Plagued

You can take one look at my breakfast and know something was up:

Strawberry-Banana So Delicious yogurt with protein powder, banana, chia seeds and a bran muffin.

What’s cool and soothing for a scratchy throat?

Yogurt.

Yep. My condition deteriorated rapidly last night, and I had to resort to crawling in bed, hardly able to breath, at hardly 8:00. This was difficult for me because the Bs were playing the Habs last night – always a good game.

My efforts to fall asleep early were a bit of a joke, however, as I intended to watch the game as I dozed. When you hear things like “Score!” every 30 seconds and then announcers excitedly narrating fights, going to bed early just isn’t a priority anymore.

I suppose combining a bran muffin with strawberry-banana yogurt is a bit odd...but luckily I couldn't taste much anyway.

I just knew I was going to wake up with a scratchy throat and a pounding head, and I did.

I kept telling myself I deserved to get sick for once, after dodging all the illnesses that float around my workplace. Missing out on swine flu is my proudest moment, you know.

Luckily (if you can call it that,) I think it’s more of a pesky sinus-y type thing that I’ve got. I slept just about all morning, and finally started to feel somewhat normal after lunch. I’ve got a little bit of a headache still, but I think I’ll make it 😉

Let us not forget the reds 8000 I chugged this morning.

Extra precautions.

So it seems a lot of people, when they are sick, lose their appetite.

I am the exact opposite.

In fact, all that is appealing to me is just eating more in efforts to make swallowing less painful.

Carrots, hummus and applesauce were all of equal importance today.

Not together, obviously. But I think I ate a whole bag of carrots and a good cup of hummus as well as many bowls of applesauce. What can I say?

And when I began to realize I wasn’t going to die from the plague like I initially thought I was, I realized I was a-okay to get some baking done. I took extra precautions to make sure the baking wasn’t infected, I promise.

Remember my Birdseed bars?

I baked some up for a certain someone, but tweaked the recipe again. This might be my favorite version yet! I love how the “bar pans” (mini loaf pans) allow each bar to get crispy edges, too.

I kept it simple for dinner though, as I was beginning to feel a little lethargic again. It’d been a while since I had a baked sweet potato though, and I decided one was imperative to my well-being.

Luckily, I had just read Mandiee’s mention of the magical numbers: 425* for 45 minutes. Remember that. Don’t ever forget it. It is the key to ooey, gooey sweet potatoes. There will be no more haphazardly throwing sweet potatoes in the oven at a temperature anywhere from 400* to 450* from me.

Paired with a hummus-quinoa casserole idea taken from Vive le Vegan. I just layered cooked quinoa, then a mixture of hummus and tomato sauce and then some roasted veg.

I bet you guys didn’t know that I love frozen peas. I don’t eat them frozen, obviously, but I think they’re the one vegetable I’d rather have from frozen than from fresh. Probably because the fresh ones are so much work and I can be kind of lazy…but whatever.

What’s your favorite “sick food”?

Is there any food you prefer packaged/frozen/what-have-you over fresh?

Seitan Sausages

I had better not be getting sick.

My boss has been sick for the past…well, it seems like he’s always sick…but really sick for the past two weeks. I’ve been feeling 100% but all of a sudden this afternoon I got a tickle in my throat.

When these things happen, I tend to go a little overboard. Call it paranoia of catching the nasties, if you will. But as soon as there is even a vague hint of a cold or the nasties, I come home and start chugging the vit C and fresh veg.

And seitan sausages.

What, you don’t look to sausages to cure the plague?

…oh. Maybe it’s the higher protein content that I am hoping will shield me from infection.

You may or may not recall my mention of being burnt out on tempeh.

As well as my mention of limiting my grocery spending.

Enter: seitan. I used to make it all the time. What happened?!

I have no reasonably excuse for our time apart. I do enjoy seitan, after all.

But it was time to take vital wheat gluten’s and my relationship to the next level.

Every since first hearing I could make my own “seitan sausages,” I was intrigued by the idea.

Every time I went to make them though, I was turned off by all the many steps.

I think I was just being lazy, though. Truth is, making them was not difficult. I could have read the directions to Kaia and she’d have been able to make them, for Pete’s sake.

