Polish Halupki!

Halupki is a traditional Polish dish that my grandma, my mom and my family make every Christmas and Thanksgiving. For the first time, though, I got my dad's side of the family to try out some polish food! This recipe is traditionally made with ground beef, but my mom and I make it with portobella mushrooms instead! Here is an easy recipe for you guys to try it out!

Polish Halupki.

Ingredients:

1 head cabbage

2-4 cups veggie boullion

4 portobella mushroom caps

4 cups cooked rice

1/2 white onion

1 clove garlic

1 Tbsp Earth Balance or olive oil

Preparations:

Follow directions and cook rice.

Place cabbage in a pot and cover with water. Add 1 tsp of oil and cover with a lid.

Chop onion, portobella caps and mince garlic. Add butter or oil to saute pan over medium, high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes. Add portobellas and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

 As the outer leaves of the cabbage begin to soften, cut and remove from cabbage head. You can do this by taking a paring knife, and carefully removing leaves at the base as they soften. Take the leaves and place them in a colander.

Prepare the cabbage leaves by slicing thick stems down to create a unified thickness throughout the

leaf. (I should have taken photos of this step... so ask questions if you need to!)

When the rice is done, add the mushroom mixture to it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a casserole dish by spraying lightly with nonstick spray. Now it's time to stuff the cabbage! To wrap, place about 1/4 cup of the mushroom mixture at the base of a cabbage leaf. Wrap of the cabbage leaf like a burrito, around the mixture. Make sure not to wrap it too tightly, because the rice still expands a bit.

Line up the cabbage wraps side by side to create a single layer in the bottom of the casserole dish. Add about 1 cup of the veggie bouillon. If needed, add a second layer of the wraps. Add the remainder of the veggie bouillon to the casserole dish. Cover with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. (Until the cabbage is tender)

Top with tomato sauce and/or hot sauce if desired. Chow down!

Pizza contest!

While all of the family was in Florida, we had a pizza making contest! We were assigned to teams of two and we worked together to create fun pizzas. We were given 20 minutes each. It was a lot like iron chef! It was great fun. Of course I could only eat two of the five pizzas, but it was still a blast.

Click read more to see what we cooked up!

Kissimmee VeeDub Show!

This weekend was the second annual VW Jingle Bugs Rock show, in Kissimmee, Florida. Mike let me tag along to see what it was all about. I took pictures. Lots of pictures. More food coming soon! Honest!

There were four  Herbie replicas. They're pretty popular.

Read more for lots of pics!

A day at the doggy beach!

Diego and I have been hanging out at Davis Island Doggy Park lately. This day was an overcast, cold and dreary day. We were the only two out.

dingys at sea

Eddie's Carmengia

rusted gate

little Diego on the beach.

Diego exploring.

full beach view.

Pretzel Party! Vol 1.

I tried some pretzel recipes today! Woot! I tried a couple of different toppings for the preztels. Next time, I will try and mix the toppings inside with the pretzels. Here are the combos I tried:

1. Fresh chopped garlic and Earth Balance

2. Curry, cayenne, cumin, honey and fresh ginger

3. Stuffed pizza! Fake cheese and marinara sauce

Everything was so tasty, and not that much work to make. The flavors were not as prominent as I wanted, but I will try some further experiments, and keep you guys up-to-date! The pizza filled pretzels didn't stay together, so they were more like pretzel 'boats'. But no less delicious!!!

Cabbage Casserole... Halupki for dummies?

My family's heritage, on my mother's side, hails from the Ukraine (I think what is now Czech Republic?). As a family tradition, we always eat perogies at Christmas time. We try and make them from scratch most years, but if nothing else, we eat Mrs. T's. I hate to say it, but they come pretty close. Mrs. T's does offer a vegan potato and onion perogie, but generic brands tend to be vegan.

In addition to making perogies, my mom and I have also been making halupki every now and then for the past couple of years. Traditionally, this dish is a baked, stuffed cabbage meal, made with ground beef. Since mom and I have been eating veggie, we substituted diced portobella. Halupki sometimes comes out delicious, but sometimes comes out just okay (Expect a recipe closer to the holidays!).

