Ravioli with Quick Tomato Sauce

This isn't a recipe as much as a serving suggestion. I was alone for dinner, and threw something together from things I had around the house. In the freezer I had a package of Rising Moon Organic Creamy Artichoke and Kalamata ravioli, which is reserved for just such an occasion, as the boy won't eat olives. On the counter I had my last big orange heirloom tomato from the garden. Certainly this was enough to base dinner off of.

While the water was heating to boil the ravioli, I diced the tomato (it was 1lbs + of tomato!) and sauteed it in a small pan with some olive oil and salt, and simmered it on low while the ravioli cooked. Once the ravioli was cooked, I tossed it with the fresh tomato sauce, and some fresh basil. It was fast, delicious, and looked good to boot!

I'm planning more complex culinary adventures for tomorrow!

Steel Cut Oatmeal -- Breakfast of Champions

Here's how my oatmeal addiction progressed...

First I was eating instant oatmeal packets because they were convenient to take to work and add hot water to from the water cooler. Then I moved on to a different job without a water cooler.

I upgraded to quick cook oats in the canister, 1 minute in the microwave, done. Super! The texture was so much less like wallpaper paste than instant! Then one day we ran out, and only had slow cook oats. (Slow being 5 minutes) I got hooked.

Slow cook oats have tons more texture than quick oats, and I still eat them when I'm in the mood for "regular" oatmeal... but then my sights wandered to Steel Cut Oatmeal. I had no idea what to do with it, and quite frankly, the internet wasn't too helpful unless I wanted to cook enough to feed the masses. I just wanted to cook enough to feed me breakfast! I took some guidelines from a few recipes, and have since evolved my own technique for cooking them. They are so delicious! They have a nice chewy texture and a slightly nutty flavor. They do take 20-30 minutes to cook, but it's so worth it! You can make a big pot and reheat in the morning if you don't have time to make them in the AM -- I usually just make them on mornings I'm not rushed. And so, here is my technique for cooking Steel Cut Oats. Your toppings may vary.

Ok ok, you can't even SEE the oats there... but they're under the diced banana, toasted pecans, and maple syrup. NOM!

Steel Cut Oatmeal (For One)
1/3 cup steel cut oats
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup ~milk of your choice (I use rice), + more to taste

1. In a medium-sized pot, toast the oats over medium heat until they start to smell toasty (kind of like popcorn!) and start to "pop" (also kind of like popcorn!). Stir them around frequently and don't walk away because they burn fast!!

2. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to maintain a low boil, and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.

3. At this point, your water should look like it cooked down some at the oats start to look creamy. Add 1/2 cup ~milk and stir to incorporate. Turn the heat to low and simmer another 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. Now most of the liquid should be absorbed, and usually at this point, they're soft enough for me. If you want them softer, simmer longer; you may need to add more ~milk. If they're soft enough but too thick, add a bit more milk to achieve desired consistency.

Here's the fun part -- What to mix in?

My normal routine is:
Somewhere in the 2nd half of cooking, add 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses (++ iron/calcium/trace minerals) and a few shakes of cinnamon. Once the heat is turned off, add a little vanilla extract. Then I top it with fruit and lightly toasted nuts, and brown sugar or maple syrup. Some favorite combos are:
Bananas and Pecans (as featured)
Apples and Walnuts
Berries and Raw Cashews
Cherries (fresh, frozen, or dried) and slivered almonds

This breakfast keeps me filled for a LONG time!

Yellow Split Pea Soup with Green Pea Garnish

The boy and I have both decided we really like split pea soups. They're so hearty and creamy and warm and comforting. My only complaint that it was so delicious I tried to eat it when it was still too hot and completely burned my pallet. Ow. This recipe came from Vegan Planet with Robin Robertson. Of course I made a few changes to better accommodate our tastes (and my belly) and the end result was a delicious way to end a damp and chilly Thursday.

Yellow Split Pea Soup with Green Pea Garnish
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 shallot, chopped
1 rib of celery, finely diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 medium yukon gold potato, diced
6 cups of water or vegetable broth
1 3/4 cups dried yellow split peas, rinsed and checked for stones and bits
1/2 tsp dried summer savory leaves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
Veggie bacon bits to sprinkle on top, optional

1. In a big soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat and add the veggies. Put a lid on it and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until the veggies are soft.

2. Add the broth, herbs, salt, and split peas and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 40 minutes or until the peas are soft and broken down. If it gets too thick, just add a bit of water to thin it out.

3. Add 1 tsp of liquid smoke, or to taste. (I'd taste the soup, add 1/2 tsp, taste again, and then add the last 1/2 tsp -- we like things smokey. Not everyone does!)

4. Put your soup into a bowl, and sprinkle with green peas and fake-bacon bits, if desired. (Stirred in, they soften up pretty quick)

Vegan MoFo

October is Vegan MoFo -- Vegan Month of Food. As such, I'm actually going to try to suck less at blogging, and post more often. Seeing as how, aside from cooking, I also work and am in school getting my PhD, and have all those other pesky household things that need attending to on a day to day basis, I'm not sure that I'll get a post in every day in October, but I'm hoping for more than once a week.

