The End

After a whirlwind Fall and Winter I finally decided to enroll in culinary school.

As a result, I'll be putting this blog on hold.

However, you can read about my culinary school exploits at:

Yes, Chef!

Thanks for reading!

Butternut Squash, Bleu Cheese, and Bacon Lasagna

The Carnivore requested the I make the butternut squash lasagna again to leave for him when I went on vacation. Since I wasn't going to eat any of it I "carnivored" it up for him with additon of his favorite cheese (bleu) and one of his favorite foods (bacon).

This lasagna also took far less time than the first attempt because I learned from my previous butternut squash related follies. This time around I roasted the squash first and then scrape out the "meat" instead of trying to cube the raw squash. SO MUCH EASIER!

I also baked the bacon in the oven. No grease spatters, easy to drain the fat, less shrinkage, and all the bacon is crispy. Directions I follow are here.

To make the bleu cheese sauce I simply combined the milk, butter, and blue cheese in a sauce pan in medium heat. I warmed the milk and butter first, then dumped the chesse in and whisked until a cheese sauce was made.

Then I layered all the ingredients in a 9x11 glass pan and popped it in the oven on 350 for about 40 minutes.

Ingredients                                                       
1 box no bake lasagna sheets
5 strips of maple bacon
6 oz of bleu cheese
4 handfuls of baby spinach
1/4 white onion
1 butternut squash
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
salt and pepper to taste

Vegan Matar Paneer

The Carnivore and I both LOVE indian food. So, I finally decided to bite the bullet and give making it a try.

Matar Paneer Ingredients                                                       Carrot Rice            
-1 block of firm tofu                                                                            - 2 cups of dry rice
-1/2 white onion                                                                                  -1/2 cup diced carrots
-2 lbs tomatoes                                                                                    -1 tsp cumin
-1/4 turmeric powder
-2 tsp coriander
-1 tsp chilli powder
-a pinch of salt or more to taste
-2 tbs olive oil
-3 cups peas (I like lots of peas!)
-heavy handful of cashews (about 15)
-1 tsp garam masala*
-ginger/garlic/pepper paste (6 green peppers, 6 cloves of garlic, 1 inch of peeled ginger)

*I couldn't find a garam masala mix in my local grocery stores so I made my own from this recipe.

 

First I made the ginger/garlic/pepper paste with the ingredients listed above and set it aside.

When I was doing research for this dish I couldn't find a specific type of green pepper, but we like things spicy so I used serrano peppers. But, if you like another pepper or want to lower the heat I think you could use jalapenos or anaheim.

Then, I boiled the 2lbs of tomatoes to remove the skins and then  I used a food processor to blend all 2lbs of tomatoes.Voila-tomatoe puree!

Removing the skins was way, way easier than I thought it would be but a little gross. I've always hated tomatoe skins.

I made this cashew paste by soak a handful of cashews in warm water for 15 minutes while I made the pepper paste and tomato puree.




Now for the actual cooking...

I sauteed the pepper paste in a skillet with some olive oil on medium heat with the chopped white onion for about 8 minutes until the onion is translucent.









Add the tomato puree, garam masala, salt, and other dry spices. At this point I cooked the mixture down until it thickened a bit.





 Meanwhile I was cooking the rice. I put the rice and water in a pan on medium heat. While the rice began to cook, I diced the carrots. Once the rice was moslty cooked I added about 2 pinches of salt and the cumin.

Man, I love how cumin smells!

Since I used frozen peas, I had them thawing in a colindar during the rest of the meal prepartion. By the time I was ready for them they were pretty much thawed. All I had to do was mix them in and wait for them to warm up.


Last step: cut the tofu in to squares and toss in the dish.

This dish had lots of steps but they were pretty easy. The Carnivore and I both enjoyed this dish. I kept asking, "Does it really taste like Indian food?" He assured me that it did.

With this dish I finally accomplished my goal of making Indian food at home. Up next: replicate the vegetable korma dish from our favorite restaurant in Memphis!





Vegetarian Greek Pasta

Since we bought the juicer we've made fresh pasta a handful of times. And each time we've made pasta, I've made pesto to go with it. Pesto is amazing but I figured it was time to try a something new.


Pasta
1 cup flour
1 egg*
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tbs water
*I've  found some vegan pasta dough recipies I just haven't tried them yet.

Mixed ingredients in a bowl and then kneaded dough. After, I let the dough rest for about an hour. Finally, I ran it through my Omega juicer right in to a pan of boiling water. The pasta only takes about 3 minutes to cook when it is fresh.

