Blood Orange + Roasted Brussel Sprouts + Garlic

This past weekend I had some time on my hands and wanted home cooking.  I've been so busy that I haven't been cooking as much as I like to, which is on a very regular basis.  On Friday night I made a spicy bbq sauce, threw in some Cast Iron seitan with its broth to marinate, and got to work on Sunday making a great late lunch.

Blood Orange and Garlic Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Mac and Cheeze, 

BBQ Grilled Seitan

The seitan is was cooked on my cast iron grill pan and basted with additional sauce.  The mac and cheeze is the Lower Fat New Farm take, made with gluten free noodles since I like them better in baked mac, but the sauce was not gluten free - I'm out of tamari!   Some of the grill lines are scary, but trust me, it was killer.  In a seitanic way.

The brussel sprouts were the true showstopper of my culinary day. I've conferred with my sister, and we don't remember ever eating brussel sprouts growing up.  Our mom loved green vegetables, but I'm guessing she had been subjected to poorly made brussel sprouts herself or simply heard the rumors, and didn't see the point in passing that on.

Organic brussel sprouts

$1.49/lb from New Seasons Market

I've only had them since living in Portland these past 4.5 years, because you know, I'm a farmer's market devotee so how could I not try them?  I'll eat them steamed now and then, like at the Bye & Bye and hanging out with bbq or peanut sauce, but I prefer them roasted with garlic.  I first roasted them at the end of 2006, and to amuse myself, let me reference my post from late 2006 post - Balsamic, Orange and Garlic Roasted Brussel Sprouts.

Ready to roast - tossed in a lightly oiled pan with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and whole cloves of garlic.

Citrus Star.

After roasting 12-15 minutes at 400F, I tossed the the 20 or so halved sprouts with the freshly squeezed juice of one small blood orange, coarse sea salt and black pepper.  

Roast an additional 5 minutes, and you're done.

Here's an Eastern Bowl I ordered at the Bye & Bye last month...

Dance your cares away, Worry's for another day.

Ah, life in Portland. Eating local, shopping local, yet living it up.

Last night I picked up $4 worth of local maiitake mushrooms and $1 worth of radishes from the People's Coop farmer's market.
I'm not wild about radishes, but I eat them, for the love of all things Fraggle!



On Saturday, Thomas and I joined my dear friend Hillary at the PSU farmer's market: basil!!, salad greens, portabella mushrooms, maiitakes, apples and a red pear.
I am very stoked to see fresh basil.



I usually go to Fubonn for my Asian shopping fun, but this past weekend I had free time and wanted bubble tea at home, so I trekked out to Uwajimaya (one is in the works to open in inner pdx as well). The Hawaiin pineapple for 75 cents a pound was my favorite purchase. Deeeelicious.

Dinner last night - my body was craving vegetables!
Roasted maiitakes with some earth balance, tamari and pepper and sliced & already baked Italian tofu, salad greens with roasted hazelnuts and sesame kale raab (based on VWAV sesame asaparagus).

Everything besides the condiments were locally grown in this meal.



$4.99 plate special from Papa G's Vegan Organic Deli - 1 side dish with gravy and 1 entree.
In this case, I had mac & cheeze with peas and a biscuit with mushroom gravy since it was early in the day.


And my favorite, most reliable tofu scramble in Portland - the Superhero from Junior's Cafe in SE. Their Vegan potatoes with tofu sauce also kick ass.



FYI, I've added a Try Vegan Week banner on my site. If you're in the Portland area and want to try Temptation Vegan Ice Cream at the ice cream social fundraiser, be a mentor, learn more and attend a Vegan Prom with a Purple Rain theme & more - check it out!

Heart of Tofu

I could start out this post inserting 'tofu' into cutesy love songs that include the word 'heart', but I'm not that type of gal. Well, Blondie's 'Heart of Glass' is in my head right now but tofu just isn't fitting in.

I've done the cookie cutter tofu thing before over the past few years, and have also done so with the infamous chickpea cutlets before baking, and it just felt right the other night.

I took my block of fresh firm tofu from Ota, drained it, pressed it, carefully sliced it, whipped out the heart-shaped cookie cutter (which actually used to be a circle), put it in some VWAV/Veganomicon Italian marinade and then baked.


Sesame seeds were added during the last 10 minutes of cooking. I've been enjoying them a lot lately. The baked tofu is served with some more chickpea quinoa pilaf (with white and cranberry beans) and some kale raab I cooked in the extra Italian marinade.

Cajun Chili Garlic Fries

Cajun Chili Garlic Fries
Originally uploaded by jdfunks.

lunch?

I'll actually post a recipe for this..

so far:
ancho chili powder, coarse sea salt, chopped garlic, garlic powder, freshly ground pepper mix, cajun spices, canola and grapeseed oil..

Shoot, here's somethin resembling a recipe:
(feeds 2)

Preheat oven to 425F.

Peel one large yam, and cut into strips.
Put strips in a bowl, and toss with 1/2 tablespoon of canola oil and 1/2 tablespoon of grapeseed oil. You can certainly use all of one, I wanted to try it grapeseed in this.

Add:
1/8 teaspoon ancho chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt (or less, to taste), couple dashes freshnly ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon cajun mix (I buy this in bulk), and pinch of cayenne. Of course all of this is approximate in my kitchen..

Spread out, making sure they don't touch, on a baking sheet lightly greased with canola oil or on parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes, flip fries with a spatula, very liberally sprinkle with 2 cloves of chopped garlic, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, to desired crispness. As these are baked, not fried, they won't get 'fried' crispy, but are still awesome, if I do say so.

On the Mend but in the Kitchen...

I have a lot of extra, wonderful time on my hands due to the injury, and besides watching seasons 2 and 3 of scrubs, random daytime tv and napping, I've hobbled into the kitchen for some cooking..

Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry brownies, topped with toasted coconut - a ppk test kitchen recipe.



My dear friend Joanna is putting together a lowfat vegan cookzine, and these are her simply fantastic sesame green beans.

Marinated Portabella mushroom and avocado hoagie with vegenaise, spinach and tomato. The marinated and roasted portabella is a ppk test recipe.

Joanna's mustard crusted chicken style seitan. Both the breading and seitan are her tasty recipes. On the side is the mac and cheez casserole from th New Farm cookbook - halved, less oil, and more spices.


Trader Joe's new peanut toffee is vegan. Do I need to say much more? Well, I'll add that it was a fabulous treat during my couch time, and tastes like the inside of a butterfinger bar.

And there's the timer for my herbed pizza dough..time for a second rise, and then for more couch time. Thanks for all the kind words, you guys~ I'll be back to work tommorow (brownies in tow), and out of the boot in 2 weeks or so.