Vegan Mexican Rice--a filling Friday dinner

It's Friday and we've thought about Mexican food this week! Tonight, we plan on a movie night so dinner must be quick. Can't wait for the hubbie to be home to try!

1 tomato
3/4 medium white onion
3 jalapenos
2 cups long grain rice
1/3 cup canola oil
5 minced garlic cloves
2 cups vegetable stock, or water if you do not have
1 small can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1 1/2 tspsalt

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced

1 lime
cheese

Procedure:

1. Remove ribs/seeds from jalepenos, mince

2. Dice tomato

3. Rinse rice (until water is clear), drain

4. Heat pan, add oil, allow to heat

5. Add rice to heated pan, stir until golden brown/translucent, reduce heat to medium

6. Add onion, jalepenos, garlic, salt. Stir until fragrant

7. Bring to boil for 5 min

9 Transfer to bakeware and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until rice is dry and fluffy

10. Top it off with cheese, it will melt when in contact with hot rice
11. Serve with cilantro & lime

Happy Friday!

Vegan Canh Chua Noodle Soup (tamarind sour soup) on a cold day

Who says vegan food isn't savory? It absolutely is! Try our Vietnamese Canh Chua Noodle Soup for a rainy, cold day. Canh chua is a everyday Southern Vietnamese favorite to be eaten with rice. But since I'm not a fan of rice, I ate it with noodles instead. :)

Time required: 20 minutes

Ingredients: 

Noodles; vermicelli or any sort of noodle. 

Soup ingredients: 

bac ha

1. 3 cups bac ha (found in Asian super markets

2. 3 cups Pineapples chunks, fresh or from a can, drained

3. 2 tomatoes

4. 2 cups bean sprouts

5. scallions & cilantro, to garnish

6. 1 red chil, optional, to garnish

tamarind seasoning mix, w/o MSG

7. 2-3 tsp tamarind soup base or fresh tamarind paste, add as needed for taste

8. 1-4tsp salt, adjust base on your taste

9. 1 tsp vegetable oil

10. 1 tsp chili paste

11. 2 cups of fried tofu

12. 1/4 cup diced scallions (white part) 

if you want to eat fish, add fish

12. 10-15 cups of water--depending on your taste

 13. 1-2 cups of fresh okra

Side salad (optional):

1. lettuce, cut into pieces, as shown

2. mint leaves

side salad, to eat with noodles

Procedure:

1. Heat up pot, add 1 tsp oil, heat up oil, add diced scallions (white part). Heat up scallions

2. Add water (about 10 cups). Allow water to boil.

3. Add tofu and/or fish

4. Add tomatoes and pineapples

5. Add salt and tamarind soup base

6. allow to boil

7. Add bean sprouts & bac ha, allow to boil

To serve:

1. Add soup to cooked noodles noodles or eat with white rice. Use side dish (see salad below)

2. Add garnish, see below

3. sprinkle on some black pepper for more spice!

garnish with cilantro, scallion and chili

vegan canh chua noodle soup, Yum!

 It's a quick recipe and so very delicious! Vegan food is savory and healthy! Good luck!

Tzatziki Recipe

A friend forwarded this video to me. I can't wait to try it! definitely subscribing to his channel.



Ingredients:
1 cup Greek yogurt
fresh lemon, 1-2 tsp
1-2 cloves of garlic
cucumber, grated or finely diced. Squeeze out excess moisture
salt
black pepper
1/2 tsp olive oil

Procedure:
1. Grate cucumber, squeeze out excess moisture
2. Add cucumber to yogurt
3. Add lemon juice, garlic, olive oil
4. Season with salt & pepper
5. Mix
6. Refrigerate for a day

Serve with pita bread. MmmM! Thanks Sub4MoreBBQ or the recipe and my friend N for forwarding it to me!

Mixed Vegetable Pasta with Red Tomato Sauce

Ingredients: tomato sauce, boiled pasta, carrot, jicama, red cabbage, white onion, garlic, olive oil, tofu, salt, thinly sliced oyster mushroom

stir fry oyster mushroom, tofu, onion, add salt

add the rest of the ingredients

add red cabbage last since it add tends to cook quickly. Add more sauce for seasoning (adjust amount for taste). 

Add olive oil for a smooth taste at the end. We want to not cook the olive oil to enjoy its healthy benefits.

Quick sweet yam and mushroom stir fry

Ingredients: onion, sweet yam (dice into cubes and microwave, not in photo), shiitake mushroom, coyote, peas, white onion (not in photo)

sauce: hoisin, soy sauce., 1/2 tsp of cornstarch. Substitute water for oil

enjoy with white or brown rice. Yum!

Fresh squash noodles

xl rice noodles, boiled & drained

thinly sliced squash

jalepeno and scallions

Other ingredients: 

firm tofu

salt (enough to taste)

black pepper

quick, delicious

sweet tofu vegan sushi

Ingredients: rice, roasted seaweed (see below), sweet tofu, fresh avocado

spread ingredients as pictured onto seaweed

roll

cut into 1'' pieces--wet knife with water to make it easier to cut

tasty

Homemade Vegetarian Naan and Curry

Our friend Jules made this delicious meal.

Stern Grove Concert, OK GO! San Francisco

Savory Tamarind Noodle Soup in 10 minutes

 Need some quick savory food? No ramen in the cupboard? Don't feel like going out to eat?

scallion and cilantro to garnish

end with white pepper

done in 10 minutes!

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Optional: 1/4 tsp vegetable oil
firm tofu, cut into cubes, 1/2 cup 
Water Spinach (rau muong), 1 cup

1 boiled egg

onion, 1/4, dice into cubes

tomato, 1 dice into 6 pieces

noodles

tamarind soup mix, enough to taste

salt, enough to taste

sugar, 1/2 tsp

pepper paste, 1/4 tsp

garlic, 1/4 tsp, finely diced

fried onions, to garnish

scallions, to garnish
cilantro, to garnish

jalepeno, to garnish

mint, to garnish

white pepper, to garnish

A Sushi non-vegan Adventure--Walnut Creek, CA

black cod special

My husband is a vegetarian. I am a non-mammalian omnivore, meaning I do not eat mammals (with some exceptions). I cook only vegetarian cuisine, but when we go out, I like to indulge with chicken or seafood. Months ago we discovered Ajisai  Japanese Grill & Sushi in Walnut Creek. Since then, we've returned almost a dozen times. The service was friendly and the food? delicious! My husband's favorite is the vegetarian deluxe rolls while mine is well, everything else. I'm a fan of udon and have eaten it at many places. Ajisai's udon noodle soup is by far, my favorite! Wayne and his staff are absolutely delightful! If only everyone in the world was as friendly as nice as them!

We've had Ajisai cater for our wedding and everyone was delighted by the food! Fresh and delicious, yum!

The Land of the Medicine Buddha-a Retreat in Santa Cruz

Hiking trail--so serene

We saw a leaf waggling on the trail. It was the only leaf which was moving that way. Perhaps it was a pet spirit?

 

rooms

Path to our room

View from our room

view from ourbed

window from our room

Clean room, serene atmosphere. It was so peaceful. We're glad to ended our honeymoon week hiking, enjoying nature while nourishing our spirits. Thank you, Land of Medicine Buddha, for a wonderful experience.

Yelp:  

Location:

5800 Prescott Rd
Soquel, CA 95073