Apples Apples Everywhere!

Yesterday was Hannah's and my one year dating anniversary. Super exciting, and super crazy that it has already been a whole year since we officially became a couple. As Hannah has mentioned before, we feel like we know each other so well, but at the same time we still continue to surprise each other every day with new discoveries about each other.
For our one year anniversary we decided to go apple picking! We got some really good pictures and some really great apples! So many apples that we had to bunker down and cook as soon as we got home. We made two delicious dishes both so amazingly easy. Apple Sauce and Apple pie. And of course, like many of the dishes that have been on here lately, they are created by Hannah.

Apple Sauce

Four Apples, peeled and cut into quarters
1 Tbs of Brown sugar (can also use white sugar)
1 tps Cinnamon
1 cup water

Put all ingredients in a pot on the stove at medium high. Let boil so that the apples are soft. Turn down heat to medium an stir sauce and mash apples with spoon until at a desired consistency. If you want a finer consistency you can take mixture after cooked and mash with a potato masher or put through a food processor.
Super easy! And super tasty!



As for the apple pie, I will have to ask Hannah if I can post her pie crust recipe. According to her it is a family secret.

Quinoa Salad

Hannah has taken over on the experimental cooking front. I am now just around to document what she does, and of course enjoy the amazing food she is creating!
This last week Hannah spent all day cooking Friday for the weekend of our first year anniversary of dating! One thing she created was a quinoa salad that was just plain amazing, not to mention easy to make. So Here it is, Hannah's quinoa salad.

Quinoa Salad

1 medium onion
1 medium zucchini
1 can of garbanzo beans
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 stalks green onion
1 1/2 cup Quinoa
1 Tbs olive oil
a shake of dried basil
lemon juice to taste


Dice onion, garlic, green onion and Zucchini.
In a pot saute the onions in the olive oil, when the onion starts to give off the aroma of sauteed onion add the garlic and green onion, When the onion starts to clear add the zucchini.When zucchini is fully cooked add the rinsed garbanzo beans. In a separate pot cook quinoa in water 2 - 1 until water is fully absorbed. Add the cooked quinoa to the veggies. Add basil and lemon juice to taste. Also delicious with green olives and for non vegans would go well with feta cheese. Serve hot or cold. Enjoy!



Afterward:
When asking Hannah how she made this dish, the way she described her portions were as follows:
An onion
Garbanzo beans
Zucchini
Couple of pieces of garlic
Some green onion
Olive oil
Basil
A squirt of lemon juice 

It took some explanations and her to sit next to me making sure it was right to finally get this recipe to come out the way she cooked it. But here, it is in it's full glory, enjoy!

Odd and Easy part two

As you may recall a few months ago i posted an easy go to food for vegans, Asparagus Tofu. Well I come to you again with another easy vegan, go to food.
Rice and beans? Yes, that question mark is supposed to be there. This meal it just a little strange. Hannah came up with this one while she was moving from one place to another this summer, trying to use up some of the food on her shelves. What she had left was four items, rice pasta, pinto beans, ketchup and cumin. And so rice and beans? was born.
As a person who enjoys cooking or enjoys eating things that other people have cooked for you, you have run across the ratatouilles of the kitchen. This is one of them, a combination of items that are not normally found together finding harmony in a pot. I have to say, i was very suspicions of this when Hannah first brought it up to me. In fact I did not eat it until this last month when Hurricane Irene forced me out of my home and on the road with Hannah and having no other food to eat. I must say this combination of food really is a ratatouille. Delicious and filling.
So without further ado, Hannah's Rice and Beans?


Rice and Beans?
2 cups Tinkyada Rice pasta,
one can of pinto beans,
1 tbs cumin and
a couple squirts of ketchup (to your liking), sauteed onions are a valid addition to this dish.

Cook pasta as directed on packaging. Drain and rinse beans. Heat beans in a skillet on the stove. Drain pasta when finished cooking. Return drained pasta to original pan and combine all ingredients. Serve. Enjoy!

Black Bean Burgers

Hannah is a black bean burger fanatic.
I didn't know she was a fanatic until we were having a cookout in her backyard and were trying to figure out what she could eat. Soy meats were out of the question, they are just plain weird, and we really didn't want to go to the store and pick up boca burgers so we decided to make our our burgers. Now, I am not a vegan, as I have said before, so I was just thinking of the nice juicy burger I was going to eat. But being the great girlfriend I am, I was enthusiastic about helping Hannah find a burger recipe. I was all over the place looking at burgers with potato and flour, and so many other strange ingredients trying to make something fancy, but Hannah on the other hand already had the burger she wanted to make in mind.
I have to give all the credit to her for this recipe as she is the one who found it and made it her own. These burgers are delicious, and unlike many vegan burgers you make on your own are meaty, textured, stay together and do not come out like mush. Recipe altered from non-vegan black bean burgers found on allrecipes.com.


