Dress up your rice and beans. Here’s a mexcellent rice bowl of chipotle sausage, pinto beans and rice. Feel free to experiment with whatever you’ve got on hand. A great Mexican meal can be made from just a few pantry staples. You could also stuff this into burritos if that floats your boat. Mexican Rice
1 Cup long grain brown rice
2 Cups water (or whatever the directions say for your rice)
3 TBS green salad olives
1 TBS capers
1/4 cup sofrito*
1 TBS annatto oil**

Seasoned Pinto Beans
1 vegan sausage link (like Chipotle Field Roast)
1/4 cup sofrito*
2 cups cooked (or canned) pinto beans
1 can tomatoes (I use Rotel-tomatoes & green chilies)
1 small can chopped green chilies
1 tsp adobo seasoning***

Chipotle Mayonaise
1 tsp chipotle powder
1/4 cup vegan mayo

I cook my rice in a rice cooker, but you can do this on the stove top, just follow the package instructions for the rice and add the extras.

While the rice is cooking, brown the chipotle sausage with the sofrito, then add the beans, tomatoes, green chilies, and adobo and let simmer. In a small side dish mix together the chipotle powder and vegan mayo.

When the rice is done, dish it out into bowls, and spread sausage bean mix on top. Top with chipotle mayo or vegan sour cream.

*If you don’t have sofrito on hand (you really should make some) you can put in a little onion, garlic, and bell pepper if you have it.

Sofrito
1 big onion
1 big green bell pepper
1 big red bell pepper (or orange or yellow)
1-2 heads garlic (10-20 garlic cloves)
1 bunch cilantro
1 cup chopped tomato (fresh or canned-drained)

Chop everything in a food processor. Store in 1/2 cup portions in ziploc bags in the freezer. If you can find culantro-my grocery store calls it recoll-throw in a few leaves as well.

**Annatto oil

1/2 cup corn oil (or olive oil or whatever oil you like or have on hand)
1 TBS annatto seeds

Heat oil and seeds on medium heat until seeds make sizzle-pop sound. Remove from heat, strain and use oil for Latin flavor and red/yellow color. I use corn oil because it stays liquid in the fridge. Look for annatto (achiote) seeds in the Latin section or with the spices.

*** You can buy, or make your own adobo seasoning, or if you don’t have any, use a little onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper and cumin.

Adobo seasoning:
2 Tbs salt
1 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs garlic powder
1 Tbs black pepper
1 Tbs Espazote (or oregano)
1 tsp dried lemon peel
1 tsp cumin (optional)

NYC Vegan Eat Up celebrated it’s 7th birthday with a vegan cheese crawl through the village to sample Daiya cheese in several local restaurants. We started off at Two Boots, headed over to Counter, followed by Cafe Viva Natural Pizza, then a quick stop at Curly’s Lunch for anyone who was still hungry, and some drinks and punk music at Otto’s tiki lounge.

Di Sica stromboli featuring Daiya cheese stuffed with vegetables from Two Boots. I dug the stromboli. They used the perfect amount of Daiya, so it was really cheezy and flavorful. I ate the whole thing. Farro Salad from Counter. This was really fresh and tasty. The Daiya was present, but not overpowering and it wasn’t melted, so it was a new way to enjoy it. The atmosphere at Counter is really cool (and dark) it’s hip and not health foody if you know what I mean. I can’t wait to come back for brunch sometime.The Super Mushroom pizza from Viva Natural Pizza. Viva wasn’t quite prepared for us with enough of the special Diaya sicilian, but one of the eat-uppers ordered a whole mushroom pie with the daiya and split it. This was really yummy. I was full from the rest of the food, so I shared most of the slice with some other hungry eat-uppers.

Then we headed towards Ottos and a few people who wanted more food stopped into Curly’s for some burgers. Otto’s was like a time trip to what I imagine the 80’s village scene looked like with dive bar atmosphere and punk music. It was pretty crowded, but we managed to get a table anyway (these eat up organizers can do anything!)

So all in all a really fun night. I’m so glad I found the eat up group. Everyone is so nice and it’s really cool to meet other vegans. So fun in fact that I’m off to another eat up right now. Dim Sum!

Ciao!

Who knew lemon and blueberries go so well together? Well Colleen Patrick-Goudreau did, ‘cuz I got the recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking. These were super easy and I got to use up some summer blueberries from the freezer.

For more on making your own vegan muffin concoctions, check out Sal’s mofo muffin tips on basic and jazzed up muffins.

Tonight I’m off to a vegan meet up and we’re going to tool around the east village getting local NYC restaurants to make us awesome food with Daiya cheese. I love my internet peeps, but it’s always good to meet some vegans in real life.

Peace out.

Hot & sour soup. Spicy and salty.

General Tso’s Veg. Chicken with brown rice. Mmmm fake chickeny saucy goodness.
Stick Rice in wrapped in bamboo leaves. I LOVE this. You don’t eat the bamboo leaves (they’re pretty bitter if you accidentally get a bite.) It’s filled with a veg pork meat of some variety.

I got the following e-mail to share with you.

