Jjacks Eats: food stuffs with Sarah

Spinach & Mushroom Rangoon

2011-10-19T22:03:00.000-05:00

After making the pizza rolls I now have an abundance of wonton wrappers left over. Hmmm...what to do with them? I raided the refrigerator and pulled out some vegetables that needed to be eaten this week. And decided to make a sort of fried pocket/dumpling. Voila! The birth of the Spinach and Mushroom Rangoon.

Ingredients:

Wonton wrappers
Spinach (raw, about a cup, roughly chopped)
Mushrooms (raw, about a cop, roughly minced)
Onion (1 medium white onion, sliced thin...I used my trusty mandolin slicer)
Garlic (minced, crushed, or chopped. I used pre- crushed garlic from a jar shhhh!)
Worcestershire sauce (to taste)
Cream cheese (about 2 tablespoons, I used whipped cream cheese, but any will do)
Muenster cheese (roughly chopped so easier to melt)
small cup of water (to seal the edges)

First up I chopped up about a cup of raw spinach

as well as a cup or so of mushrooms

then I used my favorite tool ever, the mandolin, to thinly slice a whole white onion

I heated up some butter in the skillet and threw the onions and about a tablespoon of crushed garlic in to caramelize.

After the onions caramelized I tossed in the spinach and mushrooms and cooked until slightly browned and wilted

I also added about a teaspoon of worcestershire sauce to the mixture

Once the veggies were cooked I scooped them into about a bowl and added some muenster cheese

and about 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese

Once everything was mixed...

I seasoned with a little paprika, cayenne pepper, cracked pepper, and a smidgen of dried chives

Next up for assembly:

I scooped a teaspoon of the filling onto a corner of the wonton

Then matched the edges up and using a little water sealed them together

For a little extra sealing power I crimped the edges with a fork

and finally fried them up in a little bit of olive oil:

Buon appetito!

I'll leave you once more with Kiefer:

who is awesome.

Homemade Pizza Rolls

2011-10-18T23:54:00.002-05:00

Less than a month now until I'm in Cabo for my cousin's wedding; basically, fried food is the LAST thing I should be eating right now. Fall is my season. Jeans, warm cozy sweaters, knee-high boots... basically all the things that keep you covered. Not exactly beach appropriate attire. So, that being said...whose brilliant idea was it to make homemade pizza rolls? This girl right here. Genius, I know.

I saw on Foodie with Family's blog an ingenious recipe for homemade mozzarella sticks that looked super easy and delish, of course. I tried to turn the gears in the old noggin to adapt it into something just a little different. I realized what I came up with ended up a little less like mozz sticks and a little more like those frozen Totino's pizza rolls, but about 1,000 times better! And aside from prep, took about just as much time to fry up as it would to pop a few of the frozen snacks in the microwave. Plus, my beef with Totino's is that there is never enough cheese. Not the case in this recipe, oh no. As you can see from the pic above, lacking in cheese we are not. (Yes, I'm aware, that sounded a bit like Yoda. Bet he was a cheese fan.)

Ingredients:

1 package of Wonton wrappers (you can usually find these in the produce area by the Tofu)

1 package of String cheese (I supposed you can use any sort of cheese stick i.e cheddar, colby jack but these have such great flavor!)

1 package of pre-cooked pepperoni (turkey pepperoni would work, too & be a little healthier...)

Italian seasoning (pick it up in the spice aisle or make your own with a little oregano, basil, thyme & rosemary)

Small bowl of water (to close the seal on the wonton wrappers)

Frying liquid of choice (olive oil would be the healthiest choice. I ended up using Crisco since we were running dangerously low on EVOO)

Make sure when you're getting set up you don't leave the wonton wrappers out too long as they will start to dry around the edges.

Unwrap your string cheese and cut into thirds so they will fit nicely into the wontons

Slice your pepperoni into small strips (julienne, if you will).

I have an Italian seasoning grinder so I prepared some of that as well and set out my bowl of water to start the assembly process.

To start the assembly throw some pepperoni strips onto your wonton wrapper.

Add your string cheese and a light sprinkling of seasoning (go easy, this stuff is strong!)

Next fold up the edges of your wrapper toward the cut side of the cheese (I apologize about the blurry photo, but I wanted you to have visual aide)

Then roll from one side to the other, and finally seal the last corner by dipping your finger in the water and running it along the point of the wrapper. Reminds me a bit of sealing an envelope.

