Love that posole — again and again and again

This isn't a book review, it's just love note about Terry Hope Romero's cookbooks. If you don't already own Vegan Eats World or Viva Vegan, you should seriously consider adding one or both to your collection. Everything we make from them is delicious. Take the Korean veggie bulgogi (from Vegan Eats World) pictured above. My husband made a simplified version of it, and said it was very easy. He used only tofu  and mushrooms, and he added kale and kimchi for a fabulous meal. It was so good I couldn't believe he'd made it himself.

We've cooked lots of meals from Viva Vegan, but the dish we keep coming back to again and again is quick red posole with beans. At first we made it with canned hominy, but then decided we don't really like hominy as much as we like regular corn, so now we make it with fresh or frozen yellow corn. I suppose it's not really posole any more, but it's still amazing.

It's so easy it practically makes itself, and so rich and flavorful that we've served it to guests on more than one occasion.

We've added different vegetables, and topped it with everything from traditional shredded cabbage, avocado, thinly sliced radishes, and tortilla chips ...

to crazy things like brussels sprouts and pumpkin seeds. It's one of our favorite go-to fast dinners. We almost always have the ingredients on hand, and the best part is we never get tired of it!

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Ask your doctor about meat



Here is PETA's version of all the "ask your doctor about (various drugs)" ads we are bombarded with on TV. PETA isn't always known for constraint or good taste, but what do you think of this one? I think it's about two years old, but is making the rounds again.

Sprouted beans

About two years ago I wrote a humorous post about going to Costco for the first time and spending $100 on crazily big sizes of foods we may or may not have needed — or been able to consume. Well, it seems especially appropriate for a food blogger to eat her words when she has a big change of heart about something, and I solemnly do eat my words about Costco. We joined. And now we routinely run out of things we buy there and go back. On purpose.

This won't be a post about all the stuff we get there (even things like organic hemp seeds!) but specifically about a three-pound bag of something called truRoots sprouted beans that I bought on a whim, and really like. Note the words in the top right hand corner. Yes, my friends, these dried, sprouted beans are supposed to cook in 15 minutes. And they taste good, too. Notice I didn't say they were cheap. On their Web page it says:

"TruRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio is a unique colorful and delicious blend of nutritious sprouted lentils, mung, and adzuki beans. Sprouting is a technique of traditional cultures that boosts the nutritional profile–increasing vitamins and micronutrients. The process results in pre-digestion of complex proteins, starches and lipids, converting them into simple and essential components that make these beans much easier to digest. We sprout and dehydrate the highest-quality beans and lentils, awakening their flavor and preserving healthful benefits. truRoots low-temperature drying keeps them packed with power. Lower in sodium and higher in nutrition than canned beans, truRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio is a healthy choice. Versatile, convenient, and quick, truRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio is ready in 15 minutes. Or slowly simmer in a soup or stew. Try it in salads, grain dishes, burritos, casseroles, stuffings or your favorite bean dish."

Are the beans really more nutritious and easier to digest? I don't know, but I do know I can cook these beans quickly, they taste great, and they don't come in a can. Here's what I did with them.


First, of course, I followed the directions on the bag and cooked them in a pot, adding a cube of Rapunzel no-salt-added bouillon to the cooking water. Then, when they were done, inspired by this post by Zoa, I put them into a casserole dish, and layered some red salsa on top. Next came lots of fresh spinach. Then I added a layer a homemade corn chips (Mine were seasoned with the leftover crumbs from a bag of kale chips.) and a coating of pine nut crema (without the tofu) loosely based on the one in Viva Vegan. The whole thing was then baked in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Out of the oven, all hot and gooey (kind of gooey, anyway), it was deliciously satisfying. (And gluten-free.) If this sort of layered casserole interests you, I highly recommend checking out Zoa's much more exciting version. And I can't recommend the pine nut crema highly enough — it was great! (And now I have something to make with the giant bag of pine nuts I got at Costco. Hohoho.)

All joking and word-eating aside, we do find a lot of good deals on staples (kalamata olives are staples, right?) and veggies at Costco. Here's a tasty something made from baby bok choy, grape tomatoes, baby bella mushrooms, olives and soy curls. The soy curls are the only food in the dish not from Costco. Mostly we shop at the co-op or Whole Foods, but about once every month or two, Costco beckons.

Lest you wonder if either Costco or truRoots had any monetary influence on my commentary, they did not. No samples or free memberships were exchanged in the writing of this post. Darn.

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Top 31
Just in case you voted for me in the Circle of Mom's top 25, and are wondering how it all turned out, I didn't make it into the top 25, but I did manage the top 31! Thanks for your votes, and congratulations to the top 25 winners! They all deserved to have a top spot.

Thanksgiving | 11-25-10 Three years old

After two days of prepping and cooking, it's over. Well, not exactly, if you count leftovers, but Thanksgiving dinner 2010 is a thing of the past. I hope those of you who celebrated, whether peacefully and quietly, or in a riotous crowd, enjoyed the holiday. We had a three-generation family celebration with everyone contributing to the menu (except little Miss E of course — she contributed her charm). On Wednesday I posted photos of the planned dinner, and yesterday I was just too tired to post anything at all. So here's a little wrap-up, including my opinion on raw butternut squash salad.