How cool would it be for a vegan blogger to win this! The charity list is on the entry form. 500 words about our path to greener living? Jeez, we do that all the time. Best of luck!

Last week we went to dinner at Kajitsu in the East Village in NYC. Here’s the info from their website:

“Kajitsu serves shojin cuisine, an ancient Japanese cuisine developed in Zen Buddhist monasteries. Following the Buddhist principle of not taking life, Shojin cuisine does not use meat or fish. Meals are prepared from fresh, in season vegetables, legumes, wild herbs, seeds and grains, chosen at the moment in the season that best reflects their flavor. At Kajitsu we make our delicious and wholesome dishes from high quality ingredients prepared with traditional Japanese culinary techniques.”

Kajitsu has a prix fixe menu with 2 options that changes every month and is very dependent on the season. We sprung for the 8 course menu ($70) and they also have a 4 course ($50) option.

Arare Encrusted Nama-fu and Steamed Yuba in a Clear Broth. This was a broth with seitan cubes – but they were lighter then “normal” seitan. The yuba is the skin from soy milk and is quite delicious.

Komatsuna Greens Tossed with Fried Tofu, Couscous and Kabocha Squash Pate, Tomato Agar Agar. The red square was a whole cherry tomato encased in a tomato jello.

House-made Soba Noodles Served Tanuki Style. These were homemade soba (buckwheat) noodles.

This isn’t a course, it’s the special 7 spice blend for the soba noodles. I think it’s cute with the little wood peg that looks like a nose.

Spaghetti Squash Served with Late Summer Vegetables in Kuzu Sauce.

This is the spaghetti squash as it’s served from the gourd.

Ginger Mitsuba Rice with Roasted Eggplant and House-made Pickled Vegetables
The eggplant was smoky deliciousness. I was getting full, so I had trouble finishing the rice! It was topped with Japanese herbs.

Kuzu Mochi with Dates. Whew, this was the perfect size dessert.

Matcha and Ariheito Style Candies by Kyoto Shioyoshiken – I forgot to snap a photo, but this was 3 sugar candies shaped like this and a bowl of matcha tea.

I gotta say, I was stuffed, but very fulfilled with this meal. I think just 4 courses wouldn’t have been as satisfying. The restaurant is practically silent and the service is impeccable. Each dish is meticulously served, and the waiter was gracious enough to explain all the interesting ingredients and techniques. Loved it. Worth the splurge and I will definitely go back soon. I can’t wait to see the October menu. I think I’m going to have to talk someone into taking me there again for my birthday.

I was reading Dan Brown’s, The Lost Symbol *and I was struck by the fact that veganism seems to pass the prerequisites for an ideology to qualify as religion (disclaimer, I am not actually suggesting veganism is a religion, just bear with me…)

ABC. Assure, Believe, Convert.

Veganism assures good health, believes in compassion to animals, and seeks to convert non-vegans.

How do you convert the non-vegans, you ask? Be the example. But it’s so hard, they say. Well, start small and try to pick one day a week to go meatless, or at least one meal a week. Meatless Mondays is a group seeking to get America to give up the meat for one day a week. Not strictly vegan, mind you (veg daily is on them about that,) but it’s a good place to start.

So here’s an EASY rainy Meatless Monday dinner of comfort food. Pasta! Ready in under 30 minutes. Beat that Rachel Ray!

I like my noodles pretty simple. This is a light and tomatoey sauce that whips up in a snap with canned tomatoes and chickpeas. Blended beans are a great way to sneak in some extra fiber and protein, and make the sauce extra rich and creamy. Serves 2-4.

Creamy Pasta Fazool
1/2 lb (half package) spaghetti
1 cup canned chickpeas (or cannellini, or navy, or anything similar)
1 15oz can (2 cups) diced tomatoes
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt to taste (I used 1/2 tsp)
1 TBS olive oil
2 garlic cloves (smashed in a garlic press or grated on a micro plane-you want it really fine)
1-2 tsp sugar (optional)

Boil water in large pot.

While the pasta water is heating, blend chickpeas, tomatoes, and seasoning in blender. Since you’re using canned ingredients, it may be salty enough already, if not, blend in a few pinches of salt and taste again.

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan or sauce pan and add garlic. Saute garlic a minute or so, then add the blended tomato mixture and heat thoroughly. Give it another taste for salt as it heats up (careful, don’t burn your tongue.) Also, depending on your canned tomatoes, you may want to add a little sugar (1-2tsp.) Totally optional, but it sometimes helps if the sauce is a little bland.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta and add to sauce to incorporate.

Buon appetito!

*I don’t want to discuss The Lost Symbol since it just came out and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. Recommended if you liked the DaVinci Code or enjoy a good thriller with a history lesson. I’m not going to call it quality literature.

Cancer bites. A big part of the reason that keeps me vegan is fear of cancer, or rather a stubborn refusal to ever get it. As you may know, my father died of colon cancer a few years ago, my paternal grandmother died of brain cancer, and my aunt and grandfather had some skin cancer. So, I’ve already got the family history working against me. I just learned that yet another friend’s mother has passed away after a battle with cancer.

These are the mom’s of childhood friends who were a big part of my growing up as well.