Yesterday was Memorial Day, the unofficial start to summer here in the US.  We hope you all had a good holiday weekend (if you had the day off).  One of the joys of summer is the ability to grill your food.  Of course, living in southern California we can pretty much grill year round, but we tend to grill a lot more over the summer than we do in the winter.

If you're looking for some vegan recipes to try out on your grill, Amy over at VegCooking (PETAs cooking blog), has a whole bunch of great recipes.  Our favorite is the Grilled Peaches ala Mode.  Generally, we skip the ice cream and use plums instead of peaches.   But this is yum!

And just in case your family or friends give you a little grief over the idea of vegan grilling, you may want to tell them about the five worst foods to grill.  Happy Summer!

Share and Enjoy

Seitan Scallopini with Lemon Caper Sauce

Jane felt like cooking today, and there's been one recipe she's been meaning to try, but it's not a weekenight recipe.  By that I mean, it's involved and takes some time.  She broke out the big guns today!  The Scaloppini recipe comes from Susan, over at Fat Free Vegan.   The only change Jane made was that she swapped out the green olives and used capers instead.

I wasn't sure what to expect.  The cutlets looked reminiscent of chicken or veal cutlets.  THEY WERE FANTASTIC!  Jane was hoping the recipe wouldn't pan out, because it was a lot of work.  But after the first bite I knew I'd want this meal again.  I'm not sure, but I suspect, a meat eater wouldn't know it wasn't meat.  But then, I haven't had any meat in almost two years, so I may not be the best judge of that.  Jane's promised to make this dish again, and for company so we can test out my theory, but I don't suspect it will be any time soon.

Jane mentioned that she steamed the seitan (rather than wrapping it in foil), which was a little awkward, but the texture was worth it!  Next to Shojin's, this is the best seitan we've had to date!

Share and Enjoy

I've written about my love for Shojin restaurant a few times already.  I'm truly sorry to keep talking about their amazing cuisine, as many of you don't live in the Los Angeles area and won't get the opportunity to eat there.  It is, without a doubt, the best vegan restaurant we have ever eaten at.

One of the dishes they make, which is a "must" if you go there, is the Pan-Fried BBQ Seitan.  The seitan is thinly sliced and has a really wonderful texture.  We thought it's reminiscent of eating meat.  We haven't been able to convince any of our omni's to come with us yet, so we'll have to weigh in on that in another post.

Anyway, Jane thought it might be fun to try and pan-fry her own seitan, so that's what we had for dinner tonight.  It was good, but NOT as good as Shojin's. The texture was completely different. This was much closer to bread than steak.

She started with Susan's recipe for Seitan Baked in Sweet and Sour Orange Sauce, but didn't use the sauce.  After baking the seitan she sliced most and cubed some.  That was an experiment to see if there would be a difference.  There was, the slices worked much better.  It made for a good dinner, and I've asked Jane to prepare that again, but we both agree... Shojin does it better.   Our dinner tonight consisted of the pan fried seitan, corn on the cob and green beans from the farmer's market, tomatoes from our garden, and a large green salad.  It was delicious, if slightly less healthy than what we usually eat.

Share and Enjoy

	Simply Quinoa - 30 Simple Quinoa Recipes

	Quinoa Recipes: The Low Calorie Miracle Seed!

	50 Delicious Quinoa Recipes: The Quinoa Cookbook for Weight Loss, Gluten Free Eating, and Extra Protein (Quick Healthy Recipes)

Click here to find more: quinoa recipes

I think I'm in love. Okay, I'm in love with Lane, but you all know that already. He's my husband after all. Today I'm going to talk about my "new" love. Quinoa. It's not that I haven't had it before, I have. And I've enjoyed it in its plain iterations. But lately, I've been "playing" with it in a variety of different ways. Before this latest heat wave, I'd been making a few variations on quinoa for breakfast, I keep meaning to make it ahead of time and try it cold, but that hasn't happened yet. Just Friday night, I made a Quinoa salad for dinner based on Susan's recipe over at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

Normally I try to follow a recipe exactly as written the first time I'm making it. Especially when it's something new. But it was hot, and I was tired and I didn't have all the ingredients on hand. So, I winged it a bit. I had the basic ingredients for the dressing -- I subbed lemon juice for lime, and mandarin orange juice (from the can of mandarin oranges) for orange juice. But everything else remained the same. The added ingredients were another story however.

