Grill Out
The other night Gary and I headed over to Emily and Eliott’s for a little impromptu grill out. I cannot say that I had a hand in planning or making any part of this meal, other than cutting the canteloupe, but I thought I’d post it because it was just so delicious.
First, there were some excellent black bean burgers.
Then some yummy veggie kabobs.
And what grill out is complete without sweet potato fries? With the added touch of plenty of vegan butter…
My plate. Our wonderful hosts provided plenty of juicy tomatoes and avocado to top the burgers.
And our friend Erin tried out a favorite dessert on us: grilled nectarines. Everyone else had theirs with honey, but mine had brown sugar. This was like a fruity marshmallow — the little bits of char brought me right back to girl scout camp. Pictured with aforementioned cantaloupe…
And, last but by no means least, you absolutely cannot have any sort of summer feast without an ice sculpture, am I right?
Yes, it’s a boat. With waves. Made of ice. This is why I love eating at Emily and Eliott’s.
In other news, Gary is settling into life in Illinois pretty well. We’re heading into Chicago this weekend for the fireworks — his very first Fourth of July! And I’m sure there will some excellent food to accompany the festivities… til then, happy holidays!
Filed under: desserting, supping | 3 Comments
Tags: avocado, black beans, burgers, ice sculptures, nectarines, sweet potatoes
All right, the long-awaited weekend has finally arrived. As of Friday, I am officially living in my own place! No roommates (although Gary will be joining me for a seven-week stay tomorrow [!]). We spent the week painting (the whole apartment was a hideous pale yellow) and fixing things up, and I’m pretty darn happy with how it’s turning out… (Wish I had before pics, but I misplaced my camera battery charger this week and only have picture snapping abilities back today!)
This morning I hit up the farmer’s market for some fresh flowers for the kitchen.
Check out that adorable sink!
My cutie-patootie stove…
Even the cabinets were baby yellow. Don’t worry, they are now a crisp white!
My dad found me this adorable table and chairs set at an antique mall and got it for a steal. I think it looks like it’s made for this kitchen.
The rest of the place doesn’t have much furniture yet. All in time… the kitchen is the most important room, am I right? I did, however, begin to fill my study. Got that awesome chair at a garage sale for ten bucks!
I had my friend Emily over for dinner tonight to christen the kitchen with its first real meal. She brought over some CSA love, a ton of greens that really needed to be used. She found the wiltiness of this last-leg bok choy particularly amusing.
Still tasted amazing! Especially with the beer she brought — all the way from New Glarus, a brewery in Wisconsin. This beer was fabulous — we’re planning a double date to the brewery so I can stock up!
Emily whipped up this salad dressing, so I’m not sure what exactly went in it. I know there was lemon juice, agave, olive oil, rosemary (from my porch garden!), and some sort of vinegar. Oh, and chili powder! We like it with a kick.
We started with simple salads of mixed greens and the dressing, topped with punkin’ seeds. They didn’t need anything else — the greens were so tasty.
I made the dressing for our main course. It consisted of equal parts tahini, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and water, plus sea salt, chili powder, a dash of Italian spice blend, and a big old glob of soy yogurt. Yum!
We sauteed the bok choy…
Topped it with sauteed tempeh…
And poured the yummy dressing over it. So good! I just had to take a picture of this beautiful bite!
Mmmm. I need to buy bok choy more often.
Well, I’m loving the apartment. I’ll post more pictures as I decorate the other rooms! Barbara loves it too. There’s a nice big yard for her to explore, plus some other dogs around so she can make friends. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with this face?
What a beauty. She discovered her reflection in the mirror today and was fascinated. Too cute.
Anyway! Gary lands in sunny Chicago tomorrow, and we’re checking out a place for dinner in Wicker Park on Emily’s recommendation. I’ll be sure to bring the camera….
Filed under: supping | 6 Comments
Tags: apartment, Barbara Walters, bok choy, salad, tahini, tempeh
Happy Dad’s Day, all! My family celebrated by making a big feast for my dad and grandpa — everyone else did ribs and chicken, but I feasted on the plethora of vegan sides that I lovingly contributed. Yum!