In honor of Vegan MoFo -- my digital camera broke. If I fight with it a while, it will begrudgingly take a photograph, so here's hoping I can keep convincing it to work until my new one comes in the mail. (At which time I'm going to try to find someone to fix this one. It is mechanically sound, the sliding lense cover, which also triggers the "on/off" switch, isn't working right -- so I suspect it's fixable)

Finally, allow me to introduce you to our new kitten friend, Sir Didymus.

I try not to stray from food here, and he is certainly not food, but he's too cute not to share. So, there he is. The boy and I aided in his rescue from the busy street we live on, where he was running around in traffic, terrified, filthy, and emaciated. We've had him three weeks this weekend, and he has already gained weight and acts like he's always been here. (My oldest cat loves him, the other is beginning to tolerate him)

Now back to your regularly scheduled food porn!

Peanut Butter Pasta and Peas

I love this recipe for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. It's from Vegetarian Express by Nava Atlas, which I believe is no longer in print. It's got a lot of great, easy, fast recipes though, and they're mostly vegan or easily veganized. The creamy peanut butter sauce is a nice balance of sweet and savory, and I like peas in just about anything. The suggested side is cinnamon-apple glazed baby carrots, which are delicious but I think a bit too sweet, so I've served it with some cauliflower and carrots sauteed in olive oil with garlic and vegetable broth.


Peanut Butter Pasta with Peas

10 oz rotini pasta (I use whole wheat)
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use all natural crunchy)
3/4 cup vegetable stock (hot works best to help melt the peanut butter)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey, or rice syrup, or agave
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 cups frozen green peas

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Add the frozen peas in the last minute of cooking.

2. While the pasta was cooking, put all other ingredients in the blender or food processor and blend together until smooth.

3. Drain the pasta and peas, and toss with the peanut butter sauce. The sauce will thicken as it cools, so it will stick to the pasta better if you let it sit a few minutes before serving.

Apple Sauce

I buy apples pretty much every week in the fall/winter. Local upstate NY apples are fantastic, and they make a really convenient snack. I don't, however, always end up eating my convenient snack and it gets a little beat up in my bookbag, then I don't want to eat it because I'm picky like that. In order to avoid throwing out all these otherwise delicious but somewhat imperfect apples, I make apple sauce! The first time I wanted to make apple sauce I set out looking for a recipe and they were all COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS! Tons of sugar and all sorts of random steps. I winged it. It worked. Around here, we like our applesauce chunky, but if you prefer smooth, by all means take an immersion blender to it, or wait for it to cool a bit and blend it in a regular blender.



Apple Sauce
4 apples, peeled, cored, and roughly diced
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Put the apples and water in a 2 quart sauce pan and bring the water to a boil over high heat.

2. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover the pot, and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (The more you stir the more the apples with break down. I find I don't even need to mash them at all, but again, depending on how you like it you may want to take a potato masher to it or puree it)

3. Stir in the cinnamon. Serve hot or cold.

Mom's Apple Cake

Can you tell school started again on August 28th? Yep, it's been busy around here. I've had to get more creative with my meal planning since I get home late at least one night a week, but we've still been eating! I have pictures that I have to figure out what recipes coordinate with them, and some I should have finished jotting down the ingredients as I went along. Here's one that I do have a recipe written down for, and pictures!

This is a veganization and slight altering of my mother's apple cake. I only call it my mother's because she used to make it, though she didn't invent the recipe, someone gave it to her. It is VERY sweet and very rich, and also really moist and delicious. To celebrate the beginning of fall, I made the cake with apples, pears, and dried cranberries, whereas Mom's is just apples. All apples is good, and all pears would probably be good too! If you want to use pears, be sure to choose ones that aren't too ripe since they'll just disintegrate.



Mom's Apple Cake
5 cups apples OR 2 1/2 cups each apples and pears; peeled, cored and diced
1/2 cup dried cranberries (optional)
5 tsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup crushed pecans or walnuts (I like pecans)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup plain or vanilla soy-yogurt
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

1. In a large bowl, toss together the fruit, 5 tsp sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. Set aside.

2. In another large bowl (or the mixing bowl to your mixer), beat together sugar, soygurt, vanilla, orange juice and oil.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to the wet ingredients until combined. Do not overmix.

4. Thoroughly grease and flour a tube pan (you can see I didn't do a good enough job and I couldn't get the cake off the middle!). Layer the cake batter and fruit in the grease pan as follows: batter -> fruit -> batter -> fruit -> batter -> fruit. Try to do about 1/3 of each for each layer. The fruit from the previous layer often peeks through. That's fine.

5. Bake for 90 minutes, but DO NOT open the oven during baking! Let it cool, then fight to remove it from the pan.