Vegan Mofo 2010: Spicy Thai Peanut Noodles

Spicy Thai Peanut Noodles is an absolute family favorite. We use the Peanut sauce on just about everything, even salads.  Use a little less vegetable broth and the Peanut Sauce can be used as a perfect party dip, serve with toasted pita triangles or baby carrots. 

Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce

1 cup vegetable broth

1/3 cup lime juice

2 cups non hydrogenated peanut butter (either crunchy or creamy works well)

2 tbs pure maple syrup

1/3 cup Bragg's liquid amino's or soy sauce

fresh ground pepper

1 cup finely chopped cilantro (optional)

Either 2 tbs of red pepper flakes or a couple of dashes of your favorite hot sauce

Optional: toasted or raw sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:

Mix together vegetable broth, lime juice, Bragg's and maple syrup

Melt peanut butter in a sauce pan over medium heat

add the broth/lime juice/Bragg's and maple syrup mixture

whisk until completely blended and smooth (about 3 - 5 minutes)

add fresh ground pepper, optional cilantro and red pepper flakes (or hot sauce)

simmer another 5 minutes

Remove from heat and serve over anything your heart desires. If serving over noodles you can thin the sauce a little with a bit more vegetable broth

top with optional sesame seeds

 

Vegan Mofo 2010: Big Fat Biscuits

Soups and stews have been on the menu for the last several days here. This evening we decided to make biscuits to enjoy with our brothy leftovers.  I made three different  types of biscuits: green onion, savoury red pepper & onion and a simple plain biscuit.  The savory red pepper & onion biscuit recipe can be found in the pages of Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard's The Garden of Vegan.  The green onion biscuit is identical to the plain biscuit with the addition of  1/2 cup chopped green onions. The plain biscuits were tonight's family favorite (recipe to follow.)  Biscuits are so simple and quick to make, why anybody would buy the toxic rolled up kind from the grocery store dairy section is beyond me.  Toxic??? Hell ya!  Even if you can find a dairy free version they will still be loaded with hydrogenated oils, refined flours and several laboratory created completely unnecessary ingredients.  Do yourself and those you feed a favor and steer clear of them.

Plain & Simply Biscuits

2 cups unbleached flour

3 tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1/3 cup melted earth balance (or other non hydrogenated, non dairy butter substitute)

1 cup plain almond (or soy) milk mixed with 1tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder.  Mix lemon juice with non dairy milk then add melted earth balance.  Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients  and knead until you have a large ball of dough.  Pull apart the large ball of dough into 6 medium balls or 12 small balls. Place the dough balls onto an oiled cookie sheet, and slightly flatten the tops down.  Bake 10-15 minutes. Will make 6 medium biscuits or 12 small ones.

Optional:  brush the tops of the biscuits with a little melted earth balance before you bake them.

Vegan Mofo 2010 Day 3: Hearty (Un)Beef Stew

Mike's trip to May Wah was a rather fruitful one.  Not only did he bring home last nights vegan ham, but he also brought home two bags of "beef" chunks!  Today we made an impromptu unbeef stew with the chunks.  Tomorrow no fake meat, I promise.

Vegan Mofo 2010 day 2: Black Eyed Peas, Collard Greens & Sliced Vegan Ham

The sliced vegetarian ham from May Wah is by far our favorite fake meat. For those of you not familiar with May Wah you can find their extensive and wonderful products here: http://www.vegieworld.com/.  Even though they list their products as vegetarian most are actually vegan. The kids favorite way to have the vegetarian ham is baked with sliced pineapples and an apricot glaze, my favorite way is with black eyed peas and collard greens - since I do the cooking and 99.9% of the dish washing this time my favorite won. Hurray for me!  You don't need the vegetarian ham to make a yummy batch of black eyed peas and collard greens, a good liquid smoke is all you need. In my old age I have become very loyal to several products, STUBB'S Mesquite liquid smoke is one of those products. http://www.ilovestubbs.com/. In a deep pot I  saute a large sliced onion with a couple of table spoons of Earth Balance, when the onion is soft and somewhat translucent I add 2 cups of vegetable broth, some Annie's natural organic vegan Worcestershire sauce, a couple of dashes of the Stubbs mesquite liquid smoke and salt & pepper to the pot. I bring it all to a boil then throw the collard greens into the pot and simmer until the greens are nice and wilted. Then I put the black eyed peas into the pot and continue to simmer for 15-20 more minutes, if I have the vegetarian ham I'll slice it into pieces and toss the pieces into the pot the last 5 minutes of cooking. Once everything is finished  I sometimes use any extra liquid to make a gravy for mashed potatoes, or I'll leave the broth with the greens and black eyed peas and serve with fresh biscuits. Canned black eyed peas work well in this dish and will cut your cooking time considerably, however I prefer to use fresh or frozen. If you decide to use either fresh or frozen make sure you soak your black eyed peas long enough so when you cook them they will be nice and soft.  Before cooking the collard greens you should remove all thick stalks then wash and chop the greens into bite sized pieces.  Ooooh, I almost forgot the hot sauce!  Keep a bottle of good hot sauce on the table when serving black eyed peas and collard greens.

Hello Vegan Mofo 2010!

This years Vegan Mofo arrived  not a minute to soon for me. The last two months were a bit rough for our family. We're all fine now and hard at work getting back into the swings of things, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to a tad bit of residual post traumatic stress disorder.  Halloween and the Mofo were just what I needed to shake the little black cloud that's been following me around the last few days.

Black Bean Soup is the perfect companion to a chilly night of trick or treating.  I topped each bowl of soup with a teaspoon of a sour cream like blend of Vegenaise, tahini, lemon juice, almond milk, garlic powder and sea salt.  

