Tag Archives: homemade

July 30, 2012

Brown Rice Veggie Roll

 

It’s been a little tough getting used to being back home and in my kitchen, I must say. After going out to eat for nearly every meal last week, I’ve been semi-spoiled by the convenience of it all. Slowly, but surely, I’ve been getting back into the mix of things; yesterday I grabbed some gorgeous produce from the local farmers market and I can’t wait to use it.

But, before I utilize the aromatic tomatoes and colorful nectarines, there has been one item hanging out in my pantry for a while. I felt a bit intimidated by it, but after this good experience I’m looking forward to the next time it makes an appearance! This ominous ingredient is Nori, well, the raw sheets of it to be exact. I bought it with the intent to try making rolls for the first time, and I’ve finally gotten around to doing so (especially since buying a sushi roller when I was in SF).

This is a super basic, but very delicious, sushi roll recipe. I have substituted the typical white rice with brown for a slightly healthier version, and used some fresh veggies as filling. Recipes like this one are super customizable, so feel free to switch out ingredients to what you have on hand, although my version is very good. ;)

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April 25, 2012

Homemade Strawberry BBQ Sauce with Tempeh Sandwich

I had never really thought about making my own BBQ sauce before last September. The thought was implanted in my brain by the wonderful Sherri (co-founder of Urban Food Crawl), when I purchased some vegan Worcestershire sauce for bloody maries and she said that she used it to make her own BBQ sauces. For whatever reason, that little suggestion came to the front of my brain a couple of weeks ago, maybe the warmer weather? Either way, I decided to try to make my own; it sounds kind of funny, but to start I just looked at the back of a Lucille’s BBQ Sauce bottle at the main components and went on my merry way.

My first attempt was a success, as I had a few friends over that night to try it out on some grilled tofu, but it was more your semi-traditional Kansas City variety. I’ll be making that again and posting it, but my second attempt at BBQ is something special. Knowing that tomato paste is pretty sweet and inspired by this month’s bloghop theme, berries, I decided to get a little creative with my next batch. Why not use strawberries? ;)

I have to say, I spent a little more time trying to get the seasonings right with this one; I didn’t want to completely smother the flavor of the strawberries, but I still wanted it to be savory. After having a couple more people taste-test this without knowing what exactly it was at first, I think I’ve made something pretty delicious and super easy to make.

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January 7, 2012

Citruslove: Homemade Orange Marmalade

It’s time for the start of another bloghop, and boy am I excited for this one! For the month of January the bloghop theme is citrus, which is very exciting. I have a small Valencia orange tree that’s finally starting to ripen, a Meyer lemon tree that’s loaded down with lemons, and a lime tree that’s fruiting; so this couldn’t be any more perfect.

Here’s a list of all of the people participating in the Bloghop this month!

Astig Vegan ~ Richgail ~ @astigvegan
Oh Cake ~ Jessica ~ @jesshose

Please join in on the #citruslove fun by linking up any citrus recipe from the month of January 2012. Don’t forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #citruslove event! The twitter hashtag is #citruslove :) .
Making this Orange Marmalade is wonderfully simple, albeit a little time consuming. I ended up dividing my marmalade between two very small jars as gifts, but this recipe would fit perfectly into a 12 ounce Ball Jar. I definitely was inspired to make this by my Orange Marmalade Thumbprint cookies from last month, although there are a couple changes to the ingredients. :)

Ingredients:

  • 4 Cups Peeled Orange Slices, De-seeded
  • 1/2 tsp. Orange Zest
  • 1/2 Cup Organic White Sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. Arrowroot Powder or Cornstarch
  • 1/4 Cup Fresh Lemon Juice
  • 1/2 Cup Water

Directions:

  1. Take the orange slices and place them into a blender or a food processor and blend until slightly chunky. Pour the contents of the blender into a large sauce pan, over medium heat. Add in orange zest, sugar, arrowroot powder, lemon juice and water, stir together.
  2. Simmer orange mixture, stirring occasionally, for roughly 25 minutes or until the mixture has the same consistency as jam. While the marmalade is thickening, sanitize your jar(s) by boiling it in a large pot for 15 minutes.
  3. When the marmalade is ready, pour it into the jar, seal with lid, then place it in a canning pot (or just a large enough pot so that it can be covered with water) that is filled with boiling water. Boil the jars for 10-15 minutes to seal them. Decorate them however you want, then gift them!

This marmalade is terrific on your morning toast, in cookies (obviously ;) ), oatmeal, or even in a marinade! I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the month and all of the #citruslove recipes that will be filling the blogosphere!

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August 20, 2011

Black Bean Burgers topped with Fresh Guacamole on a Homemade Bun!

I made these burgers for a couple of friends and I for a lovely Sunday night dinner, seems as though I end up making food for friends a lot! But, that’s okay, I love it. :D These were made much like the last batch I did, but I modified some of the ingredients and it is based of a recipe from the Daily Garnish.

Ingredients: (makes 6 burgers)

  • 1 can Black Beans, Rinsed & Drained
  • 1 can Red Beans, Rinsed & Drained
  • 1 Large Tomato, Chopped
  • 1/2 cup Vital Wheat Gluten Flour
  • 1/4 cup Walnuts
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp coriander
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Next, add the walnuts to your food processor and grind until coarsely chopped (they will still be a little chunky).  Let it run for roughly 10 seconds. Add 3/4 of the beans, tomato, all spices, and the olive oil.  Once all of this is in the food processor, give it a whir and mix it all together. Then stir in the vital wheat gluten flour until it is thoroughly combined.

Spoon mixture into a mixing bowl and then fold in the rest of the whole, reserved beans.  Wet your hands and then form into 6 medium sized patties.  Place patties on a non-stick baking sheet or into a baking pan, and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once in the middle (for these I had to bake them for a little longer because they were too soft in the middle to flip).  If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 30 minutes at 300, and then throw them on the grill to reheat and get a little extra browning.

Topless Burger

For the Guacamole:

Use 2-3 ripe avocados, mash them with diced tomato, cilantro, onion & garlic powder, pickled jalapeños (with a little juice from the jar, totally makes it!), and salt & pepper.

Buns

For the Buns:

I used a recipe from VegWeb, but halved the recipe and used half Whole Wheat flour and Half All Purpose Flour. And they were EASY to make. :)

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