Geek Love

Its almost Valentine's Day right?  One of my students asked me yesterday if I am excited for it.  I am not.  But, I figured its still worth showing someone some love right?  

Well, I am choosing to show some serious love for the Geek Squad, who came and fixed our wireless today!  I wasn't here while he did it, and I hear he gave me some flak for having a Mac, but...well he's a geek.  

I have a short post for today, and it is the last recipe that I tested for Robin Robertson's upcoming book, Vegan on the Cheap.  This is Chutney on the Cheap, and it came out pretty yummy.  

This is going to sound silly but...what do you eat chutney with?  I had it on some roasted portabella mushrooms, but I've actually never had chutney before so I wasn't totally sure.  That being said, I know exactly what I am using the rest of it for, but methinks that deserves another post.

Serves 8 (2 tbsp per serving)

Nutrition Information:  91.3 Calories;  1.9g Total Fat;  0.1g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  19.9g Carbohydrates;  1.0g Fiber;  0.7g Protein.  

This was not something I would have normally made, but it was really good, and had the perfect spicy kick to it.

Randomness for the day.  When I went on my mentor teacher's computer this afternoon, he had a window from the New York Times open entitled: Really? - The Claim:  Never Blow Your Nose When You Have a Cold.  It wasn't an extremely compelling arguement for me, but with everyone (but me!) in my house sick, and kids being absent left and right, I thought it was interesting.  Any opinions?  Anyone a non-nose-blower?

Okay, I have a bunch of other stuff I *could* talk about, but I am determined to actually make this post short (I'm not sure why, I just am).

With all that being said, I hope that none of YOU are sick, and that you are having a fabulous week!          

How to Have a Great Cook-In

The first step to having a Great Cook-In is to get your significant other out of the house.  Okay, he or she can stay if they want, but if they happen to be hiking in ridiculously cold weather with their friends, and your friend comes over instead, that would be fun.  

Second, you should arrange for the weather to look like this.  

This means that a cook-out is clearly out of the question.  However, what IS the perfect way to spend the weekend is having a cook-in.  

You'll want to start out the weekend with some Saturday morning yoga (you won't be doing much other exercising).  Then you should grab your friend, and stop at the grocery store to pick up some stuff, to make sure you are fully stocked.  It'll be nice if your friend wants to help you with some recipe testing for one of Robin Robertson's upcoming cookbooks.  Lunch for our cook-in was Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties with Handy Hummus.  

Handy Hummus

Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties

They were meant to be served as sandwiches, but I don't really like bread, so we just ate them with some salad greens and sliced tomatoes.  We both really liked these, and also thought that they would make a good base for lots of different flavor combinations.  The hummus was great also, really nice and creamy.  

Handy Hummus; makes approximately 1 1/2 cups, Serves about 6

Nutrition Information:  193.6 Calories;  12.4g Total Fat;  1.7g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  17.2g Total Carbohydrates;  3.9g Fiber;  5.4g Protein.

Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties; Serves 4 (not including salad greens and tomato)

Nutrition Information:  280.5 Calories; 5.9g Total Fat;  1.1g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  44.7g Carbohydrates;  5.9g Fiber;  13.3g Protein

Since this weekend is all about the food, you can spend the afternoon being pretty lazy.  After all, did you see that snow?  We watched a few episodes of Planet Earth, napped, and chilled out (in?) with her puppies.  

Deiter

Katahdyn

Then we decided we didn't want to be quite so lazy anymore, so, in keeping with the food theme, we went to the little Asian grocery/natural food store near her house, the Green Market.  The first thing I beeline for in any new store like this are the bars.  Duh.  I found something new!  I wasn't expecting to, because it is relatively small, but it really had a lot of good stuff.  

Excuse the fuzzy picture, but these are Sencha Green Tea Bars.  They're vegan and gluten free. So far I have tried Original and Delicate Pear, but I also have one of the Lemongrass variety waiting for me.  They each have about 220 Calories and 9g Protein, and are chock full of good stuff like pepitas, pistachios, black sesame seeds, dried fruits (the original had goji berries, pear in the other), almonds, matcha powder, dates, etc.  They are awesome, but I do like the pear variety better, as I'm not a huge fan of gojis.  If you ever see these, I definitely think they're worth picking up.  

If you want to involve some culinary adventure in your cook-in you should pick up something that is new to you.  We went for fruit, and brought home some quince and kumquats.  How fun!   

Upon arriving home from our second grocery stop, we decided it was dinner time, so we made the second recipe we were testing for Robin, a Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Cashews and Kidney Beans.   

