Vegan Knitting...and then some

Berry Good Times

I got a bit of a late start on the berrying compared to last year but I've now been blueberry picking twice and blackberry picking once in the neighborhood.  Through the circle of moms I nanny for, I found out about this wonderful little berry farm up near Brush Prairie, WA, and when I went picking on Thursday, organic blueberries the size of your head were $5 a pail, which holds about 6 lbs! As you can see, I went to town! And this was just one trip.

I'm planning another post featuring some of the foods I've made from the berries and my garden this year but for now, here are some blueberry pancakes using the gluten-free Buckwheat Pancake recipe from Vegan Brunch.  Served with homemade blueberry maple syrup and Lightlife sausage links.  The sausages were so-so at best, but these pancakes are really good.  We've made them 4 times so far and my husband has asked for them, which is unusual.  Yesterday I made a double batch with silver-dollar size, and this morning I had them for breakfast as little sandwiches with almond butter and homemade blueberry jam.

ETA: Blackberry Muffin used the Strawberry Love Muffins from My Sweet Vegan

Pesto Pasta

Simple, yet delicious.  Poor Man's Pesto from Vegan Mediterranean Kitchen, along with cherry tomatoes, little red potatoes, kalamata olives, cauliflower, and pesto made with basil from my garden.  Make it with whole wheat pasta for a really healthy meal.  We had this pasta already, so I just used it.  This pesto recipe is my favorite and is easily made with a variety of seeds.  Tonight I used pine nuts from Trader Joe's but I've used toasted pumpkinseeds and almonds successfully, and I'm sure you could easily use walnuts or cashews as well.

Hello exercise!

Those who know me well will be shocked to hear that I've started jogging.  Moving to Portland has resulted in a different amount of exercise and food, and my waistline has increased while my stamina has decreased.  Yoga is great but I felt I needed to start doing some aerobic exercise to help with the waistline and stamina issues.

So last week I started the Couch to 5K program, which takes you from being a non-runner to a 5K runner in about 9 weeks.  As an asthmatic, this slow increase is really good to build up my body's response to exercise, and I will probably increase the program length to about 12-15 weeks so that I can adjust to the longer runs a little more slowly than in the plan.  For example, Week 5 has you going from 5 minutes of running with walking breaks on day 1, to 20 minutes of running with no breaks on day 3.  That's not going to happen.  But if I take 3 weeks to do week 5, then I can break up the increases a bit more.

This morning I did day 1 of Week 2, and while I am jogging pretty slowly for now, I really love it! I don't see myself joining any marathons any time soon, but I like the feeling of moving, and of seeing how much longer I'm able to go in the same time this week compared to last week.  I like how about halfway through, I start to feel like I can't do any more, and then once I push past that for another minute or two, I feel like I can keep going even once the program is done.

I'm using a weekly Podcast called PodRunner, which breaks up the sections of the run by music with different BPMs and gives a tone when it's time to switch between jogging and walking.  The music isn't my favorite but it is way easier than having to look at a watch every 90 seconds.

I am trying to do my runs in the morning before 11, when the temperature starts to rise.  I eat a light breakfast (toast with almond butter and jam), bring a big bottle of water, and then have a smoothie when I get back to fill up and cool down.

Today's smoothie looks awful but was really tasty.

• frozen blueberries and strawberries (picked with my friend Kim)
• Soy yogurt
• almond milk
• kale from my garden
• hemp powder for some extra protein

With the berries, you don't taste the kale at all, and with such tender leaves fresh picked, there's no texture issue either.  The hemp powder is a little bit gritty but I like the omega fatty acids in it, and there's already enough soy in the smoothie from the yogurt.

From the garden: pasta with kale

This evening I picked a huge bunch of kale.  It's very tender and sweet, and there wasn't a single bug on it!

I sauteed 2 sliced leeks in olive oil until semi-soft, then added the chopped kale.  I seasoned with some veggie boullion, red chili flakes, chopped garlic, and black pepper.  While it was cooking, I boiled some pasta.  Here it is served with some chickpeas.  It turned out perfectly!

Inspiring Summer: veggie gardens

The most important thing I did this summer outside the house was to create vegetable gardens.  I made two beds in the backyard and one in the side yard.  The fact that this area used to be riverbeds makes prepping very difficult.  There were many many stones to remove, and the earth is mostly sand, requiring a lot of compost.  Also, these weeds in the "before" photo had bulb-based roots, and I had to sift through the topsoil to remove all of them as they had dried by the time I removed the plants.

