Tempeh Tuesday #1

I'm back from vacation. As promised, I'll post about my trip but I'll need an extra day or two to ready the photos and write it up.

In the meantime, I'm going to post my lazy cooking habits since coming back home. LOL. Sometimes it's difficult enough coming back from a trip and getting back into the groove of the reality we call everyday life, without having to worry about cooking elaborate meals. So, my theme this week is EASY. I'm trying to use ingredients I already have in the cupboard and just keep things simple.

I had three packages of tempeh in my fridge because I'm trying to motivate myself to cook this soy-based food more often. I decided to make the tempeh sausage crumbles from Vegan with a Vengeance. I love this recipe soooooo much. The crumbles are so good. Much much tastier than any similar product that can be purchased pre-made in a store, and they're really not that difficult to make. So, I prepared the tempeh as directed in Isa's book. I also made pasta: Meijer Organics whole-wheat cappenilli, which I coated with a bit of olive oil when it was done. I opened a can of diced tomatoes that was pre-mixed with olive oil and garlic and, with a slotted spoon, scooped out some tomatoes (leaving most of the juice) as a topping to the tempeh and cappenilli. Simple yet tasty. :)

I did save the remaining tomatoes and all the leftover juice... I have plans for those later this week. ;)

I titled this post "Tempeh Tuesday" because I'd like to make Tuesday dinners my tempeh night, in an effort to try more tempeh recipes and learn to cook it better. (Did I ever mention I once tried to steam tempeh in the microwave and it came out as a hard, black block of yuck?) If you have a really great tempeh recipe, I'm all ears. I'd love some ideas from my blog visitors if you have any recipes to share. Please send them to: veggiecookster [at] gmail [dot] com. If I cook up your recipe, I'll give you credit and link back to your blog, so be sure to include the URL in your e-mail. :)

Easy creamy pasta sauce

Here's a little something I cooked up in the kitchen last night. I didn't follow a recipe. I just experimented and mixed things together!

I started with whole wheat shell-shaped pasta. While that was cooking, I opened up a pre-made marinara sauce--I chose Corelli's marinara, which is made with Tuscan red wine and extra virgin olive oil. I added in about three spoonfuls of Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese to the sauce. I also tossed in 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast. I stirred the sauce, btcc and nutritional yeast together until it was well blended and hot. When the pasta was done, I mixed some of it in with the sauce and topped it with fresh basil, tomato slices and sunflower seeds. 'Twas good! And easy!

I haven't participated in Ruth's Presto Past Night in awhile. The parade of great pasta recipes is held over at her blog each week. But I think this entry qualifies! :)

Basil-Mint Orange Pesto with Pasta

Found the recipe for this yummy dish in my local newspaper today. It was submitted by a reader named Bonnie Brines King of Plymouth, Mich. It's the first time I've made pesto from scratch... and it didn't turn out too bad! :) Loved the fresh taste of it. I mixed it with whole wheat penne pasta for an easy dinner.

Basil-Mint Orange Pesto

Makes: 1 cup

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves

1 cup packed fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup walnuts

2 tablespoons frozen orange concentrate, thawed

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup olive oil

In a food processor, blend the basil, mint, walnuts, orange juice concentrate and garlic until almost smooth. With machine running, gradually add olive oil; process until smooth. If pesto is dry, mix in more oil by spoonfuls. Press plastic wrap onto surface, cover and refrigerate up to 2 days. Freezes well.

I've been wanting to make a dish for Presto Pasta Nights... and this is my first one! Wooo!

And, many thanks to my mom, who recently handed down to me her rarely-used older food processor. I originally requested it because I had planned to shred some of my cold-processed soap and turn it into laundry soap. However, I found it much more useful for making food instead! Thanks, Mom! :-D

"Chicken" Marvalasala and Papardelle with Rosemary Gravy

I didn't actually cook this meal. This yummy dish is compliments of my sis and her hubby. We had my parents over for dinner last night, in celebration of their birthdays this month. We cooked dinner for them. My sis and hubby took the main course, and I was charged with drinks and dessert. (See above blog for dessert.)

