Vegan Borscht
Posted by Nina on Apr 2, 2009
Being married to a Russian does have its advantages.. like when he makes you Vegan borscht purely because he loves you..
It was delicious and I am sad that it’s all gone. 
Basic borscht recipe according to my husband:
1.) Cook onions on a skillet
2.) Add crushed garlic
3.) Drop diced carrots and cubed tomatoes, cook for a few minutes
4.) Add beets, cook for a minute
5.) Add half a cup of stock, cover and stew until beets semi-soft
6.) Boil stock, and cubed potatoes
7.) After potatoes are boiling, add diced cabbage
8.) After returning to boiling, add beets mixture, tablespoon of tomato paste, season with salt and pepper, add bay leaves, cover and simmer slowlysomething like that…
Cherry Blossom Bento
Posted by Nina on Mar 12, 2009
Top: Orange tempeh with snow peas. Recipe here.
Bottom: Rice.
Drink: Water.
WW: 10 pts.
Vegan Chai “Cheese” Cake
Posted by Nina on Jan 22, 2009
Recipe is from My Sweet Vegan. Testing my hand at some food photography. I’m not so impressed with this pic but the recipe is awesome!.
Vegan Strawberry Blondies
Posted by Nina on Jan 22, 2009
Butterscotch Blondies recipe is from My Sweet Vegan. Testing my hand at some food photography.
I can’t decide which photo I like better..
a month of recent bentos
Posted by Nina on Feb 4, 2008
I haven’t been good at photographing all the bentos I have been making but here are a lucky few that have made the cut. I’m still using them daily and I am still waiting a shipment from 2 sellers in Japan (should be any time now). I’m also testing out recipes from 5 new cookbooks for review.
Winnie the Pooh rainbow bento boxes. 2 Vegan enchiladas from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. Pooh & Piglet peanut butter cookies from Sinfully Vegan.
February 2, 2008
Orange Bento: grapes & applesauce w/ 1 graham cracker.
Black Bento: pumpkin (butternut squash) chili.
White Bento: baby spinach, tomatoes, onions, celery, & home made tofu lime dressing.
January 22, 2008
Unsweetened Applesauce w/ Cinnamon, Clementine Oranges, Green Pea Soup, Corn, & My Melody Shaped Mashed Potatoes.
I wish I had taken a better shot of the potatoes I’ll have to make them again to show the detail better.
January 18, 2008
Top: Vegan Fettuccini Alfredo w/ Shirataki Vegan Noodles
Side: Corn w/ Vegan Butter
Top: Garden Green Pea Soup
January 14, 2008
bento: peanut butter & vegan raspberry jam in monkey containers, whole wheat bread stars, graham crackers underneath, vegan baked ziti with vegan gourmet mozzarella cheese.
side: bananas in their peel.
January 7, 2008
Vegan steak fijitas w/ soy cheese. Cherry tomatoes. Garlic & herb mashed potato stars. Applesauce over graham crackers & cinnamon. Clementine slices.
January 4, 2008
Raspberry soy yogurt. Vegan Italian spice chix & vegetables. Corn. Whole wheat bread stars. Fresh tomatoes. Cheddar soy cheese w/ Nori faces. Round brown rice balls dyed blue. Vegan ham w/ Nori face. Soy sauce in fish shaped bottle. Green tea.
It doesn’t look like there is a lot of food here.. but the small sandwiches I made with the bread, ham, tomatoes and cheese were quite filling. I wasn’t able to finish all of this in one meal! I had the left overs for dinner.
January 3, 2008
Vegan open faced chix fijitas. Vegetarian refried beans w/ soy cheese. Raspberry soy yogurt. Orange wedge face. Vegan Nutella flavored brownie.
January 2, 2008
Vegan chix stir fry w/ mixed veggies. Soy sauce in fish shaped bottle. Brown rice. Russian potato salad. Clementine orange slices.
Happy Birthday To ME! — and my RL friends suck.
Posted by Nina on Sep 14, 2007
Yesterday was my birthday. We didn’t do anything special but we did open a bottle of wine and I made cupcakes and ice cream! If you remember my posts in the following years about how shitty my birthdays usually are… well since we did nothing it was great… except.. <rant>I did find out that if I call people on THEIR birthdays or send cards.. I never get one in return.. so I’m thinking to stop at least to those people…only one person called (wtf… my RL friends suck and I need new ones! I didn’t even get an E-Card!) — Christina! <– you were the ONLY person who remembered so of course, you don’t suck. I dunno, I don’t generally think its too much to expect your friends to at least phone you and say “hey happy birthday.. I gotta go pick up the kids so I will call you later” or a simple ecard at least!? especially since ONE friend I have known for 27yrs didn’t call me and I called her from California to wish her a happy birthday!</rant>
Anyhoo, nothing on the gift front to report except I got some lovely peach miniature roses from Sergey that I will plant next spring I am knitting like crazy on a pair of socks for a sock swap I am involved in.. I have to finish and mail them by the 29th and I have one just almost completed so I think I will be OK. I will post pics when its finished.
I used a modified recipe from here + Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.
Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting!
Not the most appetizing photo of ice cream in the world.. but…………………. it was good!
Vegan Chocolate Peanut Ice Cream!
Sushi For Two
Posted by Nina on Aug 13, 2007
For the first time in my life I had sushi. Vegetable sushi. And I liked it! I liked it so well we decided to buy the ingredients and make our own at home from scratch! It took a great deal of time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears but we finally got it finished and had our glorious dinner at 10:30pm. Our meal consisted of vegetable sushi rolls, miso soup, and green tea. We used a modified recipe you can find here.
Spearmint Cookie Ice Cream!
