Beans, tomatoes, and spinach over mashed potatoes

I haven't posted in a long time. I always want to post, and then just make excuses not to post. The excuses range from being tired, too much work, etc. The school year is full of lots of work as usual and I am normally there from 6:30-5:00ish. So, when I get home I cook, eat, clean, and do work, eventually falling asleep on the sofa. I tell John not to let me go horizontal on the sofa or I am gone.

Since I last posted I am eager to say that John and I are engaged! After 8 1/2 years of dating we are happy to take our relationship to "the next level." He proposed while we were hiking a few weekends ago. It was cold and raining, but it was wonderful. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter where/when you propose, especially when it comes to John and I. I always see these elaborate proposal like going on scavenger hunt, etc. and I told John I didn't want anything like that. We have been together for so long (since junior year of high school) that we have way too many special places. John was retelling a story about how he would tell his parents when he got home late from being with me in high school. It goes something like this: When you put  your hand on a hot stove for a second it feels like an hour, and an hour with a beautiful girl seems like a second. Then he got down on one knee and asked the question. I was speechless and had no idea he was planning to do this! We celebrated that night by going to a really nice vegan restaurant and celebrating our relationship. I was looking through old pictures of us today, and became a little overcome with emotions. I forget how long 8 1/2 years really is. Generally people date, get married, and have kids in less time than we have been together. John and I are unique in that sense. We like to take things at our own pace. We both over plan, try to be over prepared for every situation, put our education/careers first and made plenty of sacrifices. But through it all, I would not have changed anything. We are so happy where we are now, living in Chicago, working where we work, and finally feeling like we are a "normal" couple. We are definitely a great team. Being a team is what it is all about. Having each other's back, helping one another, trusting in each other, etc. Let the wedding planning begin!

After that long diversion from cooking, I made a pretty yummy dinner tonight! I feel a bit bad since John had to leave for NYC on a business trip around 5:30 so he didn't get any. I think I have better creativity when he isn't here. I'm always afraid that what I make won't be that good, but if I am the only one eating it, no one will know! Tonight I needed to use up some spinach and wanted something warm. So, I concocted the recipe below:

Mashed Potatoes

7 mini red potatoes, washed and cut

Boil until very soft

Strain and mash

Add 1 tablespoon vegan butter

Sprinkle in garlic powder while mashing

1/4 cup soy or almond milk to bind

Tomato/Black Eye Pea Combination

Saute 4 cloves of garlic diced-I used pre diced garlic

Saute for 2 minutes of medium heat

Add 1 can drained and rinsed black eye peas

Add seasonings of your choice-i used a combo like thyme and basil

Cook for 4 minutes

Add 1/3 cup tomato juice

Add 2 roma tomatoes diced

Bring mixture to a boil

Lower to a simmer until the mixtures absorbs most of the liquid

Spinach

I emptied the bean mixture into a bowl and used the same pan to saute the spinach

Add 2 tablespoons olive oil

Add a generous amount of spinach

Saute until wilted

Assembly

Add a bed of mashed potatoes to the plate

Put spinach on top of potatoes

Spoon bean/tomato combo over

Happy Cooking!

Avocado Pasta

Do you ever feel in a pinch when you get home from work? You want a home cooked meal, but don't want to spend a lot of time cooking. This recipe is for you! John loves this recipe and gets so excited when I make it. I think it is simple enough he could even make it...hint, hint....wink, wink....This is a great recipe to make if you don't know what to use your avocados for.

Avocado Pasta

1/2 box spaghetti

5 cloves garlic, diced

1 can garbanzo beans

2 avocados

3 Roma tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Pepper

Salt

Assembly

Put 1 tablespoon in skillet

Add the garlic and saute on medium heat

Add 1 can of garbanzo beans-drained and rinsed

Add the 3 Roma tomatoes, diced

Add the 2 avocados (I add these when the pasta is cooking)

Add salt and pepper to taste

Drain the pasta and put in a large bowl

Add the other tablespoon of olive oil

Add the other ingredients

Mix and serve

I did add a bit of lime juice to try to combat the browning of the avocados. This didn't change the flavor of the dish. 

