New set up for the blog? + Refreshing Southwestern Vegan Salad Recipe from the Road

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHAAAANGES! 

I just learned on May 31st that it's time to pack up and move to another rental in July! That means purging, start saving money to pay for overlapping rent/the new deposit/first and/or last month's rent (GOOD GRAVY Dave reminded me we could be paying up to 3 months worth of rent. Ouch, this hurts with the furloughs coming), and stop buying so much foodstuff (less to move). Here I was feeling a little bored with life the last few months, but excited/nervous to start the time-intensive yoga teacher training this month and an eager beaver to start planning my annual reunion with the Glasses Girls. But now those aren't the only things that will occupy my summer. So, I will apologize in advance if I don't end up meeting my goal to go to the Indian market this month. I will plan to go once I settle in-I do have my grocery list made up. Maybe Indian food theme dinner party with a few friends could be my motivation!

It also makes me think I should try to work through more recipes in my paper cookbooks (and that's not any books from bloggers)-I tend to rely on the internet since blogs and cooking/homemaking websites are so plentiful. With the anniversary of the blog coming up in August, it may just be my new theme for the 12 months of year 2 to do a certain # of recipes from each book each month. (another dinner theme party, make a dish from a paper cookbook!) 

I recently returned from a 6 day Southwest National Parks vacation with my high school chum, Lisa. We started in LA and drove to AZ and UT. We were wondering what defines a road trip, is it # of places you stop or # of days? Merriam Webster says an extended vacation using a vehicle...while Urban Dictionary expands with the most popular definition includes going cross country in a van using drugs and alcohol. Hm, so is extended just mean longer than a long (3 day weekend?)...not sure what we should call it (Scenic vacation?) but we had a blast soaking in the beauty and still learning new things about each other after 14 years of friendship.

Most days we ate out (happily the parks and surrounding businesses must get enough people requiring/preferring gluten free), but one night at Lake Powell Motel (formerly Bashful Bob's) in Page, AZ included a kitchenette.  They even have a BBQ grill (which we did not use.)

We were just warned not to cook curry or fish indoors. The owner worried I might have felt picked on with my last name and those food exclusions...but I know how much those smell. I told him he should add "stinky tofu" to that list as that would linger also, but then inquired "are there Asian markets around here?" His reply was no.

Decided that we were up for cooking something simple that could double for dinner and would be portable for lunch when we were out and about. We needed to use ingredients that we wouldn't have to necessarily keep ice cold since the cooler would just sit in the car all day while we were exploring Lake Powell and then Bryce Canyon until we could get to the next lodging (which might not have a fridge). I did bring some versatile supplies from home (indicated below) knowing we had a kitchenette.

Packing/Shopping list for Summer Southwest Vegan Salad (4 servings-2 servings of pasta version and 2 servings of quinoa version):

1 small can of chopped olives (one that looks like it is 1/4 cup big)
1/2 cup of quinoa (I brought from home) and half a box of quinoa/corn pasta (Ancient Harvest brand is good)
1/2 cup of sundried tomato (brought from home, if you buy they should keep without refrigeration though)
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast (brought from home, keeps without refrigeration)
2/3 package of fajita mix (used Fresh and Easy brand)
2 ears of fresh corn (one cereal bowl piled high, we didn't have measuring cups)
3 small squash (was one cereal bowl piled high)
1 can of cannelini beans

 

Making the salads-we had two small pots and two mixing bowls. We used the lid and slotted spoon to drain since we had no colanders. Used a can opener (important to make sure you have!)

1. Get at least two small pots of water boiling. One for the veggies and one for the quinoa or pasta (whichever you want to eat first)

2. Shuck the corn and cut off the kernels. A serrated steak knife worked for us.

3. Rinse and cut the squash into bite-sized circles or half-circles if the squash is larger.

4. When water is boiling add the corn-cook about 5-6 minutes for crisp tender. And add your pasta to the other pot-cook according to directions (pasta was 7-10 minutes).  Drain when cooked to desired doneness and put half the corn and all your pasta in a large mixing bowl. Reserve other half of corn for the quinoa salad in another mixing bowl.

5. Start boiling water in  your now empty pots. Add the squash and cook 4-5 minutes for crisp tender. To your other pot, add the quinoa. Again drain when they are cooked to desired level (quinoa is normally 10 minutes). Add the half squash to the first mixing bowl and half to the second. Reserve the rest for your quinoa salad.

6. Mix in 1/3 package of the fajita mix and half of the nutritional yeast, olives, beans and sundried tomatoes to the pasta mixture. Toss in the bowl. Then serve warm or cooled (gluten free pastas usually have the best texture warm)

7. After you're nice and full from that, mix the remaining half of the ingredients with the quinoa to make your meal for tomorrow.

Sorry, hope that's not too convoluted.

Being out in National Parks meant a hike each day!

