I was chatting with a friend the other day and she mentioned that she was shopping around for a popcorn popper.  Confused, I asked her why she would need such a thing.  She explained that the microwave stuff has BPA in it, or something else not good for you.  I agree with that, but I still don’t understand the need for a popcorn popper.

I’m all about kitchen gadgets, don’t get me wrong, but the popcorn popper is one gadget that I just can’t fathom purchasing.  Unlike the food processor or blender, a popcorn popper only serves one purpose– making popcorn.  Call me old fashioned, but I like to make my popcorn in a big ol’ soup pot right on the stove.  It’s so super easy that I thought I’d take a minute to describe the process here to people who may not know how easy it is.

1. Take the biggest soup pot you’ve got and put it on the stove at medium-high heat.  On my stove, I do this at 5, with 6 being the next hottest before “high” which I would use to boil water.  You want it pretty hot, but not so hot that it burns the kernels.
2. Drizzle about a TB of oil in the bottom.  You don’t need much.
3. Sprinkle 1/3 to 1/2 cup of kernels in the bottom of the pot.  Try to get them to land in a single layer, if  you can.
4. Put the lid on it!  This is pretty important or you’ll have a mess on your hands.
5. Wait til you hear some popping, then give the pot a little shake.  When the popping has stopped or slowed down considerably, remove from heat.
6. Remove the lid and top with your favorite toppings or seasonings.  We like popcorn salt on ours (it’s a finer grain than regular salt and sticks better to the popcorn).  I’ve also read that some people like nutritional yeast on theirs for a cheezy taste.
7. Enjoy!

It’s really that easy!  And you don’t have to pull out some heavy piece of machinery to get it all done.  Popcorn is one of Emma’s favorite snacks and I feel good giving it to her when I’ve made it myself, know exactly what’s in it and where it all came from.  Besides that, it’s SO cheap!  I buy the kernels from the bulk bin at Whole Foods at something like $2 per pound (hey, the organic stuff is a little more expensive than the Jiffy Pop), but this is one snack where you can get a lot of bang for your buck.  A $2 pound of kernels makes A TON of popcorn.

What’s your favorite way to make popcorn?

If you’ve got a small army to feed (or if you just want to have leftovers for the next week), then do I have a recipe for you!  I originally set out to make enchiladas, but when my dry tortillas started falling apart and when my bowl of filling started overflowing, I decided to throw it all into the baking dish and call it a day.  And, it worked out really well.  This dish has actually been better as leftovers, so I would recommend baking it in advance (if you can) and then reheating it when you’re ready to serve it– like make it on a weekend when you have extra time to serve at some point during the week.  If you don’t have time to make it ahead, no worries!  It’s delicious any way you want to eat it.

Feel free to mix up the veggies here.  I would think that mushrooms would be a nice addition, but I don’t particularly like them and don’t use them often.  Eggplant may also be interesting.

Enchilada Lasagna

(serves an army of hungry vegans)

1 onion, chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 TB chili powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp seasoned salt (or regular salt)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 generous handful of baby spinach

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 zucchini, chopped

3 small potatoes, boiled and cubed (they’ll need to be mostly cooked)

1 cup pinto beans

1 cup black beans

1 package corn tortillas

2 cups enchilada sauce

2 cups marinara sauce

1 small can black olives

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish or cake pan with non-stick spray.  Line the bottom of the pan with one layer of corn tortillas and set aside.

Saute the onion in a little bit of oil and add all of the spices (everything through the pepper).  Cook until onion is tender then add to a mixing bowl with all of the other veggies and the beans.  Mix well and pour on top of the tortillas in the pan.  Add another single layer of tortillas (you’ll probably need 12 or so total).  Mix together the enchilada and marinara sauces and pour over the top.  Top with olives and bake (uncovered) for 45 minutes to an hour.

We had ours topped with some guacamole and some avocado slices.  Have I mentioned how good this is?  You should make some tonight!

