Mixed Bean Croquettes and Lulu's Waldorf Salad (remixed)

I found a Black-eyed peas Croquettes recipe in Alicia SIlverstone's "The Kind Life". Since I didn't have all the ingredients in my home, I made a few changes like changing up the beans and the dipping sauce from rice syrup to tamari.Hope you enjoy it!
Mixed Bean Croquettes
Ingredients

• 1 cup of tri-bean mix
• 1 cup of garbanzo beans
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp tamari
• 2 tbsp cilantro
• 1 tsp cumin
• oil for frying

DIPPING SAUCE

• 6 tbsp tamari
• 1 tbsp mustard

1. Put the beans in a food processor and add cilantro, salt, tamari and cumin. Process it until mixed well, but NOT mushy.
2. Form into balls/egg-shaped (about 12).
3.Heat your oil and fry your croquettes (about 4 minutes on each side). Let them drain on a paper towel.
4. Mix sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan over low heat until bubble.
5. Serves four people
THANKS ALICIA!

So I don't know where you live, but we have a grocery store here called Publix. Every couple of months they mail out a magazine that contains a bunch of healthy tidbits and recipes. One of the recipes in this latest issue was a Waldorf Salad. Now, I've never had one before, but it looked really good, but I didn't have all those ingredients and it wasn't vegan so I decided to give it a twist. Well, this is what I came up with.

Lulu's Waldorf Salad

• Bob's Red Mill TVP, 0.75 cup
• Celtic Sea Salt Fine Ground, 0.75 tsp
• Nasoya Nayonaise, 6 tbs)
• Lemon juice, 1 tbsp (remove)
• Brown Sugar, Dark (Domino), 0.25 tsp
• Tomato, grape (3oz = appro 12 tomatoes), 3 oz
• Apple, Gala (medium), 1 serving
• Bunny-Luv Organic Shredded Carrot, 1 cup
• Almonds, 0.25 cup, whole
• 
  
Soak the TVP according to directions anding 1/4 tsp of salt. In a separate bowl mix sugar, lemon juice, remaining salt, and nayonaise. Add barley, tomatoes, apple, and carrots. Spoon mixture over lettuce leaves to serve (serves 8).

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake- Veganized!

So my friend N sent me this email for a chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. Well, it was fabulous, but as I've decided to give this vegan diet a try, I was now faced with the challenge: How to make this cake vegan... and taste good? Oh, and I had to make it healthy because I am on this never ending quest to lose 5 lbs (the same 5 lbs I've been trying to lose my 27 years of life). Hahahaha, Lulu is the next Iron Chef! Well I did it and I'm going to show you how.

Chocolate Chip Cookie dough Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Filling-

Vanilla extract

Mori-Nu soft silken tofu

1/3 cup agave nectar

2 T flour

32 oz Tofutti "cream cheese"

Crust-

1 pgk of Joseph's Sugar free Pecan Walnut Brownies (bite size)

2 T Earth Balance "butter"

Truffles-

1/4 cup agave nectar

4 T Earth Balance "butter"

2 cups flour

1/2 cup Sunspire non-dairy chocolate chips

1/4 cup soymilk

1/4 cup Mori-Nu silken tofu

1. Make the truffles but combining all ingredients in the food processor and MIX WELL. Put the dough in an air tight container and let it sit in the fridge for 3 hours. After 3 hours roll the batter in mini balls and lightly roll in flour so they're not too sticky.

2. Preheat your oven at 350 and combine the brownie bites and Earth Balance together in the food processor to make the crust. Press the mix tightly on the bottom of a spring-form pan (preferably 9") and bake for 10 minutes.

3. While the crust is baking, mix the filling ingredients in a mixer or food processor (I just find it easier to rinse to food processor each time instead of using so many bulky appliances). Drop in 3/4 of your truffles and stir into your batter. Then your batter into the cake pan and drop the oth

er truffles in.

4. Bake 45- 60 minutes (the original cake is for 90 minutes, but vegan cream cheese cooks faster so keep an eye on it and watch for cracking).

5. Cool overnight.

So I like to slice my cake into 16 slices because it is sweet and creamy so a small piece definitely goes a long way.