Typically we either eat out on Friday's or we have some kind of mish mash thrown together dinner with whatever produce is left over from the week. (Saturday morning we religiously go to our local farmers market.) I had the corn, but no peppers (they never make it a whole week). So, instead of peppers I threw in steamed asparagus. That was kind of boring though and I had no other fresh produce on hand. To spice things up, I added mandarin orange slices, artichoke hearts, and some sun dried tomatoes. I'll probably skip the sun dried tomatoes next time, but this dish is a winner. And since quinoa has a really high protein content, it's one of those things I'll be making more of an effort to incorporate into our diet. Maybe I'll make it again tomorrow...

-- Cheers, Jane

Share and Enjoy

When I was a kid, visiting some family friends, I discovered Nutella. It wasn't something my mom would ever buy... it was too expensive and too high in calories. But there was something about that chocolate hazelnut spread that I found amazingly good. It was kind of like a Peanut Butter Cup, but with hazelnuts instead of peanut butter. And, of course, it was spreadable. It was given to me on Wonder Bread, also something I didn't often have at home (no nutritional value).

I never bought the stuff as an adult. I think it might be like Spaghetti-O's. I always had the fondest memory of eating them as a child. Actually, I remember really liking them. Then, when I was living alone in my first apartment, I bought a can at the supermarket. With the greatest anticipation, I heated them up and put them in a bowl. And they were HORRIBLE! (The ingredient list would have been a clue, had I looked at it!) That experience taught me to be wary of foods I adored as a child. And it's borne out in things like Fruit Loops cereal and the like.

I'm afraid the Nutella would taste like that to me today. But then again, maybe not. I think it was marketed towards adults. Anyway, Lane and I have been poking around the internet looking at vegan recipes, and i stumbled across a message board thread with a recipe for Vegan Nutella. There are a few versions on the thread, I may have to try them all. Sometimes I'll make Lane an Almond Butter, Honey, and Banana sandwich for lunch. The nutella might make for a nice change from the almond butter on occasion.

– If you haven’t signed our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.

Share and Enjoy

Last week, Jane made Chana Masala for the first time. It's a blend of spices and onion and tomato forming a delicious sauce, and chickpeas are added to that. It was really good, but Jane used dried chickpeas, and the cooking time in the recipe reflected the use of canned chickpeas. Even though Jane had soaked the beans overnight, they took forever to cook, and we were starving. So when it reached a point where we couldn't wait any longer, we ate the dish, crunchy chickpeas and all.

We had some good comments from Todd, Roger, and Nadir all highly recommending pressure cookers. It's a purchase we plan on making, but in the mean time, we used the canned chickpeas the original recipe (at Orangette's blog) called for.

If you like Indian food at all, try this recipe. You'll love it! We do; it's our all time favorite vegan meal.  Jane made double the recipe, so we'll have it for dinner tomorrow too (yay). Tomorrow she'll serve it with rice, and our requisite green salad.  Tonight we had whole wheat tortillas.  Oh, and we use vegan sour cream in place of the yogurt Orangette recommends.

– If you haven’t signed our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.

Share and Enjoy

Jane and I adore Indian cuisine. Lately, Jane's been dabbling a bit in preparing Indian dishes. We bought dried chickpeas in the market last weekend and tonight when I came home there was the unmistakable aroma of something wonderful coming together in our kitchen.

Jane tried the Chana Masala recipe from Orangette's blog. Orangette's not a vegan, but a number of her recipes are vegan-friendly, and she authors one of those food blogs that's a joy to read. This is the first recipe we've tried from her site, but thanks to Tanya of Veggie Love, who pointed it out to us (eons ago).

Unfortunately, the chickpeas took forever to cook, even after soaking almost 24 hours, so dinner wasn't ready for a long, long time. When it was finally ready, neither of us could find the camera, and we were too hungry to continue to look for it, so no picture -- Sorry. But take it from me, if you like Indian cuisine, this recipe is a must try! If you're not much on cooking, there's always the Vegetable Biryani from Trader Joe's. But this Chana Masala is way better!

Next time Jane makes this (with canned chickpeas!!!) we'll be sure to post a photo. Just to further whet your whistle, we both agree, this has been the BEST vegan entree Jane has prepared to date.

Share and Enjoy