snacks | Vegan Homemade

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What I Ate Wednesday

November 6, 2013 at 10:33 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged black beans, chili, Food, hummus, pumpkin, quinoa, salad, smoothie, snacks, vegan, What I Ate Wednesday

Breakfast: sludge-colored pumpkin pie smoothie (canned pumpkin, almond milk, banana, rolled oats, blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baby kale)

Morning snack: Arkansas Black apple, roasted almonds, multivitamin, papaya complex tablets, (unpictured) coffee with hazelnut soy creamer

Lunch: quinoa & black bean salad over romaine (shredded red cabbage, red bell pepper, green onion, cilantro, mint, dressing of orange segments blended with peanut butter, garlic, ginger & sriracha)

Afternoon snack: Persian cucumber with curry hummus (one can of chickpeas, drained, 1 Tablespoon tahini, juice of half a lemon, pinch of salt, heaping teaspoon of curry powder). I ate about a third of the hummus pictured, I like to take a container to work and eat a portion, and bring fresh cut veggies every day until it’s gone.

Pre-workout snack: two prunes

Dinner: Two-bean chili over a baked sweet potato with roasted cauliflower. The chili was made up as I went, and turned out pretty well – onion, carrot, celery, red and yellow bell pepper, garlic, and mushroom (all water sauteed), chili powder (both regular and chipotle), smoked paprika, cumin, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, no-chicken broth, kidney beans, pinto beans, corn, salt, pepper.

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VeganMoFo: What I Ate Wednesday

September 11, 2013 at 9:58 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged baking, Food, Let Them Eat Vegan, smoothie, snacks, vegan, VeganMoFo, What I Ate Wednesday

Since I missed blogging yesterday, you get a twofer today! I follow many blogs that participate in What I Ate Wednesday but have never done it myself, and since most of my MoFo posts are reaching into the past as far back as a year ago, here is something current!

I got up at 5:30 this morning to do 30 Day Shred, a routine I began recently. I am not a fan of getting up that early, nor of working out first thing in the morning, but I’m already feeling positive changes after one week so hopefully it’s worth it.

After a quick shower, I had a post-workout snack (first breakfast, if you will) – an Oat Snackle. Snackle is a very cute word I think. The recipe is from Let Them Eat Vegan, but I found it online here. It’s kind of a mix between a cookie and a muffin, and it feels very healthy but not too healthy. It sits in your tummy all happy, giving you nutrients from all the wholesome ingredients. I’ve been struggling with finding a good post-workout snack since starting the workout program, and these are a great solution – just slightly sweet from the applesauce and raisins, and easy to grab and eat in three or four bites.

My “real” breakfast was enjoyed in the car on the way to work. This smoothie had almond milk, canned pumpkin, banana, Vega One natural flavor, kale, blackstrap molasses (for the calcium and iron), cinnamon, and ginger. I’m not ready for the “everything pumpkin” bandwagon yet since it’s been hot around here lately, but I ran out of frozen fruit and resorted to the pantry.

Mid-morning snack of strawberries (I ate half the container) and a few walnuts. Yes, I am like a baby and have to eat every few hours. I find that it’s better for me to eat smaller amounts of good foods throughout the day in order to maintain energy levels. I also tuck my vitamins in the small container, which has backfired on me once. A small iron pill got caught in the crevices of a walnut half and I bit into it. In case you are ever wondering, iron pills do not taste good!

packed up for lunch

looking a little prettier for dinner last night

Lunch! I found the recipe for this Limnian Style Imam Bayildi (eggplant and zucchini stew) on pinterest. Mine wasn’t quite as nice; I skipped the steps of salting and sauteing the veggies first, and while they were cooked through and tasted good, there was a lot of liquid on the bottom of the pan and not nearly enough sauce. It was delicious though, so I would definitely try the recipe again when I have time to follow all the steps and double the sauce. Also shown is whole wheat spaghetti and chickpeas with lemon and red pepper flakes.

