The Flying Vegan

The Flying Vegan...who's that?

2008-02-10T22:11:00.001-05:00

Someone just left a comment asking if I was alive and the answer is yes, I'm still here! I'm even updating my personal blog on a semi-regular basis! The main reason I don't update here is because I'm in a sort of loop food-wise. If I pack lunches they consist of some combination of a peanut butter sandwich, cheerios, fruit/veggies, pistachio nuts, and pretzels. The rest of the time I buy a crappy bagel and an apple from my school cafeteria. I don't usually eat breakfast and when I do it's just fruit, microwaved oatmeal, or pancakes. My dinners are almost always ramen, stir fry and rice, pasta, chile, couscous, frozen foods, rice and beans, or soup with random vegetables.

The only baking or cooking I've particularly done is an embarrassing amount of chickpea cutlets (seriously, I make this recipe in a triple batch!) from Veganomicon, pancakes, and occasionally muffins.

Even though I'm pretty uninspired, I'm still reading all your blogs, so keep posting!

Cookies and Pasta

2007-12-25T19:07:00.000-05:00

Since today is Christmas, I thought it only fitting to make some sugar cookies. I veganized a recipe from my mom's old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and ended up with the following very unhealthy, but delicious, recipe:

Sugar Cookies
2/3 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 t vanilla
2 T water
1 tsp orange juice (you can really use whatever kind of liquid you want in place of water and OJ, the original recipe had milk and eggs, but I didn't have any soymilk or applesauce for substitutes)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
sprinkles, small candies, or icing for topping (optional)

Cream the shortening, sugar and vanilla. Add the water and orange juice and beat until combined. There may still be a little liquid that doesn't get absorbed, but this is fine. In a separate bowl, sift together the rest of the ingredients. Blend into the creamed mixture. Divide dough in half and refrigerate for at least an hour. The longer you chill the dough the easier it will be to work with.

On a lightly floured surface roll half the dough to about 1/4" thickness. Leave the other half of the dough in the refrigerator to stay cool. Cut rolled dough into desired shapes with cookie cutters. If you are using sprinkles or other toppings put them on top of the cookies now. Bake at 375°F for 7-10 minutes. Remove cookies from trays to cool. Repeat with the other half of the dough. If you are icing the cookies make sure they are completely cool before icing them.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

I'm always taking shortcuts with recipes so my cookies only chilled for about twenty minutes. The dough ended up a little sticky but it was still manageable. I couldn't find any fun cookie cutters so I cut the cookies out with the top of a glass. I didn't feel like rolling out the second half of the dough because it was really sticky so I just shaped the cookies in my hands and they came out fine. The longer these bake the crunchier they will be. I like soft cookies so I only left them in for 7 minutes.

the beauty of a plain sugar cookie (excuse the bad lighting in my kitchen):

Since I ate an embarrassing number of cookies today, I opted to go for a slightly healthier but just as easy dinner.

Pasta with organic kale (which we froze over the summer), bell peppers, diced Chinese eggplant, garlic, frozen peas, and crushed tomatoes. I threw the topping together in a frying pan while the pasta cooked and I was ready to eat in ten minutes.

Asian Food for Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T19:29:00.000-05:00

While most people are gathering around the tree with their families and destressing from a crazy month of shopping, cooking, and baking, I'm sitting at home with a week of break and not too much to do. It's a really good feeling. This has given me a little more time for cooking. While most of the Jews I know go out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve, I opted to stay home today. My parents, however, stopped off at the Asian food center today and picked up the following:

(soy puffs, vermicelli, and wonton wrappers, if you can't tell)

One package was mysteriously labeled, "Soy Puffs" and I decided to use it today. As far as I could tell it was some sort of deep fried tofu. Each puff was about 1-1/2" square. I cooked them in a non-stick pan without any additional oil and they browned a little and released a lot of oil. In the meantime I steamed broccoli and sliced carrots and made the sauce that goes with General Tao's Tofu from the ever-popular vegweb recipe. The result was just as good as any dish I've ever ordered at a Chinese restaurant. The soy puffs were chewy and airy and the sauce was perfect, as it had been every time I've used this recipe.

For dinner, my dad and I made the Scallion Flatbread from Veganomicon. It didn't vary much from other flatbreads I've made and basically tasted like a scallion paratha. I misread the recipe and only added 1/4 tsp of salt instead of 3/4 tsp (this is what I get for reading upside down) so it was a little bland. I didn't have the ingredients to make the dipping sauce, so we just had them plain, which was still pretty good.

Merry Christmas!

A moment of self-promotion

2007-12-21T18:11:00.000-05:00

I've started up a new personal blog, which is located at http://tornadotrajectory.blogspot.com/. I'll hopefully still be posting over here when I start doing a little more cooking, but the new blog will be devoted to me just blogging about my actual life outside the kitchen. I'd love for some new readers, so if you have some time, add it on to your blog roll!

Veggie Heaven celebration

2007-12-16T00:25:00.000-05:00

I've offhandedly mentioned a few times before that I've been in the middle of the long and tedious college admissions process that plagues many high school seniors. Today at noon was the end of the process for me - I've been accepted to MIT! I'm really excited to go to such a great school and to live in the Boston area for the next four years.

To celebrate, my parents and I went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Veggie Heaven in Parsippany, NJ. It's a bit of a drive from my house but it's worth it for some of the best American Chinese food I've ever had (and it's all vegan!). Between the three of us we ordered hot and sour soup, scallion pancakes, orange vege chicken, vege chicken with artichokes, and a combination of tofu, vege beef, and vegetables (can't remember what it was called). Everything was delicious, relatively affordable, and the service was great. Overall, it was a delicious end to an amazing day.

Lower fat banana bread, latkes, and chickpea cutlets

2007-12-10T22:55:00.000-05:00

This container made me laugh; can you find the typo?

When I'm not eating lots of soy ice cream or crossing my fingers for snow, I've been busy making a few of the less photogenic recipes in Veganomicon. A theme for this entry could probably be brown foods that weren't even worth a photograph.

My first recipe was the Lower Fat Banana Bread made into muffins. My mom and I both agreed that the muffins were a little dense, but I think it would have been a perfect consistency for banana bread, especially smothered in peanut butter.

After that I made the chickpea cutlets. I can say in complete honesty that this recipe was everything I expected and more. I took the baking route and they were perfect in every way. The flavor and texture were both great. I had the chickpea cutlets plain for dinner and then cut one up and had it over salad today. It was better than the Boca chik'n patties that we normally buy, so I'm thinking about making a lot of chickpea cutlets and freezing them for the future.

My dad made the potato latkes from Veganomicon, which were also delicious. So far I love Veganomicon; all of the recipes I've tried and looked at have been amazing.

Happy Chanukkah!

Veganomicon

2007-12-04T20:07:00.000-05:00

I promise there'll be a real post soon, but right now I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm probably the last person in the vegan cooking world, but I finally got a copy of Veganomicon today and I'm stunned, it's beautiful. I have no idea where to even start. This is where you, the reader, come in: What recipes should I make first? Are there any recipes to stay away from?

I'm already thinking of the chickpea cutlets and potato latkes sometime soon since I've heard some good reviews on the cutlets and it's Channukah starting tonight (happy holiday to those of you who are also celebrating). What else must I absolutely make?

Birthday Cake

2007-11-26T17:18:00.000-05:00

When I was little I loved cake mixes and premade icing. Every year on my birthday my mom would offer to bake me a cake from scratch but I would refuse. Every year I would get the confetti cake mix and vanilla icing with little chocolate pieces in it.

Unfortunately for me, that's not quite vegan. For my 18th birthday this past Wednesday (yes, this post is late, but not too late) I opted for something a little more upscale. My mom baked me the golden cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World as a cake and iced it with the vegan buttercream frosting, also from VCTOTW. I decorated the cake with sliced strawberries for the following masterpiece.

For the meal I made vegan pizza with all sorts of amazing toppings (fresh tomatoes, eggplant, onions, Morningstar Farms veggie crumbles, spinach were the main toppings). I'm a real legal adult!

Ode to the Pomegranate

2007-11-13T21:21:00.001-05:00

Todays Vegan MoFo post brought to you by: pomegranates.

The first time I saw a pomegranate I was skeptical. From the outside it looked relatively tame but once cut open it was a fierce red and seemed to be composed entirely of seeds. I wasn't even sure how to eat it. I've since learned the best way to cut open a pomegranate (try the no-mess method detailed here) and the absolute joy of crunching on pomegranate seeds.

When I was little my favorite food changed a lot, I liked my mom's lasagna, dill pickles, matar paneer, but I'd never had pomegranate.

Pomegranate rocked my world. It's juicy and sweet and tart and crunchy and all those things that make you feel like you could just eat it for the rest of your life and never grow tired of it. Yes, it's a little annoying to prepare and yes, it leaves beastly stains on your clothes if you're messy, and yes, it's ridiculously expensive (usually $1-2 each around here) but yes, it's all worth it for a single spoonful of pomegranate and a big juicy smile.

Vegan MoFo and Roasted Vegetables with Ginger

2007-11-12T21:14:00.001-05:00

I'm joining in a little late, but I'm participating in VeganMoFo, the Vegan Month of Food because the name makes me laugh and I need a reason to get back on the blogging wagon.

I've always liked roasted vegetables, especially in the winter. They're the perfect food to eat when it's snowy outside and freezing cold inside (Save energy, lower your thermostat! You may want to stay a little warmer than my house, which is at a constant yet balmy 58°F in the winter, although on really cold days sometimes the heat gets cranked up to 62°) and you're wearing three sweaters and looking at birds outside the window. It's not snowing here yet, but it's never too early to practice.

