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- 1 cup hot water
- 1 TBSP lemon juice
- 1 tsp agave nectar
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp ginger juice or root grated
Vegan Eggplant Timbale
July 28th, 2010 |
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I hope everyone is surviving this heat and humidity. We have been keeping busy trying no to let the summer colds come out in full blast.
I had several comment a few days back letting me know that coconut water was the thing to drink to relieve migraines and to regain some electrolyte balance. My mother had also mentioned it to me so I remembered I had a coconut in my fridge and decided to open it and drink the water. Do you know that my Glass Dharma straw fit in the coconut hole I made? YES! The coconut water was cold and delicious and restored my energy because I needed it.
I went to a zumba class in the evening after going to a kickboxing class in the morning. I wanted to go to zumba since I had not been since returning to MI. I learned that the gym had hired a new instructor who supposedly teaches at another gym. Before the class started I also learned from the ladies that the instructor has a cult following. What type of class was this going to be? The zumba class was FANTASTIC!! It was an hour long RIGOUROUS workout with fun music and a fabulous instructor. There were even close to 25 women in the class, more than any of the classes I had attended. I just hope that the gym gets her signed up to teach more classes!
Either way, I figured that this type of class would induce a migraine, but it did not because I had my coconut water. Thanks everyone!
Since I have been working out alot, I have been craving protein. I am still enjoying my pre-workout smoothie but after I come back I am ready for breakfast. Yesterday I made a mini tofu scramble with soy chorizo and dinosaur kale and tomato slices. It was so delicious and filling.
When it came to dinner this week, I decided to revisit a recipe I made before going vegan that I saw on Food Network, called Eggplant Timbale. Giada had prepared it and made it look so delicious, but it called for pork sausage and ground beef and tons of cheese. Yes, I admit I made it and it was good, but these are the sort of meals I was trying to stay away from since they did not seem healthy to me.
When making the vegan version, I decided to make it super simple and uncomplicated so that even though specific ingredients were removed from the original recipe, this would be a great vegan substitute for the original.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Vegan Eggplant Timbale
serves 2
1 cup dry spelt penne (or your choice of penne pasta)
1 cup pasta sauce (I used Bertolli for time sake)
1/2 cup Daiya cheese (or mozzarella)
1/2 link of Field Roast Sausage
4 slices of roasted eggplant, sliced lengthwise
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Heat your grill pan. Peel the eggplant and cut 1/2 inch slices lengthwise. Brush each side with olive oil and salt and pepper.
Grill until softened for about 3-5 minutes.
Boil pasta according to package directions. Once cooked, drain water and add pasta sauce to hot pasta along with cheese and sausage.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Layer the eggplant pieces within a 16 ounce corningware dish. The pieces can overlap.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Add the pasta inside the dish and seal the pasta with the eggplant.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.
Place a dish on the corningware and flip it around in order for the timbale to slip out. It should not break apart. Split between two people and enjoy with a green salad.
Go check out One Frugal Foodie for a great cookbook giveaway!
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Wild Mushroom Pâté with Crudités
July 26th, 2010 |
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I hope everyone has had a great weekend because the week is upon us already! My weekend was filled with interesting tidbits ranging from a crazy and deranged migraine to a mildly sick husband to a then nice visit with a friend from Texas. I know it is a mixture of things but I can say right now that my Sunday is ending on a nice note.
I think I finally figured what might be bringing about these migraines this weekend. I ended up chatting with another fellow blogger who also expressed her migraine woes from this weekend. We finally agreed it had to do with this darn humidity and heat. I know y’all are probably sick of me expressing my migraine woes but I think I have honed in on a nice cure for the meantime. I am totally NOT a pill popper when treating ailments but God reminded me of the Natural Remedies book in my library, so I turned to the migraine page and read on the herbs that are good for migraines. I loved the herbs that they listed because I had most of them in my kitchen. I started with my base tea:
And then added the herbs recommended:
I drank this Friday night before going to bed and literally went to bed with NO pain! Praise the Lord. I had also rubbed a Headache Ease Oil on my pressure points which consisted of peppermint, lavendar, rosemary, wintergreen, ylang-ylang, roman chamomile, clove, and jojoba oil. This was and is very soothing!
I know that migraines can be painful but there is a natural solution. Beside the detox that I am currently on, I am taking calcium and magnesium and other minerals. Studies show that migraines are due to an electrolyte imbalance so having a daily dose of minerals is essential.