When I discovered a recipe in the Weight Watchers cookbook with the exact same ingredients, I was very excited to try it out! A mandolin came in handy for this recipe. Just remember, this recipe is easy, but takes over an hour in the oven. When I made this, I shredded the cabbage as the recipe calls for. Next time, I definitely want to try and keep the leaves large. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 tsp canola oil

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 portobella caps, chopped

1, 14.5oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chiles

1, 8oz can tomato sauce

1/2 cup cooked rice

1/4 head cabbage, shredded

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9"x13" baking dish with non-stick spray. Set aside.

(Don't forget to get the rice going if you don't already have some made!)

In a very large saute pan, head the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic. Cook for about 6-7 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for an additional couple of minutes.

Next, add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and rice. Brint to a boil, and turn down the heat. Allow to cook for about 6-7 minutes.

Spoon half of the tomato and rice mixture into the prepared pan. Add the cabbage. Cover with the remaining tomato mixture. Cover with foil and pop in the oven for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until cabbage is soft.

This recipe did not turn out to be a replacement for halupki, but a quick and easy dish that has the same flavors. As I said in the recipe, I would like to try this recipe with large cabbage leaves next time.

Vegan fast food; Eastern European style.

Sorry for the break, but I've been without my camera for almost a week now! So, this is a quick little update for an easy dinner and some new found favorites of mine!

vegan sauerkraut dog with ketchup, dijon mustard and horseradish, cabbage casserole and sauteed greens with onions. 

It's as simple as that. I have been craving dogs, so I got some large size Smart Dogs. Threw one on a toasted bun, along with some ketchup, spicy mustard, horseradish, and a huge helping of sauerkraut.

The first side is some very simple sauteed greens. I took a handful of kale and rinsed it thoroughly. I roughly chopped the greens, while heating about 2 tsps of canola oil in a pan. I added one clove of chopped garlic and one full scallion, chopped. To that I added the greens, 1 tsp of red wine vinegar, dash of pepper, salt, granulated garlic and red pepper flakes. Mix up and saute for about 30 seconds. Take off the heat and serve immediately.

The second side is some cabbage casserole! My next post will contain ingredients and recipe for that.

Three cheers for lazy dinner tonight! Hip, hip, hooray.

A Family Filled Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving!!

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This is a lazy post... cause it's the holdiays. Deal with it. For more snapshots, visit here.

Our menu:

Cornish Hens (for the meat eaters)

Roasted Tofurkey (for the non-meat eaters)

Brussels Sprouts with Stone Ground Mustard Sauce

Sweet Potato Smash

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Roasted Carrots, Potatoes and Onions

Golden Orchard Quinoa (Thanks to Kathy's, Healthy.Happy.Life blog!)

And spiced cider to drink.

This Thanksgiving was pretty low-key. Perfect. :)

Happy holidays everyone!!

Raw Quickie : Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms and Avocado Soup

I am really starting to enjoy this Live's raw cookbook. 'Uncooking' has been getting easier, though. I wanted to try another of the Soups. I tried out the avocado soup... avocados, water, garlic, ginger, and lots of lemon. It came out looking like Ghostbusters slime, but it was quite tasty!

Dad thought too much lemon, I thought too much ginger. Either way, it was damn good.

I also tried the raw mushrooms stuffed with pesto. It turned out to be a great side dish, but would also serve as a fantastic 15 minute appetizer. I modified the recipe, as always, to accommodate my portion size and tastes. The recipe is typically made with basil, but I had spinach on hand, so I used it instead. I also added chopped tomatoes on top for some moisture. Next time, I would like to get Roma tomatoes and add a full, thin slice, but this was still pretty good.

Ingredients:

1 package baby bella or white mushrooms

3 Tbsp Nama Shoyu (or soy sauce)

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

- - -

Large handful of spinach

1/2 cup raw walnuts

2 Tbsp sunflower seeds

1 clove garlic

salt and pepper

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

De-stem and wash mushrooms. Toss in a bowl with olive oil and Nama Shoyu. Make sure everything is nice and coated and mix together. The longer this marinates, the better.

