Tomato, Mushroom, and Sausage Pasta

Ok, so this isn't exactly what was in my pasta recipe but I loved the picture so much that I couldn't resist using it.  If only my presentation was that neat on a regular basis!

As I procrastinated this morning by watching "Under the Tuscan Sun," I realized that perhaps I have a slight Italian addiction of late.  Maybe it is the good weather or perhaps my time in Italy left me more homesick than my time in France, which would surprise even me.  These are my top two favorite countries; i've lived in both and cannot get enough of either but in hindsight, I think Italy might be pulling ahead.  Yesterday I watched "Letters to Juliet," a cute movie that takes place in Verona, today was "Under the Tuscan Sun," shot not far from my village, and when I think about it, three out of my four go to movies these days are Italian.

The recipe I promised above is more of the same, I seem to be in love with pastas reminiscent of those I cooked up in Italy on warm evenings with all the doors and windows open.

So, going with my Italian theme, tonight I put some tagliatelle on while I chopped up vegan sausage (it tastes like real sausage!), tomatoes, and baby portobello mushrooms, sauteed them in a bit of oil, and then added a small container of soya coffee creamer, and seasoned it with pepper, garlic, salt, and oregano before I threw in the pasta.

Pasta in a cream sauce with mushrooms at a restaurant
in Viterbo.

I know the coffee creamer might sound strange but if you're looking for an easy vegan pasta sauce that is not tomato based, all you need is a bit of soy, liquid coffee creamer as a base and it will soak up the light flavor of the mushrooms or whatever you want to add.  The creamer is my substitute for the Italian Panna Cotta which is a thick cream that starts out flavorless and develops a light, alfredo taste as it simmers but you can flavor it anyway you wish.  The spices I used, come from the standard seasonings of the part of Italy in which I lived.  The rules were simple- you never had enough salt or pepper, garlic couldn't hurt, and the light cream base is traditionally served in any seafood or mushroom dish.  As I am vegan, this is probably the closest to seafood I will get but it definitely took me back to risotto and penne al mare.

Try it out and don't be afraid to play with the flavors!  I love pasta because it is so easy to throw anything in and create a new dish and if you use whole wheat pasta, it is actually really healthy.

Pasta with a bag of frozen vegetables and some bread
and olive oil with red wine vinegar; so easy!

Sweet and Sour Mushroom Pasta

I have been hooked on avocado and tomato sandwiches for the past week and a-half so I officially banned myself from them this week in an effort to branch out and explore all the other wonderful dishes out there.  I discovered this super easy sweet and sour sauce recipe while teaching at a Boy Scout  camp a few summers ago and it's never failed.  Most if not all of the cooking supplies you need are probably already in your kitchen and if it doesn't taste right, you just add more of whatever tastes like its missing.

After you make the sauce, add in whatever kind of pasta and fillings you prefer.  I used mushrooms and stir fry vegetables, sauteed in sweet and sour sauce, then stirred into the pasta but the traditional chicken and rice work just as well.  

 Ps.  Don't worry about the MSG in the recipe; i've never used it and the sauce tastes great!

Cookies reheated and reused!

For all of my fellow chocolate lovers, here are two recipes discovered by chance and now used regularly to fulfill even the biggest enthusiast's needs while easily covering dessert for a dinner party.  The top photo is of cookies made from half a batch of thawed thin mint patties that I ran out of chocolate to cover and so slipped into the freezer for another day.  It occurred to me on a particularly non-descript day that these had been sitting in the freezer for over a week and needed to be used soon.  On my way home I picked up a package of Oreos (surprisingly vegan!), some baking dark chocolate chips, drizzled the thin mint patties with melted chocolate, crushed Oreos, re-drizzled some leftover chocolate, and the Oreo Chocolate Truffle was born!  It sounds much more impressive when told like that, than the mere fifteen minutes it actually cost me but the product was simple, gratifying, and served well with the unexpected company that week.

The second recipe is one I have had for over a year but seldom used.  So when I suddenly decided to cook dinner for friends tonight and hurriedly rushed through my database of desserts, this was the easiest thing to whip up on short notice, using mostly ingredients I already possessed.  Usually this one turns out perfectly but tonight, it ended in a chocolate-pecan like soup, surrounded by a well baked crust.  Whether it was the humidity, the egg replacer I used, or not enough corn syrup, the dessert turned out great anyway when we poured the servings into individual bowls and mashed it up a bit into a chocolaty, pecan crumble.  Turns out the filling is so good on its own that you really can't do too much to mess it up; soup or not I highly recommend it!

