Spring is finally here

What a long winter this has been, and baby bean has been sick the last few weeks of it. It is awesome to be able to play outside and enjoy this wonderful sunny weather.
I've been cooking a lot lately, getting ready to really multitask when baby bean #2 arrives in a couple months. Of course, I mention I've been cooking a lot, and what are my first pix of? Restaurant food! Our favorite houseguest, Auntie Lauren, was here a couple weekends ago, and we went to El Callejon in Encinitas. They have a separate veggie menu, which is rare for any type of restaurant, especially mexican. The first plate is the avocado torta, full of fresh avo and served on a great telera roll. I am very partial to the black bean soup, which comes with crispy tortilla strips and crema for garnish, and I have to add some of their fresh salsa on top. Soooo yummy.
The last plate is the veggie combo plate (not exact name), with some super delicious rajas y queso tacos. Rajas are peppers, and they go very well with queso. Yummy yum yum!

Ok, so here is some of the stuff I've been cooking up. Not too much has turned out photogenic, but everything has been tasty. The spaghetti and beanballs (Veganomicon) were really great, I fried the beanballs and everything so they got super crispy. I usually bake them in the oven, for a slightly healthier option. And the final item is my amazing first attempt at a tart. I borrowed the tart pan from my MIL, and I modified a rhubarb tart recipe from How to Be a Domestic Goddess so I could use my fresh strawberries from San Juan Capistrano. Holey moley, this is yummy, and just keeps getting better in the fridge (way too rich and full of cream cheese to be finished in a day). I'm just so happy that it came out of the tart pan, and even happier that it looks and tastes good :)

Edamame Veggie Burgers

On Chinese New Year, I went all out, so we didn't have to go out!
From the left, first I prepared a thai-ish cucumber salad. Just thinly sliced cucumber, red bell pepper, red onion, peanuts, cilantro, rice wine vinegar and a bit of sesame oil.
At the top, that is Trader Joe's Beijing Style frozen veggies. I think it is a hoisin-based sauce and I love it. On the right is a disappointing veggie fried rice. I didn't over season it for the baby, but then I didn't really season it enough at all. Sigh. The bottom dish is my all-time favorite, salt and pepper tofu. The recipe can be found here. Deep fried tofu. Can't beat it.

I rarely even check the food network website for meal ideas, not too many vegetarian options. But I stumbled upon the Edamame Veggie Burger recipe. These were definitely not "easy" as advertised, but they were really tasty and different.

The biggest replacements I made: using quinoa instead of millet (tried the millet, it didn't work per their instructions), and stirring in the cooked quinoa into the other blended ingredients. I didn't want the quinoa to turn to a mush pile. I also reduced the amount of fresh ginger, in case the little bean wanted to try some. Which she didn't. She ate a cup of plain edamame instead. G and I enjoyed these patties with a healthy dose of Sri Ra Cha, and a bit of yogurt sauce (plain yogurt, chopped cilantro and mint and a dash of salt and pepper).

I also have been having a huge sweet tooth, and with my gestational diabetes, that ain't easy to quench. So I stirred up the peanut butter cookies from a recent edition Betty Crocker cookbook. They turned out just great, and didn't seem to throw my blood sugar into a tizzy. The little bean was disappointed at first since they didn't have sprinkles (Xmas cookies still alive in her brain), but she ate 2 for snack. Mmmmm, organic salmonella-free homemade peanut butter cookies. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of those beauties.

Back from blogging hiatus

It has been a really crazy couple 'o months in the veggieknife household, so I took a long break from the computer in general. My email inbox is on its way to being cleaned out, the pictures are posted on our family's website...I'm making progress.

Anyway, I have all good intentions in keeping up with the blog, but since mr. veggieknife returns to work this week, I'll have to see how my schedule goes. I am also totally over the morning sickness & am much less fatigued this trimester, so I should be cooking more and more. It might also be of minor interest to folks to see what a diabetic vegetarian pregnant lady eats. Maybe?

Greetings from DC

We have been in DC for a couple of days now, and the trip is going really well. The flight was a non-stop and very easy and almost fun. Great, funny crew on Southwest and really nice neighbor passengers. Little bean played and napped and the flight was over in a jiffy. Her aunty picked us up at BWI, saving us a lot of hassle. We only brought 2 carry on suitcases and the stroller, but that was enough to handle.

Saturday morning we walked down to Eastern Market. The farmer's market was very busy, and there was some beautiful produce.


We bought local lettuce, tomatos, pears, zucchini and a huge stalk of gorgeous broccoli. We stopped at a stand run by an ecuadorian guy and purchased a couple of really random knitted finger puppets: a buzzard (bean's choice) and an alpaca (my choice). The seller was stoked that I spoke spanish to him. And I was stoked that I could! G cooked a delicious pasta primavera with the fresh veggies and made a great salad too. Just delicious...we cleaned our plates.

The little bean has pretty much decided to reject the time change, so we go to bed late and sleep late too. Auntie has been very flexible with our wacky schedule, but keeping the bean happy is our first priority. We woke up to the delicious cinnamony aroma of Creme brulee french toast!


Sunday was designated for apple-picking. We stopped at the world's busiest most cramped Whole Foods to get a picnic then kept heading west to Homestead Farms. I was a little nervous when we arrived because it looked sooooo busy with lots of cars in the dirt lot. But the orchards were so large it was no hassle at all. Little bean and dad stalked people in the lot for a discarded wheelbarrow and we were off and running! The farm didn't have any Honey Crisp apples, but they did have Sun Crisp and Sun Fujis. We also picked Red Delicious, which although usually gross in my opinion were sweet and juicy. Cameo, Staymans and Pink Lady round out the list. How many apples did we pick???? Can you guess???? My guess was right on target.










