Vegan MoFo Day 29: Italian Spinach Salad

Almost every day for lunch, I'll eat something small with a side salad of spinach and shiitake dressing. And that gets boring every day. So the other day for dinner, I decided to make something a little different, but still simple, so I don't get off the spinach bandwagon completely. A little variety to help me keep going strong.

And it's basically this: baby spinach, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted and salted pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh pepper. The cool thing about this side salad is that you could easy eat this as a giant salad for lunch-- the pine nuts give you some protein and the artchokes are rich enough to fill you up. Plus, it's super tasty.

I found marinated artichoke hearts at Kroger-- it's hard to find ones not marinated, but they're really good. They are lightly seasoned with some Italian herbs and sit in a jar of olive oil. They really gush with flavor. Roasted pine nuts are pretty easy to find. I think you can get them in bulk at Whole Foods, or Kroger has little bags of them in their baking section. Anyway, try it out. It's a great salad.

OH! P.S. That top chef challenge was VEGETARIAN, not vegan. I always thought Natalie Portman was vegan!?! Sell out.

I read since then she's become vegan, though.

Lemon Pepper Vegetables

Today Andrew is at his first interview with a newspaper to discuss his sleep deprivation stunt. We've decided on September 2nd and it will be held in Columbus. He'll be hanging out in front of Liquid in the Short North while he stays awake for more than 11 days. As the date fast approaches, we're scurrying to finish all these last minute details while simultaneously getting Andrew in the right frame of mind for it all. My job during the whole thing is feeding him the right stuff so he doesn't fail-- keeping his blood sugar level, keeping him adequately nourished-- all while having no idea what I'm doing really. I can only guess based on the scant research I've found which all point to what I see as obvious. Keeping it raw and natural.

For now, we're slowing transitioning away from the fried green tomatoes and delicious Alfredo pasta I've been making. Lately it's been lots of spinach salads and bean/rice nights. Luckily, Summer brings in beautiful produce that make the transition easy.

For a long time, squash seemed strange and overly complicated to me. I've discovered it really isn't though. You can literally just chop and saute it. While I was staying with my parents in California, they turned me onto lemon pepper seasoning. It's zesty with a little spice that pairs beautifully with zucchini and squash.


[[Lemon Pepper Vegetables]]

one medium sized yellow squash
one medium sized zucchini [[organics are much smaller, unlike the regular, mutant ones-- they're HUGE!]]
about 10 slices of pickled jalapenos
2 tbs olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

-- In a medium sized saute pan, heat olive oil over medium heat, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and let it cook for about 2 minutes.
-- Add the jalapenos, chopped squash and zucchini -- coat with oil in pan. Add the lemon pepper seasoning. Cook until squash and zucchini are slightly translucent and soft. About 6 minutes.
-- Remove from pan and serve.

BBQ Seitan Sandwich

I think Andrew and I come off strange to a lot of people. Many Friday nights are spent at the track, running, while everyone else goes to bars and drinks the week away. When we do go out, it's often to coffee shops and movies and great restaurants. Which isn't so abnormal, but we go to vegan spots, get soy lattes, and sometimes see independent films and that's odd to people. When we have office lunches, I often don't go or if I do go, I just don't eat. Andrew is a magician-- as awesome as that is, I think many people don't understand why someone with a Journalism degree becomes one. I was on my way to becoming a dentist, but I gave that up to be anything else. A cook, a painter, I'm still really not sure. I got married when I was barely 20 to a guy I knew all but a few months.

But of all these strange, alienating things, I think being vegan is the most bizarre to people. It makes it hard to go out to dinner or do most anything with people who aren't vegan. Whenever there's huge family events, I'm often stuck in the kitchen getting in every one's way making a whole separate meal for Andrew and me. Sometimes we just eat before, and show up after everyone else eats.

Artichokes - A Super Food

We went over to whole foods last week and perusing the the produce section, I noticed these babies. I had artichoke growing up quite often, with a little side of butter [[I think everyone else used mayo, but that was too disgusting for me to try-- gobs of mayo in your mouth? yuck!]].

Uncooked artichoke.

This weekend I also built a light box. The photo above was taken in it while the photo below was taken in my kitchen. I'm constantly in awe of what our little camera is able to accomplish and that light box is down right beautiful. It's sitting in our living room next to the bookshelf and our stacked bikes and Andrew's tower of magic. Our living room has turned into more of a study/work studio. We're so hip. Sort of.