Posted by Nina on Jul 16, 2007
My Vegan transitioning phase is officially over. We took a trip to our local health foods this weekend and I picked up my new sweeteners, some new cheese, and some stuff to make this kick ass ice cream! I spent a lot of time googling for ways to make my favorite non-Vegan foods Vegan so that I could still enjoy them.. Cheese and ice cream have always been BIG parts of my life and while I do want to give up all of the animal products, I didn’t want to miss out on all of the fun!
So, I found this blog that has this kick ass recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream.. I changed the mint to spearmint, added some Vegan mint cookies, & some Vegan food coloring (did you guys know some of that contains animal bits!?) and viola! The most delicious spearmint cookie ice cream EVER! The color turned out to be a little more green than I had expected since the sugar I am using is unbleached and unrefined.. so its natural color is kind of like light brown sugar and I think that had a bit to do with it.. but it is awesome! I can’t wait to make it again! I’m itching to try making some other kinds.. I got an ice cream maker from my hubby for Christmas because I was dying to try making ice cream with tofu.. I loved it, he hated it.. I think he would like this if he would actually try it…..
As always.. check your labels.. you’d be surprised how many soy products contain milk fat and butter! Oh! I almost forgot! The cheese I bought was Vegan-rella cheddar and Vegan (something) Parm (its in a little purple bottle and says VEGAN cheese alternative in white letters..). I picked up some nutritional yest and some Earth Balance butter too. I no longer have to “transition” my way through this Vegan thing any longer! and I like the Vegan-rella as long as I am not eating it by itself.. and it melts to a pretty runny texture so a little goes a long way! The Vegan Parm is AMAZING!
2 c. Silk soy creamer
1 1/4 c. rice dream milk
3/4 c. sugar
aprox. 2 T. arrowroot
1 1/2 t. spearmint extract
1/2 t. vanilla extract
a few drops green food coloring (optional)
aprox 5 vegan mint chocolate cookies
Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.
Mix the soy creamer, remaining soy milk, and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and immediately stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).
Stir in the peppermint extract, vanilla extract, and food coloring (if desired).
Set the ice cream mixture aside to cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add crushed cookies during the last 5 minutes of freezing.
Note: The Rice Dream milk is a bit watery but its what I prefer taste wise.. if using Rice milk, you may need to add a bit more arrowroot to thicken. It will be like a cream or buttermilk type consistency.
Makes 8 servings. POINTS® value per serving: 4
Quorn.
Posted by Nina on Jan 24, 2007
Oh, dear Quorn, where have you been all my life! I began searching for a better chicken substitute that my husband might not complain about.. (it tastes fake, it tastes weird, this is sooooo not like chicken, and so on.) and a few friends told me I should check out some Quorn… what? what is it!? why haven’t I ever seen any?! So I quickly ran to the website and began looking for a store that is local that sells it…. AH HA! The reason I never have seen it, nor heard about it, is because the closest shop that sells it is an hour away. Well… my husband and I loaded up your family truckster (ok, not really..) and made the trip to the whole foods market. We picked up the Quorn nuggets, meat balls, naked cutlets, and stir fry mix. Yeah, my friends told me I should try it before spending a gazillion dollars on something I might never eat.. but eh, I never listen to my friends anyway so why should I start now!?
When we got home we made a nice little salad, chicken for him, Quorn nuggets for me.. and we began to eat.. If your squeamish about eating something that looks, smells, and tastes pretty much like the real thing.. uhm then don’t try Quorn! I’m thrilled. I liked the taste of chicken, but killing an animal isn’t my thing and feeling guilty about eating your food isn’t very cool.. so… I settled on the next best thing…. Oh, Quorn, my love, how did I ever exist without tasting your yummy goodness!? I think I almost got my husband to take a bite.. until he decided to read the ingredients.. mold & fungi don’t set too well with him.. lol his loss is my gain. I ♥ Quorn! Oh, yeah, and no, they are not Vegan… only lacto-ovo vegetarians should buy them as they contain minimal amounts of egg. *sigh* Nothing is perfect.. but Quorn is pretty close!
Happy Birthday Darling!
Posted by Nina on Oct 31, 2006
Today is Sergey’s birthday!! His real party is this weekend so we opted to celebrate a nice quiet evening at home. I made some really good Chicken Pillards, opened some red wine, and surprised him with a very untraditional birthday ‘cake’… Sergey isn’t a big cake eater so I decided this year I would do brownies complete with 1 birthday candle.. After dinner he opened his card and gifts which were the complete first season of Mythbusters and the collectors edition of Oblivion for his Xbox 360. We will have more pics after the weekend.
Nina’s To Die For Chicken Pillards
2 breast uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
6 clove garlic clove(s)
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp table salt
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1 medium onion
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup fat-free chicken broth
2 sprays cooking spray (I prefer Mozola Pure)
1/8 tsp ground coriander
1. Place a chicken breast between two layers of plastic wrap, and using a meat mallet, pound to a 1/4-inch thickness. Repeat with remaining chicken. Brush both sides of chicken with olive oil, and season with 3cloves of garlic, thyme, lemon juice, Italian spices, parsley, salt and pepper. Set aside in fridge for 3-5 hours.
2. Place chicken on grill and cook until both sides have grill marks. Do NOT move chicken on the grill, allow it to sit. (will not stick). Save chicken drippings.
3. With cooking spray or remaining 2tsp of Olive Oil sautee onions in pan with remaining cloves of garlic until onions are brown and soft. Watch that garlic does not burn. Add coriander, chicken drippings, chicken stock, red pepper flakes, and chili powder. Cook down until water reduces to a thick soup consistency.
4. Add Sour Cream and mix well. Serve over top of your chicken pillards.
Serves: 2 (but can easily be increased)
POINTS® value: 10