Alright, so I have no idea where I originally read this tip, but I know I’ve seen it a few different places around the blog world, and now I will never go back. I am officially in love with Green Pea Guac. It is the best guacamole I have ever had. Wow. Here’s what I did…
I processed one avocado, half a can of green peas, a small handful of chopped garlic, a bit of cilantro from the garden, and a healthy squeeze of lemon juice. Then I mixed in some diced red onion — divine! The peas make it so creamy. I think I actually might make more tomorrow…
I also made this cold salad using Israeli couscous, chopped carrots, red peppers, onions, green olives, and garlic chives. I made the dressing out of olive oil and rice vinegar. Pretty good, but next time I think I might go sweet and use some oranges and dates or raisins. We shall see…
Dad was grilling corn on the cob, so I made a little pesto to put on it. Just basil, pine nuts, olive oil, and bit of nutritional yeast. I love my corn this way — if you’ve never tried it, do!
My plate. Pesto sweet corn, couscous salad, plain salad, and green pea guac with Garden of Eatin’ spicy blue corn chips.
All in all, a pretty good Dad’s Day meal, I think.
I’m in the (hectic) process of moving to my new house right now, so I’ve not been doing much cooking or baking. But I’ll be in and settled soon (knock on wood) and will immediately set to christening the kitchen, no worries…. til then!
Filed under: supping | 5 Comments
Tags: avocado, corn, couscous, guacamole, pesto
Wow, this week has just flown by. Maybe because Barbara Walters has been keeping me up all night, forcing me to zombie through my days. 
Who can get mad at that girl? Not me. Anyway, I finally got the baking/cooking bug back yesterday, so here are the fruits of my efforts…
I decided to try a different recipe for beet brownies. After sifting through various recipes online, I came up with an amalgamation a few. A few more ingredients than last time, a bit of tweaking here and there, a pretty sweet outcome. Here’s the downlow:
2 oven-roasted beets
3/4 cups applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cups canola oil
1 banana
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1 cup carob chips
1/2 cup hazelnut pieces
Mix sugar, oil, banana, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder. Separately, puree beets and applesauce. Combine, then sift in flour, baking soda, and salt. Add hazelnuts and half the carob chips. Bake at 375 for forty minutes or so, adding rest of carob chips on top when nearly done. Makes two nine-inch rounds.
Before baking:
I love the pinkish tint to the batter — too bad it goes away upon baking!
So these ‘brownies’ turned out way more like cake than brownies, which was fine with me. Still searching for that ooey gooey beet brownie, though…
I guess everyone else was okay with it too, because one of the ‘cakes’ is already gone…
After sneaking bites of beet cake all day, I was in need of a more balanced dinner. Enter homemade pizza night with the family. Sister made Jenna’s Best Pizza Dough, and then we each created a personal pizza with our favorite toppings.
I topped mine with tomato-basil sauce, cheesy cashew spread (this one had soaked cashews, teeny bit olive oil, nutritional yeast, garlic, dijon mustard, and salt), spinach, portobello, eggplant, green olives, and onion. My slice:
I’ve got the other half leftover for today.
Followed up with a bit more beet brownie and a girls’ game night with Sister’s friends, and this was my idea of a very fun Saturday night! Now back to the thesis… but don’t worry, I’ll leave you with some cuteness to fill your mushy gushy quota:
Barbara and her brother Jackson (Sister’s baby) cuddling up. Have a good Sunday!
Filed under: desserting, snacking, supping | 1 Comment
Tags: Barbara Walters, beets, brownies, cake, cashews, cheese, eggplant, pizza, spinach
Barbara is home, safe and sound! Look at that face…
She and I have been chillin nonstop since yesterday. She’s sitting on my lap as I type! She makes lots of funny noises and is crazy hyper.
Cutie. In other news, I tried to make cookies out of the almond pulp from my milk-making. I used the rhubarb-orange jam I made a little bit ago, and I was hoping they’d turn out, but I am not a fan. They’re a little too grainy for my taste, so I guess I’ll keep experimenting. Sister loves them, though; she’s been using them as pre- and post-workout snacks. So there you go.
I also ran a race on Saturday and got my very first medal! It was the 911 3k for the Fire Department, and I was a little nervous because I am not a short distance runner at all. But I ran two miles before the race to get those first slow ones out, and the technique worked all right! I managed 15:55 and came in third in my division. I’ll take it!
I look sort of intense in this picture, but I promise I had a huge smile on my face about three seconds later when I crossed the finish line!
Barbara is whining to go play, so that’s what I’m going to do! More pictures to come as her first week at home progresses…
Filed under: snacking | 4 Comments
Tags: almond pulp, Barbara Walters, cookies, races
Cheesy Spinach Spread
I just gotta share with you, because I made something good…
I was going to make some plain old cheesy cashew spread, but I had a bunch of spinach to use up before it went bad. Enter the best idea I’ve had in awhile.
