Thank you for reading!

Thank you for reading about my vegan adventure this month. I will be posting some final vegan thoughts this week. Tonight we are having "Snobby Joes," a lentil version of good ol' sloppy joes from the Veganomicon cookbook.


The winner of the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook give away is Sutter Schumacher! Congratulations, Sutter! I will email you via your blog to get an address so I can send your book this week.

Spicy Soba and Watercress Salad

Spicy Soba and Watercress Salad
3 tbsp Tamari or any soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp spicy chili garlic sauce (you can find this in most Asian markets)
1 prepared package buckwheat soba noodles
1 bunch washed watercress, patted dry

In a large bowl combine the Tamari, sesame oil, and chili garlic sauce. Boil the soba noodles for 8 minutes and rinse with cold water. Toss together with the washed and dried watercress. Serve with lightly salted and sauteed tofu.



Watercress
"Hey, that lettuce still has the roots!" shrieked the cute little kid running around in Whole Foods on Sunday while his parents paid him no attention. His adorable voice and excitement about "roots on the lettuce" forced me to forgive his little body running into my cart about 15 times. I wonder if he was planted by the produce staff because this shopper purchased a bunch of the rooted lettuce.

Well, it's not quite lettuce, it's watercress but it is leafy, crispy, green, and really good for you. Watercress contains huge amounts of iron, calcium and folic acid (bingo for pregnant women!), in addition to loads of vitamins A and C. It has a slightly peppery taste that pairs beautifully with grainy flavors and soft cheeses if you do dairy.


















Curiosity got the best of me this evening so when I cut the roots off, I decided to put them in a bowl of water just to see what will happen. Will it grow? Will it start to smell and I'll have to compost it? Will horrifying fruit flies move in? We'll have to just wait and see!

Meyer Lemon Pancakes

I got the fancy (or at least to me it was) idea to add some Meyer lemon zest to a vegan pancake recipe this weekend and my oh my, were they delish. Just add 2-3 tablespoons to a single batch of pancakes

















Pancakes will cook evenly on low-medium heat with just a touch of oil in the pan. Too much heat and oil will lead to burned pancakes. Check out these beauties!

















A delicious alternative to maple syrup for pancakes and waffles is fruit topping. These are raspberries from my garden that I froze during the summer. I simply allowed them to thaw, added a tablespoon of Meyer lemon zest, a tablespoon of sugar, and smashed them up with a fork. They were a nice treat on a rainy winter morning.

Cowboy Cookies

vegan cowboy cookies















I found another wunderbar vegan baking discovery in the Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar cookbook. These monsters are hefty, crispy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside, and contain a few of my favorite things: coconut, pecans, and chocolate (vegan in this case). Oh la la!

I made cookies that are 3" in diameter and have just shy of three dozen with one batch. I bakes a dozen right away and froze individual cookie dough portions for easy baking at a later date.

Even though the recipe contains no eggs or butter, you would never know. My husband thinks this recipe is better than my Mom's chocolate chip cookie recipe - and that's saying a lot because that coveted recipe puts the Toll House to shame.

Watermelon Radishes

Watermelon radishes for an arugula salad with orange muscat vinegar and olive oil












One of the things I have enjoyed about veganquest is exploring new produce. This weekend my husband and I had dinner with a friend at an amazing restaurant called Greens and were treated to delicious Watermelon radishes. They looks so beautiful on a plate and taste so good throwing off just a little heat and a little sweet. I remember as a kid not liking radishes because they were "hot" but now as an adult I really like them and, I particularly like Watermelon radishes.

Watermelon radishes have decreased flavor intensity as the radish matures so generally, the smaller ones are more flavorvul than the larger ones. Try to choose radishes that are 1-2" in diameter for intense heat on the surface and sweetness toward the center.

There are two major radish categories if you're looking to plant them in your garden (these are on my list for next year). There are spring radishes, and winter radishes. Here in Northern California we have the luxury of having a Spring-like Winter so, we have a longer more forgiving growing season. For those in other parts of the country, radishes can be among the first things planted and harvested in your garden. Spring radishes, like the Watermelon radish, are harvested early in their growing season resulting in a smaller radish which is more favorable. Winter radishes are harvested later in their growth and result in a larger round or more elongated shaped vegetable - you'll be picking these when you're digging late potatoes. In the Great Lakes region, radishes grow nicely through the the summer months and into the late Fall before the frost if the plants are well watered and don't get invaded by caterpillars.