Afternoon snack of Trader Joe’s Eggplant Hummus and Persian cucumbers. I have veggies and dip almost every afternoon, and I particularly like this hummus. It’s lower in calories than other hummi (plural for hummus), and tastes great. I take the container to work to eat straight out of it and just cut fresh vegetables every morning.

After work I went for a run, and after that run I ate a banana. No picture, you know what a banana looks like. I wasn’t planning to have another snack but I was famished after running and it was going to be a while before dinner.

And what a dinner it was! Buffalo soy curl wraps with sauteed onion, Daiya swiss, a salad of shredded cabbage, celery, carrot, tomato and dill pickle, and Sanctuary Dressing from Appetite for Reduction. Sauteed mushrooms with soy sauce in the back. I’ve had buffalo on the mind since seeing SpaBettie’s Buffalo Jack Sliders earlier this week and this was a great way to satisfy the craving while keeping it light. Frank’s RedHot Sauce is pretty awesome and I plan to henceforth use it on as many things as possible.

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On The Road Again

June 10, 2011 at 8:32 am · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged beer, breakfast, brunch, coffee, dining out, donuts, Food, kale, pizza, snacks, sushi, tofu, tour, vegan, Vietnamese

Unless you know me in real life, you probably don’t know that I used to be in a some-what successful ska-punk band in college. We never got signed or made a whole lot of money, but we did go on a few tours, including one to the United Kingdom, and we had a whole lot of fun. I’m in a different band now, and I never really thought I would go on tour again because we’re “adults” with “jobs” and “responsibilities”. A band that we are friends with from Florida, Morningbell, contacted us a while back, asking if we would be interested in going on an eight day west coast tour with them. We would provide and haul the gear, and they would do all the hard work of booking the tour and making arrangements. The answer was yes! It was a different kind of tour, because we were actually at home for three days in the middle as opposed to being gone the whole time.

The thing about tour is, you’re in it together. You obviously spend a lot of time in the van, but you also spend a surprising amount of time just waiting around, and you have to kind of go with the flow. My goal on the trip was to eat as much delicious vegan food as possible without being a pain to anyone else. I have a lot of pictures, so I’m gonna split this into two posts.

I prepared for tour by stocking up on some snacks and breakfast items, so that I would only really have to worry about finding lunch and dinner each day. Apples, fruit leather, cheddar crackers, emergen-c and stevia, english muffins, split pea soup, bananas, kale chips, pumpernickel pretzels, a pro bar, bragg’s-roasted almonds, and a few kinds of nut butter. The paper grocery bag that held my food became known as my feedbag, as in “hey guys, can you see if there’s a banana in my feedbag?”. I also took a bunch of big bottles of water so that I wouldn’t have to buy small bottles at gas stations, and we may have stashed a few bottles of two buck chuck.

I was particularly excited about these.

And these.

I tried the “kool ranch” kale chips on the way down to LA. They didn’t taste particularly ranchey, but did have those undertones of garlic and onion, and were very tasty. The whole bag only had 200 calories, and I could only manage to get through half of the bag as an afternoon snack. Filling!

I was hoping to eat at either Veggie Grill or Real Food Daily before our show in LA, as both were relatively close to the venue. What I learned quickly is that in LA, “relatively close” means count on 45 minutes in traffic, so sadly I didn’t get to either. We stopped at a grocery store and I got what I could.

Apparently this is the part where we all look at our hands.

Morningbell

The next morning, I grabbed a soy latte from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, a chain which seemed to be all over LA.

For breakfast, I tried the maple almond butter on an english muffin. This stuff is the business. Seriously, if all almond butter tasted like this I would eat it constantly. Also, I learned that english muffins are hard to fork split without a fork.

