Add all the spices and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Add in all the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Once boiling, drop the heat to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are nice and soft. Taste and adjust the spices as necessary.

With mine, I steamed some dinosaur kale, rainbow chard to make sure I got some additional veggies and had a side of steamed brown rice.

When I started this, I was not intending on putting broccoli in it. While I am not sure it is the best vegetable in the stew, it definitely was non-offensive and really just took on the flavours of the stew.However, I really like to put at least one or two green veggies in these one pot meals. I find if I don't, I forget to eat my veggies. I also forgot that Broccoli does not really hold its colour well in things like stew, so it was not the prettiest thing to include.
 
I think maybe instead of having the chard or kale on the side. This might have been really yummy and pretty with the chard just right in the stew. Noted for next time.
 
Now, I have recently realized that a lot of people I know, have never tried Kale and I now feel obligated to include some information on this yummy veggie I often throw on the side of my dinners.
 
Kale is loaded in nutrients including vitamins A, C, K, calcium, fibre, magnesium, and many others. It packs a big punch for the little 36 calories per cup. It is in my opinion, a super food. Some think it has cancer fighting powers and an ability to lower cholesterol.

 
I compare Kale to a healthier substitute for Broccoli. It is in the same family and is considered part of the same family as Broc, Cauliflower, and wild cabbage. Its taste is pretty mild and it can be pared with almost any entree. I love to add kale to green smoothies, stir fries, soups, stews, pizza.. See? Kale is a magical veggie. You can even make kale chips with it! I have been told the best way to eat Kale is by steaming it first for about 4-5 minutes. I love to steam or saute kale and the throw a splash of balsamic vinegar on it. It brings the kale to life!
 
If you have not tried Kale, please do. I cannot believe I went 25 years without trying this vegetable. Next dinner, skip the usual, boring veggies and try something new!

Quick Meal, Quick Post!

So today I have to keep things short and sweet. Failed on goals today, if only there was an easy way to find motivation. As a serial procrastinator, I figured I could, workout while drinking 8 glasses of water while using my iPod to post resumes online. So here I am at 10:00 pm... nothing started!

Today was a tricky day. It started off great with a yummy green smoothie with spinach, pineapple, banana and soy milk. So good!!

After dealing with the morons at work, I retreated at 11:30 to the nearest open bar (no, not alone... I haven't sunk that low yet!) and had some pizza without the cheese. now I think in a nice pizzeria this would be pretty yummy. However, in a grimey pub before noon, I guess you just take what you can get.

For dinner, I didn't feel like going to the effort of plan A which was a pressed salad a la Alicia Silverstone with homemade lentil soup. So, I came up with a nice plan B for the lazy girl in me... that has pretty much taken over my body.

Polenta and Chili Casserole
- Two cans of Vegan Chili
- 1 1/2 Cup Home made polenta (Though store bought would work too, I felt that making some was easier than going to the store).
- Chili powder
- 1/2 Onion
- Veggies (Frozen, canned, fresh.. whatever) If you use fresh, steam them first.

So after making the polenta, I dumped the chili into a oven safe casserole. Then I stored in the vegetables (I used california mix frozen greens). Then I dumped the polenta on top and sprinked with the chili powder.

Next I baked it at 400 F for about 20-25 min.

So easy... so good!

Vegan Challenge - Week 1

So I have made it through a full week of vegan eating. While the start up costs hurt my budget (By hurt, I mean doubled my grocery bill!!) I have to say it did not take long to get me on board with this diet. I am way less tired all the time, I rarely feel hungry, it takes less food to make me feel full, I am drinking more water than ever, and best of all I have not craved meat or dairy once. Well, that may not be completely true, on day two I was drooling over every steak house that I passed. Even as a meat eater I didn't crave things like steak.. How weird is that!?

I am completely surprised that I have not wanted milk or cheese once since starting. Before, both were a part of almost every meal. I was completely hooked. I have no idea why I don't crave either now.. I really don't want to know, I am just glad I don't have to feel the pains of detox.

It has been a learning curve for me. I thought I started off so well; I went to Asian markets for most of my food and then got the few last things at Planet Organic. I made a food plan for the week and tried to reuse ingredients to waste less. I tried have balanced meals and treats and snacks so I wouldn't feel deprived.

Things that I have learned:
1. Beans - who knew how much work goes into these things? And who knew that they pretty much are involved in every meal I eat now... You have to soak them and cook them for hours.. and you can't even leave them to cook, because the water might boil out and need replenishing. I have not quite gotten the hang of the bean situation yet, but I have vowed to try at least eight different bean dishes this month. I have already had two and two more on the menu this week. i wish someone could tell me the easy way to deal with these things.. They confuse me.

2. Tempeh is gross - Ok well that might be exaggerating a bit, but I made a slow cooker meal with tempeh and it was not good. The tempeh had the consistency of spam and the taste of rubber. I don't know if I will try it again... we'll see.

3. Tofu prep - I learned a great trick to prepare tofu. When you buy it, freeze it right away, then let it sit and thaw on the counter. If you do this you can wring the tofu out like a sponge. So much easier than weight down tofu with paper towel and plates etc.

4. Vegan Jello - my dessert this week was Vegan jello. Jello is my favorite thing in the world.. so good light and a million flavours. So I got the recipe for fruit juice, berries and agar agar with ginger juice... I didn't try it until today in fear from my life (something about gelatinous sea vegetables that freak me out) well... verdict - it was really good! not really jello.. but it jiggles and tasted great. Success!

5. Quinoa - Weird super grain.. looks like couscous, cooks like rice.. tastes pretty good, but wouldn't eat it on its own.

Well on to week two - bean dishes, black eyed peas and vegan peanut butter rice crispy treats... I think its going to be a good one.