I've perused my cook book collection with curiosity for radish recipes because i've never used them for anything but garnish, cru d'ete, sandwich vegetable, or salad topping. From what I can tell, radishes can be treated like a turnip - roasted, mashed, sautéed, or creamed and served as a side dish, or even roasted along with potatoes and carrots in a pan with a pork loin, beef brisket, rabbitt, etc (those of us on veganquest are not participating in this method of preparation until February).

Radishes should be used when they are still crisp, firm, and blemish free - expect to pay about $4 a pound for organic, locally grown. Or, you can plan to grow your own next year like me.

Vegan pot luck at work

carrot and edamame salad, chickpea and artichokes, and brown rice bake













A few people that I work with (hi Jan, Kate, and PM!) decided to go on veganquest as well and, we had a pot luck. Note, the Vegan Yum Yum cheesy broccoli bake that I made earlier this month works really well with brown rice. I forgot that I was out of orzo and opted for brown rice which turned out to be a great mishap because, Kate is gluten intolerant. I love mistakes that turn out in the cook's favor!

Vegan Cupcakes Took Over My World!

awwwe...yea!















If there is one baked item I can't resist, it's a cupcake. I was cupcake when cupcake wasn't cool, people - ask anyone who knows me. The idea of a cupcake shop was mine about 12 years ago but, I digress.

I received my copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and couldn't resist making something right away so, I opted for the basic chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache icing.



















While I was making the recipe I thought there was something really odd about purposely curdling soy milk with apple cider vinegar but odd or not, the recipe created a delicious, fluffy, spongy cupcake. The cupcakes are about 3" high because I filled the papers about 3/4 full. Knowing that I was going to put on a thin icing, I wanted a domed top. I think a high, slightly domed cupcake is the cute. I'm not a fan of the flat top cupcake unless you're planning to pile 2" of delicious buttercream on top (thank you, Kara's!)

If this cupcake is the basic tip of the iceberg, I can't wait to try a few more recipes. I've been baking with traditional ingredients since I was old enough to operate a mixer which in my Mother's kitchen was about the same time you were forming complete sentences. There are 75 recipes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World including one for coconut pecan fudge icing that is already book marked by yours truly. German chocolate cupcakes, anyone? Delish! I would make a batch of them tonight but I'm fresh out of soy milk.

Apple Cabbage Salad

Tonight we wanted a light dinner but a complete dinner - one that wouldn't make us wake up at 2 a.m. thinking about breakfast. I had a small head of savoy cabbage in the refrigerator and some iceberg lettuce as well as a few dozen brazil nuts left over from fruitcake madness of December. I didn't have much to work with (or a whole lot of ambition) that didn't require a lot of prep time. However, I think I came up with a delicious and complete, light meal.

Apple Cabbage Salads
1 head savoy cabbage, sliced and diced
1/4 c veganaise
2 tbsp soy milk
12-14 brazil nuts, chopped
1 small apple, julienned

Whisk together the veganaise and soy milk in a bowl to form a thin salad dressing. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the cabbage, nuts, and apple. Serve with crispy iceberg lettuce leaves.


Kind of reminds me of a throw back to the days of the cottage cheese and peaches on an iceberg lettuce leaf found at diners and hospital cafeterias

Quick Vegan Dinner and a Giveaway!

First Ever Housewife Giveaway

I'm not paid to promote the Vegan YumYum cookbook, I just really love it. The recipes are explained thoroughly, there are helpful photos, and ingredients that seem foreign to a vegan newbie are explained in the interest of teaching and making vegan seem less scary. I think it's a cookbook library must have!

I'll be collecting all of the comments made to The Housewives Understudy this month and will choose one lucky winner to receive a copy of the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook courtesy of yours truly.

1. Leave me a comment on any January 2010 blog post before Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 5pm PDT and you will be entered to win! All names on a spreadsheet and then names in a bowl... you get the picture.
2. If you don't have a Blogger account, be sure to check back on Monday February 1, 2010 to see if you are the winner.
3. I will ask the winner to email me their address so I can send the book to you directly from Amazon.com.

Good luck! Now, on to the kitchen...

Quick Vegan Dinner

Dinner last night had to be thrown together kind of quick since I went to fabulous yoga after work. When I say quick I mean something satisfying that doesn't come out of the freezer pre-packaged and something that only takes me about 30 minutes to prepare. Whew!

