into kristin's kitchen

First of all, I can't very well concentrate on cooking when I have those eyes distracting me.  I'm sure many of you have beautiful eyes too, but dang.  Scott has the best blue eyes.  Lucky. 

 Okay, okay.  Business.  Pizza pasta:

Make with noodles of your choosing.  For the sauce, crush up 1/2 block tempeh into pan.  Cook up a bit with 1/2 cup chopped onion, 3 cloves garlic, and 1 cup chopped mushrooms.  Add 1/2 cup veggie broth, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, 2 TB tomato paste, 2 tsp red wine vinegar.  Stir and let simmer for awhile until liquid cooks down.  Sprinkle fresh basil and cheese on top.  Stir in some broccoli.  Bake until cheese melts.  

Tomato and artichoke dip with homemade bread:

While staying in Paris, we often bought food from the local organic co-op.  One of the prepackaged foods we found was a mixture of spices and sun-dried tomatoes.  Since we were constantly buying fresh bread, this became a regular dinner.  We would tear off pieces of the baguette and dip them into the tomatoes.  Who needs a crepe when you could have this? Well, okay.  I wont be that drastic.  I would've eaten crepes every day had we found a vegan version.  I did buy Scott a crepe maker for his birthday since, though.  We can now make our own.  We make our own tomato dip as well.  It's a mixture of onion, garlic, tomatoes (fresh and sun-dried), olive oil, capers, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper.  

I also made some artichoke dip.  Blend up 3 artichoke hearts, 1/2 cup chopped sauteed leek, 3 cloves garlic, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp mustard, salt, and pepper.  

Enjoy both with a fresh loaf of bread.

 Pasta with cashew cream on top:

Whenever I can't think of anything to make for dinner and I'm absolutely starving (or, in this case, Scott was starving) we usually have pasta of some sort.  (or carrot curry.  Mmm)  We got these delicious kamut and quinoa noodles at Whole Foods the other day.  I love noodles of all shapes, sizes, textures, flavors, and colors.  The fancier the better.  Aside from soba, I can't even say when the last time was that we purchased straight up whole wheat.  Boring!  Anyway,  Scott whipped up some red sauce (Heirloom tomato base.  I mean, come onnn!) and I made a cashew cream to drizzle (or plop) on top.  (Raw cashews, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, lemon juice)

BBQ tempeh, cornbread, black eyed peas, and chard:

Tonight, as we were driving around downtown trying to find parking (Earth day AND a home baseball game?  Remind me to never try that one again), I was trying to think up a good dinner.  What was something we hadn't eaten in awhile?  Barbecue sauce!  I added on from there.  The end result: Barbecued tempeh, gluten free cornbread muffins, and some black eyed peas and greens on the side.  

World's best BBQ sauce: 

1/2 cup onion chopped 

2 cloves garlic minced

2 1/2 cups tomato sauce

1/2 cup water, divided

1/2 cup (or less) sweetener (we used maple syrup)

2 TB molasses

1/2 cup mustard

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp allspice

2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 1/2 tsp dried parsley

1 TB soy sauce

2 TB lemon juice

1 tsp liquid smoke 

In medium saucepan, saute onion and garlic.  Add tomato sauce, 1/2 cup water, sweetener, molasses, mustard, salt, allspice, red pepper flakes, and parsley.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer 1 hour.  (I know, I know.  It's a long time to wait but it's worth it.)  

Add 1/4 cup water, soy sauce, lemon juice, and liquid smoke.  Cook 10-15 minutes longer.  

I crumbled the tempeh up and added about 1 cup of sauce and heated it up briefly.  My cornbread muffins were done by this point to I spooned the tempeh on top.  

Gluten free cornbread muffins:

1 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup each brown rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, sorghum flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp xanthan gum 

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk (I used rice milk)

1/4 cup applesauce

2 TB apple cider vinegar

1 can corn 

Mix ingredients together.  Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 30 minutes @ 350 degrees.  

For the black eyed peas, I just drained them and put them in a pan with 1/4 cup veggie broth, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp Braggs, pepper, and smoked paprika.  I kept it on a low heat and when the liquid was almost all gone, I added some chopped spinach and chard for the last minute of cooking. 

I'm pretty sure this week will involve more salads.  Perhaps I can think up some good homemade dressings to go on the side.  Blackened tempeh is always good on top too.  The possibilities are nearly endless.  We'll just have to see.  Something else we'll have to see:  me wearing my new shoes.  Dang.  I got some sweet kicks this weekend.  The Pumas I bought today were 15 years in the making.  I seriously haven't bought new tennis shoes since 7th grade.  What craziness is that anyway?  

I'm going to watch a documentary on the Secrets of the Rosetta Stone.  You would think I'm just trying to sound smart or something.  Aside from every episode of Frasier, documentaries are nearly all I watch.  (Oh and maybe some *cough* Vampire Diaries *cough* too.  Shut up.)