Our plan is to add raised beds with cedar boxes in the back and also along another part of the side yard that gets a lot of morning sun.  It's too late for this year but we'll have them in place by next year to start planting in March or April, rather than July!

Here is the garden area before before: grass, weeds, and lillies.

And here it is now: heirloom tomatoes, red peppers, kale, lemon cucumber, and chard, with lettuce, collards, and marigolds just coming up.

This is a small area next to a large oak tree in our side yard, that had been populated by weeds and bluebells.

Here it has been transformed into the second bed: a variety of herbs surrounded by Red Romaine lettuce and Shiraz Beets.  These were initially planted in the back yard but were doing very poorly.  They are much happier in the sun here, with lots of compost and worm castings.

Inspiring Summer: in the kitchen

This summer, my husband and I have had several sets of house guests.  This has been great for us because each time we have visitors, we "finish" the house a little more, get another piece of furniture that we need, work on the garden, and generally make our home that much homier.

The next few posts will feature projects that we have worked on this summer.

Boring old Mr. Empty ironing board cupboard turns into

Mr. Dream spice cabinet!

Editing to add:  This cabinet was accomplished with the use of maybe $10 of materials - 3" cedar board, pine 1/4 round, our neighbor's punch nail gun, and some Miller paint.  We could have done it right after moving in here.  Don't procrastinate on these sorts of things! They make life so much easier and really spiff up the kitchen.

Homemade Hummus

It's been quite hot here lately, and my appetite has been small.  I'm also trying to eat as many meals that are close to the Eat to Live diet as possible (which means mostly beans and vegetables with some nuts/seeds) and in his hot weather, that means a lot of raw veggies and salads for me.

Today I made hummus for the first time in my wonderful KitchenAid blender, using the basic Hummus recipe from Veganomicon.  I used canned chickpeas for convenience but made a roasted sesame version by adding some roasted sesame oil (about 1 TB).  I also used a bit more lemon juice.  Served here with olive oil and smoked paprika on top.

I think this is a great basic recipe and I will be making it often this summer with different additions.

Ginger Maki Bowl

Back in California, we used to enjoy eating at Samovar Tea House and our favorite dish was the Ginger Maki Bowl, filled with grilled ginger tofu, oolong rice topped with matcha powder and gomasio, shredded red beets, scallions, and nori pieces.

We've been craving that dish for a while and now that warm weather has come to the NW, it seemed appropriate to make our own version.

Here's the Samovar version.

And here is my version.

This version was a great success!  The only thing missing is the matcha powder that wasn't available at our local grocery store, and we pan fried the tofu since we don't have a grill pan yet.  The combination of warm and cold was perfect after a 70 degree day.  The tofu was thinly sliced and marinated in soy sauce, freshly grated ginger, and a tsp of brown sugar before being sauteed in a tiny bit of oil.  The basmati rice was cooked in our ricemaker with about 2 tsp of oolong tea leaves.  The beets were shredded and then seasoned with rice vinegar and black pepper.  Everything got a pinch of salt and the rice was liberally sprinkled with gomasio.  If you've never tried gomasio, it's a wonderful Japanese seasoning that's made of toasted sesame seeds, sea salt, and finely ground seaweed - about 4 different kinds.

I forsee many bowls of this in the hot summer months ahead.  It's also good with golden beets or oshinko (pickled Japanese radish).  And it works well as leftovers, as you can see here.

A toast!

Here's to my first paycheck of 2009!  I started working a few weeks ago after a long time off.  It's a part-time job, but a job nonetheless.  My drink is called the 3 liars and features housemade cucumber gin, lemonade, and a British liquor called Pimm's! So tasty.

So now that I'm working again, I have to get used to bringing my lunch to work.  So I got out the old trusty Laptop Lunchbox, and here are the first two days' lunches.  I try to pack substantial lunches because I tend to have a big appetite when I'm working with children, and because toddlers often are interested in trying your food.  I'm happy to help little ones eat better and more varied food, so I like to have enough to share if they are interested.  If not, then I'll eat it as an afternoon snack.

Thermos of basmati rice, frozen veggie blend from Trader Joe's (heated and mixed with rice), soy yogurt with blueberries, cranberry bars, and a clementine.

More basmati rice, black beans with salsa and some cilantro, mixture of onions, corn, and Field Roast chipotle sausage, Cara Cara orange.  (Pardon the terrible photo).

I often bring a snack or even breakfast as well since I leave the house at 8 a.m., and I'm happily enjoying my Wrap n Mats that I got from Albion Cooks, and that were just featured on Vegan Lunchbox.  Perfect for a sandwich, toast, some crackers, and who knows what else!

