Pasta salad, French bread

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

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

salad

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

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

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.

Pasta, stir fry

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

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

Pizza

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.