This all started tonight when I was feeling lazy (notice a trend here?) and I decided I would microwave a sweet potato for dinner. As I was taking out the sweet potato I noticed that there was also a butternut squash in the cabinet. At that point I thought maybe it would be worth it to turn on the oven so that I could have some squash, too.

Then my mom walked in the kitchen and reminded me that we still have a ton of beets and turnips from the CSA left, so I felt obligated to use a few. The result of all of this: ginger roasted root vegetables

I originally made a recipe similar to this from Vegan with a Vengeance, but since it's just roasted vegetables, I've since decided that I don't need a recipe (I don't measure ingredients very often, even when I'm baking I usually don't bother with measuring cups/spoons). This pan of vegetables consisted of 1 sweet potato, 1/3 butternut squash, 3 small turnips, and 1 medium beet, all somewhat uniformly chopped into about 1/2 inch pieces. I diced about 1 inch of fresh ginger and one small garlic clove and added these along with some olive oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground pepper, and salt to the vegetables, mixed it all, and poured it into a 9x12 pan. After about 25 minutes at 450°F (I turned it all once in the middle) the vegetable were delicious and gooey, perfect.

Now that I'm ready for winter, I just need to finish up my weather machine.

Salad, hummus, and Girl Scout cookies

2007-11-05T22:26:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't posted a lunch in a while, here is tomorrow's, although it's fairly uninspiring. As the CSA season draws to a close (our last vegetable delivery is this weekend) the choice of vegetables in my house grows pretty slim. Right now we have about 6 or 7 different varieties of leafy salad greens and not much else. I made a quick salad with greens and raisins. Before I leave for school in the morning I'll squeeze a lemon over it for dressing. I also have some crackers and hummus.

Finally, Sour Patch kids left over from Halloween and some cinna-spin Girl Scout cookies. I'm not particularly watchful for mysterious trace ingredients and hard-to-pronounce chemicals, but these cookies appear to be vegan. The "100-calorie pack" packaging is one of my pet peeves in life but I used to love Girl Scout cookies and I couldn't not buy vegan ones. I vaguely remember the Girl Scouts selling vegan oatmeal cookies last year, but I couldn't find them again this year. While these cinnamon cookies are pretty good, they don't quite measure up to my all time favorites, peanut butter patties and thin mints.

Life may change but chili is a constant

2007-10-13T17:41:00.000-04:00

I've obviously not been posting here much lately so the question remains: What have I been doing with myself? As hard as it is to believe, there's actually stuff going on in the world outside blog-land. Some things I've eaten and done since my last entry:
-Begun school
-Made a whole lot of pancakes
-Made even more chili (details below)

-Ridden the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster
-Eaten rice and peanut butter sandwiches (not together) practically on a daily basis (you aren't missing out on too much exciting food)
-Survived on Chipotle vegetarian burritos (ignore the silly facepaint)

-Gotten my butt kicked by school work
-Made cookies instead of working
-Saw some rally cool praying mantises
-Kicked some of my school work in the rear
-Begun college applications (let's pray that MIT loves me as much as I love it)
-Updated my blog roll at the side of this page. I deleted all of the blogs that are no longer active, added some new ones, and discovered that one of my links went to a porn site (oops!). If you have a vegan food blog and would like to be added just leave me a comment.
-Helped build a sukkah for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot

The chili pictured above is my standard meal for days when I'm feeling lazy, in need of comfort food, uncreative, or just plain hungry. The recipe varies from day to day (yes, I have gone entire weeks eating just chili), but it follows some general guidelines.

I start with whole cumin seeds in hot olive oil all in a large frying pan. Once the seeds get a little toasted I add diced garlic and onion and cook for a little while. Next is when the recipe starts to change. I take out whatever vegetables are sitting in the back of the fridge and need to be used up. This varies but usually includes some combination of the following: carrots, mushrooms, kale, spinach, bell pepper and hot peppers. If I have some other veggies that need to be used up I throw those in. I dice up these vegetables, add them to the pan and cook some more until everything is a little soft. Then I add cayenne pepper, oregano, and black pepper. If it's just me eating the chili I usually add cocoa powder and cinnamon but my dad doesn't like cinnamon and my mom avoids chocolate, so I often don't use these. Finally, I add in a rinsed can of dark red kidney beans and diced tomatoes (canned or fresh depending on which I have). A couple minutes before eating I stir in Morningstar Farms frozen veggie crumbles.

I like my chili with rice and I've worked out the whole chili-making process so that I can put up the frying pan for chili and the pot for rice at the same time and have them finish cooking simultaneously. In other words, making chili only takes about 20 minutes, the same amount of time as cooking basmati rice.

School is restarting soon...

2007-08-31T23:16:00.000-04:00

but frequent posts here may not be. I had a great time last year sharing my lunches with all of you, but I think I'm a little burnt out for now on the blogging front. I'm also not sure if I'll be taking lunches this year since I think I'm going to end up taking organic chemistry instead of lunch (if you didn't already notice, I'm a huge nerd) and just eating little bits in between classes. I'll try and post every once in a while since I am still cooking and eating and maybe I'll eventually get back to lunches.

Here's to a fabulous senior year of high school! Hoping you all the best.

Community Supported Agriculture

2007-08-15T21:46:00.001-04:00

As an experiment this summer, my family joined community supported agriculture (CSA). Every week we get local organic produce delivered to a nearby pickup location. Although we do sometimes get vegetables that nobody in my family likes too much (beets and bok choy anyone?), it's a lot of fun and a great way to try things I might have otherwise never bought. Additionally, we can go to the farm and pick a number of other crops and flowers for no extra charge. Most of the produce we get is in very good condition, and of course, very fresh. Even though I think CSA is a great experience and a really good cause, we probably won't be signing up again next year. The delivered shares only come in one size and for three people it's too much food. We've looked around a bit, but we haven't found anyone interested in splitting a box. Not to mention, next fall I'll be moving away and going off to college (woah, !

Right now we're getting some great varieties of heirloom tomatoes including the monsters pictured below:

Best Month Ever

2007-07-30T20:38:00.000-04:00

25 Reasons Why I Had the Best July Ever (aka why I never updated this blog)

The NJ Gov School on the Environment is an all-expense paid month long residential program that 72 amazing and extremely lucky rising high school seniors got the chance to participate in this July. I was one of those students.
Being completely myself and being completely comfortable.
Three days spent on a small island, learning about the ecosystem, kayaking, birdwatching, cooking, snorkeling, not showering, composting, using minimal electricity.
Midnight trip to a marsh to look for frogs and toads. Involved wading in knee deep mud and blazing through the Pine Barrens.
Working with other kids who are brilliant, creative, and highly motivated.
Amazing lecturers.
Even better teachers.
Rooming with some of the most interesting and crazy people that I've ever met and opening myself up to all of their quirks and interests.
Eating in a dining hall with multiple clearly-marked vegan options every day.
Inspiring others to go vegetarian.
Trips to the shore for class and just for fun.
Long walks on the beach and hot days in the sand.
Late nights working.
Late nights laughing, playing frisbee, playing volleyball, watching the stars.
No shoes + dirty feet.
Helping to catch a black widow spider
Not being afraid to do anything.
Saving the world.
Waking up to watch the sunrise and staying out to watch the sunset.
The New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Carnivorous plants.
Being proud of my background and my unique qualities.
Realizing that friendships can last a lifetime.
Knowing that life is getting better from here out.
Living, learning, loving, and knowing that I can initiate change.

Salad, chik'n sandwich, and CSA veggies

2007-06-05T17:03:00.000-04:00

What better to do with only a week of school and an unstarted 20-page paper due Monday than to update my blog? Nothing of course!

This Sunday was the first pickup for my community supported agriculture (CSA) group, which my family joined this year. As a shareholder in a local farm, my family gets a delivery of local organic vegetables each week. Luckily for us, the pickup location is less than a mile from our house and very convenient. This week we got 6 heads of lettuce (of varying varieties), sugar snap peas, bok choy, and strawberries. We still aren't quite sure how to use all the lettuce, but I'm thinking some lettuce wraps and taco salads are in our future. Any other ideas are appreciated.

I took some of the peas, lettuce, and strawberries for lunch yesterday. With the lettuce and strawberries is also an apricot, grapes, and Craisins. I also brought along some baby carrots, applesauce, and a Boca chick'n patty on some bread from a local bakery.

Tempura Vegetables

2007-06-02T12:35:00.000-04:00

I admit it, I've been a delinquent blogger. Contrary to what the state of my blog looks like, I'm still in school and packing lunches most days. I've sort of burned out on the lunch-making front, though, so I've stopped taking pictures since I'm sure nobody wants to see me eat fruit, carrots, and a bagel every day.

I've been pretty busy with end of the year projects and essays, but I've done a little cooking. My most successful experience being tempura vegetables. Despite my aversion to deep frying at home, I had to try these. The recipe was really easy and I'm one of those people who will eat anything deep fried. When I was an omni I would even eat deep-fried candy bars at fairs if I got a chance. If I could get a vegan variety I'd still eat them.

I saw the recipe on the vegan hedonism blog, which is awesome, you should all check it out.

Tempura Vegetables

for the tempura batter, mix the following:

1 c. unbleached white flour
3 tsp. mustard powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
and about 3/4 c. ice water

note: prepare this batter only immediately before frying the vegetables. the temperature of the batter is crucial to both how it holds to the vegetables, and also to how it cooks once submerged in the hot oil. the consistency should be smooth and just thick enough to stick to the vegetables. (i used canola oil over a high flame. about 2-3 minutes per piece should render them crispy and golden-brown at first, only 1 minute when the oil really gets going. any deep saucepan will work -- just remember to have a pair of tongs at hand!)