Serves 4

Nutrition Information:  369.3 Calories;  17.9g Total Fat;  2.6g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  44.7g Carbohydrates;  11.3g Fiber;  9.8g Protein

At first, we were kind of on the fence about this dish, but by the time were got to the end of it, we were both totally loving it.  There were a few different components, but they worked together harmoniously.  Plus, it was nice and colorful!  With that, it was time for dessert.  

If you aren't familiar with kumquats, they're a citrus.  Small, bitter, with an orange rind that is very thin, so it can be eaten if cooked slightly.  If you have ever wondered if there were cool things you could do with a kumquat, I am here to tell you that there are! 

We decided on cookies.  However, in order to make the cookies, we had to hit up the grocery store again.  Yes, count that, three times in one day.  That's kind of my idea of a good day though.  To each their own, okay?  We picked up everything we needed for some Chocolate Chip and Kumquat Oatmeal Cookies.    

Makes 12 Cookies

Nutrition Information:  136.7 Calories;  3.5g Total Fat;  1.7g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  24.4g Carbohydrates;  2.6g Fiber;  2.6g Protein  

These were completely awesome, especially right after they cooled a little out of the oven; nice and crispy on the outside and moist and fluffy on the inside.  They did make for a pretty cakey cookie, and almost looked like messy muffin tops.  I am going to try and make them again, to make them less cakey and gluten free, but it it doesn't work out, I'll post the recipe we used for these!  Soon, I promise.

A cook-in, if you aren't aware, is kind of a special occasion.  To make your cook-in truly great, you *must* have two desserts.  Since my friend had an avocado, we also made the Avocado Dark Chocolate Mousse that I posted about a few weeks ago.    

We ate dessert while watching the movie we rented:  Traitor, with Don Cheadle.  Honestly, he is fabulous, but I thought the movie was just okay.  If you haven't noticed yet, I watch a lot of movies, but I by no means claim to be a connoisseur.  I tend to like silly, lighthearted movies.

Its not the end of the post, and its not the end of the cook-in, but it is the end of the day.  Our cooking song for today was 'Nights in White Satin' - The Moody Blues.  We had a Classic Rock radio station on the TV while we were cooking.  You have to rock out while having a cook-in.    

We woke up to a lot more snow.

It continued to snow for most of the day.  This ruined our gym plans.  I mean...we were having a completely lazy cook-in so screw the gym  (I was supposed to go to the gym with her and take her on a walk through the weight room).  We did to some yoga on FitTV, which we both thought was pretty lame, but it was better than nothing.  We decided to try something with the remainder of our fruit adventure.  Today:  Quince.  

We didn't do anything quite as fun as cookies with it, but we did bake it up with some agave nectar, cinnamon, and lime juice with water at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, and 425 degrees for 10 minutes.    

Serves 2

Nutrition Information:  62.8 Calories;  0.1g Total Fat;  0.0g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  16.6g Carbohydrates;  2.1g Fiber;  0.3g Protein.  

If you've never had a quince, they're sort of inbetween an apple and  pear, although they're even grainer than pear.  Altogether they were good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try it again.  If someone wanted to peel it, cut out that obnoxious core, and make it for me, I would eat it though.    

After this, we cleaned the whole kitchen.  This is not a necessary part of the cook-in, but chances are, you're making a mess...clean up after yourself!  

Another trip to the grocery store brought home some dinner supplies.  My friend has never had tofu, so I definitely wanted to make that.  We also got portabellos, tomatoes, kale, and some parchment paper.  Parchment paper?  Not for dinner, for the rest of the kumquats.  You want to waste as little as possible when having a cook-in (the more you can eat the better!).  

Since the rind of the kumquat is so thin and doesn't have much pith, I thought they'd be perfect for the Orangette recipe in My Sweet Vegan.  We split them in half, spooned out the flesh, which we dehydrated, and set to candying the rinds.  When both parts of the kumquats were done, we dipped them in chocolate.  

Dehydrated in the front, candied in the back

We did quite a bit of dehydrating while I was at her house, and it just made me want a dehydrator even more.  I keep saying that I want to wait until I have my own place to put it, but this is a lie.  I'll probably get one when I get another coupon for Bed Bath and Beyond or something.  Soon, hopefully.

While we were doing this, we also heated up the oven and made some Kale Chips.  I looked around the internet for this one, since I've heard varying reviews.  I don't understand why, they tasted like kale...crispy!  We both loved them.  They got tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt, and were baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  We could have also dehydrated these, but our cook-in was coming to a close.  

By the way, at this point in the cook-in you may be feeling a bit delirious and decide that your kale chips would look fabulous against a snowy white background...which you just happen to have right outside. 

