Rouxbe Professional Plant Based Certification Course

In November, in the spirit of, "why the heck not, " and, " working in a cubicle is slowly killing me," I decided to enroll in the Rouxbe Professional Plant Based Certification Course. My cooking and baking skills have greatly improved since I first started this blog, but...there's always room for improvement. Plus, I've created an LLC and really hope to make my dream of owning a vegan cafe a reality at some point, and having legit skills might help me find some investors. (Birch Cafe CLE - coming...soon-ish?)

First homework assignment - my "go to" dish - pasta in a roasted red pepper cream sauce from Minimalist Baker

Life and some unexpected work travel have put me a little behind in my coursework, but...it's full steam ahead now until the end of my course in April. So far, I've learned a lot about kitchen and knife skills basics - and I'm really excited to learn even more as the course progresses. Stay tuned...my goal is to blog more in the new year, and I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about my homework! (and hopefully my business plans!)

Practice makes perfect with knife skills

Recipe: Fiesta Vegan Bean Salad

Do you ever have one of those days where you just don't feel like cooking...but you don't want to go anywhere to get food, either? Yeah. That happens to me sometimes. Last week I was trying to use us some food in my house and after doing a quick scan of my cupboards, I decided to google the various ingredients I had on hand to see if I could find anything that sounded good to me.

And so I found the Fiesta Bean Salad. I liked the sounds of the recipe and had most of the ingredients it called for, but I decided to jazz it up a little to take it from a side dish to an entree.

Fiesta Vegan Bean Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive
• 1 tsp cumin
• pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
• I cup fresh or defrosted corn
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup minced red onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 medium avocado, diced
• 2 or 3 Gardein Scallopini cutlets cooked and cut into bite sized pieces

Method:

1. In a large bowl, combine the garlic, lime juice, oil, cumin, crushed red pepper, and salt.
2. Add the black beans, corn, tomato, Gardein, onion and cilantro; mix well. 
3. When ready to eat, gently mix in avocado and serve right away.

I can't take credit for making this tasty dinner. My boyfriend did everything but add the corn and the fake chicken. The recipe came together really quickly and was pretty tasty. Think Chipotle rice bowl minus the rice and with some protein. I think this would be a great dinner to have on a hot night when you don't feel like cooking...or would make a great side dish at a picnic. (probably minus the avocados  though...they turned brown pretty quickly)

Recipe: Vegan Sauteed Kale

Two days in a row of Food Network Recipes! Oy! This is what happens when your fridge is overflowing with CSA veggies a few days before you're going out of town for a work trip. You have to find the quickest and easiest ways to cook up every fresh thing you have in your house.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds young kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 1 cup vegetable stock or water
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• sesame seeds (optional)

Method:

1. Heat olive oil and vegetable stock in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. 
2. Add the garlic and cook until soft, but not colored. 
3. Raise heat to high and add kale. (I had to add mine slowly to prevent my pan from overflowing - it wilts down quickly, though!
4. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and continue to cook, stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. 
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add vinegar. Top with sesame seeds and serve.

This recipe was a "win" in my book...but my boyfriend didn't like it because he's not the biggest fan of red wine vinegar. I love me some vinegar so the flavor wasn't too overpowering to me, but you may want to add vinegar sparingly to this recipe. 

Recipe: Quick and Easy Zucchini Planks

I'm too old and lame to use Pinterest, but I do appreciate it when people share recipes on facebook via photos. Makes no sense, I know...but maybe it's because I use facebook all the time and I'm just too lazy to log into one more social media something to look at pictures. Besides Instagram!

A person who I barely know likes to post a lot of photo recipes on facebook, and I saw a seemingly simple one the other night for fancy looking zucchini planks. These zucchini planks turned out so well, I forgot to take an "after/cooked" picture.

Ingredients:

• zucchini 
• olive oil
• garlic powder
• sliced tomatoes (any size/type will do)
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Slice zucchini in half. Cut off the rounded bottoms so the zucchini can sit flat on a cookie sheet. (it's a good idea to put foil on the cookie sheet first)
3. Brush the zucchini planks with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic powder and garlic salt.
4. Put tomatoes on top of zucchini planks. Sprinkle with cheese. (optional)
5. Cook for 20-30 minutes or until zucchini is thoroughly cooked - but not soft.
6. Serve and enjoy!

I really, really enjoyed this fancy looking zucchini. Not just because I didn't have to make it and my boyfriend did. It was quick, easy, and delicious! (and low calorie even if you use cheese - I opted for vegan zucchini goodness) I have a feeling I'm about to be up to my ears in zucchini, and I think we'll be making this a lot!

