New Quinoa Side Dish & Zipper's Divine FroYo (but not at the same time!)

With dinner tonight, we needed a side to accompany baked Quorn chik'n cutlets and haricot verts. Seeing our bin of dry quinoa, Zips scoured the internets for a recipe for me to try out and found one that we improvised off of. The original called for diced bell peppers, which we swapped out for diced onions, and called for walnuts which we omitted. I also added parsley. It's fantastic, has subtle flavors, and makes a tasty, healthy side to your lunch or dinner. I bet it'll be good cold too!

Cranberry Coriander Quinoa (side dish)

Add 1 c. quinoa to 2 c. of boiling water and simmer for about 10 min. until the liquid is absorbed. While that's simmering, saute:

3 ribs celery diced finely

1/2 c. yellow onion diced finely

in 1-2 Tb. olive oil

and add

1 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground cumin

salt & black pepper

Saute until onions and celery are tender then add to the cooked quinoa. Toss in

1/4 c. dried cranberries

1/4 c. chopped parsley

and serve warm.

Afterward, we had planned on just macerated berries (that's fancy talk for slicing berries and tossing some sugar over the top and letting them sit until they get all juicy) for dessert, but Zips really outdid herself in deciding with all the yogurt we have in the house, it's a shame we've never tried to make frozen yogurt. So she did, ignoring all the imperatives she found online that you have to have full fat yogurt. We didn't, and it turned out just fine with the non fat Greek yogurt we have on hand.

Divine Blueberry Lavender Frozen Yogurt

2 c. plain fat free Greek-style yogurt

12 oz. (2 packs) fat free blueberry yogurt (we have Chobani)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 Tb. vanilla extract

1 Tb lavender buds

Mix all the ingredients together until you're sure the sugar has dissolved. Then dump it all into your ice cream maker. The result is floral, tart, sweet, and heavenly (not to mention fairly guilt-free!)

I'm sure this is only the beginning of much experimentation in the FroYo genre of desserts I can't wait to see what she hankers for next.

Long Weekend Cookout & Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream

This was, of course, our last long weekend before autumn holiday season (halloween not withstanding). Since the weather is finally starting to ease up, not scorching the earth in every waking minute, we decided to have a cookout. We made a foil packet with red potatoes and diced new mexico green chile (it was actually Zipper's grandma-in-law-- notoriously new-food-phobic-picky-eater-- who thought up this one. Genius!), veggie hot dogs and burgers, a purple cabbage and apple slaw (yum!), and corn on the cob. We didn't have any buns in the house, so I thought I'd try my all-purpose shortcake recipe-- and simply bake it in the shape of a bun. Althought it turned out a bit dense, and even though everyone agreed it was a bit like cornbread, it sure worked well as a dog-conveyance-device:

But the real winner today comes from Cathe Olson's vegan ice cream recipe book, Lick It! I have kept some lavender buds that I bought in the bulk section of some co-op with my crafting supplies for quite a while--- great for making scented sachets as gifts. Zips was reminded of this when flipping through the cookbook for something special for today's dessert, and landed on the page for Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream. After ransacking my sewing boxes, craft baggies, and desk, I finally found my ziploc bag of purple-y goodness and the game was on.
It turned out such a lovely color. The darker pieces are actually blueberry skin (not lavender buds, those gets strained out). It's heavenly. We all agreed we'd like to take a bath in it. It's a little tart, mildly sweet, smooth and floral. You have to try it!

Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream

1/2 c. plain soy milk

2 Tb. lavender buds

2 c. blueberries

1 (14 oz.) can coconut milk

1/2 c. sugar or agave syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat the soy milk until it boils. Remove from heat, stir in the lavender buds, cover and steep for 20 min.

Strain the milk (now purple) into a blender jar. Add remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours (we poured it into a plastic quart container). Throw it in your ice cream maker and freeze away!

We served ours with a tofu 'whipped cream" topping from the same book (but it was just okay) and a sprig of mint. This has made Zips completely obsess over what else we can put lavender in to eat! Hopefully we'll try something soon. Happy Last Long Weekend!

BEST. vegan ICE CREAM RECIPE. EVER

So after making that last batch of Coffee Ice Cream, the motor on our Rival Ice Cream maker died (just died!), and with all these recipes to try out we had to replace it. In honor of our new model (the wooden bucket kind with the hand crank as a backup!), we've just been cranking out (tee hee) ice cream left and right.

Aside from the Vegan Ice Cream blog we discovered, Zips also found an ice cream cookbook I can't wait to get my paws on, Lick It! The base for these ice creams is coconut milk, rather than tofu or soymilk with arrowroot. The recipe for Vanilla was great, and I decided it would be even better if we tricked out with some cookie dough pieces, so I found a nice egg-less ice cream-ready recipe specifically for ice cream that makes the perfect amount and threw them in.

A sidenote: I love cookie dough as much as the next person (maybe more). But wouldn't necessarily say it's my favorite flavor of ice cream. And I'm also not a compulsive ice cream eater. HOWEVER, I've wolfed down a significant share of two batches of this recipe in the past four days. It's really that delicious! I made a batch of mango coconut ice cream at the same time, and do you see me ranting about that?

So:

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Prepare the cookie dough first

2 1/2 Tb. brown sugar
3 Tb. white sugar
2 Tb. margarine (Earth Balance works extremely well, since it has a hard consistency when chilled, a lot like butter)
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tb. water
1/2 c. flour

Blend all ingredients into a dough (I just used a fork) and add about 1/4 c. chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips. We formed the dough into a log wrapped in wax paper and froze it for about 2 hours.