Before (this recipe made enough batter for all of the veggies save for a little bit of the broccoli):

After:

In the future, I'd either leave the carrots in the oil longer or not make them at all because they came out pretty crunchy. I also had to make sure to leave the potatoes in a little longer so that they would cook all the way through. Overall, the broccoli and asparagus came out the best. As a dipping sauce I mixed roughly equal parts of soy sauce and white wine vinegar with a few spoonfuls of sugar, but I'm sure you could buy a much better premade sauce or find a better recipe for sauce online.

Baked Tofu Fries

2007-05-02T16:53:00.000-04:00

Despite criticism by most omnis, I really do like tofu. Since I became vegetarian at a fairly young age, I can't quite remember what the texture of meat is like, which probably allows me to appreciate tofu even more. When I'm feeling lazy I like to bake some tofu fries, they take less than ten minutes of active prep time and taste great.

All you need to do is cut the tofu into pieces that are about the length of your pinkie finger and twice as wide. Then toss each piece in a mixture that is about half bread crumbs (use premade or make your own by putting toast in the food processor) and half nutritional yeast. Add in some garlic powder, salt, and any other seasonings you like, toss the tofu on a pan, and stick it in the oven on broil. Broil the tofu until is is brown (varies depending on the size of your pieces, but probably about 10 minutes per side). Make sure to check the tofu every few minutes so it doesn't burn. When it is lightly browned flip it over and cook about ten more minutes. Serve plain or with ketchup. To make it even easier, I don't press the tofu or prep it in any way, I just use it straight from the package, the moisture helps it hold the breading.

Rainy day eats

2007-04-16T14:04:00.000-04:00

Due to a statewide flood alert and high wind warnings, I managed to get the day off from school today. We aren't suffering any ill-effects from the storm other than a little water in the crawl space, so I'm taking advantage of some much-needed time to just chill.

This morning I took the time off and made some pancakes. They aren't always my favorite morning food, but they make me think back to when I was in elementary school and I would be allowed 7 or 8 friends to sleep over for my birthday. After a long night of truth or dare [can you believe that Susie likes Jimmy!] and terrible kid movies, we would all crash to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. Ahh, those were the days, but I digress, this was supposed to be about pancakes. When we woke up, my mom would make pancakes for me and all my sleep deprived friends.

This morning I edited Isa's recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance for Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Pancakes to make some Blueberry Chocolate Chip Pancakes. The only problem I've found with Isa's recipes as a whole is that the yields never quite work out for me. According to the book this should have made me about 10 pancakes, it ended up making closer to 20. Maybe I was making them smaller than I thought. On the bright side, pancakes freeze pretty well can are yummy reheated in the toaster oven.

Blueberry Chocolate Chip Pancakes
1 cup + 5 TBS all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup soymilk
2 TBS canola oil
3 TBS brown rice syrup or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
canola oil or cooking spray for pan

In a large mixing bowl sift together dry ingredients. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until just combined. Don't overmix.

Oil and preheat a nonstick pan or skillet. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto the hot pan and cook until small bubbles appear on the surface, flip and cook a minute more or until pancakes are browned on both sides. Repeat until all batter is used. Serve plain or with maple syrup. Makes about 20 pancakes)

For lunch I didn't feel much like cooking so I opened up a package of Trader Joe's Punjabi Eggplant and made some basmati rice. We don't have a Trader Joe's close to where I live, but my dad was passing one by on his way home the other day and he picked this up because he saw that it was vegan. For a product that looked like canned cat food coming out of the box (I'll spare you an actual photograph here), it was surprisingly good. Not restaurant quality but something I would buy again if I got the chance. The spices were well balanced and it wasn't too oily.

As a last plug, I would highly recommend checking out the new and improved VeggieBoards blog. With about 20 bloggers participating, the site is updated almost every day (sometimes more than once per day) and covers a wide variety of veg*n related topics. Bloggers include myself, Michael (the awesome creator of VeggieBoards), and the lovely Marti of the Fairly Odd Tofu Mom blog.

Passover Madness

2007-04-04T19:23:00.000-04:00

Passover is one of those holidays that I view with both anticipation and dread. It's of those times when my family gets to shine as the absolutely stereotypically Jewish family. Most years we trek to Queens or Long Island, stopping only in traffic to look at the Chasidic Jews with their long coats, beards, hats, and boxes of handmade shmura matzah walking home to prepare for the seder, the traditional ritual meal.

When we finally arrive at our destination sometime in the middle of the afternoon we're greeted by my sleep-deprived aunt who has been cooking straight for almost a week. She bustles around the kitchen, anxiously asking if we remembered the wine. Of course, the wine. It comes out of the trunk of our car by the case, two, three, maybe four cases full of wine. I lay the table, if I have a spare hour or so I make the salad. It takes a long time to make salad for this many people. The dinner tables stretch from the kitchen to the living room. There were once more than fifty people at a single family seder.

There is panic: nobody bought gefilte fish (of course, that doesn't bother me), we're out of matzah meal, where are the lemons? Of course, nothing is really the matter. The fish is in a jar in the back of the Passover closet, the matzah meal is just where it was left on the counter and the lemons are probably already out.

Guests slowly arrive throughout the afternoon, some are more useful than others. The younger kids run around throwing a ball until they are exiled to the short driveway to play. Some other guests wander into the kitchen to lend a hand, others sit on the couch and read a paper. My uncle Robert, who has Down's syndrome, wanders around the house asking when he will get a key chain (he collects them, he must have more than a thousand) and alternately telling us all that he hates and loves us. Then of course, there are the ever-present grumbles of, "When do we eat?"

And to be honest, that's the question that concerns everyone, "When do we eat?" [There was an absolutely horrendous Passover movie by this same title release a year or two ago, but I wouldn't recommend watching it unless you really want brainless entertainment that isn't that entertaining.] The answer to this question is unknown. We can't start until services are over and the people at services walk home. Then there are last minute concerns that take a good hour or so. If we're lucky we might get started by 8:30. If we aren't so lucky, maybe 9:30.

Starting the seder doesn't mean dinner, though. It means a long-winded Passover story, told in a mix of English and Hebrew (and it's never possible for everyone to be in the same place at the same time, someone always wants to rush ahead, lag behind, or just switch languages), two cups of wine, beating all the other guests with scallions or leeks (yes, it hurts sometimes, but it's great fun so it's worth it. put on some long sleeves and brave it like a champ, think of your ancestors who were beaten by their taskmasters in Egypt), celery, parsley, salt water, vinegar, matzah, charoset (see the recipe below), horribly out of tune singing, and a couple Talmudic and political debates. Eventually we reach shulchan orech, the festive meal. Hopefully it's before 10:15. Pouring soup and matzah balls for this many people takes quite some time.

We chow down, pass every dish around the table, and an hour or two later, we're ready to search for the afikoman, a piece of matzah hidden someplace in the house. Sometimes it's hidden really well. It might take another half an hour until someone finds it and trades it in for a prize. Finally we all have a bite of afikoman, sing the grace after meals, drink the last two cups of wine, sing some more, open the door for a prophet that doesn't exist to come in and drink a cup of wine off the dinner table, and finish the seder, if we're awake that is. It's a long proceeding, all of which will be repeated the next night.

Passover. Simultaneously my most and least favorite holiday of the year. With a few great recipes, though, you can pretend that you survived my whole family ordeal. Nobody would have noticed if you dropped in, anyway.

A great seder can only be judged by it's charoset, the sweet spread we eat to commemorate the mortar that our ancestors used to make bricks in Egypt. This recipe comes from my grandmother, and probably from some religious Jew before her, so you know it's good. Feel free to multiply it to serve as many as you need.

Charoset
Serves 4 as a side dish

1/4 cup almonds
1/3 cup walnuts
3/4 apple, peeled
2 dates
10 black grapes
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 pomegranate (optional)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of black pepper
1/4-1/2 cup sweet red wine

Add all ingredients except the wine into a food processor and process until chopped into coarse pieces. Pour into a bowl and slowly add the wine while mixing. Add wine until the mixture is uniformly moist and can almost be rolled into balls. The ingredients should not be swimming in wine. Serve at room temperature on matzah with romaine lettuce or just eat with a spoon. If you aren't observing Passover, it'd probably be good on some crackers.

I tried out this recipe for tzimmes from heeb'n vegan and it was delicious. Another crowd pleaser, just be sure to stir it every ten minutes or so after removing the cover or you will burn the nuts like I did. I subbed walnuts for pecans, which worked out well.

Sweet Potato Pear Tzimmes with Pecans and Raisins
Serves 6

2 pounds yams, peed and cut into 3/4 inch chunks
3 firm bartlett pears, cut into 3/4 inch chunks (without the seeds of course)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus spray on a little more if it needs it
2 tablespoons mirin (or any sweet cooking wine)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup pecan halves
3/4 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350.

Place yams and pears on a large rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with the oil and mirin and mix it all up to make sure everything is coated. I just use my hands for this. I use my hands for everything, actually. Add the maple syrup, cinnamon, salt and pecans and toss to coat.

Cover with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the tin foil and add the raisins. Carefully toss to combine using a thin flexible spatula and being careful not to break up the sweet potatoes. But tzimmes is a forgiving dish, so if some get mushed up that's perfectly acceptable.

Return to the oven uncovered and bake for a 1/2 hour more, tossing every now and again. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Apple Pie-Crumb Cake Muffins

2007-03-20T15:22:00.000-04:00

The recipe I promised:

Apple Pie-Crumb Cake Muffins
adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance

For muffins:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup apple cider (if you don't have cider, you can use water instead and increase the total amount of sugar to 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup grated apple
1/2 cup chopped apple (1/4-inch pieces)
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts or almonds

For Topping:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

In a small bowl, mix the topping ingredients, drizzling on the oil and mixing with your fingers until crumbs form. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease twelve-muffin tin.

