Vegan Crepes

I love this crepe recipe because it doesn't use eggs or milk. And still tastes yummy.














1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup grapeseed/coconut oil
1 T brown sugar
2 T maple syrup
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (I usually use whole wheat)
1/4 tsp salt
1 T vanilla

In a large mixing bowl, blend all ingredients. Cover and chill the mixture for 2 hours. (I am usually too busy and skip this 2 hour step. I also usually add sometimes up to 1/2 cup of water of soymilk to thin the batter enough to swish around the whole pan easily. After a while, the batter tends to thicken. I don't always have maple syrup on hand so I sometimes skip it altogether with still good results).

Lightly grease 5-6 inch skillet with some oil. Heat until hot. Pour approximately 3 T batter into skillet. (I use more--use enough to cover your pan, add more water if it doesn't "swirl" appropriately). Swirl to make the batter cover the skillet's bottom. Cook until golden, flip, and cook on opposite side.

Enjoy!

Vegan French Toast (and Fraffle misadventures)

Today I decided to be brilliant and different by making my "French toast" in a waffle iron and creating the Fraffle. I only succeeded in being different. I was feeling far from brilliant during the 15 minutes of scraping pieces off my waffle iron after my first attempt. Nevertheless, I did it again (like I said, less than brilliant) and was able to get this picture.

I recommend making French toast the way everybody else does. In a pan. But without eggs and milk.

1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 T maple syrup
1 tsp vamilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
6 slices bread

Combine milk, flour, syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon in a dish and stir until well mixed. Soak bread slices until soft but not soggy. Cook in skillet until golden brown.

I actually grabbed the wrong container and put nutmeg instead of cinnamon this morning. Still good. Love this French toast. I am not a big fun of the eggy taste of French toast so this is perfect for me.

Fatoush

If any of you are in the Orlando, FL area, go by and drop by Tony's. Tony's Deli is a small Middle-Eastern restaurant, run by one of the nicest lebanese families. It was here that I was first introduced to fatoush and babaganoush and where I would come to get my fatoush and babaganoush fix. Fatoush is a lebanese salad with toasted pita pieces and one of my most favorite salads. I threw one together last night because our blender is broken and we couldn't use our spinach in our green smoothie.

1 pita bread cut into small pieces and toasted under grill
1 cup diced cucumber
1/2 head of lettuce, chopped (I usually use several handfuls of spinach)
4 tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 T olive oil

Combine all above in deep dish, mix and serve.

And that's all folks! I usually throw a pita in the oven until it's crispy and then break it apart. This salad is even good the next day.

Ivorian Peanut Butter Tomato Sauce ala Vanda

Highly recommended by my best friend, Vanda. She sent these simple instructions in an email after telling me how yummy it was. I made it and my husband, who never has an opinion about what I should make for meals, actually told me that this is one dish he'd like to see very often :) So Vanda, as far as I'm concerned, this is a 5 star dish :)

Stir fry 2 sliced onions and 2 cloves crushed, minced garlic in oil. Put in 2 heaping spoons of peanut butter, stir, then add 4 fresh beef tomatoes cut in quarters. Add a little bit of water, and season with salt, pepper, and chili to taste. For non-vegetarians, put whole cooked chicken in.

Serve on top of nice sticky rice.

Tip from Vanda: You want the tomatoes to remain intact
and some tomato juice to be incorporated with the
peanut butter. May add small spoon of tomato pureee
for flavor & concentrated feel to sauce.

I halved the recipe this morning when making it for my husband's lunch and served it over brown basmati rice. This was actually one of my first posts but every time I make it I either forget to take the picture, or we make it at night when the lighting was bad at our house. So today, I figured if I wanted to post this recipe with the picture, I better take the picture today!

Atsara, Mamay's Recipe

Mamay, as far as I'm concerned, is another grandmother. She is my aunt-in-law's mom and we got to visit her once when she was in Florida staying with one of her sons. They had a big backyard filled with mango trees, kalamansi trees, papaya trees, malunggay, camote tops, kangkong, gabi, lemon grass and all things Filipino. The backyard was Filipino heaven, that's all I have to say. It had everything that we miss from the Philippines. They had so many papayas, they didn't know what to do with it so Mamay, rather than having it all go to waste, would make atsara from it. Now atsara is a beautiful papaya pickle that goes extremely well as a garnish with fried fish & barbequed chicken--usually anything fried or grilled. Mamay made Jeremy's day when she gave us a large jar of it to take back home. We found out it went extremely well with Grandma Smith's Gluten Choplets when we cleaned out the jar during our visit in her home. I have been on the hunt for her recipe ever since and just a few months ago, my mom gave me great joy when she was able to get it. So here it is, for your eating pleasure...

