Spicy Garlic Toss for Noodles + Corri’s Easy Green Chop Suey from How It All Vegan

Spicy Garlic Toss for Noodles

Last week was a noodle kind of week. I made two noodly dishes. The first was the Spicy Garlic Toss for Noodles, which was sooooooo good. Like Babette said in her comment about making the Burnin’ Butt Burritos,  I can’t believe that I’ve had our April VegCookbook, How It All Vegan, for so long, and never made this. Plus, it’s crazy simple and quick. I used thin udon noodles, and smoked paprika, rather than regular paprika, which I think made it extra delicious.

Corri's Easy Green Chop Suey

I also made Corri’s Easy Green Chop Suey, which was also yummy. My only complaint is that I wish both recipes made a lot more, because they were so good. I used sesame oil, rather than olive oil, and put in about 2 inches of finely grated ginger, rather than the suggested 2 teaspoons (I love ginger!). I also used a lot more spinach than bok choy ’cause the baby and regular-sized bok choy didn’t look so hot at the store. I’ll definitely make both recipes again. Yum.

If you haven’t chimed in yet, don’t forget to take the What Is Your Biggest VegCooking Challenge? poll. I’ll post the poll to vote for our May VegCookbook tomorrow.

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

What did you VegCook last week ?

Poll: What Is Your Biggest VegCooking Challenge?

Hello VegCooks!

I’ve been pondering ways to expand the VegCookbook Club blog, and was wondering if you’d take a moment to take this quick poll:

Feel free to share more about your VegCooking challenges in the comments, or email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com.

Homemade Vegetable8, Pear Apple Grape Juice, Anything Goes Very Berry Shake, Fragrant Garlic Parsley Pasta, Anything Goes Vegetable Stir-Fry, and Faux Egg Salad

 I hope you all are safe and well. Because of everything that happened in Boston yesterday, I decided to wait until today to post the weekly round-up.

I made a lot of recipes last week from our April VegCookbook, How It All Vegan. I guess I felt more restrained from only being able to cook Vegan Brunch food than I realized!

I tried two more juice recipes. The Homemade Vegetable – 8 was good, and felt very virtuous, I mean, nutritious (: Look at all of those vegetables! It was a little salty for my taste, so I would make it again without the garlic, or soy sauce, (which I used instead of the recommended Braggs).

Homemade Vegetable - 8

The Pear Apple Grape Juice was sweet and refreshing too, but so far my favorite juice recipe is the Carrot Apple Ginger Juice from the week before last.  I’ll *definitely* make it again and again. So yummy.

Pear Apple Grape Juice

Continuing on the liquid recipe theme, I also made the “Anything Goes” Very Berry Shake, which was tasty (it’s hard to make a yucky smoothie). I had to smile when I read that one of the ingredients was spirulina. My first thoughts were, “Where in the world am I going to get spirulina? Does anyone eat spirulina anymore?” (How It All Vegan first came out in 1999). Are any of you old enough to remember when spirulina was the acai/kale chip/coconut oil of the day?

All I could find were huge containers of spirulina powder, or “green vitamin” powder, until I finally found a local health food store that sold individual packets of Green Vibrance. It wasn’t straight spirulina, but spirulina was one of the first ingredients, so I figured it would do. The taste was a little chalky, but fine.

"Anything Goes" Very Berry Shake

Moving on to solid foods…I made one of my favorite How It All Vegan recipes last week, the Fragrant Garlic Parsley Pasta. This is one of my go-to dishes for when the hubs, or I feel like we’re getting sick. I make it with the Roasted Garlic from The Garden of Vegan for extra germ-fighting power. It’s topped with the same Faux Parm I used for the Artichoke Rotini Pasta week before last. Yum yum. I love this recipe.

Fragrant Garlic Parsley Pasta

I also made the “Anything Goes” Vegetable Stir-Fry, which made me smile too. Raise your hand if you remember when stir-frying was the hot new thing along with hummus, pita, frozen yogurt, and salad bars. I haven’t stir-fried in years. It was great to be reminded of how fun, and easy it is. Plus, it’s a great way to use up random veggies left over in your fridge.

veggies ready to stir fry

I made a few changes to this recipe. In addition to the recommended veggies, I also added a few leaves of red chard, an orange pepper, a 1.5″ piece of ginger, and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Instead of olive oil and Braggs, I used sesame oil and soy sauce. I didn’t use the flax oil, which, though very tasty, is pricey. I also added a few dashes of soy sauce to each pile of veggies as that went into the fry pan, rather than adding the soy sauce at the end as a garnish. The result was delish, and it made a lot of food!