In a large bowl, sift all the dry muffin ingredients. Stir in the wet ingredients. Fold in the grated and chopped apple and nuts.

Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full and sprinkle the topping over each muffin. Bake for 22 minutes.

Falafel, samosa, veggies

2007-03-19T22:34:00.000-04:00

Today's lunch was rather monochromatic, but still pretty yummy. Premade falafel (from the freezer section) in whole wheat mini pitas, green bell pepper, giant pretzels, a banana, and a homemade apple crumb cake muffin. The muffin is an edited (and dare I say, improved?) version of Isa's recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, which I will hopefully get around to posting in the next few days. If I forget and you're just on the edge of your seat waiting (which I'm sure you all will be) feel free to post a gentle reminder for me.

As Passover draws nearer in my household, though, the food choices continue to get narrower. We basically clear out the entire fridge and as much of the freezer as possible for Passover, so right now we're trying to finish things up. I, of course, am not a big fan of lack of selection, so I went out and picked up a couple samosas and some Indian food for dinner. For those who don't know, a samosa (shown above) is a savory Indian pastry filled with spiced potatoes and peas, wrapped in dough, and usually deep fried. I've made baked ones at home, but they aren't nearly as good as the terrible-for-you fried version. To make up for the unhealthiness of the samosa, I water-sauteed some asparagus and baby carrots with sesame seeds and packed some Cheerios on the side.

Plantains and pretzels

2007-03-16T16:47:00.000-04:00

I got off from school today because of the crazy weather so I spent some time cooking. For lunch I made fried plantains, which were just plantains sliced and fried in a little olive oil in a non-stick pan with a little brown sugar.

Later, to make up for my lack of math homework, I made some math oriented pretzels (yea, yea, I'm a big ol' dork) from another easy bread machine recipe. The shapes didn't hold up so well during the whole rising/boiling/baking process, but it was fun anyway.

We've had this recipe for a while. It was photo-copied out of a library book, but I'm not sure which one.

Pretzels
Makes about 8-10 pretzels

2/3 cup water
1 1/4 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1-1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Additionally you will need:
5 cups water
5 teaspoons baking soda
kosher salt or other topping

Add all ingredients from the first ingredient list in order into the bread machine and let it knead and rise in the machine. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Then divide and shape your pretzels. Cover and allow to rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.

In a non-aluminum pan bring 5 cups of water and 5 teaspoons of baking soda almost to a boil. Gently place the pretzels into the water and allow to cook for about 30 seconds on each side. Try not to let the water come to a full boil. Remove the pretzels with a slotted spoon and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt or other desired toppings. Bake at 475°F for 10-12 minutes or until brown.

Preboiling and baking (note the shapes, from left to right, top to bottom: pi, random circle, delta x, infinity, sigma, integral sign, and another infinity):

After baking:

Lasagna and couscous

2007-03-13T15:08:00.000-04:00

A backlog of lunches: that means double post for all you lucky readers.

Unlike most of the horror stories I hear about, most of my family is very accepting of my veganism. On Sunday I attended a family party where there was a ton of food that even I could eat. There were Asian noodles, veggie lasagna, rice, salad, fruit salad, sorbet, and all sorts of snacks (chips, cut vegetables, salsa, etc.). In fact, the only non-vegan parts of the meal were ice cream and a cheese lasagna (which wasn't nearly as popular as the vegan lasagna). I brought home some leftovers and had a ready-made lunch of rice, salad, and lasagna for Monday. The lasagna has tomato sauce, broiled eggplant, and tomatoes in layers in between the noodles. I put the bread on top of the rice before I closed my lunch and it all fit perfectly.

For today's lunch I have some couscous with peas and basil. Couscous is great it cooks in just a few minutes and is good cold. Although I pack my lunches at night, I still don't want to spend a ton of time. Couscous is the perfect way to have some real food without laboring for hours. There's also a little more bread, some red bell pepper, two Twizzlers, and some peanuts.

Pasta salad, French bread

2007-03-09T16:41:00.000-05:00

Today was a salad day for sure. I cooked up some ziti, then drained it, and mixed it with diced bell pepper and carrots. Seasoned with basil, garlic powder, onion powder, nutritional yeast, pepper, and a little salt. I also have some organic mixed greens with sprouts and fruit, as usual.

The credit for this bread does not go to me, but to my mom. You can take my word, however, that it is delicious.

From the cookbook Bread Machine Magic:

Authentic French Bread
Makes one 1 1/2 lb loaf (measurements to make a 1 lb loaf in parentheses)

1 (3/4) cup water
1 1/2 (1) tsp salt
3 (2) cups bread flour
2 1/2 (2 1/2) tsp yeast
cornmeal

Add all ingredients except the cornmeal to the bread machine in order. Select dough setting and start machine. When the dough is done rising in the machine, turn it out onto a floured surface.

For a 1 1/2 lb loaf, shape the dough into either one 12-inch oblong loaf, 1 large round loaf, 2 thin 18-inch thin baguettes, or 8 rolls

For a 1 lb loaf, shape the dough into either one 10-inch oblong loaf, one large loaf, one thing 24-inch baguette, or 6 rolls.

Dust the top(s) with a little flour and rub it in. Place on a cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal. With a sharp knife or razor, slash the tops about 1/2 inch deep down the center. On an oblong loaf make 3 slashes, on a round loaf make an "X" or "#". Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for until doubled (around 30-45 minutes).

Place a pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven (this will make the bread have a crispier crust). Preheat the oven to 450°F. Bake the round or oblong loaf about 20 minutes, the baguettes about 15 minutes, and the rolls 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and serve warm or cool on a rack.

This bread does go stale quickly so it's best made within a few hours of eating.

If you don't have a bread machine I imagine you could add the warm water into a bowl and then proof the yeast for about 5 minutes. Then add the salt and flour and knead for 10 minutes. Allow to rise until doubled and then follow the above directions.

I've never tried this without a bread machine, but I'm relatively certain that it would work

Sandwich time

2007-03-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

A lunch that was pretty quick to throw together today: Boca chick'n patty on whole grain bread. I put the baby spinach leaves on the sandwich at lunch time. Also for lunch were carrots, hummus, salted peanuts, and some terrible jelly beans (I can't remember the brand, but they were horrendous. Really waxy and bad flavors). Kicking alongside are some organic raisins, apple juice, mango, kiwi, grapes, and strawberries

One year vegan-iversary

2007-03-06T19:23:00.000-05:00

Today marks my one year anniversary of becoming vegan. It's been a little rough at times, but I'm really glad that I took the plunge. For anyone out there who is toying with the idea of going vegan, go for it! Even if you have to take baby steps, I have faith in you.

Yes, I'll admit it takes a lot of self control to say no thanks to free desserts and late night trips for ice cream or pizza, but there's something just so rewarding about it all. More than even helping the animals and the environment (both of which are huge), I get immense self-gratitude from being vegan. I used to have no self control. I couldn't say no to food when it was offered to me and I would eat and eat and eat and just never stop. Even though I can still probably down a 1 lb bag of Twizzlers (and yes, I have done this in the past), I've gained something personally from this whole journey. Somewhere along the way I've realized that I have more control over my life and myself than I ever thought I could.

Now that I've celebrated my veganism, onto a lunch

Leftover homemade pizza (topped with marinara sauce, mushrooms, spinach, bell pepper, nutritional yeast, Morningstar veggie crumbles), 2 hamentaschen, two little boxes of raisins, pretzels, mango, kiwi, and strawberries.

Normally we don't buy the little packages of pretzels, raisins, etc. because they're wasteful and more expensive, but we received a whole bunch of them in gift bags of food for Purim over the weekend, so they'll probably be showing up a bit over the next few days.

Happy Purim!

2007-03-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

Happy Purim today to those of you that celebrate. In honor of the holiday I made hamentaschen, a traditional three-cornered cookie.

Most people today fill hamentaschen with jam, pie filling, poppy seeds (yuck!), or chocolate chips, but I didn't have any of those items on hand. What I did have was a wonderfully ripe mango. I decided to explore the unknown and make mango hamentaschen. The results: a success!

I veganized a recipe from The Spice and Spirit of Kosher-Jewish Cooking.

Mix By Hand-Hamentaschen

2 cups flour
2 eggs worth of egg replacer (I used 1T ground flax + 3T water for each egg, and even though it tasted fine, it gave my hamentaschen a spotted, "healthy" look. If you care about this, you might want to try a different egg replacer)
3/8 cup sugar
1 stick margarine, softened
1/2 TBS orange juice
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
Filling of your choice (any thick jam, pie filling, diced cooked fruit thickened with corn/tapioca starch, chocolate chips, etc.)

Mix all ingredients together by hand. You may want to add a little more juice if the dough is too dry to roll. Roll the dough very thing (about 1/8") on a floured surface. Use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut circles out of the dough.

Place about 1 tsp of filling in the center of each circle. If you use much more filling than this they will leak when you try to bake them. Fold along the lines shown in the picture below to form a triangle shape. Firmly seal corners.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350° for about 20-22 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Before hamentaschen making, though, I needed a good breakfast. That was when I turned to my trusty copy of Vegan with a Vengeance. The banana pancakes were great. They cooked up really well and were delicious and fluffy.

salad

2007-02-25T21:39:00.000-05:00

Here I am, the stereotypical vegan, taking a salad (with sprouts!), fruit, and steamed vegetables for lunch. Half a cinnamon raisin bagel on the side.

I also made a peanut butter sandwich and I'll probably grab some chips and a soy yogurt when I leave the house because I'm staying at school until 9PM tomorrow for band rehearsal. For now I'm just hoping that there will be enough snow tonight to cancel school for tomorrow.

