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Archive for May, 2013

Baked Tofu with Blueberry BBQ Sauce

Posted in Recipes on May 30, 2013| 3 Comments »

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If I was a good little blogger, I would have given you this recipe last week so you were properly armed with some delicious grub for Memorial Day. But, I whined about the weather and gave you chocolate cake instead. I hope that’s ok…

Speaking of Memorial Day, how was everyones??

I have to say, my weekend was excellent. And so has this week. Friday and Saturday poured buckets. I had to break my ban on rain boots because I was sick of soggy flats. Grr. Friday, I took my temp, Emily, on a field trip in search of iced coffee with espresso ice cubes and chocolate croissants. It was kind of epic. We were given a sample of a smoothy that tasted like starbursts, I sang Florida Georgia Line’s Cruisin’ so much that Emily has begun to plot my death and the iced coffee and pastries were AH-MAZ-ING. Then I finished the night off at an all-you-can eat sushi place with those two munchkins below. Is there anything better then a cucumber avocado roll? Answer: Yes, a sweet potato tempura roll. (also, are you seeing how ominous that sky looks. eek!)

Friday Collage

Sunday was the Boston Calling and the weather Gods answered my prayers by keeping the rain away. The cold was another story. I actually had on a jacket and a hoodie. At the end of May! Ra Ra Riots and Of Monsters and Men stole the show. The night was topped off with dinner and drinks at an irish pub with live irish music. Live music everywhere!!

And Monday the sun came out. SOO happy. I sat in it for as long as I could. Then grillin’ happened. Grilled pizza, veggies, corn on the cob and the best dessert every which hopefully I’ll share tomorrow. It did get chilly toward the end. Hence, Elena snuggling with the grill.

Monday photogrid

I couldn’t bring this recipe to the grillin’ party Monday, though. I believe Melinda’s reaction when I mentioned it was, “Blueberry BBQ sauce? That sounds disgusting!!” I hope you don’t agree because it was really quite delicious.

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Baked Tofu with Blueberry BBQ Sauce
sauce from How Sweet Eats

  • one block of extra firm tofu, pressed (I used this. Best. Purchase. Ever. Though I’m slightly devastated the purple option wasn’t around when I ordered mine…)
  • safflower oil
  • salt
  • pepper

For the sauce:

  • 1/3 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1/3 cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (HSE’s used blueberry flavored but seriously? I can NOT buy another oil/vinegar. Regular works just fine)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
  • 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

Preheat the oven to 350.

While that’s heating, start your BBQ sauce. Heat a small saucepan over low heat and add blueberries. Heat until they begin to bubble and burst, about 10 minutes, then mash with a fork. Add in ketchup, both vinegars, brown sugar, onion and garlic powder, ground mustard and worcestershire sauce. Whisk well to combine and break up blueberries and turn the heat up to medium. Heat until mixture bubbles, stirring every few minutes, then turn heat back down to low. Cook for 20 minutes, whisking every few minutes. Sauce will be slightly clumpy and thicker than regular BBQ sauce.

While your sauce is cooking, slice up your pressed tofu however you like. I decided to go a little crazy and do triangles. Brush with safflower oil (or alternatively, spray with some cooking spray). Sprinkle with salt and ppper. Bake for 20-45 minutes, depending on your desired texture. 20ish will give you a firm outside and soft center. 45 is denser and good for tofu sticks that you are going to dip. I went for 30. Nice and middle of the road.

When your tofu is done, brush with BBQ sauce. Or spoon it on like me because 1. I don’t own a fancy food brush and 2. I really like BBQ sauce.

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This sauce is also really excellent to dip roasted veggies in.