After the pasta was cooked, I drained it and tossed in the ingredients below.

Tossed with
1/2 cup crumbled feta
2 tbs diced black olives
1/4 sauteed red onion

Other than letting the dough rest, this is a quick meal to whip up. Cooking the pasta, and preparing the other ingredients took less than twenty minutes.

I really loved the feta/olive combination. And after a particularly bad experience with a red onion a few years ago, I can see myself wanting to use more red onions in the future after eating this dish.

The Carnivore also really liked this dish. I served his with a hand breaded (panko, salt, pepper) and pan friend chicken breast.

I will certainly make this dish again this winter when I'm craving olives. But, I could also see myself serving it cold this summer at a picnic.

Vanilla Cinnamon Bacon Cupcakes

Hello! I know it has been a long time since my last post. Sorry for the delay but I've been doing some extreme wedding planning for the last two weeks.

My posts might be few and far between this month because I'll be spending most of it traveling and visiting friend and family I haven't seen much of in the last two years.

The Carnivore isn't travelling with me. However, I am


so thankful to be marrying a man that is secure enough in our relationship for me to be out of town for an extended period of time.

Therefore, before I left I decided to make a special dessert as a treat for him that highlighted his love of bacon. After looking at several recipes I used bits and pieces and created my own Vanilla Cinnamon Bacon Cupcakes.


Batter
1 stick of butter
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon

I always crack the eggs first to make sure I don't end up with shells in the batter. Then I added all the other ingredients together and mixed on medium for about 30 seconds.

I baked the cupcakes on 350 for 18 minutes.

Frosting
1 cup butter
4 cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

I topped each cupcake with two pieces of crisp maple bacon that I cooked on a cookie sheet in the oven.

This recipe made 12 yummy cupcakes. However, I did have quite a bit of frosting left over.

I had planned to take the extras to the guys upstairs that taste tested my vegan pb&j cake but The Carnivore wouldn't let me give away even one of these cupcakes. He loved the frosting. It was super vanilla-y. The cupcake itself was sweet I think the cinnamon flavor really tied the cupcake to the bacon.

Sweet Potato Chips

The Carnivore LOVES sweet potatoes. So, after my successful experiment with kale chips I decided to make some sweet potato chips for him.

I used 3 medium sweet potatoes and then treated them basically the same as the kale.

I took my time and sliced the potatoes very thin with a sharp knife. I didn't peel the potatoes first but probably should have since I wasn't able to buy organic.

Then I tossed them in a tablespoon or so of olive oil and sprinkled them with sea salt.

I set the oven to 250 and let them bake for two hours. I turned them once with tongs at the halfway mark.

Yes, two hours. And at the end of that time about only half the chips were as crispy as they should have been.

I became impatient and turned the oven up to 300. Big mistake. The remaining chips burned within five minutes.

The chips that turned out good, turned out really good. Good enough for me to try this again. Except this time I'll be much more patient!

Also, these chips should be eaten soon after baking. I tried to store some overnight and while they were still edible most of the crispness was gone.

Vegan Black Bean Burgers Two Ways

Somehow I always end up with several cans of  black beans in the pantry. I haven't been buying food we weren't using each week so I'm not sure if these had been hiding for a while or if I unconsciously put them in the cart one day.

Either way, I decided it was time to use them and I wanted to be more creative than tacos or burritos.

Therefore, I decided to tackle black bean burgers. I'd never made them before so I looked through several recipes. I can't point to one that I followed, I kind of created a smash up of all of them. However, I can say after all that research I had no idea there were so many variations of black bean burgers.

My Ingredients
2 cans of black beans

2 cups of uncooked quinoa
1/2 red onion sauteed
1 tablespoon each of
           -chipotle powder
           -cayenne power
1/2 tbs cumin
salt and pepper to taste

These burgers were very easy to make but next time I'll add some panko or maybe walnuts to give them more texture and to bind them more. They fell apart very easily.

To make these I sauteed the onion and cooked the quinoa. Then added half the black beans, all the onion, and 3/4 of the quinoa to the food processor.

After blending the ingredients I mixed them in the with reserves black beans and quiona and added the spices. 

Finally, I formed them in to patties. I kept for out for the next two days and wrapped the rest in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer for later in the week.

The first set I back in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, turning once.

Later in the week I tried grilling the burgers to try a get a crunch on them. 

And, even later in the week I cooked them in a pan on medium for about 10 minutes with some olive oil.

