VeganMoFo Day 12: National Coming Out Day Treats

Did you celebrate National Coming Out Day yesterday? Did you come out as gay? trans? asexual? genderqueer? pansexual? bi? questioning? none/all/some of the above? Awesome! Whether you choose to come out or not is completely up to you, but today is a day to celebrate who we are. Regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, I welcome you to join me in celebrating queer life. 

Oh, and also...rainbows. I'm a sucker for themes, so I celebrate Coming Out Day with rainbows.

First up is  Chocolate-Covered Rainbow Marzipan AKA "Unicorn Poop"

This idea comes from the wonderful Louzilla, a genius when it comes to all things rainbow. If the rainbow marzipan isn’t enough to convince you, check out her Dumbledore Gayke.  ::swoon::

For her Unicorn Poop, Louzilla made her own marzipan. I didn’t have enough time for that, so I bought tubes from the local supermarket (I needed two tubes to make enough of each color to fill sandwich-sized plastic bags). All in all, these were a lot of work, but the deliciousness made it well worth it. I brought them to share with some of my favorite queers and they were all devoured in an instant.

Next up is Lemon Rainbow Ice Box Cookies, a slightly modified version of the Grapefruit Icebox Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (original recipe here)

½ cup non-hydrogenate margarine

¼ cup vegetable shortening

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon corn starch

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Food coloring (I use Wilton’s gels)

In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer on medium speed, cream together the margarine and shortening. Beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Add flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt, and beat until a soft dough forms.

Separate the dough into 6 equal-sized pieces. Tint each piece a different color of the rainbow. On a piece of wax paper, pat the purple dough into a rectangle, about ¼ inch thick. For the blue and subsequent layers, you want to be careful that the layers don’t run into each other, so it’s easiest if you pat down the dough one small section at time starting at the corners and working your way in, filling in the blank spots as you go.

Once you’ve got all the colors layered, fold the wax paper over and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight (I put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes)

Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove dough from fridge and slice the block into ¼ inch thick slices and place on parchment-covered cookie sheets. The edge slices are going to be wack, that’s ok, just make a few weird looking cookies. Bake 10 minutes (depending how wide your rectangle was), edges should be lightly browned. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are best eaten while reading excerpts from Cats and their Dykes aloud to your cat

**Bonus points to anyone who realized the multiple layers (hehe) of meaning with these treats. Both treats have to "come out" in a way, because they are not what you'd assume them to be upon first sight. The unicorn poop just looks like normal chocolates at first until you take a bite and reveal the gayness. And most people assume the rainbow cookies are plain sugar cookies until they take a bite and taste the lemon. Deep!

VeganMoFo Day 11: Chickpea Salad Sandwiches, two ways

Have you ever had a chickpea salad sandwich? If not, you’re missing out. These are two excellent variations on the same basic idea: smash chickpeas, add something creamy, flavor it up, and stick it between two slices of bread. Or just eat it straight out of the bowl because it's that delicious

Chickpea Tuna-ish Salad (adapted from this post on the Kitchn)

1 (15 oz) can or 1½ cups chickpeas

¼ cup vegan mayo

1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon crumbled nori 

1 tablespoon chopped red onion (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Place chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor and pulse two or three times to roughly chop (you can also just do this with a fork). Add remaining ingredients and pulse two or three times more to incorporate. Done.

Chickpeas Avocado Salad (from Two Peas & Their Pod)

1 (15 oz) can or 1½ cups chickpeas, rinsed
1 large ripe avocado 
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
Juice from 1 lime
Salt and pepper, to taste 

In a medium bowl, use a fork to mash the chickpeas and avocado together. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and you're done.

Another guest model today: Junior. He's such a good boy <3 td="td">

P.S. Happy National Coming Out Day!! I'm working on some rainbowy deliciousness that I'll post tomorrow, but for now, have some of these cupgaykes I made a couple of weeks ago:

VeganMoFo Day 10: Pan-Fried Chickpeas, Mushrooms, and Broccoli

Last night I was in the mood for some comfort food. I was going to make the chili my mom has been making for years. I had most of the ingredients on hand already, so I just stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up the missing ingredients. As luck would have it, I left my shopping list at work and got distracted by Trader Joe’s new nacho-seasoned kale chips. Once I got home and realized my mistake, I was too hungry to run out again, so I created this. This is one time I’m glad I made a mistake.

