September Entertaining Menu

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Cranberry Pear Salad
Our friends Joanna and Dan came over this weekend for my first entertaining experience since being a vegan. I decided to serve them a three course meal and started with this salad, which turned out to be something that I would eat any day of the week!
This salad is easy but so pretty so the key is getting really great ingredients. I used locally grown red leaf lettuce, organic frisee and red pears. Tear the lettuce and slice the pears as thin as you can. The dressing is a shallot vinaigrette of one part balsamic, two parts EVOO, one sliced shallot and a little agave syrup. The really special part of this salad are the toppings, and although they are simple and easy to find they really make it more impressive. Sprinkle sliced toasted almonds, dried unsweetened cranberries, and fried onion pieces from Trader Joe's. I had never had these before as my family never had this "green bean casserole" I've heard so much about, but they are totally delicious. RELAX about the calories and remember that you're entertaining and it is supposed to be indulgent and remember you're probably eating a small amount.

Lentil Soup
The next course I served was lentil soup. Below is the recipe for the soup and the garlic croutons on top!
2 Tbsp EVOO
1/2 a diced onion
2 Cloves Garlic
1Tsp cumin
1Tsp cayenne
3/4 cups green or brown lentils
1 cup of canned peelled tomatoes and their juice (about three of the tomatoes)
4 cups low sodium organic vegetable broth (I used Trader Joe's)
1/2 head escarole
Cilantro or parseley (optional)

Start by heating the EVOO and sauteeing the onion untill translucent. Add crushed garlic, cumin, cayenne, and brown lentils. Stir untill garlic is fragrant but not browning, then add liquid (tomatoes and broth). Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for about 40min. Then add the escarole to cook and finish with cilantro or parseley before serving.
This soup has a lot of room for variation and as long as you keep the ratio of 3/4 cup lentils to 5 cups liquid you could use whatever you like to flavor it. I was thinking next time I might use some leeks instead of onions or add some potato (sweet or otherwise) after adding the liquid. enjoy making the soup anyway you like!

Roasted Garlic Croutons
1/2-3/4 loaf french bread day old or fresh
4 cloves roasted garlic
1/4 cup EVOO
Tbsp Lemon juice
salt to taste

Roast garlic for about 30-45 minutes at 400 degrees or untill cloves are light brown, soft and yummy! Mix EVOO, lemon juice, and garlic into a paste using a fork. Toss to coat bread and lay in one layer on a baking sheet. Toast in oven for 10-15 minutes at 350 tossing every five minutes.

Three Berry Crisp
This dessert is adapted from a rasberry rhubarb crisp in What To Have For Dinner: The Best of Martha Stewart Living it can be done with almost any kind of fruit but I wanted to utilize the last of the summer berries.
3 Cups strawberries
1 pint rasberries
1 pint blackberries
1/3 cup evaporated organic cane sugar*
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Zest of one orange

1 cup all purpose white or whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
8 Tbs unsalted butter substitute
1/2 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350
Combine strawberries, zest, juice, cane sugar in a bowl. In another bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Use your fingers to incorporate butter until large crumbs form. Add oats and combine. Pour the strawberry mixture into a baking dish, 1 and 1/2 quart is suggested, and scatter rasberries and blackberries on top. Add crumb mixture evenly and bake for 45 minutes until top is crisp and juices bublling. Let cool for 10minutes before serving with your favorite non-dairy ice cream.

*If using rhubarb or green apples, increase evaporated cane sugar to 2/3 cup

The Real Lauren

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In case any of our 3 readers are thinking to themselves: 'Gee, this Lauren girl is cool, but what is she REALLY like?' I have a picture that sums it all up. Imagine, if you will, that you have recently been married (as our good friends, Josh and Rachelle were, just a couple weeks ago). You've just returned from your honeymoon, and you've started reviewing your wedding photos. You are lost in the memories, adrift in a sea of smiling friends and family, all calmly posing for the camera in honor of the greatest day of your life.

And then you get to our table:


That's my wife. And that's why I love her so damn much.