Next up, fry them in your liquid of choice until light crispy brown on all sides. I used about 1/2 an inch of the melted Crisco and checked them frequently. Like I said before, they definitely do not take long to cook once prep is completed.

Afterward you can serve them up with a little bit of marinara sauce (don't be fooled into making your own sauce, just break out the Ragu. You just made homemade Totino's, dude. Give yourself a break.)

Buon Appetito!

...and as always, I leave you with a sentiment from Kiefer:

All the Colors of the Rainbow

2011-10-15T00:20:00.007-05:00

It's no secret that my new obsession has become food bloggers. Cooks, bakers, amateurs, pros? It doesn't matter, I love them all! So the other day (not while I was at work or anything *cough*) I spent some time browsing food blogs in search of inspiration, namely Sweetapolita and i am baker both excellent foodies, I decided to take a bit of inspiration from both. Namely the rainbow cake from Sweetapolita and the outside decoration of this insanely awesome cake from i am baker. I went to Hobby Lobby (think Michael's) and picked up some of the AmeriColor gel food coloring that Sweetapolita uses to make her layers so bright and OMG guys, I am OBSESSED with these now. I picked up the electric pink, yellow, green, purple and blue. Dude. Color payoff is SICK! Just sayin'. I was really lazy about this cake. I basically just wanted to play with the food coloring so almost nothing in this was from scratch, except for the weird (and actually not all that tasty, at first) butter cream recipe I snagged. It just had no flavor...tasted like pure powdered sugar :-/ So I added lemon concetrate and a few drops of sweet orange oil & ZOMG, it tasted just like Fruity Pebbles. I was impressed. Rainbow, roses, and Fruity Pebbles? Sign me up.

recipe:

White or Yellow cake mix (I used a yellow mix from Duncan Hines), prepared as directed.

Separate the batter into equal parts and tint each batter a different color of the rainbow (I used these small bowls we have, probably about 1/2 a cup each for 5 colors)

Next up, bake each layer separately. We have 2 round cake pans in the house so I baked two at a time for around 5 minutes each. It does not take long since the layers are so thin, keep an eye out!

While the layers are cooling I mixed up a batch of the (not so great) butter cream, to which I added my lemon & sweet orange oil flavors (these I just added to taste, sorry! I was just playing around)

After everything is room temp or colder I started stacking... Doesn't really matter what order, but following the rainbow, at least a little bit, helps. I stacked purple, blue, green, pink & then yellow. And of course the yellow (the last one I baked) decided to be a little punk and get stuck to the pan. :-/ Oh well, just slap some Spackle, uh, I mean icing on it and call it a day!

Once the layers were complete I smoothed a thin layer of icing (usually referred to as a "crumb coat") around this little darlin' and popped it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes.

I realized I was still not totally sold on the homemade butter cream at this point and that I had a can of Pillsbury's whipped butter cream in the cabinet so I made the executive decision of combining the rest of the HBC (homemade butter cream) with the store bought stuff. Shh, don't tell. I smooshed all that wonderful icing-ness into a ziplock bag with the gigantic star tip decorator i am baker recommends and prepared for battle (i.e. the "roses")

I'll let i am baker give you the techniques for achieving this design. It was pretty easy, actually. And if my butter cream had not been "whipped" and/or mixed with room temperature HBC I'm convinced my roses would've looked as good as hers. They just "wilted" from the lack of 'stiffness' (her wording, not mine!...but still *teehee*).

She mentions in the tutorial spraying the icing to give it color. Well of course I had to try that! Duh. Word of caution: go easy on the pink. Once you spray the yellow and then immediately hit it with some pink...well you can guess what happens. Right? No? Well, namely, ORANGE! It's still pretty, but yeah.

And the best part...Once you cut into this bad boy: Voila! Instant Gasp.

I did want to mention that I love this food coloring gel so much I even used it for the cupcakes I just baked for a baby shower tomorrow. (don't worry, her colors are lime and pink ;)

So fun...becoming addicted...must resist the urge to turn EVERYTHING lime green or magenta.

and i leave you with this:

A Change of Heart

2011-10-14T23:29:00.001-05:00

So originally this blog was about my journey as a vegetarian n00b...

And I stayed a vegetarian for nearly a year, but then--hangs head in shame--caved.

This is not a vegetarian blog, at least not anymore.

