Indian food in SE VA

All of you who won't be in Southeastern Virginia any time soon can probably stop reading now. For the two of you who are left, here's a tip for some good Indian food if you find yourself in that vicinity. We were in Williamsburg for the day today and had dinner at Nawab (they're also in Virginia Beach and Newport News among other places). The food was very good and the best thing about it for us was they have several entrees on their menu that are clearly labeled as vegan - so there's no guessing (or bugging the wait staff) about what we can eat.

Spanish Omelet

Another good one from Vegan with a Vengeance - though the recipe name is a bit of a mouthful: Revolutionary Spanish Omelet with Saffron and Roasted Red Pepper-Almond Sauce. Whew. The recipe itself is just a tad involved too so here's the really short version. Roasted yukon gold potatoes and onions in olive oil, topped with a saffron-tofu mixture and baked. The sauce is just whirred up in a food processor - roasted red peppers, almonds, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, thyme, sugar and salt. We had some steamed cauliflower on the side.

And now I must go and tend to the hazelnut scones (also from VwaV) that I have in the oven.

Edamame Dip and Carrot Salad

I won't go into the details, but somehow we've ended up with a free subscription to Cooking Light magazine. Not something I can heartily recommend for a vegan, but we do flip through it and get some ideas on occasion - and sometimes we even find a vegan recipe in there. Like this edamame dip. We've had a package of edamame in our freezer for several months and this seemed like something good to do with at least part of that package. The dip was pretty simple - starting with 1 1/2 cups of the edamame, cooked in boiling water for a few minutes then drained and allowed to cool. That went into the food processor with a little water, some red onion, rice vinegar, olive oil, salt, fresh garlic chives, a little Asian chile sauce, and a can of white beans. We also made a simple carrot salad (from the same issue of Cooking Light) with shredded carrots, toasted cumin, raisins, parsley, orange juice, lemon juice, olive oil and salt. (Then Darlene tasted it and decided it needed a little sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce - good additions.) We served these 2 snacks with some good fresh bread that Darlene picked up from a local bakery today and that made for a pretty decent meal.

Seitan Stir Fry

Tonight I was thinking about the Orange Seitan we made several weeks ago, but other than a package of seitan we didn't have the key ingredients on hand. We did have some yellow squash, asparagus and green onions though and we almost always have carrots. So first I started some brown rice cooking. Then I tore the seitan into small pieces, dusted it well with cornstarch and fried it in peanut oil over high heat until it was nice and brown. Then I set the seitan aside and stir fried the asparagus, squash and carrots in more peanut oil, then added some minced ginger and garlic and a few chopped green onions. Next, the seitan went back into the pan along with this sauce: 1/2 c. veg. broth, 1/2 c. orange juice, 3 Tbs. soy sauce, 1 tsp. sesame oil and 1 1/2 Tbs. cornstarch. Oh, and a pinch of red pepper flakes went in there too. We both had seconds so it must not have been too bad.

Curried Tempeh-Mango Salad

I'm not sure how I kept bypassing this recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but now I'm glad I finally tried it. So yummy... I threw it together fairly quickly last night so I'd have something easy to eat when I got back from my ride. It was good when I first made it, but I think it was even better after sitting in the fridge for a day.

Portobello Pot Pie

Tonight was a delicious pot pie recipe from La Dolce Vegan. Portobello mushrooms, button mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery and yukon gold potatoes in a sauce of veggie broth seasoned with soy sauce, thyme and sage (and thickened with flour). The topping was a basic biscuit dough, although the dough came out a little dry and hard to roll out so we just sprinkled it on top and that worked just fine. One the side was a nice lettuce mix we got from our local farmers market this weekend topped with a lemon vinaigrette.

It was a beautiful day here today so we ate dinner outside on the deck for the first time this year. The photo came out pretty nice with the natural light. Unfortunately the mosquitos will be out in force within another few weeks so our opportunities to eat outside when it's warm and bug free are limited.

Roy Green Southwestern Pasta

When I was 18 and I went away to college, two things happened. I started cooking for myself for the first time and I started cycling. And so I started thinking more about the food I was eating. I read a book called Eat to Win and one thing I remember was a bit about eating a variety of foods and eating lots of different colored vegetables. Or ROY Green. That is Red, Orange, Yellow and Green vegetables. So that's where the name comes from.