I awoke Saturday ready to have my voice lesson. Since Ryan had a sore throat, he decided to stay home since it is not good to sing while sick. I had a wonderful lesson vocalizing and sustaining to a high D. I was so happy. I love working on my range for sure! We then focused on an aria from Puccini’s opera Turandot called Signore Ascolta. I had it memorized and performed it for my teacher. We then worked on phrasing and interpretation and sustaining the right high notes. After a few tries I finally got it. I was so happy! Here is what the aria sounds like:
After this voice lesson, I visited Holland’s farmer’s market and found a delicious amount of veggies, ready to be consumed for the week.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I decided that dinner had to be surrounded by raw veggies and a new recipe I recently saw on C’est La Vegan. Even though this is a mock pâté, it is, in my opinion, a GREAT vegan version. I hate to admit it but my Chilean grandmother used to serve liver pâté with chilean biscuits at tea time. Egad! I am glad that was just on several occasions and not a regular habit. Anyway, this Mushroom Pâté is very flavorful and is even better tasting the day after.
Prepare the pâté the day before or early in the morning so that the flavors have time to come together. I served it with raw veggies otherwise known as crudités. I used my zucchini, celery and a lemon cucumber that I found. I had never had a lemon cucumber and was excited to try it.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I started by using oyster mushrooms and I sauteed them with onions, garlic, and thyme until the liquid evaporated.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Then I placed them in the food processor with ground almonds and olive oil and a little sea salt to come to this final product. Enjoy!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Wild Mushroom Pâté
adapted from C’est La Vegan
makes 2 cups
2 cup finely chopped white onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cup finely chopped wild mushrooms (combo of shitake and oyster mushrooms)
1 1/2 teaspoons dry thyme
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup toasted almonds, finely ground
1/2 tsp Herbamare (Seasoned salt)
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Toast the ground almonds in the oven on 400F for 3-5 minutes until golden brown.
Sauté the onion, garlic, mushrooms, and thyme in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until the liquids evaporate. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the almonds and the remaining olive oil. In a food processor, combine the mushroom mixture and the almond mixture, the balsamic vinegar and Herbamare.
Chill and serve with crackers or vegetables.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Don’t Forget! You have until July 28th to enter the $50 CSN Giftcard Giveaway!
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BBQ Seitan Ribz
July 24th, 2010
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Today was my first day plunging back into my exercise routine and boy did it have repercussions. I woke up at 8am and chose to go to my gym’s kickboxing class since I knew that I was not going to be able to go in the evening. I remember telling the instructor that I would be taking my own pace since I did not want to over do it. I felt like I did the best not to over work myself, but I still ended up with a red face. What does a red face usually mean for me? An impending migraine except I did not think it would affect me.
After my workout I came home and blended my morning smoothie with the new protein shake and detox meal that my naturopath gave me and made sure I followed my meal plan based on 1300 calories. I tried not to make it hard for myself when I found out I was eating too much fruit. A body that has not been detoxed tends to have other issues such as problems with too much yeast. My fruit intake require attention which meant I only can half 1/2 cup berries counting as 1 serving. I think I am going to be all right. The good thing is that I continue to make my green smoothies with half water and half almond milk. I was glad to know that the smoothie did not taste all too bad.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
My work day continued and I kept in mind that I was to eat every 3 hours whether it was a snack, lunch, or another smoothie. Do you know that I felt full most of the day? I really did not crave anything but I felt like I was full of good stuff.
Upon rising: Vitamin C powder (1tsp) in water
Breakfast: Protein Smoothie with berries, almond milk, and spinach
Snack (skipped) was too full from smoothie
Lunch: Leftover Multi-colored Green Salad
Pre-workout Snack: Another smoothie
Dinner: BBQ Seitan Ribz with a big green salad.
I played raquetball with Ryan even with a headache but at my own pace. I managed to get dinner together and decided I did not want to take anything for my migraine since I was detoxing. I did not see the need to ingest unnecessary pills. But here I am at 11pm, after 9 hours of this dreadful headache, wondering if I eill be able to sleep tonight and be ready for a VOICE LESSON! Sigh. I hope and pray so! All I know is that tomorrow is another day and today is an evening to share a new recipe for me.
