Super Spicey Baigan Bharta

Baigan Bharta is my most favorite Indian dish. I really wanted to do a good job with this, but HOLY WOWZAAs was this HOT! I used this recipe and it called for 1/2 teaspoon of Masala powder. Next time I will use 1/2 of that, or even less! I also subbed a can of diced tomatoes instead of fresh, because that is what I had on-hand. I ommitted green chilies.

Roasting the eggplant was pretty simple, but skinning it was not. I put the roasted eggplant in my food processor instead of mashing it by hand (I love that thing!).

I am determined to master this recipe. Eating out gets really expensive! The smokey flavor was there, but way too hot for my taste.

Banana Bread Muffins

I had 2 very ripe bananas that needed to be used. I can't give THAT much to my baby for baby food, and I don't really like to eat bananas plain. But I LOVE banana bread! I found a recipe on vegweb, and altered it a lot according to the comments. This came out soooo good!!! It is best eaten warm. I made both muffins and bread that I added flax seeds and walnuts to.

And yes, I did take a big ol' bite out of the muffin before I took a pic!

1 3/4 cups flour (I used 1/2 reg 1/2 spelt)
1 cup sugar (you could use even less, it was pretty sweet)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup vegetable Oil (you can also sub for applesauce)
Ener-G equivalent of 2 or 3 Eggs
1/3 cup soy-buttermilk (add 1/3 teaspoon vinegar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Mix bananas, oil (or applesauce), and buttermilk in another mixing bowl.

Combine the banana mixture with the large bowl containing dry ingredients, and stir well. Add the Ener-G Egg Replacer in now, and stir.

For muffins: line muffin pan with liners, scoop about 1/2 full, and bake for about 30 mins, or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

For bread: lightly grease bread loaf pan, pour in mixture, and bake for about an 1 1/2 hours- or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

Lemony Chickpeas, Spinach & Potatoes

This is a dinner that my husband made. One side is the title of this entry- the Lemony side. The other side is spicy potatoes. Both are fantastic. But, this blog entry is focused on the lemony side.

I realized that I haven't contributed a recipe in a while. So, here is one that is easy, and comforting:

• 2 bunches of spinach
• 3-4 potatoes, cubed and cooked
• 1 can chickpeas
• oil
• 2-3 cloves chopped garlic
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1/4 t cumin seeds
• a small bit of cayenne
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions: saute onions, garlic and spices, add spinach and steam, add potatoes and lemon and let simmer until flavors blend together. Serve over rice.

Creamy Fettucine with Squash Sauce

I've been going through recipe's I've saved on the computer and haven't used yet. I came across this recipe for a fettucine with squash sauce, and I just happened to have pumpkin in my fridge ready and waiting to be eaten.

I was rather disappointed at first. It wasn't until after we added nutritional yeast and a whole lot of salt (I typically don't use a lot of salt), that this had any flavor at all. The asparagus on the side was very tasty though! It might be worth it to experiment with this recipe, but there are so many others that I'd rather try first. Maybe another time, when I have some more squash that needs to be used.

It's been getting so much fun to let our baby sample different things lately. When he likes something he screeches with delight! He loves to feed himself too. Hopefully sometime during dinner, I'll remember to take a photo of his dinner too. Last night, he tried asparagus, and ate it all up, but he wasn't very thrilled with the noodle.

Spinach Pie

I can never pronounce Spanakopita, so I always just say "spinach pie." I've had this recipe in my vegweb recipe box for ages. I always forget to buy phyllo dough.

I used extra firm water-packed tofu, instead of silken. I think next time I will use the silken instead though. I also used fresh spinach, instead of frozen, and I chopped half of it so it would be easier to stir around.

It turned out pretty well, for my first time, I think. Next time I will use more lemon and more spinach.

Middle Eastern Goodness

I LOVE Middle Eastern food, especially Lebanese. There is this wonderful restaurant here in Salt Lake that has THE BEST Baba Ganoush I have ever had, Mazza. We go there as often as we can afford. Lately though, it's not in the budget to go out to eat as often as we like to. So, I tried to re-create the sampler platter that we always get when we go there: Baba Ganoush, Hummus, and Mujaddara.