Vegan Black Bean Burgers

• 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 bell pepper (any color, mix it up for really colorful burgers), cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1/2 onion, cut into wedges
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 Tbs flax seed meal
• 3 Tbs water 
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1/2 cup of rice flour or regular flour

1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty. Do not over mush it. Leave a few chunks.
3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. (If you don't have a food processor, a blender will work fine) Then stir into mashed beans. 
4. In a sauce pan combine the flax seed meal and the water, heat on high while continuously stirring  until the mixture is sticky and egg like
5. In a small bowl, stir together flax mix, chili powder, and cumin.
6. Stir the flax mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in flour until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties.
7. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.  

Enjoy these burgers at a nice sunny BBQ or any day at home, but don't forget the corn free ketchup :)

Asparagus!

So over the last nine months Hannah and I have been cooking together, introducing new things, and creating absolutely delicious meals that both of us enjoy. One of our favorite meals to make and eat is perhaps one of the easiest meals to make: asparagus, tofu, pasta sauce, and nutritional yeast, (not sure exactly what to call it).
Whenever I thought about eating vegan or even vegetarian I always wondered what type of food could be made real quick and without much hassle. I could never think of anything, one of the many reasons I never much considered vegetarianism or veganism, that and that fact that I was brought up eating some sort of meat with every meal. Even now as an adult, when I am not with Hannah the food I make that it is easy and quick includes tuna.
I'm not sure when I learned about this dish. I was at Hannah's and we were at a loss for what to eat for dinner like we usually are, and Hannah suggested that we try one of her go to dishes, tofu asparagus and sauce. I like asparagus so was all for trying out this new dish. Not going to lie though, I was a little bit nervous about trying this out, it just looked different. for some reason I'm always a little nervous trying out Hannah's food ideas (love you Hannah). But I am glad I did. Not only is this dish delicious, but it is packed full of great nutritious needed for any vegan or vegetarian.
And so a go to, quick dish was discovered.

Tofu, Asparagus, and Sauce

One cluster of asparagus
Half a jar of corn free Tomato Sauce
One half package of firm Tofu drained
1/4 c nutritional yeast
1 Tbs Olive Oil

In a frying pan warm olive oil and cook asparagus. When asparagus is cooked add tomato sauce, tofu and nutritional yeast. When tofu is warm all the way through, serve. Add more nutritional yeast on top to taste. And grad a piece of bread to sop up the remaining tomato sauce when you are done with the asparagus and tofu.

Enjoy!

Hannah's Cookies

The other day Hannah made some cookies for a function at school. For some reason it’s hard for me to imagine a cookie that Hannah could eat, all the tasty cookies I grew up with had lots of eggs, nuts, or lots of butter. But ever after she made them she couldn’t stop raving about them. All I could say was bring me some. Luckily she was coming to see me the next day, otherwise I don’t think I would have been able to try the originals. But let me tell you, these were good! She had only brought me two of them, but they were good enough to get me hooked.

Of course, she knew I was going to get hooked and had already planned to make some more with me.

The recipe is so easy to make, I think it took us ten minutes to make, about as long as it took us to eat them. In fact after we finished the batter, we started a cribbage game and while waiting for the first batch to cook we ate about half the remaining batter then waiting for the second to cook we ate half of the first batch. It was a little crazy. But after two days of Hannah’s cookies I'm still not sick of them.

So here it is, Hannah’s infamous cookies!

Hannah's Cookies (or Banana Oatmeal Balls)

1 tsp Baking Soda
3 cups Oatmeal
2 cups Flour
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 brown sugar or 1 cup sugar
1 1/2 Banana
1/2 cup margarine (or 1/2 c. applesauce if you want to make them healthier)


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet bowl making sure that it is mixed thoroughly.

Make the cookies into small sized balls and place on greased tray. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown on the top.

Makes about two dozen

Nutritional Yeast

I was first introduced to nutritional yeast two weeks after Hannah and I started dating by one of my friends who I was visiting for the weekend. She insisted on making for me her special Mac and Cheese which included no real cheese at all. What she used instead was the nutritional yeast and a few other ingredients. Unfortunately at the time I did not ask her what the other ingredients were and so have been experimenting to see how she made her concoction ever since. Some time in November I bought my very own first container of nutritional yeast at a natural market in Queens, and from that point on I have made many attempts to recreate this infamous Mac and Cheese.

Nutritional Yeast is a deactivated yeast, like brewers yeast, and is usually found in yellow flakes or powder. It is a complete protein and contains tons of other vitamins and minerals. The best of the vitamins it contains is vitamin B12 which is really important if you have problems with your digestive system or small intestines like Hannah does. Nutritional yeast is described as having a nutty, creamy or cheesy flavor so is often substituted for cheese and used by vegans.