I like the pan cooked burgers best because they got a little crunchy. 

Over the course of the week I served the burgers two ways.

First, I served them with a serrano vegan sour cream and salsa on a bread thin. The sides were carrots with vegan Godess dressing and homemade sweet potato chips. (more on the chips later!0

homemade mango salsa

Second, I made burger towers layered with avocado, and a homemade mango salsa. The side is a grilled pineapple and watermelon salad.

I'm sure I'll make these burgers again because they are versatile and fairly cheap to make. I'm going to keep playing with the recipe until I get a sturdier patty.

avocado slices are the middle layer

 The Carnivore like the 2nd version of the black bean burgers best. I agree the avocado really helped bring out the flavor. His only complaint was that I gave him too much fruit that day.



As we were eating I realized I do go a bit fruit crazy that day! I'm just so happy to have so many fresh fruits and vegetables this summer.

Vegan Kale Chips

In my constant search for kale recipes I came across several recipes for kale chips.

Before starting our diet change roughly six weeks ago I was a chip fiend. Seriously, I've never met a chip I didn't like.

And, aside from the tortilla chips I have with some salsa when we made tacos, I haven't had chips in 6 weeks. I'm literally marveling at that idea right now.

So kale chips seemed like a no brainier!

Ingredients
1 bunch of kale
nutritional yeast
olive oil
sea salt

I gave the kale a thorough washing and left it out on the counter for 8 hours to try.

Then I painstakingly ripped the kale leaves, minus the steams, in to chip size pieces. I went a little overboard on this step because I wanted them to bake evenly. I won't spend nearly as much time on this next time I make these.

Then I tossed the kale pieces in enough olive oil to coat them.

Lots of recipes I saw called for parmesan. So, I figured I'd try it with nutritional yeast since I've been using it as a cheese replacement for the last 2 weeks. I coated the kale with about 1/2 a cup.

Finally I laid the chips out in a single layer on 3 baking pans and had them in the over on 200 degrees for about 90 minutes.

One bunch of kale made about 6 cups of kale chips.

The Carnivore said he'd like to try them with seasonings other than the nutritional yeast.

However, I liked them so much that I ate the whole batch in 2 days.

I stored them in air tight glass containers and they stayed crispy. Next time I'll add more nutritional yeast to really give them that cheesy flavor. Yes, they tasted like kale and were as crunchy as regular chips but they did have a sort of Cheeto-like taste.

I like them so much that two days later, I have another batch ready to go in the oven as I'm writing this post!

Vegan Green Curry

After making tacos this weekend and being disappointed with the heat level in the serrano sauce, I decided to give spicy another try and make a vegan green curry.

The ingredients in the dish are simple and it is an excellent dish to us up whatever veggies you might have in the fridge.

I know curry is traditionally served with rice but we've been eating a lot of rice lately. So, instead I used a vegan udon noodle that I found on my grocery store shelf. It did come with a sauce pack that I threw out.

Ingredients
green curry paste (next time I'm going to make my own)
1 can lite coconut milk
2 serrano peppers to add heat
salt to taste
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 can of corn
fresh spinach
1 can of diced green chilies
1 red or orange pepper
2 handfuls of frozen peas
green onions and crunchy rice noodles for garnish

In a sauce pan I simmered the coconut milk and 2 tablespoons of the green curry paste for 5 minutes.

Then I added all of the vegetables except the spinach. I cooked them on medium for another 5 minutes.

Since this dish was meant for two days of lunch I filled a 2 cup container with the curry mixture.

Finally, I added the udon noodles and spinach to the remaining curry mixture and cooked the dish for a final 3 minutes.

Before putting the dish in bowls I quickly diced 3/4 of one serrano pepper and tossed in the pan. I gave it a quick stir and let it sit for one minute.

Then I split the curry in to two bowls and topped with green onion.

This dish took about 30 minutes to make and tasted pretty close to green curries that I've had at Thai restaurants in the past. I loved the udon noodles. I know I've had a whole wheat version somewhere before that I want to try to find.

I'd certainly make this dish again. However, it has given me some confidence to try to make my own curries from scratch. Up next, I think I'm going to try to recreate a vegetable korma that is by far my favorite Indian dish.

Carnivore-Spicy Sauage Pasta and Lettuce Wraps

So despite now describing himself as vegan by proxy, The Carnivore is still having a dish with meat for dinner each night.

This week he requested pasta with sausage. He also requested that I make a thin, not chunky spicy tomatoe sauce to go with it.