Pan-Fried Chickpeas, Mushrooms, and Broccoli

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

8-10 cloves of garlic, minced

8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 (15 oz) can or 1½ cups chickpeas

1 bunch of broccoli, cut into small florets (about 3 cups)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons za'atar spice blend

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

In a large pan over medium-high heat, cook the onion with the olive oil until the onion softens. Add the garlic and mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are tender and have released much of their moisture. Add the rest of the ingredients and turn the heat up to high. Cook everything, stirring and mixing often, 10-15 minutes, until the chickpeas become golden brown and the broccoli is tender.

VeganMoFo Day 9: Cilantro-Lime Rice and beans

Okay so the pictures might not be so pretty, but the food was delicious! The rice was the Cilantro-Lime Rice recipe form Viva Vegan. And then the beans are an adaptation of a recipe I had written down months ago (I don't remember the original source of that recipe).

Cilantro-Lime Rice 
 
1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoon lime zest
1/2 teaspoon salt (only if you're using water)
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, lightly packed
1 green onion, green part only, sliced very thinly

1. In a heavy pot, combine the rice, vegetable stock, olive oil, lime juice and zest, salt (if using), and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, and cover the pot. Cook for 20 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice grains are tender.
2. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the rice with the cilantro and green onion. Fluff the rice, working in the chopping herbs. Serve immediately.

Mexican Black Beans

4 Jalapeños, roasted (see note)

 1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped small

4 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons cumin

2 (15-oz) cans or 3 cups black beans

1 cup vegetable broth

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped and loosely packed

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat and add onion. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cumin and cook until the garlic turns golden. Add black beans and broth. Simmer until the liquid reduces and beans start to break up a little.. Stir in cilantro and cook for just another minute.

Note: if you have a toaster oven, heat it to 350°F and roast the jalapeños 5 minutes (this time can vary a lot since all toaster ovens have different intensity levels) or until the skins blister and start to turn black. If you don’t have a toaster oven it seems silly to heat a full-sized oven for just a few jalapeños, so try to roast them in advance next time you have the oven on. Then you can just stick them in a container for a few days until you’re ready to use them. 

VeganMoFo Day 8: Quiche Me

There are certain recipes that I just have to make in certain seasons. Last year was the first time I made the Mushroom, White Bean, and Leek Pie from Vegan Brunch. I knew immediately that it was going to be a fall staple.

It's made up of mostly mushrooms, beans, leeks, and walnuts. And since I love pie crust so much, I up the crust-to-filling ratio and split the filling up between to shallow pie crusts. So good.

VeganMoFo Day 7: Cookies!

Today, I'm taking a break from my bean theme to give you cookies.

Isa recently posted these snickerdoodles on the PPK blog. They sounded absolutely wonderful, so I just had to make them. After mixing all the wet ingredients together, I realized I didn't have some of the spices needed for the topping. The autumnal feel of the chai spices is what made this recipe so enticing. After a few moments of panic, I decided I'd sub out for some other fabulous fall-tasting spices. Option 1: pumpkin pie spice. Option 2: speculoos spice, that I had mixed together a few months ago when I made speculoos frosting for cupcakes. Both spice blends are amazing, so I made some of each and both were FANTASTIC. Go make these! Here is Isa's recipe, with my changes noted:

Spiced Snickerdoodles 

For the topping:

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger *

3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom*

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch cloves*

*Replace these ingredients with a generous teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice or speculoos spice mix

For the cookies:

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3 tablespoons non-dairy milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the topping ingredients together on a dinner plate. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil, sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix for at least a minute, until it resembles applesauce. Then mix in vanilla.

Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough. Get in there with your hands to mix, it’s the easiest way to get the dough to come together.

With clean, moist hands, roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread a little). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, they should be a bit browned on the bottoms. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Guest cat model, Sparkle, will attack anyone who tries to take her cookies.

VeganMoFo Day 6: Puerto Rican Rice and Beans

I'm Puerto Rican, so I'm sure my mom would disown me if I didn't include Puerto Rican style beans with rice in my blog. This is pretty much what I grew up on. I posted about the this a couple of years ago here, but it bears repeating. Now, I'm sure every family has a different way of making it, but this is the way my family does it.

