Winter Chilis

Last Sunday I made some awesome veggie chili from scratch, dried beans and all. Today I made some veggie white chili. They are not super unique recipes but I am going to post them here for future reference. Amounts are approximate since I tend to just add things as I see fit. The first recipe was adapted from this one and the second was much more free form.

Veggie Chili
1/2 cup TVP (soaked and drained, optional)
1/2 cup of frozen diced onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup dried red kidney beans (soaked overnight)
1 cup dried navy beans (soaked overnight)
1 can petite diced tomatoes with juice
1 can diced tomatoes with chilis with juice
1 orange bell pepper, diced
about 6 baby carrots, diced
1/2 cup or so cauliflower florets
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
a squeeze of honey
salt and pepper to taste
a little olive oil
1 cup water or broth (or more if needed)

Saute onion, garlic and tvp in olive oil until browned. Stir in all seasonings. Stir in everything else except tomatoes. Simmer stirring occasionally for 30-40 minutes until beans are soft. Add tomatoes and simmer another 20 minutes or so. Add extra seasonings if needed. Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream.
Note: adding the tomatoes later allows the beans to soften faster.

White Veggie Chili
1 cup dried navy beans (soaked overnight)
1 1/2 cups or so frozen sweet corn (from grandma's farm preferably)
2 frozen roasted hot peppers from my garden (or canned chilis will work too)
1 cup leftover brown and wild rice
1/2 cup natural unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup frozen diced onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 cups or so broth
1 tsp butter
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
juice from one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
a little plain yogurt or sour cream

For this one I just put everything into my crockpot and turned it on high for 4-5 hours. Add the yogurt or sour cream at the end. Cheese might be nice too.

No-Knead Bread - Part 1

A while back I picked up some instant yeast from the grocery store with the intention of trying out my Mother-in-Law's No-Knead Bread recipe (from her Minimalist Cookbook). I've made many quick breads and beer breads but never anything with yeast. This one seemed like a simple enough recipe and a good one to start with.
Mix the dry ingredients:


Heat water to 120 degrees:


Pour water into dry mixture and stir until fully moistened:


Scrape dough from the sides of the bowl and cover, leave for 8 to 18 hours:


When I get home from work today, I'll be baking bread! Watch for part 2 for the final results :)

yummy winter food!

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe here but these were so good I felt I needed to share. The first is a Moroccan Lentil Stew adapted from this recipe. The second is the veggie dish I made for Thanksgiving. Both are vegan (if you use olive oil instead of butter for the latter) crockpot recipes. Great for winter!

Moroccan Lentil Stew

-3/4 cup dried lentils
-1/2 can garbanzo beans
-2 sweet potatoes chopped into 2 inch chunks
-an equal amount of another veggie (I used broccoli but zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, peas, etc. would be good too)
-3 1/4 cups water
-1 veggie bouillon cube
-1 t cumin
-1 t ginger
-1 t salt
-1 t pepper
-1/2 t cinnamon
-1/2 t coriander
-1/2 t allspice
-1/4 t cloves


Chop up all of your vegetables and add them to the crockpot. Drain and rinse off the beans, add to the pot. Add the dried lentils and the dried spices. Stir in the water and bouillon (or use broth instead). Lentils will be softer if you add any tomatoes and salt at the very end.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Soup tastes best the longer you cook it, and it is even better the next day.



Roasted Root Veggies

-1 rutabaga
-1 bag of whole carrots
-2 parsnips
-1 bunch of chopped fresh parsley
-4 Tbsp butter (I didn't measure so I'm guessing at this amount)
-1/4 chopped white onion
-2 or 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
-salt and pepper to taste


Peel all of your vegetables, and cut into 2-inch chunks. Saute onion and garlic in the butter on the stove until they are soft. Pour over veggies and parsley in a big bowl and mix well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour it all into crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

cooking with tofu

On a whim, I picked up some tofu at the grocery store the other day. We're not exactly vegetarians over here but we definitely enjoy lots of veg. cuisine. Plus, I don't love dealing with raw meat. So anyway, I found this recipe over at Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit (originally from 101cookbooks) and, because I also just happened to have Brussels sprouts in the fridge, decided to try it out. It was delicious! My first successful attempt at cooking with tofu... and Nick LOVED it, too. Besides the chopping it was really quick and easy so I may just have to make it again. So here it is: Caramelized Tofu and Brussels Sprouts (served with leftover cilantro lime basmati rice)