Ok, I’m off to be productive with Rachel. We are camped out in a cafe eating snacks, drinking coffee, budgeting and overall, gettin’ crap down! I know…we are such party animals!! Wish us luck 🙂

 

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Chocolate Mug Cake and Friday Favorites

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on May 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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I don’t know where you are but here in Boston, the weather is not pleasant! We went for warm, sunny spring days to gray and dreary. Sometimes, it’s gray,dreary, cool and rainy. Other times, it’s gray, dreary, warm and humid… with the promise of rain. But always gray and dreary.

I’m sick of gray and dreary.

And guess what this weekend’s forecast is suppose to be?

Yeap. You guessed it.  Gray and Dreary! and rainy. Which is going to be super fun during my outdoor concert! Oooor not.

Now, I’m not meaning to bitch here. I’m just setting the stage. I was planning on doing a spring friday favorites, complete with favorite spring shoes and drink and what not. Then, I was going to top it off with a nice very vanilla cupcake recipe with a nice spring twist- sorta.

But, the gray and the dreary are leaving me in a funk. So, I’m going to save the spring post until the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Instead, I’m going to do what any flood blogger would do in a funk. Post some yummy food to eat your emotions away with. Because it’s curl-up-in-bed-and-watch-a-good-movie-while-eating weather, not frolick in flip flops weather.

1. Favorite Store-bought snack: Hail Merry Strawberry Macaroons. Sorta tastes like a strawberry shortcake ice cream pops, minus the gross dairy and chemicals. Propylene Glycol Monoesters, anyone? I think I’ll nab one of these awesome macaroons, instead.

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2. Favorite liquid: Metromint Water in Chocolatemint. Ingredients: water, mint, cocoa essence. That’s it. And it’s amazing. Have I talked about this before? I’m having deja vu…

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3. Favorite Delivery discovery: Angora Cafe in Allston. They have soy fro-yo with pick-your-own toppings. But don’t bother. Just get Late Knight (soy fro-yo, coffee, oreo and cookie dough) and thank me later. “But Erin,”, your saying to yourself “there’s a $15 minimum delivery free and fro yo only costs $5”. Don’t sweat it, son. Order yourself a build-your-own salad for lunch tomorrow and then you have ice cream to eat during your movie AND you can sleep in late cause your lunch is already done. Your welcome.

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4. And what goes really good with Fro-yo and snuggling in bed? Mug Cakes. Yeapers. This is my favorite:

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Chocolate Mug Cake
from Chocolate Covered Katie

  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoons spelt flour (or white, or Arrowhead Mills gf)(I used regular all-purpose)
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp sugar or evaporated cane juice (I used 2 tsp of vegan cane sugar)
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 stevia packet (or 1 tablespoon more sugar) (I used 1 TBSP palm sugar)
  • 2-3 tsp of vegetable oil or coconut oil (I’ve tried it with oil and also with apple sauce, which CCK said may work. The cake comes out much gummier with apple sauce, though it’s still delicious)
  • 3 tablespoons milk of choice (I used  unsweetned vanilla almond milk)
  • 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. Add liquid, stir, then transfer to a little dish, ramekin, or even a coffee mug. Microwave 30-40 seconds. If you don’t want to eat it straight out of the dish, be sure to spray your dish first (and then wait for it to cool before trying to remove it). Otherwise, you can just mix everything in a mug, microwave it and eat it straight from there. I opted to use my favorite mug 🙂

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I’m definitely snacking on this while snuggling up and watching Les Mis. Is there anything better on a gray crappy day?

 5. and of course I can’t leave you without some tunes!

Of Monsters and Men- Little Talk. I’m seeing them on Sunday at the Boston Calling Concert. Fingers crossed it doesn’t rain!!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

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Peanutty Noodles and Veggies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on May 22, 2013| 4 Comments »

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During the whole Team Lean Challenge I did with my friend, Rachel, I cut out a ton of bad food. I realized if it was in my house, I would eat it. I’m looking at you bread, pb and chocolate chips. I may not have cookies in the house but combined, you make an amazing 9pm snack.

