Eggplant and Zucchini Rollatini

Genovese and Sweet Basil in the bowl, Lemon Basil on the board.
Fresh herbs from my garden. Such a bounty!

I'll never come to terms with an office job, the 9-5 (6-5 in my case), pushing paper, literally. I've settled for this routine that has developed over the last month, but it's not making me happy. I'm trying to utilize my free time for activities that are all my own. For one, I'm entering the beginning stages of writing a vegan cookzine, but an unconscious fear of incompletion or ill-favored reviews is holding me back from getting it started. I've gathered a modest amount of recipes, compiled mostly from commonly cooked dishes stored in the back of my brain. I'll be requesting the help of my most creative friends to collaborate on the design and layout, and I'll need some recipe testers when the time comes. This idea spawned (at work) out of this realization that I need to be doing more. Something more needs to come out of me, something positive, tangible, and beneficial to others. Something I can take credit for and be happy with.

That being said, work has left me drained. I'm working 5 days a week, leaving the house at 6AM and returning home around 5PM. Needless to say I'm exhausted and have been alternating between mildly dressed up frozen burritos, salads, and pasta. Not this weekend, I told myself. Matt and I have been on an eggplant binge for the last few weeks - they are plump and deliciously cheap at the farmer's market - and I've had my heart set on eggplant rollatini all week.

Eggplant and Zucchini Rollatini with Cashew Ricotta and Lemon Basil

I breaded and baked the eggplant slices, and decided to throw in some sliced zucchini. It's filled with the cashew-ricotta from veganomicon and some lemon basil from my garden. Everything turned out wonderfully...better than I anticipated. Time-consuming and ingredient-heavy meals have a tendency to be altered significantly during my cooking process. I'll usually eat 1/3 of the meal during the time spent in the kitchen, tasting this and that until I'm too full to ever sample the final and complete dish. Not this time around. The effort and time spent on this meal was worth the reward.

Keen on Peaches

I tend to use holidays as an excuse to whip up more extravagant meals and desserts, regardless of whether or not I partake in them. This being the fourth of July, I thought a hearty summery Southern dessert was in order. Peaches have finally started to show up at the Farmer’s Market and I took home 10-12 small/medium sized peaches for $4! Amazing! I’ve eaten a peach everyday for the last week and still have several sitting (and softening) on the counter. My initial response was to freeze them, ensuring their freshness for later in the year. Then I thought to myself, “it’s the beginning of July; I’ll have peaches at my disposal for several more weeks! Let’s make cobbler instead!”

And that is what I did.

Now, I never had peach cobbler before I became vegan, but I could imagine and ended up successfully recreated the warm velveteen peach buried under crisp and flaky cinnamon-scented biscuits. Since I didn't have any granulated sugar at my disposal, I used agave in it's place. I also used hemp milk as my non-dairy milk.

Vegan Peach Cobbler
adapted from vegweb.com
2/3 cup light agave nectar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon light agave nectar
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 cup sliced peaches (about 6 medium peaches)
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup soy or almond milk
4 tablespoons vegan butter

Heat oven to 400. Mix agave, the cornstarch and cinnamon in a saucepan. Stir in the peaches and lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for one minute. Pour into an ungreased 2-quart casserole; keep hot in the oven.

Cut vegan butter into flour, the baking powder and salt until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk and agave. Drop dough by the spoonful onto hot peach mixture.

Bake until topping is golden brown - about 25-30 minutes.

Pumpkin Seed Butter

A few weeks ago, before leaving Tallahassee, a couple of friends and I got together for a BBQ. We planned to make the get-together a monthly, if not bi-weekly occasion. Sadly the move to BR limited my attendance. At our first jamboree, our friend Lindsay had recently returned from a trip to Jacksonville. While there she went to one of the most spectacular farmer's markets I have had the experience of hearing about. She brought back a couple of dips and spreads, and I have been on a dip-kick ever since.

There was an Artichoke-Walnut Pesto which everyone seemed to enjoy. The flavors were spot on: a mellow tangy-ness from the artichokes, that was subtly muted by the earthy walnuts. I thought it was a bit too oily, but definitely delicious. I also sampled some raw cashew cheese, which I've been making on a semiweekly basis since that day. All that was in it was raw cashews, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, tahini, garlic, and salt.

All of those spreads and dips were fantastic, but the last one I sampled takes the cake. It was a Pumpkin Seed Butter! I've never had raw pumpkin seeds before, and I never enjoyed the toasted ones my mom made after the Halloween tradition, but this was AMAZING! It was creamy and salty and thick and everything I wanted. Needless to say I slathered it on my portabello mushroom burger, baked potato, and even on the cob of corn.