Puerto Rican Style Beans 
1 15-oz can or 1 1/2 cups pink beans
1 Tbsp Recaito (scroll to the bottom of my original post for more info)
4 oz tomato sauce
1 packet sazón (see note below)
handful of pimento-stuffed green olives (optional)
pinch of oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the recaito with the tomato sauce for 2 or 3 minutes. Add beans, olives, oregano, salt and pepper and enough water to cover the beans. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally until the liquid reduces a bit and everything is hot and the flavors are well combined. Serve over rice.

i can has?

There's another way Puerto Ricans love to eat rice and beans: mixed together and cooked in the same pot so that the rice is yellow. This version often has pieces of pork in it, but it's equally as delicious without . 

Yellow Rice with Beans
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp Recaito (see the post I linked to above)
1 cup tomato sauce
1 packet sazón (see note below)
a few pinches of salt and pepper
a handful of olives or diced bell pepper (optional)
1 (15-oz) can red beans, drained
2 cups rice

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and recaito over medium-high heat. Add tomato sauce and sazon, salt, pepper, and olives and cook for a minute. Mix in the beans and rice. Add enough water so that it's about 1 inch above the rice. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 30 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is cooked. The beans will have floated to the top, so just mix them in before serving.

Note: Sazon is found in most supermarkets, with the spanish foods. It's usued mostly for color but it has other spices too. It does have MSG, so if you avoid foods with MSG, you can make your own blend of salt, garlic, cumin, coriander, and saffron. Or just leave it out completely.

VeganMoFo Day 5: Saucy Chickpeas and Broccoli

Have you ever made Isa's Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With a Vengeance? It's amazing. My only advice: double the recipe. A single recipe is never enough because I end up eating most of it before I even serve dinner because I keep tasting and tasting. No, it doesn't need anything. I just keep tasting because it's delicious.

This dish is pretty similar. I wanted to keep the same sort of flavor as the gravy, but I wanted to make it heartier. Gravy doesn't feel like a meal. I still always feel like I need a seitan roast or something in addition. But I didn't want that. I wanted a good stew-type meal with whole beans and some veggies, so I tweaked the recipe a little and came up with this.

Saucy Chickpeas and Broccoli

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoon olive oil

4 cloves raw or roasted garlic

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1 cup chopped broccoli
1 can (1 1/2 cups) chickpeas

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon dried rosemary 

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

4 fresh sage leaves

1 cup water

2 teaspoons flour
2 Tablespoons soy sauce 

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

Heat the onion and olive oil in a cast iron skillet until the onion is soft and translucent. Add garlic and mustard seeds and cook until the mustard seeds are lightly toasted. Add broccoli, chickpeas, spices, and herbs. Cook until chickpeas and broccoli are browned a bit. Meanwhile, mix water, flour, soy sauce, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Add to the skillet when ready and let it cook for a little while until the sauce thickens. Mix in the nutritional yeast and serve over potatoes. Nomz.

Refined kitties must always use forks.

VeganMoFo Day 4: Totchos

Sometimes you just need something quick and tasty. Sometimes you need to eat hot fresh food but don't have much time. Sometimes you need to satisfy your nacho craving but don't have tortilla chips. Sometimes you need tater tots. And it will be okay. Because you have totchos.

What are totchos, you ask? Tater Tots + Nachos = Totchos. Yes, totchos combine the potatoey goodness of tots with the melty cheesy goodness of nachos. Sure you can do your basic totchos with some salsa and daiya melted over the top. Or you can put lots of stuff on top! pretty much anything you'd put on a taco would be delicious here, but here's what I did:

I promise there are beans in there, they're just hiding under the ooey gooey daiya.

Totchos
1 Package Tater Tots
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, diced
a couple of handfuls of frozen spinach
1 (15-oz) can black beans
taco seasoning to taste
salsa
daiya cheese, pepper jack flavor (or whatever vegan you like best)

1 scallion, chopped

1 avocado, cut into small cubes

Start cooking tater tots according to package directions.
When the tots have about 10 minutes left, heat the olive oil in a medium-sized skillet. Add the onion, pepper, spinach, beans, and taco seasoning to taste. Cook 5-10 minutes or until everything is hot and the flavors have come together.
Take the tater tots out of the oven and transfer however many you want to a bowl or plate. Top with bean mixture, salsa and cheese (you might need to pop it in the microwave for a few minutes if the heat of the beans isn't enough to get the cheese melted). Sprinkle scallion and avocado on top just before eating.

