Memories
- Sandwiches & Panini
-
30 Dec 2011
Though I’m not eating sandwiches on my fruit/veggie reboot plan, that doesn’t mean I can’t drool over sandwiches past:
Pesto Grilled Cheese (Daiya Mozz)
Pictured: two slices of homemade bread cradling a generous bit of Post Punk Kitchen’s Bestest Pesto and ooey, gooey melted Daiya mozzarella vegan cheese… lovingly grilled on the Griddler panini press.
It was magnificently wonderful.
Posted: December 30, 2011 at 3:36 pm
{Tags: daiya, pesto, sandwiches}
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Promises, Promises
- Adventures in Chopping, Dinner, Sandwiches & Panini, Vegan MoFo
-
18 Oct 2011
It’s Vegan MoFo Week 3!
Yes, I know. You missed me yesterday. I’m back this evening for your foodie enjoyment, and a little birdie told me there’s a morning edition on its way, too.
First up: pesto veggie sandwiches! Oh. You mean, you’ve seen those before here? Or here? Hey – I promised I’d try to make 20 posts about food in the month of October. I never promised it’d be different food every day!
What can I say? I eat a lot of pesto veggie sandwiches. To make this instance a tiny bit more palatable, I will show you one of my magic kitchen weapons. This little beast makes chopping veggies super easy:
Pampered Chef Food Chopper
It’s the Pampered Chef Food Chopper. I couldn’t really tell you if other choppers work as well. I’ve used this one for years and it still looks and works like the day I bought it. The thing can take a beating (I’m a clutz) – it just keeps chopping away.
Now, I didn’t use it to chop these leeks…
Chopped Leeks
… but I did use it on the baby bellas (got a sweet deal on organics!) and the red peppers:
Leeks, Baby Bellas, and Red Peppers
Sometimes I use onions instead of leeks. It just depends what’s in my fridge. These leeks were on their last legs, for sure. This mix is made of 1 carton of baby bella mushrooms (16 oz), 1 large sweet red pepper, 3 leeks, and 3 cloves of garlic. Saute and salt to taste… voila!
Pesto Veggie Sandwich and Green Bean Fries
With my buddies the Green Bean Fries on the side (baked, not fried… 18 mins at 400F… salt and pepper… nom).
Posted: October 18, 2011 at 9:15 pm
{Tags: baby bella, green beans, leeks, mushroom, pesto, red pepper, sandwiches}
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Make New Friends, But Keep the Old
- Dinner
-
21 Sep 2011
Make new friends, but keep the old…
My dinners these days often revolve around two central questions: what produce do I have in my fridge, and more importantly – what’s about to go bad? Today’s answer to the latter: green beans. I love me some fresh green beans, but the word “fresh” wasn’t really true any more in describing these particular beans. Still, I bravely picked through the container and separated the questionable beans from the salvageable ones. (If I die of green bean poisoning tomorrow, you read it here first).
Luckily for my green beans, I just picked up the sequel to one of my all time favorite cookbooks. I’m a huge fan of Clean Food by Terry Walters, and the new Clean Start looks to be even more exciting. Since I’ve of course already read the book cover to cover (yes, I read cookbooks for fun), I knew my green beans had a solid future.
They would become Green Fries.
I don’t think I’ve ever really fried anything, aside from the brief stretch of time when I actually owned a little deep frier. I’ve never fried on the stove-top, though. I tend to avoid frying things (pesky calories and all). Tonight, though, I had some green beans, and I had a new cookbook, and doggone it, I felt like frying something.
For the record, a) frying stuff is dangerous. I could’ve used a reminder before I embarked upon this journey. b) Fried green beans are good, but I’m not sure they’re better than roasting them to eat as fries. The texture is a little better, but might not be better enough to be worth the trouble (and calories) of frying. That said, I still ate a ton of them.
So, green bean fries are my new friend (roasted or fried!)
