Saturday Night Dinner: Peanut & “Chicken” Soup

Saturday nights were usually reserved for our traditional beer and pizza night, but with our usual go-to pizza place changing up their recipe to something that barely resembles what we fell in love with we’re currently cooking dinner ourselves.  This recipe came from The Flat Belly Diet Cookbook, something I was glancing through while we were relaxing at Borders this afternoon.  From my quick read through, the book looked to have several interesting recipe ideas, even if the author was obsessed with repeating the word MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids) as often as Rachel Ray needs to use EVOO, yummo, or sammi in every sentence.  Needless to say it got grating pretty quickly.  If you can look past that you can probably find some tasty recipes.  They’re not all vegetarian, but most are easily adaptable.

The original recipe didn’t call for the “chicken”, but we had some extra laying around and decided to toss it in for a little extra protein. The result is a simple, filling vegetable soup with a mild peanut taste; a great creamy recipe for the cold of winter.

Peanut & “Chicken” Soup

• 1 Tbsp Canola Oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 cups vegetable broth, divided
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 12 oz vegetarian “chicken” strips, chopped
• 2 Tbsp chopped nuts (optional)

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add the onion, celery, and carrots.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until the onion softens. Add the garlic and 2 cups of the broth.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are very tender.

Transfer the soup to a food processor fitted with a metal blade or a blender.  Process until smooth

Return the soup to the pot and stir in the peanut butter, lemon juice, and remaining 1 cup broth.  Cook for 5 minutes or until the peanut melts and flavors blend.  Add the “chicken” and continue to cook until heated through.

Ladle into 4 bowls and sprinkle with the chopped nuts.

4 servings (1 ¼ cup each.)

Oh Boy! Waffles!

I’m not quite sure why Better Homes & Gardens refers to these as “Oh Boy” waffles, but here’s a nice, simple recipe for some waffles that I jazzed up just a little bit with some spices I refer to as the “holy trinity” of comfort baking: cinnamon, all-spice, and nutmeg.  I also threw some Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips in there just to make them nice and unhealthy.

And yes, I said, Better Homes & Gardens.  I am just traditional enough to firmly believe a cookbook collection isn’t complete with the red and white plaid of the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. Our version is doubly hilarious because it’s a reprint of the original, so it includes incredibly out of date hosting rules and table settings.

But the recipes still work, in all their shortening filled glory.

“Oh Boy” Waffles

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups sifted enriched flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp all-spice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 3/4 cup melted shortening, butter, or olive oil
• 1/2 cup bitter-sweet chocolate chips

Sift dry ingredients.  Combine eggs, milk and shortening.  Combine liquid and dry ingredients just before baking.  Beat until smooth.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Bake in a hot waffle iron.  Makes between 16 & 18 waffles.

And also, I would be remiss to not include MST3K’s waffles tribute.

“Chicken” Noodle Soup For The Winter-Crushed Soul

At this point I wish that either the Skinny Bitches would come out with a new cookbook, or hire me for their PR team.  I think every vegan/vegetarian I talk cookbooks with is surprised to hear that the Skinny Bitches are both: vegan AND full of good recipes.  If they only they weren’t so obnoxious when they start talking.  Crap, there goes my PR job.

In case you haven’t heard, America is currently blanketed under a cold snap slash snow storm that many people are referring to as “Utter Bullshit!” I’m one of those people.  It should never be so cold that it both makes your eyes water and freezes those tear drops within the same 2 seconds.

And with the cold, comes the colds, the flus and the sinus infections.  I’m dealing with the later, while Katie is dealing with the former.  The past two weekends have consisted of grilled cheese, soup, and buying stock on Kleenex and Afrin.  Needless to say, winter in Chicago is just amazing…ly horrible.

But there are some bright spots, and this vegetarian chicken noodle soup is one of them.  The curry gives it just a bit of a kick and the flavor is probably the closest I’ve had to actual chicken soup in years.  Plus it’s a recipe that’s easily doubled, giving you enough soup to make a couple meals.

