Dealing with Zucchini and Irony

After making this Zucchini Bread, I got to thinking about other ways to deal with the flood of zucchinis I was sure to get on Tuesday in the CSA box. So I went to my Gmail recipes stash and fished out some fun zucchini ones and got this post ready ... and opened the box on Tuesday to find not a single zucchini.

Seriously?

I did get one from Mr. Miller though, so that's something. I also got many lovely Japanese Eggplants, so I made Balsamic Glazed Tofu and used the same marinade to cook the eggplants. It was almost too easy, but turned out brilliantly.

Anyway, since I'm sure I'm the only person who is wanting in this arena, here are some of my favorite ways to combat the green wave.

Vegan Zucchini Bread

Creamy Zucchini and Basil Soup

Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons and Portabella Mushrooms

Chocolate-Zucchini Muffins Recipe

Stuffed Zucchini Bites

Zucchini Dressing (Raw. Scroll to the bottom.)

Creamy Zucchini Soup (Raw.)

ETA: Zucchini Pasta Dressed in Spicy Peanut Sauce and Topped with Tofu

Posting from work means no pictures and I've been sitting on this post for days now. Besides, what if you have zucchini to cope with NOW? Links are almost as fun as pictures and all the bloggers linked take waaaay nicer pictures than I do, so go over there and have a look.

I'm becoming a real live cook!

I'm pretty proud of last night's dinner! I had planned on using all of the yellow summer squash and the green patty pan squash collected from CSAs and friendly coworkers (as I'd finished off the zucchini and yellow patty pans the night previous -and promptly had the zucchinis replenished). I also determined that I need to use up the many, many cherry tomatoes I'd acquired.


So good they're emitting light!

As I was looking over my grains, millet fresh on my mind, quinoa protested by the household, tired of the rice, out of barley, not feeling the bulgur, I spied my long-neglected jar of corn meal. I've had the first Savvy Abby post I'd read on my mind for some time and dinner immediately came together:

Cumin Chili Squash over Corn Bread topped with Fresh Gazpacho Salsa Dressing!

The above post was about hot water cornbread. I'm not giving away any secrets when I say that this is essentially cornmeal and hot water mixed, formed into cakes, and fried.

For mine, I used two cups of cornmeal, 3 diced jalapenos, a big pinch of sugar (will probably go for more next time), some granulated garlic, and enough water, added slowly, to form a paste.



Before I fried those up, I sautéed the squash in oil, waiting until they were tender to add cumin, chili powder, and salt. Once they were removed from the cast iron skillet, I added more oil and fried the corn cakes without washing. Cross-contamination can be your friend.

The Fresh Gazpacho Salsa Dressing is one of my favorite recipes, but sadly it is not my own. It comes from Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan!. The only adaptation I made was replacing the chopped tomatoes with halved cherry tomatoes. This Gazpacho is a cool, and refreshing all-purpose topping and I'm glad I own the book for it. (However, it's not my favorite from Viva Vegan! - my heart belongs to Yuca with Cuban Garlic-Lime-Mojo Sauce).

There is one more component that I left out of my already uncreative title: black beans and corn. I lazily tossed them with lime juice before assembling my meal.



All in all, an easy meal to make and lots of complimentary flavors and textures to enjoy. It's also perfect as lunch the next day! I'm proud because it used up a lot of ingredients I had around that needed using, it's delicious, it's filling, and I didn't have to think very hard to do it. It was a very intuitive cooking session. This leads me to believe that my recent experiments are helping me to become the kind of cook I want to be!

The Shopping Has Been Reconsidered

Considering that I started this blog to demonstrate that eating incredibly delicious, home cooked, vegan meals every day was downright easy, I hate to admit that I was concerned about my move to rethink grocery shopping. I usually start each week on Sunday by going through cookbooks to choose some recipes, writing the menu on my kitchen whiteboard, checking my stores for what's needed, and finally going to the market for the necessary supplies.

Easy.