The plan is to start posting daily, weekly, monthly -whatever- and continue this project as a food blog.

Note: I have not, nor am I currently enrolled in culinary school. I just really like to cook/bake/all that jazz..because a.) um it's food! & who doesn't love food!? b.) I love the look on someone's face when they take a bite and just can't contain the "Mmmmmm!"

Hope I can share some fun, creative, and yes, even old school recipes with you in the future!

But for now? I'll just leave you with this...

Classic Spaghetti? Nah.

2010-10-12T14:05:00.003-05:00

Well...wheat spaghetti and soy mozzarella at least.

I've never been a big fan of wheat pasta, the texture is just too weird, but this "Healthy Harvest" pasta from Ronzoni is actually pretty good. It still doesn't taste like the real thing, but it's less awkward than the generic brands.

I picked up these "sausages" at Super Target the other day

(why is that upside down? grrrr)

(good thing I'm not vegan since they do have powdered egg whites listed as one of the ingredients!)

So I decided to fry these up with some chopped onions... to add to the sauce

(again with the odd angles?)

Once the sausages were nice and brown (well as brown as they get, since they still are a little grey...) I drained the noodles and poured the sausage/onion/sauce mixture over the top

A little soy mozzarella---

This is "Melissa's" shreds, the best I've tasted from all the alternative cheeses, but keep in mind it is not vegan since they add "milk proteins" to the product (sneaky bastards) ...oh and the bag lies, it does not melt like real cheese...it melts like rubber.

A pretty good meal, if I do say so myself. I made far to much, it was like the never-ending bowl so I had it again for lunch today :)

buon appetito!

n00b.

2010-10-11T15:56:00.002-05:00

gI'm such a n00b...I mean for real.

Here I am looking like a jackass telling folks "I'm a vegetarian: I don't eat dairy or egg"...when a veggie that doesn't eat dairy or egg is a VEGAN.

Here's the thing…when I think vegan I think of a strict no animal product whatsoever kind of person. Even wikipedia defines veganism as: a philosophy and lifestyle whose adherents seek to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.

More power to you, but I really love these:

oh, and these:

and then there are these (minus the hoof in the center, wtf is that!?):

in my online shoe shopping I did run across this...

um...what is that?

Okay, got sidetracked...sorry, back to the subject

The thing is if I decided to become a true vegan I'd have to give up all these things since unfortunately they are made with leather.

I know, it doesn't make sense...you won't eat a cow, but you'll wear a cow?

Well essentially that cow was butchered for meat...not for the hide, the hide is just a recycling byproduct from the kill.

I dunno, that's kind of a cop out and maybe one day I will go totally vegan, but for now I'm just sticking to the vegan philosophy when it comes to my diet.

I feel like I've given up milk and cheese long enough that it may give me a certain...reaction (for lack of a better word *haha*) that I would rather not deal with since I've gone without for 3 weeks now. Also I feel like if I opened my self up to dairy and egg again then I would be much more likely to revert back to my old ways.

At least now I know I don't have to flog myself repeatedly if I accidently ingest some cheddar or egg white :X

good to know.

and I'm sorry for being a label snob. Truly it doesn't matter. Do what you do..and just love you ;)

ciao!

Wait...I can't have MILK?! lame sauce.

2010-10-10T23:00:00.002-05:00

There seems to be a divide in the vegetarian culture...either you're a "true" vegetarian or a "lacto-ovo" vegetarian...can't we just all get along?

No one's right or wrong in my book, you do what you want and as long as it's not hurting anyone I don't see a problem...

That being said there are plenty of websites and articles that demonstrate just how wrong some animals are being treated in the production and collection of said "lacto" and "ovo" (i.e. milk and eggs).

All that aside I do love dairy. The hardest thing I've chosen to give up by far has been cheese...but sometimes you just need a good ol' cold glass of milk.

Now there are several different alternatives that are readily available, most notably the "Silk" soy milk products.

I dunno about you, but sometimes soy just does not cut it. There are times when soy is the perfect chameleon, it mimics taste/texture...yadda yadda, but with milk? no bueno.

Every time I drink soy milk i'm left with a bad taste in my mouth...literally. There's a sort of "green" taste that just is not right for milk.

Recently I took a little trip to my local health food grocery store (Akins) and decided to try something different:

Blue Diamond Almond Breeze-->

This stuff is delicious!

