Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions

My pantry is full of ingredients. Full of ingredients I bought for one recipe. Special whole grains–amaranth, quinoa, farro, barley–and lots of lentils and beans. I have three (3!) different types of lentils.  I made Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything  because I wanted to make room in my pantry. I now only have 2 types of lentils. 🙂

I cooked a similar recipe from Veganomicon before. It’s a simple vegan comfort-food recipe that’s good when it’s cold outside (even Southern California cold).

You can find the recipe HERE.

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Not Chocolate Mousse

Yeah. It’s Valentine’s Day. Fun times. Didn’t make the Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe selection for the week–Easy Chocolate Mousse. And it’s easy! I’m leaving for Mexican beaches at the end of the week and I wasn’t going to eat it (I’m going to be living in a bathing suit for a week!).Cookies I can bake and stash in the freezer; mousse not so much.

Instead, this is a yummy and healthy vegan recipe. Stir-Fried Sesame Asparagus with Tofu and Ramen. So easy, so delicious. The recipe for the asparagus comes from 1,000 Vegan Recipes–an awesome cookbook of almost every imaginable vegan recipe. Everything I’ve made from it has been delicious. I added tofu, which I baked in the oven at 350° F for 20 minutes and served it over ramen noodles.  I also upped the garlic and ginger in the recipe. It would be tasty over brown rice or any whole grain as well.

Stir-Fried Sesame Asparagus

Adapted from 1,000 Vegan Recipes

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 pound asparagus, tough ends trimmed and cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1. Heat canola oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add asparagus and stir-fry for twominutes. Add garlic and ginger and stir for one more minute.
2. Add soy sauce and sesame oil. Stir and cover for 3 minutes or until asparagus is tender. Sitr in sesame seeds.
3. Serve immediately.

Chocolate! Peanut Butter! Scones!

Need I write more? Who doesn’t love the combination of chocolate & peanut butter? Hannah of BitterSweet had the genius of making scones with them. Scones! Yes, scones. A treat you can call breakfast.

Chocolate-Glazed Peanut Butter Scones was the second recipe I tried from Hannah’s book, My Sweet Vegan. Not only is there peanut butter  (chunky!) in the scones, there is peanut butter (smooth!) in the chocolate drizzle.

Like all scones, the dough quickly came together. Instead of making four large scones as directed in the recipe, I made 12 mini-scones. The texture was very scone-like–a little dry, crumbly, and with just a hint of sweet. I’ve made vegan scones that were more cake-like in texture. When I make a scone, I want it to taste like a scone and they did.

I baked them for a meeting and they were enjoyed by all. The problem with making minis is that people can’t just eat one and they were gone quicker than it took to bake them–12 minutes.

If you would like the recipe, buy the book.

Ten in 2010: Two Healthy, Vegan Salads

I stayed on track this week with my Ten in 2010 goals. I did my runs and yoga classes, I exercised 6/7 days, and ate 100% vegan AND healthy. I also lost a 1/3rd of my vacation and holiday weight gain.

The secret to eating healthy (and vegan) and maybe just life in general, is to plan ahead and always have food you can eat available.

This week to help me along I made two healthy, vegan salads. The recipes come from the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. The first recipe is Couscous Confetti Salad. A colorful mix of whole-wheat couscous, chopped vegetables, and golden raisins.  The dressing is seasoned with curry powder to give a bit of a kick and the flavor combines well with the sweet raisins. This was a big hit, not just with me, but with my friends too.

The second recipe is a Hoppin’ John Salad. Made with black-eyed peas (the first time I’ve had them!), Hoppin’ John is a traditional New Year’s dish. This version was made with brown rice and served cold with a lemon-garlic dressing. This was a big hit too, but only with me. Because I didn’t share it. 😛

I also made a big pot of Cinnamon-Raisin Oatmeal for breakfast. When I didn’t have my oatmeal, I ate fruit with a non-dairy yogurt and 7-grain puffed cereal.

If you would like to join the the Ten in 2010 group, visit Lori at the RecipeGirl blog HERE.

{bba} italian bread torpedo rolls

Life got a little too busy or too complicated or maybe I just got a little too lazy. For whatever the reason, I decided to join the Slow & Steady group of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.When I joined the group, I already baked the breads they were baking and blogging. I had a good chunk of time before the bread I needed to make next–Italian Bread.

Ha ha! I sat on my duff too long. The Italian Bread was due the first week in December! I didn’t realize this until this week. But luckily, the some of other Slow & Steady Bakers got thrown off track because of the holidays and Nancy of The Corner Loaf (our fearless leader) is revising the schedule with the Italian Bread due in two weeks. So it seems I’m ahead again 😛 .

Shaped and ready for proofing

I made the bread for my supposed-to-be vegetarian Christmas Eve dinner and shaped them into torpedo rolls. The rolls rose and baked beautifully.

Fresh out of oven

My family loved the bread. My Mother couldn’t stop talking about it. My Mom is big on bread. She always used to say to me, “The key to a great dinner party is good wine, good bread, and good conversation”. All the other stuff is incidental.