Our lunch stop that day was at a stereotypical highway-side fast food mecca, and my choices came down to Subway or Taco Bell. The veggies at Subway sounded really good, but so did the protein of a Taco Bell bean burrito, so I did what any normal person would do and got both. No pictures, but the sandwich was possibly the best Subway I’ve ever had, due to the addition of avocado.

Upon arrival in San Jose we had about an hour until load in, so we checked out the Vietnamese place across the street. On tour, you often have to eat what is close and easy.

Luckily, they had a few vegetarian dishes and I chose the tofu stir fry. It wasn’t the most amazing stir fry every, but it was a warm and welcome addition to my tummy.

The show in San Jose was actually in a record store, Streetlight Records. This is True Mad North, some of whom are old friends of Dave’s from high school. I ❤ these guys.

The next morning was Saturday, and I had to go in to work. Well, they didn’t make me go, but there were some things I really wanted to take care of before I was gone for a whole ‘nother week, so I went in for a few hours. As a reward for being dutiful, I treated myself to brunch at The Donut Farm.

Tofu scramble with spinach, mushrooms, herbs and green onion, hash browns and sourdough with house-made “butter”. Sadly, they were out of the Dave’s Killer Bread they usually have, so I had to settle for sourdough. My quest for Dave’s Killer Bread will continue in part II.

Apple fritter and coffee with coconut creamer. I think I like Ronald’s apple fritters a little better, but really, if we’re ranking vegan apple fritters we’re splitting hairs.

I didn’t want to buy any groceries the two days we were at home, so it was mostly burritos and Chinese, which isn’t worth reporting since I eat them all the time!

The next day, we were fortunate enough to play a show at the Russian River Brewpub in Santa Rosa.

According to Barnivore, the beers brewed at the brewpub aren’t vegan, but the beers in bottles which are brewed off-site are. So, bottled beer it was! This redemption blond ale was really light and tasty.

Their online menu didn’t list a vegan pizza, but the in-store menu did. This is “Mary’s Vegan Pizza”, which had spinach, artichoke, green pepper and olives. It was a good pizza, but it really could have used a pop of flavor, like something spicy or sun-dried tomatoes or something. Nevertheless, I’m not complaining any time I find something labeled vegan on a menu.

That’s all for today! I’ll be back soon with part II, in which we went north to Portland and Seattle.

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Showcase #1

July 21, 2010 at 8:27 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged appetizers, Bauman College, beverages, my recipes, pizza, snacks, vegan

The final group project of the Natural Chef Program at Bauman College is what’s called the “showcase”. Basically, we host a catered dinner for invited guests in our classroom, and it involved a whole lot of work and planning, including decorating the classroom! To come up with recipes, the class was divided into groups and assigned a course – I was assigned appetizers and beverages. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with being assigned appetizers, but in the end I was happy with what I came up with. We were kind of going in the direction of upscale, reinvented American classics, so that is what I went for.

Coming up with beverages other than just tea wasn’t very easy, since we were focusing on natural, whole foods.

Green Ginger Ale

Orange Coconut Creamsicle. A picture cannot describe how good this one was. We ended up using both of these on the menu, so I’ll share the recipes in my next post.

I tried to make tempeh wings with a homemade sugar-free buffalo sauce and cashew ranch. Neither attempt was particularly successful, but it was fun trying! In the second picture I went with a carrot and celery slaw rather than veggie sticks, which I thought was a neat spin on tradition.

Barbecue tempeh meatballs, which we also ended up using on the menu, so I will post the recipe next time. These are super delicious!

Lastly, my vegan and gluten-free take on Bagel Bites. The class liked these but thought they might be a bit too heavy for a first bite, so they didn’t end up on the menu. I fed some to a group of football-watching boys, and they also approved. I only tested them twice, with varied results, so I don’t guarantee the texture of the gluten-free mini bagels. The taste, however, is great. The “portobello pepperoni” is awesome, if I do say so myself.