I based my seitan sausages off of these recipes. The flavors weren’t anything that tickled my fancy for what I envisioned in my mind, so I took the template and tweaked to my liking.

Aren’t they creepy looking?! No fear, though – they taste phenomenal. Perfect to go with a “sausage and peppers” theme. With pasta and jarred pasta sauce.

The initial idea was to have them with Chelsey’s Mexicalian cilantro pesto, but it was as I was chopping the cilantro for my sausages that I remembered I’m not a cilantro fan.

I think I get my herbs mixed up, and can only remember which ones I like when I smell them fresh.

From now on, I’ll just be that girl over in the produce aisle, sniffing all the herbs before landing them in my cart.

Hey, they have those little shower-sprayers for a reason. For wackjobs like me.

Either way, I still sauteed some sliced sausage up with onions and jarred roasted reds. We had no fresh. I’m telling you, my fridge is empty. I’m going to make it work, though. The cilantro was the last fresh bit of green in there, which is why it still made an appearance. The rotini tossed in jarred pasta sauce pulled it all together.

It’s the little things, people. The little things.

Tonight I had one in a similar fashion, but with polenta. Mmmm, mm. I love polenta.

Seitan Sausages:

yields 3-4 sausages

adapted from “Have Cake Will Travel”s fauxsages.

• 1/2 c. + 2 T. vital wheat gluten
• 2 T. nutritional yeast
• 1/2 t. italian seasoning
• dash crushed red pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 T. onion, chopped finely
• 1 T. fresh cilantro, optional
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 2-3 sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
• 1 t. dried chives
• 1 T. olive oil (I used the olive oil in the sundried tomato jar)
• 1/3 c. + 3 T. water

Preheat oven to 325* F. In a large bowl, combine the VWG, nutritional yeast, italian seasoning, pepper, garlic, onion, cilantro, salt, chives and tomatoes. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil and water. Add to the VWG mixture, and mix to combine. Knead a few times. If you’ve got some herbs/onions/tomatoes wanting to fall out, that’s fine.

Divide the mixture into 4 equal parts, roll out a bit, and wrap tightly in a piece of aluminum foil. Repeat for the remaining, and place in a baking dish. Bake for one hour to an hour and 15 minutes. When done, unwrap and allow to cool. Or eat right away.

Some notes:

• I think I overcooked mine a bit at an hour and 15. Next time I’d probably just do an hour.
• I’d also like to try baking them in something, like tomato sauce. Maybe if they were baked in the foil for half the time, then taken out and baked in tomato sauce?
• Needs more cowbell.

On another note, I wanted to share this fab little snack/dessert/what-have-you:

Averie’s banana oat cakes. The fig jam is a critical element.

What do you do when you have a hunch the plague is after you?

Seitan – yay or nay?

Chutney Chickpeas (and TEDDIE!)

I finally got the chance to play with my favorite little furry four-legged today!

…just a shame Vermont can’t plow roads this winter. I could have made it there much faster? Even in this picture you can see where someone started swerving!

With all the fashion blogs out there today, I thought I’d join in on the trend. Here I am modeling my gloriously fab boots, snow-pant breeches and Carhartt knock-off.

This is why I’m hot.

Naturally, being so bundled up didn’t make for optimum riding gear. So why not just hop on bareback (er…blanket-back…) and go for a snow ride?

That was Teddie’s thought as he took great joy in making me get an additional workout trying to climb atop him.

He may be short, but damn, when you’re wearing bulky clothing, you’re sinking up to your butt in snow, and you have an excited pony walking in circles around you because he wants to visit with everyone, it’s a lot easier to say “hop on” than it is to actually hop on.

When I finally got halfway on he was at least patient enough to stand still while I made like a seal as I flopped the rest of myself up and over.

We had fun. Maybe we’ll just become snow riders for the rest of the winter. Or pick up skijoring.

And in case you thought I was too hot to handle before, it got even better when I put my helmet on:

I realize I look like dorkus maximus, but look at Ted!

daaaaaaaamn! Oughta have put a warning sign on this blog.