Okay, I’m sure I’m not the first person to come up with something like this, but it was so darn easy and tasty that I couldn’t help but blog about it.  We don’t have any vegan bread in this house and I’ve been too lazy (and it’s been too hot) to make any.  Even just using the bread machine heats up the house.  Anyway, what I did have were some tortillas left from last night’s burrito fest, so I made a PB&J-dilla.  And it was SOOOOOOO good!!

Spread some natural (organic) PB on one side of your tortilla.  Top with J of choice (I used strawberry).  Add some fruit, if you want.  I added some sliced banana and green apple.  Fold.  Place in a hot skillet and toast about 2 minutes per side.  Remove from pan and enjoy!

a peak at the inside

Finally!  A post about food I made, not about eating out!  Sorry for my absence lately.  I’ve been super busy with getting my bakery up and running, fulfilling orders that have come in, and life in general.  I have to admit that I sort of enjoyed the break from blogging– it’s nice to just eat a meal without first taking a bunch of photos.  Anyway, I’m back but still a little overwhelmed, so I can’t guarantee how often I’ll be blogging about yummy vegan food.

I cooked last night for the first time in a while.  Cooked as in something a little more complicated than pasta with sauce from a jar.  I was really craving burritos and I had some potatoes that needed cooking, so I thought I’d make a spicy potato to put in the burrito.  I’m sorry to say that I didn’t actually measure anything that I put in, but I can sort of estimate and describe how I made them.  They were really good– in fact, I’m eating some right now for breakfast!

Start off by first washing and chopping your potatoes.  I used about 2 pounds of red and baby yukon golds.  Put into a pot of cold water and bring to a boil, semi-covered.  Cook until fork tender.  Meanwhile, sautee half of a small onion in some olive oil.  When potatoes have finished cooking, drain them and add them to the sauteed onion.  Here’s where you’ll have to figure things out for yourself… I spiced them up with cumin (about a tsp), chili powder (about a TB), dried oregano (about 1/2 tsp) and S&P (to taste).  While these were spicy, they were not hot.  If you want more heat, add some cayenne.  My hubby doesn’t like things as spicy as I do, so I had to go easy with the heat.

And here they are in my burrito with refried black beans, vegan sour cream, lettuce, tomato, black olives and hot sauce.  These came together really quickly (probably less than 30 minutes total kitchen time) and were really tasty and filling.

Last night, I suddenly realized that it was dinner time and I needed to whip something up quick.  The fridge was running on empty and I still had half of the 6-pound zucchini to use.  Pretty much the only dinner item in the fridge was some tofu, which made me think of VeganDad’s Memphis BBQ Tofu.  And if I was going to go to the trouble of grilling the tofu, why not grill the zucchini too?!  Oh, and speaking of VeganDad, he’s hosting a “guess the gadget” giveaway which runs until July 6.  You could win a copy of his cookbook.

Back to the food…  The tofu was freakin’ awesome!  Like seriously, seriously good.  Even a non-tofu lover would like this stuff.  I used super firm tofu, put on the dry rub, then grilled it on my indoor grill.  After it was grilled on both sides, I coated it very generously with BBQ sauce (Bull’s Eye brand… sorry, but I love it and am too lazy to make my own  from scratch), then put it in a baking dish in a 300 degree oven while I grilled the zucchini.  I had the leftovers on top of a salad for dinner tonight and it was unbelievably good!

The zucchini was a different story… the thing was just too big to be worth eating as a zucchini should be eaten.  The seeds were huge– like the size of pumpkin seeds– and the flesh was super fibrous and tough.  These big guys are best for baking, but I still ate it to set a good example.

Start to finish, this meal probably only took 15 minutes to throw together.  If I had had a larger grill, it would have taken half that.  And did I mention that the tofu was awesome?!! 