1st Hike at Grand Canyon: 6 miles Bright Angel to the 3 Mi. Rest house

2nd Hike at Grand Canyon: 3.6 miles of South Kaibab to Cedar Breaks

3rd Hike at Bryce: 3.5 miles of Queen's Garden + Navajo Loop

4th Hike at Zion: 3 hours of The Narrows

 Sometimes we didn't have time to eat with all the hours logged driving or it was just too dang roasting (between 85-107F during our hikes). We kept it light and ate these snacks throughout the day and one big meal each day.

Favorite Trail Snacks:

• Tuna pouches to avoid carrying a can opener (bring a disposable/re-usable plastic spoon from Yogurtland to scoop...or get messy)
• For you vegetarians, Sunwarrior Protein powder (pre-measured in baggies) to mix with juice or gatorade.
• Crunch Master brand-multi-seed gluten free rice based crackers (does contain soy and will break if not on top of your pack or in a rigid container). They have a $1 coupon right now on their website. Very tasty.
• Apples
• Fruit "leathers" (found a 48 pack of strawberry, cherry, raspberry and apricot at Costco
• Popcorn made with coconut oil (and using Nordic Brand microwavable popper from Amazon, fit perfectly in tiny motel microwaves..another snack to keep on top of your pack to avoid excessive crumbs...but watch out for the squirrels-one reached in my bag when I turned to apply sunscreen and started to drag the snack away)
• Sprouts grocery: bulk bin trail mix with coconut, papaya, figs and other fruits
• Baby carrots
• Candied Ginger in case of stomach irritation
• powdered Gatorade to mix in with the water bottles
• Avocado halves and a spoon to scoop it out with (put in a plastic container so it won't get smushed)
• Gu or other gel energy to get you up out of the canyon-we had strawberry banana flavor

Anything you want to see regularly if I change how I do this blog? Has a vacation given you inspiration for a meal?   (we also watched an episode of Diners and Drive-ins and one place featured this stuffed pepper with chicken cooked in red wine with apples, pears, shallots, cranberries and served with a cream-nut sauce---looked fab and unique...and fit with the southwest theme of our trip).

Testing the Vegan Tamales Dough-and using leftover rice!

Previously, I listed tamales as a possible to use root tops in place of spinach. And last year I tested a vegetarian (uses butter) tamale recipe for black eyed peas.  Well, I got around to testing the vegan version this weekend as part of my detox. It was a success and no heavy feeling stomach from dairy!

In general was fearful of making tamales for the longest time until I went to the San Diego Fair a few years ago and watched a cooking demo. I had heard that people would get the whole family together at Christmas time doing an all day assembly line gave me the impression of it being labor intensive. But I think families make tamales for the season and freeze them or give them away. It also seems like a big social event for them.

I tend to make in batches of a dozen or two so I can make them solo and just spend an afternoon doing it. However, I could see myself having a tamale making party with friends and family. Perhaps a birthday gathering idea for 2013! Love that tamales are versatile, like pizzas, sushi, burritos...you can try putting whatever you have on hand, if you don't care about being traditional.

 The recipe I came upon also suggested a sweet filling of pumpkin/squash and rice with cinnamon. I had ingredients for both versions, so why not test them at the same time if I'm already messing up the kitchen (I decided if I could wish for anything for the kitchen, I want a robot that washes hand-wash dishes for me...I don't mind doing cooking, but time spent with soap and water tempts me to eat out). The big  plus of the sweet variation is I found another use for leftover rice besides fried rice or rice pudding (not sure if a vegan version would be successful-can't use egg replacer as it contains soy).

The recipe from Squiddoo.

Supposed to yield 4 dozen, I guess I put a lot of dough on mine or I like to cover the filling up a little more, it looks like my batch is only going to make 20...

For the dough, mix together

• 4 cups masa harina
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the sweet filling mix together

• 1 cup cooked/mashed squash, pumpkin or sweet potato
• 1 cup rice (I used a defrosted batch)
• cinnamon or pumpkin pie spices to taste
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

For savory filling-Root tops OR kidney beans

• radish and turnip greens from about 12 roots)-rinsed well, chopped and steamed or sauteed with garlic (can use garlic powder if no fresh)-cooked down it looked like about 1-1.5 cups.
• garlic minced or garlic powder to taste

• Kidney bean version-soaked 1 cup of dried beans overnight and simmered on medium 35 minutes, then mash slightly
•  Add a salsa or taco sauce for flavor. I did La Victoria Green taco sauce.

Mix all dough ingredients in a medium bowl. Since I used homemade veggie stock, I added 1 tsp of salt instead of 1/4 tsp. The dough should hold it's shape when handled and not be sticky.

 Make the dough into balls-mine end up being about 1.5 times the size of a golf ball...maybe slightly smaller than a racquetball (not sure how many of you play racquetball)

Spread the dough into a square-ish shape in the husk. I used my palm but there is a spreader as I learned on Gourmet Sleuth. There should be about 1.5" above and below the dough to leave room for tying shut. Place 1.5 tbsp of fill in the center of the dough. 