See all that snow on his bridle? He took great pride in trudging along with his nose buried in the snow while I thought he was going to roll on me. Luckily, the only time I had to bail was when I accidentally steered him into a drift that was up to his belly. It was probably deeper than that, but his belly kept him from sinking further, luckily.

Sorry, Ted.

Oh,yeah…anyways. About that food thing.

Truth be told, when it came to dinner tonight, I almost just sauteed up some spinach, garlic and barbecue sauce with barbecue tempeh and called it a night. And if I didn’t have to work tomorrow, I totally would have.

Sauteeing spinach in olive oil with garlic and BBQ sauce is way better than it sounds, fyi.

But, I kind of like making enough dinner the night before working to be able to pack an easy lunch to bring the next day. Sauteed spinach wasn’t going to cut it.

Especially sauteed in garlic. I can still smell my breath from having it for lunch, and that was 5 snacks and a dinner ago.

I might as well just dedicate this post to Rachael Ray, what with using her bench scrape, knife and recipe.

They were Christmas presents! (…but I still love Rachael Ray.)

I’ve made this “Chutney Chicken One Pot” and posted about it before – well, raved about it before – but just linked to the recipe with all of my swaps written separately.

Well, usually I don’t break my “link-back” rule, but since this is one of my favorite meals (I’ve gotta go there) and I’ve made some substitutions over the couple times I’ve made it, I’m just going to go ahead and post how I make it.

Chutney Chickpea One-Pot

serves 2 as a side, adapted from Rachael Ray’s Chutney Chicken One-Pot

This dish is easily customizable to your likes and dislikes. Check out my notes after the recipe! Not only that, but once you’ve got everything chopped it comes together in a handful of minutes! And I know I just talked about a fear of long ingredients lists – and this one is…but it’s SO easy and you’ve probably got it all on hand.

• 2 t. olive oil
• 1 granny smith apple, peeled and diced
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 c. diced celery
• 1/4 c. diced green or red peppers
• 1/4 c. diced dried apricots
• 2-3 dried Turkish figs, chopped
• 1 c. chickpeas
• 1/2 t. ground cumin
• 1/8 t. curry powder
• 1/2 t. allspice
• 1/8 t. ground ginger
• 1/4 t. ground cinnamon
• 1 T. apple cider vinegar
• 1 T. dijon or whole-grain mustard
• 2 1/2 T. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 c. vegetable broth
• 2-3 handfuls baby spinach

Heat the oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add in the apple, onion, celery and peppers. Saute until slightly soft. Add in the spices, dried fruit and chickpeas. Stir and then add in the broth, applesauce, vinegar and mustard. Reduce heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer about five minutes, until sauce thickens slightly. Add in the spinach, stir and cover. Remove from heat, leaving covered until spinach wilts.

Serve with some crusty bread or a grain!

Last time, I made it with tofu instead of chickpeas, and mixed in cooked bulgur instead of serving it with bread. There were other differences, but I also didn’t add the spinach. I much prefer it with spinach! I also think I preferred it with bread instead of a grain.

I love dishes that mix a sweet element with savory, and this one hits the nail on the head. Change it to your tastebuds, though. I chose to use applesauce instead of jam because I figured jam would be pushing the envelope on too sweet. You can also easily use a bit less dried fruit, and use what dried fruit you have on hand. I love apricots and figs, but raisins are good, too!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

I had a lot of decisions to make today.

Now before you go getting all concerned, relax! Relax. Fortunately for me, the hardest decision I have on days like today is what I’m going to have for dinner. Before you laugh, that’s a pretty big decision. I mean, it can make or break your day! …or maybe I’m just a little dramatic.

In case you haven’t heard, it’s snowing all over the northeast.

I’m guessing you’ve heard.

My first decision I faced was whether I wanted to call in to work or not. I’m guessing you can figure out pretty quickly that I called in.

Which meant that I decided sauteed apples were in the forecast for breakfast this morning. I was awed when I saw that my beloved Gala apples were on sale at Hannaford’s. Unless they’re fresh picked from the farm down the road, they’re the only apples I truly enjoy. (okay, so I probably prefer them over the local McIntosh apples, but I fear that might be un-Vermontan of me to admit, so I won’t. We have maple laws for Pete’s sake, I wouldn’t put it past us to have an apple law, too)

My, oh my, how I’d forgotten how amazing sauteed apples are.