VeganMoFo Day 3: Red Rice and Beans

Hey everyone! VeganMoFo has taken off to a great start. I'm loving all the posts I've been seeing. You all are awesome! Today I have a really quick and easy recipe for you all. This is one of those recipes you can switch up in all sorts of ways and it'll still be delicious--use black beans instead of red, add broccoli, replace lime juice with lemon etc. It's delish, I promise.

Red Rice and Beans


2 teaspoons olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 red pepper, diced

1 (15-oz) can or 1½ cups small red beans or black beans

2 cups cooked rice

1 Tablespoon chili powder (reduce if you don’t like it spicy)

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon cumin

1 Tablespoon lime juice

¼ cup cilantro, chopped

1cup tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

In a cast-iron skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the garlic is lightly browned. Add the pepper and beans and turn the heat down a little. Cook for about 5 minutes and then stir in the rice. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the pepper is tender and the beans are a little browned and crispy on the outside. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for another 5 minutes to let the flavors come together. Done!

I didn't get a picture of Butch with the rice and beans, but here's a picture of him excited about one of our CSA shares!

VeganMofo Day 2: Cooking and Freezing Dried Beans

I like to keep beans on hand in every form. Canned beans are cheap enough and great for convenience. I try to always keep a couple of cans of beans on hand for quick last-minute meals. But when I'm trying to save money, it's dried beans all the way. I used to hardly ever make dried beans because the cooking and preparation time was so long and I rarely plan my meals that far ahead. But then I learned that it's possible to have the best of both worlds! I started cooking dried beans ahead of time and freezing can-sized portions in plastic bags. Now, whenever I want to make something that calls for a can of beans, I just pull a bag out of the freezer. Easy!

How to Cook and Freeze Dried Beans

There are a ton of different methods for cooking dried beans: from baking to using a pressure cooker, soaking or not soaking, adding things to the water, etc. I'm a fan of the basic method of soaking and simmering beans on their own. I think they taste best this way and I heard it's one of the best methods for reducing the gassiness of beans.

Step 1: Put your dried beans in a large container. The pot you plan on cooking them in is great, since it's only one thing to wash, but you can use any sort of container that can hold beans and water and has enough space to let the beans double at least. Fill your container of beans with enough of water to come several inches above bean level and set aside. Let them soak overnight for 8 hours or so (mine always end up soaking longer because I usually start them soaking in the evening and don't get to them until the next evening.

Have your cat help for this step.

The large mason jar was big enough for the chickpeas, but there were the white beans took up more than half of the jar to begin with, so I transferred them to a large bowl.

Step 2: After soaking, dump the beans into a strainer and give them a good rinse.

Step 3: Put the beans in a large pot and cover them with fresh water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until tender. Cooking time varies depending on the type of bean. Here's a chart of estimated times I found online:

If you're anything like me, you'll just set the beans to cook and forget to set a timer and just keep poking the beans every once in a while until they're almost done and you say "okay, they should be done in 5 more minutes" and then 45 minutes later you return to find them overdone and a bit mushy.

Step 4: When they are perfectly tender (or slightly mushy in my case), drain the beans and let them cool.

Step 5: Measure out 1 1/2 cups of beans per sandwich bag and stick 'em in the freezer. Done!

1 bag = 1 can of beans

Welcome to VeganMoFo VI!!

It's time for the 6th annual VeganMofo! I've been reading some ideas people are throwing about on the PPK and getting super excited. There will be some fantastic themes this year. I can't wait to see the wonderful things that everyone comes up with.

 My theme for the month will be beans (or legumes in general). I've been trying to keep food spending to a minimum lately and beans are one of the easiest ways to do that. Just a dollar worth of dried beans can yeild about 5 servings! And they're super healthy--packed with protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, iron, etc. So cheap and so good for you--what more can you ask for?
I may be straying from legumes and doing a little bit of whatever from time to time because there are some things I plan on making this month that don't include beans. but I promise they'll be fantastic.
Tomorrow, we'll go over some of the basic methods of cooking dried beans and then we'll get started with all the recipes!

And remember the kitty who appeared in nearly every post last year?

Here he is now, all growed up:

 

Don't worry, he'll be making regular appearances on my blog again this year!