Sunday supper: family reunion edition

Tonight's supper: BBQ

Tonight's Sunday supper soundtrack: the sound of children playing, laughing, and occasionally fighting

Just a quick post tonight, as I'm at a family reunion with all of my siblings and their families.  We barbecued tonight, so my supper was a Boca "chicken" burger, cole slaw made with vegenaise, and grilled portobello mushrooms.  Forgot to take pictures, but as far as I'm concerned grilled portobellos are the taste of summer.  Better than steak! 

The island vegan escapes from the island

School's out, and today marks the start of my real vacation--a month off island visiting friends and family (including a trip to disney world, but more on that later). Stay tuned for lots of vegan food adventures, and check out pictures of all of them on Instagram under the hashtag #escapefromtheisland. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @hiltheimpaler!

Sunday Supper: Chipped Tofu on Toast

Tonight's Sunday Supper: Chipped Tofu on Toast
Tonight’s Sunday Supper Soundtrack: O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack

Find pictures of this and every Sunday Supper on instagram (#sundaysupper #islandvegan)!

In the name of cleaning out my fridge before going on vacation, I kept tonight’s supper simple: chipped tofu on toast, or, for the less delicate among us, vegan shit on a shingle.

To start with, I made some breast of tofu (recipe from vegan feast kitchen) and gravy (recipe below).  As you can see from this picture, the gravy was quite lumpy, so I was a bit concerned this post was going to be titled Sunday supper: unmitigated disaster edition.  However, the lumps were mostly a result of my not dicing the shallot and garlic well enough, so they didn’t detract too much from the finished product.


Once that was all done, I toasted up some bread, piled some tofu on top, poured the gravy over, and that’s it!


Easy, tasty, and now I have a little less food in my fridge to deal with.

Gravy:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 shallot, diced
5 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup flour
4 tsp. nutritional yeast
3 tbsp. soy sauce
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute shallot and garlic until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in flour, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce to form a smooth paste.
3. Gradually whisk in the broth. Season with thyme, salt, and pepper.
4. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened (about 8-10 minutes).

How to Get Your Grading Done: A Theatre Teacher’s Guide

Please note: This post was typed with tongue firmly in cheek.  I fully appreciate the fact that, as a theater teacher, I have way less grading than anyone else in the school.  That being said, I think most of this list can apply to any school-related task that you just don’t enjoy but have to do.

1. Sit down at desk.
2. Open grade book.
3. Realize you need some tea before you start.
4. Close grade book.
5. Go to the kitchen and put the kettle on.
6. Realize that the sink is full of dishes.  Wash dishes.
7. Realize that the sink is filthy.  Wash sink.
8. Pick up kettle to pour water into mug.  Realize stove is dirty.
9. Clean stove.
10. Bring your now-cold tea back to your desk.
11. Open grade book.
12. Stare at grade book.
13. Close grade book.  Check facebook.  Promise yourself that you’ll start working in 5 minutes.
14. Spend 15 minutes on facebook.
15. Close facebook.  Open grade book.
16. Check to do list to see what else you need to do before the end of the school year.
17. Organize to do list by category and priority level.  Panic when you realize “finish grading” is priority one.
18. Realize drinking all that tea has made you have to go to the bathroom.  Promise yourself that when you get back you’ll do your grading.
19. Go to the bathroom.  Come back.  Stare at stack of assignments to be graded.
20. Organize stack of assignments into more manageable chunks.
21. Write blog post about how much you hate grading.
22. Announce that if we would just switch to proficiency based diplomas, we wouldn’t have to do all this stupid grading.
23. Become curious about how the switch to standards based education will affect grading.
24. Spend an hour researching the effect of standards based education on grading.
25. Realize you are in no way prepared for the switch to standards based education.
26. Start going through your old curriculum materials, aligning them to current standards.
27. Decide the current theater standards don’t address whatever you think is THE KEY to theater education.  Give up on standards.
28. Look at to do list.  Realize how much you need to do to be ready for the fall musical.
29.Start making audition packets for the fall musical.
30. Look at the clock and realize it’s past 10.  Decide you can’t grade effectively this late.  Promise to do twice as much grading tomorrow.