To go with my green bean fries, I made an old favorite standby – chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. So easy. So good. Such awesome leftovers. And I actually remembered to add the spices this time.
And I grilled a corn-on-the-cob.
Nom.
Chickpea Cutlet Burger with frizzled leeks, Green Bean Fries, and Corn on the Cob
Word to your mother. Now go be a good scout and eat some plants.
Posted: September 21, 2011 at 9:33 pm
{Tags: chickpeas, Clean Food, Clean Start, corn, frying, green beans, leeks, sandwiches, Veganomicon}
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Lies of Omission
- Lunch, Sandwiches & Panini
-
01 Jul 2011
So, I’ve been keeping something from you.
It’s a sandwich – one that I’ve now eaten 3 days in a row.
I didn’t mean to. I thought about sharing. The first time, I was just too hungry to stop and grab the camera.
The second time, I started to prep the sammy for picture time, but it just wasn’t photogenic enough to bother.
Well, the sandwich still isn’t very photogenic, but it’s so darn tasty that I was overcome with guilt today as I made it for, yes, a third time.
So here you go – my current crush of a sandwich:
Avocado Spinach Panini and Asparagus
It’s the Avocado Spinach Panini [recipe], inspired by the recipe in the July/Aug 2011 issue of Vegetarian Times.
My version is a slight modification on the original. It’s essentially (for one sandwich):
- half an avocado, mashed
- 1/8 of an onion, diced
- a generous smear of garlic hummus
- a small handful of baby spinach
- some sundried tomatoes
- smashed between two slices of bread and pressed for 4 minutes on the panini press
I’m currently enjoying the High Five Fiber loaf from Great Harvest Bread Company in Palos Heights, IL. If you’ve never had Great Harvest bread, you MUST check to see if there’s a GH near you. Their breads use simple, real food ingredients and fresh whole grain flours – ground daily! The flavor is incredible, and I’m so glad that I found GH at my local farmer’s market. I’ve been looking forward to shopping at GH Charlottesville once I get to Virginia, but it has been so delicious enjoying it here in the meantime!
Of course, I still suck at cutting bread loaves, so my slices are WAY huge. So, people, do not take these photos as an example of how much in grains you should eat at a meal. Leave that to MyPlate! My slices probably end up being 2.5 servings, at least!
But just look at this hot, gooey mess…
Avocado Spinach Panini
Oh, it is so good.
Mashing the avocado is definitely key. I had trouble in my first two attempts with the avocado slices falling out on the panini press or when I tried to eat the sandwich. The mashing also adds to the gooey-factor.
Side note: I’m eating asparagus like french fries now. Loooooove asparagus!
Fave way to prep asparagus: trim off the rough stems. Spray with a little olive oil spray. Sprinkle with veggie seasoning (I’m currently in love with McCormick’s Perfect Pinch Vegetable Seasoning. Yeah, the ingredient list is less than whole-foods-stellar, but it is mighty tasty). Then grill for 3 minutes. (Ahh, this is where having the Griddler is awesome sauce!)
So, as we embark upon this holiday weekend, I urge you to enjoy a tasty sandwich, grill up some veggies, and share some good times with the ones you love.
Posted: July 1, 2011 at 3:49 pm
{Tags: asparagus, avocado, bread, hummus, onion, Recipes, sandwiches, spinach, tomato}
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The Godmother & My Veggie Drawer
- Lunch, Sandwiches & Panini, Shopping
-
28 Mar 2011
Please excuse me. I’m having a food-gasm over here.
It’s Day 2 with my Griddler grill/panini press, and in another attempt to use up some leftovers, I accidentally recreated my second favorite pizza joint sandwich, vegan style:
The Godmother, from Nancy’s Pizza – Oven Baked Breaded Chicken Tenders with Red Sauce and Melted Mozzarella Cheese, served on Homemade Garlic Bread
Oh, yes. Yes. YES!
