Archive for November, 2009

Baked Pasta

Nov 18

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | 2 Comments

I needed some serious comfort food the other night, and baked pasta was on my mind.  It wasn’t the most photogenic dish I’ve ever made, but it was delicious and hit the spot.

I almost always make my own sauce because it’s easy and usually tastes better than jarred.  This time I was out of onions (the horror!) so I made a basic sauce by heating olive oil in a pot, adding 3 cloves of garlic and some crushed red pepper, cooking until it smelled fragrant, adding dried oregano, s&p, a big can of crushed tomatoes, and a small splash of leftover red wine.  I usually just cover it and let it simmer while I make the rest of the dish.

Next, I mixed about a cup or two of the sauce with the remains of a container of cottage cheese (maybe 1/2 a cup), about 1/4 of a brick of extra firm tofu (crumbled), and some cooked macaroni.  Any short-cut pasta will work here, I had a small amount of elbows on hand for far too long so I took the chance to use it up.  Topped it off with some steamed broccoli, grated cheese and baked it at 350 until the top was browned and crunchy.  A few fresh basil leaves on top made it feel a little classier than it really was.

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Pumpkin Mash

Nov 18

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | 2 Comments

My roommate went to  a pumpkin patch with a friend that was visiting from NYC and thoughtfully brought me home a pumpkin of my own.  Instead of carving it, I decided to hack it into pieces and eat it!

First, I cut it into big pieces and scooped out the seeds to be roasted with some kosher salt.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Next, I cleaned out the rest of the pumpkin guts and placed large pieces of the pumpkin in baking dishes to roast in the oven.

However, I realized that I had a whole lot of pumpkin and not a lot of oven space.  Roasting pumpkin can take 45 minutes or so, meaning that 2 batches would take nearly an hour and a half, which just didn’t sound great to me.  I turned to the interwebs and found that you can microwave to pumpkin instead!  Into a pyrex baking dish the pumpkin went, and in two batches at 15 minutes a pop I had faux roasted pumpkins.

I scooped the flesh from the skin and mashed it with a potato masher.  [Note:  If you didn't drop your food processor bowl on the floor so that it cracked and made it useless, just give the pumpkin a whirl in that instead.  I now have biceps of steel!]

Now, what to do with this stuff??

Since mine is not super smooth, it didn’t work great in regular baked goods.  The muffins I made with it came out a bit lumpy and wet, despite draining the mashed pumpkin in a colander for an hour before using it.

My favorite use for it is either eaten straight up (it’s super sweet) or in my morning oatmeal.  I have plans to use it in some risotto later this week as well.  Since I have a bunch of it on hand now, I’ll probably put some in a freezer bag to use at a later time- possibly in the Pumpkin Baked Ziti recipe from Veganomicon (which you should buy this cookbook for).

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Weekend Breakfast Sandwich

Nov 15

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | No Comments

Breakfast sandwiches are easily one of my favorite foods.   Maybe it’s because my parents would always make my sister and I egg sandwiches on italian bread when dinner that night was a bit too grown-up for our tastes.  Maybe it’s because I can’t get enough bread in my life.  Whatever the case may be, I love breakfast sandwiches and have them at least once a week.

In an effort to eat a mostly plant based diet, I have had little difficulty skipping meat, milk and cheese, but I love eggs.  I’m no where near perfect in my food choices, but I do my best.  I try to limit myself to organic, local, cage free and hormone free eggs.  Vegans, don’t leave!  I often make this sandwich completely animal free with slices of baked tofu (ala this post on vegweb) sprinkled with black salt (which gives the tofu an eggy taste) in place of the egg.  It’s still really delicious that way.

My breakfast sandwiches are usually quite basic and not worthy of a photo, let along a blog post, but my sandwich this morning was too good not to photograph.

First, heat a non-stick or better yet cast iron skillet with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.  Once it’s hot, place a thick slice of tomato in the skillet and let it sear on both sides.  It will just take a couple of minutes per side.  At the same time, put a few slices of faux bacon, soy sausage, or in this case some homemade seitan (don’t be scared, it’s really tasty) in the pan to get crispy.

Next, toast a bagel or english muffin (note: I am not a fan of regular bread for breakfast sandwiches- it gets too soggy!).  Smear it with some  hummus.  Yes, hummus on a breakfast sandwich.  It’s delicious!

Then fry up your egg or reheat some baked tofu.  I like my eggs mostly set but still a bit liquid in the center (nommmmm).  Place everything on the bagel, along with some salad greens and a thick slice of red onion, which gives your sandwich great color.  Voila!  A really simple breakfast that tastes like a million bucks.  Add a homemade soy peppermint mocha and call it Sunday morning :)   Enjoy!

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Mini Vegan “Meat” Balls

Nov 1

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | No Comments

I’ve made these chicken-style seitan nuggets a few times now, and I’m a big fan.  The recipe comes together in minutes, they bake quickly, and the texture of the finished product is perfect.  Seitan can sometimes be really rubbery and tough, but these are just right.

Last night, I made a batch of the dough and made half into nuggets, and then experimented with the other half.  I was oddly craving Italian Wedding Soup (I have no idea why, I’m pretty sure I’ve never had it before, but I saw a can of it in the store and it looked really good) so I wanted to see if these could work as tiny “meat” balls.  Well, it worked perfectly!

I pinched off tiny pieces of the dough, rolled it between my palms, and placed them in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.  I skipped the breading step in the recipe.  They cooked pretty quickly, just a couple of minutes per side and they were done.  The texture was great!  I’d love to try baking these next, to cut down on the oil a bit, but honestly these were so awesome.

I looked up what Italian Wedding Soup is made of, and while the recipes varied quite a bit, it seemed like a broth based soup with meatballs and greens.

I started with olive oil, onions, garlic, and celery.  Next I added some crushed red pepper flakes, oregano, and dried basil.  When the vegetables were soft, I added some red wine, then added water, vegetable bullion, kidney beans, and the meatballs.  I let that simmer away for 30 minutes or so, then added a few handfuls of torn spinach.  I let that wilt in for a bit, then dished out a bowl.

It was great!  Just what I wanted on this cloudy day.  I think next time I’ll hold off on putting the meatballs in so early, as they got a bit spongy, but the flavor was still great.  The soup also came together very quickly and could be made to feed a ton of people for not very much money.  It’s also pretty versatile.  Like most soups, this “recipe” is one that can be easily modified to use what vegetables and canned beans you might have on hand.  My dad makes a soup similar to this with kale or swiss chard as the greens.  Cannelini beans would also be great here.  Really, soup is a great way to experiment with flavors.

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Autumn Apples in New York

Nov 1

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | No Comments

Autumn is by far my favorite month.  The leaves, the apples, the squash, the cooler jeans and sweater weather is the best.  Upstate New York sometimes gets a bad rap for the harsh winters and clouds, but for me, autumn makes up for all of that.  My favorite fall activities are those that combine the outdoors and food (duh!) so apple picking is right up my alley!

Beak &  Skiff is a great place for apple picking, and I’ve gone several times in the 3 years I’ve lived in Syracuse.  The apples aren’t organic, but they are local and it’s fun, so I happily wash off the skin and it doesn’t bother me.  The cheap price makes that easier, too.

I have used my apples to make these muffins, which I are also posted on Fresh Cracked Pepper.  I’ve also eaten them in my morning oatmeal, sliced thin on sandwiches, and just munched on them as a snack.

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