My first few attempts were interesting to say the least. Firstly I was not using actual elbow pasta; instead I was using coos coos. Also my only ingredients were the coos coos and nutritional yeast. In my first few attempts I was wholly dissatisfied with my meal. After I had been at it for some time and added a few more ingredients, I finally come up with a satisfactory Mac and Cheese recipe. But this post is not really about Mac and Cheese. In fact my favorite Mac and Cheese to date doesn't even have any nutritional yeast in it at all. This post is wholly about nutritional yeast and my attempts to introduce it to Hannah.

 I have been talking to Hannah about nutritional yeast pretty much since I started dating her. I told her about it after I learned about it for the first time and then I told her about my attempts to make Mac and Cheese. Since then she has been asking me to make her something with it in it. Five months later and I have finally introduced nutritional yeast to her. It’s funny, for a little while I was carrying my container of nutritional yeast with me when I went to her place; I had it with me just in case there was an opportunity to introduce it to her. It actually worked one day. We had made pasta and sauce and instead of putting parmesan cheese on my pasta like I usually do I decided to put nutritional yeast and to my luck Hannah then wanted to try it for herself. But we don’t count that as the first time she had nutritional yeast.

My recipe which finally had Hannah trying the nutritional yeast was a recipe that I came up with myself. For a little while I have been making a potatoe, brockoli and nutritional yeast dish. I find it almost as good as scalloped potatoes.

Scalloped Potatoes and Broccoli


2 medium potatoes
1 1/2 cups of broccoli florets
1 small onion chopped
a sliver of margarine
2 Tbsp Nutritinal Yeast

Cut potatoes scalloped style, boil until tender. Place medium frying pan on medium heat. Place margarine in pan and let melt. Fry potatoes and onion until browned. In a separate pan steam or boil broccoli until cooked to desired consistency. Combine broccoli in pan with potatoes and onion add nutritional yeast add more margarine if needed, stir until yeast is combined and all vegetables are coved.
Serve hot with some ketchup for a delicious meal for any time of the day.

Hannah's Chili

Hi everyone, this is Hannah.  After reading through this lovely blog, I felt my cooking skills were being underrepresented.  So to prove that I am not a food dunce, I have decided to contribute to this endeavor.  It is true that I make a mean stir fry (which is why I always gave it as an option for meals), but I will wait to give that recipe until I have shown my other skillz. 

First, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, I would like to present Vegan Chili Delicioso.  My grandfather had a wonderful chili recipe but unfortunately it was super meaty.  I used what I remembered from the vegetarian part of that recipe combined with some ideas I pulled from recipes I found on google (as well as just throwing in some things I had around the house).  There are a lot of places for variation depending on your taste, so feel free to experiment!

Vegan Chili Delicioso

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1.5 Onions (I used Spanish)

3-5 cloves Garlic

3 Bell Peppers (I used one green, one orange, and one red)

1 large Zucchini

2 Vegan Burgers (This is optional but can add a nice texture and flavor.  I used the ones by Nature’s Promise because they have no eggs, corn, or mushrooms.  You can also use tempeh sautéed in a couple teaspoons of soy sauce if you’d like. If you choose to leave this option out, you may want to add some extra beans.)

3 15 oz cans of Beans (I used one black, one red kidney, and one pinto but you can use any type!)

2 28 oz cans of Crushed Tomatoes in Puree (Before pouring these into the mix, you may want to put them into a bowl to check them for unwanted bits.  Sometimes these cans have the tops of the tomatoes and some leaves that gross me out when they’re cooked into the food.)

Cumin

Cayenne Pepper

Garlic Powder

Chop onions and dice garlic.  Sautee them with one tbsp olive oil in a very large pot.  If vegan burgers are frozen, add them just as the onions and garlic begin to brown/become clear.  Break apart the burgers as you stir the onions and garlic.  Chop and remove the seeds of the bell peppers and cut up the zucchini (I cut the zucchini in half length-wise and then sliced them but if its small you can just slice it with out cutting it in half).  Add the peppers and zucchini with an additional tbsp olive oil to the onions, garlic and burgers and continue sautéing.  If the mix seems too dry and is sticking too much add about a quarter to a half cup water. 

Sautee the whole mix for about 5-10 minutes.  Rinse the beans to remove the salt used in canning and get the tomatoes ready.  Add the beans and tomatoes to the pot.  Also at this time add as much cumin, cayenne pepper and garlic powder as you’d like.  I put about three shakes of cayenne (I can’t do spicy), a healthy amount of cumin (I didn’t measure but I would say somewhere between ¼ and ½ tsp.), and a couple shakes of garlic powder. Lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. 

Then serve up and enjoy! This makes a lot of chili.  Enough to serve at least 5 or 6.

Seitan

I tried Seitan for the first time at a vegan resturant on the upper east side called Candle 79. I was really impressed when I tried it. It had a very meaty texture without the fake meat taste. Now of course the seitan was cooked profesionally in a resturant with lots of other ingredients and spices, but all the same it inspired me to try it out myself.