I'm really excited because last night I convinced my family to sign up for a community supported agriculture program for the spring through the fall. From mid-May until November, we will be getting weekly shipments of local, seasonal, organic produce from a family-run farm. I can't wait to get started!

Right now I'm into my busiest time of the year. I probably won't be around much the rest of this week. Between my classes, jazz band, wind ensemble, a performance for the Chinese department at my school, and a few other extracurriculars, I won't particularly be home. Happy Monday and I hope everyone has a less stressful week than I'm sure to have!

Black bean burger

2007-02-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

I had a little bit of black beans left from yesterday's quinoa with beans so I decided to make a burger for today. I didn't have a recipe, I just went through the kitchen and mashed up whatever I thought might be good together. I think I ended up with approximately: 1/4 c black beans, 1/4 cup firm tofu, crumbled, 1 T ground flax seed, 1 T wheat germ, 1/2 t Tabasco sauce, 1 t oregano, 1 T frozen defrosted peas, 1/3 slice of crumbled toast. After I mashed it all together with a fork I shaped the mixture into a patty and cooked it in a nonstick pan for a couple minutes on each side. Surprisingly it stayed together. From start to finish, it took less than 10 minutes to make a healthy burger completely from scratch. It ended up being a little bland so I might end up adding some more spices if I try this again.

For lunch, I have the burger on whole grain bread with pre-packed organic spring greens. I just left the top slice of bread off for the picture. Also pictured are some more grapes and baby yellow peppers.

Do an extra snow dance for me tonight so I can have the day off tomorrow.

Quinoa with black beans

2007-02-12T21:16:00.000-05:00

What's a girl to do when the cupboards are bare? Make quinoa! I've been in a bit of a rut lately with my lunches (and with cooking in general) so I decided to be a little more interesting today with the meager fixings I found around the kitchen. I sauteed a carrot, some garlic, and bell pepper with some salt and pepper, then added most of a can of black beans, 1/3 cup of quinoa, and 2/3 cup of water. Put a cover on the post and let it simmer for 15 minutes and a meal is ready. This made about twice the amount that you see here in the lunch box.

While the quinoa cooked, I made a potato with black pepper in the microwave and grabbed a carrot raisin muffin. I was a little disappointed with these muffins. They are edible, but I probably won't make them again. I had to cook them about 15 minutes more than the recipe stated and they still didn't all completely cook. I'm not sure what was going on, the recipe was from Vegan with a Vengeance so I was really surprised that it didn't work.

Some fruit on the side, an orange, some grapes, and a not-in-season, not local, not very tasty apple. That'll teach me not to eat grocery store apples.

I'm thinking about finally purchasing a Laptop Lunch Box. They're cute and more convenient than the container I currently use because the sections don't leak into each other. Anyway, if shmoo uses one, I want one, too! According to an email I got today, the new laptop lunch box is improved and will be going up in price soon. I guess I should get on it if I'm really going to order one of these.

Bagel and chick'n patty

2007-02-06T21:45:00.000-05:00

Lunch thrown together quickly. Whole wheat bagel with a Boca Spicy Chick'n Patty, steamed brussel sprouts, and some mixed greens and tomatoes that I put on the bagel at lunchtime.

Pasta, stir fry

2007-02-04T19:22:00.000-05:00

A backlogged lunch; because there really is no better time to update a blog than at 7:30 on the night before a paper you haven't started is due.

This was a failed attempt to imitate the veganlunchbox blog's lo mein lunch. I cooked some spaghetti and then tossed it around in a frying pan with some soy sauce and vinegar. I also stir fried some veggies and tofu. The pasta just ended up really dry and a little salty, not like lo mein, but still not bad. The stir fry was also pretty good. Also pictured are peanuts, blood oranges, plum, sugar snap peas, grapes, and carrots.

Happy Monday!

Bagel and veggies with hummus

2007-01-23T21:54:00.000-05:00

My dad found these little hummus containers at the supermarket and bought a package just for me. I don't really think the separate package is necessary since I could take an extra two seconds and put some hummus into my own reusable container, but it was a nice thought. The hummus itself was a bit of a disappointment, it didn't taste much like hummus at all. The hummus came in packs of four, each of which is a different type. I've also tasted the roasted red pepper one, which was equally mediocre. Also pictured are a mini bagel, cucumber, carrots, a banana, strawberries, grapes, mango, and a few figs

Pasta, cereal

2007-01-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

I've been a quite the delinquent blogger and blog reader the last few weeks so I just noticed that one of my favorite blogs, the vegan lunchcast, is back up and running after extended downtime! Check it out for some lunches that are way more interesting and varied than mine will ever be.

And back to the same old...

Ziti, bell pepper, walnuts and pistachios from Friday.
On Thursday I took a cute little box of soymilk and a container of Cheerios. Come lunch I had non-soggy cereal with soymilk. I'm not a huge fan of the taste of EdenSoy soymilk, but it's the only brand we can get in individual boxes. I don't like drinking soymilk a whole lot so it's really convinient to be able to get the individual boxes which have a long shelf life since I often can't finish the regular carton before it expires.

Spaghetti

2007-01-16T18:52:00.000-05:00

I like leftovers, but there never seem to be any in my house. That's probably my fault. You'd never guess it by looking at me, but I, the tiny, barely 5' 2" girl can eat more at one sitting than most people can at two or three. Today, however, I did have leftovers that made it to my lunch.

Featured above, spaghetti with steamed broccoli, a little bit of olive oil to prevent sticking, and some red pepper flakes. Some pistachio nuts and pita chips on the side in addition to cantaloupe, carrots, and an orange.

(i just realized that I've had carrots in every single lunch that I've packed this year. What can I say, I'm a creature of habit!)

Tabbouleh and paratha

2007-01-15T17:46:00.000-05:00

I'm off from school today for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but I never posted Friday's lunch, so here it is.
I had aloo paratha, which is an Indian flatbread made with potatoes. I've made paratha myself in the past, but it's never as good as the kind I can get in the Indian grocery store, so now I just buy it. This variety is slightly spicy and a little oily.

Continuing with the store-bought ethnic foods is tabbouleh. My mom's tabbouleh is better than the pre-packaged but sometimes it's just easier to buy a huge tub of the pre-made, which is still pretty good. Tabbouleh is generally made from bulghur wheat, parsley, tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, and onions.

I also had baby carrots, dark chocolate gelt (chocolate coins), and a peanut butter sandwich that I managed to squeeze into a little container to stop if from getting soggy.

Tagging along on the side is some great fresh fruit: mango, cherries, and strawberries

The Best Brussel Sprouts

2007-01-14T20:44:00.000-05:00

Up until today I had no real opinion about brussel sprouts. If someone else made them for me, I'd have a few, but I wouldn't go out of my way to purchase them. Tonight, though, I tried out the recipe for The Best Brussel Sprouts from the Vegan Lunch Box cookbook and I was blown away. I made about a third of the recipe since I'm only one person, but they were so good that I wish I'd made more. I'm a convert, I love brussel sprouts.

Ramen and veggies

2007-01-11T19:50:00.000-05:00

Some people love raw food. Some people even go so far as to switch to a raw food diet. I am not one of those people. I love my cooked things, steamed, fried, or boiled to mushy oblivion. Whatever it is, if it's cooked, it's good with me. If it's hot it's even better. I haven't bought a Thermos yet (honestly, I'm probably to lazy/rushed in the morning to heat something up anyway) so I settle for cold cooked food. Today's lunch was steamed carrots, steamed broccoli, and cold ramen (hey, I'm a student, I'm allowed to eat ramen, even if it is sickeningly unhealthy!) .

Snack of mostly Cheerios with some pretzels, chocolate chips, walnuts, and peanuts. It's mostly Cheerios, it's just that they're at the bottom of the container.

Pizza

2007-01-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

Despite less than rave reviews from others, I rather like Tofutti mozerella slices. Today I made a quick pizza with store bought sauce, French bread, and Tofutti slices. I also had peanuts, pretzels, and raisins (hiding next to the peanuts). On the produce front, there were grapes and carrots.

Veggie pancakes, cucumber salad

2007-01-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

For tomorrow I have some comfort food: cucumber salad (thinly sliced cucumbers and mushrooms with vinegar, olive oil, and kosher salt) and mini veggie pancakes with ketchup. The veggie pancakes are Ratner's brand from the freezer section, not homemade, but are delicious regardless.

We found dried apple chunks at Costco. They are pretty soft and chewy and remind me more of fruit snacks than dried fruit, but are good either way. Alongside the apples are some carrots.

Fruit on the side includes pineapple, cantaloupe, and apple.

First lunch of the new year

2007-01-01T20:26:00.000-05:00

Starting out the new year with an actual lunch. Hopefully soon I'll get back to things that are a little more interesting soon, but for now I'm in a bit of a rut. I have mint double stuff Oreos, a pumpkin cranberry muffin, and a pita bread with natural peanut butter.

If you ever find yourself in New York near Queens it is imperative that you take a trip to Queens Pita in Flushing. The thick pita there is the closest to Israeli pita that I've ever had in the US. They make it fresh and you can buy it by the bag to take home. If you think pita is a dry crumbly bread you are in for a surprise. Queens Pita is soft and absolutely delicious.

One of my friends carries around a big bag full of fresh fruits and veggies and just snacks all day. Since tomorrow is one of the days when I have to stay at school until 5PM, I decided to follow her lead. Next to my lunch I have a container with an apple, cantaloupe, and carrots.

matzo balls, cookies, seitan

2006-12-28T01:42:00.000-05:00

I'm still alive!

Everything has been crazy lately but I'm finally off on my break from school. I'm keeping up [or trying to] four blogs, moderating over at VeggieBoards, and kicking my own butt with stuff for school, band, and [hopefully] college admissions for next year.

