VeganMofo 2014: #6 Mee Pok Tah

Mee Pok Tah is a common dish found in the Singapore hawker centers. Mee Pok is a flat egg noodle and Tah means dry (there's also a soup version). You can find egg-free version in Asian supermarkets. They cook really fast so don't idle too long when you're boiling them. 

I used vegan "fish" balls and shredded soy meat. For the sauce, I used:

1 tsp vegan fish sauce

2 tsp black vinegar

2 tbsp ketchup or chili

Place sauce on the bottom of the bowl, then bean sprouts, then noodle, vegan fish balls, and soy meat. Garnish with green onion. The person will then proceed to mix the noodle with the sauce (it's part of the fun). Or at least that's how they served it in the hawker center!

These dishes do seem devoid of vegetables so I usually add bok choy or other Asian greens to the dish to be more nutritionally complete.

Emma wants to know what you're eating today!

VeganMoFo 2014: #5 Radish Cake (Chai tao kway)

Radish/turnip cake is a common dim sum dish. In Singapore, they eat a plainer version with dark soy sauce seasoning. (Pretty much all their food uses dark soy sauce it seems.) I was pleased with my first try at though it came out a little stiffer than what I remembered eating in the restaurants. It's pretty labor & time intensive with the grating and steaming but well worth it in the end! I used this recipe from Rasa Malaysia: http://rasamalaysia.com/fried-radish-cake-recipe/2/

Bunny was caught digging a hole in the sofa again. My sofa cover is no use!

VeganMoFo 2014: #4 Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak is a coconut rice dish that's usually served on a huge banana leaf. The meat version has shrimp and eggs. I served with vegan battered fish instead. Cucumbers and roasted peanuts are customary. 

I've spent more time in the bathroom these past few months than I have in my whole life combined (I think). Just to keep this quarantined cat company. :)

VeganMoFo 2014: #3 Mee Goreng

Mee Goreng was another dish I tried in Singapore. I found an already vegan recipe from rasamalaysia.com. http://rasamalaysia.com/veggie-mee-goreng-fried-noodles/2/

Go make it, it's so simple and good!

My version didn't have potatoes (I was in a hurry). I added yu choy vegetables for some greens and the last half of the shrimp bites to finish it off. Don't do that though as the taste was overpowering in this dish. 

The beauty of mee goreng is in the sauce. "Ketchup in stir fry noodle?!?" you might say skeptically. Just give it a try and let me know what you think!

Today's dish is brought to you by:

She's a stray kitty we found in the bushes. She's currently quarantined in the bathroom due to ringworms but we bring her to the yard for some exercise and fresh air every day. She loves it!

VeganMoFo 2014: #2 Pineapple Fried Rice

Ever since I ate pineapple rice in a restaurant served in a carved out pineapple, I've never forgotten it. Here is my vegan interpretation with help of mock shrimp bites that add color and a fun chewy texture to the dish. 

I eyeballed the recipe and it goes something like this:

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small shallot, minced

1 can pineapple chunks, or freshly cut

Half bag of shrimp bites

1 cup cashew, toasted

4 cups cooked rice

1 tsp tumeric

spring onion for garnishing

Sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce

4 tbsp pineapple sauce

It's best to use day old rice but I made mine a couple of hours before cooking and stuck it in the fridge to cool and dry out a bit. 

Heat a bit of oil in a large pan then add garlic and shallot. Fry until lightly golden. 

Add the vegan shrimp bites and cook until it's heated through, 1-2 min.

Add the cooked rice, using hand to unclump it if necessary. Add tumeric and toss around to distribute yellow coloring evenly. 

Add sauce, pineapple, and cashew. Mix well. Add spring onion when just about done. 

Authentic recipes add raisins but I don't like raisins in my rice so I left it out!

Please note I made four cups of rice so that we could eat it for two meals. Saves time and effort!

These are the bunny residents. They too wish you bon appetite! Thanks for stopping by!

VeganMoFo 2014: #1 Char Kway Teow

"Oh wow, Em, look at all these new visitors. They look hungry -- I'm scared."

"Don't worry, Lu. They're just people from VeganMoFo. Put your best face forward, maybe they'll throw us some veggie scraps."

For my first VeganMoFo post, I'll share my favorite stir fry noodle. Char Kway Teow is a popular dish in Singapore. It uses flat rice noodle, which you can buy fresh in Asian markets or you can buy dry and boil it. Fresh is better of course!

Don't let the dark color turn you off. The sauces used give it a very robust taste. The meat version usually has some sort of seafood and eggs. In this vegan version, we omit the seafood and use tofu to substitute the egg.