"Anything Goes" Vegetable Stir-Fry
Finally, I made the Faux Egg Salad, which was good, but like the Homemade Vegetable – 8, was a bit salty for me. I would use less garlic, or salt, if I make it again.

Faux Egg Salad

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

What did you VegCook last week ?

Crazy for Carrots

The big news is that we got a juicer!  I’m so excited.  Every since we cooked from Crazy Sexy Kitchen in January, and you shared photos of the juices you made from it, I’ve wanted a juicer.

I made my first juice, the Carrot Apple Ginger Juice, from our April VegCookbook, How It All Vegan!, by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. Soooooooo good. The combination of the sweet carrots and apples with the spicy ginger was fantastic.

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice

I’m wondering if I have a vitamin A deficiency ’cause I couldn’t stop cooking with carrots! I also made the Artichoke Rotini Pasta topped with Faux Parmesan Cheese with a side of JB’s Sweet Dill Carrots. Everything was delicious. The faux parm was easy to make (you throw toasted sesame seeds, nutritional yeast and salt into the blender), but don’t rush pouring the sesame seeds into the blender (like I did), or you’ll be sweeping up sesame seeds for days!

Artichoke Rotini Pasta, Faux Parmesan, JB's Sweet Dill Carrots

I also made Tanya’s Asian Creation with a side of Jana’s Lemon Carrots.
Tanya’s Asian Creation is one of my favorite recipes from How It All Vegan!. I’ve made it many, many times. This isn’t really the season for butternut squash, so it didn’t have the amazing sweetness is usually has, but it was still good. I used olive oil rather than flax seed oil (flax seed oil is expensive), and soy sauce instead of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, ’cause I had it on hand.  After my sesame seed explosion while making the Faux Parmesan, I wasn’t up for making the gomasio from scratch, so I bought a bottle of Eden Organic Gomasio. I like gomasio, so I know I’ll use it again.

The Jana’s Lemon Carrot recipe was a new one for me, and very tasty. Both carrot recipes were quick, which is a big plus for me when adding a veggie side dish to a meal.

Tanya's Asian Creation + Janas Maple Lemon Carrots

Before we go into the VegCookBook Club Story Swap, I wanted to let you know that Sarah posted on her blog that her surgery is tomorrow (April 9th). Her shop will be closed for two weeks while she recovers. You can send her an encouraging note via email, snail mail, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

What did you VegCook last week?

VegCookbook Club Interview on the Tranquility du Jour Podcast

TDJbadge

I forgot to tell you that my friend, Kimberly Wilson, interviewed me last month about the VegCookbook Club for the Tranquility du Jour Podcast. I often listen to podcasts while I’m cooking, or cleaning, and hers is one of my favs. You can listen to our chat on the audio player on her blog, Tranquility du Jour, or via iTunes.

Do you listen to podcasts while you cook? What are some of your favorites?

Creamy Curried Veggies from How It All Vegan!

Sorry for the delay in posting, VegCookbookers! I was super busy getting ready for my new e-course, Blogging to Inspire: Filling Up and Pouring Out, and the day just got away from me.

I’ve already made one recipe from our April VegCookbook, How It All Vegan! by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard: the Creamy Curried Veggies.

creamy curried veggies

I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve made this recipe. It’s one of my favorites. I like to serve it with the Chickpea Toss (also in the photo) from The Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard.

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

Vegan Brunch (our March VegCookbook)

How It All Vegan! (our April VegCookbook)

What did you VegCook last week?

Our April Cookbook: How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer

howitallvegan10theditionA big thanks to everyone who voted in the April VegCookbook poll! As I mentioned in the poll post, VegCookbook author, Sarah Kramer, announced on her blog earlier this month that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I want to support Sarah during this challenging time by cooking from one of her VegCookbooks in April, so all of the VegCookbooks listed in the poll were by Sarah.

The poll results are in, and you chose How It All Vegan! by Sarah Kramer to be our April 2013 VegCookbook. You can connect with Sarah on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

If you’re new to the VegCookbook Club, you can read about how to participate on the VegCookbook Club About page, and read about folks’ experiences with the on the Love Notes page.

I’m looking forward to cooking through How It All Vegan! with you in April, and to hearing about what you cooked from our March VegCookbook, Vegan Brunch, on Monday. Have a great weekend!