Ginger Tempeh

 For me, being a vegan is a constant journey of discovery. I don't see it as limiting the foods that I eat, I see it was opening up a whole new world of food I didn't even know existed. It took me this long to get around to experiencing tempeh, but I had read about how it was an amazing meat substitute, especially when you were looking for a hearty flavor. I picked up a package and I was not disappointed. Scratch that. I was far beyond not disappointed. I was actually extremely pleased and impressed. Tempeh has a nutty flavor and a consistency resembling crunchy grains of rice packed together into a loaf. Mine was about the same size and shape of a cut of London Broil, which got me to thinking about how to best prepare it. I decided to cut it into slices and marinate it in soy sauce, ginger, sesame seeds, and a little lemon juice. Let me tell you, there is nothing like the salty/citrusy combination of soy sauce and lemon juice. I would also reccomend trying this recipe with orange juice if you have it on hand. I tend to have some issues with soy sauce,  just because I am perplexed by how salty it really is. If a recipe calls for any real amount of the liquid, your sodium levels are going to shoot through the roof. A solution that I learned a few years ago is to use a solution of 1/2 soy sauce 1/2 water when you need a good amount of moisture in your recipe. It keeps the sodium in check, but you really won't notice a difference in flavor.
Now, I know that it is not generally safe food practice to use your marinade for cooking. This is because most marinades have been chilling out with raw meet for hours, which equals one nasty e-coli situation. Tempeh is a naturally fermented soybean cake. See how the two are different?

What Passes for Lunch Around Here

Last week, I found the most delicious brown rice tortillas at Trader Joe's. For some reason, the brown rice made them seem so much more whimsical than regular tortillas. I used them to make my own baked tortilla chips, because most commercially-prepared tortilla chips are laden with fat. Take a handful of those chips and pair them with avocado (which is fatty even if it's a good fat), and you might as well brush up on your Oompa Loompa dance, because that is what you are going to look like if you eat too many. So, I bake my own with a hint of salt and lime and dip them in my guacamole with a smug grin on my face.
Anyway, these tortillas were really delicious and had much more of a bite to them than boring flour tortillas. One morning I was running late for work and needed to throw together something for lunch very quickly. I had tortilla shells and daiya, and I looked around my fridge for odds and ends to turn that into lunch. I ended up throwing some vegetables into the quesadilla and I was quite pleased with the result. I suppose that this particular adventure qualifies as my first "fusion" dish, since fusion is just taking two different cuisines and merging them together. Enjoy.

Brownies

As anyone who is a regular reader knows, I have been on a lot of dates lately. Most of these dates have not gone right, for one reason or the other. Emotionally, I've really been through the ringer. First dates are very, very draining, because you have to put in a good deal of effort to put your best foot forward. I feel a lot of pressure to put on the Nicole Williams Show, that is a version of myself who is charming, witty, and entertaining, even in the presence of near-strangers. I think that I do an ok job of this, although my call-back ratio would suggest otherwise (there aren't that many).
After getting through the initial challenge of the first date, assuming that I have made someone like me enough, there is the second date. Over the past few months, the second date has marked the point at which I start evaluating the other person. I start to imagine what it would be like to really date them and I apply my critical thinking and logical reasoning skills to determine if there are any flags or deal-breakers. I've had a lot of trouble finding guys who have everything I am looking for. I need someone who is attractive, kind, intelligent, articulate, and confidant. It would be nice to have someone who is also health-conscious, considerate, and a hard-worker. There are some things that I just consider a bonus, for example being a vegan or living the music lifestyle.Yes, I stack-rank the things I am looking for, because I am just that good of a Project Manager.
I've recently read some articles that call out girls my age for having too many requirements for men. One urged me to settle for Mr. Good Enough. Reading these articles, I wondered if I should just settle. I had a major problem though. My Mr. Right existed, and I knew it because I was lucky enough to be friends with him. 
I know that a lot of my readers enjoy my bad date stories and that they are a constant source of entertainment for my friends and co-workers. That is why I hope that no one here is too disappointed that after going out on dates with 24 different men since the beginning of the year, I have ended up with the same one who was standing next to me on New Year's Eve.
 After the jump, please enjoy the reduced-fat vegan brownies that I brought along on what turned out to be our first date.

In Pursuit of Perfection

 In March, I was able to perfectly harness the delicious flavors of Girl Scout Cookies, while reducing the fat and sugar to an acceptable level. After that experiment, I abandoned cookies for awhile to focus instead on cupcakes and muffins, and somewhere along the way I lost my touch. I made chocolate chip cookies a couple of weeks ago, and they were not my best work. I replaced most of the oil in the recipe with applesauce and reduced the sugar quite a bit. My friend and fellow vegan, Carl, was happy to suffer through them, and I have included a picture of the failed cookies just to illustrate what a great liar he is for having eaten them with a straight face. I tried another batch the following night, using vegetable oil, applesauce, and molasses. While these were a little better, they were still kind of chewy and a little greasy. I decided that it had to be time for a different approach.
Instead of focusing on reducing the sugar and the oil, I would start with the basics: a full-fat, full-sugar vegan chocolate chip cookie. They were absolutely perfect. I brought a warm batch in to work and they were gone by 11 AM, which is a sign of a pretty damn good cookie. A few days later, I tried the same recipe, but replacing half of the oil with applesauce. Those also came out pretty good, although a little more scone-like, which is something that I am working on. They key to this cookie recipe is cinnamon, which gives it a nice hint of something special. The granola is optional, but another way to get pretty impressive. When I made them with applesauce, I substituted out some of the vegan chocolate chips for some Peruvian dark chocolate, which I bought in wafer-form and cut into thin slivers. They were probably the fanciest cookies I have ever made.