Add the pesto ingredients to a blender. The suggested order is: olive oil and garlic, (blend) spinach or basil, (blend) and then everything else. Add water as needed to get everything blended together. I found that leaving the nuts a little bit chunky was still really good!

Stuff mushrooms with pesto. Warm up in dehydrator for a few minutes if desired. Top with tomato.

Devour! I'm really looking forward to trying more of my own creations in this realm.

Annie's Frozen Pizza Review

As I was participating in my usual trolling of the oragnics section at Sweetbay, an overwhelming moment of giddiness occured. Could it be? A vegan frozen pizza?? Now let me pause for a moment to explain my previous experience with this type of cuisine. Before this discovery, I did once try a Toffutti 'cheese' flavor frozen pizza. Nice, thick greasy crust, red pizza sauce, and loads of fake cheese. That's it. And whilie this is just the thing to fill a void after a long and intense night of liquor drinking, it's not exactly something I typically crave.

So that brings me to Annie's frozen pizzas. The first time I spotted the pies, my inate avoidance of purchasing frozen foods kicked in and I walked away. But the next time I was in the grocery store, I found myself salivating in front of that big glass door. On my previous trip to Sweetbay, I noticed there were two options... Roasted Vegetable, no cheese, and Soy Cheeze. Sadly, between my first and second trip to the store, the Roasted Vegetable variety had sold out! (Awesome!) So I pick up the Soy Cheeze and discover... oh it's not vegan. But as I'm rummaging through boxes, about to claim defeat, I discover this gem...

I could not ask for a better option. A vegetable, some fake cheese, and nice thin crispy crust. And only rice flour, to boot!

So... to finish up a long and unnecessary description... the pizza was incredible. Amazing. Delectable. Friggin, yum. (I've already bought another, since!) At the price point, however ($8.99 at Sweetbay), I definitely sided this pie with a salad and made it two meals. So if you're into vegan stuff... do your part in supporting the widespread production of vegan goodies and buy some of these pizzas!

Thanks Annie's!

Sunday Sailing

I think that sailing on a warm, Sunday afternoon, might just be the best way to spend a day. Last Sunday, I went with Mike from the shop and his friend Eddie out on the ocean for a couple of hours. Eddie has been sailing since he was 17 (now 40). He hasn't paid rent at an apartment for 3 and half years... but instead lives on his 23 foot sail boat. His little one-cabin ship with no bathroom would make me stir crazy... but it's just perfect for him.

He also has a 17 ft sail boat, which he took us out on for the day. I would have taken more photos, but he made us navigate the sails, so I was nervous to pick up my camera in the water!! Hopefully we'll go out again this weekend.

This is Eddie with our make-shift toilet. This is what we peed in while out on the water. This is the only bathroom he has in his living quarters!

Mike from the shop.

Eddie, our guide.

These kids were like 10 and younger... on their own sailboats.

Sailor Eddie.

Eddie told us this is called a gaff rig... the to of the sail is not attached to the mast.

Tattoo Mike.

Baby's First Birthday!

Drew from work's baby had his first birthday! It was kind of creepy... but it was fun.

They gave the kid his own cake to destroy. Which be promptly ate and vomited.

This is his happy face!

All smiles...

So irritated that I didn't have time to manually focus this one!!

Best. <3

Pureed Sweet Potato Mash with Portobella Steaks

It's been a little while since I've updated! The job is going great. I've been busy this weekend meeting lots of new people. I just wanted to post my latest foodie experiement. I have to say... this might just be my tastiest cration yet! And guess what Grammy? It was super simple.

I was craving something 'meaty' so I knew I wanted to make some portobellas. I also had some cilantro and chipotle peppers already in the fridge, so I wanted to use that stuff up.

So for the first time, I tried out a Southwest/Mexican marinade on the shrooms. I used fresh garlic, lime juice, a little canola, and chopped cilantro. I thickly sliced the mushrooms, and mixed them up with the marinade. I wrapped it all in a little tin foil 'packet' and tossed it in a 350 degree oven. I cooked these guys until I was done with everything else (about 20 minutes or so).

