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OMG! I was at Spring professional development/council meetings last week. Well, at a few meh moments of listening to speakers I was on my iPad searching for Vegan stuff – mostly food recipes to get ideas of what I might eat in Leavenworth, WA. Oh, they do speak Vegan there; although, I was worried in the front end of the week what I might find in their German themed city…that’s another post for another day.

I may be 60, but I do have a pretty good sense of humor and some swearing still makes me laugh my head off. We all have a bit of a dark side, right!

The recipes look amazing – havent’ tried them yet (I just got back from Leavenworth), but am going to try Tuscan Tempeh Pasta minus the tempeh and adding black beans. Allergic to soy! I laugh my head off every time I read one of the posts – if it offends you just don’t go back. I’m a new fan and get to be happy in the process = better health.

Check out Thug Kitchen and here’s their link to Tuscan Tempeh Pasta.

Arabian Lentil Sauce

I have found myself lingering and cooking again in the kitchen. I have been so busy with life these past few months, that fast vegan food has been my diet. Although a diet of fast vegan food is better than some diets, isn’t as nutritious for the body long-term as cooking whole organic vegan meals. Finding the time to cook isn’t easy, but am trying.

I found a wonderful recipes, Arabian Lentil and Rice Soup,  in Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book Appetite for Reduction. Personally it didn’t have the variety of vegetables to qualify for a soup – just my taste!! So, adapted it as a dish to pour over rice

Arabian Lentil Sauce

2-3 T. water or vegetable broth for sauteing

1 medium diced onion

6-8 cloves of garlic (depending on size)

pinch or two of freshly group black pepper

1/2 tsp. salt (add more if you like salt)

1 T. ground cumin

1 tsp. ground coriander

1 c. dices or slivered carrots

1 c. dried red lentils

6-8 cups of vegetable broth (depending on prefered thickness)

about 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice

4-quart pot for stove use

Saute the onions and garlic in water/vegatable broth then add the spices and cook another minute. Add the rest of the ingredients expect the lemon juice.  Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer – cook about 40 minutes. When the lentils are fully cooked add the lemon juice and spices as needed to taste. Let sit 10 minutes and serve over rice.

adapted from Isa Chandra’s Moskowitz’s recipe: Arabian Lentil and Rice Soup

Check out Isa’s blog, Post Punk Kitchen.

Refresh and Renew

“Life is so Daily”

Those four little words are so true, it seems a bit mundane for me! I prefer a re-write: Life is so Daily, so let’s change!

Purchased a mini version of a book I had years ago, The 28 Day Plan by Christine Green. I need to make some changes in my diet, get more exercise, and pay more attention to refreshing and renewing.

Happy Valentines Day – treat yourself and the ones you love

Be Healthy

Vegan Small Fare’s 2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Waffle Iron

I purchased a Calphalon Waffle Iron yesterday and hope to make vegan waffles for New Years Day. I spend New Years Eve with a friend from graduate school and she isn’t a vegan – she eats meat and I respect her choices. She also respects mine and we try to find recipes and restaurants that suit both of us. We love to dine out, but breakfast out in Tacoma, Wa can be a challenge, hence we came up with vegan waffles this year – she called them healthy waffles, but I am pretty certain she meant vegan. Since I’m cooking it’s vegan!!

Anyone have a tried and true vegan waffle recipe?

Friends and Olympia, WA

Today am heading to Olympia, Wa to meet up with friends. We plan to have  soup and/or salad lunch and walk around the Farmer’s Market. Cold – yes, I was reminded to dress warmly. I hope to have some pretty pictures to share.

Here’s hoping a warm vegan soup is in the stock pot near the Farmer’s Market.

Where’s That Vegan Cookbook

Someone had this great idea at work to have folks bring holiday cookies everyday this week. Kinda like a cookie exchange, but instead to just indulge and enjoy as we get through finals – I work at a college. No set days, just bring at will. I volunteered and added “mine will be vegan and yummy”. No comments from the lovely e-mail.

So, was excited to get home and pour over the few baking Vegan cookbooks I have. Problem – I couldn’t find the vegan baking one that I had in my head- like, where would it go? Today sat on the floor to make sure that I wasn’t missing it by looking from above. Nope! I have been known to get rid of a book at whim on my way to Half Price Books, but rarely a cookbook and even more rare a vegan cookbook. I did find a lovely book for our white elephant: Highballs High Heels: a girls guide to the art of cocktails. Oww, that might be a re-gift! Don’t use it  – Don’t need it.

Well, once I started focusing on taking that book out of my library I remembered that the book I was looking for is an e-book. How does one reference those on the book shelf? Then on my i-Pad I have aps for iBooks, Nook, Blio & Kindle. more searching… found Party Vegan by Robin Robertson & Vegan Baking Classics by Kelly Rudnicki in iBooks and Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine by Bryant Terry.

Now have to settle in, search recipes and decide what to bake. I love cookbooks!

 

Thrive Forward

I was checking Twitter this morning and came across a promising website Thrive Forward. It will officially begin operating in January 2013 (54 days from today) , although if you sign up now you will get a spiffy e-book: Thrive Forward 101. It’s 21 pages of a preview of a book I am certain will be coming out soon. If you have been a Vegan for a while you may already be familiar with the information, although it is easy to read and a good reminder that if you are dedicated to eating a plant-based diet, then the base should be plant-based.

I can’t fully recommend this site yet, although I signed up and will keep reporting. What do you have to lose? weight, your health…. Skip on over, sign up and download your preview e-book.

http://thriveforward.com/

Start Collecting Recipes and Ideas for Winter Holidays – This Year and Next

Holiday meals should be a good blend of family classic recipes with a twist of new recipes – my opinion.

Today in the e-mail inbox I found a recipe for sugar-free cranberry sauce. “Oh no, now what sweeter is used – can’t be good!!” I was wrong – good food of the earth… from Lani Muelrath. Check out her webpage ASAP as she is featuring a webcast with Lindsay S. Nixon about cooking for the holidays and will be introducing her new book: Happy Herbivore Abroad .

Now back to Lani’s recipe:

Lani’s Cranberry Sauce with Dates and OJ Recipe   

• 2  1/2 cups fresh cranberries

• juice from one orange

• a dozen pitted dates (doesn’t matter what variety, I used a mix of medjool and deglet noor)

• 1/4 + cup water

• soak the dates overnight in the orange juice (you can probably skip this step if in a hurry – if so, maybe cook them a little to soften!)
• blend the dates with the juice and water
• put the dates/juice/water in a pot with the cranberries, bring up the heat quickly to get it hot and then and cook over medium/low heat for 15 minutes.

There you have it!  You may need more or less water, depending on how juicy the orange, dates, and cranberries.