At the top of my list was pasta. It’s just so easy! I mean, I could roast a ton of veggies which takes forever… or I could just heat up some noodles and dump some sauce on it/cook up roman noodles/pour boxed mac and cheese into a pot.

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See. Pasta had to go.

But the week of the bombings in Boston, a friend of mine was planning a potluck for Sunday as a way to end what had been a very stressful week on a positive note. It was a great idea! I brought this and all the non-vegans ate it up. I had no leftovers!

Of course, it was so delicious, I was dying to make it again, fitness challenge or not! When I made it for just me, I pumped up the veggies significantly and added some tofu for an extra kick of protein. The result was a super creamy, veggy-packed noodle fest. So delicious!

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Peanutty Noodles and Veggies
adapted from Chloe Coscarelli’s Peanutty Noodles recipe found in Chloe’s Kitchen and on line at KATU.com
serves 4 to 6

  • 1 pound brown rice noodles
  • 1 block of tofu, pressed and cubed
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • ½ cup peanut butter, chunky or creamy
  • 1 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce
  • 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 2 carrots, peeled and shredded
  • 1 cup of edamame (no shells, thawed if using frozen, which I did)
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
  • ½ cup peanuts, roughly chopped, for garnish

Instructions:
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add brown rice noodles and cook according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Return noodles to pot.

Heat some sesame oil in a skillet. Saute tofu in the pan until golden. (if you prefer your veggies cooked, you can also throw them in with the tofu at this time. I sauteed my edamame with the tofu but left my peppers and carrots raw). Set aside.

Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining coconut milk, water, maple syrup, soy sauce, peanut butter, chili-garlic sauce, ginger, and garlic in a medium saucepan. (this will look so gross when it’s all going into the pan and you will definitely be thinking “eeew! this is going to taste weird.” It won’t. Trust me.) Let cook over medium heat, whisking frequently, until sauce comes together and thickens.

Remove from heat and mix in lime juice and sesame oil.

Toss hot noodles with the sauce, tofu and veggies.

Garnish with peanuts and scallions and serve. Any leftovers can be served warm or cold the next day for a delicious lunch.

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I had fro-yo three times last week and may or may not be planning to share some Game of Thrones-themed cupcakes with you later in the week. Yeeeah…clearly, the fitness thing is over. Good thing I haven’t given up on the exercise!

PS. This would be great for a memorial day cook out. It tastes good hot or cold and it doesn’t scream, LOOK AT ME I’M VEGAN! well…maybe leave out the tofu if your hanging with all carnivores…

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Yoga Cookies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on May 10, 2013| 1 Comment »

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Happy Friday, everyone! I’m pretty sure this week was extra long. I don’t care that the calendar says it had 5 days like every other work week. It. Was. Long.

With that said I feel like it’s too easy to focus on the negative and complain about my week so let’s do Friday Favorites as top 5 positive things from this week, shall we? That’s way more fun…

1. Saturday I partied it up with my friend, Rachel, and her very cool friends. It was a birthday/cinco de mayo party. I didn’t drink a drop of margaritas. I know! Who am I?? I did have two very large glasses of the world’s best sangria though. Seriously. I tried to get the recipe and Eric was not having it. It was also the first time I’ve had people who I haven’t met before say “Oh! You write Wicked Vegan? I read your blog all the time!” Or something along that line. It was a very cool moment. Hey, Deanna!

1. she punched the Pinata open. Bats are for woosies and 2. it was filled with little bottles of liquor!

1. Rachel punched the Pinata open. Bats are for woosies and 2. it was filled with little bottles of liquor!

2. SOWA is finally open! I walked around Sunday in the sunshine with my friend, Lisa. She bought the world’s cutest teal dress that looked like it was straight out of New Girl. I bought an umbrella necklace and a cactus. It was a good day.

