Tester Tostadas and.....drumroll.....My First Homemade Vegan Doughnuts!

So testing recipes for Terry's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook just gets better and better....tonight for dinner I made the Black-Eyed Butternut Tostadas. Yeah, you heard me right. Black-eyed peas and butternut squash are mashed up with some spices and such to a refried bean texture and spread on crunchy tostada shells. Then they are topped with shredded lettuce, avocado, local salsa, and a few dollops of vegan sour cream. They are like little towers of deliciousness! I served them up with some of the tester Pickled Red Onions, since I eat them with everything these days!

And I made VEGAN DOUGHNUTS!! I got the urge today and had nothing to do, so I went for it! I used a recipe I found on Melisser's blog, The Urban Housewife, for baked doughnuts, and made up my own chocolate glaze. I hear doughnuts are the new cupcakes, and I am OK with that! Topped with some organic sprinkles, these plus a big mug of hot coffee made my evening absolutely perfect!! I even made them with whole wheat pastry flour, so they are kinda healthy! Woo!

Nekkid doughnuts, post-baking....Chocolate-glazed and sprinkled doughnuts....ready for me to attack...

On another note, I tried a new place to eat in Kansas City, the Record Bar! I thought I had found just about all the vegan food there is to be had in KC, but I was wrong! The Record Bar is part music venue, part bar and grill-type eatery. They have several vegan-friendly menu items, too! I went with my momma, before seeing HP6, so we each tried a different entree! Oh, the joys of a dining companion!

My mom got The Moby Sandwich, which was a roasted portabella with TONS of veggies and balsamic vinaigrette (sans mayo) on herbed focaccia. This sandwich was so tasty AND it came with awesome fries and was a big 'ol meal for not a lot of skrill! Very cool. But, being a bar and all, it didn't have good food porn lighting. Not so cool. As long as the food is good, I'm cool with it! I got the Ian MacKaye Pizza! It was their homemade pizza crust spread with homemade lemony hummus and, again, lots of veggies (including whole cloves of garlic! what a dream!) and kalamata olives. Very, very good!! Who knew bar food could be so vegan!?!

Tester Hummus and Homemade Ice Cream

Let me just say that I love summer food!! I am not as much in the mood for cooking or baking because of the heat, but I am learning to appreciate the simple and healthy meals that require little preparation on hot summer nights!

A great example of this is hummus! Have it with some pita, on a salad or sandwich, or even as a veggie dip for a no-cook meal. This is Black-Eyed Pea Hummus, and it is a tester recipe for Bianca's Cookin' Crunk cookbook. The black-eyed peas instead of garbs give it such a unique flavor and it is sooooo tasty! Very creamy and thick, too. Here, it is served with some slices of ciabatta bread from the local Uprise Bakery!! mmmm....bread....I also love summer because that means I bust out my ice cream maker!! Pictured below is my S'mores Ice Cream! I made up this recipe using the tips on the A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise blog, and put my own twist on it! It turned out so well! Aren't s'mores the best?? Vegan S'mores Ice Cream (makes about 1 qt)
2 cups soymilk
1 cup soy creamer (I used MimiCreme)
1/2 cup organic sugar
2 Tbs arrowroot powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 cups graham cracker pieces
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup vegan marshmallow fluff

In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the soymilk with the arrowroot. Set aside.
In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together the rest of the soymilk, soy creamer and sugar. Bring just to a boil, stirring often. Remove from heat immediately. Add in the arrowroot slurry and whisk well until liquid begins to thicken. Stir in the vanilla and sea salt. Allow this mixture to cool to room temperature.
Freeze soymilk mixture according to ice cream maker manufacturer's directions, adding in the graham crackers, chocolate chips, and marshmallow fluff during the last 5 minutes. Freeze or serve immediately!

In other news, Steven just returned from a trip to New York...and he brought me my first vegan doughnuts!! I hadn't had a doughnut in about 4 years, so the two he brought me were Heaven-sent! These were the Nutrilicious brand-- probably not as good as freshly-baked, but they did the trick for sure.

There was a vanilla doughnut with a carob glaze....
And a chocolate doughnut with chocolate-vanilla swirl frosting! These were both divine, but this one was my favorite of the two! It went very well with a big mug of coffee!

Happy New Year!!

Hey, this is my first post of 2009! Party! First off, I'll tell you about my New Year's Eve. My mom and I just stayed in, watched movies, and vegged until midnight! It was great!
We sipped on Silk Nog...my nog of choice! It totally beats the Rice Dream version, both in creaminess and taste, and is even more perfect topped with a little sprinkle of nutmeg! Mom got a new popcorn air-popper for Christmas, so she brought it down when she came to visit me! She even brought some organic popping corn...score! We snacked on some nooch-y organic popcorn and drank Kombucha to celebrate. Kombucha is my version of champagne, I guess!