I hope you enjoy!

Khichuri

Khichuri is an Indian dish commonly made with rice and lentils (which we call dal). Commonly we Bengalis make it during puja (a religious celebration) as we aren't supposed to eat meat during these times. There are all kinds of variations to this dish so I decided I'd give it a try and put a Lulu twist on it. I'd love for those who try to re-create it to tell me how it comes out and what other variations you've tried or may try.

Khichuri

Ingredients:

1 onion thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves minced

1 tsp minced ginger

masala spices

1 cup channa dal (or use what yellow lentils you can find)

1 cup rice

1 14 oz can vegetable broth

1 can roasted tomatoes (diced tomatoes)

2 cups fresh spinach

1 cup shredded carrot

Boil the dal in about 4-41/2 cups of water. Once its boiled, reduce the heat and cover letting it simmer for 10-15 minutes. In a frying pan, cook the onions in oil. Once they soften, add the garlic ginger, carrots, and rice and cook for about 3-4 minutes (when you can smell the flavours developing and the rice is getting coated in oil). Next you want to add the canned broth and tomatoes and about 1/2 cup of the warm lentil liquid (if you use brown rice like I do, you'll want a little more liquid). Add the lentils and give everything a good stir then let it come to a boil. Once the dish is boiling, reduce the heat and cover until all the liquid has been absorbed. My khichuri took about 90 minutes to make.

Season it with as much salt and pepper and you like and enjoy it.

Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Today marked the start of blizzard 2009. What else is there to do stranded in a condo but BAKE! I had all the essential ingredients to make a simple dough. I looked on Foodgawker and found a recipe from America's Test Kitchen, Chocolate Chip Cookies. Although, I didn't use chocolate chips. The only thing I had in the pantry close enough to chocolate chip cookies were Trader Joe's Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.


The recipe makes ~30. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups Trader Joe's mini chocolate peanut butter cups

- Fold the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed or in KitchenAid mixer on level 2 until combined, ~ 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the mini chocolate peanut butter cups until incorporated.

- Working with 1/4 cup of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay on two parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced 2 1/2 inches apart. Baking until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft and puffy, 15-18 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets halfway through baking.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool and then serve.

Mac & Cheese - Vegan Style

Ok so I was looking @ Alicia Silverstone's site The Kind Life, and she posted an entry challenging people to come up with their own vegan mac & cheese recipe after she posted one that she really enjoyed. Me, not one to back down from a cooking challenge (I totally should be on Iron Chef) decided to give it a go. So this is my version of macaroni and cheese.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup whole wheat elbow pasta

dash of salt

black pepper

3-4 dashes of tamari

1 oz vegan mozzarella

1/4 cup soy milk

chili flakes

dried thyme and cilantro

Boil pasta is water. Once cooked, drain and put pasta back in pot with milk. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the dried herbs) as much as suited to your palate. Once the milk has reduced and the mac & cheese is at the thickness you desire add the herbs. Plate the pasta in the bowl. I just bakes some broccoli florets in the oven with a lil' olive oil, salt and pepper and placed them around the mac & cheese.

So I think it turned out pretty well. Yes, I am the only one who ate it, but I liked it and I'm not one to eat nasty food, even if it comes from my kitchen.

Chocolate Cake w/ Mint Whipped Cream

Like most of you know my now, I'm trying to cut out as much animal product out of my daily diet because I'm doing my best to live a healthier lifestyle. So today I decided to experiment with chocolate cake on my venture of making my favourites healthy. I've to admit it totally took well.

Lulu's Chocolate Cake

• 2 1/2 cups of flour sifted with 1t salt
• 3/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/4 cup vanilla silken tofu
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 T dark cocoa powder
• 1 t baking side
• 1 cup milk
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
• 1 tub whipped cream
• 1 t vinegar
• 1 t pure mint extract

Preheat oven @ 350 degrees. In a mixer, combine the apple sauce, sugar, and tofu. Then add cocoa powder. Once mixed well add the flour/salt mix alternating with the milk. Next add the vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar.
Pour mixture into a cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Once the cake has cooled cut it in half. Add the mint extract to the whipped cream and mix well. Use 1/2 the tub of whipped cream and spread over bottom layer. Put the top layer of cake on and then top with remainder of whipped cream.