It is apparently extremely labor intensive, but worth a try.  It tasted quite good homemade and was really cheap to make.  It also keeps in the freezer well for a long time.


Quick Homemade Gluten
(Makes 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pounds or 2 to 2-1/2 cups)
This is the basic recipe for gluten.
2 cups gluten flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1-1/4 cups water or vegetable stock
3 Tablespoons lite tamari, Braggs liquid amino acids, or soy sauce
1-3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (optional)
Add garlic powder and ginger to flour and stir. Mix liquids together and add to flour mixture all at once. Mix vigorously with a fork. When it forms a stiff dough knead it 10 to 15 times.
Let the dough rest 2 to 5 minutes, then knead it a few more times. Let it rest another 15 minutes before proceeding.
Cut gluten into 6 to 8 pieces and stretch into thin cutlets. Simmer in broth for 30 to 60 minutes.
Broth:
4 cups water
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
3-inch piece of kombu (a type of seaweed)
3-4 slices ginger (optional)
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring broth to a boil. Add cutlets one at a time. Reduce heat to barely simmer when saucepan is covered. Seitan may be used, refrigerated, or frozen at this point.
Total Calories per 4 oz. Serving: 77
Fat: 0 grams
http://www.vrg.org/recipes/vjseitan.htm

Babootie

This recipe is one that my family has been using for years.  It was a favorite as a kid and thought it would be great to share with Hannah. This particular recipe is how my mother makes it, meat and all (knew I was going to have to stray from my vegan path eventually) 

To make it vegan all you do is replace the meat with ground seitan. In order to grind the seitan, place estimated equivalent of 2 lbs of meat of seitan in food processor and grind until at desired consistency.

Update: We have experimented with some other meat alternatives.  It turns out Hannah's favorite is Five Grain Tempeh in this dish.  To make it incredibly easy, just use a can or two of chick peas!

To make this recipe Hannah proof do not add apricot jam, use apple vinegar and if you use ketchup for thinning make sure it does not have corn syrup.

Babootie

(Makes about 10 servings)

2lbs ground lamb (or chicken or beef, but best with lamb)

2 chopped onions

2 chopped cloves of garlic

1 16 oz can of tomato puree

1 1/2 Tbs sugar

2 Tbs curry powder

2 Tbs vinegar

a pinch of salt

2 firm bananas

1 peeled and dices apple

1 Tbs apricot jam

1/4 c slivered almonds

tomato juice or ketchup for thinning

In large pan Brown meat, drain off fat.

Add all other ingredients, cover pan and simmer gently. Stir frequently for about 30 min. Add tomato juice or ketchup is mixture gets too thick.

When done serve over rice.

Carrot Cake Part II

For Hannah and my fourth monthiversary, Valentine's Day and my birthday I made a recreation of my original carrot cake. I figured, what's a celebration when there is not cake, besides I had been craving cake for some time and really wanted to redeem myself at making carrot cake. I had also picked up some vegan cream cheese and really wanted to make the frosting that is so totally essential to a perfect carrot cake.

Because I didn't like my first carrot cake recipe, I again went to the internet to find a new recipe. This time I found a new recipie on what soon became one of my favorite vegan recipe websites. hellyeahitsvegan.com
In the morning before work I made my carrot cake. I was so impressed by my creation that I decided to share it with my coworkers. Unfortunately I placed the cake for my trip to the PATH station on the back of my bike and when I had gotten to the PATH station, my cake was no longer in the state it had started in. I was upset, but because it was so good I still offered it to them. But none of my coworkers wanted to try it, claiming that they ate with their eyes not with their mouths... I was sad that they would not try it because it was delicious! In the end it's their loss, it was soo good!

But enough from me and my woes of exploding cake. Here's the recipe from HellYeah ItsVegan:

Classic Vegan Carrot Cake

2 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt

6 tbsp flax seed meal
3/4 c warm water
1½ c sugar
1 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded carrots
1 c raisins

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz vegan cream cheese
¼ c margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two 8×8″ pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a large bowl, whisk together flax seed meal and water. Beat in sugar and oil. Add vanilla and carrots and mix until combined. Add dry mix and stir until moistened. Fold in raisins. Pour equal parts into pans. Bake for 18-20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes.

For the frosting, beat together cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla and powdered sugar; whip until smooth. (Don’t overbeat; in my experience, store-bought vegan cream cheese has a tendency to get runny.)
Use a knife to loosen edges of cake from pans. Using parchment paper, lift cakes out of pans. Carefully remove parchment paper from one cake. If you are making a layer cake and a large pan, cut the cake in calf, frost then stack and frost again.

Last Step, enjoy!