There is not a funky after taste, I mean sure there is a slight almond flavor, but nothing that I can't handle. I've had this with granola for breakfast a few times... so good.

I even had my mom try and it and she couldn't tell the difference.

It is a little off color, it's not pure white like traditonal milk, but if you can get over that I'm sure you could find many uses for this healthy alternative to cow's milk.

buon appetito.

Mmm...Ribs!

2010-10-09T12:50:00.001-05:00

I'll admit it...

I used to be completely addicted to fast food.

The good thing now is the longer I continue on my vegetarian journey the less I crave all that bad, processed food.

One particular weakness...the McDonald's McRib

OMG nom nom nom nom! haha

Mickey D's teases us once a year saying it's the "farewell tour (x5)" or whatever for that damn sammich but it ALWAYS comes back, you know why? 'Cause it is delicious! I dunno what it's even made with, it sure as hell is not a rib...

Either way, I know that now as a veggie n00b I will not be able to partake in that particular treat--or can I?

MEATIES and n00bs alike REJOICE! I have found an amazing alternative that is both vegetarian AND delicious.

I've tried a couple of meat substitue products and some are good at fooling and some fail miserably, but McRib fans feast your eyes on your new best friend:

The MorningStar Hickory BBQ Riblet!

oh. my. god.

This thing tastes EXACTLY like a McRib...just toss on a few pickles, some chopped onion and yup, that's it!

Also I'm loving these pre-cut water packs which you can pick up in the veggie aisle at Super Target. I hate cutting carrots, but I lurrrve them so yeah...thanks!

oh yeah...and Classen pickles are THE BEST EVER! ;)

buon appetito!

Vegetable Lo Mein

2010-10-08T00:07:00.001-05:00

Hey n00bs! What's crack a'lackin?

Thanks for checking out the blog where I will explore all things vegetarian. Not only will I be posting recipes and cooking tutorials I will also be showing you day to day munchies I'm enjoying, new foods I'm trying as well as vegetarian product reviews! So if you have any food recommendations, recipes, questions etc you can always send your queries to my email: Jjacks48@aol.com.

Let's get started shall we!

On the menu today...

Vegetable Lo Mein

Ingredients:

Rice Noodles

Oil (I use olive bc it's healthier, but you could use any kind)

Fresh green beans

1 T. Chopped Garlic

1 T. Hoisin Sauce

1 Zucchini (med to large)

1/2 c. sliced button mushrooms

1/4 c. chopped green onions

3 or 4 baby corn (roughly chopped)

handful of Snow Peas

handful of Bean Sprouts

1 T. Soy Sauce

1 T. Earth Balance Spread (imitation butter)

I started off boiling some fresh green beans for around 3 minutes in order to start the cooking process without making them too crunchy or too soft.

I heated my skillet (a Wok would be much better for this but you use what you have!) then added a little oil oil and some chopped garlic (I use jarred garlic bc i'm lazy! ;)

After the beans are cooked I went ahead and removed them from the water (I didn't drain the water so I could use that to boil my noodles) and put them straight into the garlic/oil skillet.

Drop your rice noodles into the water where the green beans were and cook until the veggies are done.

Add about a tablespoon of Hoisin sauce (typically found in the Asian aisle along with the rice noodles you're going to need) Cook those until the green beans are slightly wilted then remove from skillet.

Add the 1 T. of Earth Balance spread to coat the pan and then to that add the zucchini and cook until soft. Add mushrooms, green onions, and baby corn and cook until mushrooms are soft as well.

Add snow peas and reserved green beans to mixture.

Drain the Rice noodles while the vegetables cook and once drained add another T. of Hoisin sauce and 1 T. of Soy Sauce to the noodles mixing thoroughly (it's easier to mix those in the pan rather than later in your skillet)

Add handful of Bean Sprouts to the veggies and stir, creating a hole in the center to drop in your noodles. Don't cook too long or the sprouts will get soggy and no one likes a soggy sprout!

Add the drained noodles and carefully stir (again it helps if you use a Wok bc the skillet is just too damn small to hold all this goodness!)

Once stirred let it sit on the heat for another few minutes them remove from heat and serve! Makes a bunch!! Who knows how much, but I usually have enough for 2nds and then some for lunch and maybe even dinner the next day...depends on if Grandma or Grandpa sneak any ;)

Enjoy!! (this is one of my favorites so far!)