On the cooking front, I made five dozen cookies to give out for Christmas, the Sparkled Ginger cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance were the most popular ones. I also made the Gigantoid Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies from VwaV.

On Christmas Day I took advantage of the day off and made matzo balls (also from VwaV). They came out really well despite my less than optimistic expectations. The soup was just something my dad pulled together from the stuff leftover in the refrigerator.

Yesterday was my first ever seitan experience. I made a hybrid of a few recipes I found online and the results were mediocre. I baked the seitan so there wasn't a brainy texture issue, but it's kind of soft and squishy still. I froze most of it so I'll probably be messing around with it to see how to make it better in the next few weeks.

I received both the Vegan Lunch Box cookbook and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for Channukah, but I've yet to make anything from either (although they both look great).

Hope everyone's holidays have been less hectic than mine and a happy new year to all.

Holiday gifts

2006-12-01T19:05:00.000-05:00

Preparing gifts for the holidays doesn't have to be stressful (I'm probably just saying that because I haven't started this year's presents yet). Everyone loves something homemade that shows that you put some time into their gift.

Homemade mixes to make cookies, hot chocolate, etc. are great. Just mix up all the dry ingredients and make up a tag with instructions on how to finish making the item.

Bake cookies or cupcakes and wrap them up. Along with a note or card with a heartfelt message these can be great gifts.

If you're into making bath soaps/body care products, these are also fun.

Learning to make jewelry is easy. Pick up some beads at a craft store or make your own beads out of polymer clay or other material. String them up and attach a clasp or put them on earring backings and you have a simple gift that looks professional and is functional.

Everyone loves sock monkeys. Check out this tutorial to learn how to make sock monkeys. They only require very basic sewing skills and they come out really well every time. If you're a little more ambitious you can personalize or theme your monkeys. You can make any accessories that your mind can come up with. Google searches will bring up lots of other types of sock animals, just remember to use new/clean socks!

I went the sock monkey route last year:

Monkey Van Gogh and a Punk Monkey

If you're artistic (I wish!) you can make drawings, painting etc. for friends and family.

When all else fails, treat someone to a dinner, movie, show, sporting event, or other event that you think they will enjoy. Sometimes time well spent can be a better gift than something material.

Above all, just remember to have fun. Holidays aren't meant for stress, they're meant as a time to reflect and appreciate everything you have in life.

Cous cous and stir fry

2006-11-30T20:21:00.000-05:00

There is nothing that the lazy lunchmaker likes more than leftovers. Today I had leftover cous cous (a mixture of regular and whole wheat) with stir fry (carrots, tempeh, broccoli, asparagus). It was great at room temperature. I finished off the meal with an orange, peanuts, chocolate chips, and carrots (not pictured).

Rice Krispie Treats

2006-11-26T22:23:00.000-05:00

From start to finish my vegan Rice Krispie treats only took about 10-15 minutes. I've never actually had real Rice Krispie treats, but these are mightily delicious. I only made a third of the recipe since I didn't have 6 cups of cereal, but it turned out to be the perfect amount.

New Camera

2006-11-24T20:39:00.000-05:00

Since today was Black Friday, I decided that it was time to replace my lost camera. I am now the proud owner of an HP Photosmart M525 digital camera. It is 6 megapixels and has a 3x optical zoom. It isn't the fanciest camera but since I'm not a hardcore photographer I think it will suit me well. It was only $100 and I got a 1 GB memory card to go with it for $7. My new acquisition means that lunch photos should be back in full force on Tuesday (I'm taking my driving test to get my license on Monday, so I'll be leaving school before lunch to get to the test in time).

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T19:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Everything except the turkey was vegan (and everything was kosher) at my family's Thanksgiving for eight.

We had:
Green salad with homemade dressing
Indian Rice Salad
Pickles (Israeli, dill, and mushroom)
Vegetable soup
Grapefruit, oranges
Homemade bread (white and whole wheat)
Steamed asparagus
Ginger roasted winter vegetables
Cranberry sauce
Baked white potatoes
Sauteed vegetables
Apple pie (premade crust filled with apples and cranberries)
Raisins, Craisins, walnuts, cashews

Happy birthday to me!

2006-11-21T19:52:00.000-05:00

Tonight was my first ever birthday cake that didn't come from a boxed mix. I used this recipe which was almost as easy as a prepackaged mix. The filling inbetween the layers is Soy Delicious Mint Marble Fudge "ice cream". My mom marveled that a vegan cake with "weird soy ice cream" could be this good.

We cut open the side of the ice cream container and then sliced the ice cream and put it on top of the first layer. By the time that step was done, it was all a little melted so we spread it even with a knife and then slid on the second layer. The icing is cookies and cream.

Cookies and Cream Frosting
4 oz plain Tofutti cream cheese
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1 TBS margarine
1 tsp vanilla
5 Oreo (or similar type) cookies*

Measure the Tofutti, margarine, and vanilla into a bowl. Gradually add in the sifted confectioners sugar while beating with an electric mixer. Beat until icing is fluffy. Place cookies in a bag and crush with your hands, a hammer, or another heavy object. Once the cookies are coarsely crushed, fold them into the frosting. Ice your cake. Makes enough frosting for one (tall) 9' round cake.

*Most Oreos are actually vegan. There are some rogue packages floating around with dried whey in the ingredients, so check before you buy them if you're a vegan. Alternately, Newman-O's taste almost exactly the same, are not hydrogenated, and are always vegan.

For dinner my mom and I made Morrocan Tangine with Spring Vegetables from VwaV. The recipe took a while and a bunch of ingredients, but it was worth the time. It's one of the top few recipes I've tried from VwaV so far (and that's saying something because I've made 35+ things from the book).

Here's to a fabulous year!

Home from China

2006-11-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

Ten days later and with changed thoughts, a rumbling stomach, and an entirely new set of experiences, I arrive home from China.

As far as food goes, the experience was pretty bad. I special ordered vegan meals for the plane (Air China). Special meals were only available on the international flights, not the domestic ones. They said vegan meals would be available but the only vegetarian entree on the way there was rice doused in sauce and cheese. On the way home I got some overcooked vegetables in tomato sauce that actually weren't too bad. There was also a roll, which I think was vegan (my Chinese isn't the best, but I didn't recognize eggs, butter, or milk in the ingredients so I ate it), some iceberg lettuce, and unripe melon.

Breakfast was provided in my hotels and at the least they all had toast and jam. Most also had cereal, baozi (steamed buns) with bean paste filling, and one or two tofu or vegetable dishes. Since I was on a school trip, the rest of our meals were pre-ordered at restaurants. They all had rice, about half had some variety of cabbage, and a few had tofu or cooked greens. I wasn't a big fan of the food but it was bearable. I packed dried mango, crackers, ramen, raisins, and mixed nuts in my luggage for snacking.

We saw the typical sights (the Great Wall, Tianamen Square, Terracotta Soldiers, etc.) but also went to a few places a little more off the beaten path. I really enjoyed some of the Buddhist temples which were a beautiful haven from the crowded, noisy, and polluted cities. I brought home with me four new sets of chopsticks, some delicious green tea, and a really warm hat.

Seeing the poverty and pollution that's the norm of many of the cities in China was jarring. When I first left the airport in Beijing the smog was so thick that I couldn't see the tops of buildings that were right down the street. It seemed like there were people begging on every corner, many of whom were missing arms, legs, or who were otherwise disabled. I have never been so appreciative of where I live as I was when my plane landed at JFK Airport in New York this afternoon.

I managed to get through all of China without losing anything until the bus ride home from the airport when I lost my camera. Hopefully I'll be able to retrieve it from the bus company, but until then, no more pictures from me.

China!

2006-10-31T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm off to China tomorrow, expect lots of pictures and a very hungry vegan when I return.

Pomegranate, crackers, hummus

2006-10-27T17:08:00.000-04:00

I had my first ever pomegranate yesterday and all I can say is wow. I think I have a new favorite fruit. It's a shame that pomegranates are so expensive around here ($2.50 each).

Today's lunch featured some pomegranate, hummus, pretzels, and Wasa sesame crackers.

My camera must not like the lighting in my room because my pictures are coming out abnormally blurry.

Pumpkin muffins and lunch

2006-10-26T19:33:00.000-04:00

I made The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance yesterday and Isa doesn't lie - these are the best and perfect for fall (and this is coming from a girl who considers muffins to be their own food group). If you don't have VwaV yet, you need to buy it. It is one of the best things that has ever happened to my mouth.

Today's lunch was a quick one, a muffin, mixed nuts, carrots, and an apple.

Delayed lunch: ramen, scone

2006-10-21T13:37:00.000-04:00

I think this one is from Thursday:

Standby of ramen noodles, almonds, and a cranberry scone. The scone is from Vegan with a Vengeance so I'm not posting the recipe, but I used the basic scone recipe and added a cup of cranberries.

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in the last few days. Unfortunately, this trend may be continued in the near future. I've been really busy with little time to make interesting lunches and even less time to post about them. Hope everyone is doing well!

Sweet potato, dates, kiwi

2006-10-17T17:00:00.000-04:00

If nothing else, today's lunch was colorful. A kiwi, puppy chow, a sweet potato, dates, and walnuts. The cereal got a little soggy from the kiwi but it was still pretty good.

Chickpeas, tomatoes

2006-10-16T20:29:00.000-04:00

I know groceries are running low when I resort to canned chickpeas for lunch. Today's lunch was tortilla chips, blueberry Silk yogurt, chickpeas (with some random spices thrown in), cherry tomatoes from the garden, and a mixture of walnuts, chocolate, and Craisins. I had the apple and raisins for snack earlier in the day.

16 days until China!

And we're syndicated

2006-10-15T15:59:00.000-04:00

I've been LJ syndicated for a while now I just forgot to post about it. If you are more into LiveJournal than blogger, you can add my blog onto your friends page. Syndication courtesy of supercarrot.