The cake was soo good. I gave it to Hannah and she nearly went crazy. You may remember a blog link I put up here a few posts ago, well it is exactly how Hannah acted after she tried the first tiny test bite. http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/10/god-of-cake.html

Tofu Scramble and Sandwich

So I have been cooking for Hannah for about three months now, trying to make her introduce new foods, cooking so that she can always eat the food and so that she would only introduce at most one or two foods at one time. But cooing only for her just wasn’t cutting it any longer to satisfy my vegan adventures. I needed to branch out and start cooking for myself.

There is one thing that Hannah and I both share. We both cannot eat eggs. For Hannah if she eats an egg she could potentially end up in the hospital with a closed up throat. For me, when I eat an egg in an egg state (not in a baked stated) I get the worst stomach aches. Since I have not been able to eat eggs, eggs are the one thing that I have missed the most. Almost any breakfast food has eggs in them: omelets, French toast, scrambled eggs, fried eggs; I used to love them all. So not being able to eat them I started thinking about how I could substitute a morning egg dish.

While I was volunteering for a year I started experimenting with substitute egg dishes. The one recipe that I came across the most often in my searches was tofu scramble. My favorite so far is the one I found from Post Punk Kitchen   http://www.theppk.com/2008/10/scrambled-tofu/

And for convenience sake, I'll write down my own version of the recipe.

Tofu Scramble

1 lb extra firm tofu drained and pressed
1 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
1 1/2 c chopped artichoke hearts
2-3 cloves garlic
¼ nutrition yeast
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt

Place oil in skillet on the stovetop. Brown onions 5 minutes add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes add artichoke for another 2 minutes. Add spices. Add ¼ c water to deglaze the pan.
Crumble tofu and mix well. Do not break up tofu, lift and turn in pan. Cook for 15 min stirring occasionally and adding water if tofu sticks. Combine nutritional yeast cooking for another few minutes. Serve and enjoy with a piece of toast and Fake’in.

The next day I used the leftovers in a sandwich with fake’in and mustard. I’m sure it would also be good with tomatoes, although I’m not a fan.  

Split Pea Soup

For a while I’ve been thinking that I needed to feed Hannah some more dinner like foods. I’ve made a whole bunch of desserts which are delicious, but as Hannah said the other day; with all the sweet food I've been making her, I'm going to make her fat. Now I don't want that, besides I want to be able to feed Hannah at all times, providing her with a well-rounded diet.  I mean she eats great already, but I don’t want my contribution to her diet being only the sweet stuff. So I started wracking my head for new dinner ideas

From time to time I find myself craving some of my food growing up. One of which I particularly crave when it is especially cold and raw out, split pea soup. A few times now I have suggested to Hannah that we make split pea soup for dinner and every time I suggest it she was excited, although perhaps not as crazy about it as for French toast or cake. But I was never able to get around to making it, probably because we never had split peas on hand or we were just too lazy to go out and get some. Well one week into February I decided to make her a delicious dinner, complete with split peas soup, fake'in (fo bacon), and dinner rolls (not containing any corn). It was perfect and I was really excited to finally be able to share my love of split pea soup with Hannah. 

My love of split pea soup goes back to memories eating it at home when I was younger. When my mother used to make it, she would stew the peas in a crock pot with ham hocks and all the necessary herbs and spices, giving it the right amount of porky, smoky, delicious flavor. Add a fresh dinner roll and I was in heaven. So warm and tasty, a soup that could really fill you up.

Since I left my parent’s house I have not had split pea soup with ham hocks, but thanks to my ingenuity I have been able to make some pretty good split pea soups sans the ham flavor. Although not going to lie, split pea soup is always better with the ham… But since my girlfriend is vegetarian and will not eat anything that comes from an animal with four legs I had to forego it yet again. Luckily split pea soup is still delicious without the ham.

So as I have never written down any of my recipes except a few that my mother gave me when I left the house the first time, I had to go to my favorite recipe book, the internet. Luckily there are millions of vegan split pea soup recipes out there. This is the one I chose:

Vegan Split Pea Soup


2 c split peas
8-10 c water
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 medium potatoes
2 large carrots
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
Salt and pepper to taste
4 strips of Fake'in precooked and cut into bits (optional)


Rinse peas in order to remove any impurities or rocks
Place peas and water in a large pot on stovetop, bring to a boil. Once at a boil add remaining ingredients and let simmer for 1-2 hours.
Peas should be soft and easily dissolvable when done
Add salt or pepper for taste
Serve with a fresh roll or slice of bread


When I made this for Hannah I was also making it for guests and as this was the first time I had made it I was a little nervous. What if it didn’t taste that good and nobody liked it… It’s not that bad when I am just feeding Hannah, but when there are also other people on the line, it becomes a different story. In the end my first try at an all vegan split pea soup came out good. I almost completely forgot the salt and only remembered to put a bit in when I put the soup on the table. But surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. Needed some salt, but other than that everyone devoured it. At least next time I will remember to put the salt in ahead of time.  