I came home from school to these lovely flowers. I had to clarify with John if they were for me or Handel (my cat). Now the apartment smells great!

Lemon Rosemary Rice

I wanted to make panko breaded tofu with a lemon rosemary marinade and sauce. I went to the store and bought two packages of tofu. When I arrived home, I realized I bought cubed tofu instead of the block.. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I was determined to make this dinner, and my hopes were crushed when I saw my tofu was cubed. Nonetheless, I decided I CAN control this situation . I tweaked my original idea and created a rice dish instead. I cooked the cubed tofu in rosemary and lemon before adding tomatoes and mixing with brown rice.

Lemon Rosemary Tofu

1 container cubed tofu, drained and dried

1 tablespoon vegan butter 

1 tablespoon minced rosemary

Juice of 1 lemon

2-3 roma tomatoes (depends on the size)

Pepper

Assembly

Add diced tofu and butter to a skillet

Heat the tofu on medium high heat

Add the diced rosemary

Add more butter as you sit fit or olive oil

Add the juice of 1 lemon to the mixture

Add pepper

When the tofu is starting to brown, add the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are cooked down

Add to rice (I used Trader Joe's brown rice)

I served this with a salad and oven roasted potatoes. This recipe can be found in an earlier blog. The meal was easy to prepare and pretty tasty. John seemed to like it. I feel like I haven't been cooking very much. I guess my cooking has been whatever is in my pantry, gets thrown together. It seems like I am not really planning meals. I think planning meals should be a goal of mine.

Handheld Tofu Salads

Oh, school....So it begins. This is my "first" week back. I don't have kids yet, but we are in all day meetings and putting in the last efforts to make our room look great and function just as well. I have 35 munchkins this year...yikes! But, I do get assistance from our library teacher for 2 hours a day. I am excited to meet my new kids on Wednesday for Meet the Teacher Night. I know there will be a lot of nervous parents, eager kids, and a lot of questions (a lot about the possible teacher strike). I wanted to share a recipe before I got too busy. I have a full load of work every night. I use the desktop post-its on my laptop, and it covers the entire right side of my computer screen. John told me today that it was nice knowing me. I feel like my cats are even thinking the the same. During the summer Handel wouldn't cuddle with me in bed because he knew I would be home most of the day. He has started to get some cuddle time in and getting a bit more clingy. 

John and I hosted our housewarming party this weekend. It was a huge success, and everyone seemed to have a great time. I had great intentions on making all the food we served, but coordinating my schedule around school and entertaining out of town guests, didn't sync up, so Trader Joe's stepped in to help out. After the craziness of the weekend, I can now fully focus on the craziness of school beginning. I rushed home with a million things to do today, but one thing that I had to do almost immediately, EAT! I started grabbing things left and right, hoping it would become a meal. I do this quite often, and it worked today!I started with grabbing cubed tofu and frozen succotash from Trader Joe's. As I was cooking, I started to get more ideas of how the meal would turn out.

Tofu

Drain cubed tofu and add to skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat with medium to medium high heat until golden and tender

Succotash 

Boil a pot of water

Add succotash and cook for 8 minutes

Sauce

Pour one can Trader Joe's Brushetta in a pot

Add 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil

heat

Assembly

Add succotash to the tofu and continue to heat

Add the sauce

Place 3, large romaine leafs on a plate

Take the mixtures and put in the center of the three leafs

I served this with a side of broccoli. I simply drizzled broccoli with olive oil, added seasoned salt and smoked paprika and baked them at 450 until slightly browned on the tips. John enjoyed this meal. Handel also tried helping himself to the food.