As pretty as it looks raw, I had to figure how to actually prepare it. I read a lot of online tutorials before trying to cook these and they all came to the same points:

• Trim the spikes off of the leaves-- or pedals I suppose, it is a flower
  
• Cut the top off about an inch
• Cut the stem so it can stand up straight
• Rinse and clean them well
• Steam them, OR bring about 4 inches of water to a boil and place artichokes inside stands up so that no water will get trapped in the leaves, cover -- leave for about an hour
• Throw one clove of garlic in with the bowling water to add a garlic-y flavor to them-- it's delicious
  

These were all great and very helpful points. My artichokes were not fully cooked after an hour, but I suppose it would have worked better if I had a steamer. This tutorial was really helpful, with great photos, and it also has pressure cooker instructions.

Artichoke with smoked paprika vegenaise and melted earth balance

I served it with a side of vegenaise [[mixed with a little smoked paprika and lemon]] and some melted earth balance. Andrew had never had artichokes this way, so I thought I'd offer up bother dipping options.

If you're worried about eating these covered in fat, don't. Artichokes increase your body's production of bile, which helps the digestion of lipids. Also, they rule with a whopping 10.3 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, and 0 grams of fat per serving. PLUS, they're a super food complete with antioxidants. You rock artichokes.

Anyway, this was just a little post to offer up some help with artichokes. They're a strange and elusive plant, at least to me, but they're one of my favorites.

Aaand, it was also to show off my cool, new light box. Enjoy. :)

Simple Salads

I love a good cilantro lime vinaigrette. If you've never had one, Bodega Cafe in the Short North has a good spinach salad with a cilantro lime vinaigrette. Try it out some time. It's vegan if you ask for no cheese.

I was craving an CLV, but thoroughly lacking the ambition to make one, so I made this impromptu lime-y, cilantro-y concoction.

Take some spinach. Top with shredded carrots and chopped red onions. Add however much extra virgin olive oil you like. Some people like soggy -- I like a light dressing. Squirt a little bit of lime on it. Not too much, it'll make it very sour. For that sized salad, do like a teaspoon. Top with about 1/4 tsp. minced garlic [[I have a jar of it, it's very handy.]] and about 1 tbs. dried cilantro [[or fresh if you're luckier than me]].

And there's your janky vinaigrette. Not quite a vinaigrette, but really good still.

Quick, Easy Olive Oil Pasta and a Video

This week, I still feel jet-lagged. Between shooting Andrew's new magic video for the upcoming documentary and getting back into the swing of work and rediscovering the xbox-- I haven't really done much in the terms of culinary extravagance. I have, however, been making some quick, delicious no-recipes.



I boiled some whole wheat rotini pasta [[actually this was kamut]]. Then in a large pan, I just sauteed some garlic [[like 4-5 cloves]], zucchini, and red onions in some olive oil for a couple minutes until the zucchini was soft. Then, I added the spinach and cooked it for about 10-30 seconds until it was slightly wilted. I salted and peppered it all, then added it to the cooked and drained pasta. Lastly, I topped it off with a little more olive oil and with some oregano and red pepper. It was simple and took about 20 minutes. It's 100% regiment approved, as well. It's full of greens, whole wheat, and good fats.


If you aren't following Andrew's blog, you should check out his site for updates. Here's the video we shot last week, too.

Smoke Paprika Mashed Potatoes & UFC

Last night Andrew and I went out, bought an Xbox, and the new UFC Undisputed game. It was one of the best decisions we've made in a while, I think. I had extravagant plans of some amazing dinner I wanted to create-- I don't even know what I was planning on making, but it was going to be good. Unfortunately, all I could pull myself away from the game to do was boil some potatoes. Every match was an epic battle. Just barely making it to the end, and then a KO. Until finally, 3 hours went by, and it was about time to sleep.


The game was too enthralling to pry myself away. So you could call these potatoes "Something awesome to do to everyday food while you're doing something better"... or some abbreviated version of that. This is one of those no-recipes recipes.

I boiled 3 red potatoes with skins. Smashed them with a spoonful of butter, a couple pours of soy milk, and 1 or 2 cloves of garlic. Then I seasoned it with some salt and a few shakes of smoked paprika. I did a couple taste tests for my desired level of delicious smokey flavor. They look like a sort of odd red-ish orange color but they are delicious. And would probably add some good color to a well plated dish.


We also had an Amy's quarter pounder with vegan mayo, sliced avocado, and ketchup. Easy microwavables to go with the game playing. And then if you're an 8-year-old like me, you mix your mashed potatoes with your peas and enjoyyyy.


This is a great dish for the regiment. You have some good fats, a whole wheat sprouted grain bun, a veggie patty, red potatoes with the skin, and some greens. Peas are probably one of least healthy greens you could eat, but greens are always better regardless. It's loaded with vitamin A and C and iron [[which I've been running low on after our trip-- not enough greens on the road!]]. A great website to get complete info, including fullness factor, glycemic load, inflammation factor, and other great info, is Nutritiondata.com. I use it often. I try to find foods with a good ratio of calories to vitamins/minerals and foods with a low glycemic load.

[[Game photo by Photo by modojuegos.es.]]