“Chicken” Noodle Soup

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 carrot cut into 1/4″ slices
• 1 celery stalk cut into 1/4″ slices
• 1/2 onion, cut into 1/2″ dice
• 4 oz white or brown mushrooms, cut into 1/4″ slices
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp curry
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 cups vegetable stock (or vegan chicken stock if available)
• 1 1/4 tsp soy sauce
• 8 oz vegan chicken strips (either Trader Joes or Smart Strips)
• 4 oz wheat pasta

Heat the oil in a 6-quart stockpot over medium heat.  Add the carrot, celery and onion, and cook, stirring occasionally until crisp and tender (about 2 minutes).  Add the mushrooms, salt, pepper and curry powder and cook until the mushrooms release their juices (about 2 minutes).  Stir in the stock, soy sauce and bay leaf.  Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Add the chicken and pasta.  When the soup returns to a boil, reduce to simmer.  Cook until the pasta is done (time will depend on type of pasta used).  Remove the bay leaf and serve!

Makes about 9 cups.

Sweet Potato Pumpkin Cheesecake w/ Gingersnap Crust

"Cheesecake Picnic Party" - David Russell Talbott

The time of year when you can actually use the excuse “It’s the holidays” in a court of law to cover your (ever-growing) ass as you gorge for 4 straight weeks is upon us once again.  And that means it was time for Mike to make dessert for the family meals.  Hell, if we’re going to eat way too much over the course of 8 hours, I may as well contribute something sweet.

Last year I spent weeks coming up with a Sweet Potato Pumpkin Pie recipe.  I was obsessed and couldn’t be stopped.  My coworkers were overjoyed because I brought in a half dozen pies as I used them for my guinea pigs.  This year, I wanted to make a cheesecake version of the pumpkin pie classic, and luckily I already had my recipe from 2008 to work with.  Using a basic cheesecake recipe from AllRecipes I performed some recipe mad science to come up with the final recipe below.

The original crust calls for Pecans, but I’ve always been a Walnut person myself.  I think in this situation it worked out for the better.  Of course, if you’re worried about nut allergies you can also just replace the 1/2 cup of nuts with more gingersnaps or even a 1/2 cup of Nilla Wafers.

And I can only hope you’re better at marbling, because mine appeared more like a storm system over the sands of Tatooine than it did a “marble” effect.  Tasted just as good though!

Gingersnap Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a bowl, mix together the crushed gingersnap cookies, walnuts, and butter. Press into the bottom, and about 1 inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake crust 5-6 minutes in the preheated oven. Set aside to cool.

Sweet Potato Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 heaping cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 heaping cup mashed sweet potatoes
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, the 1/2 cup white sugar, and vanilla until just smooth.  Mix in eggs one at a time, blending well after each.  Set aside 1 cup of the mixture.  Blend 1/4 cup brown sugar, pumpkin, sweet potato, cinnamon, allspice, ginger and nutmeg into the remaining mixture.  Pour the pumpkin flavored batter into the crust, and drop the plain batter by teaspoonfuls onto the top.  Swirl with a knife to create a “marbled” effect.  Bake 55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until filling is set.  Run a knife around the edge of the pan.  Allow to cool before removing pan rim. Chill for at least 4-6 hours before serving.  It can also be stored in the freezer if not using the same day.

Breakfast Cereal Muffins

Photo borrowed from AlmightyDad.com

Breakfast is the greatest meal on earth.  You sit me down in front of a perfectly made 3 egg omelet stuffed with cheese and I will be a happy man.  Toss in a side of hash browns and pancakes, and I’ll thank you after my nap.

Of course, those were special occasion breakfasts when I was a kid.  Usually it was some Rice Krispies covered in sugar or some other delicious breakfast cereal that was about as good for you as rubbing sugar directly on to your teeth.  Even now I cannot resist the allure of a box of Golden Grahams or Fruit Loops when I see a sale price on the supermarket shelf.  The power of Post and Kelloggs is too, too strong.

One day a few weeks back, Katie asked me to make some healthier snacks, which resulted in these Oatmeal Bran Muffins.  Sure, you can make them healthy like I did, but isn’t the allure of swapping out the bran and oatmeal with something like Golden Grahams and Cocoa Krispies calling out your name?

Breakfast Cereal Muffins

• 1 cup bran cereal
• 1 cup dry oatmeal
• 1 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2-3/4  cup Craisins (or chocolate chips if you want them slightly less healthy)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine bran, oatmeal and milk.  Let stand 5 minutes, or until nice and mushy.  Mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda together, and set aside.  Melt the butter.  Add the melted butter and egg into bran mixture.  Stir in the dry ingredients until blended.  Fold the Craisins (or chocolate chips) into the batter.