Fresh Fork Market - Week 2 - Vegan Collard Greens, Garlic Scape Pasta, and More

So last week I told you allllll about my first week of Fresh Fork Market. My boyfriend and I had a lot of fun cooking through our bag of goodies. This week was more of the same and we got broccoli, mustard greens, strawberries, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, Ohio City linguine, and rolled oats. (allegedly we were supposed to get lettuce - more on that later)

Last week I was halfway through a juice cleanse when it was my pickup day, and I was a little bummed that I wouldn't be able to eat any of my bounty right away. But everything held up pretty well in my fridge until I was able to whip up a green feast on Sunday night. (except the strawberries - they got icky pretty fast)

For our Sunday night dinner I made linguine with garlic olive oil, garlic, sauteed scapes, and broccoli, collard greens, and a big old salad with grape tomatoes, avocado, and mushrooms.

Garlic scapes, broccoli, and garlic tossed with Ohio City linguine

Big salad - made with mustard greens - whoops!

Since I'm still coming down off of my juice cleanse, I couldn't eat the pasta. But my boyfriend said it was good. I did have the salad. If you can call it a salad. I'm a bad vegetarian and don't know my greens all that well, so when I was cleaning what I thought was lettuce for my salad...it was actually mustard greens. FAIL. We were able to tall right away that the greenery masquerading as lettuce wasn't really lettuce because it was more chewy and it tasted like mustard. This wouldn't be my first choice for greens to use in a salad, but it did give it an interesting zing. 

Vegan collard greens

I did get to try out the collard greens. Like I said, I'm a bad vegetarian and I don't know what to do with greens so I googled a recipe for vegan collard greens. I'd honestly never had them so I didn't know what to expect. But I think they turned out pretty well. To me, they tasted like stuffed cabbage (which I love) and my boyfriend thought they tasted like the inside of a stuffed pepper. I was a bigger fan of them than he was, but I do plan on trying to make these again. If you try out this recipe, be forewarned that your house will smell like cabbage for awhile. Reminds me of walking through an apartment building or a nursing home.

Vegan Collard Greens (as adapted from Easy Vegetarian Collard Greens)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs collard greens
• 4 -5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika (I had to hunt for this at Whole Foods - note that sweet paprika is NOT the same as the paprika you probably have lurking in your cupboard)
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Method:

1. Wash the greens well, submerging in a sink full of cold water to remove any dirt and grit. 

2. Drain greens well. 

3. Cut off the stems right where the leaf starts. Stack about 5-8 leaves on top of each other, then roll lengthwise. 4. Cut rolled up leaves into 1" slices widthwise. Repeat until all the greens are cut into strips and then put in a large pot.

5. Add all other ingredients. 

6. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to a simmer. 

7. Simmer for at least 45 minutes or until greens are extremely tender. Serve hot, using a slotted spoon to drain the liquid from the greens.

Some notes on this recipe...I cooked the greens for over an hour and they were still kind of tough. The rest of my food was ready or I might have waited longer to eat them. The apple cider vinegar smell was overpowering at first but you couldn't really taste it. Also, it seemed like I was using a heck of a lot of onion, but you couldn't taste them all that much, honestly. 

Do you have a favorite way to use collard greens? Share your suggestions in the comments, because I know I'm going to be getting a lot more of them from my CSA this summer!

Keepin it Raw at The Chubby Cook

What a weekend!  Despite still recovering from the bubonic plague, or a sinus infection and bronchitis, I was able to get out of the house on Saturday to attend a cooking class at The Chubby Cook in Beachwood.  I'm a reformed microwave gourmet, and I love learning new cooking tips and techniques. 



Making raw food is fun



                                                                                           

Although I'm a vegetarian, I'd say that 75% of what I eat is vegan.  (I hope to make the switch someday)  I love raw foods, and when I saw that The Chubby Cook is offering multiple vegan and raw classes in the coming months, I immediately signed up for a raw foods class.  (and Mad About Mushrooms, but that's a vegetarian class and it's not until February)  My friend Lucia went along with me.  We're co-workers and travel together pretty often and always try to find vegan or raw restaurants. (our favorite raw restaurant to date is Cafe Manna in a Milwaukee suburb - you can find raw food in the darndest places these days)

I've taken plenty of cooking classes over the years, but I can't say that I've enjoyed them nearly as much as the class I took at The Chubby Cook.  Why?  Well, it was completely hands on.  When it comes to cooking, I feel like I need to actually practice something in order to "get" it.  Chef Lauren (formerly of Whole Foods and currently working at Trader Joe's), the main instructor, was extremely knowledgeable.  The Chubby Cook himself (Scott) was assisting her in the class, and they made a great team.  He was able to share all sorts of neat chef tips and tricks and was really knowledgeable about everything from how to chop garlic to dinosaur kale.  Another added bonus was that the class was held in The Chubby Cook's commercial kitchen.  Picture what you'd see on Top Chef but on a smaller scale.  I got to use an amazing ceramic knife (that I ended up buying - more on that in a future post) and "real" kitchen equipment. (considering how much I cook, it's embarrassing to see what I have in my kitchen - or rather, what I don't have)

Raw sushi that I rolled myself - look what I can do!