I didn't take any pics of dinner.  If you are having a really great cook-in, your camera will most likely be running out of battery at this point.  Most of dinner ended up really good though.  We had roasted portabello mushrooms with balsamic and garlic, Italian marinated tofu, boiled and sauteed kale, and quinoa with pine nuts and tomato.  The quinoa was lackluster...sad.  That was okay though because like I said before, my friend was a tofu virgin, so that was where the pressure was really on.  She liked it!  Yay!  After dinner we rented The Go Getter on Demand, largely because I love Zooey Deschanel.  

So, if you ever plan a great cook-in, I hope that gives you some ideas.  We really did get a lot of snow, so I just got back this morning, hence the lack of posting on my part, and the huge lineup of posts in my reader, courtesy of many of you!  Student teaching starts tomorrow, so if I am slower at commenting and posting than usual, I apologize in advance!  

Lastly, I forgot to mention this in my last post, but your time to sign up for the Juicer Giveaway is running out!  I will be picking a winner on Thursday this week!  

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend, hopefully a nice long one, if you get to celebrate MLK day!  

The Perfect Day

Welcome to a walk through my perfect day...which is exactly what today was.  

First, you'll wake up to the radio, like always, but Jack Johnson will be playing and it will instantly put you in an excellent mood.  

Second, even though you should really get up and have breakfast, you are going to lay in bed for an hour and finish Eclipse.  

You'll finally get up and have whatever your favorite current breakfast is.  For me is was the Apple Pie Quinoa and Tempeh Bacon Hash (with spinach, for greenery), that I posted about a few days ago.  I wasn't kidding about eating the same thing for weeks!  

All the equipment you need at the gym will be free when you need it.  A girl you went to high school with who you now look better than will be chugging away on the treadmill, then lift some girly weights, and you will smugly smile to yourself (hey, I'm not perfect, its just my perfect day).  

Then, you will set off to discover heaven.  Well, at least if your idea of heaven is fantastic natural bulk food/grocery store.  A few weeks ago, my mom pulled a flyer for this place out of the paper, and I finally got myself there.  It was a bit of a drive, but worth it, completely.  Oh and on your way to this mecca, your iPod will gleefully pump out all the Jack Johnson songs you have, even though its batteries should be running out any second.  

While you are visiting heaven (also known as Nature's Pantry), your husband, who you haven't talked to in a week, will call, and...well honestly, he'll kind of distract you from reading nutrition labels and whatnot, but you're really happy he called.  

Lots of fun stuff will be acquired at Nature's Pantry:  

From the bulk food section, low-sugar pineapple rings, carob covered raisins, and wheat free fig bars!  (Not pictured is also nutritional yeast and oat groats)

With another giveaway in mind (because they're fun!), you'll pick up two bags of Soyfree, a coffee substitution made from soy, in Chai and Almond Amaretto.  Don't forget to sign for my current giveaway in the meantime!:

Other pantry foods will be picked up, some single serving packets of almond butter, wakame flakes, miso ramen noodles, Corn Thins, a Bumble Bar (which are vegan, even though they have a bee on them.  I never would have even picked them up, except I saw them on Erica's blog yesterday), and a chocolate orange Jocolat bar:

You've been looking for vegan hair gel or mousse on the internet for a week or so.  You've been using up all the leftovers in the house, waiting until you find something, because ordering hair gel online seems like a hassle.  You find Giovanni hair gel here!  It comes with a shampoo sample too!  Because it is the perfect day, you'll also pick up some bubble bath, because you've been using shower gel in the bathtub for the past month:  

While you are at the store, you might start to think that maybe this isn't the perfect day after all...because this store ALSO doesn't sell vegan carob chips.  Huh??  However, when you get home, you will chide yourself for thinking this was not the perfect day.  That is because you will immediately see a package on the table, and you will know what it is instantly!  

Orange County NY, you may want to keep vegan carob chips away from me, but the lovely Heather (of Heather eats Almond Butter) has thwarted you!!  I mentioned on her blog last week that they were no where to be found, and she had some in the mail the next day.  She also surprised me with this chocolately Raw Organic Food Bar!!  It looks awesome, full of good stuff.  When I try it, I will post my review.  Honestly, I also ripped into it immediately, but I was able to practice some self control (because one doesn't overeat to the point where they feel sick on the perfect day). 

After you relax for a little, you'll get started on dinner.  Its another day for recipe testing!!  Today I made the Vegetable Crisp.  It had eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, etc.  

  

Serves 6

Nutrition Information:  217.7g Calories;  6.7g Total Fat;  1.2g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  34.0g Carbohydrates;  6.1g Fiber;  8.2g Protein.