This all changed when the CSA pickups started on Tuesdays. Not wanting to buy a bunch of food, then have food delivered, I shifted my process to Tuesday evenings, and chose recipes that used the CSA haul.

Still pretty easy, if mildly annoying to have to try to use up pounds and pounds of greens for the first few weeks.

But now, I have to work with what I have. That's kind of scary.

My first stab at this was inspired by my macro-living sister. She loves to eat brown rice and pickled things all the time. So I made brown rice with umeboshi plum vinegar, frozen corn and peas, and the kimchi that had been languishing in the back of my refrigerator since I first tried it and was not impressed.

I have to say, for a meal that was so easy to make, and not heavily spiced, I was pretty happy. I'm still not in love with kimchi. But that was it for the brown rice.



That was a devastating moment, since that and wild rice are my go-tos for base grains. What would I do when I made green curry? It turns out that the answer to that is ignore the doubting Thomases, use barley, and revel in a wonderful heavy and filling meal! Barley added a surprising amount of decadence (and buffer for the jalapenos I added) to my usual dish.

I won't bore you with the day to day method of devising meals. It's now the fourth week of this mode of eating, and I couldn't be happier.

Last night, I moved my oils to the food cabinet and now I have plenty of space for my cookbooks. My large pantry holds trash bags, and a few bulky items, but the food is otherwise removed. My small pantry boasts plenty of space for restocking and nothing is hidden. My freezer is a dream. Once stuffed to the point that each door opening was a direct threat to one's well being, I now have the space to put a giant sheet of no bake cookies to set. Finally, my refrigerator is easy to navigate and I won't have to risk losing the smaller storage containers behind everything else, only to discover a fuzzy nightmare months later.

Granted, it's gone on this long because of the weekly CSA box and the generous coworker who has gifted many squash, peppers, and tomatoes. Also, I have a rediculous stock pile of dried beans, nuts, grains, and fruits all about the house.



So, the best part? I'm not sure. On one hand, my grocery bill has dropped dramatically. I know this is temporary, as someday I will have to buy food again, but for now I'm living on dollars already spent. So the balance is restored. On the other, I'm more adventurous and intuitive a cook. I wasn't bad before, but now I'm getting hit with strokes of genius and I'm unafraid to combine spices and herbs in new ways.

It turns out I gleaned quite a bit from my devoted reading and use of cookbooks. I have always believed that recipes are a guide, not the law. I don't cower under what Dynise Balcavage refers to as the tyranny of the recipe. Now I look at recipes for ideas, put the book down, and go about my dinner prep.

This experience has also changed the way I eat in another way. This Saturday, I treated myself to a video game binge. Usually on those days, I subsist by popping something in the microwave during load screens. But this weekend, each time, I got up and prepared something. It was usually just sautéing some squash, eggplants, or whatever was available with some couscous, but it was prepared each time. I can't help but feel like I'm getting ever closer to my goals of cooking for myself with whole plant foods, as opposed to turning to convenience foods out of laziness.

I will return to the cookbooks eventually. In fact, when I discovered that I had just 1/2 cup of vegan sour cream tucked away in the fridge, I followed Tamasin Noyes' recipe for Cinacrunch Muffins almost to the letter (I was a little low on brown sugar) and they were incredible! I love cooking from my books, and I have two more on the way to my house now.

So in the end, my fears were allayed. I enjoyed the creative process that cooking should be. I also realigned my relationship with food and shopping. I have brought a good deal of simplicity to my kitchen and some resourcefulness to my planning.

I went to the farmer's market yesterday and came home with cantaloupe, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and onions. This week, after I pick up my CSA box, I may pick up a few extra things at the store. My return to grocery shopping will be gradual and I doubt that I'll return to doing the once weekly full-cart mega trip, though.

So I declare this experiment a success! And I declare it easy as well. It was actually so easy that I'm embarrassed to have admitted my trepidation. But I take great comfort in the fact that I'm right: it's easy to eat well and eat vegan, even when you don't have access to everything you could ever want.

I’ll share more about the recipes I used in an upcoming post, along with some after shots of the pantries. Below, the before shots!