Not coincidentally, my ultimate favorite pizza joint sandwich also comes from Nancy’s. Of course, now that I’m neither eating chicken nor cheese, I will have to find a way to recreate this one as well:
The Chicken Club – Oven Baked Breaded Chicken Tenders, Fresh Bacon, Melted Mozzarella Cheese, Lettuce, Fresh Roma Tomatoes, and Creamy Garlic Sauce served on our Homemade Garlic Bread
I bet I could make a wicked-good vegan garlic sauce! The rest is cake, since I already figured it out.
Behold:
Starring:- Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon
- Mom’s Marinara from Appetite for Reduction
- Daiya mozzarella (best vegan cheese evah!)
- A little bit of Earth Balance (vegan butter)
Supporting act:
Help! I'm running out of vegetables!
Mixed greens, a grated carrot, and a handful of alfalfa sprouts doused with Sanctuary Dressing (also from Appetite for Reduction). The produce drawer in my fridge is looking pretty sad at the moment. Not even a cucumber to be found.
Tangent!
My veggie drawer typically contains:
- 1 bunch of kale (for making kale chips!)
- 1 cucumber
- 1 avocado (OK fine, avo is a fruit, so what)
- 1 red pepper (I know, I know! Red pepper is technically [botanically] a fruit too. But I eat it as a vegetable!)
- 1 bunch of broccoli
- 1 onion (yellow or white)
- 1 bunch asparagus
- Leafy greens (either an organic spring greens mix, or a mixed greens with spinach type thing)
- 1 bag of carrotsThose are my weekly go-to’s, mostly for salad purposes. Other veggies find their way into my fridge, but the list above is pretty much what I buy every week. Since there’s only one of me, I have to go to the grocery store weekly because I can only eat so much before it goes bad! Luckily, being a Perimeter Shopper at the grocery store, it’s easy to get in and out quickly. Sometimes the asparagus turns into green beans. Sometimes the broccoli becomes cauliflower. There’s usually 1 dinner veggie and a ton of salad veggies.
What’s in your veggie drawer?
Posted: March 28, 2011 at 2:25 pm
{Tags: Appetite for Reduction, chickpea, daiya, marinara, sandwiches, Veganomicon}
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Leftovers Day
- Lunch, Shopping
-
27 Mar 2011
It was leftovers day here on this lazy Sunday, the last day of Spring Break. This didn’t really feel like Spring Break; the weather was not spring-like, and it wasn’t really a break for me. However, I did manage to do a lot of shopping and a good amount of cooking.
The most significant acquisition of my Spring Break shopping spree was this Cuisinart MultiClad Pro Stainless Steel 12 piece cookware set. It came highly recommended by a food blogger that I enjoy reading, Vegan Burnout. I still, of course, spent days reading reviews and whatnot. I definitely needed a new set of cookware. My existing hodge-podge of a set consisted of scratched-up nonstick pieces from when I got my first apartment 17 years ago (yikes! Math be damned!) and from a housewarming gift when I bought my first house 8 years ago. Every time I have gone to cook something recently, I have had to pretend I didn’t see the flaking nonstick stuff… which led to pretending that the pots weren’t leeching chemicals and carcinogens into my food…. It didn’t matter as much when I only cooked once a year, but now that I’m cooking at least several times a week, it concerns me.
So, enough of that! I chose stainless because I have 2 pots that I love. They’re both stainless, and are both pieces from a set of Revere cookware that my parents got as a wedding gift 37 years ago (awwww!). So it seems I like stainless steel, and will not have to fear the chemical nonstick stuff. Done and done.
I also added a Cuisinart Griddler Jr grill/griddle/panini press to my arsenal. I do own an ancient George Foreman grill (the first one ever made, I think). It just doesn’t work very well anymore – but it too is nearing a decade old. Like I said in my Welcome post – I really never cooked until 2010! These gadgets just collected dust in my cabinets.
Other nifty items of note: a cookbook holder, an olive oil spray bottle, a couple new cookbooks, and an Eye-Fi memory card for my little camera (that will hopefully result in me shooting more of my kitchen adventures to post here).
