I have a Zoku!

 

I am excited almost beyond words! This afternoon my wonderful mother-in-law, Patti got me a Zoku ice pop maker for my birthday. I went back and grabbed a few accessories, including a case and tools. Now my mind is racing with a thousand flavor combinations. I have planed peanut butter and chocolate pops, chai latte pops, and lots of frozen fruit pops. I picked up some cherry cider from Trader Joes that will find its way into that ice pop mold. I think the flavors are endless, and the best thing is I get to take pictures and post recipes up here!

 So far, the actual Zoku looks easy to use. It does say on the website and some blogs that thick mixtures or mixtures with low sugar do not do very well. Therefore, I am going to get a backup, plain old ice pop mold from Amazon, too. I love the idea of making food for my loved ones, including icy treats.

The mold will be ready to use tomorrow, because you have to freeze it overnight. The first one I am thinking of making is Mojito so I will let you know how those work out.

Yay! Off to plan recipes!

Tomato Olive Pizza

I did it! Today Jason taught class for me, so I stayed at home and got in the kitchen. I made this heirloom tomato olive pizza sprinkled with fresh basil. The crust is a flavored crust of chili and roasted garlic. The full recipes will be in the next issue of the Vegan Culinary Experience. Also, since my recipe made two crusts and it is just Jason and I, made breadsticks out of the other crust and gave them away. Yay!

I also used the organic onion flowers from the Farmer's Market to make biscuits, but I need to have something to talk about tomorrow. :>

Heirloom Tomatoes and Plans

First off, I want to offer a huge thank you to everyone who has started following the blog, or shared this on Facebook! I really appreciate it. I love that salad and I am glad that you all do, too.

Tomorrow I officially make my first recipe for the new issue of Vegan Culinary Experience, which is a roasted garlic chili pizza crust. It will be tasty all on its own, or cut into breadsticks, but I also have a rainbow of heirloom tomatoes that are delicious, perfect and ready to use. I think I will add olives and basil to make it sing with flavor.

I am also going to work on some onion blossom biscuits for my sandwich book. I found the most beautiful onion blossoms at the Farmers Market Downtown, and this is where the vast majority is going. After all, you can use plain bread for sandwiches, but why when you can make something that wonderful?

But I have no pictures of these things yet since I am making them tomorrow, so I will leave you with a little tease of a delicious pasta I made last month with flavor profiles very much like the pizza I am making. It had yellow tomatoes from our garden, kalamata olives, smoked chili flakes and fresh organic basil. It was fresh, delicious, quick and easy, just how I like my food.

Peanut Noodle Salad

It’s Tuesday, and that means it is recipe time! I made this for the meal service this last week, and I loved how it turned out. I served the leftovers the last night, and Jason and I devoured every last bite. Great stuff. Hopefully this inspires you to get in the kitchen!

P.S. if you can’t find thin rice noodles, use thicker ones and soak them longer, or mung bean noodles.

Peanut Noodle Salad

Makes dinner for 2

2 small packages of thin rice noodles, uncooked or 2 cups cooked

4-6 green onions

1 cup of spring peas

3 carrots, shredded

½ an English cucumber

½ cup of chopped peanuts

¼ cup of peanut butter

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon agave

2 tablespoons of rice vinegar

About 2 tablespoons of lime juice

8-10 basil leaves

If the rice noodles are uncooked, boil water and soak the rice noodles for about 5 minutes, until soft. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, rice vinegar, agave, lime juice, and soy sauce. Once smooth, set to the side. Remove the ends from the green onions, dice. Slice the green pea pods thinly. Shred the carrots. Remove the ends from the English cucumbers, and dice. Add the rice noodles to the peanut butter mixture, and toss. Add all the ingredients and toss. Chiffonade the basil leaves, and sprinkle on top. Serve.

Pizza!!

It’s official! As of tomorrow I am working on my contributions for the next issue of the Vegan Culinary Experience. It will be a delicious cornucopia of pizza, from cover to cover. I have been jotting notes on at least a half a dozen delicious pizzas to make for it. I love pizza, in all its forms. The picture is one that I made for our game night last month, with beautiful yellow tomatoes from our own garden.

Pizzas are something that here in America we often just buy at the local corner fast food, which is a shame. Those pizzas are cardboard, unhealthy, boring, and have more saturated fat than our Dungeons and Dragons character Voluna the Templar. But, with just a little effort you can make wonderful, healthy, delicious pizzas at home, even if all you have is a standard oven.

If I have you curious or hungry, or both, start counting down to the next issue of VCE!

The Farmer’s Market

This week, Jason and I started a new tradition. On weeks when he is in town, we are going to start traveling to some of the many Farmers’ markets around town. We started off with one in downtown Phoenix. It is getting hot here, so perhaps that was why it was smaller than I expected. There were only about 6 or so booths with vegetables in the whole market. Some of those had veggies that looked questionable at best, so that narrowed down the field more.
 

Still, there were good and tasty things to be purchased. We bought some greens, beets (golden and organic), some heirloom tomatoes, and had samples of salts and dates. We also found two bottles of local wine to be savored for our 3^rd dating anniversary, coming up in a few weeks.

 

When we got home, I was hungry so I made a salad. I used BBQ seitan from Trader Joes, a little salad dressing, a little BBQ sauce and went to town with the other ingredients. It was both light and filling, and less than 200 calories.  

Next time you’re bored and have time, see what activities you can do to inspire you with food. Have you been to the market to just look around? Do you find veggies beautiful? What makes you want to play with food, or make great salads?

Food for Friends

I know that many of you who read my blog know I am a gamer, and several of you are gamers, too. Typical game food has not evolved much out of the realms of college dorm rooms – beer, pizza (purchased on sale at Dominos or Pizza Hut), and sometimes Taco Bell. Jason and I are trying to change what it means to have ‘game food’. The food we serve to our friends on Game Night is healthy, delicious, and fresh.

Friday once a month, we have board game night were our friends come to hang out, play a few games, and have some munchies. This was my month to cook, so I made an olive sun sandwich with kalamata olive bread and sun dried tomato tapenade, ‘meatball’ subs with yellow tomato sauce Jason made with tomatoes from our garden, sprinkled with fresh basil and green olives stuffed with garlic. On the side I had a simple salad of organic baby greens and a melon salad sprinkles with lime juice and mint.

None of our gamer friends are vegan, but people know good food when they see it. Our friends snapped up dinner, plate after plate (Jason and I ate more than one plate, too). When you are having friends over, if you’re vegan, don’t worry about what your friends will eat. Just give them delicious food made with love and have fun! That is what food is for – fueling good times.