Rice Pudding

Hannah's family has a tradition where at every family reunion the entire family makes all these different recipes of rice pudding. They are even so into rice pudding that they have a rice pudding song!Sounds like the most amazingly sweet family reunion ever. But unfortunately not for Hannah, as she can no longer partake in the festivities due to her whey allergy. Which is in all dairy products. NO Whey!!
Clearly this last bit of information must mean that after only 4 months of dating I was going to be taken to a family reunion. Nope, not going to her family reunion, I just needed inspiration for my next vegan food experiment. And so after hearing Hannah's poor story about never being able to have rice pudding again (I don't even remember why we were talking about rice pudding in the first place) my adventure to create vegan rice pudding began.
Not surprisingly enough, rice pudding is one of the easiest deserts one can make, not to mention the cheapest. For a normal rice pudding recipe all you needs is rice, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and not quite as necessary but definitely makes it delicious, raisins. And after not so much searching on the internet I found out that it is still not very hard to make vegan rice pudding. This is the recipe I found...

Rice Pudding


2 Cups of Water
1 Cup of Rice
1 1/4 cups of almond milk
1/3 cup of raisins
1/3 cup of brown sugar or maple sugar
1 t of vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ginger
1/8 nutmeg

In a saucepan cook rice. While cooked rice is still in the pan, add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine and continue to cook on medium low until all the liquid have been absorbed. Serve hot or place in refrigerator to serve cold.

Simple as that! Not to mention delicious, and one could even argue healthy!

Hannah and I shared this recipe with friends at dinner and and informed one of Hannah's rice pudding fiend friends about our creation, promising to bring him some. But the pudding was just too good and none was left at the end of the night. I believe that we still owe that poor man some rice pudding. Perhaps we will have to bring this recipe back sooner than later.

French Toast

While Hannah was away on her epic cross country train trip, I did some research into vegan cooking. I went to the library and got out the first vegan cook book that stood out to me. A Quick and Easy Guide to Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia Simpson. In the entire book there were two foods that stood out, French toast and Mac and cheese. But the first one to try had to be the French toast.

As a child my mother would always make French toast in the morning with cinnamon raisin bread. I have many fond memories of those mornings sharing French toast with my mother. Since my senior year in college I have developed an intolerance to eggs. Which is lucky for Hannah and me as she also is unable to have eggs. Finding a French toast recipe that would not use eggs was heaven for me.

I tried the recipe out first just for myself just to make sure it would come out right before I gave it to Hannah. It turned out delicious! It almost tasted like the real thing. The only thing that I had to figure out was how to work my stove top and how much heat to use. On my first try I made one that was light and warm, the next one I made was far too crispy. I have never owned a gas stove before, and this one in my apartment is iffy.

Vegan French toast

1c Almond Milk
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp Vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
Four slices of bread

Combine first five ingredients and whisk together until smooth, no lumps.
One at a time, place a slice of bread in mixture, flipping it to make sure mixture if soaked into bread
Spray pan with Pam or add oil
Place soaked bread on pan until golden brown or cooked to desired crispness.
Enjoy with apple sauce or pure maple syrup.

I served this recipe to Hannah for the first time the first morning we spent together after she got back from her trip. She loved them, saying that they tasted just like the real thing, just as she remembered them. Although she could not use the syrup I had at my apartment she had them with apple sauce. I made her French toast first and by the time I had finished mine she had already devoured hers. Her reactions to the option of eating French toast in the morning since I first fed them to her are very much akin to a blog both Hannah and I enjoy reading.   http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/10/god-of-cake.html

Carrot Cake

For our first third month anniversary Hannah and I went went out to Manhattan to go ice skating at Bryant Park. It was the first time either of us had been skating in a real long time, and was so much fun. After we finished ice skating, we went to a little diner to get something to eat. While we were there we marveled over their desserts and cakes. We both specifically drooled over the carrot cake, so moist and delicious looking, chalk full of walnuts and raisins. Hannah sighed, saying that she missed eating cake, all thanks to her egg allergy.

Here was my chance to show Hannah that I really cared for her. I would make her a carrot cake that she could actually eat! And to make it even better I would make it for her right before she went on her epic train trip cross country. So that her last memories of me before her trip were of my amazing culinary skills.

My first step was to ask my co-worker, notorious for making some of the most delicious vegan cupcakes and other delicious vegan foods for some ideas. He provided me with some of his tricks and even a carrot cake recipe. But I wasn't satisfied just going off of his advise alone. So I went to work looking up carrot cake recipes and egg substitutes on the Internet. I found hundreds of carrot cake recipes both vegan and not vegan along with hundreds of ideas for egg substitutes.

