[vegan mofo day 18] "cheesy sauce" pasta

"Cheesy sauce" pasta with roasted zucchini and lentils salad.

The sauce was made with flour, olive oil, nutritional yeast, soy milk, a little bit of soy sauce, salt and pepper. As soon as he had a mouthful of his pasta, Hubby said "did you make this cheese sauce? Good!" That's a good sign :)

Instead of cheesy sauce, I made a white sauce with thinned out mashed potato for baby's pasta. He also had steamed zucchini and lentils. It's funny he has had and liked pureed zucchini before but he refused to eat this chunky zucchini at first. Same food, different texture, and he didn't look like he recognized it as food lol

[vegan mofo day 17] potato pancakes, stir fried tofu and green beans

 

The other day I bought a 5lb bag of potatoes for less than $2. Great deal! So we're having many potato dishes, one of which was the shepherd's pie I made the other night.

And for this meal, I made potato pancakes. I chopped the raw potato and cabbage into tiny pieces in a food processor, mixed in about 1/4C of flour, made it into patties and fry them up. Served with vegenaise and sriracha sauce. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, they were pretty good :) I'd add some seasonings and herbs next time I'll make though. I'm thinking chives, perhaps? Hubby said cilantro will go well. Sounds good!

Baby's potato pancake was made by frying the mashed potato that was shaped into a patty. When it comes to the foods that were on the dirty dozen list, I try to buy organic as much as possible if I'm going to feed them to my son. I'd love it if I could buy organic for us adults too but we cannot afford them at the moment :( Besides, our local grocery stores carry only limited varieties of organic produce, which is way too expensive even for organic fruits and vegetables. Anyways, I didn't want to use the same patties I made for us since our potatoes are not organic. Luckily I had some mashed potato I made using organic potatoes in the freezer.

Other foods on the plates are stir fried tofu and green beans. I dusted tofu with corn starch to make it more crispy. Baby had kale on rice and mashed edamame. Edamame is a bagged frozen one but this is also organic. I'm trying to avoid GMO soy when I can.

How often do you buy organic fruits and vegetables?

[vegan mofo day 16] lazy Sunday dinner - instant curry from Japan

I was too lazy to cook last night so I decided to try this instant curry my mother sent me from Japan. I know this doesn't really fit my theme "cooking vegan on a budget" (except that food gifts are always appreciated when on a budget as long as it's vegan), but thought it'd be fun to introduce some vegan goodies. 

 

It's keema curry with lentils and soy meat. No animal ingredients or sugar are used. Awesome! It says the spiciness level is medium-hot but I'd have loved it if it had been a bit more spicy. Nonetheless, it was pretty good. I'd love to have it again (yes, mom? hehe).

Since this was a lentil curry, baby had lentils on rice, steamed carrots and some soup. All stocked in the freezer.

Japan is, in my mind, not a country I'd think vegetarian friendly, let alone vegan. At least that was the case when I visited there last time. Japanese meals may be healthier and I do think they eat more varieties of food on average, but most of the traditional meals contain meat or fish. The animal-based broth is used in ramen noodles. The broth in miso soup usually contains fish. Even an innocent looking loaf of bread sometimes has gelatin in it to make it soft or whatever (ugh).

But, fortunately, as far as I can see from stories I read online, vegetarianism has been gaining popularity lately. Vegetarian restaurants are popping up in many cities across Japan. My mother has sent me all kinds of interesting vegan products, like mapo tofu sauce, cold noodles, ramen noodles etc. Even mentaiko (roe of fish) pasta that uses amaranth. They may not use the V word in the package (just saying "without animal ingredients"), but that's ok. I'm happy that I will be able to find restaurants that I can look forward to visiting or won't encounter as many confusing looks as before when I say I don't eat animals. Well, maybe not the latter because a lot of people still don't seem to get that I don't eat animals. never. Not just half the time, or 75% vegetarian. But that'll probably change in the future too, I hope.

