Broccoli Cashew Cream Alfredo

Yes, no camera for now. New one on Friday, promise. In the mean time, enjoy this great picture. I'm pretty sure that bunnies make everything better (except food).

Also in the meantime, try this cashew cream alfredo, I promise it makes good numblies. Requires some kind of grinding instrument: Magic Bullet, Vita-Mix, or food processor, or any spinny/blendy thingie you use.

Broccoli Cashew Cream Alfredo
1 cup cashews
1/2 block firm silken tofu (drained)
3/4 cup broth of your choice (I use vegetarian "chicken" flavor)
1 box of Ancient Harvest Quinoa spaghetti
1 broccoli crown, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
dash of nutmeg
(optional) 1/4 cup toasted almost slivers

1. Cook Quinoa pasta according to directions on box.
2. While pasta is cooking, grind the cashews in a food processor (you can use soaked cashews if you want or are used to that, but I didn't). Don't grind them too much so you get cashew buttah, that's not the point here.
3. When the cashews are crumbly, add the 1/2 block of firm silken tofu, and pulse to combine.
4. Drizzle or pour in small quantities of the broth until the consistency is smooth. Make it a bit thinner than you want your end sauce to be, as it loses a bit more moisture when we cook it with the broccoli.
5. Drain your pasta.
6. In a large pan (I just use the pasta pot) saute the garlic in olive oil to get some color, then lower the heat and add the chopped broccoli and cook till just barely tender.
7. Dump the cashew cream sauce all over the broccoli and stir to combine. Heat through and add salt/pepper to taste. Please don't burn your mouth.
8. Toss in cooked pasta and stir to combine. Plate it up and top with toasted almond slivers and a dash of nutmeg.

Serves 2 large main course or 4 smaller portions as a side dish.

Note: I'm sure you can definitely sub out broccoli for another veg of choice if cabbage flowers aren't your thing. Or you can omit it all together and serve something green on the side.

Have I mentioned before how much I love this Quinoa pasta? Actually, according to my blog archive, I haven't. Well, let me just say that I see a future for italian food in my life now. Previously, the thought of semolina... heavy, toothy, white product pasta meals made me gaggy. And then there's the whole wheat pastas, which for me are rather lacking in taste and too abundant in texture. Not only did these heavy wheat pastas raise my blood sugar through the roof, but they made me super loagy.

Since Evan's mom has Celiac's Disease, she's come up with a myriad of gluten-free products to replace those things that used to make her sick. She brought over a box of this amazing pasta one night when Evan was making dinner and I wouldn't stop raving about it. I was happy to grab a box of this @ Henry's, and definitely had alfredo on the brain.

If you can snag a box of this stuff, please do! Have a good Tuesday everyone!

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Date-Night In

Somewhere along the way, I got the idea for Evan and I to do a "date-night" in. Plans were hastily made at lunch and I got really excited! I randomly started looking for recipes, I wanted something a little more special than just a regular nightly cooked meal.

Breakfast began late as usual (I have a really hard time waking up, but once I am up I am up), so I opted for cold cereal having no time for stovetop oats. Peanut Butter Puffins with plain soymilk to the rescue, in a car-drink-holder-friendly glass, for breakfast on the run. Needless to say I was starving and ran home to lunch to eat frozen numblies because I was too hungry to cook. (Numblies not pictured)

When I got back to work I began to research an intruiging recipe I found: Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes. I had all of the ingredients on hand, except for the mustard and capers. Evan brought those two items after work and we set to making dinner!
First of all these cakes, or caeks as you know I like to call them, were extremely simple and quite fast to make considering the length of instructions. Evan did most of it by himself while I prepped the remoulade. We fried he caeks in canola oil, and kept them warm in the oven @ low till they were all cooked. Normally I don't fry, but this was a rare occasion. No smoke points were reached luckily, and I believe we made it through without a single burn! (Big deal for us!) Behold their numblie goodness, besides the obligatory restaurant knock-off vegan ceasar salad.