My favorite part of the class was making raw sushi.  No rice required here!  We made our own "rice" out of parsnips, garlic, and aminos.  And because this was a hands on process, I think that I could actually make raw sushi again at home. (I may give it a try this weekend.  I'll report back.)

In addition to the sushi, we made a whole bunch of other raw dishes - everything from zucchini pasta with a raw mushroom sauce, to mushroom "steaks", to kale salad, and mali kofta. 

A hodge podge of rawness

If one of your goals is to learn how to cook better, or eat better, or even if you're just looking for something fun to do with a friend, you should look into taking a class at The Chubby Cook.  They have classes that appeal to just about everyone - everything from wine tastings to cooking with beer to a class all about bacon. (clearly not my cup of tea, but...)

Recipe: Vegan Hoppin John

Hello, 2012.  I've been waiting for you.

I was sick on New Year's Day - due to a cold and not overdrinking - so I had to skip my semi-annual tradition of having dinner with my mother.  We'd planned on making pierogis from scratch, so I was pretty bummed that I didn't get to see her.  I did manage to drag myself out of the house long enough to run 1 mile (and complete my 45 day running streak - yay!) and to go to Whole Foods to stock up on a few essentials.  And the ingredients for Vegan Hoppin John. 

Not familiar with Hoppin John?  I wasn't either until I Googled it a couple years ago.  It's a southern dish that's supposed to bring luck in the coming year.  It's made with black eyed peas which are supposed to represent pennies, which we all know, are supposed to bring good luck.  I'd never actually cooked black eyed peas before or eaten Hoppin John, so all I could do was hope that this simple but time consuming recipe would turn out good. 

Raw Food Cooking Classes in Beachwood

Everywhere I turn these days, I keep learning about new restaurants offering vegan food, or vegan bakesales, or vegan cooking classes.  It's kind of amazing to me to see how Cleveland has suddenly sprung into vegan action!

While perusing through a community book for SELREC (South Euclid Lyndhurst Recreation), I noticed a few listings for vegan cooking classes.  RAW vegan cooking classes!  In Beachwood, no less!  Hosted by Foodgazi, one of Cleveland's up and coming vegan cooking instruction/catering companies, this series of classes covers everything from raw food basics to raw food desserts.  (and boy, do I love me some raw vegan desserts!  I stopped by Good 'N Raw in Lakewood the other day just to get a raw brownie.  And some amazing kale chips!)  Each class in the series costs $27 with a $12 food fee payable the day of class, which is a bargain considering Foodgazi's other cooking classes normally cost $65!  Such a deal!  And for me, close to home!  All classes are being held in Beachwood Middle School's home ec lab.  (When was the last time you were in a school, let alone a home ec lab?)  It's a neat experience to take a class in a school setting.  I haven't taken a Foodgazi class at a school, but I have taken other vegetarian cooking classes through SELREC and I've learned quite a bit.  (And I've taken a Foodgazi class - words can't express how much fun it was!)

Here's the raw foods course schedule:

• 4/21 - Intro to Raw Foods
• 5/5 - Raw Main Dishes
• 5/19 - Raw Soups and Salads
• 6/2 - Raw Desserts

For full course information, including registration information, visit the SELREC site.  Like most vegetarian and/or vegan cooking courses, the more people that register, the more likely it is that courses will be held in the future...

Recipe: Sesame Soy Broccolini

Do you ever have days where you get home from work, exhausted, and can barely muster up the strength to pop a meal in the microwave?  Unfortunately, that happens to me quite often.  And as much as I'd love to live on frozen meals, I know that I shouldn't, so I'm constantly on the hunt for quick and easy recipes.  Sesame soy broccolini is one of those recipes. 

Never had broccolini?  In my mind, broccolini is like a cross between asparagus and broccoli.  It doesn't taste like asparagus, though - it's just very "stemy." 

Ingredients:

• Broccolini (I buy it in shrink wrapped packages at Whole Foods)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• Garlic - as much as you can handle
• 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

 

Method:

1. Trim broccolini - similar to how you'd trip asparagus. Cut of the ends and cut each step into manageable/eatable pieces
2. Finely mince garlic.
3. Put broccolini, garlic, oil, and soy sauce into a skillet. Cook on high or medium high heat until slightly wilted. (not too wilted! they cook pretty quickly!)
4. Enjoy!