I'd love for you guys to try it out and let me know how it goes. And if you have any suggestions (like, frosting suggestions, or toppings or different flavours...). I'd love any new cake recipes to try out too. Thanks much!!!

Oh Goody... GRANOLA!

Hehehe, so yeah I made granola again. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm addicted to this stuff. Its the perfect breakfast, snack, or any other meal. My favourite way of eating granola is chopping an apple, dumping it in a pot with a cup of soy milk and cooking it down then pouring it into a bowl over 1/2 cup of granola.
So what's in this week's mix?

Lulu's Granola Part 2:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup craisins
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1/2 chopped dried apricots
• 1/2 chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/3 cup maple syrup

So I just dumped all this stuff in a mixing bowl and mixed VERY well. Then I spread it on a baking sheet and popped it into a 350 preheated oven for 24 minutes, stirring the mixture every 6 minutes. Then cooled it down and stored it in an air tight container. Mmm, granola!

Meat in a Box

KStead and I were craving kebabs for dinner tonight. We usually go to our spot in Arlington but didn't feel like going out that way. We found a place located in Falls Church, VA called Meat in a Box. Clever name, yummy meat!

The menu is pretty simple. You choose either shish, beef, chicken or combo (beef + chicken) skewers in either 2, 4 or 10 in a box. It comes wrapped in bread with tomatoes, onions and parsley. I got the shish, which comes with green peppers, zucchini and onions grilled with the meat and KStead got the chicken.

The staff is really nice and friendly. Kitchen is spic and span. The menu also includes other options such as a veggie wrap, soup de jour (minestrone soup is home made by the mother-in-law), ice cream sandwich (home made saffron and rose water infused ice cream served in between wafers), dolma, baklava, and ayran (Persian yogurt drink).

If you're in the Falls Church area we highly recommend this place.

Meat in a Box

312 S Washington Street

Falls Church, VA 22046

(703) 533-9070

Lulu's Vegan Attempts- Turned out pretty nice :o)

Ok, so for reasons explained log before, I've been cutting meat out of my diet. Well I'm trying to take the next step and cut out animal products. Now I'm not saying I'm going to be a devoted vegan, but I'm definitely going to do my best when possible. So today I made my first vegan banana cheesecake and granola (well that's always vegan though).
So here are my recipes. ENJOY!

Lulu's Banana Cheesecake
Ingredients:

• two 8oz Tofutti cream cheese
• 1 box of silken tofu
• 2 mashed bananas
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 pack of graham crackers
• 2 tbsp Earth Balance melted

Set the oven at 350 degrees. Make crumbs of your graham crackers and mix well with the melted Earth Balance. Press in the bottom of a 9" greased springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes. In a food processor mix all the other ingredients until its creamy and well blended. When the crust has cooled down pour the batter in and bake again for 90 minutes. Let the cake cool down before cutting into it.

Lulu's Granola
This is just so simple. In a bowl I added 3 cups of rolled oats, 1/4 cup craisins, 1/4 chopped dried apricots, 1 chopped up apple, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/4 oil. Mix it all together and spread it onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Put in the oven for 18-24 minutes @ 350 degrees stirring it occasionally. Cool down and place in an air tight canister/container.

1/2 a cup of granola with some milk make a great breakfast! I hope you guys try it out and if there are any vegans reading it, I'd love your feedback. Thanks bunches.

Spruce up your pancakes

So you wake up one morning, open the pantry and find a box of pancake mix but as much as you want pancakes, your mouth is craving tons of flavour. So what to do? The other day I was in the same predicament so I decided to accessorize the pancake mix. I added some dried cranberries, raisins, chopped pecans to the mix and soy milk instead of water. Well the final product was muito delicioso. So next time you get bored @ breakfast, just throw in some of your favourite fruits and. It's give that same ol' same ol' a new look.

xox remember, breakfast is an important meal so DON'T SKIP IT!