Sunday, October 30, 2011

Cleveland Eats and Cornbread

J and I, plus one adventurous pup, went to Cleveland this weekend. We were only there overnight, just long enough to go to the kitschy and wonderful Christmas Story house/museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Museum. I knew we'd have the opportunity to try out at least one Cleveland vegan/vegetarian restaurant, so I consulted VegGuide.org and found out all about Flaming Ice Cube, a cute little vegan restaurant located in downtown Cleveland. 

J and I were both famished when we got to the Flaming Ice Cube, and briefly considered getting everything! Instead we restrained ourselves and ordered two entrees and an appetizer to share. Our choice of appetizer was the summer rolls, which came with a fantastic peanut dipping sauce. We ate the summer rolls before I even thought about taking pictures! 

I remembered the camera for our entrees, however. J ordered the Mediterranean Hummus Wrap, which came with a side order of couscous. I didn't try the wrap, but J assured me it was delicious. I did steal a spoonful of couscous, which was savory goodness. 
Look at that wrap! It is actually half a wrap, which is crazy.

I was tempted by the flatbread pizzas featuring Daiya (yay Daiya!) or the vast selection of veggie burgers. In the end, I chose the Mmmushroom Burger with a side order of pesto pasta.
This was the best veggie burger I have ever had. Seriously. And the pesto salad was pretty great too.

We were too stuffed to order one of the amazing desserts, but I couldn't go completely without. So we got some chocolate chip cookies to go. I waited until we got back to Pittsburgh before I had mine. There is apparently nothing that Flaming Ice Cube doesn't do fantastically well, and the cookies were no exception. Yum!

After such a wonderful lunch on Saturday, I decided to make a veganlicious spread for Sunday dinner. I made the Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki and a pan of Cornbread, both from Happy Herbivore. I also sauteed some kale with garlic and olive oil. 
All in all, this was an excellent food weekend. :)

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

Today is one of the very few days of the year where I have to work a different, later shift. I don't look forward to these days, so last night I decided to make a slow cooker oatmeal for a treat in the morning. Carrot Cardamom Oatmeal, to be precise! I've never made oatmeal in my crock pot before, but I loved the idea of an Indian-inspired breakfast.

And believe me, this was so simple to make. I threw all the ingredients in the slow cooker at 10:00, and this morning at 7:30 there was delicious oatmeal! I didn't have pistachios to sprinkle over the top, so I subbed a few tablespoons of crushed roasted almonds. 

Look at the end result!
Oh, I also wanted to give another shout-out to Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. Last night I made the Roasted Curried Cauliflower. Now, I don't really care for cauliflower, and neither does J. We buy a head of cauliflower maybe twice a year. But I was making my weekly quota of chana masala, and thought roasted cauliflower with Indian spices might be a nice side dish. 
Can you tell there is a theme to what I've been cooking lately? Yup, lots and lots of Indian and Indian-inspired dishes. 

Anyway, I roasted the cauliflower using all the ingredients except for the fresh parsley -- I only had dried. This was a very easy side dish to make, and we loved it! J and I ate almost the whole thing. We ate it so quickly, in fact, that I didn't have time to snap a picture.

So another big recommendation for Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Hello Again

I'm back! I know it's been a very long time since I blogged here last. Fortunately, I have lots of great new discoveries to share today. 

I borrowed a great cookbook from the library this afternoon, Kim Barnouin's Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. I loved Barnouin and Freedman's cheeky first book, Skinny Bitch, but found their Skinny Bitch in the Kitch kind of disappointing. Okay, I admit it -- I didn't give it a chance because there were zero pictures of any of the food. Zilch. I hate cookbooks without pictures!!

Anyway, after flipping through Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook, I was transfixed. Everything sounds so wonderful, and one of every three recipes come with an accompanying picture. Yay! I had a package of pre-cut butternut squash cubes from Trader Joes in the fridge, so it was only logical for me to whip up a pot of Butternut Squash Soup with Poppy Seeds. 
Poppy seeds were the only ingredient I did not have, but I'm not a big fan of them anyway, so assumed I wouldn't miss them. The soup was delicious. 

Next week I'm going to make either the Asian Macaroni and Cheese or the Spicy Vegetable Curry (with okra!!!!) I am so buying this cookbook!

J was jonesing for poblano peppers, so he stuffed two with portabello mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic and thyme and then roasted it for twenty five minutes. Yum! Next time we're thinking about adding some daiya or a nice creamy sauce. 



Last weekend J and I went apple-picking with friends, and after making a nice batch of applesauce, I still found myself with yet more apples. So I decided to make these:


Okay, so they're not the prettiest muffins in the world, but they sure were tasty. These are the Apple Crisp Muffins from The Happy Herbivore. They're sweet without being cloying, hearty (thanks to the oats) and best of all, only 124 calories per muffin. I will definitely make more of these in the near future.