Evan's first remark was "Well, they taste nothing like crab caeks. But they're quite delicious anyway!" and I realized I hadn't even had a real crabcake EVAR in my life so I didn't really have anything to compare it too! I definitely count that as a good thing, but taste-alikes alone, these were AMAZING!!! Go make them, now, NOW I BEG OF YOU! Trust me, these caeks are NOT a lie. :)

Crispy, warm, exquisitely seasoned, complimented perfectly by the spicy smooth remoulade. This is going in "My Favorites" for ever and ever. I see these as the perfect elegant brunch or light dinner to be served at parties (yes, I dream of dinner parties, I do), especially to omnis. It's hard not to love these when they're nutritious, tasty, and filling. <3 ISA FOREVER!!! After dinner, Evan made me a souffle. Not just any souffle (and unfortunately not vegan either), but THE souffle. THE souffle he's been promising me and bragging about ever since we first started dating. THE one he has claimed for 4.5 years that he'll make for me. FINALLY he made it! (Love you Evan!)I'm not sure exactly how he did it. All I know is that when it came time to beat the egg whites he asked where was my electric mixer, one of which I do not, nor ever have, owned. It involved me in as much as I drove to 2 stores in a flurry, buying a single hand mixer at 9:30pm. The proud chef produced a small souffle in an actual souffle dish, and one in a mug of mine. Note the whipped cream bottle on sofa chair.I got the one in the actual souffle dish and pretty much ate it like this:
But then Evan did this:
And he forced me at gunpoint to join in. Gunpoint I said!
After all was said and done, I realized I don't much care for the texture of souffles. The flavor was wonderful caramel-y chocolate, but the texture threw me off, it was like eating a dish sponge. I think I've definitely lost my taste for eggs, yay for veganism and saying no-no to battery cages. Anyway, the wonderful thought and love behind it was sweet enough for me. (And corny too!)

Overall it was a successful way to end 2009 I think! I hope you get everything done before 2010 that you need to. Stay safe and warm!

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Rice is nice, but it's just a grain...

Anyone? Anyone? *sigh* You people need to watch more of THIS.
Quick post before bed. I made this last night and had it again for lunch today:

Pineapple Fried Rice
3 cups cooked rice (I used brown cooked with veggie broth)
3 tbsp minced garlic
olive oil
~1 cup frozen peas
1 can pineapple chunks in pineapple juice
~3 tbsp hoisin
~1-2 tbsp your favorite hot sauce, I used siracha
~2 tbsp tamari or shoyu

- Saute the garlic in olive oil till softened.
- Add rice and stir to warm through.
- Add peas, hoisin, hot sauce, and tamari. Stir to combine and heat peas.
- Drain and add pineapple chunks. Heat through.

Sorry for the ~ (approximations), I'm great at rough estimates, but sometimes I tend to just drizzle things in here and there.

There's certainly a LOT of variations on this and a wide variety of things you can add. That's all I had on hand and the bf exclaimed it was some of the best rice he ever had.

It's cold and rainy here in Los Angeles! Time for snuggles with the kitty.

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Savory Vegan Galette with Mushrooms

I have the worst luck with technology sometimes...

I took some amazing shots of my dinner for you all and for some reason the camera cable isn't working. AND the memory card is this weird fat style and won't fit into my regular camera so i can't dld the pictures that way either!!!

In any case, here's the recipe i made, Savory Vegan Galette With Mushrooms:
6 small cioppolini onions
2 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt
fresh pepper

***The night ahead: Peel, trim, and toss the onions in the olive oil, salt, pepper and roast at 350 degrees for 20 mins. When cool, roughly chop or slice, store in fridge overnight.

For the crust please refer to Sarah's recipe @ In Praise of Leftovers
She got it from Julia Child, and with vegan subs (Earth Balance for butter, Toffuti Sour Supreme for sour cream) it's mine!

Make the crust and let it sit in the fridge for 1 hr. While you're waiting:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
6-8 mushrooms of your choice, sliced or chopped
8 quarters (2 full) of marinated artichokes, chopped
4 cups spinach (raw)
1/4 to 1/3 block of Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Flavor cheese, shredded
your favorite tapenade
sea salt

-Sweat the garlic in the oil for 2 minutes.
-Add mushrooms and turn up the heat to saute. Wait till they take on a good color and shrivel up a bit. (Basically to when they look DIVINE!)
-Add the marinated artichokes and fold in the spinach, cook till spinach is just barely wilting.
-Add the aforementioned roasted onions and turn the heat off.

-Roll out dough on floured surface till 1/8" thickness (sometimes i go a bit thicker).
-Spread a nice even layer of tapenade over surface.
-Glop the spinach mass into the middle and try to make a nice even layer with 3-4" dough margin around the mass.
-Sprinkle with shredded vegan cheese.
-Fold in outside dough edges as far as they reach to the middle without squishing your ingredients out. You should see a good amount of bare spinach mixture in the middle of the galette. That's the money shot.
-Brush the top of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
-Bake at 350 for 30mins.

-Let rest 2 mins before cutting --> Filling is EFFING hot!!!

Was definitely enough to feed me and Evan, with a nice chunk for lunch tomorrow. I can't wait to try some sweet dessert galettes soon.

Hopefully the camera will be working sometime in the next millenia! Happy eating till then!

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