1 kilo green papaya, grated (roughly 4 1/2 cups shredded)
1 T salt
1 carrot, grated
1 T ginger, cut in strips
1 medium onion, thinly sliced

Pickling solution:
sugar (I use brown)
vinegar
salt
water

(OK, I'm sorry I don't have the exact measurements for the pickling solution. Roughly it's 1 cup sugar, 1 cup vinegar (apple cider is what my mom and I find to be best) and 1 tsp salt. Usually it's a strong solution so we like it best watered down a bit. I can't remember how much water I put so I'll have to consult my mom on this and get back to you.)

Sprinkle salt over grated papaya. Let stand for 2-3 hours then squeeze thoroughly in cheesecloth. Set aside. Mix with carrot and ginger.

Boil sugar, vinegar, salt and water without stirring. Pour over vegetables. Transfer to sterilized bottle. Allow 2-3 days before consuming.

Grandma Smith's Choplets aka Gluten Steaks From Vital Wheat Gluten Flour

I met Grandma Smith when we went through New Mexico. She made some really great gluten choplets so I had to get her recipe. She even took me through it step-by-step! So I was taught properly. Here it is folks...enjoy!

Place 3 cups Vital Wheat Gluten Flour in a bowl and add 3 cups cold water all at once. Mix well. Shape into a ball and place in a large bowl and cover with cold water for several hours. Slice thin and boil in broth for 1 hour.

BROTH

1 cup soy sauce (half of the cup I put in is dark soy sauce to give the gluten a darker more beef-like color)
6 T oil (grapeseed or coconut is what I use. For an extra Asian twist, use 1-2 T of sesame oil for some of this)
6 cups water
2 T brown sugar
2 sliced onions
1 clove garlic
3 bay leaves

Optional: Ginger root or ginger powdered spice. (highly recommended by me)

These freeze well, broth and all. To serve, fry after dipping in flour or a breading meal (cornmeal is what Grandma Smith uses). My usual breading mix includes a handful of cornmeal, 2 spoonfuls of flour, 3 good dashes of black pepper, 2 tsp of seasoning salt, a tsp of garlic powder, a couple of dashes of nutritional flakes, and a tsp or two of Chik'nish. Grandma served these with mashed potatoes and salad.

You can also use the gluten in other dishes like strips for stir-fry, gluten barbeque, anything really.

PS. It's also great served with atsara, see next recipe.

Tomato Tortilla Soup

I got the original non-vegan version of this recipe from Lovingyou.com, when I was planning a romantic surprise for my then-boyfriend. It's a great site for romantic ideas by the way. I "edited" it to make it vegetarian and brought it, still warm, in two separate containers, with a candle and lighter, and 2 warm blankets to the pier by Lake Ivanhoe down the street from his old apartment. We had a romantic moonlight picnic cuddled up in blankets with romantic Italian music drifting down to us from the little lakeside Italian restaurant that was less than a block from us. That was the first time he told me he loved me :) Needless to say, I always think romance whenever I make it. Jeremy, who has since then married me, absolutely loves this soup and counts it as his favorite soup.

1/4 cup finely chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
3 tsp grapeseed or coconut oil
2 cups vegetable broth (I use 2 rounded tsp of Bill's Best Chik'Nish and 2 cups of water)
2 T chopped red bell peppers
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3/8 tsp basil leaves, dried
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
7 1/2 ounces tomato puree (I use one can of diced tomatoes or you can substitute with approx. 3 cups diced fresh tomatoes)
1/4 cup grapeseed/coconut oil
5 each corn tortillas, cut into 1/2" strips

GARNISHES
1/2 avocado sliced
Monterey Jack cheese (or whatever cheese you have on-hand or omit for a purely vegan recipe)

Cook and stir onions and garlic in 2 T oil in pot. Stir in broth, bell pepper, cayenne pepper, basil, salt, pepper, and tomato puree or diced tomatoes. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Heat 1/4 cup oil in 10-in skillet until hot. (I don't usually use this much oil in my nonstick pan, I use only about a T or so). Fry tortilla strips in oil until light golden brown. Drain. Divide tortilla strips in two bowls. Pour broth over tortilla strips. Top with cheese and avocado slices.

This is another recipe that I like having cheese in. Sigh, my weakness. Jeremy loves the tortilla strips in the soup. The Mexican version of croutons? Definitely do the avocado slices. So yummy!