Instead of a salad he asked that I make lettuce wraps, which I've never done.

Spicy Sausage Pasta
1 tube of Jimmy Dean Spicy Sausage
1 box of pasta-your choice
32 ounces of crushed tomatoes
1 container of baby portabella mushrooms
2 habanero peppers or spicy pepper of your choice
Parmesan cheese
basil
oregano

I think this is the first meal I've made that has taken less than 30 minutes to prepare in almost two months!

I cooked the sausage in a pan and then after if was cooked through I added the mushrooms.

Meanwhile, I added the crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, and both habaneros to the food processor.

At this point the heat level made The Carnivore cough after tasting it due to the heat level. However, I added the tomato sauce to the meat and mushrooms and let it simmer for about 10 minutes while I cooked the pasta.

After draining the pasta I tossed it in the meat sauce and portioned it out for the week.

The Carnivore reported that some of the heat cooked out of the sauce but that it was still spicy.

Lettuce Wraps
1 bunch of green leaf lettuce
1 can corn
2 peppers-red and orange
1/2 red onion
feta
sesame dressing
sesame seeds

 After washing 3 leaves of lettuce I cut them in half long ways. Then I assembled a bit of each of the ingredients in the leaf and rolled the up. Once I had them in the container I drizzled the sesame dressing over them and topped them with some sesame seeds.

The first night I made these I use the whole leaf of lettuce. The Carnivore reported that it was too hard to eat so I cut them in half the next night and gave him chop sticks.

Yes, it is still basically a salad but more fun!







Meanwhile, I'm having a veggie tray for dinner with some white bean hummus and tahini sauce.

Vegan Tacos-Fried Avocado and Mango Black Bean

And then The Carnivore said "Let's try vegan tacos this weekend."

Wait. What? Did The Carnivore actually request a vegan meal?

Yes. Yes, he did.

Fried Avocado Crunchy Taco

food nirvana

Did you know you can fry avocado? I didn't until a few days ago. Fried avocado is something I didn't need to discover!

Ingredients
1 large avocado
panko bread crumbs
chipotle powder
salt
olive oil
1 can of corn
1 red pepper
1 fresh jalapeno
cilantro
1 box of crunchy taco shells

I based my creation off of this recipe I found on foodiecrush.com

The original recipe used a wash to make the panko stick to the avocado.

I left that step out because I didn't feel it was necessary. I simply sprinkled the avocado with salt and chipotle before pressing it in the bread crumbs. Then, I transferred it right in to the pan of hot olive oil. Once browned, the avocado was flipped once and then moved to a paper lined plate.

a little bit of all the things

In a bowl, I then mixed the corn, sliced jalapeno, cilantro, and a dash of salt. I also sliced and added the red pepper to the corn.

These tacos were so good I didn't manage to get a picture of them assembled. We ate them too fast.

Fried avocado is amazing!!!


Mango Black Bean Soft Taco with Serrano Sauce

Tacos
1 can of black beans
1 red onion
1 ripe mango
handful of vegan mozzarella shreds
1 pack of soft tacos (I used chia tortillas from Trader Joe's because I know they are vegan)

Sauce**
10 oz vegan sour cream
2 serrano peppers
2 raw jalapenos
handful of cilantro
3 green onion

Super easy directions: mix the taco ingredients together and wrap them in taco wrapper. bake in oven at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Sauce-put all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until everything is mixed.

**I like things super spicy. Like my lips are on fire and numb at the same time spicy. I'd add at least 2 more serrano peppers next time. I'd suggest adding the peppers in slowly to make sure its not too spicy for you**

These tacos were delish. The red onion mellows out in the oven. The mango got a little lost so I'd use two next time. Also, our mango wasn't quite as ripe as it could have been.

Vegan Mixed Berry Cheesecake

A couple of weeks ago The Carnivore and I went to one of the only vegetarian restaurants in Nebraska.

It was an hour away and I was particularly excited to make the trip because they were having a special vegan night and avocado cheesecake was on the menu.

I have to say that I was very disappointed in the food. I was also surprised that everyone else seemed to be in love with it. We ended up spending $30 dollars for a meal that I found incredibly overpriced, less than filling, and bland.

The cheesecake couldn't even save the meal. It was frozen. It took almost 10 minutes for the waiter to explain the ingredients because he didn't know what was in it. And, it was also bland.

I might be a new vegan but I wanted to scream "Vegan food doesn't have to be boring and bland!"

Needless to say, we won't be back.