Fold left and right side of the husk together so the dough meets. To shut the husk, you could just twist the top and bottom like the hard candy wrappers (shown on Squidoo's pics).. but.because I have a small steamer, I fold down the top and bottom and then put the corn husk strip tie around it (see picture below, the one on the right side stayed shut).

Steam about 2" of water on medium-low heat for 45 minutes. Check halfway through to make sure there is enough water.

Indian Culture & Vegan Snack-Lighter Pakora's

Ate at Bawarchi Dosas in Miramar area with Kristina this month. I just love Southern Indian for offering Chinese dishes on the menu as well as having some bread-like items that are often made from lentil, chickpea or rice flour (I will always miss naan but this makes up for it).

 Kristina kept getting distracted by the odd dance videos playing on the TV screen behind me. The man mainly gave Zoo-lander-esque looks as he pauses from his Ricky Martin type dancing the in rain routine at a club. The woman sadly stares at him from across the room and a glistening tear rolls down her cheek. Her hair whips around in the wind.   He steps down and walks ever so slowly towards her while putting on his sunglasses (in the club). The other thing that we noticed is that the man and woman in each video never actually kissed. Cultural value? I did a little reading on BBC.

 Aside from having bouts of laughter, we were adventurous and tried Masala Papad (note: order yummy yogurt based mango lassi drink to go with this mouth numbing crispy lentil-based appetizer.)  I have seen papads at Fresh and Easy (or am sure the Indian market near this restaurant carries them) that you can just fry up at home, or apparently you can microwave them if you are trying to be healthier.

Speaking of trying to be healthier, I tested out a baked pakora recipe I found on Irreverent Vegan's blog over the weekend. I wish I hadn't run out of parchment paper-trying to butter up foil did not cut it...but at least stuck on there is better than having to soak and scrub the cookie sheets.  I chopped up beet greens to use instead of spinach and also just add grated zuchini as that is what I had on hand. Personally, I was a bit put off by the chutney that went with the recipe. I think I am used to/prefer the more vinegar-based chutneys and it was a bit much on the ginger for my liking (and I do like ginger-pickled with sushi, in candy form, for upset tummy as a tea). I've copied the pakora recipe below with my modifications. I think next time I might try decreasing the salt. I would make this again-very tasty even without a sauce. Just be ready to heat up your home-500 F bake temp! Nice winter recipe, no? Save on your heating bill! We're just starting to have drizzly, light jacket weather here.

Baked Pakora (chickpea battered veggies)

• three handfuls of chopped leafy greens (beet greens today)
• one zucchini grated-this one was probably about 1" diameter and 7" long
• 2 cups chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour-I got Bob's Redmill brand, starting to see this available at even regular chain grocery stores now, but again go for Indian market if you want it cheaper. I liked the taste of the Redmill flour though.
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp red pepper (optional)
• 1 1/2 tsp dried coriander (cilantro)
• 1 1/2 cups water

Tools needed: spatula safe for oven flipping, cookie sheets, parchment paper, 1 large bowl

Pre-heat the oven to 500 F.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add water a bit at a time, until you make it a bit thicker-than-muffin batter type consistency. Add your rinsed, chopped/grated veggies (you can be creative here use what you have on hand) and mix until covered with batter.

 Spoon batter onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. The lumps should hold their form (not keep spreading) The size lumps I  made yielded about 12 pakora. Make bigger or smaller-just adjust the cooking time (also depends on your oven, I had to take mine out early). 

The original recipe has you bake on one side 8 minutes and then flip the pakora on the other side for 10 to get the crunchy crust. Mine only needed 8 minutes on the second side, luckily I stayed in the kitchen because they brown fast!

 

What recipe have you health-ified and loved? (or hated?)  What's your take on PDA's in public?

Recipe on a weekday: Pickled rice, salmon and summer veggies

 I had a craving for pickles after eating at Burger Up in Nashville, TN for this summer's vacation and decided to make Refrigerator Pickles-cuz I'm scared of the bacteria and not ready to get the equipment for boiling- after getting lots of cucumbers in the box. I hate throwing things away, so time to come up with something to do with pickle juice.

For one serving:
3/4 cup cooked rice
1-2 tbsp leftover pickle juice
1/2 cup lemon-juice steamed summer squash, half circles
1/4 cup chopped sashimi grade salmon and/or broiled salmon skin (I broiled about 10 minutes until the skin was crispy)
1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1. Start the rice if you don't have any made already. I use a rice cooker but you can make it on the stove too.

2. Bring 1/2" of water to boil in a small pot and squeeze half a lemon in.  While waiting for the boiling (it won't take long), cut your summer squash in half lengthwise and then into 1/4" slices so you have half circles.

3. Cut up or broil your salmon. 

4. Slice your cherry tomatoes in half.

5.  For each serving of rice, spoon the leftover pickle juice over the hot rice and mix in.

6. Top with the summer squash, salmon/skin, and tomato. If you plan to take it as a leftover, leave the salmon and cherry tomato separate so those don't get over-cooked in the microwave.