I made vegetable fajitas and chickpea and artichoke salad from the Vegan YumYum cookbook for dinner and again, success!

chickpea artichoke salad from the VeganYumYum cookbook












The chickpea artichoke salad is protein packed - I added a few julienned sundried tomato (courtesy of my husband's summer sun-drying efforts) for a little bit of sweetness. This salad got a big gold star from us!

For the fajitas I simply sauteed two zucchini, four mini bell peppers, half of an onion, and wilted spinach (four hands full, pre-wilt) in a teaspoon of olive oil, threw on a little salt and pepper, wrapped it up in a vegan tortilla, topped it with salsa for kick and VOILA - fajitas! I could almost hear the mariachi's singing!

















One thing I have noticed now that we are five days into veganquest is the amount of excess energy I have late in the day. I'm not hitting those brick walls of fatigue that send me to bed at 8:30 pm. It could be that I'm getting more than my usual servings of fruit and vegetables or, that I'm not eating
dairy-heavy foods (and dairy is heavy).

Housewife tip - To wilt spinach simply wash fresh spinach leaves and shake off the excess water. The leaves don't need to be dry but you don't want them sopping wet either. Place the spinach in a sauté pan on low-medium heat and they will quickly reduce to half... you'll actually see them wilt before your eyes. When you have room, place the lid on the pan to steam the spinach slightly. The entire process takes just a few minutes. Wilted spinach is an excellent addition to pasta dishes and is packed with vitamin A. Spinach is also a good source of calcium and iron, and is a mild anti-inflamatory. To learn more about the nutritional benefits of spinach or any other food, do some research!

Vegan Roasted Veggie Sandwiches on Home Made Focaccia

Sandwiches are my lunch item of choice. I think it dates back to my Mom making me half of a venison sausage and cheddar cheese sandwich for every school lunch when I was a kid. There was usually a home made chocolate chip cookie tucked into the sandwich container too - there's nothing like a venison sausage flavored chocolate chip cookie to make a kid smile (or sob). I don't eat venison these days but I do still enjoy sandwiches... and cookies.

I've long moved into sandwich adult hood enjoying my personal favorite: Pepper turkey, garlic aoli, avocado, tomato, pickle, and lettuce. When considering a vegan month of eating, it was important to my lunch habits to have delicious sandwich options available. I recalled once having a sweet potato sandwich with a vegetarian friend so I started playing with the idea. Here's what I've come up with.

Vegan Winter Veggie Sandwiches

Slice butternut squash and sweet potatoes about 1/4" thick, brush with olive oil, salt, pepper, and roast on parchment lined baking sheets in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.

I really love these silicon pastry brushes by the way!












When 15 minutes is up, flip the roasted squash and potatoes over and put them back in the oven but turn the oven off. Leave the veggies in the oven 15 minutes (with it off!) before removing them to fully cool. I store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator and use them like I would use cold cuts to make sandwiches. BONUS - roasted sandwich veggies can be made in advance, say on a weekend, to save time during a busy work week.

To build the sandwich, layer slices of roasted sweet potato, butternut squash, and roasted tomato chutney (i happen to have some that I canned over the summer - yay me!) on focaccia or any other bread. I used home made vegan focaccia (recipe below). Top with Veganaise and pea tendrils or sprouts.

If I can work in a protein source ON the sandwich, perhaps a chickpea or edemame salad, this would be a well rounded meal. However, a protein source on the side will work too.

sweet potato, butternut squash, veganaise (it's so good!), pea tendrils on home made focaccia












Housewives Vegan Focaccia

3 cups bread flour
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried chile pepper flakes
1/2 tsp sugar
1 packet rapid rise dry yeast

1 1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tbsp olive oil

Combine flour, dried oregano, chiles, sugar, yeast, and salt in a mixing bowl - plastic works best because it won't conduct heat or cold and kill the yeast. Add water and olive oil. Mix with a fork to form a soft, but not fully mixed dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured and clean surface, knead with the heel of your hand as if you're forcing it away from you, for about 10 minutes. The dough should bounce back slightly when you poke it with your finger.

Put the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Put it somewhere warm (on the heat register is too hot, on a window sill is too cold) for an hour. Funny story.... in the 80's my parents had a water bed and my Mom would make a tent on the bed and turn up the water temperature to raise bread dough. It worked beautifully!