The kids dressed up in their usual homicidal best, except for Em. She went the old Hollywood route.  We didn't carve pumpkins this Halloween for the first time in 18 yrs. - a decision I deeply regret.  Next year we'll have to carve two each to correct this injustice. 

Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween. Be sure to check out some of the other blogs particapating in this years Vegan Mofo.  You can find a list at http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/

SweetLeaf & Israeli Couscous

My biggest vice in life comes in a bottle. Not a beer bottle, nor a wine bottle - a Snapple bottle.  I love Snapple iced tea.  I love most bottled ice tea. I've been addicted to bottled iced tea for a minimum of 20 years.  I'd walk to school past the corner bagel store and pick up a Raspberry Snapple on the way, and then again on the way home.  By the time high school was over I was up to 4 or more bottles a day.  As a "grown up" I got a membership to one of those big bulk stores, you know the kind that sells cases of Snapple Iced tea for dirt cheap.  Oh god did I buy tons of the junk!  Until recently bottled iced tea's still remained the greatest source of empty calories in my diet.  I am finally happy to report that I've just about kicked my bottled iced tea addiction! Don't get me wrong, I'm still addicted to iced tea.  Only now I make my iced tea at home and I sweeten it with SweetLeaf stevia. 

When I sat down and really reviewed my diet I had no choice but to come to terms with the fact that the bottled iced teas had to go.  But what to replace them with?  I drink water but sometimes you need something more then just water.  Anything with chemical sweeteners was completely out of the question!  I'd rather be overweight then load myself up with aspartame.  I like the taste of Agave nectar, but some research indicates that Agave nectar isn't much better for you then high fructose corn syrup; therefore making Agave nectar seem like too much of a lateral move to be worthwhile.

That brings me to Stevia.  Stevia is an all natural plant derived sugar substitute with zero calories and zero carbohydrates. Stevia doesn't adversely affect blood glucose levels and may be used freely by diabetics. There are several commercial brands of stevia on the market now, but be careful - not all stevia products are equal. 

SweetLeaf is the only pure stevia product that you can purchase in packets, shaker or tablets.  The other two major Stevia brands are loaded with fillers like cellulose powder and undisclosed natural flavors.  They also contain processed ingredients such as Erythritol and isomaltulose. Erythritol has been associated with digestive upset, diarrhea, and bloating.  Isomaltulose (sometimes know as Palatinose) is a disaccharide that is commercially manufactured enzymatically from sucrose via bacterial fermentation. (In other words, they're a Frankenstein like concoction pushed through the FDA by the two major soda manufacturers Pepsi and Coca Cola as a knee jerk reaction to the growing concern over findings linking chemical sweeteners and various cancers.)   Some of the reported side effects of Isomaltulose are similar to those associated with a Candida (yeast) overgrowth such as mouth soars, a thickening of the tongue, upset stomach, diarrhea and in some extreme cases full blown yeast infections.  SweetLeaf on the other hand has two ingredients, inulin soluble fiber and stevia leaf extract.  The side effects are typical as with any natural herbal supplement.  If you have allergies to various herbs then maybe Stevia isn't the sweetener for you.  But in it's purest form (such as SweetLeaf) Stevia can be a invaluable tool when trying to lighten up your caloric intake. Plus it tastes great in fruited teas and lemonades!

Orange Iced Tea is my favorite with Strawberry Lemonade a close second. The girls are head over heals in love with Iced Green Tea with Mint.  Mint leaves added to any Lemonade or Tea is super refreshing. The best thing about using Stevia as your sweetener (as if being an all natural zero calorie sweetener could be topped) is that a little goes a long way. Three teaspoons sweeten two whole quarts!

You can find more information about stevia, Sweetleaf and other stevia products (including recipes) by visiting the follow links:

http://www.sweetleaf.com/,  http://www.stevia.com/ and http://www.stevia.net/.

Before I end this post I wanted to share with you a salad that I've become obsessed with this summer. It's an Israeli couscous salad that combines slivered almonds, dried cranberries, parsley and a raspberry vinaigrette.  It can be served chilled or as I prefer at room temperature. 

Israeli Couscous Salad

2 1/2 Cups Vegetable Broth

2 Cups Israeli Couscous

2tsp turmeric

1tsp salt

1 cup Slivered Almonds

1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries

1 Small bunch of Italian Parsley finely chopped

Raspberry Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil

*1/2 cup raspberry infused white balsamic vinegar

1tsp garlic powder

1tsp dried oregano

2tbs pure maple syrup (agave nectar is also good)

sea salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

optional:  2tbs prepared dijon mustard

* If you can't get your hands on raspberry infused white balsamic vinegar you can use either of the following substitutions:

 1/3 cup raspberry juice and 1/2 white vinegar

3tbs seedless raspberry preserves mixed with 1/2 c apple cider vinegar

******

Prepare Raspberry Vinaigrette and set aside

Bring vegetable broth, turmeric and salt to boil

Stir in Israeli Couscous and let simmer for 8-10 min (or until all water is absorbed)

In a separate large bowl mix together slivered almonds, chopped parsley and dried cranberries

Add  prepared couscous to bowl with almonds,parsley and cranberries

pour in raspberry vinaigrette and mix well

chill stirring occasionally until salad has cooled to desired temperature

Enjoy!

Give away!

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Rebecca from www.soapdeli.etsy.com is hosting a giveaway of 3 of our 2oz candles in ADDITION to one of her awesome bars of soap (some of which seem to be vegan friendly) on her blog http://soapdelinews.blogspot.com/.  Stop by the blog for more info and to enter the giveaway.

Also...... a great big shot out and thank you to Creepy Queen Magazine for posting an interview with me in the hot products section of the Creepy Queen blog! Go to http://creepyqueen.com/category/hotproducts/ to read the interview.