Next, I washed and roughly chopped 1 large sweet potato. I boiled it with the skin on, until nice and soft. Then, in a blender, I added a few sweet potato pieces, about 1/2-1 Tbsp butter, a dash of soy milk, and 2 canned chipotle peppers (deseeded). I blended this up, and then added the rest of the potatoes. It took a little work to get everything smooth, but they were nice and fluffy by the end.

Then I just made a mountain! I added the portobellas on top of the potatoes, and then topped it all off with a little avocado relish (diced avocado, lime juice and cilantro). I would have really liked to have some fresh corn in the relish, but sadly it's not the season.

Well that's it! Easy dinner for 1 or 2. Enjoy!

Celebrate good times, come on!

So, I got an apprenticeship! Woot! I start Thursday at Rustic Steel.

I will be welding and working on creative iron works projects, as well as commercial railings and steel projects.

I treated myself to a celebratory meal:

I realized I only had $6, so I spent it on a bottle of Andre and ate all the unhealthy leftovers I could find!

Chipotle sweet potato fries, with a 'sausage', tofu and onion hash sandwich. Mmmmm.

Tofu benedict with sundried tomato hollandaise

I have been craving some eggs benedict, so I cooked up a vegan version for breakfast this morning. Toasted English muffins would have made this breakfast classic, but I couldn't find any. The only vegan English muffins I've been able to find are Weight Watchers, and they weren't available where I stopped this morning.

I marinated the tofu with a little lemon juice and liquid smoke. I grilled this up along with a Gimme Lean sausage-style patty (fat and cholestorol-free and so delicious). The sundried tomato sauce was simply some vegan cream cheese, 1/2 of a lemon's juice, water, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, and chili powder. In the future I would use a blender, rather than a food processor, so everything gets to a nice smooth consistency. I topped it with a fresh basil leaf.

Mmm mm good!

Fancy in five... Carmelized bananas.

This recipe is as easy as it gets. I made this a few nights in a row, and it was a big hit. The great thing about this dessert, is you can throw it together when dinner is ready. By the time you're done eating, dessert is warm and ready to serve!

This makes 2-3 servings.

2 Tbsp Earth Balance or butter

4 tsp raw sugar

dash of salt

healthy sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg

1 banana, sliced

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Warm the butter in a saute pan over medium heat.

When the butter is melted, add the sugar. Whisk together until cosistent throughout.

Add salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and whisk together again.

Turn heat down to low, and add bananas and walnuts (if using).

Top with a lid and allow to simmer for 5-15 minutes.

I served it over vanilla, coconut milk ice cream and crumbled sugar cookies.

Enjoy!

Around the world in a day!

Dad took me to Disney World this weekend for the annual Food and Wine Festival! It was really incredible, because each country offered a sample of food and beverage. Of course, there were very few vegetarian, let alone vegan options, but it was a fantastic experience. And I got to have some Polish perogies! It's quite incredible what Disney does. They offer contracts to natives of each country for 6 months or longer. The natives come and work in each country at Epcot... and specifically for this festival, cook their native food! Just incredible. Besides the funnel cake stand, I couldn't find one place staffed by Americans. That's what I call a vacation. :)

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Fresh perogies!! <333

Read more for more photos!

Holiday photos and new website!

I have been so busy lately I haven't had much time to update! I've been traveling, so I haven't been very good about taking food photos!

Some news though... I will be doing holiday photos of pets! Also, my website is finally somewhat up and running...

Check check check it out!!

This is what 200 calories lookes like...

I finally tasted the Gardein's buffalo wings. I didn't have time to throw together some vegan ranch, so I just had some garlic hummus and leftover chipotle sauce on the side. I also had a little spinach salad with some sundried tomatoes.

My review of the wings? The sauce was right on. Incredible. It was just spicy enough, and had the incredible hot wing flavor. The texture, however, left something to be desired. It wasn't bad, just not as firm as I would have liked.. kind of a tofu/seiten hybrid. I would still buy them again, though. Incredibly flavorful.

I had a second helping and the entire meal added up to under 500 calories!! I try and avoid the frozen foods section (just like soda and junk food), but if I'm ever in the mood, I will turn to Gardein. ALL of their products are vegan and use only non-gmo soy protein. Score.

leftover experiments.