Are you interested in personal fitness and a better well-being...check out my brother (Jonathan), and my sister-in-law's (Sarah) blog and indigogo. They are both committed to eating well and exercising and helping others do the same. They want to become certified personal trainers and start fitness studios. The links are as follows:

http://fitfoundations.blogspot.com/

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/209026?a=1067295

Easy Lunch- Pearled Couscous

It has been a busy week! I just moved! I am two days into my new apartment. I didn't move far from my other apartment. John and I hired a moving company, and they were fantastic! It only took them 2 1/2 hours to move us out and in! We were very relieved not to do all the heavy lifting. Our apartment was dirty when we moved in, surprise, surprise. I spent most of the day cleaning. I would go over a 2x2 area with a wet swiffer and it would come out black...gross! I washed the floors 3 times! The kitchen is alright. I'm going to see if the landlord can get us a new oven. All the temperatures are rubbed off the gauges, so that makes baking a little tricky. We bought a portable dishwasher so now we don't have to do as many dishes by hand...woo hoo! I put our dishes on shelves (lack of cabinets). I am just waiting for our cats to knock something down. Below are pictures of my new kitchen and the recipe I made for John and I for lunch. I haven't restocked food yet, so this was what I could manage to make with the supplies I had on hand.

Pearled Couscous with Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans

Pearled Couscous

Boil 1 1/4 water

Add 1 cup pearled couscous

Lower heat

Cook for 8-10 minutes

Be careful not to overcook or the couscous will stick to the bottom of the pan

Sauce

In a separate pot, add the following ingredients

1 can cannellini beans (drain and rinse)

1 can diced tomatoes with the juice

2 cloves garlic, diced

pepper

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 

1 tablespoon dried basil

Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat

Assembly

Add the sauce to the couscous 

Mix

Serve

This was a super quick and easy lunch. It was also very filling. Between John and I, there were plenty of leftover as well. 

Happy Cooking!

Some kitchen photos..I really hope my apartment company will get us a new oven, new floors, and fix the bottom of the refrigerator. We will see...

The portable dishwater will go where the brown box is to the right  of the table

Handel photo bomb

Vegan Potato Salad

As a vegan, I am very use to bringing my own food to all sorts of events; weddings, luncheons, cookouts, etc. Whenever I am invited to a function and someone finds out that I am vegan, they immediately ask what I can eat. I explain what I can and cannot eat. Then, I know people are just trying to be nice, offer to buy/make me food. I understand this, and it is very kind, but, most of the time it becomes a hassle, people buy/make things I can't eat, etc. It is so much easier for me to just bring my own things. This seems like a shock to the host when I offer this. I am not trying to be rude, but accommodating. I don't have carnivores over to my house and offer to cook them steak. Heck, I would probably kill them if I did such a thing. I love to cook and enjoy bringing my food to share with everyone. All because it is vegan, doesn't mean it isn't good or worthy to share with everyone. Usually, my vegan food is a big hit! 

To put all of this into context, I am headed to a cookout tonight at one of John's coworkers. They nicely offered to go to Whole Foods for me, but I declined to bring my own things. I decided to make my black-eyed pea salad (previously blogged) and potato salad. 

Vegan Potato Salad

1 bag small, red potatoes

Wash and dice potatoes

Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook the potatoes until soft (not too soft or they will mash when mixing)

Dressing

While potatoes are cooking, assemble the following in a large bowl

1 cup vegan mayonnaise

1/4 cup mustard

2 tablespoons brown mustard or any other mustard variation

1 tablespoon minced chives

4-5 stalks of celery diced 

Pepper to taste

Assembly

After potatoes have cooked for about 10 minutes, check for softness

Strain and run cold water over the potatoes before adding to the dressing mixture

Add potatoes to the dressing mixture and stir

Refrigerate 

Garnish with smoked paprika for added flavor

This salad is always a hit. John doesn't like normal potato salad, but loves mine (I wonder, does he?)! My mom also puts it up there with my grandma's potato salad which is supposed to be the best potato salad in the world. The recipe is super easy and tastes great even a few days later.

Happy Cooking!