What The Hell Does A PinkHairedGirl Eat?

hashbrowns from Vegan Brunch

I think this is the first time we’ve made something from Vegan Brunch actually, you know, for brunch. But it was eleven or so on a Sunday and I was like “Now is the time for hashbrowns!” And I love hashbrowns, love them enough that they make going to a dinner for brunch worth it even when I know all I can order is hashbrowns and a side of fruit, so I was very excited at the prospect of having them whenever I wanted, right in my very own home. And I made them, and they were everything hashbrowns should be, all crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside and not even very hard to make.

We had fruit with this both in smoothies and cut up on the side, because we are hardcore. I think that smoothie is probably melon, a banana, soy milk and a frozen berry mix from Costco, but there might not have been a banana involved, I don’t remember anymore.

Local: Fruit (except Costco berries)

from Vegan Brunch

Another boyfriend-cooked meal, another recipe from Vegan Brunch! He’s having such a good time making pancakes and waffles (and flapjacks!) that he’s decided we need a griddle so he can make a bunch of pancakes all at once instead of a couple at a time in our skillet. And this time we had his brother and his brother’s girlfriend over to enjoy the flapjacks, as well.

So how did they come out? Well, ridiculously good, pretty much. The bananas add a kind of extra sweetness and of course banana flavor, and the texture is fantastic. We loved these and ate them all right up.

We had fruit on the side so we could pretend we were eating healthy.

Boyfriend Says: I was really happy with how these came out, considering it was the first time I’d made pancakes. The positive reaction to them was really nice too.

Local: Fruit

Mac n’ cheez is a Vegan Crunk tester

More testing for the Vegan Crunk cookbook, because Bianca’s food is always super yummy. Now, I am firmly in the Baked Mac n’ Cheez camp, but this mac n’ cheez was very yummy despite being stove top, and I will definitely make it when I need mac n’ cheez immediately and do not have time to mess around with the oven. I enjoyed it with plenty of sriracha mixed in, because I am a freak who needs hot sauce with her mac n’ cheez. (The hot sauce just adds another dimension of deliciousness! Seriously, try it. I like to mix in a little salsa sometimes, too.)

The asparagus, you know, asparagus, so it was delicious. I roasted it in the oven, because that’s how I like it, and I mixed it up by adding some capers. (It said to do this in the asparagus section in the front of Veganomicon, and I was like “Oooh, capers.”) So simple, but so yummy.

Local: Asparagus

from Authentic Chinese Cuisine

I invited my friend Paul over for dinner, and he made this awesome salad with mandarin orange slices and sesame sticks and peanuts and a dressing he just made up using soy sauce and chili and sesame oil and rice vinegar. It was delicious and made me appreciate the beauty of a good “themed” salad, as opposed to my salads where I just throw in everything in the fridge.

I decided to make an asian themed meal since we were having people over – I find that something like indian or asian food frequently strikes non-vegans as less “weird hippie vegan” and more “semi-exotic food that just happens to be vegan.” (If it’s just me, I’ll eat weird hippie vegan food all day long and love it, but there’s something to be said for making a good impression.) Plus I recently rediscovered this cookbook (Authentic Chinese Cuisine by Bryanna Clark Grogan), and I’ve been loving it – everything is delicious, but also comes together within about ten minutes once everything is chopped up, making it perfect for when you’re having guests over. You can leisurely prep everything, then throw it all together on the stove once people show up.

The ginger zucchini was alright. I think people who like zucchini more than I do would like it, but I sort of require my zucchini to taste more like olive oil and garlic than zucchini, while this has a delicate ginger and zucchini taste to it.

The steamed tofu was the real winner of the night. Steaming the tofu gave it a fantastic texture, and then the spicy sauce that went with it was fantastic. It was also a great way to use up the chili black bean paste that’s been hanging around my fridge forever. Of course, now I need to get some more chili black bean paste so I can make some more of this.

Local: Lettuce, zucchini

Hummus is a Vegan Crunk tester, cucumber dip from Veganomicon, flatbread from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

A “some assembly required” meal, one of my favorite kinds of meals. This one was vaguely Mediterranean. The black-eyed pea hummus is a Vegan Crunk tester, and it was a great twist on traditional hummus. (Bianca’s been doing lots of stuff with black-eyed peas lately, which I find exciting because I bought a bunch a while ago and discovered I had no idea what to do with them.)

We’ve been getting tons of cucumbers from our CSA, so to use some of them up I made the cucumber dip from Veganomicon. This dip is really easy to make, and it’s so good. It’s very refreshing and summery. And it has lots of cashews, which usually make things super yummy.

