Vegetarian

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Tempeh Tacos

March 22, 2012 in Food by traveleatlove | 14 comments

It’s going to be a scorcher today, Boston! Cooking might be the last thing on your minds on this freakishly warm March day. I appreciate warmth and a mild winter, but mid-to-high 80’s in March is worrisome even to me. More importantly, we have wine traveling from California, and I am crossing my fingers the crazy temps don’t spoil it.

As you know, I celebrated the big 32 on Tuesday, and dinner was so great I thought I would share. Since we were in Sonoma and Napa so recently, I decided I wanted a quiet birthday evening at home. After lots of loving messages from friends and family and gorgeous flowers from my family and my husband and a loooong work day, I kicked off my birthday celebration with a bubble bath and a glass of bubbly.

I was able to relax because I had started dinner the night before. I cubed a giant block of tempeh to start. After this meal, I realize I prefer tempeh to tofu for a vegetarian protein; I like the chewiness, and does it soak up sauce!

Raw tempeh looks a little like brains, unfortunately.

I chose to marinate my tempeh in this Ortega taco sauce. When we were little and my dad would travel for work, we often had tacos for dinner because my dad didn’t like them. This taco sauce brings back fond memories of these dinners. And it’s tasty.

Marinated overnight, the tempeh basically took on the flavor of the taco sauce which made it a fabulous filling for our tacos.

When it was time to start our build-your-own-taco bar, I sautéed the tempeh on low in a frying pan while I prepped our toppings.

They included grated cheddar and chopped romaine,

I also brought out some of my homemade habanero salsa which is to-die-for and makes my forehead sweat, guacamole, 2% Fage yogurt, and of course warmed whole wheat tortillas. We each built out own tacos, starting the tempeh, piling them high with deliciousness.

We ate on the floor with the windows open and bubbly in our glasses and followed our tacos with some desserts that my husband brought from Flour. It was a nice picnic dinner.

Warm weather definitely brings out the desire for quick foods that don’t take a ton of heat to prepare. The tempeh was the only part of these tacos that required turning on a burner, and that was only for about 10 minutes so it didn’t heat the house much. Tonight we’re having giant salads with fried eggs and trying to stay cool with a walk at Castle Island. What a week!

Have you done anything summery this week?

Technorati Tags: dinner, Food, recipe, salsa, tacos, tempeh, Vegetarian

Tags: dinner, Food, recipe, salsa, tacos, tempeh, Vegetarian

Spicy Cornmeal Pancakes

February 24, 2012 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 7 comments

Happy Friday! If you are coming to our Boston Marathon fundraising party, then I can’t wait to see you tomorrow! And if you can’t make it but would like to enter our fabulous raffle, you can read the details here. I am so excited about all of the great donations we have received!

I am also still really excited about CHLOE’S KITCHEN. It was 100% the inspiration for our Pancake Tuesday dinner, though I didn’t quite follow the recipe. I made them un-vegan. That’s actually another one of the things I love about the book; it’s easy to mix it up and adapt the recipes.

For my cornmeal jalapeno pancakes, I started by chopping up three large jalapenos.

I added the jalapeno to two cups of cornmeal, along with a pinch of salt, mixed it all up, and then added in a cup of milk, a half cup of cream, and two eggs.

I then mixed it all up, added a little more cornmeal to thicken, and cooked it in a skillet on the stovetop until the top was bubbling. At that point, I put the skillet into a 350 degree oven until the top was firm.

I served the pancake with a simple salad of spinach and grated carrot. We actually topped these pancakes with a little butter and maple syrup, and the sweet and spicy contrast really made this dish. The pancake was a little dense, but the flavor was wonderful, and it made for a nice, filling meal.

This week has been another doozy. . . I just can’t sleep which has thrown off my focus and my running, making everything seem difficult. Luckily I get to spend tomorrow night with so many fun people raising money for a great cause!

Did you make anything or go anywhere for Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras? Giving up anything for Lent?

Technorati Tags: dinner, Food, recipe, Vegetarian

Tags: dinner, Food, recipe, Vegetarian

Cooking from Chloe’s Kitchen

February 23, 2012 in Food by traveleatlove | 10 comments

Most of my cooking involves throwing in a bit of this and a pinch of that. I rarely follow recipes to the letter, but I do love a good cookbook for inspiration.

Last week I received a review copy of CHLOE’S KITCHEN: 125 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Making the Food You Love the Vegan Way, and it was truly love at first flip-through. Like the cover, the rest of the book is vibrant, clean, and welcoming, a celebration of really good homemade vegan food. If you know someone who equates eating vegan with eating celery and carrots all day long, this book would be a good way to sway their opinion.

There are all sorts of recipes, from salads to desserts, with some hearty, soul-soothing vegan fare in between. You could easily make any of the recipes in this book for a group of people, whether vegan or not, and the conversation would likely be on the fresh, creative cuisine, not the missing meat or dairy!

With recipes like Falafel Sliders with Avocado Hummus, Garlic Knots, and Baked Sprinkle Donuts, there is no deprivation here, just good eating.

Here’s a photo of my copy. Despite being crazy busy, I stopped everything I was doing to bookmark about 10 recipes in this book. As you can see, I grabbed from my work area to bookmark, so there are post-its, scraps of envelopes, and business cards. I like to reuse, I guess.

The book is very aesthetically pleasing, and many, if not most of the recipes appealed instantly to my palate. I declared to my husband that we would be eating vegan for the next week. He basically said “Meh”, and I remembered that if I just made and served the food, he would eat it, love it, and probably not think about vegan vs. not.

So what did I make?

We started with the Wontons with Apricot Mustard Sauce. I ended up subbing sriracha for mustard, and the mix of that with apricot jam was to-die-for. The filling in the wontons featured cashews, carrots, mushrooms, and ginger, among other things. These made for a delicious and fun weeknight dinner; we chatted and caught up on our days as we filled the wontons.

Over the weekend I also made the Herbed Polenta Cutlets with Marsala Mushroom Ragout. I subbed in a bottle of red wine I had open for the Marsala, and overall we liked the dish. It was rustic and had a meaty, hearty quality from the mushrooms and wine. This is definitely a dish for a cold wintry night.

To get ready for the work week, I also made the Tuscan Bean and Greens Soup over Garlic Toast. I subbed in pinto beans for white beans because that’s all we had in the house. The pink beans gave the soup a weird color, but other than that, it was fantastic, garlicky, full of greens, and great served up over hot, crispy garlic toast.

And last, but so not least, I made the Avocado Pesto Pasta. If you love avocado and pesto, you can probably imagine what this pasta tasted like. To me, it was pure, creamy comfort food. Don’t worry, I did add pasta. I just thought that the tomatoes and avocado pesto looked lovely together.

CHLOE’S KITCHEN offers menu suggestions for various occasions, something I always find helpful. Regardless of how often I cook a multi-course meal, I never know what to make for each course so that there is a natural flow and cohesion. This book is going to be my go-to recipe inspiration for the next few weeks at the very least.

I did receive this review copy for free, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

Technorati Tags: cookbooks, cooking, Food, recipes, review, vegan, Vegetarian