Sunday Supper: Spicy Chickpea Wraps with Ranch Sauce

Tonight's Supper:  Spicy Chickpea Wraps with Ranch Sauce 

Tonight's Sunday Supper Soundtrack: Spotify's "New Music Tuesday" playlist

As always, there are more pictures on instagram with the hashtag #sundaysupper

Inspired by this recipe from Post Punk Kitchen, this is another recipe in the series “things I wanted to make but didn’t have easy access to all the ingredients so I reworked it to fit my needs” (ok, so that title needs some work). 

I found this recipe as I was looking for a way to use up the giant container of dried chickpeas I brought back with me last time I was on the mainland, but of course I didn’t have any Frank’s Red Hot or fresh spices.  However, one thing I’ve learned since moving out here is not to be daunted by petty concerns like that!

So, I quick soaked my chickpeas (because naturally I forgot to set them to soak last night), then put them to boil while I assembled ingredients for the ranch dip.  I used dried parsley, dried chives, black pepper, garlic powder, and the last of my Vegenaise.


Mixed them all together in a bowl and tucked them in the fridge so the flavors could meld.


Once the chickpeas finished cooking, I made the spicy chickpeas.  I started by mashing the chickpeas as for chickpea salad.

It was at this point that I realized I used all the vegan mayo for the ranch dip, and didn’t leave any for the chickpeas.  But never fear!  I just added some of the ranch dip into the chickpea sauce instead, along with the sriracha.


To serve, I made these into a wrap, because my personal motto is “Everything’s better as a wrap."  I spread the chickpeas on a wheat tortilla, added the ranch, put some sliced celery on top, wrapped it up, and ate with some BBQ chips and the rest of the celery!  Super healthy?  Ha!  No.  Super delicious?  Oh yeah.


Recipe
For the ranch dip:
1/2 cup vegan mayo
1 tbsp. dried parsely
1 tbsp. dried dill
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Mix everything together in a bowl.  Let sit for 1-2 hours for the flavors to blend.

For the spicy chickpeas:
1.5 cups dried chickpeas
1/4 cup sriracha
1 tbsp. ranch dip

To serve:
Celery
Wheat wrap

If you’re forgetful like me and also don’t have any canned chickpeas, quick soak the dried chickpeas: put them in a saucepan and cover with cold water.  Bring to a boil and let boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, and let sit for an hour.  Strain and rinse, then return to saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil again.  Turn heat to low and let simmer for about 1.5 hours.  Mash up--some chunks are ok.  Mix with the sriracha and ranch dip.

To serve: Spread the chickpeas onto a wheat wrap, dollop some ranch on top, add chopped celery, wrap up, and enjoy!

Stress Fracture Diaries, part 2: 1 step forward, 2 steps back

Remember how a while ago I posted about the stress fracture in my foot, and how excited I was that I’d finally been given the go ahead to do low impact cross training?  Well...after a few short sessions on the elliptical, I started having pain in my foot again, and after consulting with my doctor, was put back onto walking only until I have another couple of pain free weeks.  After throwing what could only be described as a tantrum (it’s a good thing I live alone) I’ve more or less accepted being out of commission for at least a couple more weeks.  That doesn’t mean I don’t feel an irrational surge of anger every time I see someone running, but I’m at least able to talk about running without snapping at people.  Mostly.  I did go for a 30 minute walk on a trail this morning without any pain, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to start running again sooner rather than later.  Of course, that’s what I was saying two weeks ago, so it’s hard to be optimistic.  All this yoga is getting me back to the flexibility level I had back in my cheerleading days, though, so there is that!  Also, I've learned a whole lot of interesting facts as I've spent a lot of time doing research and looking for something, anything, that can be done for a stress fracture other than resting and waiting for it to heal (spoiler alert: there isn't).  But, did you know that there's evidence that some types of dinosaurs got stress fractures? 

Sunday Supper: Scalloped Potatoes and Breast of Tofu

Tonight’s Supper: Breast of Tofu (recipe from Vegan Feast Kitchen) with vegan scalloped potatoes

Tonight’s Sunday Supper Soundtrack: Garbage, Absolute Garbage

I was on the mainland last weekend, which meant I got to stock up on all the fun vegan things I can’t get here on the island.  Leeks!  Daiya cheese!  Giant tubs of hummus!  All that good stuff.  And, this was the first weekend in a very long time that I haven’t had any kind of schedule to keep.  It was the perfect confluence of events to allow for a fancy Sunday supper.