I tried to get crafty with leftovers tonight and it turned out pretty tasty. I partly smashed my califlower and chickpea leftovers, and wrapped them in a tortilla. I gave them a little grill, and topped them with a chipotle and tomato sauce and fresh avocado. If I were to do it all over again, I'd put everything that was on the outside, on the inside! All in all it was pretty good, though.

ps...

Dad and I are building a work bench! Woot! This is day one.

new lens! Canon 50mm 1.8

I was playing with my new lens today... taking photos of everything I could. The fixed zoom lens is definitely something I'm getting used to. I can't wait to do some portraits! (Besides my usual subject :))

In one day, I am soo so happy with the lens. It's quite a bit cheaper than the next lens I wanted to buy, and it's having some amazing results. Huge depth of field and undeniably crisp focus details. I also got a neutral density filter, which seems to be warming all of the photos up just a little bit.

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More after the jump!

Last nights din din.

 Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Chickpeas (Tagine)

This meal was super easy. I wanted to do a one pot meal, because I didn't have much time to cook. I would make a few alterations to the recipe, if I made it again, but it was overall pretty delicious. This recipe makes a huge batch, so tonight we're having leftovers! If I were to change this recipe, I would add double the called for tomatoes and about 50% more spice. The timing on the cauliflower cooking also needs to be tweaked a little, but overall quite tasty.

Read more for recipe!

It's been a while...

So it's been a few days since I've last updated! I went to visit my little brother in Atlanta for the weekend. I just bought a new lens, and I'm so disappointed it wasn't here before I left. Click read more for more photos from the trip!

The Kitchen Sink Bean Salad

This is a great thing to make when you're about to go out of town, or just want to clean out your fridge. This is just a basic bean salad recipe, that can be completely customized and modified to your taste and supplies.

The basics... I would say you definitely need some tomato, a can of some type of beans, and some onion. Other than that, everything is really interchangeable. The key is to cut all ingredients to about the same size, and adding the right amount of liquid. I kept all of the ingredients besides the beans raw, to stay with the spirit of traditional salad, but some ingredients might need to be baked or blanched.

For my salad... I used the following recipe:

1 cup/can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 cup raw corn, cut off of the cob

1 cup tomato, diced

1/2 cup raw zuccini, sliced thin on the mandoline and then roughly chopped

1/2 raw onion, slided thin on the mandoline and then roughly chopped

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

half of a fingerhot pepper, diced

For the dressing... my full salad was about 4 cups. I found that about 3 Tbsp oil and 3 Tbsp acid worked well for this amout. For the oil, obviously you can add olive or canola. For the acid, you can use any type of vinegar or citrus. It just depends on the flavors you want.

Because I was using cilantro and hot pepper, I was going for a more mexican tasting dish. So I used 3 Tbps olive oil, 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon. (Should have used lime!) Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation is easy. Chop all veggies to desired size. In a separate bowl, whisk dressing ingredients. Pour over veggies and stir it up! This is best if the flavors marinade together for about a half an hour, but is fine to eat right away. Serve in a stemless wine glass for something fancy!

Score one for the vegetables.

Dad and I cooked dinner last night! It was great fun. We had whole wheat shells with canallini beans and spinach, and Brussels' sprouts. For the pasta, we used a recipe out of CIA's Gourmet Meals in Minutes. I have to say, I was not impressed. I'm not giving up on this cookbook just yet, but I wouldn't make this again.

So dad worked on the pasta, and I worked on the Brussels. While I was cleaning the sprouts, I asked dad, so what do you think about Brussels sprouts? To which he replied, 'well, besides being the worst vegetable known to man, not much'. (I figured this would be the response... I even bought zucchini as a back-up, just in case!) I oven-roasted the Brussels with a little olive oil, rice vinegar, salt, pepper and lemon juice. I also mixed up a sweet spicy mustard to top them with. (Sauce can make anything delicious!)

Dad ended up going back for thirds on the Brussels. :) He said, 'I think you need to work on the complexity of your sauce, but these are incredible.' Solid ciriticism. So, I've sold my mom on tofu, my grandma who hates kale on kale, and my dad who hates Brussels on Brussels. I'm feeling pretty good about the battle for tasty vegetables!