Ingredients:

Flat rice noodle

a block of tofu, pressed & crumbled 

Asian greens 

handful of bean sprout

1 tbsp garlic 

1 tbsp shallot 

1 green onion

oil for frying

Sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce 

1 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

1 tbsp vegetarian oyster mushroom sauce

1 tsp sugar 

5 tbsp water

Direction:

1. Mix together the sauce.

2. Heat oil in large pan or wok. Add garlic and shallot and stir until golden. 

3. Add noodle and sauce. Stir for a minute. 

4. Push noodle to one side of pan and add crumbled tofu. Fry 1-2 min. 

5. Add vegetable and bean sprout, cook another minute. 

6. Add green onion. Mix well. 

For an authentic taste, serve with vegan belachan (a chili paste) if you can find it. A friend brought us some from Singapore. I can't take spice and this dish tastes just as delicious without! 

VeganMofo 2014

Hallo, dear readers! Welcome back to the VeganWheekers for VeganMofo 2014. 

My reasons for joining this year are threefold:

1. To get back into writing

2. To develop the habit of planning meals

3. To cook recipes I've saved but never got around to (you can relate, right?)

My theme this year is vegan ethnic Asian food. For most of the dishes, I've never eaten the meat version before so the authenticity is up for debate. I welcome your tips and suggestions to improve them.

I'll also introduce my new four legged family members throughout the month. Life is never dull with two guinea pigs, two bunnies, and a currently quarantined kitty. 

Let the games begin!

VeganWheeker's Holiday Gift Giving Guide

It's that time of the year again. Daylight Savings Time has ended, the stores are decked out in holiday glitter, and the shopping frenzy will soon begin.

I came across Plant Based on a Budget's excellent Holiday Gift Giving Guide today and wanted to do something similar that benefited small animal rescues.

Flat Bonnie promotes responsible adoption of bunnies through adorable handmade stuffed toys. A portion of the sales are donated to rescues. They're cute gifts for young ones and the young at heart. Here's Benny with his Flat Bonnie.

Wee Companions is selling handmade wood burned art featuring rabbits, guinea pigs, and rats.

Need a calendar for 2014? Check out the "Real Men Love Guinea Pigs 2014 Calendar" from Orange County Cavy Haven. Their Wheek Boutique also carries the Guinea Pig Cookie Cutter for your baking needs. They're almost too cute to eat, as evidenced in CaliCavyCollective's treat for this year's Pignic. For vegan cookie recipes, check out The PPK's Gingerbread Cutout Cookies and Veggie Kid's The Best Vegan Sugar Cookies.

Rabbit themed calendars are also available from BunnyLuv and House Rabbit Network.

If you need more options, you could still benefit your favorite rescue at no additional cost when you shop online. Sign up at iGive and when you click through their site to shop, a percentage of the sale is donated to your non-profit of choice. Percentage varies depending on the store.

Amazon.com recently launched AmazonSmile which donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. (Strangely, you'd get 0.8% if you click through iGive.)

Of course you could also donate directly to a rescue as a gift to someone (what I do with my friends). Within my family, we will be enforcing an "edible gifts only" policy to get ourselves to be creative in the kitchen instead of at the mall. Time for me to get that guinea pig cookie cutter!

What will you be doing for the holidays?

World Vegan Day

Happy World Vegan Day!

We celebrated at the grand opening of a new Loving Hut in the Westfield Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara, Northern California. They have noodle soup, burgers/sandwiches, and many selections for their steam table. The eggplant dish was my fav. They also have vegan soft serve!

Southern Californians got to celebrate the opening of a new Veggie Grill in Westlake on Wednesday. Yay for more vegan restaurants!

Emma would like to know what vegan noms you had today!

VeganMofo #10: Lemongrass seitan

If this looks somewhat similar to yesterday's lunch, it's because we had to use up the veggies on Friday so they didn't go bad over the weekend. :-) Today's special item is lemongrass seitan. We use lemongrass that's already minced up in a jar that you can get in the frozen section of the Asian market. Very convenient!

Benny's a complete gentleman to the guinea pigs, knowing he's the newbie in the house. You can see here that he's "bowing" to Bert, who still rumbles at him. They have supervised floor time together and poor Benny is always bullied by the pigs. I hope they will accept him soon enough. At least there aren't any blood drawn! :-)

VeganMofo #9: Pesto Pasta

My co-worker  made this yummy pasta for lunch. It's got veggies and portabella mushroom swimming pesto sauce.