Vegetable Puttanesca Sauce

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This past weekend, Tom and I went to my parents, and in my mom's never ending quest to find out what I can eat and feed me, she made some delicious veggie pasta sauce. She sent me home with some veggies from her garden and I also had a lot of leftover odds and ends in my kitchen, so I decided to re-interpret my mother's sauce with a little more salt and spice. Puttanesca sauce has hot pepper, black olives (oil cured or kalamata), capers, garlic and anchovies. My vegan version has all of that, except the anchovies, and a lot more veggies which makes it a nice healthy meal. I started caramelizing one and a half sweet onions and when they were about halfway done I added thin strips of red and yellow peppers and diced carrots (it sounds weird but they get nice and sweet). Once those had softened, I added diced kalmata olives, capers, and 2 cloves of crushed garlic. This would be the time to add some crushed red pepper if you like it spicy (which we do). I then de-glazed the pan with some left over red wine (yay there was a glass left for me). I added a jar of Trader Joe's pomodoro sauce, but you could use any jar sauce or a large can of crushed tomatoes.


I served the sauce over some special pasta that our friends, Sarah and John, brought us from Italy. (Which reminds me: Big thanks to both of them for designing the look of our blog!)


Prep Time: 1omin (to chop everything)
Cook Time: 20min

Mustard Tarragon Potato Salad

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My friend Jenelle came over tonight. We both love animals and she is a vegetarian. She owns an amazing spa in Lexington called Jenelle Marie Esthetics (http://jenellepetit.com/) and I wanted to make her a healthy spa-like meal. I started by boiling some red potatoes (the littlest ones I could find). Once they were close to done I added the broccoli for 5 minutes and then added some green beans just for a minute. The point here is to just soften the veggies. Make sure they stay nice and bright green. While the water was heating up to boil potatoes I made the dressing with EVOO, Dijon mustard, a splash of red wine vinigar (or lemon juice), taragon, dill, and some diced red onion. Once the veggies were done I drained them, cut the potatoes in half, added some fresh plum tomatoes and tossed with the dressing. Easy peasy one pot meal that is light and delicious.

Chocolate-y goodness

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Ever since I've become a vegan I've been really happy. Along with animal products, I also cut out refined sugar, white flour, and processed foods. This is great for me, but less fun for those around me - especially the ones I work with. I used to bring donuts to meetings, have junk food parties during really stressful parts of the year, and have "ice-cream Fridays" in the summer. Now I eat soup, salad, lentils, veggies, tofu and fruit. So this post is for them. I made something I've heard some people call "monkey munch". I just call it yummy:

I melted two 3.5 once dark chocolate bars. Once it was smooth and creamy, I took it off the heat and stirred in some puffins cereal and slivered almonds. I spread a thick layer on a baking sheet lined with with wax paper and cleared some room in the fridge. Once it hardened, I broke it up and packaged it for my favorite co-workers! Some people make this recipe and add peanut butter during the chocolate-melting stage and put powdered sugar on it once hardened. I like to think that this version is a little healthier and could be good with raisins or cranberries in it. Think of all the anti-oxidants!

Prep time: 10min
Cool time: 45min

Italian Stuffed Tomatoes

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WARNING: you will not like this post if you like cooking with a recipe. I promise when I do more formal meals I will write a recipe but during the week I just don't cook like that. I don't shop with a list either just an idea of what I want to cook that week, so sorry guys you're out of luck.

So obviously this week I was feeling inspired by the idea of stuffing things because I bought some crazy big tomatoes at the farm stand this weekend with an intention of stuffing them and some peppers this week. You've seen the peppers now here are the tomatoes:

I cut the very bottom of the tomatoes off (just a little) so they would not roll around and cut the top off in the same way and proceeded to scoop out the inner cell walls and seeds. I set them into a baking dish with a little EVOO at the bottom. I made the filling by sauteing onions and garlic and putting in semi-cooked (pre-al dente) brown rice. I added everything in my fridge that I thought had some Italian flavors (I'm Italian so I'm allowed to make those kinds of decisions): Eggplant tapenade, capers, some of that olive salad, and crushed red pepper flakes. Basil would be good, too, but I didn't have any. I stuffed the tomatoes and baked them at 350 for 30min. I also stuffed an extra pepper I had cause I'm a rebel like that!