This was yummy!  To go with it, you'll try something else from V'con, like the Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans.  

Serves 5 (made a half-recipe)

Nutrition Information:  174.2 Calories;  2.4g Total Fat;  0.3g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  34.4g Carbohydrates;  6.6g Fiber;  6.6g Protein

While you are cooking, you will make a gigantic mess (something about dropping a baking sheet with food on it...oops), but you totally won't get upset because the Jack Johnson emanating from your laptop keeps you chill.  

Sadly, your perfect day is coming to a close.  After dinner, you'll start on your blog while you watch 'How I Met Your Mother'.  Then, your mentor teacher will call and set up you coming in later this week (which you are equally terrified and excited for).

Lastly, I mean, the perfect day couldn't end dessert-less!  Come on, seriously, you guys must know me a little better than that.  

  

Yes, that's right, Carob Peppermint ice cream.  Fruit sweetened too, so that makes it..kind of...sort of...good for you, right?   

Edited to add:  Then your mom will give you a coupon for Puffins!  

So, perfect day, no?  Relaxed, good food, awesome gym session, packages from blogger friend, food store discovery.  Yes, definitely my idea of perfect.   

If you haven't noticed, Jack Johnson is most definitely my go-to relaxing music.  What kind of music chills you out?  

So, today's Cooking Song of the Day is one of my favorites:  "Losing Keys" - Jack Johnson.  Relax :)

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend and had a great start to their week!  

Recipe Tester Hero

Ready for my shortest post ever?  

My brother and I just split Guitar Hero:  World Tour for his Xbox 360, and so...we clearly have to play that for the rest of the night.  

I will come back and edit the nutrition info tomorrow (edit, I updated it!!  I told you!), but I didn't want to get too behind.

First, I did go out for lunch with my mom's friends, and my friend (who was one of my bridesmaids, and I almost ran over with my car when I dropped her off, but that's a story I don't have time for right now...oh, wait I do.  I hit the gas HARD instead of the brakes.  Oops.).  

I had pizza with a whole wheat crust, pizza sauce, artichokes, broccoli, spinach, and sun dried tomatoes.  I brought these leftovers home, but by the time I went to the grocery store, almost ran over my friend, and got home, I was hungry again, so it is all finished :)  It was really really good.  And I was glad to be able to order some awesome looking vegan food instead of a salad.    

It was funny too, I totally recognized our waiter from somewhere, and figured I had just seen him there before.  But after coming over to our table a few times he goes "Are you my gym friend?"  Haha, I have been saying hi to this guy at the gym for 2 years, and didn't know his name (he didn't know mine either).  In my defense, he wasn't wearing the a hat, like he usually does.  In fact, I actually even saw him there this morning.  Speaking of the gym this morning...I was totally there for two hours, ugh.  I had to make up for the day I missed from the snow on Wednesday.  It was a lot of lifting, chest and leg day right after one another (with a banana in between), but I'm glad I did it and didn't have another weird behind week.  I like being on schedule.  

So much for being short, right?  I can't help myself!  

I am currently recipe testing for Robin Robertson's new book Vegan on the Cheap.  I am so excited about it!  Tonight we had one of the recipes I was given along with the Chile Cornmeal Crusted Tofu from Veganomicon.  

I actually think this is the first thing I have made from V'con?  I really liked them!  I don't have kids either, but it seemed like they would be pretty kid friendly.  Kind of like chicken fingers...but with tofu. 

Serves 4 (4 triangles per person)

Nutrition Information:  142.3 Calories; 5.7g Total Fat;  0.7g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  11.3g Carbohydrates;  2.6g Fiber;  11.0g Protein.  

If you're wondering how I figured this out, because you dredge the tofu and have a lot of cornmeal mixture left over, I actually measured everything before and after.  Yep...I'm a nut like that.    

This is a separate shot of the Orange-Chipotle Dressed Salad with Black Bean Salsa  

Serves 4

Nutrition Information:  189.1 Calories;  7.4g Total Fat;  1.0g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  27.3g Carbohydrates;  7.9g Fiber;  6.4g Protein.  

This was SPICY.  I was really surprised that my mom ate it, actually.  She has zero tolerance for anything spicy.  But she was good as long as she had the orange every couple of bites.  Everyone liked it, and, seriously, it was really cheap!  I had intentions of calculating the price, but I lost my receipt.  

I know I only got 5 recipes to test, but from getting a peek at the whole list, I personally can't wait to get the book.  

Okay, so I'm being yelled at by my bandmates.  I'll be back tomorrow to update this crappy post at the very least!

Don't forget to sign up for the Juicer Giveaway!!