Seitan is the new vegan meat for me. I first tried seitan when I bought Uptons Naturals and made the Lasagna in a Bowl and Supreme Vegan Pizza. I really like their products but since they only sell them at Whole Foods and it is nearly an hour away, I decided it was time to try my hand at making seitan. Now I know I have many non-vegan readers so I want to start by explaining what seitan is made of.
Seitan is pronounced SAY-tan and is “‘wheat meat.‘ It’s made by a process that removes the starch and bran from whole wheat flour. The result is a dough-like food with a high gluten content which has no saturated fat or cholesterol.” Essentially it is considered a wheat protein and is heavily consumed by vegans.
It has been nearly 10 months since I transitioned into veganism and I had yet tried making my own. I had read many articles and blog posts sharing that it was MUCH MORE tastier when made at home as opposed to buying it pre-made.
How did I decide what recipe to make? Well, it all depended on the time I had so I came across Susan’s recipe on Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It sounded too easy since most recipes required boiling or steaming. Even so, I decided to make her recipe which required oven baking and grilling. I had a hard time planning tonight’s meal because I had not tasted this recipe so I winged it. This dinner came out more like a COOKOUT meal than ever. I steamed some corn for Ryan and I made a big romaine lettuce and kale salad to accompany the Seitan Ribz. The seitan recipe is a mock on real ribs, which I NEVER preferred, but this recipe won me over.
I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I mixed them together to bring the dough together. I used my hands since it require kneading.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I then sprayed coconut oil on an 8x* glass dish and spread the dough onto the dish. I cut the dough in 16 parts with a knife.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
It baked for 25 minutes, while I preheated a stovetop grill with olive oil. When the seitan was baked, I added 1 1/2 Tbsp BBQ sauce and brushed until evenly spread. I turned it over on the grill for a great flavor.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
After 5 minutes, I removed from heat and RIBZ were ready to pull apart!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Prepare a big salad and enjoy!
BBQ Seitan Ribz
serves 4
slightly adapted from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons tahini or other nut butter
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke (I omitted, since this is not healthy, I added Dijon)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 Tbsp BBQ sauce + more for serving
Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly spray an 8×8 baking dish with coconut spray. Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the water with the nut butter, Dijon, and soy sauce and add it to the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well and then knead lightly in the bowl for a couple of minutes.
Put the dough into the baking dish and flatten it so that it evenly fills the pan. Take a sharp knife and cut it into 8 strips; then turn the pan and cut those strips in half to form 16 pieces:
Put it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. While it’s cooking, prepare your grill.
Remove it from the oven and carefully re-cut each strip, going over each cut to make sure that the ribz will pull apart easily later. Generously brush the top with barbecue sauce. Take it to the grill and invert the whole baking dish onto the grill (or use a large spatula to lift the seitan out, placing it sauce-side down on the grill). Brush the top of the seitan with more sauce:
Watch it closely to make sure that it doesn’t burn. When it’s sufficiently brown on one side, turn over and cook the other side, adding more sauce, if necessary. When done, remove to a platter and cut or pull apart the individual ribs to serve.
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Multi-colored Green Salad with Tortilla Strips and Avocado-Serrano Dressing
July 23rd, 2010 |
| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
We are finally home after an extra few days in Texas. We returned to find all things where they should be along with some sad plants and herbs. I quickly watered them and waited for them to look happy. Evidently there had been some hot weather since there were some patches of scorched grass.
We settled in and started talking about how our exercise routine needed to be back in place. I wondered today why it tended to be so hard to exercise while visiting family. I know that while on a vacation, I like walking ALOT and forget using any form of transportation, so I know I will be getting lots of excerise, but while visiting family, well that is another thing. We are terribly disciplined at home and even work out twice in one day, but it amazes me that I can’t seem to fit in my exercise DVDs.
Does anyone else seem to have this problem?
Today I just eased into a gentle routine and planned to start my workout routine with a little Zumba. Little did I know that when I arrived the class had been cancelled! The gym is pretty good about sending emails communicating cancellations but it seemed to happen very last minute that there was no time. I returned home and decided to do a workout DVD for 30 minutes since I promised to visit the kickboxing class tomorrow. I kind of feel like I am going to be sorry about that. I am trying to stay positive.