Black Bean Burgers

Last night we made the Black Bean Burgers from Veganomicon, with the cilantro sour cream.  Served on fresh buns with frozen french fries.  I dipped my fries in the cream.

The texture of the burgers was great.  I felt they were lacking on spices (1 tsp chile powder and 1/2 tsp cumin) so next time I will tinker with those quite a bit. 

I liked the flavor of the sour cream but it was a bit too watery for the burgers.  Next time I would use half silken tofu and half soft tofu to make it a bit thicker.

Resolution Check-in

Pumpkin Ziti with roasted brussels sprouts
(used whole wheat bread for bread crumbs, and ricotta made from almonds and tofu)


Leyburn Sock progress
(almost done with the first one!)


My yoga mat
(on the shelf in the closet by the door - easy to grab when I go to class 2x a week)


Peek at a sculpture by my best friend
(spoke to her on the phone this week for the first time in a long time)

 

Potato Leek Soup

I posted about this soup a few years ago but it's so tasty on a cold, snowy day like we had today in Portland, that I'm posting about it again!  It's a veganized version of the Potato Leek Soup in The Joy of Cooking with soy sour cream and paprika on top.  It's such a quick and easy soup - took about 30 minutes.  And now that I have the wonderful KitchenAid handheld blender, it's even easier since I don't have to use a regular blender.

Resolution check-in #2

I'm going to be checking in on these for a month or two so that I make sure these are habits to stay.

1.  Yoga - Last week I went twice, once to a Vinyasa class that gave my arm, chest, and shoulder muscles a real workout, and then to a Hatha class where you work up to a single pose through various simpler poses and stretches.  I really liked that class and am doing another one today.

2. Eating - Here's an example of dinner:  La Tortilla Factory low-carb tortillas used to make a quesadilla.  No cheese, just filling with pinto beans (cooked with olive oil, broth, and lots of spices) and onions, red pepper, corn, and Chipotle Field Roast sausage.  Topped with avocado, green salsa, and a spoon of Toffutti sour cream.

3. Knitting - I finished my grandmother's mini shawl.  I'm working through her larger one and am almost done with the HP scarf.  However, I made a warm hat for myself ( featured soon) in two days, and am about to cast on for a pair of socks.  I am also planning to make a matching cowl to go with the hat.

4.  Keeping in touch - I've maintained a good balance of home and social life.  I need to call my father and see how he's doing but I checked in with my aunt and am staying in touch with others, and even getting in touch with some long-lost friends via Facebook.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year's Day everyone!  My husband and I celebrated New Year's Day with some veganized Hoppin' John from the Joy of Cooking, with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts and homemade tempeh bacon.

I'm very excited to have finally figured out how to use the macro setting on my camera (after 3 years!)  It wasn't included in the manual but I found it online.  I've got several posts planned for the coming few days including coconut fudge from My Sweet Vegan, DIY Month project 4, and New Year's resolutions.  I'll have to plan them out in advance as on Tuesday, I fly or drive (haven't decided which yet) to California to attend my Master's thesis defense meeting.  It's very exciting but also a bit nerve-wracking.  I've been in the MA program for five years and will be very happy to be graduating with my MA in special education.

I'm sorry to report that my aunt who I made the chemo hats for passed away yesterday morning.  I'm glad that she was able to wear the hats for about a month during some very cold weather.  It was the right time - she was on heavy morphine and no longer able to interact with anyone - but that doesn't make it any easier, particularly for my grandfather, who my aunt lived with and cared for for several years.  Right now the family decision is not to tell my grandmother, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's in a nursing home, unless she realizes that my aunt isn't visiting and can tell something is wrong.  For people with short-term memory loss, the repetition of the early stages of grieving can be very hard.  I wish that I could visit my grandmother, but since I live thousands of miles away, I'm swatching to make a capelet for my grandmother out of a soft washable yarn in one of her favorite colors. 

Happy Holidays!!!

 

The day started like this!  So we stayed inside all day, and did some of this:

and this:

Mock Chicken Noodle soup from Nava Atlas's Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons, a new book for me, and some long overdue science of making a larger scarf into a smaller one.  One faithful reader will be happy to see this project.  It's half done and I foresee it being finished within a week plus drying time.

I also made pumpkin cranberry muffins, coconut fudge, and bread, but some of those are going to be in another post.

I spoke with faraway family for the first Christmas in 10 years and have otherwise had a nice, warm, quiet day with my husband plus a small visit from our next door neighbors.

