Party Food!

I am going to a New Years party tonight. It is an hors d'oeuvres and dessert party. I am bringing a spinach dip from vegweb.com, some chopped veggies and whole wheat pita for dipping, and the chocolate chip cookie recipe that I made for last night's party. I really LOVE those cookies!

Here's a party etiquette question: When you attend a party at a non-vegan's home, what do you bring? Do you bring both an appetizer or main course and a dessert? When possible, I prefer to bring both, so that my host doesn't have to be overly concerned about what I will eat, I won't worry that I won't have anything to eat, and to show others that vegan food can be quite yummy. I have few vegan acquaintances, so this is always an issue for me.

These Chocolate Chip Cookies are SOOOOO Good!

FINALLY I have found a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that can rival any non-veg recipe. I got these off of Vegweb.com. I'm on my way to a Hanukkah party, and I am so excited to share these cookies.

Broccoli, orange peppers, and tofu in Spicy Orange Sauce

It's on the stove now. I can't wait to eat it.

I called General Mills about the 8th Continent. With their new formula, they are now using Vitamin D2, which is vegan. The representative said that if it say "Vitamin D" on the label, that it comes from an animal source, but "Vitamin D2" is not from an animal source.

Silk Chocolate

This evening, I'm enjoying some Silk Chocolate -- Vanilla Silk with Hershey's dark chocolate syrup.

Has anyone tried the new reformulated 8th Continent vanilla soymilk? Any thoughts???

Pat's Beans and Greens -- Vegan Style

I picked this recipe up at Wegman's. It includes chicken broth, poultry sausage, and cheese. I've substituted mushroom broth and Tofurky sausage, and of course omitted the cheese. For the sake of good health, I also substituted whole wheat penne pasta. It came out good, but in retrospect I would have used vegetable broth instead.

Cook 1/2 lb of whole wheat penne pasta and set aside. Sautee 4 crushed cloves of garlic and 2 chopped Tofurky sausages in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Then add 3 cans of canellini beans and 24 oz of broth. Cook for 20 minutes, then add 1/2 bag of escarole and cook for 15 more minutes. Add the pasta, stir, and serve.

French Toast for Dinner!

Every get in one of those moods where you're tired out and all you want is comfort food?

I tried out the "Fabulous French Toast I" from How it all Vegan! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. I made half of the recipe, which was enough liquid for three bagel halves and two slices of bread. On the plate accompanying the french toast is some avocado (why not?), and on the side a sliced Granny Smith apple.

The french toast came out perfectly! While all I planned on was two bagel halves, I ended up eating the third. The two slices of bread will serve as lunch tomorrow with fruit.

I think I could make this recipe for my lacto-ovo veg family and they'd like it. Heck, I'll bet this could even tempt my girlie Stella across the pond.

I love Vegan Knitter's Christmas Feast. We have a few holiday parties coming up, and I just might bring her Shepherd Pie with me to one of them.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah!

Being the good Jew that I am, I'm working this weekend so that my Christian colleages can have the day off. Fortunately, good celebratory people are staying out of the hospital, but as they develop bloating and various gas and chest pains, I'm sure I'll be busier this evening.

I've been munching on leftovers and TV dinners, as hospital cafeterias are notoriously veg un-friendly. Some of my favorites are Amy's kitchen, from whom I've likely bought enough of their products over the years that I may have solely bankrolled little Amy's college fund. I love the non-dairy Veggie Pot Pie, the vegetable enchaladas, and their burritos. Ethnic Gourmet makes a terrific Pad Thai with Tofu.

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone, whatever you celebrate!

Portobello, sweet potatoes, and spinach in 30 minutes

Here's an easy meal to make from a sweet potato, frozen chopped spinach, and portobello mushroom caps. If you enjoy multitasking as I do, you'll be done in 30 minutes.


Portobello Mushroom:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Clean portobello caps and remove stems. Mix up a marinade with equal parts balsalmic vinaigrette, tamari sauce (sweet soy sauce), and olive oil. Brush the top of the portobellos and put in oven for 7 minutes. Then turn the mushrooms over, marinate the bottoms, and cook for 7 minutes more.

Spinach:
Add some oil (I used sesame oil in honor of my friend Lisa :) to a large pan and some mustard seeds and cook on medium heat. When the mustard seeds are popping, add frozen spinach and some vegan margarine (I like Earth Balance Buttery Spread). Then add salt and spices of your choosing -- I like cumin, coriander, basil, turmeric, oregano, pepper, and chili powder. You can also add some chopped tomato or tomato sauce, or even chunks of tofu. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 7-10 minutes.

Sweet potatoes:
Fill a medium pot of water and set to boil. Peel and chop a sweet potato into several small pieces so that it softens more rapidly. When done, drain potatoes, add Earth Balance and a little cinnamon sugar and mash the potatoes.

