A Central Coast (mostly) Vegan Fitness Instructor.

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Vegan Richa, the multi talented vegan blogger and author, has an amazing giveaway going on at her blog.

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Sandwich to Salad - A wonderful dinning treat.

noreply@blogger.com (in2insight) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Tami, the lovely and talented person behind the American Vegan Kitchen cookbook (An outstanding book!) and the Vegan Appetite blog, has a new book out, all about sandwiches. To celebrate, she shared a recipe for one that did not make it into the book, Vegan Appetite: Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! Jibarito, the Bonus Recipe!

Two challenges were awaiting me. My eyesight and the fact that Plantains were MIA from the local markets.
So, this turned into a salad minus the onions.
The verdict - delicious!
We had leftover marinated mushrooms that are going onto a Pizza. Win win.

Salad for Days!

noreply@blogger.com (in2insight) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:06:00 +0000

I love salads. Really. Once I get into the swing of things, there is no stopping me. For lunch, dinner or as a treat with TV, there are SO many options, that it's rare that the same one appears twice. (There are exceptions of course. Aren't there always?)
These last few weeks have been devoted to recipes from Appetite For Reduction. Fantastic.
Then, with an email ding, I got word that Bryanna had just posted a, wait for it, Salad.
And what a winner it is. Beets, Carrots, Onions - all roasted then tossed with a dressing, heaped onto a bed of lettuce and crowned with some Vegan Feta.
Being that we had some Cauliflower to use up and just a few Carrots, that change was made, as well as using a store bought Vegan Feta Cheese.
Sometimes, it just does not get much better than this.

No, your eyes are just fine. I used golden beets.

Vine and Dine - Happy and Sad

noreply@blogger.com (in2insight) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 17:24:00 +0000

I was a bit late to the Vine and Dine party, but better so than never, right?
So that is a happy point. A sad one goes to the fact that this may be the last such event.
On the upside, Tami from Vegan Appetite, the genius behind V&D, allowed me to pick the recipe this time! Score.
The entree comes from American Vegan Kitchen and is The Tempeh Stroganoff Stuffed Potatoes.
I have cooked a lot from this book, and love it. The spice blend alone is worth the price of admission.
The fact that it's author is no other than the awesome blogger of Vegan Appetite, makes the book even more valuable.

Okay, on to the cooking and eating, which is what this is all about. And of course the drinking too!
Having some challenges finding vegan sour cream, I ended up making my own using Bryanna's recipe. Let me just say that after this, I will be making my own whenever it's called for. So good, so easy.

I did cut the recipe in half, portion control or something of that nature...
Above are the potatoes, scooped, and ready to be filled.

Most of the stuffing ingredients waiting to come together. The tempeh was outstanding, and I can see making this on it's own.

All dressed up and ready for the oven.

The final meal, with a shout out for the book too!
The side dish is a simple kale stir fry with hot sauce and some tamari.
Overall, outstanding meal!

For the wine, we went with a local white from Meridian. It was nice and dry, smooth, and completely complemented the main dish.

Spinach - Mushroom Quiche

noreply@blogger.com (in2insight) — Tue, 22 May 2012 00:16:00 +0000

Over at the Post Punk Kitchen Forum, there was a discussion about Quiche. Vegan variety to be sure.
A link was posted to a recipe by Peter Berley's offering from his book The Modern Vegetarian.
Having made a few Vegan Quiches with great success, the winner being the Broccoli one from Vegan Brunch (An awesome book, btw), I decided to give this one a try.
A few changes were made:
1) Having no sesame seeds on hand, a Zaatar mix was used in their place.
2) Frozen spinach that was thawed and well drained sped up the process.
3) About half the oil called for in the filling.

It was really good! The crust was both crunchy and flakey, the filling firm, tender and borsting with flavor, and the meal so very filling. (Although there was still room for some left over birthday Vegan Carrot cake, of course)

Was is crowned the new Quiche winner?
Nope, that honor is still firmly held by the Vegan Brunch.
This one is a solid second.

I went a bit heavy handed on the Paprika...

The Sexy Vegan - Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (in2insight) — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:07:00 +0000

The Sexy Vegan, a blog that birthed a book, is a funny and delightful cooking journey.
Buying the book on impulse turned out to be a wise choice.
I'm not one to often read the forwards, messages, and all that insight that most cookbooks are filled with. I should re-think this strategy as after reading, and nearly busting a rib, not just the introduction, but all the recipe "headliners" too, was a joyous endeavor.
He is one funny dude.

For starters, I went for the Basic Seitan. It has a secret ingredient. Well, not so much anymore; it's mashed potatoes.
On it's own, it was good. Nice firm texture and very flavorful.
Since one can't, or at least, should not, live on Seitan alone, I made the "Steaks" with Gravy plus Celery Root fries dinner combo. (To note, this was the authors Final Meat Eating Meal. No quotations on the steak)
Let's start with the Celery Fries. They were interesting. A little went a LONG way with these.
Ended up making them in the ActiFry, which is one of my all time favorite kitchen appliances.
The "Steak" was outstanding and the Gravy out of this world good.
So awesome in fact, that the left overs kept getting picked at throughout the evening until there were none left... Even the Broccoli got polished off. Dipped into the Gravy, of course. The Celery Fries, well, that is another story.

Being a weekends only kind of cook, and the owner of way too many cookbooks, it may be awhile until the Sexy Vegan and I cross paths again, but we will. Of that I am sure.

Vine and Dine - Blue Plate Special Wheat Meat Loaf

noreply@blogger.com (in2insight) — Sun, 13 May 2012 22:13:00 +0000

How I love American Vegan Kitchen! Not only is full of mouth watering recipes that are intensely, in a good way, flavorful and easy to make, but it is also written by an extremely nice and very giving person. I also like that the recipes are very "forgiving".
So imagine how happy I was that for the next two Vine and Dine events, the cooking comes from this fantastic book? Very!

The first cook a long is the Blue Plate Special Wheat Meat Loaf. (Try saying that really fast after a few glasses of the "Vine"...)
For a combination of necessity and pure laziness, I made a few changes. These are, in no particular order (I've been watching WAY too much of three different versions of The Voice):
1) Tofu instead of Seitan (laziness)
2) Soy Curls in place of the TVP (necessity and laziness)
3) Dry bread crumbs (you get the picture by now)
4) Baked in a loaf pan (Preference)

And it STILL turned out to be outstanding! See, so forgiving. (Hope Tami is as well) :)
The loaf was bursting with flavor, texture, moist on the inside and a bit crunchy on the outside.
The side dishes were roasted potatoes (smoked paprika, lemon pepper, hot red pepper, smoked salt and a dash of oil) along with a sauté of fresh spinach, mushrooms, garlic and a dash of red wine.

I think that bear would have been a perfect companion for this meal, but since there was non in the house, and yes, due to being lazy, white wine was the served.
I'd love to tell which one, but the bottle went directly to the big recycling bin, and there are limits to what one will do for the details that make up this post.
It was a lovely dry white from Lone Madrone.

The next Vine and Dine will feature a selection from American Vegan Kitchen that Tami was kind enough to let me pick.