I never knew there were so many ways to substitute an egg. You see an egg is soo important in many of the food we as Americas eat every day. Think about it, what do most Americans eat for breakfast? Either cereal or an egg in some form or another. There's scrambled eggs, fried eggs, hard boiled eggs, french toast, and so many other ways to eat an egg in the morning. And then you have eggs in baked goods and dinners to boot. Eggs are everywhere!

The reason eggs are so important in baked goods and many other American dishes is because of the special properties that only an egg can have. An egg binds such as in meatloaf, leavens (makes light and airy) for soufles and cakes, thicken for sauces and custards, glazes for breads and cookies, and adds moisture.

Because of the eggs many special properties, there is no one other ingredient that will replace it. What follows is a list of different ingredients which will replace and egg depending n the property needed.

• Half a banana or 2 TBS of apple sauce will add moisture
• 1TBS of vinegar plus 1tsp baking soda will add leavening properties
• 1 tablespoon flax seed meal plus 3 tablespoons water replaces one egg (combine ingredients and let stand for 3-5 minutes, or until it becomes gelatin like) will bind and add leavening properties

In my search to find the perfect egg substitute for my carrot cake I eventually went with Banana. After all it was the most accessible of the alternatives and might even give it an interesting flavor.

Here's the recipe I went with, originally found on vegweb.com, picture also found on vegweb.com (i didn't take a picture of the original cake... :(  )

Carrot Cake

    2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    2 teaspoons cinnamon
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1 teaspoon salt
    3/4 cup light brown cane sugar
    3/4 cup cane sugar
    3 egg equivalents (e.g., Ener-G Egg Replacer)
    1 teaspoon vanilla
    1 cup vegetable oil
    2 cups carrots, finely grated
   
preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a bowl mix flour baking soda cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
In a Larger bowl mix sugar and banana until creamy then add vanilla and vegetable oil.
Mix wet and dry ingredients together stir in carrots.
Grease a 9x9in pan and smooth batter into pan.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until knife comes out clean.


The cake came out good. Not quite to my standards. And becuase I sustituted the eggs in the recipie with banana it turned out more like a banana bread than a carrot cake. I was also not able to make a frosting for the cake becuase I did not have and vegan cream cheese.
It was not a total fail but not the best thing I had ever eaten. I swore that I would make another cake, a better cake and a cake that had vegan frosting!

Thanksgiving

Hannah and I started dating the end of October which meant that one of the largest eating holidays was right around the corner, Thanksgiving. I decided to invite her to the Thanksgiving dinner put on at my community. But I had a problem, what was I going to feed her. I knew all her food allergies, and from the choices I had left there was not much I could make.

One thing came to mind, a staple in my family which we always make for the holidays, squash biscuits. But I was a little concerned that she wouldn't even be able to eat them. Firstly the biscuits used a lot of butter and milk, both of which contain whey which she would not be able to eat, even if they were cooked in. Next I wasn't sure that she could have squash or yeast, two of the most important ingredients in the recipe. And last was a purely vane concern; would she even like them?

My family had never deviated from the recipe before; it has been the same since I first tried them as a small child. I wasn't even sure that they would taste decent if I changed them. In the end I decided to change just two things, substitute the butter with margarine and the milk with almond milk. I chose to keep the rest the same, I was pretty sure that she could eat all the other ingredients; salt, flour, yeast and white sugar.

The day of Thanksgiving my community was running around cooking and baking and decorating the convent. I had told all of my community members to try as much as possible to not use dairy, eggs, or corn in their food. In then end Hannah could eat only a few things on the table, my bread, which she quickly found out was delicious and devoured half of the rolls, some roasted brussel sprouts, and some rice.

The dinner ended well. There were many good people in attendance, the food was delicious and almost completely devoured, there was good wine and beer and many laughs. I was also able to introduce Hannah to a bunch of my community members for the first time. All in all it was a great evening and I boosted my confidence towards making food for my girlfriend to boot.

Squash Biscuits 


5c Flour
1/2 c Sugar
1 t Salt
1 can squash canned or frozen (more is better)
1c scalded Almond Milk
1/2 c Vegan Margarine
1 packet of yeast or follow directions on container in 1/4c luke warm water
2 9x9 in Pyrex pans

Place packet of yeast in luke warm temperature water until all the yeast has dissolved and there are little bubbles at the surface.
Using a microwave safe container place margarine and milk in the microwave for one minute thirty second in order to scald the milk and melt the margarine
In a large bowl combine the squash, salt, sugar, yeast, milk and margarine and mix until completely combined, when combined add the flour and mix again until all ingredients are combined.
When done cover bowl with a clean towel and let rise until doubled in size
Preheat over to 375 degrees
Grease both 9in x 9in glass pans
Grease hands and roll dough in 18 rolls placing 9 in each pan
Cover with towel and let rise again
When doubled in size place in oven for 18 minutes
When golden brown take out of the over and enjoy. :)

The Beginning

From the beginning of our relationship, food was an issue. More for me than for her. I would stay over at her place get up in the morning and scrounge around for something to eat. Of all her foods in her kitchen there was nothing that I would eat on a regular basis. In her whole kitchen I could only find; rice squares, almond milk, granola, apples, apple sauce, bread, rice noodles, pretzels, broccoli, carrots, soy beans, soy sauce, tomato sauce and peas. Seems like a stalked pantry, but no. Of all the items in her pantry I could't think of more than a couple of combinations for meals. For breakfast I guess I could have cereal, but what about the rest of the meals.