This supper's prep actually started last night, when I began marinating the breast of tofu (recipe here: http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/2014/02/crispy-marinated-tofu-with-apples-onion.html).


Then, when I was ready for dinner today I made the scalloped potatoes.  Full disclosure: this was my first attempt at vegan scalloped potatoes, and it’s been a long time since I made non-vegan ones.

First, I heated the soymilk with some garlic and thyme, then set it aside to steep.


While that was steeping, I sliced up the leeks, potatoes, and mushrooms, and sauteed the leeks just enough to soften them.


Once that was done, I began layering everything into a casserole dish: potatoes, leeks, cheese, salt and pepper; lather, rinse, repeat until all the veggies are in there (I got three layers, but if you had a deeper dish you might get more).


Then I poured the cream sauce over the mixture.  It filled the dish about halfway.  I covered with foil and baked at 350 for about an hour.

While that was baking, I fried up the breast of tofu.


Toss it all on a plate with some spinach salad, and holy mackerel--this was one of the best dinners I’ve had in a long time. 

The tofu was crispy and delicious, the scalloped potatoes were just like I remembered from my omnivore days, it was just an all around wonderful supper.  In fact, it was so good, I decided it needed an exciting dessert to go with it, so I made some cookies and creme cupcakes using some old oreos I had in the cupboard (recipe below).

Recipe for scalloped potatoes:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain soymilk
1 clove garlic, peeled
4 tsp. dried thyme, divided
2 leeks
2 tbsp. margarine, divided
1 lb red potatoes
3 medium sized mushrooms, sliced
1 cup Daiya cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper

1. Heat cream, garlic, and 1 tsp. thyme in a medium saucepan just until bubbles begin to form around edge of pan. Remove from heat; set aside to steep.
2. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add leeks; season with salt and cook, stirring often, until tender (about 8 minutes).
3. Butter a medium-sized casserole dish with remaining 1 tbsp butter. Layer 1/3 of potato slices evenly over bottom of baking dish. Cover with 1/3 of leeks, then 1/3 of Daiya cheese. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and 1 tsp. thyme leaves. Repeat layers twice more. Strain cream mixture into a pitcher or bowl and pour over vegetables.
4. Set casserole dish on a large rimmed baking sheet and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 50 minutes. Carefully remove foil; continue baking until top is golden brown and sauce is bubbling, about 15 minutes.

Recipe for Cookies and Creme Cupcakes
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. margarine
1 2/3 cups sugar
Egg replacer equivalent to 3 eggs (I used Ener-g)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup vanilla soymilk
20 oreo cookies, coarsely chopped
24 oreo cookies, pulled apart into halves

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Line the wells of cupcake pans with liners and put an oreo half in each, inside up.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir together and set aside.
4. Cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Blend in the egg replacer.
6. Blend in the vanilla extract.
7. Beat in half of the dry ingredients.
8. Add the milk and beat until just combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.
9. Gently fold in the chopped oreos.
10. Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Sunday Supper: Shchi

Tonight’s Supper: Shchi, or Sauerkraut Mushroom Soup, recipe from Post Punk Kitchen (http://www.theppk.com/2012/10/sauerkraut-mushroom-soup-shchi/)
Tonight’s Sunday Supper Soundtrack: The Irish Tenors, “Heritage”

I studied in Russia for a year when in college, and the highlight of my day was almost always dinner with my host mother.  I was vegetarian then, not vegan, but still, my host mom always went out of her way to make amazing meals for me, which always included a delicious soup to start.  One of the soups she made often was mushroom and sauerkraut soup, or shchi.  So when I found this recipe on Post Punk Kitchen, I knew I had to check it out!

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was!  Soups are not one of my strong suits in the kitchen, so I was excited that this recipe mostly amounted to “saute the vegetables, toss everything in the pan, simmer until everything’s cooked.”  I didn’t have quite 6 cups of vegetable broth, so I used about 5, and I used potatoes rather than parsnips, but otherwise I prepared the recipe as directed.

When I had shchi in Russia, it was always with copious amounts of sour cream, but lacking any vegan sour cream I just sprinkled it with some dill and served with dinner rolls, which I found eminently satisfactory.

Verdict: Minimal active time, only dirties one pot, extremely tasty and will no doubt be even better the next day--definitely worth it!