Tropical Ice Cream

If you love creamy tropical flavors, check out the newest recipe/video on Everyday Dish. The ice cream is super simple to make, using only 3 ingredients. It's a definite crowd pleaser, and just in time for the cooler Fall weather ; ) Actually, it's great anytime, because ice cream is a year-round treat, right!? Now, go get those ice cream makers churning!!

Great Quick Dinner

I have a ton of cookbooks (probably close to 500 or so, I Know!), and although I love reading them, I tend to cook off the cuff most nights (a pinch of this, a pinch of that...). But recently I made a pact with myself to try some new recipes from these awesome books.

What you see above, was a recipe that I tried the other night. The book is Tofu Cookery, 25th Anniversary Edition by Louise Hagler. I adapted the recipe for Chinese Sweet-And-Sour-Balls, adding garlic, fresh ginger and sriracha sauce. I also omitted the sauce, because I wanted to dip the tofu balls in hoisin sauce. Next time I'll try the sweet and sour sauce. These were delicious! My family gobbled them up, and asked me to make them more often. Yum!

I'm not going to post the recipe, because I'm not sure about copyrights with the book. But if you have this book, or have thought about getting it, this is an awesome recipe. Although they were round like small meatballs, they had a very different texture.They were delicate, with a great flavor and unusual at the same time. The sauce that we dipped them in was a mix of hoisin and sriracha sauces.

Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the finished dish, as everyone dug into them so quickly they dissapeared. The picture above is what they looked like before being baked. Cute, aren't they?

On a different note, I put up a review of some awesome new ice cream on Everyday Dish. Go check it out!

I'm Back

Sorry for the little absence there. My computer was in the shop getting fixed again, but it's fixed and I'm back!

Last weekend, we took a little field trip to the Willamette Valley to visit Freddy Guy's hazelnut farm. It was harvest time, which was great fun to see. Now I can attest to just how fresh their hazelnuts are. We will have Barb (from Freddy Guy's Hazelnuts) on Everyday Dish, cooking up some delicious hazelnut recipes, including their famous chocolate hazelnut spread (can you say vegan Nutella?!). Oh wait, the hazelnut butter segment is up now, so don't miss it!

Here's a few pics from the day...

Busy Baking

I really had the best of intentions with Veganmofo. But, it seems, work just keeps pulling me away from my computer. Not to worry though, I will still be posting, just probably not a daily mofo.

Now, guess who's going to be on Everyday Dish? The one and only Sarah Kramer. Sarah was passing through Portland on tour for her new book, Vegan A Go Go, and took a little detour in our kitchen. We filmed two great segments, which I can't wait to share. Can I just say that Sarah is awesome?!

Oh, and before I forget, we have a new segment up on Everyday Dish. It's Hannah Kaminsky and her amazing butterscotch blondies. Go check it out and make those blondies. They are fantastic!

Agedashi Tofu

Agedashi Tofu is an utterly delicious dish. It's a favorite in our house, and a fun dish to serve to people that think they don't like tofu. Believe it or not, it's easy to prepare, even on busy weeknights. The trick is to drain and lightly press your tofu, to remove any extra moisture. The tofu is coated with potato starch and then fried. The sauce quickly cooks while you're frying the tofu. It can easily fit into a 30 minute time frame, especially if you have someone helping you (my kids love to help when I'm making this dish). A simple cucumber salad (sliced cukes, rice wine vinegar and a splash of soy sauce or tamari) and some steamed brown rice round out the meal. Actually a rice cooker really helps out here too, because it cooks the rice without any work on your part. I do love my appliances!

Rather than type out the recipe, you can print it right off Everyday Dish, and watch the video too. I highly recommend that you try it out. It's so, so good!

I'll be back on Monday with another veganmofo post.

Have a great weekend!

XO Julie

Dinner

On crazy, busy nights, it's always such a huge relief when I don't have to spend a lot of time making dinner. As much as I love to cook (and I really love to cook), some night's you just want to get dinner on the table in 15 minutes (although it rarely happens that fast in my house). But, I am happy to say, this dinner is one of those exceptions.

I like to cook up a big batch of garbanzo beans in the pressure cooker once a week, so I always have them on hand and don't have to rely on canned beans. Then, they're ready to go in the fridge (or freezer), for quick dinners or lunches on the run. So, late yesterday afternoon when I started wondering what I was going to make for dinner, hummus came to mind. I pulled some pitas from the freezer, cut up some fresh veggies, pickled onions and some olives and voila...dinner was made. Man, not only was it quick to throw together, but delicious and hearty too. And talk about economical... The best part, my kids loved it. So much so that they packed themselves the leftovers for their school lunches.

Now, the big question is, what am I going to make for dinner tonight?

Breakfast

Can you believe that it's Veganmofo (vegan month of food) time again? I'm going into it with the best of intentions. I mean really, how hard can it be to post everyday, right? Well, I'm always up for a good challenge, and I sure enjoyed reading all of those fabulous Veganmofo posts last year. So I will give it my all, and try and post as often as I can.

Now, onto the food...

Lately, I've been trying to incorporate as many whole grains into my cooking (and diet) as I can. I've found that a really easy place to start is breakfast. Nothing beats starting the day with a bowl of homemade granola, and it couldn't be simpler to make. You can find my recipe here, along with a video. Feel free to customize the recipe to your liking, with more nuts and fruit, or hemp seeds, or other spice combinations. You really can't go wrong. And, if you're not a cereal and milk person, it's great sprinkled on top of yogurt or fresh fruit. If you want to make a gluten-free version, make sure to buy gluten free oats and omit the wheat germ. Easy peasy.

On another note, if you live in the Portland, Oregon area and are interested in taking the Cancer Project classes, let me know. I have a series of classes starting next Wednesday, and there's room for a few people if you're interested. The Cancer Project is an incredible organization, and you can read more about them here. I am a Cancer Project instructor, and teach the classes in the Portland area. Send me an email if you're interested at blog@everydaydish.tv. And, just in case you're wondering, the food in the Cancer Project classes is all plant-based and vegan. Not to mention delicious too!