Hell Freezes Over

One of my many quirks is an intense aversion to mayonnaise. I've never liked the stuff and I can't eat  anything that I know contains mayonnaise. This distaste has carried over to veganaise as well. I don't even know whay mayonnaise tastes like, because I've never been able to stomach the site of it, let alone put it to my lips. On the one hand, this is probably not a bad thing, because who wants to eat something that so closely resembles cellulite? On the other hand, my issue with this particular spread (plus my dislike of mustard and my refusal to eat lunch meat, even vegan lunch meat) has long kept me from entering into the world of sandwiches. I've never gotten behind them, which can make packing lunch for work a little bit more difficult than it has to be. I was screwing around the Apple store a few weekends ago, waiting for my new bff Collin to activate my new i-phone, and started playing with the Whole Foods application on a demo phone. I will say it was pretty cool, but it also had a great recipe for a vegan muffaletta sandwich. I didn't bother to write down the recipe or anything, but the idea of a sandwich with mushrooms and roasted red peppers haunted my thoughts all day. So, I gave in to the dark side and made a sandwich. After learning that my vegan jambalaya was a bastardization of all things cajun, I abandoned the idea of even calling my version of the sandwich a muffaletta, but it was very much inspired by the idea of one.

Oil-free Vegan Pesto

There are some word combinations that make anyone's ears pop up, and oil-free vegan pesto always seems to do the trick. Let me start out by talking about pesto. I love it. I love basil on its own, but when its diced into tiny pieces and mixed with pine nuts, my blood really gets pumping. I love pesto on my pasta, pesto on my pizza, pesto on a sandwich (it is the only condiment besides ketchup that I will allow on a sandwich or burger). However, a traditional pesto is really, really, really bad for you, especially in the amounts that I like to use. It's full of olive oil and most commercial pestos also contain Parmesan cheese (a big vegan no-no). This used to be a problem for me, until I realized that I could take a hint from Fat Free Vegan and replace all of that olive oil with vegetable broth. I further decided to include some spinach in my pesto, because I am a firm believer in the nutritional properties of that little superfood.
The result is a pesto that you can feel good about. I use my food processor for this recipe, but if you do not have one, and your knife skills are up to par, you should do just fine. This pesto goes great on a pizza in place of tomato sauce, on a vegan caprese sandwich (use the daiya cheese and warm it ever so slightly), or over some whole wheat pasta. It keeps in the fridge for about a week, so it's a good make-ahead item for those of you who, like me, see the inside of our cubicles more than the inside of our kitchens.


Easiest Pesto Ever

• 2 cloves garlic, quartered but not chopped
• 1 c. basil
• 1/2 c. fresh or frozen spinach, if frozen, don't forget to drain and pat dry
• 1/4 c. pine nuts
• 1/3 c. vegetable broth

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse on high for about 10 seconds, or until smooth.

Tofu n' Broccoli

I, Nicole Williams, love tofu. These are 5 words that I could never have imagined typing a year ago. I was the girl who wanted nothing to do with that white, mushy, weird health food. I had no idea what it was even made out of, but I was pretty sure that I didn't want to know. Then, I took the time to actually learn how to cook tofu, and I realized just how delicious it can be when done correctly. I also did some research on its many health benefits including being low fat and high in protein. Studies have shown that this magical bean curd can lower bad cholesterol and triglycerides. Soy isoflavones in tofu have even been shown to reduce breast, uterine, and prostate cancer. Did I mention that it's a good source of iron?
Tofu is one of the cornerstones of any good vegan diet. Whenever I get "the protein lecture", I am quick to inform the lecturer that I eat tofu once or twice a week and get all the protein that I need. Tofu is great in all different kinds of recipes, because its nuetral flavor will easily take on whatever spices or marinade you use. So, gentle readers, please stick with me over the next few days as I present my own personal salute to tofu.

The Basics
When cooking with tofu, it's important to know exactly what kind of prep work you're looking at. Tofu comes packaged in water, so the first thing that you want to do is rinse it under cool running water. Then, I give it a gentle squeeze and lay it on a cutting board between two paper towels, pressing gently but firmly until most of the moisture comes out. It should feel like you are making love to the tofu, I promise. I'm not sure why you are supossed to do all of these things, I think that it's either to prep it to absorb flavors or maybe just so that it doesn't get mushy. The next thing I do is roll the tofu in a little cornstarch before cooking. It helps it get a nice crispy coating.

Tofu n' Broccoli

• 6 ounces of non-silken tofu, drained, pressed, cut into squares, and rolled in cornstarch
• 1/4 c. water
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. corn starch
• 2 c. fresh broccoli

Mix 2 tbsp. water, soy sauce, and cornstarch in a bowl.
Coat a pan with nonstick cooking spray and drop the tofu into it. Let it cook a few minutes until it is golden brown and then flip and brown the other side.
Add 1 1/2 tsp. of the soy sauce mixture to the pan along with the broccoli and the rest of the water.
Stir-fry for 2 minutes, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 minute.
Add the remaining soy sauce mixture back into the pan, stir well to coat, and serve over rice, noodles, or by itself.