 

 

Start to finish, you can whip up a batch of broccolini in less than 15 minutes.  It's a quick and tasty addition to almost any meal.

 

What are your favorite quick and easy recipes?

Hands on vegan cooking classes in Cleveland with Foodgazi

Admittedly, I'm not a great cook.  My skills have gotten better with lots of practice, but I'm never going to be a person who can easily whip up a recipe.  I used to stress out about cooking, but I've come to accept that some things I try to cook just aren't going to work out.  (I'm talking about you, vegan pumpkin alfredo) But to try to mitigate my cooking failures, I recently took a Foodgazi vegan cooking class. 

What's that?  You've never heard of Foodgazi? 

To be honest, I hadn't either until the nice ladies at Foodgazi, one of Cleveland's vegan cooking/catering operations, offered up a Groupon (discount coupon) a few months back.  Not that I had the sense to buy a Groupon to take a cooking class on the cheap, but...like any good marketing campaign, just reading about Foodgazi got me interested in taking a class with them.  So I signed up to take an Italian cooking class. 

For a mere $65, you're provided with cooking equipment, ingredients, and witty banter from the front ladies of Foodgazi.  The classes take place in a Cleveland area church, and every aspect of the class is hands on.  The Foodgazi gals guide you through cooking 3 different recipes and then sit down with you to eat the finished products.  In all, it's a 2 hour experience, but I can honestly say I learned some knife skills that I hope to continue using.  So for me, the cost was well worth it.  Heck, I'd even pay more just to support vegan cooking in Cleveland!

Classes take place every few weeks on Thursdays, and the upcoming class schedule can be found on the Foodgazi web site.  (though May 2011!)  'Tis the season for gift giving, and if you're so inclined, you can even buy a gift certificate for Foodgazi cooking classes.

I hope to take another class in the new year to learn even more helpful cooking skills!

Fall Flashbacks - My Favorite Vegan Fall Recipes

Have you ever made a recipe that you that was so fantastic that you just wanted to make it again and again and again?  During last year's Vegan MoFo, I discovered a couple "keeper" recipes that I just can't live without, and I thought I'd share them again this year.  (I mean, if tv shows can have reruns, why can't my blog?)


(in no particular order, although the roasted squash is my absolute fave!)


1. Butternut Squash Pasta Bake - Think vegan macaroni and cheese, if cheese were replaced with squash and lite coconut milk.
2. Vegan Roasted Squash - Always a crowd pleaser!  Has a nice unexpected kick!
3. Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillow Cookies - I'm from Ohio, the land of chocolate and peanut butter.  What's not to like about that combo?
4. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies - Maybe the most popular food item I've ever made.  No matter how many batches of these suckers I whip up, they're always gone before I know it.  Great for fall parties.
5. Vegan Pumpkin Pie - Just like mom used to make.  Well...not unless your mom's a vegan, but still pretty darn good.

And a bonus recipe (although not vegan but probably could be veganized with a few tweaks- sorry folks) - Pumpkin Pie Martini. 

What are your favorite fall recipes?

Vegan MoFo 2010

It's November!  And do you know what that means?  It's vegan month of food!  Also known as Vegan MoFo!  Hooray!
 
The goal of Vegan MoFo is to increase awareness of veganism and to encourage bloggers around the world to share their knowledge of all things vegan throughout the month of November.  Kind of neat, huh?  I've taken the pledge to blog about veganism this month and hope to share some interesting recipes and useful information. 

Note that I am not a vegan, but I do respect the lifestyle.  I challenge myself to cook vegan food quite often and share its deliciousness with others in my life.  I. myself, was skeptical about vegan cooking and baking for a long time, but once I tried it, I discovered how much I liked it!

Here's to a month of adventures in vegan blogging!

Recipe: Honey-less mustard roasted Brussels sprouts

After living in my new place for a couple weeks, I'm starting to settle into a routine of working out after work, showering, and then forgetting to eat or drinking martinis and then really forgetting to eat.  D'oh!  Anorexia is so 2005, so I need to start cooking again.  Stat.

Last night I mustered up a little bit of strength to try out a new recipe I found over at VegWeb for roasted Brussels sprouts with a sweet dijon mustard sauce.  It's supposed to mimic a honey mustard sauce, but since this is a vegan recipe, it uses agave nectar instead of honey.  Sounds fancy right?  Not so much.  This may be one of the easiest recipes I've tried out in awhile.  (by the way, another goal of mine for 2010 is learning how to cook simple food - I picked up Nava Atlas' cookbook - Vegetarian 5 Ingredient Gourmet - more to follow on that in subsequent posts)

I was trying to do a few things at once, so I really didn't follow the recipe.  But I don't think that matters.  The Brussels sprouts still turned out pretty well.