The "Mean Reds"

As Audrey Hepburn a la Holly Golightly once put it, some days you get so low that the blues are replaced with the reds and all you can do is go to Tiffany's.  Since I don't have time for a visit to Tiffany's, my solution is a bottle of brilliantly colored nail polish, my new favorite candle, and a good edition of Vogue.  It's easy to get swept up in the everyday pressures of life, school, and the social world but as a few of my friends at Stiletto for Beginners and La Rue Neuve have recently written, it's all about perspective and trying to stay positive.  Here's to today not being Monday, being one day closer to St. Patrick's Day, an endless supply of coffee, bottles of bright red nail polish, and of course, to Tiffany's.

Veganism Continued

Happy Friday!  My foray into the vegan diet has gone well thus far and I am excited to continue my exploration throughout the weekend.  I'll save you the run down on exactly what i've been eating but here are a few of my favorite recipes and ones I intend to try, vegan style, over the weekend.  See you on Monday!

My new favorite Grilled avocado, tomato, and basil sandwich: 7 Grain bread, tomato, avocado, fresh basil, and a bit of thyme, garlic, and pepper, with a drizzling of olive oil.

Pancake recipe from the Repressed Pastry Chef.  You can substitue soy milk for buttermilk (even substituting regular milk tastes fine in place of buttermilk), maple syrup instead of sugar, and bananas (1 mashed to one egg).



Instead of buying Oreos (vegan!) I decided to be adventurous and make this homemade Thin Mint recipe from the blog Baking Bites.  Unfortunately you can't substitute with maple syrup for this one, you'll have to stick to granulated sugar, but you can still substitute the eggs with bananas, the butter with margarine, the milk with soy, and as long as the chocolate is 60% or above, it should be vegan friendly.  If the consistency is too thin because of the margarine substitution, add more cornstarch to thicken the batter without changing the flavor.  Good luck and happy baking!

Ps. Most of these recipes call for white
flour and since it is not strictly anti-
vegan, I am going to use up the massive
amount I have left before trying more
pro-vegan alternatives.  If you are
looking to try an alternative however,
I have been recommended whole wheat
pastry flour in a smaller quantity than
white flour.

Vegan Update #1

Refried Bean and avocado quesadilla; my new favorite!
(This one includes soy cheese, which I have not had time
to explore yet.  If you do not feel like experimenting, the
dish will taste fine cheese free)

I have officially been vegan for two days now and thus far all is well!  Tomorrow will be my first distance run on this diet so we will see how my energy holds up.

As for what I have been eating the past two days, I will give you a short run down.
Monday: Breakfast: 7 grain toast with honey and a banana, Lunch: cous cous with lentils and grilled red peppers, Snack: Soy peppermint mocha from Starbucks, 1/2 piece 7 grain bread and tomato and olive hummus, mixed nuts with raisins, Dinner: Refried bean, salsa, and fresh basil quesadilla.
Tuesday: Breakfast: 7 grain toast with honey and a banana, Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich (the avocados for today weren't ripe yet), Snack: Soy peppermint mocha from Starbucks, large raw fruit, nut, and oat Nakd bar, Dinner: Refried bean, 1/2 avocado, salsa, and fresh basil quesadilla, radishes and tomato and olive hummus.

Throughout the past two days I have stayed full and energized.  I have yet to miss any of the foods I gave up and I can't believe that I can eat so much and still be well under my normal calorie count.  Respectively I don't need to eat as much because I always feel full!

Everyone has been very supportive and I have received both tons of recipes and some strange misconceptions about Veganism.  Fact: many vegans consider honey to be outside the vegan regimen, as well as anything sealed with tallow, beeswax, or made with gelatin, as those are derived from animal byproducts in minimal amounts.  This is however open to personal interpretation.  Things people reported as vegan but actually aren't: black coffee and processed food.  I have also been finishing the Veganist by Kathy Freston and though I do not share her adamant stand on cruelty to animals or religious reasons for Veganism, I have found all of the aspects important to vegansim fascinating and informative.

There are so many things to take in and so much to discuss.  Leave your thoughts and comments and I will keep you posted on my progress!

Free Form Banana Chocolate Chip Cappuccino Muffins (Phew!)

Today was filled with some pretty big issues needing to be tackled so to unwind I did my usual and baked.  It is amazing how far a good glass of wine and some kitchen time will go.  The Repressed Pastry Chef has a banana chocolate chip cappuccino muffin recipe I have been dying to try and luckily I had most of the ingredients at home.  The 'free form,' bit is because I did not have a muffin tin.  If this happens, you can double up on the paper muffin cups and place them close together for baking.  They will take a few more minutes though as the bottoms take longer to bake when they are that close together.  Regardless, they turned out perfectly and as any good recipe, are even better the next day!

Red wine, my apron, some cocoa powder,
and of course, Vogue; the perfect recipe
for de-stressing.

The final product: free form muffins!