Vegan Bento

Slightly changes from the "Lemon Gem Cupcakes" recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Mom likes lemon poppyseed and I didn’t make anything for Dad on Father’s Day so I decided to make them a batch to share.

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbs poppyseeds 
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tbs lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds.

Peel zest off lemon with peeler and mince or blender to pieces. Nuke lemon for 20 seconds, then halve and juice. (Could do two lemons and use the other one for frosting and decorating with zest)

Whisk the oil, sugar, soy milk, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest in another bowl. Then whisk the dry and wet stuff together. Portion out into lined muffin tin and chuck into oven for 17-20 min. and then cool.

Then while this is happening… dump all these into a bowl and whisk up.

• 2 tbs Earth Balance spread
• 2 tbs soy milk
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp xanthum gum if you’ve got it to thicken the frosting a bit.

Chuck in fridge until muffins are done and cool. Frost and sprinkle with more poppyseed.

Made another batch with rice milk as mini muffins for church tomorrow. No poppyseeds, but almond slivers for garnish.

Julia wanted to eat one so I let her have some and she gave me half. Working with Xantham gum is interesting. While it does thicken frosting with no noticeable change in taste, the texture is very marshmellow-y. 

• 3.5 oz sun dried tomato ( you can soak them in the water first or not.)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup almonds
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

I added green onion on top. Both Julia and I liked this and the pesto was delish. I’ll have to try it on pasta.

Yesterday afternoon I set Julia up in the foyer with some tubs and together we shelled fava beans and fresh peas. I think she had a good time exploring.

She kept talking about making "Peas! Making surprise for Daddy! Peas!" and "I cookin’ it!" and "Peas pop out! Where are yoooouuu?" Of course, I didn’t tell her Daddy hates peas.

The sad thing is that I had a large box full of fresh favas. Then it was a bowl full. Then after blanching to pinch them out of their skins, I ended up with MAYBE half a cup. Oy. What a lot of work for so little favas.

It’s the first time I’ve had them (fresh or otherwise) so I went with the "Warm Garlicky Fava Beans" recipe from Vegetarian times as inspiration and scaled it down as best I could.  

 Julia got to taste her handiwork though.

 Like me she was indifferent. Take it or leave it. They were soft and slightly sweet, but if I’m going to eat immature legumes I prefer peas. It’s got a nicer taste. These reminded me of a cross between peas and limas and I can’t stand limas so…

I’m going to have to give it another try after I find a more interesting sounding recipe and enough favas to make it with.

Originally I was going to make Kale soup from the PDQ cookbook but I misplaced it and didn’t find it til dinner was over. Fortunately there was the Pasta E Verdura that Karen gave me for Christmas. Not as fast as the 20 min soup promised by PDQ, but 30 minutes I can live with.

The pasta and kale makes up about 8 cups. Then the potato topping makes about 2 cups, so it’s 1 cup of pasta + 1/4 cup potato per person. 

Julia always has trouble with long pasta even when I cut it up for her so I may have to change pasta shapes if/when I make this again. I wanted to use up some Da Vinci organic pasta that I had handy. My only other non-asian pasta was alphabet letters and that would have been totally wrong for this meal!

I cut the oil in half and while this yields a drier pasta dish, I rather have that than a puddle of oil on my plate. (Maybe add stock next time.)

Paul had his with leftover turkey sausage and he said it was good with the sausage. I didn’t bother defrosting any Tofurky Italian sausage for me and Julia though I’ll have to consider it later for leftovers to see if it helps boost the appeal of this dish.  To me it was a nice change, but not stellar. When I tasted it I decided to sprinkle some lemon pepper on top and that helped perk it up some. 

It was also interesting to use potato as a garnish on pasta — I don’t think I’d ever think of that on my own. 

But here’s my adaptaion of the Jack Bishop recipe:

1) First preheat oven to 400 deg and set water to boil in large pot to make pasta. 

2) Then in a casserole dish dump in…

• 12 oz red new potatoes, scrubbed, cubed
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 4 clove minced (or pressed) garlic
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

 Mix this all up in the casserole so it all lays in one layer and chuck into oven for 30 min. (Check half way and stir up)

3) Dump the pasta in the pot and cook for 10 min.

4) While the pasta is cooking, tear 12 oz (about 1 bunch) of kale up to remove stems. Rinse well, then scissor up into bits. When pasta is about done, plunge kale in with the pasta and stir it. Cook 1-2 minutes so kale starts wilting and turns bright green. Drain everything and return to pot. Add 2 tbs olive oil and 2 tbs lemon juice. Mix well and dish up as eight 1 cup servings.

5) Check potato. Garnish pasta with 1/4 cup potatoes when those are done.  