Tofurky Sandwich

Tomorrow's lunch: Whole wheat bread with Tofurky slices with avocado and Vegenaise. Vegenaise is a mayonnaise dressing without eggs, and it's quite good. I'll add a couple clementines and two Newman-O's.

So far, there's a lot of "fake meat" meals. I don't usually use this much of it, and like to incorporate tofu and seitan into meals as protein sources.

Site traffic -- I love it!!!

Hey... welcome to my blog!!!!

Today I had some leftovers from earlier in the week, so I have no recipes to share today.

Remember, the number one killer of women... not cancer, but HEART DISEASE. A vegan diet full of fruits, veggies, soy, and whole grains goes a long way to reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack.

Stir Fry with Veggie Steak Strips

My favorite kitchen toy is my wok. It makes stir fries come out terrific. I made veggies and Morningstar Farms Steak Strips with sesame garlic sauce. It took fifteen minutes flat.

Boil some water and add the broccoli. Boil the broccoli for four minutes to blanch. Drain. While the broccoli is blanching, heat some canola oil in a wok. Add leeks or onions. Sautee for a few minutes. Then add chopped eggplant. Add in some sesame garlic sauce, then portobello mushrooms, and then the broccoli. Finally, add about half a bag of Steak Strips. Cook for 3 minutes more. Mmmm yummy!

Oh, and the Chocolate Chip Cookies that I recommended from Sinfully Vegan... I take that back. My original batch replaced half of the maple syrup with organic white sugar and the cookies came out much better.

Patty Pan Squash with Carrot Stuff

Lunch at work today. This Patty Pan Squash with Leeks is about the easiest thing in the world to make. Take some Basting Oil and smear it on the bottom of a pan. Then add the leeks and patty pan squash -- for that matter you could add just about any other veggie or tofu -- and pour a little more oil on the top. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Accompanying it is some leftover Carrot Stuff from last night and a couple of home-baked chocolate chip cookies. The cookies are from the book Sinfully Vegan and are the easiest chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! They consist of barley flour (sounds weird, I know, but it works!), canola oil, semi-sweet chocolate chips, vanilla, and maple syrup.

Have a good one... and if you know of a good Hanukkah gift for a 90 year-old grandmother, drop me a line!

Inspired for a New Purpose

I have finally figured out what to do with my blog......

Lots of people wonder what I eat as a vegan. I am a huge fan of the Vegan Lunchbox blog. Jennifer and Shmoo have inspired me to show what I eat. But, I come from it at a different angle.

I'm not a homemaker, I'm not a chef, and I'm not publishing a cookbook. I am a 30 year-old vegan cardiologist-in-training with a full-time job living alone and cooking for myself. I cook dinner for myself at home every night. The leftovers often become part of lunch the following day.

Above is tonight's dinner. It's a Gardenburger Meatless Riblet with some of what I like to call Carrot Stuff (based loosely on a recipe from Lorna Sass's The New Vegan Cookbook). I take about 10 oz of a sweet mayan onion, slice it, and sautee it for about 15 minutes in 3 tablespoons of canola oil. Then I add 1 cup of vegetable broth, 1 can of drained chick peas, and salt and pepper, and simmer for another 15 minutes. While that is cooking, I put 12 oz of carrots in water, microwave for 12 minutes, and drain. Then I pour the onion/broth/chick pea mixture into a food processor with the carrots and blend until smooth.

Carrot Stuff is relatively easy to prepare and refrigerates or freezes quite well, so it will be a good side dish for lunch tomorrow.

Vegan Cardiologist

I'm the only vegan cardiologist that I know of. That gives me the opportunity to talk to the local Ornish group. The Ornish Lifestyle Program is a program to reverse coronary disease, including a low-fat vegetarian diet, exercise, meditation, and group support. I get to talk to them in February, which is the American Heart Association's Women and Heart Disease awareness month.

I'm on fire!

Just got back from master swimming. It went very well. I've been swimming with them once a week for two months, and I really feel like I'm getting more efficient and a bit faster. It's a great feeling.

I love elective time... it gives me the chance to sleep in. Tomorrow I don't have to be in until noon and on Friday until 10 am.

Today with all my elective spare time, I put together my new CycleOps Magneto trainer. Now I can ride my bike inside!

My New Starbucks Habit

Tonight I decided to get out of the house so that I could get some actual studying done. Boards are coming up in November and I need to cram some knowledge into my head. So, headed to the local Starbucks and got a soy hot chocolate... mmm yummy. Itself, it's not worth the $3.24, but in a setting where I can't surf the internet, read blogs, turn on the tv, stuff my face with extra calories, etc. etc. etc. it was well worth it.

J Crew is ok now

Thanks to PETA, JCrew has agreed to stop selling fur. I'm so glad to hear that, because I really like their clothes and didn't want to have to boycott them forever. So my Boycott JCrew banner is gone.

I'm getting over a bit of an upper respiratory infection. I never get sick -- really -- and then I get sick twice in the course of one month. That just pissed me off.