Spoon into 12 lightly oiled  2 1/2 inch muffin pan cups. Bake for 18 minutes or until done.

Seitan Meatballs w/ Simple Winter Tomato Sauce

I used to subscribe to Vegetarian Times religiously when I first became a vegetarian.  I tried caring about the carrots and the sticks they doled out.  I even pretended to care about the alternative health information they were trying to preach. But at the end of the day, it was about one thing, and that was the occasional recipe I could glean from the pages to make and devour.

My admiration for the magazine went away when a new EIC decided it would be a great idea to start introducing chicken and fish recipes into a magazine called VEGETARIAN times to help boost their sales. It irked me that they were now considering vegetarian to include those tasty, meaty vegetables chicken and fish. I hear enough people say, “Oh yeah, I’m a vegetarian but I eat fish.” That makes you a NON-vegetarian.  To quote Bruce the Shark, “Fish are friends, not food.”  I’ve been told I pick odd battles to fight, and in this case, the semantics and definitions people try applying vegetarian too are one of them. I don’t care what you eat, and I’m pretty much a vegetarian simply for my health, but just get your facts straight, dammit.

Luckily they went back to purely vegetarian content, but by this time the food revolution had hit a fevered pitch online and waiting for a magazine every month for 2 dozen recipes was outdated.  But in one of the last issues I received, there was a recipe that turned out to be one of Katie’s favorite dishes ever.  We lost the recipe in the move, but that never stopped her cravings for it.  This past week I was finally able to search through the Vegetarian Times database and find the recipe.

I made some changes including using real egg instead of egg replacer in the meatballs. It binds the ingredients together better, even if it takes away from the vegan aspect the original recipe was going for. I also made my own seitan instead of purchasing some overpriced Whole Foods brand.  And most importantly, I doubled the sauce recipe.  If you want a truly hearty meal, you probably want to double it even further.  As it is, the sauce gives you only the slightest taste of tomato, making it a lighter meal than your typical spaghetti and meatballs.

Seitan Meatballs w/ Simple Winter Tomato Sauce (adapted from Vegetarian Times)

Ingredients

Winter Tomato Sauce

• 2 15-oz. can diced tomatoes
• 6 Tbs. olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tbs.)
• 4 tsp. dried basil

Seitan Meatballs

• 16 oz. cubed seitan
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup matzo meal
• 1/4 cup chopped dried parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped dried basil
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tbs.)
• 1 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/8 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 eggs

Misc

• 16 oz. whole-wheat pasta

1. To make Winter Tomato Sauce: Simmer all ingredients in partially covered saucepan 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
2. To make Seitan Meatballs: Preheat oven to 400F. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Blend seitan in food processor until crumbly. Add walnuts, and pulse until combined.
3. Transfer to bowl. Stir in matzo meal, herbs, 1 Tbs. oil, garlic, soy sauce and oregano. Whisk eggs until frothy. Fold eggs mixture.
4. Shape mixture into 24 balls. Place on prepared baking sheet, and brush with 1 Tbs. remaining oil. Bake 20 minutes, turning once, or until crusty and lightly browned.
5. Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain, and divide among serving bowls. Top with sauce and meatballs, and serve. Serves 6

Vegetarian “Beef” Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki, although not mine. This one's prettier.

It’s been a Swank diet week here in the Two Bites kitchens. We’re attempting to eat healthier, and for the most part we’re succeeding.  We just need to stop eating out on the weekends, and stick to the menu we keep during the week.  Of course that doesn’t always work when you have a stack of “Buy One Get One” brunch coupons and gift cards for LEYE (Lettuce Entertain You) stacking up on your breakfast bar.  We love eating healthy, but we love a cheap meal out even more.

I spent the morning yesterday making another recipe from the Multiple Sclerosis Diet Cookbook I mentioned yesterday.  Again, you can use real beef as the original recipe calls for, but I swapped out the proteins with some Trader Joe’s Beef-less strips.  For a recipe that doesn’t require any herbs or spices, it’s a pretty tasty dish.