Even thought the meal was bad I couldn't get over the "cheesecake" disappointment.

The Carnivore LOVES cheesecake and I was hoping to find a vegan dessert that he would love. He liked the PB&J cake but he's not really a cake person.

So, of course, I immediately started looking for vegan cheesecake recipes online. I found several but decided to try this one from Veg Web first. It was purple. And, The Carnivore likes berries.

My Changes
 11oz of silken tofu instead of a cup*
No Strawberries
2 cups of mixed berries (blackberry, blueberry, raspberry)

*silken tofu is not refrigerated and will be in a different section of the grocery store

I followed the directions about blending the ingredients in different phases but I don't see why everything couldn't be tossed in at once.

I did use a vegan pre-made graham cracker crust. Next time, I'll make my own. I'm thinking crushed walnuts.

I tasted the mixture before putting it in the crust and it was a little chalky. This worried me but it baked up nice and smooth.

After 20 minutes I reduced the oven temp from 350 to 250 because I was worried about the crust and top of the cheesecake burning. Next time I'll probably warm the oven to 350 and turn it down after 10 minutes.

The cheesecake was easy to slice and serve.

I didn't tell The Carnivore the ingredients before he tried it and after the first bite he said "This tastes like prunes." I agreed. The blackberry flavor was a little overwhelming in the first bite. On a side note, I now want to try to make a prune cheesecake. I LOVE prunes. Yes, I'm 80!

The texture of the cheesecake resembled flan or a custard more than cheesecake. But, it was a fruity, creamy, sweet dessert that had the essence of cheesecake.

Calories: 300

I'll make this again but next time I'm going to try using vegan cream cheese and strawberries. And maybe a cocoa crust.

Happy eating!

Homemade Granny Smith Applesauce

I love apples. I like them as a snack, baked in desserts, or fried as a side dish. I eat them on their own or with peanut butter all the time.

Apples are a pretty perfect food-crunchy, sweet, good for you.

However, if I had to pick a least favorite apple, it would the the granny smith apple. I like them in recipes but can't stand to eat them on their own.

Yesterday, after cleaning out the fridge I realized I had about a bag and a half of granny smith apples left over from my juice cleanse.

What to do?

I knew I'd never eat all of them and that I could only put them in with The Carnivore's dinner so many times before I'd get complaints.

So, I used this opportunity to make applesauce!

Ingredients
8 granny smith apples, peeled and cored
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice


I put all of the ingredients in a pan on high heat. I brought the mixture to a boil and then simmer on low heat for about 20 to 30 minutes. Next, I added the mixture to a food processor on high for 2 minutes.

The applesauce is a bit tart but I wished I had waited to add the sugar until after I had blended the mixture.

I'm trying to eat as little added sugar as possible and next time I'll see how it tastes before I add sugar because I think I might like it without the extra sweetness.

I plan to have the applesauce as a snack this week but since I just made it I had a few spoonfuls with half a banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter this morning for breakfast. Yum!

Vegan-Tofu with Spicy Peanut Sauce

The Carnivore loves Thai food. In particular, he found a dish called Chicken Popeye at a local thai restaurant that he loves.

In the past I haven't been crazy about peanut sauces but I wanted to try to make a vegan dish this week that appealed to The Carnivore's palate since he's been so great about all the vegan dishes.

At this point he's eating 50% to 60% vegan based on the day of the week. He even went completely vegan for two days in a row!

After searching for spicy peanut sauce recipes I stumbled on a recipe from Kayln's Kitchen.

Please reference her recipe for ingredients and measurements.

I played with the sauce recipe a bit. I used peanut butter made with coconut oil, doubled the sriracha, peanut butter, and water, and I added some whole peanuts on top for crunch. I also added some spinach.


I was happy to eat this meal two days in a row. However, next time I would store the sauce separate from the tofu overnight because it could have used a good stir the next day.

The Carnivore said the sauce was very close to the sauce in his beloved Chicken Popeye. However, he did declare that he needed meat once in a while after finding the texture of the tofu less than satisfying.

This dish was the first time I'd tried to fry tofu and I pulled it out of the pan before it could get crispy since I was worried about overcooking it or drying it out. Next time I'll leave it in longer.

And, as much as we both love spicy I don't feel like sriracha is the right element to lend heat to this dish. I think I'll try to use some raw thai chilies next time to see if it turns out more to our tastes.

Overall, this recipe was a great place to start. I think I'll be coming back to it over the next few months to perfect it.