Vegetarian Cookster

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

Easy creamy pasta sauce
2007-10-04 13:08:00
Here's a little something I cooked up in the kitchen last night. I didn't follow a recipe. I just experimented and mixed things together!I started with whole wheat shell-shaped pasta. While that was cooking, I opened up a pre-made marinara sauce--I chose Corelli's marinara, which is made with Tuscan red wine and extra virgin olive oil. I added in about three spoonfuls of Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese to the sauce. I also tossed in 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast. I stirred the sauce, btcc and nutritional yeast together until it was well blended and hot. When the pasta was done, I mixed some of it in with the sauce and topped it with fresh basil, tomato slices and sunflower seeds. 'Twas good! And easy!I haven't participated in Ruth's Presto Past Night in awhile. The parade of great pasta recipes is held over at her blog each week. But I think this entry qualifies! :)
More About: Pasta , Easy , Sauce

Homemade hummus
2007-10-02 18:52:00
Last night, I made hummus for the first time! After tasting it, I don't know why I waited so long to make a homemade version of this versatile vegetarian food. It was super easy and it tastes fabulous!!! :) I don't think I'll ever purchase hummus from a store again. Living in a city with one of the largest Arabic populations outside of the Middle East, I've had some pretty good hummus at the local restaurants. But because I do love hummus, I'm happy I found a decent recipe that I can tweak (I'm thinking roasted red pepper hummus in the future!).I brought a container of the homemade hummus to work today along with some baby pitas ... makes a great lunch!The recipe is from vegweb.com ... check it out!

Can you spot the vegetarian chili?
2007-09-30 23:42:00
Well I did it! :-DI raised awareness of yummy vegetarian food by placing SECOND in the chili cookoff hosted by my fiance's family Saturday evening. Wooooo! Out of seven entries, I placed second. Not too shabby!I certainly wasn't expecting to place, especially since all the tasters would be omnis. But, I asked his mom not to announce that the batch I made was vegetarian. I wanted people to try my chili with open minds and tastebuds... not turn their noses up to a veggie chili. I felt if they knew it was veg*n, it would automatically taste 'different' to them. In fact, later that evening after the contest concluded, there were some latercomers who missed out on the top-choice chili because that part of the family had already left. When my fiance's mom indicated that my chili was still there and it was vegetarian, it was met with a less than enthusiastic response."Sorry, I need my meat... I'm a carnivore."Yeah, whatever. Nevermind that my chili won a ribbon that evening, so i...
More About: Vegetarian , Spot , Chili , Hili

Seva Vegetarian Restaurant - Ann Arbor, Mich.
2007-09-28 17:37:00
Last weekend, I finally got to dine at Seva, a vegetarian restaurant in Ann Arbor , Mich . that I have heard so much about but haven't had the chance to experience yet. All the entrees on the menu are vegetarian and many are vegan, or can be made vegan by request.The restaurant has outdoor seating and since it was such a nice day, that's where we sat. I couldn't resist ordering the black beans and sweet potato enchiladas. I thought it was an interesting combination, black beans and sweet potatoes. I skipped the side of sour cream and poured the salsa over it. Deeelish! It tasted very fresh, which I liked a lot. It also was listed under the special entrees, so it may not be available year-round. My three dining companions--all omnivores--enjoyed their dishes too. My sister got a peanut stir-fry type dish which was vegan. Her hubby ordered the same thing as I, and my fiance ordered a pasta dish with soy sausage mixed in. Everyone liked their food! I was so worried we'd go t...
More About: Vegetarian , Restaurant

BBQ Tempeh... Fried Tofu and Fries
2007-09-27 00:49:00
I'm playing catch-up here with this post. Although I haven't been blogging much the past week, I have been taking pics of things to share with everyone when I do have the chance to sit down and write... like tonight. ;)These meals are from a couple of weekends ago. My parents had my fiance and I over for dinner to celebrate our engagement. Everyone else had steaks... I had BBQ tempeh! I made the delicious BBQ sauce found in Vegan with a Vengeance because it is truly divine in my opinion. I thought the tempeh was too dry as pictured, so I poured some of the extra BBQ sauce over the tempeh after the photo was taken.Because there was so much BBQ sauce left over--and I couldn't possibly waste sauce that good--the following day for lunch, my honey and I had fried tofu chunks with homemade fries... with the BBQ sauce for dipping! I used this recipe from vegweb.com to bread the tofu before frying it up. Nothing fancy but quite tasty. It hit the spot as a quick lunch that day. :)
More About: Tofu , Fried , Temp , Fries

Apologies for lack of posts
2007-09-22 18:42:00
I'm sorry I haven't posted anything new this week; it's been an extremely busy week ... mainly trying to narrow down a wedding date/location. We're hoping to tie the knot around this time next year, so there's a bit of urgency in finalizing the date/location details so we'll have some choice before other couples snatch 'em up! LOLSo, my apologies for the lack of posts, but I do have many things to share with you and I hope to play catch up next week!For instance, tonight we're making a trip to Ann Arbor, Mich. for a show and we're planning to eat at Seva, which is a vegetarian restaurant there. I can't wait! I've heard so much about it but haven't taken the 30-45 min. drive it takes to get there yet. Tonight is perfect though, so I hope to share my experience with you soon!
More About: Posts , Lack , Polo , Logi