This of course meant that the first meal was up to her, really I just needed her to show me what she would do with her selection. She fed me a really delicious stir fry. Which at least told me she could cook. The stir fry became a problem when the next time couple of times we had a meal one of the suggestions was always stir fry. It seemed as though her entire repetoire of meals included a couple of different combinations of stir fry. Don't get me wrong, I mean stir fry can be really good for a little while, but if I'm only eating that every time I go over to her place, it could get a little tedious.

After we had been dating a couple of weeks she'd ask me what I want to eat, I'd be like... "ah... well I guess we could have stir fry..." It was always the same. I was getting a little anxious. Stir fry with rice noodles, stir fry with coos coos, every time stir fry. I mean it was really healthy, but I needed diversity.

Every once and a while she would throw in a curve ball, rice noodles and tomato sauce, but this was more like stir fry than pasta, and I was always hungry afterwards.

I seemed to be stuck. What else could we both eat? There seemed to be nothing unless I started pressuring her to introduce new foods. Thus starting my mission to diversify her pantry.

Introduction

Greetings blog readers!

I like millions of other people on the internet, having been inspired by reading blogs, have decided to start yet another blog of my own. Yes, I am not new to this phenomenon. I have had a variety of blogs in my short life so far. Most of which were simply melodramatic public journals, where as a lonely high schooler and later college student I felt I could express myself without getting caught up with actually letting someone really into my own person struggles.

Thank goodness those stages in my life are over. This blog is something completely new, although definitely inspired by many of the blogs I have been reading over the last couple of months.

So with no further ado, I am now writing to keep a record of my attempts to feed my girlfriend. You see she is not your average girlfriend, she has food allergies galore! It’s actually a lot more complicated than that but for now you can just believe that she has food allergies.

A list of things my girlfriend cannot eat:

• eggs
• milk products, aka whey (No Cheese!!)
• citrus
• corn or corn syrup
• alcohol and anything that involves fermentation which is a lot!
• meat products, this is not an allergy but merely a choice to not eat red meat, therefore she makes an exception for chicken
• too much soy, she does eat soy but she doesn't want to eat a lot of it which means for me not very much cooking with tofu
• things with high fat content such as avocados or various nuts
• fried food, due to her lack of a gallbladder 
• any caffeinated beverage or chocolate

Now this list only includes the various food items which she knows for certain she will never be able to eat. Since she discovered her food restrictions four years ago she has been slowly reintroducing food. This too has been part of my adventure, trying to have her introduce new foods without having allergic reactions. Good thing she carries around and epipen. 

Now you might be asking yourself how I got into this predicament in the first place. I started dating Hannah about four months ago, well actually it was six months ago but that's a different story. On our first date we went out to my favorite dumpling place in the Lower East Side, Manhattan. I was so excited for her to try the dumplings, as they are the best in the whole wide world. When we finally get to the place all she orders is edemame, I was a little heart broken. We get back to the park where we are going to be eating and she informs me of her food allergies, of course, like I gave you all, she also gave me the condensed version. 

Luckily I was not thrown off by her food allergies, allowing us to make it the last four months. But that’s not to say that there were not a few obstacles to pass. The one main obstacle for me was that I could not cook for my girlfriend. You see I really like to cook, a lot, and especially cooking for other people. I also have certain things that I like to cook for people, but with Hannah I just couldn't continue cooking my staple dishes, unless I wanted to spend a lot of time in the hospital. 

Needless to say food became one of my favorite things to talk to her about. I would often spend an entire date asking what she could or could not eat. I quickly found out that all her food restrictions made her an unintentional vegan. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would find myself dating a vegan, not even an unintentional vegan. Here's the problem. I have no problems eating meat, I think it tastes good and can really make a meal. I also really really like dairy products, how could I live my life without cheese or butter or milk? It seemed unthinkable. But if I ever wanted to cook for my girlfriend I was going to have to seriously change the way I cooked.

Bringing me to where I am now, experimenting with veganism. I have been to every vegan cooking blog, checked out hundreds of vegan cookbooks from the library, and bought vegan ingredients. Feeling prepared I set off cooking for myself and my roommates in order to prepare for feeding Hannah. 

Thus started my adventure to feed my girlfriend. Over the next however long I keep up with this blog I will attempt to record my attempts and hilarious antics which may occur at any moment while trying to provide diversity to my girlfriend’s diet.