In pet news, Belle had teary eyes and was getting lethargic so we brought her to the vet. The vet confirmed she had early signs of respiratory problems. Glad we caught it early this time. It was time for her teeth trim. Aside from the usual malocclusion problems, she also managed to crack her front top incisor vertically, which the doc couldn't remove. She said it's best to let it grow out, hopefully correctly. *fingers crossed*

VeganMofo #8: Sweet n Sour Tofu + Blissful Chef's Tempeh Fakin' Bacon

Hi! Thanks for visiting!

Today we bought a fresh pineapple from Whole Foods. Half of it was juiced and the other half ended up in this Sweet n Sour Tofu dish.

The main ingredients were pineapple, bell pepper, onion, and tofu. I can't remember the sauce ingredient because I used a mish mash of what I found online and what I had in the kitchen. I didn't have tomato paste so I used ketchup. There was sugar involved. Cornstarch was called for but I only had tapioca starch, which I don't think was quite right for it, though I've read it was interchangeable (even says so on the box!). In the end, the taste was milder than what I'm used to eating at the restaurants, but it was still good. 

I also had a craving for The Blissful Chef's Tempeh Fakin' Bacon so I made a batch of it. Though her recipe called for 1 packet of tempeh it easily worked for one and a half. She also said to marinate the tempeh in the sauce for an hour, but I stuck it right in the oven and it turned out fine. In fact, the sauce was totally absorbed into the tempeh, giving it that extra oomph!

VeganMofo #7: Potato-corn-leek stew

It's another clean-out the fridge day. I had some corn-on-the cobs and a passing-its-prime stick of leek. A Google search for some recipes that contain those two ingredients resulted in some sort of chowder. Not feeling like soup, I used less water and turned it into more like stew that can be spooned over rice.

Ingredients:
2 corn on the cob, kernels removed (or use frozen corn)
1 stick of leek, sliced
1 potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 Field Roast classic meatloaf, cut into chunks
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste (or use soy sauce) (Keep in mind the meatloaf is quite salty so you don't need to add much.)

Fry the leek with water or oil until soft, add the corn, fry for another few minutes. Add the potato and water, bring to a boil and lower heat. Cook for 20 min or so until potato is soft. Add more water if necessary. Add Field Roast and seasoning, cook for another 5-10 minutes so the meatloaf is heated through.

Belle prefers the bunny's pellets. Or maybe she finds it more fun eating out of that bowl?

VeganMofo #6: Banana Bread from the PPK

I discovered a bunch of overripe bananas that were overlooked in the fridge. I froze half for a future smooth and used the rest in a banana bread recipe by Isa Chandra.

It turned out really nice in the bread machine. I thought it tasted a touch too sweet (1 cup of sugar!!) so next time I'll reduce that.

What do you do with overripe bananas? I'm on the hunt for a cake or cupcake that uses banana as an egg replacer. If you know of any, please share!

VeganMofo #5: "Fried" rice cooked in rice cooker

Did you know you could cook a whole meal in the rice cooker? For the longest time, I've only cooked rice in it. But now I throw veggies in and voila, I've got "fried" rice!

Rice cooker "fried" rice

Just dice any veggies you've got in the fridge and throw it in with the rice and water, add a bit of soy sauce or your choice of seasoning, push the cook button and relax while the machine does the cooking for you. Here I've used cauliflower, onion, corn, and cabbage. When it was ready to serve, I garnished it with cut up nori sheets and a sprinkle of roasted pine nuts. I love that there's no oil needed like in regular fried rice.

VeganMofo #4: Tempeh Burger

DH made this quick tempeh burger for dinner a few nights ago. He simply fried the tempeh in some Braggs and vegetable seasoning. Easy peasy!

Tempeh Burger

While we ate, Benny practiced his yoga poses.

VeganMofo #3: Loving Hut Portland

Passing through Portland last week, we had a chance to stop by the local Loving Hut after a fun day visiting the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge.

Upon being seated, we were served a complimentary bowl of soup. It was a simple soup - cabbage, celery, carrot, tofu - but it was a welcoming touch and greatly appreciated after a chilly and wet outing.

Chow Mein

Say Yes Mapo

Guru Fried Rice and Paradise Salad

Their menu is heavy on the mock meat but it's easy to request that they leave it out. For my salad, they offered to substitute the mock meat with tofu and it was yummy!

If you ever visit Portland, Multnomah Falls is a must see. And hike all the way to the top; I nearly passed out from being so out of shape but it was worth it!