Rethinking Grocery Shopping

My Google Reader has been informing me for the past few days I have 1000+ unread items. Oh man. If I like an entry in a blog, particularly a vegan blog, I'll throw it in the list. Some days, when work is slow, I'll add one person's entire blog role to my list. So I have a very full reader.

But then I don't feel like reading, and I let it go, and next thing you know I have 200 posts on squids to read.

So I removed the ones I've stopped reading or that haven't been very interesting, but I kept all of my vegan blogs. (And just now, I added a new one - I usually write in snippets throughout the day).

All of this led me to actually reading my blogs, including the four unread Savvy Abby entries. A particular post repeated an idea I'd read there before and also in Robin Robertson's work, and this time, it really struck a chord.

The brilliant idea was this: put off grocery shopping and clean out the fridge/pantry.

Time to Clean!

I am definitely guilty of over-stocking. I love food, I love shopping for food, and I love sales. Sales are only economical if you use the products you buy though. I also love new things, so I've amassed quite a few exotic ingredients that don't get used much.

In the past few months, my household of two found that it was hemorrhaging money at the grocery stores. I'm fine with that in some ways. Waste isn't much of an issue and quality food is worth the price. Even still, it was out of control. And I'm normally quite frugal.

Robertson authored a guest post some time back on Savvy Abby, and I revisited it for what might end up being her most important tip:

Postpone Grocery Shopping. See how long you can put off going to the supermarket by using up what you have on hand. You may actually be able to go nearly a week beyond your normal shopping day, cutting the total monthly grocery budget significantly. This also encourages you to rotate on-hand items such as frozen foods that are approaching their "use by" date and nonperishables from your pantry, as well as stray produce that might otherwise go bad. It also stimulates your creativity. I like to choose a few items from my stash and put them on the counter, then let my imagination take over how to combine them. For example, a can of white beans, crushed tomatoes, garlic, and a box of pasta have "yummy dinner" written all over them. Some rice or quinoa, walnuts, frozen peas, and an onion can make a flavorful pilaf [...]

So this is my new project. I already subscribe to a CSA and already have to figure out how to use up loads of greens each week. Maybe this will free me from scouring my cookbooks for ideas. Now I have to get creative.

But I've been having to do that thanks to CSA and I don't mind admitting that I sort of resent it. I have a nice little cookbook collection and the vast majority of the recipes have gone unmade. Restricting my ingredient list annoys me at times, but I know that it's the better option.

The good news is that I have loads of canned goods and spices and sauces. I also have jar after jar of rice, grains, beans, and nuts. And you know what those go well with, right? Greens!

So I may get a little bitter and resentful at times, but I'm confident that this experiment will do a few things:
1. Clean out my cabinets
2. Inspire and foster (and probably demand) culinary creativity
3. Save me some money
4. Get me to rethink my buying habits

I'm really curious to find out how many days I can put off grocery shopping. (I'm declaring coconut coffee creamer exempt from this arrangement now). I can't start for another week, since I'll be out of town, but Tuesday is my normal shopping day, so I'll post my innovations, frustrations, and durations. (OK, I know, one duration, but can you blame me?)

Oh I'll be starting this at the same time I begin my bike commute to work!

More CSA Weeks

Yesterday marked week four of collecting CSA boxes. I dropped the ball on photographing the last two, but the recent weeks brought leeks, cauliflower and broccoli, which was a welcome departure from the radishes and greens onslaught.

Though I admit, I have a new fondness for roasted radishes.

And even the new-to-me white radishes are lovely.


The biggest issue so far is using the greens before they go bad. I get dandelion, spinach, radish, mustard, mixed, and a few unidentified greens. And then lettuce to top it off. I have to make it a point to prep them immediately and use them right away.

First thing now, I clean and pack them all in (reused) ziploc bags. My mom got me a salad spinner years ago, and I used it occasionally - I'm not actually one to eat a lot of salad - but now I'm gaining some serious arm strength spinning bags and bags of greens each week.