I really need to get back into cooking. School has been keeping me busy and I've been eating pretty badly (as in I've been subsisting on pita bread, cereal, and the occassional pasta). Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things soon.

Salad and an apple

2006-10-13T18:43:00.000-04:00

I had a terrible headache and went to sleep really early last night. My mom, being a lovely person, packed me some lunch.

I had a salad with dressing (in the lidded container), an apple, and a fresh pita (not pictured). Store bought pita is often thin, cracked, dry, and not very good. Fresh pita from a good bakery (i.e. in Brooklyn) is amazingly soft and delicious. I especially like the thick ones.

I'm trying to make the best of apple season while it lasts. It's so convenient (not to mention delicious) to be able to drive ten minutes to buy apples fresh from the people who picked them (or to pick them myself). I don't particularly eat apple the rest of the year because a supermarket apple is just gross compared to these beauties. That's sad, I'm so into apples that I see them as beautiful.

Spagetti and puppy chow

2006-10-11T21:52:00.000-04:00

Today was another rush around in the morning lunch that resulted in PB sandwich, walnuts, and dried fruit. No pictures but it wasn't too exciting.

I made multi-grain spagetti with a little tomato sauce, steamed broccoli, and Morningstar Farms chick'n strips (they're hiding in the picture) for tomorrow. I'm also taking an apple and some puppy chow

Neither is very photogenic but it's bound to be a delicious day. Puppy chow is basically pure sugar with some fat so there isn't much of a place to go wrong. I decided to bring my spagetti in a different container tomorrow so I could bring a little more of it.

Couscous and fruit

2006-10-10T18:57:00.000-04:00

Pineapple, grapes, cucumber, hummus, and some leftover couscous (flavor from a box: toasted pinenuts and spices).

Schoolwork has been leaving me with not much time for cooking, but atleast I'm learning a lot of fun and really cool things (if you forget about calculus and history...)

New Harmony Vegan Chinese Food

2006-10-09T21:09:00.000-04:00

I was in Philly today with my dad and we stopped off at New Harmony for vegan Chinese lunch (thanks to Kate at Rabbit Food for the recommendation) . We didn't realize that the portions would be huge so we ordered two things. First was the fried dim sum. I'm not sure my memory is 100% on what was included but I remember 2 spring rolls, 2 breaded shrimp things, 6 pieces of sesame chicken, 2 beef things, a scallion pancake, two taro cakes, and two turnip cakes. Neither of us really like the shrimp (but I never liked seafood and neither of us has ever had real shrimp) but the rest was good. The taro/turnip cakes were a little bland but good with some sauce (we got ginger soy sauce, duck sauce, and sweet and sour sauce).

Then we had a lunch special of General Tso's chicken with wonton soup and brown rice. It was really good and a little spicy. The soup was a little salty for my taste but was also pretty yummy. Overall it was a great experience with lots of leftovers and I would definitely go again. I was going to take leftovers for lunch tomorrow but my family devoured them, I guess I'm left to my own devices to make lunch.

My favorite vegan Chinese is still Veggie Heaven in Parsippany, NJ but New Harmony was pretty close.

Freezing Tofu

2006-10-07T21:36:00.000-04:00

Freezing tofu is a very simple process that far too many people seem confused about. It changes the texture of the tofu and makes it absorb flavor much better. It also keeps practically forever which is good if you aren't cooking for too many people or if you don't use tofu very often. To aid the confused people, I made a quick photo tutorial for a lazy person to freeze tofu.

First cut your tofu into serving size chunks. I'm usually only cooking for one or two people so I can get 4-6 pieces per 14 oz container.

Next place each piece in a bag to freeze. You can use fancy ziploc bags but I use sandwich bags because they're cheaper and they work just as well.

Alternately, you could freeze the pieces on a piece of wax or parchment paper.

Tie a knot (or seal) the top of each bag. Since you didn't drain or press the tofu there will be some liquid in the bag, don't worry about it. Put the bags in the freezer.

When your tofu is hard and frozen, it's ready to be used. It naturally changes color when it freezes, the yellow tinge does not indicate spoilage. Rip or cut open the bag. You are now left with a choice between several methods to defrost your tofu.

My preferred method is to microwave the tofu in 1-2 minute increments until it is defrosted (around 3-4 minutes for my size pieces). Be careful, parts of the tofu may be freezing cold while others will be hot enough to burn you.

Other choices for defrosting include leaving your tofu in the refrigerator overnight to defrost or leaving it out on a counter. You can also boil it in water or broth.

After your tofu is defrosted, drain water and press out any excess with a paper towel between your hands. Then slice and cook your tofu as desired.

I've also frozen tofu in bite size pieces/slices but it's just more of a pain for me since I then have to spread them all out on a sheet to freeze so they don't stick.

As a heads up, no lunch on Monday. I have off from school for Columbus Day. I will probably be home doing homework and makeup work all day since I will be missing a week of school when I go to China in less than a month from now!

I'm already thinking about eating vegan in China. It's going to be tough since it's a school organized trip and all the meals are pre-planned and are all Chinese food. My teacher said that they have planned three meat and two vegetable dishes at every meal, but I know a lot of people consider chicken with broccoli to be a vegetable dish. I plan on bringing nuts, dried fruit, crackers, and peanut butter in my suitcase. The hotel we're staying at also supposedly has American and Chinese breakfast, which I'm hoping means that there will be cereal. I'm a fairly adventurous eater when I get the chance so I really will try anything if I think it's vegan.

Chex cereal and books

2006-10-06T19:58:00.000-04:00

I was really busy last night and I had no time to pack lunch. That left today's lunch to be thrown together at the last minute this morning. Chex, walnuts, and an apple.

Today I went to New Jersey's largest and oldest rummage sale where I got some lovely books for cheap.

Add these to the books that I got at my local library sale a few weeks ago

and I got a total of 20 books for $9. I love used books sales, and I especially love used books. Now I just have to figure out where to put all the books.

I just finished some crafting for a swap but I'll wait to post pictures until after the person I'm swapping with receives the package. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!

Bagel and quinoa, Salad and fruit

2006-10-05T16:04:00.000-04:00

Lunch from yesterday and today:

Toasted whole wheat bagel with hummus, 2 small carrots, leftover quinoa with a few spices, box of raisins. I don't like quinoa all that much but it's okay once in a while. I probably won't have it again soon.

Last night we went to the fruit/veggie store, which led to the making of today's lunch. Cantaloupe, half a grapefruit, and salad (raw kale, yellow pepper, cucumber, walnuts, craisins, dried apricot, salt, black pepper) with no dressing. I love cooked kale but raw isn't half bad.

Apples, PB, pretzels, cookies

2006-10-03T19:40:00.000-04:00

Hey, I never claimed to be healthy! I wasn't feeling great this morning and I didn't have much time so I threw together lunch in a bit of a hurry. Pretzels, a few cookies (I made so many of these but they keep practically forever), and an apple with natural PB.

Ramen and chickpeas

2006-09-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

Groceries were running a bit low so I went with some packaged things today. Ramen, canned chickpeas with tomatoes, carrot, and parsley, and a few more cookies.

Seeing as Monday is Yom Kippur I have no school and I obviously won't be eating lunch. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll see you on Tuesday.

Chik'n patty, pita, carrot oat cookies

2006-09-28T19:45:00.000-04:00

Sliced banana, strawberry soy yogurt whole wheat pita with hummus, ketchup with Boca chik'n patty. I miss the Morningstar Farm ones from my lacto-ovo days, they were way better. Carrot oat cookies that I made last night. I used this recipe but I added another flax egg to make them softer. They worked out great but in the future I might use a bit less salt.

Pasta Salad

2006-09-27T20:27:00.000-04:00

I took the leftover pasta from yesterday and made pasta salad. It has pasta, tomatoes (from the garden), fresh basil, oregano, salt, pepper, carrot, an Israeli pickle, a little garlic, and olive oil. I would have used more veggies but there aren't many in the house. Had I been eating at home I would have added some nutritional yeast but I think the stuff smells terrible so I held off.

Packed alongside the pasta is a pear and a mix of sunflower seeds, raw cashews, chocolate chips, and Craisins. I was going to take a soy yogurt buy I decided against it at the last minute since I had some things to do during lunch.

Question: I've seen lots of things online about people eating raw nuts. Is there some reason why you aren't supposed to eat them raw? My mom is convinced that it will make me sick but I'm far too lazy to toast them and we have a big bag of raw almonds and another of cashews. I've never experienced any ill side effects.

I baked some carrot oat cookies tonight, expect to see them in tomorrow's lunch.

Pasta

2006-09-26T19:53:00.000-04:00

Leftover pasta, green grapes, a plum (hiding under the peaches), and peaches.

Waffles and soy yogurt

2006-09-25T17:19:00.000-04:00

Another quick lunch today. Oatmeal raisin waffles from the freezer (recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance), an apple, raw almonds, and a Silk blueberry soy yogurt. Every few weekends I make a big batch of waffles and freeze most of them so that I have quick breakfasts (or in this case, lunches) during the week.

In addition to my lunch box, I carry my trusty Nalgene bottle every day. I even have a nifty little lid to stop me from spilling water all over myself.

Sick

2006-09-22T08:21:00.000-04:00

I'm home sick from school so no lunch from yesterday or today. With my trusty box of tissues by my side I will hopefully return in full force on Monday.

Veggie burger with guacamole

2006-09-20T18:43:00.000-04:00

I was feeling terrible this morning but I ended up dragging myself into school a little late. For lunch I had an apple (with some OJ on it to keep it from browning) and a Dr. Prager's veggie burger with cucumber and guacamole in a pita. The guacamole got a little brown on top from being made the night before but it tasted fine.