The recipe is actually adapted from a book called Vegetarian Southwest by Lon Walters, which is a collection of recipes from restaurants in the Southwest. This idea was inspired by a recipe in said book from Randy's Restaurant and Bar in Durango, Colorado. And it was also inspired by the vegan iron chef challenge in this thread on the Post Punk Kitchen forums. So here it is - it came out quite delicious.

8 oz. penne
1/4 c. olive oil
1 small red onion, quartered and sliced
3 Tbs. minced shallots
5-6 stalks asparagus, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 of a medium red bell pepper, sliced thin
1 medium carrot, diced
1 small yellow squash, cubed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 dried chipotle pepper, reconstituted in boiling water then drained and finely minced
1 Tbs. chopped fresh oregano
1 tsp. chopped fresh chives
1/4 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/2 c. vegetable broth
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs. agave nectar
3 Tbs. chopped pumpkin seeds

Cook penne in plenty of salted boiling water until al dente. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and shallots and a pinch of salt and cook for a minute or two. Then add asparagus, bell pepper, carrot and squash and saute for several minutes more until vegetables are starting to get soft. Add garlic, chipotle, oregano, chives and salt and cook for another minute, then deglaze the pan with the vegetable broth. Bring to a simmer, then add the penne and mix well. Toss in the vinegar and agave and turn off the heat. Serve sprinkled with pumpkin seeds. (And I found a chive flower in our herb garden so I just had to throw it on there as a garnish.)

Mashed Cauliflower and other delights

We had seen somewhere before an idea for mashing cauliflower like you would mash potatoes, so we decided to try that tonight. I steamed a bunch of cauliflower until it was very soft and smashed it up with some margarine, Silk creamer and salt & pepper. It wasn't too much like mashed potatoes, but still it was really good. Next to that was a little of the Twin Oaks veggie chorizo, fried in just a little margarine and the Dijon Mustard Brussels Sprouts from La Dolce Vegan!

Coconut Pancakes

Here's another winner from Vegan with a Vengeance that we had for breakfast this morning. Coconut pancakes with pineapple sauce. We made the sauce once before, for waffles or plain pancakes or something; this time we did the complete recipe. The pancakes came out really fluffy and delicious and the sauce is super simple: just mix together a can of pineapple (with juice) and 2 Tbs. cornstarch or arrowroot, bring to a boil and stir until thickened, then add a little sugar and vanilla.

Pasta

What we had in our fridge today that we needed to use up were: about half a can of plum tomatoes, a big bunch of baby spinach and about half a bunch of cilantro. I was thinking about some kind of chili type stew, but when I got home Darlene was already going in another direction. She started a pasta sauce with the tomatoes (plus another full can) and olive oil, onions, garlic, tomato paste, salt & pepper. Then she made a pesto with the spinach and cilantro plus some pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and salt. Then the pesto was added to the tomato sauce and everything was blended with a hand blender and allowed to simmer for half an hour or so. Sounds a little unorthodox, especially to all the cilantro haters out there, but the result was most excellent.

She also tried making some homemade pasta. Which turned out pretty good except, lacking a pasta machine, we didn't get it rolled out quite thin enough. There also wasn't a large quantity of it so we also cooked some whole wheat spaghetti. Meanwhile, I made a salad with romaine, carrots, red onion and slivered almonds, topped with the lemon zinger vinaigrette from Vive le Vegan.

Paula Deen goes Vegan Praline French Toast

Yes, I admit that I watch the food network and probably way too much tv in general. I saw Paula Deen make a really rich praline french toast. I went on-line, got the recipe and decided this would be a great recipe to make vegan. Lots of brown sugar and margarine!! Hmm.. Brown sugar and margarine as Homer Simpson would say. I told you I watch way too much tv. Here is my vegan version of the recipe.

Paula Deen goes Vegan Praline French Toast

1 loaf italian or french bread cut into thick slices
(this part adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance)
3/4 c. Silk creamer
3/4 c. soy milk
3 Tbs. cornstarch
6 Tbs. chickpea flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Place the bread slices in a large (10"x14") shallow casserole dish and spoon the french toast mixture over the slices making sure to get all of the slices coated. Let this sit for about 10 minutes while you make the praline topping as follows.