Ingredients:

- 1 package fresh Brussels sprouts (about 20-30)
- 1/4 cup dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

- salt, pepper, garlic powder, and any spices you like

- cooking spray

Method:

1. Chop off stems of the Brussels sprouts and remove the outer leaves. Cut sprouts in half - it helps the flavor sink in.

2. The original recipe says to "spray the bottom of a baking dish w/ cooking spray."  I don't own cooking spray, and I'm running short on baking dishes, so I lightly greased a cookie sheet lined in foil. 

3. Major deviation from original recipe - I made the mustard sauce (by mixing mustard, agave, and lemon juice)  and tossed the Brussels sprouts in it before I put them in the oven.  Again, to try and lock in more flavor.  If you're not into that, feel free to make the mustard sauce and toss in the sprouts after they're done roasting.

4. Roast sprouts in oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes or so, stirring every 5-7 minutes.

5. When the Brussels sprouts are roasted to your liking, take out of the oven and enjoy!  (or pour mustard sauce over if you haven't already done so)

I'm honestly not the biggest mustard fan, but I do love me some Brussels sprouts.  I think I still like roasting sprouts in oil, garlic, and soy sauce a bit more than I liked this recipe, but if you like honey mustard, or agave mustard, as the case may be, this is a good, relatively low calorie recipe to check out.

Recipe: Quick and easy vegan entree - garlic broccoli penne

I'm always on the hunt for simple recipes to make on a weeknight.  After a long day of work and usually working out, by the time I'm home and ready to cook, it's well past the time that most people would eat dinner.

I recently discovered a great recipe for garlic broccoli penne on vegweb.com - a great site that houses vegan recipes for just about anything.  If you like garlic and broccoli, you have to try out this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups dry multigrain penne pasta
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 8 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

Method:

1. Prepare penne according to package directions and drain.
2. Meanwhile steam broccoli until just tender.
3. In a large frying pan saute garlic in olive oil until fragrant, remove from heat. Stir in pepper flakes & salt.
4. Add  penne & broccoli, stirring to coat with garlic mixture.  Transfer to serving dishes & sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

The finished product: 

 I generally like anything with garlic, but broccoli?  I'm iffy about broccoli.  It has to be cooked just right.  But this ended up being really good - and ridiculously garlicy.  If you don't like garlic, cut down on the number of cloves you use.  (Unless you're trying to keep vampires away or something.)  I don't like parsley, so I didn't use any.  I also used "regular" pasta instead of multi-grain, since that's what I have in my cupboard.  

I'd definitely make this recipe again.  The meat eater I fed this to was even a fan, so this could be a great entree to serve to your non-vegetarian/vegan friends.  The original recipe says the ingredients makes two servings, but you could easily stretch this to serve 3 people or as a side dish for 4.

Recipe: Vegan Roasted Butternut Squash

This past weekend, I was on a cooking and baking streak, so expect to see some recipes from me this week.  My favorite concoction, by far, was roasted butternut squash.

The original recipe came from The Post Punk Kitchen. In its original form, it was meant to be a topping for pasta, but I didn't feel like eating pasta and thought this little dish could make a flavorful vegan side dish.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash (or if you're lazy like me, a package of pre-cut squash from the grocery store)
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1-1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil - enough to cover everything
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (the kind you'd see in an Italian restaurant)
1 teaspoon fresh or dried sage (fresh gives so much more flavor!)

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut the squash into half-inch cubes, and mince the garlic into small pieces. 

3. Put the squash and garlic with the pine nuts, pepper, and sage into an oiled roasting pan and pour the olive oil over everything.

4. Stir ingredients, making sure squash is lightly coated with oil, garlic, pepper, etc.  

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  (you want the squash to be soft, but still firm enough to be eaten with a fork and not a spoon.)

This is a ridiculously simple recipe that packs a lot of flavor.  In fact, maybe a little too much flavor.  As I've noticed recently, fresh squashes absorb flavor like nothing else, so a little less pepper and garlic would probably be a good idea.  At least a little less pepper if you're not into spiciness, like me.  (I blame my Irish roots.  I ate this squash and a Mexican snicker-doodle in the same day. My mouth still hasn't recovered.)  I hate feeling like a fire-breathing dragon after eating a meal. But if you're into that sort of thing, bring on the spice!