Just in case you were curious what I had been eating while I wasn't blogging last month....

Here are two stand outs:

Pasta Puttanesca

(whole wheat pasta, tomato sauce seasoned heavily with garlic, onions, capers, olives and red peppers with mushrooms and spinach tossed in for good measure)

This would be an "incomplete plate" but check out the Scalloped Potatoes!!!
(Potatoes, a vegan roux made from flour and a pinch of Earth Balance, almond milk, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, Daiya cheese...this is not health food)

If I find any other pics that never got posted, I will try to share them as well!

Organic Ziti+Wedding Sauce+Tofu Ricotta=Yum

Tonight for dinner we finally finished the "wedding sauce"!

To explain: My husband and I got married in 2008 and had our reception catered by a local Italian Market. We goofed and ordered too much food so we we had to figure out what to do with it. Much of it was donated, returned if possible, or sent home with friends but we were particularly fond of the sauce which came in these HUGE restaurant sized cans. I believe we had around 24 cans leftover....

Tonight we used the last can. I am not sure if I should celebrate the achievement or mourn the loss. At least it went to a good cause: Baked Ziti.


I used to love going to the mall food court as a child only because it meant I could order Baked Ziti from Sabarro's. (If you have never been to one, don't worry you are not missing out...) As a kid baked ziti was something that was both foreign and fun to me. It was like Mac & Cheese and Spaghetti with sauce combined. What kid doesn't like those things? And for whatever reason, I was convinced I could only get it at the mall food court. Go figure.

Now as a much more logical adult, I realize I can get it here in my own kitchen. Where not only will it be vegan, but much tastier. The sauce as you know was the "wedding sauce" which we can never get again.... (probably I am being a little too dramatic about this). The cheese is detailed below. And believe it or not, Whole Foods actually had a reasonably priced line of organic pasta!

Once I had all of the components assembled I just popped it in the oven and watched public TV's salute to Luciano Pavarotti. Very Italian indeed!

Cheese Sauce for the Baked Ziti

Ingredients

• 2 TBS margarine
• 2 cloves garlic
• red pepper flakes
• black pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
• 2 TBS dried oregano (frankly... they were out of fresh)
• 1 block silken tofu drained and smooshed
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• vegan cheese (optional... I couldn't find the brands I liked this week so I skipped it)

Method

1. Melt margarine on low in a saucepan and stir in garlic, basil and both peppers.
2. When garlic softens, stir in tofu and additional spices, stirring constantly until combined.
3. Taste mixture and add salt if necessary.
   
4. Remove from heat and stir in optional vegan cheese.
   
5. Allow to cool prior to using.
   

a new nooch sauce!!!

Nutritional Yeast (or Nooch as it is called on several vegan sites) is one of those foods you either love or hate. It has a tangy, cheesy flavor and an impressive nutritional profile. Personally I love it. It is tasty in tofu scrambles, on popcorn, to season broths and flour coatings... basically anywhere!

I realize there are literally a million nooch-cheeze sauces on the internet, but they are not all created equal. After a lot of trial and error, this is my favorite version. It's good over pasta, steamed veggies or with chips dipped in it. I basically put it together myself but it was inspired by many other recipes.

(By the way, I am starting to think I may be a cheeze addict... in nearly every post that mentions any type of vegan cheese, i seem to eat the "evidence" leaving no food to photograph. The same thing happened again! I made a great Nooch and Noodle casserole only to lose control and eat it all before taking any pictures! But, for the sake of my blog I made another dish including baked potato and steamed broccoli, which you see in the photo above. This time I hid my forks until I took the pictures.)

So if you want to try another vegan nooch sauce recipe here goes:

The New Nooch Sauce

Ingredients

1 large potato, peeled and chopped (yukon gold works best)
1/4 cup carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic (BE VERY BRAVE.... IT'S GOOD)
small amount of vegetable broth
12 ounces silken tofu
2 TBS crunchy mustard
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
splash soy sauce
1 tsp cayenne (or more to taste)
turmeric & paprika (for color*)
2 TBS red miso paste

Method:

1. Put all veggies in a small pot, and cover with broth.
2. Bring to a boil and cook until very soft.
3. Turn down the heat and add tofu, mustard, soy sauce, spices* and nutritional yeast. (*The turmeric and Paprika are to adjust the color slightly if necessary.)
4. Simmer on low heat for an additional 3-5 minutes to reduce broth further if necessary. You will need to stir a lot and if stirring becomes to difficult move to step 5.
5. Remove from heat and stir in miso paste
6. Carefully transfer to a food processor and puree until the mixture is the consistency of a cheese sauce. Enjoy!

Note: Lemon juice is also a good addition... my husband doesn't care for it though. WHen combined with the miso, it can make things very tangy.

Man am I cheesing out!

