Mmm, tempeh

One of my favorite foods to cook with is tempeh. It's got a nice nutty texture and is quite versatile. Whenever I make chili, I crumble a cake of tempeh in the pot for a "meaty" texture. Tonight I made Maple Walnut Tempeh (in Enemy of the Steak, it's Maple Pecan, but I prefer pecans), some balsamic rosemary yams from Garden of Vegan, and heated up some frozen green beans. I was a good girl; while my yams were cooking, I had a salad. I unfortunately ran out of the mustard used to coat the pieces of tempeh before I saute it--hmmph. I'll have to grab more at the store next time.

Now, those of you reading this probably know this, but in case you don't, always buy real maple syrup. Do NOT get the pancake Aunt Jemima/Mrs. Butterworths/whatever stuff--it's corn syrup with a little maple flavor. No, spend the extra money, get the real stuff, preferably organic. It's got better flavor, and if you want corn syrup, buy corn syrup, not the maple-flavored stuff.

I probably won't be cooking much in the next week--I cook in spurts anyway--but I have family visiting and will be spending time with them.

Happy eating!

A plus and a minus

I made a couple of recipes from Enemy of the Steak tonight: a luscious tempeh dish called Picadillo (tempeh, onions, garlic, bell peppers, tomato sauce, raisins, capers, and seasonings) and Glazed Plantains. I had a dab of the Saffron Rice left over (gotta buy that again) and heated it up. I guess you can tell which is the plus--it's the tempeh dish. The cinnamon gave it a nice kick, and lazy girl that I am, I used Whole Foods "Stoplight" (red, yellow, and green) peppers even though the recipe calls for one green pepper. It's something I do when I have dishes that call for chopped bell peppers. It adds a splash of color to my favorite tofu dish.

I don't know what went wrong with the plantains--maybe they weren't ripe enough, and time in the fridge didn't help. I'll have to keep an eye out for ripe plantains. Considering my neighborhood has a large Latino population, one of the stores must carry plantanos. I suspect this recipe will work better with soft, ripe plantains rather than unripe "tostones." I made a couple of other very minor changes, but it shouldn't have affected the flavor. It was the texture that was sort of problematic.

I've mentioned that I do not object to using frozen veggies. Unless you're doing a stuffed pepper, you can easily sub a few handfuls of the frozen bell peppers. I usually run warm water over them to get the ice off and start the defrost process. The upshot is my freezer is crowded with frozen fruits and veggies, plus some shortening, stick margarine, a few convenience foods, and soy ice cream. My small fridge is also crowded with tea pitchers, grains, nuts, stuff I've cooked, sauces, dressings, and a few cooking oils.

I need a larger fridge.

'Bobs on the Barbie

Okay, so it's not really a barbecue, but "Grilling Kabobs" would have been a really dull title, don't you think? I bought a container of mixed up chopped onions and peppers (and a couple of mushrooms--what's up with that? I want more shrooms, dammit!), threaded them with some tempeh chunks on leftover skewers from the last kabobs I bought, brushed on some Annie's Naturals Paradise Marinade and grilled them in my lovely grill pan that I so adore. I had way more veggies than I had room for on the skewers, so after the skewers were done, I just tossed the unthreaded veggies in the grill pan and stirred them around for a bit until they had cooked up some. I also had some Lundberg's rice pilaf and cooked that up, for a nice, healthy (I hope) dinner. The rice could use a little more flavor--maybe next time I'll use half broth and half water to cook it or toss in some seasonings. But it's still pretty good, and I'd get it again.

Earth Day was yesterday, Sunday. And everyone talks about global warming and how to be environmentally friendly. The local paper was asking its readership for their tips, so of course, I wrote in. I said, go vegan and gave a few stats on just how wasteful the animal products industries are and how horribly they pollute the earth. And yes, I backtracked a bit; I realize not everyone can or will go vegan. But just sharply reducing your consumption of animal products will help. And to my suprise and delight, they published my letter, although a little hacked up. The EPA itself states that runoff from factory farms pollutes groundwater more than all other industrial sources combined, and the UN states that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Don't believe me? Know a skeptic? Have them Google "animal products global warming" and see how many hits you get that say, yes, meat production causes some serious environmental problems. And just because meat production is worse than SUVs, that doesn't give you a pass. If you must own a car, find a more fuel-efficient one. The supply of oil on the planet is finite, and your monstermobile isn't helping matters.