1/2 stick vegan margarine, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn or rice syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix all the praline topping ingredients together and spread it on top of the french toast.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Top with maple syrup. Enjoy.

Cold Udon Noodles

When we lived in Raleigh many years ago we used to frequent a Vietnamese restaurant called Dalat. Actually they had a sandwich place next to the restaurant and we used to get these great subs with fried soy protien and sort of an Asian slaw on top. So tonight I was inspired by the memory of those subs when I made this noodle dish.

For the slaw, mix together about 1/2 a cucumber, julienned, 2 medium carrots, sliced, and 2 stalks chopped celery with some rice wine vinegar, peanut oil and salt & pepper.

For the sauce, mix all this stuff in a blender (adapted from the Beyond the Moon Cookbook):
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
1 large clove garlic
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. rice vinegar
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. sesame oil
2 tsp. Asian chile paste

Then soak 1 c. TVP chunks in 2 c. boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain and then fry in a wok in peanut oil until the chunks start to get a little dry and a little brown. Add 1/3 c. of the sauce and cook for a few minutes longer, then remove from heat and allow to cool.

Then chop up a small bunch of kale and cook that in salted boiling water along with a package of udon noodles until the noodles are al dente. Drain the kale and noodles well and rinse with cold water. To assemble, put some noodles and kale in a bowl, add some TVP chunks, about 1/4 c. of the sauce, then some of the slaw, and garnish it with some chopped cilantro.

A little of this and a little of that

As much as we strive for cooking fresh and from scratch, it's definitely not always that way. In January when it's 30 degrees and it gets dark at 5:15 what else are you gonna do but cook in the evening? Nowadays though we're out and about more often in the evenings and sometimes dinner is just whatever leftovers or frozen stuff we can come up with. Tonight I came home from work, hung out for a bit then headed out again for a short ride while Darlene went to meet some friends at the running track. When I first got home I just had a piece of toast with peanut butter, then as soon as I got back from riding I had a Clif Builders bar. (If you're into energy bars and haven't tried Clif you should check them out - they're a good company and their stuff doesn't taste half bad either.) A bit later I threw together a quick salad and had more toast, this time topped with frozen veggie sausages that I nuked in the microwave and leftover chickpea gravy. (Darlene had already nabbed the leftover mashed potatoes, but there was still gravy left.)

Which brings me to this note: We're trying to post as often as possible, but some nights are just not as interesting as others. So if you don't see a post on a particular night you can safely assume that we're just cleaning some leftovers out of the fridge and/or pulling something out of the freezer.

Interview is up

The interview we did on Sunday is now up on the Charlottesville Podcasting Network. You can follow the link to stream it, or download the mp3 directly (9.2 MB). Our interviewer did a great job putting it together; hopefully it's not totally obvious that this was the first time either of us had ever done something like this ;-)

Pad Thai

It seems it's been a while since we've had Pad Thai, and I think we may have a new favorite recipe. We've sort of done our own thing in the past and there's a good recipe we've used a lot in an old issue of Vegetarian Times, but Vegan with a Vengeance continues to impress. Tonight I mostly followed the recipe in there and it was really good. The sauce was very intense, what with the tamarind and all, but very flavorful. In addition to the tamarind concentrate, the sauce had rice vinegar, Asian chile sauce, tomato paste, sugar, and soy sauce. The rest of the dish was the obligatory rice noodles with tofu, red onion, garlic, lemongrass, bean sprouts, scallions and chopped peanuts. It was garnished with cilantro and limes. And we've still got a lime and a big bunch of cilantro left so I'm thinking there may be something Mexican/Southwestern/Tex-Mex in our future (but probably not tomorrow night since we'll be busy and we've still got various leftovers we need to clear out of the fridge). Stay tuned.