I think the stuffing here would be a really good side dish. It was salty spicy and pretty good for a rice dish which I think are often bland. The tomato kind of exploded in the baking process but was really sweet and yummy. I served this to Tom in a vegetable bisque soup from Trader Joe's. Would also be good in their red pepper tomato soup or squash soup or just plain with a salad.

Prep Time: 20min
Cook time: 30min

Peppers Stuffed with Mexican Pilaf

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Tonight I used a new product: Trader Joe's Multigrain Pilaf. It has millet, soybeans, and cracked wheat as well as southwestern spices, and some tomato (paste, I'm guessing). I started by sauteing an red onion, adding crushed garlic, then the pilaf, which I microwed for 1/2 the time recommended since it will cook in the oven later. When it was all heated I added fresh cilantro and a half-cup of olive salad I picked up from our farm stand, and then stuffed the whole mix into the peppers. The filling completely stuffed 3 peppers, which was great because we had one left over for lunch. I sprayed the red pepers with cooking spray and baked them for 30 minutes at 350, flipping halfway through (tricky).


This is a great light meal with a salad and Tom felt that the "filling gave it a meaty texture." We both felt it could use more of a spicy kick, but then we go through hot sauce like water. You could stuff a tomato or any kind of pepper with this mixture, and if you can't find the pilaf you could use brown rice (just don't forget to spice it up). Make your own olive salad with olives, oil, vinigar, garlic, parseley, lemon juice, hot pepper (and this one had walnuts).

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cooking Time: 30 Minutes

Welcome

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I think it is time to hear from the "crazy" wife in question. It's true. I am probably the most unlikely vegan out there, because I love meat. I didn't use the past tense, because even though I haven't eaten it in 8 weeks I KNOW I STILL LOVE it, but not eating it has made me happier healthier and sexier than ever before. The other upside to this whole lifestyle switch is that I have been completely re-inspired to cook and create new dishes. Like many I had fallen into a routine of the same weeknight dinners and even the same dinner party menus. I LOVE entertaining and cooking even more than I used to love meat (see I can let it go), and I want to chronicle my journey of finding new dishes. Tom and I will post here with our reviews for vegan convenience foods (garden burger riblits you are dead to me), easy meals, and entertaining menus. I hope you enjoy but really I hope I just keep losing weight!

Why Reading is Dangerous

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About 6 weeks ago, driving back from a relaxing vacation with my family on the outer banks, somewhere along the New Jersey turnpike, my wife turned to me and said:

"I think I'm going to become a vegan."

Had she ever shown interest in being vegetarian, let alone vegan before? Nope. In fact, I was vegetarian when we met, and she convinced me to stop.

"Ummm... You do know that you have mercilessly teased every vegetarian we've ever known, right? I kind of remember you once saying that you thought vegetarians were a 'lesser form of people.'" She really did say that - in her defense, it was mostly humorous. I think.

"I've been reading this book Skinny Bitch, and it says we all eat way too much meat. And you'll shit a brick when you see how much weight you lose by not eating dairy." My wife has always had trust issues with dairy. "Plus, the meat industry is really cruel to animals, and its bad for the environment."

And that's how it began. My wife has been scouring the web for vegan recipes, trying different meat substitutes (her vegan chili is excellent) and generally dragging me along through this experiment. I have to admit, she's done some pretty impressive stuff so far, though there were those faux-ribs that, as she put it, 'tasted like crying'. We aren't perfect about it - there's been some cheating - but we're getting pretty good. This blog is our attempt to share what its like to try and throw away everything you've ever known about eating and start over again. It's about eating better, and how an otherwise totally normal (OK, mostly normal) couple gets by eating vegan in a meat-obsessed society. It's about how to do all that and still eat stuff that tastes really good.

Mostly it's about why you shouldn't let your wife read.