I can’t believe I’ve never blogged about this recipe.  I guess that means it’s been over a year since I’ve made it.  Shame, shame on me.  Matt loves this soup and I like it too.  It does take a while to cook, but the prep time is quick and it’s so easy.  It’s also really cheap to make.  I like the addition of barely because it gives the soup some extra texture.  Otherwise, it’s pretty much like baby food.  AND, I think you could throw the ingredients into a slow cooker and have it cook on low the whole time you’re at work and you could come home to a delicious, easy meal.  Unfortunately, split pea soup just doesn’t photograph well.

Split Pea and Barely Soup

1 onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 cups split peas

1/4 cup pearl barley

8 cups water

Throw everything into a big pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer for about an hour or until the peas are soft.  You may need to add more water as it cooks off and gets absorbed.  Cook until you’ve reached a consistency that you like.

It took a while, but I finally found a vegan nacho cheese sauce that is worth making and eating.  It may just surprise you too.  Be forewarned though, it is not really anything like the dayglo orange “cheese” you may find at a ballgame.  If you’re expecting that, you may be a little disappointed.

The recipe for the sauce can be found here (scroll down a bit til you see it).  REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF SALT TO 1/4 TSP.  Seriously, 1 full teaspoon is salt overload, especially if you are using salted tortilla chips.

Yellow curry is my absolute favorite Thai dish.  I was in the middle of making some the other night when I discovered that I was out of turmeric.  Of all the things to be out of…  So, without the turmeric to make my curry yellow, my dish turned into a red curry instead.

This time, I used some super firm tofu, sweet potato, carrots, broccoli, onion and frozen peas.  The basic curry recipe is here, but only use 1 cup of stock, 1 cup of coconut milk and don’t add the turmeric to keep it red.  It was really quite good and came together really fast.  You could even precook your jasmine rice and pre-chop all of your veggies to make it even easier on yourself after a day at work.  I really, really liked the addition of the sweet potato– it gave it a really interesting flavor.

I’ve blogged about how much I LOVE miso soup before, but when you throw in some other fixin’s you’ve got yourself a yummy meal in less than 10 minutes.  Seriously, this stuff is good and it’s my go-to when I don’t know what else to make.  Emma loves it too.  In fact, she had the leftovers from this meal for breakfast yesterday.

If using packaged noodles:

To make this, start by boiling your udon noodles per the directions on the package.  Once cooked, drain them and set aside.  In the same pot, fill with water (the amount depends on how many servings you intend to make, but just eyeball it).  When the water has boiled, turn off the heat and add your miso.  I prefer red miso, but you can use whatever one you like best.  I usually start with 2 good spoonfuls.  Work it in to dissolve it in the water and either add more miso if it’s not to your liking or add more water if the miso flavor is too strong.  Add a few dashes of soy sauce and you’re done!  Add your noodles back into your soup, then throw in some cubed tofu and chopped green onion.  Couldn’t be easier!

If using fresh noodles:

Prepare your soup as directed above, but don’t turn off the heat once the water has boiled.  With the soup bubbling, add the noodles and cook one to two minutes (whatever the package directs).  When cooked, turn off the heat and add the tofu and green onion.

For those nights when you just don’t know what to make, don’t want to spend tons of time in the kitchen, or are just plain unmotivated, I’ve come up with a new idea– meals in minutes!   Whenever I come up with a tasty meal that can be made in about 15 minutes, I’ll file it under the “Quick & Easy” category (you can browse the recipe categories in the sidebar to the right).

I’ve had several lazy nights this week and on one of those nights, I came up with a yummy, simple pizza.  While looking through my freezer the other evening, I found some frozen pizza dough.  Then I found something even better– some frozen flatbread!   It worked perfectly– no waiting for anything to defrost, and the entire meal came together in about 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Meanwhile, chop up all of your toppings.  I used zucchini, green onions, red and green bell peppers and kalamata olives.  While chopping your pizza toppings, chop extra to toss into a salad.  When your oven is done preheating (or when you are done chopping), put your flatbread directly on the oven rack in the middle of the oven.  Top with sauce and your chopped vegetables.  Cook for about 8 minutes or until the flatbread is crispy.

This works well with pita bread and tortillas too!