Brunch and our Interview

We were completely thrilled today to be interviewed for the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, during which time we made this brunch:

Hash with Mushrooms and Spinach (recipe follows)
Tempeh Bacon (from Vegan with a Vengeance)
Banana Oat Bundles (from Vive le Vegan; Darlene also made an orange glaze for the top from orange juice and powdered sugar)
Fresh baked bread with margarine (not pictured)

The interview should be up and available for download later this week. We'll link to it from here as soon as it's up.

For the hash:
2-3 Tbs. olive oil
2 lbs. potatoes of your choice, cut into small dice (like 3/8")
1 medium onion, diced
5-6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 large clove garlic, minced
large handful baby spinach (about 1 c. packed)
salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large wide skillet over medium-high heat and add potatoes, a little salt and some pepper. Stir the potatoes to coat them with the salt & pepper and the oil, then spread them out into a single layer and let them cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, or until they're just starting to get tender. If they're not cooking fast enough, you can add about 1 Tbs. water to the pan and cover for a few minutes. Once the potatoes are almost done, add the onion, mushrooms, paprika and a little more salt and pepper and mix well. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are getting soft. Then mix in the garlic and tear the spinach into smaller pieces and mix that in. Cook for another minute or so, just until the spinach is wilted, then remove from heat and serve.

Pasta Salad Southwestern Style

So it's getting late, but here's a quick idea about tonight's dinner. It was warm outside (like 20 degrees above average) and we wanted something not so warm for dinner. A pasta salad fit the bill. Cook a pound of pasta, mix in a can of black beans, some frozen corn (thawed under the pasta water), plus some chopped celery, carrots and cherry tomatoes. Add the Cumin Lime Vinaigrette from Vive le Vegan and voila, a quick meal for a warm night.

Sticks

We found ourselves out and about around dinner time today so we decided to stop for a quick bite at Sticks Kebob Shop, despite having mixed feelings about the place. Oh, their falafel is great and they positively have the best hummus in town; it's their grilled veggies that cause us a little concern. Admittedly, we've eaten there many times in the past and had the grilled veggies on a number of occasions, but at some point we came to the realization (confirmed by asking about it) that they're not very judicious about keeping the veggies separate from the meat on the grill. For many folks I suppose that's not an issue, but we'd really prefer not to eat vegetables that have been cooked on the same grill as meat.

So we'll just stick with the falafel. Which by the way, comes on a pita sandwich or as a platter with pita bread, basmati rice and a side of hummus, tabouleh, or one of several other salads - like the cucumber, tomato and red onion salad I had tonight.

A Typical American Meal?

I suppose this is about as close to traditional as we'll get. I might've had something like this growing up, only with some piece of animal flesh in place of the tofu...

I've been wanting to try the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance for quite a while and I finally got around to it tonight. I didn't want to have just the gravy on mashed potatoes for dinner so in a departure from normal, I used every burner on the stove for this meal. I started by marinating some tofu in a mixture of soy sauce, lime juice, maple syrup, olive oil and garlic. While the tofu was getting happy, I made the gravy - onions, garlic, mustard seeds, some other herbs and spices, soy sauce, lemon juice, mashed chickpeas, then water and flour to thicken and nutritional yeast at the end.

The tofu was dredged in panko bread crumbs and pan fried in olive oil. The green beans were just steamed and served with margarine and salt & pepper. And while all that was happening, I quartered some red potatoes (left the skin on), boiled until soft, and mashed with a little soy milk, some margarine and salt & pepper. There was quite a mess in the kitchen at the end, but I think it was worth it.

Red Beans and Rice

We cracked open our recently-purchased copy of La Dolce Vegan! again tonight and made a slightly tweaked version of the Red Beans and Rice. I sauteed diced onion, green bell pepper and celery in olive oil, then added some of the Twin Oaks veggie chorizo I mentioned a while back. Then in went a couple cloves of minced garlic (absent from the recipe in the book, but really, everything needs garlic). Then I added 1 c. of white basmati rice and 1 1/2 c. veggie broth and half a 28 oz. can of plum tomatoes. It was seasoned only with a heaping teaspoon of essence and a healthy amount of fresh ground black pepper. And I added a little finely chopped kale since we've still got some in the fridge. That simmered, covered, over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes and then I added a can of red kidney beans (drained) and cooked another minute until the beans were heated through (it was garnished with some chopped garlic chives that are coming back nicely in our herb garden).