They modified this recipe from Rachel Ray's cooking show. My sister pointed out that they used veggie stock instead of chicken stock. I believe they still used the non-veggie Worcestershire sauce, tho, but I didn't make a stink about it since they went through the trouble to replace the stock and stuff. My family is still learning what is vegetarian and what isn't. Underneath all those yummy mushrooms in the photo is an organic Boca spicy chik'n patty.

This recipe was deeeeeeeelish! I definitely will try making it again, subbing the Worcestershire sauce, of course. ;)

Vegan "mac and cheese" with red wine

It's Friday night of a holiday weekend! Woo! No work till Wednesday (I took Tuesday off)! Yay! To celebrate, I knew I wanted to have comfort food for dinner, so when I saw this recipe talked about earlier this week on veggieboards.com, I knew I wanted to give it a try.

After reading the reviews on vebweb.com, I knew not to expect this to taste like Kraft or any other mac and cheese recipe. What I didn't expect was the distinct, yet yummy, taste and the richness of this dish. Wow! As a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I never knew vegan food could be so rich and decadent!

Per suggestions on the reviews, I did make some modifications to this recipe... I only used 1 tsp of salt as well as 1 tsp of garlic powder. In addition, I used 2 cups plain soy milk and no water for fear the sauce would be too runny. It certainly wasn't! Mine turned out thick and creamy. So much so, that in the future, I may add in some of the water instead of omitting it. I also used fusilli pasta (I always think of Fusilli Jerry from Seinfeld!) because I found a package of it hidden in the back of my cupboard.

Overall, this recipe is definitely deelish and a keeper. The taste is soooooo unique. I personally haven't tasted many recipes like this. So rich. I couldn't eat very much of it because of the richness. Next time I make it, I'm definitely making a nice salad to go along with it. I think it'd be great with a side of fresh veggies. :)

I thought about halving the recipe as suggested on VegWeb, but with the holiday weekend ahead, I didn't mind the thought of leftovers in my fridge so I wouldn't have to cook as much this weekend. Hope it tastes as good reheated, or I'm in trouble! Cuz the recipe as stated makes a lot of pasta. When I do reheat, I think I'm going to try adding in veggies to help counteract the richness of this dish.

Along with this meal, I had some yummy vegan Frey red wine. Call me stupid, but I just learned recently that wine-making process often involves animal products like eggs, casein or gelatin. Who knew? I didn't. But now that I do, I've been patronizing Frey and buying their wine. I think it's important to support businesses who make an effort to show compassion toward our animal friends. :)

Catching up: Lemony Asparagus Pasta

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's been busy since getting back from Michigan's lovely U.P. I made this recipe a few days ago and am finally getting around to posting it.

Very easy and quick recipe. I chose this one in particular because my folks gave me and my sister A LOT of fresh asparagus that they got recently from a local farm. I hate wasting food, so I knew I needed a recipe where asparagus was the focal point, and this one was the winner because it seemed uber easy... and it was! The recipe called for whole wheat Penne pasta, but I used whole wheat Rotini because it was what I had on hand.

Five stars for ease of preparation, but I dunno... seemed like it was missing something to me. If I make this again, I may add in other fresh veggies, too, for variety. Really mix it up!

Adventures with TVP - Part 1

Textured Vegetable Protein. Otherwise known as TVP. This meat substitute is made from defatted soy flour, a by-product of making soybean oil.

For the longest time, I've been scared of this. Don't really know why. Guess I wasn't sure how to cook it, or how it would taste. But recently, I broke down and bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill TVP. I was intrigued yet I still let it sit in my cupboard for a while. This week I decided to take the plunge and just try it.

I chose a very basic way to use it; I just added it to my pasta sauce the way many omnis might add meat to theirs. I must say, I don't know why I was so afraid of this stuff. LOL It tasted good and was easy to use. Plus, it's high in protein and low in fat, so I think I'll be working this into my diet more often! :)