Bean and Potato Waffle Latkes

I was cleaning up the kitchen when I suddenly had the hankering to dirty the waffle iron I just got done washing.

There are a slew of recipes for waffle hash browns out there on the interwebs that immediately intrigued me.  I do love me some potatoes.  Some leftover beans in the fridge added a little more nutrition and I even was able to use up the last of the jalapeños before they went bad.  Score!

I was only cooking for myself at the time, so multiply this recipe by how many Latke waffles you want to create.

Ingredients:
1 medium Red Potato (2-3" diameter -- I suppose you could use the frozen kind, but I only had the real thing)
1/4 cup Vegan Re-fried Beans
1 Jalapeño, seeded and chopped
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
1/8 cup chopped Red Onion
1T Red Wine Vinegar (Malt Vinegar would have been so much better)

Directions:
Thoroughly wash the potato then shred with a grater.  It looks super ugly at first, but don't fret.  You'll want to put your shredded potato into a strainer and rinse thoroughly to get all the starches rinsed off.  Press the water out of the potatoes then add to mixing bowl.  Dump in all of the other ingredients, use fingers to mix all of the goodness together.  Once evenly mixed, spray preheated waffle iron with cooking spray then pour in the goodness.  Allow to cook until browned (mine took a little over 8 minutes, I just waited until I smelled all of the delicious goodness wafting out of the iron)

They turned out oh so pretty and totally delicious!  Next time, I will have to garnish with salsa or something equally amazing.

Jalapeño Cornbread Waffles

Hello and Happy SuperBowl Sunday!  We don't particularly care so much about football as we do the trashy American foodstuffs that normally comes out en masse during one of the most American of American days.

Who is playing, anyhoo?

A co-worker of mine has been working on downsizing her belongings.  Much to my delight, I found out that she's one of those "kitchen gadget hoarders" who is trying to reform.  Therefore, I was able to score some items that I wouldn't normally spend money on because I know they will go to the back of the kitchen cupboard reserved for the graveyard of pots, pans, and random blenders that don't quite blend right.  The most coveted item out of the pay load was a Belgian Waffle Maker, lightly used, and perfect for a table for two!

I've been tempted for awhile now to purchase a waffle iron, however, I was not really convinced we would ever use one.  We're not really tempted by sweets, but I have seen some savoury recipes floating around Pinterest lately that sound intriguing.

This morning I decided to take the plunge and make something "waffley."  None of the recipes I could find sounded all that great, so I took the plunge and basically threw a bunch of random ingredients into a bowl and stirred.  The end result turned out crispy and delicious!

Ingredients
1 cup Masa Flour
2 cups Water
1t Baking Powder
1T Sea Salt
1T Ground Black Pepper
1 Flax Egg (1T ground flax, 3T water)
2T Olive Oil
2 Fresh Jalapeños, chopped
6 Cloves Garlic, chopped

Mix, chuck in waffle iron.  Let it cook in waffle iron until brown and crispy.  My waffle iron took about 15 minutes per waffle to cook this nosh all the way through.  I chose to garnish mine with some good, old fashioned Canadian Maple Syrup.  The mixture of sweet, salty, garlicky and spicy surprisingly did it for me. 

Behold, the magical Jalapeño Cornbread Waffles!
 

Collard Green Chips

Yes, I play with my food #smittenforthemitten

I had a beautiful bunch of collards in the fridge that were begging to get noshed.  Basically, I washed, trimmed out the stems, then tossed 1lbs of greens in 1T hot sesame oil  then baked until crispy at 250F.

In retrospect, I should have thrown in some proper sesame seeds and such to add a bit of crunch and flavor.  Great snack!

Kim Chi Time!!

I have been itching to try to make my own kimchi for about a month.  It really amazed me how hard it was to find Korean pepper, gochugaru, in South Austin.  When finally presented the opportunity (excuse) to go to North Austin, I jumped at the chance to check out a proper Korean market.

I knew I was in the right place when instantly greeted with more napa cabbage than I've ever seen in one room.  It was kind of hard to not be immersed with authenticity with the quintessential Korean grandmother scolding her unruly brood of grandkids with only "that look."  Seriously, home girl meant business.  Even I felt ashamed for some reason.

Whilst perusing the aisles, I was suddenly overwhelmed with options.  What?  An ENTIRE LANE just for SEAWEED?!?  Pretty sure I squeed so loud I put kids in a candy shop to shame.  I picked up all kinds of vegan goodness on my way to the spice aisle:  Shirataki noodles, inari pockets, fancy nut oils, dried seaweed and kelp.  I got these cool little wonton wrapper things that I'm  not really sure what I'm going to do with.  Then finally, FINALLY... my precious.  GOCHUGARU!!!!

This magic spice is sold both in a pre-mixed paste and in dried "only pepper" form.  I opted to get the pepper flakes as to avoid all the unnecessary preservatives in the pre-made goo.  It's also 1/4 of the price and super easy to make your own paste anyways.

Here's how it all came together...