Tofu-Dill Salad Again

It's that time of year again when the days are getting longer and we're often out and about on the evenings. On Tuesdays and Thursdays in particular there's a local group ride that I try to do at least once a week and also on those days Darlene has been meeting friends who run at a local track. Which means we need something quick for dinner. And we still had some fresh dill that was hanging on in the fridge from the last time we made the tofu-dill salad sammiches from Vegan with a Vengeance. So this morning before work I whipped up this salad/sandwich spread - it only takes 10 minutes. Then when I got home from the ride I had 3 sandwiches - 2 on ciabatta rolls and 1 on rye bread - with lettuce and shredded carrots. Yeah, 3 sandwiches sounds like a lot, but I did ride for over 2 hours, a good hour of which was pretty much at maximum warp.

Spaghetti with Tomato Peanut Sauce and Kale

This is only slightly adapted from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan! It's nothing spectacular, but it did make for a good and fairly quick meal. I cooked a pound of whole wheat spaghetti, and while that was going on, I sauteed 2 cloves of minced garlic in some olive oil, then added 1 jar (24 oz.) of Bionaturae® strained tomatoes and about 3-4 cups of finely chopped kale. That simmered for about 5 minutes, then in went about 1/4 c. of smooth peanut butter, 1 tsp. of Asian chili sauce and about 1 tsp. of salt (use less if your tomatoes and/or peanut butter contain salt). Simmer for a few more minutes then add the pasta and mix it all together.

Broccoli Soup with Gnocchi

Tonight Darlene wanted to try making something similar to the soup she did a few weeks ago but with gnocchi instead of rice. We had a little broccoli that we needed to use and also a red bell pepper and I figured those would go well in a soup so we set to work in the kitchen and this was the result.

1 c. TVP chunks
1 c. veggie broth
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 lb. broccoli, cut into small pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. ground sage
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
1 veg. boullion cube plus 5 c. water (or 5 more c. veg. broth)
1 package gnocchi

Bring the 1 c. veg. broth to a boil (in a measuring cup in the microwave or in a small saucepan), put TVP chunks in a small bowl, and pour broth over chunks, then cover the bowl and set aside. Meanwhile, in a medium stock pot, saute onion, pepper and celery in oil over medium heat for several minutes. Add broccoli and cook for a couple more minutes, then add garlic, herbs and salt & pepper. Cook another minute or so, then add water & veg. boullion. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 mins. or until broccoli is getting a little soft. Partially puree everything with a hand blender, but leave it a little chunky. Add TVP chunks and any remaining soaking liquid, partially cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Finally, add gnocchi and simmer for 3-4 more minutes.

There is vegan food in Norfolk

I have to admit, I was a little surprised to see Norfolk, VA on PETA's list of top vegetarian-friendly cities. Granted, that's where PETA's headquarters are, but the parts of Norfolk I'd been to seemed pretty standard-American-suburb to me - mostly miles and miles of strip malls. But Norfolk's a big place and I now stand corrected. In the Ghent neighborhood in particular, we found some great vegan food. Last night we ate at Bella Pizza, which was a lot like many other New York-style pizzerias I've been to in the past, except they offered vegan cheese on their pizzas. Then after my race this morning we had brunch at Cora, which has several great vegan options. Darlene had their Hawaiian French Toast and soy sausage. The french toast was battered with some kind of banana mixture and topped with pineapple and coconut. And I had some great scrambled tofu and nice crispy home fries. And next time we're in the neighborhood we'll be back to one of these places or any number of others on the list.

Hummus Wraps

Another relatively quick and easy meal last night. We had some hummus in the fridge that I made a week or so ago, plus some broccoli and a red bell pepper that needed to be used. So I thought some wraps might be good. There are many many recipes on-line for hummus and mine was pretty standard so I won't go into details there. I'm not really sure of the proportions anyway - just chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, parsley and salt & pepper whirred up in the food processor. Anyway, I spread a bunch of hummus on a tortilla and topped it with shredded carrots, thinly sliced red bell pepper and some of the broccoli that I steamed in a bowl in the microwave. On top of all that, I drizzled some of the Lemon Zinger Vinaigrette from Vive le Vegan that I whipped up real quick with a hand blender in a measuring cup. We really like the vinaigrette recipes from this book, and though I've been using flax oil instead of the hemp seed oil called for in the recipes, they still come out great.