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3. I received the following rant from my friend Melissa, via email, this week that made me laugh out loud in my cube. This comes AFTER she sent me a dress from modcloth to consider for Lisa’s wedding this summer:

“Also, Modcloth is sort of evil because I imagine they must be  bunch of tiny little Zooey Deschenel clones in colored tights and vintage cardigans. Manic Pixie Dreamgirls at their worst, not even realizing their power to destroy another girl’s self-esteem because they can’t imagine a dress size that accommodates for hips.
Evil hags.”

LOL! Well, ok then!

4. but that email couldn’t top my Dad’s discovery of emoticons. After he sent me some clapping hands (he’s partial to the animated ones), I firmly told him he was WAY too old for emoticons and he needed to stop. Immediately. This did not work. Instead, I got messages like this:

dad and emoticons

Note: The little dude in red dances..and the beer glasses clink…and the smiley face bounces… and the whale spurts water…yeap.

BUT, the cherry on top was when I found out that he sent Mom a “hive with bees buzzing”:

hive or poop?

He’s firmly sticking to his bee hive story but clearly, I’m not buying it! He definitely sent my mom an animated emoticon of poop! My parents are hilarious.

and last but not least, 5. I made these cookies as a sugar-free snack for post-yoga. Rachel and I are still going strong with the hot yoga, even though the Team Lean Challenge has concluded. Well, I should say Rachel is going strong. I seem to be getting progressively worse. But silverlining- I get to chill in child’s pose and watch the very hot guy in yoga attempt Warrior 1. “mmhmm…it is really hot in here… I’m sure taking off your shirt would be a total improvement… Thank you, yoga gods!”

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Yoga Cookies
Adapted from recipe found in Chole’s Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli; and online at Love and Flour

Serves: 24ish

Ingredients

  • 1 cup + 2 TBSP whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
  • 2 scoops of your favorite vanilla or non-flavored vegan protein powder (2 scoops should be roughly 1/2 c, minus 2 TBSP. I used a pre-packaged serving size of Vega Sports Protein Powder in Vanilla)*
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup + 2TBSP of unsweetened apple sauce
  • ½ cup maple syrup (or agave)
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups rolled oats
  • ½ cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (I also tried flaked coconut and much prefer the texture of shredded. The cookie holds together better)
  • ½ cup unsweetened craisins
  • ½ cup cacao nibs or vegan chocolate chips (I used Taza Cacao nibs, which I purchased on a whim because I LOVE their Chocolate discs)
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts

*You want your flour and your protein powder to equal 1 1/2 cups combined. Like I said, I used a pre-packaged Vega Protein pack and when I measured it out, it was just shy of the 1/2 c. mark. Hence, the weird flour measurements

Instructions:

  1. Whisk together the flour, protein powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, stir together the apple sauce, syrup, and vanilla.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
  4. Fold in the oats, coconut, craisins, walnuts, and cacao nibs.
  5. Scoop 1½ tablespoons of dough, roll into a ball, then gently flatten the dough with the palm of your hand. Place on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes until firm and bottoms are golden brown

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One of the hardest things I have found when attempting to eat healthy over the past year or so is that sugar and snacks are SO hard to cut out of your diet. I wanted to make these “cookies” as hearty and as healthy as possible while still fooling my brain into thinking it’s snacking. So I did my best to eliminate the extra sugar from this recipe by using unsweetened apple sauce, coconuts and craisin. I also tossed the chocolate chips and used roasted cacao nibs. I will be honest- these definitely aren’t going to replace chocolate for me, they definitely don’t taste like a chocolate chips and they aren’t that great plain. BUT, I found they gave enough of a chocolate hint when cooked into the cookies to fool my brain without over powering the other ingredients. Cooking them into the cookies took away a lot of the bitterness. I want to try the semi-sweet chocolate baking squares next time.

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Alright, everyone. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! It’s rainy and gross here in Boston but try and stay positive this weekend. Get out and do something spring-y, meet some awesome new people or, you know, tell someone you love them with an animated poop icon. Whatever puts a smile on your face 🙂

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