Then, to start the New Year's Day off right, we went out for an amazing breakfast at Cafe Berlin! It is by far the best breakfast in Columbia. We got their Apples and "Sausage" (tempeh), which is served with roasted potatoes and toast! So good! We even got some homemade sweet potato butter for the local wheat toast. Could it be any better?Now onto the essential New Year's meal: Black Eyed Peas! For our awesome Southern meal, I made my Hoppin' John and served it with the Southern-Style Cornbread from the Angelica Kitchen Cookbook (but I made it with blue cornmeal!) and sauteed dandelion greens. We will be lucky in 2009 for sure! Hoppin' John (serves 4-6)

1 lb dried black-eyed peas

2 qts water

2 bay leaves

1 tsp olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

4 stalks celery, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, minced

1 medium tomato, diced

2 Tbs tomato paste or ketchup

1 Tbs soy sauce or Bragg's

1 Tbs paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

juice of 1 lemon

First, prepare the black-eyed peas: In the morning, combine the black-eyed peas, water, and bay leaves in a crock pot and turn on high. Let cook all day, about 6 to 8 hours. Drain the cooked peas, then return to the crock pot. Turn to low and prepare the vegetable mix.

Then, prepare the veggie mix: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add in the onion, peppers, and celery. Saute for 5-6 minutes, until the onion becomes mostly translucent. Add the jalapeno and garlic and saute for 1 more minute. Pour in the soy sauce and tomato paste and let simmer for 2 minutes. Turn to low and add in the spices. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the vegetable mixture and lemon juice to the cooked black-eyed peas in the crock pot. Allow to cook for 10 minutes together, remove the bay leaves and serve!

I recommend dousing this in plenty of hot sauce and serving with cornbread and greeeeeens!

And now for something completely different! I had to share this new delicious gift I got: Maui Banana Butter!!! My dad and step-mom went to Hawaii last month and brought me back some banana butter from Maui. It is so great! Think apple butter, but with a tropical and super-sweet twist. It is perfect on a sandwich with the Cashew and Macadamia Nut Butter I got at Trader Joe's! Now I think I need to make my own sometime!

Have an awesome 2009 everybody!

A Hill of Beans

My love of beans has grown immensely lately. Is it because dried beans are dirt cheap (even organic ones!)? Or is it because they are really tasty and nutritious? Or is it because they are so very versatile? Well, I would have to say it's all of those reasons! So here's some bean-based meals I've made over the past week!!Northeast Nourishment: Boston Baked Beans, New England Brown Bread (both from VegNews), and Fresh Green Beans with CranberriesSouthern Comfort: Creole Black-Eyed Peas with Sweet Potatoes, Jalapeno Corn Bread, and Garlicky GreensIsland Delights: Caribbean Black Beans, Coconut-Mashed Yams, and Garlic Ginger Roasted Broccoli

While beans are my new favorite ingredient, I can't leave behind my other wonderful plant-based proteins!! I have been cooking a bunch this past week or so, and here's more evidence!Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh from Veganomicon, Jalapeno Cornbread, and Sauteed GreensVeggie Tofu Scramble with Roasted Potatoes and Wheat Toast from Cafe Berlin...I love Sunday breakfast!!Buffalo Seitan Wrap!!! I have created a new recipe!! I have been wanting to make Buffalo Wing-style seitan for a while, and I finally did! This wrap has vegan ranch, avocado, lettuce, red onion, and tomato along with the breaded and sauced seitan. Sinful.

Laura's Buffalo Sauce

2 cups cayenne hot sauce....Frank's is the best!!

1 Tbs soy creamer

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp paprika

4 cloves garlic

1 lemon, peeled

1/4 cup chopped yellow onion

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and blend until completely smooth. Toss with seitan and serve hot with vegan ranch dressing! mmmmmm......salty and spicy goodness!!

And, because dessert is NEVER to be forgotten:

Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance

These cookies will make you smile, and everyone else, too! Especially if you toss in some crystallized ginger like I did :)

Go buy yourself some beans, folks!!

Good Luck Dinner...

Even though I am a city girl now, I grew up in rural anti-city parts of Missouri. Because of that upbringing, I really love comforting and hearty soul food. Part of that tradition in my family is to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Eve to bring you good luck for the rest of the year....Tonight, I felt compelled to make black-eyed peas to bring us all good luck for the election tomorrow!! I know, this is an old wive's tale and probably won't have any effect, but I'm just doing whatever I can to make sure Barack is elected tomorrow and food is what I do....so it just makes sense! I made Black-Eyed Peas with Onions and Garlic and a dash of Liquid Smoke, Sauteed Greens, and Cornbread from the Angelica Kitchen Cookbook (I added jalapenos!)...This meal was nice and homey, and hit the spot after a long day! It seemed pretty lucky to me!!

VOTE! Go early so you can get away with waiting in long lines...and bring a snack so you don't get too famished :)