I made a sort of greek-ish salad with red onion and chickpeas and mixed greens to go with this, and made a bunch of flatbread to eat it on. The flatbread was surprisingly easy to make, and turned out very well. The recipe is from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, and you just mix up the dough in a food processor, let it rest for half an hour, and then roll it out and fry it. I’m definitely going to start making these more often to go along with meals.

I had pickled beets with this, and pepperoncinis and olives, and it was fantastic.

Local: Salad fixings, cucumber

Celery from 101 Cookbooks, risotto from Vegetarian Times

It’s old favorites night! Otherwise known as “I only really know one way to make celery or lettuce exciting.” The braised celery was delicious and super savory, just like last time. (It really is way better than it sounds.) This turned out a little on the salty side this time, but the same thing happened to Jamie from Top Chef when she made braised celery, so I don’t feel too bad about it. If this didn’t take two hours to make I would make it every time I got celery from my CSA, but as it is I’m saving it for when I’ve got a bunch to use up.

The lettuce risotto was delicious as usually. I added some garlic to it, and a little extra red pepper because that’s how I like it. You really can’t go wrong with risotto, crushed red pepper, garlic, and capers. Plus I really like the way the lettuce gets all wilty in this. Pressure cooker risotto is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Local: Celery, lettuce

from Vegan Brunch

Another boyfriend meal! I think the boyfriend has found his cooking groove in sweet, bready breakfast foods because lately he is the kind of waffles and pancakes and all things delicious and breakfasty. These peanut butter waffles were amazing, not overly peanut buttery but just kind of uber savory with a hint of pb, super delicious with lots of maple syrup. We had the boyfriend’s brother over at this meal too, and he seemed impressed by both the cooking and the fact that it was vegan. (For some reason omnis don’t think waffles can be vegan, even though they don’t have eggs in them. Swapping out milk for soy milk and earth balance for butter is the easiest thing in the world, I don’t understand why people get weird about it.)

We had fruit on the side, of course, since I am a veggie fascist.

Local: Fruit

from Vegan Brunch

It’s breakfast for dinner! And OMG, can you tell how much we love Vegan Brunch? I made the classic tofu scramble, and added some shredded zucchini and carrot near the end. It was delicious, and the shredded veggies cooked really well and integrated into the scramble in a lovely way. Totally delicious, although I think I liked it more than the boyfriend. (He tends not to be so into tofu scramble for some reason, like he is crazy.)

I cut up some cucumber to go with this and mixed it up with some miso mayo – totally simple, but a nice, refreshing veggie side.

The real star here was the zucchini spelt muffins. I have a feeling we’re going to make these a lot this summer, since we some how always end up with tons of zucchini in the summer. These were amazing. Sweet and yummy, but you could still pretend that they were healthy because they were full of spelt and zucchini and flax seed and whatnot. My boyfriend was like “These are so good!” and you could totally see that he was thinking “For crazy hippie food . . .” all surprised like. All of the baked goods I’ve had with spelt flour so good have been fantastic, I think it is magical.

Local: Zucchini, carrot, cucumber, tofu

Veggie burgers from Joanna Vaught, carrot and radish salad from Cookstr

I think these are the most successful veggie burgers I’ve ever made. (I have kind of a phobia about making veggie burgers, honestly, based on the fact that I can never get them to stick together.) These guys were a little crumbly, especially when I was flipping them but they definitely held together well enough to make a decent burger when I was done. I followed Joanna’s formula, and used black beans and lentils for my protein, onion, carrot and celery for my veggies, Braggs and sesame oil for my liquid seasoning, and some Bacon Salt for my dry seasoning. These turned out delicious! The only things I would change next time is not using lentils (they were little black lentils, and they kept kind of falling out), and mushing up the beans a little bit before mixing everything together. But I am definitely putting these beans into heavy rotation.

The carrot and radish salad is basically a quick pickle, and it reminded me of the pickled veggie mixture you get in some Vietnamese food. We had it both on the burgers and on the side, and it was super tasty.

Local: Carrots, celery, lettuce, radish

Celery from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, tofu and green beans from Authentic Chinese Cuisine

This meal reminded me that I should be using my Authentic Chinese Cuisine cookbook all the time. Most of the recipes in there involve stir-frying over pretty high heat, and as a result they are ready in about fifteen minutes once you have everything cut up. And also, they are delicious. Both the green beans and the tofu were easy to make, spicy, and delicious. I cooked the green beans until they got kind of withered and chewy on the outside, which is one of my favorite green bean textures. Yum.

The marinated celery was kind of meh. It did improve over time, but the celery just wasn’t all that great at absorbing the marinade. Weirdly, I think this might have been better if I’d stir-fried the whole thing, instead of serving it as a raw salad.

Local: Celery, tofu, green beans