1 can (14 oz.) coconut milk (full fat, not light)
1 1/4c. soy milk
1/2 c. sugar
1 Tb. vanilla

Blend together all ingredients and throw it into your ice cream maker. Add chunks of the frozen cookie dough in the last 5 minutes of your freezing.

Seriously, I don't even know if I'll ever look up another ice cream recipe. Ever. I'll just keep making this one. (okay, probably not, I'll just make this as a backup in case I don't like whatever else I make) (ps. the mango coconut was fine).

Summertime Bloggin!

I've made it through another semester, and have moved another step towards my degree. In late April I flew back to defend my dissertation prospectus, and celebrated success in with a trip to Chicago the next day. Now that I am happily back home, I am looking forward to getting back to gardening and cooking and sewing and food blogging, and hope to finally post more often here.

We've built a couple of raised bed gardens, since we couldn't even grow tomatoes or chiles last summer. Here are our baby lettuces:

And I'm delighted that the test kitchen has just tried out the Vegan Coffee Ice Cream recipe from my new favorite foodie blog, Vegan Ice Cream Paradise. Even though our little Rival ice cream maker's motor just died on us, we hand-cranked it in between stuffing our faces with grilled Yves Good Dogs and corn on the cob. It was delicious, although next time we'll cut back on the sugar and vanilla (I think I put in a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon!), and perhaps use stronger coffee. Here's the recipe she has:

Vegan Coffee Ice Cream:

mix 1/4 c. Soy Milk with 2 Tb. arrowroot and set aside.

Combine
2 c. Soy Creamer
1 c. Soy Milk
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. strong fresh coffee
in a saucepan and bring to a boil then turn off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This will cause the mixture to thicken. Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla extract and let it cool. When it's cool, throw the mixture into your ice cream maker. We added some chopped chocolate covered espresso beans at the end of the freezing, and it really enhanced the coffee flavor as well as adding some yummy texture.

Better than Java Chip or Jamoca! Eat it!

Adventures in Berry Picking... and Eating

It's been far too long since I've updated. We've been working out in the garden, eating lovely CSA-supplied salads, picking strawberries, and trying out new vegan baking recipes.

The garden has been drenched several times this week, thanks to unpredictable, tempermental Indiana weather (don't like it?... wait five minutes.). During last week's hottest days, there was NO water pressure at all to water with. We were worried that we'd lose our veggies-- everything was turning yellow and drooping! We epsom salted our tomatoes and peppers, basil and cukes, and everything is greening up again. Thank goodness for the showers. Everything has just sprung up in the past three days. (Including the weeds). The tomatillos, serrano peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, canteloupes, and honeydews are all blossoming. I swear I've got a 3" hot pepper that's growing on a plant that's only 4" high.

Our lovely salad lettuces from seeds look great too!

We also planted some celery (zips' favorite!), but something is nibbling on it. I can't figure out if it's a very selective bunny, or a vegetarian bird. There's plenty of lettuce that hasn't been nibbled, but the celery has been munched to a nub. I fashioned a Robinson Crusoe/Blair Witch Project stick fence around them, and the nibbling has stopped for now... (I'll add a photo soon).

We went to a U-Pick strawberry farm and picked something like ten pounds of strawberries!


They were immediately turned into freezer preserves (mush them up, add pectin, sugar, a squeeze of lemon), and I tried out the vegan shortcake recipe in this month's Veg Times:

Vegan Shortcakes / Biscuits:

Preheat oven to 450F

1 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

whisk dry ingredients together then add

2 Tbs. margarine

rub in with your hands until cornmeal-like in texture, then stir in

6 oz. plain or vanilla soy yogurt

to form a soft dough. pat dough out into 1/2 in. on a floured surface. Cut with 2 1/2" round cutter and bake on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 8-11 min.

They're AWESOME!!! I'm NOT a baker. I'm new to vegan baking, and I've had some mixed results, but these are easy easy easy and delicious delicious delicious. Although the original recipe calls for plain soy yogurt, I could only find vanilla flavor-- but these are very light, moist, and would work well with both sweet (Strawberry Shortcakes for Memorial Day Cookout) and savory recipes. My leftovers are destined for a biscuit and (tvp) gravy trial run tomorrow morning.

In other strawberry news-- we also threw some into a strawberry soy ice cream recipe from Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer's book How it all Vegan~ Both the strawberry and chocolate versions turn out amazingly like guilt-free soft serve. Delish!!!

Vegan Fruity Ice Cream:

2 c. soft tofu
1/2 c. soy milk (we used Silk Unflavored)
1/2 c. oil (we used plain ol' vegetable oil)
1 c. sugar
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. vanilla extract (we had a generous and unsteady hand measuring this)
dash salt

add diced strawberries (or your fruit of choice) once the mixture begins to freeze.

Zips' Variation: Zips whizzed some berries up in the food processor with a handful of sugar and added it to the base mixture. Not only did it turn the ice cream a lovely shade of pink, it really adds flavor in addition to the strawberry chunks.

Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream:

2 c. soft tofu
1 c. soy milk (we used Silk Unflavored)
1/2 c. oil (we used plain ol' vegetable oil)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 Tbs. vanilla extract (again, a generous and shaky hand measuring this)
dash salt

Here they are with a dollop of the freezer preserve. Like Zips sez.. too much of a good thing is even better!

Other than picking and gorging ourselves on berries, we've just been housecleaning, stocking the pantry for the summer, and tending the garden. When we get settled, we'll give an update on crafty projects in the works. I'm just waiting for Amy Karol's book to come out. (until then, I'll just re-read Angry Chicken and weep..)

I can't wait to show you how much Zips loves to sew.