Second, I've employed some new cooking habits. I've double up the greens in the daily green smoothie. It means a lot less fruit, but fruit is easy for me to eat throughout the day, so no big loss.

I've come to love the Stir Fried Greens recipe from Veganomicon. It's a quick and flavorful bed for millet, barley, beans, rice and leftovers. The Vegan Brunch recipe for Swiss Chard Frittata is another easy way to get through some greens fast.

Of course, you can always throw a handful into any soup or pasta, but I'm on the lookout for more creative ideas. Vegan Burnout has a similar abundance of greens and linked a recipe for Green Mashed Potatoes that I'm going to have to try. I notice that it requires an oven temperature of 400°, just like roasted radishes. Extra points for efficiency!

From Awful to Waffle

This weekend I put my new waffle iron to use with the help of Vegan Brunch. I was nervous and justifiably so. Though I spent many a summer chomping my way through Eggo 48 packs with my sisters before graduating to smaller packs of vegan waffles, I have never made a waffle from scratch or otherwise. But I believe in getting my money's worth out of my books, even if it means dropping more money on the appliances to do so.



For my first batch, I decided to go simple and chose the Chelsea Waffles, since they required no rising time or ingredient trips. Of course, I'm lying, I was one cup short of almond milk and my hemp milk smelled and tasted off, so I made a quick trip to the local organic market. I returned twice more that day, just so you know.

I followed the instructions perfectly, but the first one came out a little ugly.



I made little adjustments to time and flipping, and each waffle looked a little better, but at the end, I had not produced a single perfect waffle. In fact, I didn't even manage a totally edible waffle. The dog and I shared the edible bits, dipped in maple syrup and ate the strawberries I had cut up in anticipation of splendid and photogenic waffles.

I believe that the closing the drafty window helped, but a certain kitty who likes to perch there to watch the birds did not agree.



Day two, things went a little better. Though I was unable to achieve perfect shape, my Peanut Butter Waffles were totally edible and I'll even go so far as to say delicious!



I had presoaked some cashews and had chocolate ganache left over from Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes, so I topped my breakfast/morning dessert accordingly. The whole affair was a success and half a leftover waffle was a perfect Monday morning breakfast.

Implement Roundup

Last night, my waffle iron arrived! I can't wait to test it out this weekend in anticipation of Global Vegan Waffle Party. I'll be attending a party on the 30th with a bunch of strangers and that's both scary and exciting. And I think on the actual date, the 29th, I'll just throw myself a party and gorge on waffles. I am blessed with several recipes courtesy of Vegan Brunch, but now I'll be on the lookout for more.



But a waffle iron is not the end of my implement craze. I recently also bought a 13.5 inch cast iron skillet (how cool is it that the pre-seasoning method is vegan?). I did season it myself as well, using the technique I found here.

I also acquired a mandoline some time ago and finally put it to work this week to make a fancy-ish looking salad on which to try out some Creamy Asian Dressing.

This dressing, by the way, is divine. Dressings always leak out of my Tupperware, so I carry mine to work in a thoroughly-cleaned curry paste jar.

Next, I have my eye on a juicer.

Raw Wednesdays: More Cupcakes!

For Raw Wednesday this week I decided to attack a chocolate craving and try another recipe from The Little Rawdorable Cupcake Book That Could. Since I had the ingredients on hand, I decided to tackle the Cocoa Avocado Cupcakes and Pudding-Style Frosting.

Earlier this week, I discovered the cutest silicone cupcake molds at Ross and figured that, though I treasure my ramekins, these would make for a more festive and photogenic cupcake presentation.



I started by checking the recipe and upon seeing "cocoa" listed as an ingredient, began to wonder if that was the same as the "cacao" I usually see on raw food blogs. As it turns out, for our purposes, they do mean the same thing, but there is a matter of raw to be aware of in this case. So for these I used this.

For those of you interested, I learned some new things on Chocolate Linguistics.