1/2 cup soaked cashews
3 cups spinach, wilted with a teeny bit of olive oil and plenty of garlic
1 T olive oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Process it up! It’s that simple!
I had it on top of broccoli with a side of brown rice two nights ago, and yesterday I just spread it on my toast. Real good.
Filed under: lunching, snacking, supping | 3 Comments
Tags: cashews, nutritional yeast, spinach
Lots of Raw!
So I know it’s Sunday (crazy!) but my thesis has been taking over my life this week due to an important deadline tomorrow (yikes), so I am just getting around to posting the last Raw Wednesday. My raw foods that day weren’t super exciting… For a snack, I used some of the almond pulp from my almond milk-making escapades to make a little crust. I just mixed it with some agave nectar and molded it into a cup. Then I topped it with some of the beet and lime juice-marinated oranges from the salad I made on Monday. Pretty yum, but nothing spectacular.
And I’d had a pretty big lunch, so I didn’t go all out for dinner. Just a simple salad!
Any salad is awesome with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes and olives. These olives were so good — I’d had lunch out at one of my faves here in Rockford, Cru, and these were leftover from that! Their olives are the best, and I just found out that you can buy them by the pound. I might just have to…
Anyhow, I got to really work on my raw food skills on Friday because my friends and I decided to have a little raw feast. I made some delicious raw cheese (if I do say so myself). I used it to make little radish sandwiches.
Mmm. The cheese was a total happy accident, and while I can remember everything I put in it, I wasn’t measuring. I’ll work on getting an exact recipe, but I can tell you now that it involved cashews, almond pulp, lots of mustard, garlic, nutritional yeast, and plenty of lemon juice. I also added dried tomato basil spices to each sandwich:
Mmm. The rest of the spread looked like this:
Tomatoes and broccoli for dipping in the rest of the raw cheese, olives, strawberries and cantaloupe, and a salad with sprouts and avocado with lemon-garlic dressing. We also tried to steam artichokes (the only not raw component) but either we did something wrong or they were bad chokes, because they were not good. Ah well.
For dessert we had fresh carrot juice, my favorite!
Super yum. I love dinner feasts that make you feel energized instead of sluggish. Awesome.
After my huge deadline tomorrow, I have three more coming up over the next month. This means you can expect some baking in the near future, because the oven is one of my stress relievers of choice. I think I might make beet brownies again, and perfect my veggie cake recipe. Also, Barbara Walters comes home sometime this week, so stay tuned for pictures!
Filed under: snacking, supping | 7 Comments
Tags: carrots, cheese, juice, radishes, salad
Rhubarb-Orange Jam
Sister and I bought a ton of rhubarb at the farmers market this week, and she decided that she wanted to make jam. We sifted through tons of recipes online, looking for one that didn’t involve strawberry or animal products. Our pickiness paid off when we found this recipe for Lebanon County Rhubarb Jam; apparently it comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch chapter of a regional cookbook published in 1947.
The only ingredients are rhubarb, sugar, water, and oranges. It was so easy to make, and I love anything with, essentially, three ingredients. The kick of the orange plays perfectly off the rhubarb, so if you’re looking to stray from strawberry-rhubarb a few times this season, I recommend this recipe for sure.
What a yummy start to summer…
Filed under: desserting, snacking | 2 Comments
Tags: jam, orange, rhubarb
Colorful Memorial Day Salad
I picked up a huge bunch of radishes at the farmers market on Saturday and knew I wanted to use them for our family’s Memorial Day cookout. My inspiration for this salad came partly from my favorite beet salad and partly from a pretty picture on my lovely friend Molly’s blog. The union of the two salads, I have to say, was pretty sweet.
And simple, to boot. Combine the following in a salad bowl:
10-12 radishes, sliced thin
2 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 large beet, sliced thin
3 T raisins
2 T toasted sunflower seeds
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
zest and juice of one lime
4 lime wedges to garnish
Happy Memorial Day to everyone out there! We, unfortunately, had a cold and rainy day here in northern Illinois, but the cookout was a success nonetheless. I’m relaxing and watching the Cubs, soaking almonds for my next batch of almond milk… Ah, summer.
Filed under: lunching, snacking, supping | 1 Comment
Tags: beets, carrots, lime, radishes, raisins, seeds
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