Spork Night 3!

March: Hearty Vegan Meat and Potatoes with Adam, Nancy and TJ

Salisbury Tempeh with a Sage Mushroom Gravy

Crispy Cornmeal Potato Cakes with a Chiffonade of Basil

Amazing Caesar Salad with Croutons

Zesty Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes

I was a little nervous about this one. I don’t use a lot of meat subs, and Nancy and TJ had never eaten much of this kind of food. But we all liked it. The tempeh really had a nice meaty texture. I think I did something wrong with the potato cakes, but they still tasted good…more like mashed potatoes than cakes. Another hit! Adam got the job of making the scrumptious Caesar salad. We all ate WAY too many lemon cupcakes - they were perfect! Thanks Nancy and TJ for making the glaze.

Spork Night 2!

Now that I actually have a life these days – a totally new concept for myself – I’ve been more than a little lazy about updating the ole blog. In the meantime I’ve cooked a few more meals from my vegan cooking class. I really, really love these – the sisters who teach the class are just kind of amazing and informative. I’ve learned a lot. Plus I always get excited about seeing meat-lovers enjoy hippie vegan food. Its not that I’m trying to convert anyone, but it’s nice to see people trying new things.

February: Fresh, Fast and Healthy with Adam, Jayme, and my mom

Tuscan Quinoa Salad With Sun-dried Tomatoes and Basil

Cumin Scented Chickpea Fritters With An Agave-Meyer Lemon...

Endive Stuffed With A Creamy Herb Cashew Cheese

Jam Dot Cookies

Yum! It was so delish! I think the biggest hit was the cashew cheese. None of us had heard of such a thing, but it is truly a wonderful food – basically made by making a “cheese” in the food processor of cashews and lots of spices. I think my mom’s favorite was the jam dot cookies. They are sooo easy to make and really delicious – just the right amount of sweet.

My Very First Spork Night!! (Part 1)

For Christmas, my wonderful parents got me a subscription to www.sporkonline.com which gives online cooking classes. Spork started as two sisters doing cooking classes in LA, but (what I assume) by popular demand they brought their classes to the internet.



My first class was Southern Comfort Foods. Watching the class was amazing. Everything looked SOOO GOOD, and the students in the online class seemed really pleased with the foods. What I really liked is that the girls really gave a lot of information about the foods they were using, possible substitutes, etc. They are so much fun to watch.



So last night, I made my first meal...for two non-vegans and myself.

Tender Garlic Collard Greens with Tempeh Bacon

Creamy Mac and Cheese

Cornbread Muffins with Chilis

The was the meal at the table before we dug in.

My plate. MMMMMmmm. :) Everything tasted AMAZING. The mac and cheese was really creamy and cheesy and delicious. I'm not a big collards fan, but the smoky tempeh bacon flavor made them fantastic (I got seconds). The corn muffin was unlike anything I've ever tasted. That recipe included both maple syrup and diced green chilis. It was definitely different, but really really yummy. We all literally. spent the first five minutes of the meal either silent or just saying "Mmmm".

Adam getting ready to scarf down his food.

(ummm...for some reason I couldn't get the picture to rotate. Sorry Jayme). This is Jayme gettings ready to devour her plate.

The next blog has the rest of the pictures and DESSERT!!

My Very First Spork Night! (Part 2)

This is how our plates looked when the meal was over :)

...but the plate wasn't empty enough...

These are Chocolate Coconut Haystacks, and they are ridiculous! SOOOO Yummy!!

The other thing I LOVED about cooking this meal (with the help of Jayme of course), is that by seeing the video first, I got to see how they timed the different foods out, and the order things were cooked in, etc. I was sure that when I did it, it would not go nearly as smoothly and it would take FOREVER, and one thing would get cold while the other was cooking. Not so. It worked out perfectly like they showed me.

January 1st marks the day the next meal is posted. I CAN'T WAIT!! Thank you Spork Girls!

Halloween Weekend!!

Well, no food for this blog. I am back to Gobble Green meal delivery to save me some cleaning time in the kitchen. I really need someone to buy this house already...geez! Anyway...

What a great Halloween weekend! Saturday was SO MUCH FUN. First I went out to a friends house - Katie. She's a high school friend of mine that I don't get to see very often. It was fun to see her and her family again.

Later I headed out with my brother to a friend's house. Ry has been back in Columbia, and I've actually kind of missed having him around (but don't tell him that). Anyway, I got to hang out and meet some new people. Here are some pictures of us all. Bonus points for anyone who knows what my costume was...

This was Katie and I. My sign says "Go Ceilings!" What am I??