I hope everyone had a safe, warm, cozy day!

Cookie Exchange!

Wednesday I hosted a cookie exchange party at my house.  It was the first time I've had a group of friends over.  Originally, about 16 people were going to participate but with the awful weather (that didn't end up really affecting my neighborhood but affected the SW strongly) there were just 6.  We had a great time, though, and there were just enough places for all of us to sit and the big dish of macaroni and cheese I made was enough for everyone to share.

A close-up of the cookies:  chocolate peanut butter bees, coffee shortbread, matcha mint, sesame flax, ginger, pfeffernusser, and chocolate mint.

As for the macaroni and cheese, I made it a new way this time, which has been my favorite (and cheapest!)  I made a batch of almond ricotta using the cashew ricotta recipe from Veganomicon, but with 8 oz of tofu instead of 1 lb so there's a higher proportion of almonds and garlic to tofu. 

Chop 1 large onion finely and sauteed it in olive oil until very soft and caramelized.  Add 1 cup of soymilk, a bit of "chicken" bullion, and a bunch of spices (tabasco, black peper, sage, nutmeg, salt, basil, and thyme) and heat it until it's simmering for about 5 minutes.

Pour into a bowl and mix in 1/2 C nutritional yeast and 1 big squirt of yellow mustard.  Whisk with whisk or fork until smooth and creamy.  Add in the ricotta and a few TB of olive oil and mix until smooth.

Mix the cheese into 1 lb of cooked pasta, add 2 cups of thawed frozen peas (optional but very tasty!) and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes with foil on top until hot and steamy.  I drizzled a bit more olive oil and soymilk over the top before baking it so that it didn't dry out at all.

This was definitely my tastiest mac n cheese so far and I will be making it again this weekend as we have relatives visiting!

DIY Month - Project 2: Coffee

  I love the taste of coffee but can't handle caffeine every day.  So I make my own decaf so it tastes good.  Meet my friend Bialetti Musa.  This sweet little stainless steel Italian espresso maker allows me to make really great decaf at home using freshly roasted and ground beans from Portland's Stumptown Roasting Company.  It makes just enough for a big mug of coffee and it's easy to rinse out. This maker cost me $15 on Craigslist and now I don't spend $1.50/day on coffee at the store.

Fresh decaf with heated Silk creamer.  MMMmmm.....

DIY Month - Project 1 : Tempeh Bacon

With the price of food going up and up, we at the Veganknitting household have decided to cook more food from scratch.  Not only do we save a lot of money, but it's much tastier, too!  So the next few postings will feature the results of our new way of life.

Project #1:  Tempeh Bacon

Normally, we love to eat LightLife's Fakin' Bacon on BLTs or as a breakfast protein.  It costs about $5 for a 6 oz package. 

Instead, I am buying plain Surata tempeh, at a cost of $3.50 for a 12 oz package, and marinating it in a tweaked version of the Vegan with a Vengance recipe for tempeh bacon. 

Cost:  Comparable cost for 6 oz - about $2.
Taste:  Really good!  Not quite as smoky as the original but a really nice flavor, and I can tweak it depending on what we're making it with (in this case, home fries.)

Oatmeal - no burning!

I have to dedicate this post to Depression Cooking with Clara and thank Jennifer of Vegan Lunch Box for her great post about this grandma's cooking show on YouTube.

Not only are they fun to watch, but I learned that I can cook my pasta by turning off the heat after I add the pasta to the boiling water, covering it, and letting it cook in the hot water.  I know it sounds really simple, but I hadn't realized that the pasta would cook just as well without the boiling.  Not only that, but for me, it takes the same amount of time it would take if I left the gas on, and it doesn't use any energy, and the pasta doesn't stick as long as I give it a stir a couple of times.

I also realized that I can apply this method equally to other foods like hot cereals.  I love oatmeal but I have a love-hate relationship with it because I almost always either boil it over, or burn the bottom, or cook it correctly but have to scrub the pot afterwards due to the oatmeal sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Thanks to Grandma Clara, I now boil the water, stir in the oatmeal, turn off the heat, let it sit a minute as the burner cools down, and then pop the top on.  I come back 5 minutes later and my oatmeal is perfectly cooked and there are no grains of oats stuck to the bottom!

Sometimes the greatest triumphs in cooking are small ones that affect items you cook frequently.

Pancakes!

After two days in the car eating hummus and bread, I was ready for something warm and comforting for breakfast!  Here are VWAV pancakes with blackberry syrup and tempeh bacon.