I tested out the Eye-Fi with today’s lunch. (Impressive little device, actually – I’m surprised at how much I like it. I wish they made it in a CF version for my big camera – but a friend mentioned the possibility of using an SD-to-CF convertor. Looking into that).
First up, I made a sandwich out of some leftover Falafel (from the recipe in Isa Chandra’s Appetite for Reduction).
Outside, this sandwich used a special “ancient grains” bread from the local grocer’s bakery. It listed spelt flour and amaranth flour, amongst others. It was so crusty on the outside and soft on the middle! So good. I plan to get some more use out of my bread machine too – and recreating a bread like this is high on my list of things to do. Inside this sandwich, I stuffed leftover falafel, cucumbers, and some Sanctuary Dressing (also an Isa recipe), with more dressing on the side for dipping. I whipped out the new Griddler to try toasting this sandwich and.. mmm mmm mmm.With it, I tossed together a salad of spring greens, crunchy tempeh crumbles, leftover grilled leeks and peppers (from yesterday’s pizza adventure), some alfalfa sprouts, and… I think that was it – with Sanctuary Dressing. (That stuff is SO delish, at only 40 calories per 1/4 cup!)
I try to have a giant bowl of greens, every single day.I’ve still got some of that grilled leek & peppers pizza to finish up, and some no-meatballs in the infamous grape jelly/chili sauce marinade. (For the record, the omnivores at yesterday’s family gathering ate the no-meatballs right up – and my mother, the picky eater she is, even asked me to leave her some leftovers). Vegan meatballs ftw! Unfortunately, the marinate was chock full of high fructose corn syrup, as I was too time-pressed to make it from scratch for a nice organic version. Gotta pick your battles.
I hope to get in one more good bit of cooking on Monday before my schedule gets crazy again.
I’m looking at registering for the midwest Warrior Dash. Who’s in?! What’s better than a 5K through obstacles, mud, and fire?!
Posted: March 27, 2011 at 8:57 pm
{Tags: falafel, salad, sandwiches}
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Adventures in Chopping
- Adventures in Chopping
-
13 Jan 2010
Tonight I bring you the first in a series called, “Adventures in Chopping.” Sure, wielding a big, sharp knife may be child’s play to most of you, but to me? It’s confusing, intriguing, and simultaneously terrifying.
You see, I’m clumsy. ’nuff said.
At any rate, I’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow, and I know I will not be waking up early enough to feed myself properly. Since I now have a fridge full of produce (thanks to Peapod), I thought I’d better get chopping (literally and figuratively). I decided to make tomorrow’s breakfast tonight, so I can just grab it and go as I sleepwalk out the door in the morning.
The adventure started like this:
Yes, I had to Google how to chop a bell pepper. I also had to Google how to chop an onion. Now you hush with the laughing!
It took me a good half hour to chop up one red pepper and one onion, but there was no bloodshed – and that’s a primary goal, right?
Mission accomplished.
On a side note, I have to share tonight’s dinner. I wouldn’t normally be so ga-ga over a sandwich, but this was the most delicious lunch meat I’ve ever had in my life… no joke. I will have to review it properly at some point. It was deli sliced herb turkey breast made by Applegate Farms – the organic meat company that touts, “There is no mystery to our meat!” The product description: “Our tender juicy turkey breast meat is lightly salted, coated with an earthy herb mix of parsley, rosemary and sage, then slowly roasted.”
I think that herb mix was more heavenly than earthy! Mighty tasty.
I wish I’d have gotten out the fine china for a sandwich of that caliber of deliciousness! (For the record: the sandwich was turkey breast with lettuce, mild cheddar cheese, and a little mayo on whole grain bread, with a side of vanilla yogurt with blueberries – all organic, of course!)
Posted: January 13, 2010 at 11:01 pm
{Tags: chopping, Organic, sandwiches}
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