We're off to Norfolk this afternoon since I have a bike race there first thing in the morning but we've got a good lead on some vegan food options there. We'll let you know what we find.

Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad

Well, everything but the kitchen sink. Chris was off riding his bike this evening and I met some friends for walking/running after work so I was looking for something to throw together quickly. This is from sort of an eclectic mix of stuff I found while searching the kitchen, but it tasted pretty good. With some farfalle pasta, I mixed chopped celery and carrots, a can of beets, some marinated mushrooms, and frozen peas (I drained the pasta water over them to defrost). I also added some TVP chunks that I reconstituted in boiling water, then fried with soy sauce and hoisin sauce. For the dressing I mixed together in a blender - 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar, 1/4 c. orange champagne vinegar, 1 clove of garlic, 1 Tbs. whole grain mustard, 1 tsp. dried dill, and 1 Tbs. soy sauce. Then I drizzled in 1/4 c. of canola oil and 1 Tbs. sesame oil, and then mixed in 2 Tbs. Vegenaise. A lot of different flavors, but it served it's purpose as a quick meal.

Cleaning out the fridge

Often when we make dinner there's enough left to have for lunch the next day. Sometimes there's even more than that left. When that happens several times the leftovers start piling up in the fridge. But then occasionally it's nice to just pop something in the microwave for dinner and not worry about cooking or doing many dishes. Tonight was such a night. Darlene had some of the spaghetti from a couple nights ago topped with the sauce from last night and I had the last of the baked pasta that was still hanging around from several nights ago. Both were topped with fresh cherry tomatoes. And with the extra time we had we went for a walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed the extra daylight.

Mini Frittatas with Asparagus

Yup. Asparagus again tonight. We wanted to use up what was left from last night, so we made the Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata from Vegan with a Vengeance. We made a variation on this once before and though it tasted great, it didn't hold together that well since all we had to bake it in was too large a skillet. So tonight I decided to make little baby frittatas in a muffin tin. The frittata recipe in a nutshell is mashed tofu with soy sauce and mustard added, then mixed with sauteed onions, asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic, and seasoned with thyme, turmeric, basil and lemon juice. The rest of the asparagus I sauteed in a little olive oil with salt and pepper, then added a little lemon juice and covered it and let it steam for several minutes. We topped it off with the "cheese" sauce that we make fairly regularly from Very Vegetarian.

Pasta with Red Chili Peanut Sauce

This sauce is something we used to make quite often, but it's been a while since we've had it. It's from Hot and Spicy and Meatless by DeWitt, Wilan and Stock. Saute 3 cloves of minced garlic and Asian chili sauce to taste in some peanut oil for a minute or so. Add 2 Tbs. tomato paste, 1/2 c. veg. broth, 1/2 tsp. agave nectar, 1 Tbs. peanut butter and 1/4 c. hoisin sauce. Whisk everything together and bring to a boil, then turn off heat and stir in 1/4 c. finely chopped peanuts and 2 tsp. chili powder. We put the sauce over some whole wheat spaghetti and topped it with steamed asparagus and a few cherry tomatoes.

Black Bean and Rice Cakes

We finally picked up a copy of Dreena Burton's great book Vive le Vegan, and tonight we tried the "Celebrity Adzuki Bean and Rice Cakes", only with black beans. They were really delicious with the black beans and topped with a simple guacamole. What an interesting way to get your beans and rice - all blended together in a food processor and fried up into little patties. On the side we had a salad with red leaf lettuce, carrots and cherry tomatoes with the Cumin Lime Vinaigrette, also from Vive (and also fabulous).

We still have plenty of the bean & rice mixture left over and also pasta from last night. And we're traveling to northern Virginia tomorrow where I have a bike race so we'll be stocking up at Trader Joe's. So we'll probably get some snacks at TJ's for the ride home and/or have leftovers once we get home. A long-winded way of saying there probably won't be a post tomorrow.