After an hour your dough will magically double in size thanks to the yeast.

Place the dough on a lightly olive oiled baking sheet and press it into a rectangle shape with your finger tips. You want to create dimples in the bread. Brush the top of the bread with olive oil and sprinkle with anything you want like sundried tomatoes, dried veggies, herbs, salt, pepper etc. Bake 15-20 minutes.


Why do vegans eat yeast... afterall, it's alive!
Vegans eat yeast because yeast belongs to the same group of organisms as mushrooms. They're called eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Fungi, and they lack chlorophyll and vascular tissue and range from a single cell to a body mass like a mushroom. Eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Fungi also include molds and smuts, like the corn smut delicacy in Mexico called "huitlacoche" that is served as a quesadilla filling.

NFL game day, hold the nachos?

We're serious football fans in our house so game days when our teams (my Packers, hubby's Jets) are on national broadcast we like to whip up a few game day foods like nachos, bratwurst, or sausage and peppers. This morning my husband, realizing that there would be none of the regular indulgences available, did some research and proclaimed, "Rainbow Grocery carries Daiya cheese... let's go!" I was already in the middle of roasting slices of butternut squash and sweet potato for sandwiches but, did end up in the car and on the way to the store with a very enthusiastic husband in tow.

I first read about Daiya vegan cheese when I was perusing the VegNews 2009 Veggie Award winners and my husband read some reviews on a few vegan forums about this relatively new product. It seemed too good to be true that there would be an enjoyable vegan cheese option to help us (well, me mostly) during veganquest, which is what we've now named our experiment. Daiya vegan cheese is made from 100% plant based ingredients - ground cassava and arrowroot. It stretches, melts, contains 33% less fat than dairy cheese and is wheat, nut, and soy etc. allergy free. WOW! Really?

Verdict - holy hell it tastes like cheese, melts like cheese, stretches like cheese.... are we sure we bought the Daiya vegan cheese? There is a very slight flavor difference - my husband described it as "earthy" - with the Daiya vegan cheese but I would recommend this product to anyone. I actually think if I served this to someone who didn't know it was vegan they might not notice a difference.

Daiya vegan cheese comes in pre-shredded tubs perfect for pizza, nachos, and soup garnishes














Nachos - chips, black beans, salsa, Daiya vegan cheese, and pickled jalapenos ready for the oven













As you can see, the Daiya vegan cheese really does melt!

















Oh, and the best part is that the Jets and Packers won their games today and are in the play offs... Whoo hoo!

On the first day, the vegan created "cheese" sauce

So here I am with six various borrowed and newly purchased vegan cook books as well as containers of things like dried mung beans, nutritional yeast, red miso, and other ingredients that I have never purchased before much less eaten but I'm excited to start experimenting!

Tonight for dinner I made Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Bake from the Vegan Yum Yum cook book. I thought it was kind of funny that I would choose something creamy and cheesey to start with that contained no cream or cheese. "This ought to be good," I thought. The "Hurry Up Alfredo" sauce that the recipe calls for contained 10 ingredients that I carefully measured before starting. Even though I was prepared to make the sauce I still felt like it took forever. It's just easier in my mind to grab a bag of shredded cheese and melt it (3 minutes) so of course this would take longer (6 minutes). With all of the ingredients whirling around in the blender (you have to blend the heck out of the raw cashews in the sauce) I was wondering how this was going to pass for cheese. On first taste I yelled to my husband who was in another room, "Oh my gosh! It really tastes like cheese!"and quickly brought him a taste. We were both surprised at how delicious and cheesey tasting it was and the texture - texture is a big deal for me - was perfectly smooth and creamy.

Hurry Up Alfredo sauce being created


















I won't give away the entire recipe because it does come from a copywritten cook book, but with the addition of orzo, broccoli, mushrooms, and a few other ingredients, this sauce makes for a delicious and nutritious meal.

What I noticed about cooking dinner today versus any other night was that I needed to think more about what I was doing but, I attribute the time to my apprehension and because I started with a recipe that had 18 different ingredients (10 of which made up the delicious sauce). I was also cooking with ingredients I'm not familiar with, like nutritional yeast. Over the course of the month I believe things will get easier. Regarless, dinner was delicious and this is a recipe I will certainly make again.

You can purchase the full-color Vegan Yum Yum cookbook for $13 here or check out a few recipes first at VeganYumYum.com.