Ingredients:
1 head Napa Cabbage (2-2.5 pounds)
1/2 cup Salt (I used sea salt)
1/3 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
10 medium cloves of garlic
1/8 cup roasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup Gochugaru
1T Local Raw Honey

Wash, trim, then halve the cabbage.  Cut out core.  Slice the half into 3 lengthwise sections then coarsely chop into 1.5ish" strips.  Salt thoroughly, rubbing salt into each leaf.  Let sit, covered for 2 hours (or however many episodes of Supernatural that was).

Rinse cabbage thoroughly, allow to strain while preparing the paste.  Chuck the vinegar, garlic, sesame seeds, gochugaru peppers, and honey into the food processor, mix until paste-like.  Use hands to coatall of the cabbage with the spicy paste in a large bowl.

Transfer the cabbagy goodness to a large resealable jar or a gallon sized freezer bag.  Really pack it in there, trying to get all air pockets out.  Let sit on counter for 5 hours then transfer to the refrigerator.  Apparently this stuff keeps for about 3 weeks in the fridge!  Not that I think it will last that long... look how pretty it is...

I even treated myself to a new bowl to enjoy kim chi goodness in!  I love pandas!

Alright, time to get back to work :-(...  Laters xoxo

Vegan Cowgirl Queso!

One of my favorite things about Austin is the never ending list of amazing Tex Mex restaurants that are more than happy to put a bowl full of melted cheesy goodness in front of me. Oftentimes they get inventive and put a bunch of other things in it and call it a kitschy name. My personal favorites from my carnivorous days are Kerbey Lane's Cowboy Queso and Hills Cafe's white queso with brisket.

It's awfully sad that cheese makes me feel so awful. I was feeling quite emotional today and ended up picking up a cheese pizza. I had 2 small pieces and I now feel like death. This, my friends, is why I love cooking vegan.

So, after this crappy week I deserve a tall beer and a huge bowl of my very own Vegan Cowgirl Queso!

1/2 wedge of Jalapeño Garlic Havarti Daiya vegan cheese
1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed
1 chopped avocado
1 medium chopped tomato
1/8 cup chopped onion
Small bunch of chopped cilantro
1T lime juice

I just crumbled the Daiya into a microwave safe bowl then dumped in the delicious little black beans. After 1:30 in our 1100w micronuker, the beans were chillin in a creamy sea of awesome. Top it off with the chopped medley of veg and you have the perfect bowl of vegan gluten/soy free queso!

Bon appetite! Arriba! Arriba!

Magical Bento Salad!

I love creative, compact ways of transporting fresh, healthy foods.  This little bento from Itzy Ritzy is not only cute, but incredibly practical for the hungry herbivore...



First, I chopped up 1/2 of a large (8") cucumber and put in the largest reservoir.  I poured on my choice of dressing (this time I used some sesame ginger leftover from yesterday's beet-pocalypse).  Usually I'll put my red onions in this reservoir as well, however, I knew I would have meetings all afternoon and didn't want to rock the onion stank.  Marinated cucumbers are one of my favorite additions to salads and this box is perfect for making sure the dressing doesn't leak into other reservoirs that may contain more fragile elements that don't hold up well to dressing.

I used the other two reservoirs in the bottom level to measure out a bunch of alfalfa sprouts, quinoa, and tofu.  At that point, I figured my salad could use a little color, so I quickly chopped up 1 carrot to toss on top of my veggies!

Please note:  You will fit way more tofu in the box if you cut a pre-measured chunk that fits in the box then chop it up after.

The upper deck of the bento is perfect for mixed greens and raw nuts.  Today I put in a fistful of organic, locally sourced spinach with some nori shreds and 1oz raw almonds.  MMM.  This is going to be great with the sesame ginger dressing!

Mmm... you know you want me...

The end result was a massive, filling, nutrient dense meal that appeared to be 3x the size of my compact little bento.  It's like the clown car of lunchboxes!

My only regret is that I did not season the tofu or quinoa.  It really made the salad quite bland despite the 1T of sesame ginger that spent all morning collaborating with my delectable cucumbers.  I think next time I'll have to put more love into the protein pit of my bento!

This meal is roughly 400 calories, 22 carbs, 29g fat, 24g protein per MyFitnessPal.

What's in your salad?

I find it oddly hilarious that I posted a picture of Gizmo's litter box on my food blog.  I fail at photography and/or presentation.

I do have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of salads.  Every once and awhile I'll look in my fridge and think "What I am I going to do with beets,  a quarter jicama, a handful of sprouts, 2 carrots, and some spinach?"

Well, I am pretty sure y'all can guess what happened.

This turned out very lush, flavorful, and filling.  Here's what I threw in my salad...

2 small (2" diameter) organic beets

1 handful homegrown mint

1T of some store bought sesame ginger dressing

1/4 large (4" diameter) jicama

1 handful fresh, local Texan organic spinach

1 handful organic alfalfa sprouts

2 chopped organic carrots

1/2 large (8" long) organic cucumber 

1/4 cup crushed raw walnuts

I threw the beets, mint, dressing, and jicama in the food processor Ninja thing and chopped the mixture coarsely.  Let sit for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to "mingle."  Chop up all of the other goodness and throw into a monster sized bowl.  Set in front of litter box to snap photo for all to see.

I'm stuffed!  Now it's time to get back to work!