Mate Tea

It's full-blown fall here in New England, but a hectic pace and huge transition has left me with too little time to make anything worth blogging about despite the abundance of farmers markets and local harvest produce. However, I did recently take a time out to at least see what fall looks like, and during my break I got myself this mate tea. For those who may not know, mate is the national drink of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and it has more antioxidants than green tea (196 active chemical compounds vs. 144). While it does have caffeine, it also has plenty of B5 vitamins, making it a good pick me up. The combination of mate and leave-color appreciation made me, well, pause to think about the changing of season and the abundance that is so obviously in the air...

Vegan MoFo Day 10: Lower Fat Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Crystallized Ginger

Cookbook: Veganomicon
Author(s): Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

Result: I have been reading this book, and have really been enjoying it. It's a charming book of recipes and the stories of how they came about, written by the Molly Wizenberg, the person behind this lovely blog. Anyways, in the book, she describes in vivid and delicious detail a recipe for crystallized ginger and chocolate chip banana bread. I read this chapter on Monday, and have been obsessing about making this bread ever since. I had bananas, I had chocolate chips, I had crystallized ginger, it was only a matter of time.

So, tonight was the night. I couldn't really justify coming home and baking a loaf of old school banana bread loaded with sugar and fat, so I decided to give this recipe from Veganomicon a try. The resulting bread was not as moist as I had hoped for, but it did reveal that chocolate, banana and crystallized ginger are a surprisingly fabulous combination. I will be trying them together again, but probably in a different banana cake/bread recipe.

Vegan MoFo Day 9: Spanish Rice

Cookbook: Betty Crocker's Cookbook
Author: Um.... Betty Crocker?

Result: Yeah, um, this took a really long time. I guess because I thought my handy dandy way of cooking rice in the oven would work for this recipe- not so much. After 25 minutes in the oven, we still had crunchy rice and a lotta liquid. I was able to pull the whole mess which included the rice, tomato sauce, water, spices, a green pepper and an onion out of the oven and put it back on the stove where it should have been in the first place and salvage the recipe.

So, in conclusion, making your own Spanish rice (instead of using a box mix) is a good idea. Just use the stove. Yay Taco Tuesday!

Vegan MoFo Day 9: Blackberry Ice Cream with Cyrstallized Ginger

Cookbook: Veganomicon
Author(s): Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

Result: I think the relationship with my new ice cream maker could potentially be a dangerous one. To jump into the world of vegan ice cream making, I used the recipe for basic vanilla ice cream from Veganomicon, but used the option to add blackberries. This required letting the blackberries bubble away on the stove with a little water, cornstarch (it called for arrowroot powder but I didn't have any on hand), a pinch of ginger and agave (it called for sugar, I'm a rebel). The ice cream base was made of coconut milk, soy milk, silken tofu and vanilla extract.

The whole process was very messy but easier than I thought it would be. When the ice cream was done on the mixer, I put it in the freezer for a few hours.

After dinner, I scooped some out and topped it with some crystallized ginger to give it a little kick. I will be honest, it was a little on the too sweet side, and it wasn't quite as tart as I had hoped from the blackberries, but it was all in all FANTASTIC. I had feared it would taste tofu-ish, but it didn't, the result was some of the creamiest ice cream I have had since I went vegan four years ago. I will keep perfecting this and other recipes, but the ice cream making is off to a fabulous start, and a new obsession has begun.

Vegan MoFo Day 8: Birthday Goodness

I know, again, not a recipe. Ashley's gonna kill me. Ugh. I need to get it together- and I will, tomorrow, when I make blackberry ginger ice cream with my new ice cream maker!!!!!!!!!!!! But today, the vegan food marathon weekend continues, with delicious vegan french toast at brunch, and some serious vegetarian dim sum in a few hours.


Besides the ice cream maker, which is gift enough in itself, my wonderful bf also got me a new camera!!! The blog is saved from horrible, orange tinted blurry pictures! Phil saves the day! I tested it out on some of the goodness we got at the farmer's market this morning. Mom, you will notice one of my new bowls is featured.


Yes, I bought myself a pumpkin. I probably won't even cook with it, it's so cute and perfect...

Vegan MoFo Day 7: What I am Having for Dinner- Candle 79 Seitan Piccata- Mofos!!!

A mix of sheer exhaustion combined with the fact I know I am about to go out for lots of yummy vegan food this weekend for my birthday has made me a negligent Vegan MoFo-er. Anyways, technically I don't even own this cookbook, nor have I ever cooked this particular dish myself, but I have had it twice in my life at the restaurant, so I feel that I am an authority.

Cookbook: The Candle Cafe Cookbook: More Than 150 Enlightened Recipes from New York's Renowned Vegan Restaurant
Author(s): Bart Potenza & Barbara Scott-Goodman

Result: Last time I was home my family and I went out to dinner at a fancy French restaurant. The question arose of what everyone would like to have for their last meal if they were about to be executed, and this was my choice. I have made other seitan piccatas for myself (the one from Veganomicon is pretty good), but this is honestly one of the best things I have ever eaten. I only get to go to Candle 79 a couple times a year, but I always order this because it is rich, crunchy, tangy, olive-y, potato-y goodness.

If you don't live in NYC or aren't visiting anytime soon, make this for yourself. I also found the recipe online here, so I you don't even need to buy the cookbook. But seriously, if you are a vegan, you should at least once in your life make the pilgrimage to Candle 79 and have the piccata- it's pretty much criminal not to.

This picture is clearly from the cookbook. I don't have the confidence yet to bring my camera places and take pictures of what I eat like a real food blogger... I know, I am a wuss.

Vegan MoFo Day 6: Swiss Chard Frittata (with Kale instead!)

Cookbook: Vegan Brunch
Author: Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Result: It's been a long day. I was fixin' to come home and just make a simple tofu scramble, but I came across this recipe in Vegan Brunch and had a thought- if I made this, it would mean less time spent standing over the stove! I had all of the ingredients on hand (except for the chard), so I decided to use the rest of the bunch of kale I got this past weekend from the farmer's market instead. The whole thing was indeed very easy to throw together, and all things considered it was a pretty healthy recipe with almost no fat (with the exception of the oil the garlic and kale were sauteed in).


The finished frittata crisped up nicely on the outside and had a pleasant and not too mushy texture on the inside- which is good because I loathe mushy tofu. The kale worked OK, especially on the top parts where it became reminiscent of kale chips. However, I would definitely be interested in trying chard next time, the kale did become a bit overly wilted and brown on the inside of the frittata. In the end the whole thing kind of fell apart when I took it out of the pan and resembled a tofu scramble anyways, which was just fine with me. I ate it with a toasted sprouted bagel topped with apple butter, and was a happy camper. I love breakfast food for dinner and am looking forward to trying more recipes from this book soon...