We also picked a couple cute pumpkins, little but still to "heavfy" for the bean. We picnicked in one of the orchard rows and watched the hay riders heading to the pumkin patch. Just a really fun day. Dinner was nachos and they were yummy too. Today, Monday, we are off to the National Zoo!
PS- It was 30 pounds!!!!!!

Should be too hot to cook

And too hot to eat soup.  
Oh well, I've been doing both.  Took the little bean and Grandma N to Sipz Cafe, down in Clairemont last week.  I devoured my wonton soup, but managed to snap a picture of it before I ate it all.  It was crowded with people at noon, and I am always happy to see a very busy vegetarian restaurant!  Service was speedy and our food came quickly, always a bonus when accompanied by a 20 month old.

Now my next masterpiece is really an accomplishment, toot toot (that's my own horn). 

 I rarely order Pad Thai at thai restaurants due to many poor experiences.  Too sour.  Too sweet.  Too much not vegetarian.  Then I finally got my hands on some tamarind paste & fresh lemongrass and I was ready to make VWAV's Brooklyn Pad Thai.  

Oh boy, I was not disappointed.  This was truly a delicious dish.  I did make a few adjustments, used 1/2 as much soy sauce for one, and sprinkled julienned raw cucumber and crushed peanuts instead of cooking the dish with bean sprouts and peanuts.  Man, this is making me soooo hungry!!!

I've also been making the Fronch Toast from VWAV, and the little bean just snaps that up like a baby turtle.  It really is tasty.  

This is my mexican restaurant meal-at-home.  Cheese enchiladas, cilantro rice and black beans.  This was really a better than restaurant quality dish.  

Cheese Enchilada recipe, makes 9 enchiladas cause that's what fits in my pan!

9 corn tortillas

~ 1 lb. shredded organic jack cheese

1 can of El Pato brand enchilada sauce

1 Tbsp canola oil

Preheat oven to 375.  Heat canola oil over medium low heat.  Pour a layer of enchilada sauce in 11 inch baking dish.  Dip tortillas one at a time to soften, only keeping them in the pan just long enough to soften - not crisp.  Place softened tortilla in pan, filling with a couple tablespoons of cheese and rolling up as you go.  Repeat for all 9 tortillas.  Pour most of the sauce over the top of the prepared enchiladas, then top with remaining cheese.  I usually have about 1/2 cup of sauce left over.  Cover the pan with foil, then bake for 20 minutes.  Uncover and bake until cheese is browned, or you can see the sauce bubbling.

Cilantro Rice Recipe

2 cups of cooked rice

2 Tablespoons butter (olive oil is OK)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Cook garlic in the butter over medium low heat in a medium skillet.  Remove from heat, stir in rice and cilantro (or do it in another bowl).  Salt to taste.

The black bean recipe

1 can of organic black beans

1/2 onion, small dice

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

Cook onion in a couple teaspoons of olive oil in a sauce pan.  Add the garlic after a few minutes.  Dump in the can of beans and the bay leaf, and 1/2 can of water.  Cook over medium low heat until most of the water is reduced.

Blackened Tofu-liciousness

There is the most annoying character on Project Runway this season (OK, there are multiple annoying characters, but this guys is the worst). Blayne makes everything "licious", except when he writes it down he always spells is licous. I'm so petty, but it so annoying. Anyway, his super crispy fakin' bakin' tan must have gotten me in the mood to blacken some food!

I recently snagged my dad's beautifully seasoned cast iron mega-skillet and haven't been sure what to make first. Had some hamburger buns and guac in the fridge, so knew it was time to try to copy Taco Loco's amazing blackened tofu burger. I grabbed Ole' Faithful, the Joy of Cooking, and flipping around came to their Cajun Dry rub recipe. I didn't measure exactly, but it was more or less a teaspoon of each: dried thyme, dried oregano, paprika, and black pepper. Plus a 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, and a healthy sprinkling of ground chili peppers. I pressed the firm tofu for about 1/2 hour while I prepared the seasonings above. Cut the block of tofu into 3 "steaks", dipped them in a couple Tbsps of melted butter then dredged the tofu in the seasonings. Heated the pan up to 6 on my electric stovetop (this is really hot on my stove), turned on the exhaust fan, then let those little puppies hit the super hot iron skillet. I drizzled the tofu with the remaining butter (about a tsp was left) and cooked for 3 minutes on each side. Perfectly blackened, and didn't smoke up the house a bit! It turned out great, but was missing the noise of 101 traffic, sketchy parking, scarce seating and ocean breezes of Taco Loco. Sigh.

The Tofu

The Burger

Lazy August Days

Haven't been cooking too much of note, too hot and too lazy to put anything fancy together. Haven't been eating out though, either, so that is good for us and our budget. I'm bummed that I didn't grab a shot of the greek salad the hubby made this weekend, it was beautiful. That is his "go-to" salad, and it rocks.

VWAV Fronch Toast (unadorned)

So yesterday I made creme brulee french toast (stillllll working on perfecting the recipe for this one) and vegan french toast from VWAV. That was delicious. With maple syrup and earth balance on top, the vegan french toast tasted just like french toast sticks. In a good way. Oh man, even the hubby ate 2 pieces before he went to the traditional stuff.



Killa Breakfast Scramble
I guess we were on a breakfast kick, because we had a scramble for dinner. I had some cooked red potatoes in the fridge, so I just browned them in a skillet with onions and garlic, threw in some beaten eggs and YUM! Topped with cheddar cheese, cilantro and a little dollop of sour cream. Really good for a hot august night, but seemed funny eating breakfast on the patio at night ;)
I was happy because it didn't look like a pile of brown mush. That seems to happen most of the time when I scramble a bunch of stuff together.