[vegan mofo day 15] French Toast

A stale bread has turned into some delicious treats for a Sunday morning. I made this french toast by soaking slices of bread in the coconut milk (the kind that came in a can) and syrup mixture. Then, I sprinkled toasted coconut flakes with powdered sugar. mmmm.

[vegan mofo day 14] Lentils Shepherd's Pie and Baby Shepherd's Pie

I love shepherd's pie. I think it's one of the most comforting foods. I don't know if it's the mashed potatoes or the fact that it's baked (I love baked foods), or the combination of moist filling and soft, silky layer, but I just like it. On one Thanksgiving, my MIL made a vegan shepherd's pie as a main dish for me. It was awesome. Who needs turkey for Thanksgiving if there's shepherd's pie (well, I don't want turkey if I had only salad and bread anyways but you know what I mean :) ).

I made the filling by sauteing diced carrots, green beans, corn and lentils. I seasoned them with celery seeds, sage, fennel seeds, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, salt and pepper. The fennel seeds added an interesting kick to the taste and I liked it. Sorry I didn't really measure any of the ingredients, so there's no recipe.

I also made a baby version of shepherd's pie. This turn out to be really cute and tasty :)

I happened to have all the ingredients pureed or diced in the freezer already so I just needed to assemble them. Pretty easy but looks... can I say impressive?

Baby Shepherd's Pie 

ingredients

1 Tablespoon each of pureed lentils, green beans

1 Tablespoon of steamed carrots, diced into tiny pieces

a tiny amount of olive oil

2 Tablespoons of mashed potato

(I'd add some herbs if I've introduced them already)

1) mix the vegetables and lentils with a small amount of olive oil in a warm pan

2) place the vegetable mixture in an oven safe container

3) place the mashed potato over the vegetable mixture

4) baked in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400F

5) Serve at a room temperature or chilled (not directly from the oven. it'll be too hot for little ones!)

 

 As always please make sure your baby can tolerate all the ingredients and consult with your pediatrician if you have any concerns.

[vegan mofo day 13] fried rice, seared tofu and a bit about steamed muffins

Fried rice: with green beans, carrots, corn and diced potatoes, cooked in canola oil, salt, pepper and soy sauce. Of course I drizzled a few drops of sriracha sauce over the fried rice :)

I wanted to make some salad with the seared tofu as a side dish but alas our family members were getting too hungry. I had to serve it as it was lol

Baby had a few pieces of the seared tofu, and steamed carrots, turnip and rice.

Not shown in the picture, but I also made some steamed muffins (or cupcakes) ("mushipan" in Japanese) as baby's snack between meals/our dessert. I didn't add any sugar in baby's mushipan, but the banana inside gave a natural sweetness, making it perfect for a baby snack. Ours was chocolate chips and banana mushipan. yum. They need some tweaking, but I hope to write up a recipe during the vegan mofo.

[vegan mofo day 12] pasta salad

When it comes to food, my husband likes it hot or warm, with possible exceptions being salad (as a side dish) and sushi. He prefers hot noodle soup to cold noodles (like cold soba noodles), toasted bread to non-toasted one, and hot sake to chilled one, for example. So meals like (vegan) gazpacho or vichyssoise will be out of the question. And pasta salad is not appreciated very much.

I, on the other hand, do like chilled meals, especially in hot summer days. Last night's dinner was just for me and the baby, so I went ahead and made pasta salad, which I wouldn't make if I were cooking for two (and a half). Husband will probably be enjoying non-vegan food outside the home. I enjoy chilled dishes when I don't have to cook for him. It's our unwritten agreement, perhaps? :)

My pasta salad consisted of kale, lettuce, cucumbers and lentils, dressed with olive oil, nutritional yeast, some herbs, vinegar, grated garlic, salt and pepper. Simple but tasty. (ETA: I remember I added a little bit of vegenaise in the salad too)

Baby's pasta "salad" had pureed kale and green beans, dressed with a dash of olive oil. He also had lentil spread, which was his first lentils.