 NUTRITION PER SERVING

Calories: 310
Fat: 6 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Carbohydrate: 55 g
Fiber: 4 g
Protein: 8

We all crashed after work and we probably would have kept right on sleeping if I hadn’t had to wake up to use the bathroom! Exhausting day for all of us.

This one is going to need some work. I used Alessi brand caponata and it was too salty and too strong on the olives. Julia disliked it. I’m going to have to eat the rest of this by myself but I’m not crazy about it either. Paul refuses eggplant in any way — "too squishy."

 I need to try it again with a different brand of canned caponata or just go with fresh made the next time I make it because I do like potato gnocchi and I’d like new ways to fix it.

Though I can’t argue with the time — It was very fast fix and while I added the spinach, it came from Donna Klein’s PDQ Vegetarian cookbook. When I’m trying to make some at 10 PM at night, that’s the way to go.

NUTRITION PER CUP SERVING

Calories: 268
Fat: 5 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Carbohydrate: 47 g
Fiber: 6 g
Protein: 7 g

Old entry, new photo.

I always loved arroz con pollo as a child so finding a vegan version of some kind of Spanish rice or paella was always hard.

Here’s my adaptation of a Vegetarian Times Vegetarian Paella recipe that’s become my new "arroz sin pollo."

Arrroz Sin Pollo

• 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes
• 4 cups water
• 2 vegetable bouillion cubes
• 2 cups long grain brown rice or long grain white basmati
• 1 tsp. saffron threads
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme

In separate pot or pan…

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium green bell pepper, diced

• 14-oz. can artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained, chopped
• 1 1/2 cup of frozen peas and carrots mix
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat parsley
• 1/4 cup green  onion, minced
• 2 generous tbs of capers, drained

OPTIONAL ADD INS:

• 1 can pinto beans or black beans, rinsed and drained
• chopped up, cooked veggie "sausage"

I like it best with brown rice, but Paul likes the yellow color to show so sometimes I use the white rice when making it instead so it’s brighter from the saffron. Taste-wise the brown rice is a bit firmer.

Forgot to to measure how many cups total before we started eating it so nutrition will have to be the next time I make it.  That’s the only thing it needs — a nutritional profile.

I’m still trying to veganize mom’s butter soaked banana bread. Every once in a while we don’t eat up all the bananas in time and they go brown so every once in a while I try yet ANOTHER recipe. Mom even gave me the recipe she used once but I lost it. But none come out right to me.

Here’s my whirl at adapting this recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen site into something tasting close to what my mom used to make in my childhood. Even veganized, this guy packs on the calories though.

I liked it and it was actually a very nice banana bread. But since mom’s leaned toward the bread pudding-y end most of the time, I think next time I need to ditch the applesauce and fling in another banana.  Maybe scale back the margaraine to 2 tbs instead of 4.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cups Sucanat
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup dark raisins
• 1/3 cup walnuts 
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine, at room temp (ex: Earth Natural Buttery Sticks)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 4 very ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Oil a loaf pan with a dab of oil on a paper towel or oil spray.

Mix all the dry stuff together up to but not including vegan margarine.

Mash the margarine and bananas with all the other wet stuff and once well blended, dump into the dry stuff.

Mix the whole thing with a spatula. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 min or until toothpick in center comes out clean.

 NUTRITION PER SLICE

Calories: 345
Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 3 g
Carbohydrate: 62 g
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 5 g

This is a recipe from 15 Minute Vegetarian by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler.

It took me 23 minutes to execute since Julia kept wanting to "help" and her idea of helping me snap the ends off the snap peas was to stand on a chair beside me, dunk her alloted play peas around in water for a while, stuff them down garbage disposal and then try to steal my peas when I wasn’t looking.

It was ok,  but both Paul and I think it needs some work. Perhaps chili paste to make it kickier.

• 12 oz buckwheat soba noodles
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 packet snap peas
• 1 cup dry shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted, and chopped. Soaking water reseved. 
• 1 tsp veggie bouillion + enough water to make the mushroom soaking water be 1 cup.
• 3 tbs tahini
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs rice vinegar
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tbs ginger, grated

1) Bring water to boil and while waiting, prep veggies.

2)Boil pasta and snap peas together. Drain. Stir in carrots and green onion.

3)Return pot to stove and in it, dump all the other ingredietns and simmer to make sauce. Stir into pasta. Serve. Garnish with sesame seeds.

NUTRITION PER SERVING (about 275 g)

Calories: 291
Fat: 5 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Carbohydate: 56 g
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 12 g

This is from Food For Life by Neal Barnard, MD. I keep triyng to find a scrambled tofu recipe that I like and so far this is the best of the lot even though I think it still needs work.

Though I made it to recipe, I think it might be better to just used up the entire block and double all the seasonings except the tumeric.

Mix everything together and sautee in the oil inside a skillet for 3-5 minutes.