Tomorrow I start back on my prescribed calorie intake of 1300 calories along with my protein supplement for my smoothies and all my vitamins and minerals. Today I was reminded of a verse in Matthew 4:4 “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “
Even though I keep a food blog I tend to focus on food too much at times and am reminded that food is for nourishment. Even though I have some people tell me I must spend SO SO much preparing meals and planning such fancy dishes, I do not feel that I am cooking any differently than when I was preparing non-vegan meals. Ryan has even been told that he should look double his size with the foods I have been cooking. I know that sometimes people speak out of ignorance, but what people do not know is that this vegan lifestyle has been a personal conviction to focus on whole foods and to bring my physical lifestyle into check.
So what does all this mean? I hope that you continue enjoying the recipes that I keep posting because even though it is a recipe journal this is also a blog about my journey to regain control and discipline. Abusing this temporal body is not what I am called to do.
Moving right along…Today I made a delicious Berry Parfait Torte for dessert and an enormous dinner salad to cleanse my stomach. I started with picking some serrano peppers from my pots. I was happy to put them to good use.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I deveined these a bit and seeded them and set them aside for the dressing. The salad I envisioned was going to be a fusion of a Mexican and a Raw Green Salad that could be prepared in a salad bar. I added shredded carrots and beets for fiber along with some chickpeas for MORE fiber! Cilantro gave it it’s Mexican flair while the avocado-serrano dressing sealed all the flavors. Tortilla strips came in for the crunch.
Enjoy this salad since it is a hearty and healthy salad that has all the essentials.
I submitted this to My Kitchen Addiction Salad Challenge for Kitchen Bootcamp!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Multi-colored Green Salad with Tortilla Strips and Avocado-Serrano Dressing
serves 6
5 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
1/2 beet, spiralized or grated
2 carrots, spiralized or grated
1/2 English cucumber, peeled
1 1/2 cups chickpeas
Wash all the vegetables and peel the beets, carrots, and cucumbers. Add to a big salad bowl.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Baked Tortilla Strips
8 tortillas, cut in 1/4 inch strips lengthwise
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place tortilla strips on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Avocado-Serrano Dressing
2 serrano peppers, deveined and seeded
1 tomato, quarted
1 avocado, seeded and peeled
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Prepare all the vegetables and place in a food processor and blend well. This dressing is going to be a bit thick but perfect as the dressing. Prepare first before the salad so that it can be refrigerated before preparations.
Assembly
Add dressing and tortilla strips to the salad bowl and toss with salad dressing.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Do not forget to enter the $50 CSN giftcard giveaway! This giftcard can be uused on anything in their stores.
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Vegan eats and 3 days later
July 18th, 2010Hello folks. Today I figured I would be writing from Michigan but instead I post from Houston. We were getting ready for our flight on Saturday and geting ready to say our goodbyes, while Ryan was going to print our boarding passes when he returned to to me and shut the bedroom door. He begins by telling me that we missed our flight. Instead of flying on Saturday we were supposed to fly on Friday. D’oh!
I was amazed that I hardly had a reaction. I mean what could we do? All we had to do was wait for the next flight. Um, no. Our next possible flight would be for Wednesdays, 4 day later. Thanks GOD that we did not have to pay extra but our frequent flyer miles were transferable. Thumbs up! Have you ever asked yourself why things like this happen? I mentioned to Ryan that we needed to thank God for protecting us and even though we do NOT know why we missed our flight, we thank Him for our provisions.
Meanwhile, we have been trying to figure out how to spend our time. I mean that has not been hard. Work goes on normally for meanwhile Ryan figures it out for himself. Crazy how life is, so our 10 day trip turns out to be 14 days. What to do?
Tonight we hope to see Inception, which we have heard from LOTS of people say that it is by far the BEST movie EVER to come out. The screenplay has been in the works over 10 years so I guess it has to be a pretty perfect movie, eh?
Since we know we have extra days here I have been cooking fo my in-laws. Last night I made some brown rice to accompany two types of stir-fry. One had pressed and marinated tofu with mushrooms and another had chicken with the same veggies.
After we ate dinner we had time to rest before having some cinnamon rolls. These are cinnamon rolls made for muffin cups but this is the second time they do not rise as they should. I think I am officially not a good cinnamon roll expert. Probably good that I am not great at this type of bread recipe. 🙂
These were perfect for the afternoon rain we received.
You know what is also perfect? Iced coffee. Ryan had extra french press coffee left over from a Starbucks visit and he split it with me. I poured som agave and almond milk over ice and coffee and perfections!