We started the meal by munching on appetizers. Our youngest son and his girl friend made creamy smooth and scrumptious baba ghannouj and hummus, and yes, they roasted the eggplants on the gas stove burner. The hummus was especially creamy because they removed the skins from the chickpeas — something I would probably never have the patience to do. In the upper left of the photo you can barely see the cashew-walnut cheese I made. I covered it in black pepper, smoked paprika and green onions to disguise its weird purplish color. I think adding walnuts to the cashews was the cause of the odd shade, but the taste and texture were great. I made it in my Vitamix and it was ultimately creamy. The spreads were perfect with the home-made pita brought by our middle son, fake triscuits from Whole Foods, and carrot sticks.



When our oldest son and daughter-in-law showed up with this appetizer tray, I wondered why I had bothered to cook the rest of the meal. I think we would all have been happy to munch the appetizers and have a little dessert.



But, alas, we managed to also eat a full meal. Here's the stuffed seitan.



To accompany it we had a few sides, like roasted brussels sprouts with rosemary and garlic. I could eat these every night.



These are the leftover sweet and tart carrots, which I forgot to photograph last night. I made them with capers this year because we seem to have a lot of capers.



I really love cranberry sauce so I always make way too much, thinking everyone else loves it as much as I do. I'm thinking pancakes with cranberry sauce on top for breakfast tomorrow. We'll be having pancakes because Miss E is sleeping over tonight, and she likes cranberry sauce as much as I do. Genetic, I guess.



I think this dish, green onion salsa from Viva Vegan, was the star of the meal — everyone loved it. I made it with Italian flat parsley instead of cilantro because one of our guests hates cilantro. It's supposed to go with empanadas, but I thought it would be a nice condiment with seitan and stuffing.



And here's the raw butternut squash salad from Mark Bittman. OK, I tried it, and it's very pretty; I made it with dried cherries instead of raisins to accommodate our raisin-hater. Some people liked it and some didn't. I found it a tad, um, slimy, and won't be making it again. I'll probably cook the leftovers and turn them into soup. But, hey, it's a Mark Bittman recipe, so who are you going to believe, him or me?



Here's the obligatory picture of my plate. At the bottom is the potato kugel brought by our oldest son. I LOVE this dish, and for me, no holiday would be complete without it. But, did I remember to take a photo? Nope.



Finally, we reach the end of the feast. Here is an apple-blueberry tart sweetened with apricot jam. I was making this up pretty much as I assembled it. The crust, however, was from The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, and was made the day before Thanksgiving and held in the freezer. I made a tart instead of a pie so I used the leftover dough from the double-crust recipe to make little stars for the top.



And last but not least, is the pumpkin pie. It's a fat-free pie from Happy Herbavore, but I couldn't help myself from putting chocolate chips on top during the last 10 minutes of baking. I won't disclose how many pieces I ate last night, nor today. That's enough about that.



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This blog was three years old ... yesterday
I meant to have a post on Thanksgiving, because who could think of a better day to have a blog birthday? But I forgot. I wanted to thank you, the people who read this blog, for reading and commenting, and just for being there. The world seems a much cozier place because of all of you, readers and bloggers from around the world, who post thoughts and ideas and endless wonderful recipes. THANK YOU.

More Viva Vegan

It's time for more cookbook love for Viva Vegan. After his first successful recipe adventure with Latin food, my husband was anxious to try some more.



This time he made Latin Baked Tofu as the main dish. The marinade for this dish was so delicious I just wanted to eat it all right off the tofu.



To go with the tofu we had Yellow Rice With Garlic, another winner. I'm really enjoying the flavored rice dishes as opposed to plain old boring brown rice. It's nice to have a change once in a while.



To balance the plate, we had roasted brussels sprouts — not a cookbook recipe but a family favorite. Brussels sprouts turn into veggie candy when they're roasted. Yum. This will probably be one of our Thanksgiving sides.



Here's my plate. Can we eat like this every night?

Viva Vegan

At the end of yesterday's post I indicated we'd purchased a new cookbook after hearing Madhur Jaffrey speak on her book tour. Did we buy an Indian cookbook? Nope. We bought Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero.

I've been eyeing this book for a while — ever since tester recipes started appearing on blogs, long before the book was published. The evening after acquiring the cookbook, my husband prepared two dishes from the book, and they were both fantastic, so I have high hopes for some tasty meals ahead.



He made Portobello Feijoada which is a rich and savory black bean and portobello stew, with his own personal addition of roasted red peppers. He served this, as recommended by Terry, with Savory Orange Rice Brazilian Style, and steamed kale. It was a stunning meal. When my husband cooks something, and it comes out as great as this, I know we've found a terrific cookbook. (My photo sucks, I know, but the food was fabulous!) I can't wait to try another recipe.

Want to know what we did with the leftovers? Come back tomorrow!


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