I polished off the last of my bread yesterday, and knew I had to make more today. The decision?

Do I keep it as the original inventor intended, or mix it up again?

I kept it as intended, and think this loaf is a bit prettier (re: less embarrassing) and so won’t withhold the name of the kind woman who shared her recipe with me this time – it was the lovely Sarena, of course! I don’t think there is anything she can’t do in the kitchen. And if you don’t want to see really delicious looking pancakes with a beautiful pour of maple syrup, definitely don’t go to her blog right now.

While that rose, I faced another decision: strength or cardio?

Cardio won.

But these things can only keep me entertained for so long. It was 9:00 and I was already looking for my next project.

Biscotti or granola bars?

Biscotti, says mother – who also had a snowday.

Orange chocolate chip or cranberry almond?

Orange chocolate chip. Best biscotti I’ve ever made all thanks to Veganomicon. No I can’t share the recipe and no I can’t find it either. Buy the book. The biscotti and the chickpea-quinoa pilaf are worth that $15.

…but do I want peanut butter, jelly or maple cream on my hot-from the oven bread?!

Maple cream.

But what kind of nut butter do I want smothered into my date?!

It doesn’t matter because I’ll have another one in five minutes.

If I have hot cocoa in my Easter mug, will it be Spring tomorrow?

…probably not, but you can try.

I love this Dagoba hot cocoa!

Should I shovel multiple times so that I only shovel a couple inches at a time, or once so that I’m shoveling more than a foot – but only one time?

Uhhh, well, I banked on multiple times, but this so-called “storm of the century” fizzled out, and I didn’t need to shovel after the once.

As it is, though, the snowbank to the side of our front porch is taller than the front porch, and if I venture off the beaten path I am up to my waist in the fluffy powder.

I hope I can go to the barn tomorrow so I can ride Teddie in it! Hopefully he won’t be like my Corona pony and decide it’s more fun to roll in said snow than it is to play in it. I’m not worried about getting rolled on, I’m worried about my saddle getting saturated. I paid more for the saddle than I did for the pony.

Do I make buffalo tempeh or barbecue tempeh?

Both! Sorry, guys – but I think I’m getting tempeh burnout. I’m sort of bored with it. When this block is done, I need to bid goodbye for a couple weeks. Needless to say, I do adore buffalo tempeh! Especially with the last of my caesar dressing and red onion (I heart red onion + buffalo + caesar)

I think I struggle making the decision between sweet potato fries or whole-baked sweet potatoes more than I struggle with the decision about what to wear.

It takes me a while to figure out what to wear in the morning. It’s too early to think clear, so I just stare into my closet for at least five minutes as if it’s some other-worldly realm.

And in case you were wondering, a whole baked sweet potato won, but I didn’t get to use this picture yesterday and was pretty proud of how perfectly baked and cut those fries are. Not to toot my own horn or anything.

Dinner was a big decision today, but I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

I knew I should use the eggplant I had in the fridge, but nothing was particularly speaking to me.

Yes, when I flip through recipes certain ones call to me. I can plan “ooh I want to make that!” until I’m blue in the face but I can never decide what I want for dinner until 3:00 that day.

What did speak to me was Chickpea Piccata. (< Lucky for you guys, Isa has the recipe for this one on her website!)

But what to have it with?

Eggplant!

But how?

My new favorite way ever, of course!

I was flipping through my binder of recipes,and saw this very plain-jane recipe for roasting eggplant originally from Cooking Light. I was a bit apprehensive that it would be all that great – it is basically eggplant straight up, after all – but combined with the absolutely amazing piccata, this meal was enough to make me fall head over heels in love with…well, everything in site. It turned me into a hippie peace-love flower-girl.

For the eggplant, though:

Roasted Eggplant

slightly modified from cooking light, for one eggplant:

• 1 medium eggplant, about 1 lb.
• olive oil for brushing (I used basil oil)
• pinch salt, pepper and herbs de provence

Preheat oven to 450*. Carefully slice your eggplant the “long way” into 1/4″ slices, leaving the end in-tact. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and fan out the eggplant. Brush with olive oil and bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly tender. Remove from oven, press down to fan out more, and brush again with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and herbs. Bake 15-20 minutes more or until tender and skin is beginning to crisp.

