Sunday Funday!

This past Sunday was filled with snow flurries, tasty food, and beautiful friends. In case you haven't read some of my past posts about Kansas City's Sustainability Sundays. Basically, every Sunday my friend, Dane, and I serve up vegan, locally-grown food from our houses--underground restaurant style--and talk about sustainability. It. is. awesome. We have great people come out to eat and support the cause! I serve lunch and Dane serves up dinner, so we each get a break from cooking for one meal. It's a good thing.

There was even a special guest at my lunch this week: Miss V from the blog Miss V's Vegan Cookbook! She is another KC vegan blogger, but you've probably already checked out her blog. If not, then you should!!! I was so glad to have her join in the food and festivities! Yay Miss V!

Lunch this week was one of my favorite meals: Arepas! These plump little tortilla-like cakes are stuffed with black beans, fried plantains, and Latina Shredded Seitan (actually a tester for Terry Hope Romero's Vegan Latina cookbook!). I served them with Garlic-Lime Braised Local Greens and avocado. So, so flavorful and goooooood.Dessert was suuuuper exciting....because it was the first recipe I have made from Isa and Terry's Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar!!!!!! I was so excited to get this cookbook and I was NOT disappointed! At all! I made the Spiced Sweet Potato Blondies and let me just tell you that these are perfect. There's really no other way to say it. I even got to use local sweet potatoes in them! yeah! Everyone was sooo in love with these! I used walnuts and vegan butterscotch chips in mine, and served them with a lil' scoop of So Delicious vanilla ice cream! omg.omg.omg.For dinner, Dane served up Peanut Noodles with Broccoli, and some fresh cucumber. Sweet, salty, spicy, and awesome! Dessert wasn't photographed, aka I forgot, was also fresh and tasty...chocolate-peanut butter dipped pineapple! What a treat!On another note, I just have to rave about a sandwich I put together last week, what I am deeming The Thanksgivingwich!!! This fantastic monster of a sandwich was full of all my Thanksgiving leftovers: sliced Seitan Faux Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Creamy Onion Gravy, and Sauteed Greens, all between locally-made Farm to Market Bread! Heaven in a sandwich for suuuure. Now if I had only saved some stuffing to pile on it....nah, too much. :)

Dinner with Terry and Isa

Tonight I had dinner with Terry and Isa. OK, maybe I didn't actually "dine" with two of the best vegan chefs ever, but I did make one Terry dish and one Isa dish for my dinner tonight! It was great! Tonight's meal was Latina-themed, since I am currently testing for Terry's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook. btw, this cookbook is going to be awesome! A lot of the recipes are multi-step and take some time, but all of the recipes I have made so far have turned out delicious!!

The main course was the Sexy Avocado-Tempeh Stuffed Arepas, a Vegan Latina tester. omg these were amazing!! If you haven't heard of arepas before, they are a little corn-based tortilla, but much thicker and denser, and they are used for stuffing and devouring! Very popular in South America especially. The insides of these Venezuelan-style Arepas have a polenta-like texture, while the outsides are crispy, almost like the crust of American cornbread...these are very interesting and tasty little treats! The Avocado-Tempeh Filling is really creamy and delicious, and gets a little zing from lime juice, and there is a secret filling ingredient: shredded jicama! It lends an amazing texture! I could go on and on about these little guys, but I will let the photos do the talking:

First, the Masa Harina-based dough is pan-fried...
And, of course, cooked to a golden brown for a nice crust...Then, they all go in the oven for a little while to get the insides nice and cooked...And then they are ready to be stuffed with all sorts of goodies!Here they are, stuffed and ready to be eaten! Even better with a few dashes of hot sauce along the way!

For my side dish, I made a recipe from Isa's new Vegan Brunch cookbook: Fried Plantains!! I picked these mainly because this sounded like a perfect Latina accompaniment to my Terry-tester-arepas, but also because I really want to make everything ever in Vegan Brunch!! These were really good, too! I like my version a little better, I must admit, as these were more salty and less sweet, but still delicious! I mean, it IS an Isa recipe for goodness sake...can't really go wrong, can you??!

I'll definitely be making all of these dishes again and again and again....

Valentine's Food, Of Course!

First off, Happy Belated Valentine's Day to everyone! I had a great day with Steven, and we celebrated by taking a walk together, getting a couple's massage together, cooking dinner together, then watching a movie together...it was perfect! I can't imagine a better way to celebrate a holiday than making a meal with people you love. We had a Jamaican-inspired meal...I guess you could say the theme was "One Love," but only if you're super cheezy.
Here's what we had!

Appetizer: Fried Plantains with Agave Nectar

Main Course: Jamaican Jerk Tempeh, Mango-Coconut Sticky Rice, Garlic Sauteed GreensDessert: Peanut-Yam Empanadas

In addition to being happy about the great Valentine's Day events, I am also excited to be living in Columbia again! Kansas City was nice, but it is good to be with my friends and Steven. To celebrate my first night back, we went to dinner at my old ball and chain, Main Squeeze! I miss working there a whole lot, but it is also kinda nice to go there and eat and not have to worry about customers and other stresses! I got one of my all-time favorites, the Good Fortune Wrap. It is seasoned tofu, brown rice, homemade sesame-ginger sauce, carrots, spinach, cabbage, scallions, and sesame seeds all rolled up and toasted in a whole wheat tortilla...how could you say no?? The sesame-ginger sauce makes this a wrap I come back to often!