I got an eggplant from my co-op, and I don't really like eggplant at all. But I do like Baba Ganoush, so I found a recipe for it in Vegan Cookbook. I halved the recipe to only use one eggplant, which was more than enough for 2 of us (and tastes for the baby too, of course).

I made a quick and simple hummus, which with my food processor, was my best batch ever.

Then Mujaddara, which is lentils, rice, and caramelized onions, and just a hint of cumin.

We ate it all with some pita bread.. This was sooo good, everyone (including the dog) loved it. Our baby was going crazy for some more, we couldn't feed him fast enough, so we let him chew on some pita dipped in hummus for a while, so we could eat too!

In a Baking Mood

These photos are actually from last Friday. My baby (who is 8 months old today!!!) came down with a little infection on top of teething, so I've been trying to comfort a very needy, cranky, baby on top of trying to keep up with school work.

Last Friday, before he got sick, I was in a baking mood. I started out wanting to bake my own bread, and pulled out my favorite baguette recipe from The Garden of Vegan or How it All Vegan, I forget which. I added sundried tomatoes to it, and saved half the dough for pizza.


Here is the pizza I made with the baguette dough. I got a fancy pizza pan and cutter with my new processor, so I wanted to try it out. This is my first time ever making a pizza completely from scratch. I usually buy the pre-made crusts and add toppings that way. This was much cheaper (besides the artichoke hearts, those are pricey, but they are also a MUST). On this pizza is organic pizza sauce, mushrooms, spinach, and artichoke hearts. I didn't think about the fact that mushrooms and spinach shrink when cooked, otherwise I would have added more. But it was still good for my first time.

Later on in the night, I got a craving for cookies. I used the chocolate chip cookie recipe from VWAV (Did you know I don't actually own that book, it is the library's copy and I keep renewing it!). Does anyone else have a problem with dryness from this recipe? I always have to add more liquid to it. I added about 1/4 c. or more of soymilk and about a teaspoon more molasses. These were my best batch EVER. The extra soymilk made them soooo soft. I really ate more than I should have!

Stuffed Peppers Over Potatoes

From my new cookbook- Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes, comes this recipe. Earlier in the day, I made some home-made vegetable broth, which left me some pealed potatoes that I needed to use up. So, this recipe jumped out at me as I browsed my cookbooks. I never would have thought to put stuffed peppers over potato slices, but it worked out wonderfully. On the side is some steamed collared greens that I needed to use up.

This was pretty good. I'm glad I tried it. There are so many recipes in my new books, I don't know when I'll get around to making this again, but I hope to discover it again sooner than later.

Bringing Good Luck to 2008

I remember my childhood, where my dad always had my mom make black eyed peas for New Years dinner. I always thought he was being a weird Texan (no offense to my friends in Texas!), but this year I decided to look into it. Rumor has it, that eating black-eyed peas and collard greens for new years is suppose to bring good luck with money in the coming year. Well, we could use all the luck in that department that we can get, so for this year's New Years dinner I made black-eyed peas over quinoa, with garlicy-kale & collard greens with tahini sauce inspired by VWAV. I added onions to my black eyed peas and squirted some Bragg's on top- my favorite way to eat them.

It's been a whirl-wind of dinners, get-togethers, and celebrations these past couple weeks. I am looking forward to getting back to normal. Hope every one had a safe and happy holiday season!

Macaroni Bean Salad

Cindy seamed to always have this when I went over to her house. So before she moved away I was sure to ask for a copy of the recipe because I knew I would miss it almost as much as her! I think this is from La Dolce vegan. A word of advice about this recipe- make sure you dice the onions very small, and possibly use less than half of what it calls for. This was VERY oniony, but still good, and a lot.

Holly's Lemon Gem Cupcakes

For my mother-in-law's birthday I made her some Lemon Gem cupcakes from VWAV. Oh my, these are good, I wish I would have doubled the batch!

Basil Walnut Pesto

With my new food processor I couldn't wait to make a pesto that didn't over-flow out of the container like my 3 cup one. I came up with a simple pesto, inspired by Cathe Olson's from the Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. I think I only subbed basil from parsley, and added baby peas, which was really my favorite part of the sauce.