Vegan & Gluten-Free Bagel Bites

Bagels
1 3/4 cups warm water (115-120°F)
1 Tbs sucanat
1 1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1 Tbs flax meal
3 Tbs warm water
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 cup quinoa flour
2 Tbs arrowroot powder
2 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Portobello Pepperoni
1/4 tsp fennel seed
1/4 tsp mustard seed
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 pinch sea salt
2 portobello mushrooms, gilled removed, cut into 1/4″ dice
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp wheat-free tamari

Pizza Sauce
14.5 oz can whole peeled tomatoes, juice reserved
1 date, chopped
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/8 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper

Mozzarella Sauce
5 Tbs water
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup gluten-free oats
1/4 cup tahini
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp onion powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp xantham gum

1. Mix the 1 3/4 cups warm water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine the flax meal and 3 Tbs warm water and whisk vigorously for 30 seconds. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the tapioca flour, brown rice flour, quinoa flour, arrowroot, xantham gum and salt. Whisk to incorporate.

4. Check that the yeast has proofed – it should be slightly foamy. If the yeast has not proofed, the water was too hot or the yeast was not alive.

5. Add the flax mixture and apple cider vinegar to the bowl with the yeast. Add the dry mixture 1/2 cup at a time and mix well. Incorporate as much of the dry mixture as possible working the dough with a wooden spoon, then use your hands if needed to form the dough into a ball.

6. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

7. Meanwhile, prepare the other components. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. To make the portobello pepperoni, grind the fennel seed, mustard seed, red pepper flakes and sea salt in a spice grinder. Place the diced portobello in a medium bowl, add the ground spices and all remaining ingredients (smoked paprika through tamari) and mix well.

8. Transfer the portobello mixture to a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring once. Set aside and let cool. Leave the oven on at 400.

9. To prepare the sauce, place all sauce ingredients (tomatoes through black pepper) in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the reserved tomato juice 1 Tbs at a time to thin the sauce to desired consistency. Pour into a bowl or jar and set aside.

10. Rinse the blender. Place the 5 Tbs water, nutritional yeast, oats, tahini, lemon juice, onion powder and 1 tsp sea salt in the blender and blend until smooth. Place the olive oil in a small bowl and whisk in the xantham gum. Add the oil to the blender and blend together. The mixture will thicken very quickly. Transfer to a squeeze bottle and set aside.

11. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Check on the bagel dough – it won’t have risen very much, but it should be slightly springy when touched. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. The dough will be tacky but shouldn’t stick to your hands too much. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Shape each piece into a ball and flatten slightly. Once the water is boiling, use a slotted spoon to place three bagels at a time in the water. Boil for 1 minutes, flipping the bagels after 30 seconds. Remove the bagels to the baking sheet and repeat until all bagels have been boiled.

12. Bake the bagels for 20 minutes, turning them over after 10 minutes, until the tops are starting to brown. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 30 minutes. Keep the oven on.

13. Carefully slice each bagel in half with a serrated knife. Spoon some of the tomato sauce on each half. Top with the portobello pepperoni and squeeze the cheese sauce on top. Bake for 10 minutes and serve immediately.

Servings: 8
Yield: 24 bagel bites

Amount Per Serving
Calories 335.64
Calories From Fat (30%) 101.18
% Daily Value
Total Fat 11.72g 18%
Saturated Fat 1.43g 7%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 750.59mg 31%
Potassium 469.7mg 13%
Total Carbohydrates 47.75g 16%
Fiber 7.87g 31%
Sugar 5.53g
Protein 12.79g 26%

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When Life Gives You Lemons…

April 27, 2010 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged amaranth, Bell's Palsy, breakfast, broccoli, indian, lentils, pasta, potatoes, smoothie, snacks, soup, stew, strawberries, sweet potatoes, vegan