And here's Meiby helping in the kitchen again. She looks pissed but really she was just mid-blink:


She's been doing much better the last few days. The vet says to give it a little time and if she continues to have problems we can switch her to a very bland or prescription food. For now we're back to a normal twice a day feeding schedule with half rice/cottage cheese and half high-quality kibble. We had been feeding her just rice/cheese 4 times a day and I think that was overkill. So, we'll see how this goes...

more summer cooking

Last night I was staring at some quite brown bananas wondering what to do with them. I didn't feel like making banana bread again, I certainly wasn't going to eat them and I didn't want to just throw them out. I found a box of Jiffy fudge brownie mix and made banana brownies! I just replaced the called for egg and oil with 2 mashed bananas (which just so happens to make them vegan as well). They are very fudgy and tasty!

1 box Jiffy fudge brownie mix
2 over-ripe bananas
1 tbsp water
chopped walnuts optional

mix, pour into lightly greased pan and bake at 350 for 30 min.


While searching for a recipe I came across one for pesto that I'd been saving. Ever since I started growing basil I've wanted to make my own pesto. I didn't quite have enough basil to make a full batch so I used half spinach/half basil. I also didn't have pine nuts or much olive oil so here's what I did:

2 cups fresh spinach
2 cups fresh basil
4 cloves garlic
handful of raw mixed nuts (cashews, walnuts, brasil nuts, pistachios, almonds)
1/2 cup or so grated parmesan cheese
enough oil for desired consistency (I didn't measure, only had a tiny bit of olive oil left so I filled in the rest with canola oil)

put spinach and basil into food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add garlic, nuts and cheese and mix until well blended. Pour in oil while processing until it looks like pesto.


Also, since I haven't posted a photo of Meiby in a while, here she is "helping" me in the kitchen :)


She's always underfoot, waiting for something to fall...

Beer Bread

The last time I made beer bread it came out with the consistency of a wet brick. It was extremely heavy and dense but squishy in the middle. Not good. So this time I thought I'd try this whole wheat beer bread recipe. It was much better, though still not the best beer bread I've had. I added a bunch of spices to it (pepper, chili powder, garlic salt) and sprinkled cheese on the top during the last 20 min of baking (thereby making it not vegan anymore... but you could use fake cheese too I would imagine.)



I used a bottle of Red Stripe which is maybe not the best beer bread beer but it's all we had. It turned out a bit dry and crumbly but went really well with the chili I made for dinner. I think it might be better with half white flour, half wheat...

Tonight I'm making Lentil Veggie "Meat"loaf so watch for a post about that...

Chocolate Stout Cake

I made this months ago and it's amazing and happens to be vegan. I wanted to post it here so that I don't lose it and so that others can share in the awesomeness. I got this recipe from someone on Ravelrywho found it online somewhere. Enjoy:

Vegan Chocolate Stout Cake

• 2 cups sugar (I reduced the sugar by about 1/2 cup)


• 3 cups all-purpose flour


• 1/2 c cocoa


• 1 tsp salt


• 2 tsp baking soda


• 3/4 c oil (I used a little less; maybe about 2/3 c)


• 4 tsp vinegar


• 1 tsp vanilla


• 1 bottle (12 oz) beer (I recommend a dark stout or chocolate stout; I used Young's Double Chocolate Stout)


• 1/2 c water

Sift all dry ingredients together into a large bowl and make three wells in the dry mixture (one large and two small). Pour the oil into the large well, and the vinegar and vanilla into each of the small wells. Pour beer over mixture, add water, and mix well.

Bake at 350F for 35 - 45 min. in lightly oiled pan.

Here's a photo of the finished product dusted with powdered sugar. I really need a nice cake pedestal or something...