Last night, prior to my blog-a-thon, I went to my second Baltimore Vegan Drinks which was very fun. Obviously I was jazzed about trying my new vegan cheese DAIYA and my lunch experience with rice cheese so of course cheese came up, AGAIN. In the process, I learned that Baltimore's own BOP (that's Brick Oven Pizza to non Baltimorons) serves pizza with a vegan cheese option. Although, I think I had heard this before, I had never gone in.

A long time ago, prior to moving to Baltimore, prior to being a vegan and prior to really even being an adult someone had told me that BOP had the "best pizza in Baltimore". This was another fact that I stored away without using.

Since I seem to be on a vegan cheese kick AND since I had a hair appointment in neighboring Canton and would be walking past the place, a lunchtime visit seemed like the perfect plan. BOP was amazing. They have over 58 toppings and many of them are actually vegetables. When I went to the counter and told the nice employee I was a vegan, she actually seemed happy to be accommodating and answered all of my questions. You can even get vegan pizza by the slice with your choice of toppings here!! (And unless you are really and truly starving or travel with a small posse trailing in your wake, this is what I would recommend. Wait until you see how big the slices are!)



The pizza was great! In fact it was so great that I am taking my husband back this evening. Its no hardship to eat this pizza twice in a day and I think he will love the place! The restaurant is casual and the walls are covered with posters and accolades. In addition to pizza, they serve salads, subs and pasta; so it is a good place to take a mixed group of people as their is likely to be something for everyone.

Vegan Cheese Take Two!!

Today on my way home from work I stopped to get Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new book "Vegan Brunch" (which looks fabulous and deserves its own post!!). While I was shopping at the Nest, (which is part of Clarksville's conscious corner), the very friendly employee recommended that I might go next door to Root's market and try out their new vegan cheese, DAIYA.

Huh?? Everything I have read, which is very little I might add, indicated that this cheese was only available in bulk to restaurants.

Well... it seems that the nice people at roots, have been buying it in bulk and repackaging it in more manageable small containers for people like you and me. Wow! After trying it I am thrilled! This stuff is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! As in "I think it might fool my husband" good. It looks like cheese, its smells like cheese, it melts like cheese and it is totally vegan!

It is made for casava root and some spices and have I mentioned, it unbelievably good. I have already had vegan nachos and 1/2 a piece of vegan "cheese toast", which my mother can tell you was one of my favorite childhood snacks. In fact, I am embarrased to admit this, but I was so eager that I ate it all without taking a picture... so here is a picture from their website:




Now don't be mistaken, for something to taste this much like real cheese it isn't exactly health food. The nutritional profile for 28 grams, which I believe is close to one ounce is:

So I wouldn't plan on loading up on this stuff... but for special occasions this stuff is amazing!

Galaxy Foods Vegan Rice Cheese

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I stopped off at the market for a few items. As usual I lingered at the vegan cheese section. Normally I sigh (a little too dramatically, I suppose) and walk on because my relationship with vegan cheese has been sad at best. However, I was inspired by this blog review to give vegan cheese another try. Thus I picked up Galaxy foods' Rice Cheese.




I have never been a a patient sort of person, so I opened the package and unpeeled a slice (this seems like an awful lot of packaging!!) on my way home. The taste is OK, but nothing spectacular with a definite aftertaste of rice. At this point, it's not the worst I have ever tasted but its not anything I am going to scream to the rafters about either.

Once I got home I decide to try to create a food that involves melting since it says right on the package: made for melting. So for lunch I made a grilled vegan "bologna and cheddar" sandwich. Immediately I am struck by how the cheese is not melting and I have to keep adding more and more earth balance to my nonstick pan to help keep the bread from burning (yes it was taking THAT long). I am left with a very greasy only partially melted sandwich for my efforts. As I throw it into my bento for lunch, I am definitely having second thoughts.

At lunch I pull out my sandwich. Heating up the cheese helped the taste and texture some and it is definitely better combined with other ingredients then as a stand-alone snack. I would never want to eat another sandwich this greasy though... there must be a better way!

I am unsure if I will by anymore of this after I finish the package. Here are the pros and cons (based on my experience)


Pros

• Easy to find
• Decent nutrition profile, if you eat just one slice
• Pre-cut slices are easy for sandwiches

Cons

• The rice-after taste
• Regardless of its low cal/low sodium status, it is still junk food
• Way too much packaging from an environmental standpoint
• It certainly would never fool my husband or any other omni.... its just not fabulous tasting
  
• Doesn't really melt well (at least not based on my first usage, in fairness I may need to experiment more)
  

If anyone is curious, here is the nutritional profile per slice:

Calories: 40

Calories from Fat: 20

Total Fat: 2g

Saturated Fat: 0.5g

Trans Fat: 0g

Polyunsat Fat: 0.5g

Monounsat Fat: 1g

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium: 120mg

Total Carbohydrate: 5g

Dietary Fiber: 0g

Sugars: 0g

Protein: 1g

Calcium 20% RDA