When I finished classes at the beginning of March I had grand plans – plans to complete my required externship hours as soon as possible, plans to get back to creating new recipes and use my CSA deliveries creatively, and then…life happened, as it tends to do. I woke up last Sunday and thought that my face felt a little funny. At first I chalked it up to sleeping in a weird position or something, but after a few hours when I noticed that it was difficult to eat and one of my eyes wasn’t blinking properly, I really started to freak out. Dave took me to the ER and I was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, a condition where the nerve that motors one side of your face becomes inflamed. The visible symptom is that the right side of my face is mostly paralysed – it looks like I’m winking at everyone! It is certainly no fun, but Bell’s Palsy usually cures itself after a few weeks to a few months, so I’m trying to take it easy and hoping for a speedy recovery.

How this relates to food is that I’ve found it a little difficult to eat, what with half of my mouth not really opening or chewing very well! So, I have been making foods that I can eat with a spoon or through a straw that don’t require too much chewing, while still trying to take in a good amount of nutrition. I have been able to eat some solid foods by cutting them into small pieces, but it’s really much easier to just slurp something up.

Mushy is easy for breakfast…

Good ol’ grits with nutritional yeast.

Amaranth with strawberries and coconut kefir.

Super smoothie – First I juiced some red cabbage, celery, ginger and swiss chard, then I blended the juice with a banana, kiwi, frozen strawberries and mango, hemp protein powder and coconut kefir. Odd maybe, but good!

A coworker mentioned that when her mother had Bell’s Palsy she ate a lot of applesauce, so I took applesauce to the next level. This is store bought applesauce, warmed up, topped with peanut butter, ground flax and maple syrup. It was like a warm pb & apple butter sandwich without the bread.

Luckily, I’ve been able to work from home since my diagnosis, so my lunches have been quick and simple.

Broccoli-Avocado-Lemon Soup. I steamed a bunch of broccoli well then processed it with three small avocados, the juice of one large lemon, dried thyme, garlic powder, salt, white pepper and nutritional yeast. Yeah, perhaps it looks like something from The Exorcist, but it tasted nice and simple. I wanted to bulk up the soup, so I toasted a piece of Ezekiel bread, tore it into small pieces, and soaked it in the soup until soft.

Purposely overcooked brown rice pasta with jarred sauce and nutritional yeast. Appetizing, no?

Dahl for dinner. I’d never made dahl before (and I was out of curry powder – doh!), so this was my thrown together version with garlic, ginger, fenugreek seed, mustard seed, turmeric, cumin, coriander and cilantro.

With the dahl, I had some of the best mashed potatoes I have ever made. I cooked baby red potatoes until very soft, then mashed them with a few spoonfuls of Cheddar-Style We Can’t Say It’s Cheese. So good! Now I understand why people put cream cheese or sour cream in their potatoes.

And for dinner tonight, to use up some sweet potatoes, I made Sweet Potato-Lentil-Wild Rice Stew, seasoned with ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin and coriander. Ginger and turmeric have anti-inflammatory properties, so I’m telling myself that eating them will help my swollen nerve calm down!

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March Cleanse: Days 1-3

March 3, 2010 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged kohlrabi, March cleanse, salad, snacks, squash, tempeh

So far, so good. I didn’t take any pictures of juices or smoothies, cause the juices are generally green, and the smoothies brown. Perhaps I’ll make a prettier smoothie soon.

Day 1:

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice: fennel, carrot, celery, collars, ginger and a green apple, green tea. Fennel juice is surprisingly good, as long as it’s mixed with other stuff.
snack smoothie: banana, strawberries, kiwi, hemp protein, almond milk, udo’s oil and amazing grass
lunch salad: spinach, red leaf lettuce, black beans, radishes, green onions, mandarin orange, liquid gold dressing from Raw Revolution Diet, cranberry apple tea

snack: cranberry trail mix

dinner: sweet dumpling squash with tamari-glazed tempeh and bok choy, hijiki and miso-coconut sauce, roasted purple kohlrabi, detox tea. Kohlrabi is my new favorite vegetable!