The cupcakes and frosting went together easily and I had a bowl of frosting left over that made for a wonderful post-yoga pudding snack. The cupcakes look so adorable and taste amazing. They are the perfect post-work snack - not too sweet, but rich and chocolatey.



I don't have a functioning color printer at the moment, so I might need some help to participate in the Ellen Quest for Raw Cupcake Domination.

Also I caved today and bought all three e-books from Sweetly Raw. The last thing I need is one more dessert book, so apparently buying three makes it OK. And it does, especially if having them helps me to cut out refined sugars and flours and to try new things.

And here's a bonus kale salad with raw dressing:

Who has the time?

You do, for one. People are busy, I get that. I'm a busy person myself. I have full- and part-time jobs, I'm in grad school, and I take three non-academic classes a week. Some of my days begin at 5 a.m. and don't end until the next day around 2 or 3 a.m. (This isn't a who's busier contest, it's just a statement of fact).

And yet, somehow, every day, my coworkers peer over at my desk and ask what's for lunch as I unveil my home cooked vegan offerings. I don't hit up the fast food joints and I don't bring frozen or microwave meals and I sure as hell don't eat the pathetic pizza management orders every Thursday. I load up my little purple bag with my Pyrex containers and pull from it three to five times a day.

Today, breakfast was Chia Pudding, lunch was a Southwestern Bowl from Get it Ripe and Cornbread from The Joy of Vegan Baking, and my afternoon snack was a slice of Peanut Butter Cup Cake from Sweet Utopia (I usually follow a fruit-only policy for workday desserts, but I need to finish that cake before it goes).

Every day people tell me they want to cook or eat healthier, but that they don't have the time. These people are wrong. What you really don't have the time for is anything that distracts you from caring for yourself. And I say this as a person who pulls that line all the time. Even now, my teeth are bothering me thanks to a rogue blackberry seed, but like some kind of jerk, I'm very insistent that I haven't the time to go to a dentist this week.

Well I had the time to watch NCIS and Southland Tuesday night. Sure the dentist isn't open that late, but had I gone to the dentist early, then done my cooking and working out later in the evening, then my teeth wouldn't hurt today.

The point is this: we're busy, and yet we find the time for FaceBook, YouTube, TV and that BBC America Dr. Who marathon.

So when you say you don't have the time to cook, chances are that what you really mean is that you'd rather do something else. And that's fine. There's a lot of fun stuff out there. But I'm telling you to make the time.

Make the time to cook (or prepare raw foods) for yourself. It's not as hard as you think. The more you do it, the faster you'll get. You'll learn to multitask and work intuitively. You'll also learn to love it.

I do have some advantages in this. I love to cook, so I never think of it as a chore. Also, my intense need to get my money's worth out of anything I buy means that if I don't make every recipe from every cookbook I have, I'll feel that I've been wasteful. I have a lot of cookbooks, and a long wish list, so it's no time to procrastinate.

Finally, it's easy for me to combine my biggest time drain and cooking. I love the TV and I know that's dangerously unhip to admit to these days, but I have a group of shows I can't get enough of. I don't have a television in my kitchen, but I have a laptop and Hulu. Rather than watch my shows when they air, I watch them when I cook.

However, as much as I'd like to agree with USA, no one needs six hours of NCIS in one night (forgive me Special Agent Gibbs!). So if I can't watch and cook, I remind myself that TV will wait for me, my body will not. I need to care for it now. So be mindful about your time. If you love the internet, set a reasonable limit, and then take some of that time and make yourself a sandwich.

If your schedule keeps you from your kitchen, as mine often does, then deal with it. Start meal planning. I very often cook a bunch of dishes on Sunday and eat them throughout the week. It's a very small time investment and if you're making one dish, you may as well make two. Sometimes I just prep; I soak beans or nuts, I chop veggies, or measure out spices. Then when it's time to make the dish, it's half done.

I'll make you a deal: you make yourself a splendid dinner one night next week and I'll make my dentist appointment.

Besides, you can't very well self-righteously declare that your vegan dinner is better than any restaurant meal if it came out of a box.