Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

For this week's Vegaloca Weekly Vegan Cooking Challenge, I'm submitting Irish Soda Bread!  I used the recipe from online blog Joy(ously Alive) Goes Vegan and really enjoyed it.  For me, it turned out better than the one in Vegan Planet, but perhaps only because I'm more proficient at it now.  (Be sure to read the "comments" below her recipe as other folks posted about their variations on the recipe.)

I used this exact recipe (with almond milk) minus the raisins (not a big fan) and caraway seeds (didn't have any).  The result was delicious if still a teensy bit underdone inside, even after baking it a little extra.  Again, this is probably my fault and not that of the recipe as I can see just by comparing the pictures that Joy's is much more "done" on top than mine was.  

In any case, it was still delicious and is a delightful bread to whip up when you're in a hurry and don't have time to wait around for yeast to rise. I'll definitely be making it again--maybe this Thursday for St. Patrick's Day! :-)

ETA:  March 17th  --  Made the recipe again, this time with raisins since that seems the traditional Irish way and I didn't want any leprechauns coming into my kitchen making mischief if I didn't honor the recipe ;-p  Okay, seriously, though the recipe turned out much better this time.  I made it with agave instead of sugar and it was very tasty and this time baked up nice and golden on top. 

Black Beans and Rice

For dinner tonight we made a black beans and rice recipe, loosely adapted from one we found on allrecipes.com.

We didn't have white rice and just used some of the brown rice we'd cooked ahead of time in the rice cooker (just used water to cook it with.)  We added the 2 cups of cooked rice to the sauteed onions and garlic.

My husband loves to improvise with spices, so in addition to the cumin and cayenne pepper he added a dash of black pepper and 1/2 tsp. thyme and a bit of salt.

We added to that 15 oz can of black beans.  Also, one 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes which some people suggested over on allrecipes.  (This is our "we didn't get to the grocery store today so are using up the dusty cans in the cupboard dish," haha!)

Simmered all that together for 15 minutes.  My  husband kept saying, "This is just a stripped-down version of jambalaya" (one of his favorite dishes, so I was expecting him to be disappointed in this one.)

The results...

 Not bad.  Not as good as his jambalaya, but still pretty tasty for whipping it together at the last minute.  We both felt like it needed something "more" with the flavors in terms of spices but it was still hearty and warm and spicy-sweet.  Thus, a worthy entry for this week's Vegan Cooking Challenge at Vegaloca.

Mjeddrah (Middle Eastern Lentils and Rice)

For this week's entry in Vegaloca's Weekly Vegan Cooking Challenge, I continued exploring my fabulous Peaceful Palate cookbook.  This time, I went with the Mjeddrah (pronounced "mu-jed-rah"), a Middle Eastern lentil and rice dish.  The foundation is an oh-so-delicious mix of lentils, rice and onions cooked  until creamy.  It's supposed to be topped with a salad consisting of lettuce, tomatos, cucumber, avocado and green onions but, since I realized I did not have lettuce, I improvised with the remaining veggies:

All in all, I really enjoyed this dish and plan to make it again.  I had lots of left-over lentil-and-rice mix so I did try the dish later on with some newly purchased lettuce and it was very nice.  The dressing is an olive oil-and-lemon "vinaigrette" with paprika and dry mustard as the spices; I'm not a huge paprika fan so perhaps that prevented me from being wild about the dressing but it was still tasty.  I do think you need to make a lot more than what the recipe says, as 2 TBSP olive oil and 2 TBSP lemon juice really isn't much to go with the big pot of lentils-and-rice.  

Also, when I'd gone through all my fresh veg I still had some of the lentil-and-rice mix left and took it to work for lunch.  It was very tasty all on its own!  All in all, an easy, delicious and hearty meal with lots of room for versatility.

Terry's Favorite Almond Cookies

Continuing the "sweet" theme for that sweet holiday on the horizon, I'm presenting Terry's Favorite Almond Cookies from Veganomicon (which, coincidentally enough, my own sweetie got me for Christmas--thanks, hon!) for this week's Weekly Vegan Cooking Challenge over at my friend Lee's Vegaloca  blog.