For now I'm drinking some tea with lemon and hoping I'll feel better tomorrow.

Baked ziti

2006-09-19T20:05:00.000-04:00

Yummy leftover lunch today. I made baked ziti last night by mixing cooked ziti with tofu ricotta (crumbled tofu plus garlic, oregano, basil, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper). I covered the bottom of the pan with tomato sauce, then layered on the pasta/tofu mixture with the sauce. I cooked it until it was all hot and a little crunchy on top, probably about 25 minutes on 350°.

On the side I packed green grapes and 2 small cucumbers with hummus. A small plastic shot glass is the perfect container for my hummus. It held just the right amount (1 oz, which is coincidentally 1 serving) and traveled beautifully with a tiny piece of plastic wrap on top. Two thumbs up.

Pita and hummus

2006-09-18T18:09:00.000-04:00

Today was a last minute lunch thrown together right before running out the door. In my laziness last night, I didn't pack anything which I knew I would regret. I realized my lack of lunch at precisely 6:46 this morning, ran around like crazy, sprinted to get the camera, took a picture, and was out of the door, reheated oatmeal raisin waffle in hand (recipe courtesy of Vegan with a Vengeance) by 6:47:48. Fairly impressive for a sleep deprived teenager. I wish my school started at at least 8 instead of 7:20.

Pita bread, Sabra brand hummus, raw almonds, and a delicious local apple.

Crispy tofu sticks

2006-09-16T20:28:00.000-04:00

Freeze and then defrost tofu. Cut into pieces. Put each piece in plain soymilk and then coat in seasoned breadcrumbs. Broil on the top shelf of the oven about 5 minutes per side or until they are brown and crispy. Eat with ketchup. Delicious.

It was a lazy night. I also had beans (seen in the background) which was just a can of kidney beans with veggie crumbles, some frozen veggies, and some spices. Took about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Sandwich and strawberries

2006-09-16T11:49:00.000-04:00

Friday's lunch consisted of two carrots, strawberries, pretzels, and a sandwich with peanut butter, chocolate chips, and raisins. The bread is 8-grain bread from the ever-loved Costco. A woman at my summer job calls raisins "nature's little candy". The term makes me cringe but they are really good. The carrots ended up being really bitter and a disappointment.

I've been seeing a lot more deer lately. Besides almost hitting one with the car, I kind of like seeing them. While I was eating dinner I saw four with huge antlers in the backyard. I went out to get my camera but they got scared and ran away. Since I have a crappy camera with only a digital zoom, I wasn't able to get their picture. As I was walking back inside I saw two babies and two mother deer in the middle of the street. One of the babies was suckling from it's mother. I scared them out of the street so that they wouldn't get hit by a car. Ahh, suburbia, how I love thee.

Couscous and banana bread

2006-09-14T18:32:00.000-04:00

Leftover whole wheat couscous with frozen vegetables, homemade banana bread, more grapes, and salted peanuts. My mom is awesome. As she's making banana bread she yells up to me, "Michelle, what should I do? There are eggs in this recipe!". As any ~~hungry vegan~~ good daughter would do, I went down and helped out.

Banana Nut Bread
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 flax eggs (2 T ground flax + 6 T water)
1 cup mashed banana (about two ripe bananas)
1 3/4 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix together the sugar and flax eggs. Mix the mashed bananas, oil and nuts into the sugar mixture. At the flour mixture and combine. Pour into a 9x5 greased pan and bake at 325°F for one hour.

Modified from "Banana Nut Loaf", page 166 of Mother Earth's Hassle-Free Vegetable Cookbook by Joel Rapp

Fruits and Veggie

2006-09-13T15:45:00.000-04:00

Apologies for the delay, life is hectic. Yesterday's lunch, pictured below, includes black grapes, most of a yellow bell pepper, an apple, and some pretzels/almonds/chocolate/Craisins.

Today's lunch was thoroughly unexciting and completely not photogenic. It should therefore not be a huge disappointment to you to know that I didn't manage to get a picture. I had 2 rice cakes with natural peanut butter, a plum, dried apricots, and some almonds.

Veggie Burger and whatnot

2006-09-10T22:24:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow's lunch is all packed and ready to go. I have a mini whole wheat pita with a Dr. Prager's Italian burger (the only variety of Prager burgers worth eating). I also have baby carrots, black grapes, and a mixture of pretzels, almonds, chocolate chips, and Craisins. I've discovered that my half cup containers fit really nicely inside my lunch box and work well to create another section. As an added bonus, they have lids, meaning that I can take something that is moist or wet without making my whole lunch soggy. I can fit two of these lidded containers in the large section and if need be, they also fit in the smaller sections. Here's to a happy Monday.

Packing my lunches the night before adds a challenge to my lunch making. Not only does my lunch need to survive from 7:20AM - 12:10 PM, but it also has to last the night in the refrigerator. I'm not sure whether or not the pitas will get soggy, but I guess I'll find out. Sometimes I wish I was a morning person.

Pita sandwiches, cantaloupe, curry roasted vegetables

2006-09-08T19:20:00.000-04:00

Day two of school lunches. Today I packed one mini pita with natural peanut butter and another half a pita with hummus. I also packed baby carrots, raw almonds, a cute little Italian plum, and pretzels mixed with Craisins and chocolate chips (the store brand is vegan!). I also stuck a granola bar in my bag but never got around to eating it.

My only complaint about this container is that the sections don't reach all the way up to the lid. I store my lunch sideways in my bag and when I open it some of the contents always seem to have migrated. Today all of my almonds ended up in the container with the pretzels and a couple pretzels ended up in the carrots (gross, soggy pretzels). I really have no other place to store my food for the almost six hours before my lunch, so I guess I'll just have to be careful with what I pack.

We picked the one on the left from the garden, the one on the right came from the store. Our cantaloupe wasn't quite ripe but the plant died so we had no choice but to pick it. Oh well, the plant was actually a stray one that sprouted up from compost that obviously wasn't composted enough.

I made some really yummy curry roasted veggies tonight and posted the recipe over at Veggieboards. Happy Friday, everyone!

First day of school

2006-09-06T20:03:00.000-04:00

And so I return from my first day of school with many textbooks and little inspiration for making good lunches. At least I can leave the books at home the rest of the year.

That being said, I'm starting off a new year of school lunches without much of a bang. Brown rice, an apple, soy pudding, and half a PB sandwich. Pretzels to be added later. I'm quite pleased that my container is just the right size to hold both my apple and my pudding cup

Carrot Cookies and Cross Stitch

2006-09-02T22:57:00.000-04:00

Since I finished all my summer work from school today (a whopping 4 days before school starts) I decided to make cookies to celebrate. I veganized these out of a cookbook we had lying around the house.

Carrot Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 flax egg (3 TBSP water + 1 TBSP ground flax seeds) or other egg replacer equivalent to one egg
2 cups sifted whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups oats, uncooked
1 cup diced dried fruit (raisins or dried cranberries are good)
1 cup shredded (not too finely) carrots
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat margarine and sugars until well mixed. Add egg substitute and mix well. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to margarine mixture and mix well. Stir in oats, dried fruit, carrots, and nuts. The dough will be a little crumbly so this is easiest to do with your hands. Just make sure you wash them well before you start.

Roll balls of dough in your hands (about a tablespoon full) and flatten slightly. Place on ungreased cookie sheets (the cookies won't spread much so they can be fairly close together) and bake in the preheated over for 25 minutes. They will brown slightly. Transfer to racks to cool.

Makes about 32 cookies.

These cookies are great, especially when they are still warm. They are a little crisp on the outside but perfect and chewy on the inside.

Modified from Carrot Cookies on page 19 of Cookies: Food Writers' Favorites edited by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane Baker

I was cleaning up my room today and I found this cross stitch from I have no idea how long ago. I think I'll finish it just to give me something to do since I really don't want a Tigger cross stitch.

Pizza, Costco, and an epic tale of a search for the perfect lunch box

2006-09-02T00:12:00.000-04:00

After much deliberation, I decided on purchasing this container for my lunches once school starts (ahh, less than a week from now). I looked at a ton of different options online. At first I wanted a laptop lunch box, but they are kind of pricey and I saw some bad reviews. For that kind of money I don't want containers that crack and leak. I then investigated bento boxes on eBay and Amazon but I wasn't too thrilled with any of them. I was looking for something relatively flat (2 1/2 inches or shorter) that would seal well and had at least 3 sections. I ended up getting this container at Kmart for a grand total of $6.99. I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but it looks good to me. It's from the Martha Stewart collection and is microwave and freezer safe. I'll check back with a review once school starts.

Tonight I made pizza for dinner. Only problem: I made the dough before I realized that we really had nothing to top it with. I ended up running to the garden to get an eggplant and slicing a potato on the mandolin. I even found a little bit of bell pepper in the back of the refrigerator. Add jarred tomato sauce and you get pizza! I really wanted the tempeh sausage crumbles from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I didn't really have the time to make them since I was going to celebrate a friend's birthday at TGI Friday's right afterwards (where incidentally, I just ordered a big salad with no cheese and no croutons).

Ironically, as soon as the pizza went in the oven my parents got home from Costco with lots of things I could have put on my pizza. They bought a ton of awesome things including craisins, salad greens, grapes, strawberries, vine tomatoes, and the biggest tub of hummus that I've ever seen. I'm not really sure how three people are going to finish that much hummus before it goes bad, but we can worry about that later.

I'm a real blogger now!

2006-09-01T22:55:00.000-04:00

I have now been vegan for almost six months, and I've enjoyed [almost] every minute of it. This blog will soon include lots of yummy food photos (hopefully lots of packed lunches) and crafty endeavours. Here's to blogging!