Since then, I've been working on my own recipe for the infamous Pumpkin Seed Butter. Mine has more ingredients than the one I originally sampled, and it also has a hint of sweetness from the agave I decided to add to it. I decided to add some cashews to this recipe just to give it more volume, so feel free to purely use pumpkin seeds. My partner declared this the "IT" dip for pretty much the rest of his existence. Here the recipe and a photo; I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Pumpkin Seed Butter
makes 1.5 cups
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/8 cup light agave nectar
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3-4 Tablespoons water

Place pumpkin seeds and cashews into a food processor or blender. Pulse the seeds/nuts into a medium-sized crumbs. Add the agave nectar, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Pulse until everything is uniformly combined. Slowly add the water, running the blender until it all comes together as a thick paste. Add more water by the teaspoon until desired consistency is reached.

I prefer my Pumpkin Seed Butter to be thick, so I stick to 3 T of water. At this consistency, it is thick enough to dip and hearty enough to withstand being spread on breads.

Serve this as a dip or spread with crackers, veggies or on sandwiches. I think this would make a really good pasta sauce with a few tweaks. In that case, thin it out with another tablespoon or two of water and throw in some fresh basil for a Pumpkin Seed Pesto (in fact, I think I'll do that for tonight's dinner!).

Moving On + Loads of Food!

Hello again!

These past few months have been nothing but hustling 'n bustling. I'm proud to say that I am now a college graduate, and I'm shaking in my boots. While my day-to-day activities have hardly changed (aside from three or more hours of required reading a night), I'm beginning to understand my life within the "bigger picture." My experiences as an undergraduate were mostly devoted to bettering myself. All of the studying and all of the classes were to foster my interests and expand my capacity for knowledge. Now I'm at a stage in my life where all the lessons and skills ingrained into me are mine. I've learned a great deal from the people I've encountered the last four years, and I'm confident enough in them and in myself to pass these lessons on.

Vegan Yum Yum's Avocado Wasabi Salad

Brown Rice with peas, carrots and a garlic-ginger sauce

Springtime Picnic

Upon waking up to greet the first day of spring, I’ll admit I was moderately disappointed. The soft drizzling aftermath characteristic of earlier fierce storms clouded the sun’s rays that I had expected to find glaring through my window shades. It was cold, but not cruelly so, and the sodden earth spoke of prolonged showers all through the night. This diverged greatly from the two days preceding. Springtime was typified by these last two days: cloudless skies, comfortable temperatures striving to reach 70s, a fluctuating breeze never strong enough to scatter paper or tousle your hair…perfection. Thankfully I was able to exploit such charming weather with an equally charming companion. We spent the afternoon at my favorite small park near the apartment, Lichgate Park. The first time I was brought to this park, I nearly lost myself in its enchantment. It features a magnificent live oak tree, a Tudor-style cottage, and an active garden of various flowers and vegetables.

My companion and I spread a blanket under the oak and enjoyed plethora of perfect picnic provisions. Our lunch consisted of chickpea wraps (chickpeas, tabbouleh, spring greens, carrots, avocado, and a homemade tahini dressing), apples, and thyme and poppy seed crackers. We concluded our meal with some fantasy novels, for which our physical setting was superb. I can wait patiently for spring, especially when Florida winters are punctuated with many of the aforementioned days. Yes, I can wait.

Another Day, Another Scramble

Recipes for Tofu Scramble are a dime a dozen. Everyone has their ideal spice blend, veggie combination, and tofu texture. I’ve doubtlessly experienced and tested more than 20 different recipes, some of which ruled, some of which drooled. When making a scrambled tofu dish, it all boils down to preference. Personally, I like my ‘fu cooked. No, I mean really cooked. A crisp and brown bottom achieved by high heat and low moisture is my kind of scramble. If you fancy a softer, moist scramble, then this recipe probably isn’t for you. However, adding water by the tablespoon is an easy way to “revitalize” your scramble if you think it’s too dry.

Rainy Tuesday

Not enough people munch on sandwiches. Don’t get me wrong; I’m fully aware of the status and attractiveness of sandwiches today: Grade school kids (and their moms) have declared the sandwich as their representative lunch; veggies sandwiches are the fundamental picnic provisions, at least for me; road trips aren’t complete without a handful of pb&j’s (triangle cuts only!). All I’m saying is that we need to be eating sandwiches all day, every day.

A real post is in the works. Gloomy weather only produces gloomy photographs and gloomy food.

Real food, real soon. Promise!

(…maybe a sandwich!)

Vegan Today, Not Tomorrow

Welcome to Vegan Today, a vegan food blog structure around informative, exciting, and enticing vegan recipes, photos, restaurant/product reviews, news and rants&raves. Newly involved in the world of blogging, I'm exploring and advocating a vegan lifestyle for today. This blog stresses the importance of immediate action regarding animal rights, environmental sustainability, and health conciousness. Of course, I will include plenty of yummy recipes and pictures!

Simply, veganism can matter TODAY. There's no reason to wait until tomorrow to get involved!

-Mikaila, Vegan Today