Good Fortune Wrap

On another note, I think I have perfected my Vegan Monte Cristo Sandwich recipe! woohoo! You should try it out and lemme know what you think...

Vegan Monte Cristo Sandwich (serves 2)
4 slices whole grain bread
4 slices veggie "ham"
2 slices vegan cheeze
2 Tablespoons jam, such as raspberry or blackberry
2 Tablespoons dijon or creole mustard
Nonstick cooking spray, as needed
Bread Batter:
1 cup soymilk
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1 Tbs maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Set our four slices of bread. Spread 1 Tbs jam on two of the slices and 1 Tbs spicy mustard on the other two slices. Place half of a slice of cheeze, broken up or shredded, onto each slice of slathered bread. Place slices of veggie "ham" on top of the cheeze, and top with the other slice of bread (so each sandwich has one jam slice and one mustard slice). In a wide bowl or pie pan, whisk together the batter ingredients until well-combined. Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray. When pan is hot, dip one sandwich in batter and flip to coat completely. Place battered sandwich in hot pan and cook on both sides until the bread is browned and toasted, and the batter has mostly cooked off...you don't want a soggy sandwich!
Repeat with the second sandwich and serve hot, drizzled with maple syrup and dusted with a little cinnamon or powdered sugar!
Note: If the cheeze doesn't melt with cooking in the skillet, place cooked sandwiches on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for 10 or so minutes until it is more melty!!

This makes a perfect brunch entree!

Egg McVegans and Jamaican Food

I have had more time and energy over the past week or two to cook...probably because I have been working less...so I have made some pretty tasty food! It's funny that when school started, I actually wanted to start cooking more! I guess I won't complain!

A few days ago, a few friends and I went to go see our future vice president, Joe Biden, speak here in Columbia. It was really awesome and a great chance to see some history happen...but we had to be there at 6:30 in the morning!! I am a morning person, but this was crazy! It was worth it though, because I made us Egg McVegans to eat while we waited in line in the cold... now I think I would get up early for anything, just to use an excuse to make these! I got the idea for making these from the recipe off of Broke Ass Vegan's blog (http://brokeassvegan.blogspot.com). It's not exactly the same, as I made a few modifications to how I like my breakfast sandwiches, but the idea is basically the same (I guess I should thank McDonald's, too...nah.) Egg McVegans:
1 package Sprouted Wheat English Muffins, toasted
6 Vegan Cheese Slices
1 log Gimme Lean Sausage
1 lb. block Extra Firm Tofu
6 tsp Veganaise

In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 2 T olive oil, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Slice tofu into 6 equal slices and place in bowl. Let this marinate for about 20 minutes. Remove tofu and bake at 35o F for about 20 more minutes, flipping halfway through baking. While tofu bakes, form sausage into 6 patties and place in heated, greased skillet and cook til brown on both sides. To assemble the sandwiches, place vegan cheese slice on one side of split English muffin and a smearing of Vegenaise on the other side. Place in oven to get melty for a few minutes. Remove from oven, then place a slice of the tofu "egg" and a sausage patty on the cheesy side. Top with the mayo side and put in oven for 2 minutes to get everything all nice and happy together. Then enjoy with a big pot of piping hot coffee!! Makes 6.

Egg McVegans

Here we are (Me, Anna, Steve, and Danny) waiting in line to see Joe Biden...happy about coffee, food, friends, change, and love...

I have really been wanting to try some things on the Vegan's 100 list that I had not had before, so this week I decided to make fried plantains! Thank goodness for this list, because these were great! I went with a whole Jamaican theme for the dinner, and it was freaking delicious!!!

Jamaican Jerk Seitan

The Jamaican-inspired dinner consisted of: Jamaican Jerk Seitan, Coconut-Curry Quinoa, Fried Plantains with Agave, and Steamed Greens. Steve and I were both blown away at how good this simple and filling meal was! I made the Jerk Seitan recipe basically like I had before, based off the Jamaican Jerk Tempeh recipe from ivu.org. The greens were simply steamed and I dashed them with some hot sauce and nooch, for good measure. For the quinoa, I just made 1 cup of quinoa per the directions, and about 5 minutes before it was done, added 1/4 cup coconut milk and 1 Tbs curry powder. wow!! I didn't look up a recipe for the fried plantains, so I just made one up and it turned out perfectly! I think you should try it, too! Fried Plantains:I just heated up some canola oil in a skillet and placed the plantains (cut in half then sliced lengthwise) in the pan and sprinkled them with some salt and cayenne. After browning on both sides, I drizzled them with the agave nectar and served them hot. I could have eaten my weight in these things!!

Here's the whole thing all pretty and plated:

It's only halfway over, but this week has been great so far! :)