I’m back! Thus far, the New Year’s resolutions are going strong, at least somewhat. I’ve cut back on dairy to about two servings a week and my stomach has been feeling much better. I’m halfway through BBG and am already … Continue reading
Before I start in on my post for today I really want to thank everyone who gave such positive feedback when I posted my blog to Facebook yesterday. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a while but have been hesitant. I’m sure many of you have been in a situation where you’re proud of something but don’t know how other people would react. But nothing made me happier than checking my blog stats last night and seeing Vegan Collegiate had received 183 views! Thank you again and again, and please keep coming back!
Now back to the food. One of my favorite vegan blogs, Urban Vegan, has started a weekly piece called Use it Up Tuesday. Basically it means go into your pantry, refrigerator etc and find old ingredients you need to get rid of. Seeing as my food box is stuffed with a random assortment of things I have neglected to use, I thought this would be a perfect addition to my own blog. So here is my first use it up Tuesday!
I always need something quick, especially if I’m going to make something for lunch during the week. So I found some red lentils hiding in the bottom of my box, along with frozen peas and Trader Joe’s Peanut Satay sauce I made a quick lentil dish that was low cal, fast and delicious…
Ingredients:
1/4 cup red lentils
3/4 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup frozen peas
1.5 tablespoons Peanut satay sauce (feel free to make on from scratch)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Combine lentils and stock in a pot, along with salt and pepper, and put on medium/high heat. Make sure pot is covered.
2. Let lentils simmer for about 7 minutes then add peas and satay sauce.
3. Let cook for another minute or so until lentils have absorbed most of the liquid. I prefer my lentils al dente but let yours cook to your preferred softness.
4. Enjoy!
See? So fast and easy.
Note: This would be easily made into a full meal if more vegetables were added, just increase stock and satay sauce. I think anything would taste great in here: carrots, potatoes, celery, etc.
Easy, fast, use it up Tuesday
Get ready for a guest post coming in the near future!
Happy eating!
Yes, yes I know I should be blogging about the upcoming holiday, the true holiday of food, but because I won’t actually be partaking a homemade Thanksgiving day meal (much to my disappointment), I’ll save that for later. I’m going to visit my brother in California for Thanksgiving which mean my family and I will be eating at a restaurant. But no worries, I will provide a thorough critique.
Instead, I want to dedicate this post to happier things. Like why I cook. Truthfully, I didn’t realize how into food I was until I went to college. Then I immediately began to crave a kitchen and food that I knew what went into. Over the summer I began to cook a lot for myself, a combination of filling in the gap school had created and the fact that I went vegan. But there are now so many more reasons why I love it.
Baking in particular has been a great escape from stress. After days on end in the library I love going to my friends’ apartments and making delicious brownies and cakes and what not. I can forget about my impending stats test and just dive into one… or two… or five brownies.
I also love that it is something I can take pride in. There is no better feeling than when someone takes a bite of your food and lights up. You can always tell when someone tastes something good. Again, this is a good way to make yourself feel better when something shitty happens. Like failing aforementioned stats test.
And finally I just love making food for others. Like today I made pumpkin pasta (recipe to follow!) for my friend. And he really appreciated that it was homemade and delicious. I think I could literally just watch someone else enjoy my food and not eat any. Ok that’s totally not true but it really does give me such happiness.
For example today I made a veggie flatbread for lunch with one of my friends, and just watching her dig in with joy gave me my own happiness. Here is the recipe (one of my own!) and a picture. Not one of my better photo shoots but that’s part of being a vegan collegiate. All I’ve got is my lovely iPhone.
Sauteed Vegetable Flat Bread with Avocado Spread
1 can pre-made, vegan croissant dough (make sure to triple check the ingredients!)
Half a red onion
1 portobello mushroom
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes
Half a red pepper
Flour to roll out dough
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Take dough out of packaging, and with lots of flour roll it out into a pizza shape. Once it is rolled out put into oven for about 5 minutes
3. Cut up all the veggies into bite size piece, except for the tomatoes, and saute in oil until brown and sweet.
4. Take the dough out of the oven and cover in the avocado spread (recipe to follow), and then spread all the veggies out evenly.
5. Put back into oven for about ten minutes. The edges of the dough should be a dark gold, but make sure the middle is cooked through.
6. Cut into slices and enjoy!
Avocado Spread
1 avocado
2 tbsp. almond milk (or any other non-dairy milk)
Spices of your choice. We added basil, salt, pepper, garlic, and cayenne. We were trying for a bit of an avocado pesto type spread and these spices worked together great. But if you want something more herby, rosemary would have been great.
1. Scoop avocado out of shell and work through with a fork.
2. Add milk and work until it has formed a paste.
3. Add spices and herbs of your choice and then spread on whatever you’d like! Flatbread, toast, off the fork.
Sauteed Veggie Flatbread
Petite Kitchen 