Vegetarian “Beef” Sukiyaki

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 1/2 lbs (3 packages) Trader Joe’s Beef-less strips, cut into slices
• 4 oz sliced Shiitake mushrooms
• 4 oz (1 can) sliced bamboo shoots
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 pound extra firm tofu, pressed of water and cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup green onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cups cooked brown rice

Heat the large skillet or wok on high heat.  Add oil.  When oil begins to sizzle drop in the “beef” and brown, cooking 2-3 minutes.  Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and onion.  Stir-fry for 5 minutes, turning vegetables frequently.  When onions begin to soften add the wine and soy sauce.  Add the tofu and green onion cooking for 1 minute.  Serve over the rice.  Serves 6.

Vegetarian Cream of “Chicken” & Mushroom Soup

As is usually the case, summer has disappeared a little too quickly here in Chicago.  Normally I don’t mind the lack of 90 degree temperatures, but they were in even shorter supply than normal this year, leaving it feeling more like a prolonged spring easing its way into a, hopefully, prolonged fall.

Needless to say, I do not like winter.  It is the devil’s season.  By the time February rolls around, there’s a vague sense that everyone is looking forward to punching everyone else in the face.  But perhaps being trapped inside looking at the same 4 walls all winter will do that to a person.  Or in this case, an entire city.

Luckily, it’s not here yet, but fall has most definitely set in which makes it the perfect weather some soup.  This cream of chicken and mushroom recipe was adapted from the Swank Multiple Sclerosis Diet Cookbook.  It’s a great book for people dealing with Multiple Sclerosis and are looking for other ways beside medicine to boost their health.  Just be forewarned that it’s not an easy diet.  It’s a strict low-fat regime that I wasn’t even able to stick to.  But that could be love of carbs talking.

You can easily replace the veggie chicken with real chicken to give yourself that meat fill you’re craving.

Vegetarian Cream of “Chicken” & Mushroom Soup

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 lb sliced mushrooms
• 1/3 cup AP flour
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups skim milk
• 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
• 2 packages Trader Joe’s Chickenless Strips, diced
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• chopped parsley
• paprika

Pour oil into a large saucepan and saute onion over medium heat until tender.  Add mushrooms and cook 10 minutes.  Blend in flour.  Gradually stir in chicken broth, skim milk that has been mixed with the nonfat dry milk powder, and the wine.  Stir over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to a boil.  Add remaining ingredients except parsley and paprika.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.  Garnish with parsley and paprika.  Serves 6.

Veggie Chicken Peanut Ginger Curry w/ Rice

What happens when you just randomly try experimenting with recipes?  You tend to over prepare; which is exactly what happened when I made my peanut ginger sauce two weeks ago.  The ice cream I finally made used maybe 1/8 cup of the peanuty, gingery goodness.  That sadly left me with nearly 3 cups of the stuff left to use in another recipe.  The results of some more mad science?  A curry meets a dipping sauce!  Sure.  Why not.  Who doesn’t love Indian and Thai food together in an unholy marriage?

Veggie Chicken Peanut Ginger Curry

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 cups Peanut Ginger Dipping Sauce
• 1/3 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 16 oz chopped veggie chicken

Put the onion and water in a large saucepan.  Cook and stir until the onion is soft.  Add the chopped veggie chicken.  Add the dipping sauce and stir well.  Gradually mix in the flour to thicken the sauce.  Add the curry, ginger and sugar and stir thoroughly.  Add more curry if you’re looking for a spicier dish.  Serve over brown rice.

Serves 4-6

Simple Taco Soup

Who doesn’t love easy?  Ten hour work days and hours of comicon recovery time has left me with little initiative to get any food prepped for the week.  But alas, the leftovers are gone, and I’m forced to throw something together.  And now we have taco soup.  To give it a heartier vibe I added some spices, veggie chicken and orzo to great effect.

Simple Taco Soup

• 8 oz uncooked orzo
• 7 cups vegetable broth
• 2 15-oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 1/2 cups chunky mild or medium salsa
• 2 1/4 cups frozen corn kernels
• 12 ounces veggie chicken strips
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (or to taste)

Boil water in a medium sauce pan.  Cook the orzo according to package directions.

In a large soup pot add the broth, beans, salsa, chicken strips, and spices.  Cook over medium heat until simmering.  Adjust to low heat and let flavors blend.  Add the cooked orzo, stir and serve.

Serves at least 8 people.