These cookies are definitely not low fat (oil AND almond flour!) but they are so tasty, and at least the almond flour makes me feel I'm getting some good nutrition out of the deal.  I cut the sugar by  half and they were still plenty sweet.  I did not have sliced almonds so left off the "almond coating" but they still had nice almond flavor and I tried icing some with Tofutti "cream cheese" and it was delicious though they are also very nice just plain.  I probably won't make these too often, just because they are fattening and rather addicting, but they are good enough that I'll hanker for them even when I don't actually whip up a batch.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chocolate Magic Cake

I've made this several times since I got Peaceful Palate for Christmas.  It's so easy to make and super-delicious!  Thought it was about time I posted to share my love:

This picture is of my first attempt when I made the icing, too.  The little unattractive "blobs" are the Earth Balance spread that didn't quite whip out the way I was hoping it would.  Tastes fabulous, though ;->  Still, ever since then, I've skipped the extra calories and just dusted the cake with a little bit of powdered sugar.  Also, I tend to cut the sugar in half when I make the cake itself--it is sweet enough and doesn't make me feel guilty.  Two more awesome things about this cake:  you mix it right in the baking pan (SO easy and pretty much zero clean-up until after you've eaten!) and, since it's vegan, I can enjoy a spoonful of chocolaty-gooey goodness in the batter while I impatiently wait for the cake to come out of the oven.  Culinary magic, indeed! :-)

(Honestly, you can probably find this recipe online though I don't replicate due to my desire to respect copyright law.  If you want some yummy, easy-to-make vegan food, do yourself a favor and get Jennifer Raymond's book-- Peaceful Palate--it's SO worth it!   And this coming from the girl who doesn't really like to cook, so it's a high compliment.)

Peaceful Palate's Pasta with Peanut Sauce

To satisfy my hankering for Thai food (without the time or expense of eating out!), I eagerly tried the Pasta with Peanut Sauce from the Peaceful Palate cookbook.   It was perfect for a mid-week dinner as it's quick to prepare and, depending on the number of people you're serving, leaves enough left-overs for a sack lunch the next day.

I found the recipe online at the Vegan Peace website (never heard of the website before but they do seem to have a lot of vegan recipes--along with other "activist" links that I have not browsed so can't comment) and they say they have permission from Jennifer Raymond to reprint her recipe so I will provide a link to their site:
http://www.veganpeace.com/recipe_pages/recipes/PastaWithPeanutSauce.htm 

I really enjoyed this recipe!  It's tasty and filling and exotic without costing you a fortune in herbs and sauces at the Asian specialty stores.  I cut the sugar way down, to about one teaspoon, but it was still sweet enough for me.   I used the red pepper flakes and it gave a little kick without being too spicy.

The recipe says to "serve immediately" and I agree that it is best when hot.  While it did make a nice lunch at work the next day, I ate it cold (as you sometimes see chilled Asian pastas in the deli section) and, while still tasty, it definitely had a stronger peanut-butter flavor and it was harder to taste the other elements.  All in all, a worthy entry for this week's Vegaloca Weekly Vegan Cooking Challenge.

Vegan at WDW

The lack of recent posts is due to my recent travels to Florida where my family and I enjoyed some time at Walt Disney World.  Apparently, the Parks have a new manager who happens to be vegan and, happily, is instating many new vegetarian and vegan dishes into park menus, from veggie burgers grilled on separate grills at counter-service restaurants, to an entire separate vegan menu at the fancier restaurants.  Here is an (unfortunately blurry) picture of just one of my many (*blushes*) servings from the buffet at Boma Restaurant, an African-styled buffet.  The chef took me around personally and showed me which items on the buffet were vegan; and, it was more than just a salad, let me tell you.  Very impressive!  So, kudos to Disney for this step and if any of you veg*n folks travel to the Disney parks, be sure to ask for the vegan menus and know you will find something yummy!