My mom: “are you going to eat that whole eggplant?”

Don’t mind if I do!

Decisions – do you find yourself sometimes having a terrible time deciding over the silliest of things, too?! Please say yes so I’m not alone. And don’t ask me who you should marry. I’ll just say “everyone! peace and love!”

Energy Cookies!

I loved hearing whether my voice/self was at all what you’ve imagined it to be. I’m not surprised a lot of you mentioned it sounded quieter/higher than you’d expected. I should have mentioned that I was trying to not talk normal-level, and my voice gets sort of higher pitched when I’m nervous.

Yes, I was nervous to be vlogging. Don’t laugh. I still haven’t seen many of you try an accent vlog!

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You’re probably not surprised to learn that today was a snow-day. Since I don’t need to be anywhere in particular on Tuesdays I should add it was a self-proclaimed snow day, but still a snowday nonetheless.

…poor Teddie.

I made do, though – I have plenty of reading and homework to do this semester, that is for sure!

…but there comes a point in time when you’ve just got to take a break!

Dreena’s Energy Cookies have caught my eye and called my name everytime I open Vive le Vegan, but I kept just opting to bake SuperCharge Me cookies instead. Because the ingredients list was shorter.

Long lists overwhelm me.

But, given the fact that I have about every nut or seed imaginable and plenty of flours to choose from, I finally figured a long list would probably be better than a short one today. You know, dig into the stash.

My kinda cookies! They’re so nutty, seedy and moist! The only thing I changed from the recipe was I used 1/4 c. amaranth flour and the rest white whole wheat as well as some quick oats, almond extract instead of vanilla, cranberries instead of raisins and added some ground nutmeg. Oh, and replaced some of the maple syrup with almond milk.

Dare I say it, but I think I prefer these over SuperCharge Me cookies! I loved the combination of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and hemp seeds.

They’re also a bit more moist than SuperCharge Me cookies, which sometimes come out to dry for me. I realize that’s probably just due to me getting too experimental though, since SCM cookies are practically the holy grail of the power cookie and blog world. Rightfully so.

And re: amaranth flour – I love it! I think it lends a nice crust – these cookies have a bit of a crust on the outside that gives way to their soft interior, and my bread that I baked had a wonderful crust, too. I was terrified to use it when I first opened the bag as it had a very grainy, almost “dirty” smell to it. It doesn’t taste like that, though!

Chocolate has been growing on me more and more lately. I’m still not one to eat a bar of it plain, but I’ve been loving dark chocolate chips in baked goods. And stuffed in dates a la Gabriela. Maybe I should look into purchased dark chocolate chips that don’t contain artificial flavoring if this is going to become habit…

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And I got over my unspoken-of cauliflower fear today!

I admit it. I had an irrational “thing” about cauliflower before.

I suppose there was no basis to this “thing,” because if I remember correctly, cauliflower happened to be one of the few vegetables I ate as a kid.

Of course, “if I remember correctly” usually means I’m not remembering correctly…but I digress.

In attempts to make Appetite for Reduction’s roasted cauliflower, I needed bread crumbs.

Or, pretzel crumbs if you’re like me.

Note to self: find whole wheat bread crumbs somewhere.

(who am I kidding, I can’t find whole wheat bread crumbs to save my soul…)

Maybe this is where I should clarify that I actually used a yellow cauliflower, not a normal cauliflower. Just before you go thinking I ate some wonky cauli.

The yellow one was fifty cents cheaper and I was being thrifty, remember?

Much to my surprise the cauliflower tasted like…well…the barbecue sauce I dipped it in. Crazy, right?!

It must have been the special Kaia-hair seasoning I used.

(and that’s mushroom tibs by the way, even though it may look like I decided to just share my plate with Kaia.)

Time for me to go batten down the hatches for the big storm.

And by batten down the hatches, I mean watch the Bruins game. I wonder how long it will take me to go stir-crazy tomorrow?

Are you easily intimidated by recipes with long ingredients lists?