[vegan mofo day 11] how to: super easy and quick lunch "rice bowl with greens"

This is my super easy, inexpensive lunch I usually whip up. It looks simple but, seasoned with soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and garlic, it actually is pretty flavorful and yummy :) If you already have cooked rice and chopped greens at hand (say, you chopped extra veggies at your dinner prep the previous night), it cooks up really fast too, which is a huge plus for a busy lunchtime (or cooks this in the morning to put it in your lunchbox, maybe?).

Since it's so easy, I don't know if I can even call this a "recipe" but I thought of writing down how-to in case somebody's looking for a quick and nutritious lunch. Hope you'll enjoy it :)

Rice Bowl with Greens How to

ingredients

canola oil*

A clove of garlic, sliced

Chopped greens of your choice, e.g. broccoli, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts are my usual choices

1-2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast

garlic powder

salt and pepper

A bowl of cooked rice (leftovers work perfectly!)

soy sauce

* you can use other types of oil too, but I like the flavor that the combination of canola oil and soy sauce creates. It reminds me of egg rice bowls I used to eat in pre-vegan days. More on that sometime.

1) Heat the oil in the pan at medium-high heat. You might want to use a little bit more oil than you usually use to stir fry vegetables as the extra oil will coat the rice later. Place the slices of garlic and heat until they become fragrant.

2) Put the chopped veggies and turn the heat up. Fry the veggies.

I like crunchier and a bit burned vegetables, but if you like softer stir fried veggies, you might want to keep the heat to medium high.

3) In the meantime, if your rice was sitting in the fridge, warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Don't worry if it's not warmed through. It will be cooked again in the pan later. If you've cooked your rice fresh, skip this process.

4) When the veggies are done, add the nutritional yeast, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.

5) Turn off the heat. Add the rice and mix with the veggies in the pan. The remaining heat will cook the rice without frying.

6) Drizzle the soy sauce to your liking.

7) Dig in!

variations

• add beans or diced tofu to make it a more substantial meal. Black beans or chickpeas are my favorites for this. Add them after the vegetables
• add drops of sriracha sauce before you eat to spice it up!
• add pieces of nori sheets after the heat is turned off (just before adding the soy sauce)
• add sesame seeds

[vegan mofo day 10] kale and tomato pasta soup, black bean, corn & cucumber salad

 

Soup: kale and pasta in tomato sauce based broth. I made this tomato sauce from scratch. Husband had a chance to get a bunch of tomatoes from his co-worker's veggie garden. They were too mature to eat raw, so I turned them into tomato sauce by just simmering them with a bit of olive oil. Fresh tomato sauce tastes delicious. Since the sauce itself didn't have salt or herbs, Baby had the same sauce over his pasta, with pureed kale.

Salad: black bean, corn and diced cucumber, dressed with cumin, paprika, chilli powder, apple cider vinegar, canola oil and salt & pepper. I'd have added a splash of lime and chopped cilantro if I had them but it was still good. Instead of the salad, baby had black bean spread.

We also had the homemade bread. Baby looked still hungry. So we shared my bread. He can't get enough of my bread. As a baking enthusiast, it makes me really happy. I'm thinking about what to bake for him next.

[vegan mofo day 9] spicy kale soup, steamed bun and cucumber salad

 

Due to husband's tooth emergency, I had to whip up something soft and small. I figured soup with chopped up vegetables would do so made this spicy soup with kale, cabbage and edamame. Kale and cabbage become flavorful after simmering for a while, which makes a great soup.

This steamed bun was something I found at an Asian grocery store. It says a vegetarian bun but looks like vegan too, including vegetables and soy meat. 

 

Pork buns ("Nikuman") was something I used to enjoy in a chilly winter day ages ago, picking one up at a convenience store on the way home from school or after a girls' night out, not because of what was inside (I actually didn't like the pork inside very much) but because of its softness, squishy texture, and warmth. So I'm happy to find a vegan version of this. I found that the taste of this bun was a bit bland, though, so made a soy sauce and sriracha dipping sauce.

There's one with adzuki bean paste too, which I really like. Makes a great snack or a dessert.

Other things on the plate was pickled cucumber salad and grits. Baby had daikon soup that was stored in the freezer over rice, mashed edamame and steamed carrots.