Tomato Couscous, Freezer Bag Cooking style
2007-09-13 17:44:00
Tomato Couscous turned out to be my favorite new freezer bag cooking recipe of the trip. (My BF's favorite new recipe was the Ramen Salad I featured yesterday.) We didn't eat it on the trail that day because the trails we chose to do--the East and West River trails along the Presque Isle River--were within walking distance of our campground and the hike itself was pretty short, so it didn't really require much refueling on the trail. A quick trail mix snack did that trick. So, we waited until we returned to camp and then boiled water for a hot afternoon lunch (although this dish could be made with cool water, too). The sun-dried tomatoes and nuts were a perfect compliment to the Fantastic Foods whole wheat couscous I used for the recipe, which is from the Freezer Bag Cooking book.Tomato Couscous Salad - serves 11/4 c. couscous3 tbsp. finely chopped toasted almonds1/4 tsp. dried basil1/8 tsp. granulated garlic2 tbsp. finely diced sun-dried tomatoesCombine all the dry ingredients i...
More About: Style , Tomato

Might as well face it you're addicted to.... blogging?
2007-09-13 00:31:00
While browsing Holler's fabulous blog Tinned Tomatoes, I came across her fun post about the "blogging addiction" quiz. As a fairly new blogger, I was up for finding out where I rank!60%How Addict ed to Blogging Are YouI don't know if that's good or bad! LOL I do like one of the ideas suggested by the quiz... I think I may look into RSS feeds for keeping tabs on my favorite blogs. There's so many fun blogs out there. Sometimes it's hard to keep track!
More About: Face , Well

FBC Ramen Noodle Salad
2007-09-12 17:35:00
The Porcupine Mountains are about a 12-hour drive from my area. So in an effort to break up the drive, we camped for two nights at Straits State Park in St. Ignace, Mich. which is a short ferry ride away from one of the state's jewels, Mackinac Island. Of course, this also was the holiday weekend which meant the island was likely to be packed with tourists. To get away from the craziness, we opted to hike some of the island's many trails.I couldn't find much information about the trails prior to the trip. While we were hiking on the island, I joked with my BF that we should make enough trips to hike and catalog every single trail on the island so I could write a book (I'm a writer by profession) since no one else has seems to have taken on the task. All that we were able to find to guide us was a flimsy trail map inside the front cover of the Visitor Center's $1 guidebook. The map showed no trail distances and had no descriptions of what the trails were like. It was going to be...
More About: Salad , Amen

I'm back!
2007-09-11 13:25:00
I'm back from nine days of hiking! Woo! I had so much fun; it's always difficult coming back to the reality of urban life after spending so much time in the mostly peaceful wilderness. But, this time I come back with some awesome news ... I'm engaged!!!!! :) My BF of two years proposed to me on Thursday atop the Summit Peak Tower in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Michigan's upper peninsula. He even had a small bottle of champagne hidden in his backpack! The proposal was the climax of that morning's five-mile loop hike: a combination of the Beaver Creek, Little Carp River, Mirror Lake and Summit Peak trails. Four trails, one great hike and one perfect proposal!We have no date set. And we still need to shop for my ring. But, I'm really excited about spending the rest of my life with him ... and the fact that I'll no longer be cooking for one! LOL I've been longing to cook better, more detailed meals but I really hate cooking elaborate dishes just for myself. ...
More About: Back

Gone hiking!
2007-08-31 04:42:00
Hello! Thanks for visiting my blog. I'm currently hiking in Michigan's beautiful upper peninsula. When I return, I'll try to offer some tips about surviving nine days of tent camping/hiking as a vegetarian.Have a great week! :)
More About: Hiking

Eating out at the "Mo's"
2007-08-29 00:39:00
I fibbed a bit; yesterday's post won't be my last for the week because I almost forgot that I wanted to mention my recent restaurant meals.Thursday night I saw a Dave Matthews Band show, and my BF and I stopped at Montana 's for dinner before the show. We had eaten there once before; I had a pasta dish which was pretty good but sun-dried tomatoes were part of the dish's name, and I remember there being very little of them on my plate. I wasn't too impressed.This time, I ordered the vegetarian fajitas. I love vegetable fajitas. And surprisingly, Montana's did not disappoint. I wish I had my camera with me because the presentation of their fajitas is really nice. Even my BF said "Wanna switch?" before he dug into his salmon. The grilled veggies consisted of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, bell peppers, onions and celery. I got four flour tortillas and sides of toppings: salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce and rice. The amount of sour cream they give you is unre...
More About: Eating Out , Eating