This is Ryan as a hippie...but really its just Ryan with a vest on :)

Then my poor dog suffered through Halloween Sunday. I don't usually dress up my dog, but I just couldn't pass up this costume...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Hopefully more interesting blogs to come soon!!

Ellie Krieger Strikes Again!!

Yum!! I just finished making a DELICIOUS salad from Ellie Kriegers "Foods You Crave" cookbook. I wanted to make sure I shared this recipe - its great! Its really pretty too, so its good for company. I ate it as a meal, which will make 2 servings, or you can serve it as a side dish and have 4 servings.

Ingredients
2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
4 cups baby spinach leaves

Yogurt with Orange Essence, recipe below, optional
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves, optional

Directions
In a medium bowl combine the chickpeas, parsley and onion. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the chickpea mixture and toss to combine. Serve the chickpea salad over a bed of spinach leaves. Top with the yogurt sauce and a sprinkle of mint, if using.

Yogurt with Orange Essence:
1/3 cup lowfat plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 teaspoon honey

In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, orange zest, orange juice and honey.
Yield: about 1/2 cup

I REALLY hope you try this one.

I am waiting for my Sweet Potato and Chile Soup to finish cooking...I'll let you know how that goes :)

Eat Your Veggies - (and make 'em taste good too)!

One of my pet peeves is media and ads telling us that in order to eat vegetables or to get kids to eat vegetables, we need to disguise them - we need to make them not taste like, well, vegetables. Well, that's just stupid! Vegetables taste amazing!

I feel like I am qualified to say this. I spent the first 20 years of my life not eating vegetables - unless you count canned green beans and corn (which are vegetables...but come on - that's not much). I didn't even eat spaghetti sauce. My poor mother had to bribe my brother and I to try them, and I HATED VEGETABLES. So...if I can now say that vegetables are delicious and some of my favorite foods...well, that's saying something :)

I got a wild hair this afternoon and decided to do some cooking. I had been looking at one of my favorite cookbooks - Ellie Krieger's "The Foods You Crave", and got very excited to cook. Ellie is a Registered Dietitian (like me!), but with a flair for cooking. She's not one of those old-school RDs that I dislike so much that tell us all the things that we can't eat...and then throw flavorless brussel sprouts on our plate and expect us to be satisfied. No, Ellie teaches us how to make dishes that are beautiful, easy to make, healthy, and most importantly...delicious!! Here were some of my dishes I made tonight. As you can see, I made a pretty big mess (but it was well worth it).

Umm...this was SO MUCH prettier in person than on the camera...hmm...I thought I got a better picture. This is a vegan hybrid of Ellie's Fetticine Bolongese. The orignial recipe uses 1 lb of ground beef, but this one has vegan meatballs (which surprised me with how good they were actually. I've also made it with green lentils instead of beef, so do what makes you happy!! My version is this...

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Chop (I chop very finely, but you can make it as chunky as you want) 1 onion, 2 stalks celery, and 2 carrots. Add to the oil and cook until soft. Add a tsp of thyme, a clove of minced garlic, and the meat/vegan balls/lentils. Cook until warmed. Add 2 cans of diced tomatoes (I use one can diced and one can sauce). Cook for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down and add about 1/4-1/2 cup of evaporated milk (I use regular soy milk). Add to noodles and be amazed!!! SOOO GOOD. My dad and brother (nonvegetable eaters) have even eaten the ground beef version of this and liked it - even with all those veggies :)

This is radish, snap pea, and scallion salad - added a sweet vinegar dressing. I feel bad giving away all of Ellie's recipes, so buy the book. This one is worth it!!

This last one is Jewel Roasted Veggies. Aren't all the colors pretty?? I really think so. I'm not a huge brussel sprout fan, but roasted this way, they are SO GOOD. The purple stuff is beets. I'm new to the beet world, but so far, so good. This would make a pretty fall dish and great for Thanksgiving. Really, you could use any vegetables that are in season.

So anyway, these are just a few examples from tonight. Now I have some fun things to eat for a few days. The rest of this week, I plan to make a chile sweet potato soup, a spinach and chickpea salad, and roasted snap peas with miso sauce. These meals are so filling, so flavorful, and so good for me.

I hope you all get on the veggie bandwagon!! Anyone want to share their favorite veggie recipe??

Here is the link to Ellie's book. Seriously, if you buy one cookbook in your life - THIS IS IT!! I've never used a cookbook like I use this one!

http://www.amazon.com/Food-You-Crave-Luscious-Recipes/dp/1600850219/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1286331806&sr=8-3