Multnomah Falls

VeganMofo #2: 2-for-1 meals - Prata Pizza & Quinoa Stir Fry

Vegetarian Times had a feature in their recent issue where the recipe of one meal made for a great leftover dish the next day. It got me thinking on how I could turn one dish into two. So I present to you Prata Pizza and Quinoa "Stir Fry" using a veggie medley as the main shared ingredient.

Veggie Medley ingredients:
1 2.25oz can of sliced olives
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1/4 onion, diced
handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
(add any other veggies you like)
vegetable seasoning

Instructions:
Cook the ingredients in a pan, adding oil or water as needed, until slightly softened (5-10 min). Split into two portions for the two dishes.

Dish #1: Prata Pizza
Roti prata or paratha is a flour-based pancake, sort of like puff pastry, that we buy frozen in a package of five at the Asian market. DH likes eating it with curry so we always have some in the freezer. My sister showed me it makes for a great pizza base when you don't have time to make regular dough. This is the brand we usually get:

For the Prata Pizza, take 2 frozen roti pratas and bake in the oven for 5 minutes until it poofs up but isn't browned. Take out and spread on pizza sauce or tomato paste. Top with the veggie medley and put it back in the oven to bake for another 5 minutes. And you've got instant pizza!

Dish #2: Quinoa "Stir Fry"
For lunch the next day, I cooked up quinoa in the rice cooker, heated up the veggie medley on a pan, and mixed it with the quinoa when done. Feel free to add more seasoning or a salad to it.

Dish #3: Pita Sandwich
As a bonus recipe, when I brought the quinoa stir fry to work for lunch, my coworker used some to add bulk to his pita bread sandwich. Add salad, avocado, tomato, and we've got a third dish! (Sorry, no pics.)

VeganMofo #1: Soba Noodle Salad

My co-worker shared with us a tasty soba salad for lunch. It's topped with pesto Gardein Chick'n Strips.

Belle said to wake her when the salad minus the soba was ready.

New Family Member - Introducing Benny the Bunny!

We went to the shelter to visit a pair of guinea pigs. Two days later, we came home with a rabbit. Today, I still smile to DH and whisper, "Guess what? There's a bunny in the house!"

Benny the Bunny

Introducing Benny, a brindle short hair rabbit that won us over with his friendliness. I like to tell people that he chose us because adopting a rabbit was never on our mind - another guinea pig, yes, but a rabbit? Yet, after meeting Benny, we couldn't forget him. We visited him again the second day where he further charmed us and that night, I did some heavy thinking about whether we were ready for such a big change and responsibility. Only after the third day when DH said he was open to the idea that I knew he was coming home with us that evening.

I have much to learn. Aside from their diet, rabbits and guinea pigs have rather different needs. I needed to learn Benny's body language, his likes and dislikes, and observe his normal behavior so I know when he's not well. And since he doesn't have a bunny friend, we have to spend extra time with him to ensure he's emotionally content. We also have much to do to bunny-proof the house. That's for another post!

Benny enjoying some petting

So far we know he's very affectionate. He'd come to us in the morning for some head scratches. He is nearly impossible to hold. Even the vet and nurse had trouble holding him down during his examination and had to do it sitting on the floor. I have not tried picking him up yet and don't know how I'll do so after seeing how much trouble the professionals had. You have to do it right or else they'll kick hard and break their back. Yikes!

And what might Bert and Belle think of him? We've introduced them several times. Bert is a little wary of the new guy. Belle doesn't mind and is happy so long as her share of the veggies remains the same. :-)

*****

In other news, we've hit the jackpot with our zucchini plants and I'm now in a bit of conundrum of how to use them all aside from roasting them. I've tried two recipes:

Savory Zucchini Cakes by Happy-Vegan.com
These were a hit with DH. I realized after the first few cakes that you didn't need much oil to cook them. They really were just like pancakes.

Low-Fat Zucchini Bread by Holy Cow!
These turned out dry and dense the bread machine. I'm starting to learn the bread machine isn't the way to go to bake most of the recipes I find but I'm too darn lazy to do it the normal way!  ;-)

Other recipes I've tried were:
Cornbread Biscuits from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
These went well with tofu scrambles.

Mango Muffins by Holy Cow!
This was the first time I baked without using a soymilk/apple cider vinegar mix. It turned out nice and fluffy but no one could tell it was mango. Go figure.

Chickpea "Tuna" Salad by Robin Robertson
I didn't have the sea vegetable flakes and I guess that's what made my version just okay.  It made for a nice light lunch though.

What have you been cooking lately? What do you do with zucchinis?