Day 2: I was on a little bit of a different schedule due to our very last day of class. We went out for dinner afterward and it was surprisingly easy to not order a beer, even while everyone else was.

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast juice: golden beet, orange and collards*, raspberry black tea
snack smoothie: banana, raspberries, almond milk, hemp protein, udo’s oil, amazing grass
lunch salad: same as day 1
snack: cranberry trail mix
second snack at school: mashed avocado, hummus, carrot sticks, a few flax crackers and half a small, sugar-free and gluten-free chocolate pie
dinner: salad – romaine, cucumber, roasted red peppers, olives and balsamic vinaigrette, detox tea

*This was the day I learned that not everyone can drink beet juice. About 15 minutes after I started drinking my juice I felt very nauseous, and the juice came back up, to put it nicely. No more beet juice for me, I guess!

Day 3: My schedule was weird today too, so things got moved around a bit. I’m still a bit weirded out about the juice incident yesterday, so I skipped the juice this morning and just had a big smoothie.

water with lemon and chia seeds
breakfast smoothie: two bananas, peanut butter, almond milk and amazing grass, green tea
lunch salad: same as day 1, but with no mandarins and added buckwheat sprouts
snack: apple, cranberry tea
dinner: same as day 1
I had dinner earlier than normal and was feeling snacky when I got home, so I had two dill pickles and tangerine tea.

So yeah…so far, so good. Except, despite my resolve not to “cheat”, my plan is going to be derailed this weekend by a semi-impromtu trip to Reno with Dave and some friends. I considered staying true to my vow to not have alcohol, but really, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. So, my compromise is to have some alcohol this weekend, not too much, and stick to the food plan as much as possible. And, I’ll extend the cleanse for three days longer than planned to make up for it. So, I don’t feel too bad about it, as I do get to spend two nights in Reno!

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Superbowl Sunday & Laptop Lunches

February 9, 2009 at 12:00 am · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged hummus, Laptop Lunchbox, mustard, potatoes, snacks, VCON, vegan, veggies

I didn’t feel emotionally invested at all in the Superbowl this year, but it IS a once a year event so we still had a few people over to watch. I’m still trying to eat healthily and drop some pounds, so to keep my hands out of the chip bags I put together a veggie tray with hummus. I used the hummus recipe in Veganomicon which is a nice, mild hummus.

I knew I wouldn’t get by without something crunchy and munchy, so I made Chex Mix based on the original recipe. I was all out of vegan worcestershire sauce, so I substituted a mixture of soy sauce, liquid smoke, hot sauce, chili powder and paprika.

Now I have multiple half eaten boxes of Chex in the pantry!

For my entree I kept it simple and just had a veggie burger, but I did come up with a new potato to go on the side. I was thinking that I hadn’t had enough mustard in my life lately, and the weather was a little yucky, so I went for warm and majorly mustardy.

This recipe makes a boatload – enough for 10 or more, so if it’s just for you or your family I’d suggest halving the recipe.

Warm Mustard & Leek Potato Salad

4 lbs new potatoes, skin on, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 Tbs olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts thinly sliced and washed
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 Tbs olive oil
4 Tbs stone ground mustard
2 Tbs dijon mustard
3 Tbs white wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 Tbs dried parsley
1 tsp fennel seed
1 Tbs sugar

Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to medium high, and cook for 6-7 minutes or until easily pierced with a fork. Drain and transfer to a very large bowl.

In the meantime, heat the 2 Tbs olive oil to medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add the leeks and celery and saute 9-10 minutes, until soft.

Add the remaining ingredients (1 Tbs olive oil through sugar) to the saucepan, mix well and cook until heated through. Pour the dressing over the potatoes and carefully stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Serves 10-12.

I was worried that the leftovers would dry out in the fridge overnight, but this salad is equally as good as cold leftovers.

Here be some lunches I’ve taken to work.